The Traditional Ballad Index Version 6.7

Copyright © 2024 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

10,000 Years Ago

See I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song) (File: R410)

10th MTB Flotilla Song

See Fred Karno's Army (File: NeFrKaAr)

13 Highway

DESCRIPTION: "I went down 13 highway, Down in my baby's door Raining and storming, Scarcely see the road." "Clouds dark as night, If my baby don't fail me I'll make every thing all right" "Going 60 miles an hour..." "Don't the highway look lonesome..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Walter Davis)
KEYWORDS: grief love promise nonballad lover technology
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #29487
RECORDINGS:
Walter Davis, "13 Highway" (Bluebird B7693, 1938)
Moses Williams, "13 Highway" (on USFlorida01)
NOTES [22 words]: Moses Williams sings "I always wonder why ... That woman didn't treat me right." The description follows the Walter Davis recording. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Rc13Hwy

151 Days

See Hundred and Fifty-One Days (File: Colq060)

1861 Anti Confederation Song, An

See Anti-Confederation Song (File: FJ028)

1913 Massacre

DESCRIPTION: In Calumet, Michigan, striking copper miners and their children are having a Christmas celebration; strike-breakers outside bar the doors then raise a false fire alarm. In the ensuing stampede, seventy-three children are crushed or suffocated
AUTHOR: Woody Guthrie
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (recording by author)
KEYWORDS: lie strike death labor-movement mining disaster children
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 157-158, "1913 Massacre"
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 306, "The 1913 Massacre" (1 text)
DT, MASS1913*
Roud #17663
RECORDINGS:
Woody Guthrie, "1913 Massacre" (Asch 360, 1945; on Struggle1, Struggle2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing)" (tune)
NOTES [147 words]: In the late 19th/early 20th century, the rapid expansion of the electrical industry created great demand for copper, for which the chief source was the mines in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Bitter strikes resulted as the miners, under the leadership of the Western Federation of Miners, demanded decent pay and safer working conditions.
Guthrie's description of the events of 1913 is dead-on accurate, according to the residents of Calumet; Italian Hall, where the disaster occurred, was still standing in the early 1980s, but has since been torn down. - PJS
There is an historical marker on the site (Italian Hall, 7th Street, Calumet, MI, at its junction with Elm Street, one block south of Highway 203), and the site has not been built over. One of the plaques has a picture of Woody and mentions this song. There are quite a few recent photos of the site on Google Maps. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: FSWB306A

1918 East Broadway

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "The people who live across the way, At 1918 East Broadway Every night They have a fight, And this is what they say:" The rest is from "Ickle Bickle Soda Cracker" or "My Mother and Your Mother (I)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: home food fight floatingverses | counting-out
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 73, "1918 East Broadway" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 26, "(My mother and your mother)" (1 text, in which the address is "two-fourteen East Broadway")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ickie Bickie Soda Cracker" (lyrcs)
cf. "My Mother and Your Mother (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [34 words]: This appears to be a floating verse that sometimes joins "Ickie Bickie Soda Cracker" or "My Mother and Your Mother (I)." I'm filing it separately here, but be aware that it occurs in those songs as well.
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ZiZa073B

2 Y's U R (Too Wise You Are)

DESCRIPTION: "2 Y's U R, 2 Y's U B, I C U R, 2 Y's 4 me." Supposedly a written acknowledgment that one person has been more clever than the other.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (American Girl’s Book: or, Occupation for Play Hours)
KEYWORDS: wordplay
FOUND IN: New Zealand US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 138, "(2 Y's U R)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Miss [Eliza] Leslie _American Girl’s Book: or, Occupation for Play Hours_, Munroe and Francis, 1831, p. 110, "(2 yy u r 2 yy u b)" (1 text, see NOTES)
NOTES [74 words]: Who says the Internet invented keyboard shortcuts?
Credit to Jim Dixon for locating this item in American Girl's Book (available on Google Books):
Decypher the schoolmaster's answer to the boy:
2 yy u r 2 yy u b
I c u r 2 yy for me.
This is the explanation:
Too wise you are, too wise you be,
I see you are too wise for me.
[And just above it is a similar conundrum, beginning: "2 + u r ..." deciphered as "Too cross you are...."] - JD, (RBW)
Last updated in version 6.3
File: SuSm138A

23rd Flotilla

DESCRIPTION: "Up to Kola Inlet, back to Scapa Flow... Why does it always seem to be Flotilla number Twenty-Three, Up in the Arctic Ocean, up in the Barents Sea." The singer describes the difficulties of being a convoy escort on the route to and from Russia
AUTHOR: C. J. Cunningham with "Dicki" Birks (source: Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy hardtimes technology
FOUND IN: Canada Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 92-93, "Twenty-Third Flotilla" (1 text, tune referenced)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 112, "23rd Flotilla" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #29405
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lili Marlene" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Ships (I)" (subject: the hard life of convoy escorts)
cf. "The Kola Run" (subject: the hard life of convoy escorts)
cf. "Beneath the Barber Pole" (subject: the hard life of convoy escorts)
NOTES [989 words]: Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy calls this "without a doubt the finest the Royal Navy produced in the Second World War and a worthy rival of the Army's 'D-Day Dodgers.'" Certainly it is better than the vast majority of songs produced by the navy.
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear seems to say that this song was from the crews of the Sioux or the Algonquin, although it is the latter that is (briefly) mentioned in the song. Both did at least serve on the northern convoy route. Tawney is explicit that the authors served on HMS Savage.
If Hopkins is correct about the ships involved, the song is wrong in saying that they never got to fire a gun; McKee/Darlington, pp. 156-157, says Algonquin was part of a force that sank the minesweepers M416 and M427 in August 1944. In addition, both destroyers were involved at times in the attempts to sink the Tirpitz.
Hopkins calls the two ships members of the Tribal class, but the list on p. 28 of Whitey shows that they were not members of Canada's own Tribals (a class that is not the same as the British Tribal class -- neither of which had a ship named Tribal!). Sioux was the ex-Royal Navy Vixen, transferred to Canada on May 5, 1944; Algonquin was the former Valentine, transferred February 24, 1944 (upon completion). Worth, p. 114, shows these two as members of the "V" class of destroyers, which were not the same as the British Tribals although experience with the Tribals had influenced their design; the "Vs" were not quite as large or heavily armed. But they did have some features to suit them for arctic sailing which were omitted from other classes.
Things become much more interesting if the song really is about the Savage. The Savage, and the Scorpion, also mentioned in Tawney's text, were members of the "S" class, ordered in 1940 and consisting of Saumarez, Savage, Scorpion, Sentinal, Scourge, Shark, Success, and Swift. Most were laid down in 1941, launched in 1942, and commissioned in 1943. They were about 1700 tons displacement, capable of 36 knots, and armed with four 4.7" guns and eight torpedo tubes (Whitley, p. 129). But among them "Savage was unique in that she was used as a test-bed for the new 4.5-inch Mk IV twin mounting" (Whitley, p. 130). So she in particular might have had trouble firing her guns because they were experimental.
The best evidence that Tawney is right and Hopkins wrong about the origin of the song is the fact that the "S" class, including Savage, "all... served with the Home Fleet as the 23rd Destroyer Flotilla in northern and Arctic waters" (Whitley, p. 130).
Three of the class, including Savage and Scorpion, were part of the biggest battle in northern waters, the Battle of the North Cape (December 26, 1943), in which the German battlecruiser/light battleship Scharnhorst was sunk (Pearce, pp. 234-235); Becker, p. 360, credits Savage with at least one of the torpedo hits that helped sink the German ship. It was the last time a major German naval unit would engage the enemy.
There is much cleverness in the song. Tawney notes the second line, which refers to taking oil at Petsamo -- a port which happened to be in German hands, and was very close to the Russian bases. The line is perhaps even more clever than the authors realized; the Germans had very few sources of petroleum (something that hampered their land forces as well), so even though Petsamo was a German base, there probably wasn't much oil there. (Its biggest value to them was probably its nickel mines; Pearce, p. 94).
Scapa Flow, the base mentioned in this song, was the British Navy's primary harbor during World War II. It had been made a major base during World War I, because (being in the Orkneys) it was the closest calm harbor to the German fleet bases in the Baltic. Well-located it was; comfortable it was not. It had few recreational facilities and had a crummy climate. For more about it, see the notes to "Bloody Orkney."
There are many small channels into Scapa Flow, but (I read somewhere) only three that could accommodate large ships. To prevent submarine access, the British had blocked all but one of the major channels (von der Porten, p. 40 -- although the blockage of one channel in proved insufficient, allowing U-47 to enter and sink the British battleship Royal Oak; von der Porten, pp. 40-41). The one exception was the Switha channel, which was fitted with anti-submarine nets and other defenses; this is the Switha gate of the song.
The complaint in Tawney's text that the battleships and cruisers get all the attention (with the implicit addition that the destroyers do all the work) is partly true -- the big ships certainly got most of the attention. It is not fair to say that the destroyers were the only ones who went to the Arctic -- when the Scharnhorst was sunk, the British battleship Duke of York was largely responsible! (Becker, p. 360; von der Porten, pp. 219-221). But the big ships generally engaged in "distant escort" -- in other words, the destroyers rarely saw them, and when the convoys weren't attacked, they weren't there. So it's not hard to understand the destroyer sailors' resentment.
And the destroyers did get called out more. Most of the time, there were no German ships for the Home Fleet battleships to fight; they only came out when one of the big German raiders was at sea. But convoys ran all the time, even more in the North Atlantic than the Arctic, so the destroyers were always needed. The big ships had more chances to rest in port.
And the big ships had another advantage over the small: they were more comfortable. Often they had more space for each crewman -- but even if they didn't, they were more stable and less affected by the sea's motions. The destroyers felt rough seas far more. For background on this, see, e.g., "Destroyer Life" and "Showing the Flag." See also "The Kola Run" for information about the arctic convoys. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: Hopk112

3, 6, 9, The Goose Drank Wine

See Three, Six, Nine (File: OpGa135)

'31 Depression Blues

DESCRIPTION: Coal miner tells of hard times in the Depression. Miners go to work hungry, ragged and shoeless and are cheated of their pay. The Supreme Court rules the National Recovery Act unconstitutional. The singer urges listeners to join the U.M.W.
AUTHOR: Credited to Ed Sturgill
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (recording, New Lost City Ramblers)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a coal miner, tells of hard times in the Great Depression of the 1930s. Miners go to work hungry, ragged and shoeless; when they go to the office for scrip, they're told they're behind and owe the company as the scale boss cheats them of their pay. The National Recovery Act offers hope, but the Supreme Court rules it unconstitutional. Roosevelt declares a bank holiday; John L. Lewis wins the miners' battle; the singer urges listeners to join the U.M.W., saying the Depression is now gone
KEYWORDS: strike mining work hardtimes labor-movement
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "'31 Depression Blues" (on NLCR15, NLCRCD2)
Ed Sturgill, "'31 Depression Blues" (Big Pine 677M-7157, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bright Sunny South" (tune)
cf. "Sixteen Tons" (lyrics)
NOTES [84 words]: Sturgill's last verse incorporates lines from Merle Travis's "Sixteen Tons." - PJS
The title of this song produces a confusion. There is a recoding by the Three Stripped Gears, "1931 Depression Blues" (OKeh 45553, 1931). Paul Stamler, before it was possible to find the song on the internet, speculated that it was the source for '31 Depression Blues. But Jim Dixon tracked it down and found that it was an instrumental that doesn't sound like the Ed Sturgill tune. So it's just a coincidence of names. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Rc31DB

413 Squadron

DESCRIPTION: "Four One Three, we're bound to be On a page of history... We're on Hirohito's trail now... Four One Three above the sea, Up defending liberty, Think of what it means to be Part of squadron Four One Three." The Japanese are warned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: war warning technology
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 39, "413 Squadron" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #29404
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "South of Columbo" (subject of the 413 squadron)
cf. "California, Here I Come" (tune)
NOTES [859 words]: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear explains that 413 squadron was a squadron of PBY Catalina amphibious planes which served in the Shetlands in 1941, then was hurried to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in March 1942 as the Japanese were attacking both the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Hopkins implies that the Japanese attacked Sri Lanka with the attempt to take it, but everything I've ever heard indicates that the Japanese never intended to invade anywhere beyond Singapore. The British expected a Japanese assault, but the goal of the Japanese raid "was a defensive one, to disperse the British Eastern Fleet, and cover Japanese troop reinforcements en route to Rangoon" (Wheal/Pope, p. 89).
The primary British naval bases in the Indian Ocean were at Colombo and Trincomalee in what was then Ceylon, so any British attack on the Japanese empire would have to be based from there (Morison, pp. 381-382). The Japanese decided to put the bases out of commission, which they did successfully, also sinking the ancient British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes heavy cruisers Cornwall and Dorsetshire, and some lesser ships. The British still controlled Ceylon, but they were forced to base their fleets even further to the west (Morison, pp. 383-384). At least the Catalinas helped warn the British battleships in the area, all of which survived (Morison, p. 382).
In any case, the Catalinas were not themselves going to do much to defeat the Japanese; although they had some weapons-carrying capability, they were primarily scout planes, in service because they had very great range and, being amphibious, could be based anywhere that had a fuel supply. That's not in any way intended to denigrate the Catalina pilots. It took real guts to fly a large, slow plane with limited defensive weaponry fifteen hundred miles away from base into territory controlled by the enemy!
For more on the Catalina (called the "Canso" when built in Canada), see the notes on "No. 5. Squadron Song."
Creed, p. 255, gives this background on the squadron in this song: "No. 413 Squadron flew Cansos its entire service life. The squadron began existence in 1941 at Stranraer, Scotland, coincidentally on Canada's Dominion Day, 1 July. After three months of training, the unit transferred to Sullom Voe and for five months flew northwest Atlantic convoy and submarine patrols.
"When Japan entered the war and the British Empire crumbled in the Far East, No. 413 was sent to India to shore up its defenses. On 2 April 1942 operations began out of Koggala with a reconnaissance mission flown over the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean, the first of several searches for a Japanese fleet believed to be preparing a strike on the island. Two days later, Squadron Leader L. J. Birchall found what they had been looking for. Radio operators at Koggala heard the Canso's radio operator tap out the position, course, and speed of a large enemy force, then in mid-transmission the signal stopped.
"Birchall was hailed as 'the Savior of Ceylon.' Thanks to his warning, the defenses were ready and the Japanese attack was beaten off. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, it was thought posthumously," but he and his crew would eventually be discovered to have survived in a Japanese prison camp.
"Four days after Birchall's disappearance, Flight Lieutenant R. Thomas, holder of a Distinguished Flying Cross awarded for action with the RAF, reported a Japanese naval force heading for Colombo on Ceylon. Like Birchall, his radio message ended in mid-sentence, but he and his crew were never heard from again. Nonetheless his warning came in time, and the enemy attack on the naval base at Trincomalee the following day was thwarted."
This is a little exaggerated. But the heroism of the 413 squadron pilots is undeniable.
It was the highlight of their war. Creed, pp. 256-257, says "From that time on life for No. 413 settled into a routine of convoy escorts and antisubmarine patrols, broken only by a 2,000-mile bombing and reconnaissance mission to investigate Japanese activities in northern Sumatra. Freight service was begun between Ceylon and Australia" -- flights that took roughly a whole day. "As the war progressed, the squadron became fragmented, with detachments at Addu Atoll five hundred miles south of Ceylon, Diego Garcia in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the Seychelles off the African coast, Aden, the Persian Gulf, Kenya, Natal, and South Africa. Some crews were five thousand miles from home base in Koggala, and the squadron boasted that it was the most widely dispersed unit in the world.
"In 1944, its third year in Ceylon, No. 413 received its official badge from King George VI. It was an elephant's head on a maple leaf background and from it came the nickname, "Tusker Squadron.' Patrols and rescue work continued until December of that year, when the squadron was paced on nonoperational status, and its Cansos and some of its crews transferred to RAF squadrons."
"California, Here I Come" (by Joseph Meyer, Al Jolson, and Bud DeSylva) was a hit in 1924. It became a standard, but it's still interesting that it was used for a parody fifteen-odd years later. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Hopk039

417's Lament

DESCRIPTION: "We are a few Canadians here in Italy, Working with the RAF boys to win the victory." The Canadians of 417 squadron are "always in trouble" because they are sloppy; they're a "screwy outfit" and are clearly proud to be "ridicuous"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier pride drink clothes flying
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 46-47, "417's Lament" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #29403
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lili Marlene" (tune, plus cross-references to songs of the Italian campaign)
cf. "O'er the Hills of Sicily" (subject: the Italian campaign)
NOTES [196 words]: According to Dunmore/Carter, p. 44, of those who joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, "The majority... wanted to be pilots -- fighter pilots." But many would become ground crew, and many who did manage to fly would be pilots, and if they were pilots, it wasn't fighter pilots, because "From 1942 on, the need was for bomber crews."
417 squadron was one of the few exceptions. They got to fly, and they got to fly fighters, and they even got Spitfires -- for a while. Then "No. 417 (Fighter) Squadron was transferred from the United Kingdom to Egypt in the spring of 1942, leaving its Spitfires behind. The unit was stationed in the Nile Delta but, sine there were no aircraft available, the groundcrew worked on maintaining other aircraft while the pilots flew ferry missions. In September 1942, newer model Hurricanes arrived, modified for desert flying, and, later, Spitfire Mark VBs. The squadron stayed in the Nile Delta in the spring of 1943, when it was attached to the famed Desert Air Force. It flew escort and fighter bomber missions for the British Eighth Army in the last stages of the fighting in Tunis and again in the Sicily campaign" (Bercuson, pp. 81-82). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hopk046

500 Miles

See Nine Hundred Miles (File: LxU073)

692 Song

DESCRIPTION: "We fly alone, When all the heavies are grounded and dining, 692 will be climbing -- We still press on, "It's every night... We still press on." "It's always the Reich, no matter how far, The crew they are twitching.... It's twelve degrees east"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: war technology travel flying
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 42, "692 Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #29402
NOTES [1030 words]: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear says that the squadron in this song flew the famous De Haviland Mosquito. There is no direct evidence of this in the song, although presumably we know what aircraft were flown by 692 squadron. In any case, the evidence for Mosquitoes is strong.
For starters, the song says the squadron flew "when all the heavies are grounded." In other words, they weren't flying heavy bombers. That leaves only medium bombers. The British had a number of those -- the Whitley, the Manchester, the Beaufort, the Blenheim, the Hampden, the Wellington. Most of them were failures. That leaves -- the Mosquito. It was originally designed as a bomber (Gunston), p. 30, but the design was so exceptional that some two different variants were eventually produced (list on pp. 32-33 of Gunston), which served as bombers, pathfinder aircraft, scout aircraft, night fighters, even day fighters (a claim no other bomber could really make); in all, 7,781 Mosquitoes were built (Gunston, p. 32).
Munson, p. 51, says, "Adapted with conspicuous success to such widely varied roles as high and low level day and night bomber, long range day and night fighter, fighter-bomber, minelayer, pathfinder, rocket-armed ground attack, shipping strike, high and low altitude photo reconnaissance, trainer and transport, the supremely versatile D.H.98 Mosquito was one of the outstanding aeroplanes of World War 2. It was conceived in 1938 as an unarmed day bomber....
Munson, p. 52, has details of two common models. Both were two-man aircraft; the faster had a top speed of 408 miles per hour (which is definitely a fighter speed, not a bomber speed!) and carried up to 4000 pounds of bombs -- not much compared to, say, a Lancaster heavy bomber, but not much short of the earlier models of the American B-17 Flying Fortress (Dunmore/Carter, p. 87). The two models shown on pp. 9-16 of Sweetman both have speeds greater than 350 miles per hour -- not as fast as the fastest fighters, but still speedy, and capable of acrobatic flight as well.
Wheal/Pope, p. 124, say that "For more than two years after its introduction in late 1941, this extremely versatile monoplane was the fastest aircraft in the RAF [although Sweetman, p. 20, says that it is "unlikely that the Mosquito was ever the fastest aircraft in service"]. Privately designed as an unarmed fast bomber and made entirely of wood [properly wood laminates], it was sanctioned with great reluctance by the British Air Staff. When the first prototype flew in November 1941, its performance was so impressive that it was promptly ordered as both a bomber and a fighter," adding that the plane "enjoyed the lowest loss rate of any Bomber Command aircraft." (Dunmore/Carter, p. 87, give an example "during the Battle of the Ruhr, the Mosquitoes flew 282 sorties and lost only 2 aircraft." That's less than 1%, at a time when normal casualty rates were about 4%, and for a raiding force to lose 10% was not rare.)
According to Sir Max AItken, "its origin was almost accidental. When the war began it was obvious that a great amount of material and manpower in the furniture-making industry was not going to be needed. Was it to be allowed to go to waste? Somebody then had the notion of making a wooden aeroplane.... The Mosquito was a sensation" (BowyerEtAl, p. 7). It came to be known to the crews as the "Mossie." "It is rare for any aeroplane on being introduced to the RAF to escape condemnation from some quarter -- yet the Mossie was one. Almost without exception, crews always praised the Mosquito, whatever its particular role" (BowyerEtAl, p. 7). It could also fly higher than any other bomber of the time, which allowed it to do things no other plane could manage (Dunmore/Carter, p. 87).
It is, of course, all these excellent characteristics that account for this song: Since the Mosquito could do anything, and do it well, the squadrons which flew it were called upon for all sorts of tasks. Hopkins hints that the planes in this song were "nuisance bombers," not intended to do major damage but just to tire out the German defenses for when the big raids came. The other possibility is that they were a diversion -- the RAF often sent Mosquitos on "spoof raids" while other raids were going on, dropping chaff to make the raiding force seem bigger and distract the Germans (Bercuson, p. 113); their high speed made them ideal for this.
Despite the Mosquito's excellent record, dealing with it was a somewhat risky business: "The Mosquito was a slightly nervous thoroughbred which would perform impressive feats in the hands of the courageous and competent... but it would occasionally deal out a kick or a bite. Some of its wartime variants were off limits to peacetime pilots, and some of its variants were less pleasant to handle than others" (Sweetman, p. 4).
Hopkins's notes to the song refers to the aircraft of the squadron carrying a 4000 pound "cookie." Based on the way Hopkins wrote, one might be tempted to think that "cookie" was a word for all bombs. But Bowyer, p. 103, says that "cookie" was specifically the term for "the 4,000 lb. High Capacity (HC) blast bomb," first used operationally on March 31, 1941. That a term such as this was used for a particular type of bomb should not surprise us; large bombs had not been developed when the war began, so as each new monster was produced, the temptation to provide a nickname was, presumably, unbearable.
To be sure, the song itself never mentions cookies. If it did, it would be a dating hint, because it was not until 1944 that the Mosquito was modified to take a 4000 pound bomb (Sweetman, p. 43, which also shows the modified plane -- it frankly looks pregnant).
The song also refers to the plane losing "one engine at least" (out of two). I wonder if this might not have floated in from a version about the Mosquito night fighter variant. Because night fighters often attacked at short range, there was a significant risk that debris from the aircraft being attacked would hit the attacking aircraft. Because of the configuration of the engine radiators, a lot of Mosquito fighters would "win" their duel and end up losing an engine even so. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hopk042

900 Miles

See Nine Hundred Miles (File: LxU073)

A Begging We Will Go (I)

See A-Begging I Will Go (File: K217)

A Begging We Will Go (II)

See I Am a Jolly Huntsman (File: CPMIAAJH)

A Chaipin-ar-leathuaic A'bhfeacais Na Caoire

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. A shepherdess meets a young man and asks if he has seen her sheep. First he says no. Then he says he has and has turned them back.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage sheep youth shepherd sex
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 1, "A Chaipin-ar-leathuaic A'bhfeacais Na Caoire" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "A Chaipin-ar-leathuaic" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [28 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. "A double entendre may be intended." The chorus is mouth music. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC001

A Chur Nan Gobhar As A' Chreig (For Herding the Goats from the Rock)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. For herding the goats from the rock I would prefer the kilt. If I could have my choice I would prefer the kilt.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage clothes nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 177, "Flushing the Goats" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [9 words]: The translation is from the Celtic Lyrics Corner site. - BS
File: CrMa177

A Corting Miss Sarrow

See Pretty Saro (File: R744)

A Cruising We Will Go

See A-Cruising We Will Go (File: ShaSS118)

A Diller, A Dollar

DESCRIPTION: "A diller, a dollar, A (ten o'clock) scholar, What makes you come so soon? You us'd to come at ten o'clock, and now you come at noon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammer Gurton's Garland)
KEYWORDS: travel
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 119, "A diller, a dollar, a ten o'clock scholar" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 465, "A diller, a dollar" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #81, p. 82, "(A diller, a dollar)"
Roud #19753
NOTES [289 words]: I know of few traditional collections of this item, and I have no idea what it means. But reading it in Baring-Gould, I remember the first two lines from somewhere, with a fragment of a tune (plus, according to Cyn Collins, West Bank Boogie, Triangle Park, 2006, there was in the Sixties and Seventies a folk music bar/club at the University of Minnesota called the "Ten O'Clock Scholar"), so I am very tentatively including the piece in the Index.
Neither the Baring-Goulds nor the Opies have any idea what this song is about. I will make a very tentative conjecture.
In the Middle Ages, "scholar" effectively meant "cleric," and clerics were expected to rise early to perform rituals at the canonical hours. So a good scholar should have been at service at (in modern terms) 6:00 and 9:00 a.m. A scholar who does not begin to work until 10:00 a.m. -- or, worse, noon -- is a poor scholar indeed. This would fit with the Opies' note that a diller is Yorkshire dialect for schoolboy who is backward in learning.
Of course, this suggestion probably requires that the piece go back before the Reformation, making it two and a half centuries old, at least, by the time it was printed in Gammer Gurton's Garland. Thus my suggestion is *very* tentative.
Katherine Elwes Thomas, whose suggestions about the origins of nursery rhymes make mine look rational, suggests on p. 215 ofThe Real Personages of Mother Goose (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930) that the "ten o'clock scholar" was Charles I's Archbishop Laud. This is hardly better, from a chronological standpoint, than my suggestion, and Laud, whatever his theological and personal faults, placed substantial value on scholarship. So I truly find Thomas's suggestion unlikely. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BGMG081

A Is for Apple Pie

DESCRIPTION: Alphabet song, beginning "A is/stands for apple pie, B baked/bit it" and perhaps ending "And don't you wish you had a piece of apple pie?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1671 (Some Observations upon the Answer to an Enquiry into the Grounds & Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy, according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad wordplay
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Randolph 874, "A Is for Apple Pie" (3 texts plus an excerpt, but the "D" text is "The Average Boy")
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 1, "A was an apple-pie" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #611, pp. 240-241, "(A was an apple-pie)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, pp. 17-18, "A Was an Apple Pie" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Orchard Halliwell, editor, _The Nursery Rhymes of England: Collected Chiefly from Oral Tradition_, James Russell Smith, 1844, page 14, item XXXIII, "(A was an apple-pie)" (1 text) (available on Google Books)
[E. Lumley], _Nursery Rhymes, Tales, and Jingles_, James Burns, 1844, p. 45, #57, "(A was an apple-pie)" (1 text) (available on Google Books)
Heath Readers Series, _First Reader_, Heath and Company, 1903, pp. 45-46, "(A stands for apple pie)" (1 text) (available on Google Books)
Kate Greenaway, _A Apple Pie_, The Saalfield Publishing Co., 1907, "(A Apple Pie" (1 illustrated text, which occupies the whole booklet) (available on Google Books)
Roud #7539
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Logger's Alphabet" (subject) and references there
NOTES [77 words]: The first six lines of this piece appear in John Eachard's 1671 pamphlet "Some Observations upon the Answer to an Enquiry into the Grounds & Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy."
It first appears as an educational tool in Mary Cooper's 1743 spelling book, "The Child's New Play-thing," and was common in nineteenth century texts (often under the title, "The Tragical Death of an Apple Pie" or similar). The ADDITIONAL entries show some of these versions- RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R874

A Is for Apple Pie (II)

See The Average Boy (File: R874A)

A Is the Anchor of Our Jolly Boat

See The Sailor's Alphabet (File: RcTSAlp)

À La Claire Fontaine

DESCRIPTION: French: The singer wanders by a clear fountain. He bathes, and hears a bird's song in the trees. He tells the nightingale that it has no cares. He, on the other hand, lost his love because he refused to give her the roses he had picked
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1836 (The New-York Mirror: A Weekly Journal, Devoted to Literature and the Fine Arts. Vol.14, No. 25; also alentine: ou la Nina Canadienne. Comédie en un acte); some claim a reference from 1608
KEYWORDS: courting love separation foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que) France
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 134-135, "À La Claire Fontaine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 55, "À La Claire Fontaine" (1 English and 1 French text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 333, "À La Claire Fontaine (By Yonder Flowing Fountain)" (1 French text with English translation by Arthur Kevess)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 97, "Au Bord d'une Fontaine ['Twas There Beside a Fountain]" (1 text + English translation, 1 tune)
DT, ALACLAIR*
ADDITIONAL: _The New-York Mirror: A Weekly Journal, Devoted to Literature and the Fine Arts_. Vol.14, No. 25, (New York: Dec. 17, 1836), page 200, "Original Canadian Boat Song" (1 heavily arranged text, 1 tune, available on Google Books)
(Drama:) _Valentine: ou la Nina Canadienne. Comédie en un acte. Hyacinthe Leblanc de Marconnay_ (Montreal: de  l’imprimerie de l’ami du peuple, 1836), page 52, "(no title)" (1 text, available on Google Books)
J. Huston,, _Le répertoire national ou recueil de littérature canadienne, compilé et publ_, volume 1 (Montreal: Lovell et Gibson, 1848), "Mélodie Canadienne" (1 text, available on Google Books)
Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 62-63, "À La Claire Fontaine" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
Grace Lee Nute, _The Voyageur_, Appleton, 1931 (reprinted 1987 Minnesota Historical Society), pp. 105-107, "A La Claire Fontaine" (1 text plus English translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [124 words]: This song has been called "The unofficial anthem of French Canada."
There is an English version "By the Clear Running Fountain," by Janet E. Tobitt, which was published in the 1949 Girl Scout Sing Together songbook, but it doesn't seem to have been very popular. - RBW
[The New-York Mirror edition] has musical notation for a melody line plus a simple piano accompaniment, and a rather bad English translation of the lyrics, followed by a long text that mainly describes the lives of the voyageurs, ending with the ascription "--Scottish Magazine."
I don't know what to make of this. I have been unable to identify a magazine of the right time period with a title similar to "Scottish Magazine" so maybe they meant it in a generic sense? - JD
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FJ134

A la Puerta del Cielo

See At the Gate of Heaven (A la Puerta del Cielo) (File: ACSF342A)

A Pheaid Bhui Na Gcarad

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. A piper stops at a pub for a drink. Someone steals his pipes. "He grieves for his loss and curses the thief"
AUTHOR: Pead Bui O Loingsigh (c. 1830) (source: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage theft drink music
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 3, "A Pheaid Bhui Na Gcarad" (1 text)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC003

A Ram Sam Sam

DESCRIPTION: "A ram sam sam, a ram sam sam Goolie, goolie, goolie, goolie, goolie, ram sam sam A raja, a raja Goolie, goolie, goolie, goolie, goolie, ram sam sam.A ra-vi A ra-vi,
goo-li goo-li goo-li goo-li goo-li ram sam sam."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (recording by Rolf Harris, according to Jim Dixon on mudcat.org thread "a ram sam sam")
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 144, 443, 498, "A Ram Sam Sam" (notes only)
Roud #36090
File: ACSF144A

A Robin, Gentle Robin

See A Robin, Jolly Robin (File: Perc1185)

A Robin, Jolly Robin

DESCRIPTION: "(Ah/Hey) Robin, (jolly/gentle) Robin, Tell me how thy (lady/leman) doth And thou shalt know of mine." "My lady is unkinde, perdie, Alack why is she so?" One singer says his lady is constant; the other says women change like the wind
AUTHOR: Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503?-1542)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy) (quoted by Shakespeare in "Twelfth Night" c. 1600, and the Devonshire Manuscript is dated c. 1530 in the British Library description)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad betrayal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 185-187, "A Robyn Jolly Robyn" (1 text)
DT, HEYROBIN*
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #13.8
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #151
ADDITIONAL: Noah Greenberg, ed., An Anthology of English Medieval and Renaissance Vocal Music, pp. 84-87 "A Robyn Gentil Robyn"(1 text, 1 tune with harmonization)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Egerton 2711, folio 37
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Additional 31922, folio 53
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Additional 17492 (Devonshire Manuscript), folios 22, 24 (two copies on two separate pages)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Additional 28636, folio 34 (transcript of preceding; no independent value)
ST Perc1185 (Full)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Robin, Gentle Robin
NOTES [163 words]: Often (though not universally) credited to Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503?-1542), and obviously well-known by the time Shakespeare wrote "Twelfth Night" (circa 1600; first mentioned 1602); it is quoted by the Clown in IV.ii.71f. The music is credited to Williams Cornysh(e) (died c. 1523). The Cornysh(e) music first appears in British Library MS. Add. 31922.
It's not likely that this is a traditional song, but there are strong variations in the words (the manuscript texts vary from 11 to 20 lines), and Shakespeare's version does not look original; I include it because it was recorded on the "New Golden Ring," and people might think it traditional. It is quite possible that Wyatt wrote only part of the words, or took a fragment and expanded it.
Wyatt had an incredibly complex career during the reign of Henry VIII (among other things, he was involved with Anne Boleyn before Henry noticed her), and is credited, among other things, with introducing the sonnet to England. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Perc1185

A Robyn Jolly Robyn

See A Robin, Jolly Robin (File: Perc1185)

A Robyn, Gentil Robyn

See A Robin, Jolly Robin (File: Perc1185)

A Rowdledy Dowdledy Porridge and Milk

DESCRIPTION: "A rowdledy dowdledy, porridge and milk, A rowdledy dowdledy, stir them up thick, A rowdledy dowdledy, taste on the spoon, A rowdledy dowdledy, blow till they cool."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 37, "A rowdledy dowdledy, porridge and milk" (1 text)
Roud #25366
File: KSUC037A

À Saint-Malo, Beau Port de Mer (At Saint Malo Beside the Sea)

DESCRIPTION: French: Three ships are at anchor at St. Malo. Three women come to buy grain. They ask the merchant what his prices are. He asks for more than they can pay. They say so; he says he will give the grain away if he can't sell it that day. The women approve
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946
KEYWORDS: bargaining commerce foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 16-17, "À Saint-Malo, Beau Port de Mer (At Saint Malo Beside the Sea)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 14-15 "À St. Malo, beau port de mer" (1 text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Loraine Wyman, "Songs from Percé," Volume 33, Number 130 (Oct.-Dec., 1920), p. 33, "Saint-Malo" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 70-71, "À Saint-Malo, Beau Port de Mer (At St. Malo Beside the Sea)" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
Augustin Jal, _Scènes de la vie maritime_, volume 3, Charles Gosselin, 1832, p. 203, "(no title)" (1 partial text, a version that mentions La Rochelle, not Saint-Malo, and has an altogether different refrain, but similar verses. Incomplete lyrics only, with a hint (as I interpret it) that the omitted ending is bawdy - JD)
(No author listed), _Recueil de chansons canadiennes et françaises_, John Lovell, 2859, p. 72 "A Saint Malo" (1 text, the familiar clean version of the Saint Malo lyrics)
Champfleury, _Chansons populaires des provinces de France_, John Lovell, 1859, page 72, "A Nant’s, A Nant’s Est Arrivé" (1 text, 1 tune; in this version, the port is Nantes)
Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Ferland et al, eds, _Le Foyer canadien: recueil litteraire et historique_, volume 3, Bureaux du "Foyer canadien," 1863, p. 338, "À Saint-Malo, Beau Port de Mer" (3 excerpts, from 3 different texts, each of 2 verses followed by a summary of the remainder. The first 2 are implied to be from France, not Canada, and the port is Nantes, not Saint-Malo, but there are clear parallels to the Saint-Malo version. At the end, the editor explicitly states that the French versions are bawdy, but doesn't explain further. The third version, which he labels as Canadian, seems to be the familiar clean Saint-Malo version.
(No author listed), _Nouvelle lyre canadienne: recueil de chansons canadiennes et françaises_, C. O. Beauchemin & Fils, 1896, page 90, "A Saint-Malo" (1 text)
George Doncieux, _Le romancéro populaire de la France: choix de chansons populaires françaises_, Emile Bouillon, 1904, "(Text Critique)" (1 text, with many variations in the notes; the town in the main text is Bordeaux, but many others are mentioned in the notes)
NOTES [62 words]: Fowke report that St. Malo was the home port of Jacques Cartier, the French explorer who in 1534 named the St. Lawrence river. For this reason, the very name of the port evokes Quebec's history and patriotism.
The town itself is in Brittany, on the coast not far from the border with Normandy, and was often used as a privateering base for raids on Britain and the like. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FJ016

A St. Malo, beau port de mer

See A Saint-Malo, Beau Port de Mer (At Saint Malo Beside the Sea) (File: FJ016)

A Stoir Mo Chroidhe

See A Stor Mo Chroi (Treasure of My Heart) (File: RcAStMC)

A Stor Mo Chroi (Treasure of My Heart)

DESCRIPTION: The singer to his/her love: You'll soon leave for a strange land "rich in its treasures"; "the lights of the city may blind you ... turn away from the throng and the bliss ... come back soon To the love that is always burning" and Erin's shore.
AUTHOR: Brian O'Higgins (Brian na Banban) (1882-1963?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Donhoe's Magazine)
KEYWORDS: love emigration parting Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Brian O'Higgins, "An Irish Picture," story in _Donahoe's Magazine_, Vol. 55, No. 6, June 1906 (Boston: Donahoe's Magazine Company), p. 608, "(no title)" (1 text, tune referenced)
Brian O'Higgins (as "Brian na Banban"), _The Voice of Banba: Songs and Recitations for Young Ireland_, M. H. Gill & Son, Ltd., 1907, p. 42, "A Stoir Mo Chroidhe" (1 text) (available on Google Books)
Brian O'Higgins, _Glen Na Mona: Stories and Sketches_, Whelan & Son, 1918, p. 112, "(no title)" (1 text, tune referenced) (available at hathitrust.org)
Roud #3076
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Conway, "A Stor Mo Chroi" (on IRClare01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bruach na Carriage Baine/:The Brink of the White Rocks" "(tune, according to "Glen Na Mona: Stories and Sketches" and "An Irish Picture")
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Stoir Mo Chroidhe
A stór mo croidhe
NOTES [73 words]: From a story called "An Irish Picture" by Brian O'Higgins, in Donahoe's Magazine, Vol. 55, No. 6, (Boston: Donahoe's Magazine Company, June 1906), page 608. - JD
Brian O'Higgins is also sometimes credited with "Moses Ritoora-li-ay." Quite a stretch from here to there.
For some reason, although all sources seem to agree that O'Higgins was born in 1882, I've seen three different death dates: 1949, 1963, and 1966. Wikipedia says 1963. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RcAStMC

A stór mo croidhe

See A Stor Mo Chroi (Treasure of My Heart) (File: RcAStMC)

A Tisket, A Tasket

See Atisket, Atasket (I Sent a Letter to My Love) (File: BAF806A)

A Tisket, A Tasket, Hitler's in His Casket

See (references under) Atisket, Atasket (I Sent a Letter to My Love) (File: BAF806A)

A Was an Apple Pie

See A Is for Apple Pie (File: R874)

A was an apple-pie

See A Is for Apple Pie (File: R874)

A Was an Archer (Tom Thumb's Alphabet)

DESCRIPTION: "A was an archer who shot at a frog, B was a butcher and had a great dog, C was a Captain, all covered with lace, D was a drunkard, and had a red face," and so on to the end of the alphabet
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell); Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes reports that it occurs first in A Little Book for Little Children, published in the reign of Queen Anne (died 1714)
KEYWORDS: wordplay | alphabet
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 2, "A was an archer, who shot at a frog" (2 texts)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, pp. 19-20, "A Was an Archer" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #612, p. 242, "(A Was an Archer)"
Roud #20563
NOTES [399 words]: The notes in the Baring-Goulds suggest that the reference to "King William" under "K" (in their version) is a reference to William the Conqueror. This, however, ignores the fact that the poem was first published in the reign of Queen Anne. The reference is, I strongly suspect, to William III, Anne's brother-in-law, who had died in 1702. After all, William the Conqueror had died in 1087 and his son William II Rufus in 1100; the poem can hardly be that old, and why refer all the way back to William the Conqueror when there were so many other kings to refer to? - RBW
This is the book that Halliwell cites:
Thomas White (as "T. W."), A little book for little children: wherein are set down, in a plain and pleasant way, directions for spelling, and other remarkable matters, Printed for G. C., 1702, p. 9. "The Alphabet" (1 text) (available on Google Books and at the British Library)
https://books.google.com/books?id=EjlWAAAAcAAJ&pg=PT1
http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc%5f100023578166.0x000001#cv=11
THE ALPHABET.
A was an Archer, and shot at a Frog;
B was a Blind-man, and led by a Dog: [etc.]
Please note that this version does not mention "King William." The "K" entry is:
"K was a Knave, and he rob'd great and small."
[See also] Tom Thumb's play-book; to teach children their letters as soon as they can speak. Being a new and pleasant method to allure little ones in the first principles of learning., A Barclay, 1764, p. 6-17 (available at Evans Early American Imprint Collection, Digital Collections, University of Michigan Library)
http://name.umdl.umich.edu/N07984.0001.001
A was an Archer, and shot at a Frog.
B was a Butcher, and had a great Dog. [etc.]
[I posted the whole text here: https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=94925#4138536]
This version does not mention "King William" either. The "K" entry is:
"K was a King, and he govern'd a Mouse." - JD
I should add that the Opies also have King William in their text, but say that the version they print goes back only to around 1850. In which case King William might be King William IV (reigned 1830-1837). Which makes a peculiar kind of sense: in 1850, Victoria was queen, and William IV was the last king to be on the throne. So he was mentioned -- and became fixed in the rhyme because Victoria reigned for 64 years and there was no newer king to zip in until the rhyme was too established to change. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OO2002

A Wooney Cooney Cha a Wooney

DESCRIPTION: "A woonie coonie chau wow woonie (x2) Eye-yi-yi-ipy, eye-eye-ay-noos (x2). A-woo, a woonie keetchie!" Or "Ah wune kune cha o wuni. A yi yi yi-ki ay kae ayna." Alleged to be a "Belgian Congo Game."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonsense campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 148, 152, 495, "A Wooney Cooney Cha a Wooney"/"Ah Wooney Cooney" (notes only)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 14, "Kee-Chee" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [37 words]: GirlScout-PocketSongbook lists this s a "Belgian Congo Game," but lists no source. It may be true, but it seems that this is largely forgotten, and the "Woon(e)y Coon(e)y" title is more normal in the modern songbooks. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF147A

A-25

DESCRIPTION: "They say in the Air Force the landing's OK, If the pilot's still out and can still walk away," but no matter what the state of the crew, there is still the Form A-25 to fill out. Many flight problems are listed, none worse than the A-25
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: humorous flying soldier disaster derivative pilot
FOUND IN: Canada Britain(England(All))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 100-103, "The A-25 Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 130-131, "A-25" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #29401
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES [1372 words]: Among the aircraft and other weapons listed in this song are:
-- Seafire. The British, lacking a workable fighter aircraft for use on carriers (they were still using biplanes at the start of World War II! -- Worth, p. 79) eventually started navalizing their land planes, producing first the Sea Hurricane then the Seafire, a naval version of the Spitfire. It "naturally excelled in combat. In carrier operations, however, it had significant problems, and its introduction saw a high incidence of deck accidents. A tricky plane to land, it offered poor visibility on approach and inadequate speed control, compounding the hazard of fragile, bouncy landing gear. The overall structure lacked sturdiness; experience showed that arrester gear could snap a Seafire in two. Takeoff behavior was better, but upon ditching, the plane sank at once. Range never exceeded 800 miles even with drop tanks.... Thus the magnificent Seafire could not fulfill all the navy's fighter needs" (Worth, p. 80).
Plus it had been only minimally changed to make it a naval plane -- the biggest addition being the addition of an arrestor hook to stop the plane on landing, but both hook and plane proved fragile when snagged by the arrestor wife (Brown, pp. 127-128). Early versions did not have folding wings, and so were too large to go down the elevators of many British carriers (Brown, p. 128), so they never entirely replaced other carrier fighters. And their fragility probably meant that many pilots had to deal with Form A-25.
Brown's conclusion, p. 144, seems to be that it was a useful plane for the Royal Navy to have, but less because of its actual value than because it convinced Navy pilots that they, too, had the benefit of the legendary Spitfire.
The Seafire, like the Spitfire, was made by Supermarine, which is mentioned in one of the later verses.
-- The "batsman" was the crewman in charge of bringing in planes to a safe landing on an aircraft carrier; he stood on the deck and gave signals to the pilot. He was called the batsman because he carried two paddles, one in each hand, with the way he held the paddles conveying information to the pilot about what he needed to do to land correctly.
-- The Nelson and Rodney: Sister ships, the only two battleships built by Great Britain between the two World Wars (all naval nations had agreed on a battleship holiday; Worth, p. 92, calls them "misbegotten twins fathered by disarmament). With nine sixteen inch guns, they had the heaviest armament in the world at the time of their completion, and decent armor -- but all their guns were forward, restricting their firing ability, and they were slow; they were "innovative in many ways, but successful in few" (Worth, p. 93). Nonetheless they are mentioned in several British naval songs, simply because they were big and relatively new battleships. They were often mentioned in connection with the Hood, the other pride of Britain's navy, but by the time the Seafire was in production, the Hood had been sunk. The British had by then built newer battleships -- the King George V and her sisters -- but they didn't have the fame (or the main armament) of the Nelsons. For more on the Nelsons and the Hood, see the notes to "She's a Tiddley Ship."
-- Formid, i.e. HMS Formidable: one of four carriers of the Illustrious class, the others being Illustrious, VIctorious, and Indomitable. They were the first carriers to have armored flight decks, which were a major advance, but in every other way, they were a regression from the standards set by the Americans and even by the previous British carrier, the Ark Royal: they were slow by carrier standard (30.5 knots; Worth, p. 84) and had pitifully small air groups -- often no more than 36 planes (Preston, p. 61). Formidable had a hard war; newly commissioned and sent to the Mediterranean, her aircrew damaged the Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto and the cruiser Pola, leading to a British victory at the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941, but she was badly damaged by bombs during the British defeat at Crete (Preston, p. 77). Worth, p. 84, says she was never properly repaired. She then went to the Indian Ocean, where she flew the Martlet/Wildcat (see below) for a time (Preston, p. 104). Later in the war, she took two kamikaze hits, although they were less damaging than the damage she had suffered in Europe (Preston, p. 161); she had lost ten knots of speed by the time she was finally taken out of service (Worth, p. 84).
-- Martlet Mark IV. The real solution to the British Navy's fighter problem was to adopt an American plane, the Grumman Wildcat. The British called it the "Martlet" (Gunston, p. 118), and used them in war before the Americans did. (The Martlet was, in fact, the first American plane to shoot down a German aircraft; Munson, p. 84). It tells you something about the relative air forces of Germany and Japan that, in European service, the Martlet was considered a great success, but in the Pacific, it was outclassed by the Japanese Zero, forcing the Americans to develop better tactics and to try to come up with a more capable plane. The name "Martlet" was phased out by the British in 1944 in favor of the American name "Wildcat." The reference to a Mark Four implies a date around 1942, but I suspect the number is not significant; it was used for rhyme purposes.
-- Barracuda. The Fairey Barracuda was a torpedo plane, the successor to the pre-war Swordfish and the wartime flop the Albacore. "[A]n obvious advance [on the Swordfish and Albacore], yet still something of a disappointment. Not an easy plane to fly, it suffered several accidents due to its handling flaws. Its engine lacked power.... Nevertheless, the Barracuda had enough range and maneuverability to be useful" (Worth, p. 81). It went into service in 1943 (Munson, p. 63). Brown, who tested many British naval aircraft, on p. 99 describes his shock at seeing such an ungainly aircraft for the first time. Brown, p. 101, calls it very slow to climb, and had sticky controls. The pilots actually had to learn a whole new technique to fire her torpedo; the standard method was likely to result in crashes (Brown, pp. 103-106); indeed, on p. 100, Brown says that this torpedo plane "was never used by the Barracuda in action."
-- Tiger Moth: Munson, p. 189, calls this "surely one of the most famous and well-loved aeroplanes ever built," a de Haviland biplane intended as a trainer and with a top speed of just 109 miles per hour. (Hence the wisecrack in the song about "It does fifty knots or something fantastic.") But it was easy to handle, and thus a very good plane in which to learn to fly; she served from her introduction in 1932 until the late 1940s. A great plane for learning, but heaven help the pilot in a Tiger Moth who encountered an enemy aircraft....
-- Reliant: Presumably a reference to the Stinson Reliant, a navigational trainer used by both the British and Americans. Very slow (135 miles per hour top speed, according to Munson, p. 234) and used only in limited numbers, I'm surprised to see it mentioned in this song, but I know of no other World War II plane called a "Reliant."
-- The "pilotless plane" is presumably the V-1 "buzz bomb" (or "doodlebug"), which was indeed a plane without a pilot although the engine was unusual; the V-2 was a true rocket.
-- F.O.2: I have been unable to identify a British aircraft with this model number. But it sounds like a reconnaissance plane in the song, and in the American army air force designation system,"F" was the prefix for a reconnaissance craft. My wild guess is that it's the Vought OS2U Kingfisher, an American reconnaissance plane which the British used in the Pacific (Munson, p. 239), which fits the song.
Adding up all the hints in the song, it would appear that it dates from 1943 or 1944, though possibly this was an update to an earlier version from 1941 or 1942. It is curious to find it mentioned by Canadians -- every ship and plane mentioned is a British, which implies that this is a Royal Navy song, and the reference to the Fleet Air Arm confirm this. And, of course, Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy has the song as well as Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: Hopk130

A-25 Song, The

See A-25 (File: Hopk130)

A-Begging Buttermilk I Will Go

See The Buttermilk Boy (File: HHH057a)

A-Begging I Will Go

DESCRIPTION: "Of all the trades in England, The begging is the best, For when the beggar's tired, he can lay him down and rest...." The beggar describes the various pleasures of his profession, and declares that he will continue begging
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1684 (Playford's Choyce Ayres and Loyal Songs)
KEYWORDS: begging nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,Lond,south),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 31-32, "The Begging Trade"; #30, p. 1, "The Beggin'" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan3 488, "The Begging" (14 texts, 11 tunes)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 305, "Of All the Trades in London" (1 fragment) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 653)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 217, "A-Begging I Will Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 164-166, "The Jovial Beggar, a-begging we will go" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 346-347, "A Begging We Will Go" (2 texts, 1 tune; the first text is "A-Begging I Will Go," but the second text and the tune are "I Am a Jolly Huntsman")
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 42-43, "A Begging We Will Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, "A Begging We Will Go" (1 text)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 267-270, "A-Begging We Will Go" (1 text, 1 tune, very long and conflate)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 381-382, "To the Beggin' I Will Go" (1 text)
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 8, "A Beggin' I Will Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ABEGGIN*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 265, "The Happy Beggarman"
Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, (Cardiff,2001), pp. 287-289, "A Begging I Will Go" as one of the sources of Coughlan 94, "O, a-beggin' I will go, my love."
Roud #286
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "To the Begging I Will Go" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(287), "The Beggar," C. Croshaw (York), c.1817
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Let the Back and Sides Go Bare" (theme)
cf. "The Old Settoo" (theme and some lines)
cf. "Beggars and Ballad Singers" (theme : "who would be a king, When beggars live so well?")
SAME TUNE:
Age Renewed by Wedlock/Come All Ye Ancient Women (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN511)
The Merry Beggars of Lincolns-Inn-Fields/Three beggars met together (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2603)
The Papist Prayers/There Is a Holy Father (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2427)
The Rambling Roman Catholick/I am a Roman Catholick (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1225)
Tradesman's Complaint, "Come hither, brother tradesmen, And hear the news I bring, 'Tis of a Tory minister" (song against the British policies leading to the American Revolution; see Stanley Weintraub, _Iron Tears: America's Battle for Freedom, Britain's Quagmire 1775-1783_, pp. 20-21)
A Junto Song ("'Tis money makes the member vote... A-taxing we will go") (Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, p. 29)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
To the Begging I Will Go
NOTES [315 words]: Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, pp. 288-289, notes the following verse from Playford's Choyce Ayres and Loyal Songs (1684): "I fear no plots against me, I live in open cell, Then who would be a king, When beggars live so well?" Coughlan continues, "It has been suggested that this verse contains a veiled reference to the tradition that King James V of Scotland (1513-42) was in the habit of consorting with Travellers.... {A} similar story is told of the English King John (1199-1216)...." This may be confused with the report in Child's preface to 279, "The Jolly Beggar": "We are regularly informed by editors that tradition imputes the authorship of both 'The Jolly Beggar' and 'The Gaberlunyie-Man' to James Fifth of Scotland.... The tradition as to James Fifth is, perhaps, not much older than the publication in either case [1724], and has no more plausibility than it has authority." - BS
The basis for the legend may be the fact that he was a fairly lusty liege; according to Stanley B. R. Poole, Royal Mysteries and Pretenders, Barnes & Noble, 1993, p. 36, he was thought to have had as many as nine illegitimate children. It was in fact James V's father James IV who seems to have spent time incognito among the common people (Jackie Cosh, The King with the Iron Belt: The Life of King James IV of Scotland, JC Publications, 2018, p. 53). But I agree that there is no reason to link the songs to either James.
Logan-APedlarsPack has this from a broadside "Be Valiant Still," with the tune listed as "The old carle to daunton me." Whatever that is; a tune "To Daunton Me" is #182 in the Scots Musical Museum.
The notion of begging songs predates even this quite ancient piece; in A Poetical Rhapsody, published 1602, we find "In Praise of a Beggar's Life" ("Bright shines the sun; play, beggars, play! Here's scraps enough to serve to-day"), credited to "A.W." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K217

A-Cruising We Will Go

DESCRIPTION: "Behold upon the swelling seas With streaming pennants gay, Our gallant ship invites the waves, While glory leads the way." "And a-cruising we will go." The singer asks the girls to be kind, recalls "Hardy's flag," and hopes for peace with America
AUTHOR: almost certainly Frederick Pilon (1750-1788) (in The Liverpool Prize)
EARLIEST DATE: 1779 (The Liverpool Prize)
KEYWORDS: navy ship nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XXV, pp. 37-38, "A Cruising we will go" (1 text)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 118-119, "A-Cruising We Will Go" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Pilon, _The Liverpool Prize; A Farce: In Two Acts_, T. Evans, 1779, p. 40, “SONG” (1 text) (chapbook available on Google Books)
(no author listed)_The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure_, Vol. 64, No. 443, James Hinton, Jan., 1779, p. 159, "SONG in the Liverpool Prize" (1 text, identical to the Pilon version but with the spelling changed from "cruizing" to "cruising") (available on Google Books)
(no author listed), _The Scots Magazine_, Vol. 41, A. Murray and J. Cochran, March, 1779, p. 162, "SONG in the Liverpool Prize" (1 text) (available on Google Books)
(no author listed), _The Scots Nightingale: Or, Edinburgh Vocal Miscellany. A New and Select Collection of the Best Scots and English Songs; and a Great Number of Valuable Originals..._, James Murray, 1779, p. 150, "A NEW SONG" (1 text) (available on Google Books)
(no author listed), _St. Cecilia: or, the Lady's and Gentleman's harmonious companion ..._, C. Wilson, 1779, p. 113, "SONG" (1 text) (available on Google Books)
(no author listed), _The Bird: Containing a Choice Collection of Love, Hunting and Bachanalian Songs..._, A. Richardson, 1781, p. 31, no title (1 text) (available on Google Books)
(no author listed), _The Universal Scots Songster: A New Collection of the Most Celebrated Songs in Three Parts_, Part 1, "Printed and sold by all the Booksellers in Great Britain, and Ireland," 1781, p. 168, "Adapted to the Times" (1 text) (available on Google Books)
Elizabeth Billington [author according to catalog entry], _The Billington: Or, Town and Country Songster_, E. Wenman, 1790, p. 51, "Song in the Liverpoole (sic) Prize" (1 text) (available on Google Books)
J. Woodfall Ebsworth (editor), _The Roxburghe Ballads: Illustrating the Last Years of the Stuarts_, Vol. 8, The Ballad Society, 1897, p. 323, "[The Cruisers.] A New Song, adapted to the Times" (1 text) (available on Google Books)
C. H. Firth (editor), _Publications of the Navy Records Society, Vol. 33: Naval Songs and Ballads_, Navy Records Society, 1908, p. 247, "[The Cruisers.] A New Song, adapted to the Times" (1 text) (available on Google Books and The Internet Archive)
(no author listed), _Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society_, Series 3, Vol. 8, Adnitt and Naunton, 1908, p. 350, "'The Cruisers.' A New Song, adapted to the Times" (1 text) (available on Google Books and The Internet Archive)
Roud #8825
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dusky Night" (tune)
NOTES [413 words]: Shay gives no information about the origin of this piece, and no tune; in my initial notes, I said that I doubted it was traditional, or even a song. It looks to me like some broadside poet's praise of the British navy.
Jim Dixon proved my suspicion partly right, by finding it in Francis Pilon's "The Liverpool Prize; A Farce: In Two Acts." Presumably Pilon wrote the song as well as the rest of the play. Based on the number of citations Jim found of this song, it seems to have been Pilon's hit; not a single work of his is listed in Granger's Index to Poetry. He has a Wikipedia entry with a few biographical details, although it's mostly a list of his works. It says that "The Liverpool Prize" made its debut on February 22, 1779, with comic actor John Quick playing the lead.
"Hardy," mentioned in Shay's text although ot Pilon's original, is presumably Thomas Masterson Hardy (1769-1839), Nelson's chief captain, who was made rear admiral in 1825, served as First Sea Lord 1830-1834, and finally reached the rank of vice admiral in 1837. The original referred to Keppel's Flag, i.e. Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel (1725-1786), who eventually rose to be First Lord of the Admiralty. He wasn't particularly noteworthy as a commander, who was perhaps mentioned because at this time he was involved in a vicious controversy with his subordinate, Sir Hugh Palliser. Keppel seems to have fascinated Pilon; his next work, "Illumination, or the Glazier's Conspiracy," was based on Keppel's trial over the Palliser affair.
Maybe the whole thing is a satire on Keppel's service. The one big battle he commanded, at Ushant (July 27, 2778) was a muddled affair with no real winner, but it was close-fought enough that the French could argue they won the battle (N. A. M. Rodger, The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain 660-1649 (1997; I use the 1999 Norton edition), p. 337). And his administrative service was marked by lack of force and excessive concern with politics -- indeed, his placing party values above telling the truth was what led to the fight with Palliser (Rodger, pp. 354-355). He frankly sounds like a terrible officer. - RBW
The tune is identified as "The dusky night." Ebsworth... identifies the tune as "Henry Fielding's Hunting Song of 1735": "The dusky night rides down the sky, and ushers in the morn; the hounds all join in jovial cry, the huntsman winds his horn: And a hunting we will go!" Complete lyrics have been posted at Mudcat. - JD
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ShaSS118

A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35]

DESCRIPTION: The girl rebukes her father for marrying her to a much younger boy. He tells her the lad is growing. She sends him to school in a shirt that shows he's married, for he is a handsome lad. She soon bears his son. He dies young; she sadly buries him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1792 (as "Lady Mary Anne"), based on a text in the Herd manuscript (c. 1776)
KEYWORDS: marriage youth death mourning clothes
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland,England(All)) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES (39 citations):
Laws O35, "A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing)"
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 196-197, "Young But Daily Growing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sturgis/Hughes-SongsFromTheHillsOfVermont, pp. 11-14, "Daily Growing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 156, The Trees So High" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 60, "Young but Daily Growing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 177, "My Bonny Love is Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 677-678, "He's Young but He's Daily Growing" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 29, "Still Growing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 107-109, "He's Young but He's Daily A-Growing" (2 texts plus 1 fragment, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 100-101, "He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 72, "Still Growing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 25, "The Trees They Do Grow High" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 96, "Still Growing" (1 text, a composite of two versions)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 32, "Still Growing, or The Trees They Do Grow High" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 134, "The Trees They Are So High" (2 texts)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 56-57, "Oh, the Tres are getting high" (1 text, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 99, "The Trees They Grow So High" (1 text, 1 tune)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 44, "The Trees they do grow high" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #4, "The Trees They Are So High" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 33, "The Trees They Are So High" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #55 "The Trees They Do Grow High" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 16-18, "The Trees They Grow So High (The Bonny Boy)" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 147, "Still Growing" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 216, "Young and Growing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #107, "The Trees They Do Grow High" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 40, "The Trees They Do Be High" (1 text, 1 tune)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 40, "The Young Laird of Craigstoun" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1222, "Still Growing" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 122, "The Lament of a Young Damsel for Her Marriage to a Young Boy" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 45-46, "Craigston's Growing" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 112, "My Bonnie Laddie's Lang, Lang o' Growing" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 23, "Long A-Growing" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 28-29, "My bonnie laddie's lang a-growing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 132-133, "The Trees They Grow So High" (1 text)
Behan-IrelandSings, #18, "Child Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 217, "Daily Growing" (1 text)
DT 307, DAILYGRO* LANGGRO*
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, pp. 40-41, "The Trees They Do Grow High" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #374, pp. 510-511 "My bonie laddie's young but he's growin yet" ["Lady Mary Ann"] (1 text, 1 tune, from 1792)
Roud #31
RECORDINGS:
Sean 'Ac Donnca, "The Bonny Boy" (on TradIre01)
Liam Clancy, "Lang A-Growing" (on IRLClancy01)
Charlotte Decker, "He's Young but He's Daily Growing" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Nathan Hatt, "He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing" (on MRHCreighton)
Mary Anne Haynes, "Long A-Growing" (on Voice06)
Lizzie Higgins, "Lady Mary Ann" (on Voice17) (on LHiggins01)
Fred Jordan, "The Bonny Boy" (on Voice03)
Tom Lenihan, "The Trees They Do Be High" (on IRTLenihan01)
Mary McGarvey, "Young and Growing" (on FSBFTX19)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(156d), "My Bonny Lad is Young, But He's Growing", H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Firth c.21(19), Harding B 11(4066), "My Bonny Lad is Young, But He's Growing"; Harding B 11(2216), "My Bonny Lads Growing"; Harding B 11(1685), Harding B 15(210b), "My Bonny Lad is Young and Growing"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Days Are Awa That I Hae Seen" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Daily Growing
Lady Mary Ann (a rewrite by Robert Burns)
My Bonnie Laddie's Young (But He's Growing Yet)
Young Craigston
The Young Laird of Craystoun
NOTES [2244 words]: [A. L. Lloyd writes,] "It is sometimes said that the ballad is based on the actual marriage of the juvenile laird of Craigton to a girl several years his senior, the laird dying three years later in 1634. But in fact the ballad may be older; indeed, there is no clear evidence that it is of Scottish origin. Child marriages for the consolidation of family fortunes [or other political reasons - RBW] were not unusual in the Middle Ages and in some parts the custom persisted far into the seventeenth century. The presenting and wearing of coloured ribbons, once common in Britain, still plays a prominent part in betrothal and marriage in Central and Eastern Europe." - PJS
The notes in Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, p. 230, detail the story of John Urquhart of Craigston, and seem certain that he inspired the song, but they admit the ballad "recalls relatively little of the story." I'm simply not convinced. - RBW
Greig/Duncan6 1222A is the first two verses of Burns's "Lady Mary Ann." The tune there is "Shule Agra"; Burns's tune is "Craigstone's Growin'" which, I assume, is "A-Growing." The Greig/Duncan6 citation for the next note refers to the "estate of Crayston [Craigstoun]."
Greig/Duncan6 cites North Country Garland 1824 as a source of A.L. Lloyd's note on the 1631/1634 story." - BS
MacColl and Seeger report this song from 1670 in the Guthrie manuscript. We have been unable to verify this, and they are lumpers. - PJS, RBW
Lizzie Higgins's "Lady Mary Anne" on Voice17 is very close to the Robert Burns text (source: "Lady Mary Anne" on Burns Country site). Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 40 is [also] close to "Lady Mary Anne."
Also collected and sung by Ellen Mitchell, "Lady Mary Ann" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
Warnings in song against young men marrying old women; the famous fifteenth century manuscript Sloane 2593 (in the Bibliography as MSSloane2593: London, British Library MS. Sloane 2593) has a piece that begins, "Yng men I warne you everichone, Elde wives tak ye none"="Young men I warn you everyone, Old wives take you none" -- Index of Middle English Vese #4279).
While the usual marriage custom was for older men to marry younger women, there were several very early instances of the reverse in English and Scottish royal history, though I doubt any of them actually inspired this song.
The first that we know of came in 1017. Canute (Cnut), who was King of Denmark by right but had become King of England by conquest, displacing the native dynasty of Ethelred II Unraed ("Ethelred the Unready," though his nickname actually translates as "rede-less," i.e. "no-council," "ill-advised"), married Emma the widow of Ethelred a year after he assumed the throne (Ashley, p. 486).
Canute, according to some accounts, was 21 at the time of the marriage; we don't know Emma's age, but her son Edward the Confessor was born around 1004, so Ashley, p. 482, suggests she was born c. 985, making her 31 or 32. O'Brien, p. 14, thinks Edward was born 1005, and notes that Emma bore her last child around 1021, and so conjectures a birth date c. 988, which would make her 29 when Canute married her. Since she married Ethelred probably in 1002 (O'Brien, p. 23), her latest possible birth date is probably 990, making her 27 when she married Canute.
There is no question that Emma was much older than her second husband (though still young enough to bear him a son, Harthecanute, and a daughter, Gunnhild; O'Brien, p. viii). This is hardly similar to the story here, though, as Emma probably married Canute voluntarily, and in any case, her father, Duke Richard I of Normandy, had died in 996 (Ashley, p. 499) and couldn't have arranged the marriage.
Emma may have had a right to gripe, though, since Canute did not set aside his earlier common law wife Ælgifu when he married Emma. Canute declared Ælgifu his "temporary wife" (Brooke, p. 135) -- but her older son, Harold, succeeded to the throne of England after Canute (Brooke, p. 138). Emma's son Harthecanute became King of England only after Harold died. On the other hand, Canute seems to have come to genuinely respect Emma and given her a place in his councils (O'Brien, p. 119). Which isn't the same as saying he slept with her much, however....
A more suitable parallel to the situation in this song arose after the Norman Conquest. King Henry I had married his daughter Matilda/Maud to the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V. But she was very young when they married (perhaps twelve), and when the emperor died in 1125, she was still childless (and perhaps 23). The lords in Germany didn't want to send her home, and she doesn't seem to have had a strong desire to return to England either, but Henry -- who now desperately needed an heir -- got her back (Warren; p. 11). Her father Henry I then married her to Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, who was ten or twelve years younger than she (Ashley, p. 517).
The match managed to produce several children, but that is all that can be said for it -- Matilda, though described by Warren as "strikingly handsome," seems to have been a fairly prickly person, On p. 12, Warren calls her "haughty and domineering, expecting devotion as her due rather than trying to earn it."
McLynn, p. 7, declares that "the marriage was not a success, largely because Matilda was such a domineering personality; this was the very quality that lost her England when she had [King] Stephen on the ropes in 1141. Headstrong, overbearing, tactless, haughty, arrogant, and abusive, Matilda alienated everyone she came in contact with, even her own kinsmen. The general consensus was that Matilda was an over-masculine woman; her lack of the traditionally feminine qualities appalled contemporaries who thought her a freak of nature.... And since Matilda acted like a virago and indicated to her husband that, as a king's daughter, she had married beneath her, it was not long before he ignored her and consoled himself with a harem of mistresses. Nonetheless, the duty of founding a new dynasty had to be performed, so it was into this loveless union that Henry II was born on 1 March 1133."
Henry II himself was the third, and probably the most famous, instance of the phenomenon in the English royal family of an older wife with a young husband. As McLynn notes in the very next sentence after the above, "Henry II would continue the Angevin pattern of contracting unhappy marriages." Not only that, he once again wedding a much older woman. In 1152, at the age of 18, he married Eleanor Duchess of Acquitaine, who had been divorced from King Louis VII of France (Ashley, p. 518). She was at least ten, and probably 11 or 12, years older than her husband (though she still managed to bear him eight children, and she outlived him by 15 years, dying in 1204 at about the age of 82). Here again, though, her father was dead.
Fourth, King Henry VIII took as his first wife Katherine of Aragon (Ashley, p. 630). They married in 1509, shortly after he came to the throne; he was about to turn 18, she was 23 or 24, and the widow of Henry's older brother Arthur. That marriage was the worst flop of all; Henry by 1514 was giving most of his energy to mistresses (Mattingly, p. 162). This marriage is in some ways a good fit -- Katherine did complain to her father about being kept in poverty after Arthur's death (Mattingly, p. 98). But she had no children by Arthur, and Henry outlived her.
Fifth, Frances Brandon, whose first husband was Henry Grey of Dorset and whose daughter by him was Jane Grey the "Nine Days' Queen," after the execution of her first husband in 1554 married one of her servants, Adrian Stokes (Plowden, facing p. 119). She was born in 1517; he was said to be 16 years younger, meaning that she was in her late thirties (and, based on her portrait, gone to fat) and he in his early twenties when they married. There were apparently no offspring of the marriage; she died in 1559.
It should be noted that in none of these cases was the younger husband the *first* spouse of the older wife. All four queens had been married before (though it is possible that Arthur and Katherine had not consummated their marriage; this at least was the argument that was given to the Pope to make the marriage between Henry and Katherine legal; Williamson, p. 76). Thus in no case was the wife really a spinster. And all four husbands were old enough to consummate the marriage at once (though Geoffrey of Anjou was barely so), and none of the husbands died soon after -- though Emma of Normandy, who died in 1052, outlived Canute by 17 years (and her son Harthecanute by ten); Eleanor of Aquitaine, as noted, outlived Henry II by 15; and Matilda, who died 1167, outlived Geoffrey by 16 years; only Katherine of Aragon, who died in 1533, predeceased her husband.
There was one later case in which the wife had not had a previous husband: Mary Tudor, at 37, married the future Philip II of Spain in 1554 (Ashley, pp. 638-640). Although he was about ten years younger than she was (Prescott, p. 397), he was already a widower (and would end up marrying four times; Smith, p. 163). But although she loved him desperately (quite literally), the feeling was not returned; Prescott, p. 397, says he spent the first year after their marriage in a "ceaseless and apparently convincing simulation of love." After that year of play-acting, he quit trying, although he continued to take advantage of her love. In any case, although Mary at one time convinced herself she was pregnant, she had no children.
Another instance, involving high royalty although not the actual king or queen, came after the Stuart succession. Arabella Stuart (1575-1615), who had been the heir of James VI and I until that king had children, clandestinely (and voluntarily) married William Seymour (1587-1660), who was thirteen years her junior (Macalpine/Hunter, p. 213). James -- who had already repressed one plot made on her behalf, although she was no part of it (Magnuson, p. 409n) -- was concerned by the fact that both she and her husband had English royal blood, and responded by throwing her in the Tower in 1611.
He may have had a point, since the marriage seems to have been Somerset's idea; Magnuson, p. 378n., thinks Arabella accepted his proposal because she was middle-aged and running short of prospects. I wonder if it might not have been some sort of psychological side-effect of all the time she spent with her captive cousin, Mary Queen of Scots (Magnuson, pp. 377-278). In any case, she died in the Tower, perhaps of the effects of porphyria (Macalpine/Hunter, pp. 217-218, although given the vagueness of the data, I think her problem might have been as mundane as shingles), in 1615 (Magnusson, pp. 318n., 378n.).
She and her husband had tried to flee together, but where she was slowed by sickness, he was nimble and managed to escape (Macalpine/Hunger, p. 218), remaining in exile until 1616 (OxfordCompanion, p. 878). He survived her by more than forty years and was eventually restored to the Dukedom of Somerset.
If we look to the Scots, Margaret, daughter of Alexander III of Scotland, was 19 when she married 14-year-old Erik II King of Norway (Magnusson, p. 104).
Not one of these May/December marriages seems to have been happy. Canute kept a second wife. Matilda spent most of her time after 1135 in England, while Geoffrey stayed in Normandy. Henry II took mistresses (notably Rosamund Clifford) and in time imprisoned Eleanor. Henry VIII, besides taking mistresses, tried to have his marriage with Katherine annulled (though that was due to her inability to bear a male heir, which most now think was more his problem than hers; Ashley thinks he had syphilis, though genetic disease seems at least as likely; the Tudors had inherited a lot of very bad genes from Catherine of France, the daughter of the mad king Charles VI). Margaret of Scotland died, probably in childbirth, at the age of 22, bearing the future Margaret Maid of Norway (Magnusson, p. 105. For the Maid of Norway, see the notes to "Sir Patrick Spens" [Child 58].) And Philip of Spain abandoned his creaky, unattractive, seemingly infertile wife after only a little more than a year.
I suppose I should add that King Edward IV married a significantly older woman, Elizabeth Woodville, but this hardly counts; she was still fairly young and regarded as quite beautiful, and Edward pursued her entirely voluntarily and -- as it turned out -- at great cost to himself and his family. In any case, she not only married him happily but clearly set out to lure him into marriage.
Instances of a younger man marrying an older woman for her money are even more common among the lower nobility and gentry. These cases are too numerous to list, but we might cite the example of the famous soldier Sir John Fastolf, one of the best of Henry V's lieutenants. Himself relatively poor, in 1409, at the age of about 29, he married Millicent Scrope, age about 41, whose lands were worth five times as much as his (Castor, p. 101). The joke proved to be rather on him, though -- he lived another half century, and became very rich indeed, but produced no legitimate heir.
Finally, we might mention the case of Cleopatra VII of Egypt ("the" Cleopatra) marrying two of her younger brothers in the period around 50 B.C.E. But that was just politics and Egyptian custom -- and the marriages surely were not consummated. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LO35

A-Hunting We Will Go

DESCRIPTION: "A-hunting we will go (x2) We'll catch a fox and put it in a box." Possible chorus: "High-ho, the derry-o." Additional verses may hunt other animals, such as fish or bear -- e.g. "We'll catch a bear and cut his hair, And then we'll let him go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Burne)
KEYWORDS: hunting nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West), Scotland(Aber)) US(MW,So) New Zealand
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1591, "Oh a Hunting" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 40, "(There was a jolly miller") (1 text, which open with verses from "The Miller Boy (Jolly is the Miller I)" and continues with "A-Hunting We Will Go"); p. 41, "(Would you lend my mother a saucepan)" (1 text, which also adds this verse to what appears an unrelated game)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Emelyn E Gardner, "Some Play-Party Games in Michigan," Vol. XXXIII, No. 128 (Apr 1920), #16 p. 102, "Have You Seen the Sha?" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Ruth Ann Musick and Vance Randolph, "Children's Rhymes from Missouri," Vol. LXIII, No. 250 (Oct 1950), p. 431, ("A-hunting we will go, a-hunting we will go") (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 175, 533, "A-Hunting We Will Go" (notes only)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 5, "A-hunting" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #4, "A-hunting we will go" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Charlotte Sophia Burne, editor ("from the collections of Georgina F. Jackson"), _Shropshire Folk-lore: A Sheaf of Gleanings_, Trübner & Co., 1883, page 514, “(A-hunting we will go)” (1 text) (available on Google Books)
G.F. Northall, English Folk-Rhymes (London, 1892 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 386-387, ("A hunting we will go") (2 texts)
Roud #12972
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Noble Duke of York" (tune)
cf. "The Farmer in the Dell" (tune)
cf. "The Plains of Waterloo (VIII)" (tune, per Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs)
cf. "A-Mumming We WIll Go" (format)
NOTES [449 words]: This is a popular enough children's song that I actually encountered it in my youth, with the "High-ho" chorus and tune related to "The Farmer in the Dell." I don't know if I met it at school or at home; I do note that the Internet reveals many school-related versions, often badly damaged and with utterly sickening lesson plans attached. (I refuse to cite links on the grounds that American education is already too touchy-feely.)
I strongly suspect that the verse about catching a fox and putting it in a box did *not* originally involve letting it go, making me suspect a rewrite. Perhaps this is why, although the song seems to be common in modern children's anthologies, there aren't many traditional collections.
[Burne describes the game:]16. 'A-hunting we will go.' No ring; the players march two and two along the play-ground, and at the end turn from each other to right and left; the two lines march to the other end and meet again, as in the country-dance Sir Roger de Coverley.
Chorus. 'A-hunting we will go,
A-hunting we will go!
We'll catch a little fish,
And put him in a dish,
And never let him go!'
[found in] Ellesmere
[Northall, 1892, apparently copied this information and added another version about a fox.] - JD
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 175, claims this the ancestor of "The Noble Duke of York," but the evidence is pretty strong that the dependence goes the other way. She credits the tune to Thomas Arne in 1777. - RBW
The non-sequitur reply to Gardner's "Have You Seen the Sha?," who "lights his pipe on a starlight night," is the text "A-hunting we will go ... We'll catch a fox ...." Gomme (1.243-244) lists ("O have you seen the Shah") with two other versions of this "A-Hunting We Will Go."
Northall has two versions: one -- "we'll catch a little fish, And put him in a dish" -- from Shropshire, and the other -- "we'll catch a fox ...." -- from Derbyshire. - BS
Katherine Briggs, A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 528-530, "The Fox and the Pixies" is a folktale which she thinks might be influenced by this.
Tony Deane and Tony Shaw The Folklore of Cornwall, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 68,, has a verse which they say Peter Kennedy collected in Cornwall:
O the Farmers go around and fill their bags tied up with straw,
The miners they go underground and never miss a blaw,
O a-mining we will go, my boys, a-mining we will go,
With picks and shovels in our hands, a-mining we will go.
Deane and Shaw do not give enough information to identify their source, but I suspect their version is from this family. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: GrD81591

A-Jogging Along

See Jim Along Josie (File: R575)

A-Lumbering We Go

See Once More A-Lumbering Go AND Bung Yer Eye (File: Wa031)

A-Lumbering We Will Go

See Once More A-Lumbering Go (File: Wa031)

A-Mumming We Will Go

DESCRIPTION: "A-mumming we will go, will go, O a-mumming... With bright cockades all in our hats, We'll make a gallant show." "Come all ye jolly mummers... Come join with us in chorus." "It's of St. George's valor, So let us loudly sing." Other tales of battle follow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Aunt Judy's Magazine)
KEYWORDS: ritual music battle
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Mrs. Alfred Gatty, editor, _Aunt Judy's Magazine: “Aunt Judy’s Christmas Volume for 1872” (Volume 10)_, Bell and Daldy, 1872, p. 115, “A mumming we will go, &c.” (one line only) (available on Google Books)
Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 68, "(A-mumming we will go)" (1 short text)
Sidney Oldall Addy, _A Glossary of Words Used in the Neighbourhood of Sheffield_, English Dialect Society, 1888, p. 153, "(A-mumming we will go)" (1 text)
Roud #22576
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A-Hunting We WIll Go" (format)
NOTES [199 words]: [Volume 10 of Aunt Judy's Magazine] contains "The Peace Egg: A Christmas Tale" by J. H. Ewing, starting on page 98. The story contains the one line "A mumming we will go" quoted from the song, on page 115. This is apparently the first printing of that story, but it was reprinted in several books, one of which is:
Juliana Horatia Ewing, The Peace Egg, and a Christmas Mumming Play, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, [1887], p. 58, "(no title)" (text and tune for chorus only) (available on Google Books)
This book contains a more thorough commentary. Ewing says, on page 40:
"The following Christmas Mumming Play is compiled from five versions: The 'Peace Egg,' the 'Wassail Cup,' 'Alexander the Great,' 'A Mock Play,' and the 'Silverton Mummer's Play' (Devon), which has been lent to me in manuscript.
"The Mumming Chorus, 'And a mumming we will go,' etc., is not in any one of these versions, but I never saw mumming without it."
At the end of the play (on page 58), the following chorus is given, along with a notated tune (but no verses):
"And a mumming we will go, will go,
And a mumming we will go,
With a bright cockade in all our hats,
We'll go with a gallant show." - JD
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DeSh068

A-Nutting I'll Not Go

See The Nutting Girl (File: K186)

A-Nutting We Will Go

See The Nutting Girl (File: K186)

A-Rolling Down the River (The Saucy Arabella)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Arabella set her main top-s'l (x3) ... a rollin' down the river." Verses list a full-rigged ship's sails: "The Arabella set her main gans'l/main royal/main skys'l, etc." Second chorus: "Oh, a pumpkin pudden an' a bulgine pie, aboard the Arabella"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship shanty
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 178-179, "A-Rolling Down the River" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbrEd pp. 144-145]
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 142-143, "The Saucy Arabella" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8343
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "So Early in the Morning" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Arabella
Shenandoah
Dave Crockett
NOTES [17 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas says the tune is similar to a minstrel song "So Early in the Morning." - SL
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Hug178

A-Rovin'

DESCRIPTION: In this cautionary tale, a sailor meets an Amsterdam maid, fondles portions of her body progressively, has sex with her, and catches the pox. She leaves him after he has spent all his money.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (College Songs)
KEYWORDS: bawdy disease sailor warning whore
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(MA,NE,So,SW) Australia Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1479, "A-Rovin', A-Rovin'" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 36-38, "A-Roving" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 87-88, "A-Roving" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 49-52, "A-Roving" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 48-52, 101, "A-Roving" (6 texts plus 3 fragments, 4 tunes; the 5th text is "Go Rowing," a 1916 Norwegian adaptation by Henrik Wergelands taken from Brochmann's "Opsang Fra Seilskibstiden." p.101 is a version of "A Long Time Ago") [AbrEd pp. 46-48]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 66, "A-Rovin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 48-50, "A-Roving" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 178-179, "A-roving" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXV, pp. 28-29, "A-Roving" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 64-67, "A-Rovin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 124-125, "The Maid of Amsterdam" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 56-58, "A-Roving" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 99-103, "Amsterdam" (1 censored text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 80-81, "Maid of Amsterdam (A-Roving)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 125-130, "Amsterdam" [1 fragment, 1 tune, censored by the informant)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 96, "A-roving" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 128, "In Amsterdam there lived a maid" (1 short text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 156-157, "The Amsterdam Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 76-77, "Maid of Amsterdam" (1 text, 1 tune)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, p. 51, "The Amsterdam Maid" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 168. "A-Roving" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 89, "A-Roving" (1 text)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 77, "A-Roving" (1 text, 1 tune, based on Sharp's bowdlerized version)
DT, AROVIN1* AROVIN2*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "A'Rovin" is in Part 1, 7/14/1917.
[Columbia University], _Songs of Columbia: With Music and Piano-forte Accompaniment_, Taintor Brothers & Co., 1876 (available on Google Books), "A-Roving" (4 verses and chorus with musical notation)
[Northwestern University], _The Northwestern Song Book: A Collection of College and Other Music ..._, George W. Muir, 1879 (available on Google Books), "A Roving" (5 verses and chorus with musical notation)
Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 80, "A-Roving!" (1 text, 1 tune, probably cleaned up as the girl merely causes the man to spend all his money) (part 3, p. 74 in the 1876 edition)
Roud #649
RECORDINGS:
Richard Maitland, "A-Roving" (AFS, 1939; on LC26)
Stanley Slade & chorus: "A'Roving" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fire Ship" (plot) and references there
cf. "All Under the New Mown Hay"
cf. "Yo Ho, Yo Ho" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "Tickle My Toe" (theme)
cf. "The Girl in Portland Street" (plot, theme)
cf. "Baltimore (Up She Goes)" (theme)
cf. "Ye Wanton Young Women" (theme, chorus lines)
SAME TUNE:
In Lowestoft a boat was laid (Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 165)
NOTES [430 words]: This is a partial formula song in that the sailor begins at the knee, moves up to the thigh, and then to the "snatch." See "Yo Ho, Yo Ho" ("I Put My Hand") for extended treatment of this formula. - EC
Some similar lines are found in Thomas Heywood's "The Rape of Lucrece" (c. 1607), and Shay traces this piece back to that time (Masefield also accepts, and may have originated, this identification), but Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman states that they are not the same song. Hugill also considers any relationship to be most unlikely.
I find it interesting that so many of the earliest datable versions come from colleges, not field collections. These often start with words like
At Number Three, Old England Square, mark well what I do say,
At Number Three, Old England Square,
Miss Nancy, doesn't she live there,
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.
Is it possible that this is originally a college song that has been "nauticalized"? I will admit to doubting it; the college versions are relatively clean -- he falls in love, they start courting, but his money runs out before he gets anywhere, after which she drops him.
The version collected by Meredith from Wally Marshall has an unusual ending; when the singer places his hand upon the girl's breast, she breaks wind, seemingly causing him to abandon the venture.
In College Songs (1887), there is a song "Rig-a-jig," with verses "As I was walking down the street, Heigho (x4), A pretty girl I chanced to meet...." "Said I to her, 'What is your trade?' ... Said she to me, 'I'm a weaver's maid.'" I suspect dependence, but the song ends after two verses, so it is not clear how it proceeded. Or, rather, I suspect it IS clear but the song has been cleaned up by excision.
Hugill says that some versions end with the sailor aboard a "saltpeter" ship bound around Cape Horn for Chile. A saltpeter ship, not a guano ship? Raw nitrates were taken from the Chilean desert, and served much the same purpose as guano (i.e. to produce nitrates), but raw saltpeter wasn't as "noxious" as the guano. On the other hand, saltpeter was used to try to control sexual urges and diseases (ineffectively, but what matters is that they thought it worked). For background on the nitrates issue, see "Tommy's Gone to Hilo"; also "Chamber Lye." - RBW
Roud assigns #7181 to the Greig/Duncan7 fragment, which changes the sex of the object, viz., "I'll gang nae mair a rovin' wi' you, young man." The fragment of the chorus gives no idea of the rest of the song so I have chosen to lump this text with the common "A-Rovin'." - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: EM064

A-Rovin', A-Rovin'

See A-Rovin' (File: EM064)

A-Roving on a Winter's Night

See My Dearest Dear (File: SKE40)

A-Roving On One Winter's Night

See My Dearest Dear (File: SKE40)

A-Walking and A-Talking

See The Cuckoo (File: R049)

A, a, a, a, Gaude celi domina

See Mary for the Love of Thee (Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay) (File: MSLLBOaY)

A, a, a, a, Nunc gaudet ecclesia

See Saint Thomas of Canterbury (File: MSSToCan)

A, A, A, d'r Winder der is da (A, A, A, Winter Is Here)

DESCRIPTION: Pennsylvania German. "A, A, A, d'r Winder der is da, Berbacht un Sommer sin vergange." Counting through the vowels A E I O U, it was that winter is come and summer gone. Frost is settling Children are happy because Christmas is coming
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (collected from Jane Reitz by Thomas R. Brendle and William S. Troxell)
KEYWORDS: nonballad foreignlanguage Jesus
FOUND IN: US(MA) Germany
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 107-108, "A, A, A, d'r Winder der is da (A, A, A, Winter Is Here)" (1 German text plus non-literal English translation, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: MacEdward Leach and Henry Glassie, _A Guide for Collectiors of Oral Traditions and Folk Cultural Material in Pennsylvania_, Pennsylvania historical and Museum Commission, 1973, pp. 30-31, "A, A, A, d'r Winder der is da" (1 German text)
File: MLG030

A, B, C, D, E, F, G

See Alphabet Songs (File: R873)

A, B, C, D, Tell Your Age to Me

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "A, B, C, D, Tell your age to me." When the person pointed to answers, the person pointing counts out that age to determine who is it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 31, "A, B, C, D" (1 text)
File: WEMM031C

A, U, Hinny Bird

DESCRIPTION: "Its O, but aw ken well -- A, U, hinny burd, The bonny lass o' Benwell, A, U, A." "She's lang-legg's and mother-like... See, she's raking up the dyke." "The Quayside for sailors... The Castle Garth for tailors...." Additional places round out the song
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (Rhymes of Northern Bards)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 160-161, "A, U, Hinny Burd" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Bell, junior, editor, _Rhymes of Northern Bards: Being a Curious Collection of Old and New Songs and Poems, Peculiar to the Counties of Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, and Durham_, John Bell, M. Angus & Son, 1812 (available on Google Books), "A You A, Hinny Burd" (1 text: 9 verses with refrains)
John Collingwood Bruce and John Stokoe, editors, _Northumbrian Minstrelsy: A Collection of the Ballads, Melodies, and Small-Pipe Tunes of Northumbria_, Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1882 (available on Google Books), "A U Hinny Burd" (1 text, 1 tune: 5 verses with refrains)
ST StoR160 (Partial)
Roud #235
File: StoR160

A. R. U.

DESCRIPTION: "Been on the hummer since ninety-four, Last job I had was on the Lake Shore, Lost my job in the A.R.U. And I won't get it back till nineteen-two And I'm still on the hog train flagging my meals Ridin' the brake beams close to the wheels."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (The Conductor and Brakeman)
KEYWORDS: railroading hardtimes unemployment strike labor-movement
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 20, 1893 - Socialist Eugene Debs (1855-1926) organizes the A.R.U. (American Railway Union)
June 27, 1893 - A severe decline in the stock market leads to the Panic of 1893. The next year will see severe labor troubles as workers try to survive the economic contraction
May 11, 1894 - The Pullman Strike. The Pullman employees have been squeezed by the company to the point where they can no longer survive
June 26, 1894 - Eugene Debs calls the A.R.U. strike to support the Pullman workers. Roughly 60,000 workers go off the job.
July 2, 1894 - Attorney General Olney, who works with railroad interests, convinces President Cleveland to break the Pullman Strike. Cleveland orders Debs to call off the strike on the grounds that it interferes with the U.S. mail. (Pullman cars, however, do not carry mail.)
July 6, 1894 - Troops fire on the railroad strikers in Kensington, IL
July 10, 1894 - Debs is indicted for defying President Cleveland's injunction (on Dec. 14 he will be sentenced to six months in prison)
Aug 3, 1894 - The Pullman strikers give in
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 190-191, "A. R. U." (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 57, "A.R.U." (1 text)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 246, "A. R. U." (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: (no editor listed), _The Conductor and Brakeman_, Vol. 15, No. 5 (Cedar Rapids, Iowa, May, 1898), p. 359 (available at Google Books)., "To the Trainmaster" (1 text)
Roud #29309
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pullman Strike" (subject)
NOTES [688 words]: Eugene Debs (1855-1926) started as a relatively ordinary white collar worker, even being elected a city clerk as a Democrat in 1878 (Chace, p. 72), then in 1885 to the Indiana State House (DAB,Volume III, p. 183), but he had worked on a railroad before that, and gradually became more involved in railway labor issues, editing the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen's magazine and serving as organization secretary (DAB,Volume III, p. 183). At a time when the different types of railroad workers (engineers, firemen, etc.) belonged to separate unions if they joined together at all (Weir/Hanlan, p. 24), he came to dream of a union that joined them all (Chace, p. 74). Following the famous Homestead Strike, Debs was able to found the American Railway Union, or A. R. U. (Chace, p. 75). It grew amazingly quickly, eventually reaching some 150,000 members (Weir/Hanlan, p. 25).
The A. R. U.'s first opportunity for action was during the Pullman Strike, as the once-generous management of the Pullman Company put the squeeze on its employees to save costs. George Pullman had built a company town for his employees, and originally conditions had been decent -- but in 1894 he unilaterally cut pay rates by 25%, without reducing what he charged in the company stores or offering any additional benefits (Graff, p. 118). This even though the Pullman company had paid $2,880,000 in dividends in 1894! (Glad, p.89). The Pullman workers went on strike to maintain what they had had before, Debs told the members of the A. R. U. not to service Pullman cars (Chace, p. 77).
It might have worked -- had the government stayed neutral. But President Grover Cleveland, urged on by Attorney General Richard Olney (Graff, p. 119), decided to use the Sheman Anti-Trust Act -- against the union! (Chace, p. 77). "Olney, hot-tempered and wrathful, was openly sympathetic to the railroads, having served the railroad as a lawyer in private life" (Graff, p. 119).
The government obtained an injunction against the union, on the grounds that it was interfering with the mails (which it wasn't; the mail was going through, and John Peter Altgeld, the governor of Illinois, didn't want the Feds involved; Chace, p. 78) When the union remained peacefully on strike, Olney broke up the strike and arrested Debs (Graff, p. 120). Troops even assaulted a crowd using bayonets, hurting several although there were no fatalities (Chace, p. 78).
In all this, the A. F. L. refused to support the strikers (Chace, p. 79).
Debs was sentenced to six months for contempt of court, and three others were given three month terms (Chace, pp. 79-80). Debs was also tried for conspiracy, but Clarence Darrow defended him, and when a juror became ill, the judge discharged the jury and the case was never resumed (Chace, p. 80). The reading Debs did while in prison helped turn him from a Democratic labor unionist into a Socialist (DAB,Volume III, p. 184).
Debs had three times supported Grover Cleveland for President (Chace, p. 80). After this, he turned away. And the Democratic party, as it turned out, would never again win with a conservative candidate; their 1896 nominee was the agrarian populist William Jennings Bryan. They would not elect another President until Woodrow Wilson in 1912 (who was in many ways deeply conservative -- e.g. he was very racist -- but who gave the impression of being a progressive) . And the next one after that was Franklin Roosevelt in 1932.
When Debs was released from prison, he was greeted by tremendous crowds -- which was fortunate, for the A. R. U. was $30,000 in debt, and fatally weakened; the only way Debs could hope to revive the union and pay off its debts was to go on a long lecture tour (Chace, pp. 82-83). Finally, in June 1897, Debs started a group he called Social Democracy of America, a sort of socialist colony. With that, the A. R. U. was dead (Chace, p. 85).
After the A.R.U. strike of 1894, most of the strikers were blacklisted by the railroad companies. With little else to do, they rode the rods or tried to get jobs under false names -- only to be fired if they were discovered. Hence this song. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: San190

A'body's Like to be Married but Me

DESCRIPTION: "As Jenny sat down wi' her wheel b the fire... She said to herself... "Oh! a'body's like to be married but me." She recalls the companions of her youth, perhaps interested then but no longer. She concludes they are worthless -- but still feels unhappy
AUTHOR: (credited to Duncan Gray in The Scots Magazine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (The Scots Magazine)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid rejection loneliness
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 299-300, "A'body's Like to be Married but Me" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #18, p. 1, ("As Bessie sat doon wi' her seam by the fire") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1374, "A'body's Like to Be Married but Me" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 253-254, "A'body's Like to be Married" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL:( No editor listed), _The Scots Magazine_, Vol. 64 (Edinburgh), 1802 (available on Google Books), p. 593, "The Neglectit Lassie" (1 text)
(No editor listed), _The British Musical Miscellany; Being a Collection of Scotch, English, & Irish Songs_, T. Turnbull (Edinburgh, 1805 (available on Google Books), pp. 21-22, "A' Body's Like to Be Married but Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Songs of Scotland (Glasgow, 1872) ("Digitized by Google")), p. 289, "A'body's Like to be Married but Me" (1 text)
Roud #7160
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Maid's Song (I)" and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Old Maid's Lament
NOTES [46 words]: Whitelaw: "We find the original of this in the Scots Magazine for July 1802, where it is signed 'Duncan Gray.'" - BS
[After this was published in 1802, it was] soon republished with a tune, a new title (the one it has been known by ever since), and slightly altered lyrics. - JD
Last updated in version 6.4
File: FVS299

AA Gunner Lay Dying, An

See The Dying Aviator (File: MA142)

Aaron Burr

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Aaron Burr, what have you done? You've shot great General Hamilton! You hid behind a Canada thistle And shot him with your old hoss-pistol!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1848 (several magazines)
KEYWORDS: homicide political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 11, 1804 - Duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, resulting in the wounding of the latter; he died the next day
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 257, (no title) (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: (no editor listed), _The Knickerbocker_, Vol. 31, No. 4, April, 1848 (available at Google Books), p. 375, "(no title)" (1 short text, part of a rambling column called "Editor's Table")
(no editor listed), _Holden's Dollar Magazine_, Vol. 2, No. 2, August, 1848 (available at Google Books), p. 508-9, "(no title)" (1 short text, part of a rambling column called "Topics of the Month")
NOTES [278 words]: The duel between Vice President Aaron Burr (1756-1836) and former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton (c. 1756-1804) is the subject of so much folklore that I am not even going to try to cover it. The duel itself arose out of Burr's resentment at Hamilton's (successful) efforts to prevent his election as governor of New York.
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads claims that this is a "quatrain which was popular for more than half a century," Burt does not document this claim, but the fact that the verse was quoted twice in 1848 seems to support the conclusion that it was remembered. Whether it was actually traditional is another question.
[The two 1848 newspapers seem to have some sort of literary dependence, as witness the contexts as found by Jim Dixon:]
[From The Knickerbocker:]
"The death of eminent men used formerly to give rise to more 'tributes' in verse than are common now-a-days. Among the objurgatory poetry elicited by the wilful murder of General Alexander Hamilton by Colonel Aaron Burr, was the following:
'Oh! Aaron Burr, what have you done?
You've shot great General Hamilton;
You got behind a bunch of thistles,
And shot him dead with two hoss-pistils!'"
[From Holden's Dollar Magazine:]
The death of eminent men used once to give rise to more "tributes" in verse, than are common now-a-days. Among the poetry elicited by the death in a duel, of Gen. Alexander Hamilton by Col. Aaron Burr was the following:
"Oh! Aaron Burr, what have you done?
You've shot great General Hamilton;
You got behind a bunch of thistles,
And shot him dead with two hoss-pistils."
Other than the quoted part, the two columns don't have much in common. - JD, (RBW)
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Burt257

Aaron Hart

DESCRIPTION: "It was in eighteen and eighty in the first part of that date... When little Aaron Hart so still he went away." "He seemed to be determined to follow Willie home," but is lost. Singer F. B. Harris and others hunt for him, but he dies in the woods
AUTHOR: F. B. Harris?
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: death separation children
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1880 - Death of Aaron Hart, who was not yet four
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #59, "Aaron Hart" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 321-322, "Aaron Hart" (1 text)
Roud #4146
NOTES [7 words]: This is item dG48 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: CAFS1321

Aaron's Lovely Home

See Erin's Lovely Home (I) [Laws M6] (File: LM06)

Abalone

DESCRIPTION: "In Carmel Bay the people say we feed the lazzaroni On caramels and cockle-shells and hunks of Abalone." The virtues of this mollusk are extolled: It cures pain, tastes better than the finest foods, and can be transmitted faster than electricity (?!)
AUTHOR: Words: probably George Sterling (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: nonsense nonballad animal
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 333, "Abalone" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 32, #4 (1987), p. 90, "Abalone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jack London, _The Valley of the Moon (New York: McKinlay, Stone & Mackenzie, 1913)_, pp. 386-7, 391, 392, "(no title)" (9 verses)
Cornel Lengyel (editor), _A San Francisco Songster (1849-1939)_ (San Francisco: Works Progress Administration, History of Music Project, 1939) (available on Google Books), pp. 128-128B, "Abalone Song" (3 texts, 1 tune)
The Monterey Herald, October 28, 2007 (https://www.montereyherald.com/2007/10/28/the-abalone-song/), "The Abalone Song" (1 text, reportedly Sterling's official version)
Roud #10113
NOTES [144 words]: The anonymous Book of Vulgar Verse credits a version of this to George Sterling. But the book does not list a more detailed source. In support of this claim, K. LaRoe writes, "I had recently read a reference to The Abalone Song, written by the poet George Sterling in the early 1900s while staying in an artist's colony in Carmel California." Jim Dixon turned up the version in the San Francisco Songster, which credits it to George Sterling, Jack London, Ambrose Bierce, and Gelett Burgess with music adapted by "Sterling Sherwin" (which I suspect means George Sterling and someone else). It seems likely that Sterling is the original source, but I don't have proof.
There seems to be a strong tendency for singers to rewrite this; I suspect Sandburg's hand in his version, and Sam Hinton confesses to adding four verses to the Sing Out! version. - (JD), RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: San333

Abandonado, El

DESCRIPTION: Spanish: "The Abandoned." First line: "Me abanonastes, jujer, porque soy muy pobre." The singer's girl is leaving him because he is poor. He admits to character faults. He asks "What am I to do if I am the abandoned one?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Dávalos)
KEYWORDS: love courting poverty drink gambling abandonment Mexico foreignlanguage | Spanish
FOUND IN: US(So) Mexico
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 295-297, "El Abandonado" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 364-366, "El Abandonado (The Abandoned One") (1 text plus prose translation, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Marcelino Dávalos, _Del bajío y arribeñas: poemas callejeros que al margen de canciones mexicanas, pensó, escribió y publica _(Mexico: Oficina Impresora de Hacienda, Departamento Editorial, 1917) (available on Google Books), page 155, "El Abandonado" (1 text)
J. Frank Dobie, "Versos of the Texas Vaqueros,” _Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society_, Number IV (Austin: Texas Folk-Lore Society, May, 1925) (available on Google Books), pp. 41-43, "El Abandonado" (1 text, 1 tune)
Higinio Vázquez Santa Ana Canciones, _Cantares y Corridos Mexicanos_ (Mexico, 1925) (available on Google Books), p. 56, "Abandonado" (1 short text)
File: San295

ABC Song (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "A is fer Adam, who was the first man, B is fer Baalim, who mischief did plan, C is fer Cain, 'is brother did kill," and so forth through the letter Z, with most lines referring to Old Testament characters
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad wordplay
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #228, "The ABC Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5044
NOTES [645 words]: The characters listed in this song, with their Biblical sources, are as follows:
Adam: Two accounts of the creation, in Genesis 1:26-27, in which male and female are made at the same time, and Gen. 2:7ffff., where Adam is formed first
Baalim: "Baalim" is the plural of "Baal," a Canaanite god-name, but the reference here appears to be to Balaam (note the different spelling), a prophet of God whom King Balak of Moab hired to curse Israel but whom God told to bless Israel; the story is in Numbers 22-24. and his execution by Israel is in Numbers 31:8.
Cain: First son of Adam and Eve, who killed his brother Abel; the story is in Genesis 4:1-17
Daniel: The subject of the book of the same name, whose acts of rather stubborn piety are told in Daniel 1-6 (the second half of the book is a series of visions).
Elisha: Another inaccurate reference. Elijah was fed by ravens during a drought in 1 Kings 17:4-6. Elisha was Elijah's disciple and successor.
Felix: Probably the Roman Procurator of Judea, Antonius Felix, who kept Paul in prison for two years without bringing proper charges against him (Acts 23-24).
Goliath/David: The two independent stories of David and Goliath are mixed in 1 Samuel 17. In 2 Samuel 21:19, someone named Elhanan slays Goliath.
Haman: In the book of Esther, Haman tries to destroy the Jews but ends up being destroyed himself.
Isaac: The son of Abraham. The reference to him being "dutiful" is probably to Genesis 22, where Abraham is ordered to sacrifice Isaac and comes very close to going through with it.
Jonah: mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25, but the reference is to the Book of Jonah; in Jonah 1, the prophet is told to go to Ninevah, but tries to flee.
Korah: Korah the Levite rebelled against the Aaron and Moses in Numbers 16; he and his family are swallowed by the earth, and a plague follows.
Lydia: A place in Asia, but the reference is to Acts 16:14-15, 40, where a woman named is briefly mentioned as a convert.
Mary: Not clear which Mary this is, it might be Mary mother of Jesus, Mary of Bethany, Mary Magdalene, or someone else
Noah: The story (or, rather, stories, since there are two sources involved) of Noah is in Genesis 6-9.
Obadiah: Not a reference to the book of that name; Obadiah was a servant of King Ahab of Israel who protected prophets in 1 Kings 18.
Peter: Simon Peter, Jesus's chief disciple.
Queen: Evidently the Queen of Sheba, who visited Solomon in 1 Kings 10:1-13 and the parallel in 2 Chronicles.
Ruth: Daughter-in-law of Naomi; Ruth in the Book named for her followed her mother-in-law into exile (which is why she is a "daughter so kind") and became an ancestor of David (and so also of Jesus); outside her book, she is mentioned in Matthew 1:5.
Stephen: An early Christian, martyred in Acts 6-8.
Timothy: An important assistant of Paul. Acts 16:1-3 tells how he came to work with Paul; he is also mentioned in many of Paul's letters, and two of those letters are supposedly addressed to him although there is doubt about their authenticity.
Uriah: The story of how David had Uriah the Hittite killed to get at his wife is in 2 Samuel 11-12.
Vine, Branch: Jesus is the "true vine" in John 15:1; "the Branch" as a messianic title occurs, e.g., in Zech. 3:8; compare Isaiah 11:1.
Widow: The tale of the widow who contributed all she had (the "widow's mite") to Jesus's ministry, is in Mark 12:41-44 and parallels.
X for cross: This doesn't work in Greek any more than in English (the word for "cross" is σταυρος, "stauros"), but of course a cross looks like an X
Youth: Probably a reference to Acts 20:7-12, where a boy named Eutychus falls asleep while Paul drones on and falls out of a window but survives; the author of Acts makes the event sound like a miracle but there is no reason to think that it was.
Zacchaeus: A tax collector who, being short, climbed a tree to see Jesus in Luke 19:1-10. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Morr228

ABC Song (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Uncle John he had an educated wife; she studied very hard all the days of her life." Proud of her learning, she tells others about it and tries to teach her husband. When there is a "spelling match" in town, he, not she, successfully spells "Ebenezer"
AUTHOR: Alfred W. Sweet (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (sheet music published by White/Smith Music Publishing)
KEYWORDS: wordplay husband wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 24-25, "The ABC Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7122
BROADSIDES:
Library of Congress, M 3500 M2.3.U6A44, "Old Uncle John and his educated wife" (Sheet music: White, Smith & Co., 1880)
Levy 138.040, "Old Uncle John and His Educated Wife," Providence Music Publishing Co., Providence, R.I., 1880
NOTES [118 words]: Thanks to Jim Dixon for finding the sheet music to "Old Uncle John and His Educated Wife."
The gimmick of this rare song is rather a curiosity: The husband spells "Ebenezer," but "Ebenezer" is not a word, it is a name -- found in the Bible in 1 Samuel 7:12, where Samuel, after holding off the Philistines, sets up a stone and calls it "Ebenezer," meaning "Stone of Help." There were also battles at Ebenezer in 1 Samuel 4:1, 5:1 (it's not absolutely clear if those are the same place). Thus, one could argue, the correct spelling of Ebenezer is in fact Hebrew
אבן העזר
(aleph bet nun . he ayin zayin resh -- two words). In any case, not a proper word for a spelling bee. I wonder if it isn't a corruption. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: BuMa1024

ABCD

DESCRIPTION: "A B C D, Isn't it easy to sing? A B C D, Let it go with a swing. The words are so awfully simple, You couldn't forget if you tried, So learn the words, The beautiful words, And get the air outside."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger)
KEYWORDS: humorous wordplay nonballad
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 13, page headed "When I asked Mr. Watson..."], "(no title)" (1 short text)
Roud #22602
File: FaWABCD

Abdul Abulbul Amir

See Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I) (File: LxA341)

Abdul da Bool Bool de Meer

See Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I) (File: LxA341)

Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I)

DESCRIPTION: The heroic Moslem Abdul and the gallant Russian Ivan Skavinsky Skevar chance to meet. It doesn't take them long to begin duelling, which inevitably results in the deaths of both. Their burials and the mourning for them are described
AUTHOR: probably Percy French (1854-1920)
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (copyright under the title "Abdulla Bulbul Ameer")
KEYWORDS: humorous death foreigner
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1853-1854 - Crimean War
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 344-346, "Abdul, the Bulbul Ameer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, "Abdul da Bool Bool de Meer" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 341-343, "Ye Ballade of Ivan Petrofsky Skevar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 128-131, "Abdul Abulbul Amir" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 3-5, "Abdullah Bul-Bul Amir" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 21, "Abdul, The Bulbul Amir" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 84, "Abdulla Bulbul Ameer"
Harbin-Parodology, #109, pp. 32-33, "Ivan Skizavitsky Skivar" (1 text)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 58, "Ivan Skizavitzsky Skivar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 24, "Ivan Skiavitzsky Skivar" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 34-35, "Ivan Skizavitsky Skivar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 152, 234, 286, 288, "Ivan Skizavitzky Skivar"/"Abdul the Bulbul Ameer" (notes only)
DT, ABDULBUL*
ADDITIONAL: James N. Healy, editor, _The Songs of Percy French_, 1955-1962, revised edition 1986; I use the 1996 Ossian paperback, pp. 9-10, "Abdulla Bulbul Ameer" (1 text, 1 tune)
James N. Healy, _Percy French and His Songs_, The Mercier Press, 1966, pp. 5-7, "Abdulla Bulbul Ameer" (1 text "as originally written," partial tune); pp. pp. 8-9, "Abdul Abulbul Ameer" (1 text, the widely published version)
Roud #4321
RECORDINGS:
Ernest Hare, "Abdul Abulbul Amir" (Edison 52284, 1928)
Frank Crumit, "Abdul Abulbul Amir" (Victor 20715, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Abdul the Bulbul Emir (II)" (tune & meter)
SAME TUNE:
Fossicker Michael O'Flynn (file: Clev074)
Frank Crumit, "The Return of Abdul Abulbul Amir" (Victor 22482, 1930)
Frank Crumit, "The Grandson of Abdul Abulbul Amir" (HMV [UK] B-4331, 1933)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Abdul, The Bulbul Ameer
Ivan Skavinsky Skevar
NOTES [417 words]: Often listed as being of unknown authorship -- probably because French's original composition (set in the Crimean War) was stolen (French, who was still quite young, had not secured copyright, and gave the song away for five pounds) and printed without his name. (According to James N. Healy, editor, The Songs of Percy French, 1955-1962, revised edition 1986; I use the 1996 Ossian paperback, p. 5, this was in fact French's very first song.)
As Healy's text shows, in French's original text, the hero was "Abdualla Bulbul Ameer." His Russian opponent was Ivan Potschjinski Skidar (which is supposed to be pronounced "like a sneeze"). It will be evident that French's knowledge of Arabic (Turkish?) and Russian was nonexistent.
Conflict between Russia and the Ottoman Empire was almost constant in the nineteenth century, as the Tsar sought to expand his realm and the feeble Turks tried to hold onto their European possessions. Full-fledged wars were few, however, making it clear that this song refers to the Crimean War (which pitted England, France, and the Ottomans against the Russians).
Abdul's cry, "Allah Akbar," means "God is great," and is a common Islamic slogan. "Bülbül Amîr" means "nightingale chieftain" in Turkish -- but it is far from certain that French knew this.
For background on Percy French, see the notes to "Ballyjamesduff."
Although this song has been found in tradition, it seems to have been most popular with college audiences. Jim Dixon found all of the following on Google Books:
(No author listed), The Michigan Argonaut, Vol. 7, No. 10 (Ann Arbor, MI: Dec. 15, 1888), p 75, "The Moslem and the Muscovite" (1 text). (This seems to be a student publication from the University of Michigan. The poem appears under the headline "What they write at Oxford.")
R. T. Whitehouse and Frederick Bruegger, The New Harvard Song Book (Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1896), p. 139, "Abdullah Bul Bul Amir" (1 text, 1 tune)
C. A. Fullerton, Glee Club Songs (Cedar Falls, IA: Fullerton & Gray, 1906), p. 86, "Abdul the Bulbul Ameer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Howard D. McKinney, Songs of Rutgers, (Fourth Ediion, New Brunswick, NJ: Howard D. McKinney, 1916), p. 114, "Abdul the Bulbul Ameer" (1 text, 1 tune)
United States Naval Academy, The Book of Navy Songs (Garden City: Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., 1926 [Note: the title page says "1930" but the following page says "Copyright 1926."]), p 26, "Abdul Abulbul Amir" (1 text, 1 tune)
No doubt that is just scratching the surface. - RBW, JD
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LxA341

Abdul the Bulbul Emir (II)

DESCRIPTION: Abdul the Bulbul Emir and Ivan Stavinsky Stavar engage in a duel to see who can have intercourse with the greatest number of women. At the moment of triumph, Ivan bends over, with dreadful results.
AUTHOR: original version credited to Percy French (1854-1920), 1877
EARLIEST DATE: original version copyright 1877 as "Abdulla Bulbul Ameer"
KEYWORDS: bawdy parody humorous sex contest homosexuality
FOUND IN: Australia Canada England New Zealand US(NE,SW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 210-212, "Abdul the Bulbul" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 86-87, "Ivan Skavinsky Scavar" (1 text)
DT, ABDULBL2*
Roud #4321
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I)" (tune & meter)
NOTES [33 words]: The ballad here is a bawdy parody of the original, reportedly written by French at Trinity College, Dublin. - EC
For a discussion of the Crimean War setting of the original "Abdul," see that song - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM210

Abdul, the Bulbul Ameer

See Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I) (File: LxA341)

Abdul, the Bulbul Amir

See Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I) (File: LxA341)

Abdulla Bulbul Ameer

See Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I) (File: LxA341)

Abdullah Bul-Bul Amir

See Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I) (File: LxA341)

Abe Lincoln Stood at the White House Gate

DESCRIPTION: "Abe Lincoln stood at the White House Gate... When along came Lady Lizzie Tod, Wishing her lover good speed." Lincoln tries several times to take Richmond, and is foiled each time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Allen's Lone Star Ballads)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar parody humorous horse
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 20, (No title, but filed as an appendix to "Lord Lovel") (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 97, "Lord Lovel" (2 texts, but the "B" text is this)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 46-47, "Abe Lincoln Stood at the White House Gate" (1 text, filed under "Lord Lovel")
ADDITIONAL: Francis D. Allan, _Allan’s Lone Star Ballads: A Collection of Southern Patriotic Songs, Made During Confederate Times_ (Galveston, TX: J. D. Sawyer, 1874; available on Google Books), page 31, "Where Are You Going, Abe Lincoln?" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #6867 and 48
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Lovel [Child 75]" and references there
NOTES [535 words]: Abraham Lincoln's wife was Mary Todd; this apparently become "Lizzie Tod[d]" in the ballad.
The song as collected by Davis appears to be a fragmentary account of the various Federal attempts to take Richmond in 1861-1862. The first attempt lasted only "one or two days," seemingly referring to McDowell's Bull Run campaign of 1861. This was followed by McClellan's Peninsular campaign of spring and summer 1862, seemingly not mentioned in the Davis text.
The final stanza refers to Lincoln's "Burnside horse," which "stuck tight in the mire." Ambrose Burnside was in charge at the Battle of Fredericksburg, which may or may not be alluded to, and also commanded the "mud march," clearly the subject of the last line.
The original text as found in Allan is much fuller, and has a number of additional references. In the third verse, Lizzie asks Abe when he will be back from Richmond. He says "In sixty or ninety days, at most." This I assume is a reference to Lincoln's initial call for volunteers -- 75,000 men to serve for ninety days. These ninety day men fought and lost the First Battle of Bull Run.
The song does not refer to Bull Run, but it does say in verse four that "The Rebels have killed my Old Scott horse." Winfield Scott was indeed old (he had fought in the War of 1812), but he was still in charge of the Union armies in 1861. He did *not* command the army at Bull Run -- he was too old to fight in the field, so Irvin McDowell was the field commander -- but the song's author did not know that or ignored it.
The fifty verse refers to Lincoln's "McClellan Horse," so (unlike the Davis fragment) it does know of the Peninsular campaign. The song falsely says that the Peninsular Campaign took only "a month or two," but when it says "My coat I tore, down on the LEE shore, Of Chick-a-hom-i-ne," it is basically right. McClellan had approached Richmond in 1862. The two halves of the army were on both sides of the Chickahominy River. Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate army had attacked one half of the army at the battle of Seven Pines/Fair Oaks (mentioned in various other songs such as "The Twenty-Third"). Johnston had failed to dislodge McClellan -- and had been badly injured. Robert E. Lee had replaced him (hence "Lee shore"), and Lee attacked along the Chickahominy again in the Seven Days' Battles. His first attacks, at the Battles of Oak Grove and Mechanicsville, failed, but at Gaines's Mill, on June 27-28, 1862, Lee's army broke the smaller half of McClellan's army. McClellan had the forces to hang on and fight -- but he didn't have the moral courage; instead, he retreated. Lee had saved Richmond.
The next verse refers to Lincoln falling over an "OLD STONEWALL." This is obviously a reference to Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson. Jackson had failed utterly in the Peninsular Campaign -- but his Valley Campaign preceding it had totally scrambled Federal plans and helped make Lee's strategic victory in the Seven Days possible.
The final verse of the Allan text corresponds to Davis's about Burnside. This would seem to imply that the song was written in the winter of 1862/1863, after the Battle of Fredericksburg but before Chancellorsville (where Jackson was killed). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DarNS046

Abe Lincoln Went to Washington

See Johnny Fill Up the Bowl (In Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-One) (File: R227)

Abel Brown the Sailor

See Bollochy Bill the Sailor (File: EM081)

Abendglocken, Die

See Oh, How Lovely Is the Evening (File: ACSF435O)

Aberdonians Fare Ye Weel

DESCRIPTION: The Ninety-Second Highlanders They lie in Aberdeen," preparing to cross the sea. The singer says he was surprised to see "so many weel-faured girls, And the tears rolling down their eyes"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: army parting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1520, "Aberdonians Fare Ye Weel" (3 fragments, 2 tunes)
Roud #12949
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gallant Ninety-Twa" (subject: 92nd Highlanders or Gordon's Highlanders) and references there
cf. "The Battle of Barossa" (subject: 92nd Highlanders or Gordon's Highlanders) and notes there
cf. "The Muir of Culloden" (subject: 92nd Highlanders or Gordon's Highlanders) and notes there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Banks of Clyde
NOTES [24 words]: The description is based on Greig/Duncan8's three fragments. There may be a ballad behind them but the fragments do not hint at a story line. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81520

Abiding Rest

DESCRIPTION: My soul has found abiding rest ... Jesus speaks to me ... by faith I seem to dwell by His dear Galilee." "I lay my heavy burdens down at my Redeemer's feet" "I shall have no fear on that eternal day"
AUTHOR: Dr. J. J. Manfield, tune: W. A. Ogden (but see NOTES) (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _Zion's Praises_ (Lamoni: Herald Publishing House, 1930 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #92 "Abiding Rest" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Henry Williams, Henry Thomas, Margaret Wright, Edna Wright, "Galilee (My Soul Has Found Abiding Rest)" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [110 words]: According to Zion's Praises, D. Sankey is the owner of the copyright.
WITrinidadVillage02 follows the tune -- which sounds to me like "Mary Hamilton" [Child 173] -- and words in Zion's Praises , and follows the "Sankey into shout" hymn singing described in the notes to "Jesus Lover of My Soul." - BS
There is no question but that J. J. Mansfield wrote the text of this, but according to hymnary.org, there are at least three tunes, by W. A. Ogden, F. D. Barnes, and Thoro Harris. Ogden's is the most common, but given that the words cited here have drifted pretty far from the original, I would not bet on any particular recording using the Ogden tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcAbiRes

Abie's White Mule

DESCRIPTION: About a moonshiner and how he outwits a marshal. After the revenuer finds the still and starts to take it home, but Abe and "Hanner" (Hannah?) rescue it. Chorus: "Corn liquor [or other drink, e.g. peach brandy] can (get/pull/blow) (a man/you) down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: drink police rescue
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 117-118, "Abie's White Mule" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 125-126)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bad Ale Can Blow a Man Down" (lyrics)
File: thBa117

Abilene

DESCRIPTION: "Abilene, Abilene, prettiest town (you) ever seen, (folks) there don't treat you mean In Abilene, my Abilene." The singer complains about life in the big city, hears the trains, and wishes they were carrying (him) back to Abilene
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook)
KEYWORDS: home train nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 48, "Abilene" (1 text)
DT, ABILNE*
Roud #26032
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ohio River, She's So Deep and Wide" (floating lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Jolly Green (RECORDING: Bull Durham, Saul Broudy, Robin Thomas, Tom Price, on InCountry)
NOTES [58 words]: Some sources credit this to John D. Loudermilk; others call it traditional. I'm not really sure what to think. There are verses which I think must be composed, and I have yet to see a truly traditional version. But Loudermilk could have touched up a traditional song. - RBW
The song has also been credited to the folk-revival performer Bob Gibson. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FSWB048

Aboard of the Kangaroo

See The Good Ship Kangaroo (File: MA060)

Aboard the Henry Clay

DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. Verses tell of a "lime-juice jay" that got drunk and went into a fit. The mate kicks him off the boat and he drowns. Later the mate is found with a knife in his back. Refrains repeat last lines of verses.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lubbock, Deep Sea Warrior)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor homicide drink
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 207-208, "Aboard the Henry Clay" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Basil Lubbock, _Deep Sea Warriors_, (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1910, available on Google Books), pp. 246-247, "Aboard the Henry Clay" (1 text)
Roud #9160
NOTES [152 words]: It isn't clear whether this book is a memoir or fiction (but Wikipedia says the author "is not regarded as a completely reliable source as a historian"), so it isn't clear whether this "chantey" was collected or completely made up by him. In any case, it says two of the verses were improvised by characters in the story --- and these are the same verses that Harlow omitted in Chanteying Aboard American Ships. - JD
Lubbock would later write a history, The Arctic Whalers(Brown, Son, & Ferguson, 1937) which I've cited occasionally in the index, but which didn't impress me as being particularly careful. On the other hand, Harlow claimed to have collected a tune for this, which he cannot have had from Lubbock, so maybe that's some evidence that it's traditional.
I haven't encountered a story of a ship called the Henry Clay on which something like this happened, but that's not proof of anything. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Harl207

Aboard the Kangaroo

See The Good Ship Kangaroo (File: MA060)

Aboard the Resolution

See The Female Warrior (Pretty Polly) [Laws N4] (File: LN04)

Abolition of the Provinces, The

DESCRIPTION: "Does John ever look to the state of his till, With eight little senates to run up the bill? Does John ever think that the work might be done By eight little senates rolled into one?" The local legislatures make the country lean and officials fat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (Christchurch Press)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad money
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1876 - Campaign to abolish the various independently-governed provinces of New Zealand (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
Nov 1, 1876 - Provincial system abolished by Premier Sir Harry Albert Atkinson (1831-1892). This led to a more unified government as well as the forming of true political parties (source: Keith Sinclair, _A History of New Zealand_, 1959, 1969, 1991 (I use the 1991 Penguin paperback edition), p. 163)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 32, "The Abolition of the Provinces" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: Assorted New Zealand newspapers, available at The National Library of New Zealand site:
August 4, 1871. [Christchurch] _The Press_
November 18, 1872. _Timaru Herald_
November 30, 1872, _The Evening Star_ [of Auckland, indexed as Auckland Star]
The Evening Star [of Auckland, indexed as Auckland Star],.
December 24, 1872. _North Otago Times_
January 15, 1873. _Marlborough Press_
January 25, 1873. [Dunedin] _Evening Star_
February 8, 1873. _West Coast Times_
NOTES [309 words]: [This] began as a satirical poem written by Captain Stanley Bullock, of Opawa, a suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand, and submitted by him to a newspaper, The Press, of Christchurch, which printed it on August 4, 1871 as part of a letter stating his political opinions.
The following year, he read the poem aloud at a political meeting at Temuka, NZ, which was reported in several other newspapers, which also reprinted the poem.
I don't know how the poem became a song (if it did). - JD
(I doubt it did become a song. A lot of the material in Bailey/Roth was derived from newspapers. This is probably an example. Interestingly, Bailey/Roth print only verses 2 and 3 of the poem; the full text can be found at the National Library of New Zealand site; it was also posted at Mudcat.org. - RBW)
[All the New Zealand newspapers] can be seen at The National Library of New Zealand:
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/
- JD
According to Keith Jackson and Alan McRobie, Historical Dictionary of New Zealand (Oceanian Historical Dictionaries #5), The Scarecrow Press, 1996, pp. 190-191, "The Constitution Act, 1852 established six provinces -- Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellington, Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago -- each of which was governed by Superintendent and Provincial Council. These provinces, which were proclaimed by George Grey before he left New Zealand... in 1853 (and before the House of Representatives was elected), reflected the six main pockets of European settlement that had grown up during the previous 12 years. Between 1853 and their abolition in 1876, four more provinces were established -- Hawke's Bay (1858), Marlborough (1859), Southland (1861, but dissolved, 1870), and Westland (1873). Although the provinces were abolished in 1876, they continued to provide the basis for parochialism which is still evident today." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo032

Abolition Show, The (The Great Baby Show)

DESCRIPTION: "On the seventeenth day of September, you know, Took place in our city the great baby show; They shut up the factories and let out all the schools." A great parade goes through the town, with riders and abolitionists -- but Democrats will win anyway
AUTHOR: Words: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Saunders/Root; printed in the 1856 "Pittsburg Post," according to John Tasker Howard, _Stephen Foster, America's Troubadour_, 1934 (I use the 1939 Tudor Publishing edition), p. 261)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1856 - Democrat James Buchanan wins the president over Republican John C. Frémont (who was regarded as an abolitionist by most Southerners). The song describes a Republican event in Pittsburg
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Saunders/Root-MusicOfStephenCFoster-Vol2, pp. 12-13+418, "The Abolition Show" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Tasker Howard, _Stephen Foster, America's Troubadour_, 1934 (I use the 1939 Tudor Publishing edition), pp. 262-263, "The Abolition Show" (1 text, showing the variants between the Pittsburg Post text and Foster's manuscript)
Evelyn Foster Morneweck (Stephen Foster's niece), _Chronicles of Stephen Foster's Family_, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1944, pp. 478-479, "The Great Baby Show or The Abolitio Show" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES [85 words]: A curiosity in the Stephen Foster repertoire: He wrote the words, but did not write a tune, apparently setting it to "Vilikens and his Dinah." Perhaps he didn't have time to think up a tune. Foster spent much of his life in Pittsburg, and was very much a Democrat (he was in fact related by marriage to President James Buchanan) -- and wrote songs for the Democratic party. This is a clear example. There is no sign that it went into oral tradition, but there were variant versions for particular situations. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: KPL454

Aboot the Bush Willy

See About the Bush Willy (File: StoR097)

About Four O'Clock This Morning

See He's Gone Where the Slaveholders Go (File: GFGW067F)

About the Bush, Willy

DESCRIPTION: "Aboot the bush, Willy, aboot the bee-hive, Aboot the bush, Willy, I'll meet thee belyve." "Then to my ten shillings Add you but a groat; I'll go to Newcastle And buy a new coat." The singer describes the prices of clothing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (Bell)
KEYWORDS: clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, p. 97, "Aboot the Bush, Willy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #240, pp. 153-154, "(About the bush, Willy)"
DT, BUSHWILI
ADDITIONAL: John Bell, _Rhymes of Northern Bards: Being a Curious Collection of Old and New Songs and Poems, Peculiar to the Counties of Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, and Durham_. (Newcastle upon Tyne: John Bell, M. Angus & Son, 1812, available on Google Books), p. 240, "Song" (1 text)
Roud #3149
File: StoR097

Above a Plain

DESCRIPTION: Czech translated to English: "Above a plain of gold and green, A young boy's head is plainly seen. A huya, huya, huyaya, swiftly flowing river (x2). But no, 'tis not his lifted head, 'Tis Ifca's castle spires instead. For our pleasure it was made,..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (The Song Book of the Y. W. C. A, according to mudcat.org thread "Origins: Lyr Req/ADD: Above a plain")
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 146, 311, 444, "Above a Plain" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 63, "Swiftly Flowing Labe" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Above a Plain" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 34)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ifca's Castle
NOTES [76 words]: The river "Labe" is the Elbe.
Tobitt's version is listed as arranged by Fjeril Hess and Lillian Jackson, but it isn't really an arrangement -- just the bare melody, with no harmonization or instrumental part. Nor is a translator listed, nor an original text. But it is stated that it is Czech.
"Ifca's Castle" is said to be in Přerov-nad-Labem, Czech Republic. This is a town perhaps fifteen miles east northeast of Prague, and yes, it's by the Elbe. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF146P

Abraham Lincoln Is My Name

DESCRIPTION: "Abraham Lincoln is my name, From Illinois I did came, I entered the city in the night, And took my seat by candlelight." Or, "Alice Kane is my name, Ireland is my nation, Belfast is my dwelling place, And school's my occupation." Fill in other names
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar playparty home
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1861 - Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 65-66, (no title) (1 fragment) (OakEd, pp. 76)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 49, 191, "Alice Kane is my name" (1 text, the same on both pages)
Roud #25344
NOTES [188 words]: Thomas's Lincoln version is probably a fragment of a song about Abraham Lincoln's sneaking into Washington for his inauguration (there were threats of violence, so he arrived in secret and disguise). But all that is left in Thomas is a fragment seemingly used as a singing game.
The likelihood is high that it is based on a traditional item of some sort:
(Name) is my name
(Country) is my nation
(Somewhere) is my dwelling (place)
And Christ is my salvation OR And Death's my destination.
Walter de la Mare, Come Hither, revised edition, 1928, prints a version of this as (32) in the notes on poem #470 (with Elizabeth Waters of Wales being the protagonist), and Alfred Bester's acclaimed science fiction novel The Stars My Destination also uses this framework as the career summary of the main character Gully Foyle. M. R. James in his story "A Warning to the Curious" gave this version:
Nathaniel Ager is my name and England is my nation,
Seaburgh is my dwelling-place and Christ is my salvation.
When I am dead and in my grave, and all my bones are rotten
I hope the lord will think on me when I am quite forgotten. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa065

Abraham the Sailor

See Bollochy Bill the Sailor (File: EM081)

Abraham's Daughter

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, kind folks listen to my song, It is no idle story, It's all about a volunteer Who's going to fight for glory!" The singer belongs to the "Fire Zou-Zous" (Zouaves), to fight for Columbia, "Abraham's Daughter." They will fight under McClellan
AUTHOR: Septimus Winner? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (sheet music, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: soldier Civilwar
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 99-101, "Abraham's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 102-103, "Abraham's Daughter (II)" (1 text, 1 tune, a parody sung by Ben Cotton)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #4, p. 1, "Abraham's Daughter" (6 references)
ADDITIONAL: _Wehman's [Universal Songster] Collection of 146 Songs No. 33_ (New York, April 1, 1892, digitized by Internet Archive), p. 8, "Abraham's Daughter" (2 texts)
NOTES [384 words]: According to Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 1, there were at least four songs entitled "Abraham's Daughter" published in the Civil War era:
1. This one, beginning "Oh, kind folks listen to my song, it is no idle story" (5 verses; 6 editions listed)
2. One beginning "Some years ago, I s'pose you know" (3 verses; 3 editions listed), with two editions published by De Marsan and one said to have been sung by "Charley Fox of Hooley's Minstrels"
3. One beginning "How are you and all my friends" (4 verses; 5 editions listed); versions said to have been sung by Billy Ward and by Ed Wray
4. One beginning "When first this war through the peaceful North" (4 verses; 1 edition listed)
Obviously Silber's Version II is a fifth song with this title.
I have found no evidence that any of the five went into tradition.
The author of the first is somewhat dubious; several copies (including the one examined by Silber, obviously) credit it to Septimus Winner; others mention Winner as publisher but credit it to Tony Emmett. Given Winner's tendency to use pseudonyms, it would be no great surprise if he originally published it as by Emmett but then put his own name on it. On the other hand, he might well have been willing to take credit for someone else's work if he could get away with it.
#3 shares part of its first line with a song usually known as "Medicine Jack," but I have not been able to establish a connection.
Roud files this with "Dame Durden." I think this is a typo. - RBW
The chorus to the first of the Wehman texts is "...., and don't you think I (we) oughter; We're going down to Washington to fight for Abraham's daughter"; the chorus of the second is "And when he comes here to interfere, won't we give him a warmer; Then march right down to Washington to fight for Abraham's daughter." Possibly, at least the lines from the chorus floated into common use. Colonel Higginson's Black Union First South Carolina Volunteers reacted to their being paid less than promised by making "a contemptuous ballad, of which I [Higginson] once caught a snatch. 'Ten dollar a month! Tree oh dat for clothin'! Go to Washington Fight for Linkum's darter!'" (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment, p. 252). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: SCWF099

Abram Brown the Sailor

See Bollochy Bill the Sailor (File: EM081)

Abroad As I Was Walking

See Down By Blackwaterside (File: K151)

Abroad for Pleasure (Through the Groves II)

DESCRIPTION: "Through the grove as I was a-wand'ring, On one summer's evening clear, Who should I spy but a fair young damsel Lamenting for her shepherd dear." He asks what is her trouble. She says her true love has left her and she does not know where he is
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams); cf. 1850 (broadside Bodleian, Firth b.28(36))
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #117, "Through the Groves" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1046
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(36), "Abroad for pleasure," G Jacques (Manchester), c. 1850
File: VWP117

Absalom, My Son

See David's Lamentation (File: FSWB412B)

Absent Friends and You, Mary (Lines to Delia)

DESCRIPTION: "I've wandered many a league, (Delia), Since last with you I met," and he will wander many more, but amid all the new things he sees, he misses his friends and her. After a long voyage, he looks forward to returning to them
AUTHOR: William F. Spicer (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (The New World)
KEYWORDS: travel separation reunion love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 312-313, "Lines to Delia" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Park Benjamin, ed., _The New World: A Weekly Family Journal of Popular Literature, Science, Art and News_, Vol. 6, No. 9 (New York: J. Winchester, Saturday, March 11, 1843, available on Google Books), p. 291, "(Lines from Abroad)" (1 text)
(no author listed), _Naval Songs: A Collection of Original, Selected, and Traditional Sea Songs_ (New York: Wm. A. Pond, 1883, available on Google Books), p. 14, "Absent Friends and You, Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
(no author listed), _The Most Popular Songs of Patriotism_ (New York: Hinds, Hayden & Eldredge, 1916, available on Google Books), p. 72, "Absent Friends and You, Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27900
NOTES [180 words]: In the original text, the girl was "Mary"; one suspects that the person who copied it into the 1851 logbook of The Three Brothers cited by Huntington put in the name of his own girl. It is nonetheless clearly the same song. Huntington also seems to have the author's name wrong; he gave it as "William F. Spenser." - RBW
[In the 1843 publication,] Tthe title is given as "Lines from Abroad" and the author is credited as "W. F. S. of the United States Navy." It has one less verse later versions, and another verse is completely different. I suspect Spicer revised it before having it published as sheet music. (And I have not found an online copy of the original sheet music, nor any proof that it exists as a separate publication.)
The author, William Francis Spicer, has been mentioned in a couple of biographical encyclopedias as author of "Absent Friends and You, Mary," as well as several other naval songs. - JD
The two later publications, Naval Songs and The Most Popular Songs of Patriotism call him "Commodore," so apparently he had a good career as a sailor. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: HGam312

Absent-Minded Man, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer illustrates his absent-mindedness. A girl trips over clay and he leaves the girl for dead and takes the clay to a doctor ... He puts the kettle on a chair and sits on the fire. He puts his dog to bed and chains himself in the yard.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan2); c.1890 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(99b))
KEYWORDS: humorous dog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 284, "The Absent-Minded Man" (1 text)
Roud #5855
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(99b), "Absence of Mind," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890
File: GrD2284

Academy Beat Them All

See Methody Beat Them All (File: KSUC082A)

Acadian Lullaby

See Dors Le Petit Bibi (Sleep Little Baby) (File: RcDlPBi)

Acca, Bacca

See (references under) Ickie Bickie Soda Cracker (File: ZiZa072C)

Accident down at Wann, The

DESCRIPTION: A train hits a buggy sitting on the tracks. The buggy's inhabitants are killed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (Cohen); apparently first printed 1909
KEYWORDS: train wreck death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 272, "The Accident down at Wann" (notes only)
File: LSRa272F

According to the Act

DESCRIPTION: The song details shipboard life, and how conditions are kept tolerable, for "There's nothing done on a limejuice ship contrary to the Act." The most obvious example is the ration of limejuice, but other rules are also cited
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: work law sailor ship
FOUND IN: Australia Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 42-43, "According to the Act" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 58-59, "The Limejuice Ship" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbrEd pp. 54-55]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 176, "Limejuice Ship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 120-122, "According to the Act" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 94, "Then shout, boys, hurrah" (1 text)
Roud #8341
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier" (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "The Merchant Shipping Act" (subject of crew's rights under shipping regulations)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Limejuice and Vinegar
The Limejuice Ship
NOTES [106 words]: The British Merchant Shipping Acts regulated most parts of a sailor's life, including the regular rations of lime juice (to prevent scurvy). Hence the title "limey" for British sailors, the word "limejuice tubs" for British ships -- and hence also this song.
Ironically, for the most part it was not lime but lemon juice that was given to sailors. They called it limejuice anyway, probably to make it sound more palatable. (The use of lemon juice was important, since lime juice has less vitamin C.)
This is so close in concept to "The Merchant Shipping Act" that there is a temptation to lump them. But I think they are different. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FaE042

Account of a Little Girl Who Was Burnt for Her Religion, An

See The Romish Lady [Laws Q32] (File: LQ32)

Ach, Du Lieber Augustine

DESCRIPTION: German. "Ach, du lieber Augustine, Augustine, Augustine, Ach, du lieber Augustine, alles ist hin." "Geld ist weg, Madl ist weg, alles weg, alles wed, Ach du lieber Augustine alles ist hin!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad love
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 17, "Ach, Du Lieber Augustine" (1 short text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #187, "Alles ist hin!" (1 short text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 399-400, "O Du Lieber Augustin -- (Polly Put the Kettle On -- Did You Ever See a Lassie)"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 163, "Ach du Lieber Augustin" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Did You Ever See a Lassie?" (tune) and references there
NOTES [33 words]: This is believed to be the earliest text for the tune best known in English as "Did You Ever See a Lassie?" It isn't common in English-speaking countries, but it seems to be known in a few places. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: SBar017

Acre of Land, An

See My Father Had an Acre of Land (File: K300)

Acres of Clams (The Old Settler's Song)

DESCRIPTION: The prospector reports on the sad fate of the gold rush men: "For each man who got rich by mining... hundreds grew poor." He decides to abandon digging and head out to be a farmer near Puget Sound. This, too, proves hard, but he is too poor to move again
AUTHOR: Words: Francis Henry (1827-1893) of Olympia, Washington (source: Prosch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Legislative Hand-book and Manual of the State of Washington)
KEYWORDS: gold farming poverty settler derivative
FOUND IN: US(NW)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 55, "The Old Settler's Song" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 621-622, "The Old Settler (Acres of Clams)" (1 text plus part of an early sheet music pring)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 555-556, "The Old Settler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 283-284, "Acres of Clams" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 48, "Acres of Clams" (1 text)
DT, OLDSETLR*
ADDITIONAL: Clarence M. Barton, _Barton's Legislative Hand-book and Manual of the State of Washington_ (Olympia: State Printing and Publishing Co., 1893, available on Google Books), pp. 154-155, "The Old Settler" (1 text)
Charles Prosch, ed., _Transactions of the Washington Pioneer Association for the Years 1883 to 1889, Inclusive_ (Seattle: Lowman & Hanford Stationery and Printing Co., 1894, available on Google Books), pp. 149-150, "The Old Settler" (1 text, appended to a short biography/obituary of author Francis Henry)
(United States Congress), _Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 63rd Congress, First Session, Vol. 50, Part 6_ (Washington: United States Congress, November 22, 1913, available on Google Books), p. 5974, "(no title)" (contains the lyrics as part of a speech by Representative Albert Johnson of Washington—but there is no attribution to an author. It also leaves out the choruses)
(no author listed), _Transactions of the 38th Annual Reunion of the Oregon Pioneer Association, Portland June 22, 1910_ (Portland, Oregon: Chausse-Prudhomme Co., 1914, available on Google Books), page 123, "The Old Settler" (1 text, tune referenced; also included in later versions of the series)

Roud #10032
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "The Old Settler's Song" (on PeteSeeger47); "Acres of Clams, " [parody] (on PeteSeeger47)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (tune) and references there
cf. "A Hayseed Like Me" (tune, lyrics)
File: LxU055

Across a Steeple

DESCRIPTION: "As I went across a steeple, I met a heap of people. Some was black, some was blacker, Some was the color of an ole chew of tobacco."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: as an independent piece, 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: colors drugs
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 82, "Across a Steeple" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Dan Tucker" (lyrics)
NOTES [197 words]: Jim Dixon points out that this verse is first found in, and almost certainly was written as part of, "Old Dan Tucker." One of the 1840s versions has the lines
Tucker went round hickory steeple,
Dar he met some colored people,
Some was black, an some was blacker,
Some was de color ob brown tobackur.
There are many slightly different versions in the early texts of "Old Dan." Usually it's the first line that changes the most: "I went up to Keeple steeple," "Tucker went up in a big high steeple," etc.
But the verse does float; there is a "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" text:
I went right up on top of a steeple,
Good-by, my lover, good-by;
To look right down on the colored people,
Good-by, my lover, good-by;
Some was black, and some was blacker;
Good-by, my lover, good-by;
And some was the color of a chew of tobacco,
Good-by, my lover, good-by.
So should this be filed with "Old Dan"? Possibly. But it does float, and the Solomon-ZickaryZan version appears to have been folk processed. (The fear, of course, is that what looks like folk processing might instead be a case of the Solomons cleaning up a racist text.) I'm keeping them separate, but only very tentatively. - RBW, (JD)
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ZiZa082B

Across the Blue Mountain

DESCRIPTION: A married man asks (Katie) to marry him and go "across the Blue Mountain to the Allegheny." Katie's mother tells her to let him stay with his own wife. Katie answers, "He's the man of my heart." (The confused ending may tell of her poverty or abandoment)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: love courting travel abandonment infidelity mother children
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 14-16, "Across the Blue Mountain" (4 texts, 1 tune)
DT, BLUEMNTN
Roud #25278
RECORDINGS:
Hannah J., "One Morning in May" (Piotr-Archive #109, recorded 04/06/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "High Germany (I)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [356 words]: Abrahams and Foss note that the several versions of this song (they print four, all of which reportedly use the same tune) are from the same area -- central Virginia, on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge. (The Alleghenies can indeed be seen from the crest of the Blue Ridge.)
Their four versions were all collected in 1962, from an interesting list of sources: Florence Shiflett of Wyatt's Mountain; David Morris, also of Wyatt's Mountain; Effie Morris, of Shiflett Hollow; and Marybird McAllister, of Brown's Cove.
The four versions fall into two types. The two from Wyatt's Cove end with a moralising conclusion (the girl ends up "lame" and perhaps abandoned, and regrets her ending). These stanzas have a slightly different feel from the rest of the song, and are much poorer poetry; one suspects a later addition.
On the other hand, the other two versions do not have a proper resolution; the girl simply wishes she could be with the fellow and "valleys" (envys?) the woman who will be with him.
Portions of the song seem older (e.g. all four versions have as their second verse the stanza "I'll buy you a horse, love, and a saddle to ride," which comes from "High Germany" or something similar). One suspects that a local Blue Ridge balladeer reshaped an older song to describe a now-forgotten local event.
At least, it's probably forgotten. There is a story in Walter R. Borneman's 1812: The War That Forged a Nation, p. 15, about Harmon Blennerhasset (1765-1831). Born in Ireland, he eloped in 1796 with an 18-year-old girl. Meeting disapproval at home, he sold his estates, moved to the Americas, and after a brief residence in the east, crossed the Alleghenies with the girl. Reading the story, I was instantly and strongly reminded of this song.
Of course, the details differ. One difference is substantial: The reason Blennerhasset was shunned was because the girl he eloped with was his niece. And he ended up returning home to England; he was caught up in Aaron Burr's Louisiana conspiracy. I don't really think Blennerhasset inspired this song, but it was interesting enough to form the basis for an idle footnote. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: AF014

Across the Fields of Barley

See Billy Grimes the Rover (File: MN2033)

Across the Great Divide

DESCRIPTION: "Where the crimson sunset casts a ruddy glow across the plains... now he's trailed across the great divide. There'll never be another who'll be loved more than you, Although humble... You'll answer when they call Bill Rogers's name"
AUTHOR: probably Powder River Jack Lee
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Powder River Jack & Kitty Lee Songbook)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1879-1935 - Life of William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, pp. 32-33, "Across the Gread Divide" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [56 words]: The Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee songbook attributes this to Jack Lee and lists it as "dedicated to Will Rogers." That it is about Rogers is obvious. Lee was not above putting his name on songs by others, but given that Rogers died in 1935, and this was published in 1937, it seems pretty safe to say that Lee did indeed write it. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: PRJL032

Across the Hall

DESCRIPTION: "Go straight across the hall To the opposite lady, Swing her by the right hand, Right hand round and back to the left, And balance to your partner."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 536, "Across the Hall" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 65, 66, "Across the Hall"; pp. 178-179, "Straight Across the Hall" (3 short texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #7646
File: R536

Across the Line

DESCRIPTION: "I've traded with the Maori, Brazilians and Chinese, I've courted half-caste beauties Beneath a Kauri tree," but he has to go back "Across the line... For that's the sailor's way." The singer lists many of the places he has gone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (12 June 1912 Canterbury Times, according to Mike Harding, _When the Pakeha Sings of Home: A Source Guide to the Folk & Popular Songs of New Zealand_)
KEYWORDS: sailor travel courting
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 18, "Across the Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Col2018

Across the Rocky Mountain

See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Across the Stillness of the Lake

DESCRIPTION: "Across the stillness of the lake We hear the call of (somewhere), Then all the silvery echoes wake To answer back (somewhere)." "O ye who bear the lofty torch Think thoughts of evil never Be mindful that each song ye sing Goes on and on forever."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 339, 470, "Across the Stillness of the Lake" (notes only)
File: ACSF339A

Across the Western Ocean

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the times are hard and the wages low, Amelia, where you bound to? The Rocky Mountains is my home Across the western ocean." The emigrants leave poverty behind to set out for better conditions in America. Unusual passengers may be described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: emigration poverty hardtimes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 118, "Across the Western Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 58-59, "Across the Western Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 292-293, "Across the Rockies," "Across the Western Ocean" (2 texts, 1 tune) [AbrEd pp. 215-216]
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 412, "Leave Her, Bullies, Leave Her" (2 text, 1 tune, but the "A" text is "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her")
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 71-72, "Across the Western Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 150-151, "Across the Western Ocean" (1 text, tune referenced)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H96, p. 96, "It's Time for Us to Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment, short enough that it could be this or "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 88, "Across the Western Ocean" (1 text)
DT, WSTOCEAN*
Roud #8234
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (floating lyrics; tune)
cf. "Uncle Bill Teller" (form, lyrics)
NOTES [153 words]: Shay attempted to find a ship Amelia that might have been the inspiration for the chorus. He found none that fit, and suggested "O'Malley" as a possible emendation. Of course, the other possibility (as he himself admits) is that Amelia is just a girl.
Shay also has an unusual verse, in which the sailor heads across the ocean "To join the Irish army." Shay does not connect this with any sort of militarism; he thinks it applies simply to the mass emigration of the Irish to America.
Stephen Fox, Transatlantic: Samuel Cunard, Isumbard Brunel, and the Great Atlantic Steamships, Harper Collins, 2003, p. 169, makes the same observation. Pointing to a verse which runs "To Liverpool I'll make my way... To Liverpool that Yankee school," he suggests that this is about the small boats which carried Irish refugees from Cork and Dublin to Liverpool, where they could board a packet ship for New York or Boston. - RBW
File: San412

Across the Western Ocean (II)

See Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go) (File: Doe062)

Across the Western Ocean I Must Wander

See Here's to the Grog (All Gone for Grog) (File: K274)

Across the Wide Missouri

See Shenandoah (File: Doe077)

Actor's Story, The

DESCRIPTION: "Mine is a wild, strange story, the strangest you ever hears"; the actor and his wife go to Australia to work. She becomes ill to death. He refuses to accept it and is confined. The ship takes fire and is abandoned; the heat revives his wife; they survive
AUTHOR: George E. Simmons
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: fire death escape ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 222-225, "The Actor's Story" (1 text)
Roud #9606
File: SBar222

Ada

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: The singer complains that he talks to Ada but she won't answer. Shame on her. At a dance he wheels her and makes her fall.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: rejection dancing nonballad punishment
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 5-6, "Ada" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time - Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), p. 5, "Ada" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Ada" (on WIEConnor01)
NOTES [36 words]: Dexter and Taylor: "The song comes out of Dinky Mini; a death celebration which takes place on the ninth night after a funeral."
See "Wheel and Turn Me" for this recurring wheel and fall down reference to dancing. - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: JaMu005

Adam and Eve and Pinch-Me

DESCRIPTION: Trick question rhyme: "Adam and Eve and Pinch Me Went down to the sea to bathe, Adam and Eve were drowned; which of the three was saved?" When the hearer answers "Pinch me," the speaker gives the hearer a pinch
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: injury wordplay
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 51, "Adam and Eve and Pinch Me Tight" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #86, "(Adam and Eve and Pinch-Me)" (1 text)
Roud #20454
File: KSUC051A

Adam and Eve Could Never Believe

DESCRIPTION: "Adam and Eve could never believe That Peter the Miller was dead." Peter had been locked up for stealing flour. "They bored a hole in Oliver's nose and led him by a string "for murdering Charles our king."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
KEYWORDS: captivity homicide punishment theft nonballad royalty death food
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1649 - Execution of Charles I (by parliament as a whole, not Oliver Cromwell individually)
1653-1658 - Oliver Cromwell is Lord Protector
1658-1659 - Upon Oliver Cromwell's death, his son Richard becomes Lord Protector, but soon gives up the post
May 29, 1660 - On his 30th birthday Charles II enters London. Restoration Day is celebrated May 29
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 176-177, "Adam and Eve" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 50, "(Adam and Eve could never believe)" (1 short text)
Roud #1387
NOTES [612 words]: There are two issues here. First is boring a hole in someone's nose and leading them by a string. The second is leading "Oliver."
Here's a verse from Johnny Lad: "We'll bore in Aaron's nose a hole, And put therein a ring; And straight we'll lead him to and fro, Yea, lead him with a string" (source: Peter Buchan, Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1875 (reprint of 1828 edition)), Vol II, pp. 153-154, "Johnny, Lad" (1 text)). Here's a verse from something like "Old Grimes is Dead": "A friend of mine living in Oxfordshire remembers part of a song sung forty years ago (called "Old Rose") to the tune of the Old Hundredth Psalm, as follows:-- 'Old Rose is dead, that good old man, We ne'er shall see him more; He used to wear an old blue coat All buttoned down below. 'We bored a hole through Cromwell's nose, And there we put a string; We led him to the water's side, And then we pushed him in" (source: Sidney Beisly, "Song, 'Old Rose'" in Notes and Queries (London, 1868 ("Digitized by Google"), Fourth Series, Vol. I, Jan-Jun 1868 (March 7, 1868), p. 235). Also, "if the old poets can be believed, "I bored a hole in Aesop's nose, And through it run a string; I led him to the river bank, And kicked the bugger in" (source: W.W.H. Davis, El Gringo; or New Mexico and Her People (New York, 1857 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 362).
Moving from song and rhyme to story: "Now Tom, being married, made a plentiful feast, to which he invited all the poor widows in the parish, for the sake of his mother, who had been lately buried. This feast was carried on with the greatest solemnity, and, being ended, a silver cup was missing, and being asked about it they all denied it. At last, all being searched, the cup was found on an old woman named Strumbelow. Then all the rest were in a rage; some were for hanging her, others for chopping the old woman in pieces for ingratitude to such a generous benefactor. But he entreated them all to be quiet, saying they should not murder a poor old woman, for he would appoint a punishment for her, which was this: - -He bored a hole through her nose, and put a string in it, and then ordered her to be stripped; so commanding the rest of the old women to lead her through all the streets and lanes in Cambridge, which comical sight caused a general laughter. This being done, she had her clothes again, and so was acquitted" (source: "The History of Thomas Hickathrift" in Robert Hays Cunningham, editor, Amusing Prose Chap-Books Chiefly of the Last Century, (London, 1889 ("Digitized by Google"), p. 49).
[Note that this latter story has substantial similarities to the tale of Joseph, Benjamin, and the divining cup, found in Genesis 44. - RBW]
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs: "Mr Kidson writes: This is evidently a nursey or nonsense rhyme, with what appears to be an addition or alteration as early as Cromwell's time. See Hone's Every Day Book, vol.i., p. 718, for a custom connected with the subject of this song, kept up as late as 1831 [actually, as late as 1825] at Tiverton, Devon, on Restoration Day, May 29." Hone's informant writes, "... it is customary for a number of young men, dressed in the style of the 17th century, and armed with swords, to parade the streets, and gather contributions from the inhabitants. At the head of the procession walks a man called 'Oliver,' dressed in black, with his face smeared all over with soot and grease, and his body bound by a strong cord, the end of which is held by one of the men to prevent his running too far" (source: William Hone, The Every-Day Book or the Guide to the Year (London, 1825 (Digitized by Google), p. 718). - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: BrMa176

Adam and Eve Went Up My Sleeve

DESCRIPTION: "Adam and Eve Went up my sleeve And didn't come down To Hallow's Eve"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: clothes | Adam Eve
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 47, "(Adam and Eve went up my sleeve)" (1 text)
Roud #19542
File: PKKB047B

Adam Bel, Cly of the Cloughe, and Wyllyam of Cloudeslè

See CloudesleeAdam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly [Child 116] (File: C116)

Adam Bell Clime of the Cloug[he] & William off Cloudeslee

See CloudesleeAdam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly [Child 116] (File: C116)

Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly [Child 116]

DESCRIPTION: Three outlaws live in the forest. William visits his wife, is arrested, is rescued by the others. They seek pardon from the king, succeed by the queen's intervention, then show their archery prowess, including cleaving an apple on a child's head.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1536 (print from John Byddel's press, according to Child); there is a Stationer's Registry entry of Adam Bell from 1557/58, and Copland's edition (the earliest complete text) was in print by 1568; indirect evidence indicates that it must have been in print by 1534 when Wynkyn de Worde died
KEYWORDS: outlaw pardon royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Child 116, "Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly" (2 texts)
Bronson 116, "Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly" (1 version, though Bronson doubts the connection of the tune with the printed ballad)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume III, pp. 76-101, "Adam Bell Clime of the Cloug[he] & William off Cloudeslee" (1 text, followed by the sequel "Young Cloudeslee")
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 153-179, "Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudesley" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques IV, p. 48, "Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough and Williamof Cloudesly" (1 partial text, 1 tune) {Bronson's (#1), although as noted he is very doutbtful of its authenticity}
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 28-52, "Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 114, "Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 130-147, "Adam Bell, Clim O' the Clough, and William of Cloudesly" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 260-273, "Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly" (1 text)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 235-267, "Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly" (1 text, newly edited from the sources)
Joseph Ritson, _Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry_, second edition, William Pickering, 1833, pp. 1-30, "Adam Bel, Cly of the Cloughe, and Wyllyam of Cloudeslè" (1 text)
Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 369-374, "Adam Bel, Clym of the Clough and William of Cloudesly" (a prose version; compare the following)
Katherine Briggs, _British Folktales_ (originally published in 1970 as _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales_), revised 1977 (I use the 1977 Pantheon paperback edition), pp. 68-74, "Adam Bel, Clym of the Clough and William of Cloudesly" (a prose version of the tale; compare the preceding)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 390 (this copy surely derived from one of the earlier print versions)
Roud #3297
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Auld Matrons" [Child 249] (theme)
NOTES [1862 words]: For the connection of this song with the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. There are both general links (the greenwood legend) and quite specific connections (the rescue of William has many similarities to the rescue of Robin Hood in "Robin Hood and the Monk" [Child 119], for instance). There are even some textual parallels (e.g. stanza 94, line 2, "As lyght as lefe on lynde," occurs also in "Robin Hood and the Monk" [Child 119]; see the notes to that piece). As a result, many scholars have gone so far as to see "Adam Bell" as a source of the Robin Hood tales. But it is much more likely that the dependence is the other way -- indeed, Chambers, p. 159, goes so far as to declare this piece "almost a burlesque of Robin Hood."
Dobson/Taylor, p. 258, declare this "the most dramatically exciting of all English outlaw ballads." It might perhaps be clearer to say that it is more original in incident than most of the others, since it lacks the endless repetition in the Robin Hood corpus (see, e.g. the several dozen "Robin Hood Meets His Match" ballads).
Dobson/Taylor, p. 259, claim there is an allusion to the song in Act I, scene 1 of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" (lines 258-259 in the Riverside edition, spoken by Benedick: "and he that hits me, let him be clapp'd on the shoulder, and call'd Adam"). The Riverside edition thinks this "probably" refers to Adam Bell, since there was a mention of ballad-makers a few lines earlier. The Signet Classic Shakespeare also refers it to Adam Bell, and the New Pelican says it is Adam Bell but does not mention ballads. The text however refers only to "Adam," so the matter must be less than certain.
There is a clear mention in Ben Jonson (Dobson/Taylor, p. 259).
We are told that Queen Elizabeth was present when this song was performed in the household of Robert Earl of Leicester in 1575 (Holt, p. 140).
The printing history of this perhaps deserves more attention than Child gives it. (That's not entirely his fault; he had access only to a transcript of the "b" text, so he could not tell its origin; Severs/Hartung, volume 6, p. 1769). The text called "a" by Child, which he used as his copy text for stanzas 113:4-128:2 and 161:2-170, is by John Bydell; the text called "b," which was his copy text for 53:3-111:3, was not identified by Child but Knight/Ohlgren suggest "may" have been printed by Wynkyn de Worde and Severs/Hartung, volume 6, p. 1769, declares "very likely" de Worde's; Child's "c," which is his copy text where "a" and "b" fail, is by William Copland. (Child's other three copies are late and derivative; only a, b, and c are of significance. The only version that might be from oral tradition is that in the Percy Folio, but even that is likely to come from a print copy. And Fowler, p. 158, n. 25, says that there are no collections after the Percy Folio; there is no genuine evidence that the piece was ever in tradition.)
Chid does mention other printings listed in the Stationer's Register, several of which have not survived. From Rollins, we can list all Stationer's Register entries for the piece (marked SR), and add those to Child's list (marked CH and with Child's sigil). I've also added STC numbers where possible. The items not cited by Child and not in the STC may be assumed to have perished:
CH b: Wynkyn de Worde?, n.d. (Most proposed dates put it from 1505 to 1510; Severs/Hartung, volume 6, p. 1769; it is now National Library of Scotland L. C. 3117)
CH a: John Bydell, 1536? (STC #1806)
CH c: Wiliam Copland, c. 1555? (STC #1807)
SR: 1557-1558, by John King (Rollins #10, p. 10, "Adam Bell &c.")
SR: January 15, 1582
SR: August 16, 1586, by Edward White (Rollins #2966, p. 255, "A ballad of William Clowdisley neuer printed before" -- obviously false unless this is a sequel or some such. But Edward White had a tendency to play fast and loose with his sales methods, and was several times fined for it)
SR: May 31, 1594
CH d: James Roberts, 1605 (STC #1808)
CH e: unknown, c. 1605? (?STC #1809? Attributed to W Jaggard for J. Roberts)
SR: September 24, 1608 [Possibly this is STC #1813, the "Second Part" registered 1608 but published J. Wright 1616)
SR: October 29, 1615 (STC #1810. Attributed to W. Jaggard)
SR: June 19, 1627, by Thomas and Richard Cotes (Rollns #11, p. 10, "Adam Bell with Clim of the Clough"; STC #1811; published 1628)
STC #1812, 1632, by Thomas and Richard Cotes
SR: June 27, 1646
SR: April 4, 1655
CH f: Percy folio, undated but thought to be c. 1650.
Why do I bring up the printers, particularly those of a, b, and c? Because Bydell "started as an assistant to de Worde, and the first four books issued under Bydell's name were printed by his late master. The first book printed by Bydell himself is dated June 1534.... On de Worde's death in 1535, Bydell was one of the executors of the will in which de Worde remitted all of Bydell's debts. In the same year Bydell moved to de Worde's house, the Sun in Fleet Street" (Isaac, no page number but on the page for Bydell). Furthermore, William Copland, or at least his father or brother Robert Copland, also learned the trade in the de Worde house; Robert Copland, like Bydell, was mentioned in de Worde's will, although not as prominently (Plomer, p. 99).
And furthermore, de Worde printed what is now the oldest complete copy of the "Gest of Robyn Hode" (Child's "b" copy), and William Copeland printed the second-oldest (Child's "f"). Thus "Adam" and the "Geste" both derive from the same printing house tradition ("Adam" uniquely and the "Gest" predominantly, although the "Gest" was also printed by Richard Pynson); it would not surprise me if there was a common manuscript source for the de Worde editions of the two outlaw poems.
But the fact that all three base editions of "Adam Bell" derive from de Worde means that our source tradition for "Adam" is actually much, much thinner than Child's list of six sources would imply. It is likely that every one of the copies ultimately goes back to a de Worde original. This is almost certainly true even if "b" is not by de Worde (I have not been impressed by Thomas Ohlgren's willingness assign everything to a known printer even when the evidence is very fuzzy -- these guys were always trading off their printing types. And even if the type is de Worde's, it could be a print by Robert Copland; his typefaces "were similar to de Worde's" -- Isaac, introduction to Copland; one of Copland's standard types, e.g., was the Textura 95 in which de Worde printed the "Gest").
Furthermore, this means that odds are that "Adam" was printed around the same time as de Worde printed the "Gest" -- but since that date is unknown and disputed, it isn't much help.
I do note, however, that Robert Copland was a poet who wrote several short pieces that de Worde inserted into his books (Plomer, pp. 52-55). If perhaps de Worde wanted another outlaw romance to go with the "Gest," and didn't have one to hand, might he have turned to Copland to create one? This would explain why "Adam" is so derivative.
The obvious difficulty with this is that Adam and Company were known long before Copland was alive. In a list of parliamentary returns for 1432, the scribe included a list of the sureties for the members from Wiltshire, and made up a fake list that read "Adam, Belle, Clyme, Ocluw, Willyam, Cloudesle, Robyn, hode, Inne, Grenewode, stode, Godeman, was hee, lytel, Joon, Muchette, Millersson, Scathlok, Reynoldyn" (Holt, p. 69). Obviously the link between Adam and friends and Robin Hood is very old.
And yet, although Adam, Clym, and William are cited in the parliamentary manuscript, the text we read there is mostly about Robin Hood -- and, incidentally, surrounds Robin with the men we see him with the the "Gest." So what was the link between Adam and Robyn?
It cannot be "Adam Bell" as we have it. The text is simply too modern -- e.g. the letter "e" at the end of words is consistently silent, as in modern English, not pronounced, as Walter Skeat showed it was in Chaucer's day. It is true that William Copland was not opposed to modernizing his texts (he did it with the "Gest") -- but even the part preserved in "b" has silent terminal e's. In any case, the meter would not work if the terminal e's were sounded. "Adam Bell" may be an old plot, but the poem as we have it is clearly post-1400, and almost certainly post-1450; I'd much prefer a date after 1500.
I have wrestled with the idea that de Worde, having had a hit with the "Gest," would want more pieces of the same genre. But none, it appears, were at hand, unless "Adam Bell" was available. Is it possible that de Worde would have commissioned "Adam Bell"? It's not unlikely, but in that case, who wrote it? The obvious candidate would be Robert Copland, de Worde's in-house poet. On the other hand, Copland wasn't a very good poet. On the third hand, *as poetry*, "Adam Bell" is not very good. On the fourth hand, Copland used a lot of different meters, but he didn't use couplets very often. On the fifth hand, the one place where he did, "Iyl of Braintford's Testament" ("Jyl of Brentsford's Testament"), in which a woman leaves a "legacy" of flatulence, sound to me a bit like this. Those who wish to see Copland's couplets in "Jyl" can consult Erler/Copland, pp. 164-168 (lines 9-76).
For another piece with Copland connections, see "It Was a Mayde of Brenten Arse."
One other point regarding authorship (I owe this point to Burrow, p. 61): "Adam Bell" is composed in fits -- something that Child's transcription downplays, since he does not mark the fits. But the poet made them explicit -- the last two lines of stanza 51 are "here is a fyt of Cloudesli, And another is for to say"; stanza 97 ends "Here is a fytte [o] these wyght yongemen, And another I shall you tell." The poet can't have gotten that device from the "Gest," which is not so ham-handed. Rather, this is a device out of Chaucer -- but it's one of his jokes on romance composers. In "Sir Thopas," Chaucer's parody of romances, we find these lines:
Loo, lordes myne, heere is a fit!
If ye wol any more of it,
To telle it wol I fonde.
[presumed end of the fit, followed by]
Now holde youre mouth, par charitee. (The Canterbury Tales, Fragment VII, lines 888-891; Chaucer/Benson, p. 215).
This is clearly a twist on the "lythe and listen" that opens fits in many romances. A typical fit in the "Gest" ends with a pious tag, then a request for the hearers to listen. Chaucer instead says, "Here is the end of a fit." "Now shut up while I start this next fit." The technique is also used in some texts of "Sir Eglamour of Artois" ("For þys ys þe fyrst fytte, iwys"; line 333 in the Cotton text; Richardson, p. 27), "Thomas of Ercildoune's Prophecy" ("Loo here a fytt: more is to say"; Child #37 appendix) and "Ipomedon B" (Chaucer/Benson, p. 922) -- but the Canterbury Tales was printed by de Worde in 1498, and Ipomedon B by de Worde around 1527, and "Sir Eglamour" by de Worde around 1500, as well as by William Copland (Richardson, p. xiii). If anyone would know this technique, it would likely be a printer, and very likely a printer in the de Worde tradition. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: C116

Adam Cameron

DESCRIPTION: Adam Cameron, "second son to Boyndie," leaves his love Fanny to join the army. Letters arrive that his brother, the heir, and Fanny are to marry. He and his colonel ride to Boyndie. He proposes, Fanny accepts, and the colonel marries them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: courting wedding parting reunion money brother soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #51, p. 1, "Adam Cameron"; #49, p. 1, "Adam Cameron"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 61-62, "Adam Cameron" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan5 1025, "Adam Cameron" (5 texts plus a single verse on p. 623, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 204-205, "Adam Cameron" (1 tune)
Roud #5528
NOTES [146 words]: Greig comments on the confusion between "Boyndie" (Aberdeenshire) and "Boyndlie" (Banffshire, about 17 miles east of Boyndie) and, convinced that the ballad comes from Banffshire, settles on Boyndlie. However, he finds no record that the Camerons were ever landowners in Boyndlie. - BS
Greig #49: "Part of our version came from a correspondent in Zion City - an old Banffshire man; the rest has been made up from Christie's [Traditional Ballad Airs, 1881] set." - BS
There is a possibly interesting subplot here, in that the song is suspected to date from the early nineteenth century. Which was the era of commission by purchase. It was not unusual for a family to buy a commission for a younger son who had no hope of inheriting property -- but could this be an instance where the older brother bought his pesky younger brother an army post to get him out of the way? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD1025

Adam Catched Eve

DESCRIPTION: "Adam catched Eve by the fur below (x2), And that's the oldest catch I know (x3), Oh ho! did he so, did he so, did he so, did he so, did he so, did he so?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: nonballad bawdy wordplay
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 22-23, "Adam Catched Eve" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ADAMEVE*
ADDITIONAL: Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 76, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #V37609
NOTES [366 words]: This is a (probably composed) "catch," and has not been found in tradition that I know of, but it has been recorded by several "folk" performers, so I decided to include it. I haven't had any luck finding a serious Earliest Date. It is not in the Digital Index of Middle English Verse, so it is not attested until after the Middle English period.
Reginald Nettel, Seven Centuries of Popular Song, Phoenix House, 1956, pp. 76-77, points out that the word "catch" is used in a complex way: When Adam "catched" Eve, does this mean that he "caught" her or "sang a catch" to her? The latter would make it the oldest catch (an endless canon or round) that could exist. So even though there are only two lines here, they contain at least two and perhaps three instances of wordplay.
The other two double meanings in the text both involve print. The printed texts read the first line as "Adam catched Eve by the furbelow" instead of "...fur below." This is a double meaning, but it's also a sort of indirect bowdlerization. Yes, "furbelow" is a legitimate name for a garment (I've seen it glossed as a petticoat, but how do you make a petticoat out of fig leaves? There seems to be some uncertainty about just what was meant). However, "furbelow" is has always been a rare word -- e.g. it's not used in Chaucer, or in the romances of Havelock, Athelston, King Horn, or Gamelyn. I don't find it in "Piers Plowman," or in the glossaries of Carleton Brown and Rossell Hope Robbins. So while a scribe, or indeed the author, might have written "furbelow" to make a pun or to keep out of trouble, he expected hearers to understand it as "fur below." I suppose some ancient minstrel could have put together some comic routine about "furbelow" versus "fur below," but he'd have to be very careful who was in the audience.
The other ambiguity is in the line "And that's the oldest catch I know." If we put a comma after "catch," the meaning becomes, "And I know that is the oldest catch there ever was"; if we omit the comma, the sense is, "Of all the catches I know, this is the oldest." This difference also disappears when the piece is sung, but it makes less difference how the audience understands it. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: SESB023

Adam Driven from Eden

See In the vale of Abraham (File: MsItVoAb)

Adam et Eve (Adam and Eve)

DESCRIPTION: French. Song, in 23 verses, tells the entire story of Adam & Eve through the expulsion from the garden, and adds an angel announcing the Messiah to be born of the Virgin Mary to redeem humanity's anguish. Adam and Eve sadly bid farewell to Eden.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage accusation exile crime punishment sin Bible religious animal gods Jesus
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 85, "Adam et Eve (Adam and Eve)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Adam in the Garden Pinning Leaves" (subject)
File: BerV085

Adam Gordon, or The Burning of Cargarff

See Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon [Child 178] (File: C178)

Adam Gorman

See Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon [Child 178] (File: C178)

Adam in Paradise

DESCRIPTION: Adam alone wishes for someone to "part and share ... hug you to my bosom." Eve is created and "he began his trade For to hug her." She is content. Toast: "every lad may get the lass That he loves in his bosom"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (IREButcher02)
KEYWORDS: love Bible
FOUND IN:
Roud #2955
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "Adam In Paradise" (on IREButcher02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Adam in the Garden" (theme: Adam and Eve's conjugal relations)
NOTES [11 words]: Shields's notes to IREButcher02: "This is surely a fragment." - BS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: RcAinPar

Adam in the Garden

DESCRIPTION: After Eve broke "the great command" she kissed Adam "with his apron on." Everywhere now a pretty maid happily kisses her love with his apron on. At Mason Lodge meetings each appears after "five steps that he must take" with his jewels and apron on.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(1b))
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage Bible ritual clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #153, p. 2, "The Apron"; #148, p. 2, "Wi' His Apron On"; #40, p. 2, ("When Adam in the garden woned") (3 fragments)
Greig/Duncan3 471, "Wi' the Apron On" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Roud #5970
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(1b), "Adam in the Garden" ("When Adam in the garden was"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also 2806 c.18(2), "Adam in the Garden"; Harding B 25(1231), "On Masonry"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wi' His Apron On" ("And he kissed his lass wi' his apron on")
cf. "The Courting Coat" ("And I rolled into bed with my kettle smock on on")
cf. "Adam in Paradise" (theme: Adam and Eve's conjugal relations)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Kissed My Love wi' His Apron On
NOTES [334 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 17(1b) is the basis for the description.
The final half-line of some of the verses describes the mason "wi' his apron on." Greig #40 "Wi' His Apron On," p. 2, notes that the phrase "wi' his apron on" has a masonic reference as in the song -- "When Adam in the garden woned Along with his companion Eve ... She was never ashamed, nor could she be blamed To kiss her love wi' her apron on." See also "The Bible Story" and references there, "Adam in the Garden," and the "Freemason's Song (II)." - BS
Both "Wi' His Apron On" and "Adam in the Garden" have the "Wi' his apron on" line, and for a time I lumped them on this basis. But Ben Schwartz pointed out the large constellation of "Adam in the Garden" type lyrics which differ substantially in plot from "Wi' His Apron On," so they are now split, although the possibility of cross-influence must be allowed.
The mention of an apron in this context is interesting. The story of the Fall of Man is in Genesis 3, and in it, after they eat of the Tree of Knowledge, they use fig leaves to sew themselves some sort of clothing. The clothing is mentioned in Genesis 3:7. "Aprons" is the rendering of the King James Bible, but elsewhere it tends to use "girdle" to translate this root (four of the five other uses; the fifth uses "armor"). The Geneva Bible rendered it "breeches," a reaching also given by Wycliff ("brechis"). The New Revised Standard and Revised English Bibles read "loincloths." Thus it seems quite likely that this is a deliberate reference to Genesis. (Not that you would likely have doubted it if I hadn't written this long note.)
To be sure, "Freemasons dress to take part in the work of the lodge. With an apron over their everyday clothes, and gloves on their hands, they are ready for the opening ceremony" (Daniel Béresniak (with photographs by Laziz Hamani, translated by Ian Monk), Symbols of Freemasonry, French edition 1997; English edition 2000 (I use the 2003 Barnes & Noble Edition), p. 60). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: GrD3471

Adam in the Garden Pinning Leaves

DESCRIPTION: Chorus "Oh Eve, where's Adam? (x3) Adam in the garden pinning leaves." "I know my God is a God of war/He fought the battle at the Jericho wall"; "The first time God called/Adam refused to answer/And the next time God called/God hollered louder."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (field recording, Alberta Bradford & Becky Elsey; cf. Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious gods
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, pp. 85-86, ("Oh Eve where is Adam?") (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 4-5, "Adam in the Garden Pinnin' Leaves" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 126-127, "Adam in the Garden Pinnin' Leaves" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 43-44, (no name) (partial text)
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, p. 144-146, "Eve and Adam" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 24, "Adam In The Garden Pinning Leaves" (1 text)
DT, ADAMGRDN
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 308, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #15647
RECORDINGS:
Alberta Bradford & Becky Elsey, "Adam in the Garden Pinnin' Leaves" (AFS 105 B1, 1934)
Minnie Gracie Gadson, "Adam in de Garden" (on USSeaIsland03)
Lawrence McIver and the McIntosh County Shouters, "Adam in the Garden Pinning Leaves" (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutOnsiteVideo)
McIntosh County Shouters, "Eve and Adam" (on McIntosh1)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Adam in the Garden" (on NLCR10)
Willis Proctor and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Adam In the Garden" (on LomaxCD1712)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John the Revelator" (theme)
cf. "Adam et Eve (Adam and Eve)" (subject)
NOTES [69 words]: The mention of Adam making clothing of fig leaves occurs in the Bible in Gen. 3:7; God comes after Adam in 3:8-9. The siege of Jericho is described in Joshua 6, with a foreshadowing in Joshua 2. - RBW
The Parrish and Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree texts and /McIntoshShouters-RingShoutSongs texts and track, and LomaxCD1712 track are "ring shout" songs. The McIntoshShouters-RingShoutOnsiteVideo video shows the shout. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CSW126

Adam Was a Gardener

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Adam Where Art Thou

DESCRIPTION: "Adam in the garden hiding, hiding, hiding, Adam in the garden hiding, And I'm hiding away from God" ("Adam where art thou"(3x) "And I'm hiding away from God")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
KEYWORDS: hiding Bible nonballad religious gods
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
RECORDINGS:
Alfred McLerty, Henry Simpson, Hezekiah Brown, "Adam Where Art Thou" (on JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
NOTES [66 words]: The current description is the way I hear the JamaicaFaithWorkPlay recording.
The underlying text, from King James, is Genesis 3.8-9: "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?" - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcAdWArT

Adams and Liberty

DESCRIPTION: Written for the John Adams campaign, but in praise of American freedom (it never mentions Adams): "Ye sons of Columbia, who bravely have fought For those rights which unstained from your sires have descended" (and so on, for nine weary stanzas)
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Treate Paine, Jr.
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (composed)
KEYWORDS: patriotic political nonballad America
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1796 - John Adams's first (successful) Presidential campaign
1797-1801 - Adams's Presidency
1800 - Adams is defeated for re-election by Thomas Jefferson
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, pp. 148-149, "Adams and Libertay" (1 text, 1 tune, a reprint of the original sheet music)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 11-14, "Adams and Liberty" (1 text, tune referenced)
Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, pp. 82-83, "Adams & Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: William Arms Fisher, _One Hundred and Fifty Years of Music Publishing in the United States: 1783-1933_, Oliver Ditson Company, 1933, p. 38, "Adams and Liberty" (reduced facsimile of the original sheet music)
Dichter/Shapiro: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 23, describes six sheet music editions from 1798-1801
Roud #V22694
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Star-Spangled Banner" (tune) and references there
cf. "Jefferson and Liberty" (concept)
cf. "Lincoln and Liberty" (concept)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Boston Patriotic Song
NOTES [368 words]: It may reasonably be questioned if anyone actually survived reading (let alone singing) this piece. Paine (whom Spaeth says was regarded as "vain, lazy, and vicious," and a "literary hack") was nonetheless paid $750 for his efforts. (And you thought the Defense Department overpaid for the goods it received.)
Nonetheless Fisher, p. 37, declares "Of the many patriotic songs of this troubled period, the most popular was Hail! Columbia!, only rivaled by Adams and Liberty."
Paine did at least have a distinguished lineage; his father Robert Treat Paine Sr. had been a signer of the Declaration of Independence -- and had opposed John Adams in the trial of the perpetrators of the Boston Massacre! (McCullough, p. 67).
If this song has any distinction at all, it is that it is probably the version of the "Anacreon" tune known to Ferdinand Durang, who later fitted the tune to "The Star Spangled Banner." Early publications of the latter song advertise that it is to the tune of "Adams and Liberty."
Interestingly, it may be that this was not entirely a campaign song. Jameson has an entry on the song on p. 7: "'Adams and Liberty.' a song written by Robert Treat Paine, Jr., which enjoyed great popularity during the time of John Adams' spirited resistance to French aggression in 1798 and 1799. The air, formerly called 'Anacreon in Heaven,' is that now known as the 'Star-Spangled Banner.'"
In other words, this was not a campaign son but a war song, referring to the "Quasi-War" with France during the Adams administration. By the time this song was written, the Directory was running France, and they were trying to control American actions. They were also unofficially attacking American ships (Morison, pp. 347-348). The infamous XYZ affair followed (Morison, p. 349), and the American attitude became "Millions for Defence, but Not One Cent for Tribute" (Morison, p. 350).
Adams and the Americans did not at once go to war, but they expected France to do so. As a side effect, they created the Navy Department. A limited naval war followed (see the notes to "Truxton's Victory"). Hence the 1798 composition of the song, although it was no doubt still used during the 1800 Presidential campaign. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: SRW011

Adams's Crew

DESCRIPTION: A few of the characters on Adams's crew of lumberjacks are described.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (source: Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger cook humorous nonballad moniker
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 67, "Adams's Crew" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 110, "Adams's Crew" (1 text)
Roud #8843
NOTES [44 words]: The "moniker song" consists mostly of listing the names of one's compatriots, and perhaps telling humorous vignettes about each; it's common among lumberjacks, hoboes, and probably other groups. This song was collected from two of the characters chronicled in it. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be067

Adelita

DESCRIPTION: First line: "Adeilta se llama la ingrata Le qu' era duena de todo mi placer." The soldier says that Adelita is the source of "all my pleasures" who "drives all men to distraction." Now he must go to war; if she deserts him, he will pursue her anywhere
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: Mexico love separation soldier foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Mexico US(MW,SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 300-301, "Adelita" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 335, "Adelita" (1 text)
File: San300

Adeste Fideles (O Come All Ye Faithful)

DESCRIPTION: Latin: "Adeste fideles, laeti triumphantes, venite, venite in Bethlehem." English: "O come, all ye faithful, Joyful and triumphant, O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem."
AUTHOR: probably John Francis Wade (c. 1710/1711-1786)
EARLIEST DATE: 1760 (Anglican church office manual); probably written c. 1740
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, p. 1, "Adeste Fideles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #207, "Adeste Fideles" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 244, "Adeste Fidelis (O Come, All Ye Faithful)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 380, "O, Come, All Ye Faithful" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 86, "Adeste Fideles"
Heart-Songs, p. 131, "Come, All Ye Faithful" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, pp. 162-164, "O Come, All Ye Faithful" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, pp. 52-54, "O Come, All Ye Faithful" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 100, "O Come, All Ye Faithful" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 113, "O Come, All Ye Faithful" (1 short text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 44, "O Come, All Ye Faithful" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ADESTFID*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 45, "O Come, All Ye Faithful" (1 text, 1 tune)
Marilyn Kay Stulken, _Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship_, Fortress Press, 1981,pp. 146-148, discusses the history of the song and prints a copy of what seems to have been the original tune
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #5, "Adeste, Fideles" (1 text); #53, "O Come, All Ye Faithful" (1 text)
John Julian, editor, _A Dictionary of Hymnology_, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 20, "Adeste fideles laeti triumphantes" (1 Latin text)
Roud #24755
RECORDINGS:
Criterion Quartet, "Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful" (Victor 16197-B, 1908)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1871 08939, "Adeste Fideles," Wm. J Bonner & Co (Philadelphia), 1871(tune)
NOTES [640 words]: The first American printing of this piece (a Latin version of c. 1803) subtitles it "The favorite PORTUGUESE HYMN On the NATIVITY," but there is no particular reason to consider it Portuguese; according to Scholes, this title derives in fact from the Portugese Chapel in London.
The piece is believed to have been composed in the early 1740s by John Francis Wade, who also wrote the Latin words; there are seven early manuscripts bearing his signature (Reynolds, p. 154), the first of which was rediscovered in 1946 (McKim, p. 47). Scholes reports an Irish manuscript of the tune dated 1746, and a variation on the theme was listed as an "Air Anglais" in the French Vaudeville "Acajou" in 1744. According to Reynolds, pp. 450-451, Wade was an English layman who worked in the English refugee community in Douay, France after the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion; McKim, p. 47, says he was also a calligrapher.
The rather loose English translation by Frederick Oakley (1802-1880) was first published in 1852, based on Oakley's earlier 1841 translation.
According to Julian, p. 855, Oakeley (his spelling), D.D., was "youngest s[on] of Sir Charles Oakeley, Bart., sometime governor of Madras, was b[orn] at Shrewsbury, Sept. 5, 1862, and educated at Christ Church, Oxford (B.A. 1824). In 1825 he gained a University prize for a Latin Essay; and in 1827 he was elected a fellow of Balliol. Taking Holy Orders, he was a Prebendary of Lichfield Cathedral, 1832; Preaher at Whitehall, 1837; and Minister of Margaret Chapel, Margaret Street, London, 1839. In 1845 he resigned all his appointments in the Church of England, and was received into the Roman Communion. Subesequently he became a Canon of the Pro-Cathedral in the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical district of Westminster. He d[ied] January 29, 1880.
Fuld gives details on other possible sources for both text and tune; all are possible, but not particularly likely. Substantiating details are lacking. My favorite candidate for the "most ridiculous" award is an attribution to St. Bonaventure (Julian, p. 20, who however points out that there is no trace of the piece in Bonaventure's known writings). Bonaventure (died 1274) was a noteworthy scholar who had studied alongside Thomas Aquinas, but I find no mention of him writing hymns (see OxfordSaints, pp. 65-66).
Recent scholarship has brought an interesting twist on this history. According to the Penguin Book of Carols (compare Stulken, pp. 146-147), there are six manuscripts of this in the handwriting of John Francis Wade (the seventh manuscript mentioned by Reynolds was reportedly found in 1846). The one of these thought to be oldest contains a reference to "regem nostrum Jacobum" -- "our King James," i.e. the Jacobite Old Pretender. And, of course, "regem angelorum" is quite close to "regem Angliorem," "King of England." There are also hints of Catholic practice in this manuscript. Whether all this really amounts to anything is, of course, an open question.
The Oakley translation, incidentally, has not swept all before it. Julian, pp. 20-21, lists no fewer than 16 "common" translations into English, although it claims that most of these are based more on the Nicene Creed than the Latin "Adeste Fideles," and adds another 22 translations that are "not in common usage." Four more are listed on p. 1600. I would consider most of those in "common usage" to be in fact quite obscure, but I have a 1926 Lutheran hymnal, The Parish School Hymnal, with a translation dated 1849 by Edward Caswall (this appears to be Julian's #7). It begins, "Come hither, ye faithful, triumphantly sing, Come see in the manger the angels' dread King!" This same hymnal uses the tune of "Adeste Fideles" for "How Firm a Foundation," which I have always heard sung instead to a tune closely related to one of the "Poor Ellen Smith" songs. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: RJ19001

Adieu

DESCRIPTION: "Adieu dear love but not for ever You may change but I will never Though separation be our lot Adieu dear love forget-me-not"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1545, "Adieu" (1 text)
Roud #12960
NOTES [28 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text.
Greig/Duncan8 p. 412: apparently a verse for a valentine or album. - BS
Perhaps inspired by "Ae Fond Kiss"? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81545

Adieu de la Mariee a Ses Parents (The Married Girl's Farewell to her Parents)

DESCRIPTION: French. To make a household you must work to get money to feed a wife and children. Father, you married me to a pig of a drunkard. Cherish and caress him, daughter, and in a short time he will change and you will have your household.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage marriage drink father
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 492, "Adieu de la Mariee a Ses Parents" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Pea492

Adieu Lovely Nancy

See Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)

Adieu Madras

DESCRIPTION: French. Forebitter shanty. "Adieu Madras, adieu foulards...." Farewell to Madras, and the clothes, and the girl the sailor found in India. The singer asks the governor to let him keep his sweetheart. But it's too late; the ship is ready to sail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship love separation foreignlanguage shanty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 38, "Adieu Madras" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
File: HuSeS038

Adieu My Lovely Nancy

See Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy (File: E153D)

Adieu My Native Land Adieu

DESCRIPTION: "Adieu, my native land, adieu, The vessel spreads her swelling sails; Perhaps I never more may view Your fertile hills, your flowering dales." The singer bids farewell to all, and asks the wind "to find The peace which fate denies me here"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal from the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: emigration ship separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 238-239, "Adieu My Native Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 10, "Adieu, My Native Land, Adieu" (1 text)
Roud #13891
File: HSWS238

Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy

DESCRIPTION: "Adieu sweet lovely Nancy, ten thousand times adieu." The sailor must go over the sea "to seek for something new." He promises (to write, and tells) Nancy that, "Let my body go where it will, my heart will love you still." He hopes for a safe return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1854 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(175a))
KEYWORDS: sailor separation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West)) US(MW) Australia Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 153, (fourth of several "Fragments of Irish Songs")
Peacock, p. 877, "Good-bye My Lovely Annie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 516, "Adieu My Lovely Nancy" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 133, "Isle of Wight" (1 text)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 36-37, "Adieu My Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 244-245, "Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #38, "The Sailor's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 178-179, "Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, p. 260, "(Mary's Cot)" (1 text, mostly from this song though the first verse is "The Rose of Allandale")
DT, SWTNANCY
Roud #165
RECORDINGS:
Steve Gardham, "Sweet Lovely Nancy" (Piotr-Archive #343, recorded 11/02/2022)
Howard Morry, "Good-bye My Lovely Annie" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(175a), "Lovely Nancy" ("Adieu, my lovely Nancy, ten thousand times adie"), Swindells (Manchester)), 1796-1853
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Whale-Catchers" (lyrics)
cf. "Old Kitarden" (lyrics)
cf. "The Bold Privateer" [Laws O32] (lyrics)
cf. "I Love My Sailor Boy" (lyrics)
File: E153D

Adieu to All Judges and Juries

See Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries (File: FaE034)

Adieu to Bogie Side

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on the muses to help him "sing sweet Huntly's praise. I leave a girl behind me Whose joy is all my pride, And bid farewell to Huntly And adieu to Bogie side." He bids farewell to friends and lands and hopes the girl will be safe
AUTHOR: possibly John Riddell
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: love separation rambling farewell
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 265-266, "Adieu to Bogie Side" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #28, pp. 1-2, "Bogieside"; #30, p. 3, "Bogieside" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1517, "Adieu to Bogieside" (12 texts, 12 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 363-364, "Adieu to Bogie Side" (1 text)
Roud #4593
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bogie's Bonnie Belle" (lyrics)
cf. "The Sheffield Apprentice" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
cf. "The Plains of Waterloo" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Farewell to Huntly
NOTES [18 words]: For the complicated relationship between this song and "Bogie's Bonnie Bell," see the notes to that song. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: FCS265

Adieu to Bon County

DESCRIPTION: "It's a great separation my friends they have caused me." The singer says his friends will regret driving him away. He bids farewell to friends and love. He says he will ramble and seek pleasure. When money is short, he will "chop wood and get more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: separation drink party rambling
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 178-179, "Adieu to Bon County" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ADIEUBON
Roud #15553
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell, Charming Nancy" [Laws K14] (floating lyrics)
cf. "Farewell to Old Bedford" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [89 words]: The only version of this song I have seen so far is that in the Bayard collection, and it appears incomplete. Why is the singer leaving home? (Parents' opposition?) Why is there so little mention of his lost love?
I have to suspect that this is a worn-down, possibly reworked, version of something else (e.g. "Farewell, Charming Nancy") -- but I can't identify with any real probability what the original song was. It may well go back to the same ancestor as "Farewell to Old Bedford," but there has been a lot of drift in between. - RBW
File: LxA178

Adieu to Cold Weather

See Farewell He (File: FSC41)

Adieu to Dark Weather

See Farewell He (File: FSC41)

Adieu to Erin (The Emigrant)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh when I breathed a last adieu To Erin's vales and mountains blue...." The singer loves Mary, but Mary "deplores" him; he responds by leaving the country. "Can I forget the fateful day... When nought was left me but to say Farewell my love farewell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: love separation emigration rejection
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 255-256, "Adieu to Erin" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST SWMS255 (Full)
Roud #2068
File: SWMS255

Adieu to Lovely Garrison

DESCRIPTION: The singer is far away from home. He bids adieu to the places he spent his youth, describing their beauty. He would return to see them all.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (IRHardySons)
KEYWORDS: farewell Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #17892
RECORDINGS:
Packie McKeaney, "Adieu to Lovely Garrison" (on IRHardySons)
NOTES [81 words]: Notes to IRHardySons: "Garrison is in the north of Fermanagh, on the shores of Lough Melvin, just on the border with Co Leitrim."
The places named that I can find are all in Northern Ireland or northern Eire: in Co Fermanagh (Aghamuldowney, Farrancassidy, Lough Erne, Lough Melvin), Co Donegal (Belleek, Camlin Groves, Bundoran, Ballyshannon), Co Leitrim (Kiltyclogher), Co Down (Kilcoo) and Co Louth (Carranmore). The remaining names are Brolagh Bog, Sheehan Mountain and Knockareven. - BS
File: RcAtLoGa

Adieu to Maimuna

DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. "The boatmen shout, 'tis time to part, no longer can we stay, Twas then Maimuna taught my heart how much a glance can say." Four verses describing a tearful farewell, the last two lines of each repeated are as a chorus.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips)
KEYWORDS: shanty parting farewell
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 169-170, "Adieu to Maimuna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8226
File: Harl169

Adieu to Old England

DESCRIPTION: If the world had ended before he was born the singer's sorrows "would then have had bounds." He was born wealthy but spent it all. He has no fear of being robbed. He's satisfied now with a crust, clean water, and a dry straw bed. Things can't get worse.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (Baring-Gould)
KEYWORDS: poverty money drink food hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 1, "Adieu to Old England" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #115, p. 3, ("Once I had a feather bed") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1083, "Once I Had a Feather Bed" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: S. Baring-Gould, English Minstrelsie (Edinburgh, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VI, pp. 108-109, xi-xii, "Adieu to Old England" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1703
NOTES [222 words]: I have moved the Greig/Duncan6/Greig fragment here, agreeing with Roud that this is where it belongs, though the Greig singer has not yet reconciled himself to his lot: he is not a "careless Billy.." Here is the Greig fragment: "Once I had a feather bed And curtains a' roon But noo I have tae lie upon A chaff shakie doon [bed stuffed with chaff]." The closest lines in Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople are "Once I could lie on a good bed, A good bed that was made of soft down Now I am glad of a clot of clean straw To keep myself from the cold ground."
Baring-Gould's entry is based on a song indexed here as "Careless Billy." He begins with "Careless Billy" and then notes: "There is a song I have come upon repeatedly, for the last ten years, as a folk-ballad in the West of England, that goes over the same ground as ['Careless Billy'], but has more verses, and the chorus, 'Adieu to Old England, adieu,' .... The folk-chorus, 'Adieu to Old England, adieu,' will perhaps be more acceptable than that which insists on a 'Thin pair of breeches;' and the folk-melody of the chorus is also good, and better than a mere repetition." So, Baring-Gould has some verses from "Careless Billy," and some verses -- including the "good bed" verse -- chorus and tune from what Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople calls "Adieu to Old England." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD61083

Adieu to Prince Edward's Isle

See Peter Amberley [Laws C27] (File: LC27)

Adieu to the Banks of the Roe

DESCRIPTION: The singer, admitting his "happiest moments are flown," prepares to depart Ireland and his home. He bids farewell to everything he can think of -- the countryside, relatives, pastor. He will dig gold in Australia, and hopes he can return home
AUTHOR: James Maxwell ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell gold
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H245, pp. 197-198, "Adieu to the Banks of the Roe" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH245

Adieu to the Stone Walls

DESCRIPTION: "Adieu to the stone walls," the prisoner sighed, "I'm now going to leave you, I've made up my mind." The convict makes his way to a train, buys clothes in town, and gains his freedom by playing the role of a brakeman
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (collected from the Gant Family)
KEYWORDS: prison escape disguise clothes trick
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 311-313, "Adieu to the Stone Walls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15602
File: LoSi311

Adieu Ye Banks and Braes of Clyde

DESCRIPTION: "Adieu ye banks and braes of Clyde, Adieu to her who's young and fair, I grieve to leave my own dear bride" and his home, but "the wind blows fair, I must away." All nature rests as the sun sets in the west, but he cannot; the drums and pipes call
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
KEYWORDS: sea farewell wife sailor
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 9, "Adieu Ye Banks and Braes of Clyde" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell to Nova Scotia" (lyrics, tune)
NOTES [55 words]: This is basically the same as "Farewell to Nova Scotia," but relocated. Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors claim both go back to "The Soldier's Adieu," which they find in print from 1803 and think older. I am sure that the songs are related, but because the differences appear clearly deliberate, I have tentatively split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LaGo009

Adieu, Adieu

See The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)

Adieu, False Heart

DESCRIPTION: "Adieu, false heart, since we must part, May the joys of the world go with you." The singer says (he) thought (him)self too good for her. She proudly says that "You are very much mistaken" if he thinks she loves him and/or says she will go to her grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (collected from Bessie James Totty by Boswell)
KEYWORDS: love death rejection floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 73, pp. 119-120, "Adieu, False Heart" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11042
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Smith Trio (Fiddlin' Arthur Smith), "Adieu False Heart" (Bluebird 7651)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (subject) and references there
cf. "The Curragh of Kildare" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
False Love
File: BoWo073

Adieu, Sweet Lovely Jane

See Sweet Jane [Laws B22] (File: LB22)

Admiral Benbow (I)

DESCRIPTION: Despite being badly outnumbered, Benbow prepares for battle (against the French), but captains Kirkby and Wade flee the contest. In the fight that follows, Benbow loses his legs, but orders his face to be turned toward the fight even as he dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1841
KEYWORDS: battle sea death abandonment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1702 - Death of Admiral John Benbow in battle in the West Indies
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 266-267, "Admiral Benbow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 76, "The Death of Admiral Benbow" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 87, "Admiral Benbow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 81, "Admiral Benbow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 678-679, 'Benbow, the Brother Tar's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 94-95, "Benbow, the Brother Tar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads lxii, "The Death of Admiral Benbow" (1 text)
DT, ADBENBOW* ADBENBW2
ADDITIONAL: Bertrand Bronson, "Samuel Hall's Family Tree,'" article published in the _California Folklore Quarterly_ (1942); also published in Bertrand Harris Bronson, _The Ballad as Song_ (essays on ballads), University of California Press, 1969, pp. 18-36; republished on pp. 30-47 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009. The article discusses "Sam Hall," "Captain Kidd,,""Admiral Benbow," and related songs, with all or part of 16 texts and 9 tunes
C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 149, "The Death of Admiral Benbow" (1 text)
Roud #227
NOTES [701 words]: The story outlined here is true in its general details. John Benbow (1653-1702), commanding the British in the West Indies, and was mortally wounded in battle with the French after two of his captains deserted him (the two were later tried and executed for cowardice). The battle took place off Cartagena (the one in Columbia, not the one in Spain; Mahan, p. 207). Benbow became a naval hero, and several later battleships were named for him.
One version of the story is briefly told in Herman, pp. 245-246. Herman argues that Benbow was wrong and his captains right: The British squadron of six ships was not strong enough to fight the French. But Benbow (who lost only his right leg, not both) lived long enough to order the court martial of the rebellious officers. The leader, Richard Kirkby of the Defiant, was executed, as was one of the other captains. This firmly established the principle of obedience to orders no matter how stupid.
Not everyone agrees with Herman's interpretation. Woodman devotes pp. 48-58 to Benbow and his subordinates, and draws a very different picture. Benbow was a very unusual admiral, in that he was a "tarpaulin" officer -- that is, one drawn from the ranks of the sailors, rather than a noble who went straight into the officer class (Woodman, p. 48). He didn't even come up through the naval ranks; he had gone to sea as a merchant sailor, and risen to captain, and then been offered a naval command by James II because he had done an impressive job of beating off a pirate attack (Brumwell/Speck, p. 48).
That background as a merchant sailor and a privateer as well as in the navy, and seems to have developed a very high opinion of his own judgment as a result (Woodman, p. 49). Woodman, p. 49, says that the French fleet under Ducasse had a fleet with a total of 258; Benbow's force he lists as having 456 guns. If true, then Benbow's decision to attack was reasonable.
Bruce/Cogar, p. 40, sum up Benbow's career as follows: "Although Benbow came to be regarded as a hero in popular legend, there remains a doubt about his place in British naval history and whether his high reputation was well deserved."
Clark, p. 317, summarizes the whole incident as follows: "Vice-Admiral John Benbow, with seven English ships, had a good opportunity of attacking a weaker French squadron which remained to operate against English and Dutch commerce. Unfortunately four of his captain failed to join the fight, and it was a failure. Benbow was mortally wounded. Two of the captains were court martialed and shot. There is a still popuar folk-song about this dramatic but unimportant event."
Brumwell/Speck, pp. 48-49, also considers Benbow's squadron superior to the French, and speculates that his officers refused orders because they considered him their social inferior.
Stokesbury, p. 108, also declares the French squadron "weak." He makes the interesting note that Benbow's story did not immediately inspire firm obedience by future captains; in 1708. Admiral Wager could not make his captains fight at Porto Bello.
Most texts of this fit the tune of "Captain Kidd" (and the only one I've seen which doesn't appears to have been fiddled with), though the tune in Chappell isn't quite the standard "Captain Kidd." It is also said to be used for "A Virgin Most Pure." We might note that Kidd went to the scaffold at the time Benbow was fighting his fight with the French.
This is not the only song about Benbow; Firth (who calls this one "The Death of Admiral Benbow") prints another, "Admiral Benbow," on p. 148. That is said to date from at least 1784, though it appears less popular than this (which seems to have first been printed in Halliwell's Early Naval Ballads). And Benbow's 1693 attack on St. Malo is the subject of "The Siege of St. Malo."
Benbow's reputation as a stickler seems to have been richly deserved; in addition to his conduct in the battle that caused his death, he was tough on people who showed up in the West Indies without leave -- even if they were subjects of the British crown! When the Scottish Darien expedition resulted in disaster, a shipful of colonists fled to the Indies -- and were refused help by Benbow (Thomson, p. 88). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: PBB076

Admiral Benbow (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, we sail'd to Virginia, And from thence to Fial." The fleet sees seven sails. They draw up in line and fight for four hours. Admiral Benbow is wounded by a chain shot and is carried below but says to keep fighting. He is remembered after his death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Before 1825 (broadside Bodleian, Harding B 28(261))
KEYWORDS: battle sea death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1702 - Death of Admiral John Benbow in battle in the West Indies
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #19 insert, "Admiral Benbow" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 35, "The Death of Admiral Benbow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 641-643, "Admiral Benbow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 92-93, "Admiral Benbow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 145-146, "Admiral Benbow" (1 text)
Roud #3141
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(261), "Admiral Benbow," W. Armstrong (Liverpool) 1820-1824
NOTES [12 words]: For background on John Benbow, see the notes to "Admiral Benbow (I)" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AshS019i

Admiral Byng

DESCRIPTION: Admiral Byng is ordered "the French to disperse from New Home" in the Mediterranean Sea. He sends Admiral West to attack the French but he held his own ship back. The ballad implies he was bribed. He is condemned by the King to be shot.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: battle navy execution trial
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 14, 1757 - Admiral John Byng executed for neglect of duty for his part in the loss of Minorca to the French (source: "Minorca" at the Blupete site).
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #151, p. 1, "Come All Ye British Tars" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 140, "Admiral Byng" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 46, "Admiral Byng" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 260-261, "Admiral Byng and Brave West" (1 tune)
Roud #3791
NOTES [2140 words]: Greig: "The victim into whose mouth the ballad is put was Admiral Byng. He was sent with a squadron to relieve the island of Minorca, which was blockaded by a French fleet. Rear-Admiral West played his part well, but Byng handled his ships so unsuccessfully that he had to sail back to Gibraltar, leaving Minorca to its fate. For this failure he was recalled, tried, and condemned to be shot on board ship. This was in 1757."
The court never considered that bribery or gold played any part in the Admiral Byng's decision not to try to relieve General Lord Blakeney at St Philip's Castle on Minorca. (Burke, pp. 72-81).
Greig/Duncan1: "It is included by Bertrand Harris Bronson in his discussion of songs with this distinctive stanza pattern; see "Samuel Hall's Family Tree" in The Ballad as Song (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969), pp. 18-36. Here is the last verse:
All traitors gets their doom, so maun I, so maun I,
All traitors gets their doom, so maun I;
All traitors gets their doom, wears the sackcloth in their bloom,
Because it is their doom, so maun I.
I assume "New Home" is either on or near Minorca, the site of the battle. - BS
I think "New Home" is probably an error for "Mahon," or Port Mahon, the chief harbor on Minorca. The Spanish name is accented on the second syllable, which makes this mis-hearing more likely.
If Admiral John Byng (1704-1757) is remembered today, it is usually for the quip Voltaire penned regarding his execution: The British executed an admiral from time to time "pour encourager les autres," "to encourage the others" (see, e.g., Borneman, p. 66; Brumwell/Speck, p. 67; Keegan, p. 45; Herman, p. 281; McLynn, p. 196.).
Byng had had a distinguished career until then -- although the son of an admiral, he had not joined the navy as a midshipman but rather as an able seaman in 1718 (Brumwell/Speck, p. 67). He probably wasn't a great admiral, but most of his misfortune was really the result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He found himself in the middle of an undeclared war. What Europeans called the "Seven Years' War" officially ran from 1756 to 1763 -- but it had already gone on for more than a year in the America (for the early phases of the French and Indian War, as it was known in the colonies, see "Braddock's Defeat"). So it was quite clear that war was coming in Europe -- but diplomatic niceties had to be observed; no one wanted to be blamed for firing the first shot.
The French had the strategic initiative. They had forces on both the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts -- the former in position to sail to North America, where the French already had had success, the latter in position to capture Minorca. The British navy could potentially halt either move (Borneman, p. 62, estimates they had an advantage of about 100 ships of the line to 60 for the French) -- but only if it knew where to go!
The French goal seems to have been to nibble away at the British. Minorca was an obvious spot. British only since 1708, it had become a major British naval base (Borneman, p. 63), but it was much more accessible to the French than the British. And the British forces in the area were clearly inadequate: Four ships of the line, three frigates, and one sloop. The need to reinforce was obvious. Hence Byng was sent with reinforcements. The son of a famous though not always successful admiral (Keegan/Wheatcroft, pp. 55, 304), Byng had served at sea from an early age (Borneman, p. 63), but he had limited experience in combat. He was regarded as a good administrator (Anderson, p. 170), was known for strict discipline (Borneman, p. 63), and apparently was highly regarded prior to the Minorca fiasco (Herman, p. 280).
The French had anticipated the declaration of war. Their attacking force, commanded by Admiral la Galissoniere and supported by twelve ships of the line, had left Toulon on April 10, 1756, with 150 transports and 15,000 soldiers (Mahan, p. 285). The force had arrived at Minorca on April 19. This was overwhelming force against a defending army of only about three thousand men.
By the time Byng reached Minorca on May 2, the French were already attacking the tiny garrison at Fort Saint Philip (Borneman, p. 64), even though France had not yet formally declared war. The forces on Minorca could not hold out long; they were too heavily outnumbered. Their only hope was for Byng to defeat the French fleet in the area and cut off the attackers.
Byng was in many ways at a disadvantage. His nearest base was Gibraltar, whereas the French were based in Toulon. Not only was Toulon closer, it was the main base of the French navy. And he was afraid to take troops from Gibraltar lest it too be invaded (Borneman, p. 64). Plus Byng's fleet was far from modern. He flew his flag in the 90-gun Ramillies, which had begun life as the Royal Katherine in 1664. The ship was "rebuilt" in 1702 (at a time when "rebuilding" meant something close to building a ship from scratch), but that still made the vessel more than half a century old at the time Byng took command of the squadron. She had been renamed Ramillies some fifty years before (for details on this, see Paine, p. 419).
"[T]he ships in his task force had only recently returned from raiding French commerce in the Atlantic. It was, therefore, with depleted crews, unmade repairs (two ships were taking on water fast enough to require frequent pumping), and fouled hulls that Byng's ships sailed from Portsmouth on April 7" (Anderson, p. 170).
The battle was completely one-sided. There seems to be disagreement about what Byng intended. Mahan, p. 285, seems to say that Byng's intention was to fight in line ahead (that is, with all of his ships in a single line, with each English ship fighting what amounted to a single combat with a French ship), following the official British Fighting Instructions. Borneman, p. 65, argues that he wanted to "cross the T" on the enemy line and attack the rear of the French line, but that there was a signalling failure which caused the lead ships to go off in the wrong direction.
Whatever Byng's intention, the two fleets approached at a rather large angle -- estimated to have been about 30 to 40 degrees (Mahan, p. 286). This meant, since Byng was attacking the French fleet outside Port Mahon, that the lead British ships were much closer to the French line than the ships in the rear. When Byng gave the order to start the engagement, the ships at the front of the line did so, spending some four hours in combat (Anderson, p. 171) but the ships at the back were, in effect, left behind. The ships at the front of the line, in consequence, suffered rather severely (none were sunk but all had damage which affected their ability to sail); those at the back split off and accomplished nothing (Mahan, p. 287).
After the battle, Byng held a council of war with his captains. They concluded that they could not save Minorca; better to make sure that Gibraltar at least was safe (Mahan, p. 290; Borneman, p. 65). Byng headed back to Gibraltar, and the French captured Port Mahon on June 29 (Herman, p. 278).
Herman, p. 280, notes that "To this day historians debate the pros and cons of the case."
"[H]is failure at Minorca was as much a matter of following the official orders for line ahead battles too literally as it was a failure of nerve. Anson... had ordered Byng brought back to England for court-martial. The court of twelve naval officers had to find him guilty for avoiding battle: under Anson's own revisions to the Articles of War, they had no choice but to sentence Byng to death" (Herman, p. 280).
"At Gibraltar, Byng was relieved by Hawke and sent home to be tried. The court-martial, while expressly clearing him of cowardice or disaffection, found him guilty of not doing his utmost either to defeat the French fleet or relieve the garrison of Mahon; and, as the article of war prescribed death with no alternative punishment for this offence, it felt compelled to sentence him to death. The king refused to pardon, and Byng was accordingly shot" (Mahan, pp. 290-291).
"In retrospect, Byng's concern for Gibraltar and his decision not to risk his entire fleet when other corners of the British Empire were far more dependent on it than Minorca, may well prove his competence. And, of course, if his orders had been carried out competently in the first place, the result may have been far different. Instead, his execution became one of the most egregious affairs in the annals of the Royal Navy" (Borneman, p. 65).
"Byng... was executed not because he had lost the battle of Minorca (1756) but because he had done so in breach of the permanent fighting instructions and so confronted his court-martial with no choice but to condemn him to the firing-squad" (Keegan, p. 45).
Ironically, Keegan seems to think highly of Byng, at least in broad terms. At this time, few naval battles produces a clear winner, so "[s]everal British admirals of the eighteenth century, of whom Byng was one, experimented at the risk of professional -- even personal -- extinction with tactics more likely to yield a decisive outcome" (Keegan, p. 49). Byng's problem was that he did not come up with the idea of breaking the line, which would wait for Rodney and Nelson.
What the court could do, it did: They recommended that the King pardon him. Pleas for mercy came from all quarters. But the government, its survival on the line, ignored all the calls. Byng was executed by firing squad on board the Monarque (a captured French ship) "on March 14, 1757 -- the first and only British admiral ever executed for cowardice" (Herman, p. 281).
"Everywhere rose the cry for the punishment of Admiral Byng.... Members of parliament received petitions to call the ministers to account for sending him out too late. The naval court-martial, deliberating under the pressure of rising public resentment, condemned the unhappy Byng to death....
"As a matter of fact, Byng had done nothing to justify the verdict. Of the crime of which he was declared guilty -- neglect of duty in battle -- he was entirely innocent. For the offenses of which he was guilty -- the desertion of Minorca and disobedience to admiralty instructions -- there was no legal penalty. The court somehow felt that the death penalty was excessive and recommended him to His Majesty's clemency. But that was denied him, for all around there stood the fallen ministers with their bribes and their boroughs, ready to crush anyone who suggested that Byng was not the sole author of the loss of Minorca. There is, perhaps, no more conclusive example of the extent and diversity of Whig patronage than the tale of the gates of mercy being shut against Byng" (Dorn, p. 345).
"The fatal morning arrived, but was by no means met by the admiral with reluctance . . . He took an easy leave of his friends, detained the officers not a moment, went directly to the deck, and placed himself in a chair with neither ceremony nor tightness. Some of the more humane officers represented to him that his face being uncovered might throw reluctance into his executioners, and besought him to suffer a handkerchief. He replied with the same unconcern, 'If it will frighten them, let it be done: they will not frighten me'" (Horace Walpole, quoted on pp. 67-68 of Uden/Cooper).
The whole business proved so controversial that being pro- or anti-Byng actually came to be a basis for official promotion or censure (McLynn, p. 108). His fate also caused admirals to become somewhat afraid of having prudence mistaken for cowardice, which occasionally caused them to become rather rash (McLynn, p. 173)
In a greater sense, Byng's defeat was a help to the British cause. The Newcastle government fell, and William Pitt the Elder took over (Herman, p. 279; Dorn, p. 291, though Dorn, p. 345, notes that this was a temporary government; Pitt would not really gain control until later, in a sort of coalition in which he ran things and Newcastle handled patronage duties; cf. Borneman, p. 73). Pitt swept a lot of chaff out of the war departments, and went on to win the war. But it was too late for Byng, who probably would have been out of a job even if he had still been alive -- it was Pitt who really put his trust in better admirals such as Anson and Hawke (for whom see "Bold Hawke") as well as generals such as Amherst (for whom see especially "Brave Wolfe" [Laws A1]).
Keegan/Wheatcroft, p. 55, sum up the situation this way: "Byng was a victim of public hysteria and government cowardice. Walpole commented, "The persecution of his enemies, who sacrifice him for their own guilt and the rage of a blind nation, have called forth all my pity for him" (Herman, p. 281).
There was one positive effect: The Laws of War were revised to make them a little more flexible and reasonable (Manwaring/Dobree, p. 246). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.4
File: GrD1140

Admiral Hosier's Ghost

DESCRIPTION: "As near Porto-Bello lying, On the gently-swelling flood... Our triumphant navy rode" after Vernon had defeated the Spanish. "The shade of Hosier brave" appears. Hosier wishes he had fought instead of obeying orders to sit idly, bringing England to shame
AUTHOR: Richard Glover (source: Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads, etc. but Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II mentions an attribution to "Lord Bath")
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (Halliwell, according to Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: navy ghost
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1727 - Death of Admiral Francis Hosier (born 1673)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 367-371, "Admiral Hosier's Ghost" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XLIV, p. 87, "Admiral Hosier's Ghost" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads LXIII, pp. 117-122, "Admiral Hosier's Ghost" (1 text)
Roud #22377
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 35a, "Admiral Hosier's Ghost," C. Dicey (London), 1740; also Firth c.12(14), W. Webb (London), 1740; also Harding B 1(34), unknown, n.d.; also Firth c.12(12)=Harding B 22(1)=Johnson Ballads 2294, unknown, n.d.
NOTES [116 words]: Grant Uden and Richard Cooper, A Dictionary of British Ships and Seamen, 1980 (I use the 1981 St. Martin's Press edition), p. 214, gives this mini-biography of Francis Hosier: "admiral. From 1714 to 1717 he was suspended as a suspected Jacobite, but he came back to command a squadron in the West Indies, where he died of a fever. Richard Glove (1712-85) write a popular but inaccurate ballad called 'Admiral Hosier's Ghost' suggesting that the Admiral died of a broken heart when Admiralty orders prevented him from fighting the Spaniards."
I doubt this is truly traditional, but it sure got printed a lot....
As of July 13, 2021, the link to Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 35a is broken. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SSSB117

Admiral Russel's Scowering the French Fleet: or, The Battle at Sea

See Russel's Triumph (File: AshS007)

Admiralty House Supper Song

DESCRIPTION: "A bite with me, fast falls the prey to feast, The soup is Jackson, Lord, shall this not cease, No other soup served so consistently." The singer complains of the food; "When the guests come, they surely do agree, It is a job to eat A bite with me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: navy humorous derivative food
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 88, "Admiralty House Supper Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #29406
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Abide with Me" (tune)
File: Hopk088

Adventures of Jack O'Donohoe, The

See Bold Jack Donahoe (File: MA063)

Adventures of Sandy and Donald, The

See Crafty Wee Bony (File: GrD1151)

Advertise (It Pays to Advertise)

DESCRIPTION: "The fish/duck, it never cackles 'bout its million eggs or so, The hen is quite a different bird; one egg, and hear her crow. The duck we spurn, but crown the hen, which leads me to surmise: Don't hide your light, but blow your horn; it pays to advertise"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: humorous bird animal campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 156, "The Fish It Never Cackles Bout" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 166, "Advertise" (notes only)
Harbin-Parodology, #66, p. 22, "Advertise" (1 text, tune referenced)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 125, "Advertise" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT, ADVERFIS*
SAME TUNE:
cf. "Auld Lang Syne" (tune) and references there
File: DTadverf

Advertising Kelly

DESCRIPTION: "A fortnight ago, me, Mick and Patsy Sullivan... went for a spree down to Kelly's brand-new restaurant." They have a party and direct the bill to their boss Flaherty. Kelly refuses. There is a fight. Eventually Kelly writes it off as advertising
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Finger-FrontierBallads)
KEYWORDS: food fight
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 53-55, "Advertising Kelly" (1 text)
Roud #8830
File: Fing053

Advice to Girls

See On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)

Advice to Paddy

DESCRIPTION: "Paddy ... join with your protestant brother." "Your foes have long prided to see you divided." If together, your foes won't oppose you. "Then your rights will be granted"; "keep asunder ... you shall live and die slaves"
AUTHOR: Edward Lysaght (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Madden's _Literary Remains of the United Irishmen of 1798_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 40, "Advice to Paddy" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [137 words]: This is one of those sadly ironic songs: Most of the early Irish agitation for independence was led by Protestants (e.g. Wolfe Tone was Protestant). Their attempts at rebellion failed in no small part because the Catholic peasantry was indifferent. (Understandably, since their problems were with landlords; the English government had no direct impact on their hardscrabble lives).
If Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815's dating is right, though, by the time this was written, the situation had changed. By the late nineteenth century, Britain would have been willing to grant Home Rule in some form -- but the idea always died due to the opposition of Irish Protestants, especially in Ulster. Those people, once at the heart of the rebellion, had by then started to cling to Britain as protection for their rights. - RBW
File: Moyl040

Advice to Sinners

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Sinner, you'd better take heed to the Savior's word today. You will follow the Christian round and still you will not pray." "Your body has to lie in the ground." "When Gabriel sounds his trumpet, you'll be lost." You get the idea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious death sin
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 64, "Advice to Sinners" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore564, "Advice to Sinners" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #7847
NOTES [91 words]: Evidently the author, like so many other "hymn" writers, had read every verse in the Bible except those dealing with judgment ("Judge not, that you be not judged," Matt. 7:1, etc.), forgiveness ("For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive... neither will your Father forgive," Matt. 6:14-15, etc.), and punishment ("Let the one without sin cast the first stone", John 8:7).
It never ceases to amaze me how many Bibles there are in the world with those verses left out. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3064

Advice to the Boys

See The Bald-Headed End of the Broom (File: FaE190)

Ae May Morning

See Tripping Over the Lea [Laws P19] (File: LP19)

Ae Nicht We A' to Banff Did Gang

DESCRIPTION: "Ae nicht we a' to Banff did gang, I believe we had sma' errant O. There was ither three as weel as me, We a' set oot a'steerin' [Greig/Duncan8: to cause a disturbance] O."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: party
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1766, "Ae Nicht We A' to Banff Did Gang" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13014
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81766

Aeroplane Song, The

See The Heavenly Aeroplane (File: R660)

Aff Wi' the Auld Love

DESCRIPTION: The singer, while courting Betsy, takes up with Jean. He meets both in the market: "they laughed and they jeered at me too." Each takes up with another man leaving him crying. "Be sure to be aff wi' the auld love, Afore ye be on wi' the new"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity rejection warning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #172, p. 2, "The Auld Love and the New" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1127, "Aff Wi' the Auld Love" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6834
File: GrD61127

Afore Daylight

DESCRIPTION: The wife complains her husband urinates on the floor rather than in the chamber pot. He replies that his first wife allowed him to defecate in the bed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: scatological husband wife
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II, pp. 590-591, "Afore Daylight" (1 text)
File: RL590

African Counting Song

DESCRIPTION: "Ninni nonni simungi, Ninni nonni simungi, Ninni nonno sidubi sabadute simungi. Ninni nonni simungi, Ninni nonni simungi, Ninni nonno sidubi sabadute simungi."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 19, "African Counting Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [69 words]: Scarborough's informant claimed that this was a counting song from Africa, but if he gave either a translation or a reference to the *part* of Africa, Scarborough failed to record it.
I do note that there are five words. Given what it known about some African counting systems, this raises the possibility that they stand for "one," "two," "three," "four," and "many." But I frankly doubt the whole business. - RBW
File: ScaNF019

After Aughrim's Great Disaster

DESCRIPTION: ""After Aughrim's great disaster, When our foe in sooth was master," a few survivers escape and hope to continue the struggle. The survivors go their separate ways (perhaps into exile), wishing success to their king
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: battle death disaster rebellion Ireland separation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 12, 1691 - Battle of Aughrim. Decisive defeat of Irish Catholic forces
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 17-18, "After Aughrim's Great Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16907
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. " Sean a Duir a'Ghleanna" (form)
NOTES [464 words]: The Battle of the Boyne in 1690 (for which see "The Battle of the Boyne (I)") marked the real end of Jacobite hopes; James II fled to the continent following that battle, the French reduced their already limited commitment, and William III (who had overthrown James) returned to Britain. (It didn't help the Jacobite cause that the remaining Irish leaders despised each other.)
Many Irish, however, continued in rebellion, retreating to Athlone and Limerick. The British command was turned over to General Ginkel (the "Dutchman" of the song), who captured Athlone on June 30. Most Irish leaders wanted to concentrate on a holding action at Limerick, but St Ruth, the French commander, wanted to fight. He picked a position at Aughrim and waited for Ginkel.
Aughrim was a near-fought thing. Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, p. 183, declare that Ginkel's crossing of the Shannon "was followed by 'Aughrim's dread disaster,' the major battle of the war. St Ruth, the French commander, had chosen a strong position on the slopes of Kilcommodon hill. Ginkel's army floundered into the bog that separated the armies, and St Ruth called on his men to drive the enemy to the gates of Dublin. Then at a critical stage of the battle St Ruth was killed; a causeway through the bog was betrayed to Ginkel's men[,] and confusion set in on the Irish side. Their losses were heavy and Ginkel won an impressive victory."
When the English won, they won decisively. St Ruth was dead, Tyrconnell died in August, and only Limerick was left in Irish hands. Sarsfield (Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan c. 1655-1693), the last real Irish leader and the best soldier of the lot, decided to seek terms while he still had a bargaining position.
On October 3, an agreement was secured under which the rebels could either swear allegiance to William or go into exile. Although William's guarantees included religious freedom, many chose to leave their country. The flight of "The Wild Geese" was in many ways the worst disaster in Irish history to this time. The anniversary of Aughrim continues to be a bitter day in Irish memories.
Sarsfield, having done what he could, joined the French service, and was killed at the Battle of Landen in 1693.
Not everyone was impressed with Sarsfield, to be sure. Foster, p. 148, notes that he came to everyone's attention for his bravery at the Boyne, but adds that "He was celebrated for his bravery but was notoriously not very bright; jealousy aroused by the Sarsfield mystique exacerbated the indiscipline an dissensions that already rent the Jacobites. On the other hand, his inspirational leadership helped raise Irish morale...."
This should not be confused with the Honorable Emily Lawless's poem 'After Aughrim," for which see, e.g., MacDonagh/Robinson, pp. 100-101. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: PGa017

After Big Game

DESCRIPTION: "There was a man named Jimmy Frame Whose one desire was to hunt big game." He begins to hunt and trap. Angered by failure -- he has nothing but a "tiny deer mouse." he decides to try somewhere else. Maybe you'll find him there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal travel
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 257, "After Big Game" (1 text)
Roud #15003
File: SHoe257

After the Ball

DESCRIPTION: A girl asks her uncle why he never married. He recalls the sweetheart he took to a ball. After leaving for a moment, he sees her kissing another man. He abandons her; years later, after she is dead, he learns that the other man was her brother
AUTHOR: Charles K. Harris (1867-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation death abandonment jealousy brother family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 105, "After the Ball" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 45, pp. 62-63, "After the Ball" (1 text plus a fragment and a fragment of a parody)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 97, "After the Ball" (1 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 2 more as well as portions of 2 parodies; 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 169-175, "After the Ball, the Deluge" (1 text plus variants, 1 tune)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 64-69, "After the Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 260-262, "After the Ball" (1 text)
Messerli, pp. 205-207, "After the Ball" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 268, "After The Ball Is Over" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 87, "After the Ball"
DT, AFTRBALL* (UNFORTU6* -- a parody)
ADDITIONAL: Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 156-158, "After the Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 1-5, "After the Ball" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Roud #4859
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "After The Ball (OKeh 45569, 1932; rec. 1930)
The Collier Trio, "After the Ball" (Brunswick 307, 1928)
Homer Christopher & Wife, "After the Ball" (OKeh 45041, 1926)
Crockett's Kentucky Mountaineers, "After the Ball" (Brunswick 394, rec. 1929)
Vernon Dalhart, "After the Ball" (Columbia 15030-D, 1925) (Brunswick 2924-B) (Edison 51610 [as Vernon Dalhart & Co.], 1925)
Dixon Brothers, "After the Ball" (Montgomery Ward M-7577, 1938)
Tom Darby & Jimmie Tarlton, "After the Ball" (Columbia 15254-D, 1928)
Humphries Brothers, "After the Ball" (OKeh 45478, 1930)
Bradley Kincaid, "After the Ball" (Supertone 9648, 1930) (Conqueror 7984, 1932)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "After the War Is Over" (tune)
cf. "Tragic Romance" (plot)
cf. "Fatal Rose of Red" (theme)
cf. "Grandfather's Story" (theme)
cf. "After the Ball Was Over, Sally Plucked Out Her Glass Eye" (form)
SAME TUNE:
After the War is Over (File: R855)
After the Ball Was Centered (File: KSUC084A)
The Scab's Lament (File: LDC170)
Poor Nellie (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 143)
After the Commonwealth March is Over ("After the march is over, After the first of May, After the bills are passed, child, Then we will have fair play") (by Carl Browne) (Foner, p. 253)
After the Fall (by D. J. O'Malley; see John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), p. 82)
After the Fair (song about the 1893 World's Fair with lyrics credited to its performer Press Eldridge by apparently written by Charles K. Harris as a parody of his own song) (Jon W. Finson, _The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song_, Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. 153-154)
After We Burned the Rodney (song from the Australian Shearer's Strike of 1894) (Dennis O'Keeffe, _Waltzing Matilda: The Secret History of Australia's Favourite Song_, Allen & Unwin, 2012, p. 189)
NOTES [471 words]: Gilbert-LostChords describes how Harris (at the time, according to Geller, an impoverished banjo teacher; Jasen, p. 11, says he did not read music) wrote this song by blowing an actual incident all out of proportion (he saw a girl distressed by a fight with her lover, but there is no evidence that the quarrel ended their relationship. Part of the story is actually Harris's own; he was chaperoning his sister at a ball in 1892 when the other incident happened, according to Jasen, p. 12).
According to Furia, p. 23, the "absurd tale of misunderstanding was turned down by the first singer Harris urged to plug it; 'If I sang a line like "Down fell the glass, pet, broken, that's all,: she insisted, 'the customers in my saloon would shatter their beer mugs in derision.' Yet it was precisely this pathetic narrative that was marketed into the first big hit from Tin Pan Alley...."
The song was one of the most popular of its era; sales of the sheet music earned Harris $48,000 in just its first year in print. Waites & Hunter report that it was the first song to sell five million copies of the sheet music. Gardner, p. x, says that "It wasn't until 1893 that a single song swept the country and could be considered a national hit. This phenomenon began at the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893, when 'After the Ball' by Charles K. Harris was featured endlessly. The fairgoers took the song back to all parts of the country, and the first #1 hit was established."
According to Hischak, p. 2, "Harris wrote the heart-tugging ballad in 1892 for a vaudeville singer who forgot the words during the first performance and the song failed to get any notice. When the popular musical comedy A Trip to Chinatown toured Milwaukee in 1892, Harris paid the singing star J. Aldrich Libby to insert the number in the second act. For the entire three verses and three refrains the audience was silent and remained so after the song; Harris thought he had written a dud. Then the audience rose to its feet and cheered for five minutes." Naturally the song stayed in the show, and went on to become big in vaudeville; John Philip Sousa made it part of his shows, and it was included in the musical "Show Boat," where it is said to have made Magnolia Ravenal a star.
Interestingly, the other hit song from "A Trip to Chinatown," "The Bowery," was also added to the show after its premier (Hischak, p. 36). Makes you wonder what the original show was like....
Finson, p. 69, says that the song sold 400,000 copies in the first few months of its release, peaking at 5,000 copies a day -- an incredible rate for sheet music. Little wonder, then, that Harris titled his 1926 autobiography After the Ball: Forty Years of Melody And Harris's publishing company adopted as its logo the image of a boy chasing (or, one might say, going AFTER) a ball. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: SRW169

After the Ball Was Centered

DESCRIPTION: Sports parody of "After the Ball": "After the ball was centered, After the ball was through, Barron got up his temper, And away with the ball he flew... And Scott ran out of the goalpost, After the ball."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: sports derivative humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 84, "After the ball was centred" (1 text)
Roud #4859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "After the Ball" (tune) and references there
File: KSUC084A

After the Ball Was Over, Sally Plucked Out Her Glass Eye

DESCRIPTION: "After the ball was over," Sally removes her glass eye, false teeth, cork leg and false hair.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: hair dancing humorous nonballad parody oldmaid disguise derivative
FOUND IN: Ireland US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 4, "After the Ball Was Over, Sally Plucked Out Her Glass Eye" (2 texts)
Roud #4859
RECORDINGS:
Natalie Villmer, "After the Ball" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #716, recorded 10/20/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Warranty Deed (The Wealthy Old Maid)" [Laws H24] (theme)
cf. "After the Ball" (tune)
NOTES [43 words]: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin: "It is a parody of the kind common among children" and quotes an almost identical parody reported by Opie and Opie in The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren. The parody is of Charles K Harris's "After the Ball." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: OCC004

After the Battle Mother

DESCRIPTION: The wounded singer is lying on the battle field among the dead and dying. When "the foemen turned and fled" his wound stopped him from following. He waits for morning. "Still I feel that I shall see you and the dear old home again"
AUTHOR: George F. Root (1820-1895) (source: PopMusicMTSU 94-017 Goldstein ID 001256-BROAD)
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (sheet music published by Root & Cady, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "Still upon the field of battle, I am lying, mother dear, With my wounded comrades waiting." Many are dead, many more gasping out their dying breaths. The singer is wounded but alive. He wishes he could go with his victorious comrades, but when "the foemen turned and fled" his wound stopped him from following. He waits for morning. "Still I feel that I shall see you and the dear old home again"
KEYWORDS: battle Civilwar war death dying injury nonballad mother soldier
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 3, "Just After the Battle" (1 text)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 154-156, "Just After the Battle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 82-83, "Just After the Battle" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1172, p. 80, "Just After the Battle, Mother" (10 references)
Dime-Song-Book #14, p. 20, "Just After the Battle" (1 text)
Roud #4277
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(203)=Harding B 11(204), "Just After the Battle, Mother," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also 2806 c.13(142), unknown, n.d.; Firth c.14(266), "Just After the Battle," unknown, n.d.
LOCSinging, cw103160, "Just After the Battle" ("Still upon the field of battle"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also sb20250b, "Just After the Battle"; hc00015a, hc00015b, "Just After the Battle Mother"; cw1000070, cw100080, "After the Battle Mother"
PopMusicMTSU, 94-017 Goldstein ID 001256-BROAD, "After the Battle Mother" ("Still upon the field of battle"), J.H. Johnson (Philadelphia), 1858-1859 and 1863-1876
NOTES [73 words]: This was one of George F. Root's attempts to follow up on the success of "Just Before the Battle, Mother." It didn't deserve success -- and doesn't seem to have *had* much success, at least in tradition, despite repeated printings. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging cw103160: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MuLa003

After the Roundup

See When the Work's All Done This Fall (File: LB03)

After the Strike Is Over

See The Scab's Lament (File: LDC170)

After the War Is Over

DESCRIPTION: "Angels are weeping o'er the foreign war... But still they are calling young men to war.... After the war is over, after the world's at peace, many a heart will be aching After the war has ceased. Many a home will be vacant, many a child left alone...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: war death derivative
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 855, "After the War is Over" (1 short text)
Roud #7530
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "After the Ball" (tune)
File: R855

After Verbs to Remember

DESCRIPTION: Grammatical mnemonic: "After verbs to remember, to pity, forget, The genitive case must be properly set." "Add to these, Females, cities, countries, trees."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | Latin grammar
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 66, "After verbs to remember, to pity, forget" (1 text)
Roud #25499
NOTES [242 words]: For those who are not familiar with Latin grammar, the normal structure of a sentence is to have a subject, a verb, and an object, e.g. "I remember him" ("I" being the subject, "remember" the verb, and "him" the object). The subject is in the nominative case, the object normally in the accusative. (In English, nouns generally don't have cases, but pronouns do -- for instance, "I" is nominative, "me" is accusative and dative, "my" is genitive; similarly, "he" and "she" are nominative; "him" and "her" accusative/dative; "his" and "hers" genitive).
However, in Latin, a verb can sometimes take an irregular object. That is the case in this rhyme. In Latin, instead of "I remember him," with "him" being accusative, it takes a genitive object -- which, if translated literally, would be "I remember his."
The second part of the rhyme concerns prepositions -- always a problem when translating between languages, because they almost always have different domains. The closest Latin preposition to the English preposition "to" (in the sense of "toward" or "into") is "ad," but the equivalence is imperfect. In the specific cases cited, Latin uses "in" instead of "ad" (in English, this is sort of like using "in" instead of "into"). The rhymes are simply helps to remember ways in which Latin seems unnatural to English speakers. Wish we'd had those when I was having to learn Latin in middle school -- maybe I would actually have learned something! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC066A

Afternoon Like This, An

DESCRIPTION: "An afternoon like this it was in tough old Cherokee An outlaw come a-hornin' in an' ask who I might be...." The singer boasts of Indians and outlaws in his background (e.g. Jesse James was his uncle), of learning to swear before learning to talk, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Hoofs and Horns)
KEYWORDS: cowboy outlaw bragging family
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 35, "Cowboy Boasters" (5 texts, 2 tunes; this is the "E" text)
Roud #11217
File: FCW035E

Afton Water

See Flow Gently Sweet Afton (File: FSWB253A)

Ag Lochan na Muinge

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "A mock epic on a bicycle accident suffered by a local brave. The event takes on international significance with messages of condolence from President de Valera, Mussolini, and Hitler, and from President Roosevelt of the United States."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 5, "Ag Lochan na Muinge" (1 text)
NOTES [19 words]: The description is the [repunctuated] "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC005

Again and Again and Again

See I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male) (File: R365)

Again the Loud Swell Brought the Object in View

DESCRIPTION: Nancy sees the victim in the wave and rushes in to save him. "Then he grasped her; they sunk, in the wave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: rescue drowning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #66, p. 2, ("Again the loud swell brought the object in view") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1911, "Again the Loud Swell Brought the Object in View" (1 fragment)
Roud #13556
File: GrD81911

Agdalina

See Catalina Madalina (File: ACSF289C)

Aged Indian, The (Uncle Tohido)

DESCRIPTION: A hunter, his wife, and his daughter live near Indians. One day, when the hunter is gone, an Indian comes and takes the child from the frantic mother. The child never returns, but teaches the Indian to love and revere the Bible
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) abduction Bible
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 294-295, "Uncle Tahiah" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 53, pp. 124-125, "The Aged Indian" (1 text)
Roud #6553
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fair Captive" (plot elements)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Uncle Tahia
NOTES [13 words]: Your guess is as good as mine as to whether this is pro- or anti-Indian. - RBW
File: LPnd124

Ages of Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "In prime of years, when I was young, I took delight in youthful toys." "At seven years old I was a child." "At twice seven, I must needs go learn." "At three times seven, I waxed wild." The singer tells of life seven years at a time and prepares to ldie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland); supposedly printed in broadside by Thackeray before 1700 [according to Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland]; c. 1790 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 3(39))
KEYWORDS: age drink hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Poem #2, pp. 7-10, "The Life and Age of Man" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 240-242, "The Life and Age of Man" (1 text)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 20-21, "The Ages of Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #617
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 3(39), "The Age of Man, displayed in ten different stages of life" ("In prime of years when I was young"), J. Evans and Co. (London), c1790; also 2806 c.16(317), "The Age of Man, displayed in ten stages of life"; Harding B 28(230), "The Ten Stages of Human Life"; Harding B 17(2a), Firth c.21(47), "Age of Man"; Harding B 15(279b), "The Seven Ages of Man" [apparently a printer, Such, decision to omit stage 8, 9 and the conclusion; in some other broadsides those verses are printed in a second column under some other song ...]; Firth c.21(46), "The Seven Ages of Man" [... as in this case where Such prints the final three verses "(continued.)" in a second column]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Seven Times One (The Song of Seven)" (theme)
NOTES [139 words]: Jean Ingelow wrote a poem, "Seven Times One" or "The Song of Seven," published, e.g., on p. 126 of Jean Ingelow, [The Poetical Works of Jean Ingelow] (N.B. Poems is the common title of this work, but my copy simply says Jean Ingelow on the cover and spine, and has no title page. Nor is there a copyright claim; the dedication is from 1863, but the book seems to have been published by T. Y. Crowell & Co. in the 1870s). This follows the same format as this song, being a child's account of life at seven-times-one, seven-times-two, etc., although it does not reach the age of seventy as in this song. But the similarities are enough that I suspect some sort of dependence.
The song's reference to ten times seven being the end of life is presumably a reference to Psalm 90:10, "The years of our lives are three score and ten." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LEBC20

Aggie Bell

DESCRIPTION: Among the many bonny lasses in Edinburgh the singer loves "little Aggie Bell" He describes her features and recalls seeing her at a dance where "mony a lass that thocht nae little o' hersel'" but none outshone Aggie.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love beauty dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 716, "Aggie Bell" (1 text)
Roud #6154
NOTES [22 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quoting Greig's source's [Bell Robertson's] notes: "This is a stray song I picked up. During the Creman [sic] war." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4716

Aghaloe Heroes

See The Aughalee Heroes (File: Zimm098)

Agincourt Carol, The

DESCRIPTION: King Henry (V) travels to France "wyth grace and myght of chyvalry," captures Harfleur, and wins a great victory at Agincourt, "Wherfore Englonde may call and cry, 'Deo gracias (x2) anglia Rede pro victoria.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1500 (Bodleian MS Selden B. 26); hints in chronicles imply that it was sung at Henry V's return to England 1415/16
KEYWORDS: England France battle royalty MiddleEnglish
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1413 - Accession of Henry V
Aug 11, 1415 - Invasion of France
Sept 22, 1415 - Surrender of Harfleur
Oct 25, 1415 - Battle of Agincourt. Henry V, outnumbered by about 10 to 1, defeats the French, inflicting casualties in the same 10:1 ratio
1422 - Death of Henry V
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #426, p. 289, "(Owre kynge went forth to Normandy)" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 29-31, "For the Victory at Agincourt" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XIX, pp. 60-61, "For the Victory of Agincourt" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics 51, "(The Agincourt Carol)" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 39, "Song on the Victory of Agincourt" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 25-30, "The Song of Agincourt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 189-190, "The Agincourt Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols #49, "The Agincourt Carol" (1 text)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 45-46, "The Agincourt Song" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #2716
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #4317
DT, AGINCRT1*
ADDITIONAL: Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #90, pp. 156-156, "(Deo gracias, Anglia)" (1 text)
Rossell Hope Robbins, _Historical Poems of the XIVth and XVth Century_, Columbia University Press, 1959, #32, pp. 91-92, "The Agincourt Carol" (1 text)
Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, pp. 21-22, "(The Agincourt Carol)" (1 text, plus an image of part of a manuscript copy facing page 60)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #151, p. 381, "The Agincourt Carol" (1 text)
Noah Greenberg, ed., An Anthology of English Medieval and Renaissance Vocal Music, pp. 62-65, "Deo Gracias Anglia/The Agincourt Carol" (1 text, 1 tune with harmonization)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSArchSeldenB26}, Oxford, Bodleian Library Arch. Selden B.26, folio 17
MANUSCRIPT: {MSCamTrinityO.3.58}, Cambridge, Trinity College MS. O.3.58
ST MEL51 (Full)
Roud #V29347
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" [Child 164] (subject)
SAME TUNE:
Oh Wondrous Typr! Oh Vision Fair (English version of "Caelestis formam gloriae) (#80 in the 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
For the Victory at Agincourt
NOTES [730 words]: The Latin refrain means, "Thank God, England, for victory."
Henry V had a legitimate claim to the throne of France derived from his great-grandfather Edward III (whose mother had been a French princess). Under English law, he was rightful King of France (or would have been, were it not for the fact that Henry had cousins who were proper heirs to both the thrones of England and France. But that's another story).
The French, however, didn't want an English king, and eventually dredged up the "Salic Law" to prevent succession through the female line. Henry V's predecessors Richard II and the usurper Henry IV had been too busy to do anything about being excluded from the succession, but Henry V had the leisure to invade France.
The invasion of 1415 was the first and most spectacular of Henry's campaigns. After taking Harfleur to give him a base in Normandy, he engaged in a great chevauchée (destructive raid in which he burned everything in his path).
The enraged French pursued, and even appeared at one point to have Henry trapped; he reportedly offered terms, which the French foolishly ignored (they thought ten to one odds in their favor were enough to win the day). Henry found a good position and waited for the French to show up. He then used his longbowmen to shatter their army. He proceeded to Calais to return his army to England and prepare his next campaign.
Henry reportedly forbade any musical odes to Agincourt, preferring to give credit to God. He got them anyway (though the clever author here never explicitly credits Henry).
For more historical background, see "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" [Child 164].
Greene, pp. lvi-lvii, makes the interesting point that, although generally called "The Agincourt Carol," this song as preserved in the manuscripts is not a carol, because carols have a unison part, and this song does not; the verses are in two-part harmony, with three parts in the chorus.
This, the most famous Agincourt piece, appeared very shortly after the campaign. Two copies survive:
- Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Selden B.26; this is the more important manuscript of the two. With music. The Selden MS. is an assembly of five unrelated booklets, with the carols in the first part. This part was copied in the middle part of the fifteenth century (Greene, p. 335), i.e. probably a few decades after Agincourt but probably within living memory of it.
- Cambridge, Trinity College O.3.58 (a manuscript containing several carols, most of them for Christmas and the New Year; it also contains "Pray for Us, Thou Prince of Peace," and both it and the Selden MS. contain "As I Lay Upon a Night (Alma Redemptoris Mater)"). Modern catalogs will sometimes number it Trinity MS. 1230. It is a most unusual manuscript; instead of being a codex (what we think of as a "book"), it is a roll (with text running down the roll rather than in columns across the roll as in, say, a Hebrew Bible manuscript), seven inches wide by about seven feet tall (Robbins, p. 85).
There is no evidence that this song ever entered oral tradition; it's almost unsingable. But the frequency with which it is quoted argues for its presence here.
Jarman, p. 191, suggests that the song is by John Lydgate -- but while Lydgate did write about Agincourt, there is no reason to think this is his work. Lydgate was a prolific writer, but he wasn't really very good. (For background, see the notes to "The London Lackpenny.") Barker, p. 361, suggests that this was "probably a production of Henry's own royal chapel or a religious house and has been preserved in ecclesiastical archives." She suggests that other Agincourt songs were written but are lost.
This song was designed for three voices (Barker, p. 360): two voices in unison singing the verses, with the opening line of the chorus sung by a single voice, then two voices in harmony for the second line, and the remainder sung with variations by all three voices.
A high-resolution digital image of the Selden Manuscript is now available on the Bodleian web site. Go to the Bodleian manuscripts page at http://tinyurl.com/tbdx-BodleianMSS and scroll to MS. Arch. Selden B. 26. It is on folio 17 verso. The manuscript is very fine, with black and red inks and and some blue initials. Sadly, the margins have been trimmed too closely, cutting off at least one marginal remark, but the main text is intact.- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: MEL51

Agincourt Song, The

See The Agincourt Carol (File: MEL51)

Agricultural Irish Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: Mary Ann Malone is a big, strong, agricultural Irish girl. At 17, she is not educated -- "doesn't speak Italian" -- but knows "all befits a lady." "She neither paints nor powders, and her figure is her own" She's aggressive. She will strike for her wages.
AUTHOR: J. F. Mitchell (words and music) (source: broadside, LOCSheet sm1885 05879)
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1885 05879)
KEYWORDS: work humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 66, "The Agricultural Irish Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 99, "She's a fine big lump of an Irish a-gir-a-cultural girl" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 244, "The Agricultural Irish Girl"
Roud #V12873
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1885 05879, "Mary Ann Malone The Agricultural Irish Girl," Chas. D. Blake (Boston), 1885 (tune)
NOTES [16 words]: The sheet music version takes place in New York. As O Lochlainn suspects, "probably American" - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OLcM066

Ah Roop Doop Doop

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis very well done, says Johnny Brown, Is this the way to London town? I'll stand you thus, I'll stand you by, Until you hear the watchman cry: A roop doop doop doop doodle doodle do, A roop doop doop doop doodle doodle do!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: travel
FOUND IN: US(So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 448, "Ah Roop Doop Doop" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Aubrey M. Tizzard, _On Sloping Ground Reminiscences of Outport Life In Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland_ (edited by J. D. A. Widdowson), Breakwater Books, 1984, p. 127, "(Very Well Done, Says Johnny Brown)" (1 fragment)
Roud #7607
File: R448

Ah Wonder Who's A Knocking

DESCRIPTION: "Ah wonder who's a knockin On me door It is Johnny McKella and Tommy Anderson"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: drink party nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 17, "Ah Wonder Who's A Knocking" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [70 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "... said to be a 'drinking song' the Blacks in the village learned from the planters during drinking bouts at the 'great house'.... The two friends calling upon their sleepy drinking partner do not call out in the night[. T]hey knock so as not to disturb the neighbors. On Saturday nights, on the plantations, in the olden days, the planters went from estate to estate drinking and feasting." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo017

Ah Wooney Cooney

See A Wooney Cooney Cha a Wooney (File: ACSF147A)

Ah-Hoo-E-La-E

DESCRIPTION: Javanese sea shanty. "Ah hoo-e, la-e, ah hoo-e, la-e, ah-e, hoo-e, ah hoo-e, la-e ung!" Used as a hauling and loading shanty, with the pull on the syllable "Ung."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips)
KEYWORDS: shanty foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Indonesia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, p. 115, "Ah-Hoo-E-La-E" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, p. 339, "Ah, Hoo-E La-E" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [20 words]: Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips says he took it down from the coolies singing and can't vouch for the translation. - SL
Last updated in version 3.3
File: Harl115

Ah, Hoo-E La-E

See Ah-Hoo-E-La-E (File: Harl115)

Ah, Poor Bird

DESCRIPTION: Round. "Ah, poor bird, Take thy flight, High above the sorrows Of this dark night."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 412, "Ah, Poor Bird" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 442, 450, 451, 452, "Ah, Poor Bird" (notes only)
cf. SongsOfAllTime, p. 17, "Thou Poor Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, Dennis Cook, "Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose/Ah, Poor Bird" (Piotr-Archive #602, recorded 06/08/2023; medley of "Rose, Rose " and "Ah, Poor Bird," with the first sung to the tune of the "Souling Song")
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Aw, Poor Bird
NOTES [82 words]: The song "You Poor Bird" in SongsOfAllTime runs "Thou poor bird, Mourn't the tree, Where sweetly thou didst warble In thy wand'rng free." No source is listed -- very unusual in this part of the book.
Obviously it has nothing in common with the text of "Ah, Poor Bird" cited in the description. But both are rounds, of the same length, about "poor birds." I suspect the SongsOfAllTime text is a flowery rewrite of "Ah, Poor Bird," and so am mentioning it here. I am not certain, of course. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ACSF442P

Ah, Smiler Lad

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls to his horse Smiler how they had been laughed at by "yon muckle tearers frae Pitgair" before the ploughing match. "When the wark was a' inspeckit" they were best of sixty ploughs. He makes Smiler's bed and feeds him.
AUTHOR: John Sim (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #166, p. 2)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: contest farming nonballad recitation horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #66, p. 2, ("Ah, Smiler lad, my trusty frien'") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 425, "Ah, Smiler Lad" (1 text)
Roud #5942
NOTES [53 words]: Greig: "... a ploughman's address to his horse when suppering him after a ploughing match. The match took place at Tyrie Mains about 1812, and the plouhgman in question was said to come from Rora. The piece is not a song, but it is so good and seasonable that we must try to find room for as much of it as possible." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3425

Ah! Si Mon Moine Voulait Danser!

DESCRIPTION: French: The young woman wants a monk (the word also means a spinning top) to dance. She offers him a cap, a gown, etc., then a psalter; he apparently refuses each. She says she would offer him more, but he has taken a vow of poverty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (Gagnon, Chansons populaires du Canada, according to Fowke/Johnson)
KEYWORDS: playparty clergy dancing foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 106-107, "Ah! Si Mon Moine Voulait Danser!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 40, "Ah! Si Mon Moine Voulait Danser!" 1 English & 1 French text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 327, "Ah! Si Mon Moine Voulait Danser!" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Grace Lee Nute, _The Voyageur_, Appleton, 1931 (reprinted 1987 Minnesota Historical Society), pp. 136-138, "Ah! Si Mon Moine Voulait Danser" (1 text plus English translation, 1 tune)
Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 80-81, "Ah! Si Mon Moine Voulait Danser! (Come and Dance with Me!)" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
File: FJ106

Aiken Drum

DESCRIPTION: Aiken Drum lives in the moon, plays with a ladle, dresses in food including breeches of haggis bags. Willy Wood lives in another town, plays on a razor, eats Aiken Drum's clothes but chokes on the haggis bags
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: clothes death food humorous talltale
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 164, "Aitken Drum" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 7, "There was a man lived in the moon, lived in the moon, lived in the moon" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #254, pp. 157-158, "(There was a man lived in the moon, lived in the moon, lived in the moon)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 97, "(There came a man to our town)" (1 short text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 25, "Aiken Drum" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 95, "Aiken Drum" (1 text)
DT, AIKDRUM* AIKDRUM3*
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblines, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures_, 1976 (I use the 1977 Pantheon paperback), p. 2, article "Aiken Drum" (1 partial text plus extended discussion)
Roud #2571
NOTES [117 words]: A haggis bag, I guess, would be a sheep's stomach lining. - BS
The dating on this song is a bit uncertain. The Opies apparently cite 1821 on the basis of Hogg's Jacobite Relics -- but that is the other "Aikendrum" ("Ken ye how a Whig can fight, aikendrum, aikendrum). It is generally claimed that the word "Aikendrum" in that song is derived from the character in this, which would of course make this older -- but I know of no proof of that assertion. Hogg does quote a snippet of what appears to be this song, but the whole thing is awfully thin. The Lyle-Crawfurd 1828 date is firmer. Briggs gives a firm date of 1878 for "Aiken Drum" as the name of a brownie mentioned by William Nicholson. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: OO2007

Aiken Drum (II)

See Aikendrum (File: RcAikDr1)

Aikendrum

DESCRIPTION: "Ken ye how a Whig can fight?" The ballad gives examples that Whigs can't fight, that Sunderland, who had sworn to clear the land, cannot be found. The song imagines "the Dutchmen" drowned, Jacobite victory, and King James crowned.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Scotland humorous nonballad patriotic Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1694, "Aiken Drum" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 7, "Aikendrum" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, AIKNDRUM*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 41-42, "Aiken Drum" ("There cam a man to our town, to our town, to our town") (1 tune)
Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #101, p. 63, "Aiken Drum"
Roud #2571
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Aikendrum" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ye Jacobites By Name" (tune)
NOTES [953 words]: Opie 7 quotes the first lines of this song noting that it is "a ballad about the opposing armies before the battle of Sheriffmuir (1715)." The Battle of Sheriffmuir took place November 13, 1715 between the Jacobites and Hanoverians. Told from the Jacobite viewpoint this song does not reflect the outcome of the battle. Both sides claimed victory in this biggest battle of the 1715 Jacobite uprising. - BS
The Digital Tradition lists this to the tune of "Captain Kidd." The two are related, I think, but Ewan MacColl's tune is shifted to minor and has other differences. On the other hand, MacColl's tune does not entirely match Hogg's, which is in natural minor. MacColl's text appears to be verbatim from Hogg except that it omits several verses that doubtless meant much more to people in 1715 than they do today.
I suspect that the song may have been mistranscribed by Hogg. The first line was clearly heard as "Ken ye hoo a Whig can fight, Aikendrum, aikendrum." But "hoo" can be either "how" (as Hogg and the above description) or "who"; the latter makes more sense.
The song refers to "Sunderland," which on its face would appear to be Charles Spencer, Third Earl of Sunderland (1674-1722), a Whig politician who had been one of the leaders of the governments from 1706-1710, and who intrigued for high office under George I as well (OxfordCompanion, p. 900). In this period, though, he was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and doing very little other than trying to get higher office out of George I.
I would point out, however, that Sunderland did, as the song claims, "vanished frae oor strand." He was forever trying to get George I's attention, and, according to Brumwell/Speck, p. 377, "His chance came when the king went to Hanover. Sunderland went abroad ostensibly on health grounds, only to make a beeline for the royal presence."
"Sunderland" was also the title of Robert Spencer (1641-1702), who had intrigued his way into the government of James II by promising that James would be able to pass some of his pro-Catholic legislation and then, having gotten into power, knew he couldn't pull it off but couldn't deflect James (Miller, p. 174). He was thus a trimmer who had contributed significantly to the downfall of the Stuarts, which might explain why he would have been remembered in this song even though he can't actually be a character in it.
Given these historical problems this, it is generally agreed that the "Sunderland" of the song is in fact "Sutherland," a Hannoverian general in Scotland who was responsible for guarding Scotland but who was outmanuevered by the Jacobite Sir Donald MacDonald.
Not that that Jacobite success did much good. John Erskine, Earl of Mar (1675-1732), had been part of the government under Queen Anne, but was dismissed after George I took the throne in 1714. He finally cast his lot with the Jacobite forces, and commanded the rebels at Sheriffmuir, the great battle of the 1715 rebellion.
His opponent, the Duke of Argyll (1678-1743), was a genuine soldier, having served with distinction under Marlborough. He had also actively supported the Act of Union (Brumwell/Speck, p. 31). He was an obvious choice to command the Hanoverian forces in Scotland.
According to Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 53, Sheriffmuir took place on a "bitterly cold day." The Jacobites had an overwhelming numerical advantage (usually listed as on the order of 9000 men to Argyll's 3500 or so), but Mar had no idea what to do with his troops and the battle -- the only serious clash of the 1715 Jacobite rebellion -- was a tactical draw, with both armies gaining ground on the right and yielding it on the left (Mitchison, p. 323). Mar, still possessed of his big numerical advantage, didn't even try to hold the field. He proceeded to wander around Scotland for a while, then fled into exile with the Old Pretender James (III).
As for James himself, he hadn't made it to Scotland at the time, and Susan Maclean Kybett (who is, to be sure, rather an anti-Stuart biographer) "wonders why James came to Scotland at all" (p. 16). She also notes that James came to be called "Old Mr. Melancholy" (which fits), adding that his presence largely quelled what enthusiasm for rebellion there remained.
I have never seen an explanation for the "Aikendrum" chorus. Alexander, p. 2, explains the name in a way somewhat reminiscent of J. K. Rowling and her "house elves": "AIKEN DRUM: A Scottish Brownie who lived in Galloway. Aiken Drum would clear up kitchen and complete any work left unfinished by members of the households he visited. In appearance he was unmistakable, as he wore only a kilt woven from rushes, yet if a grateful mortal left clothes out for him in appreciation of his nocturnal efforts, then he would leave the house, never to return.
Katherine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblines, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, 1976 (I use the 1977 Pantheon paperback), p. 2, gives a firm date of 1878 for "Aiken Drum" as the name of a brownie mentioned by William Nicholson. - RBW
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 credits Sir Walter Scott as provider of the clue that "Sunderland should have been written Sutherland... [The song] refers to the state of the Jacobite and Whig armies immediately previous to the battle of Sheriffmuir [November 13, 1715], and must have been a song of that period." Hogg then has the verse beginning "Donald's running round and round" refer to "Sir Donald MacDonald [who] came down from Sky[e], with 700 hardy islanders in his train; on which ... they chased Lord Sutherland's men to the hills." He has the verse beginning "Did you hear of Robin Roe" refer to Sir Robert Monroe "who was joined with Sutherland at that period." - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: RcAikDr1

Aikey Brae

DESCRIPTION: Sunday, singer and his friends go to the horse market at Aikey Fair. He dresses for Sunday. He is surprised by all the cars on the road. He is disturbed by the goings on on the Sabbath where even a minister is drowned out by the activities.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Tobar an Dualchais, Andrew Robbie)
KEYWORDS: commerce religious horse technology
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Andrew Robbie, "Aikey Brae". School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1960.150.151,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 5 March 2017 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/77155/5
Roud #2500
RECORDINGS:
Daisy Chapman, "Aikey Brae" (on SCDChapman01)
File: RcAikBra

Aileen A-Roon

See Eileen Aroon (File: RcEilAro)

Aim Not Too High

See references under Fortune My Foe (Aim Not Too High) (File: ChWI076)

Aimee McPherson

DESCRIPTION: Aimee McPherson, radio evangelist, vanishes after a camp meeting; later claiming she was kidnapped. A grand jury investigation uncovers a "love-nest" at Carmel-by-the-Sea. She's jailed and bailed out; her paramour vanishes.
AUTHOR: Words: Unknown/Music: Cab Calloway
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (recording, Pete Seeger)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Aimee McPherson, radio evangelist, vanishes after a camp meeting; upon returning, she claims she was kidnapped. A grand jury investigation uncovers a "love-nest" at Carmel-by-the-Sea, where "the dents in the mattress fitted Aimee's caboose." She's jailed and bailed out; her paramour vanishes. Last lines: "If you don't get the moral then you're the gal for me/'Cause there's still a lot of cottages down at Carmel-by-the-Sea"
KEYWORDS: sex abduction bawdy humorous clergy
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1926 - The "disappearance" of Aimee Semple MacPherson
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 189, "Aimee McPherson" (1 text)
DT, AIMEEMC*
Roud #10296
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Aimee McPherson" (on PeteSeeger39)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hi-De-Ho Man" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Aimee Semple McPherson
The Ballad of Aimee McPherson
NOTES [86 words]: The song tells the story pretty accurately. - PJS
Aimee Semple MacPherson (1890-1944) was truly larger than life. Born Aimee Kennedy, she married Robert Semple in 1908; he died in China on missionary work in 1910. In 1912 she married Harold MacPherson, whom she divorced in 1921. In 1918, she founded the Foursquare Gospel church (a Pentecostal sect which still exists, though it's not overly large). 1926 saw her disappearance. A third marriage failed in 1931. She died in 1944, of a heart attack or drug overdose. - RBW
File: FSWB189A

Ain' Go'n to Study War No Mo

See Down By the Riverside (Study War No More) (File: San480)

Ain' No Mo' Cane on de Brazos

See Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos (File: LxA058)

Ain' No Mo' Cane on dis Brazis

See Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos (File: LxA058)

Ain't God Good to Iowa?

DESCRIPTION: "Ain't' God good to Iowa? Folks, a feller never knows Just how near he is to Eden, Till some time he up and goes." "Other spots may look as fair, But they lack that soothin' something' In the hawkeye sky and air." "Ain't God good to... AIn't he though?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (Cohen)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 476-477, "Ain't God Good to Iowa?" (1 text)
File: CAFS2476

Ain't Goin' to Worry My Lord No More

See Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More (File: R300)

Ain't Going to Rain No More

See Ain't Gonna Rain No More (File: R557)

Ain't Gonna Grieve My God No More

DESCRIPTION: "Hypocrite, hypocrite, God despise, His tongue so sharp he will tell lies (x2), Ain't gwine grieve my God no more." "Let me tell you what the hypocrite will do." The singer describes the troubles of life and says that he will triumph over them and Satan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Journal of American Folklore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Devil floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, pp. 72-74, "Ain't Gwine Grieve My God No More" (1 text)
Roud #8903
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ain't Gwine Grieve My Lord No More" (lyrics, idea)
cf. "Talking Blues" (lyrics)
File: CoCo072

Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more...." Verses give conditions for getting into heaven, e.g. "You can't get to Heaven on roller skates, You'll roll right by them pearly gates." Instructs the listener to help the singer get to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious clergy
FOUND IN: US(SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Randolph 300, "Oh You Caint Go to Heaven" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 549, "Ain't Goin' to Worry My Lord No More" (1 text, perhaps somewhat adapted (e.g. the second verse is "If you get there before I do... Punch a little hole and pull me through"), but too short and too similar to this to separate)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 549, "Ain't Gonna Worry My Lord No More" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 22, "Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 82-84, "I Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More" (1 text, 1 tune -- probably composite, though the conflation may be the work of the informant rather than the Pankakes)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 276, 285, 289, 292, 309, "You Can't Get to Heaven" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 15, "I Grieve My Lord" (1 text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Jay Mechling, "Magic of the Boy Scout Campfire," Volume 93, Number 367 (Jan-Mar 1980), p. 41, "You Can't Get to Heaven" (1 text)
DT, GRIEVLD
Roud #12801
RECORDINGS:
Commonwealth Quartet, "I Ain't Gonna Grieve" (Conqueror 7079, 1928)
Walter "Kid" Smith & Norman Woodlief with Posey Rorer, "I Ain't Gonna' Grieve My Lord Anymore" (Champion 15812 [as by Jim Taylor and Bill Shelby]/Supertone 9494 [as by Jordan & Rupert]/Conqueror 7277, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ain't Gwine Grieve My God No More" (lyrics, idea)
File: R300

Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round

See Keep On a-Walking (Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round) (File: SBoA374)

Ain't Gonna Marry

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses: "Oh don't you see that turtle dove." "Went up on the mountain." "Wish I had a big fat horse, Corn to feed him on." "Ain't gonna marry in the spring of the year, Gonna marry me in the fall." "I'm just a poor country boy, Money have I none"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4)
KEYWORDS: courting animal floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 31-32, "Ain't Gonna Marry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7048
NOTES [45 words]: Every word of this floats, most of it widely, but it's such an invertebrate conglomeration that it can't really be said to be a version of any particular song. So both Roud and I file it as separate song, though one suspect it was assembled by the (unknown) singer. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BWV4031

Ain't Gonna Rain No More

DESCRIPTION: Verses held together by the refrain, "It ain't gonna rain no more." (Either between lines or as a standalone chorus). Examples: "What did the blackbird say to the crow? It ain't gonna...." "We had a cat down on our farm; it ate a ball of yarn...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonsense nonballad animal
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So) West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Randolph 557, "Ain't Going to Rain No More" (1 short text, 1 tune); also perhaps 275, "The Crow Song" (the "D" fragment might be this piece)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 409-410, "Ain't Going to Rain No More" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 557)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 430, "Ain't Gonna Rain No More" (5 short texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 430, "Ain't Gonna Rain No More" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 107, "'Tain't Gwine Rain No Mo'" (1 text, 1 tune); also p. 108 (no title) (1 text; the chorus at least goes here though the verses may be from a rabbit-hunting song)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 141, "Ain't Gonna Rain" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 102-103, "'T Aint Gwine Rain No Mo'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 163-164, "'Tain't Gwina Rain No Mo'" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 212-213, "T'ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 307, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'"
Harbin-Parodology, #104, pp. 20-31, "It Ain't Goin' to Rain No More" (1 text, which lacks the key line; it looks almost like a parody of this song)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 97, 118, 175, 193, 284, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More" (notes only)
DT, AINTRAIN
ADDITIONAL: Melville J. Herskovits and Frances S. Herskovits, _Trinidad Village_ (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947), p. 284, ("John Gilman want tobacco") (1 text)
Roud #7657
RECORDINGS:
The Airport Boys, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (Bluebird B-11290, 1941)
Al Bernard, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (Puritan 11305, 1923)
[Al] Bernard & [Frank] Ferera, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (Cameo 487, 1924)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (OKeh 40204, 1924)
Ed Clifford [pseud. for Vernon Dalhart], "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (Bell P-279, 1924)
Wendell Hall, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (Victor 19171, 1923) (Edison 51261, 1923) (Gennett 5271, 1923) (CYL: Edison [BA] 4824, n.d.)
Ernest Hare, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (OKeh 40140, 1924)
[Billy] Jones & [Ernest] Hare "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (Columbia 87-D, 1924) (Edison 51430, 1924) (CYL: Edison [BA] 4935 [as "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More"], n.d.).
Victoria Phillip and Dixon [Ebenezer] Philip, "John Gilman Want Tobacco" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (Columbia 15447-D, 1929; on GoodForWhatAilsYou)
Tune Wranglers, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (Bluebird B-7272, 1937)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ain't No Bugs on Me" (tune, structure)
cf. "Ain't Got to Cry No More"
cf. "The States Song (What Did Delaware?)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The States Song (What Did Delaware?) (File: CAFS1162)
The K26 Song (File: Tawn111A)
Tenor solo, "The Klansman and the Rain" (Special K-3, rec. c. 1924)
W. R. Rhinehart, "Klucker and the Rain" (100% K-30, rec. 1924)
Camp Days ("All winter long the days drag on, And then I nearly die") (Harbin-Parodology, #232, p. 59)
What You Waitin' For? ("You ain't gonna eat no more") (Harbin-Parodology, #262, p. 65)
NOTES [80 words]: A popular version of this piece, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'," was published in 1923 as by Wendell W. Hall. Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 348, estimates that it was the #1 song of 1924. Even the cover, however, admits that it was an "old southern melody" -- and since we have traditional versions at least from 1925, there is little doubt that the song is traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R557

Ain't Gonna Study War No More

See Down By the Riverside (Study War No More) (File: San480)

AIn't Gonna Work on de Railroad

See Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms (File: CSW178)

Ain't Got a Barrel of Money

See Side by Side (File: RcSidByS)

Ain't Got No Place to Lay My Head

DESCRIPTION: "Ain't got no place to rest my head, Oh baby..." "Steamboat done put me out of doors..." "Steamboat done left me and gone." "Don't know what in this world I'm going to do." "Sweetheart's done quit me and he's gone." "Out on the cold frozen ground"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: river work unemployment home separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 80-81, "Ain't Got No Place to Lay My Head" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10027
File: MWhee080

Ain't Got to Cry No More

DESCRIPTION: "AInt got to cry no more (x2), Blackberries growin' round mah cabin door; Ain't got to cy no more." "I ain't got to cry no more... Pickaninnies rollin' on mah cabin door (sic.)." "Ain't got to cry no more... Possum gittin' fat behin' my cabin door."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 431, "Ain't Got to Cry No More" (1 text)
Roud #11774
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ain't Gonna Rain No More"
File: Br3431

AIn't Gwine Study War No More

See Down By the Riverside (Study War No More) (File: San480)

Ain't Gwine to Work No More

DESCRIPTION: "Ain't gwin to work no more, Labor is tiresome shore, Best occupation am recreation, Life's mighty short, you know.... Peter won't know if you're rich or poor, So I ain't gwin to work no more." The singer asserts they need not worry about the future
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: work money
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 234, (no title) (1 short text)
File: ScNF234A

Ain't I Glad to Get Out of the Wilderness

See The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)

Ain't I Right?

DESCRIPTION: Leader lines out "Massa killed the big old bull (duck)." All sing "Give us meat to pull (bone to suck)." Then call "Ain't I right" and response a variation on "Ain't I right," repeated. Then "all massa done for me Gimme little piece of meat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (LomaxCD1713)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad worksong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #21447
RECORDINGS:
Henry Morrison and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Ain't I Right?" (on LomaxCD1713)
NOTES [27 words]: Alan Lomax and Anna L. Chairetakis, liner notes for LomaxCD1713 have this as a "bitter work song commenting on the niggardly ways of white plantation owners." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcAiIRig

Ain't It a Shame

See It's A Shame to Whip Your Wife on Sunday (File: CSW078)

Ain't It Great to Be Crazy?

DESCRIPTION: Nonsense with chorus: "Boom, boom, ain't it great to be crazy (x2), (Silly and foolish) all day long, Boom, boom...." Example: Way down where the bananas grow, A flea stepped on an elephant's toe... Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988
KEYWORDS: nonsense humorous animal nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 192, "Ain't It Great to Be Crazy" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 131, 259, 284, 288, 291, 292, 297, 345, 388, 416, 497, "Boom, boom, ain't it great to be crazy"/"Gee, Ain't It Great to Be Crazy"/"Boom Boom" (notes only)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #589, "Way down south where bananas grow" (1 text, either a fragment of this or a floating verse it picked up)
DT, GRTCRAZY*
Roud #15691
File: DTgrtcra

Ain't It Hard to Be a Nigger

See Hard to Be a Nigger (File: LxA233)

Ain't It Hard to Be a Right Black Nigger

See Hard to Be a Nigger (File: LxA233)

Ain't No Buggers Out Tonight

DESCRIPTION: Taunt song used while playing "tag": "AIn't no buggers/bugs out tonight, out tonight, Ain't no buggers out tonight, Daddy killed them all last night."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad father
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 26, "(no title)" (1 text, filed under "Tag")
File: ZiZa026

Ain't No Bugs on Me

DESCRIPTION: Nonsense and topical verses; "The night was dark and drizzly/The air was full of sleet/The old man joined the Ku Klux/And Ma she lost her sheet"; Chorus: "There ain't no bugs on me (x2)/There may be bugs on some of you mugs/But there ain't no bugs on me."
AUTHOR: assembled by Fiddlin' John Carson
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Fiddlin' John Carson)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Nonsense and topical verses; "The night was dark and drizzly/The air was full of sleet/The old man joined the Ku Klux/And Ma she lost her sheet"; "Billy Sunday is a preacher/His church is always full/For the neighbors gather from miles around/To hear him shoot the bull"; "The monkey swings by the end of his tail/And jumps from tree to tree/There may be monkey in some of you guys/But there ain't no monkey in me." Chorus: "There ain't no bugs on me (2x)/There may be bugs on some of you mugs/But there ain't no bugs on me."
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad nonsense bug campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 226, "Ain't No Bugs on Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 244, "There Ain't No Bugs On Me" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #70, p. 23, "There Ain't No Flies" (1 text, in which flies replace bugs, but it looks like the same song, with "flies...guys" replacing "bugs...mugs")
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 535, "There Ain't No Flies on Us" (notes only)
DT, AINTNOBG*
Roud #17569
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Ain't No Bugs on Me" (OKeh 45259, 1928)
Fiddlin' John Carson & Moonshine Kate, "Ain't No Bugs on Me" (Bluebird 5652, 1934)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Ain't No Bugs on Me" (on NLCR06) (NLCR16)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" (tune, structure)
cf. "Jordan is a Hard Road to Travel" (words)
cf. "The Barefoot Boy with Boots On" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [252 words]: In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan attained great influence in the Southeast and Midwest; it took a certain courage to make fun of them in public. Also in the 1920s, the Scopes trial turned Darwinian biology into a courtroom circus; Carson vents anti-evolution sentiments in the "monkey" verse. And Billy Sunday was a popular evangelist of the time. - PJS
This seems to be a modification of "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More," with topical and floating verses inserted by Carson. The resulting song may have gone into oral tradition due to its use in camps.
Incidentally (and not too surprisingly, considering), the bit about humans and monkeys is wrong. While neo-Darwinism does posit that humans are descended from apes, and from monkey-like creatures before that, we are not descended from any living ape species, nor indeed any living monkey. Rather, humans are descended from a sort of proto-ape, which was descended from a proto-primate somewhat like a monkey. According to Richard Dawkins, The Ancestor's Tale, Mariner, 2004, p. 137, the last monkeys split from the ape lineage about 25 million years ago, and the earliest split from monkeys was some 40 million years ago (p. 141). The oldest surviving monkey species that still exist are thought to be some 15 million years old. Thus there are a total of some 35 million years of evolution separating us from the existing monkey most closely related to humans. Note that apes aren't monkeys either. Not that that would satisfy an I-don't-do-science type.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: CSW226

Ain't No Grave Can Hold My Body Down

DESCRIPTION: Singer has heard of a city with streets of gold. He has found a throne of grace. Jesus, on the cross, tells his disciples to take his mother home. Cho: "When the high trumpet sounds/I'll be getting up, walking around/Ain't no grave can hold my body down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (recording, Bozie Sturdivant)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer has heard of a beautiful city -- heaven -- with streets paved with gold. He has found a throne of grace, "it will 'point my soul a place." Jesus, hanging on the cross, hears Mary moan. He tells his disciples to take his mother home; singer laments the crucifixion of Jesus. Ch.: "When the high trumpet sounds/I'll be getting up, walking around/Ain't no grave can hold my body down"
KEYWORDS: death dying Bible religious mother Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #12182
RECORDINGS:
Caudill Family, "Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down" (Champion 902, n.d.)
Brother Claude Ely, "There Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold This Body Down" (King 1311, 1954) [he may have also recorded it in 1947]
Bozie Sturdivant, "Ain't No Grave Can Hold My Body Down" (AFS 6639 B1, 1942; on LC10, LCTreas)
NOTES [69 words]: This is very close to being a nonballad, but there's just enough narrative in the second verse for it to squeak in. It's also one of the masterpieces of the human spirit. - PJS
The reference to the (beloved) disciple caring for Mary mother of Jesus is to John 19:26-27, "When Jesus saw his mother... he said to the [beloved] disciple, 'See! Your mother.' And from then on the disciple took her to his own home." - RBW
File: RcANGCHM

Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos

DESCRIPTION: The singer remarks, "There ain't no more cane on this Brazos, oh-oh-oh; They done ground it all down to molasses, oh-oh-oh." He describes the dreadful conditions faced by the prisoners and wishes he could escape such horrors
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (field recording)
KEYWORDS: prison abuse punishment death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 305-306, "No More Cane on this Brazos" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 92, "Ain't No Mo' Cane on dis Brazis" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 58-59, "Ain' No Mo' Cane on de Brazos" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 144, "No More Cane on This Brazos" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 132-133, (no title) (1 text, heavily modified to produce a blues feel)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 77-75, "Should A Been on the River in 1910" (1 text, 1 tune; the first verse, about driving women and men alike, is from this song or "Go Down, Old Hannah", but the remainder is a separate piece); pp. 130-132, "No More Cane on the Brazos/Godamighty" (1 text, 1 tune, a mixture of this with another song Jackson calls "Godamighty" though it has almost no lyric elements in common with "Godalmighty Drag")
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 326-327, "No More Can on this Brazos" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 65, "Ain't No More Can On This Brazos" (1 text)
DT, CANEBRAZ*
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 521, "Big Brazos River" (1 text, with verses related to this althugh possiby a separte song)
Roud #10063
RECORDINGS:
Tom Hanford, "No More Cane on the Brazos" (Piotr-Archive #646, recorded 08/16/2023)
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt, "Ain' No More Cane on the Brazos" (AFS 2643 B1, 1939)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Go Down, Old Hannah"
cf. "Oughta Come on the River"
cf. "Should A Been on the River in 1910" (lyrics)
NOTES [38 words]: The amount of common material in this song and "Go Down, Old Hannah" makes it certain they have cross-fertilized. They may be descendants of a common ancestor. But the stanzaic forms are different, so I list them separately. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LxA058

Ain't No Use O' My Workin' So Hard

See Ain't No Use Workin' So Hard (File: DarNS329)

Ain't No Use Workin' So Hard

DESCRIPTION: "Ain't no use of my workin' so hard, darlin' (x2), I got a gal in the (rich/white) folks' yard, She kill me a chicken, She bring me the wing, Ain't I livin' on an easy thing..." "She thinks I'm workin', I'm layin' in bed...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: work food floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 185, "In De Mornin'" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 478, "You Shall Be Free" (1 text, with three verses of this plus one apparent floater and the "Oh, nigger, you shall be free" chorus)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 478, "You Shall Be Free" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 235, "Ain't No Use O' My Workin' So Hard" (1 text, 1 tune; also as a floating verse in the song preceding this one; see also the fragment following) also p. 236, (no title) (1 fragment)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 236, "Ain't I Living Easy?" (1 fragment, with the "white folks' yard" verse, so it might be this)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 328-329, "Ain't No Use Workin' So Hard" (1 text);
Roud #7876
RECORDINGS:
Carolina Tar Heels, "There Ain't No Use Working So Hard" (Victor 20544, 1927; on GoodForWhatAilsYou)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sugar Babe (III)" (lyrics)
cf. "Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady)" (lyrics)
cf. "Dat's All Right" (lyrics)
cf. "Tell Old Bill" (structure, refrain)
cf. "Cocaine (The Furniture Man)" (lyrics)
NOTES [55 words]: This is a floating fragment which often joins songs such as the "Talking Blues," "You Shall Be Free," and perhaps "Raise a Ruckus." Roud lumps it with all sorts of amorphous songs. But it's here as its own piece because it apparently exists on its own also. - RBW
Yep -- see the Carolina Tar Heels' recording, for one example. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: DarNS329

Ain't Nobody But You Babe

DESCRIPTION: The singer received a letter that says "Ain't nobody but you, babe." He goes to the ball (to meet her?)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt05)
KEYWORDS: courting dancing nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Ain't Nobody But You Babe" (on MJHurt05)
File: RcANBBYB

Ain't She Neat Ha Ha

DESCRIPTION: "Ain’t she neat, ha ha, sweet, ha ha, Handsome and fair, She is a daisy the boys all declare She’s a high-rolling lassie as well Say, here comes (insert name), now don’t she look swell?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: beauty campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 125, "Ain't She Neat Ha Ha" (notes only)
File: ACSF125A

Ain't That Trouble in Mind

See Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind (File: RcDGTIYM)

Ain't Workin' Song

DESCRIPTION: "Eighteen hundred and ninety-one, Fore I workses, I'd rather be hung." "1892... Me and old worksy, we done been through." And so on, with complaints about work until 1899, concluding, "Because I never liked to work-a nohow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (collected from Charley Campbell)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 289-390, "Ain't Workin' Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15585
File: LxSi289

Ain't You Glad

See The Blood Done Signed My Name (File: BSoF760)

Ain't You Got a Right To the Tree of Life

DESCRIPTION: Each verse has (the leader sing a line "Tell my father/Tell my children/Tell the world/Hey lord" a chorus replies "Ain't you got a right") (3x), and all sing "Ain't you got a right to the tree of life."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 170, "Ain't You Got a Right To the Tree of Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12352
NOTES [119 words]: The current description is based on the Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight text. The Johnsons report a different hymn with a similar same title (James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, The Books of American Negro Spirituals (New York: The Viking Press, 1953 (1925,1926)), vol. 1, pp. 183-184, "You Got a Right") which has a verse "You got a right, I got a right, We all got a right to the tree of life, Yes, tree of life." The Biblical reference is to Genesis 2.8-9, "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden .... the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil" [King James]. Also, see the notes to "The Storm Is Passing Over" and "All My Trials." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: CarCa170

Aina Mania Mana Mike

DESCRIPTION: "Aina, mania, mana, mike, Bassalona, bona, strike, Hare, ware, frown, hock, Halico, balico, we two ivy whack."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: nonsense nonballad jumprope
FOUND IN: US(MW,MA) New Zealand
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 90, "(Anna, manna, mona, mike)" (1 short text)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 102, "(Aina, mania, mana, mike)" (1 short text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #194, "Hona Mama Mona Mike" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme)" (lyrics)
NOTES [48 words]: McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks gives no explanation for this bit of nonsense, but I suspect it is a counting rhyme of some sort. Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes says it is "usually" a counting-out rhyme but gives no instances, and obviously files it as a jump-rope rhyme. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: McIn102A

Aince Upon a Time

See Eence Upon a Time (Had I the Wyte) (File: GrD71399)

Ainst Upon a Time

See Eence Upon a Time (Had I the Wyte) (File: GrD71399)

Aippley and Orangey

See The Juniper Tree (The Wicked Stepmother, The Rose Tree) (File: Cha047)

Air Force Alphabet

DESCRIPTION: "A is for those Air Force boys, with hearts so brave and true ... Z is for ... Of all the letters in my song the one that beats them all Is V for Victory, the letter that won't let the old flag fall"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: nonballad wordplay | alphabet
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 67, "Air Force Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21103
RECORDINGS:
Eddy Primroy, "War Alphabet" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Logger's Alphabet" (subject) and references there
NOTES [155 words]: Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast: "composed in the Canadian Air Force during World War II." - BS
A statement that makes it interesting that the only collections are from Newfoundland and Labrador, which were not part of Canada in World War II. Of course, Newfoundland did not have its own air force. Most aircraft in Newfoundland were in fact American. On the other hand, the song mentions the Union Jack, and it also refers to an "Air Force." At the time of World War II, the British had an independent air service, but the Americans did not. So, clearly, it is from the British/Canadian forces, not the American.
There is one curious word, the "Z" word. Z is represented by "Zefry Lines." Google searcing does not turn up anything about Zephry, or Zeprhi, lines. It is not a Newfounland word; not only is it not found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English, that volume lists only ONE word that starts with Z! - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: LLab067

Air Ye Waken, Maggie?

See Are Ye Sleepin' Maggie? (File: SaKo152A)

Airlie House

See The Bonnie House o Airlie [Child 199] (File: C199)

Airly

See The Bonnie House o Airlie [Child 199] (File: C199)

Airy Bachelor, The (The Black Horse)

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns all bachelors against his mistake. He wanders into town and meets a sergeant, who asks him to enlist. At first he refuses, but the soldier wears him down; at last he accepts. He bids farewell to home, family, and girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(816))
KEYWORDS: soldier drink separation bachelor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H586, p. 80, "The Black Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 17, "The Black Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 8, "The Black Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 58-60, "The Airy Bachelor" (1 text)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 24-25, "The Black Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3027
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(816), "The Black Horse," T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899; also 2806 b.9(231), 2806 c.8(141), Harding B 19(8), 2806 c.15(181), 2806 c.8(276), 2806 b.11(12)[some words missing], Harding B 26(60)[lines missing], "The Black Horse"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cashelnagleanna" (tune)
NOTES [128 words]: Sam Henry gives a brief history of the Black Horse, the regiment named in the song, which was raised in 1688 as the Earl of Devonshire's Horse. Henry reports that it fought at the Boyne, though this is not listed among its battle honours.
It was formally recognized for its part at Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, Malplaquet, Dettingen, Warburg, various colonial affairs, and finally the First World War, where it fought from 1914 to 1918 (including the Somme and Cambrai). The regiment became the Princess Royal's Own (7th Dragoon Guards) in 1788. The regiment's separate history ended in 1922 when it was combined with the 4th Royal Dragoon Guards; the unit is now the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, and no longer has the Princess Royal as its honorary colonel. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HHH586

Aja Lejber Man (I'm a Labor Man)

DESCRIPTION: Slovak. "Aja lejber man, robim kazdi den." "I'm a labor man, I work every day." He tries to keep track of what he is saving. He buys drinks for everyone on payday. He gets a letter from his old home, and sends his wife a hundred dollars
AUTHOR: Andrew Kovaly
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends); probably written by 1910
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage emigration home money drink wife
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 435-436, "Aja Lejber Man (I'm a Labor Man)" (1 Slovak text with non-poetic English translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL435

Al Bowen

See The Wreck at Maud (Al Bowen) (File: LSRa272H)

Ala Bala Busha, the King of the Jews

See Nebuchadnezzar's Wife (File: PalWa097)

Alabama

See John Cherokee (File: Hugi439)

Alabama Blossom

See My Alabama Sweetheart Far Away (File: ML3MASFA)

Alabama Bound (I) (Waterbound II)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the boat's up the river And the tide's gone down; I believe to my soul She's (Alabama/water) bound." Lovers are reunited by boat and train, Alabama bound. The Arctic explorer Cook is also mentioned as being Alabama bound to escape the cold.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (sung by Tom Gregory, according to Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks)
KEYWORDS: home return love separation floatingverses
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1776-1779 - Third and last exploratory voyage of Captain Cook, which in 1778 explored the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia and Alaska
1908 - Dr. Frederick Cook claims to reach the North Pole
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 598, "Alabama Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 27-28, "I'm the Man That Kin Raise So Long" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 53, "Ferd Harold Blues" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 113-114, "Big Boat's Up the Rivuh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 236, (no title) (1 text, which appears more a collection of blues stanzas than an actual song, but verses from songs such as "Boat's Up the River" and "I Got a Gal in de White Folks' Yard")
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 62-63, "Alabama Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), p. 87, "Big Boat Up the River" (1 fragment, 1 tune, possibly this)
RECORDINGS:
Arthur "Brother-in-Law" Armstrong, "The Boat's Up the River" (AFS 3979 B3, 1940)
Delmore Brothers, "I'm Alabama Bound" (Bluebird B-8264, 1939)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Boat's Up the River" (on Holcomb1, HolcombCD1)
Charlie Jackson, "I'm Alabama Bound" (Paramount 12289, 1925)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Train That Carried My Girl from Town" (floating verses)
NOTES [529 words]: Not to be confused with the Lead Belly song "Alabama Bound." - RBW
I assign the Holcomb recording to "Alabama Bound (I)" reluctantly, and for want of a better place to put it. He sings the same first verse (with "waterbound" rather than "Alabama bound"); the rest of the song is composed of floating blues verses. - PJS
That seems to be pretty typical, actually. This isn't so much a song as a first verse, a tune, and a bluesy feel. Wheeler's three assorted texts are examples of the same phenomenon, and Scarborough's has the one verse and four other unrelated blues verses. - RBW
There is also a popular song, "Alabamy Bound," with words and music by Bud De Sylva, Bud Green, and Ray Henderson, published in 1925. As far as I can determine, it's not related to this song. - PJS
There is an interesting problem here in figuring out who is meant by the reference to the Arctic explorer Cook. The Botkin text, from Coleman and Bregman, reads
Doctuh Cook's in town,
Doctuh Cook's in town,
He foun' de No'th Pole so doggone cole
He's Alabama boun'.
This version comes from a book copyright 1942.
But there are two Cooks who explored the Arctic. Admittedly only one was entitled to be called "Doctor," but in the time of the first Cook, the term was used rather more loosely.
Captain James Cook (1728-1779) explored the Labrador and Newfoundland areas in the 1760s, and the Alaskan and Siberian coasts on his last voyage (1776-1779) -- though of course never came anywhere near the North Pole; he only briefly made it above 70 degrees north. Still, his penetration of the Bering Strait in 1778 brought him north of the Arctic Circle and opened the way for exploration of Alaska's North Shore; it was the "Farthest North" in that part of the world for many years, and it would be half a century before anyone made it much north of that mark in any part of the world. Thus it is reasonable to refer to Cook as at least approaching the North Pole.
Cook had also explored the Antarctic on his previous voyage (1772-1775); that probably brought back more useful information than the third voyage. It wasn't the Arctic, of course, but it was at least as cold. And he lived through it.
On the other hand, Dr. Frederick Cook (who was in fact a medical doctor) made several visits to the Arctic, and in 1908 claimed that he and two Eskimos had reached the North Pole. His claim was subjected to much question (see the notes to "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay"), and is probably to be rejected. He nonetheless ended up as something of a nine day wonder; we have to guess whether his brief fame, or Captain Cook's enduring fame, is more likely to have inspired this song. This would obviously be easier if we had more and better texts of the relevant verse.
Note that, in addition to the two traditional songs titled "Waterbound" ("Waterbound (I)" and "Alabama Bound (I) (Waterbound II)"), there is a song by Dirk Powell, seemingly popular in bluegrass circles, with the first verse "I went out late one night, Moon and the stars were shining bright. Storm come up and the trees came down, Tell your boys I was waterbound." I see no evidence that this is traditional, so I have not indexed it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: BMRF598

Alabama Bound (II)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm Alabama bound, I'm Alabama bound/And if the train don't stop and turn around/I'm Alabama bound"; "Don't you leave me here... If you must go... leave me a dime for beer"; "Don't you be like me... You can drink... sherry wine and let the whiskey be."
AUTHOR: Words: unknown; Tune: credited on 1910 record and 1909 sheet music to Robert Hoffman
EARLIEST DATE: Tune: 1909 (copyright date on sheet music)
KEYWORDS: nonballad floatingverses train travel drink abandonment
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 206-209, "Alabama-Bound" (1 text, 1 tune, probably composite)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 54-55, "I'm Alabama Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 237, "If the Seaboard Train Wrecks I Got a Mule to Ride" (1 4-line text with lyrics seemingly from three different songs, but filed here because of the final line)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 213-214, "Shine Reel" (1 fragment, 1 tune, mentioning being "Alabama Bound" but also mentioning some being on a boat that sank, so it might be part of "Shine and the Titanic")
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 450-451, "Railroad Blues (I)" (1 text, 1 tune, which Cohen apparently considers a separate song by Trixie Smith, but her song seems to have no independent circulation and shares enough lyrics with this piece that I file it here, particularly since the change in tune might be due to the jazz arrangement)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 44 "Alabama Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 47, "Alabama Bound" (1 text)
DT, ALABOUND*
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 75, "Alabama Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10017
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Alabama Bound" (on MJHurt05)
Papa Charlie Jackson, "I'm Alabama Bound" (Paramount 12289, 1925; on Protobilly)
Louis Jordan & his Tympany Five, "I'm Alabama Bound" (Decca 7723, 1940; on Protobilly)
Prince's Orchestra, "I'm Alabama Bound" [instrumental] (Columbia A901, 1910; on Protobilly)
Pete Seeger, "Alabama Bound" (on PeteSeeger18) (on PeteSeeger22) (on PeteSeeger43)
Trixie Smith, "Railroad Blues" (Paramount 12262, 1925)
Alf "Kid" Valentine, “Alabama Bound” (AFC 2673A01, 1939)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't You Leave Me Here" (lyrics)
NOTES [334 words]: This should not be confused with "Alabama Bound (I)."
There is also a popular song, "Alabamy Bound," with words and music by Bud De Sylva, Bud Green, and Ray Henderson, published in 1925. As far as I can determine, it's not related to this song. - PJS
Norm Cohen tells Paul Stamler that "Don't You Leave Me Here," a song sung by Jelly Roll Morton, not only shares lyrics with but is a version of this song. In the absence of a definitely traditional version of the latter, we leave the question open. - (PJS, RBW)
The history of the song, or at least of its lyrics, is still something of a muddle. Wikipedia incorrectly states that the recording by Prince's Orchestra includes lyrics, which it does not. Neither do either of the sheet music publications available online. The song is part of a cluster, including "Don't You Leave Me Here", "Elder Green", and "She Left Me a Mule to Ride" (see the Brown reference) with verses swapping between the songs. My ears tell me that Trixie Smith's "Railroad Blues" is not a member of the cluster; unlike the other songs it's a straightforward 12-bar blues, and the only overlap with the common form of "Alabama Bound" is the use of the title phrase, while none of the other members of the cluster are present. The field recording of Alf "Kid" Valentine at Arkansas's Cummins Prison Farm is clearly "Alabama Bound" (he tells John A. Lomax so on the recording), but it includes verses (and tune) from the other members of the cluster. How did it get to Lead Belly? He was the Lomaxes' driver on the 1939 recording trip, so he presumably was present when the Valentine recording was made - and, except for the first verse (which he sings as a chorus) his verses are essentially the same as Valentine's, while his tune is identical to Robert Hoffman's copyrighted ragtime piece, recorded by Prince's Band, whereas Valentine sings the "Don't You Leave Me Here/Elder Green" tune, which is similar but not identical, and for which Jelly Roll Morton claimed authorship. -PJS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: PSAFB044

Alabama Flood, The

DESCRIPTION: A man on the levee warns that a flood is coming. A few are killed; those who have lost loved ones and homes mourn. The singer asks for a helping hand. Ch.: "Down in Alabama/In the water and the mud/Many poor souls are homeless from the Alabama flood"
AUTHOR: listed as "Waite" on some recordings
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recordings, Vernon Dalhart & Andrew Jenkins)
KEYWORDS: grief death river disaster flood
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb.-March 1929: Heavy rains cause floods in Alabama that leave 15,000 homeless
FOUND IN: US
Roud #21696
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Alabama Flood" (Columbia 15386-D/Harmony 879-H [as Mack Allen], 1929)
Blind Andy [pseud. for Andrew Jenkins], "Alabama Flood" (OKeh 45319, 1929)
Frank Luther, "The Alabama Flood" (Banner 6369/Conqueror 7346/Challenge 812, 1929)
NOTES [70 words]: It is a measure of how quickly the music industry operated that the Alabama flood of 1929 reached the peak of its damage on March 15; on March 21 Andy Jenkins and Vernon Dalhart were in the studios recording a song about it, and within a few weeks the records were on sale. - PJS
This raises the obvious suspicion that Andrew Jenkins wrote the song. But there seems to be no evidence in support of this hypothesis. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: RcAlaFl

Alabama Gal (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Come through in a hurry (x3), Alabama gal." "I don't know how (x3), Alabama Gal." "I'll show you how." "Ain't I rock candy?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2002 (Derek Piotr archive)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty
FOUND IN: US(NE)
RECORDINGS:
Patricia Campbell, "Alabama Gal" (Piotr-Archive #226, recorded 09/05/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rock Candy" (lyrics)
File: DPio226

Alabama Gal (II)

See Buffalo Gals (File: R535)

Alabama John Cherokee

See John Cherokee (File: Hugi439)

Alabama Sweetheart

See My Alabama Sweetheart Far Away (File: ML3MASFA)

Alabama, The

See Roll, Alabama, Roll (File: Doe035)

Alan Bain

See The Murder of Alan Beyne (File: MA243)

Alan Bane

See The Murder of Alan Beyne (File: MA243)

Alan Maclean

DESCRIPTION: Singer goes to Aulton college; at a wedding, he and Sally Allen go off into the broom. Her father demands his expulsion; the Regent grants it. The singer joins the navy, and bids farewell to Aulton, vowing that if he ever returns he will marry Sally
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1894 (Murison collection, according to Lyle, _Fairies and Folk_)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction sex travel ship father lover
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #179, p. 3, "Allan MacLean"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 41, "Allan Maclean" (1 texts plus1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan7 1403, "Allan MacLean" (19 texts plus a single verse on p. 519 and another on p. 20, 12 tunes)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 82, "Alan Maclean" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 26-27, "Alan MacLean" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 184-185, "Allan Maclean" or "The Aulton College Hall"
Roud #2511
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Minister's Son
The Four Students
Sally Allen
Sally Munro
The Wedding at Westfield
NOTES [78 words]: Greig: "Few folk-songs are more popular in the North-East than 'Allan Maclean' .... Dean Christie [Greig/Duncan7: Traditional Ballad Airs 1876-1881] takes the incident to have happened about the middle of the 18th century; but there seems to be no mention of it in the records of King's College."
Greig/Duncan7 includes a note from Christie, p. 184., quoting an unnamed source, deducing that "the expulsion, therefore, must have taken place about 1758 or 1760." - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: McCST082

Alanthia

See Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)

Alarmed Skipper, The (The Nantucket Skipper)

DESCRIPTION: Claims that Nantucket skippers were able to tell where their ships are by tasting the sounding lead. A sailor plays a trick by running the lead through a box of parsnips; the skipper thinks that Nantucket has sunk and they're sailing over a garden.
AUTHOR: James Thomas Fields
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (_Scientific American_)
KEYWORDS: talltale ship trick gardening humorous
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 192-194, "The Nantucket Skipper" (1 text)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 198-199, "The Nantucket Skipper" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 151-152, "Marm Haucket's Garden (The Nantucket Skipper)" (1 text, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Scientific American, volume 1, number 4 (1845), "The Ballad of the Alarmed Skipper" (1 text)
Roud #9172
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Ballad of the Alarmed Skipper
NOTES [104 words]: Definitely not a folk song; it's included in a couple of song collections as a gag. But it is a popular poem; Granger's Index to Poetry lists the piece in three anthologies apart from Shay, and I have seen it in at least two other books besides those four.
It apparently also occurs as a folktale, and the folktale appears to have been influenced by oral tradition. A. B. C. Whipple, Yankee Whalers in the South Seas, Doubleday & Company, 1954, pp. 167-168, has the same tale, but instead of the skipper thinking Nantucket has sunk, he tells the crew to get back to work lest he shove the flowerpot down their throats. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: ShaSS198

Alas alas the wyle

See Led I the Dance on a Midsummer's Day (Jack and the Dancing Maid) (File: GrEE096)

Alas And Did My Savior Bleed

DESCRIPTION: "Alas and did my savior bleed, And did my Sovereign die, Would he devote that sacred head For such a worm as I? Was it for crimes that I had done He groaned upon the tree?" The singer lists the faults of humanity and says how great is his debt to Christ
AUTHOR: Words: Isaac Watts (1674-1748) / Tune: Hugh WIlson (Source: cyberhymnal.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1707 (Watts, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, first edition. Source: Julian)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 4, "Did My Savior Bleed" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Benjamin Franklin White, E. J. King, et al., Original Sacred Harp (Atlanta, 1911 ("Digitized by Google") [correction and enlargement of 1869 edition copyright J. S. James], p. 290, "Victoria" ("Alas! And did my Saviour bleed?") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15070
RECORDINGS:
Southeast Alabama and Florida Union Sacred Harp Singing Convention, "Alas! and Did My Saviour Bleed" (on USFlorida01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Helen of Kirconnell" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
At the Bar ("At the bar, At the bar, Where I smoked my first cigar, And the money from my pockets rolled away") (Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 111)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
At the Cross
NOTES [391 words]: Julian, p. 34, reports, that "At a very early date it passed into common use outside the religious body with which Watts was associated. It is found in many modern collections in G. Brit., but its most extensive use is in America. Usually the second stanza, marked in the original to be left out in singing if desired, is omitted.... A slightly altered version of this hymn, with the omission of st[anza] ii., was rendered into Latin by Rev. R. Bingham, as 'Anne fundens sanguinem....'"
McKim, p. 73, observes that a very common change is to alter the last phrase of stanza 1, which in Watts's original read "for such a worm as I" (reminiscent of Psalm 22) to "for sinners such as I" (which, aside from making the singer feel less, well, worm-like, also made it resemble 1 Timothy 1:15).
Reynolds, p. 27, says that Watts's stanza five is also usually omitted, and that the other verses are often fiddled with as well. Reynolds, p. 28, says the usual tune goes by the names Avon, Martyrdom, Fenwick, Drumclog, Inveress, and All Saints. There was once litigation over its ownership, but it probably derives ultimately from "Helen of Kirconnell" (Hugh Wilson, who fitted it, said it was an "Old Scottish Melody" which he had harmonized; McKim, p. 73). One Ralph E. Hudson (1843-1901) later wrote another tune (called, not surprisingly, "Hudson"), and added a chorus; I do not know how widespread this version is. Reynolds, p. 342, says that Hudson fought in the American Civil War as a young man and went on to be a musician and Methodist Episcopal preacher.
Reynolds, p. 465, says that Hugh Wilson, who (at minimum) fitted the common tune, was born in Fenwick, Scotland, in 1766, and came from a family of shoemakers, but studied music and mathematics when he could. He eventually calculator, psalm-leader, and part-time tutor, and died in Duntocher, Scotland, in 1824. - RBW
It is common for a hymn to have a chorus added to go with a particular tune (see Richard M. Raichelson, Black Religious Folksong: A Study in Generic and Social Change (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania (Unpublished dissertation- Ph.D.), 1975 (available online by ProQuest)), p. 250). The USFlorida01 version uses the tune "Victoria" and adds the chorus ("I have but one more river to cross"(3x) "And then I'll be at rest"), as printed in Original Sacred Harp. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: High004

Alaska, or Hell of the Yukon

See Hell in Texas (File: R196)

Albany Jail

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, one gets arrested, The other goes bail, That's what you get At the Albany Jail. The coffee's like tobacco-juice, The bread is hard and stale; That's what you get At the Albany jail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 229, "Albany Jail" (1 short text)
Roud #6587
NOTES [42 words]: Thompson says almost nothing about this song, and his text is too short to identify with other songs, but I rather suspect it's built from a "Birmingham Jail"/"Down in the Valley" variant; it fits that tune well, if you ignore Thompson's line breaks. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: TNY229

Albany Jail, The

See Sault Ste. Marie Jail, The (The Albany Jail) (File: FSC168)

Alberta

See Alberta, Let Your Hair Hang Low (File: BMRF576)

Alberta Blues

DESCRIPTION: Alberta where you been so long": he's had no loving; and "where'd you stay last night": bright sun when she got home. He asks for "a little bit of loving." He met Alberta "way across the sea, Wouldn't write me no letter, she didn't care for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Mississippi Sheiks)
KEYWORDS: love request rejection home parting separation nonballad lover
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy Gordon and His Vip Vop Band, "Alberta, Alberta" (Decca 7490, 1938)
Lead Belly, "Alberta" on "The Smithsonian Folkways Collection" (Smithsonian-Folkways SFW 40201, 2015)
Furry Lewis, "Roberta" on "Back On My Feet Again" (Bluesville BVLP 1036, 1961)
Mississippi Sheiks, "Alberta Blues" (OKeh 8773,1930)
Eric Clapton, "Alberta" on "Unplugged" (Reprise Records 9362-45024-2, 1992)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Corinna, Corinna" (original source)
NOTES [393 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought.
The description follows the Mississippi Shieks recording. Most verses are built on floating lines that other singers copy or modify. So, Clapton changes "... where'd you stay last night, ... sun is shining bright" to "... where'd you stay last night, ... clothes don't fit you right," a floating response (see, for example, Tampa Red, "Sweet Woman" (Bluebird B5812, 1934)). Singers follow the story line but add floating verses of their own. Jimmy Gordon adds "Good bye and fare you well, When I get back don't anybody tell." Furry Lewis adds "Roberta left yesterday and I'm going today, I'm getting tired of your low down way" and "... you're on my mind, Let you cry by the nickel die by the dime." Clapton sings "... you're on my mind, Aint had no loving such a great long time." The Sheiks rework a "Red Rooster" line to "If you see Alberta tell her to hurry home, Hasn't been no loving since you've been gone" (hear, for example, Howlin' Wolf (Chess 1804,1961)). Lead Belly sings "... you make a preacher lay his Bible down, ... make a jack rabbit hug a hound" (once again, see Tampa Red, "Sweet Woman"). One line does not float but changes: Mississippi Sheiks have "I met Alberta way across the sea" while Jimmy Gordon sings "Alberta, Alberta went across the sea" and Furry Lewis sings "I see Roberta going 'cross the sea"; all three agree "She didn't write me no letter, she didn't care for me." (If the singer "met Alberta way across the sea" was he a soldier in the first world war?)
Some singers start with "Alberta Blues" and turn it into something else. For example, Bill Gillum and his Jazz Boys, "Alberta Blues" (Bluebird B7341,1937) comes close on one verse--"Albera, Alberta, what makes you treat me so, You don't treat me no better than the man you had before" -- but the other verses are not at all like the Sheiks' song. Also, see "Vernita Blues."
Bo Carter was a member and manager of the Sheiks. When I was looking at Carter's discography I realized that I had missed an obvious connection. According to the Index entry for "Corinna, Corinna," Bo Carter and Charlie
McCoy recorded that song in 1929, before the Sheiks recorded "Alberta." So "Alberta" is a derivative of "Corinna, Corinna" as well as the source for "Vernita Blues." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcAlBlu

Alberta Homesteader, The

See Starving to Death on a Government Claim (The Lane County Bachelor) (File: R186)

Alberta, Let Your Hair Hang Low

DESCRIPTION: Alberta is asked to let her hair hang low, to say what's on her mind, and not to treat the singer unkind. AABA verses: "Alberta, let your hair hang low (x2), I'll give you more gold than your apron will hold, If you'll just let your hair hang low."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: love hair nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 76-77, "Roberta" (1 text, 1 tune, clearly this song though it is the moan of a prisoner dreaming of escape so he can see his girl)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 576, "Alberta, Let Yo' Hair Hang Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 85-87, "Alberta, Let Yo' Hair Hang Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 74, ""Alberta (1 text)
DT, ALBRTA
Roud #10030
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "It Makes a Long-Time Man Feel Bad" (lyrics)
File: BMRF576

Albertina

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Albertina says the story, Albertina's all for glory, Albertina that was the schooner's name, Pump 'er dry." Verses describe loading the ship, sailing away, getting stranded and sinking. Last verse has a maiden weeping for her lost lover.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_)
KEYWORDS: shanty ship wreck
FOUND IN: Scandinavia Britain Germany
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 327-330, "Albertina" (3 texts [English and Swedish], 2 tunes) [AbrEd pp. 245-246]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 162-163, "Albertina" (2 texts, Swedish & English, 1 tune)
DT, ALBRTINA
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Skonnert Albertina
NOTES [14 words]: Norwegian origin, migrated and translated into Swedish, German, English (at least). - SL
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hugi327

Albury Ram, The

See The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Alcohol and Jake Blues

DESCRIPTION: Alcohol don't kill me ... I'll never die" "I woke up this morning, alcohol was 'round my bed" "I drink so much of Jake ... give me the limber leg If I don't quit drinking it every morning, sure gonna kill me dead"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Tommy Johnson)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad disease
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1919 - The Volstead Act estabishes prohibition of "intoxicating liquors" to carry out the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
1933 - The 21st amendment to the U.S. Constitution ends prohibition.
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Tommy Johnson, "Alcohol and Jake Blues" (Paramount 12950, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Got the Jake Leg Too" (Prohibition alcohol surrogates) and references there
NOTES [122 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought.
"Jamaica ginger extract, known in the United States by the slang name Jake, was a late 19th-century patent medicine that provided a convenient way to obtain alcohol during the era of Prohibition, since it contained approximately 70% to 80% ethanol by weight. In the 1930s, a large number of users of Jamaica ginger were afflicted with a paralysis of the hands and feet that quickly became known as Jamaica ginger paralysis or jake paralysis" ("Jamaica ginger" on Wikipedia, accessed June 19, 2020). - BS
For more on jake, and jake paralysis, and prohibition replacements for alcohol in general, see "Got the Jake Leg Too." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcAlJaBl

Alder Salmon, The

DESCRIPTION: "The fishin' here is so well controlled All the big ones you must let go." If you hook a big one "take him slow Round the bend To an alder patch. Tuck him away till you can come back."
AUTHOR: James Downey (according to on NFHMacIsaac02)
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
KEYWORDS: fishing law poaching river nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
RECORDINGS:
Hector MacIsaac, "Alder Salmon" (on NFHMacIsaac01); "Alder Salmon" (on NFHMacIsaac02)
File: RecAldSa

Alderman and His Servant

See The Alderman's Lady (File: Pea783)

Alderman of the Ward

DESCRIPTION: Singer says he used to be a street laborer, but he's come up in the world: he's now alderman of the ward and his daughter's well-dressed, to boot. He brags of the trappings of his improved situation and invites the listener to be his guest
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (recording, Warde Ford)
KEYWORDS: pride work political children
FOUND IN: US(MW)
Roud #15471
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Alderman of the ward" (AFS 4209 A3, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Aldermanic Board" [by Edward Harrigan and David Braham] (subject: the perks of being a New York alderman)
NOTES [20 words]: We have no keyword for "politician"!
Irish immigrant politicians controlled many city machines in the 1800s and 1900s. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcAotW

Alderman's Lady, The

DESCRIPTION: An elderman promises a girl gifts in exchange for her love. She rejects him because he might reject her and their baby. He promises that he would take her to her mother and smother the baby. She refuses and he marries her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: marriage sex mother courting nobility rejection clothes marriage servant
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada(Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 2, "An Alderman's Lady" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 783-784, "The Elderman's Lady" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 524, "Alderman and His Servant" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #103, "The Witty Lass of London" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, pp. 108-109, "The Nobleman" (1 text)
Roud #2533
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "The Elderman's Lady" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Charlotte Decker, "The Elderman's Lady" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Cathie Stewart, "A Nobleman" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broom of Cowdenknows" [Child 217] (plot) and references there
NOTES [277 words]: Peacock points out that "elderman" may be "alderman" [so, in fact, several British versions - RBW] and that "in former times aldermen had much higher rank than they do nowadays and were often governors of whole districts or members of nobility." - BS
To back this up, "alderman" is derived from Old English "ealdorman," not related to Old English eorl="earl" but often confused with it; an ealdorman was a local governor or viceroy.
The Scottish text is vaguely reminiscent of the story of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. Edward, who couldn't see a pretty girl without trying to get into bed with her, attempted to seduce the blonde widow of Sir John Grey, but she allegedly said that she was not good enough to be his wife, but too good to be his mistress. So he married her -- to the great detriment of England, sine the marriage arguably added two more phases to the Wars of the Roses (by irritating the Earl of Warwick, which caused the unrest of 1470-1471, and because Edward, when he died in 1483, left only a teenage son with impossibly grasping relatives as his heir, leading to the usurpation or Richard III).
Of course, no one really knows if Elizabeth Woodville said that, and even if she did, it's probably too early to have inspired this song, since Edward and Elizabeth married in 1464.
I initially split this from the Stewart Family's song "A Nobleman," because the Stewart version felt so different from the English versions, but having seen the Peacock text, which to a significant extent splits the difference, I now think I was wrong; the Newfoundland text stands between the two -- and may, therefore, be the closest to the original. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea783

Ale and Tobacco

See Here's to the Grog (All Gone for Grog) (File: K274)

Ale-Wife an' Her Barrelies, The

See The Ale-Wife and Her Barrel (File: McCST110)

Ale-Wife and Her Barrel, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer's wife is an ale-seller and drunkard. She goes to market with her barrel; all know that he can't keep her out among men. Chorus: "The ale-wife, the drunken wife/The ale-wife she deaves me/My wifie wi' her barrelie/She'll ruin and she'll leave me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: marriage abandonment commerce drink nonballad wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 110, "The Ale-Wife and her Barrel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #12, p. 3, ("The ale-wife an' her barrelies") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 555, "The Ale-Wife" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 190-191, "The Ale-Wife and her Barrel" (1 tune)
Roud #6031
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Ale-Wife, the Drunken Wife
NOTES [15 words]: Despite its long history, this song does not seem to have spread outside Aberdeenshire. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: McCST110

Ale-Wife, The

See The Ale-Wife and Her Barrel (File: McCST110)

Alec Robertson (I)

DESCRIPTION: Arthur Nolan rides his horse Sulphide in the Sydney Steeplechase. The horse stumbles; Nolan is thrown off and trampled to death. Various people grieve and regret what happened.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: death horse family mother racing grief
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 65-66, "Arthur Nolan"; 150, "The Death of Alec Robertson" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 220-221, "The Death of Alec Robertson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 7, page headed "Horse racing played..."], "(no title)" (1 fragment)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Donald Campbell" (theme)
cf. "Tom Corrigan (theme)
cf. "The Death of Alec Robertson" (theme)
cf. "Alec Robertson (II)" (theme)
NOTES [146 words]: The fullest text of this song seems to be the one Meredith and Anderson call "Arthur Nolan." However, there are two other variants which refer to the jockey as Alec Robertson, so it seems appropriate to give the song that title.
The characteristic feature of this song, and the one that connects the Arthur Nolan and Alec Robertson texts, is the reference to the jockey's mother: "Poor lad, his mother was not there To bid him last goodbye, But his stable-mate stood near With sad tears in his eye."
Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 200, call Nolan a "Possibly historical jockey from Newcastle." Which I read as meaning, "We can't find any record of the guy." Similarly p. 225, the entry on Alec Robertson: "Probably fictional jockey whose often-collected song laments his death when his horse, Silvermine, fell." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: MA065

Alec Robertson (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the hobby of Australian boys Is jockeying to be, To mount a horse and scale the course No danger do they see." The usual story: Robertson races, is thrown from his horse, bids farewell to all, and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: horse racing death mother
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 146, "The Jockey's Lament"; p. 151, "Alec Robertson" (2 texts, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Donald Campbell" (theme)
cf. "Tom Corrigan (theme)
cf. "The Death of Alec Robertson" (theme)
cf. "Alec Robertson (I)" (theme) and notes there
File: MA146

Alec Whitley

DESCRIPTION: "He murdered Bert Tucker in the west (x3), And knocked a widow out of rest." "So they carried Alex Whitley to Albemarle." "He stayed there three days and two nights, And they hung Alex Whitley to a red oak limb" on about the tenth of June
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Salisbury (NC) Post, according to David Almond)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution punishment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 1892 - Lynching of Alec Whitley
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Heath Thomas, "Alex Whitley: The Man and the Ballad," Vol. VIII, No. 2 (Dec. 1960), pp. 16-21, "Alex Whitley" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bruce E. Baker, "North Carolina Lynching Ballads," essay in W. Fitzhugh Brundage, _Under Sentence of Death: Lynching in the South_, University of North Carolina Press, 1997, p. 231, "Alex Whitley" (1 text)
M. Lynette Hartsell, _Stanly Has a Lynching: The Murder of Alexander Whitley: A Family Legacy Entangled in a Web of Fiction and Folklore_, Lulu Publishing Services, 2018, pp. 57-58, "(Alec Whitley)" (1 text)
Ivey L. Sharpe, _Stanly County USA: The Story of an Era and an Area (1841-1972)_, Piedmont Press, 1972, p. 253, "(no title)" (1 text)
NOTES [2790 words]: The NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal article claims that this song, and the murderer it describes, is fairly well-known in the Stanly County, North Carolina area, but I find no sign of the song that doesn't seem to derive from the Journal's source, Heath Thomas. According to North Carolina legend, at least, Alec Whitley was not just lawless but sadistic. He was also apparently known as "Alex Whitley."
The major recent book on the topic is Hartsell's. Hartsell is Whitley's great-granddaughter, and her goal seems to be to give an alternate view of Whitley's death -- to argue that what most viewed as justice, if vigilante justice, was in fact just vigilanteism. But the book is so disorganized, illogical, and tendentious that I eventually was reduced to skipping large parts. I hope I have managed to extract the more useful parts for the essay that follows.
Older and shorter, but more reliable, is David Almond's The Lynching of Alec Whitley. I have corresponded with the author (a collateral relative of Whitley two of his great-grandparents were cousins of Whitley). He became interested in Whitley folklore as a boy in the mid-twentieth century, so the story was remembered for a long time. Almond also has a good selection of photographs of the Burris/Whitley family, including Judy Burris (p. 21), D. B. Tucker (p. 22), and Sheriff Isaiah Snuggs (p. 23), but not Alec Whitley himself (evidently none of Whitley has survived).
Baker, p. 226, says that "Whitley was the illegitimate son of Christian Burris [elsewhere spelled Burroughs] and Susanna Whitley, a member of a prominent local family. Alec grew up from a troubled boy into a troublesome man, drinking, fighting, and stealing." According to Almond, p. 1, family members made at least one attempt to force Burris and Whitley to legitimize their relationship and marry, but Burris managed to escape. Burris and Whitley had a long relationship, though; she bore him children in 1846 or so, in 1853, and in 1858. "The fourth child of Susanna Whitley and Christian Burris was a son, Alexander, born in 1861. It was Alexander, or Alec, as he came to be called, who was the most tragic product of this adulterous union and perhaps one of the most notorious figures in Stanly County history."
The genealogy preceding p. 1 of Almond says that his father's full name was Joshua Christian Burris (born 1819), and that Alec was born September 15, 1861.
(Sharpe, p. 228, seems at least to confirm that the Whitleys were important in Stanly County. In the 1850 census, the first to enumerate Stanly County as an independent county, there were 5279 residents; by 1890, it was up to 12,136. So even in 1890, just about everybody knew everyone else. Sharpe counts all the family names found in at least eight households in 1850. There were thirty such names, and all three involved in the Whitley story are among them: There were eight Burrises, ten Tuckers, and fourteen Whitleys.)
In both 1883 and 1885, Whitley was put on trial for stealing (apparently for the same crime, based on Almond, p. 3; he was convicted, then granted a new trial, which he skipped out on for many months). In the first trial, his brother-in-law Bud Cagle was also prosecuted -- and turned states' evidence, then disappeared. Cagle was no paragon of virtue; between 1883 and 1885, he was charged in various jurisdictions with fighting, "burning a house," and larceny (Almond, p. 4). His disappearance led to suggestions that Whitley had killed him or forced him to flee the state (Baker, p. 227). It appears that no one knows what became of Cagle, who disappeared around 1887; no identifiable body was ever found. The belief that Whitley had murdered him was apparently widespread -- but Almond, p. 5, believes that Cagle's testimony had not harmed Whitley, so there was no real reason for murder.
Whitley's wife Mary died some time after that, as did some of their children, and at some point Whitley went to Arkansas. (There was a rumor, probably false, that he helped along his wife's death; Almond, p. 9. There are a *lot* of rumors in this story!) He apparently traveled with his half-sister Judy Burris; they pretended to be husband and wife (Almond, p. 5; Baker, p. 227).
The man Whitley was accused of murdering in Arkansas was another Stanly County native, Daniel Burton Tucker (Hartsell, p. 5). Tucker was the husband of Sophia Morton (yet another of those Old Stanly Families), whom Hartsell, p. 22, says was Whitley's first cousin once removed (based on the genealogy on p. xi of Hartsell, which seems to have been designed to be incomprehensible, it looks as if Morton was the son of Sara Burris, daughter of Allen Burris, brother of Whitley's father J. C. Burris). Tucker went to Arkansas in 1890 (so Baker, p. 227; Hartsell dates his departure to 1891).
Hartsell reproduces an image of Tucker on p. 26. He was born in 1856, and was well enough educated (by the standards of the time) to have been a schoolteacher -- and, apparently, a good one (Hartsell, p. 28 -- though there wasn't much to compare him to; the schools in Stanly County were so bad that in 1893 they decided that even having a school superintendent was a too-expensive luxury; Sharpe, p. 71).
t's easy to see why Whitley went west; Stanly County was too hot for him. The reason Tucker went there is less clear. Romantic accounts suggest he was interested in Judy Burris (Almond, p. 6; the Arkansas Gazette account quoted on p. 29 of Almond, reported "It seems that Tucker and Burris [=Whitley] were both in love with the half sister, Judah [sic.] Burris"; similarly an account in the Aransas Democrat on p. 31 of Almond, although it uses the name "Juda Burris"). Perhaps a better explanation is that Tucker gambled (he had been expelled from college for gambling; Almond, p. 8), and was accused of various property crimes (Hartsell, pp. 28-29). It sounds to me as if he might have been a gambling addict who turned to crime to pay off his losses. And he perhaps went to Arkansas when he wore out his welcome in North Carolina. When he left North Carolina, he left behind debts and court cases -- and a pregnant wife who had already borne him four or five children; he wrote home about wanting cheaper land and finding nicer people (Hartsell, pp. 30-31).
Could his fight with Whitley have been because he had dishonored Whitley's cousin? Alternately, could it have been a quarrel between thieves?
There are multiple accounts of what happened next, which cannot be reconciled; Almond, pp. 6-8, summarizes the stories that were told. What is certain is that Whitley -- or someone -- killed Tucker in 1892 (precise date uncertain; probably between January and April; Almond, p. 8), dismembering and hiding the body. (Whitley himself, at the time of his lynching, claimed that someone named "Goodman" had killed Tucker, but if so, the man was never found; Almond, p. 13.) The mutilations were such that an Arkansas paper compared the job to the work of Jack the Ripper (Hartsell, p. 27). Whitley and Burris left the area before the body was discovered, but separated before Whitley made it back to North Carolina (Baker, p. 227). Both would end up in custody in the Tucker case.
Whitley apparently arrived in Stanly County around the beginning of June 1892. He was soon identified (Sharpe, p. 252) and was taken into custody on June 6, 1892 (Almond, p. 10). The sheriff was afraid of mob violence, and put a guard on Whitley and had people try to calm the crowd (Almond, p. 12), but before the Arkansas authorities could take him back for trial, a mob took him from the custody of the sheriff and lynched him (Baker, p. 227), burying him "in a crude box in the shadow of the same red oak tree" (Sharpe, p. 253).
At least, that's where tradition said he was buried. It is not clear that his body was ever there; when the grave was opened in 1931, "little was found" and the few bones that were there were not demonstrated to be human (Almond, p. 14), although the remnants were moved to another site.
In addition to the murder of Tucker and the disappearance of Cagle, Whitley was also suspected of murdering his wife and two children (Hartsell, p. 41). But there seems to be no surviving evidence on any of those cases. The connection with Tucker is stronger, because parts of it come from Judy Burris after she was captured and questioned (Hartsell, p. 40). Hartsell's account is extremely hard to follow, and Almond's account of it is brief, but it appears Burris says that Whitley, a few days before Tucker died, hit him with a stick. This was not immediately fatal, but Tucker was dead not long after. Hartsell thinks the fact that Tucker did not die at once acquits Whitley, but concussions and internal bleeding often take time to kill! Burris said that an otherwise-unknown "Wilson" dismembered Tucker's body (Hartsell, pp. 43-45, with the actual statement printed on pp. 46-47. Hartsell, p. 42, points out that none of Burris's testimony was ever corroborated -- and therefore therefore would have us think it is false -- but it's very nearly the only evidence we have. Burris claimed that Whitley threatened her to keep her silent, which seems strange, but Hartsell, p. 48, says Burris lived until 1957, when she was 85 years old, and Hartsell offers no evidence that Burris was ever in trouble again, so I see no inherent reason to doubt her testimony. Almond reports, p. 15, that she soon moved to South Carolina; hard to blame her!)
Hartsell, p. 40, thinks Whitley was lynched because of the murders he was suspected of in North Carolina, not for the death of Tucker. This seems not unlikely, since Whitley was apparently not facing justice for those suspected murders. To me, that hints that there are some missing verses at the beginning of this song.
The lynching itself is confirmed by newspaper reports; the Concord Standard reports that some 75 disguised men came to the jail and demanded that Sheriff I. W. Snuggs turn Whitley over to them. Snuggs refused to give them the keys, so they broke into the cell, took Whitley out, and hanged him. The newspaper reports that Whitley admitted to the mob that Tucker was killed in his house but denied that he was the killer. This newspaper account is on pp. 94-95 of Hartsell. I note, however, that she dates the issue June 9, 1892 -- which is hardly possible since that was the date of the lynching!
I find it interesting that Sheriff Snuggs was not elected to another term as sheriff after 1894 (Sharpe, p. 248), although that was not particularly exceptional; in this period, few Stanly County sheriffs served more than five years.
The killing of Whitley was said to be the first lynching in Stanly County (Hartsell, p. 6, whose book title is derived from the words heard at a time, "Stanly had a lynching"); indeed, Sharpe, p. 253, as late as 1972 regarded it as the only lynching. It is noteworthy that the first lynching in the county was of a white man. On the other hand, it wasn't a very populous county. And there certainly was racial violence there later; in the years prior to World War I, when an aluminum plant was being built in the county, many "'accidents' happened because some black man 'sassed' the foreman or otherwise disobeyed orders"; there was also a case where a clerk killed a "biggety" black man (Sharpe, p. 19). Segregation remained absolute until the Civil Rights era forced things to change -- and even in 1972, the churches remained entirely segregated (Sharpe, p. 40).
The date of Whitley's lynching seems to be a little uncertain. The song agrees with his tombstone in dating it to June 10, 1892 (You can see his gravestone at findagrave.com; it gives his birth date as September 15, 1861). Hartsell also has a photo of the gravestone, but says it is wrong (on which point everyone seems to agree); Whitley was actually killed June 9, 1892; this is also the date given on p. 227 of Baker. Possibly the confusion came because Whitley's body was dug up and properly reburied by Whitley's daughter, Hartsell's grandmother, Nelia Ann Whitley Barbee, who was illiterate and could not read the stone. But the lynching happened at night, so there might have been witnesses who gave different times, before and after midnight, and hence different dates. Or they might have forgotten the date, or not known -- this was not a highly-educated community.
Baker, p. 231, claims this song is based on "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" -- but the fit is not good. The verses of this repeat the first line three times then use a different fourth line. But "Were You There" repeats the first line twice, has a different third line, then repeats the first line again. I can't sing the Thomas text to the tune of "Were You There" that I know.
The fact that the song uses the date on the tombstone is interesting because, as mentioned above, the song was published by Heath Thomas (David Almond tells me he first published it in the Salisbury (NC) Post in 1949, whom Hartsell, p. 49, says revived the Alec Whitley story. Her clear implication is that it is a smear campaign conducted by Thomas (for no reason that I can see; on p. 49 she says he was a crime fiction writer who "mixed fragments of truth with elements of fantasy. melodrama, and imagination" to create the NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal article). She insinuates that he made up the song (p. 56) -- which would explain why he might have taken the date from a tombstone. But Thomas had a recording of it by one Russell McIntire (Hartsell, p. 57).
Baker, pp. 227-228, and Almond, p. 226, have another piece about Whitley, "Lines Written on the Assassination of D. B. Tucker." They attributes this to Rev. Edmond P. Harrington. The form is based on "Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low" [Laws M34], which Baker falsely calls a Child Ballad. Baker's copy is a printed broadside. Baker, p. 229, thinks Harrington's piece was written to be sold when Whitley was legally executed; it doesn't mention the lynching (though it does mention Judy Burris as well as Whitley and Tucker). This strikes me as not unlikely, but I see no evidence that Harrington's song entered tradition. Hartsell, pp. 17-18, also prints the piece, but with comments that show she has no understanding whatsoever of broadsides, folk music, or oral tradition (or of square dances, where she claims it was sung!). She thinks Harrington wrote it *for the lynching* -- indeed, she thinks (p. 38) that his purpose in writing it was to induce the lynching. Which is all but impossible, chronologically -- there was no time to print it!
David Almond made an interesting comment about the history of this song: "I do *not* agree with Lynette Hartsell and Bruce Baker that a song ballad was written before and sung at the lynching. Over 50 years when I was doing my research I interviewed numerous elderly people whose parents were alive at the time of the lynching and knew many people kin to Alec Whitley and possibly involved in the lynching.  None of these people ever mention the singing of any songs during the lynching itself.  None of the original newspaper articles (reprinted in the back of my booklet) mention any singing of ballads at the lynching.  While I cannot say that the ballad was *not* written before the lynching, I simply doubt it for the reasons mentioned."
Of course, most songs are written after the event; Harrington's broadside is a (probable) exception, but it's not traditional. The question is about the song quoted by Heath Thomas. I could argue that one either way.
For those interested in the history behind this ballad, I must say that I found Hartsell extraordinarily disappointing; her sole goal seems to be to eliminate the stain on her ancestor's name even if she has no basis for it; her notion of "research" strikes me as utterly inadequate, and she jumps to conclusions and thereafter treats them as gospel. She certainly doesn't understand oral tradition, or folklore; she assumes that, if a legend has acquired one detail that is known to be false, then it is all fiction; and she assumes that if a crime has not been proved at law, then it did not happen. And she's incoherent. Frankly, the fact that she had to use such poor arguments in an attempt to defend Whitley makes me more inclined to believe him guilty. Almond's account is much better, but because it mostly sticks to what is known, it often leaves us frustrated that we don't know more. As he says on page 15, "Whether Alec was guilty of the cries charged against him is something that will most likely never be known for sure. The whole truth about Bud Cagle, Bert Tucker and the other alleged murders will probably never come to light. It has all been obscured by the lynching of Alec Whitley." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: NCF8216

Alec's Lament

DESCRIPTION: ".. ye jolly bootleggers and you who handle brew: Beware of Howard Foley." Tignish was a town for fun but with Foley as policeman and Albert Knox as jail-keeper it's no place for a drinker. "I'll have to leave the village and go to some foreign land"
AUTHOR: Alec Shea
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: prison drink humorous police emigration home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 217, 241, "Alec's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14001
NOTES [47 words]: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland: "The song was written about 1960, and it adds to the fun to know that at that time the Tignish jail was nothing more than a tiny renovated shoemaker's shop."
Tignish is near the north west corner of Prince County, Prince Edward Island. - BS
File: IvDC217

Alert, The

DESCRIPTION: Alert completes its outward course. Homeward bound, on passing through Gibraltar they meet fog and storm. The crew pray on deck and shake hands; the ship sinks. Captain Butler and his crew are mourned by wives and orphans in Wexford town.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 21, 1839: "The Alert was lost of Wexford.... The crew were lost" homeward bound from Galatz (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v3, p. 54; Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 65-67, "The Alert" (1 text)
Roud #20516
File: Ran066

Alexander

See The Duke of Argyle [Laws N1] (File: LN01)

Alfarata, The Maid of Juniata

See The Blue Juniata (File: Hud083)

Alford Vale

DESCRIPTION: To the tune "Kelvingrove" ("The Shearin's Nae for You"), "Will ye come to Alford Vale, bonnie lassie O? Where tis sunny as thyself, Bonnie lassie O." The singer tries to lure the girl from the town with praises of the beautiful vale
AUTHOR: Words: La Teste, adapted by John Ord
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 84-85, "Alford Vale" (1 text)
Roud #3954
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shearin's Nae for You" (tune)
NOTES [27 words]: Although this is one of the few pieces Ord admits to retouching, he gives no clue as to why he thought it worthy of such attention. Or of inclusion in his work. - RBW
File: Ord084

Alfred D Snow, The

DESCRIPTION: Alfred D Snow is bound from San Francisco to Liverpool with a cargo of grain. The ship breaks up on the sand. Captain Willie signals hoping for help from Dunmore. The lifeguards and the Dauntless arrive too late. Only seven bodies are recovered.
AUTHOR: Michael O'Brien "the famous ballad-maker" (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 1, 1888 - "The Alfred D Snow ... was driven ashore on sandbanks at Broomhill.... Captain Willie and 24 crew were drowned." "... the tug Dauntless approached within half a mile but could get no closer. The Dunmore lifeboat crew refused to launch...." (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 74, v3, p.66)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 116-117, "The Alfred D Snow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #20425
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Orphan Girl (III)" (tune)
File: Ran116

Ali Alo

DESCRIPTION: French capstan shanty. "Ali alo pour Mascher! Ali, alo, alo... Il mang'la viande et nous donn les os. Ali, ali, ali, alo." Translation of the very short verses "He eats the meat and we get the bones," "He drinks the vine and we get the water," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (L.A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty worksong
FOUND IN: France
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 485, "Ali Alo" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf: "Hullabaloo Belay" (similar tune and chorus)
File: Hugi485

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

DESCRIPTION: "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Went to school with dirty knees, Said the teacher, 'Stand at ease.' Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: clothes jumprope | Ali Baba thieves teacher
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #5, "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" (1 text)
Roud #20766
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Robin Hood and his Merry Men" (form)
NOTES [32 words]: I was very tempted to lump "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" and "Robin Hood and His Merry Men"; I strongly suspect they derive from the same original. But Roud splits them, so I do also. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR005

Alice (The Bathtub Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Alice, where art thou going? Upstairs to take a bath. Alice with... a neck like a giraffe-raf raf raf raf raf raf raf Alice steps in the bathtub. Alice pulls out the plug...There goes Alice down the hole Alice, what does thou sayest? Blub blub blub."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: Alice, where are you going? Upstairs to..")
KEYWORDS: humorous disaster campsong | tub plug
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 120, "The Bathtub Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 277, 289, "Alice" (notes only)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 81, "Lulabelle" (1 text)
Roud #27650
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tommy, Tommy in the Tub" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sybil Where Are You Going?
File: ACSF277A

Alice B.

See Ella Speed (Bill Martin and Ella Speed) [Laws I6] (File: LI06)

Alice Is Over in Liverpool

DESCRIPTION: A sailor may marry or not, but "there's sweethearts in every port": "Alice is over in Liverpool, Jenny is in New York, Selina lies over in Amsterdam while Bridget was born in Cork... There's Dollys and Mollys, Susanna and Pollys...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity separation travel nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #29061
RECORDINGS:
John James, "Alice Is Over in Liverpool" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3AIOIL

Alice Kane Is My Name

See Abraham Lincoln Is My Name (File: ThBa065)

Alice, Where art Thou

DESCRIPTION: "The birds sleeping gently, Sweet Lyra gleameth bright, Her rays tinge the forest, And all seems glad tonight." A year ago, Alice was with him. A year later, he has sought her everywhere, and "I'm looking heav'nward now"
AUTHOR: J. Archer (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart-Songs)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Heart-Songs, pp. 462-463, "Alice, Where are Thou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25271
File: HeSo462

Alison

See Alison and Willie [Child 256] (File: C256)

Alison and Willie [Child 256]

DESCRIPTION: Alison invites Willie to her wedding. He will not come except as the groom. She tells him that if he leaves, she will ignore him forever. He sets out slowly and sadly, sees an omen, and dies for love. A letter arrives, halting the wedding. Alison too dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c, 1818 (Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads)
KEYWORDS: love wedding separation death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 256, "Alison and Willie" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's [#1]}
Bronson 256, "Alison and Willie" (1 version)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 22-27, "Swet Willie/My Luve She Lives in Lincolnshire" (2 texts, 1 tune); pp. 205-206, "Alison" (1 text, from Buchan's papers) {Bronson's [#1], with differences}
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 54-55, "Hynde Chiel" (1 text, substantially different from Child's)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 625-626, "Alison and Willie" (1 text)
Roud #245
File: C256

Alknomook

See The Indian's Death Song (File: FCW040)

All Among the Barley

DESCRIPTION: "Now is come September, the hunter's moon begun," and young men and women meet in the fields: "All among the barley, Who would not be blythe, When the ripe and bearded barley Is smiling on the scythe." Barley is declared the king of all grains
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Perkins)
KEYWORDS: food courting harvest
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 210, "The Ripe and Bearded Barley" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 300)
DT, AMNGBARL
ADDITIONAL: W.O. Perkins, The Golden Robin (Boston, 1863 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 52-53, "All Among the Barley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1283
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1871 00667, "All Among the Barley" Lee & Walker, (Philadelphia), 1871 (tune); also sm1874 10936, "All Among the Barley, J. L. Peters (New York), 1874
NOTES [48 words]: Both LOC sheet music publications credit the tune of this to Elizabeth Stirling, and item sm1871 00667 says the words to this are by "A.T." But the tune doesn't look like the one I know; I suspect both have been somewhat rewritten. - RBW
Perkins also attributes this to "E. Stirling." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BdAAtBar

All Are Talking of Utah

DESCRIPTION: "Who'd ever think that Utah would stir the world so much? Who'd ever think the Mormons were widely known as such?" The singer is happy that "the Mormons have a name." "We bees are nearly filling the hive of Deseret... For all are talking of Utah."
AUTHOR: "Ieuan" (John Davis), according to Cheney-MormonSongs
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Jan. 30, 1867 Deseret News, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest); 1868 (The Bee-Hive Songster, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #243, "All Are Talking of Utah" (1 text plus an excerpt, tune referenced)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 108-109, "All Are Talking of Utah" (1 text, tune referenced)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 601, "All Are Talking of Utah" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, 232-233, "All Are Talking of Utah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10849
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marching Through Georgia" (tune, according to Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
File: CAFS2601

All Around de Ring, Miss Julie

DESCRIPTION: "All around de ring, Miss Julie, Julie, Julie! All around de ring, Miss Julie! All on a summer day. Oh, de moon shines bright, de stars give light; Look way over yonder! Hug her a little and kiss her too, And tell her how you love her!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 106, "All Around de Ring, Miss Julie" (1 text)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 17, pp. 97-98, "Go Roun' the Border Susie" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Br3106

All Around Green Island's Shore

DESCRIPTION: A man brags to a woman about the virtues of his boat, his other possessions, and his willingness to beat his rival to win the girl. The girl replies comically in the negative.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Murphy, Songs Their Fathers Sung)
KEYWORDS: courting bragging rejection
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 135, "All Around Green Island Shore" (1 text)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "All Around Green Island's Shore" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 65 in the 2nd edition, p. 9 in the 3rd
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 72, "All Around Green Island's Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, _Songs Their Fathers Sung: For Fishermen: Old Time Ditties_, James Murphy Publishing, 1923 (PDF available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 5, "Around Green Island Shore" (1 text)
Roud #6353
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Green Island Shore
NOTES [121 words]: The "Trinity" mentioned in the song is perhaps in Trinity Bay but there is a "Green Island Cove" and a "Green Island Brook" far away in the Strait of Belle Isle. - SH
The "Green Island" in Trinity Bay is near the northwest entrance to the bay, just outside Catalina Harbour. It isn't large, but it would be a significant landmark for coasting ships traveling from New Bonaventure or Trinity to Catalina or Bonavista. Like a lot of small islands around Newfoundland, there were a lot of shipwrecks there. That of course doesn't mean that it is the Green Island of the song; the population in its immediate vicinity was small.
Doyle3 cites "Ballads and Sea Songs of Newfoundland" [Greenleaf & Mansfield, 1933] as the source. - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy65

All Around My Hat (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer's true love has been transported; (he) promises that "All around my hat I will wear the green willow... for a twelve month and a day... [for] my true love ... ten thousand miles away." He hopes they can reunite and marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Dime-Song-Book #10)
KEYWORDS: love separation transportation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South)) Canada(Mar) US(MA)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 145, "All Round My Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 126-127, "All Round My Hat" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 80-81, "All Around My Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 194-195, "All Round My Hat" (1 tune, presumably this one)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 108, "The Fisherman's Girl" (1 text, 1 tune, with the first verse being from "All Around My Hat (I)" and the rest being "The Fisherman's Girl")
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 214, "A Wreath of Green Willow"; p. 220, "(no title)" (2 fragments, both of the chorus)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 230-231, "All Round My Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #10, p. 15, "All Round my Hat" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 15, "All 'Round My Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ROUNDHAT*
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 228, "All Around My Hat" (1 text, with a tune on p. 575)
Roud #567
RECORDINGS:
Neil O'Brien, "All Around My Hat" (on MRHCreighton)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jolly Miller" (tune)
cf. "The Death of Brugh" (tune)
cf. "Around Her Neck She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (theme)
cf. "The Green Willow" ("All around my hat" lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
The Death of Brush (File: RcTDOB)
NOTES [842 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland calls this "Perhaps one of the most popular of all English love songs." And this does not even take into account the Steeleye Span recording, said to have gone higher on the British pop charts than any other traditional song. (Don't ask me if that's a compliment.)
But Kennedy also claims this as the same tune as "The Budgeon It Is a Delicate Trade" (for which see under "The Miller of Dee") -- which it is *not*; "The Budgeon" is in the Lydian mode, and his tune for "All Around My Hat" is an ordinary Ionian melody. (Possibly the two were more alike in the original version of Chappell, which was his reference for "The Budgeon"; that edition levelled some modal tunes).
One of Sam Henry's texts, "The Laird's Wedding," mixes this with "The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token)" [Laws P31]. There are hints of such mixture in other versions of the two songs. Roud goes so far as to lump them.
Spaeth (A History of Popular Music in America, pp. 83-84) has what is evidently a version of this song, from about 1840 -- in dialect! ("All round my hat, I vears a green villow.") It is credited to J. Ansell (John Hansell) and John Valentine. If this is the actual origin of the chorus, I have to think it merged with some separate love song. But I suspect the Ansell/Valentine piece of being a perversion of an actual folksong.
Hazlitt, p. 621, declares, "To wear the willow long implied a man's being forsaken by his mistress." However, none of the supporting evidence cited by Hazlitt seems very relevant.
Ault, pp.. 14-15, 519, claims that the first mention of wearing green willow comes in a poem by John Heywood (1497?-1580?): "All a green willow, willow, willow, All a green willow is my garland." The manuscript, BM Add. 15233, is dated c. 1545. We also find the notion in Shakespeare's "Othello," IV.iii, and in Salisbury's "Buen Matina" (1597).
According to Alexander, p. 319, "The willow, especially the weeping variety, symbolized the pain of lost love. Hence the expression 'To wear the willow' meant to go into mourning, especially for a bride or a girl who had lost her sweeheart."
Interestingly, something similar is found as far away as China, although the willow there was considered a more positive plant. According to Eberhardt, p. 314, "In ancient China it was customary to give someone who was going away twigs broken from a willow-tree. Thus, a scholar who was being moved to a post in the provinces would receive such twigs from women and friends assembled at the east gage of the capital city."
Simpson/Roud, pp. 391-392, note a strong association between the willow and sorrow -- commemorated even by the phrase the "weeping willow." They cite Vickery, who noted the association between willows and weeping in the King James Bible translation of Psalm 137:2 (where the exiles from Jerusalem hung their harps on the willows) while noting that Vickery thought these were in fact poplar trees. The identity of the tree is in fact far from certain. The New Revised Standard Version has "willows" in the text, "poplars" in the margin. The Revised English Bible also has "willow trees" in the text, with "poplars" in the margin. Dahood, p. 268 has "poplars" in the text but mentions "aspens" in his margin on p. 270.
InterpretersDict, volume IV, p. 848, observes that willows and poplars are fairly closely related, and both grow by watercourses. There are two Hebrew words which might be translated "willow"; one is found only in Ezekiel 17:5, the other in Leviticus 23:40, Job 40:22, Psalm 137:2, Isaiah 15:7, 44:4. My guess is, the KJV rendered "willows" based on Jerome's Vulgate Latin, which implies that the meaning "willow" goes back at least to the fourth century. "Willow" is also the rendering used by the LXX Greek, which puts us back to at least the first century B.C.E., although the unknown translator of LXX wasn't nearly the Hebrew scholar that Jerome was.
Of course, what people knew was the King James translation; the actual meaning of the word hardly matters.
Alexander, who concurs with Simpson/Roud in linking the mourning willow to Psalm 137, adds that "It was a tradition that as a result of the Babylonian Captivity the branches of some willow trees drooped to become weeping willows." - RBW
In view of the broadside parodies listed below I am surprised not to find (yet) any broadsides for "All Around My Hat."
Bodleian, Harding B 11(38), "All Around My Hat I'll Wear the Green Willow" ("All round my hat I vears a green villow ..."), J. Pitts (London), 1797-1834; also Firth b.27(536), "All Around My Hat I Wear a Green Willow"; Harding B 16(5a), Firth c.21(60), Firth c.21(62), Harding B 20(2), Harding B 11(40), "All Round My Hat"
LOCSinging, as200070, "All Round My Hat," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also cw100090, as100150, "All Round My Hat"
Broadside LOCSinging as200070: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: K145

All Around My Hat (II)

See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

All Around the Barbershop

See Pop Goes the Weasel (File: R556)

All Around the Butter Dish

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "All around the butter dish, One, two, three. If you want a pretty girl, Just pick me. Blow the bugles, beat the drums, Tell me when your birthday comes." The answer is the date in the month, which is used to continue the count
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: food music | counting-out butter dish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 32, "(All around the butter dish)" (1 text)
File: WEMM032A

All Around the Maypole

DESCRIPTION: A ring-skipping song. "All around the Maypole, And now Miss Sally, won't you shout for joy?" (Or, "Mis Sally, won't you bow? Miss Sally, won't you jump for joy, jump for joy, jump for joy.")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 706, "All around the Maypole" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 142, ("The May Pole Song") (1 text)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 224, "The May Pole Song" (1 text)
Roud #18168
NOTES [55 words]: There are of course many maypole songs in existence, the oldest known to me being "About the may Pole" by Thomas Morley (1557-1603?; for text see Noah Greenberg, ed., An Anthology of English Medieval and Renaissance Vocal Music, pp. 127-132). This doesn't really sound like it's descended from an English original, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: BSoF706

All Around the Mountain, Charming Betsy

See Coming Round the Mountain (II -- Charming Betsey) (File: R436)

All Around the Ring

See Turn that Cinnamon (File: R583)

All Around the Village

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

All Bells in Paradise

See The Corpus Christi Carol (File: L691)

All Bound Round with a Woolen String

DESCRIPTION: "There was an old man and he wasn't very rich, And when he died, he didn't leave much But a great big hat with a great big rim All bound 'round with a woolen string. A woolen string (x2), All bound round... A great big hat with a... All bound round...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: death clothes
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 157-158, "All Bound 'Round with a Woolen String" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3725
NOTES [40 words]: Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland believes the words to this to be related to "All Around My Hat." I don't see the resemblance; it made me think of "The Miller's Three Sons." The tune is said to be related to the Irish air "Old Rose Tree." - RBW
File: Lins157

All Bow Down

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

All Chaw Hay on the Corner

DESCRIPTION: "First young lady all around in the corner, All around in the center (x2), First young lady all around on the corner." "And balance to your partner. "Swing to your partner and we'll all run away." "And all chaw hay on the corner."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana)
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 21-22=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 149-150, "All Chaw Hay on the Corner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 186, "Swing on the Corner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7890
File: Wolf021

All Day, All Night, Merriam

DESCRIPTION: "All day, all night, Merriam, Sitting by the roadside digging sand, All day, all night, Merriam, Sitting by the roadside catching man. Sound bay gal don't eat at all, they buy their crayfish, Sound bay gal don't eat good food...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Courlander)
KEYWORDS: food courting nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 112, "All Day, All Night, Marriam" (1 short text)
NOTES [43 words]: One of the so-called "folk" songs my parents sang in the 1960s was "All day, all night, Mary Ann, Down by the seashore sifting sand." It's pretty clear that that was derived from this, although heavily cleaned up. I don't know how the adaption came about. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.4
File: Crld112

All For Me Grog

See Here's to the Grog (All Gone for Grog) (File: K274)

All for the Men

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a young girl... It was primp, primp, primp this way... All for the men." Typically the girl is courted, marries, (has a child), quarrels with her husband; he died, she weeps and/or laughs at his funeral; she lives happily/as a beggar/other
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "When I was a young girl... It was primp, primp, primp this way... All for the men." "The boys came courting.... It was kiss, kiss, kiss this way." "Then we quarrelled...." "Pretty soon we made it up...." "Then we married...." Girl's biography marked by the chorus "This-a-way, ha-ha, that-a-way." Typically the girl is courted, marries, (has a child), quarrels with her husband; he died, she weeps and/or laughs at his funeral; she lives happily/as a beggar/other
KEYWORDS: courting marriage beauty playparty death funeral
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So,SW) Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Ont) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1602, "When I Was a Lady" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire 14, "When I Was a Maiden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 260, "All for the Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 10, "When I Was a Young Girl" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 10, "When I Was a Young Girl" (1 tune plus a text exerpt); p. 512, "When I Was a Young Grl" (1 short text, 1 tune, which looks more like this than anything else)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #116, "When I Was a Young Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 154-155, "All for the Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 68, "When I Was a Lady" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #25, "When I Was a Shoemaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 29, "(When I was a lady, a lady, a lady)" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 124-126, "There Was a GIrl In Our School" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 126-127, "When I Was A..." (1 text, 1 tune)
Harbin-Parodology, #15, "When I Was a Young Girl" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Mimi Clar, "Songs of My California Childhood" in Western Folklore, Vol. XVIII, No. 3 (Jul 1959 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 245-246, "When I Was a Baby" (1 text)
Roud #5040 and 2648
ALTERNATE TITLES:
When I Was an Angel
NOTES [153 words]: The Greig/Duncan8 and Opie versions don't tell a story. They are a series of verses of people -- a lady, a gentleman, a carpenter, a blacksmith, and so on, as in a game -- for each of whom "It's aye O this way ... O then! O then...." I had thought about splitting this version until I read Gomme 2.362-374 who was both this version and the narrative version, and mixed versions besides. - BS
The version in Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren is similar: When I was a shoemaker... gentleman... lady. Perhaps the best split would be between the ballad and the singing game. The Irish version has a truly odd ending: A girl in school grows up to be a teacher, marries, has a baby; the baby dies; she gets a donkey, which kicks her, so she too died. And the chorus is "And this is the way she went" rather than "All for the men." It sounds as if it was sung by younger children than the "All for the Men" versions. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LoF260

All Fours

See The Game of Cards (I) (File: K175)

All Go Down to Rowser's

See We Won't Go Home Until Morning (File: RJ19226)

All Go Hungry Hash House, The

See Hungry Hash House (File: San207)

All God's Children Got Shoes

DESCRIPTION: "I got shoes, you got shoes, All got's children got shoes; When I get to heaven, gonna put on my shoes, Gonna (shout) all over God's heaven." Similarly with robes, crowns, wings, harps, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (recording, Fisk University Jubilee Quartet)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 126-127, "Goin' to Shout All Over God's Heav'n" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 168-169 in the 1909 edition)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 550, "All God's Chillun Got Shoes" (2 texts plus 2 fragments)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 550, "All God's Chillun Got Shoes" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 67, "(Goin' to Shout All over God's Heaven)" (1 text)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, p. 86, "Gonna Shout all over God's Heaven" (1 text)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 48, "Shout All Over God's Heaven" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 359, "All God's Children Got Shoes" (1 text)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 24-25, "All God's Chillun Got Shoes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 19-20, "All God's Chillun Got Wings" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #345, p. 89, "Goin' to Shout All Over God's Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 63, "Heab'n" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 13, "I Got Wings" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 11, "Heab'n" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 103, "I Got Shoes" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 332, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #11826
RECORDINGS:
Louis Armstrong, "Going to Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Decca 2085, 1938)
Big Bethel Choir #1 "Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Columbia 14157-D, 1926)
Commonwealth Quartet, "I'm Going to Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Domino 0173, 1927)
Cotton Belt Quartet, "I'm Gonna Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Vocalion 15263, 1926)
Cotton Pickers Quartet, "All God's Children Got Wings" (OKeh 8917, 1931)
Elkins Payne Jubilee Singers, "Gonna Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Paramount 12071, 1923)
Lt. Jim Europe's Singing Serenaders, "Ev'rybody Dat Talks 'Bout Heaven Ain't Goin' There" (Pathe 22105, 1919)
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Victor 16448, 1909)
Fisk University Male Quartet, "Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Columbia A1883, 1915)
Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Everybody Talking About Heaven" (on LomaxCD1713)
Mitchell's Christian Singers, "Gonna Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Melotone 6-04-64, 1936)
Dock Reed & Vera Hall Ward, "Everybody Talkin' About Heaven Ain't Goin' There" (on NFMAla5)
Southern Four: "Shout All Over God's Heaven" [medley w. "Standin' in the Need of Prayer"] (Edison 51364, 1924)
Edna Thomas, "I Got Shoes" (Columbia 1863-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
West Virginia Collegiate Institute Glee Club, "Shout All Over God's Heab'n" (Brunswick 3497, 1927)
NOTES [112 words]: Courlander believes this song to be based on the Revelation to John. It appears to me that it is simply an exuberant expression of a poor, oppressed Christian hope in the afterlife. The word shoe/shoes is used ten times in the King James version of the New Testament, but all are in the Gospels and Acts, not the Apocalypse -- and the word "hypodema" translated "shoe" in the King James Bible, is better translated "sandal," which is the word used in the Revised English Bible, Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, and even (based on a quick check of Matthew 3:11) the conservative New International Version and the reactionary New King James Version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CNFM067A

All God's Chillun Got Shoes

See All God's Children Got Shoes (File: CNFM067A)

All God's Chillun Got Wings

See All God's Children Got Shoes (File: CNFM067A)

All Gone

DESCRIPTION: "Gone are the days of the canvas jumper," "old time sealing skippers," "Petty Harbour whaleboats," "boats of Ferryland," "the old boat 'Ellen,'" ... "Gone are those days and the actors with them We ne'er shall see the same again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: commerce fishing ship work nonballad sailor whaler
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #29060
RECORDINGS:
John Conway, "All Gone" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [219 words]: All the references are to the days of the Newfoundland fishing fleets and sailors, and the way of life gone with them. - BS
I find it interesting that this was collected in 1951. That was just one year after the last of the old sealing steamers, the Eagle, had been scuttled (see "The Ice-Floes"; also "The Last of the Wooden Walls"). The Terra Nova, the most famous of them all, had been lost in 1943 (see "The Terra Nova"). The Neptune, which took more seals than any other sealer, also sank in 1943 (see "Neptune, Ruler of the Sea"). The Ranger, which had the longest career of any, gave up the ghost in 1942 (see "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912").
Captain Abram Kean, the greatest sealer of them all, died in 1945 (see "Captain Abram Kean"). Robert Bartlett, a poor sealing captain but better known outside Newfoundland than any other sealer, died in 1946 (see "Captain Bob Bartlett"). William Winsor Jr., the last of the great clan of sealing captains named Winsor, died in 1949 (see again "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912").
Thus I think it all but certain that this was written in 1945 (when Abram Kean died) or after. It was clearly collected soon after it was written. One suspects the author could have been identified if anyone had tried in 1951. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: ML3AllGo

All Gone for Grog

See Here's to the Grog (All Gone for Grog) (File: K274)

All Hail the Brave Battalion

DESCRIPTION: "All hail the brave battalion, this noble valiant band, We go to serve our country with willing heart and hand. Although we're called disloyal," they will serve well. They cross "barren desert." Their sons "are growing mighty" and they will succeed
AUTHOR: Thomas Morris (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Tyler)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes travel | Mormon Battalion
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cheney-MormonSongs, p. 40, "All Hail the Brave Battalion" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: Daniel Tyler, "A Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War," no publisher listed but copyrighted 1881 (available on Google Books), pp. 375-376, "Mormon Battalion Song" (1 text)
Roud #10817
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "How Firm a Foundation" (tune)
cf. "Mormon Battalion Song (I)" (subject) and notes and references there
NOTES [52 words]: For background on the Mormon Battalion, see "Mormon Battalion Song." This is listed as being sung to "How Firm a Foundation," and I'm fairly sure that is correct, but very many of the lines seem to have an extra syllable in them; I wonder if perhaps Thomas Morris knew a slightly different version of the tune.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS040

All Hail the Power of Jesus's Name

DESCRIPTION: "All hail the power of Jesus's name, Let angels prostrate fall, Bring for the royal diadem And crown him lord of all." The "chosen seed of Israel's race" and "sinners" are urged to "spread your trophies at his feet."
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Perronet (1726-1792), adapted by John Rippin (1751-1836)
EARLIEST DATE: 1779 (Gospel Magazine, according to Julian; see notes)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 283, "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name (Old Coronation)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, p. 196-197, "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 94, "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 116, "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" (1 text, with the tune listed as "Coronation")
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp, 68-70, "All Hail The Power Of Jesus' Name" (1 text, 1 tune)
John Julian, editor, _A Dictionary of Hymnology_, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), pp. 41-42, "All hail! the power of Jesus' Name" (1 text plus some additional stanzas)
Roud #17726
SAME TUNE:
1892 Populist Campaign Song ("All hail the power of the People's name, Let autocrats prostrate fall") (Paul F. Boller, Jr., _Presidential Campaigns_, second revised edition, Oxford University Press, 1984-2004, p. 163)
NOTES [923 words]: Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, p. 197, quotes someone who called this the "national anthem of Christendom" -- which, of course, it is not, since Christendom is not a nation. But it is very significant in some denominations; Reynolds, p. 30, reports that "This hymn by Edward Perronet has become the traditional opening hymn for the meetings every five years of the Baptist World Alliance," and it is actually referred to in another song in the Index, "The Model Church." Rudin, p. 17, calls it "The most inspiring and triumphant hymn in the English Language."
This is one of those texts that ends up with a zillion tunes. Oliver Holden (1765-1844) wrote what was probably the first one to be widely used, in the process making the song popular. Holden's tune is usually published under the title "Coronation." It has been called "the oldest American hymn tune in common use today" (Davidson, p. 181). This was the only tune I found in an early twentieth century Lutheran hymnal I checked, although the 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship also uses "Miles Lane." I also found "Coronation" used in H. S. Perkins's The Climax (1893?), p. 212.
A Methodist hymnal had two other tunes: "Miles' Lane" (listed as by William Shrubsole, 1760-1806) and "Diadem" (as by James Ellor, 1819-1899); the same three tunes appear in a Baptist hymnal, though without the detailed attributions. My 1871 Original Sacred Harp has it to "Coronation," "Cleburne" (as by S. M. Denson), and "Green Street" (as by J. J. Husband c. 1809).
The 1926 Lutheran songbook The Parish School Hymnal has "Miles' Lane" as the first tune and "Coronation" as the third; for its second, it has "Laud," by John B. Dykes (1862). The 1990 Presbyterian Hymnal uses "Coronation" and "Diadem." And so forth. Hymnary.org, which says this song is found in more than 3100 hymnals, shows slightly more than half using the tune "Coronation. It shows not quite a quarter of its sources using "Miles Lane" and slightly fewer using "Diadem," with 5% or so using a tune other than "Coronation," "Diadem," or "Miles Lane."
According to Stulken, Rudin, and Reynolds, "Miles Lane" was the melody used in the original publication. Similarly Julian, p. 41: "In the Nov. number of the Gospel Magazine, 1779, the tune by Shrubsole, afterward known as 'Miles Lane,' appeared" with the first verse; the rest of the words appeared in 1780. Reynolds, p. 31, quotes Ralph Vaughn Williams as noting that Shrubsole modified the text to repeat the words "Crown him," which became standard and helped establish the hymn. Reynolds also notes that the name "Miles Lane" was given by Stephen Addington, and that it is a shortened version of "St. Michael's Lane."
It should be noted that there were TWO hymn-writers named William Shrubsole (Julian, p. 1589), who were roughly contemporary; the composer was a Canterbury organist; the other one lived 1759-1829, and wrote several lyrics that had some popularity (Julian, p. 1056) in their time but now are mostly forgotten.
The "Coronation" tune has been used for other texts. such as "The heav'ns declare thy glory, Lord, Which that above can fill."
Holden, the composer of "Coronation," according to Fisher, pp. 14-15, was a carpenter and joiner who settled in Charleston, Massachusetts in 1788, and turned to composing and teaching music. He was also a successful store-owner and real estate agent who spent a decade and a half in the Massachusetts legislature, according to Reynolds, p. 338. "Coronation" appeared in his book The American Harmony in 1792. He published The Worcester Collection of Sacred Harmony -- one of eight hymn books he was responsible for -- in 1797. He became famous enough that the organ on which he composed "Coronation" is still preserved (Reynolds, p. 339).
Ellor, the composer of "Diadem," according to McKim, pp. 117-118, was born in England, and was a Methodist who worked as a hatmaker. He migrated to the United States as a teenager, and wrote his tune in 1838, teaching it to the factory workers in Droylsden with whom he was employed. McKim reports that his tune is the standard one for South American versions of this song, and that there are translations into both Spanish and Portuguese.
Julian, pp. 41-42, shows the modifications by Rippon that apparently are now the standard version. The first two verses are largely unchanged from Perronet's original, but the remaining five are about half Rippon's work.
There is also an authorship claim by John Duncan, but Julian, p. 42, shows strong evidence of its falsehood.
According to Reynolds, p. 399, author Edward Perronet was born in Kent in 1726 to a Huguenot family. He was friends with Charles and John Wesley, although he came to quarrel with them, and ended up heading a small independent (I'm tempted to say "schismatic") congregation, dying in Canterbury in 1792. Rudin, p. 18, says that all his works were published anonymously.
John Rippon, who modified the text, was born in Tiverton, Devonshire, in 1751, joined a Baptist church at age 16, and then studied for the ministry. He took over a congregation in Longon in 1772, serving there for the rest of his life. He published many sermons and hymn texts, plus edited others' theological works. He died in London in 1836. (Reynolds, p. 412.) To the best of my knowledge and recollection, however, he never published anything of long-term significance except for what he did to this song.
The song has been translated into many languages, including Latin, where it is called "Salve, nomen potestatis." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: Rd017726

All Hail to Thee, Moon

DESCRIPTION: "All hail to thee, Moon, all hail to thee! I pray thee, good moon, reveal to me This night who my husband must be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad husband
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #426 n. 3, pp. 202-203, "(ALl hil to thee moon! all hail to thee"
ADDITIONAL: Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, p. 101, "(All hail to thee, Moon, all hail to thee!") (1 short text)
Roud #21150
File: SSus101

All Hands Away Tomorrow

See Our Captain Calls All Hands (Fighting for Strangers) (File: Pea416)

All Hid

DESCRIPTION: "Is it all hid?" "I'm gonna count just one more time, Then I'm going to rock in mind." "Willy Willy Wee look out for me Here I come like a bumble bee." "I went down to the Devil's town Devil knock my daddy down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Vera Hall: AMMEM/Mosaic)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #22746
RECORDINGS:
Vera Hall, "Hiding-seek Song"(in AMMEM/Mosaic); "All Hid(Is It All Hid?)," 1948, ref=T807R03, https://archive.culturalequity.org/field-work/vera-hall-1948/new-york-city-548/all-hid accessed July 17, 2023)
Alan Lomax, "Talk About the Sea Island Folk Festival [All Hid]" (on USSeaIsland01)
NOTES [286 words]: The game is "I Spy" (William Wells Newell, Games and Songs of American Children (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1883 ("Digitized by Google")), #105 p.105), or "Hide and Seek" (Alice Bertha Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: David Nutt, 1894 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. I, pp. 211-213,"Hide and Seek(1)"; James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England, (London: Percy Society, 1842 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 118, "Come out and play at hide-and-seek").
As Vera Hall describes it, "When I count you all go walk around the house, find a deal, and hide as while I count. When I get through counting and stand around from the base and you all try to slip around the house on the other side and beat me back to the base and get to home there." [AMMEM/Mosaic]. There are lots of hide and seek warning-and-acknowledgement songs in which the seeker asks whether everyone is hidden yet and the hiders reply "no" until all are hidden. Lomax and Hall sing the same tune but Lomax's song is a single verse: "Is all hid? Is all hid? Five ten fifteen twenty. Is all hid?" Hall's versions, the basis for description, have a set of couplets to pass the time between the question "Is it all hid" and the answer "Yes" or "No." Hall's 1939 and 1948 texts use different couplets. - BS
Zora Neal Hurston had a rhyme in Jonah's Gourd Vine:
Three li'l' hawses in duh stable,
One jumpt out and skint his nable.
All hid? All hid?
...
Ah got up 'bout half-past fo'
Forty fo' robbers wuz 'round mah do'
Ah got up and let em' in
Hit 'em ovah de head wid uh rollin' pin.
All hid? All hid?
Related? I don't know. Given the prevalence of hiding game, I think it not particularly likely. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RcAllHid

All I Want Is a Little More Faith

See A Little More Faith in Jesus (File: ThBa211)

All I've Got's Gone

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes hard times: People selling farms; automobiles repossessed; banks with no money to lend. Farmers should have stuck with mules, not tractors. Dandy young men now "plowin' and a-grubbin'." His partner has drunk up all the white lightning.
AUTHOR: Probably Uncle Dave Macon
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer describes hard times; people have had to sell their farms and leave; their automobiles have been repossessed. He goes to the bank for a loan; they have no money left either. He reproaches other farmers for buying tractors, saying they should have stuck with mules; young men, who had been getting all duded up, are now, "plowin' and a-grubbin'"; women likewise, for, "All they've got's gone." To cap everything, his partner has drunk up all the white lightning.
KEYWORDS: farming hardtimes nonballad drink
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "All I've Got's Gone" (Vocalion 14904, 1924; Vocalion 5051, c. 1926)
Asa Martin, "All I've Got's Gone" (Champion 16539, 1932)
Oddie McWinders, "All I've Got Is Gone" (Crown 3398, 1932)
New Lost City Ramblers, "All I've Got's Gone" (on NLCR09)
Ernest Stoneman, "All I've Got's Gone" (OKeh 45009, 1925; on HardTimes1); Ernest V. Stoneman and His Dixie Mountaineers, "All I've Got's Gone" (Edison 52489, 1929; rec. 1928); Ernest Stoneman [and Eddie Stoneman], "All I Got's Gone" (Vocalion 02901, rec. 1934); "All I Got's Gone" (on Autoharp01)
NOTES [58 words]: The song was originally written after a disastrous flood in 1907, but was adapted for the circumstances of the Great Depression. It should be noted that conditions on the farms had already been bad for several years before the stock market crashed in 1929.
Despite the "nonballad" keyword, there's a disjointed narrative here, so I've indexed it. - PJS
File: RcAIGG

All in a Summer Afternoon

DESCRIPTION: "All in a summer afternoon, I saw a little baby moon, And oh I loved its silver shine, It was a little friend of mine."
AUTHOR: Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Poems of Many Years, according to Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: baby friend | moon
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 138, "All in a summer afternoon" (1 short text)
Roud #25392
File: KSUC138C

All In Down and Out Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Hippity-hop to the bucket shop...." Singer has lost all his money in the stock market. He says this "certainly exposes/Wall Street's proposition was not all roses." Cho: "It's hard times, ain't it poor boy...when you're down and out"
AUTHOR: Uncle Dave Macon
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "Hippity-hop to the bucket shop...." Singer has lost all his money in the stock market and is now down and out. He says this "certainly exposes/Wall Street's proposition was not all roses." He notes "If they catch you with whiskey in your car/You're handicapped, and there you are", and that if you have money you can get off but if you have none you'll go to jail.
"I used to have money to throw away, But now I haven't a place to say, It's hard times, Billy Po' boy, It's hard times when you're down and out." The singer loses his money at the bucket shop. He talks of the life of a poor man, and how the law treats him.
KEYWORDS: poverty crime prison punishment commerce money hardtimes judge floatingverses
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1929 - Stock market crashes, then continues to sink
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 99, pp. 152-153, "Billy Po' Boy" (1 text plus an excerpt of another Dave Macon version, 1 tune)
Roud #17520
RECORDINGS:
Richard Brooks & Reuben Puckett, "All In, Down and Out" (Brunswick 317, 1928) [tentative]
Uncle Dave Macon, "All In Down and Out Blues" (Bluebird B-7350/Montgomery Ward M-7347, 1938; rec. 1937)
NOTES [180 words]: "Bucket shops" were crooked brokerage firms; they fleeced many customers in the 1920s stock market bubble. They would delay executing a customer's trade if they thought they could buy at a lower price or sell at a higher price a day later, then pocket the difference.
There is another song with a very similar title, "All In, Down and Out," written by Chris Smith and performed in minstrel dialect by Arthur Collins on a Victor record in 1907 (Victor 5027, 1907; Victor 16211, 1909). Bert Williams also recorded it (Williams: Columbia A5031, 1908; rec. 1906). Sometimes credited to R. C. McPherson & [?] Smith, Elmer Bowman & [?] Johnson; the credits to Smith and Johnson may reflect the earlier Arthur Collins record, which was written by Chris Smith with a secondary (unverified) credit to [?] Johnson. -PJS
Though this song would have been most topical in 1929, no Uncle Dave Macon recording is listed before 1937 in Russell's discography. It is unclear whether the 1928 recording by Brooks & Puckett is this song or Chris Smith's song; for the moment I'm assuming the latter. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcAIDAOB

All in the Scenes of Winter

See The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter [Laws H12] (File: LH12)

All In Together, Girls

DESCRIPTION: "All in together, girls, How is the weather, boys? Snow! Rain! Sunshine! Sleet! How many days will there be rain? (Counting). Is it true?" Used as a divination game with a "hot pepper" jumping game, or as a jump rope rhyme
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad jumprope
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro,So,SW) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 108, "(All in together, girls)" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 103, "(All in together)" (3 texts, all very distinct)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 95-96, "All In Together" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 22, "(All together girls)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 59, "All In Together"; p. 68, "(no title)" (2 texts)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #118, "(All in together, girls)"; #129, "(All in together, girls)" (2 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #7, "All in together, (girls)" (1 text)
Roud #19211
File: McIn108A

All In! All In! The Game Is Broke Up!

See Relieve-Ee-O (File: BAAI146)

All Is Vanity, Saith the Preacher

DESCRIPTION: A preacher goes to the sinful town of "Sinnemahone" and tries to preach them around. They attend the service -- until a deer runs by and they try to catch it. One old man stays -- and when the preacher says "all is vain," answers his god is in the hunt
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1857 Meginnes)
KEYWORDS: clergy humorous hunting animal
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 103-106, "All Is Vaniity, Saith the Preacher" (1 text) (pp. 83-84 in the 1919 edition)
ADDITIONAL: John Franklin Meginness, _Otzinachson, or, a History of the West Branch Valley of the Susquehanna_ H. B. Ashmead, 1857 (available on Google Books), pp. 355-357, "All Is Vanity, Saith the Preacher" (1 text)
NOTES [106 words]: The name "Sinnemahone" is apparently real, a sort of nickname for Sinnemahoning Creek and town in Pennsylvania. (It's in the north-central part of the state, not near anywhere I've ever heard of, but they apparently have sporting events named "Sinnemahone"). Thus this appears to be a genuine local production -- though I doubt it was a song. Apparently the original title was "Sinnamahoning." The Mt Zion Historical Society site claims that it is based on an actual incident of circa 1820.
The line "Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity" is from Ecclesiastes 1:1, repeated in shorter form in 12:9. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Shoe103

All Is Well

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, what is this that steals upon my frame? Is it death? is it death?... If this is death, I soon shall be From every pain and sorrow free... All is well, all is well." The singer bids his friends not to weep, and looks forward to salvation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, from a manuscript reportedly dated 1841)
KEYWORDS: death religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 78-79, "All Is Well" (1 text)
ST FlBr078 (Partial)
Roud #5455
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come, Come, Ye Saints" (tune)
NOTES [38 words]: Arthur Hugh Clough (1816-1861) wrote a piece, "Whate'er You Dream With Doubt Possesst," subtitled "All Is Well," which I speculated in earlier editions of the Index might be this. Based on the versions I've now seen, it is not. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FlBr078

All Jolly Fellows

See All Jolly Fellows That Handles the Plough (File: K241)

All Jolly Fellows That Handles the Plough

DESCRIPTION: Singer and fellow ploughmen finish their work; they will unyoke their horse and groom him, after which the (singer/master) promises them a jug of ale. At dawn they will begin again. Refrain: "You're all jolly fellows that follows (handles) the plough"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 148)
KEYWORDS: farming work drink nonballad horse worker pride boss
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #158, p. 1, "The Jolly Fellows Who Follow the Plough"; #161, p. 2, "The Jolly Fellows Who Follow the Plough" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 418, "We Are All Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 241, "All Jolly Fellows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 64-65, "Twas Early One Morning" (1 text, 2 tunes)
MacCollSeeger 102, "All Jolly Fellows That Handles the Plough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 207-208, "We're All Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 238)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #3, "All Jolly Fellows thet Follow the Plow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 11, pp. 15, 46-47, "We're All Jolly Fellows Who Follow the Plow" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #63, "Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #91, "All Jolly Fellows Who Follow the Plow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, pp. 117-118, "We are all Jolly Fellows that follow the Plough" (1 text)
Roud #346
RECORDINGS:
Fred Jordan, "We're All Jolly Fellows as Follow the Plough" (on Voice05)
Will Noble, Pippa Noble, "We're All Jolly Fellows That Follow the Plough" (Piotr-Archive #60, recorded 08/02/2021)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 148, "All Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough" ("When four o'clock comes then up we rise"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 16(301a), Harding B 11(3226), Harding B 11(4369), Harding B 11(4370), Harding B 11(4371), "We Are All Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ploughman (II)" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Jolly Fellows Who Follow the Plough
We Are Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough
File: K241

All Jolly Fellows Who Follow the Plough

See All Jolly Fellows That Handles the Plough (File: K241)

All Last Night and the Night Before

See Not Last Night But the Night Before (File: CarMF078)

All Mah Sins Been Taken Away

See All My Sins Been Taken Away (File: Ch085)

All My Sins Are Taken Away (I)

See Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane (File: FSWB053)

All My Sins Been Taken Away

DESCRIPTION: "I don't care what this world may say, The're all taken away... All my sins are taken away, taken away." Much of the rest of the song floats, e.g. "The devil is mad and I am glad."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (collected from Tom Gregory, according to Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 551, "All My Sins Been Taken Away" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 551, "All My Sins Been Taken Away" (1 text, 1 tune; the words on the recording were only partly comprehensible)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 85, "My Sins Are All Taken Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 76-77, "All Mah Sins Been Taken Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #89, "All My Sins Been Taken Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 103, "All My Sins Been Taken Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harbin-Parodology, #341, p. 85, "My Sins Are Taken Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4205
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "All My Sins Are Taken Away" (Victor 40095, 1929; on KHarrell02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (lyrics)
cf. "Free at Last" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Here Comes My Ford (Harbin-Parodology, p. 68, pp 22-23)
NOTES [49 words]: This song shares nearly every word of its contents with "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane," and I initially lumped them. But there are enough versions without the walkin' cane that I finally split them. This particular version seems best-known in North Carolina; perhaps it's a local sub-text? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Ch085

All My Trials

DESCRIPTION: "If religion were a thing that money could buy, The rich would live and the poor would die. All my trials, Lord, soon be over. Too late, my brothers, too late but never mind." The weary singer looks forward to victory after death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 644, "Tree in Paradise" (3 short texts; the "A" version combines "Few Days" with a "Tree in Paradise" text; "B" is too short to classify easily; "C" seems to be mostly "All My Trials"; there may also be influence from "Is Your Lamps Gone Out" or the like)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 644, "Tree in Paradise" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Cray-AshGrove, pp. 43-44, "All My Trials" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 359, "All My Trials" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 64, "All My Trials" (notes only)
DT, ALLTRIAL*
Roud #11938
RECORDINGS:
Rev. Lewis Jackson & Charlotte Rucell, "Tallest Tree in Paradise" (on MuSouth07)
Pete Seeger, "All My Trials" (on PeteSeeger31)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little David, Play on Your Harp" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Tell All the World, John" (floating lyrics)
cf. "King Oh King" (foating lyrics)
cf. "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" (lyrics)
cf. "Noah's Ark" (lyrics)
cf. "Zek'l Weep" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel (Paul and Silas)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Is Your Lamps Gone Out?" (lyrics)
cf. "Tell All the World, John" (lyrics)
cf. "Wild Rover No More" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I Don't Want to Stay Here Any Longer" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [211 words]: Although this is generally considered a Black song, one of the key couplets goes back to England. According to Roy Palmer, The Folklore of Warwickshire, Rowman & LIttlefield, 1976, p. 41, the stanza
This life is a city of crooked streets,
Death is the market-place where all men meet,
If life were merchandise that money could buy
The rich would live and the poor would die
was found at Tysoe in 1798. Palmer files this among verses on gravestones, although he does not explicitly say for whom, if anyone, this one was carved. - RBW
"If life was a thing that money could buy/ The rich would live the poor would die" is also in the Jamaica R&B recording, "What a World" attributed to Busty [Arthur Robinson] (Busty and Cool, "What a World" (1962, on Blue Beat 45 BB 144, 2013, "Jamaica and U.S.A. Roots of Ska Rhythm and Blues Shuffle 1942-1962," Fremaux and Associes CD FA 5396). - BS
The Jackson/Rucell recording, from 1954, is classified here in near-desperation; it consists primarily of the single floating verse "The tallest tree in Paradise/The Christians call it the Tree of Life" (also found in "Is Your Lamps Gone Out?"), plus the chorus "Hey brother with a hey/Hey, sister with a hey-ey-ey/Jes' take a little bottle and let's go home/Yes, my Lord." - PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB359B

All Night Long (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Paul and Silas bound in jail, All night long, One for to sing and the other for to pray... Do, Lord, deliver me." "Straight up to heaven... tain't but the one train on this track." "Never seen the like... People keep comin' and the train done gone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 448-449, "All Night Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 257, "All Night Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST San448 (Full)
Roud #6703
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Baby, All Night Long" (words)
cf. "Mary Wore Three Links of Chain" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [51 words]: This has so many floating lines that I'm not even going to try to untangle them. Roud, probably on the bases of the first line, links this with "We're All Here (Do Thyself No Harm)." But the choruses are different enough that I split them.
Paul and Silas's stay in prison is related in Acts 16:19-40. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: San448

All Night Long (II)

See Baby, All Night Long (File: CSW172)

All Night Long (III)

See Four Old Whores (File: EM006)

All Night Long (IV)

DESCRIPTION: Singer laments a sweetheart has gone away. Singer feels blue and thinks and dreams of the sweetheart constantly, and walks the floor. When the sweetheart returns, the singer will cease yearning. Chorus: "All night long, (baby) all night long.
AUTHOR: (Credited to Shelton Brooks)
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (published)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer (who can be either male or female) laments that their sweetheart has gone away. They say that every time this happens they feel blue and think of the sweetheart constantly; the singer is always dreaming of their missing sweetheart. When they think of their sweetheart they walk the floor. When the sweetheart returns, they will cease their yearning. Chorus: "All night long, (baby) all night long.
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness courting farewell parting separation abandonment lover
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff & his Crazy Tennesseans, "All Night Long" (ARC 7-01-60, 1937; rec. 1936)
Anna Chandler, "All Night Long" (CYL: Edison (BA) 1739, 1913)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Baby, All Night Long"(see NOTES)
cf. "Battleship of Maine" (tune)
NOTES [54 words]: With an almost identical tune and structure, I see "Baby, All Night Long" (which is mostly floating blues verses) as being a degenerated version of this song; you should check that listing as well, Or perhaps, RBW suggests, "Baby All Night Long" is an elaborated version of this one. Either way, they're close relatives.- PJS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcANLIV

All Night Long Blues

See Baby, All Night Long (File: CSW172)

All Night Long, Mary

DESCRIPTION: "All night long, Mary, (x3), Poor Mary's gone away. Redbird motion, Shoodala, Or bluebird march, Shoodala, Swing your sweetheart, Shoodala, Shoodala today." "In the middle of the ring... help me swing... Around and around."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Owens, Swing and Turn)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad bird
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 67, "All Night Long, Mary" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7908
File: Spurg067

All Night, All Day

DESCRIPTION: "All night, all day, Angels watching over me, my Lord, All night, all day Angels watching over me." "Day is dying in the west... Sleep, my child, and take your rest," "Now I lay me down to sleep...." "Children sleep, the moon is high...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Sanders-SingHighSingLow)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p.p 194, 196, 259, 313, 495, 514-515, "All Night, All Day" (notes only)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, pp. 4-5, "All Night, All Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 72, "All Night, All Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 28, "All Night, All Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17677
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Day Is Dying in the West" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Angels Watching Over Me
NOTES [47 words]: At least one source calls this a "Traditional Black Spiritual," and Sanders-SingHighSingLow describes it as a "Negro Spiritual," but I have yet to find it in a genuine spiritual collection. I wonder if this does not arise by confusion of title with "All Day, All Night, Merriam." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF194A

All Night, Jesus, All Night

DESCRIPTION: Jesus is taken from Gethsemane, brought before Pilate, told, "Here is your cross," then crucified. Refrain: "All night, Jesus, all night"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (recording, men from Andros Island)
KEYWORDS: execution punishment trial ordeal Bible religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
Roud #15626
RECORDINGS:
Unidentified men from Andros Island, "All Night, Jesus, All Night" (AAFS 503 A1, 1935; on LomaxCD1822-2)
NOTES [158 words]: As often happens, this is rather a mix of accounts from the gospels. The name "Gethsemane" occurs only in Matthew 26:36=Mark 14:32. But Jesus's only contact with Pilate, in Matthew and Mark, consists of two exchanges. Pilate first asks if Jesus is the King of the Jews. Jesus answers with the highly ambiguous "You say [so]." Then Pilate asks Jesus what his response is to the charges of the crowd and the priests; Jesus refuses to answer.
Nowhere is Jesus told "Here is your cross." In the Gospel of John, however, Jesus and Pilate have extended conversations, and only in John does Jesus carry his own cross (John 19:17; in Mark 15:21 and parallels, Simon of Cyrene carries the cross for him).
In a probably-irrelevant addendum, Jesus was on the cross only during the day; had he not died before nightfall, the soldiers, in fact, were ordered to hasten the prisoners' death to ensure that they were not around during the night (John 19:31-36). - RBW
File: RcANJAN

All Noddin'

See We're All Nodding (File: R883)

All of a Row

DESCRIPTION: "The corn is all ripe and the reapings begin, The fruits of the earth, O we gather them in." The foreman sends the reapers into the fields; they reap, bind, work hard, and go to the farmer's house for dinner when the work is done
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (Baring-Gould, English Minstrelsie)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #15, "All of a Row" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 26, "Harvest Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1474
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Harvest Home Song (I)" (theme, floating lyrics)
NOTES [54 words]: It appears that Roud includes some but not all versions of this (e.g. Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall's) with the "Harvest Home Song (I)" family (his #310; this is #1474). It's easy to do; they share a theme, and possibly some lyrics. But this lacks the "Drink, boys, drink" chorus of he "Harvest Home Song." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: PECS015

All on Account of a Bold Lover Gay

See Bold Lover Gay [Laws P23] (File: LP23)

All on Spurn Point

See The Loss of the Industry Off Spurn Point (File: BrMa180)

All over Arkansas

DESCRIPTION: "Yonder goes my true love, he's gone far away, He's gone for to leave me, many and many a day... For the sake of my true love I'm sure I must die." When he returns, she tells him she has been sick for him. They are married, and "travel all over Arkansas."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation marriage travel playparty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 593, "All Over Arkansas" (1 text)
Roud #7678
NOTES [45 words]: This is probably a rather worn-down remnant of one or another lost-love-returned ballads (even though Randolph lists it among the playparties). But with only two and a half stanzas of text, and some of that localized, I can't really tell which piece it derives from. - RBW
File: R593

All over Italy

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope verse. "All over Italy, The kings are playing leap-frog. One, two, three and over...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope royalty | Italy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #8, "All Over Italy" (1 text)
NOTES [43 words]: I wonder if there was a variant of this that once went, "All over Germany...." Until the mid-nineteenth century, Germany and Italy were not united countries, consisting rather of many small states. So they could have multiple king. Or at least kinglets. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR008

All Over the Ridges

DESCRIPTION: "All over the ridges we lay the pine low. They break in the fall for want of more snow. Said Murphy to Burk, You're the worst out of jail For hauling up timber...." The singer is "put to chain" for refusing to work with Fred Miller. He praises the food
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger lumbering work food
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #15, "All Over the Ridges" (1 damaged text, tune referenced)
Roud #4561
File: FowL15

All Over This World

DESCRIPTION: "All my troubles soon be over with, soon be over with, soon be over with, All of my troubles soon be over with, All over this world." "All over this world (x4)." "All back sliding will soon be over with." Additional verses may be added as needed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 57, "All Over This World" (1 text)
Roud #11953
File: FSAN057

All Over Those Hills

DESCRIPTION: Singer's lover Henry, while travelling "all over those hills" gets "deluded" from her at a tavern; the singer spies him beside another woman. Singer vows she'll go home and destroy it; rather than part from him, she'd as soon see him die in a workhouse
AUTHOR: Unknown, but probably Caroline Hughes
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 or 1966 (collected from Caroline Hughes)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer's lover Henry, while travelling "all over those hills" gets "deluded" from her at a tavern called the Hop and Bottle; the singer spies him through the window beside another woman, Ellen. Singer vows she'll go home and smash doors and windows, and leave the roof in shadows, and that, rather than part from him, she'd as soon see him die in a workhouse
KEYWORDS: jealousy infidelity love seduction death lover
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 80, "All Over Those Hills" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Locks and Bolts" [Laws M13] (theme)
NOTES [27 words]: MacColl & Seeger note a resemblance of this song's gestalt to that of "Locks and Bolts," and I agree, but as the plots are quite different, I keep them apart. - PJS
File: McCST080

All People That on Earth Do Dwell

DESCRIPTION: "All people that on earth do dwell, Grab your forks and eat like hell."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: food derivative | irreverent
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 56, "(All people that on earth do dwell)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Hundred" (words)
File: PKKB056F

All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight

DESCRIPTION: "All quiet along the Potomac tonight Except here and there a stray picket...." The picket dreams of his family as he stands guard. Suddenly a shot rings out; the guard falls wounded and bids farewell to his family; "The picket's off duty forever."
AUTHOR: Words: Ethel Lynn Beers/Music: Various
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar death family separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 2-5, "All Quiet Along the Potomac" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 400, "All Quiet Along the Potomac To-Night" (1 text plus a copy of an early sheet music cover)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 128-130, "All Quiet Along the Potomac (The Picket Guard)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 66-67, "All Quiet Along the Potomac" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1880, pp. 126-127, "Picket's Last Watch" (10 references)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 127-130, "All Quiet Along the Potomac" (1 text)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 64-65, "The Picket-Guard" (1 text)
DT, ALLQUIET*
ST RJ19002 (Full)
Roud #6557
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, cw104620, "The Picket Guard", Johnson (Philadelphia), n.d.; also cw104610, cw104630, as110970, "[The] Picket Guard"; hc00006a, "Picket's Last Watch"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Picket's Last Watch
NOTES [249 words]: In the early stages of the Civil War, when the southerners still held the south bank of the Potomac, the War Department issued regular bulletins on the status of the armies. The papers regularly printed these reports of "All quiet along the Potomac." One day, the report ran "All quiet along the Potomac. A picket shot." Hence this song.
Although several have claimed the authorship (the claim made by Lamar Fontaine was particularly well-known, e.g. his name is on the cover printed by Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents), and is quoted by H. M. Wharton in War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy, p. 27, the poem is known to have been written by Mrs. Ethel Lynn Beers of New York in 1861. Several tunes have been offered, e.g. by John Hill Hewitt and W.H. Goodwin; Ben Schwartz points out that broadside LOCSinging as110970 lists "Music Composed and Sung by D. A. Warren." Hewitt supplied the version for the 1863 sheet music (published with attribution of authorship), but Goodwin's tune appears to have survived best.
Interestingly, although the poem is Northern, the title is Southern. Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 119, lists a printing by Julian A. Selby of Columbia, SC as the first under this title, adding "The words of this song were published by a number of Northern music publishers under the title of The Picket Guard, each with a different musical setting." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: RJ19002

All Ragged and Dirty (Here I Stand All Ragged and Dirty)

DESCRIPTION: "Here I stand all ragged and dirty, If you don't come kiss me I'll run like a turkey." "Here I stand on two little chips, Pray, come kiss my sweet little lips." "Here I stand crooked like a horn, I ain't had no kiss since I've been born."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 573, "Here I Stand All Ragged and Dirty" (1 text)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 137, (no title) (1 fragment)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 242, (no title) (1 fragment, beginning "Here I stand all black and dirty")
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 80, "Here I Stand," "Black and Dirty" (2 texts)
Roud #7663
File: R573

All Round My Hat

See All Around My Hat (File: K145)

All Round the Loney-O

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

All Smiles To Night

See I'll Be All Smiles Tonight (File: R812)

All Tattered and Torn

See Tooraloo (Boy With No Shoes, All Tattered and Torn, I Dreamt I Had Died) (File: Gard014)

All the Boys in our Town

See All the Men in Our Town (File: GrD81577)

All the Girls Declare He's a Gay Old Stager

See The Galloping Major (File: KSUC034C)

All the Girls in France

DESCRIPTION: The last word in each couplet is the subject of the next couplet. For example, "All the girls in France Do the hula-hula dance; And the dance they do ...." The chains through dance, shoe, pill, chicken and duck, make no sense.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: France playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(High))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 480, ("All the girls in France") (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hootchy-Kootchy Dance" (lyrics)
NOTES [25 words]: This is probably the same as "The Hootchy-Kootchy Dance," but on the off chance that this is the clean version of that bawdy song, I have split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa480B

All The Good Times Are Passed And Gone

See All The Good Times Are Past And Gone (File: R792)

All the Good Times Are Past and Gone

DESCRIPTION: "All the good times are past and gone, All the good times are o'er... Darling, don't you weep no more." Verses may concern almost any depressing topic, but often involve a lost love, and often the verse "I wish to the Lord I'd never been born...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Ted & Gertrude Gossett)
KEYWORDS: love separation hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 792, "All the Good Times are Past and Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ALLGDTYM
Roud #7421
RECORDINGS:
Bill Clifton, "All the Good Times Are Passed and Gone" (Blue Ridge 409)
Ted & Gertrude Gossett, "All the Good Times Are Passed and Gone" (Columbia 15596-D, 1930)
Monroe Brothers, "All The Good Times Are Passed And Gone" (Bluebird B-7191, 1936)
File: R792

All the Men in Our Town

DESCRIPTION: "All the men in our town lead a happy life Except [boys-name] and he wants a wife." He picks [girls-name] "dandlin' on his knee" Sometimes she makes a pudding. Sometimes she might, or does, die, he would cry, and she would be buried.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: wedding death funeral bachelor playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1577, "All the Men in Our Town" (2 texts)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 21, "All the Boys in our Town" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #9, "All the boys in our towm" (1 text)
Roud #12969
NOTES [19 words]: Roud for some reason lumps this with William Allingham's "The Fairies (Up the Airy Mountain)." I don't see it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: GrD81577

All the Monkeys in the Zoo

DESCRIPTION: "All the monkeys in the zoo Had their tails painted blue. One, two, three -- out goes you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: animal colors | monkey zoo counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 24, "(All the monkeys in the zoo)" (1 text)
File: WEMM024A

All the Months in the Year

See The Months of the Year (File: K256)

All the Nice Girls Love a Candle

DESCRIPTION: "All the nice girls love a candle, All the nice girls love a wick," because it "slips in easy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 32, "All the Nice Girls Love a Candle" (1 text)
Roud #10254
File: RuSo032

All the Pretty Little Horses

DESCRIPTION: "Hush-a-bye, don't you cry, Go to sleep you little baby. When you wake, you shall have All the pretty little horses." The horses are described. Another verse describes a baby (lamb) left in a meadow at the mercy of the birds
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: lullaby animal horse
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (26 citations):
Randolph 269, "Black Sheep Lullaby" (2 short texts, both rather far removed from the usual form; 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 96, "Bones" (1 short text, 1 tune, probably this); p. 101, "The Little Ponies" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (IV), pp. 149-152, "Lullaby" (1 text with variants, 1 tune with variants)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 115, "Hush-a-Bye, Don't You Cry" (3 text plus mention of 1 more); also 117,
"Poor Little Lamb Cries Mammy" (3 short texts, perhaps related to the Randolph version)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 115, "Hush-a Bye, Don't You Cry" (1 tune plus a text excerpt); 117, "Poor Little Lamb Cries 'Mammy!'" (1 tunes plus a text excerpt); pp. 508-509, "Old Witch" (1 short text, 1 tune, too brief to identify but with rhymes reminiscent of this)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp.145-148, "Lullaby," (no title), "Go to Sleepy, Little Baby," "Got to Sleep, Little Baby," (no title), (no title), "Ole Cow," (no title) (8 texts, most short, 2 tunes); also probably pp. 148-149, "Baa-Baa Black Sheep" (1 short text, one tune, which is much like this piece except for the first line)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 100, "All the Pretty Little Horses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, p. 267, "Go to Sleepy"; Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, p. 268, "Go to Sleep" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 179, "Go to Sleep Little Baby"; p. 181, "Go to Sleepy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 454-455, "Go To Sleepy" (1 text, 1 tune, in which the child is promised rewards upon waking -- but seemingly also threatened with the "booger man" if it won't sleep)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 233, "Mammy Loves" (1 short text, 1 tune, with a first verse that might be something else, e.g. "I Love my Love (II)")
Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth, pp. 20-21, "Go To Sleepy, Little Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 204-205, "Hushabye (All the Pretty Little Horses)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 2, "All the Pretty Little Horses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 304-305, "All the Pretty Little Horses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 265, "Black Sheep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 217-218, "[Horsey Song]" (1 text, 1 tune, partly repeated on page 223)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 39, "Go to Sleep" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 704, "You Shall Have a Horse to Ride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, pp. 15-16, "All the Pretty Little Horses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 224, "All the Pretty Little Horses" (1 text); also probably p. 235, "Go to Sleepy, Little Baby" (very short fragment)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 407, "All The Pretty Little Horses" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 122, "Go To Sleepy" (1 text, 1 tune, from Sandburg)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 10, "Go To Sleepy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ALLHORSE
Roud #6705
RECORDINGS:
Texas Gladden, "Whole Heap a Little Horses" (on LomaxCD1702)
Kate W. Jones (TX), "All Those Pretty Little Horses" (AFS 02590a04, 1939)
Pete Seeger, "All the Pretty Little Horses" (on GrowOn2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lost Babe" (theme of young one at the mercy of birds)
File: LxU002

All the Way Round

See Ladies in the Dining Room (File: LxSi070)

All Things Are Possible If You Only Believe

DESCRIPTION: Each verse begins with a song phrase, such as "just trust him now," "keep on prayerin." "He'll be your father" ... followed by "only believe, only believe, all things are possible, if you only believe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 92, "All Things Are Possible If You Only Believe" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [157 words]: The current description is based on the Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight text. - BS
The reference here is probably to Mark 9:23, which in the King James Bible reads, "Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." In the New Revised Standard Version, this becomes "Jesus said to him, 'If you are able! -- All things can be done for the one who believes.'"
The difference between the texts is not simply a matter of translation; the word "believe" is found in the Greek text translated in the King James Bible, but the three oldest Greek manuscripts (P45 Sinaiticus Vaticanus), and six of the earliest eight (also C* N* W; not A D) omit it, as well as several important later manuscripts (L 1 579 892 k). It pretty clearly was not part of the original text, but since it was in the King James Bible, it went into tradition. And there are partial parallels to the verse, such as Matthew 19:26. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: CarCa092

All Things Are Quite Silent

DESCRIPTION: The singer's lover is taken from their bed by a pressgang; she begs them to spare him but they refuse. She laments, remembering the joys of their life together, but says she will not be downcast, as someday he may return.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams)
KEYWORDS: love separation lament sailor pressgang
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 13, "All Things Are Quite Silent" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #97, "All Things Are Quite Silent" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, THNGSLNT*
Roud #2532
RECORDINGS:
Guy Wolff, "All Things Are Quite Silent" (Piotr-Archive #437, recorded 01/08/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lowlands of Holland" (theme)
NOTES [34 words]: "...by [1835] the system of impressment had almost faded out, although it was never actually abolished by Act of Parliament." -- A. L. Lloyd
Lloyd reports this as the only known version of the song. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: VWL013

All Things Bright and Beautiful

DESCRIPTION: "All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small... The Lord God made them all. "The purple-headed mountains, The river running by, The sunset and the morning That lightens up the sky."
AUTHOR: Cecil Frances (Humphreys) Alexander (1818-1895) (source: Julian)
EARLIEST DATE: 1848 (Hyms for Little Children, according to Julian)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 135, "(All Things Bright and Beautiful)" (1 fragment)
Roud #25389
NOTES [155 words]: John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 46, reports that this is "A successful and popular hymn for children, on the article of the Creed, 'Maker of Heaven and Earth,' which appeared in her Hymns for Little Children, 1848."
Alice Kane seems to have been taught a lot of Alexander poems; she also cited her "Day by Day the Little Daisy," "We Are But Little Children Weak," and her famous "All Things Bright and Beautiful." She also wrote "Once In Royal David's City" and "There Is a Green Hill Far Away."
Alexander was born Cecil Frances Humphreys in 1823 and married W. Alexander, Bishop of Derry and Raphoe in 1850, according to Julian, p. 38. She reportedly wrote almost 400 hymns, both for children and adults, although the former were much more popular; Julian called some of her adult hymns "rather heavy" and "dull." She died in 1895. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC135A

All this day ic han sought

See The Serving Maid's Holiday (File: RHRXV024)

All this tyme this songe is best

See A Little Child There Is Yborn (File: MSALCTIY)

All Through the Beer

See Here's to the Grog (All Gone for Grog) (File: K274)

All Through the Night (Ar Hyd Y Nos)

DESCRIPTION: "Sleep, my child, and peace attend thee, All through the night. Guardian angels God will send thee, All through the night." The singer watches over the child while the world sleeps. (The (dying?) child/lover is wished to heaven)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Edward Jones, "Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards")
KEYWORDS: lullaby death love
FOUND IN: Wales
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #55, "All Through the Night" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 410, "All Through the Night" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 410, "All Through the Night"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 47, 342, "All Through the Night" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 22, "All Though the Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 20, "All Through the Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, THRUNITE* THRUNIT2*
RECORDINGS:
Shannon Four, "All Through the Night" (Victor 19413, 1924)
SAME TUNE:
Day Is Done (hymn published by James Quinn in 1969 and found in Catholic and Presbyterian hymnals; see LindaJo H. McKim, _Presbyterian Hymnal Companion_, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, p. 366)
NOTES [134 words]: That this song is originally Welsh is not doubted. The English translation is sometimes credited to Sir Harold Boulton (so, e.g., Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd), but Fuld notes that there is no standard English translation. The 1784 version in Jones is not by Boulton. Also, at least one version seems to have been folk processed -- at least, I've seen a text which is about 95% identical to the one I know (too close to be an independent translation), but with some different words.
National-4HClubSongBook credits its tramslation to "Walter Maynard"; the first verse is almost identical to the one I know, but the rest looks different. - RBW
There seem to be several versions of the song with various plots. In one, the child -- or possibly a dead lover -- is mourned; another is a Christmas carol. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FDWB410B

All Through the Rain and Squally Weather

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "Hay ay ay/blow my bully boy, blow my blow." The shantyman sings "Squall in the morning, squall in the evening." "Guinea Nigger to feed black nigger... blow your fibre [?] from Antigua." "Here she come with a cargo color."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor sea ship whale whaler Black(s)
FOUND IN: West Indies(St Vincent)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 71-73, "All Through the Rain and Squally Weather" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [138 words]: Abrahams quotes a blackfish whaler, "When the weather is squally and we taken fish, we have one that we are sing, 'All through the rain and squally weather.' We call the blackfish 'Guinea Nigger' to feed black nigger, and we does sing about that."
There are lines that seem to have floated from "Blow Boys Blow (I)." For example,
"All Through the Rain and Squally Weather": "She came in rimmin' the water... Sandfly leg and mosquito liver"
"Blow Boys Blow (I) - Lewin, Rock It Come Over: "The captain ask me what for dinner... say san' fly leg and mosquita liver"
and
"All Through the Rain and Squally Weather": "Big Florita run down the river... She went down the river to hunt Guinea Nigger"
"Blow Boys Blow (I)" - Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1: "A Yankee ship came down the river ... Her masts and yards they shine like silver" - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS071

All Together Again

DESCRIPTION: "We’re all together again, we’re here, we’re here We’re all together again, we’re here, we’re here And who knows when, we’ll be all together again? Singing all together again, we’re here."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (GirlScouts-SingTogether)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 378, "We're All Together Again" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 12, "We're All Together Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 7, "We're All Together Again, We're Here" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [46 words]: George F. Root wrote a song "All Together Again" and published it under his alternate name "Wurzel." It opens, "All together, all together, Once, once again. Hearts and voices light as ever." Thus it does not appear to be this piece. That one is apparently Roud #27585.. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF378A

All Together Girls

See All In Together, Girls (File: McIn108A)

All Together Like the Folks o' Shields

DESCRIPTION: "Tho' Tyneside coal an' furnace reek Hes made wor rive black eneuf, It's raised a breed o' men that's worth... mair than plack eneuf." The singer praises the people of Shields, who are firm and brave and true friends
AUTHOR: "Harry Haldane"
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: nonballad friend mining
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 174-176, "All Together Like the Folks o' Shields" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3173
File: SoR174

All Under the Leaves, and the Leaves of Life

See The Seven Virgins (The Leaves of Life) (File: OBB111)

All Ye That's Pierced by Cupid's Darts

DESCRIPTION: Singer warns "don't leave behind the lass you love for the sake of self or gold." He and his love "absconded" in '84 and he is sentenced for life to the prison of Deshure, Cork. His only consolation is his love; maybe she visits him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: prison punishment love crime theft
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 6, "All Ye That's Pierced by Cupid's Darts" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9261
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "All Ye That's Pierced by Cupid's Darts" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [15 words]: Singer refers to his love as "cuisle geal mo chroi," that is "bright pulse of my heart" - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC006

All Ye Who Delights in a Jolly Old Song

See The Three Frightened Virgins (File: GrD81893)

All You Cohabs That Dodge Around

See The Cohabs (File: Hubb222)

All You That Are Unto Mirth Inclined (The Sinner's Redemption)

DESCRIPTION: "All you that are unto mirth inclined, Consider well and do bear in mind What our great God for us hath done In sending his beloved Son." The listeners are exhorted to praise God, live will, and imitate Jesus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1822 (Gilbert)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious carol
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 51, "The Sinner's Redemption" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN112, "All you that are to mirth inclin'd"
Roud #2431
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wexford Carol" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [66 words]: Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 212, #2450, says that a song called "The sinners redemption" was registered March 26, 1656 by Jno. Wright. Rollins thinks it is this, but I don't know how it could be proved. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: OBC051

All You That Love Good Fellows

See references under The Valiant London Apprentice [Laws Q38] (File: LQ38)

All's Well

DESCRIPTION: "Deserted by the waning moon, When skies proclaim night's cheerless noon, On tower or fort or tented ground, The sentry walks his lonely round" and reports that "all's well." The sailor on watch also says "All's Well."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: soldier sailor nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 288, "All's Well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #12, p. 57, "All's Well" (1 text)
Roud #25996
File: HGam288

Alla Balla (Ella Bella; Queenie, Queenie)

DESCRIPTION: "Alla Balla [or Ella Bella, or Queenie, Queenie], who has got the ball? See, I haven't, See, I haven't, See, I haven't at all." The players each show one hand in turn; the player who is It (Alla Balla) has to guess who has the ball
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty trick
FOUND IN: New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 71, "(Alla Balla, who has got the ball?)" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 67, "Queenie eye o" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 31, "(Queenie, queenie)" (1 text)
Roud #19361
File: SuSm071

Alla En El Rancho Grande (Down on the Big Ranch)

DESCRIPTION: Spanish: "Alla en el rancho grande, alla donda vivia, Habia una rancherita, que alegre me decia...." A rancherita on the singer's ranch tells him that she will make herself an outfit such as the ranchero wears
AUTHOR: Silvano R. Ramos
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage clothes nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 361-362, "Alla En El Rancho Grande" (1 text plus translation, 1 tune)
File: LxA361

Allalong, Allalong

DESCRIPTION: "Allalong, allalong, linkey loo (or "Linktum loo"), Merry goes, one, merry goes, two, Allalong, allalong, linkey loo, Merry goes... Allalong.... I'll lay a wager with any of you, That's all my marks, make thirty and two" (or "the mocassin shoe")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: nonsense | counting-out
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 20, "(Allalong, allalong, linkey, loo") (1 text)
Roud #19828
File: WEMM020B

Allan Adale

See Robin Hood and Allen a Dale [Child 138] (File: C138)

Allan o Maut (I) (Why should not Allan Honoured Be)

DESCRIPTION: Allan's foster father finds him dying. He calls for help but Allan is attacked and bound. Nevertheless, Allan gets the best of everyone. The singer says that, although Allan leaves him moneyless, he should be honored.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1568 (Bannatyne); 1803 (Jamieson)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Allan's foster father finds him lying, dying beyond the farm. When his head breaks open a nurse is sent for; she secretly bringst men of war. They attack and bind him so he cannot flee. Allan's helmet is a wooden cup, passed from hand to hand. Allan lies in a barrel at Christmas and has no equal. Whomever meets Allan, no matter how gallant, cannot confront him without falling to the floor. Allan grows so strong that he sets his mark -- a red nose -- on clerks' face. The singer complains that Allan "leaves no money" in his purse. Nevertheless, he is benign, courteous, and good. Why shouldn't he be honored?
KEYWORDS: violence drink farming
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 283-284, "Allan-a-Maut" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: George Bannatyne and James Barclay Murdoch, editor, The Bannatyne Manuscript Compiled by George Bannatyne 1568 (Glasgow:Hunterian Club, 1896 ("Digitized by Intenet Archive")) Vol.II, #118 pp. 306-308, "Quhy Sowld Nocht Allane Honorot Be?" (1 text)
Robert Jamieson, Popular Ballads and Songs (Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co, 1806 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol.II, pp. 233-236, "Allan-a-Maut" (1 text).
David Laing, Early Popular Poetry of Scotland and the Northern Border (London: Reeves and Turner (Revision of 1822 and 1826 edition by W. Carew Hazlitt ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, pp. 61-63, "Allane-a'-Maut" ("Quhen he was yung, and cled in grene")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Barleycorn (I)" (theme: the tale of brewing) and references there
NOTES [218 words]: Jamieson is the first, as far as I can find, to reprint the song from the Bannatyne MS.
"Allan o Maut (I)" is one of six Allan o' Maut / John Barleycorn songs analyzed first by Jamieson, later by Dixon, and most recently by Wood. Their analyses are discussed at "John Barleycorn (I)." Each of the six songs has been given its own Index entry for clarity's sake. In the case of "Allan o Maut (I)" there is no carry over of lines to or from any of the other five songs, and it has not been "collected." While there are echoes of this song no lines are shared with the other five songs in the set.
See Laing for the background of the text.
The Laing/Whitelaw text preserves the middle Scots typography and vocabulary. You have choices if you need help with that.
Jamieson Vol. II and Bannatyne Vol. I have glossaries.
Aytoun translates the typography but not the vocabulary. See William Edmondstoune Aytoun, The Ballads of Scotland (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1859 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. I, pp. 103-105, "Allan-A-Maut" (1 text).
Wood translates the vocabulary. I used Wood for the Description [Peter Wood, "John Barleycorn: The Evolution of a Folk-Song Family," Folk Music Journal, Vol. 8, No. 4, 2004, pp. 452-453]. Wood's article is discussed in the Notes to "John Barleycorn" (III).- BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: WhBAOM1

Allan o Maut (II) (How Mault Deals With Every Man)

DESCRIPTION: No one can match Master Mault. He is challenged by the miller, hostess maid, smith, carpenter, shoe-maker, weaver, tinker, tailor, sailor, chapman, mason, bricklayer and labourer, butcher and porter(?). He defeats them all.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1601-1640? (Pepys 1.427)
KEYWORDS: violence drink farming
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Robert Jamieson, Popular Ballads and Songs (Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co, 1806 ("Digitized by Google"))")), Vol.II, pp. 244-250, "Master Mault" (1 text)
William Chappell, The Roxburghe Ballads (Hertford: The Ballad Society, 1874 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol.II, pp. 379-382, "A new Ballad for you to looke on, How Mault Doth Deal With Every One" (1 text)
Thomas Evans and R.H. Evans, Old Ballads Historical and Narrative (London: R.H. Evans, 1810 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. IV, #35 pp. 220-226, "A new Ballad for you to looke on, How Mault Doth Deal With Every One" (1 text)
Roud #V39177
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(83a), "A pleasant old ballad to look upon, How Master Malt Deals With Every Man" ("Master Malt is a gentlemanhe is a Gentleman, And hath beene since the world began"), unknown, no date, accessed 13 Nov 2013.
EngBdsdBA 31631, Pepys 1.427, "A New Ballad for You to Look On, How Mault doth Deale With Euery One" ("MAs Mault he is a Gentleman, And hath beene since the world began "), H.G[osson] (London), 1601-1640?, accessed 16 Nov 2013.
EngBdsdBA 31632, Pepys 1.471, "A Pleasant New Ballad to Look upon, How Mault Deals With Every Man" ("Mr. Mault is a Gentleman, And hath been since the world began"), J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger (London), 1684-1686, accessed 17 Nov 2013.
EngBdsdBA 30232, Roxburghe 1.342, "A new Ballad for you to looke on, How Mault Doth Deal With Every One" ("MAs Mault is a Gentleman And hath bin since the world began"), John Wright, 1602-1646?, accessed 21 Nov 2013.
EngBdsdBA 31891, UGlasgowLib Euing 277, "A pleasant new Ballad to look upon, How Mault deals with every man" ("MAs Mault is a Gentleman And hath bin since the world began"), F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright and T. Clarke (London), 1674-1679, accessed 14 Nov 2013.
EngBdsdBA 31892, UGlasgowLib Euing 278, "A pleasant new Ballad to look upon, How Mault deals with every man" ("MAs Mault is a Gentleman And hath bin since the world began"), F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright and W. Gilbertson (London), 1658-1664, accessed 14 Nov 2013.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Barleycorn (I)" (theme: the tale of brewing) and references there
cf. "Greensleeves" (tune)
NOTES [541 words]: Chappell is a duplicate of Roxburghe 1.342.
There are two sets of texts.
Pepys 1.427 (1601-1640?), Roxburghe 1.342 (1602-1646) and Evans appears to be the older set.
The newer set is Euing 278 (1658-1664), Euing 277 (1674-1679), Douce Ballads 3(83a) and Pepys 1.471 (1684-1686). Jamieson, who is analyzing Alan o' Maut and John Barleycorn songs notes where his source text -- Pepys 1.471 -- varies significantly from Pepys 1.427; Jamieson seems imperfectly transcribed (for example, he is missing lines 85-88 in which the tinker tries Mault until his legs won't hold him).
Each member of the older set is 136 lines; each member of the newer set is missing lines 121-124 in which Mault makes a fool of the butcher.
In some cases the lines are almost identical (except for spelling differences); here the sets describe Mault's encounter with the mason and bricklayer's labourer:
---
Older set ll.113-120, illustrated by Pepys 1.427:
Then came the Labourer out with his hood,
And saw his two masters how they stood.
He took master malt by the whood
and swore he would him strike sir.
Mault he ran and for feare did weep,
The Labourer he did skip and leape,
But Mault cast him into the morter heape,
and there he fell a sleepe sir.
---
Newer set ll.113-120, illustrated by Douce Ballads 3(83a) [the only text I have that spells the protagonist's name as "Malt," and -- besides -- it modernizes some spelling, though it retains the long-s typography]:
Then came the Labourer in his Hood,
And saw his two Masters how they stood.
He took his Master Malt by the Hood,
And swore he would him strike, Sir.
Malt he ran, and for fear did weep,
The Labourer he did skip and leap,
But Malt made him into the Morter to leap,
And there he fell a sleep, Sir.
---
In most cases there are significant differences between the older and newer texts; here the sets describe Mault's first battle with the tinker.
---
Older set ll.61-70, illustrated by Pepys 1.427:
The Tinker he tooke the Weavers part
Because he is touching unto his Art,
He tooke the pot and dranke a quart,
the world was very quicke sir.
Mault had of him his owne desire,
He made him tumble into the fire,
There he lost his burling ire,
He hath not found it yet sir.
---
Newer set ll.61-70, illustrated by Douce Ballads 3(83a):
The Tinker took the Weaver's Part,
Such furious rage possest his Heart,
He took the Pot and drank a Quart,
His Wits were very Ripe, Sir.
For Malt the Upper-hand so got,
He knew not how to pay the shot,
But Part without the Reckoning Pot,
And found his stomach sick, Sir
---
"Allan o Maut (II)" is one of six Allan o' Maut / John Barleycorn songs analyzed first by Jamieson, later by Dixon, and most recently by Wood. Their analyses are discussed at "John Barleycorn (I)." Each of the six songs has been given its own Index entry for clarity's sake. In the case of "Allan o Maut (II)" there is no carry over of lines to or from any of the other five songs, and it has not been "collected." However, of the broadsides -- Pepys 1.427, Pepys 1.471, Euing 277, Euing 278, and Douce Ballads 3(83a) -- all but Euing 278 were on the same sheet as, and a second part to, the ballad indexed as "John Barleycorn (III)" which has a great deal of carry-over to collected songs. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: WhBA0M2

Allan o Maut (III)

DESCRIPTION: "Now Allan O Maut was ance ca'd (bear/Bear), And he was cadged frae Wa to Weer, He first grew green, and then grew white, And a man judg'd than Allan was ripe." Allan is brewed and carried into storage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1806 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: drink farming
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, p. 251, "Allan o Maut" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Jamieson, Popular Ballads and Songs (Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co, 1806 ("Digitized by Google"))")), Vol.II, pp. 237-239, "Allan o' Maut" (1 text)
Roud #164
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Barleycorn (I)" (theme: the tale of brewing) and references there
NOTES [103 words]: Roud lumps this with "John Barleycorn," and certainly the thematic parallels are clear, But the Gordon/Brown text is largely about the act of breweing, and never mentions (e.g.) the resurrection of John. I tentatively separate them, although there could well be cross-fertilization or versions which might be either. - RBW
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads is from Jamieson.
Jamieson: "from a copy furnished from his own recollection, by the Reverend Williasm Gray of Lincoln, ... compared with a Fragment procured from Scotland [I assume that's a reference to Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland]." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GBRS251

Allan Water

See The Banks of Allan Water (File: DTalanwa)

Allanah Is Waiting for me

See Over the Mountain (I) (Allanah Is Waiting for Me) (File: R850A)

Alle Acha

See Waddaly atcha (File: ACSF146W)

Alle maydenis, for Godes grace

See Saint Nicholas (File: MsSeyNic)

Allelu! Allelu! Everybody sing Allelu!

DESCRIPTION: "Allelu! Allelu! Everybody sing Allelu! For the Lord has risen, it is true. Everybody sing Allelu!" God gave the Son, who was born in Bethlehem, "walked the land" for thitry years, died on the cross, rose
AUTHOR: Ray Repp
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Repp's "Allelu")
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 545, "Allelu! Allelu! Everybody sing Allelu!" (notes only)
NOTES [168 words]: The nitpicker in me has to point out that Jesus walked the earth a good bit longer than thirty years. Yes, Luke 3:23 says that Jesus was "about thirty years old" when he began his ministry (note the approximation!), which if precisely true would likely make him 31 when he died. (Older if we accept John's chronology of a ministry of three years or more, which on the face of it is far more probable than the single year of the synoptic gospels). But Luke 3:1 says that the ministry began in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, which is 29 C.E. And Luke 1:5 (agreeing with Matthew) says that Jesus was born when Herod the Great was king. Herod died in 4 B.C.E. -- so Jesus must have been at least 34 years old, probably 35, and very possibly 37 or 38.
Plus Matthew implies that Jesus was born at least two years before Herod died, since Herod ordered children two years old and younger to be slaughtered. So Jesus was probably at least 37 when he died, and several years older is a good bit more likely. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF545

Alleluia, Alleluia

See Mozart Alleluia (Alleluia, Alleluia) (File: ACSF446M)

Alleluia, Amen

DESCRIPTION: "Alleluia, Amen Alleluia, Amen Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (GirlScouts-SingTogether)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 446, "Allelujah, Amen" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 14, "Allelujah" (1 short text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Happy Birthday to You" (tune)
File: ACSF446A

Allelujia, Amen

See Alleluia, Amen (File: ACSF446A)

Alleluya, Alleluia, Deo patri sit gloria

See Out of the Blossom Sprang a Thorn (File: MSOBlSpT)

Allen Bain

See The Murder of Alan Beyne (File: MA243)

Allen Bayne

See The Murder of Alan Beyne (File: MA243)

Allen Die Villen Naar Iseland

DESCRIPTION: Dutch. Forebitter shanty. "Allen die villen naar Iselandgaan, On kabeljauw te vangen." The singer tells of sailing to Iceland to find the cod. The sailors are happy when they get home and are paid. The singer describes the course to Iceland
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: shanty foreignlanguage fishing money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 116-117, "Allen Die Villen Naar Island" (2 texts, Dutch and English, 1 tune; the "Island" in the printed title appear to be an error for "Iseland")
File: HSoSe116

Allen Die Villen Naar Island

See Allen Die Villen Naar Iseland (File: HSoSe116)

Allen-a-Dale

See Robin Hood and Allen a Dale [Child 138] (File: C138)

Allen, Larkin and O'Brien

DESCRIPTION: Irishmen John Allen, Gould, and Larkin are hanged November 23, at Manchester Gaol, for attacking a police van and shooting Constable Sergeant Brett. Their final farewells are described. The Marchioness of Queensbury sends 300 pounds to the families.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: execution homicide England lament political police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 18, 1867 - a Fenian band attacks a police van transferring two prisoners in Manchester, and a police officer is shot dead
Nov 24, 1867 - Three of the assailants are hanged (source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 73, "A Lamentation on Allen, Larkin and O'Brien" (1 text)
Roud #V47672
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.8(73)[some words illegible], "A Lamentation on Allen Larkin & O'Brien Who Was Executed at Manchester, on the 23rd of Nov. '67," unknown, 1867; also 2806 b.10(130), "A Lamentation on Allen, Larkin, and Goold, Who Were Executed at Manchester, on 23rd November, 1867"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Smashing of the Van (I)" (subject: The Manchester Martyrs)
cf. "The Manchester Martyrs" (subject: The Manchester Martyrs)
cf. "God Save Ireland" (subject: The Manchester Martyrs)
NOTES [17 words]: For additional information about this tragic event, see the notes to "The Smashing of the Van (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Zimm073

Allen's Bear Fight Up in Keene

DESCRIPTION: "Of all the wonders of the day," Allen's Bear Fight "will stand upon the (rolls) of fame." In 1840, travelling for the census, he meets a bear. He pryas, "If you don't help me, don't help the bear." He grabs a branch and fends off the bear, then stabs it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: travel animal fight humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 293-294, "Allen's Bear FIght Up in Keene" (1 text)
Roud #18143
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Preacher and the Bear" (theme of a bear fight and a prayer to God to help the human rather than the bear)
File: TNY094

Allentown Ambulance

DESCRIPTION: "They said we'd go to Allentown and get an ambulance, Then crank her up and let her go and start for sunny France," but even getting clothes proves slow. The war against the Germans would end much sooner if the Army were better organized
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: soldier clothes injury hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, p. 42, "Allentown Ambulance" (1 short text, tune referenced)
Roud #27875
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier" (tune & meter) and references there
File: NiM042

Allerbeste Kock, Der

DESCRIPTION: German. Forebitter shanty. "Ich bin der allerbeste cook." The cook boasts of being the very best. Hr makes coffee. He keeps the pots clean by washing them once a month. He keeps what he does not give the captain; he will sell the lard and bacon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: shanty foreignlanguage cook drink theft
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 177, "Der Allerbeste Kock" (2 texts, German and English, 1 tune)
File: HSoSe177

Alles Ist Hin!

See Ach, Du Lieber Augustine (File: SBar017)

Alley-Alley-O, The

See A Big Ship Sailing (File: FSWB386A)

Alleywetter, Jaunty Alleywetter

See Alouetté! (I) (File: FJ118)

Alliance Song

DESCRIPTION: "The farmers are gathering from near and from far, The Alliance is sounding the call for the war.. "Here we contend against monopolies' ring." "But one thing is certain, we cannot go wrong If we pull all together while marching along."
AUTHOR: Words: C. F. Vaughan
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Farmers' Alliance, according to Cohen and Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore)
KEYWORDS: farming labor-movement nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, p. 60, "Alliance Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 489, "Alliance Song" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Nebraska Folklore, Pamphlet Eighteen, "Farmers' Alliance Songs of the 1890's," Federal Writers' Project, 1938, p. 2, "Alliance Song" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marching Along" (tune, according to Welsch)
File: CAFS2489

Alliford Bay

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, give me rain, lots of rain, And an Alliford sky above, Don't ship me out.... Let me rot by myself in the muskeg bog... Keep me here forever, treat my like a dog... Gaze at the rain until I lose my senses, I can't stand guns and I don't like trenches"
AUTHOR: unknown (tune "Don't Fence Me In by Cole Porter, 1944)
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: humorous derivative soldier
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 81, "Alliford Bay" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #24972
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't Fence Me In" (tune)
cf. "Don't Send Me Home" (tune)
File: Hopk081

Alligator Purse

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

Alligator Song

See The Dummy Line (II) (File: ScNS139A)

Alligator Song (Railroad Song)

See The Dummy Line (II) (File: ScNS139A)

Allison Gross [Child 35]

DESCRIPTION: Allison Gross, a hideous witch, takes the singer prisoner and tries to induce him to love her. When he refuses, she turns him to a worm (with other sundry curses). He is at last freed by an elven queen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland); printed by Jamieson in 1806
KEYWORDS: magic witch shape-changing seduction curse
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Child 35, "Allison Gross" (1 text)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 206-209, "Allison Gross" (1 text, printed parallel to blank pages)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 128-131, "Alison Gross" (1 text, with a Danish (?) text for comparison)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 12, "Alison Gross" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 17, "Allison Gross" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 5, "Allison Gross" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 461-462, "Alison Gross" (1 text)
DT 35, ALIGROSS
ADDITIONAL: Robert Jamieson, Popular Ballads and Songs (Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co., 1806 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, pp. 187-190, "Alison Gross"
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #419, "Allison Gross" (1 text)
Roud #3212
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea" [Child 36] (theme)
NOTES [162 words]: The name "Allison Gross" is an interesting one, because she is a hag in this song. According to Tauno F. Mustanoja, "The Suggestive Use of Christian Names in Middle English Poetry," in Jerome Mandel and Bruce A. Rosenberg, editors, Medieval Literature and Folklore Studies, Rutgers, 1970, p. 70, the name Allison in literature seems to have been used primarily for young and attractive women. He cites several examples, such as the pretty wife in Chaucer's Miller's Tale, and the once-attractive Wife of Bath herself, and the well-known love lyric "Alison."
However, Lowry Charles Wimberly, Folklore in the English and Scottish Ballads: Ghosts, Magic, Witches, Fairies, the Otherworld, 1928 (I use the 1965 Dover paperback edition), p, 212, claims that "The name 'Allison' is among the most common witch names"; he cites Murray, The Witch Cult in Western Europe.
We have not the data to be sure, but I suspect that the name has deeper significance than just a name. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: C035

Ally Ally Oxen Free

DESCRIPTION: "Time to let the rain fall without the help of man, Time to let the trees grow tall, now if they only can, Time to let our children live in a land that's free." Time to let the world be at peace: "Ally ally oxen free"
AUTHOR: Words: Rod McKuen
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (recording, Kingston Trio)
KEYWORDS: campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 541, "Ally Ally Oxen Free" (notes only)
DT, ALLEOXEN
NOTES [51 words]: "Ally ally oxen free" (variously spelled) is of course the children's cry saying that a round of a game (say, Hide and Seek) is over and those who are in hiding may return safely. (See, for instance, Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 16.) Hence Rod McKuen's use of it as a phrase to call people to live in safety. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ACSF541A

Almost Done

DESCRIPTION: "Take these stripes from, stripes from 'round my shoulder (huh!) Take these chains, chains from 'round my leg." The singer tells how a girl courted him then betrayed him. Now he is in jail with no one to go his bail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: courting prison trial punishment betrayal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 94, "Almost Done" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 386-388, "Lord, It's All, Almost Done" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 68, "It's Almost Done (On a Monday)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 79, "On a Monday (Almost Done)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10064
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man)" [Laws H4] (floating lyrics)
cf. "Don't Talk About It" (lyrics)
NOTES [35 words]: The Silber text begins "On a Monday I was arrested, on a Tuesday locked in jail." But it admits to being adapted by the Lomaxes, so this may be an added verse. -PJS
It may be based on Lead Belly's version. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LxU094

Almost Over

DESCRIPTION: "Some seek the Lord and they don't seek him right, Pray all day and sleep all night. And I'll thank God, almost over...." "Sister, if your heart is warm, Snow and ice will do you no harm." "I been down and I been tried."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 74, "Almost Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12035
File: AWG074B

Almyghty Jhesu, Kyng of Blysse

See As Holy Kyrke Makys Mynd (File: MEahkmm)

Aloha Means We Welcome You

DESCRIPTION: "Aloha means we welcome you, It means more than words can say. Aloha means good luck to you, Goodnight at the close of day. It’s just like a love song... Bringing you joy Bringing you pain Aloha means farewell to you Until we meet again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 341, "Aloha Means We Welcome You" (notes only)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
What Aloha Means
File: ACSF341A

Aloha Oe

DESCRIPTION: Hawaiian: "Ha'aheo 'e ka ua i na pali." "Proudly the rain on the cliffs Creeps into the forest." "Farewell to you (x2),... One fond embrace and then I leave To meet again." The singer recalls "sweet memories" and tells the beauties of the place the met
AUTHOR: Queen Liliuokalani
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (manuscript in Liliuokalani's handwriting); probably first published in 1884, according to Fuld
KEYWORDS: love separation home
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 690, "Aloha Oe (Farewell to You)" (1 Hawaiian text plus English translation)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 341, "Aloha Oe" (notes only)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 14, "Aloha Oe" (1 text)
OneTuneMore, p. 55, "Aloha Oe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 93-94, "Aloha Oe"
ADDITIONAL: Margaret Bradford Boni, editor, _Songs of the Gilded Age_, with piano arrangements by Norman Lloyd and illustrations by Lucille Corcos, Golden Press, 1960, pp. 144-145, "Aloha Oe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22679
File: CAFS689B

Alone and Motherless

DESCRIPTION: "I'm alone and motherless ever since I was a child (x2), Goin' home to your mother, be here after a while." "Ever since my mother was livin', I had the whole round world to please." "Jesus, sometimes I wonder, did I treat my mother right?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 49, "Alone and Motherless" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16265
File: Rose049

Alone on the Shamrock Shore (Shamrock Shore III)

DESCRIPTION: The singer married a sailor/soldier and now wanders disowned by her parents, "Alone on the Shamrock shore" with her baby. Called to fight, her husband has a disagreement with his superior and is hanged/whipped.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(158))
KEYWORDS: grief courting marriage warning war death baby wife sailor soldier trial punishment abuse
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 418-419, "Alone on the Shamrock Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea418 (Partial)
Roud #9786
RECORDINGS:
Mrs Mary Ann Galpin, "Alone on the Shamrock Shore" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(158), "Shamrock Shore" ("Come all you fair maidens draw nigh"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 28(154), "Shamrock Shore"; Harding B 11(2239), "New Shamrock Shore"; 2806 c.17(382), "Shamrack Shore"; Harding B 11(919), "Disdained Daughter of the Shamrock Shore"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Disdained Daughter of the Shamrock Shore
NOTES [122 words]: The Bodleian broadsides "Shamrock Shore"/"Shamrack Shore"/"New Shamrock Shore" replaces the sailor by a soldier, the "trifle dispute with his captain" becomes a "small dispute with a serjeant" at Lifford and the war, if specified, is against "the bold rebels"; "Disdained Daughter..." retains the sailor, the war is with Spain and the incident is at Portsmouth [as in Peacock's version]; in all broadsides the hanging is a lashing, father's castle is a "snug neat little cottage...." Perhaps the "New" title indicates that the sailor version is the older. - BS
To add to the fun, the whole thing reminds me strongly of "The Gallant Hussar (A Damsel Possessed of Great Beauty)," though there don't seem to be many direct allusions. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea418

Along the Kansas Line

See A Soldier from Missouri [Laws A16] (File: LA16)

Along the Lowlands

DESCRIPTION: No plot; verses compare large and small ships, and sailing close and far from shore. Cho: "Now we sail along the lowlands, lowlands, lowlands. But soon we'll leave the peaceful shore and away from all the lowlands, we will roam the wondrous ocean o'er"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (S.B. Luce's _Naval Songs_)
KEYWORDS: sailor sea travel foc's'le nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 163-164, "Along the Lowlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9142
File: Harl163

Along the North Strand

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Along the Road the Old Man Came

DESCRIPTION: "Along the road the old man came, Worn and weary, footsore and lame, Stopped at the creek near the roadman's camp." He makes his tea and tells how, for weeks, he has been looking for work and finding none; he has been begging and sleeping outside
AUTHOR: John FIsher Dakers (source: Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ); reportedly written 1928
KEYWORDS: worker hardtimes travel
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 281, "(Along the road the old man came)" (1 text, which Garland "collected" from the poet's daughter; it's not really clear if it is a song, or if it was in oral tradition)
File: Garl281

Along the Shores of Boularderie

DESCRIPTION: Those living here are named and described. For example, "Murdock Stewart ... Owns the wooden horse of Troy; It's the king of all the beasts, Sunny slios a'bhronachain"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: moniker nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 187, "Along the Shores of Boularderie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2715
NOTES [41 words]: Boulardie is on Cape Breton. Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs: "Slios a'bhronachain is a little place opposite Bras d'Or where they were given this name because of their fondness for gruel. The name means Gruel Side. Bhrochain is the proper spelling." - BS
File: CrMa187

Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene

DESCRIPTION: Alonzo, leaving for the wars in Palestine, bids Imogene be faithful, but another wins her hand. At the wedding, Alonzo's spectre, a rotting skeleton in armor, appears and bears Imogene away. (Four) times a year, the couple will appear at a ball and dance
AUTHOR: M. G. Lewis? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (Lewis, The Monk; see NOTES)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Alonzo, leaving for the wars in Palestine, bids Imogene be faithful to him, but another wooer wins her hand. At the wedding, the spectre of Alonzo, a rotting skeleton clad in armor, appears and bears the false Imogene away, to the horror of all. It is said that three times a year the couple will appear at a ball and dance
KEYWORDS: love wedding promise war separation reunion betrayal corpse death supernatural lover soldier ghost marriage
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 126-129, "Alonzo the Brave and The Fair Imogene" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 380-381, "Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST RcAtBaFI (Partial)
Roud #4433
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Alonzo the Brave and the Fair Imogene" (AFS 4195 B1, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
William Sutton, "Alonzo the Brave" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Charles E. Walker(s), "Alonzo the Brave" [tr. only] (in AMMEM/Cowell)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 5(45), "Alonzo the brave, and the fair Imogene," S. Carvalho (London), no date; also Harding B 11(43), "Alonzo the Brave and The Fair Imogine," unknown, no date; Harding B 11(44)=B 11(45), "Alonzo the Brave and The Fair Imogene," unknown, no date (a sort of a musical built around the poem, with various tunes suggested); Johnson Ballads 2876, "The Spectre Knight," unknown, no date (barely legible); Firth b.27 (530), "Alonzo the brave, and the fair Imogine," unknown, no date;
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Gentleman of Exeter (The Perjured Maid)" [Laws P32] (plot)
cf. "Susannah Clargy" [Laws P33] (plot)
cf. "The Ghost's Bride" (plot)
cf. "The Worms Crawl In" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Maggoty Ghost
Irish Ghost Song
NOTES [394 words]: [A text was] sent to [Flanders and Brown] by Mary A. Towne of Omaha, Nebraska, from the singing of her mother and grandmother, and as written out by her aunt, Agnes Trumbell Somers, who was born in Greenboro, Vermont in 1849. All of her family was from Vermont, although her grandmother's parents both came from near Glasgow, Scotland. "My aunt [sings] the sixteen stanzas of this song from memory now, and that her mother sang it to a cousin who called it The Maggoty Ghost." - AF
Peacock considers this to be an Irish song, although Irish versions seem rare. He may have a case; references to the Virgin seem to imply Catholic origin. But it may be simply that the song is based on an old chronicle.
The Bodleian web site lists this as by Eliza Buttery, but doesn't explain the attribution. Granger's Index to Poetry gives the source as Matthew Gregory Lewis's The Monk. Albert B. Friedman, The Ballad Revival, University of Chicago Press, 1961, p. 285, also attributes the poem to Lewis, without any caveats. It certainly looks literary. I don't think we can list an author with certainty, but the case for Lewis is strong; Dan Clore tells me, "'Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene' is almost word-for-word the same as in M. G. Lewis's 1796 novel The Monk, though it's fascinating to learn that people kept singing it for so long. It only shows the sort of variation in wording you would expect.
"I believe that 'The Worms Crawl in' owes this line to the ballad. Checking an online copy of Gammer Gurton's Garland, I see a footnote that says that this line was adopted in 'Alonzo the Brave.' I suspect it was the other way around. I don't think the children's rhyme can be found before The Monk."
What appears to be the earliest reference to this song comes from an item, "SAM COWELL'S SONG-BOOK, Containing all his best Copyright Songs, for SIXPENCE." The songs listed on the cover include "The Ratcatcher's Daughter, Alonzo the Brave, Billy Barlow, Richard III, La Somnambula, Mazeppa, Aladdin, The Forty Thieves, The Merchand of Venice, Lord Lovel, Hamlet, and Othello. Since I have not seen the book, only the cover, I cannot prove that it's the same Alonzo the Brave, but obviously it is likely. If so, then the song can be pushed back to before 1864, the year in which Cowell died. For more on Cowell, see the notes to "Billy Barlow (II)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcAtBaFI

Alonzo the Brave and The Fair Imogene

See Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene (File: RcAtBaFI)

Alouette (Lark) (II)

DESCRIPTION: French. I have plucked the tail, a thigh, two thighs, a wing, two wings, the back, the belly, le ventre, the neck, the head and the beak" Chorus: "En en plumant les dents, l'alouette et tout du long"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage cumulative nonballad bird
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 2-3, "Alouette" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Mme Lucie Cormier, "Alouette" (on PeacockCDROM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alouette! (I)" (theme and structure)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
J'ai Plume li Bec de Mon Alouette
NOTES [12 words]: Told from the canonical "Alouette" apparently by the different chorus. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea002

Alouetté! (I)

DESCRIPTION: French: "Alouette, gentille Alouette, Alouette, je t'y plumerai." Cumulative: "Je t'y plumerai la tet, le bec, le nez, les yeux, le cou, les ail's, le dos, les patt's, la queue," meaning, "Skylark, I will pluck your head, beak, nose, eyes, neck, etc."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (McGill College songbook)
KEYWORDS: cumulative bird foreignlanguage worksong
FOUND IN: Canada(Que) France US(MW)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 118-119, "Alouetté!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 39, "Alouetté" (1 text, 1 tune)
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 68, "Alouette (Little Lark)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 124, "Alouette" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 389, "Alouette" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 95, "Alouette"
Harbin-Parodology, #112, p. 34, "Alouette" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 125, 309, 392, "Alouette"/"(Alleywetter, jaunty alleywetter)" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 73, "Alouette" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 66, "Alouette" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p .21, "Alouette" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 90-91, "Alouette" (1 text, 1 tune)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 8, "Alouette" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 60-61, "Alouetté!" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Tom Hanford, "Alouette" (Piotr-Archive #654, recorded 08/16/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Red Herring" (theme)
cf. "Alouette (Lark) (II)" (theme and structure)
SAME TUNE:
Suffocation (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 125)
All You Etta (All you et-a, Think of all you et-a, All you et-a, think of all you et) (Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 123; cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 309, 393)
Ravioli ("Ravioli, I like ravioli, Ravioli, it’s the best for me) (BoyScoutSongbook1997, p 11) (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 309)
NOTES [59 words]: Fuld reports a claim that this was a work song used while plucking birds. I'll believe it when I see evidence. - RBW
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes's editors also identify this as "a work-song which used to be sung while women plucked fowls." I'll buy it, if for no other reason than the second source. Unless, of course, Fuld got the idea from them.- PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FJ118

Alphabet (I), The

See Alphabet Song (V) (File: ReSh003)

Alphabet (II), The

See The Union Soldier's Alphabet (File: MooSW181)

Alphabet of the Bible, The

DESCRIPTION: Alphabet song with mostly New Testament references. At least two different choruses.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Recording, Royal Harmony Singers)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious Jesus wordplay | alphabet
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Royal Harmony Singers(The Florida Boys), "The Alphabet of the Bible" (Decca 8628, 1941)
Ella Mae Wilson, Lillie B. Williams, and Richard Williams, "He's a Battle Axe" (on USFlorida01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bible Alphabet (The Bible A-B-C)" (subject)
NOTES [1945 words]: From Blaine Waide, "Recent Traditions and New Recordings: African American Sacred Music in Florida," USFlorida01 liner notes:
"A for almighty, that is true"
"B, He was a baby like me or you"
"C for Christ, the son of God"
"D, He was a doctor and a man of war"
"E, He's an eagle with the watchful eyes"
"F is for the fire that Elijah tried" (Royal Harmony Singers have "F, He was the fire that Elijah tried"; see 1 Kings 18:36-38 and 2 Kings 1:10-11, where Elijah asks God to prove to others that he, Elijah, is a man of God by consuming some thing or some ones with fire.) [The first refers to the contest on Mount Carmel, 1 Kings 18:20-40, where Elijah could summon fire and the priests of Baal could not; the second refers to 2 Kings 1:2-16, where Ahaziah King of Israel was trying to summon Elijah, and sent platoons to do so, and Elijah, who didn't want to come, called fire from heaven to burn them up. - RBW]
"G is for God, everybody knows"
"H is for the healing of the dying soul"
"I, He's intelligent, very wise"
"J, He's Jehovah, and He cannot lie" ["Jehovah" is the King James mis-vocalization of the Hebrew consonants YHWH in Exodus 16:9; for background, see the notes to "Guide Me, Oh Thou Great Jehovah." - RBW]
"K is for king, I'm compelled" (Royal Harmony Singers have "K is for king which I'm compelled to say")
"L, He's a lawyer, He will plead your case" [Contrast to this Luke 11:45, "And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers." Jesus pretty definitely was not a lawyer, although he certainly was called a Rabbi. - RBW]
"M, He's the master of the world"
"N, He's a noble, and He can be heard"
"O, He's the author of the first and last." (Royal Harmony Singers have "O, He's omega, the first and last") [King James Rev. 22:23, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last"; Rev. 1:8, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." See also Rev. 21:6, referring to Alpha and Omega; Rev. 1:17, Isa. 44:6, 48:12, about being the first and the last. - RBW]
"P, He's a prophet, just hold Him fast"
"Q, He's quick, He is slow"
"R, He rides where no man know"
"S, He's the Savior, the son of man"
"T, He can talk and you can understand"
"U, He is useful, take His time" (Royal Harmony Singers have "U, he is useful, He takes his time")
"V, He's a strong and a running vine"
"W for water, He knows all streams"
"X, He can save you in your extreme"
"Y is for you, He is for me"
"Z is for the son of Zebedee" (Royal Harmony Singers have "Z, He was the son of Zebedee," a strange error: apostles James and John are the sons of Zebedee (Matthew 4.21, Mark 1.19, Luke 5.10) [Not necessarily an error; James son of Zebedee was one of the first apostles to be killed, being executed by Herod Agrippa I I Acts 12:2, but John -- who is particularly associated with Peter -- is nowhere described as dying; tradition makes him the Beloved Disciple who was responsible for the Gospel of John, and also considers him the author of the Letters of John and even, in some accounts, the Apocalypse. (Although any half-decent student of Greek can see that the Gospel and Apocalypse of John are by two different authors.) Tradition has him living to extreme age and dying in peace after the persecution of Domitian; it was not until long after James's death that John is considered to have written his books. Thus the reference could be to John son of Zebedee in his role as author, in which James took no part. - RBW]
The USFlorida01 chorus is "He's a battle axe in the time of battle (3x), Shelter in a mighty storm.". The Royal Harmony Singers's chorus is "Who's that writing? John the Revelator (3x), Writing in the book of the seven seals." [The seven seals being referred to in Rev. 5:1 and after.] Both versions have the same tune as Blind Willie Johnson's "John the Revelator" (AAFM2). - BS
It should perhaps be noted that devotional poems built around the letters of the alphabet in English go back at least to Chaucer's "An ABC," in which each stanza starts with a different letter of the alphabet -- although it is not an illustration of the alphabet but simply an acrostic religious poem. The Hebrew Bible does not have a glossed alphabet such as this, but it has many acrostics, including Psalm 119 and the poems in the Lamentations.
Jim Dixon points out to me a number of other poetic alphabets. Some appear to be this, or related, some appear to be "The Bible Alphabet (The Bible A-B-C)"; some are probably independent. I am going to list them all here, with indications of what they resemble.
-- From 1777: (no author listed), The New-England Primer: Improved For the More Easy Attaining the True Reading of English (Boston: John Boyle, 1777), available on Google Books. Opens "A: In Adam's Fall We sinned all; B: Heaven to find, The Bible Mind." I really doubt this one was sung, but if it was, it's of the "Alphabet of the Bible" type if it's anything.
-- From 1827: (no author listed), The Child's First Alphabet of Bible Names (Philadelphia: American Sunday School Union, 1827), available on Google Books. Opens "A is for Adam who was the first man. B is for Balaam, Who to curse Israel did plan." Singable to the standard "alphabet" tune. I note that the "B" verse is wrong; Balaam did *not* plan to curse Israel. Balak King of Moab hired Balaam to curse Israel (Numbers 22:1-6), but Balaam refused to do anything except what YHWH ordered. Eventually Balaam came to Moab, but he blessed Israel, at YHWH's orders (Numbers 23:7, etc.). The Israelites later killed him, which was patently unjust. Maybe you should put "Balak" in for "Balaam." That's the only actual error in this particular list, but it's really strange. Note that the Bilby/Ridgway version below gets it right. This is a "Bible Alphapbet" type.
-- from 1832: Eli Meeker, The Infantile Instructer: Being a Series of Questions and Answers… (New York, J. & W. Day, 1832), available on Google Books, page 10ff: "A is for Adam, who was the first man; He broke God's command and then sin began. B is Bartimeus, who as Jesus passed by, For mercy and sight did earnestly cry. This is interesting, because it seems to derive most of its entries from the preceding (it changes Balaam to Bartimaeus, Haman to Hannah, Jonah to Joseph, Queen to Quail, Uzziah to Uzzah, Zacceus to Zoar, but that still leaves twenty identical references, which can hardly be coincidence!). But it converts all the single lines of the 1827 version to couplets. It can still be sung, with some effort, to the "Bible Alphabet" tune, but I doubt that was the intent.
-- from 1835: T. Bilby and R. B. Ridgway, The Infant Teacher's Assistant, for the Use of Schools, and Private Families... ([London?]: T. Bilby & R. B. Ridgway, 1835), available on Google Books. This has three different ones, to the tune of "Portugal New" -- all of which can be sung to the "Bible Alphabet" tune:
---- p. 22: "A is for Angel, that praises the Lord. B is for Bible, God's most holy word."
---- pp. 22-23: "A stands for Adam, of mankind the first. B stands for Balak, who would Israel curse." (Note that this correctly has Balak, not Balaam!)
---- pp. 23: "A is for Athens, a place where Paul went. B is for Bethlehem, where the Wise Men were sent." (This is basically a list of place names, although Q, X, and Y gave trouble; "Quicksands" are mentioned in the King James Bible in Acts 27:27, but this is treating a proper name as a common noun; almost all modern editions render "Syrtis" or "the Syrtis"; the lack of "X" is correct as there is no word in the entire KJV that starts with X (!), and "Yesterday" is obviously not a place name; there are no "Y" place names in the King James Bible although, ironically, every "J" at the start of a name should be pronounced "Y." This alphabet, unlike the preceding two, was clearly an independent construction made without reference to an earlier version, although it might have existed before Bilby and Ridgway; all we can say about the date is that it is effectively certain that it was compiled after Cruden's Concordance was published in 1737, allowing the author to be certain about the lack of "X" words and "Y" places.)
-- from 1855?: Darton's Scripture Alphabet(London: Darton and Co., [no date, but catalogued at Oxford as 1855]); cover calls it The Child's Indestructible Scripture Alphabet; available on Google Books. Opens "A, is for Adam, who was the first man, He broke God's command, and thus sin began! B, is the Book, which to guide us is given; Though wrote upon earth, the words came from heaven." This is another one that clearly derives one of the earlier texts of the "Bible Alphabet" type. It has been somewhat modified -- and introduces an error. The entry for Y is "Y, is the Youth, who, killed by a fall, By a miracle wrought was recovered by Paul." This is a reference to the story of Eutychus in Acts 20:7-12. The boy was listening as Paul droned on, fell asleep, and fell to the ground. The text says he was "picked up dead," but Paul said he was alive. Note that Acts does *not* say that Paul revived him, only that Paul detected that he was alive. Nothing to see here, folks, except how boring Paul was to some listeners.
-- from 1882: (no author listed), The Penny Post, Vol. 32 (London: Parker and Co., 1882), available on Google Books. Contains four alphabets:
---- pp. 251-252, begins: "A stands for Angel, who praises the Lord." Fits the "Bible Alphabet" tune, and is probably influenced by one or another older versions, but has a number of new lines (e.g. one for Vashti, the old queen in Esther); it also has a new error ("W is for whale"; the King James version correctly translated the Hebrew word as "fish" although the interpretation "whale" goes all the way back to the LXX translation of around the second century B.C.E.)
---- p. 252, begins "A is for Adam, who was the first man. B is for Balaam, who to curse Israel did plan." It is nearly identical to the 1827 Child's First Alphabet version.
---- p. 304, begins "is for Adam, who was the first man; He broke God's command and then sin began. B is Bartimeus...." It is nearly identical to the 1832 Infantile Instructor version.
---- pp. 329-330, begins "A is for Adam, who in Eden did live; To all birds and beasts their name he did give." This shows very little relation to any earlier version.
-- from 1882: Marshall W. Taylor, A Collection of Revival Hymns and Plantation Melodies (Cincinnati: Marshall W. Taylor and W. C. Echols, 1882), available on Google Books. P. 23 has "Gim' Me De Wings," attributed to Rev. William Johnson. Begins, "A is for Adam, no knowledge to win, By Eve and the serpent was tempted to sin," with chorus, "And O, good Lord, gim' me de wings (x3), Git up in de Chariot and trabel along." Each letter has a whole stanza and as printed, it lacks H, I, J, K. It looks to me as if it has some familiarity with the earlier versions but is idiosyncratic and clearly rewritten. It also uses some strange inversions (e.g. "F is for Felix, whom Paul sent away." Felix was not sent away by Paul; Felix sent Paul to prison.)
-- from 1908: Isabel C. Byrum, Our Darlings' A B C Book (Anderson, Indiana: Gospel Trumpet Co., 1908), available on Google Books. Starting on p. 4 we have alternating couplets and pages of interpretation, beginning "A is for Aaron with wonderful rod, Who proved to the heathen that he was of God." This can be sung to the alphabet tune, but is otherwise completely independent. - JD (research), RBW (analysis)
Last updated in version 6.4
File: RcAlpotB

Alphabet of the Ship

See The Sailor's Alphabet (File: RcTSAlp)

Alphabet Song (I)

DESCRIPTION: "'A' was an apple which growed on a tree ... And 'Z' was a zebra just come from the race" in rhyming couplets
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: nonballad animal bird wordplay | alphabet
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 4-5, "Alphabet Song" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #21101
RECORDINGS:
Charlotte Decker, "Alphabet Song" (A) (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]; "Alphabet Song" (B) (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Logger's Alphabet" (subject) and references there
File: Pea004

Alphabet Song (II), The

See The Bawdy Alphabet; also The Logger's Alphabet, The Sailor's Alphabet, etc. (File: RL616)

Alphabet Song (III), The

See The Logger's Alphabet (File: Doe207)

Alphabet Song (IV)

See The Sailor's Alphabet (File: RcTSAlp)

Alphabet Song (V)

DESCRIPTION: "A stands for apple that grew on a tree B was the boat that would hold you and me ... Z the new Zealander with his fine figured face."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: ship work food nonballad animal bird wordplay | alphabet
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 3, "The Alphabet" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alphabet Song" (I) (structure) and references there
NOTES [27 words]: Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople shares five of twenty-six items with Peacock ["Alphabet Song" (I)] and, of those, only A's line was close to being the same. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: ReSh003

Alphabet Song (VI -- Joe Watson's)

DESCRIPTION: "Come all we little children Be singing while we smile, We want all folks to listen... Sing A B C D E F G.... Though it's but a beginning, We'll never it forget... It's duty to our land, And do our teachers' bidding And be wise and understand."
AUTHOR: Joe Watson (source: Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger)
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger)
KEYWORDS: children wordplay | alphabet
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 21, page headed "Home Rule for Ireland"], "Alphabet Song" (1 text)
File: FaWTAlSo

Alphabet Songs

DESCRIPTION: A song listing the letters of the alphabet. It may have a chorus, but the letters are simply listed, with no mnemonics. Some distinguish vowels and consonants.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: nonballad wordplay | alphabet
FOUND IN: US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 873, "The Alphabet Song" (6 texts, 6 tunes, but the "E" and "F" texts are "The Vowels")
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #149, "Counting Rhymes" (8 texts of the "One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann" type, 4 of "Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme)", 1 of "Intery Mintery Cutery Corn", 1 of "Alphabet Songs", 1 of "Monday's Child", and 20 miscellaneous rhymes)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 121, "A, b, c, d, e, f, g, h,...., u are out/it" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 75-76, "(A-B-CC-D-E-F-G)" (2 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #1, "A, b, c, d, e, f, g" (1 text)
Roud #3303
RECORDINGS:
May Kennedy McCord, "The Singing Alphabet" (AFS; on LC12)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Logger's Alphabet" (subject) and references there
cf. "The Vowels"
cf. "Mother, May I Go to Swim (I)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [182 words]: There are probably dozens of alphabet songs, and no attempt is made to distinguish them here. Note that these are not the same as the various interpreted alphabets (Logger's Alphabet, Sailor's Alphabet, Bawdy Alphabet, etc.)
Portions of these songs not containing the alphabet may be interesting; Randolph's "A" text begins with the floating lyric, "Mother, may I go out to swim? Yes, my darling daughter. Hang your clothes on a hickory limb But don't go near the water." - RBW
The Randolph "A" floating verse is the same as one of the Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 360, "Mother may I go and bathe?" texts (earliest date in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes is 1951 with a reference to "Indiana in the 1890's"). - BS
The Baring-Goulds (for whom this item is #879, p. 327) quote Ditchfield to the effect that this goes back to the sixth century writer Hierocles. The joke may be the same, but I strongly doubt literary dependence. - RBW
The McCord recording is the one Randolph cited. - PJS
Some of these versions have their own Roud numbers. The Brady-AllInAllIn is #38154.
Last updated in version 6.5
File: R873

Als I Lay Upon a Nith (As I Lay Upon a Night II)

DESCRIPTION: "As I lay upon a night, Alone in my longing, I thought I saw a wondrous sight, A maiden (her) child rocking." The mother sings a lullaby; he asks her to tell her his story. She tells of Gabriel's visit. (He tells her his future). With a "lullay" chorus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1372 (Commonplace Book of John de Grimestone, National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 18.7.21)
KEYWORDS: religious mother Jesus MiddleEnglish lullaby
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #149, pp. 103-106, "(Als I lay upon a nith)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #352
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #606
ADDITIONAL: Karen Saupe, editor, _Middle English Marian Lyrics_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1998, #25, pp. 71-76, "(Als I lay upon a nit)" (1 text, mostly from Grimestone)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSGrimestone}, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 18.7.21, John de Grimestone's Commonplace Book, folio 3
MANUSCRIPT: {MSCambridgeS54}, Cambridge, St. John’s College MS. S.54 (Cambridge University 259), folio 4
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, University Library, MS. Additional 5943, folio 169
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Harley 2330, folio 120
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary With Her Young Son" (theme of the young Jesus foretelling his future)
NOTES [941 words]: Deciding whether to include Middle English pieces in the Index is always difficult, but few were harder for me than this. The manuscripts were not much help -- the earliest, the Grimestone manuscript, is an important monument of Middle English literature, but there isn't much evidence that its contents are traditional. The St. John's College manuscript is interesting and contains several carols that seem traditional, but the other two manuscripts are not noteworthy and don't seem to have much in the way of traditional material.
On the other hand, there are four of them, which is a very high number for a Middle English carol. And they range over a century or more in time (Grimestone's manuscript is from c. 1372; the other three are all fifteenth century). And the forms differ dramatically:
- Grimestone's is 37 stanzas long, plus a chorus "lullay, lullay, la, lullay, My dere moder, lullay." There are marginal references assigning parts to "Iesu," "Christus loquitur," "Iesus," and "Maria." It starts with Mary rocking Jesus and him asking her "Wa me sal befalle / Hereafter wan I cum to eld" (i.e. what will befall him when he grows up). Mary recounts the events of the Annunciation, of his birth, and of the visit of the shepherds, and says that that is all she knows. That occupies the first 15 stanzas. Jesus then tells her what he will do; this takes 21 stanzas. The last stanza is a summary. (For more on the Grimestone version, although not a full text, see Wilson, #5, p. 2.; for more on Grimestone in general, see the notes to "The Coventry Carol" or Wilson or the Bibliography notes on this manuscript.) Wenzel, pp. 137, spends much time on the Grimestone version, calling it "first of all a post-nativity scene witnessed by the speaker whose only characterization is his unspecified longing." "Like a very human baby, Christ will not fall asleep unless his mother sings him a lullaby as don modres alle ([lines] 12), and Mary responds by protesting her limited experience (22, 57-60) and then recalls what little she knows: the Annunciation (21-48) and the Nativity (49-56). At that point Jesus takes over and teaches her what else to sing (62)," describing events from his circumcision to the Ascension -- and adds Mary's Assumption and the Last Judgment. Mary interjects joy at the thought that he might be a king (105-108) and sorrow at the thought of the Passion (127-128). There is also some discussion between the narrator of the song and Joseph.
- The St. John's copy, the one with the strongest traditional associations, has the chorus and nine stanzas approximating the equivalent stanzas in Grimestone.
- The Harley manuscript has the chorus and just five stanzas
- The Cambridge University Library copy has only the chorus and opening stanza.
Is that enough reason to consider it traditional? I don't know. The whole thing breaks into three items, a lullaby, Mary's story to Jesus, and Jesus's account to Mary; the latter is much like later pieces such as "Mary With Her Young Son." Were the three originally one item, with the ending chopped off in the shorter versions? Or is the lullaby older, with Jesus's prophecy grafted on to the text in Grimestone? I am far from sure, but my slight inclination is to suspect the latter, in which case the lullaby is traditional, and Mary's telling to Jesus might be as well. So I'm including the song, very hesitantly.
It would appear, from the allusions, that the author of the long form of this had the Gospel of Luke before him, but perhaps not the others. The annunciation by Gabriel is in Luke 1:26-38 and has no parallel in the other Gospels. The story of Elizabeth bearing John the Baptist is also found only in Luke 1. The shepherds that came at Jesus's birth are in Luke 2:8-20. The circumcision (being "kot... with a ston In a wol tendre place") is in Luke 2:21. Simeon seeing Jesus in the Temple when the boy is forty days old is in Luke 2:28-35, with the sword piercing Mary's side being mentioned in 2:25. Jesus in the Temple at age twelve is Luke 2:41-51. Jesus is said to have begun his work when about thirty years old in Luke 3:23. The Ascension is sketched in Luke 24:50-51 and and told in more detail in Acts 1. Note that none of the infancy material of Matthew (the star, the magi, the massacre of the innocents) is mentioned.
It is worth remembering that, in the era before printing (and this song, in all its forms, precedes printing by at least a decade), books were expensive. A poor parish, if it had any religious volume at all, would have only a lectionary, not a true Bible. And even if it did have some part of a continuous-text Bible, it would probably be just a copy of the Gospels, not a complete New Testament, let alone an Old. And it was a manuscript, with no index or concordance and very possibly no cross-references. And it might be damaged, or include only one Gospel. By the looks of this song, the compiler of the long section at the end of the Grimestone Manuscript read through chapters 1-3 of Luke, but took the rest from general knowledge of Jesus's career (the rest of the details are found in multiple gospels -- although all are found in Luke).
The one exception is the reference to Jesus taking Mary to heaven with him (the Assumption of Mary). While the Assumption is listed as one of her "Joys" (see "The Joys of Mary"), it is not biblical -- but was a well-established legend by this time.
Saupe suggests that the tune in Rossell Hope Robbins, editor, Early English Christmas Carols, Columbia University Press, 1961, #27, pp. 73, "Lullay, Lullay," is this. But it's so short that I'd say it is impossible to tell. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSFHHOSS

Als I me rode this endre dai

See Now Springs the Spray (File: MSNoSpSp)

Alsea Boys

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Alsea Girls

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Altered Days

DESCRIPTION: "When to New Zealand first I cam', Poor and duddy, poor and duddy... It was a happy day, Sirs." At home, he was hungry and ill-clothed, and the landlord was after him. "But now it's altered days"; there is plenty to eat and he doesn't even have to work
AUTHOR: John Barr (source: Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry; Sinclair)
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (Barr, Poems and Songs, according to Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: emigration New Zealand poverty hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 24, "Altered Days" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 14 in the 1972 edition)
ADDITIONAL: Keith Sinclair, _A History of New Zealand_, 1959, 1969, 1991 (I use the 1991 Penguin paperback edition), pp. 96-97, "(no title)" (1 excerpt)
RECORDINGS:
Barbie and Neil Colquhoun, "Altered Days" (on NZSongYngCntry)
NOTES [74 words]: According to Gordon McLauchlan, editor-in-chief, New Zealand Encyclopedia, David Bateman Limited, 1984, p. 46, "BARR, John (1809-89) was born in Paisley, Scotland and emigrated to N[ew] Z[ealand] in 1852, settling in Dunedin. He became a well-known poet and songwriter, contributing to the Otago Witness and Saturday Advertiser. His Poems and Songs was published in 1861 and revised and reissued in 1874. He inaugurated the Burns Club. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Cold014

Although My Love Be Black

DESCRIPTION: "Although my love be black, she is none the worse o' that, For the black makes the white shine bonny."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: love beauty hair nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1854, "Although My Love Be Black" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13590
NOTES [64 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
Greig/Duncan8: "The first two lines resemble [1547 'Strichen's Plantins' Da']." I don't see this at all, but cf. Greig/Duncan8 1855, "Black Men Are the Bravest."
Is black the color of her hair or skin? In this case it seems that black hair is being contrasted with white skin. - BS
Or might it be the black of coal dust? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81854

Altimover Stream

See The Lurgy Stream (The Lurgan/Leargaidh Stream) (File: HHH229)

Altoona Freight Wreck, The

See The Wreck of the 1262 (The Freight Wreck at Altoona) (File: DTwrck12)

Always Been a Rambler

See The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)

Always on the Spree

DESCRIPTION: "He's a fine man to me when he's sober And a better man to me could never be, But from Saturday nict till Monday mornin' He's always on the spree"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 598, "Always on the Spree" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6048
ALTERNATE TITLES:
He's a Fine Man
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 entry. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3598

Am I Born to Die? (Idumea)

DESCRIPTION: "And am I born to die, To lay this body down, And must my trembling spirit fly Into a world unknown?" "Waked by the trumpet sound, I from my grave shall rise, To see the Judge with glory crowned..." "I must from God be driv'n, Or with my Savior dwell...."
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Wesley / Music: Ananias Davidson?
EARLIEST DATE: 1763 (Wesley's "Hymns for Children," according to Julian)
KEYWORDS: religious death nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 125, "Am I Born to Die?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 164-165, "And Am I Born to Die" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6678
RECORDINGS:
Singers from Stewart's Chapel, Houston, MS, "World Unknown"; "Iduimea" (on Fasola1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "World Unknown" (tune)
cf. "We're Some of the Praying People" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
When Sorrows Encompass Me 'Round (File: Wa094)
NOTES [170 words]: Lomax compares the tune to "Lord Lovel." It appears in the shape note books as "Idumea" (the Sacred Harp has a second tune, "World Unknown," listed as by H. S. Reese, but this doesn't seem to be well known). That the tune "Idumea" is traditional cannot be denied. There is more doubt about the words.
In the Missouri Harmony, the tune Idumea has the lyric "My God, my life, my love, To thee, to thee I call; I cannot live, if thou remove, For thou art all in all."
For the life of Charles Wesley, author of the lyrics of this piece, see the notes to "Jesus Lover of My Soul.
According to John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 63, this was #59 in Wesley's Hymns for Children (1763). Interestingly, the same book had another Wesley poem, "And am I only born to die." (Makes you wonder what other happy themes Wesley put in Hymns for Children, doesn't it?) That other hymn doesn't seem to be as widely known; I have not seen it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: LoF125

Am I the Doctor?

See A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.) [Laws P9]; also "The Brown Girl" [Child 295] (File: LP09)

Amalgamate as One

DESCRIPTION: "Labor unions should all be united And prove to the world they are one, They could get living wages without trouble, Let us show that it can be done." Hearers are urged to treat all union members as their brothers. They should avoid divisions
AUTHOR: Billy Jenkins (source: Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (year of writing, according to Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends); collected (from the author?) in 1947
KEYWORDS: labor-movement nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 449-451, "Amalgamate as One)
Roud #7743
File: KPL448

Amanda

See Olban (Alban) or The White Captive [Laws H15] (File: LH15)

Amasee

DESCRIPTION: Playparty: "Take your partner down the line, Amasee, Amasee, Take your partner down the line, Amasee, Amasee, Swing your partner, swing again, Amasee, Amasee...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, children of Brown's Chapel School)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad dancing
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 155, "Amasee" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 541, "Amasee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11010
RECORDINGS:
Children of Brown's Chapel School, "Amasee" (on NFMAla6, RingGames, FMUSA)
NOTES [47 words]: I suppose the chorus line "Amasee" could have been suggested by the Biblical character "Amasa" -- but I rather doubt it. - RBW
So do I. Courlander interprets the word as a shortened, "I must see," but my ears don't quite hear that. "I'm 'a see," maybe, short for "I'm gonna see"? - PJS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: CNFM155A

Amazing Grace

DESCRIPTION: "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me." The singer describes how Jesus's grace gives him/her the confidence to face all the dangers and troubles of life.
AUTHOR: Words: John Newton (1725-1807)
EARLIEST DATE: 1789 (reportedly composed) or 1831 (printed in Virginia Harmony)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 45, "Amazing Grace" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 203, "Amazing Grace" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 96, "Amazing Grace" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 573-574, "Amazing Grace" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 198-199, "Amazing Grace" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 261-262, "Amazing Grace" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 369, "Amazing Grace" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 241, "Amazing Grace" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 546, "Amazing Grace" (1 text0
DT, AMAZGRAC*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 48-49, "Amazing Grace" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ira D. Sankey, _Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos_ [1200 Hymns] (London} Collins, n.d.), #894 (1880 #231), "Amazing Grace"
Roud #5430
RECORDINGS:
Howard Adams & congregation, "Amazing Grace" (on LomaxCD1704)
Jesse Allison & group, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 2684 A1)
Horton Barker, "Amazing Grace" (on Barker01)
Mr. & Mrs. N. V. Braley, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 2638 A2)
Rev. J. C. Burnett, "Amazing Grace" (Decca 7494, 1938)
Mary Caryl, "Amazing Grace" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #216, recorded 08/26/2022)
Congregation of the Little Zion Church, Jeff, KY "Amazing Grace" (on Ritchie03)
Congregation of the New Hope Baptist Church, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 3042 A2)
Old Regular Baptist Church congregation, "Amazing Grace" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
C. J. Evans Gospel Choir of Nicey Grove Baptist Church, "Amazing Grace" (on HandMeDown2)
Denson-Parris Sacred Harp Singers, "New Britain" (Bluebird B-5397, 1934)
Dye's Sacred Harp Singers "Amazing Grace" (Gennett 6889, 1929; rec. 1928)
Friendship Four (or Friendship Quartette), "Amazing Grace" (Victor 21287, 1928)
Bill & Pauline Garland, Charlie Black & Marie Bennett, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 3941 A1)
Mrs. Henry Garrett, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 3175 A3)
Rev. J. M. Gates, "Amazing Grace" (Pathe Actuelle 7514/Perfect 114, 1926) (Victor 20216, 1926) (Herwin 92003, 1926; Gennett 6013/Champion 15199/Black Patti 8015/Silvertone 5021, 1927; Paramount 12782, 1929; all rec. 1926)
Rev. J. R. Gipson, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 3981 A1)
Shirley Glenn, Dianne Ward-Hicks, Derek Piotr, "Amazing Grace" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #11, recorded 07/14/2020, which is mostly a fight to find which key they can be off-pitch in)
Harmonizing Four, "Amazing Grace" (Gotham G779, rec. early 1950s)
Old Harp Singers of Eastern Tennessee, "Amazing Grace" (on OldHarp01)
Horace Helms & the Shady Grove Partners, "Amazing Grace" (on HandMeDown2)
Mahalia Jackson, "Amazing Grace" (Apollo 194, rec. 1947; on Babylon)
Aunt Molly Jackson, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 821 B2, 1935)
Buell Kazee, "Amazing Grace" [fragment] (on Kazee01)
Vera Kilgore, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 2939 B4)
Mrs. W. L. Martin, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 2748 B1/2)
Lucy McKeever, Annie Harvey, Melinda Jones, Mary Davis & Elsi Martin, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 917 B2)
Blind Willie McTell, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 4071 B3)
Moving Star Hall Singers, "Amazing Grace" (on USSeaIsland02)
Gilbert Pike, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 3189 B6)
Pilgrim Travelers, "Amazing Grace" (Specialty 847, n.d. but probably post-World War II)
Jean Ritchie, Doc Watson & Roger Sprung, "Amazing Grace" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchiteWatsonCD1)
School group, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 3109 B)
Pete Seeger, "Amazing Grace" (on PeteSeeger47)
Mary Shipp, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 3005 A1)
Carl Smith w. Carter Sisters & Mother Maybelle, "Amazing Grace" (Columbia 20986, 1952)
Students at Pine Mt. Settlement School, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 1383 B1)
Rev. H. R. Tomlin, "Amazing Grace" (OKeh 8378, 1926)
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Walker & Grover Bishop, "Amazing Grace" (AAFS 3104 A2)
Doc Watson, Clarence Ashley, Clint Howard, Fred Price & Jean Ritchie, "Amazing Grace" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01)
Wisdom Sisters, "Amazing Grace" (Columbia 15093-D, 1926)
Group of young and old people, "Amazing Grace" (on JThomas01)
SAME TUNE:
The Frenchman's Cow (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 59)
The Light Is Bad, My Eyes Are Dim (Joke based on a minister telling his congregants that he can't see and they assuming he is lining out a hymn; Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 186)
NOTES [626 words]: As with many hymns, the threads [of this song's history] are a bit tangled. It's called "New Britain" in the "Original Sacred Harp" (1971 ed.), and this tune is the one commonly sung. No composer is listed for the tune, and a note states that the song was published in "Olney's Selections" as "Faith's Review and Expectation."
The lyrics also appear with a tune by R. F. Mann from 1869, under the title "Jewett," with the chorus "Shout, shout for glory/Shout, shout aloud for glory/Brother, sister, mourner/All shout glory hallelujah." - PJS
The Herskovits Trinidadian Spiritual Baptist account of "Jesus Lover of My Soul" fits the USSeaIsland02 track as well. This is a Sankey hymn, and the writers of the WITrinidadVillage02 liner notes would characterize this track as "Sankey into Shout." - BS
John Newton, according to Reynolds, p. 390, was born in London, but according to Johnson, lost his mother at age seven and at age eleven found himself serving his father on shipboard. Taken into the navy, he deserted, was recaptured, and finally ended up serving on a slaver. Then he read The Imitation of Christ, and gave up his career, eventually becoming an Anglican clergyman.
His major relic is the texts he contributed to Olney Hymns (Olney was the home of Newton and of William Cowper); there are nearly 300 of them, of which this one is by far the most popular. Other Newton songs in the Index are "Greenfields (How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours)" and "Glorious Thing of Thee are Spoken."
Julian, p. 803, gives a fuller biography of Newton, noting in particular that, "He grew into an abandoned and godless sailor. The religious fits of his boyhood changed into settled infidelity, through the study of Shaftsbury and the instruction of one of his comrades. Disappointing repeatedly the plans of his father, he was flogged as a deserter from the navy, and for fifteen months lived, half-starved and ill-treated, in abject degradation under a slave-dealer in Africa. The one restraining influence on his life was his future wife, Mary Catlett, formed when he was seventeen, and she only in her fourteenth year. A chance reading of Thomas a Kempis sowed the seed of his conversion; which quickened under the awful contemplations of a night spent in steering a water-logged vessel in the face of apparent death (1748). He was then twenty-three. The six following years, during which he commanded a slave ship, matured his Christian belief."
He spent the nine years after that studying the Biblical languages and meeting such people as Wesley, Whitefield, and Cowper. He was not ordained until 1764, when he was made curate of Olney, Buckinghamshire, where he did most of his best writing, the primary result being the Olney Hymns.
Although Julian, p. 804, lists 61 hymns by Newton that are considered significant, the only ones to make the Index are "Amazing Grace," "Greenfields (How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours)," "Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken," and "Mercy O Thou Son of David" (filed as "This Old World") -- which still makes his work exceptionally popular by hymn-writer standards.
Julian, p. 55, says of this song, "In G[reat] Brit[ain] it is unknown in modern collections, but in America its use is extensive. It is far from being a good example of Newton's work."
As with many popular hymns, the versions sung in churches do not match the original text; McKim, p. 280, tells us that the Presbyterian version, at least, has a fifth stanza from "Jerusalem, My Happy Home" (and sometimes credited to John P. Rees, although he in fact had no part of it).
The tune "New Britain" apparently had a different third line in its original form, and was modified by Edwin Othello Excell. For the original form, see e.g. Stulken, p. 476. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LxU096

Amber Marg'et Oh Gal

DESCRIPTION: Amber Marg'et, don't you hear the drums rolling for the bele dance? Amber Marg'et, the queen of the bele dance, is coming.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 6, "Amber Marg'et Oh Gal" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [24 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "The origins of the bele in Tobago are as yet unknown but this dance is associated with reel dance sessions ...." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo006

Amber Tresses Tied in Blue

DESCRIPTION: "Far away in sunny meadows Where the merry sunbeams played... She was fairer than the fairest... And about her neck were hanging Amber tresses tied in blue." But "it was decreed that fate should part us"; now he sadly remembers her
AUTHOR: Words: Samuel M. Mitchell/Music: Hart Pease Danks (1834-1903)
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (sheet music published by Cottier & Denton of New York)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 804, "Amber Tresses Tied in Blue" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1920_, self-published, 1918 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland site), p. 17, "Amber Tresses Tied in Blue" (1 text)
Roud #4230
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Amber Tresses" (Victor 23701, 1932; Bluebird B-5185, 1933; Zonophone [Australia] 4379, n.d.)
Isabel Etheridge & Mary Basnight, "Amber Tresses" (on OBanks1)
File: R804

Ambletown

DESCRIPTION: A sailor receives a letter, telling him that his child has been born. He reports that it's "home I want to be" (to see the child and learn its gender), and intends to take ship there at the first opportunity
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Shay)
KEYWORDS: children family sailor separation home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 499, "Home, Dearie, Home" (1 text, 1 tune, in which the sailor's wife, rather than sending a letter, comes to him in a dream) [AbrEd, pp. 366]
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 144-145, "Home, Dearie, Home" (1 text plus a stanza of Henley's adaption and an alternate chorus, plus a text of "Bell-Bottom Trousers," 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 91, "Home, Boys, Home" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Andra Joy Hamilton, "A Garland of Ballads from Caldwell County", Vol. 3, No. 1 (Jul 1955), p. 5, "At Home, My Lassie" (1 fragment, 1 tune, so short that it might be "Ambletown" or "Rosemary Lane" [Laws K43] or any other member of the family; there is no seduction, just the "Home... in your ain country" and the "If it be a boy" stanzas); Vol. 3, No. 2 (Dec 1955), p. 19, contains an "Additional Note" on the song but no additional text)
DT 319, AMBLTOWN
ST LK43A (Full)
Roud #269
RECORDINGS:
Jumbo Brightwell, "The Oak and the Ash" (on Voice02)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(127), "Home, Dearie, Home," Poet's Box (Dundee), unknown (with this chorus, though the nearly-illegible text does not appear to match this song; it appears to be a rewrite of this piece)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosemary Lane" [Laws K43]
cf. "A North Country Maid"
SAME TUNE:
Home, Boys, Home (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 37-38, listed as being to the tune of "The Son of a Gambolier" but appearing to be a parody of this)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Home, Dearie, Home
Oak and the Ash, The
NOTES [80 words]: For the complex relationship between this song, "A North Country Maid," and "Rosemary Lane" [Laws K43], see the notes to the latter song. - RBW
I put [the Silber text] in with Ambletown rather than Rosemary Lane because the only narrative verses describe the sailor's longing to be "sitting in my parlor and talking to my dear" and thinking of the "pretty little babe that has never seen its daddy." No explicit seduction -- which places it in the Ambletown ambit, so to speak. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LK43A

Amelia Jane

DESCRIPTION: ""In the lands away beyond the sea, where Khan and Sultan rule," they keep slaves. They don't call it that elsewhere, but life is just as hard. Mrs. MacFee acts pious and charitable, but what she did to her "employee" Amelia Jane shows it is not true
AUTHOR: David McKee Wright (1867-1928) (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Wright's "Wisps of Tussock," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: worker hardtimes slave
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 129-130, "Amelia Jane" (1 text)
File: BRo129

Amen

DESCRIPTION: "Amen, Oh, Lawdy, Amen, have mercy, Amen, amen, amen, Sing it over." "See the little baby lying in a manger On Chrismas morning, Amen." "See him in the Temple." "See him at the garden." "See him on the cross." "Yes, he died to save us."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1997 (Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus death Christmas
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 27-28, "Amen" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [125 words]: Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit lists this as a "traditional spiritual," and I include it on that basis. But I have never seen it elsewhere, and Warren does not list a source. Moreover, it is a surprisingly orderly version of the life of Jesus: Jesus was born and laid in a manger (Luke's gospel), he is in the Temple (this is probably the visit described in Luke when Jesus was twelve, although he is said to have visited the Temple many times later), he preached at the see (of Galilee/Tiberias; multiple references to this); he is praying in the garden (of Gethsemane), is is crucified, he died and rose on Easter. It really looks to me as if the version in Warren is from a source very close to the original author. Perhaps even Warren herself. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: WaSp027

Amen Means So Be It

DESCRIPTION: "Amen means 'so be it,' A half a loaf, a threepenny bit, Two men with four feet, Walking down O'Connell Steet, Calling out, 'Pigs' feet, One and four a pound."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: food commerce travel
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 49, "(Amen means 'so be it')" (1 text)
Roud #38109
File: BAAI049A

Amen, Brother Ben

DESCRIPTION: "Amen, Brother Ben, Shot a rooster, Killed a hen. Hen died; rooster cried, Then committed suicide."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: death suicide chickens
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 77, "Amen"; p. 105, "Shot a Rooster" (2 texts)
File: ZiZa077A

America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)

DESCRIPTION: A praise to the liberty and freedom offered in America. Throw in a brief description of the geography, a bit of praise for God, and a hint of ancestor worship, add the tune of "God Save the King," and you get America's other anthem
AUTHOR: Samuel Francis Smith
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (first recorded performance, though Smith later thought he wrote it in 1832, when it was first published)
KEYWORDS: patriotic America nonballad religious derivative
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 6-9, "America, My Country 'Tis of Thee" (1 text, 1 tune, from an 1861 edition)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 262, "My Country! 'Tis Of Thee" (1 text, 1 tune, a reprint of an early copy)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 249-251, "God Save the King" (includes notes on "America")
Krythe-SamplerOfAmericanSongs 4, pp. 62-73, "America" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #2/72, p. 53 and #2/64, p. 52, "America" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 55-57, "America" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 157, "America" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #6, "America" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 60-61, "America" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #34, p. 3, "[America] My Country 'Tis of Thee" (10 references)
Dime-Song-Book #34, pp. q6-q7, "America" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 256, 261, "America" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 4, "America (My Country, ' Tis of Thee") (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 4, "America" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 70, "America" (1 text)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 27, "America" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 44, "America" (1 text)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 2, "America" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 4, "America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, AMERTIS*
ADDITIONAL: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 46, lists early sheet music publications
Roud #V16615
RECORDINGS:
Bob Livingston, "America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee)" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #241, recorded 09/11/2022; the tune is changed somewhat and the text disordered)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "God Save the King" (tune) and Same Tune references there for versions based on that text rather than this
SAME TUNE:
New National Anthem (Cowboy version, to the tune of My Country Tis of Thee) (File: ThLo105)
God Save America ("God save America Free from tyrannic sway Till time shall cease") (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 338)
My Country's Tired of Me ("My country's tired of me, I'm going to Germany To see the king. His name is Mickey Mouse....") (Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 111) / ("My country's tired of me, I'm going to Germany To see the king. He drives a whisky truck....") (Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 114)
New National Hymn ("My native land I love," by "an American Widow, A. B. Clark") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 107)
Nassau! (by Thomas D. Suplee, [class of 18]70) ("Nassau! thy name we own, No nobler name be known, Ancient Nassau!) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 73)
Old Williams, 'Tis of Thee (by E. B. Parsons, [class of 18]59) ("Old Williams, 'tis of thee, Fountain of jollity") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 115)
Society Ode (by H. P. Tappan, [class of 18]25) (Brothers! We're here once more -- Not as in days of yore") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 136)
Once More We Meet ("Brothers! Once more we meet At Learning's chosen seat, Old College Hill") (by W. W. Howe, [class of 18]53) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 19)
Dear Kenyon ("Dear Kenyon, mother dear, We come to hail thee here") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 51)
The New Year ("Another year has gone, On time swift pinions flown, Its course it took") (by Jno. Love, Jr, [class of 18]68) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 68)
Oh, University! ("O, University, O, Freedom's pride! to thee Our song we raise") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 75)
In Union's Might ("Come, let our voices raise In thankful songs of praise For Union's might") (Foner, p. 99)
America [Knights of Labour version] ("Our Country, 'tis of thee, Sweet land of knavery, Of thee we sing") (by Ralph E. Hoyt) (Foner, p. 151)
Awake! Be Free! ("Our country, great and grand Is known in every land As freedom's home") (by H. W. Fulson) (Foner, p. 164)
The Future America ("My country 'tis of thee, Land of lost Liberty, Of thee we sing, Land where the millionaires, Who govern our affairs") (by H. C. Dodge) (Foner, p. 183, with a sheet music print on p. 184)
Eight Hour Lyrics ("Ye noble sons of toil, Who ne'er from work recoil, Take up the lay," plus other verses which may or may not have been sung as part of the same song) (Foner, p. 217)
America - 1895 ("Our country 'tis for thee, Land where once all were fee, We take our stand") (by O. J. Graham) (Foner, p. 251)
Freemen, Now Strike for Right! (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 24)
My Chicken, 'Tis of Thee (Harbin-Parodology, #280, p. 68; cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 256)
Table Grace: O Father of us all, To bless our food this day (Harbin-Parodology, #305, p. 73)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
National Hymn
NOTES [374 words]: According to Spaeth, p. 69, S. F. Smith discovered the tune of "Heil Dir in Siegerkranz" in a book lent to him by Lowell Mason, and dashed off his words not knowing that "God Save the King" was to the same tune. Mason would direct the first public performance. McKim, pp. 561-562, quotes Smith's words: "I found the tune in a German music-book brought to this country by the late William C. Woodbridge and put into my hands by Lowell Mason, because (so he said) I could read German and he could not. Lowell Mason arranged it as it is known in the United States and gave it the name AMERICA."
Reynolds, pp. 144-145, says that Smith was to become "one of the outstanding Baptist preachers of the nineteenth century." The original German words began "Gott segne Sachsenland," i.e. "God save (the) Saxon land"
Smith, according to both Spaeth and Dicther/Shapiro, would later write, "If I had anticipated the future of it, doubtless I would have taken more pains with it."
Julian, p. 1063, reports that it was "'Written in 1832, and first sung at a children's Fourth of July celebration in Park Street church, Boston.'" See also p. 1566 of Julian for some versions which are neither this nor "God Save the King."
Samuel Francis Smith, according to Julian, "was b[orn] in Boston, U. S. A., Oct. 21, 1808, and graduated in arts at Harvard, and in theology at Andover. He entered the Baptist ministry in 1832, and became the same year editor of the Baptist Missionary Magazine. He also contributed to the Encyclopedia Americana. From1 834 to 1842 he was pastor at Waterville, Mains, and Professor of Modern Languages in Waterville College. In 1832 he removed to Newton, Massachusetts, where he remained until 1854, when he became the editor of the publications of the Baptist Missionary Union. With Baron Stow he prepared the the Baptist collection known as The Psalmist, pub[lished] in 1843, to which he contributed several hymns.... Dr. Smith also pub[lished] Lyric Gems, 1854, Rock of Ages, 1870, &c." Julian goes on to list 32 of his hymns in "common use."
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird claims this tune is by "Henry Cary," which I assume is an error for "Henry Carey," author of "Sally in Our Alley," but I've not seen this elsewhere. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: RJ19006

America, America

DESCRIPTION: "America, America, Shall we tell you how we feel? You have given us your riches We love you so."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad derivative campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 449, "America, America" (notes, with a text included as part of a complex song on p. 454)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rose, Rose" (tune)
NOTES [57 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs lists this as a separate song based on "Rose, Rose," but in the version I found, it is simply another verse for "Rose, Rose," one of three added verses all cited by Averill: "America, America," "Love, Love," and "Peace, Peace," with "America, America" being the only one popular enough to get a separate listing. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF449A

America, the Beautiful

DESCRIPTION: In praise of America, productive and fertile "from sea to shining sea." God is begged to care for and improve the nation.
AUTHOR: Words: Katherine Lee Bates/Music: Samuel A. Ward
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 ("Congregationalist")
KEYWORDS: America patriotic religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Krythe-SamplerOfAmericanSongs 12, pp. 177-184, "America the Beautiful" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 145-146, "America the Beautiful" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 46, "America the Beautiful" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 96-97, "America the Beautiful"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 332, "America the Beautiful" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 5, "America, the Beautiful" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 3, "America, the Beautiful" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 111, "America the Beautiful" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 46-47, "America, the Beautiful" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 1, "America, the Beautiful" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, pp. 2-3, "America, the Beautiful" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "America the Beautiful" (on PeteSeeger31)
Pete Seeger w. Robert DeCormier, "America the Beautiful" (on HootenannyTonight)
SAME TUNE:
Our Camp ("We're thankful for the skies of blue, The breeze that whispers low") (Harbin-Parodology, #250, p. 250)
O Master Workman of the Race (Harbin-Parodology, #415, p. 102)
American Army Hymn ("America, America, We lift our battle cry!") (Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 168-169)
NOTES [549 words]: An article in the October 2004 issue of American History magazine reveals a complex history for this song, with, in a sense, both the words and music coming first.
Katherine Lee Bates (1859-1929) in 1893 was a professor of English heading for Colorado. She made several stops along the way: first at Niagara Falls, then at the World Columbian Exhibition in Chicago (where new shining-white buildings made her think of "alabaster cities"); the Midwest gave her "fruited plains" (Rudin, p. 80). According to Shaw, p. 28, the reference to the alabaster cities being "undimmed by human tears" is an allusion to Revelation 21:4, where God wipes "all tears from all faces."
Eventually Bates climbed Pikes Peak (which made her think of beautiful skies). She started on a rough draft of it then and there, and after polishing it a little, sent it to The Congregationist, which published the poem in its July 4, 1895 edition (Rudin, p. 80).
The result doesn't strike me as particularly good, even if you like the common version of the song: "O beautiful for halcyon skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the enameled plain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee Till souls wax fair as earth and air And music-hearted sea!"
Nonetheless, the poem was a hit, and reportedly inspired no fewer than 75 musical settings. But it wasn't until 1905 that Clarence A. Barbour managed to fit it to Samuel A. Ward's 1890 tune "Materna" (which, according to Reynolds, p. 153, and Shaw, p. 30, had been written for a hymn, "O Mother Dear, Jerusalem").
That process seemed to inspire Bates; she revised her poem once in 1904, and produced the final, quasi-canonical version in 1911.
The tune still took some time to settle down; as late as 1926, the Lutheran publication The Parish School Hymnal published it with William W. Sleeper's 1926 tune.
Reynolds, p. 452, says that composer Ward was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1847, and died there in 1903; he studied music in New York City, then settled down to run a music business in Newark. He was for many years the organist at Grace Episcopal Church in Newark, and he also founded and directed the Orpheus Club of Newark. He held both these positions at the time he wrote this tune.
Author Bates was seeming something of a character; pp. 28-29 suggest she was "a Socialist sympathizer and may have been gay." The latter of these claims is based on the fact that she lived for a long time with another female professor, Katharine Coman, who was also with her on that trip to the mountains. Both suggestions are possible; neither is entirely compelling. The 1890s marked the height of the populist movement (in 1892, populist James B. Weaver won about 9% of the popular vote and 22 electoral votes), and many of the populist positions could sound socialist today. And, at that time and even into my youth, it was fairly normal for two unmarried women to live together rather than alone. Still, it is clear that Bates didn't follow the standard pattern for women's lives at the time!
Reynolds, p. 153, notes that when the satellite Echo I was launched in 1960 (in essence, it was a giant metallic balloon used to reflect radio waves -- a very primitive communications satellite), this song was the first music beamed at it. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Kry012

America's Call

DESCRIPTION: "America! Arise! Awake! Humanity calls for thee to take The lead in fighting for her sake! The ruthless Kaiser claims the seas...." Americans fought the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, etc.; time to fight again
AUTHOR: William G. Murdock (source: Shoemaker)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (publication date, according to Shoemaker)
KEYWORDS: war
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, "America's Call" (1 text) (pp. 153-154 in the 1919 edition; not found in the third edition)
Roud #15009
NOTES [53 words]: The subtitle of this in Shoemaker's 1919 edition, "A Song That Will Live." Ironic that it was the first song in the 1919 edition to be purged in the later edition. To be sure, the end of World War I made it irrelevant, but it's hardly worse than any of the other non-traditional pieces Shoemaker afflicted upon us. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SMMP153X

America's War of Independence

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you young Americans, Come here my children, I'll rehearse" how God made the American "wilderness" great. Columbus found it. The Pilgrims landed. The British blockaded and made Americans suffer. There were plagues. But God rescued them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: patriotic war disease
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 345-349, "America's War of Independence" (1 text)
Roud #23388
File: EcSm345

American Aginora, The

DESCRIPTION: A ship from Limerick to St John's is disabled. Two men drown. The food is lost. The captain has those without wives cast lots. The lot falls to O'Brien; the cook is forced to cut his throat. They drink O'Brien's blood. The next day they are rescued.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Murphy, Songs and Ballads of Terra Nova, according to Michael P. Murphy); 19C (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(172a))
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor rescue cannibalism starvation husband
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 18, 1835 - Patrick O'Brien is killed on Francis Spaight
Dec 23, 1835 - The crew is rescued by Agenora. (See Notes)
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 38-39, "The American Aginora" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Michael P. Murphy, _Pathways through Yesterday_, edited by Gerald S. Moore, Town Crier Publishing, 1976, pp. 42-44, "The Wreck of the Fanny Wright" (1 verse only, but with a long description of the plot)
Roud #7352
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(98), "Loss of the Ship Francis Spede, Dreadful Sufferings of the Crew ("You landsmen and you seamen bold "), J. Scott (Pittenweem), 19C; also Harding B 17(172a), "The Loss of the Francis Spaight"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship in Distress" (plot) and references there
cf. "The Banks of Newfoundland" (II) (plot)
NOTES [694 words]: The plot is that of "The Banks of Newfoundland" (II) with the rescue too late to save the lottery loser. Note that the Aginora is the rescue ship. As in "The Banks of Newfoundland," the ship planning/practicing human sacrifice is not named.
There are a number of references for the event:
Bourke in Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast v3, p. 123, is writing about songs and ballads, including Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, as sources for his information: "The story of the Francis Spaight on 22 November, ... year unknown before 1836, describes cannibalism of the cabin boy Patrick O'Brien and eventual rescue of fourteen of the eighteen survivors by Captain Tillard.."
Northern Shipwrecks Database has the date as November 1836, has "Francis Spaight" sailing from Saint John, New Brunswick, bound to Limerick, Ireland, and the rescuer as "Angeronia." The Bodleian broadsides have the rescue ship as "The Agonary of America."
Death of a Cabin Boy on the Askeaton Step Back in Time site: "Few Limerick people today will have heard of Patrick O'Brien. His name has not entered any of our major works of local history. There is not even a plaque or stone to his memory."
The story is told about O'Brien, about the disaster on December 3, and finally of the decision by the captain, Thomas Gorman, "that one of the crew should be killed to keep the rest alive." After O'Brien was killed "three other crew members were similarly put to death ... and they too were eaten by their ship mates.... The captain of the Francis Spaight was engaged in eating the liver and brains of his cabin boy when rescued. After their return to Limerick, the captain and crew were tried for murder and acquitted... rendered [by their ordeal] ... unable to labour ... during the rest of their lives."
The Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild site has an expurgated text of Captain Gorman's letter to the ship's owner, naming the rescue ship as Agorona and its captain as Jillard. As to the storm, the site, quoting Limerick Times notes "On a reference to Lloyd's List we find that twenty vessels are reported as having foundered on the same night."
The Jack London Ranch Album site has the complete text of The "Francis Spaight" A True Tale Retold by Jack London, a short story from "When God Laughs and Other Stories" (Macmillan, 1911). London's story is closer to the ballad than to the reports.
The facts: the Francis Spaight sailed Nov 24 [,1835], was wrecked December 3, and the rescue ship was Agenoria from America. ["The Wreck of the Francis Spaight," The Times of London, Wednesday, Jun 22, 1836; pg. 7; Issue 16136; Start column: C. (Copyright 2002 The Gale Group)] - BS
In the Michael Murphy fragment, no names are named; I would never have known it was the same song except for Murphy's description. He says that the ship was the Fanny Wright (a name which could easily be a corruption of the "Francis Spaight," although my first through was that it was an error for "Amphitrite"), the four boys who drew lots to die were Burns, O'Brien, Sheehan, and one other whose name was forgotten, O'Brien was the one who drew the short straw, and the man chosen to kill him was the cook, O'Gorman. Murphy claims that O'Gorman is the only Newfoundlander to have appeared in a Jack London story; the tale is found in Love of Life and Other Stories.
Murphy also claims that "The Fanny Wright" appeared in James Murphy's 1903 collection Songs & Ballads of Terra Nova, Evening Telegram publishing, 1903. However, I do not find it in the edition of Songs & Ballads of Terra Nova on the Memorial University of Newfoundland site. The song has been collected twice in Newfoundland, so it was known under the "Fanny Wright" title, and may well have come from a James Murphy book -- possibly even a different edition of Songs & Ballads of Terra Nova. But seemingly not the 1903 edition.
The whole story was published in 1837 in John Palmer, Awful Shipwreck . Narrative of the sufferings of the crew of the ship Francis Spaight. I have not seen this book; with a title like that, I'm afraid to look it up. I suspect that it was the source of the ballad and the London story. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Ran038

American and Irish Privateer, The

See The French Privateer (File: HHH560)

American Boys

See The Dying British Sergeant (File: Wa010)

American Jump

DESCRIPTION: "American jump, American jump, One, two, three. Under the water, under the sea, Catching fishes for (your/my) tea. (Dead or alive?)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: playparty fishing
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 115, "(American Jump)" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 8, "American Jump" (1 text)
Roud #20646
File: SuSm115B

American King, The

See Some Rival Has Stolen My True Love Away (The Rifles, The Merry King) (File: BuDa005)

American Stranger (I)

See The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea [Laws O15] (File: LO15)

American Stranger (II), The

See When First Into this Country (File: SWMS195)

American Volunteer, The

DESCRIPTION: "Hark, hark, hear that yell, tis the war whoop's dread sound." Indians attack and set a cottage on fire. Our Hero pursues, finds an Indian whose weapon was broken, kills him (?), attacks the Indian band, and rides away to the thanks of the community
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) revenge family fire
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 93, "The American Volunteer" (1 text)
ST GC093 (Partial)
Roud #3696
NOTES [52 words]: This looks very much like a defective memory of a historical broadside (though one suspects the original of magnifying both the Indians' villainy and the hero's bravery). But the text as it stands contains neither a single proper name (of a person or a place) nor a single date, making it quite untraceable. - RBW
File: GC093

American Woods [Laws M36]

DESCRIPTION: William is forced into the army by the parents of his sweetheart. In America he is murdered by Indians. His ghost appears to his sweetheart in Scotland, saying he will wander until she joins him. Within a week she too is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) army ghost death
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws M36, "American Woods"
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 99, "American Woods" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 588, AMERWOOD
Roud #1809
File: LM36

Americans Have Stolen My True Love Away, The

See Some Rival Has Stolen My True Love Away (The Rifles, The Merry King) (File: BuDa005)

Amhrain An Tsagairt

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. On entering seminary, singer is asked if he has a girlfriend. Lying, he denies it. As a priest, he still thinks about her, even when saying Mass.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love lie clergy
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 8, "Amhrain An Tsagairt" (2 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC008

Amhrainin Siodraimin

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Martin, a fuller from Bandon, owned a ship. The women "went wild all around him" but Molly and her mother kept after him until "they had poor Martin hooked." Now "he has his troubles; two women at his fireside and a cot in the corner"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting humorous mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 58-59, "Amhrainin Siodraimin" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [117 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "The chorus [and title] is well nigh untranslatable ... just providing syllables for each beat of the jig rhythm.
The description is based on the OCanainn-SongsOfCork translation.
"Fulling ... produces a warm, resistant cloth, quality notwithstanding.... [F]ullers join the ranks of the wealthy artisans and guilds in the fourteenth century, by which time it can only signify someone responsible for, or with a controlling interest in, the mill itself." (source: Michael Gervers, The textile industry in Essex in the late 12th and 13th centuries: A study based on occupational names in charter sources , University of Toronto site).
Bandon is up the Bandon River from Cork.- BS
File: OCan058

Amhran An Ghanndail

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. A gander wanders onto a neighbor's land. "The neighbor set his dog on it and the dog killed the gander." The singer curses the dog.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage death humorous bird dog
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 7, "Amhran An Ghanndail" (1 text)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC007

Amhran Pheaidi Bhig

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Singer goes to the market, buys a calf, and ties it up to join the dancing and drinking. Afterwards he searches for but can't find the calf. To console himself for the loss he stops to drink at a pub.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage farming money dancing drink animal theft
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 9, "Amhran Pheaidi Bhig" (1 text)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC009

Amnesty Meeting in Tipperary, The

DESCRIPTION: "Tipperary to give you your merit Your meeting exceeded them all." At noon on October 24 the towns and trades march through the streets supporting amnesty for the Fenian exiles. Fathers Barry and O'Connell and a young man on a charger lead the legions
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (broadside, LOCSinging as100270)
KEYWORDS: exile Ireland political clergy
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, p. 70, "A New Song on the Amnesty Meeting in Tipperary" (1 fragment)
Roud #V1461
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(50), "A New Song On The Amesty[sic] Meeting in Tipperary," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867
LOCSinging, as100270, "A New Song On The Amesty[sic] Meeting in Tipperary," P. Brereton (Dublin), 19C
NOTES [259 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 70 is a fragment; broadside LOCSinging as100270 is the basis for the description.
Broadsides LOCSinging as100270 and Bodleian 2806 b.9(50) are duplicates.
The broadside does not say what year this is. The Bodleian assignment of c.1867 is their standby for Brereton broadsides no matter how the internal evidence stacks up. It is probably a Sunday. It is certainly after 1867 since it cites the deaths of Allen, O'Brien and Larkin (see references for "The Smashing of the Van (I)"). P. Brereton was apparently a Dublin printer in the 1860s and 1870s (the address for this broadside is 1 Lower Exchange Street). The only Sunday, October 24ths in that period are in 1869 and 1875.
While 1869 is likely -- this is only two weeks after the amnesty meeting in Dublin (see references for "The Glorious Meeting of Dublin") and three weeks after earlier activity for amnesty in Youghal -- the emphasis and leaders seem different. Earlier in October 1869 the emphasis was for amnesty for the Fenian prisoners eventually exiled in 1871; here the amnesty requested is that unnamed exiles -- and there are exiles from long before 1869 (see, for example, references for "By the Hush") -- be allowed to return.
Fathers Barry and O'Connor seem local to the Galtees mountains, Glen of Aherlow, and southern Tipperary towns. The amnesty movement leaders are not named; on the other hand, the array of trades and towns repeats the Dublin 1869 approach. Unless someone can find a reference I would list the date on this as "uncertain." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BrdAmnTi

Amola, E

DESCRIPTION: Sicilian. "Emuninnicu Maria! E amola e amola." "Let us go to work Along with Saint Giuseppi and the Virgin." The sailors will fill the ship with tunny, then take them to the Italian cities. "Hoist the net!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage worksong fishing
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 118, "E Amola" (2 texts, Italian and English, 1 tune)
File: HSoSe118

Among the Blue Flowers and the Yellow

See Willie's Lyke-Wake [Child 25] (File: C025)

Among the Green Bushes in Sweet Tyrone

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks if there is anyone who does not thrill with memories of a childhood home. He declares, "Darling Tyrone, I will love you till death." He describes how he dreams of the old boreen. Even if he never returns, he will always think of Tyrone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H708, p. 178, "Among the Green Bushes [in Sweet Tyrone]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13534
File: HHH708

Among the Heather

See Heather Down the Moor (Among the Heather; Down the Moor) (File: HHH177)

Among the Little White Daisies

DESCRIPTION: "(Gynna) is her first name, first name, first name, (Glynna) is her first name, Among the little white daisies." Ritchie version gives the first and second names of husband and wife, then tells of their marriage, children, and perhaps death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 34, "Among the Little White Daisies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 14, "'Mong the Little White Daisies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 124, "The Little White Daisies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #120, "Little White Daisies" (1 text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #173, "Under the Lily-white Daisies" (1 text)
Roud #7401
File: RitS034

Among the New-Mown Hay

See The New-Mown Hay (File: K184)

Amos and Andy

See Handy Dandy (Handy Pandy, Andy Pany, Amos and Andy) (File: SuSm101A)

Amsterdam

See A-Rovin' (File: EM064)

Amsterdam Maid, The

See A-Rovin' (File: EM064)

Amy and Edward

See Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low [Laws M34] (File: LM34)

Amy Johnson Flew in an Aeroplane

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme with a fill-in name: "(Amy Johnson) flew in an aeroplane, Away to America and never came back again. She flew in an old tin lizzy, Enough to make you dizzy, Amy Johnson, away in an aeroplane."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Those Dusty Bluebells, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: technology travel jumprope | plane America
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #11, "Amy Johnson flew in an aeroplane" (1 text)
File: AJRR011

An "Croppy Lie Down" (The "Croppy Lie Down")

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. When Spain and France come the English will be defeated and we won't have to listen to the "Croppy Lie Down." Bonaparte has promised to drive out the enemy; then the women can sing the "Croppy Lie Down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Toibin's _Duanaire Deiseach_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage rebellion Ireland patriotic Napoleon
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 78, "An 'Croppy Lie Down'" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [55 words]: The description is from the summary in the Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815's notes.
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Eamon O Broithe, "An 'Croppy Lie Down'" (on "The Croppy's Complaint," Craft Recordings CRCD03 (1998); Terry Moylan notes) - BS
File: Moyl078

An Bearla Brea

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. At an Irish-speakers meeting many complain about English language infiltration in local use. One speaker denies that any English is spoken in his area.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage Ireland patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 10, "An Bearla Brea" (1 text)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC010

An Bhfeaca Sibh Coil

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "A satirical song, mocking Coley and his new britches."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage clothes humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 11, "An Bhfeaca Sibh Coil" (1 text)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC011

An Binnsin Luchra (The Little Bench [or Bunch] of Rushes)

See Gathering Rushes (File: RcABLtlb)

An Binsin Luachra

DESCRIPTION: Macaronic. The singer, out with gun and dogs, meets a fair maid gathering rushes. He asks for an embrace but she asks that she and her rushes be left alone. He persists but she thinks him "a schemer." He notes how handsome rushes grow "in their prime"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage seduction sex bawdy rake
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 12, "An Binsin Luachra" (2 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "An Binsin Luachra" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows the English verses of the macaronic OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin text. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC012

An Bothainin Iseal Gan Falthas

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. A wife throws her mother-in-law out of the house. Neighbors build her a hut where she stays until she dies.
AUTHOR: Domhnall O Luasa (Donal Lucey) (source: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage age greed hardheartedness hardtimes mother husband wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 13, "An Bothainin Iseal Gan Falthas" (2 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "An Bothainin Iseal Gan Falthas" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [19 words]: The description follows the notes provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin quoting Seamus Ennis. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC013

An Bothar O Thuaidh

DESCRIPTION: Macaronic. A woman "would milk her cow in the tail of her gown And drink it out of a saucepan,""Monkey here and monkey there," and similar nonsense.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad nonsense animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 14, "An Bothar O Thuaidh" (2 texts)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows the English verses of the macaronic OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin text. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC014

An Brannda Thiar (Whiskey on the Way)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer rejects a friend's invitation to his home only because he fears "the sly assaults of Whiskey on the Way." He reviews the evils of alcohol ("it makes the veriest sage a fool") and admits sadly that his daughters can handle the stuff.
AUTHOR: Diarmaid Mac Domhnaill Mhic Fhinghin Chaoil Mhic Charrthaigh (Dermod Mac Domhnall Mac Felix (the Slender) Mac Carthy) (18c) (source: Mangan)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage drink nonballad children
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 15, "An Brannda Thiar" (2 texts)
NOTES [80 words]: The description follows the English translation in James Clarence Mangan, The Poets and Poetry of Munster (Dublin: James Duffy and Sons, 1884 ("Digitized by Microsoft"), Fourth Edition, pp. 282-285, "An Brannda (Whiskey on the Way)." - BS
Translator James Clarence Mangan, ironically, knew no Irish, according to Henry Boylan, A Dictionary of Irish Biography, second edition, St. Martin's Press, 1988, pp. 240-241; he took others' literal translations of poetry and versified them.
Last updated in version 5.3
File: OCC015

An Bunnan Buidhe

See An Buinnean Bui (File: HHH830)

An Cailin Aerach (The Airy/Light-Hearted Girl)

DESCRIPTION: Irish Gaelic: Singer comes home with the airy girl "tired and weakened." He apologizes to her; woman of the house comes down in a fury and banishes the girl. He sings the girl's praises, and warns the girls of the neighborhood not to keep his company
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recording, Maire O'Sullivan)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage jealousy infidelity accusation warning lover
FOUND IN: Ireland
RECORDINGS:
Maire O'Sullivan, "An Cailin Aerach (The Airy [Light-Hearted] Girl)" [incomplete] (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
NOTES [39 words]: [Lomax's] plot descriptions are frustratingly vague; the "woman of the house" is described by Lomax as the man's sweetheart, but she sounds more like a wife. And what is he apologizing for, that left the girl "tired and weakened"? - PJS
File: RcACAtag

An Chutil Daigh-re

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "The poet sings the praises of his native place, with the usual stock descriptions of its natural beauty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 16, "An Chutil Daigh-re" (1 text)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC016

An Corn Oir

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "A drinking-song, in which the exiled poet toasts his native land and regrets that all his fellow-countrymen who are abroad cannot be back in Ireland."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage emigration exile drink Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 17, "An Corn Oir" (1 text)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC017

An Eos Whek

See Well Met, Pretty Maid (The Sweet Nightingale) (File: K089)

An Gamhain Geal Ban

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer says that if he were the cause of losing his true love he would drown himself in the river.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love beauty drowning suicide nonballad river
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 18, "An Gamhain Geal Ban" (3 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "An Gamhain Geal Ban" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [25 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. The recording has only the first two verses. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC018

An Goirtin Eorman

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "A young man woos his love by telling her he has no interest in her 'little field of oats' or her wealth, her horse, cows or anything else, only the prospect of her kisses."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting farming money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 19, "An Goirtin Eorman" (6 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC019

An leam is in the world I-lit

See On Leome Is in this World Ilist (File: BrRo293)

An SeanDuine

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. A priest, wanting the marriage fee, advises a woman to marry an old man. Against her better judgement she marries, expecting to be left a poor widow. She goes to buy things for the wake but finds him alive and roasting potatoes.
AUTHOR: Aindrias Mac Craith (18c) (source: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage age greed poverty marriage death humorous clergy food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 20, "An SeanDuine" (3 texts)
NOTES [53 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin and the English translation in James Clarence Mangan, The Poets and Poetry of Munster (Dublin: James Duffy and Sons, 1884 ("Digitized by Microsoft"), Fourth Edition, p. 24 (first verse), pp. 118-120 note (chorus). - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC020

An Spealadoir

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. A farmer praises the friends who helped him at harvest time when he was sick.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage virtue farming
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 21, "An Spealadoir" (1 text)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC021

An Wedhen War An Vre (The Tree on the Hill)

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

An' He Never Said a Mumblin' Word

See Never Said a Mumbling Word (File: LxU102)

Ananias

DESCRIPTION: 'Ananias was a-laying in his bed (x3), When a knocking came at the door." Ananias asks who it is, "And he Lord he say, 'hit's me.'" The Lord asks the location of Ananias's religion, then tells Ananias to "lay down your rheumatism." He does
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious healing
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 520, "Ananias" (2 texts, perhaps of the same original)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Dan Patterson, "A Sheaf of North Carolina Folksongs," Vol. IV, No. 1 (Jul 1956), p. 25, "Uncle Ananias' Funeral Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11815
NOTES [120 words]: There are Biblical themes all over this piece, but as given it, it is not Biblical. There are two Ananiases (Hananiahs) in the New Testament: The husband of Sapphira, who dropped dead after cheating the Church (Acts 5:1-11) and the Damascene Christian who opened Paul's eyes (Acts 9:10-19). Neither of these is known to have been crippled.
(There is also a high priest Ananias in Acts 23:2, 24:1, but he's clearly not the one involved.)
There are, of course, Biblical accounts of cripples being made to walk (e.g. Mark 2:1-12); since they generally aren't named, it is possible that tradition assigned the name "Ananias" to one of them. But the details of this account don't match any Biblical healing I can recall. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Br3520

Anchor's Aweigh, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the anchor's aweigh, the anchor's aweigh, Fare you well, fare you well, my own true love. At last we parted on the shore, As the tears rolled gently from her eyes. 'Must you go leave me now,' she did say, 'That I face this all alone?'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1860 (NLScotland broadsides)
KEYWORDS: sailor parting
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 166, "The Anchor's Aweigh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9445
NOTES [83 words]: This should not be confused with the popular piece "Anchors Aweigh" (usually credited to Alfred H. Miles and Charles H. Zimmerman).
According to A. M. Kramer, "Salty Sea Songs and Shantys," the words to this piece are by S. J. Arnold and the music by "Braham" -- presumably the famous David Braham who was famous for his work with Edward Harrigan (for background on Braham, see the notes to "Babies on Our Block") Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman's note seems to imply that he doubts this. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Doe166a

Anchors Away (Parody)

See Glug, Glug, Glug (File: ZiZa112D)

Anchors Aweigh, Love

See As I Roved Out (I) (Tarry Trousers II) (File: LoF014)

Ancient Auntie

DESCRIPTION: "I have an Ancient Auntie ... And when she goes out walking, I have to say 'Ha, ha.'" "She has swinging hat, and when she goes out walking, her hat is swinging so." Repeat for knees, hips, skirt, bag, mouth, feather, ....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: humorous playparty clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 74, "Ancient Auntie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18995
File: OpGa074

Ancient Farmer, The

See Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)

Ancient Riddle, An

DESCRIPTION: "Adam God made out of dust, But thought it best to make me fust...." "My body God did make complete But without arms or legs or feet...." "Now when these lines you slowly read, Go search your Bible with all speed, For that my name's recorded there."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (Journal from the Smyrna)
KEYWORDS: riddle nonballad whale
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 282-285, "An Ancient Riddle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2079
NOTES [172 words]: Huntington's version of this riddle is ten stanzas long, although nearly all the useful information is quoted in the description above. (The one other useful fact is that "to fallen men I give great light," referring to the light given by burning whale oil.) The rest is theological discussion. The answer is a whale or whales.
Ironically, whales are not really mentioned in the Bible. The King James version uses the word "whale" three times in the Old Testament (Genesis 1:21, Job 7:12, Ezek. 32:2), but the modern versions translate this more correctly as "sea monster."
Thus the only correct instance of the word "whale" in the English Bible is in Matthew 12:40. The Greek word does refer to a whale, but it is an allusion to the Greek version of the Book of Jonah, which incorrectly translates the Hebrew word for "fish" as "whale" (Jonah 2:1, 2, 11; the same word is used in the Greek of Gen. 1:21, Job 3:8, 9:13, 26:12, Sirach 43:25, Daniel 3:79, 3 Macc. 6:8). And even this word means "sea monster" as well as "whale." - RBW
File: SWMS282

And a Begging We Will Go

See A-Begging I Will Go (File: K217)

And Am I Born to Die?

See Am I Born to Die? (Idumea) (File: LoF125)

And As They Rode Along the Road As Hard As They Could Ride

See The Three Butchers (Dixon and Johnson) [Laws L4] (File: LL04)

And by a chapell as Y came

See Merry It Is on a May Morning (File: Gree068)

And He Walks With Me And He Talks With Me

See In the Garden (File: bdIthGar)

And He's Got the Money Too

See He's Got the Money Too (File: R299)

And Merchants There Are

DESCRIPTION: In New Deer you find strange merchants and bankers preaching and praying everywhere
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: commerce nonballad clergy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1650, "And Merchants There Are" (1 text)
Roud #13054
File: GrD81650

And Must I Be to Judgment Brought?

DESCRIPTION: "And must I be to judgment brought, And answer in that day For every idle deed and thought And every word I say?" "We are passing away (x3) To the great judgment day." "Yes, every secret of my heart Shall shortly be made known...."
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Wesley
EARLIEST DATE: 1763 (Words)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 613, "And Must I Be to Judgment Brought" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 613, "And Must I Be to Judgment Brought" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
NOTES [46 words]: In the Sacred Harp, this is given the tune-title "Passing Away," credited to John A. Watson in 1872. But Jackson reports it from the Christian Harmony of 1866.
For the life of Charles Wesley, author of the lyrics of this piece, see the notes to "Jesus Lover of My Soul." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3613

And Oh Dear Friends 'Tis I Would Be

See Until the Sea Give Up Its Dead (File: KSUC125C)

And Sae Will We Yet

DESCRIPTION: "Come sit down, me cronies, And gie us your crack, Let the win lift the cares o' this life from aff your back... For we've always been provided for, and sae will we yet." The singer and the nation have endured through troubles, "and sae will we yet."
AUTHOR: Walter Watson ? (died 1854)
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany, Ulverston: G. Ashburner, 1812)
KEYWORDS: drink work party
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 256-258, "Sae Will We Yet" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #129, p. 1, "We've Aye Been Provided For and Sae Will We Yet" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 552, "Sae Will We Yet" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 371-372, "Sae Will We Yet" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 267, "Sae Will We Yet" (1 text)
DT, SAEWILL
ADDITIONAL: The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany: Containing a Selection of the Most Fashionable Songs, with Many Originals, Not Inserted in Ashburner's Vocal and Poetic Repository, G. Ashburner, Ulverston, 1812 (available on Google Books), p. 184, "And Sae Will We Yet" (1 text)
Roud #5611
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(42), "And sae will we yet," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824 (barely legible); Firth b.26(389), "We've aye been Provided For" ("Sit ye down here my cronies, and gie us your crack"), J. Scott (Pittenweem), 19C; Harding B 11(61)=Firth c 13(296), "And so will we yet," Hoggett (?), n.d.; Harding B 25(55), "And so will we yet"; Firth n.26(389); Firth b.26(289), "We've Aye Been Provided For"
NLScotland, RB.m.143(154), "We've Aye been Provided For" ("Sit ye down here, my cronies, and gie us your crack"), Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1869
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Never lippen to chance" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Firth b.26(389))
NOTES [146 words]: Greig quotes a version sent to him by Ord as Watson's original version. It does not include three verses included by Whitelaw. "This inclines one to think that the addenda may have been written by the author [Watson] himself; but, inasmuch as in the final edition of Watson's works the song appears without the addenda, they must have either been withdrawn by the author or discarded as spurious." Greig's version also includes a verse not in Whitelaw. - BS
Ord lists this as being sung to "The Wearing of the Green." I can't for the life of me make it fit; I suspect he derived that from a broadsheet which indicated an incorrect tune.
The broadsides list various tunes: Bodleian Firth b.26(289) lists "Never lippen to chance"; another Bodleian text claims an original tune. The Ulverston Poetical Miscellany (which was pointed out to me by Jim Dixon) does not list a tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: FVS256

And She Skipped Across the Green

See Ball of Yarn (File: EM089)

And should that Boney Peartie have roty thousand still

See Come All Ye Jolly Tinner Boys (File: DeSh068B)

And So Will We Yet

See And Sae Will We Yet (File: FVS256)

And So You Have Come Back to Me

See The Last Farewell (The Lover's Return) (File: R761)

And Still They Gazed and Still the Wonder Grew

See The Deserted Village (File: KSUC058A)

And Teach Us How to Foil the Hun

DESCRIPTION: "And teach us how to foil the Hun With paravane and six inch gun."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: fight ship
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 129, "And teach us how to foil the Hun" (1 fragment)
Roud #25533
NOTES [296 words]: There is something a little odd about Alice Kane's text of this, although with only two lines of text, it's hard to be sure what. Kane is patently right to date it to World War I, since the paravane did not first see action until that year (Uden/Cooper, p. 360).
The problem is that the paravane isn't even a weapon; it's an anti-mine device. A paravane consisted of (usually) two strong wires attached to the bow of a ship, one extending to port, one to starboard, with the other end of each attached to an "otter board" (a small float), the purpose being to keep the remote end afloat, When the ship got underway, the two floats would fall back to port and starboard, stretching the wire; the result was a sort of an arrowhead of wire on each side of the ship, like an upside-down V or a Greek lambda Λ. The idea was to snag mines, ideally cutting their cables, so that they would float to the surface, where the could be exploded by gunfire at a distance without harming a ship.
But paravanes would not normally be used on combat ships -- a ship at speed would just pull them back against the sides of the ship. They were for relatively slow-sailing minesweepers which swept an area in a pattern.
So here is the problem: Minesweepers were armed, but not heavily armed. Jane's-WWI, pp. 86-89, lists a few World War I minesweepers with 4.7 inch guns, but even these heaviest minesweepers were often fitted with four inch guns instead, and most were fitted with guns in the three inch range. Even in World War II, no British minesweeper carried a gun heavier than 4.7 inches -- indeed, only one oddity had a gun heavier than four inches (see list on pp. 120-123 of Worth). A six inch gun was a light cruiser gun. So paravanes and six inch guns didn't really go together. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC129D

And the Green Grass Grew All Around

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

And Then Look Out For Squalls

DESCRIPTION: "And then look out for squalls For when Baby comes, you'll see, It will take the both of you most of your time To look after Number Three."
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: baby work
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 106, "And Then Look Out for Squalls" (1 fragment)
Roud #25384
NOTES [108 words]: Fowke, in her notes to Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, says that this fragment is from a music hall song by Alec Hurley and Daisy Dormer. She does not identify the song's title.
Hurley and Dormer were both music hall performers, popular enough to be featured (individually, not together) in a 1906 series of picture postcards, but I couldn't find records of them writing anything; I suspect they were the performers, not the authors. Gilbert and Sullivan used the line "and then -- look out for squalls" in the finale to Act I of "The Grand Duke," but the song in the operetta is not this. Whether it inspired this... I just don't know. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC106A

And There Is No Night in Creede

DESCRIPTION: "Here's a land where all are equal, Of high or lowly birth -- A land where men make millions, Dug from the dreary earth." The burros feed by the silver cliffs of Creede. "While the world is filled with sorrow... there is no night in Creede."
AUTHOR: Cy Warman
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (written, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: mining home nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 593, "And There Is No Night in Creede" (1 text)
File: CAFS2593

And They Called It Ireland

See A Little Bit of Heaven (File: Dean006)

And You'll Remember Me

See Then You'll Remember Me (File: HMHS125A)

Andersonville Prison

DESCRIPTION: "On western Georgia's sandy soil, Within a lonesome prison pen, Lay many a thousand shattered forms Who once was brave and loyal men." The hellish conditions are described. One man, dying, remembers his widowed mother and sweetheart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar death mother love prison war
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 237, "Andersonville Prison" (1 text)
Roud #4033
NOTES [146 words]: Conditions for soldiers in Civil War armies were usually bad, and the fate of prisoners was worse. But there was no place in the world, before the concentration camps, that could compare with Andersonville prison. Never larger than 26 acres, it held, at times, more than 32,000 soldiers!
Although they were (theoretically) granted the same rations as Confederate field soldiers, the inadequate sanitation and health care led to immense death rates. Nearly 13,000 men are known to have been buried there, and it is generally conceded that many more died without having any monument.
Andersonville was opened in February of 1864, and was finally closed in April 1865. Its commander, Major Harry Wirz, was executed in November 1865. He was the only man in the entire Confederacy condemned for what we would now call "war crimes."
This song is item dA39 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: R237

Andra Carnegie

DESCRIPTION: "Said Andra Carnegie to me ae day, I've got tired of my money for aince in a way... For I've made up my mind to gang on the spree," so they will tour the pubs of Dundee. "Now the outcome o' our big caroose, We drank the toon o' Dundee oot o' booze."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: drink party
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 75, "Andra Carnegie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22222
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wi a Hundred Pipers" (tune)
File: Gath075

Andrew Bardean

See Henry Martyn [Child 250] AND Sir Andrew Barton [Child 167] (File: C250)

Andrew Bardeen

See Sir Andrew Barton [Child 167] AND Henry Martyn [Child 250] (File: C167)

Andrew Barden

See Henry Martyn [Child 250] AND Sir Andrew Barton [Child 167] (File: C250)

Andrew Bartin

See Henry Martyn [Child 250] AND Sir Andrew Barton [Child 167] (File: C250)

Andrew Barton

See Sir Andrew Barton [Child 167] AND Henry Martin [Child 250] (File: C167)

Andrew Batan

See Henry Martyn [Child 250] AND Sir Andrew Barton [Child 167] (File: C250)

Andrew Coupar (Andrew Cowper)

DESCRIPTION: "it's lang, lang to Lammas, Till I see my dear, I long to be with her When the evenings are clear." The singer curses Cluny, who has married the singer's Jeanie. He draws his sword on Cluny at a celebration, and one of them ends up dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Aytoun MS. of the Harris repertoire)
KEYWORDS: love separation homicide
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 196-109, "Andrew Cowper/Andrew Coupar" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #18038
NOTES [103 words]: The fragment of this song preserved by the Harrises does not make it clear who killed whom at the end, but the notes say that Jeanie Ogilvy was originally interesed in Andrew Coupar of Lochblair, but she was induced to marry her cousin, another Ogilvy, the "Daft Laird of Cluny Castle." When the two met at a funeral, Coupar taunted Cluny but did not actually attack him. Cluny responded by shooting Coupar. Cluny, after fleeing to France, eventually bought off Coupar's sisters, but his wife was never happy with him. So the event was a tragedy all around. I'm surprised the song didn't become more widely known. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LMMH019

Andrew Davidson

See The Rose in June (II) (File: Guig315)

Andrew Jackson's Raid

DESCRIPTION: "When forces were marched, four thousand brave men, On the fourteenth of March to Fort (Stratton) again...." Jackson reviews the men and has them attack Fort William. The singer toast congress and soldiers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: war battle soldier patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 30, 1813 - beginning of the "Creek War." Creek Indians attack Fort Mims and kill many of the inhabitants. Tennessee militia officer Andrew Jackson calls out the troops in response
Nov 3, 1813 - Tennessee forces under John Coffee destroy the Indian city of Tallishatchee
Nov 9, 1813 - Jackson destroys Indian forces at Talladega (Alabama)
Jan 22-27, 1814 - Series of small defeats for the Tennessee forces
March 27, 1814 - Battle of Horseshoe Bend. Jackson and Coffee decisively defeat the Creeks
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 297, "Andrew Jackson's Raid"
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 325-326, "Andrew Jackson's Raid" (1 text)
Roud #7954
NOTES [1050 words]: Although Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's (apparent) fragment does not say *which* Jackson was the general in this song, it seems evident that it was Andrew Jackson. The reference to the Tallapoosa River (in Alabama), at which the Battle of Horseshoe Bend was fought, seems to establish this.
Jackson, in the period before the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, had had a frustrating war. (Indeed, his entire military career had been pretty frustrating; according to Mahon, pp. 199-200, "except as a boy during the Revolution, he had neither seen combat nor led troops in anything but frill. His practical experience as a soldier was negligible, and his theoretical knowledge even more so.")
Jackson, the major general commanding Tennessee militia since 1802, had raised troops in Tennessee (Borneman, p. 136), but for a long time had to just sit and not use them (Borneman, p. 137). Washington did not trust him, because he had had some involvement with the rebellion of Aaron Burr (Mahon, p. 198). Eventually the government tried to send the troops, but not Jackson, south; fortunately for him, a local politician managed to have Jackson given charge (Borneman, p. 138). So Jackson left Tennessee -- and at Natchez was given orders to disband his troops! (Borneman, p. 139). Rather than turn them loose on the spot, Jackson paid to bring the troops back to Nashville as a unit (Borneman, p. 140); somehow, he seems to have acquired the nickname "Old Hickory" in the process (Borneman, p. 141).
Back in Nashville, two of his subordinates ended up in a duel, which later led to a tavern brawn in which Jackson ended up with a bad shoulder wound (Borneman, pp. 141-143). He was still recovering when the Creek War broke out.
The Creeks had the usual complaints against the Americans: The settlers were encroaching on their lands. The causes are complex and hard to pin down, though it's clear that Tecumseh helped inspire his mother's people (Borneman, pp. 143-144). It's also clear that not every Creek leader wanted to be involved; it was a band of mostly young warriors called the Red Sticks who rebelled (Hickey, p. 147), and many Creeks stayed loyal.
The war started with a running campaign between a force of American militia and a band of Creeks headed by Peter McQueen and allied loosely with the British and Spanish; this fight came to be called the Battle of Burnt Corn (Borneman, pp. 144-145; Hickey, p. 147). Americans in the area of the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers hastily built and moved into stockades. One such stockade was Fort Mims, not far north of Mobile, which seems to have held at least 200 people, and most estimates place the number around 300. It was attacked by Creeks led by Red Eagle (William Weatherford); by the end, nearly everyone inside the stockade had been killed (Borneman, pp. 145-146; Hickey, p. 147).
The Americans responded by raising several small armies to control the Indians. Jackson led one of these. And he was by far the most aggressive commander, so his forces saw most of the action. His first move after building Fort Strother to serve as a base was to send his subordinate John Coffee to the Indian settlement of Tallushatchee/Tallishatchee/Tallashatchee in northeastern Alabama.
Hickey, p. 138, describes what followed as a re-enactment of Hannibal's famous victory at Cannae, inducing the Indians to attack his center then cupping his flanks around them to encircle and slaughter the force. Coffee's troops killed every Indian who opposed them (Borneman, p. 147). This caused the Indians of Talladega, obviously frightened, to join the American side. Red Eagle promptly took his forces to attack the settlement, which was some distance south of Fort Strother. Jackson led about 2000 men south and defeated the thousand or so Indians -- though this time the larger part of the Indian force escaped (Borneman, pp. 147-148; Hickey, p. 148).
The other prongs of the American offensive finally got moving at about this time, though the accomplished very little. Jackson's troops, meanwhile, were leaving for home; they had signed up for only a few months of service, and their enlistments expired around this time. Plus he was finding it almost impossible to get supplies from his contractors (Hickey, p. 149). At one point, he had only about 130 men at Fort Strother, and when he did get more in January 1814, they were raw and barely able to fight; Jackson tried an offensive with them, but suffered small but irritating strategic defeats (Borneman, p. 149). Still, unlike most other leaders in the Creek War, he was fighting, and not retreating; he finally was sent several additional regiments of somewhat better-trained troops.
On March 14, 1814, Jackson took almost his whole army out of Fort Strother. Borneman estimates his force at 4000 (p. 150), as in the song, though other estimates (e.g. Hickey, p. 149) put his army at 3000. The Creeks had chosen a strong defensive position at Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River, with the river on three sides and a stout stockade crossing the nexk of the bend.
The song mentions that Jackson failed to knock down the wall with his small artillery train; Borneman notes that he had only one field gun, too small to do any good. But a force of Cherokees swam the river, brought back canoes, and allowed Coffee to get a small force behind the stockade; Jackson then attacked in front. The Indians were slaughtered almost to the man (Borneman, pp. 150-151; Hickey, p. 151). Morison, p. 394, reports that 557 Creeks were killed, while Jackson lost only 26 of his own soldiers and 23 of his Indians. Red Eagle, who was elsewhere, had had enough, and urged his people to give in (Borneman, p. 250).
The Creek War had the usual outcome of a war between whites and Indians: The Indians were induced to sign a treaty giving up most of their land (Hickey, p. 151).
Worse was to come. Jackson probably could not have won at Horseshoe Bend without the Cherokee. The Cherokee had also been guaranteed independence by a treaty made in 1791. As President, Andrew Jacskon would order the Cherokee displaced and send them along the Trail of Tears (Morison, pp. 450-451). But, hey, who cares if you're truthful, reliable, law-abiding, or in favor of peace if you're President of the United States? - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.7
File: Beld297

Andrew Lammie [Child 233]

DESCRIPTION: Lord Fyvie's trumpeter Andrew Lammie, the fairest man in the county, and Tifty's Annie, are in love. When Annie's father hears of this, he complains to Fyvie; he wants his daughter to marry better. She is adamant; her brother kills her for her effrontery
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1806 (Jamieson)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Lord Fyvie's trumpeter Andrew Lammie, the fairest man in the county, and Tifty's Annie, are in love. When Annie's father hears of this, he complains to Fyvie; he wants his daughter to marry better. Fyvie is sympathetic and woud marry her herself were she more wealthy. She is adamant; her brother kills her (breaks her back) for her effrontery
KEYWORDS: love death family poverty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Hebr)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Child 233, "Andrew Lammie" (3 texts)
Bronson 233, "Andrew Lammie" (16 versions+3 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 233, "Andrew Lammie" (3 versions: #7, #10, #11)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 122-126, "Andrew Lammie" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 173-177, "Andrew Lammie" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #34, pp. 1-2, "Mill o' Tifties Annie"; #16, p. 1, "Mill o' Tifty's Annie" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan5 1018, "Tifty's Annie" (13 texts, 16 tunes)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #78, p. 258-262, "Mill o' Tifty's Annie (Andrew Lammie, Child 233)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 12, "Andrew Lammie" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 265-267, "Andrew Lammie" (1 text)
DT 233, MILTIFTY* MILTIFT2*
Roud #98
RECORDINGS:
Lucy Stewart, "Tifty's Annie" (on LStewart1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pretty Betsey" [Laws M18] (plot)
cf. "Charlie Mackie" (lyrics, form, themes)
cf. "The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
cf. "The Death of Mill o' Tiftie's Annie" (plot)
cf. "Locks and Bolts" [Laws M13] (theme: girl locked away by father) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mill o Tifty's Annie
NOTES [345 words]: Ord and Greig have a song, "Charlie Mackie," which looks like a by-blow of this song. The plot is different -- the wealthy girl's parents don't want her wed to Mackie, though he finds his way to her in the end. But not only is the scansion the same, but many of the lines of "Charlie Mackie" are obviously corrupt derivatives of those found in "Andrew Lammie."
There is, apparently, a certain amount of truth in this song: We know little with certainty of Agnes Smith (nicknamed Nannie, hence Annie), save that her grave gives her date of death as January 19, 1673 (or, in other authorities, 1631; the stone, according to Child, eventually became illegible). However, legend has it that she was courted by Andrew Lammie, Lord Fyvie's trumpeter. Fyvie, desiring the girl herself, had Lammie transported to the West Indies. He made it back, but by then she had died, and he himself died cursing Lord Fyvie.
Another legend, according to Peter Underwood's Gazeteer of British, Irish, and Scottish Ghosts, has it that Lammie's ghost still appears to trumpet the deaths of the Lords of Fyvie. Indeed, Underwood lists many ghosts found at Fyvie, perhaps related to a curse laid by Thomas the Rhymer. - RBW
Records of this song are definitely centered in Scotland. Jeannie Robertson believed the story to be "true history," and related it in "prose" very much corresponding to her singing, adding that there was a "weeping Stone" in the graveyard of Fyvie which shed "very moisty watter ... every now an' again," implying as sympathy for the story commemorated by Annie Tifty's gravestone (Roberston-Porter-Gower, 261). - DGE
Greig's text is in four fragments with Greig's comments. The fragments fit Duncan's complete text at Greig/Duncan5 1018A.
The non-fragmentary versions in Greig/Duncan5 (1018A, 1018B and 1018Q) are about as long as Child 233C and are close to that version.
I was not able to read broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(1), "Andrew Lammie" or "Mill of Tifty's Annie" ("At Mill of Tifty lived a man, in the neighbourhood of Fyvie"), Brander and Co. (Elgin), n.d. - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C233

Andrew Marteen

See Henry Martyn [Child 250] AND Sir Andrew Barton [Child 167] (File: C250)

Andrew Martine

See Henry Martyn [Child 250] AND Sir Andrew Barton [Child 167] (File: C250)

Andrew Roo

DESCRIPTION: A shepherd has sex with a maid. After she leaves he changes his name and appearance (lame, blind in one eye). She returns in six months, pregnant, looking for the shepherd. She says, "If you werena half blind, I would swear it was you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex disguise disability trick pregnancy shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1467, "Andrew Roo" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #7185
File: GrD71467

Andrew Rose

DESCRIPTION: Captain Rogers of the Martha Jane has British sailor Andrew Rose whipped and tortured. "Then the captain trained his dog to bite him" and Rose dies. When he arrives at Liverpool Rogers is arrested, convicted, and sentenced to be hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution sea ship ordeal sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 12, 1857 - Captain Rogers was executed for the murder of Andrew Rose (source: Times of London).
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) US(NE) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Peacock, pp. 825-826, "The Ordeal of Andrew Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 156-157, "Andrew Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 240, "Andrew Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 6, "Andrew Ross" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 115, "Andrew Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ANDRROSS* ANDRROS2*
Roud #623
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Mary Ann Galpin, "The Ordeal of Andrew Rose" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain James (The Captain's Apprentice)" (theme of sailor mistreated by his captain)
cf. "The Captain's Apprentice (II)" (theme of apprentice mistreated and finally murdered by his captain)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Captain Rodger's Cruelty
NOTES [98 words]: According to the Mariners site, regarding the sleeve notes of "Farewell to the Days of Sail", an LP by Mike Stanley, "Andrew died of his injuries. The master, mate, and bo'sun were tried for the murder in Liverpool. The master, Captain Rodgers was found guilty and hung at 'Joe Gurk's' (Walton Prison)."
Greig/Duncan1: "The trial of Captain Rodgers took place at Liverpool in 1857."
Captain Rogers was executed Saturday, September 12, 1857. ["Execution of Captain Rogers," The Times of London, Monday, Sep 14, 18576; pg. 9; Issue 22785; Start column: E. (Copyright 2002 The Gale Group)] - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Pea825

Andrew Sheehan

See Bold Larkin (Bull Yorkens) (File: Pea907)

Andro and His Cutty Gun

DESCRIPTION: "Blythe, blythe and merry was she, Blythe was she but and ben, Weel she lo'ed a Hawick gill." "She took me in, she set me down," but his cash was done "before that I had quench'd my drouth... Young Andro wi' his cutty gun" -- the blythest lad he's seen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1724 (Tea-Table Miscellany)
KEYWORDS: bawdy drink sex money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 47-48, "Andro and his cutty gun" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CUTTYGUN*
Roud #2868
SAME TUNE:
Blythe, Blythe and Merry Was She (File: RCBBMWS)
File: MPCAACG

Andy Brown

See Sama Kama Wacky Brown (File: ACSF152K)

Andy McClure Is a Funny Wee Man

DESCRIPTION: "(Andy McClure) is a funny wee man, He goes to church on Sunday; He prays to God to give him strength, To beat the kids on Monday."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: children injury | church irreverent beating
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 56, "(Andy McClure is a funny wee man)" (1 text)
File: PKKB056E

Andy McElroe

DESCRIPTION: Brother Andy writes home about his deeds with the relief expedition, leading charges for Wolseley and frightening the Mahdi. Newspapers and government despatches tell a different story, but "we won't believe a word against brave Andy McElroe."
AUTHOR: Percy French (1854-1920) and Sir John Ross (source: Healy)
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Healy)
KEYWORDS: bragging army war Africa humorous soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1885 - The Relief Expedition under General Garnet Joseph Wolseley fails to rescue Chinese Gordon from the siege of Khartoum (Mar 13, 1884-Jan 26, 1885) by the Dervishes led by the Mahdi, Mohammed Ahmed.
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 85, "Andy M'Elroe" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James N. Healy, editor, _The Songs of Percy French_, 1955-1962, revised edition 1986; I use the 1996 Ossian paperback, pp. 22-23, "Andy McElroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
James N. Healy, _Percy French and His Songs_, The Mercier Press, 1966, pp. 26-27, "Andy McElroe" (1 text), with an alleged sheet music cover facing p. 53
NOTES [1311 words]: Sources: Re author--Oldpoetry site. Re historical references--The River War by Winston S Churchill, ch. 1-3, and "The Mahdist Jihad 1881-1885" at the OnWar site. - BS
The Oldpoetry site apparently had the author's name as "William Percy Finch." I have corrected this to Percy French (whose full name was William Percy French). Healy's Songs of Percy French, p. 5, says it was written in 1888 and was French's second published song; Percy French and His Songs, p. 27, clarifies that this was the first one to be properly published in his name. The "J. Ross" listed as a co-author is said on p. 26 to be Sir John Ross, who held a legal position in the north of Ireland and probably didn't want his name listed explicitly on a pop song.
Charles George "Chinese" Gordon (1833-1885) actually began his military career in the Crimea, but went to China in 1860, where he was instrumental in suppressing the Taiping rebellion. This gained him a high military reputation, though it's not clear how well he earned it; his one clear skill was in military engineering.
Gordon went to Egypt in 1873, working there at surveying and establishing control of the Nile until 1880. He performed various jobs over the next four years, spending part of the time rebuilding his health. (Stokesbury, p. 264, acidly remarks that he was "one of those legendary Englishmen who, like mad dogs, went out in the noonday sun," adding that "he had spent most of his career on leave of absence.") OxfordCompanion, p. 427, says he had "great talents as a military engineer and as a commander of irregular troops," and notes that he helped put down slavery in Egypt. But then came the Sudan Rebellion.
The Sudan, at that time, was theoretically a province of Egypt, which meant that it was part of a British client-state -- though the British pretended they didn't run Egypt, and Egypt had never really managed the Sudan, except for a few spots along the Nile. As Farwell puts in on p. 271, "Britain's politicians tried hard to avoid any responsibility for the problems of the Sudan, but they found it impossible. They compromised by doing as little as they could and this proved too little in the end and only magnified the problem." Instead of really addressing the situation, they picked one of their many excess officers almost at random and lent him out.
Their choice for this role was William Hicks (1830-1883), who, according to Farwell, p. 271, had had an undistinguished career in India and was retiring as a colonel when the army's Practical Jokes department decided he as a good fit for Sudan.
Mohammed Ahmed (1840?-1885), El Mahdi (the local name for the Messiah -- properly pronounced with a fricative, i.e. Makhdi) had meanwhile started a rebellion (1882). Hicks -- who by now was being called "Hicks Pasha" (Stokesburg, p. 264), set out to suppress him, but his troops -- many of them convicts and with few trained officers -- were annihilated by the dervishes in 1883 (Farwell, p. 272).
El Mahdi now had control of almost the entire Sudan; even those who did not consider him the Messiah could hardly oppose him.
The British gathered another local army, under Valentine Baker, who had ruined his own career by assault on a young woman; Farwell, p. 273. He had been cashiered -- which of course made him highly available for service in Sudan. But he wanted to rebuild his reputation. Instead of defending the port of Suakin, which was his job (Farwell, p. 274), he took another of those ill-managed colonial armies out into the field. it was slaughtered at El Tib on February 6, 1884 (Farwell, p. 274). Soon after, the fortified post of Sinkat was captured (Farwell, p. 276).
Britain finally was forced to send European troops. Gerald Graham brought 3000 soldiers (Farwell, p. 276), and though he was too late to save the garrison of Tokar (Farwell, p. 277), he did win an easy victory at El Tib. He then won a much harder battle against the "Fuzzy-wuzzies" (so named for their frizzy hair. And, yes, according to Farwell, p. 277, this is the battle about which Kipling wrote his poem; the regiment whose square they broke was none other than the Black Watch (Farwell, pp. 277-278), but Graham was able to retrieve the situation -- barely. (I should note that Haswell, p. 108, seems to refer Kipling's poem to a Sudanese fight at Abu Klea.)
There was, however, no coordination between this force and the rest. Graham had a limited mission, fulfilled it as best he could, and then was forced to sit tight near the coast. The Gladstone government meanwhile decided to evacuate central Sudan (Stokesbury, p. 265), and chose Gordon, not Graham, to do it (Farwell, p. 278).
It was a poor choice. Stokesbury, pp. 264-265, points out, "He was deeply religious and more than a little eccentric, he certainly had a martyr fixation, and he was the worst possible choice for a mission involving, in effect, capitulation."
Gordon didn't understand the Mahdi cult, and in his ignorance thought he could put it down. Instead, he ended up besieged in Khartoum (Farwell, p. 279). He might still have escaped -- a path out via Berber was still open. But Haswell, p. 108, says that Gordon, "afflicted with a death wish, had never really tried to escape." On May 28, 1884, Berber fell, and Gordon was well and truly trapped. And Britain had a problem. It had wanted out. Instead, it had more troops in harm's way than before the campaign began, and one of them a hero.
Unfortunately, the British public was divided. Gladstone opposed a relief expedition; the Conservatives and seemingly the people favored it. It took months to reach a decision (Farwell, pp. 279-280); General Wolseley (1833-1913), Britain's best colonial general (OxfordCompanion, p. 998), didn't get his orders until September 19.
And Khartoum was 1200 miles from the mouth of the Nile (Farwell, p. 282), and the river itself was the only source of water for almost all that length. And the cataracts meant that boats couldn't just sail up and down the river. And communications were terrible. It's hard to fault anything Wolseley did in particular, but he didn't manage to get troops to Khartoum until January 28, 1885 -- and the city had fallen a mere two days before.
After that, the British withdrew for real. Gordon was dead, and Wolseley was never again given a field command (Chandler/Beckett, pp. 191. 193). Even though the Mahdi died in 1885 (and Lord Kitchener later despoiled his tomb; Chandler/Beckett, p. 208), it was not until 1898, after a three-year campaign, that Kitchener regained control of Sudan for the British by winning the battle of Omdurman (Chandler/Beckett, p. 206).
(In that regard, it's interesting to note that the British are long gone from Sudan. But, as of 2009, the great-great-grandchildren of the Mahdi are still significant in Sudanese politics.)
The official report on Khartoum probably should have read something like "Army slaughtered by official stupidity." But the memory the British people kept was rather different. As Morris puts it on pp. 310-311, "[I]n England the Spirit of Empire was perhaps most popularly symbolized by the vision of General Gordon, that Galahad or Gabriel of the later Victorians, standing guileless, unarmed, fresh-faced, almost radiant, at the head of the stairs in his palace at Khartoum, while the ferocious Mahdists in the hall below, brandishing their assegais, prepared to murder him. (There was, as a matter of fact, another version of the scene, which had Gordon on the landing blazing away with a revolver at the advancing savages: but it was the image of martyred British innocence that most people preferred.)"
There is at least one broadside specifically about the death of Gordon: NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(100b), "Death of Gen. Gordon" ("Across the vast Soudan was borne"), unknown, n.d., reprinted in Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 158. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: OCon085

Andy Pandy

See Handy Dandy (Handy Pandy, Andy Pany, Amos and Andy) (File: SuSm101A)

Andy, Mandy

See Handy Dandy (Handy Pandy, Andy Pany, Amos and Andy) (File: SuSm101A)

Andy's Gone with Cattle

DESCRIPTION: "Our Andy's gone with cattle now, our hearts are out of order." Faced with a drought, Andy takes the herds away; the people left behind are lonely for the cheerful, clever drover. The singer hopes that it rains soon so that Andy may return
AUTHOR: Words: Henry Lawson (1867-1922)
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: separation loneliness hardtimes
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 174, "Andy's Gone with Cattle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 150-151, "Andy's Gone with Cattle" (1 text)
DT, ANDYCATL
A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 233, "Andy's Gone With Cattle" (1 text)
NOTES [149 words]: This is one of those semi-folk songs. Obviously it is composed. But it has been sung by many people in Australia. Some of those people learned it in school, where it is the "standard" Lawson piece. But however it attained popularity, it is probably widespread enough to deserve inclusion here. John S. Manifold, Who Wrote the Ballads? Notes on Australian Folksong, Australasian Book Society, 1964, p. 137, says that "'Andy's Gone with Cattle' was being sung by Victorian station hands when I was a very small boy in the 1920s, and I have met one person who remembers it from about the same date in New South Wales.... The tune reminds me faintly of the beautiful English song 'Dearest Nancy.'"
Lawson later wrote a sort of an answer, "Andy's Return," in which Andy arrives home to a fine welcome despite being weather-beaten and with worn-out gear. This can be found on p. 234 of MacDougall. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: PASB174

Ane Madam

DESCRIPTION: Norwegian halyard or capstan shanty. Brief storyline of sailors going ashore and finding that the proprietor of the inn they last visited has barred the door against them. Other verses describe hoisting sails, etc. Sung to the tune of "Blow the Man Down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Brochmann's _Opsang Fra Seilskibstiden_)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Scandinavia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 215-216, "Ane Madam" (2 texts, both in Norwegian and English)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 67, "Ane Madam" (2 texts, Norwegian and English; 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blow the Man Down" (tune)
cf. "Rosabella Fredolin" (tune)
cf. "Dar Gingo Tre Flickor" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Annie Madam
NOTES [29 words]: Hugill says this was the most popular of all of Scandinavia halyard shanties. Two versions are given -- the first was a halyard shanty and the second was used at the capstan. - SL
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hugi215

Aneath My Apron

DESCRIPTION: The singer's cows go astray on a may morning; she follows and finds a "burr stack to my apron." Now her apron rides high; "there's a braw lad below my apron." Father, mother, friends all ask what she has beneath her apron
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: pregnancy clothes animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook XXI, pp. 71-72, (no title) (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1493, "Under Her Apron" (8 texts plus a single verse on p. 538, 6 tunes)
ST KinBB21 (Full)
Roud #899
NOTES [19 words]: This is another of Kinloch's songs with no source listed and no background information. But it looks traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: KinBB21

Anford-Wright, The

See The Loss of the Amphitrite [Laws K4] (File: LK04)

Angel Band

DESCRIPTION: Singer's life is nearly over; his trials are done, his triumph has begun. His spirit sings; he hears the noise of wings. Chorus: "Oh come, angel band, Come and around me stand, Bear me away on your snowy (snow-white) wings, To my eternal home"
AUTHOR: Lyrics: Rev. Jefferson Hascall [occasionally spelled "Haskell"]; Tune: William B. Bradbury
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (lyrics in "Melodeon"), 1862 (tune, in "Golden Shower")
KEYWORDS: age farewell death dying nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 35, "Angel Band" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 760, "O Bear Me Away on Your Snowy White Wings" (1 short text, 1 tune, too short to identify but resembling this)
DT, ANGLBAND
Roud #4268
RECORDINGS:
Carl Butler & the Webster Brothers, "Angel Band" (Columbia 21353, 1955)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Bear Me Away On Your Snowy Wings" (Bluebird B-5560, 1934; Montgomery Ward M-4851, 1935)
Uncle Dave Macon, "O Bear Me Away On Your Snowy Wings" (Vocalion 5160, 1927)
Smith's Sacred Singers, "My Latest Sun Is Sinking Fast" (Columbia 15281-D, 1928)
Stanley Bros. "Angel Band" (Mercury, 1955)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bear Me Away On Your Snowy Wings
NOTES [16 words]: For background on William B. Bradbury, see the notes to "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: DTanglba

Angel from the North, The

DESCRIPTION: "(There were three/an) angel(s) came from the north, And he brought cold and frost. An angel came from the south, And he brought heat and fire; The angel came from the north, In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.' "(Come out fire, go in frost.)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (Porter)
KEYWORDS: nonballad disease religious
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, James C. Rogers, "Talking Out Fire," Vol. XVI, No. 1 (May 1968), pp. 48-49, "(Two little angels from the north)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Enid Porter, _The Folklore of East Anglia_, Batsford, 1974, pp. 44-45, "(no title)" (2 short texts)
Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, p. 58, "(There came two Angels from the north") (1 short text)
NOTES [50 words]: The English version of this is a healing chant, not properly a song, but Porter reports two distinctly different versions, both poetic, so I thought it just enough of a folk song to include it. And it certainly endured well and crossed a lot of territory, since it was also found in North Carolina! - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Porte044

Angel Gabriel, The

DESCRIPTION: Gabriel is sent to Mary to announce that she will bear God's son. Mary is surprised at these tidings, but is assured they are true. Things come true as forecast. Listeners are enjoined to behave well as a result
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1639 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: prophecy religious Bible childbirth
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 106, "The Angel Gabriel" (1 text)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 37, "The Angel Gabriel" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST OBB106 (Partial)
Roud #815
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gabriel of High Degree" (subject)
cf. "Now we shuld syng & say newell, Quia missus est angelus Gabriell" (lyric on Gabriel and the annunciation, from Richard Hill's manuscript); see Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, #8, pp. 4-5 (subject)
cf. "Newell, newell, newell, newell, This ys the salutacion of Gabryell" (lyric on Gabriel and the annunciation, from Richard Hill's manuscript); see Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, #49, pp. 39-40, with a text from Wright on p. 177 (subject)
cf. "Gabriell that angelll bryght, Bryghtter than the son lyght"" (lyric on Gabriel and the annunciation, from Richard Hill's manuscript); see Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, #17, p. 10; also in Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734),
NOTES [121 words]: This ballad gives a brief, but accurate, account of the events in Luke 1:26-2:20. The only unscriptural detail is Mary's betrothal by lot to "an old man," Joseph, a detail found only in the apocryphal Gospels, particularly the "Protevangelium of James."
This should not be confused with another "Angel Gabriel" carol. This one begins with these lines:
The angel Gabriel from God
Was sent to Galilee
Unto a virgin fair and free
Whose name was called Mary.
The other Gabriel carol, which I have heard sung (by Maddy Prior I think) but which does not seem to be traditional (it's reported to have been written by Sabine Baring-Gould), begins
The angel Gabriel from heaven came,
His wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: OBB106

Angel of Death, The

See There's A Man Going Round Taking Names (File: San447)

Angel's Whisper, The

DESCRIPTION: "A baby was sleeping, its mother was weeping." Her husband, Dermot, is fishing in a storm. She prays that the angels always watching over her baby would now watch over her husband. He returns safely in the morning.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea storm religious baby husband wife return reunion
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 239-240, "Angels Whisper" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 34, "The Angel's Whisper" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1074, "The Angel's Whisper" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 21, "Angels' Whisper" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #43, p. 4, "Angel's Whisper" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 18 and #5/64, pp. 17-18, "Angel's Whisper" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol II, p. 115, "The Angel's Whisper"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 408-409, "The Angel's Whisper" (1 text)
ST OCon034 (Partial)
Roud #2061
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 151, "The Angel's Whisper", J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(3366), Firth c.26(36), Firth b.34(99), Johnson Ballads 1407, Firth c.26(288), Firth b.26(369), Harding B 11(1427), Firth b.25(68), Harding B 11(442), 2806 c.13(104), Firth b.28(38), Harding B 11(64), "[The] Angel's Whisper"
LOCSheet, sm1883 09445, "The Angels' Whisper", Carl Prufer (Boston), 1883 (tune)
LOCSinging, sb10009a, "The Angel's Whisper", J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as100320, "Angel's Whisper"
NOTES [131 words]: O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland and some web sites make the author Thomas Moore (1779-1852). Other sites make the author Samuel Lover (1797-1868); Hoagland also lists Lover as the author. The PoemHunter site, for example, lists 145 poems by Moore and does not include this one. The broadsides have no attribution.
How reliable are O'Conor attributions? See also "Barney Brallaghan."
Broadside LOCSheet sm1883 09445:sheet claims the words are by Samuel Lover.
[Granger's Index to Poetry also lists it as by Lover, but with no original publication; the only citation is Hoagland. - RBW]
Broadside LOCSinging sb10009a: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OCon034

Angelina

DESCRIPTION: "Angelina, do go home, do go home, do go home, Angelina, do go home, and get your husband's supper." "Nothing there but bread and butter... and a cold cup of tea." "Fiddler's drunk and he can't play... so early in the morning."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (JAFL 24, according to Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad food music
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 69, "Angelina" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12427
File: Spurg069

Angelina Baker

DESCRIPTION: "Angeline the baker lives in the village green, And the way that I love her beats all to be seen." "Angeline the baker, her age is 43." "Bought my love a brand new dress, Neither black nor brown." "Angeline is handsome... She broke her little ankle"
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (date of composition, according to Spaeth)
KEYWORDS: nonballad injury music food
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, p. 47, "Angeline"; pp. 48-49, "Angeline, the Baker" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Roud #18341 and 17854 and 7043
NOTES [162 words]: This is a mess. Stephen Foster wrote "Angelina Baker" in 1850. Foster's original didn't really survive in oral tradition, but a fiddle tune, usually called "Angeline the Baker," rose from the ashes. This has the sort of absurd lyrics one often finds with a fiddle tune, although they are at least consistent in talking about Angeline: The singer loves her. He "bought her candy by the peck, but she won't marry me." She is 43. She is handsome and tall; she broke her ankle dancing. When her father sees the singer, he chases him away.
Bush appears to split his "Angeline" from "Angelina Baker," and Roud gives them separate numbers (7043 for "Angeline," 18341 and others for "Angelina Baker"), but I've encountered at least one of Bush's verses of "Angeline" in a version of "Angelina Baker," and the other appears to be a confused conflation of two traditional verses; I've lumped them on the grounds that there is no real way to classify them independently anyway! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BWV4047

Angelina Brown

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves Angelina Brown and goes off every day to walk with her, leaving his wife to mind the shop. The lovers are overtaken by the tide, rescued, and brought ashore where his wife awaits. He has had no peace since then. Married men are warned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1860 (Diprose); see NOTES
KEYWORDS: infidelity love warning rescue sea husband lover wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 19-21, "Angelina Brown" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #24933
NOTES [33 words]: One of Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's texts is the complete text from Diprose, The Red, White, & Blue Monster Song Book (c. 1860), which is the basis for the description above. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Guig019

Angeline

See Angelina Baker (File: BWV4047)

Angeline the Baker

See Angelina Baker (File: BWV4047)

Angels from the Realms of Glory

DESCRIPTION: "Angels, from the realms of glory, Wing your flight o'er all the earth... Come and worship... Christ the newborn King. Shepherds are told of good news, sages are told to rurn from their studies, saints see the coming of the Lord
AUTHOR: Words: James Montgomery (1771-1854)
EARLIEST DATE: 1816 (published by Montgomery in his newspaper the _Sfeffield Iris_, according to Julian)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 69-70, "Angels from the Realms of Glory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 119, "Angels from the Realms" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #209, "Angels from the Realms of Glory" (1 text)
DT, ANGGLORY*
Roud #8358
NOTES [405 words]: For an indexer, this song is very frustrating. One thing seems certain: The words were by James Montgomery, who published them in 1816 (Stulken, p. 151; Reynolds, p. 36; McKim, pp. 32-33). According to Julian, p. 68, "This hymn, which ranks as one of the most popular of the author's compositions, first appeared in his Iris newspaper [Sheffield], Dec. 24, 1816, in 5 st[anzas] of 6 l[ines], and entitled "Nativity...." On its republication by Montgomery in his Christian Psalmist, 1825, No 487, the title was, "Good tidings of great joy to all people...."
The first attempt at a tune that I can trace was by Henry Smart in 1867; this apparently is the well-known melody "Regent Square" (named, according to Reynolds, p. 36, after Regent Square Presbyterian Church, where Dr. Hamilton, who published it, was minister.) But the version in the Oxford Book of Carols -- which is the only version I have heard sung -- is from a French traditional song.
I also don't know whether the song is traditional. Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin includes it -- apparently the only copy from a possibly-traditional source. But Peters does not say who provided it, when it was collected, or by whom. For all we can tell from Peters, it might just be a song he included because he likes it a lot. It might be from John Persons, who may have learned it in his youth in Cormwall.
The song was translated into Latin as "Angeli, sancta regione lucis," according to Juilan, p. 69.
Montgomery was a fairly prolific poet -- Granger's Index to Poetry eighth edition, includes 17 of his works -- but I've never heard of any of them but this. According to Reynolds, pp. 383-384, he was born in Ayreshire, Scotland in 1771, son of a Moravian minister. His parents left him in an Irish Moravian settlement so they could go on missionary work, and died in Barbados. He was educated at a Yorkshire seminary, flunked out, was apprenticed to a baker, and ran away -- all by the age of sixteen! He finally settled down as a printer in Sheffield, then inherited the paper he worked for in 1794 when the previous editor fled the country. He stuck with this job for three decades, but frequently changed churches, and died in Sheffield in 1854.
McKim, p. 33, says that a fourth verse for the song, a doxology, was published in the Salisbury Hymn Book in 1857. Obviously the Presbyterian Hymnal uses the verse; not surprisingly, other publications do not. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: Pet069

Angels of Queen Street

DESCRIPTION: "Angels of Queen Street, All dressed in white...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 146, "Angels of Queen Street" (1 fragment)
File: Tawn115

Angels Proclaim the Happy Morn

DESCRIPTION: "Angels proclaim the happy morn, Their echoes fill the skies (x2), To you a savior Christ is born. Glory to God (x2), Glory to God on high (x2)." "He left the shining worlds above And laid his glory by." "Good will to men and peace on earth."
AUTHOR: W. Eade?
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Ralph Dunstan, _Cornish Song Book_)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 71, "Angels Proclaim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15685
File: Pet071

Angels Roll Dem Stones Away

DESCRIPTION: "Sister Mary she come weepin', Just about de break o' day, Lookin' for my Lord, And he's not there, say!" "He's gone away to Galilee, Angels rolled dem stones away It was on one Sunday mornin', Angels rolled dem stones away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 552, "Angels Roll Dem Stones Away" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 552, "Angels Roll Dem Stones Away" (1 tune)
Roud #11877
NOTES [201 words]: Although the general outline of the resurrection story is the same in all four Gospels (one of the few parts of the life of Jesus they do agree on), this song appears to be derived primarily from Matthew:
In Matthew 28:1, Mary Magdalene and the "other Mary" seek Jesus; in 28:2, the angel rolls the stone away; in 28:7, he is said to have gone to Galilee.
In Mark 16:1, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome come to the tomb. In this account, the stone is already rolled back, and they speak to a "young man," not an angel, in 16:5; he tells them (16:6) that Jesus is on his way to Galilee.
In Luke 24:1, the women are unnamed (but cf. 24:10), the tomb is already open, two "men" (not angels) greet the women, and there is no mention of Jesus going to Galilee; indeed, the apostles stay in Jerusalem until driven out in Acts.
In John 20:1, Mary Magdalene alone visits the tomb, and the stone is already moved, but she doesn't talk to anyone (human or angelic) there; it is only after Peter and the Beloved Disciple arrive (and leave -- John 20:2-10) that two angels speaks to Mary. The disciples seemingly return to Galilee in Chapter 20, but only after meeting the disciples in Jerusalem. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3552

Angels Sang Out the Sweet Story

See Once in a Manger Lowly (Angels Sang Out the Sweet Story) (File: Grim143)

Angels Singin' Round Me Bed

See Angels Singing Around My Bed (File: Parr029)

Angels Singing Around My Bed

DESCRIPTION: "Angels singing (shouting, praying) round me bed, Me hear the angels singing (shouting, praying) (x3), All around me bed (x3), Me hear the angels singing (shouting, praying)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Odum)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 29, pp. 141-142, "I Heard the Angels Singin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Howard W. Odum, Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes, (reprint from American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, July 1909, Vol.3 pp. 265-365 "Digitized by Internet Archive")),p. 94-95, "(Who is that yonder all dressed in red") (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Gullah Kinfolk, "Angels Singin' Round Me Bed" (on USSeaIsland04)
NOTES [12 words]: "I heard the angels singing" is a popular chorus line (Odum, p. 94). - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr029

Angels Watching Over Me

See All Night, All Day (File: ACSF194A)

Angels We Have Heard on High

DESCRIPTION: "Angels we have heard on high Sweetly singing o'er the plains...." The shepherds are asked why they rejoice. They say to come to Bethlehem to find out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (according to Morgan); French version reported to have been published 1855 in _Nouveau recueil de cantiques_
KEYWORDS: Christmas religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 234, "Angels We Have Hear on High" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 378, "Angels We Have Heard On High" (1 text)
DT, ANGONHI*
ADDITIONAL: Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 92-93, "Angels We Have Heard on High" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #23663
NOTES [1158 words]: Morgan says that this is derived from a French carol from the 1700s, "Les Anges dans nos Campagnes," with an English translation published 1862. There was apparently another translation, "Harken All! What Holy Singing!"
Morgan also declares that "Hymns are usually authored by human beings us, but in this case... [the] refrain was literally composed by angels in heaven: Gloria, in excelsis deo. That's the Latin wording for the angelic anthem, 'Glory to God in the highest!' It comes from Luke 2:14 in the Vulgate, the Latin version of the Bible."
This, unfortunately, is wrong in several regards. It is not, of course, the text of what the angels sang, even if you believe in the literal truth of Luke 2; the shepherds would not have understood Latin. Presumably the angels sang in Aramaic, or if not, then Hebrew or Greek.
The refrain is indeed from Luke 2:14, but the text cited is not from the Vulgate, and the Vulgate is not the only Latin version of the New Testament. The Vulgate is (or was until the late twentieth century) the official Catholic version of the Bible, but it was not the earliest translation into Latin.
"Before the time of S[aint] Jerome [who translated the Vulgate], and dating from an unknown but certainly very early period, there existed Latin translations of almost all parts of the Old and New Testaments. The Latinity is strange and uncouth, often presenting unusual forms of words and expressions.... The origins of these translations is veiled in obscurity" (Hammond, p. 56).
About a hundred manuscripts of these Old Latin texts are known, all different; Metzger, pp. 296-302, catalogs 43 of these for the Gospels alone (although many of these are primarily editions of the Vulgate with a few Old Latin readings, or are mere fragments). The relationship of the copies is entirely uncertain, but the are often grouped into three very loose families, the African, the European, and the Itala, which is often considered a polished-up form of the European (Hammond, p. 58).
"By the end of the fourth century there was so much variation in the existing texts, that a formal revision seemed necessary, and S[aint] Jerome was requested by Pope Damasus to undertake the task" (Hammond, p. 59). Jerome spent decades on the task, although most of his time was devoted to the Old Testament; he did a cursory job on the Gospels, an even more quick-and-dirty revision of the rest of the New Testament, then started on the Hebrew Bible. Damasus commissioned him in 383 (Metzger, p. 333), and he finished his work on the Gospels in the next year.
Jerome's work, now known as the Vulgate although it would simply have been known as Jerome's Revision at the time, was not a new translation of the Greek; rather, he was asked to revise the Old Latin on the basis of the Greek, retaining the traditional Latin as far as the Greek text allowed (this was quite similar to what the editors of the English Revised Version would do, a millennium and a half later, when they updated the King James Bible).
The details of what Jerome did are vigorously debated by New Testament textual critics (see Metzger, pp. 352-359). Most of the students of his revision, unfortunately, used absolutely abominable methodology, but fortunately their results need not detain us. What we can say is that there are thousands of manuscripts of the Vulgate gospels, and many printed editions. Three of the latter are of significance: The Clementine Vulgate of 1592, which became the official Bible of the Catholic Church for about 400 years (Metzger, p. 349), and the critical editions of Wordsworth/White and the Stuttgart team, both of which attempted to reconstruct Jerome's original edition.
None of these three editions gives the text of Luke 2:14 as "gloria in excelsis deo." All three -- including, note, the Clementine, which was the official Bible of French Catholics -- read "gloria in altissimis deo." There is universal agreement that this is the Jerome's original reading, although there are manuscripts which have "excelsis" rather that "altissimis."
The two readings are effectively identical in meaning. FreundEtAl, p. 99, gives the meaning of "altissimis" as a superlative of a word meaning something like "high, sublime, sounding from on high"; it is a rare, rather poetic word. "Excelsis," according to FreundEtAl, p. 675, is the superlative of a word meaning "elevated, so "most elevated, highest, loftiest." Thus the meaning is not altered.
But why the change? Why do some Vulgate manuscripts read "excelsis"? The two words are synonyms, but "excelsis" is the more common word and also gives the feeling of "excellence." Probably a few scribes preferred the more familiar word; probably, also, some of them mixed up their Old Latin and Vulgate texts (this happened a lot).
Jerome, I suspect, derived the word "altissimis" from one of his Latin sources; of the most important Old Latin manuscripts, the noteworthy codices Veronensis (fourth or fifth century) and Corbiensis II (fifth century) have "altissimis" -- but the other most important manuscript, codex Vercellensis (fourth century) has "excelsis." So do a number of manuscripts of the Itala (Brixianus, sixth century; Monacensis, sixth century; Aureus, seventh century).
And, as mentioned, a number of Vulgate manuscripts also read "excelsis." The two best Vulgate manuscripts, Amiatinus and Fuldensis, have "altissimis," as does the great Spanish codex Cavensis and the Lindisfarne Gospels, but among others the famous Book of Armagh, the codex Oxoniensis, the Epternach Gospels, the Lichfield Gospels, and the Hereford Codex read "excelsis." It is interesting that many of these manuscripts are of British Isles origin (although the reading "altissimis" was certainly known in northern England, since both Amiatinus and Lindisfarne were written in Northumbria).
According to Hopkins-James, p. 170, the reading "excelsis" was known to Irenaeus (late second century) and to Augustine (late fourth and early fifth century), and was also found in "liturgical" use. Thus it is not likely that the phrasing in the carol derives directly from the Bible (whether Vulgate or not); rather, it derives from the Catholic liturgy, which in turn probably had it from the Old Latin. It is a perfectly good translation of the Greek, which may or may not have been an accurate translation of the Aramaic, which may or may not have been accurately remembered over the eighty-plus years between the birth of Jesus and the composition of Luke's gospel. But since the original was in Aramaic, it is a corruption of a translation of a translation -- which, in my book, is hardly "what the angels sang."
Having said all that, McKim, pp. 33-34, says that the earliest traceable version of the French tex is from Nouvea recuel de cantiques, from 1855, although the words are probably earlier. The translation into English is by James Chadwick (1813-1882). The origin of the tune is also unknown. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: FSWB378C

Angels' Whisper

See The Angel's Whisper (File: OCon034)

Angie Mimey

See Aunt Jemimah's Plaster (File: R414)

Animal Fair

DESCRIPTION: "I went to the animal fair, the birds and the beasts were there.... The monkey he got drunk and sat on the elephant's trunk; The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees And what became of the monk, the monk, the monk...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: animal nonsense
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Randolph 451, "The Hamburger Fair" (1 fragment)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 180, "The Animal Fair" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 180, "The Animal Fair" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 241, "Animal Fair" (1 short text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 348-349, "Animal Fair" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, p. 69, "(Animal Fair)" (1 partial text)
Harbin-Parodology #336, p. 83, "Animal Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 120, "The Animal Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 38-39, "The Animal Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 70, "I Went to the Animal Fair" (1 excerpt, from user Tess_W, posted September 1, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 444, "Animal Fair" (notes only)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #273, "I went to the animal fair" (1 text)
ST San348 (Full)
Roud #4582
SAME TUNE:
A League Affair (Harbin-Parodology, #150, pp. 43-44)
File: San348

Animal Song

DESCRIPTION: "Alligator, hedgehog, anteater, bear, Rattlesnake, buffalo, anaconda, hare." Similar stanzas list additional animals, with absolutely no commentary; it just lists species, often quite improbable (South Guinea hen, dodo, ibex, glowworm, snail)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 198, "Animal Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3710
NOTES [24 words]: Songs of this type typically are used for teaching, but given the strange and disorganized list of creatures, I doubt that is the case here. - RBW
File: GC198

Animals Came In One by One, The

See One More River to Cross (File: R294)

Ann Boleyn

See Anne Boleyn (With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm) (File: CrAG32)

Ann Is Angry

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Ann is angry, Bob is bad, Helen is hateful, Sam is sad, I'm in love, And love is bliss, How many times Do I get a kiss? One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Mankins, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: love jumprope | kiss counting
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #17, "Ann Is Angry" (1 text)
NOTES [31 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes says this is usually an autograph-album rhyme. I would not be surprised if lines 5-8 derive from that, but the whole has clearly been adapted to jump-rope use. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR017

Ann o' Drumcroon

DESCRIPTION: The singer says that the girls around him are no match for the beauty of Ann, pure, artless, shy, true, sweet, and otherwise sickeningly likeable. But he must go over the sea and bid her farewell; he sighs for Ireland and for Ann
AUTHOR: Andrew Orr
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty separation emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H26a+246, pp. 248-249, "Ann o' Drumcroon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13338
NOTES [46 words]: In this particular instance, the song's author Andrew Orr did emigrate (to Australia). Whether the rest of the song is historical is not clear; it's interesting that he wrote at least one other song (Mary, the Pride of Killowen) with the same plot but a different heroine. - RBW
File: HHH026a

Ann O'Brien

See James MacDonald [Laws P38] (File: LP38)

Anna

See The Banks of Banna (File: SWMS236)

Anna Banana, Play the Piano

DESCRIPTION: "Anna Bannana, Play(ed) the piano, All she knew was 'The Star-Spangled Banner.' Banana, banana split."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (source: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food music | banana piano
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #14, "Anna Banana" (1 text); cf. #31, "Banana, banana, banana, Split!"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Anna, Anna, Split the Banana " (Anna Banana rhyme)
NOTES [47 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes for some reason cross-references this with "Policeman, Policeman, Do Your Duty." I don't see the connection. He also appears to include it with "Anna, Anna, Split the Banana." That connection is much clearer, but the forms are different, so I spllit them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR014

Anna Girlie

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme, "Anna girlie, Anna girlie, come and take a swim, Yes, by golly, when the tide comes in." Also a taunt, "Yellow-belly, yellow-belly...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Haufrecht, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | swimming tide
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #15, "Anna girlie, Anna girlie" (1 text)
File: AJRR015

Anna Gray

See Annie Gray (File: Guig022)

Anna Lee (The Finished Letter)

DESCRIPTION: "I have written him a letter Telling him that he is free"; she wrote it when she heard that he had been "out riding With that saucy Anna Lee." But the girl regrets her words; she concludes "I'll tell him I still love him If he'll court Miss Lee no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety; Randolph reports that this copy was written in 1873)
KEYWORDS: love courting betrayal separation rejection
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 213, "The Finished Letter" (2 texts)
Randolph 775, "Anna Lee" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 6, "Anna Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 143, "Annie Lee" (1 text plus an excerpt from 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 143, "Annie Lee" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 231-233, "I Have Finished Him a Letter" (1 text)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 82, "Jealous Mary" (1 text)
Roud #474
RECORDINGS:
Dale Borusky, "Saucy Analee" (Fragmentary recitation: Piotr-Archive #559, recorded 04/18/2023)
Dana Borusky, "Saucy Analee" (Piotr-Archive #574, recorded 05/05/2023)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Jealous Mary" (Columbia15342-D, 1928; on CPoole04)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ella Lea" (lyrics)
File: R775

Anna Sweeney

DESCRIPTION: "On the wild Dakota prairie where the sun is ever bright, Lived a fair and youthful maiden." Anna lives with her father; her sweetheart is far away. On April 2, her father leaves home; in his absence, Anna is killed by a prairie fire
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (The Irish in Dakota, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: death fire children disaster
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 486, "Anna Sweeney" (1 text)
File: CAFS2486

Anna, Anna, Split the Banana

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Anna, Anna, split the banana, Just like this."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food | banana
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #135, "Anna, Anna, split the banana" (1 text); cf. #31, "Banana, banana, banana, Split!"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Anna Banana, Play the Piano" (Anna Banana rhyme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Banana, Banana
File: AJRV135

Anna, Manna, Mona, Mike

See Aina Mania Mana Mike (File: McIn102A)

Annachie Gordon

See Lord Salton and Auchanachie [Child 239] (File: C239)

Annan Water

DESCRIPTION: Our hero is off to Annan Water; he must "cross the drumlie stream the night, or never mair I see my honey." But his horse grows tired, and the ferryman will not take him; at last he tries to swim Annan, and drowns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: separation flood death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 215, "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie" (1 text as an appendix to that song)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 53-55, "Annan Water" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 695-697, "Annan Water" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 92, "Annan Water" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #336, "Annan Water" (1 text)
Roud #6562
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water" [Child 216]
NOTES [46 words]: This is printed by Child as an appendix to Child #215, "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, Or, The Water O Gamrie." To me, though, it appears closer to Child #216 -- though by no means the same song. And there are enough reports of it that it perhaps deserves a separate entry. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: L695

Anne Boleyn (With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm)

DESCRIPTION: "In the town of London, large as life, The ghost of Anne Boleyn walks, I declare. Anne Boleyn was once King Henry's wife, Until he had the headman bob her hair." Now she walks "with her head tucked underneath her arm" and bothers Henry as best she can.
AUTHOR: R. P. Weston (1878-1936) and Bert Lee (1880-1946)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (according to Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: humorous royalty death execution food
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 1501 - birth of Anne Boleyn, daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn/Bullen
1509 - Henry Tudor, son of Henry VII, ascends the English throne as Henry VIII
1526 - Approximate time Henry Henry notices Anne Boleyn
May 1533 - After appeals to the Pope fail, Thomas Cranmer grants Henry a divorce from his first wife Catherine of Aragon
Sep 1533 - Anne bears the Princess Elizabeth, her only healthy child (Anne, like Catherine of Aragon before her, will thereafter start suffering stillbirths. But it wasn't Henry VIII's fault, no sirree, he was Henry VIII, it couldn't be his fault....)
May 19, 1537 - execution of Anne Boleyn for "adultery" (i.e. not being able to overcome Henry VIII's genetic defects and/or his syphilis)
1547 - Death of Henry VIII
1558 - After the deaths of Henry's other children, Edward VI and Mary I, without issue, Elizabeth daughter of Anne Boleyn become queen of England
1603 - death of Elizabeth I
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cray-AshGrove, p. 32-33, "Ann Boleyn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 110, "Anne Boleyn" (notes only)
DT, ANNEBOL
NOTES [15731 words]: This is probably not a folk song. It is certainly composed; it appears that the authors' original title was "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm." I know of no traditional versions. But there are many recording by revival performers -- and the song has developed a surprisingly large number of variations, considering that there is a "canonical" recording by Stanley Holloway. On that basis, I include it. This even though there isn't much truth in it. Except that Henry VIII executed Anne Boleyn, of course.
Of the songs in the Index, authors R. P. Weston and Bert Lee were also responsible for "Rawtenstall Annual Fair," "Goodbye-ee," "Send Him a Cheerful Letter," "Lloyd George's Beer," and "The Gypsy Warned Me," and Weston also co-wrote "I'm Henery the Eighth I Am," "Where Are the Lads of the Village Tonight?" and "Private Michael Cassidy." Weston was also co-author of the fairly well-known "I've Got Rings on My Fingers" with Maurice Scott and Fred Barnes. - RBW
Henry VIII was not born to be king. He was the second son of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York (Ashley-Kings, p. 630). His older brother Arthur had been destined to be Henry VII's heir.
There is a report that Henry was at first intended for the church -- possibly destined to be Archbishop of Canterbury (Scarisbrick, p. 4, quoting Lord Herbert of Cherbury). Scarisbrick says that this report is uncorroborated -- and in fact thinks it quite unlikely. He observes that Henry began to receive secular offices and titles as early as age two -- not the usual course for someone intended for the Church.
To be sure, it's easy to imagine Henry VII wanting one son to be King of England and another to be Archbishop; he would love the idea of both state and church being in Tudor hands. But it seems most unlikely that he ever considered risking one of his sons joining the celibate clergy when he had only two. It must be remembered that Henry VII was an usurper, and there were *no* Tudor heirs other than his children (see any genealogy of the period. The one on p. 528 of Scarisbrick makes it exceptionally clear: Henry VII was not really a member of the British royal family). Henry VII had no brothers or sisters; he had one uncle (Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke), but Jasper had not even the minuscule drop of Plantagenet blood that Henry VII had from his mother -- and, besides, Jasper had no children, and died in 1495. What is more, much of Henry's support came from followers of his wife, Elizabeth of York. (For more on this, see the notes to "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34]). Even if there had been a Tudor successor not descended from Elizabeth of York, that heir would have forfeited the respect given to the children of Elizabeth. If Henry VII left no heirs, there was no obvious candidate to succeed him. He needed children -- preferably sons. It is a subject to which we shall return.
Crown Prince Arthur was married at a young age to Catherine, princess of Aragon, the daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille -- a political match, naturally, which took place when he was fifteen (OxfordCompanion, p. 54) and she a year older, or perhaps slightly less. The primary goal of the marriage was to cement an alliance with the newly-united nation of Spain.
There may have been another reason for the match, according to Mattingly, p. 25: The marriage would strengthen the Tudor dynasty. As Mattingly says, "Probably Henry admitted to himself that there was too much doubtful blood in his dynasty. The grandson of Owen Tudor, clerk of the Queen's wardrobe and heir to no more than a rocky mountainside and a few goats, could never have come to the English throne had not the Wars of the Roses almost extinguished the Plantagenet stock. Henry's own mother, Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond, gave the King his only drop of royal blood, and though she had descended from John of Gaunt, like the Princess Catherine herself, Margaret Beaufort's grandfather had the misfortune to be born on the wrong side of the blanket. Like so many of the Italian tyrants, whom they resembled in other ways, the Tudors sprang from bastard stock; and Henry VII knew that, though he had married the daughter of Edward IV to help set things right for his children, his own best claim to the throne was that he had won it by the sword and held it against all comers."
To make this specific, Lofts, p. 53, counts "at least five men" whose claims to the throne were better than Henry VII's. I calculate nine men and women senior to Henry Tudor at the time Henry started seriously trying to gain the throne. And that's even if you ignore the Beaufort illegitimacy that should have barred Henry completely.
Thus it could be argued that Catherine of Aragon had a better claim to the English throne than Henry VII, and in some ways better than Henry VIII. Edward III had had five sons. The line of the eldest, the Black Prince, had died out. The line of the second, Lionel of Clarence, had given rise to the Yorkist dynasty that was overthrown by Henry VII, and most of them had been declared illegitimate in one way or another (probably falsely, but so what?). The third son, John of Gaunt, had married three times. His first marriage had produced the Lancastrian dynasty of Henry IV, extinct after 1471. Henry VII was descended from Gaun's third wife, but his great-great-grandfather was born before Gaunt had married said third wife Katherine Swynford, the mother of the Beauforts. By his second wife, John had left a daughter, Katherine of Lancaster, whose granddaughter was Isabella of Castile. Catherine of Aragon was daughter of Isabella, and thus the great-great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt by his second wife. Mattingly, p. 6, says that Catherine, or Catalina as she was known in Spain, was actually named for Katherine of Lancaster. If the Yorkist line is excluded from the succession, then, Isabella of Castile, whose ancestry was entirely legitimate, had a claim to seniority over the bastard Beaufort/Tudor line. Henry VII had cemented his own claim to the throne by marrying Elizabeth of York, the senior Yorkist princess. Could he have been trying to marry Arthur and Henry VIII to a senior Lancastrian princess?
Even if that wasn't in his thoughts, to marry his son into one of Europe's old royal families could only strengthen both Henry Tudor's throne and his diplomatic position.
But Henry VII came from a long line of genetic defectives, going back to the mad King Charles VI of France. Henry VII, unlike many of his descendants, was fairly fertile -- Elizabeth of York suffered through eight pregnancies (Seward, p. 327), dying as a result of the last one in 1503 at the age of 37. But four of the children died before their fifth birthday; only four (Arthur, Henry, Margaret, and Mary) reached adolescence (see chart on p. 626 of Ashley-Kings).
And even Arthur was perhaps not overly healthy; he probably was born prematurely (Williamson, p. 20, says that he was born eight months after his parents married, and it is not likely that Elizabeth and Henry VII were sleeping together before they wed; the straitlaced Henry VII seems to have had no illegitimate children -- Ashley-Kings, p. 624 -- and even though he was only 46 when his wife died, he never remarried). Arthur was very small and slight -- according to Mattingly, p. 39, Henry VIII at age ten was already bigger than his five-years-older brother.
Arthur died in 1501 (Seward, p. 327) or 1502 (Ashley-Kings, p. 626; Delderfield, p. 64; OxfordCompanion, p. 54). According to Mattingly, p. 48, "We shall never know just how Arthur died. Of a 'consumption,' it was said later, but a 'consumption' in the sixteenth century meant little more than that the patient had wasted away." He mentions the sweating sickness, of which there seems to have been an epidemic at the time (it had been rife when Henry VII won the throne). Apparently Catherine also came down with some sort of disease -- but she was healthy, and survived (although apparently she was ill for weeks; Mattingly, p. 49). Arthur had died April 2.
During this period, Catherine's importance had gone up and down like a yo-yo. When negotiations began over the marriage, Catherine was simply a link to Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic Kings of Spain. There was little thought that she might succeed to the throne of Spain. Then the children of the Catholic Kings started dying; Mattingly, pp. 17-19. First their son died. Then their eldest daughter Isabella died in childbirth in 1498. The child of Isabella the younger died in 1500. That made the heiress of Spain daughter #2, Juana "the Mad," Catherine's older sister, whose eldest son was the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. As this was happening, the value of Catherine as a marriage prospect had steadily increased, since she was now fourth in line to inherit Spain.
Then Isabella of Castille herself died in 1504, threatening the union of Castile and Aragon (Russell, p. 70). Ferdinand of Aragon was still king of his own country, but Castile was in the hands of Philip of Habsburg, the husband of Juana "the Mad" (Mattingly, p. 67, who observes on p. 83 that Philip had his own plans for Castile which didn't match Ferdinand's). Ferdinand had to be very cautious in his management of his nation, resulting in many problems with England. This lowered Catherine's value.
Then Philip of Habsburg, who as husband of Juana "the Mad" ruled Castile in her name even though he largely ignored her and her passion for him (Mattingly, pp. 84-85), died in 1506. (Some naturally suspected poison, presumably supplied by Ferdinand; Mattingly, p. 86.)
Juana was not yet thirty (born 1479, and she lived until 1555), but in her mania, there was no possibility of her allowing another man into her bed at that time -- meaning that, as long as she was left on her own, she would have no more children. (At least, that was the official party line. Many think that Juana wasn't as crazy as Philip, and indeed Ferdinand, said at the time -- Henry VII openly questioned it, in fact; Mattingly, p. 101. Many moderns have sympathy for a Queen who attacked her husband's mistress and who was beaten by her husband -- Mattingly, p. 84 -- even though his power came from being married to her. She was shoved aside -- indeed, locked up for the rest of her life -- largely because she was female and no one wanted a female monarch. But she really does seem to have had an absolute fixation on her husband; she insisted, e.g., on staying by his coffin even long after his death; Mattingly, p. 87.) So Catherine started to increase in value again (and Ferdinand resumed running Castile, holding control for the rest of his life).
It is perhaps worth noting that Catherine of Aragon showed some of the same clingy behaviors as her sister Juana (Mattingly, p. 158), although not to the same degree. Lofts, p. 51, says that Catherine loved Henry all her life, and argues that this shows Henry was not as vile as he comes off. This doesn't really follow, given the way Juana felt about her equally vile husband; maybe Catherine just shared the same sort of obsessive love. The key difference is that Catherine clearly kept her wits about her all her life, as she would show in the contest with Henry over the divorce, where she outmaneuvered him at almost every turn.
It's not clear how Catherine felt about marrying another Englishman after Arthur died; no direct record of her feelings survives, but Mattingly, p. 53, records that a later chronicler declared that she asked to go home.
Even with Arthur dead and Isabella of Castille in her grave, Henry VII wanted alliances. He dangled English support all over Europe. He did continue to pursue the Spanish alliance; it was the best counterweight available to the power of France (Halliday, p. 84). His first idea was to marry Catherine to his second son Henry (the future Henry VIII), or perhaps, since his wife Elizabeth of York had died in 1503, to marry Catherine himself (Williamson, p. 60; Mattingly, p. 59. The problem with this, of course, is that any children of Catherine and Henry VII would have lacked any legitimate Plantagenet blood -- which may be why Henry gave up the idea). But the death of Philip of Habsburg changed everything. It set Henry to making a bid for the hand ot Juana "the Mad," which went nowhere (Mattingly, pp. 93-95).
While Henry VII was dancing these diplomatic dances, he kept Catherine in dire poverty (Mattingly, p. 98; on p. 62, Mattingly notes that under the revised treaty after Arthur's death, the Spanish swore off any responsibility for Catherine, and she turned her plate and such over to Henry, leaving her entirely dependent on Henry VII's charity -- of which he had none, since that would involve spending money, and money and power were the only things Henry actually cared about). Princesses are often pawns, but Catherine was treated even more callously than most. Catherine apparently thought that the death of her mother Isabella was the source of most of her troubles (Mattingly, p. 66, who thinks she was right).
Nonetheless, Henry VII would not let Catherine go home. If the king himself could not marry Juana, there was still the fallback plan of having his surviving son, the future Henry VIII, marry Catherine (Halliday, p. 85). Henry the younger, however, was still a boy, leaving plenty of time to dicker over terms. Bainton, p. 187, points out another problem: the arguments between Henry VII and Ferdinand over the unpaid portion of Catherine's dowry -- even when Arthur and Catherine's marriage took place, Henry VII had been sitting there counting the dowry (Mattingly, p. 43. That was Henry Tudor's way, but it would set a very difficult precedent for poor Catherine). Henry in effect was trying to get a bigger dowry from the Spanish to maintain one alliance (Mattingly, pp. 98-99) -- a very Henry-esque approach. At one point Henry junior too seemed to swear off on the marriage (Scarisbrick, pp. 8-9), though this may have been a set piece staged by his father to improve the English negotiating position (so Mattingly, p. 68).
This was the sort of situation that was bread and butter for a sneaky monarch like Henry VII (who was utterly unlike his son in this regard). Henry VII spun out negotiations over Catherine's remarriage until he was on his deathbed (Williamson, p. 60) . Scarisbrick (pp. 10-11) thinks the situation had gotten so complicated by then that Henry VII was preparing to break off Henry VIII's Spanish engagement. The situation was very strange at this time: Ferdinand, rather than do anything to support her, had made Catherine his ambassador to England (Mattingly, p. 92), which put her in the peculiar situation of trying to negotiate her own marriage and deal with Henry VII's idea of marrying her older sister Juana now that she was a widow (Mattingly, p. 93). Fortunately Ferdinand sent another ambassador not long after -- but he was hardly able to deal with the increasingly sick Henry VII (Mattingly, p. 105, comments that "His foreign policy was becoming the sport of his rheumatism and his nerves").
Catherine was perhaps lucky Henry VII died when he did, given how disastrously the Spanish ambassador Fuensalida was offending the English (Mattingly spends much of a chapter on this; see e.g. pp. 107-109). Henry VIII, who of course needed to assert his position in European affairs, moved to marry her almost the moment he came to the throne (the ceremony took place six weeks later; Russell, p. 70). He even gave up all the fussing about the dowry (Mattingly, p. 120). Maybe it was because, by then, Catherine's importance had gone back up again; with little but the children of Juana "the Mad" standing between Catherine and the throne of Spain, there was at least a chance that her husband would succeed to the crown of Aragon and Castile. Or maybe he just wanted a wife and child to help cash in on the rejoicing -- according to Prescott, p. 25, "It was April 1509 when the young prince succeeded his father as Henry VIII, and his accession was, for England, like the coming of Spring. To complete the joy, it only needed that Katherine should bear a son."
There were complications, to be sure. Church law generally would not permit a woman to marry her husband's younger brother, especially if the marriage had been consummated. Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was one who has opposed the marriage (Scarisbrick, p. 42, though on p. 13 he says that Warham's objection may have been simply due to the long delay between the dispensation and the actual marriage.) Henry VII's mother, Margaret Beaufort, whose claim to the throne was better than her son's and whose advice he respected, was also against it (Mattingly, p. 115).
Whatever happened in Arthur and Catherine's marriage, the Pope in 1503 had been convinced to grant a dispensation (Williamson, p. 76), and Henry and Catherin's marriage went ahead without worrying too much about the legal situation. But the issue of whether the marriage was valid would come back to haunt all involved. It appears that the language of the dispensation was technically slightly flawed (Scarisbrick, pp. 192-193) -- although Lofts, p. 49, says that Henry VII was satisfied with its form, and if Henry VII, Europe's sneakiest monarch, thought it valid, it surely must have been pretty sound. A rational person would say a dispensation is a dispensation, and accept it unless it was issued in bad faith. But canon law is not based on common sense.
Henry VIII probably wanted the marriage even more than his father, because he would soon go to war with France -- Williamson, p. 78. Henry VII had been far too prudent to engage in such a hopeless scheme (the English, not having fought a foreign war since the 1450s, had not kept up with modern military advances in areas such as artillery; an army like the one which had won Agincourt could not hope to win a sixteenth century battle, and Mattingly, p. 138, thinks the English forces in 1509 were not even as efficient as those at Agincourt) . Henry VIII wanted to reconquer Aquitaine, lost sixty years before, and eventually even wrangled a promise from the Pope to crown him King of France -- if he could conquer it (Scarisbrick, pp. 34-35; the Pope made the promise because the French monarchy at this time was considered schismatic). Henry sent an army to the French/Spanish border -- supposedly to cooperate with Ferdinand.
Henry's war worked entirely to the advantage of Spain, which used the English distraction of the French to conquer Spanish Navarre (Williamson, p. 80; Scarisbrook, pp. 29-30; Mattingly, p. 150, says that the English expedition was such a fiasco that the men mutinied). Mattingly thinks it was only Catherine's influence which kept Henry from turning against Ferdinand (Mattingly, p. 154) -- unfortunately for England, since Ferdinand really was taking advantage of the English. The next phase of the war, resulting in the so-called "Battle of the Spurs" (actually nothing more than the pursuit of a surprised inferior force) also did Henry little good but was helpful to the Emperor Maximilian; Williamson, p. 82; Scarisbrick, pp. 35-36. If there was any benefit to England from that 1513 invasion, it was that it took Henry out of the country, so that a far better soldier, the Earl of Surrey, could command at the Battle of Flodden -- and hence win an overwhelming victory. (Surrey apparently had been very upset at being denied the chance to go to France, according to Mattingly, p. 155. But it turned out well for him. His family had been deprived of the Norfolk dukedom after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485; after Flodden, Henry gave it back. The Howard family still holds it.) But, of course, the Scots probably would not have invaded had not Henry gone to France.
Scarisbrick, p. 38, writes, "In philandering in Lille and gaining Tournai, Henry perhaps lost Scotland. Catherine [who had helped arrange for the victory at Flodden] wrote to Henry fulsome praise for the victory of the Spurs, but the praise was due elsewhere. Henry sent her his leading French prisoners, a duke included; but Catherine could send him the blood-stained coat of a king whose unburied body now lay in the Carthusian house at Sheen." (For more on Flodden, see the notes to "Flodden Field" [Child 168], plus of course the famous lament "The Flowers o' the Forest.")
Much of the success of these enterprises must be attributed to Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York, Cardinal, Papal Legate, and Chancellor of England; he was among the most powerful churchmen in English history (Williamson, p. 86, who notes that the ironic effect of Wolsey's overwhelming power was to bring the English church firmly under his control -- making it easier for Henry to dominate it when he took charge of the church himself). A large part of what follows can be attributed to the complicated relationship between the two.
Wolsey seems to have considered himself a patriot, and he also called himself a reformer. Yet, on the whole, he had been obedient to Papal authority. (At least, this seems to be the general view, though Scarisbrick, pp. 47-50, notes some differences with the Pontiff, often at points where Henry VIII had a strong opinion. But Williamson, p. 107, observes how often Wolsey went along with Papal acts, e.g. Wolsey promised reforms, but undertook very few -- notably, he was guilty of pluralism; in addition to his Archbishopric, he came to hold the bishopric of Winchester, considered the richest in England. But he never even visited his city of York, according to Williamson, p. 108!) This complex set of attributes would be significant when Henry's marriage collapsed. As Ashley-GB, comments on p. 207, "It was clear that so greedy a pluralist was in no position to carry through the radical program that was necessary to sustain the authority of the existing Church if it were not to fall before the trumpets of Protestantism, already sounding in Germany." It was a time when parish priests were numerous but little-employed, minimally educated, often married and making their living by farming parish lands (Ashley-GB, p. 210). Monks and friars, although more likely to be celibate, were often no better educated and lived largely by begging (Ashley-GB, p. 212). Wolsey was a prince of a church consisting mostly of useless ragamuffins but which exacted a great deal from more gainfully employed ragamuffins.
Henry's home life was not nearly as glittering as his foreign campaigns. Scarisbrick, p. 147, observes that Henry had at first been "a gallant husband" and that he and Catherine were together frequently. But it did not last. Catherine's first pregnancy produced a stillborn daughter (Mattingly, p. 141). Her first boy, born in 1511, died within two months of birth (Mattingly, p. 142). Eventually, in 1516, she had a living daughter, Mary (Mattingly, p. 174). Then -- a string of miscarriages and infants who died soon after birth (in all, apart from multiple miscarriages, Catherine brought six pregnancies to term, with five ending in the death of the infant; Bainton, p. 186; Williamson, p. 91; Scarisbrick, p. 150, catalogs the dismal list. The last pregnancy apparently apparently ended in 1518 with a stillborn child). Even the one survivor, Mary, wasn't even a particularly good marriage prospect -- she was not very attractive, perhaps of delicate health (Williamson, p. 111), and (as it turned out) stubborn, plus she was cursed with the Tudor sterility; she never so much as managed to become pregnant.
It's hard to know whether Mary's (lack of) looks is derived from her mother. Catherine's appearance presents a bit of a conundrum. A witness at her wedding to Henry said that few matched her for beauty (Mattingly, p. 126). Yet Prescott, p. 27, while praising her intelligence, calls her "plain in face, short and heavy in figure, a stout little woman as time passed." By 1520 a witness called her "old and deformed" (Mattingly, p. 175). It seems clear that, by then, she had lost her figure and her blonde hair had turned dark (this is fairly normal). We have, sadly, little way to test these assertions.
There are several portraits said to be of her. One, by the famous artist Mich(a)el Sittow and painted probably 1503, shows a woman with grey eyes, reddish-blond hair, rather delicate features, and healthy-looking skin. She looks quite attractive to me. But it is not in fact certain that the portrait is of Catherine. A second portrait, which seems to be universally accepted as her, shows a woman with much puffier features which is far less attractive, but the unknown artist was not very good, if the appearance of her hands is any indication. A third, by Hornebout, was painted about 1525, when Henry was tired of her; it shows her with dark, reddish-brown hair and a thick neck; it looks very unattractive to me but of course it was painted when Catherine was about forty and had been through many pregnancies. There are several other portraits which, based on their dates, can hardly have been taken from life; most are in any case engravings, and show more head covering than actual head.
Catherine's perhaps-premature aging might have mattered less had she been younger -- but Catherine was five or six years older than her husband; at the time of Henry's accession and their marriage, he was 18, she about 24. She was well-educated (Mattingly, p. 8) and intelligent, though English does not seem to have been one of her attainments at the time of her first marriage (Scarisbrick, p. 8; Mattingly, p. 37, says that Catherine and Arthur had exchanged their letters in Latin. This had the ironic effect that Catherine, when she met her father-in-law, could not talk to him, because Henry VII had too little Latin; Mattingly, p. 36. Catherine did eventually learn English, but spoke it with an accent all her life; Mattingly, p. 165). Scarisbrook, p. 13, says that at the time of their marriage she "was probably still beautiful, and certainly of a quality of mind and life which few queens have seriously rivalled" -- but their only real bond, apart from Henry's diplomatic desires, seems to have been Henry's need for an heir. (This is singularly unfortunate, in that she seems to have been far more civilized than he -- e.g. Scarisbrick, p. 67, tells of an incident where Henry wanted to execute a bunch of rioters, but Catherine, on bended knee, convinced him to have mercy.)
Henry, after a few years of marriage, became a serial philanderer. (As Mattingly notes on p. 146, "During the first nine years of her marriage Catherine ended one pregnancy only to begin another. Naturally, her intimate association with her husband was interrupted for long periods. Naturally, Henry turned to other pastimes....") His first known dalliance, with Elizabeth "Bessie" Blount (one of Catherine's ladies-in-waiting) seems to have begun in 1514 (Scarisbrick, p. 147; Mattingly, p. 162, connects it with Henry's return from the 1513 campaign against France). Bessie eventually was given a modest property and married someone else, and largely disappears from the pages of history -- but not until she had born Henry a son.
Although Bessie Blount gave Henry his first surviving son, she was not his most significant early dalliance. That surely was with a young woman named Mary Boleyn (or Bollen, or Bullen; Anne seemed to have used the spelling "Bullen," but hardly any moderns do so). The family had roots in the merchant middle class (Ives, p. 3), but had been rising; Mary's and Anne's grandfather William had been knighted. Their father, Thomas Boleyn, was a member of Henry's court. That may not sound like a high office, and fifty years earlier, it wouldn't have been. But the Tudors had so oppressed the English nobility that being part of the court was now the key to power (Ross, p. 155); a title of nobility was simply its reward. Thomas Boleyn was one of those who accompanied Henry to the Field of the Cloth of Gold (Lofts, p. 24), and was sufficiently well-off to own two castles (one of them, Hever, usually being listed as Anne's birthplace, though Lofts, p. 10, prefers Blicking Hall). The two sisters also had a brother, George, who was less famous.
Mary's mother was the sister of Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk and one-time Admiral of England (Williamson, p. 112). Ives, p. 4 examines the great-grandparents of Anne Boleyn and finds that they included a Lord Mayor of London (Geoffrey Boleyn, the family namesake), a duke, an earl, the granddaughter of an earl, two baron's daughters, an esquire, and the esquire's wife. And Thomas Boleyn, though not personally wealthy at the time he came to court, would eventually join the peerage also. And he was an important in the diplomatic service as a linguist and ambassador (Ives, pp. 10-11).
Henry probably did not sleep with Catherine after 1525 at the latest (Scarisbrick, p. 15), moved her from Greenwich to an exile in Hampton Court in 1528 while moving Anne Boleyn into chambers next to his own (Scarisbrick, p. 218), and reportedly never saw his first wife after 1531. Catherine died in 1536 (OxfordCompanion, p. 176), having spent 35 mostly miserable years in England suffering from the whims (and genetic defects) of the Tudor line.
It is noteworthy that in 1521 Mary Boleyn had married one William Carey -- making it appear that Henry's affair with her came *after* she married (Scarisbrick, p. 148). And, of course, she had an interesting younger sister named Anne. (Although the two sisters don't seem to have been particularly friendly; Anne dismissed Mary from the court as soon as she could; Scarisbrick, p. 148).
The date of Anne's birth is not known; Lofts, p. 9, cites authorities giving dates of 1499 or 1500, 1502 or 1503; 1504; and 1507. Lofts herself argues (p. 10) for 1505, but this is based on nothing more than a guess that Anne was 18 when Henry first noticed her in 1523 and would not have wanted an older woman. The largest number of sources appear to me to argue for 1507.
Anne probably had excellent courtly manners; both she and Mary had spent time at the court in France. Both had been taught to read and write and speak French (Lofts, p. 11). Mary probably went to France in 1514 as part of the entourage of Henry VIII's sister Mary, who was to marry Louis XII (Lofts, pp. 11-12) , and Anne followed in around 1519, in one of the periods of peace between England and France (Scarisbrick, p. 148; Lofts, p. 11, thinks she went along with her sister in 1514, which is a key reason why Lofts and others think Anne was born before 1507). She was sent home in 1522 when the wars began again (OxfordCompanion, p. 36; Lofts, p. 25). It was hoped to marry her to James Butler, to heal a feud in Ireland (the Boleyns had some claims to Butler lands, and by marrying Anne to the Butler heir, the argument might be resolved; Lofts, p. 27), but Butler would not agree (Scarisbrick, p. 148).
What attracted Henry to Anne is unclear. There was something wrong with one of her hands (OxfordCompanion, p. 36, says that she had a deformed finger; Lofts, p. 16, says that she had a rudimentary sixth finger on her right hand. Ashley-Kings, p. 634, mentions a Catholic claim that it was shrivelled by the witchcraft she used to seduce Henry). Her neck was so long that some people said she had an extra vertebra (Lofts, p. 16), although there is apparently no evidence of this. She was said to have a large mole on that long neck. (According to Lofts, p. 36, both the mole and the extra finger were claimed as evidence of witchcraft.)
Her appearance in other regards is a conundrum. Her hair was dark. Several sources say that she was not very attractive -- Scarisbrick, e.g., says on page 148, "She does not seem to have been remarkably beautiful, but she had wonderful dark hair in abundance and fine eyes, the legacy of Irish ancestors, together with a firm mouth and a head well set on a long neck that gave her authority and grace." Lofts, p. 16, also mentions her "magnificent dark eyes" and luxurious dark hair.
There seem to be three portraits from life (shown following p. 202 of Ives), plus assorted engravings and carvings (the latter can probably be discounted; one, indeed, makes her look like a sixty-year-old witch). No two of the portraits look alike. One, printed on the cover of Ives and facing page 162 of Scarisbrick, is attractive enough. But is it the original? Another version of this painting appears as #45 in Ormond, and does not appear very beautiful. The second portrait in Ives makes it appear that there was something wrong with her cheeks. The third, by John Hoskins, looks like a simpering child. But the painters of the period were generally not very good; the chief portrait of Henry VIII's mother Elizabeth of York, who was supposed to be stunning, makes her look dreadful. What I observe, comparing portraits #45 and #46 in Ormond, is that (assuming it is accurate) Anne and her successor Jane Seymour looked alike in a lot of ways -- high foreheads, tapered chins, narrow mouths, long, narrow noses with just a slight curve to the bridge, fairly high cheekbones. Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder -- and, on the evidence, Anne had a look that Henry liked. She certainly looks prettier than Jane, whom Loach, p. 2, calls "pale and puffy.")
Her introduction to Henry may have come through Mary, who had already had her affair with Henry (Williamson, p. 112). That alone would have gotten Henry in trouble with the Church over the marriage with Anne; although there is a famous instance in the Bible of a man marrying two sisters (Jacob wedded both Leah and Rachel), Leviticus 18:18 declares "you shall not taken a woman as a rival to her sister... while her sister is still alive."
Henry and Anne apparently became involved in 1525 or 1526 (Scarisbrick, p. 149): "In the normal course of events, Anne would have mattered only to Henry's conscience, not to the history of England. She would have been used and discarded.... But, either because of virtue or ambition, Anne refused to become his mistress and thus follow the conventional, inconspicuous path of her sister; and the more she resisted, the more, apparently, did Henry prize her." Lofts, pp. 34-35, tells a similar story: Henry came to visit Thomas Boleyn at Hever Castle, and Thomas concealed his daughter. Henry, who had always had his way since becoming King, did not know how to react to frustration; the fact that he couldn't see Anne just made him want her more. In effect, Thomas and Anne out-bluffed the Henry in a high-stakes poker game for him to sleep with her.
It is amazing to note that Anne thus managed to keep Henry interested in her for at least five years, and probably seven (perhaps more) before they finally slept together (Lofts, p. 36). This even though, Lofts suggests, Henry would have had a much easier time getting a divorce if he had wanted a more suitable wife.
Henry, in his own mind at least, certainly had reason to think he should have a new wife. He did not think he was the source of Catherine's miscarriages; after all, there was his son by Bessie Blount, born 1519, whom Henry made Duke of Richmond (Williamson, p. 91; Prescott, p. 40, notes other titles the boy was given. In 1525, Henry even tried to make Richmond his heir, according to Russell, p. 80; Scarisbrick, p. 151. The appointment as Duke of Richmond was significant because the Richmond Earldom had belonged to Henry VII's family during the Lancastrian dynasty, so it might be considered the title of a royal heir). Apparently Henry, in thinking of his stillborn children, never bothered to look at the rest of his family tree (Henry VII's five children who died young, his grand-uncle Jasper Tudor childless, his great-great-grandfather Charles VI of France insane, two great-granduncles died young, etc.)
It is often stated (e.g. Ashley-Kings, p. 637) that Henry was syphilitic, and that this was the cause of his son Edward VI's death and, presumably, the many miscarriages suffered by Henry's wives. Certainly it would be no surprise if Henry eventually contracted syphilis, given his behavior. But I truly don't think that disease can be the whole of the answer -- after all, Catherine's first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage long before Henry started fooling around seriously. Catherine may not have been Henry's first partner, but there cannot have been many before her (and, given the watch Henry VII kept on his son, she may in fact have been his first).
Much of the argument about Henry's syphilis rests on the claim that Edward VI was a frail boy -- but, as Loach points out on p. 161, he was *not* a frail boy until his final illness (the claim seems to rest on the fact that he died young and was a good scholar, not on any contemporary reports about his health. But Loach, while admitting his undeniable learning, also points out on p. 181 that Edward had a fondness for sports). What's more, his illness, though it took months to kill him, does not fit the symptoms of syphilis, nor of tuberculosis -- nor of arsenic poisoning, really, though it too has been suggested. Loach, p. 162, believes Edward died of the effects of bronchopneumonia, and this sounds correct to me.
Which again leaves us seeking genetic grounds for the myriad Tudor health problems. Williamson says that it is "unprofitable" to speculate about Tudor medical conditions, and Mattingly, p. 143, argues that the rate of death among Catherine's children was not extreme -- but I note that Henry VIII's grandmother Elizabeth Woodville went through as many pregnancies as Catherine, and only one child died. And why then Anne Boleyn's miscarriages, which began after the birth of Elizabeth (Ashley-GB, p. 224)? All these arguments about "unprofitablility" were made before DNA testing. I personally think the current royal family should give permission for a lot of genetic testing. They, however, have not given in to historians on this. In practice, it doesn't matter anyway -- what matters is that Henry had even more problems siring children than did his father.
Disappointment with his allies can't have helped Henry's relationship with Catherine -- especially since the worst offender was unquestionably Ferdinand of Aragon, Catherine's father (Scarisbrook, p. 55, says that Henry "understandably" felt "more than" a grievance against the King of Spain, on p. 56 he mentions that there were already rumours of divorce at this time).
The war with France blew hot and cold for a dozen years; there was actually a halt in 1514, when Henry VIII finally grew tired of being used by Ferdinand and the Emperor Maximilian (Mattingly, p. 164). During this peace, Louis XII married Henry VIII's younger sister Mary, but the elderly Louis died after three months, and his heir (although perhaps attracted to Mary himself; Mattingly, pp. 171-172; Prescott, p. 26, notes several sources calling her one of the prettiest girls they had ever seen) was insistent on a change in policy; Scarisbrick, p. 56. Mary would insist on her right to marry the man of her choice after this, and chose the much older Charles Brandon; the "Nine Days' Queen," Lady Jane Grey, was a grandchild of this union.
This didn't end negotiations with France. Later, there was an attempt at a universal peace; Scarisbrick, pp. 71-73 (although Ashley-GB, p. 206, argues that this had less to do with English attempts at peace but with the need for calm as a new Emperor was chosen and assumed power). Mattingly, p. 194, thinks of it as a last chance to unite "Christendom," that hazy idea many people had of a single worldwide Christian Empire. The peace, though it resulted in the famous meeting on the Field of the Cloth of Gold, as told in Scarisbrick, p. 78, was of course was a complete failure; the wars resumed after a couple of years, forcing England back into battle against France. (Russell, p. 77, makes the interesting point that Henry wrestled against the King of France and "made a very bad loser." It was not the last time he would show this character trait.) Scarisbrick, p. 128, clearly regards Henry as having fought two wars with France. But the situation really resembled the Hundred Years' War: separate phases, but mostly the same issues throughout.
It is fascinating to think what would have happened if the peace -- which Wolsey struggled to uphold with all his ability; Scarisbrick, pp. 88-94 -- had held up. Charles V would not have been distracted from dealing with Lutheranism, meaning the Reformation might have failed. There might have been no Jesuit order; Scarisbrick, p. 96. The history of Italy would have been utterly different. It is one of history's great What Ifs.)
Henry and Wolsey had another reason for wanting peace. The conflicts had accomplished nothing except to bankrupt Henry VIII. Rodger, p. 175, observes, "For England it may be said that the Middle Ages ended in the mud of October 1523 when Suffolk's army abandoned its march on Paris." "During 1524 the English did very little, by land or sea, and before the end of the year they were negotiating for peace. By the time Charles V won his great victory at Pavia on 24 February 1525, shattering the French army and capturing Francis I, it was too late for Henry to pretend that he had contributed anything to the triumph.... To complete Henry's bitterness, Charles V not only rejected all proposals of continuing the war, but repudiated his offer to marry the nine-year-old Princess Mary in favour of Isabella of Portugal, who was twenty-two and richly dowered."
Henry seemingly had hoped to gain the crown of France out of this, or at least regain parts of the Angevin Empire (Scarisbrick, pp. 136-138). But Charles had used up his cash on hand, and was not willing to keep fighting nor waste his victory paying off a monarch who had contributed little. For the English, the war had accomplished absolutely nothing except to cause a severe economic recession in England's merchant classes (Williamson, p. 105); there had been riots against foreigners in 1517 (Russell, p. 76), and Henry's attempt to raise money for his wars ("the Amicable Grant," which was actually extorted) failed badly (Russell, p. 79).
Henry had also made an attempt to be elected Holy Roman Emperor when Maximilian died in 1519 (Scarisbrick, pp. 99-101; Mattingly, p. 202, points out that this wasn't quite as absurd as it sounds, since Charles V was no more German than Henry. But it was still pretty crazy). I rather doubt that the marriage to Catherine, which tied him to Charles V, helped. In any case, Henry's campaign was incompetent (Scarisbrick, p. 102); I can easily imagine the Electors saying to themselves, "Him?" and laughing their heads off. He had no ties with Germany (not a requirement at the time, but it helped), he had been successfully outwitted by France, Spain, and the old Emperor Maximilian, and he didn't even have many relatives to help him rule.
Henry also started talking about leading a crusade, assuming he managed to beget an heir (Scarisbrick, p. 105). He didn't get an heir, but the whole thing was surely moonshine anyway. Medieval kings promised crusades the way modern political leaders promise increases in programs combined with tax cuts: They know it's absurd but they want the political credit.
From that time on, Henry -- with his horizons turned inward -- had no use for the Spanish alliance. And Henry seems to have been a man who had problems with power. Scarisbrick, pp. 6-7, notes that his father, while giving him a decent education, had strictly limited his activities. He had no experience of power -- and, in all likelihood, a strong resentment against being guided. This, combined with those lousy Tudor genes, would explain much of the tragedy and paranoia of his later years.
Henry was an astonishingly complex personality -- I can't help but notice how much he seems to have inherited from both sides of his family. He had all the extraordinary beauty of his mother Elizabeth of York, and of her father Edward IV; he also had Edward IV's gusto and extravagant tastes -- and his same tendency to grow fat in his later years. He was also like Edward in his intelligent laziness: He delegated things he perhaps should not have, but often proved to have more insight into the matter than Wolsey or the other councilor in charge of the problem (see the description of his handling of foreign policy in Scarisbrick, pp. 45-46).
But where Edward IV was friendly with all, Henry VIII inherited the suspicion and thirst for power and brutality of his father Henry Tudor. (I say this by contrast with Ashley-GB, p. 203, who declares, "Ruthless and cruel, he had more of his maternal grandfather, Edward IV, in him than the temperate statesmanship of his father." Individually, all parts of this sentence are true, but they add up to a falsehood; Henry VIII was ruthless, but this was far more characteristic of his father than of Edward IV. Henry VIII was like Edward IV not in his cruelty but in his looks and in his love of show and in his list for pleasure.) It was a dangerous combination. As Scarisbrick observes on p. 17, "He was a formidable, captivating man who wore regality with splendid conviction. But easily and unpredictably his great charm could turn into anger and shouting.... He was highly-strung and unstable; hypochondriac and possessed of a strong sense of cruelty."
Scarisbrook speculates about an Oedipus complex; in literal terms, this is absurd, since his mother died before he reached puberty -- but it may well be that he resented and envied his father and was influenced by Henry Tudor's strange and secretive traits. Mattingly p. 127, agrees that his strict upbringing at the hands of his harsh father and rigid paternal grandmother must have left him with a feeling of repression and boredom. One might even argue that his prompt marriage was one more way to get back at his dead father.
For a bloody tyrant (which he was), Henry also had a surprisingly difficult time being firm. Henry the overbearing monarch could fire Wolsey with ease; Henry the coward couldn't even tell him to his face. When Wolsey, after his dismissal, managed to meet Henry, the King sounded as if he would take him back into service. Once Wolsey left -- Henry made sure he never saw him again (Lofts, p. 81).
Mattingly, p. 128, makes the interesting observation that Henry wrote "Pastance with good company" (usually now called "Pass Time with Good Company") very soon after his father and grandmother died. Clearly he was enjoying his freedom. Yet Mattingly, p. 136, also argues that Henry had a deep flaw: "He never quite outgrew the need for someone to lean on, some affectionate, admiring mentor and guide to protect his self-esteem.... He was to turn to one such image after another for most of his life, only to fling away from each in outraged indignation when he found the image had a life of its own. This was a great part of his tragedy."
And Catherine, it appears, was the first of these confidante/victims.
At first Henry seemed to treat his new wife with great affection, dedicating tournaments to her and dancing with her and such (Mattingly, pp. 131-135). But I can't help but think that Henry was less in love with Catherine than with the idea of Courtly Love; he wanted to be some woman's True Knight, and the woman involved hardly mattered. When he got bored with that -- as he got bored with everything -- he no longer cared about her.
Perhaps it will give you some idea of what he was like to know that, in 1534, he actually enacted a law declaring it treason to call him a tyrant! (Russell, p. 43; on p. 90, Russell notes that calling Henry a heretic, schismatic, usurper of the crown, or infidel was also treason.. Given that he was unquestionably a schismatic, and his father was unquestionably an usurper, Henry was making it treason simply to state facts. But this was in the aftermath of the Act of Supremacy which made Henry, not the Pope, head of the English church; Ashley-GB, p. 220. Presumably Henry, as the new God of England, would have declared whispers about him to be blasphemy, except that treason bore harsher penalties.). This even though he was, pretty definitely, the worst tyrant in English history since William the Conqueror (note that his father had usurped the throne, and that Henry VIII used arbitrary powers to a greater extent than any other English king).
In 1536 a law was passed "to extinguish the authority of the Bishop of Rome" (Ashley-GB, p. 220). From that time the rift was beyond mending.
Henry VIII's deep and abiding concern was to have a son to succeed him. By this time, there was consensus that English law permitted succession in the female line -- Henry II and Edward IV both succeeded in this way, and indeed Henry VII"s feeble claim to the crown came through his mother. But no woman had ever actually *ruled* in England (Trevelyan, p. 53), unless you count Matilda/Maud, who fought a civil war with King Stephen but is usually not considered to have ruled. In the cases of Henry II (the son of Matilda) and Henry VII, the mother through whom each claimed the throne was still alive (indeed, Henry VII's mother Margaret Beaufort died in the same year as her son, and was probably more mentally sound at the end than he was), but still the son, not the mother, took the throne.
In addition, if a daughter succeeded, there were only two possibilities: She would marry a foreign King, or she would marry an Englishman. If she married a foreign king, and England would be joined to that nation (Lofts, p. 50 -- although it is ironic to note that, ultimately, this is how England and Scotland united; the Scottish King came to rule England. But England dominated the Union). The idea of a foreigner coming to England as King was anything but popular, despite the fact that Mary was shopped around to foreign kings like mad -- at one time, there were theoretical agreements that she would marry the Emperor, the King of France, and the King of Scotland (Prescott, pp. 30-31), none of which came to fruition; she would eventually marry the son of Emperor Charles V, but only after Henry VIII was in his grave.
The case of marrying an Englishman had even more tricky implications, because presumably it would have to be someone of royal blood -- and there were *no* male Tudors for her to marry. She would have no choice but to marry a Yorkist (Prescott, p. 40) -- someone whose claim to the throne was stronger than hers. The political implications of that were extremely serious; the heir would obviously be tempted to take the throne in his own name. (To be sure, Henry VIII could have said that his father was not king by right, and claimed the throne in the name of his mother Elizabeth of York. This would have been right and proper. But it wasn't Henry's way.)
No one knew how the English would react to a female monarch. The king, it was thought, needed to be able to lead in battle (Scarisbrick, p. 23) -- clearly no one realized that no English king after Richard III would ever be an effective leader of troops in combat. (Some showed up on the battlefield, and Charles I even pretended to command. So did Henry VIII himself in his "invasion" of France. But they didn't amount to much, and didn't need to; the troops and the generals did their jobs while letting the monarch pretend to be in charge.)
Plus the Wars of the Roses were still remembered, during which three kings (Henry VI, Edward V, and Richard III) had all met violent ends, and the throne changed hands involuntarily five times in 25 years. The Tudors had ruthlessly destroyed their opponents, impoverishing England politically and perhaps even economically (Gillingham, p. 11), but there was always the fear that a female monarch would be more likely to be overthrown.
Several scholars fix on the year 1527 as the time when Henry had had enough (e.g. Williamson, p. 111). Catherine was 42, and clearly would not produce a son (no one says so outright, but it sounds as if she might have reached menopause). Henry decided that his marriage had been unlawful and immoral, and demanded an annulment from the Pope (Bryant, p. 43). And he was in a hurry, because he was becoming enamored of Anne Boleyn (Halliday, p. 87) -- though Bainton, p. 187, points out, in fairness to Henry, that the idea of a divorce had first been mentioned in 1514 when Anne was probably only seven or eight years old. According to Mattingly, pp. 168-169, nothing came of that at the time because Catherine was pregnant again (cf. Prescott, p. 40). But the boy was either born dead or died soon after. (Still, it is noteworthy that it is at about this time that Henry started fooling around with Bessie Blount). Catherine's next pregnancy resulted in the birth of the future Queen Mary, but that was the end.
Williamson, p. 112, described the psychological problem as follows: "WIth the passing years the succession problem became more urgent.... Then came Anne Boleyn, and desire matched with conscience, sweeping the King down a muddy torrent in which his honesty was challengeable and he in his heart could scarcely have been certain how he fared. He was to emerge a worse man than he entered, with a conscience that he had learned to shape to his ends, and coarsened by some brutal actions. A fairly good man had been placed in a situation for which he was not good enough."
Shakespeare and Fletcher, in Henry VIII, were much more direct about it (II.ii.16-18):
Chamberlain:
It seems the marriage with his brother's wife
Has crept too near his conscience.
Suffolk [aside]:
No, his conscience
Has crept too near another lady.
Henry claimed moral scruples, citing as his basis Leviticus 20:21 and the claim that a man who takes his brother's wife will be childless (Ashley-GB, p. 216). Henry apparently thought -- or at least claimed to think -- that all Catherine's miscarriages were punishment for an unlawful marriage; Scarisbrick, p. 152. This although, it should be noted, the marriage of Henry and Catherine was not childless; even if the miscarriages don't count, the Princess Mary was obviously still alive. We might add that, although the passage in Leviticus was the basis for Henry's claim that his conscience troubled him, he told conflicting stories about how he became aware of the problem (Prescott, p. 41).
Since it seemed unlikely that Catherine would actually die any time soon, and the English did not use poisoning the way other nations did (Lofts, pp. 88-89), Henry had to set her aside so that he could marry Anne (or someone) and beget a male heir (Halliday, p. 87). That, of course, meant appealing to the Pope.
This turned into a something of a comedy. The details need not concern us, but it started with a trial (or, more properly, a preliminary examination to determine the situation) convened by Wolsey. This was later expanded to include a papal representative whom the Pope wanted to make sure made no decision. There were races between Henry's and Catherine's messengers to reach Charles V and the Pontiff. There were attempts by Henry to steal Papal messages (Scarisbrick, p. 226). There were attempts to trick the Pope. In a blatantly insulting move, Henry once chose Anne Boleyn's brother as one of his emissaries (Scarisbrick, p. 259). Frankly, if there had been any authority capable of holding Henry to account, he would surely have been put on trial for fraud.
In the end, the trial was placed directly before the Pope (Scarisbrick, pp. 154-157). So wild were the negotiations that apparently there was actually a suggestion at one point that Henry be allowed to have two wives (Russell, p. 87. This had a precedent of sorts -- king Canute had had two wives -- but I doubt anyone actually dared bring that up).
Russell, pp. 84-85, considers Henry to have done an incompetent job of presenting his case. (Scarisbrick, p. 204, at one point argues that Henry even tried to *trick* the Papal officials.) Henry apparently tried to construct a case that marriage to a brother's wife was somehow worse than marrying someone else to whom one had an "affinity" -- an argument with weak scriptural and logical support. (Hence the argument about Catherine's miscarriages: Henry was trying to turn bad genes into theological evidence!) Wolsey apparently tried for another argument, based on the marriage between Arthur and Catherine not being consummated, but Henry of course got to try his way first -- and by doing so perhaps biased the court against him.
In any case, Pope Clement had even stronger reasons than most Popes not to want to overturn the dispensation. Lofts, p. 53, notes that he himself was illegitimate (a Medici by-blow) and had needed a dispensation to enter the higher priesthood. If dispensations were easily set aside, his place as Pope would be in peril.
It might be worth a short excursus here on the actual law. There are three Biblical texts which explicitly address two siblings with the same sexual partner. Leviticus 18:16 states that "you shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife" (i.e. have sexual relations with her); Leviticus 20:21 says that a man who takes a brother's wife is guilty of impurity, and the relationship "will be childless." However, Deuteronomy 25:5-6 specifically addresses the case of a man who dies childless. In this case, it is the duty of his living brother to marry the dead man's widow in order to preserve the dead man's name (this is known as "Levirate marriage").
Although not explicitly done in response to the Mosaic law, there are two clear Old Testament instances of the Levirate phenomenon. One is in in Genesis 38, where Judah's son Er married Tamar, but died without offspring. Judah's second son Onan was married to Tamar, but refused to have children by her and also died. Judah's third son Shelah was then expected to marry Tamar, but Judah refused to let it happen. (Tamar then tricked Judah himself into her bed, but that isn't really the point. The point is that the brothers-in-law were expected to marry the first brother's wife and have children by her.) The second instance is in the Book of Ruth, in which Ruth married a Judean man who died without producing a child. In order to inherit the dead man's lands, the heir had to marry Ruth as well. (And the first heir, rather than marry her, refused the inheritance.)
The Church also claimed that Joseph the father of Jesus was the offspring of a Levirate marriage. This was an attempt to explain the fact that Matthew and Luke give irreconcileable genealogies of Jesus. This is just silliness, however, Matthew's genealogy is impossible and Luke's, while possible, does not produce a Levirate next-of-kin for the Matthean father. It was brought up in the discussions of Henry's divorce (Scarisbrick, p. 169) but does not actually matter.
Of course, it should be remembered that Jewish law allowed a man multiple wives, which made Levirate marriage easier. Indeed, there is the famous instance of a man marrying two sisters: Jacob married both Leah and Rachel (Genesis 29). The church, however, banned polygamy. That pretty much threw "ordinary" levirate marriage out the window, since it would be impossible if a dead man's younger brother were married.. But I think that, if we went by the "original intent" of the Biblical writers, that Henry VIII had it dead wrong: His marriage to Catherine of Aragon was Biblically correct (no matter whether Arthur and Catherine had slept together) as an instance of Levirate marriage, since Catherine had had no children -- plus Henry's marriage to Anne was at best extremely dubious since he had already been involved with Mary Boleyn.
The church authorities by and large agreed with this interpretation -- Scarisbrick, pp. 166-167, lists the many significant authorities behind the official position. He then spends *thirty pages* arguing the various points. But it basically boils down to, "No way, Jose." There had been many previous annullment cases similar to Henry's, meaning that the church's position had been very well worked out and myriad proofs brought forward. I doubt that there had been as much discussion about a man having relations with two sisters, but that was trivial; if Henry couldn't divorce Catherine, he couldn't marry Anne.
There might have been a way around all this. To a very great extent, the argument game down to one question: Was Catherine's marriage to Prince Arthur consummated? Catherine, when the matter came up during the divorce trial, claimed that it was not (she apparently told this to the papal investigator as part of a confession but permitted -- in effect, demanded -- that he reveal her side of the story; Scarisbrick, p. 214). The investigater, Campeggio, had arrived with a proposal which would allow for an amicable annullment, scattering blame widely enough that no one would be too badly affected. Catherine flatly refused to go along (as was her right). She also refused to accept any trial that took place in England (Bainton, p. 188). Catherine also wrote to her father that she had not slept with Arthur (Scarisbrick, p. 188). In an unguarded moment, Henry VIII himself apparently said that Catherine was a virgin when he married her. On this basis, Scarisbrick is certain that Catherine and Arthur had not slept together. Ashley-GB, p. 215, also thinks it "scarcely likely" that the marriage was consummated.
On the one hand, given that Prince Arthur had been fifteen when he died, and married for five months, what are the odds that he wouldn't have slept with a pretty girl if he could get away with it? Mattingly, p. 42, notes that several people about the court reported that Arthur boasted somewhat about his wedding night, and Scarisbrick, p. 225, lists the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk as bringing testimony on the point, though all such testimony was given after Henry VIII was trying to get his divorce, when such a report might help them get ahead. In any case, this was a quarter century later; Scarisbrick, p. 189, considers this evidence to be of no value. But the Spanish themselves had said it for a time after Arthur's death, according to Mattingly, p. 54 -- until someone thought of the idea of the remarriage, whereupon they shut up. Even Scarisbrick, p. 189, while saying that the non-consummation of the marriage to Arthur was a "moral certainty," admits that it could not legally be proved either way. and also maintained that her marriage to Prince Arthur had never been consummated (she apparently told this to the papal investigator as part of a confession but permitted -- in effect, demanded -- that he reveal her side of the story; Scarisbrick, p. 214). The investigater, Campeggio, had arrived with a proposal which would allow for an amicable annullment, scattering blame widely enough that no one would be too badly affected. Catherine flatly refused to go along (as was her right). She also refused to accept any trial that took place in England (Bainton, p. 188).
At another time, Henry's poor case might not have mattered; political factors might have gotten Henry his annullment (or a dissolution on some other grounds). Not in the 1520s, though. In 1527, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, had captured Rome (Bainton, p. 185). Although there was little love lost between Emperor and Pontiff (Scarisbrick, p. 198), the Pope was at the mercy of Charles V, who just happened to be Catherine's nephew (Bryant, p. 43, Trevelyan, p. 54, Ashley-GB, p. 216; though Scarisbrick, p. 76, notes that aunt and nephew never even met until 1520 when Charles V had a meeting with Henry). Plus Charles was the one major monarch actively combatting Lutheranism. The Pope could not possibly offend Charles V unless he could somehow get free of the Emperor's control.
The pontiff did suggest that Catherine might retire to a nunnery, which had the advantage that it would not render Mary illegitimate (Lofts, p. 61). Henry, p. 68, even used a little psychological warfare to encourage this, by parading Anne around the court (Lofts, p. 68). Catherine, however, refused (Bainton, p. 188; Lofts, p. 62, says that her religion, which was not of the same empty, ritual sort as Henry's and Wolsey's, would not allow her to take a vow unless she really meant to be a true nun).
Alternately, the Pope was apparently prepared to offer Henry a new dispensation eliminating any defects in the first dispensation that let him marry Catherine (Lofts, p. 61). This would dispel any doubts about Mary's legitimacy -- but it wouldn't get Henry a son, or let him marry Anne Boleyn. For Henry, that was no answer.
Eventually, it appears, Henry's envoys (at least one of whom would later turn Protestant) actually started making threats against the Pope. Wolsey hinted, during the English trial, that Henry might split with Rome if he didn't have his way (Scarisbrick, p, 213). But "The difficulty of taking this line with the Pope was that the English could never succeed in frightening him more than Charles could" (Russell, pp. 86-87).
The Pope did his best to temporize -- even the commissioner he sent, Cardinal Campeggio, was apparently chosen because he had so many infirmities that he literally could not move quickly (Lofts, p. 57).
Mattingly, pp. 12-13, makes another interesting point: Some of Catherine's earliest memories were of her mother and father taking over Granada. She believed, more truly than most, in the power and dominance of the Catholic church, and would not cooperate with Henry in fighting it. Henry was stuck. He deprived Wolsey of his Chancelorship, but that didn't help him get a new Pope. And Catherine had had seven years of widowhood and poverty while she waited to marry Henry VIII; if by any chance she had not been stubborn and self-reliant before, those years of difficulty would surely have made her so (Mattingly, p. 122). And, as Mattingly points out on p. 175, Catherine would have been less worried than Henry about a daughter succeeding to a kingdom; after all, her mother had been the regnant Queen of Castile, and her sister was nominally monarch of Aragon and Castille both.
The fact that Henry wanted Anne Boleyn as his new wife didn't help his case either -- as an Englishwoman, and a commoner at that, she cemented no alliances, brought in no wealth, and encouraged no negotiations (Russell, p. 83). Wolsey had hoped Henry would marry a French princess (Lofts, p. 44), and apparently the Papacy would have been more open to a marriage with diplomatic advantages (Lofts, p. 67), but Henry knew what he wanted. As Russell tartly comments on p. 83, "Henry's obtrusive love for Anne made him look like a middle-aged man asking the Pope to sanction his fling." Henry was in the goofy position of arguing that it was unlawful for him to be wed to Catherine of Aragon because it meant she had been involved with two brothers, but he himself wanted to have sexual connections with two sisters (Mary and Anne Boleyn) -- and the law against affinity applied whether there had been a marriage contract or not; it was based on whether the relationship had been consummated (Russell, p. 84; Scarisbrick, pp. 160-161).
There probably wasn't any love lost between Anne and Wolsey; When she first came to court, she had attracted the attention of the poet Thomas Wyatt and from Henry Percy, son of the earl of Northumberland. Apparently Northumberland, although already betrothed, wanted to marry her, and Wolsey blocked the idea (Scarisbrick, pp. 148-149; Lofts, p. 30, mentions a report that she would rather have been "Harry [Percy's] Countess than Henry's Queen"). It is unlikely Anne trusted Wolsey, and presumably he returned the feeling. It is possible that Henry put Wolsey up to blocking the Percy marriage because he was already interested in Anne. Certainly the court used all the levers it had, including hinting that a 9000 pound suspended fine against Northumberland would have to be paid if the marriage went through (Lofts, p. 31). Anne went home to her family, reportedly blaming Wolsey for all her troubles (Lofts, p. 32). And there was a court party which disliked Wolsey, and once Anne's situation changed, it was doubtless willing to use Anne against him (Scarisbrick, p. 229).
Henry had another prospect, in that Wolsey wanted to be Pope (at least, many sources think so; Russell, p. 74, argues that he made no moves to try to build support for his candidacy, and Scarisbrick, pp. 107-109, argues that it was all Henry's idea). There were two elections at which he might have had a chance. But when Leo X died in 1521, it was too soon for Wolsey's hopes (Williamson, p. 100), and the situation for Wolsey was no better a year later when Adrian VI died and was replaced by Clement VII (Williamson, p. 103). And Clement outlived Wolsey -- as well as outlasting Henry's adherence to Catholicism. Meanwhile, parliament was getting stubborn; Williamson, p. 102, notes the intense pressure Henry and Wolsey exerted on parliament to get just half of what they had requested. Little wonder Henry gradually became disillusioned with Wolsey!
After Wolsey fell, Henry appointed Thomas More Chancellor (Scarisbrick, p. 236; Williamson, p. 117). That was hardly an improvement; More was, if anything, more staunchly Catholic than Wolsey, but with no influence in the Church -- or with anyone else. Even more amazing, he was very much admired and liked by Catherine (Mattingly, p. 179). More would resign after two and a half years, when Parliament passed a law giving the King veto power over church convocations (Ashley-GB, p. 219); he was executed two years after that. It is ironic to note that, just days after taking office in 1529, More opened the first parliament Henry had convened in six years. This parliament would become the Reformation Parliament. Scarisbrick, p. 245, considers these actions of 1529 to be a token that Henry, even if he had not yet broken with Rome, had "thr[own] in his lot with anticlericalism, which could never have made full progress without him." He goes on to add that Henry intended Reformation Parliament "to be a stick with which to beat Clement for the sake of the divorce." But had he gotten the divorce, he might well have stopped there.
Wolsey died in 1530, while under arrest, and would probably have been executed had he lived much longer; the king had deprived him of his secular offices on trumped-up charges (Ashley-GB, p. 217), and could doubtless find more. So thoroughly did Henry grow tired of Wolsey that he even reorganized government to reduce the role of the Chancellor; Cromwell, who replaced Wolsey as Henry's main instrument, was given the office of Secretary, and henceforth government was primarily conducted by Privy Council and Star Chamber (Ashley-GB, p. 226).
The Reformation Parliament worked rather slowly, each year adding a few new burdens on the clergy (Ashley, GB, p. 218). It prevented a clerical rebellion -- but it also meant that Rome was slow to respond.
Henry at the time he began to seek the divorce was once again allied with Spain (now ruled by Charles V) against France. His first attempt to change the situation saw him pull out of the Spanish alliance and support the French who were trying to free the Pope from Charles's domination. This proved a very complete and disastrous failure (Rodger, p. 177. On p. 178, Rodger hints that, had not Charles V been distracted, England might have been in a great deal of danger at this time).
Henry finally found a solution to his dynastic dilemma, if not his diplomatic disasters, by founding the Harry Catholic Church. Or so it might have been called. Henry called a parliament, and it cut England off from the Catholic Church. And put Henry in charge. (Trevelyan, p. 57, says parliament did so entirely voluntarily, and the churchmen, with the spirit beaten out of them by the now-dead Wolsey, went along rather than fight; so also Ashley-GB, p. 223 -- although Scarisbrick, p. 240, disagrees with this interpretation, saying they had plenty of resistance left. Even the patriotic Trevelyan admits that a choice between Pope and Henry VIII as head of the church wasn't a great set of options. Trevelyan adds that "The Reformation Parliament was not packed. It was not necessary to pack it. The legislation that completed the breach with Rome, destroyed the monasteries and established the supremacy of the State over the Church in England, was prepared by Privy Councillors and passed after discussion by both houses.")
It may well be that Anne Boleyn actually encouraged Henry in his actions; she reportedly had religious views which tended toward the Protestant (Rodger, p. 177; OxfordCompanion, p. 36, says "[s]he has been accused of bringing about the Reformation single-handedly." It is known that the first edition Miles Coverdale's English Bible of 1535 -- the first printed English-language Bible not to be suppressed -- was dedicated to Henry and to Anne (and the dedication hastily changed when Anne fell; Rylands, pp. 86-88 prints relevant portions of the cover page texts of the two editions. It is ironic to note that Coverdale, who was no scholar of Biblical languages, largely used the translation of William Tyndale -- which had been suppressed by Henry; Bainton, pp. 195-196 -- insofar is it was extant, and for the rest translated "out of Douche [German] and Latin" (Rylands, p. 46) without reference to Greek or Hebrew. Luther's reformation was built largely on reading the Bible in Greek. Henry's first accepted Bible was based upon the Latin to an extent that no Protestant today would voluntarily accept).
Scarisbrick, p. 249, comments that "Certainly [Henry] had a taste for theology, but there is no evidence that he loved the object of his study. His Catholicism smacks strongly of the notional and the superstitious and seems to have been of the very kind which a Luther or a Loyola deplored and fought most -- external, mechanical, static; something inherited and undemanding." "Henry's was a conventional Catholicism which would not bear any great weight in time of crisis or ever cost its owner much. Recently it had threatened to cost him a great deal."
Then along came an obscure cleric named Thomas Cranmer, who so insignificant that he didn't even have a "living" -- a position in a parish (Lofts, pp. 84-85; Scarisbrick, p. 255, although he notes that the source is Foxe, who was not beyond exaggerating fact for dramatic effect). Cranmer proposed a clever trick to help along Henry's divorce: He suggested consulting the opinions of the universities of Europe (interestingly, even consulting Jewish experts; Lofts, pp. 85-86). Henry happily followed the suggestion -- and started Cranmer up the promotional ladder.
The issue had long been debated, and there was much material in the church authorities. Indeed, had Henry only known, it had been debated even before the Christian Era; there are discussions of it in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Vermes, pp. 36-37) -- and even back then, the interpretation would have been unfavorable to Henry.
By a strange coincidence, the English universities concluded that Henry could not marry his brother's widow, as did some Lutheran universities that would do anything that weakened the Pope (Lofts, p. 87), while those in Spain, in particular, concluded that the marriage was permissible (Ashley-GB, p. 218). Cranmer hadn't really done much for Henry's cause -- but he did earn himself an appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury. Cranmer is said to have had "Lutheran" leanings at this time (Bainton, p. 190). Yet the Pope confirmed him -- only to have Cranmer go along with Henry's petition for annulment and also Henry's break with the Catholic church.
Russell, p. 88, affirms that "[t]here was no one moment at which Henry VIII 'broke with Rome.'" He suggests (p. 89) that Henry's real goal was a more limited one: The church could still deal with heresy, but Henry would be independent on secular matters. The papacy, of course, was not interested. But Henry acted almost as if he had had his way. Theologically, the movement was hardly distinguishable from Roman Catholicism -- "schism without heresy" (Bainton, p. 199). Bainton, p. 184, mentions the pride with which Anglicans mention their "Middle Way" between Catholicism and radical Protestantism. But in fact Anglicanism today is rarely moderate on particular issues; it usually stands fully with Catholicism or fully with the Protestants. It's just that it sides now with one, now with the other. Russell, p. 68, makes the ironic point that "Almost every grievance that was being urged against the [Catholic] church in the 1520s was still being urged against [the Anglican church] by the Elizabethan puritans at the end of the century.")
Henry had once been declared "Defender of the Faith" by the Pope for a tract he had written against Lutheranism (Delderfield, p. 67. Some have argued that Henry put his name on someone else's work, but Scarisbrick, pp. 110-113 says that while Henry probably had help, he believes the King really did control the final form, which seems likely, given the superficial attractiveness and lack of genuine substance -- very Henry-like). Henry may have done it merely in an attempt to lure a fancy title out of the Pope (Scarisbrick, p. 115), but he was hardly going to back away from what he had written, especially since it remained popular.
In all essentials except obedience to the Papacy, he remained a Catholic -- Halliday, p. 89, says that "this first stage of the Reformation was purely political, involving no change of doctrine" and adds that Henry still executed people who denied transubstantiation or would abolish clerical celibacy. Ashley-GB, p. 221, mentions that Henry executed a group of Anabaptists, although he suggests that Henry did so to make it appear he wasn't just picking on Catholics. Bainton, p. 198, points out that Henry's own Archbishop of Canterbury, Cranmer, had to hide the wife he had married after the schism because the church refused to abandon celibacy! (Ashley-GB, p. 227).
Henry was still burning English Bibles as late as 1530 (Scarisbrick, pp. 252-253), and when he did finally authorize a translation, it was the version of Miles Coverdale, which was exceptionally bad --Coverdale, who was no scholar of Biblical languages, largely used the translation of William Tyndale (which had been suppressed by Henry; Bainton, pp. 195-196) insofar is it was extant, and for the rest translated "out of Douche [German] and Latin" (Rylands, p. 46) without reference to Greek or Hebrew. Luther's reformation was built largely on reading the Bible in Greek. Henry's first accepted Bible was based upon the Latin to an extent that no Protestant today would voluntarily accept -- there were places where it was removed from the Hebrew at four degrees!).
Similarly, the Six Articles of 1539 were extremely conservative: They upheld transubstantiation, communion in one kind for the laity, clerical celibacy, the confessional, private masses, and vows of clerical vocation (Ashley-GB, p. 226) -- all of which were swept aside in most of the Protestant and Reformed churches.
The only mercy in all this was that the acts were not rigorously enforced, according to Trevelyan, p. 65. Ashley, pp. 226-227, notes a partial weakening of the Six Articles in 1540, and an amnesty, and notes that "As he grew older, the king became a little more tolerant, though no less unpredictable."
(Much of the movement away from Catholicism came later, in the reign of Edward VI, when the English church moved toward Luther and even toward Calvin; Bainton, p. 199. It was not until the reign of Elizabeth that the final compromise was reached and the Act of Uniformity that truly defined the Anglican church was passed; Bainton, p. 201; on pp. 208-209 he points out the "studied ambiguity" of many of Elizabeth's rules.)
"[Henry's] rupture with Rome did not mean that the faith had been altered, and Henry may well have considered him quite as good a champion as the frivolous popes of the Renaissance -- if not better." (Bainton, p. 192). It may even be true -- awful can be better than incredibly awful.
It was not until Cromwell came to power that the break with Rome became fully evident. In 1532, the Reformation Parliament passed the "Supplication against Ordinaries," which was a key step in the break with Rome. In 1533, Henry finally married Anne Boleyn, although he did so in secret (Ashley-GB, p. 219). She quickly became pregnant with the future Elizabeth I.
A later parliament enacted an Act which formally cut off the English church from Rome (Bainton, p. 191). An Act of Succession followed, annulling Henry's marriage to Catherine (she was officially called the Dowager of Arthur thereafter). Anne Boleyn was Queen and her daughter Elizabeth was legitimate (and, at that moment at least, the heir to the throne). At that point, the Archbishop of Canterbury seemed to be head of the English church, but the 1534 Act of Supremacy made the king "the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England" (Bainton, p. 191).
Later, of course, Henry would tilt toward a more thorough Protestantism, dissolving the monasteries to get his hands on their money (in 1537, according to Ashley-GB, p. 222; Halliday, p. 88, comments that the church owned a fourth of English land), letting Cranmer and Cromwell produce a series of changes in worship (Trevelyan, p. 54), and allowing the translation of the Bible into English (Rylands, pp. 47-50), but at first the Anglican church was just a Catholic church with the head chopped off and its lands gone (Ashley-GB, p. 222, suggests that Henry -- who picked up half the profits of the dissolution of the Monasteries -- became "the richest prince in the whole of Christendom." Until he squandered the money,anyway).
Despite all this, "If in the last years of his reign [Henry] moved away from extreme religious conservatism, the policy of the Six Articles was not officially altered and he died in effect a Catholic -- but not a Roman Catholic -- king" (Ashley-GB, p. 227).
Henry did face a sort of rebellion in 1536, culminating in the Pilgrimage of Grace. Ashley-GB, p. 223, thinks this might have succeeded had it had a stronger leader.
"No impartial historian can pretend that the Henrician Reformation makes an edifying story. It was motivated by lust and thrust forward by greed. The spoils of the monasteries went not to pay for education or social improvement, but for the rearmament necessary to protect the ecclesiastical settlement" (Ashley-GB, p. 224).
Anne's was a dangerous path. There was one previous instance of a woman of similar background refusing to be the King's mistress: Elizabeth Woodville had managed to marry Edward IV -- and it was the ruin of her dynasty which had brought the Tudors to the throne. (For background on this, see again "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34]. Evidently neither Anne nor Henry saw the parallel -- even though it was Henry's own uncles Edward V and Richard of York who had been killed in the debacle that ended the Yorkist regime. It's even just barely possible that Henry's father had killed them.)
Her little dance with Henry did have its payoffs. Her father was given a title (Viscount Rochford) and a variety of financial rewards; her brother George was given a manor (Lofts, p. 41).
It perhaps gives us an insight into Henry and his relationships with women that Henry, when Anne came down with the sweating sickness, promptly fled (Scarisbrick, pp. 210-211; Lofts, p. 58), even though this was at the height of his alleged love for her. (Compare this to Catherine, who stayed by Henry's side during a long period of illness years earlier; Mattingly, p. 162.) As Henry might have written had he anticipated Shakespeare, "Henry loves Henry, that is, I am I" (cf. Richard III, V.iii.183).
The epidemic of the sweat killed Mary Boleyn's husband, leaving Mary dependent on Anne (Lofts, p. 59). This may not have improved relations between the sisters, but it made no difference in Henry's feelings.
Of course, soon after Henry married Anne, the cycle started over: She bore the future Queen Elizabeth in 1533 (Halliday, p. 88), but the miscarriages followed. Henry still wanted a son. He also wanted Jane Seymour. And Anne was not a popular Queen (Trevelyan, p. 55), and unlike Catherine, she didn't have the might of Spain behind her, either.
Anne's lack of popular appeal is an interesting contrast to Catherine. Williamson, p. 115, notes, "In 1528 the sentiments of London and of all England were touched by the ill-treatment of Queen Catherine. She was well-liked for her honest and fearless character, in spite of her foreign blood." Similarly, Scarisbrick, p. 216, remarks "Catherine was without doubt so popular a queen that the growning rumour... of the King's intention to cast her aside inevitably aroused consternation. One day when she and Henry were passing through a gallery joining Bridewell Palace to Blackfriars so large a crowd cheered her that Henry gave orders that the public should no longer be allowed to gather outside." Henry may have tried to force Catherine to avoid being seen in public (Lofts, p. 65). Catherine seems also to have promoted education (Mattingly, pp. 188-189), humanist learning, and even improved agricultural practices. Frankly, she seems to have been a better Queen than Henry was King.
Henry by now was becoming a pure tyrant (Halliday, p. 90), executing even his old friends and supporters (for *this* people had traded in the Yorkists?). In 1521 he killed off the Duke of Buckingham -- a former tennis colleague (Scarisbrick, p. 121) -- simply because Buckingham may have thought about taking the throne (Williamson, pp. 98-99; Mattingly, p. 38, describes him as "more a courtier than a soldier or statesman -- handsome, charming, extravagant, a little rattle-brained, a little stupid" -- the sort of man who might try for the throne but would have little chance of gaining it. Although I note that Henry had also perhaps been tempted to an affair with one of his relatives; Mattingly, p. 145. Russell, p. 75, claims that Buckingham talked of killing Henry and said that the death of Henry's son was divine action. But I suspect that this was simply the official excuse for the execution; the charges have the standard smell of Tudor propaganda, and it is clear that Wolsey disliked the "arrogant, hot-tempered" Duke; Scarisbrick, p. 120). Earlier still, in 1512, he had executed Edmund de la Pole (Scarisbrick, p. 32), whose only crime was to be a male descended from a sister of Edward IV (in other words, he was Henry's first cousin once removed). Why not execute a wife who displeased him as well?
Henry's treatment of Anne was, of course, exceptionally unfair even by his callous standards. But it was hardly unique. Not only did he later execute another wife, Catherine Howard (on rather better grounds, but still, he could have gotten a divorce) but also Cromwell, the minister who had helped him start his reformation (he was executed in July 1540, only a year after being created Earl of Essex; Ashley-GB, p. 225), and of course Thomas More (Trevelyan, p. 55). And, of course, he crushed the Pilgrimage of Grace.
Anne's fall was spectacularly rapid. In January 1536 she had a miscarriage (Loach, p. 1, who speculates that this set Henry's eye wandering). It was her third in four pregnancies (Ashley-Kings, p. 634). Her position still seemed to be strong when the Imperial ambassador met Henry and Anne on April 18. But on April 24, a judicial commision was appointed. A new parliament was quickly summoned. On April 30, a musician was questioned and, possibly under torture, confessed to adultery with Anne. Within two days, Anne and others were under arrest. On May 12, several of her co-defendents were found guilty of treason. On May 17, the marriage of Henry and Anne was dissolved. She was executed on May 19 (Loach, p. 2).
Loach apparently thinks that Henry believed that she was guilty of *something*. The evidence strikes me as weak. Even if one is Dick Cheney and thinks that people tell the truth under torture, recall that Anne had miscarried. That makes it extremely likely that the father of that child was Henry, not some near-anonymous musician. (Another place where DNA testing would help us, since we could learn what Henry's problem was.)
In any case, Henry once again had a New Cookie in the wings. Eleven days after Anne's death, Henry married Jane Seymour (Ashley-Kings, p. 634; Loach, p. 2), who bore him Edward VI and promptly died (for this, see the notes to "The Death of Queen Jane" [Child 170]. Ashley-Kings, p. 636, makes the interesting point that, though Henry married three more times, he chose to be buried by Jane Seymour. One can only hope she wasn't stuck with him next to her for all eternity).
WIth both Henry's daughters declared illegitimate, "All depended... on the delicate but precocious Prince Edward" (Halliday, p. 90); the boy of course would die six years after his father, truly causing chaos.
It is ironic that, when Henry VIII made his will, he in effect changed his mind and declared Catherine of Aragon his legitimate wife, since he put Mary as #2 in line for the throne behind Edward VI (OxfordCompanion, p. 176). Elizabeth was also made legitimate again -- something which, logically, made no sense at all. According to Ashley-Kings, p. 636, this happened in 1543 (Bryant, p. 50, dates the relevant act of parliament to 1544), helped along by the kindness and maturity of Henry's final wife, Catherine Parr.
The Princess Elizabeth, born in 1533, had had Archbishop Cranmer as her godfather when she was born, but within three years was declared illegitimate (Bryant, p. 50). She was shoved off into poor country homes for the next eight years; Bryant says that her half-sister Mary was also there, but clearly there was no love lost between the sisters; Mary, when she became Queen, kept Elizabeth under close watch and had her regularly questions (Bryant, pp. 50-51). Bryant wonders whether Elizabeth would have survived had it not been that she was the only entry Mary (other than Mary herself) had in the international marriage alliance market.
This un-royal upbringing may actually have been helpful, since it allowed Elizabeth to have a relatively good understanding of the common people (Bryant, pp. 52-53, though he actually thinks it is Anne Boleyn's genes that is responsible. The absurdity of this is shown by the fact that Henry VII's grandfather was more common than anyone in Anne Boleyn's line, but Henry VII had no more use for the common people than he had for open government.)
The whole succession mess would result, after Edward's death, in the sad phenomenon of Lady Jane Grey, the Nine Days' Queen. She wasn't really Edward's heir under any reckoning (she was decended from Henry VII's second daughter Mary, making her junior not only to Henry VIII's children but to the royal family of Scotland, descended from Henry VII's older daughter Margaret), but she was safely Protestant (unlike Mary Tudor), clearly legitimate (unlike Elizabeth) and not a Scot (Mary Queen of Scots was doubly disadvantaged in this regard: She was both Scottish and Catholic; Halliday, p. 93). So the Duke of Northumberland, the power behind the throne at the end of Edward VI's reign, married his son to Lady Jane and put her on the throne. It might have worked had Edward lasted longer (Bryant, p. 47), but Northumberland hadn't have enough time to rearrange teh succession before the boy king died of tuberculosis (or something).
The result was that Northumberland was overthrown and executed in 1553, and Jane (who apparently didn't want the throne anyway) quickly deposed; she and her husband were executed the next year (Delderfield, p. 70) after another conspiracy arose on her behalf, this time by her father rather than her husband's (Ashley-Kings, p. 638); Mary might have pardoned her again, but she refused to give up Protestantism.. And, in the end, the line of Henry VIII went extinct; Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I all died childless, and the throne passed to the Stuarts of Scotland, descendents of Margaret Tudor via Mary Queen of Scots.
It is equally ironic that Edward, the child of Jane Seymour, was remembered mostly for dying youong, and Mary, the child of Catherine of Aragon, was remembered as the despot who killed martyrs and lost Calais -- but Elizabeth, the child of Anne Boleyn, became Gloriana.
Henry himself had, if anything, even worse luck with his latter wives than his earlier. He contracted marriage with Anne of Cleves (wife #4) in an attempt to cement relations with the German Lutherans at a time when war with France seemed likely (Ashley-GB, pp. 227-228). But he agreed to themarriage having seen only her portrait, not her. The alliance proved unneccessary, and Henry didn't like her looks; they never slept together, and the marriage was declared not to have taken place. Henry went to war with France in the 1540s, with the usual result: A lot of expense and zero reward except a temporary occupation of Boulougne.
Next Henry took up with Catherine Howard, who was a third of his age. As with Anne, he ended up charging her with adultery -- but, in her case, it seems to have been true; she preferred younger men to her obese, ancient, brutal husband. So he executed her on the grounds that for the King's wife to engage in adultery was treason.
Finally Henry married Catherine Parr -- an ironic marriage, since he had been claiming that a King's wife had to be a virgin, but Catherine was a middle-aged widow. This was about as close as Henry ever came to a happy marriage -- she was far more civilized than he, and was a good stepmother to his children, and even seems to have calmed him down a little. But the honest bottom line is, Henry's dynasty is extinct, and although the Reformation is a plus (even a Catholic must admit that the Counter-Reformation was good), and the increase in the role of parliament a clear positive, his wars were disasters, he oppressed his people and ruined the economy and killed many good people unjustly. Elizabeth's reign was great and glorious -- but much of her triumph was, in fact, to clean up the mess (religious, financial, and diplomatic) left by her father. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: CrAG32

Annie

DESCRIPTION: The singer grieves for the loss of Annie. "My friends and relations they do all they can For to part me and Annie, that's more than they can." Annie hears him and promises, since she loves him, to go with him to Lincolnham shores.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: courting elopement love family
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 15, "Annie" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS015 (Full)
Roud #1791
NOTES [80 words]: This has so many floating lines ("The thoughts of you, Annie, still run through my head"; "I rise in the morning, my heart full of woe"; "My friends and my relatives they do all they can For to part me and Annie, that's more than they can") that it's hard to think of this as an independent song. But as an assembly, it seems to be unique.
The tune doesn't seem to match any of the parallels, either; it reminds me a little bit of "Farewell to Tarwathie" -- but only a little. - RBW
File: CrNS015

Annie Breen

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye men of Arkansas, a tale to you I'll sing." Beautiful Annie Breen is courted by Texas Joe. But another man steals her away, then vanishes. She bears a child; she and the child die. When Joe hears, he pursues the father. Both die in the fight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Finger-FrontierBallads)
KEYWORDS: love separation betrayal pregnancy death homicide revenge
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 77-80, "Annie Breen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4045
NOTES [7 words]: This is item dB42 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Fing077

Annie Cum Banny

See Johnny Maloney (File: AJRR290)

Annie Dear I'm Called Away

DESCRIPTION: A soldier tells his darling, Annie or Maggie, that "his country needs his aid;... I'm called away." Dying, wounded in a "fearful conflict. Victory ... nobly won," he asks, "if you're spared to see my darling Tell her I was called away"
AUTHOR: Harry Hunter and John Guest (source: Sean Mone, liner notes to "Sarah Makem: As I Roved Out")
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (Wehman's [Universal Songster] Collection)
KEYWORDS: courting love battle war parting separation death soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 26-27, "Annie Dear I'm Called Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Wehman's [Universal Songster] Collection of 98 Songs No. 10 (New York, 1886 ("Digitized by Internet Archive)), p. 8, "Called Away" ("By a cottage in the twilight") (1 text)
Roud #5700
RECORDINGS:
Monroe Brothers, "Goodbye Maggie" (2003, "Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys 1937-1949," JSP Records CD JSP7712B (recorded 1937-1938))
Sarah Makem, "Annie Dear I'm Called Away" (on Sarah Makem, "Sarah Makem: As I Roved Out" [Vol. 2], Musical Traditions Records MTCD354 CD (2011))
NOTES [114 words]: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's text has an added verse: the soldiers march away and she dreams she hears him say, "Annie dear, I'm called away." Wehman's text adds a chorus: "Good-bye, Maggie, good-bye, darling, Tho' I fain would with thee stay; 'Tis decreed that I must leave thee, Maggie, dear, I'm called away." The Monroe Brothers keep the Wehman form but have a second verse that shares a couple of lines with Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's.
Sarah Makem's chorus is close to Wehman's but her second verse is close to Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's, not Wehman's. The Monroe Brothers have everyone's verses and the chorus. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Guig026

Annie Dear, Good-Bye

DESCRIPTION: A soldier dying on the Sudan battlefield sends a message to Annie. He recalls the battle led by General Steward and Barney Bey. He tells her to comfort his mother, blesses Annie, dies and is buried in "a soldier's grave in a foreign land"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: love battle death burial Africa soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 17, 1885 - The Battle of Abu Klea, Sudan (source: "Egypt 1882-1885, Sudan 1896-97" at the Gloucester Regiment site [The Glorious Glosters])
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #104, p. 2, "Annie Dear, Good-Bye" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 109, "Annie Dear, Good-Bye" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #5770
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Soldier on the Battlefield
NOTES [407 words]: Churchill describes Abu Klea as "the most savage and bloody action ever fought in the Soudan by British troops." (Winston Churchill, The River War (London, 1997), pp. 42-43).
Greig #106 refering to the lines in Greig #104 "By General Stewart we were led, Who was wounded on that day; Brave Barney Bey who fought and died In the thickest of the fray": "[John Ord] writes 'Re song "Annie dear, good-bye": this is another music hall song. The "Barney Bey," and "Brave Barney Boy" are simply corruptions of 'Burnaby' -- the gallant Colonel Fred Burnaby, who fell in the Soudan. Such is fame when his very name is already forgotten."' - BS
Abu Klea was part of the campaign to rescue "Chinese" Gordon in Khartoum (for background on that, see "Andy McElroe"). The British General Wolseley was leading a force down the Nile -- but, in Sudan, the Nile makes a great bend, and Wolseley thought to cut off the bend (see Byron Farwell, Queen Victoria's Little Wars, 1972 [I use the 1985 Norton edition], p. 288).
General Stewart was given the larger part of Wolseley's force to make this desert trek. According to Farwell, p. 289, "On 17 January 1885 ten thousand Dervishes led by one of the Mahdi's best generals struck Stewart's column near some wells at a place called Abu Klea, forty-five miles from Korti.... Stewart's men were in the traditional square when the Dervishes crashed into them. At one point the square broke, but the lines closed again and all the Dervishes who had penetrated the square were killed. The Dervishes lost about 1,100 men; British casualties were nine officers and sixty-five other ranks killed and nine officers and eighty-five other ranks wounded. Among the killed was the dashing Colonel Burnaby."
Stewart pressed on, but was attacked again seven miles from the Nile. This time, it was Stewart who was mortally wounded (Farwell, pp. 289-290). This was to prove a disaster for the British; they made it to the Nile, but the inexperienced officer now in command hesitated for three days, and those three days doomed Gordon and Khartoum.
There was an older song, "Annie Dear, Good Bye," published, e.g., in Dime-Song-Book #3, p. 9, meaning it is from before 1860. It is about a soldier going to war (the second verse opens, "I'm marching with the brave, Annie! Far from home and thee, To win renown, perhaps a grave, A glorious one 'twill be!"). One suspects that inspired this -- perhaps this is even a sequel. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GrD1109

Annie Franklin

See Bad Girl's Lament, The (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime) [Laws Q26] (File: LQ26)

Annie Girl

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42]; also The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] and Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) (File: LN42)

Annie Gray

DESCRIPTION: Squire Melville seduces poor Annie Gray. When he hears she has a son he appoints the wedding day but fails to appear. Annie drowns herself and son in the Clyde. Her father dies after the burial and is buried with his daughter and grandson.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Willie Mathieson, Tobar an Dualchais); before 1911 (broadside Bodleian Bod24031 Harding B 17(159a))
KEYWORDS: grief seduction wedding burial childbirth death drowning mourning pregnancy suicide river baby father lover
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 22-24, "Anna Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Willie Mathieson, "Annie Gray," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1952.017,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 16 January 2017 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/20824/2
Roud #24031
RECORDINGS:
Annie Walters, "Anna Gray" (on NFAGuigné01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod24031 Harding B 17(159a), "Lament for Annie Gray" ("All you young lovers, I pray draw near"), Sanderson (Edinburgh), 1830-1910
NOTES [45 words]: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports also includes verses from broadside Bodleian, Bod11518 Harding B 11(1171), "The Fatal Disappointment" ("Fair Annie Gray was the pride of the west"), J. Pannell (Liverpool), no date, a different song on the same subject. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Guig022

Annie Laurie

DESCRIPTION: "Maxwelton's braes are bonnie Where early fa's the dew, And it's there that Annie Laurie Gied me her promise true." The singer describes all of Annie's beautiful and wondrous traits, concluding, "And for bonny Annie Laurie I wad lay me doon and dee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (Sharpe's "Ballad Book")
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 263-264, "Bonnie Annie Laurie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 110, "Annie Laurie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 150, "Annie Laurie" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 101, "Annie Laurie"
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #45, p. 4, "Annie Laurie" (6 references)
Heart-Songs, p. 301, "Annie Laurie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #104, "Annie Laurie" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 15 and #1/64 p. 40, "Annie Laurie" (1 text)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 38, "Annie Laurie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 189, "Annie Laurie" (notes only)
Harbin-Parodology, #74, "Annie Laurie" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 16, "Annie Laurie" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 60, "Annie Laurie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 23-31, "Annie Laurie" (1 text plus related texts)
DT, ANNLAURI*
ADDITIONAL: Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 206-208, "Annie Laurie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8179
RECORDINGS:
Cliff Bruner, "Annie Laurie" (Decca 5647, 1939; rec. 1938)
Edison Quartet, "Annie Laurie" (CYL: Edison 2201, c. 1897)
Corinne Morgan, "Annie Laurie" (Victor Monarch 4039, c. 1902)
Marie Narelle, "Annie Laurie" (CYL: Edison 9422, 1906)
Standard Quartette, "Annie Laurie" (CYL: Columbia 2236, rec. 1895)
Nevada Vanderveer, "Annie Laurie" (Bell S-77, c. 1923)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1857 631330, "Amie Laurie," J. F. Browne (New York), 1857 (tune); also sm1883 06654, 1883 (tune)
Murray, Mu23-y1:121, "Annie Laurie," unknown, unknown
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(056), "Annie Laurie," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 1852-1859; also L.C.Fol.178.A.2(062), "Annie Laurie," James Lindsay (Glasgow) [despite both being by Lindsay, and using the same woodcut, they are not the same broadside]
SAME TUNE:
The Price of Freedom (File: CAFS2446)
St. George and Mormon Dixie (File: ChMS117)
The Death of Annie Laurie (Dime-Song-Book #3, p. 7)
Song, on the Death of President Abraham Lincoln ("Halls and Homes in black are shrouded," by Silas S. Steele) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 148)
Miss Jones, by Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) (a poem set to a medley of pop tunes, with this being the next to last) (Anne Clark, _The Real Alice_, Stein and Day, 1981, p. 82)
The World Is Clothed with Beauty (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 106)
When First the Sun Has Risen (by E. S. Lawson, [class of 18]62) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 27)
Good Old Trinity (by James Buchanan, [class of 18]53) ("Come, let us laugh and sing, And let us merry be") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, pp. 30-31)
Ode of the Seasons ("In Springtime when the meadows put on their em'rald hue") (by A. P. Knapp) (Albert P. Knapp, _Grange Songster_, 1915, p. 13)
The Voice of the Nation's Dead ("From mountain hill and vally A warning seems to come") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 15)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Annie Lawrie
NOTES [1051 words]: Legends about this song are much more common than verifiable facts. The story is that William Douglas (who allegedly wrote the poem) fell in love with Annie Laurie, a member of a rival clan some time between 1685 and 1705. The poem is said to have been published at the time, but (according to Fuld) no printing prior to Sharpe's of 1823 has been found.
Waites and Hunter have more details about the alleged inspiration: Ms. Laurie was born at Maxwelton in 1682, and lived to the age of 83, being buried in Glencairn near Maxwelton. The man she married was not Douglas. The fullest account of this is in Ford-SongHistories, which also has a drawing alleged to be of Annie Laurie, but given the uncertainties, I'm not sure I should repeat this. You can find the book on Google Books should you so wish.
The tune is almost certainly the work of Lady John Scott, and was published in 1835. Spaeth thinks she wrote the words as well, but Scott was born in 1810, and admitted herself that the first verse was older, and the second also based on ancient materials. At most, Scott deserves credit for the third verse.
Dr. William Mahar claims this is one of the six most popular songs of the Civil War era. I've no idea what his evidence for this was; I've never seen it mentioned in any Civil War history. I do find myself surprised; I've seen de-Scotticized versions, and they just don't work very well. On the other hand, Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 4, lists six American broadsides from the Civil War era, so it was certainly frequently printed. Several of these call it "now the most popular Ballad in the British Camp," which would seem to imply some sort of conflict with Britain.
Dime-Song-Book #3, p. 7, has a song, "The Death of Annie Laurie," which is clearly a sequel, and hence presumably more evidence of the popularity of the song. RBW
Murray Shoolbraid lists various sources for the song, broken out by the tune-types, the "old" tune and the Scott tune. Shoolbraid lists the following as versions of the "old" tune:
? Wm. Douglas of Fingland, c. 1700.
Sharpe Ballad Book (1824), no. xxxvii (reprint, p. 108).
Ford Song Histories (1900), 24.
SSCA (1870), 45; BSS (1875), 438.
Chambers SSPB 309 (+ music); Ross CSS (1887), 369; Crockett Minstrelsy of the Merse (1893), 213.
Shoolbraid adds, "How old this 'old' version is is a good question. Lady John Scott told Moffat that it was written (i.e. forged) by Allan Cunningham, who imposed other fabrications on poor Cromek. The 2nd stanza derives from the old version of 'John Anderson,' in the Merry Muses, and A.C. certainly had access to a copy. Sharpe's first printing (1823) is pretty late for a song of 1700.
For the Scott tune, Shoolbraid lists
Ford Song Histories (1900), 28.
SS I.4 (+ m.); BSS (1875), 439; Wood's Songs of Scotland III.24 (+ m.); Gleadhill 80 (+ m.); Crockett Minstrelsy of the Merse (1893), 213 (tune [by Lady John Scott] previously used by her for the ballad of "Kempy Kaye"). Ross CSS (1887), 369. B&F 20 (+ m.); Allan's Sc. Songs, 11 (+ m.), anonymous (merely subtitled "The Favourite Scotch Ballad, as sung by Jenny Lind"). Dun & Thomson VMS III.89 (+ m.) (anon.).
The tune [by the authoress] is in Manson (1846), II.151.
Other words include Crawford's "My Mary Dear."
Shoolbraid summarizes the data thus:
"There are two texts to consider, that of the 'original,' and that of Lady John Scott. The first seems to appear for the first time in Sharpe's Ballad Book of 1824, though it has been asserted that it appeared in an Edinburgh newspaper in the early 18th century. That original was reprinted in Allan Cunningham's collection of Scottish songs [The Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern (1825), vol. III p.256], where he tells us he found it in Sharpe.
Lady JS found it in Cunningham, and noticed that a tune of hers previously intended to suit the old ballad of Kempy Kaye would fit this very nicely - with a little polishing. She altered the first stanza, altered the second some more, and made a completely new third; sang it to her hosts, and it was approved. This was in 1834 or 1835. Later she published it along with others of her composition to raise money for widows and orphans of soldiers killed in the Crimea. It became very popular, being sung by Jenny Lind, among others, but she withheld acknowledgement of the authorship until February 1890, when she confessed in a letter to the Dumfries Standard.
"Lady John Scott's version is the familiar one referred to by Spaeth et al. The original, credited to Douglas, cannot be traced any farther back than Sharpe. It is not impossible that it lurks in a corner of some obscure paper [and we must remember that not every issue is extant]; but the authoress herself is said to have told Moffat that it was a forgery by Allan Cunningham. If this is true, we can see where AC got it: the second verse derives from an old version of 'John Anderson, My Jo,' to be found in The Merry Muses of Caledonia (1799-1800), and Cunningham certainly has access to a copy. AC was quite a practised forger: he gulled Cromek into publishing the Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song (1810), most of which seems to be by AC himself.
"Robert Ford (Song Histories, 1900, 23-31) goes into some detail on all this, reproducing a letter written by a descendant of the Anna Laurie of the song, by which the story of its original composition is made clear; it is to be assumed that the writer got her facts right, at least in regard to family tradition. One way out of the impasse is to say that Moffat misunderstood Lady John Scott's reference to Cunningham, and that the tradition about Douglas is true; notwithstanding the problems about Cunningham's unreliability and the long interval between composition and publication by Sharpe. Lady John, after all, did not find the Sharpe copy; the only other alternative, that Cunningham planted it on Sharpe, is very unlikely. On the whole, therefore, I give the palm to Douglas, though I admit the story is still a bit mirky." - MS, (RBW)
Could the source for Shoolbraid's attribution possibly be Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs? That attributes it identically, including the abbreviation of "William" to "Wm." -PJS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB150A

Annie Lee

See Anna Lee (The Finished Letter) (File: R775)

Annie Mackie

DESCRIPTION: "By there cam' a miller lad, Wi' a' his wheels sae knackie [free-running] O, He wan her up in wedlock's bands, I lost my Annie Mackie O"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting betrayal miller
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1196, "Annie Mackie" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #6803
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan6 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61196

Annie Moore

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a young man, distracted, lamenting his slain Annie Moore. He tells how the Protestants were marching. Soldiers were dispatched and fired on the marchers. Annie was slain. The Protestants and her family lament and treat her as a hero
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: death soldier religious love burial funeral mourning
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H191, pp. 142-143, "Annie Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 40, "Annie Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 39, "Annie Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 16, "Annie Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 1, "Annie Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2881
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(174), "Ann Moore" ("As I walked out one evening in the month of sweet July"), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
NOTES [227 words]: Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster's text and quotations from news accounts have the year as 1835. Bodleian broadside 2806 b.11(174) has 1836. - BS
Graham also gives a date of 1835, although the Holmes text lists no year. Whereas Sam Henry's text has the date "forty-five." All texts seem to agree on the date of July 12.
Of course, there was frequently trouble on July 12 in Ulster, the anniversary (depending on how you deal with the change to the Gregorian calendar) or either the Battle of the Boyne and the Battle of Aughrim. Is it possible that the story originated in 1835 and was updated to describe more recent events?
The 1820s-1840s were a period of significant gains for Catholic rights in Ireland. 1829 saw Catholic "emancipation," allowing them every political right open to Protestants of equivalent position. The 1830s saw reforms in education and taxation. In 1840, Daniel O'Connell formed the National Repeal Association, to press for the repeal of the Anglo-Irish Union.
By 1843, though, things were getting out of hand. In 1843, the government foolishly banned a Repeal rally. Soon after, O'Connell was arrested, and convicted by an all-Protestant jury.
Pressures were building up; they would result in a rebellion in 1848. (The famines, of course, added to the pressure.) Toss in the famines of 1845, and riots would be a natural consequence. . - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: HHH191

Annie of the Vale

DESCRIPTION: "I'm lonely and weary, Without thee I'm dreary, Sighing for thy sweet melting voice." The singer begs, "Come, come, come, love, come... Dear Anna, sweet Anna of the vale." He will go to be a soldier; if he dies, he hope to meet her in heaven
AUTHOR: Words: probably George Pope Morris (1802-1864); music: possibly J. R. Thomas (source: sheet music published by Firth Pond & Co., according to Wolf)
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Dime-Song-Book #8)
KEYWORDS: love separation soldier rejection
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 222-223, "Annie of the Vale" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 300, "Annie of the Vale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #47, p. 4, "Annie of the Vale" (5 references)
Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 5, "Annie of the Vale" (1 text)
Roud #7950
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(499), "Annie of the Vale," C. Magnus (New York), c. 1860; also Harding B 18(15), H. De Marsan (New York), c. 1860; Firth c.26(35)=Firth c.26(150)=Harding B 11(70), T. Perason (Manchester), before 1900
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Reason Why" (tune, per broadsides Bodleian Harding B 11(3238), 2806 c.15(284) and Firth b.28(13) -- assuming that's the same "Annie of the Vale")
SAME TUNE:
My Mustache Is Growing (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 104)
Nellie of the North ("The watch-fires are gleaming -- the bright stars are beaming," by John Ross Dix) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 106)
Welcome "Jeff" to Baltimore ("In charms now we slumber, and insults in number") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 196)
Hamilton ("Far up the hill of science, where bright lights are glowing, Let Hamilton be the first to take her stand") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 7)
NOTES [59 words]: Although rare in tradition (I know of no field collections except Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's), it seems to have been widely printed. Wolf-AmericanSongSheets shows five different editions in the Philadelphia collection, and the Bodleian has at least two other editions. Wolf also has an item, "Annie with the Veil, A Parody." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Beld222

Annie Young, The

DESCRIPTION: Annie Young and Man Alone are in a storm at night "bound on the Labrador" on August 24, 1935. Annie Young is last seen about 11. Five of the eight men lost are named.
AUTHOR: Walter Hayman, brother of the lost cook (according to Leht/Best)
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 24, 1935 - wreck of the Annie Young en route from Fox Island to Labrador
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 2, "The Annie Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #30705
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The August Gale (I)" (subject)
cf. "The August Gale (II)" (subject)
NOTES [249 words]: The August Gale was off shore of the US and knocked out telephone and telegraph lines crossing Cape Breton.
"A number of vessels were lost including the Joyce Smith with 21 lives, 19 of whom were Newfoundlanders. The Halifax Daily News later reported that the August Gale was one of the worst in the history of Nova Scotia. Early in the morning of August 25, the August Gale crossed the Cabot Strait. Because communications had been severed because of the storm, no advance warning of the approaching storm was available....
The most severe destruction was reserved for ships at sea. According to Robert Parsons in Lost at Sea, the Vienna of Burnt Island was lost with a crew of six, the Hilda Gertrude of Rushoon went down with seven men, the Ella May of Rencontre West (six men), Annie Jane of Isle of Mort (4 men), Red Harbour's John Loughlin (8 men) and Fox Harbour's Annie Healey (7 men)."
Source: Bruce Whiffen site, copyright August 23, 1999, Bruce Whiffen, quoted with permission of copyright owner.
Northern Shipwrecks Database lists fifteen ships lost in Newfoundland waters -- between Cape Race and one at Prince Edward Island -- on August 24-25, 1935. You can use the reports of wrecks to follow the storm from Ramea in the southwest, around the south and east coast, up to Goose Cove just south of St Anthony. - BS
Some of this information seems to be confused with the gale of August 1927. See the notes to "The August Gale (I)" and "The Gale of August '27." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe002

Annie's Winning Smile

See When the Corn Is Waving (File: JoMS149)

Anniebelle

See Carrie Belle (File: Parr056)

Anniversary of the Shutting of the Gates of Derry

DESCRIPTION: The closing of Derry's gates, the seige and its relief are recounted with the names of the Protestant leaders who fought "till James was knocked up and their foemen were gone." They "gained for the nation ... a free constitution and Protestant laws"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: battle rescue death Ireland moniker patriotic religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 7, "Anniversary of the Shutting of the Gates of Derry" (1 text)
Roud #V42293
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry" (subject: the siege of Derry) and references there
File: OrLa007

Announcements

DESCRIPTION: "Announcements, announcements, announcements." Almost anything may follow (e.g. the Mickey Mouse theme), although it is likely to include something about "What a horrible way to die, what a horrible way to die" as people keep talking
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad death campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 423, 535, "Announcements" (notes only)
Roud #26053
NOTES [74 words]: This seems to have been a genuine Girl Scout folk song, not something they borrowed. Many meals were followed by announcements, and according to Averill, p. 423, long or sloppy announcements would often provoke this song in response. Given that it sometimes occurs in Girl Scout songbooks, I suspect there were attempts to defang it either by making it less obnoxious to the announcer or so obnoxious to the kids that they wouldn't sing it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF423A

Anonn's Anall, Is Trid An Abhainn

DESCRIPTION: Macaronic. "Over and hither and through the meadow, So, hag, you destroyed me! ... Hag, you annoyed me!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 22, "Anonn's Anall, Is Trid An Abhainn" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Anonn's Anall, Is Trid An Abhainn" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [19 words]: The description follows only the English chorus of the macaronic OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin text. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC022

Another Fall of Rain (Waiting for the Rain)

DESCRIPTION: "The weather had been sultry for a fortnight's time or more; The shearers had been driving might and main...." After so much work the shearers are tired and desperate for a break. At last the rain came, allowing them to relax and rest up
AUTHOR: a literary version is credited to John Shaw-Neilson
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: sheep work
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 154-155, "Another Fall of Rain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 190-192, "Waiting for the Rain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 134-135, "Another Fall of Rain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 174-177, "Another Fall of Rain" (1 text)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 21, "Another Shower of Rain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 174-175, "Waiting for the Rain" (1 text)
DT, FALLRAIN*
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 64-65, "Another Fall of Rain" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 293-294, "Another Fall of Rain" (1 text)
Roud #22614
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
NOTES [147 words]: The original Shaw-Neilson poem, "Waiting for the Rain" (the probable but not quite certain original) was rather long and involved, and even the early version printed by Paterson has generally been severely shortened by tradition. The basic plot, however, survives. That the song is relatively recent is shown by the fact that the shearers were paid during the rain. Shearers were paid by the piece, and until the Shearers' Union gained the concession that they be paid when they could not shear, rain meant only hardship.
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong calls Shaw-Neilson "John Neilson" rather than "Shaw-Neilsen" and says that he came to Australia as a boy in 1853 and began his writing career in 1876; Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads also uses the surname "Neilson" and says that the Neilson who wrote this song was the father of "the lyric poet Shaw Nielson." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: MA154

Another Little Drink Wouldn't Do Us Any Harm

DESCRIPTION: "There was a pretty lass and I'm grieved to say She climbed upon a 'bus on a windy day When a busy breeze blew an awful storm And another little drink wouldn't do us any harm." Drink helps when the curate goes to a sewing bee, and helps Mr. Asquith
AUTHOR: Clifford Grey (source: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (source: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous clergy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 31-32, "Another Little Drink Wouldn't Do Us Any Harm" (1 text)
NOTES [20 words]: Note that, although the title of this is the same as a line in "Turkey in the Straw," it is an entirely separate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW031

Another Man Done Gone

DESCRIPTION: "Another man done gone... from the county farm.... I didn't know his name.... He had a long chain on.... He killed another man.... I don't know where he's gone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recording, Vera Hall)
KEYWORDS: prison escape homicide
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 307-309, "Another Man Done Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 95, "Another Man Done Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax- FSNA 288, Another Man Done Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 67, "Another Man Done Gone" (1 text)
Roud #10065
RECORDINGS:
Vera Hall, "Another Man Done Gone" (AFS 4049 A4, 4049 B, 1940; on LCTreas, LC04)
Pete Seeger, "Another Man Done Gone" (on PeteSeeger05) (on PeteSeeger27)
Willie Turner, "Now Your Man Done Gone" (on NFMAla1)
File: LxU095

Another Man's Wedding

See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

Another of Seafardingers, describing Evill Fortune

See Another of Seafarers, describing Evil Fortune (File: PaSe005)

Another of Seafarers, describing Evil Fortune

DESCRIPTION: "What pen can well report the plight Of those that travel on the seas?" They spend stormy nights in winter. Winds blow them onto rocks and shoals. The singer hopes for a "happy end" to the voyage and hopes to live safely at home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (Halliwell, Early Naval Ballads of England, according to Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs), but probably from the late sixteenth century; see NOTES
KEYWORDS: sailor travel hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 5, "Another of Seafarers, describing Evil Fortune" (1 text)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads IV, pp. 6-7, "Another of Seafardingers, describing Evill Fortune" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2497, folio 47
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In Praise of Seafaring Men, in Hope of Good Fortune" (also found in Sloane 2497; they perhaps were intended to go together)
NOTES [114 words]: Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads says this is in MS. British Library Sloane 2497, folio 47. Since the British Library has not yet digitized this manuscript, I can't verify this directly. It appears that the manuscript was written in the late sixteenth century; there are several items in it dated c. 1592. For more background, including the list of contents, see the notes to "In Praise of Seafaring Men, in Hope of Good Fortune" -- which appears on the same page of Sloane 2497; it has been suggested that they are answers to each other.
There is of course no hint at all that this is traditional; it appears Palmer just lifted it from Stone without really looking at what he had done. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: PaSe005

Another Shower of Rain

See Another Fall of Rain (Waiting for the Rain) (File: MA154)

Anson Best

DESCRIPTION: "As I sit by the fireside a-thinking Of my brother who's far, far away...." Anson Best is offered a paper and threatened with death if he doesn't sign. It is a confession to the murder of Vera Snyder. He is sentenced to death. His family mourns
AUTHOR: Ben Best?
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: homicide trick lie trial prison punishment accusation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1920 - Conviction of Anson Best for the murder of Vera Schneider
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 145, "Anson Best" (1 text)
ST GC145 (Partial)
Roud #3669
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Red River Valley" (tune)
NOTES [73 words]: This appears to be a family song: The author is listed as the Reverend Ben Best, brother of Anson Best, and the only known version is from Mrs. Clyde Best (whose relationship with Anson and Ben Best is not listed by Gardner and Chickering, but note the name).
The family maintained that Anson Best was innocent of the murder of Vera Schneider, and coerced into signing a confession he had not read. I know of no evidence either way. - RBW
File: GC145

Anstruther Camp

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the winter he spent in Anstruther, working under Archie Patterson, who "could see daylight coming almost any hour at night." The crews work very long hours and enjoy the food. The singer urges women to marry shanty boys
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work travel
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #13, "Anstruther Camp" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FowL13 (Partial)
Roud #4370
File: FowL13

Answer to the Gypsy's Warning

See The Gypsy's Warning (File: R743)

Answer to Twenty-One Years

DESCRIPTION: "She wrote him this letter all covered with tears, And this was her answer to 'Twenty-One Years.'" The girl says she has been sick for love of the convict. She begs the governor for help. She promises to wait the twenty-one years
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (collected from Lucile Morris by Randolph)
KEYWORDS: derivative love separation
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 168, "Twenty-One Years" (4 texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune, with the "C" text being this)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #30, "Twenty One Years" (1 text, 1 tune, plus the "Answer")
Roud #4997
RECORDINGS:
[N.B. some of the following recordings could be different "answers"]
\Gene Autry & Jimmy Long, "Answer to 21 Years" (Banner 32761/Melotone M12931/Oriole 8308/Romeo 5308/Perfect 12910/Conqueror 8092, 1933; Vocalion 5497, n.d.)
Don Hall Trio, "Answer to Twenty-One Years" (Victor 23782/Bluebird B-5004 [as the Rose Family], 1933)
Log Cabin Boys, "Answer to 21 Years" (Decca 5035, 1934)
Jimmy Long, "The Answer to 21 Years" (Champion 16632, 1933; Champion 45023, 1935)
Ernest Hare, "New Twenty-One Years" (Columbia 2602-D, 1932)
Zora Layman, "The Answer to 21 Years" (Banner 32722/Melotone M-12651, 1933)
Blue Ridge Mountain Girls, "Woman's Answer to 21 Years" (Champion 16715, 1933; Champion 45100, 1935; Montgomery Ward M-4934, 1936)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Twenty-One Years" [Laws E16] (tune)
File: Morr030B

Answer to Youghal Harbour

DESCRIPTION: Near Yougal Harbour the singer meets Mary of Cappoquin again. She tells him that she had his baby. He reminds her that her parents had rejected him. He leaves her again "in grief bewailing" to return to his girl "in sweet Rathangan, near to Kildare"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(20))
KEYWORDS: love infidelity rejection separation baby lover
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 8, "Youghal Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2734
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(20), "Answer to Youghall Harbour," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(2180), 2806 b.9(227), 2806 b.11(205), Harding B 25(2128), Firth b.27(11/12) View 1 of 2 [partly illegible], 2806 c.15(163), 2806 c.15(17), 2806 b.11(204), Harding B 19(3), "Youghal Harbour" ("As I roved out on a summer's morning")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Youghall Harbour"
NOTES [34 words]: Yougal, County Cork, is on the Celtic Sea coast. Cappoquin is in County Waterford, about 15 miles north of Yougal. Rathangan is in County Kildare, about 100 miles north-east of Yougal as the crow flies. - BS
File: OLoc008

Antarctic-Equator

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. With the rope moving slowly, spell "A-N-T-A-R-C-T-I-C," then speed up the rope and spell "E-Q-U-A-T-O-R"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad jumprope
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 53, "Antarctic-Equator" (1 text)
File: ZiZa053E

Antelope, The

See The Loss of the Antelope (File: RcLoOTAn)

Anti-Confederation Song (I)

DESCRIPTION: Newfoundland defiantly rejects union with the "Canadian Wolf." The promises made by the confederation are listed and rejected. "Would you barter the rights that your fathers have won... For a few thousand dollars of Canadian gold."
AUTHOR: Charles Fox Bennett (1793-1883) ? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Bennett campaign, according to Hiscock)
KEYWORDS: Canada patriotic political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1867 - Canadian Act of Confederation
1869 - Newfoundland electors refuse to join the Canadian Confederation
1949 - Newfoundland unites with Canada
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 28-29, "Anti-Confederation Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 7, "An Anti-Confederation Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Anti-Confederation Song" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 69 in the 2nd edition; p. 64 in the 4th; p. 55 in the 5th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 42, "The Anti-Confederation Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 105-107, "An Anti-Confederation Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FJ028 (Partial)
Roud #4518
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "An 1861 Anti Confederation Song" (on NFOBlondahl04)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The 'Antis' of Plate Cove" (subject) and notes there
cf. "Anti-Confederation Song (II)" (subject of Canadian Confederation, as it was in 1949)
NOTES [1269 words]: According to Philip Hiscock's notes to this song in Eric West, Sing Around This One: Songs of Newfoundland & Labrador Vol. 2, Vinland Music, 1997, p. 54, this is suspected of having been written by Charles Fox Bennett, and Bennett "certainly" used it in 1869 during the unsuccessful campaign for confederation with Canada. Hiscock adds that the slogan "Come near at your peril, Canadian wolf" "has been emblematic for Newfoundland nationalists for over a century." Indeed, Chadwick, p. 19, quotes this song as the epigraph to his chapter on Confederation, and Hallowell, p. 140, also cites the "Canadian wolf" verse in his discussion of how Nova Scotia and Newfoundland responded to the 1927 August gale.
"Confederation" was the proposal for Newfoundland to join the newly-organized nation of Canada.
The proposal to join Canada had been negotiated, unofficially, by a newspaper editor, Ambrose Shea, and F. B. T. Carter, and the details were published by Shea in the Newfoundlander in late 1864 (O'Flaherty, p. 98). O'Flaherty, p. 99, explains the deal: Canada "was to assume the 'Debts and Liabilities' of each province. Newfoundland... was to receive compensation for having a lower per capita public debt than other provinces. Each provice was to get an annual grant of eighty cents 'per head' for giving up 'the power of taation' (though the right to impose 'direct taxation' was to be regained by them) the Newfoundland population being estimated at 130,000. And for surrendering to the general government 'all its rights' in mines and minerals and 'all' the ungranted and unoccupied Crown lands, an extraordinary concession, Newfoundland was to get $150,000 per annum.
"A few days after the resolutions appeared in print, C. F. Bennett challenged the Newfoundlander to give reasons for supporting them."
DictNewfLabrador, pp. 19-20, gives a fairly long biography of Bennett, who was born in Shaftesbury, England, in 1793 and came to Newfoundland as a boy. By 1827, he was establishing businesses which eventually included a mill, foundry, brewery, shipyard, and bank; he was one of the most important businessmen in the island. At a time when few in Newfoundland made any attempts to expand the economy, he was one of the few who tried to improve his properties (Hiller/Neary, p. 77). But he seems to have been an instinctive arch-conservative. Appointed to various legislative bodies, DictNewfLabrador, and O'Flaherty, p. 59, report that he had opposed Responsible Government (full home rule) in 1855, and apparently had his mill set on fire as a result. It didn't silence him permanently. When, in the 1860s, the proposal arose for Newfoundland to join Canada, he came back to oppose the idea, founding an anti-Confederation party in 1869. When the "Antis" won 21 of 30 seats in the House of Assembly, he became Prime Minister in 1870 despite being 76 years old. His administration, despite his conservative notions, was regarded as "able and progressive," but fell after an election in 1873, and Bennett gave up politics in the mid-1870s.
O'Flaherty, pp. 59-60, says that to the legislators of his time "he would have seemed an old hand with, perhaps, bizarre and bigoted views"; he was opposed to anything which even hinted at allowing Catholics (who made up just less than half the population of the province) to gain control of the government. His arguments, according to OFlaherty, p. 101, were that Newfoundland had limited agricultural potential (true), had "rich resources in our fisheries and, I believe, in our minerals" (the former true, the latter less so, and the nation would eventually destroy the fish supply by over-harvesting it), did not need military works (probably true), and didn't need railways or canals or the like (dubious, although the colony never made them economically viable). His real argument, though, seems to have been pure nativism -- he didn't want to cede any control.
He seems to have been rather a rabble-rouser; O'Flaherty, p. 99, reports on the vicious way he and Shea started attacking each other (Shea not only called Bennett "stupid" but even picked on the fact that he dropped his h's!). Chadwick, p. 25, reports, "Playing on Irish national sentiment in the outports and on the memories of the earlier French invasions, which in turn awakened resentment against Quebec, Bennett was able to paint a horrifying picture of the fate that would befall Newfoundland were she ever to link her destinies of the mainland. Thousands of illiterate voters were warned that their children would be used as gun wads for Canadian cannon; that they themselves would be conscripted and that 'their bones would bleach on the desert sands [sic.] of Canada'. The old bogey of taxation was of course well to the fore."
The irony is that Newfoundland was very poor, and was actually promised subsidies in the Confederation deal. Big ones (Chadwick, p. 24) -- it appears to me that it was over a dollar for every man, woman, and child in Newfoundland. Which may not sound like much, but this was at a time when many entire families lived on less than $20 per year. (As late as 1900, the average Newfoundland income for a typical family -- 5.1 people -- was just $200; O'Flaherty, p. 214.)
Hiller/Neary, p. 79, suggests that Confederation still might have passed if Premier Carter had held an election on the topic at the right time. The legislature had passed it (17-7 in the lower house, unanimously in the upper; O'Flaherty, p. 108). But Carter was not like most Newfoundland politicians; he truly tried to govern for all -- e.g. he built a cabinet that included both Protestants and Catholics (O'Flaherty, p. 103; on p. 104 he calls Carter "a cautious, plain-speaking, decen man... his main defect, perhaps, being his desire not to lead his country at all but to sell out to Canada). In a fit of honesty extraordinarily rare in Newfoundland politics, refused to play such games, and that, plus good results from the fishery that helped relieve economic distress, doomed the campaign.
O'Flaherty, p. 110, concludes, "As the months passed another factor convinced voters to shun union. The cod harvest in Labrador and elsewhere was bountiful; markets were favourable. Bennett was not just a brilliant campaigner, he was lucky.... The hard times were over, perhaps. In the great lottery of the Newfoundland fishery, the fishermen of 1869 won, and the anti-s in November won with them, by a margin in seats of 21-9. Carter sneaked through in Burin by just five votes" -- and of course his coalition was booted. Shea was actually driven from his constituency by an angry mob. O'Flaherty concludes on p. 111, "Bennett's reappearance on the political scene is a reminder of the power of the individual as a force in history"; without him, Confederation might have passed. And yet, he would prove unable to manage the politics of office and survived only one term as leader of the Newfoundland government.
After that term, Carter came back and headed a new government, then called a snap election after the 1874 term. In that election, Bennett's success was mostly confined to Catholic districts (O'Flaherty, p. 122), indicating that he had managed to re-inflame some of the old partisanship but that he had not managed to show that he was the man to deal with it. He was both the creator and the creation of the anti-confederation movement, and with that issue permanently resolved, there was no real place for him.
For more about this issue, see "The 'Antis" of Plate Cove." The story of how Newfoundland finally joined Canada is covered in "Anti-Confederation Song (II)." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: FJ028

Anti-Confederation Song (II)

DESCRIPTION: After 1932 "a foreign gang came over here to rule and gather taxes." Joe Smallwood promotes confederation with Canada. The singer prefers we "man our vessel... with native crew to run her."
AUTHOR: Hughie O'Quinn (according to Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
KEYWORDS: Canada patriotic political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1933 - Newfoundland, bankrupt, gives up self-government and accepts a crown-colony style constitution
1949 - Newfoundland unites with Canada after Newfoundlanders vote for confederation; Joseph R. Smallwood is the first provincial premier.
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 3, pp. 67-70, "Anti-Confederation Song" (1 text)
Roud #24295
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "The Anti-Confederation Song" (on NFJDowney01)
Hector MacIsaac and Jerome Downey, "Anti-Confederation Song" (on NFHMacIsaac01)
Hector MacIsaac, "Anti-Confederation Song" (on NFHMacIsaac02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Girl I Left Behind Me (II - lyric)" (tune) and references there
cf. "Anti-Confederation Song (I)" (subject of Canadian Confederation, as it was in 1869)
cf. "The 'Antis' of Plate Cove" (subject) and notes there
NOTES [4662 words]: The nineteenth century saw multiple attempts to bring Newfoundland into Canada. The first, which was at the time of the Canadian federation, was the subject of "Anti-Confederation Song (I)" (which see). There was another attempt in 1894, after Newfoundland's banks and economy collapsed; that failed because Canada wouldn't assume Newfoundland's debt (O'Flaherty, pp. 190-192).
The Great Depression had been hard on Newfoundland. The government was already bankrupt, and couldn't do much to help. It had fallen into the Sovereign Debt Trap that moderns may know from the story of the Greek Bailout: It was easy and cheap to raise money on the markets, so Newfoundland kept borrowing, and using the new loan to pay off the old ones rather than trying to tighten its belt. In the late 1920s, suddenly, no one was lending any more, and demand for Newfoundland's few exports (cod, lumber, seal products) shrank significantly, and Newfoundland had an unpayable debt (Noel, pp. 188-189). Things got so bad that, in 1932, a "citizen's committee" assaulted Prime Minister Richard Squires (Long, p. 62; he was eventually subjected to charges for his dishonesty; "it is indisputable that Squires was indeed a bit of a scoundrel, albeit a politically astute one": DictNewfLabrador, p. 325. He was accused not of ordinary graft but of taking $5000 per year, a huge sum by Newfoundland standards, from funds designated for veterans and their widows; Letto, p. 56; Noel, p. 198. He is briefly mentioned in "The Squid-Jiggin' Ground." See also "Coaker's Dream"). It had long been run by a faction-riven government that was beholden to small segments of the population anyway. And it had no financial controls on the treasury (Noel, p. 192), which helps explain both the corruption and how the island saw so many money problems.
After Squires, who had driven Newfoundland to disaster, failed in his attempt at re-election on a platform of more money for the fisheries and agriculture, industrial development, and a balanced budget (Noel, p. 203; I'm amazed he didn't promise every man a car and every woman a diamond necklace, or the like; those promises would have been at least as attainable as what he did promise), the new government of Frederick C. Alderdice had to come up with some way to address the island's problems. Alderdice, who had lost both feet in an accident in his youth and was perhaps diabetic and alcoholic as well, made significant efforts to clean up the government, and made drastic cuts to worker pay and even veterans' pensions (Letto, pp. 81-87) -- but with interest on the debt being the biggest drain on the treasury, and with income going down (exports of cod, Newfoundland's chief product, fell dramatically, and the cost of that which did go out fell by more than half; Letto, p. 98) and demands on the treasury going up because of the Great Depression, this still didn't balance the books, and Alderdice was perhaps too cautious a thinker to find the sort of radical response needed to address the problems (Letto, pp. 29-30). The government did try to sell all of Labrador to pay off their debts, but couldn't find a suitable buyer (Noel, pp. 204-205).
After trying for about half a year to resolve the situation by budget cuts and revenue increases so drastic that there was talk of a revolution, Alderdice was forced to conclude that it was simply not possible to pay the full debt payment due at the end of 1932. There was only one thing the island could do by itself: go into partial default. In effect, it would unilaterally decrease the interest rate on its debt to make it low enough to make it possible to (eventually) repay at least the principal, with some but not the full amount of interest (Letto, pp. 172-173). The result, naturally, was howls from lenders. There was talk -- not for the first nor the last time -- of joining Canada, but Alderdice denied that that would happen (Letto, p. 181. Letto on pp. 181-182 makes a big deal about the fact that Britain at the same time was trying to shed its own debt -- but I don't think the cases are parallel; Britain was negotiating to reduce its debt load, but it wasn't threatening default. Negotiating is not the same as unilateral action).
The island's eventual answer was "commission of government" -- it in effect sold itself back to Britain in return for a bailout of the bankrupt government (Cadigan, pp. 206-208; Neary/O'Flaherty,p. 148; Noel, p. 230 explains that the British government was able to repackage the debt at a much lower interest rate, making it easier to pay off). This is what is referred to in the opening lines, "I'm lonesome since in 'Thirty-two we lost Dominion status" -- Newfoundland abandoned its independence to once again become a colony.
"In a country less physically and morally defeated such recommendations might well have led to disorders, if not bloodshed. It is a measure of the island's anguish that a people who had struggled for so long to gain and to maintain their separate identity, could now be judged as having no more than an academic regard for the constitutional niceties, which seemed of small importance compared with the necessity of rescuing the country.... Lord Amulree and his colleagues urged that, as a quid pro quo for Newfoundland voluntarily surrendering her Dominion status and placing herself in the hands of a Commission, His Majesty's Government should for a time assume general responsibility for the finances of the Island" (Chadwick, pp. 161-162).
The idea of Commission of Government had first been suggested by William Ford Coaker -- for whom see "Coaker's Dream" -- in 1926 as a way to deal with Newfoundland's culture of extreme factions and pervasive government corruption (Major, p. 362). It was the British government which made the formal suggestion, though, after rejecting less drastic ideas; the instructions for the Amulree investigators was that they find a way to avoid a default (because it would affect the credit of the British Empire; Hiller/Neary, p. 198). Commission of government was the proposal that came out. It was probably a good idea, given the economic catastrophe and the self-serving nature of Newfoundland politics exemplified by Squires, which made it almost impossible for a government to really address its problems (Noel, p. 212), but it had its detractors, since the people never got to vote on it. Even with the bailout, the island suffered badly in the Depression; most winters saw 25%-30% of the population on relief (Keir, p. 334).
Naturally there were objections from the opposition, which pointed out that Alderdice had promised to let the people vote on any proposed solution, and he had reneged (Letto, p. 205). Alderdice's weary comment was that self-government "is only a theoretical boon and not what it is cracked up to be" (Letto, p. 206) -- a statement that is undeniably true (history shows that people almost always vote for bread and circuses), but little comfort to the minority opinions who went from having little control over their destiny to having no hope of ever gaining such control....
Commission of Government did not prove a cure for all ills; the economy remained so bad that there were food riots (Noel, pp. 236-237, etc.). Indeed, as late as 1938, there was a time when 29% of the population -- 85,000 out of 290,000 -- was on relief (Noel, p. 242). And the commissioners were often in conflict, and Westminster wasn't much help because the Dominions Office didn't want Parliament to know how bad things were (Noel, pp. 238-239). Even Pottle, who was himself one of the six commissioners toward the end of the Commission era, admits that it did little to make the fundamental changes that would have made Newfoundland's economy stronger (Pottle, pp. 2-3). A typical example was the denominational schools that dominated the education system -- they were expensive and lousy, but Alderdice, who became commissioner for education, refused proposals to create quality non-denominational schools (Letto, pp. 236-237). In its early years, the Commission's biggest accomplishment was probably that it kept scoundrels like Squires out of politics. What finally got the economy going again was the Second World War, where Newfoundland was a major base (something it didn't have much choice about -- the British, since they were running Newfoundland, actually included Newfoundland territory in their Destroyers for Bases deal with the Americans without asking the Newfoundlanders; Noel, p. 243).
But not even the American influx was enough to make the island's economy permanently sound. The British thought, given Newfoundland's history of astonishing failures of self-government, that the island would soon get into financial trouble again (Noel, p. 244), and Britain had its own post-war recovery problems. (We should probably add that, during the war, Newfoundland had actually given more to Britain than the reverse. But that was a peculiar wartime situation.) As a result, Britain wasn't interested in running the island after the war; in late 1945, Prime Minister Clement Attlee announced that delegates would be elected to a National Convention to decide the territory's fate (Neary/O'Flaherty, p. 161). Confederation (union with Canada) was one option (Newfoundland had been using the Canadian Dollar since a previous economic crash in 1894 -- O'Flaherty, p. 187 -- so economic integration would be relatively straightforward), but another was to return to the pre-1934 form of government (which had had a legislature, although it had been marked by extreme partisanship). When Newfoundland had accepted Commission government, the understanding had been that it would eventually get its own government back (Long, pp. 139-141) -- and the boom caused by all the bases built in Newfoundland during World War II caused a lot of people to think that they were ready, and also to feel that Britain and Canada and the U.S. had taken advantage of them.
Noel suggests, p. 246, that the British government did its best to set things up so that Newfoundland would decide its fate BEFORE a representative legislature could be formed; "It took no special political percipience to realize that if responsible government was restored first it was extremely unlikely that an independent Newfoundland would choose to become a province of Canada through the normal operation of its political process." So when they had an election in 1946, it wasn't to elect a government (which would have been perfectly possible, using the old constitution); it was merely to select delegates to a national convention to recreate the institutions of government.
"The spokesman who emerged to lead the Confederate forces was J. R. Smallwood, the delegate for Bonavista Centre, who, thanks to his earlier career on a show he had invented, 'The Barrelman,' had the best-known radio voice in Newfoundland..." (Neary/O'Flaherty, p. 162).
(It is interesting to note that the Barrelman program had started in a newspaper in July 1937, and was picked up for the radio in September, where it was sponsored by Francis M. O'Leary. O'Leary was a maker of patent medicines, competing against the famous Gerald S. Doyle; Webb, p. 95. Doyle was a firm supporter of Newfoundland culture; it's intriguing that his leading competitor supported Newfoundland's leading proponent of Confederation. Also noteworthy is the fact that O'Leary owned the copyright on the title; Webb, p. 96. So when Smallwood quit in 1943, a new Barrelman took over -- and stayed on the air longer than Smallwood had; Webb, p. 105.)
Smallwood until then had not been a great success; having supported socialist causes from an early age, he has drifted from his birthplace in Gambo, Newfoundland to St. John's (where he worked in the newspaper trade) to Halifax to New York to Newfoundland to England back to Newfoundland, finally settling in St. John's (apart from a brief spell in Gander) in 1935. Then, in 1943, he packed it all up to start a pig farm in Gander (DictNewfLabrador, p. 317) -- the idea being to take the food waste from the American base there, feed it to the pigs, and sell the pigs to the base (Noel, p. 248). As a business, this was only a modest success -- but it meant that he had a permanent residence outside St. John's. In 1946, when it came time to form the convention to decide Newfoundland's future, it was decided that delegates should be required to live in their districts -- and there Smallwood was, running his pig farm. That meant that he could run for a seat from Bonavista Centre. Had he run in St. John's, he would have had little chance. But, in Bonavista Centre, he was able to win a seat (Noel, pp. 248-249).
"In retrospect, the... wonder is that so obvious a cause was left to Smallwood, a man from nowhere, to pick up.... But in reality, those who were most likely to emerge in political roles after the departure of the Commission felt that they had too much to lose.... They were St John's merchants or professional men, comfortably off, out of touch with the people of the outports.... The field was therefore free for Smallwood, a self-recruited renegade from the old regime, a political sans-culott" (Noel, p. 250).
And it had been decided that the deliberations of the Convention would be broadcast on the radio (Noel, p. 251) -- a medium Smallwood understood better than any other delegate, and used with skill; the "Barrelman" reference is (I assume) to the men who, when ships were in the ice, went up to the "barrel" on the mast to look for leads, or seals; barrelmen did not normally direct the ship, but they scouted the way ahead. Smallwood himself was a follower of Coaker, about whom he had written a book (Long, p. 135).
Although the backers of Confederation were a minority in the Convention, they were organized and their opponents were not. "The only personality to emerge as a spokesman for responsible government to rival Smallwood was the irrepressible Peter Cashin.... Yet he was unable to establish himself as the effective leader of the anti-Confederates. There were a variety of reasons for this: he was no match for Smallwood in the give-and-take of debate, while his oratory tended to be blustery and illogical; but most of all he was not an acceptable spokesman in the eyes of the St. John's merchant-lawyer elite.... He preferred... to remain his own man, one of nature's extremists, as unpredictable as he was volatile" (Noel, p. 252). (Indeed, Cashin was such a hothead that, during the debates, he was charged with broadcasting libel against several people, and the judge in the case seems to have thought him guilty, but he escaped conviction due to a hung jury; Webb, pp. 160-161. One suspects few wanted to be closely associated with a person who might have been charged with a new crime at any moment.)
"Smallwood and his Confederate supporters were able to manouevre the convention into sending a delegation to Ottawa to see whether suitable terms of union with Canada could be devised." (Neary/O'Flaherty, p. 162). They got an offer -- on its face, a pretty good one: Canada (which supposedly didn't want Newfoundland independent and potentially close to the United States; Cadigan, p. 233) would take on 90% of Newfoundland's debt, subsidize the province, allow it to keep its religiously-segregated schools, and let it keep its cash on hand (Cadigan, p. 237; Smallwood would use that cash to try to promote quixotic industries -- which eventually resulted in corruption charges against the official in charge; DictNewfLabrador, pp. 317-318). The delegation went home to Newfoundland, where the Convention voted the deal down 29-16. The only recommendations the Convention (and the St. John's population of the "Responsible Government League") wanted to make to Britain was for a return to 1934 or continued royal government (Long, pp. 147-148; Webb, p. 164).
The British government -- exhausted and broke after World War II -- didn't like these options; Clement Attlee was tired of running Newfoundland (Long, pp. 139-140. I would note that Attlee had opposed Britain's bailout of Newfoundland from the start; Chadwick, p. 166). And probably no one in Britain thought Newfoundland -- which hadn't been able to run itself before, and now had spent almost a generation with no experience of running its own affairs -- could govern itself. Smallwood got together a bunch of petitioners to call for Confederation, and Britain decided that the referendum should have three choices:
1. "Commission of Government" for five years (i.e. five years of continued non-representative government while the people straightened things out)
2. Confederation
3. Return to 1934
As Noel, p. 255, concludes wearily, "For all the effect of its decision, the National Convention might just as well never have met." It's not so much that the delegates didn't decide (they *did* decide to turn the matter over to the people); it's that the options on the ballot were not what they wanted offered.
Smallwood proceeded to turn the referendum into contest between the "common man" and the elite businessmen of Water Street in St. John's (Cadigan, p. 239). And he had, by Newfoundland standards, a lot of money for the campaign -- much of it coming not from Newfoundland but from the Liberal Party of Canada (Noel, p. 255). His propagandists also managed (helped by some mistakes by the opposition) to imply that a vote for Confederation was a vote in favor of loyalty to Britain, while a vote against it might lead to union with the United States (Noel, p. 256).
(Although the song asks "shall we court the Yankee," it appears that there was never any serious possibility of joining the U.S. -- there was no formal proposal, let along a ballot option, to do it (Harris, p. 173). There had been talk of customs unions and the like, however, supported e.g. by Ches Crosbie; Harris, p. 169. Crosbie was a successful businessman with a respectable history in government, but his own biographer admits, "Ches did to the spoken word what his fish-digester at Quigley's Cove did to herring"; he just couldn't express himself in public, and made his causes look bad when he tried (Harris, p. 170). Particularly since the pro-Confederation forces were able to get an unofficial declaration that no union was possible, and pro-Union forces weren't able to respond until too late (Harris, p. 188).)
It has been suggested that there were also appeals to Newfoundland's history of religious division, with Protestants being inclined toward Confederation and the minority Catholics toward Responsible Government (Noel, p. 257).
Major, pp. 396-397: "Smallwood went where politicians rarely pitched before. If there were roads he eagerly suffered the mud and potholes for a few minutes with a loudspeaker. Where there were none (by far, most of the country) he descended in a decrepit seaplane.... He was five-foot-six-inch Joey, in bowtie and scruffy fedora, a self-proclaimed savior, using every technique he had learned from New York evangelists a quarter century before. And the reaction to him in St. John's, where he was forced to deflect insults and the occasional stone, only strengthened his hold on the outports. The.... equally passionate [Peter] Cashin rose to his bait and denounced him as 'Iscariot,' pounding a fist on the podium as if it were Smallwood himself. The 'little fellow from Gambo' smiled and shot back with a vowto topple Cashin's outdated vision and the men of Water Street who stood behind it."
Even with all that money, trickery, and help, the campaign just barely worked.
In the first round of voting, on June 3, 1948, Confederation actually lost -- 69,400 voted for a return to 1934, 64.066 for Confederation, and 22,311 for Commission. For the second time, those who wanted a return to 1934 thought they had won.
Those in charge disagreed. Tthere was a runoff on July 22, with continued Commission dropped from the choices, and "The second campaign brought out the worst in both sides" (Webb, p. 165) as they campaigned on radio and in every other available medium. Things were so hot that Smallwood decided he needed to carry a gun, although he allegedly didn't load it, and he had armed guards (Harris, p. 194). This despite real incompetence among the anti-confederation forces, some of whom wore themselves out in futile legal moves (Harris, p. 190). In the second vote, Confederation won 78,323 to 71,334 (Neary/O'Flaherty, p. 163). The returns were interestingly divided: The vote for 1934 was concentrated in St. John's and the Avalon Peninsula; the rest of the island, much less populated (and poorer) went for Confederation (Neary/O'Flaherty, p. 164; McNaught, pp. 275-276 -- Webb, p. 166, adds that radios were relatively rare away from the Avalon Peninsula, so charges that Confederation won because of Smallwood's radio skills seem to be untrue). Newfoundland thus became "The Tenth Province."
Some who opposed the move thought the vote was rigged or manipulated, and maintained so for many years (Long, pp. 149-150). Another argument was that such a move should not have been decided by such a small margin. There is some merit to this, but it wasn't how the referendum was set up. There was a move to appeal the result to the British Parliament -- but the British made their attitude clear: "Public Petitions could only be presented to the Commons by one or more Members of a local Legislature. And on this count Newfoundland ironically failed to qualify" (Chadwick, p. 207). Those who appealed included members of the Convention; the Commons could have heard them. Instead Britain hid behind the letter of the law.
Smallwood's "reward was almost 23 years of political dominance of the new island-province" (Brown, p. 473). After his anointing as head of the Liberal party following Confederation, the Party would not hold another party conference for more than twenty years (Hiller/Neary, p. 206); if it wasn't a one-party state, it was hard to tell the difference from the outside -- or if you were in the opposition.
Certainly it wasn't all smooth governing; Smallwood, who early in his career supported socialist candidates for office (ButlerHanrahan, p. 162), gradually drifted away from his populist roots toward almost complete support of the often-inefficient businesses he had helped encourage (Cadigan, pp. 239-244), so supporters of all stripes gradually drifted away. By 1959, he was actually breaking strikes by his former allies in the labor movement (DictNewfLabrador , p. 318). But, by the time Smallwood was gone, Confederation was firmly established. Unlike Quebec, Newfoundland did not end up with a "Newfoundander" party, though for a long time there were many who wanted changes in the relationship with Canada; the local political factions aligned themselves, sometimes very imperfectly, with Canada's major parties, making Smallwood a "Liberal" (Cadigan, p. 240).
Smallwood "did his best in that length era 'to bring Newfoundlanders kicking and screaming into the twentieth century.'" Yet his policies also resulted in what Ralph Matthews called "development of underdevelopment," by which Matthews seems to have meant keeping Newfoundland as an economic colony of the rest of Canada (Busch, p. 245).
Eventually Smallwood's program became so extreme that he resettled whole towns (see "The Blow Below the Belt") and offered away much of Labrador on lease (Cadigan, pp. 246-247). The audacity of it all is amazing. The intelligence... eh.... He and his party were finally voted out of office in 1972 (Cadigan, p. 260). He tried for a comeback in the Liberal Party in 1974, and failed, briefly left the party, came back, and finally left politics in 1977 to work on the Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, a very ambitious book that was also a financial flop. He had a stroke in 1984 (DictNewfLabrador, p. 318), and although he lived until 1991, he was no longer a force in either politics or publishing.
Even today, "Joey Smallwood remains a name to conjure deep emotions. Adored by some and loathed by others, he is probably Newfoundland's most undisputed icon. To his admirers, he is Newfoundland's savior, a genuine liberal socialist who brought Newfoundland into Canada and its welfare state. To his enemies, he was a dangerous fanatic and tyrant, Canada's and Britain's spy during the war, the villain who sold Newfoundland off to the highest bidder in 1948, and then thwarted democratic discussion and healthy dissent" (ButlerHanrahan, p. 160).
"If it can be fairly said that for Newfoundland confederation was a good idea, it would not be too much of a stretch to say that it was just about the only good idea Joe Smallwood had.... In the first federal election campaign following his own election as premier, Smallwood proceeded to unearth the most contemptible political practices from the past and directly threatened a group of voters... if they did not support his candidate. After his candidate lost, he was taken to court for violating the elections law, but clearly came to learn nothing about containing his arrogance or presumptive powers" (Long, pp. 151-152). He also adopted a speaking style that frankly sounds much like Donald Trump's ("His public speaking technique... placed great emphasis on the repetition of essential facts and ideas. To the ears of educated listeners... this approach often seemed patronizing, vulgar, and simple-minded"; Hiller/Neary, p. 210), with all that implies about the divisions he inspired.
I frankly understand the Newfoundlanders' gripes. The benefits were tremendous -- Noel, p. 265, lists a twenty-fold increase in education spending from 1949 to 1965, and a five-fold increase in health care spending; education became almost universal, and much better, and the life expectancy went up while infant mortality went down (Noel, p. 270; Letto, p. 93, says that Newfoundland had had just 83 doctors in 1933, so little wonder if people died young!). These improvements were surely needed; in 1935, the infant mortality rate was 103 per 1000, and there were tales of children so poor that they could not go to school because they had no clothes! (Chadwick, p. 226). Hiller/Neary, p. 209, concludes, "A decade after the decisive second referendum of 1948, in which over forty-seven percent of those voting had opposed union with Canada, it would have been difficult to find an opponent of confederation in the province."
Yet with those improvements came the destruction of much that was unique about Newfoundland culture. And the fault there is not Canada's, I think, but Smallwood's. As Pottle says on p. 15, "It was this subordination of people to party, of a long-range, shared enterprise to the immediate needs of political convenience, that marked, with cumulative effect, the entire authoritarian career of the Smallwood regime." (It should be noted, however, that Pottle had an early personal conflict with Smallwood and quit his party, leaving Newfoundland when he failed to gain any support; DictNewfLabrador, p. 275; Hiller/Neary, p. 217). And the Canadian federal government didn't help much, being content to funnel all the money it sent to Newfoundland through the provincial government, allowing Smallwood to, in effect, use it for patronage (Hiller/Neary, p. 208).
What's more, Smallwood exacerbated the long, troubled link between politics and religion in Newfoundland: "Yet another prominent feature of the 1949 result was an obvious religious split carried over from the struggle between confederates and anti-confederates (Hiller/Neary, p. 207); for a long time, the Liberals were mostly Protestant and the Conservatives mostly Catholic, and those sectarian differences were as often as important as actual political issues (Hiller/Neary, pp. 207-208).
Little wonder that Confederation, Smallwood's most significant single action, provoked songs like this. For the eventual end of his regime, see again "The Blow Below the Belt." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: BeDo067

Anti-Fenian Song, An

DESCRIPTION: "In the morning by my side Sat the darling of my pride... When the news spread through the land That the Fenians were at hand...." The singer and his fellows -- "English, Irish, Scot, Canuck" -- "will drive the Fenians back"
AUTHOR: unknown (Music by George F. Root)
EARLIEST DATE: 1932
KEYWORDS: patriotic Canada battle political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 31, 1866 - Some 1200 Fenians under General O'Neill invade the Niagara area
June 2, 1866 - The Fenians victory at Lime Ridge near Ridgeway
June 3, 1866 - Canadian forces under Colonel Peacock assemble to deal with the Fenians. The Fenians opt to flee Canada
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 102-105, "An Anti-Fenian Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 124, "Beneath the Union Jack" (1 fragment)
Roud #4519
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Fenian Song (I)"
cf. "The Fenian Song (II)" (subject)
cf. "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" (tune) and references there
NOTES [90 words]: For the historical background to this silly idea (the Fenians wanted to hold Canada hostage to make England free Ireland), see the notes to "A Fenian Song (I)."
The only real result of the Fenian invasion was to cause the Canadians to realize the need for greater organization. This gave greater impetus to the drive for Confederation, which was enacted -- not without significant opposition! -- in 1867.
Alice Kane's fragment seems to be the only collection from tradition, and she might well have learned it in a school-type setting. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FMB102

Anti-Gallican, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Anti-Gallican's safe arrived, On board of her with speed we'll hie." They will "sail the ocean o'er"; "No ships from us shall run away," even though "The Spaniards... We'll take their ships and make them slaves." The men hasten to their duty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (Bruce/Stokoe)
KEYWORDS: ship war sailor pirate
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 158-159, "The Anti-Gallican" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR158 (Partial)
Roud #3169
NOTES [64 words]: According to Stokoe, the Anti-Gallican was fitted out as a privateer, sailing from Newcastle in 1779 but returning without a prize.
Although apparently written about a ship, I find references on the web to a pub (probably several) with the same name. Given that the chorus is "To the Anti-Gallican haste away," could said pubs have encouraged the continued singing of the song? - RBW
File: StoR158

Anti-Rebel Song, An

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, now the rebellion's o'er, Let each true Briton sing: 'Long live the Queen in health and peace, And may each rebel swing." Sir Francis Head is blessed, as is Canada; it is hoped that "Mac" (Mackenzie) will be hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1838 (Cobourg "Star" newspaper)
KEYWORDS: rebellion patriotic Canada nonballad crime
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 1837 - Rebellion breaks out in Canada
Dec 7, 1837 - Loyalist forces begin the march which results in the utter defeat of Mackenzie's forces
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 74-75, "An Anti-Rebel Song" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Un Canadien Errant" (subject)
cf. "Farewell to Mackenzie" (subject)
cf. "The Battle of the Windmill" (theme)
NOTES [122 words]: In 1828, William Lyon Mackenzie was elected to the British parliament on a platform of better, less oligarchic government for Canada. Parliament expelled him. He was re-elected in 1832, and expelled again.
By 1837 the Canadians were so desperate that they rose in rebellion. But they had no organization and few weapons, and Governor Sir Francis Bond Head had little trouble suppressing the rebellion.
Passions among the victorious patriots were high, as pieces like this one (published in a Tory newspaper on February 8, 1838) shows. Mackenzie and others fled to the United States; several of their followers were executed. Mackenzie himself remarked that they were "not hung for treason, but because [I was] not forthcoming." - RBW
File: FMB074

Antigonish

See Yesterday Upon the Stair (Antigonish) (File: WEMM043B)

"Antis" of Plate Cove, The

DESCRIPTION: A fight breaks out during an election to confederate Newfoundland with Canada. Details of the clash between "cons" and "antis" are told by the singer, who is against confederation.
AUTHOR: Mark Walker (1846-1924) (Source: Philip Hiscock of MUNFLA, Canadian Folk Music Bulletin 37.2, 2003)
EARLIEST DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: political patriotic Canada
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1867 - Canadian Act of Confederation
1869 - Newfoundland electors refuse to join the Canadian Confederation
1949 - Newfoundland unites with Canada
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The 'Antis' of Plate Cove" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 44-45 in the 2nd edition
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 43-44, "The Antis of Plate Cove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4554
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Anti-Confederation Song (I)" (subject)
cf. "Anti-Confederation Song (II)" (subject)
NOTES [870 words]: Mainland Canada achieved "Confederation," and self-government, in 1867. Many of the provinces, especially in the Maritimes, were against Confederation (it was, after all, largely the result of internal politics in "Canada" -- Ontario plus Quebec), but most joined by 1870. Newfoundland, however, rejected confederation in 1869, and did not finally join Canada until 1949. - RBW
Doyle [refers this piece to the election of] 1869. "Cons" were for confederation and "antis" where those against. He also mentions that Plate Cove is in Bonavista Bay. Confederacy was not achieved until 1949 with a very slim margin at the polls. - SH
To be fair, Newfoundland had not been represented at the first conference that began the process of Confederation (Neary/O'Flaherty, p. 90); it wasn't until the third conference in 1864 that they sent any representatives at all, and those representatives had little negotiating power (Chadwick, p. 23; Hiller/Neary, p. 67, says that it apparently didn't even cross anyone's minds to invite Newfoundland). There wasn't much reason for Newfoundland to want Confederation from the standpoint of trade or politics; in the 1860s, it was still mostly self-reliant, and very rural, and such trade as it did have was with the British Isles, not North America, and especially not Canada (Neary/O'Flaherty, p. 92). Plus it had only achieved self-government in 1855 (Chadwick, pp. 17-18); who would want to give it up so soon? Turning their relations with Britain over to people in Ontario and Quebec might well have proved disastrous -- though the financial subsidies the Canadians offered were so large that they could have substantially changed the Newfoundland economy for the better (Chadwick, p. 24).
It didn't help that Newfoundland politics in this period were sharply divided along sectarian and occupational lines (Neary/O'Flaherty, p. 91), as well as urban/rural lines (Noel, p. 9); the Catholic population (slightly less than half the total population) and the major merchants were opposed (Hiller/Neary, p. 69; Hiller/Neary, p. 71, believes that this was because the Irish Catholics remembered the Irish Act of Union and didn't want to be trapped in a similar situation; they were also afraid of losing their parochial schools, which was pure religious prejudice given how lousy Newfoundland's few schools were).
At a time when the members of the legislature were largely elected based on their opposition to some other group, it was hard to imagine a way to assemble a coalition that was FOR something. The legislature in 1866-1868 was fairly closely divided on the issue -- too closely divided to settle anything. And, after 1869, 21 of 30 Members elected were opposed to Confederation (Neary/O'Flaherty, p. 92). And it arguably wasn't that close; many of the anti-Confederation candidates won overwhelmingly, while the pro-Confederation winners mostly just barely made it through (Hiller/Neary, p. 82). This meant the pro-Confederation forces weren't even in position to negotiate a deal more suitable for their needs (Chadwick, p. 26).
At the time, people weren't sure the issue had been settled. "Within a few years [the pro-Confederates] had decided to accept the obvious: that the electorate was overwhelmingly opposed to union, and was likely to remain so unless some compelling reason for changing its mind emerged. To remain wedded to confederation was to accept perpetual exclusion from office. Thus the Conservatives abandoned confederation, and having managed to convince the voters that the matter was indeed closed, regained control of the government in 1874" (Hiller/Neary, p. 86). So Newfoundland stayed an independent colony for another eighty years. It wasn't until the Great Depression so destroyed the economy that the government had to (in effect) sell itself back to Britain that the issue of Confederation came back in a serious way.
Hiller/Neary, p. 86, suggests that it was the (inefficient and ill-planned) steps that the government took to promote economic development after Confederation failed (e.g. making spending vast sums on the Newfoundland Railway) that led to the island's eventual economic collapse. Thus, ironically, the failure of Confederation in 1869 set the stage for Confederation in 1949. For the story of how Newfoundland finally joined Canada in the latter year, see "Anti-Confederation Song (II)." For more on the 1860s movement, see "Anti-Confederation Song (I)."
The word "Antis" became a permanent part of Newfoundland English; in 1902, James Murphy published "Confederation Song of 1869":
So now Confederation
A shameful death has died,
And buried up at Riverhead
Beneath the flowing tide.
O may it never rise again
To both us, I pray,
Hurrah my boys for liberty
The Antis gained the day.
(StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 8, who also quote "The 'Antis' of Plate Cove" in their entry on "Antis"; the Murphy piece is quoted also by Chadwick, p. 27).
Mark Walker is listed as the author of several popular Newfoundland songs, "Tickle Cove Pond," "Fanny's Harbour Bawn," "The 'Antis' of Plate Cove," and "Lovely Katie-O"; a family tradition also says that he wrote "The Star of Logy Bay." See the notes to that song for discussion of the matter. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy44

Ants Go Marching, The

DESCRIPTION: "The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah (x2), The ants go marching one by one, The last one stops to clean his gun, And they all go marching in To get out of the rain." Similarly "By two... tie his shoe," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: bug derivative travel campsong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Gloria Dickens, "Childhood Songs from North Carolina" Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), pp. 6-7, "(The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah)" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 45, "(The Ants Go Marching One By One)" (1 mention, from user Tess_W, posted August 30, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 167, 385, "Ants Go Marching" (notes only)
Roud #18336
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (tune) and references there
File: NCF211AG

Any Old Iron

DESCRIPTION: The singer's Uncle Bill dies, leaving the singer his watch and chain. When he puts it on, children in the street cry out, "Any old iron?. "I wouldn't give you tuppence for your old watch-chain." He marries with his pants backwards and is teased again
AUTHOR: Charles Collins, Fred E. Terry and E.A. Sheppard (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (sung by Harry Champion, although he did not record it until l1935)
KEYWORDS: death humorous clothes wedding
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 78, "(Any Old Iron)" (1 excerpt, from user John5918, posted September 19, 2021)
ST LTCSAnOI (Partial)
Roud #32461
File: LTCSAnOI

Anyhow

See I Mean to Go to Heaven Anyhow (File: Br3592)

Anything (I)

DESCRIPTION: "One day while walking down the street A fine young man I chanced to meet... And as he walked he swung his cane And our subject was just anything." The singer explains that she was asked to sing a song, and when she asked which, she was told "Anything"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting music humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 449, "Anything" (1 text)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #48, "Anything" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #140, "Just Anything" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4648
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Just Anytthing
NOTES [32 words]: The lyrics of this sound very much like a parlor song, but no one seems to have recovered the original. The other possibility, of course, is that it is a chastened version of "Anything (II)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R449

Anything (II)

DESCRIPTION: A teamster meets Susan Jane. She asks his trade. He says "tonight I could drive anything." She invites him to "come hitch your horse to my machine." She says "I see your horse is good and keen, But look he's stuck on my machine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: sex horse bawdy
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 94-97, "Anything" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1952
NOTES [30 words]: Could this possibly be a bawdy by-blow -- or even the original -- of "Anything (I)"? I don't know; if so, it has been mixed up with the "When first to this country" fragment. - RBW
File: IvNB094

Anzy Panzy

See Handy Dandy (Handy Pandy, Andy Pany, Amos and Andy) (File: SuSm101A)

Apartment for Rent, Apply Within

See House to Let, Apply WIthin (File: SuSm100)

Ape, Lion, Fox and Ass, An

DESCRIPTION: "An ape, a lion, a fox, and an ass": stages of man's life: ape till 21, lion till 40, fox till 70, then ass. "A dove, a sparrow, a parrot, a crow": stages of woman's life: dove till 13, sparrow till 40, parrot till 60, then crow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: age death nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 298, "An Ape, Lion, Fox and Ass" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 180)
Roud #1325
NOTES [28 words]: According to the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text, foxes are witty, doves are harmless, sparrows are wanton, parrots prate and crows are "birds of ill omen." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT298A

Apex Boarding House, The

See Hungry Hash House (File: San207)

Apon a mornyng of May

See Upon a Morning of May, In the Morning Grey (File: MSApAMoM)

Apple Farm Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Mister Don's got good apples on his apple farm You can pick his apples in the daytime, work in his apple plant at night." His daughter gives the singer a snowmobile ride: "I would stay up North But it gets too snowy up yonder"
AUTHOR: Moses Williams
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (USFlorida01)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad storm food technology
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #29486
RECORDINGS:
Moses Williams, "Apple Farm Blues" (on USFlorida01)
File: RcApFaBl

Apple Jelly, Black Currant Jam

See Raspberry, Strawberry (File: SuSm107A)

Apple Jelly, Jam Tart

See Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who) (File: McIn110C)

Apple Jelly, My Jam Tart

See Raspberry, Strawberry (File: SuSm107A)

Apple on a Stick

DESCRIPTION: "Apple on a stick, (make me sick/five cents a lick), Make my heart go forty-six. Not because it's dirty, Not because it's clean, Not because the kissy boy behind the magazine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Musick, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: playparty food
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, p. 80, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #19, "Apple on a stick" (1 text)
Roud #25031
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Nellie In Her Tent" (lyrics about being dirty and clean)
File: CarMF80B

Apple Pip, Apple Pip

DESCRIPTION: "Apple pip, apple pip, Fly over my head, Bring me another apple Before I go to bed."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty food
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 59, "(Apple pip, apple pip)" (1 short text)
File: SuSm059A

Apple Praties

DESCRIPTION: The singer is from Killarney and in tracing his pedigree each name has a Mac or O. St Patrick banished the frogs and toads from Ireland. No braver heroes can be found than those from "Ireland where the apple praties grow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach); 19C (broadside, Bodleian Bod6713 2806 c.8(231)
KEYWORDS: emigration Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #29058
RECORDINGS:
Cyril O'Brien, "The Apple Praties" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod6713 2806 c.8(231), "Apple Praties" ("My name is Tade O'Sullivan I came from sweet Killarney"), unknown, 19C; also Bod22475 2806 c.8(296), "Apple Praties"
NOTES [20 words]: Cyril O'Brien's version shares a few verses with the broadside but adds others that still fit the Ireland-is-home theme. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3ApPra

Apple Sauce and Butter

DESCRIPTION: "Apple sauce and butter spread out on the floor, I am going to marry dat pretty yellow gal that came from Baltimore, For she is sweeter than 'lasses, she's sweet as any pie; I am going to marry that pretty yellow gal that is coming bye and bye."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage food
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 488, "Apple Sauce and Butter" (1 short text, said to have been collected in similar form from two different singers)
Roud #11867
File: Br3488

Apple Tree Wassail (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Down in the lane there sits an old fox" licking its chops. The singers try to decide whether to catch him. They celebrate the night for wassailing. They will have porridge, cream, and cider. They celebrate that "we shall have apples and cider next year."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: food animal hunting wassail
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #130, "Apple Tree Wassail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #209
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Somerset Wassailers' Song" (subject, one verse)
NOTES [43 words]: Roud lumps this with the Somerset Wassail, presumably based on the "Wassail, wassail all over the town, Our cup it is white and our ale it is brown" verse and the fact that it's found in Somerset. But there are enough different verses that I split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: PECS130

Apple Tree Wassail (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Old apple tree, we'll wassail thee, And hoping thou wilt bear. The Lord does know where we shall be To be mery another year. To blow well and to bear well, And so merry let us be. Let ev'ry man drink up his cup, And health to the old apple tree."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: drink wassail
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, _Ripest Apples_, The Big Apple Association, 1996, p. 106, "Apple Tree Wassail" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [25 words]: Roud lumps this with the Somerset Wassail, but that's just because he lumps most wassail songs. I'd call it separate, although it's only a fragment. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: xxApTrW2

Apple Tree Wassail (III)

DESCRIPTION: "Here stands a jolly good old apple tree. Stand fast, root; bear well, top. Every little bough, bear an apple now... Whoop, whoop, holloa! Blow, blow the horns." Or "Stand fast, root, bear well, top, Pray, good God, send us a howling crop...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Simpson)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, pp. 102-103, "(Here stands a jolly good old apple tree)"; "(Stand fast, root, bear well, top)" (2 short texts)
File: SiATW102

Apple Trees

DESCRIPTION: "An orchard fair to please, and pleasure for your mind, sir. You'd have then plant of trees, The goodliest you can find, sir." The singer describes how to care for the trees, their yearly life cycle, and the cider one can make from their fruit
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Baring-Gould, A Book of the West, according to Palmer)
KEYWORDS: drink farming work
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, _Ripest Apples_, The Big Apple Association, 1996, pp. 77-77, "Apple Trees" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22812
File: PRiA078

Apple-Cheeked Rider

DESCRIPTION: Originally Slovak. "Ho! Young rider, apple cheeked one, Whither riding? On your steed so black and prancing, Whither riding? What matters where I ride? Slovak mountains at my side, Dusha moya?" (="little sweetheart")
AUTHOR: English translation by Fjeril Hess, according to Tobitt
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Tobitt-YoursForASong)
KEYWORDS: travel horse foreignlanguage nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 438, "Apple Cheeked Rider" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 120, "The Apple-Cheeked Rider" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 8, "The Apple-Cheeked Rider) (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ACSF438A

Apple, Peach, Pear, Plum

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "Apple, peach, pear, plum, When does your birthday come?" The answer is presumably used to continue the count
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: food | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 32, "(Apple, peach, pear, plum)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "How Many Years? (Apple, Peach, Pumpkin Pie)" (theme of fruits and questions)
File: WEMM032B

Apple, Peach, Pumpkin Pie

See How Many Years? (Apple, Peach, Pumpkin Pie) (File: ZiZa062A)

Appleby Fair

DESCRIPTION: Every year the Travellers are at the horse fair in Appleby Top. Some horses have "seen better days" and take knacker prices. A few sold "good stuff" and Dan Mannion "kept trotting horses which have brought him great fame" and his daughter "a posh car"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: commerce nonballad horse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
Roud #16699
RECORDINGS:
"Rich" Johnny Connors, "Appleby Fair" (on IRTravellers01)
NOTES [65 words]: Jim Carroll's notes to IRTravellers01: "The small town of Appleby in Cumbria has held an annual fair every June since ... 1684 .... Nowadays it is solely for horses."
"Rich" Johnny Connors's version relies heavily on Traveller slang which is translated in the notes. "Knacker prices" may be Traveller slang for slaughter-house prices but it's an expression I've heard many times before. - BS
File: RcAppFai

Apples and Oranges

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Apples are red, oranges are yellow, What's the initials of your fellow? A, B, C...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting jumprope
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 52, "Apples and Oranges" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses #147, "(Yellow, yellow, Who's your fellow)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #613, "Yellow, Yellow, Who's your fellow?" (1 text)
cf. Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, "Blue, and green, and red, and yellow" (1 text)
Roud #19423
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who)" (lyrics)
cf. "Red, White, and Blue (III)" (lyrics)
cf. "Green, Green, You're the Best Ever Seen" (lyrics)
File: ZiZa052B

Apples Are Red, Oranges Are Yellow

See Apples and Oranges (File: ZiZa052B)

Apples, Peaches, Cream on Tart

See Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who) (File: McIn110C)

Apples, Peaches, Creamery Butter

DESCRIPTION: "Apples, peaches, creamery butter, Tell be the name of your true lover. A, B, C, D...." (continue until a jumper misses, then name a boy and a girl, and start to ask questions such as "How many children are you going to have)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty courting food
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 108, "(Apples, Peaches, Creamery Butter)" (2 texts)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 52, "Creamery Butter" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #456, "Peaches, plums, pumpkin butter"; "Pommelty, pommelty, apple butter" (2 text)
File: McIn108B

Apprentice Boy (I), The [Laws M12]

DESCRIPTION: The apprentice loves a noble lady. When her parents learn, they send him away. But he prospers in a foreign land and returns to England to claim his bride. At first she rejects him, thinking him a nobleman, but he reveals his identity and the two are wed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(156a))
KEYWORDS: courting separation reunion marriage apprentice
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,So,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(South,West)) Ireland
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws M12, "The Apprentice Boy"
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 455, "Lady and Her Apprentice Boy" (1 text)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #107, "The Lady and Prentice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 121, "The Apprentice Boy" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H729, pp. 446-447, "The Apprentice Boy/Covent Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 26, "Cupid's Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 31, pp. 74-76, "The Prentice Boy" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 104, "The Sailor Boy" (5 texts, mostly short, plus excerpts from 4 more and mention of 2 more and 1 very short fragment; of which "L" appears to mix this song with Laws K12)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 17, "The Prentice Boy" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 197-198, "The 'Prentice Boy" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 22, "The Apprentice Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 25, "The Prentice Boy" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 45, "Prentice Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 87, "The Prentice Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 70, "Cupid's Garden" (1 text)
Roud #903
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(156a), "The Lady Who Fell in Love with a Prentice Boy", J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Firth c.18(119), "The Lady Who Fell in Love with a Prentice Boy"; Harding B 21(35), "The Lady and 'Prentice Boy"; Harding B 28(137), 2806 c.17(85), "Cupid's Garden" ("As down in Cupid's garden with pleasure I did walk, I heard two loyal lovers so sweetly for to talk"); Harding B 28(40), "Cupid's Garden" or "The 'Prentice Boy"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Castle Gardens" (theme)
NOTES [91 words]: In Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast and the Bodleian broadside the sailor wins a lottery.
Do not confuse this with another set of broadsides "The Lovers Meeting"/"Convent Garden"/"The Convent Garden Rambler"/"Cupid's Garden" which begins "As down in [Cupid's/Convent] garden with pleasure I did go, All for to view the flowers that in the garden grew" at Bodleian. This one has a sailor and Nancy, no apprentice, no lady, no lottery, and he sails away promising to return: see "Cupid's Garden (I) (Covent Garden I; Lovely Nancy III)"- BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LM12

Apprentice Boy (II), The

See The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)

Apprentice Boy (III), The

See The Sheffield Apprentice [Laws O39] (File: LO39)

Apprentice Sailor, The

See The Sea Apprentice (File: HHH739)

Apprentice, The

See The Diverting Show (File: GrD4886)

Apres la Guerre

DESCRIPTION: Pidgin French song about what will happen after the Great War: "Apres la guerre finie, Soldat Anglais parti, Mam'selle Fransay bokopleuray, Apres la guerre fini." The third line varies: "Mademoiselle in the family way." "Mademoiselle can go to hell."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage humorous soldier pregnancy
FOUND IN: Britain Newfoundland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 33, "Apres la Guerre" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 88, "Après la Guerre Fini" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10534
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sous les Ponts de Paris" (tune)
NOTES [40 words]: Although he quotes no lyrics, this is mentioned in George Allan England, Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt (also published as The Greatest Hunt in the World), Doubleday, 1924, p. 128. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BrPa033B

Après la Guerre Fini

See Apres la Guerre (File: BrPa033B)

April Fool Is Coming On

See April Fool is Gone and Past (File: SuSm062)

April Fool Is Dead and Gone

See April Fool is Gone and Past (File: SuSm062)

April Fool is Gone and Past

DESCRIPTION: Fullest version: "April Fool's Day is past, And you're the April Fool at last, Four farthings make a penny, And you're a bigger fool than any." This version is said after noon; before noon, it's "Fool, fool, April fool, You learn nought going to school"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad money
FOUND IN: New Zealand US(MW) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 62, "(April Fool's Day is past)" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore,, p. 122, "(April fool is coming on)" "(April fool is past)" (2 short texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #358, p. 186,, and note 26 "(Fool, fool, April fool)" and "(April-fool time's past and gone)"
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 19, "(April fool is gone past)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 42, "(April Fool is dead and gone)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #147-148, "(Fool, fool, April fool)," "(April fool's gone past)" (2 texts)
Roud #20438
File: SuSm062

Apron of Flowers, The

See Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) (File: K149)

Apron, The

See Adam in the Garden (File: GrD3471)

Ar Bruach Na Laoi

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Singer strolls by the Lee at evening. He sees and describes a beautiful woman. Apparently he dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage beauty death river
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 23, "Ar Bruach Na Laoi" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC023

Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce hi (For Ireland I Will Not Tell Whom She Is)

DESCRIPTION: Singer's intended lives with her rich parents by the Avonmore river. She would marry him "without riches or no earthly store." They meet in Glandore. He dreams of their marriage. They would sail away, if necessary. Until then he won't reveal her name.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: courting Ireland nonballad travel river
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 14, "Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce hi" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5240
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce hi" (on IRTLenihan01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pride of Kilkee" (tune; motif: hiding a sweetheart's name)
cf. "Eileen McMahon" (aisling format)
cf. "Granuaile" (aisling format) and references there
cf. "Tons of Bright Gold" (motif: hiding a sweetheart's name)
NOTES [400 words]: Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan translates the title, which is also the last line of all but the last verse, as "For Ireland I will not tell whom she is." "... some versions of the song carried intimations of carnality." The song is classified as a reverdie. "The classification refers to the greenwood setting in which the poet encounters the beautiful maiden much as in an aisling" [except that this is not a vision song]. See the notes to "Eileen McMahon" and references there for a discussion of aisling. [Also the notes to "Granuaile." - RBW]
The Avonmore River flows through County Wicklow. Glandore is in County Cork. Maybe that's part of the code.
There is a Gaelic version with translation at "An Eirinn Ni Neosainn Ce Hi" at the Makem site. The story is less detailed than Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 14.
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan: "The Clare Gaelic scholar Eugene O'Curry stated that this song was written originally about 1810 .... The song in English which Tom sings has been about for a good many years likewise, as is witnessed by the similar version which Freeman noted down in London in 1915...."
Reverdie: "a song-type in which the poet is approached, in pastoral surroundings, by a beautiful otherworldly woman who symbolizes spring and Love....[It is] an old French poetic form pre-dating the political aisling form used in 18th century Irish poetry. French influence on Irish poetry took place during the Middles Ages when Norman-French families were granted estates in Ireland by the English crown." (source: Michael Robinson, "Danny Boy -- The Mystery Returns! , or, The Young Man's Dream" at The Standing Stones site. The article gives a clear example of the form with a reference to "A Young Man's Dream" and information on the form from Bruce Olson). While there are countless non-political Irish songs in which a young man meets a beautiful woman, the essential element of a reverdie is that the meeting must take place in a dream. - BS
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 180, has a song "For Ireland I'd Not Tell." It opens "One eve as I happen'd to stray On the banks that are bordering mine" and ends "Her cheek hath the bloom of the rose. Yet for Ireland I'd not tell her name." I don't know if it is a rewrite of this theme or an independent song, but it doesn't seem to be traditional in this form. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: RcAENNCH

Ar Hyd Y Nos

See All Through the Night (Ar Hyd Y Nos) (File: FDWB410B)

Ar Maidin Inne Cois Feile Bhinn

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Singer meets a beautiful woman. He asks if she is Helen of Troy or some other beauty of legend. She says she is the spirit of Ireland. He seduces her, then mocks and leaves her. Her father and friends pursue him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage seduction sex lie promise manhunt beauty Ireland father rake
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 24, "Ar Maidin Inne Cois Feile Bhinn" (2 texts)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC024

Ar Maidin Roim Noin

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "A young woman laments the Flight of the Earls from Ireland." She meets a young man who pleases her by singings praises of Napoleon. "They retire to a hostelry where they carouse and sing."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage drink Ireland patriotic Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1607 - The Flight of the Earls
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 25, "Ar Maidin Roim Noin" (3 texts)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC025

Araby Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: "Away on the wings of the wind she flies...." "'Tis an Araby maid who hath left her home To fly with her Christian knight." The song tells how she leaves her home and her faith for love, and notes "None can sever them now but the grave."
AUTHOR: Rev. T. G. Torry Anderson (1805-1856) (Source: Charles Rogers, _The Modern Scottish Minstrel_, volume IV)
EARLIEST DATE: 1857 (Rogers); reportedly composed 1833
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan5 1007, "The Araby Maid" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 312, "The Araby Maid" (1 text)
Roud #6725
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Turkish Lady" [Laws O26]
cf. "Young Beichan" [Child 53]
NOTES [70 words]: The absence of dialect in this song makes me think it is composed. So does the abject stupidity
[Later: This would appear to be confirmed by the inclusion of the song in "The Modern Scottish Minstrel." Thanks to Jim Dixon for finding this. Ben Schwartz later confirmed the data from Greig/Duncan5] - RBW
Greig/Duncan5 quoting Greig: "There is a story that Bishop Torry's grandson, Tom Torry, fled with the Arab maid." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord312

Aran's Lovely Home

See Erin's Lovely Home (I) [Laws M6] (File: LM06)

Aranmore Disaster, The

DESCRIPTION: The boat carrying "lads ... coming from the Scottish harvest fields" lands at Burton Port. Passengers reembark "for the Island but they never reach the shore ... The little boat ... did sail but only one of the score survived to tell the tale"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 9, 1935 - "... a ferry carrying passengers from Burtonport to Aranmore struck the rock near the pier on Aranmore.... Their boat struck in darkness and 19 of the 20 aboard were lost." (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 209)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 125-126, "The Aranmore Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2956
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Jack Donahoe" (tune) and references there
NOTES [25 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: Tune is "The Wreck of the Eliza" on p. 56.
Burtonport is on the northwest Donegal coast. Aranmore is a nearby island. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran125

Arawana On Me Honour I'll Take Care of You

See Erewanna (File: RcErewan)

Arbour Hill

DESCRIPTION: "No rising column marks the spot Where many a victim lies." The blood shed there makes claims for justice. We will be satisfied with freedom without retribution. The ground is unconsecrated but the dead are consecrated by patriot tears.
AUTHOR: Robert Emmet (1778-1803) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 154, "Arbour Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [53 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "Many rebels were executed and buried at Arbour Hill in Dublin after the rebellion had been suppressed. Robert Emmet wrote this piece after a visit to the site of the croppy graves." - BS
For Emmet see of course the notes to "Bold Robert Emmet" and the various other Emmet songs. - RBW
File: Moyl154

Arcade Building Moan

DESCRIPTION: "It was on one Thursday morning, March the twentieth day... The women and the children was screamin' and cryin'... when the Arcade Building burnt down." People jump from the windows. Clyde Davis is saved; Carl Melcher and his wife are separated
AUTHOR: Leola Manning
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Leola Manning)
KEYWORDS: death fire
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 20, 1930 - The Arcade Building Fire. Except for Carl Melcher's family, all those inside escaped
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 281, "Arcade Building Moan" (1 text)
Roud #4907
RECORDINGS:
Leola Manning, "Arcade Building Moan" (Vocalion 1492, 1930)
File: CAFS1281

Arch and Gordon

DESCRIPTION: "When Archie went to Louisville (x3), Not thinking that he would be killed." "When Gordon made his first shot, O'er behind the bed Arch did drop." "Hush now Guv'nor, don't you cry, You know your son Arch has to die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (collected from Mrs. Wills Cline; printed 1960 in Kentucky Folklore Record)
KEYWORDS: death homicide father children
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 84-85, "Arch and Gordon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 256, "Arch and Gordon" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, p. 25, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #4130
NOTES [128 words]: This may be based on a historical incident, but there is so little detail left in the song that there is little hope of recovering it; it is hardly possible to look up every Governor Brown in American history. McNeil, citing WIlgus, thinks it refers to the 1895 murder of Archibald Dixon Brown, son of Kentucky governor John Young Brown, by Fulton Gordon, because Brown was pursuing Gordon's wife.
The final stanza, "Now you see what a sporting life has done, It has killed Guv'nor Brown's only son," gives a clue to what is going on: Archie Brown presumably seduced Gordon's wife/sister/girlfriend/X (somehow the song makes me think of homosexuality, though I can't even guess why), and Gordon killed him in revenge.
This piece is item dF61 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: AF084

Archangel Open the Door

DESCRIPTION: "I ax all them brothers round, Brother, why can't you pray for me, I ax... why can't you pray for me? I'm gwine to my heaven, I'm gwine hone. Archangel open de door." "Brother, take off your knapsack, I'm gwine home...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 32, "Archangel Open the Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11987
NOTES [107 words]: The New Testament nowhere says that an archangel will open the door to heaven; indeed, it says that Peter has the keys of heaven (Matt. 16:19). This song may perhaps be inspired by 1 Thessalonians 4:16, where it says that an archangel's call will accompany the last judgment, when "the dead in Christ will rise first." Elsewhere, though, we read that Jesus himself is the door (well, the gate) of the sheep (John 10:1-9) and has the keys of "death and Hades" (Rev. 1:18).
It is worth noting that the word "archangel" (meaning chief or first angel or messenger) occurs only twice in the Bible, both in the New Testament: 1 Thes. 4:16, Jude 9. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG032A

Archer

See Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham [Child 139] (File: C139)

Archerdale

See Proud Lady Margaret [Child 47] (File: C047)

Archie o Cawfield [Child 188]

DESCRIPTION: Archie is in prison for raiding. His brothers wish they could rescue him, and at last set out with ten men. Archie laments to his brothers that he is to die. The brothers break down the doors and escape the pursuing forces
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1780 (Percy papers)
KEYWORDS: borderballad prisoner escape rescue family brother punishment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(NE)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Child 188, "Archie o Cawfield" (6 texts)
Bronson 188, "Archie o Cawfield" (7 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 188, "Archie o Cawfield" (3 versions: #1, #3, #7)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #75, pp. 2-3, "Johnnie Ha" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 244, "Johnnie Ha" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 509-516, "Archie o Cawfield" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 140, "Archie of Cawfield" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 84, "Archie o' Cawfield" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 191, "Bold Dickie and Bold Archie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 172-175, "Bold Dickie" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 34, "Archie o Cawfield" (1 text)
DT (187/188), (JOCKSIDE) JOHNWEBB*? BOLDARCH* BOLDARC2*
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 146, "The Bold Prisoner" (reproduction of a broadside page containing this and "The Land We Live In")
Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 264-269, "Archie o Cawfield" (1 text)
Leslie Shepard, _John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844_, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 120, "The Bold Prisoner" (reprint of a Pitts broadside)
Roud #83
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Billy Broke Locks (The Escape of Old John Webb)" (tune & meter, theme)
cf. "Jock o the Side" [Child 187] (plot)
NOTES [152 words]: Child notes, "This ballad is in all the salient features a repetition of 'Jock o the Side' [Child #187], Halls playing the parts of Armstrongs."
Many American versions of this (Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland's "Bold Dickie," Warner's "Bold Dickie and Bold Archie," and perhaps the variant printed by Barry in BFSSNE; the Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan text is still fairly Scottish) have taken on some American color, and it is possible that they are actually American inventions which have mixed with the British song. Or they may have seen influence from "Billy Broke Locks." The whole family is rather a mess.
Linscott claims that "It is known that the song was *not* sung by women." However, a number of field collections are from women. Indeed, based on names, it appears that slightly more women than men sang it (though there are a few informants whose gender is not clear). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: C188

Arctic Ice and Flippers

DESCRIPTION: "There's a halo round the margin of the sea, And 'tis there, if I correctly guess, will be The Arctic Ice..." where the seals are found. "We'll get the flippers yet old-timers say." The singer looks confidently at the Terra Nova and expects a good haul
AUTHOR: A. C. Wornell
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Wornell, Rhymes of a Newfoundlander); reportedly written 1937
KEYWORDS: hunting ship nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 137, "Arctic Ice and Flippers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V44815
NOTES [174 words]: For the Terra Nova, the ship mentioned in this song, see "The Terra Nova." She was one of the last sealing steamers still afloat when this was written in 1937, but by the time it was published in 1951, she -- and all the other steamers -- was gone.
A "beater," mentioned in the second verse, is "a harp seal just past the 'white-coat' stage and migrating north from the breeding grounds on the ice floes off Newfoundland" (G. M. Story, W. J. Kirwin, and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, Dictionary of Newfoundland English, second edition with supplement, Breakwater Pres, 1990, p. 35). In other words, a recently-weaned seal, less than a year old, that has just recently left its mother to survive on its own.
"Fat" is seal fat, which in the early years of the seal hunt was the most desired product -- it could be made into a valuable oil. By 1937, though, demand was falling, and there was a shift underway toward the skins. Even that wouldn't last much longer -- one reason (though not the only one) why the sealing industry was failing. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm137

Ard Tack

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a shearer, yes I am, and I've shorn them sheep and lamb," but the singer gets in trouble on a station that is also a vineyard. As he shears, he sips the "pinkie" between sheep -- and eventually passes out while holding a sheep
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Lahey)
KEYWORDS: sheep work drink humorous
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 266-268, "The Hardest Bloody Job I Ever Had" (1 text)
DT, ARDTACK*
File: PFS266

'Ard Tack

See Ard Tack (File: PFS266)

Ardaig Leat Do Shusa

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "A bawdy verse, in which a young woman urges her man to do his business."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage sex bawdy
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 26, "Ardaig Leat Do Shusa" (1 text)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC026

Ardlaw Crew, The

DESCRIPTION: In 1880 the singer joins the Ardlaw crew. The crew are described by name, task, and characteristics. At term end it's "fare-ye-well to Ardlaw, Nae langer we maun stay, We will tak' our budgets on our back On the twenty-sixth o' May"
AUTHOR: Gordon M'Queen (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work moniker nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #92, pp. 1, "The Ardlaw Crew" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 411, "The Ardlaw Crew" (1 text)
Roud #5651
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack Munro" (tune, per Greig)
cf. "The Hairst o' Rettie" (subject: harvest crew moniker song) and references there
cf. "The Boghead Crew" (subject: harvest crew moniker song)
cf. "The Kiethen Hairst" (subject: harvest crew moniker song)
cf. "The Northessie Crew" (subject: harvest crew moniker song)
NOTES [49 words]: Notes to IRClare01: "A budget is a bag or knapsack used for carrying tools."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Mid Ardlaw (411) is at coordinate (h6-7,v9-0) on that map [roughly 37 miles N of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3411

Are the Signals All Right

DESCRIPTION: "Welcome, band of true toilers, By the thousands are found On the hundreds of railways." "With a clear shining light, Is your lamp burning bright... Are the signals all right?" The singer has red and green signals ready for the coming of Jesus
AUTHOR: Samuel Peach (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (High-OldOldFolkSongs); reportedly written 1887
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad railroading
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 5, "No. 69 Are the Signal All Right" (sic.) (1 text)
ST High005 (Partial)
NOTES [29 words]: The reference in the refrain to having oil in your vessels is presumably an allusion to the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (the ten bridesmaids), Matthew 25:1-13. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: High005

Are Ye Sleepin' Maggie?

DESCRIPTION: "Mirk an' rainy is the nicht"; the singer visits Maggie in a severe storm, and begs her to let him in, asking "Are ye sleepin'/wakin', Maggie." After perhaps several rounds of complains, the lets him in and he rejoices
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Dime-Song-Book #12)
KEYWORDS: travel home love courting nightvisit mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #12, p. 6, "Oh, are ye Sleeping, Maggie?" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 152, "Air Ye Waken, Maggie?" (1 text)
DT, AREUSLEP*
Roud #4897
File: SaKo152A

Are You a Camel?

DESCRIPTION: "Are you a camel, a flip-floppy camel, And say, do you have a hump? Do you sit at the table as straight as you're able, Or do you sit and slump, slump, slump, slump." "Are you a flapper/flopper.... Go some where else and recline"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 202-203, "The Posture Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 142, 169, 379, "Are You a Camel?" (notes only)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
cf. "When You Wore a Tulip" (tune)
NOTES [27 words]: Despite the Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook title, this should not be confused with "Perfect Posture," which is I think somewhat better known. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF142A

Are You a Hood-a-lum

DESCRIPTION: "I came to town the other day about a week or more," and is asked, "Are you a Hood-a-lum?" The singer is constantly harassed as a "Hood-a-lum." The girls reject him and he is barred from social gatherings. He thinks others are "Hood-a-lums."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (manuscript newsletter, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: wordplay rejection
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 609-610, "Are You a Hood-a-lum" (1 text)
File: CAFS2609

Are You From Dixie?

DESCRIPTION: "Hello there,, stranger, how do you do? There's something I'd like to say to you." Based on appearances, the singer thinks they are from the same place: "Are you from Dixie? I said from Dixie... 'Cause I'm from Dixie too." He wishes he were back south
AUTHOR: Words: Jack Yellen / Music: George I. Cobb (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: travel home | Dixie
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: John Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1918_, Herald Print, 1918 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland site), p. 10, "Are You from Dixie?" (1 text)
Roud #10083
RECORDINGS:
The Blue Sky Boys, "Are You From Dixie?" (Bluebird 8294)
NOTES [57 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 311, estimates that this was the twenty-second most popular song in America in 1916, peaking at #6 in May 1916 (#1 for the year being Gus Kahn, Tony Jackson, and Egbert van Alstyne's "Pretty Baby"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: JBC18011

Are You Happy or Lonesome

See Happy or Lonesome (File: RcHOL)

Are You the Lad That Hit the Lad

DESCRIPTION: "Are you the lad That hit the lad, The lad around the corner? Come back my lad And tell the lad That you're the lad, That hit the lad, The lad around the corner."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: injury
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 66, "(Are you the lad)" (1 text)
Roud #38120
NOTES [22 words]: Brady has tis as a ball-bouncing game, but I wonder if it wasn't also used as a test to see if the player could say it correctly. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI066B

Are You There Moriarity!

See Are You There, Moriarity? (File: MA149)

Are You There, Moriarity?

DESCRIPTION: "I'm located at headquarters, a special officer, Cornelius Moriarity here at your service sir.... I'm a stalwart copper in the Broadway squad, A metropolitan MP, And the young girls cry as I pass by, Are you there Moriarity?" Girls like the handsome cop
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham (1838-1905)
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (sheet music, LOCSheet, sm1876 07624)
KEYWORDS: police humorous courting
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #10, pp. 35-36, "Are You There Moriarity!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 149, "Are You There, Moriarity" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V38725
RECORDINGS:
Mick Moloney, "Are You There, Moriarity" (on HarriganBrahamMaloney)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1876 07624, "Are You There Moriarty!," Wm. A. Pond (New York), 1876(tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Good Old Mountain Dew" (tune, per OLochlainn)
NOTES [227 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
According to Franceschina, p. 104, this is not from a full-blown Harrigan play but from a shorter sketch of "The London Comic Singers," with this one being "sung by Harrian in a policeman's uniform." The performance "presents the happy, charming Irish cop, 'quick witted, always ready to welcome with joy,' whose primary interest lies in charming the ladies rather than catching criminals" (Williams, p. 139). He apparently wasn't alone; Williams adds, "During the latter half of the nineteenth century, the Irish dominated New York City's police force," which was more an arm of Tammany Hall than a true police force; at least Moriarty, in trying to attract girls, was less venal than the policemen ging around extorting businesses on their beat.
This may actually have gotten funnier in tradition, e.g. Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia has a verse, "I'm a handy fellow at a custard, I take it into 'custardy,' And the kids all cry as I go by, 'Are you there, Moriarity?'" that isn't in the printed text in Moloney.
Wikipedia mentions a game, "Are You There, Moriarty," in which blindfolded players try to hit each other with rolled-up newspapers. I would assume the name comes from this song, but I've never heard of the game and the article never mentions the song. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: MA149

Are You Tired of Me, My Darling?

See Will You Love Me When I'm Old? (File: R824)

Arethusa, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye jolly Sailors bold, Whose hearts are cast in honours mould." The frigate, with two hundred men, fights a French ship with 500 off the French coast. "We fought till not a stick would stand Of the gallant Arethusa" and force the French ashore
AUTHOR: Prince Hoare (1755-1834) (Source: Bodleian web site; Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads; Uden/Cooper)
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton-RealSailorSongs)
KEYWORDS: navy battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
17 Jun 1778 - The Belle Poule/Arethusa fight
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #7 insert, "The Arethusa" (1 text)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 151-152, "The Arethusa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads LXIV, pp. 121-122, "The Arethusa" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 167, "(no title)" (1 partial text)
ST AshS007i (Partial)
Roud #12675
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(177), "The Arethusa," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824=Harding B 28(177); also Harding B 11(102); Harding B 11(2502), "The Arethusa," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; Harding B 16(188a), "On board of the Arethusa," W. Forth (Bridlington)=Firth c.12(58); Harding B 11(104), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; Firth c.12(56), H. Such (London), 1863-1885=Harding B 11(103); Harding B 11(1558), W. and T Fordyce, J. Whinham and Co. (Newcastle), c. 1840
NOTES [134 words]: According to Grant Uden and Richard Cooper, A Dictionary of British Ships and Seamen, 1980 (I use the 1981 St. Martin's Press edition), p. 24, the Arethusa "(38 guns) was commanded by the famous frigate captain Sir Edward Pellow (later Lord Exmouth). She gained the sobriquet 'Saucy,' first given in a somewhat doggerel poem, 'The Arethusa', by Prince Hoare (1755-1834). The poem referred to an action against the French Belle Poule (in which, as a matter of fact, the Arethusa got the worst of it!)." The entry then quotes the first stanza of the poem.
For those who wish to learn more, the fight has a Wikipedia page, and was apparently the subject of several paintings. It is considered to have been the first naval skirmish between the British and French in the American Revolutionary War. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AshS007i

Arise and Bar the Door-O

See Get Up and Bar the Door [Child 275] (File: C275)

Arise and Open Your Door

DESCRIPTION: Christmas mumming song. "Arise and open your door (x3), For the dew is falling on us."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: Christmas nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Nevis)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Roger D. Abrahams, "Christmas Mummings on Nevis," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), p. 121, "(Arise and open your door)" (1 text)
File: NCF213AO

Arise and Pick a Posie

DESCRIPTION: "Small birds and turtle doves In every bush a building." The singer is advised to go out and pick a flower. She will "but there's none so sweet a flower As the lad I adore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: love flowers nonballad bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople, p. 236, "Arise and Pick a Posie" (1 text)
Roud #2445
File: ReSh236A

Arise Gudewife

See Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn) (File: R471)

Arise, Arise

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Arizona

DESCRIPTION: "The Devil was given permission one day To select him a land in his own special way." After a long, difficult search, he settles on Arizona, and sets out to make some "improvements": cacti, skunks, heat. He then leaves, thinking that is beats Hell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: Devil Hell humorous
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 401-402, "Arizona" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 27, "Hell in Texas" (3 texts -- one each for Texas (a version of "Hell in Texas"), Arizona , and Alaska, 1 tune)
Roud #5104
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hell in Texas" (theme)
NOTES [38 words]: This song and "Hell in Texas" clearly are related; one probably suggested and influenced the other. But there is no way to clearly demonstrate which came earlier, so I list them separately. Roud, unsurprisingly, lumps them. - RBW
File: LxA401

Arizona Boys and Girls

See A Comical Ditty (Arizona Boys and Girls) (File: JHCox057)

Arizona Home

See Home on the Range (File: R193)

Ark, The

See Old Uncle Noah (File: E075)

Arkansas

See The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II) [Laws H1] (File: LH01)

Arkansas Boys

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Arkansas Navvy, The

See The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II) [Laws H1] (File: LH01)

Arkansas Sheik, The

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Arkansas Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all of my fellow citizens, wherever you may be, I'll tell you of an accident that happened unto me...." The singer was charged with an unspecified crime and is now in prison. He intends to become a lawyer and lead an upstanding life.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (collected from Harrison Burnett, according to Parler)
KEYWORDS: prison punishment lawyer
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 363-364, "The Arkansas Song" (1 text)
Roud #3131
File: CAFS1364

Arkansas Traveler (II), The

See The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II) [Laws H1] (File: LH01)

Arkansas Traveler, The (fiddle recitation)

DESCRIPTION: A series of remarks between a traveller and an Arkansas farmer, interspersed with fiddle playing. The traveller will ask a question (e.g. "Say, farmer, where does this road lead?"), the farmer will answer unhelpfully ("to the end") and fiddle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847
KEYWORDS: fiddle recitation nonsense humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Randolph 346, "The Arkansas Traveler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 284-287, "The Arkansas Traveler" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 346)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 92, "Mr. Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune, in which the conversation is between a visitor and a carpenter; the text is very different but the gimmick the same)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 137, "Arkansas Traveler (I)" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 330, "Arkansas Traveler (I)" (1 fragment)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 90, "The Arkansas Traveller" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 250-254, "The Arkansas Traveler" (1 text, with just the dialog and no indications about when to play the music)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 179, "The Arkansaw Traveller" (1 text)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #34, p. 210, "The Arkansaw Traveler" (1 tune with a description of the conversation between fiddler and traveler but no actual text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 53-55, "Arkansas Traveler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #87, "Arkansas Traveler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 106-107, "Arkansas Traveler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 10-13, "The Arkansas Traveller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 267-271, "The Arkansas Traveller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp. 189-190, "The Arkansas Traveler" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 357-358, "The Arkansas Traveler" (1 text)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 216-219, "Arkansas Traveler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 58, "Arkansas Traveler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 131-132, "The Arkansas Traveler" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 33, "The Arkansas Traveller" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 107-108, "Arkansas Traveler"
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 46-53, texts of both "The Arkansas Traveler" and "The State of Arkansas," with folktale variants, a reproduction of a painting of the fiddler and traveler, and background information
William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, pp. 23-24, "(The Arkansas Traveller)" (1 text, tune on pp. 84-85)
Roud #3756
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink] & his Square Dance Band, "Arkansas Traveler" (OKeh 06296, 1941)
The Blue Ridge Duo [possibly a pseudonym for George Reneau?], "Arkansas Traveler" (Edison 51422, 1924)
Boone County Entertainers [Red Fox Chasers], "Arkansas Traveller" (Supertone 9163, 1928)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Arkansas Traveler" (OKeh 40108, 1924)
H. N. Dickens, "The Arkansas Traveller" (on Stonemans01)
Jess Hillard, "Arkansas Traveller" (Champion 16333, 1931)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers, "Earl Johnson's Arkansas Traveller" (OKeh 45156, 1927)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Arkansas Travellers" (Vocalion 15192, 1926)
Clayton McMichen & his Georgia Wildcats, "Arkansas Traveler" (Melotone [Canada] 93031, 1933)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Arkansas Traveller" (on NLCR16)
Steve Porter, "Arkansas Traveller" (Pathe 20670, 1921)
[Steve] Porter & [Ernest] Hare, "Arkansas Traveler" (Edison 51010, 1922) (Grey Gull 4112, 1927)
George Reneau, "Arkansas Traveler" (Vocalion 14813, 1924)
Pete Seeger, "Arkansas Traveller" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b)
Jilson Setters [pseud. for James W. "Blind Bill" Day], "Arkansaw Traveler" (Victor 21635, 1928; on Protobilly)
Hobart Smith, "Arkansas Traveler" (Disc 6079, 1940s)
Harry Spencer (probably w. Charles d'Almaine, fiddle), "The Arkansaw Traveler" (Victor 1101, 1902; Victor 16199-A, c. 1909) (CYL: Edison 8202 [as "The Arkansas Traveler"], 1902; on Protobilly) (CYL: Edison [BA] 3745 [as "The Arkansas Traveler"], n.d.)
Len Spencer, "The Arkansaw Traveler" (Victor 1101, 1902; Victor 16199-A, c. 1909) (CYL: Edison 8202 [as "The Arkansas Traveler"], 1902) (CYL: Edison [BA] 3745 [as "The Arkansas Traveler"], n.d.)
John Stone, "Arkansas Traveler" (AFS 3372 B2, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Gid Tanner & Riley Puckett, "Arkansas Traveller" (Columbia 15017-D, 1925; rec. 1924.)
Gordon Tanner, Arthur Tanner, Art Rosenbaum & Larry Nash, "Arkansas Traveler" (on DownYonder)
Tennessee Ramblers, "Arkansas Traveller" (Brunswick 225, 1928; Supertone S-2083, 1930)
Unidentified artists (possibly Len Spencer) "Arkansaw Traveler" (CYL: Everlasting 1399, n.d.)
J. D. Weaver "Arkansas Traveler" (OKeh 45016, 1925)
SAME TUNE:
[Len] Spencer & [Ada] Jones, "Return of the Arkansaw Traveler" (CYL: Albany Indestructable/Columbia 3108, c. 1910)
Len Spencer, "Return of the Arkansas Traveler" (CYL: Edison 10356, 1910)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "New Arkansas [Arkansaw?] Traveller" (Columbia 15623-D, c. 1931)
NOTES [160 words]: Randolph says "Both words and music are usually credited to Colonel Sandford C. Faulkner [d. 1875]"; Allsop mentions Faulkner's name but also mentions other possibilites. The sheet music in Jackson is credited to one Mose Case, but we know how reliable such claims are. - RBW
Usually the fiddler only plays the "A" part of the tune; at the end of a few versions the traveller plays the "B" part, and the two become friends.
This was a popular minstrel-show sketch in the 1900s, pitting the smart country man against the city slicker.
The [Folksinger's Wordbook] text turns one of the classic jokes from the spoken skit into sung verses. Frustratingly, they give no sources, so the origins of this version are unknown. The chords given are not the usual chords played with the tune. They're probably from the Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs; those words are credited to one David Spencer. I have found no indication that he is any relation to Len or Harry Spencer. -PJS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: FSC090

Arkansaw Traveller, An

See The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II) [Laws H1] (File: LH01)

Arlie, Barley, Buck, and Doe

DESCRIPTION: "Arlie, barley, buck and doe, Which-a way do the fishermen go? Some go east, some go west... There's a little tiger boy... Catches his hens, puts them in pens, Some lay eggs, some don't. Go on to Old Jack's house."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: food fishing bird
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, pp. 70-71, "Arlie, Barley, Buck, and Doe" (1 text)
File: ZiZa070E

Arlin's Fine Braes

DESCRIPTION: "I've travelled this country both early and late, And among the lasses I've had mony a lang sit." The singer recalls his wild ways as a young ploughman. Having had various misadventures, he warns listeners to settle down and work rather than rambling
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 ("The Carse of Pommaize," broadside from Poet's Box, Glasgow, according to Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: work farming rambling warning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #118, p. 2, "The Carse o' Pommaize" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 415, "The Carse o' Pommaize" (7 texts, 3 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 250, "Arlin's Fine Braes" (1 text)
Roud #517
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy McBeath, "Arlin's Fine Braes" (on Voice20)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin-go-bragh" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Carse o' Braemese
The Carse o' Brindese
Earth of Braemese
Ireland's Fine Braes
NOTES [43 words]: Broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(131), "The Carse of Pommaize" ("I have rambled this country both early and late"), The Poet's box (Glasgow), 1860 or 1865 could not be downloaded and verified. From the blurry small image I can see it seems to be this ballad. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ord250

Arm Chair, The

See Grandmother's Chair (File: R467)

Armored Cruiser Squadron, The

DESCRIPTION: "Away, away, with sword and drum, Here we come, full of rum, Looking for someone to put on the bum, the Armored cruiser squadron."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: navy nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 123-124, "The Armored Cruised Squadron" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10267
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The North Atlantic Squadron" (form)
NOTES [84 words]: This song probably had a very short life. Armored cruisers didn't come into existence until well after the American Civil War, and the U. S. was slow to build a navy in that time, so it took many more years to build up a squadron. And then the Dreadnought Revolution and the battlecruiser made them obsolete; they were gone after World War One.
Roud lumps this with "The North Atlantic Squadron." They doubtless derive from a similar influence, but clearly there was at least one rewrite along the way. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: NiMo123

Armoured Car, The

DESCRIPTION: "You must appreciate a hound so great to the sport." Doyley's Armoured Car "never yet lost a hunt." In '21 "he sent a sworn declaration to the Harriers Association" that he would win. His victories are recounted. Black and Tans could not stop him
AUTHOR: Sean O'Callaghan (source: OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: hunting dog
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 46-47,121, "The Armoured Car" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [25 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "The Armoured Car is ... the nickname given to the original Ringwood, the dog bred by the famous Conny Doyle of Fair Hill." - BS
File: OCan046

Army Life

See Gee, But I Want to Go Home (File: LxU039)

Army of the Free, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the army of the Union we are marching in the van, And will do the work before us, if the bravest soldiers can." Porter's division is "the best division of a half a million souls." "'Twill never fail to honour our great Army of the Free."
AUTHOR: Words: Frank H. Norton (source: Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Moore, Songs of the Soldiers, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 32-34, "The Army of the Free" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Green (I)" (tune) and references there
NOTES [460 words]: There are many poems and songs known from the Civil War era which praised particular units. But most of them praised companies (Company G, First Minnesota) or regiments (the Irish 69th). This makes sense, since companies and regiments were all raised at the same time, in the same state, and were permanent formations that served together for the entire war (or until mustered out).
This song is unusual in that it praises an entire division -- a dozen or so regiments, and unlike regiments, they were not very permanent; they could have units added or subtracted and be transferred to different parts of the army. I know of no other song of this type.
As the song makes clear, the division's commander was [Fitz-John] Porter (1822-1904), and his brigadiers were [Daniel] Butterfield (1831-1901), [John Healy] Martindale (1815-1881), and George W. Morell [1815-1883). This allows us to identify the division with certainty, and the time relatively closely: It is Porter's first division of S. P. Heintzelman's III Corps of the Army of the Potomac. The date is late 1861 or (more likely) early 1862; on May 18, 1862, the division was transferred to become the first division of the newly-formed V Corps. Porter was given command of the corps, and Morell succeeded to command of the division, so the song was obsolete from May 1862 on.
The division deserves some of the praise lavished on it; the V Corps did the largest share of the fighting in the Seven Days' Battles, and was responsible for the victory at Malvern Hill. And one of its brigades, then under Col. Strong Vincent, would save the Union Army's position on Little Round Top on the second day at Gettysburg (although the Twentieth Maine, the regiment most responsible, was not yet part of the division).
The praise of the officers, however, is probably out of place. Porter remains the subject of much controversy, but he was drummed out of the army by a court-martial for failing to obey orders at Second Bull Run. (The fact that obeying the orders would have destroyed the army is somewhat beside the point.) Butterfield was liked by Joseph Hooker, and so became Chief of Staff of the Army of the Potomac when Hooker was in command -- but he was considered arrogant, and when he was injured on the third day at Gettysburg, General Meade seems to have been happy to be rid of him. He is now remembered mostly for composing "Taps," the bugle call. Martindale, after Malvern Hill, was placed on charges by Porter for saying that he would rather surrender than leave his wounded to be captured by the Confederates; he was acquitted but resigned his commission due to ill health. And Morell, although he remained in the army for two more years, was quietly left without an assignment from 1862 on. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CSWF032

Army Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "A is for the Army that's not afraid to die ... C is for Christ ... Z is for ... A and stands for something, whatever it may be But the name of this peculiar song is the Army A B C"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious wordplay
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 68, "The Army Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21720
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Logger's Alphabet" (subject) and references there
NOTES [26 words]: Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast: "It is the Salvation Army Alphabet.... The music director of the Salvation Army has no record of this song." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: LLab068

Aroostook War, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye soldiers of Maine, your bright weapons prepare: On your frontier's arising The clouds of grim war." "Your country's invaded!" "Then 'Hail the British!' Does anyone cry? 'Move not the old landmarks,' The settlers reply."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks); supposedly written 1839
KEYWORDS: political soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1839 - the "Aroostook War"
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 156-157, "The Aroostook War" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 4, "The Aroostook War" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maine Soldiers' Song" (subject: Aroostook War)
cf. "Maine Battle Song" (subject: Aroostook War)
NOTES [1117 words]: When the American Revolution ended, one issue left unsettled was the border between what became the American state of Maine (then still part of Massachusetts) and New Brunswick in Canada. Initially it wasn't much of a problem; there simply weren't enough people in Maine for it to be an issue (there had been provisions in the 1783 treaty between the United States and Britain for a boundary commission, but the commission couldn't figure out what the treaty-makers had intended; Morison, p. 407). Eventually, in the late 1830s, the issue turned into a major boundary dispute. May, pp. 82-83, says, "The dispute was later submitted to the king of the Netherlands, who issued a compromise that the British accepted but the U.S. Senate rejected. Later attempts at mediation also failed, and that winter [1837-1838] new problems arose. Americans who were settling in the area noticed British interest in a road running through the Aroostook Valley, a safe supply route to reinforce Quebec and Montreal, if military necessity so required."
According to Clark, p. 83, the Dutch mediation failed because "the Maine governor argued that the state's constitutional rights would be violated because the state had not delegated to the central government the right to dispose of any of her territory. When the Dutch king actually announced his compromise decision in January 1831, the Main legislature responded that 'no decision made by any umpire under any circumstances, if the decision dismembers a State, has, or can have, an constitutional force or obligations upon the State thus dismembered, unless the State adopt and sanction the decision.'" This is pretty clear poppycock (the Civil War would eventually be fought to prove that Federal authority overrides the several states!), but it was enough to keep the settlement from being adopted.
Brebner/Masters, p. 196, suggests, "The bloodless 'Aroostook War' that brought troops on both sides of the border in 1839 may have been colored by Maine's delighted discovery that beyond miles of her unpromising forest uplands the Aroostook Valley contained broad fertile lands as well as fine trees, but the urgent problem was that its waters and the logs they carried reached the ocean through the St. John in New Brunswick."
Jameson, p. 28, says, "Aroostook Disturbances. In 1838 a band of lawless men, chiefly from New Brunswick, trespassed upon that territory which is watered by the Aroostook, and which was then claimed by noth Great Britain and the United States. The Governor of Maine drafted troops [almost certainly including the man who wrote this song] and drove off the intruders. The President sent General Winfield Scott to the Aroostook country. He arranged that it should be occupied as before, each government holding part, while the other denied its legal right."
Brebner/Masters, p. 150, declares, "The 'Aroostook War' of 1839 came as near as might be to reality, but no lives were lost in spite of raids and counterraids and defense measures which involved Maine and the American Congress on one side, and New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Great Britain on the other." McNaught, p. 104, mentions "sporadic 'warfare' between competing lumbermen of Maine and New Brunswick," without mentioning this conflict in particular. It apparently drew a lot of attention in Washington; congress, according to May, p. 83, authorized President Martin van Buren to recruit as many as fifty thousand volunteers and spend as much as ten million dollars on the conflict. Happily, the President instead sent Winfield Scott to look things over, and he calmed things down.
The British eventually appointed Lord Ashburton, who was unusually friendly to the Americans (he had an American wife; May, pp. 84-85) to negotiate with the pro-British Daniel Webster. In the treaty that resulted, "The United States received seven thousand square miles of the disputed territory, Britain the remaining five thousand (which included the needed military route to defend Quebec). Ashburton conceded... Britain's claim to two hundred square miles at the head of the Connecticut River and accepted New York and Vermont's borders at the forty-fifth parallel. When the value of the real estate is considered, it is clear that the United States received the better end of the deal [because of the rich mineral deposits later found in the territory].... To sweeten the deal for those states that lost territory, Maine and Massachusetts were each awarded $125,000" (May, p. 88).
(Clark's summary on pp. 85-86 is a little different: "The famous Webster-Ashburton treaty settled the matter once and for all in 1842 with a compromise boundary that violated Maine principles, but a $150,000 cash settlement from the Federal government helped sweeten the pill....")
This was not the only border disturbance of the period; an even more serious problem is the subject of "The Battle of the Windmill." The Webster/Ashburton treaty of 1842 at last settled the boundary and ended the problems although McNuaght, writing from a Canadian standpoint, thinks that it gave "a northward thrust to Maine that placed a grave impediment in the path of proposed railway connections between Quebec and New Brunswick -- a concession which left a legacy of serious railway difficulties for British North America." One doubts the composer of this song would agree -- or care.
The Biblical quote, "Move not the old landmarks," is sort of a conflation of several passages, which the King James Bible gives as
* "Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark, which they of old have set by thy inheritance." (Deut. 19:14)
* "Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set" (Proverbs 22:28)
* "Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless" (Proverbs 23:10)
We might also note Deut. 17:17, "Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's landmark."
Of course, the problem in this case is that there was no landmark, or settled boundary -- but one suspects that politicians wouldn't let mere facts stop them from whipping up the militia.
In addition to the three songs in Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks about the Aroostook War, May, p. 83, quotes another fragment, which I assume is sung to "Yankee Doodle":
Britannia shall not rule the Maine,
Nor shall she rule the water;
That sung that song full log enough,
Much longer than they oughter.
Seba Smith, the Maine author many consider responsible for "Young Charlotte (Fair Charlotte)" [Laws G17], wrote "Jack Downing" stories about the Aroostook controversy (Clark, p. 84, quotes one of "Downing's" letters to Andrew Jackson); I wonder if Smith might not have had a hand in one or another of these songs. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: Gray156

Around a Western Water Tank

See The Dying Hobo [Laws H3] (File: LH03)

Around Cape Horn (I)

See Rounding the Horn (File: VWL090)

Around Cape Horn (II)

See A Long Time Ago (File: Doe037)

Around Green Island Shore

See All Around Green Island's Shore (File: Doy65)

Around Her Neck She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

DESCRIPTION: The girl wears a yellow ribbon around her neck "For her lover who was far, far away." In May and December she scatters yellow flowers on a grave "for her soldier who was far, far away." (In other versions she may be pregnant and face abandonment)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook)
KEYWORDS: love separation death burial pregnancy abandonment
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 149-150, "Around Her Neck She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, p. 115, "Yaller Ribbon" (1 text)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 142-143, "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 145, "Round Her Neck She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" (1 text)
DT, (YLLORBBN)
Roud #10642, etc.
RECORDINGS:
Dale Borusky, "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (Piotr-Archive #565, recorded 04/19/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All Around My Hat"
SAME TUNE:
The Scarlet Bonnet (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 159)
We Are Boosters ("We are boosters for ???, We boos her in the winter and the summer") (Harbin-Parodology, #217, p. 56)
NOTES [159 words]: The versions of this song I know run the gamut. Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging's is a lament for a lost soldier. In Johnson's text, she has had a child by the missing man. In the Digital Tradition version, the song is angry, and the child is clearly illegitimate, and her father is prepared to guard her with a shotgun. The latter version is considered by the DT editors to be an "All around My Hat" variant -- but it seems to be simply a stronger version of the Johnson text. The Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear version feels like the Digital Tradition version, including the shotgun, although there is no actual yellow ribbon; the girl wears things like a silver locket, purple garter, and dirty girdle. - RBW
I think this one and "All Around My Hat" are, at the least, siblings, and more likely fraternal twins. - PJS
That they share genetic material is clear. But they have also evolved independently, and this one exists in far more diverse forms. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Arn149

Around the Corner

DESCRIPTION: "Around the corner behind the tree A sergeant Major said to me, 'Oh, how'd you like to (marry) me? I would like to know, For every time I look into your eyes, I feel I'd like to go Around the corner....'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: humorous wordplay | circular
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #222, p. 57, "Around the Corner" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 241, "Around the Corner" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 393, 415, "Around the Corner" (notes only)
Roud #22247
NOTES [14 words]: Clearly the infinite recursion was not invented by inept computer programmers. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB241B

Around the Grove as I Was Walking

See Oxford City [Laws P30] (File: LP30)

Around the Hills of Clare

DESCRIPTION: In the past the singer had thought the Saxon bands could be driven from his home, but now "these days are past." He is leaving home, parents, sister, and girls. He looks forward to the day when "home we'll all repair" to "the hills of Clare"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (IRClare01)
KEYWORDS: grief emigration farewell Ireland nonballad family home
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #18467
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "Around the Hills of Clare" (on IRClare01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Magpie's Nest" (tune)
File: RcAtHoC

Around the Horn

See Rounding the Horn (File: VWL090)

Around the One that Stole the Sheep

DESCRIPTION: A game for children jumping around each other. "Around the one that stole the sheep, Around the one that ate the meat, Around the one that ground the bone, Around the one you call your own."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 105, "(Around the one that stole the sheep)" (1 short text)
File: McIn105B

Around the Rugged Rocks

See Round the Rugged Rocks (File: Dolb181)

Around the World and Home Again

See The Sailor's Way (File: Doe109)

Arrah Wanna

See Erewanna (File: RcErewan)

Arrat, an Marrat, an Fair Mazrie

See Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14] (File: C014)

Arrival of "Aurora," "Diana," "Virginia Lake," and "Vanguard," Loaded

DESCRIPTION: "All welcome to the northern fleet That just arrived today, Pounds filled up with prime harp seals." The accomplishments of Captain Kean, Captain Barbour of the Diana, Captain Knee of the Virginia Lake, and Captain Barbour of the Vanguard are listed
AUTHOR: possibly Johnny Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 73, "Arrival of 'Aurora,' Diana,' 'Virginia Lake' and 'Vanguard,' Loaded" (1 text)
Roud #V44821
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full" (ships, theme)
cf. "Arrival of the 'Grand Banks' and 'Virginia Lake' With Bumper Trips" (theme, ships)
cf. "The Sealer's Song (II)" (ships)
NOTES [1917 words]: Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff say that this is probably the work of Johnny Burke (1851-1930), and certainly it is similar to other pieces Burke wrote, but it is not in the collection of Burke's poems published in 1981 by William J. Kirwin. For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree."
For the Aurora, see "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full." Abram Kean (for whom see "Captain Abram Kean") commanded the Aurora 1898-1905, and had great success in all of those years except 1905.
The Diana was built in Dundee in 1870 as the Hector (Feltham, p. 37), renamed Diana and rebuilt in 1891 (Ryan/Drake, p. 15; Winsor, p. 37), sold in 1918, and sunk in 1922 (O'Neill, p. 967).
Captain William Barbour had captained her as early as 1890-1891, when she was still the Hector (Feltham, pp. 37-38). Barbour commanded her again on her first voyage as the Diana (Feltham, p. 39). In that year, she made two trips to the ice, and brought home 41,104 seals -- a very high total for a wooden ship. Feltham, p. 40, shows a list of all vessels from 1863 to 1945 to bring home at least 40,000; almost all are either much earlier, before the sealers had badly reduced the seal population, or were later steel ships (which could do things the wooden walls could not). Thus the Diana could be considered a record-breaker of its type. She took more than half a million seals in her long career, making her the fifth-most-productive ship in the fishery (Ryan/Drake, p. 15). Little wonder the song called her the "Lucky old Diana." She's also called "lucky" in "The Sealer's Song (II)."
That her captain was named "Barbour" isn't much of a dating hint. William Barbour continued to command her until 1896 (when he was taken sick; she hit a schooner on her way home, with both being damaged); James Barbour took over in 1897; Alpheus Barbour (who is also mentioned in "The Sealer's Song (II)") was her skipper 1898-1908, and Baxter Barbour (mentioned in "The Nimrod's Song" and "Captains and Ships") commanded 1913-1914 (Feltham, p. 41; for Baxter Barbour, see the notes to "The Nimrod's Song"). Note that there is a second "Captain Barbour" mentioned in the song; we know that that is George Barbour.
The Diana finally broke down in the 1920s; in 1921 (John Parsons commanding), she lost two bow plates and had to return home in bad weather. In 1922 she went out for the last time; she followed Abram Kean in the Terra Nova and nearly lost a large group of sealers when the ice patch they were on broke loose; they had to be rescued by the Thetis, who brought them to a place where they could walk to the Diana (Brown, pp. 97-98).
The Diana's troubles weren't over; after that, her tail shaft broke on March 16, and then the ship was squeezed out of the water; she fell over on her side on the ice, badly holed; the crew started to abandon her (Brown, p. 99). But Captain Parsons wouldn't leave her, and eventually they came back. When the ice parted and she went back into the water, she was leaking substantially but not so badly that the pumps could not handle it (Brown, p. 100). Supposedly the rats left the ship at this time, leaving the crew upset. Parsons still wouldn't leave the ship. Then she hit an iceberg and suffered more damage (Brown, p. 101); further icebergs collisions followed (Brown, p. 102). After several more days of this, with the men spending most of their time trying to keep the ship afloat rather than sealing, the crew insisted that Parsons should send an SOS. He refused (Brown, p. 104). The crew in effect went on strike, threatening the captain, but Parsons still wouldn't back down (Brown, p. 105).
(Mowat/Blackwood, p. 88, has a slightly different version of the events: He claims that the captain, once the ship was trapped, ordered the crew to put the seal carcasses back on the ice, expecting the ship to go down and arranging it, by secret signal, that another ship would pick up the pelts. This would let the owners keep their pelts -- but would mean no money for the sealers. So the sealers mutinied. I have seen no hint of this version in other accounts.)
Exactly what happened next isn't clear; did Parsons give in, or did the mutineers send an SOS? (Brown, pp. 105-106). The answer perhaps would determine whether the crew's actions were a mutiny.
The Sagona, under Job Knee, came to the rescue -- and wanted to take off the seals the Diana had already taken (Brown, pp. 106-107; for more on the Sagona, see the notes to "Greedy Harbour." For more on Job Knee, see the notes to "Captains and Ships" and "The Sealer's Song (II)"). Then... the Diana caught fire. The suspicion is obviously that the crew set the fire to get home sooner (Brown, p. 107), but there seems to be no proof. The captains and owners of wrecked ships had an occasional tendency to burn them, to make sure no one else could salvage them and to assure that the owners earned some insurance money (Ryan, p. 298). Winsor, p. 37, says that the ship "was set on fire and sank," but implies that the order to abandon was given first.
O'Neill, p. 967, accepts this as a mutiny. Feltham, pp. 44-45, does not, saying that the only source for this is the account written by George Allan England two years later. In fairness, England does not say that the men on the Diana mutinied; he says that the men he was with on the Terra Nova understood them to be mutineers: "Mid-morning brought news that the crippled Diana was beginning to have trouble with her crew and that mutiny threatened.... with a broken tailshaft, she lay imprisoned; but most [of her crew] were beginning to demand relief from other ships" (p. 191). "Dey had a fair manus [=menace?], a rig'lar mutiny aburd, an' sunk 'er in de hice!" (p. 247). This, we should note, is based on England's contemporary notes, but was filtered through the wireless messages to Captain Abram Kean on the Terra Nova, so it is a secondary source. Whether the crew knew the truth or not, England, p. 228, reports that no one on the Terra Nova wanted to rescue Diana, making it likely that other ships felt the same way, so little wonder if the crew felt they had to leave.
England claims to have interviewed one of the Diana's officers, although he did not give a name. He quotes the officer on pp. 252-253: "We broke our shaft in clear water. Then the ice nipped, pretty soon, an' we laid there about twelve days.... We was only leakin' six inches in four hours an' could of kept afloat easy. But anyhow, after a while the Cap'n gave in to 'em.... Even then I didn't hardly think they'd quit.... But when I went on deck, one time, I found she was all afire, forrard. It was a bloody crime, the way she was burned, her an' all them thousands o' sculps [seal pelts with the fat]. The last I seen o' her, as we was goin' away on the Sagona, she was still burnin' but not yet sunk. She sunk later, o' course. Yes, sir, a bloody crime."
Interestingly, this was not the first time there had been trouble on the Diana. In 1893, the crew had also mutinied, although apparently the details are not known (there was a rather inconclusive trial; Archibald, p. 102); it perhaps had something to do with supplies that went missing and low pay rates for an exploratory voyage to the South Atlantic (the Dundee Antarctic Expedition; Archibald, pp. 95, 96, 99; for the expedition, see also "The Old Polina," because the Balaena, subject of some versions of that songe, was another member of the expedition. The other ships, the Active and Polar Star, don't seem to have left many memories in song). The Diana had also had engine troubles on that trip (Archibald, p. 102); despite her sealing success, she seems to have been somewhat jinxed.
The Diana is also mentioned in "Captains and Ships" and "The Sealer's Song (II)." For her captain John Parsons, see "Captains and Ships."
There is a photo of the Diana on p. 103 of Brown and on p. 37 of Winsor, others facing p. 28 of Chafe and facing p. 180 of England, and another, as she appeared in 1892, on p. 15 of Ryan/Drake. O'Neill on p. 945 has a photo of her as she approached her end, and England, p. 293, is a long-distance photo of her as she burned.
The Vanguard was an unusual ship in that she was apparently based out of Harbour Grace on Conception Bay rather than at St. John's. She was built in Glasgow in 1872 and first joined the seal hunt in 1873. The only time she had a Captain Barbour was 1899-1903, when George Barbour commanded her (Feltham, p. 149). These were the best years of her career; Feltham, p. 151, says that in the period 1899-1903, she took in 124,205 seals -- an average of 24,841 per year; in her other 31 years, she averaged just 9,185 seals per year. In 1909, she broke her main shaft and propeller, and flooded and sank, with tbe boat being set afire as she went down (Winsor, p. 66), but all the crew survived, either walking home or being carried by the Algerine (Feltham, pp. 151-152; Ryan, p. 309).
The Vanguard is also mentioned in "The Sealer's Song (II)." I suspect it is also the Van of "The Sealing Trip of the S. S. Greenland 1891."
There is a photo of the Vanguard on p. 181 of Feltham, and a photo of the crew, as they leave their ship, on p. 183. Ryan/Drake, p. 18, has a photo of her frozen in port in St. John's around 1900. Andrieux, p. 68, has a photo of her frozen in the ice in 1909, and p. 70 has photos of the crew after the wreck. Winsor, p. 66, also has a photo.
The Vanguard was commanded by George Barbour (obviously not the same "Barbour" as commanded the Diana) from 1899-1903.
The Virginia Lake also was lost in 1909, about a week before the Vanguard (Feltham, p. 151); see "Arrival of the 'Grand Lake' and 'Virginia Lake' With Bumper Trips." "Captain Knee" of the Virginia Lake must be either Job Knee in 1901-1902 or Jacob Knee in 1907-1909 (Chafe, p. 104).
In seeking a date for this piece, the fact that the Virginia Lake and Vanguard are mentioned obviously forces us to place the piece in 1908 or earlier. Abram Kean's command of the Aurora and his successful further restricts the date to 1898-1904. The fact that the Vanguard is commanded by Captain George Barbour makes a date 1899-1903 very likely. Job Knee and the Virginia Lake give us a date of 1901-1902.
Beyond that, we start to see some contradictions. If we look at arrival dates, Abram Kean and Aurora were the first ship to arrive in St. John's in 1899, but Diana didn't arrive for another month (Chafe, p. 66). Neither ship was among the first in 1900 (Chafe, p. 67). The two arrived more than a month apart in 1903 (Chafe, p. 70). Aurora was first, Diana next to last in 1904 (Chafe, p. 71).
In the key year of 1901, Aurora was second and Diana fifth, Vanguard twelfth, Virginia Lake dead last (Chafe, p. 68). In 1902, Vanguard was fourth, Aurora fifth, Diana sixth, and Virginia Lake ninth (Chafe, p. 69).
In neither year did the Virginia Lake bring in the claimed total of 22,000 seals; she had 20,297 in 1902 and 19,605 in 1901.
Thus there is no possible year which exactly fits the data in the song. I'd incline to 1902, though -- the Virginia Lake had a horrid year in 1901, not making it home until May 5 (a week after the next-to-last ship, and seven weeks after the Aurora), and although she pulled in a relatively respectable total, she had to do it by getting the difficult hood seals; her total of harp seals was just 11,963. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: RySm073

Arrival of the "Grand Lake" and "Virginia Lake" With Bumper Trips

DESCRIPTION: "The Grand Lake, boys, is coming in, With bunting grand, Manned by a crew of hardy lads Who belong to Newfoundland." The Grand Lake and the Virginia both return to port with large hauls of seal pelts and fat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Old Home Week Songster)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 71, "Arrival of the 'Grand Lake' and 'Virginia Lake' With Bumper Trips" (1 text)
Roud #V44600
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full" (ships, theme)
cf. "Arrival of 'Aurora,' Diana,' 'Virginia Lake' and 'Vanguard,' Loaded" (theme, ships)
cf. "The Sealer's Song (II)" (ships)
NOTES [1082 words]: The Virginia Lake and Grand Lake were sisters (O'Neill, p 972; Winsor, p. 44, mentions a third, Winsor Lake, but it lasted only three years, 1894-1896, so it was never active as a sealer at the same time as the other two). Virginia Lake was originally built as the Conscript in 1882, and was a coastal steamer (Hanrahan, p. 200, although Connors, p. 38, says she was built in 1888 and Bruce, p. 24, says that her exact age was unknown); she was renamed in 1892 (Greene, pp. 276-277). She ran many different routes while in the coastal service -- going from Newfoundland to Labrador, and Newfoundland to Canada, as well as traveling between various of Newfoundland's outports. Bruce, p. 24, reports that she was 180 feet long, 760 gross tons, and had a speed of ten knots.
She first served as a sealer in 1901, and from that time on served every year until her loss in 1909 (Chafe, p. 104). She continued her coastal work in the off season, however; when the "Alphabet Fleet" (for which see "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie") lost its Labrador steamer Fife in 1900, the Virginia Lake replaced her (Bruce, p. 20. This implies to me that the Labrador ferry was expected to carry more freight than passengers, since the Alphabet ships were generally more elegant than an old coastal/sealing steamer). Bruce, pp. 24-25, records the complaints of a passenger about how she had been extremely over-booked in 1905. Connors, p. 37, records a similar (the same?) complaint: "The accommodations on the Virginia Lake were quite inadequate for the number of passengers she carried. The stuffy little saloon was so crowded that comfort was out of the question. I had to use some rather impressive language to the steward to induce him to assign me a stateroom.... The ventilation was poor and the atmosphere vile.... Our fellow-passengers were all either prospectors or owners of fishing schooners."
The Grand Lake too was a coastal steamer which had a short career as a sealer; she went to the ice under Henry Dawe 1903-1905, then under Job Knee 1906-1908. In 1903, she took 25,688 seals, and 30,171 in 1904, but only 11,164 in 1905 (Chafe, pp. 90, 100). She sank suddenly on April 4, 1908 (Greene, p. 277), but her crew of 203 were rescued by the I (O'Neill, p. 972). It wasn't due to accident or weather; she was one of the few ships that had not been damaged in a year noted for bad weather. Apparently it was the result of an engineering problem that caused an injection pipe to burst, opening up the ship to flooding (FelthamNortheast, pp. 74-75; Winsor, p. 44; Ryan, p. 309; although Ryan, p. 191 says that she was merely crushed).
The Virginia Lake also had a difficult 1908 (the conditions were said to be incredibly bad, with many ships damaged; FelthamNortheast, p. 74), having her bow stove in, but survived (O'Neill, p. 972) -- only to be lost in 1909. The Vanguard, which a year earlier had rescued the Grand Lake's crew, followed the Virginia Lake to the bottom a week later (Feltham, p. 151).
The Virginia Lake first went to the ice under Job Knee in 1901, and sailed under him in 1902 as well. William Winsor (Jr.) commanded her in 1903 and 1904, and she took 22,677 and 26,379 seals in those years. She served under Samuel Blandford 1905-1906 and Jacob Kean 1907-1909, when she was lost. In none of those years did she match her totals under Winsor (Chafe, p. 104).
She doesn't seem to have been a lucky ship, having had a collision with the Florizel in 1907 and suffering severe ice damage to her bow in 1908 (Winsor, p. 68).
Her loss was apparently pretty spectacular. Bruce, p. 30, says that she was trapped by ice for sixteen days in March 1909 near Change Islands. The ice also broke her main shaft (Butler, p. 30; Ryan, p. 309; Connors, p. 37, prints a small part of her captain's report). The Bellaventure at one time was close enough to pass a line -- but she broke four different lines before they gave up (Butler, p. 30). Still trapped, a very severe blizzard came up, and without motive power and trapped in the ice, she had no way to fight it. Her rudder wrenched was off and her stern wrecked, (Butler, p. 30; Ryan, p. 309) so that she took on water too fast to stay afloat. The men finally abandoned her; the Bellaventure took 110 on board while 50 walked across seven mile of ice to land. The ship itself then burned for four hours and sank (Butler, p. 30; Hanrahan, p. 200).
Since Henry Dawe commanded the Grand Lake only in 1903-1905 (Chafe, p. 90) and William Winsor commanded the Virginia Lake only in 1903 and 1904 (Chafe, p. 96), this song must from one of those years. Since the song refers to Virginia Lake taking twenty thousand seals, that again points us to 1903 or 1904, since her total was too small in 1905. Of the two years, 1904 is the better bet, since the Grand Lake took more than 30,000 seals in that year, its highest total under Dawe, plus the Virginia Lake is said to have taken more than 25,000 seals, which was true only in 1904.
Interestingly, in neither year did the two ships arrive on the same day. But in 1904 Grand Lake was the fourth ship to reach St. John's, on April 1, and Virginia Lake the fifth on April 2 (Chafe, p. 71), so though they didn't arrive at the same time, they arrived one after another. In 1903, Virginia Lake was the first to make it home, on March 28, and the Grand Lake only the fifth, on April 1 (Chafe, p. 70). So it would make a lot more sense to refer to them arriving together in 1904.
The Virginia Lake is also mentioned in "Arrival of the 'Grand Lake' and 'Virginia Lake' With Bumper Trips," "Arrival of 'Aurora,' 'Diana,' 'Virginia Lake,' and 'Vanguard,' Loaded" and "The Sealer's Song (II)." The Grand Lake is also mentioned in "The Sealer's Song (II)." William Winsor Jr. is also mentioned "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912." Henry Dawe is mentioned in "The Sealing Trip of the S. S. Greenland 1891," "The Bully Crew," and "I Am a Newfoundlander," as well as in "The Sealer's Song (II), which see.
There is a photo on the Virginia Lake on p. 38 of Connors, and a small photo of the Grand Lake as she was sinking on p. 81 of Ryan/Drake. Winsor, p. 44, has a photo of the Grand Lake with her sealers out on the ice; p. 68 has a very poor photo of the Virginia Lake which at least shows clearly that she was a pure steamer; her masts could not take sails. Higgins, p. 17, has an (unlabeled) photo of the Grand Lake. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: RySm071

Arrival of the Greenhorn

See I've Just Got in Across the Plains (File: Beld345)

Arriving Back at Liverpool

See Whip Jamboree (Whup Jamboree) (File: Br3230)

Arroyo Al's Cow-Pony

DESCRIPTION: "I took a trip this summer to the market, And I struck an eastern city where the sell you tubs of beers" and ends up in a polo game. He sees an old pony of his. He acquires the pony and upsets the game, though it costs $600. Don't say "polo" to the pony
AUTHOR: J. A. Squires (source: Thorp//Lodgson)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp//Lodgson)
KEYWORDS: humorous horse money travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, p. 3-4, "Arroyo Al's Cow-Pony" (1 text)
File: ThLo003

Arseholes Are Cheap Today

DESCRIPTION: "(Arseholes/small boys) are cheap today, Cheaper than yesterday, Small boys are half a crown, Standing up or lying down...." Listeners are advised to "Get them now before they're gone, Come now and try one."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: commerce bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 238, "(Arseholes Are Cheap Today)" (1 short text, tune referenced)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 136, "Small Boys Are Cheap Today" (1 short text)
Roud #10234
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. Verdi's "La Donna è Mobile" from "Rigoletto" (tune, according to Cray)
File: RuSoAACT

Arsenic Tragedy, The

See Henry Green (The Murdered Wife) [Laws F14] (File: LF14)

Arthur

DESCRIPTION: French. Arthur, a poor boatman, loves a Black girl who lives in a castle. Her mother locks her in a tower far away. When a knight came to ask for her hand she sobs and takes out a handkerchief with Arthur's name. She makes her last sigh.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage grief courting abduction mother Black(s)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 3, "Arthur" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LeBe003

Arthur a Bland

See Robin Hood and the Tanner [Child 126] (File: C126)

Arthur Bond

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells the "praises of young Arthur Bond." He comes to Armagh for a race. Many horses stumble on the course, but Bond, riding Kate Kearney, succeeds easily. He drinks a toast to his mare
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: racing horse
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H783, p. 34, "Arthur Bond" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9219
File: HHH783

Arthur Clyde

DESCRIPTION: Singer, dying, confesses to his sister that he murdered and buried her former lover, Arthur Clyde, because he could not bear to see Clyde with her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (recording, Loman D. Cansler)
KEYWORDS: homicide death dying sister lover
FOUND IN: US(So)
Roud #15752
RECORDINGS:
Loman D. Cansler, "Arthur Clyde" (on Cansler1)
NOTES [14 words]: Cansler states he learned this from his family, and has not heard it elsewhere. - PJS
File: RcAClyde

Arthur Curtis's Horse

DESCRIPTION: "Arthur Curtis lost his horse; I'm sorry that they parted. But people say for the want of hay To the other world he started." A few of the men help Arthur get rid of the dead horse and he vows to "get another one just as good" and finish hauling wood.
AUTHOR: Frank O'Hara
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: death lumbering recitation horse
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 76-77, "Arthur Curtis's Horse" (1 text)
Roud #1949
File: IvNB076

Arthur Desmond

DESCRIPTION: "They are stoning Arthur Desmond, and, of course, it's understood... he isn't any good.... He is fighting pretty plucky with his back against the wall." He's condemned "For his awful crime in saying what so many people thought." God will be a better judge
AUTHOR: "An Australian Exile" (possibly Henry Lawson)
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Wellington "Fair Play," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: political prison New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 92, "Arthur Desmond" (1 text)
NOTES [64 words]: Arthur Desmond was a radical poet, many of whose works were printed by Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ. He was a radical unionist who twice failed of election to Parliament, took part in the Maritime Strike of 1890, then moved to Australia where he became even more extreme (denouncing women and promoting paganism and apparently violent revolution). He frankly sounds unbalanced. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: BaRo092

Arthur Le Bride

See Arthur McBride (File: PBB093)

Arthur McBride

DESCRIPTION: The singer and his cousin Arthur McBride meet a recruiting party (on Christmas). The young men do not wish to join the army; they aren't interested in going overseas to be shot. The sergeant blusters; the Irish boys beat up the soldiers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2131))
KEYWORDS: army fight recruiting humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland,England(West))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #176, p. 1, "Arthur M'Bride" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 78, "Arthur McBride" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 306-307, "The Recruiting Sergeant" (1 text)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #112, "Arthur Le Bride" (1 text, 1 tune, shortened)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 244-245, "Arthur McBride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 93, "Arthur McBride" (1 text)
DT, ARTMCBRD* ARTMCBR2
Roud #2355
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2131), "Arthur Mc. Bride" ("I had a cousin one Arthur Mc. Bride"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth c.14(112), "Arthur M'Bride"; Harding B 25(82), "Arthur Macbride"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Arthur McBride and the Sergeant
Teddy O'Brown
File: PBB093

Arthur Nolan

See Alec Robertson (I) (File: MA065)

Arthur O'Bower

DESCRIPTION: "Arthur O'Bower has broken his band, And he comes roaring up the land, The King of Scots with all his power, Cannot stop Arthur of the bower."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (Songs for the Nursery, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: travel royalty | Arthur O'Bower King of Scots bower
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 53, "Robin-a-Bower has broken his band" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 12, "Arthur O'Bower has broken his band" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #677, p. 270, "(Arthur O'Bower has broken his band)"
Roud #19979
NOTES [85 words]: This has provoked a lot of speculation, e.g. that Arthur O'Bower is King Arthur, or that he is riding the Wild Hunt. Most of these speculations are possible; few are convincing. The best may be the one mentioned by the Baring-Goulds, that this is a riddle and that Arthur O'Bower is the wind.
Beatrix Potter used this rhyme -- with perhaps some errors of hearing -- in "The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin," a story with several traditional verses in it. Potter seems to accept that the verse refers to the wind. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: OpOx2012

Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding (I)

DESCRIPTION: Arthur and Dolly go to marry. Wearing tattered finery, he gets on his broken-down horse, while she walks by his side to the church. They are married. The seedy dinner pleases the crowd. There is drinking, singing, piping and dancing till sun-up.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 2(4))
LONG DESCRIPTION: "O! rare Arthur O'Bradley! wonderful Arthur O'Bradley! Sweet Arthur O'Bradley," being thirty years old, get's young Dolly's consent to marry. Wearing tattered finery -- a greasy, torn hat, breeches with holes, unmatched boots -- he gets on his spavined and blind old mare -- "the prime of his old daddy's stud" -- while Dolly walks by his side to the church, "in the midst of five thousand or more." The parson is shocked by the sight but marries them without fee -- "poor Arthur he'd none to give" -- and is invited to the party. The seedy dinner -- few but good dishes, such as roast guinea-pig -- pleasesd the crowd. There is drinking, singing, piping and dancing -- "you'd have laughed to see their odd stumps, False teeth, china eyes, and cork rumps" -- until sun-up "when each had a kiss of the bride, And hopped home to his own fire-side."
KEYWORDS: poverty wedding clothes dancing drink food music party humorous horse husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #1, pp. 160-167,245, "Arthur O’'Bradley’s Wedding" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 358-365, "Arthur O'Bradleys Wedding" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 271-274, "Arthur O'Bradley O" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 68)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 603-604, "Mad Moll" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, p. 74, "Mad Moll, or The Virgin Queen, or Yellow Stockings" (1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: W. Chappell, Popular Music of the Olden Time, (London, 1859 ("Digitized")), Vol. II, pp. 603-604, "Arthur o'Bradley's Wedding" (1 text first verse from Dixon, 1 tune)
Roud #365
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 2(4), "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding" ("Come neighbours and listen awhile"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 2(3), Firth b.25(78), Harding B 11(105), Johnson Ballads 717 [many illegible lines], "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding" (II) (subject)
cf. "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding" (III) (subject)
cf. "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding" (IV) (subject)
NOTES [729 words]: The "Arthur O'Bradley" songs seem to be quite old. Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 152, lists two items: #1753, "A merry wedding, or, O brave Arthur of Bradley" (registered May 8, 1656 by Francis Grove) and #1754, "A merry wedding, or, Oh! Brave Arthur of Bradley" (registered March 1, 1675). I note that both call him "Arthur of Bradley," not "O'Bradley" -- an unlikely surname to be found in an English ballad!
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 539-540, has a song ""O Brave Arthur of Bradley," with the tune said to be "Roger de Coverley." I would assume it's a version of one or another of the Arthur O'Bradley songs, but with just one verse, I don't know which one, though the chorus perhaps looks most like "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding (II). I'm not dead sure about the "Arthur of Bradley" song on p. 604, either,which he calls "Mad Moll," but since Chappell says it's in Dixon, I'm filing it here. - RBW
For a general introduction to the "Arthur O'Bradley" broadsides see Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth, editor, The Roxburghe Ballads: Illustrating the Last Years of the Stuarts (Hertford, 1891 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VII part II, pp. 312-321.
In "Arthur O'Bradley" songs there seems always to be a chorus that is taken to be well known. In Ebsworth's text -- for "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding" (II) -- the chorus is given as "With oh brave Arthur [o' Bradley], &c." Or, possibly, the case is that the chorus is so long that it is impractical to quote. Cruikshank -- for "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding" (III) -- has "And my name is Squire Arthur O'Bradley, O! Rare Arthur O'Bradley, ..." continuing with adjectives tight, merry, frolicsome, tipsy, reeling, wise, foolish, handsome, dancing, capering and wonderful, all in one chorus.
One way to differentiate among the ballads is to consider inheritance. The only reference in "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding" (I) to inheritance is that the broken down mare is "the prime of his old daddy's stud." "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding" (II) is much more about inheritance and "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding" (III) has Arthur's statement of what he will leave. "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding" (IV) has nothing about the preliminaries to the wedding and so says nothing at all about inheritances.
Ritson notes that "Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor and Marriage" mentions a song of "Arthur-a-Bradly [see Child 149, verse 46] and prints one. Ritson's song of Arthur of Bradley's wedding was from black letter but "compared with and very much corrected by" a 1661 text (Joseph Ritson, editor, Robin Hood, (London, 1884 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 421-425, "A Merry Wedding; or O Brave Arthur of Bradley" ("See you not Pierce the Piper") (1 text)). Ritson does not claim that the song "Robin Hood's Birth ..." mentions is the particular song he has printed; as Dixon notes, "antiquaries are by no means agreed as to what is the song of 'Arthur-a-Bradley,' there alluded to ...." Ritson's song seems very sedate, with little ridicule, and perhaps, one sharp line in each verse. The 1661 broadside Ritson used to "correct" his text is indexed as "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding" (IV).
Dixon, writing in 1846, notes that "an obscure music publisher'... about thirty years ago .. brought out an edition of 'Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding,' with the prefix 'Written by Mr Taylor.' This Mr Taylor was, however, only a low comedian of the day, and the ascribed authorship was a mere trick on the publisher's part to increase the sale of the song [Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, p. 312: "... between 1816 and 1822 is was sung by one Taylor, a comic actor in London, and it was published with music said to be 'arranged by S. Hale, at Walker's.' This version is virtually identical with ...Dixon...."]. We are not able to give any account of the hero, but from his being alluded to by so many of our old writers, he was perhaps, not altogether a fictitious personage. Ben Johnson alludes to him in one of his plays, and he is also mentioned in Decker's Honest Whore."
The Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO transcription is probably defective: it misses all of verse 3 but the first line and the first line of verse 4; the editor has been notified (11/28/2009). - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: AdAOBW1

Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding (II)

DESCRIPTION: Arthur asks Winifred's mother for Winifred's hand. He proudly lists the junk inherited from his father. Mother agrees and, not to be outdone, lists the junk she will leave Winifred. There is a small wedding and party.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: "before 1642?" (Ebsworth; his text is from 1656 _Wits Merriment_)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Arthur of Bradley proposes to Winifred of Madly. They go to discuss marriage with her mother. Mother takes Winifred aside and says she is too young (twelve); Winifred says she is at least fifteen. Arthur proudly lists the junk inherited from his father, such as "an old spade," saying "I can have as good as thee." Mother agrees to the match and, not to be outdone, lists, "with courteous modesty," the junk she will leave Winifred, such as "a wooden ladle." After the small wedding the staff and guests -- who are named -- eat, drink, play and dance.
KEYWORDS: wedding dancing drink food music party humorous moniker husband mother wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 427, "Arthur O'Bradley O" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Roger Ebsworth, editor, Choyce Drollery: Songs & Sonnets ... 1656 ... Merry Drollery, 1661 (Boston, 1876 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 397-403, "Arthur O'Bradley" ("All you that desire to merry be") (1 text)
Roud #365
NOTES [12 words]: cf. "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding" (I) (subject) and notes and references there
Last updated in version 2.6
File: AdAOBW2

Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding (III)

DESCRIPTION: Arthur Bradley courted one-eyed humpbacked bandy-legged ... Draggletail Dorothy. The wedding attendees are only one character from each town. Arthur lists what he will leave Dorothy: "two old left handed mittens" "a good old mustard pot" and so on
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 17C (Roxburghe); 1834 (Cruickshank)
KEYWORDS: poverty wedding humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 5, "Arthur Bradley O" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth, editor, The Roxburghe Ballads: Illustrating the Last Years of the Stuarts (Hertford, 1891 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VII part II, pp. 320-321, "Arthur o' Bradley" (2 texts: Roxburghe III.283 and verses from a 1778 text)
George Cruikshank and Robert Cruikshank, The Universal Songster, (London, 1834 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, p. 368, "O! Rare Arthur O'Bradley, O!" ("'Twas in the sweet month of May, I walked out to take the air") (1 text)
Roud #365
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 2(4)[many lines illegible], "Arthur O'Bradley's Fortune ("Twas in the month of May, when lasses they were gay"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding" (I) (subject) and references there
NOTES [686 words]: Dorothy Draggletail is the name of the fifth amorous maid in "Dame Durden": "'Twas on the morn of Valentine, The birds began to prate, Dame Durden's servants, maids and men, They all began to mate. 'Twas Moll and Bet, Doll and Kate, And Dorothy Draggletail, And John and Dick, and Joe and Jack, and Humphrey with his flail." Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople, re "Draggletail," says, "Possibly gypsy (cf. Raggle-taggle [as in Williams, Folk-Songs of the Upper Thames versions of Child 200])." From an 1870 story: "... 'do you know, mamma, Dolly always reminds me of that girl in the song ? You know, there was "Kit, and Bess, and Moll, and Sue, and Dorothy Draggletail." I suppose she was an awful slut....'" (Edith Walford, "Dorothy Draggletail," The Quiver: an Illustrated Magazine for Sunday and General Reading , (London, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. V, p. 413).
[Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (combined fifth edition with dictionary and supplement), Macmillan, 1961, p. 240, defines draggle-tail as "'A nasty dirty Slut,' B.E.: coll[oquial]: late C.17-mid 19. See (anatomical) tail and cf. daggle-tail q.v. -- 2. Hence, a low prostitute, mid C. 19-20; ob[solecent]." Interestingly, according to Evelyn Foster Morneweck (Stephen Foster's niece), Chronicles of Stephen Foster's Family, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1944, p. 42, Stephen Foster's father William B. Foster knew a song about Dorothy Draggletail, but it is not clear if it was this or "Dame Durden." - RBW]
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople: "This seems to be a comparatively late version of a comic song which had been printed as early as the seventeenth century." The reference may be to the broadside "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding" (I) (which see). The bride's name there is Dolly, not Dorothy Draggletail, and she is not a particular object of ridicule. In that song no one person is ridiculed though the entire wedding party, "five thousand or more," are made out to be bumpkins. The Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople description of Dorothy is almost exactly the broadside description of guest "old mother Crewe."
In Cruikshank's text "my father he died one day, and he left me his son and heir." The rest of the song lists his inheritance, including "a barrow without a handle ... two left handed gloves, a chamber-pot as good as ever was made of wood ... several other things, but I have forgot one half." The girl and her mother are omitted altogether. There is not much difference between this form and such songs as "Grandfather Bryan" and "My Father Died a Month Ago." The items in the inheritance put it with "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding (III)."
The Roxburghe broadside is not dated. I am using Chappell's general dating: "The collection may be looked upon broadly as one of English ballads printed during the seventeenth century, for the exceptions [ten that were printed between 1567 and 1584] are but few in comparison with the bulk" (source: Wm. Chappell, The Roxburghe Ballads, (London, 1871), [Vol. I,] p. vi); that is not always reliable [for example, Roxburghe III.380, "The Gallant Grahams of Scotland," which refers to Bonnie Prince Charlie, must have been modified in mid-18C]. It can probably be dated as later than the 1642?-1656 text cited for "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding" (II). The two texts share some lines (especially in the conversation between mother and daughter and Arthur's inheritance). However, "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding" (III) leaves out most of the details of the wedding and feast and is less polite. For example, Ebsworth's version of "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding" II has "homeward they went with speed, Where the mother they met indeed. 'Well met fair Dame!" quoth Arthur, To move you I am come hither"; Harding B 2(4), has "Then Arthur forth did walk, to the old woman he did talk Thou art an old whore said he, I can have as good as she," and the Roxburghe text here has "'O daughter sweet!' cries she, 'what makes you so eager be To be a bumkin's Bride, when better will lie by your side?' 'You lie, old whore,' cries he, 'I can have as good as she.'" - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: ReSh005

Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding (IV)

DESCRIPTION: "Arthur had got him a Lass, a bonnier never was" and everyone goes to the wedding, the dance, and the feast. All are named. At sun set they see the couple to bed, call for the piper to play "Loth to Depart," and leave.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1661 (_The Antidote against Melancholy_, quoted by Ebsworth)
KEYWORDS: wedding dancing drink food music party humorous moniker husband wife
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth, editor, The Roxburghe Ballads: Illustrating the Last Years of the Stuarts (Hertford, 1891 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VII part II, pp. 317-319, "The Ballad of Arthur of Bradley" ("See you not Pierce the Piper") (1 text)
Joseph Ritson, editor, _Robin Hood_, (London, 1884 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 421-425, "A Merry Wedding; or O Brave Arthur of Bradley" ("See you not Pierce the Piper") (1 text)
Roud #365
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding" (I) (subject) and references there
NOTES [15 words]: Ritson's text is based on a text I don't have, "very much corrected by" Ebsworth's text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: AdAoB4

Arthur's Seat

DESCRIPTION: The singer is poor and forsaken. She fantasizes: "I will to some other land Till I see my love will on me rue" She wishes she had never been born or died young. She wishes her baby were born and she were dead. She waits for Death to end her weariness.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1701 (broadside, NLScotland Ry.III.a.10(056))
KEYWORDS: poverty courting pregnancy nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 204 Appendix, "Arthur's Seat Shall Be My Bed, etc., or, Love in Despair" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1167, "Arthur's Seat" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, pp. 92-93, "Arthur's Seat Shall Be My Bed, or Love in Despair" (1 text)
Roud #6851
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(056), "Arthur's Seat Shall be my Bed, &c." or "Love in Despair," unknown, c.1701
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" (lyrics: two verses)
cf. "Jamie Douglas" [Child 204] (lyrics: one verse)
NOTES [99 words]: The two verses shared with Child's text of "Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bony" are neither common floaters nor verses shared with "Jamie Douglas": one is the title verse ("Now Arthur-Seat shall be my bed ....") and the other the Martinmas wind reference ("Martinmas wind, when wilt thou blow ...).One verse ("Oh, oh, if my young babe were born, And set upon the nurse's knee, And I myself were dead and gone! For a maid again I'le never be") is shared with Child 204 A, C and E. - BS
It is interesting to find this in Aberdeenshire. The best known Arthur's Seat is in Holyrood Park in Edinburgh. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD51167

Artillery Alphabet, The

DESCRIPTION: "A's the Artillery, the pride of the line, B's for battery, the battery sublime, C is for correction, which gives us the fuse, And D's for the drag-ropes we seldom use. Sing high, sing low, Wherever we go, Artillery gunners will never say no." And so on
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Gardham-EastRidingSongster)
KEYWORDS: soldier nonballad wordplay | alphabet
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North)) Canada
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 31, p. 39, "The Artillery Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 70-71, "Artillery Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21722
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Logger's Alphabet" (subject) and references there
File: Gard031

As 'Twuz and As 'Tiz

DESCRIPTION: "McCarty and Kelly sat beside the road... Discussing the chow of logging camps." Mac describes the camp of "Micky Dunroe an' Joe Pretto." The loggers in those days could only dream of decent food, but now the camps "are systematic"
AUTHOR: William Moriarty (source: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: logger food hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 152-153, "As 'Twuz and As 'Tiz" (1 text)
NOTES [31 words]: For other poems attributed to William Moriarity in Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, see the notes to "Paul King." I have seen no evidence that any of them made it into tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm152

As Bacchus Frequented His Frolics

See O'Sullivan's Frolics (File: OCC027)

As Bell and Blow

DESCRIPTION: Bell and Blow are in love and go walking in April. Simon courts Miss but "knew he'd acted wrong in Not having dared to steal a kiss"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 894, "As Bell and Blow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6232
File: GrD4894

As Bessie sat doon wi' her seam by the fire

See A'body's Like to be Married but Me (File: FVS299)

As Broad as I was Walking

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a pretty maid "lamenting for her love." He courts her "in a rude and rakish way." She bids him stop, "crying out, Young man, for shame." Her lover is gone; she vows that if she can't enjoy him, "I will rejoice in a sweet and single life."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(196a))
KEYWORDS: courting loneliness separation oldmaid
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 230-231, "As Broad as I was Walking" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #23793
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(196a), "Modest Maid," J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Johnson Ballads 915[last verse illegible], "Modest Maid"; Harding B 25(1310), "Nancy's Love for her Sailor"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
NOTES [47 words]: This really, REALLY reminds me of a Riley/Broken Token ballad. But since the stanza form does not match the more common Riley ballads, and since there is no reunion at the end, I have to classify it on its own.
The title, I imagine, is a corruption of "Abroad as I was Walking." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: CoSB230

As Dew in April

See I Sing of a Maiden that Is Makeless (Matchless, Mateless) (File: MSISOAMa)

As Eenty Feenty Halligolun

See Eentie Teentie Figgery Fell (File: PKKB037G)

As For Me, My Little Brain Isn't Very Bright

See Jolly Old Saint Nicholas (File: KSUC044)

As Free A Little Bird As I Can Be

See Free Little Bird (File: FSWB391A)

As Holy Kyrke Makys Mynd

DESCRIPTION: Macaronic carol with Latin second and fourth lines. "Jesus, almighty king of bliss, As Holy Church makes him mind, From heaven to earth to save mankind," Mary is told she will bear a son. Jesus is born. He was King of Kings; he was God, man, and king
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1480 (Heege Manuscript)
KEYWORDS: religious foreignlanguage MiddleEnglish Jesus | macaronic Latin virgin birth
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #23, p. 16, "(no tile )" (2 texts, from the Heege and Harley manuscripts)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics LXXII, pp. 134-135, "(no title)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #340
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #589
ADDITIONAL: Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #9, pp. 62-63, "(Almyghty Jhesu, Kyng of Blysse)" (1 text)
Carleton Brown, editor, Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1939, #86, p. 123, "Angels, Star, and Magi" (1 text, from the Heege manuscript)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSHeege}, The Heege Manuscript, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 19.3.1, folio 59
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Egerton 3307, folio 65
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library Bodley 77 (SC ), folio 1
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Harley 275, folio 146
NOTES [115 words]: There is of course no proof that this is traditional. It is true that it is found in four manuscripts, but only one -- the Heege Manuscript -- has any real traditional significance. On the other hand, as Brown's notes point out, there are substantial differences between the texts, and some have a burden and others don't. I think the chances that it's traditional are rather slight. Still, it's widely enough reprinted that I decided to include it, just in case. Brown suggests that it borrows Latin tags from multiple hymns. I admit there is a *lot* of Latin in the song -- more than one would expect in a traditional song. But medieval Catholics remembered a lot more Latin than we do. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MEahkmm

As I Cam Ower Strathmartine Mains

See Love and Freedom (File: Gath066)

As I came by a grene forest syde

See A Hunting Carol (At A Place Where I Me Set) (File: MSAHuCar)

As I Came Home So Late Last Night

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

As I Came Over Yonder's Hill (Turkey Song)

DESCRIPTION: "As I came over yonders hill, I spied an awful turkey, He flapped his wings and he spread his tail, And his feet looked awfully dirty, La la la, la la la...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (collected from Pearl Jacobs Borusky)
KEYWORDS: lullaby bird
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, p. 248, "As I Came Over Yonder's Hill" (1 short text, 1 tune, sung by Pearl Jacobs Borusky)
Roud #4234
File: PJB248

As I Climbed Up the Apple Tree

DESCRIPTION: "As I climbed up the apple tree, All the apples fell on me. Someone shook them, and I knew, The who who did was Y-O-U."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: food | apples climbing counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 23, "(As I went up the Apple Tree)" (1 text); p. 33, "(As I went up the apple tree)" (1 text, consisting of the first two lines of "As I Climbed Up the Apple Tree" followed by the first six lines of "Bake a Pudding, Bake a Pie")
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 120, "As I Climbed Up the Apple Tree" (1 text)
Roud #19821
File: DCCT120E

As I Gaed in Tae Bonnie Aberdeen

DESCRIPTION: In Aberdeen the singer throws a rock at a sleeping old lady's head and runs away. She chases him with a stick "and I wondered if she'd strick me" He runs away again and "now I hear that she is dead And buried ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: violence escape death humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1707, "As I Gaed in Tae Bonnie Aberdeen" (1 text)
Roud #13138
File: GrD81707

As I Gaed ower a Whinny Knowe

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)

As I gaed owre yon heich heich hill

See Blawin' Willie Buck's Horn (File: GrD81640)

As I Go Sing

DESCRIPTION: "As I walk the hills my heart is light, and as I go I sing." Her brothers urge the singer to seek wealth; her mother warns her of dying an old maid. She says she will never wed -- but allows she might if a certain man comes courting
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love family oldmaid
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H661, p. 259, "As I Go I Sing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6899
File: HHH661

As I Grow Old

See If I Live to Grow Old (File: BeCo460)

As I Lay Upon a Night (Alma Redemptoris Mater)

DESCRIPTION: "As I lay upon a night, My thought was on a (maiden/bird so) bright, That men call Mary (full) of might, Redemptoris mater." Gabriel came to her, saying, "Hail, Mary, full of might!" Jesus is born of her. Jesus ascends to heaven.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1430 (British Library -- Sloane MS. 2593)
KEYWORDS: religious childbirth mother children MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #234, pp. 166-168, "(As I lay vpon a nyth)" (4 texts)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics LIII, p. 106, "(no title)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #354
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #608
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book , Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #21, p. 12, "Now sing we all in fere, Alma Redemptoris mater" (1 text, with an additional text on p. 172)
Carleton Brown, editor, Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1939, #72, pp. 108-109, "My Thought Was on a Maid so Bright (1 text, from the Trinity manuscript)
Rossell Hope Robbins, editor, _Early English Christmas Carols_, Columbia University Press, 1961, #18, pp. 55-55, "Alma Redemptoris Mater" (1 text, 1 tune)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 222
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 30
MANUSCRIPT: {MSArchSeldenB26}, Oxford, Bodleian Library Arch. Selden B.26, folio 13
MANUSCRIPT: {MSCamTrinityO.3.58}, Cambridge, Trinity College MS. O.3.58
NOTES [240 words]: The visitation of Gabriel to Mary is told in Luke 1:26-38; the words in this song don't much resemble the Biblical text, but there was no accepted English translation of the text at the time this carol went into circulation.
Mary's presence at the cross is recorded most explicitly in John 19:25-27; the other gospels have somewhat confusing accounts of just who was at the foot of the cross, though Cathoic tradition eventually settled on a list of names.
Jesus's ascent into heaven is told in Luke 24:51 and Acts 1:9.
Although no longer found in tradition, this seems to have been popular in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, surviving in no fewer than four manuscripts, two of them very important for the history of traditional song. It is in the Hill MS. (Balliol College, Oxford, 354, a short version) and in Sloane MS. 2593, an important collection which contains many folk songs. The other manuscripts are Cambridge, Trinity College MS. O.3.58 (fifteenth century) and British Library, MS. Arch Selden B.26. The latter two manuscripts are noteworthy for also containing "The Agincourt Carol"; for details, see the notes to that song.
The manuscripts differ significantly; two have six verses, one five, one four, and all the texts different. This implies a high enough probability of oral transmission that I have indexed the song.
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSAILUaN

As I Lay Vpon a Nyth (I)

See Als I Lay Upon a Nith (As I Lay Upon a Night II) (File: MSFHHOSS)

As I lay vpon a nyth (II)

See As I Lay Upon a Night (Alma Redemptoris Mater) (File: MSAILUaN)

As I Roamed Out

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17]; also The Banks of Sweet Primroses (File: LO17)

As I Rode Down Through Irishtown

See The Crimean War [Laws J9] (File: LJ09)

As I Rode Out (I)

See The Banks of Sweet Primroses (File: ShH51)

As I Rode Out (II)

See The Sally Buck (File: SKE70)

As I Roll My Rolling Ball

See En Roulant Ma Boule (File: FJ056)

As I Roved Out (I) (Tarry Trousers II)

DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears a girl talking to her mother. The mother wants her daughter to marry a farmer, but the girl prefers a sailor. (The girl and the sailor are happily wed; she tries to persuade him to go to sea no more.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1848 (Journal from the Nauticon)
KEYWORDS: lover courting mother sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South)) Canada(Mar,Newf) US(MA)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #85, "Broad-Striped Trousers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 130, "Tarry Trousers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 133, "Tarry Trousers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 96-99, "The Tarry Trousers" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 168-169, "Pretty Polly (The Tarry Trousers)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 212-214, "Tarry Trousers" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 31, "As I Roved Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 495-496, "Anchors Aweigh, Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp.134-136, "Tarry Trousers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 14, "As I Roved Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 414, TARYTROU* TARYTRU2*
Roud #427
RECORDINGS:
Mrs Clara Stevens, "Anchors Aweigh, Love" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sailors They Are Such a Sort" (theme: mother and daughter discuss sailors as husbands)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Mother's Admonition
File: LoF014

As I Roved Out (II)

See Trooper and Maid [Child 299] (File: C299)

As I Roved Out (III)

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)

As I Roved Out (V)

See The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)

As I Roved Out (VI)

See The Deluded Lover (File: K150)

As I Roved Out One Evening (I)

DESCRIPTION: A son, against his parents' wishes, plans to cross the sea "in search of gold." He is afraid, if he stays, King George will be defeated. His love has wed another leaving him under oath not to wed any girl in Ireland. He leaves for the East Indies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(345))
KEYWORDS: infidelity separation Ireland
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 41, "As I Roved Out One Evening" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2752
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(345), "The Carrick Lovers ("As I roved out one morning I heard a mournful cry"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824
NOTES [9 words]: Carrick on Shannon is in County Leitrim, Ireland. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: CrSNB041

As I Roved Out One Evening (II)

DESCRIPTION: Two lovers discuss marriage. He won't marry and lose his freedom, but would attend her wedding. She invites her old sweetheart to her wedding. He comes and decides he would marry her now. She says "you're welcome to my wedding but not to my bedding"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage wedding rejection parting bachelor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #29057
RECORDINGS:
John M. Curtis, "As I Roved (Rode) Out One Evening" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3AIROE

As I Roved through an Irish Town

See The Crimean War [Laws J9] (File: LJ09)

As I sat at my spinning wheel

See My Spinning Wheel (File: GrD81861)

As I Sat on a Sunny Bank

See I Saw Three Ships (File: OBB104)

As I Sat Under a Sycamore Tree

See I Saw Three Ships (File: OBB104)

As I Set Down to Play Tin-Can

See The Coon-Can Game [Laws I4] (File: LI04)

As I Set Off To Turkey

See Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)

As I Sit Here Alone

DESCRIPTION: "As I sit here alone in the old shearer's hut...I wonder, is it worth goin' on." The shearer describes the hard work, the injuries, the poor pay, the lack of respect for inferior workers. He concludes , "I KNOW it's not worth goin' on."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes sheep
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 146-147, "As I Sit Here Alone" (1 text)
File: MCB146B

As I Staggered From Home Yesterday Morning

DESCRIPTION: As singer staggers out, his wife (counting up his meager cash) tells him their life would be better if he quit drinking -- they'd soon be "rich as a Jew." He tells her that drink does him a world of good, and he intends to continue
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (recording, Pat Ford)
KEYWORDS: drink wife
FOUND IN: US(MW)
Roud #15472
RECORDINGS:
Pat Ford, "As I staggered from home yesterday morning" [fragment] (AFS 4210 B3 & 4211 B3, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
NOTES [14 words]: Both [Pat Ford] recordings contain the same fragment, but are different takes. - PJS
File: RcAISFHY

As I Strolled Out One Evening

See Down By Blackwaterside (File: K151)

As I walked by a forest side

See A Hunting Carol (At A Place Where I Me Set) (File: MSAHuCar)

As I Walked Forth in the Pride of the Season

DESCRIPTION: A man promises to marry a maid he meets. He says he is poor and her "low degree" is no cause for concern. They kiss and fall asleep. When he wakes he finds her not a virgin and says they'll never marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: grief courting sex virginity warning floatingverses
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 422-423, "As I Walked Forth in the Pride of the Season" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea422 (Partial)
Roud #9785
RECORDINGS:
Mrs Bennett Freeman, "As I Walked Forth in the Pride of the Season" (on PeacockCDROM)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The False Young Man
NOTES [47 words]: [Despite Peacock's subtitle "The False Young Man," this is] not "The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out)." - BS
Peacock's final stanza is the floating "ripest of apples" lyric; it's not clear which of the several songs which include the verse is the source. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea422

As I Walked Oot One Sabbath Mornin'

DESCRIPTION: "As I walked oot one Sabbath mornin' As I gaed oot by the break of day I spied a handsome and fair young damsel, She was walking like a lady gay"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: beauty travel
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1799, "As I Walked Oot One Sabbath Mornin'" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13000
NOTES [113 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
The Greig/Duncan8 notes suggest that this might be "Young Munro" or "William Taylor" [Laws N11]. I don't see the "Young Munro" connection but "William Taylor" often includes a verse like "She arose early in the morning, Early by the break of day, There she espied o'er William Taylor, Walking with his lady gay" [Broadside Bodleian Harding B 25(2069), "William Taylor" ("William was a youthful lover"), unknown, no date]. - BS
I also thought of "William Taylor," based on the meter as much as the contents. The words make me think more of a broken token song -- but that's no help, given how many such there are. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81799

As I Walked Out (I) (A New Broom Sweeps Clean)

DESCRIPTION: A young man tells a girl, "Alas, I'm tormented, for love I must die." He begs her to come away with him. She tells him, "Were I to say yes, I would say 'gainst my mind." He curses her unkindness; he will marry a girl who loves him if he marries at all
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H109, p. 357, "As I Walked Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 40, "A New Broom Sweeps Clean" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST HHH109 (Partial)
Roud #2751
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "If I Were a Fisher" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [90 words]: Bodleian, Harding B 25(1325), "A New Broom Sweeps Clean" ("Why talk you of marriage, I have little wit"), Angus (Newcastle), 1774-1825; also Harding B 17(209a), "A New Broom Sweeps Clean" shares only its title, one similar verse, and dialog theme with this song. The similar verse -- with potential for floating -- is "I think it no wonder maids are fickle in their minds, Young men will deceive them be they ever so kind; They will court with strange sweethearts, be they ever so mean, It is an old saying that a new broom sweeps clean." - BS
File: HHH109

As I Walked Out (II)

See The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)

As I Walked Out (III)

See The Bold Fisherman [Laws O24] (File: LO24)

As I Walked Out (IV)

See The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)

As I Walked Out (V)

DESCRIPTION: "As I walked out one May morning, All by some shady green groves, And there I beheld a most charming pretty maid, And her cheeks were as red as the rose, the rose, And her cheeks...." He asks to walk with her. She agrees to marry even though he is poor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Hamer-GreenGroves)
KEYWORDS: beauty courting marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 8-9, "As I Walked Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1139
File: HaGr008

As I Walked Out in the Streets of Laredo

See The Streets of Laredo [Laws B1] (File: LB01)

As I Walked Out Into Her Hall

DESCRIPTION: "As I walked out into her hall, Just like some crazy fellow," the singer tries to lure Miss Kate into the valley. She says her father might see them, and urges him to climb a tree and hide. She leaves him up the tree and goes home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tennessee Folklore Society recording, The Hicks Family)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction lie | tree
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania,pp. 130-133, "Kitty Maury" (1 text) (pp. 109-110 in the 1919 edition, where it is "Katie Maury")
Roud #4851
RECORDINGS:
Carmen McCord Hicks, "As I Walked out into Her Hall" (Piotr-Archive #471, recorded 01/29/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Katie Morey" [Laws N24] (plot)
NOTES [54 words]: Sort of "The Baffled Knight" meets Chaucer's "Merchant's Tale." I initially lumped Shoemaker's version with "Katie Morey" [Laws N24], for obvious reasons, but now that I know there is another version with the tree motif, the tree seems to be a sufficient reason to distinguish the songs. They are probably related, however. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio471

As I Walked Out on a Fair May Morning

See The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)

As I Walked Out One May Morning

See The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)

As I Walked Out One Morning in Spring

See Next Monday Morning (File: ShH38)

As I Walked Through the Meadows

See Queen of the May (File: SWMS190)

As I Wandered by the Brookside

See I Wandered by the Brookside (File: CrMa035)

As I Want Down to Mas' Cornfiel'

See The Hog-Eye Man (I) (File: RL401)

As I Was A-Walking (I)

See The Mantle So Green [Laws N38] (File: LN38)

As I Was A-Walking (II)

See I Must Live All Alone (File: LEBC016)

As I Was A-Walking by Newgate One Day

See The Silk Merchant's Daughter [Laws N10] (File: LN10)

As I Was A-Walking by Yon Green Garden

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees "an auld wife she was clawing her hole." He asks why she is so itchy. She tells him to leave and "I will claw it my fill"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: age dialog scatological
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 68, "As I Was A-Walking by Yon Green Garden" (1 text)
Roud #3865
File: LyCr1068

As I Was A-Walking Down Ratcliffe Highway

See Ratcliffe Highway (File: Doe114)

As I Was Going By Banbury Cross

See Banbury Cross (File: Br3140)

As I Was Going by Charing Cross

DESCRIPTION: As I was going by Charing Cross, I saw a black man upon a black horse, They told me it was King Charles the First, Oh dear, my heart was ready to burst."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell); probably first found in an Ashmole ms. of c. 1660 (source: Opei-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: royalty horse execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1625-1649 - Reign of Charles I
Jan 30, 1649 - Execution of Charles I (who was deposed and executed for being too much of an absolute monarch) near Whitehall and Charing Cross
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 93, "As I Was Going to Charing Cross" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #214, p. 145, "(As I was going by Charing Cross)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 4, "As I Was Going by Charing Cross" (1 text)
Roud #20564
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Banbury Cross" (lyrics)
NOTES [43 words]: The incredible Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 216, combines this with "Daffy-Down-Dilly," but offers no explanation for why that fragment about a flower has anything to do with Charles I. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: OO2093

As I Was Going down Piggy Wiggy Track

See Spelling Game (Blue spells B-L-U-E; T-W-O Spells Two; My Mother and Your Mother) (File: SuSm096F)

As I Was Going into the Fair of Athy

See The Old Petticoat (File: RcOldPet)

As I Was Going O'er the Moor

See (references to tune under) Mowing the Barley (Cold and Raw) (File: ShH60)

As I Was Going Over London Bridge (The Dead Rat)

DESCRIPTION: "As I was going over London bridge, I met a dead (rat/horse), I one it, you two it, you three it... you eight (ate) it." The one who "ate" it becomes "it" or it "out" Or "There's an old dead horse down in the meadow; I one it... I two it... I eight it."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty food animal
FOUND IN: New Zealand US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 98-99, "(As I was going over London Bridge)" (1 text)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 105, "I Ate It" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 121, "(There's an old dead horse in the road)" (1 text)
File: SuSm097A

As I Was Going to Banbury

See A Leg of Mutton Went Over to France (File: Pea014)

As I Was Going to Darby

See The Derby Ram (File: R106)

As I Was Going to Romford

See Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)

As I Was Going to St. Ives

DESCRIPTION: "As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives, Each wife had seven sacks, Each sack had seven cats, Each cat had seven kirs: Kits, cats, sacks, and wives, How many were going to St. Ives?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell); reportedly found in a Harley MS. of c. 1730 (source: Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: travel riddle
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 61, "As I was going to St. Ives" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 462, "As I Was Going to St. Ives" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #678, p. 270, "(As I was going to St. Ives)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 7, "As I Was Going to St Ives" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 183, "As I Was Going to St Ives" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 63, "(As I was going to St. Ives)" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Foster West, "Folklore of a Mountain Childhood," Vol. XVI, No. 3 (Nov 1968), p. 168, "(As I Was Going to Saint Ives)" (1 text); article reprinted (with text reset) in Vol. LII, No. 3 (Nov 1968), p. 11
Roud #19772
NOTES [76 words]: Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel claims that a similar trap is found in the famous Rhind Papyrus, an Egyptian mathematical text of around 1650 BCE. It is #79 in that work -- but the problem doesn't have the same hook at the end. It has seven houses, seven cats per house, which catch seven mice, each of which would have eaten seven heads of grain, each of which would have produced seven hekats of yield, and the question is how many items are to be counted up. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OO2462

As I Was Going to Strawberry Fair

See Strawberry Fair (File: ReCi125)

As I Was in the Kitchen

See Granny in the Kitchen (File: AJRR022)

As I Was Walkin' Down Wexford Street

See The Croppy Boy (I) [Laws J14] (File: LJ14)

As I Was Walking

See As I Was Walking Down In Yon Valley (File: GrD1004)

As I Was Walking by the Lake

See Jelly-Cake (File: ZiZa108B)

As I Was Walking Down In Yon Valley

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a girl. Seven years ago her parents forced her lover across the sea. She looked for him in America until she ran out of money. The singer says her lover is dead. She says she'll never marry. He reveals that he is her lost lover. They marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love marriage separation reunion lie father mother sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #23, p. 1, ("As I was walking down in yon valley") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1004, "As I Was Walking" (9 texts plus a single verse on p. 612, 5 tunes)
Roud #6277
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] (plot) and references there
cf. "The Banks of Claudy" [Laws N40] (plot)
cf. "A Bonnie Laddie, But Far Awa (theme: parents drive lover away)
cf. "Oh Cruel" (plot)
cf. "The Single Sailor" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
File: GrD1004

As I Was Walking o'er Little Moorfields

See A Leg of Mutton Went Over to France (File: Pea014)

As I Was Walking Through the Grove

See Lonesome Dove (I - The Minister's Lamentation) (File: R607)

As I Was Walking Through the Wud

DESCRIPTION: The singer builds a church in a wood, helped by all the animals: one with a horn dug stones, another brought them home, a hare rang the morning bell, a lark sang. "Hymen was the high priest, An' Choral was the clerk"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: religious animal bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #22, p. 2, ("As I was walking through the wud") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1637, "As I Was Walking Through the Wud" (1 text)
Roud #13064
NOTES [111 words]: Hymen came to be known as the god of marriage, symbolized by torch and veil. He was a late addition to the Greek pantheon, his name coming from the chant of a wedding song. He was a very minor god; the mention here might be derived from Shakespeare rather than Greek myth. The reference to "Choral" is not to a Greek or Roman God; perhaps it refers to a Greek chorus.
There are several stories of animals by one means or another locating a church (for examples see Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud, A Dictionary of English Folklore, Oxford, 2000, p. 68), and any number of tales of animals helping with a task, but I can't recall one of them building a church. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1637

As I Went A-Walking One Fine Summer's Evening

See Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own) (File: R393)

As I Went By the Garden Gate

See Jelly-Cake (File: ZiZa108B)

As I Went by the Luckenbooths

DESCRIPTION: "As I went by the Luckenbooths I saw a lady fair... 'Oh, have you seen my lost love, With his braw Highland men?" "But when the minister came out Her mare began to prance, Then rode into the sunset Beyond the coast of France."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Montgomerie)
KEYWORDS: beauty love nonballad Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 114, "(As I went by the Luckenbooths)" (1 text)
DT, LUCKBOTH
NOTES [106 words]: This is an odd little piece, since half of it is just the description of the beautiful girl ("The smile about her bonnie cheek Was sweeter than the bee; Her voice was like the bird's song Upon the birken tree"). But the other half looks strongly Jacobite. On that basis, after much hesitation, I decided to include it.
Murray Shoolbraid, in his Digital Tradition notes, observes, "M[offat] says this is a spectral or 'ghostie' ballad, a great favourite of children in the 17th and 18th centuries [which I greatly doubt]." I doubt it too. (That is, I doubt the supernatural element, barring the discovery of a more explicit version). - RBW
File: MSNR114

As I Went Down in the Valley to Pray

See Down in the Valley to Pray (File: Br3553)

As I Went Down to My Grandfather's Farm

DESCRIPTION: "As I went down to my grandfather's farm, A billy-goat chased me around the barn. It chased me up a sycamore tree, And this is what it said to me:" This is generally followed by a floating verse of some kind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Speroni, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: farming animal floatingverses | goat tree
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #25, "As I went down to my grandfather's farm" (1 text)
Roud #12967
NOTES [31 words]: Roud appears to lump this with "Down in the Meadow (Down in the Valley II)." They often share lyrics, but it appears that the common lyrics are floating items; the frameworks are distinct.
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR025

As I Went Down to New Bern

See As I Went Down to Newbern (File: BrII282)

As I Went Down to Newbern

DESCRIPTION: "As I went down to Newbern, I went there on the tide, I just got there in time To be taken by Old Burnside." The singer complains of his treatment and bets that the Yankees will run every time they fight the Confederates
AUTHOR: (earliest form, "Billy Patterson," by Daniel Decatur Emmett)
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Brown); Emmett's song is from 1859
KEYWORDS: Civilwar prisoner
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb. 7, 1862 - Burnside's North Carolina expedition approaches Roanoke Island
Feb. 8, 1862 - Burnside defeats Henry Wise's local troops to capture Roanoke Island
Mar. 14, 1862 - Burnside takes New Bern
Apr. 26, 1862 - Burnside captures Beaufort
July 3, 1862 - Burnside and some 7500 of his troops are transferred to the Army of the Potomac
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 282, "As I Went Down to Newbern" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 282, "As I Went Down to New Bern" (notes only)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 235, "As I Went to Newbern" (1 text)
Roud #6641
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Can Whip the Scoundrel" (lyrics, theme, subject?)
cf. "Old Glory" (subject of Burnside's Carolina campaign)
NOTES [817 words]: I'm going to leave my initial notes below, because they apply to the song as it currently exists, but Carter C. has resolved the situation; his quite impressive research (along with many texts of the song) is available on Mudcat.org. He finds that both "As I Went Down to Newbern" and "I Can Whip the Scoundrel" are derived from an 1859 song, "Billy Patterson," by the famous Daniel Decatur Emmett, apparently first printed in 1863. Emmett's song was based on a joke from the 1830s, and obviously predates the American Civil War. Clearly many people took the core of the Emmett song and adapted it to a local incident. For more on the original, and its evolution, I refer you to the Mudcat thread "Origins: I Can Whip the Scoundrel," as well as the Ballad Index notes to "I Can Whip the Scoundrel"; my earlier notes about this particular version follow:
This short little item looks both fragmentary and composite; the first part is about the Union occupation of northeastern North Carolina, but the second is a boast against the Yankees. They might belong together, but I suspect the final stanza was grafted in after the New Bern song lost most of its verses.
On top of that, it derives material from "I Can Whip the Scoundrel"; if the two songs were fuller, we might well find that they are the same.
BrownSchinhan seems to imply that Brown's source notes were wrong. In all, a very confusing piece.
Ambrose Burnside's North Carolina expedition of 1862 was part of the Union strategy of blockading the Confederacy. The expedition didn't close any major harbors, so it wasn't much help to the blockade by itself -- but it gave the Union a base for ships that were blockading more important places. An account of this is found in James M. McPherson, War on the Waters: The Union & Confederate Navies, 1861-1865, University of North Carolina Press, 2012, starting on p. 50.
The North Carolina Outer Banks guard the entrances to three major waterways: Albemarle Sound in the north, the Pamlico River in the center, and the Neuse River to the south. The latter two flow into Pamlico Sound, with the main way from the Sound being by Hatteras Inlet near Cape Hatteras. Albemarle Sound lies behind a different barrier island, but all are separated from the broader ocean by the Outer Banks; it is possible for coasting vessels to get from one to the other without going beyond the Outer Banks, although Roanoke Island provides a clear divider between Albemarle and Pamlico Sound and is a good place to block traffic between the two.
Burnside's troops came from New England, and were carried by a fleet commanded by Louis M. Goldsborough. The fleet gathered off Hatteras Inlet at the beginning of January (McPherson, p. 50). It took some work to get all of the transports through the shallows of Hatteras Inlet, but they managed. Their first objective was Roanoke Island. The locals appealed to Richmond for more troops to defend it, but no troops came. Goldsborough's ships bombarded the fortifications on Roanoke, forcing the few Confederates on the scene to retreat; Burnside's troops landed, and took the island and 2675 defenders at a cost of 264 army and 25 navy casualties. The few Confederate gunboats in the area were also driven away (McPherson, p. 51; there are maps on pp. 52-53). This all but eliminated Albemarle Sound as a shipping source for the Confederates. That left Pamlico Sound. The Army and Navy again combined, marching for New Bern on the Neuse. They took it, though the Confederate defenders escaped (McPherson, pp. 52-54). Then the force at New Bern marched for Morehead City at the southern end of the Outer Banks, then combined with the Navy to take nearby Beaufort, which became the main Union base in the area (McPherson, p. 54). With the sole exception of Wilmington, all of North Carolina's ports were now closed.
Burnside's expedition was one of the first real attempts to tighten up the Union blockade of the Confederate seacoast. It was a clever idea, and executed well -- and, unfortunately, it caused senior Union leaders to think Burnside was competent. He was creative; he came up with original plans. But he was unable to adjust to surprises or changed circumstances, and many Union soldiers died, at Burnside's Bridge and Fredericksburg and the Crater and elsewhere, as a result.
It is possible that Burnside could have taken more of the North Carolina interior, but instead the government decided to take back about half of his force (including Burnside himself) and send them to Virginia. That didn't leave enough troops to engage in offensive operations; indeed, they were sometimes hard-pressed to hold onto what they had, and might have failed had they not had the support of Navy ships and guns. Given how poorly Burnside performed in Virginia, pulling him back was probably a mistake.
For another song about this campaign, see the notes to "Old Glory." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: BrII282

As I Went Down to Port Jervis

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a mother with her two soldier sons who are bound for battle. She wishes they were not leaving, and tells how she tried to keep them out of the army. The son(s) tell of their hard service, but say not to worry until they are dead!
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (Cazden et al)
KEYWORDS: war battle mother children farewell
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 12, "As I Went Down to Port Jervis" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
DT, PRTJRVS*
Roud #1924
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Crimean War" [Laws J9] (tune, lyrics, plot, theme)
NOTES [174 words]: The singers from whom Cazden et al collected this song generally felt it was a Civil War song. It can, however, be directly linked to "The Crimean War" [Laws J9]. Roud lumps the two, and I'm tempted to do the same -- but Cazden et al consider it separate, and they have heard the actual performances of the Catskills singers.
Still, you'd probably better see both songs. The Ives-New Brunswick version of "The Crimean War," e.g., is described by Cazden et al as being the same as that of "As I Went Down to Port Jervis."
This may mean less than it says, however; the Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan tune of "The Crimean War" is not the same as "Port Jervis" -- but similar; both are 6/8, both follow similar rhythms, both avoid the use of the fourth (causing Cazden et al to show it with no flats even though it's in F -- a confusing bit of notation). The primary difference is that the Cazden versions are true pentatonic; Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan do have one instance of a (major) seventh. - RBW
File: FSC012

As I Went Out for a Ramble

DESCRIPTION: "As I went out for a ramble, It's I stopped in a little town." He falls in love with a girl but finds her with another man. She says she loves him but his parents are agains me and he is a hobo. He leaves town but returns. He will be true if she is
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (collected from Hazel Hudson)
KEYWORDS: love courting train separation infidelity
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 267-268, "As I Went Out for a Ramble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4163
NOTES [7 words]: This is item dH45 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LoSi267

As I Went Out One Summer's Day

See Bonny Wee Lass (As I Went Out One Summer's Day) (File: HHH763)

As I Went Over Yonders Pond

DESCRIPTION: "As I went over yonders pond, I spied a frog with a red shirt on, He leaped ten feet and jumped in the mud, And he big fairewell to the ladies all. So rise, let's go home; My darling, rise, let's go home." "A raiding froad and a heavy load...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: animal travel floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #138, "As I Went Over Yonders Pond" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5050
File: Morr138

As I Went Through a Garden Green (Verbum Caro Factum Est)

DESCRIPTION: "As I went through a garden green, I found an arbor made full new," with doves singing in every tree. A woman there sings, "Verbum caro factum est." She bore "the prince that is without a peer." The shepherds and kings came to see God made flesh
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1430 (British Library -- Sloane MS. 2593)
KEYWORDS: religious MiddleEnglish music | garden
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 174-176, "As I Went through a Garden Green" (1 text)
Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics 80, "(no title)" (1 text, from the Heege manuscript)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #378
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #637
ADDITIONAL: Carleton Brown, editor, Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1939, #78, pp. 115-117, "Verbum Caro Factum Est" (1 text, from the Heege manuscript)
Karen Saupe, editor, _Middle English Marian Lyrics_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1998, #28, pp. 78-80, "(I passed thoru a garden grene)" (1 text, mostly from Heege)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 18
MANUSCRIPT: {MSHeege}, The Heege Manuscript, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 19.3.1, folio 94
NOTES [279 words]: The attestation of this is a little thin -- just two manuscripts. But both are important sources, and their texts are significantly different, and it has a nice folky title. So I'm indexing it.
Brown's notes observe a heavy measure of alliteration, better preserved in Heege -- e.g. in the first four lines, "I passed through a GARDEN GREEN, I FOUND a herbere (arbor) made FULL new, A SEEMLIER SIGHT I have not SEEN, of every TREE sang a TURTLE TRUE."
The Heege manuscript of this is signed by the secondary scribe, John Hawghton, not Richard Heege. The text is hard enough to read that Saupe notes 22 places where editors have read it differently (although several of these look to me to be unconscious corrections by Turnbull, who first edited the piece).
The refrain "Verbum caro factum est" is taken verbatim from the Vulgate Latin translation of John 1:14, "Et verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobis," rendering Greek και ο λογος σαρξ εγενετο και εσκηνωσεν εν ημιν, almost always translated "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us"; the Latin would literally be rendered "[the] Word flesh become is." This is of course the key and core basis for the doctrine of the Incarnation, which is the core of Christian theology.
The shepherds who came to the nativity are mentioned in Luke 2:8-20; there is no reason to think there were three of them.
The three magi (wise men, here called "kings") are told of in Matthew 2:1-10; here again, there is no warrant for thinking there were three of them, or that they were kings; for background on this, see "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)."
Despite these quibbles, this is quite a beautiful and effective poem. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MEaiwtgg

As I Went Up Some Chinese Steps

DESCRIPTION: "As I went up some Chinese steps, I met some Chinese people. This is the way they spoke to me: Issa bissa bonka, Issa bissa bonka, And out goes she."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: travel
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 50, "(As I went up some Chinese steps)" (1 text)
Roud #38135
NOTES [22 words]: I have a feeling the ending of this comes from one of the various versions of "Ickie Bickie Soda Cracker." But I have no proof. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI050C

As I Went Up the Apple Tree

See As I Climbed Up the Apple Tree; also Bake a Pudding, Bake a Pie (File: DCCT120E)

As I Went Up the Brandy Hill

See see under Intery Mintery Cutery Corn (File: OO2252)

As I Went Up the Silver Lake

DESCRIPTION: "As I went up the silver lake, There I met a rattlesnake, He did eat so much cake That he had the tummy ache."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal food
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 188, "As I Went Up the Silver Lake" (1 text)
Roud #15769
File: Br3188

As I'd Nothing Else to Do

See Nothing Else to Do (I) (File: WT143)

As Jacob with Travel Was Weary One Day

DESCRIPTION: "As Jacob with travel was weary one day, At night on a stone for a pillow he lay," he sees a ladder going up to heaven. The ladder is tall. All should ascend. "Alleluia to Jesus, who died on the tree,
And has raised up a ladder of mercy for me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Roberts/Agey-InThePine)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #112, "Jacob the Pilgrim" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jacob's Ladder (I)" (subject, tune)
NOTES [97 words]: Hymnary.org lists no author or source for this, but apparently found a printed version from c. 1850. The site claims it goes back to the eighteenth century. Since I can't verify any of this, however, I am forced to use Roberts/Agey-InThePine's version as the Earliest Date.
Most versions are listed as being to the tune of "Jacob's Ladder," though the Roberts/Agey-InThePine tune is not the "Jacob's Ladder" that I know.
Jacob's vision of the ladder to the heavens, with angels climbing it, is in Genesis 28:10-22. It should be noted, however, that Jacob himself did not climb it! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RAInP112

As Johnny Walked Out

See Branded Lambs [Laws O9] (File: LO09)

As Now We Are Sailing

DESCRIPTION: "As now we are sailing out of Sheet Harbour Bay And ... Scaterie." When the singer leaves the Labrador factory "I pray ... I'll come back here no more" and have "a chance for a wife"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: factory worker ship
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 100, "As Now We Are Sailing" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #1810
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Conrod" (tune)
NOTES [38 words]: Sheet Harbour is on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia and Scaterie Island is off Cape Breton. Creighton-Nova Scotia: "[The singer] tells me it was written about a schooner that took men to Labrador to work in a lobster factory." - BS
File: CrNS100

As Off to the South'ard We Go

See Heave Away Cheerily (File: Hugi310)

As One Day I Chanc'd to Rove

See Forglen (Forglen You Know, Strichen's Plantins) (File: Ord079)

As Robin Was Driving

DESCRIPTION: "As Robin was driving his wagon along, The trees in full blossom..." Robin sees a "fair damsel" and offers her a ride. When she asks his name, he says, "But as for the other one, I dare not tell For fear this young damsel should chance for to swell."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (collected from "Blue" Fisher by Butterworth)
KEYWORDS: courting sex pregnancy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 8, "As Robin Was Driving" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #73, "Bonny Robin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1396
NOTES [70 words]: The notes in Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory imply this has been expurgated -- presumably of verses in which Robin convinces the girl to lay down with him, since he fears that she will get pregnant. The notes also state that there are other versions of the song -- but do not cite any. Roud shows none (he lists multiple printings, but they're all from the same informant), and I have not seen the song elsewhere. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: BuDa008

As Shepherds Watched Their Fleecy Care

DESCRIPTION: "As shepherds watched their fleecy care, A heavenly angel did appear" announcing a new king born of a virgin in Bethlehem. The child is wrapped in swaddling clothes. The shepherds are urged to see him; he will "save us from eternal death"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Palmer)
KEYWORDS: religious travel shepherd Jesus
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #142, "The Fleecy Care" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1518
NOTES [72 words]: Although this is distinct from "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks," the thematic elements are close enough that you can look up the notes to that to learn about this. The whole story is from chapter 2 of Luke; the only thing that derives from Matthew's account of the nativity is the reference to Mary as a virgin (in Luke, she is a virgin at the time of the annunciation, but the text does not say that she remained a virgin). - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: PECS142

As shot and shell were screaming

See Break the News to Mother (File: GrMa179)

As Slow Our Wagons Rolled the Track (The Girl I Left Behind Me)

DESCRIPTION: "As slow our wagons rolled the track, Their teams the rough earth cleaving," the drivers look back to the land left behind. They are sad to depart. The singer asks "to turn our hearts, where'er we rove, From those we've left behind us."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Kinscella, History Sings, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: emigration derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 631, "[The Girl I Left behind Me]" (1 short text)
File: CAFS2630

As Soft as Silk

DESCRIPTION: Riddle: "As soft as silk, As white as milk, As bitter as gall; A thick wall, And a green coat covers me all." Accepted answer: a walnut (or a walnut on a tree)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1600 "Book of merry Riddles, according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: food riddle nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 474, "As Soft as Silk" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #687, p. 272, "(As Soft as Silk)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 184, "As Soft as Silk" (1 text)
Roud #20566
File: OO2474

As Sure As Comes Your Wedding Day

DESCRIPTION: "As sure as comes your wedding day, A broom to you I'll send; In sunshine use the brushy part, In storm the other end."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (J. S. Ogilvie, "One Thousand Popular Quotations... Suitable for Writing in Autograph Albums")
KEYWORDS: wedding nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 135, "(As shure as comes your wedding day)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 122, "(As sure as comes your wedding day)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: J. S. Ogilvie, _One Thousand Popular Quotations Comprising the Choicest Thoughts and Sayings of Eminent Writers of All Ages, Together With Nearly Three Hundred Original and Choice Selections, Suitable for Writing in Autograph Albums_, J. S. Ogivie, Publisher (New York & Chicago), 1884 (available on Google Books), p. 117 of Part II, "As Sure As Comes Your Wedding Day" (1 text)
NOTES [86 words]: This is one of several items Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore extracted from the autograph album of Anna Duncan, which she maintained 1897-1899 or after. Solomon-ZickaryZan's version is also from an autograph album, that of Minnie Burton, from 1891-1896.
Web searches for this quote turned up more than a dozen versions of this, although few were properly attributed; several were from autograph books. There were enough of them that I decided the piece is probably traditional in some sense, although hardly a song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: SaKo135A

As Susan Strayed the Briny Beach

See Susan Strayed on the Briny Beach [Laws K19] (File: LK19)

As Sylvie Was Walking

DESCRIPTION: Sylvie, walking by the river, weeps for her lover. A young man asks the matter; she tells him that she's been deserted. She says her love will weep for her (after she dies). Astonishingly, the young man is not the departed lover, and nothing else happens.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: loneliness love abandonment lament lover dream
FOUND IN: Britain(England (South,West)) Australia
REFERENCES (6 citations):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 14, "As Sylvie Was Walking" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 44, "The Forsaken Maiden" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 74, "Poor Sally Sat A-Weeping" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #39, "A Maiden Sat A Weeping" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 39, "Once I Had a Sweetheart" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SYLVWALK* GRENGRO3
Roud #170
NOTES [150 words]: The song was collected from an 80-year old woman in Australia in 1911. She had emigrated in 1855, and had learned the song in her native Gloucestershire, so [it must have been in existence by 1855]. - PJS
I'm inclined to think that this is a conflate ballad: The opening comes from a Riley ballad, the rest from a lost love song of some kind, with perhaps a little of "Green Grow the Laurel" in the mix to provide floating lyrics (the Karpeles text contains quite a few "Green Grows" lines. The Digital Tradition editors file their "Once I Had a Sweetheart" text with "Green Grow," but this is more than a stretch, as is the attribution to D. Adams, since Cynthia Gooding recorded it in 1953!)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd opine that the tune is from the sixteenth century. I think some evidence would be helpful. - RBW
This song provides the words for Steeleye Span's "Sails of Silver." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: VWL014

As Tears Go By

DESCRIPTION: "It is the evening of the day" and the singer is watching children playing "As tears go by." Money can't buy everything -- it can't buy the children doing things the singer used to do. So he watches them learning
AUTHOR: Mick Jagger, Keith Richard, Andrew Loog Oldham
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recording, The Rolling Stones)
KEYWORDS: children nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 541, 'As Tears Go By" (notes only)
NOTES [22 words]: Of all the things I never thought I'd be indexing, Rolling Stones songs surely top the list. And why would children sing this song? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF547T

As the Black Billy Boils

DESCRIPTION: "As the black billy boils At the end of the whare, I remember the time When I lived in a hurry... And I was a very young new chum." "Now I've mended my ways, And I never have a worry, And it's thanks to the Kauri gum!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: worker New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 45, "As the Black Billy Boils" (1 text, 1 modern tune) (p. 26 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 189, "(As the Black Billy Boils" (1 short text)
RECORDINGS:
Dave Skinner, "As the Black Billy Boils" (on NZSongYngCntry)
NOTES [16 words]: For background on the digging of kauri gum, see the notes to "The Old-Time Kauri Bushmen." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Colq026

As the King Lay Musing on His Bed

See King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164] (File: C164)

As the King Went A-Hunting

See Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man) (File: R127)

As the Ship Sailed Away From Ireland

DESCRIPTION: Singer watches as a ship prepares to sail away. On the dock "friends are saying goodbye." One couple parts as the girl won't leave Ireland. Parents watch as their deserter son is taken by a sergeant before he can escape
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: love emigration farewell home parting separation travel desertion sea ship England Ireland family friend soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #13687
RECORDINGS:
Morris Houlihan, "As the Ship Sailed Away From Ireland" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Ship Sailed Away From Old England
File: ML3ASSAI

As Tom Was A-Walking

DESCRIPTION: "As Tom was a-walking one fine summer's morn... He met Cozen Mal, with the tub on her head." He asks to speak to her; she sends him to talk to Fanny Trembaa. After promising her a new fig, she agrees to marry him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: courting food rejection marriage humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #20, pp. 203-204,249, "As Tom was a-walking. An ancient Cornish song" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, p. 413, "As Tom Was A-Walking" (1 text)
ST BeCo413 (Partial)
Roud #4587
File: BeCo413

As We Trek Along Together

DESCRIPTION: "As we trek along together, As we trek along. Shall we sing a song together, Shall we sing a song? Love life, laughter and sorrow, Who knows what comes tomorrow, Who knows and who cares, As we trek along." Sing and be cheery even when tired
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs), from Our Chalet Song Book 2, which I can't date
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 499, "As We Trek Along Together" (notes only)
File: ACSF499A

As We Were A-Sailing

See The Female Warrior (Pretty Polly) [Laws N4] (File: LN04)

As Welcome as the Flowers in May

DESCRIPTION: "Last night I dreamed a sweet, sweet dream, I thought I saw my home, sweet home." The singer dreams of seeing his parents and his sweetheart Bess, who tell him they've been waiting and that he's "as welcome as the flowers in May."
AUTHOR: Dan J. Sullivan (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (sheet music published by The Broadway Msic Pub Co.)
KEYWORDS: home separation dream father mother family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 856, "As Welcome as the Flowers in May" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 101, "You're As Welcome as the Flowers in May" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 113, "Welcome as the Flowers in May" (1 short text, 1 tune. N.B. The pagination in Browne is here confused; as it stands, it appears that the text on p. 288 goes with "Only a Rosebud" on p. 287, but in fact it is a continuation of "Welcome as the Flowers in May" on p. 289)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 60-61, "You're As Welcome As The Flowers In May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4347
RECORDINGS:
Bud & Joe Billings (pseuds. for Frank Luther & Carson Robison) "You're as Welcome as the Flowers in May" (Victor V-40039, 1929)
Mr. & Mrs. Hugh Cross, "You're as Welcome as the Flowers in May" (Columbia 15259-D, 1928)
Jimmie Davis, "You're as Welcome as the Flowers in May" (Decca 5867/Melotone [Canada] 45377, 1937; Minerva 14126, c.1940)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "You're as Welcome as the Flowers in May" (Brunswick 108/Vocalion 5128, 1927; Supertone S-2037, 1930)
John McGhee, "You're As Welcome As The Flowers In May" (Supertone 9674, 1930)
Connie Sides, "You're as Welcome as the Flowers in May" (Columbia 15008-D, rec. 1924)
Frank C. Stanley, "You're As Welcome as the Flowers in May" (Imperial [UK] 44923, c. 1906)
Frank Welling & John McGhee, "You Are As Welcome as Flowers in May" (Perfect 5-12-59, 1935)
NOTES [144 words]: Despite the similarity in titles (perhaps inspired by a common saying), this appears to have no relationship at all with the Sam Henry song "You're Welcome as the Flowers in May."
Dan J. Sullivan in 1902 published a song "You're As Welcome As the Flowers In May"; I don't know which of the two traditional songs of that title, if either, it represents. - RBW
Perhaps one of the recordings is responsible for the Randolph entry? It wouldn't be the first time. - PJS
Sullivan's song turns out to be this one. Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 265, estimates that this was the thirteenth most popular song in America in December 1903, and the twentieth most popular song of the year as a whole (#1 for the year being Charles K. Harris's "Always in the Way"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R856

As Willie and Mary Strolled by the Seashore

See Willie and Mary (Mary and Willie; Little Mary; The Sailor's Bride) [Laws N28] (File: LN28)

As y yod on ay mounday

See (references under) The Wee Wee Man [Child 38] (File: C038)

As yee came from the holye

See Walsingham (File: Perc2101)

As-Tu Connu le Per Lanc'lot?

DESCRIPTION: French. Halyard shanty. "As-tu connu le Per Lanc'lot, Goodbye, farewell, goodbye, farewell, Qui fuit la peche aux cachelots?" Did you know Father Lancelot, who fished for "cachelots," had daughters in three cities, and makes life hard for his crew
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage sailor clergy hardtimes children whore derivative shanty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 46, "As-tu Connu Per Lanc'lot?" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Homeward Bound (I)" (original form)
File: HSeSo046

ASC to the War Have Gone, The

DESCRIPTION: "The ASC to the war have gone, At the base at Havre you will find them." "Their only use, it seems to me, is to open the Tommy's jam tins." At least they bring rations -- though the soldier suspects they keep the best food
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier food derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 82-83, "The ASC to the War Have Gone" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Minstrel Boy" (tune)
NOTES [12 words]: ASC = Army Service Corps, i.e. those who delivered supplies to the front.
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW082

Ash Grove, The (Llwyn On)

DESCRIPTION: Welsh/English. The singer describes the beauty of the ash grove, which "alone is my home." The singer broods on dead friends, but rejoices to see them in the ash grove.
AUTHOR: Welsh words credited to Talhaiarn / English words by T. Oliphant
EARLIEST DATE: music: 1802 / words: 1862 (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage home friend
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 152, "My laugher is over, my step loses lightness" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 336, "The Ash Grove" (1 English text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 134, 200-201, 203-209, 346, 348, 431, 467, 474, 500, 501, 503, 534, "Ash Grove" (notes plus 3 texts on pp. 206-208; bibliography on pp. 664-668)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 36, "The Ash Grove" (1 English text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "The Ash Grove" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 4) (12th edition, p. 4)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 4, "The Ash Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 11, "The Ash Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ASHGROV1* ASHGROV2*
ADDITIONAL: Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 209-211, "The Ash Grove" (1 Welsh and 1 English text on the same staff, 1 tune)
Roud #24988
SAME TUNE:
Let All Things Now Living (see Marilyn Kay Stulken, _Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship_, Fortress Press, 1981, p. 562; LindaJo H. McKim, _Presbyterian Hymnal Companion_, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, p. 371)
Down Yonder Brown Outhouse (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 206, 263)
File: FSWB336B

Ash Wednesday, Shrove Tuesday

See Shrove Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday (File: BAAI074C)

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

DESCRIPTION: "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if (X) don't kill you then (Y) must." E.g. "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, If whisky don't kill you then abstinence must." Or, "...dust, If God won't have you, the Devil must."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: humorous drink warning campsong Devil
FOUND IN: New Zealand US(MW,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 97, "(Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, If the flies don't get you the skeeters must)" (1 fragment)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 104, "Bedbugs" (1 short text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 58, "(Ashes to ashes)" (1 short text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 56, "(Ashes to ashes)" (1 text)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 277-278, "(no title)" (2 short texts)
Roud #19277
File: Garl277

Asheville Junction, Swannanoa Tunnel

See Swannanoah Tunnel (File: CW166)

Ashland Strike, The

DESCRIPTION: "I had a job; was well content And pleased in every way." "...The men, like me, I know, were satisfied with their own jobs, Then came the C.I.O." The singer describes the misery of the Ashland Strike, and hopes never again to hear of the C.I.O.
AUTHOR: Billie Menshouse?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: strike labor-movement
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 240-241, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 240-242)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Picket Line Blues" (subject)
NOTES [40 words]: We tend to think of "folk" songs as pro-union, but of course most unions find some employees opposed to their tactics. This is the song of such a man -- and, like many songs in Thomas, there is no evidence that it is actually traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa240

Ashland Tragedy (I), The [Laws F25]

DESCRIPTION: Three robbers break into the Gibbons house. Fanny Gibbons, a friend, and Bobby Gibbons are killed. The robbers (fail in an) attempt to burn the house. One is lynched, the others sentenced to hang. Three locals are killed by soldiers guarding the robbers
AUTHOR: Elijah Adams wrote either this or "Ashland Tragedy I" (Thomas lists "Ashland Tragedy II"; Cox seems to prefer "Ashland Tragedy I")
EARLIEST DATE: 1918
KEYWORDS: homicide robbery execution revenge children
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1884 - Ellis Craft and William Neal hung for their part on the "Ashland Tragedy" (the third robber, George Ellis, had earlier been lynched)
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws F25, "The Ashland Tragedy I"
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 36, "The Ashland Tragedy" (1 text)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 58-59, "The Ashland Tragedy" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 254-255, "The Ashland Tragedy" (1 text)
DT 737, ASHLANDM
Roud #2263
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ashland Tragedy (II)" [Laws F26]
cf. "The Ashland Tragedy (III)" [Laws F27]
NOTES [106 words]: Cox offers details on this crime, and notes that his informant learned it from a printed sheet some five years after the event. It is likely that this (or perhaps "The Ashland Tragedy II") was a broadsheet distributed at the execution of the two murderers.
Cox's text of this piece begins,
Dear father, mother, sister, come listen while I tell
All about the Ashland tragedy, of which you know full well,
'Twas in the town of Ashland, all on that deadly night,
A horrible crime was committed, but soon was brought to light.
There seem to be no extant tunes for this item, but I suspect it belongs to the "Charles Guiteau" tune family. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: LF25

Ashland Tragedy (II), The [Laws F26]

DESCRIPTION: Three robbers break into the Gibbons house. Fanny Gibbons, a friend, and Bobby Gibbons are killed. The robbers (fail in an) attempt to burn the house. One is lynched, the others sentenced to hang. Three locals are killed by soldiers guarding the robbers
AUTHOR: Elijah Adams wrote either this or "Ashland Tragedy I" (Thomas lists "Ashland Tragedy II"; Cox seems to prefer "Ashland Tragedy I")
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: homicide robbery execution revenge children
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1881 - Ellis Craft and William Neal hung for their part on the "Ashland Tragedy" (the third robber, George Ellis, had earlier been lynched)
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws F26, "The Ashland Tragedy II"
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 156-158, "The Ashland Tragedy" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 162-163)
DT 806, ASHLAND2
Roud #2264
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ashland Tragedy (I)" [Laws F25]
cf. "The Ashland Tragedy (III)" [Laws F27]
NOTES [48 words]: It's not clear to me why Laws accords this full status as a traditional ballad; as with The Ashland Tragedy (III), the only source is Thomas. Her text begins,
Come people dear from far and wide
And lend a willing ear to me
While I relate the cruel facts
Of Ashland's greatest tragedy. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LF26

Ashland Tragedy (III), The [Laws F27]

DESCRIPTION: A loose account of the murder of three children (Fanny and Bobby Gibbons and Emma Carico) in the Gibbons home in Ashland. It describes the crime at some distance and with some inaccuracies and generalities
AUTHOR: Bill Terrell?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: homicide children
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1881 - Ellis Craft and William Neal hung for their part on the "Ashland Tragedy" (the third robber, George Ellis, had earlier been lynched)
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws F27, "The Ashland Tragedy III"
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 160-162, ("The Murder of the Gibbons Children") (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 165-167)
DT 802, ASHLAND3
Roud #2265
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ashland Tragedy (I)" [Laws F25]
cf. "The Ashland Tragedy (II)" [Laws F26]
NOTES [44 words]: It's not clear to me why Laws accords this full status as a traditional ballad; as with The Ashland Tragedy (II), the only source is Thomas. Her text begins,
Oh have you heard the story,
It happened long ago,
Of the Gibbons's children murder
And Emma Carico. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LF27

Ask the Watchman How Long

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "How long Watchman, how long?" The hymn leader sings "Ask the Watchman, how long." "Ask my brother...." "Well ask...." "Brother Jenkins...." "Before the roll call...." "Just a few more risings...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, pp. 36-37, "How Long Watchman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, pp. 84-85, "Ask the Watchman How Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16415
RECORDINGS:
Janie Hunter, "Ask the Watchman How Long" (USSeaIsland01)
Rosa and Joseph Murray, "Watchnight/Watchman" (on USSeaIsland03)
NOTES [120 words]: Carawan has this as a New Years Eve song. Janie Hunter says, "We don't know how long will we meet together. Neither do we know how long we sing together. This time next year we all ask Watchman. 'How long?'" The theme, but none of the text, is shared with "Oh, Lord How Long."
The current description is based on the Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight text.
On the USSeaIsland03 recording, the singer asks how long till midnight: two minutes, one minute, then "I got twelve o'clock."
The USSeaIsland01 track is call-response. The Herskovits Trinidadian Spiritual Baptist account of "Jesus Lover of My Soul" fits this track as well. Although this is not a Sankey hymn, the performance style matches "Sankey into Shout." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CarCa084

Asleep at the Switch

DESCRIPTION: Tom the switchman has to work though his boy is dying at home. In his grief he falls asleep at the switch. A disaster is barely averted when daughter Nell, bringing good news, throws the switch. Tom is found dead of grief, but Nell is rewarded
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Shackford; several tunes, including Shackford's, are used
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: train death family disease rescue grief
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 686, "Asleep at the Switch" (1 text)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 276-281, "Asleep at the Switch" (1 text plus excerpts from other poems with the same title as well as a copy of the sheet music cover, 1 tune)
Roud #7370
RECORDINGS:
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Asleep at the Switch" (Brunswick 461, 1930)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Asleep at the Switch" (OKeh 45044, 1926)
NOTES [80 words]: Cohen notes that (at least) two other poems were written with the title "Asleep at the Switch" before Shackford published his piece in 1897. The earliest was by George Hoey, and that poem appears to have been the most popular in the wider world; it is the only one of the three cited in Granger's Index to Poetry. It can also be found on pp. 90-92 of Martin Gardner, editor, Famous Poems from Bygone Days, Dover, 1995. But it does not appear to have gone into tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: R686

Aspell and Carter

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you sons of Newfoundland who oft-times life do save, While I'll relate in language great about a hero brave." John Aspell drowns trying to save young Carter from drowning in a lake near St John's
AUTHOR: John Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: rescue drowning death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 1902 - drowning at Quidi Vidi (per Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 4, "Aspell and Carter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #30696
NOTES [83 words]: Dates for John Burke are from GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site. - BS
Burke's dates are confirmed by the most complete edition of Burke's works, Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, p. iii. However, the book does not include this among Burke's writings. He did use a come-all-ye opening for a few pieces. For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LeBe04

Ass and the Orangeman's Daughter, The

DESCRIPTION: Thomas Gready's ass is auctioned to an Orangeman to pay the tithe. The ass is confined and starved. Orangeman's daughter tries to have him "relinquish Popery." The cross-marked ass refuses. She threatens to whip the ass. "A multitude of asses" frees him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.34(4))
KEYWORDS: Ireland political talltale animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 46B, "The Ass and the Orangeman's Daughter" (1 text)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 114-115, "The Ass and the Orangeman's Daughter" (1 text)
Roud #6543
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.34(4), "The Ass and the Orangeman's Daughter," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also 2806 c.15(253), 2806 b.10(150), "The Ass and the Orangeman's Daughter"; 2806 b.9(169), 2806 b.9(222)[some words illegible], "The Tipperary Ass"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Carrickshock" (subject: The Tithe War) and references there
NOTES [1080 words]: The last verse raises a number of points.
Now to conclude and finish, long life to every ass,
May they live to be united, likewise to bear the cross.
We will toast a health to all our friends, likewise our gracious Queen,
May the asses meet in multitude once more in College Green.
Professor Thomas Bartlett in The 1798 Irish Rebellion quoted on the BBC site: "The Society of United Irishmen, founded in 1791, embraced Catholics, Protestants and Dissenters in its aim to remove English control from Irish affairs."
Donkeys have a cross-shaped patch of dark hair on their back. In political ballads this mark is taken as a sign that donkeys are Roman Catholic. [For more on this, see the notes to "The Ass's Complaint." - RBW]
The toast to Queen Victoria makes 1837 an earliest possible date for this broadside.
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, commenting on the last line: "The Irish Parliament House ... stood on the N. side of College Green, Dublin." - BS
Despite the mention of the Queen, I suspect the song dates from a few years before 1837. That was indeed the year Queen Victoria came to the throne, but the Tithe War was nearly over by then. The election of Daniel O'Connell and his followers to parliament, followed by tithe riots in 1830-1831, led the British government in 1833 to cease taking the tithe by force; in 1838, the Tithe Rentcharge Act took the tithe off the backs of the (mostly Catholic) peasants and put it on the back of the (mostly Protestant) landlords, though it wasn't until 1869 that Gladstone disestablished the Anglican church in Ireland.
Thus I suspect the song dates from 1830-1832; perhaps it was modified for publication. Alternately, it might refer to the Queens of George IV (reigned 1820-1830, and regent before that) or William IV (reigned 1830-1837). Adelaide, the wife of William IV, was popular enough but hardly notable.
If the reference is to the wife of George IV, though, things become really interesting. George's first wife was the widow Maria Fitzherbert -- a Catholic! He was apparently obsessed with her -- Smith, p. 33, says that George fell in love with her in 1783 "for the only time in his life." She was already twice a widow at age 26 (making her six years older than George; Hibbert, p. 47), and sufficiently well off as not to need the Prince. She was an odd choice in other ways; everyone seems to agree that she wasn't especially pretty, and her conversation was "rather heavy" (Hibbert, p. 47).
George was thrice barred from marrying her, once because she was Catholic, and again because she was a commoner, and third, because George III had enacted the Royal Marriage Act which forbade George from marrying without his father's consent until he had reached the age of 25 (Smith, p. 34). And she refused to become his mistress (Smith, p. 38). It didn't stop George -- at one time, he actually stabbed himself and declared he would let himself bleed to death unless she would marry him; she came, consented, then quite rightly broke the promise she had made under duress (Smith, p. 35; Hibbert, p. 49; Fraser, p. 33). She fled the country; he tried to pursue, and also offered to give up his claim to the throne for her (Smith, pp. 35-36). But, for some reason, she eventually decided to marry him (Smith, pp. 36-37). George had to hire a clergyman out of prison to find someone willing to marry them (Smith, p. 37).
The marriage took place in her home, with a bare handful of witnesses, the official witnesses both being Catholic (Smith, p. 37; Hibbert, pp. 54-55).
The forms were valid, so it was a legal marriage as far as both Catholic and Anglican churches were concerned (Smith, p. 38, although Fraser, p. 35, claims that British civil law was senior to church law in the Anglican Church. I think the truth of the matter is, both churches considered him married but the Anglicans would allow him multiple wives). Everything had been done properly -- except that the marriage was not properly registered or recorded because of its hole-in-the-corner nature. To all but the few witnesses, it appeared he had taken her as his mistress, which was the whole thing she had insisted on avoiding! Eventually it reached the point where George was publicly denying marriage while assuring her he was married. When everything came out, it caused a lot of people to stop trusting him (Smith, pp. 42-43).
Including Maria, and with reason. By 1788 George's eye was wandering again (Smith, pp. 46-47). The relationship temporarily ended in 1794; Maria was fobbed off with a pension of £3,000 (Black, p. 153). They would later reunite, but George finally dumped her in 1811 (Smith, p.119).
Since George had married Maria in secret, the marriage was held illegal and she never sat on the throne, but she was George's wife in Catholic eyes. Indeed. in 1799 George decided that he wanted her rather than the women he had been involved with -- and she wrote to the Pope for advice, and he told Maria to go back to him but that she was his one and only true wife (Smith, pp. 80-81). It would have been interesting if she had had a child, but by then she was in her mid-forties, so perhaps the odds weren't too high.
In an ultimate irony, she was to prove more true to him than he to her (Smith, p. 39). George, after their marriage but before their reunion, would wed a Protestant, in a disastrous marriage; it is perhaps fortunate, from the standpoint of legitimacy, that it produced only one daughter, who predeceased her father, so there was no issue about whether George left a legitimate heir.
This slightly more official wife was Caroline of Brunswick, whom George married in 1795 (for background on this, see "Queen Caroline"). It is said that he was drunk at their wedding, and they were rumoured to have slept together only once -- certainly for only a few weeks. He persecuted her for the rest of her life, and with the result that Caroline, never entirely normal mentally, may have become more unbalanced in her later years (see Macalpine/Hunter, pp. 247-250 or, again, the notes to "Queen Caroline").
George never had much to do with Caroline after those first few days, though their conflict became one of the major events of his reign. When he died in 1830, his brother and heir William IV ordered Maria Fitzherbert to wear mourning (Fraser, p, 462). Hm.
This is all very speculative, to be sure, but a reference to "The Queen" during the reign of George IV could thus be a highly charged political statement. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Zimm046B

Ass's Complaint, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a Catholic ass with the mark of the cross on his back complaining about having been sold to a Brunswicker. His MP master has turned on the ass for supporting Repeal. The singer wishes the ass may soon be stabled in College Green
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1830 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Ireland political talltale animal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 46A, "The Ass's Complaint of the Union" (2 texts)
Roud #V20702
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as110720[some words are illegible], "The Papist Ass," unknown, 19C
Bodleian, Harding B 26(495)[some words are illegible], "The Papist Ass," P. Brereton (Dublin), n.d.
NOTES [382 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, commenting on the last lines, "May he shortly be able in comfort to be seen, Placed in that splendid stable at home in College Green": "The Irish Parliament House ... stood on the N. side of College Green, Dublin."
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 35: "'Brunswicker' was then more or less synonymous with 'Orangeman' or simply 'Protestant'."
Donkeys have a cross-shaped patch of dark hair on their back. In this broadside the ass claims it as a sign bestowed at the birth of Jesus that can not be claimed by any "Brunswicker."
Broadsides LOCSinging as110720 and Bodleian Harding B 26(495) are duplicates. - BS
Zimmermann's dating for this piece seems to be based on the internal evidence: It clearly reflects the conditions in the years from about 1828 to 1832, as Daniel O'Connell (whose basic issue was "Repeal" of the Union between Britain and Ireland) and his supporters worked their way into parliament.
For more on this situation, see the notes to "Fergus O'Connor and Independence."
The theme of the donkey and the cross (and the presence of animals at the birth of Jesus) is common enough to have its own number in the Aarne-Thompson type index; it is A.2221.1. There are several Irish songs on the theme; see "The Ass and the Orangeman's Daughter" and "Dicky in the Yeomen." It also occurs in folk tales such as "Jubillee Jonah," for which see Briggs, volume A.1, pp. 343-344. An even clearer version is "The Liddle Dunk Foal or Why the Donkey is Safe," on pp. 377-378 of Briggs.
The ass's cross is said in some sources to be because it was present at Jesus's birth, or carried Mary to Bethlehem. Another version has it that the sign was bestowed because Jesus rode a donkey during the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, just a week before Easter; it is thus the LAST animal to be associated with Jesus (Binney, p. 26).
The belief became widespread enough that the donkey's cross became associated with medicine. The hair of a donkey's cross were sometimes mixed with other materials and eaten, or worn as a sort of amulet (Opie/Tatem, p. 122), e.g. as a cure for whooping cough, measles, or a child's teething pains. Pp. 122-123 tell of passing under a donkey as a cure; .p. 122 says that seating a child on the donkey's cross might be restorative. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: Zimm046A

Assay Thy Friend Ere Thou Hast Need

DESCRIPTION: "Man, beware and wise indeed, And assay thy friend ere thou hast need." The singer hears a bird sing this refrain." He comes closer. The bird moves away but continues its refrain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1475 (Oxford, Bodleian ms. Eng. Poet. e. 1)
KEYWORDS: warning bird MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #389, pp. 259-260, "Vnder a forest that was so long" (1 text plus variant readings)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics CXI, pp. 193-194, "(no title)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3820
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #6098
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book , Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #57, pp. 47-48, "Man, be ware & wise in dede" (1 text, with an additional text on p. 172)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #256, pp. 534-535, "Assay a Friend" (1 text)
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #78, pp. 140-141, "(Under a forest that was so long)" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 23
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, page 483
NOTES [118 words]: This isn't a ballad, and it may not be traditional, but it's quite interesting. It's in two extremely important manuscripts, the Richard Hill manuscript (Balliol 354) and Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet e.1. Unlike most carols of this period, it has a ballad format (four-line stanzas rhyming abab, although all four lines have four stresses rather than the common 4343 form of ballads). And it uses a bird to relate a proverb. In this particular case, I don't really think it's traditional, but I think the odds are just good enough that I decided to index it just in case.
For more about the famous anthology Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSATFETN

Assidy, Assidy, Sergeant Michael Cassidy

See Private Michael Cassidy (File: KSUC156A)

Assist me all ye muses, For to compose a song

See Ye're Noo on Bogieside (File: Ord281)

Astrologer, The

DESCRIPTION: A servant girl comes to consult an astrologer; he bids her come upstairs. She says she will not go upstairs with any man. He points out that she lay with her master not long before. (She flounces out -- but only after displaying the coin her master paid)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: sex commerce prophecy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook X, pp. 37-39, "The Astrologer" (1 text)
DT, ASTROLGR*
Roud #1598
File: KinBB10

At a Cowboy Dance

DESCRIPTION: "Get yo' little sage hens ready, Trot 'em out upon the floor -- Line 'em up there, you cusses! Steady!" The caller coaxes and cajoles the cowboys through the motions of a square dance.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (James Barton Anderson's "Breezy Western Verse")
KEYWORDS: dancing cowboy nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 105, "At a Cowboy Dance" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 415, "An Idaho Cowboy Dance" (1 text)
Roud #11095
File: FCW105

At a place where he me set

See A Hunting Carol (At A Place Where I Me Set) (File: MSAHuCar)

At Barnum's Show

DESCRIPTION: Concerning the odd events and strange animal behaviors seen at Barnum's circus. Chorus: "If you want to have some fun, I'll tell you where to go, Go see the lion stuffed with straw At P. T. Barnum's show."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927
KEYWORDS: animal humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 450, "At Barnum's Show" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 67-68, "P. T. Barnum's Show" (1 text)
Roud #7600
NOTES [34 words]: Many of the lyrics to this song are the sort of thing you would expect to find in "Animal Fair," but there are enough references to Barnum that the piece must be considered, at the very least, a rewrite. - RBW
File: R450

At Boston One Day as the Chesapeake Lay

See The Shannon and Chesapeake (V) (At Boston One Day) (File: Ersk035)

At Brighton

DESCRIPTION: A teasing song with the omitted or hinted word occurring only once every four lines, rather than the more usual two. This begins with an old gent at Brighton swimming around the government pier, suggesting an English origin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II, p. 649, "The Handsome Young Farmer" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Teasing Songs"
File: RL649

At Home, My Lassie

See Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] AND Ambletown (File: LK43)

At Paddy Mayock's Ball

DESCRIPTION: "Last Thursday night with heart so light just as the clock struck nine" people meet for Paddy Mayock's wild Irish party. It'a so boisterous that several are injured; the coroner rules they "committed suicide in self-defense at Paddy Mayock's ball"
AUTHOR: Robert J. Quigley (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Wilkes-Barre Sunday Independent, according to Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch; reportedly written 1886)
KEYWORDS: party humorous injury
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 64-66, "At Paddy Mayock's Ball" (1 text)
File: KMMP065

At Penhill Crags He Tore His Rage (Owd Bartle Poem, Burning Bartle)

DESCRIPTION: "On Penhill Crags he tore his rags, AtHunters Thorn he blew his horn, At Cappelbank Stee he brak' his knee, At Grassgill Beck he brak' his neck, At Wadhams End he couldn't fend, AtGrassgill End we'll mak' his end. Shout, lads, shout!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1994 (Kellett), but certainly much older
KEYWORDS: ritual nonballad travel death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Arnold Kellett, _The Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition, and Folklore_, revised edition, Smith Settle, 2002, pp. 129-130," (no title, but filed under Owd Bartle)" (1 short text)
NOTES [82 words]: A ritual poem/song. Every year on the Saturday closest to Saint Bartholomew's Day at West Witton in Wensleydale, Yorkshire, an effigy of "Owd Bartle" is carried through the town and eventually burned; this rhyme is associated with the event. The origin of the custom is lost, although apparently several sources think it dates back to the fifteenth century. It is popular enough that Witton uses it as a tourist lure. On the basis that it's clearly old and traditional, I've indexed it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BurnBart

At Pittsburg Landing our Troops Fought Hard

DESCRIPTION: "At Pittsburg Landing our troops fought hard, They killed General Johnston and defeated Beauregard, They way they slew the Rebels, they knew how it would be, With land, force, gun boats, and Union victory."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 6-7, 1862 - Battle of Shiloh. The army of U.S. Grant is forced back but, reinforced by Buell, beats off the army of A.S. Johnston. Johnston is killed. Both sides suffer heavy casualties (Shiloh was the first battle to show how bloody the Civil War would be)
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, p. 96, "(At Pittsburg Landing our troops fought hard") (1 fragment)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Shiloh" [Laws A10] and references there (subject of the Battle of Shiloh)
NOTES [313 words]: This is only a fragment, but it does not appear, based on both form and content, to belong with any other Shiloh song.
The author of the song seems fairly knowledgeable: General Albert Sidney Johnson was killed at Shiloh, with command devolving to General P. G. T. Beauregard, who was eventually forced to retreat. And when the Union forces were at their lowest ebb, fire from the river gunboats Lexington and Tyler helped save the day.
Although Pennsylvania supplied more than a hundred regiments to Civil War armies, there weren't many Pennsylvania troops at Shiloh. Based on the Order of Battle on pp. 319-320 of Daniel, there was only one Pennsylvania regiment there (ironic for a battle fought at Pittsburg Landing!): the 77th Pennsylvania, which was in Col. Edward N. Kirk's brigade of Alexander Mc.D. McCook's second division of Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio. Could it have brought this item back to Pennsylvania?
HuntMidAtlantic, p. 14, says that the 77th's commander at this time was Frederick S. Stumbaugh. Stumbaugh was born in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania (west and a little south of Harrisburg), according to Warner, p. 485, and Shiloh was the only battle at which it actively engaged prior to Stumbaugh leaving the regiment in late 1862. (It was at Perryville and a few other battles, but its part was small.) It would have its turn later; the regiment was at Stones River (where it took enough casualties that a captain ended up in command; McDonough, p. 234) and Chickamauga (where it was shattered and many men captured; Cozzens, pp. 276-278). Fox, p. 486, says that it lost 65 men killed and mortally wounded in the war, and had 254 men die of disease; its heaviest engagement was at Liberty Gap, Tennessee, on June 25, 1863 (part of the Tullahoma campaign that preceded the Chickamauga campaign); four officers and 35 men were killed (Fox, p. 439). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: KMMP096A

At Sullivan's Isle

DESCRIPTION: "I'll tell you, George, in meter, If you will attend the while, How we forced out Saint Peter At Sullivan's fair isle."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 28, 1776 - Clinton and Parker's failed assault on Charleston
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 196, "At Sullivan's Isle" (1 fragment, sixth of seven "Quatrains on the War")
ST Fus19gB (Full)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sir Peter Parker" (subject)
NOTES [86 words]: There isn't much here to serve as a basis for dating the song, but the reference to Sullivan's Isle clearly takes us to Charleston Harbor. Revolutionary War or Civil War? We simply cannot tell. I'm guessing the Revolutionary War, because of the reference to "Saint Peter." There was no "Saint Peter" that I know of involved in the Union assaults on Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter, but the name might refer to Peter Parker, co-commander of the Revolutionary battle.
For details on that fiasco, see "Sir Peter Parker." - RBW
File: Fus19gB

At the Back o' Benachie

DESCRIPTION: At the back of Benachie "where swiftly flies the swallow" the singer's sweetheart lived. She disdained him at first "but now she kindly smiles at me And likes to see me comin'" He's proud "for my love's a gentlewoman"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #8, p. 2, ("'Twas at the back o' Benachie") (1 fragment)
NOTES [56 words]: This text shares its first verse with "The Lass o' Bennochie." While Greig considers it a different ballad, he says it "may originally have formed a kind of introduction to ['The Lass o' Bennochie']." It is not included among Greig/Duncan5 1012's 15 texts. Greig's text seems complete enough but he claims to give only "a verse or two." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Grg008

At the Battle of Waterloo

DESCRIPTION: "At the Battle of Waterloo, This is what the soldiers do, Left, right, left, right, All the way to Timbuktu."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: battle travel soldier | Waterloo Timbuktu
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #27, "At the Battle of Waterloo" (1 text)
File: AJRR027

At the Boarding House

See I Know a Boarding-House (File: R479)

At the Boarding House Where I Live

See I Know a Boarding-House (File: R479)

At the Cross

See Alas And Did My Savior Bleed (File: High004)

At the Cross Where I First Saw the Light

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light, And the burden of my heart rolled away It was there by faith I received my sight, And now I am happy all the day. See notes for verses.
AUTHOR: Ralph E Hudson (but see Notes re Isaac Watts)
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (WITrinidadBaptistMusic01)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Colton City Mission Congregation, "At the Cross, Where I First Saw the Light," accessed 19 July 2023, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqIb4k93vRc
Leader Nurse and Little Flock Spiritual Baptist Church congregation, "By the Cross (Where I First Saw the Light)" (on WITrinidadBaptistMusic01)
NOTES [100 words]: Hudson providing the "At the cross ...." chorus to the Isaac Watts hymn "Alas And Did My Savior Bleed." Hudson's hymn is still sung and recorded. However, as the Colton City Mission and Little Flock Spiritual Baptist Church recordings show, the chorus and tune may be sung with verses Watts did not write. The Colton City Mission verses use "glory to His name" as a both a verse and tag line; when used as a verse line the tag is "There to my heart was the blood applied." The Little Flock Spiritual Baptist Church verse is not like Colton City Mission's, but I can't make out many of the words. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcACWFSL

At the Dirty End of Dirty Lane

See Johnny Wetbread (File: BAAI007A)

At the Feast of Belshazzar

See The Handwriting on the Wall (File: BuM1046)

At the Foot of the Mountain Brow

See The Foot of the Mountain Brow (The Maid of the Mountain Brow) [Laws P7] (File: LP07)

At the Foot of Yonder Mountain

See Pretty Saro (File: R744)

At the Gate Each Shearer Stood

See The Lachlann Tigers (File: FaE136)

At the Gate of Heaven (A la Puerta del Cielo)

DESCRIPTION: Spanish, "A la puerta del cielo venden zapatos." "At the gate of heaven little shoes they are selling For the little barefooted angels there dwelling." "God will bless those so peacefully sleeping And keep the mothers whose love they are keeping."
AUTHOR: unknown (English camp song translation by A. D. Zanzig)
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (SongsOfManyNations)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage religious children nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 342, "At the Gate of Heaven" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "At the Gate of Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 5) (12th edition, p. 38)
DT, LAPUERTA*
File: ACSF342A

At the Halt on the Left

DESCRIPTION: "At the halt on the left, form platoon! (x2) If the odd numbers don't mark time two places, How the hell can the rest form platoon?" "If he moves in the ranks, take his name (x2), You can hear the Seargent-Major calling, 'If he moves in the ranks...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 34, "At the Halt on the Left (1 text)
Roud #10564
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Three Cheers for the Red, White, and Blue" (tune)
File: BrPa034B

At the Jail

See Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail) [Laws E17] (File: LE17)

At the Mataura

DESCRIPTION: "The folk are going mad outright, the yellow fever's at its height, And nothing's heard both day and night but gold at the Mataura." The miners even leave the women behind in order to seek gold. They all heed "Sam's Call" to the (fake) goldfields
AUTHOR: portions anonymous, adapted and set to music by Phil Garland
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (recorded by Phil Garland)
KEYWORDS: gold mining travel trick
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 67-68, "(At the Mataura)" (1 short text)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
When We're at the Metaura
NOTES [47 words]: Apparently a fellow by the name of Sam Perkins told a tall tale about finding gold at the Mataura in 1862. A gold rush followed -- but it was all a fake. Perkins eventually suffered a beating and humiliation, but of course most of the miners suffered worse hardship and poverty. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Garl067

At the Setting of the Sun

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

At the Sign of the Apple (The Twig So Tender; The Tavern)

DESCRIPTION: "Once upon a time I visited A hostess neat and slender, A golden apple was her sign, Hung by a twig so tender, Do did-dle de la, la la la la, Hung by a twig so tender...." When the singer asks for a bill, (s)he is told there is none
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: whore
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 258, "At the Sign of the Apple" (1 text)
Randolph 669, "The Twig So Tender" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7365
NOTES [72 words]: Randolph had but a single verse of this, and Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety only two, and neither is very revealing. Based on Randolph, I guessed it was about a visit to a whorehouse. Belden's additional verse just adds to the mystery; note the genders in the second line:
I asked my host to name my bill,
He smiled, and then said, "Nay, sir."
That house I'll always patronize
Whene'er I go that way, sir. - RBW
File: R669

At Twenty-One

See Twenty-One (File: HHH033)

Atching Tan Song (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Travellers' cant. Travellers arrive at an illicit camp, but awake in the morning to find their old pony impounded by the farmer. They ransom it and move on, finding water for the children
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (recorded from Frank Copper)
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness travel farming foreignlanguage horse children Gypsy migrant
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 337, "The Atching Tan Song" (1 main text plus 1 in the notes, 1 tune)
Roud #1732
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Atching Tan Song (II)"
NOTES [91 words]: The song is macaronic, combining Travellers' cant with English. This shares some lyrics (references to "tent-rods, ridge-poles, and kittles") in the first verse with "The Atching Tan Song (II)" [which causes Roud to lump them - RBW], but they seem otherwise separate.
An "atching tan" was a stopping place; it was common practice for Travellers to camp in an unauthorized place, then let their horses into a farmer's field after dark with the intention of retrieving them before dawn. Often as not, they were caught and the horses impounded. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: K337

Atching Tan Song (II), The

DESCRIPTION: Travellers arrive at a likely camping spot; a policeman arrives and tells them to move on. Although it's the middle of the night, they do
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 or 1966 (collected from Caroline Hughes)
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness travel police Gypsy migrant
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 130, "The Atching Tan Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1732
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Atching Tan Song (I)"
NOTES [79 words]: This shares some lyrics (references to "tent-rods, ridge-poles, and kittles") in the first verse with "The Atching Tan Song (I)" [causing Roud to lump them - RBW], but they seem otherwise separate.
An "atching tan" was a stopping place; it was common practice for Travellers to camp in an unauthorized place, then let their horses into a farmer's field after dark with the intention of retrieving them before dawn. Often as not, they were caught and the horses impounded. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: McCST130

Athabaskan's Finish

DESCRIPTION: The Athabaskan leaves Plymouth to attack the enemy in the English Channel, but there are E-boats lying in wait. Two torpedoes destroy the Athabaskan. Many, including the captain, are killed; some are rescued; many, including the author, are prisoners
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: navy ship wreck death prisoner
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 28, 1944 - Sinking of HMCS Athabaskan
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 128-129, "Athabaskan's Finish" (1 text)
Roud #29407
NOTES [1187 words]: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear doesn't really claim this as traditional; it is an account of a survivor of the Athabaskan, although we don't know which one. I strongly doubt it was ever sung; the meter is too inconsistent. Nonetheless it is a good account of one of the many tragedies of World War II.
Canada went into World War II with almost no navy, but they had their ambitions. Most of the craft they built or acquired were small escort craft -- corvettes, frigates, small destroyers. But many in the Canadian navy wanted bigger things -- cruisers, even aircraft carriers (Milner, p. 131). They didn't get those, but in 1942-1943 they did manage to acquire from Britain four large destroyers of the "Tribal" class: Athabaskan, Haida, Huron, and Iroquois; they would build four more after the war (Whitley, p. 28). Unlike ordinary destroyers, these "fleet" destroyers were much larger and more heavily armed; although they had antisubmarine weapons, they were designed primarily to sail with the fleet and engage in combat with enemy surface ships. It wasn't obvious what Canada would do with these ships, but they made the Canadians feel good.
The first two Canadian "Tribals" to go into service were Iroquois and Athabaskan, on December 10, 1942 and February 3, 1943 (Whitley, p. 28); Athabaskan had been delayed when a German bombing raid damaged her (Burrow/Beaudoin, p. 6). The "Tribals" were supposed to have eight 4.7" guns, four torpedo tubes, and a top speed of 36 knots (Worth, p. 111); Athabaskan ended up with six 4.7" guns (Burrow/Beaudoin, p. 94; I believe this was to give her more anti-aircraft weapons) -- but managed only 30 knots on trials (Burrow/Beaudoin, p. 95), implying she still needed work.
Her first captain, George Ralph Miles, was born in 1902, and was that rarest of things in Canada, an experienced naval man(Burrow/Beaudoin,p.13). He was good at getting songs about his ships, too; in 1941, he had commanded a smaller Canadian destroyer, HMCS Saguenay (Burrow/Beaudoin, p. 15), which is the subject of "The Saguenay Song."
The two Canadian destroyers operated mostly around the Bay of Biscay and the entrances to Gibraltar; on June 28, 1943, Athabaskan was hit by two glider bombs and badly damaged (Whitley, p. 28; Milner, pp. 131-132; Burrow/Beaudoin, p. 43, say she was saved only because the Germans thought she was bigger than she was and set the fuses incorrectly -- a very helpful mistake, because it meant that pieces of the bomb were left for the Allies to examine). Commander Miles was reassigned at the time and was replaced by 31-year-old Lt. Commander John Hamilton Stubbs, already well-known for his aggressive command of a smaller escort craft (Burrow/Beaudoin, pp. 53-54). Athabaskan was repaired in time to spend late 1943 escorting convoys to Russia (Milner, p. 144; Whitley, p. 28; Burrow/Beaudoin), then was sent to the English Channel in 1944 to clear out German small torpedo boats prior to the Normandy invasion.
Instead, it was the torpedo boats that got Athabaskan. Their squadron had been in battle a few days before, and several ships had been damaged, so it was under-strength, and the men were tired from a long series of night patrols, but out she had to go anyway (Burrow/Beaudoin, p. 113). She and three other Allied ships (including Haida, whose skipper Commander de Wolf led the Canadian vessels; Burrow/Beaudoin, p. 117) encountered the German torpedo boats T24, T27, and T29 in a night action. According to Milner, p. 144, Athabascan (alone) was not using flashless powder, making her relatively easy to see. T24 put a torpedo into Athabaskan,. McKee/Darlington, p. 143, says that the ship lost power and steering, and was going down by the stern, after which fires broke out. Burrow/Beaudoin, p. 118, suggest that there was another torpedo hit, though it's not clear who could have fired it. In any case, one of these fires reached the after magazine, which exploded, killing several including the First Lieutenant (Burrow/Beaudoin, p. 118). Supposedly the blast could be seen thirty miles away (McKee/Darlington, p. 144). The crew had already been preparing to abandon; after that, there was little to do except get off as fast as possilble.
The Haida went to try to pick up survivors, and managed to bring a few aboard, but German planes were expected as it grew lighter, and no Allied aircraft would be available (Milner, p. 145; Burrow/Beaudoin, p. 166, question this, since no aircraft ever appeared, but that doesn't mean there was no reason for fear!). Supposedly someone in the water cried out to Haida to flee; many (e.g. Lamb, p. 159) claim it was the Athabaskan's captain, Lieutenant Commander John Stubbs (although this can hardly be verified; Burrow/Beaudoin, pp. 124-125 describe so many people talking to Stubbs in the water that I can't help but think some of the stories untrue. We know Stubbs died in the water; his body was identified among those which washed up on the coast of Brittany; Burrow/Beaudoin, p. 144). Whatever the source, the Haida eventually left, leaving the remaining men to the sea and the Germans -- although Haida's captain left his ship's motor launch behind, and reportedly six men used it to return to Britain (Bercuson, p. 203).
Hopkins says that 128 of her crew died, 44 were rescued, and 83 became prisoners; McKee/Darlington, p. 142, agrees that 128 were lost, but says that 86 were captured (the difference may be because several men died after rescue). Ironically, 47 of the captured men were rescued by Captain William Meentzen's T24 (McKee/Darlington, p. 145); others were rescued by minesweepers (Burrow/Beaudoin, p. 132. All of the prisoners survived their time as POWs, although they suffered conditions of extreme privation and most lost a great deal of weight and needed a long time to recover (Burrow/Beaudoin, p. 145). Some of them, ironically, were guarded by survivors of T27 (Burrow/Beaudoin, p. 136).
According to Burrow/Beaudoin, p. 1, she was the "only Canadian warship sunk in the course of a surface action." They report on pp. 165-167 on the court of inquiry after the sinking, and cast strong doubts about its accuracy, but their complaints don't seem very strong to me; they sound like they are scapegoat-hunting (understandable, since both had strong ties to the ship. The book is a labor of love, which does not mean that it is unbiased...).
The action earned Kapitanleutnant Wilhelm Meentzen of T24 the Knight's Cross (Burrow/Beaudoin, p. 137)
There is a photo of Captain Stubbs as a young officer in the photo inset in Milner. Burrow/Beaudoin have many photos of the ship and her crew from launching to sinking, a register of all who were lost and saved on pp. 176-183, a list of other crew members on pp. 183-187, a list of places named after deceased crew on pp. 187-188, and many photos of Stubbs as a boy and young man on pp. 54-55. A picture of the T27 is on p. 82, and one of T24 (which would be sunk on August 24, 1944) on p. 133. A map of Athabaskan's last action, showing also the maneuvers of Haida, is on p. 115. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Hopk128

Athol Gathering, The

DESCRIPTION: "Wha will ride wi' gallant Murray, wha will ride for Geordie's sel'? He's the flower of Glenisla and the darling o' Dunkeld." "Every faithful Murray follows, first of heroes, best of men." Many other men join him to follow Prince Charlie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg)
KEYWORDS: jacobite soldier travel | Lord George Murray sword
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 4, 1694 - Oct 11, 1760 - Life of George Murray
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 59, "The Athol Gathering" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Gallant Murray
NOTES [2681 words]: I know of no evidence that this is actually traditional. Many things in Hogg are not. But Andy M. Stewart recorded a stirring version of this (as "The Gallant Murray") on the album "Donegal Rain." Apparently the Battlefield Band recorded it also. So it probably needs to be documented that, first, we have no proof it is traditional, and second, that the song is, at best, overly optimistic.
The song is about Lord George Murray, a younger son of the 1st Duke of Athol. His family history was complicated. Murray was a firm Jacobite in his early career, having taken part in the 1715 and 1719 rebellions. His oldest brother William was an even more committed Jacobite. But the Duke of Athol himself had stayed loyal, and when he died in 1724, by a special dispensation, his son James (who, unlike his older brother William, was loyal) had been given the Dukedom (Magnusson, p. 588). The younger Athol was able to gain a pardon for George in 1725. By 1739, George had given his oath of allegiance to George II.
Then came the Forty-Five. William Murray, the oldest of the brothers, was one of the "Seven Men of Moidart" who first landed in Scotland with Bonnie Prince Charlie, and became Charlie's Marquis of Tullibardine (and was generally regarded as the rightful Duke of Athol). Eventually George Murray too turned out for Prince Charles and the Jacobites.
Emphasis on "eventually." Early on, Murray was disinclined to join Charlie's under-manned, under-equipped forces (Reid, p. 17); the plan had been for the Jacobites to bring at least a brigade of troops from France, but the French never supplied them. Charlie ended up with two ships, the equivalent of a company of soldiers, and enough weapons for a brigade or two -- but all the troops and most of the weapons were on the ship Elizabeth, which got into a fight with a Hanoverian ship and was so damaged she had to turn back (Magnusson, pp. 586-587). Charlie landed with only a handful of men and enough weapons for a couple of regiments only. It was such a weak force that almost every chieftain, no matter how Jacobite, urged him to turn back, at least until Charlie talked them around. Even after Charlie managed to start bringing men in, Murray held back for some time (Reid, p. 23).
It sounds as if this song was written early in the rebellion, when Murray was trying to recruit men for what came to be called the "Athol Brigade." This did not go particularly well; McLynn, p. 18, says that the Murray brothers experienced the "utmost difficulty" in raising troops, and had to resort to pressure. Even so, although labelled a "brigade," the Athol Brigade was closer in strength to a regiment than a brigade. But at least it turned out for Charlie. One of Charlie's other high officers wrote that his "his presence... was thought necessary, to determine the Athol men to joyn" (Reid, p. 23) -- which is odd, since one brother, Tullibardine, was already with Charlie, and another, Athol, was firmly on the side of George II; did they think Murray was a tiebreaker or something?
Charlie's forces were short of experienced officers (the Jacobites commissioned a vast array of gentlemen, but most of them had too few ordinary soldiers to match their ranks -- Reid, p. 202 -- and most had no training or competence), so Murray was appointed Lieutenant General -- the highest rank possible (since Charlie was the General). It was a post that entitled Murray (and the other two Lieutenant Generals, Tullibardine and the Duke of Perth; Reid, p. 23) to command a division. And Charlie's forces never amounted to much more than a division. Murray also did a lot of work training the rebels (Magnusson, p. 591), and he performed some of the functions of a Chief of Staff. And, to his credit, he seems to have tried quite hard to care for his men and see them properly equipped (McLynn, p. 29) -- a responsibility many officers of the time ignored.
Assessments of Lord George's ability vary tremendously. Wilkinson, for instance, calls him a "strategical genius" (p. 85), though the description that follows shows that Wilkinson is referring more to his ability to manage an army in motion than his ability to plan a battle. This is also what McLynn seems to mean when he calls Murray a "tactical genius of a high order." But Reid, p. 30, remarks that "As events throughout the campaign were to demonstrate there was indeed much about soldiering which Murray did not understand."
What is noteworthy is that, although Murray was regarded as the best soldier in the army, prior to 1745 seems never to have commanded anything larger than an understrength regiment in the 1715 rebellion (Young/Adair, p. 256), and his 1712-1715 service in the regular army had been as an ensign, the lowest of all officer ranks (Reid, p. 203) so that his position in the Jacobite army, both as a wing commander and also a sort of de facto chief of staff was about two grades above his previous best rank and his experience. And he had no experience of high command, and no more strategic experience than anyone else in the army; contrary to what everyone seemed to think, there was absolutely no reason to expect him to be competent at any grade above that of major!
And he had become stubborn; Reid, p. 23, quotes one of his own aides as saying "Lord George was vigilant, active, and diligent; his plans were always judiciously formed, and he carried them promptly and vigorously into execution. However, with an infinity of good qualities, he was not without his defects: proud, haughty, blunt and imperious, he wished to have executive disposal of everything and, feeling his superiority, would listen to no advice." He was so cranky that, at Carlisle, he resigned his commission. McLynn, p. 45, says it was a power play to try to get a vote of confidence and improve his position. It worked, too: Charlie, who was taking a justified dislike to his prickly subordinate, was eventually induced by his officers to take Murray back, and even make him the army's senior officer (Magnusson, p. 601; Reid, pp. 64-65). This proved a horrid mistake; if Murray had been off the army council for, say, the next two weeks, the March to Derby would not have stopped at Derby but would have made its desperate but necessary attempt to capture London; it was Murray who argued most strenuously against continuing the march on London (Reid, p. 70).
I think the truth about his ability lies somewhere between the two assessments. Murray still thought in many ways like a mid-level officer -- though a very good mid-level officer. Wilkinson and McLynn are right that was creative in maneuvering an army -- it is noteworthy that, during the entire time Charlie's army marched outside the Highlands, no Hanoverian force managed to out-maneuver and trap the Highlanders -- but that is a skill that field officers, with no need to plan an entire campaign, would develop. For high command in a rebel army, his vision was too small. He was an obsessive perfectionist; if the execution of a plan wasn't perfect, he would pull back and give up. And he was an utter pessimist. He totally failed to realize that a rebel army had to take risks in order to win. For instance, he was one of those who didn't want to try to invade England; he thought that the Jacobites, having chased most English forces from Scotland, should be content to declare the Act of Union void and settle down to rule an independent Scotland (Magnusson, p. 600). It was a plan almost certain to fail; much of Scotland was pro-Hannover, and England would eventually scrape up the forces to beat the Jacobites. They couldn't win independence by not losing, the way Robert Bruce had four centuries before; they had to win outright -- by beating the English.
Even worse, at the two greatest moments of the Forty-Five, Murray got cold feet and backed out: When the army was marching on London (the "March to Derby"), he wanted to turn around and return to Scotland. And at the Battle of Culloden, when the Highland army wasn't perfectly prepared for its surprise charge, he called the whole thing off (Young/Adair, pp. 258-259).
In both cases, he was nominally right: the plans probably wouldn't work. But what Lord George didn't realize is that, in both cases, the alternative was worse: The march on London was the only chance the Jacobites had for a quick win. If they didn't take the chance, they would end up trapped in Scotland until the Hanoverians brought up enough forces to trap them. Which is just what happened at Culloden. And at Culloden, the surprise charge probably wouldn't have worked. But by calling it off, Lord George left his disorganized, starving, ill-armed troops in a disordered position, not suited for defense, where the could not use their one big tactic of the Highland Charge. The Hanoverian army slaughtered them.
Little wonder that, after both Prince Charlie and Lord George escaped to the continent, Charlie refused to meet with him. The Forty-Five would likely have failed no matter what; the forces it could muster were too small. But one man turned that likelihood of a failure into a certainty. And that one man was the hero of this song, Lord George Murray.
McLynn, who had called him a tactical genius, quotes with approval Eveline Cruickshanks's assessment of the former decision: "By forcing the retreat [from Derby] Lord George Murray and the others threw away the best chance there had been of a restoration of the Stuarts, threw away all that the bravery of the Highlanders and their own military skill had achieved. The '45 was a gamble from the beginning, but they threw in their hand..." (McLynn, p. 198).
Like the Prince whom he so disliked and served so ill, Murray left his army on the field of Culloden and fledd the country. He died in what is now Germany in 1760 (Young/Adair, p. 270).
There is at least one biography of Murray: Katherine Tomasson, The Jacobite General, William Blackwood & Sons, 1958. I have not seen it; whatever one's opinion of Murray as a general, he was so toxic as a person that I think a biography would be hard to stomach.
Of course, the song mentions other heroes. "Menzies he's our friend and brother" is presumably Menzies of Shian, who brought in 300 men (Reid, p. 53) who became one of the units of the Athol Brigade. Another of these battles was Lord George Murray's own, so they were clearly to be associated.
"Gask and Strowan": Gask is without doubt Laurence Oliphant of Gask, who was made a lieutenant colonel and commanded a small unit of cavalry at Prestonpans (Reid, p. 37). Strowan admits of two interpretations. One is that it is a mistake for Strathallan, i.e. William Drummond, fourth Viscount Strathallan, who was also a cavalry leader at Prestonpans, and Oliphant's superior officer (though neither man actually did anything in the battle). As the Jacobite army prepared to leave Edinburgh to try to attack England, Drummond and Oliphant were sent to Perth, to guard an important city but also, perhaps, to get the ineffectual Drummond out of the way (Reid, p. 52; on p. 81 he declares Drummond "ineffectual"). Drummond still had a small cavalry command at Culloden (Reid, p. 165), where he died. The other possibility is that "Strowan" refers to Alexander Robertson of Struan/Strowan, chief of Clan Robertson (died 1749 at about the age of eighty), who (according to Wikipedia) was said to have participated in all three Jacobite risings. Both are suitable candidates; Strowan has the more correct name, but Strathallan has the correct job....
A footnote for the genealogists out there: Yes, Laurence Oliphant of Gask was the father of Carolina Oliphant (One of her poems was "The Garden at Gask). And Carolina Oliphant married William Murray Nairne, lord Nairne. Oh, and remember the Athol Brigade, with battalions named for Menzies and Lord George Murray? The third battalion of the brigade was commanded by... Lord Nairne, the ancestor of Carolina Oliphant's husband. And, according to the Scottish Women Poets site, the home that they moved to was paid for by the Chief of Strowan.
"Perth" is presumably the Duke of Perth, who, as mentioned above, was another of the Jacobite Lieutenant Generals, although, by all accounts, not a particularly good one.
The precise identity of "Mackintosh, the gallant soldier... spite of all their chiefs could say" is not clear to me, but the context is: the chief of Clan Mackintosh "personally had sides with the Government, and [was] with Loudon [the leading government agent] at Inverness; but [his wife] thought otherwise. Lady Mackintosh raised the clan in her husband's absence and sent it to join Drummond at Perth" (Wilkinson, p. 160).
Young/Adair, p. 261, claims that Clan Chattan -- i.e. the Mackintoshes -- comprised the unit at the center of the Jacobite front line at Culloden; Reid, p. 155, also places the MacIntoshes there. Reid, p. 99, tells us that the unit she raised was known as Lady MacIntosh's regiment.
According to Young/Adair, p. 272 note 2, the unit "had been raised by Lord George Murray's cousin, Lady Macintosh, whose husband was a captain in King George's army. She was a very pretty young woman of 20, and rode in at the head of her men to join the Prince, wearing a tartan riding-habit and a man's blue bonnet. The English credited 'that bloody rebel Lady Mackintosh' with leading her clain into action at Culloden, and it seems a pity to disbelieve such a fine piece of mythology. She was imprisoned after the battle" and there were calls to hang her -- though I suspect her loyal husband would have been able to save her.
The mention of the Gordons in connection with Macintosh is also curious, since the Gordons were one of several clans that went for the Jacobites in 1715 but stood aloof in 1745 (McLynn, p. 21, who lists the others who stood aside as the Seaforths, McLeod of Skye, and MacDonald of Sleat), There were some individual Gordons with Charlie, to be sure -- Lord Lewis Gordon, a younger son of the Duke of Gordon, led a regiment and was involved in recruiting several units although he was "Active and peremptory to the point of being highly strung" (Reid, p. 86); in addition to this Colonel Gordon, there was Lt. Colonel John Gordon. But Lewis Gordon was not a major player at the time Murray joined; his regiment was raised in Scotland while the rest of the Jacobite army was in England (McLynn, p. 28). There was also the Glenbucket Regiment, lead by John Gordon of Glenbucket (Reid, p. 107), who was enough of a Jacobite that he had tried to get the Old Pretender to authorize a rebellion in 1737 (Reid, p. 6).
"We may gar the Campbells claw" presumably refers to the fact that the Campbells, without exception, adhered to the government (many of their arch-rivals the MacDonalds, after all, were Jacobites); Reid, p. 81, mentions eight companies of government infantry being raised among the Campbells, as well as several Campbell officers.
"Every true and trusty Stewart" refers not to the Scottish royal house but, I believe, the Stewarts of Appin, led by Charles Stewart of Ardshiel, who joined the army as it was heading for Perth (Reid, p. 22; according to McLynn, p. 20, Ardshiel was not the clan chief but was related to the actual chief, Dugald Stewart). They were formed into one of six clan regiments in the Jacobite army, the others being the Camerons (under the famous Lochiel), the MacPhersons, Clanranald (a MacDonald branch), Keppoch (another Macdonald branch), and Glengarry (McLynn, p. 18), although only the Camerons and Glengarry managed to bring in as many as 500 men. There was another regiment commanded by Colonel John Roy Stuart, but it wasn't a clan regiment -- in fact, it was raised mostly from the Edinburgh slums (McLynn, p. 19); all that its men had in common was being urban lowlanders.
The mention of the "Grahams" seems to have been a vain home; the Grahams did not support the Jacobites. Reid, pp. 213-219, has a list of those taken prisoner after Culloden; there is only one Graham on the list (Charles Graham, said to be from Glengarry; p. 215) -- and he was a private. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: HoJR2059

Atirei o Pau No Gato

DESCRIPTION: Portuguese song about a cat: "Atirei o pau no gato, Mas o gato não morreu, Dona Chica admirou-se, Do berro, do berro que o gato deu, Miau!" The singer throws a stick at a cat, but it is not killed. Mrs. Chica is frightened; the cat meows
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2006 (recording, Galinha Pintadinha)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage animal abuse injury | cat
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Matthew Delia-Lôbo, "Atirei o Pau No Gato" (Piotr-Archive #395, recorded 12/18/2022)
Jackson DeSouza and family, "Atirei o Pau No Gato" (Piotr-Archive #501, recorded 02/23/2023)
Lyster Periotto, "Atirei o Pau No Gato" (Piotr-Archive #405, recorded 01/02/2023)
NOTES [59 words]: This is listed as a Portuguese (Brazilian) folksong, but almost every internet reference is to a 2006 recording by a cartoon chicken, "Galinha Pintadinha." The fact that Derek Piotr picked up three versions in the English-speaking world caused me to include it, since some of these versions claim to have been learned before 2006 -- but I wonder.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio395

Atisket, Atasket (I Sent a Letter to My Love)

DESCRIPTION: "Atisket, Atasket (or: I tisket, I tasket"), A green and yellow basket, I (wrote/sent) a letter to my love And on the way I dropped it." "A little puppy picked it up And put it in his pocket, It isn't you, it isn't you, But it is *you*."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Illustrated National Nursery Songs and Games)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,So) Britain(England(North,South)) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 59-60=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 216-218, "Itiskit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 77-78, "Kitty, Kitty Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #117, "Hunt the Squirrel" (1 text, 1 tune, with the tune being "Itisket" but the game being "Hunt the Squirrel")
Solomon-ZickaryZan, pp. 27-28, "Drop-the-Handkerchief" (1 text)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 107, "(A tisket, a tasket)" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 282-284, "Itiskit, Itaskit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 30, ""I sent a letter to my love"; "I had a little dog"; "Lucy Locket" (3 texts, the first being of the "Atisket, Atasket (I Sent a Letter to My Love)" type, the second of the "Hunt the Squirrel" type, the third being "Lucy Locket," but all apparently used for the same game)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 116-117, "I Sent a Letter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 50, "(I wrote a letter to my love)" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 113-114, "Atisket, Atasket"
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #260, "Itisket, itasket, a green and yellow basket" (1 text); cf. #26, "A tisket, a tasket, Hitler's in his casket" (1 text, clearly adapted, but so rarely found that it probably doesn't deserve to be considered an independent song)
cf. Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 806, "Hunt the Squirrel (Itisket, Itasket)" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #630, p. 250, "(I sent a letter to m love)"
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke, _Red Rover, Red Rover: Children's Games Played in Canada_, pp. 56-57, "Drop the Handkerchief" (scattered lyrics with description of the game)
ST BAF806A (Full)
Roud #13188
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hunt the Squirrel" (floating lyrics, playparty form)
NOTES [221 words]: There is confusion about the origin of this piece. Botkin links it to the playparty "Hunt the Squirrel." There is, however, no lyric similarity; the point of contact is that both are used with the English "drop glove" game. (For other "Drop Glove" verses, which actually mention gloves, see Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #647, p. 258, "(I've a glove in my hand).")
Fuld explicitly denies the English connection, pointing our that the earliest appearance was in Rosenwig's 1879 collection, where it was titled "I Sent a Letter to My Love." Even there, however, it is listed without an author. The Rosenwig text does not contain the "Atisket" words; these are first mentioned by Hofer in 1901.
It can be said that the two songs have cross-fertilized; see the "little dog at home" stanza, found in both "hunt the squirrel" and "Atisket."
The pop version of this song, of course, was recorded by Ella Fitzgerald and titled "A-Tisket, A-Tasket"; it was credited to Fitzgerald and Al Feldman. Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 433, estimates that this was the seventh most popular song in America in 1938, peaking at #1 in August 1938 (#1 for the year being Larry Clinton's "My Reverie," based on a theme by Debussy). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BAF806A

Atlanta Blues

See Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor (File: Handy190)

Atlantic Cable, The (How Cyrus Laid the Cable)

DESCRIPTION: "Come, listen all unto my song, It is no silly fable, 'Tis all about the mighty cord They call the Atlantic Cable." Cyrus Field, despite ridicule and doubt about his ability to do it, after two failures manages to run a telegraph cable across the Atlantic
AUTHOR: John Godfry Saxe (1816-1887)
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: technology ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 30, 1818 - Birth of Cyrus West Field
1854 - Field meets with Frederic Gisborne, who had tried and failed to lay a cable connecting Newfoundland with Canada. Field and his partners take over Gisborne's business but decide to try a cable all the way across the Atlantic via Newfoundland
1855 - First attempt to lay a Newfoundland Cable fails
1856 - Cable successfully laid across Cabot Strait; the Newfoundland part of the cable i s complete
Aug 1857 - First attempt at an Atlantic Cable fails
Jun 1858 - Second attempt to lay the cable fails due to storms
Jul-Aug 1858 - Cable successfully laid
Sep 1858 - Cable fails
Jul 1865 - Third attempt, this time using the _Great Eastern_. Cable breaks in mid-ocean
Jun 30, 1866 - beginning of fourth attempt
Jul 27 - Cable completed, with messages starting the next day. The _Great Eastern_ then manages to grapple the 1865 cable, so two lines are complete
Jul 12, 1892 - Death of Cyrus Field
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 66-68, "The Atlantic Cable" (1 text) (pp. 54-56 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #14077
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Atlantic Cable Parody" under "Pop Goes the Weasel" (subject)
NOTES [6510 words]: According to Wikipedia, John Godfrey Saxe, who wrote this poem, was most famous for his retelling of the story of "The Blind Men and the Elephant," and also was responsible for the quip that making laws was like making sausages -- you didn't want to see it done. Granger's Index to Poetry lists twenty of his poems which were popular enough to be printed in major twentieth century anthologies; this is one of them, but the only citation of it is in an anthology of poems about history. Still, it can be found online. Shoemaker's version -- which he says was used as a chantey! -- differs somewhat from the original but retains most of the text.
Contrary to what is usually taught in America, most of the key ideas for the telegraph were originate by British scientist Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875), who in his spare time invented the concertina (Porter, pp. 717-718). Samuel Morse did little more than tweak it -- but he did invent Morse Code, which was important as the means used to transmit information efficiently (Gordon, p. 9). And that made Morse famous and (eventually) financially comfortable; the telegraph was all the rage, and he became popular as an ideas person.
At first, of course, the telegraph was used only on land, and for short-distance runs -- a signal had to be strong enough to make it through the resistance in the conducting wire, and the longer the wire, the greater the resistance. But as batteries and wires got better, it became possible to extend the telegraph's range. By 1845, the first wire was run across a river (Gordon, p. 10); in i850, a cable went across the English Channel -- and failed, but the state of the art soon improved (Gordon, pp. 10-11. Note that a cable is a much more elaborate item than a wire, because it has to deal with the water environment).
But cables in European waters were short (a few dozen miles to get across the English Channel, e.g.), and the seas generally shallow. To cross the Atlantic was a much bigger job.
Enter Cyrus W. Field, a member of one of the most accomplished families in America (Cyrus, his father, and three of his brothers would earn entries in the Dictionary of American Biography; Gordon, p.16. I think the DAB editors overdid it; glancing over the entries, I think I would have included only Cyrus and two others, one a Supreme Court justice and one a legal theorist). The family included famous clergymen and lawyers, but it's easy to understand why Cyrus wanted to escape: His mother came from a family so conservative that they inflicted the first name "Submit" on her (Cowan, p. 16, has a portrait of her), and his father's theology was basically puritan; Cyrus was the squirmy kid who had trouble dealing with all the family rigidity (Cowan, pp. 15-17). Cyrus went into business. He had a lot of help from his family connections (Gordon, pp. 22-25), but he definitely made the most of those connections; he made a fortune as a paper merchant, then -- having seriously damaged his health through overwork -- turned the business over to his partner and retired from the company at age 34 (Cowan, p. 9, 40-41).
But he absolutely could not slow down; whatever he did, he did with all the energy he had, meaning that he kept making himself sick all over again (e.g. Cowan, pp. 48-49)..
He was also extremely honest. Early on in his career, he had been part of a company which went bankrupt, resolving its debts for thirty cents on the dollar. Field had no obligation to do anything more -- he had been left holding the bag, but he hadn't incurred the debts, and in any case, the books were closed. But once he had enough money, he went and paid the old creditors all the amount they had lost in the bankruptcy, with interest! (Gordon, p. 25).
It is ironic that he suffered from chronic seasickness (Gordon, p. 25), because few men who were not professional sailors can have crossed the Atlantic more than he did.
It was in the period when he wanted a non-paperwork job that he met a certain Mr. Gisborne, who had tried to build a cable connecting the island of Newfoundland with Canada -- but Newfoundland's rough topography had proved too much; he had run out of money trying to run a wire across the island. He wanted Cyrus's help to finish the project. Not only would it connect Newfoundland with Canada, it would allow news to cross the Atlantic faster, since ships could stop in St. John's and then the news would travel with telegraphic speed (Cowan, pp. 9-11).
Field wasn't inspired by the idea of the Newfoundland Cable; Newfoundland itself wasn't important (in his view), and the time saved carrying messages wasn't enough to be worth the high expense (Gordon, p. 33). I suspect he was right; although for a brief time ships did drop news reports in vessels off Cape Race (see "Loss of the Anglo Saxon"), news from Europe would still be too slow to really be helpful. But Field went on to look at a globe, and noticed that the distance from Newfoundland to Great Britain was a lot less than the distance from, say, New York to Britain. If a cable across the Atlantic was possible at all, Newfoundland was the place. A cable from Newfoundland to New York wasn't a big deal. A cable from London to New York would be a big deal -- if it was possible.
Field sought for advice in the best possible places: Samuel Morse for information about telegraphs and the famous oceanographer Matthew Fontaine Maury for information about problems he might have to deal with when running a cable across the ocean bottom. Morse was sure telegraph cables could be run for long distances underwater (Gordon, p. 35). In fact, he signed on to Field's project.
Maury -- who had had his own thoughts about a cable -- reported that the ocean floor on the path from Newfoundland to Great Britain had been recently sounded and was relatively flat, and on a relatively shallow plateau, which was what Field needed to run a long cable (Gordon, pp. 38-39; Clarke, p.21). So Field started signing up investors (Cowan, p. 57); on May 8, 1854, he and a few others formed the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, with capital of $1.5 million (Cowan, p. 59).
The first step was to take over Gisborne's charter complete the cable across Newfoundland. Renegotiating the charter to allow a European connection was no problem (Cowan, p. 59); Newfoundland governments in this era were prone to make Big Deals to their own detriment (the British government strongly recommended against the contract, according to Gordon, p. 45, but Newfoundland was internally independent, and it agreed to the deal. It was not the last time they made an incredibly stupid deal in the name of progress; the notes to "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie" detail how they made a horrid agreement to get a railroad built). But getting a steal of deal from Newfoundland didn't actually string any wires. The absurdly optimistic goal was to finish the Newfoundland line in 1855 and run the Atlantic Cable in 1856.
The consortium had never studied Newfoundland. Cyrus's brother Matthew was given charge of the party responsible for building a telegraph path across the island. He had a crew of 600 men, and a steamer to drop off supplies along the coast. In March 1855, Cyrus asked his brother how many more months it would take to finish. Matthew blew up: "How many months? Let's say how many years!" (Cowan, pp. 63-64). This part of the job, which had been thought to be minor, ended up costing $500,000, or a third of the company's capital (Gordon, p. 48). The connection was finally made in October 1856, after two and a half years of work (Cowan, p. 72).
The first attempt to lay the cable across the Cabot Strait between Newfoundland and the Canadian mainland was frankly a farce. Field & Co had hired a sailing ships, the Sarah Bryant which had carried the cable from England, and the steamer Adger to tow her. But the captain of the Adger would not steer her where he was ordered, and sailed faster than the cable could be unreeled, and then the weather went bad; the attempt failed and much cable was ruined (Gordon, pp. 56-57). Another $350,000 down the drain (Cowan, p. 71). The cable really needed a steamship to lay it. It was finally laid by the Propontis in 1856 (Gordon, p. 59) after the company got rid of all the partygoers and nut cases they had allowed aboard for the first cable-laying attempt..
Both the Newfoundland cable and the land line across Newfoundland broke down soon after (Cowan, p. 79), but that was resolved relatively easily.
Also in 1856, Cyrus headed to Britain to try to make arrangements for the transatlantic cable itself. The government was willing to support the project, as long as the Americans did as well; they would supply a ship to help lay it, and survey the route, as well as paying a fee to use the cable. That gave Cyrus the permissions he needed to form a British consortium to work with his American group (Cowan, p. 76); they also agreed to conduct a detailed sounding of the proposed route (Gordon, p. 66). The new company, the Atlantic Telegraph Company, sold 350 shares at £1000 per share (Cowan, p. 76. Unfortunately, Field reserved 88 shares for Americans, and found that he couldn't sell most of them, so he ended up having to take 61 of them, using up effectively every cent he had left; Gordon, p.68). The organizers perhaps would have been better off with a few more mechanical engineers and fewer money people on the Board (the cable companies seemed to operate in just two modes: driving too hard and ignoring scientific facts, or sitting on their hands), but they did at least recruit William Thomson, the future Lord Kelvin.
Then Field headed back to the United States to reach an agreement with the American navy to get it to cooperate with the British. Many in congress disliked the idea of doing anything with the British, but the forward-looking Senator William A. Seward approved, as did Stephen A. Douglas; the bill (barely) passed both House and Senate (Cowan, pp. 79-80; Gordon, pp. 69-71).
Meanwhile, the company was negotiating the purchase of thousands of miles of undersea cable -- a specialized item, since it had to be watertight but somewhat flexible; it was made only in Great Britain. And the supply was inherently limited because it had to be made with gutta-percha -- which came from sap of the tree of the same name, so the supply was finite. (Gutta-percha in effect was the first hard plastic, used for everything from chess pieces to inkwells to golfballs; there would be no real replacement for it until the discovery of polyethylene shortly before World War II; Clarke, pp.103-105.)
The longer the cable, the better it needed to be built. (An undersea cable needed much better insulation than a land wire, because sea water has electromagnetic properties that interfere with the signals. The first cable across the English Channel had been a failure because this was not appreciated; Clarke, p. 14.) The standard underwater cable design consisted of three copper wires, each wrapped in gutta-percha, wrapped together, then covered with chemically treated hemp, another layer of gutta-percha, and a sheathing of galvanized iron wires; Gordon, p. 53. The transatlantic cable upgraded the design to seven copper wires at the core (Cowan, p. 81. In a bizarre twist, the two companies that manufactured the cables twisted them in different directions, so special work had to be done to make proper splices; Cowan, p. 82). The 2500 mile cable ended up costing £224,000 and weighing about 2500 tons -- too heavy for any single ship available (Clarke, pp. 32-33). It took three weeks just to coil it, with shifts of thirty men at a time working to get it onto the spools (Gordon, p.87).
And, unfortunately, it was not conductive enough to really perform its task. Thomson knew; the "copper" wires were not pure enough (Clarke, p.32). Even with pure copper, the resistance of the cable would be on the order of 3000 ohms, which is already a lot; I don't know if anyone calculated the resistance of the cable as actually laid, but 5000 ohms seems likely; it was a huge signaling problem. But no one knew that yet!
The British and American navies each supplied a navy ship, the Agamemnon and Niagara. It was to prove a tough task for the ships. Clarke seems to think the Agamemnon was ancient, but in fact she was still fairly new, having been laid down in 1849 and launched in 1852; she was the first ship to be designed from the start to use screw propulsion (Payne, p.8). If she had problems, it was mostly because she was the first of her kind. There don't seem to have been any complaints about the Niagara, which was roughly half again as large although several years older than the Agamemnon (Gordon, p.84).
Both ships were modified to hold the cable. Each navy also sent support ships, including one British ship to take soundings as they proceeded (Cowan, pp. 82-83). The ships assembled at Queenstown (Cobh), then set out for the proposed cable base in County Kerry on the west coast of Ireland (Gordon, p. 90). An above-water test of the cable showed that it carried signals well (Cowan, p. 84); apparently no one realized that things would be different once it was underwater.
Originally the plan was to start in mid-ocean, splice the cable there, and have each ship set out for shore, but plans changed at the last minute (Cowan, p. 85). By hooking up at the Ireland end before they started, the ships supposed to be able to stay in touch with home during the cable-laying. They hooked up to the shore on August 5, 1857, and started laying cable on August 6. After running just five miles, the cable broke (Gordon, p. 93, thinks this was because they were still unreeling the extra-heavy cable that was intended for use only near land, where the wear and tear was expected to be heavier). They went back and fixed it and started out again. Three days later, for reasons unknown, the cable stopped sending signals, then restarted (Gordon, p. 96). The day after, due to problems with the machinery, the cable broke again, this time far from land (Clarke, pp 36-37; Gordon, p. 97). There wasn't enough cable left to continue, so the whole thing had to stop for the year while the cable-laying machinery, which could not exert much control over how fast the cable went off the ship, was redesigned (Clarke, p. 38).
This nearly ended the enterprise, because the United States was in the grip of the Panic of 1857. The paper company that was Field's personal source of income was basically bankrupt (Cowan, p. 82; according to Gordon, p. 102, it survived only because people trusted Field's word that he would find a way to replay), and capital was scarce. Almost anyone else would simply have given up. Not Cyrus Field. He wouldn't even take the £1000 per year salary the British side of the consortium apparently offered him (Cowan, p. 95).
The next attempt, in 1858, followed the original plan: Start in mid-ocean, splice the cable there, and head for land in both directions (when they spliced the ends, they threw in a sixpence for luck; Cowan, p. 102. It wouldn't help). At least, this time, Thomson had come up with instrumentation to better test the cable as it was reeled out (Cowan, p. 97. Cowan notes many clashes between Thomson and the company's senior scientist Edward Whitehouse. When they disagreed, Whitehouse almost always won -- and was consistently wrong). They also used an improved braking system, and practiced laying cable first (Gordon, p.108). The planning and preparation was certainly better. This attempt almost failed because of a severe storm (Clarke, pp. 40-41; based on the description on pp. 110-117 of Gordon, it is amazing that the Agamemnon, top-heavy with cable, managed to avoid capsizing and sinking. As it was, she suffered much damage, and several men were injured). Afterward, they quickly suffered three cable breaks. They headed back to Ireland, re-supplied, and went out again (Clarke, pp. 42-43). They almost ran out of coal, and even food, because of more bad weather and other problems (Cowan, p. 103), but at last the Agamemnon reached Ireland with the cable intact. (Clarke, p. 47). The Niagara made it to Newfoundland soon after; between them, they had laid 2050 miles of cable (Clarke, p. 48). Apparently the organizers had forgotten that they had to run a wire to Trinity Bay where the Niagara came ashore (! -- Gordon, p. 131), but that was a detail. The cable was complete.
It was also almost useless. The signals were garbled. Clarke, p. 49, lists the entire set of transmissions sent from Newfoundland on day six of operations. There were 51 words, and they were all requests for slower signals or information on how the signals are being received. it wasn't until August 16, twelve days after the cable was hooked up, that a real message was sent -- a greeting from Queen Victoria to President Buchanan (Clarke, p. 50). It took more than sixteen hours to transmit. A few more messages followed.
There was vast excitement. Apparently "How Cyrus Laid the Cable" was first published in Harper's Weekly at this time (Cowan, p. 119).
Then, on September 1, 1858, the cable failed permanently (Clarke, p. 51) -- signal quality had been deteriorating, and after that date, it was no longer possible to interpret the signals. No one really understood why, because electricity still wasn't understood; although Ohm's Law had been published, few knew of it, and the basic units of measure, volts, amperes, and ohms, were still undefined; there was a sort of measure of voltage (based on the output of a certain sort of cell), but nothing else (Clarke, p. 56). Dr. Whitehouse's technique for long-distance signalling was to crank up the voltage to 2000 volts (which, if the cable really did have a resistance of 5000 ohms, means a current of about .4 amperes, which means they were cranking 800 watts of energy through the wire! Little wonder if it overheated somewhere. We don't know why it failed, but the best guess is Whitehouse's errors, which would force him to spend a long time answering to the investigating committee; Gordin, p. 145). The failure was so rapid that some people said it was all a fake -- but certain messages had news that could not otherwise have been known, so the cable had definitely worked for a while (Cowan, pp.130-131).
(It wasn't much consolation that an even more expensive cable, for which the government itself paid £800,000, was run from Britain to India the next year, via the Red Sea, and promptly failed; Clarke, p. 52. The only good news was, after all these failures, everyone agreed that they needed to figure out just how a cable should be built, and they did solid research over the next few years; Cowan, p. 132; Clarke, pp. 63-64. The British commission concluded that a proper cable was possible, which was good news in a way, although not everyone believed it; Cowan, p. 137.)
After these failures, it was even harder to find new capital -- especially since Field's telegraph company in America lost many of its stations when the American South seceded in 1861, plus Western Union kept pulling away business (Cowan, p. 140). Field spent the years 1861-1864 crossing and re-crossing the Atlantic to raise money (Clarke, pp. 62-63; according to Gordon, p. 168, Field had finally liquidated his paper business during the Civil War, so cable-laying was the only job he had left!). Ultimately, he arguably failed -- although there was another cable expedition, the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance company was largely in charge: They made the cable, planned the operation to lay it -- and put up more than half the cash (Clarke, p. 66). All Cyrus and Co. did was promise a payment if the cable worked.
It is ironic that the cable was successfully laid by using a ship that was notoriously unsuccessful -- indeed, so unsuccessful that her story sounds more like a farce than actual history. The Great Eastern, when built, was a mechanical marvel, five times larger than other ships of the era (Dugan, p. 1) and built to be extraordinarily safe (much safer than the allegedly-unsinkable Titanic, because the Great Eastern had true watertight integrity and a genuine double hull; Dugan, p. 4) She was 22,500 tons (the largest ship in the world for 49 years, according to Dugan, p. 3, although there is some disagreement about just when a bigger ship was built and just which ship it was). She had six masts (even though her sails went almost entirely unused; Dugan, p. 58) and such large engines that she needed five funnels (Dugan, p. 2). She was designed to carry 2000 passengers (some sources say 4000, but there were never plans to embark that many).
Brinnin, pp. 216-217, declares her "'a great swollen hunk of a premature leviathan,' a ship stillborn, a ship out of epoch. Five times bigger than the next biggest ship afloat (no other vessel would exceed her in tonnage displacement for nearly fifty years), she was huge, busy, and slightly grotesque -- not only because of her awesome dimensions, but also because, like a giant born with the brain of a cretin, she lacked the power, if not the will, to govern herself. She had a propeller as big as a windmill, ponderous paddle engines that worked 'with the steadiness and patience of a London drayhorse,' paddle boxes capacious enough to contain Ferris wheels, and six masts, tall as trees, spread with sheetings sufficient to bed a regiment. Yet she was weak and clumsy, given to rolling and to bumping into things, and developed an appetite for soft coal so big that she was never worth her keep."
She was so clumsy, in fact. that Dugan, p. 250, says she damaged or sank ten other ships in her career!
She also lacked any real superstructure (which made her look very strange to our eyes; Clarke, p. 65); perhaps it's no wonder that, despite having an extremely short turning radius for her size (if she turned off her screw and used just her paddlewheels, she could turn around in place), she was hard to maneuver.
Although she would prove to be fast enough to set records for the transatlantic crossing, her propulsion system was not very efficient. She had huge paddlewheels on each side and a single screw propeller -- according to Dugan, p. 132, the largest propeller ever placed on a ship (though reportedly recent submarines have now used bigger ones). This is partly because no one had yet worked out the proper hydrodynamics of a screw (Gordon, p. 157n) but mostly because the had only one screw; newer ships have two, three, or four smaller screws, letting them steer (within limits) on their propellers rather than their rudder. The Great Eastern's rudder alternative was her paddlewheels -- but paddlewheels are not efficient as a driving mechanism (a point the Royal Navy had determined empirically as early as 1845). (According to Gordon, p. 157, her odd system of single screw and dual paddlewheels was necessary because, with big, low-efficiency boilers, there was no room engines to drive more than one screw.) Apart from being inefficient, paddlewheels were prone to damage, as the ship would discover. Throw in her low-pressure boilers (25 psi) and she was inevitably a fuel hog (Dugan, p. 132) . That low efficiency also meant that she needed a lot of men to man her engines. In just the next decade, improvements in boiler design would roughly double the pressure and efficiency, but those improvements came too late for her.
"From the first, the Great Eastern promised big money and, from the first, lost money with a prodigality that confounded every man who ever had anything to do with her. As a result, she went through the hands of one group of owners after another like a hot potato" (Brinnin, p. 217). The idea was to build a ship that could steam from Britain to India nonstop, and then on to Australia, without needing to visit coaling stations (Brinnin, pp. 219-220; Clarke, p. 65). For such a task, a big ship was much more efficient (less water resistance relative to carrying capacity), so they ended up with a design so big that, had the Panama Canal been built, she wouldn't have fit through it (Gordon, pp. 154-155).
She was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, "the most celebrated civil engineer of the middle nineteenth century," known as "the Little Giant" (Dugan, p. 19), who had already built large-for-their-time ships such as the Great Western and Great Britain (Gordon, pp. 152-153).
Even Brunel's flops were on a grand scale. The Great Eastern was jinxed from the start. Half a dozen people died in the process of building her (Dugan, p. 5), and her size meant that she could only be launched horizontally rather than nose first, and only at a high spring tide -- and, as it turned out, only in optimal circumstances even then; it took three months to get her into the water (Dugan, pp. 9-17; the actual launching was on January 30, 1858, after she had gotten stuck on the launching ramp; Brinnin, p. 221). The company that built her failed under the strain of financing it all, to the tune of a three million dollars loss -- in 1850s dollars! (Dugan, p. 37). When another company took her over and fitted her out, Brunel attended -- and had a stroke on the spot (Dugan, p. 40. Even if the shock didn't cause the stroke, the project had aged him; he had lost most of his hair and started to stoop while the ship was built; Gordon, p. 161). The ship had a funnel explode on her first voyage, causing multiple casualties (Dugan, pp. 42-43). When Brunel, still paralyzed from his stroke, was told, he promptly died (Dugan, p. 44). The second group of investors went out of business, since the ship had no source of revenue except tourists looking at the giant artifact; a third group came in to finally fit out the ship and get her to sea (Dugan, pp. 48-49).
When the Great Eastern finally made its first ocean trip, constant changes of schedule and mismanagement meant that she had only 35 paying passengers on a ship with 418 crew! (Dugan, p. 55). She also had a brand-new captain; the man who had been intended to be in charge had recently drowned in a storm (Dugan, pp. 48-49, 56). She made it to New York safely, though she had to wait until high tide to get over the harbor bar (Dugan, pp. 61-62) -- but when they tried to berth her (the first time she had ever actually been berthed), one of her side wheels severely damaged the wharf (Dugan, p. 63). Several people died in the hoopla over her arrival (Dugan, pp. 66-67; he calculates that they brought the total number of people killed by the ship to 22). On her way back to Britain, she made the fastest crossing on record (nine days, four hours; Dugan, p. 86), but she also broke the shaft of her screw propeller. She ran so rarely that her crews were the dregs of the seaside towns. And she couldn't run in winter because she was too cold (Dugan, pp. 86-87). During this time, she hit and damaged H. M. S. Blenheim (Dugan, p. 91).
She finally did make a relatively successful voyage, carrying some 3000 British troops to defend Canada from American and Fenian raids. This trip was made in eight days and six hours, a new record for the westward crossing -- but she almost collided with the Arabia on the way. Although she had done a good job of carrying the troops, the British government declined to hire her again (Dugan, pp. 98-100). In a trip in September 1861 in which she ran into a storm, she was never in danger of sinking, but both her paddlewheels were destroyed and her rudder broke (Dugan, pp. 104-125; Brinnin, pp. 225-230); she might be unsinkable, but it wasn't hard to render her uncontrollable!
On August 27, 1862, arriving in New York, her captain decided she was too heavily loaded to go over the bar of the regular channel, so he took a different route and hit an uncharted rock and tore a huge hole in her outer hull. She survived -- the inner hull held -- but she had an 89-foot-long gash in her outer hull and needed another repair that would take months (Dugan, pp. 140-142) and cost another $350,000 (Dugan, p. 155).
Somewhere in there, she also ruined a ship named the Jane, with the owners of the latter ship brining a lawsuit for damages (Dugan, p.162). The Great Eastern was, simply, too clumsy to be safe and too expensive to keep running as a liner.
Eventually the situation was so bad that a German group apparently proposed to raffle off the ship. That fell through, but in January 1864, her then-owners tried to auction her off (Dugan, p.160). At the first auction, there were no takers (Dugan, p. 161). A second auction was almost as quiet; what would become the cable consortium got the ship for £25,000 (Dugan, pp. 161-162). The old management apparently was selling her without telling the shareholders, who were to lose their entire investment (Dugan, pp. 162-163; I will confess that I couldn't quite figure out just what the management did here, except that it made the former shareholders very upset.)
But all the maneuvers accomplished one thing: the men who had managed her, rather than the old shareholders, now owned the ship, and in 1864 they were able to offer it to Field for cable-laying, with the agreement that they would only charge him if the cable was successfully laid (Dugan, p. 167; on the same page he calculates that the Great Eastern had by this time lost five million, Field only two and a half million, so the ship was "twice the financial flop that Field was"). The price, if the project succeeded, was $250,000 in cable stock.
So what happened when a jinxed project met a jinxed ship? The Great Eastern did have one advantage: She was big enough to carry the whole cable, so there was no need for mid-ocean splicing. (They did have to do a splice off the coast of Ireland, because the Great Eastern was too big to approach the shore along the Irish coast where there was no deep-water port! -- Clarke, pp. 66-67). The first attempt was made in 1865 (Dugan, p. 167). The ship had to be modified, taking out not only passenger space but also two boilers and one funnel (Dugan, p. 168). It would have been a great chance to put in some better boilers, but that apparently didn't happen.
The fact that they were using such a big ship required a change of plans at the Newfoundland end. No longer could they go as far into Trinity Bay as they had in the past; they needed deeper water. So they chose the town of Heart's Content as the cable terminus (Cowan, pp. 148-149).
As they laid the cable, there was a bad moment when the signal stopped; they hauled up the cable, found what appeared to be sabotage (a piece of wire driven into the cable) -- and cut out the section and spliced around it (Dugan, pp. 172-173; Clarke, p. 67). And on they went. More signs of possible sabotage were found later, causing them to mount a guard on the cable -- though it turned out it was a mechanical problem (Dugan, pp. 176-177; Clarke, p. 72): the iron in the sheathing was too brittle and sometimes broke and moved around. Then there was a break in the cable; they managed to grapple it up and splice it (Dugan, pp.180-181), but eventually it broke again, in such a way that they couldn't grapple it; another attempt had failed (Dugan, pp. 184-185; Clarke, pp. 72-73, notes the absurd fact that the failure was not because they couldn't hook the cable; it was that they hadn't brought proper grapnels for the job; their improvised alternatives just weren't strong enough to carry the cable's weight). Happily, they had taken a very good position fix just before it happened (Gordon, pp. 184-185), so they knew with real precision where the cable had broken. They just didn't have the equipment to bring it up, and wouldn't have time to get it before the winter gales.
In early 1866 (Dugan, p. 185), having re-organized yet again (Clarke, p. 75), it was time for another attempt. (Technically, the British, who by this time were running the whole thing, created a whole new company, because Parliament had set limits on the capital they could raise, and Parliament wasn't in session to raise the limit; Cowan, pp. 169-170; Gordon, pp. 189-190.) They took unusual precautions this time -- e.g. the men who were assigned to watch the cable play out were given special costumes designed to make sure they could not carry tools for sabotage; they had no pockets and tied in the back! (Dugan, p. 186). Maybe it brought them luck. On Friday, July 27, 1866, with signals still going through the cable, they arrived at Heart's Content, Newfoundland (Dugan, p. 187). The next day, the cable was spliced in, and Britain and America were connected.
To add one last note of farce to all this, when the Great Eastern arrived in Newfoundland, the cable from Newfoundland across the Cabot Strait to Canada was out of commission, so even though the cable had reached across the ocean, it still wasn't possible to send messages all the way. So Field had to arrange to get that cable fixed, hiring the Newoundland sealing steamer Bloodhound to do it (Cowan, p. 175).
Dugan, p. 187, reports that the price to send a message across the Atlantic was at that time $1.25, and about fifty messages were sent on the first day. This time, the cable would work, and would continue to do so for years.
Having finished her main job, the Great Eastern was sent to try to find the lost cable of 1865. It had been built to something close to the 1866 standard, so if they could grapple it and extend it to Newfoundland, they would have two connections (Dugan, p. 187). A second ship, the Medway, carried the additional cable that would be used to complete the 1865 cable (Clarke, p. 76). They set out to the old cable it as soon as the cable could be transferred and the Great Eastern could load enough coal -- which took longer than expected because one of the coal ships had sunk on its way to Newfoundland (Clarke, p. 79). Finding the cable wasn't too hard, but it broke several times as they tried to bring it up; after many days of this, they hit on the expedient of bringing it partway up, attaching a buoy to hold it, and moving off to another point and lifting from there, so that no part of the cable had to bear all the mass of the run to the surface (Clarke, p. 81). That done, they finally managed to complete the second cable, four weeks after the first (Clarke, p. 82).
In the aftermath, four men were knighted, including Thomson, and two were given baronetcies. Dugan, p.188, notes that nothing was given to John Scott Russell, who had built the Great Eastern; Clarke, p.83, mentions the depressing fact that the two who became barons were both money men; the men who did the actual work were given the lesser honor of knighthood.
Although Cyrus Field was basically done as a telegraphy pioneer, Thomson wasn't; over the next several years, he produced several inventions which dramatically improved the field, including one for recording cable messages (Clarke, pp. 86-87).
Down the road, there were further effects. For example, the cable made European news instantly available to America -- but no one newspaper could afford the high rates. And so United Press International was founded to allow multiple papers access to trans-Atlantic content. The effects on the financial industry were also dramatic, since the London and New York markets could now compare prices on a fairly short time scale (Gordon, p. 211).
That left the question of what to do with the Great Eastern. Louis Napoleon was convinced that the French should buy her -- apparently tricked by a rumor that the Ottoman would make her into a floating harem (Dugan, p. 190). But her problems weren't cured: on her first voyage for the French, four men were killed when a capstan flew out of control (Dugan, pp. 193-194), and she took a loss so dramatic that the company refused to pay her sailors and the ship was, in effect, repossessed (Dugan, p. 202-204). She did, at least, succeed in laying and repairing a few more cables, including one from France to the United States, laid in 1869 (Clarke, p. 88), plus key parts of a cable from Britain to India (Dugan, p. 222, observes that the Great Eastern had been designed to make voyages to India without refueling; she never managed that, but she gave Britain its first direct connection to India of another sort).
But she remained expensive, both in terms of crew and fuel; in 1874, the first true cable-laying ship, the Faraday, was launched, and the Great Eastern was out of the only job she had ever been good at (Dugan, p. 240). She was sent to rot at Milford Haven, since no one wanted her for anything -- even the Milford people wanted her out of their way! (Dugan, pp. 240-241).
By the time they found someone to take her over, she was in pretty bad shape. Soon she was serving as a sort of floating circus and billboard (Brinnin, p. 233) at the Liverpool Exhibition, with signs painted on her sides advertising Lewis's clothing stores (Dugan, pp. 244-250). The ship was displaying such exhibits as "Bob, the Missing Link" (Dugan, p. 252). The people of Liverpool who saw her considered her an eyesore. Her engines were so bad by this time that those who were using her as a floating exhibit had to tow her rather than run under her own power (Dugan, p. 258). All she could do was pander to tourists -- and by 1887, there were so few of those that she was auctioned off again (Dugan, p. 260). When they finally unloaded her, the stockholders who had owned her at this time got just 14% of their original investment back (Dugan, p. 261).
Finally, 31 years after she was built, the Great Eastern was sent to the breakers in May, 1889 -- who found it almost as hard to take her apart as it had been to get her to float in the first place! (Brinnin, p. 218). According to Dugan, p. 266, the wrecking ball was invented because they couldn't figure out any other way to take her apart. But at least disassembling her brought in some money; the ship wasn't worth much, but they got a lot by auctioning her fittings (Dugan, p. 263, who adds that this was the first time that a ship had been sold, in effect, in pieces). It took more than a year and a half to take her apart.
Cyrus Field died in 1892 having, yet again, lost his fortune, due this time to bad behavior by his stockbrokers (Clarke, pp. 85-86 -- but if he had lived, he would probably have been bankrupted the next year anyway due to the Panic of 1893).
It's interesting that there is no Newfoundland song about this event. The telegraph office at Heart's Content -- in effect, the switchboard of the Atlantic Cable -- became a landmark, and the town itself boomed; it was one of the most prosperous places in Newfoundland (Major, p. 312). The old office is now a museum.
This poem apparently originated in the short period between the laying of the 1858 cable and its failure. But the poem is vague enough that it could apply just about as well to the events of 1866; there are no real details except the words "Cyrus Field" and "Atlantic" and "cable." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe066

Attend All Ye Drivers

DESCRIPTION: "Attend all ye drivers, I sing of my team; They're the fleetest and strongest that ever was seen." The singer describes his animals, Dandy, Charlie, and Jimmie, which he claims can beat anyone on the canal and expects them to out-perform steam
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: canal animal travel technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 248-249, "(Attend All Ye Drivers)" (1 text)
File: TNY248

Au Bois, Mesdames (To the Woods, My Ladies)

DESCRIPTION: French. "To the woods, my ladies...Who is strolling in woods so shady? 'Tis the shepherdess a-strolling...Now then, embrace her, speak words cajoling."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction sex nonballad shepherd foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 19 (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [17 words]: I tentatively call this a nonballad; it almost has a plot, but not quite. It probably had one once. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BerrV019

Au Bord d'une Fontaine

See A La Claire Fontaine (File: FJ134)

Au Clair de la Lune (By the Pale Moonlight)

DESCRIPTION: French. A man (Harlequin?) asks his friend Pierrot to lend him a pen and open the door, Pierrot suggests he ask the brunette next door. "Someone looked for a pen,... I don't know what was found / But I do know that those two shut the door behind them"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (recording, Leon Scott de Martinville), but the song is usually dated to the 18th century or before (see NOTES)
LONG DESCRIPTION: French. A man (Harlequin?) asks his friend Pierrot to lend him a pen and open the door, that he may write a note by moonlight. Pierrot responds that he's in bed and doesn't have a pen; he suggests that his friend ask the brunette next door. He does, and "in the light of the moon you can barely see anything / Someone looked for a pen, someone looked for a flame / ...I don't know what was found / But I do know that those two shut the door behind them". (In one version, there's also a verse about not opening the door to a baker or a cobbler.)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage sex nightvisit friend
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada France
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 52, "Au clair de la lune (In the Glow of Moonlight)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 74, "Au Clair de la Lune (By the Pale Moonlight)" (1 text with translation, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Leon Scott de Martinville, 1860
NOTES [231 words]: The first line of the song's second verse appears as the first known sound recording that has been reproduced, Leon Scott de Martinville's 1860 phonautograph record. Because it was extensively used as a child's beginning piano piece, "Au Clair de la Lune" is widely known in the USA. In some versions, the song references the French version of Commedia Dell'Arte via the names (Harlequin, Pierrot, and presumably Columbine), but it's not known whether these were oiriginally part of the song, or later graftings.
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs credits "Verses 1 and 2 by Charles Fonteyn Manney, music by J. B. Lully." Since Manney was born in 1872, twelve years after the Phonautograph recording of "Au Clair de la Lune," this attribution seems unlikely. - PJS
Giles Booker says this "may be one of the best known of French nursery songs generally and the one first learnt by many French children. It seems to have surfaced in the 1790s in Paris although the tune has been ascribed, without much evidence, to Lully but seems, more firmly, to have been known as a popular dance tune in the second half of the eighteenth century" (Gilles Booker, "'Malbrouk, s'en va-t-en guerre' or, How History Reaches the Nursery," essay in Gillian Avery and Julia Briggs, editors, Children and Their Books: A Celebration of the Work of Iona and Peter Opie, Oxford University Press, 1989, p. 136). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: BerV052

Au Revoir to Our Hardy Sealers

DESCRIPTION: "Our gallant ships are going, where rude Boreas is blowing." "Oh, farewell, and may God bless you... May kind Heaven hover o'er you... Terra Nova's sons and daughters truly bid you au revoir." The singer hopes the sailors find success in the ice
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Murphy, Songs of Newfoundland from Various Authors)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor hunting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 102, "Au Revoir to Our Hardy Sealers" (1 text)
Roud #26072
NOTES [100 words]: Reading this, I can't help but think it's based on some other poem -- but I can't tell what. It reminds me a little of "The Old Granite State," but that seems an unlikely inspiration for a Newfoundland piece.
The text as printed in Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff places the name "Terra Nova" in italics, as if it were the name of a ship -- and hence a reference to the well-known sealer S. S. Terra Nova (for which see "The Terra Nova"). But there are no other references to ships or actual events in the piece; I'm pretty sure the reference is actually to Newfoundland's old name of Terra Nova. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm102

Auchnairy Ball, The

DESCRIPTION: "Jean Shearer she was there, And vow but she was nice, She had a tweedle in her tail [or "She had a feestle in her arse"] 'It wad 'a grun spice" [or "Wad grun Jamaica spice"]
AUTHOR: Johnnie Willox, Fridayhill (source: Greig/Duncan3)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: dancing bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 626, "The Auchnairy Ball" (2 fragments)
Roud #6063
NOTES [41 words]: The following songs are all one or two verses or fragments with a verse beginning "[so-and-so he/she] was there": "Mary Glennie," "Jean Dalgarno," "The Singing Class" and "The Auchnairy Ball." Should two or more be considered the same song? - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3626

Auchynachy Gordon

See Lord Salton and Auchanachie [Child 239] (File: C239)

Auckland to the Bluff

DESCRIPTION: "I left the city when just a lad, Times were hard and no work to be had, So I went to sea on the Flora Bell... a ship from hell." Having sailed "from Auckland to the bluff," the singer says, "that's enough." He tells of the bad voyage; he won't sail again
AUTHOR: Rudy Sunde (source: Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 13, "Auckland to the Bluff" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Col2013

Auction Block

See Many Thousand Gone (Auction Block) (File: FJ030)

Auction of a Wife

See Sale of a Wife (File: HHH226)

Augathella Station

See Brisbane Ladies (File: FaE162)

Aughalee Heroes, The

DESCRIPTION: Orangemen from County Antrim march from Portadown to Lurgan celebrating the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne. They are greeted like heroes "that soon made the rebels subdue." At Aughalee the brandy flows with toasts to the boys or King William.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry); mid-19C? (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: pride Ireland political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 1 or 12, 1690 (Old Style or New Style dates) - Battle of the Boyne. William III defeats the forces of James II to firmly establish his control of Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 98, "The Aughalee Heroes" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 127-128, "The Aughalee Heroes" (1 text)
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 23, "The Aughalee Heroes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-TheOrangeSongster, p. 10, "The Aughalee Heroes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6546
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Aghalee Heroes" (on Voice08); "Aghaloe Heroes" (on IRRCinnamond01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of the Boyne (I)" (subject: The Battle of the Boyne) and references there
File: Zimm098

August Gale (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The captains and crews of four ships lost are cited: John Follett, Danny Cheeseman, John Lockin. Only the Annie is mentioned by name. The singer hopes God will protect the families of the dead
AUTHOR: Billy Wilson (source: Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship storm wreck moniker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 25, 1927 - The _Joyce M. Smith_, _Uda F. Corkum_, _Mahala_, and _Clayton W. Walters_, all of Lunenburg, are lost with all hands off the Sable Island shoal. The _Annie Healy_, _Effie May_, Hilda Gertrude_, _John C. Loughlin_, _Vienna_, _Annie Jane_, and _Loretta_ are lost in Newfoundland
Aug 25, 1935 - "Placentia Bay was hit by a severe storm ... which claimed the lives of forty fishermen."
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 5A, "The August Gale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #30700
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gale of August '27" (subject) (describes the consequences of this storm in Nova Scotia)
cf. "The August Gale (II)" (subject?)
cf. "The Annie Young" (subject?)
NOTES [373 words]: Although Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou link this and "The August Gale (II)" to the gale of August 1935, for which see "The Annie Young," they appear to have been wrong about ths one at least -- at least if my sources are correct about ship casualties. The names of the captains clearly show that this was the Gale of August 1927. Gerald Hallowell, The August Gales: The Tragic Loss of Fishing Schooners in the North Atlantic, 1926 and 1927, Nimbus Publishing, 2013, p. 133, lists seven Newfoundland ships lost in 1927, the Annie Healy (7 men lost), the Effie May (six lost), the Hilda Gertrude (8 lost), the John C. Loughlin (7 lost), the Vienna (6 lost), the Annie Jane (four lost), and the Loretta (there doesn't seem to be any information on who was aboard her).
Hallowell, pp. 153-154, says that most of the crew of the Joyce M. Smith was from Newfoundland, although she sailed from Lunenberg. Hallowell therefore thinks the crew of the Smith were the first Newfoundlanders to die in the storm.
References in the song are as follows:
"John Follett in his little boat about ten tons or more": None of the ships listed in Hallowell had a captain named Follett, but John Mullins was captain of the Annie Healy, and he and his son Michael were lost in her wreck. Also, Arthur Durnford was the captain of the Effie May, and he and his son Frank were lost in her wreck.
"Danny Cheeseman from Rushoon also went down that day": Danny Cheeseman of Rushoon was the captain of the Hilda Gertrude.
"Another schooner... Commanded by John Locklin from Red Harbour": William Albert Loughlin of Red Harbor was captain of the John C. Loughlin (thus the informant confused the name of the captain and the ship).
"The Annie from Fox Harbour... with seven hearty fishermen": Earlier versions of the Index said the Annie was the Annie Young, but it is clear that it was the Annie Healy, of Fox Harbour, which had seven men aboard. The song says all the crew were married except the captain's son. Michael Mullins, the son of Captain John Young, was only 17, so he presumably wasn't married yet. According to Hallowell, p. 132, Darrell Duke produced a play, "Thursday's Storm: The Annie Healy Story" about that ship. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LeBe005A

August Gale (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye darling sons of Newfoundland, please hearken unto me, How forty brave and fearless men gave up their lives at sea. The "storm on Thursday" comes up suddenly and "all the boats were on the ground around Placentia Bay"
AUTHOR: John Burke
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 25, 1935 - "Placentia Bay was hit by a severe storm ... which claimed the lives of forty fishermen." (so Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou, but see NOTES)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 5B, "The August Gale" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #53, pp. 84-85, "Lost in the Storm on the South West Coast" (1 text)
Roud #9431
RECORDINGS:
Mike Molloy, "Forty Fishermen" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The August Gale (I)" (subject)
cf. "The Annie Young" (subject)
NOTES [236 words]: Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou associate this song with the gale of August 1935. They attribute this to John Burke, but the famous songwriter Johnny Burke died in 1930, so either the date or the attribution is in error, or it's another John Burke. The song is, however, found in Burke's collected writings. It seems pretty clear that Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou have the wrong storm. I note that August 25, 1935 was not a Thursday; it was a Sunday. I suspect it should be the August 1927 storm, for which see "The Gale of August '27"; August 25, 1927 WAS a Thursday.
Another possibility would be the great gale of August 7-8, 1926, which killed fifty people (Gerald Hallowell, The August Gales: The Tragic Loss of Fishing Schooners in the North Atlantic, 1926 and 1927, Nimbus Publishing, 2013, p. 1), but August 7-8, 1926 are a Friday and a Saturday. For that matter, Hallowell, p. 41, says that the first event to be called "the August gale" was August 24-25, 1873. But August 24-25, 1873 were a Sunday and Monday.
I would have to point out, however, that no names of ships or people are mentioned in the piece to make a firm identification possible. The ONLY clue to the date is the mention of "Thursday." On this basis, I suspect that it is either a reference to the storm of August 1927 or it is not about a specific event.
For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: LeBe005B

Aul' Eppie Ironside

DESCRIPTION: "Auld Eppie Ironside, Perdaddlum, perdaddlum, And auld Louie Urquhart Perdaddlum, perdaddlum"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1880, "Aul' Eppie Ironside" (1 fragment)
Roud #13573
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bread and Cheese to Rorie" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
NOTES [16 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
Greig/Duncan8: "A coarse song." - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: GrD81880

Aul' Maid, The

See The Lass's Wardrobe (File: GrD71372)

Aul' Man's Dawtie, An

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls her husband's proposal: "an aul' man's dawtie ye will be, For twenty years I'm aulder." He has been "a faithfu' frien' and husband kin'" and it would break her heart to lose his love.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: age love marriage nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1276, "An Aul' Man's Dawtie" (1 text)
Roud #7191
File: GrD71276

Aul' Meldrum Toon

See Oh Cruel (File: GrD3513)

Aul' Sanners an' I

DESCRIPTION: "Aul' Sanners an' I lay doon to sleep Wi' twa pint stoupies at our bed feet; An' lang ere the mornin' we drank them dry, An' fat dar ye think o' aul Sanners and I? ... There's time aneuch yet to be toddlin' hame"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 591, "Aul' Sanners an' I" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6043
ALTERNATE TITLES:
When Sanners an' I Lies Doon to Sleep
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan3 entry 591A. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrF3591

Aul' Widow Greylocks

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves and planns to marry Dally Still. When his farm fails he asks rich Widow Graylocks for help. She agrees only if he will marry her. They marry but his life became miserable. He says he will desert the widow and cross the sea.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer loved and planned to marry bonny Dally Still. He bought a farm but his livestock died and crop failed. He asked rich Widow Graylocks for help but she said she'd help only if he married her. "So I gave her my hand, oh why did I agree" Dally would not speak to him and "I'm scorn'd when I gae to the mill or the kirk The lasses they despise me" "Fin I drink wi' my friends, they say I've been to blame" As "my auld wife lies snorin' by me" and he cannot forget Dally he decides "I'll leave the country and gang across the sea"
KEYWORDS: age poverty love marriage bargaining emigration abandonment farming money hardtimes derivative wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #114, p. 2, "Aul' Widow Greylocks"; #116, p. 2, "Aul' Widow Greylocks"; #119, p. 3, "Aul' Widow Greylocks" (3 texts plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan7 1365, "Aul' Widow Greylocks" (5 texts plus a single verse on p. 512, 1 tune)
Roud #6264
NOTES [316 words]: Greig #114: "The song is evidently a parody of 'Auld Robin Gray.'"; Greig #116: "a gentleman, who now writes me: -- '"Aul' Widow Greylocks," as now furnished, undoubtedly suggests parody, but there is no such suggestion in the form I know, tho' there might be imitation.'"
Greig #119 text is "some verses of a song which suggest a connection with one of the versions of the 'Widow' given in [#116]."
Greig #116 [1910] has a correspondent supplying a "Widow" text "sung some seventy years ago." "Auld Robin Gray" was written in 1774. But Greig speculates that "as between 'Aul' Widow Greylocks' and 'Auld Robin Gray,' I take the former to be the earlier of the two, or would at least maintain that the 'Widow' is *not* founded on 'Robin' either as parody or imitation.... ["Robin"] could not have been generally known until at least about the close of the 18th century, while both versions of 'Widow Greylocks' given above can be traced back at least to the early part of the 19th century. I find it impossible to believe that, in the time available, a song could have been made and have got into such widely-parted versions." Part of Greig's rationale is that "folk-song does not borrow from literary song: it is the other way about."
I believe "Aul' Widow Greylocks" is suggested by "Auld Robin Gray" and would immediately call it to mind [Greig #116 also notes a similarity of tune in one version of "Widow"]. The first verse of "Widow" parallels "Robin" and the third line is shared. The themes of the failing farm and the sources of rescue are parallael with a few lines of "Robin" echoed by "Widow." The proposals are similar with pressure applied by the old folks. From that point on the stories take different routes to their sad endings - again with similar lines - but the story in "Robin" has no betrayal and there is no question of the "heroine" of that tale abandoning her marriage. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD71365

Auld Bachelor, The

See The Old Bachelor (I) (File: RcTOB)

Auld Carle wi' His Beard, The

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Auld Carle, The

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Auld Daddy Aiken

DESCRIPTION: "Auld Daddy Aiken Stole a bit of bacon, Hid it in his overcoat, For fear it might be taken." (Or, "Put it up the chimney," or other hiding place)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Dalken)
KEYWORDS: food clothes theft
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 150, "Old Daddy Aiken" (1 text)
Roud #19278
File: BAAI150B

Auld Den o' Mains, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "I meet my bonnie lassie in the Auld Den o' Mains" by the Dichty River. He prefers her to miser's treasure and merchant's gains. "Oor fathers met our mithers there ... and oor bairns they'll go coortin' there"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #179, p. 1, "The Auld Den o' Mains" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 926, "The Auld Den o' Mains" (1 text)
Roud #6146
NOTES [11 words]: Den of Mains on the Deichty River is in Forfarshire, near Dundee. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4926

Auld Eddie Ochiltree

DESCRIPTION: Auld Eddie, a blue-gown beggar, comes to town and is greeted and cared for by the townsfolk. He foretells who is to be married next and makes other predictions. All are happy to see the cheerful wanderer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Logan-APedlarsPack)
KEYWORDS: begging rambling
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 218-221, "Auld Eddie Ochiltree" (1 text)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 166-171, "Auld Eddie Ochiltree" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #31, pp. 1-2, "Auld Eddie Ochiltree" (1 text)
ST FVS218 (Partial)
Roud #5637
NOTES [55 words]: Ford and Logan both describe the blue-gown beggars, a special order appointed by the Catholic kings of Scotland to pray for them. Not surprisingly, this order died out long ago -- but Walter Scott's The Antiquary mentions a blue-gown beggar actually named Eddie Ochiltree. Obviously there is some sort of dependence involved. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: FVS218

Auld Fisher's Farewell to Coquet, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come bring to me my limber gad I've fished wi' mony a year, An' let me ha'e m weel-worn creel An' a' my fishing gear...." The singer goes fishing one more time, recalls sixty years of fishing on the Coquet, and bids a farewell.
AUTHOR: Robert Roxby & Thomas Doubleday?
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: fishing farewell
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 134-135, "The Auld Fisher's Farewell to Coquet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3160
File: StorR134

Auld Fite Naig, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer says, "Ae day I was pitten to Rakie's to work at a stem-mull," ordered to mind the work, forego the silly nonsense, "and blawin' aboot my auld fite naig [white pony], its risin' twenty twa"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1773, "The Auld Fite Naig" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13020
File: GrD81773

Auld Gardener's Wife, The

DESCRIPTION: Soldier Willie dreams his sweetheart is an old gardener's wife. She confirms that her wedding will be the next day. Willie convinces her to sleep with him. When she asks to go with him in the morning he takes her. He taunts the gardener on the way.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: age infidelity marriage sex dream soldier gardening abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #161, pp. 1-2, "The Auld Gardener's Wife" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan6 1262, "The Auld Gardener's Wife" (13 texts, 13 tunes)
Roud #6303
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Spring Garden
File: GrD61262

Auld Hat, The

See When This Old Hat Was New (II) (File: GrD3540)

Auld Horse's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: An old horse, "turned out to die," remembers "when I was a foalie ... brisk and jolly." He threw "young Mr Galloper" when he was abused, so he was sold to a dealer who wore his life away. He warns people to "lay something in store" for their own old age.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: age warning abuse ordeal lament horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 492, "The Auld Horse's Lament" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #5980
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Old Horse (III)" (theme of a weary old horse) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Auld Mare's Lament
File: GrD3492

Auld Johnny Grant

DESCRIPTION: When the singer, forty-two, was young "lads cam' flockin'"; now she's "beginnin' sair to fear a man I'll never get." Yesterday old Johnny Grant asked her to marry. Though he is lame, "yet he may prove good and kin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage oldmaid disability
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1376, "Auld Johnny Grant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7243
File: GrD71376

Auld Lang Syne

DESCRIPTION: Recognized by the first line "Should auld acquaintance be forgot" and the chorus "For auld lang syne." Two old friends meet and remember their times together, ending by taking "a cup o' kindness."
AUTHOR: Adapted by Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1797
KEYWORDS: drink friend
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 76. "Auld Lang Syne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 381, "Auld Lang Syne" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 115-117, "Auld Lang Syne"
Heart-Songs, p. 10, "Auld Lang Syne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #99, "Auld Lang Syne" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #70, p. 6, "Auld Lang Syne" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 16 and #5/64, p. 16, "Auld Lang Syne" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #195, p 52, "Auld Lang Syne" (1 text, with the ending modified but the first verse and chorus typical of American versions)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 24, "Auld Lang Syne" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 89, "Auld Lang Syne" (1 text)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 22, "Auld Lang Syne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 165, "Auld Lang Syne" (notes only)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 1-12, "Auld Lang Syne" (1 text plus several ancestral texts)
DT, AULDLANG* AULDLNG2*
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #240, pp. 353-354, "Auld lang syne" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1788)
Roud #13892
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 15, "Auld Lang Syne" ("Should auld acquaintance be forgot"), J. Catnach (London), 1822; also 2806 c.17(10), Johnson Ballads 260, Harding B 11(3613), Firth b.27(413), Johnson Ballads 155A, Harding B 11(3297), Harding B 16(8a), Harding B 36(29), "Auld Lang Syne"; Harding B 11(1172), Harding B 25(86), 2806 c.14(75), 2806 c.17(11), Harding B 11(2948), Harding B 11(1831), 2806 c.17(12), "Auld Langsyne"
LOCSinging, sb10012b, "Auld Lang Syne," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as100470, as100480, "Auld Lang Syne"
SAME TUNE:
Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead) (File: R428)
The Patches on My Pants (File: Wels078A)
We're Here Because (File: BrPa037B)
The Wake of Bevington (File: PalWa052)
On Mules We Find Two Legs Behind (File: ACFS126A)
Advertise (It Pays to Advertise) (File: DTadverf)
We're Here for Fun (File: ACSF166W)
I Wish I Were a... (File: ACSF228I)
A Scabby Cousin Jack (File: LDC173)
A Smile Is Quite a Funny Thing/A Smile (Harbin-Parodology, #102, p. 29; Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p, 125)
We Made Good Wobs Out There (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 182)
The Salem Murder (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 87-88); cf. the song on the suicide of Crowningshed which follows
The National Union ("Oh! who woiuld strike the recreant blow," by Charles Collins, Jr.) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 106)
Lafayette at Brandywine (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 231)
The Psalm of Sammy Tilden ("In good Boss Tweed's successful days") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 461)
We'll Follow Grant Once More ("Oh! raise the banner high again," by Dexter Smith) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 172)
John Bell of Tennessee ("There is a man of noble heart") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 190)
To the Maryland Son of Revolutionary SIres! ("Ye sons of Sires, of manly deeds, who died for the love of right") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 195)
"Should all my luggage be forgot" (Song by Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll in the mock opera "La Guida de Bragia"; cf. Donald Thomas, Lewis Carroll, A Biography, 1996 (references are to the 1999 Barnes & Noble paperback), p. 59)
William Henry Harrison campaign song ("What tho' the Hero's hard 'huge paws' Were wont to plow and sow?") (Paul F. Boller, Jr., _Presidential Campaigns_, second revised edition, Oxford University Press, p. 73)
Should Brave Soldiers Be Forgot (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, p. 6)
The Log Cabin and Hard Cider Candidate ("Should good old cider be despised") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, p. 6)
The Farmer of North Bend ("Can grateful freemen slight his claims") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, p. 6)
"Hail sweetest, dearest tie that binds" (hymn by Amos Sutton)
Bells of Yale [by Theron Brown [Class of 18]56] ("O! sad the light must fall to-night, And pensive blow the gale") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 51)
Cannon Song ("Come, Seniors, come, and fill your pipes, Your richest incense raise") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 69)
Senior's Farewell ("Adieu, adieu, the parting scene Now weaves its wizard spell") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 83)
Full Far Away a CIty Stands (by Edward Nealley, [class of 18]58) ("Full far away a city stands, 'Mid threefold walls of years") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 120)
Hail to the Year ("Hail! brothers to the coming year With hope and promise bright") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 126)
Anniversary Ode (by E. H. Sears, [class of 18]34) ("We've wandered east, we've wandered west, Since through these walks we strayed") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 136)
Junior Supper Song ("Brothers, there'll beam in future years No clearer, brighter light") (by A. H. Bradford, [class of 18]67) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 18)
Memories ("Should Time e'er mar this happy band With mourning or with grief") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 28)
Parting Song ("Four years of life have passed away, Since first, poor 'Fresh,' we strayed") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 36)
Parting Ode ("The parting hour has come at last,-- That hour expected long") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 53)
Farewell Song ("Fill up a bowl of sparkling wine") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 89)
The Good Old Cornell Times ("The October day is dull and drear") (by C. F. Sweet, [class of 18]74) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 112)
To Calculus, Good Bye! ("Come Juniors, sing the parting song, The happy hour draws nigh!") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 120)
The Blooming Cook Fell Overboard (Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, p. 61)
Obligation Ode ("A solemn promise you have made, A patron true to be") (by A. P. Knapp) (Albert P. Knapp, _Grange Songster_, 1915, p. 6)
Song of the Ten Hour Workingmen ("I am a Ten hour workingman! I glory in the name") (Foner, p. 68)
Closing Ode [of the Knights of Labor] ("Again we meet, again we part, Again our work is done") (by "Ellis") (Foner, p. 146)
Dedication Hymn [of the Knights of Labor] ("Our fathers crossed a pathless sea, And sought a rock-bound shore") (by C. Fannie Allyn) (Foner, p. 150)
The Men of Auld Lang Syne ("Should old reformers be forgot Whose names resplendent shine") (Foner, p. 163)
When Workingmen Combine ("Should song and music be forgot When workingmen combine?") (Foner, p. 178)
Opening Song [of the Kaweah, Colorado cooperative colony] ("We here have now in council met, In freedom's ranks to serve") (by J. J. Martin) (Foner, p. 302)
Rallying Song ("Come bothers, raise a hearty song, To cheer us on our way; The fetters old of fate and wrong We cast away today") (by James P. Morton, Jr.) (Foner, p. 314)
Wherefore my Edward wilt thou Roam (Leslie Shepard, _John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844_, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 106)
Lisping Song ("I with I were a little fith, I with I were a fith") (Harbin-Parodology, #32, p. 15)
Epworth Leagures from the Start (Harbin-Parodology, #149, p. 43)
Going to Cry ("Mr. ??? is going to cry") (Harbin-Parodology, #171, p. 48)
Auld Lang Syne Parody ("Let all acquaintance be forgot... We'll sing a song of friendship now For Leaguers everywhere") (Harbin-Parodology, #189, p. 50)
We're Glad ("We're glad, so glad, so vey glad, We're glad you're glad we're here") (Harbin-Parodology, #206, p. 53)
It Is Not Raining Rain to Me ("It is not raining rain to me: it's raining daffodils) (Harbin-Parodology, #212, p. 55)
NOTES [430 words]: This is a song that Burns rewrote (the putative original is in the Digital Tradition as AULDLNG3; compare also the broadside NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(070), "Old Lang Syne," unknown, dated 1701 though there is no reason for this dating on the sheet); Fuld traces the "Should Auld Acquaintance" text to 1711 in James Watson's Scots Poems. Burns's own version was published in the Scots Musical Museum in 1796/7. This had a mostly traditional first verse, with the remainder by Burns, but by error the wrong melody was printed and has become the "traditional" tune.
Murray Shoolbraid offers these additional notes upon this topic:
"The Museum text is half-and-half, 2-3 being by Burns (about youthful days on the braes etc.) and the rest (seemingly) an old fragment. One can dispute this of course, for this old text first appears in SMM. Previously we have the 1711 version, 'Should old acquaintance be forgot / And never thought upon,' attributed to Sir Robert Aytoun (1570-1637/8), one of the first Scots poets to write in English (knighted by King James 1612; buried in Westminster Abbey). A bit later (1720) Allan Ramsay uses the incipit to start his own poem 'Should auld acquaintance be forgot,/ Though they return with scars?/ These are the noble hero's lot,/ Obtain'd in glorious wars.'
"These old versions go to the old tune printed in SMM: The songs that predate Burns [and B's words too] go to the old melody: in Mitchell's ballad opera The Highland Fair (1731), earliest in print in Playford's Collection of Original Scotch Tunes (1700), also sans title in Mgt Sinkler's MS., 1710 (the versions differ). The SMM version is from Neil Stewart's Scots Songs, 1772.
"So the tune is correct; it was Burns's Edinburgh publisher Thomson (Scotish Airs, 1799) who reset the words to another tune, I Fee'd a Lad at Martinmas, otherwise called The Miller's Wedding/Daughter. This is the one we all sing it to today." - (MS), RBW
As regards the words, both Ford-SongHistories and Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, pp. 14-17, agree with the broad outline supplied by Shoolbraid. There is some disagreement about just what fraction of the common words Burns wrote.
Several sources are of the opinion that the tune Thomson set is better than the traditional tune Burns supplied. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb10012b: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB381B

Auld Lang Syne (II)

See On Longside Road (Auld Lang Syne) (File: Ord172)

Auld Luckie

See Auld Luckie of Brunties (File: Ord246)

Auld Luckie of Brunties

DESCRIPTION: "It's a' ye rovin' young men, come listen unto me, And dinna gang to Brunties toon The lasses for to see; Auld Luckie she's a wily ane, And she does watch the toon," fining visitors for vice. She traps a young couple bundling. He wishes her in hell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: sin money punishment escape food nightvisit
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #178, p. 1, "Auld Luckie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 373, "Bruntie's" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 246-247, "Auld Luckie of Brunties" (1 text)
Roud #5577
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lucky Duff
NOTES [79 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "The farm of Bruntyards Gamrie, Banffshire (see map), was farmed by Mrs Annabella Duff (Auld Luckie) the widow of the former farmer, James Duff, from 1883 to 1893.... The song was reputedly written by a local poet called Shaw."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Bruntyards (373) is at coordinate (h6,v7-8) on that map [near Banff, roughly 37 miles NNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ord246

Auld Maid in a Garret

See The Old Maid's Song (File: R364)

Auld Maid's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer wonders why her cousin has her choice of men while she has none. She kissed Donald once and when they met again he turned his head. Fancy clothes do not help. Perhaps there's no lad "decreed for me"
AUTHOR: Robert Anderson (1770-1833) (source: Ellwood and Gilpin)
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Gilpin)
KEYWORDS: clothes oldmaid
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #17, p. 1, "The Auld Maid's Lament"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 40-41, ("I've won'ert sin' I kent mysel'") (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan7 1375, "The Auld Maid's Lament" (4 texts plus a single verse on p. 515, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: T Ellwood, editor, Anderson's Cumberland Ballads and Songs Centenary Edition (Ulverston,1904 (("Digitized by Google")), pp. 20-21, "The Lass Abuin Thirty" (1 text)
Sidney Gilpin, editor, The Songs and Ballads of Cumberland (London, 1866 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 316-318, "The Lass Abuin Thirty" (1 text)
Roud #6283
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Was Little Jeanikie" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
cf. "Jockey's Grey Breeks" (tune, per Ellwood and Gilpin)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Old Maid's Lament
NOTES [45 words]: In Anderson's text, Wully -- rather than Donald -- "was the only yen."
There is an attribution to the sister of Hugh Allan (he was "a weaver at Cumminston") (source: William Walker, The Bards of Bon-Accord 1375-1860 (Aberdeen, 1887 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 602). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD71375

Auld Man and the Churnstaff, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Auld Man Armed Himself Wi a Sword, The

DESCRIPTION: The old man took a sword, the old woman a turd. The battle was bloody and she shit on the hay.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: age bawdy scatological
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 180, "The Auld Man Armed Himself Wi a Sword" (1 text)
Roud #15527
File: LyCr2180

Auld Man He Courted Me, An

See Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man (File: K207)

Auld Man's Mare's Dead, The

DESCRIPTION: "The auld man's mare's dead (x3), A mile aboon Dundee." "She had the fiercie and the fleuk... On ilka knee she had a breuk, What ailed the beast to dee?" The beast's decrepitude, and the old man's mourning, are described in repetitive detail
AUTHOR: Patrick Birnie?
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: horse death disease
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 280-282, "The Auld Man's Mare's Dead" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan3 494, "The Auld Man's Mear's Deid" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 128, "The Auld Man's Mear" (2 texts)
Roud #5880
NOTES [58 words]: Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong considers its two texts to be distinct versions with only a chorus overlapping. However, both Ford and Greig/Duncan3 494a combine both Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong texts. Greig/Duncan3 494b has no Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong 1 verses; both Greig/Duncan3 texts add one verse not in Ford or Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: FVS280

Auld Man's Mear, The

See The Auld Man's Mare's Dead (File: FVS280)

Auld Man's Mear's Deid, The

See The Auld Man's Mare's Dead (File: FVS280)

Auld Man's Song, The

See O! Why Should Old Age So Much Wound Us? (File: GrD3548)

Auld Matrons [Child 249]

DESCRIPTION: Willie comes courting at Annie's door; she assures him that Matrons (an old woman by the fire) can do nothing. But Matrons summons the sheriff, who comes to take Willie -- only to have Willie escape by calling on his brother John, a fantastic fighter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: courting seduction nightvisit age police rescue
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 249, "Auld Matrons" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 612-614, "Auld Matrons" (1 text)
DT 249, OLDMATRN
Roud #3915
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly" [Child 116]
NOTES [38 words]: This seems to be either descended from or heavily influenced by the Robin Hood tradition, or specifically (in Child's view) "Adam Bell." One rather hopes it is the latter; the rescue by John, if anything, weakens the ballad. - RBW
File: C249

Auld Merchant, The

DESCRIPTION: An old merchant of Fife wants to marry a virgin. He meets a widow who claims falsely that her daughter is a virgin; she lists eight prior lovers. Her mother tells her to "look a wee shy" in bed to fool the merchant.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting sex virginity lie trick mother age
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1503, "The Auld Merchant" (1 text)
Roud #7165
File: GrD71503

Auld Quarry Knowe, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, weel I mind the joys we had, In youth's bright sunny days... But better far I mind the time... When daffin' wi' my Jessie On the auld quarry knowe." Now old, both he and his wife are past their prime, but still he recalls the happy days
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage age nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 141-142, "The Auld Quarry Knowe" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #82, p. 2, "The Auld Quarry Knowe" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 927, "The Auld Quarry Knowe," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "The Auld Quarry Knowe" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6147
File: FCS141

Auld Robin Gray

DESCRIPTION: Jamie leaves Jenny to earn enough to be married. Her family has bad luck. Robin Gray supports them and asks Jenny to marry. Jamie's ship is wrecked and Jennie assumes he is dead. She marries Robin. Jamie returns too late.
AUTHOR: Lady Anne Lindsay (Barnard) (1750-1825)
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd); supposedly written 1772
KEYWORDS: age poverty courting love marriage rescue wreck father mother sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Britain(England(South), Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1364, "Auld Robin Gray" (2 fragments)
Peacock, pp. 482-483, "Old Robin Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 420, "Auld Robin Grey" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 445, "Auld Robin Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 77-86, "Auld Robin Gray" (1 text plus a later sequel)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, pp. 301-303, "Auld Robin Gray"
David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, pp. 196-197, ("When the sheep are in the fauld, and the kye at hame")
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #247, p. 256, "Auld Robin Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
James Grant Wilson, The Poets and Poetry of Scotland (London, 1876 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 334-335, "Auld Robin Gray" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #376, "Auld Robin Gray" (1 text)
Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #328, pp. 557-558, "Auld Robin Gray" (by Lady Anne Lindsay)
ST Pea482 (Partial)
Roud #2652
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 14(4), "Auld Robin Gray", Fowler (Salisbury), 1770-1800; also Harding B 25(88), Firth b.27(516), Harding B 11(7), Harding B 11(162), Firth b.26(412), "Auld Robin Gray"
Murray, Mu23-y4:029, "Auld Robin Gray", John Ross (Newcastle), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bridegroom Greits When the Sun Gaes Doun" (tune, per Wilson)
NOTES [316 words]: Original text is on Bartleby.com with the attribution. The date is 1794 per site for Early American Secular Music and Its European Sources, 1589-1839.
Per site for The First Hypertext Edition of The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable [this] was written to an old Scotch tune called "The bridegroom grat when the sun gaed down."
Chambers: "The ballad was written early in the year 1772 ...." Chambers confirms that the "fair authoress, then a very young lady, was induced to write it, by a desire to see an old plaintive Scottish air, ('The Bridegroom grat when the sun gaed down,') which was a favourite with her, fitted with words more suitable to its character than the ribald verses which had hitherto, for want of better, been sung to it." - BS
Broadside Bodleian, Firth b.25(24), "The Death of Auld Robin Gray," J. T. Burdett (London), c. 1855, seems to be some sort of a by-blow of this, since the characters are Robin Gray, Jamie, and Jenny, but it manages a happy ending by having Robiin die so that Jamie and Jenny are still available for each other.
Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, Editors, British Authors Before 1800: A Biographical Dictionary, H. W. Wilson, 1952 (I use the fourth printing of 1965), give a fairly full account of the origin on this piece on p. 27:
Anne Lindsay (1750-1825) was one of the daugbhters of James Lindsay, fifth earl of Balcarres, who lived in Fife. At the age of 21, she heard a ballad with "improper" words, which she rewrote and published anonymously as "Auld Robin Gray" in 1771.
After a long period as an old maid, married Andrew Barnard, whom she accompanied to South Africa in 1793. Her Journal and Notes were probably her most important writings other than this song. When he died, she returned to Britain. In 1822, she finally admitted her authorship of this poem in a letter to Sir Walter Scott, and described how she came to write it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Pea482

Auld Roguie Grey

See The Rogue (File: RL187)

Auld Seceder's Cat, The

See The Presbyterian Cat (The Cameronian Cat) (File: FVS319)

Auld Soldier, The

See The Old Tobacco Box (File: FSC143)

Auld Song from Cow Head, The

See The Unquiet Grave [Child 78] (File: C078)

Auld Tammy Barra

See Tam Barrow (File: KinBB24)

Auld Warrack's Plough Feast

DESCRIPTION: The lads and lasses had fun at old Warrack's plough feast. The plough chain broke and everyone helped fix it to end the job. At supper Warrack confesses "I never had a lawfu' wife, Nor yet a lawfu' son But I fell foul o' Maggie Thows"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: sex farming food party wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 634, "Auld Warrack's Plough Feast" (3 texts)
Roud #6073
NOTES [68 words]: Greig/Duncan3 p. 675 has the third text which was used for the descriptioon.
Greig/Duncan3: "William Warrack (born at Towie) was farmer at Nains of Towie in 1851, when he was sixty-eight."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Mains of Towie (634) is at coordinate (h1,v4) on that map [roughly 33 miles W of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3634

Auld Wife and Her Cattie, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was an aul' wifie, she clippit her cattie For takin' a moosie on Christenmas day, And oh fat befell the silly auld bodie The half o' her cattie was clippit away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 690, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "The Auld Wife and Her Cattie" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6112
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Carrickfergus" (tune, per OLochlainn)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
There Was an Auld Wifie
NOTES [25 words]: The current description is all of Greig/Duncan3 690A. One version mentioned by Duncan has the last line as "eaten that day" instead of "clippit away." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3690

Auld Wife and the Peat Creel, The

See The Keach i the Creel [Child 281] (File: C281)

Auld Wife Ayont the Fire, The

See The Auld Wife beyont the Fire, The (File: CW128)

Auld Wife beyont the Fire, The

DESCRIPTION: An old widow with many daughters wants "snishing/spruncin" (sex). They say she is too old and toothless. They will let her seek sex if she can break a nut with her teeth. They give her a pistol bullet instead of a nut; she cannot break it and wastes away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: family sex bawdy age trick
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1423, "The Auld Wife Ayont the Fire" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 128, pp. 135-136, "The Old Wife" (1 text)
Roud #4294
File: CW128

Auld Wife to the Bell-Rope Ran, The

DESCRIPTION: Apparently unrelated verses: The old wife rang the bell so loud the singer thought the building would fall; it's a shame "servant lassies a' get lads" but gentle ladies don't; it's awful to allow a lad to have a lass working for a fee.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1514, "The Auld Wife to the Bell-Rope Ran" (1 text)
Roud #7173
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Monymusk Lads" (lyrics)
NOTES [50 words]: I guess the problem in the third verse is that the lad can only have a girl that's on a six-month contract. For "fee" see "South Ythsie." - BS
Much of the material in this song also shows up in "The Monymusk Lads." Determining the nature of the mixture probably requires more text than we have. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71514

Auld Yule

DESCRIPTION: An old man tells the singer his story. When he first arrived he was well received. Then, sixty years ago, someone called him "Papist Knave." Then a more fashionable man arrived. He expects to see hard times until he dies. Then "Auld Yule he vanished"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: political religious
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 539, "Auld Yule" (1 text)
Roud #6017
NOTES [221 words]: Greig/Duncan3 quoting "the introduction and commentary" to the poem from Aberdeen Buchan Association Magazine No. 17 (January 1916): " ... The adoption of the Gregorian Calendar (New Style), to correct the cumulative deficiencies in the Julian Calendar (Old Style), came late into England and Scotland, and was resented much by the common people. It was adopted in England in 1758, when eleven days were omitted after the 2nd September, so that what should have been the 3rd, was counted the 14th. The year 1800, which was a leap year (old style) was made a common year, thus making a total of twelve days' difference between the new and old styles of reckoning. In Scotland, in outlying districts the old style was kept up as regards popular festivals (Yule and New Year's Day particularly) till within living memory. The poem before us is a lament for the passing of Auld Yule, who is personified as an old wandering outcast, met by the author." - BS
In defence of the common people, it should be noted that they often were charged rent for the eleven days that were removed from the calendar. Less defensible is their case that the whole thing was a Catholic plot. We do see some effects of the calendar shift in songs such as the Cherry Tree Carol, where the birth of Jesus is listed on some date in early January. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3539

Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party

See Seeing Nellie Home (File: RJ19229)

Aunt Jemima's Plaster

DESCRIPTION: Aunt Jemimah survives by selling sticking plaster. With it she might catch a thief, keep a wayward husband from straying, etc. Chorus: "Sheepskin and beeswax Makes an awful plaster, The harder you try to get it off, The more it sticks the faster."
AUTHOR: see NOTES
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (sheet music in the Levy collection)
KEYWORDS: humorous commerce trick
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Randolph 414, "Sheepskin and Beeswax" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 354-355, "Sheepskin and Beeswax" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 414)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 39, "Angie Mimey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 121, "Aunt Jemima's Plaster" (1 text, 1 tune, plus citations of possible-related Songster texts)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 271, "Aunt Jemima's Plaster" (2 texts)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #23, pp. 23-25, "Aunt Jemima's Plaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 233, (first of four "Fragments from Maryland") (1 fragment, which I link to this on the basis of the mention of Aunt Jemima)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 80, pp.129-130, "Aunt Jemima's Plaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #71, p. 6, "Aunt Jemimah's Plaster, or Sheepskin Bees Wax #2" (2 references)
ST R414 (Partial)
Roud #974
RECORDINGS:
Margaret MacArthur, "Aunt Jemima" (on MMacArthur01)
Skyland Scotty (Scott Wiseman), "Aunt Jemimah's Plaster" (Conqueror 8308, 1934)
SAME TUNE:
Ceylon Ballad (concerning "When Britons fought like heroes in the Kandian country," and said to be to the tune of "Sheepskin and Beeswax"; Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 201-205)
NOTES [380 words]: Said to be a version of "Bees wax," a song sung by (but perhaps not written by) Dan Emmett. Cohen says it was written by Septimus Winner, but lists other claims of authorship.
The earliest sheet music known to me, in the Levy collection, lists an 1855 copyright and says it was "Written for and Sung by Samuel S. Sanford by M.A.I. Author of Hop De Doo'" -- whatever that is. (Thanks to David Sorkin for pointing this out.) Of course, "M.A.I." could have borrowed it from Emmett, or tradition, or some other minstrel show.
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 6, reports two broadside prints of a song "Aunt Jemima's Plaster, or Sheepskin Bees Wax No. 2.," beginning "Aunt Jemima she was old, but very kind and clever." This appears to be the source of the text used by Cox, and of one of Brown's versions. The title of course implies that there was an earlier Aunt Jemima's Plaster #1. This would explain the diversity of texts -- and perhaps of authorship claims.
Wolf on p. 140 lists "Sheepskin, Beeswax" ("Now I'm gwine to sing a song") as being "sung nightly with thunders of Applause, by Dan Emmit, at White's Melodeon."
Thus, whoever wrote it, there were a lot of versions around at an early date.
Beeswax, incidentally, is not a bad material for bandages. Or, rather, the stuff they use in candles is probably not good for much except an adhesive -- but propolis, a resinous substance used by bees to patch their hives, has some medical properties. Joe Schwarcz, Dr. Joe & What You Didn't Know: 177 Fascinating Questions & Answers about the Chemistry of Everyday Life, ECW press, 2003, p. 100, says the following: "The stuff that bees collect mainly from poplars and conifers is a mix of dozens of compounds, including fatty acids and flavonoids. Scientists have tested many of these for biological activity, and their tests have shown antifungal and antibacterial effects."
Schwarcz goes on to add that these effects are minor and have been overblown in the popular press, and I'm sure he's right. Doctors today have far more effective compounds at their disposal. But back before medicine knew what it was doing, propolis was better than nothing. Even the sheepskin might help a little -- it could contain lanolin which would keep the skin from drying out (Schwarcz, p. 78). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: R414

Aunt Maria

DESCRIPTION: "Old Aunt Maria (Jack-a-ma-rier) Jumped in the fire. Fire too hot, Jump in the pot. Pot so black, (S)he jumped in a crack. Crack so high, (S)he jumped in the sky. Sky so blue, (S)he jumped in a canoe. Canoe so shallow, (S)he jumped in the tallow." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Minnie Stokes)
KEYWORDS: lullaby nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So,SW) West Indies(Nevis)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 134, "Jack-a-Maria" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 705, "Aunt Maria" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 242, (no title) (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 157, "Old Zachariah Fell in the Fire" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 57, "Old Moly Rier" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #18, "Anthy Maria jumped in the fire" (1 text)
Roud #11418
NOTES [103 words]: Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 79, has a game, "Jack-a-balan," in which a lighted stick is passed around, with the carrier of the stick asking "Will yae hae Jack-a-balan" (a name similar to that in some versions of this song), to which the answer is, "You chall bear the saddle-ban, Thro moss, thro moor, Throu a' the lan, Take him safe oot o' my han." I have no idea if it is related. Looking at ll the various names, I now suspect (too late) that the original had "Old Jeremiah." Although there seems to be a large branch of tradition that grew from an original "Auntie Maria(h)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BSoF705A

Aunt Nancy

See Go Tell Aunt Rhody (File: R270)

Aunt Rhody

See Go Tell Aunt Rhody (File: R270)

Aunt Sal's Song (The Man Who Didn't Know How to Court)

DESCRIPTION: "A gentleman came to our house, He would not tell his name." He comes to court, but acts ashamed. He sits silent next to the girl. Finally he gives up, saying courting isn't worth it. The girls laugh at the "ding-dang fool [that] don't know how to court."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wells-TheBalladTree)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 15, "Courting Song" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 101, "Aunt Sal's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 233-234, "[Aunt Sal's Song]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 140-141, "The Bashful Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wells-TheBalladTree, p. 123, "Aunt Sal's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 54, "Aunt Sal's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HOWCOURT
Roud #776
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnson Boys" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Not Know How to Court
Bashful Courtship
File: LoF101

Aunt Tabbie

See Go Tell Aunt Rhody (File: R270)

Aunt Tabby

See Go Tell Aunt Rhody (File: R270)

Aupres De Ma Blonde

DESCRIPTION: French language. "Aupres de ma blonde, Qu'il fait bon, fait bon, fait bon... Qu'il fait bon rester. Au jardin de mon pere Les lauriers sont fleuris."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Charles Guillon, "Chansons Populaires de l'Ain")
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage France
FOUND IN: France Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 177, "Je Donnerais Versailes" (1 short text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 329, "Aupres De Ma Blonde" (1 text)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 31, "Auprès de ma Blonde" (1 English text with a French fragment, 1 tune)
DT, AUPRBLND*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Guillon, "Chansons Populaires de l'Ain" (1883; available on Google Books), pp. 515-516 (1 French text, 1 tune)
Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 18-19, "Aupres de ma Blonde" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
George Allan England, _Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt_ (also published as _The Greatest Hunt in the World_), Doubleday, 1924, p. 128, "(Apres la Guerre Finie)" (1 fragment, apparently a variant or sequel)
File: FSWB329A

Aura Lea

DESCRIPTION: "When the blackbird in the spring On the willow tree Sat and rock'd, I heard him sing, Singing Aura Lee." In praise of a "maid of golden hair." The singer describes how even the bird praise her. He begs her hand in marriage
AUTHOR: Words: W. W. Fosdick / Music: George R. Poulten
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (sheet music published by John Church of Cincinnati)
KEYWORDS: courting love nonballad lyric
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 14-17, "Aura Lea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 62-63, "Aura Lee" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 104-106, "Aura Lee" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 399, "Aura Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 117, "Aura Lea--(Love Me Tender)"
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #72, p. 6, "Aura Lee" (1 reference)
DT, AURALEE*
ST RJ19014 (Full)
NOTES [60 words]: At times like this, one wishes we had a keyword, "Great-tune-lousy-words."
Originally published as a minstrel tune in 1861, verses were printed by both Union and Confederate presses, and the first important parody ("Army Blue") was used by the West Point class of 1865.
As for what Elvis Presley did with the tune, the less we say of that here, the better. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: RJ19014

Aura Lee

See Aura Lea (File: RJ19014)

Aurore Bradaire

See Aurore Pradere (File: LxA220)

Aurore Pradere

DESCRIPTION: Creole French. "Aurore Pradere, belle 'ti fille (x3), C'est li mo 'oule, s'est le ma pren." The singer praises the beauty of Aurore, and says that she is what he wants and will have. He describes what others say of her, but as for him, he still wants her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: love courting foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p.110, "Aurore Bradaire" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 121, "Aurore Pradere" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 220-221, "Aurore Pradere" (1 text plus translation, 1 tune)
File: LxA220

Australia

See South Australia (File: Doe071)

Australia (Virginny)

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a young man, my age seventeen, I ought ha' been serving Victoria our Queen, But those hard-hearted judges, how cruel they've been, To send us poor lads to Australia." To please his girlfriend, the singer turns outlaw, and winds up transported
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (collected from Bob Hart by Rod & Danny Stradling, according to Patterson/Fahey/Seal)
KEYWORDS: transportation courting work outlaw
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 12-13, "Australia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 47-48, "Australia" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #48, "Australia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1488
RECORDINGS:
Bob Hart, "Australia" (on BHart01, HiddenE)
Cyril Poacher, "Australia" (on Voice04)
NOTES [184 words]: Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 4" - 19.8.02: "Originally an 18th century song about transportation to the American State of Virginia. Later broadside printers changed it to Australia, to suit the then current destination of transports." - BS
This is at least possible (with the footnote that no one was ever transported to the *state* of Virginia, but rather to the *colony*). Though Virginia did not receive a high number of transportees. The transport system arose around 1650, and by the time the American colonies had been closed off by the Revolution, only about 50,000 prisoners had been sent (see The Oxford Companion to British History, article on "Transportation"). And most of these went to the West Indies (see Samuel Eliot Morison, The Oxford History of the American People, p. 82), with only a handful to Virginia, Maryland, and New England. And many of *them* were Jacobite refugees exiled in the aftermath of the 1745 rebellion. (Plus, of course, a lot of Jacobites came voluntarily; see, e.g. the notes to "Flora MacDonald's Lament.") - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: FaE012

Australia for Me!

See Give Me a Hut (File: MA137)

Australia Our Home

DESCRIPTION: "Here's off, here's off to the digging of gold, Australia's our home where wealth is untold." The singer does not fear the long voyage to Melbourne. No matter what hardships he is warned of, he intends to go to the diggings
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland); Anderson estimates his broadside as c. 1854
KEYWORDS: emigration Australia mining gold
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 189-190, "Australia Our Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V20380
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 d.31(27)=Harding B 11(2175), "Australia Our Home," unknown, n.d.
File: AnFa189

Australia Will Be There

DESCRIPTION: "There are lots and lots of arguments Going on today As to whether dear old England Should be brought into the fray." "Rally round the banner of your country... Sing Long Live the King wherever you may be And to hell with Germany; Australia will be there"
AUTHOR: Walter William Francis (source: WIkipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (source: Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: patriotic Australia royalty nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1914 - SMS Emden, formerly a member of the Graf Spee squadron destroyed at the Battle of the Falklands, sinks sixteen ships during an independent cruise in the Indian Ocean
Nov 9, 1914 - HMAS Sydney finds and sinks the Emden
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 217, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #11249
File: BrPa217A

Australia's on the Wallaby

DESCRIPTION: "Our fathers came to search for gold, The claim it proved a duffer. The syndicates and bankers' bosses made us all to suffer.... Australia's on the wallaby, Listen to the cooee." Most of the song is devoted to the animals the settler sees
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Old Bush Recitations)
KEYWORDS: animal Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 199-200, "Australia's on the Wallaby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 70-71, "Australia's on the Wallaby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 286-287, "Australia's on the Wallaby" (1 text)
Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads, pp. 6-7, "Australia's On The Wallaby" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WALLABB2*
Roud #24705
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Freedom on the Wallaby" (tune, theme)
NOTES [141 words]: Some feel that this is a parody, others a forerunner, of Henry Lawson's more political "Freedom on the Wallaby." Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 25, are among those who think it a forerunner; they date it to the 1890s.
Whatever the relationship between the songs, an 1890s date seems probable; this was the era of the great shearers' strikes that Australian authorities regarded as armed insurrections (which we know inspired Lawson; see Richard Magoffin, Waltzing Matilda: The Story Behind the Legend, 1983; revised and illustrated edition, ABC Enterprises, 1987, pp. 43-44).
Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads, however, suggest that it is from the Great Depression. Which would mean it was collected almost immediately after being written. Possible, but I doubt it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: MA199

Australian Courtship

See Botany Bay Courtship (The Currency Lasses) (File: FaE068)

Australian HIghwayman's Song

See Waltzing Matilda (File: PBB119)

Austria Was Hungary

DESCRIPTION: "Austria was Hungary, Took a bit of Turkey, Dipped it into Greece, And fried it in Japan." Or "Germany was Hungary...." Or, "Are you Hungary, Yes Siam, Russia to the table And I'll Fiji Some Turkey."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: food wordplay | counties Austria Turkey
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 41, "(Are you HUNGARY)," "(GERMANY was HUNGARY)" (2 short texts)
Roud #19999
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The States Song (What Did Delaware?)" (technique)
File: PKKB041A

Austrian Went Yodeling, An

DESCRIPTION: "Once an Austrian went (yodeling/climbing) On a mountain so high, When along came an avalanche, Interrupting his cry." Yodel and avalanche sounds follow. Repeat with other interruptions such as bear. The sounds are cumulative although the words are not
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs); she suspects it was created in the late 1960s
KEYWORDS: humorous music cumulative animal campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 127, 134, 178-184, 263, 391, 432, 510, "An Austrian"/"An Austrian Went Yodeling" (notes, with two composite texts on pp 182-184, with a "Cuckoo" text that isn't really related; bibliography on pp. 659-663, but much of this is "Cuckoo" material)
File: ACSF122A

Automobile Trip Through Alabama

DESCRIPTION: Narrative: surreal description of speaker's trip through Alabama in an talking Ford filled with "Loco-Pep" gasoline. They fight off biting insects and a rattlesnake; the car falls to pieces, then reassembles itself. Incorporates bearhunt tall-tale
AUTHOR: probably Red Henderson
EARLIEST DATE: 1920s (recording, Red Henderson & Emmett Bankston)
KEYWORDS: travel hunting technology humorous nonsense recitation talltale
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Red Henderson & Emmett Bankston, "Automobile Trip [or Ride] Through Alabama, pts. 1 & 2" (OKeh 45283, c. 1929; rec. 1928)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Automobile Trip Through Alabama" (on NLCR13, NLCRCD2)
File: RcATTA

Autumn Dusk/Coimfeasgar Fogmair

DESCRIPTION: "It was on an autumn twilight, I watched the seagulls glide, When the fairest of all maidens Stole softly by my side." He describes her beauty and how they met and embraced. He wishes he were still with her
AUTHOR: English words: George Graham (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Morris)
KEYWORDS: love beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H831, p. 235-236, "Autumn Dusk/Coimfeasgar Fogmair" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH831

Autumn Is Bo-Peep, The

See Little Bo-peep (File: OO2066)

Autumn to May

See Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)

Auxville Love, The

See Love Has Brought Me to Despair [Laws P25] (File: LP25)

Avalon Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Got to New York this morning', just about half past nine (x2), Hollerin' one mornin' in Avalon, couldn't hardly keep from cryin'." "Avalon my hometown, always on my mind, Pretty mama's in Avalon...." "New York's a good town, but it's not for mine."
AUTHOR: Mississippi John Hurt
EARLIEST DATE: 1928
KEYWORDS: homesickness
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 339, "Avalon Blues" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 515-516, "(no title)" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Avalon Blues" (on MJHurt04; on MJHurt05)
File: CAFS1339

Ave Regina Celorum

See Hail Be Thou Mary the Mother of Christ (Ave regina celorum, Hail Queen of Heaven) (File: MEHBTMMC)

Ave, Maris Stella (Hail, Star of the Sea)

DESCRIPTION: A French/Quebecois song of praise to the Virgin Mary (sung in Latin): "Ave, maris stella, Dei Mater alma, Atque semper virgo, Felix coeli porta (x2)" "Sumus illud Ave Gabrielis ora, Funda nes in pace, Mutans Hevae nomen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 9th century, according to Julian (see NOTES), although not found in tradition until much later
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Quebec foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 19-20, "Ave, Maris Stella" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 119, "Ave Maris Stella" (1 text, 1 tune)
RELATED: Versions of the the Middle English "Ave Maris Stella," which alternates the Latin with English prayers)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, p. 8, "Ave Maris Stella" (1 text)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics LVI, p. 109, "(no title)" (1 text)
Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols #14, "(Of on that is so fayr and bright)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #454
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #736
ADDITIONAL: Karen Saupe, editor, _Middle English Marian Lyrics_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1998, #58, p. 120, "(Ave Maris Stella)" (1 text, from British Library MS. Sloane 2593)
Bruce Dickins & R. M. Wilson, editors, _Early Middle English Texts_, 1951; revised edition 1952, #XXXIII, pp. 125-126, "Stella Maris" (1 text)
Carleton Brown, editor, Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1939, #18, #19, pp. 35-36, "Ave Maris Stella," "Hall, Star of the Sea" (2 texts, the first from MS Sloane 2593, the second from British Library Additional MS. 37049. Note that only the Sloane text is IMEV #454/DIMEV #736)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 27
ST FMB019 (Full)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1871 11058, "Ave maris stella," Balmer & Weber (Saint Louis), 1871 (tune); also sm1873 01284; sm1877 05005; sm1873 01284; sm1882 13480
NOTES [405 words]: According to Fowke/Mills, this song was adopted as the quasi-official hymn of the French colony in Canada at the suggestion of Louis XIII, and is still sung on special occasions by the Acadians. There are also many English translations.
The original Latin text is longer and older than the commonly sung French version (which, as far as I know, is the only one with any traditional currency); it has been dated as early as the seventh century. Julian, p. 99, reports "It has been wrongly ascribed to St. Bernard, as it is found in a St. Gall MS., No. 95, of the 9th century, and to Venantius Fortunatus (by M. A. Luchi, 1789), but on insufficient authority....
"It has been treated with so much respect as hardly to have been altered in the Roman Breviary, 1632, and was retained in the revised breviaries of French dioceses (Paris, Lyon, &c.), as one of the few exceptions of old hymns not supplanted....
In the Roman Breviary it is the Hymn for 1st and 2nd vespers in the Feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary; also in the Office of the B. V. M. on Saturdays, and in the Little Office, Officium parvum Beatae Mariae Virginis, at 1st vespers, there being no 2nd vespers in these latter two cases.
"The hymn is found in three MSS. of the 11th cent. in the [British Library] (Harl[eian] f[olio]241; [Cotton] Vesp[asioan] D.xiii f[olio] 63; [Cotton] Jul[ius] A.vi f[olio] 56."
There was a version rendered into Middle English, "Heyl, levedy, se-stoerre bryht" ("Hail, lady, sea-star bright") in MS. Porkington 10/Phillipps 8336 of c. 1460, seemingly by William Herebert (Wells, pp. 499-500), but I know of no reason to think it was traditional. This text is printed in Brown (#17, pp. 20-21).
Brown also has a composite hymn based partly on this, which opens "Wyl be þu, ster of se! Godis moder, blessed þow be" ("Well be you, star of [the] sea! God's mother, blessed you be") in Merton College, Oxford MS. 248 (Brown #41, pp. 55-56), and another, "Heile! sterne on þe se so brigt" ("Hail! Star on the sea so bright") in MS. Bodley 425 (Brown #45, pp. 58-59).
It is perhaps typical of the Marian cult that only one of the images of the poem (the visitation by Gabriel, Luke 1:26f.) is biblical. The others are either from the creed (the trinitarian imagery) or directly from Catholic legend (Mary's eternal virginity, etc.) or apparently specific to the poem (e.g. the reference to the "maris stella" -- the "of-the-sea star"). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: FMB019

Average Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: A southern alphabet song: "A is the green apple with bites all around, B is the ball that is lost on the ground, C is the cigarette making him pale... Yell is the yell he emits all the day, Z is for zeal he shows in his play."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 874, "A Is for Apple Pie" (4 texts, but only the "D" text goes here)
Roud #7539
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Logger's Alphabet" (subject) and references there
NOTES [15 words]: The title of this song refers, of course, to all the traits found in the "average boy." - RBW
File: R874A

Average Rein

DESCRIPTION: The rider, on the advice of the cowboys, bridles the horse "Lumberjack" with an "average rein." As a result, he is thrown. He determines thereafter to seek better advice
AUTHOR: Johnny Baker
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: horse cowboy trick
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 94, "Average Rein" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [41 words]: Ohrlin explains that bronc riders always tried to determine how much rein a horse would need (the length of leather depended on the horse's tricks). Usually the rider asked other cowboys -- but, of course, they might not be entirely honest. - RBW
File: Ohr094

Avington Pond

DESCRIPTION: "Come, gentlemen all, and I'll sing you a song, It's about the mud-plumpers of Avington Pond." The men with their wheelbarrows work hard (to clear the pond?). THe singer is sure there are no better workers. They enjoy their beer.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Gardiner MS, according to Purslow)
KEYWORDS: work moniker drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 2, "Avington Pond" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1654
File: PCL002

Avondale Disaster (I), The (The Mines of Avondale) [Laws G6]

DESCRIPTION: Flames are seen outside the Avondale mines; the miners' families realize there is a fire below. The two men who enter the mine find all the miners suffocated. Over one hundred men die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: mining disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 6, 1869 - The fire in the Avondale coal mines near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The fire blocked the only exit route and consumed all the oxygen in the tunnels. A total of 110 miners died, with 76 found in one ineffective shelter.
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Laws G6, "The Avondale Mine Disaster I"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 60, "Mines of Avondale" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 106, "The Mines of Avondale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 783-785, "The Avondale Mine Disaster" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 161-163, "The Avondale Mine Disaster" (1 text)
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 189-191, "The Avondale Mine Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 386-388, "The Avondale Mine Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 212-213, "The Mines of Avondale" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 307, "The Avondale Mine Disaster" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 64, "The Avondale Mine Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 149-151, "The Avondale Mine Disaster" (1 text plus a broadside print)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 194, "The Avondale Mine Disaster" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 215-218, "The Avondale Mine Disaster" (1 text)
DT 713, AVONDAL1
Roud #698
RECORDINGS:
John M. Curtis, "Mines of Avondale" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
John J. Quinn, "The Avondale Mine Disaster" (AFS, 1946; on LCTreas)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Avondale Disaster II" [Laws G7] (subject)
SAME TUNE:
The Mine of Locust Dale (File: KMMP193B)
NOTES [440 words]: Much the more common of the Avondale Disaster songs (which Laws calls independent ballads, though there are strong similarities between the two which may imply common influence), this one is characterized by the fairly fixed first stanza, "Good Christians all, both great and small, I pray you lend an ear / And listen with attention while the truth I will declare; / When you hear this lamentation it will cause you to weep and wail / About the suffocation in the mines of Avondale."
Kenny, p. 127, gives this brief account: "The worst [accident involving fire and gas in the Pennsylvania coal fields] occurred at the Steuben Shaft at Avondale, just outside the town of Plymouth, in Luzerne County in September 1869. Operated by the Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western Railroad, the Steuben Shaft was 327 feet deep and employed two hundred men. Directly on top of the staff stood a wooden coal breaker, and halfway down the shaft a furnace had been installed to provide ventilation. This single shaft was the sole means of entry and exit for the mine workers; the accompanying upcast and downcast [ventilation shafts] carried air, not men. On the morning of September 6, 1869, sparks from the wood used to ignite the furnace, possibly combined with some gas in the upcast, set fire to the timbering in the shaft, which in turn set fire to the breaker above. The breaker tumbled down through the shaft, blocking the only possible exit from the mine and starting a fire that rapidly consumed all the oxygen and spread various poisonous gas. One hundred and ten men were asphyxiated. It took a rescue party two days to find all the bodies."
Harris/Blatz has a summary on pp. 78. The miners had been on strike for three months before going back to work the Friday before (one wonders if this had affected the mine infrastructure, though the mine was fairly new). The accident took place on the following Monday. There were 108 men on the shift. Smoke was first observed coming from the breaker at 8:45, and by 9:00 was overwhelming. There was only one exit from the pit, so the fire made it impossible for the miners to leave. The fire raged for several days, and was so strong that the first two men to attempt to go down to deal with it died of asphyxiation. It was two days before rescue operation could begin. In all, 110 people died (I assume that's 108 miners and the two rescuers).
Pennsylvania had some mine safety laws, but they were inadequate -- and had been written to exclude Luzerne county anyway! In the aftermath, the laws were strengthened, but they were still weak, and they were not enforced very well (Harris/Blatz, p. 78). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: LG06

Avondale Disaster (II), The [Laws G7]

DESCRIPTION: A fire in the Avondale Mine kills 110 miners. Relatively few details of the disaster and rescue are given, with the focus being on the plight of the bereaved families.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: mining disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 6, 1869 - The fire in the Avondale coal mines near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The fire blocked the only exit route and consumed all the oxygen in the tunnels. A total of 110 miners died, with 76 found in one ineffective shelter.
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws G7, "The Avondale Disaster II"
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 191-192, "Avondale Disaster" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 122, "The Avondale Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 784, AVONDAL2
Roud #3250
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Avondale Disaster I (The Mines of Avondale)" [Laws G6] (subject)
NOTES [48 words]: Laws lists only two versions of this ballad, one of those from manuscript. The first stanza is superficially similar to "The Mines of Avondale," but differs in detail: "Come, friends and fellow Christians, and listen to my tale, And as I sing, pray drop a tear for the dead of Avondale." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LG07

Aw, Poor Bird

See Ah, Poor Bird (File: ACSF442P)

Awa Whigs Awa

DESCRIPTION: "Awa whigs awa (x2), Ye're but a pack o' traitor louns, Ye'll do nae gude at a'." The [Scottish] thistle flourished until the Whigs arrived "like a frost in June." THe singer complains about the betrayal of the king. The singer expects vengeance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (_Scots Musical Museum_ #263)
KEYWORDS: political Jacobite nonballad flowers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #263, p. 272, "Awa whigs awa" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST SMMu263 (Partial)
Roud #8686
File: SMMu263

Awa' tae Cyprus

DESCRIPTION: "They're starving noo in Scotland, in England and Ireland tae; I canna bide nae langer here, so now I must away." The singer is going to Cyprus "to open a public hoose." Gold lies at your feet. If he gets rich he may come home "wi' a Pasha to my name"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell drink hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #132, p. 2, "Awa' tae Cyprus" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 537, "Awa' tae Cyprus" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6015
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Cyprus
File: GrD3537

Awake and Join the Cheerful Choir

DESCRIPTION: "Awake and join the cheerful choir, Upon this joyful morn (x2), And glad hosanna loudly sing, For joy a Savior's born." "Let all the choirs on earth below Their voices loudly raise." "The shining host in bright array... Proclaim a Savior's birth."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Hill, Wiltshire Folk Songs and Carols)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, p. 15, "Second Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #23664
File: CoMo015

Awake and Sing the Song

DESCRIPTION: "Awake and sing the song Of Moses and the Lamb." The singer is to sing of Christ's "dying love" and "risen power." On the road to Zion's city all pilgrims sing "of Moses and the Lamb"
AUTHOR: Words: Rev. W Hammond / Music: Aaron Williams (source: Sankey 1880)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Ira D. Sankey, _Sacred Songs and Solos: Twelve Hundred Hymns_ (London: Marshall Morgan & Scott Ltd, 1921? ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #254 (1880 #412), ("Awake and sing the song") (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Henry Williams, Henry Thomas, Allan Lovelace, George Roberts, "Pilgrim On the Way" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [26 words]: The WITrinidadVillage02 Spiritual Baptist hymn is only two lines of Sankey's third verse -- "Ye pilgrims on the road To Zion's city, sing" -- repeated. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcAaStS

Awake Awake (Awake Sweet England)

DESCRIPTION: "Awake, awake, sweet England, sweet England now awake, And do your prayers obediently." Listeners are told to repent, reminded that worms will eventually eat their flesh, reminded that wealth is useless after death, and blessed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious burial nonballad carol
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 194-195, "Awake, Awake" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Leath194 (Partial)
Roud #2111
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Moon Shines Bright (The Bellman's Song)" (lyrics)
NOTES [32 words]: Several verses of this are shared with "The Moon Shines Bright (The Bellman's Song)," and they probably have some sort of common ancestry. But this strikes me as even more gloomy somehow. - RBW
File: Leath194

Awake Ye Drousy Sleeper

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Awake, Arise, You Drowsy Sleeper

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Awake, Awake (New Year's Carol)

DESCRIPTION: "Awake, awake, ye drowsy souls, And hear what I shall tell: Remember Christ, the lamb of God, redeemed our souls from hell." Jesus was crowned with thorns, crucified, met Thomas, empowered his disciples, and tells them to seek the wandering sheep
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 105, "Awake, Awake, or New Year's Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #701
NOTES [38 words]: This appears to be mostly based on the Gospel of John. Jesus as the "Lamb of God" is mentioned in John 1:29. The story of Doubting Thomas is only in John 20:24-29. The wound in Jesus's side is mentioned only in John 19:34. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: KaCr105

Awake, Awake, You Drowsy Sleeper

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Awake, O Awake

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Away Down East (I)

DESCRIPTION: "There's a famous fabled country never seen by mortal eyes... And this famous fabled country is away down east." A man sets out to seek the place, and eventually is tricked into jumping off an east-facing cliff. His mother mourns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Dime-Song-Book #10); reportedly first printed in 1847 in the Hutchinson Family singster
KEYWORDS: talltale travel trick suicide mother
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 158-160, "Away Down East" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 7-8, "Away Down Eastt" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 533-535, "Away Down East" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #10, p. 14, "Away down East" (1 text)
ST BNEF533 (Partial)
Roud #3726
File: BNEF533

Away Down East, Away Down West

DESCRIPTION: "Away down east, away down west, Away down in Alabam, The only girl that I love best, Her name is Susy Anna. I tooker to to a ball one night... The table fell and she fell too And stuck her nose in the butter." She has "Two black eyes and a jelly nose"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Ritchie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: love courting food jumprope | nose butter supper Alabama Panorama
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, p. 14, "Away down east, away down west" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 63, "(Susie Anna, Susie Anna)" (1 text)
Roud #8248
NOTES [33 words]: Roud lumps this with "My Father Died A Month Ago," but this obviously has other elements -- which appear, oddly, to be American, even though it seems to be found mostly in Scotland and Ireland. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR028

Away Down in Sunbury

DESCRIPTION: "O massa take that brand new coat And hang it on the wall, That darkie take that same old coat And wear 'em to the ball. Oh, don't you hear my true love singing, Oh, don't you hear 'em sigh, Away down in Sunbury I'm bound to live and die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: home clothes nonballad dancing
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 99, "Away Down in Sunbury" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12056
File: AWG099A

Away Down Yonder

See Turkey Hammock (File: Morr109)

Away Hey! Oh, Haul Him High-O!

See Handsome Charlie's Sing Out (File: Harl020A)

Away in a Manger

DESCRIPTION: "Away in a manger, no crib for a bed, The little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head." The baby never complains even amid the noise of the cattle. The singer asks that Jesus protect him/her and all children
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 ("Little Children's Book: for Schools and Families")
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus animal Christmas
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 373, "Away In A Manger" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 120-121+, "Away in a Manger"
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 105, "Luther's Cradle Hymn" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, AWAYMNGR*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 111, "Away In A Manger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #10, "Away In a Manger" (1 text)
Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 198-199, "Away in a Manger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25304
RECORDINGS:
C. Gardee, "Away in a Manger" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #656, recorded 08/31/2023, with the tune significantly folk processed)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Flow Gently Sweet Afton" (tune)
NOTES [419 words]: Although often called "Luther's Cradle Hymn," it is known that this is not by Martin Luther, and apparently is a purely American creation. Johnson, who usually gives some sort of background even if inaccurate, has nothing whatsoever to say about the piece. Fuld gives such details as are known.
Stulken, p. 170, mentions an article by Richard S. Hill, "Not so far away in a manger: Forty-one settings of an American Carol," which notes that the only German version seems to have originated in America in the 1930s -- but that the Pennsylvania Dutch, who were largely Lutheran, may have had a part in shaping it.
Several tunes are in use, and the tune published in 1885 is not the most familiar today; the usual American form is a relative of Jonathan Edwards Spilman's "Flow Gently Sweet Afton." Stulkin thinks it may have been set by James R. Murray (1841-1905), who published it in 1887. Stulkin considers Murray's other works unmemorable. This hypothesis also has the tentative support of Reynolds, pp. 40-41, who on pp. 386-387 says that Murray was born in Andover, Massachusetts, shortly after his parents emigrated from Scotland. Among his teachers were Lowell Mason, George F. Root, and William B. Bradbury among others (who in the 1850s had worked together to found the New York Normal Musical Institute, which presumably is where Murray studied with them). Murray served in the Union Army and then worked for Root and Cady, then taught music in Andover. From 1881, he went to Cincinnati, where he worked in music publishing for the rest of his life.
McKim, p. 26, also lists a tune by Murray, which goes by the title "Mueller," but mentions also a tune "Cradle Song" (1895) by William James Kirkpatrick (1838-1921). Kirkpatrick compiled more than eighty songbooks alone or in collaboration, but he doesn't seem to have produced much that is memorable.
Ian Bradley, in The Penguin Book of Carols, admits that this is "one of the most unScriptural" of popular carols (though he follows this up with a fierce defence of its place in the tradition). The charge against the song is nothing less than the truth; the only part with Biblical authority is the manger (Luke 2:7, 12, 16); there is no proof there were animals in the vicinity.
Despite all the evidence that it's not by Luther, and that there are multiple tunes, the legend that this is one of Luther's works persists; Rudin, p. 6, talks about him wandering about singing at Christmas. In modern English rather than medieval German, no doubt. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB373B

Away on a Hill

See My Clinch Mountain Home (File: BrS5682)

Away Out On the Mountain

DESCRIPTION: "I packed my grip for a farewell trip; I kissed Susan Jane goodbye at the fountain. 'I'm going,' says I, 'to the land of the sky, Away out on the mountain.'" The singer describes mountain life -- the wind, the animals; he will feast on meat and honey
AUTHOR: Kelly Harrell
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (copyrighted by author)
KEYWORDS: food animal nonballad travel farewell
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 318, "Away Out On the Mintain" (1 text)
Roud #15887
RECORDINGS:
Bud Reed, "Away Out On The Mountain" (on Reeds01)
Frankie Marvin, "Away Out On The Mountain" (on Edison 11006, 1929)
Riley Puckett, "Away Out On The Mountain" (on Columbia 15324-D, 1928)
Jimmie Rodgers, "Away Out On The Mountain" (on Victor 21142, 1927)
NOTES [8 words]: Pity we don't have a keyword "travelogue." - PJS
File: Br3318

Away to Wisconsin

See The Rolling Stone [Laws B25] (File: LB25)

Away with Rum

See Rum By Gum (Temperance Union Song) (File: R317)

Away, Away

See Rum By Gum (Temperance Union Song) (File: R317)

Away, Idaho

See We're Coming, Arkansas (We're Coming, Idaho) (File: R343)

Away, Rio!

See Rio Grande (File: Doe064)

Away, You Black Devils, Away (Bird Scarer's Cry)

DESCRIPTION: "Away, you black devils (blackbirds, crows, ravens), away. Away, you black devils, away, You eat too much, you drink too much, You carry too much away, away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, according to Palmer)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #1, Song II, "(no title)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1730
File: PPai01II

Awfa Chap for Fun, An

DESCRIPTION: Geordie Dunn says "A never met wi my equal yet, I was aye sae fu of fun." He meets a girl, takes her to a sweet shop, and proposes. They marry. "She has proved a scolding wife... But I just return the compliments, for A'm aye sae fu o fun"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage humorous husband wife food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 94-95, 153, "An Awfa Chap for Fun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21755
File: McSc094

Awful Execution of John Bird Bell

DESCRIPTION: Bell's parents made him pick pockets and "join a mob to murder and rob." At trial Bird and his mother cry. "For want of parent's proper care This boy's condemned to die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes)
KEYWORDS: crime execution homicide trial mother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 128-130, "Awful Execution of John Bird Bell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1108
NOTES [46 words]: In keeping with the tradition of trial ballads, Bird's mother "her grey hairs she did tear."
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, quoting a broadside: "Awful execution of John Bird Bell, a boy aged 16 years, for the murder of Richard Taylor, aged 13, at Maidstone, on Saturday last." - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: KuTu128

Awful Wedding, The

See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

Awful, Awful, Awful

See Death is a Melancholy Call [Laws H5] (File: LH05)

Axe Talkin'

DESCRIPTION: Call-and answer: "Axe talkin'." "Nobody cuttin'." "All day long." "All day long."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: work logger nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 230-231, "Axe Talkin'" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: KiAa230A

Ay Ban a Svede

See The Swede from North Dakota (File: Ohr008)

Ay Ban a Svede from Nort' Dakota

See The Swede from North Dakota (File: Ohr008)

Ay waukin O

See Aye Wauking, O (File: GrD5933)

Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay, Gaude celi domina

See Mary for the Love of Thee (Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay) (File: MSLLBOaY)

Ay, Ay, Willie Man

DESCRIPTION: Willie, are you awake [waukin]? "Annie's got new strings till her aul' apron" [is pregnant]. "Turn to yer bonnie lassie wi' her short apron.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: sex nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1724, "Ay, Ay, Willie Man" (1 text)
Roud #13142
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Smith's a Gallant Fireman" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
File: GrD81724

Ay! Vienen los Yankees! (Hey! Here Come the Yankees!)

DESCRIPTION: "Spanish: !Ay! vienen los Yankees, !Ay! Los tienen ya!" The Yankees are coming. The singer urges listeners to put aside "formalidad"/formality. The girls are learning English as fast as they can. The Yankees say, "Kiss me!" The girls do
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Hague, Spanish-American Folk-Songs, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 644-645, "!Ay! Vienen los Yankees! (Hey! Here Come the Yankees!)" (1 text)
File: CAFS2644

Aye for Saturday Night

See Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going) (File: SBoA050)

Aye Lord, Time Is Drawin' Nigh

See Judgment Day Is Comin' (File: Br3606)

Aye She Likit The Ae Nicht

DESCRIPTION: The man gets into bed, knocks the bottom boards over the woman's head, gives her his "hairy peg." She likes it. (Refrain: "Lassie, let me in, O") When he comes down, the "auld wife" is standing there; she lifts her clothes and says "Laddie, put it in"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (collected from Maggie McPhee)
KEYWORDS: sex nightvisit bawdy humorous mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 41, "Ae She Likit The Ae Nicht" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #135
RECORDINGS:
cf. "Let Me In This Ae Nicht" (chorus, theme)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Courting the Widow's Daughter (Hard Times)" [Laws H25] (plot)
NOTES [65 words]: This has a good deal in common with "Let Me In This Ae Nicht," aka "Cold Haily Windy Night," but as the plots are quite different, MacColl & Seeger split them, and so do I. - PJS
I'm glad you added that note, though, or I might have lumped them. (Roud did.) I almost wonder if this isn't "Let Me In This Ae Nicht," with an ending related to "Courting the Widow's Daughter" [Laws H25). - RBW
File: McCST041

Aye Wauking, O

DESCRIPTION: "I'm wet and weary!" I would "rise and rin" to meet her. "I lang for my true lover" in summer and at sleep. "Feather-beds are soft, Painted rooms are bonnie; But a kiss o' my dear love Is better far than ony." Friday night is long in coming.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: courting love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan5 933, "Simmer's a Pleasant Time" (3 fragments, 3 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #287, pp. 404-405, "Ay waukin O" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1790)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #213, p. 222, "Aye waukin O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol I, pp. 126-128, "Aye Wauking, O" (2 texts)
ST GrD5933 (Full)
Roud #6749
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hexhamshire Lass" (some verses) and references there
cf. "Katy Cruel" (some verses) and references there
NOTES [49 words]: For other references to "wet and weary" see "Rise up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover)." Other non-ghostly night-visit songs are noted there.
Chambers has two texts. His first, "the original," is the source of the DESCRIPTION; the other, "Aye Waukin', Oh!" is "as altered by Burns." - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: GrD5933

Aye Work Awa'

DESCRIPTION: "Fortune favours them wha work aye wi' a busy haun'." Help yourself; look before you leap; don't speak ill of others; "never say that ye're ill-used"; "never let your tongue wag up and down"; life is a fight "to the very grave"
AUTHOR: Joseph Wright (source: Greig/Duncan3)
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (_Whistle-Binkie_, according to Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: virtue warning work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 655, "Aye Work Awa" (1 text)
Roud #6084
File: GrD3655

Aylesbury Girl, The

See Haselbury Girl, The (The Maid of Tottenham, The Aylesbury Girl) (File: K176)

Ayrshireman's Lilt, The

DESCRIPTION: Where are you going, Highlandman? To steal a cow. You'll be hanged. I don't care as long as my stomach is full.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: execution theft food dialog animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 173, "O Quar Are Ye Gaun, My Bonnie Wee Hielandman?" (1 fragment)
Roud #6962
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Taffy Was a Welshman (II)" (theme: foreigners living nearby as thieves)
NOTES [94 words]: The current description is based on the Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 fragment.
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2: "The equivalent of the verse 173 'O Quhar Are Ye Gaun, My Bonnie Wee Hielandman? occurs in R[obert] De Bruce Trotter, Galloway Gossip [eighty years ago: being a series of articles illustrative of the manners, customs, and peculiarities of the aboriginal Picts of Galloway] (Dumfries 1901) p. 201 as the first stanza of a five-stanza song called 'The Ayrshireman's Lilt' beginning 'Whaur ir ye ga'in tae? my bonnie Ayrshireman!'" - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2173

B-17, The

See Flying Fortresses (File: Hopk061)

B-A-Bay

See The Vowels (File: Br3139)

B'y' Sara Burned Down

See The Bayou Sara (File: DTBayous)

Ba, Be, Bi, Bo, Bu

See The Vowels (File: Br3139)

Baa Baa Black Sheep

DESCRIPTION: "Baa baa, black sheep, have you any wool?" The sheep replies that it does, and details what might be done with it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1744 (Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book)
KEYWORDS: animal sheep nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #16, p. 33, "(Bah, Bah a black Sheep)"
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 55, "Baa, baa, black sheep" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 8, "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 96, "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 593-594, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star -- (ABCDEFG; Baa, Baa, Black Sheep; Schnitzelbank)"
ADDITIONAL: Tim Devlin, _Cracking Humpty Dumpty: An Investigative Trail of Favorite Nursery Rhymes_, Susak Press, 2022, pp. 15-22, "Baa Baa Black Sheep" (3 texts)
Roud #4439
RECORDINGS:
Lorraine Hammond, "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" (Piotr-Archive #689, recorded 10/01/2023)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1871 10570, "Baa, baa, black sheep," G. D. Russell & Co (Boston), 1871; sm1881 04227, "Ba-a, ba-a, black sheep," Geo. Molineux? (unknown), 1881 (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" (tune)
NOTES [431 words]: Although the lyrics of this are older than "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," and indeed are older than the oldest known form of the music ("Ah! Vous Dirai-Je, Maman," published 1761), text and tune, according to Fuld, were not united until 1879.
The 1881 sheet music credits this to C. M. Wiske, but I would suspect that is the arrangement. The 1871 sheet music is credited to Charles Moulton, but it's a different tune (don't ask me why everyone suddenly got the idea to set this to be music)
Katherine Elwes Thomas (who could always be relied upon to find expansive explanations when simple ones would do) reads this as a complaint against the exactions of the English royalty and nobility (Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp. 85-86); it would appear she dates it to the reign of Henry VIII. This is one of her less ridiculous attributions, but I don't see any evidence for so dating it.
The Opies mention the taxes on the wool trade which began in 1275 -- and became one of the main sources of money for the Crown, so that might be the same reference. Albert Jacks also refer it to the reign of Edward I of England (1272-1307) and his 1275 imposition of a tax of six shillings and eight pence on a sack of wool. The argument is that one third of the price of the sack goes to the king ("master") and two-thirds to the church ("dame"), with none left for the actual growers of the wool ("the little boy who cries in the lane"). Tim Devlin, Cracking Humpty Dumpty: An Investigative Trail of Favorite Nursery Rhymes, Susak Press, 2002, pp. 17-21, offers probably the best historical review of this hypothesis and of the history thought to be behind it; he too refers it to the reign of Edward I although he puts it at a slightly different time in that reign.
Clearly the link to Edward I is popular. But to refer a poem seemingly first encountered in 1744 to a tax which was significant mostly in the period prior to the Reformation is something of a stretch, it seems to me. Nor is there any hint of Middle English, or Anglo-Norman, in the language. Note, in particular, that every version I've seen refers to *bags* of wool -- even though the official measure of wool was the *sack*. This is not a trivial distinction -- "sack" was a formal Anglo-Norman term.
Oh, and remember, Edward I's court spoke Anglo-Norman. So did the people who were exporting the wool. Middle English was the language of the lower classes. And most people who spoke Middle English spoke dialects that were not ancestral to Modern English! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGMG016

Baa-Baa Black Sheep (II)

See All the Pretty Little Horses (File: LxU002)

Baa! Go the Goats

DESCRIPTION: "Baa! go the goats, Ow! go the di-so-men [boatmen seeking fares], Dong! go the bells in the steeple, Bang! go the guns of destroyers during night attacks; The hooter at St Angelo goes Peep! Peep! Peep!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: animal navy battle
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 65, "'Baa!' Go the Goats" (1 text, with tune on p. 151)
File: Tawn048

Babbity Bowster

DESCRIPTION: Game: "Wha learned you to dance, Babbity Bowster, Babbity Bowster? Wha learned you to dance, Babbity Bowster, brawly." "My minie learned me to dance." "Wha gae you the keys to keep?" "My minne gae me the keys to keep."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord,High))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1717, "Bob at His Bowster" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 157, "Babitie Bowster" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 42, "Bumpkin Brawly" (5 texts)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 89, "(Who learned you to dance)" (1 text)
DT, BABOWSTR
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 36, "Babbity Bowster"
Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #58, p.40, "Babbity-Bowster")
Robert Ford, Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories (Paisley, 1904 (2nd edition, "Digitized by Google")), pp. 61-63, "Bab at the Bowster"
A. Nimmo, Songs and Ballads of Clydesdale (Edinburgh, 1882 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 194, "Babity Bowster"
Robert Craig Maclagan, The Games and Diversions of Argyleshire (London, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 136, "Babbity Bowster" (1 text)
Roud #8722
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bee Baw Babbity" (derivative, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
File: MSNR089

Babcock Bedtime Story, The

DESCRIPTION: A cante-fable: Old El, crippled and without resource, is sentenced to the poorhouse. His wife must go to another poorhouse. They are preparing to part for the last time. The song (to the tune of Loch Lomond) recalls their happy times together, now gone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: injury poverty work separation husband wife age
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 176, "The Babcock Bedtime Story" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC176 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Loch Lomond" (tune & meter, some words) and references there
File: FSC176

Babe Is Born All of a May, A

DESCRIPTION: "A babe is born all of a may, To bring salvation unto us, To him we sing both night and day, Veni creator spiritus." The babe was born in Bethlehem. The three kings came from the east; the shepherds visited; the angels sang
AUTHOR: John Audelay the blind? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad mother children MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #122, pp. 77-79, "(no title)" (3 texts)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 52-53, "Conditor alme siderum" (1 text)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 116, "A Babe is Born" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #20; compare #3526
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book , Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #18, p. 10, "Conditor alme siderum, eterna lux credencium" (1 text, with an additional text on p. 171)
John the Blind Audelay, _Poems and Carols (Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Douce 302)_, edited by Susanna Fein, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2009, pp. 183-194, "(Carol 15. Day of Epiphany)" (1 regularized text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 221
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 27
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 302 (Bodleian 21876), folio 31
NOTES [275 words]: Although no longer found in tradition, this seems to have been popular in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, surviving in two very important manuscripts. It is in the Hill MS. (Balliol College, Oxford, 354) and in Sloane MS. 2593, an important collection which contains many folk songs.
The third version, which the Index of Middle English verse files separately as their #3526 ( "þere is a babe born of a may, In saluacion of vs" -- "There is a babe born of a may, In salvation of us") occurs in This occurs in Oxford, Bodleian Douce 302, a manuscript assembled, and mostly written by, John Audelay the Blind, for whom see the notes to "Welcome Yule."
Such wide currency, to me, implies that this belongs in the Index, although it is not clear to me where the tune in the Oxford Book of Carols came from.
The question is whether the piece is originally Audelay's or if he rewrote it (for Epiphany?). In that connection, we know that Audelay was working on his book in 1426 (again, see the noted to "Welcome Yule." But the Sloane manuscript is thought to be from c. 1430. And the Audelay and Sloane texts are significantly different, sometimes in ways that might be accidents of copying and sometimes in ways that might be deliberate but often in ways that look like the effects of imperfect memory (e.g. the various Latin tags are different). If the time gap were greater, I'd be more inclined to accept that Audelay originated the text and it was changed over the years, but in this case, it seems much more likely that Audelay heard and reused it.
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSBIBAOM

babe is born to blis vs brynge, A

See A Babe Is Born To Bliss Us Bring (File: Gree042)

Babe Is Born To Bliss Us Bring, A

DESCRIPTION: "A babe is born to bliss us bring, A heard a maid lullay and sing." She tells her baby that he is the King of Bliss. They discuss the crucifixion and what will happen to him in future. He asks again for comfort. Chorus may be English or Latin or mixed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Richard Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious mother MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #152, pp. 112-113, "(A babe is born to blis vs brynge)" (1 text with variants)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 72-74, "(A babe is born, to bliss us bring") (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #22
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #5
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #33, pp. 21-23, "(Now synge we with angelis: Gloria in excelcis!)" (1 text)
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #42, pp. 101-103, "(A babe is born to blis us brynge)" (1 text)
Carleton Brown, editor, Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1939, #1, p. 1, "Dear Son, Leave Thy Weeping" (1 text, from the Porkington manuscript)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPorkington10}, Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS. Porkington 10, folio 202 (conflate version)
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Laud misc. 683 (Bodleian 798), folio 105
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 225
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, Harvard University MS. H.C.L. 25258.27.5, page 8
NOTES [118 words]: Although no longer traditional, this seems to have been very popular in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. It is in the Hill MS. (Balliol College, Oxford, 354), in Bodleain MS. Laud misc. 683 (Bodleian 798), in National Library W. MS. Porkington 10 (in a conflate version, which combines the English with a Latin hymn "Criste qui lux est et dies"), and in two copies in the Harvard Library, simply labelled "Carol Book A" and "Carol Book B." Also, Sandys thought he found it in Cornwall, according to Greene. This seems to me to be enough reason to index it.
Little of what happens in the song (other than the crucifixion, of course) is Biblical, but Gabriel's visit to Mary is in Luke 1:26-38. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Gree042

Babe of Bethlehem, The

DESCRIPTION: A nativity hymn, generally following the Lukan story, and beginning: "Ye nations all, on you I call, Come, hear this declaration, And don't refuse the wond'rous news Of Jesus and salvation...."
AUTHOR: William Walker?
EARLIEST DATE: 1835 (Walker's "Southern Harmony")
KEYWORDS: Christmas religious Jesus Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 554, "Babe of Bethlehem" (1 fragment)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 757, "The Babe of Bethlehem" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BABEBETH*
Roud #11878
NOTES [305 words]: The sundry references:
"As was foretold by prophets old, Isaiah, Jeremiah." -- Many prophecies of the Messiah are found in Isaiah (e.g. Isa. 7:14f.; also the "servant" prophecies of Isa. 53, etc.). The only prophecy attributed to Jeremiah that the New Testament quotes about Jesus (as opposed to being quoted BY Jesus), however, is in Matt. 27:9-10 -- and although it is attributed to Jeremiah, it is actually a prophecy of Zechariah (Zechariah 11:13; a few manuscripts of Matthew, bothered by the fact that the gospel appeared to be wrong, either changed the name to Zechariah or omitted the name entirely)! Thus Jeremiah cannot be held to have foretold Jesus.
"To Abraham the promise came, and to his seed for ever" -- Gen. 15:5, 22:17; also Gen. 26:4, Isa. 51:2, etc.
"A light to shine in Isaac's line" -- cf. Gen. 21:12=Rom. 9:7=Heb. 11:18; also Gen. 26:4
"God's blessed word made flesh and blood, assumed the human nature." -- John 1:1f.
"They found no bed to lay his head, but in the ox's manger... But in the hay the stranger lay, with swaddling bands around him" -- Luke 2:7
"On the same night a glorious light to shepherds there appeared, Bright angels came in shining flame, they saw and greatly feared" -- Luke 2:9
"The angels said: Be not afraid, although we much alarm you, We do appear good news to bear, as now we will inform you." -- Lukw 2:10f.
"When this was said, straightway was made a glorious sound from heaven" -- Luke 2:13
"Each flaming tongue an anthem sung" (not associated with the birth of Jesus; see Acts 2:3)
"At Jesus' birth be peace on earth" -- loosely paraphrased from Luke 2:14
"To Bethlehem they quickly came, the glorious news to carry, And in the stall they found them all, Joseph, the Babe, and Mary." -- Luke 2:16
The shepherds then return'd again to their own habitation" -- Luke 2:20 - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BSoF757

Babes Can Count Up by Algebra

DESCRIPTION: "Babes can count up by Algebra All the stripes upon a Zebra."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: wordplay animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 61, "Babes can count up by algebra" (1 short text)
Roud #25495
NOTES [20 words]: The irony of this little piece is that one cannot count the stripes on a zebra by algebra; algebra is not arithmetic! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC061B

Babes in the Greenwood, The

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

Babes in the Wood (II)

See The Three Lost Babes of Americay (File: Peac030)

Babes in the Woods, The

See The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods) [Laws Q34] (File: LQ34)

Babies on Our Block, The

DESCRIPTION: "If you long for information or in need of merriment, Come over with me socially to Murphy's tenement." The singer catalogs all the myriad Irish babies living in the area, who join in singing "Little Sally Waters"
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (sheet music published by Wm. A. Pond & Co, New York)
KEYWORDS: baby family
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #21, pp. 72-75, "The Babies on Our Block" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 91-92, "Babies on Our Block" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 115-116, "The Babies on Our Block" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Richard Moody, editor, _Dramas from the American Theatre, 1762-1909_, World Publishing Company, 1966; the play "The Mulligan Guard Ball" is on pp. 549-565 (this is the first printed edition, taken from the manuscript filed with the Library of Congress in 1879, and may not have matched the actual performances perfectly); this song is very near the beginning of scene 5, on pp. 560, apparently sung by Dan Mulligan
Richard Moody, _Ned Harrigan: From Corlear's Hook to Herald Square_, Nelson Hall, 1980, "The Babies on Our Block" (copy of the sheet music on the inside front and back covers)
B. A. Botkin, _Sidewalks of America_, Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1954, pp. 564-565, "The Babies on Our Block" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stanley Appelbaum, editor, _Show Songs: from The Black Crook to The Red Mill_, Dover Publications, 1974, pp. 17-20, "The Babies on Our Block" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music; pp. 13-16 give the sheet music for "The Mulligan Guard")
William H. A. Williams, _'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream_, University of Illinois Press, 1996,p. 164, "(The Babies On Our Block" (2 substantial excerpts)
Edward Harrigan, _The Mulligans_, G. W. Dilingham, 1901, p. 143, "(no title)" (1 fragment)
ST Dean091 (Partial)
Roud #9572
RECORDINGS:
Mick Moloney, "The Babies on Our Block" (on HarriganBrahamMaloney)
Mixed Vocal Quartet, ("HarriganHartBraham melodies, no. 2," Songs of the past, no. 1") (Medley including bits of "Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door," "Babies on Our Block," and others) (Victor 35578)
SAME TUNE:
Soreheads on Our Block (James A. Garfield campaign song from 1880; Kenneth D. Ackerman, _Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield_, Carroll & Graf, 2003 (I use the 2004 paperback edition), p. 194 n. 3). Interestingly, this song is not in the official Garfield and Arthur Songster
Sheenies in the Sand (by Frank Bush) ("if you want some recreation during the heated spell, Come down to Coney Island, to Corbin's big hotel") (Gilbert, p. 180)
NOTES [9283 words]: The description of many babies residing in a block in New York, especially in Irish areas, is no exaggerations. Williams, p. 93, discusses the population of the Tenth Ward (not the ward in which Ned Harrigan set his plays, but not too different in character): "After the [Civil] war, the ward grew in density from 432 per acre in 1880 to 747 in 1898, making it perhaps the most crowded district in the world by the turn of the century." If we assume 600 population per acre, and assume a block to be 3 acres, that's 1800 people per block (!), so probably 40-50 babies per block.
According to Spaeth, pp. 186-187, the late 1870s saw a series of musical skits called the Mulligan series. "January 13, 1879, was the historic date of the opening of the full-sized Mulligan Guard Ball, which ran right on to the end of that season.... [T]he Mulligan Guard Ball may be considered the real revelation of what was thereafter known as the Harrigan and Hart style...."
"Harrigan himself represented the brains and energy of the troup, writing dialogue and the song lyrics, casting and directing every production, acting and singing the leading roles and often also serving as manager. Braham composed all the music and conducted the orchestra in the pit. Tony Hart continued to be the foil to Harrigan's characterizations and was particularly good as a female impersonator...."
"The Mulligan Guard Ball [first performed January 13, 1879; Moody, p. 85] contained, in addition to its parent song, such musical hits as The Skidmore Fancy Ball (a satirical treatment of a colored company), We're all Young Fellows Bran New, Singing at the Hallway Door, and The Babies on Our Block. The latter was the definitive forerunner of The Sidewalks of New York, giving a detailed picture of life in the humbler sections of the metropolis,with actual quotations from old Irish song scattered throughout the music."
According to Moody, p. 88, "Harrigan said [this song] had come to him when he threaded his way home through the mobs of Irish children -- Phalens, Whalens, Clearys, Learys, Brannons, and Cannons." "The Mulligan Guard Ball" was initially a short piece of six scenes, but it gradually grew until it filled an entire evening's entertainment (Moody, p. 91).
According to FinsonVoices, p. 293, Braham (whose birth date is variously given as 1837 or 1838) was the father-in-law of Harrigan (1844-1911). Harrigan was born on October 26, 1844 in New York's Lower East Side (Corlear's Hook, in the then-mostly-Irish neighborhood of Corlear's Hook (Kahn, p. 103; DAB, vol. IV, p. 295 gives his birth date as October 26, 1845), but despite his Irish family, he originally performed in blackface. He hooked up with Hart in 1871 during a performance in Chicago.
BanhamEtAl, p. 433, says that "Harrigan and Hart became the most popular comedy team on the American stage (1871-85). They sang, danced, and played the principal roles (usually Harrigan as the amiable fun-loving Irish adventurer Dan Mulligan and Hart, in blackface, as the Negro wench Rebecca Allup) in Harrigan's high-spirited 'melees': The Mulligan Guard Picnic (1878), MG Ball (1879), MG Chowder (1879), MG Christmas (1879), MG Nominee (1880), MG Surprise (1880), MG Silver Wedding (1881), Old Lavender (1877), The Major (1881), Squatter Sovereignty (1882), Cordelia's Aspirations (1883), Dan's Tribulations (1884), and Investigation (1884).
"Harrigan's farces were not all 'knockdown and slambang'. His documentary explorations of New York's Lower Eastside and his striking portraits of the Germans, Italians, Negroes, and particularly the Irish in his 40 plays promoted W. D. Howells to write, "Here is the spring of true American comedy, the joyous art of the dramatist who loves the life he observes.' Another critic called his plays the 'Pickwick Papers of a Bowery Dickens.'
"Harrigan was born on the Lower Eastside, appeared first as an Irish comic singer in San Francisco (1867), in 1871 met Tony Hart.... Their antics drew boisterous crowds to the Théâtre Comique (514 Broadway) and then to Harrigan's Théâtre Comique (728 Broadway).
Harrigan, interestingly, was only part-Irish; he also had English ancestry, and was not Catholic -- he may have been agnostic (Kahn, p. 68). His father William Harrigan was of Irish ancestry (so most accounts, although Warren Burns claimed he was Welsh; Williams, p. 270), but had been born in Carbonear, Newfoundland, in 1799 and turned Protestant while serving at sea with a Protestant captain (Moody, pp. 7-8; Kahn, p. 103, says that Ned Harrigan had few connections with Newfoundland but acknowledged his family history by keeping Newfoundland dogs as pets). His mother, Ellen Ann Rogers, was from New England (her father supposedly died in 1813 in the Chesapeake/Shannon sea fight when she was just a year old; Kahn, p. 104), and had married William Harrigan in 1830 (Kahn, pp. 104-105); they had thirteen children, although only four reached adulthood (Moody, p. 9). Ned Harrigan only once even visited Ireland (Moody, p. 7). But "he played so many Irishmen onstage that he sometimes absentmindedly talked with a brogue off-stage; in the eyes of his fans he was as Irish as Dan Mulligan himself" (Kahn, p. 68). "Harrigan's own voice, a kind of mongrel tenor, was not exemplary in either tone or volume, but the musical interludes in his shows were so popular that a lot of people thought of him primarily as a song-and-dance man" (Kahn, p. 78).
His education was limited, and he wasn't very attentive even when in school, but he read voraciously, particularly drama (Kahn, pp. 110-111). And his mother had been deeply attached to southern songs and often played and sang them at the piano with her children. Harrigan said that "It was from her that I learned most of my Negro business and old songs. She had a capital dialect and could dance and sing 'Jim Crow' as well as I ever saw it done" (Moody, p. 11).
Harrigan was old enough that he might have served in the Union army in the Civil War, but managed to avoid being drafted (according to Kahn, p. 115, we don't even know what Harrigan was doing during these years), although his brother William was in the Army of the Potomac and ended up being captured and sent to Andersonville Prison, which almost killed him (Moody, p. 15). How this influenced Ned Harrigan's military comedies is not clear.
During the Civil War, his parents divorced, and Ned became increasingly unhappy with his father and stepmother (Moody, p. 14; Kahn, pp. 114-115); after a fight with his father, one account says Ned bought a new banjo and signed up on a boat for New Orleans (Moody, p. 15, although Kahn, p. 115, believes the quarrel took place during the Civil War, so there were no boats from New York to New Orleans!). There is no question, though, that he eventually made it to San Francisco, working on the docks while hanging around theaters when he could (Moody, p. 17). Williams, p. 158, suggests that working in San Francisco's theaters helped him to develop his relatively sympathetic attitude toward the Irish; the Irish did not suffer the discrimination on the West Coast that they did in New York.
Harrigan remembered San Francisco fondly enough that he frequently took his company there during the New York off season, despite the long distance, and the city by the 1890s regarded him as a native son (Kahn, p. 116)
By 1868, he was listing himself as a performer in city directories, although he wasn't a lead actor yet (Moody, p. 22) -- he was shy enough that his friends had to force him to be pushy about getting jobs (Kahn, p. 118). He learned a lot from the famous Lotta Crabtree (Moody, p. 23; DAB, vol. IV, p. 295, says they sang duets). From California, he gradually wandered back east, often in small performing groups, though he kept on having problems with companions who drank themselves into poverty and even outright crime (Moody, p. 27, and Kahn, pp. 124-127, both tell tales of a compatriot who actually sold his own pants to earn money for booze).
Even before meeting Braham, Harrigan was writing his own song texts, but he used old tunes -- e.g. his first important song sung with Hart was "The Little Fraud," set to the tune of "Little Maud" (Moody, p. 33). His method of writing was interesting: He set out a certain number of cigars on his desk, then wrote until they were all smoked, covering reams of paper which someone would copy so that Harrigan could edit them (Kahn, p. 212).
Hart (1855-1891) was born Anthony J. Cannon, the son of Irish immigrants Antony Cannon (Sr.) and Mary Sweeney, one of five children. He was "a Roman Catholic of pure Irish ancestry" (Kahn, p. 68). He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on July 25, 1855 (Kahn, p. 132).. He was hard to control from an early age. He always wanted to act, and at a children's drama, he staged a hanging so real that the victim nearly died (Kahn, p. 134). With little other choice after that, his parents sent the eleven-year-old to a reform school, so he ran away to try his career as a performer (Moody, pp. 30-31), originally calling himself "Master Antonio" (Kahn, p. 132).
Ordinarily you'd expect a boy with conduct problems to refuse to play female parts, but Hart apparently was playing girls from the beginning of his stage career (Moody, p. 32). He joined a touring company which eventually brought him to Chicago in 1871, where he got in trouble with a fellow cast member over the use of their one towel, and ended up leaving the company (Kahn, pp. 136-137). He apparently met Harrigan while both were getting their shoes shined (Kahn, p. 137). It was only after this that Mr. Cannon adopted the name "Hart," giving the duo a simple and easily-pronounced name (Kahn, p. 138; they had called themselves "The Nonpariels," but "Harrigan and Hart," for obvious reasons, proved a more successful name). Hart's "shortness and almost femininely beautiful face made him a natural for drag roles, while his masculine approach meant his 'women' tended to be raucous and combative" (Bordman, p. 44).
The team did well enough in Chicago that they decided to try Boston in April 1871. Originally given a short slot in a program featuring many acts, they quickly became the hit of the show (Moody, pp. 34-35). A jealous competitor, in fact, turned in the 16-year-old Hart to the reform school he had fled, and Harrigan had to convince a court to leave Hart free and in Harrigan's care (Kahn, pp. 140-141).
One of those the two met in Boston was John Braham, the conductor of the hall's orchestra; when Harrigan and Hart headed for New York, John Braham wrote a letter to introduce Harrigan to his uncle David Braham (Moody, p. 37). The two hit it off -- and so did Harrigan and Braham's twelve-year-old daughter Annie, the composer's oldest child (born November 30, 1860; Franceschina, p. 18. Her photograph shows a pretty young woman, although Kahn, p. 156, calls her "slightly heavy-set, but with striking white skin and large black eyes, which gave her a Spanish appearance. She had a paradoxical nature. As a girl she called herself 'Sober Annie' and as a woman was called by her family 'the Duchess,' but despite these intimations of extraordinary gravity, but there was a lighthearted streak in her. She liked to play the banjo" and went to horseraces with Lillian Russell.
She would also prove a strict money manager; Kahn, p. 151. She was so good with money, in fact, that when Harrigan opened his own theater, he made her the owner! -- Kahn, p. 273. Her judgment was apparently quite good; late in life, when Harrigan tried to put on a play against her advice, and it flopped, he said, "When I have listened to my wife, I have always done the right thing. This time I didn't listen"; Moody, p. 203).
Perhaps it was to keep himself close to Annie that Harrigan talked to Braham about writing music for some of Harrigan's lyrics. If so, it was an incredibly fortunate decision. Looking at the record, even though he is forgotten today, Braham was probably the most significant composer in America between the time of Henry Clay Work and the end of the nineteenth century. He was "a bespectacled, professorial-looking man with a floppy mustache and... red hair" (Ewen, p. 63).
Harrigan and Braham seem to have been incredibly comfortable together: when on a tour, "the team continued to perfect the symbiotic collaboration that was their trademark: the pair worked, ate, and drank together, and wrote letters home at opposite ends of the same table" (Franceschina, p. 108). FinsonCollected, p. xvii says that they "may have been the closest and most enduring" songwriting team before George and Ira Gershwin.
Hart was a fine actor and singer, but his problems with emotional regulation and self-control were not over. After Harrigan and Hart became a success, Hart started spending money much too freely; "Tony lived for the moment, confident that the next hour, the next day would take care of itself" (Moody, p. 61). It was quite the contrast to Harrigan, who always watched his cash and set aside some of his income to care for his extended family (Moody, p. 60).
There was a story that the original name of David Braham's family was "Abraham"; supposedly they were German Jews who had migrated to Britain in the mid-1700s and shortened their name to fit in (Franceschina, p. 3). Born in February 1834, David's musical training seems to have been limited, but from a very early age, he was composing his own tunes. His original instrument was harp, but supposedly he was unable to play a gig because a public coach would not carry him and his instrument. So he switched to violin in his late teens (Franceschina, p. 4). Personally, I think it will tell you something about his musical ability that he managed to become a successful fiddler despite starting that difficult instrument so late in life! He did not at first try to make a living as a musician, though; in the 1851 census, he was listed as a brass turner, i.e. maker of brass instruments (Franceschina, p. 5).
Braham's mother died in 1854, which perhaps made him more willing to leave home, following his brother to America in 1856 and then getting a job with a mistrel group (Franceschina, pp. 5-7. Braham apparently always preferred to compose tunes on violin rather than piano; Kahn, p. 151. The house orchestra he assembled didn't bother with piano, either; it featured three violins, viola, 'cello, bass, flute, clarinet, two cornets, trombone, and tympani; Moody, p. 122.) FInsonCollected, vol. 1, p. xxxiii, suggests that Braham didn't even put together the piano parts for his published sheet music, but used an in-house composer at the publisher William A. Pond and Co. This is obviously possibe, but I wouldn't consider it certain.
Braham's background may be responsible for his success as a composer; Franceschina, p. 9, says "his integration of European musical idioms with a folklike popular style... created the characteristic musical style of Harrigan and Hart and developed the template for the musical comedy 'sound' of the twentieth century."
There isn't much information about Braham's wife Annie Hanley; different records indicate birth dates as early as 1840 and as late as 1846 (the police census of 1890 listed David Braham as 56 and Annie as 44, according to Franceschina, p. 194, which would imply a birth date in 1845 or 1846, but such records aren't overly reliable). Certainly she was a teenager when she fell in love with Braham. The best guess is that they married in 1859 (Franceschina, pp. 10-11); the best guess is that she was seventeen or eighteen at the time -- which of course does not fit with a birth date of 1845. Her brother, Martin W. Hanley ("Genial Matt"), eventually became the Harrigan company's business manager (Moody, p. 55) and often ran their out-of-state tours. Among other things, he would invent uniforms for theater ushers (Kahn, p. 267).
In 1860, Braham obtained his first job as conductor of a theatre orchestra (Franceschina, pp. 14-15) -- an impressive position for such a young man, though the New York theatre scene was so unstable that Braham had to change jobs many times in the 1860s (Francescina, pp. 17-26). He finally found a safe job when "he was made musical director at Tony Pastor's music hall, the birthplace of American vaudeville" (HischakCompanion, p. 90).
Braham's tunes did so well that a contemporary newspaper labeled him the "the American Offenbach" and said that his tunes "can make the whole town keep time" (Kahn, p. 214). His influence on the American musical was immense; not only did he work with Harrigan to produce the first real sequence of American musicals, but he had also directed the orchestra for "The Black Crook" (Franceschina, p. 83), which some consider the first musical of all. And Braham conducted the orchestra for the first American performance of Trial by Jury (Franceschina, p 95), the first performance of a Gilbert and Sullivan piece in the United States. Root, p. 70, also says that "Braham was the perhaps the first" to produce "an entire, musically unified score composed to a libretto and conceived by a single composer" in American musical theater. Surely no single other person played such a role in developing the Broadway musical!
In 1876, Braham was musical director of the Theatre Comique when Josh Hart (no relation to Tony) gave up management of the venue and Harrigan and Hart took over. So Braham came with the theater that Harrigan and Hart were suddenly in charge of -- which proved a convenient arrangement for all. "The Braham family responded by moving from 86 Carmine Street round the corner to larger quarters at 222 Varick Street, likely in anticipation of Harrigan's habit of living under their roof" (Franceschina, p. 102)
Kahn, p. 158, claims that Braham eventually started trying to find a wife for Harrigan, and tried to play matchmaker -- and even as they were trying to get Harrigan to meet the girl he had picked out (a pretty chorus girl, according to Franceschina, p. 101), Harrigan was found sitting with black-haired Annie Theresa Braham, who was by then fifteen. (Franceschina, p. 106, claims that Annie Braham suffered from a "youthful infatuation" with Harrigan, but it sounds as if he was the one hanging around her!) Harrigan and Annie married the next year, when he was 32 and she was 16. They married in a small Roman Catholic ceremony (attended mostly by the Harrigan, Braham, and Hanley families, plus some co-workers) on November 18, 1876 (FinsonCollected, p. xvii), just two days before Harrigan debuted one of his first relatively long and serious plays, "Iascare" (Moody, p. 69; Franceschina, p. 106). This even as Harrigan and Hanley were still organizing their theater!
(Not that they had any problems, financially; in their second year, they cleared $40,000 despite a payroll that was rapidly approaching a hundred people, and by their fifth, they were pulling in 10,000 audience members per week; Kahn, pp. 190-191; Moody, p. 83. This at a time when Root, p. 10, reports that leading actors made $75 per week, or $3750 if they worked fifty weeks per year; supporting actors might make $25 per week, and ballet girls just $10. Thus Harrigan and Hart were making on the order of five times the going rate.)
Harrigan had initially written short sketches, but gradually built them up, adding more performers, bigger sets, and more spectacle. There was no particular moment one can point to and say "this was when the shows became full-length musicals" (Spaeth, p. 183); it was only gradually that the main show too over. Even The Mulligan Guar Ball, which opened January 13, 1879, initially still shared the bill with other short performances (Spaeth, p. 186). But by the early 1880s, Harrigan's shows were the only items on the bill.
The Harrigans actually continued to live with the Brahams for several years, until the number of their children forced them out; Ned and Annie Harrigan had ten children, although three died young (Moody, pp. 70-71). The second son was named "Anthony Hart Harrigan" in honor of Harrigan's partner (Kahn, p. 206). Even after the Harrigans moved out, David Braham's wife often babysat her grandchilden (Moody, p. 127). Even when the Harrigans built a second home by a lake, the Brahams soon built a vacation home of their own nearby (Moody, p. 130).
When Harrigan and Hart took up their new home, Hart convinced Harrigan to hire a new performer, a very pretty woman named Gertie Granville, who ironically had performed in a minstrel troop that Hart had been part of before she came along (Kahn, p. 203). Born in 1851, she was four years older than Hart (Kahn, p. 205), and had divorced two husbands (Kahn, p. 203), but Hart didn't care. They married during a vacation in London on July 15, 1882, although they were to remain childless except for an adopted son (Kahn, p. 205).
By 1883, Harrigan and Martin Hanley created a touring company to perform Harrigan plays around the country; one Eugene Rourke usually took Harrigan's parts (FinsonCollected, p. xx).
Gertie was probably responsible for breaking up the partnership; when Harrigan decided to stage a play by George Stout, "The Blackbird," Hart wanted Gertie cast in the play. Neither David Braham nor Annie Harrigan wanted her in the piece, but Harrigan finally consented. He stomped on her encores, though (Kahn, p. 215; Franceschina, p. 148).
I can't help but mention that Harrigan, in this play, portrayed a musician who was pretending to be blind who rejoiced in the name of "Con O'Carolan"! (Franceschina, p. 148).
When the second Comique burned down (1884), the partners separated" (BanhamEtAl, p. 433), though Harrigan eventually started a new theater in 1890. (Theatres at this time were very prone to fires; Kahn, p. 224, says that a new theatre had an average life expectancy of twelve years before burning. The Comique was considered to be relatively safe, with many exits, fireproof doors, and indoor hydrants; Kahn, p. 228. And Franceschina, p. 141, says it used electric rather than gas light -- a significant innovation.) These precautions prevented any fires while patrons were present, but on December 23, 1884, the night watchman left a little early, shortly before 7:00 a.m. (Moody, p. 143). Before the first cleaning woman arrived around 7:30, the theater caught fire (Kahn, pp. 228-230). The building eventually collapsed and was a total loss. The building itself was uninsured, and while Harrigan and Hart had bought $30,000 insurance for the company, the premium had accidentally not been paid and the policy had lapsed (Kahn, pp. 231-232).
Perhaps the most tragic loss was David Braham's; supposedly he owned a Stradivarius, and was desperately running from fireman to fireman, crying "Save my fiddle!" (Kahn, p. 233; Franceschina, p. 166, says the instrument was worth between $500 and $1000), but the instrument was destroyed. Few others lost such a personal treasure, but all their investments in the building were gone. (There was a minor happy ending: friends of the troupe scraped together to buy a Guarneri violin for Braham, According to Kahn, p. 235, it was given to him as a surprise gift when the company started their season in the replacement theater, with the audience, when asked, "Who is Dave Braham," answering, "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen"!) Braham also lost almost all his unpublished arrangements and incidental music (Franceschina, p. 165). The company as a whole is estimated to have been out $50,000 for the theater, $20,000 for scenery, and $5000 for costumes (Franceschina, p. 166; Kahn, p. 232, ups that to $30,000 for scenery and $8,000 for costumes).
The partners managed to get another show on stage at a different theater just a few days later (Franceschina, pp. 166-167), which created even more demand for tickets than for a usual Harrigan premier (Franceschina, pp. 169-170), but the cracks in the partnership were showing. Harrigan and Hart each had reason to blame the other's relatives (Kahn, p. 232; Franceschina, p. 165; Hart's brother-in-law, the night watchman, had abandoned the building shortly before the fire started, but it was Harrigan's relative who hadn't paid the insurance). Both had families that disliked the other -- Annie Braham Harrigan and Gertie Granville Hart were overtly hostile, and Harrigan's father and Hart's brother were not on speaking terms (Kahn, pp. 236-237). When Harrigan and Hart disagreed about starting a tour, that was it (Kahn, pp. 237-238). On May 3, Hart wrote to Harrigan that he was leaving the company on May 9 (Kahn, p. 238).
The news was so shocking that people asked the Mayor of New York to intervene, but he couldn't help. And Harrigan was distracted by the death of his infant son (Kahn, pp. 238-239). That doubtless made reconciliation even harder. Harrigan and Hart did make one more appearance, because of a binding contract, but that was it, even though enthusiastic audiences begged them to stay together -- and then showed partisanship for one or the other when that didn't work (Kahn, pp. 240-241).
Harrigan could go on. He'd lost his venue, and a lot of property, and his best performer, but he could still write, and he still had Braham, and he also had controlled most of the machinery of the company -- he had been the all-controlling manager all along (Kahn, p. 202), with Hart merely sharing the take. It was different for Hart. All he had done was perform; he hadn't had to know how to make things work. (Responsibility really wasn't his thing; there is at least one report of him getting engaged to a woman he never married; Kahn, p. 205. He put a lot of his money into diamonds; Kahn, p. 207) As events would prove, he wasn't able to manage on his own. He and Gertie tried out some shows to highlight their particular talents -- and they flopped (Kahn, pp. 246-247).
And then he got sick. In 1887, the New York Herald published a story describing his problems: "Tony's once clear and bell-like voice, it seemed, was rough and raspy. Sometimes he lisped, sometimes he stuttered. His memory was faltering. His eyes looked odd, his gait was unsteady, and he had fearful tantrums, during which he couldn't articulate coherently. He had even struck his wife while temporarily deranged" (Kahn, p.244-245). The eventual diagnosis was syphilis.
In June 1888, Hart had to be committed to an asylum. He recovered enough to leave in early 1889, but after seven months, had to return, and spent the rest of his life there, except for attending two funerals -- one of them Gertie's; she died in March 1890. (No one mentions syphilis in her case, but although she does not seem to have suffered from derangement, she had had health problems for most of their marriage -- and, as noted, they had no children.) Hart died on November 4, 1891, at the age of 36, with an estate said to be worth just eighty cents (Kahn, pp. 256-257) despite a benefit not long before that had raised $14,000 (Kahn, p. 255). It was seven years since he and Harrigan had split.
At least passions had died down enough that Annie Harrigan and David Braham attended the funeral. Harrigan, who was performing at the time, was not there, but he sent an elaborate floral arrangement which "spelled out, in bright red carnations, the single word 'Partner'" (Kahn, p. 258). And Harrigan and Braham at least once visited Hart's grave in Worcester on one of their tours (Franceschina, p. 208).
Harrigan and Braham were reasonably successful on their own into the 1890s (although Moody, p. 197, points out that the Panic of 1893 had made Harrigan's situation more precarious and forced him into more touring, and Williams, p. 171, says that the increase in non-Irish immigrants in New York meant that his Irish plays became less popular). Then, on February 17, 1895, Harrigan's teenage son, known as Ned Jr. or Eddie, died of appendicitis (Moody, p. 200; Franceschina, p. 211. Harrigan twice lost a child while actually on stage; his daughter Annie, aged ten months, had also died while he was performing, and everyone kept it from him until the show ended; Moody, p. 245).
After trying to carry on, Harrigan closed his current show and abandoned his theater, which, after a minor reconstruction to make it more appealing to a higher-class clientele, became the Garrick (Kahn, p. 288; Moody, p. 201). Harrigan, Braham, and Hanley eventually started performing again (apparently Braham needed some convincing; Franceschina, p. 211), but somehow it wasn't the same. Receipts suffered, forcing Harrigan to cut salary expenses -- and causing Annie Yeamans, who had played Cordelia Mulligan to Harrigan's Dan Mulligan, to leave the company (Franceschina, pp. 212-213). She had been as important to Harrigan as Hart had been; it was a real blow. And David Braham, who had reached the age of sixty, wanted to retire from his busy life; his son George could take over conducting, and his son David Junior was also part of the Harrigan company (Franceschina, p. 215), but David Sr. turned to a relatively quiet life of arranging and conducting orchestral music for Augustus Pitou (Franceschina, p. 217). Braham was still active, both as conductor and as arranger, and he and Harrigan remained close, but Braham's life was much quieter as he entered his sixties (Franceschina, pp. 225-226). Thus Harrigan had lost the single most important element in the success of his plays.
After taking a trip to Europe, Harrigan returned to America, but he wasn't having much luck writing (he and Braham resumed their collaboration with a piece called "My Son Dan" -- Franceschina, p. 218; Kahn, p. 290 -- but it went nowhere; another, "Marty Malone," was said to have a good Braham melody in it, but it was such a flop that Franceschina, pp. 220-221, says that no copy of the published music has survived) and crowds slowly gave up on his Harrigan's shows (Kahn, pp. 290-291). He continued to act, and was popular as a performer (Kahn, p. 295; Moody, p. 204, says that for a while he was earning $750 per week for his appearances -- but it was a temporary gig). A play called "Under Cover" was successful off-Broadway, but not successful enough to restart the Harrigan machine; Harrigan started offering reduced versions of his shows with casts of ten or so rather than the fifty or more he used to employ (Kahn, pp. 296-297).
In 1901, Harrigan published The Mulligans, a tale of the crew that made him so popular; other than his songs, it was the only part of his vast writings (estimated by Moody, p. 206, at more than two million words) to be published. The book was "Dedicated to the Memory of Tony Hart." It is mostly a rehash of "The Mulligan Guard Ball," "Cordelia's Aspirations," and "Dan's Tribulations," but with additional biographical detail (Moody, p. 207). I must say that I found it a hard read; Harrigan, especially in the first part, tried to use dialog to explain things that, in a book, can simply be described, and the book is too long for the plot, and the physical comedy doesn't work when merely described, and hero Dan Mulligan is just too combative for me to be comfortable with him. To me, the book is, sadly, neither funny not interesting in the Dickensian way that his plays were (to be sure, I generally don't like fiction). It perhaps tells you something about Harrigan's ability to sustain a narrative that he one said, "I wish a fellow could make a play without a plot" (Williams, p. 159; also Kahn, p. 265, although he points out that "Harrigan came up with some of the most cumbersome and complex plots ever devised." I would say the key word is not "complex" but "cumbersome").
Braham's last musical effort was as part of a comic opera called "The Yankee Counsul," which premiered in 1904 and was taken to the theater where Braham worked in 1905. In the middle of the run, he started suffering abdominal pains. The doctors concluded it was kidney disease. He was bedridden for the rest of his life, and died early on April 11, 1905, in the arms of his wife, with many of his children and grandchildren present (Franceschina, p. 230). In all that time, Braham had supposedly given only two public interviews, and was worried that even that made him seem egotistical (Franceschina, pp. 231-232), but few composers have left so many great tunes behind.
Annie Braham not only outlived Braham but also her daughter Annie Harrigan, who died March 24, 1918; Annie Braham herself died October 8, 1920. The last of the Braham children, Rose, lived until 1956 (Franceschina, p. 231).
Ned Harrigan was starting to have chest problems as the new century rolled around (Kahn, p. 298). "On May 9, 1909, when the [annual Lambs Club] Gambol opened... Harrigan received a ten-minute ovation at his first entrance. The finale was to be an old-fashioned minstrel walkabout, and Harrigan, his face blacked by burnt cork just as it had been in his youthful days of minstrelsy, was sitting in the wings, waiting to go on, when he suddenly clutched his side and said to Eddie Foy, 'I can't get up.' He was removed from the opera house in a wheelchair, and spend the rest of his life in one" (Kahn, p. 300; Moody, however, never mentions the chair and on p. 223 describes him standing and taking a bow in 1910). Certainly he stopped working and restricted his activities. Two doctors (one of them Harrigan's son) believed he had had a mild heart attack (Moody, p. 220); Williams, p. 171, thinks it was a stroke. His long-time associate Annie Yeamans, who had played Cordelia to Harrigan's Dan Mulligan (they had apparently met as performers in 1873, according to Franceschina, p. 64, so they had worked together for more than 35 years by then), visited regularly but spoke sadly of "the trembling old man with his head sunk on his breast and his thin hands playing idly with the bedclothes" (Moody, p. 224); when he died, she "was too stricken to attend" his funeral (Moody, p. 225). Harrigan and Yeamans were nearly the last of the players who had been part of the Harrigan and Hart company at the beginning; she died in 1912, the year after Harrigan, having lived long enough to not only bury her husband but her daughters as well; she wrote their obituaries (Kahn, p. 149).
He died on June 6, 1911, minutes after writing a last note, amounting to a thank-you, to his wife; he clearly knew he was dying (Moody, p. 224; Kahn, p. 301). He thought he was forgotten, but more than a thousand people attended his funeral (Kahn, p. 301; Moody, p. 225). His last note had said that he had left Annie Harrigan financially secure -- but, despite her financial skill, she lost the theater and other properties over the years as bills came due (Moody, p. 227). Spaeth, p. 195, says that "a tradition of American showmanship died with him."
FinsonVoices, p. 293, says that Harrigan's ethnic songs were often "based... on the neighborhood centered in the Sixth Ward (around Five Points at the junction of Baxter, Worth, and Park streets)." Supposedly this area was about half Irish, with substantial populations of Germans, Poles, and Italians but almost no "native-born white Americans" (the statistic is probably derived from p. 58 of Kahn).
Kahn, p. 14, says, "Between 1875 and 1895, first with and then without Hart, Harrigan presided over four theatres in New York, gradually moving uptown as the city did and eventually getting as far as 35th Street. And as he migrated northward, he was followed by one of the most loyal claques any theatrical figure ever commanded. Twenty-three of his plays achieved runs of more than one hundred performance each on Broadway, phenomenal displays of longevity in those days. The plays, in most cases, were lambasted by reviewers, but Harrigan's audiences didn't care."
In 1876, business manager Hanley rented the vacant Comique Theatre for Harrigan and Hart. It was to be their home for five years; their touring days were mostly over (Kahn, p. 189). With a permanent home, Harrigan started writing longer pieces; all had loose plots, plus music and dancing; "They were the neolithic ancestors of the musical comedy of today" (Kahn, p. 190).
Spaeth, p. 181: "The famous Harrigan and Hart shows did not spring into life full-grown as if by a magician's formula. They were a logical evolution, from the typical song-and-dance act of the period to an elaborate stage presentation, combining the best features of minstrelsy and vaudeville, with some of the techniques of musical comedy and the modern revue."
Ewen, p. 64, quoting Samuel G. Freedman: "Beyond the importance of his themes, Harrigan also laid the groundwork for what would become American musical comedy, particularly in his use of songs to advance the stage action."
Kahn, pp. 57-58, described the setting of the typical Harrigan performance "Mulligan Alley... had a cosmopolitan flavor. The Wee Drop Saloon, run by an Irishman named Walsingham McSweeny, faced a two-story tenement, the upper floor of which was occupied by Ah Wung, a Chinese, who ran a combination laundry and ten-cents-a-night lodging house. (Harrigan meant this to be a relatively decent lodging house. There were some places in the lower wards where the overnight charge was five cents to lie down....) Below Ah Wung's premises was an Italian junk shop. The tenement next door was given over to two Negro institutions. One was the headquarters of a social club called the Full Moon Union... the members of which, once they had mastered [its] violent handshake, were committed to the forthright end of throwing white folk -- preferably Irishmen -- off horse cars. The other was a policy shop run by Welcome Allup, whose wife, Rebecca, was one of Tony Hart's most popular roles. She was a smart, pretty, self-assured young colored woman who frequently got sent to Blackwell's Island for drunkenness. Harrigan created her and her married name in tribute to a Negro washwoman named Rebecca.... This real Rebecca was often arrested, too, while in her cups, and whenever the police threw her into the paddy wagon she would cry, 'Well, it's all up.'"
Moody, p. 92, says describes Rebecca Allup as "the boisterous Negro wench, who toyed with suitors and the English language with remarkable dexterity. Rebecca acquired her given name who appeared with her tin pail at the saloon at Prince and Crosby so frequently that the neighbors christened her 'Rebecca at the Well.' Her surname derived from her pathetic cry when she had journeyed to the well too often: 'Well, it's all up.'"
(It may tell you something about Harrigan's fondness for plot twists that HarriganMulligans, p. 38, gives her maiden name as "Melrose," and on that page starts a subplot that describes her as courting Welcome Allup not because she wanted to marry him but "to make dat Simpson Primrose jealous." She may have been sneaky, but in the end, her honesty saves the day when she returns money that had been stolen; HarriganMulligans,, pp. 448-450. On the latter page, we learn that "Rebecca Primrose and her husband, Simpson Primrose, are now known as swell colored people in the Tenderloin, the honesty of the black girl having been rewarded by the Hon. Thomas Mulligan with a large and munificent gift. This induced Simpson to marry her and open a barber shop among the Tenderloiners, which is now gaining him fame and fortune.")
The Mulligan Guard, Harrigan's most famous subject, was a parody of the "target companies" set up in New York in the 1870s -- groups which supposedly gathered as militia companies of sorts, but which often got together to get drunk and then shoot at targets. Kahn, p. 85, reports that "The Mulligan Guards was a three-man military organization": Harrigan, the "captain of an army of one," dressed in a fancy uniform, then Hart, with a musket and clothes that didn't fit, plus a black boy, Morgan Benson, who carried the "target" that target companies carried to identify them on their maneuvers; there is a photo of the three facing p. 80 of Kahn, although there is dispute about who played which part.
Moody, p. 154, describes how Harrigan and Braham produced their songs: "When a play was finished, Harrigan passed Braham the lyrics, one verse and the chorus for each song. Braham scanned them, usually getting a rough idea of time and style for each, and piled them on the piano, or more often stuffed them in his pocket with some blank pieces of music paper. Some of his speediest composing was done on the horsecars and the elevated trains. He worked one line at a time, covering the rest with his music paper and humming the words until a tune evolved. When it suited him, it was transcribed. If the notes didn't come quickly, he passed to the next line and then worked back. Sometimes it took a month to find the tunes for a new show; more often they came at the first attempt. One horsecar ride produced 'Babies on Our Block.' Five minutes on the elevated gave him 'Maggie Murphy's Home, the song that just missed being Al Smith's theme song."
Braham also composed with the abilities of the performers in mind, attending to their ranges, and made a rule never to put two songs with the same meter in the same play (Moody, p. 155). According to Franceschina, p. 126, there was only one instance of Braham writing a tune before Harrigan had written the words, and even in that case, Harrigan had the verse text; he just hadn't planned to have a chorus until Braham gave him the tune.
HischakCompanion, p. 326, says that Harrigan "was born in New York and began in show business in touring minstrel shows and variety. He made e few Broadway appearances in comic parts in 1870 and then the next year teamed up with Tony Hart... a fellow coming born in Worcester, Massachusetts. The short, round Hart ran away from an abusive home and sang in New York saloons, performed in circuses, and clowned in minstrel shows before doing a comedy act with Harrigan, playing the hyperactive buffoon to Harrigan's fatherly, more mature foil. Soon the two were headlining in vaudeville, with Harrigan writing the sketches and collaborating with various composers on songs in the act. These rough-and-tumble performances were extended and became the first American musical comedies on Broadway.... The Harrigan and Hart shows celebrated the cultural diversity of American (sic.) with one group of immigrants fighting and outwitting another group, all in wild and carefree pandemonium."
FinsonCollected, vplume I, p. xv: "Twentieth-century musical theater can really offer nothing to compare with the extraordinary careers of Edward Harrigan and David Braham in nineteenth-century New York. From 1873 to 1893 their skits and full-length musical comedies ran continuously through every theatrical season (save two when they were on national tour) to enthusiastic, full houses. With relatively few changes, they retained the same troupe of actors throughout the two decades, and Harrigan served as director, manager, and actor, while Braham led the troupe's orchestra. It were as if Oscar Hammerstein had written, produced, directed, and starred in twenty-nine musical comedies, while Richard Rodgers had not only composed the songs, but also presided in the pit for each production. In an era when an extended New York run lasted a month, Harrigan's comedies typically played for three months or longer and returned in subsequent seasons."
HischakCompanion considers them forerunners to teams such as the Marx Brothers, Hope and Crosby, and Martin and Lewis. Moody, p. 79, says that W. C. Fields derived "much of... [his] loquacious arrogance" from Harrigan characters.
There was a 1985 Broadway musical about them, "Harrigan 'n' Hart," although it apparently went nowhere (Wikipedia says it lasted just four shows, despite featuring Mark Hamill of Star Wars fame).
Their company was so busy that it dominated the lives of those who worked for it: "[Harrigan] assembled a more or less permanent company of supporting actors who were so closely associated with him that some of them proved to be practically unemployable when he retired, for they had never had the experience of working for anybody else" (Kahn, p. 7). It's little surprise that they were loyal, given that Harrigan supplied good pay (he actually paid for rehearsal time, which no one else did) and more benefits than most (Kahn, p. 202). DAB, Vol. IV, p. 296, credits Harrigan with 39 plays, although this seems to include some short sketches.
According to Kahn, p. 74, this song helped inspire others: "Lawlor and Blake [who wrote 'Sidewalks of New York'] are thought to have been inspired, consciously or subconsciously, by an 1879 tune from The Mulligan Guards' Ball, entitled 'The Babies on Our Block.'"
George M. Cohan's popular 1907 song "Harrigan" ("H, A, double-R, I, G, A, N spells Harrigan") is in part a tribute to Harrigan (Kahn, p. 80; Moody, pp. 3-4; also the Wikipedia page for the song, which lists many popular recordings. Franceschhina, p. 119, records that Cohan's father Jerry Cohan had performed at times in the variety shows staged by Harrigan and Hart.) Cohan would write "Harrigan inspired me when I applauded him from a gallery seat. Harrigan encouraged me when I first met him in after years and told him of my ambitions. I live in hopes that some day my name may mean half as much to the coming generation of American playwrights as Harrigan's name has meant to me" (Williams, p. 209, who however adds that "Ironically, Cohan used [the song "Harrigan"] in a show about suburbia; Fifty Miles from Boston was a long way from Mulligan's Alley.")
There was a Harrigan Club founded in 1910 to celebrate him (Moody, p. 1), and John Philip Sousa always used Harrigan/Braham songs on Saint Patrick's Day (Moody, p. 4).
Those wishing to hear a substantial selection of Harrigan and Braham songs in a fairly "folkish" style might be interested in Mick Moloney's recording "McNally's Row of Flats: Irish American Songs of Old New York, by Harrigan and Braham" on Compass Records. It also has an extensive introduction, mostly based on the same books used here and most especially about Harrigan, and quite a few photos. It is one of the most extensive collections of Harrigan/Braham materials now available. Performances of the old material is very rare -- according to Moody, p. 230, "Except for a production of The Mulligan Guard Ball... on January 20, 1977, none of Harrigan's plays has been produced since his death,and only one, The Mulligan Guard Ball, has ever appeared in print and that not until 1966" (although it appears there has been another reissue of that play since, andKatherine K. Preston later published a different text of "The Mulligan Guard Ball," plus "Reilly and the 400," in Irish American Theatre: The Mulligan Guard Ball (1879) and Reilly and the 400, volume 10 of Nineteenth Century American Musical Theatre, 1994, according to FinsonCollected, p. xix n. 13). DAB, vol. IV, p. 296, claims that two shorter sketches, "The Porter's Troubles" (1873) and The Editor's Troubles (1875) also reached print, but I know of no songs from these pieces.
Nonetheless, Harrigan continued to have indirect influence on the theatre through his children; son William (who appeared in more than thirty movies) and daughter Nedda (born "Grace," but she took the name "Nedda" in honor of her father; Kahn, p. 206) were particularly noteworthy. Nedda -- born in 1899, long after her parents thought they could have more children (Moody, p. 221) -- was sometimes known as Nedda Harrigan Logan; according to her Wikipedia page, she appeared in fourteen movies, had many stage roles, and entertained troops during World War II; she was once the USO's Woman of the Year. And she "served as president of the Actors Fund, and was a founder of the Actors Fund Bloodbank and a trustee of the Museum of the City of New York." The Actors Fund of America created an award in her honor.
In another minor "folklological" twist, Harrigan's family, when they became rich enough to have a summer residence, built it at Schroon Lake, New York. Half a century later, Schoon Lake became "a left-wing folk resort in the Adirondacks" where Lee Hays of the Weavers spent time as a master of ceremonies (Jarnow, p. 125).
The contemporary power of Harrigan, Hart, and Braham can be found by looking at the list of songsters in Cohen. Based on the index entry on p. 208, no fewer than 48 Harrigan songsters were published in the period from 1860 to 1899 (and I didn't even count a handful that Cohen listed but which listed Harrigan and Hart among several contributors). Hart was a little behind him. Tony Pastor had his name on 37 songsters. Gus Williams was the source of 20. Pat Rooney was associated with 19. The Christy Minstrels were still popular enough to offer 17, and Johnny Roach had 15. I didn't see anyone else with more than 12. Thus no one matched Harrigan, and Pastor was the only other performer to have more than half as many!
Although today we would call them "vaudeviille" writers, or perhaps refer to the plays of Harrigan and Braham as "musicals," they were certainly much closer to the folk than, say, Rodgers and Hammerstein or Lerner and Loewe; this song, for instance, has a reference to "Little Sally Waters" and "Greenie Gravel" and "The Mulligan Guard" refers to "Garryowen." HarriganMulligans, p. 281, quotes "The Greenland Whale Fishery"; p. 428 quotes "Shenandoah"; and p. 301 has a character call for "Brennan on the Moor." He also quotes Black folk songs; HarriganMulligans, p. 368, gives the chorus of "Oh, Lord, How Long" (in fact, he seems to be the first ever to cite the words) and p. 368 gives a large chunk of "One More River to Cross."
Williams, p. 159, says that "Harrigan's string of Mulligan Guard comedies was, however, unique, and several historians have cited them as forerunners of contemporary situation comedies." I'd also compare soap operas -- long-running sagas featuring the same characters in endless variations on similar themes.
Quite a few Harrigan/Hart/Braham songs eventually established at least a faint hold in the tradition. Songs which have been found in tradition at least once include "Are You There, Moriarity?," "Babies on Our Block" (i.e. this song), "Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down!," "Hold the Woodpile Down," "John Reilly (II)" and its by-blow "I'll Lay Ye Doon, Love," "Little Old Dudeen," "Longshoreman's Strike (The Poor Man's Family)," "Maggie Murphy's Home," "McNally's Row of Flats," "Mister Dooley's Geese," "Muldoon, the Solid Man," "My Beauty of Limerick," "My Dad's Dinner Pail," "Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door," "The Regular Army-O," "Slavery Days," "Whist! The Bogie Man," and "The Widow Nolan's Goat." Also, Braham composed the music to "Over the Hills to the Poor-House" (words by George L. Catlin). The "No Irish Need Apply" song filed under "No Irish Need Apply" may have originated with Harrigan's company. Also, Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 175-176, prints "The Gallant 69th" (Roud #V41521), although there is no evidence of traditional currency. Nonetheless we've indexed that song because it's found in most Harrigan-related collections. See also the index entry for "Dolly, My Crumple-Horn Cow," David Braham's personal favorite.
Braham was not properly a Tin Pan Alley composer, but according to Maxwell Marcuse, he heavily influenced its evolution (Williams, p. 271).
Ironically, the list of songs which went into tradition does not include "The Mulligan Guard" (Roud V7922), which according to HischakEncyclopedia, p. 234, established the Braham/Harrigan production team in 1873, and as a result was included in all their later productions; it seems to have left no memory at all in tradition -- though it was used as a march by the Coldstream Guards and is actually quoted in modified form in Kipling's Kim! (Kahn, pp. 3-4). (Those who wish to see it can find the text on p. 49 of Moody, and the tune of the chorus on pp. 113-114 of Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep; Moody, in the photo inset after p. 54, has a copy of the sheet music, which mentions Braham but not Harrigan).
FinsonCollected is a two volume comprehensive set of Harrigan/Braham songs, but it is hard to find and hideously expensive. The same can be said of the Harrigan and Hart songsters. Applebaum's "Show Songs" is perhaps the next best choice; it has "The Mulligan Guard" and "Babies On Our Block" listed as from "The Mulligan Guard Ball"; "The Widow Nolan's Goat" and "Paddy Duffy's Cart" from "Squatter Sovereignty," and "Maggie Murphy's Home" from "Reilly and the 400." - RBW
---
APPENDIX I:
Harrigan's book The Mulligans never gave a proper biography of Dan Mulligan, but someone assembled one from the plays; Root, p. 57, tells us that "he had emigrated to America from Ireland in 848; fought with the 69th infantry [i.e. the 69th New York; see "The Gallant Sixty-Ninth"] in the Civil War; returned to the Irish ghetto of New York and bought a grocery store which he operated well enough to support his family; became the leader of his extended family group and a sucessful local poitician." Root adds that "As a politician he was honest, and although graft was an accepted way of life he worked not for self-power or wealth but for the good of his constituents. He was naturally slightly irascible [more than slightly, I would say], but always forgiving and generous even to his enemies. In contrast to previous representations of ethnic characters on stage, Harrigan 'presented a full panorama of Irish life.'"
---
APPENDIX II:
Since I managed to find a program for a presentation of "Cordelia's Aspirations" from 1895, I'm going to reproduce the text here, so that you can see a list of the players who were performing. The performance was at the "Columbia Theatre, Washington St. The Handsomest Theatre in New England," so this was Harrigan's troupe on tour. (I've simplified the formatting a little to make it work as text.)
Monday Evening, April 22, 1895
Mr. EDWARD HARRIGAN
AND HIS NEW YORK COMPANY
Under the management of M. W. Hanley
In Harrigan's Popular Play,
Cordelia's Aspirations
In Three Acts and Three Scenes
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Dan Mulligan...Mr. EDWARD HARRIGAN
Simpson Primrose...Mr. JOHN WILD
Rebecca Clinton...Mr. JOSEPH SPARKS
Planxty McFudd...Mr. HARRY FISHER
Gus Lochmuller...Mr. HARRY WRIGHT
Walsingham McSweeney...Mr. CHARLES COFFEY
Palestine Puter...Mr. WILLIAM WEST
Honora Dublin...Mr. CHARLES F. McCARTHY
Robert Ridgeway...Mr. GEORGE MERRITT
Theodore Chamboudet...Mr. WM. H. GUNNING
Hoke Buckheister...Mr. DAN BURKE
Junkman...DAVE BRAHAM, Jr.
Bridget Lockmuller...Miss HATTIE MOORE
Diana McFudd...Miss EMMA POLLOCK
Ellen McFudd...Miss MAJORIE (sic.) TEAL
Rosa McFudd...Miss LILLIAN STUART
---AND ---
Cordelia Mulligan...Mrs. ANNIE YEAMANS
UNCLE TOM COMBINATION [i.e. the Band]
Dan Burke, Wm. H. Gunning, Dave Braham, Jr., John Flynn, John Mayon,
William West, Michael Kearney, Jas. Burke.
Mr. George Braham, Musical Director for Mr. Harrigan
EXECUTIVE STAFF
D. Frank Dodge...Scenic Artist
Stephen Simmons...Master Mechanic
Louis Filber...Master of Properties
Dancing under the supervision of Dan Burke.
--
Since this is a late production, some of Harrigan's regulars had died or departed. FinsonCollected, pp. xix-xx, says that the actors who originated the key parts were
Dan Mulligan: Edward Harrigan
Cornelia Mulligan: Annie Yeamans
Gustavus Lochmuller: Harry Fisher
Bridgit Lochmuller: Annie Mack
Rebecca Allup (later Primrose): Tony Hart (in both blackface and drag)
Simpson Primrose: Johnny Wild (in blackface)
Palestine Puter: Billy Gray (in blackface)
Tony Hart was also the original of Tommy Mulligan, the son of Dan and Cordelia, who eventually married the Lochmullers' daughter.
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: Dean091

Babitie Bowster

See Babbity Bowster (File: MSNR089)

Baboon's Sister

See The Monkey's Wedding (File: San113)

Baby Baby Bunting

See Bye Baby Bunting (File: Br3112)

Baby Boats

See Baby's Boat's a Silver Moon (File: ACSF191B)

Baby Bumble Bee

See Baby Bumblebee (File: LTCSBabB)

Baby Bumblebee

DESCRIPTION: "I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee. Won't my mama be so proud of me. I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee. Ouch! It stung me! My bumbee bee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2021 (LibraryThingCampSongsThread)
KEYWORDS: bug injury campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 70, "Baby Bumblebee" (1 excerpt, from user Tess_W, posted September 1, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 99, 130, 279, 510, "Baby Bumblebee"/"Baby Bumble Bee" (notes only)
NOTES [95 words]: Wikipedia, entry on "The Arkansas Traveler" (i.e. "The Arkansas Traveler (fiddle recitation)"), considers this a parody of that song. I don't see it. And I don't find any field collections of the song. But apparently this is widely known in camps, so I am including it.
It should be noted that bumblebees very rarely sting, although, unlike ordinary bees, they do not die when they sting.
There was a 1913 pop song, "Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee," by Stanley Murphy and Henry I. Marshall. It is not this, but I suppose there might have been some sort of influence. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LTCSBabB

Baby Bunting

See Bye Baby Bunting (File: Br3112)

Baby Bye

DESCRIPTION: "Baby Bye, here's a fly, Let us watch him, you and I." "There he goes, on his toes, Tickling baby's nose!" "I believe with those six legs You and I could walk on eggs." "See! he crawls on the walls Yet he never falls."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook)
KEYWORDS: baby bug nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook 11, "Baby Bye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22137
NOTES [104 words]: Although this piece seems to be rare (neither I nor Roud has ever found another version), the text in my copy of Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook has several emendations written in the text -- none of them of any real significance. Was it just the previous owner rewriting the song? Or did that owner know another version? I have no way to tell. It is the only piece so emended. The text of this emended version runs
Baby Bye, here's a fly,
Let us watch him, you and I.
For he crawls up the walls
Yet he never falls.
I believe with six such legs
You and I could walk on eggs.
There he goes, on his toes,
Tickling baby's nose! - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: BrGr11

Baby Gone Home, The

See I Wish I Been Dere (I Wish I Been There) (File: AAWG029A)

Baby in the High Chair

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Baby in the high chair, Can't sit still. Ma! Pa! Whoops-a-la! Wrap her up in tissue paper, Send her down the elevator."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (New York Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: baby mother father jumprope | high chair tissue paper elevator
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #29, "Baby in the high chair" (1 text)
File: AJRR029

Baby It Must Be Love

DESCRIPTION: Singer says: he's "groggy in his knees"; she "makes me think the world's all mine"; "they make you give up every thing"; "make King Edward give up his crown." "Baby, it must be love"
AUTHOR: Blind Willie McTell
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (USWMcTell01)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage nonballad royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1936 - Abdication of Edward VIII and his marriage to Wallis Simpson
FOUND IN:
Roud #17669
RECORDINGS:
Blind Willie McTell, "King Edward Blues" (on USWMcTell01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "King Edwards" (subject, form of some lines)
NOTES [20 words]: McTell: "I'm going to sing a song that I made myself off the notable, honorable, King Edward: 'Baby it Must Be Love.'" - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: RcKiEdBl

Baby Livingston

See Bonnie Baby Livingston [Child 122] (File: C222)

Baby Lon

See Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14] (File: C014)

Baby Loves to Boogie

DESCRIPTION: ("My baby loves to boogie, I love to boogie too" (x2). "I'm gonna boogie this time, ain't gonna boogie no more") ("Don't the moon/sun look lonesome shining down through the trees"(2x) "Don't your house look lonesome when your baby pack up and leave")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (USMississippi01)
KEYWORDS: parting dancing nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Wallace 'Pine Top' Johnson and Maudie Shirley with Jasper Love, "Baby Loves to Boogie" (on USMississippi01)
NOTES [10 words]: The description is the text of the USMississippi01 track. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcBaLoBo

Baby on the Shore, The

DESCRIPTION: "The sun was setting, slowlysetting, Setting as it never set before... So we sat upon the baby on the shore." "The sun, the sun was shining brightly, Brightly as it never shone before. We were thinking of the old folks... we left the baby on the shore"
AUTHOR: Probably George Grossmith
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (see Grossmith's Wikipedia entry)
KEYWORDS: baby humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 158-159, "The sun was setting, slowly setting" (1 text)
Roud #25401
NOTES [78 words]: Two verses of this occur in an online volume, The George Grossmith Birthday Book, the PDF version of this saying it was edited by David Trutt and published in 1909. But it says that the original George Grossmith Birthday Book was published in 1904, so that is presumably the earliest date. Grossmith himself, who played several roles in original Gilbert and Sullivan productions, lived 1847-1912, and Wikipedia says he produced a sketch "Baby on the Shore" in 1893. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC158C

Baby Owlet

DESCRIPTION: "Baby Owlet, Purple Owlet, Singing as Moon shines above." "Won't you lend me your swift pinion, That I may fly to my love." "Tetra coo, coo, coo (x3), Baby Owlet, Poor little owlet, He is tired from crying so."
AUTHOR: unknown (English translation by Muna Lee, according to SongsOfManyNations)
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Botsford, according to Sanders-SingHighSingLow)
KEYWORDS: bird love campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 342, "Little Owlet" (notes only)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, pp. 39-40, "The Owlet" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "The Owlet" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 38)
DT, BABYOWLT
NOTES [17 words]: Sanders-SingHighSingLow lists this as a Mexican folk song but does not list the source of the translation.
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF342B

Baby Please Don't Go

DESCRIPTION: The prisoner begs his girl not to abandon him: "Now your man done gone (x3) To the county farm." "Baby, please don't go (x3) back to Baltimore." ""Turn your lamp down low." ""You know I loves you so." "I beg you all night long."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (recording, Joe Williams)
KEYWORDS: love separation prisoner abandonment
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 108-109, "Baby, Please Don't Go" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 65, "Baby, Please Don't Go" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Sam Montgomery, "Baby Please Don't Go" (ARC 6-11-55, 1936)
Tampa Red, "Baby Please Don't Go" (Decca 7278, 1937, rec. 1936)
Joe Williams, "Baby Please Don't Go" (Bluebird B-6200, 1936, rec. 1935)
Richard Williams, "Baby Please Don't Go" (on USFlorida01)
File: CNFM108

Baby, All Night Long

DESCRIPTION: Floating blues verses; "I'm going to the depot/Look up on the board"; "If I had listened/To what mama said," etc. Chorus is "All night long/Baby, all night long/Got the Richmond blues/Baby, all night long."
AUTHOR: unknown (credited to Ada Jones & Shelton Brooks on the Stanleys' recording; see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Roba & Bob Stanley)
KEYWORDS: loneliness rambling railroading lyric nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 172-173, "Baby, All Night Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 74, "All Night Long" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ridge Mountain Entertainers [Clarence Ashley & Gwen Foster], "Baby, All Night Long" (Vocalion 02780, 1934; rec. 1931; on GoodForWhatAilsYou, Ashley04)
[Richard] Burnett & [Leonard] Rutherford (Columbia 15314-D, 1928; rec. 1927; on BurnRuth01, KMM)
Clint Howard & Fred Price, "The Richmond Blues" (on Ashley02, WatsonAshley01)
Frank Hutchison, "All Night Long" (OKeh 45144, 1927)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers, "All Night Long" (OKeh 45383, 1929; rec. 1927)
Miles & Bob Pratcher, "If It's All Night Long" (on LomaxCD1703)
[Leonard] Rutherford & [John] Foster, "Richmond Blues" (on KMM)
Roba & Bob Stanley, "All Night Long" (OKeh 40295, 1925; rec. 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All Night Long" (words)
cf. "All Night Long (IV)" (lyrics, form)
cf. "Railroad Blues (I)" (words)
SAME TUNE:
Byrd Moore, "All Night Long" (Gennett 6686, 1928/Conqueror 7259 [as by Oscar Craver], 1929)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Richmond Blues
NOTES [44 words]: The Oscar Craver recording uses the same tune and structure, but most of the lyrics are variants on "Mary Had a Little Lamb" verses. - PJS
A 1912 song "All Night Long" was written by Shelton Brooks and recorded by Ada Jones. I would not consider it the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: CSW172

Baby's Ball

DESCRIPTION: "Here's a ball for baby, Big and soft and round, Here is baby's hammer, Oh how she can pound." The song lists other things baby has: (toy) soldiers, music, trumpet, umbrella, cradle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers)
KEYWORDS: baby nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #68, "Baby's Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14007
File: Gent068

Baby's Boat's a Silver Moon (The Slumber Boat)

DESCRIPTION: "Baby's boat's a silver moon, sailing on the sky, Baby's wishing for a dream as the stars go by. Sail, Baby, sail, Out across the sea. Only don't forget to sail home again to me." "Baby's fishing for a dream, Fishing near and far,..."
AUTHOR: Words: Alice C. Riley / Music: Jessie L. Gaynor (source: Jim Dixon on mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: Baby's Boat / Slumber Boat (lullaby)")
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (source: Jim Dixon on mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: Baby's Boat / Slumber Boat (lullaby)")
KEYWORDS: baby lullaby nonballad ship campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Linda Weaver, "Camp Songs: Reflections of Youth," Vol. XXII, No. 2 (May 1974), p. 77, "Baby Boats" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 238, "Sail, Baby, Sail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 191, 333, 343, 466, "Baby's Boat's a Silver Moon"/"Baby's Boat"/"Baby's Boat's a Silver Star" (notes only)
Roud #22411
SAME TUNE:
Gypsy Loves the Open Road (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 333)
File: ACSF191B

Baby's Eyes Are Irish

DESCRIPTION: "Baby's eyes are Irish, Baby's eyes are blue, Baby's eyes are Daddy's, He was Irish too. Daddy's gone heaven, Gone to paradise, Leaving his little baby With two lovely Irish eyes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: baby father death separation | blue eyes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 59, "(Baby's eyes are Irish)" (1 text)
Roud #38138
File: BAAI059E

Baby's Got a Tooth

DESCRIPTION: "John, get up and light the fire, Turn the gas a wee bit higher, Go and tell your Aunt Maria, Baby's got a tooth(ache)." "Well, there, I’m so delighted, I don’t know what to do"; after a year of marriage, the couple has a baby, and now it has a tooth
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (copyright listed in the "American and European imperial unabridged song collection" at the University of Pittsburg)
KEYWORDS: family fire baby | toothache
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 232, "Baby's Got a Tooth" (1 short text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 58, "(John, Get Up and Light the Fire)" (1 short text, possibly a mix of "Baby's Got a Tooth" and a separate "John, Get up and Light the Fire" song)
Roud #5260
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Men of Harlech" (tune, according to Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
NOTES [107 words]: As originally published, this seems to have been a complicated piece, with several verses, a spoken interlude, and the chorus. Only the chorus seems to have survived in tradition, and that just barely.
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong found a copy of this in The Minstrel (1883) that credited the words to Charley Reed. The version in the online John Foster's Great New York Circus songster in the University of Pittsburg library, however, lists words as by J. F. Mitchell (I think it's a J; the scan is imperfect), music by E. H. Jones, arranged by W. G. Eaton. I have no basis for deciding which attribution, if either, is correct. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: PKKB058B

Babylon Is Fallen (I)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, is fallen! Babylon is fallen, to rise no more!" Verses: "Hail the day so long expected." Babylonians cry, trade and traffic die, all in one day. Saints, throngs, elders shout "hallelujah," "the loud and long amen"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (_The Hesperian Harp_, according to Jackson; see notes); 1813 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious Bible Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 2, "Babylon's Fallin'" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 248-249 in the 1874 edition)
ADDITIONAL: William Hauser, The Hesperian Harp (Philadelphia: S.C. Collins, 1874 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 291, "Babylon Is Fallen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13968
NOTES [1799 words]: The Biblical prophecies of Babylon's fall are fulfilled in Daniel 5:30-31.
The description follows Hauser. Dett replaces Hauser's verses with two floaters: "Oh, Jesus tell you once before... To go in peace an' sin no more" and "If you get dere before I do, Tell all my friends I'm comin' too." The form of Dett's verse is also changed and follows a familiar Black call and response format. Dett's verse is a couplet with "Babylon's fallin', to rise no more" after each couplet line. While these changes may be the "folk process" in action, changes like these were sometimes introduced by Black hymn writers and hymnal printers (see, for example, Portia K. Maultsby, "Music of Northern Independent Black Churches during the Ante-Bellum Period" in Ethnomusicology, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Sep 1975 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 413-414, citing the work of Richard Allen, early in the nineteenth century). The difference between the Hauser and Dett versions illustrates the structural difference Maultsby defines between white and Black Protestant hymns: "Although exceptions may be found, the most common textual structure found in [white] hymns consists of four different lines of text: a, b, c, and d. On the other hand, textual structures common to [Black] spiritual texts include the alternation of different lines of text with recurring lines of text (a b c b and a b a c), three repeated lines of text followed by a different line of text (a a a b), and the alternation of a recurring line of text with another recurring line of text (a b a b). The use of refrain lines as found in the above textual structures allowed for continuous participation of all congregational members in the singing of spirituals."
Maultsby writes that [white] hymn structure has four different lines of text (a, b, c, d). I take that not to be referring to rhyme, but to non-repetitive lines. For example, in John Wesley's Hymn Book of the United Methodist Free Churches (London: William Reed, 1861 ("Digitized by Google")): of Hymns 1 through 28 the 26 by Charles Wesley are all rhymed; the remaining 2, by Isaac Watts and Samuel Wesley Sr also rhyme; after that, as far as I can tell, the book is filled with rhyming hymns. Maultsby's point is not about rhyming but that there are no refrain lines, no repeated lines, and no choruses.
Jackson, #226 p. 137, "Babylon Is Fallen": "The Shakers enjoyed the song as early as 1813 (see their Millenial Praises, Hancock, Mass., p. 50)" (George Pullin Jackson, Another Sheaf of White Spirituals (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1952)). Hauser's 1848 preface to the 1874 edition of The Hesperian Harp still describes that 1874 edition as to the number of pages; my point is that the 1859 early date I have from Jackson should probably be 1848. Incidentally, Jackson has the treble and alto tune from Hauser, as well as the chorus and first two verses. - BS
Re "The Biblical prophecies of Babylon's fall are fulfilled in Daniel 5:30-31." Yes, Daniel 5 (very inaccurately) describes the overthrow of Babylon. But it is not properly a prophecy fulfilled -- for one thing, 5:31 refers to "Darius the Mede" becoming King of Babylon, but there was no "Darius the Mede"; it was Cyrus's Persian Empire which conquered Babylon (Hartman/Di Lella, p. 191. The first Greek translator of Daniel seemingly knew this, and instead of "Darius the Mede," read either "Artaxerxes the Mede" [so the MS. known as 88] or "Artaxerxes the king of Persia" [so the Harkleian Syriac rendering]; Ziegler, p. 156).
"This Darius is almost certainly a figment of the writer's imagination.... the prophets had foretold that Babylon would fall to the Medes and so there had to be a Median kingdom between the Babylonian and the Persian and there had to be a Median king to succeed Belshazzar [who himself was never actually king]. Every attempt to prove that there was such a monarch [as Darius] has failed. Astyges, the last king of the Median Empire will not fit..." (Porteous, p. 83).
The apparent reason for the error in Daniel is that the book was written around the time of the Maccabees in the second century B.C.E. Even its canonical position indicates this; despite claiming to be the work of a prophet, it is not included among the Prophets in the Jewish canon. The evident reason is that it was not written until after the corpus of the Prophets was closed. Hence it ended up as is part of the Writings, which were canonized last. The mere fact that half the book is in Aramaic hints that it was written after the Exile, and Soggin, p. 409, says "terms of Greek and Persian origin abound. Whole passages are written in imperial Aramaic, whereas logically we would expect early Aramaic."
InterpretersDict, vol. I, p. 767, after allowing all possible excuses for why a sixth century author would get everything wrong about that era, concludes, "Thus the weight of evidence -- internal, historical, and linguistic -- forces us to the conclusion that the book of Daniel was not merely published, but was also written, fairly late in the Greek period." Soggin, p. 410, says that "We shall not go wrong in dating the book between 168 and 164," four hundred years after Babylon fell, and even this may be generous; it seems likely to me that it was begun no earlier than 167 (except for some of the parts that may have been taken from old folktales), and author's draft finished by 165. What is notable is that it iis almost completely wrong in its history -- except when it gets to the Seleucid era, two and a half centuries after the fall of Chaldean Babylon.
Insofar as the Hebrew Bible has a genuine reference to the fall of Babylon, it's in 2 Chron. 36:22-23=Ezra 1:1-3, where Cyrus King of Persia (the *real* conqueror of Babylon, not this "Darius the Mede" fiction) permits the Jews to return home. The comment about "Zion's walls are now erected" might also be from this period; the (re-)erecting of Jerusalem's walls by Nehemiah is the subject of Nehemiah 1-4, 6, with the actual completion being mentioned in Nehemiah 6:15.
What's more, the events allegedly described in Daniel do not describe a fall of Babylon "to rise no more"; the city continued to be important until after the time of Alexander the Great -- Seleucus I, founder of the Seleucid Empire, made it his first capital in 312 B.C.E. (Grainger, p. 28). It's just that, after the time of Cyrus, it was no longer the chief city *of the Babylonian Empire.* An historical reference to Babylon not rising any more almost has to date from after 100 B.C.E. -- the Roman period, when the Seleucid Empire decayed and Babylon finally was deserted. (By the Christian era, "only a small group of astronomers and mathematicians still continued to live in the ancient city"; InterpretersDict, vol. I, p. 335).
So the song is not a reference to Daniel; the reference in the song is almost certainly to Revelation 14:8, which in the King James Bible reads "And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." In this instance, "Babylon" is a cipher for Rome (Harvey, p. 823), so that the chronology works. (To be sure, Rev. 14:8 is an expanded quotation of Isaiah 21:9, one of two clear prophecies of the fall of Babylon; Ford, p. 237; Jer. 51:8 is the other prophecy).
(Interestingly, there is tremendous variation in the manuscript copies of this verse of Revelation. There are seven copies in what is called "uncial" script, the earliest Greek writing style used for the Bible: P47, of the third century, which is fragmentary; ℵ or S, of the fourth century; A and C, of the fifth (the latter fragmentary), and P, 046, and 051 (the latter fragmentary), of the ninth; there are assorted later copies. P47 and the first hand of S, plus some later manuscripts, omit "angel"; 61 69 and the Latin translation omit "second"; A disagrees with C P 051 about the word order of the two words. S C 046 and about half the late manuscripts omit one instance of "fallen." Some of this may be under the influence of the text of Isaiah 21:9; the Hebrew of that verse reads "Fallen, fallen is Babylon," without "the great," but the early manuscripts of the Greek translation, which is the version of the Old Testament usually quoted by the New, reads simply "Fallen is Babylon," without the second "fallen" -- and with a different verb tense. There are also some minor differences later in the verse. There isn't really much doubt about what is meant, but the memory of this verse, in Greek, was very confused.)
What's more, the version I've heard of this song has an additional verse that is explicitly Christian and another clear citation of the Revelation to John: "Blow the trumpet in Mount Zion, Christ shall come a second time, Ruling with a rod of iron All who now as foes combine. Babel's garment we've rejected And her fellowship is o'er, Babylon is fallen...." Again the passage is based on the Revelation, in this case 2:27: "And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father." "Rod" is Greek ραβδως, "rabdos," a rod or staff, but often used of the Roman fasces, a token of office, so a ruler's staff of office. The phrase "rod of iron" derives from Psalm 2:9, which in the Greek version of Psalms uses the exact same words.
I'm not sure what the reference to "Shiloh's wide dominion" is supposed to mean; Shiloh was the cultic center of Israel in the time of Eli and Samuel (see 1 Samuel 1-4), but it seems to have been abandoned after the Philistine raid which captured the Ark of the Covenant (1 Samuel 4), seemingly causing the priests to move to Nob (cf. 1 Samuel 22:11), and any hopes for a return there surely ended when the cult moved to Jerusalem. Jeremiah (7:12ff., 26:6fff.) refers specifically to its destruction.
There is, in the King James translation of Gen. 49:10, the statement that "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." No one knows what "Shiloh" means in this verse, and indeed, the text is in some doubt; the Greek reads something along the lines of "until what is saved for him comes" for "until Shiloh comes", while the New Revised Standard Version renders "until tribute comes to him" (not that the composer of this song would know that!). I think the only thing that can be said with certainty of this verse is that it has been puzzling commentators for more than two thousand years.
Perhaps the best explanation is that the reference is to Joshua 18:1: the Israelites are at Shiloh when Joshua sends out surveyors to survey Canaan so that the land can be divided among the tribes. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Dett002

Babylon Is Fallen (II)

See Babylon Is Falling (File: R229)

Babylon Is Falling

DESCRIPTION: "Way up in the cornfield where you hear the thunder, That is our old forty pounder gun, When the shells are missin' then we load with pumpkins, All the same we make the cowards run." The slave rejoices to triumph over the master
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (sheet music published by Root & Cady and by S. Brainard's Sons)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle slave
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work, pp. 31-34, "Babylon Is Fallen" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Randolph 229, "Babylon Is Falling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 320-321, "Babylon Is Fallen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 103, "Babylon is Fallen" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 91-92, "Babylon Is Fallen" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #74, p. 6, "Babylon is Fallen" (6 references)
Dime-Song-Book #12, p. 16, "Babylon is Fallen" (1 text)
DT, BBLNFALL
Roud #7706
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kingdom Coming (The Year of Jubilo)" (theme)
NOTES [99 words]: Not to be confused with the hymn, "Babylon Is Fallen." Unfortunately for those who try to keep things straight, it appears that "Babylon Is Fallen" is the correct title of this piece also; Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 6, lists six broadside prints and notes that some of them add to the original text. Interestingly, none of these were by Root & Cady, which published this and most of Henry Clay Work's other songs, so there must have been even more printings than those listed by Wolf. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R229

Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14]

DESCRIPTION: An outlaw accosts (three) sisters, demanding that one of them marry him on pain of death. As all refuse, he kills all but the youngest. She accidentally learns that he is their brother. The outlaw usually then kills himself in remorse.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1770s (Herd, according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame; the source for 1803 (Scots Magazine)))
KEYWORDS: brother sister outlaw crime incest
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland,England) US(Ap,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (26 citations):
Child 14, "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie" (6 texts)
Bronson 14, "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie" (8 versions plus 2 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 14, "Babylon" (4 versions: #1, #3, #7, #7.1)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 112-115, "Arrat, an Marrat, an Fair Mazrie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 199, "The Bonnie Banks o' Airdrie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine p. 72, "Babylon" (1 fragment)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 61-63, "The Burly, Burly Banks of Barbry-O" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 213-222, "Babylon" (4 texts, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #8, C=#5}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 9, pp. 68-71, "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 8, "Babylon; or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie" (1 text)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 20-21, "Fine Flowers in the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune, with the plot of this song although the chorus probably comes from Child 20)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 57, "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 18-19, "The Bonny Banks of Virgie O" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3, but the texts differ noticeably}
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 4, "The Bonnie Banks of the Virgie, O" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Peacock, pp. 809-811, "The Bonny Banks of Ardrie-O" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 3, "Bonny Banks of Virgie-O" (1 text, 4 tunes) {Bronson's #3}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 104-105, "The Bonny Banks of Virgie O" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3, slightly recast}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 88-90, "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie" (2 texts)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 11, "Babylon; or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 71, "Three Young Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3, but with different information about the collector and informant}
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 6, "Babylon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 295-296, "Baby Lon, or the Bonnie Banks o' Fordie" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 60, "Three Sisters" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 188-189+344, "Babylon; or The Bonnie Banks o Fordie" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 58-59, "Babylon; or, the Bonnie Banks o Fordie" (1 text)
DT 14, VIRGIBNK* VIRGIBN3* BONFARDY
Roud #27
RECORDINGS:
Joshua Osborne, "The Bonny Banks of Ardrie-O" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Ken Peacock, "Bonnie Banks of the Virgie-O" (on NFKPeacock)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie Hind" [Child 50] (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonny Farday
The Rocky Banks of the Buffalo
Baby Lon
NOTES [2093 words]: If one one interested in reproductive biology, there is an amazing amount of information hinted at in this song....
Jolly, p. 94, has an interesting observation regarding incest: she quotes Jared Diamond to the effect that "people seem to choose mates who are almost, but not quite, like themselves. In fact, people like people who look a bit like their parents, right down to earlobe size."
Similarly, Jones, p. 67 (on the basis of "T-shirt experiments," in which women smelled the used clothing of men) notes "a preference by women for partners who smell rather, but not too much, like their own fathers." On p. 191, Jones notes that "sheep have a drive to copulate with someone who looks like their mother [I must admit I'd love to know how *that* experiment was performed!], and to a lesser extent the same is true for men."
But it should be recalled that parents share 50% of their genes with their children, and siblings also share 50% of their genes. Assuming (as is likely) that sexual preference is conditioned genetically rather than by environment (the latter being more or less the Freudian assumption), one's siblings would be the most desirable sexual partners, one's parents being less desirable simply because they are too old.
So why isn't there more incest? Apparently that's hard-wired, too. People have a built-in "aversion" to falling in love with people they grow up with. Presumably this is a semi-instinctive incest taboo: The deep-down emotional assumption seems that these people are siblings or parents or offspring (so Edward Westermarck; cited by Ridley-Red, p. 283, and Ridley-Agile, pp. 171-173). Indirect supporting evidence comes from a 2003 study by Lieberman, Tooby, and Cosmides that "the longer an individual had coresided with an opposite-sex sibling while growing up, the more likely they were to condemn incest" (Gray/Garcia, p. 135)
But Ridley cites another study (Ridley-Red, p. 281), "two siblings reared apart are surprisingly likely to fall in love with each other if they meet at the right age" (cf. Ridley-Agile, p. 173). The reference is to M. Greenberg and R. Littlewood, "Post-adoption incest and phenotypic matching: Experience, personal meanings, and biosocial implications," in the British Journal of Medical Psychology, 68:29-44, 1995. A 2000 study provided at least partially supports this: "sexually disposed adult siblings had often been apart from each other during their early childhood years, suggesting that they did not develop the aversion that would otherwise have kept them apart" (Gray/Garcia, p. 135).
There does seem to be anecdotal evidence for this; newspaper reports say that Britain in 2008 started to work on laws to make sure adopted children knew about any relatives they had. This was in response to a case of two twins separated in infancy; they met when they grew up, fell in love, and were married before anyone realized they were siblings. Similarly, Jones, p. 133, talks about various laws being considered to deal with the case where the child of sperm donation encounters a half-sibling -- which, in this era when tens of thousands of children are born this way, is likely to be increasingly common in future. But the particular cases cited may be just isolated incidents, not a rule.
And incest stories are not unusual in folklore -- "Incest unwittingly committed" is Thompson motif N365. Note for instance the many brother/sister matings in the pagan Greek religion, and in other early multi-deity faiths. Or the Finnish story of Kullervo, which J. R. R. Tolkien first translated directly and then turned into the story of Túrin. Or consider the story that King Arthur had a child by his sister (something with no historical basis; as the notes to "King Arthur and King Cornwall" [Child 30] show). And the folktale of "Donkeyskin" (Perrault's French title) or "Thousandfurs/All Fur" (Grimm #65) is motivated by a father's lust for his daughter, although the English version "Catskin" omits this element. This seems to be a subject with deep roots in human psychology.
I have not seen Greenberg and Littlewood to know if Ridley is describing it correctly, let alone to know if the conclusions are justified. But it may be less surprising than it sounds. Evolutionary success consists in conserving one's genes. This means that the evolutionary ideal is to marry someone related at about the first or second cousin level -- close enough to share a lot of genes, not so close as to have a particularly high risk of reinforcing dangerous recessives.
(There does seem to be one side footnote to this, mentioned by Jolly, p. 95, and by Judson, pp. 52-53. They note that there are many variants in the genes of the MHC, or major histocompatibility index -- and that people apparently can tell, by smell, who shares their MHC genes; women don't want to be involved with men who are too close in MHC. But, of course, brother and sister need not share MHC genes -- given the size and complexity of the gene group, they very likely will not -- it's just that the odds are higher than among strangers.)
It is interesting to note that surveys have shown that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but ugliness is not -- that is, almost everyone agrees that certain people are ugly, but not everyone agrees on who is attractive. It is further interesting to note that -- insofar as this has been studied -- we seem to find attractive people who appear to share our own genetic traits. (I can't remember where I read this. The bit about beauty and ugliness came from a very poor newspaper summary of research done at a local college.)
Obviously a sibling is the closest relative we can find within our generation. If siblings are raised separately, they will not feel Westermark's raised-together taboo, so the shares-my-genes attraction will produce a tendency to fall in love. At least, that seems the logical implication of the data. And hence songs such as this and "Sheathe and Knife" and "Lizie Wan."
For this to happen, the siblings, it appears, would have to be separated by the age of three; otherwise, the aversion kicks in. But Ridley adds that the aversion seems to be stronger in females. If the brother is older (as seems to be the case, e.g., in "Lizie Wan," and probably in this song), he might have left the household before the girl reached the "aversion threshold."
In that context, it's worth remembering that sons of noble families were often sent away from their homes to be raised and trained in arms. In England, noble siblings were rarely raised together in the Middle Ages. So -- assuming all this hypothesizing is correct -- incestuous love affairs would be much more common among the nobility than the common folk. Indeed, there was a rumor that Ernest, Duke of Cumberland, the fifth son of George III who later became King of Hanover, fathered a child on his sister Sophia; see Sinclair-Stevenson, pp. 123, 128. Sinclair-Stevenson thinks it impossible that Cumberland was actually the father, but it hardly matters if he was; the point is that he could have been. (A *really* dirty part of my mind notes that George III -- like his descendant Nicolas II of Russia -- long forced his daughters of marriageable age to stay at home with him. But George's daughters, at least, managed affairs -- see Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 124).
An even stronger instance of brother-sister incest occurs in the Bible, no less. Very few female members of the Davidide royal family are mentioned in the Bible, and those that are are usually passed over quickly -- except one. 2 Samuel, chapter 13 (one of the chapters that seems to have been written by an immediate witness -- some suspect the priest Abiathar), details the rape of David's daughter Tamar by her half-brother Amnon; the next several chapters are devoted to the dreadful after-effects of that rape.
The Inca royal family was famous for brother-sister marriages -- although this may be somewhat exaggerated. The Incas did not have written records (Mason, p. 111), so their history was preserved in oral tradition -- and that tradition was then transcribed by the Spanish, and in conflicting form (Mason, pp. 113-115). Several early Emperors supposedly married their sisters, but the first fully historic emperor, Yahuar Huacac, did not do so (Mason, p. 117). It was not until Topa Inca Yupanqui that we have a fully documented case of brother-sister marriage (Mason, p. 129), and he did not die until 1493. Mason says that he established the rule for later emperors -- but there were only three more, according to the list on p. 111 of Mason: Huyana Capac (1493-1525), Huascar (1525-1532), and Atahuallpa (1532-1533). Thus there was probably enough outbreeding in the Inca line to avoid immediate collapse -- especially since the chosen monarch was often not the old emperor's eldest son.
The Habsburg family was also known for its incest -- ironic, for an oh-so-Catholic dynasty; they seemed to welcome marriages within the prohibited degrees. To be sure, these were partly marriages of policy. Elliot, p. 272, shows a genealogy of the monarchs of Spain and Portugal. Portugal's Sebastian I (died 1578) was the son of John of Portugal and Juana of Spain. John was the son of John III and Catherine; Juana was the daughter of Charles V and Isabella. John III was the son of Emmanuel of Portugal and Maria daughter of Ferdinant and Isabella of Spain. Catherine was the daughter of Philip I of Habsburg and Juana daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Charles V was also the daughter of Philip I and Juana, and Isabella his wife was also the daughter of Emmanuel and Maria.
If that's too complicated to figure out, we can summarize like this: a normal person, not inbred, has eight great-grandparents. Sebastian was so inbred that he had only four: Emmanuel was his father's father's father and his mother's mother's father; Philip I was his father's mother's father and his mother's mother's father; Maria was his father's father's mother and his mother's mother's mother, and Juana was his father's mother's mother and his mother's father's mother.
What's more, because Maria and Juana were sisters, instead of the usual 16 great-great-grandparents, Sebastian had only six great-great-grandparents!
This situation would recur a century and a half later with the last Habsburg King of Spain, Carlos II, known as "the Bewitched" because he was so mentally and physically handicapped. He wasn't bewitched; he was inbred. Like Sebastian, he had only four great-grandparents, because his father Philip IV (himself an inbred descendent of Charles V) had married his niece Mariana of Austria (Elliott, p. 357, or see the genealogy on p. 136 of Elliott). The Wikipedia entry on Carlos says that he was more homozygous than the offspring of a brother/sister mating. (That is, there was so much inbreeding in his ancestry that he had more duplicates of particular genes than the children of a brother/sister match.) With Carlos the Bewitched, the Spanish Habsburgs died out, because they had inbred themselves to death.
The ultimate example of incestuous royal families, though, is surely the Ptolemaic Dynasty, which ruled Egypt from the time of Alexander the Great until the Roman conquest. Ptolemy II, late in life, would marry his sister Arsinoë II, and Ptolemy IV took up with his sister Arsinoë III.
And then there are the children of Ptolemy V. The older son, Ptolemy VI Philometer (which means "loving his mother"!), married his sister Cleopatra II; they had a daughter Cleopatra III. The second son of Ptolemy V was Ptolemy VIII Physcon, who in his turn married Cleopatra II and then, while she was still alive, her daughter Cleopatra III. Their children were Ptolemy IX Lathyrus, Cleopatra IV, and Ptolemy X Alexander. Ptolemy Alexander would later marry Cleopatra Berenice, the daughter of Ptolemy Lathyrus and Cleopatra IV. (This did have genetic effects, to be sure. The later Ptolemies were mostly immensely, grotesquely fat and diseased. On the other hand, Cleopatra VII -- "the" Cleopatra, of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony fame, whose mother and grandmother were non-Ptolemies -- was certainly accomplished and probably quite beautiful.)
Later, Cleopatra VII would marry a couple of her brothers, but that was political. In the cases of Arsinoë II and Cleopatra III, their royal brothers and uncles married for love, or at least lust. Thus, historically, royal incest seems not to have been all that uncommon. Probably more common than the above would imply, given how strongly it would be hushed up! - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: C014

Bachelor Blues

DESCRIPTION: Singer laments his bachelor life. He sends a letter to his girlfriend, proposing that she share his lot; she answers by telegram, refusing. He replies, "If you don't like my bait, you need not to bite my hook"
AUTHOR: Steve Ledford?
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (recording, Bill Carlisle)
KEYWORDS: loneliness courting rejection bachelor
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Smiling Bill Carlisle, "Bachelor's Blues" (Vocalion 02819, 1935; rec. 1934)
Steve Ledford & the Mountaineers "Bachelor Blues" (Bluebird B-7626, 1938)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Bachelor Blues" (on NLCR13)
NOTES [20 words]: A conundrum: The song is credited to Steve Ledford, but Bill Carlisle's recording precedes Ledford's by four years. -PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcBacBlu

Bachelor Boy, The

See The Holly Twig [Laws Q6] (File: LQ06)

Bachelor's Complaint, The

See A Bachelor's Lament (II) (File: JHCox160)

Bachelor's Hall (I)

DESCRIPTION: About the sad life of a bachelor: "Bachelor's Hall, what a queer looking place it is, Keep me from such all the days of my life." The singer describes the mess and squalor of the place, and the pitiful lives of its inhabitants.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: bachelor loneliness
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 55-57, "Bachelor's Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 475, "Bachelor's Hall" (1 text)
Roud #7031
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Bachelor's Lament" (subject, lyrics)
cf. "Married and Single Life" (subject)
NOTES [79 words]: There is another "Bachelor's Hall" which describes the good life in the Hall: "No woman to scold you, No children to bawl, Always stay single, keep Bachelor's Hall."
As I have only two versions of this text, which seem to be all there are, I cannot really determine the relationship between the two -- but the present text is not in the same meter as the other.
Charles Dibdin wrote a piece called "Batchelor's Hall" in 1794, but I haven't found a text of that, either. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: R475

Bachelor's Hall (II)

DESCRIPTION: "When young men go courting they'll dress up so fine," meet the girls, dress up -- and end up worn out, (broke), and claiming, "I believe it's the best to court none at all, And live by myself and keep bachelor's hall," where neither wife nor children nag
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Fiddlin' John Carson)
KEYWORDS: courting bachelor
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, p. 120, "Bachelor's Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 183, "Bachelor's Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 133, "Bachelor's Hall" (1 text)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 35, "Bachelor's Hall" (1 text, 1 tune, with a first verse that seems to have floated in from "The Wagoner's Lad")
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 153, "When Boys go A-courting" (2 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 237-238, "Bachelor's Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 36, "Bachelor's Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 337, "When Young Men Go Courting" (1 fragment, probably this)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 337, "When Young Men Go Courting" (1 text, 2 tunes plus a text excerpt)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #81, "Bachelor's Hall" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #91, "The Bachelor's Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 273, "Bachelor's Hall" (1 text)
DT, BACHHALL
Roud #385
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Batchelor's Hall" (OKeh 45056, 1926; rec. 1925; on TimesAint04 as "Bachelor's Hall")
Earl Shirkey & Roy Harper [pseud. for Roy Harvey], "Keep Bachelor's Hall" (Columbia 15429-D, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Putting on Airs" (theme)
NOTES [166 words]: There is another "Bachelor's Hall" which describes the difficult life in the Hall: "Sure when I think what a burning disgrace it is, Never at all to be getting a wife, See the old bachelor gloomy and sad enough...."
As I have only one version of #1, I cannot really determine the relationship between the two -- but the present text is not in the same meter as the other.
Charles Dibdin wrote a piece called "Batchelor's Hall" in 1794, but I haven't found a text of that, either.
Gardner and Chickering's text is rather confusing and perhaps composite; it starts by talking about *girls* and the troubles of marriage -- "When young girls get married, their pleasure is all gone; They doubt on their prospects, their troubles come on." But it ends with the warnings found in this song. It appears that their text is either a fusion of two songs or an incomplete attempt to convert this piece to a woman's point of view.
Jean Ritchie's version also hints at that, but with a different first verse. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: AF120

Bachelor's Hall (III)

DESCRIPTION: "Young ladies all, both short, fat, and tall, On me you will surely take pity, For a bachelor's hall is no place at all." The singer would rather be married: it's less expensive. He lists his household assets in hopes of attracting a wife.
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: courting bragging humorous nonballad bachelor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 39-41,241, "Bachelor's Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 20-22, 190, "Bachelor's Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14002
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Courting Case" (theme)
cf. "Michael O'Brien" (theme)
File: IvDC039

Bachelor's Lament (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, forty-nine, wishes "some bonnie lassie wad tak' pity on me." His stockings "like mysel', they hiv seen better days" and his breeches are torn. His whiskers are grey and his head bald. He wants "a clean tidy body in perfect good health"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: nonballad bachelor hair clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #19, p. 2, "The Bachelor's Lament" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1392, "The Bachelor's Lament" (1 text)
Roud #5755
NOTES [19 words]: From Greig's correspondent's note I cannot say whether this was a song recalled or authored to be contributed. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71392

Bachelor's Lament (II), A

DESCRIPTION: "As I was walking all alone, I heard an old bachelor making his moans: I wonder what the matter can be, Dog them pretty girls won't have me." The bachelor describes those he has courted, the offers he has made, the horses he has ruined -- to no avail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: bachelor loneliness courting
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 263, "The Old Bachelor" (1 text)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 18, "The Old Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 119-121, "The Bachelor's Lay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 160, "A Bachelor's Lament" (1 short text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 70, "The Old Bachelor" (1 text)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 225-226, "The Old Bachelor's Mourn" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST JHCox160 (Partial)
Roud #3771
RECORDINGS:
Eugene Jemison, "The Bachelor's Complaint" (on Jem01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bachelor's Hall (II)" (subject, lyrics)
NOTES [125 words]: The texts in Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety and Cox have hardly a word in common, but the themes and forms are so similar that I don't hesitate to lump them. Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana's and List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana's texts are similar to the one in the description. - RBW
Paul Stamler notes that at least one version ends with the bachelor dying; the singer tells women to put him in the ground, for fear he might come back to life and keep trying to find a wife.- (PJS, RBW)
The Jemison recording includes at least one verse that overlaps Fiddlin' John Carson's version of "Bachelor's Hall." I called that "Bachelor's Hall (II)"; the Jemison recording sounds more like "Bachelor's Hall (I)." - PJS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: JHCox160

Bachelor's Lament (III), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer retells the benefits of bachelorhood, but he tires of living alone. "I'll go searching through this wide world till a partner I will find." He plans his trip throughout Newfoundland and Labrador, but assumes no one will have him.
AUTHOR: Paul E. Hall (according to Szwed and Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Szwed; but see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: loneliness marriage sex rejection travel drink bachelor chickens
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 4, pp. 71-76, "The Bachelor's Lament" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John F. Szwed, "Paul E. Hall: A Newfoundland Song-Maker And His Community of Song" in Folksongs and Their Makers (Bowling Green: Bowling Green University Popular Press, n.d.[Bennett has the date as 1971; I've seen 1970 through 1972 as a publication date mentioned in reviews of the book]), pp. 157-166, "The Bachelor's Song" (1 text) (1 tune)
Roud #24294
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "The Bachelors Lament" (on NFJDowney01)
Hector MacIsaac and Jerome Downey, "Bachelors Lament" (on NFHMacIsaac01)
Hector MacIsaac, "Bachelors' Lament" (on NFHMacIsaac02)
NOTES [90 words]: The author names himself, in the song, as the bachelor subject. Whether or not he actually made his trip he remains a bachelor.
Szwed: "The Bachelor's Song is a song in local circulation in the Codroy Valley, and was made by Paul E. Hall in the 1930's."
There are references to the bachelor bringing a hen and "stick of old Black Duck" on his tour. Szwed, quoting Hall: "Well, now there was a joke... most people here knew it... you go in there with a plug of tobacco or a hen and you could go and sleep with any woman in Journois Brook." - BS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: BeDo071

Bachelor's Lament (IV), The

DESCRIPTION: "Come gather, young fellers, my story's for you. I'm a man of experience." Don't just go for any woman, and don't hurry into marriage. Stay apart for a month. If he still loves her, then marry; the marriage will remain happy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (HCargillFamily)
KEYWORDS: love courting warning
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Acie Cargill, "The Bachelor's Lament" (on HCargillFamily)
File: RcBacLam

Bachelor's Lay, The

See A Bachelor's Lament (II) (File: JHCox160)

Bachelor's Prayer, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's Mary, my darling, in her blue gingham dress. Of all the girls ever I love her the best." "Oh, Mary, of Mary, will you ever be true?... My darling, my darling, I'll be true to you." He hopes to marry, "...the answer to the bachelor's prayer."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 10, "The Bachelor's Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11380
File: Brne010

Bachelor's Son, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a bachelor's son and I live in sin With another man's wife at the Cross." The singer expects to suffer in Hell -- but will have fun now. He has three ex-wives and offers many services -- sex, drugs, lesbianism, even a dead body for necrophiliacs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy death bastard incest infidelity wife abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 178, "The Bachelor's Son" (1 text)
Roud #10226
File: RuSoBacS

Bachelor's Song

See The Courting Case (File: R361)

Bachelor's Walk

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes "the murderous outrage that took place in Dublin Town." Armed Irish rebels came to Dublin, and disturbances followed. In the confusion, the King's Own Scottish regiment kills three people
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1914 - the riot in Bachelor's Walk
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 55-56, "Batchelor's Walk" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 100, "Bachelor's Walk: Mournful Lines on the Military Outrage in Dublin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3049
NOTES [474 words]: This song illustrates clearly the sad state of Anglo-Irish relations in the early twentieth century. The British troops (who, according to Dangerfield, p. 121, were not trained in riot work) were doing their best to keep order -- but the Irish called them "cowards" and "murderers."
The massacre came about as a result of rising tensions in Ireland. Many in Britain were ready to grant the Irish Home Rule (internal self government; see, e.g., "Home Rule for Ireland") -- but the folk of Ulster feared the Catholics so much that they formed paramilitary forces and began smuggling in guns. The rest of the Irish also started to organize armies.
The British were in an uncomfortable situation; they had to put more soldiers in the streets. Unfortunately, the soldiers were met by catcallers and stone throwers.
The Bachelor's Walk massacre was the result of just such a provocation. According to Kee, pp. 214-215, the soldiers had been sent out to try to stop some arms-runners. They failed -- sort of. The British law of the time was peculiar: Owning firearms was permitted, but importing them was not. Had the British caught the arms coming in, they could have impounded them. But by the time the soldiers arrived, the arms (some 15,000 rifles and 100,000 rounds of ammunition, according O'Connor, p. 60) had been distributed and therefore legal. Besides, the Irish Volunteers scattered when they saw the soldiers. But in the process, the soldiers loaded their guns, and did not unload. (Or so it was reconstructed later.)
So the soldiers started back, to be greeted by a jeering mob. An officer told the troops to face the crowd; he wanted to address the demonstrators. The report is that he did not know the soldier's guns were loaded. He held up his hand for silence. Someone apparently took this as a signal to fire, and the rest of the troops, who were being severely goaded, joined in.
The net toll of the "massacre," according to Kee, was three Irish dead (none of them among the thousand or so soldiers who provoked the riots) and 38 wounded (O'Connor claims four killed and 38 wounded) -- but the British troops (King's Own Scottish Borderers), though they suffered no fatalities, also took their share of injuries.
This is not to say that the British were entirely without fault. Younger, p. 23, notes that both Nationalists and Unionists were running guns. The British hadn't done much when the Ulster Volunteers had marched earlier in the week, but they watched the Irish Volunteers closely, resulting in the tragedy.
For some reason, Galvin spells the name of this song "Batchelor's Walk," which I followed in the first version of the Index because it was the only version I'd seen. But the first four genuine histories I checked -- Younger, Dangerfield, O'Connor, and Kee -- prefer the more normal spelling "Bachelor's Walk." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: PGa055

Back and Side Go Bare, Go Bare!

See Jolly Good Ale and Old (Back and Sides Go Bare) (File: DTbcksid)

Back Bay Hill

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl "tripping and slipping down (Back Bay Hill)." They are married the next day. They have three children; during a disagreement about names, the father insists the child be named after the hill! He advises others to visit the place
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-Nova Scotia)
KEYWORDS: courting children
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 164-165, "Citadel Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 107, "Sig-i-nal Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 101, "Back Bay Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 132-133, "Cidadel Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FJ165 (Partial)
Roud #1811
NOTES [125 words]: Creighton reports, "[Informan Frank Faulkner] learned this song while sealing in 1902.... The name Back Bay may be changed to any hill in the place where the song is sung." - RBW
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing: "Signal Hill, St John's, is famed for many deeds (and mis-deeds) which have taken place over the past three or four centuries." - BS
We can say a little more about Signal Hill, the Newfoundland site for this song. It is a high point above "The Narrows" at the entrance to St. John's Harbour; it was used for signals from or about ships, and was visible throughout the area, so little surprise if people went, er, sightseeing there. There is actually a spot called "Cuckold's Cove" near the spot. SIgnal Hill is now a Newfoundlan historic site.
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FJ165

Back in the Hills

DESCRIPTION: "Way back in the hills as a boy I once wandered, There deep in the grave lies the girl that I love." She was a jewel on earth and now is one in heaven. When she was sixteen, she had promised to marry him, but now she is dead.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Roberts-SangBranchSettlers)
KEYWORDS: love death courting
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #53, "Back in the Hills" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [27 words]: Roberts-SangBranchSettlers considered this a redaction of "In the Hills of Roane County." Musically, perhaps, but I don't see any real relation in the texts. . - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Robe053

Back o Reres Hill, The

See The Back o' Rarey's Hill (The Jilted Lover) (File: Ord156)

Back o' Bennachie, The

See Where the Gadie Rins (I), (II), etc. (File: Ord347)

Back o' Rarey's Hill, The (The Jilted Lover)

DESCRIPTION: "It was on a Saturday evening, As I went to Dundee, I met wi' an old sweetheart," and one thing led to another. They share a glass, he departs, then writes a letter saying he will marry her only if she comes to him. She warns other girls of her sad fate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love courting sex abandonment betrayal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #159, pp. 1-2, "The Jilted Lover"; #157, p. 2, ("It's oft in my love's arms my love to him I've told") (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1133, "Rarey's Hill," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Rarey's Hill" (8 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 156-157, "The Back o' Rarey's Hill" (1 text)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 34, "The Back o Reres Hill" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6847
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fair Gallowa'" (tune, per Greig/Duncan6)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The False Lover
The Courtin' Mill
File: Ord156

Back of the Loaf the Snowy Flour

DESCRIPTION: Table grace. As typically sung, "Back of the bread is the flour, And back of the flour is the mill; Back of the mill is the (wind/sun) and the rain And the Father’s will."
AUTHOR: Words: Maltbie D(avenport) Babcock (1858-1901) (source: ChansonsDeNotreChalet)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (YWCA Songbook, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious food nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 388, "Back of the Loaf"/"Back of the Bread" (notes only)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 8, "Back of the Loaf" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [22 words]: Maltbe D. Babcock is known primarily (almost exclusively, I think) for having written the words to "This Is My Father's World." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF388B

Back to Jericho

DESCRIPTION: Reworked floating verses in white-blues form: "I'm going back to Jericho, sugar babe (x3)"; "Never seen the likes since I've been born...." "Old Aunt Jemima going through the sticks...." "What you gonna do when the meat gives out...." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Dock Walsh)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 170-171, "Back to Mexico" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7694
RECORDINGS:
Carolina Tar Heels, "Back to Mexico" (Victor 23611, 1931)
Dock Walsh, "Going Back to Jericho" (Columbia 15094-D, 1926)
Doc Watson, Gaither Carlton & Ralph Rinzler, "I'm Going Back to Jericho" (on Ashley02, WatsonAshley01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Crawdad" (words, pattern, tune)
NOTES [98 words]: Jericho is a town in South Carolina. The singer is probably referring to that Jericho, not the one in the Bible. - PJS
I was tempted to classify this as a version of "Crawdad," since that is the source for so many of the verses. I'm still not sure about the matter. Does anyone know any other versions of this song? - RBW
Rinzler notes that Gaither Carlton learned this as a boy (c. 1915?), while Doc Watson learned it from his father. The song may date from the 1900s, therefore. While it's clearly related to "Crawdad Song," I think they're different enough to continue splitting them. - PJS
File: CSW170

Back to Larkins' Bar

DESCRIPTION: The singer writes a letter to his (girl/wife); the (soldiering/cockie's) life is hard and lonely. He pleads, "Take me back to the Holbrook streets, And back where the beer-hogs are, Back to the sound of the barrel taps And back to Larkins' bar."
AUTHOR: James "Digger" O'Brien?
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: home Australia drink
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 273-274, 274-275, "Back to Larkins' Bar" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
NOTES [75 words]: Meredith collected this song twice, in fragmentary but strikingly different forms, from two residents of Holbrook, Australia. Marilyn McPherson credited it to her father, Digger O'Brien; Jack Campbell also apparently had it from him. On its face, that would seem to disqualify it from "folk song" status -- except for the extreme set of variations.
Larkins' Bar is apparently one of the chief landmarks of Holbrook (this is Australia, after all). - RBW
File: MCB273

Back Water Blues

See Backwater Blues (File: FSWB073A)

Backblock Shearer, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm only a backblock shearer, as easily can be seen... I've shorn in most of the famous sheds, I've seen big tallies done, But somehow or other, I don't know why, I never became a gun." The shearer describes his many attempts to make the century
AUTHOR: W. Tully
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Collected from Jack Lee by John Meredith)
KEYWORDS: sheep work contest
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, p. 95, "Tooraweenah Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 38-39, "The Backblock Shearer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 179-180, "The Backblocks Shearer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 128-129, "Widgegoara Joe (The Backblock Shearer)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 200-202, "The Backblocks Shearer" (1 text)
DT, BACKBLCK
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), p. 62, "Widgeegowera Joe" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 294-295, "Widgeegowera Joe" (1 text)
Roud #29042 and 24808
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Castle Gardens" (tune, according to Wannan)
NOTES [17 words]: A "gun" was a high-speed shearer who could shear "the century" (100 sheep) in an eight hour day. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: MA038

Backblocks Shearer, The

See The Backblock Shearer (File: MA038)

Backburn Is a Bonnie Place

DESCRIPTION: Andrew Crystal lives in Backburn; praise him "for he grand whisky sells." "O mither dear, look doon the lum [chimney] Your face I lang to see"; the eagles build their nest in you and I would try their eggs.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: drink food humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1698, "Backburn Is a Bonnie Place" (1 text)
Roud #13039
File: GrD81698

Backsides Rule the Navy

DESCRIPTION: "Backsides rule the Navy, Backsides rule the sea, If you want a bit of bum... Ye'll get no bum from me." The singer recalls "Catp'n Kitt" and Yeoman Sydney Grimes, who have uncomfortable adventures, and AB Long, "whose member wasn't like his name"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous navy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 170, "Backsides Rule the Navy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brand-BawdySeaSong 8, "Backside Rules the Navy" (1 text)
Roud #8346
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fly Away You Bumble Bee (Sambo)" (lyrics)
File: Kins170A

Backward, Turn Backward (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight, Bring back my ability if just for tonight. Bring back that riding ability of mine, Don't let the bull buck my ass off this time."
AUTHOR: Joe Cavanaugh?
EARLIEST DATE: 1954
KEYWORDS: parody cowboy animal humorous derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 55, "Backward, Turn Backward" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5092
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rock Me to Sleep, Mother" (tune)
cf. "Cowboy Again for a Day" (tune, lyrics)
NOTES [81 words]: Ohrlin believed that Joe Cavanaugh made up this parody on the spot at a competition in 1954. (The original is "Rock Me to Sleep, Mother," by Elizabeth Akers Allen, and begins "Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight, Make me a child again, just for tonight"). This parody however is probably derived from "Cowboy Again for a Day." But while Cavanaugh's authorship is likely (meaning that this is not a folk song), it cannot be absolutely proved, so it goes into the Index. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Ohr055

Backward, Turn Backward (II)

See Cowboy Again for a Day (File: FCW116)

Backwater Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Well, it rained five days and the sky was dark (x2), There's trouble in the lowlands tonight. "I got up one morning, I couldn't even get out of my door." The storms and floods drive many poor people from their homes
AUTHOR: Bessie Smith?
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Bessie Smith)
KEYWORDS: storm flood home disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1927 - Mississippi River floods, devastating the Delta region and leaving thousands homeless
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 73, "Back Water Blues" (1 text)
DT, BACKWATR*
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 22, "Backwater Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Susan Scott Parrish, _The Flood Year 1927: A Cultural History_, Princeton University Press, 2017, pp. 129-130, "(no title)" (1 text, said to be Bessie Smith's first written version)
Roud #11667
RECORDINGS:
Big Bill Broonzy, "Backwater Blues" (on Broonzy01)
Lonnie Johnson, "Backwater Blues" (King 4251, 1948)
Bessie Smith, "Back Water Blues" (Columbia 14195-D, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Great American Flood Disaster" (subject)
cf. "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues" (subject)
cf. "Mighty Mississippi" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Back Water Blues
NOTES [299 words]: For background on the Mississippi Floods of 1927, see the notes to "Mighty Mississippi."
I've indicated some doubt about Bessie Smith's authorship, because her name is not always listed on the song, but Susan Scott Parrish, The Flood Year 1927: A Cultural History, Princeton University Press, 2017, expresses no doubt. On p. 125, she describes Smith sitting down at home in the second week of February 1927 to write out the song.
I can't help but note that, based on the description of what she did, she could have heard a fragment from someone else and made it very much her own. It is interesting to note, in that connection, that she had had some experience of the flooding while touring in Nashville in the last week of 1926 (Parrish, p. 128). And, while there, the locals had begged her to "please sing the Back Water Blues." So she at least had a suggestion from others.... She saw several other flooded communities before reaching home and writing out her text.
"On February 27, Smith recorded the song for Columbia Records in New York City. Her accompanist on piano was a remarkable innovator and talent, James P. Johnson. This was their first collaboration. 'Back-Water Blues' was released by Columbia on March 20, with a song called 'Preachin' the Blues' on its flip side (Columbia 14195-D)" (Parrish, p. 130). Thus the song came out *before* the worst of the flooding -- a remarkably fortunate bit of timing that helped it become a substantial hit.
According to Parrish, p. 134, it is not known whether Smith or Columbia Records recruited Johnson for the recording, but his ability to give an emotional tone to his piano accompaniment made the recording especially moving.
Parrish, p. 127, says that the song influenced "the flood fiction of William Faulkner and Richard Wright." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB073A

Backwoodsman, The (The Green Mountain Boys) [Laws C19]

DESCRIPTION: Typical first line: "I first came to this country in (some year)." The singer, a wood-hauler, having gotten drunk, is convinced to go a ball. He spends a riotous night. He hopes that others will not exaggerate what happened.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: drink hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE) Canada(Ont,West)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws C19, "The Backwoodsman (The Green Mountain Boys)"
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 35, "The Backwoodsman" (1 text)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 35, "The Backwoodsman" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 168, "The Backwoodsman" (1 text)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 93, "Cottage Hill" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 132, "When I Was One-and-Twenty" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, "I Came to This Country in 1865" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 340, "The Wood Hauler" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 240, "The Wood Hauler" (1 text excerpt)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 119, "The Cordwood Cutter" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 263-264, "(One Monday Morning in EIghteen-eighty-five") (1 text plus an excerpt of a version titles "The Dance at Clintonville")
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 54-55, "Lumber Camp Song -- Black Forest, 1880-1905" (1 text)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #49, "The Backwoodsman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 30, "The Backwoodsman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 43-45, "The Green Mountain Boys" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 29-30, "The Green Mountain Boys" (1 text)
DT 604, BACKWOOD* CAMCNTRY*
Roud #641
RECORDINGS:
Maynard Britton, "I Came to this Country" (AFS, c. 1937; on KMM; there is probably some mixture in this version)
James B. Cornett, "Spring of '65" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Robert C. Paul, "The Backwoodsman" (on Saskatch01)
Vern Smelser, "The Morning of 1845" (on FineTimes)
Emerson Woodcock, "The Backwoodsman" (on Lumber01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In Eighteen Forty-Nine" ("In17XX/18XX I found myself quite lucky to be alive" lyrics) and references there
cf. "In Eighteen-Forty-Nine" (floating lyrics)
cf. "In Seventeen Ninety-Five" (lyrics)
cf. "Logging on Bear Fork" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Cordwood Cutter
NOTES [201 words]: Laws made rather a botch of this piece, omitting the Cox and Brown texts and causing me to split the song in two for a time. It doesn't help that it's an extremely diverse item; there is hardly a single feature common to all versions. Many versions start with the lines, "I woke up on morning in (1805/1845/1865), (Thought/Found) myself quite (happy/lucky) to find myself alive."
This is not, however, diagnosic. Cox's text, for instance, begins with the line, "When I was one-and-twenty," but is obviously not to be confused with the A. E. Housman poem of the same title.
Many texts say that the young man was able to go on a spree because of a gift from his father. But in Brown's "B" text, he's treated to an election spree (a common technique in nineteenth century elections: Give the voters enough free liquor and they would be expected to vote for you. Though it's rather odd to see an election held in *1845*).
The singer is often a hauler, and may ring in his mule -- but may not.
We often find a description of a wild dance, but this seems to vary also.
And so it goes.
Fowke's text has a curious reference to a fiddle tune "The Bluebells of Ireland." Wonder how the Scots felt about that title. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LC19

Bacon and Greens

DESCRIPTION: "I have lived long enough to be rarely mistaken, And had my full share of life's changeable scenes, But my woes have been solaced by good greens and bacon." They consoled him when rejected in love. If he had three wishes, he'd want bacon and greens
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (New-Comic-Songster)
KEYWORDS: food humorous rejection
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
New-Comic-Songster, p. 16, "Bacon and Greens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #31239
File: NCBaAGr

Bad Ale Can Blow a Man Down

DESCRIPTION: "Go bring me a mug of your very best ale, Bad ale can drag a man down." "The lord of the castle a bold knight was he, He started to London the Queen for to see." "His cloak it was velvet for a grand lord was he, He rode a white charger...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: nobility royalty drink travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 30, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, p. 43)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Abie's White Mule" (lyrics)
NOTES [53 words]: Thomas, obscurely, lists this in her section on chanteys. The first verse, I suppose, might be; the second and third appear to be part of an unrelated ballad. But with only two lines of the first and four of the second, I can't identify it.
It may well be mixed up with another song in Thomas, "Abie's White Mule." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa030

Bad Boy, The

See I'll Be a Good Boy; also Logan County Jail [Laws E17] (File: MuLa045)

Bad Brahma Bull (The Bull Rider Song)

DESCRIPTION: A parody of "The Strawberry Roan," in which the boss hires the cowman to ride a "big Brahma bull" in a rodeo. The rest follows the original: The rider winds up being thrown, and "high-tail[s] it back to that old Flying U."
AUTHOR: Curly Fletcher
EARLIEST DATE: 1942
KEYWORDS: parody cowboy injury
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 68, "The Strawberry Roan" (2 texts, 1 tune, the second text being this one)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 13, pp. 97-101, "The Flyin' U Twister" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 162-166, "Bad Brahma Bull" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BADBRAHM*
Roud #3239
NOTES [34 words]: This is reportedly Curly Fletcher's parody of his own "Strawberry Roan." (Fletcher in fact wrote several such parodies; see also "The Castration of the Strawberry Roan.") Roud appears to lump the pieces. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: FCW68B

Bad Companions

See Young Companions [Laws E15] (File: LE15)

Bad Company

See Young Companions [Laws E15] (File: LE15)

Bad Girl's Lament, The (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime) [Laws Q26]

DESCRIPTION: The bad girl tells of how she reveled at the ale-house and the dance hall, then found herself in the poorhouse, and now is at death's door. She makes her final requests, and asks that young sailors carry her coffin
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: drink poverty death
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(South,West)) US(Ro,So,SW) Ireland St Croix
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Laws Q26, "The Bad Girl's Lament (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime)"
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 114, "Sailor Cut Down in His Prime" (2 texts; the "A" text is "The Sailor Cut Down in his Prime"; "B" is "THe Bad Girl's Lament, (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime)" [Laws Q26])
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 26, "On the Banks of the Clyde" (1 text, 1 tune, which appears to mix "The Lad in the Scotch Brigade (The Banks of the Clyde)" with "The Bad Girl's Lament, (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime)" [Laws Q26])
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 38-39, "The Unfortunate Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 21, "Saint James' Hospital" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 420-421, "Annie Franklin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 426, "The Bad Girl's Lament (St. James Hospital)" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 160-161, "The Bad Girl's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 102, "Bad Girl's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 119, "The Bad Girl's Lament" (1 text)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II, pp. 604-608, "The Bad Girl's Lament" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #146, "The Whore's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 55, "St. Joseph's Hospital" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 97, "The Bad Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 8, "One Morning in May" (1 text)
DT 350, UNFORTLS*
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth Lodewick, "'The Unfortunate Rake" and His Descendants,'" article published 1955 in _Western Folklore_; republished on pp. 87-98 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009
Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 129-130, "One Bright Summer Morning" (1 text)
Roud #2
RECORDINGS:
James "Iron Head" Baker, "St. James Hospital" (AFS 204 B1, 206 A2, 1934)
(AFS 718 B1, 1936)
Texas Gladden, "One Morning in May"(AFS 5230 A1; on USTGladden01, perhaps a composite combining parts of several songs in this family)
Hannah J., "When I Was a Young Girl" (Piotr-Archive #110, recorded 04/06/2022)
Bernice Mopsey Johnson, "One Bright Summer Morning" (on VIZoop01)
Tom Lenihan, "Saint James' Hospital" (on IRTLenihan01)
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt, "St. James Hospital" (AFS 194 B2, 1933)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] (tune & meter, plot) and references there
cf. "The Unfortunate Rake" (tune & meter, plot)
cf. "The Sailor Cut Down in His Prime" (tune & meter, plot)
cf. "My Home's in Montana" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "Saint James Infirmary" (theme)
NOTES [192 words]: One of the large group of ballads ("The Bard of Armagh," "Saint James Hospital," "The Streets of Laredo") ultimately derived from "The Unfortunate Rake." All use the same tune and metre, and all involve a person dying as a result of a wild life, but the nature of the tragedy varies according to local circumstances. There is a certain amount of cross-fertilization between versions; see the cross-references. - RBW
Legman provides extensive notes to the entire "Unfortunate Rake" song cycle in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II. - EC
There is a particular sub-family of this type, which I've heard done up-tempo with a rather different tune. The Darling "One Morning in May" text appears to belong here. If there is a characteristic line, it seems to be the one "My body is elevated [by the mercury treatments for venereal disease] and I am bound to die." - RBW
Without hearing Platt's & Baker's recordings, I can't tell whether this is "Bad Girl's Lament" or "Unfortunate Rake," but I'm playing the percentages and putting them here. - PJS
For the treatment of syphilis prior to the twentieth century, see the notes to "The Unfortunate Rake." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LQ26

Bad Lee Brown (Little Sadie) [Laws I8]

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes out one night to "make his rounds." He meets his (girlfriend/wife), Little Sadie, and shoots her. He flees, but is overtaken and sentenced to (a long prison term/life)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: homicide prison
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So,SE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws I8, "Bad Lee Brown"
Randolph 155, "Bad Lee Brown" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 22, "Little Sadie" (1 text)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 109-111, "Late One Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 252, "Sadie" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 39-40, "Little Sadie" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 19-20, "Little Sadie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 243, (no title) (1 fragment)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 89-91, "Bad Man Ballad" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 659, LILSADIE*
Roud #780
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley, "Little Sadie" (Columbia 15522-D, 1930; rec. 1929; on Ashley04, RoughWays1)
Clarence Ashley & Doc Watson, "Little Sadie" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01, ClassOT)
Blue Heaven, "Bad Man Ballad" (AAFS 384 B)
Mrs. Lloyd Bare Eagle, "Little Sadie" (AAFS 2851 B1)
Louise Foreacre, "Little Sadie" (on Stonemans01)
Woody Guthrie, "Bad Lee Brown" (on ClassAfrAm)
Wendell Hart & group of convicts, "Bad Man Ballad" (AAFS 2591 B2)
Willie Rayford, "Bad Man Ballad" (AAFS 2591 B2)
Rick Ward, "Little Sadie" (Piotr-Archive #132, recorded 04/18/2022)
Wade Ward, "Little Sadie" [instrumental] (on Holcomb-Ward1)
Unidentified Negro convict, "Bad Man Ballad" (AAFS 1859 A1-10)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bad Man's Blunder
File: LI08

Bad Luck Attend the Old Farmer

DESCRIPTION: A warning to servant boys seeking employment by farmers at hiring fairs. You are badly fed and "cold as lead." The singer will not hire for another half year. "Don't hire with any farmer ... But sail off to Amerikay, To a land where you'll be free"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (IRHardySons)
KEYWORDS: emigration hardtimes farming food America servant
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #17894
RECORDINGS:
James Halpin, "Bad Luck Attend the Old Farmer" (on IRHardySons)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hiring Fair at Hamiltonsbawn" (subject: hiring fair servant's half-year term hard times)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Ingy Buck
NOTES [17 words]: The alternate title, "The Ingy Buck," refers to maize or "Indian Buck." (source: Notes to IRHardySons)
File: RcBLATOF

Bad Luck to the Man

DESCRIPTION: "Bad luck to the man Who invented the plan For he ruined us wagoners And every other man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2905 (Rothrock)
KEYWORDS: canal hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 214, "(Regret of the Conestoga Teamsters After Canas Had Rendered Wagon Roads Superfluous)" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: J. T. Rothrock, "'Taking the Cure' In the Coalings of Pennsylvania a Half Century Ago," article in _Journal of Outdoor Life_, Volume 2 (1905) (available on Google Books), p. 252, "(no title)" (1 fragment)
File: Shoe214A

Bad Luck to This Marching

DESCRIPTION: "Bad luck to this marching, pileclaying and starching, How neat one must be to be killed by the French! I'm sick of parading Through wet and cold wading...." The soldier's life is hard; food is bad or missing; they don't get paid. He wishes he were home
AUTHOR: Charles Lever (1806-1872) (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (_Charles O'Malley_)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 177-178, "Bad luck to this marching" (1 fragment)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 134, "Bad Luck to This Marching" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Lever ("Edited by his Daughter"), _Charles O'Malley: The Irish Dragoon II_ (Downey and Co., Limited, London, 1897; available on Google Books), pp. 220-221, "Bad Luck to This Marching" (1 text)
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 440-441, "Bad Luck to This Marching"
Roud #37296
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paddy O'Carroll" (tune, according to Lever)
NOTES [34 words]: The first volume of Charles O'Malley was published in 1841. I have not located the date of the first edition of volume II, in which Charles Lever first published this poem, but it can't be much after. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: HMHS134A

Bad Man Ballad

See Bad Lee Brown (Little Sadie) [Laws I8] (File: LI08)

Bad Mind

DESCRIPTION: "In every home that you can find There are people who have bad mind. (x2) Certain bad mind that sit and lie, Sit and criticize people who go by." Other stanzas offer examples, e.g. "You kneel in your home to pray; They say a hypocrite you did play."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: accusation nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 74, (no title) (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 339-340, "(no title)" (1 text)
File: CNFM074

Bad Tom Smith

DESCRIPTION: "I am passing through the valley here in peace (x2), O when I am dead and buried in the cold and silent tomb, I don't want you to grieve after me." "I am leaving all my friends here in peace... I don't want you to grieve after me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967
KEYWORDS: death grief burial
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 28, 1895 - Hanging of "Bad" Tom Smith in Jackson, Kentucky for the murder of Dr. John E. Rader
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 162, p. 187, "Bad Tom Smith" (1 text)
Roud #4300
NOTES [17 words]: Reported to be the last "goodnight" of Tom Smith, but obviously based on "Don't You Grieve After Me." - RBW
File: CW187

Bad Wife, The

See Scolding Wife (IV) (File: HHH145)

Badai na Scadan (The Herring Boats)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer recalls that his son was killed when his herring boat was wrecked on a submerged rock. He names the men drowned and their mourning family members. He hopes that the bodies will be found.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage grief death fishing sea ship wreck moniker
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 2, "Badai na Scadan" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [57 words]: O Boyle does not translate the text. There is an English translation by Eamonn O Donaill on RootsWeb site Transcriptions-Eire-L Archives. The description follows that translation. The notes on that site say this "is a song from Donegal which was composed by a grief stricken father whose sons were killed in a shipwreck near Inisfree Island." - BS
File: OBoy002

Badger Drive, The

DESCRIPTION: A song of praise to logdrivers. It mentions the hardships of the job. It praises manager Bill Dorothy, and points out that drivers supply the pulpwood for paper. The drive on Badger is described. The singer hopes that the company will continue to succeed
AUTHOR: Words: John V. Devine
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 2nd edition); Wikipedia clams a composition date of 1912
KEYWORDS: logger river work
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 84-86, "The Badger Drive" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 160, "The Badger Drive" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Badger Drive" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 29 in the 2nd edition; p. 13 in the 3rd; p. 18 in the 4th; p. 39 in the 5th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 49-50, "The Badger Drive" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 2, pp. 61-66, "The Badger Drive" (1 text)
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 24-26, "The Badger Drive" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FJ084 (Partial)
Roud #4542
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "The Badger Drive" (on NFOBlondahl01)
Jerome Downey, "The Badger Drive" (on NFJDowney01)
Maudie Sullivan, "The Badger Drive" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drive" (theme)
NOTES [633 words]: Also see a text and hear an excerpt of "The Badger Drive" among Newfoundland songs as sung by Maude Sullivan on the "MacEdward Leach and the Songs of Atlantic Canada" site at http://www.mun.ca/folklore/leach/songs/NFLD1/11A-06.htm, accessed February 17, 2015. - BS
Although this is a pretty generic song in praise of loggers, it seems to have become widely known in the early 1930s, which perhaps gives it a political backdrop in that period. Cadigan, pp. 209-210, tells us that the depression was very hard on the Newfoundland lumber industry; demand for pulp naturally fell drastically, and Newfoundland's two biggest wood products company, AND and IPP, cut back hard on spending -- and rejected government demands for better treatment of workers. "In 1933, for example, the IPP Company hired loggers directly at 22 cents per hour [instead of employing subcontractors] and later asked the government to waive the legal minimum wage of 35 cents per hour. A two-week strike against the IPP action resulted in the government suspending the minimum wage law" (Cadigan, p. 210). So this song might have been intended to promote knowledge of the problem.
AND is the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company, one of the two major logging companies in Newfoundland. Other songs that mention AND are "Twin Lakes" and "The Business of Makin' the Paper."
According to O'Flaherty, p. 230, the government of Robert Bond set up a death under which "[Alfred] Harmsworth's Anglo-Newfoundland Development Co. leased timber, water, and mineral rights for ninety-nine years, following which the lease was renewable, on 2,300 square miles of land in the watershed of the Exploits River. They acquires much of the land from the Reids [owners of the Newfoundland Railroad] and other holders; 834 square miles were from the Crown. They were to pay an annual rent of $2 per square mile with a royalty of 5% of net profits on minerals. [A. B.] Morine calculated, from figures provided by Bond, that the rent would amount to about $3,800 a year." This was one of several deals Bond worked out in the early 1900s (O'Flaherty, p. 231); unlike many of the others, it cost the Dominion very little and, although it didn't bring in much revenue, it provided a lot of jobs for many years.
AND, founded in 1905, built a paper mill at Grand Falls in that year, with a branch rail line to support it; a rail opened to the coast in 1909 (Lingard, p. 7). The mill was down the Exploits River from Badger, so this song describes the logging situation after 1905.
Badger itself, in fact, was a creation of the railroad, "first settled in the 1890s by John Paul, a Micmac trapper, and a few railroad workers who came with the construction of the railway in 1894. Two sawmills employed 200 men from this area in 1901, and the population of the community was then 23. The A.N.D. Company bought out the H.J. Crowe Company in 1909, and soon Badger became the headquarters of a large part of the paper company's wood operation" (Lingard, p. 18).
By 1914, AND was the largest employer in Newfoundland other than the Newfoundland Railway (Lingard, p. 17), although there were of course many more people involved in fishing. Logging in the area was still going strong in 1977 when they closed down the rail line (Lingard, p. 12).
The "Mr. Cole" of the song is, I believe, Hugh Henry Wilding Cole (1883-1960). Born in Farnham, England, he came to Newfoundland in 1903, and became a surveyor for AND in 1905, and in 1912 he "became woods superintendent for the AND Co, with headquarters at Badger." He was a major force in the Newfoundland lumber industry until his retirement 35 years later (DictNewfLabrador, p. 63).
According to Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, author John V. Devine was an uncle of Gerald F. Doyle, of the Doyle songsters. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: FJ084

Baffin's Bay

See Hurrah for Baffin's Bay (File: Harl230)

Baffled Knight, The [Child 112]

DESCRIPTION: A (knight/shepherd) sees a lady (bathing), and wishes to lie with her. She convinces him not to touch her until they reach her father's gate. She jumps in, locks him out, and scolds him for his base thoughts and/or his lack of assertiveness.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (Ravenscroft, Deuteromelia)
KEYWORDS: seduction escape trick knight
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (32 citations):
Child 112, "The Baffled Knight" (6 texts)
Bronson 112, "The Baffled Knight" (40 versions+3 in addenda) -- but #26-33 (his Appendix A) are "The New-Mown Hay," which may be separate, and #34-#39 (his Appendix B) are "Katie Morey" [Laws N24] which is certainly separate
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 112, "The Baffled Knight" (4 versions: #1, #4, #6, #16)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 336-342, "The Baffled Knight, or Lady's Policy" (1 text; tune in Chappell)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XXXIX, p. 61, "The Baffled Knight, or Lady's Policy" (1 partial text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #16, pp. 123-125, "Blow the Winds, Heigh Ho!" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 302-304, "Blow the WInds, I-Ho!" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 195-196, "The Too Courteous Knight" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 301, "The Shepherd's Son" (3 texts, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #9, B=#8}
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 30, "The Shepherd's Son" (1 text)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 112-113, "Blow the Winds I-Ho!" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #83, "The Dew is on the Grass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #57, "The Baffled Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 454-456, "The Baffled Knight" (notes plus a modified version from Ravenscroft=Child A, also a claimed link to "Katey Morey")
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 89-99, "The Baffled Knight" (5 texts, but the "A" text is from "The Charms of Melody" rather than tradition and "B-I" through "B-IV" are "Katie Morey" [Laws N24] rather than "The Baffled Knight")
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 31, "Man and a Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 63-65, "The Baffled Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #25}
Peacock, pp. 272-275, "The Foolish Shepherd" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 16, "The Baffled Knight" (1 text fragment, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 320-321, "The Baffled Knight" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 154, "The Baffled Knight" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 35, "Blow the Winds, I-Ho" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 19, "Blow Away the Morning Dew" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #16}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 28, "Blow Away the Morning Dew" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 14A,14C, "Blow Away the Morning Dew" (2 texts)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 62-63, "Yonder Comes a Courteous Knight" (1 partial text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}; pp. 519-520, "The Baffled Knight" (1 excerpt, 1 tune, with the reader referred to Percy for the text) {Bronson's #2}
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 136, "Yonder Comes a Courteous Knight" (1 tune, partial text) {Bronson's #1}; Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 69-70, "The Baffled Knight" (1 tune, partial text; full text is in Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry) {Bronson's #2}
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 190, "Blow Away The Morning Dew" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2505, "There was a Knight was drunk with Wine"; cf. ZN2506, "There was a knight was wine-drunke"
DT 112, MORNDEW* MORNDEW2
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _Selections from the Works of Thomas Ravenscroft; A Musical Composer of the Time of King James the First_, Roxburgh Club, 1822, (available on Google Books) No. IX/p. 8, "The Courteous Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
[Ambrose Phillips?,] A Collection of Old Ballads Vol III, (London, 1725), #31, pp. 178-186, "The Baffled Knight, or the Lady's Policy"
Roud #11
RECORDINGS:
Emily Bishop, "The Baffled Knight (Clear Away the Morning Dew" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2)
Sam Larner, "Blow Away the Morning Dew" (on SLarner02)
George Samms, "The Foolish Shepherd" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 739 [mostly illegible], "Blow the Wind, I, O", J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 13(224), Harding B 11(337), Harding B 15(21b), Firth b.27(27), "Blow the Winds I[.] O"; Harding B 5(5), Douce Ballads 3(52b), "The Baffled Knight" or "The Lady's Policy"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Katie Morey" [Laws N24] (plot)
cf. "The New-Mown Hay" (plot)
cf. "The Lovely Banks of Mourne" (plot)
cf. "Jock Sheep" (plot)
cf. "Es wolte ein Jaejerlein jaje (A Young Hunter Went A-Hunting)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Blow Ye Winds High-O
Clear Away the Morning Dew
The Shepherd Laddie
NOTES [405 words]: Child relegates the Percy text, and a similar one in the Roxburghe collection, to an appendix to this piece. I really don't see why. The result is long and complex, and may well have been retouched, but it's certainly a variant of this song.
It is noteworthy that Bronson classifies most versions of this song into a large tune group -- but that none of the early printed texts (e.g. Ravenscroft's and D'Urfey's) fit this form.
A handful of versions of this end with the rather ornate couplet
If you would not when you might
You shall not when you would.
This appears to be older; according to Richard GArnett-IHearAmericaSinging and Edmund Gosse, English Literature: An Illustrated Record four volumes, MacMillan, 1903-1904 (I used the 1935 edition published in two volumes), volume I, p. 296, the couplet
The man that will nocht whan he may,
Sall have nocht quhen he wald
is found in the so-called "lyrical pastoral" "Robin and Makyne" of Robert Henryson (fl. 1462), which has a vaguely similar plot: Makyne loves Robin, who is not interested. Makyne renounces him, which spurs him to affection, which she rejects.
The bit about a maid within and a fool without also has some literary parallels. J. L. Laynesmith, The Last Medieval Queens: English Queenship 1445-1503, Oxford, 2004 (I use the 2005 paperback edition), pp. 135-136, tells a tale of the time of Edward IV. Edward's physician reportedly forecast that this wife's first pregnancy would produce a son. He hung around hoping his prediction would be confirmed. And was promptly told, "whatsoever the queen's grace hath here within, sure it is that a fool standeth there without."
The song "Jock Sheep" is clearly a rewrite of this, with an anti-feminist ending, and as such was lumped with Child 112 in earlier versions of this index. But it is distinct enough, and survives widely enough on its own, that we now split the two. As does Roud. (Thanks to Ben Schwartz for doing the research to split them.) - RBW
re A Collection of Old Ballads Vol III: Ambrose Philips, whose name does not appear in the Google Books copy is, according to Google Books, the editor. The New York Public Library catalog says "Compilation usually attributed to Ambrose Philips."
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 14A is a composite of three texts. Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople p. 42: "no extraneous words or lines are interpolated." He gives three versions of the chorus on p. 42. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C112

Bagenal Harvey's Farewell

DESCRIPTION: Harvey bids farewell to his father's estate, his tenants, and "my true United Men who bravely with me fought." If he is executed at Wexford he asks to be buried at his father's tomb. The estate will be returned when Ireland is free.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1998 ("The Croppy's Complaint," Craft Recordings CRCD03 (1998); Terry Moylan notes)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Ireland execution patriotic nonballad recitation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 28, 1798 - Bagenal Harvey is executed in Wexford. (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 90, "Bagenal Harvey's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kelly, the Boy from Killane" (character of Bagenal Harvey)
cf. "Croppies Lie Down (II)" (character of Bagenal Harvey)
NOTES [323 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "the song is modelled on the Jacobite song 'Derwentwater's Farewell'" and was sung to that tune. The last verse of "Bagenal Harvey's Farewell" begins "So farewell to Bargy's lofty towers since from you I must part, A stranger now may call you his ..."; the following lines are from "Derwentwater's Farewell": "Farewell to pleasant Dilston Hall, my father's ancient seat, A stranger now must call thee his ..."
The ballad is recorded on two of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Sean Garvey, "Bagenal Harvey's Farewell" (on "The Croppy's Complaint," Craft Recordings CRCD03 (1998); Terry Moylan notes)
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Bagnal Harvey's Farewell" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998))
Harte: Harvey "was a Protestant, a popular landlord and ... a senior member of the United Irishmen in Wexford." When the rebellion collapsed Harvey tried to escape but was betrayed, taken, court-martialled, hanged and his head placed on a spike over the Wexford courthouse. "The song was written shortly after 1798 but was only heard as a recitation until an air was put to it by Tommy Mallon. Since then it has been widely sung." - BS
Bagenal Harvey was by no means the best choice to command the Wexford rebels. Although in genuine sympathy with the United Irishmen (the British had put him in prison for this; see Thomas Pakenham, The Year of Liberty, p. 188), he was a Protestant, and a landlord -- and, seemingly, a militarily inept coward. His incompetence was largely responsible for the defeat at New Ross (see the notes to "Kelly, the Boy from Killane"), which led to the gradual but inevitable decline of the Wexford rebellion. Having lost at New Ross, he fled, was captured, an eventually hanged (see the notes to "Croppies Lie Down (II)" and "The Wexford Schooner"). - RBW
File: Moyl090

Baggage Coach Ahead, The

DESCRIPTION: The passengers on the train are awakened by a child's cries. They complain to the child's father. He tells them that the child's mother is dead "in the baggage coach ahead." Upon learning this, the passengers turn helpful
AUTHOR: Gussie L. Davis (1863-1899)
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (sheet music by Howley, Haviland & Co.)
KEYWORDS: family children mother death train
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 304-315, "In the Baggage Coach Ahead" (1 text plus some excerpts, a copy of the sheet music cover, and four texts on related themes, 1 tune)
Randolph 704, "The Baggage Coach Ahead" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 58, pp. 131-132, "The Baggage Coach Ahead" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 211-212, "In the Baggage Coach Ahead" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 42, pp. 59-61, "In the Baggage Coach Ahead" (3 texts)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 255-260, "In the Baggage Coach Ahead" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a copy of part of the sheet music)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 249-250, "Baggage Coach Ahead" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #116, "The Baggage Coach Ahead" (1 text)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 42, "The Baggage Coach Ahead" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 155-156, "In the Baggage Coach Ahead" (fragmentary text, partial tune)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 173-178, "In the Baggage Coach Ahead" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 477, "The Baggage Coach Ahead" (source notes only)
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 152-156, "In the Baggage Coach Ahead" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1896 sheet music)
Roud #3529
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Baggage Coach Ahead" (OKeh 7006, 1924)
Vernon Dalhart, "In the Baggage Coach Ahead" (Columbia 15028-D, 1925) (Edison 51557 [as Vernon Dalhart & Co.], 1925) (Victor 29627, 1925) (Supertone 9248, 1928) (Perfect 12199 [as Bob Massey]; Perfect 12644, 1930) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5011 [as Vernon Dalhart & Co.], n.d.)
Red Evans, "In the Baggage Coach Ahead" (Vocalion 5173, 1927)
Arthur Fields & Fred Hall, "In The Baggage Coach Ahead" (Grey Gull 4090/Radiex 4090, rec. 1928)
George Gaskin, "In the Baggage Coach Ahead" (CYL: Collumbia 4080, c. 1898)
George Hobson [possibly a pseudonym for George Reneau?] "The Baggage Coach Ahead" (Silvertone 3047, 1924)
Andrew Jenkins & Carson Robison, "In the Baggage Coach Ahead" (OKeh 45234, 1928)
Lester McFarlane & Robert Gardner, "The Baggage Coach Ahead" (Brunswick 200Brunswick 326/Vocalion 5200, 1928; rec. 1927)
George Reneau, "The Baggage Coach Ahead" (Vocalion 14918, 1924)
Kate Smith, "In the Baggage Coach Ahead" (Columbia 2605-D, 1932)
Ernest Thompson, "In The Baggage Coach Ahead" (Columbia 216-D, 1924; Harmony 5124-H [as Ernest Johnson], c. 1930)
NOTES [480 words]: Various "real" stories have been claimed as the inspiration of this ballad -- e.g. Randolph reported it to be based on the real-life story of Dr. James B. Watson and family. Watson's daughter Nellie was born in 1867, and the girl's mother died in 1869. Watson was taking his wife's body back to her home in Pennsylvania when the events described took place.
On the other hand, Spaeth notes that Charles K. Harris wrote a song "Is Life Worth Living," with almost the same plot, some years before Davis produced "Baggage Coach." Whether based on an actual incident or not, the idea amply met the nineteenth century demand for tearjerkers.
Cohen's notes on the song include four other dead-body-on-the-train songs, and list other people on whose story the song might have been based. Adding it all up, it seems likely that there was *something* in existence before Davis worked on this song, though the Davis text does seem to have become canonical.
According to Finson, p. 142, 142, "[Gussie Lord] Davis (1863-1899) was one of the rare African-American composers before World War II to have his music accepted in the non-ethnic canon of popular song. A native of Cincinnati, he received an informal education in music and some private lessons at the Nelson Musical College while working as a janitor (he was refused admission as a student on racial grounds). He moved to New York around 1887, just in time to witness the birth of Tin Pan Alley as a force in the publication of popular song, and he soon became one of its most famous composers, contributing a song still heard occasionally, 'Irene, Good Night.'"
According to Jasen, p. 17, early in life he wanted to attend Nelson Musical College, but "[b]ecause he was black, his application was rejected, so he made a deal with the administration to trade his janitorial services for private lessons. His first song, 'We Sat Beneath the Maple n the Hill," was published by Hilling & Company, a local printer, in 1880. Whenever the song appeared in a shop window, Davis would point to the song and say, 'That's me. I done it."
Jasen's story is that Davis, who worked as a Pullman porter before becoming a full-time songwriter, met a little girl who says that her mother's coffin was in the coach ahead. Davis sold the song outright to Howley, Haviland & Company, so it didn't make him rich, but it was sung by Irene Comer, "The Queen of Song," and was one of the big hits of 1896.
Jasen never mentions a connection to "Goodnight, Irene," and I don't kow if Davis really played a role in it, but he is responsible for several other songs in the Index: "Maple on the Hill," "The Express Office (He Is Coming to Us Dead)," and "There's No One Like Mother to Me," plus the tunes for "The Fatal Wedding" and "The Child of the Railroad Engineer (The Two Lanterns)." Also perhaps "Sweet Refrain." Rather a maudlin streak to that list.... - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: R704

Bahama Lullaby

DESCRIPTION: Singer wants to hear "that old Bahama lullaby Like my Bahama mama used to sing ... let ne live or let me die Where I heard that lullaby ... beneath the moonlit skies"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Blind Blake Higgs: see WIHIGGS01)
KEYWORDS: home lullaby lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Bahama Lullaby" (on WIHIGGS01)
NOTES [14 words]: The current description is based on Higgs: probably intended primarily for tourists. - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: RcBBBaLu

Baile Mhuirne

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "This is a poem in praise of Ballyvourney (Co Cork), particularly its scenery and the richness of its Irish-language tradition."
AUTHOR: Donnchadh O Laoghaire (1900) (source: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 29, "Baile Mhuirne" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Baile Mhuirne" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [27 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. The recording has only the first two and one half verses. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC029

Bailey's Daughter of Hazelentown, The

See The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington [Child 105] (File: C105)

Bailie's Daughter, The

See The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington [Child 105] (File: C105)

Bailiff's Daughter of Islington, The [Child 105]

DESCRIPTION: A youth is in love with the Bailiff's daughter. He is apprenticed in London for seven years. At last she disguises herself to see if he is still true. They meet; he asks of his love. She says she is dead; he grieves; she reveals herself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1731 (ballad opera, "The Jovial Crew"); before 1697 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(230a))
KEYWORDS: love separation disguise apprentice
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber,Bord,Hebr)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (41 citations):
Child 105, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text)
Bronson 105, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (35 versions+4 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 105, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (6 versions: #1, #8, #11, #18, #24, #32)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #115, p. 1, "The Bailie's Daughter" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 168, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (5 texts, 6 tunes) {A=Bronson's #12, B=#7, C=#34, D=#10, E=#14, F=#13}
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 15, "The Squire's Son of Aizling Town" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp 265-266, "True Love Requited: or, The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 174-175, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 187)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 529, "Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 fragment)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 225-227, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 135-137, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques LVI, p. 100, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (2 partial texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #16(?), #24}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 28, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #25}
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 68-69, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #164, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #21}
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 18, pp. 114-116, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 4, "The Comely Youth" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 29, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 41-42, (no title) (2 excerpts which the editors apparently regard as part of "The Bailiff's Daughter")
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 61-63, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune) {Bronson's #31b}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 67-75, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (2 texts plus 2 fragments, 4 tunes, two of the tunes being from the same informant and used for the same text, with some of the differences being perhaps transcribers' variants) {A(1)=Bronson's #31b, A(2)=#31a, B=#23}
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 160-162, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #24, seemingly the source for the tune printed}
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 100-101, "The Bailiff's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune, likely learned from a revival recording)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 58-62, "The Bailiff's Daugher of Islington" (3 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #19, #20, #18}
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 14, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 fragment)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 15, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 313-315, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (2 texts, but the second of these looks more like a George/John Riley text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 140, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 162, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 30, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (2 texts, 2 tunes){Bronson's #3, #5}
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 66-67, "The Bailey Daughter of Hazelentown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 67, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 203-204, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text, 2 tunes) {first tune=Bronson's #16}
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, p. 159, "The Bailiff's Daughter" (1 tune, partial text) {Bronson's #16}
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #73, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 73-75, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 219, "Bailiff's Daughter Of Islington" (1 text)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 37, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2549, "There was a youth, and a well belov'd youth"
DT 105, BAILDAUG*
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 158-160, "True-love Requited or The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (1 text)
Roud #483
RECORDINGS:
Albert Beale, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (on FSBBAL1)
Tony Wales, "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (on TWales1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(230a), "True Love Requited" or "The Bayliffs Daughter of Islington", P. Brooksby (London), 1672-1696; also Douce Ballads 2(229a), Harding B 5(8), Douce Ballads 3(94a), "True Love Requited[!]" or "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington"; Firth c.26(181), "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington"; Harding B 11(129), Harding B 11(1196), "[The] Bailiff's Daughter"
SAME TUNE:
I Have a Good Old Mother at Home (per broadside Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(230a))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Comely Youth
Nancy the Bailiff's Daughter
True Love Requited
The Shepherd
The Hills o' Traquair
NOTES [22 words]: The 1731 date is for the tune, but the the broadside, ZN2549, was published by Phillip Brooksby sometime between 1683 and 1696. - WBO
Last updated in version 6.3
File: C105

Bailiff's Daughter, The

See The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington [Child 105] (File: C105)

Bainbridge Tragedy, The

DESCRIPTION: "In Bainbridge town there dwelt of late A worthy youth who met his fate." Urial Church and girlfriend Louisa go strolling in the snow; he throws snow in her face. She playfully throws a scissors at him -- but wounds him; it festers and he dies. All grieve
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Garnder/Chickering)
KEYWORDS: injury death love courting warning
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 124, "The Bainbridge Tragedy" (1 text, very probably from print)
ST GC3700 (Partial)
Roud #3700
File: GC3700

Bake a Pudding, Bake a Pie

DESCRIPTION: Skipping game. "Bake a pudding, bake a pie, Did you ever tell a lie? Yes you did, I know you did, You broke your mother's teapot lid. O-U-T spells out, And out you must go, Right in the middle Of the deep blue sea."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: playparty food lie
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 104, "(Bake a pudding)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #30, "Bake a pudding" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 33, "(As I went up the apple tree)" (1 text, consisting of the first two lines of "As I Climbed Up the Apple Tree" followed by the first six lines of "Bake a Pudding, Bake a Pie")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric) and references there
File: SuSm104C

Baker, Baker, Bake Your Bread

DESCRIPTION: Rope-skipping or swinging game. "Baker, baker, Bake your bread, Salt, vinegar, mustard, pepper."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty food
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 103, "(Baker, baker)" (1 text); also pp. 103-104, ("Onery, twoery, threery, same") (1 text, which combines the counting part of "One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann" with a "salt, mustard, vinegar, pepper" line also found in New Zealand texts of "One to Make Ready," "Baker, Baker, Bake Your Bread," and "Mabel, Mabel")
cf. Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, p. 15, "Baker, Baker, Bake your bread" (1 partial text included as a cross-reference)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bluebells, Cockleshells" (verse regarding vinegar, salt, mustard, pepper) and references there
File: SuSm103B

Bal Chez Boulé, Le (Boule's Ball)

DESCRIPTION: French: Jose wishes to go to Boule's Ball; his mother makes him stay until his chores are done. At last he finishes and hurries off to the dance -- only to fall down and be thrown out. His Lisette proceeds to dance with another swain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865
KEYWORDS: work dancing courting foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 108-109, "Le Bal Chez Boulé (Boule's Ball)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 78-79, "Le Bal Chez Boulé (Boule's Ball)" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [38 words]: Fowke reports (at about fourth hand) that this is a true story about one José Blais. "He went to a ball without being invited, had the misfortune to trip the daughter of the house, and was thrown out bodily by her father." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FJ108

Balaclava (I)

See The Famous Light Brigade (File: Doe276)

Balaclava (II)

See The Last Fierce Charge [Laws A17] (File: LA17)

Balaena, The

See The Old Polina (File: FMB165)

Balance Unto Me

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Balance-bob Works Up and Down

DESCRIPTION: Nursery song for the children of tin miners: "Balance-bob works up and down, Pumping the water from underground, Over the while the engine do lash, Scat the old man back in the shaft."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Deane/Shaw)
KEYWORDS: mining children nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 76, "(Balance-bob works up and down" (1 short text)
File: DeSh076

Balbriggen Landlord

DESCRIPTION: "Low-bred landlords" raise rents and drive starving tenants. "Viva la for Hampton landlords" who voted against Union and stood with Flood, Burke, Grattan and Parnell. "Viva la" for Parnell "driving foes and Landlord Reptiles from his native land"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political landlord
FOUND IN:
Roud #V39513
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(659), "A New Song Dedicated to an Upstart Balbriggan Landlord" ("Viva la our landlords' mounted"), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blackbird of Avondale (The Arrest of Parnell)" (subject of Charles Stewart Parnell)
cf. "Viva La, the French They Are Coming" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(659))
NOTES [276 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(659) is the basis for the description.
Zimmermann pp. 61-62: "From a moderate and somewhat ineffective party, the Home Rule movement became a decisive force when Charles Stewart Parnell rose to leadership. In forming a temporary alliance with the revolutionaries and playing an important part in the Land League agitation, he vastly increased his prestige. Old song-themes were revived in his honour." This broadside is one of the examples Zimmermann cites.
Balbriggan is in County Dublin, Ireland.
Henry Grattan (1746-1820) and Henry Flood (1732-1791) were eighteenth century Protestants who formed a Patriot Party calling for Irish independence (source: "1700 - 1800" in Ireland Information at the World Infozone site). Burke may be one of the Fenians General Thomas H Burke or Colonel Richard O'Sullivan Burke [one of whom is assumed to be the Burke of "Burke's Dream"]; Edmund Burke, though a supporter of Irish Catholic liberation, seems unlikely [to me]. [Me too. Extremely. He was too conservative. - RBW] For some information on Parnell (1846-1891) and the Land League see RBW's note to "The Bold Tenant Farmer." - BS
In addition, there is information on Grattan and Flood in the entry on "Ireland's Glory" and "Harry Flood's Election Song."
Since Saint Patrick was credited (falsely) with driving the snakes from Ireland, the reference to "driving... Landlord reptiles" is surely a way of calling then snakes. Which, in context, is largely true; while British policy toward Ireland was usually benighted, it was the landlords -- many of them Irish, we note -- who truly ruined the lot of the Irish peasants. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BrdBaLan

Bald Eagle

DESCRIPTION: "Well, I wish I was an old bald eagle, long time ago, I'd fly away down to Oklahoma." "Darkie said he'd hug my Sally." "Cocked my gun and pulled the trigger... Shot that darkie through the liver." "Oh, what's in the pot, my good granny?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Roberts-SangBranchSettlers)
KEYWORDS: bird Black(s) homicide courting food
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #66, "Bald Eagle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3425
NOTES [18 words]: Roud lumps this with "Old Bald Eagle," but I think them only faintly related at best; I have split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Robe066

Bald Knobber Song, the

DESCRIPTION: "Adieu to old Kirbyville, I can no longer stay. Hard Times and Bald Knobbers have driven me away." He does not wish to leave family and home, but the vigilante Bald Knobbers drove him away. He describes their various villainies
AUTHOR: Andrew Coggburn?
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: exile crime outlaw violence
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1884 - Organization of the Bald Knobbers (according to Randolph, but see NOTES)
1889 - Dispersal of the Bald Knobbers
FOUND IN: US(Ro,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Randolph 154, "The Bald Knobber Song" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune, plus a third brief fragment of another piece)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 175-177, "The Bald Knobber" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 154A)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 374-375, "The Bald Knobber Song" (1 text)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 164-165, "(Bald Knobbers' Song)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL:
Harvey N. Castleman (pseudonym for Vance Randolph?), _The Bald Knobbers: The Story of the Lawless Night-Riders Who Ruled Southern Missouri in the 80's_, Haldeman-Julius Publications, 1944 (I use the Kessinger print-on-demand reprint, my copy being from 2011), pp. 14-15, (no title) (1 text, of the same type as Randolph's "A" but with some differences in the lyrics)
Mary Hartman and Elmo Ingenthron, _Bald Knobbers, Vigilantes on the Ozarks Frontier_, 1988 (I use the 2002 Pelican Press edition), pp. 96-99, "The Ballad of the Bald Knobbers" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune, the fragment and tune being an excerpt from Randolph's "A"; the full text appears to be an expanded version of Castleman's text)
Vincent S. Anderson, _Bald Knobbers: Chronicles of Vigilante Justice_, History Press, 2013, pp. 175-177, "The Ballad of the Bald Knobbers" (1 text, almost certainly derived ultimately from Randolph)
Roud #5486
NOTES [7470 words]: The history of this song is mysterious. Randolph's texts ("A," which is fairly full, "B" a fragment, "C" a mere allusion of two lines) clearly represent at least two, and probably three, songs -- but since "B" and "C" seem to be attested only by Randolph's fragments, I (and Roud) see little point in splitting them.
Still, there is a genuine mystery about the relationship of these songs. Randolph's short "B" text, which is not found in any other source known to me, claims to be by Andrew Coggburn (of whom more below). Yet Randolph's "A" text, which is also the version printed by Castleman, Hartman/Ingenthron, and Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, also claims to be by Coggburn (at least in the versions in Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, Castleman, and Hartman/Ingenthron; Randolph's "A" has the probably-distorted name "Robert Cobart"). Did Coggburn write *two* songs? Alternately, did Coggburn's brother write a version with his name in it, as suggested by Anderson, p. 47, who says that there was a song by this other Coggburn "referred to Kinney and the Knobbers obscenely"?
And what is the relationship between the Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, Castleman, Hartman/Ingenthron, and Randolph "A" texts? Burt-AmericanMurderBallads's is the shortest, and might well have arisen naturally from one of the longer texts. Castleman's text is closely parallel to Randolph's for the first seven verses, but it has the name of "Andrew Coggburn" where Randolph prints "Robert Cobart," plus it fills in a half-verse missing in Randolph (as it should be, since Castleman was Randolph!). And Hartman/Ingenthron in turn have a text quite close to Castleman's but with additional lyrics at the end.
Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 97, say that one person thought Coggburn's uncle Robert Coggburn originated this song, and explicitly cite two people who thought one Aunt Matt Moore was the writer (the tune being "Charles Guiteau"). They also suggest that several others added some lyrics to the piece. I rather suspect that these "others" were Castleman/Randolph and Hartman/Ingenthron. Probably the only legitimate versions are Randolph's "A" and Burt-AmericanMurderBallads's.
About all that is certain, historically, is that Andrew Coggburn was a real person, and sang *something* about the Bald Knobbers, and was eventually murdered by them. About the Bald Knobbers themselves we know more. The Bald Knobbers were named after the rise of ground on which they met. According to Randolph, they organized in 1884 to combat outlaws in Taney County, Missouri, but soon turned outlaw themselves, being regarded by some as the Ozark equivalent of the Klan.
Randolph inevitably simplifies a complex situation. There are at least four books about the Bald Knobbers, Lucile Morris Upton's Bald Knobbers, published 1939, Castleman (which however is more of a pamphlet and has no documentation), Hartman/Ingenthron, and Anderson, the latter two of which Randolph of course did not know (although he knew members of one of the author's families). As a matter of fact, Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 41, thinks Castleman is a pseudonym for Randolph himself, and Norm Cohen confirms this (message to Ballad-L mailing list, April 8, 2011; Cohen worked with Randolph and talked with him at length). Cochran, p. 188, confirms that Castleman was one of sixteen booklets on various topics that Randolph sold to the Haldeman-Julius company in 1944; Randolph considered these books hack-work, and it frankly shows.
Cohen also notes a typescript about the Bald Knobbers by Vandeventer, but this has not been published to my knowledge.
For the record: Yes, I believe Elmo Ingenthron, the co-author of Hartman/Ingenthron, was related to Charles Ingenthron, who was one of Randolph's greatest informants. Online social security records show that Joseph Ingenthron and Eliza Cornelison had at least two sons, James Jacob Ingenthron, born 1876, and Charles Ingenthron (1883-1974). Elmo Ingenthron (1911-1988) was the son of James Jacob.
Although the Bald Knobbers were primarily vigilantes, with perhaps some Klan influence (according to the frontispiece in Hartman/Ingenthron, they wore hoods which looked like ski masks with holes for eyes, nose, and mouth and with long horns coming from the top of the head), the inspiration was at best indirect -- according to Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 7, the Bald Knobbers were "mostly conservative Republicans and former Unionists" (recall that Missouri was split in its sentiments in the Civil War), while the anti-Bald Knobbers were mostly "Democrats and former Confederate soldiers" (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 8). And surely no Klan-inspired group would ever have included anyone who could even bring himself to say the word "Republican"!
The Civil War had apparently stirred up many problems in the White River region of Missouri; there was a Union garrison in Forsyth, the primary town in the area, and both Union and Confederate recruiters worked the district -- sometimes refusing to take "no" for an answer, according to Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 13-15.
In the postwar period, there was a significant increase in local violence, and local justice was unable to control it; criminals would flee over the Arkansas or Indian Territory (Oklahoma) border. Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 287, says that more than thirty murders were committed in Taney County in the two decades after the Civil War -- but no one was ever convicted for any of them. Castleman, p. 7, says that no one in Taney County had been sentenced to the penitentiary for *any* crime for twenty years.
On September 22, 1883, Al Layton murdered a saloonkeeper named J. M. Everett in a barroom fight seen by several witnesses (Anderson, pp. 17-18), shooting Everett after Everett had halted a fight between Layton and Sam Hull. In 1884, Layton was acquitted by a jury which was accused of being drunk (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 21-23) and perhaps bribed (Anderson, p. 19). This seems to have been the final straw, or nearly.
Overwhelming evidence indicates that a Union veteran named Nathaniel Kinney was the founder of the Bald Knobbers (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 23-25). Born in (West) Virginia but taken west while young (Castleman, p. 60), he had a tendency to exaggerate his War record (he was a private, not an officer); after the war, he worked in the railroad industry, then ran a saloon (Castleman, p. 6, claims the brawny Kinney killed four men in brawls during this stage of his career), then used the proceeds of that to start a farm. Castleman, p. 6, reports that he imported the first piano ever found in Taney County.
Disgusted with local justice, Kinney brought together about a dozen men in late 1884 or early 1885; they formed a secret, oath-bound society. Castleman, p. 9, and Anderson, p. 22, quote the oath, although Hartman/Ingenthron says it was not preserved, and Castleman admits that the members kept no records. It appears that all those called to the initial meeting were former Union soldiers (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 27); several would probably have been considered carpetbaggers. But their agreed-upon goal was to control the lawlessness they observed in Taney County (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 30).
There was talk of limiting the group to 100 people, who were required to "have a clean reputation, pay taxes, and own property" (Hartman/Ingenthron,p. 32). But they also ended up recruiting men who were willing to join because they were rowdies who wanted to have some "fun" (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 34). Eventually the Knobbers started organizing "legions," or companies, of 75 men (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 37).
To their partial credit, these Republican reformers also worked through the ballot box, and had some success in 1884 (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 32) -- indeed, part of their purpose in organizing the Bald Knobbers may have been to influence the votes of the rank and file (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 41). This may have been why they decided to expand beyond one hundred -- and why they brought in as much riff-raff as they did. Most of their recruits "abhorred slavery, belonged to the Masonic Order, and supported the Republican Party" (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 40). But future elections could not change what they saw as past miscarriages of justice. So the Bald Knobbers held their first official meeting some time in early 1885. According to Anderson, p. 20, there had been an informal meeting in January of that year in what had been J. M. Everett's saloon; the thirteen men there planned the organization then prepared for a larger gathering outside, on a hill.
The "Bald Knob" where they gathered was formally known as Snapp's Bald, near Kirbyville. It was chosen because it had a good view of the neighborhood, meaning that any spies could easily be spotted -- plus, because it was outdoors, the Knobbers could claim that they were technically having "open" meetings (Anderson, pp. 20-21).
Open, but not very public; they proceeded to adopt a set of by-laws and take an oath which bound them to absolute secrecy on pain of death -- and then they burned all copies and declared that there would never be any paper records (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 37-38). They seem to have made this decision stick -- few if any internal documents survive. To strengthen the secrecy, they adopted a series of handshakes and passwords and rituals (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 39).
The oath they created seems to have been used only at the original meeting, after that, they developed a shorter ceremony in which an initiate had a rope placed around his neck and a pistol aimed at him and swore to maintain secrecy upon pain of death (Anderson, p. 22).
It appears, based on Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 43, that outsiders knew about the group from the very start; the name "Bald Knobbers" came from those not part of the organization. Non-members at first didn't know what to expect. Their answer came on the night of April 6/7, 1885, when the Bald Knobbers tried to take Newton Herrell from the Forsyth jail -- an ominous act, because Herrell (who had been arrested for killing his mother's lover Amus Ring and then turned in by his own mother; Anderson, p. 25) had not been tried (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 44). Thus it appears the Bald Knobbers were trying to apply their form of justice even before the ordinary legal machinery had rendered its verdict. The break-in failed, however. The Bald Knobbers backed down in the face of resistance by Sheriff Polk McHaffie; they hung a noose by the jail door and left (so Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 44-45; by contrast, Anderson, p. 26, says that McHaffie was in great fear but that the Bald Knobbers never intended more than a demonstration, although on p. 48, Anderson says that McHaffie was a Bald Knobber; his sources may be confused).
(Herrell would eventually be sentenced to fourteen years in prison, which Anderson, p. 26, says was the first sentence of more than two years ever given in Taney County.)
The relatively peaceful phase did not last. Around this time, two brothers, Frank and Tubal Taylor -- who are mentioned in the third verse of the Randolph/Castleman/Hartman/Ingenthron text of the song -- at the very least made nuisances of themselves; Frank robbed (Castleman, p. 10) and/or trashed a store (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 47; Anderson, p. 28, says he got married, bought a bunch of stuff on credit, then demanded still more merchandise before he had paid off the bill, and trashed the store when he didn't get it), and Tubal, who was accused of maiming the cattle of someone he disliked, fled from confinement (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 48). They then shot and injured the Dickinson family, owners of the shop Frank had earlier damaged, and fled (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 49-50; Anderson,p. 29). The Taylors supposedly then concocted a plan to collect the reward money for themselves, and then escape or trust in a weak jury to acquit them (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 51). Castleman, p. 11, thinks the Taylors counted on the fact that they were locals and the Dickinsons recent arrivals.
Once again, the Bald Knobbers decided to anticipate justice. On the night of April 15/16, they broke into the jail, dragged out the Taylors, and hanged them (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 50-53; Anderson, pp. 30-31, observe that they were simply dangled from a rope, so they were strangled slowly rather than having their necks broken). There may have been a notice on the bodies: "These are the first Victims to the Wrath of Outraged Citizens -- More will follow[.] THE BALD KNOBBERS" (Hartman/Ingenthron seem somewhat dubious about this, because the Bald Knobbers never put their name on anything else, but they do not footnote a source for the notice; Castleman makes no mention of the sign on p. 11 of his account of the affair; Anderson, p. 32, repeats the account without question).
Apparently the Taylors were felt to be no loss -- they certainly sound like they were completely worthless -- but the lynching caused people to question vigilante methods (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 58). Several of the founders are said to have never attended another Bald Knobber meeting after the lynching (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 60). But Kinney responded by increasing recruitment; supposedly their numbers eventually reached one thousand -- although many of the new men may have been coerced (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 62) or at least afraid (Anderson, p. 33). Other respectable citizens, unwilling to accept this sort of law, reportedly sold their land and left Taney County.
Still others decided to fight back. Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 67, note that "A month or two after the Taylor lynchings, about thirty men formed a sort of home guard or militia that quickly became known as the Anti-Bald Knobbers." Many of these people were deeply conservative -- but Nathaniel Kinney's right-wing sanctimoniousness turned them off (he condemned informal marriages, accused county officials of corruption, railed against debt, and preached sermons with guns set before him, even though he was not ordained by any sect). It seemed particularly hypocritical coming from an ex-saloon keeper.
The Anti-Bald Knobbers, however, did not have the sort of charismatic leadership supplied by Kinney (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 68), so it took much longer for them to get organized. They did not amount to much -- and they may have convinced Kinney to ramp up his activities. The Bald Knobbers increasingly held "trials" in absentia and convicted based on hearsay (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 70) -- and they adopted a Klan-like tactic of riding past an alleged evildoer's house and ordering him to reform. Often they would leave a pile of hickory switches, indicating how many days the victim had to reform or leave (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 71). Hartman/Ingenthron follow Castleman, p. 12, in suggesting that they adopted this method because many of the Bald Knobbers were illiterate and could not give a written warning (and some of the victims could not read).
There seems to be little information available about just how much violence took place. There are reports of several victims of the Bald Knobbers being whipped to death, and also instances of them fighting back and killing individual Bald Knobbers. But Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 74, can cite no numbers and few names, and Castleman, p. 12, admits that all that is certain is that some men disappeared. Anderson, p. 51, claimed six men had died between January and August of 1886 as a result of Bald Knobber activities, although some of these should perhaps be called collateral damage.
The Bald Knobbers were numerous enough, and powerful enough, that they started to take over both grand and petit juries, meaning that they decided who to indict and who to let free (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 80). As they gained power and forced property owners to flee, increasingly it was the Bald Knobbers who bought the land -- usually at fire sale (or flee-the-county-sale) prices (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 83-84).
In a very curious development, a petition was submitted to a judge, signed by many (suspected) Bald Knobbers, asking for an audit of Taney County's books. The judge granted the petition, but before the audit could proceed far, an arsonist set fire to the courthouse (Anderson, p. 34). No one seems to know which side was responsible (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 90-91), but the records needed for the audit were destroyed (Castleman, p. 12). (The need for a replacement courthouse eventually provoked a major political fight, again involving the Knobbers, but that was later; Anderson, pp. 140-141.)
The situation eventually grew so bad that people began talking about killing Kinney (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 95). Nothing came of that at the time -- but the topic would come up again.
As mentioned above, one of Randolph's fragments claims to be by Andrew Coggburn -- although I think it more likely, if we had the whole song, that it was another person's account of his death. Coggburn apparently liked to make fun of the Sunday School where Kinney presided (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 78; Anderson, p. 38, reports that it was the first Sunday School in the county). This made him Kinney's enemy -- and Kinney didn't take well to having enemies.
Coggburn's troubles with the Bald Knobbers went back even before the founding of the organization. According to Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 95, his father had been killed in 1879 by future Bald Knobbers. Castleman, p. 14, says that Kinney had had Coggburn himself flogged, and adds that Kinney thought Coggburn had sent him a death threat.
Certainly Coggburn's constant insults toward Kinney finally caused the chief of the Bald Knobbers to turn against him. Supposedly Coggburn and his brother fought off a band of Bald Knobbers who came to deal with them. Kinney then induced a judge to issue a warrant against Coggburn for carrying concealed weapons (so Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 100; Castleman, p. 15 says it was for disturbing the peace; Anderson, p. 38, mentions Coggburn paying a fine for the weapons charge well before his death, which makes me wonder if two crimes aren't being conflated) -- and entrusted Kinney with enforcing it (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 100). Kinney's posse approached Coggburn in the presence of an independent witness, Sam Snapp.
Exactly what happened next is unclear, because the witnesses disagree. Kinney called on Coggburn (and Snapp) to put his hands in the air. Snapp says Coggburn did; Kinney says he put up his left hand but reached for his gun with his right. Whatever the truth, Kinney shot Coggburn dead (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 101-102; Anderson, p. 40) -- but let Snapp live (for a while) to tell his version of the story.
According to Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 103-104, the coroner's jury was packed with Bald Knobbers, who passed a judgment of "justifiable homicide" on Kinney -- claiming that Coggburn would have shot first but his weapon jammed. Whatever the actual facts, Kinney went free. Even Castleman, p. 16, says that "The killing of Coggburn was, it seems to me, much less reprehensible than the cowardly murder of the unarmed Taylor boys, or the numerous outrages against women and children for which Kinney and his followers were responsible." He says this because Coggburn was armed and knew that Kinney was looking for him.
The level of terror was reaching the point where the opponents of the Bald Knobbers were finally forced into action. In addition to writing to state newspapers to announce their plight (Castleman, pp. 16-17), they drafted a petition and sent it to Missouri Governor John S. Marmaduke (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 106; Anderson, pp. 42-43).
This was a major move -- and not just because it put Taney County's problems before the wider society (in years to come, there would be substantial newspaper coverage). Marmaduke was quite a character. He was a West Point graduate (1857), and had been serving on the Utah expedition against the Mormons when the Civil War broke out (HTIECivilWar, p. 475). The nephew of Claiborne Jackson, who was Missouri's pro-Confederacy governor in 1861, he was quickly given a command in the Missouri State Guard (Brooksher, p. 88), where his uncle's obstinacy forced him into a losing (minor) battle at Boonville (Brooksher, pp. 89-91). Joining the Confederate regular Confederate service, he served in Missouri and Arkansas, led a regiment at Shiloh, and was promoted Brigadier General in late 1862. He spent most of the rest of the war leading cavalry in Missouri and Arkansas, and was finally appointed Major General in 1865 -- the last officer to be given that rank in Confederate service (HTIECivilWar, p. 476).
He also killed one of his junior officers, Lucius March Walker, in a duel in 1863. Boatner, p. 885, says that the reason for the duel is unknown; HTIECivilWar, p. 798, suggests that Marmaduke called Walker a coward, and Walker responded by demanding satisfaction. Marmaduke complied, despite the attempts by their superior officer to intercede.
This was the man who was elected Democratic governor of Missuri in 1884. According to Settle, p. 155, he took an anti-railroad position -- and, although it was never officially stated, he was against allowing Frank James to be convicted or extradited to Minnesota for trial (Settle pp. 157-158; Yeatman, p. 289).
Since he was a Democrat and a former Confederate, and the Bald Knobbers were largely Republican and Unionist, Governor Marmaduke would seem a natural opponent. On the other hand, he had a certain streak of small-government vigilante-ism in him.... And, although apparently initially receptive to the anti-Bald Knobbers, a delegation from the Knobbers -- who argued that the anti-Bald Knobbers were not Taney County taxpayers in good standing -- caused him to pause and send an official to investigate (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 111-112). Randolph seems to refer his "C" fragment to this visit by Adjutant General J. C. Jamison (for whom see Castleman, p. 17), but there isn't enough text to be sure.
Upon arriving, Jamison declared that *two* unlawful groups were in existence -- i.e. the Bald Knobbers and the anti-Bald Knobbers. The investigator was persuasive enough that Kinney promptly called together the Bald Knobbers and announced that they were disbanding (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 120-121; Castleman, p. 18, says that Jamison ordered Kinney to shut things down or go to prison; Anderson, p. 44, suggests that Jamison suggested Kinney pretend to disband). Kinney and friends even drew up documents to that effect (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 123-125).
The first mention of a Bald Knobber song is reported from this time. Sam Snapp, the man who had seen the murder of Coggburn, was heard singing it in the town of Kirbyville. One of those present was George Washington "Wash" Middleton, who had apparently already been chosen by Kinney to eliminate Snapp (Castleman, p. 18, although Anderson, p. 47, says that the Bald Knobbers claim the whole thing was spontaneous). Middleton promptly shot Snapp to death (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 131-133). Since Snapp's wife was already dead, that left his five children as orphans.
So much for the claim that the Bald Knobbers had disbanded. Other acts of vigilantism took place at the same time. Houses were once again shot up -- and the rot was beginning to cross into other counties. A man named Cobble, who lived in Christian County, was flogged (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 126-127).
People in Taney County continued to sell their lands due to Bald Knobber activities. Some of these were Kinney's political enemies -- but many were genuine social undesirables. And they had to go somewhere. Christian County, north of Taney Country, became the refuge for a large fraction of them (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 139). Eventually Kinney came north to encourage the founding of a Bald Knobber group in that county as well (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 140). He also helped found a chapter in Douglas County (next to Christian County) in 1885 (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 187). According to Anderson, p. 75, seven counties eventually had Knobber chapters, and p. 89 includes a claim that "the organization extends not merely through southwestern Missouri, but into Arkansas, Texas, Indian Territory [i.e. Oklahoma] and Kansas." Even if this is true, it appears that only the chapters in Taney and Christian counties were active enough to make much mark in history: "So far as [is] known no lives were taken by Knobbers in any save Taney and Christian counties" (Anderson, p. 78).
The Douglas County chapter chose as its chieftain Joe Walker, whose relative Dave Walker headed the Christian County chapter (Anderson, p. 78). The level of violence in Douglas County was less (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 189), but ironically they came under federal investigation sooner (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 190). The Knobbers there would eventually be charged with interfering with the operation of the Homestead Act controlling land distribution (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 191). Most of those charged pled guilty (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 191) and were sentenced to periods from two to six months in prison (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 192). Those still free seem to have tried to intimidate witnesses, but as more and more sentences came down, they gave up (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 193).
If the Douglas Country chapter never did too much harm, things grew ugly in Christian County. Unlike the Taney County group, which at least pretended to meet in the open, the Christian County branch's preferred meeting place was a cave (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 143). Their rituals were different, but by 1886 it was clear that they used much the same sort of terror techniques (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 145-146). And they were concerned with morality as well as upholding the actual law; they destroyed a saloon's stock in trade (Anderson, p. 78, says they also threatened to hang the owner), beat men they considered lazy, and forced a polygamist to give up his wives (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 148-149).
Eventually their behavior grew extreme enough that their own chairman Dave Walker tried to disband the group -- but the rank-and-file (which apparently consisted largely of ne'er-do-wells) refused to contemplate the idea (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 151-153). Instead of disbanding, they went out and committed mass murder -- they targeted one man, James Edens or Charles Eaton (the sources cited by Anderson differ in the spelling, which probably tells you all you need to know about their reliability), but left two men dead on the scene, a man and a woman injured to the point of unconsciousness, and two widows and several children physically unharmed but witness to the slaughter of their parents (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 158-161; Castleman, p. 20; Anderson, pp. 83-84). The Bald Knobbers had one man injured -- but he was one of their leaders, Billy Walker (so Hartman/Ingenthron; Anderson in some places calls him Will Walker).
According Anderson, p. 86, no physician dared go to help the injured, but justice in Christian County was less feeble than in Taney. Anderson, p. 87, claims that five thousand people visited the site of the slayings. There was a real attempt to investigate the murders, and one of the participants was not only arrested but induced to talk. His testimony led to other participants (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 164; Castleman, pp. 20-21; Anderson, p. 87). Eventually more than two dozen men were in custody, and about half confessed. There were so many of them that the existing jail couldn't hold them (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 165-167; Castleman, p. 21). Sixteen men were charged with two first degree murders (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 171); others were charged with assault and battery (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 172); in all, eighty men were indicted (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 173; Anderson, p. 88, in what is surely an exaggeration, says there were three hundred indictments).
The course of the trials was fascinating. Many minor cases were quickly disposed of, with the defendants fined and set free so the county didn't have to pay for their upkeep. Most of the defendants were poor, and could not afford to post bail, but initially hoped for a delay until emotions died down. But one man insisted on a speedy trial, and was acquitted (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 176; Anderson, pp. 113-121, has an account of the trial of this man, Gilbert Applegate; it seems to me, based on this account, that while there wasn't much doubt about the crime, it couldn't be shown that Applegate was part of it).
Somewhere in here, according to Anderson, pp. 124-125, most of the key witnesses were lynched. But it didn't seem to affect the course of the trials. Billy Walker (the son of Dave), the only Knobber wounded in the fight and so clearly linked to it, then decided to allow his trial to proceed -- and, after a ten day trial, was found guilty of first degree murder (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 177-180). He was a juvenile (Castleman, p. 23), but that still meant a death sentence -- and threw the remaining Bald Knobbers into confusion, because they had given up all their claims for a change of venue and such after the first acquittal.
Since there could be few legal games after that, a series of convictions followed, including even that of Dave Walker, the father of Billy (Anderson, p. 126). He had been the founding organizer of the Christian County Bald Knobbers -- but had argued against the massacre, and had taken no part. After it was over, however, he was said to have suggested silencing the witnesses, and that -- even though the testimony came from witnesses who were trying to save their own necks -- was enough to cause him to be convicted of first degree murder (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 180-182).
After that, many of the accused started scrambling to plead guilty to second degree murder (Castleman, p. 24). The pleas were generally accepted, and most of the men sentenced to more than twenty years -- although one alleged minister (of what? Satan?) was given what amounts to benefit of clergy and got off with a dozen years (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 182-184; Castleman, p. 24; Anderson, pp. 96-97, prints a writing of this allegedly educated man, C. O. Simmons, which shows him to have been incapable of spelling or punctuation). As a side effect, most of the accused lost their land, turning it over to their lawyers in return for legal services (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 184-185). Those sentenced to death naturally appealed. This gained them a few months of life, but the first three sentences were promptly upheld (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 185).
The Federals eventually caught up with George Washington Middleton, the man who had killed Sam Snapp. According to Anderson, p. 48, he planned to head for Arkansas, but heard a rumor that he was being pursued by vigilantes and decided to turn himself in. He was acquitted of first degree murder, but convicted of second degree murder. The jury sentenced him to forty years, reduced by the judge to fifteen years (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 200-203; Castleman, p. 19). But someone unlocked his jail cell and he simply walked away from his sentence and fled to Arkansas (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 203-204). It is apparently not known who set him free, although Anderson, p. 48, says the sheriff was responsible. The Missouri government and the Snapps themselves put up some hundreds of dollars in reward money, and also hired a detective/bounty hunter to trace him (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 204-205). The bounty hunter killed him in July 1888 (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 205-207; Anderson, p. 48, adds that Missouri did not pay its share of the reward money).
This was a token of disasters to come for the Bald Knobbers. The death of Middleton came as the Missouri Supreme Court was preparing to take up the Walker case. And even as that was happening, a quarrel was starting which would lead to the death of Nathaniel Kinney. It seems to have begun as a case of adultery. Two men named Berry and Taylor apparently were both involved with Mrs. Berry; and Berry was not one to take that lightly. Anderson, p. 52, calls J. S. B. Berry "revengeful and cunning," and claims that this is how he attracted his wife -- but also why she came to lose interest. He is also said to have been a counterfeiter. Taylor, a young lawyer who was friends with Kinney, supposedly took lodging at Mrs. Berry's hotel because she was a good cook (Anderson, p. 53).
Supposedly Berry came home unexpectedly one night to find Taylor intimate with his wife (Anderson, p. 54). Berry and Taylor on occasion took potshots at each other, without effect ("It was very disgusting to the mountaineers to see such wretched marksmanship," according to Anderson, p. 55). Supposedly Taylor eventually admitted to adultery in court, but Mrs. Berry never did. She did, however, obtain a divorce (Anderson, p. 56). Berry eventually filed for bankruptcy, apparently to assure that his wife didn't get his hands on his property (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 209-211). Since the sheriff didn't want to be the receiver in the bankruptcy case, a judge assigned the role to Kinney (Anderson, p. 56).
Kinney probably had people watching out for Berry, who would resent Kinney's inventorying of his property. But they were not watching for Billy and Jim Miles, who earlier had been chosen by anti-Bald Knobbers to eliminate the vigilante chief. On August 20, 1888, the two walked into the store when Kinney was alone. Shots were fired, and Kinney ended up dead. Billy Miles promptly announced that he had killed Kinney "in self-defense" (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 214-215. Echoes, obviously, of Kinney's claims in the case of Andrew Coggburn). There were claims that Kinney was shot in the back (according to Castleman, p. 23, this was the story of pro-Bald Knobber witnesses), but the bullet wounds seem to have been in his chest and side. There is genuine dispute over whether his pistol was in or near his hand or was on a shelf (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 216-217); the account cited by Anderson, pp. 58-59, says that there was an unfired pistol near his hand, but that it was Berry's, not Kinney's, and that Kinney's was in the shop but not near his body).
There was fear that there would be unrest at Kinney's funeral, but it never materialized. Quite a few people attended the burial (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 218-219), but there doesn't seem to have been a real #2 in his organization. Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 220, report that there seem to be no issues at all in existence of the August 23 edition of the Taney County News, which should have covered his death. Castleman, p. 28, says that his grave is unmarked.
On October 1, some six weeks after the murder, Berry was charged with first degree murder (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 221). He faced a variety of other counts as well, on weapons charges (which were later dismissed; Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 262) and for the fight with Taylor; he was eventually sentenced to five years for that (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 263). Miles, of course, was also charged, but had no trouble making bail because he had so much local support (Anderson, pp. 59-60).
In the Christian County case murder case (the one which involved the Walkers), prisoners John and Wiley Matthews managed to escape. One version of the story says they were rescued; another, that they dug a hole in the wall; another, that the guard set them free (Castleman, p. 25); still another, that they managed to make an impression in soap of the keys to their cell, and got a jailer to supply metal for a duplicate key (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 225-227). In January 1889, they made their break for freedom (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 228). The Walkers refused to join them. John Matthews was soon recaptured, but Wiley and his family would remain free for decades (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 228-229).
The cases of the other Christian County defendants had by this time moved from the judicial to the political system. As the Supreme Court worked on the Dave Walker case, petitions started to reach the governor for clemency (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 230).
Governor David R. Francis (1850-1927) was a more significant character than his predecessor Marmaduke. According to DAB (volume III, p. 578), he was a grain merchant, then went on to the governorship. In the last months of the second Cleveland administration, he became Secretary of the Interior (1896-1897) after his predecessor Hoke Smith resigned to campaign for William Jennings Bryan. As Interior Secretary, it was his task to implement the Forest Reserve Act of 1891, establishing what became the National Forests. According to DeGregorio, p. 348, he put 20 million acres into the Reserve -- a small amount compared to what Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft would set aside, but it was Francis who got the Reserve started (and provoked some controversy by so doing -- according to Morison, p. 746, "The McKinley administration threw most of them back to the loggers," but Francis had set a precedent that future administrations would follow).
When McKinley came into office in 1897, Francis was out, and he had opposed William Jennings Bryan in 1896, costing him popularity; he left politics for a decade, refused to consider a vice presidential bid in 1908, and failed in a primary in the 1910 Senate race (DAB, volume III, p. 578). But in 1916, Woodrow Wilson called him to be Ambassador to Russia. He served at that post until 1918, thus witnessing both the February and October revolutions and the beginning of the Russian Civil War. From what I can tell, he was rather a cipher in that role -- but Moorehead, p. 165, says that America was the first nation to recognize the Provisional Government (i.e. what became the Kerensky government), and that this was largely due to Francis.
He sounds like a character out of Dickens. According to Moorehead, p. 165, "He was a remarkable figure, more attuned to the world of O. Henry than the Czarist court (and indeed O. Henry mentions him as a gourmet). He had his portable cuspidor with a foot-operated lid, his cigars, his Ford touring car for summer and his sleigh and team of horses for winter; the horses had United States flags stuck in their bridles, and according to Norman Armour, the second secretary at the Embassy, 'gave you the impression when you drove with him that you were on a merry-go-round.' At the Ambassador's dinners (which were rare; he preferred poker) a hand-cranked phonograph played from behind a screen."
In 1889, however, Francis was still new to his role as governor, and the Bald Knobber situation was one of the first things he had to address. He did delay the executions of Billy Walker and John Matthews briefly to let the Supreme Court reach its decision in the case of Dave Walker. But the court affirmed Dave Walker's conviction (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 230). Francis then ordered the executions to go ahead (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 232; Anderson, p. 134). Although Francis was a Democrat and the Bald Knobbers mostly Republicans, there is no hint in Hartman/Ingenthron that this was considered political. He simply felt that it was the duty of the state to execute duly convicted criminals.
Billy Walker, shortly before his execution, was baptized in a bathtub (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 233; ANderson, p. 135). I can't help but note that if the new Baptist had read the words "thou shalt not kill," he wouldn't have had to worry about execution.
A extremely large crowd eventually gathered for the execution, forcing the sheriff to bring in armed guards and even to knock a hole in the jailhouse wall to bring the convicts out (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 233-235). This even though hangings in Missouri were not supposed to be public spectacles. But the onlookers did not stop the execution; at 9:55 a.m. on May 10, 1889, Billy Walker, Dave Walker, and John Matthews were hung (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 238).
It was incompetently done. A hanging is supposed to break the neck -- but only Matthews had his neck broken. Dave Walker strangled to death -- slowly. Billy Walker's rope broke and he had to be re-dropped -- after begging once more for mercy (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 238-239; Anderson, p. 137, says that even Matthews took thirteen minutes to die, and Dave Walker fifteen). Apparently nothing could ever go right where Bald Knobbers were involved. The flip side is, the condemned men brought it on themselves; the sheriff had wanted to bring in a professional executioner, but the convicts had wanted him to do it himself (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 225, 243; Castleman, p. 27, says that he had never even seen an execution).
As the Walker/Matthews case reached its end, Billy Miles went to trial for the murder of Kinney. The judge found local sentiment so strong that he moved the trial (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 245). There seems to have been an organized attempt -- possibly supported by the Kinney family -- to assassinate Miles, who had been bailed out by anti-Bald Knobbers despite a very high bail of $8000 (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 246-248). The new sheriff of Taney County, Galba Branson, who had lived in the county since 1883 and was pro-Bald Knobber (Anderson, p. 61), seems to have actively taken a hand in the attempt. After the Miles brothers went free, Branson and the hired gun he brought with him were killed in a shootout with the Miles Brothers as they attempted to bring them back, with Jim Miles being wounded (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 250-253; Anderson, p. 63).
In an ugly move, Bald Knobbers set out after the Miles Brothers, and in their quest to learn where they had gone, actually put a noose around a friend of the family, although they did not hang him (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 256). The wounded Jim Miles gave himself up on July 6; about a week later, Billy Miles was taken into custody, although it is not clear if he surrendered or was taken (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 257-258). On March 22, 1890, after a six day trial, Billy Miles was acquitted of first degree murder in the death of Kinney on the grounds of self-defense (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 263-265, 292). Then it was time for the trial in the Galba Branson case. That case took almost no time, and on September 5, Billy and Jim Miles were found not guilty in the murder of Branson. The prosecution then dropped the murder charge in the case of Funk, the hired gun (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 267-269; Anderson, pp. 67-68).
Billy Miles soon after left the state (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 270). That seemed to be the effective end of actual Bald Knobber activities. Jim Miles would later get into a fight and end up serving a ten year sentence for second degree murder, but not for anything related to Bald Knobberism (Hartman/Ingenthron, p. 270). Later, there was a vigilante killing of one John Wesley Bright (a man charged with killing his wife; Anderson, p. 147), which also resulted in the death of an innocent man who was guarding Bright in the prison (Anderson, pp. 148-149); pro- and anti-Bald Knobbers seem to have taken different sides in the case, and former Bald Knobbers probably played a role -- but there was no actual Bald Knobber organization involved (Hartman/Ingenthron, pp. 271-284). In any event, the trial for Bright's murder largely came apart because of local sentiment and prosecutorial mismanagement (according to Anderson, p. 153, the entire jury pool consisted of Bald Knobbers who would not have been willing to convict).
According to Anderson, p. 167, after the Bald Knobbers collapsed, a network called the "Black-Caps," which held to many Knobber ideals, continued to hold some sway. But it clearly didn't exert the same power.
There is a certain amount of documentation about the Bald Knobbers on the web, although it adds little (as of this writing) to what is in Hartman/Ingenthron.
https://thelibrary.org/lochist/periodicals/wrv/v9/n3/sp86g.htm (checked July 26, 2023) is an affidavit by I. J. Haworth about how the Bald Knobbers threatened him. Hartman/Ingenthron calls him John Haworth and refers to his story on pp. 82-83 and other places.
The site http://ourfamilies.htmlplanet.com/baldknobbers/bald.htm (checked July 26, 2023) summarizes the Knobbers history, and has photos of Nathaniel Kinney and a Bald Knobber mask.
I note with some disquiet that there now seems to be an act at Branson, Missouri called the "Baldknobbers show." And, no, Branson is not named after Galba Branson; the town is older than the murdered sheriff.
The Bald Knobbers also appeared in Harold Bell Wright's famous book The Shepherd of the Hills, and also in the associated movie; Anderson, p. 24, shows a movie still of masked Bald Knobbers. The masks look accurate, but the Bald Knobbers of the book are outlaws who share little but the name with the real Bald Knobbers.
This tradition of fake Bald Knobber stories goes back a long way; apparently a bunch of Bald Knobbers made up a play about the events and hoped to take it to New York. Happily, the idea failed (Anderson, p. 139). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: R154

Bald-Headed End of the Broom, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns men against marriage: It's fun at first, but wait till you're stuck "with a wife and (sixteen) half-starved kids." "So keep away from the girls... For when they are wed, they will bang you on the head With the bald-headed end of a broom"
AUTHOR: Harry Bennett
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Copyright)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage warning wife children family hardtimes poverty
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Australia Ireland
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Randolph 386, "The Bald-Headed End of the Broom" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 313-315, "The Bald-Headed End of the Broom" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 386A)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 206, "Boys, Keep Away from the Girls" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 64, "Boys, Keep Away from the Girls" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 34, "Advice to the Boys" (1 fragment, only two stanzas and without a reference to the broom but with lyrics and theme much like this)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 101, "Boys, Stay Away from the Girls" (1 text, probably this although it doesn't mention the bald-headed end of the broom)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 190-191, "The Bald-Headed End of the Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 193, "The Bald-Headed End of the Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 55-57, "Blue Glass" (1 text, 1 tune, part "The Bald-Headed End of the Broom," part "Blue Glass," a song which seems otherwise unattested)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 273-274, "Baldheaded End of the Broom" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 105, (No title) (1 partial text)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 94, "Look Before You Leap" (1 text, probably somewhat rewritten and without a chorus)
DT, BALDBROM BALDBRM2*
Roud #2129
RECORDINGS:
Martha Gillen, "Bald-Headed End of the Broom" (on FSBFTX19)
Grandpa Jones, "The Bald Headed End of A Broom" (King 717, 1948)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Look Before You Leap" (probably rewritten; Columbia 15601-D, 1930; on CPoole03)
George Reneau, "Bald Headed End of The Broom" (Vocalion 14930, Silvertone 3052, 1924; Vocalion 5052, c. 1926)
Walter "Kid" Smith & Norman Woodlief with Posey Rorer, "The Bald-Headed End of a Broom" (Gennett 6887/Champion 15772 [as by Jim Taylor and Bill Shelby]/Supertone 9454 [as by Jerry Jordan], 1929; on GoodForWhatAilsYou)
Mike Seeger, "The Baldheaded End of a Broom" (on MSeeger01)\
File: FaE190

Baldheaded End of the Broom, The

See The Bald-Headed End of the Broom (File: FaE190)

Baldy Bane

See What's Your Name? (File: SaKo120B)

Baldy Green

DESCRIPTION: "Come listen to my ditty... 'Tis about one Baldy Green... He was a way up six horse driver On Ben Holiday's stage line." Green is halted by robbers, but rather than yielding the gold, he restarts the team. Green is shot; the money is saved
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: robbery gold horse homicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 22, 1865 - Robbing of the Pioneer Stage driven by George E. "Baldy" Green near Silver City
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 209-210, "(Baldy Green)" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 606-609, "Baldy Green (1 text plus a broadside print)
Roud #22293
NOTES [63 words]: Burt-AmericanMurderBallads claims this incident actually happened, but can offer no supporting evidence, nor even cite the location of the failed robbery. The data on the robbery comes from Cohen.
There was an article, "History of Baldy Green," in Southern Folklore Quarterly, Volume IX, number 1 (March 1945), but I have not seen it and do not know if it is about this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Burt209

Baldy's Teeth Were Long

DESCRIPTION: "Baldy's teeth were long, Baldy's teeth were strong, It would be no disgrace To Baldy's face If Baldy's teeth were gone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 133, "(Baldy's teeth were long)" (1 text)
File: SuSM133B

Balena, The

See The Old Polina (File: FMB165)

Balinderry

See Ballinderry (File: HHH080)

Ball at Davidson's, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a ball at Davidson's Just i' the mids o' Lent." There were farmers, thimble-riggers, itinerant dealers and lottery folk. The farmer couldn't sell cattle or grain but fish sellers and thimble-riggers did well.
AUTHOR: Peter McCombie (source: Greig/Duncan3)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: commerce farming gambling dancing trick
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 628, "The Ball at Davidson's" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6065
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Errol on the Green" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Murlin and the Creel
File: GrD3628

Ball Gawn Roun' (The Ball Is Going Around)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: Game begins and the ball goes around. Players take turns and show how the ball goes around. [The person in the middle must discover the holder.]
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 16-17, "Bawl Gawn Roun'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 94, "(Pass the ball an' the ball goin' round") (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Olive Lewin, _Rock It Come Over - The Folk Music of Jamaica_ (Barbados: The University of the West Indies Press, 2000), pp. 72-73, "Pass the Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jim Morse, _Folk Songs of the Caribbean_ (New York: Bantam Books, 1958), pp. 108-109, "Bawl Gawn Roun'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Martha Warren Beckwith and Helen Roberts, _Folk-Games of Jamaica_ (Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1922 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #24 pp. 30-39, "Pass the Ball" (2 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Ball Gwan Roun'" (on WIEConnor01)
NOTES [11 words]: Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, Morse, and Lewin describe the game. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: JaMu016

Ball of Kerrymuir, The

See The Ball of Kirriemuir (File: EM095)

Ball of Kinnie Muir, The

See The Ball of Kirriemuir (File: EM095)

Ball of Kirriemuir, The

DESCRIPTION: A quatrain ballad, the scores of verses to this song describe the sexual feats at the "gathering of the clans."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1938 (sung by Mikeen McCarthy on Voice14)
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England,Scotland) Ireland US New Zealand
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 95-101, "The Ball of Kirriemuir" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 58, "The Ball of Kinnie Muir" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 168-170, "The Ball of Kirriemuir" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 34-40, "The Ball of Kerrymuir" (1 text)
DT, KERIMUIR*
Roud #4828
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singers, "The Ball of Kirriemuir" (on Unexp1)
John MacDonald, "The Ball O'Kerriemeer" (on Voice07)
Mikeen McCarthy, "The Ball O'Kerriemeer" (on Voice14)
SAME TUNE:
Black Billy Blues (by Joe Charles) (Les Cleveland, The Great New Zealand Songbook, p. 67)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Ball at Kerrimuir
The Gatherin' of the Clan
NOTES [177 words]: A few verses are attributed, with little evidence, to Robert Burns. - PJS
Patrick Delaforce, Monty's Highlanders: 51st Highland Division in the Second World War, 1997 (I use the 2016 Pen & Sword paperback), p. 221, reports that the 51st Highland Division sang this as they crossed the Rhine in March (?) 1945, despite the efforts of the Chaplain to get them to sing "Onward Christian Soldiers" and the band's playing "Scotland the Brave."
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear reports, "Versions and variations abound for this song. In some military circles, it is reputed to be over 400 years old, and to have more verses than the Koran." Which is undoubtedly true, since the Quran is in prose, but I doubt that's what the storytellers meant. To be equally nitpicky, the subdivisions of the Surahs of the Qutan are properly called āyāt; we call them "verses" in English, but they are not really the same type of thing as the "verses" of the English Bible (which are in fact a modern creation, although the Hebrew had something similar. The Greek Bible did not.) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM095

Ball of Yarn

DESCRIPTION: The narrator asks a pretty little miss "to wind her ball of yarn." He contracts gonorrhea, then is arrested nine months later, and sentenced to the penitentiary, all for "winding up that little ball of yarn."
AUTHOR: Unknown; parody of "Winding Up Her Little Ball of Yarn" (words: Earl Marble; tune: Polly Holmes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1890; original song copyrighted 1884
KEYWORDS: bawdy disease pregnancy sex punishment prison parody
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,West)) Ireland US(MA,MW,Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 89-95, "Ball of Yarn" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 97-104, "Little Ball of Yarn" (10 texts, 3 tunes)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 533-534, "The Little Ball O' Yarn" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbrEd, pp. 385-386]
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 180, "The Little Ball of Yarn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 26, "The Little Ball of Yarn" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #76, "The Ball of Yarn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 249, "And She Skipped Across the Green" (1 fragment)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 64, "Little Ball of Yarn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 266, "The Little Ball of Yarn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 198-199, "Little Ball of Yarn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 74-75, "Little Ball of Yarn" (1 partial text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 155, "Little Ball of Yarn" (1 text)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 47, "I'm a Gentleman of Leisure, of Nobility and Pleasure" (1 text)
DT, BALLYARN* BALLYAR2* BALLYAR3
Roud #1404
RECORDINGS:
Mary Ann Haynes, "The Little Ball of Yarn" (on Voice20)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Little Ball of Yarn" (on NLCR14)
Southern Melody Boys, "Wind the Little Ball of Yarn" (Bluebird B-7057/Montgomery Ward 7227, 1937) [Note: Not having heard this record, I don't know whether it's the parody or the original. - PJS]
Nora Cleary, "Little Ball of Yarn" (on IRClare01)
Unidentified woman, Mena, Ark., "Little Ball of Yarn" (LC AAFS 3236 A1, 1936)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fire Ship" (plot) and references there
cf. "Blackbirds and Thrushes (I)"
NOTES [328 words]: Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms has extensive notes on the history of this ballad, tracing it to Burns's "Yellow, Yellow Yorlin." - EC
It should be noted, however, that Cray-EroticMuse's tune does not match the versions of "Yellow, Yellow Yorlin," and while there are lyrical similarities, the metrical pattern is also slightly different. Roud/Bishop questions how the transformation from a bird (the yorlin, or yorling, is a Scots name for the yellowhammer) to a ball of yarn could have happened in tradition. Their suggestion is that "Ball of Yarn" is a combination of elements from the Burns song and a Victorian piece, "Winding Up Her Little Ball of Yarn." - RBW
The song of which this is almost certainly a parody can be found [in the Library of Congress online collection]. - PJS
And said song is pretty bad; it begins
It was many years ago,
With my youthful blood aglow,
I engaged to teach a simple district school.
I reviewed each college book,
And my city home forsook,
Sure that I could make a wise man from a fool.
Mister School Committee Frye thought 'twould do no harm to try,
To see if unruly scholars I could l'arn.
When his daughter I espied, with her knitting by her side,
As she wound up her little ball of yarn.
The singer wooed and won the girl in short order, and now that he is old, he remembers the good old days every time he sees her darning socks!
Steve Gardham has another suggestion, which is that both this and "Yellow Yorlin" trace back to an arty song, "The Golden Skein," which somehow survived in the tradition of the Beers Family. - RBW
A broadside id for a Library of Congress reference is LOCSheet, sm1884 20995, "Winding Up her Little Ball of Yarn," White, Smith & Co. (Boston), 1884 (tune); the sheet music attributes the words to Earl Marble and the music to Miss Polly Holmes.
Mary Ann Haynes version on Voice20 lacks the gonorrhea and arrest touches; the girl has a baby and warns other young girls to "never trust a farmer." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: EM089

Ball-Bouncing and Rope-Jumping Song, A (Hello, Sir)

See Hello, Hello Sir (File: CoCo188)

Ballad of a Young Man

See The Fatal Glass of Beer (File: SBar174)

Ballad of Ben Hall (II)

See The Death of Ben Hall (File: MA098)

Ballad of Ben Hall, The

DESCRIPTION: Ben Hall was "a peaceful, quiet man until he met Sir Fred." Then, with his homestead burnt and his cattle dead, he turned outlaw. The song describes the reward for Dunn, Gilbert, and Ben, and exhorts the listeners to toast their memories
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (revised edition of Paterson's Old Bush Songs)
KEYWORDS: abuse outlaw police Australia
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 5, 1865 - Ben Hall is ambushed and killed by police near Forbes, Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 88-89, "The Ballad of Ben Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 55-57, "Ballad of Ben Hall's Gang" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 75-79, "Dunn, Gilbert, and Ben Hall" (1 text)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 130-132,"Dunn, GIlbert, and Ben Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 29-32, "Ballad of Ben Hall's Gang" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 15-17, "The Ballad of Ben Hall" (1 text)
A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, pp. 124-125, "Dunn, Gilbert and Ben Hall" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ben Hall" (plot, subject) and references there
NOTES [364 words]: On the basis of internal references (see below), this song might be a variant of "Ben Hall." However, the metre is slightly different and there are few similarities of texts beyond the names of the robbers.
Ben Hall is widely regarded as "the noblest of the bushrangers." This song tells the common story that he was hounded from his home by the police, and only then turned to crime. Even as a bushranger, he attacked only the rich and never shed blood.
The truth is not quite so pretty, although Hall really does seem to have tried to avoid bloodshed and to have been framed; for background, see the notes to "Ben Hall."
Dunn and Gilbert, like Hall, were associated with Frank Gardiner's outlaw band, and remained with Hall when that gang went its separate ways. John Gilbert brought the full force of the law down on the gang when he shot a policeman, and he died along with Johnny Dunn in 1866. Johnny O'Meally, also mentioned in the song, was a member of the gang killed in 1863. (Gardiner was eventually taken, but was paroled after ten years and allowed to emigrate to the U.S., where he opened a saloon and, it is said, was shot in a poker fight in 1903.)
"Sir Fred" is Sir Frederick Pottinger, a "monumentally inept" officer of the crown who bungled the whole case -- and eventually managed to accidentally kill himself -- again see "Ben Hall" for background.
To tell this song from the other Ben Hall songs, consider this first stanza:
Come all you sons of liberty and listen to my tale;
A story of bushranging days I will to you unveil.
It's of those gallant heroes, God bless them one and all!
So let us sit and sing: 'God save the King, Dunn, Gilbert, and Ben Hall.'"
John S. Manifold, Who Wrote the Ballads? Notes on Australian Folksong, Australasian Book Society, 1964, p. 61, makes an interesting point: At the time Ben Hall was a bushranger, Victoria was Queen of Britain and Australia, with no King (indeed, her husband Albert was dead by then). So there is no "King" for this song to refer to. Manifold contends that the King is Frank Gardiner. I'm not absolutely sure I buy that, but Manifold is probably right in contending that the statement is political. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: FaE088

Ballad of Ben Hall's Gang, The

See The Ballad of Ben Hall (File: FaE088)

Ballad of Big Jim Folsom, The

See She Was Poor But She Was Honest (II) (File: EM132)

Ballad of Billy the Bull Rider

DESCRIPTION: Billy takes his girl to a rodeo where he is riding bulls. He assures her that all will be well -- but he is thrown as his girlfriend watches: "There wasn't a thing she could do But stand there and watch the boy die." She has nightmares of his last ride
AUTHOR: Johnny Baker
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: cowboy injury death dream
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 95, "Ballad of Billy the Bull Rider" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Ohr095

Ballad of Bloody Thursday, The

DESCRIPTION: "As I went walking one day down in Frisco... I spied a longshoreman all dressed in white linen.... and cold as the clay." The boss owned the unions. The workers fought back to regain their rights. 400 workers were killed or injured. He tells them to fight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Greenway); probably written c. 1934
KEYWORDS: labor-movement strike battle death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 5, 1934 - Bloody Thursday, the first day of serious violence in the three-month-old strike on the San Francisco docks
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 237-238, "The Ballad of Bloody Thursday" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 668-669, "The Ballad of Bloody Thursday" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 524-525, "The Ballad of Bloody Thursday" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [245 words]: According to Robert E. Weir and James P. Hanlan, editors, Historical Encyclopedia of American Labor, 2 volumes, Greenwood Press, 2004, pp. 135-136,
"In 1933 alone, more than 1.2 million workers went on strike, a six-fold increase from 1930 [as a result of New Deal laws making unionization more possible]. Typical of these struggles was that involving West Coast dockworkers. By August 1933, nearly 95 percent of San Francisco's longshoremen joined the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), the first successful organizing drive since the Industrial Workers of the World enrolled waterside workers in the 1910s. Anger had long simmered among dock workers, riggers, and longshoremen. Many were tired of the dehumanizing morning shape-up, in which men stood on the docks while foremen decided whom to hire. On May 9, 1934, some 12,000 dock workers from British Columbia to San Diego stayed away....
"Within two weeks, an additional 10,000 workers were on strike. In July, the city of San Francisco was virtually closed by a four-day general strike that idled more than 125,000 workers from a variety of trades. The strike fizzled out, due in part to brutal repression, but mainly because a Longshoreman's Board was established to arbitrate long-standing disputes."
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest lists the tune as "The Cowboy's Lament," so the book prints it with a "Streets of Laredo" variant, but I'm not entirely sure I trust that linkage. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CAFS2668

Ballad of Bosworth Field, The

DESCRIPTION: After a prayer for England ("GOD:that shope both sea and Land"), the poem describes the armies of Richard III and Henry Tudor that fought at Bosworth Field. The Stanley Brothers are highly praised for their role in the battle that made Henry the new King
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio); probably composed before 1495
KEYWORDS: royalty battle death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 22, 1485 -- Battle of Bosworth. Somewhere near Market Bosworth, the forces of King Richard III are defeated by those of Henry Tudor, and Richard is killed. Henry becomes King Henry VII
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume III, pp. 233-259, "Bosworth ffeilde" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #986.5
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1614
ADDITIONAL: Richard III Society Web Site, Ballad of Bosworth Field page, https://r3.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Bosworth-Fielde-%5F-Richard-III-Society-Am-American-Branch.pdf, accessed 7/15/2023 (taken from Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 434
RELATED: Lady Bessy/The Song of the Lady Bessy
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume III, pp. 319-363, "Ladye Bessiye" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 464
NOTES [5603 words]: For the background to the reign of Richard III, see the notes to "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34]. This particular entry is entirely specific to one of our few historical sources for that period, the so-called "Ballad of Bosworth Field," and to the battle of Bosworth itself.
We have no absolute proof that the "Ballad" was ever sung, but it seems clear that it was intended to be. Of the sources I checked, it is cited by Ross and Bennett, but rarely used by other authors. Child mentions it in his notes to "The Rose of England" [Child 166] but does not deign to print it. Its value is debated; Wagner, p. 16, says of the three Bosworth ballads ("Bosworth Field," "The Rose of England" [Child 166], and "The Song of Lady Bessy," which someone suggested is by Humphrey Brereton because he played an improbably large part in it; Langley, p. 287, says "Lady Bessy" is by "a Brereton" but offers no direct evidence) that some have gone so far as to treat them collectively as fiction, while others treat them as biased but genuine historical sources.
To summarize these three items, they are:
- The Rose of England, Child #166, Percy Folio p. 423; Index of Middle English Verse #3720; Digital Index of Middle English Verse #5919
- Bosworth Field, Percy Folio p. 434; [IMEV #986.5]; DIMEV #1614
- The Most Pleasant Song of the Lady Bessy, Percy Folio p. 463; [IMEV #981.3]; DIMEV #1605; also in British Library MS. Harley 367, a composite mostly of papers owned by John Stow (Severs/Hartung, volume 6, p. 1777). It is noteworthy that this manuscript also contains the earliest copy of "Flodden Field" [Child 168], probably in the same hand as "Lady Bessy," and not, according to Severs/Hartung, the hand of Stow, who wrote other parts of the manuscript. The DIMEV lists ten other items in the book; six are by John Lydgate, and a seventh, the "London Lackpenny," widely although probably falsely attributed to Lydgate. The others are by George Ripley, Henry Scogan, and John Skelton.
One reason to treat the three poems together is the fact that all three are found in the Percy Folio (though "Lady Bessy" was copied elsewhere). Given the Folio's tendency to include pieces of material from a common origin (e.g. many romances printed by William Copeland), it is obviously likely that all three items derive from a common collection, very likely a pro-Stanley Family anthology. That "Bosworth" and "Bessy" (and, for that matter, "The Rose of England") share a common bias is fairly clear, but that doesn't mean they are by the same author or have the same view of history.
So an honest assessment would treat the poems separately. "Lady Bessy," which shares some lyrics with "Bosworth Field," was valued in the nineteenth century by Agnes Strickland (Laynesmith, p. 21) and more recently by Alison Weir, but it is patent fiction and (it seems to me) a late rewrite which uses elements of "Bosworth Field" (my own guess is that it was designed to flatter Elizabeth I, the granddaughter of Elizabeth of York who is the Lady Bessy of the ballad -- or, just possibly, it is disguising the actions of Henry VII's mother Margaret Beaufort, who in fact did conspire against Richard III, by hiding Margaret's actions behind her future daughter-in-law). "The Rose of England" is obvious Tudor propaganda with some Stanley flattery thrown in; while not pure fiction, it is extremely unreliable.
To be sure, Child thought "Bessy" derived from "Bosworth," and most scholars think that "Bessy" is more interesting as a poem. That does not make it better history. (And I'm not convinced; "Bessy," being obvious fiction, would be the one more likely to borrow odds and ends, apart from its political appeal at a later date.)
"Bosworth Field" is another, and much trickier, matter to evaluate -- frankly, I think that this, rather than "The Rose of England," is the Bosworth ballad Child should have printed. It is probably near-contemporary; although our only copy is from the Percy Folio, there is a sixteenth century epitome which differs in some regards, making it likely that the original is earlier still.
Ross argues, since it praises Sir William Stanley, that the original is from before 1495, the year Stanley was executed (although Griffiths/Thomas, p. 134, counter-argue that it was composed after 1495 as a justification of William Stanley. But either argument makes it late fifteenth century). Sadly, it has clearly been damaged in transmission; the names in the surviving copy are often much muddled. It seems intended to glorify the Stanleys -- who certainly didn't deserve the praise -- but its primary importance is that it is probably based on evidence gathered by a Stanley herald or spy (Bennett, p. 13) -- in other words, an eyewitness.
That the witness is biased is undeniable, and the author had very little real information about what happened in Richard III's army. If we take that into account, I agree with Ross that the "Ballad" should get more respect than it does; Ross notes that, insofar as it can be tested, it is accurate. The one major error in is it the claim that Richard had 40,000 men at Bosworth, which is impossible -- but such exaggerations are commonplace in records of the era.
It is unfortunate that the "Ballad" is not more often reprinted; while awfully long to be sung (164 four-line stanzas), it has some genuinely fascinating touches, such as a speech by Henry Tudor:
Into England I am entred heare,
my heritage is this Land within;
they shall me boldlye bring & beare,
& loose my liffe, but I[']le be King.
Iesus that dyed on good ffryday,
& Marry mild thats ffull of might
send me the loue of Lord Stanley!
he marryed my mother, a Lady bright.
Henry Tudor's mother was Margaret Beaufort, the last of the Beauforts, through whom Henry made his claim to the throne; the Beauforts were descended from John of Gaunt, the third son of Edward III [died 1377]). Both Lord Stanley and Margaret Beaufort, of course, had been married to others before they married each other. Margaret Beaufort, in 1457 (at age 13!), had borne Henry Tudor to her first husband, Edmund Tudor; by 1464 she was married to Henry Stafford, the brother of the Duke of Buckingham, who died in 1471; she married Lord Stanley no later than 1473 (Chrimes, pp. 15-16).
The situation in August 1485 was this (again, this is a very brief summary of the notes in "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34]): The widely respected King Edward IV, first of the Yorkist line, had died in 1483, leaving as his heir a 12-year-old boy, Edward V. Edward IV's brother Richard, until then known for his conspicuous loyalty, had produced a series of arguments to prove that the boy was in fact illegitimate, and had taken the throne as Richard III. The uncrowned Edward V and his brother Richard Duke of York then vanished.
Richard's brief reign had already produced significant positive legislation, but many were dissatisfied -- some were unhappy about the disappearance of the "Princes in the Tower" (Edward V and Richard of York); others were die-hard supporters of the Lancastrian dynasty which Edward IV had overthrown, and some, such as the Duke of Buckingham, seem simply to have wished to feather their own nests. The Stanleys, the heroes of this ballad, certainly fell into the latter camp -- and were ruthless about it: "The Stanley family stopped at nothing to further their hegemony in northern Lancashire, using their influence at court to gain possession of the heiresses to the Harrington estate, subsequently imprisoning them and marrying them against their will" (Langley/Jones, p. 84; see also p. 224).
Many of these disaffected nobles settled on Henry Tudor as their hope. He had no real claim to the throne -- his mother Margaret Beaufort was descended from King Edward III, who had died more than a century earlier, but by a lineage that was arguably illegitimate and that had unquestionably been barred from the succession. But he was a technical Lancastrian, and Lancastrians would support anyone over a Yorkist.
Henry had tried to invade England in 1483, but the rebellions on his behalf collapsed. In 1485, he tried again, and this time, he landed in England. (I can't help but note the irony that he set out from Harfleur, the place where Henry V had invaded France seventy years earlier; Ross, p. 202).
Ross-Wars, p. 101, notes how close the Tudor invasion came to failure: "In Brittany [Henry] narrowly managed to escape being captured and turned over to the English, and made good his escape to France. There the government, which was anxious to absorb Brittany into France, and feared that Richard would support the Breton independence movement, decided to aid Henry's invasion. Supplied by France with money, ships, and some 3,000 French troops, he set sale for Wales in August 1485 -- but just in the nick of time, for French policy changed abruptly after his departure."
Henry Tudor had been very, very lucky in his friends. Had the Bretons turned him over to Richard, this discussion probably wouldn't be necessary, but Henry was warned just in time, and escaped to France. The French were temporarily in a very anti-English phase. And, just at the time when Richard was most distracted, they gave Henry Tudor a fleet (Arthurson, p. 5) and let him invade (Pollard, pp. 160-162). It is also possible that the Scots sent a contingent, although the evidence for this is quite indirect (Chrimes, p. 70 and n. 1).
Henry landed at Milford Haven in Wales on August 7. Richard, who was based in Nottingham, apparently learned of his landing on August 11, and summoned such supporters as could reach him quickly. Henry and Richard III gathered their forces, and finally met at Bosworth. The two armies met on August 22.
Whether he deserved it or not, Richard's position in 1485 was precarious, due primarily to the decimation of the nobility. There were only a few really strong nobles left, and not all of them were loyal. It left Richard largely dependent on lesser men -- and caused him to bring a relatively small army to the greatest battle of his life; estimates run from about 3,000 to 10,000 men, the majority of them the Duke of Norfolk's if you exclude the "neutrals."
The Wars of the Roses witnessed, in all, six changes of King, but only once, at Bosworth, did the two rival claimants directly face each other in battle (Bennett, p. 99). And Bosworth proved decisive mostly because Richard III died in the battle. Henry's invasion force initially consisted mostly of mercenaries from countries hostile to Richard (Ross, pp. 202-203), though of course he picked up some supporters in Wales.
The notes to "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34]) describe the incredibly poor sources we have for this period. We have no complete account of the battle except the Tudor historian Polydore Vergil's, written decades later by someone who was not a witness and had never seen the battlefield (and who was so confused that he dated it to 1486, not 1485; Bennett, pp. 13-14), plus this song, which claims Richard had 40,000 troops, which is obviously impossible. The lack of data is so extreme that one author is convinced that we do not even know where the battle took place, moving it several miles away to Dadlington (Ross-Wars, p. 182; Pollard, p. 169 also mentions this as a strong possibility.)
Although it is generally called "Bosworth," the first proclamation about it by Henry Tudor said the battle took place at Sandeford (Chrimes, p. 51). Langley/Jones, p. 220, lists several early names and says that the name "Bosworth" was not used (at least in any surviving record) until 1500.
Unfortunately, Vergil's account is not very clear, at one point it appears to confuse east and west, and does not fit the ground as it now exists -- e.g. there is a mention of a vanished marsh.
The reconstruction of the battle depends very much on where the marsh is located. The map in Burne, p. 290, places it south of Richard's position on Ambien Hill, making action on that flank difficult. Ross's map on p. 219 places it more to the west, putting a gap in the area where Henry Tudor might attack. Kendall's maps, pp. 438-439, approximate Burne's. Chrimes, p. 47, thinks Kendall's map is as accurate as can be reconstructed today but does not believe any complete reconstruction possible. St. Aubyn's map, p. 210, shows an extremely large marsh covering half the slope of Ambien Hill -- and shows details of the armies that are simply not known. Bennett, p. 108, firmly believes the marsh was on the south side of the hill although he is uncertain of the size -- but his map on p. 98 shows the marsh far from the hill and stretching all around it and implies that the armies met in a small gap. Cheetham's map is similar to Ross's. Gillingham, p. 242, delares that "all [maps] are quite worthless" but on pp. 243-244 gives a detailed restatement of Vergil that looks like a written description of St. Aubyn's map minus the mention of Ambien Hill.
Not all are convinced the battle even took place on Ambien Hill. Saul3, p. 79, mentions three possible places: Ambien Hill (which he spells "Ambion"); Dadlington; and near Atherstone; Saul thinks the last the most likely. There is also some archaeological evidence that the traditional site near Market Bosworth is wrong.
Ashdown-Hill, p. 80, gives a map that doesn't even show Ambien Hill, and which gives a completely different battle layout; it puts Richard's army along a line from northwest to southeast, with Howard's vanguard to the northwest, Richard's main body in the center, and Northumberland to the southeast near Dadlington. The Tudor army was across the marsh from Richard's center; the Stanley army (he believes there was only one) was to the south of the marsh, closer to the Tudor army, meaning that they could only reach Northumberland's force directly. But Ashdown-Hill, p. 81, seems to think that Richard's charge effectively opened the battle -- which leaves no time for the Duke of Norfolk to be killed. So, with Richard dead, the Tudors then attacked the royal army and killed Norfolk; with him dead, the Yorkist army had no leader and evaporated (Ashdown-Hill, p. 82). But this is pointless; with Richard dead, the war was effectively over. The only reason that I can see for this reconstruction is to give time for the battle to sweep away from Richard's corpse, so that the folklore of the crown being found under a bush could be true; Ashdown-Hill, p. 88, suggests that someone looted the body and tried to hide the loot. But even if the soldiers would have left Richard's body behind, would Henry Tudor? Hardly; he needed proof that Richard was dead!
The armies may have been almost as blind as we are; Bennett, p. 92, thinks that Lord Stanley, while claiming to bring his forces into Richard's army, was in fact between the King's and Henry Tudor's army, and was preventing the king from getting any useful intelligence. But his reconstruction, p. 109, also causes the Tudor forces to approach Richard's from the east -- meaning that Henry's army marched past Richard's and turned back. This is almost as hard to believe as Ashdown-Hill's reconstruction; I mention it simply to show how little we understand of what happened in 1485.
Bosworth was a most unusual battle, for there were not two but (probably) *five* armies. Though they were small ones -- Gillingham, p. 33, notes that at this time soldiers were paid wages, but their "profit," if any, came from plunder. Since it was hard to plunder one's countrymen, most battles of the Wars of the Roses involved relatively small forces led by a few great magnates rather than the large contract forces of the Hundred Years' War. And, as the war lasted longer, wages had to go up, and the armies got even smaller (Gillingham, p. 35).
Richard's personal army seems to have been particularly small for an army led by a crowned king, perhaps because he by this time was having financial difficulties. He had not gotten much money from his 1484 parliament; (Ross, p. 178), and was having to borrow from his magnates; (Ross, p. 179). On p. 215, Ross says that "it can be suggested that the size of Henry's army has been underestimated and that of Richard's exaggerated. Allowing for the men he recruited en route from Milford Haven, Henry may have had 5,000 men, perhaps more. Potentially, Richard could have gathered far more, but, given the hasty circumstances of his array, he may have had no more than 8,000 men in his command, although 10,000 is by no means unlikely." Bennett, p. 103, suggests 10,000 to 15,000 for Richard -- but doesn't really have a place for them in his battle map.
Either total for Richard, however, includes the Earl of Northumberland, who certainly did not fight for Richard and probably was unwilling to fight. (Bennett, p. 74, even suggests that he had been in communication with Henry Tudor, although if so, nothing came of it.) In practical terms, this suggest that Richard had no more than seven thousand, and probably less; the two armies thus were close to equal in size, though Richard's was probably better equipped and led; it must have had the edge in artillery.
The senior officers in the loyal army were Richard and the Duke of Norfolk, the former Lord Howard. Henry Tudor was theoretical commander of the second force, though probably the de Vere (shadow) Earl of Oxford commanded in the field (Bennett, pp. 64-65, suggests that Henry Tudor might not have dared to invade without him, and notes that Richard had made an unsuccessful attempt to keep Oxford from getting away from his complacent guards at Calais; Langley/Jones, p. 192, points out that Henry Tudor had seen only one battle, and that was when he was twelve; it was a defeat in which he probably was not a combatant). The other senior officer in the Tudor camp was Henry's uncle Jasper Tudor, another shadow earl, although Langley/Jones, p. 195, says he had left the Tudor army before Bosworth.
Then there were the independent armies, those of Lord Stanley, his brother Sir William Stanley, and the Earl of Northumberland. Northumberland kept his troops in Richard's camp but commanded them independently. Lord Stanley, whose current wife was Henry Tudor's mother, and William Stanley kept their forces entirely separate, meeting Henry Tudor but not joining him and keeping Richard on a string. And they had a well-deserved reputation for playing both sides (see, e.g., the notes to "The Vicar of Bray"; Langley/Jones, p. 225, calls them "the arch dissemblers in the Wars of the Roses") -- one reason, perhaps, why they had to produce this piece of propaganda to defend their actions.
Thus when the Battle of Bosworth started, there were four forces, arranged probably in a rough square, or perhaps we should say in a rough cross, with Richard's forces facing Henry's and the Stanley armies (which were probably as large or larger than the other two forces) occupying the other two sides of the square. Northumberland, theoretically part of Richard's force, was sitting still to Richard's rear. The best guess is that Richard was with his army's main body but that Henry Tudor was in the rear of his army -- he wanted to win, not fight, and if he failed, he perhaps wanted to escape (Langley/Jones, p. 198).
It amazes me how many divergent details the various authors can discover in the very limited material available in Vergil. Ross rightly slams Kendall for turning a brief summary into a detailed, lyrical account -- but ignores the fact that St. Aubyn, p. 213, regales us with the tale of Richard's "terrible dream," or Seward-Roses, p. 305, wants us to know about Richard's "haggard appearance" and "ferocious speech." How many people, even in Richard's forces, would know of the dream, and why would they tell a biased chronicler? Cheetham, p. 187, comments "Predictably enough, our two contemporary voices -- Croyland and Vergil -- attribute to Richard a sleepless night, interrupted by 'dreadful visions' and premonitions of disaster." (Note, though, that Vergil is not contemporary, and that Croyland's description is only a few lines long.) Our third contemporary, this song, has a lot of surely-fictitious speeches, but it has no sign of the dreadful dreams in the transcription I've seen. And Langley/Jones, pp. 198-199, describes Richard's acts on that day (e.g. of displaying the crown) as the confident behavior of one who expected to win. Ashdown-Hill, p. 71, repeats another tale, in which an old woman cried for alms on the way to the battlefield, then said that "where [Richard's] spur struck, [there] his year should be broken." What, Richard's history borrowed a plot element from "Robin Hood's Death"?
In any case, as Bennett comments on p. 97, "it seems unlikely that the young Henry Tudor... slept any better."
Burne, p. 291, believes that the scene of the battle was set when Richard's force occupied Ambien Hill very early on the fatal day (Monday, August 22, 1485). This seems likely enough -- Richard was clearly the more enterprising commander, and Ambien Hill was the dominant position in the area; St. Aubyn, p. 209, Kendall, p. 433, Cheetham, p. 187, and Ross, p. 217, all agree with Burne at least this far.
Unfortunately for Richard, Ambien Hill, while tall, is very narrow. All the authors seem to agree that, instead of forming his three divisions in a line, Richard ended up with Norfolk in front, on the slopes of the hill, Richard's own division behind him, and Northumberland somewhere to the rear (though it is hard to see how they could have gotten into that formation if the map in Kendall, p. 438, is accurate; in this, Kendall clearly seems wrong).
Bennett, p. 104, suggests that Henry placed almost all his forces in a vanguard under the Earl of Oxford, keeping only a small company of his own -- understandable, given Henry's lack of experience. His inference from this is that Henry was expecting the Stanleys to guard his flanks -- as, in effect, they did. Langley/Jones, p. 197, agrees that most of Tudor's forces were in the vanguard, but offers a different explanation: the Tudor captains wanted to score an early success, even if they couldn't back it up, so the Stanleys would commit to their side.
Based on the little we know, it appears that Richard's and Henry's armies started the battle, with the Stanleys standing aside (all authorities, including even the very anti-Richard Gillingham, p. 243, agree on the duplicitous behavior of the Stanleys). By the nature of the ground, that meant Tudor's forces under Oxford attacking Norfolk. Despite Gillingham, this seems to me to almost assure the general accuracy of the Burne/Ross/Kendall reconstruction of the battle with Richard on Ambien Hill or some similar obstructed site. If Richard hadn't been on the hill, he would surely have created a broader battle line, and the final charge would have been impossible.
Exactly what happened next is uncertain, because we know that Norfolk died in the battle, but we don't know when. If Vergil is right in saying that the whole battle lasted only two hours (Gillingham, p. 244), it must have happened fairly quickly, but that's not much to go on.
We also know that Northumberland did not participate in the battle. (Pollard, p. 171, mentions that we have this from Croyland, not just Vergil. One source, the "Spanish Letter," appears to say that Northumberland actually attacked Richard, but Ross, p. 216, rejects this as impossible. Ross, pp. 218, 221,thinks that the nature of the ground meant that Northumberland could not engage at all, but most of the other scholars think he refused to fight, and the behavior of his vassals in 1489 seems to support this. It seems to me that a refusal to fight would also explain the "Spanish Letter.")
Four years after Bosworth, Northumberland was murdered by a mob of rioters protesting over Henry Tudor's taxes -- Cunningham, pp. 79, 108 -- and while we don't have any certain knowledge of why he died, the strong indication is that his henchmen refused to rescue him because of his betrayal of Richard III (Pollard, p. 171). (Percy printed Skelton's "Elegy on Henry Fourth Earl of Northumberland" -- p. 117 of volume I of Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry -- but this elegy appears to have no useful information even though it is near-contemporary.)
Pollard is convinced, p. 171, that Richard would have won the battle had Northumberland fought. Presumably the Henry Percy's own subjects felt the same -- and liked Richard better than they liked their earl.
Eventually, Richard tried a maneuver -- a charge on the Tudor ranks, aiming for the pretender personally.
The timing and the reason is unknown. Kendall, p. 439, thinks it came when Norfolk was killed -- bad news indeed for Richard -- and that Northumberland's neutrality had already been revealed by then. If Kendall is right, then the death of Norfolk left Richard in a precarious position, with his main force disorganized and little chance that any of the three neutrals would come to his aid. Hence he decided to try a death-or-glory charge: If he could kill Henry Tudor, the battle would be won.
Ross does not mention Norfolk's death at this stage (on p. 218 he mentions it as merely "probable" that Norfolk was already dead when Richard died), but thinks Richard may have seen that his force was being defeated (also, he speculates on p. 223 about low morale in Richard's forces). Ross, p. 222, agrees with Kendall that the desire to end the battle by killing Henry was a possible motive, though he isn't entirely sure that Richard was actually trying a charge just with his guard. He may have been trying to bring his entire division into action.
Langley/Jones, p. 191, offers a different suggestion: That Richard, who had an interest in chivalry and owned a book telling of a single combat between Alexander the Great and an enemy leader, wanted to settle things in a direct duel. On p. 201, they suggest that Richard went for it as soon as he had figured out the Tudor army's dispositions. This would certainly explain why the battle didn't last long. But Philippa Langley's view of history is absurdly distorted.
There is an alternate account given by Young/Adair -- who are not specialists in the period. They credit -- without giving an authority -- Richard with having precisely 9640 men; p. 101. Henry's army they credit on p. 103 with 8000 troops. They suggest there was only one Stanley army, of about 2000 men; p. 102. And they place the battle entirely to the south of Ambien Hill, suggesting that the Stanleys positioned themselves at the top of the hill. They suggest that Norfolk and Oxford actually fought in single combat; p. 104 (so also Langley, p. 261; Langley, pp. 261-262, reports that when Howard's grave was opened, what was thought to be his head was had suffered a fatal wound to the face. Langley thinks it from an arrow). They credit Northumberland with sitting on his hands, but their map does not show how he could have done so. Allowing that Vergil's account is probably thoroughly untrustworthy, I have to say that this version strikes me as even less likely to be right -- it sounds as if it's straight out of a romance.
A more reasonable alternate suggestion comes from Ross-Wars, pp. 132-135, who suggests that Henry Tudor was concerned about the course of the battle, and rode off to appeal to the Stanleys (whom he too suggests may have had only one force, not two). Richard, observing the maneuver, chose to attack Henry as the rebel force moved. While a better fit for the known facts than the Young/Adair account -- indeed, it is a good explanation for why Richard would make what otherwise seems a foolhardy move -- this remains speculation.
Another possibility is suggested by Bennett's belief that Henry expected the Stanleys to cover his flanks: When Richard saw that the Stanleys were sitting still, he decided to do just what Henry feared and go around Oxford's flank to get at Henry and the Tudor rear.
Chrimes, p. 48, offers what seems to me the best suggestion of all: Richard saw that he had three neutrals on his hands (Thomas Stanley, William Stanley, and Northumberland) -- and he wanted to end the battle before any of them could decide to go over to Henry Tudor.
Whatever Richard's intention in his final maneuver, what it seem to come down to was a charge by Richard and his household knights toward the Tudor flag -- a charge which came very close to succeeding. (At least, that's what Vergil thought Richard was doing; Burne, p. 295, suggests that he was actually trying to kill the traitor Lord Stanley. This seems absurd -- Richard could have gotten real revenge on Stanley by killing Stanley's son Lord Strange, who was his hostage, and in any case, if he killed Henry Tudor, he could deal with Stanley at his leisure.) But Sir William Stanley charged and managed to destroy the back of Richard's attack force (Gillingham, p. 244, thinks that Richard's companions mostly deserted him in the attack, but also notes that Richard almost managed to reach Henry Tudor -- impossible if he had truly been abandoned). Attacked front and rear, the charge failed. Richard died in the fighting.
This would also explain a report that Richard lost his horse in a marsh near the battlefield, near a place where archaeologists found a copy of Richard's token of a boar (map on p. 204 of Langley/Jones). Probably Richard went around the Tudor flank, and when William Stanley intervened, the charging horsemen were pushed more and more away from Tudor and toward the marsh (Langley/Jones, p. 206).
Why did Richard do it? To get things over with, perhaps; this seems to be Kendall's view. But we can't know. The "Ballad of Bosworth Field" declares,
He said, "giue me my battell axe to my hand,
sett the crowne of England on my head soe hye!
ffor by him that shope both sea and Land,
King of England this day I will dye!
This seems to contradict Henry's actual behavior; according to Langley/Jones, p. 202, Henry actually got off his horse and hid among his bodyguard. Of course, he might have been trying to fight with them. Given his record, though, this seems quite unlikely.
The one thing that everyone seems to agree is that the grand charge was very courageously done: Burne, p. 295, says "Richard died like a king." Croyland said he died "like a brave and most valiant prince" (Burne, p. 296). Vergil reports, "King Richard alone was killed fighting manfully in the thickest press of his enemies... his courage was high and fierce and failed him not even at the death which, when his men forsook him, he preferred to take by the sword rather than, by foul flight, to prolong his life" (Gillingham, pp. 244-245). "Whatever he merited as man or king, as a soldier King Richard deserved a better end" (Young/Adair, p. 106).
The tendency on the part of Richard's partisans has been to blame his supporters for the defeat. Northumberland is the one usually blamed. Kendall thinks Northumberland's inertia was due to dislike for Richard. Ross, p. 167, observes that the two had had been at loggerheads from the early 1470s. He also notes that the Percies were among the oldest of the noble families, and that Richard was closely linked with the Neville family, rivals of the Percies. (He doesn't say much about the fact that the Percies had a history of rebellion against kings in power.) Cunningham, p. 75, suspects that Richard was dead by the time Henry Percy was in position to intervene -- though this doesn't explain why Northumberland's forces were so far from the field. Cunningham also suspects that it was new continental tactics which defeated Richard: Henry Tudor's mercenaries formed square to take Richard's cavalry charge, and it worked.
Gillingham goes on to call Richard a "disaster" as king. I truly don't see why -- unless one says that his death was disastrous because it put England under the Tudors. Legislatively, as we have seen, Richard's reign was unquestionably good. This is true even if one accepts the Seward/Weir view that he was personally a monster.
The aftermath of course was a dramatic change in English politics and the situation of the nobility. Thomas Stanley, who inspired this song, in addition to being Earl of Derby became constable of England, steward of the Duchy of Lancaster, and more (Chrimes, p. 55). William Stanley, the man who actually did in Richard, also received offices (Chrimes, p. 55) -- but he was not made a baron, and Henry Tudor would eventually execute him! Jasper Tudor, Henry's uncle who had kept his cause alive for many years, was made Duke of Bedford despite having no English royal blood; he also married a sister of the old Queen Elizabeth Woodville (Chrimes, p. 54). And the Earl of Oxford, who probably deserves most of the credit for Bosworth, was restored to his earldom plus was made Admiral of England (Chrimes, pp. 54-55).
Perhaps we should give the last word to Ross-Wars, p. 100, who writes, "Richard was by no means the personification of evil which he was to become in the hands of hostile Tudor propagandists. He had charm, energy, and ability, and he worked hard to win popularity. But it took time to live down the legacy of suspicion and mistrust generated by the violence of his usurpation. Even in that ruthless age, many men were appalled by what they clearly believed to have been his crime against the princes.... Had Henry Tudor's invasion been long delayed, its outcome might have been very different, but in 1485, Richard was still far from having won the confidence of his people in general." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: BdTBOBoF

Ballad of Bunker Hill

DESCRIPTION: "It was the seventeenth, by break of day, the Yankees did surprise us." The British soldiers march. The song mentions officers Howe and Pigot. The artillery serves well until they run out of suitable ammunition. The singer curses rebels Hancock and Adams
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: probably c. 1830 (Broadside, Library of Congress HB 10577)
KEYWORDS: soldier battle death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 17, 1775 - American defeat at the Battle of Bunker Hill. The Americans are pushed from their positions, but inflict heavy casualties on the British, and so feel they have earned some bragging rights.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 44-48, "Battle of Bunker Hill Composed by a British officer after the engagementl" (1 text plus a copy of the Library of Congress broadside)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 57, "Bunker's Hill, A New Song" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #34, p. 48-50, "Battle of Bunker Hill" (1 text)
Roud #V7858
File: CAFS1044

Ballad of Bunker Hill, The

DESCRIPTION: "The soldiers from town to the foot of the hill... They pottered and dawdled and twaddled until We feared there would be no attack at all." The Colonials inflict heavy casualties on the British, but then "We used up our powder and had to go home!"
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Everett Hale? / Music traditional, set by John Allison
EARLIEST DATE: 1908
KEYWORDS: battle patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 17, 1775 - American defeat at the Battle of Bunker Hill. The Americans are pushed from their positions, but inflict heavy casualties on the British, and so feel they have earned some bragging rights.
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 541-542, "The Ballad of Bunker Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [19 words]: Recorded by John and Lucy Allison. There is no reason to believe this song ever circulated in oral tradition. - RBW
File: BNEF541

Ballad of Captain Bob Bartlett, Arctic Explorer

DESCRIPTION: "Bob Bartlett, born in Brigus, of a bold sea-faring breed, Became a master-mariner as destiny decreed; He won renown... When Peary used his services to the Northern Pole." We are told of the hardships in the arctic, and of the sealing ships he captained
AUTHOR: A. C. Wornell?
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Wornell, Rhymes of a Newfoundlander)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship exploration
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1875-1946 - Life of Robert Abram Bartlett
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 85, "Ballad of Captain Bob Bartlett, Arctic Explorer" (1 text)
Roud #V44819
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Bob Bartlett" (subject)
cf. "The Roving Newfoundlanders (I)" (brief mention or Bob Bartlett)
NOTES [181 words]: Robert Bartlett is now remembered mostly as an arctic explorer (Robert Peary took him on three expeditions, and in 1913 Bartlett, as commander of the Karluk, was wrecked, and saved his expedition by a sled trip to Alaska). But it is clear that he was well known in Newfoundland even before that; several of the poems in Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, including those written before Peary's explorations, mention him.
It is possible that some of this is by confusion with his uncles Isaac and John Bartlett, who also were sealing captains and connected with the quest for the North Pole.
For more background, see the notes to "Captain Bob Bartlett."
Of the ships mentioned in this song, the Algerine is the subject of "The Loss of the Algerine." The Neptune (one of two) is the subject of "Neptune, Ruler of the Sea." The Bonaventure is perhaps most noteworthy for a 1913 collision with the Beothic which nearly sunk the latter (O'Neill, p. 984); both vessels are also mentioned in "Captains and Ships." Ryan/Drake, p. 39, has a picture of the Bonaventure and the Beothic. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm085

Ballad of Captain Kidd, The

See Captain Kidd [Laws K35] (File: LK35)

Ballad of Davy Crockett, The

See Davy Crockett (File: R423)

Ballad of Elbert County Jail

See The County Jail (File: GC147)

Ballad of Fireman Dodge, The

DESCRIPTION: "His name was Dodge, Robert Dodge, And he was black as sin, But his heart was full of love and light." Dodge worked for a living, and loved Gospel singalongs. But he was on the Old 97 when it was wrecked. God remembers him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1991 (Lye)
KEYWORDS: crash wreck train death derivative Black(s)
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 27, 1903 - "Old 97" goes off the track near Danville, killing engineer Joseph A. "Steve" Broady, fireman Albion G. Clapp, apprentice fireman Robert Dodge, and at least eight others
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, p. 28, "The Ballad of Fireman Dodge" (1 text)
Roud #14034
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck of Old 97" [Laws G2] (subject)
File: LySc028

Ballad of Grace Brown and Chester Gillette, The

See Grace Brown and Chester Gillette [Laws F7] (File: LF07)

Ballad of Hardin Town, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'll tell you a tale of Ioway... about a crime in Hardin Town...." Barowner Thorne has betrayed an Indian chief's daughter. The chief seeks him out in the bar, but is shot by an unknown assailant. The chief's son kills a bar patron and goes to prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Hempel, Annals of Iowa)
KEYWORDS: homicide Indians(Am.) revenge prison punishment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1847 - The Hardin Tragedy. An old Indian was shot to death, and his son randomly killed Patrick Riley in revenge. There was no ravished daughter, and the old man was not a chief
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 136-137, "(The Ballad of Hardin Town)" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 473-474, "The Ballad of Hardin Town" (1 text)
NOTES [54 words]: Hardin, Iowa, is a tiny hamlet, unincorporated, almost due west of Prairie do Chien, Wisconsin, and roughly southeast of Decorah, Iowa. There is also a Hardin County, which does not contain the village of Hardin (which is in Clayton County). This is all I was able to learn about the area based on a casual Internet search. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Burt136

Ballad of Kelly's Gang

See The Ballad of the Kelly Gang (File: FaE108)

Ballad of Louis Collins, The

See Louis Collins (File: RcLouCol)

Ballad of Lydia Pinkham, The

See Lydia Pinkham (File: RL485)

Ballad of Major Andre, The

See Major Andre's Capture [Laws A2] (File: LA02)

Ballad of Master M'Grath, A

See Master McGrath (File: Hodg215)

Ballad of Master McGrath, A

See Master McGrath (File: Hodg215)

Ballad of Nate Champion, The

See The Blood-Stained Diary (File: Burt175)

Ballad of Nathan Hale, The

See Nathan Hale (File: SBoA067)

Ballad of New Orleans (II), The

DESCRIPTION: In 1814 Andrew Jackson recruits pirate Jean Lafitte to help his American backwoodsmen-soldiers defeat Pakenham's forces at New Orleans. They do, with many humorous tales (including an alligator converted to a cannon), then celebrate with the local girls
AUTHOR: Words: Jimmy Driftwood
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (recording by author)
KEYWORDS: army battle war food humorous animal soldier pirate
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 8, 1815 - Battle of New Orleans. Although a peace had already been signed, word had not yet reached Louisiana, which Pakenham sought to invade. Andrew Jackson's backwoodsmen easily repulsed Pakenham's force; the British commander was killed in the battle.
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, BATNEWOR
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Battle of New Orleans" (on PeteSeeger25)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of New Orleans" [Laws A7] (subject)
cf. "The Hunters of Kentucky" [Laws A25] " (subject)
cf. "Pakenham" (subject)
cf. "The Eighth of January" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Eighth of January (fiddle tune, found in many reference books)
Cut a Figure Eight Variant Text (square dance call) (Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, p. 97)
NOTES [48 words]: I think this song is in the process of entering American tradition, and as such it deserves a place in the Index. - PJS
For background on this battle, see the traditional song "The Battle of New Orleans" [Laws A7]; also "The Hunters of Kentucky" and other songs celebrating the battle. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: DTbatnew

Ballad of New Scotland, A

DESCRIPTION: "Let's away to New Scotland, where Plenty sits queen O'er as happy a country as ever was seen." The abundant riches of Nova Scotia are praised, and the lack of duties and landlords is pointed out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1750 ("The Gentleman" magazine)
KEYWORDS: emigration Canada nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1749 - First large group of English colonists embark for New Scotland. The town they built is Halifax, Nova Scotia
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 44-45, "A Ballad of New Scotland" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [103 words]: Although fitted with an excellent melody (the magazine reports it to be "to the tune of 'King John and the Abbot of Canterbury'" -- the Derry Down tune), this song does not seem ever to have been found in tradition.
According to Laura M. McDonald, The Curse of the Narrows, p. 4, Halifax was founded in 1749 by 2576 (Protestant) settlers. It was intended primarily as a fortress against the French. It was a hard place to settle -- a basin in the midst of relatively infertile hills, with trees growing all the way down to the water -- but with a fine, sheltered, ice-free harbour that made it a natural seaport. - RBW
File: FMB044

Ballad of Oliver St. John Gogarty, The

See The Lay of Oliver Gogarty (File: OLcM016)

Ballad of Pearl Bryan and Her Sad Death in the Kentucky Hills at Fort Thomas, The

See Pearl Bryan (I) [Laws F2] (File: LF02)

Ballad of Queensland, A

See Sam Holt (File: FaE098)

Ballad of Sam Hall, The

See Sam Hall (Jack Hall) [Laws L5] (File: LL05)

Ballad of Sealing Ships and Sealers

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye hearty Newfoundlanders, join your voices now with me: Of our sealing ships and sealers let us sing." The speaker describes how the fleet leaves port, hunts the seals, survives problems; he urges listeners to pray for crew and captains
AUTHOR: A. C. Wornell ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Wornell, Rhymes of a Newfoundlander)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 147-148, "Ballad of Sealing Ships and Sealers" (1 text)
Roud #V44818
NOTES [57 words]: "Whitecoats" are baby harp seals, the primary objective of the seal hunt.
"Signal Hill" is the hill by the St. John's narrow that all ships leaving the city's harbor passed on their way out the Narrows.
A "patch" was an area where many seals bore their young, making it a place where sealers could gather many "sculps" (skins with fat). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm147

Ballad of Springhill

See Springhill Mine Disaster (1958) (File: FSWB124A)

Ballad of Talmadge, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's sunny again in Georgia, No finer breathing place, Since the undertaker Threw dirt in Talmadge face." He cussed heavily, "Now he can't cuss no more." He had mistreated the Colored; they rejoice at his death and say, "Devil he take Talmadge."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Greenway)
KEYWORDS: death Black(s) political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1884-1946 - Life of Eugene Talmadge, several-time governor of Georgia
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 120, "The Ballad of Talmadge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 318-319, "The Ballad of Talmadge" (1 text)
Roud #22285
File: CAFS1318

Ballad of the Braswell Boys

DESCRIPTION: The Braswell Boys have been sentenced to death for murder. They attempt to escape from prison, but are captured. At the scaffold, among prayers and sad relatives, they confess to the crime. They are executed and buried
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide trial execution burial
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 29, 1875 - Murder of Russell and John Allison of Putnam County, TN. They were allegedly killed by Joe and George "Teek" Braswell (and two others) as the Braswells attempted a robbery
Mar 27, 1878 - Hanging of the Braswells. Joe confessed to his crimes, but Teek maintained his innocence to the end
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 48-52, "The Ballad of the Braswell Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 204-206, "(The Braswell Boys)" (1 excerpted text, 1 tune)
Roud #4772
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Life's Railway to Heaven (Life is Like a Mountain Railroad)" (tune)
File: MN1048

Ballad of the Carpenter

DESCRIPTION: "Jesus was a working man, A hero as you shall hear, He was born in the slums of Bethlehem...." From a young age, his arguments put older men to shame. He traveled and called workers to him. The Romans kill him. Now his dreams are coming true
AUTHOR: Ewan MacColl
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Cray-AshGrove)
KEYWORDS: Jesus death worker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-AshGrove, pp. 30-31, "Jesus Was a Working Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [125 words]: According to Ewan MacColl's book Journeyman: An Autobiography, re-edited and with an introduction by Peggy Seeger, 1990; revised edition, Manchester University Press, 2009, p. 268, this was one of the songs that came out of his first serious period of songwriting, when he was mildly influenced by Woody Guthrie, Seamus Ennis, and people he knew of through Alan Lomax. MacColl wrote that "I had recently become acquainted with English country songs through Bert [Lloyd]'s singing and through field-recordings made by Alan and it was these that provided models for my next group of songs which included 'The Dove,' 'The Trafford Road Ballad' (written for my son, Hamish), 'Cannily, Cannily,' 'Ballad of the Carpenter' and 'Go Down, You Murderers.'" - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CrAG30B

Ballad of the Deacon's Ox

DESCRIPTION: "A truthful man was Deacon Slocum, Honest as the day was long." He has two oxen, one good, one bad. He sells them, claiming that one ox is good and he doesn't know any reason why the other isn't as good. The buyer complains; Slocum says he told the truth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: commerce trick lie cattle clergy humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 159-160, "Ballad of the Deacon's Ox" (1 text)
File: TNY159

Ballad of the Drover (Death of Harry Dale)

DESCRIPTION: Harry Dale, the drover, is heading home after many months away. He comes to a river in flood. He tries to cross, but is swept from his horse. His dog leaps in to save him, but is also washed away. Now "in the lonely homestead the girl shall wait in vain"
AUTHOR: Henry Lawson (1867-1922)
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback)
KEYWORDS: death river drowning dog horse Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 191-192, 206, 269-270, "Ballad of the Drover" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, pp. 75-76, "Ballad of the Drover" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 141-144, "Ballad of the Drover" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 148-150, "Ballad of the Drover" (1 text)
Roud #22624
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Martha Dexter" (theme)
cf. "The Mother's Malison, or Clyde's Water" [Child 216] (theme)
NOTES [25 words]: This piece has often been included in school readers in Australia, and has therefore achieved popularity perhaps beyond what its merits warrant. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: MA191

Ballad of the Erie Canal

See A Trip on the Erie (Haul in Your Bowline) (File: Wa035)

Ballad of the Frank Slide

DESCRIPTION: "On a grim and tragic morning In nineteen hundred three A little babe lay weeping... There in the shiv'ring morning." A rockslide buries the town; a few miners dig their way out of the mine to find the little girl -- and everything else ruined and dead
AUTHOR: Robert Gard
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: disaster mining death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 29, 1903 - A rockslide on Turtle Mountain falls on Crow's Nest Pass. Despite the legend that only one little girl survived the slide, in fact over two hundred of the town's three hundred inhabitants came out alive, and the town was only partly ruined
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 192-194, "Ballad of the Frank Slide" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [25 words]: Although this piece apparently fits in well with the folklore of the Frank Slide, there is no evidence that it has ever gone into oral tradition. - RBW
File: FMB192

Ballad of the Kelly Gang

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of the large rewards offered for the Kelly Gang, but claims "if the sum were doubled, sure, the Kelly boys would live." The song goes on to describe in great detail the 1878 robbery at Euroa
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: outlaw Australia robbery fight escape
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1855 - Birth of Ned Kelly
1880 - Execution of Kelly. His last words are reported to have been "Such is life."
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 108-111, "The Ballad of the Kelly Gang" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 73-75, "The Ballad of Kelly's Gang" (1 text, in two parts; 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 87-91, The Ballad of the Kelly Gang"" (1 text)
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 4, page headed "THE BALLAD OF THE KELLY GANG."], "The Ballad of the Kelly Gang" (1 text)
DT, KELLBYRN
Roud #22593
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Green (I)" (tune)
cf. "Kelly Was Their Captain" (subject) and notes and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Kellys, Byrne, and Hart
The Kelly Gang
NOTES [146 words]: Lloyd states that the song must have been made up between 1878 (when the robbery took place) and 1880 (when Kelly was hanged). Lloyd's tune for this song is not "The Wearing of the Green," but the Irish tune "Mary from Murroo", sometimes known in Australia as "The Cherry Tree." - PJS
The association with "The Wearing of the Green" is very early, though, as several texts of the song begin with a verse such as
Sure Paddy dear and did you hear the news that's going round?
On the head of bold Ned Kelly they've placed five thousand pound'
For Dan, Steve Hart, and Joey Byrne a thousand each they'll give,
But if the sum was double sure the Kelly boys would live.
Edward "Ned" Kelly and his gang are perhaps the most famous of all Australian bushrangers. For some anecdotes of his life, in addition to the cross-referenced songs, see the notes to "Kelly Was Their Captain." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: FaE108

Ballad of the Pirate Wench

DESCRIPTION: 'I could tell you a tale of a great whilte whale... But I'd rather tell how our Buckomate had a Pirates knife stuck in his middle." A female pirate kills most of those she finds -- but keeping the best-looking men. Men visit her monument and get babies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: pirate sailor sex baby
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 156-159, "The Ballad of the Pirate Wench" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27888
File: NiMo156

Ballad of the Tea Party

DESCRIPTION: "Tea ships near to Boston lying, On the wharf a numerous crew, Sons of freedom, never dying, Then appeared in view." (The Sons of Freedom) attack the British vessel and dump the "cursed weed of China's coast."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1774 (Pennsylvania Packet, according to Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1)
KEYWORDS: rebellion ship patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec. 16, 1773 - Boston Tea Party. Americans protest the British tax on tea by dumping a shipload into Boston Harbor
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 538-539, "Ballad of the Tea Party" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 54, "Ballad of the Tea Party" (1 text)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 18, "The Boston Tea Party" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TEAPART
ADDITIONAL: Caleb A Wall, The Historic Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773 (Worcester: F.S. Blanchard & Co, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 14-15, ("As near beauteous Boston lying") (1 text)
ST BNEF538 (Full)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boston Tea Party" (subject)
File: BNEF538

Ballad of the Territorial Road

DESCRIPTION: "The Umpqua country was the best every (sic.) found For hills and rocks and fountains." The singers slog through the country looking for the good land they have been promised, but all they ever find is more disappontments.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Oregon Historical Quarterly 43, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: home travel hardtimes humorous
FOUND IN: US(NW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 639, "Ballad of the Territorial Road" (1 text)
File: CAFS639A

Ballad of the Virgin Sturgeon, The

See Caviar Comes from the Virgin Sturgeon (File: EM240)

Ballad of Twelfth Day

See Wolle Ye Iheren of Twelte Day (File: Bro13039)

Ballad of White-Water Men, A

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of Mike Corrigan, the best white-water man. Among his deeds: breaking up logjams at Sour-na-Hunk and Ambejejus Falls, flying like a bird, landing on his pike-pole and whizzing around so fast that his hair scorched the air and fried the wind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger talltale river
FOUND IN: US(NE,MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 26, "A Ballad of White-Water Men" (1 text)
Roud #8858
File: Be026

Ballad of William Bloat, The

DESCRIPTION: William Bloat's wife "got his goat" so he cuts her throat. "To finish the fun so well begun He resolved himself to kill." He hangs himself with a sheet. He dies but she survives: "for the razor blade was German made But the sheet was Belfast linen"
AUTHOR: Raymond Calvert (1830-1883) (source: Hammond-SongsOfBelfast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Hammond-SongsOfBelfast)
KEYWORDS: marriage homicide suicide humorous wife shrewishness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 59, "The Ballad of William Bloat" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WMBLOAT*
NOTES [193 words]: When this song was first indexed, we followed the lead of Hammond in saying that the author, Raymond Calvert, lived 1830-1883. This led me to much speculation about why the song picked on Germans at a time when Germany was just becoming united and had not yet become an obvious threat. (Indeed, the Clancy Brothers made the [ineffective] razor English rather than German, and the [effective]).
His daughter-in-law Sue Calvert explained that our dates for Calvert were wrong: "He was my father-in-law, born Oct 1906 at Banchory House, died July 1959. Bloat was written in 1926." Thus the song indeed comes from a period after Germany's rise to power.
I was reminded a bit of this controversy in reading a story about George III, found on page 17 of James Dugan's The Great Mutiny (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1965): "Although he had never visited Germany, as the Elector of Hannover-Braunschweig George believed that everything German was superior to everything British, including discipline and underwear. He wore only German linen, unaware that one suit had been forged in Dublin as a secret joke on a monarch otherwise difficult to link to anything humorous." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Hamm059

Ballad of Wyoming Massacre

See The Wyoming Massacre (File: Burt130)

Ballad on the Scottish Wars (As y yod on ay mounday)

See (references under) The Wee Wee Man [Child 38] (File: C038)

Ballad to a Traditional Refrain

DESCRIPTION: "O the bricks they will bleed and the rain it will weep, And the damp Lagan fog lull the city to sleep; It's to hell with the future and live on in the past: May the Lord in His mercy be kind to Belfast" and other political statements.
AUTHOR: Maurice James Craig (b.1919) (source: Hammond-SongsOfBelfast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Hammond-SongsOfBelfast)
KEYWORDS: nonballad political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 63, "Ballad to a Traditional Refrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Be Kind to Belfast
File: Hamm063

Ballan Doune Braes

DESCRIPTION: "The laird o' the town" tells Betsy "that a father, a brother, and a husband he'd be." But "short was his courtship ... When he cam' to his own he wad own me nae mair" People mock her. Left forlorn with children she returns to die on Ballan Doune braes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(677)
KEYWORDS: seduction promise home betrayal childbirth death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1153, "Ballan Doune Braes" (1 text)
Roud #6819
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(677), "Sweet Barren Doun Braes" ("As I walked out one morning, one morning in spring"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 26(24), "Ballandine Braes"; Firth b.28(31a), "Ballandine Breas"; Harding B 19(30), 2806 c.15(173), "Ballintown Brae"; 2806 c.14(89) , "Sweet Ballenden Braes"
Murray, Mu23-y1:049, "Ballandine Braes!" ("Over yon moorlands and down by yon glen"), James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bessie of Ballington Brae" [Laws P28] (sequel)
NOTES [74 words]: Broadside Harding B 11(677) is an abbreviated version of the story but shares its chorus ("False was his promise guile was his way, He decoyed me far far from sweet Barren Down Brae") with the longer versions. By the time it was collected in Greig/Duncan6 those lines were only in the first verse. The Greig/Duncan6 first line is the line from the broadsides listed other than Harding B 11(677): "Over yon moorlands and down by yon glen." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BdBaDoBr

Ballastliedje

DESCRIPTION: Dutch. Ballast-throwing shanty. "Westzuidwest van Ameland (WSW of Ameland)" is a pool where one can catch fish but not girls. The sailor describes places he has been, e.g. Surinam. He talks of the work, and a cow that calved each month
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: shanty foreignlanguage cattle nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 109, "Ballastliedge" (2 texts, Dutch and English, 1 tune)
File: HSoSe109

Ballentown Brae

See Bessie of Ballington Brae [Laws P28] (File: LP28)

Ballet of de Boll Weevil, De

See The Boll Weevil [Laws I17] (File: LI17)

Ballinderry

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the joys of living in (Balinderry) and spending time with "(Phelim), my (diamond/demon)." But now she is sad and lonely, as Phelim died (at sea)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (Bunting)
KEYWORDS: love separation death burial
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H80, pp. 386-387, "Phelimy Phil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 78-79, "Ballinderry" (1 text)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. l5-16, "Oh! 'Tis Pretty to be in Ballinderry" (1 text)
DT, BALNDERY*
ADDITIONAL: Edward Bunting, The Ancient Music of Ireland (Mineola, 2000 (reprint of 1840 Dublin edition)), #56 and p. 88, "Ballinderry"
Alfred Percival Graves, The Irish Poems of Alfred Perceval Graves (Dublin, 1908), Vol II (Songs and Ballads), pp. 78-79, "'Twas Pretty to Be in Ballinderry"
Roud #2983
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Tis Pretty to be in Ballinderry" (on IRRCinnamond03)
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Ballinderry" (on IRClancyMakem02)
NOTES [239 words]: Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder: "This form of song or lament is perhaps the best example of keening, or caoineadh, present in the English language. That it is derived from the Irish, there is not the slightest doubt. A most highly developed and sophisticated form of crying after the dead existed in Gaelic-speaking Ireland for centuries and had a degree of professionalism about it."
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "'Tis Pretty To Be in Ballinderry" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)). According to Sean O Boyle's notes to that album, "Ballinderry is a beautiful district on the eastern shore of Lough Neagh, in which lies the lovely little Ram's Island." O Boyle quotes Bunting about the song: "it has been a favourite performance with the peasantry of the counties of Down Antrim, the words being sung by one person, while the rest of the party chant the CRONAN (ochone!) in consanance."
O Boyle's note refers to Bunting, p. 88. "CRONAN" refers to the chorus. Bunting notes that "[t]here are numerous other sets of words sung to 'Ballinderry;' they are all of a very rustic character, and uniformly refer to localities along the rivers Bann and Lagan, such as, ''Tis pretty to be in Ballinderry, 'Tis pretty to be at Magheralin,' &c. [and] ''Tis pretty to be in Ballinderry, 'Tis pretty to be at the Cash of Toome,' &c." - BS
File: HHH080

Ballinderry Marriage, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the marriage. After the priest arrives, "with long rakes and pitchforks they welcomed the bride." The feast is fine. The bride is "small round the waist as a two year old mare." They seek the bride, who has "trotted off"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: wedding humorous abandonment separation party food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H805, p. 73-74, "The Ballinderry Marriage" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9049
File: HHH805

Ballindown Braes

See Bessie of Ballington Brae [Laws P28] (File: LP28)

Ballintown Brae

See Bessie of Ballington Brae [Laws P28] (File: LP28)

Balloon Flew Ov'er 'Ampton Town, A

DESCRIPTION: "When the balloon flew o'er 'Ampton Town, The wofflers they did staer, They thowt is was a coel boat A-flying through the aer. To trew it is unto the time, So trew it is I owun, Going to fetch a load of line To build a sun and meun."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Raven)
KEYWORDS: technology humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, p. 217, "A Balloon Flew O'er 'Ampton Town" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #23407
ALTERNATE TITLES:
When the Balloon Flew Over
File: JRUI217

Balls of O'Leary, The

DESCRIPTION: "The balls of O'Leary are massive and hairy; They're shapely and stately like the dome of St. Paul's." People come to observe the sight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 142, "The Balls of O'Leary" (1 short text)
Roud #8401
File: RuSoBalO

Balls to Mister Banglestein

DESCRIPTION: "Balls to Mister Banglestein, Banglestein, Banglestein, Balls to Mister Banglestein, Dirty old man. For he keeps us waiting While he's masturbating, So balls to Mister Banglestein, Dirty old man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 338-339, "Balls to Mister Banglestein" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ach, Du Lieber, Augustin" (tune)
File: EM338

Ballstown (Great God, Attend)

DESCRIPTION: "Great God, attend while Zion sings the joy that from thy presence springs. To spend one day with thee on earth Exceeds a thousand days of mirth."
AUTHOR: Words: Isaac Watts (1674-1748) / Music: Nehemiah Shumway (Source: Original Sacred Harp 1971)
EARLIEST DATE: 1719 (Watts, Psalms of David, according to Julian)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 118, "Great God, Attend" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of a shape note version)
Roud #15051
NOTES [139 words]: For more on Isaac Watts, see the notes to "O God, Our Help in Ages Past."
According to John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 1240, the text is from Watts's 1719 Psalms of David, where it is said to be based on Psalm 84 (specifically 84:8, which the King James Bible renders "Oh LORD, God of hosts, hear my prayer: Give ear, O God of Jacob." Even by Isaac Watts standards, that seems a pretty feeble equivalence; the word Zion, for instance, never occurs in the psalm.
The title of this in all the shape note hymnals I've seen is "Ballstown" (presumably the name of the tune). I find it a little bit funny that Abernethy-SinginTexas changes it to "Great God, Attend." Clearly Abernethy-SinginTexas detected an alternate meaning to the title.... - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Aber118

Bally James Duff

See Ballyjamesduff (File: RcBalJDu)

Ballyburbling

DESCRIPTION: The singer escapes the world to head for Ballymackleduff. The friends of his youth meet him. They have a wonderful time at places with improbable names. The factories are all shut, the bars open, with kissing and dancing. "Why did I stay away so long?"
AUTHOR: Paul Jennings (source: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (first published in _The Observer,_ according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: dancing drink music Ireland humorous reunion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 46A, "Ballyburbling" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [38 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 46A is headed by the note "Ballymackleduff, Derryfubble, Benburb.--Address of subscriber in N. Ireland Telephone Directory." An explanatory note at the end is "A skit on Ulster place names ...." - BS
File: OLCM046A

Ballycastle, O!

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls Ballycastle, noting, "That place is ever dear to me, no matter when or where I be." He says that no soldier has found a place more hospitable, no land knows plants so fair. Those from far away sigh because they cannot find its like
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H28b, pp. 158-159, "Ballycastle, O!" (1 text with many variant readings, 1 tune)
Roud #13455
File: HHH028b

Ballyeamon Cradle Song

DESCRIPTION: The mother bids her child, "Rest tired eyes a while, sweet is thy baby smile, Angels are guarding and watch o'er thee." Birds sing, fairies dance, "for very love of thee." Mother loves the child, too, and bids him sleep and dream
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: mother lullaby nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H596, pp. 6-7, "Ballyeamon Cradle Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH596

Ballyjamesduff

DESCRIPTION: "The garden of Eden has vanished, they say, But I know the lie of it still": Its image survives in Ballyjamesduff. Paddy Reilly tells that he was a quiet baby because he knew he was born there. Now grown, every breeze tells him to come back
AUTHOR: Percy French (1854-1920) (source: Healy)
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (date of composition, according to Healy)
KEYWORDS: home exile baby
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 175, "My mother has told me that when I was born" (1 text)
DT, BALLYJAM*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 32, #4 (1987), pp, 24-25, "Come Back, Paddy Reilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
James N. Healy, editor, _The Songs of Percy French_, 1955-1962, revised edition 1986; I use the 1996 Ossian paperback, pp. 18-20, "Come Back, Paddy Reilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
James N. Healy, _Percy French and His Songs_, The Mercier Press, 1966, pp. 24-26, "Come Back Pady Reilly" (1 text)
Roud #6327
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "Ballyjamesduff" (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bally James Duff
NOTES [1080 words]: In addition to a transcription of this song, there was an interesting article about Percy French, who was an Irish-born engineer and entertainer, in Sing Out magazine, Volume 32, #4 (1987), pp, 18-20, It quotes extensively from Healy. There is a much briefer biography in Healy's other book on French, French/Healy pp. 3-4.
Boylan, p. 123, has a brief biography of French., who was a painter as well as a performer and writer. He was born at Cloonyquin in County Roscommon in Ireland, and attended Windermere College, Foyle College, and (Dublin's) Trinity College. That took a while; it wasn't until 1881 that he earned his civil engineering degree. After graduating, he became a surveyor of drains in County Cavan.
In 1887, his job was eliminated, and he had lost his savings in unwise investments, so he founded a comic paper, the Jarvey, which was not successful. He then joined a Dr. Houston Collisson to write and produce a musical comedy, The Knights of the Road. The pair went on to tour England, Canada, the United States, and the West Indies. Although French wrote the melodies for his most popular songs himself, there are a number of songs for which French wrote the words and Collisson the melody; French also occasionally borrowed older tunes.
French moved to London in 1890, and died in Lancashire three decades later.
Healy, p. 1, calls French "a remarkable person: a member of the gentry who became a wandering professional troubadour, and who had all the artistic talents at his command -- he was verse-maker and composer, artist and singer; story-teller par excellence." Born on May 1, 1854, he was named William Percy Smith (after his maternal grandfather William Percy); he was called "Willie" until he set out on his own. The family was Protestant, and were of the landlord class although they personally were not well-off; Willie French, as a second son and third child, would have to fend for himself (Healy, pp. 2-3. Indeed, one wonders if he was properly nourished as a child, since he grew up to be just five feet four inches tall; Healy, p. 37.)
It sounds as if he initially thought of himself as a minstrel show performer; his instrument was banjo (Healy, facing p. 101, has a photo of him playing the instrument; it's a five-string, and it looks like it is probably fretless), and he learned it when he was young while playing with two other young men who played bones and tambourine (Healy, pp. 3-4). He certainly had a minstrel group -- the "Kinniepottle Komics" -- as a young adult (Healy, p. 20, although it does not explicitly mention blackface). Late in life, he performed with a young woman named May Laffan; the photo of her facing 116 of Healy shows her playing a six-string fretted banjo, which implies that she also played guitar.
He went to academies of, at best, modest distinction before pursuing his engineering degree at Trinity College, Dublin, which he earned in 1880 (Healy, p.4). After this, he spent some time working as an engineer for the Cavan Board of Works, working on drains (Healy, p. 15) -- i.e. sewers.
In 1890 he married Ettie Armitage-Moore in Dublin -- a match her parents did not approve of, since Ettie's sister Priscilla had married Lord Annesley and the family had pretensions (Healy, p. 30). It probably didn't help that he had no job at the time, since Cavan had been, shall we say, drained, and his public works job was gone (Healy, p. 31). This was when he tried editing The Jarvey, but it failed at the end of 1890.
The next year brought both triumph and tragedy -- he and Houston Collisson (1865-?) produced their musical comedy "The Knight of the Road" -- but his wife Ettie died in childbirth, and the baby died soon after (Healy, p. 31).
The second French/Collisson collaboration, "Strongbow," followed; it wasn't popular, and the text does not survive, but a member of the amateur cast was Helen May Sheldon (who seems to have been fifteen or more years his junior); they married in 1894 (Healy, p. 43). Around this time, French started touring seriously. He had a number of performance tricks to enliven his shows. Not only did he sing and recite his own works, he would often make a chalk sketch of something while on stage, and show it to the audience -- and then turn it upside down and have it display a different, but still recognizable, image (Healy, p. 44).
He was successful enough that he finally was able to make tours in England by the time he reached his late forties. (It was these tours which finally caused him to stop using the name "William" and start using the name "Percy French," at the urgent suggestion of his publicist, a man named Harry Franklin who often played violin at French's shows; Healy, p. 85.) Percy and Helen had two daughters by then, Molly and Ettie, with a third, Joan, to follow (Healy, p. 79). In time, French and Collison would even manage a tour of America (Healy, pp. 88-93). French eventually left Ireland to settle in London (Healy, p. 96).
In his later years, he apparently quit writing songs, being content to use his older material. But he lived until 1920. Early in that year, after a performance in Glasgow, he became ill (Healy, p. 125), dying of heart disease on January 25, 1920 (Healy, p. 126). His wife Helen lived to the age of 88, dying in 1956 (Healy, p. 129); some of his children lived at least into the 1960s.
Houston Collisson was apparently a truly gifted musician -- he first served as a church organist at sixteen (Healy, p. 42) -- but he doesn't seem to have produced anything memorable except his collaborations with French. Nor was he the only one to write tunes for French; French sometimes used traditional tunes, or worked with other composers, including his daughter. But Collison's association with French went deep -- not only did he tour with French, and supply some of his best-loved melodies; he died in 1920 himself, unexpectedly, soon after a memorial for French (Healy p. 126).
Other songs by French in the Index include "The Mountains of Mourne" (probably his most popular song), "Phil the Fluther's Ball," and almost certainly "Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I)."
The "Sing Out!" article reports a story that French was challenged to write a song containing the name "Ballyjamesduff," and this is the result. But it may also have been based on the line of one of French's friends, who for economic reasons went the Scotland.
It seems, according to French/Healy, that the original title was "Come Back, Paddy Reilly." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcBalJDu

Ballymonan Brae

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to Ballymonan, land of green leaves and pretty girls. He recalls the pleasant nights there. He gives his name as John by counting through the alphabet. He bids success to Ballymonan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home farewell wordplay nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H643, p. 159, "Ballymonan Brae" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13456
File: HHH643

Ballynure Ballad, The

DESCRIPTION: On the road to Ballynure the singer "heard a wee lad behind a wee ditch That to his wee lass was talking" He asks her to give him a kiss. She says "kisses are not for giving away But they are for the taking." Remember that when you go to kiss a girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1319, "The Ballynure Ballad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 43-44, "The Ballynure Ballad" (1 text)
DT, BALLYNUR*
Roud #7211
File: HayU043

Ballyshannon Lane, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer stops at Ballyshannon Lane and thinks of "scenes of ninety-eight," recalling Scullabogue on the one hand and the death of rebels on the other. Many are named. The singer says "in Ireland's need I am here to bleed in Ballyshannon Lane"
AUTHOR: Michael O'Brien (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1998 (Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998))
KEYWORDS: rebellion Ireland death patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 75, "The Ballyshannon Lane" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [162 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "This somewhat confused song seems to relate a series of outrages by government troops against the narrator's neighbors and relations."
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Ballyshannon Lane" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998)) - BS
It sounds as if the idea is to measure Scullabogue against the atrocities committed by the British in 1798. This is suprisingly hard to do, given the nature of feelings about the matter (see the notes to "Father Murphy (II) (The Wexford Men of '98)"). Nonetheless, I'd have to say that Scullabogue, in which a handful of Irish killed a hundred or more loyalists in cold blood, was the single worst atrocity of 1798, and it would take quite a few acts againstt the Irish to balance this particular act of non-civilization.
File: Moyl075

Balm in Gilead

DESCRIPTION: "There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole; There is a balm... to heal the sin-sick soul." "Sometimes I feel discouraged... But then the Holy Spirit Revives my soul again." "If you can preach like Peter... Go and tell your neighbour...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (recording, Fisk University Jubilee Quartet)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 88, "There Is a Balm in Gilead" (1 text) (1 tune)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 68-70, "I Come Up Out uv Egypt" (1 text, 1 tune, with this verse and several others not found in the common versions of this song; the result is sort of a bluesy spiritual)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 199-200, "The Little Shepherd" (1 text, with this chorus and verses of the form "I am a little (shepherd/scholar/watchman/etc.), I (feed my master's sheep), Over the hills and mountains I daily do them keep")
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 43, "Balm in Gilead" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 93-94, "There Is a Balm in Gilead" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 360, "Balm in Gilead" (1 text)
DT, BALMGIL*
Roud #11967
RECORDINGS:
Harry C. Browne, "Balm of Gilead" (Columbia A-2179, 1917)
Campbell College Quartet, "There Is a Balm in Gilead" (OKeh 8900, 1931; rec. 1930)
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "There is a Balm in Gilead" (Victor 16487, 1910; rec. 1909)
Beverly Green, "Balm in Gilead" (on BlackAmRel1)
The King's Heralds, "Balm in Gilead" (Chapel CR 23, n.d.)\
Utica Institute Jubilee Singers, "Balm in Gilead" (Victor 21842, 1929)
NOTES [61 words]: The Book of Jeremiah refers twice to Gilead's balm (Jer. 8:22, 46:11), but there is no real discussion of what it is used for nor why it is unusually effective (if it is; it is perhaps worth noting that, by Jeremiah's time, Gilead had been in foreign hands for about a century, and had been in Israelite rather than Judean hands for two centuries before that). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: FSWB360A

Baloo Baloo Balight

See Looby Lou (File: R554)

Baloo My Boy, Lie Still and Sleep

See Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament (File: GrD81560)

Balou, My Boy, Lie Still and Sleip

See Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament (File: GrD81560)

Balowe

See Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament (File: GrD81560)

Balthazer, Melchior and Jasper

See Out of the Blossom Sprang a Thorn (File: MSOBlSpT)

Baltic Lovers, The

DESCRIPTION: Mary escapes from her father's prison to follow her sailor Thomas to fight the Russians in Sir Charles Napier's Baltic Fleet. When she is discovered and taken, with Thomas, to Napier, he sends them back to England where they marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Chambers)
LONG DESCRIPTION: In Southampton Thomas, a sailor "engaged with Sir Charles Napier" tried to leave Mary, a merchant's daughter, to join the fleet "to fight the Russians in the wars of Turkey" He had promised not to leave her. She threatened to sail with him in the Baltic fleet. Her father overheard the conversation and had her confined in a garret [or barracks]. She escaped to Portsmouth, dressed as a soldier, and met her lover aboard the Duke of Wellington - Napier's ship - "at the Dardanelles" The lovers were taken to the quartermaster who told the story to Napier. Napier promised they shall "be made both happy and that right soon" They embraced and sailed away to England while "we all joined in and we sang the chorus, 'God Save the King' and Sir Charles Lapier [sic Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario]." Now they live happily in Southampton.
KEYWORDS: love marriage navy war parting reunion separation escape cross-dressing ship England Russia father sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Crimean War [see bibliography for sources]
Mar 11, 1854 - The Baltic Fleet, Sir Charles Napier, commander, sails from Spithead; occupied principally in blockading.
May 28, 1854 - The Baltic Fleet destroys Russian forts at Hango, Finland.
Aug 15, 1854 - Russian forts captured at Bomarsund, Aland Islands, Finland, by the Baltic Allied Fleets and troops.
Sept 25, 1854 - Napier reports to Admiralty that it was too late in the season for an attack on Sweaborg, Finland.
Oct 4, 1854 - Admiralty orders attack on Sweaborg to be started "at the end of October"
Oct 10, 1854 - Napier declines the Sweaborg attack which he believed must fail.
Dec 7, 1854 - Napier sails for England with most of the Baltic Fleet not previously returned.
Dec 17, 1854 - Napier anchorsat Spithead.
Dec 22, 1854 - Napier ordered to strike his flag and come on shore. Napier and many observers consider this an insulting dismissal from service.
June 1, 1855 - The Baltic Fleet, now under the command of Rear-Admiral Dundas, joins the Allied Fleets.
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 47, "Sir Charles Lapier" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: William and Robert Chambers, editors, Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Arts (London, 1856 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol V, No. 124, May 17, 1856, p. 208, "The Baltic Lovers" (1 text: first four verses only)
Roud #2323
RECORDINGS:
Marcelle McMahon, "Sir Charles Lapier" (on ONEFowke01)
NOTES [1487 words]: In its less than 10 months time commanded by Napier the Baltic Fleet was never at the Dardanelles.
The historical references are just to give some idea of the time frame covered by this ballad. The ugly details of Napier's [non-]dismissal probably have no place here. You can read about it in the references in the bibliography, below.
For other broadsides about Sir Charles Napier and the Baltic Fleet see:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(25), "The Baltic Fleet" ("Don't you know the wrongs you are doing"), unknown, no date
Bodleian, Firth b.25(513), "The Baltic" ("To the Baltic's broad billows we go, boys"), T. King (Birmingham), c.1845
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(95b), "Jack and the Bear-Skin" ("A sailor and his lass Sat o'er their parting glass"), unknown, c.1885
John Ashton, Real Sailor Songs (London, c.1973 reprint of 1891 edition), #27, pp. 3-4, "Bold Napier" ("Old England calls her sons to arms") - BS
These days, the Crimean phase of the Crimean War gets all the attention (song on the subject include, e.g., "The Crimean War" [Laws J9], "The Famous Light Brigade," "The Heights of Alma (I)" [Laws J10], the fullest versions of "The Kerry Recruit" [Laws J8], "The Kilties in the Crimea," and "Patrick Sheehan" [Laws J11]). But the Baltic Expedition, now largely forgotten, earned plenty of press at the time.
As Stokesbury points out on p. 244, points out that the goal of the British and the French was not to fight in the Crimea, it was to get to Russia (so as to take the pressure off the Ottoman Empire). The Crimea was not their ideal place to fight; the supply line was too long. The Baltic was closer. So an Anglo-French fleet went there under the command of Napier.
Stokesbury, p. 244, says of him, "The British commander was Admiral Sir Charles Napier, who had been a dashing middle-grade officer but who was now tempered by advancing age (he was nearly seventy) as well as by inhibiting instructions from the government." As often happened in nineteenth century wars, his reputation preceded his results: "The British public lionized its first hero of 'the War with Russia' long before the shooting started. Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Napier -- 'Mad Charlie', 'Black Charley', cousin of 'Peccavi' Napier who conquered Sind, kinsman of the Laird Napier who invented logarithms -- was one of those officer eccentrics whose vanity condemns them to success" (Palmer, p. 66).
He was genuinely successful in his earlier days, having commanded a frigate during the Napoleonic Wars and been part of the naval force that attacked Washington, D.C. in 1814. An unsuccessful businessman, he had fought well in the Portuguese civil war and had led the capture of Lisbon (Palmer, p. 66).
Napier's flagship was the Duke of Wellington (Royle, p. 156); this ship is mentioned in the song (although Fowke failed to recognize this in her text, where the name is not printed in italics). It makes some sense that this ship would need a lot of crew before the Baltic expedition; it was brand-new, having been laid down in 1849 and launched in 1852 after hasty conversion to steam (Marshall-Encyclopedia, p. 99).
The composition of the attacking force didn't help -- while the British squadron had a number of steamships, the French supplied only sailing vessels, which slowed the fleet significantly. As Stokesbury acidly comments on p. 244, "Under these conditions the admirals decided that little could be accomplished, and then set out diligently to justify their prediction." This even though Napier had boasted before sailing, "Within a month of entering the Baltic I shall be in Kronstadt [the main Russian naval base], or in Heaven" (Palmer, p. 67).
The Russians didn't make things easy; they quickly (and surely correctly) concluded that they could not hold off the invading navies in either the Baltic or the Black Sea -- and so gave up control of the waters (Herman, p. 451). Instead they fortified and mined their harbors (Royle, p. 159). Napier and his fleet settled down to a blockade -- a policy which had little appeal to the authorities at home in Britain. Eventually they sent him 10,000 French troops (Royle, p. 160); on August 8, the attacks on the Bomarsund forts began. The 2000 Russians guarding the island surrendered a week later (Royle, p. 161).
Minor as it was, it was the first victory of the war for the anti-Russian coalition (Royle, p. 162). The problem was, once an officer started winning, the pressure naturally increased for him to win some more. Meanwhile, his officers were disagreeing, the weather was worsening -- and Napoleon III of France was pulling out his troops to send them to other fronts (Royle, p. 163). Napier did not want to take risks and jeopardize his victory (Palmer, p. 76). There followed an argument between the Admiralty and Napier over whether he should do more. The offensive was over, and the fleet eventually headed home. The ships reached Portsmouth on December 22 and Napier removed from his post (Royle, p. 164). Although he had not accomplished anything spectacular, he had succeeded in capturing a useful island in the Gulf of Finland and brought back every ship in his fleet safely. But he was greeted with sarcasm once felt by the "Noble Duke of York" as the less-than-poetic newspapers cried out, according to p. 76 of Palmer,
The Baltic fleet
With fifty thousand men,
Sailed up the seas --
And then sailed home again.
If the Baltic campaign is remembered for anything positive at all, it is an act of individual heroism, when one Charles Lucas picked up a live shell which had landed on the deck of the Hecla and threw it overboard (Palmer, p. 72). His reward was the first-ever Victoria Cross for a sailor (Royle, p. 159).
The Crimean land campaign did not begin until September 1854, and extended well beyond that. Thus, although Napier himself never went anywhere near the Dardanelles, some of his sailors certainly did. So, theoretically, the song is possible -- although likely the reference to the Dardanelles is either a confusion or a conflation of multiple ballads.
The fleet, however, was sent back to the Baltic the next year, where it attacked Sveaborg (Stokesbury, p. 245).
Napier did a fine job of making a laughing-stock of himself; absolutely refusing to admit either a failure on his own part; Palmer, pp. 178-179, describes his self-defence in parliament in which "He denounced the officers and men of his Baltic Squadron for giving him less personal loyalty than he might have deserved; he denounced the Admiralty Board; and, most of all, he denounced Sir James Graham [the First Lord of the Admiralty] for having ordered him to strike his flag and return to civilian life while the laurels of victory were still eluding him." Little surprise that Napier because the subject of a furious controversy!
Napier's successor in command of the Baltic fleet was Admiral Richard Dundas (Palmer, p. 192), who still found Kronstadt too strong to attack (Royle, p. 379). He did manage a bombardment of Sveaborg (Royle, pp. 381-383), it accomplished little: "Sveaborg does not stand high in the long list of British naval successes. While it was a thorough and cheaply won victory it did not bring the war any closer to a conclusion" (Royle, p. 382). And, yes, the Duke of Wellington was present.
It occurs to me that Dundas's action might supply another explanation for the confusion of the Baltic with the Dardanelles in this song. Richard Dundas was not the only Crimean War admiral with that surname. James Dundas commanded the British Mediterranean fleet at the start of the war, and set out for the Dardanelles very early on (Palmer, p. 20). He was responsible for the British fleet that landed in the Crimea (Stokesbury, p. 245). He left the Crimea in December 1854 (Palmer, p. 188). So perhaps the songwriter confused the two Dundases, thinking that the Duke of Wellington that went to the Baltic with Richard Dundas then ended up in the Dardanelles with James Dundas. This makes a hash of the chronology, but it's a hash anyway.- RBW
[Sources used for the Historical References]:
William Nassau Molesworth, The History of England from the Year 1830-1874 (1882, Covent Garden (digitized by Google)), Vol. III, especially pp. 22-54.
Charles Napier, The History of the Baltic Campaign of 1854 (1857, London (digitized by Google), pp. 534-557.
The Southport Visiter, c.March 9, 1854, "Sailing of the Baltic Fleet" [Copyright 2002 by Old Mersey Times]
The New York Times, "The Baltic Fleet," June 12, 1854 (copyright The New York Times, from New York Times Archives site), p.1.
The New York Times, "The Capture of Bomarsund - Summary of Military Operrations," September 8, 1854 [from The London Times, Aug. 24, 1854] (copyright The New York Times, from New York Times Archives site), p.2.
The New York Times, "The Baltic Fleet - Its Failure," March 16, 1855 (copyright The New York Times, from New York Times Archives site), p.2.
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: FowOn047

Baltimore

See I Got a Gal in Baltimore (File: R452)

Baltimore (Up She Goes)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "He kissed her on the cheek and the crew began to roar, Oh, oh, up she goes, we're bound for Baltimore." Verses continue with kissing on the neck, arms, legs, and other parts which the printed sources politely refrain from mentioning.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen)
KEYWORDS: shanty bawdy nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Germany US Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 92, "Up She Goes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 418, "Baltimore" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 319]
Roud #4690
RECORDINGS:
John Doughty, "Baltimore" (on Voice12)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A-Roving" (theme)
cf. "Tickly My Toe" (theme)
NOTES [149 words]: Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen takes her version from Baltser's Knurrhahn, a book compiled for the German merchant marines. Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas says that he never heard this on any British ships, but that it was very popular on German ones, and suggests that supports his theory that German and Scandinavian seamen adapted British and American shore-songs and turned them into shanties. - SL
Stan Hugill, Shanties from the Seven Seas (2003), p. 319: "It was a shanty very popular in German sailing ships, usually sung at the capstan.... It was never heard in British ships, and it helps to strengthen my theory that German and Scandinavian seamen adapted British and American shore-songs and turned them into shanties long after the art of 'inventing' shanties had died out aboard British and American ships... Of course many of the final verses have had to be censored!" - BS
File: Hugi418

Baltimore Fire, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was on a silver falls by a narrow That I heard a cry I ever will remember... Fire, fire, I heard the cry From every breeze that passes by... While in ruin the fire was laying Fair Baltimore, the beautiful city." About the terrible fire in Baltimore
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Charlie Poole & the North Carolina Ramblers; first printed in Maury's Songster of about 1905)
KEYWORDS: disaster fire
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb. 7-8, 1904 - Fire wipes out practically the entire downtown section of Baltimore.
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 97, "Baltimore Fire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 87, "Baltimore Fire" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 176-177, "Baltimore Fire" (1 text plus an excerpt from "Boston Fire," the inspiration for the piece)
DT, BALTFIRE*
Roud #12392
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "Baltimore Fire" (on NLCR03)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Baltimore Fire" (Columbia 15509-D, 1930; rec. 1929; on CPoole02)
File: CSW097

Baltimore, The

See The Barley Mow (File: ShH99)

Bambocheur, Un (A Vagabond Love)

DESCRIPTION: French. Daughterloves a bambocheur (wanderer). The mother says that she will instead marry a rich man on the morrow. The girl walks along the shore, bemoaning her slavery ("esclavage"), saying she will never stop loving "ce bambocheur"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
LONG DESCRIPTION: French. Daughter asks her mother if she knows "the lad I love so well", who is a bambocheur, or wanderer. The mother replies that the daughter will not wed him, but instead will marry another on the morrow, one with great wealth. The girl walks along the shore, weeping and bemoaning her slavery ("esclavage"), saying she will never stop loving "ce bambocheur"
KEYWORDS: grief courting love family lover mother money
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 39, "Un Bambocheur (A Vagabond Love)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
Cross-References:
NOTES [23 words]: Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes states that, despite the commonness of the theme, "no close variant" is found in either Canada or France. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BerV039

Bamboo (River Come Down)

DESCRIPTION: "You take a stick of bamboo (x3), You throw it in the water." "River, she come down (x2)." You travel across the river to come home.
AUTHOR: Dick Weissman and Dave van Ronk
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (album, "Peter, Paul and Mary")
KEYWORDS: river travel campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 550, "Bamboo" (notes only)
RECORDINGS:
Marianne Corbino, "Bamboo" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #632, recorded 08/10/2023)
NOTES [102 words]: Apparently there is a bit of back story here. This started as a tune by Dick Weissman with the lyric "River, she come down." Dave van Ronk added the words so that he would have something to use while teaching guitar accompaniments. It wasn't really meant to be a song; it was a practice piece. But Peter, Paul and Mary liked it, so it became a hit and even found itself used in camps.
Van Ronk didn't even like his own lyrics -- but confessed ironically that it was the only one of his songs that brought in any royalties. But the complicated authorship situation means that the lyrics could drift quite a bit.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ACSF550B

Bamboo Briars, The

See The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)

Banana Boat Song (Day-O)

DESCRIPTION: Work song about loading bananas; refrain: "Daylight come and me want go home" or "Day the light and me want go home." The workers ask the "tally man" to count the bananas so they can go home after loading all night.
AUTHOR: Unknown, but the lyrics to the version made popular by Belafonte (and adapted for the civil rights movement) were written by pop songwriters Irving Burgle (Lord Burgess) and William Attaway
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: ship work worksong worker nonballad food
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 2-4, "Day Dah Light" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jim Morse, _Folk Songs of the Caribbean_ (New York: Bantam Books, 1958), pp. 84-85, "Day Dah Light" (1 text, 1 tune)
William Attaway and Lyle Kenyon Engel, _Calypso Song Book_ (New York: Calypso Music, Inc, 1957), pp. 18-19, "Banana Boat Loader's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time - Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), pp. 50-51, "Day Oh" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Day Dah Light" (on WIEConnor01)
Louise Bennett, "Day Dah Light (Day O)" (on WILBennett01, n.d., on "Jamaica-Mento: 1951-58," Fremaux and Associes CDFA 5275).
Denzil Laing and The Wigglers, "Linstead Market/Day O)" (2004, on "Mento Madness, Motta's Jamaican Mento: 1951-56," V2 Music Ltd CD 63881-27201-2)
Harry Belafonte with Tony Scott's Orchestra and Chorus, "Day O" (1956, as "Banana Boat" on RCA Victor 45 rpm 47-6771, 1980, "Harry Belafonte All Time Greatest Hits Vol. I," RCA BMG LC 0316)
SAME TUNE:
Calypso Freedom (RECORDING: Willie Peacock, on VoicesCiv)
NOTES [407 words]: The song is, of course, best known as a 1956 pop hit for revival performer Harry Belafonte. I take it as a song that seems to have originated in tradition and certainly moved there, as witness its adoption by the civil rights movement ("freedom come and I want go home"). -PJS
This is a call and answer work song, where the call is a single line and the answer is "day dah light and me wan' go home." There were probably dozens of calls but the versions listed here so far have only seventeen, and of those, three have what I consider significant variants. Bennett is probably the source for most of the calls we have. Attaway, in his book, has four calls not in any other version, and none of those are in the Belafonte version (Attaway is one of the credited writers of Belafonte's text, along with Irving Burgie -- dba Lord Burgess -- and Belafonte himself); the Belafonte version has five calls not in other texts and one interesting variant: a call common to all but Dexter is "six han' seven han' eight han' bunch," a "hand" being a bunch of bananas; Belafonte's text, followed by the singers that "sampled" his version afterwards, replaces "hand" with "foot" and has the worker "lift" the bunch so many feet.
Which, if any, of Attaway's and Belafonte's calls were not from the docks I cannot say. Incidentally, both Attaway and Belafonte share two calls with Bennett. In Attaway and Engel, the attributions say whether the texts include "special lyrics by Attaway"; that is *not* the case for "Banana Boat Loader's Song." - BS
According to Milton Okun (as told to Richard Sparks), Along the Cherry Lane: Tales from the Life of Music Industry Legend Milton Okun, Classical Music Today, 2011, pp. 58-65, Irving Burgie (Lord Burgess) was responsible for writing (or, in this case, probably rewriting) most of Harry Belafonte's calypso songs, and Belafonte regularly took a songwriting credit and half the royalties. Milt Okun convinced Burgie to claim his own rights. The caution in this is that Okun ended up publishing the Burgie songs, so he perhaps had an interest in increasing Burgie's share of the royalties, plus he had personal disputes with Belafonte.
What is certain, in this case, is that Murray published a version of the song before Belafonte recorded it. In this case, it looks as if Belafonte's camp may have rewritten the verses, but the basic format of the song (including the chorus and first verse) are traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcBaBoSo

Banbury Cross

DESCRIPTION: "Ride a cock horse to Banbury cross To see a fine lady upon a white horse. Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, And she shall have music wherever she goes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammar Gurton's Garland, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad music horse
FOUND IN: US(SE) Britain(England) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 140, "Banbury Cross" (1 text, a composite of "Banbury Cross," "Ring Around the Rosie," and an item about learning to ride (?))
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 143, "As I was going by Banbury Cross" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 29, "Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #619, p. 247, "(Ride a cock-horse to Banbury cross)"; cf. #617, "(Ride a Cock Horse)"; #618, "(Ride a cock-horse)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 176, "Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 144, "Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross" (1 text)
Roud #21143
RECORDINGS:
Alessandra Delia-Lôbo, "Ride a Cock-Horse" (Piotr-Archive #393, recorded 12/18/2022)
NOTES [243 words]: This little item has prompted the usual wild speculation: That the lady is Lady Godiva, or Elizabeth I, or one Celia Fiennes (fl. 1697). The inimitable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp. 160-161, for instance, seems to say that it is about a trip Elizabeth I took to Banbury in 1558, her accession year. For documentation, see the Opies -- but note that their #28 and #30 are similar rhymes with different endings. If the piece is about any particular person, it has clearly been much modified.
To be sure, there are versions that are truly about an actual person. See "As I Was Going by Charing Cross": "As I was going by Charing Cross, I saw a black man upon a black horse, They told me it was King Charles the First, Oh dear, my heart was ready to burst" (because Charles was on his way to trial or execution).
I am tempted to list this song as having been found in Antarctica (which would be a first for the Index, I believe). Reportedly the crew of Robert Scott's fatal 1910-1912 edition sang the song there -- to the penguins. Allegedly the penguins approached to listen to "Banbury Cross" but moved away when they heard "God Save the King" (see Peter Fitzsimons, Mawson and the Ice Men of the Heroic Age: Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen, William Heinemann, 2011, p. 255). Believe as much of that as you like, but it would appear that the song was sung there as a traditional song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Br3140

Band o' Shearers, The

DESCRIPTION: As shearing season approaches, the lad asks, "My bonnie lassie, will ye gang, And shear wi' me the whole day long, And love will cheer us as we gang And join the band of shearers." The two find they are happy together, and decide to wed
AUTHOR: Robert Hogg ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love courting work sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 196-197, "The Band o' Shearers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #3, p. 3, "The Band o' Shearers" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 406, "The Band o' Shearers" (8 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 268-269, "The Band o' Shearers" (1 text)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 64, 151, "The Band O Shearers" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BANSHEAR*
Roud #1524
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(126), "The Band o' Shearers," Poet's Box (Dundee), n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gallant Shearers" (chorus)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Shearing
NOTES [80 words]: This song and "The Gallant Shearers" share a chorus and a theme, and are undoubtedly connected, though it's not clear which is older. But the feel of the verses is different enough that I follow Ord-BothySongsAndBallads in splitting them, as does Roud. - RBW
I'll follow Roud in putting Greig/Duncan3 here rather than with "The Gallant Shearers" but it could go either way.
Greig/Duncan3: "Learnt in Skene fifty-five years ago from an old Highlandman. Noted 19th December 1906." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: FVS196

Band ob Gideon (Gideon's Band; or, De Milk-White Horses)

See Band of Gideon (The Milk-White Horses) (File: Dett056)

Band of Banshee Airmen, A

DESCRIPTION: "A band of banshee airmen, way out in the sunny Sudan, Where all the erks are banshee, and so's the fucking old man." The singer recalls the extreme tidyness of the captain of the Somersetshire. "So roll on the Nelson, the Rodney...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier ship nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 60-61, "A Band of Banshee Airmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #29408
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf ."Roll on the Rodney" ("Roll on the [ship name]" lyric) and references there
cf. "She's a Tiddley Ship" (tune, lyrics)
cf. "Prince Henry Song" (lyrics, tune)
NOTES [71 words]: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear says this is to the tune "The Tiddley Ship," with which it shares lyrics, but at least part of it appears to be based on the hymn "Blessed Assurance" ("This is my story, this is my song, Praising my savior all the day long").
The version collected by Hopkins refers to the HMS Hood as having been sunk, meaning it must date from after May 24, 1941, the day the Bismarck sank the Hood. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hopk060

Band of Gideon (The Milk-White Horses)

DESCRIPTION: The singer hails his sister (brother, mourner): "Don't you want to go to heaven? How I long to see that day." There's a "band of Gideon (milk white horses, milk and honey, healing water, golden chariot) over in Jordan"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 56-57, "Band ob Gideon (Gideon's Band; or, De Milk-White Horses)" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 242-243 in the 1874 edition)
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 38, "I Long To See That Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12361
File: Dett056

Band Played On, The

DESCRIPTION: Known by the chorus, "Casey would waltz with a strawberry blonde, and the band played on...." The verses concern the social club founded by Matt Casey, and the kissing, courting, and dancing which took place there
AUTHOR: Words: John F. Palmer / Music: Charles B. Ward (but see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (New York World)
KEYWORDS: courting dancing music
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 163-164, "The Band Played On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 75-80, "The Band Played On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 254, "The Band Played On" (1 partial text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 6-7, "The Band Played On" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 214-216, "The Band Played On" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 246, "The Band Played On" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 123, "The Band Played On"
DT, PLAYEDON*
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 15-19, "The Band Played On" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Margaret Bradford Boni, editor, _Songs of the Gilded Age_, with piano arrangements by Norman Lloyd and illustrations by Lucille Corcos, Golden Press, 1960, pp. 64-66, "The Band Played On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9615
RECORDINGS:
Bob Livingston, Patricia Campbell, "The Band Played On" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #243, recorded 09/11/2022; the chorus only, and that defective)
Dan Quinn, "The Band Played On" (Berliner 0961, 1898)
NOTES [346 words]: According to Gilbert-LostChords, Palmer could not sell this song to anyone. One day, Ward heard him humming the tune, took it and touched it up, and thus was a hit born.
James J. Geller's story is more detailed. Palmer's sister Pauline had ordered breakfast, but her servant did not respond quickly; there was a street band performing. Pauline tried to hurry the servant, but Palmer said, "Let the band play on." Pauline told him that that would be a good song title.
Palmer eventually evolved the story of Matt Casey, his social club, and his wooing of his strawberry blonde wife. The rest is as in Gilbert-LostChords.
Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 72, observes that the verse of this is a march, the chorus a waltz -- there was a waltz craze in the late nineteenth century. Interesting that the only part people remember is the chorus. The waltz also was considered to have slightly erotic undertones -- waltzing together implied strong attraction.
According to David A. Jasen, Tin Pan Alley: The Composers, the Songs, the Performers and their Times: The Golden Age of American Popular Music from 1886 to 1956, Primus, 1988, p. 28, "Both words and music were written by John F. Palmer, whose sister called attention to a hurdy-gurdy melody which was playing outside their house. Palmer took it to publisher Charles B. Ward (1865-1917), who purchased it and gave himself credit as the composer. It was first published in the New York Sunday World on June 30, 1895, and when the sheet music came out, it was dedicated to that newspaper...."
According to Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 454, in addition to its success in 1895, this song had a second vogue in 1941; he estimates it as the eleventh-most-popular song in America in June 1941.
An 1878 song by Harrigan and Braham was called "The Casey Social Club"; I don't know if it provided a degree of inspiration. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: SRW163

Bandit Cole Younger

See Cole Younger [Laws E3] (File: LE03)

Bandyrowe

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Bang Away, Lulu (I)

DESCRIPTION: A quatrain ballad that celebrates Lulu's sexual exploits, her peccadillos, and the singer's affection for the lady in question. A typical chorus asks, "What will we do for banging When Lulu's dead and gone?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous scatological sex
FOUND IN: Canada Britain(England) US(Ap,NW,So,SW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 173-180, "Bang Away, Lulu I" (6 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 351-355, "Bang Away, Lulu" (7 texts, 1 tune, but the "F" text is "Bang Away, Lulu (II)")
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 25, pp. 154-159, "My Lula Gal" (1 text, 1 tune, of this form though it lacks the "Bang Lulu" chorus)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 159, "Lulu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 176-177, "Lulu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brand-BawdySeaSong 13, "Lulu" (1 text)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 14, "Lulu" (1 text)
Roud #8349
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bang Away, Lulu II, III"
File: EM173

Bang Away, Lulu (II)

DESCRIPTION: A teasing-song version of "Bang Away, Lulu I," i.e.: "Lulu's got a rooster. / Lulu's got a duck. / She put them in the bathtub / To see if they would --." Chorus: "Bang, bang Lulu," etc. (Note that the last line of each verse is left unfinished)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (recording, Bang Boys?)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous wordplay
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 180-182, "Bang Away, Lulu II" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, p. 353, "Bang Away, Lulu" (the "F" text is this piece; the others are "Bang Away, Lulu (I)")
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Gloria Dickens, "Childhood Songs from North Carolina" Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), p. 5, "Lulu had a steamboat" (1 text, which ends with stanza that doesn't have a hidden word and doesn't mention Lulu)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 131, "(Lucy had a steamship)" (notes only)
Roud #4835
RECORDINGS:
Bang Boys [pseud. for Roy Acuff] "When Lulu's Gone" (Vocalion 03372/OKeh 03372, c. 1937; Conqueror 9123, 1938; rec. 1936)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Bang, Bang Lulu" (on NLCREP3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bang Away, Lulu I, III"
cf. "I Had a Little Monkey" (lyrics)
NOTES [118 words]: I am guessing, on circumstantial evidence, that the Bang Boys recording falls under this entry rather than the other "Bang Away, Lulu" songs -- but you should look there, too. - PJS
Robert A. Heinlein, in To Sail Beyond the Sunset (p. 144 of the Ace paperback edition) claims that this song was in existence some time before 1918. This seems likely enough, but of course (it being a work of fiction) Heinlein does not document it. And the book was written some seventy years after that, and Heinlein was only 11 years old in 1918. Sure, he might have learned it by then -- but I wouldn't bet on it. I mention it because it *might* be an earliest date, but I want to point out how tenuous that dating is. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM180

Bang Away, Lulu (III)

DESCRIPTION: This is a compromise between Lulu I and II. Typical stanza: "Lulu gave a party, Lulu gave a tea, Then she left the table To see her chicken peck."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous wordplay
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, p. 182, "Bang Away, Lulu III" (1 text)
DT, BANGLULU? BANGLU2?
Roud #4835
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bang Away, Lulu I, II"
File: EM182

Bangidero

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "To Chile's coast we are bound away, To my hero Bangidero. To Chile's coast we are bound away, We'll drink and dance fandango..." Verses sing the praises of Spanish girls and various sexual exploits.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (_The Bellman_)
KEYWORDS: shanty bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 98, "Bangidero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 53-54, "The Gals O' Chile" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbrEd, pp. 49-50]
ST Hug053 (Partial)
Roud #3222
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Timme Heave-o, Hang Her, Hilo
To My Hero Bangidero
The Girls of Chile
NOTES [118 words]: Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen got this from Captain Robinson's collection, "Songs of the Chantey Man," published during July and August of 1917 as a series in the periodical The Bellman. (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). Robinson stated that the refrain given was never actually sung, but substituted for the original which was too vulgar for publication. Hugill also states that he changed both the verses and refrains to make the song printable. In addition, he makes a comment on this and other so-called "rare" shanties, that they were not so much rare in use as they were difficult to clean up and camouflage for publication and so when an opportunity came to write things down, they were left out. - SL
File: Hug053

Bangor and No Surrender

DESCRIPTION: "Let craven hearts to tyranny Their coward homage render; The watchword of the brave and free Will still be "No Surrender!" "We kept our commemoration In honour of our Hero great Who freed the British nation" "We shall up and we shall on"
AUTHOR: William Johnston (source: Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 12, 1867 - William Johnston leads an Orange March in Bangor and is subsequently jailed for breaking the Party Processions Act (source: Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 17, "Bangor and No Surrender" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [317 words]: "This song was written by William Johnston of Ballykilbeg while a prisoner in Downpatrick prison. He was serving a two months sentence for breaking the Party Processions Act as he had led Orangemen from Newtownards to Bangor on the Twelfth [of July] 1867."
"On the morning of 12th July 1867, Johnston headed a procession from Newtownards which consisted of over 10,000 Orangemen. As the parade reached Bangor it increased to such an extent that it is estimated that between 30,000 and 40,000 people took part in the final march through the town." Johnston was among those sentenced to serve one month the following February. He was released early because of poor health. (source: "Johnston, Grand Lodge and the Party Processions Controversy" at Newtownards District [of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland] site).
"The Hero" of the song is William III and the commemoration is the Boyne celebration on July 12. It would not be clear without the Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark comment. - BS
For the background of the phrase "No Surrender," which arose during the siege of (London)derry, see the notes to "No Surrender (I)" and "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry."
The Party Processions Act is just what it sounds like: An attempt by the British government to control the marches and demonstrations which so often ended in violence. According to the Oxford Companion to Irish History, it was passed in 1850 in the aftermath of the Dolly's Brae conflict (for which see "Dolly's Brae (I)"). The Oxford Companion lists William Johnston (1829-1902), the author of this piece, as the measure's chief opponent. The Act was repealed in 1872. On the whole, it probably did help reduce violence -- but it also deepened the underlying resentment of both sides.
For background on William Johnston, who was once imprisoned for violating the Party Processions Act, see the notes to "William Johnston of Ballykilbeg." - RBW
File: OrLa017

Bangor Boat's Away, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Bangor boat's away, The Bangor boat's away, For we won't be home till morning, We won't be home till morning (x2), The Bangor boat's away." "The Bangor boat's away, We have no time to play." "The Bangor boat's away, We have no time to stay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: ship travel separation | morning
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 65, "(The Bangor boat's away)" (1 text)
Roud #19300
NOTES [23 words]: Roud appears to combine this with "Bell Horses," but while they may well be based on the same original, I'd consider them separate songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PKKB065D

Bangor Fire, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was on a Sunday afternoon, The sky was bright and clear, The people... felt no dread or fear." But a fire starts on Broad Street, and much of the town of Bangor burns. The song catalogs buildings destroyed. It praises mayor, firefighters, and God
AUTHOR: Words: John J. Friend
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: fire
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 30, 1911 - The Bangor Fire
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 176-179, "The Bangor Fire" (1 text)
NOTES [275 words]: For such a dramatic event, the Bangor Fire is very little mentioned in histories. Not one of the printed references I checked had any data. There is a short article in Wikipedia noting that only two people were killed, but that nearly 300 homes and 100 business were destroyed, along with most of the town's civic buildings. Damage was estimated at over three million 1911 dollars.
There is a book by Wayne E. Reilly, Remembering Bangor: The Queen City Before the Great Fire, History Press, 2009. It's not really about the fire; it is a series of newspaper accounts, printed in the early 2000s, describing the town as it was before the fire (and based on items in Bangor's newspapers in the pre-fire area). It says of Bangor in 1911 that "the city was in transition between its glory days as the lumber capitol of the world and its more prosaic status as the major service center for that vast, ill-defined area called Eastern Maine" (Reilly, p. 9).
One wonders a little about Bangor's fire code. The fire supposedly started in a hay shed owned by one J. Frank Green (Reilly, p. 123). But Green's sheds had already been the site of two fires in 1907-1908 (Reilly, p. 120). The first one was minor, but the second one, thought to be of "incendiary origin," had taken out several buildings and did between $15,000 and $20,000 in damage (Reilly, pp. 120-122). Yet Green was allowed to continue using his shed (Reilly, p. 121, has what appears to be a photo of the shed after the 1908 fire).
This poem, which is accurate as far as I can tell, really does sound like the recital of an eyewitness, although there is no evidence it went into tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Gray176

Bangum and the Bo'

See Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Bangum Rid by the Riverside

See Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Bangum Rode the Riverside

See Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Banished Defender, The

DESCRIPTION: "For the sake of my religion I was forced to leave my native home." "They swore I was a traitor and a leader of the Papist band, For which I'm in cold irons, a convict in Van Diemen's Land ... as a head leader of Father Murphy's Shelmaliers"
AUTHOR: "Most probably by James Garland [d. c.1842]" (according to Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1800 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: rebellion transportation Ireland religious
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 24, "The Banished Defender" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 70, "The Banished Defender" (1 text, 1 tune)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 56-58, "The Brave Defenders" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 351-352, "The Banish'd Defender" (1 text, with a tune on p. 592)
Roud #13469
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(10), "The Banish'd Defender," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 15(5b), "The Banished Defender"; 2806 c.15(215), "The Brave Defenders"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Defender's Song" (some text)
NOTES [380 words]: At the end of the eighteenth century the Catholic "Defenders" were opposed to the Protestant "Peep o'Day Boys" or "Orangemen" (source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion). - BS
The attribution of this to a Defender is rather peculiar. The Defenders certainly took part in the 1798 rising (see, e.g., "Bold McDermott Roe"), and they, unlike the United Irishment, were definitely Catholic -- but they were almost all concentrated in Ulster. To encounter one serving under Father Murphy in Wexford seems somewhat improbable. One suspects the author didn't want the singer to be associated with the more secular United Irishmen.
Robert Kee quotes this in The Most Distressful Country (being Volume I of The Green Flag), p. 126. This version is unlikely on at least two counts -- notably, if the singer had indeed been taken with his weapons, as described in the song, he would most likely have been killed on the spot.
"Harry's Breed" refers to Henry VIII, who converted England (but not Ireland, nor Scotland for that matter) to Protestantism. But the charge is false; most of the troops who put down the 1798 rebellion were Irish and Catholic.
Healy's version at least refers to "Moses and Ely." That should be "Eli," the High Priest at the end of the period of the Judges; his story is intertwined with that of his young attendant Samuel in the early chapters of I Samuel.
The song also states that Jesus was crucified with "rusty" nails. There is no evidence of this in the Bible (though it's likely enough).
The song refers to "Luther's breed and Calvin's seed." The Anglican church, however, derives its doctrines neither from Luther nor Calvin. There were Calvinists in Ireland (the Dissenters of Ulster), but at least some of them were on the side of the rebels.
Finally, I can't help but comment on the strange allusion to Transubstantiation. Yes, this was a Catholic doctrine not shared by Protestants, but even if you can accept the theological twisting behind the doctine, it is based primarily not on the sixth chaptier of John (which talks about the Bread of Life but doesn't say that the communion bread becomes the flesh of Jesus) but the Last Supper (Mark 1422fff. and parallels). Nor is it likely that one of the Irish rebels could quote the relevant scriptures. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Zimm024

Banished Lover, The (The Parish of Dunboe)

DESCRIPTION: The singer wanders out and recalls the home from which (his parents) banished him. He recalls how the locals dislike strangers. He meets a "pretty fair maid who sore lamented." She says that her lover has been taken away. He reveals that he is her lover
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation mother father reunion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H23, p. 307, "The Banished Lover"; H726, pp. 307-308, "Learmont Grove" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #2963
NOTES [46 words]: The second Henry text, "Learmont Grove," is a very worn down version in which the plot barely survives; it is identified with the first based primarily upon common lyrics.
The date of this text is given incorrectly in Henry/Huntington/Herrmann; it should be 1937, not 1927. - RBW
File: HHH023

Banishment

See My Dearest Dear (File: SKE40)

Banishment of Patrick Brady, The

DESCRIPTION: Patrick Brady is "forced to banishment ... for being an upright Irishman that loved the shamrock green." At Carmanrock fair he and his comrades fought against those who swore to pull down the church. Brady is arrested but rescued and escapes to America.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: first half 19C (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: battle emigration escape rescue America Ireland religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 33, "The New Song on the Banishment of Patrick Brady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V1371
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pat Brady" (subject)
File: Zimm033

Banjo Pickin' Girl

See Going Around the World (Banjo Pickin' Girl) (File: RcGAtW)

Banjo Picking, The

See Go Slow, Boys (Banjo Pickin') (File: R278)

Banjo Song, The

See De Fust Banjo (The Banjo Song; The Possum and the Banjo; Old Noah) (File: R253)

Banjo Tramp

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you people that are here tonight... I've traveled this country over... But because I'm thin they call me slim, I'm a regular banjo tramp." The singer steals a man's trunk, is imprisoned, and vows to settle down but expects he'll ramble again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: rambling railroading food hardtimes prison judge home theft thief punishment
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 362, "Banjo Tramp" (1 text)
Roud #11732
File: Br3362

Bank Fishermen

DESCRIPTION: The Peerless from Gloucester set out six dories to fish on the banks. "Suddenly a storm did rise" and the dories with twelve fishermen are lost. "Our captain cruised about all day in hopes to take them up" but found no sign of the missing men.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: death drowning fishing sea ship storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18252
RECORDINGS:
Pattie Maher, "Bank Fishermen" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Peerless Fishermen" (subject)
File: RcBanFis

Bank of the Arkansaw, The

See The Banks of the Arkansas (File: LxSi068)

Banker Brown

DESCRIPTION: A girl tells her mother that she loves Jack but will marry old Banker Brown for his money. Mother advises her to "wed the man you love." Daughter marries Banker Brown and, a year later, admits to her mother that it was a mistake.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: greed marriage husband mother money
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 39, "Banker Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab39 (Partial)
Roud #9989
NOTES [46 words]: The cynic in me thinks some wag rewrote this to reverse the speeches of mother and daughter -- that is, that the daughter wanted to marry for love and the mother wanted her to marry for money. Also, the whole thing makes me think a little of Chaucer's "Merchant's Tale." . - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: LLab39

Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon

See The Banks o' Doon (File: CTbnksbr)

Banks o' Deveron Water, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes out to take the air by (Deveron) water, and chooses "a maid to be my love." He says her equal is not to be found elsewhere, describes her beauty, and says he would not trade her for great riches. He hopes they will someday wed
AUTHOR: Alexander Lesley ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: love courting river
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 29-30, "The Banks o' Deveron Water" (1 text)
Roud #3784
NOTES [35 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads reports that this was written in 1636 by Alexander Lesley. However, there are signs of oral tradition, so I can't say with certainty whether Lesley originated or transmitted the piece. - RBW
File: Ord029

Banks o' Doon, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks how the banks of bonnie Doon can bloom "sae fresh and fair" when she is separated from her love. She pulled a rose, which her lover took while leaving her the thorn
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1792 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: love courting abandonment nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 415, "Ye Banks and Braes of Bonny Doon" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #100, "Bonnie Doon" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 45, "Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon" (1 text)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 150-157, "The Banks o' Doon" (3 texts, of the various states of the song)
DT, BNKSBRAE* BANKBRA2*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #55, "Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon" (1 text)
Roud #13889
RECORDINGS:
Henry Burr, "Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon" (Columbia A339, 1909; rec. 1902); "Bonny Doon" (Victor 4426, 1905; Victor 4426/Victor 16152, 1908 (re-recording))
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.1269(108a), "Banks of Doon," unknown, c. 1880
SAME TUNE:
The Son's Return ("With joy I hail your safe return") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 148)
Southern Chivalry ("Shall Northern Statesmen, when they speak") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 149)
The Voice of Toil ("I heard men saying, leave hope and praying, All days shall be as all have been") (Foner, p. 322)
NOTES [124 words]: My initial notes said that Burns wrote "two versions of this poem, both coming out in 1791." According to Ford-SongHistories, there were actually three. The first begins "Sweet are the banks, the banks o' Doon," and was reportedly based on the sufferings of a jilted young woman named Miss Kennedy.
The second version begins, "Ye flowery banks o' bonnie Doon, How can ye blume sae fair"; it is to the tune "Cambdelmore," which is in 4/4 time.
The final version, more familiar to me and seemingly more popular in tradition, opens "Ye banks and braes o' bonie Doon, How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair"; the tune is "The Caledonian Hunt's Delight," in 6/8 time. The three are obviously the same song, but it evolved quite a bit along the way. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CTbnksbr

Banks o' Loch Erie, The

DESCRIPTION: Jamie/Willie would leave "Clyde's bonny banks" for America. He asks Jeannie to go with him to "the banks o' Loch Erie." "Poverty ne'er shall mak enjoyment grow weary." She will leave her father's hall and go with him to Lake Erie.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: love emigration America
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1521, "The Banks o' Loch Erie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #12950
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Two Emigrants
NOTES [32 words]: Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(65), "The Two Emigrants" ("Clyde's bonny banks are a' wet wi' the e'ening dew"), unknown, no date is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81521

Banks o' Red Roses, The

See The Banks of the Roses (File: Doe315)

Banks o' Skene, The

DESCRIPTION: "When I was just a rantin' girl, About the age of sixteen, I fell in love wi' a heckler lad Upon the banks o' Skene." The girl cuts her hair, puts on men's clothes, offers to be his apprentice. He sees through the disguise and offers to make her his wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: love courting clothes cross-dressing marriage pregnancy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 164, "The Banks o' Skene" (12 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 395, "The Banks o' Skene" (1 text)
DT, BANKSKEN*
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 154-155, "The Banks o' Skene" (1 tune)
Roud #5613
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Soldier Maid" (theme)
NOTES [133 words]: Greig/Duncan1: "Learnt from father more than fifty years ago. Noted 1905." - BS
Christie: "Though the words and music ... are scarcely worth being preserved, the Editor thinks it is right to give them, as they were favourites, for years, in the Counties of Moray and Aberdeen." - BS
This seems to exist in two versions: One very short, from Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, which matches the description above; the other, much longer, known from Grieg, in which the heckler (flax-dresser) takes the girl as an apprentice and the other girls find the new apprentice attractive. But so does the heckler himself, getting her drunk and having his way with her. In either case, they end up married. The long version is very reminiscent of things like "The Soldier Maid" and even "The Handsome Cabin Boy." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord395A

Banks o' the Nile, The

See The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II) [Laws N9] (File: LN09)

Banks of Allan Water, The

DESCRIPTION: "By the banks of Allan Water When the sweet springtime did fall, There I saw the miller's lovely daughter, Fairest of them all." By autumn, the girl has been betrayed by her soldier love and grieves; by winter, she is dead
AUTHOR: Matthew Lewis (1775-1818) ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (Rich and Poor: A Comic Opera)
KEYWORDS: love courting soldier betrayal death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, ALANWATR*
Roud #4260
RECORDINGS:
Daisy Chapman, "The Banks of Allen Water" (on SCDChapman01)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, Crawford EB 2836, "The Banks of Allan Water," G. Walker (Durham), ca.1850?; L.C.Fol.70(98b), "On the Banks of Allan Water," [same broadside as RB.m.143(211)]
SAME TUNE:
Sheridan's "Early" Victory ("In the Shenandoah Valley") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 140)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Allan Water
The Miller's Daughter
NOTES [194 words]: Quoted by Hardy in Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), sung by Bathsheba Everdene.
Robert Crawford (died 1733) also wrote a song called "Allan Water," which is considered one of his best works. But that song has little if any traditional attestation. It is only of note because Robert Burns admired author Crawford, whose works were found in Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany attributed to "C" (see Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, Editors, British Authors Before 1800: A Biographical Dictionary, H. W. Wilson, 1952 (I use the fourth printing of 1965), p. 129).
This song is later. Jim Dixon reports, "'The Banks of Allan Water' is a song sung by a character called Mrs. Secret in "Rich and Poor: A Comic Opera" by M[atthew] G[regory] Lewis (London: proprietors, 1823), page 6. This seems to be the source of the song.
"Hathi Trust has several viewable copies of the sheet music, where the words are credited to M[atthew] G[regory] Lewis with a piano arrangement by C[harles] E[dward] Horn. However, [one] has a guitar arrangement by C. M. Solá and says "music by Lady ----." None of these has a printed date, but they are cataloged as 1821 to 1828. - RBW, JD
Last updated in version 5.1
File: DTalanwa

Banks of Allen Water, The

See The Banks of Allan Water (File: DTalanwa)

Banks of Banna, The

DESCRIPTION: "Shepherds have you seen my love, Have you seen my Anna? Pride of every shady grove Upon the banks of Banna." The singer left home and herd for Anna; he will not return to them until he finds her. In some versions he finds her and they are happy.
AUTHOR: George Ogle (1739-1814) (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1795 (Journal from the Joseph Francis)
KEYWORDS: love separation separation shepherd
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 236-237, "The Banks of Banna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, p. 134, "Banks of Banna" (1 fragment)
ST SWMS236 (Full)
Roud #2058
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.18(50)[many lines illegible], "Anna" ("Shepherds I have lost my love"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Bodleian, Harding B 25(56), "Anna" ("Shepherds, I have lost my love"), Jennings (?), (London), n.d. (barely legible); Harding B 12(3)=Johnson Ballads 865 (damaged), "Anna," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; Firth b.27(484a), Firth b.34(13), Johnson Ballads fol. 9, "[The] Banks of Banna"; Firth b.28(10a/b) View 2 of 8, "Shepherds, I Have Lost My Love"
NOTES [198 words]: Huntington says that this song is found in Chappell. The closest equivalent I can find in that book is "Shepherd, Saw Thou Not." They do not appear to me to be the same song; "The Banks of Banna" is much simpler and has at least some of the qualities of a folk song, though field collections are rare - RBW
There are three variations among [the Bodleian broadsides]. All begin with the first four verses: she's lost and "perhaps she's gone For ever and for ever." Some stop there: Firth b.34(13), Johnson Ballads fol. 9 and Firth b.28(10a/b) View 2 of 8; some have her return ("Flocks did sport and lambs did play, All around my lovely Anna"): Firth c.18(50) and Harding B 25(56), named "Anna"; and one has him meet her by surprise ("With joy I clasp'd her round the waist"): Firth b.27(484a). - BS
Sir George Ogle the Younger (c. 1740-1814) was a poet and politician born in county Wexford. He served in the Irish parliament in the 1790s, and was briefly a Tory representative to Westminster. His best-known works are considered to be "Banna's Banks" (i.e. this piece) and "Molly Astore" (in this index as "Gramachree"); in this Index he is also contributed "The Hermit of Killarney." - RBW
File: SWMS236

Banks of Boyne, The

See The Lovely Banks of Boyne [Laws P22] (File: LP22)

Banks of Brandywine, The [Laws H28]

DESCRIPTION: The singer (a sailor) meets a girl and asks her to forget her lover -- telling her first that her lover is probably untrue and then that he's already married to another. She faints; he reveals that he is the long-lost lover
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: sailor disguise courting
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws H28, "The Banks of Brandywine"
Thompson-APioneerSongster 37, "Banks of Brandywine" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 172-173, "The Banks of Brandywine" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 72, "The Banks of Brandywine" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 64-66, "The Banks of Brandywine" (1 text)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 62-63, "Banks of Brandywine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 71, "The Banks of Brandywine" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 158-160, "Bans of Brandywine" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #79, p. 6, "Banks of Brandywine" (3 references)
DT 811, BNKBRNDY
Roud #1970
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, sb10031a, "The Banks of Brandywine," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as100580, as100590, "The Banks of Brandywine"
VonWalthour, CDDrive>b>b(4),"Banks of Brandywine" ("One morning very early, in the pleasant month of May"), J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also CDDrive>b>b(5),"Banks of Brandywine"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
NOTES [71 words]: Broadsides LOCSinging sb10031a and VonWalthour CDDrive>b>b(4) appear to be the same edition.
Broadsides LOCSinging as100590 and VonWalthour CDDrive>b>b(5) appear to be the same edition.
Broadside VonWalthour CDDrive>b>b(4) and Broadside LOCSinging sb10031a: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LH28

Banks of Champlain, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer hears guns firing on Lake Champlain, but despite her patriotism laments the danger to her lover Sandy,without whom her life would not be worth living. The cannons cease, the British retreat; she waxes patriotic once more as other women celebrate
AUTHOR: unknown; attributed to the wife of Gen. Alexander "Sandy" Macomb
EARLIEST DATE: 1838 (Journal from the Nautilus)
KEYWORDS: love army battle fight war separation patriotic lover husband soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug/Sept 1814 - Plattsburg campaign. As part of a three-pronged attack strategy (the other prongs being at Chesapeake Bay and the lower Mississippi), a British army of 11,000 regulars led by General Sir George Prevost and a naval force under Captain George Downie attack Lake Champlain.
Sept 6, 1814 - The British army reaches Plattsburg and awaits the navy
Sept 11, 1814 - Battle of Plattsburg. An American naval squadron under Captain Thomas Macdonough (1783-1825) defeats the British force in a fierce contest with very high casualties, compelling the British fleet to retreat in disorder. The British army retreats as well.
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 161-162, "The Banks of Champlain" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 234, "'Twas Autumn and the Leaves" (1 fragment)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 477, "The Banks of Champlain" (source notes only)
Roud #2046
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "The Banks of Champlain" (on PeteSeeger29), a somewhat abbreviated version
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Siege of Plattsburg" (plot)
NOTES [91 words]: This should not be confused with "The Siege of Plattsburgh." - PJS
For historical background on this part of the War of 1812, see "The Siege of Plattsburg" and references there.
Alexander Macomb (1782-1841) was Brigadier General in field command at Plattsburg (his superior being absent at the time of the fight). He went on to command the U. S. Army (such as it was) from 1828-1841.
Collected tunes for this piece are very few (JournalOfAmericanFolklore apparently printed one in 1939), but it appears to be "The Banks of the Dee/Langolee." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: RcTBOC

Banks of Claudie, The

See The Banks of Claudy [Laws N40] (File: LN40)

Banks of Claudy (II), The

See Ten Thousand Miles Away (On the Banks of Lonely River) (File: R697)

Banks of Claudy, The [Laws N40]

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl on the banks of Claudy. She is seeking her lover. He tells her Johnny is false, she rejects this. He tells her Johnny is shipwrecked; she is distressed. He tells her he is Johnny. She rejoices
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1847))
KEYWORDS: separation reunion trick love
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord),England(South,West)) Australia Ireland
REFERENCES (36 citations):
Laws N40, "The Banks of Claudy"
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 39, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 3, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 317-319, "The Banks o' Claudy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #48, p. 1, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1036, "The Banks of Claudy" (12 texts, 11 tunes)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 8, "Banks of Claudy" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 61, "Clowdy Banks" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 88-90, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 248-249, "Claudy Banks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #105, "Cloddy Banks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #66, "Claudy Banks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 154-155, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 69, "Molly, I'm the Man" (1 text); 78, "On the Banks of Claudy" (1 fragment, which doesn't look much like this song, but it mentions the banks of Claudy, so it files here)
Randolph 47, "The Banks of Cloddy" (1 text plus 1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 38, p. 152, "The Banks of Claudie" (1 text)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 18, "The Banks of Claudie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 71-73, "The Banks of Cloddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 73-75, "The Banks of Cloddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 266-267, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text, with local title "The Soldier's Return"; tune on p. 426)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 55, "The Banks of Claudie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 71, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 166-167, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H5+H693, p. 313, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 2, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 44, pp. 134-135,172-173, "The Banks of Clady" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 58, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 30, pp., "The Lover's Return" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 321, "The Banks of Claudie" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 94, "Dark and Stormy Night" (1 text, 1 tune, which the editors file here although it could be any of many reunion ballads)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 132-133, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 130, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 65, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 19, "The Banks of Claudie" (1 text, 1 tune); 20, "The Banks of Claudy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 70, "The Banks of Claudie" (1 text)
DT 465, BCLAUDIE CLAUDYBK
ST LN40 (Full)
Roud #266
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Banks of Claudy" (on IRRCinnamond02)
Bob & Ron Copper, "Claudy Banks" (on LastDays)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Where Are You Going, Alice?" (Victor V-40135, 1929; rec. 1928)
George Maynard, "The Banks of Claudy" (on Maynard1)
Mrs. K. McCarthy, "Claudie's Banks" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Francis O'Brien, "Claudy's Banks" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1847), "The Banks of Claudy", J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also 2806 c.15(164), Harding B 11(2261), 2806 b.9(257), Harding B 19(110), 2806 c.14(91), Firth b.26(281), 2806 c.18(12), 2806 c.17(15), Harding B 18(24), Firth b.25(188), Firth b.25(296), "The Banks of Claudy"; Harding B 16(22c), Harding B 11(266), "The Banks of Cludy" [only the title is spelled "Cludy"; else "Claudy"]
LOCSinging, as100610, "The Banks of Claudy!", Horace Partridge (Philadelphia), 19C; also as100600, as200200, "Banks of Claudy"
NLScotland, RB.m.143(129), "The Banks of Claudy," Lowdon McCartney/Poet's Box (Dundee), after 1905
VonWalthour, CD Drive>b>b(6), "Banks of Claudy" ("It was on a summer's morning all in the month of May"), Johnson (Philadelphia), 19C; also CDDrive>b>b(7),"The Banks of Claudy"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
cf. "Ten Thousand Miles Away (On the Banks of Lonely River)" (references to the Banks of Claudy in some versions)
cf. "The Woods of Rickarton" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Claudy Banks
The Banks of Cloudy
The Banks of Clyde
NOTES [176 words]: Date for Grayson and Whitter is from Country Music Sources by Guthrie T Meade Jr with Dick Spottswood and Douglas S. Meade (Chapel Hill, 2002), p. 10.
Meade, Spottswood and Meade, page 10 has the comment that "Although no mention of the banks of Claudie is made on this recording, I feel it is closer to N40 than any other classification." I would make a stronger statement than that. Every line of "Where Are You Going Alice?" is substantially the same as, or clearly derived from a Bodleian broadside or some traditional version of "The Banks of Claudy" (such as Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster). For example, "green lands" replaces the banks of Claudy for Grayson and Whitter ("Just stay with me in green lands, no danger need you fear.") where Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster has "green woods" ("Oh tarry with me to yon green woods, no danger need you fear").
The matrix number for the Grayson and Whitter's "Where Are You Going Alice?" is V40135B; Meade, Spottswood and Meade has BVE 46636-2. The tune is close to, but not the same as, "Charles Guiteau." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LN40

Banks of Cloddie, The

See The Banks of Claudy [Laws N40] (File: LN40)

Banks of Cloddy, The

See The Banks of Claudy [Laws N40] (File: LN40)

Banks of Cloughwater, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves Ellen, and cannot sleep for the love of her. But her parents oppose their match; now he is forced to "stand on guard this night to shun your company." He promises to make her his own; he has money and fears no one
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting lover father mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H777, pp. 427-428, "The Banks of [the] Cloughwater" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7961
NOTES [53 words]: This song, as it stands in the Henry collection, seems confused; if he is courting the girl, why does he stand guard against her. If her parents kept her hidden, how did he see her, and at last meet her to plan their escape? Presumably either something has been lost or extraneous material has entered this song. - RBW
File: HHH777

Banks of Clyde (IV), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl walking along the Banks of Clyde. They talk and kiss. She sings "We'll Row Thee O'er the Clyde" perfectly. He sees her home when it begins to rain. They still walk together along the Clyde.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting river home music
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #109, p. 2, "The Banks o' Clyde" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 952, "The Banks o' Clyde" (2 texts)
Roud #6267
NOTES [50 words]: The reference to "We'll Row Thee O'er the Clyde" puts an earliest possible date on the Greig/Duncan5 versions. The song is by Andrew Park, "in honour of Queen Victoria's visit to Glasgow, August 21, 1849" (source: The Poetical Works of Andrew Park (London, 1854), p. 259 on Google Book Search site. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5952

Banks of Dundee, The (Undaunted Mary) [Laws M25]

DESCRIPTION: A rich girl, now living with her uncle, falls in love with Willie, a plowboy. Since her uncle wants her to marry a squire, he tries to have Willie pressed. The squire attempts to take Mary; she shoots him, then her uncle. Mary then is free to marry Willie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Harding B 11(3942))
KEYWORDS: love death marriage poverty rape
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,SE,So,SW) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Britain(England(North),Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (40 citations):
Laws M25, "The Banks of Dundee (Undaunted Mary)"
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 78-81, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #66, pp. 1-2, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 224, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (9 texts, 9 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 406-407, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 57, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee II" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 200-201, "The Banks of Sweet Dandee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 116-117, "The Farmer's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #58, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 68, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 664, "On the Banks of the Sweet Dundee" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 53-55,173, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text, 2 tunes)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 5, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 54, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 69, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text plus an excerpt and mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 200-201, "The Farmer Had a Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 30, pp. 44-45, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 137-139, "The Banks of Dundee" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 58, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text)
Randolph 62, "On the Banks of Sweet Dundee" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 85-88, "On the Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 62A)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 77, "Pretty Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 1, "The Banks of the Sweet Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #23, "On the Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 67, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 323, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 18, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 128-130, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 38, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 23, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 740-741, "The Banks of Dundee" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 14, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 6, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 38-41, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee (or Undaunted Mary)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 50, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 394-397, "The Farmer's Daughter" (1 text)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 129-131, "On the Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 119, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (2 texts)
DT 318, SWTDUNDE* SWYDUND2*
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, p. 227, "A Farmer Had a Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Pearl Jacobs Borusky)
Roud #148
RECORDINGS:
Bob Brader, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (on Voice15)
Michael "Straighty" Flanagan, "Banks of Sweet Dundee" (on IRClare01)
Tony Wales, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (on TWales1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3942), "Undaunted Mary" or "The Banks of Sweet Dundee," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 15(339a), Harding B 11(67), Harding B 11(834), Johnson Ballads 612A, Harding B 11(3944), Firth c.12(262), Harding B 11(2540), Harding B 11(3943), "Undaunted Mary" or "The Banks of Sweet Dundee"; Firth c.26(255), Harding B 18(25), 2806 c.14(15)[partly illegible], "Banks of Sweet Dundee" [same as LOCSinging as200230]; Firth c.12(260), "Undaunted Mary, On the Banks of Sweet Dundee"; 2806 c.16(263), "Undaunted Mary"
LOCSinging, as200230, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee", H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also as111340, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" [same as Bodleian Harding B 18(25)]
Murray, Mu23-y1:094, "Undaunted Mary on The Banks of Sweet Dundee", James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(110a), "Banks of Sweet Dundee," unknown, c. 1890; also RB.m.143(034), "Banks of Sweet Dundee"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gardener Lad" (tune, according to Greig/Duncan2)
cf. "The Banks of the Inverness" (sequel)
cf. "William's Return to the Banks of Sweet Dundee (Answer to Undaunted Mary)" (sequel)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Plooboy
The Sweet and Dee
NOTES [83 words]: Greig: "There is another 'Banks of sweet Dundee,' but the story in it is different, although the hero is also William and a ploughboy."
I am following Greig, Greig/Duncan and Roud in splitting this from "Answer to Undaunted Mary." The Bodleian broadsides with that title have been moved to the sequel.
Broadside LOCSinging as200230: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LM25

Banks of Dunmore, The

DESCRIPTION: An Englishman falls in love with a poor farmer's daughter of Dunmore. She will not marry a non-Catholic. She convinces him, by reference to the Testament, of transubstantiation and the authority of Rome. He converts. They marry and settle in Dunmore.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1862 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.16(159))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage England Ireland religious Bible
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 43-44, "The Banks of Dunmore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3109
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "The Banks of Dunmore" (on IRPTunney03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.16(159), "The Banks of Dunmore" ("Ye lovers of high and low station, and gentlemen of renown")," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Firth b.26(413), "The Bloom of Erin"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Protestant Maid" (subject: religious conversion) and references there
NOTES [1295 words]: Broadside Bodleian 2806 c.16(159) is the basis for the description.
Dunmore is in County Galway.
See "Garvagh Town" for a song in which a Roman Catholic suitor fails to convert the Protestant "star of Garvagh Town"; at the end they discuss their differences over a drink, shake hands, and part without either converting. - BS
The Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation holds that the bread and wine of the communion service are transformed into the body and blood of Christ -- admittedly not in appearance or in demonstrable chemical contest but in some sort of unmeasurable reality called "substance" or "essence" or something like that. (Apologies for sounding scornful; the concept of something that is "real" but *by definition* unverifiable by science is beyond my feeble capacity to take seriously.)
This is based primarily on the gospel language (Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:17-20) saying that the disciples ate Jesus's body and blood, which is very loosely linked to later practice of the Lord's Supper by 1 Cornthians 11:24-26. Some see incidental support in chapter 6 of John, in which Jesus said that the bread of God comes down from heaven, and adds (6:35) that he is the Bread of Life.
It should be noted that this doctrine was not found in the early church; Radbertus propounded it in 831 (Bettenson, p. 147: "In the ninth century Paschasius Radbertus published a treatise, On the Body and Blood of the Lord, in which he pushed to extremes the language of John Damascene, '...though the body and blood of Christ remain in the figure of bread and wine, yet we must believe them to be simply a figure and that, after consecration, they are nothing other than the body and blood of Christ... and that I may speak more marvelously, to be clearly the very flesh which was born of Mary, and suffered on the cross and rose from the tomb....'"). Aquinas supported this view (Bettenson, p. 148), but it did not become official Catholic doctrine until the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 (Christie-Murray, p. 99).
The Bible isn't really much help here (all statements about the Greek text of the Bible are based on the text and apparatus in Aland, pp. 436-437). The earliest Biblical statement is in 1 Corinthians 11:24. The Greek reads literally "This [of] me is the body th[at is] over you" -- which could perfectly reasonably be rendered "This my body is for you." (The majority of late manuscripts, and the late Latin translations, preface this with "Take, eat," but these words are clearly an interpolation from Matthew). The next sentence reads "This do into [i.e. for] the [of] me remembrance." In verse 25, Jesus is described as declaring, "This the cup the new covenant in the [of] me blood; this do, as often if [i.e. as] [you] drink, into [i.e. for] the [of] me remembrance."
In Mark, the earliest Gospel account, verse 14:22 described Jesus taking bread, breaking it, and saying, "take, this is the body [of] me." (The late manuscripts read "take, EAT", but the overwhelming majority of early manuscripts omit; it is clearly another intrusion from Matthew.) 14:24 reads "This is the blood [of] me [of] the covenant, th[at which] [is being] poured over many." (The late manuscripts and the Vulgate Latin, used by the Catholic Church, reads "the NEW covenant, but this is clearly an intrusion from Luke or 1 Corinthians).
Matthew and Luke expand, in various ways, on the form in Mark, but in every case the active verb is simply εστιν, "estin," "is" -- plain old present tense. It implies no action (unless the action was done earlier by blessing the bread and wine). Similarly, the Latin uses "est," "is." If you just go by what the Bible says, there is no special transformation or divine action. On the other hand, by being so plain, the Bible arguably leaves open the possibility that Jesus's blessing (which on its face appears to be just that: A blessing) performed some action. Of course, Paul's comments give no hint that that action, if it in fact occurred in the Last Supper, ever happened again.
It took less than a century and a half for Wycliffe -- the first significant theologian after the Lateran Council -- to go after the doctrine (Nigg, p. 265). Luther, without absolutely condemning the doctrine, did not require it (Christie-Murray, p. 130), and did say that "Transubstantiation... must be considered as an invention of human reason" (Bettenson, pp. 197-198). The Augsburg Confession of 1530 expressly denied it (Bainton, p. 149). Henry VIII continued to accept transubstantiation, but after his death, the Anglican church came to a position which implicitly opposed it: "The prayer was not that the bread and wine might *become*, but only that they might *be*, Christ's body and blood, thereby at least suggesting the repudiation of transubstantiation in favor of Luther's doctrine of concommitance" (Bainton, p. 201).
It is my experience that *no one* has ever been convinced of Transubstantiation by references to the Bible. It is also my experience that attempts to do so lead to bitter fights, with non-Catholics going as far as to call the Catholics cannibals. (Observe the sarcastic Protestant response in "The Protestant Maid.") If the guy went along in this case, it was out of infatuation, not Biblical logic.
Setting all that aside, though, there are interesting political undercurrents, depending heavily on the date of the song and where it originated. Obviously it must date before 1862, since we know it was in print by then. The feeling on the Ballad-L mailing list, in the absence of a more detailed analysis of the data, was that it was probably post-1798. This was an interesting period in both the Church of England and in the Irish church.
Chris Brennan, whose observations are based on Paddy Tunney's version and O'Boyle's notes to Tunney's recording, thinks it an Ulster song, and places it in the context of the evangelical upsurge among Ulster protestants in the first half of the nineteenth century. In that version, it appear to be an Ulster Catholic and Protestant who meet.
On the other hand, the H. Such broadside, which predates Tunney's version by a century, makes the Protestant half of the duo a presumed Englishman. This is interesting because the Church of England at this time was going in the exact opposite direction from the evangelical Dissenters of Ulster. This was the period of the "Oxford Movement," a time when many members of the Church of England were being attracted back to Catholic tradition and ritual (Douglas/Elwell/Toon, p. 281). The single strongest example came in 1845, when John Henry Newman converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism (Douglas/Elwell/Toon, p. 266). An Oxfordite might well be so pro-Catholic as to be open to arguments about Transubstantiation; a genuine Reformed churchman would see that as the same sort of bunk that it appears to be to me.
This opens up the interesting (though unlikely) possibility that this song could have originated in England as a sort of allegory on the Oxford Movement, with Ireland standing for Catholicism and England standing for Anglicanism (referred to loosely as Protestantism, though technically Anglicans are not Protestants; Protestant is a technical term for a different branch of non-Catholic non-Orthodox Christianity).
Even if we allow that that was its original form, though, it seems clear that that was not how it was understood. The song appears to be extinct in England -- but is preserved in Ireland. There, it seems clear, the song is seen as a demonstration of the superiority of Catholicism, and Catholic doctrine, to Protestantism. This would also explain why the theological argument, so nonsensical to a true member of a Reformed denomination, is allowed to pass essentially without comment. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: TSF043

Banks of Glencoe, The

See MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe) [Laws N39] (File: LN39)

Banks of Green Willow, The

See Bonnie Annie [Child 24] (File: C024)

Banks of Inverary, The

See The Banks of Inverurie (Inverary) (File: FVS258)

Banks of Inverness

See The Banks of the Inverness (File: HHH205)

Banks of Inverurie (Inverary), The

DESCRIPTION: "One day as I was walking... On the banks of Inverurie I spied a bonnie lass." He asks her to wed. She replies that she knows he is a rake. He says he has reformed, and calls his servants to demonstrate his honesty. He again appeals to her to marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1894 (Murison collection, according to Lyle, _Fairies and Folk_)
KEYWORDS: courting servant rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 258-259, "The Banks of Inverurie" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 199-200, "The Banks of Inverurie" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #11, p. 2, "The Banks of Inverurie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1263, "The Banks of Inverurie" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 137-138, 156, "The Banks of Inverurie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 3, "The Banks of Inverary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 240-241, "The Banks of Inverary" (1 text)
DT, BNKINVER*
ADDITIONAL: Willie Scott, "The Banks of Iverurie," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1986.141,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 14 September 2013 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/85050/1
Leslie Shepard, _John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844_, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 118, "Banks of Invarary" (reprint of a Pitts broadside)
Roud #1415
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.168(021), "Banks of Inverary," Batchelar (London?), c. 1820; also APS.4.95.15(1), "The Banks of Inverury," unknown, c. 1840; RB.m.143(122), "The Banks of Inverurie," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
File: FVS258

Banks of Kilrea (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a beautiful girl (dressed in mourning?) by Kilrae. She explains that her parents are dead. He promises to care for her like a parent. She finally agrees to marry. He hopes to live happily, and prepares for an elaborate party
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting orphan marriage party beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H150(a), pp. 466-467, "The Banks of Kilrae (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2495
File: HHH150a

Banks of Kilrea (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a young man begging a girl to come over the sea with him. She says that it's too dangerous to cross the ocean, and her parents are old. He reminds her of promises made, but bids her farewell; they will not see each other again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection emigration separation age
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H150b, pp. 361-362, "The Banks of Kilrae (II)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2495
File: HHH150b

Banks of Low Lee, The

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

Banks of Mullen Stream, The

DESCRIPTION: Sandy Grattan sings about the camp "for the firm of Edward Sinclair On the banks of Mullen Stream." The crew and driving team are named. George Amos breaks a leg under a rolling log, showing that "In the woods you're facing danger As great as in the War"
AUTHOR: Sandy Grattan of Tabusintac (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: lumbering injury moniker horse
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 4, "The Banks of Mullen Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi004 (Partial)
Roud #9205
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Edward Sinclair Song" (regarding Sinclair's lumber operation)
NOTES [80 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "The lumber operation probably took place between 1914 and 1920." Note the reference to World War I. - BS
This is a very peculiar song, probably indicating closeness to the original version. The scansion is weak, and the rhyme scheme defective. In most of the 8-line stanzas, the only rhymes are between lines 1 and 2 and between lines 5 and 6, and even this is violated on occasion -- including the first verse, though in dialect it might work. - RBW
File: MaWi004

Banks of My Native Australia, The

See Oxeborough Banks (Maids of Australia) (File: FaE044)

Banks of Newfoundland (I), The [Laws K25]

DESCRIPTION: The singer offers a warning to listeners: Don't sail the northern seas without stout clothes! (He and his friends had pawned their jackets in Liverpool.) The singer's Irish fiancee tears up her petticoat to make him mittens. At last they reach New York
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: sailor clothes storm
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Bord)) US(MA,NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Laws K25, "The Banks of Newfoundland"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 123-125, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 173-174, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 412-416, "The Banks o' Newf'n'land" (2 texts, 2 tunes) [AbrEd, pp. 315-316]
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp.123-124, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 36-37, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 116, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 854-855, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 18, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 103, "Banks of Newfoundland (1)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 161, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 220-221, "The Banks of Newfoundland, II" (1 text plus an excerpt)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 225, "The Banks of Newfoundland 2" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 141, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 141, 156, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 15-16, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 39, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 119, "The Banks of Newfoundland (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 145-147, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 31, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 407, NWFNDLND* NWFNDLN3
Roud #1812
RECORDINGS:
Willie Scott, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (on Voice02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Star of the County Down" (tune) and references there
cf. "The American Aginora" (plot)
cf. "You Pretty Girls of Michigan" (form)
NOTES [23 words]: Peacock believes this is "a localized version of" Van Dieman's Land (I) [Laws L18]. I think that's grossly overstating the similarity. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LK25

Banks of Newfoundland (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids landsmen to "bless your happy lot," since they are safe from storms. His ship is wrecked off Newfoundland; when food runs short, they cast lots to see who will be eaten. The Captain's son is picked, but another ship rescues them in time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: ship disaster cannibalism reprieve rescue starvation sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar,Ont) US(NE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H569, p. 112, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 11, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 6, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 56, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 56-58, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 118-119, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 219-220, "The Banks of Newfoundland, I" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 31, "The Banks of Newfoundland 1" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 91, "The Banks of Newfoundland (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NWFNDLN2
Roud #1972
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (on Abbott1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship in Distress" (plot) and references there
cf. "The Kite Abandoned in White Bay" (probable tune)
cf. "The American Aginora" (plot)
SAME TUNE:
The Kite Abandoned in White Bay (File: RySm103)
File: DTnwfndl

Banks of Newfoundland (III), The

See The Eastern Light [Laws D11] (File: LD11)

Banks of Newfoundland (IV), The

DESCRIPTION: Spring is time for fishing on the Banks. "Seas do roll tremendously ... midst heavy fog and wind." At night we risk being run down by "some large greyhound of the deep." At summer's end we return "to see our sweethearts and our wives"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea ship lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 108-109, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4434
File: Pea108

Banks of Newfoundland (V), The

DESCRIPTION: September 2, Irish seamen sail from Waterford for Newfoundland where "a dreadful storm is raging." Three men are lost and others are "washed from off the deck." At morning there was no help for the dead and dying; "Not a Christian here to bury the dead"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: grief death sea ship storm
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 4, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5088
NOTES [26 words]: With only one text to work from, we have not been able to tie this to an actual disaster, it sounds as if "Christian" here means specifically "Catholic." - RBW
File: McB1004

Banks of Ohio (II), The

See Lovely Ohio, The (File: LoF039)

Banks of Panama, The

See On the Banks of the Pamanaw [Laws H11] (File: LH11)

Banks of Penmanah, The

See On the Banks of the Pamanaw [Laws H11] (File: LH11)

Banks of Red Roses, The

See The Banks of the Roses (File: Doe315)

Banks of Sacramento, The

See Ho for California (Banks of Sacramento) (File: E125)

Banks of Schuylkill, The

See The Banks of the Schuylkill (File: R769)

Banks of Sicily (The 51st Highland Division's Farewell to Sicily)

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids, "Fare thee well, ye banks of Sicily. Fare thee well, ye valley and shaw." Members of the 51st division prepare to leave Messina, and Sicily, and the girls they met as they occupied the island
AUTHOR: Words: Hamish Henderson / Music: "Farewell to the Creeks," by Pipe Major James Robertson
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs); recorded by the Mitchell Trio in the 1960s
KEYWORDS: soldier music separation farewell
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 10, 1943 - Allies invasion of Sicily
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 106-108, "The 51st Highland Division's Farewell to Sicily" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: (Hamish Henderson), _Freedom Come-All-Ye: An 80th Birthday Souvenir for Hamish Henderson_, Chapman Publishing, 1999, pp. 43-44, "The 51st Highland Division's Farewell to Sicily" (1 text)
Roud #10501
NOTES [2703 words]: Obviously not a folk song, but I've heard several pop folk recordings, no two alike in their texts -- and none of them matching Hamish Henderson's original. Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs claims that it has entered British military tradition. The claim would be better for evidence, but all that variation in the recorded versions is perhaps enough reason to include it here. Plus the tune is excellent -- I've never heard anyone change that.
The 51st Highland Division, Hamish Henderson's unit, began its history in 1740 with the Highland Regiment (Grant, p. 8). When increased to divisional strength, it was originally known as the 1st Highland Territorial Division. When it was deployed to France in 1915, it became the 51st Highland Division (Delaforce, p. 6). The division fought well in World War I; five members earned Victoria Crosses (Delaforce, p. 9), and the Germans called them the "Damen aus Helle," or "Ladies from Hell," because they fought in kilts (Grant, p. 41. In World War II, they mostly fought in standard uniforms, but the name was still used at times). Like most World War I units, it was reduced to skeleton status after the First War, but rebuilt as World War II approached. Under Major General V. M. Fortune, it served in the Battle of France (Delaforce, p. 10) -- but was deployed in front of the Maginot Line rather than with the rest of the British forces (Grant, pp. 24-25). Hurrying toward Dunkirk as the Germans broke the French front (Grant, p. 26), it was effectively destroyed at Saint-Valéry-en-Caux northwest of Rouen (Delaforce, p. 19; there is actually an Avenue du 51 Highlands Division there now). A few men made it to Dunkirk, but the larger part of the division was captured.
Although the division had been so shattered that it could easily have been disbanded, the decision was made to rebuild it, transferring troops from its home equivalent, the Territorial 9th (Scottish) division and bringing in newly drafted units (Delaforce, pp. 21-22). The resulting division, which was really a new formation, was the one that became famous during the war.
The troops first went into battle in North Africa. Having made the long journey around Cape Horn to the Red Sea (Delaforce, pp. 28-31), they unloaded in Egypt and spent just long enough there to acclimate before being sent west (Delaforce, p. 38). Parts of the division were present near the field of the battle of Alam el Halfa, but they were not engaged (Carver, p. 76). So their first active service was at the Battle of El Alamein (Delaforce, p. 38), the climactic battle between Bernard Montgomery's British army and Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps. The division did well but took heavy casualties (if I read Delaforce, p. 58, correctly, their 2827 casualties was the most of any division at Alamein); even the division's commander, D. N. Wimberley, was injured when his vehicle went over a mine (Delaforce, p. 52).
The 51st was, along with the New Zealand division, the first to reach Tripoli near the end of the North Africa campaign. Their pipe and drum band played for the victory celebrations (Delaforce, p. 77). Indeed, Delaforce, p. 96, reports that they often played in battle -- causing complaints, because the pipes often got shot and had to be replaced! (One presumes the pipers also suffered, but this is not mentioned.) They then went on to fight in the campaign to take Tunisia. Many of the men apparently thought they would get a break to go home after that, but instead they started training in amphibious operations (Delaforce, p. 98).
A man in the division recorded, "on 5th July 1943 we marched down to Sousse docks and embarked. There were few regrets about leaving Africa" (Delaforce, pp. 100-101). Their next stop was Malta, but they weren't there long (only from July 6-9). When Montgomery was ordered to take charge of the British army in the invasion of Sicily, the 51st went with him.
The 51st at this time consisted of the 152nd Brigade (5th Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, 2nd and 5th Seaforth Highlanders), 153rd Brigade (5th Black Watch, 5th/7th Gordon Highlanders, 1st Gordon Highlanders), and 154th Brigade (1st and 7th Black Watch, 7th Argyll and Southern Highlanders), plus seven attached units (artillery, etc.) not from the Highlands (d'Este, p. 586).
The whole Sicily campaign -- the largest amphibious attack in history -- was planned in less than five months, which perhaps would have been enough time had the senior officers been involved in the planning, but all of them were involved in the North Africa fighting, meaning that all the initial staff work was done by junior, often inexperienced, officers, resulting in a plan that didn't really match the realities of the situation very well (d'Este, p. 74)
The British (and Canadians and other Commonwealth nations) sent two reinforced corps to the island (Delaforce, p. 101); there was also a smaller American army under George Patton. The 51st was was part of 30 Corps under Oliver Leese, the other division in the corps being the First Canadian. They were "to assault both sides of the southeastern tip of Sicily: the Pachino peninsula" (d'Este, p. 148). In other words, they were south of the 13 Corps, which attacked around Syracuse, and east of the Americans, who landed on the south shore of the island, around Gela. The goal of the British forces was to move north toward Messina; the Americans, to protect them from German forces in the west of the island. Beyond that, there was no general plan at all; General Harold Alexander, who was supposed to coordinate the movements of Patton and Montgomery, had not issued one (d'Este, p. 322). Even Montgomery said "Alexander's plan for Sicily was idiotic" (d'Este, p. 551), though others think he was simply keeping his options open to respond to events.
After the landing, supplies were so short that the Highlanders were even requisitioning perambulators to try to get more transport! (d'Este, p. 324). They suffered badly in the heat and from the lack of necessary food and other items. (Sicily was such a horrid place that, according to Holland, p. 493, more than 20,000 troops caught malaria -- roughly four times the number killed in combat!)
The British soon found themselves in a bitter struggle with the German and Italian forces, in which the division took many casualties (including even most of the battalion commanders) as they fought their way up the Catania plain along the island's east coast (Delaforce, pp. 101-110) -- a fight that took about three weeks (Botjer, p. 18), or more than half the length of the whole campaign; it was tough, deadly combat. According to d'Este, p. 396, "The battle for the plain of Catania was one of the bitterest fought by British troops during the war" -- in no small part due to bad command communications and failure to coordinate army, navy, and air forces.
The Highlanders weren't part of that (d'Este, p. 401); Montgomery sent them off to the left, to attack Paterno to the west and somewhat north of Catania (and south of Mount Etna, the height of which was funneling the battle into a series of bottlenecks). But this left them attacking effectively alone, with no support on either side, making their attack relatively ineffective (d'Este, p. 404).
The whole British army had taken about 9000 casualties in Sicily, the Americans less than 8000 (so Botjer, p. 25; d'Este, p. 597, gives higher losses -- 8781 for the Americans, 11843 for the British, plus some naval losses. Plus there were tens of thousands of cases of disease; d'Este, p. 598, says Eighth Army had about 10,000 cases of malaria, meaning the Highlanders probably suffered a couple of thousand cases). It appears the Highlanders had taken their share of casualties -- perhaps more than their share. The losses weren't terrible compared to the numbers engaged, but certainly the Allies had not put in a very good showing; d'Este, p. 551, says, "One historian has described Sicily as 'an Allied physical victory, a German moral victory', and undoubtedly this is how the campaign ought to be remembered."
The division also lost its popular commander, General Wimberly (1896-1983), after Sicily had been secured; he had been the commander for two years, and Montgomery considered him tired; he was moved into a staff post, never to serve as combat officer again; he retired in 1946 (d'Este, p. 570). Charles Bullen-Smith took over the division (Delaforce, pp. 115-117. On p. 118, he says that Bullen-Smith had limited combat experience and was not a Highlander). The loss of their commander was a true blow; Major J. D. McGregor of the Black Watch recorded, "No understandable reason was given.... The Jocks reacted with amazement that their 'Tartan Tam' was leaving: the man they knew, the man they trusted. The man who had made every single one of them believe he was a Highlander, whatever his birth certificate said to the contrary. When he came to say his farewells to the B[attalio]n on 20th August, tough battle veterans had real tears in their eyes."
D'este, p. 407n, gives a capsule biography of Douglas N. Wimberly (1886-1983), calling him a "somewhat eccentric Scot" and "Lanky and rather ungainly," but well-liked and known as "Tartan Tam." He had graduated from Sandhurst in 1915 and served in the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders in World War I, then in the Russian Civil War in 1919. He had joined the rebuild 51st division in North Africa. He worked hard to make sure the Highland Division was truly Scottish, having his soldiers wear kilts whenever possible and encouraging the use of pipe music. He also scattered unit logos around the countryside so freely that the joke was that "HD" ("Highland Division") really stood for "Highway Decorators." Five of his junior officers would eventually become division commanders in their own right, and one of his officers said that no one was better at bridging the gap between British regulars and the "Territorial" forces. D'Este concludes, "Undoubtedly his tendency to place his men and his division before his own career, and his somewhat abrasive outspokenness, resulted in denial of a knighthood after the war." Clearly his reassignment was a deep loss to the division.
"A week before departure [from Sicily], Major General Bullen-Smith and many members of HD [Highland Division] unveiled a Celtic Cross memorial in stone on the Gerbini battlefields [Gerbini is somewhat west of Catania, in an area where Montgomery's troops had the hardest fighting of the entire Sicilian campaign]. It commemorates the loss of 224 officers and other ranks killed in the Sicilian campaign" (Delaforce, p. 121; on p. 114, Delaforce says the division suffered 1312 casualties in the campaign, so presumably there were 1088 wounded and missing). Delaforce then quotes the chorus of this song.
The division had plenty of time to scout out the wine and women of Messina (the point in Sicily closest to the Italian mainland, and the final objective of the invasion of the island). Sicily wasn't really hostile -- few Italians had wanted to be involved in the war -- but someone had to run the place! The Highlanders were assigned to serve as the garrison of Messina, and they spent three months there, training, parading, and enjoying the local scene (Delaforce, p. 119). However, this also meant that they had to watch the troubles the island had after the invasion; food was so short that hundreds starved to death in Sicily in the winter of 1843-1944 (Botjer, p. 117).
A side effect of the invasion was the overthrow of Mussolini (Botjer, p. 24), who was forced out during the Sicilian campaign, but that didn't immediately take Italy out of the war. Many of the forces in Sicily would become involved in the soul-numbing Italian Campaign (for which see "The D-Day Dodgers"). The 51st was at least spared that; apart for a few hundred stragglers who were left behind and ended up in the invasion of Salerno (Botjer, p. 57), they were sent back to Britain to prepare for other work (Delaforce, pp. 120-121). They spent the next half a year leaning tactics for the Normandy invasion (Delaforce, p. 123). They were not part of the initial landings, but went in the invasion armada; they were supposed to arrive in the second wave, on the day after the landing (Delaforce, p. 125).
During the 1944 invasion, Montgomery became so dissatisfied with Bullen-Smith, and a decline in the performance of the members of the division, that he had Bullen-Smith fired (Delaforce, pp. 141-146), replaced by a former Highland Division brigadier, T. G. Rennie.
The decline in the unit's performance seems to have been real; d'EsteNormandy, pp. 271-272, thinks that the division (which was still largely comprised of the veterans of El Alamein and Sicily; few troops had been retired or recruited because Britain was running out of cannon fodder) was very battle-weary, full of "old soldiers," and hadn't been trained for the conditions of Normandy. Their corps commander, G. L. Verney, had an even worse opinoin: "the 7th Armored and 51st Highland were extremely 'swollen-headed.' They were a law unto themselves; they thought they need only obey those orders that suited them.... Both these divisions did badly from the moment they arrived in Normandy" (d'EsteNormandy, p. 273).
Despite that, at the end of August 1944, Montgomery send down instructions to let the Highland Division retake St. Valery, the place where the original 51st had been dispersed four years earlier. They entered the town around the beginning of September, to find many relics of the old division still in the fields and by the roads (Delaforce, pp. 161-162).
The division continued in Montgomery's army as the Allied forces moved toward Germany. During the Battle of the Bulge, although not directly attacked, the division was called upon to guard river crossings against potential German attack (Parker, p. 260), although the German forces never made it there. Afterward, it was involved in pushing back the Germans after the Ardennes offensive failed (Delaforce, pp. 194-201); many in the unit suffered frostbite and other problems in the severe cold. They lost their highly respected commander, Major General Rennie, to a mortar attack just a few weeks before the end of the war (Delaforce, p. 222; on p. 228, we learn that pipers from the division played "The Flowers of the Forest" at his memorial parade).
The division was fighting near Bremen when the war ended in Europe. Delaforce, p. 235, calculates that the division took 16,469 casualties, including 3084 killed, in the course of the war, not counting the men who were captured at Saint-Valéry. Since a division at various times in the war was supposed to number from about 14,000 to 18,000 men, that means it took total casualties greater than its initial strength. Grant, p. 8, says that the division took part in thirteen major battles during the war (not counting the campaign in France), and only two other divisions out of the roughly thirty the British fielded fought more. It was a hard war for the Highlanders!
Grant, pp. 82-95, has several dozen photos of the Highand Division in Sicilty, including one on p. 93 of a certain Lieutenant Henderson interrogating a German officer, Captain Gunter, who was captured (while not in uniform) trying to make his way through the Allied lines.
This was not the only poem Hamish Henderson wrote about the Highlanders; "Mak Siccar," a poem about El Alamein, was published in an anthology, "Elegies for the Dead" by John Lehman, in 1945; Grant, p. 43, reprints parts of it. But is essentially free verse; I can't imagine it being sung. "Ballad of the Simento" is about Sicily, and is more regular: "Armament, vehicles and bodies / make heavy cargo that is checked and away / to Sicily, to Sicily, over the dark moving waters." It is on pp. 10-13 of Henderson. But I don't believe it has been sung; it is said to have been recited as part of a television show. The Simeto is a river running west and south of Catania, the region where the British had their heaviest fighting shortly after their landing; the poem is a lament for the losses by Catania: "A bonnet on two sticks / is tomb for the Gael. / Callum Mor, mak / mane for Argyll." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: DalC106

Banks of Sullane

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets "a damsel of queenly appearance" and proposes; if he were king she'd wear a crown. Her father's angry looks discourages him. He will rove alone until death "for the sake of my charming fair Helen That I met in the town of Macroom"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: courting separation father
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 70-71, "The Banks of Sullane" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 145, "The Banks of Sullane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9718
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Conway, "Banks of Sullane" (on IRClare01)
Elizabeth Cronin, "The Banks of Sullane" (on IRECronin01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow" (tune)
cf. "Heather Down the Moor (Among the Heather; Down the Moor)" (theme)
NOTES [24 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "One of the most popular English ballads of the Ballyvourney and Coolea area in West Cork."
Macroom is in County Cork. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: RcBaOSul

Banks of Sweet Dandee, The

See The Banks of Dundee (Undaunted Mary) [Laws M25] (File: LM25)

Banks of Sweet Dundee (I), The

See The Banks of Dundee (Undaunted Mary) [Laws M25] (File: LM25)

Banks of Sweet Dundee (II), The

See William's Return to the Banks of Sweet Dundee (Answer to Undaunted Mary) (File: GrD1046)

Banks of Sweet Loch Rae, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a handsome soldier. He asks if she will come along with him. She says she cannot bear to leave (Loch Rae). He consents to have her stay if she will wait for him. She waits sadly for his return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection); 19C (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(29))
KEYWORDS: love courting soldier separation
FOUND IN: Ireland US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H158, p. 295, "Banks of Sweet Lough Neigh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 203-205, "The Banks of Sweet Loch Ray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3821
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(29), "The Banks of Sweet Loughrea" ("I am as poor a distressed maid as ever yet was known"), Haly (Cork), 19C; also 2806 c.8(164), 2806 c.8(195), "The Banks of Sweet Loughrea"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
On the Banks of Sweet Loch Raw
NOTES [14 words]: "The Banks of Sweet Loughrea" tells the story from the soldier's point of view. - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: HHH158

Banks of Sweet Loch Ray, The

See The Banks of Sweet Loch Rae (File: HHH158)

Banks of Sweet Lough Neagh, The

See The Banks of Sweet Loch Rae (File: HHH158)

Banks of Sweet Loughrea, The

DESCRIPTION: A soldier quartered in Boyle meets a charming lass while in Loughrae. He proposes that they marry in Boyle. She says she "never intended a soldier's wife." Devastated, he says he will ask to be discharged as he is no longer fit for service.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond01)
KEYWORDS: love courting soldier rejection
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #3821
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Banks of Sweet Loughrea" (on IRRCinnamond01)
NOTES [34 words]: "The Banks of Sweet Loch Rae" tells the story from the woman's point of view.
Loughrea is in County Galway, not far from Galway city. Boyle is in County Roscommon and is about 65 miles from Loughrea. - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RcTBOSLo

Banks of Sweet Primroses, The

DESCRIPTION: Speaker, while walking by banks of primroses, sees and courts a lovely woman. She spurns him and declares her intention to separate from men. (He tells listeners that even a cloudy, dark morning turns into a sunshiny day.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891
KEYWORDS: courting rejection flowers
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North,South),Wales,Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 51, "The Sweet Primeroses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 97, "Sweet Primaroses" (1 text)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 41, "The Banks of Sweet Primroses" (1 text, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 17, "The Banks of Sweet Primroses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 387, "Banks of the Sweet Primroses" (1 text including vocal rendition)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #79, "The Banks of Sweet Primroses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #39, "Banks of Sweet Primroses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan8 1841, "There's Mony a Dark and a Cloudy Morning" (1 fragment)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 68, "The Banks of Sweet Primroses" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 127-128, "As I Rode Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 6, "As I Roamed Out" (1 text, 1 tune, listed by Dawney as "The Banks of Sweet Primroses" although the surviving text is quite close to the "As I Roved Out" versions of "Seventeen Come Sunday" [Laws O17]; Butterworth expurgated several verses which might have clarified the origin)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 2, "The Banks of Sweet Primroses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 5, "The Banks of Sweet Primroses" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SWTPRIM*
Roud #586
RECORDINGS:
Bob & Ron Copper, "Sweet Primeroses" (on FSB01, HiddenE)
Louis Killen, "The Banks of Sweet Primroses" (on BirdBush2)
Phil Tanner, "The Sweet Prim-E-Roses" (Columbia FB 1570; on Voice01 as "The Sweet Primrose"; on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(141), "The Banks of sweet Primroses," unknown, c. 1830-1850
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lovely Nancy (VI)" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Three Long Steps
NOTES [502 words]: The Greig/Duncan8 fragment is a floating "cloudy morning" verse that might as well be put here.
The floating weather verse can cut both ways. Greig/Duncan8 1841, included here, has both options: "There's mony a dark and a cloudy morning Turns out a bright and sunny day And there's mony a bright and sunny morning Turns out a dark and a rainy day."
The more familiar option, usually in "The Banks of Sweet Primroses," "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" [Laws N35], "The First Time That I Saw My Love," and "Lovely Nancy" (VI) begins with the cloudy morning. "Oh! No, No" begins with "the brightest of mornings." "Nancy" (II) [Laws P12] can go either way as a follow-up to "Never cast your first true love away." - BS
In this connection, the mention of Sweet Primroses just might be significant. Binney, pp. 90-91, points out that "The evening primrose (Oenetherus) became the emblem of silent love because of its habit of opening its delicate pale yellow petals only at night." In general, she declares that the meaning of the primrose is that "I might learn to love you."
Purslow speculated that the final verse, which is absent in some versions, was added by a broadside printer to give the song a conclusion.
On the other hand, the form of the beginning of the song is very old and not really related to a particular flower. Compare this item from Brown, #178, p. 273, which opens
As I wakyd vppone a day
To take þe aere off field and flowre,
In a mery morenynge off may
When fflowrys were ffull of swete flauowre,
i.e.
As I walked upon a day
To take the air of field and flower,
In a merry morning of May,
When flowers were full of sweet flavor.
(This is Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #373; DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #630).
Brown's text comes from San Marino, Henry E. Huntington Library MS. HM 183, folio 5; there are two other manuscript copies (London, British Library Sloane 747, folios 95-96, and Cambridge UK, Cambridge University Library Ff.1.6, -- the famous Findern Manuscript -- folios 56-58 in the newer folio numbering, 46-48 in the old. The colophon has an attribution of sorts: "quod Lewestone"). Brown labels the piece, "Medicines to Cure the Deadly Sins." F. J. Furnivall, who published it in Political, Religious and Love Poems, from Lambeth MS. 306 and other sources, 1903, apparently called it "The Seven Deadly Sins" (Beadle/Owen, p. xxii. It it the eighteenth piece in the Findern Manuscript, according to ibid.). The Findern version consists of eleven twelve-line stanzas rhymed ababababbcbc with refrain "to live in ease."
Wenzel, p. 244, says that the poem "stand[s] at the fork where preachers' verses and non-preaching lyric poetry parted company. [it] deal[s] with topics or themes that were common to both preachers and poets but were treated with linguistic and poetic means that are markedly different. It is about the "deadly wounds" inflicted by "this wicked world," and that it is Jesus who can cure him. The wounds are the seven deadly sins. (Wenzel, p. 245). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: ShH51

Banks of Sweet Tralee, The (An Answer to Undaunted Mary)

See William's Return to the Banks of Sweet Dundee (Answer to Undaunted Mary) (File: GrD1046)

Banks of Sweet Trawlee

See William's Return to the Banks of Sweet Dundee (Answer to Undaunted Mary) (File: GrD1046)

Banks of the Arkansas, The

DESCRIPTION: "Prettiest little girl I ever saw, Lived on the banks of the Arkansas." "I started out with Maw and Paw, Down on the bank of the Arkansas, Plowed the crop with a mangy plug, Sold the corn in a gallon jug." Funny tales from the banks of the river
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (collected from Minta Morgan)
KEYWORDS: humorous beauty river nonballad home family floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 68-69, "The Bank of the Arkansaw" (1 text, 1 tune, with many, many floating verses)
Roud #10436
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cornstalk Fiddle" (lyrics)
cf. "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (lyrics)
cf. "Jim Along Josie" (lyrics)
File: LxSi068

Banks of the Ayr, The

See Burns and His Highland Mary [Laws O34] (File: LO34)

Banks of the Ban

See Willie Archer (The Banks of the Bann) (File: HHH614)

Banks of the Bann (I), The [Laws O2]

DESCRIPTION: Delany recalls how, when he first came to (Ireland), he fell in love with a girl (on the banks of the Bann). Her parents disapproved of his poverty and sent him away, but she promised to prove true. (Now he is returned and promises to do well by her)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1862 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2400))
KEYWORDS: courting poverty mother father exile
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws O2, "The Brown Girl"
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H86, p. 443, "The Banks of the Bann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 139-140, "The Brown Girl" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 37, "The Brown Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 9, "The Brown Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 355-356, "The Brown Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 75-76, "Brown Girl" (1 text)
DT, BNKSBAN2
ADDITIONAL: Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), p. 11, "The Banks of the Bann" (text, music and reference to Decca F-2603 recorded Oct 4, 1931)
Roud #889
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Banks of the Bann" (on Lloyd01)
Mary Whalen, "On the Banks of the Band" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2400), "Brown Girl" ("When first to this country I came as a stranger"), E.M.A. Hodges (London) , 1855-1861; also 2806 b.11(255), 2806 c.8(168), "Brown Girl"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Frowns That She Gave Me" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Maid of Aghadowey" (plot)
cf. "The Greenwood Laddie" (lyrics)
cf. "When First To This Country (I)" ("When First Unto This Country" lyric) and references there
NOTES [154 words]: In some versions of this song, the girl is compared to "Juno, the fair Grecian queen." Leaving apart the fact that Venus/Aphrodite, not Juno, was the goddess of beauty, it should be noted that Juno was a Roman goddess; the correct Greek name is Hera.
Paul Stamler notes that "[this] tune is also used for a classic Anglican hymn," which Paul Tracy reports to be "Lord of all hopefulness, lord of all joy."
Laws apparently decided to name this "The Brown Girl" on the basis of Creighton and some broadsides. I decided to use "The Banks of the Bann" instead; both titles refer to several songs, but the versions of this song I know don't call her a "Brown Girl," and the references to the Bann are certainly more prominent. And it seems to be the standard Folk Revival name. - RBW
The date and master id (GB-3357-1) for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LO02

Banks of the Bann (II), The

See Willie Archer (The Banks of the Bann) (File: HHH614)

Banks of the Bann (III), The

See I Never Will Marry [Laws K17] (File: LK17)

Banks of the Boyne, The

See The Lovely Banks of Boyne [Laws P22] (File: LP22)

Banks of the Clyde (I), The

DESCRIPTION: A young man comes up to a pretty girl, who reports that her Willie has gone over the sea. He asks her to marry; she replies, "Though he prove unconstant, I'll always prove true." He reveals himself as Willie; they will marry shortly
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion disguise marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H812, p. 310, "The Banks of the Clyde/One Fine Summer's Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3815
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
cf. "The Plains of Waterloo (I)" [Laws N32] (plot, lyrics)
cf. "The Maid of Dunmore" (partial plot, lyrics)
NOTES [71 words]: Certain lyrics to the Sam Henry version of this song are effectively identical to the Greenleaf text of "The Plains of Waterloo," and of course there are also plot similarities. But "The Banks of the Clyde" is a much more generic song, with no references to a dead soldier. And the similarities in other texts of the song is less pronounced. It appears to be a case of cross-fertilization rather than actual common descent. - RBW
File: HHH812

Banks of the Clyde (III), The

See The Lad in the Scotch Brigade (The Banks of the Clyde) (File: LLab133)

Banks of the Condamine, The

See The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II) [Laws N9] (File: LN09)

Banks of the Dee (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas summer, and softly the breezes were blowing, And sweetly the nightingales sang in the trees." The girl remembers her Jamie, now gone "to quell the proud rebels." She earnestly hopes for his speedy return to her and the banks of the Dee
AUTHOR: Words: John Tate / Music: "Langolee" (traditional)
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (The Scots Musical Museum); reportedly printed in the Philadelphia Ledger, 1885 (Dichter/Shapiro)
KEYWORDS: love separation soldier
FOUND IN: Britain US(MA,NE) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1525, "The Banks of the Dee" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 136-137, "The Banks of the Dee" (1 text)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 50, "The Banks of the Dee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sturgis/Hughes-SongsFromTheHillsOfVermont, pp. 22-25, "The Banks of the Dee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 337-338, "(no title)" (1 text)
Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, p. 26, "The Banks of the Dee" (1 text, tune on p. 27)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 477, "The Banks of the Dee" (source notes only)
DT, BNKSDEE*
Roud #3847
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(13c), "The Banks of the Dee" ("'Twas summer when softly the breezes were blowing"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 41(1)[many illegible words], 2806 b.9(238), Harding B 20(6), Johnson Ballads 8, Harding B 11(156), 2806 c.15(67), Firth c.13(247), Firth b.26(496), Harding B 26(30), Harding B 26(31), Harding B 22(9), Harding B 25(110), "[The] Banks of the Dee"
SAME TUNE:
Cawsand Bay (file: OBB168)
Langolee (DT, LANGLEE)
The Banks of Champlain (Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 161-162, probably originally sung to this tune)
Oliver Arnold's parody of Banks of the Dee (DT, BNKSDEE2, said by Spaeth to date from 1775)
Johnie Miller of Glenlee (File: LyCr170)
Volunteers of Ireland Song (Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 78-86)
A Parody on The Banks of the Dee ("'Twas winter and blue Tory noses were freezing") (Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, pp. 27-28)
NOTES [147 words]: Some have questioned if this song is traditional, but the tune assuredly is. The texts of "Langolee" (properly "new Langolee"; see Bruce Olson's notes in the Digital Tradition), however, are absolutely hopeless and untraditional. As a result, I decided to list "The Banks of the Dee" as the main entry.
It appears that "Banks of the Dee" was the main mechanism by which the tune became known. Huntington's song "The Banks of Champlain," for instance, although no tune is given, has "Langolee" written all over it -- and no doubt the title of Tait's piece inspired the American song.
It's interesting to note that, although there are several American songs about the American Revolution, this seems to be the only one from the British standpoint. Still more interesting, it shows little interest in the political aspect of that conflict; the girl just wants her Jamie to return. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DTbnksde

Banks of the Dee (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer "heard a maid a-sighing... And, 'Johnny,' she was crying, 'oh how could you leave me?" He recalls leaving her on the spot, and how they promised to be true. He tells her her love was slain in battle, then reveals that he is her love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation soldier disguise reunion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H583, p. 314, "The Banks of [the] Dee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3814
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. esp. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
NOTES [48 words]: Huntington was of the opinion that this was the source for the song "The Banks of Champlain" which he found in the 1838 journal of the Nautilus. I disagree. There are several "Banks of the Dee" songs, and the other (to the tune "Langolee") fits "The Banks of Champlain" much better. - RBW
File: HHH583

Banks of the Dee (III), The

DESCRIPTION: On the banks of the Dee the singer meets a 56 year old coal miner who "can't get employment, 'cause my hair it's turned grey." When young he worked hard in the pit but now he's had his notice. Young miners should save their wages, not "hew them away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Lloyd in _Come All Ye Bold Miners_, according to Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 20" - 15.1.04)
KEYWORDS: age poverty mining unemployment nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
Roud #3484
RECORDINGS:
Jack Elliott, "The Banks of the Dee" (on Voice20)
File: RcBaDee3

Banks of the Dizzy, The

See The Banks of the Roses (File: Doe315)

Banks of the Don, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer pays sarcastic tribute to the "boarding-house" by the Don: rent and taxes are paid, food is free. Inmates must turn out and work in the stoneyard; knives and forks are counted after meals. To obtain residence, listeners can get publicly drunk
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (recording, O. J. Abbott)
KEYWORDS: prison punishment drink humorous nonballad prisoner
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1860s - Don Jail built
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott28, "On the Banks of the Don" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3846
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Banks of the Don" (on Ontario1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mountjoy Hotel" (subject)
cf. "Johnson's Hotel" (subject, lyrics)
cf. "Erin Go Bragh" (tune)
NOTES [18 words]: O. J. Abbott reported learning the song as a teenager in 1890 from an Irish farmer in the Ottawa valley. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcTBOTDo

Banks of the Gaspereaux, The [Laws C26]

DESCRIPTION: A logging crew comes to work the Gaspereaux. The singer (who is one of the loggers) meets a girl (nicknamed "Robin Redbreast" after her dress); they fall in love, but neither will leave home for the other, and they part
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: logger courting separation
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws C26, "The Banks of the Gaspereaux"
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 257-259, "The Banks of the Gaspereaux" (1 text, composite)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 246-247, "The Banks of the Gaspereaux" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 744-745, "The Banks of the Gaspereau" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 770-771, "The Banks of Gaspereaux" (1 text)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 2, "The Banks of the Gaspereaux (Robin Redbreast)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 576, BNKSGASP GASPERAU
Roud #1925
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "The Banks of the Gaspereau" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [23 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "The Gaspereaux, or Gaspereau, is a river in Queen's County [New Brunswick], a branch of the St. John." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LC26

Banks of the Inverness, The

DESCRIPTION: The sailor sees a girl sighing on the banks of the (Inver)ness. He asks her if she is available. She says she is engaged to Willie. He declares that Willie is "in cold irons bound" and will not return. She says she will remain faithful. He reveals himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1752))
KEYWORDS: love courting separation reunion disguise
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #153, p. 1, "Young William's Denial" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1047, "The Banks of the Inverness" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H205, pp. 319-320, "The Banks of the River Ness" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 4, "The Banks of the River Ness" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3813
RECORDINGS:
John Leahy, "Banks of Inverness" (on ONEFowke01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1752), "The Banks of Inverness" or "Young William's Denial" ("I am a jolly sailor bold, and just returned to shore"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885 ; also Firth c.12(279), "The Banks of Inverness" or "Young William's Denial"; Harding B 15(8Ab), "Banks of the Inverness" or "Young William's Return"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. esp. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
cf. "The Banks of Dundee (Undaunted Mary)" [Laws M25] (prequel)
cf. "William's Return to the Banks of Sweet Dundee (Answer to Undaunted Mary)" (another Laws M25 sequel)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Young William's Return
Young William's Denial
NOTES [60 words]: Greig: "In default of information as to the source of the record one must be cautious; but I am inclined to take the ditty as an attempt, on the part of a southerner probably, to make a sequel to 'The Banks of Sweet Dundee.'" I agree, considering the plot, the names and the statement by Mary that "'Twas for my dearest William I my uncle's life did take." - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: HHH205

Banks of the Lee (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Anglers cast flies for salmon and trout on the banks of the Lee.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: fishing
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 146, "The Banks of the Lee" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6857
File: OCC146

Banks of the Lee (II), The

See Mary on the Banks of the Lee (File: DTbnksle)

Banks of the Little Auplaine, The

See The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine [Laws C2] (File: LC02)

Banks of the Little Eau Pleine, The [Laws C2]

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a schoolmarm who is seeking her lost lover Johnny. He tells her Johnny is drowned and buried far from home. The woman curses Wisconsin and Johnny's boss, and promises to give up teaching and any home near water
AUTHOR: W. N. "Billy" Allen (writing as "Shan T. Boy")
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud); the author said he wrote it c. 1875
KEYWORDS: river death drowning curse humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Laws C2, "The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine"
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 5, "The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine" (2 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 5, "The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine" (2 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 96-97, "On the Banks of the Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 10-11, "The Banks of the Little Auplaine" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 118-119, "The Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 578, "The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 49, "The Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 201-206, "The Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 52, "The Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #28, "Johnny Murphy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 61, "The Little Low Plain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 23-26, "The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 48-52,78, "The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 58, "The Banks of the Little Low Plain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 432-433, "The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine" (1 text)
DT 699, EAUPLEIN
ADDITIONAL: Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden, _Wisconsin Lore: Antics and Anecdotes of Wisconsin People and Places_, Wisconsin House, 1962, pp. 101-104, "On the Banks of the Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, presumably from Wisconsin although no source is listed)
David C. Peterson, "Wisconsin Folksongs," chapter in _Badger History: Wisconsin Folklore_, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Volume XXV, Number 2, November 1973), pp. 57-58, "The Little Eau Pleine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #706
RECORDINGS:
John Leahy, "Johnny Murphy" (on Lumber01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Green Shore" [Laws Q27] (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Little Auplaine
Johnny Murphy
NOTES [154 words]: The Little Eau Pleine River (yes, there is also a Big Eau Pleine) flows into the Wisconsin River between Wausau and Stevens Point in central Wisconsin. About thirty miles long, it is hardly more than a creek.
Cazden et al regard this song as a parody of "Erin's Green Shore" [Laws Q27]. This is somewhat deceptive. It was set, by the author, to the tune of "Erin's Green Shore," but the lyrics are not derived from that piece, though they have links to assorted traditional pieces.
The plot description above sounds serious, and it is, but the song itself veers between humor and pathos -- e.g. the first verse notes that "the mosquito's notes were melodious," and the singer's clothes are described as "His pants were made out of two meal-sacks, with a patch a foot square on each knee."
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy has extensive notes about William N. Allen, whom he met near the end of the latter's career.- RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: LC02

Banks of the Miramichi, The

DESCRIPTION: There is no river "like the rolling tide that flows 'longside The banks of the Murrymashee." The sportsmen gather to see it and the trout, salmon, and birds. The singer wouldn't trade it for gold, silver or royal robes.
AUTHOR: Patrick Hurley of Cassilis, Nor'West Miramichi (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: lyric nonballad animal bird
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 3, "The Banks of the Miramichi" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi003 (Partial)
Roud #4622
RECORDINGS:
Marie Hare, "The Banks of the Miramichi" (on MRMHare01)
Art Matchett, "The Banks of the Miramichi" (on Miramichi1)
File: MaWi003

Banks of the Mossen, The

DESCRIPTION: "As I was a walking down by some shady grove... Young lambs were a-playing on the banks of sweet Mossen... The lark in the morning... brings me joyful tidings of Nancy my dear." The singer asks for pen and ink to write to Nancy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: love separation animal river
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 242-243, "The Banks of the Mossen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 81B, "The Lark in the Morn" (2 texts)
Roud #1646
RECORDINGS:
Jim Swain, "The Banks of Sweet Mossing" (on Voice10)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Banks of the Mossom
The Banks of Sweet Mossom
NOTES [44 words]: I'd bet a lot that this is one of those Johnny-the-sailor-separated-from-his-love type songs that's been collected about three hundred times -- but from the short text given in Copper (three short verses and a fairly generic chorus), I can't tell which one. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: CoSB242

Banks of the Murray, The

See On the Banks of the Murray (File: MA258)

Banks of the Nile (II) (The Soldier's Letter)

DESCRIPTION: "Far, far away on the banks of the Nile," "A brave Irish soldier, a gallant dragoon, Read his mother's letter by the light of the moon," telling of troubles in Ireland
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: soldier mother | letter
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 19, "(A brave Irish soldier, a gallant dragoon)" (1 fragment, which Fowke thinks is this)
Roud #5386
File: KSUC019D

Banks of the Nile, The (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II) [Laws N9]

DESCRIPTION: (William) has been ordered to the banks of the Nile. Molly offers to cut her hair, dress like a man, and go with him. He will not permit her to; (the climate is too harsh or women are simply not permitted). (He promises to return and they are parted)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1859 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(158))
KEYWORDS: soldier cross-dressing separation request
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) Britain(England(South),Scotland) Australia Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Laws N9, "The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II)"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #25, pp. 1-2, "The Banks of the Nile"; #26, p. 2, "The Banks o' the Nile"; #27, p. 2, "The Banks o' the Nile" (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan1 99, "The Banks of the Nile" (13 texts, 12 tunes)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 175, "Banks of the Nile" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #108, "The Banks of the Nile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 340, "Plains of Mexico" (1 text)
Randolph 42, "Men's Clothing I'll Put On" (Of Randolph's 6 texts, Laws assigns only the "A" version, with tune, to this group (and even this is hidden by a typographical error), but "B" and "E" might belong with this or "William and Nancy I")
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 92-93, "Men's Clothes I Will Put On" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 42A)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 66, "The Dolphin" (1 text, probably a confused version of "The Dolphin," a song of a sea battle, and "The Banks of the Nile" [Laws N9] or similar)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 105-106, "Banks of the Nile" (1 text)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 206-207, "Dixie's Isle" (1 text, 1 tune -- a version with American Civil War references)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 122-123, "The Banks of the Condamine" (1 text, 1 tune); probably also pp. 215-216, "The Banks of the Riverine" (the latter might go with "William and Nancy I")
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 154-155, "The Banks of the Condamine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 30-31, "The Banks of the Condamine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 273-275, "The Banks of the Condamine" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 298, "The Banks o' the Nile" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 231, "The Banks of the Condamine" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H238a, pp. 296-297, "The Banks of the Nile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 50, "The Banks of the Nile" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 68, "High Germany" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 170, "The Banks of the Nile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 47, pp. 139-140,174, "Texas Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 130-132, "The Banks of the Condamine" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 72, "Banks of the Nile" (1 text, 1 tune, considered by Fowke states to be an abbreviated, localized version of "William and Nancy (I)" [Laws N8], but it could just as easily be a version of "The Banks of the Nile" [Laws N9])
Peacock, pp. 996-997, "Dixie's Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 147, "The Banks of the Nile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 35B, "The Banks of the Nile" (1 text); 36, "Dixie's Isle" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 266-268, "Farewell My Dear Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune, a fragment lacking the beginning. The final three stanzas appear to belong here but might be something else)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 77-78, "The Banks of the Nile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 98, "The Banks of the Condamine" (1 text)
DT, BANKNILE* (BANKNIL2*?)
ADDITIONAL: A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 308, "The Banks of the Condamine" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 292-293, "The Banks of the Condamine" (1 text)
Roud #950
RECORDINGS:
Steve Gardham, "The Banks of the Nile" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #51, recorded 07/22/2021)
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Banks of the Nile" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
Pat MacNamara, "Banks of the Nile" (on IRClare01)
unknown singer, "Down in Dixie's Isle" (on MUNFLA/Leach)

BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(158), "Banks of the Nile", J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1855-1858; also 2806 b.9(227), 2806 b.9(53), 2806 c.14(179), Firth b.25(245), Harding B 11(276), Firth b.26(269), Firth c.14(148), Firth c.14(149), Harding B 11(158), Harding B 11(2900), Harding B 11(2900A), Harding B 26(47)[some blurring], [The] Banks of the Nile"
LOCSinging, as100630, "The Banks of the Nile," P. Brereton (Dublin), 19C
Murray, Mu23-y1:078, "The Banks of the Nile", James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C; also Mu23-y3:024, "The Banks of the Nile," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack Monroe" [Laws N7]
cf. "William and Nancy I" [Laws N8]
cf. "High Germany (I)"
cf. "The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging)" [Laws O33]
cf. "When First To This Country (II)" (theme)
cf. "The Tomahawk Hem" (some lyrics)
NOTES [475 words]: What is the historical reference here? The earliest Bodleian broadside, Harding B 11(158), is printed between 1855 and 1858. One possibility (see Laws N9 notes relating that "Randolph observes that Ord" makes the connection) is the second Battle of Abukir in which "in March 1801, a British army of 5,000 under General Ralph Abercromby landed to dislodge a French army of 2,000 under General Louis Friant. They did so, but not before 1,100 British troops were lost." (Source: Wikipedia article Battle of Abukir ) - BS
Possibly supporting this is the fact that there was also a battle at Abukir (Aboukir) Bay on August 1-2, 1798, in which Nelson annihilated a French force, allowing Britain to control entrance to Egypt. This was, of course, a sea battle -- but it's often called "The Battle of the Nile." What's more, there were women involved -- they were the wives of the sailors. According to David Cordingly, Women Sailors and Sailors' Women, Random House, 2001 (I use the undated, but later, paperback edition), pp. 102-103, no fewer than four (wives of sailors) took part in the battle of Aboukir aboard the Goliath. There were probably quite a few more on other ships; it's just that the women on the Goliath were fairly well documented (and were praised for their conduct).
Britain again interfered in Egypt in 1807, and the nation (along with the Sudan) was formally freed from Ottoman rule in 1841, largely as a result of European meddling. There were enough British soldiers floating around that the song would be relevant at almost any time from 1798 until the first broadsides appeared. The song takes place *before* the battle; as a result, I never really thought to associate it with a particular event. Though I concede that Aboukir makes sense; it put Egypt "in the news." - RBW
Laws quotes Dixie's Isle as "a Civil War adaptation" of N9. The "adaptation" is illustrated by the change from
We are called up to Portsmouth, many a long mile,
All for to be embarked for the Banks of the Nile
to
They call me down to New Orleans for many a long mile
To fight the southern soldiers way down in Dixie's Isle. - BS
In some of the Australian versions, rather than Willie being a soldier, he becomes a shearer. But the plot and pathos of the song remain clear.
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's text appears to be an adaption of this song to the context of the Mexican War (1846-1848). In this version, the modification is so complete that the girl does not even ask to come along; Laws, in fact, does not list Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's piece as an adaption of this song.
Nonetheless, the kinship with "The Banks of the Nile" is still patently obvious. And neither Belden nor I knows of another version of the Mexican version of the song. So it seemed sufficient to list it here. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LN09

Banks of the Ohio [Laws F5]

DESCRIPTION: The singer takes his sweetheart walking, hoping to discuss marriage. She seemingly refuses him (because she is too young?). Rather than wait, he throws her into the river to drown. In most versions he is not caught, though in some texts she haunts him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915
KEYWORDS: homicide river drowning
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Laws F5, "On the Banks of the Ohio"
Randolph 160, "Down on the Banks of the Ohio" (2 texts plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 104, "The Murdered Girl" (7 texts, 2 tunes, but Laws considers only the B text -- "On the Banks of the Old Pedee" -- to belong with this ballad)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 20, "The Banks of the River Dee" (1 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 2 more, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 66, "On the Banks of the Ohio" (1 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 5 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 66, "On the Banks of the Ohio" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #180, "The Wexford Girl" 2 texts, 1 tune; the "A" text and tune being "The Banks of the Ohio" [Laws F5] and the "B" text "The Wexford Girl (The Oxford, Lexington, or Knoxville Girl; The Cruel Miller; etc.)" [Laws P35])
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 76, "On the Banks of the Ohio" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 60-61, "Banks of the Ohio" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 58-59, "On the Banks of the Ohio" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 101-102, "On the Banks of the Ohio" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 110, "Down on the Banks of the Ohio" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 138-139, "Banks of the Ohio" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 577, "On the Banks of the Ohio" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 45, p. 108, "The Old Shawnee"; p. 109, "On the Banks of the Old Pedee" (2 texts)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 201-202, "On the Banks of the Ohio" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 180, "Banks Of The Ohio" (1 text)
DT 628, BNKSOHIO* BANOHIO2(*) (BANOHIO3)
Roud #157
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley, Doc Watson, Clint Howard & Jean Ritchie, "Banks of the Ohio" (on WatsonAshley01)
Blue Sky Boys, "Down On The Banks of The Ohio" (Bluebird 6480, 1933; Montgomery Ward M-5033, 1936)
Callahan Brothers, "Down on the Banks of the Ohio" (Banner 5-12-60/Conqueror 8588 [as "On the Banks of the Ohio"], 1935)
Walter Coon, "On the Banks of the Ohio" (Superior 2544, 1930)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "I'll Never Be Yours" (Gennett 6373/Champion 15447 [as by Norman Gayle]/Silvertone 8160 [as by Dillard Sanders]/Supertone 9247 [as by Sanders]/Challenge 393 [as by David Foley], 1927; on GraysonWhitter01)
Clarence Green, "On the Banks of the Ohio" (Columbia 15311-D, 1928)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "On the Banks of the Ohio" (on BLLunsford02)
Monroe Brothers, "Banks of the Ohio" (Bluebird B-7385, 1938)
Glen & Jessie Neaves & band, "Banks of the Ohio" (on HalfCen1)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Banks of the Ohio" (on NLCR02)
Red Patterson's Piedmont Log Rollers, "Down on the Banks of the Ohio" (Victor 35874, 1928)
Pete Seeger, "Banks of the Ohio" (on PeteSeeger31)
Bill Shafer, "Broken Engagements" (Vocalion 5413, 1930, rec. 1929)
Frank Stanton [pseud. for Walter Coon], "On the Banks of the Ohio" (Superior 2544, 1930)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Down on the Banks of the Ohio" (Edison 52312, 1928)
Ruby Vass, "Banks of the Ohio" (on LomaxCD1702)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. The Wexford Girl (The Oxford, Lexington, or Knoxville Girl; The Cruel Miller; etc.) [Laws P35]
File: LF05

Banks of the Pamanaw, The

See On the Banks of the Pamanaw [Laws H11] (File: LH11)

Banks of the Pleasant Ohio, The

See Lovely Ohio, The (File: LoF039)

Banks of the River Dee, The

See Banks of the Ohio [Laws F5]
 (File: LF05)

Banks of the River Ness, The

See The Banks of the Inverness (File: HHH205)

Banks of the Riverine, The

See The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II) [Laws N9] (File: LN09)

Banks of the Roe, The

DESCRIPTION: "Too long have I travelled the land of the stranger...." The singer wishes to return to "the land of O'Cahan," whom he recalls with pride. But those free men are long dead; he is left, and in exile, but "How I long to return to the banks of the Roe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration exile homesickness
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1385 - Death of "Cooey-na-Gal" O'Cahan
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H24b, pp. 217-218, "The Banks of the Roe" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
cf. "The Benady Glen" (for Cooey-na-Gal)
cf. "Gelvin Burn" (for Cooey-na-Gal)
cf. "The River Roe (II)" (for Cooey-na-Gal)
cf. "Slieve Gallen Brae" (for Cooey-na-Gal)
NOTES [181 words]: The monastery of Dungiven (in Ulster) is believed to have been established in the eleventh century, well before the English invaded Ireland. Many leaders of the O'Cahans were buried in what became Dungiven Priory.
The most famous of these O'Cahans was "Cooey-na-Gal" ("Terror of the Stranger"). Legend has it that "Cooey-na-Gal" was buried in a fine tomb in Dungiven, covered by an excellent carving of a warrior with a sword, surrounded by small figures of kilted soldiers. The work is regarded as one of the finest tomb sculptures in Ireland.
Unfortunately, the tomb is almost certainly not that of Cooey-na-Gal O'Cahan, because it is firmly dated to the fifteenth century. The best bet is that the man buried there is Aibhne O'Cahan, murdered in 1492.
Cooey-na-Gal has managed to get his name into a number of songs, mostly in the Henry collection and mostly obscure; see the cross-references. But there is also "The Benady Glen," recorded by Déanta. That song is listed as by Manus O'Kane, and another Cooey song ("Slieve Gallen Brae") is listed as by James O'Kane. Coincidence? - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: HHH024b

Banks of the Roses, The

DESCRIPTION: In full form, (Jeannie) meets (Johnny) on the banks of the Roses and bids him never leave her. (Her father opposes the relationship.) Johnny takes her to a (cave) containing her grave; he kills and buries her. Many versions leave out portions of this plot
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1790 (Madden Collection); also a fragment as #7 in the _Scots Musical Museum_
KEYWORDS: courting love fiddle homicide burial family father
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(MA) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 315-316, "The Banks of the Roses" (1 text, 1 tune -- a lyric version)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 72, "The Banks of Red Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 35, "The German Flute" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1444, "Rab the Rover" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #60, p. 222-223, "The Banks o' Red Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 105, "The Banks of the Dizzy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 497-498, "The Banks of the Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 80, "The Banks of the Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, p. 54, "Banks of Red Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 144, "Banks Of The Roses" (1 text -- a lyric version)
DT, BANKROSE BANKROS2* BANKROS3 BANKROS4* BANKROS5*
Roud #603
RECORDINGS:
Seamus Ennis, "The Banks of the Roses" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
Lizzie Higgins, "The Banks of Red Roses" (on Voice10)
NOTES [109 words]: Evidently singers loved the tune of this song, and the first few verses, but didn't like the murder ballad aspect. As a result, the first half of the song circulates independently, with Jeannie and Johnny courting and either getting married or peacefully going their separate ways. The result is lyric, and I suspect survives only because of its strong melody. - RBW
Folktrax site includes the following note for "The Banks of the Roses" which might explain the Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland title: "PETRIE 1902 #253 has Irish song to same air. 'Ta mo chleamhnas deanta' is alternative title to tune 'The Banks of the Daisies.'" - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Doe315

Banks of the Schuylkill, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the banks of the Schuylkill so pleasant and gay, There blessed with my true love I spent a short day." The girl describes her happy time with the man. But now he has been taken for a soldier. She hopes they will be happily reunited
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1838 (broadside by Deming reproduced in Cohen); 1840 (Journal from the Fortune)
KEYWORDS: soldier love separation reunion
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 769, "The Banks of the Schuylkill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 160-161, "The Banks of the Schuylkill" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 141-143, "The Banks of the Schuylkill" (1 text plus a broadside print)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 164-165, "The Banks of Schuylkill" (1 text)
Roud #2045
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of the Dee" (theme)
File: R769

Banks of the Silver Tide

See The Silvery Tide [Laws O37] (File: LO37)

Banks of the Spey, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl on the banks of the Spey. He asks to see her home. She says she has only a mile to go and her true love is waiting there. He calls on her at home. She tells him she is to be married. He crosses the ocean.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage rejection emigration
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #148, p. 2, "The Banks of the Spey" (1 text fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1237, "The Banks of the Spey" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6780
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Banks of the Don
NOTES [38 words]: One of the Greig/Duncan6 texts adds a seemingly gratuitous last line "I've lost my bonnie lassie by courtin ower slow."
Greig/Duncan6 quoting Duncan: "Robert Alexander, learnt about 1860 in Culsalmond. A very popular song." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61237

Banks of the Sweet Viledee

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

Banks of the Tweed, The

DESCRIPTION: Mary says that her Willie "plays on his flute" but he'd stop if he knew she were here. Willie meets her. She complains that she hasn't seen him recently. He proposes that they "straightway repair" "to the alter of Hymen" to "join hearts and hands"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (IRPTunney01)
KEYWORDS: sex nonballad sheep marriage music
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 111-112, "The Banks of the Tweed" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "The Banks of the Tweed" (on IRPTunney01)
NOTES [14 words]: Omitted from the description: Mary and Willie are both out tending their sheep. - BS
File: RcTBotT

Banks of the Wabash

See On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away (File: FSWB045)

Banks of the Waikato

DESCRIPTION: "Hark the dogs are barking, My love I must away... 'Tis many a mile to go To meet my fellow bushmen On the banks of the Waikato." He tells Sally she cannot come with him. He will dream of her while he is away, and he will return when the work is done
AUTHOR: Phil Garland
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: love separation work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 90, "Banks of the Waikato" (1 text, 1 modern tune) (p. 52 in the 1972 edition)
RECORDINGS:
Phil Garland, "Banks of the Waikato" (on NZSongYngCntry)
NOTES [178 words]: This looks to me like a New Zealand rewrite of a "Men's Clothing I'll Put On" type of song. Phil Garland wrote at least one other song modifying a traditional type in this way; "Tuapeka Gold" is a "Wild Rover No More" sort of song adapted to New Zealand mining conditions.
The Waikato River is on New Zealand's North Island, flowing into the Tasman Sea; it is the longest river in the entire nation of New Zealand (Gordon McLauchlan, editor-in-chief, New Zealand Encyclopedia, David Bateman Limited, 1984, p. 473).
Because the song refers to "bushmen," and is similar to "The Banks of the Condamine," I always thought that the singer was going hunting by the Waikato. But McLauchlan, p. 578, describes it as a grassy area now used for herding. It does not sound like a place where one would have gone hunting. However, the area was fought over heavily during the "Maori Wars" of the 1860s (McLauchlin, p. 579). So Phil Garland may have meant this to be a song about the men going to the Maori Wars -- though that is rather odd for a man who was generally a liberal. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Colq052

Banks of Tralee, The

See Braes of Strathblane (File: McCST053)

Banks of Yorrow, The

See The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214]; also Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie [Child 215] (File: C214)

Bann Water Side, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a pretty girl by the Bann. He offers her a comfortable life if she will marry him. She says she would rather be poor than beguiled. He promises that, if he becomes poor, he will split his last shilling with her. They are happily married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.11(265))
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage money promise beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H685, p. 460, "The Bann Water Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 9, "The Blackwater Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3037
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Bannwaterside" (on IRRCinnamond01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(265), "The Blackwater Side" ("As I roved out one evening fair down by a shady grove"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885
File: HHH685

Banna's Banks

See Gramachree (File: HHH204)

Bannocks o' Barley

DESCRIPTION: Highlanders are "the lads wi' the bannocks o' barley." They "drew the gude claymore for Charlie," "cowed the English lowns," "stood in ruin wi' bonny Prince Charlie" and suffered "'neath the Duke's bluidy paw"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: rebellion nonballad patriotic Jacobites
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 16, 1746 - Battle of Culloden Muir ends the 1745 Jacobite rebellion: the Duke of Cumberland defeats the supporters of Charles Edward Stuart.
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 AJ21, "Bannocks o' Barley" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, _Burns: Complete Poems and Songs_ (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #581, pp. 685-686, "Bannocks o' bear meal" (1 text, 1 tune, from the Scots Musical Museum)
Roud #5653
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Killogie" (tune, according to Burns)
cf. "Cakes o' Croudy" (tune [Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 11], according to Hogg; the chorus is "bannocks of bear meal, cakes of croudy")
NOTES [107 words]: The words from Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 and Burns are different enough that, while both are the same song, it's not clear to me whether one is the source of the other. The description follows Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2. - BS
The Duke of Cumberland was known as "Butcher" Cumberland, and he was very fat, with a pushed-in face that really did cause him to resemble a bear; hence, presumably, the reference to his "bluidy paw." The reference to bannocks of bear (bare?) meal sounds to me like a reference to the poor rations of the Jacobite army.
For the Battle of Culloden, see especially the notes to "The Muir of Culloden." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: HoggAJ21

Bannocks o' Barley Meal

DESCRIPTION: (Donald) tells of "when he was a soldier wi' Geordie the Third," and boasts of the skill of Scottish soldiers; "when put to their mettle they're ne'er kent to fail" when given "well-buttered bannocks o' barley meal." He illustrates his point from history
AUTHOR: unknown (the Vocal Companion music is credited to "Mazzinghi")
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford); compare the 1837 Vocal Companion edition
KEYWORDS: soldier war food bragging
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 142-144, "Bannocks o' Barley Meal" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 525, "The Land o' Cakes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan3 526, "Bannocks o' Barley Meal" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), "The Vocal Companion_, second edition, D'Almaine and Co., 1937 (available from Google Books), pp. 82-83, "Bannocks o' Barley Meal" (1 text, 1 tune -- a very short, and probably cleaned-up, text, but probably derived from the same original)
Roud #5653
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lass o' Glenshee" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3 526)
NOTES [45 words]: Greig/Duncan3 525: ." .. 1911. Learnt thirty-five years ago."
Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(78), "Bannocks o' Barley Meal" ("An auld Highland couple sat bein by the ingle"), J. Scott (Pittenweem), 19C is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: FVS142

Bannow's Bright Blue Bay

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls "where Bannow's Buried City lies beneath that bright blue sky." He remembers "one midnight as the moon went down beneath Rathdonnel's hill" when "the stormy sea" broke over it and it never woke again.
AUTHOR: Rev Philip Doyle, O.S.A. of Maudlintown, Wellingtonbridge
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: sea storm disaster
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 41, "Bannow's Bright Blue Bay" (1 text)
Roud #20522
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rising of the Moon" (tune; I assume not "The Wearing of the Green" - BS)
NOTES [37 words]: Bannow is a Wexford townland and parish. There is a "buried city" but I have no details on how it is supposed to have been lost. The Wexford tourism site does list "the Buried city of Bannow" among Bannow's attractions. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran041

Bannow's Lonely Shore

DESCRIPTION: "As on my pillow I recline in a foreign land to rest, The love of Bannow's flowery banks still throbs within my breast." The singer remembers his youth, plus ships, birds, and "youthful joys."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 26-27, "Bannow's Lonely Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Ran026 (Full)
Roud #20526
NOTES [124 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: "It is believed that the song was composed by John Kane, a native of Grange, Bannow, when in exile in America." - BS
Kay Reville sends me this information about the song:
John Keane, Grange, Bannow, wrote this fine song in Philadelphia, U.S.A., about the year 1847 to where he had emigrated some years earlier. He sent this song to his aunt in Bannow and when he returned home for a holiday he heard it sung many times such was its popularity. Fr. Ranson in his Songs of Wexford Coast, 1948, claimed it was one of the most popular songs of the county. It is still sung to-day. John Keane died in Phildelphia around 1897. A biographical sketch of Johne Keane and words of song appeared in "The People" 1909. - (RBW)
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran026

Banstead Downs

See Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)

Bantry Girl's Lament for Johnny, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh who will plough the field now ... Since Johnny went a-thrashing the dirty King of Spain." Everyone, even the police, miss him. "His heavy loss we Bantry girls will never cease to mourn" if he dies "for Ireland's pride in the foreign land of Spain"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (Graves)
KEYWORDS: grief war lament Ireland Spain separation soldier police
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 132, "The Bantry Girls' Lament for Johnny" (1 text)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 77, "The Bantry Girls' Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 176, "The Bantry Girl's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BANTRYGL BANTRYG2
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 296, 509, "The Bantry Girls' Lament for Johnny"
Roud #2999
NOTES [388 words]: Sparling: "Taken from Graves' collection; on ballad-slips I have only seen very confused versions." The Graves reference is to Alfred Percival Graves Songs of Irish Wit and Humour (London, 1884). I must be misreading this badly if it is an example of "Irish Wit and Humour." There are clever lines though, like the reference to the police: "The peelers must stand idle against their will and grain, For the valiant boy who gave them work now peels the King of Spain."
If the reference to "peelers" has always been part of "Bantry Girls" then it puts an earliest possible date on the ballad: Sir Robert Peel established the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1812 and its success led, in 1829, to the Metropolitan Police Act for London. Originally the term "Peeler" applied to the London constabulary. (source: Sir Robert "Bobby" Peel (1788-1850) at Historic UK site.)
Here is a note from the MySongBook site Suzanne's Folksong--Notizen English Notes: "Learned from Tim Lyons of Clare. I mistook the locale for years and didn't realise that there was another Bantry, in North Co. Wexford, where this love song from the Peninsular War comes from. (Jimmy Crowley, notes 'Uncorked!')" Jimmy Crowley is the source for the site's text. The Peninsular War, 1808-1814, is against Napoleon's brother Joseph, installed as king of Spain. The Peninsular War reference fails my peelers reference suggestion.
This seems not to refer to Irish participation on the Cristino [supporting Queen Christina] side in the First Carlist War (1835-1837), which has the right date but wrong facts. - BS
The other possibility, I suppose, would be the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714); the British troops fought almost entirely in the Low Countries, but they were fighting against France, which was supporting the Spanish monarchy. This again fails the "Peeler" test, though.
Even more improbable are the various suggestions (repeated also in the Digital Tradition, e.g.) that this dates from the Peninsular Wars against Napoleon. The Peninsular War is not only is too early for the Peelers, but it also has its kings backwards: The British in the Peninsula were fighting against Napoleon, who had pushed aside the Spanish king (replacing him with Napoleon's brother Joseph, but no one except Napoleon would have called Joseph the King of Spain). - RBW
File: OLoc077

Banua Jail

DESCRIPTION: "Banua, Banua, banua, oh! Banua, Banua, baby, I don't know.Won't you come to me, baby? Won't you bring me my bail? For a drink and a fight on a Saturday night, they put down in the Banua jail." Brighton insulted his girl, so the singer fought
AUTHOR: Dave Guard (source: mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: Bonyuwa? / Bunua? / Banua (Dave Guard)")
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (source: mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: Bonyuwa? / Bunua? / Banua (Dave Guard)")
KEYWORDS: prison fight campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 233, "Bannua Jail" (notes only)
NOTES [33 words]: Just another standard-plot jail song. The fact that it made its way into camps probably says more about the influence of the Kingston Trio than any inherent superiority over older prison songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF233B

Baptist Game, The

See Wild Oats (Turn, Young Man; Joggle Along) (File: Br3065)

Baptist, Baptist Is My Name

See Gabriel's Trumpet (Baptist Numbered in God) (File: MWhee071)

Baptists, The

DESCRIPTION: "There came to us a patron saint, His name was Mr. Gordon.... He saw that we were all astray, And he came here to guide us... To be dipped! To be dipped! In Ebenezer's mill pond." Their fathers may take the girls to his church, but they prefer young men
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Ives-LarryGorman)
KEYWORDS: clergy rejection humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 38-39, 190, "The Baptists" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25118
File: LaGoBapt

Baptizing Hymn

See Follow Me Down, to the Waters I'm Bound (Baptizing Hymn) (File: PoEll018)

Bar Harbor By the Sea

DESCRIPTION: "The day was drawing to its close, The sea was calm.... The pleasure yachts they sought repose." "Bar Harbor, how I love thy hills." The poet describes the sea, the mountains above the town, and many people of the town
AUTHOR: Words: John J. Friend
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad moniker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 182-185, "Bar Harbor By the Sea" (1 text)
NOTES [353 words]: The subhead of this is "Where You'll Meet Tourists of Every Land." The poem itself can't seem to decide whether it is an appeal for visitors to bring in their money, or an ode to the locals -- possibly the first three verses were advertising copy, and the next nine were designed to sell copies to the local residents.
The author lists about fifteen individuals or families from Bar Harbor. Some of these are named too briefly to recognize ("Harrisons," "Livingstons"). The rest I checked in the CDAB (1964 edition, because it was the oldest I had to hand) and the available volumes of DAB. None of them were worthy of mention, presumably showing how obscure all these people were. (Based on the song, it sounds as if many were locals involved in supporting charitable causes relating to the First World War.)
There was one partial exception. The song mentions "Mrs. Morris K. Jessup" (note the double s in the surname, which is incorrect).
Morris K. Jesup (1830-1908) was, according to DAB (Volume V, pp. 61-62), a "capitalist [and] philanthropist" who made his money in banking, then retired in 1884 to spend the money. He helped found the American Museum of Natural History, supported several colleges, helped the Audubon Society -- and funded Robert Peary's quest for the North Pole.
According to Bryce, p. 135, Jesup was "a millionaire philanthropist.... A member of the New York City Mission and Travel Society and vice president of the American Sunday School Union, he had helped found the New York YMCA and was interested in Anthony Comstock's crusades to suppress vice and obscene literature." And Bryce also mentions his support of the Museum of Natural History, and his heavy support for Robert Peary. (For more on Peary, see "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay").
Cape Morris Jesup, at the northern tip of Greenland, was named for him by Peary; it is thought to be the northernmost point of land on earth, and seems to have been Jesup's biggest surviving claim to fame.
Jesup was dead by the time Gray published his book -- and, I suspect, by the time this ode was written. Hence the praise to (I assume) his widow. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.6
File: Gray182

Bar the Door O

See Get Up and Bar the Door [Child 275] (File: C275)

Barb'ry Allan

See Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)

Barb'ry Allen

See Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)

Barbara Allan

See Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)

Barbara Allen

See Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)

Barbara Alling

See Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)

Barbara Buck

See The Southern Soldier Boy (Barbro Buck) (File: R238)

Barbara Helen

See Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)

Barber Song, The

DESCRIPTION: A young barber is admired in general and in particular by a maid named Matilda. A butcher is jealous and goes to the barber shop where they fight and the butcher is killed. Matilda commits suicide; the barber goes crazy and eventually poisons himself.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips)
KEYWORDS: jealousy humorous homicide suicide poison love
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 196-197, "The Barber Song" (1 text)
Roud #9158
NOTES [24 words]: Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips gives the source of this as the Vineyard Gazette (first published in 1846), but gives no date or issue. - SL
File: Harl196

Barber, Barber, Shave a Pig

DESCRIPTION: "Barber, barber, shave a pig, How many hairs to make a wif? Four and twenty, that's enough, Give the barber a pinch of snuff."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: animal hair | barber pig
FOUND IN: Irela
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 31, "Barber, Barber, Shave a Pig" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #324, p. 177, "(Barber, barber, shave a pig)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 97, "Barber, Barber, Shave a Pig" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 23, "Barber, barber, shave a pig!" (1 text)
Roud #20568
File: OO2031

Barber's Cry

DESCRIPTION: "Lather and shave (x3), Shampoo and shear."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians)
KEYWORDS: nonballad commerce hair
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 200, "Barber's Cry" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3665
File: ShAp200

Barbery Allen

See Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)

Barbra Allan

See Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)

Barbrey Allen

See Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)

Barbro Allen

See Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)

Barbro Buck

See The Southern Soldier Boy (Barbro Buck) (File: R238)

Barbry Ella

See Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)

Barbry Ellen

See Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)

Barbue Ellen

See Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)

Bard of Armagh, The

DESCRIPTION: "O, list to the tale of a poor Irish harper... Remember those fingers could once move much sharper To waken the echoes of his dear native land." The bard recalls the days of his youth and vigor, then makes requests for his death and burial
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (The National Songster; a Collection of Scotch, English, and Irish Standard and Popular Songs)
KEYWORDS: harp music age death burial
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MA)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 320, "The Bard of Armagh" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 50, "The Bard of Armagh" (1 text)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 65-66, "The Bard of Armagh" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 163, "(The Bard of Armagh)" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania,pp. 243-244, "The Bard of Armagh" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 97, The Bard of Armagh" (1 text)
DT, BARDARMA*
ADDITIONAL: Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), p. 10, "The Bard of Armagh" (text and music)
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 248, "Bold Phelim Brady, the Bard of Armagh" (1 text)
Roud #2654
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "The Bard of Armagh" (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Bard of Armagh" (on IRClancyMakem02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(11), "The Bard of Armagh", P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also Harding B 26(35), "The Bard of Armagh"
LOCSheet, sm1873 14657, "The Bard of Armagh", E. H. Harding (New York), 1873 (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Unfortunate Rake" (tune, subject) and references there
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] (tune, subject) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Brady's Lament
NOTES [54 words]: Thanks to Jim Dixon for informing me of the Nation Songster text.
Although generally considered Irish, this was well enough known in late nineteenth century America that Ned Harrigan quoted it in his Irish-American works. See Edward Harrigan, The Mulligans, G. W. Dillingham, 1901, p. 385, which quotes the first verse. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FSWB320B

Bard of Culnady, The/Charles O'Neill

DESCRIPTION: Listeners are asked to weep for the "Sweet Bard of Culnady," Charles O'Neill. We are told that although he received little support or patronage, O'Neill was a much better musician than those in high favor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: music death
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H50, p. 139, "The Bard of Culnady/Charles O'Neill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9449
File: HHH050

Bardy Train, The

See The Duke of Buckingham's Hounds (File: Br3218)

Barefoot Boy with Boots On, The

DESCRIPTION: Tales of the odd life of the barefoot boy with boots on. Most of the song's lyrics are either paradoxical ("The night was dark and stormy and the moon kept shining bright") or tautological ("his pants were full of pockets and his boots were full of feet")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: paradox nonsense humorous family
FOUND IN: US(MA,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 447, "Popular Gag Song" (2 texts, but only the "B" text goes with this song)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 154, "The Barefoot Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 37, "The Dying Fisherman's Song" (1 text)
ST FSC154 (Partial)
Roud #6675 and 9616
RECORDINGS:
Bill Cox, "Barefoot Boy With Boots On" (Conqueror 8231, 1933; Melotone M-13058/Perfect 13014/Oriole 8349, 1934)
Otto Gray & his Cowboy Band, "Barefoot Boy with Boots On" (Vocalion 5256, 1928)
Bradley Kincaid, "Ain't We Crazy" (Decca 5025, 1934)
"Radio Mac" [pseud. for Harry "Mac" McClintock], "Ain't We Crazy?" (Victor V-40101, 1929; rec. 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ain't No Bugs on Me" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I Know a Boarding-House" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [39 words]: Roud's numbering of this song frankly defeats me; for lack of anything better, I'm putting all "Barefoot boy with (shoes/boots) on" and "The organ peeled potatoes" songs here unless they are specifically "I Know a Boarding-House." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSC154

Barefoot Nellie

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Nellie had a pair of shoes, She could wear 'em if she choose. Hi, Barefoot Nellie! Ho, Barefoot Nellie!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: clothes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Joseph D. Clarke, "Burke Davis as Folklorist," Vol. XIX, No. 2 (Mar 1971), p. 63, "(Folk Song)" (5 stanzas, probably representing multiple songs, beginning "Mamma pass the corn bread," "Chicken in the bread tray," "Oh, Nellie had a pair of shoes," "Ye living men come view the ground," "Eat the meat, gnaw the bone,"; the second is from "Granny Will Your Dog Bite?"; we file the first as "Mama Pass the Corn Bread" and the third as "Barefoot Nellie"; the last two are too short to file)
NOTES [74 words]: The bluegrass-inclined duo of (Don) Reno and (Red) Smiley recorded a song called "Barefoot Nellie" which includes all of NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal text, using the Hi! Barefoot Nellie! Ho! Barefoot Nellie" lines as a chorus. It's pretty well-known in bluegrass circles -- but I suspect it is an expansion or rewrite, and so am not filing that song as the same as this fragment. The Reno/Smiley 78 was King 1490, reportedly recorded 1954. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: NCF192BN

Bargain of Judas, The

See Judas [Child 23] (File: C023)

Bargain With Me

DESCRIPTION: The worker is accosted by a widow, who asks him to "bargain with me." They agree on a wage, then negotiate where he will sleep. He turns down a place with the chap and the maid; she offers herself. Learning that her husband is dead, he agrees to marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950
KEYWORDS: worker courting marriage home bargaining
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 194, "Bargain With Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #366
RECORDINGS:
Dickie Lashbrook, "Bargain With Me" (on FSBFTX19)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tam Buie (Tam Bo, Magherafelt Hiring Fair)" (plot)
NOTES [70 words]: In plot, this is identical with "Tam Buie (Tam Bo, Magherafelt Hiring Fair)," but the form of the latter resembles nothing so much as "My Good Old Man," while "Bargain With Me" -- though it has a similar sung-and-spoken mechanism, seems to have some inspiration from "Billy Boy."
It seems to me best to keep "Tom Buie" and "Bargain With Me" separate, while noting their extreme similarity. Roud of course lumps them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: K194

Barge Song, The

See Barges (File: ACSF256B)

Bargeman's ABC, The

See The Bargeman's Alphabet (File: PaSe142)

Bargeman's Alphabet, The

DESCRIPTION: "A is for anchor we carry on the bow... So merrily, so merrily, so merrily are we, There's none so blithe as a bargeman at sea... Given an old barge a breeze and you cannot go wrong." Typical alphabet song, ending "And X Y and Z is the name on our stern"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs), but recorded no later than 1982
KEYWORDS: sailor nonballad ship wordplay | alphabet
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 142, "The Bargeman's ABC" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21100
NOTES [27 words]: Roud lumps this with "The Sailor's Alphabet," and it seems likely that the one inspired the other. But this has been rewritten just enough that I split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: PaSe142

Barges

DESCRIPTION: "Barges, I would like to go with you, I would like to sail the ocean blue. Barges, have you treasure in your hold? Do you fight with pirates brave and bold?" "Out of my window looking in the night," the singer ses the barges and dreams of travel
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Max Hunter collection, sung by Clint Piney)
KEYWORDS: travel ship campsong
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 256, 520, 542, 550, 552, "Barges" (notes only)
DT, BRGES
Roud #17912
File: ACSF256B

Bark Gay Head, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you young Americans and listen to my ditty..." The singer tells of the New Bedford whaler Gay Head, whose "rules and regulations They are most awful queer." The singer describes the builders and officers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Journal from the Stella)
KEYWORDS: whaler moniker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 34-36, "The Bark Gay Head" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BRKGAYHD*
Roud #2008
File: SWMS034

Bark Ocean Rover, The

DESCRIPTION: "Many and trim are the whalers that appear A-cruising the New Holland ground over," but none is like the Ocean Rover. She sails well and is faster than the Pamelia. They will soon be homeward bound
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Journal from the Ocean Rover)
KEYWORDS: ship whaler bragging
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 37-38, "The Bark Ocean Rover" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Pamela A. Miller, _And the Whale Is Ours: Creative Writing of American Whalemen_, David R. Godine/Kendall Whaling Museum, 1979, pp. 157-158, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #2009
File: AWIO157

Barking Barber, The

See references under Bow Wow Wow (File: ChWII183)

Barkshire Tragedy, The

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Barley Bree, The

DESCRIPTION: Old Robin goes to town to sell his wood but comes home drunk. His loving wife complains. He threatens to beat her and the children and burn the house. He falls off the chair and sleeps on the floor. Now "Robin's turned teetotaler" and she is happy.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink husband wife home commerce abuse injury
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #153, p. 1, "The Barley Bree"; #156, p. 2, "The Barley Bree" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 586, "The Barley Bree" (2 texts)
Roud #5876
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There's Nae Luck Aboot the Hoose" (tune, per Greig)
NOTES [19 words]: Greig: "Miss Robertson says that it is taken from a Temperance song-book published some 50 years ago." [1910] - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD3586

Barley Corn, The

See John Barleycorn (I) (File: ShH84)

Barley Grain for Me, The

See John Barleycorn (I) (File: ShH84)

Barley Mow, The

DESCRIPTION: Cumulative song toasting successive sizes of drinking vessels, and those who serve them: "The quart pot, pint pot, half-a-pint, gill pot, half-a-gill, quarter-gill, nipperkin, and the brown bowl/Here's good luck, good luck, good luck to the barley mow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (Ravenscroft's Deuteromelia, under the title "Give Us Once a Drinke")
KEYWORDS: ritual drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West)) Australia Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 99, "The Barley Mow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 289-290, "The Barley-Mow Song" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 389)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 70-71, "The Barley-Mow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #8, pp. 177-178, "The Mow" (1 text); Song #9, pp. 178-182,246, "The Barley-Mow Song"; p. 246, "Barley-Mow Song, (Suffolk version)" (3 texts)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 379-382, "The Barley-Mow Song" (1 text plus an excerpt)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 265, "The Barley Mow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 26, "The Barley Mow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #118, "The Barley Mow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #92, "The Barley Mow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 745, "The Barley-Mow" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BARLEYMO
Roud #944
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Peter Mushrow, "The Baltimore" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
George Spicer, "The Barley Mow" (on Voice13)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Good Luck to the Barley Mow
NOTES [273 words]: The brown bowl is to get sick into.
Sharp cites a reference noting that this was sung after a pre-Christian ritual called "crying the neck". -PJS
It was my understanding (don't know where I heard it) that the "Barley Mow" was a challenge -- if you fail to sing it through accurately and/or in one breath, you have to take another drink and, perhaps, buy a round for the house. Naturally, things tend to go downhill rapidly after the first error.
Ravenscroft's version of this is fascinating, since the final words are not "barley mow" but "balla moy," which (depending on the language) could mean something like "throw to me." Even the English version has its archaic words -- the chorus runs
The Tunne, the Butt, the Pipe, the hogshead, the barrell, the kilderkin, the verkin, the gallon pot, the pottle pot, the quart pot, the pint pot,
for and the blacke bole, sing gentle Butler balla moy,-
And, yes, a pottle is a half gallon. But I know that only because of an Isaac Asimov science essay which sneered at it.
Roud/Bishop in their notes link this to a sixteenth century piece, "How, Butler, How" or "Fill the Bowl, Butler." I'm not sure I accept this, but it may have suggested a few words, including the "Barley Mow" refrain. For this piece, see R. T. Davies, editor, Medieval English Lyrics: A Critical Anthology, 1963, #167, p. 276, "Fill the Bowl, Butler"; Richard Greene, editor, A Selection of English Carols, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #87, pp. 153-154, "(How, butler, how! Bevis a towt)" (1 text) - RBW
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 389 omits the "peck" verse between verses 8 and 9. - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ShH99

Barley Raking (Barley Rigs A-Raking)

DESCRIPTION: The singer spies a couple "have a jovial treat" at hay-making time. After 20 weeks, "this fair maid fell a-sighing"; after 40 weeks, she is crying. She writes to her love. He rejects her, saying, "I dearly like my freedom."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.18(297))
KEYWORDS: courting sex pregnancy rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1154, "Barley Rigs A-Rakin'" (8 texts, 8 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 218-219, "Barley Rigs A-Raking" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 6, "The Barley Rakings" (2 texts)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #71, "The Barley Rakings" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #85, "The Barley Raking" (1 text, 1 tune, omitting the hints of the pregnancy)
Roud #1024
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.18(297), "Barley Raking" ("It was in the merry month of May when hay it wanted making")," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Harding B 11(1985), Firth c.18(296), Harding B 11(129), "Barley Raking"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, No, Not I" (plot) and references there
cf. "Corn Rigs (Rigs o' Barley)" (theme)
NOTES [27 words]: Roud lumps this with Burns's "Corn Rigs" ("It was upon a Lammas night"). A source it may be, but Burns has done enough rewriting that I think they must be split. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Ord218

Barley Straw (I), The

See Davy Faa (Remember the Barley Straw) (File: K188)

Barley Straw (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "As Jan was hurrying down the lane, He met his sweetheart Kit." He is going to the barn, and asks her to help him thresh. He then asks her to marry. They have many children, who also work at the threshing
AUTHOR: H. Fleetwood Sheppard
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: love farming marriage children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #98, "The Barley Straw" (1 text, 1 tune, the text not being traditional)
NOTES [51 words]: This is another case of Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd inflicting a "decorous" modern text on a traditional tune. I would guess that the original text was "Davy Faa (Remember the Barley Straw)," but we can't be sure. I think we CAN be sure that the original was better than the bowdlerization. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGSW098

Barnacle Bill the Sailor

See Bollochy Bill the Sailor (File: EM081)

Barney

DESCRIPTION: "I took my girl for a ramble, a ramble, Adown a shady lane, She caught her foot in a bramble, And arse over ballocks she came. Oh Barney, oh, Barney, oh, bring back my Barney to me (x2)... Oh, Sergeant, O bring back my (rations/stirrups) to me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier courting injury
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 39, "Barney" (1 text)
Roud #10524
NOTES [36 words]: Clearly to be sung to the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean," but it's not clear whether it was taken directly from that or from "Bring Back My Johnny to Me," sometimes known as "Bring Back My Barney to Me." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: BrPa039B

Barney and Katie [Laws O21]

DESCRIPTION: Barney comes to his love Katie's door on a bitter winter night. Katie says that she is alone at home, and if she let him in she would tarnish her virtue. Despite the cold, he goes home proud of her pure name
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Dime-Song-Book #11)
KEYWORDS: courting virtue nightvisit
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,Ro) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws O21, "Barney and Katie"
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 143, "Barney and Katie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 222-223, "Barney and Katie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #52, "Barney Mavourneen" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 26, "Barney Flew Over the Hills to his Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 77, "When Barney Flew Over the Hills" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 97-98, "Katty Avourneen" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 31, "Katty, Avourneen" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #11, p. 33, "Katy Avourneen" (1 text)
DT 480, BARNKATE
Roud #992
RECORDINGS:
Pat Sullivan, "Barney" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(303), "Katty Avourneen"/"Barney Avourneen," unknown (Belfast), 1846-1852
File: LO21

Barney Blake

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Barney Blake, I'm a tearing Irish rake." He considers himself as good as anyone. He is courting Biddy Donahue. He met her at Pat O'Hare's wedding. Hearers are warned not to fool with Barney Blake the sailor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 36, "Barney Blake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3828
File: AbFo036

Barney Bodkin Broke His Nose

See A Bundle ot Truths (File: OO2034)

Barney Brallaghan

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on a frosty night at two o'clock in the morning." Barney Brallaghan courts sleeping Judy Callaghan from under her window. He recounts her charms and his possessions. He leaves when the rain starts but promises to return until she marries him.
AUTHOR: unknown (see notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Hodgson's Royal Song Book, p. 19); before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(124))
KEYWORDS: courting humorous storm
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 45, "Barney Brallaghan" (1 text); pp. 80-81, "Charming Judy Callaghan" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p 100, "Barney Bralligan" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 133, "Barney Brallaghan" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1166, p. 80, "Judy Callaghan's Answer to Barney Bralligan" (1 reference)
Roud #9592
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(124), "Barney Brallaghan", T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Firth b.25(69), "Barney Bralaghan's Courtship"; Harding B 17(17b), Johnson Ballads 2333, "Barney Brallaghan"; Firth b.26(451), 2806 c.15(273), Harding B 11(168), Harding B 11(2267), Harding B 11(167), Harding B 11(3020), "Barney Brallaghan's Courtship"; 2806 c.17(20), "Judy Callagan"; Harding B 15(41a), "Charming Judy Callaghan"
LOCSinging, sb10019b, "Barney Brallaghan", H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860; also as112630, "Barney Brallaghan"
NOTES [274 words]: O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland has almost identical texts as "Barney Brallaghan" and "Charming Judy Callaghan." He shows Samuel Lover as author of the second and has no attribution for the first. At South Riding Folk Network site The South Riding Tune Book Volume 1, "Notes on Judy Callaghan" says that "Barney Brallaghan and Judy Callaghan were the subjects of a whole series of 'Stage Irish' comic songs." The site then quotes the text printed in O'Conor and makes the author Thomas Hudson [(1791-1844)], about 1825-1830, to a tune by Jonathan Blewitt, written between 1811-1814. None of the broadsides show an attribution.
How reliable are O'Conor attributions? See also "The Angel's Whisper."
Broadside LOCSinging sb10019b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Dean-FlyingCloud's text isn't much like O'Conor's, but I'm assuming they're the same based on the unlikelihood of two songs with such a title. There is also a fairly well-known fiddle tune (a slip jig) with this title, though it's hard to prove that it's the same since our texts don't have tunes.
In regard to the authorship question, Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 275, says the Peter K. Moran, an Irish immigrant to America, arranged "Barney Bralligan" in 1830; Finson seems to think Moran supplied at least the melody, and he gives us another date peg. Perhaps Moran picked up the text from the Birt broadside and supplied a tune? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon045

Barney Bralligan

See Barney Brallaghan (File: OCon045)

Barney Buntline

See Sailor's Consolation (File: Hugi460A)

Barney Flew Over the Hills to his Darling

See Barney and Katie (File: LO21)

Barney Mavourneen

See Barney and Katie (File: LO21)

Barney McCabe

DESCRIPTION: Young Mary and Jack go on a journey; Jack takes four grains of corn. They stop at a witch's house; she prepares to kill them. Jack throws out his grains of corn, one at a time; each turns into something which helps the children return home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight)
KEYWORDS: recitation magic escape children
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, pp. 103-105, "Gullah Folk Tale: Barney McCabe" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 35, #4 (1991), pp, 12-14, "Barney McCabe" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Janie Hunter, "Barney McCabe" (on USSeaIsland01)
NOTES [132 words]: This is a mix of spoken narrative with musical interludes. The source was Janie Hunter of Johns Island.
The tale is somewhat peculiar because nothing is ever explained. Why did the two young children go on their journey without their parents? Where were they going? Why did Jack take the corn? What made it magical? If he can himself make magic, why does he not use it more directly?
I rather suspect that the confusion arises because the tale is composite. The lost-children-and-witch motif of course comes from sources like "Hansel and Gretl." The magic talisman is common in stories such as "The Goose Girl." I suppose, when you mix them all up, you get this. - RBW
USSeaIsland01 liner notes have no performer credits. Janie Hunter tells the story in Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: SOBarMcc

Barney McCoy

DESCRIPTION: "I am going far away, Nora darling... It will break my heart in two Which I fondly give to you, And no other is so loving, kind, and true." He is going away on a ship to seek his fortune; she stays to care for her mother. They do not expect to meet again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Journal from the A Hicks)
KEYWORDS: love separation emigration family parting
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So) Australia Ireland
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Randolph 776, "Barney McCoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 113, "Barney McCoy" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 113, "Barney McCoy" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 157-159, "Nora Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 89, "Norah Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 48-49, "Barney McCoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 103-105, "Barney McCoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 302-303, "Norah Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 134, "Barney McCoy" (1 text)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 75-76=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 145-146, "Nora Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 41, "Barney McCoy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 210, "Barney McCoy" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 477, "Barney McCoi" (source notes only)
ST R776 (Full)
Roud #2094
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "Barney McCoy" (Champion 15897 [may also have been issued as by West Virginia Rail Splitter]/Supertone 9569, 1929)
Uncle Eck Dunford [w. Ernest Stoneman], "Barney McCoy" (Victor 20938, 1927)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Barney McCoy" (Challenge 152/Challenge 309/Gennett 3381/Herwin 75528, 1926-1927; rec. 1926)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1881 15663, "Barney McCoy", T. Harms & Co. (New York), sm1881 15663; also sm1882 14475, sm1882 12650, "Barney McCoy" or "I'm Going Far Away Norah Darling" (tune)
NOTES [151 words]: Everything about this song says Ireland -- except the references; I have been unable to locate a single guaranteed-traditional Irish text. There is a copyright claim from 1881, but the song is evidently older. - RBW
Might it have been "stage-Irish," American-composed? - PJS
Possible, though it's an above-average job in that case. And note the lack of a happy ending. - RBW
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland not only provides an Irish claim but an indeterminate and possibly happy ending
"I am going far away, Norah, darling, And the ship is now anchored at the bay, And before to-morrow you will hear the signal gun, So be ready--it will carry us away." - BS
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, in addition to having "Barney McCoy" on p. 210, has on pp. 89-90 another "Norah Darling" song, which looks like it might be a riff on this but never mentions Barney. Similarly Dime-Song-Book #32, p. 37. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R776

Barney McShane

DESCRIPTION: As Barney McShane is passing the widow's door it begins to pour down rain. She tells him to come in; she'll fix him some tea and they can cuddle. The song praises her beauty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Warde Ford)
KEYWORDS: beauty courting storm
FOUND IN: US(MW,SW) Canada(Newf)
Roud #15469
RECORDINGS:
Bogue Ford, "Barney McShane" (AFS 4209 B2, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Warde Ford, "Barney McShane" (AFS 4204 A3, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Hector MacIsaac and Jerome Downey, "Barney McShane" (on NFHMacIsaac01)
Hector MacIsaac and Emma MacIsaac, "Barney McShane" (on NFHMacIsaac02)
NOTES [54 words]: This has a powerful flavor of the music hall about it, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn of a Harry Lauder recording. But in his introduction, Warde Ford reports learning it from a Nevada man, and his brother Bogue from someone from Los Angeles.So it's in the oral tradition, and it's narrative, so in it goes. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: RcBaMcS

Barney O'Hea

DESCRIPTION: "Now let me alone" says the singer to Barney O'Hea. He had "better look out for the stout Corney Creagh" and don't be impudent. Don't follow me to Brandon Fair where I'll be alone. They meet at the fair. She promises to marry "impudent Barney O'Hea"
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868) (Source: Hoagland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Oliver Ditson & Co, The New Comic Songster)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous rejection
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 105, "Impudent Barney, none of your blarney" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 65-66, "Barney O'Hea" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, pp. 52-53, "Barney O'Hea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 136, "Barney O'Hea" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #13, pp. 50-51, "Barney O'Hea" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 413-414, "Barney O'Hea" (1 text)
Roud #37291
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(18b), "Barney O'Hea", W.S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; also Harding B 11(2155), Firth c.26(126), Firth c.19(205), "Barney O'Hea"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Common Bill" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Impudent Barney O'Hea
File: OCon065

Barney O'Lean

DESCRIPTION: The singer was to meet Barney at the gate by eight o'clock. She expects him to come to propose. But he has not appeared. She hopes he is not with another girl
AUTHOR: Words: Arthur W. French / Music: George A. Persley
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (sheet music, LOCSheet, sm1874 05564)
KEYWORDS: courting loneliness
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 152, "Barney O'Lean" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST E152 (Full)
Roud #5347
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1874 05564, "Barney A'Leen," J. L. Peters (New York), 1874; also sm1885 23890, "Barney A'Leen," Oliver Ditson (Boston), 1885 (tune)
File: E152

Barns o' Beneuchies, The

DESCRIPTION: "My freens, ane an' a', I'll sing ye a sang... It's about a mannie Kempie... For he rages like the deevil in the mornin'." The crew that works the barns complains about Kempie and rejoices to leave; he too will be out of work soon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming hardtimes food boss
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #142, p. 2, "The Barns o' Beneuches" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 360, "The Barns o' Beneuches" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 231-232, "The Barns o' Beneuchies" (1 text)
DT, BENEUCHS*
Roud #2176
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnnie Cope" (tune)
NOTES [58 words]: Greig: "Although we have no record of the tune we may safely take it that it is an adaptation of 'Johnnie Cope.'"
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Barnyards of Badenyouchers (360) is at coordinate (h6,v5-6) on that map [roughly 43 miles NW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ord231

Barnyard Serenade

See Hen Cackle (File: RcOHCRGC)

Barnyard Song, The

See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

Barnyard Tumble

DESCRIPTION: Singer recounts his troubles in trying to take care of his animals. His dog is missing, his bull is 'doing the barnyard tumble' with the cows, his hens and roosters have gone on strike, his horse is in the neighbor's barn and his milk cow kicks him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recording, Bill Carlisle)
KEYWORDS: farming humorous animal chickens dog horse
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #17678
RECORDINGS:
Bill Carlisle, "Barnyard Tumble" (Vocalion 02529, 1933; on CrowTold01)
NOTES [4 words]: Just barely a ballad. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcBarTum

Barnyard, The

See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

Barnyards o' Delgaty, The

DESCRIPTION: The young man comes to Turra Market to seek work. A wealthy farmer promises him good conditions at Delgaty. The promises prove false; the horses are poor and lazy, and the working conditions bad. The man boasts of his abilities and cheerfully departs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes abuse farming
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #4, p. 1, "The Barnyards o' Delgaty"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 70-71, "The Barnyards o' Delgaty" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan3 347, "The Barnyards o' Delgaty" (13 texts, 14 tunes)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 242, "The Barnyards o' Delgaty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 65, "The Barnyards o Delgaty" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 214-215, "The Barnyards o' Delgaty" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 33, "The Barnyards o' Delgaty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 199, "Barnyards of Delgaty" (1 text)
DT, BARNDELG
Roud #2136
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Barnyards of Delgaty" (on IRClancyMakem02)
Jimmy McBeath, "The Barnyards O' Delgaty" (on Voice05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Parting Glass" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II)" [Laws H1] (theme)
cf. "The Feeing Time (II)" (theme)
cf. "Linton Lowrie" (tune)
cf. "Darahill" (tune)
cf. "Rhynie" (tune, chorus, theme)
SAME TUNE:
Darahill (File: Ord276)
Linton Lowrie (File: HHH640)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jock o' Rhynie
The Barnyards
Liltin Addie
Buchan Prodigal
NOTES [54 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Barnyards of Delgaty (347) is at coordinate (h5,v7-8) on that map [roughly 32 miles NNW of Aberdeen]; Turriff (347,386,682) is at coordinate (h5,v7) on that map [roughly 31 miles NNW of Aberdeen] - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: K242

Baron o Leys, The [Child 241]

DESCRIPTION: The Baron of Leys leaves his home for another country, where he gets a girl pregnant. She confronts him, demanding that he marry her, pay her a fee, or lose his head. Since he is married, he perforce pays her what she asks (ten thousand pounds?)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Skene ms.)
KEYWORDS: sex pregnancy punishment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 241, "The Baron o Leys" (3 texts)
Bronson 241, "The Baron o Leys" (2 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 241, "The Baron o Leys" (1version: #1)
Greig/Duncan7 1491, "The Baron o' Leys" (6 texts including three verses for one version and one verse for another on p. 537, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Kinloch-TheBalladBook XXIII, pp. 74-76, "Laird o' Leys" (1 text)
Roud #343
NOTES [74 words]: Versions of this may begin with lines such as "The Baron o Leys to France has gane, The fashion and the tongue to learn." This was not rare for successful Scots; for instance, according to J. L. Laynesmith, The Last Medieval Queens: English Queenship 1445-1503, Oxford, 2004 (I use the 2005 paperback edition), p. 41 n. 67, "James I of Scotland's daughter Margaret was sent to France... in order to learn 'les estaz et manieres de france.'" - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: C241

Baron of Brackley, The [Child 203]

DESCRIPTION: Inverey comes to Brackley's gate, calling for Brackley to come forth. The baron, with few men on hand, would stay within, but his wife shames him into going out (with 4 men against 400). Brackley is killed; Lady Brackley rejoices. (His son vows revenge)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1806 (Jamieson)
KEYWORDS: revenge death feud betrayal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1666 - Reported date of the fatal feud between Brackley and Inverey.
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Child 203, "The Baron of Brackley" (4 texts)
Bronson 203, "The Baron of Brackley" (3 versions+6 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 203, "The Baron of Brackley" (4 versions: #1, #2.3, #3, #3.1)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 130-132, "The Baron of Brackley" (1 text)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 249-250, "The Baron of Braikly" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 4-6, "The Baron of Brackly, Old Ballad" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 234, "The Baron o' Braikley" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 544-546, "The Baron of Brackley" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 149, "The Baron of Brackley" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 151-154+333, "The Baron of Brackley" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 23, "The Baron of Brackley" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 45-47, "The Baron of Brackley (Inverey)" (1 text, 1 tune)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 119-121, "The Baron of Brackley" (1 text)
DT 203, BRNBRKLY* BRNBRKL2
Roud #4017
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl, "The Baron of Brackley" (ESFB1, ESFB2)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Baron o' Braichley
NOTES [84 words]: The feud between Brackley and Inverey seems to have arisen when the former raided Inverey's cattle and refused to give compensation. Inverey rode to Brackley's, and recovered both his own cattle and Brackley's own. Brackley, his brother, and two or three others rode forth and were killed.
It is worth noting that Margaret Burnet, Lady Brackley, married Brackley without her family's consent, implying that it was a love match. The rumour that she was untrue may have arisen because she later remarried. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C203

Baron of Brackly, The

See The Baron of Brackley [Child 203] (File: C203)

Baron of Braikly, The

See The Baron of Brackley [Child 203] (File: C203)

Baron of Gartley, The

DESCRIPTION: Gartley returns from war. At his gate he is told that he has died on the battlefield and that his wife has a new husband. The Baron asks "the weird sisters" to curse his lady and her leman. At morning the castle seems burnt and none in it are alive.
AUTHOR: Reverend William Robertson (1785-1836) (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (Laing, _Thistle of Scotland_, according to Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: infidelity curse return death magic storm witch
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #69, pp. 1-2, "The Baron of Gartley" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 344, "The Baron of Gartley" (2 texts)
Roud #5873
NOTES [215 words]: This is a long ballad with lots of supernatural elements:
The Baron's armour "we' witchin spell was bound" so that he could not be wounded in battle. The Baron is challenged on the way by a Kelpie [water spirit] who lets him pass because the youngest of his "weird sisters" loves the Baron. His trip after that is marked by "unholy sangs." When he arrives at the gate he is told by "Billy, born blind" [cf., "Billie Blin, a serviceable house-hold demon" in Child's glossary] the story of his death. When he goes to the weird sisters' home he is greeted by the porter, a goblin, who tells him the sisters are busy digging up the new laid dead in "the rotten kirkyard." When he calls on the "gaunt and grim sisters" he says "Ye promised to help a bauld Baronne, Now make your promise good. Now do to me, ye weird sisters, That deed without a name; My fause lady and her leman Hae brought my house to shame." Finally, after the curse, "lang has the castle bleached in the wing Yet whiter it cannot be."
Greig: "The development of literary consciousness has told with fatal effect on the art of ballad-writing, till a ballad in the true traditional style has become an impossible acheivement. Among imitations, however, as all modern efforts are, 'The Baron of Gartley' holds a high place." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2344

Barque Ohio Outward Bound 1850

DESCRIPTION: "Brightly the morning sun lit the horizon o'er When the bark (Ohio/Roscius) sailed from the shore... Ohio, Ohio, success to thee." She is one of six whalers to set out that day; it will be three years before she is home. "Ohio, Ohio, welcome home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Journal of the Lydia)
KEYWORDS: whaler travel return
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 64-65, "Barque Ohio Outward Bound 1850"; pp. 65-66, "Barque Roscius Outward Bound" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #25997
File: HGam064

Barr of the Western Chain

DESCRIPTION: "Over the northern pass he rode, Barr of the Western Chain"; he makes a long and difficult trip on horseback, "to bring her, his peerless bride, A bride for the Western Chain." But he drowns in a raging river before he reaches her home. She mourns
AUTHOR: Arthur Desmond
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Christchurch Weekly Press, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: travel horse New Zealand river death marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 90-91, "Barr of the Western Chain" (1 text)
File: BaRo090

Barrack Hill Cavan, The

DESCRIPTION: "You young men all attention pay and fair maids lend an ear"; the singer has been taken in "Cupid's trap" by a girl who lives on Barrack Hill. She prefers another. He is weak and devastated. The singer gives a riddle for her name
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania); c. 1867 (various Bodleian broadsides)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection riddle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 270-271, "The Maid of Barrack Hill" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.7(8), Harding B 26(39), Johnson Ballads 3089, Johnson Ballads 3271, and Johnson Ballads 2111c, "The Barrack Hill Cavan," P. Brereton (Dublin), c. 1867 (most of these appear to be the same typesetting but with different second songs)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drihaureen O Mo Chree (Little Brother of My Heart)" (song with a name riddle)
cf. "The Belfast Beauty" (song with a name riddle)
NOTES [86 words]: For "name riddles" see the cross-references. This one is unusually difficult:
Now if you wish to know her name a vowel yon must chase
Three letters from a fi h?n it you most peruse,
Three letters from a cet in book their proper placesfill,
It will tell tee name of this fair maid the pride of barrack hill.
Note the ? in the second line. All the Brereton broadsides seem to have a bit of broken type there, so we are missing a letter. And it's a lousy piece of typesetting anyway, so there may be other errors. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe279

Barrack Street

See The Shirt and the Apron [Laws K42] (File: LK42)

Barrack's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "On Wednesday morning, May the third, nineteen and forty-four, We left our homes seal hunting went." Their ship is jammed in the ice. The sealers try to set out for the barracks. The T-14 finds them the next day and takes them home
AUTHOR: Nicolas Lane
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (collected from Nicolas Lane)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck rescue hunting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 132, "The Barrack's Song" (1 text)
NOTES [104 words]: No tune is listed, but this appears to be based on "The Greenland Whale Fishery" [Laws K21].
Lane's song does not specify what sort of ship the T-14 is, but I believe it was a submarine. The British developed and built their "T" class boats in 1939-1941 (see Richard Worth, Fleets of World War II, Da Capo, 2001, p. 117), and although all of them were given names ("Triton," "Trident," etc.), they would also have numbers.
The "motors" of the third verse would be motor boats (by contrast to the rowboat of this song). Perhaps the "barracks" was one of the many military bases that dotted Newfoundland during the war? - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: RySm132

Barrel of Pork

See The Pickled Jew (File: Pet290)

Barren Town

See Byrontown (File: Doe261)

Barrin' o' the Door, The

See Get Up and Bar the Door [Child 275] (File: C275)

Barrosa

See Barrosa Plains (File: Moyl177)

Barrosa Plains

DESCRIPTION: The Prince's Own sail from Cadiz to Gibraltar Bay and land at Algesir. Their Spanish allies at Tarifa Bay refuse to fight. General Graham leads the Britons and Irish to escape an ambush, defeat the French and capture an eagle standard.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats)
KEYWORDS: army battle Spain patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March [5], 1811 - "The battle of Barrosa took place in relief of Cadiz ... when General Sir Thomas Graham defeated a French force under Marshall Victor." (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 126-128, "Barrosa" (1 text)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 177, "Barrosa Plains" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Moyl177 (Partial)
Roud #2182
BROADSIDES:
cf. "The Battle of Barossa" (subject)
cf. "Oliver's Advice (Barossa)" (subject)
NOTES [282 words]: The "Prince's Own" is the 87th Prince of Wales Irish Regiment of Foot which captured the first French eagle standard to be taken in battle (source: "French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars 1789-1815" in The Royal Irish Regiment at The British Army site). - BS
This regiment is now the Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria's); it has been combined with the 89th Foot. The 87th, according to the histories I've seen, was the regiment most praised for its work at Barrosa. The unit, in fact, earned *nine* battle honours for the Peninsular Campaign, and eventually adopted a tune called "Barrosa" (possibly this one, though I don't entirely trust that) as its quick march.
Lewis Winstock, The Music of the Redcoats 1642-1902, p. 125, writes, "[To] a French officer it was 'the most terrible bayonet fight I had ever seen' ... the 87th stabbing like demons and howling their war-cry -- 'Faught a ballagh,' ('clear the way') swung the balance of fortune to the British. Thomas Dibdin was one of several ballad writerswho celebrated the victory which cost the French 2,000 casualties out of a force of 7.000, but the song that has survived is the one the Irish themselves wrote. Its precise origin is unknown, but the Royal Irish Fusiliers have a set of handwritten verses which appear to date from early Victorian times."
For further background, see the notes to "The Battle of Barossa" (yes, that's the way it's spelled in that song, even though it's wrong). There are many parallels between that song and this; Roud lumps them, and I've thought about the same. But the differences are also substantial, since they involve different regiments. I very tentatively keep them separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Moyl177

Barrossa Jack

DESCRIPTION: "Barossa Jack, Barossa Jack, Get off your back, go into town, Don't let them down, Your oppos."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor derivative
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 49, "'Barossa' Jack" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Grocer Jack" (tune)
File: Tawn034

Barrs' Anthem, The

DESCRIPTION: "Sunday the seventh of November Blackrock and Saint Finbarrs did play" St Finbarr's scored first but Blackrock led at half-time. "We pulled it right out of the fire ... The famous Blackrocks were defeated ... long life to the gallant old Blues"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: pride sports
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 114-115, "The Barrs' Anthem" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [53 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "The Cork County Hurling Championship in 1926 was played between Blackrock and Saint Finbarr's. The match was generally regarded as a mere formality for Blackrock, who supplied ten players to the All-Ireland winning Cork team of the year. The result, a win for the Barrs, was a major upset." - BS
File: OCan114

Barry Grenadiers, The

DESCRIPTION: "You can tell we're bright young fellows, We're the elegants from the south, You can tell we're educated By the expressions from our mouths." The team boasts of its success in contests and with the ladies, and claim they can free Ireland
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: sports Ireland bragging
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 253-255, "The Barry Grenadiers" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bowery Grenadiers" (tune)
File: MCB253

Barry of Macroom

DESCRIPTION: After a dinner party the whisky-punch is brought out "and soon all 'neath the table lay" except Barry. He challenges all at each whisky shop with the same result. He comes sick, ignores doctor's warning to avoid drink, and lives many years.
AUTHOR: Richard Ryan (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: drink wife doctor disease
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 98-101, "Barry of Macroom" (1 text)
NOTES [117 words]: In the first verse the singer claims no one compares to "bold Barry of Macroom" when it comes to punch-drinking. The song names two presumed champions of the past: Dan MacCarty and Jem Nash. Croker cites Smith's History of Kerry where MacCarty, dead in 1751 at 112, is said to have drunk "for many of the last years of his life, great quantities ...."
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "The town of Macroom ... is about eighteen miles west of the city of Cork. Upwards of eighty years ago [before 1759], Smith, in his 'History of Cork,' observes that, 'in this town are some whisky distillers; a liquor and manufacture so pernicious to the poor, that it renders every other employment useless to them.'" - BS
File: CrPS098

Barrymore Tithe Victory, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a poor man, and he had but one cow, The Parson had seized her." depriving the family of milk. At auction, guarded by "the Watergrass Hill boys," "no human being would Drimon dare buy." The cow is returned.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1831 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: poverty farming Ireland political animal family
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 41, "The Barrymore Tithe Victory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V40152
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Carrickshock" (subject: The Tithe War) and references there
cf. "The Moneygran Pig Hunt" (theme)
NOTES [204 words]: The context is "The Tithe War": O'Connell's Catholic Association was formed in 1823 to resist the requirement that Irish Catholics pay tithes to the Anglican Church of Ireland. The "war" was passive for most of the period 1823-1836, though there were violent incidents in 1831 (source: The Irish Tithe War 1831 at the OnWar.com site)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "The crops and goods seized when people refused to pay the tithes were auctioned; large crowds would often attend the forced sale, but refused to bid, and prevented anyone from purchasing."
Watergrass Hill and the barony of Barrymore are in County Cork.
See "Drimindown" for a discussion of Drimin, refering to a cow, as a metaphor for Ireland. In this case there is a chorus in Irish Gaelic that Zimmermann translates as "Dear brown fair-backed cow, O silk of the kine, Your people did not die but will survive, Daniel (O'Connell) and his friends are strong in the fight, And they will beat every strong man in the world that opposes them." - BS
For the Tithe War, see the notes and references under "The Battle of Carrickshock." For a later instance of Irish tenants outwitting those who would confiscate their livestock, see "The Moneygran Pig Hunt." - RBW.
File: Zimm041

Barton Mummers' Song

DESCRIPTION: "Mum, Mum, Mum, Dad, Dad, Dad, If you give me a ha'penny I'll be glad. Jack, put your horse in the stable; Yes, sir, if I am able. Able or not, the work must be done, So strike up the fiddle and play the drum; Mum, Mum, Mum, Dad, Dad, Dad."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Porter)
KEYWORDS: mother father music horse money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Enid Porter, _The Folklore of East Anglia_, Batsford, 1974, p. 62, "(no title)" (1 text)
File: XBarMumS

Bas an Chroppi (The Dead Croppy)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Singer finds a dying croppy. He seems transported to his mother's home. She tells him that his father has been killed. "Shall Eire never a tear bestow On the soldier who fought her fight?"
AUTHOR: Gaelic text by An Craoibhin Aoibhinn (Douglas Hyde, 1860-1949), translated by William Rooney (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage rebellion dying Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 139, "Bas an Chroppi" (1 Gaelic text); 140, "The Dead Croppy" (1 English text)
NOTES [94 words]: The description is from the translation by William Rooney as Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 140, "The Dead Croppy." - BS
Douglas Hyde was the first president of the Gaelic League (though not its founder); he held the post from 1893 to 1915, when he resigned because he thought its political direction too dangerous. He joined the Senate of the Irish Free State in 1925, and was President of Ireland (the first to hold that post under the revised constitution) from 1938 to 1944/5.
For background on the work of Hyde, see the notes to "My Own Dark Maiden." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Moyl139

Baseball

See The Day That I Played Baseball (File: Dean057)

Bashful Courtship, The

See Aunt Sal's Song (The Man Who Didn't Know How to Court) (File: LoF101)

Baskatong, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, it was in the year eighteen hundred and one When I left my poor Kate all sad and alone" to work three months on the Baskatong. The singer praises the foreman Kennedy as fair, describes the men and the food, and prepares to write home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Fowke)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Describes life in Baskatong lumber camp. The foreman, Kennedy, is a fair man; when Kennedy's Dan is driving his old horses, the harness breaks, and Dan tells the old man to stick it in his eye. Morissette is a good loader; the herrings are over-salty, and keep the men running to the river all night. Singer writes his wife, tells her it won't be long until he's home
KEYWORDS: work separation logger lumbering curse return work food humorous moniker animal horse boss worker
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont,Que)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #16, "The Baskatong" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 62, "The Baskatong" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3681
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Basketong" (on Lumber01)
NOTES [46 words]: Like most moniker songs, this is a disjointed collection of anecdotes, but there's just enough narrative to avoid the "nonballad" keyword. Abbott confessed to having bowdlerized several lines. - PJS
Baskatong (correct spelling) is a wetland area (now a reservoir) in Quebec. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: FowL16

Basket

DESCRIPTION: "I'll follow my mother to market, To buy herself a basket, When she comes home, She'll break our bones, But follow my mother to market."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: playparty mother injury commerce
FOUND IN: Britain New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 128, "(Follow old Mummy to market)" (1 text)
Roud #20732
File: SuSm128C

Basket of Eggs, The

DESCRIPTION: Two sailors offer to carry a girl's basket. She says it contains eggs. The sailors go to an ale-house. The landlord opens the basket and finds a baby. The sailors offer to pay any woman who will take the child. The girl takes the money and the child
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(166))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Two sailors, out walking, spy a young girl and offer to carry her basket for her. She accepts, telling them it contains eggs, and asking them to leave it for her at the Half-way House. The sailors, laughing at the maid's foolishness, go to an ale-house and order up bacon to go with the eggs they have stolen. The landlord opens the basket and finds, not eggs, but a baby. Appalled, the sailors offer 50 guineas to any woman who will take the child. The girl (sitting in the corner) takes the money and the child, then informs the sailor that he is the child's father. The sailor accepts his responsibility, but angrily kicks the basket, swearing he'll never like eggs anymore.
KEYWORDS: seduction money humorous baby sailor trick landlord
FOUND IN: Britain(England (Lond,South,West),Scotland (Aber,Shetlands)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #100, pp. 2-3, "The Foundling Baby" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan2 307, "The Foundling Baby" (8 texts, 8 tunes)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 18-19, "The Basket of Eggs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 10, "The Basket of Eggs" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 35, "Eggs in Her Basket" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams #84, "The Basket of Eggs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 27-28, "Eggs In Her Basket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #4, "Bssket of Eggs" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 49, "Eggs In Her Basket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 144-145, "The Foundling Child" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 28-29, "The Basket of Eggs" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BASKETEG*
Roud #377
RECORDINGS:
Minty Smith, "The Basket of Eggs" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(166), "Basket of Eggs" ("Through Sandbach fields two sailors walking"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Quare Bungo Rye" (baby in basket motif)
cf. "The Child in the Budget" (baby in basket motif)
cf. "The Parcel from a Lady (Under Her Apron)" (plot)
cf. "I Wish My Granny Saw Ye" (plot)
cf. "The Brisk Young Butcher" (plot)
cf. "The Oyster Girl" [Laws Q13] (mysterious--read female--"box" motif)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sailor's Child
Two Sailors Walking
File: VWL018

Basket of Onions, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer engages in various activities (e.g. playing the ghost in "Hamlet"), but always thinks of the girl: "Oh, she loves another and it's no use to try, When oh, she sings out 'Sound onions, who'll buy?'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: love food
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 106-107, "The Basket of Onions" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [11 words]: Described as a music hall song, and I have no reason to doubt it. - RBW
File: MCB106

Basket of Oysters, The

See The Oyster Girl [Laws Q13] (File: LQ13)

Basket-Maker's Child, The

DESCRIPTION: "Where the green willow swayed by the brook... In a little cottage nestled in a quiet nook Dwelt the basket-maker's child." One Saturday night they told the singer that she must die. She asks to be buried by the brook, and happily goes to the Savior
AUTHOR: Henry S. Thompson (source: wikisource.org and other Internet web sites)
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (published by Russell & Pattee)
KEYWORDS: death love separation burial
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 714, "The Basket-Maker's Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 461-463, "The Basket-Maker's Child" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 714)
Dime-Song-Book #9, pp. 5-6, "The Basket-Maker's Child" (1 text)
Roud #7379
NOTES [12 words]: Is it just me, or have I heard this plot a few hundred times before? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R714

Basketong, The

See The Baskatong (File: FowL16)

Bastard King of England, The

DESCRIPTION: Philip of France is captured by a "thong on his prong"; when he is dragged to London, all the maids cheer him, for the Frenchman's pride has stretched a yard or more. The bastard king of En-ga-land is usurped.
AUTHOR: Attributed, probably falsely, to Rudyard Kipling
EARLIEST DATE: 1927
KEYWORDS: bawdy disease humorous royalty disease jealousy courting homosexuality marriage sex wedding
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 122-124, "The Bastard King of England" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 506-509, "The Bastard King of England" (2 texts, 1 tune); II, pp.655-658 (2 texts)
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 51-54, "The Bastard King of England" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 197, "The Bastard King Of England" (1 text)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 43-45, "The Minstrels Sing of a Bastard King of Many Long Years Ago" (1 text)
DT, BSTDKING BSTDKNG2
Roud #8388
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singer, "The Bastard King of England" (on Unexp1)
NOTES [870 words]: Cray-EroticMuse tells us, "As the story goes, Rudyard Kipling wrote 'The Bastard King of England' (pronounced En-ga-land') and that authorship cost him his poet laureate's knighthood. It is too bad that the attribution is apparently spurious; 'The Bastard King' would undoubtedly be Kipling's most popular work."
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, in addition to mentioning the attribution to Kipling, list Tennysom, Whitman, Dickens, and Whistler as people who have credited with the poem. The attribution to Kipling is unlikely but at least conceivable; the others I think all file under "ridiculous." But they do all point to a date in the nineteenth century.
I'm sure none of you expect a song like this to be historical, but just in case you do, I'm going to prove it wasn't.
To start with a nitpick, there were no bastard kings of England. William the Conqueror (1066-1087) was illegitimate, and was even called "William the Bastard" as Duke of Normandy, but he won the throne of England by conquest, not birth. King Henry VII Tudor (1485-1509) also had questionable blood, but he himself was legitimate; it's just that his father was probably a bastard, and his mother's grandfather (through whom he traced his claim to the throne) was also of doubtful legitimacy. But, again, it hardly matters; Henry held the throne by right of conquest. (For more on this, see "The Rose of England" [Child 166] and "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34]).
If you're looking for really *dirty* English monarchs, the obvious choice is the Hannoverians -- most especially George I (1714-1727). Not only was George incapable of presenting a pleasant appearance, he also was highly sexually active, and put away his wife (for having an affair) at a relatively young age.
Philip of France is only slightly clearer; France had six Kings Philip: Philip I (1060-1108, making him contemporary with William the Conqueror and his sons), Philip II Augustus (1180-1223, who warred with the English kings Henry II, Richard I, and John), Philip III the Bold (1270-1285), Philip IV the Fair (1285-1314, who also warred with England), Philip V (1316-1322), and Philip VI Valois (1328-1350).
This poses some problems. Several of these French kings were involved in wars with the English (notably Philip II, Philip IV, and Philip VI). And Philip IV, in particular, was regarded as the handsomest man in Europe. But it is noteworthy that the last of them died in 1350. However -- the kingdom of Spain did not even come into existence until the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in the latter half of the fifteenth century. Thus the first Queen of Spain, Isabella, did not ascend until a century after the death of the last Philip of France.
What's more, England and Spain had very few dealings. The only English queen from Spain was Catherine of Aragon (plus Mary I Tudor, who became Queen of Spain by marriage). Before the union of Spain, to be sure, Edward I had married Eleanor of Castile, but he was much too stuffy for this. Henry IV married as his second wife Joanna of Navarre, but he was rather old and weary by that time. In addition, Richard I the Lion-hearted married Berengeria of Navarre -- but there is no proof he ever slept with her! Even if the speculation that he was homosexual is wrong, they weren't together much.
So Catherine of Aragon is the chief candidate. And it is interesting to note a tale told of Henry VIII: At the time his pretty sister Mary was wed (rather against her will) to Louis XII of France, a ball was held by Henry, and he "became so animated that he thre formality to the winds by removing his gown and dancing in his doublet" (Neville Williams: Henry VIII and His Court, Macmillan, 1971, p 63). - RBW
Paul Stamler proposes to split this song in two, with the second having the following description: "The (unnamed) Bastard King of England is a man of dubious morals and hygiene. The amorous Queen of Spain cavorts with him; Philip of France tries to steal her away. The BKoE sends a duke with the clap to give it to Philip, after which the Queen of Spain dumps Philip and marries the BKoE. At the wedding all dance without their pants."
Paul's notes to this state, "Obviously this is a sibling (fraternal twin?) of 'Bastard King of England (I).' But since the plot elements of (I) don't appear in (II), and vice versa, I've split them. Besides, the other guy comes out on top, so to speak.
"Incidentally, I've assigned the keyword 'homosexuality' because Silber's version, at least, makes it sound like the 'Duke of Zippity-Zap' gives Philip the clap directly rather than through a female intermediary."
I have to think, though, that the differences between the versions are the result of two sorts of rehandling: One to make the English come out ahead of some kind of furriner or other, and the other to clean up the song. After some vacillation, and a glance at the intermediate sorts of texts, I decided to keep the two together. This is one of those songs which invites self-parodying. - RBW, PJS
The recording on "The Unexpurgated Songs of Men" is of the song I consider "Bastard King of England (II)." I suspect this is Silber's source. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.3
File: EM122

Bastard Stephen (The Maid of the Mountain Glen)

DESCRIPTION: "There was a maid of the mountain glen, Seduced herself with a fountain pen," which burst and causes her bastard baby to be blue-black. Another girl uses a beer bottle instead of a pen, and her child is nut-brown
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy colors bastard
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 92, "The Maid of the Mountain Glen" (1 text)
Roud #10145
File: RuSoBasS

Bat Shay

DESCRIPTION: "Yes, Troy City was crowded On Independence Day All listening to the verdict of Bat Shay." "Do not electrocute Bat Say, The weeping neighbors said; It would break his mother's heart And kill his poor old dad." (Shay is condemned even so.)
AUTHOR: Tom Harrington ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide political punishment execution
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 240, (no title) (1 fragment)
NOTES [37 words]: Reportedly based on an election brawl in 1894, in which Robert Ross was killed. Burt-AmericanMurderBallads reports that no one really knows who fired the fatal shot, but Bartholomew Shay was the one tried and punished. - RBW
File: Burt240

Bataille des Sept Chenes, La

See Chanson de la Grenouillere ("Song of Frog Plain," Falcon's Song) (File: FMB121)

Batchelor, The

See The Holly Twig [Laws Q6] (File: LQ06)

Batchelor's Walk

See Bachelor's Walk (File: PGa055)

Bateman's Tragedy (Young Baithman)

DESCRIPTION: A beautiful girl has many suitors but eventually settles on Baithman. But she changes her mind to marry a rich man she does not love. Baithman hangs himself. She regrets her decision. She lives until her child is born, then dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1818 (Glenbuchat Ballads)
KEYWORDS: love courting money betrayal death suicide pregnancy ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 231-235, "Bateman's Tragedy" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 55-59, "Young Baithman" (1 text)
Roud #22132
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 6(46), "Batelman's Tragedy" ("You gallant dames so finely framed"), J. Jennnings (London), 1790-1840; also Harding B 6(47)=Johnson Ballads 720, "Bateman's Tragedy," J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 6(45)=Harding B 23(23), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter)" [Child 243] (theme)
NOTES [78 words]: An extensive study of the history of this piece (which is very common in broadsides although I don't find much evidence that it went into tradition) is found in David Atkinson's essay "The Popular Ballad and the Book Trade: 'Bateman's Tragedy' versus 'The Demon Lover,'" chapter 10 of David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition, Ashgate, 2014. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: GlBa055

Bathtub Song, The

See Alice (The Bathtub Song) (File: ACSF277A)

Batltle of Corichie, The

See The Battle of Corrichie (File: Grg140a)

Batson [Laws I10]

DESCRIPTION: Batson has worked for Mr. Earle for years without being properly paid. At last he murders Earle. He is arrested and sentenced to die. Much of the ballad is devoted to details of Batson's hanging and his conversations while in prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax collection)
KEYWORDS: homicide gallows-confession execution
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Laws I10, "Batson"
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 335-341, "Batson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4178
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lamkin" [Child 93] (plot)
NOTES [252 words]: As far as I know, [Batson] has been collected, in anything resembling complete form, only once, in Lafayette, LA, in 1934, by Lomax, from "Stavin' Chain"
(Wilson Jones). Jones said it was based on a crime that happened near Lake Charles, LA, but Lomax's inquiries failed to confirm the story.
Nearly ten years earlier, Gordon had received three verses from two informants and had briefly looked into the factual history, sufficient to establish that the ballad is based on a crime committed near Lake Charles, LA, in 1902 and the subsequent conviction and execution, by hanging, of Albert "Ed" Batson, age 22, a hired hand on the farm of one of the victims, Ward Earll. Batson was from Spickard, Grundy County, MO.
A book written about the crime in 1903 argued that Batson's conviction on purely circumstantial evidence was probably wrong and that other leads should have been investigated. The book also states that there was high prejudice against Batson and that local citizens who swore that they could be fair jurors also made statements indicating that they were convinced of his guilt. A motion for a change of venue was denied in the face of substantial indications that Batson could not get a fair trial in the venue of the crime.
I have now made contact with relatives of Ed Batson. They know about his case, and they believe him to have been innocent. They tell of a statement clearing Ed, made many years after the murder and trial by a "colored man" who had been afraid to come forward at the time. - JG
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LI10

Battle at Charleston Harbor, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the seventh day of April, in 1863, The South Atlantic Squadron, with colors waving free," attacks Charleston. Admiral Dupont urges them on, and the monitors fight hard, but the defenses are stout and the Keokuk is sunk
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: battle ship navy Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 7, 1863 - Naval battle of Charleston, in which Union monitors attempt to enter the harbor. Heavy fire damages all the ironclads and force them to retreat; the Keokuk is sunk. The song probably under-reports the scale of hte Union defeat
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 299-300, "The Battle at Charleston Harbor" (1 text)
Roud #V31424
NOTES [93 words]: Charleston, where the Civil War began, had great symbolic value; the Union really wanted to get it back, and kept trying to recover it -- without much luck. This song describes the most serious naval attempt, which was a disaster. The Union ironclad fleet included the New Ironsides and a number of monitors, which didn't have the maneuverability to deal with the conditions; they were severely mauled without doing much damage to the defenses. For the story of how the Union developed these vessels, see the notes to "The Cumberland Crew" [Laws A18]. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CAFS1299

Battle Cry of Freedom, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, we'll rally 'round the flag, boys, we'll rally once again, Shouting the battle cry of freedom... The Union forever, hurrah, boys, hurrah...." Sundry boasts about the might and patriotism of the Union army marching to overcome the rebels
AUTHOR: George F. Root
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (sheet music published by Root & Cady)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar patriotic
FOUND IN: US Australia
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Root-StoryOfAMusicalLife-GeorgeFRoot, pp. 240-242, "The Battle Cry of Freedom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 34, "The Battle Cry of Freedom" (1 text, 1 tune, thoroughly mixed with "Marching Through Georgia")
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 18-21, "The Battle Cry of Freedom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, pp. 362-363, "The Battle-Cry of Freedom" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the Root & Cady sheet music)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 17-19, "The Battle Cry of Freedom (Rallying Song)"; p. 19, "The Battle Cry of Freedom, II (Battle Song)"; p. 20, "Southern 'Batty Cry of Freedom'" (3 texts, 1 tune, with the second being apparently a new set of words by author Root and the third an anonymous southern parody)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 18-19, "The Battle Cry of Freedom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #90, p. 7, "Battle Cry of Freedom, or, We'll Rally Round the Flag Boys" (21 references); cf. #1959, p. 131, "Rally Round the Flag Boys" (12 texts, none of them credited to Root; this appears to be a separate song)
Dime-Song-Book #10, p. 18, "The Battle-Cry of Freedom" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 346-347, "Battle Cry of Freedom" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 17-18, "The Battle Cry of Freedom (Rallying Song)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 205, "The Battlecry of Freedom" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 107-109, "The Battle-Cry of Freedom" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 285, "The Battle Cry Of Freedom" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 78-79, "The Battle Cry of Freedom" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 13, "The Battle-Cry of Freedom" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BATTLCRY*
ST MA034 (Full)
Roud #V20863
RECORDINGS:
[Arthur] Harlan & [Frank] Stanley, "Battle Cry of Freedom" (Victor 4099, c. 1904) (CYL: Edison 8805, 1904)
J. W. Myers, "Battle Cry of Freedom" (Victor 3387, c. 1904)
John Terrell, "Battle Cry of Freedom" (Berliner 1854, 1898)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The People's Rally Cry" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The People's Rally Cry (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 61)
The Rally Cry of Freedom ("Come true loyal hearts") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 131)
Rally Round the Cause Boys (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 131)
Hiram's Menagerie ("Hiram had a little lamb," an anti U. S. Grant campaign song, sung to this tune despite the "little lamb" line) (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 455)
Labor, Land, and Freemen ("Yes, we'll rally round the polls, boys, We'll rally once again, Fighting for labor, land and freemen") (by B. M. Lawrence) (Foner, p. 264)
Shouting the Battle-Cry of Labor ("We are marshalled for a conflict, with the enemies of toil") (by A. A. Smith) (Foner, p. 270)
Campaign Song ("The works have all shut down, boys, the wolf is at the door, So we'll vote the people's ticket now and ever") (Foner, p. 279)
Social Freedom ("We're gathered here together to agitate and work And fight for liberty and freedom") (by Arthur Cheesewright) (Foner, p. 304)
Campaign Song ("Ohio's stalwart son, General Garfield, is our choice, Garfield, the valiant, true and loyal") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 9)
Rally Round the Flag (Prohibition version) ("We're coming from the factory, the office, shop and store") (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 31)
Rally Round the Standard, Boys (by Fanny J. Crosby) (Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 146)
The Colorado Strike Song ("We will win the fight today, boys... Shouting the battle cry of union") (by Frank Hayes) (Thomas G. Andrews, _Killing for Coal: America's Deadliest Labor War_, 2008 (I use the 2010 Harvard University Press paperback), p 235) (Laughlin: Rosemary Laughlin, _The Ludlow Massacre of 1913-14_ (American Workers series), Morgan Reynolds Publishing, 2006, p. 72)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
We'll Rally Round the Flag
Rally Round the Flag
NOTES [396 words]: There were (at least) two Civil War pieces called "The Battle Cry of Freedom," this and one beginning "Hark! the loud bell now spreads the alarm (7 verses and chorus attributed to "A. Anderson, late of 82d Regt" and published in 1863). The George F. Root song is by far the more popular; the catalog in Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, pp. 7-8, lists two prints of the Anderson song and 21 of Root's. On p. 131, Wolf lists twelve more broadsides published under the title "Rally Round the Flag," although this too may be another song. Certainly another such song existed, with the first lines "Rally round the Flag Boys, Give it to the breeze, That's the banner we love...." It had words by James T. Field and music by William B. Bradbury.
That's an ironic combination, given that William B. Bradbury and George F. Root (along with Lowell Mason) had worked together to establish the New York Normal Musical Institute (see Deane L. Root, American Popular Stage Music 1860-1880, 1977 (as a Ph.D. thesis); UMI Research Press, 1981, p. 11).
Root-StoryOfAMusicalLife-GeorgeFRoot, pp. 132-133, tells this story of the origin of the song: "I heard of President Lincoln's second call for troops [either Lincoln's call on May 3, 1861 for 64,700 troops or his July 2, 1862 call for 300,000 volunteers; Mark M. Boatner III, The Civil War Dictionary, 1959 (there are many editions of this very popular work; mine is a Knopf hardcover), p. 858] while reclining on a lounge in my brother's house. Immediately a song started in my mind, words and music together:
'Yes, we'll rally round the flag, boys, we'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle-cry of freedom!'
I thought it out that afternoon, and wrote it the next morning at the store. The ink was hardly dry when the Lumbard brothers -- the great singers of the war -- came in for something to sing at a war meeting that was to be holden immediately in the court-house square just opposite. They went through the new song once, then hastened to the steps of the court-house.... From there the song went into the army, and the testimony in regard to its use in the camp and on the march, and even on the field of battle... made me thankful that if I could not shoulder a musket in defense of my country I could serve her in this way." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MA034

Battle Hymn of the Republic, The

DESCRIPTION: "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord...." A hymn of praise to a martial God, who sounds forth a trumpet "that shall never call retreat," and to Christ who "died to make men holy." The listener is reminded, "Our God is marching on."
AUTHOR: Words: Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910)
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (Fuld)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad patriotic war
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 22-24, "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, pp. 362-363, "Battle Hymn of the Republic, adapted to the favorite Melody 'Glory Hallelujah'" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the Oliver Ditson sheet music; only the first verse is shown)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 36-37, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 201-202, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 193-194, "Battle-Hymn of the Republic" (1 text)
Krythe-SamplerOfAmericanSongs 7, pp. 113-132, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #93, p. 8, "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (1 reference)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 220, "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (2 texts (the second being "John Brown's Body"), 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 286, "The Battle Hymn Of The Rebublic" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 110-112, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 312, "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #7, "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 71, "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 131-135+, "Battle Hymn of the Republic (Say, Brothers, Will You Meet Us? -- John Brown -- Glory Hallelujah -- John Brown's Baby Had a Cold upon His Chest")
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 167, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 10, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 12, "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 94, "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (1 text)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 5, "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GLORYHAL*
ADDITIONAL: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, pp. 111-112, catalogs early sheet music printings of "Glory Hallelujah" songs
Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 90-91, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #176, "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (1 text)
ST RJ19022 (Full)
Roud #42797
RECORDINGS:
100% Americans, "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (KKK 75005, c. 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES [171 words]: Yes, you read the recording listing correctly: a recording of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" issued by the Ku Klux Klan. I haven't heard the disk in question, but one would suspect it's been slightly, umm, folk-processed. - PJS
I'm not sure even that follows; there isn't much in the Hymn that is really anti-slavery, and military metaphors are common among reactionary conservatives.
The words to this piece were written by Julia Ward Howe in November 1861 (so Fuld; Johnson says December, as Howe watched a parade of Union troops). It was first published in 1862 with neither music nor the famous "Glory hallelujah" refrain. It was not until the text and music were combined (later in 1862) that the piece became a success.
At least, that's the official story. There is one claim (found in William Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal, Broadman Press, 1976, p. 140, that James Freeman Clarke and Howe passed soldiers singing "John Brown's Body," and he suggested that she write better words for the tune, and she did. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RJ19022

Battle of '82

DESCRIPTION: "It was in '82, in the early spring, The birds had barely begun to sing" when three lumberjacks from Manistee start a fight with those from Traverse. Fighting Ike and Billy Ellis were the stalwarts of the Traverse loggers; the Manistees are driven off
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: logger travel fight
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 41, "Battle of '82" (1 text)
Roud #18191
File: BeLo041

Battle of Aboukir Bay, The

See The Powder Monkey (Soon We'll Be in England Town) (File: CrNS057)

Battle of Alford, The

DESCRIPTION: Covenanters attacked Alford and were hunted "until three hundred o' our men lay gaspin in their lair." A shot in the back -- from his own men? -- killed Gordon. "Altho' he was our enemy We grieved for his wrack" Scotland had no match for him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 114, "The Battle of Alford" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), p. 148, "The Battle of Alford" (1 text)
Roud #3802
NOTES [206 words]: Greig/Duncan1: "In this Aberdeenshire battle fought on 2 July 1645, the Royalists under Montrose defeated the Covenanters, but lost one of their leaders, Lord George Gordon."
For some background on the Covenanters and Montrose see "The Bonnie House o Airlie [Child 199]," "The Battle of Philiphaugh [Child 202]." and "The Haughs o' Cromdale." - BS
1645 was "the Year of Miracles" for Montrose, in which he nearly overcame the Covenanters of Scotland. The most important battle of the campaign was probably Auldern/Auldearn (May 8/9, 1645), which may well be the subject of "The Haughs o' Cromdale." Alford was much less significant -- I had to go through four histories before I found a description in Magnus Magnusson, Scotland: The Story of a Nation, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000, p. 440: "A few weeks after [Auldearn], after further sparring, the armies clashed again, on 2 July 1646 [typo for 1645], near the village of Alford, in Aberdeenshire. For once the opposing forces were almost equal in strength -- around two thousand men on each size. Montrose was able to lure the Covenanters out of a strong defensive position by feigning retreat. Once again the Royalists won the day, but this time at heavy cost to both armies." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: GrD1114

Battle of Alma (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "A jolly young soldier a letter did write To his own dearest jewel... To tell her of the dangers... At the Battle of Alma where thousands were slain." Lord Raglan commanded; the Russians were forced to retreat. He hopes the wars will end
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs); reportedly in a 1936 Copper Family songbook
KEYWORDS: war battle love
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 14, 1854 - Anglo-French landing near the mouth of the Alma
Sept 20, 1854 - Battle of Alma. The allies win an expensive victory over the Russians
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 216-217, "The Battle of Alma" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1221
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Heights of Alma (I) [Laws J10]" (subject) and references there
NOTES [14 words]: For background on the Battle of Alma, see "The Heights of Alma (I)" [Laws J10]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DalC216

Battle of Alma (II), The

See The Heights of Alma (I) [Laws J10] (File: LJ10)

Battle of Antietam Creek, The

DESCRIPTION: At Antietam, singer hears a wounded comrade tell of leaving his home, disliking his master, and running off to New Orleans, where he is conscripted. After ten battles, he has been wounded. The singer realizes that the man is his own brother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Warde Ford)
LONG DESCRIPTION: At the battle of Antietam Creek, singer hears a wounded comrade tell of leaving his home and family for Ohio. The man tells of being an apprentice, disliking his master, then running off to New Orleans, where he is conscripted into the army. He has been in ten battles, but has finally been wounded -- by his brother, he thinks. The singer realizes that the man is his own brother, and rushes to him as he dies. The singer buries him
KEYWORDS: army battle Civilwar war parting travel death dying burial work injury brother apprentice
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 17, 1862 - Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg). Robert E. Lee's invasion of Maryland meets a bloody check at the hands of George McClellan -- and vice versa
FOUND IN: US(MW)
Roud #15487
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "The Battle of Antietam Creek" (AFS 4213 A, 1939; on LC29, in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "General Lee's Wooing" (subject) and notes there
NOTES [335 words]: The Battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg was hardly a victory for anyone. It produced the highest casualties of any single day of battle in the Civil War. By the time it was over, every regiment in Robert E. Lee's invading army was worn out, and he may have had fewer than 25,000 effective soldiers left. George McClellan still had unused troops, but he refused to commit them; his losses had also been immense, and he didn't realize how badly Lee had been beaten.
After the battle, Lee headed back across the Potomac. The "wooing" of Maryland, which many Southerners thought would bring the state over to the Confederacy, or at least bring in a lot of recruits, was over, with little benefit to the southern cause. The one good result of Antietam was that it was enough of a victory -- barely -- to allow Lincoln to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.
Both the fact that the dying soldier in this song was inducted in Louisiana and the fact that he had been in ten battles would imply that he was a member of Stonewall Jackson's corps. In all likelihood, we are to believe that he was a member of either Hays's "Louisiana Tigers" (division of Ewell/Early) or Starke's/Stafford's brigade (division of Jackson/Winder/Talliaferro/Stark; later commanded by Edward Johnson). These were, apart from a few artillerymen, the only Louisiana troops in Lee's army.
What's more, the divisions of Ewell and Jackson had had harder fighting than almost any others in the army. A truly veteran regiment from other parts of Lee's army -- say the First North Carolina -- might have fought seven or eight battles by then (First Bull Run, Fair Oaks/Seven Pines, Seven Days, Second Bull Run, and Antietam, plus perhaps one or two skirmishes such as Big Bethel or Williamsburg) -- but Jackson's and Ewell's troops had also had a part in the dozen or so battles of Jackson's Valley Campaign.
Nonetheless, I don't think there is enough here to identify the regiment involved, even assuming this is based on an actual event. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RcBoAC

Battle of Ballycohy, The

DESCRIPTION: Billy Scully "turn'd from the Church." He gave notice to tenants who had paid their rent. Armoured, he was shot by "the boys of Ballycohy" and Gorman and a peeler Scully had for help were killed. "Here's success to brave Moore, says the Shan Van Voch"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: battle death farming Ireland landlord police
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 7D, "The Battle of Ballycohy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25270
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.7(1), "The Battle of Ballycohy," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also Johnson Ballads 2243c, "The Battle of Ballycohy"
VonWalthour, CDDrive>b>b(1),"The Battle of Ballycohy" ("Did you hear of Billy Scully says the Shan Van Voch"), unknown, no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (tune)
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (1828) for Shan Van Voght song on another subject.
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (1848) for Shan Van Voght song on another subject.
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" and references there, including Shan Van Voght broadsides on other subjects
cf. "Rory of the Hill" (subject: the shooting of Billy Scully)
NOTES [114 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 7D: "William Scully purchased a property in Ballycohey, County Tipperary. Scully soon became the terror of his tenantry. He turned Protestant when the Catholic priest remonstrated against his conduct. In 1868, he decided to evict his twenty-one tenants, but when he went to serve his notices, he was severely wounded. His steward and a constable were killed. It is believed that the landlord wore a suit of chain-mail which saved his life. Before Scully recovered from his wounds, Charles Moore, then Member for Tipperary, purchased the Ballycohey estate."
Broadsides Bodleian 2806 c.7(1) and VonWalthour CDDrive>b>b(1) appear to be the same edition. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Zimm07D

Battle of Balrinnes or Glenlivet, The

See The Battle of Glenlivet, or The Battle of Altichallichan (File: GlnBa074)

Battle of Baltimore, The

DESCRIPTION: "Old Ross, Cockburn, and Cochrane too, And many a bloody villain more" prepare to plunder Baltimore. Winder retreats to Virginia. VIrginians come to Maryland's aid. The British cannot defeat Fort McHenry. The Americans retreat; the Virginians boast
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1847 (Forget-Me-Not Songster)
KEYWORDS: battle patriotic soldier ship America
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 13, 1814 - Battle of Fort McHenry
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 17-19, "The Battle of Baltimore" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 165-168, "The Battle of Baltimore" (1 text)
ST CAFS1165 (Partial)
Roud #13958
NOTES [20 words]: For background on the British Baltimore campaign during the War of 1812, see the notes to "The Star-Spangled Banner." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: CAFS1165

Battle of Barossa, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the second day of February, from Cadiz we set sail." They travel via Gibraltar and Algiers to "the Reef o' Bay." General Graham encourages the British army. The 92nd and 81st regiments fight valiantly. The soldiers anticipate seeing home and women
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(181))
KEYWORDS: soldier battle Spain
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 5, 1811 - Battle of Barrosa
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #94, pp. 2-3, "The Battle of Barossa" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 148, "The Battle of Barossa" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 291-293, "The Battle of Barossa" (1 text)
Roud #2182
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(181), "Battle of Barossa" ("On the 21st of February from Cadiz we set sail"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 11(181), "Battle of Barossa"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oliver's Advice (Barossa)" (subject)
cf. "Barrosa Plains" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Battle of Trafalgar
Barossa's Plains
NOTES [458 words]: Greig/Duncan1: "Learnt twenty-five years ago. Noted 13th September 1907." - BS
Roud lumps this with the poorly-attested "Oliver's Advice (Barrosa)," but the two are clearly separate songs.
The "battle" of Barrosa was more of a skirmish; the forces involved were small, though the British won a clear victory. Most histories of the Napoleonic Wars don't seem even to mention it, and the sources can't even agree on whether to call it "Barrosa" or "Barossa." (The former seems to be correct.)
The battle was part of the attempt to relieve the French siege of Cadiz. By the time the British and Spanish arrived in March 1811, Cadiz had been under siege for 13 months. But shortly before (by coincidence), the besieging commander Claude Perrin Victor (1764-1841) had had to detach about a third of his forces for use elsewhere in Spain.
Thomas Graham (1748-1843) had meanwhile brought some 5000 troops from Britain (the fleet setting sail on February 21, not February 2); they landed at Algeciras (called "Algiers" in the song) and joined a rather larger Spanish force under La Pena.
When the combined force encountered French troops on March 5, the Spanish fled, as described in the song, but Graham rallied the British and shoved aside a somewhat larger French force. He was not able to relieve Cadiz, but the British had a nice little victory to boast about.
The siege of Cadiz finally ended in August 1812. Marshal Soult, French commander in Spain, had lost at Salamanca and decided to withdraw the troops to reinforce his weakened army.
For the 92nd Regiment (Gordon Highlanders), mentioned in the song, see the notes to "The Gallant Ninety-Twa." The 81st Regiment (Loyal Lincolnshire Volunteers), has had an even more complex history, being raised in 1741 and receiving its number in 1793. It was amalgamated into the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment in 1881, and then in 1970 into the Queen's Lancashire Regiment; obviously there isn't much continuity in its history. It fought throughout the Peninsular Campaign but did not serve in the Hundred Days.
Interestingly, the song (at least the versions I've checked) does not mention the 87th Regiment (Royal Irish Fusiliers), officially regarded as the unit most responsible for the British success, which captured an eagle and celebrate March 4 (Barrosa Day) as a regimental anniversary. That regiment is, however, strongly praised in "Barrosa Plains," also about this battle.
The spelling "Barossa" in the title is Ord-BothySongsAndBallads's; and seems to occur a lot in traditional sources (so much so that I called the battle by that name in earlier editions of the Index); I have bestowed the name "The Battle of Barossa" on that basis, even though that is not the correct name of the battle. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ord291

Battle of Bothwell-Bridge

See Bothwell Bridge [Child 206] (File: C206)

Battle of Boulogne, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the second of August, eighteen hundred and one, We sailed with Lord Nelson to the port of Boulogne." The forces attack a strongly entrenched position, and suffer heavy casualties. Nelson and crews work for better times for the wounded
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1826 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.18(216))
KEYWORDS: sea sailor battle death ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 2, 1801 - Battle of Boulogne
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 178-179, "The Battle of Boulogne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 145, "The Battle of Boulogne" (1 text)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #17, "The Battle of Boulogne" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 78, "The Second of August" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR178 (Partial)
Roud #3175
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.18(216), "A new song, composed by the wounded tars at the seige of Boulogne" ("On the second of August eighteen hundred and one"), Angus (Newcastle), 1774-1825; also Firth c.13(46), Harding B 11(3670A), Firth c.13(45), Firth b.25(81), "The Battle of Boulogne"; Harding B 25(139), "The Battle of Boulougne"
NOTES [68 words]: For a conflict involving Lord Nelson (1758-1805), most histories have little to say about the Battle of Boulogne -- many histories of the Napoleonic Wars don't mention it at all. Nelson, always aggressive, attempted an attack on the French fortifications, and was bloodily repulsed, much as described in the song.
This song is known primarily from broadsides, but Greig at least had a traditional version. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: StoR178

Battle of Bridgewater, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the twenty-fifth of July, as you may hear them say, We had a short engagement on the plains of Chippewa." Although the British have 8000 men, and American generals Brown and Scott are wounded, the Americans win the day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: battle soldier death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 25, 1814 - Battle of Lundy's Lane (Bridgewater)
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 61, "The Battle of Bridgewater" (1 text)
Roud #4030
NOTES [1616 words]: This is item dA32 in Laws's Appendix II.
The name "Bridgewater" for the battle shows how old this song is. Graves, p. 173: "For many year after it ended, there was confusion over the name of the action fought on 25 July 1814 along a pretty country lane near the falls of Niagara. British documents officially termed it the battle of Niagara while, in the United States, it was called either the battle of the Falls, or of the Cataract or, sometimes, the battle of Bridgewater after the little hamlet that Ripley burned to the ground [as the Americans retreated]. In Canada it has always been called the battle of Lundy's Lane, and it is now universally known by that homely title."
The first year of the War of 1812 went very badly for the Americans on the Canadian front, with every move repulsed (see the notes to "The Battle of Queenston Heights" and "Brave General Brock [Laws A22]"). In 1813, things went better for the Americans, as they won the Battle of Lake Erie (see the notes to "James Bird" [Laws A5]) and managed to move into Canada. But that year also saw the war turn ugly. An American militia officer named George McClure (1770-1851), left to garrison Fort George on the Canadian side of the Niagara River, decided he had to evacuate (according to Heidler/Heidler, p. 332, he had only "60 sick regulars, 40 volunteers, and a band of Canadians who favored the United States") -- and burned the town of Newark as he left.
McClure's order from the War Department gave him authority to burn the town, according to Heidler/Heidler, p. 332, but his subordinates disapproved. It probably does qualify as an atrocity -- it was December, and the 400 civilian residents of the town were turned out into snow-covered ground in sub-freezing temperatures. From then on, Canadian apathy turned to anger, and the British -- with Napoleon soon to be out of the picture -- were able to escalate the war. On December 30, they burned Buffalo (Borneman, pp., 170-171).
1814 saw the Americans start their last offensive; a new commander, Jacob Brown, sent his chief subordinate Winfield Scott across the Niagara River on July 3 (Borneman, p. 185; Hickey, p. 185). They quickly swallowed up the British garrison at Fort Erie. Major General Phineas Riall, the British commander at Fort George (the main base in the area), brought together what troops he could on the Chippewa River, but of course Brown was also bringing up troops. Brown's army on July 4 marched the 16 miles to the Chippewa River (Fort Erie is on the shores of Lake Erie, the Chippewa about half way between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, just above Niagara Falls)
The two armies met on July 5. It appears, from the numbers in Borneman (p. 189), that neither army was fully engaged; most of the fighting on the American side was done by Scott's brigade -- who, however, heavily pounded Riall's troops. That encouraged Brown to bring his entire force across the Niagara River (Hickey, p. 187).
Brown then started to march toward Queenston, the town near Lake Ontario which the Americans had signally failed to take in 1812. This time, they took Queenston Heights -- and retreated. Brown requested naval support from Commodore Isaac Chauncey, the American commander on Lake Ontario. It was not forthcoming (Borneman, p. 189; Hickey, p. 187), meaning that Brown's supply line was the tenuous one from Fort Erie. The British, as it turned out, weren't getting naval support either -- but they were getting help. Lt. General Gordon Drummond, the British commander in Upper Canada, arrived to take charge, and troops were also trickling in. There were rumors that the British were sending forces to the American side of the Niagara. Brown fell back to the Chippewa (Borneman, p. 190).
Brown did not sit tight, though. On July 25, he sent Scott on a reconnaissance. Scott had marched only a couple of miles north toward Queenston when he ran into nearly the entire British army in position at Lundy's Lane (which was just what it sounded like: A minor dirt road). Heavily outnumbered, Scott nonetheless stood his ground and called for help from the rest of the American army. Brown brought forward his other two brigades (though he committed only one of them).
The result was chaotic. On the American side, Scott was wounded, then Brown, leaving the army under the command of a junior brigadier, who interpreted one of Brown's orders as a command to retreat (Graves, pp. 159-160, has no doubt that the order was to leave the field). This Brigadier, Eleazar Wheelock Ripley, did so, even leaving some British guns in the field (Borneman, p. 195; Graves, p. 160, says there weren't enough horses even to pull back the American guns). The British had their own casualties -- Riall, hit in the arm, was captured (Graves, p. 118) and lost an arm and Drummond suffered a lesser wound that may have affected his performance -- but they held the field, and they had perhaps the slight advantage in casualties suffered: they lost about 875-900, representing probably 25-27% of their forces in the field (Borneman, p. 195; Hickey, p. 188); American losses were about 850, but that's something like a third of their total force (I read somewhere that American casualties may even have been in the 40-50% range). Graves, pp. 173-175, gives what may be the official numbers: For the British, 84 killed, 559 wounded, 193 missing, and 42 known prisoners -- a total of 878, or 24% of troops engaged. The American report, which was compiled five days after the battle, listed 860 casualties: 173 dead, 571 wounded, 117 missing. On pp. 221-223, Graves tries to estimate the total American force; many parts of the estimate are rough, but his best guess is 2778, making the American casualties 31%. And its command structure was decimated, with the two top generals wounded and only one unwounded colonel and one unwounded lieutenant colonel (Graves, p. 188). No matter what the exact numbers, it is clear both sides had been fought out.
The Americans pulled back to Fort Erie, but it was four days before the British army moved, which shows how badly both sides had been hurt (Graves, p. 187). A preliminary British attempt to clear the road south was heavily defeated due to the incompetence of the officer in charge, costing another 44 casualties (Graves, p. 190). Drummond then ordered his artillery to reduce the fort -- but his artillery officers, who knew little of sieges, set up their battery too far away and did little damage -- they merely convinced Brigadier Edmund P. Gaines, who had been appointed to command the fort in the absence of Brown and Scott, that an assault was coming (Graves, pp. 192-193). Drummond's attack plan was excessively complicated, involving four different bodies of troops attacking three different points. None of the assaults succeeded -- except in blowing up a magazine, which probably cost the attackers more than the defenders (Graves, pp. 193-195). Drummund suffered 57 dead, 309 wounded, and 539 missing (captured or dead in the explosion), or 905 out of about 2500 in the attacking force (Graves, p. 195) -- in other words, more losses in Lundy's Lane.
The British besieged Fort Erie from August 2 to September 16, but the August 15 assault was the last direct attack. Brown returned to command on September 2 -- but by then the strategic situation was completely different, with the Americans threatening both Washington and the Champlain (Graves, p. 199; for the latter situation, see "The Siege of Plattsburg"). Both sides were leaving the Niagara mostly to its own devices. Brown attacked the British on September 16, even as the British were retreating (Graves, pp. 198, 200), resulting in a bloody draw that cost each side about 500 more casualties (Graves, p. 201).
Meanwhile, George Izard, the commander of the American "Right Division" was approaching the front, and he had seniority over Brown, commander of the "Left Division" on the New York front. Izard came to the Niagara on September 21, but instead of joining Brown in going after Drummond, his forces wandered around the area without engaging in any major combat (Graves, p. 203). Izard on October 24 sent the Left Division back to the United States, and took his own division back on November 5 (Graves, p. 203). The Americans blew up Fort Erie as the retreated, and the Niagara front was finally quiet (Borneman, p. 198; Hickey, p. 189).
Graves, p. 205, concludes, "Major General Jacob Brown has a good claim to have won a tactical victory at Lundy's Lane" because he took the key to the British position and captured some artillery, but "the American withdrawal allowed Lieutenant General Gordon Drummond to also claim a tactical victory" -- though Graves adds that he thinks that "this assertion has less validity." On page 206, Graves reluctantly states that the whole campaign was a strategic victory for the British, because the Americans did nothing after Lundy's Lane to exploit it, and eventually left Canada. But Graves concludes that nothing that happened really had any effect on the war, because "the campaign itself was not based on any clear strategic aim." I'd say that's basically true -- and, indeed, that description could be applied to the whole stupid war.
Drummond, despite his several failures in the campaign, did well afterward; presumably all London noticed was that the Americans were out of Canada. He succeeded George Prevost as military commander in Canada and eventually became a full general (Graves, p. 208). The officers of the Left Division were destined for even greater things; as Graves says on p. 210, Left Division officers served as the American general-in-chief for 28 of the 46 years from 1815 to 1861- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: JHCox061

Battle of Bull Run, The [Laws A9]

DESCRIPTION: [Irvin] McDowell leads a Union army to defeat at Bull Run (Manasses Junction). The valiant rebels are compared with the cowardly Unionists, who are so completely routed that many fine Washington ladies must flee with them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 21, 1861 - First battle of Bull Run/Manasses fought between the Union army of McDowell and the Confederates under Johnston and Beauregard
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws A9, "The Battle of Bull Run"
Randolph 210, "Manassa Junction" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 1892-193, "Manassa Junction (The Battle of Bull Run)" (1 text)
DT 799, MANASJCT
Roud #2202
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bull Run (War Song)" (subject: the battle of Bull Run)
cf. "Nine Miles to the Junction" (subject: the battle of Bull Run)
cf. "General Patterson" (subject: the battle of Bull Run)
cf. "This Day (The Battle of Bull Run)" (subject: the battle of Bull Run)
cf. "The Gallant Sixty-Ninth" (subject: the battle of Bull Run)
NOTES [1355 words]: There were a number of songs published called "The Battle of Bull Run"; Wolf, p 8, lists one beginning "Our gallant soldiers they are going to leave their friends to mourn" and one by Arthur McCann beginning "The Sons of Old Ireland, led forth in their glory." But this appears to be the only one that has gone into tradition.
Although the Confederates won the Battle of Bull Run (and its successor a year later), the insults they flung at their opponents were rather unfair. Both armies were raw, and had a number of inept general officers; the Confederates won more because they were on the defensive than because of any superiority on their part.
It is true, however, that the Federal army wound up in rout, and that many fine Northern ladies who had gone out to see the show fled with them. They hardly need to have hurried, however; the Confederates were so disorganized that they could not follow up their victory.
The truth is, neither side was ready for the battle, and both fought rather poorly. Union commander Irvin McDowell was well aware that his men were not ready for combat. But it was a case of "use them or lose them"; the Federal government, in its folly, had initially enlisted soldiers for only ninety days, and by July, their terms were expiring (see, e.g., Catton, p. 445). So, ready or not, McDowell marched. At least he expected to have the advantage in numbers -- roughly 40,000 men to 25,000 Confederates (Catton, p. 444).
He did not realize that he would also have an enemy who played right into his hands. The Confederates were concentrated at Manassas Junction, near a creek known as Bull Run, a few dozen miles south of Washington. Their commander was the famous Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, who had commanded the bombardment of Fort Sumter that started the war. Beauregard had shown himself a competent engineer, and later would reveal some skill in defensive warfare. But whenever Beauregard was in position to plan a set piece battle, the results were pretty dreadful. Bull Run was his (anti-)masterpiece. His objective was, or should have been, simply to hold off McDowell. But his battle plan made that nearly impossible.
The Federals would inevitably come down from Washington to a town called Centreville, about three miles away from Bull Run and Beauregard's camp. From there, they would deploy and attack -- somewhere.
Beauregard had under his command the equivalent of about eight brigades. A logical approach would have been to spread them out along Bull Run, with a strong central reserve to resist where McDowell attacked. But a glance at Freeman, p. 47, shows that he did no such thing. His left was hanging in midair. In what should have been his center, he posted about two and a half brigades to guard the entire Bull Run front. The rest of his force, roughly two-thirds of the whole, he concentrated around Blackburn's Ford for a counterattack on Centreville once the Union force was defeated. Unless he received reinforcements, he had no general reserve; it was all at Blackburn's Ford.
And the Federals didn't go that way. They went around Beauregard's left, and were in position to roll up his flank (Johnson/McLaughlin, p. 33).
Luckily for Beauregard, reinforcements were coming. There were actually two armies on the Virginia front: One between Washington and Richmond, commanded by Beauregard, and one in the Shenandoah Valley, commanded by Joseph E. Johnston. The Federals had an army in the Valley also, and it was supposed to pin Johnston down, but the Union army was commanded by an officer by the name of Robert Patterson, who had actually fought in the War of 1812 (Catton, p. 445). Patterson, old and given confusing orders, simply sat, and Johnston took four brigades -- one led by a fellow by the name of Thomas Jonathan Jackson -- to Bull Run by railroad (Catton, pp. 446-449; McPherson, pp. 339-340).
Few generals had ever been luckier than Beauregard. With his army about to be defeated in detail, Johnston showed up, and they sent his troops to where the Federals were attacking. They set up a defensive line, anchored by Jackson whose brigade stood "like a stone wall" (earning him the nickname "Stonewall" Jackson; Catton, p. 460; McPherson, p. 342. There is controversy about exactly what happened there -- see Freeman, pp. 733-734 -- but no doubt that the Confederate line drawn by Jackson held).
Attacking is harder than defending. It's especially hard for inexperienced troops. The Union forces had done fine when they were rolling up the Confederate flank. Confronted with real opposition, they ran out of steam, and gradually the assault turned into a Federal retreat, which turned into a rout (Freeman, p. 72; McPherson, pp. 344-345).
This should have been Beauregard's big hour. Those five brigades at Blackburn's Ford? If they could get to Centreville and hold it, they could capture nearly the entire Federal army.
No dice. Beauregard's command arrangements were so bad, and his planning so incomplete, and his forces so ill-trained, that nothing much happened (Freeman, pp. 73-78). Johnston would later write, "Our army was more disorganized by victory than that of the United States by defeat" (McPherson, p. 345). First Bull Run was an overwhelming Confederate victory. But it was a victory that accomplished almost nothing except to show that neither army was really ready to fight.
The Union flight back to Washington involved more than soldiers. A number of congressmen and other dignitaries had come out to see the show. After the battle, the various impedimenta they took along caused the retreat to become even more disorganized as their coaches and such fouled and blocked the bad and muddy roads.
It is ironic to observe that the only surviving versions of this seem to be Randolph's, from Missouri and Arkansas. McDonald. pp. 186-191, lists the Confederate Order of Battle. The overwhelming majority of the soldiers were from east of the Appalachians. Hardly any came from west of the Mississippi. There were a few Louisiana regiments (6th, 7th, 8th Louisiana, 1st Louisiana Battalion) and one Arkansas unit (1 Arkansas), plus perhaps a few western artillery sections. Of these units, only the 7th Louisiana and the 1st Louisiana Battalion were engaged. There were no Missouri soldiers at all (they were busy fighting a war-within-a-war in Missouri). On p, 185, McDonald breaks down Confederate killed and wounded by state. Louisiana lost 11 killed, 58 wounded. Tennessee lost 1 killed, 3 wounded. Arkansas had no casualties at all.
Possibly the fact that the Ozarks were remote from the field explains the extraordinary number of errors in Randolph's texts. Some of the errors are probably Randolph's hearing, but others are clearly part of the informant's tradition. In the "A" text, we find the following (where noted, these are corrected in the "B" text):
"MacDowell": misspelled; should be Irvin McDowell, the Federal commander (corrected in B)
"With regular troops from Tennessee": A very strange line. The Federal army did indeed have regular soldiers, that is, soldiers from the regular army (the equivalent of about a brigade, plus a lot of artillery; McDonald, p. 185, lists the regulars as taking losses of 41 killed, 91 wounded) -- but they wouldn't have been from Tennessee.
"General Scott from Chesterville": Winfield Scott was the commander-in-chief of the Federal armies, but he was based in Washington and too feeble to travel with the army to Centreville (not Chesterville). Scott is mentioned only once in McDonald's whole book on Bull Run; his only contribution to the battle was to send and receive telegrams. Corrected in "B" to "Old General Scott from Centerville," which as noted is almost correct.
"German Gulf": The "B" text makes it clear that this is "Sherman's guns." William T. Sherman commanded a brigade which was heavily engaged (105 killed, according to McDonald, p. 192) which had an effective regular artillery battery attached.
"Kirby": Presumably Confederate general Edmund Kirby Smith, who commanded Johnson's fourth brigade (Johnson/McLaughlin, p. 39) and was badly wounded in the battle. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: LA09

Battle of Bunker Hill (II)

See Ballad of Bunker Hill (File: CAFS1044)

Battle of Carrickshock, The

DESCRIPTION: The Irish are liberated: "They'll pay no more the unjust taxation, Tithes are abolished on Sliav na Mon." The Catholics exult. The battle was bloody and Luther's candle now is fading. We'll banish the oppressors and traitors.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: battle death Ireland political police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 14, 1831 - Carrickshock, County Kilkenny: Peasants attack tithe process servers, killing at least 13 (source: Zimmermann)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 91, "The Battle of Carrickshock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9772
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Discussion Between Church and Chapel" (subject: The Tithe War)
cf. "The Sorrowful Lamentation of Denis Mahony" (subject: The Tithe War)
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (II)" (subject: The Tithe War)
cf. "Fergus O'Connor and Independence" (subject: The Tithe War)
cf. "The Castlepollard Massacre" (subject: The Tithe War)
cf. "The Barrymore Tithe Victory" (subject: The Tithe War)
cf. "The Ass and the Orangeman's Daughter" (subject: The Tithe War)
cf. "Slieve Na Mon" (subject: The Tithe War and the Carrickshock Riot)
cf. "The Three O'Donnells" (subject: The Tithe War)
NOTES [484 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "Our song celebrates a famous victory by the peasants over the 'Peelers' [police] in the Tithe war, 1831-4."
"The event occurred on an isolated road in south Kilkenny in December 1831 when an armed police column clashed with a large crowd, resulting in the deaths of 17 people. Unlike most incidents of this kind, the majority of the victims (13) were constables." (source: 1831: Social Memory and an Irish cause celebre by Gary Owens, copyright The Social History Society 2004, pdf available at the Ingenta site) - BS
Starting in 1778 and continuing through the nineteenth century, the British gradually liberalized its policy toward Catholics in Ireland, as it was also doing (more rapidly) in Britain itself. By the 1830s, only two major components were left: Catholics were barred from certain offices by the Test Act (which primarily required them to deny transubstantiation; Bettenson, p. 298), and they were forced to pay the tithe.
The objectionable part of the latter was that the tithes were paid to Protestant priests of the established (Anglican) Church of Ireland, which was -- at least legally -- the official church of Ireland from 1537 until disestablishment in 1870 (OxfordCompanion, p. 90).
Starting in 1830 in Kilkenny, many Catholics refused to pay the tithes. What followed wasn't really a war; it was more of a boycott, with people simply withholding their payment. But the British responded by seizing property to pay the tithes. Occasionally this led to scuffles, with this riot and one at Newtownbarry (June 18, 1831) being the biggest and best-known. There were also quite a few casualties at Castlepollard (see the notes to "The Castlepollard Massacre").
In June 1833, the government effectively gave in: It no longer forced payment of the tithe, paying off the Protestant clergy with revenue from other sources (OxfordCompanion, pp. 543-544). (Unfortunately, for the next third of a century, the source was the Landlords, who raised rents accordingly, making the conflict between landlords and tenants even worse. It wasn't until the Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland -- for which see "The Downfall of Heresy" -- that Protestant clergy were entirely cut off from revenue derived from Irish Catholics.)
The Tithe War was famous. Carrickshock, however, wasn't particularly; I checked four histories of Ireland without finding an index reference.
And, of course, Anglicans are not Lutherans. They are not even, in formal terms, Protestant; they form one of the three major branches of post-Catholic Christianity. "Protestantism divided into three general confessions, the Lutheran, the Reformed [Calvinists, including Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and ultimately even Baptists], and the Anglican [formally including Methodists]" (Qualben, p. 286). The Presbyterians of Ulster aren't Lutherans, either; they go back to Calvin - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: OLcM091

Battle of Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864

See Battle of Fisher's Hill (File: ThBa058)

Battle of Corrichie, The

DESCRIPTION: Mourn, Highlands and Lowlands "for the bonnie burn o' Corrichie His run this day wi' bleid." Huntley's son loves Queen Mary and, with the Gordon clan, faces "fause Murray" whose "slee wiles spoilt a' the sport And reft him o' life and limb" Details follow
AUTHOR: John Forbes? (source: Aytoun)
EARLIEST DATE: 1772 (_Scots Weekly_, according to Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: love battle death Scotland royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 28, 1562: The troops of Queen Mary, under the Earl of Murray, defeat and capture the Earl of Huntley, who is subsequently killed (source: Aytoun, but see NOTES)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #140, p. 1, "The Battle of Corrichie" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 555-556, "The Battle of Corichie" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: William Edmonstoune Aytoun, The Ballads of Scotland (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1859 ("Digitized by MIcrosoft")), Vol. I, pp. 245-248, "The Battle of Corrichie" (1 text)
Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 87-89, "Corichie or The Hill of Fare" (1 text)
Roud #6318
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Battle of Corichie
NOTES [322 words]: Some sources think that the Huntley of this song is the Geordie of "Geordie" [Child 209]; see the notes to that song.
Of the events described here, Magnuson, p. 347, declares, "in the summer of 1562 Mary [Queen of Scots] went with Lord James Stewart on a campaign against the most powerful Catholic family in Scotland, the Gordons of Huntly; George Gordin, the fourth Earl of Huntly (the 'Cock of hte North,' as he was called) and one-time Chancellor of Scotland, died of apoplexy after being captured at a skirmish at Corrichine in October. His embalmed corpse was solemnly convicted of treason, and later Mary had to witness the bungled beheading of one of Gordon's sons, who had tried to abduct her. The scene reduced her to hysterical tears."
Mitchison, p. 127: "[Mary] set herself to work the [Protestant] settlement of 1560 within her kingdom, and there are no grounds for believing she did not mean this sincerely. She took to the more moderate leaders in the Protestant party; her half-brother Lord James was given the earldom of Moray. This involved a breach with the house of Huntly, who had claims to some of its lands. Unwisely the Gordons put up a show of resistance and Mary went jaunting out with her soldiery to subdue them.... Lord James won a small battle, the Marquis of Huntly dropped dead, and Mary reluctantly executed a Gordon."
Upon her return to Scotland from France, Mary Stuart had set out to tour the country and meet the people. She "stands out as the last Stewart monarch to traverse much of the kingdom of the Scots.... [Her progress of 1562] was rather longer than expected as Mary had been forced to face the first noble insurrection of her personal rule. The Earl of Huntley's forces faced up to those of the queen, led by Lord James Stewart (now the Earl of Moray), at Corrichie on 28 October 1562. Huntley was defeated and disgraced, but died before his trial for treason" (Oram, pp. 253-254). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 3.2
File: Grg140a

Battle of Corrymuckloch, The

DESCRIPTION: Gaugers and [six] Scottish Greys surround Donald the smuggler to seize his whisky. Donald and his men fight back with sticks and stones, knock a soldier from his horse until "the beardies quit the field [and] The gauger he was thumped"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: fight Scotland injury drink soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #131, p. 2, "The Battle of Corriemuchloch" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 239, "The Battle of Corrymuckloch" (1 text)
Roud #5843
NOTES [88 words]: The battle appears to have taken place in the first half of the 19th century. Greig: "Corriemuchloch [currently Balmashanner?] is a hamlet in the north of Crieff parish, Perthshire, and is within a mile and a half of Amulree. The story of the repulse of the Scots Greys by the smugglers is authentic, and is here vigorously rehearsed by the balladist, who must have had some fair measure of literary skill."
A "gauger" is an exciseman: one who collects alcohol taxes and enforces the law on people who don't pay those taxes. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2239

Battle of Elkhorn Tavern, The, or The Pea Ridge Battle [Laws A12]

DESCRIPTION: A Union/Confederate soldier (Dan Martin) tells of how he fled from the rebels/federals at Elkhorn Tavern. The song exists in both Union and Confederate versions, which give very different details of what happened.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 7-8, 1862 - Battle of Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern), Ark. Federal forces under Samuel Curtis had advanced into Arkansas, and were met by the larger Confederate forces of Earl Van Dorn. Van Dorn's envelopment strategy was too complex for his raw troops, and Curtis was able to beat them off and eventually counterattack
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws A12a, "The Battle of Elkhorn Tavern"/Laws A12b, "The Pea Ridge Battle"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 368-369, "The Battle of Elkhorn Tavern" (1 text)
Randolph 209, "The Pea Ridge Battle" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 200-203, "The Pea Ridge Battle" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 209A)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 4-5, "The Battle of Elk-Horn" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 358-359, "The Battle of Elkhorn Tavern" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 162-163, "The Battle of Pea Ridge" (1 text)
DT 685, ELKHORNT
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 227, "(It was at the battle of Elkhorn)" (1 fragment)
James J. Johnston, "Will the Real Daniel Martin Please Stand Up?" in _Mid-America Folklore_, Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Spring 1993 (available online by HathiTrust.org)), pp. 28-41 "(no collective title)" (4 texts, from Randolph, Belden, and High, plus one from the family of a Daniel Maritn)
Roud #2201
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pea Ridge Battle" (subject)
NOTES [12477 words]: The Battle of Pea Ridge was fought near Elkhorn Tavern and Leetown, just south of the Missouri/Arkansas border, a few dozen miles north and slightly east of Fayetteville, Arkansas. It was, in a sense, a much-delayed sequel to the Battle of Wilson's Creek in 1861 (for which see "The War in Missouri in '61"). At Wilson's Creek, Confederate forces under Sterling Price (Missouri militia) and Benjamin McCulloch (troops from Arkansas and points south and west) had defeated Nathaniel Lyon's Union force in southwestern Missouri, but the two generals quarreled and McCulloch retreated to Arkansas, with Price and his troops remaining in Missouri.
Union forces had been mostly quiet after Wilson's Creek, but on January 13, 1862, a force under Samuel R. Curtis headed from Rolla for Springfield in southwestern Missouri (Shea, p. 24). It was a significant movement, because the railroad ended at Rolla; to take Springfield was to move into regions where supply and reinforcement were difficult. Not only was there no railroad, there was only one direct road, the so-called Telegraph Road (or Wire Road) -- and even it was a dirt path, sometimes very muddy, and not really sufficient to supply a large army. Price, who was based in the Springfield area, called for help to stop Curtis, but McCulloch was in Richmond (Shea, p. 26), and probably wouldn't have come anyway. Outnumbered, Price retreated from Missouri into Arkansas (Boatner, p. 627). And Curtis -- who knew better than most Union generals that he had to go after the enemy -- followed. On February 17, his troops skirmished with Price's at Little Sugar Creek. Casualties were slight -- a few dozen on each side -- but it caused Price to retreat even farther (Shea, pp. 27-28). The Confederates were threatened with the loss of the entire Ozark region. They coalesced at Fayettevile, Arkansas, but ended up abandoning the town and burning much of it (Shea, p. 30). Curtis, realizing he was outnumbered now that Price had retreated to where McCulloch was base, halted to await developments (Shea, p. 31).
Everyone knew that the Confederates needed someone who could command both Price's Missouri troops and McCulloch's forces. The Missouri politicians wanted Price to have the job (Castel, p. 66), but Jefferson Davis perceived that there was no point in promoting Price over McCulloch or vice versa; they would just keep quarreling. Davis thought of Henry Heth and of Braxton Bragg -- who both declined (Castel, p. 67; Shea/Hess, p. 20; this was probably fortunate, since Bragg was a poor, uninspiring leader and Heth would later prove incompetent to lead such a large force). Davis's third choice was to appoint Major General Earl Van Dorn (1820-1863) to the post, in effect making McCulloch and Price division commanders under Van Dorn (Catton, p. 207). The vague hope was that, by acting aggressively west of the Mississippi, they could help General Albert Sydney Johnston try to control the situation on the Kentucky/Tennessee front. Van Dorn's goal was to threaten Saint Louis. That was surely a pipe dream, but he had the chance to stop the Federals from taking more of the trans-Mississipi,
Davis was clearly right to appoint someone to take charge of McCullough and Price (and Albert Pike, who had put together what amounted to a brigade of pro-Confederate Indians -- although the agreement they had with the Confederacy was that they were supposed to have the right to stay in Indian Territory; sending them to Arkansas violated the agreement; Shea, p. 36). Whether Van Dorn was the man for the job is a lot harder to answer. He had extensive service in the old United States army -- but his most important service had been as major of the elite 2nd Cavalry regiment (Warner-Gray, pp. 314-315; for more background on Van Dorn, see the notes to "Oh You Who Are Able...."); he never had much luck as an infantryman. He doesn't seem to have had any interest in army administration -- a very bad fault in a Confederate army that didn't get much help from the nation's ill-equipped war department; supplies were a constant problem for Confederate armies.
He didn't even have a real staff at this point, despite having been a general for months (he had been commanding a division in Joseph E. Johnson's army in Virginia); according to Hartje, p. 115, his establishment when he headed west consisted of his adjutant, Colonel Dabney Maury; his nephew Lieutenant Clement Sulivane, who served as his aide; and a "Negro servant named Milton." A man in independent command of a corps should have had several department heads (Commissary General, Provost Marshall, etc.) and a dozen or more people to handle paperwork and provide ideas. Without a real staff, Van Dorn would have to handle everything himself.
And by the time he was ready to fight, he wasn't really in shape to do so. On the way to his new command, he had attempted a risky horse jump, hurting himself badly (Foote, p. 278), and later he fell into an icy stream and took a severe chill, forcing him to travel by ambulance rather than on horseback (Shea, p. 34; Hartje, pp. 115-116, says that he was trying to cover ground too fast, because Van Dorn had wasted a lot of time when he temporarily lost his sword and had to hunt for it). But Van Dorn at least brought unity of command to the Arkansas front. He headed for northwest Arkansas as soon as he heard of the loss of Springfield (Shea, p. 34).
The Union army was organized into four "divisions" (Curtis's own divisions of Jefferson C. Davis and E. A. Carr, and the divisions of Asboth and Osterhaus that formed a corps under the command of Franz Sigel; Shea, pp. 108-109. Shea/Hess, p. 14, suggest that this peculiar arrangement was designed to give the immigrant troops and the native-born their own individual organizations and their own commanders). The "divisions," however, were very small (especially Asboth's); they added up to about 11,000 men (Shea/Hess, p. 14, think Curtis had only 10,250 men and 49 guns actually present at Pea Ridge).
Van Dorn's three units are estimated to have totaled about 17,000 men (Boatner, p. 627; Shea suggests 16,000 not counting Pike's Indians, plus 65 cannon; Castel, p. 70, suggests 16,000 men and 60 cannon but also credits Curtis with a relatively low total). Whatever the precise numbers, the Confederates had about a 3:2 edge in men and a 4:3 edge in artillery; It was one of the very few times in the war when the Confederates substantially outnumbered the Northern forces. What's more, Curtis was keeping his own and Sigel's forces some distance apart, for supply reasons and to prevent ethnic conflicts. And they had supply problems. Clearly they were vulnerable.
When Van Dorn learned that Sigel's and Curtis's forces were separated, his set out to defeat them in detail, going after Sigel first. He headed everyone toward Bentonville, Arkansas, to get between the two federal forces, not even waiting for his own supplies to catch up. Or, for that matter, to meet his officers and learn the capability of his troops (Shea, p. 35).
Van Dorn's army set out on March 4 with just three days' rations in their haversacks (Shea, pp. 35, 37). Van Dorn, who had yet to recover from his illness, led the way in his ambulance -- given his command situation, he could scarcely put a subordinate in charge because he would have to choose between McCulloch and Price! He set a pace that horses could keep but many men could not, especially since they had done no marching while in winter quarters (Shea, p. 39). On top of everything else, it was snowing, so when the men weren't moving, they were freezing.
While this was going on, two locals (one a unionist from Fayetteville and one apparently a spy in Van Dorn's army, the latter one William Miller of the third Iowa Cavalry, based on Shea/Hess, p. 258) found Curtis on March 5 and told him what Van Dorn was doing (Shea, p. 40). (There was a later story that Wild Bill Hickok was involved in the scouting, but it was pure fiction; Shea/Hess, p. 322). Curtis hastily pulled everyone back to Little Sugar Creek. (Shea/Hess, p. 59, think Curtis was concentrating anyway, for supply reasons and because his transport animals were growing weak due to lack of food, but whatever the reason, it effectively spoiled Van Dorn's plan.)
When Van Dorn realized that he could no longer split the Federal forces, he needed another idea. McCulloch, who knew the vicinity because his troops had wintered in the area, told him of a way around the Federal forces via the "Bentonville Detour" (Shea/Hess, p. 80). McCulloch apparently suggested a limited operation -- but Van Dorn (despite not even making a reconnaissance; Hartje, p. 132) went big, hoping to get his entire army into the Union rear and cut the Federals off from Missouri (Shea/Hess, p. 81) -- and marched out at once, against his subordinates' opposition (Shea, pp. 41-42), before the troops could even get a rest. His idea was to fall on Curtis's supply line, and attack the Union army from the rear and supply his men from Federal supplies. What he would do if that didn't work out... was not spelled out.
Given how raw his troops were (especially Pike's), Van Dorn's plan was probably too complex even if he had been healthy enough to control all his units. Although he intended to attack with all his forces, for the last part of the march from Bentonville to Elkhorn Tavern, he used two different roads, with Price on the northern road and McCulloch on the southern (see map on p. 45 of Shea). This, it turned out, brought McCulloch's forces very close to Curtis's troops in a hamlet called Leetown west and a little south of Elkhorn Tavern.
There seems to be a lot of disagreement about the names of places in the area. For example, the map on p. 138 of Hartje shows a hill it calls "Round Top," with "Pea Ridge" a ridge to the north of that. But the map on p. 212 of Shea/Hess, for instance, calls Hartje's "Round Top" simply "Little Mountain," and Hartje's "Pea Ridge" is "Big Mountain." (As of 2022, Google Maps doesn't label either one, but I incline to believe Shea/Hess, who are locals -- particularly since even Hartje sometimes refers to Sea/Hess's names.) My best guess is that Pea Ridge is the whole plateau which Curtis occupied.
The battle began on March 7, 1862. Curtis's forces were all in a strong defensive position on Little Sugar Creek, facing south, expecting Confederate attack from that direction; this was the position Van Dorn hoped to attack from the rear. Gradually Curtis was forced to pull out of that position to respond to Confederate moves. The map on p. 284 of Foote shows Curtis's army arrayed along three sides of a slightly tilted square, with Carr's division dug in on the north side, at Elkhorn Tavern; Davis's and Osterhaus's divisions on Carr's left flank, facing west or northwest (with Osterhaus to the south of Leetown and Davis to the north), and Asboth's division watching the south face of the square and acting as a general reserve -- although large parts of the division remained at Little Sugar Creek for much of the day. Hartje, p.137, describes a battlefield bounded on all sides by roads: the Telegraph Road to the east (where there was no fighting), the Bentonvile Road on the south (by Little Sugar Creek), and the Bentonville Detour, the road Van Dorn took, running north/south on the west side of the battlefield, then turning east to join the Telegraph Road north of the battlefield. In essence, Curtis was occupying a plateau, deploying his troops initially on the south side of the plateau and moving to cover the west and north. The Confederates, generally speaking attacked from the lower elevations on the north and west of the plateau.
There seems to be some doubt about just what Van Dorn planned (Hartje, pp. 131-133) -- whether the separation of Price and McCulloch was deliberate, and where he wanted McCulloch to go. We know he intended to attack from the north. But did he intend to have his entire army attack at Elkhorn Tavern, or did he intend to have just Price attack from the north while McCulloch and PIke attacked from the northwest? The latter is what actually happened: Price attacked Carr's division by the tavern; McCulloch, with at least half of Van Dorn's force, attacked Davis and Osterhaus at Leetown.
Shea thinks the western fight arose because the Federals blundered into McCulloch as the latter marched past. HessEtAl, p. 163, thinks that Van Dorn ordered McCulloch to make his attack because Price's forces were so badly delayed by roadblocks the Federals had set up that McCulloch, who was behind Price, wouldn't be able to get to Elkhorn Tavern, so Van Dorn had McCulloch fight where he could. Others think it was McCulloch's own idea because his troops were stuck (so Castel, p. 73); still others, that the whole thing was intended as a feint to keep Curtis from reinforcing Carr. Shea/Hess, p. 85-87, think that when Price's troops got stuck, Van Dorn still hoped to reunite the forces before attacking Curtis, but both halves of his army encountered Federals before they expected do. (This strikes me as the most likely.)
Whatever the actual plan for McCulloch, Colonel Osterhaus, as the Confederates were marching out, led a small scouting force that blundered into McCulloch's column (Shea, p. 46; Shea/Hess, p. 90, says that this was composed of a jumble of elements from multiple units, which can't have helped its cohesion. The whole story is vastly more complicated than I describe here, but it will do for an outline). Osterhaus hurried back to his division and ordered his cannon to fire high, into the woods, to try to disorder the enemy. It succeeded -- in two regards. First, it scared off many of the Indians, who were unused to artillery fire (Shea, p. 48); most of them would not fight any more. (Although some allegedly stuck around long enough to commit atrocities; it was reported that eight men of the 3rd Iowa Cavalry were scalped and several injured men murdered.) Second, it convinced McCulloch that he needed to attack right there rather than continuing on the flanking maneuver to Elkhorn Tavern. Worse, McCulloch did not inform Van Dorn that he had encountered the enemy (so Shea, p. 48). The Union cavalry and artillery that first met the Confederates were shattered, with heavy casualties, but they totally disordered Confederate plans and (assuming this wasn't the plan all along) caused McCulloch to turn to attack the Federals at Leetown rather than head for Elkhorn Tavern (Shea/Hess, pp. 94-102).
McCulloch had enough men that he surely could have shattered Osterhaus, and probably wrecked the whole federal flank. But it didn't come off. McCulloch decided to scout the enemy line -- alone! And he was killed while doing it (Shea/Hess, pp. 110-111). So no one knew on the Confederate side he was dead for about an hour, and the Confederate attack was kept awaiting orders from McCulloch that of course never came (Shea, p. 49). Finally it was learned he was dead (at least by a few officers; it was kept from most of the division, to prevent morale problems, but that made command problems in the division even worse). His senior brigadier, James McIntosh, ordered the rebel division forward -- but McIntosh, instead of staying back to manage the division, decided to go to his old cavalry regiment, and lead it into action, leaving the rest of the division to care for itself (Shea/Hess, p. 113). Not only did McIntosh take part in the charge, he went in front of the troops -- and was promptly killed (Shea, pp. 49-50; Shea/Hess, p. 115). His troops saw it and basically gave up the fight.
The result was that many of McCulloch's troops never got into action, and those that did attacked piecemeal. McCulloch's other brigade commander, Colonel Louis Hébert, having never received the command to advance, heard the fighting and finally took his brigade in. But that took him out of contact with the rest of the division (so he couldn't take charge; Shea/Hess, p. 116). He stayed with his troops (as a brigade commander was supposed to do by the doctrine of the time, but a division should not) and led them to a confused battle in the woods (Shea/Hess, pp. 140-141). After his brigade's attack failed, many of the troops milled around, and in the confusion, Hébert was captured (Shea/Hess, p. 147. He wouldn't spend much time in Federal captivity, though; Curtis and Van Dorn swapped every possible prisoner, including Hébert, on March 15, just a week after the battle, even though it meant the Federals had to bring prisoners back from Saint Louis; Shea/Hess, pp. 285-286). Several of his regimental commanders were also taken (Shea, pp. 52-53). For practical purposes, that was the end of the battle at Leetown. The Union troops had a very scary day -- Davis gave some ground, and Osterhaus yielded more -- but they then held fast, and the Confederates went to pieces.
Pike -- the only general officer left in McCulloch's part of the army -- tried to take over, but many of McCulloch's prickly subordinates refused to accept his authority. (Their attitude may have rubbed off from Van Dorn, Relations between Pike and Van Dorn were bad; Pike disapproved of Van Dorn's maltreatment of Indians before the war, according to Hartje, p. 121, and Van Dorn distrusted and insulted Pike; Hartje, pp. 164-165. ) Pike managed to lead part of the force north toward Van Dorn and Price; the rest of McCulloch's forces just sort of drifted back south toward Bentonville (Shea, p. 54). (Shea/Hess, p. 188, suggest that Van Dorn should have gone and taken charge of McCulloch's troops at this time, letting Price run his own division. This makes sense, but Van Dorn stayed with Price; one suspects he didn't want to miss a moment of fighting -- plus he probably didn't entirely trust Price.)
Meanwhile, Price's division (with Van Dorn along) was making its much-delayed main attack, against Elkhorn Tavern in the north. They should have been in position hours earlier, but Federals under Grenville Dodge had erected obstructions on Price's road, which caused great delays while they were cleared (HessEtAl, p. 165; Hartje, p. 135, points out that the soldiers were too tired and hungry to clear them quickly, and so were even more tired and hungry when they fought -- plus the delays meant the Federals had had more time to prepare). One wonders if the Federals would have survived without Dodge's work; Shea/Hess, p. 84, think not, because the roadblocks delayed the Confederates for about five hours, and that's about how long it took Curtis to get troops to Elkhorn Tavern -- he ignored Dodge's warnings that he had heard troops approaching. Dodge certainly knew a lot about rough country and crossing it; he would later be a big name in designing the Union Pacific railroad; Shea/Hess, p. 82).
Building the obstructions wasn't the only thing Dodge did to save the Union army; when, on the morning of March 7, Curtis ordered his division and brigade commanders to a meeting, Dodge brought his brigade with him because he thought it might be needed. It was insubordination, but it saved Curtis's bacon; he was able to order Dodge's brigade, and Dodge's division commander Carr, to Elkhorn Tavern to stop the attack oh his rear (Shea/Hess, p. 93).
Because the tavern was on the heights above the rough ground of Cross Timber Hollow (HessEtAl, p. 109), it was a strong defensive position. Van Dorn didn't expect any opposition, but Dodge was there, and eventually the rest of Carr's division came up, and Carr did a fine job of putting in a spoiling attack at the start and then holding the line (Shea, pp. 55-59). Carr was probably outnumbered by three to one, but he held on for most of the day before being forced to abandon the tavern, pulling back first Vandever's brigade (the subject of this song) and then Dodge's (Shea/Hess, pp. 195-197). Carr himself suffered three wounds and eventually was awarded the Medal of Honor (Shea, p. 58). Even when retreating, he kept his lines intact, so the Confederates could not break into the Union rear. Finally elements of Asboth's division came up to relieve them; it was only about 500 men, but they also had ammunition and everyone else, on both sides, was out (Shea/Hess, p. 204. Hartje, p.150, believes Van Dorn tried for one more attack, but Price halted the assault, and it was too late to start again).
In the course of the day, Price was wounded (although he stayed in the field) and one of his brigadiers, William Slack, was killed (Shea, p. 59). Van Dorn's army does not seem to have been badly hurt, apart from the straggling caused by the cold and the lack of food. but its command structure was almost demolished.
Shea/Hess, p. 206, consider the action to this point a draw, but with opportunities for both sides. The Federals, however, had an intact command structure, which gave them an inherent advantage, plus they had more supplies; Van Dorn had left his supply train was far behind, so his men had no food or ammunition except what they could take from the dead. In fact, Shea, p. 63, reports that no one on Van Dorn's staff even knew where the train was!. (Shea/Hess, p. 214, think that Van Dorn's failure to keep track of his supplies was the worst of his many failures in the campaign, and I suspect they're right.) Price's division had used up everything, both food and ammunition; they were almost unable to fight. Further, Shea/Hess, p. 213, suggest that Van Down made no attempt to figure out what was going on with McCulloch's division; "The Confederate commander became so immersed in the fight at Elkhorn Tavern that he effectively abdicated as army commander."
The wounded suffered very badly that night; the Federals had insufficient medical supplies and doctors, and the Confederates effectively no supplies and few doctors (Shea/Hess, pp. 207-208. In the absence of sufficient local medical facilities, after the battle, many wounded had to be evacuated all the way to Springfield, causing them intense pain and no doubt resulting in more unnecessary deaths; Shea/Hess, p. 273).
Even the healthy Confederates were without food, and had left their coats behind, leaving them to shiver through a cold night. By staying where he was, Van Dorn was arguably hurting his own men more than the enemy.
On the night of March 7/8, Curtis concluded that the Confederates were mostly used up, and so realigned his forces but stood his ground, ignoring what was left of McCulloch's division and bringing everyone up to face Van Dorn and Price (Shea, pp. 62-63; Shea/Hess, p. 120, who add that this was one of the best cases of battlefield management of the war -- it was hard to re-face an entire army in the presence of the enemy. Pea Ridge is the only instance in the war of it happening). Curtis also resupplied his troops, both with food and ammunition, which Van Dorn could not do.
Van Dorn should have gotten out of there, but he stood his ground -- indeed, some sources say he tried again to attack. His tired troops, disorganized and short of ammunition, couldn't do much. Curtis turned his artillery on them, using all his firepower to knock out individual batteries as Van Dorn deployed them piecemeal and thus neutralized Van Dorn's superiority in total guns (Shea/Hess, p. 236), then counterattacked with his infantry and rolled up the Confederates (Shea, p. 65), starting on Pea Ridge and proceeding south. At last Van Dorn (who had finally realized that his men were out of ammunition and his supply train was far away; Shea/Hess, p.239) gave up and ordered a retreat -- and he and Price headed away from their forces (Shea, p. 68). The Confederate army fled (Boatner, p. 628).
The only good news for the Confederates was, because the troops scattered, Curtis couldn't mop up the entire army (Shea, pp. 68-69; Shea/Hess, pp. 246-247, thinks that van Dorn wanted to retreat by going around the Union forces, but that Curtis's attack disrupted that, and because Curtis held back Carr's exhausted division, the attack failed to bag the whole bunch. And Curtis's horses were too jaded to engage in an all-out pursuit, and there was little forage in the vicinity; Curtis's messages back to Springfield and Rolla over the next several days were all demands for horses and ammunition; Shea/Hess, pp. 276-277).
Even without a serious pursuit, it was still an overwhelming victory. Even General Pike gave up on Van Dorn's army and headed back to Indian Territory (Shea/Hess, p. 256).
The Federal grip on Missouri would never again be seriously threatened. Federal control of Missouri was not inevitable; Shea/Hess, p. 308, contend that, had Van Dorn won, it would have completely changed the complexion of the war in Missouri -- and, by so doing, very possibly saved (e.g.) Memphis, and dramatically changed the course of the war in the west. Since it was the western armies that did most of the work of winning the war, this could have been disastrous. And Hartje, p. 160, considerers Pea Ridge a very near thing -- he thinks Van Dorn would have won had he had better troops and subordinates. Of course, if he'd taken time to train his men, then Curtis might have had time to get rid of subordinates like Sigel, so he too might have done better....
There is general consensus that the Federals had about 1300-1400 casualties (Livermore, p. 79, say 203 killed, 980 wounded, 201 missing; similarly Shea, p. 69; Boatner, p. 628, says 1384 total casualties, which is the same bottom line figure).
Confederate losses are simply unknown -- Shea, p. 69, says Van Dorn "lied -- and lied inconsistently" about his losses (though, given his hatred of army administration, it might be just that he never did the work to find out). According to Shea/Hess, his original estimate was 800 killed and wounded and 200-300 captured; later he claimed not more than 600 killed and wounded and 200 captured. Since the Federals sent more than 450 prisoners into captivity, this is demonstrably false (Shea/Hess, p. 270). But any actual casualty figures must be speculative. Livermore, p. 79, guesses 600 killed and wounded and 200 missing, which last number is surely low and even the first doesn't seem likely. Castel, p. 79, says in the text that Van Dorn had 800-1000 killed and wounded but in the footnote quotes an expert who (like Shea) is convinced that the Confederates under-counted their losses. Shea, p. 69, and Shea/Hess, p. 271, estimated 2000 lost in one way or another, or 15% casualties -- slightly higher than Curtis's loss rate of about 13%. Possibly the 1000 number is right in terms of raw casualties (though I strongly suspect it's more). But many deserted, and McCulloch's division had no high officers left, and Price was only slightly better off.
Van Dorn never did admit defeat, claiming "I was not defeated, but only foiled in my intentions" (Shea/Hess, p. 284). The high command apparently disagreed. P. G. T. Beauregard called Van Dorn's forces across the Mississippi (without consulting with his superior Albert Sydney Johnston or the Confederate authorities, according to Shea/Hess, p. 287), and Shea, p. 70, reports that he took such a large fraction of his forces that Arkansas was left almost undefended; the man who took charge after Van Dorn, Thomas C. Hindman, was "shocked" by how little was left. Van Dorn also took most of the supplies and equipment, making it very hard for Hindman to rebuild (Shea/Hess, p. 289, 296). And for all that, Van Dorn was too late to join in the Battle of Shiloh (Shea, p. 70), where his forces might have been decisive, and when he and Price finally went into action east of the Mississippi, in the mid-sized battles of Iuka and Corinth, they were defeated.
After that the Confederates finally assigned Van Dorn to a cavalry command, for which he was much better suited; he did fairly well in that role until he was murdered by a man whose wife he had seduced (for that, see again the notes to "Oh You Who Are Able....").
Curtis's army spent the next several weeks moving around Arkansas (the hope was that he might take Little Rock), struggling all the while to find suppies. On July 12, 1862, they finally reached Helena, Arkansas, on the Mississippi, which could be supplied by boat from Memphis (Shea/Hess, p. 303). Most of Arkansas remained in Confederate hands, but with Curtis having taken a large number of slaves as contraband and interfered with its internal communications, its ability to contribute to the Confederate cause was much reduced.
There is a Pea Ridge National Military Park, but it was not established until 1956 and didn't really become organized until 1963 (Shea/Hess, p. 329); it is still not as heavily supplied with interpretive kitsch as most Civil War battle sites.
Shea/Hess, starting on p. 326, cite several poems about the battle, including one by Herman Melville; none is well-remembered. They are aware of the Confederate versions of this song, but not of the only other seemingly-traditional song about the event, "Pea Ridge Battle (II)."
--- The Five (and a half) Versions ---
There seem to be only five substantial published versions of this song:
-- Belden's (from Ethel Doxey; republished by Cohen)
-- Randolph's A (from Mrs. W. A. Patton) [It is perhaps worth noting that Randolph reported that his grandfather had fought at Pea Ridge, in an Illinois cavalry unit; Cochran, p. 18]
-- A version from the family of Dan Martin and published by Johnston, pp. 33-36, which seems to be the best-preserved of the bunch.
-- A version in the Max Hunter collection, "My Name It Is Dan Martin," which was from Jimmy Driftwood, so he may have changed it a little (e.g. the lines in the first verse of his version, "Jined up with th rebels Just t' spite my mother-in-law" looks to me like a Driftwood joke). There is good reason to believe that Driftwood started from a real song, though. The John Quincy Wolf Jr. collection has a fragment, "Who's Price A-Fighting (The Pea Ridge Battle), sung by Neal Morris, Driftwood's father, in 1961. It is clearly the source of Driftwood's version, which Driftwood augmented. Also, Randolph's B fragment has similarities to Driftwood's text.
-- The version of Doney Hammontree, However, Hamontree's text was collected twice, once by High and once by Irene Carlisle ("The Battle of Pea Ridge," collected March 11, 1951, in the University of Arkansas collections). And the two collections have substantial differences -- starting in the very first line, where the Carlisle text reads "My name it is Dan Martin, I was born in Arkansas" and the High text reads "My name tis Danuel Martin, I was borned in Arkansaw." Where the two agree, I cite them as "Hammontree"; where they disagree, as "High" and "Carlisle."
-- There are also the fragments, Randolph's B and Alsopp's; they add no information not found in the full versions, although they confirm that a few of the lines were genuinely traditional.
Of the texts, Randolph's A and Carlisle's version of Hammontree are clearly the closest, with most of the details being the same except for pronunciation, but Randolph notably has a couple of stanzas about the singer's lieutenant that don't seem to occur elsewhere.
--- Information from the Versions ---
It appears that whoever wrote the song knew a great deal about the battle, on both the Federal and Rebel sides. There are many details, most of them accurate except for errors that are probable the result of mistakes in transmission. But, curiously, the published versions are very distinct both in content and in emphasis. The notes below attempt to explicate these details, noting which version(s) they are found in. The versions are identified by their sources: Belden, Randolph (A text), Martin, Hammontree (specifying High or Carlisle where they differ), and Driftwood.
Note that some versions are from a Northern, some from a Southern, perspective. The two are distinct enough that there was surely a deliberate rewrite along the way. I will deal below with which is more likely to be original.
-- "My name it is Dan Martin" (all substantial texts, with variants): There is every reason to believe that this attribution is correct, or at minimum to believe that the song is by someone in the same Civil War company (Company D, Phelps's Regiment) as Daniel H. Martin of Benton County, Arkansas. I will return to this point after we've looked at the other information in the song.
-- "I was forced to go/flee to Rollie" (Belden) = "Raleigh" (Randolph) = "Rolla" (Martin; Hammontree; High makes it "Rolley"): Rolla, Missouri, was important as the end of the railroad line from Saint Louis to the southwest. It was thus the main base of supply for Union armies in southern Missouri and Arkansas. This meant that it was fairly secure, so little wonder that in Belden's version, the Arkansas Unionist was "forced to go" there. (It is worth noting that, although Arkansas was southern, the people of the Ozarks were much more likely to be Unionist than those in the less mountainous parts of the state)
-- "Phillips's Regiment" (Belden) = "Phelps' regiment" (Martin, Randolph, Hammontree): There was no regimental commander at Pea Ridge named "Phillips," based on Shea, pp. 108-112. However, the (Union) 25th Missouri was "Phelps's Missouri Regiment," commanded by Colonel John S. Phelps. And, although it had an official regimental number, the number never really used it. Matthews, p. 49, says that the men "unanimously decided to call our Regt. the 'Phelps Regt.'"; I cannot recall him using any other name.
Clifford Ocheltree points out that Rolla was the county seat of Phelps County, so any regiment recruited there would be a "Phelps Regiment." True, but that the modern introduction to Matthews (p. i) says that "The regiment's colonel was U. S. Congressman John Phelps, a man with no previous military experience. [This was not unusual for regimental commanders, who were mostly people influential enough to raise a regiment.] Its ranks were filled with Union sympathizers, 'refugees' from southwestern Missouri, anxious to reclaim their homes from pro-Southern Missourians and their Confederate allies. (There were a couple of other units with many Missouri refugees, according to Shea/Hess, p. 15, but Phelps's was the only one specifically organized around such men.)
Phelps's Regiment fought only one major battle, at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, but performed well and suffered significant casualties contributing to the Union victory. Matthews, p. 63, says that the majority of the men in the regiment were southwestern Missourians and that Company D, for whom this song was probably composed, was especially heavy with men from Springfield and other parts of Missouri the Confederates controlled.
Thus it would be quite reasonable for a man who had fled to Rolla to join Phelps's regiment. As we shall see, the song gives other evidence that this was the unit intended. It was in Vandever's Second Brigade of Carr's Division, so it was in the thick of the fighting.
Phelps himself (1814-1886) was a lawyer who was born in Connecticut but moved to Springfield, Missouri in 1838 and was congressman from that state for many years (Warner-Blue, p. 367). He was originally Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment, then became colonel on December 19, 1861. He mustered out May 13, 1862 (the 25th was a six month regiment, based on Warner-Blue, p. 367), but was made a brigadier general in July 1862 and was appointed military governor of Arkansas in late 1862 and early 1863, when he had to leave office because congress failed to confirm his appointment as brigadier general (Phisterer, p. 283; Warner-Blue, p. 368); he was governor of Missouri 1876-1880 (Boatner, p. 650). He was important enough to have his own entry in the Dictionary of National Biography.
Not all of Phelps's regiment was present at Pea Ridge; a large part had been left behind to guard the supply line, including about half of Company D in which the author of this song served (Matthews, p. 81). But clearly the author, as well as the company's three officers, were at the battle; a sergeant was in charge of those left at Cassville, Missouri (about two-thirds of the way from Springfield to the Arkansas border).
The fact that some had been left behind makes its casualty rate very high indeed; Shea/Hess, p. 334, says the regiment suffered 12 killed, 71 wounded, 11 missing. It wasn't the heaviest unit loss in the Union army (the 9th Iowa, also in Vandever's brigade, had 38 killed, 174 wounded, 4 missing, and the two regiments of Dodge's Brigade also had over 100 casualties each; Shea/Hess, p. 333), but given that it probably brought only a few hundred men to the fight, this was probably among the highest proportional losses in Curtis's army. Casualties in Dan Martin's Company D were, if anything, even worse; according to Matthews, p. 106, all three of the company's officers were casualties, as was the orderly sergeant, at least one other sergeant, and every corporal in the company; there was only one uninjured sergeant left to command the company. (Lieutenant Matthews himself, shot through the lung, thought his wound mortal, but he survived.) Matthews, p. 117, says that there were 30 members of Company D present in Arkansas, and 17 were wounded; though none actually died, though some had limbs amputated or were otherwise maimed for life.
-- "His Colonel and his officers, They used us mighty well" (Martin): Strange phrasing, since Phelps not only raised the regiment but commanded it. In any case, John S. Phelps was colonel of the Phelps Regiment, and C. B. Holland the Lieutenant Colonel (Matthews, p. 117). Marcus Boyd had been the Lieutenant Colonel (under Phelps) of the Greene County Home Guard before (most of it) became the Phelps Regiment (Matthews, p. 119). Other officers who were directly over Company D were the Phelps Regiment's Major W. G. Geiger, plus of course the company's own officers: Captain John W. Lisenby, 1st Lieutenant R. P. Matthews (the author of Matthews), and 2nd Lieutenant Charles C. Moss, of whom more below.
-- "For four months we stayed at Rollie" (Belden; Martin has "Rolla"; High, although not Carlisle, has a variation of this line): Roughly right; the Phelps regiment was recruited from late August to December 1861, according to the information in Matthews, but would have been a functioning unit from about October, and it was heading for Springfield in February. Thus they were in Rolla during the worst of winter, as the song implies.
-- "He gathered up his rebels, Into Arkansas he run" (Martin): As noted above, Sterling Price abandoned Springfield, Missouri and retreated into Arkansas when Curtis's army approached.
-- "We chased them to Cross Hollows" (Martin): This is another indication that the unit in the song is Phelps's Regiment, or another unit in its brigade. After the skirmish at Sugar Creek, Vandeveer's Brigade went on to a former Confederate camp at Cross Hollow (Shea/Hess, pp. 50-51, south of what became the Pea Ridge battlefield -- and then had to make one of the longest forced marches of the war -- more than forty miles -- to reach Elkhorn Tavern in time for the fight (Matthews, pp. 86-87, 90-93; Shea/Hess, p. 173). Vanderveer's was the only major unit to make that trip.
-- "It was the sixth of March that we did march away" (Randolph, Hammontree): March 6, 1862, was when Van Dorn's army started on the final march to attack the Federals on March 7. Note that this date was significant to the Confederate army but not really to the Union -- but it is interesting that the person who produced the Confederate version knew the date.
-- "T'was on the seventh day of March In eighteen sixty two" (Driftwood): This is the correct date for the start of the battle, but perhaps a modification by Jimmy Driftwood, since it occurs only in his version.
-- "To fight the Federals and the flop-eared Dutch" (Randolph, Hammontree "Feds" for "Federals"): Franz Sigel was the best-known officer in Curtis's command -- the only one who had been in command of a brigade at Wilson's Creek -- and he was famously German and his military failures (to this time) overlooked because of his recruiting of Germans, disparagingly known as "Dutch." The distinction between "Federals" and "Dutch" might be an indication that the singer knew that Curtis's forces were divided into two divisions under Sigel and two under Curtis's direct control, as noted above -- although it might just be a crude insult. This is obviously an addition to the original song.
-- "meet old Sterling Price" (Belden, Martin) = "Price/old Price" (Randolph, Driftwood; Hammontree; also mentioned in Randolph B): Sterling Price (1809-1867), former governor of Missouri and commander of Missouri's Confederate troops. For another song about him, see "Sterling Price"; for his activity early in the war, see "The War in Missouri in '61."
He was not a soldier by profession; he had led a regiment in the Mexican War, in which he "displayed a laxness in enforcing discipline, a tendency to quarrel with other officials, and a penchant for acting in a highly independent, almost insubordinate, fashion" (Caster, p. 5). He still acted like that during the Civil War; the poor training of his troops before Wilson's Creek was one of the reasons he fought with McCulloch, and while it's less clear that that was an issue at Pea Ridge, it can't have helped.
Price was commander of about half of Van Dorn's army, and would serve as a Major General throughout the war, without great success.
Belden's text is correct in saying that Price "to Arkansas he run"; although Price had stayed in Missouri after Wilson's Creek, as we saw above, he retreated when Curtis's army headed for Springfield and beyond.
Belden's text is also correct in saying that Price suffered an arm wound at Pea Ridge; he took a bullet in the right arm that also bruised his side (HessEtAl, p. 114) -- if he hadn't moved his arm just before it hit, he thought the bullet would have killed him (Shea/Hess, p. 180). He did not leave the field, but his ability to lead his troops was affected. His injury meant that the Confederate high command was truly decimated -- McCulloch dead, Price injured, Van Dorn unwell.
Castel, p. 62, says "It is easy to see why Price inspired contempt in professionals such as McIntosh," because he was always proposing impossible plans and failed to impose much discipline on his men. Yet the soldiers seem to have liked him a lot, because he was very brave in the field (and so suffered several injuries such as the one he suffered at Pea Ridge) and also seems to have tried to care for him.
Note that Belden's reading "meet old Sterling Price" could mean to come into Price's presence -- but it could also mean to have to commands rendezvous (as Price and McCulloch did) or to encounter each other in battle, i.e. to fight Price.
-- "General Curtis" (Randolph)/"old Curtis" (High): Samuel Curtis (1877-1866), Union commander at Pea Ridge. He was field commander of Union forces in Missouri and Arkansas for most of the war. Although badly outnumbered at Pea Ridge, he asked far less of his raw troops than Confederate commander Van Dorn, and so was able to win the battle. A West Pointer, he had also been a civil engineer, a lawyer, and in the years before the Civil War, a congressman from Iowa. He had also led a regiment in the Mexican War. Resigning his seat in congress in 1861, he became colonel of the 2nd Iowa regiment, and was promoted brigadier general on May 17, 1861. He was promoted to major general soon after Pea Ridge. He had little to do for the rest of the war, although he did fight off "Price's Missouri Raid" in 1864 (Boatner, p. 215).
-- "Mackintosh"/"Mackintush" (sic.) (Belden, Martin): Presumably James McQueen McIntosh (1828-1862), a West Pointer who was McCulloch's senior brigadier and second in command, killed March 7. He had been colonel of the 2nd Arkansas Mounted Rifles, and was made brigadier on January 24, 1862 (Warner-Gray, pp. 202-203). His brigade was a cavalry brigade, even though it was part of a division that had a lot of infantry. His brother, interestingly, stayed with the Union.
Shea/Hess, p. 70, says that "McIntosh was an 1849 West Point graduate who had served for years on the frontier but had failed to develop the skills necessary for high command. Impulsive, recless, and courageous to a fault, McIntosh liked nothing better than plunging headlong into a fight." As an example of his lack of insight they point to his approach to Sigel's forces as they were retreating from Bentonville to Curtis's Little Sugar Creek position. He could have won the skirmish in several ways, but came up with an elaborate multi-part plan that let Sigel escape.
-- "We fought them full nine hours" (Martin): I haven't seen an exact count of how long the troops fought on March 7, and it depends on whether reference is to Elkhorn Tavern alone or Leetown as well -- but it was an all-day fight, which in early March would make nine hours not an impossible estimate.
-- "(Ben) McCullough" (Belden)/"McCulloch" (Randolph)/"McCullock" (Driftwood)/ "brave McCuoullogh" (Carlisle)/ "Ben McCullough" (High)/"Ben McCully" (Martin): Ben McCulloch (1811-1862). Commander at Wilson's Creek, and field commander of Confederate forces west of the Mississippi (or at least in Arkansas) until the arrival of Van Dorn. As we have seen, he was then relegated to division command, and was killed on March 7. High's version says that he was killed about an hour after the encounter at Leetown began; since no one really knows just when he fell, this can't be said with certainty, but his death halted the Confederate advance for about an hour (Shea, p .49). It also was probably the single worst blow to the Confederates; McCulloch, unlike Price and Van Dorn, had been doing a competent job until then (Shea/Hess, p. 313).
-- "Bentonville Road... about eleven o'clock next day" (Randolph) = "Bentonville Road, they marched me all that night And about eleven o'clock next day they led us into the fight" (Hammontree): The "Bentonville Road" could refer either to the road from Fayetteville to Bentonville, along which Van Dorn led his army in his hopes of attacking SIgel before he reunited with Curtis; or to the "Bentonville Detour," a lane at Pea Ridge that Van Dorn used to move north of Elkhorn Tavern (Shea, p.41); or to the road from Bentonville to Elkhorn Tavern which Sigel used to fall back to Curtis's position on Little Sugar Creek (see map on p. 38 of Shea). The evidence is confusing -- Randolph's version of the song is from the Confederate standpoint, but it was Sigel who marched at night away from Bentonville (Shea, p.40); the Confederates mostly marched during the day. The Confederates did march at night on the Bentonville Detour right before the attack (Shea, p. 41). Van Dorn's final march to Pea Ridge began at about 11:00, but 11:00 p.m., not a.m. (Shea, p. 41). Hammontree's text, unlike Randolph's, fits what Van Dorn actually did, so one suspects that either Randolph's text is a badly assimilated leftover from a Unionist version or an error for Hammontree's tex.
-- "They marched us down to the Widow Scott's" (Randolph, Hammontree): I have not been able to locate the Widow Scott's. It was not Curtis's headquarters (he was based at Pratt's Store between Little Sugar Creek and Elkhorn Tavern; see e.g. the map on p. 57) and Van Dorn -- who didn't even really have a staff yet -- didn't have an established headquarters location. I would guess it is near Leetown where Osterhaus fought McCulloch. It is not unlikely that its location has been forgotten -- there was no survey of the battlefield until much later, so there is uncertainty even about the location of such vital places as Pratt's Store (HessEtAl, p.88).
-- "Rain"(Belden)/"Range" (Martin): Neither army had a general named "Rain," let along "Range." It is safe to say that this is an error for "Rains" -- but which General Rains? Boatner, pp. 676-677, lists two Confederate generals and another important officer named Rains, and Warner-Gray, pp. 249-251, lists two Confederate generals -- but none of them were at Pea Ridge. In earlier editions of the Index I suggested that this was general James E. Rains (1833-1862), who served in the west though he was still only a colonel (11th Tennessee) at the time of Pea Ridge. But it turns out that the eighth "division" of Price's Missouri State Guard (actually a weak brigade; Shea/Hess, p. 23, compares these Guard divisions to regiments, which are smaller still) was commanded by Brigadier General James S. Rains (Shea, p. 112). The officers in the Missouri State Guard, up to and including Price himself, held Missouri ranks, not Confederate ranks; evidently James S. Rains never had his Missouri general's commission converted into a real Confederate commission.
According to Gerteis, p. 29, "[Missouri governor Clayiborne] Jackson appointed James S. Rains commander of the Eighth Military District, which included the southwestern counties of the state from Jackson County (and Kansas City) south to the Arkansas border. Born in Tennessee in 1817, Rains moved to Sarcoxie, Missouri, in 1840. He served as a judge in Newton County and as a member of the legislature." In other words, a political appointee with no military training (Gerteis, p. 40). He served at Wilson's Creek under Price, and stayed with Price when Price retreated to Arkansas. His wound at Pea Ridge was arguably the highlight of his war; skimming through the various references in Gerteis, it seems he never acquired much military skill. Even by the standards of Price's troops, his men were apparently badly trained; they were routed by half their numbers in a skirmish at Dug Springs prior to Wilson's Creek; it was his performance that led McCulloch to think Price's men were hopeless (Castel, pp.36-37). A Federal spy reported that he was "drunk all the time" in the winter of 1861/1862. Rains was eventually put out to pasture without achieving higher rank.
Price's units all started out as Missouri militia, and still had that status when they fought a Wilson's Creek. Many did not want to enter the Confederate service because it might require them to serve outside Missouri. Price himself was still a militia officer at Pea Ridge; he didn't take a Confederate commission until April 8, when he became a Confederate major general (Castel, p. 82; Shea/Hess, p. 19 says that Jefferson Davis made an agreement that Price would be made a major general when -- but only when -- he had convinced enough Missouri troops to enlist in the Confederate army to form a division for him to command). Reportedly, when the Confederates started converting Missouri State Guard soldiers into regular Confederate units, they started with the good troops -- Little's Brigade, then Slack's. Rains's men had not yet been converted at the time of Pea Ridge, which is probably another comment on their quality.
Rains's unit was part of the fighting on January 7, but it was on Price's left, fighting Dodge's brigade, not Price's right, where it would have fought Phelps's Regiment (Shea/Hess, p. 197).
After the battle, Rains spoke so strongly against Van Dorn that Van Dorn had him arrested. It will perhaps tell you something about Rains's character that, when Van Dorn offered to release him from arrest, Rains refused -- he wanted a court martial to clear his name (Hartje, p. 155). If he'd devoted half as much energy to training his troops as he to staying in a high dudgeon about his honor, he might actually have amounted to something as an officer....
-- "They mustered eighty thousand" (Belden)/"They mustered eighteen thousand" (Martin): Belden's number is absurdly impossible; no army west of the Mississippi ever approached that number, and no army that size could have been supplied for long away from the railroads. Clearly an error of hearing for Martin's "eighteen thousand," which is in fact about right for Van Dorn's army -- probably a little high, but close, particularly if you count hangers-one who would not fight.
-- "Segal" (Belden) = "Seegle" (Hammontree) = "SIgel" (Randolph B): [Franz] Sigel (1824-1902), a wing and division commander under Curtis. He had attained his rank by bringing many German immigrants to the Union colors; other soldiers (both Union and Confederate) had a very low opinion of his "Dutchmen" (as witness the insult to the "flop-eared Dutch" above). Generally inept, Sigel had his one good day of the war at Pea Ridge (and even that was accomplished under Curtis's eye; Shea/Hess, p. 30, comment that, early in the campaign, Curtis let Sigel operate on his own, because he "had not yet learned that Sigel had an alarming tendency to ignore orders and engage in eccentric maneuvers.... [W]ithin few weeks he would be careful not to let the German general out of his sight"). On p. 230, they claim that Sigel thought the battle lost on the night of March 7, and was hoping to cut his way out and retreat -- but Curtis pointed him in the right direction and it actually worked out; Shea/Hess, p. 311, in the same paragraph that they call him erratic and unreliable overall, refer to his performance on March 8 as "stellar." (After the battle, though, Sigel turned into a super-retreater again; he apparently tried, without orders, to retreat to Missouri, making it easier for the Confederate army to retreat; Shea/Hess, pp. 258-259. After the battle, Curtis and his superior Henry W. Halleck corresponded at length about what to do with Sigel, who was not only incompetent but was claiming credit for winning Pea Ridge; Shea/Hess, pp. 278-279).
-- "old Slack" (Belden)/"General Slack" (Randolph, Hammontree): William Y. Slack, a Confederate brigadier killed on March 7. Shea, p. 111, list him as colonel commanding Price's Second Missouri Brigade, which makes him leader of one of Price's better units. According to Warner-Gray, p. 278, he was born in Kentucky in 1816; his family moved to Missouri in 1819. By training a lawyer, he was another of Claiborne Jackson's brigadiers by fiat. He had already been wounded once, at Springfield; at Pea Ridge, he was wounded again (Shea, p. 59), although he lingered for two weeks, so the cause of death may have been infection in the wound rather than the wound itself. About a month later, the Confederate congress promoted him to brigadier in the Confederate army (it's not clear whether they knew he was dead). The promotion was dated after Pea Ridge, though, so he was still a Confederate colonel (although a Missouri brigadier) at the time of his death. As for being "old Slack," he wasn't young, but he was younger than either McCulloch or Price.
According to Shea/Hess, p. 175, his habit of always being out in front of his troops explains his demise; he was "possibly the only [Confederate] casualty" of the first round of fighting when Vandeveer's brigade (and hence Phelps's Regiment) arrived on the field. Thus he was not only killed at Pea Ridge, he was killed by someone in the same brigade as Dan Martin.
-- "a tavern called Elkhorn" (Belden; Carlisle; Ranolph calls it "Elk horn"; High has the "battle of Elk-Horn"); also "Next morning at the Elk Horn Tavern" (Martin): the center of the fighting on March 7, held by Carr for most of the day before he was driven back. Shea, p. 55. has a sketch of it, but I don't know if it is authentic.
The tavern was built at an unknown time prior to 1858 to serve the traffic along the Telegraph Road (also known as the Wire Road) -- the great road from Rolla to Springfield and on past Fayetteville that was the main means of transportation in this railroad-less, navigable river-less part of the country. Jesse Cox, who bought the property in 1858, placed the elk antlers on the roof of the two story building that gave it its name (Shea/Hess, p. 152). The building was destroyed sometime in 1863 (HessEtAl, p. 108); there is a reconstructed version, one of the key locations of the Pea Ridge battle site, but I suspect that much of the reconstruction is guesswork.
In Van Dorn's original plan, he hoped to have Price's and McCulloch's divisions, which had taken separate roads from Bentonville, reunite at the Tavern to attack Curtis's rear (Shea, p. 42). It was an important position because it blocked the exit from Cross Timber Hollow, meaning that the Confederates would have to attack uphill and perhaps be bunched by the ground. This made it the center of a strong defensive position (Shea,p. 56)
-- "Price he tuck the Dinver road the train tuck to the rit" (High)/"Some took up the left-hand road, and some took up the right" (Carlisle): Perhaps the original line was something like "Price he took the left hand road, McCulloch took the right" (which is in fact what happened, based on the map on p. 45 of Shea; this is what led to the Confederate army fighting two separate fights).
-- "Pea Ridge" (Belden, Driftwood, Hammontree)/"the Pea Ridge Fight" (Randolph): Pea Ridge -- or the lower ground around it of it -- was of course the site of the battle, although Curtis had planned his battle around the nearby Little Sugar Creek. The generic title for the battle is usually given as "The Battle of Pea Ridge," although the Confederates called it "Elhhorn Tavern" (HessEtAl, p. 108). But "Elkhorn Tavern" should ideally be reserved for the fight on the northern battlefield, the one fought mostly by Price. McCulloch's fight is sometimes called the "Battle of Leetown," since that was the nearest settlement, Phisterer, p. 95, for instance, gives "Pea Ridge" as the collective title for what he calls the battles of Bentonville, Leetown, and Elkhorn Tavern. The point being that "Pea Ridge" is not a title a participant would automatically have known -- the locals often used the name "Big Mountain" for Pea Ridge (so, pretty consistently, HessEtAl, with explanation on p. 86 that "Big Mountain" was the local name, by contrast to a "Little Mountain" closer to Leetown). One suspects that the Confederates called it "Elkhorn Tavern" because they felt that the real battle was there, while the Federals felt that both Leetown and Elkhorn were important parts of the fight.
Pea Ridge itself was named because wild peas grew abundantly on its slopes (Castel, p. 71).
-- "McManus acted queer" (Randolph; Carlisle "quare"; High, astounding, transfers this event to "Vandorn"): I have found no mention of this in the histories. Since he was "shooting at the Dutch" and this is in the context of Leetown, this McManus must have been in McCulloch's forces. No unit commander in McCulloch's division was named "McManus," but presumably it was a lower-ranked person. The behavior described is hardly unusual; a lot of men had a hard time actually fighting during a battle. This was especially true this early in the war, when the men weren't particularly accustomed to battle. We might note, however, that Phelps's regiment had a soldier, William S. McManns or McMenus (Matthews, pp. 28-31 in the list of men in the regiment).
-- "Our General McCulloch's killed" (Randolph): accurate (although there is some dispute about how it happened and was discovered; see above).
-- "brave Van Dorn" (Belden, Hammontree): Brave he was; competent was another question. To summarize what was said above, Earl Van Dorn (1820-1863) was commander of Confederate forces beyond the Mississippi. He came in with a high reputation: F"rom no officer was more expected at the outset of hostilities in 1861 than from Earl Van Dorn. Few men of his age had more military experience and prestige. His record of service in the Mexican War and on the Indian border indicated that he possessed courage and definite leadership possibilities.... But Earl Van Dorn lacked some vital quality as a man and as a general that kept him from achieving the success that his country expected" (Hartje, pp. x-xi).
He was appointed to soothe the squabbles between Price and McCulloch over who was senior (the two had been squabbling about this for over a year; Price was made Major General earlier, but by the government of Missouri; McCulloch was appointed by the Confederate government). He commanded the Confederates at Pea Ridge, and was largely responsible for the disaster.
Foote, p. 277, offers this description: "Approaching his prime at forty-one, he was dark-skinned and thin-faced, with a shaggy mustache, an imperial, and a quick, decisive manner; 'Buck,' his fellow Confederates called him. Except for his size (he was five feet five: two inches taller than Napoleon) he was in fact the very beau sabreur of Southern fable, the Bayard-Lochinvar of maiden dreams. Not that his distinction was based solely on his looks. He was a man of action, too -- one who knew how to grasp the nettle, danger, and had done so many times. Appointed to West Point by his great-uncle Andrew Jackson, he had gone on to collect two brevets and five wounds a a lieutenant in the Mexican War and in skirmishes with Comanches on the warpath." His experience of high command -- like every Civil War officer of his age or younger -- was nil.
And he seems to have been good at making enemies -- he was assassinated in 1863 for apparently sleeping with another man's wife! (For more on Van Dorn's rakish personal life, see the notes to "Oh You Who Are Able....")
The use of the word "brave" -- or, indeed, any complimentary word -- hints at Union origin; hardly any Confederate who went through the battle had any good words for Van Dorn (Shea/Hess, p.268).
"We planted out our batteries and waited till daylight. Next morning we rose early" (Martin): Clearly a reference to the night of March 7/8, when Curtis assembled his entire force south of Elkhorn Tavern for his counterattack. (It cannot refer to the previous night, because all Federal units changed position in the course of March 7.) These verses appear, however, to be displaced in the Martin text, since they occur before the verses referring McCulloch being killed and Price injured.
-- "Van Dorn was taken very sick" (Randolph)/"Van Dorn he grew very sick" (Hammontree): As mentioned above, he was sick even before the battle started, though the men may not have known that. But because he couldn't travel on his own, it probably seemed to his men that he fled the field when he decided his army must retreat. (Ironically, I read somewhere that he felt much better on March 8, the day the battle was finally lost.)
-- "Van Dorn he lost his hat" (Randolph, Hammontree, Driftwood spells it "Van Dorr"): This verse is the sum total of the Allsopp fragment: "It was at the battle of Elkhorn, Van Dorn he lost his hat, And for about a half a mile He laid the bushes flat." I have not heard of an incident of Van Dorn losing his hat. If this refers to anything, I suspect it is the aforementioned incident (Hartje, p. 115) when Van Dorn temporarily lost his sword and had to hunt for it. But this was before the battle -- indeed, it was before Van Dorn even met Price and McCulloch. So it is quite a confused reference.
-- "Plumb to White River he did go" (Randolph, Hammontree): This is roughly right. Insofar as Van Dorn's army went anywhere (as opposed to scattering to the four winds), it went southeast (toward the White River) to Van Winkle's Mill (Shea, p.69). Van Dorn later took the army to Des Arc on the White River so that it could be taken across the Mississippi (Castel, p. 81).
-- "Well, Price come dashing down the road... And when he heard of McCulloch's death, The tears rolled down his face...." (Morris). This is the one thing in the versions which is really, truly, utterly wrong; Price and McCulloch had quarreled constantly. They even published letters attacking each other in the major papers! (Castel, p. 63). It's interesting that Jimmy Driftwood cut it from his father's version. It is reported that Price cried after Van Dorn ordered the Confederates to retreat (Castel, p. 76) -- but that was because of the defeat, not McCulloch's death. According to Castel, pp. 80-81, the Confederate army did not feel defeated, and their opinion of Price actually rose after the battle, even though Van Dorn implicitly attacked his troops' indiscipline (and most moderns think Van Dorn was right). Even General Rains apparently felt this way; he declared, "By God, nobody was whipped at Pea Ridge but Van Dorn!" (Shea/Hess, p. 260; Hartje, p. 155). Which is absurd; one could certainly make a case that the fiasco was entirely Van Dorn's fault, but the Confederates definitely lost.
-- "Price said, boys I never shall, Surrender to the foe, Before I'll bow to Abraham I'll go to Mexico (an' he did)" (Driftwood): Price did indeed flee to Mexico after the war, although he returned to Missouri when the French colonial expedition to that country was overthrown in 1866; he died in 1867 (Warner-Gray, p. 247). But note that this refers to events after the war -- the only time the song refers to events after the Pea Ridge battle. I suspect this is a later edition, perhaps by Driftwood.
"I served out my six months at Rolla" (Martin): Phelps's Regiment was a six month unit, so this is is accurate.
"I went back to the army And enlisted for three years" (Martin): An interesting verse; is this something Martin added later? As Johnston's account (summarized below) shows, Dan Martin did indeed rejoin the army, but under very different circumstances. I note that this part of the song does not appear in other versions. This hints that Martin might have written the song while with Phelps's Regiment, and that others in the regiment spread it, but Martin changed it for his own family.
--- Who Is Dan Martin? ---
-- "Price said, boys I never shall, Surrender to th foe, Before I'll bow to Abraham I'll go to Mexico (an' he did)" (Driftwood): Price did indeed flee to Mexico after the war, although he returned to Missouri when the French colonial expedition to that country was overthrown in 1866; he died in 1867 (Warner-Gray, p. 247). But note that this refers to events after the war -- the only time the song refers to events after the Pea Ridge battle. I suspect this is a later edition, perhaps by Driftwood.
The above doesn't address the most specific item of all: the very first line of the song, which claims to identify its author: "My name it is Dan Martin." This is found in every substantial text, with the name given as either "Dan Martin" or "Daniel Martin."
-- There is one other identifying name, "There was a young lieutenant, His name was Charley Moss" (Martin; Randolph)
This gives us an absolute fix: Martin and Moss both belonged to Company D of Phelps's Regiment.
Matthews, pp. 30-31, says that Charles C. Moss joined Phelps's regiment as a private on October 31, 1861, at Rolla and was a member of Company D. He was made 2nd Lieutenant on December 6, 1861, and would suffer a hip wound at Pea Ridge. According to Matthews, p. 118, he would later become a captain in the First Arkansas Cavalry. Thus the mentions of Moss also point us to the Phelps Regiment. Dan Martin wasn't the only one who liked Moss. Matthews, p.39, says that he "was a jolly, funny, good natured boy, who would sing his comic songs had he been a Maj[or] General in charge of [an army] Corps. Matthews should know; he had been orderly sergeant of the Home Guard company that, after Phelps's Regiment was formed, became Company D, and after the company was organized as a six month regiment, he became its First Lieutenant, with Moss as Second Lieutenant and Martin one of the privates (Matthews, pp. 46-47).
Matthews, pp. 28-29 in the list of members of the Phelps regiment, lists among the men Daniel H. Martin, Private, age 23, enlisted October 17, 1861 at Rolla, Missouri, jut like Moss. He was a member of Company D. He thus fits every criterion for being the author of this song. This was my conclusion before I saw Johnston, but Johnston reached the same result independently (and long before I looked at the matter). On p. 33 he says that Daniel Hugh Martin was born in Benton County, Arkansas (date unknown), and died August 4, 1880, in Marble, Madison County, Arkansas.
Dan Martin seems to have been quite a character, and by no means an amusing one. Johnston, pp. 37-39, has biographical details. He was born c. 1838, making him 23 or 24 at the time of Pea Ridge. He is said to have been quite tall -- six feet, two inches -- with light hair and blue eyes. Martin's father James D. Martin was a minister; his mother died when he was still a boy. He was born in Benton County, Arkansas. (I verified this from the 1850 census records; Daniel H. Martin of Benton County was born c. 1838.)
Johnston adds that Martin disliked his stepmother, whom he claimed mistreated him, and arranged an accident for his father which left the father with a broken collarbone. He then ran away from home at the age of thirteen. Two years later, he came back to kidnap his ten-year-old sister to get her away from his stepmother.He was married at the time he enlisted, and returned to his wife when the regiment mustered out after Pea Ridge. But he later joined the 1st Arkansas Cavalry (Union). He was detached for a time, went AWOL, apparently managed to explain himself, but disappeared again and was listed as a deserter. After the war, believing his first wife had been unfaithful, he stole his daughter and moved to Arkansas, taking another wife, then abandoning her before taking a third wife, Rutha A. Hawkins, in 1877. They moved repeatedly in the period before he died in 1880. No explanation is given for his rambling. He may just have had severe wanderlust. And it is possible (as the song hints) that he was reconciled with his father after James Martin found a third wife. But, since we know Dan was a deserter and a bigamist, one wonders about other crimes.
Which brings us to Matthews, pp. 84-85, which has this statement: "While the fight was progressing, Dan Martin, the noisiest man in Co[mpany] D, told the boys that his father belonged to a Texas reg[imen]t, and might possibly be in that fight and it would be a good joke on the old man if he should get his chunk knocked out. After the fighting had ceased and we had bivouacked for the night, Dan got permission to go and look over the battle field and soon after returned and asked Capt[ain] Lisenby for a man or two to help him bury his father whom he had sure enough found dead."
The context is this: Curtis's army has driven Price out of Springfield; Price is retreating toward or into Arkansas. Prices's forces periodically fought rearguard actions against Curtis; this incident arose during one such. The exact place is not identified, only that it is somewhere between Cassville and Little Sugar Creek -- but the units engaged tit with those at Little Sugar Creek. Certainly it was either in Benton County, Arkansas or in the part of Missouri just over the border.
But Phelps's Regiment wasn't engaged at Little Sugar Creek (Shea/Hess, pp. 39-43). So how could Martin have known there was a Texas regiment involved? Price's entire force was Missouri state militia. To be sure, Hébert's brigade came to support Price at Little Sugar Creek, and it did include the 4th Texas Cavalry Battalion. But Curtis didn't know this (Shea/Hess, p. 41), so how would Dan Martin?
Also, if Dan Martin was so estranged from his father, how did he know his father was in a Texas regiment? (For what it's worth, the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database does not list a James Martin who served in the relevant unit. This doesn't prove much, since search results depend on knowing just what to look for. For example, the "Charles C. Moss" of Matthews is listed as "Charles D. Moss." Which is right? I can't tell.)
There was simply no reason for Dan Martin to suspect Curtis's army had fought against his father at Little Sugar Creek.
Now to give Martin his due, Matthews wrote his account 28 years later (and the original manuscript is lost; what we have is a typescript which might have transcription errors). So Matthews might have details wrong. But if it is accurate, what possible reason could Dan Martin have had to go look for his father among the Confederate dead in that particular place? None. But he was in or near his home county -- quite possibly near his father's home. Did Dan Martin find his father's body -- or did he leave the ranks to murder his father? I think the latter a better fit for the evidence. His father would not have had to be in uniform -- many Confederates had no uniforms (the Missouri troops had no uniforms at this time, e.g. -- at about this time they received their first issued clothing of any kind, which were pants of undyed wool; Shea/Hess, p. 50).
None of which has anything to do with whether Dan Martin of Company D wrote this song, of course.
--- Northern or Southern? ---
We have versions of this with both northern and southern orientations. So which is the original? Shea/Hess, who quote four southern stanzas on pp. 321-322, think there is not much variation in the versions. But they didn't know Belden's version. In fact the evidence is conflicting.
-- Of the five versions, three are pro-southern. (Sort of. High's version of Hammontree has the singer fleeing "those bad rebels"; Carlisle has him flee "those dishonored Feds" -- so Hammontree apparently had it both ways!) This is interesting but not really very good evidence -- the sample is small, and it is biased. All the versions with a southern orientation are from Arkansas; Belden's northern version is from Missouri. So each state had a version that conformed with its Civil War allegiance. It may be that Southern versions predominate simply because Arkansas was better surveyed. The Martin version, the most authoritative, says that the singer "fled from those bad rebels," so it probably deserves extra weight.
-- The song knows a surprising amount about the battle (more than any foot soldier would know), and it names generals on both sides. But it names just two on the Union side: Curtis and Sigel, the two best-knnown officers by far. On the Confederate side, it mentions Van Dorn, Price, McCulloch, McIntosh, Slack, and even the extremely obscure Rains (though it has his name wrong). It seems as if the song knows more about the Confederate command.
-- Several versions mention going to Rolla. That was Union territory from the moment Nathaniel Lyon took command in the state. No Confederate would go there, either to fight or to enlist.
-- But we have seen that the song involves an actual Union soldier, Dan Martin, and the actual place of his enlistment. The Union version is thus entirely consistent in its viewpoint. The Confederate versions do not have an obvious change of perspective, but it's there even so. The overwhelming weight of evidence is that this started as a Union song and was partially adapted by an unknown Confederate sympathizer. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: LA12

Battle of Falkirk Muir, The

DESCRIPTION: "Up and rin away', Hawley (x2), The philabegs are coming down." "Young Charlie" has given Hawley's army a thrashing. The song insults the Hannoverian troops and describes how the Jacobites won a very close battle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg)
KEYWORDS: cowardice battle Jacobite
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 17, 1746 - Battle of Falkirk won by Jacobite forces (see "The Battle of Falkirk 1746" at the BritishBattles site).
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 213-214, "The Battle of Falkirk Muir" (1 text)
ST MBra213 (Partial)
File: MBra213

Battle of Fisher's Hill

DESCRIPTION: "Old Early's Camp at Fisher's Hill Resolved some Yankee's blood to spill, He chose the time when Phil was gone." Early attacks the Union troops, but Sheridan hears the fight, rides back, and rallies his troops to brush Early aside
AUTHOR: C. A. Savage? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1864
KEYWORDS: battle Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 22, 1864 - Battle of Fisher's Hill.
Oct 19, 1864 - Battle of Cedar Creek
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 39-40, "Sheridan's Ride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 58, "Battle of Fisher's Hill" (1 text) (OakEd, p. 69)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #97, p. 8, "Battle of Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864" (2 references)
ST ThBa058 (Partial)
Roud #7029
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as100710, "The battle of Cedar Creek, October 19th, 1864," J Magee (Philadelphia), 1864
NOTES [2771 words]: Thomas's version of this song appears to conflate two battles, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek -- understandable, since both involved Confederates based at Fisher's Hill. (Indeed, it may be an indication that the song is old, from before the names of the battles were standardized.) Although the song is called "Fisher's Hill," the description is of the battle of Cedar Creek.
The Shenandoah Valley had been a thorn in the side of the Union from the beginning of the war; it has been the site of Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862, which disrupted the Federals' 1862 Peninsular campaign. And it had been a source of more trouble in 1864; with Grant bearing down on Richmond, Robert E. Lee had sent Jubal A. Early's understrength corps -- the remnant of Jackson's old command -- back to the Valley to see if Early could replicate Jackson's success.
In one sense, Early did better; he actually raided Washington, skirmishing outside the city on July 11-12 (Boatner, p. 256). But Grant had rushed enough troops to the city that Early dared not assault it. Back into the Shenandoah Valley he went.
Grant was determined not to repeat the Union mistakes of 1862, when Jackson had defeated a bunch of Union forces in detail by maneuvering between them. Grant would combine all the Shenandoah forces into one army, reinforce it, and appoint a single commander. And an aggressive one, at that. His choice was his old favorite, Phil Sheridan (the "Phil" of the song), who in 1864 had become cavalry commander of the Army of the Potomac. Sheridan took command of his new army on August 7, 1864 (Boatner, p. 743). It was a huge force -- Boatner, p. 743, says 48,000 men; the table of organization on pp. 308-313 of Wert shows seven divisions of infantry organized into three corps, plus three divisions of cavalry. Wert, p. 21, puts the total at 35,000 infantry and 8,000 cavalry. Early never had more than five divisions of infantry and two of cavalry (Wert, pp. 313-317), and usually he had just four divisions of infantry -- all of which had been so heavily used as to be hardly stronger than brigades. Sheridan had at least a 3:1 edge in troops.
If anything, the discrepancy in the cavalry was even worse; the Southern horses were almost completely broken down, and their discipline was eroding (Wert, p. 24). And Early couldn't count on his generals to make up the difference; although Sheridan's senior officers weren't particularly brilliant, Early's men had lost so many officers that there simply weren't that many good leaders left in his corps.
The campaign began in earnest in September. Sheridan had been inactive for his first few weeks in command, so Early sent back one of his divisions (Kershaw's) to Lee (Boatner, p. 937). Sheridan responded by attacking Early at Winchester (the battle came to be called "Third Winchester" or "Opequon Creek").
It was not a good battle for the Federals; Early's forces had been scattered, but the Union troops had not been able to concentrate and attack; "during the first half of the day the Federal program had been handled with an absolute minimum of skill" (Catton, p. 300). Had the infantry battle been all that mattered, Early would likely have held his ground and earned at least a draw. Indeed, if he had had even a few more men to counter Sheridan's last reserves, he might have won outright. But Sheridan had one last division to put in, and it turned the tide (Wert, p. 70). And Sheridan's cavalry smashed the Confederate troopers (Wert, p. 97, etc.) to turn the battle into a clear Union victory. Early suffered roughly 30% losses (Wert, p. 103. The Union forces actually suffered more casualties, but they had such a huge advantage in force that it amounted to only 12% of those engaged on their side). Early also lost his senior division commander, Robert Rodes (Boatner, p. 707), which caused him to reshuffle the commands of two of his divisions. Early had no choice but to retreat to his bastion at Fisher's Hill -- which is where Wert, p. 106, thinks he should have fought in the first place.
Sheridan, having won his first victory, followed Early to Fisher's Hill. It was a very difficult position to attack -- the Confederates actually called it "their Gibraltar" (Wert, p. 110), and had fortified it carefully. If Early had stayed there all along, the Union troops might never have been able to attack him.
But the severe Confederate losses at Winchester had changed the situation. They could no longer man the entire Fisher's Hill line at full strength. Sheridan and his officers looked the position over, spotted a weak point, and attacked it on September 22 (Wert, p. 111). This time, Early's forces were simply not in position to resist. They were swept from the field, and probably lost at least 15% of their remaining forces (Boatner, p. 281; Freeman, p. 584, cites losses of 1235 in the infantry and artillery, with cavalry losses unreported). Federal losses were on the order of 2%.
The Union forces thought Early no longer a threat (Catton, p. 303), so they proceeded with their original mission of making the Shenandoah useless to the Confederacy. Food was confiscated, buildings burned, transportation destroyed (Wert, p. 157ffff.). But Sheridan didn't move forward to commit his act of devastation; he headed back north (Catton, p. 304) -- otherwise, his own supply lines would have been cut by his own acts of destruction. And that gave Early a chance to produce one last surprise. Back he came to Fisher's Hill -- and, from there, counterattacked at Cedar Creek a month after the first Fisher's Hill battle.
He didn't have a lot of choice. For one thing, Sheridan's devastation had been effective; there were no supplies at Fisher's Hill (Catton, p. 306). Also, Robert E. Lee -- who never understood how heavily Early was outnumbered (Freeman, p. 585) -- was pushing for action (Wert, p. 173).
Early had three cards up his sleeve. First, Lee had given him back Kershaw's Division, which had not been available at Winchester and Fisher's Hill (Freeman, p. 585). This didn't make up all Early's losses, but it certainly helped! Second, Sheridan thought Early was unable to attack him (especially after his cavalry tore Early's to shreds at Tom's Brook on October 9; Sheridan had told his cavalry commander A. T. A. Torbert "to whip the rebel cavalry or get whipped," and Torbert took the first option; Freeman, pp. 596-597). So in mid-October Sheridan put his army into a camp that was reasonably comfortable, but unfortified, and laid out so that the various forces were not mutually supporting (Wert, p. 172; Catton, p. 307). And, finally, although Early didn't know it, Sheridan left the army for a time, to argue with the government about whether and when he could release his troops for other service (Wert, p. 172).
And Sheridan's flank was in the air, although he thought it inaccessible. But Early's officers (notably John B. Gordon, his best division commander) found a way to sneak around it. The path the located ran very close to the Federal lines, so they could have been defeated in detail if the Federals had noticed -- but they didn't notice (Wert, pp. 175-176).
So Early attacked the Union flank, and promptly routed George Crook's corps -- seven thousand men, or about a fifth of Sheridan's infantry (Catton, pp. 308-309); apart from a few artillery companies, the corps had collapsed almost without firing a shot (Wert, pp. 182-183). Most of the men in the next corps, William H. Emory's XIX corps, were also driven from the field (Wert, p. 190); the Confederates captured 1300 prisoners and 18 cannon (Wert, p. 195). And, by routing them, John Gordon had a big chunk of the Confederate infantry in the rear of the Union VI Corps, Sheridan's last (if best) infantry unit; if the entire Confederate force could strike before the Federals could rearrange their forces, Sheridan's army could be disastrously defeated (Catton, p. 309).
To top it all off, Horatio G. Wright, the VI Corps commander who was in overall command with Sheridan gone, took a wound in the throat (Wert, p. 191). He stayed with the troops, but he was dripping blood, eventually found it hard to talk, and can't have been at his best.
But it was a foggy morning, so it was hard for the Confederates -- including Early -- to see what was happening (Wert, p. 197). Many of Early's forces (most of them starving) scattered to plunder the Union camp (at least, that was Early's explanation; Freeman, p. 608; Wert, p. 184; Catton, p. 315). Gordon begged Early to get them back in line and finish the battle, but Early was sure that the rest of the Federals would flee the field (so, at least, Catton, p. 311; Freeman, p. 604; Boatner, p. 134; Wert places much of the blame on Early's subordinates for halting although he does say on p. 227 that he believes Early thought the battle won. The other sources I checked mostly agree with Gordon, but because so few Confederate reports were filed, it appears it's basically Early's word against Gordon's -- Wert, pp. 215-217. Apparently scholars consider Gordon more credible).
We can't know if the Southrons could really have finished off the Sixth Corps and truly won the battle (after all, that one corps probably still had more men than Early's entire army, and there were two solid Union cavalry divisions present as well), but it appears that most southerners came to believe that they could have done so (Wert, p. 244). Early just had to reorganize his lines, get his cavalry on the Union supply line up the Valley Pike, and finish things off. But he didn't even try -- he didn't even try to get his men into proper defensive positions. Early has been bold, but, Gordon concluded, "he lacked the courage of his convictions" (Wert, p. 247).
Meanwhile, Sheridan had heard of the catastrophe (reports claim that he heard the noise of the fight by listening to the ground, but given how far away he was, I have to think this is folklore), and set off on his black horse Rienzi (this is the name used in most sources; Wert, p. 221, etc. calls it "Rienza") for the field. It was a twenty mile trip (although, contrary to people who had heard too many Black Bess tales, Sheridan didn't gallop the whole way; Catton, p. 313 -- and he did use both whip and spur; Wert, p. 223), and he periodically gathered up bodies of troops stumbling away from the field and turned them around and sent them back. He reached the field between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. (Wert, p. 223).
And, somehow, his mere presence helped the men recover their spirits -- perhaps because they remembered winning two battles under "Little Phil." As he came by, they cheered him like crazy -- and although Crook's corps was too scattered to fight, the other two, and the cavalry, reorganized and were ready to go to battle (Wert, pp. 223-225). And so, after a quiet mid-day, Sheridan restarted the battle at 4:00 p.m. (Wert, p. 229; it probably would have been earlier except for a false report that Confederate reinforcements were arriving, which had to be investigated).
Some of the Confederates, such as Gordon, were expecting a counter-attack, but there was only so much they could do to prepare; they weren't in a good position to defend, and they didn't have enough troops to cover all the ground they needed to cover. The first part of the Federal assault was halted with some loss (Wert, pp. 232-233), but eventually the Federals broke through and outflanked the Confederates. Who promptly started collapsing from left to right (Wert, p. 234). And Stephen Dodson Ramseur (the youngest West Pointer to make Major General in the Confederate armies; Wert, pp. 237-238), commanding one of Early's divisions, was mortally wounded while trying to rally the men (Freeman, p. 607). This meant four of Early's five divisions were commanded by officers with less than five weeks' experience in the job. In the midst of a catastrophe, there were no officers left who knew how to handle their troops! Most commentators agree that the shortage of southern officers (all the way down to the company level; it wasn't just generals) converted what started as a reverse into a disaster.
Sheridan promptly smashed two Confederate divisions, forcing the others to retreat, and when Sheridan's cavalry pitched into the Confederate rear, the retreat became a rout (Catton, p. 316). The Confederates fled back to (or past) Fisher's Hill in utter disorder (Wert, p. 236). The Federals took back all the cannon they had lost, and a couple of dozen more (Freeman, p. 608), and thousands of prisoners (Sheridan claimed 1600, although Freeman, p. 609, casts doubt on the number); the dying Ramseur, who had never seen his new baby and never even knew the child's gender, was one of them.
The best available estimate for Union losses is, 644 killed, 3430 wounded, 1591 missing, total of 5665 (Livermore, p. 129); for the Confederacy, 320 killed, 1540 wounded, 1050 missing, total of 2910 (Livermore, p. 130; Wert, p. 246, reprints these estimates but admits to grave doubts about the southern numbers). Even in total defeat, the Confederates had inflicted more losses than they had taken -- but it was a rate of exchange the Confederates simply could not afford. Wert's final judgment, on p. 248, is that Early had out-generaled Sheridan, but that his edge was not enough to make up for Sheridan's advantage in numbers -- and Sheridan had made up for much of the difference by being so inspiring.
With Early well and truly whipped, and everyone settling down for the winter, Robert E. Lee withdrew four of Early's five divisions to help him defend Petersburg (Wert, p. 250). Early was left only with Wharton's Division, which had been small to begin with and now was hardly the size of a regiment, and a few unattached units which were equally attenuated (Freeman, p. 617); Wert, p. 251, estimates that he had 1500 men, mostly without transport. Early, a Lieutenant General, was left with a command that should have gone to a senior colonel or, at best, a brigadier general; Gordon was given charge of Early's troops at Petersburg. The troops Early had left could no longer hope to attack; they were simply there to hold down a few Federal troops. They didn't hold everyone, though; the Union Sixth Corps went back to the Army of the Potomac over the winter, and would participate in Lee's final defeat. (Indeed, Wert, pp. 249-250, argues that Sheridan should have taken most of his army straight to Richmond and ended the war. I think he's right.) Sheridan himself waited a little longer to go back to Richmond and Petersburg; on March 2, 1865, Sheridan's remaining forces attacked Early's remnant near Waynesboro, and destroyed it; the remaining Confederates hardly even put up a fight before scattering (Wert, p. 251). Early and a few men managed to reach Petersburg, but the clamor against Early was so strong that Lee had simply to relieve Early of his command on March 30 (Freeman, pp. 635-636. It seems likely that Lee thought Gordon a better general anyway). What Lee did at this stage hardly mattered, though; Lee's army would itself be destroyed within a month.
Sheridan's hasty return to the front lines at Cedar Creek inspired the well-known poem "Sheridan's Ride" by Thomas Buchanan Read (found e.g. on pp. 108-110 of Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs), but that piece does not seem to be traditional; the stanza form is not typical of folk song.
As "Old Early Camped at Fisher's Hill," this is item dA40 in Laws's Appendix II. Thomas doesn't indicate a tune, but I suspected "Old Dan Tucker" when I first saw it, and a broadside now seems to confirm this. According to Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 8, there was a song "Battle of Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864," eight verses beginning "Old Early camped at Fisher's Hill," with the air listed as "Old Dan Tucker," credited to "C. A. Savage, Co. 'K,' 8th Indiana." Curiously, this is dated 1863 -- before the battle! Presumably, though, this was just a printer's error. Wolf also lists a 13-verse version which appears to be the LOCSinging edition, but it has no author or tune listed.
The 8th Indiana was indeed involved in the Shenandoah campaign; it was part of the fourth brigade (Shunk's) of the second division (Grover's) of the XIX Corps (Emory's), meaning that it was one of the units which was routed at Cedar Hill but reformed for the counterattack (Wert, p. 310). It was commanded at Cedar Hill by Lt. Colonel Alexander H. Kenny, who was wounded when Kershaw's division attacked Shunk's brigade (Wert, p. 193). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa058

Battle of Fort Sumter

DESCRIPTION: "Hark, don't you hear that rumbling sound? Fort Sumter's cannons roar... Whilst bomb shells on them pour." Men are killed. Someone (it's not clear who) should hang as high as Haman. The poet hopes tyrants will fall
AUTHOR: William Rice (source: Hay Library broadside)
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (source: Hay Library broadside)
KEYWORDS: battle death Civilwar
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 297-298, "Battle of Fort Sumter" (1 text)
File: CAFS1297

Battle of Fredericksburg, The

See The Last Fierce Charge [Laws A17] (File: LA17)

Battle of Gettysburg (I), The

See The Last Fierce Charge [Laws A17] (File: LA17)

Battle of Glenlivet, The, or The Battle of Altichallichan

DESCRIPTION: The singer comes to see the battle near Strathdown between Huntly and Errol on one hand and Argyle on the other. Various participants and incidents of the battle are mentioned. The song concludes with estimates of the losses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1818 (Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads)
KEYWORDS: battle death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1594 - Battle of Glenlivet
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 74-83, "The Battle of Glenlivet or The Battle of Altichallichan" (1 text plus an excerpt from the history of the battle)
ADDITIONAL: Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 248-257, "The Battle of Balrines or Glenlivet" (1 text)
ST GlnBa074 (Partial)
Roud #8182
NOTES [217 words]: The text of this ballad in Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads is accompanied by a copy of a history of the ballad. This history is perhaps a little biased (it opens with a reference to "the extremely imbecile administration of James 6th"!). It is certainly true that James -- like every other King of Scotland -- had a lot of trouble with his nobles. And the Battle of Glenlivet was a consequence. Yet James VI largely had his way.
According to D[avid] Harris Willson, King James VI and I, Holt, 1956?, pp. 114-115, "In September 1594, the King was ready to march [against the fractious earls]. On October 3rd, the young Earl of Argyll, who had been permitted to advance before the main body of the King's army, was roughly handled by Huntly's forces at the battle of Glenlivet. But the earls, with no stomach for a second encounter, fled to toe wilds of Caithness, and to satisfy the Kirk James burned their houses to the ground. Within a few months he obtained an agreement by which Huntly and Errol promised to go abroad, which they did in March 1595. Angus lurked among his friends in the Highlands but was powerless to do harm."
Thus, although Glenlivet was a tactical failure for James VI, he eventually gained his objectives, and Glenlivet very likely helped persuade the Earls to give in. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: GlnBa074

Battle of Halifax, The

DESCRIPTION: "Now gather 'round children and to you I will spill The tale of the raid upon Oland's old still." People rush through Halifax drinking and robbing. The authorities, instead of stopping it, join in. It's the armed forces' revenge on those who stayed home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier disaster police drink robbery revenge recitation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1945 - The Halifax Riot
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 100-101, "The Battle of Halifax" (1 text)
Roud #29409
NOTES [443 words]: According to Milner, p. 156, "[T]he short-sighted city fathers of Halifax closed the bars and liquor stores on VE-Day. That prompted sailors to exact revenge for nearly six years of overcrowding, overpricing, and priggishness. The VE-Day riots left much of downtown Halifax a shambles." Many blamed L. W. Murray, the area naval commander, and he got no help from Ottawa, where a rival was in charge of the navy, causing Murray to resign and move to England.
The whole thing affected Navy men coming home to be discharged. Small ship skipper Lamb, p. 168, wrote of his ship's return there, "Halifax had taken on a special meaning for us since the disgraceful riots that had disfigured VE day. The news of the drunken debauch hid had gone on for days had made us ashamed of our service; once again, it seemed to us, the shore navy, the barracks idlers and incompetent officers and the whole ramshackle edifice of Slackers, had made outcasts of the seagoing men, blackening the name of the navy and distorting our repatriation. We looked on it as a place to get our discharge as quickly as we could."
Bruce, p. 264: "News tat Germany had surrendered reached the world on May 7 and, in Halifax, ignited the most spectacular riots in the city's history. They lasted two nights and a day. Soldiers, sailors, airmen, and thuggish civilians all participated in the anarchy that saw wholesale window-smashing, public fornicatin in broad daylight, and the theft of at least 150,000 bottles of beer, liquor, and wine. The consensus among sober Haligonians who had witnessed the destruction was that the chief culprits were sailors from the navy's main Halifax base, HMCS Stadcona [which, despite its "ship" name, was in fact a base.]" A newspaper reported that "Commercial Halifax... lies in wreckage today." Two men were said to have died, one of excess alcohol consumption, the other of a fractured skull.
Bruce, p. 265: "The federal government commissioned Judge Roy L. Kellock of the Supreme Court of Canada to investigate the riots, but as war correspondent Douglas How later wrote, 'The commissioner was a judge who had never seen war service, a puritanical man who detested liquor, and sat in judgment on perhaps the biggest drunk in Canadian history.'
"Finding the navy chiefly responsible for the mayhem and the damage to 564 Halifax businesses, and blaming the command of Rear Admiral Leonard Warren Murray for failing to prepare adequate celebrations or quell the disorders, Judge Kellock ruined the previously distinguished career of the best naval officer Canada had ever produced.... Naval veterans would later see Kellock's ruling as a tragic injustice."- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: Hopk100

Battle of Harlaw, The [Child 163]

DESCRIPTION: A Highland army marches to Harlaw (to claim an earldom for their leader). The local forces oppose them on principle, and a local chief kills the Highland commander. The battle is long and bloody, but the defenders hold their ground
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (Laing)
KEYWORDS: battle nobility
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1411 - Donald, Lord of the Isles, gathers an army to press his (legitimate) claim to the Earldom of Ross. Both sides take heavy losses, but the Highlanders suffer more and are driven off
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(South))
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Child 163, "The Battle of Harlaw" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Bronson 163, "The Battle of Harlaw" (21 versions+1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 163, "The Battle of Harlaw" (2 versions: #1, #11)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 18-25, "The Battle of Harlaw" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #11, pp. 1-2, "The Battle of Harlaw"; Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 62, "Battle of Harlaw" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 112, "The Battle of Harlaw" (14 texts, 11 tunes) {A=Bronson's #6, B=#8, C=#11, E=#9, F=#3, G=#5, H=#12, I=#10, J=#4}
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 473-475, "Harlaw" (1 text)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #27, pp. 159-162, "Harlaw" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #14}
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 191-193, "The Battle of Harlaw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 41-44, "The Battle of Harlaw" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 48-51, "The Battle of Harlaw" (1 text, with the music of "The Baron of Brackley" accidentally attached)
DT 163, BATHARLW*
ADDITIONAL: Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 51-54, "The Battle of Harlaw" (1 text, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #15, #7}
Roud #2861
RECORDINGS:
Jeannie Robertson, "The Battle of Harlaw" (on FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #14}
Lucy Stewart, "The Battle of Harlaw" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2) (on LStewart1) {Bronson's #13}
NOTES [2191 words]: The source for Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 138-140, "The Battle of Harlaw" (1 text) is Allan Ramsay, The Ever Green (Being a Collection of Scots Poems Wrote by the Ingenious before 1600) (Edinburgh: Allan Ramsay, 1724 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I pp. 78-90, "The Battle of Harlaw." It is included by Child as English and Scottish Ballads (Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1860 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), pp. 180-190, "The Battle of Harlaw," but not included later as a text for Child 163. In his notes to 163 Child writes "The piece is not in the least of a popular character" (vol. 3, p. 317). It is clearly not the same song as those represented by Child 163, so I have not included it here as a reference. Whitelaw writes of the 31 8-line verse text that it was "first published by Allan Ramsay, and in all likelihood written by him." - BS
Most ballad books discussing the Battle of Harlaw mention only the immediate cause: The conflict over the Earldom of Ross. This follows Child (whose notes, in this case, are rather inadequate).
The conflict was real but hardly the whole story: The only heir of William, Earl of Ross, was a daughter Euphemia Ross. (Not to be confused with the Euphemia Ross who was the wife of King Robert II.) There were some questions about the legality of her inheriting the title -- the Earldom of Ross had been a male entail (that is, it passed only through male line; see, e.g., Boardman, p. 47), but that could be changed.
Interestingly, there was a question about whether she would marry at all -- Thomson, p. 23, says that she possessed "severe disabilities," adding on p. 24 that she was a hunchback; apparently she was at one time destined for a convent. But given the land she controlled, that could hardly stand. King David II married her to Walter Lesley, an elderly crusader, in 1366, and changed the entail so that the earldom could pass in female line (Boardman, pp. 46-47). All might have been well had not Euphemia outlived Lesley.
In 1382, Euphemia married Alexander the "Wolf of Badenoch," a younger son of King Robert II. (Boardman, pp. 77-79). This produced a new set of complications, because the marriage to Alexander ended in divorce (Boardman, pp. 179-180). Magnusson, p. 211, says that the Wolf was "flagrantly unfaithful," leading Euphemia to denounce the marriage and demand her land back. In the end, Euphemia left no heir.
The exact date of Euphemia Ross's death is unknown, but it was probably around 1395. Alexander of Badenoch, being the sort of man he was, held onto the earldom after her death, but he died in 1406 -- and while he had sons, they were not by Euphemia and not heirs to Ross. Donald of the Isles (died 1423), as husband of Mary/Margaret Lesley, the sister of the old Earl of Ross (Euphemia's father), was the obvious heir (Fry/Fry, p. 94) -- and he set out to make good that claim. Hence the events resulting in the Battle of Harlaw.
But the conflict was in fact much more important than a conflict over an earldom. Since the death of Robert Bruce, Scotland's central government had been weak even by Scottish standards: David II Bruce had spent much of his reign in English hands, his successor Robert II the Steward was a tired old man, Robert III was crippled and had limited ability to rule, and the King at the time of Harlaw was James I, who was still only a teenager and in English custody anyway (Cook, p. 151). The country, since the time of Robert III, had been ruled by Robert Duke of Albany, the younger brother of Robert III (they shared the name Robert because Robert III was born John but took a different throne name; he thought "John" unlucky).
Albany was energetic, but his government was not secure (Magnuson, p. 226, documents the vicious way in which he maintained power); Scotland was degenerating into a collection of quarreling baronies. As Brown, p. 115, sees it, Albany in effect created four great fiefdoms, the Douglas lands on the borders, Albany's own heartland north of the Forth, and the territories of the Earl Mar and the the Lord of the Isles.This left the problem of rebels to the local boss, and kept the other three from interfering with his own lands or trying to do something about the Albany regency. The mess was so bad that, when James I got loose, he would destroy as many of Albany's descendants as he could lay his hands on; Ashley-Stuart, p. 41.
The Highlands were almost completely beyond central control. The Lords of the Isles were in effect independent kings, with a dynasty going back to the Irish-born prince Somerled (c. 1105-1164), who during the 1150s managed to lay claim to most of the Hebrides by conquest or negotiation (Ashley-Kings, p. 432). The title of "Lord of the Isles" became official with "Good John," Lord of the Isles 1330-1387 (Thomson, p. 16). Donald, the Lord of the Isles in this song, was John's heir.
The Lords of the Isles were often very conservative, holding fast to the old Gaelic ways, and they were willing to ally with anyone or anything, including the English, against the lowland government (Thomson, p. 17). As a result, they had great influence in the western Highlands. Give them control of Ross, in the central Highlands, and Scotland would likely have split into two nations -- or, possibly, the Lords of the Isles could have been able to take control of the whole thing. After all, Donald was the grandson of Robert II by his daughter Margaret (see the genealogy in Boardman, p. 41).
Ordinarily, Donald would not have been much threat to the monarchy; he stood rather low in the succession -- he trailed the current king James I, James's successors if he had any, Albany and his son Murdoch and his heirs, John earl of Mar (the son of the Wolf of Badenoch, and hence Donald's step-nephew or something like that), and Mar's heirs. (Note that Mar was the leader of those who fought MacDonald at Harlaw.). Still, a sufficiently strong lord could easily get around that. Harlaw allowed the government to retain just enough control to prevent either possibility.
(Curiously, Given-Wilson, p. 501 n. 35, suggests that the captive James I -- who had some influence in Scotland despite his activity -- tried to pull strings to get Donald of the Isles to go after the Ross earldom, out of his dislike of the Albany regime. Presumably he felt Donald was a lesser threat than Albany. And the English regime of Henry IV no doubt was willing to let James send any message that would cause the Scots to turn their attention inward; there had been real border troubles in 1409-1410, but things got much quieter after Harlaw, according to Given-Wilson, pp. 500-502.)
Magnusson, p. 231, says of the battle itself that it "has become a byword for savagery and valour... and became known in ballad and folk-tale as the Battle of Red Harlaw.... It was the fiercest and bloodiest battle ever fought by the Gaels; it was also a battle which nobody won."
Magnusson, p. 232, claims that MacDonald selected six thousand men at a Christmas feast in the Isles and shipped them to the mainland. There he picked up four thousand more followers. Thus he had perhaps ten thousand men to fight at Harlaw -- fully half the size of the army typically quoted in the ballad, which makes the song relatively accurate compared to some histories of the time, which might multiply the size of an army by a factor of ten.
Magnusson adds that Mar's forces, though outnumbered, were better-armed than the supporters of the Lord of the Isles. The uncoordinated fight consisted mostly of mobs of Highlanders charging the massed lowlanders, who held off the attacks by staying in tight formation (Magnusson, p. 233). Magnusson estimates MacDonald's losses at one thousand, Mar's at six hundred -- ten percent or more of the forces engaged.
That was Donald's last serious attempt to claim the Earldom of Ross. Albany managed a strong counter-push after that, and the Lord of the Isles was mostly quiet for the remaining dozen years of his life. Though it was a tactical draw, Harlaw was a great strategic victory for Mar and the lowlanders -- and for Albany and the central government. As well as for the Earl of Mar, who in the aftermath picked up the Earldom of Ross as well (Thomson, p. 29).
It was not the end of the conflicts between the Lords of the Isles and the central government; Alexander, the successor of Donald MacDonald, rebelled against King James I almost as soon as his father died. He had a great deal of success, and almost managed to capture Inverness -- but James I was not Albany. He gathered an army and captured Alexander MacDonald (Thomson, p. 30). It seemed as if the power of the Lords of the Isles would be broken. It probably would have been, had James lived longer. But he was murdered, and his heir was a minor, and the pro-government Earl of Ross was killed at Verneuil in France (the last great victory of the English over the French in the Hundred Years' War; Thomson, p. 32, says Ross died in 1436, but Verneuil was fought in 1424 -- and Seward, p. 201, says explicitly that John Stewart, Earl of Mar, was one of many killed at Verneuil.)
Alexander of the Isles -- who seems to have escaped his captivity quickly (Ashley-Stuart, p. 42) was able to regain much of his power as a result. The regency, to earn his support, finally gave him the Earldom of Ross (Thomson, p. 32; Ashley-Stuart, p. 47, adds that he was appointed Judiciar as well, the idea being to get him to control the Highlands). He supported the regency (probably out of self-interest) until his death in 1449. But John MacDonald, who succeeded him as Lord of the Isles and Earl of Ross while still a teenager (Thomson, p. 35), was reckless and not particularly wise in his gambles. When his correspondence with the English was revealed, he lost the Earldom of Ross (Thomson, p. 37). And his (political) marriage was childless (Thomson, p. 36). John had illegitimate children, including a son Angus Og whom he managed to have legitimized, but Angus Og rebelled against his father.
In the aftermath of yet another civil conflict, Angus Og was murdered, meaning that John's heir was his grandson Donald Dhu -- a young man already a prisoner in a Campbell castle (Thomson, p. 40). John was by now so distrusted (and so ineffective) that he was stripped of the title "Lord of the Isles"; the title was never really revived (Thomson, p. 41). Donald Dhu's death in 1545 marked the effective end of the MacDonald dynasty in any event (Ashley-Kings, p. 541); there were collateral branches, of course, but no longer a true clanleader. The Battle of Harlaw thus marked, in a sense, the pinnacle of MacDonald power. And, hence, the turning point that would ultimately make the Campbells the great clan of Scotland.
This ballad is generally regarded as historically unreliable, on several counts -- a charge dating back to Child. David Buchan, however, takes a different view (in the article cited as "Buchan").
The first objection to the song lies in the prominence of the Forbeses in a battle directed by the Earl of Mar. Buchan, however, alludes to Dr. Douglas Simpson's book The Earldom of Mar, which attempts to reconstruct this battle.
According to this view, the citizens of Aberdeenshire were concerned about the invasion by Highlandmen, and sought to block it. But they could not know which route MacDonald would take to the city -- via Harlaw or Rhynie Gap, several hours' march apart. Simpson argues that Mar garrisoned Harlaw and assigned the Forbeses, strong vassals situated in the area, to guard Rhynie.
When the Highlandmen arrived at Harlaw, Mar sent for the Forbeses. They arrived on the scene, defeated the nearest Highland forces, and partly retrieved the battle. The ballad then makes sense if seen as a description from the Forbes standpoint.
The second objection, to the presence of Redcoats, Buchan meets by assuming the song has been confused with an account of the Jacobite rebellions. This strikes me as less convincing.
The third argument that the song is recent comes from the similarity of versions. Buchan argues that this could have been caused by broadsheets distributed by Alexander Laing, who printed the earliest (B) fragment known to Child. This is possible though by no means sure (no such early broadsheet, to my knowledge, has been found) -- but in any case the objection is weak, because Bronson's #15, at least, represents a text well removed from the common stream. Most texts of "Harlaw" are from Aberdeenshire; they could be close together simply because many local singers knew the song and could compare their texts.
There is a song mentioned in the 1549 Complaynt of Scotland with the title "The battle of the hayrlau" (Complaynt, p. lxxxiv). We cannot know if the reference is to this song; the general sense is that it is not. A note on that same page mentions a dance tune titled "The Battel of Harloe," in British Library Additional MS. 10444, leaf 4, back. #8. This manuscript does not seem to have been digitized as of this writing, so I cannot check this.
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads reports a claim that the chorus is derived from a druidic chant. Uh-huh. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C163

Battle of Jericho

See Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho (File: LxU110)

Battle of Kilcumney, The

DESCRIPTION: The rebels are routed at the Battle of Kilcumney. Afterwards, nine British troops burn John Murphy's house. Four Wexford pikemen kill five of the nine. Teresa Malone escapes from the house to rebel lines after shooting one more of the attackers.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1998 (Kinsella, Moran and Murphy's _Kilcumney '98--its Origins, Aftermath and Legacy_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion escape death soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 26, 1798 - "The western division of the United army, under Fr John Murphy, was attacked upon Kilcumney Hill, near Goresbridge, by General Sir Charles Asgill, and dispersed. The troops did not confine their attention to the rebel army, but carried out a slaughter of the inhabitants of Kilcumney itself." (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 93, "The Battle of Kilcumney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #23995
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Father Murphy (I)" (subject of Father Murphy) and references there
NOTES [191 words]: This particular affair was the last spasm of a dying cause, and hardly is mentioned in most histories. The Big Event had been five days earlier, at Vinegar Hill, where General Lake had dispersed the Wexford rebels. But his encirclement had been incomplete, and a handful including Father Murphy fled toward Kilkenny (see Robert Kee, The Most Distressful Country, being volume I of The Green Flag, p. 122). Their victory at Kilcolmney (as Kee spells it) was only a skirmish, and did no real good; the locals offered no help, and the rebels continued their flight, ending eventually in the death of Murphy and others (see the notes to "Father Murphy (I)" and "Some Treat of David").
General Asgill, it is generally agreed, is as brutal as Moylan's note implies; even the pro-British Thomas Pakenham calls him "as insensitive and negligent as [British Commander in Chief General] Lake." (Pakenham, The Year of Liberty, p. 282). Given that Lake could at least as well have been called "snake" (with apologies to all reptiles, which possess neither guile nor treachery nor Lake's peculiar stupidity), this will give you a clear view of Asgill. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Moyl093

Battle of Killiecrankie, The

DESCRIPTION: "Clavers and his Highlandmen Came down upon the raw, man." The song describes, rather vaguely, how "the English blades got broken heads. "The redcoats of "King Shames" perform worse than the Highlanders
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1819 (Hogg)
KEYWORDS: battle Jacobite
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 27, 1689 - Battle of Killiecrankie, at which Jacobites under Claverhouse/Dundee are victorious but their commander killed, resulting in the failure of their cause
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 268-269, "The Battle of Killirankie" (sic.) (1 text)
ST MBra268 (Partial)
Roud #8188
File: MBra268

Battle of King's Mountain

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on a pleasant mountain, the Tory heathens lay, With a doughty major at their head, One Ferguson they say." Shelby attacks and defeats the Tory raiders and destroys them. The singer gives thanks and toasts the American soldiers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Moore); supposedly published 1781
KEYWORDS: America battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 293-294, "Battle of King's Mountain" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 29, "King's Mountain" (1 excerpt, possibly this; reported to be from Lossing's "Field Book of the American Revolution")
File: CAFS1293

Battle of La Hogue, The

See Russel's Triumph (File: AshS007)

Battle of Lake Erie -- 1813, The

DESCRIPTION: "Avast, honest Jack, now,before you get mellow" while the singer describes the "young commodore, and his fresh-water crew, Who keelhaul'd the Britons." The singer tells of the fight on Lake Erie, of Perry's transfer of flag, and the British ships taken
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: battle navy America patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 10, 1813 - Battle of Lake Erie. The Americans under Perry defeat the British
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 342-344, "The Battle of Lake Erie -- 1813" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "James Bird" [Laws A5] (subject: The Battle of Lake Erie) and references there
File: TNY342

Battle of Lake Erie, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye tars of Columbia, give ear to my story, Who fought with brave Perry, where cannons did roar." The Lawrence is badly damaged, but Perry transfers to the Niagara and wins the battle. The song concludes with a toast to Perry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: probably before 1832 (broadside, Leonard Deming)
KEYWORDS: battle navy America patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 10, 1813 - Battle of Lake Erie. The Americans under Perry defeat the British.
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 51, "Perry's Victory" (1 text)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 43-45, "Perry's Victory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 395-398, "The Battle of Lake Erie" (1 text plus a broadside print titled "Perry's Victory")
Roud #2826
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as110890, "Perry's Victory" ("Ye Tars of Columbia, give ear to my story"), L. Deming (Boston), no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "James Bird" [Laws A5] (subject: The Battle of Lake Erie) and references there
NOTES [14 words]: For background on the Battle of Lake Erie, see the notes to "James Bird" [Laws A5]. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: CAFS2395

Battle of Loudon Hill, The

See Loudon Hill, or, Drumclog [Child 205] (File: C205)

Battle of Mill Springs, The [Laws A13]

DESCRIPTION: A wounded soldier speaks fondly of his family and sweetheart. He wonders who will care for them. He recalls how soldiers looked so gallant when he was a little boy. He kisses the (Union) flag and dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: patriotic battle death Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 19, 1862 - Battle of Logan Cross Roads (Mill Springs), Kentucky. A small battle (about 4000 troops on each side) which ended in a Confederate retreat but little substantial result except for the death of the Confederate commander Zollicoffer (who had foolishly left his defensive position despite orders from theater commander Albert Sidney Johnston to sit tight). The victorious Union commander was George H. Thomas, later to prove one of the greatest Union generals of the war
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws A13, The Battle of Mill Springs
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 65, "The Battle of Mill Springs" (1 text)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 83-86, "Wounded Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 92-95)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 252-253 "The Battle of Mill Springs" (1 text)
DT 775, MILSPRNG
Roud #627
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Young Edward
Young Edwards
NOTES [796 words]: This isn't really about the Battle of Mill Springs ("Somerset" in some southern accounts), or any other battle; that's just a convenient title. Thomas's text, e.g., calls the conflict "Humboldt Springs," which is no battle at all (at least according to Phisterer's comprehensive list of 2261 Civil War battles) and implies that the boy is from England. The song is really just a platform for a lot of familiar themes: The dying soldier bidding his family farewell, etc.
Mill Springs may have been chosen because it was one of the first battles of the war (the only prior battles of significance were First Bull Run and Wilson's Creek; Mill Springs was the first real battle on the Kentucky front). Ironically, it was not particularly close to Mill Springs or to Fishing Creek, a third name for the conflict (Bishoop/Chester, p. 74); the best name for the battle would be Logan's Cross Roads,
At least, if you call it a battle rather than a botch. The Confederate commander, Felix Zollicoffer "was a civilian appointment, without military training of any kind. He had been editor of a Nashville newspaper, had held a number of minor State offices, and served two terms in congress prior to the war" (Cist, pp. 9-10). He had been told to "occupy a position of observation" while General Albert Sydney Johnston got the forces in Kentucky organized (Cist, p. 10). But Zollicoffer pushed his troops to an exposed position across the Cumberland River at Beech Grove (Boatner, p. 487), against the wishes of both Johnston and Zollicoffer's immediate commander, General George B. Crittenden, and declared he couldn't pull back in the presence of enemy forces. The Union sent George H. Thomas's force against him (Cist, pp. 10-11).
Neither army was very large. Bishop/Chester, p, 75, says that the Federals had seven full regiments, two battalions, and two batteries (companies) of artillery and the Confederates had eight regiments, three battalions, and two batteries. At a major battle, each side would have had hundreds of regiments.
"[George H.] Thomas led his 4,000 man army over almost nonexistent roads in winter rain and sleet. On January 19, 1862, a Confederate army of equal size attacked Thomas at Logan's Cross Roads near Mill Springs, Kentucky, but was repulsed and then routed by a Union counterattack" (McPherson, p. 305).
The battle was little more than a skirmish, but Zollicoffer messed up again. During the battle, he convinced himself that the Union Fourth Kentucky was a Confederate regiment, and he went up to give it orders -- and was shot through the heart by the commander of the federal troops (Cist, pp. 17-18). Crittenden, who had arrived to take charge, tried an attack with the rest of his forces, but it failed dramatically (Boatner, pp. 488-489). Crittenden then pulled the remnants of the Confederate army back (Cist, p. 18).
"The battle fought at Logan's Cross Roads, called by the rebels the battle of Fishing Creek, and by the Federals the Battle of Mill Springs, was most disastrous to [the Confederates], and inflicted the most severe blow they had up to that time experienced" (Cist, p. 19).
"Despite his victory, Thomas could advance no further in the harsh mountain winter. By spring, Union advances in western and central Tennessee would divert all efforts to that quarter. Ironically, while northern armies 'liberated' the Confederate portion of Tennessee they left the unionist portion [in the mountains of East Tennessee] to fend for itself -- to Lincoln's chagrin" (McPherson, p. 305).
Cist, p. 20, says that Federal losses were 39 killed, 207 wounded, compared to 122 killed and 247 other casualties for the Confederates (an extremely unlikely rate of losses; presumably the Confederates had more wounded who escaped the field). The Federals also took guns, horses, and other supplies, and although they did not pursue, the Confederate force all but collapsed due to desertion (Boatner, p. 489). The result was a major blow to General Johnston, whose line in Kentucky had lost its right flank unit, and was soon to lose its left at Fort Henry.
Since only 39 men were killed on the Union side at Mill Springs (so Boatner, p. 489; Bishop/Chester, says there were 40; both agree that there were 207 wounded, at least if you ignore the many who suffered serious harm from the cold weather, according to Bishop/Chester, p. 81 there were many men who never fully recovered their health), it might almost be possible to identify the soldier in this song, except that he probably isn't real. Particularly since, according to Bishop/Chester, p. 75, the Confederates suffered casualties to all of their regiments, but the Federals were so overwhelmingly victorious that only four of their regiments plus a cavalry battalion suffered casualties. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LA13

Battle of New Orleans, The [Laws A7]

DESCRIPTION: American troops under Andrew Jackson easily repulse the British attempt to capture New Orleans. After three unsuccessful charges, the British are forced to retire.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Brewster in SFQ 1)
KEYWORDS: war battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 8, 1815 - Battle of New Orleans. Although a peace had already been signed, word had not yet reached Louisiana, which Pakenham sought to invade. Andrew Jackson's backwoodsmen easily repulsed Pakenham's force; the British commander was killed in the battle.
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws A7, "The Battle of New Orleans"
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 560, "The Battle of New Orleans" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 380, BATNWOR2*
Roud #V20125
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hunters of Kentucky" [Laws A25] " (subject)
cf. "The Battle of New Orleans (II)" (subject)
cf. "Pakenham" (subject)
cf. "Jackson's Victory" (subjet)
NOTES [1677 words]: Not to be confused with the Jimmy Driftwood song of the same name. - PJS
For the general background of the final campaigns of the War of 1812, see the notes on "The Siege of Plattsburg."
The force which attacked New Orleans had previously been involved in the Chesapeake campaign; see the notes to "The Star-Spangled Banner." The British thought to send them to Louisisana in no small part because they thought the French and Spanish residents would be unhappy with the Americans running things (Hickey, p. 204). They don't seem to have done much to take advantage of that, though, and Robert Ross, who was initially supposed to command the attack, had been ordered not to make any substantial promises to the locals (Hickey, p. 205). It was one of many advantages the British voluntarily handed over to Andrew Jackson, the American commander on the Gulf of Mexico.
Jackson had had a difficult time in the War of 1812; he had been loosely connected with Aaron Burr's sort-of-rebellion, and the administration distrusted him (Borneman, p. 136) and tried to keep him in the background. The Seventh Military District, which he commanded, consisted of Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi Territory, and the lands of the Creek Indians (Patterson, p. 115) -- a backwater. But he got lucky: That put him in the right place at the right time to fight the Creek War (for which see "Andrew Jackson's Raid"), and after that, he was too politically significant to be shuttled aside. When the final thrust of the war began, it came in Jackson's district.
Jackson wasn't the greatest strategist; when the British force headed for New Orleans, he was convinced it was heading for Mobile, and tried to distribute his forces accordingly (Borneman, p. 265. To be sure, the British had made an earlier probe at Mobile, which was easily repulsed; Hickey, p. 206). Fortunately, Jackson's subordinates resisted his plans, which in the end saved him a great deal of trouble. When the British arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi, Jackson's forces were scattered -- but the British were slow to attack, and Jackson was able to concentrate. Jackson also did a good job of instilling discipline into the disastrously disorderly Appalachian militia, though it took several executions to bring it about. (As it was, most of those famous "Hunters of Kentucky" would break when they first faced British troops in December.) Plus he fortified the city and its approaches, something which had been neglected until then (Hickey, p. 206).
The British failure was one of those things that was no one person's fault. The campaign had begun as early as November 26, 1814, when British Admiral Alexander Cochrane set sail from Jamaica (Borneman, p. 276). He had with him a new Army commander; the veteran Robert Ross, who had done an excellent job, had been killed in Maryland. His replacement was Sir Edward Pakenham, Wellington's brother-in-law Patterson, p. 60), a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars whose record as a subordinate had been good (Hickey, p. 208) but who was new to the Americas and whose command experience was limited. And the weather was generally to prove terrible, much debilitating the attackers (Hickey, p. 209).
The biggest single problem was logistic. The British fleet was not really equipped for Louisiana operations -- it needed shallow-bottomed vessels to maneuver in the marshes, and it didn't have them. This closed off some of the best routes into New Orleans. (There were three basic routes to New Orleans: By shallow boat across Lake Ponchartrain, by ship up the Mississippi, and by land across the Plain of Gentilly. The lack of boats closed off Lake Ponchartrain, and there were enough forts along the Mississippi that the admirals didn't want to try that. That left Gentilly, which unfortunately for the British was both marshy and narrow).
On December 23, the British advance guard met the first American militia, and routed them. The British veterans won a quick victory (Hickey, p. 209, says that the British suffered more casualties while conceding that they held the field), but their commander, not knowing the size or location of Jackson's main force, failed to push on (Borneman, p. 277). It would eventually prove a fatal decision by the British brigade commander John Keane. A French-speaking plantation owner, who was also a militia officer, managed to escape and bring word to Jackson about the direction of the British thrust (Patterson, pp. 197-199)
It is rarely mentioned that Jackson brought up his troops that evening and tried a counterattack, which failed (Borneman, pp. 277-278, although Patterson, p. 208, observes that British casualties, mostly taken early in the attack, were slightly higher than American). Still, as general Pakenham discovered when he arrived on Christmas Day, the British troops had put themselves in something of a box: The Mississippi was on their left, the impassible swamps not-quite-connecting Lakes Ponchartrain and Borgne on their right, and the Americans in their front. There were only two ways out: To go through Jackson, or to retreat -- and, by this time, with Jackson alert to their presence, it would be much harder to mount a new attack. Still, Pakenham was not ready to give up (Hickey, p. 210).
Pakenham did his best to improve the situation. His plan did not call for a simple head-on attack. Rather, he planned to send a brigade to the west bank of the Mississippi, to take over the American guns there and use them to enfilade the American lines. He also had a regiment equipped with fascines to get his troops across the Rodriguez Canal which guarded the American front. He set up several artillery batteries in field fortifications of sugar barrels to attack the American lines. (Hickey, p. 210). And he planned to attack in darkness and fog (Borneman, pp. 280-282).
And not one of his tactics worked. The sugar barrels set up to guard the artillery were a disaster; it had been thought that sugar would be as good a protection as sand. It wasn't. The American batteries, which were emplaced in real fortifications, quickly silenced the British guns (Hickey, pp.210-211).
The lack of transport ruined the move across the Mississippi -- a canal intended to bring up boats, demanded by the navy, proved impossible to build in the mud; instead of enough boats for a brigade, the western force crossed only a few hundred men. And the Mississippi current washed them so far downstream that they were hours late. They eventually did reach and capture the American gun emplacements -- but they were few enough that the Americans managed to spike the guns, so the west bank artillery could not have participated in the battle even had they been on time (Borneman, pp. 290-291; Hickey, p. 211); in any case, they were too late.
Worse still, the regiment with the fascines needed to cross American trenches apparently disappeared for a time. Daylight on January 15 was approaching, and the key to Pakenham's assault was missing (Borneman, p. 285). Pakenham probably should have called off the assault, but he cannot have known all the details of the situation across the river -- and the cross-river raid was a trick he could probably try only once. He ordered the main attack to go ahead, somewhat late. By the time the assault was fully underway, the sun was rising. And then the fog burned off (Borneman, p. 286; Hickey, pp. 211-212).
And even the attack was botched. There were two brigades involved in the assault: Gibbs's and Keane's. Keane started late and also ended up cutting across the field rather than attacking straight on; it was slaughtered and the commander wounded. Gibbs went straight on, and found his front ranks slaughtered. Pakenham showed up, having finally found the troops with the fascines, but was wounded. He ordered up his reserves -- but, before they could arrive, he was killed. General Gibbs also fell at the head of his troops. That left no general officers in the field (Borneman, p. 289). When General Lambert arrived with the reserve brigade, he decided to rescue what he could rather than try another fatal assault. Half an hour after Pakenham had fired the signal rocket to start the assault, the battle was over (Borneman, p. 290).
With their commander and two out of four brigadiers dead or wounded, the British reports on the battle were not especially clear, but they probably suffered about 300 killed, 1300 wounded, and 500 captured. That's roughly two-thirds of the forces committed to the actual assault on the American lines, and nearly half their total force. Jackson listed his losses as seven killed and six wounded -- though, because much of his force was militia that came and went at will, he probably didn't know the exact numbers (Borneman, p. 291). And the American forces across the river had taken fifty or sixty casualties that Jackson didn't mention (Hickey, p. 212).
In partial defence of Pakenham (1778-1815), he was in a very unfamiliar situation; most of his best work had been as a staff officer, and although he had served in the line (including some time as a division commander in the Peninsular War), he didn't have any real experience as an independent commander. And this *was* the era of commission by purchase.
Had the war gone on, the British might still have done some damage. Lambert and Cochrane took their surviving forces to Mobile, and the city was in danger of falling when word came that peace had been made (Hickey, p. 214).
Of the whole affair, Morison (p. 395) concludes, "The Battle of New Orleans had no military value since peace had already been signed at Ghent on Christmas Eve, but it made a future President of the United States [Jackson], and in folklore wiped out all previous American defeats [of which there had been many, especially on the Canadian front], ending the "Second War of Independence" in a blaze of glory. The peace treaty made it clear that the war was a draw -- both sides went back to the status quo ante -- but the Americans, because they hadn't been overwhelmed, generally felt they had won. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: LA07

Battle of Otterbourn, The

See The Battle of Otterburn [Child 161] (File: C161)

Battle of Otterbourne, The

See The Battle of Otterburn [Child 161] (File: C161)

Battle of Otterburn, The [Child 161]

DESCRIPTION: As armies under Earls Douglas of Scotland and Percy (aka Hotspur) of Northumberland battle, the dying Douglas asks Montgomery to conceal his corpse under a bush. Percy refuses to surrender to the bush but does yield to Montgomery
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1550 (British Library, MS. Cotton Cleopatra C.IV, folio 64)
KEYWORDS: battle borderballad death nobility
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 1388 (probably August 19) - Battle of Otterburn. Scots under Douglas attack England. Although Douglas is killed in the battle, the Scots defeat the English and capture their commander Harry "Hotspur" Percy.
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Child 161, "The Battle of Otterburn" (5 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 161, "The Battle of Otterburn" (2 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 161, "The Battle of Otterburn" (1 version: #1)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 35-51+notes on pp. 53-54, "The Battle of Otterbourne" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques, I, p. 46, "The Battle of Otterbourne" (1 partial text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 92-103, "The Battle of Otterburn" (1 text)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 12-18, "The Battle of Otterbourne" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 436-446, "The Battle of Otterburn" (2 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 63-72, "The Battle of Otterburn" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 344-349, "The Battle of Otterbourne" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 83-91, "The Battle of Otterburn" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 127, "The Battle of Otterburn" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 94-104+323-325, "The Battle of Otterburn" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 88-93, "The Battle of Otterburn" (1 text)
DT 161, OTTRBURN*
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1620
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2713
ADDITIONAL: Rossell Hope Robbins, _Historical Poems of the XIVth and XVth Century_, Columbia University Press, 1959, #26, [[/ 64-74, "The Battle of Otterburn" (1 text)
Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 43-47, "The Battle of Otterburn" (1 text, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #1, #2}
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, pp. 166-175, "(The Battle of Otterburn)" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Harley 293, folio 52
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Cotton Cleopatra C.IV, folio 64
Roud #3293
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hunting of the Cheviot" [Child 162] (subject)
NOTES [1346 words]: For a fuller discussion of the Battle of Otterburn, see the notes to "The Hunting of the Cheviot" [Child 162]. That is not a very good discussion, however, because our sources for Otterburn are very brief, somewhat contradictory, and often not really intent on being actual history.
Needless to say, despite texts such as Child's "A" and "C," it was not Harry "Hotspur" Percy who killed Douglas at Otterburn. It is likely that Douglas's raid would not have been so successful had not the English been divided; as often happened, the Percies of Northumberland were feuding with the other great border family, the Nevilles (of Raby and Westmoreland).
Boardman notes that the Scots and French were creating a semi-coordinated attack on the English, with the inept government of Richard II not really able to do much about it (John of Gaunt had recently conducted a very damaging raid on Scotland, but the war in France was going badly).
It appears that the Scots sent down two armies, the western army raiding into Cumbria toward Carlisle and and the eastern one toward Northumberland and Newcastle. The Battle of Otterburn involved the eastern army as it retreated from County Durham.
It has been theorized that the two Scottish armies were supposed to meet for an attack on Carlisle. But Douglas decided to go his own way. Without Douglas's troops, the western army ended up turning back. A possible explanation, but hard to prove. For that matter, it might have been the other way: The western army might have been intended to turn east; Boardman argues that all our Scottish sources are biased by a political quarrel in Scotland between pro- and anti-Douglas factions.
Indeed, the death of Douglas almost certainly caused Scotland more harm than his victory gained them; apart from pushing Richard II of England to try harder to defeat them, the Earl had no son, and the quarrels over the Douglas succession led to many political difficulties.
Sir Philip Sidney, in his Apologie for Poetrie of 1595, write, "I neuer heard the olde song of Percy and Duglas (sic.), that I found not my heart mooued more then with a Trumpet." It is not possible, however, to tell whether this is a reference to "The Battle of Otterburn" [Child 161] or "The Hunting of the Cheviot" [Child 162]. A caution, pointed out by Friedman, pp. 33-34, is that Sidney was descended from a Duke of Northumberland. Not from the Percys, but still, the story had personal interest to him.
Even earlier, The Complaynt of Scotland of 1549 refers to separate songs "The hunttis of the cheviot" and "The persee & the mongomrye met"; again, we can't know which song is meant -- although, if both are references to the extant ballads, then "The Percy and Montgomery Met" is "Otterburn" and "The hunttis of the Cheviot" is that ballad. The Complaynt also mentions "That day, that day, that gentil day," which Child thinks another citation of a Harlaw ballad, but that is disputed. For citations, see James A. H. Murray, editor, The Complaynt of Scotland, volume I (Introduction plus Chapters I-XIII), Early English Text Society, 1872 (I use the 1906 reprint; the Complaynt was published in 1549), pp. lxxxv-lxxvii).
David Fowler, on p. 1774 of volume 6 of Severs/Hartung, describes MS. Cotton Cleopatra C.IV, the presumed earliest copy of the text: "The date of this manuscript has been disputed and indeed one authority states that 'it is not really a single MS. but a made-up collection'" -- but the text of this ballad "belong[s] to the first half of the sixteenth century." The manuscript is diverse: a poem on the Battle of Agincourt (not the Agincourt Carol; it's alliterative), a poem by John Lydgate about the young Henry VI; this song; a short poem opening "When that Phoebus beams shining as gold"; and several prophecies.
Some notes on the text itself (which may make more sense if you read the historical background at "The Hunting of the Cheviot"):
-- A, Stanza 1: It fell about the Lammas tide. Lammas is the beginning of August, and the Otterburn campaign took place in August -- although this gives us an interesting chronological problem. Sources give two dates for Otterburn, August 5 and August 19. The latter is almost certainly correct, but we can't assume any particular writer knew the correct date. If the date of Otterburn was August 19, then August 1 would be about when Douglas might have started to plan the raid -- but if Otterburn was August 5, then August 1 would be about the time Douglas actually rode out. So "Otterburn" is perhaps slightly more likely to support a date of August 5 than August 19 for the battle.
-- A, Stanza 2: The earl of Fife... he bound him over the Solway: A reference to Fife's western army starting on its way. Note that this actually happened, but it isn't mentioned in "The Hunting of the Cheviot."
-- A, Stanzas 3-6: The path the raiders took south. We don't have enough information to check each place, but the song says they went as far south as Newcastle before turning around, which is correct.
-- A, Stanza 8: It appears Hotspur was at Alnwick, not Newcastle, at the time of the Otterburn raid -- but the song is right that he "kept Berwick upon Tweed," which was part of his responsibility as a March warden. And Percy did head for Newcastle during the raid.
-- A, Stanza 13: Douglas tells Hotspur he will await him at Otterburn. That was, of course, where they actually fought, and the Scots did camp there -- but there is every reason to believe that they were simply resting, thinking they were safe; Hotspur's arrival surprised them.
-- A, Stanza 17: While there may have been a parley between Douglas and Hotspur -- after all, Douglas is said to have snatched Hotspur's pennon -- I haven't seen any evidence of them sending wine over the walls of Newcastle!
-- A, Stanza 18: Douglas is said to have camped at Otterburn on a Wednesday. This is wrong; the day of the battle (August 19 or, just possibly, August 5) was a Tuesday. So the day Douglas halted had to be Monday or Tuesday.
-- A, Stanzas 26-28: The Earl of "Mentaye" (Menteith?) and Earl of Huntey, Lords Bowghan, Johnstone, Maxwell, Sir Davy Scott, Sir Walter Steward, Sir John of Agurstone: Given our lack of information on who was in Douglas's army, we can't be sure that some of these weren't with Douglas -- but I think most of them weren't
-- A, Stanza 35: Hotspur is credited with 9000, the Scots with 40,000. Which makes it clear that this is an English song -- but it's twice absurd. We don't have any actual numbers for the armies at Otterburn, but 10,000 combined is probably high, and anything in excess of 15,000 combined is simply impossible. The Scots probably did have a slight edge in numbers, since the English were probably all mounted and Hotspur had very little time to gather a mounted army.
-- A, Stanza 37: "My Lord your father" refers to Hotspur's father, also Henry Percy, who was the first Earl of Northumberland and thus the man in charge of the defense. He had seemingly earlier ordered Hotspur to leave Alnwick but didn't want him to be too aggressive.
-- A, Stanza 38: "The Baron of Grastoke": The Greystokes were barons by this time (the first Baron Greystoke had been elevated to the peerage in the early 1320s), and they were based in the north of England, but I haven't heard of an incident like this.
-- A, Stanza 45: "The blodye harte in the Dowglas armes": The bloody heart was indeed a Douglas emblem, derived from the fact that, when Robert Bruce died, he wanted the Douglas to carry his heart to the Holy Land.
-- A, Stanza 46: The White Lion. This surprises me a bit. There was a lion on the Percy Family arms, but it was an azure lion (on a yellow background). The same stanza refers to a crescent, and the white crescent was also a Percy emblem. I wonder if the lines got mixed up.
-- A. Stanzas 47-48: Saint Amdrew/Saint George. Respectively the patrons of Scotland and England, though the former was better established at this time (since Saint George is basically an invented saint; see the notes to "Padstow May Day Song").
- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: C161

Battle of Pea Ridge

See Laws A12, "The Battle of Elkhorn Tavern" (File: LA12)

Battle of Pea Ridge (II)

DESCRIPTION: "It was on March the seventh in the year of sixty-two" that the Confederates fought "Abe Lincoln's crew." Fighting under Van Dorn, they lose 10,000 men. Cap Price does not want to retreat. The carnage is severe
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (collected by Parler from Allie Long Parker)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar war death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 7-8, 1862 - Battle of Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern), Ark. Federal forces under Samuel Curtis had advanced into Arkansas, and were met by the larger Confederate forces of Earl Van Dorn. Van Dorn's envelopment strategy was too complex for his raw troops, and Curtis was able to beat them off and eventually counterattack
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 359-361, "Battle of Pea Ridge" (1 text plus a broadside of another Pea Ridge song)
Roud #3133
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Elkhorn Tavern, or The Pea Ridge Battle" [Laws A12] (subject)
NOTES [539 words]: For background on the battle of Pea Ridge/Elkhorn Tavern, in which a superior Confederate army was defeated by a smaller Unionist force, see the notes to "The Battle of Elkhorn Tavern, or The Pea Ridge Battle" [Laws A12].
Many of the references in this song are explained there: "March the seventh" (starting date of the battle), "Van Dorn was our commander" (Major General Earl van Dorn was the commander of the Southern army at Pea Ridge), "Cap Price" (Sterling Price, commander of the Missouri half of van Dorn's army), "Pea RIdge" (the high Ozark plateau on which the battle was fought). However, a few references are peculiar to this song:
"Indian Territory": Pea Ridge was in northwestern Arkansas, northeast of Fayetteville; at the time, what is now the state of Oklahoma (to the west of Arkansas) was Indian Territory, and in fact van Dorn's army had a small Indian contingent under Albert Pike.
"Springfield," "Cartherage" (=Carthage), "Lexington," "Drywood": Springfield, Missouri had been the approximate dividing line between Union and Confederate territory for much of 1861; it was about as far as the Federals could carry supplies from the railhead at Rolla without an elaborate system of guards. Springfield had been Union general Samuel R. Curtis's starting point for the Pea Ridge campaign in 1862.
"Carthage" (July 5, 1861): Less a battle than a skedaddle; Franz Sigel's Union forces in that town had retreated fast to avoid getting swallowed up.
"Lexington": Lexington, Missouri, east of Kansas City, was the site of several skirmishes: When Wilson's Creek had opened the door for the Confederates to head north of Springfield, Lexington was one of their targets. On September 20, 1861, Sterling Price captured part of James Mulligan's small command there in a battle that brought charges of what we would now call war crimes. That battle seems also to be referred to in "Sterling Price."
Much later, on October 19, 1864, Price raided Lexington as part of his "raid in Missouri." Given the context of the song, I would guess the 1861 battle is meant.
"Drywood" is presumably the Battle of Dry Wood Creek, sometimes called the 'Battle of the Mules," on September 2, 1861. James H. Lane tried to ambush a part of Price's force as Price worked to occupy land in western Missouri -- but with only 1200 men, Lane was not able to deal with superior forces and ended up fleeing to Fort Scott; Price did not pursue.
All of these "battles" were small -- much smaller than the Battle of Wilson's Creek that is not mentioned (unless "Springfield" is a reference to Wilson's Creek; that battle took place about ten miles from Springfield), and far smaller than Pea Ridge.
(Most of the information about those battles is derived from Louis S. Gerteis, The Civil War in Missouri: A Military History, University of Missouri Press, 2012, and from Albert Castel, General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West, 1968 (I use the 1996 Louisiana State University Press paperback).)
Confederate losses at Pea Ridge did not approach ten thousand, but the Confederate losses were so high and straggling so common after the battle that there was probably a time when 10,000 of van Dorn's 17,000 men were not with the colors. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: CAFS1359

Battle of Pentland Hills, The

DESCRIPTION: "The ganllant Grahams cam from the west, Wi' their horses black as ony craw." Forces gather to battle under General Dalyell at the Pentland Hill to contest the Covenant. The Whigs are decisively defeated
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1806 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: battle political Scotland death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 531-533, "Battle of Pentland Hills" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (Edinburgh: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme ("Digitized by Microsoft")), third edition, Vol. II, pp. 51-57, "The Battle of Pentland Hills" (1 text)
Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 166-167, "Rullion Green or Pentland Hills" (1 text)
ST MBra166 (Partial)
Roud #8186
NOTES [101 words]: Scott first printed "The Battle of Pentland Hills" in the third edition [of the Minstrelsy] with the note, "I am obliged for a copy of the ballad to Mr Livingston of Airds, who took it down from the recitation of an old woman residing on his estate" (p. 54). "The Battle of Pentland Hills" is referred to -- as a battle -- but not printed as a ballad by Scott in the second edition (see: Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (Edinburgh: Longman and Rees, 1803 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), second edition, Vol. I, II, III; and Vol. III, p. 190 in the notes to "The Battle of Loudounhill."). - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: MBra166

Battle of Philiphaugh, The [Child 202]

DESCRIPTION: Sir David [Leslie] comes to Philiphaugh with 3000 Scots. They find a man to lead them to Montrose's army. The man, concerned by Leslie's small numbers, reveals why he hates Montrose and reveals how to defeat him. The defeat duly takes place
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: battle hate
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 13, 1645 - Battle of Philiphaugh
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 202, "The Battle of Philiphaugh" (1 text)
Bronson 202, comments only
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 525-526, "The Battle of Philiphaugh" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 653-155, "The Battle of Philiphaugh" (1 text)
Roud #4016
NOTES [178 words]: The Battle of Philiphaugh saw a royalist force under Montrose defeated by Scottish Covenanters led by David Leslie. This was almost the only time Montrose was defeated in battle (Leslie's forces, hidden by a mist, surprised Montrose).
This was hailed as a great victory for the Covenanters, even though Montrose's was outnumbered (by an even larger factor than usual, since the best of his MacDonald allies had deserted him, according to Oliver Thomson, The Great Feud: The Campbells & the MacDonalds, Sutton, 2000, p. 75), ill-supplied, and surprised. Still, Montrose had won a half dozen battles against equally long odds in the preceding year. so any victory against him was treated as a triumph.
In fact, Montrose was only slightly worse off than if he had won another of his unlikely victories; his armies always disintrigrated win orlose. But it took only one battle to ruin his reputation as invincible. From that time on, King Charles I's position in Scotland deteriorated rapidly, and of course the situation in England was very bad for other reasons. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: C202

Battle of Point Pleasant, The

DESCRIPTION: "Let us mind the tenth day of October, Seventy-four, which caused woe." "Captain Lewis and some noble Captains" engage in battle with the Indians by the Ohio River; "seven score," including the officers, are casualties, but the battle is won
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Aplington)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) battle death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 10, 1774 - Battle of Point Pleasant
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 40, p. 93, "The Battle of Point Pleasant" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 213, "The Battle of Point Pleasant" (1 text)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 25-26, "The Battle of Point Pleasant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 13, "The Battle of Point Pleasant" (1 text, so different from most of the above that it is very possibly a separate poem)
Roud #4029
NOTES [152 words]: This song is item dA31 in Laws's Appendix II.
The Battle of Point Pleasant was the culmination of "Lord Dunmore's War." John Murray, Earl of Dunmore (1732-1809), was governor of Virginia, but determined to control territories beyond the Appalachians (a plan completely contrary to official British policy). His maneuvers pushed the Shawnee and Ottowa Indians to war.
The Battle of Point Pleasant was fought when the Shawnee chief Cornstalk was caught between two converging columns of Virginia soldiers, led by Dunmore and Colonel Andrew Lewis. Cornstalk, realizing his plight, attacked Lewis's force at Point Pleasant (at the mouth of the Great Kanawha River), but was defeated.
After Point Pleasant, there was little the Shawnee could do, and diplomats had already convinced other tribes to leave them to their fate. Negotiations secured the Europeans free passage of the Ohio and hunting rights in Kentucky. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LPnd093

Battle of Prery Grove, The

See Prairie Grove (File: R222)

Battle of Prestonpans, The

See Tranent Muir (File: DTtranmu)

Battle of Queenston Heights, The

DESCRIPTION: "Upon the heights of Queenston one dark October day, Invading foes were marshalled in battle's dread array." General Brock, intent on repelling the invaders, leads his troops up the hill and is killed. The soldiers mourn
AUTHOR: Music: Alan Mills
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong)
KEYWORDS: Canada soldier death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
October 13, 1812 - American troops cross the Niagara River and take up a position on Queenston Heights in Canada. General Brock, the victor at Detroit, moves to drive them off. His soldiers succeed, but Brock is killed
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 66-67, "The Battle of Queenston Heights" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4524
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brave General Brock" [Laws A22] (for the earlier career of General Brock)
NOTES [1351 words]: Theoretically, the Americans wanted to open the War of 1812 by attacking Canada on three fronts simultaneously (Hickey, p. 80; Mahon, p. 38). The main thrust was intended to be toward Montreal, with diversions along the Detroit and Niagara fronts. The idea was to cut off traffic on the Saint Lawrence, isolating Upper Canada (roughly modern Ontario) from Britain.
Very little of it worked. The Montreal assault started late, and the other two probes, which might have amounted to something had they been simultaneous, instead took place weeks apart -- long enough that Isaac Brock could personally deal with both of them. (Indeed, there was actually a cease-fire on the Niagara front while the Detroit campaign was going on; Mahon, pp. 75-76.)
For Brock's first success in the War of 1812, see "Brave General Brock" [Laws A22]. Having bluffed the Americans out of Michigan, and captured their army with vastly inferior forces, Brock hurried back to defend the Niagara front. Here again the Americans muffed a chance to use their superior forces.
Queenston Heights was one of those battles where the key was which side made the last mistake. The British forces were on the north side of the Niagara River (actually the west side, given that the river flows south to north), the Americans on the south (east), with their leaders itching to invade but suffering from divided command between officers who did not get along (Borneman, pp. 70-72; Hickey, p. 86). What was supposed to be a double-pronged assault on Queenston and Fort George (the latter to the south and the former to the north) turned into a single assault on Queenston, led by the political appointee Stephen Van Rensselaer (who had no military experience; Borneman, p. 70); General Alexander Smyth (himself a political appointee some years earlier), who should have attacked Fort George, refused direct orders to cooperate in the attack (Mahon, p. 76, tells of how Smyth avoided meeting van Rensselaer so he couldn't possibly be given orders).
The Canadian town of Queenston is about eight miles north of Niagara Falls, about half way between the Falls and Lake Ontario. The Americans in the vicinity had 3500 troops to face Brock's 2000, most of whom were about six miles away at Fort George (near Lake Ontario) rather than at Queenston, but the Americans had a horrid time finding boats to get across the river and for a time lost all their oars (Hickey, p. 87); they never did find enough transportation to move their full force (Mahon, p. 77).
The Americans eventually managed to push about 200 soldiers across the river west of the town. There was a British redoubt part-way up the Heights, which inflicted heavy casualties on the forces in its front, but Captain John Wool's company of regulars circled up the heights and came at it from above. Brock gathered the forces he could and counter-attacked. The motley crew did retake the redoubt, but Brock was dead on the field (Borneman, p. 73; Mahon, p. 79).
That wasn't the end of the battle. General Van Rensselaer sent Winfield Scott's troops across to reinforce Wool. Wool had by then retaken the redoubt (Borneman, p. 74), and Scott had 600 men to hold the position (though only 350 of them were regulars; Mahon, p. 80). Had the Americans been reinforced, Queenston Heights might have held. But the rest of the American militia refused Van Rensselaer's pleas to cross the river (Hickey, p. 87), and British artillery was making the crossing perilous anyway, so few of the boatman were willing to go on the river (Mahon, p. 80).
From that time on, it all went bad for the Americans. Brock's second-in-command, Major General Hale Sheaffe, brought up the garrison of Fort George, giving him probably a three to one edge over Scott's forces on the Heights.
Van Rensselaer ordered Scott to retreat, and promised to have boats to evacuate his troops. But he had no boats. Scott, pinned on the river bank rather than in the strong position on the heights, was forced to surrender (Borneman, p. 75; Hickey, p. 87; Mahon, p. 80). In terms of casualties, it was an overwhelming British victory: 14 British killed, 84 wounded, and 15 missing; the Americans had 90 killed, 100 wounded, and 958 prisoners (Mahon, pp. 80-81; Jameson, p. 537, agrees that there were190 killed and wounded but suggests that there were only 900 prisoners; he inflates British losses to 130 -- which still means the Americans lost eight men for every British casualty). The only thing spoiling it for the British was the death of Brock.
In the aftermath, Van Rensselaer asked to be relieved, and Smythe (who blamed Van Renssalaer for not using his troops when he by his own actions made cooperation impossible; Mahon, p. 81) took his place and produced an even bigger mess at Fort Erie, after which he too was out of a job (Hickey, p. 88; Mahon, pp. 83-85. Mahon on p. 85 reports that his reputation after this was so bad that he was threatened by some of his own troops).
Van Rensselaer would later serve as a congressman for New York, and he founded Rensselaer Polytechnic (Jameson, p. 675), but the only officers to come out of the affair with any credit were Wool and Scott -- both of whom would actually still be around to serve not only in the Mexican War (where Scott was the commander-in-chief and Wool the second-in-command to General Taylor; Jameson, p. 725) but even in the Civil War. By contrast, "If English-speaking Canada has a national hero (and it is not a people to recognize such things readily) he is Sir Isaac Brock. Certainly it is difficult to imagine that Upper Canada could have survived without Brock's combination of sound strategy and courageous tactics" (McNaught, p. 73).
The third thrust of the American offensive, the one toward Montreal (led by Henry Dearborn), was so badly organized that it didn't start until November, never made it past the Canadian border, and at one point on the way American troops fired on each other (Hickey, p. 88). So Brock, even though dead, had won another victory -- and by doing so permanently saved Canada from American occupation. The Americans would try again in 1813 (see the notes to "The Battle of Bridgewater") but while that involved much heavier fighting, it still left the Americans on their side of the Niagara. By 1814, it was the British who were invading New England (see "The Siege of Plattsburg").
These lyrics are associated with the memorial raised to General Brock in 1824. There is no reason to believe they were ever sung.
And yes, Brock's charge is the incident Stan Rogers wrote a song about (but from the standpoint of Lt. Colonel John Mcdonell, the #2 man in the field behind Brock, who also died at Queenston). I have to dispute that song's contention that Mcdonell, had he lived, "might be what Brock became"; Brock had already done far more by his campaigns in the Ontario peninsula -- victories which had earned him a knighthood, though word had not reached Canada when he died (Borneman, p. 75). And Mcdonell would soon have been superseded by Sheaffe even had he lived. And, at best, Mcdonell might have drrven the Americans back into the river before Scott could cross. But, given how the battle turned out, that would probably have made the campaign less of a British victory.
CanadianBio, p. 501, gives a few details about Mcdonell/Macdonell (1785-1812): "attorney-general of Upper Canada, was born at Greenfield, Inverness, Scotland, on April 19. 1785, the fourth son of Alexander Macdonell of Greenfield.... He came to Upper Canada with his father about 1792. He was called to the bar of Upper Canada in 1808, and in 1812 was appointed attorney-general of the province. In 1812 he was also elected to represent Glengarry in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada. On the outbreak of the War of 1812 he became provincial aide-de-camp to General Brock... and he negotiated the terms of the capture of Detroit.... He was unmarried."
And Rogers was probably also wrong to say that "not one in ten thousand" knew Macdonell's name; I agree that he isn't well-known, but his name is mentioned in most of the histories. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: FMB066

Battle of Schenectady, The (The Schenectady Massacre)

DESCRIPTION: "God prosper long our King and Queen, Our lives and safeties all, A sad misfortune once there did Schenectady befall." The French come from Canada to raid the town. Many are murdered in their beds. Cavalry attack the retreating French raiders
AUTHOR: Walter Wiley
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Pearson, _A History of the Schenectady Patent...._, according to Cohen; Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales claimes an 1846 version in Watson's _Annals and Occurrences_); supposedly written 1690
KEYWORDS: battle homicide horse
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 96-98, "The Battle of Schenectady" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 314-317, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #6613
File: CAFS1097

Battle of Seven Oaks, The

See Chanson de la Grenouillere ("Song of Frog Plain," Falcon's Song) (File: FMB121)

Battle of Sheriffmuir, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's some say that we wan, and some that they wan, And some say that nane wan at a' man!" The song catalogs the fighters at the Battle of Sheriffmuir, and notes how many fighters ran
AUTHOR: Credited to Rev. Murdoch McLennan
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg)
KEYWORDS: battle Jacobite
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 13, 1715 - Battle of Sheriffmuir
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 1, "The Battle of Sheriffmuir" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 194-197, "Sheriffmuir" (1 text)
ST MBra193 (Partial)
Roud #2867
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Will Ye Go to Sheriffmuir" (subject of Sheriffmuir)
cf. "Up and Waur Them A', Willie (II)" (subject of Sheriffmuir)
NOTES [46 words]: For background on the Battle of Sherriffmuir, see the notes to "Will Ye Go to Sheriffmuir?"
The comment that some say one side won, and others say the other won, is appropriate; the battle was tactically indecisive although in practical terms it ended the 1715 rebellion. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MBra193

Battle of Shiloh Hill, The [Laws A11]

DESCRIPTION: A survivor of the Battle of Shiloh describes the difficult and bloody campaign, hoping that there will be no more such battles. The sufferings of the wounded men are alluded to, as are the prayers of the dying.
AUTHOR: Words credited to M. B. Smith, 2nd Texas Volunteers
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Allan's Lone Star Ballads, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 6-7, 1862 - Battle of Shiloh. The army of U.S. Grant is forced back but, reinforced by Buell, beats off the army of A.S. Johnston. Johnston is killed. Both sides suffer heavy casualties (Shiloh was the first battle to show how bloody the Civil War would be)
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So,SE)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws A11, "The Battle of Shiloh Hill"
Randolph 220, "The Battle on Shiloh's Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 229, "The Battle of Shiloh Hill" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 36-38, "Shiloh's Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 269-270, "The Battle of Shiloh" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 181, "The Battle on Shiloh's Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 246-247, "The Battle of Shiloh Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 56-57, "The Battle of Shiloh Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 674, SHILOHIL
Roud #2200
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Shiloh" [Laws A10] and references there (subject of the Battle of Shiloh)
NOTES [118 words]: The battle of Shiloh is named for Shiloh Church, around which much of the fighting centered. It is also called Pittsburg Landing, after the site where Grant made his last stand before reinforcements arrived from Buell.
Some versions of this song refer to the "second battle that was fought on Shiloh hill." This actually refers to the second day of the battle, when the reinforced Yankees drove the Confederates back.
To tell this song from Laws A10, consider this first stanza:
"Come all you gallant soldiers, a story I will tell
About the bloody battle that was fought on Shiloh hill;
It was an awful struggle and will cause your heart to chill,
It was the famous battle that was fought on Shiloh hill." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LA11

Battle of Shiloh, The [Laws A10]

DESCRIPTION: "All you southerners now draw near, Unto my story approach you here, Each loyal southerner's heart to cheer." A southerner tells of the southern "victory" at Shiloh and the Yankee "retreat"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 6-7, 1862 - Battle of Shiloh. The army of U.S. Grant is forced back but, reinforced by Buell, beats off the army of A.S. Johnston. Johnston is killed. Both sides suffer heavy casualties (Shiloh was the first battle to show how bloody the Civil War would be)
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws A10, "The Battle of Shiloh"
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 136, "The Battle of Shiloh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, "The Battle of Shiloh" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 587, BATSHILO*
Roud #2199
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "At Pittsburg Landing our Troops Fought Hard" (subject of the Battle of Shiloh)
cf. "The Battle of Shiloh Hill" [Laws A11] (subject of the Battle of Shiloh)
cf. "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" [Laws A15] (subject of the Battle of Shiloh)
NOTES [93 words]: The Confederates could claim victory on the first day at Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing); they had thrown Grant's army back to the edge of the river and left him with only a few thousand soldiers in hand. On the second day of the battle, however, reinforcements from Buell allowed Grant to counterattack and repel the Confederates.
What's more, while the battle was close to a draw in terms of casualties, it was an overwhelming strategic defeat for the Confederates; had Grant's superior General Halleck pursued his win, the war might have been over in 1862. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LA10

Battle of Stone River, The

DESCRIPTION: Confederate General Bragg tells his men to hold the line at Stone River. Union Gen. Johnson is prepared to cut and run, but Rosecrans and Van Cleve stand firm. Singer sees the ground red with blood; Sills is killed. They fight until the rebels retreat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Late 1930s (AFS recording, Oscar Parks)
KEYWORDS: army battle Civilwar fight violence war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 31, 1862-Jan 2, 1863 - Battle of Stones River/Murfreesboro
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 363-366, "The Battle of Stone River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16820
RECORDINGS:
Oscar Parks, "The Battle of Stone River" (on AFS 1727, late 1930s) (on FineTimes)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ohio" (subject: The Battle of Stones River/Murfreesboro)
NOTES [1156 words]: The battle took place along the banks of the Stone River near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The generals: Braxton Bragg, of the Confederate Army of the Tennessee; William Rosecrans, Richard Johnson, Horatio Van Cleve and Joshua Sills, of the Union Army of the Cumberland. Gen. Sills was killed by one Col. Perry, a rebel in an area with Union sympathies. Parks tells of singing a snatch this song in the woods one day when Col. Perry himself came up and made him sing the whole thing, then said, "I'm the very goddam man that shot him." - PJS
Despite the title of the song, the correct name of the battle was not Stone River but Stones River, or Murfreesboro to the Confederates (according to McDonough, p. 10 n. 15, "The river is properly called "Stone's," named after an early hunter, Uriah Stone, but has been frequently spelled 'Stones,' which has generally been accepted as the proper designation for the name of the battle") -- and it was actually a multi-part battle spread over three days. On the first day, Bragg's Confederate army hit the Union right flank. The division of Brigadier General Richard W. Johnson (1827-1897) was the extreme flank element in the Union line, and naturally was driven hardest in the assault in which Hardee's Confederate corps drove McCook's through a 180 degree angle and almost back onto the Union left rear (see the map in Boatner, p. 804).
It's odd to see "Van Cleves" (Horatio Phillips Van Cleve, 1809-1891) mentioned as one of the key props of the Union line (if we had to name one officer, it would surely be Philip Sheridan, whose division held on under intense pressure for a very long time before buckling; Catton, p. 40; McPherson, p. 580, says that Sheridan lost a third of his men and all three of his brigadiers. George H. Thomas, a corps commander, also deserves great credit for anticipating the final Confederate assault and making dispositions to stop it; Catton, p. 41). Van Cleve's troops were on the Union left, intended to attack the Confederate right; they did not face the initial attack and served only to strengthen the final Union line (Harpers, p. 322, or see the map in Randall/Donald, p. 408) -- and Van Cleve was wounded anyway (Boatner, p. 866). When Van Cleve's men were briefly involved in the fight, McDonough, p. 120, reports that they retreated before the assault of Confederate General Cleburne, and after the battle, he lost his division and was relegated to a minor command (Warner, p. 522).
Still, Van Cleve's division was brought into the Union line as a reinforcement, and ended up stuck between the divisions of Johnson and Rousseau (McDonough, p. 118, or see the map on pp. 138-139), so they might have thought they saved the day.
Another wild speculation occurs to me: Van Cleve had been colonel of the 2nd Minnesota Regiment, which he had led at the Battle of Mill Springs (Bishop/Chester, p. 70; for the battle, see "The Battle of Mill Springs [Laws A13]). This regiment was one of the most heavily involved in that battle (Carley, p. 36). Van Cleve became fairly famous in the Midwest as a result; before the war, he had been a stockman in Minnesota (Warner, p. 521), and after the war he was Minnesota's Adjutant General 186-1870, 1876-1882 (Warner, p. 522); there is a Van Cleve park in Minneapolis to this day. The songwriter was probably a Midwesterner -- perhaps a Minnesotan -- who wanted to celebrate a favorite son. It is to be noted that the song was preserved by Oscar Parks, also a Midwesterner (from Illinois).
The other possibility is that the reference is to the secondary phase of the battle on January 2, when Van Cleve's division was heavily involved in the fighting against Breckinridge's division on the other side of the Union line (see map on pp. 214-215 of McDonough). However, Van Cleve had been wounded by then and passed command of his division to Col. Samuel Beatty (McDonough, p. 169).
"Sills" is properly Joshua Woodrow Sill (1831-1862), a brigadier killed on December 31 (Boatner, p. 762). Fort Sill, Oklahoma was named for him. He led the first brigade of Sheridan's division (McDonough, p. 235), so he was at the center of the fighting. He had worried before the battle about his position -- a worry that proved well-founded (McDonough, p. 81, who describes him as "a vigilant, competent Ohioan"; he had graduated third in the West Point class of 1853 -- a class which also included his division commander Sheridan). Sheridan himself called Sill "modest, courageous, and a practical military leader" (McDonough, p. 82). He had talked to Sheridan before the battle, and they had agreed to have their men ready at their positions on the morning of the battle (McDonough, p. 83) -- a decision which may have saved the Union army. Sill was shot in the head while organizing a counter-attack during the battle; he died instantly (McDonough, p. 101).
December 31 was the big day at Stones River, but Bragg did mount a minor second assault on January 2, 1863, which failed. The Confederates had achieved a significant tactical victory, having driven the Union troops badly, but they could not exploit the win, either because Bragg wasn't aggressive enough or because his army was too badly damaged (according to Randall/Donald, p. 409, Bragg had about 8200 casualties out of 34,000 engaged; Rosecrans lost 9200 out of 41,000 engaged; McPherson, p. 582, says that Bragg lost over a third of his men and Rosecrans 31%, making Stones River, in terms of percentage casualties, the deadliest battle of the war).
Bragg apparently expected Rosecrans's army to retreat (Catton, p. 42), but when it failed to do so, he retreated himself (McPherson, p. 582; according to McDonough, p. 216, the Confederates had fewer than 30,000 effectives, and had heard that Rosecrans was getting reinforcements, so both Bragg and his corps commanders Polk and Hardee felt they could not stay where they were), making the battle at least look like a Union strategic victory. On the other hand, Rosecrans and his army had been so stunned that they spent six months licking their wounds (Catton, p. 44; McPherson, p. 583) -- a lull that the Confederates could have made good use of had they had a true central command to coordinate their efforts.
Although Paul did not mention Confederate general William J. Hardee (1815-1873), he is mentioned in List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana's text. A division commander as early as Shiloh, by the time of this battle, he was a corps commander (Boater, p. 374), commanding half of Bragg's force (see the organization table on pp. 250-253 of McDonough) and it was his forces, minus Breckinridge''s big division, that attacked Johnson and the Union right and forced them into retreat (McDonough, p. 75; map on p. 804 of Boatner). From what I can tell, he was one of the best Confederate officers in the west (they called him "Old Reliable: McDonough, p. 72), but somehow he never gets much attention. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: RcTBoSR

Battle of Stonington

DESCRIPTION: "Four/Three/A gallant ship(s) from England came, Freighted deep with fire and flame... To have a dash at Stonington." The Ramilles opens the attack on the town. The Americans have few guns but fight hard and drive off the British ships
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (Old Folks' Concert Tunes)
KEYWORDS: battle ship navy patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1814 - The attack on Stonington, CT
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 84-86, "The Battle of Stonington" (1 text plus a broadside print)
Roud #V42138
NOTES [402 words]: Although the song makes a great deal of this attack, it seems in fact to have been a pretty minor affair. I checked four histories of the War of 1812; only two of them mention it at all, and neither description is long.
John K. Mahon, The War of 1812, 1972 (I used the undated Da Capo paperback edition), p. 254, says that by the time of the battle, the British were becoming upset with "barbarous" American tactics, such as the use of "torpedoes" (mines). Orders were given for reprisals. Few British field commanders indulged in such behavior. There was one exception:
"Rear Admiral Henry Hotham, however, took it as authority to punish Stonington, Connecticut for harboring torpedoes. Four British warships began to bombard Stonington on 9 August 1814. They ceased at the end of the day, but resumed it on 11 August. The fort stoutly replied, and the local militia swarmed 3,000 strong to repel the expected landing. The vessels drew off when night came and did not return" (Mahon, p. 254).
On the British side, there seems to have been little determination to pursue the battle. David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, editors, Encyclopedia of the War of 1812, 1997 (I use the 2004 Naval Institute Press edition), pp. 492-493, have this to say about the battle:
"For four days, beginning 9 August 1814, a large, heavily armed British naval squadron under the command of Commodore Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy [commander of Nelson's VIctory at Trafalgar] bombarded the tiny seaport of Stonington, Connecticut." The ships involved were the 74-gun Ramilles, the 38-gun Pactolus, and the 18-gun Dispatch and Nimrod. To fight this armada, which supposedly fired 50 tons of metal into the town, the Americans had two 18-pound guns and one 6-pounder.
The Heidlers report that Hardy was clearly trying to avoid inflicting casualties; he gave the citizens warning and time to get out. This limited the damage he could do to the town -- only four of the hundred or so houses were destroyed, with thirty to forty more damaged. Only six Americans were injured and none killed. British casualties are uncertain, with reports varying from two to 21.
It was much like Fort McHenry: Fundamentally, a draw. But the Americans made a lot of propaganda out of it. On the other hand, one of the British goals was to keep the Americans from sending militia to attack Canada -- and in that they largely succeeded. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CAFS1084

Battle of the Baltic, The

DESCRIPTION: "Of Nelson and the North, Sing the glorious day's renown, When to battle fierce came forth All the might of Denmark's crown." The British are brave and defeat the enemy, who lie "Full many a fathom deep By thy wild and stormy steep, Elsinore!"
AUTHOR: Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) (source: Bodleian web site; Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (broadside Bodleian Firth c.12(37))
KEYWORDS: navy battle death patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 2, 1801 - First Battle of Copenhagen. Nelson commands the British fleet to destroy the outnumbered Danish forces (ignoring his superior Admiral Hyde Parker's orders against it) lest they join the anti-British alliance
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads 68, pp. 127-128, "The Battle of the Baltic" (1 text)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 157-159, "The Battle of the Baltic" (1 text)
Roud #27999
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(37), "Battle of the Baltic," The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1855
NOTES [18 words]: I have no idea why Steve Roud indexed this; it is clearly not traditional. But I follow him in indexing it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: SSSB127

Battle of the Boyne (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Battle began "upon a summer's morn, unclouded rose the sun." Williamites Schomberg, Walker, and Caillemotte are killed. James deserts his supporters who are "worthy of a better cause and of a bolder king." William would not pursue the fleeing Jacobites
AUTHOR: Lieut. Colonel William Blacker (1777-1853)
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Hayes)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "It was upon a summer's morn, unclouded rose the sun." On William's side, Duke Schomberg ["the veteran hero falls, renowned along the Rhine"], Rev George Walker ["whose name, while Derry's walls endure, shall brightly shine"], and Caillemotte were killed. James deserted his supporters ["O! worthy of a better cause and of a bolder king ... many a gallant spirit there retreats across the plain, Who, change but kings, would gladly dare that battle field again"]. William would not pursue the fleeing Jacobites [.".. vanquished freemen spare"].
KEYWORDS: battle Ireland royalty rebellion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 1, 1690 - Battle of the Boyne. William III crushes the Irish army of James, at once securing his throne and the rule of Ireland. Irish resistance continues for about another year, but Ireland east of the Shannon is his, and the opposition is doomed.
FOUND IN: battle Ireland royalty rebellion
REFERENCES (6 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 71-72, "Battle of the Boyne" (1 text)
Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859 (reprint of 1855 London edition)), Vol I, pp. 210-211, "The Battle of the Boyne"
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 174, "The Battle of the Boyne" (1 text, which appears to have been shortened and might be a different song)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 135-141, "The Battle of the Boyne" (1 text pllus some perhaps-ancestral stanzas)
DT, BATLBOYN
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Dublin:A Fullerton & Co, 1855 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 194-196, "The Battle of the Boyne"
ST PGa014A (Full)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boyne Water (I)" (subject: The Battle of the Boyne)
cf. "The Boyne Water (II)" (subject: The Battle of the Boyne)
cf. "Schomberg" (subject: The Battle of the Boyne)
cf. "The Bright Orange Stars of Coleraine" (subject: The triumph of William of Orange)
NOTES [3671 words]: Hayes's footnotes on p. 210 confirm that the allusions are to Schomberg and Walker.
Huguenot Colonel Caillemotte was killed just before noon, at about the same time Schomberg was killed. James left the field and de Lauzun sent Sarsfield's Horse and Maxwell's Dragoons to insure his safety, compromising the remaining forces's effectiveness against the Williamite cavalry (McNally, pp. 82, 86). - BS
Panic and indecision was, indeed, a strong characteristic of James VII and II (1633-1701) -- easy traits to understand in a younger son of an imperious father (Charles I) whose self-importance was thoroughly dealt with when he was deposed and executed when James was still only 16.
After the Restoration of the Monarchy, James's older brother Charles II (reigned 1660-1685) had managed to control parliament by many years of skillful maneuvering (or, perhaps, incompetence combined with a willingness to listen to anyone; historians disagree), and later the use of French subsidies to allow him to rule without parliament. But Charles had advantages James did not: He had come in on the groundswell of support following the downfall of Oliver Cromwell's "Protectorate" (religious dictatorship) -- and Charles was, at least nominally, Protestant. Whereas James was openly Catholic, and there were rumors that he was behind the "Popish Plot" -- a story concocted in 1678 by one Titus Oates, which claimed the Catholics were trying to assassinate Charles and bring a Catholic takeover (Clark, pp. 88-92). It was basically a series of lies by Oates for personal gain, but it made the whole nation nervous.
Of James II, Clark writes (p. 111), "If tragedy is the story of a man of high worldly rank whose sufferings are due to his virtues as well as to his vices, then the reign of James II was tragic, and it is not surprising that historians... should take his personal share in them as the guiding thread through the events." Clark describes Charles as an "easy, clever temporizer" and James as "inadaptable, indeed obstinate." Miller, his biographer, comments crushingly, "It is not easy to like James; after some years of research, I must confess to feeling little affection for him. He was utterly humourless and so obsessed with his own rightness that he showed virtually no interest in the views of others." Similarly Smith, p. 363: "He had no tact, no political sense." His thinking was absolutely black-and-white; he had no compromise, no compassion, no ability to see others' viewpoints -- and a swift urge to strike back at those who opposed him. Those who were less than entirely with him were against him, and were treated as such (Miller, p. 12). It was a fast way to alienate people.
James faced a rebellion at the very beginning of his reign by Charles II's illegitimate son the Duke of Monmouth; it was easily crushed (see, e.g. the notes to "The Monmouth Rebel"; also "Bothwell Bridge" [Child 206] and, for this whole messy period, the notes to "The Vicar of Bray."). But then James made the first of his many mistakes: Rather than disband his army, he kept it together, even giving it many Catholic officers. This at the very time that Louis XIV of France was revoking the Edict of Nantes which had granted toleration to Protestants (Clark, p. 116). Naturally the Protestants were afraid. But this did not keep James from appointing more and more Catholics to high offices (Clark, p. 117).
According to Foster, p. 141, "[T]he uneasy political strife was tipped over by a deus ex machina from another quarter. This was the birth of a Catholic heir in June 1688, and the escalation of the political tempo caused by James's importation of Irish regiments in the autumn."
The heir was the real surprise. James's second wife Mary of Modena had long been barren, but now she gave birth to a son. James had two daughters by his first wife who were safely Protestant. But this child -- the so-called Old Pretender, or James III -- would be Catholic. This came as a "bombshell" to the Protestants, including the supporters of James's protestant daughter Mary and her Protestant husband William III of Orange (Prall, p. 173).
So concerned were many of the Protestants that they invited William III -- who was King of the Netherlands in his own right -- to invade England and depose James. And, by sheer luck, William was in position to do so -- Louis XIV of France, who had been planning to invade Williams's kingdom, went haring off after other objectives in 1688 (Clark, p. 129) when the German princes came to William's support (Bardon, p. 151). William then was free to sail to England, helped by the famously fortunate "Protestant wind" (Clark, p. 132). Representatives of Parliament came to him after his landing (Prall, p. 234), and in effect a new form of government was agreed upon -- a much more limited monarchy, and one which placed greater stress on what we would call "human rights."
But the invasion finally made James realize his difficult position. All was not necessarily lost. He could stay and try to convince parliament to stay on his side -- and, in the opinion of Kenyon, p. 251, he was likely to have succeeded: "James's position was still strong, probably stronger now that the idea of a military campaign had virtually been abandoned. William was in the position of aggressor, and James was free to renounce any settlement at a later date on the grounds that it had been imposed on him by force."
But James was afraid. Ironic, for a man who had been a general while in exile, then Admiral of England, and who as Duke of York was a ferocious hunter, which Miller, p. 43, thinks he pursued "as a pale substitute for war." Kenyon, p. 252, points out that all the Protestants' problems would be solved if James were dead -- they could raise the infant James as a Protestant (perhaps with William and Mary as regents), or they could simply crown William and Mary as king and queen in their own right; either way, Protestantism would prevail. It was true that no sitting English king had been assassinated since at least 1100 (when William Rufus died in suspicious circumstances) and possibly since 978 (when Edward the Martyr was killed) -- but Edward II, Richard II, Henry VI, and Edward V had all died after being deposed, and Richard III had died in a civil war. And there were still alive men who had ordered James's father executed forty years before. James simply didn't want to risk it; he took his family and fled England (Clark, pp. 136-138), burning the writs of summons to the parliament while he was at it (Prall, pp. 237-238).
Technically, it was a smart move; Parliament was not in session, and had not been called, so formally the government was non-functional; it could not take action without James (Trevelyan, p. 67). But England was not as bureaucratically paralyzed as, say, France; Parliament in effect summoned itself (Prall, p. 247), calling the meeting a "convention" to satisfy the legal niceties (Clark, p. 139).
It was decided that James had abdicated (Clark, p. 140; Kenyon, pp. 254-257; Prall, p. 261; Trevelyan, p. 77). With the Old Pretender also missing, it was decided that he could not be the heir; in February the throne was awarded jointly to William III and Mary II (Bardon, p. 151) with the understanding that William was in charge for the moment, but that Mary would succeed him if she outlived him, and their children after her, and the princess Anne if William and Mary had no children. (And, as it would turn out, William and Mary didn't have offspring. Anne had quite a few, but they all predeceased her, which would lead to another set of problems.)
James, not too surprisingly, wasn't willing to give up that easily -- at least not once his personal safety was assured and he could start thinking again. His mistakes meant that England was almost universally happy with the settlement the Parliament created (the Whigs had of course long wanted to reduce the power of the monarchy, which they had, and even the Tories, who would ordinarily have supported James, were Protestants and so preferred a Protestant monarch). But there was discontent in Scotland -- and then there was Catholic Ireland.
Plus there was Louis XIV of France. In the reign of Charles II, he had used cash to keep England out of his way. But William III would not be bought -- so Louis used distraction instead. Foster, p. 141, notes that "[t]he impetus that led to James's last stand at the Boyne came from Louis XIV's encouragement rather than his own ambition." Clark, p. 291, adds that "Within three months of his arrival [in France, James] was packed off again, and on 22 March he landed at Kinsale.
"His aims still diverged from those of the Irish. He wanted to return to Britain, merely taking Ireland on his way, and once he had got back to England or Scotland, he would no doubt have looked on Ireland as before" [i.e. as a dependency].
James spent the next few months fiddling around with Irish politics. His military situation deteriorated badly in that time; the siege of Londonderry failed (see the notes to "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry"), and his troops had been defeated at Newtownbutler (Clark, p. 294); the battle ended in a massacre which almost destroyed the Jacobites of Ulster (Bardon, p. 159).
And he couldn't get his troops organized; he had no money, few arms, few experienced officers, no logistics -- and more troops than the land could support. The systems he managed to get in place were mostly extremely corrupt (Miller, pp. 222-223). He didn't have an army; he had a rabble that would fall apart under the slightest pressure.
James lasted as long as he did in Ireland only because William of Orange didn't really think his invasion was of much significance: "King William had at first been disposed to regard [Ireland] as altogether subsidiary to the continental wars, and he did not yield to the English statesmen who urged him to lead an army against James in person. It was even with reluctance that he sent his best general, Schomberg, with a force which should have amounted to 20,000 men, or more than double the contingent sent in that year to the Low Countries. Schomberg landed on August 23 on the coast of County Down near Bangor. His army was far below its nominal strength, ill-provided and, except for the foreign regiments, untrained and badly officered.... None the less he made a good start, capturing Carrickfergus and moving forward in September to Dundalk. Here, however, he had to halt. Rain and very heavy losses from disease were added to his troubles" (Clark, pp. 294-295).
Schomberg landed in Ballyhome Bay on August 13, 1689 by the modern calendar; there was no opposition, only a great crowd of Protestants giving thanks for their deliverance (Bardon, p. 159). Unfortunately, Schomberg -- who was 74 or 75 and a former Marshal of France expelled for being a Protestant (Hayes-McCoy, p. 222) -- was slow to follow up his success that year (Bardon, p. 160). Some of the soldiers on James's side thought that Schomberg was trapped, but James refused to do anything about it. Schomberg, his forces reduced to about 7000, sat tight for the winter (Hayes-McCoy, p. 223).
After half a year of inaction, the English King decided that Schomberg was not getting the job done (William reportedly met him with coldness; Bardon, p. 161); on "24 June 1690 William himself landed at Carrickfergus" (Clark, p. 295), not long after Schomberg had captured Charlemont, the last holdout for James in Ulster. (Fry/Fry, p. 161, and Bardon, p. 161, however, give William's landing date as June 14, and most other sources I checked say simply "June 1690." It appears this is the usual difference between Old Style and New Style dates, since Clark also uses the date of July 11 for the Battle of the Boyne itself.)
The Battle of the Boyne soon followed. Clark, p. 295, reports, "The Protestant army numbered something less than 40,000 men, including six Dutch, eight Danish, and three Huguenot battalions, so that the greater part of the infantry were foreign. Against them James had a somewhat smaller force, of which seven battalions were Frenchmen who had come over in the winter under the command of the romantic and incompetent duc de Lauzun."
However, the Irish force was ill-equipped and ill-trained; Hayes-McCoy, p. 218, reports "There was no lack of men, 'the finest men one could see,' said D'Avaux, strong, tall and capable of enduring fatigue; but they were poorly armed -- some whom D'Avaux saw carried only staves; their opponents noticed that 'some had scythes instead of pikes' -- and they were inadequately trained and most inadequately equipped." And this at a time when even pikes were going out of use -- although the habit for some time had been to mix muskets and pikes, the ratio of muskets to pikes was steadily increasing. A ratio of 5:1 or more was becoming standard in the regiments in William's army (Hayes-McCoy, p. 219), since the only purpose of the pikes was to resist cavalry. A portion of William's troops had the new flintlock muskets; the rest of his forces, and nearly everyone on James's side, had to use matchlocks (Hayes-McCoy, p. 220).
Foster, p. 148, observers, "The most striking thing about this confused battle is the internationalism of both sides: Irish, French, German, and Walloon [for James] versus Irish, English, Dutch, Germans, and Danes [for William]." Bardon, pp. 162-163, adds French Huguenot to this list; William's's army "represented the Grand Alliance against France."
James found himself in an area without good defensive positions, supplies, or strong towns; he decided to make his stand by the River Boyne, a position that was "far from perfect, but as good as he was likely to find in a country without fortified towns where the rivers were shallow and easily forded" (Miller, p. 231).
According to Fry/Fry, p. 161, "William reviewed his army of 36,000 men in Co. Down on 22nd June. Then he moved south toward Dublin, which was the immediate prize, and reached Dundalk. James decided to make his stand upon the river Boyne. He was only slightly outnumbered, he had had all winter to train his Irishmen, and he picked his ground well." The battlefield site is just west of the town of Drogheda (Bardon, p. 162). Hayes-McCoy, p. 224, reports that "To defend the line of the Boyne was the only practicable course open to James if he was to prevent an opponent who had come as far as Dundalk from reaching Dublin. The ground between Dundalk and the capital is in general low lying and easily traversed." The Boyne was the only significant east-west obstacle in the area.
Hayes-McCoy, p. 225: "The Boyne was fordable in many places in 1690; still, William's progress might be contested on its banks. The Jacobite army which occupied the south bank with its centre at Oldbridge, Co. Meath, its right at Drogheda and its left towards Slane was in position to make the attempt. It would have been impossible for William, if the Jacobites were to stand, and he was to retain anything of his reputation, to avoid the battle. Unfortunately, the Jacobite position, although it was the only one that could have been taken up on the river, had two serious defects. The river Boyne... forms a large loop around [a] ridge of high ground...." In other words, there was a salient in the center of James's line, which William could attack from three sides with his artillery.
"The second weakness of the terrain as far as James was concerned lay in the fact that an enemy force on the south bank at Rosnaree would be nearer to Duleek [a town in James's rear that offered the only good crossing of the river Nanny] than he was at Donore" (Hayes-McCoy, p. 226). In other words, a maneuver around James's left could block his retreat to Dublin and take him in rear. As a result, "James's security depended on guarding his left." And, according to Hayes-McCoy, he had only about 25,000 men. That meant that William would have a big advantage somewhere along the line.
William himself nearly became the first casualty of the battle; he was among his Dutch Guards when they came under Jacobite artillery fire, and his shoulder was grazed -- but he continued his inspection (Hayes-McCoy, p. 226).
Reportedly the day began with mist, "but the day brightened with the mounting sun and the words of the song that the victors were to sing -- 'July the first, in a morning clear' -- were justified" (Hayes-McCoy, p. 230).
There is a map of the battle on p. 217 of Hayes-McCoy, William, though not known for his generalship, fooled James: He sent a feint upstream (west), around James's left, which drew off James's Frenchmen, meanwhile using his much-superior artillery to bombard James's front at Oldbridge. William's army then crossed the stream for a frontal attack on the Jacobite center (Bardon, p. 163).
According to Hayes-McCoy, p. 228, about two-thirds of the army made the attack at Oldbridge, and one-third made the encircling movement. Although James sent Neal O'Neill to stop the flanking maneuver (Miller, p. 232), it proved a smashing success; James had only a regiment of dragoons guarding the crossings on his left, and they were forced back and their commander killed (Hayes-McCoy, p. 230). The entire 10,000 troops of William's flanking maneuver were soon across the stream. James responded by sending roughly half his army in that direction. But, of course, that left that big salient in his center relatively weak -- and under attack by twice its numbers.
The main attack went in at 10:00, timed to coincide with a tide that lowered the river somewhat. The first assault was met by an Irish counterattack that stopped them. (For a brief moment, the lack of pikes in the Williamite army helped the Irish cavalry.) It was at this point that Caillemotte, the Huguenot commander of a regiment in the second line, was killed; his troops had neither pikes nor bayonets nor any sort of obstacles to stop cavalry (Hayes-McCoy, p. 232).
There is confusion about what happened to Schomberg, though he too fell at about this time; Bardon, p. 163, reports, "Schomberg was killed by mistake by a French Huguenot who 'shot him in the throat, and down he dropped dead,' according to Southwell; however, Danish and Irish accounts say the Duke was slain by one of Tyrconnell's Life Guards. The Reverend George Walker was also killed." (Walker was, according to Bardon, p. 154, "Church of Ireland rector of Donoughmore," famous for his part in organizing the successful defense of Derry; he managed to find time before his death to write a True Account of the Siege of Derry.)
But William had other troops available, and a second column crossed the Boyne (at a place the Jacobites thought unfordable) and attacked at 11:00. A third force joined the attack around noon. Finally, the Jacobite center was forced back. The left, now threatened with attack in front and back, had to follow. The Irish cavalry performed magnificently -- but they were not enough (Hayes-McCoy, pp. 234-235).
Fry/Fry, p. 162: "James' Irish infantry could not hold them, though his cavalry under Tyrconnell (now a duke) charged with reckless valour again and again. The French had been positioned too far away to be of much help; they only lost six men in the whole battle, but they checked William's men sufficiently to give James the chance of a fairly orderly retreat. Dublin was evacuated, and Tyrconnell ordered the French and Irish forces to Limerick, while James slipped quietly back to France."
Clark, p. 295, estimates James's losses at 1500 (or 6% of his force), and William's at 500 (less than 2%). Miller, p. 232, says "The casualties on both sides were light and the bulk of James's army got away." The problem is, they were such poor troops, with such poor officers, that they could not really be reassembled -- especially since James himself fled.
Clark, p. 296: "[James] himself, despairing too soon, spent only one night in Dublin, made off to Waterford and Kinsale, and landed in France before the end of the month."
The fight in Ireland continued until the Battle of Aughrim -- which, unlike the Boyne, was a complete defeat for the Irish and French. For the aftermath, see "After Aughrim's Great Disaster."
Bardon notes, pp. 163-164, "The Battle of the Boyne was not a rout.... The Irish and French retired in good order to fight doggedly behind the Shannon for another year. Yet the battle was decisive; it was a severe blow to Louis XIV's pretensions to European hegemony... James, who made a precipitate flight to France, could no longer think of Ireland as a springboard for recovering his throne; for the English the Glorious Revolution and parliamentary rule were made secure... and for Ulster Protestants the battle ensured the survival of their plantation and a victory for their liberty to be celebrated from year to year."
Hayes-McCoy, pp. 235-236: "The Boyne was a significant rather than a great battle. As a result of it William won Dublin and Leinster and more than half of Munster -- priceless advantages. It was reckoned a great victory by that part of Europe that opposed Louis XIV... but its real significance was, after all, Irish. Although the defeated army continued to fight for more than a year after the date of its discomfiture, it did so with diminishing hope of success. Militarily the Boyne was the decisive battle of the war. Yet the fact that it became the rallying cry of the ascendancy that it served to set up was to suggest that it hadn't really been decisive after all."
Trevelyan, p. 121: "The destruction of James's army [at the Boyne]... and his own too early flight first from the field and then back to France, put the victors in possession of Dublin and three-quarters of Ireland. The English Revolution was saved, and England had set her foot on the first rung of the latter that led her to heights of power and prosperity in the coming years. And by the same action Ireland was thrust back into the abyss."
Author Blacker also wrote "No Surrender (II)" in this Index. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: PGa014A

Battle of the Boyne (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "July the first, in Oldbridge town ...." "In vain they marched to slaughter; For oh! 'tis lost what William won That day at the Boyne Water." "Fear has lost what valour won." May "days return when men shall prize The deeds of the Boyne Water"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1895 (Graham-TheOrangeSongster)
KEYWORDS: battle Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Graham-TheOrangeSongster, p. 9, "The Battle of the Boyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Girl I Left Behind Me (II - lyric)" (tune)
cf. "The Boyne Water (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [136 words]: The beginning of the first verse is the beginning of "Boyne Water (I)". Home Rule for Ireland had been defeated in 1885 and 1893; is this about fear of its approach? (See, for example, "A Loyal Song Against Home Rule.") - BS
Alternately, perhaps, it's a reference to the elimination of the Protestant Ascendency, under which Catholics were required to pay tithes to support the Protestant clergy (for which see, e.g., "The Downfall of Heresy").. The answer probably depends on the date of the song. The Church was disestablished in 1869. The Home Rule issue came up soon after; it never passed in the nineteenth century, because any time the Liberals came close to putting it through, the Conservatives would win an election and suppress the matter. But that made it a constant irritant to the people of Ulster. - RBW
File: Grah009

Battle of the Boyne (III), The

See The Boyne Water (I) (File: PGa015)

Battle of the Boyne Water, The

See The Boyne Water (I) (File: PGa015)

Battle of the Diamond, The

DESCRIPTION: "We men of the North" defeated a brand-wielding "lawless band" in a deadly battle on Diamond Hill. For the singer, that battle is the model for future encounters. "We have bided our time -- it is well nigh come! It will find us stern and steady"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: battle death Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 21, 1795 - The Battle of the Diamond [at Diamond Crossroads] between the Roman Catholic Defenders and the Protestants of the area (source: _The Orange Institution - The Early Years_ at Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland site.)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 11, "The Battle of the Diamond" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Not a Drum Was Heard" (tune, according to Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
cf. "The Battle of the Navvies" (tune)
NOTES [697 words]: Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark: "The song itself is an account of a battle which was to have a profound effect on Irish history. It was between the Roman Catholic "Defenders" and the Protestant "Peep o' Day Boys." The Defenders who had some thirty men killed were frustrated in their intention to expel the Protestants from Co. Armagh. The Protestants defeated their enemies without loss of life. The victors, with joined hands pledged themselves to defend the Crown, the Country and the Reformed Religion. Shortly afterwards they founded the Loyal Orange Institution of Ireland."
For some background on Defenders and Peep o' Day Boys, see the notes to "Bold McDermott Roe" and "The Noble Ribbon Boys." For more on the Loyal Orange Institution see the notes to "Dialogue Between Orange and Croppy." - BS
"The new outbreak of feuding in the North reached its cllimax in September 1795 at the so-called Battle of the Diamond, a piece of ground near the town of Armagh. A large party of Defenders attacked party of Peep o' Day Boys there and got the worst of it, leaving twenty or thirty corpses on the field. The incident, which by itself constituted nothing new, is a historical landmark since it led the Peep o' Day boys to reorganize under a name which was to play an increasingly significant role in the future of Ireland: the Orange Society -- the colour orange having long been a popular symbol with which to celebrate the victory of William of Orange over James II a century before." (Kee, p. 71)
Supporting the view that the battle was "nothing new" is Smyth, pp. 110-111: "In December 1794, for example, Defenders and Peep O'Day Boys, 'young boys and idle journeymen weavers', clashed at a fair. After the twelfth of July celebrations the following year a group of Catholic were attacked near Portadown. The tenions which such incidents revealed culminated in the set-piece battle at the Diamond.... Although heavily reinforced by contingents from the neighbouring areas of Down, Derry, and, particularly, Tyrone, the Defenders were badly beaten, suffering between seventeen and forty-eight casualties. This rout was then followed by the mass expulsion of catholics. At least one church was burned down and catholic homes and property -- looms, webs, and yarn -- were destroyed.... Estimates of the number of refugee ran from 3,500 to 10,000.... The Defenders at the battle of Randalstown in 1798 carried a banner inscribed 'REMEMBER ARMAGH'."
Foster,p. 272, describes the aftermath: "Defenderism was in one sense a 'defence' against [Protestant aggresion]. By the mid-1790s, local causes celebres like the battle of the Diamond near Loughgall, County Armagh, on 21 September 1795, which inaugurated the Orange Order, had taken a definitively sectarian tinge. Protestants wanted to ban Catholics from the local linen industry; Protestants were colonizing traditionally Catholic areas in the Ulster borderlands; and, most importantly, local Protestant gentry from the mid-1790s abandoned what one of them called 'the farce of impartiality between the parties' and openly supported the Orangemen. In these conditions, Defenderism rapidly became an 'anti-Protestant, anti-state ideology', it was also anti-English and capable of spectacular violence."
Fry/Fry, p. 194, note that in the aftermath "The Orangemen attacked Ulster Catholics with merciless brutality. They assaulted them, turned them out of their homes, or 'papered' them pinning notices on their doors telling them to go 'To hell -- or Connacht' [a reminiscence of Cromwell's ethnic cleansing of a century and a half earlier].... Poor catholic weavers had their looms broken, and labourers' houses were burned down; sometimes as many as a dozen houses would be burned in a night. At the end of 1795 the governor of Armagh wrote: 'No night passes that houses are not destroyed, and scarce a week that some dreaadful murders are not committed. Nothing can exceed the animosity between Protestant and Catholic at this moment in this country.'"
This was to have significant consequences during the 1798 rebellion, when religious differences badly hampered the Ulster rising; see e.g. the notes to "General Monroe." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: OrLa011

Battle of the Falkland islands

DESCRIPTION: "One day at Port Stanley The lookout man did see Some smoke upon the horizon; 'I wonder if that's Graf von Spee?'" The admiral is shaving, but he has a score to settle. Graf Spee has "blundered Obeying orders from Kaiser Bill"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: navy battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 1, 1914 - Battle of Coronel. Admiral Graf von Spee sinks the HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth
Dec 8, 1914 - Batte of the Falkland Islands. Admiral Sturdee's British fleet sinks all but one of von Spee's ships, effectively ending the German threat in the South Pacific
FOUND IN: Britain(Wales)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 77-78, "Battle of the Falkland Islands" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Red Wing (I)" (approximate tune)
cf. "The Noble Eighth of December" (subject)
NOTES [53 words]: For background on the battles of Coronel and the Falkland Islands, see the notes to "The Noble Eighth of December," which is even more detailed than this song, although this song has one well-known detail not found in that one: that Admiral Sturdee was shaving when the Germans were spotted outside Port Stanley. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn059

Battle of the Kegs, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of the battle between the British fleet and a flotilla of American barrels. As the barrels float downstream, the British fear they contain bombs or commandos, and blast the kegs to smithereens -- then boast of their victory
AUTHOR: Francis Hopkinson (source: Eggleston; Dichter/Shapiro, p. xxi)
EARLIEST DATE: 1778 (Dichter/Shapiro, p. xxi)
KEYWORDS: technology war rebellion battle humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 5, 1778 - "The Battle of the Kegs"
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 61-70, "The Battle of the Kegs" (1 text plus a broadside reprint, contained in an article with a history of the song)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 77-80, "The Battle of the Kegs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 135-137, "The Battle of the Kegs (1 text plus a broadside print)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 77, "The Battle of the Kegs" (1 text, tune referenced); p. 131, "Battle of the Kegs" (1 tune, partial text, a copy of the tune in the 1813 American Patriotic Songster)
Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, pp. 58-59, "The Battle of the Kegs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 16-18, "The Battle of the Kegs" (1 text)
DT, BATTKEGS*
Roud #V21421
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (tune) and references there
cf. "Maggie Lauder" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Freedom of Election ("New Jersey hail! -- thrice happy state!) (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 131)
Battle of Plattsburgh and Victory on Lake Champlain ("Sir George Prevost with all his host") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, pp. 218-219)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
British Valor Displayed
NOTES [463 words]: After the British took over Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War, the Colonials tried various expedients to harass the home country's shipping. One of these was the use of what we would now call floating mines -- kegs filled with gunpowder and intended to explode among the British ships.
The most intense combat of this sort took place in the winter of 1778. When the British saw a large number of kegs floating downriver, they naturally did all they could to explode them in advance (and, in fact, they were highly successful). The residents of Philadelphia, however, derived great amusement from watching the British attack a bunch of barrels. Hence this song.
I know of no real evidence that the piece is traditional. But it became well-known. J. Franklin Jameson, Dictionary of United States History 1492-1895, Puritan Press, 1894, p. 54, mentions it (one of only a handful of songs it mentions), referring to it as "a celebrated humorous poem of the Revolutionary War, written by Francis Hopkinson."
Checking Granger's Index to Poetry, I find seven other Hopkinson pieces listed, although the only one I've ever seen is "Enraptured I Gaze." But this one was well-enough known that (Samuel Eliot Morison, The Oxford History of the American People, Oxford, 1965, p. 250) lists it as one of his typical songs of the Revolutionary period.
Jameson, p. 313, gives this biography of Hopkinson:
Hopkinson, Francis (1737-1791) was admitted to the bar in 1761. He was a New York Councilman from 1774 to 1776. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1776 to 1777, serving on the committee to draft articles of confederation and advocating and signing the Declaration of Independence. He was appointed head of the Navy Department in 1775. He aided the cause of liberty by some witty satires and popular poems and songs. He was Judge of Admiralty for Pennsylvania from 1779 to 1789, and a U. S. District Judge from 1790 to 1791.
There seems to be dispute about the tune. The first source I saw said it was sung to "Yankee Doodle," which fits it well. Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, on the other hand, claims it is sung to "Maggie Lauder." (The tune on p. 131 of Lawrence isn't either one -- and is almost unsingable, with a range of an octave and a fifth, so it can probably be ignored.) The text does not quite fit "Maggie Lauder" as I know the tune, but Lawrence has a different transcription. More noteworthy is the fact that the text in Lawrence is printed in short stanzas of 4-3-4-3+ feet; "Maggie Lauder" uses eight-line stanzas. My guess would be that the piece was published as a poem, and various people used different tunes, with "Yankee Doodle" being the most popular both because it's a good fit and because it was well known. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: SBoA077

Battle of the Navvies, The

DESCRIPTION: "We burnt the Bully Beggarman." Led by Mick Kenna "the Navvies left their work" firing pistols and throwing rocks through the windows of a school. When they saw us they fled. Challenged, we beat them again. Now we help "to crush those fearful Riots"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.34(12))
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 8-23, 1864 - Sectarian Belfast riots about Dublin Daniel O'Connell statue (source: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 41, "The Battle of the Navvies" (1 text)
Roud #V3578
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.34(12), "Battle of the Navvies" ("We burnt the Bully Beggarman, for him our scorn expressed"), The Poet's box (Glasgow), Sep 3, 1864
ALTERNATE TITLES:
cf. "Battle of the Diamond" (tune)
cf. "The Orange Riots in Belfast" (subject)
NOTES [194 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: "The protagonists in these disturbances were the Protestants of Sandy Row and the Catholics of the nearby Pound area (now the Divis Flats area)." [And still, a century later and more, a border between Catholic and Protestant areas, and a trouble spot - RBW] The Catholic navvies were "engaged in the excavation of the New Docks." "Never before had there been rioting on such a scale with widespread shooting, intimidation and looting of gunsmiths, resulting in death, injury and destruction."
The conflict began when the foundation stone for a statue of Daniel O'Connell, "the Bully Beggarman," was laid in Dublin. That evening Sandy Row Protestants burned an effigy of O'Connell in Belfast. The next day a crowd of more than 400, mostly navvies, rushed Brown Square School while it was full of children. The Protestants in the fights were workers from foundries and shipyard. Mick Kenna was editor of the nationalist Ulster Observer. (source: Leyden) For notes on Daniel O'Connell see "Erin's Green Shore [Laws Q27]."
See the notes to "The Boys of Sandy Row" for comments on sectarian riots earlier and later in the same Belfast area. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Leyd041

Battle of the Nile, The [Laws J18]

DESCRIPTION: Nelson's fleet attacks the French near the Egyptian shore. Although the singer's ship Majestic suffers severely, the British are completely victorious, with 13 ships destroyed or taken and the rest fled
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: war Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 1, 1798 - Nelson's British fleet mauls the French forces at the Battle of the Nile
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Laws J18, "The Battle of the Nile"
DT 550, BATTNILE
Roud #1892
NOTES [71 words]: Napoleon's first truly independent expedition was his attack on Egypt. He took an army and fleet to attack the British protectorate there. However, Lord Horatio Nelson's squadron of 14 ships of the line trapped the French fleet (13 ships of the line plus four frigates) and destroyed or captured 12 of them. Napoleon was cut off; he himself fled to France, but nearly all the rest of the expeditionary force was captured. - RBW
File: LJ18

Battle of the Reidswire, The

See The Raid of the Reidswire (File: MBra92)

Battle of the River Plate, The

DESCRIPTION: "South of the border, Down Montvideo way, That's where the pocket battleship Graf Spee came out one day." He thought he would find easy prey, but the Ajax, Achilles, and Exeter drive him away. The ship is scuttled. "The Nelson spirit will never die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: battle navy sea ship England Germany derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
December 13, 1939 - Three British cruisers battle the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee in the Battle of the River Platte.
December 17, 1939 - The Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled outside Montevideo harbor to avoid another battle
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 83-84, "The Battle of the RIver Plate" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "South of the Border" (tune)
cf. "East of the Border" (tune)
cf. "South of Columbo" (tune)
cf. "Dear Old New Zealand" (tune)
cf. "South of the Sangro" (tune)
NOTES [54 words]: For extensive background on the career and sinking of the Graf Spee, see the notes to "The Sinking of the Graf Spee." According to Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, this song is traditional in the Royal Navy and "The Sinking of the Graf Spee" cannot be shown to have been known there, but it has been printed more often. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn064

Battle of the Wilderness, The

DESCRIPTION: "Now boys just listen while I sing you a song sirs, About our veteran troops...." The rebel troops try to trap generals Grant and Meade, but the Union army continues on to Spotsylvania. The singer expects victory despite the death of General Sedgwick
AUTHOR: James D. Gay
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (broadside published by James D. Gay)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 5-6 (7), 1864 - Battle of the Wilderness. Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee inflict heavy casualties on Meade's Army of the Potomac, but General Grant refuses to accept defeat and orders Meade's army on to Spotsylvania
May 7-20, 1864 - Spotsylvania Campaign. Lee's entrenched army blocks Grant's move toward Richmond. After several failed assaults, Grant again pulls away from the Confederates and tries to go around them
May 9, 1864 - "Uncle" John Sedgwick, commander of the Union Sixth Corps and perhaps the most beloved officer in the Army of the Potomac (as well as its senior officer) is killed by a sharpshooter
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 160-161, "The Battle of the Wilderness" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #106, p. 9, "The Battle of the Wilderness" (2 references)
Roud #V30296
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, cw100540, "The battle of the Wilderness," James D. Gay (Philadelphia), 1864
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "VIrginia's Bloody Soil" (subject)
NOTES [28 words]: For background on the Battle of the Wilderness, see the notes to "Virginia's Bloody Soil." Note that John Segwick was killed at Spotsylvania, not in the Wilderness. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CAFS1160

Battle of the Windmill, The

DESCRIPTION: "On Tuesday morning we marched out In command of Colonel Fraser... To let them know, that day, below, We're the Prescott Volunteers." The soldiers come to the Windmill Plains and, boldly led, drive off the invaders
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942
KEYWORDS: battle soldier Canada rebellion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 11, 1838 - Roughly 170 men of "The Hunters," a group devoted to republican government in Canada, invade Canada near Prescott under Colonel Von Schultz
Nov 13, 1838 - Loyalist forces (Glengarry militia under Capt. George Macdonall, Dundas militia under Colonel John Crysler, and Grenville militia Colonel Richard Duncan Fraser) gather and attack the invaders
Nov 16, 1873 - The loyalists receive artillery reinforcements, while the invaders are out of ammunition and have not received expected reinforcements. The invaders are forced to surrender. Von Schultz and ten others will be hanged, and others transported
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 78-81, "The Battle of the Windmill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 3, "The Battle of the Windmill" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BATWNDML*
Roud #4523
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "An Anti-Rebel Song" (theme)
cf. "The Girl I Left Behind Me (lyric)" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES [836 words]: For the history of the Canadian rebellion, which led to the events in this song, see the notes on "An Anti-Rebel Song" and "Farewell to Mackenzie."
The Canadian rebellion/invasion resembled most of the border raids of this period: So badly planned that it would have been funny if lives had not been lost.
1837 was a troubled time in Canada; a series of bad harvests had produced hardship and discontent (Brown, p. 211). William Lyon Mackenzie, long a foe of the government, took advantage to raise a rebellion. In December 1837, they tried to march on Toronto -- but they were completely disorganized; a few volleys by the local militia put them to flight (Bourrie, p. 57). Mackenzie fled to the United States; two of his followers were hanged (Brown, p. 213). Brebner/Masters, p. 240, observes that "The protest [Mackenzie and followers] personified so feebly and pathetically was widespread and deep, but too immature to find voice in either a solid party program or in truly substantial revolt." McNaught, p. 89, points out that the very fact that Mackenzie made it to the U. S. with all the power of the local government against him shows how much sympathy he had among ordinary Canadians.
A small-scale reign of terror followed as Colonel Allan MacNab worked to burn out the protests by employing Indians to kill alleged rebels.
A motley band of Americans, lured as always by the prospect of taking Canada from the British, decided to support the rebels. But their leaders, General Sutherland and Colonel von Rensellaer, were both "frauds," according to Bourrie, pp. 57-58. They shoved Mackenzie out to Navy Island in the Niagara River, made him a provisional president, promised land in Canada to his supporters -- and waited. The British managed to burn Mackenzie's support ship, the Caroline, and send it over Niagara Falls (Bourrie, pp. 59-61). That was pretty much the end of the Niagara rebellion. The action then shifted to the far end of Lake Ontario.
In November 1838, a more serious menace arose, in the form of the Hunters' Lodges, groups of unofficial soldiers trying to gain a foothold in Canada. They weren't really supporting Mackenzie (he in fact said that they never consulted him; Bourrie, p. 62) -- but he gave them an excuse.
Exactly how many men invaded Canada in 1838 is uncertain; Brebner/Masters, p. 241, claims there were about a thousand, but Bourrie, p. 63, offers a figure of 300, of whom a hundred (including their commander John Ward Birge) turned back when one of their ships ran aground. On the whole, it seems most likely that 150-200 men came ashore in Canada and occupied a windmill in Prescott. They were now under the command of Nils von Schultz -- yet another of the fake military men who seemed to swirl around these efforts (Bourrie, p. 64).
The British brought up over a thousand troops, many of them militia but all of them more regular than the Americans. Their first attack failed, but they pulled back their lines and let the Americans stew (Bourrie, pp. 65-66). Four days later, on November 16, the British went in again. They had been reinforced up to 2000 men, and they had supplies, which the Americans did not. (It will tell you something bout how messed-up the Americans were that their commander was styled a "colonel" though he had fewer than 200 men; the British, who outnumbered them ten to one, were commanded by Lt. Colonel Dundas).
Von Schultz was realistic enough to offer surrender if the British would treat his troops as prisoners of war. Dundas, properly I think, refused (Bourrie, p. 67); the invaders were not troops of the U. S. government but a private army. The British brought up artillery and bombarded the Windmill; the invaders eventually surrendered even without the promise of POW starus.
Give Von Schultz this much credit: Tried for treason and sentenced to hang, he left four hundred pounds in his will to the widows and orphans of the Windmill battle. Ten others were also hanged, perhaps thirty of the Hunters escaped, those under 21 were sent back to the U. S., and the rest -- 82 in all -- transported to Van Diemen's Land. (Bourrie, p. 70).
Mackenzie survived, but had to remain in exile until 1849. (As Stokesbury comments acidly, pp. 227-228, both Mackenzie and Papineau, who led a rebellion in Quebec, "fled to the United States, which was thought by responsible British officials at the time to be more or less appropriate punishment.") During his exile, his property was plundered, so that he went from well-to-do to a near-pauper when he died in 1861 (Bourrie, pp. 71-72). He was nonetheless fondly remembered by anti-aristocratic forces in Canada.
This sort of filibustering was largely halted in 1842 as the Webster/Ashburton treaty resolved many border issues (Brebner/Masters, p. 241). The Fenians would later try to invade Canada -- but that was an independent excursion, not something with broad American support.
For another song about Canadian/American border troubles in this period, see "The Aroostook War." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: FMB078

Battle of Trafalgar (I), The

See Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar (Brave Nelson) [Laws J17] (File: LJ17)

Battle of Trafalgar (II), The

See Nelson's Death and Victory (File: PaSe080)

Battle of Trenton, The

DESCRIPTION: "On Christmas day in seventy-six Our gallant troops with bayonets fixed For Trenton marched away." The Americans cross the Delaware River and attack and scatter the Hessian garrison. The soldiers toast the memory of that day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Griswold's "Curiosities of American literature," according to Eggleston)
KEYWORDS: war rebellion battle river patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec. 25, 1776 - The colonial army under Washington crosses the Delaware River and successfully attacks a force of Hessian mercenaries in their winter quarters at Trenton
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 72-74, "The Battle of Trenton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 123, "Battle of Trenton" (1 text)
Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, pp. 42-43, "The Battle of Trenton" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST SBoA072 (Partial)
NOTES [41 words]: Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution's tune is said to be based on something called "Fire of Love," but is said to be modified, so it is neither traditional nor native to the song. It is not clear to me that this piece was ever actually sung. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: SBoA072

Battle of Vicksburg, The

DESCRIPTION: "On Vicksburg's globes and bloody grounds A wounded soldier lay, His thoughts was on his happy home Some thousand miles away." The dying man recalls mother and sweetheart and prepares for the end
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: death battle separation Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 6-7, 1862 - Battle of Shiloh. The army of U.S. Grant is forced back but, reinforced by Buell, beats off the army of A.S. Johnston. Johnston is killed. Both sides suffer heavy casualties (Shiloh was the first battle to show how bloody the Civil War would be)
Nov 1862 - Union general Ulysses S. Grant begins his Vicksburg campaign. His first four attempts to reach the city fail
Apr 16, 1863 - Porter's gunboats run past Vicksburg, opening the way for Grant's final successful campaign
May 12-17, 1863 - Grant fights a series of minor battles which bring him to the defences of Vicksburg
May 22, 1863 - Grant's attempt to take Vicksburg by storm is a bloody failure. The Union army settles down to a siege
July 4, 1863 - Lt. General Pemberton surrenders Vicksburg
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 225, "The Battle of Vicksburg" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a fragmentary text of the original song, "On Buena Vista's Battlefield")
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 120, p. 261, "The Vicksburg Soldier" (1 text)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 93, "Shallows Field" (1 text, clearly this song although the battle site is "Shallows Field"="Shiloh's Field"; this may come from confusion with "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh")
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 334, "The Battle of Vicksburg" (1 text plus an except from "On Buena Vista's Battlefield")
ST R225 (Partial)
Roud #4500
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On Buena Vista's Battlefield" (tune & meter, theme)
cf. "Victorious March" (subject)
cf. "Late Battle in the West" (subject)
cf. "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" [Laws A15] (lyrics)
NOTES [1845 words]: This song is a clear rewrite of the Mexican War song "On Buena Vista's Battlefield." The choice of Vicksburg is perhaps curious; although the Vicksburg campaign led to even more deaths by disease than usual, battle casualties were relatively light compared to the great battles in Virginia and Tennessee. On the other hand, the "Buena Vista" song seems to have spawned other Civil War pieces, e.g. about Shiloh (see Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands's "Shallows Field," which I lump here but which Roud splits off; it's his #4284)
And it should be admitted that Vicksburg was important -- arguably the single most important Union victory of the war. In the early spring of 1863, the Union war effort seemed stalled. If the war were to be won, something had to be done, but no progress was being made anywhere. In Virginia the Army of the Potomac had had a two to one advantage in manpower at the Battle of Chancellorsville, but still managed to lose. William S. Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland, operating in central Tennessee, had been inert since the bloody draw of Stones River/Murfreesboro (for which see "The Battle of Stone River.")
That left only the western army of Ulysses S. Grant. And even he seemed to be stuck. A major part of the Federal war plan was to capture the Mississippi and split the Confederacy in two. A large part of this had been done; New Orleans had fallen early in 1862 (for this see "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell (Mansfield Lovell)"). Memphis had been lost almost without a struggle; the navy moved in and the Confederates moved out (McPherson, p. 418). The only thing still linking the Confederate east with Arkansas, Texas, and the trans-Mississippi portion of Louisiana was Vicksburg.
The city was still young; Newet Vicks, the founder, had first seen Walnut Heights above the river in 1814, the site of a ruined military encampment called Fort Nogales (Carter, p. 12). Settlers began to move there around 1819. The population was still fairly small.
Although a relatively minor town, Vicksburg was an incredibly strong military position. The bluffs guarded the city on the north and west, with the river an additional barrier on those sides (although Vicksburg stands along the Mississippi, the river near the city ran almost west to east; the river made a great bow there, like a reverse letter C, with Vicksburg on the lower right part of the curve; for details, see the map on the frontispiece of Carter. This curve also meant that boats trying to make it past Vicksburg could not build up much head of steam -- a real advantage to defenders trying to prevent ships from running past the town). Plus there were great marshes to the north which made it impossible to bring supplies down the east bank of the Mississippi.
Flag Officer Farragut, who had taken New Orleans and gone on to capture Natchez and Baton Rouge, eventually took his fleet to Vicksburg. He called on the city to surrender, received a contemtuous reply (McPherson, pp. 421-422) -- and tried to attack it with gunfire, as he had attacked New Orleans. But Vickburg, high on its bluff and guarded by 10,000 Confederates, was too tough for him. He didn't have enough soldiers to attack, and while he could damage the city, he couldn't seriously soften it up. Eventually, after his ships had suffered enough damage, he had to give up.
What it meant was that there was only one really practical way to get at Vicksburg: An army had to come at it by land from the east or southeast (RandallDonald, p. 409) -- and that meant that somehow the Union army had to get itself to the south or east of the city. And *that* meant being cut off from their supply lines from Memphis.
If the Union had moved fast enough, it might not have mattered; they could have come from the south. But in the aftermath of Farragut's repulse before Vicksburg, the Confederates had retaken Port Hudson south of Vicksburg. It was too weak a position to hold if Vicksburg fell -- but, as long as Vicksburg stood, Port Hudson guarded its vulnerable side from an attack from the Union base at New Orleans.
Farragut in 1862 made the first of many attempts to lever the Confederates out: He started a canal to route the Mississippi away from the town. If he had managed to create a usable waterway, then then Union navy could have gotten around Vicksburg and supplied an army to the south of the town. The idea failed; before the canal could be more than begun, summer drought lowered the level of the Mississippi. Farragut's ships were ocean vessels, and in danger of being stranded, and his men were sick from the heat and the bugs. He gave up and headed back to New Orleans, leaving the problem to the army.
The problem stymied Ulysses S. Grant, the commander of the forces along the Mississippi, for more than half a year. An attempt to build a supply line from the north failed when Confederate cavalry destroyed his depot at Holly Springs (Grant, pp. 432-433; Catton; p. 33). Two attempts to work an army through the rivers and marshes northeast of the town nearly ended in disaster. A second attempt to dig a canal to bypass the town failed (Catton, pp. 80-85). By the spring of 1863, Grant seemed stymied. As Anders says on p. 362, "By early April it took the fingers of both hands to count the number of times General Grant had tried to get at the rebel fortress, only to fail."
But Grant would not have been Grant had he been willing to give up -- years later, describing this period of frustrations, he wrote, "The elections of 1862 had gone against the party which was for the prosecution of the war.... It was my judgment at the time that to make a backward move as long as that from Vicksburg to Memphis, would be interpreted, by many of those yet full of hope for the preservation of the Union, as a defeat.... There was nothing left to be done but to go forward to a decisive victory" (Grant, p. 443).
Finally Grant ran his river fleet past Vicksburg, marched his army south of the town on the western bank of the Mississippi, and crossed to attack Vicksburg from the south and east.
It was a bold move. Flag Officer Porter, commanding his fleet, had warned him that the ships could not go back (Anders, p. 363). There was no retreat.
That wasn't the only risk. He had to go through Confederate country to reach the back of Vicksburg. It meant that, for several days, he had no supply line, but he was able to carry what his scavengers could not find. He said of the effort, "Early on the morning of the 30th of April [1863,] McClernand's corps and one division of McPherson's corps were speedily landed. When this was effected I felt a degree of relief scarcely ever equalled since. Vicksburg was not yet taken it is true, nor were its defenders demoralized by any of our previous moves. I was now in the enemy's country, with a vast river and the stronghold of Vicksburg between me and my base of supplies. But I was on dry ground on the same side of the river as the enemy" (Grant, p. 480).
As RandallDonald comments on p. 409, it was "an enterprise which only a daring and resourceful general could have conceived and carried to a successful conclusion."
A truly tough general might yet have made Grant pay. The Confederate general Pemberton, who had done little to prevent Grant's crossing, was not such a general -- and Grant had in any case done a find job of confusing him with a cavalry raid on his railroad links led by Col. Benjamin Grierson and a demonstration near Vicksburg by Sherman's corps (Anders, pp. 364-367) before the latter joined Grant south of Vicksburg.
Grant, having made his landing south of Vicksburg, won several battles against small local forces, then captured Jackson, the main rail center and capitol of Mississippi, then (with Sherman having joined him) on May 16 and 17 faced Pemberton's main army at Champion's Hill and Big Black River (RandallDonald, p. 411).
Champion's Hill was not an overwhelming victory for Grant; he never managed to get half his army into action, and that let Pemberton escape (Woodworth, p. 387). But Pemberton, having escaped one trap, put himself in another. He should have retreated north or east, keeping himself in contact with the rest of the Confederacy -- the theater commander, Joseph E. Johnston, had in fact ordered him to retreat in that direction if he were defeated; Johnston correctly saw that if Pemberton went into Vicksburg, both the town and the army would be lost; if he abandoned Vicksburg, at least the army would be saved. But Jefferson Davis had told Pemberton to hold Vicksburg at all costs (Catton, p. 191), and back to Vicksburg Pemberton went (Catton, p. 193). Many Confederates were so angry that they accused Pemberton of selling Vicksburg (Catton, p. 193).
Grant encircled the town, meaning that he once again had communications with the North, and began to starve it out Pemberton. The defenses on the land side of Vicksburg, although not comparable to those on the river side, were strong; had the defenders had more supplies, they might have held out indefinitely, but by July 1863, they were starving. Johnston had ordered Pemberton to try to break out (Catton, p. 194), but Pemberton didn't even try. In response to a letter on July 1, his subordinates indicated no hope (Grant, p. 556).
Grant was by then preparing an assault, which he thought would succeed (though I am much less sure -- Grant's single biggest defect as a commander was that he seemed to have very little sense of how strong a defensive position was. In the course of the war, he repeatedly sent troops on head-first assaults on trench lines, resulting in a one-sided slaughter of his own troops). Grant said of what happened at this time, "Pemberton commenced his correspondence on the third [of July] with a two-fold purpose: to prevent an assault, which he knew would be successful, and second, to prevent the capture taking place on the great national holiday [i.e. the Fourth of July]... Holding out for better terms as he did he defeated his aim in the latter particular" (Grant, p. 564). Pemberton surrendered on July 4, 1863 -- which was also the day after the end of the Battle of Gettysburg. Those two days were probably the best for the Union until Sherman captured Atlanta in 1864.
Grant had captured the third-largest army in the Confederacy. He had also eliminated the strongest fortress guarding the Mississippi. Within days, there would be no Confederate forces left along the river; the Confederacy would be split in two -- meaning that men and supplies from Texas and Arkansas and western Louisiana could no longer reach the armies further east. It was not immediately decisive, but it was a deadly blow -- far more deadly than Gettysburg, which was strategically very nearly a draw (Lee was forced out of Pennsylvania but still had his army intact).
It's one of those little ironies that Gettysburg, the most written-about battle of the Civil War, has almost no place in traditional song, and Vicksburg, the most decisive battle, has only a slightly stronger place in the folk repertoire. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: R225

Battle of Waterloo (I), The

See The Plains of Waterloo (V) (File: LJ03A)

Battle of Waterloo (II), The

See The Plains of Waterloo (V) (File: LJ03)

Battle of Waterloo (III), The

See The Plains of Waterloo (III) [Laws J4] (File: LJ04)

Battle of Waterloo (IV), The

See Scots Soldiers True (File: GrD1154)

Battle of Waterloo (V), The

See Plains of Waterloo (IX) (File: KiTu121)

Battle on Vinegar Hill, The

DESCRIPTION: The English army of 20000 defeat 10000 Wexford pikemen in a fierce battle. The pikemen were brave and valiant; the English were stubborn and warlike. The singer comments on the pity that freeborn Englishmen "should strike fair freedom down"
AUTHOR: Rev. P. F. Kavanagh (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: army battle rebellion death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 21, 1798 - Battle of Vinegar Hill (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 89, "The Battle on Vinegar Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [130 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 dates "The Battle on Vinegar Hill" to about 1880. - BS
The battle of Vinegar Hill was the final end of the Wexford rebellion. The rebels, having failed at New Ross and Arklow, made a last stand on the hill. Ill-equipped and, in many cases, sick, they faced a British army some 10,000 strong under General Lake, and were slaughtered (see Thomas Pakenham, The Year of Liberty, pp. 256-258). For more details on the battle, see, e.g., the notes to "Father Murphy (I)."
According to Kathleen Hoagland, 1000 Years of Irish Poetry, p. 784, Moylan's dating is problematic. I assume this is the Patrick Kavanagh (1904/05-1967) who was best known for his poem "The Great Hunger." Thus he can hardly have written the poem in the nineteenth century! - RBW
File: Moyl089

Battle That Was Fought in the North, The

DESCRIPTION: Orangemen come to Tyrone to celebrate July 12, "but our loyal-hearted Catholics soon made them run away." "We'll still be faithful to George the Fourth, and loyal to his crown, But not afraid, nor yet dismay'd, to keep those Brunswickers down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1830 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: violence death Ireland political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 35, "The Battle That Was Fought in the North" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Owen Rooney's Lamentation" (subject: "party fights")
cf. "The Lamentation of James O'Sullivan" (subject: "party fights")
cf. "The Noble Blue Ribbon Boys" (subject: Ulster quarrels)
NOTES [227 words]: July 12 is the Gregorian Calendar (adopted in England in 1752) date for celebrating the victory of William II of Orange in the Battle of the Boyne, July 1, 1690.
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "This ballad ... [was] perhaps also inspired by the 'party fights' in July 1829. Upwards of twenty men were said to have been killed in County Tyrone.... There was more fighting near Stewartstown in July 1831."
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 35: "'Brunswicker' was then more or less synonymous with 'Orangeman' or simply 'Protestant'." - BS
This song is presumably dated by its internal references. If the reference is to the Party Fights, then it must be after July 1829, but since the King is George IV, who died in 1830, it must be before that.
On the other hand, the most noteworthy of the party fights came later, at Dolly's Brae (July 12, 1849; for this battle, see "Dolly's Brae (I)" and "Dolly's Brae (II)"), at which several dozen Catholics were killed. This led England to pass the Party Processions Act in 1850. On still another hand, there was also the earlier clash at Garvegh (1813; see "March of the Men of Garvagh"). The king at this time was George III, but he was in his final madness and the future George IV was regent.
So while the 1830 date is likely, there are plenty of other possible dates if one allows for the possibility of anachronism. - RBW
File: Zimm035

Battle with the Ladle, The

See A Rich Old Miser [Laws Q7] (File: LQ07)

Battle-Ship-Main, The

See My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine (File: R689)

Battlecry of Freedom, The

See The Battle Cry of Freedom (File: MA034)

Battlefields of France, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm proud to say I'm from P. A. where the mining boys are loyal." They work hard in the mines and "love the flag of liberty." The singer recalled the work of John Mitchell, Hayes, and White. He cheers for Wilson, and says the boys are fighting in france.
AUTHOR: Patrick J. "Giant" O'Neill (1863-1936) (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: war mining nonballad labor-movement
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1902 - Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 280-281, "The Battlefields of France" (1 text)
NOTES [554 words]: For another song by Patrick J. O'Neill, see "The Hard Working Miner."
For a song with even more about President Woodrow Wilson, see the notes to "President Wilson."
The three leaders mentioned in the song, John Mitchell, Hayes, and White, are all United Mine Workers of America presidents: John Mitchell (president 1899-1908), Frank Hayes (president 1917-1919), and John Phillip White (president 1911-1917).
Hayes and White were the immediate past and incoming presidents of the UMWA at the time the United States became active in World War I, so it's no surprise to see them listed. But why Mitchell? The mention of 1902 is the clue. Weir/Hanlan, pp. 318-319, report:
"At one time one of the most beloved leaders of the UMWA, Mitchell's popularity was rooted in his familiarity with the hard work and poverty that confronted coal miners. He was born in the tiny coal patch of Braidwood, Illinois... Mitchell was orphaned at age six and was raised by his stepmother. He had to work to support his siblings and stepmother, thus his schooling in Braidwood public schools was meager. He entered the coal mines when he was twelve, joined the Knights of Labor in 1885, and spent time as an itinerant miner in the Southwest and West before drifting back to Illinois."
He joined the UMWA in 1890 and proved an apt organizer. He even managed to reduce the ethnic tensions which had so afflicted coal miners in the past (many of the Molly Maguire conflicts, e.g., had been poor Irish mine workers attacking more senior Welsh miners). By 1895, he was an official of the Illinois UMWA, by 1897 he became an international Vice President. In 1898 he became acting UMWA president, and in 1899 he gained the official title. In the next nine years, he would increase UMWA membership roughly nine-fold, to about 300,000.
"Mitchell's greatest success came in the Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902, which lasted from May 12 until October 23. During his travels through the anthracite region, the thirty-two-year-old Mitchell earned the trust and respect of the miners, who referred to the labor leader as 'Johnny d,Mitch.' mining families placed Mitchell's photograph in their homes next to religious icons and prints. The labor dispute was highlighted by the intervention of President Theodore Roosevelt, who was forced to act in response to a developing coal shortage. Mitchell and the leading coal operators were summoned to the White House on October 3 for a negotiating session. Mitchell's courteous conduct during the sessions provide sharp contrast to the arrogance of the operators and disposed Roosevelt to favor the miners. While the miners did not get all the wanted, they achieved substantial gains that included wage increases and limited Union recognition." According to Lindermuth, p. 144, President Roosevelt's arbitrators more or less split the difference between the miners' demands (a 20% pay raise and an eight hour day) and the mine owners' refusal to grant any concessions at all: The miners got a 10% pay raise and a nine hour day. The owners did not recognize the union.
Mitchell never accomplished so much after that, and indeed got so involved in petty details that he was voted out of the UMWA presidency in 1908. But "Miners still celebrate the second Monday in April as John Mitchell day" (Weir/Hanlan, p. 319). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP280

Battler's Ballad

DESCRIPTION: "You are just a lonely battler and you're waiting for a rattler And you wish to heaven you were never born." The hobo watches the trains and prepares for a rough ride. But "There will surely come a day When you'll own a bloody railway of your own."
AUTHOR: Jack Wright (source: Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1993 (Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs); reportedly written c. 1936
KEYWORDS: train railroading hobo
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, pp. 18-19, "Battler's Ballad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22615
File: ScCol018

Battleship Maine (I), The

See On the Shores of Havana (File: FSC021)

Battleship Maine (II), The

See My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine (File: R689)

Battleship of Maine

DESCRIPTION: Humorous song about a country boy caught up in the Spanish-American war, for which he has little sympathy. He describes bad conditions in the army, notes that the "Rough Riders" wear $5.50 shoes, while the poor farmers wear dollar-a-pair shoes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: army war humorous soldier cowardice
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1895 - Cubans rebel against Spain
Feb 15, 1898 - Explosion of the battleship "Maine" in Havana harbour
April 25, 1898 - Congress declares war on Spain
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 239, "That Bloody War" (4 texts, of which the first two are this piece; the final two fragments appear to be "That Crazy War")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 239, "That Bloody War" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 100-101, "Battleship of Maine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 288, "Battleship of Maine" (1 text)
DT, BTTLMAIN*
Roud #779
RECORDINGS:
Mary C. Mann, "The Battleship of Maine" (AFS A-526, A-527, 1926)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Battleship of Maine" (on NLCR01, NLCRCD1) (NLCR12) (NLCR16)
Red Patterson's Piedmont Log Rollers, "Battleship of Maine" (Victor 20936, 1927)
Wilmer Watts and the Lonely Eagles, "Fightin' in the War with Spain" (Paramount 3254, 1931; on StuffDreams1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mister McKinley (White House Blues)" (tune)
cf. "If I Lose, I Don't Care" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "Joking Henry" (tune)
cf. "That Crazy War" (lyrics)
cf. "That Bloody War (I)" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine" (theme) and references there
NOTES [22 words]: For background on the loss of the Maine, and the war that followed, see the notes to "My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: CSW100

Battleship, The Maine, The

See On the Shores of Havana (File: FSC021)

Baw Burdie

DESCRIPTION: The singer hushes a birdie she has in a bog, among a little moss. It runs away, she looks all day and finds it in a duck's nest. She bids it go home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: separation lullaby bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 161, "Baw Burdie" (1 text)
Roud #15115
NOTES [128 words]: Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 says it "may be compared with 'The Lost Birdies, or The Hobe and the Robin.'" The action is similar but Henry's text is better organized and the singer is not an actor in that song. If I had more texts I might lump them together. - BS
I would suspect that we are to understand the bird as a cuckoo -- although I've never heard of a cuckoo parasitizing a duck; the lifestyles are too different.
The word "burdie" is interesting. "Bird/burd" could mean a young girl or maiden (see the notes to "Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane" [Child 28]), but it also seemingly sometimes meant specifically an illegitimate child. Maybe, at a deeper level, this is an accusation that some family is raising a cuckoo's egg -- a child not their own. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LyCr2161

Bawbee Allen

See Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)

Bawbie Livingstone

See Bonnie Baby Livingston [Child 122] (File: C222)

Bawdy Alphabet, The

DESCRIPTION: A variation of the standard Alphabet songs (Logger's, Sailor's, etc.) with A to Z references to matters sexual or private parts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy wordplay | alphabet
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II, pp. 616-621, "The Alphabet Song" (5 texts)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, "The Alphabet" (1 text)
Roud #21104
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Logger's Alphabet" (subject) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Whore's Alphabet
The Tramp's Alphabet
NOTES [25 words]: Legman in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II offers extensive notes to this widely known song, and particularly to the obscene and/or bawdy versions. - EC
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RL616

Bay Billy

DESCRIPTION: As the 22nd Maine struggles against Early at Fredericksburg, orders come that a battery must be taken. The regiment repeatedly tries and fails. The colonel is shot down. In the next attack, his riderless horse leads the charge and the battery is captured
AUTHOR: Words: Frank H. Gassaway
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (Potter, _My Recitations_, according to Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: horse Civilwar death battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 166-170, "Bay Billy" (1 text)
NOTES [237 words]: Frank Gassaway seems to have specialized in Civil War bathos; his other relatively well-known poem was "The Pride of Battery B." His collected Poems seem to have been published in 1920.
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks maintains that this was a popular poem. Possibly true in the nineteenth century. Thankfully, that has ceased to be the case; Granger's Index to Poetry lists not one Gassaway poem.
This piece is particularly irritating because it's completely false. Checking the Fredericksburg Order of Battle in Palfrey, pp. 198-210, the 22nd Maine wasn't at Fredericksburg. Nor, as it turned out, was it at Chancellorsville (during which battle there was again fighting around Fredericksburg, involving the Confederate general Jubal A. Early). In fact, the 22nd Maine never served in the east at all! Internet searches reveal it to have been a nine month regiment which performed its active service in Louisiana -- and, in its entire existence, suffered only nine men killed in active service (one officer, eight enlisted men; by comparison, the swamps of Louisiana took their toll in a high rate of disease deaths -- 160, according to Fox, p. 468).
I do not know if Gassaway knew this, and decided to use an obscure regiment for his nonsense, or if he didn't know this and was smoking something particularly strong the day he excreted this, but I can only hope that it will be mercifully forgotten. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: Gray166

Bay of Biscay

DESCRIPTION: A ship is wrecked at night in a storm in the Bay of Biscay. At daybreak "a sail in sight appears" and the crew is rescued.
AUTHOR: Andrew Cherry (1762-1812) (source: Bodleian notes to broadside Harding B 25(903); also John Bartlett,_Familiar Quotations_, 15th ed (1980))
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(73))
KEYWORDS: rescue sea ship storm wreck
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 170, "Loud roared the dreadful thunder" (1 fragment)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XX, pp. 32-33, "The Bay of Biscay O!" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #110, p. 9, "The Bay of Biscay O!" (1 reference)
ADDITIONAL: Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 169, "(The Bay of Biscay)" (1 partial text)
Roud #24928
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(73), "The Bay of Biscay, O" ("Loud roard the dreadful thunder"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(3128), Harding B 25(903), "In the Bay of Biscay O"; Firth b.25(71), Harding B 11(196), Harding B 15(17a), Harding B 11(192), Harding B 11(193), Harding B 25(148), "[The] Bay of Biscay O[!]"; Firth b.25(82), Firth c.12(305), Harding B 11(194), Harding B 11(195), 2806 b.10(79), 2806 c.17(22), Firth c.21(118), Firth b.27(72), "[The] Bay of Biscay"
LOCSinging, as108370, "Bay of Biscay," L. Deming (Boston), n.d.
NOTES [131 words]: The tune was at least well enough known to be used for a parody (Bodleian, Harding B 16(198c), "Paddy's Wake" ("Loud howl'd each Irish mourner")) and, years later, another wreck broadside (Bodleian, Harding B 14(335), "Wreck of the ship Reform, commanded by commodore Russell" ("Loud roared the dreadful thunder")). - BS
Not to be confused with "Bay of Biscay, Oh (Ye Gentlemen of England II) (The Stormy Winds Did Blow)" [Laws K3], which also involves a rescued crew but in different circumstances, nor with the song about a sailor's life, "The Bonny Bay of Biscay-O."
Andrew Cherry's other noteworthy piece is "The Green Little Shamrock of Ireland."
According to Nettel, this was written for an opera called "Spanish Dollars," which was staged in 1805; the music was by John Davy. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BdBaOBis

Bay of Biscay O (I), The

See Willy O! (File: CrMa113)

Bay of Biscay O (II), The

See Bay of Biscay (File: BdBaOBis)

Bay of Biscay, Oh (Ye Gentlemen of England II) (The Stormy Winds Did Blow) [Laws K3]

DESCRIPTION: The singer's ship and the Rameley set out from Spithead. The two ships are separated by a storm in the Bay of Biscay. The Rameley, arriving at Gibraltar, reports the other ship lost, but at last it comes in, having lost mast, captain, and ten crewmembers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: sea ship storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws K3, "Bay of Biscay, Oh (Ye Gentlemen of England II) (The Stormy Winds Did Blow)"
Greig/Duncan1 35, "The Bay of Biscay" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 52, "Bay of Biscay Oh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 37, "Sailor's Lamentation" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 399, BAYBISC*
Roud #524
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ye Gentlemen of England (I)" [Laws K2]
cf. "Ye Gentlemen of England (III)" (basis for first verse) and references there
cf. "The Plains of Waterloo" (tune, according to Greig/Duncan1)
NOTES [151 words]: Not to be confused with the lover's-ghost-returned song "Bay of Biscay." - (PJS)
Creighton-NovaScotia: Also not to be confused with "[The] Bay of Biscay [O]" ["Loud roared the dreadful thunder"] by Andrew Cherry about a disabled ship rescued. [In the Index as "Bay of Biscay" - RBW]
For what may be the first of this family of ballads see broadside Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(167b), "Neptune's Raging Fury" or "The Gallant Seaman's Sufferings" ("You gentlemen of England, that live at home at ease"), C. Brown (London), 1695-1707, by Martin Parker. The first verse is
You Gentlemen of England that live at home at ease,
Full little do you think upon the danger of the Seas;
Give ear unto the Marriners[sic] and they will plainly show,
The cares and the fears when the stormy winds do blow.
The subject is the general plight of seamen, as compared to that of landsmen. No specific incident is mentioned. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: LK03

Bay Road Girls They Have No Pride, The

DESCRIPTION: Bay Road girls raise their skirts to tempt the Bay Road boys. The Bay Road boys should "take care wha you about"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage01)
KEYWORDS: pride seduction sex warning nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Emelia Henry, Lovey Gilman and Martha Saunders, "The Bay Road Girls They Have No Pride" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
File: RcBRGTHP

Bayou Sara, The

DESCRIPTION: The Bayou Sara (Bicera) is a fine boat, but catches fire and burns down, taking many people with her. The song may mention all the crew she lost, or the singer's own escape and watching for angels to come for him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: ship river fire death disaster
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 423-424, "The Burning of the Bayou Sara" (1 text)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 40-41, "B'y' Sara Burned Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BAYOUSAR* BAYOUSA2
ST DTBayous (Full)
Roud #10010 and 4139
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "Bayou Sara" (on Thieme05)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Burning of the Bayou Sara
The Bicera
NOTES [175 words]: As "The Burning of the Bayou Sara," this song is item dG39 in Laws's Appendix II.
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, who collected the version known to Laws, reported that a ship called the Bayou Sara burned at the dock on December 5, 1885. Mary Wheeler, however, reports that the name of the ship was the "City of Bayou Sara," built in 1884; she burned at New Madrid. All passengers were reportedly saved, though a few crew members died.
The versions of this song are extremely diverse in form (apart from the confusion that caused the ship to be called "The Bicera" by Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's informant), and it's possible that there are two ballads involved. Laws, for instance, failed to identify Wheeler's text with Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's, and Roud gives the pieces two numbers. But since the texts are all unique, I place them all here without rendering a final judgment on the matter; this may be just a piece that went through a lot of blues metamorphosis. - RBW
File: DTBayous

Bazaar, The

DESCRIPTION: "There are lots of little swindles In all New Zealand towns... But of all the various dodges tried For taking people in The nest is a Fancy Bazaar" where one never leaves until "totally fleeced." A list of the tricks, and some of the victims, follows
AUTHOR: Words: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Thatcher's "Songs of the War")
KEYWORDS: commerce trick nonballad New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 50-52, "The Bazaar" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [29 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BaRo050

Be at Home Soon Tonight, My Dear Boy

See Be Home Early Tonight, My Dear Boy (File: R851)

Be Careful in Choosing a Wife

DESCRIPTION: Beware. Women are deceitful and unkind and the silliest will outwit any man. When a squaller is born you must work harder. Your wife won't wash shirts or make you breakfast or dinner. She'll beat you if you don't put the squaller to sleep at night.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1821 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.17(23))
KEYWORDS: shrewishness warning ordeal nonballad baby husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 95, "Single Men's Warning" (1 text)
Roud #4744
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(23), "Be Careful in Choosing a Wife" ("Now come all young men that are going to wed"), G. Thompson (Liverpool), 1789-1820; also Harding B 11(2927), Firth c.20(50), Firth c.20(49), Harding B 11(219), Firth b.25(533), Harding B 11(3225), Harding B 11(1735), Harding B 11(1735), Harding B 20(145), 2806 c.14(65), Harding B 11(2320), Harding B 11(678), Harding B 15(19b), Harding B 11(220), Harding B 17(19b)[a few words are illegible], "Be Careful in Choosing a Wife"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(055), "Be Careful in Choosing a Wife" ("Now all you young men who are going to wed"), James Lindsay (Glasgow), 1852-1859
NOTES [110 words]: Richard Greene, editor, A Selection of English Carols, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, p. 241, suggests a sort of thematic kinship between this song and his carol #82, pp. 144-145, "(How, hey, It is non les: I dar not seyn quan che seygh[t], 'Pes!')/" Certainly there are common elements -- e.g., in both, the man comes home from the plow and finds no food on the table. But I would not go so far as to suggest that the one derives from the other; Greene's piece, from British Library MS. Sloane 2593, is of the fifteenth century. For more on the Sloane manuscript, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ReSh095

Be Home Early Tonight, My Dear Boy

DESCRIPTION: The singer's has worked hard all his life, and occasionally goes to town for fun. But his mother regularly tells him, "Be home early tonight." Once, when she is sick, he goes out partying and returns to find her dead. He warns against ignoring mother
AUTHOR: John Gibbons ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Wehman Brothers' Good Old Time Songs #3); reportedly first published 1882
KEYWORDS: work mother death warning
FOUND IN: US(Ro,SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph 851, "Be Home Early Tonight, My Dear Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 534-536, "Be Home Early Tonight, My Dear Boy" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 851)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 27, "Be Home Early" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 27, "Be Home Early" (1 tune plus an excerpt of text)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 150-152, "Be Home Early Tonight, My Dear Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 174-175, "Be Home Early Tonight, My Dear Boy" (1 text)
Roud #7451
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "Be at Home Soon Tonight, My Dear Boy" (OKeh 40505, 1925; on KHarrell01)
Mrs. John Powers, "Be Home Early Tonight" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mrs. Stamp, "Be Home Early Tonight" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: R851

Be Kin' to Yer Nainsel, John

DESCRIPTION: His dying wife says to John: there are three spoons, three cows, three carts,.... Give one of each to the lassie, one to the laddie, and one to yourself. His wife dies. John "I maun hae anither, I've plenty for to keep her, An be kind tae my nainsel"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: bequest death humorous nonballad parody husband wife derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #122, pp. 2-3, "Be Kin' to Yer Nainsel, John"; #116, pp. 2-3, "Be Kin' to Yer Nainsel, John"; 114, p. 2, "Be Kin' to Yer Nainsel, John"; #117, p. 2, "Be Kin' to Yer Nainsel, John"; #119, p. 3, "Be Kin' to Yer Nainsel, John"; #121, p. 2, "Be Kin' to Yer Nainsel, John"; #123, p. 3, "Be Kin' to Yer Nainsel, John" (2 texts plus 7 fragments)
Greig/Duncan3 706, "Be Kin' to Yer Nainsel, John" (10 texts, 5 tunes)
Roud #2480
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Land o' the Leal" (basis for parody [see notes])
NOTES [261 words]: Greig 114: "The song appears to be a parody on 'The Land o' the Leal' [Text]. In this way she goes over the beasts and articles in the house, always telling him to give away the best and keep the worst, but still every now and again bidding him be kind to himself, for she is wearin' awa'."
Greig 116: "[The Rev. Mr Duncan] says:- 'At least one of my versions goes back a hundred years or more. In this case, the suggestion of parody is the first and most obvious, but there are difficulties.' Yes, there are difficulties. Miss Robertson's - 'Fy, gar heat a sup drink, John,' is older than Lady Nairne's day." [1910]
Greig 119: "[Miss Robertson] says that she never heard her mother say where she got her version of the song, but she feels sure that her aunt had got hers from her mother who would have been a girl about 1780. Miss Robertson refers to the controversy that once arose (and has been repeated since) as to the authorship of 'The Land of the Leal,' some people claiming it for Burns, and she recalls that one correspondent referred to the earlier song about the unmanly John."
Greig/Duncan3 quoting Duncan: "Now Lady Nairne's 'The Land o' the Leal' goes back to 1798, and contains these coincidences with this:- (1) the use of the expression 'the land o' the leal' for heaven; (2) the combination of this with the words 'I am wearin awa,' (3) the address to the husband as 'John' and (4) the use of all these in an address from a dying wife to her husband." Duncan goes on to ask whether Lady Nairne borrowed from the popular song, or vice versa. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD3796

Be Kind to the Loved Ones at Home

DESCRIPTION: "Be kind to thy father, for when thou wert young, Who loved thee so fondly as he?" But now he is passing away and deserves kindness. Similarly, be kind to mother, brother, sister
AUTHOR: Isaac B. Woodbury (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #6)
KEYWORDS: family nonballad father mother brother sister
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Heart-Songs, pp. 488-489, "Be Kind to the Loved Ones at Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 165-166, "Be Kind to the Loved Ones at Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #6, p. 14, "Be Kind to the Loved Ones" (1 text)
Roud #21394
NOTES [70 words]: Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady lists no author for this, but on p. 165 comments, "The plea for a little less of the comic strip spirit is emphasized in Be Kind to the Loved Ones at Home, which takes in most of the family. Extra relatives may be added ad lib." One can only hope said relatives will understand the bad fake of King James Bible English.
Isaac B. Woodbury is also credited with "Stars of the Summer Night." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: HeSo488

Be Kind to Your Web-Footed Friends

DESCRIPTION: "Be kind to your web-footed friends, For a duck may be somebody's mother...." Listeners are urged to be kind to swamp animals and perhaps other ecologically unfortunate creatures
AUTHOR: Music ("The Stars and Stripes Forever") by John Philip Sousa, 1897
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: humorous parody animal nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 52, "Be Kind to Your Web-Footed Friends" (1 text, tune referenced)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 171, "Be Kind to Your Web-Footed Friends" (1 text
cf. Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 535, "The Stars and Stripes Forever"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 166, "Be Kind to Your Web-Footed Friends" (notes obly)
DT, WEBFOOT
Roud #10248
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Stars and Stripes Forever" (tune)
NOTES [51 words]: Of *course* it's a folk song. Think about where *you* learned it.
There are words for "The Stars and Stripes Forever," written by Bob Russell; BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 42-43, prints them. I doubt they influenced this parody; these word are frankly both more intelligent and a better fit than Russell's. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: DTwebfoo

Be Merry, Be Merry (A Pryncyple Poynth of Charyte)

DESCRIPTION: "Ne merry, be merry, I pray you everyone." "A principal point of charity, IIt is so merry for to be, In him that is but one, Be merry." "He that is but one in bliss, To us has sent his son." Jesus was born of a maid. Mary, save merry-makers. Give thanks
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: fifteenth century (Cambridge, Trinity College MS. O.3.58)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #17, p. 12, "(A pryncypal poynth of charyte)" (1 text with variants)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 203-204, "Be Merry" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #88
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #149
ADDITIONAL: Rossell Hope Robbins, editor, _Early English Christmas Carols_, Columbia University Press, 1961, #9, pp. 30-31, "Be Merry, Be Merry" (1 text, 1 tune)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSCamTrinityO.3.58}, Cambridge, Trinity College MS. O.3.58, folio 1
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS. 233, folio 95
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Harley 3300, folio 2
NOTES [119 words]: Of the three manuscripts that contain this, none is of primary importance for scholars of carols, and indeed, only the Trinity College manuscript is of second rank. And it hasn't been popular with Middle English scholars. But it is attested in three manuscripts, which is a fairly high number, and the Harley manuscript is apparently from Exeter while the Trinity manuscript has been suspected of being from East Anglia, which is wide geographic attestation. The versions have several different stanzas, too. And it openly encourages merriment, which makes it sound much more secular than most fifteenth century carols. I'm far from sure it's a folk song, but I'm putting it here to let you decide for yourself. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: GREE017

Be Prepared

DESCRIPTION: "Be prepared! That's the Boy Scouts' marching song." The scouts should be prepared to "hold your liquor pretty well," "Don't write naughty words if you can't spell, "Hide that pack of cigarettes," and otherwise hide their private lives
AUTHOR: Tom Lehrer
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 ("Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer")
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad drugs drink campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 290, "(no title)" (1 short text)
DT, SCOUTPRE
ADDITIONAL: Tom Lehrer, _Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer with not enough drawings by Ronald Searle_, Pantheon Books, 1981, pp. 12-14, "Be Prepared" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [72 words]: Obviously a composed song; it's Tom Lehrer's take on the Boy Scout motto. But Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs prints it as though it came to her anonymously, so I'm listing it here. Certainly I can imagine bold camp counselors sitting around singing this.
BoyScoutSongbook1997 has a genuine "Be Prepared" song, which opens "Oh Be Prepared, Prepared, Prepared, the motto of a Boy Scout," but I have no evidence that it is traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF290B

Be Present at Our Table, Lord

DESCRIPTION: "Be present at our table, Lord, Be here and ev'ry where adored, These mercies bless, and grant that we May feast in Paradise with Thee."
AUTHOR: John Cennick (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1741 (source: hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #306, p. 72, "(no title)" (1 text, in the section "Graces for the Table")
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 127, "(no title)" (1 text, tune referenced)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 109, "Be Present at Our Table, Lord" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 54, "Be Present at Our Table, Lord" (1 text)
National-4HClubSongBook, pp. 46-47, "Grace Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Wesley Grace" (1 text) (CC edition, p. 60)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 261, "Be Present at Our Table Lord" (notes only)
Roud #37301
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Hundred" (tune) and references there
NOTES [126 words]: John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 215, calls John Cennick "a prolific and successful hymn-writer, [who] was descended from a family of Quakers, but brought up in the Church of England. He assisted J. Wesley and then G. Whitefield in their labours for a time, and then passed over to, and died as a minister of, the Moravian church."
Hymnary.org says he was born in 1717, but Julian says 1718. They agree that he died in 1755.
Julian calls the quality of his hymns "most unequal," though saying that some of his verses are quite good. Julian lists fourteen hymns of his which are remembered; the only one I can recall hearing is "Children of the Heavenly King." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF261B

Be Quick for I'm in Haste

DESCRIPTION: A squire meets a maid. He says "I've loved you long" and asks her for a kiss: "be quick, for I'm in haste." Hodge, for whom she has been waiting, comes with a ring. She and Hodge leave for church. She tells the squire, "You see sir, I'm in haste"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(257))
KEYWORDS: courting ring seduction wedding rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople, pp. 238-239, "In Haste" (1 text)
Roud #1589
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(257), "Be Quick, for I'm in Haste" ("Across the fields the other morn"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824
File: ReSh238

Be Very Still

DESCRIPTION: "Be very stll, my children dear." A mouse is near and we don't want her. In the pantry she drinks the cream, bites the cheese and "nibbles nearly all the cakes." The singer gets the cat. It will chase the mouse "and soon we'll all have jolly fun"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1671, "Be Very Still" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13007
File: Grd81671

Be ware, squier, yeman, and page

See If Thou Serve a Lord of Price (For Service Is None Heritage) (File: MSITSLOP)

Be You Dark or Be You Fair

DESCRIPTION: "Be you dark or be you fair, What is the color of your hair?" (color names follow, e.g. black, brown, yellow, red, then perhaps R-E-D, and you are IT)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes)
KEYWORDS: colors hair | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 122, "Be you dark or be you fair" (1 text)
NOTES [18 words]: I'm quite sure I've heard this before, even though I can't say where, so I'm indexing it just in case. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DCCR122

Beach of Strablane, The

See Braes of Strathblane (File: McCST053)

Beaches So Green

See Braes of Strathblane (File: McCST053)

Beale Street Blues (Ramblin' Blues)

DESCRIPTION: "I've seen the lights of old gay Broadway," and much of the rest of the world, but the singer advises seeing Beale Street. But there is also a warning: "If Beale Street could talk, Married men would have to take their beds up and walk...."
AUTHOR: W. C. Handy
EARLIEST DATE: 1916
KEYWORDS: warning party
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p .81, "Ramblin' Blues'" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 277-278, "Beale Street Blues" (1 text)
Roud #11551
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Poole & the North Carolina Ramblers, "Ramblin' Blues" (Columbia 15286-D, 1928)
NOTES [50 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 319, estimates that this was the twenty-eighth most popular song in America in 1918 (#1 for the year being J. Will Callahan and Lee G. Roberts's "Smiles"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: CAFS1277

Beam of Oak (Rambling Boy, Oh Willie)

DESCRIPTION: A farmer's daughter loves a servant man. Her father has him sent to sea. He is killed in battle. His ghost visits the father. The daughter hears about it. She hangs herself. Father finds her hanging. Her note blames the father, who goes mad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax, Cowboy Songs)
KEYWORDS: battle navy death suicide father lover ghost
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 15, "Beam of Oak" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 173-174, "I Am A Rambling Rowdy Boy" (1 text, short enough that it might be a "Butcher Boy" version, but the first verse tentatively puts it here)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 86, "A Rude and Rambling Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 61-62, "Oh, Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 81, "The Butcher Boy" (6 texts plus 5 excerpts and mention of 3 others; although most are clearly Laws P24, Renwick believes the "M" text is "Beam of Oak (Rambling Boy, Oh Willie)")
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 106-107, "The Rambling Boy" (1 text) {filed here based on the title}
ADDITIONAL: Renwick: Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, pp. 94-95, "Rambling Boy" (1 text, from Lomax's _Cowboy Songs_); also, on pp. 108-109, a broadside, "The Rambling Boy," from Pitts, which he considers to have influenced the song; p. 113, "(William, William, I Love You Well")" (1 text, of another related text)
ST LLab015 (Partial)
Roud #18830
BROADSIDES:
cf. Bodleian, Harding B 25(1597), "The Rambling Boy" ("I an a wikd and rambling boy"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819 [barely legible]; also Harding B 11(4216), "The Rambling Boy," T. Birt, London, 1833-1841 [This is the related broadside cited by Renwick, not the true "Beam of Oak/Oh Willie" song]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] (theme)
cf. "The Isle of Cloy" (Roud #23272) (location in the "Isle of Cloy," mentioned in the Bodleian "Rambling Boy" broadsides)
NOTES [366 words]: This is not "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] in spite of the suicide by hanging, the father finding the body and the suicide note. Consider the differences: the lover is faithful, the father causes the separation, the lover is killed and his ghost returns, and the suicide note blames the father. - BS
Roud used to lump this with "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" [Laws P25], but this is a much more detailed song than that. At most, it might be the inspiration, but even that seems forced. The feeling seems very different -- more like "The Suffolk Miracle" than "The Butcher Boy." In more recent editions, Roud has moved it to #18830, a much more obscure song although related to "The Butcher Boy." It may be that he did this on the basis of Roger deV. Renwick, Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths, University Press of Mississippi, 2001. Renwick, pp. 92-115 is an essay, "'Oh, Willie': An Unrecognized Anglo-American Ballad," which makes a case for this song's independence. Roud's list of versions doesn't correspond precisely with van Renwick's. And the suicide at the end means that fragmentary versions can hardly be classified; readers should surely check both.
Renwick considers the family to include not just this song and "The Butcher Boy" but also "Love Has Brought Me to Despair," plus lyric pieces he calls "Deep in Love" and "Died for Love," which are almost beyond classification; "Waly Waly" is probably one of them.
The description of this version is based mostly on Leach. Renwick, pp. 100-101, notes the usual differences between this song and "The Butcher Boy": This is told from the man's point of view, it usually opens with him describing himself as some sort of rambler, and it continues with the man's fate after the girl's suicide. Also, the father threatens Willie, and the mother generally does not make an appearance in this song. He also says on p. 107 that it oftan the woman, not the man, who was unfaithful. In broad summary, Renwick calls this a song of Family Opposition to Lovers, whereas "The Butcher Boy" is a song about an unfaithful lover. Thus, in theme, the two are quite different; it is the suicide that pulls them together.- RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: LLab015

Bean Porridge Hot

See Pease Porridge Hot (File: Newe071)

Beans, Bacon, and Gravy

DESCRIPTION: The singer, born in 1894, has "seen many a panic," but the worst distress is in (1931). He is on a work crew, being fed a daily ration of "beans, bacon, and gravy," which "almost drive me crazy." He describes the hard times and hopes for better
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: hardtimes food work
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 170-171, "Beans, Bacon, and Gravy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 64-65, "Beans, Bacon, and Gravy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 380-381, "Beans, Bacon, and Gravy" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 289, "Beans, Bacon And Gravy" (1 text)
DT, BBGRAVY*
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Beans, Bacon and Gravy" (on PeteSeeger04) (on PeteSeeger13)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Joe the Wrangler" [Laws B5] (tune) and references there
cf. "Jesse James (I)" [Laws E1] (tune)
File: Arn170

Bear Away Yankee, Bear Away Boy

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "Bear away Yankee, bear away boy." The shantyman sings "Deep de water and shallow de shore .. Bear away to Noble Bay." "What me going tell John Gould today? ... Deep de water, shallow a shore."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: sea ship shore wreck shanty
FOUND IN: West Indies(Nevis)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 54-55, "Bear Away Yankee, Bear Away Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [19 words]: Abrahams writes, "John Gould ... is supposed by the men [singers] to have been a shipowner who lost his cargo." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS054

Bear Chase, The

DESCRIPTION: Hunters and dogs go out to hunt the (bear/deer). Most of the song is about the activities of the dogs. Chorus: "Way, away, We're bound for the mountain (x3), Over the hills, The fields and the fountains, Away to the chase, Away!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: dog hunting animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 219, "The Wild Ashe Deer" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 219, "The Wild Ashe Deer" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 81, "The Deer Chase" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 741, "Cumberland Mountain Bear Chase" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6675
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Bear Chase" (on PeteSeeger09, Pete SeegerCD02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fox Chase (I)" (theme, form)
NOTES [78 words]: The text in Brown is noticeably literary, and the notes mention a printed song, "The Wild Ashe Deer," from 1854. Whether the traditional song derives from the printed version, or the printed version was taken from tradition and "improved," is by no means clear.
It appears, however, that "The Wild Ashe Deer" was a school song; there is a listing on p. 179 of Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, which says that it was "Revised and printed expressly for the Public Schools." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LoF081

Bear Hunt

DESCRIPTION: "Going on a bear hunt Wanna come along?" "Coming to the short grass, Can’t go around it, Can’t go under it, Gotta go through it." "Coming to the tall grass, Can't go around..." Eventually they find a bear in a cave -- and run
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 240, 324, "Bear Hunt" (notes only)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 38-39, "The Bear Hunt" (1 text)
NOTES [41 words]: In the mudcat.org thread "Old Girl Scout Songs," Joe Offer comments, "I've never heard two people sing this the same. Heck, I don't think I've ever sung it the same way twice myself. Once you have the general idea, make it up as you go along." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ACSF240B

Bear Hunters of 1836, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in December's dreary month, The snow lay on the ground, When Wasgatt, traveling in the woods, A track of bears he found." Wasgatt and Co. gather their guns, go to the bears' den, and shoot the lot -- and are declared to be brave as Putnam
AUTHOR: Levi C. Dunn? (source: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Bar Harbor Record, according to Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 366-368. "The Bear Hunters of 1836" (1 text)
Roud #4154
NOTES [22 words]: I can't say I'm impressed. Shooting a sleeping bear is supposed to be a difficult feat?
This is item dH34 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm366

Bear in the Hill, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a bear in yon hill, and he is a brave fellow." The bear goes out to seek a wife. He meets and courts a possum. She will marry him if her uncle (the raccoon) agrees. The agreement is made and the couple married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: animal talltale courting marriage love request
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 162-163, "The Bear in the Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15552
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Frog Went A-Courting" (plot)
NOTES [36 words]: Looks to me like a deliberate rewrite of "Frog Went A-Courting." In support of this, we note that it is very rare in oral tradition. Maybe somebody's kid wanted a song about a bear getting married instead of a frog? - RBW
File: LxA162

Bear Lake Monster, The

DESCRIPTION: "Good people, have you heard of late Of times in Bear Lake Valley? They're must'ring all the forces there... To put a fearful monster down At first they thought but sham." It moves incredibly quickly, lives in several states, and fills the sky with fish
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: humorous fishing hunting monster
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #250, "The Bear Lake Monster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10913
File: Hubb250

Bear Ripe and Tear, A

See Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

Bear Ripen Tare, A

See Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

Bear River Murder, The

DESCRIPTION: "About a brutal murder I now say a word, I mean that Bear River murder No doubt of it you've heard." Detective Power discusses the murder and why he thinks Wheeler is the murderer and how it happened. Wheeler confesses and is to be hung September 8.
AUTHOR: S. Smith
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: execution homicide punishment police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1895 - Anne Kempton murdered by Peter Wheeler at Bear River, Digby County (source: Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia; Creighton says 1896)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 152, "The Bear River Murder" (1 text)
Roud #3286
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Peter Wheeler" (subject: the same murder)
NOTES [100 words]: Creighton has extensive notes about this event, which seem largely folklore though she talked with people who knew Annie Kempton. The dates are uncertain; Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia dates the murder to 1895, and Creighton says that Smith wrote his song in that year -- but notes in the same sentence that people in Bear River dated the murder to January 27, 1896. They dated Wheeler's execution to September 1896.
Creighton also reports that Wheeler was not from Digby County; locals thought him Portugese, though one wonders how a non-Englishman would acquire the name "Wheeler." - RBW
File: Mac152

Bear Song, The

DESCRIPTION: A bear is discovered and chased by men two days through the snow. Part of the story is told by the bear: "it's the shot makes me run" It dies. "It is rumored the bear's made a will" witnessed by Nicholas, leaving his fur for "caps for the boys"
AUTHOR: Lawrence Doyle
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: hunting humorous animal lastwill death clothes
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 106-107, "The Bear Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12456
NOTES [16 words]: Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland has more details about the chase and shooting. - BS
File: Dib106

Bear the News, Mary

DESCRIPTION: "Bear the news, Mary (x3), I'm on my way to glory." "If you git there before I do, I'm a-hunting a home to go to, Just tell them all I'm a-coming too, I'm a-hunting a home to go to."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: religious floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 563-564, "Bear the News, Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15556
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wade in the Water" (floating lyrics) and references there
File: LxA563

Bear Went Over the Mountain, The

DESCRIPTION: "The bear went over the mountain (x3) To see what he could see." "He saw another mountain (x3), And what do you think he did?" "He climbed the other mountain...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad humorous campsong
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 164-165, "A Bear Went Over the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 43, "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" (1 text, tune referenced)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 231-233, "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow -- (Malbrouk -- We Won't Go Home till Morning! -- The Bear Went over the Mountain)"
Harbin-Parodology, #84, p. 25, "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" (1 text, tune referenced)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 169, "A Bear Went Over a Mountain" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 164, 391, "The Bear Went over the Mountain" (notes only)
DT, BEARMTN*
Roud #3727
NOTES [86 words]: This is another of those songs you never find in folk song books. But I'm pretty sure I learned it orally; I think it belongs in the Index.
Katherine Briggs, A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 519-520, lists three various "Endless Tales"; she compares the third of these to this song, although the only thing they really seem to have in common is the endless repeat. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DTbearmt

Beardiville Planting

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a pretty girl who lives near Beardiville. He asks her to come with him to County Derry. She asks him to stay a while so she can be sure he is serious. Her father consents, and they are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage home beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H718, pp. 460-461, "Beardiville Planting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9462
File: HHH718

Beau Galant, Le (The Handsome Gentleman)

DESCRIPTION: French. A girl's lover sails to the Indies and returns to find her in a convent. He cries at the door. If I stay, she says, it is your fault. He offers her a gold ring as a remembrance. When he puts the ring on her finger, he falls dead. She mourns.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting ring reunion burial death mourning lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 662-663, "Le Beau Galant" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Belle Est Morte Entre les Bras de Son Amant, La (The Beautiful Woman Died in her Lover's Arms)" (theme)
File: Pea662

Beau Grenadier, Le (The Handsome Grenadier)

DESCRIPTION: French. A girl has won a sailor's/grenadier's heart. He takes her to his room and gives her a gold ring. Her other lover listens at the door. The jilted lover considers killing the girl but kills her new lover instead.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage infidelity love ring hiding gold bawdy lover mistress sailor soldier homicide
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 539, "La Jolie Fille et Ses Deux Amants" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [21 words]: In Peacock's version the ballad stops short of having anyone murdered. Genevilliers is about five miles northeast of Paris - BS
File: Pea539

Beau Militaire, Le (The Handsome Soldier)

DESCRIPTION: French. A young prisoner is conscripted. Without leave, he goes to see Nanette in her castle, where he is captured. He is sent as a deserter to the deepest darkest dungeon in Paris.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage army lover soldier prisoner punishment desertion
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 168-169, "Le Beau Militaire" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Pea168

Beau Monsieur Tire Ses Gants Blancs, Le (The Handsome Gentleman Throws His White Gloves)

DESCRIPTION: French. A gentleman takes off his white gloves and gives a woman all the money she wants. He says, time for love. She follows him backwards saying "Good evening. I am going down river." I will go with my money to a convent and live happily.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage sex beauty rake whore clothes
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 170-171, "Le Beau Monsieur Tire Ses Gants Blancs" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [81 words]: There's obviously an idiom here I don't understand: "mettre des gants blancs" meaning "to put on white gloves" and what looks like its obverse. Losing gloves was used euphemisticly in the 17th century for losing virginity, but that's a real stretch here (cf. Dictionnaire des expressions et locutions by Rey et Chantreau, 1993). White gloves signifies elegance and maybe taking them off is appropriate here (cf. La Grand Robert de la Langue Francais (Montreal, 1985), v.$, p. 816). - BS
File: Pea170

Beautiful

DESCRIPTION: "Ain't it fierce to be so beautiful, beautiful." The beautiful girl has "no peace of mind"; everyone is kind, but waits outside her door, offering flowers, etc. The brainy girl replies with similar words, save that she receives good grades and handshakes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 344-345, "Beautiful" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15535
File: LxA344

Beautiful and Bold Trainer-O

See Bold Trainor O (File: OCC031)

Beautiful Bill

DESCRIPTION: "Beautiful Bill was a 'dorable beau, Beautiful Bill did worry me so, Sweetest of Wills, my beautiful Bill, My beautiful, beautiful, (beautiful) Bill." Bill courts the lady (but already has a wife and child?)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty family
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 372, "Beautiful Bill" (2 short texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 302-303, "Baeutiful Bill" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 372A)
Roud #5061
File: R372

Beautiful Brown Eyes

DESCRIPTION: Man (?) praises "beautiful brown eyes"; he'll never see blue eyes again. Woman says she loves Willie; they were to be married tomorrow, but liquor kept them apart. Man falls on the floor, vows not to drink any more. Woman, married, wishes she were single
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love marriage drink
FOUND IN: US(So) Can(West)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
[Randolph 319, "Beautiful, Beautiful Brown Eyes" -- deleted in the second printing]
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 270-271, "Beautiful, Beautiful Brown Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's )
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 230, "Beautiful Brown Eyes" (1 text)
DT, BRWNEYES*
Roud #17030
RECORDINGS:
Bill Cox, "Brown Eyes" (Melotone M-13058, 1934)
Stanley G. Triggs, "Brown Eyes" (on Triggs1)
NOTES [50 words]: This song is a mish-mosh; it sounds like four verses (from separate songs) were scotch-taped together. The voice seems to switch from male to female; the marital status switches from betrothed to seven-years-married. A mess. - PJS
Wonder if that has anything to do with its success in bluegrass? :-) - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FSWB230

Beautiful Churchill

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes his home in Donegal. A factory, "where pretty girls do sew," stands in the middle of town. Around it there are plantations and a lake with a beautiful island. Other find towns are nearby. He hopes to live there with his love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad love
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H627, p. 161, "Beautiful Churchill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13459
File: HHH627

Beautiful City

See Twelve Gates to the City (File: PSAFB081)

Beautiful Coast of New Zealand, The

See Whalers' Rhymes (File: BaRo017)

Beautiful Damsel, The

See The Undaunted Female (The Box Upon Her Head; The Staffordshire Maid; The Maid and the Robber) [Laws L3] (File: LL03)

Beautiful Dreamer

DESCRIPTION: "Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me, Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee." The singer tells how the "sounds of the rude world" have faded in the night, and hopes for an end to sorrow
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (sheet music by Wm. A. Pond & Co.); probably typeset in 1862 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: dream love nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 261, "Beautiful Dreamer" (1 text)
Saunders/Root-MusicOfStephenCFoster-Vol2, pp. 237-244+437, "Beautiful Dreamer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, p. 56, "Beautiful Dreamer" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 116-117, "Beautiful Dreamer" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 118-119, 'Beautiful Dreamer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #13, p. 10, "Beautiful Dreamer" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 135, "Beautiful Dreamer"
DT, BEAUTDR*
ADDITIONAL: Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 80-81, "Beautiful Dreamer" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSWB261 (Full)
Roud #24434
SAME TUNE:
Lash Up and Stow (File: Tawn114)
NOTES [527 words]: The 1864 sheet music to this piece lists it as Foster's last song, composed shortly before his death (and Spaeth says the song "undoubtedly" belongs to the last two weeks of his life), but Fuld notes a curious reference to a Foster song "Beautiful Dreamer" in 1863, and the copyright claim on the 1864 sheet music appears to have been altered (though the LC records report the song as entered in March 1864).
Note that while the cover of the sheet music gives the date as 1864, the copyright on page 2 still appears to read 1862.
Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 92, note that the third edition of the music merely calls it "one of the latest songs" written by Foster.
Even so, it appears that "Beautiful Dreamer" was Foster's last noteworthy song -- certainly the last published, and probably the last written; while there is no real evidence that it went into tradition, it at least has endured in popular circles, unlike anything else he wrote after "Old Black Joe" in 1860.
There is, I think, some internal evidence that the song is late; one of the key features of the melody is an accidental (the sharpened tonic in the second measure, repeated in the sixth). Foster's early music very rarely used accidentals; the first one I can think of is the tritone in "Hard Times Come Again No More." The prominent use in this song strongly implies a late date.
As an aside, "She was all the World to Me" was also marketed as Foster's last song, as was "Our Darling Kate." Indeed, "Beautiful Dreamer" isn't even the first of Foster's "last songs"; Horace Waters got there first with "She Was All the World to Me," published February 23, 1864; William A. Pond & Co. answered with "Beautiful Dreamer" on March 10 (John Tasker Howard, Stephen Foster, America's Troubadour, 1934 (I use the 1939 Tudor Publishing edition), p. 347).
Thus the possibility must be admitted that the song is in fact older, and had been sitting in someone's files for some time, only to be pulled out to capitalize on Foster's death. It's quite likely that the song was typeset in 1862 but not issued at the time. This was by no means uncommon -- the Saunders/Root bibliography lists 16 songs credited to Foster but first printed in 1864 and after (though many of these are in fact the works of others).
Two of these posthumous claims are rather humorous; "Give this to Mother" is listed as "Stephen C. Foster's last musical Idea" (! -- so Howard, pp. 347-348, who gives the text that the publishers used to justify this claim. It claims that Foster gave them the song three days before his death -- quite a trick, given that he took his final injury three days before he died. It also uses a tune very, very close to another Foster song, "Tears Bring Thoughts of Heaven"), Even more absurdly, "Little Mac! Little Mac! You're the Very Man" refers to events which took place months after Foster's death (Spaeth suggests Foster's daughter Marion actually wrote the piece, presumably because, according to Howard, p. 349, it was copyrighted in her name. But I know of no other published works by her). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB261

Beautiful Hands of the Priest, The

DESCRIPTION: "We need them [the priest's hands] in life's early morning, We need them again at its close." Singer mentions the clasp of friendship, and priest's hands at the altar, absolution, marriage, and "when death-dews on our eyes are falling."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious clergy
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 31, "The Beautiful Hands of the Priest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5218
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "The Beautiful Hands of the Priest" (on IRTLenihan01)
NOTES [1142 words]: Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan: "A Father Crowley of Dunsallagh gave Tom the words of this poem on a type-written sheet about 1963 and asked him could he put a tune to it?" - BS
Hm. The cynic in me can't help but wonder, Just what had that priest been doing with his altar boys that he needed such propaganda? It is Catholic doctrine that the sacraments come through the church -- but it is also very basic Catholic doctrine that the sacraments are made efficacious by God, *not* the particular priest involved, who may in fact not be in a state of grace. The power is all in the church collectively, not the priest; it is the sacrament, not the one who administers it, which acts.
As WalkerEtAl puts it on p. 202, according to medieval theologians, "the sacraments were 'valid' (i.e. objectively accomplished what they 'said') not because of what the human minister was or did (ex opere operantis) but because of the church's performance of the action itself (ex opere operato) in dependence upon the covenanted grace of God. (Which is not to say that there weren't those who argued the other way, e.g. the Pseudo-Chrysostom.)
This is not a recent doctrine (although I suppose you could argue that this is why the Catholic Church has shown no theological urgency in dealing with its many sex abuse scandals); the church had to face the issue very early on, in the face of the Donatist heresy and related doctrines such as Novationism, which held the contrary opinion that the state of the minister did matter. The Novationists arose after the Decian persecution of 250 (O'Grady, p. 79); many had fallen away from the faith during the troubles, but wanted readmission to the church after Gallienus's edict of toleration in 260. Pope Cornelius was willing to forgive, but Novatian felt that there was no possibility of forgiving the apostate; he split from the church and was declared Bishop of Rome, with his sect lasting for a few centuries (Christie-Murray, p. 96).
The Donatists were a slightly later but rather stronger version of the same thing. In most regards they were orthodox; as Chadwick says on pp. 219-220, "The Donatists and the Catholics affirmed the same creeds and read the same Latin Bible. Donatist churches could only be distinguished from Catholic ones by the Donatist custom of whitewashing the walls." Their differences were concerned solely with admission to the Church.
The Donatists arose in the aftermath of Diocletian's persecution (from 303). The persecution did not end until 312. And, in 311, a new bishop of Carthage had been needed. Caecilian was consecrated bishop by Felix of Aptunga, who was considered to have gone along with the persecution, so many in the diocese refused to accept Caecilian's ordination. (According to Nigg, p. 110, Caecilian was also "opportunistic" and "imperious," which can't have helped his cause.) A rival sect arose, with Majorinus their first bishop (Nigg, p. 111). He soon died, to be replaced by Donatus (from 316), who gave the group its name -- and probably most of its energy.
According to Qualben, p. 123, "The [Donatist] party held that the traditors, or those who had surrendered copies of Scripture in the recent persecution, had committed a mortal sin." Nigg, p. 112, says that they were willing to allow certain stumbles by their lay members -- but the rules for the clergy were absolute. And, according to p. 113, they allied with a group called the Circumcellions (whose doctrines are not clear, but they sound like thugs) to enforce their rules.
According to Christie-Murray, pp. 96-97, "Augustine wrote copiously against the Donatists, helping to establish the principle, which has remained that of the western Church, that the sacraments are not dependent for their validity upon the moral character of the men by whose hands they are administered but are valid in themselves, deriving their efficacy from God."
Similarly Qualben, pp. 123-124: "the character of a minister does not affect his official acts. All the acts of the church are valid acts, though the officials may be unworthy men."
Chadwick, p. 221: "According to the Donatist (and Cyprianic) view, the validity of the sacrament depends on the proper standing of the minister; it is valid if received within the church, invalid outside it.... Catholics at the Council of Arles (314) had come to accept the doctrine which Pope Stephen upheld against Cyprian in 256, viz, that the sacraments belong not to the ministry but to Christ."
Nigg, p. 112, sums up the problem this way: How could a defiled priest offer true sacraments? The Donatist answer was that he could not, and demanded purity of the clergy. The Catholic church -- knowing that many clergy did vile things when they could get away with it -- declared that the sacraments were made efficacious by God and the greater church, not the individual minister.
I'm doubtless raging on about the Donatists too much, but theirs was a stubborn and irritating doctrine. They eventually got on Augustine's nerves so much that he requested the Emperor to suppress the Donatists (Nigg, pp. 114-115). This didn't work too well, since the Donatists had arisen out of a martyr cult and if anything grew stronger when persecuted, but it drew forth from Augustine what Nigg, p. 116, calls his most extreme statement (and, remember, Augustine is the guy who said it was God's job to send unbaptized babies to Hell). Augustine's docrine was, "compel them to enter." In other words, be orthodox or die.
The persecution didn't work; the sect seems to have endured until at least the Vandal, and perhaps the Islamic, conquest of North Africa (Clifton, p. 37).
Novatianism and Donatism were the earliest major examples of this class of heresies, but not the last. Clifton, p. xv, notes that the Waldensians, who were strongest in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, also had a belief that the givers of the sacraments had to be unspotted -- and they were among the chief targets of the Inquisition! (Clifton, p. 133).
Thus this Father Crowley was a heretic going against a doctrine which predates even the great Nicene/Chalcedonian Creed, and which had been condemned repeatedly since! Admittedly a fine distinction for a layperson to make -- but one that every Catholic clergyman should know.
Nonetheless this is a very Irish sort of a piece. Edwards, p. 53, notes that, in Ireland, "Clerical power initially derived from the hostility of the state." Coogan, p, 3, pretty well sums up the peculiar situation in that nation: "The parish priest was the Irish peasant's spokesman and bulwark against authority, an ever-present eternity. The consolation and support that the better priests gave their flocks was reciprocated by a respect for the clergy generally only equaled today by that accorded to an imam in a fundamentalist Arab village." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: RcBeHaPr

Beautiful Home

DESCRIPTION: "There's a beautiful home, far over the sea, That beautiful place, for you and for me... That the Savior for me has gone to prepare." The sun shines there, the singer will have a crown; hearers will meet with angels and friends
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1960 (recording, A. P. Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 79, "There's a Beautiful Home" (1 text)
Roud #17237
RECORDINGS:
A. P. Carter Family, "Beautiful Home" (Acme DF-103, 1956?)
File: Grim079

Beautiful Isle of the Sea

DESCRIPTION: "Beautiful isle of the sea! Smile on the brow of the waters, Dear are your mem'ries to me, Sweet as the songs of your daughters, Over the mountains and vales, Down by each murmuring river." The singer praises this "Land of the True and the Old"
AUTHOR: Words: George Cooper / Music: J. B. Thomas
EARLIEST DATE: before 1866 (Bodleian broadsides)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Heart-Songs, pp. 224-226, "Beautiful Isle of the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 23, "Beautiful Isle of the Sea!" (1 text)
ST HeSo224 (Partial)
Roud #13893
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(210), "Beautiful isle of the sea," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(2582), "Beautiful isle of the sea," H. Such (London), 1863-1865; also 2806 c.16(45)=Harding B 13(242), Firth c.12(116), "Beautiful Isle of the sea!" T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899; also 2806 b.11(8), "Beautiful isle of the sea," The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1868
File: HeSo224

Beautiful Lady of Kent, The

DESCRIPTION: Beautiful Ruth falls in love with a handsome Henry from Dover. Her parents confine her. He sails to Spain and marries a rich woman. She escapes her parents, dresses as a sailor, and finds him. His wife dies. Henry and Ruth are married and live happily
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Harding B 4(94); 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Ruth's parents would rather have her dead than married to Henry, a poor sailor. She retreats to her chamber. Henry sails to Spain and reluctantly marries a rich woman, believing he can never have Ruth. Ruth, released by her parents after a twelve-month confinement, goes to Spain, dressed as a seaman for disguise. Her parents believe she is lost. Ruth reveals herself to Henry when his wife dies. They return to Dover to marry. Henry, now rich but in poor seaman's dress, invites Ruth's parents to his wedding without telling them that Ruth is to be his bride. They, believing Ruth lost, admit that they should have let Ruth marry him. At the lavish wedding they recognize Ruth. Everyone is happy.
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage wedding return reunion separation cross-dressing death money England Spain father mother sailor wife
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 11, "Henry and Ruth" (1 text)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #18, pp. 130-138, "The Beautiful Lady of Kent" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 304-310, "The Beautiful Lady of Kent; or, The Seaman of Dover" (1 text)
ST BeCo304 (Partial)
Roud #2812
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 4(94) "The Seaman of Dover," J. Evans (London), before 1813; also Harding B 4(92); Harding B 4(91); Harding B 4(93); Harding B 4(95)=Johnson Ballads 992, "The Seaman of Dover," J. Pitts (London), before 1820
File: BeCo304

Beautiful Light O'er the Ocean

See For Seven Long Years I've Been Married (File: RcFSLYBM)

Beautiful Light o'er the Sea

See Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight (File: R746)

Beautiful Mary from Sweet Limerick Town

DESCRIPTION: "One morning in July alone as I strayed By the banks of the Shannon I met a fair maid." She is so beautiful that he must court her, but she bids him "forbear"; she loves a sailor. He reveals himself as her missing sailor; they marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: love disguise separation reunion sailor marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 179, "Mary of Limerick Town" (1 text)
Roud #9262
File: HMHS179C

Beautiful Nancy

DESCRIPTION: "As Beautiful Nancy was walking one day, She met a young sailor, all on the highway." She has not seen Jemmy for three years. He says he is rich and asks if she will fancy him. She says she will always be true to Jemmy. He reveals himself; they marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton-RealSailorSongs)
KEYWORDS: love sailor separation reunion money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #56, "Beautiful Nancy" (1 text)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 74, "Jimmy and Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18525
File: AshS056

Beautiful Snow

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the snow, the beautiful snow, Filling the sky and the earth below." "It can do no wrong," but the singer, once "fair as the beautiful snow," "Fell like the snowflakes from heaven to hell." Now dying in the snow, she hopes God will have mercy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (J. W. Watson, "Beautiful Snow and Other Poems")
KEYWORDS: whore warning disease death | snow
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 210-218, "Beautiful Snow" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: J. W. Watson, _Beautiful Snow and Other Poems_, Turner and Company, Philadelphia, 1869 (available on Google Books), pp. 2-11, "Beautiful Snow" (1 text)
Hazel Felleman, Best Loved Poems of the American People, pp. 188-190, "Beautiful Snow" (1 text)
Roud #36814
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1856, "Beautiful Snow" J. Southward (Liverpool), n.d.
NOTES [124 words]: Blech.
I have no reason whatsoever to believe this is traditional, but Ford-SongHistories treats it as if it is, so it's indexed. The only thing that can be said in favor of it being traditional is that there was apparently a lot of argument about its authorship. Ford claims that a prostitute, who died "in or about 1863," was found with a copy of it on her. After which "not fewer than about half a score of writers" claimed in (p. 212).
What seems clear is that the earliest verifiable publication is by J. W. Watson. It is printed without a tune or tune indication, and it certainly isn't in any usual metrical form. Granger's Index to Poetry accepts this attribution, as does Felleman, and despite Ford, I have no reason to doubt it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FoSHi210

Beautiful Sta'h

See Beautiful Star (II) (File: Edwa007)

Beautiful Star (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Beautiful star, star, star, Bright morning star, Beautiful star, star, star, Star in the East, Although you see me go along so, Star in the East, I have my trials here below, Star in the East"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 7, "Beautiful Sta'h" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [36 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. - BS
Not to be confused with the song "Beautiful Star (Star of the Evening)," by James M. Sayles, which Lewis Carroll parodied as "Beautiful Soup." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa007

Beautiful Star (Star of the Evening)

DESCRIPTION: "Beautiful star in heav'n so bright, Softly falls thy silvr'y light, As thou movest from earth afar, Star of the evening, beautiful star. Beautiful star, Beautiful star, Star of the evening, beautiful star." The singer asks the star to watch over his love
AUTHOR: James M. Sayles
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (sheet music published by J. H. Hidley of Albany)
KEYWORDS: nonballad love
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Heart-Songs, pp. 68-69, "Beautiful Star in Heaven so Bright" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 62 and #1/64 p. 38, "Evening Star" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Florence Milner, "Poems in Alice in Wonderland" (1903), now reprinted in Robert Phillips, editor, _Aspects of Alice_, 1971 (references are to the 1977 Vintage paperback), pp. 250-251, ""Star of the Evening" (1 text, with "Alice"-related context)
Edward Wakeling, editor, _Lewis Carroll's Diaries: The Private Journals of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson_, Volume 4, May 1862 to September 1864, Lewis Carroll Society, 1997, pp. 110-111, n. 79, "Star of the Evening" (1 excerpt plus an excerpt of Dodgson's parody, in the context where Dodgson heard it sung by the Liddells)
Roud #13751
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4352), "Beautiful Star," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; same (?) sheet as Harding B 11(4352); also Harding B 19(10), "Beautuful (sic.) star! in heaven so bright " [another trimmed version as 2806 b.9(272), another as 2806 c.15(96)]; Harding B 11(4067), "Beautiful Star," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; same (?) sheet as Harding B 11(4068); Firth b.26(74); Harding B 11(1669); 2806 c.13(81), "Beautiful Star," James Lindsay (Glasgow), after 1851
SAME TUNE:
Experience of Hokitika, part 2 ("Perilous bar, to suitors a blight, Filling new chums with terrible fright") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, pp. 173-174)
NOTES [229 words]: This obviously isn't a folk song, but there are slight hints of it in oral tradition -- including the fact that the Liddell sisters sang it for Lewis Carroll. Which inspired its far more famous parody (which is the reason I list it here): Carroll used it as the basis for "Beautiful Soup" ("Soup of the evening, Beautiful Soup"), as sung by the Mock Turtle.
How much more famous? Granger's Index to Poetry has two references to "Beautiful Star." Both are books of parodies linking it to "Beautiful Soup" -- which has *five* entries in Granger's.
For further details, one may consult Carroll/Gardner, p. 108
Alice Liddell Hargreaves (as she came to be) also referred to singing this song. In an account repeated in Jones/Gladstone, p. 102, she mentions how she and her sisters sand "Star of the evening, beautiful star," "Twinkle, twinkle, little star," and "Will you walk into my parlour?" on their expeditions with Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and the Rev. Robinson Duckworth.
The song seems to have been very popular with parodists (which is an indication of its popularity in the late 1850s); Carroll/Green, p. 263, notes that J. H. Byron parodied it in 1860 in a burlesque "Cinderella."
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 8, has a poem "Star of the Twilight." It looks like a derivative, or continuation, of this song, but it doesn't seem to be traditional in its own right. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: nnBeaSta

Beautiful Star in Heaven so Bright

See Beautiful Star (Star of the Evening) (File: nnBeaSta)

Beautiful Susan [Laws M29]

DESCRIPTION: Susan's parents take advantage of her sweetheart William's absence to inform her that he is dead. They arrange a marriage to another man. William's letter announcing his return drives her to suicide. William sees her ghost and also kills himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death trick suicide ghost love
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws M29, "Beautiful Susan"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 69, "Beautiful Susan" (1 text)
DT 721, BEAUTSU
Roud #1022
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Damsel's Tragedy" (theme)
cf. "The The Seaman of Plymouth" (plot, characters)
NOTES [63 words]: Another song Laws lists as traditional, and British, even though only one version is known: The American one from the Brown collection. Ben Schwartz suggests that this is derived from "The Seaman of Plymouth." That strikes me as possible, in which case Laws is right: There are British broadsides of the latter, although the collected versions all seem to be American. - BS, RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: LM29

Beautiful, Beautiful Brown Eyes

See Beautiful Brown Eyes (File: FSWB230)

Beautiful, Beautiful Ireland

DESCRIPTION: Singer must leave "Ireland the gem of the sea," which he wishes were free. No land can compare with it. "The ship is now anchored in the bay, But when I will return with my true-love It is then you may be sure I'll stay"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: emigration sea ship Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #5225
RECORDINGS:
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 20, "Beautiful, Beautiful Ireland" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: RcBeBeIr

Beauty of Buchan, The

DESCRIPTION: "Sheep is rejected And they from their pastures are banished away." The mountains once "wi flocks all clad over ... But now they are lonely for want o' flocks only." "Woe to our gentry, they're ruined a' our country"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #52, p. 2, "The Beauty of Buchan" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 434, "The Beauty of Buchan" (1 text)
Roud #5630
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Flowers of the Forest" (tune and rhyme scheme, per Greig)
NOTES [268 words]: The second and fourth lines of each verse rhyme internally (for example, "Woe to our gentry, they're ruined a' our country,/ And brought our fine pastures so deep in decay/ Mong hedges and ditches they've spent a' our riches,/ And banished our beauty entirely away"), like "The Flowers of the Forest" for example, "We'll hae nae mair liltin', at the ewe milkin',/ Women and bairns are dowie and wae./ Sighin' and moanin' on ilka green loanin', The flowers of the forest are all wede away"). So Greig says "The Beauty of Buchan" has evidently been inspired by 'The Flowers of the Forest."
Greig: "This lament was communicated by Miss Bell Robertson, who says it was sung by her grandmother [Greig/Duncan3, citing another Greig source, notes that Bell Robertson's grandmother died in 1837].... The song refers to the disappearance of sheep from Buchan -- presumably owing to the progress of cultivation."
Greig/Duncan3, quoting Robertson, Song Notes,: ." .. it was after the hills were brought under cultivation and sheep put away to make room for cattle."
From The Illustrated Book of Scottish Songs from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century, (London, 1854 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 75: "[Jane Elliott's 'The Flowers of the Forest' -- referring to the young men of the districts of Selkirkshire and Peebleshire --] is founded by the authoress upon an older composition of the same name, deploring the loss of the Scotch at Flodden Field...." The loss theme -- as well as the verse structure -- is common to "The Beauty of Buchan" and "The Flowers of the Forest," supporting Greig's conclusion. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3434

Beauty of Garmouth, The

DESCRIPTION: "Near the foot of the Blackhill there lives a fair dame, And fain would I court her, fair Annie by name." The singer praises her looks, her voice, her teeth. If he could, he would write her name in gold letters. But she fancies him not; he begs for pity
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: love rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 195, "The Beauty of Garmouth" (1 short text)
Roud #5535
File: Ord195

Beauty of Limerick, The

See My Beauty of Limerick (File: OLcM038)

Beauty of the Braid, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer has wandered far, but his "intellect is consummated By the charming beauty lives in the Braid." He asks how she came there; she was rescuing a lost lamb. He asks her name; she answers in riddles and bids him seek more education
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty wordplay riddle
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H723, p. 240-241, "The Beauty of the Braid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9477
NOTES [61 words]: Sam Henry believes this song to be many centuries old, as it mentions wolves, long extinct in Ireland. And yet, the lady wants the young man to know Latin, and encourages him to improve his education to solve her riddle. This implies a much more recent date, when learning was widespread.
I think we must regard this song as a mystery, probably of broadside origin. - RBW
File: HHH273

Beauty Stands at the Crossroads

DESCRIPTION: "Beauty stands at the crossroads, Silver winds blowing free, Softly she's calling, She's calling to me. Take the hand of a comrade, Seek the pine where it stands, Follow on as she leads you In happy gay bands."
AUTHOR: Words: Gladys Seymour / Music: "By the Bend of the River" by Clara Edwards (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: campsong nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 465, "Beauty Stands at the Crossroads" (notes only)
File: ACSF465C

Beauty, Beauty Bride, The

See Charming Beauty Bright [Laws M3] (File: LM03)

Beaver Cap, The

DESCRIPTION: "I went to town the other day To buy myself a hat, sir, I picked upon this beaver cap, With bill so broad and flat, sir." The song may detail the exploits of the boy with the cap -- e.g. letting a hen roost in it, throwing the eggs at his mother, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: clothes commerce bird
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 435, "The Beaver Cap" (1 text)
Randolph 355, "The Beaver Cap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 18, "The Beaver Cap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 183, "The Beaver Cap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 32, "Flat Bill Beaver Cap" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 163, "The Beaver Cap" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6366
File: R355

Beaver Creek

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Beaver Dam Road

DESCRIPTION: "I've worked like a dog and what have I got? No corn in the crib, no beans in the pot." Faced with such dire poverty, the singer sets up a still. He is caught and imprisoned. His wife hires a man and does well. The singer warns against making moonshine
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: drink prison hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 119, "Beaver Dam Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BEAVRDAM
Roud #7477
RECORDINGS:
Frank Proffitt, "Beaver Dam Road" (on Proffitt03)
File: Wa119

Beaver Island Boys, The [Laws D17]

DESCRIPTION: Johnny Gallagher sets out across Lake Michigan despite a warning from his mother. On the way home, the boat is almost to Beaver Island when it sinks with all hands in a storm
AUTHOR: Daniel Malloy (1874)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: ship death storm
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1873 - Death of Johnny Gallagher on Lake Michigan
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws D17, "The Beaver Island Boys"
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 215-218, "The Beaver Island Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs, pp. 22-23, "Beaver Island Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 789, BEAVRISL
Roud #2238
File: LD17

Beaver River

DESCRIPTION: "Come,boys, if you'll listen, I'll sing you a song"about Beaver River, "not far from Tupper, but closer to Hell." The singer left a good job at Saranac to join this camp. He lists the men who have come and gone from the jon.
AUTHOR: Words: Ted Ashlaw
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (Bethke-AdirondackVoices)
KEYWORDS: logger derivative hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, pp. 128-130, "Beaver River" (1 text, 1 tune, collected from author Ted Ashlaw)
Roud #2982
File: Beth128

Bebe Hung One On Us

DESCRIPTION: "I am a jolly shanty boy, My age is 17, I am the biggest sucker, I'll bet you've ever seen." His brother Ed is in love with Bebe Sack, and they go to the woods to earn enough to marry her. But she dumps him for another, and has a baby with red hair
AUTHOR: probably E. J. "Pete" Peterson
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: love courting betrayal abandonment marriage children
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 212-214, "Bebe Hung One On Us" (1 text)
Roud #31262
NOTES [26 words]: The ending of this, at least, was clearly inspired by "Joe Bowers" [Laws B14], although this doesn't have the adultery motif; the hero is "merely" jilted. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BBun212

Because He Was Only a Tramp

See The Tramp (II) (File: R843)

Beckwith Tragedy, The

See Death of the Beckwith Child (The Beckwith Tragedy) (File: CoCo078)

Becky at the Loom

DESCRIPTION: The singer remembers Georgia and the cotton farms. "I cannot help from thinking, no matter what my doom, Of the happy moments when I saw sweet Becky at the loom." He has left her far behind, but hopes above all else to return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: weaving separation love
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 677, "Becky at the Loom" (1 text)
Roud #7368
NOTES [36 words]: Carla Sciaky has recorded this piece, but it should be noted that her tune is modern. - RBW
Pete Sutherland has composed a tune for this song; it's been recorded as "Sweet Becky at the Loom." - PJS
That's the one. - RBW
File: R677

Bed Is Too Small for My Tiredness

DESCRIPTION: "Bed is too small for my tiredness, Give me a hill topped with trees, Tuck a cloud up under my chin, Lord, blow the moon out, please." "Rock me to sleep in a cradle of dreams...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (mudcat.org thread "Bed Is Too Small")
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 239, "Rock Me to Sleep" (1 short text, probably this although it lacks the first verse)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 187, 343, 490, 491, 520, "A Bed Is Too Small"/"Bed is too small for my tiredness" (notes only)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 43, "Bed Is Too Small" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ACSF187I

Bed of Primroses, A

See Erin's Green Shore [Laws Q27] (File: LQ27)

Bed-Making, The

DESCRIPTION: The girl is sent into service "when I was young." Her master becomes enamored of her. The mistress catches him with her, and throws the girl out. At last she bears a son, and brings him back to the father, blaming it all on "the bed-making."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: servant sex pregnancy bastard begging hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 199, "My Mither She Feed Me" (1 short text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 530, "Bedmaking" (1 text)
DT, BEDMAKIN
Roud #1631
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My Old Father Was a Good Old Man
My Mother Sent Me to Service
The Bedmaking
NOTES [55 words]: Roud splits off Ord-BothySongsAndBallads's text, "My Mither She Feed Me," as a separate item, #3796. But Ord's text, while only a fragment, contains all the characteristics, and many of the words, of this piece (or at least its first portion). I can't see splitting them unless a fuller version of Ord's song is forthcoming. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord199

Bed-Time Song (I), The

See Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

Bedbugs

See Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust (File: Garl277)

Bedford Fair

See Tom Pearce (Widdicombe Fair) (File: K308)

Bedford Van, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a tinker, meets Sally Anne and takes her into his Bedford Van. She proposes, they marry, and honeymoon in Glasgow. He is stopped for driving drunk. Sally "took sick" from overeating. When "a big dame" makes a pass at him Sally clouts her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: sex marriage drink humorous wife tinker technology
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 7, "The Bedford Van" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21999
NOTES [61 words]: The singer, in the song, is from Springtown, a post World War 2 slum outside Derry City, closed in 1967 and demolished (source: McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen). When stopped in Dublin he is given a breathalyser test. The song ends with a warning not to be too quick to pick up a girl in your Bedford Van: you're likely to end by being married. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: McB1007

Bedfordshire May Day Carol

See May Day Carol (File: JRSF238)

Bedlam

See Nancy's Complaint in Bedlam (File: ShH41)

Bedlam Boys

See Tom a Bedlam (Bedlam Boys) (File: Log172)

Bedlam City

DESCRIPTION: A maid in Bedlam laments the absence of Billy, driven away by cruel parents. She is sure he has died on the battlefield and imagines she sees him coming in the clouds surrounded by guardian angels. She collapses "on a bed of straw."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(92))
LONG DESCRIPTION: A maid in Bedlam laments the absence of Billy, driven away by cruel parents. She "lies dying For fear she should never see him more." She wishes she could fly to him on the battlefield. She is sure he has died and imagines she sees him coming in the clouds surrounded by guardian angels. She collapses "on a bed of straw."
KEYWORDS: madness love war prison death father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 187-188, "Bedlam City, or The Maiden's Lamentation" (1 text, part of the longer entry "Tom a Bedlam")
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 71, "Bedlam City" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ST BrMa971 (Partial)
Roud #968
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(92), "Bedlam City" ("Down by the side of Bedlam city"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Firth c.18(140), Harding B 25(155), Harding B 28(273), 2806 c.17(26), Firth c.19(186), Harding B 36(16), "Bedlam City"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nancy's Complaint in Bedlam" (theme of a maid in Bedlam) and references there
File: BrMa971

Bedlam City (II)

See Nancy's Complaint in Bedlam (File: ShH41)

Bedmaking

See The Bed-Making (File: Ord199)

Bedmaking, The

See The Bed-Making (File: Ord199)

Bedroom Window

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Bedtime Prayer, The

See Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (I) (File: FO033)

Bee Baw Babbity

DESCRIPTION: "Bee baw babbity," choose "a lassie or a wee laddie," or bounce a ball. "Kneel down, kiss the ground, Kiss a bonny wee lassie." "I widna hae a lassie-o, I'd rather hae a wee laddie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1590, "Bee Boh Babbity" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 42, "Bee Baw Babbity" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8722
NOTES [99 words]: Greig/Duncan8: "See [Greig/Duncan8] 1717 'Bob at his Bowster' ['Babbity Bowster'] for the adult form."
Roud lumps this with "Babbity Bowster." A verse of "Babbity Bowster" -- "Kneel down, kiss the ground, Kiss a bonny wee lassie" -- sometimes survives unchanged in "Bee Baw Babbity." I have split them because "Bee Baw Babbity" has lost the distinguishing pattern of "Babbity Bowster": who gave/taught you something? My minnie.
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame has the nonsense first line, "Bee baw babbity," come from "Babity Bowster, brawly," which, in turn, comes from "Country Bumpkin brawly." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD81590

Bee Boh Babbity

See Bee Baw Babbity (File: GrD81590)

Bee-i-e-i-e

See There Was a Bee-i-ee-i-ee (File: Parod073)

Bee, The

DESCRIPTION: "As Cupid in a garden strayed/midst the roses played)," he is stung by a bee and begins to cry. He runs to his mother and proclaims that he is dying. She responds that if a bee hurts him so much, think how much his dart hurts others
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (The American Musical Miscellany)
KEYWORDS: injury love bug
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 339-340, "The Bee" (1 text)
Roud #V22674 and V11161
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 787, "Cupid wounded or the Mischievous bee" ("Little Cupid one day, o'er a myrtle bough stray'd"), J. Pitts (Seven Dials, London), 1808; also Firth b.26(56)=Firth c.18(65)=Harding B 16(66a), J. Pitts (Seven DIals, London (after 1819-1844)
NOTES [48 words]: There appear to be two versions of this, one beginning "As cupid in a garden strayed" and one which opens "Little Cupid one day o'er a myrtle bough stray'd." Both can be titled "The Bee," and the plot is the same, so I lump them, but Steve Roud gave them different tentative numbers. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: TNY339B

Beefcan Close, The

See The Overgate (File: K187)

Beefsteak When I'm Hongry

See Rye Whisky (File: R405)

Been All Around the Whole Round World

DESCRIPTION: "Been all around the whole round world, oh babe (x3), Tryin' to find a brown-skinned Creole girl..." The singer complains about the killing work on the Joe Fowler, boasts of his ability to work, and admits being on the run for murder
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: travel work river
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 103-104, "Been All Aroun' the Whole Roun' Worl'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10037
NOTES [28 words]: Not to be confused with "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Been All Around This World)."
For information on the steamer "Joe Fowler," see the notes to "I'm Going Down the River." - RBW
File: MWhee103

Been All Around This World

See Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Been All Around This World) (File: R146)

Been Down Into the Sea

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Hallelujah (3x), I've been down to the sea." Verses include "Won't those mourners rise and tell The glories of Immanuel" and "I do believe without a doubt That a Christian has a right to shout"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus ritual
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 44, "Been Down Into the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 58, "Hallelujah" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Gladys Jameson, Sweet Rivers of Song (Berea: Berea College, 1967), pp. 22-23, "Been Down Into the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7108
NOTES [99 words]: The description is based on the Barton-OldPlantationHymns text. Jameson's source is Barton-OldPlantationHymns.
This reference to baptism shares a verse with "Almost Over." Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates has "I done been down, and I done been tried, I been through the water, and I been baptized." Barton-OldPlantationHymns has "I've been to the sea, And I've done been tried, Been down to the sea, I've done been tried in Jesus' name, Been down to the sea," and "I've been down into the sea"(2x) "I've been baptized, Been down into the sea, I've been baptized in Jesus' name...." - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Bart044A

Been in Granddad's Garden

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme: "Been in granddad's garden, Turned on the hose; How many times will he Punch me in the nose? One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Mankins, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope family trick | grandfather hose garden counting punch in the nose
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #33, "Been in Granddad's garden" (1 text)
File: AJRR033

Been in the Pen So Long

DESCRIPTION: "Been in the pen so long, Oh honey, I'll be long gone, Been in the pen, Lord, I got to go again...." The singer tells of lonesomeness. He mentions that "some folks crave for Memphis, Tennessee, But New Orleans [or another city] is good enough for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: prison home
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 220-221, "Been in the Pen So Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 65, "Been in the Pen So Long" (1 text)
Roud #29310
File: San220

Been in the Storm So Long

DESCRIPTION: "I been in the storm so long...Oh Lord, give me more time to pray" "This is a needy time..." "I am a motherless child..." "Lord, I need you now..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1960 (recording, Paul Robeson); referred to in Marsh's Story of the Jubilee Singers (1901)
KEYWORDS: loneliness floatingverses nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, pp. 87-88, "Been in the Storm So Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 33, "Been In the Storm So Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Daphne Euiliss, "Folk Motifs in Guy Owen's 'Journey for Joedel,'" Vol. XXIV, No. 3 (Nov 1976), p. 112, "(This here's a needy time)" (1 text)
Roud #15325
RECORDINGS:
Mary Pinckney w. Janie Hunter, "Been in the Storm So Long" (on BeenStorm1, BeenStormCD1)
Bernice Johnson Reagon, "Been in the Storm So Long" (on VoicesCiv)
NOTES [9 words]: BeenStorm1 style is a soloist with "moaning" backup. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcBITSWL

Been on the Chain Gang

DESCRIPTION: "Judge he give me six months, 'cause I wouldn't go to work (x2), From sunrise to sunset, I haven't got no time to shirk." The singer complains about his girl and the treatment he gets; he has the "chaingang blues," and would run if her weren't shackled
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (recorded from Jesse Hendricks by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, p. 86, "Been on the Chain Gang" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [35 words]: Jackson suspects that this began as a commercial song to which the singer (or someone) added verses. I suspect he is right at least in saying that it is composite; the language seems to change in mid-song. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM086

Been on the Cholly So Long

See Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)

Been on the Choly So Long

See Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)

Been on the Job Too Long

See Duncan and Brady [Laws I9] (File: LI09)

Been Riding

DESCRIPTION: "Been riding since daylight, in shadows and sunlight And now in the twilight, we’re traveling slow.... We’ll keep on a-riding Down the trail... joggin’ along, to nowhere, jogging along all day." They will ride as long as the Big Boss allows
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: travel horse campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 196, 233, 540, "Been Riding" (notes only)
File: ACSF196R

Been to the Gypsy (St. Louis Blues)

DESCRIPTION: "Been to de Gypsy to get mah fortune tole, To de Gypsy done got my fortune tole, 'Cause I'se wile about mah Jelly Roll. Gypsy done tole me, "Don't you wear no black." Yas, she done tole me, "Don't you wear no black. Go to St. Louis, you can win him back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: Gypsy prophecy separation abandonment clothes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 267, (no title) (1 short text)
DT, (STLOUBLU)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "St, Louis Blues" (lyrics)
NOTES [41 words]: This passage is used in W. C. Handy's St. Louis Blues. But Scarborough at least implies that this portion is older. As usual, she offers no real supporting evidence.
Note that neither song should be confused with Lead Belly's "St. Louis Blues." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ScaNF267

Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out the Barrell)

DESCRIPTION: "Roll out the barrel, We'll have a barrel of fun." The singer(s) have to "leave on the run," but "now it's time to roll out the barrel, for the gang's all here." The lyrics describe a dance which brings happy memories
AUTHOR: Original: Jaromír Vejvoda (source: Fuld; Wikipedia mentions also Eduard Ingris). Various people created words; Fuld says the origina lyrics are by Vašek Zeman
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (music, according to Wikipedia; Fuld says 1934); the popular English version dates from 1939
KEYWORDS: drink dancing
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 136, "Beer Barrel Polka"
Roud #25648
RECORDINGS:
Fran Hendrickson, "Beer Barrel Polka" (Piotr-Archive #286, recorded 10/07/2022); Fran Hendrickson, Derek Piotr, "Beer Barrel Polka" (Piotr-Archive #419, recorded 01/05/2023)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Škoda Lásky (original title)
NOTES [295 words]: Gardner, p. 440, estimates that this was the most popular song in America in 1939, peaking at #2 in June 1939, the biggest recording being by the Will Glahe Orchestra, with the Andrews Sisters also having a hit version.
Other than the Piort archive,I know of no "official" collections of this song in tradition. Nonetheless, it is so often reported to have been sung that I have to think it has become "folk," and so is indexed here (albeit with very little real information). The original composers were Czech.
It seems to have been the unofficial "Song of sinking Royal Navy ships in World War II." When HMS Hood was sunk in the Battle of the Denmark Strait, the three survivors sang the song until they were rescued. (Norman, p. 99. For this battle, see "The Sinking of HMS Hood.") When HMS Achates was sinking during the Battle of the Barents Sea and her crew awaiting rescue, several men were singing this song (Pearson, p. 94; Pope, p. 250. For this battle, see "The Kola Run"). And when HMS Janus went down during the Anzio landing in Italy -- again, the survivors supposedly sang this song (Atkinson, p. 368).
Survivors of the Jervis Bay were also said to have sung it after they were sunk by the Admiral Scheer (Duskin/Segman, p. 169). It's also reported that the crew and passengers of the merchant vessel Rangitiki, which was also part of that convoy, sang the song when in danger, although the Rangitiki got away in the end (for background on this convoy and its destruction, see the notes to "The Jervis Bay").
Fuld says that the National Broadcasting Corporation authorities would not permit the name of an alcoholic beverage in a song title, their performances were called the "Barrel Polka," but obviously everyone knew the real name. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: SoRoOuBa

Beer Is Best

DESCRIPTION: "Beer is best! Beer is best! Makes you fit, makes you strong, Puts more muscles in the old 'Tom-Tom.' Beer makes hardy Britons... What did dear old Adam say to Eve? 'Beer is best!'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 19, "Beer Is Best" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #23889
NOTES [56 words]: It probably goes without saying that neither beer nor ale is mentioned in the Bible, let alone in the Genesis story. (There is a town "Beer," but you can hardly drink a town!) The earliest mention of alcohol in any form is in Genesis 9:20, where Noah is said to have been the first to plant a vineyard; he gets drunk in the next verse. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hopk019A

Beer, Beer, Beer, Said the Privates

See Old King Cole (IV -- Marching Cadence) (File: KSUC183A)

Beer, Beer, I Love Thee

DESCRIPTION: "Beer, beer, I love thee, In thee I place my trust, I'd rather go to bed with hunger Than to go to bed with thirst."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2009 (Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 270, "(Beer, beer, I love thee)" (1 short text)
NOTES [22 words]: The evidence that this is traditional is thin. But what are the odds that such a lyric, once written, would NOT go into tradition? - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Garl270

Bees of Paradise

DESCRIPTION: "Bees, oh bees of Paradise, Does the work of Jesus Christ, Does the work which no man can. God made bees, and bees made honey, God made man, and man made money. God made great men to plow and to sow, God made little boys to tend the rocks and crows...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Simpson)
KEYWORDS: work bug bird food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, p. 104, "(Bees, oh bees of Paradise)" (1 text)
Roud #5029
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Haul Away, Boys, Haul Away" (lyrics)
cf. "Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb" (theme of the work of bees and money)
NOTES [34 words]: Roud lumps this with "Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb." Given its rarity, this is perhaps understandable. But this looks like a separate song to me, and Simplson said it was sung to bees on Twelfth Night. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Simp104

Before I'd Be a Slave

See O Freedom (File: LxU108)

Before the Daylight in the Morning (Dirty Nell)

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains of his wife, who lives off his money and refuses to do any work. He gives graphic details of how dirty she is and how filthy she leaves their home. He prays "that God or the devil may whip her away Before the daylight in the morning."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: husband wife home hardtimes
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 121, "Dirty Nell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5714
RECORDINGS:
Sara Cleveland, "Before the Daylight in the Morning" (on SCleveland01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Darby O'Leary" (tune)
File: RcBTDITM

Before This Time Another Year

See Oh, Lord, How Long (File: R615)

Beg Your Pardon, Grouchy Grace

DESCRIPTION: "[I] Beg your pardon, (Grouchy Grace/I grant your grace), [I] Hope the (cat/cows) Wll spit in your face."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal
FOUND IN: New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 132, "(Beg your pardon, grouchy Grace)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 45, "(I beg your pardon)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #68, "(I beg your pardon)" (1 text)
Roud #20705
File: SuSm132C

Beg Your Pardon, Mrs. Arden

DESCRIPTION: "Beg your pardon, Mrs. Arden, There's a (devil/nigger/other) in your garden."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty warning
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 132, "(Beg your pardon, Mrs. Arden)"; "(Mrs. Barton, Mrs. Barton)" (2 short texts)
File: SuSm132P

Beggar (I), The

See Let the Back and Sides Go Bare (File: ShH78)

Beggar (II), The

See Willie and Mary (Mary and Willie; Little Mary; The Sailor's Bride) [Laws N28] (File: LN28)

Beggar Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a beggar girl, wanders over mountains and moor, "hungry and barefoot." Her father is dead; she begs food for her mother, herself, and two brothers at home. She asks that the listener think "how hard it would be to beg at a door" for bread
AUTHOR: John W. Chandler (source: notes to Bodleian Harding B 17(21a))
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (Pye)
KEYWORDS: poverty death hardtimes begging nonballad brother children family father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ro)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 239, "Over the Moor and Over the Mountain" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 228)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #98, "The Beggar Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #10, p. 33, "Beggar Girl" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Mary Pye, Poems on Several Occasions (Stoke Park, 1802 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 27-28, "The Beggar Girl" (1 text)
Roud #1304
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(21a), "The Beggar Girl" ("Over the mountains and over the moor") , J Ferraby. (Hull), 1803-1838; also Harding B 25(160), Harding B 28(114), Johnson Ballads fol. 400 View 2 of 2 [some words illegible], Harding B 11(222), Firth b.34(17) [almost entirely illegible], "The Beggar Girl"
NOTES [53 words]: Pye: "The first and second verses written by a gentleman, the third by me." Only the first verse is also on the broadside and Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames. The second verse is a reworking of the first and the third is something else entirely. If it were not my earliest copy I would not have included it at all. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: WT239

Beggar Laddie (II), The

See The Jolly Beggar [Child 279] (File: C279)

Beggar Man (I), The

See The Gaberlunzie Man [Child 279A] (File: C279A)

Beggar Man (II), The

See The Jolly Beggar [Child 279] (File: C279)

Beggar Wench, The

DESCRIPTION: A merchant's son meets a beggar girl; they go to bed and, being drunk, sleep soundly. She awakens first, takes his clothes and gear, and leaves. He awakes to find only the girl's clothes, which he puts on, swearing never to sleep with a beggar again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1847 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 6(48))
KEYWORDS: sex theft clothes cross-dressing trick drink begging youth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 303, "The Merchant and the Beggar Wench" (7 texts, 4 tunes)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 338, "The Beggar Wench" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, p. 242, "Willie's Lyke-Wake" (1 fragment, two lines only, the second line of which is found in Child's "C" text of "Willie's Lyke-Wake" [Child 25], but a similar line is found in "The Beggar Wench," and the first line of this fragment, "Kind sir, if you please," may fit better with this piece)
DT, MRCHNTSN* MRCHNTS2*
Roud #2153
RECORDINGS:
Davie Stewart, "The Merchant's Son [and the Beggar Wench]" (on FSB02, FSB2CD, Voice13)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 6(48), "The Merchant's Son, and the Beggar Wench of Hull ("You gallants all, I pray draw near"), J. Turner (Coventry), 1797-1846; also Douce Ballads 4(5), Douce Ballads 3(66b), "The Merchant's Son, and the Beggar-Wench of Hull"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shirt and the Apron" [Laws K42] (plot) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Merchant's Son
NOTES [30 words]: The plot is, of course, virtually identical to "The Shirt and the Apron" -- but as the protagonist is a merchant rather than a sailor, and the lady is a beggar, they get split. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: K338

Beggar-Laddie, The [Child 280]

DESCRIPTION: A girl asks the shepherd what his trade is. He tells her, then declares that he loves her "as Jacob loved Rachel of old." She decides to go with him despite his poverty. He takes her home with him and reveals that he is actually well-to-do
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Christie); also in Motherwell's and Kinloch's papers (before 1850)
KEYWORDS: work home courting money disguise
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 280, "The Beggar-Laddie" (5 texts)
Bronson 280, "The Beggar-Laddie" (18 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 280, "The Beggar-Laddie" (1 version: #7)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 203-205, "The Gaberlunzie Laddie" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #31, p. 1, "The Beggar Laddie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 277, "The Beggar's Dawtie" (20 texts, 13 tunes) {A=Bronson's #7, B=#10?, C=#4, D=#5? E=#13, F=#12, G=#8, H=#9, I=#5, J=#3, K=#11, L=#15}
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 382-383, "The Beggar's Dawtie" (1 text)
Roud #119
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gaberlunzie Man" [Child 279A]
cf. "The Jolly Beggar" [Child 279] and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Beggar's Bride
Twas in the Bonnie Month o' June
The Beggar Prince
NOTES [301 words]: The reference to Jacob loving Rachel, or vice versa, is to Gen. 29:18 and following; it is probably offered as an example because Jacob served Laban (Rachel's brother) for seven years to win her hand (and actually wound up working for Laban for fourteen years, because he got Rachel's sister Leah also).
The reference to Judas loving gold is more of a stretch; we are told that Judas was given thirty pieces of *silver* (Matt. 26:15), and the less explicit accounts of Mark (14:11) and Luke (22:5) also mention only silver (usually rendered "money" in English translations). These references seem to be corruptions of the reading in Child's "A" text, which refers to the classical legend of Jason and the Golden Fleece. (Compare Ord-BothySongsAndBallads's text, in which it is Jesse, not Judas, who loves "cups of gold.")
The repartee also has a strange parallel in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. The White Knight sings a song which includes these lines:
"Who are you, aged man," I said.
"And how is it you live?"
And his answer trickled through my head
Like water through a sieve.
He said, "I look for butterflies
That sleep among the wheat....
And that's the way I get my bread --
A trifle, if you please."
William Bernard McCarthy, in the article "'Barbara Allen' and 'The Gypsy Laddie': Single-Rhyme Ballads in the Child Corpus," printed on pp. 143-154 of Thomas A. McKean, editor, The Flowering Thorn: International Ballad Studies, Utah State University Press, 2003, makes the interesting observation that there are only two ballads in the Child collection -- "The Jolly Beggar" [Child 279]/"The Gaberlunzie Man" [Child 279A] and "The Beggar-Laddie" [Child 280], which are known to cross-fertilize, which normally use the rhyme scheme aaab, with the same b rhyme in all the verses. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: C280

Beggar's Daughter of Bednall-Green, The

See The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green [Laws N27] (File: LN27)

Beggar's Dawtie, The

See The Beggar-Laddie [Child 280] (File: C280)

Beggar's Song, The

See Let the Back and Sides Go Bare (File: ShH78)

Beggarman (I), The

DESCRIPTION: On Monday morning the beggarman takes his meal, flail and staff and leaves his wife and daughter in Ballinderry. He stops at a farmer's home not welcoming to strangers. The mistress of the house makes him welcome to table and bed as long as he'll stay.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond02)
KEYWORDS: adultery sex rambling begging
FOUND IN: Ireland
ST RcTBegm (Partial)
Roud #3080
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Beggarman's Ramble" (on IRRCinnamond02)
NOTES [131 words]: In IRRCinnamond02, the beggarman, Tom Targer, is from Killyleagh town, County Down. The plot vaguely resembles "The Jolly Beggar" [Child 279] but it adds the beggar's wife and daughter at the beginning and drops the revelation of a disguise at the end.
The description is based on John Moulden's transcription from IRRCinnamond02 included in the Traditional Ballad Index Supplement. - BS
The whole thing reminds me a bit of the story of David and Nabal of Carmel (1 Samuel 25): David, fleeing from Saul (and separated from his wife Michal) seeks help (protection money, really) from Nabal. Nabal refuses. Nabal's wife Abigail gives it -- and later marries David. If you assume that this *is* a relative of The Jolly Beggar, it sort of makes sense. But I imagine it's just coincidence. - RBW
File: RcTBegm

Beggarman (II), The

See Willie and Mary (Mary and Willie; Little Mary; The Sailor's Bride) [Laws N28] (File: LN28)

Beggarman (III), The

See Hind Horn [Child 17] (File: C017)

Beggarman Cam' ower the Lea, A

See The Gaberlunzie Man [Child 279A] (File: C279A)

Beggarman's Song, The

See The Little Beggerman (Johnny Dhu) (File: K345)

Beggars and Ballad Singers

DESCRIPTION: The singer proclaims the advantages of begging and singing. He describes how he begs disguised as a "sailor from the wars," scarred and with a missing leg, or as a blind man with a dog, or a man with a hump on his back and mashed nose.
AUTHOR: Tom Dibdin? (source: see note quoting Ebsworth)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1807 (W.M.Martin, _The Songster Museum_, according to Ebsworth)
KEYWORDS: disguise drink music begging nonballad royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 486, "A King Canna Swagger" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: "The Beggars' Chorus" in Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth, editor, The Bagford Ballads: Illustrating the Last Years of the Stuarts (Hertford, 1878 ("Digitized by Google")), First Division, p. 214, "Vocal and Rhetorical Imitations of Beggars and Ballad-singers"
"In the March Sunshine," April 1859" in The Eclectic Review 1859 January to June (London, 1859 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 370, ("The king cannot swagger, or get drunk like a beggar") (fragment)
Roud #5977
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(223), "Beggars and Ballad Singers" ("There's a difference to be seen, 'twixt a beggar and a queen"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A-Begging I Will Go" (theme : "who would be a king, When beggars live so well?")
NOTES [160 words]: The broadside has an explanation after each verse. For example, while the queen must concern herself with "her own dignity, likewise other people's dignity," he has no such concern. After a verse about Proteus, the shape changer, he says that beggars "change shapes as often as a player." After the last verse, about "Dolly and I" singing ballads - "while she bawls aloud And I take my fiddle in hand" -- he goes into his ballad singer patter.
Ebsworth: "In 1807, if not earlier, a merry singer (probably Tom Dibdin) ... indulged society with what he called 'Vocal and rhetorical imitations of Beggars and Ballad-singers." Ebsworth's text is from The Songster's Museum with an additional verse from The Lyre in 1824. Ebsworth's text omits the prose patter between verses included in broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(223). The Greig/Duncan3 and Eclectic Review fragments have it that "a king cannot swagger"; the other texts say "a queen cannot swagger." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3486

Beggars of Coudingham Fair

See Widdicombe Fair (II) (File: K289)

Beggin, The

See A-Begging I Will Go (File: K217)

Begging Song, The

See When I Set Out for Glory (File: Fus212)

Begone Dull Care

DESCRIPTION: "Begone dull care, I prithee be gone from me, Begone dull care, thou and I shall never agree; long time thou hast been tarrying here, and fain though wouldst me kill...." The singer warns of how excess care can age and weary its victims
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1793 (source: Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 689-690, "Begone, Dull Care" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, p. 463, "Begone Dull Care" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 70, "Begone,Dull Care" (1 tet, 1 tune)
Roud #13896
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(256), "Begone Dull Care," unknown, c. 1860
SAME TUNE:
Clear the Track! ("Begone, Fillmore! I prethee, begone from me") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 334)
NOTES [203 words]: The notes in at the National Library of Scotland site claim this dates back to the reign of James II and VII (1685-1688/1689), without offering secondary evidence (perhaps they base it on the language?). The notes also report that it might be derived from a French piece. Finally, they claim it is popular. Popular it does indeed seem to have been, with broadside printers. Field collections are, however, few -- possibly only two, both of which look as if they might be derived from print.
I've also seen a claim on the web that it is derived from a French chanson. Based on one of the tunes I found on the web, said alleged French chanson would appear to be "Plaisir d'Amour." There are two "howevers," though. First, "Plaisir d'Amour" was supposedly written in 1780, not in the reign of James II (although the by-blow "In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme" sounds earlier). Second, while the melody of "Begone" certainly has points of contact with "Plaisir," the version of "Begone" that I have most often heard is not the same melody as "Plaisir." This seems to imply, at minimum, some folk processing.
And Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime never mentions any of this, pointing instead to "The Dancing Master." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: BrBeDuCa

Begone, Bonnie Laddie

See The Days Are Awa That I Hae Seen (File: Ord179)

Behave Yoursel' Before Folk

DESCRIPTION: The girl says "Behave yoursel' before folk." She would not be kissed in public though "it wadna gie me meikle pain, Gin we were seen and heard by nane." "I tak' it sair amiss To be teazed before folk." If you insist "get a license frae the priest"
AUTHOR: Alexander Rodger (1784-1846)
EARLIEST DATE: 1838 (Alexander Rodger, _Poems and Songs_)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 672, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Behave Yersel'" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 162, "Behave Yoursel' Before Folk" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Rodger, Poems and Songs (Glasgow, 1838), pp. 65-68, "Behave Yersel' Before Folk"
Whistle-Binkie [, First Series] (Glasgow, 1846), pp. 40-42, "Behave Yersel'"
Roud #6094
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Good Morrow to Your Nightcap" (tune, per Rodger)
cf. "The Mautman" (theme of avoiding public kissing)
NOTES [30 words]: Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(179), "Behave Yoursel' Before Folk" ("Behave yoursel' before folk"), unknown, no date is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD3672

Behind the Cold Iron Door

DESCRIPTION: A poor man's sweetheart is locked in a cell by her father until she can marry a rich man. Poor man digs a tunnel to her cell and blows up the gate to rescue her. They will be married.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting love marriage rescue father lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #29055
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Ambrose Coombs, "Cold Iron Door" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Hannah O'Brien, "Behind the Cold Iron Door" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Locks and Bolts" [Laws M13] (theme: girl locked away by father) and references there
cf. "The Iron Door" [Laws M15] (themes: girl locked away by father, iron door)
NOTES [83 words]: While the MUNFLA/Leach text follows an old common theme it uses current phrases like "my love for you will never die," "where there's a will there's a way," "someday the sky will be blue" and "I pray to the maker in heaven each night." - BS
Ben files this as a separate song from "The Iron Door." This is hard to believe at first glance, since both the plot and the mention of the iron door are the same. But there are few if any other words in common, and the blowing up of the cell is unusual. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: MunLBCID

Behind the Great Wall

See Behind These Stone Walls (File: R165)

Behind the Lines

DESCRIPTION: "We've got a sergeant-major Who's never seen a gun; He's mentioned in despatches For drinking privates' rum, And when he sees old Jerry You should see the bugger run Miles and miles and miles behind the lines!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier escape war
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 40, "Behind the Lines" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 62, "We've Got a Sergeant-Major" (1 text)
Roud #10557
File: BrPa040C

Behind These Stone Walls

DESCRIPTION: The singer, although "brought up by good parents," tells of being orphaned at ten. He soon went rambling to seek work; jobs were few, and he took to robbery. He was taken and tried, and sentenced to a long prison term. He warns others against his mistake
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph, Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: orphan robbery trial prison warning
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 165, "Saint Louis, Bright City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 111, "Court House" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 53-55, "Behind the Great Wall" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R165 (Partial)
Roud #2808
NOTES [13 words]: As "Saint Louis, Bright City," this song is item dE35 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: R165

Behind These Walls of Gray

DESCRIPTION: "He' locked up in prison for (???) crime, He's locked up in prison to serve out his time, He's somebody's baby, he's some daddy's son, Oh please don't mistreat him for what he has done."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: prison
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 735, "Behind These Walls of Gray" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #27699
NOTES [38 words]: The description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 text. I feel quite sure that this is a fragment of another song that is (or should be) in the Index, but I can't identify it with so little text. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BrS5735

Behind Yon Blue Mountain

See The Hills of Tyrone (File: HHH609)

Behold He That Keeps Israel

See Unto the Hills (Psalm 121) (File: KSUC108B)

Behy Eviction, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Cavan Urban Council sent the Sheriff for to take possession of the engine house that stands by Behey Lake." Joe, who "had always pumped a good supply," is evicted. The man driving the engine declares Cavan will have water only if Joe is brought back
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: discrimination political technology
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 90, "The Behy Eviction" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [51 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "A Cavan song taken from a ballad slip forty years ago recording an event probably still (1965) remembered in Behey, a townland near Killeshandra, Co. Cahan." My description omits the part played by the Orange vs Green conflict and eviction for the benefit of "grabbers." - BS
File: OLcM090

Beinn a' Cheathaich

DESCRIPTION: Scots Gaelic. (The singer, gathering sheep, looks out and sees) (McNeil's) galley head for Kismul. (Those aboard are listed). The ship (survives a rough passage to) arrive at the castle, where there is joy and feasting
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage ship food storm sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Hebr))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 2, "Beinn a' Cheathaich (The Misty Mountain") (1 text+English translation, 1 tune)
Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides I, pp. 80-83, "Kishmul's Galley (A' Bhirlinn Bharrach)" (1 text+English translation, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Flora MacNeil, "Beinn a' Cheathaich" (on FSB6)
NOTES [80 words]: N. A. M. Rodger's The Safeguard of the Sea, p. 290, links this song to events of the reign of Elizabeth I: "Ruari Og MaNeill of Barra made a career of piracy... Throughout Elizabeth's reign the 'Galleys of Kisimul' (still celebrated in Gaelic folksong) raided the length of the Irish Sea as far south as the Bristol Channel."
I can see no hints of this in either the Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland or Kennedy-Frasier versions, though the two versions are very distinct. - RBW
File: K002

Belfast Beauty, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer met "the beauty of sweet Belfast Town' in Donegall Street. He describes her "angelic beauty" If he were rich "all earthly treasure I'd resign To wed with this damsel" He ends with a riddle that will spell her name.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1869 (broadsie Bodleian, 2806 b.10(95))
KEYWORDS: courting riddle beauty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 27, "The Belfast Beauty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V2003
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(95), "The Converted Maid," J. Moore (Belfast), 1852-1868; also Harding B 26(105) (possibly the same broadside but with a different cut)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Over Hills and Mountains" (theme: singer would give up the crown or great wealth he doesn't have for love)
cf. "The Barrack Hill Cavan" (song with a name riddle) and references there
NOTES [211 words]: The riddle: "One half of a town in the province of Leinster The first twice in station with one fourth of a fowl And when it's completely placed in arrangement The next in rotation it must be a vowel The name of a berry that is much admired Neither add nor subtract but when it's penned down It will spell you the name of this charming fair dame That I title the beauty of sweet Belfast Town."
For a similar riddle on a name see "Drihaureen O Mo Chree (Little Brother of My Heart)."
Among other classic Greek references here: "I thought she was Flora or lovely Aurora Or Helen the cause of the downfall of Troy" and "If Clio fair or Queen Dido was there Neither Juno nor Venus of fame and renown ...." See the notes to "Sheila Nee Iyer" for some traits of the "hedge school master" school of Irish ballad writing. "Sheila Nee Iyer" also has a typical "if I were king..." verse ("O had I the wealth of the Orient store, All the gems of Peru or the Mexican ore, Or the hand of a Midas to mould o'er and o'er ...."); "The Belfast Beauty" says "Had I wealth and grandeur like Great Alexander ... Or was I the monarch of a European nation There is none but my darling should possess the crown...." As seems often the case for this kind of song, the outcome is unresolved. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Leyd027

Belfast Cockabendy, The

DESCRIPTION: Cockabendy, a Belfast street fiddler, meets a girl. They drink, he plays, and the girl lifts his watch and chain. While he sleeps, drunk, she pledges his last coins for brandy. He asks her to advance the price of a pint. Instead, she hits him in the nose.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1817 (according to Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: courting theft drink fiddle money injury
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 29, "The Belfast Cockabendy" (1 text)
NOTES [31 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: "A colourful account of the amorous pursuits of one Cockabendy. There was in fact such a person with that nickname in Belfast: he was a fiddle player ...." - BS
File: Leyd029

Belfast Lass, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer comes to Belfast and falls in love with "the charming Belfast lass." He claims wealth and proposes. She preferrs "the heart that's true" to riches. Confounded, he leaves for America, returns, proposes again and "she gave consent at last"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage parting return reunion separation money America
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 25, "The Belfast Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [38 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: "A love song from a ballad sheet published by Swindell's in Manchester." The Bodleian collection has almost 200 broadsides - but not this one - printed by Swindells in Manchester between 1780 and 1853. - BS
File: Leyd025

Belfast Mountains (The Diamonds of Derry)

DESCRIPTION: (The singer hears a girl lamenting). She is "confined in the bands of love" by a "sailor lad that did inconstant prove." She begs for relief. (She meets her false love and begs him to change his mind.) (She curses him bitterly)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1810 (Catnach broadside, according to Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal curse
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H519, p. 389, "Belfast Mountains" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 36-37, "Belfast Mountains" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 1, "The Belfast Mountains" c.1810 (1 text, 1 tune); 2, "The Belfast Mountains" c.1893 (1 text, 1 tune); 3, "The Belfast Mountains" c.1930 (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844_, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 119, "The Belfast Mountains" (reprint of a Pitts broadside)
Roud #1062
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cavehill Diamond (I)" (subject of the Cavehill Diamond)
cf. "The Cavehill Diamond (II)" (subject of the Cavehill Diamond)
cf. "Belfast Town" (subject of the Cavehill Diamond)
NOTES [197 words]: Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople: "Other title: 'The Diamonds of Derry.' ... This is a version of a street ballad popular in 1800.... The Belfast Mountains (Cave Hill) were supposed to contain diamonds which shone at night. They were often referred to in the ballads of the period." The Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople version has no reference to diamonds.
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong's c.1930 version is from Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H519. Leyden's earlier versions refer to the diamonds: "Had I but all the diamonds, That on the rocks do grow, I'd give them to my Irish laddie, If he to me his love would show." Leyden states that these lines contain "a clue to a mystery that continually aroused interest and fascination throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The mystery centered around the existence of a diamond known as 'the Cavehill Diamond'. Whether or not the diamond ever existed is still a contentious point and perhaps cynics were right to dismiss it as a chunk of limestone." Leyden goes on to report several accounts between 1895 and 1920. (See also "The Cavehill Diamond" (I) and (II)). - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: HHH519

Belfast Riot, The

DESCRIPTION: Election day, going to vote, Malcolm McKay is murdered by "bloodthirsty Irishmen"; "the Irish ... Each one with his weapon [blessed by a priest] ... Our noble Scotch heroes made them all run away"; 27 Irishmen and no Scotchmen are killed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: violence homicide revenge political religious
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 1, 1847 - Election day riot Belfast, PEI; Malcolm McRae killed (see notes)
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 74-76, "The Belfast Riot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12462
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Twelfth of July" (Canadian political situation)
NOTES [164 words]: "...election day, March 1, 1847 ... pitted 200 mainly Irish supporters of the Reform candidates against 200 mainly Scottish adherents of the Conservative candidates.... Three were killed, one Scotsman and two Irishmen. That this incident occurred in a district incidentally called Belfast, that one side was predominately Irish and Catholic and the other predominantly Scottish and Presbyterian, and that a contemporary controversy over the use of the Bible in the public schools was a proximate issue -- these circumstances gave credence to the belief, especially among the Scots, that the Belfast riot was a critical battle in a holy war, or at least in a contest of national pride and honour." (source: A 'New Ireland Lost': The Irish Presence in Prince Edward Island by Brendan O'Grady on The Irish in Canada site.
"Malcolm McRae ... died March 01, 1847 in Belfast, PEI, Canada." (source: The [Prince Edward] Island Register site); the ballad makes the name "Malcolm McKay." - BS
File: Dib075

Belfast Sailor, The

DESCRIPTION: A Belfast lass asks her sailor lover to stay at home. The ship sails for Newfoundland "till taken slaves to end our days all in a Turkish galley." They are tortured. The sailor writes "the Turks they are so cruel ... so fare thee well, my jewel"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 22(147))
KEYWORDS: captivity love separation lover sailor ordeal slavery
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 105, "The Belfast Sailor" (1 text)
Roud #20545
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 22(147), "The Lass of Belfast", J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 25(1167), "Lovers All"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Turkish Lady" [Laws O26] (theme)
cf. "La Jeune Fille si Amoureuse (The Girl So In Love)" (theme)
NOTES [45 words]: Laws re O26: "A merchant ship from Bristol is captured by a Turkish rover and all its men are made slaves." The ballads have no lines in common.
Broadsides Bodleian Harding B 22(147) and Bodleian Harding B 25(1167) mention in passing that her father is a rich merchant. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran105

Belfast Shoemaker, The

See James Ervin [Laws J15] (File: LJ15)

Belfast Town

DESCRIPTION: Mary is keeping sheep when Prince Dermott rides out hunting. He sees her and falls in love. When he asks her hand, she says she is too poor. He persists, and asks her mother of her ancestry. The girl proves to be Dermott's lost cousin
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty family orphan marriage reunion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H45, pp. 477-478, "Belfast Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 28, "Belfast Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3579
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cavehill Diamond (I) (subject of the Cavehill Diamond)
cf. "The Cavehill Diamond (II)" (subject of the Cavehill Diamond)
cf. "Belfast Mountains (The Diamonds of Derry)" (subject of the Cavehill Diamond)
NOTES [47 words]: I find myself surprised that the Catholic Irish would make so little objection to first cousins marrying. - RBW
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong's text seems to be Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H45, with its apparent misplacement of verse 2, but the tune is different. - BS
File: HHH045

Belfast Tram, The

DESCRIPTION: "You wait and wait in vain standing shiv'ring in the rain If you want to be late again take a Belfast Tram." Suggest the tram to "a friend you'd rather miss." To get someplace on time "use your 'Shanks'" or take a taxi or sidecar.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: commerce humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 17, "The Belfast Tram" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [69 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: "The enthusiastic public response to the introduction of horse trams [in Belfast in 1872] soon gave way to constant complaints about their lack of punctuality.... [T]his song is in the music hall mould and was published in Ireland's Saturday Night." [according to the National Library of Ireland side,Ireland's Saturday Night began publication in 1894 and is still being published]. - BS
File: Leyd017

Belfast! Lisburn!

DESCRIPTION: Apparently a list of market towns in County Antrim, Ireland: "Belfast! Lisburn! Ballymena! Carrickfergus! Larne and Antrim!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | market towns
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 88, "Belfast!" (1 text)
Roud #25507
File: KSUC088A

Believe I'll Call the Rider

DESCRIPTION: Axe song with frequent interjection "Wo Lord" or "Hollerin' Wo Lord." The singer calls out to many: "Believe I'll call the Rider." "Call him with my diamond." "Let me call themajor." "Believe I'll call Mama." ""Believe I'll call Bertha." Many lines float
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (recorded from J. C. Spring by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 256-259, "Believe I'll Call the Rider" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: JDM256

Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms

DESCRIPTION: "Believe me if all those endearing young charms Which I gaze on so fondly today Were to change by tomorrow... Thou wouldst still be adores As this moment thou art." The singer says he loves her for herself; she didn't create her beauty anyway
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1808 (Moore, "A Selection of Irish Melodies"; tune printed in 1775)
KEYWORDS: beauty love nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, pp. 36-37, "Believe me, if all those endearing Young Charms" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 120, "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 248-249, "Believe Me if All Those Endearing Young Charms" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #84, "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 19, "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing" (sic.) (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 252, "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 138-139, "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms -- (Fair Harvard)"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 378, "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 189, "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (notes only)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 58, "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charm" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24850
RECORDINGS:
Henry Burr, "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (Little Wonder 105, 1915; Little Wonder 836, 1918)
James McCool, "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (Victor 4594, 1906)
Unknown tenor, "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (Emerson 758, 1916)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 3070 View 2 of 3[very difficult to read], "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms", T. Batchelar (London), 1817-1828; also Firth b.26(511), Firth c.18(31), "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms"
SAME TUNE:
I Wish I Wuz (File: HPar001)
Lisping Song ("I with I were a little fith, I with I were a fith") (Harbin-Parodology, #32, p. 15)
NOTES [91 words]: If Granger's Index to Poetry is any guide, this is the most popular of all Thomas Moore's songs, appearing in no fewer than 18 of the anthologies it cites. And yet, I know of no traditional collections at all.
Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 31, writes that Moore wrote this to comfort a woman, perhaps his wife, who had been disfigured by smallpox. This sounds reasonable -- but Gogan's book contains an amazing number of tidbits like this, some clearly false, so I won't guarantee this one. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB252A

Believe Me, Dearest Susan

DESCRIPTION: "When the wind swells the canvas and the anchor's a-trip and the ensign's hauled down from the peak of the ship - Believe me dearest Susan, I will come back again!" Verses have same pattern "When (insert sailing procedure) -- Believe me dearest Susan ..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen)
KEYWORDS: foc's'le sailor return tasks
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 163-164, "Believe Me, Dearest Susan" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Colc163 (Partial)
Roud #4689
File: Colc163

Believer I Know

DESCRIPTION: Every alternate line is "Believer I know." The road to Heaven is narrow, "thorny an' ruggy." The road to Hell is broad. "Love everybody"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 25, pp. 131-133, "Believer I Know" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [49 words]: Matthew 7:13-14: "Enter ye in at the strait [narrow] gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (King James). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr025

Believer, I Know

DESCRIPTION: Each call line is repeated; responses are "Believer, believer" and "Believer oh I know." Call lines include: "Believer, believer," "Anybody ought to believ-a," "I set my hand in glory," "I'm down on my knees praying"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2017 (McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Brenton Jordan and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Believer, I Know" (on McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts)
NOTES [10 words]: McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts is a "ring shout" song. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcBeIKno

Belinda

See Her Age It Was Red (File: Gil105)

Bell Da Ring

DESCRIPTION: "I know member, know Lord, I know I yedde (heard the) bell da ring." "Want to go to meeting, bell da ring" (x2). Listeners are urged to go to church, and to listen for the bell; they are warned that heaven might be shut
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, pp. 34-35, "Bell Da Ring" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #11989
NOTES [68 words]: Allen writes that "Bell da Ring" was used as a shout hymn on his plantation (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. xv).- BS
This song sounds as if it is forecasting a last *bell*, rather than a last *trump*. (I won't swear to that.) If so, there is no scriptural basis for the idea; the New Testament never mentions the word "bell," and the handful of Old Testament references are not apocalyptic. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: AWG034

Bell Done Ring, The

See Humble Yourself, The Bell Done Rung (File: Parp164)

Bell Doth Toll, The

DESCRIPTION: Round. "The bell doth toll, its echoes roll, I know its sound full well, I love its ringing For it calls to singing WIth its merry merry bim bom bell."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Creighton collection)
KEYWORDS: nonballad music campsong
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, p. 33, "The Bell Doth Toll" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 104, "The Bell" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 27, "The Bell Doth Toll" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 44, "The Bell Doth Toll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #31154
File: POEll033

Bell Goes A-Ringing for Sai-Rah

DESCRIPTION: "If you please, you see I'm a domestic, Or what some would call a 'servant girl.'" She slaves for small wages, and so the bell is always ringing to call her, "from morning until night." It's hard life; she cannot be found talking; it's back to work
AUTHOR: G. W. Hunt (Source: New-Comic-Songster)
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (New-Comic-Songster)
KEYWORDS: servant work hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
New-Comic-Songster, p. 22, "The Bell Goes A-RInging for Sai-Rah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #23, pp. 10-11, "The Bell Goes a-Ringing for Sai-rah" (1 text)
Roud #13656
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bells Go Ringing for Sarah
NOTES [25 words]: It's hard for me to believe that this would ever go into tradition, but there is a fragment from East Anglia that may be this, so I've indexed it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: NCSBRFS

Bell Hendry (I)

DESCRIPTION: All the men in Fraserburgh are daft about Bell Hendry. "She thinks the lads they shouldna woo But leave that to the maids alane." "So mony a lad got a rebuff." She picks one she's "twined him roon her thoom ... She'll wear the breeks"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #81, pp. 2-3, "Bell Hendry" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 728C, "Bell Hendry" (5 texts plus a fragment on p. 531, 2 tunes)
Roud #6167
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bell Hendry (II)" (subject)
cf. "Jean Chivas" (lyric)
NOTES [27 words]: Greig/Duncan4 and Roud lump both Bell Hendry songs. Except for their first two lines their texts, tune and tone are different and my inclination is to split them. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4728C

Bell Hendry (II)

DESCRIPTION: The singer, Bell Hendry, has cheated many young men of Fraserburgh. When she lived in her father's house she drank beer and lived "at a high rate." Now she's in the correction house. If she gets out she may be married yet "we the lad I daurna name"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: marriage prison drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 728D, "Bell Hendry" (1 text plus a fragment on p. 531, 1 tune)
Roud #6167
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maybe I'll Be Married Yet" (tune according to Greig/Duncan4, and one verse from Greig #18)
cf. "Bell Hendry (I)" (subject)
cf. "Jean Chivas" (lyrics)
NOTES [41 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quoting Duncan: "An objectionable song of Buchan origin and modern."
Greig/Duncan4 and Roud lump both Bell Hendry songs. Except for their first two lines their texts, tune and tone are different and my inclination is to split them. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4728D

Bell Horses

DESCRIPTION: Race-starting rhyme. "Bell horses, bell horses, Wht time of day? One o'clock, two o'clock, (Three/time) to away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Gammer Gurton's Garland)
KEYWORDS: racing nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North)) New Zealand
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 36, "Bell Horses, Bell Horses" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #96, p. 89, "(Bell horses, bell horses)" (1 short text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 19, "(Bell horses, bell horses)" (1 text)
Roud #19300
NOTES [25 words]: Roud appears to combine this with "The Bangor Boat's Away," but while they may well be based on the same original, I'd consider them separate songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OOx2036

Bell Over Yonder

DESCRIPTION: "Bell over yonder, ball-a la-vier." I plant corn, roseau comes up. I plant cane, okra comes up. I plant corn, pumpkin comes up.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: vanity death farming nonballad religious Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 12, "Bell Over Yonder" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [115 words]: Why isn't the title "Belle Over Yonder"? There is French patois in this song and the idea seems to be -- in this wake song -- that humans screw things up in this life, but it's good in the afterlife.
This is a wake "bongo." In notes to "Nora Nora" Elder writes "'bongo' are concerned with day to day life, with work and procreation and dying and living after death takes the individual away." In his notes to "Ma Dagoma" he writes about the guardian of death, "Ma Dogoma is a kindly, very aged woman," so the afterlife may be "belle." And in his notes to "Ophelia Letter" Elder writes about "this belief that life is continuous and that death is a mere juncture in a constant process." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTO012

Bell Ringing, The

DESCRIPTION: "One day in October, Neither drunken or sober," the singer hears the bells, and "some dancing and singing," on Jubliee Day. Many towns ring the bells beautifully.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: music | bell ringing
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #82, "The Bell Ringing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1505
File: BGSW082

Bell Tune

DESCRIPTION: "I danced with a girl with a hole in her stocking... All night by the light of the moon." He wants to take her to the woods, but she says it is accursed. They watch a wild party (witches' shabbat? orgy?). He perhaps keeps her from joining. They marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Folklore, Vol. 47, according to Palmer)
KEYWORDS: witch magic marriage dancing
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #136, "Bell Tune" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1516
NOTES [47 words]: Roud's #1516 includes quite a few Shrove Tuesday/alms songs. It seems to me that this number includes several songs, but it is often hard to separate them. But the signs of witchcraft in this one seem to me to require splitting it, even though it starts with a floating verse. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: PECS136

Bell-Bottom Trousers

See Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: LK43)

Bell-Bottom Trousers (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Now yer mother wuz a waitress in the Prince George Hotel," watched over by the owners. The 47th Fusiliers and Prince of Wales Hussars have no luck with her, but a sailor does. Now she sits by the shore waiting to entertain the Navy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex sailor seduction derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 170-172, "Bell-Bottom Trousers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brand-BawdySeaSong 5, "Bell Bottom Trousers" (1 text)
Roud #269
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. ""Rosemary Lane" [Laws K43] (plot)
NOTES [50 words]: Roud lumps this with the regular "Bell-Bottom Trousers," i.e. "Rosemary Lane" [Laws K43]. Obviously that was the source. But equally obviously, this has been so heavily rewritten that I would regard it as a separate song. It's the same plot, in a way, but from a completely different perspective. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Kins170B

Bell-Cow, The

See Old Bell Cow (File: CSW110)

Bell, oh, Bell oh, Bell a ring a yard oh!

See Yard-O 'Yaddo (Bella in the Yard) (Bellaring ina Yaddo) (File: RcYOYBiY)

Bellaghy Fair

See I Went to the Fair at Bonlaghy (File: E151)

Bellamena

DESCRIPTION: In each verse a ship is put "on the dock" and painted black, but is white when it comes back.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Blind Blake Higgs: see WIHIGGS01)
LONG DESCRIPTION: In each verse a ship is put "on the dock" and painted "black, black, black," but is "white, white, white" when it comes back: "Bellamena ... in the harbour", "Maisy... set me crazy... awfully lazy," "Mystery... used to carry whiskey... awfully frisky," "Managa... stuck in New York Harbour... got to bring a lovely cargo."
KEYWORDS: travel return colors ship nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Bellamena" (on WIHIGGS01)
NOTES [272 words]: Why paint a ship black one time and then white the next? Is it so that it would be hard to see at night and would fade into the crowd during the day?
While the title of the track is "Bellamena" Higgs sings "Ballamina." Belafonte turns this into a romantic story with his 1961 "Bally Mena (authorship credits to Robert De Cormier and Irving Burgie (Lord Burgess)). I assume the ship's name is "Ballymena."
Although it seems a stretch I wonder if the Higgs song isn't based on "Yard-O 'Yaddo." - BS
Gordon Bok (who calls the song "Belamena") has an explanation what is going on: The ships were rum-runners during the Prohibition era. To make it harder to track them, they were regularly repainted. If the revenuers were looking for a black boat named "Managa," but encounter a white boat of that name, they might not look it over as carefully.
Ron Young, Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador, Downhome Publishing Inc., 2006, p. 211, has an even more interesting version of the tale, also involving rum-runners: They would paint one side of the boat black, the other side white. So when the revenuers saw a boat come into harbor, they'd see the side that was one color, then see the other color when she headed back, and (perhaps) not realize it was the same boat. Of course, that only worked if the revenuer stayed on the same side of the harbor!
The Belafonte story is interesting, because De Cormier was one of Harry Belafonte's arrangers and Irving Burgie wrote songs for Belafonte (see, e.g., the notes to "Banana Boat Song (Day-O)"). There appears to have been a lot of borrowing going on in that songwriting collective.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: RcBellam

Bellburns Tragedy, The

DESCRIPTION: When their parents left for a burial they charged Chris and John to stay near home, but the boys went out on the ice "in a flat" [to hunt seal]. The flat was found but they were never seen again. Ships and planes searched in vain.
AUTHOR: Clara Stevens (source: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: death drowning funeral hunting family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 13, 1957 - John House and Christoper Pittman drowned while seal hunting on their own off Bellburns, Newfoundland (source: Guigné)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 47-49, "The Bellburns Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25317
File: Guig047

Belle

DESCRIPTION: French. "Mias si j'une belle ici, Belle." (Every line ends with the word "Belle.") The singer takes a train to Texas, spends three days, then hears his belle was sick. He sells his bronco so that he can afford the train fare home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from "Mr. Bornu")
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion horse commerce
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 194-195, "Belle" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LoSi194

Belle Brandon

DESCRIPTION: "'Neath a tree by the margin of the woodland... There I saw the little beauty, Belle Brandon, And we met 'neath the old arbor tree." The singer tells of carving their names in a tree. Now she is dead, and "sleeps 'neath the old arbor tree."
AUTHOR: Words: T. Ellwood Garrett (1828-1905) / Music: Francis Woolcott
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (sheet music published by Balmer & Weber, St. Louis)
KEYWORDS: love courting death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 805, "Belle Brandon" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 48, "Belle Brandon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #125, p. 10, "Belle Brandon" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 59 and #1/64 p. 48, "Belle Brandon" (1 text)
Roud #7423
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as100900, "Belle Brandon", J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as100890, "Belle Brandon"
NLScotland, L.C.1269(154a), "Belle Brandon, The Beauty of the Valley," Poet's Box (Glasgow?), 1865
NOTES [101 words]: Randolph, probably based on Spaeth's History of Popular Music in America, p. 130, reports the publication of a song called "Bell Brandon" in 1860 (by T. E. Garrett and Francis Woolcott), and a report that sheet music was printed in 1854. He apparently did not know if they were the same song. They are.
On the other hand, "Spirit Voice of Belle Brandon," found in Dime-Song-Book #6, is a separate song. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as100900: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R805

Belle Cherche Son Amant, La (The Beautiful Woman Seeks Her Lover)

DESCRIPTION: French. A woman takes her baby and goes to find her lover. She asks the mother of angels for help. She is told her husband is nearby, drinking wine and playing cards. He wipes her tears away but says he will not stay. Then he changes his mind.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love reunion separation beauty cards drink supernatural baby lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 172-173, "La Belle Cherche Son Amant" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Pea172

Belle Est Morte Entre les Bras de Son Amant, La (The Beautiful Woman Died in her Lover's Arms)

DESCRIPTION: French. A soldier gives a girl a gold ring to wait for him. Her father marries her to an old man. One night her young lover returns and knocks at her door though knowing she is married. She dies in his arms. Her father mourns.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage grief courting marriage ring death lover father soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 664-665, "La Belle Est Morte Entre les Bras de Son Amant" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Le Beau Galant (The Handsome Gentleman)" (theme)
File: Pea664

Belle Gunness

DESCRIPTION: "Belle Gunness was a lady fair In Indiana State, She weighed about 300 pounds, And that is quite some weight." "Her favorite occupation Was a-butchering of men." "Now some say Belle killed only ten, And some say 42." At last she vanishes with the cash
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide husband wife abandonment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 28, 1908 - Burning of the home and children of Belle Gunness
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 74-76, "Belle Gunness" (1 text plus a fragment; also a bit of a poem on the same topic)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 427, "Belle Gunness" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Janet L. Langlois, _Belle Gunness: The Lady Bluebird_, University of Indiana Press, 1985, pp. 145-150, "Belle Gunness Ballads" (4 texts, with the one on p. 146 being this)
Roud #21615
NOTES [8421 words]: This is one of those stories that apparently had quite a local vogue, but that no one wants to admit to; I checked a history of Indiana and four biographical dictionaries of various ages without finding a mention of Belle Gunness. She managed a peculiar sort of fame, though; in folklore, she became the "Lady Bluebeard" (Shepherd, p. 73).
Belle Gunness's public story begins with the fire at her home mentioned in the Historical References. After much searching, four bodies were found in the house: Gunness's three children and a woman. Whether the woman was Belle was never finally established. That should have been that -- except that, after the fire, the grounds were searched, and a number of bodies, mostly male, were discovered.
The accounts of who these men were are pretty lurid. It is generally believed that most were husbands and male friends Belle had murdered. Belle had only two husbands, both of whom died suspiciously, but whose deaths were publicly known and recorded. The other deaths -- the men buried on the farm -- seem to have been men she lured there with promises of a lucrative investment in her farm, then killed for their cash.
Sadly, it appears that we will never be able to get all the way to the bottom of her story. The forensics of today would solve the questions without doubt, but it was beyond the abilities of investigations in 1908.
Schechter, p. xvi, tells us of Belle's home town of La Porte, Indiana, "Like Fall River, Massachusetts, and Plainfield, Wisconsin -- the homes, respectively, of two of the country's criminal legends, Lizzie Borden and Ed Gein -- La Porte, Indiana, would become a macabre tourist destination, forever identified not as the birthplace of such proud native sons as William Matthias Scholl [of Dr. Scholl's] or Brewster Martin Higbee [sic.; possible author of "Home on the Range"] but as the site of an unspeakable horror: the ghastly 'murder farm' of Belle Sorenson Gunness, the Lady Bluebeard." (La Porte was also the home of E. E. Smith, whose "Skylark of Space" and "Lensman" books were critical in establishing the science fiction genre in the late 1920s and 1930s.)
Although histories won't touch Gunness, she has certainly attracted plenty of true crime writers. There are novels about her, e.g., Camilla Bruce, In the Garden of Spite: A Novel of the Black Widow of La Porte. Six books about her, plus some short items and chapters in books about serial killers, appear to be non-fiction, although I have not been able to directly verify the contents of some of them: Harold Schechter, Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men (by far the most popular, and a properly documented history; I thought it both highly reliable and quite balanced); Jane Simon Ammeson, America's Femme Fatale: The Story of Serial Killer Belle Gunness; Janet L. Langlois, Belle Gunness: The Lady Bluebeard; Lillian de la Torre, The Truth about Belle Gunness; (Rebecca Lo and) Jack Rosewood, Belle Gunness: The True Story of The Slaying Mother: Historical Serial Killers and Murderers; and Sylvia Elizabeth Shepherd, The Mistress of Murder Hill: The Serial Killings of Belle Gunness. There are enough copies of some of them on used bookstore sites that I am inherently suspicious. But while Lindberg calls de la Torre a "potboiler," and the description of the Lo/Rosewood book seems extreme, Shepherd and (especially) Schechter are serious, non-sensationalist works. Langlois is partly history but mostly a study of Gunness folklore; it has real value -- among other things it collects Gunness poetry -- but care must be taken to distinguish the folklore it collects from the facts; you can't really get the Gunness story from it. Ammeson is too imaginative to be trusted, constantly telling us what Belle was thinking.
There were also many imaginative accounts published at the time (Langlois, pp. 94-95, show several of their covers, with drawings of a much-too-attractive Belle), but these should be dismissed as pure imagination
Lindberg, p. 10, also reports that there was a cable television documentary, and discussions, at least, of a movie. Given the level of inaccuracy typically found in such productions, I have not attempted to learn more about those.
Gunness was born Brynhild Paulsdatter Størset on November 11, 1859 near Selbu, Norway (Schechter, p. 6), in the general vicinity of Trondheim (Shepherd, p. 14). She was probably the youngest of eight children (Lindberg, p. 44). In one sense, at least, she stayed close to her Norwegian roots: Most of the victims of her crimes were other Norwegian immigrants. Her parents were both still alive when she emigrated to America, but not for much longer; her mother died in 1885 and her father in 1890 (Lindberg, p. 44).
Records of her early life are few -- birth, confirmation, things like that. This led to claims such as one that her parents were circus performers and that as a child she had liked cutting the heads off her dolls; this story persisted for many years, but this was just a bit of fiction by a bad reporter who couldn't find out anything real (Langlois, pp. 24-25). Her family was poor and lived a hardscrabble life. After she became infamous, people in her home remembered her as an unpleasant child, but after that much time, and with her name bearing so much baggage, the testimony may not be reliable (Schechter, pp. 6-7). Lindberg, pp. 49-51, mentions reports of her being dour and harsh in America also, but here again, the sources may be biased -- or it many just be that she was still learning English! There are reports that she was intelligent and hard-working in school (Ammeson, p. 8), but this is surely anecdotal.
Similarly, there was a report that as a young woman, she became pregnant, but was attacked and miscarried the child (Lindberg, p. 46; Ammeson, pp. 1-7, imagines the scene in detail and suggests she killed her lover even though she doesn't know his name), but Schechter, at least, doubts the story. Lindberg suggests the abuse caused her to become the violent woman she was, but there are two problems with this: First, his argument is based on Freudian precepts (i.e. it's false), and second, there is no evidence of her violent streak for more than a decade after this time.
Lindberg, p. 24, says that she was prone to fits of "violent rage" which ended abruptly with "her manner suddenly self-contained." This makes wonder if, perhaps, the problem was actually with her affect -- that is, that people couldn't read her facial expressions very well. Others reported that she was obsessed with making money (Lindberg, p. 26).
Brynhild's ticket to American was paid for by her older sister Olina, who had migrated about a decade earlier. Brynhild emigrated in 1881 (Lindberg, p. 48; Langlois, p. 4, says that the ship was the Tasso, with which Ammeson, p. 10, tentatively agrees, in which case it was probably slow, since it still carried sails as well as an engine). She then went to her sister's home in Chicago.
There is no evidence that she ever wrote to anyone back in Norway (Ammeson, pp. 9-10), though of course there could be some letters that have not been preserved.
Like her sister (who now used the name "Nellie"), Brynhild decided to take a new name. So Brynhild Størset became "Bella Peterson" (this even though her father's name was Paul!). She became a domestic servant (Schechter, p. 10). Perhaps because of her impoverished background, she quickly displayed an obsession with wealth and with gaining it (Schechter, p. 11). Yet when she married, in March 1884, it was to a relatively poor man, Mads Ditlev Anton Sorenson, a department store night watchman (Schechter, p. 11;Ammeson, p. 17, also supports 1884; Shepherd, p. 16, says that the wedding might have taken place any time between 1883 and 1889, and there is some disagreement about exactly what Sorenson's job was).
There is much that is curious about the early years of this marriage. In 1894, the Sorensons somehow found the money to buy a candy store in Chicago. Within a year, the store caught fire; Belle was the only adult present at the time. Given that the store had not been a great financial success, there were thoughts of arson, but no proof was ever given; insurance eventually paid out on the store (Schechter, pp. 12-13. This is the first of many instances where modern technology would certainly have gotten to the bottom of something that proved utterly beyond the investigators of the time).
Belle was always said to have loved children, and although there are accounts of her beating the children she cared for in the early 1900s, there is also testimony that she treated them very well (Langlois, p. 75) -- but in the first eight years of their marriage, the Sorensons remained childless, except for adopting the child of a dying mother. This infant, Jennie Olson (called "Olsen" by Lindberg), born c. 1892, would figure in the story later. Belle also tried to adopt a daughter of her sister Nellie; Nellie's refusal to agree caused an estrangement that would never heal (Shepherd, p. 16).
Despite their eight previous years of childlessness, between 1896 and 1898, four more children joined the Sorenson home. Perhaps one or two were Belle's own children, but some must have been adopted (Schechter, p. 13; Shepherd, p. 16, thinks that all were foster children, and on p. 18 says that the birth certificates listed only a father, no mother). Two of these children died young, but the conditions listed on the death certificates are typical diseases of the time. That left two daughters, Myrtle and Lucy Sorenson (Schechter, p. 13).
In 1897, the Sorensons were tricked into mortgaging their property to a fake mining enterprise; fortunately, the company was prosecuted and they were made whole (Schechter, pp. 13-15; Lindberg, pp. 24-35, thinks that Mads wanted away from his wife). I can't help but wonder, though, if the way in which she was bilked gave Belle ideas for future reference.
Then the home they had bought with the insurance on their candy store burned down (Schechter, p. 15). And, soon after, Mads died, at a time when he was switching life insurance policies and so was the beneficiary of both -- for one day only, but he conveniently died on that one day, July 30, 1900 (Schechter, p. 16). Belle claimed that he had been unwell, and that she had given him quinine, but he died soon afterward despite that. The doctor wanted to see the quinine package, but she said she had thrown it out. Foul play could not be demonstrated; Belle received the life insurance (Schechter, pp. 15-16).
Mads's brother was suspicious enough to have the body exhumed for an autopsy, which found no physical signs of foul play, but the brother didn't pay for an internal examination, so poison remained a possibility (Shepherd, p. 16).
The whole thing left Belle under enough suspicion that she left Chicago and put an offer in the newspaper to trade her property in the city for a farm somewhere. Thus it was that she acquired her 48 acre property in La Porte, Indiana -- a residence already somewhat notorious for having once been a brothel (Shepherd, pp. 16-17). She also started calling herself "Belle" rather than "Bella" (Schechter, p. 18). The property was on McClung Road, and as of 1985 it reportedly still looked much as it did c. 1900 (Langlois, p. 21; Google Maps has a "Belle Gunness Housing Complex" at 144 McClung Road!).
Lindberg, pp. 28, claims that it was at this time that she first tried the technique that would later lure most of her victims: She placed a matrimonial ad in a Norwegian language publication. Lindberg says that this caused a fellow named Peter Frederickson to become interested in her. But nothing came of that.
Still, she somehow, she managed to acquire a new husband at this time, a widower named Peter Gunness who had once lodged with Mads and Belle; they married in April 1902 (Shepherd, pp. 17-18; Schechter, pp. 18-19). No one quite understood why he was interested in her; Belle was by this time very heavy and of course no longer young. She did, to be sure, own a nice property.
The younger of Gunness's two young daughters died shortly after the wedding, though once again the cause appeared natural (Schechter, p. 19). After Peter Gunness died, his brother kidnapped the remaining girl, possibly saving her life -- the more so since her father had a $2500 life insurance policy with the girl as beneficiary (Schechter, p. 30; Shepherd, p. 22).
On December 16, 1902, Jennie Olson, Belle's first adopted child, came to a neighbor's house asking help, saying Peter Gunness had burned himself (Schechter, p. 19). Eventually the neighbors brought a doctor. The doctor found that Gunness had been dead long enough that it was becoming rigid, and that his nose was broken -- but the evident cause of death was a severe blow to the back of the head; his immediate impression was that it was murder. Belle was reported to be almost incoherent. (Of course, hysteria can be faked, and incoherence is easier when speaking a language which is not one's native language!) She said that a meat grinder had fallen from a kitchen shelf and hit him; this also caused him to spill hot brine on his neck; after the blow, he said he was all right, but she found him dead on the floor some time later (Schechter, p. 20; Shepherd, p. 18).
The doctor and a colleague conducted an autopsy soon after. They found no sign of burns, and concluded that the cause of death was the blow to the head and the hemorrhage it caused. The broken nose was probably also caused by blows, although it might have been the result of a fall on a hard object (Schechter, p. 21; Shepherd, p. 20). All indications pointed to murder, but with the only evidence about the crime being Belle's, plus Jennie's which corroborated hers closely (Schechter, pp. 25-27), it was listed as an accidental death. (One can't help but wonder what would have happened had they known her past history. But people weren't tracked back then the way they are now.)
A few months after that she acquired a son, Peter Gunness (Shepherd, p. 18). She did that without anyone attending the birth and seemingly without needing to rest afterward! (Schechter, p. 29), so even though she hinted that the child was her own, odds are that it was an infant she had adopted or, perhaps more likely, stolen.
There was a claim, many years later, that Belle's daughter Myrtle told a young friend that her mother had murdered her father (Lindberg, p. 108), but this is multiple levels of hearsay and involved a very young girl who could not have remembered the event.
Belle was exceptionally strong for a woman of her size, and could easily handle tasks such as butchering hogs (Schechter, p. 32), but even she needed -- or declared that she needed -- people to work her property. So she started hiring farm helpers. The first was a Norwegian immigrant, Olaf Lindboe, who soon disappeared (Schechter, pp. 32-33), Then came Henry Gurholt, in April 1905 (Schechter, p. 33). Then came the ad in several Norwegian-language publications, which Schechter, p. 35, translates as "Wanted -- a woman who owns a beautifully located and valuable farm in first class condition, wants a good and reliable man s partner in same. Some little cash is required and will be furnished first class security." Schechter lists at least five men who responded, often selling property and arriving with a thousand dollars or more to offer to the alleged enterprise. Many were seen arriving at Gunness's farm, sometimes being introduced as her cousin; few were seen to leave, and they had a tendency to leave their trunks behind when they supposedly departed. And at about this time, she hired a local to dig a series of holes in her yard (Schechter, p. 36).
One wonders if perhaps one of those men paid too much attention to Belle's first adopted child, Jennie Olson, who was said to be very pretty and to have had many suitors. Belle allegedly shipped her off to a school outside the state. And, somehow, Jennie never seemed to answer letters from her admirers; indeed, it was only Belle who seemed to talk about her leaving (Schechter, pp. 37-38). She had had an opportunity to go back to her family a few years earlier and had said she wanted to stay with Belle (Shepherd, p. 50; Lindberg, p. 34, suggests that the big city was just too busy for her; making it more curious is a claim on p. 86 that she and all of Belle's children were terrified of Belle); eventually it cost her her life. (Lindberg, p. 148, states as a fact that Belle killed her because she had learned Belle's secret, but there is no evidence for this.) One wonders if Jennie was afraid to say she wanted to leave; there is testimony that Belle treated her harshly (e.g. Shepherd, p. 59).
Belle's letters to those she took on really were astonishing; to Andrew Helgelein, a farmer in Aberdeen, South Dakota whose disappearance led to the discovery of her secret, she once wrote "Take all of your money out of the bank and come as soon as possible"! (Schechter, p. 42). He had gone on what he said would be a brief vacation early in January 1908 -- and never came home.
In 1907, Ray Lamphere, a general handyman (Lindberg, p. 88), entered Belle's employment. And, seemingly, her bed; some accounts say he became infatuated. (According to Schechter, p. 40, he wasn't the only farm worker she took to her bed; Peter Colson also slept with her, and perhaps others. It sounds as if most of the claims that Lamphere was obsessed with Belle came from Belle herself; Schechter, pp. 55-57, summarizes her claims against him. Lamphere never really talked about their relationship -- except to a minister while he was in imprisoned for suspected arson; the minister leaked some of that information, but not enough to explain much; Shepherd, p. 90. Lindberg, p. 90, claims Lamphere was a bigamist, but I wonder if the drunken Lamphere was really bright enough to pull that off. Frankly, he sounds as if he had delusions as well, though that might be because of the alcohol.)
Lamphere was willing to sleep with Belle, and later to spy on her (he claimed he drilled a hole in the house and overheard Belle talking with Helgelein about how to murder Lamphere; Lindberg, p. 139), but he did not buy the life insurance she suggested (Shepherd, p.30), which may have saved his life. Eventually she got tired of him and tried to make him go away; he kept pursuing her, though it's not clear (to me, anyway) whether this was because of his feelings toward her or because he wanted his back pay (Schechter, p. 53). Nor is it clear just how persistent he was, but Belle tried to have him declared insane or otherwise forced to stay away from her (Shepherd, p. 31). Possibly she just didn't want his testimony about Andrew Helgelein accepted, because he saw Helgelein arrive, and resented it. As it turned out, Helgelein seems to have been present for only about a week; he showed up, brought his certificates of deposit from his home bank to the La Porte bank, was told he would have to wait for them to be verified before he could withdraw the money (something which made Belle quite upset), got the verification, took out the money -- and was never seen again (Schecther, pp. 49-51).
On April 27, Belle went to town and did a great deal of business. She had her lawyer make up a will and deposited it at the bank (Schechter, p. 60). The will left everything to her children and, if they died without issue, to the Norwegian Children's Home of Chicago -- which would get Belle's sister involved after the death, as she wanted her part of the estate. Interestingly, the will did not even mention Jennie Olson, the first foundling Belle took in -- an ominous hint about Jennie's fate (Schechter, p. 81; Lindberg, p. 147). She also deposited a great deal of money -- $720 according to Shepherd, $730 according to Schechter -- at the bank that She had not had a bank account until then. Plus she did quite a bit of shopping; for groceries and for, interestingly, a large quantity of kerosene. That night, her current farmhand Joseph Maxson said she served a normal dinner and played with the children that evening (Shepherd, pp. 28-29; Schechter, p. 60, reports that she bought candy and a toy train, which they played with that evening).
The whole whole house of cards collapsed on the morning of April 28, 1908. Around 4:00 that morning, Maxson was awakened to a crackling sound and the smell of smoke (Shepherd, p. 1). He tried to awaken Belle and the children who he thought were elsewhere in the house, but neither he nor anyone who came to the house thereafter could do so because they were locked away (Shepherd, pp. 2-3). Around 5:00 a.m., Maxson went to the town of La Porte, returning with the sheriff and fire crew. It was clearly too late for the fire crew to do anything.
Belle had earlier told people that she was afraid Ray Lamphere would burn her house down and kill her (Schechter, p. 58). Did she really suspect that -- or was she trying to frame him?
Shepherd, p. 3, reports that Sheriff Albert Smutzer suspected arson because of Belle's problems with Lamphere (Shepherd, p. 3). So the sheriff went looking for Lamphere, who was at work on a nearby farm (Shepherd, p. 4). Curiously, his first words were to ask if there were survivors of the fire, although he explained that he had seen it at a distance (Schechter, p. 74). His only excuse for not telling anyone about the fire was that he didn't think it his business (Schechter, p. 188; Shepherd, p. 171). He did have an alibi of sorts, although it too was odd and probably would not have been taken seriously by a jury: He had been sleeping with a Black woman in her seventies, Elizabeth Smith; she corroborated his story, but the testimony of an old black woman with a bad reputation wasn't considered very reliable (Schechter, pp. 75-76).
In time, a grand jury would be convened to consider charges against Lamphere (Schechter, p. 78); he was eventually charged with five murders (the four who died in the house fire plus Helgelein), plus an arson charge and an alternative charge of accessory in the murder of Helgelein (Shepherd, p. 113). But that was later -- after the situation had completely changed.
The fire was so severe that nothing was left of the house but three burned walls, which were quickly knocked down so that searchers could explore the wreckage to try to determine what happened (Schechter, p. 71).
The house was routinely searched. Eventually four bodies were found in the ruins -- an adult woman whose head was missing, two girls, and one boy (Sheperd, p. 4). The three children corresponded to Gunness's adopted family. There was no obvious evidence of violence, though the bodies were sufficiently burned that there could have been trauma which the forensics of the time could not detect, and the boy had suffered an injury to his forehead thought to be from a falling brick (Schechter, pp. 72-73).
The search didn't reveal much about the cause of the fire except that it was thought an accelerant had been used (Schechter, p. 68) -- which was interesting because of the kerosene Belle had bought the day before the fire. (This was by no means the most suspicious thing she ever tried to buy; at one time she had sent one of her men to try to by "Rough on Rats" [10% soot and 90% arsenic trioxide, readily available at hardware stores and used in several murders over the years; Blum, p. 86]-- and chloroform; Shepherd, p. 32; Shepherd, p. 89, also mentions "chloral," i.e. chloral hydrate, or a "Mickey Finn"; I wouldn't bet on Shepherd knowing they are distinct.) Had her own kerosene been used to start the fire?
At first, all anyone worried about was arson. However, Andrew Helgelein's brother Asle K. Helgelein wanted to know what happened to him, and had traced Andrew to the Gunness farm (Shepherd, 7). When the brother contacted Belle before the fire, she suggested he bring some money and help her investigate the case (Shepherd, p. 10). Asle eventually came, after the fire -- with letters from his local police asking the La Porte police to let him look around. He joined Maxon and others in investigating the property (Schechter, pp. 83-85), and eventually dug into a recently filled-in hole that Maxson had dug in March. And found a corpse (Shepherd, p. 11).
Once they realized what they had found, without digging it all the way out, they called the sheriff. Who found a carefully dismembered body (Shepherd, pp. 11-12). WIthout going into all the gory details, continued digging revealed more bodies (Schechter, p. 85). One of those found was Andrew Helgelein (Shepherd, p. 12), so, in a way, Asle Helgelein's investigation had succeeded. But now there was a much bigger crime to investigate: As the searchers went over the farm, they found many more bodies, usually dismembered and usually covered with quicklime, which dissolved the flesh and frequently made them unidentifiable (Shepherd, pp. 22-23. The identity of the victims was often important, because survivors would try to sue the Gunness estate for money she had stolen from her victims; Shepherd, p. 106. In a few cases, the bodies could not be identified but their deaths were certain because some of their property could be identified as having been in Gunness's possession; Ammeson, pp. 148-149).
There were so many bodies that the stench of the site could reportedly be smelled two blocks away (Langlois, p. 22).
The sheriff would eventually call in the Pinkertons (Shepherd, p. 171), but if they accomplished anything, it's not clear what. The Pinkertons by this time were less an investigative unit than a tool of corporate interests anyway. Ammeson, p. 77, suggests that Belle might have had an arrangement -- even a relationship -- with Sherif Smutzer, but I can't see any reason to believe this other than Smutzer's rather stubborn attitude toward evidence. Ammeson, pp. 84-87, goes so far as to suggest that Smutzer, Ray Lanphere, and Julius Truelson were all in on the act, and Ammeson, p. 174, say that Lillian de la Torre even suggested that Smutzer had descided to kill his former confederate Belle before she could kill him. But what odds? Belle had clearly committed her first murders on her own; why bring in three accomplices, one a drunk and one a drifter? Or even one confederate, who might be sheriff now but might soon be voted out? It would cut into the profits and risk exposure. The idea is absurd.
It was clear that Gunness had been a mass murderer. The question was, had she truly been killed by the fire? Of the four burned bodies, only the adult woman was missing a head. This was the more curious because, at the trial, a crematory attendant said that the skull was usually the last bone to burn (Shepherd, p. 187).
Belle, according to Shepherd, p. 25, had been about 5'7" and 200 pounds (not 300 as in the song, but still quite heavy for her height); Schechter, p. 40, makes her 280 pounds, which is not far off from 300 pounds; this is apparently based on the statement of a neighbor who talked to Belle about her weight after Gunness had visited a doctor (Schechter, pp. 178-179). Langlois, p. 38, quotes someone who said she was over six feet tall and 250 pounds -- an extraordinary height for a woman, particularly one from a deprived household; I think that simply beyond belief. Ray Lamphere's lawyer described her as "rather masculine in appearance. She was about 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed between 210 and 225 pounds. Her hands and feet were large" (Shepherd, p. 68).
[An aside: Given her strength and her actions, eventually people suggested that Belle was a man in disguise rather than a woman (Lindberg, pp. 83-84; Langlois, p. 57, cites several people who apparently wondered about it at the time; de la Torre apparently gave the possibility serious consideration). Given her strength, seeming infertility, and behavior, I genuinely wonder about a chromosomal or hormonal disorder, but the photos of her in early life clearly show a woman, if one with a bulky figure, a very strong chin, and an expression that looks like she never smiled. And someone -- her husbands, her doctor, one or another of her farmhands -- would surely have noticed if she were male! Langlois, pp. 63-65, suggests that Gunness's size, strength, weight, lack of attractiveness, and masculinity were all (probably subconscious) attempts to make the evil person seem more evil; so too the suggestion that she was a man. I suspect Langlois is right.]
The dead body was overweight (the autopsy said it had "fat on abdomen two inches thick"; Shepherd, p. 82) but seemed shorter than Belle -- the autopsist estimated that she would have been "five feet, 4.44 inches" (his excess precision, not mine!) and was estimated to have weighed roughly 200 points prior to death (Schechter, p. 171), although the weight estimate was based on an unreliable estimate based on the weight of the badly burned body. Of course, without the head, and with the feet damaged, and with the fire having affected the rest of the body very severely, this was hard to prove. And the man who made the claim had had to sneak into the funeral home to tape measure and weigh the body (Schechter, p. 113)! The body did wear rings that seemed to be from Belle's weddings (Shepherd, p. 82).
Despite the fine dinner before the fire reported by Maxson, the dead had empty stomachs, implying that they were killed many hours after dinner (which would fit with a fire that started around 3:45 a.m.). All had limbs missing -- probably burned off, but it's worth recalling that Belle liked to cut up her victims. Thus, although the big question was whether the adult was Belle, there could be doubt about whether the three children were hers, though it doesn't appear anyone ever actually questioned that. The doctor said the cause of death could not be determined for at least one of the children -- she might have been dead before being burned (Shepherd, p. 83). What's more, the doctor thought the dead woman was younger than Belle's 49 years (Shepherd, p. 83. Belle was actually still 48, but the difference is minor). And a loose hand that was found was manicured, and Belle reportedly did not manicure hers.
Later on, a forensic examination reported arsenic and strychnine in the bodies of the dead woman and two of the children (Shepherd, p. 144) -- hinting that they had been poisoned first and the fire set afterward. The combination of arsenic and strychnine was also found in the body of Andrew Helgelein (Schechter, p.119). And arsenic tests, by 1908, were quite reliable. There were two complications: three of the stomachs had been sent for testing together and could have cross-contaminated, and the funeral home used arsenic preservatives (Shepherd, pp. 191-192), although that didn't explain the strychnine. The doctor who autopsied the boy said on the witness stand that he thought strychnine the most likely cause of death (Schechter, p. 174).
Remember too that Belle had a tendency toward arson. There was real reason to doubt that the dead body was hers. Sadly, the matter became enmeshed in partisan politics, including a race for sheriff, which badly hindered the investigation (Shepherd, pp. 96-102, although most of this is a quotation from a newspaper of the time).
Gunness's rather strange behavior on the day before the fire provided fodder for both sides. In addition to buying kerosine, opening a bank account, and writing her will, Maxson reported that she kept her children out of school that day, although the teacher, Carrie Garwood, later claimed that they were in school but had clearly been severely abused (Schechter, p. 59; Shepherd, p. 77. I wonder if Garwood was right about the abuse but had the date wrong. She said the children reported that they had started to go down the basement -- which was forbidden to them -- and Belle attacked them. Shades of Bluebeard indeed; one genuinely wonders if that might have been what caused Belle to polish off the witnesses). What seems certain is that Belle did not treat the children in her usual way on that day.
The fact that Belle's body could not be positively identified resulted in fears that she had rigged the fire and escaped. One of those who believed she survived was the La Porte chief of police (Shepherd, p. 104). And that led to all sorts of people trying to track her down -- and, on at least one occasion, to a woman being falsely apprehended, which perhaps calmed the frenzy a little (Shepherd, pp. 74-76), though Lindberg, p. 172, says that one of those who claimed to have seen her was the best man at Belle's wedding to Mads Sorenson, so he should have known her! The town of La Porte also found itself plagued by thousands of visiting gawkers and "investigators" (Shepherd, pp. 86-88). Her survival even became a political issue, with the two parties disagreeing over whether she had survived (the Democrats and their paper said she was alive; the Republicans believed her dead; Langlois, pp. 122-123).
Although the adult woman's head was never found, a man who was hired to operate a sluice on the wreckage found dental work -- and the local dentist declared it was Belle's based on her dental work (Shepherd, p. 103; Schechter, p. 146, notes the curious fact that the sheriff had just arrived on the scene when sluicer Louis Schultz found the dental work -- and that Ray Lamphere's lawyer had predicted that that would happen. What's more, no one actually say Schultz find the dental work; they were in his pocket when he gave them to the sheriff; Shepherd, p. 187).
Ammeson, pp. 140-141, seems convinced that the whole thing was a set-up and the dental work was fake; this seems to be the basis for her belief that sheriff Smutzer was up to something. Certainly there were questions about the provenance and chain of custody of the dental work (Shepherd, p. 109; according to Shepherd, p. 170, when they wanted to call the sluicer for the court case, he could not be found), and the dentist didn't have full patient records of Belle since she paid cash (Shepherd, p. 159). And apparently the dentist had told the sluicer what to look for. Still, the dental work does seem strong evidence that Belle was dead, particularly since there was a tooth still attached to the work. The coroner accepted it as proof (Shepherd, pp. 109-110).
Many did not believe it. Lindberg pp. 150-151, says that one member of the coroner's jury vigorously disagreed with the coroner, and on p 175 says that Coroner Mack was denied renomination at the next Democratic convention over this issue. Coroner at this time was an elected office, and Coroner Mack did not seem very competent during the trial of Ray Lamphere -- there were all sorts of questions that he did not consider and things he did not know; Schechter, pp. 170-171; Shepherd, p. 154. One of the books about the case offered a $4000 reward for Belle's capture (Langlois, p. 122). The newspapers and the locals spent years arguing about it.
The dental work wasn't the only issue. The position of the bodies was also curious. They were all together, with the woman's arms seemingly around the boy, even though the girls slept in a separate room from Belle, and they supposedly slept on the upper floor, yet their bodies were found together near the bottom of the debris pile (so Lamphere's lawyer; Shepherd, p. 196). Some thought the bodies had been arranged that way (Lindberg, p. 150).
There was also the question of Where did Belle's money went. It was estimated that her victims had made, shall we say, involuntary contributions of $51,000 or more -- yet she had only the $700 or so in the bank (Shepherd, p. 112). Paper money would probably have burned, but coin should at least have left traces.
The fact that Belle was missing and possibly dead produced a somewhat odd legal situation. There was no direct legal case to determine Gunness's relationship to the murders that resulted in the dead bodies on her property. Instead, the issue was litigated (insofar as it was litigated at all) in the murder/arson trial of Lamphere, with the prosecution claiming that Gunness was dead and that Lamphere was the arsonist who had killed her, while the defense offered the proposition that she was alive and had started the fire herself. These were not the only possible scenarios, of course (one that was bandied about, including by de la Torre, was that Belle had survived the fire but then been disposed of by Smutzer or others who were in on her secret; Langlois, pp. 127-128), but they are what the court case covered. The result was that the truth was never really discovered, although Belle had officially been declared dead.
There were periodic claims that Belle had accomplices in murder -- perhaps even some criminal organization sending her bodies to dispose of; one man, Julius G. Truelson, even claimed to be one of those accomplices. But Truelson's claims were just an attempt to get out of the Texas prison he was already in, and none of the other claims ever came to anything (Lindberg, pp. 102-103; Ammeson, pp. 128-133, makes it pretty clear that she believed Truelson's confession and that Sheriff Smutzer covered up the evidence).
Lamphere's trial began on May 9, 1908 (Schechter, p. 156). Lamphere's lawyer was one Wirt Worden, who had a checkered past -- two of his partners had been permanently disbarred for bribing a witness (Schechter, pp. 156-157). It took four days to seat a jury (Schechter, p. 157) -- surprisingly fast, I would say, given the notoriety of the case. The trial itself took about two weeks. The jurors were given the choice of six verdicts: First degree murder with a sentence of death, First degree murder with a sentence of life imprisonment, Second degree murder with automatic life sentence, Manslaughter, Arson, Not Guilty (Shepherd, p. 199).
It took a couple of days for the jury to reach a decision. They twice asked for more information; the judge denied their requests (which seems out of line with current procedure, at least) and made them listen to his jury instructions again (Schehter, p. 217). One wonders what information they were seeking. When they reached their decision, the verdict was, oddly, arson, with no murder count, which meant a sentence of 2 to 21 years (Shepherd, p. 202). The jury also wished to submit a signed statement explaining their verdict. Shepherd, pp. 202-203, implies that the jury's statement was read at the time; Shepherd, p. 218, says that they saw no point. According to Shepherd, the statement revealed that it was their belief that the body in the house had been that of Belle Gunness, but "the case was decided by us on an entirely different proposition" (Shepherd, pp. 202-203).
The strange verdict -- one that made little logical sense because it implied that Lamphere started the fire but that the fire did not kill anyone -- is thought to have been a compromise: Ten jurors thought Lamphere guilty of murder (and wanted to give him life), but one wanted to acquit and one wanted just the arson verdict (Shepherd, p. 222). Rather than tell the judge that they were hung, they decided on the arson verdict.
Lamphere apparently really wanted to appeal, but there was no money (Shepherd, p. 203). And his other request, for a new trial, had been rejected (Shepherd, p. 207). Perhaps just as well, since a new trial could well have gotten him a death sentence.
It proved effectively moot anyway. Lamphere died of tuberculosis on December 30, 1909 (Shepherd, p. 211). He was only 38 (Schechter, p. 229). It is highly unlikely that an appeal would have been resolved by then. He allegedly gave two "confessions" -- one to the minister who had visited him in prison, one on his deathbed to a fellow inmate (Shepherd, pp. 211-218). Both were heard by only one witness, and I don't really trust either. The two were so contradictory that they cannot be reconciled -- e.g. in one of them Lamphere chloroformed Belle with her own chloroform and robbed her, but the fire was accidental. Ammeson, pp. 171-172, seems to believe the other by the inmate, Harry Myers, which describes how Belle, with Lamphere's help, faked her own death. Neither one entirely fits the known facts. (Even at the time, experts pointed out that chloroform doesn't work the way Lamphere described; the victim struggles mightily until knocked out; Shepherd, pp. 219-220. And it leaves marks!) I think they both have to be disregarded. Similarly, Schechter devotes only half a page to the Myers allegations -- which were, after all, the words of a known criminal speaking after Lamphere could no longer confirm or deny the statements.
Elizabeth Smith, the last witness who might have clarified Lamphere's actions, herself died in 1916. Apparently she wanted to tell her side of the story -- but she wanted to tell it to a particular person (Lamphere's lawyer Worden), and he didn't arrive in time, so her story went unrecorded (Schechter, p. 144). A skull was found in the mess of her home, which some people suggested was the skull of the woman's body from Belle's fire, but neighbors said she had had it for years (Langlois, p. 43)
Joe Maxson, Belle's handyman, died in 1923 after being struck in the head by falling lumber while at work. I find it interesting that, in the interim, he was charged with beating and threatening his wife (Schechter, p. 249) -- given different philosophies back then, he must have been pretty violent to get in trouble for domestic violence. But, after that, there was no real possibility of significant additional information coming from witnesses.
Without going into all the details of the testimony as reported by the various books, I would only say that neither the prosecution's hypothesis (that Lamphere set the fire) nor the defense's (that Belle had rigged the whole thing and escaped) seems entirely satisfactory. If Lamphere set the fire, how did he get the accelerant into the house, and why did Belle behave so oddly the day before? And where did the strychnine come from? Would he have been willing to risk the children's lives? And there seems no evidence of him actually lighting the fire except that he asked about it. Plus Lamphere claimed that Belle conspired with Helgelein to murder Lamphere (Linberg, p. 139) -- yet what are the odds that Helgelein would have gone along with such a plot so early in his time with Belle? Lamphere's accounts make little sense.
If the defense had been right that Belle rigged the whole thing, how did her dental work get there? And why didn't she silence Maxson? And what happened to her?
A third possibility, not covered at trial, was that Belle committed suicide and took the children with her. This would fit Jennie Olson's fate, in a way: If Belle couldn't have Jennie any more, then no one could have her. So too with the younger children. And it is a known fact that people with Antisocial Personality Disorder, which Belle surely had, are prone to suicide (DSM-5, p. 661; Ammeson, pp. xi-xii, believes that Belle had Antisocial Personality Disorder, although she explains it badly enough that I doubt she understands ASPD). If Belle killed her children (possibly impulsively), lit the fire, and took strychnine, it would fit most of the known facts -- except that we don't know why she would commit suicide. And it doesn't explain Lamphere's guilty knowledge.
Ultimately, I think our conclusion must be, "Mystery unresolved" -- although it does seem as if Lamphere was involved somehow. Certainly, if the books accurately represented the testimony at the trial, I do not see how they could possibly have found Lamphere guilty. Given the option, I'd have used the Scots "Not Proven" verdict; in the absence of that, I'd have to vote "Not Guilty."
Shepherd, p. 239, gives as her final conclusion that Belle did not die in her burned house, and suggests that one Esther Carlson, who died in California, was Belle. She offers no justification for this view, but Schechter, starting on p. 248, explains how the idea came to be. It's not really relevant to the song, so I won't go into details, but several people around Carlson died of arsenic poisoning, and one of them had a joint account with Carlson that she could inherit (Schechter, pp. 250-252). Obviously there were some similarities to Belle. More notably, when she died, a photo of three children was found in her possession, and a native of La Porte who saw it said that they were Belle's children (Schechter, p. 254; Langlois, p. 127). Carlson wasn't nearly as heavy as Belle, but it was suggested that the tuberculosis which killed her might have caused her to lose the weight. Several observers thought she really looked like Belle (Schecter, p. 256), and apparently many in LaPorte believed it (Langlois p. 127). Alas, in 2014, investigators managed to prove that Esther Carlson had truly been born in Sweden, as she had claimed (Schechter, p. 258). I suppose Belle could have killed Carlson and taken over her identity (much harder, then, than creating a new identity from scratch), but that seems far-fetched.
One other attempt was made to resolve the mystery: Belle's grave was opened in 2008 and DNA testing done. The results were "inconclusive" (Schechter, p. 259). We could perhaps do better today -- although it sounds as if the real problem is that we don't have any reliable DNA to test against -- but the interest perhaps isn't there.
Ammeson, p. 177, believes "Belle was too smart to die in the fire; she got away that night... I also agree with Lillian de la Torre that Belle met up with Albert that night." But she admits that she could change her mind.
Schechter's conclusion (pp. 259-260) is the same as mine. Lamphere's confessions are implausible. The jury verdict is nonsensical. No hypothesis has been suggested that explains all the facts. We simply don't know the fate of Belle Gunness. Wherever and whenever she died, she took her mystery to her grave.
With Belle's children dead, the question of how to resolve her estate became complicated. The charity which she had listed as residual beneficiary didn't want the blood money. So, after the various claims against the estate were resolved, three of Belle's relatives split a bit more than $3000 (Shepherd, p. 210).
Belle's exploits even made it into early editions of the Guinness Book of World Records, according to Schechter, p.119. They guessed she had committed 28 murders, which was "the greatest number of murders ever ascribed to a modern murderess."
The song is mostly accurate, or at least can be defended, in its details. The statement that Belle weighed 300 pounds is not far off from the 280 pounds quoted in her trial. She was indeed strong enough to do hard farm work.
The statement that some thought she killed only ten people, and others as many as 42, is about right; ten is the approximate number of bodies actually exhumed from her yard (it was hard to tell, given the way the bones were scattered), but they probably did not find them all, and the number of men who might have been in contact with her who simply disappeared in the relevant period could have exceeded forty. Lindberg, pp. 229-231, gives an actual catalog of victims, and his list includes 39 names -- but 19 of them disappeared at an unknown date, meaning that we have no real evidence that they were involved with Belle. The list also includes some children who might have died accidentally. So the list isn't really a list of Belle's victims; it's a list of people whose fates are unknown. It appears that, to achieve this total of 42, it is assumed that Belle fed parts of the dead bodies to her hogs and/or chickens, but if she did that with some bodies, why did she bury others? We can't know, but I suspect the count of 42 is too high.)
It is interesting that the song sides with those who think she survived, and hence believes that she rigged the fire and faked her death.
The fame of the event brought thousands of people to town, and made La Porte infamous. Many people knew it as "Gunnessville"; Langlois, pp. 21-28, has a whole sub-chapter about what people said about the town.
Shepherd's photo section has a photo of Belle and the three children who died in the fire (I think reversed left to right), the burned house, and some horrid photos of the excavation of Belle's property. Lindberg has a photo of Belle as a young woman, Belle's home in Chicago, the photo of Belle and her children but with left and right reversed from the way Shepherd shows it, a fashionable photo of Jennie Olsen, one of Joe Maxson, one of the burned house, several of Belle's yard, pictures of Asle and Andrew Helgelein, several of those involved in the Lamphere trial (though not Lamphere himself), and Esther Carlson. Langlois has a (rather poor) copy of the Young Belle photo on p. 91, Belle and the children on p. 93, Jennie Olsen and Joe Maxson on p. 96, Andrew Helgelein on p. 97, Asle Helgelein on p. 98, several of the home after the fire on pp. 98-99, Ray Lamphere on p. 100, and Lamphere with his lawyer Wirt Worden on p. 101, with the Lamphere jury on the same page. Schechter does not have photos, but the paperback edition has the young Belle on its cover.
Folklore has gone far with the Gunness story. Langlois identifies two major sources in the story as it seemed to evolve in LaPorte: "Bluebeard" (Thompson S62.1) and "The Bloody Miller" (i.e. "The Wexford Girl (The Oxford, Lexington, or Knoxville Girl; The Cruel Miller; etc.)" [Laws P35]. She also sees two motifs, "The Culture Hero Returns" (Thompson A5XX, especially A581; also A560, A570, with regard to all the suggestions that Belle was alive). and "The Strong Man" (Thompson F610ff, especially F610.0.1, "Remarkably strong woman"; F615, "Strong man evades death: F628.2, "Strong man kills men"; I would throw in Thompson T173.1, "Strong Wife Tries to Stifle Husband in Bed")
Langlois quotes other Belle songs in addition to this. The most interesting, to me, is a fragment used in a play, which self-evidently went to the tune of "Pistol-Packin' Mama":
Lay that cleaver down, Belle, lay that cleaver down;
Cleaver-cloutin' Mama, lay that cleaver down (p. 29).
The play and parts of the song are described on pp. 29-32, with a continuous text, "The Ballad of Blood-Thirsty Belle," on pp. 146-148. It was written by Ruth Andrew Coffeen in 1947. Langlois quotes it again, with excerpts of other Gunness ballads, on pp. 81-82. A fragment of another song is on p. 131. On p. 111, she quotes this song. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: Burt074

Belle Layotte

DESCRIPTION: Creole French. "Mo deja roule tout la cote Pancour ouar pareil belle Layotte." "Mo roule tout la cote, Mo toule tout la colonie." "Jean Babet, mon ami, Si cous couri par en haut." "Domestique la mison Ye toute fache avec mouin."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 109, "Belle Layotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: AWG109

Belle Mahone

DESCRIPTION: "Soon beyond the harbor bar, Shall my bark be sailing far, O'er the world I wander lone, Sweet Belle Mahone. O'er thy grave I weep goodbye." He misses her deeply, wishes her good rest, and says he will be with her when "eternal spring" comes
AUTHOR: J. H. McNaughton (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart-Songs)
KEYWORDS: love death separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Heart-Songs, pp. 328-329, "Belle Mahone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13636
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sweet Belle Mahone
File: HeSo328

Belle Nanon (Beautiful Nanon)

DESCRIPTION: French. Nanon tells her lover that they cannot make love in the garden now. He must win over her father. He cannot. She says that they can kiss, and that love is certain, but that they cannot think of other things because her father stands in the way.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting love sex bawdy dialog father lover mistress
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 501-502, "Belle Nanon" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Mme Josephine Costard, "Belle Nanon" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea501

Belle of Baltimore, The

DESCRIPTION: "I've been through Carolina, I've been to Tennessee, I've traveled Mississppi, For massa set me free." The singer has seen many women, but none match "The belle of Baltimore." She is dark, lovely, and sings well; he wants to give her his picture
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Journal of the Pavilion)
KEYWORDS: beauty love travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 306-307, "The Belle of Baltimore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13957
File: HGam306

Belle of Long Lake, The

See Blue Mountain Lake (The Belle of Long Lake) [Laws C20] (File: LC20)

Belle Recompense, Une (A Beautiful Reward)

DESCRIPTION: French. The singer's unfaithful captain says he will marry her but then leaves. She follows him, dresses as a volunteer dragoon and rides a horse like a general. She kills him. The king gives her a gold pin and watch as a reward.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting warning army fight war cross-dressing death dialog lover soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 326, "Une Belle Recompense" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "William Taylor" [Laws N11] (plot)
NOTES [22 words]: For notes on legitimate historical examples of women serving in the military in disguise, see the notes to "The Soldier Maid." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Pea326

Belle Regrette Son Amour Tendre, La (The Beautiful Woman Sorrows for Her Tender Love)

DESCRIPTION: French. The singer left his mistress to work along the river. There he met another lover. When she cried he comforted her and said he would return after this trip. When it came to saying goodbye she cried.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage grief seduction lover mistress
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 430-431, "La Belle Regrette Son Amour Tendre" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Pea430

Belle-a-Lee

DESCRIPTION: A steamboat chant with the refrain "Oh, Belle! Oh, Belle!": "Belle-a-Lee's got no time, Oh, Belle! oh Belle! Robert E. Lee's got railroad time...." "Wish I was in Mobile Bay... Rollin' Cotton by the day...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: river nonballad work floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 592, [no title] (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Stow'n' Sugar in de Hull Below" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Hieland Laddie" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [24 words]: This uses lyrics from "Hieland Laddie," which is far better known, but the form appears different enough that I tentatively separate them. - RBW
File: BMRF592A

Belles of Renous, The

DESCRIPTION: "Stay home with your mother, don't cause her to fret, And do not mix up with the downriver set." The girls of Renous look down at "a man dressed in homespun" and prefer "a dude from the city." The girls of Dungaren are the best at a ball.
AUTHOR: Joe Smith (1872-1912)
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: dancing party humorous nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 164-167, "The Belles of Renous" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1964
File: IvNB164

Belleville Convent Fire

DESCRIPTION: "Kind friends give attention to what I relate, And ever remember those poor children's fate." A fire in the night kills almost thirty people, mostly children. The singer tells some of their stories; the firemen came too late
AUTHOR: Words: John Fletcher / Music: Ned Straight
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (published by Wehman)
KEYWORDS: fire disaster children death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 5, 1884 - Institute of the Immaculate Conception fire kills 22 children and four adults
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 263-264, "The Belleville Convent Fire" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 445, "Belleville Convent Fire" (1 text)
Roud #4342
File: CAFS2445

Bells Are Ringing for Me and My Gal, The

See Fr Me and My Gal (File: BrPa220C)

Bells are Ringing, The (Eight O'Clock Bells)

DESCRIPTION: "(Eight) o'clock bells are ringing, Mother let me out; My sweetheart is waiting For to take me out." "He's going to give me apples, He's going to give me pears, He's going to give me sixpence, And kisses on the stairs."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting food mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1623, "Six O'Clock Bells Ringing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 86, "(Eight o'clock bells are ringing)" (1 text)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #4, pp. 114-115, "Ten O'Clock Is Ringing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #395, "Nine o'clock is striking" (1 text)
Roud #12986?
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Boyfriend Gave Me An Apple" (lyrics)
File: MSNR086

Bells Go Ringing for Sarah

See Bell Goes A-Ringing for Sai-Rah (File: NCSBRFS)

Bells in Heaven

DESCRIPTION: "Bells in heaven just strike one My Lord's work has just begun. Oh, the old ark's moving...." Similarly, "Bells in heaven... two, Lord, what wilt Thou have me do?" through "...nine... turning the water into wine." "...ten, My Lord's saving sinful men."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2019 (Roeder Family Collection)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: US
ST Roeder01 (Full)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Ark's A-Moverin'" (lyrics)
File: Roeder01

Bells of Heaven, The

See I Saw Three Ships (File: OBB104)

Bells of Hell Go Ting-a-ling-a-ling, The

See The Bells of Hell (File: BrPa055B)

Bells of Hell, The

DESCRIPTION: "The bells of hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling For you but not for me; And the little devils how they sing-a-ling-a-ling For you but not for me. O Death, where is thy sting-a-ling-a-ling, O Grave, thy victory? The bells of hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling, For...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier death
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 55, "The Bells of Hell" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 63, "The Bells of Hell Go Ting-a-Ling-a-Long" (1 text, tune references)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 117, "The Bells of Hell" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #148, "Salvation Army Song" (1 text)
Roud #10532
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She Only Answered 'Ting-a-ling-a-ling'" (tune)
cf. "The Postman's Bell Goes Ting-a-ling-a-ling" (lyrics)
NOTES [163 words]: Based on 1 Corinthians 15:55 (where the King James Version reads "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"), which is in turn derived from Hosea 13:14 (where, however, the KJV translates "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." The King James translation of Hosea is based on the Hebrew; the Greek and Syriac versions of the verse are more like the reading of 1 Corinthians, which is quoting the Greek, not the Hebrew).
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 114, has piece "Sing-A-Ling-A-Ling" which opens "Oh Mister (Wing/any name), We sing-a-ling-a-ling With all our hearts to you; We hope there'll be some thing-a-ling-a-ling That we can do for you." It seems clear that it is another riff on the original "She Only Answered 'Ting-a-ling-a-ling," but I don't know if they have anything in common beyod that. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BrPa055B

Bells of London Town, The

See The Bells of London Town (File: BGMG640)

Bells of Shandon

DESCRIPTION: "With deep affection and recollection I often think of those Shandon bells." Those bells are compared to those at the Vatican, Notre Dame, and Moscow, and the bells "in St Sophio the Turkman gets"
AUTHOR: Rev Francis Sylvester Mahony (1804-1866)
EARLIEST DATE: 1834 (_Fraser's Magazine_, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: lyric nonballad religious music
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 106-107, "The Bells of Shandon" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 24,60, "Bells of Shandon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 222-226, "The Bells of Shandon" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 65-66, "The Bells of Shandon" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 50-51, "The Bells of Shandon" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 242-243, "The Bells of Shandon"
Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 50-51, "The Bells of Shandon"
Oliver Yorke, The Reliques of Father Prout (London, 1873 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 159-160, "The Shandon Bells" (1 text)
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. Shandon"
Charles Sullivan, ed., Ireland in Poetry, p. 42, "The Bells of Shandon" (1 text)
437-438, "The Shandon Bells" (1 text)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 431-432, "The Bells of Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #224, "The Bells of Shandon" (1 text)
ST OCon024 (Partial)
Roud #9562
RECORDINGS:
Ellen Emma Power, "Bells Of Shandon" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(235), "The Bells of Shandon", W.S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; also Harding B 11(234), 2806 b.11(162), "The Bells of Shandon"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Last Rose of Summer" (tune in Blackpool, OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
cf. "Slain le Maigh (Fairwell to the Maigue)" (tune, OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Farewell to the Bay of Islands ("Sweet Bay of Islands! I love your highlands") (James Murphy, compiler, _Songs & Ballads of Terra Nova_, Evening Telegram publishing, 1903 (available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 44)
NOTES [135 words]: [See] The Ballad Poetry of Ireland by Charles Gavan Duffy (Dublin, 1845), pp. 242-243, "The Bells of Shandon." - BS
This is among the most popular of Irish poems; Granger's Index to Poetry lists fully a dozen anthologies containing the piece.
According to Henry Boylan, A Dictionary of Irish Biography, second edition, St. Martin's Press, 1988, pp. 238-239, Francis Sylvester Mahony (1804-1866) was a Jesuit priest born in Cork; he published much of his poetry under the name "Father Prout" (a name he took from an actual priest he had known). Having had a history of partying and of arguing with his bishop, he later left the church to work as a journalist and satirist. He was buried, appropriately enough, in Shandon church.
Other works from his pen in the Index include "The Town of Passage (IiI)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon024

Bells of Westminster

See The Little Bells of Westminster (File: ACSF437B)

Belmont Stopes, The

DESCRIPTION: "To all you rustlin' miners Who for a job have hopes, Just hear this little story Of life in the Belmont Stopes." The gas is heavy. The work is hard. Death is common. The singer hopes never again to suffer as much as he did in the Belmont Stopes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (June 9, 1910 [Denver] "Miner's Magazine," according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes warning death technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 149, "The Belmont Stopes" (1 text)
NOTES [59 words]: Yes, that's "Stopes," not "Slopes." A stope is "an excavation in a mine working or quarry in the form of a step or notch," so it would be a term better known to miners than the rest of us.
It looks as if the writer of this was somewhat educated, since he refers to Dante and to Pluto (the god, not the dwarf planet, which had not been discovered in 1910).
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC149

Beloved Land, The

DESCRIPTION: A young man on deck says "Farewell my beloved land; I'll see thee no more." He thinks of his youth and fighting "the tyrant" but now he is "prescribed as an exile"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: grief exile farewell sea ship lament patriotic
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 352-353, "The Beloved Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea352 (Partial)
Roud #6456
File: Pea352

Belt wi' Colours Three, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears a woman lamenting her love, warning others not to love "until she know that she loved be." She lists the "gifts" she has gotten: a cap of lead, a mantle of sorrow, "a belt wi' colors three": shame, sorrow, and misery, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: love clothes betrayal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 194, "The Belt wi' Colours Three" (1 text)
Roud #5534
File: Ord194

Beltrees Sang, The

See Hey Bonnie Laddie, Mount and Go (File: GrD71361)

Ben Backstay

DESCRIPTION: "Ben Backstay was our boatswain, A very merry boy." The captain serves out double grog. Ben gets drunk and falls overboard. They throw ropes to him, but he can't return because a "shark had bit his head off." Ben's ghost warns against mixing liquor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany, Ulverston: G. Ashburner, 1812)
KEYWORDS: sailor death humorous ghost drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 98-101, "Ben Backstay" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 111-112, "Ben Backstay's Warning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 52, "Ben Backstay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads, XXXII, pp. 46-47, "Ben Backstay" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany: Containing a Selection of the Most Fashionable Songs, with Many Originals, Not Inserted in Ashburner's Vocal and Poetic Repository, G. Ashburner, Ulverston, 1812 (available on Google Books), p. 189, "Ben Backsay" (1 text)
ST ShSea098 (Partial)
Roud #21256
File: ShSea098

Ben Backstay's Warning

See Ben Backstay (File: ShSea098)

Ben Block

See (note under) Ben Bolt (File: RJ19030)

Ben Bolt

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! don't you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt, Sweet Alice, with hair so brown She wept with delight when you gave her a smile, And trembled with dear at your frown." But Alice now lies in the churchyard, and the mill where they courted is dried up
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Dunn English (1819-1902)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (The New Mirror); what is apparently the most common tune, by Nelson Kneass, was published 1848 by W. C. Peters & Co. of Louisville, KY
KEYWORDS: love courting death separation burial
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 531, "Ben Bolt" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 31-32, "Ben Bolt" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 107, "Ben Bolt" (1 text)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 30-34, "Ben Bolt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 175-186, "Don't you remember sweet Alice? (Ben Bolt)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #131, p. 10, "Ben Bolt" (2 references)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #47, Ben Bolt" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 96-97, "Oh! Don't You Remember Sweet Alice or Ben Bolt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 25 and #1/64 p. 25, "Ben Bolt" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 252, "Ben Bolt" (1 text)
DT, BENBOLT
ADDITIONAL: Martin Gardner, editor, _Famous Poems from Bygone Days_, Dover, 1995, pp. 55-57, "Ben Bolt" (1 text)
ST RJ19030 (Full)
Roud #2653
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sam Holt" (tune & meter)
SAME TUNE:
Sweet Alice (Australian parody) (File: Beat309)
The Sonora Filibusters (File LDC286)
Answer to Ben Bolt (broadside LOCSheet, sm1854 741250, "Answer to Ben Bolt," W. C. Peters and Sons (Cincinnati), 1854) (tune) = "Ben Bolt's Reply" (Gardner, _Famous Poems_, p. 57)
The Answer to Ben Bolt ("Oh yes I remember the name with delight") (Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 272-273; Dime-Song-Book #10, pp. 53-54)
The Grave of Ben Bolt ("By the side of Sweet Alice they have laid Ben Bolt") (Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 273)
Parody on Ben Bolt ("O don't you remember the Boys, Ben Bolt") (Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 274)
Jim Holmes, a Parody on Ben Bolt ("Oh, don't you remember the b'hoys, Jim Holmes") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 76)
John Jones, the Companion to "Ben Bolt" ("Don't you remember lame Sally, John Jones") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 78; Dime-Song-Book #3, p. 21)
Freshman Reminiscences ("Oh don't you remember, sweet Freshmen, the time") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 130)
Ah! Well We Remember (""Ah! well we remember that morning, my boys, 'Twas just four years ago") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 63)
Jack Jolt ("Oh don't you remember the gully, Jack Jolt, Where they made such a desperate pounce") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Hoskins/Thatcher-LifeOnTheGoldfields, pp. 64, 154)
The Paupers ("Oh don't you remember the Paupers, Tom Brown? The Paupers who ain't got no dough") (by John L. Zieber, fl. 1860) (Bodleian broadside Harding B 18(396))
NOTES [139 words]: Originally published as a poem in The New Mirror of September 2, 1843. Various tunes were offered; that by Nelson F. Kneass (made in 1848) proved the most enduring. It is possible that it was an adaptation of another tune, perhaps of German origin.
T. D. English did not receive royalties for the popular editions of the song, and Spaeth (A History of Popular Music in America, p. 123) reports that he "came to resent [the song's] enormous popularity as compared with what he considered his more important efforts." Where have we heard *that* before?
Roud for some reason files a couple of copies of a piece called "Ben Block" or "The Naval Subaltern" here, probably based on similarity in names. But "Ben Block" is a song of a long-service junior naval officer. There is a copy in Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XXXIII, pp. 47-48. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RJ19030

Ben Breezer

See Dixie Brown [Laws D7] (File: LD07)

Ben Butler, or The Yankee Soldier

DESCRIPTION: "Facts, hoorah for the truth I've told you; Blow your life fand beat your drum; Lock up your spoons and hide your devils; Clear it away, Ben Butler's come."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Morris, Southern Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar theft
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #141, "Ben Butler, or The Yankee Soldier" (1 short text)
Roud #5048
NOTES [105 words]: The reference to hiding spoons when Ben Butler came is clearly a reference to Benjamin F. Butler's time as military governor of New Orleans: "On 1 May [18]62 he occupied New Orleans after [David] Farragut's fleet had reduced its defenses. A capable military governor, he exhibited a genius for arousing adverse criticism at home and embarrassing his government in Europe.... [He was] Nicknamed 'Spoons' for allegedly stealing silverware from Southerners. He was recalled 16 Dec. [18]62" (Mark M. Boatner III, The Civil War Dictionary, 1959 (there are many editions of this very popular work; mine is a Knopf hardcover), p. 109) - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: Morr141

Ben Deane

See Benjamin Deane [Laws F32] (File: LF32)

Ben Dewberry's Final Run

DESCRIPTION: Ben Dewberry tells his fireman never to fear, and that there are two more roads he wants to ride, and otherwise forecasts disaster. After passing over a trestle and switch, without warning the train derails and Dewberry is killed
AUTHOR: Rev. Andrew Jenkins
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (copyright)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Ben Dewberry tells his fireman never to fear, and that there are two more roads he wants to ride, and to "put your head out the window, watch the drivers roll." It begins to rain; he predicts that they "may make Atlanta but we'll all be dead." After passing over a trestle and switch, without warning the train derails and Dewberry is killed
KEYWORDS: train death railroading work crash disaster wreck floatingverses worker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug. 23, 1908: According to Norm Cohen [internet communication; the information is not in _Long Steel Rail_], Engineer Benjamin Franklin Dewberry killed when the Southern Railway's #38 crashes after young boys place a bolt on the tracks because they "wanted to see what a wreck would look like"
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, p. 176, "Ben Dewberry's Final Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 158-162, "Ben Dewberry's Final Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 312-313, "Ben Dewberry's Final Run" (1 text)
Roud #14015
RECORDINGS:
Frankie Marvin, "Ben Dewberry's Final Run" (Brunswick 153, 1928; Supertone 2055 [as The Texas Ranger], 1930) (Edison 52436, 1928; Edison 20002, 1929) (Banner 7179/Challenge 691/Conqueror 7164 [also issued as by Frank Nelson]/Domino 0253/Jewel 5351/Oriole 1297/Regal 8605 [all as Frankie Wallace], 1928)
Jimmie Rodgers, "Ben Dewberry's Final Run" (Victor 21245, 1928; Bluebird B-5482/Montgomery Ward M-4224, 1934)
Irene Sargent, "Ben Dewberry's Final Run" (AFS 13125 B17, n.d.)
Hank Snow, "Ben Dewberry's Final Run" (RCA Victor 20-4096, 1951; in album P-310; RCA Victor 47-4096, n.d.; in album WP-310)
Joe Steen, "Ben Dewberry's Final Run" (Champion 16258, 1931)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Casey Jones (I)" [Laws G1], especially the subgroup "Kassie Jones" [Furry Lewis recording] (lyrics, structure)
cf. "Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long)" [Laws I16] (lyrics, structure)
NOTES [227 words]: While clearly a composed song, Norm Cohen notes its strong affinity with older forms such as Furry Lewis's "Kassie Jones" blues-ballad and the "Joseph Mica/Milwaukee Blues/Jay Gould's Daughter" family of songs. Indeed, three of the five verses are shared with those songs. - PJS
Said verses being instruction to the fireman not to fear; the two more roads Dewberry would like to ride; the suggestion, "put your head out the windows, see the drivers roll"; and the prediction "we may make Atlanta but we'll all be dead."
Lyle notes that this song is unusually inaccurate for one composed based on immediate news reports; her suggestion is that Jenkins wrote it very quickly, on the day the first news broke, before full details were known. I don't think this follows; Jenkins never cared much about facts (witness all the errors in "Floyd Collins" [Laws G22] and "Frank Dupree" [Laws E24]; also, in "Thomas E. Watson," he praised a man whose stock in trade was racial vitriol). But it's possible.
Lyle reports that the boy who put the bolt on the track was one Lewis Cooksie. Reportedly Engineer Dewberry and his fireman stayed with the engine after it derailed, and were fatally scalded; this helped the passengers to survive (Lyle does not say how). It took some time for Dewberry to die; he had time to summon his wife, who reached him just before he died. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: RcBDFR

Ben Fisher

DESCRIPTION: "Ben Fisher had finished his day's hard work, And he sat at his cottage door; And his good wife Kate sat by his side, And the moonlight danced on the floor." They look back on their twelve years of marriage; they are not rich but are as happy as anyone
AUTHOR: Fisher B. Gauh? (source: Brooklyn Register)
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Brooklyn Register)
KEYWORDS: marriage children farming
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 118, "Ben Fisher" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, pp. 9-10 and #4/64, pp. 9-10, "Ben Fisher and Wife" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Brooklyn Register, May 21, 1859 (available on the Library of Congress web site, filed for some reason among the Walt Whitman papers, mss1863002842-4), p. 6, "A New Poem" (1 text)
ST GC118 (Partial)
Roud #3699
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Home Picture
NOTES [76 words]: Standard nineteenth-century treacle, with a bit of a temperance message ("Ben Fisher had never a pipe of clay, Nor never a dram drank he, So he loved at home with his wife to stay").
Internet searches failed to find any mention of Fisher B. Gauh. The obvious suspicion is that he and "Ben Fisher" are the same person. I have no idea why the piece was filed in the Walt Whitman papers at the Library of Congress -- maybe it was just something Whitman kept? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GC118

Ben Fisher and Wife

See Ben Fisher (File: GC118)

Ben Hall

DESCRIPTION: The singer condemns the murder of Ben Hall. Hall is made an "outcast from society" when his wife sells his land. He refuses to shed blood, but is finally ambushed and, abandoned by his comrades, is shot repeatedly
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: death homicide outlaw abuse betrayal infidelity wife police Australia
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 5, 1865 - Ben Hall is ambushed and killed by police near Forbes, Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 164-165, "Ben Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 62-63, "The Death of Ben Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BENHALL*
Roud #3352
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Ben Hall" (on JGreenway01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ballad of Ben Hall" (plot)
cf. "Streets of Forbes" (plot)
cf. "The Death of Ben Hall" (plot)
cf. "My Name is Ben Hall" (subject)
NOTES [1421 words]: Ben Hall is widely regarded as "the noblest of the bushrangers"; Nunn, p. 21, includes him among the "'Gentleman' Bushrangers," and on page 113 reports that he was "the least violent and most tragic of the bushrangers." Manifold, p. 53, says, "[Frank] Gardiner was a big of a scoundrel, [John] Gilbert was a scamp, [Daniel] Morgan... was a black unhappy villain; but Ben Hall was a decent, steady-going man, neither a criminal nor a romantic." One bit of folklore told by Davey/Seal, p. 149, has it that, after robbing a victim, he gave him back five pounds to safely finish his travel.
This is perhaps why, according to Manifold, p. 59, "There are more ballads about and around Hall's gang than about any other historical figures, except possibly the Kelly Gang." He lists six, which appear to correspond to this song, the four listed in the cross-references, and "Frank Gardiner," which is somewhat tangentially related. Manifold, p. 63, says that there are also poems about Hall "composed in the other tradition, the literary tradition. There are about a dozen of these, not of equal importance." One such, "The Death of Ben Hal" by Will H. Ogilvie (not to be equated with the song of the same name), appears on pp. 181-183 of Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads. Several, which Manifold considers primarily complaints about the police, appeared in newspapers. Later versions were even more self-conscious of their place in "literature"; even Banjo Paterson wrote about John Gilbert.
There are several songs about bushrangers associated with Hall, of which "Frank Gardiner" is probably the best-known. Manifold, p. 66: "I wonder how many of his mates would have achieved ballad-status without the glory that he shed on them. Until we come to the Kelly Kgan, no other bushranger approaches Hall in repute, not even the equally brave and courteous Thunderbolt."
The story is that Hall was hounded from his home by the police, and only then turned to crime. Even as a bushranger, he attacked only the rich and never shed blood. Boxall, p. 223, even tells a story of him arranging for the return of a victim's gun.
The truth is not quite so pretty. Hall was the child of convicts (Manifold, p. 53), born probably in 1837 (so Nunn, and Boxall, p. 251, says he was about 28 at the time of his death in 1865. Manifold, p. 53, says he married at 18 in 1856, which would mean he was born in 1837 or 1838). His father is described as having a clean record in Australia. Nunn, p.113, reports that Ben himself "worked as a stockman in the Lachlan district as a youth and then took up a selection and, in 1856, married Bridget Walsh. They had one son, Harry."
Manifold, p. 53, says that heand his brother-in-law John McGuire probably sold to Frank Gardiner and company, and even sheltered Gardiner, but innocently. But Sir Frederick Pottinger, the heavy-handed style didn't respect bystanders, arrested Hall for "highway robbery under arms" in April 1862, and Hall was denied bail, so he sat in prison for a month until his trial. Then came Gardiner's robbery at Eugowra Rocks (for which see "Frank Gardiner"). Back to prison went Hall. An informant brought evidence against Gardiner and others -- but said Hall was innocent. "Hall went back to the smoking ruins of his home and the stinking corpses of his cattle" (Manifold, pp. 53-54, who says that this was done by the police to teach Hall a lesson even though they couldn't convict him).
Nunn, p. 115, says that while he was being held, he found that his wife had run off with an ex-policeman.
From there his life took a turn for the worse; he sold off his land and eventually joined Gardiner's outlaw band (again see "Frank Gardiner," as well as the notes to "The Ballad of Ben Hall" for some other members of the gang); some said he was part of the gang that committed the famous Eugowra Rocks robbery in 1862 (although the chronology in Manifold, p. 53, says Hall did not turn bushranger until after Eugowra). Boxall, p. 217, reports that Gardiner may have been largely retired from the gang by the time Hall rose to prominence, but Hall and Johnny Gilbert (a Canadian who migrated to Australia in 1852 to seek gold, according to Nunn, p. 117) kept it active.
In the aftermath of the Eugowra affair, Hall was charged with armed robbery but was acquitted for lack of evidence. The police continued to harry him, though. "Put yourself in Hall's place. He had suffered so much while innocent; now he was undoubtedly 'consorting' with wanted men, and to that extent guilty. He went to the bush and remained a bushranger for the rest of his life" (Manifold, p. 54). His leading exploit in this period was taking a high official hostage and releasing him in return for a 500 pound ransom (Nunn, p. 117). At one time he held up a town -- and staged an entertainment for them and even invited the policemen he had captured (Manifold, p. 53). After one such party, where Hall, Gilbert, and Dunn danced with the prettiest girls in the place, the police arrested the three women (Manifold, p. 56).
Manifold, p. 56, suggests that Hall and gang did not think of themselves as thieves until after an attack on them ails made on March 13, 1865, in which the police were reinforced by a force of diggers. Suddenly the gang was fighting real people, not just robbing the mail.
Hall supposedly concluded that the life he was leading was too violent (and Manifold, p. 54, describes several fights which support this opinion), and decided to leave Australia (Nunn, p. 119; Learmonth, p. 247, says that "Hall killed no one but was not able to prevent his gang from doing so"). But instead it was Gilbert and Dunn who headed off for Victoria while Hall remained in the Lachlan (Manifold, p. 57). It was while staying with one Goobang Mick Connollly when the troopers found him; at least fifteen and perhaps as many as thirty bullets were found in his body (Manifold, p. 58), which made him a hero to the locals who hated the police. It is not known how, or if, he was betrayed (Manifold, p. 59).
Another bit of Ben Hall folklore has it that his posthumous child had birthmarks corresponding to all the bullet wounds he suffered in his fatal final encounter (Davey/Seal, p. 149). This child was borne by Mary Connolly (Manifold, p. 58, who does not say what her relationship was with Goobang Mick). Hall's grave in Forbes is still maintained by the locals.
Dunn and Gilbert, like Hall, were associated with Frank Gardiner's outlaw band. Either Gilbert or Dunn brought the full force of the law down on the gang when he shot a policeman, and Gilbert died along with Johnny Dunn in 1866 (according to Manifold, p. 58, Gilbert and Dunn went to visit Dunn's family in Binalong. Dunn's maternal grandfather John Kelly informed the authorities and poured water on Gilbert's rifle. Gilbert still fought but was killed; Dunn escaped with a wound, but was found and hanged on Mach 19, 1866). Johnny O'Meally, also mentioned in the song, was a member of the gang killed in 1863. Gardiner was eventually taken, but was paroled after seven years and allowed to emigrate to the U.S., where he opened a saloon and, it is said, was shot in a poker fight in 1903.
"Sir Fred" is Sir Frederick Pottinger, a "monumentally inept" officer of the crown who bungled the whole case -- and eventually managed to accidentally kill himself! According to Boxall, p. 223, he once ran across the bushrangers he was supposed to be pursuing but failed to do anything about them. "Sir Frederick was called to Sydney to attend an inquiry, and resigned his position in the force. About a month later he died from the effects of a wound from a pistol, accidentally fired by himself." Similarly Manifold, p. 57: "Sir Frederick was recalled to Sydney to face court-martial on a charge of cowardice. He shot himself in the coach going in.... Early in April... Sir Frederick Pottinger died of his self-inflicted wound in Sydney."
To tell this song from the other Ben Hall songs, consider this first stanza:
Come all you young Australians, and everyone besides,
I'll sing to you a ditty that will fill you with surprise,
Concerning of a 'ranger bold, whose name it was Ben Hall,
But cruelly murdered was this day, which proved his downfall.
This is not the text found in Manifold (which begins "Come all you young Australians, and hear what did befall Concerning of a decent man whose name was bold Ben Hall"), but the tune (which wobbles oddly between Mixolydian and Dorian) puts Manifold's transcription with John Greenway's version. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: MA164

Benbow, the Brother Tar's Song

See Admiral Benbow (i) and Admiral Benbow (II) (File: PBB076)

Benbraddon Brae

DESCRIPTION: The singer, going through Benbraddon hill, hears the sheepbells and the foxhunt. Stopping, he sees the boys and girls courting. He praises the beauty of the place, and recalls the parties among the fields and flowers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H572, pp. 159-160, "Benbraddon Brae" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9215
File: HHH572

Bendemeer's Stream

DESCRIPTION: Singer recalls the places of his childhood with nostalgia. "There's a bower of roses by Bendemeer's stream." Singer says he'll never forget it, asking "Is the nightingale singing there yet? Are the roses still bright by the calm Bendemeer?"
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Moore (1779-1852); tune credited as "Irish folk song."
EARLIEST DATE: 1817 (published as part of "Lalla Rookh")
KEYWORDS: homesickness river nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #85, "Bendemeer's Stream" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 20 (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
John Charles Thomas, "Bendemeer's Stream" (RCA Victor 15858, 1940)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mountains of Mourne" (subject, tune)
cf. "Carrigdhoun" (tune)
NOTES [48 words]: Bendemeer is a village in New South Wales.
This song, drawn from Moore's poem "Lalla Rookh," has been suggested as the basis for Percy French's "Mountains of Mourne"; the tunes are virtually identical. It seems to have once been a popular parlor song, but it has essentially vanished. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: FBFS020

Beneath the Barber Pole

DESCRIPTION: "It's away! Outward the swinging fo'c'sle's reel, From the smoking sea's white glare upon the strand." The singer tells of the work of the "merry men beneath the Barber Pole" as they "wallowed outward bound from Newfoundland"
AUTHOR: Words: W. A. Paddon (source: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (source: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: sailor war travel return
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 34-35, "Beneath the Barber Pole" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James B. Lamb, _The Corvette Navy_, 1979 (I use the 1988 Macmillan Paperbacks edition), p. 60, "(It's away! Outward the swinging fo'c'sles reel") (1 short text, probably an excerpt)
Roud #24979
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The 23rd Flotilla" (subject: the hard life of convoy escorts) and references there
NOTES [1697 words]: The notes in Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear say that the Barber Pole Brigade was "officially Escort Group C-5 of the Mid-Ocean Escort Force, and its beat was from St. John's, Newfoundland (Newfiejohn) to Londonderry... Its name came from the red and white striped band that decorated the funnels of the destroyers and corvettes were assigned to it."
Recall that Newfoundland was not part of Canada at this time, so the sailors in the group never made it home; they were always in a semi-foreign land.
Sarty, p. 57, reports that "A major Allied reorganization that began in late January 1942 combined the NEF [Newfoundland Escort Force] and American groups based in Newfoundland into a single Mid-Ocean Escort Force.... [T]he new force was able to escort convoys directly to Northern Ireland, thereby freeing some British escorts from the eastern Atlantic for the mid-ocean an western ocean." On p. 59, Sarty explains that "All thirteen [Canadian] destroyers and sixty-two corvettes on the Atlantic coast were assigned to the MOEF and WLEF [Western Local Escort Force], together with ten of the twenty-two Bangors [minesweepers with some anti-submarine abilities] on the east coast."
Hopkins says that the Barber Pole Brigade started with the destroyers Saguenay (for which see "The Saguenary Song") and Skeena and the corvettes Sackville, Galt, Wetaskiwin, and Agassiz, but that at the time this song was written, the destroyers were Ottawa (the second destroyer of the war to bear that name) and Kootenay and corvettes Arvida, Kitchener, Wetaskiwin, and HMS Dianthus.
According to Whitley, p. 25, Saguenay and Skeena were 1930 members of the British "A" class of destroyers (Canada's shipyards could not build destroyers; it was all the could do to handle the smaller corvettes and "Bangor"-class minesweepers; all Canadian destroyers prior to the war came from Britain), but Kootenay was the former HMS Decoy of the 1931 "D" class, transferred in 1943 (Whitley, p. 102; Worth, p. 110) and Ottawa (II) was the ex-Griffin of the 1935 "G" class (Whitley, p. 107; Worth, p. 110). They were relatively lightweight destroyers -- fast but not especially heavily armed. Both had served in the Mediterranean before going to Canada (Whitley, pp. 102, 109). After their service in the MOEF, both destroyers went to Plymouth to take part in the Normandy landings (McKee/Darlington, p. 172).
The four corvettes were all apparently members of the British "Flower" class, although many were built in Canada (Dianthus launched in Britain in 1940; Arvida in Quebec in 1940; Kitchener in British Columbia in 1941; Lenton, pp. 24, 30, 32; Wetaskiwin not listed ). The "Flowers" weren't that much smaller than true destroyers (about 1000 versus about 1400 tons), but much less capable (one 4-inch gun versus four or more 4.7"; 16 knots versus 36 knots, plus the destroyers had torpedoes). "The 'Flowers' epitomize Britain's mass production of cheap, simple vessels with modest capabilities. It was the quantity of 'Flowers' that made them so important -- decisive, by some accounts -- rather than any quality. Intended for coastal work, the AS [antisubmarine] emergency in the Atlantic forced them into mid-ocean where they displayed their ability to gather seawater, roll excessively, and discomfort their crews" (Worth, p. 125).
Canadian corvettes were also somewhat behind the times: "The corvettes at the heard of the NEF [Newfoundland Escort Force] had the sea-keeping capability an the range to steam across the Atlantic with ease, but they were otherwise poorly prepared for war. The 4-inch main gun retrieved from First World War stocks was standard for all corvettes, but the original British plan called for a 2-pounder gun aft [about 1.5"] and, by 1941, 20 mm oerlikons [light anti-aircraft guns] on the bridge. Canadian corvettes made due with a smattering of .303 Lewis and .50 Browning machine guns as secondary armament, with were of little use against aircraft and totally useless against submarines. British corvettes were fitted with a gyrocompass and could quickly upgrade their asdics [sonar] to modern standards. Canadian corvettes carried magnetic compasses and were therefore limited to the type 123A asdic, obsolete since the early 1930s.... The Royal Navy also quickly modified its corvettes with extended forecastles to make them safer and drier; the RCN waited two full years before commencing a modernization program for its early corvettes" (Milner, p. 91). As Lamb, p. 52, acidly comments of the Canadian corvettes, other than the one 4" gun, the secondary armament "was limited to a Lewis machine gun or two and perhaps a fellow who could throw rocks."
Plus the ships were cranked out faster than Canadian crews could be trained: "Most young RCNVR officers were given a rudimentary indoctrination into the navy and then dumped aboard their new ship," and the appointed captain was, on more than one occasion, a drunkard (Milner, pp. 91-92).
"The corvette was seaworthy, but it pitched and backed in a heavy sea like a fiend possessed. Sea water sloshed into mess decks, officers' cabins, wardrooms, everywhere. The vessel was not fast enough to catch a U-boat on the surface, and it was originally equipped with obsolete asdic and a magnetic compass totally unsuited for anti-submarine work. When U-boats started to carry 10.5-centimetre deck guns [4.1 inch guns], the corvette did not even have heavy enough armament to fight it out with them on the surface. It often seemed that the best a corvette could do was to ram a submarine, at great risk to itself" (Bercuson, pp. 24-25). One sailor quipped that corvette crews should get submariners' pay because the "spent so much time underwater" (Milner, p. 97).
Lamb, pp. 23-24, says "The messdecks of a corvette in bad weather are indescribable; it would be difficult to imagine such concentrated misery anywhere else. Into two triangular compartments about 33 feet by 22 feet at their greatest dimensions are crammed some sixty-odd men; each has for his living space -- eating, sleeping, relaxing -- a seat on the cushioned bench which runs around the outer perimeter of each messdeck. There is a box beneath the seat for his clothing, and a metal dirty-box -- something like an old-fashioned hatbox -- holds his personal things in a rack above. The space where he slings his hammock -- carefully selected by the older hands and jealously guarded -- is 18 inches beneath the deck-head, or another hammock.... Crowded in harbour and stuffy, the messdecks at sea are like some vision of Hades. There is absolutely no fresh air; all the ports, open in harbour, are dogged down and blanked over at sea, and in heavy weather even the cowl ventilators from the upper deck have to be sealed off.... With the hammocks slung, there is hardly room anywhere to stand upright, and there is moisture everywhere."
To top it all off, when they had full wartime crews, they didn't have enough food storage to keep fresh food for an entire voyage, so the crews "survived on Nelson's fare of hard tack and pickled beef' (Milner, p. 110).
They didn't even get the best officers; the handful of regulars of the Royal Canadian Navy served in the big ships, while the reserves and the recruits served the corvettes (Bercuson, p. 25; Lamb, p. 7, calls these men the "Corvette Navy"). Mostly, they were the RCNVR, or second-string reserve, for which see "Roll Along, Wavy Navy"). Lamb, p. 11, describes the command structure: "a corvette would be commanded by a Naval Reserve (ex-merchant navy) lieutenant, with a Volunteer Reserve lieutenant as executive officer... and two other officers -- junior lieutenants or sub-lieutenants -- as watch-keepers."
The corvettes were extremely uncomfortable: "crews lived for weeks at a time in cold wet, cramped quarters in ships that tossed and twisted at the first sign of a heavy sea.... With the galley fires constantly doused, a hot mean was a rarity.... This life was debilitating, draining men of their energy and grinding them into a numbing tiredness" (Bercuson, p. 39).
The lack of speed was the result of their simple construction; they were based on a civilian whale-catching vessel, the Southern Pride (Lenton, p. 18) and used the old reciprocating engines (Lamb, p. 2), which were easy to build and which many British reservists knew, but which made them much slower than the turbines that had been standard in warships for more than thirty years. "Named 'corvette,' the French word for 'sloop,' the new escort with its modest 47-man complement was intended only as a stop-gap until something better could be provided" (Lamb, pp. 2-3).
"Right from the beginning, there was something suspect about corvettes in the eyes of right-thinking professional navy men; what was one to make of a man-of-war that looked like a fish trawler and called itself HMS Pansy? For the Admiralty... had designated the new ships as the Flower class" (Lamb, p. 3). It probably didn't help that some of them were actually built on the Great Lakes and sailed down the Saint Laurence to serve at sea (Milner, p. 101), and what proper navy man was going to trust a fresh-water ship?
For another song about life on corvettes, see Hopkins's "Bless 'Em All -- Corvettes" verse under "Bless 'Em All." - RBW
Of the four corvettes, Wetaskiiwin seems to have been busiest; she joined group C-5 in May 1943 (McKee/Darlington, p. 55), having been part of C-3 from May 1942 (McKee/Darlington, p. 53) and was involved in several actions, including sinking U-588 in July 1942; there is a photo of her on p. 54 of McKee/Darlington. But her lack of modern technology had resulted in several failures as an escort (Bercuson, pp. 40-41). She did at least manage to be memorable for her ship's crest, which was a "crowned lady falling on her backside in a puddle" because Wetaskiwin could be mispronounced "wet-ass-queen" (Lamb, p. 5).
Of the others, Arvida had helped rescue the survivors of the first Ottawa when she was lost in September 1942 (McKee/Darlington, p. 73). Based on the data in Lenton and the list of losses in McKee/Darlington, all four survived the war. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Hopk034

Beneath the Surface

DESCRIPTION: "Big ships we never cared for, Destroyers they can keep There is only one place that we know, That is deep down deep." The singer talks of the hard work and discomfort of submarine surface: "Underneath the surface We dream our dreams away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy sailor work derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North,South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 111-112, "Beneath the Surface" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beneath the Arches" (tune)
File: Tawn082

Beneath the Union Jack

See An Anti-Fenian Song (File: FMB102)

Beneath the Weeping Willow Tree

See Bury Me Beneath the Willow (File: R747)

Benjamin Bowmaneer

DESCRIPTION: Enraptured with martial spirit as England goes to war, a tailor makes a horse from his shear board, bridle bits from his scissors, and a spear from his needle (with which he spears a flea) and a bell from his thimble (to ring the flea's funeral knell).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (F.C.H in _Notes and Queries_)
KEYWORDS: war humorous nonsense bug
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1337-1453 - The Hundred Years' War
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 20-21, "Benjamin Bowmaneer" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BENBOWMR*
ADDITIONAL: F.C.H. in Notes and Queries (London, 1871 ("Digitized by Google")), Fourth Series Vol. VIII, No. 194, September 16 1871, p. 231, "The Prancing Tailor" ("I'll tell you how the world began") (1 text)
Roud #1514
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tailor and Louse" (theme of tailors and insects)
NOTES [595 words]: We don't have "tailor" as a keyword, otherwise I'd have included it. Also, while everyone seems to think this song is either the usual humorous put-down of tailors or a hidden satire, the resemblance to the magical elements in such songs as "Scarborough Fair" makes me wonder whether we should also keyword it as "magic." I continue to get the feeling there's more to this song than meets the eye. -PJS
I have to agree, though I have no better explanation of what's going on than Paul does. The put-down of tailors is likely enough; the practitioners of the trade were considered singularly ineffective. We can see an instance of this, e.g., in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2, Act III, scene 2, where Falstaff is interviewing potential soldiers. In lines 145-170, Falstaff interviews a tailor. His name? Francis Feeble. A double joke, obviously: "France is feeble," and the tailor is feeble too. And Falstaff justifies taking the fellow on the grounds that he might be useful during a retreat!
There is one interesting parallel here, though, to the Grimm fairy tale "The Brave Little Tailor" (note the occupation! It is their #20, "Das tapfere Schneiderlein," printed in 1812 and said to go back to Martinus Montanus, c. 1557)
In English, it is well-known through its inclusion in Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book, although he does not list his source. The tailor kills seven flies that are eating his jam, decides that makes him a hero, and sets out on a variety of adventures, in which he intimidates giants and men with his wits rather than his might. See also the version "John Glaick, The Brave Little Tailor" in Katherine Briggs, A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.1, pp. 341-342.
This obviously is a variation on the same theme. And yet, from the references and general feeling, I think this song has something -- though I've no idea what -- to do with the convoluted politics of the Hundred Years' War, fought between England and France.
The war began when Edward III (reigned 1327-1377, and under English law the King of France) attacked the French -- if not to gain the throne, then at least to get clear title to the English lands in Aquitaine. The reign of Henry V (1413-1422) saw the English make a serious attempt to take over France, but everything fell apart in the reign of Henry VI (1422-1461), and all British possessions in France were lost. For more about the war (probably more than you want to know), see the notes to "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" [Child 164].
During the whole time, though, there was constant diplomacy and maneuvering, much of which looked very silly from the outside.
By the way, it was the longbow which allowed the English -- often outnumbered three to one or more -- to keep the war going as long as it did.
There are at least two mudcat.org threads about this song which cite additional versions and have other background.
"Tailor as hero" is Thompson motif L113.9. - RBW
F.C.H[1871]: "I remember [this] almost twice forty years ago."
"It strikes me that this song is nearly seventy years old, and was intended as a satire on the volunteers of 1802" (source: G.A. Sala, Notes and Queries (London, 1871 ("Digitized by Google")), Fourth Series Vol. VIII, No. 193, September 9, 1871, p. 214. Sala has one verse: "A tailor sat at work, Benjamin Birmingham ... And he found a louse on his shirt..." [for the relation between tailor and louse see the notes to "Tailor and Louse." - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: VWL020

Benjamin Deane [Laws F32]

DESCRIPTION: Benjamin Deane, the singer, is successful in business but wants more. He turns to criminal activities on the side. When his wife leaves him, he shoots her in a jealous rage. Now he is in prison, warning others against his sort of behavior
AUTHOR: probably Joe Scott
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Eckstorm collection, according to Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker)
KEYWORDS: homicide jealousy prison
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1898 - Benjamin F. Deane (born in New Brunswick in 1854) murders his wife in Berlin Falls, New Hampshire. Tried and convicted, he spent less than ten years in prison
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws F32, "Benjamin Deane"
Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker, pp. 228-266, "Benjamin Deane" (2 texts, 4 tunes, with mentions of 29 versions)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 189-191, "Benjamin Dean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 89-91,241-242, "Benjamin Deane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 54-59,78-79, "Benjamin Deane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 5, "Benjamin Deane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 22-24, "Ben Deane" (1 text)
DT 686, BENJDEAN
Roud #2271
NOTES [70 words]: Sandy Ives says "there need be no question that Joe Scott [Joseph W. Scott] wrote BENJAMIN DEANE" (internet correspondence, based on Ives's article in JournalOfAmericanFolklore 72, 1959). But Laws, though he quotes this information, does so in such a way as to imply he still has doubts. - RBW
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland and Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland are the same August 19, 1958 performance. - BS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: LF32

Benjamin Franklin Went to France

See Charlie Chaplin Went to France (File: CarMF80A)

Benjamin's Lamentation, The

See The Bold Benjamin (File: VWL023)

Benjamin's Lamentations, The

See The Bold Benjamin (File: VWL023)

Benjamins' Lamentation for their Sad Loss at Sea by Storms and Tempests

See The Bold Benjamin (File: VWL023)

Benjy Havens

See Benny Havens (File: R232)

Benny Havens

DESCRIPTION: The exploits of Benny (Benjie) Havens at West Point. After some time as a cadet and soldier, he turns to selling whiskey to his comrades. Chorus: "Oh! Benny Havens's, oh! Oh! Benny Havens's, oh! We'll sing our reminiscences of Benny Havens's, oh!"
AUTHOR: "Lt. O'Brien of the 8th Infantry"
EARLIEST DATE: 1838
KEYWORDS: soldier drink
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 232, "Benjy Havens" (1 text, 1 tune, both fragmentary)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 540-543, "Benny Havens, Oh!" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 344-345, "Benny Havens, Oh!" (1 text)
DT, BENHAVEN*
Roud #7707
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Green (I)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Song of the Silver Cup ("Come together, classmates, a little song we'll sing") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p.52)
Come, Gaily Shout (by Geo. L. Raymond, [Class of 18]62) (Come, classmates, gather round us here, And join our jovial lay") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, pp. 116-117)
Our Class (by S. W. Tuttle, [class of 18]62) ("A dear kind mother Hobart is, And we good sons will be") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 28)
Come, All Ye Jolly Sophomores (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 35)
October's Leaves Are Falling (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 52)
Evening Song ("Weary lessons learned or ponies, Tutors tucked away in bed") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 52)
Junior Bone Song ("Raise, classmates, raise a joyful strain") (by Frank S. Fosdick, [class of 18]72) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 95)
NOTES [321 words]: Benny Havens reportedly served in the American military in the War of 1812, then opened a small store near the "cadet hospital." By 1832, he was selling liquor, and was forced off the military reservation as a result. He proceeded to re-open just off the grounds, and established quite a clientele among the officers-to-be.
The existence of his establishment may not have been all bad for West Point, which in its early years served a horrible diet -- little more than boiled potatoes, meat, pudding, and bread, according to Bobrick p. 17. Although Benny's main selling point was alcohol, it offered at least some food as well, and may have saved more than a few cadets from malnutrition.
"The menu at the mess hall drove countless cadets to risk punishment by sneaking off the post to the adjacent village of Highland Falls. There, sine 1824, Benny Havens and his wife operated a tavern that catered to the cadets. Mrs. Havens's specialties of buckwheat cakes and roast turkey, washed down with liquor, lured the young men. They could relax, carouse, listen to Benny's stories, and purchase their meals and drinks on credit. To academy authorities, the tavern was the source of evil, and when [the military academy's first superintendent Sylvanus] Thayer caught Benny smuggling liquor onto the post, he banished him and his wife from the grounds. They were the only citizens in the country specifically banned from West Point. But Benny Havens outlasted Thayer and a number of successors, remaining in business until after the Civil War" (Wert, pp. 27-28).
I find it somewhat ironic to note that Ulysses S. Grant, who later was accused of severe drunkenness, was said to have never visited Benny's tavern in his first year at West Point (Anderson/Anderson, p. 55).
There is apparently a book, "BENNY HAVENS OH! The Man, the Song, the Tavern & Custer," but it is so obscure that I wasn't even able to ascertain the author. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: R232

Benonie

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Bent County Bachelor, The

See Starving to Death on a Government Claim (The Lane County Bachelor) (File: R186)

Bent Sae Brown, The [Child 71]

DESCRIPTION: Willie makes a boat of his coat and a sail of his shirt to visit Annie overnight. When he leaves she warns that her three brothers lurk in the brown grass. They waylay him. He kills them. Her mother appeals to the king, who rules in favor of the lovers.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan, _Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland_, according to Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: trick love fight death family royalty brother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 71, "The Bent Sae Brown" (1 text)
Bronson 71, brief comments only
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #117, p. 1, "The Bents and Broom" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 219, "The Bents and Broom" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 189-191, "The Bent Sae Brown" (1 text)
Roud #3322
File: C071

Benton

DESCRIPTION: The singer fees [hires for the season] to Benton. "Benton's study ever was His servants for to grind." He puts up with Benton's tricks but wouldn't work the harvest with a rusty scythe. That settled, he wouldn't leave until he was fully paid.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work money trick
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #145, pp. 1-2, "Benton" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 364, "Benton" (1 text)
Roud #5906
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Benton Crew" (subject)
NOTES [56 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "The four brothers Benton ... farmed at Harthill in Whitehouse ... from 1874 to 1890." - BS
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Harthill (364) is at coordinate (h1-2,v6) on that map [near Alford, roughly 22 miles W of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3364

Benton County, Arkansas

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes a life of surprises and mishaps since leaving (Benton County) at (18). The tavern offers a fine meal but a flea-infested bed. The listener is given advice on how to milk an old ewe. Etc. Uses the "Derry Down" tune
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927
KEYWORDS: travel humorous bug food
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 345, "Benton County, Arkansas" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 282-283, "Benton County, Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 34A)
Roud #7624
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Derry Down" (tune) and references there
NOTES [45 words]: The various versions of this piece in Randolph are extensive, but hardly add up to a coherent story; "C" in particular looks like it might float. Cohen speculates that the first verse of the "A" text is a graft onto the song. I hope someone can find a fuller version. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: R345

Benton Crew, The

DESCRIPTION: The Bentons from Heartshill go to feeing [hiring] "wi' a weel-trimmed hat and a braw topcoat. [Brother] John [for example]: "may the deevil get him ... he's ane o' the Benton crew"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming moniker nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 363, "The Benton Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5907
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Benton" (subject)
NOTES [17 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "The four brothers Benton ... farmed at Harthill in Whitehouse ... from 1874 to 1890." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3363

Bergere Fait du Fromage (The Shepherdess Makes Cheese)

DESCRIPTION: French. The shepherdess makes cheese from the milk of her white sheep. In anger she kills her kitten. She confesses to her father and, for penance she will embrace men: not priests, but especially men of war with beards.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Creighton collection)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage sex nonsense animal shepherd
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 241-242, "Bergere Fait du Fromage" (1 text, 1 tune)
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 46, "Il etait une bergere (The Shepherdess)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 162-163, "C'etait une bergere" (1 French text+English translation, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Mme Josephine Costard, "Bergere Fait du Fromage" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [114 words]: In Peacock's version, there is no explanation for why the girl killed the kitten; perhaps it ate the cheese? - (BS, RBW)
In Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, the shepherdess tells the kitten to dip its paw (English) or leg (French) into the milk, to sample it. Instead, it dips its chin. Why this should so enrage the shepherdess isn't clear, particularly since it's the paw that walks in the litter-box. - PJS
Creighton's version has the shepherdess tell the kitten not to use its paw, and it obeys the literal order by using its chin instead -- and perhaps offers a motivation; it lets the girl go to the priest for penance, and the penance is to kiss him, which they then repeat. -- RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea241

Bering Sea

DESCRIPTION: "Full many a sailor points with pride to cruises o'er the ocean wide, But he is naught compared to me, For I have cruised the Bering Sea." He has seen Alaska and knows the Arctic; not even Columbus or Noah or Nelson could say the same.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Emma Mayhew Whiting papers, Dukes County Historical Society)
KEYWORDS: whaler hardtimes sailor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 113-114, "Bering Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25994
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beulah Land (I) (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Behring Sea
NOTES [90 words]: The whalers went to the Bering Sea for the same reason they went to Greenland and Baffin Bay: That's where the whales were. The Bering fishery featured conditions much like those in the Canadian Arctic, but was even harder for sailors, because Greenland was at least relatively close to Britain and the settled parts of Canada. The Bering Sea was cold and dark and took much longer to reach, with no decent stopping points closer than Hawaii. So this song is probably right: whaling the Bering Sea was the very worst work for a sailor. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HGam113

Berkshire Lady's Garland, The

DESCRIPTION: The rich Berkshire Lady falls in love with a young man. Disguised, she demands that he either fight her or marry her. He decides to risk it in hopes that the girl is rich. They are married and live happily ever after
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: love courting disguise marriage trick fight
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #19, pp. 138-148, "The Berkshire Lady's Garland" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 310-317, "The Berkshire Lady's Garland" (1 text)
ST BeCo310 (Partial)
Roud #31423
File: BeCo310

Bernard Riley

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Owen Riley, I have a son that sets me crazy; He come home every night singing blackguard songs." The boy goes out and fights, or comes home drunk and hits his sister, or pawns his father's pants. The father has no solution
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: father children drink
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 63-64, "Bernard Riley" (1 text)
Roud #5500
NOTES [45 words]: This, being a standard complaint about the wildness of youth (though in this case it sounds pretty justified) sounds to me as if it might be a popular song from the early twentieth century, but I haven't found any references to it in any source, printed or online. - RBW
File: Dean063

Berry Fields o Blair, The

See Berryfields of Blair (File: K339)

Berryfields of Blair

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes migrant workers' descent on Blair in berry-picking time; there are city folks, miners, fisherfolk, and Travellers. Some are successful, some not; some work as a family, some alone. The singer praises all
AUTHOR: Belle Stewart (1906-1997)
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (recorded from Belle Stewart)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer describes migrant workers' descent on Blair in berry-picking time; there are city folks, miners, fisherfolk, and Travellers from all parts of Scotland. Some are successful, some not; some work as a family, some alone; "some men share and share alike wi' wives that's no their ain." The singer praises them all and blesses the hand that led him to the berryfields of Blair
KEYWORDS: travel farming harvest work nonballad worker Gypsy migrant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, pp. 41-42, "The Berry Fields o Blair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 339, "The Berryfields of Blair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2154
RECORDINGS:
Belle Stewart, "The Berry Fields O' Blair" (on Voice20) (on SCStewartsBlair01)
BROADSIDES:
cf. "Nicky Tams" (tune)
NOTES [111 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland does not mention Belle Stewart's claim to have written this song -- but, in this instance, I see no reason to question it; this gives every evidence of being the work of a modern who is nonetheless steeped in traditional music -- and the dialect exactly fits Stewart's own. - RBW
Hall, notes to Voice20, re "The Berry Fields O' Blair": written in 1930. - BS
On the other hand, Sheila Stewart, on p. 40 of Queen Amang the Heather, says her mother wrote it in 1947. The 1930 date is possible -- Belle Stewart was born in 1906, so she had some experience with the work by then. But I'd incline to trust her daughter as the source!
File: K339

Bervie's Bowers

DESCRIPTION: "Bervie's bowers are bonnie." The singer loves "the flower o' Bervie's toon." Her father locks the door at night and keeps the keys but she lets her lover in. She has a baby. "Lang lang tarries the yellow-haired lad that gaed oot by the break o' day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: sex seduction pregnancy abandonment nightvisit
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #134, pp. 1-2, "Bervie's Bowers" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 789, "Bervie's Bowers" (7 texts, 8 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, p. 86, ("Oh, Bervie's bow'rs are bonny") [one verse]
Roud #6157
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bervie Braes Are Bonnie, and the Waters Roon Aboot
The Bonnie Banks of Tay
File: GrD4789

Berwick Freeman, The

DESCRIPTION: "An old freeman of sixty odd years" mourns the fading glory of "Berwick that old Border town." Don't speak of England and Scotland as nations; talk instead of "Great Britain and Ireland and Berwick on Tweed." Drink to her trade and wish God speed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: pride commerce Scotland lyric
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 503, "The Berwick Freeman" (1 text)
Roud #5988
NOTES [140 words]: I can't help but wonder about the composer of this. Berwick, in the years when England and Scotland were separate nations, was the chief fortress on the border, and changed hands frequently (John Cannon, editor, The Oxford Companion to British History, Oxford, 1997, p. 100, says it went back and forth fully 13 times before Richard of Gloucester -- the future Richard III -- finally captured it for England). Those frequent attacks meant that it was mostly a fort, not a town, but after the Union of the Crowns, it became a main border-crossing point; the first of its extant bridges was built in the sixteenth century and a second in the mid-nineteenth (presumably about the time the freeman was young). On the whole, the decline of competition between England and Scotland, which the singer praises, has reduced the town's importance. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3503

Besanschoot An

DESCRIPTION: German (Plattdeutsch). Forebitter shanty. "So mennich leve, lange Joorn." Sailors spend months and years at sea and do their duty well -- but their favorite time is when the captain cries, "Here's your rum!" They go around Cape Horn and get their rum
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: sailor shanty foreignlanguage drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 174, "Besanschoot An" (2 texts, German & English, 1 tune)
File: HSoSe174

Beside the Brewery at St. Mihiel

DESCRIPTION: "Beside the Brewery at St. Mihiel one bleak November day, Beneath a busted D. H. 4 a brave young pilot lay." He knows he is dying, and says he is going to a land where there are no enemies, where the planes work, and where the rocks drip Johnnie Walker
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: death soldier pilot technology drink derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 184-187, "Beside the Brewery at St. Mihiel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13615
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Hobo" [Laws H3] (lyrics, theme)
cf. "The Dying Hogger" (form)
File: NiMo194

Beside the Kennebec

DESCRIPTION: "They marched with Arnold at their head, Our soldiers brave and true." They travel the Kennebec as the autumn leaves turn. Hunger strikes the troops, and one unnamed soldier dies of it. The family still remembers him and preserves his relics
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks), from a scrapbook, probably c. 1861, in the Harris Collection at Brown University
KEYWORDS: soldier death food
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 140-141, "Beside the Kennebec" (1 text)
NOTES [1198 words]: At the end of 1775, the American Revolution was in trouble. The colonial forces were still ill-armed and largely undisiplined, and few officers had the skills to change that. Their logistics were terrible. The British could march their forces wherever they wanted -- and, with more soldiers on the way, they would be able to directly occupy more and more territory.
There was no American war department at this time; strategy was set partly by the Continental Congress, partly by the states, and partly by George Washington, the top general. The Congress apparently wanted a campaign against Canada (Middlekauff, p. 304). Washington considered a diversion a useful idea. Particularly since the British Governor, Guy Carleton, had been called upon to send some of his forces to support the British garrison of Boston (Cook, p. 243). Quebec, the key access point to Canada, was the objective.
The 1759 siege of Quebec (for which see "Brave Wolfe" [Laws A1]) should have told the Americans they were biting off a rather big mouthful. Somehow, they failed to realize this. Two columns were put in motion. (There are useful maps in Lancaster, p. 117, and Middlekauff, p. 306).
One campaign was from the west, via the Champlain. The area around Lake George and Ticonderoga had been captured early in the war (Ferguson, p. 182), and this was to provide the base for the western force. General Philip Schulyer had originally intended to command this expedition, but his health failed, and General Richard Montgomery, a veteran of the Seven Years' War (Weintraub, p. 339) led the force north (Lancaster, p. 108).
It was slow going -- due mostly to the Colonial lack of engineers and supply officers. The army set out on August 28, 1775, but made little progress. A tiny post at the north end of Lake Champlain, Fort St. John, held up Montgomery's advance for two months before surrendering (Lancaster, p. 108). It wasn't until November 5 that Montgomery headed for Montreal, some twenty miles away. The city fell on November 13, but Governor Carleton escaped (Lancaster, p. 109).
Meanwhile, a second expedition was setting out for Quebec. This force, under Benedict Arnold, sailed from Newburyport on the Massachussetts/New Hampshire border and landed at the mouth of the Kennebec river in what is now Maine (Lancaster, p. 109).
The plan was for Arnold to go up the Kennebec in bateaux, through a series of portages, then down the Chaudiere River to the St. Lawrence near Quebec (Lancaster, p. 109). Unfortunately, no one in authority knew how long this route was! Arnold apparently thought he had a distance of 180 miles to travel, which he expected to cover in twenty days. In fact he had twice that far to go, and it took 45 days (Middlekauff, p. 304).
Having set out in mid-September, it was not until October 11 that they reached the "Great Carrying Place," the key portage where they left the Kennebec (Middlekauff, p. 304). The bateaux were already leaking (they had been made of green wood, by craftsmen who did not know how to build them, and had often crashed or overturned because the soldiers did not know how to sail them; Lancaster, p, 111), and many of the provisions had been spoiled by water.
Men began to turn back -- they were called cowards, but had they not left, the whole expedition might have starved (Lancaster, p. 111). As it was, men were reduced to eating dogs, hides, candles. They finally reached the St. Lawrence on November 8 (Lancaster, p. 112) or 9 (Middlekauff, p. 305).
But Arnold had fewer than 700 men left (only about 650 according to Lancaster, p. 112; Middlekauff, p. 305, says 675; Morison, p. 220, says 600. Ferguson, p. 182, says that he had lost more than half his force, which would mean he had fewer than 500 men, but this is probably an exaggeration). He could not attack Quebec with such a force; indeed, it took him until November 13 just to get across the St. Lawrence (Middlekauff, p. 305). Montgomery finally arrived on December 2 (Lancaster, p. 112). The combined forces had only about a thousand men, many of them sick and ill-equipped. But they could not set a siege; apart from the weakness of the force, which would make a siege hard to maintain, many of the men's enlistments expired at the end of December (Weintraub, p. 44). It was an assault or nothing.
Montgomery and Arnold knew they could not attack over the Plains of Abraham, the route used by Wolfe 17 years before. The walls of the town were too strong (thirty feet high, with a variety of bastions, according to Middlekauff, p. 307), and the defenders too many (probably close to 1800 of them -- indeed, Cook, p. 243, says 3000). The Americans decided to assault the lower town, at the bottom of the rock of Quebec, from both north and south, meet in the middle, and try to fight their way up the narrow path to the upper city (Lancaster, p. 112). It was a plan of desperation.
And it failed. The British knew they would come soon, and had been sleeping in their clothes by the defences (Middlekauff, p. 307). The assault went in on the night of December 30/31, with Montgomery attacking along the river and Arnold taking his troops along the north edge of the Rock.
Generals in this period were expected to *lead* their troops, not sit in the rear -- and in any case Montgomery, although titled a general, led a command about fit for a major. He apparently was killed at first contact (by a bullet in the head, according to Middlekauff, p. 308; by the first round of canister fired by the British artillery, according to Lancaster, p. 113), and his men fled. Half the assault had failed without even really getting started.
Arnold was also wounded early in the fighting (Middlekauff, p. 307), and his force retreated, taking Arnold with them but leaving many prisoners behind (Lancaster, p. 113).
The attack on Canada was over. Arnold held a position about a mile from the town through the winter (Middlekauff, p. 308), and the British -- knowing he could do nothing -- did not bother to attack him. Come spring, he turned over his command and went back to the American base at Montreal (Middlekauff, p. 308). The troops stayed a little longer, but accomplished nothing.
Guy Carleton was able to mount a counterattack in 1776 that recaptured Montreal (Cook, p. 244) and took him most of the way up the Champlain. Arnold, who had built a small fleet of gunboats, fought him there, and suffered a tactical defeat -- but it was October, and Carleton wasn't going to make the same mistake as the Americans and try to fight in winter. He retreated from the Champlain (Lancaster, p. 114; Cook, p. 244).
The next year, John Burgoyne came the same way, marching down from Canada into New York -- to end up at a place called Saratoga. For more on the 1777 campaign, see the notes to "The Fate of John Burgoyne." For more on Benedict Arnold, see "Major Andre's Capture" [Laws A2].
This song, obviously, is the story of a young man who started out with Arnold, but was one of the many who did not even reach the St. Lawrence. We often hear of the privations of Valley Forge, the result of miserable Colonial logistics. The hero of this song died even earlier, but of the same cause. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Gray140

Besom Maker, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a besom maker, out gathering broom, meets "a rakish squire," "Jack Sprat, the miller," and "a buxom farmer" and has [coded] sex with each. She has a baby and gives up besom making for nursing.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(244))
KEYWORDS: sex farming childbirth bawdy miller
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 55, "Green Besoms" (3 texts)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #77, "Bizzoms" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sumner-TheBesomMaker, pp. 1-4, "The Besom Maker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #910
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(244), "The Besom Maker" ("I am a besom maker, listen to my tale"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(245), Harding B 11(3283), Firth b.34(19), "The Besom Maker"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Buy Broom Besoms (I Maun Hae a Wife)" (chorus)
cf. "Fine Broom Besoms (When I Was wi' Barney)" (chorus)
cf. "The Miller and the Lass" (theme: sex and a miller; grinding corn as the metaphor)
NOTES [66 words]: The "code": "I wrote to him [the squire] the tune, I eased him of his gink"; "His [the miller] mill I rattled round, I ground the grits so clean, I eas'd him of his gink"; he [the farmer] plough'd his furrows deep, and laid his corn so low, He left it there to keep her, like green broom to grow." Then, "when the corn grew up to its native toil, A pretty sweet young baby soon on me did smile." - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: BdBesMa

Bess of Ballymoney

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on the muses to inspire him in praise of "the star of Ballymoney." He sees her, falls in love, and asks her to marry. She is young and not ready to leave home. He takes her to a tavern. She agrees to leave home and friends and marry him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty drink marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H133, p. 461, "Bess of Ballymoney" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [40 words]: In what is clearly a typographical accident, the note in Henry/Huntington/Herrmann list this as a version of Child #143. It's not; it's just another of those Irish songs about love at first sight -- in this case, perhaps aided by alcohol. - RBW
File: HHH133

Bess the Gawkie

DESCRIPTION: Jean tells Bess that her boyfriend Jamie had been kissing Maggie and, between kisses, told Maggie "that Bess was but a gawkie [fool]." Bess tells Jamie she won't be just another of his many girls and leaves him "to rue That ever Maggie's face he knew"
AUTHOR: James Muirhead (1740-1808) (source: Rogers)
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity rejection rake shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1840, "Bess the Gawkie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, pp. 154-156, "The Gawkie"
Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol I, pp. 35-37, "Bess, the Gawkie"
Charles Rogers, editor, [The Project Gutenberg EBook (2006) of] The Modern Scottish Minstrel; or, The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century Vol II (Edinburgh, 1856), p. 82, "Bess, the Gawkie"
Roud #8416
File: GrD81840

Bessie Beauty

See Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid) [Laws M20] (File: LM20)

Bessie Bell and Mary Gray

See Bessy Bell and Mary Gray (I) [Child 201] (File: C201)

Bessie Combs

DESCRIPTION: "It was one beautiful night in May, Sweet Bessie was singing in glee, She did not know it was in Reuben's heart To take her sweet life away." "O, Bessie, my darling, come home; Bid Reuben alone adieu. His hands are stained with your own blood."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads)
KEYWORDS: love homicide music
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, p. 28, "Bessie Combs" (1 excerpt)
File: ReSm028

Bessie of Ballington Brae [Laws P28]

DESCRIPTION: Bessie appears to her former lover as he lies sleeping, saying that she is dead and he has led her astray. He goes to her home and learns that she is indeed dead. He admits to the betrayal, says he intended to marry her, and stabs himself to death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1859 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.11(245)); before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(677) if the broadside is this ballad; see notes)
KEYWORDS: ghost seduction death suicide betrayal
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws P28, "Bessie of Ballington Brae"
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 90-91, "Bessie of Ballydubray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H73, pp. 412-413, "Ballindown Braes" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 32, "Betsy of Ballindorn Brae" (3 texts)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 3, "Ballintown Brae" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 31, "Jessie of Ballington Brae" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 44-45, "Ballentown Brae" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 31, "Bessie of Ballington Brae" (1 text)
DT 596, BESSBAL
Roud #566
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(245), "Answer to Betsy of Ballantown Bray," J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1855-1858; also 2806 c.15(155), 2806 b.9(233), "Answer to Ballindown Brae"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ballan Doune Braes" (prequel)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bessie of Ballydubray
NOTES [81 words]: Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia's notes to "Bessie of Ballington Brae" include the first verse from a broadside that is "quite certainly" connected to his ballad. Laws, having as an example, a broadside entitled "Answer to Betsy of Ballantown Bray" concludes that P28 is the sequel to Mackenzie's broadside. That prequel is indexed here as "Ballan Doune Braes." The Bodleian broadsides noted here, which are examples of Laws P28, are likewise entitled "Answer to ...." - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: LP28

Bessie of Ballydubray

See Bessie of Ballington Brae [Laws P28] (File: LP28)

Bessie off Bednall

See The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green [Laws N27] (File: LN27)

Bessy Bell and Mary Gray (I) [Child 201]

DESCRIPTION: "O Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, They war twa bonnie lasses; They biggit a bower on yon burn brae, And theekit it o'er wi' rashes." Despite these precautions, they die of the plague. They had hoped to be buried in Methven kirk yard, but this was not allowed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1688 (reference according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes); 1824 (Sharpe); 1842 (Halliwell: nursery rhyme) [see notes]
KEYWORDS: disease death burial
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,SE,So) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Child 201, "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray" (1 text: Sharpe's four verses)
Bronson 201, "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray" (5 versions: Bronson's #1,2,5,6; #7 is a nursery rhyme and #3-#4 are "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray (II)")
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 201, "Bessy Bell and Mry Gray" (2 versions: #4, #5, of which #5 is probably this although very brief)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 129-130, "Bessie Bell and Mary Gray" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #293, pp. 169-170, "(Bessy Bell and Mary Gray)" (1 text: nursery rhyme)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 278-279, "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray" (1 fragment plus a printed version that may have been the source: nursery rhyme, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 22, "Bessie Bell and Mary Gray" (1 text, of only two verses: the first goes here but the second appears to be floating material[see notes])
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 38B, 38C, 38D, "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray" (3 text fragments: all first verse only); 38A, "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray" (1 text: nursery rhyme)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 39, "Bessie Bell and Mary Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 74, "Bessie Bell and Mary Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 190-191, "Bessie Bell and Mary Gray" (1 fragment: close to first verse and half the second of Sharpe's version)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 39, "Bessie Bell and Mary Gray" (3 texts: nursery rhyme, Sharpe, two line "squib" [see notes])
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 302, "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray" (1 text: same text as Sharpe)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 176, "Bessie Bell and Mary Gray" (1 text: same text as Sharpe)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 163+336, "Bessie Bell and Mary Gray" (1 text: same text as Sharpe)
Greig/Duncan6 1256Aa, "Bessie Bell I Lued Yestreen" (close to Sharpe's first verse); 1257, "Bessie Bell and Mary Gray" (close to Sharpe's first two verses)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 142-149, "Bessie Bell and Mary Gray" (1 text plus Allan Ramsey's rewrite)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 11, "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray" (1 short text)
DT BESSBELL (same text as Sharpe), BESSBEL2 (nursery rhyme)
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #128, p. 134, "Bessy Bell, and Mary Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas Lyle, Ancient Ballads and Songs (London, 1827 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 160-161, "Bessy Bell an' Mary Gray" (1 text: four verses similar to Sharpe's)
T.F. Henderson, editor, Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (New York, 1902 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol I, p. 26 fn, "Bessie Bell and Mary Gray" [added 1830: close to Sharpe's first and third verse].
James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1842 ("Digitized by Google")), #56 pp. 36-37, ("Bessy Bell and Mary Gray") (1 text: nursery rhyme)
Walter de la Mare, Come Hither, revised edition, 1928; notes to #62 (no title) (1 text: same text as Sharpe)
Roud #237
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray (II)" (subject)
NOTES [679 words]: This ballad is sometimes associated with a plague which struck Perth, Scotland in 1645. Few versions of this ballad, which is usually found only in fragmentary form, explain why the two women were denied burial in the town churchyard; homosexuality has been offered as a possible explanation. - PJS, RBW
Iona and Peter Opie write, "The local tradition (first written down c. 1773) about these two girls is that Mary Gray was the daughter of the Laird of Lednock and Bessy Bell of the Laird of Kinvaid, a place near by. They were both very handsome and an intimate friendship subsisted between them. While Bessy was on a visit to Mary the plague broke out at Perth (seven miles distant), and in order to escape it they built themselves a bower.... Here they lived for some time; but... they caught the infection from a young man who was in love with both of them and used to bring them provisions. They died in the bower, and since, according to the rule in case of plague, they could not be buried in a churchyard ... they were interred in the Dranoch-haugh."
The earliest "complete" 16-line text I have seen is Sharpe, Child's source (Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, A Ballad Book (Edinburgh, 1891, reprint of 1824 edition), Vol I, #20 p. 50, "The Twa Lasses").
Lyle: "The above fragment is here collated from the singing of two aged persons, one of them a native of Perthshire. It is to be regretted, that none of the intermediate stanzas of this fine old Ballad are upon record; neither Bannatyne nor Maitland, have the Ballad entered into their MSS ...."
Cox has the usual first verse and the following second verse: "They wouldn't have their shoes of red, Nor would they have them yellow; But they would have a bonny green, To walk the streets of Yarrow." That seems to have floated here but I can't see where it has floated from. It reminds Cox of the Child 200 (e.g., 200K.vs7) verse "They took off my high-heeled shoes, That were made of Spanish leather, And I have put on coarse Lowland brogues, To trip it oer the heather."
Aside from the reference to shoes I don't see the similiarity. I do see a parallel with verses that have two negative lines followed by a positive line and a conclusion (for example, Child 64A.vs19, "Some put on the gat green robes, And some put on the brown; But Janet put on the scarlet robes, To shine foremost throw the town" ). The verse fits the story in that green is usually associated with death (and/or witchcraft) in the ballads (see Lowry Charles Wimberly, Folklore in the Englsih & Scottish Ballads (Dover, New York, 1965 reprint of 1928 edition), especially pp. 176, 178, 240, 241).
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes has two lines of "a squib on the birth of the Old Pretender (1688), beginning: Bessy Bell and Mary Grey, Those famous bonny lasses," that establishes a latest date for the creation of the ballad.
Besides the ballad form there is a nursery rhyme on the subject that has been collected in North America and Scotland: "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, They were two bonnie lasses, They built their house upon the lea, And covered it with rashes. Bessy kept the garden gate And Mary kept the pantry; Bessy always had to wait While Mary she had plenty"
There is another song beginning with the same first verse as Child 201, indexed here as "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray (II)," written by Ramsay around 1720. Scott would have that be Ramsay's attempt to fill in the romantic part of the story. - BS
While we're mentioning hypotheses about the women in this song, Albert Jack had a truly wild one about his nursery rhyme version which has as its second verse, "Bessy kept the garden gate, And Mary kept the pantry; Bessy always had to wait, While Mary lived in plenty": That Bessie Bell is Elizabeth I Tudor and Mary Gray is Mary I Tudor, the latter set aside as Henry VIII's heir when the Bluff King married Anne Boleyn and then Elizabeth herself set aside when Jane Seymour came along. Both spent time in isolation from the court, but Elizabeth was in some fear for her life when Mary became queen in 1553. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: C201

Bessy Bell and Mary Gray (II)

DESCRIPTION: The singer loved Bessy yesterday but couldn't get her; now Mary's sly glance has his fancy. Bessy's beauty enthralls him as does Mary's wit and grace. The law allows him to have only one so he'll draw lots "and be with ane contented"
AUTHOR: Allan Ramsay (1686-1758)
EARLIEST DATE: 1720 (Ramsay, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes, p. 38); 1724 (Ramsay, _The Tea-Table Miscellany_)
KEYWORDS: courting beauty dancing derivative nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1256Ab, 1256B, "Bessie Bell I Lued Yestreen" (2 fragments plus a single verse on p. 588, 1 tune)
Bronson 201, "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray" (2 versions: Bronson's #3-4)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 201, "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray" (2 versions, of which #4 is this)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 362, "Bessie Bell and Mary Gray" (1 text)
DT BESSBEL3
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany (London, 1724 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 104-105, "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray" ("O Bessy Bell and Mary Gray") (1 text)
Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol I, pp. 235-236, "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray" (1 text)

Roud #237
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 45(14), "The Scottish lasses Bessy Bell and Mary Gray" ("O Bessy Bell and Mary Gray"), J. Smyth (Belfast), 1813-1850
NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(114), "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray," unknown, after 1720
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grow the Rashes, O" (tune, per Greig/Duncan6)
cf. "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray (I)" [Child 201] (source) and references there
NOTES [265 words]: The NLScotland broadside consists solely of an ode to the two pretty young women, and is likely a rewrite; it is credited in the notes on the site (though not on the broadside itself that I can see) to Allan Ramsay (1686-1758). - RBW
Ramsay's version is considered by Child a separate song of Ramsay's own. Chambers writes, "Ramsay has here converted into a very pretty and sprightly song, what was originally a very rude but pathetic little ballad." On the other hand, Scott writes, "There is to a Scottish ear so much tenderness and simplicity in these verses [see the entry for Child 201], as must induce us to regret that the rest should have been superseded by a pedantic modern song, turning upon the most unpoetic part of the legend, the hesitation, namely, of the lover, which of the ladies to prefer."
Among the Scottish collections not listed above, Whitelaw The Book of Scottish Song , Herd Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, St Cecilia or The British Songster, Pinkerton Select Scotish Ballads, Phillips A Collection of Old Ballads and Gilchrist A Collection of Ancient and Modern Scottish Ballads, Tales and Songs print Ramsay's text as representative of "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray." On the other hand, of the Scottish anthologies of songs and ballads I use most frequently, only Aytoun The Ballads of Scotland prints Child's text.- BS
For more on the complex history of these pieces (which seems to have three recensions: the original "Bessy Bell," a nursery rhyme version, and Ramsey's rewrite), see the notes to "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray (I)" [Child 201]. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: C201Rams

Bessy Bingle

See There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)

Best Bed's a Feather Bed

DESCRIPTION: The best bed's a feather bed but the best bed in our house is "clean pease straw." That's dirty and will make a gown dirty. "Never mind my bonny lass Just lay the cushion down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: sex nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West),Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 43, "Best Bed's a Feather Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 21, "The Best Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1123
File: OpGa043

Best Little Doorboy, The

DESCRIPTION: "The workmen in the Rhondda are wonderful boys, They go to their work without any noise." The singer mentions the people found in the mines: Daniel the sawyer, "always so cross," "Old William, the Lampman," girls with holes in their stockings, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads)
KEYWORDS: mining moniker
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, p. 25, "The Best Little Doorboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 68-69, "The Best Little Doorboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MacCS025

Best of Friends Must Part, The

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "When you lose a loving friend Keep up a cheerful heart, The proverb says that in the end The best of friends must part." The sailor leaves his wife for years; the dying soldier leaves wife and children. Comfort those left behind.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (broadside Bod7418 Firth b.27(372))
KEYWORDS: grief farewell home parting separation death nonballad friend husband wife children sailor soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 50-51, "The Best of Friends Must Part" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #24894
RECORDINGS:
George Hatfield, "Best of Friends Must Part" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod7418 Firth b.27(372), "Best of Friends Must Part" ("A subject as in many songs"), Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1872
NOTES [17 words]: One of Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's texts is a fragment: an alternative chorus. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Guig050

Best Old Feller in the World, The

See My Good Old Man (File: R426)

Best Thing in Life, The

DESCRIPTION: "Great men" sitting in a club discuss "the best thing in life." A general says "it is boys fighting for home and the flag." A millionaire says it is gold. "An old fellow" says it is mother's/sweetheart's/babies' love.
AUTHOR: Charles K. Harris (source: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach); reportedly composed 1907
KEYWORDS: love marriage army battle gold nonballad children family mother soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 52-54, "The Best Thing in Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18253
RECORDINGS:
Jim Rossiter, "The Best Thing in Life" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: Guig052

Best Thing We Can Do, The

See Old Tippecanoe (File: Wa073)

Besuthian

DESCRIPTION: "The aul' year's deen an' the new's begun, Besoothan, besoothan, An' noo the beggars they have come." The beggars ask "charity to the peer" and, "In meal an' money gin ye be scant, We'll kiss yer lasses or we want"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: request money food begging nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 642, "Besuthian" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6075
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ye Gae But to Your Beef-Stan'" (subject)
cf. "Queen Mary's Men (New Year's Eve Carol)" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Thiggin' Song
Thiggers' Song
NOTES [282 words]: Greig/Duncan3 quoting an 1889 letter to the editor in the Banffshire Journal: "I have collected the following verses [Greig/Duncan3 642D], which were sung fifty years ago by the young men of our Strath when going the round of our district collecting meal and money for the poor and distressed about the New Year...."
Greig/Duncan3 quoting a letter in the Aberdeen Free Press in 1906: "'Besuthian' in the refrain of this old song appears to me as a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon word 'Theowian' -- to serve; and the verb 'Be' as a prefix -- Be-theowian - meaning, be serving."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Bairnsdale (642) is at coordinate (h4,v8) on that map [roughly 23 miles NNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Some internet sources seem to connect this with "Queen Mary's Men (New Year's Eve Carol)." This seems a slight stretch, though they may well have served the same purpose.
I flatly don't buy the "Theowian" derivation. That Old English word didn't make it into Middle English, and is highly unlikely to have been known in Scotland. I might buy a derivation from Middle English "thew," "custom" -- "be sooth (true) to custom." But even that strikes me as an improbably long survival for a word of unknown meaning. I frankly suspect it is a proper noun, but I don't know what.
For some reason that I absolutely cannot explain, the word that comes to mind is "Valerian" -- though whether this is the Roman Emperor, or the plant, or a product of my diseased imagination I do not know. I mention it only in case it inspires someone else who has a better idea than I do.
"Thigging" is begging. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3642

Betrayed Girl, The

See Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection) (File: R755)

Betrayed Maiden, The

See Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid) [Laws M20] (File: LM20)

Betrothed, The

DESCRIPTION: "Open the old cigar-box, get me a Cuba stout, For... Maggie and I are out." "Maggie, my wife at fifty -- grey and dour and old -- With never another Maggie to purchase...." "A woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke.
AUTHOR: Words: Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Pioneer/Pioneer Mail, according to The Kipling Society web site)
KEYWORDS: wife rejection drugs
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 171, "Maggie my wife at fifty" (1 fragment)
Roud #25410
NOTES [50 words]: Observe that this was written when Kipling was less than half way to the age of fifty, so he had no personal experience of whether it was worthwhile to stay with a woman until she reached that age. Whether it is funny or not probably depends on how much tobacco has rotted your lungs (and head). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC171B

Betsey

See The Old Oak Tree [Laws P37] (File: LP37)

Betsey Bakered

See Betsy Baker (File: R117)

Betsey Brown

DESCRIPTION: "There's a pretty little girl, she lives downtown, Her daddy is a butcher and his name is Brown." Having met pretty Betsey Brown in the street, the singer courts her, meets her parents, and plans to wed her (and enjoy her family's money....)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Walter Morris)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty family money
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 384, "Betsey Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 45, "With Betsey Brown" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 180-181, "Betty Brown" (1 text)
Roud #7618
RECORDINGS:
Walter Morris, "Betsey Brown" (Columbia 15079-D, 1926)
NOTES [34 words]: Vernon Dalhart recorded a piece, "Pretty Little Dear," which conflates this with "I Had But Fifty Cents" and other material. But the Randolph text, at least, seems independent of the Dalhart version. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: R384

Betsey Grey

See Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid) [Laws M20] (File: LM20)

Betsy

See Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid) [Laws M20] (File: LM20)

Betsy B

See Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid) [Laws M20] (File: LM20)

Betsy Baker

DESCRIPTION: The singer "never knew what it was to sigh / till I saw Betsy Baker." He tries to court her, but she consistently rejects him. He becomes sick with love, barely recovers, tries again to win her, and is once again rejected
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (Scottish chapbook in the Harvard library)
KEYWORDS: love rejection
FOUND IN: US(So) Canada(Mar) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 219, "Betsy Baker" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 288)
Randolph 117, "Betsy Baker" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 146, "Betsy Baker" (1 text)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp. 62-63, "Betsy Baker" (1 text, seemingly the same song but with a happy ending)
ADDITIONAL: J.E. Carpenter, editor, The Comic Song Bookn (London, 1863 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 229-231, "Betsy Bakered" (1 text)
ST R117 (Full)
Roud #1288
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(257), "Betsy Baker," T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 17(24a), "Betsy Baker"; Firth b.25(508), Harding B 11(258), Harding B 25(176), Firth b.34(266), "Betsey Baker"
LOCSinging, as100980, "Betsey Baker," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Head Man at Mrs Grundy's" (tune, per Carpenter)
SAME TUNE:
The First World's Fair, or The National Exhibition (per broadside Murray, Mu23-y2:005, "The First World's Fair, or The National Exhibition" ("How wonderful it doth appear To people of each station"), unknown, 19C)
Push About the Jorum (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 17(24a))
NOTES [7 words]: Carpenter has Thomas Hudson as author. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: R117

Betsy Bay

See Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid) [Laws M20] (File: LM20)

Betsy Bell

DESCRIPTION: "Oh my name is Betsy Bell, in the Overgate I dwell, Nae doubt you're wondring fit I'm daein' here, Well, I'm lookin' for a man... and anything in breek will dae wi' me." Betsy describes lads she has pursued without success; she'll keep trying despite age
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Stewart Family)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid courting rejection humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 41, "Betsy Bell" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BETSYBEL
ADDITIONAL: Chris Wright, "'Forgotten Broadsides and the Song Tradition of the Scots Travellers" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, p. 83, "I Wonder What's Adee Wi' a' the Men!" (reproduction of a Poets Box broadside)
Roud #5211
RECORDINGS:
Belle Stewart, "Betsy Bell" (on Voice10)
Belle, Sheila, and Cathie Stewart, "Betsy Bell" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Maid's Song (I)" and references there
NOTES [62 words]: It appears that this is primarily a possession of the Stewarts of Blair. In earlier versions of the Index, I wondered if it was composed by someone in their family. It turns out it was not, being derived from a Poets Box broadside. But the Stewart version is significantly different, and the broadside doesn't indicate the tune, so possibly the Stewarts remade the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: DTbetsyb

Betsy Brennan's Blue Hen

DESCRIPTION: The singer bought "my beautiful little blue hen" from the widow McKenny for a penny. It was swiped by "some dirty crawler." The song is a set of curses on "the villain" who stole the hen, e.g. "And may he have bunions As big as small onions"
AUTHOR: Johnny Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (England, Vikings of the Ice)
KEYWORDS: theft humorous chickens curse
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Betsy Brennan's Blue Hen" (1 text): p. 76 in the 4th edition, p. 58 in the 5th
ADDITIONAL: George Allan England, _Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt_ (also published as _The Greatest Hunt in the World_), Doubleday, 1924, pp. 130-131, "Betsy Brennan's Blue Hen" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 52, "Betsey Brennan's Blue Hen" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #36, pp. 58-59, "Betsy Brennan's Blue Hen" (1 text)
Johnny Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1926_, self-published, 1926 (PDF copy avallable on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), [no page number], "Betsy Brennan's Blue Hen" (1 text)
Roud #7289
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "My Little Blue Hen" (on NFOBlondahl02, NFOBlondahl05)
Raymond Noseworthy, "Blue Hen" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (theme, many lines of text, and references there)
NOTES [143 words]: NFOBlondahl02, NFOBlondahl05: This is a version of "Betsy Brennan's Blue Hen" attributed to Johnny Burke in Old-Time Songs and Poetry of Newfoundland 4th ed (1966) p. 76, 5th ed (1978) p. 58 pub by Gerald S Doyle Ltd. [It's also in the 1927 edition - RBW]
Also see "Blue Hen" on the MacEdward Leach and Songs of Atlantic Canada site, copyright owner Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive. That site refers to Roud #9053, "The Bonny Brown Hen," which shares the theme but is not the same song.
Not related to Bodleian, Harding B 11(402), "The Bonny Brown Hen," Walker (Durham), n.d.
This may have been written by Johnny Burke, but, if so, he must have been singing "Nell Flaherty's Drake" while he was writing "Betsy Brennan's Blue Hen." - BS
For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: RcBBBHen

Betsy Brown

DESCRIPTION: The singer picks up Betsy Brown in his cart. "Courting," he can't control the cart and gets into trouble with the police for breaking things. He sells the cart to pay the fine. Later he is hauled into court by Betsy for child support. They marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.28(14a))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage bastard crash
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1451, "Betsy Brown" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7150
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(14a), "Betsy Brown" or "Riding in a Cart" ("As I walked out one rainy day"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth b.34(39), "Betsy Brown" or "Riding in a Cart"; Harding B 11(259),"Betsy Brown"
NOTES [17 words]: Greig/Duncan7 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Firth b.28(14a) is the basis for the description. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71451

Betsy from Pike

See Sweet Betsy from Pike [Laws B9] (File: LB09)

Betsy Gray

DESCRIPTION: Betsy Gray goes to Ballynahinch battlefield. She finds her wounded fiance Willie and brother George. A Yeoman sword cuts off her hand as she pleas for her brother's life. Another Yeoman shoots her. The bodies are found and they are buried in one grave.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry)
KEYWORDS: rebellion battle burial death brother sister reunion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 13, 1798 - Battle of Ballynahinch (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 93-95, "Betsy Gray" (1 text)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 82, "Betsy Gray" (1 text)
Roud #6541
NOTES [606 words]: Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry has Betsy fighting beside Wullie Boal and her brother George. "When adverse fate with victory crowned the loyal host upon that day, Poor George and Wullie joined the flight, and with them lovely Betsy Gray." Their fight, wounding, and death follows. - BS
For the Battle of Ballynahinch, see especially the notes to "General Monroe." The battle was the last stand, or nearly, of the Ulster portion of the 1798 rebellion. The rebels had hardly fought; their lack of discipline caused them to collapse when pressed by the loyalist forces of General Nugent.
It appears this song is essentially accurate; Pakenham, (who generally downplays the worst behavior by British troops), reports on p. 231 that "[no] one knew how many rebels had been killed, but it was assumed about four hundred. The bodies lay unburied in the deserted streets of Ballynahinch, like those at New Ross the week before, food for the local pigs. Other victims of the battle were taken away by night and buried by their relatives. Among them was a young girl called Betsy Gray, who was later to be famous for her part that day. She had fought beside her brother and lover, and they had stayed by her in the retreat, although they could have outridden their pursuers; all three were shot down by the yeomanry."
Stewart, p. 227, reports that "A young woman called Elizabeth Gray, with her brother George and her fiance, Willie Boal, were about to cross the country road when they were apparently seen by a vedette posted at the nearby crossroads. The scene of the encounter was a marshy hollow at Ballycreen, about two miles from Ballynahinch. Betsy Gray (to give her the name by which she is best remembered) had gone ahead of the men and was taken first. When George Gray and Boal went to her aid they were instantly shot down. Then a cavalryman called Jack Gill struck off the girl's gloved hand with his sabre, and Thomas Nelson 'of the parish of Annahilt, aided by James Little of the same place' shot her through the head.... Young Matthew Armstrong found the mutilated bodies, and with the help of two neighbours carried them to a hollow on his property, and buried them there in a single grave, 'leaving those faithful Hearts of Down sleeping the sleep that knows no waking.'"
Boylan, p. 133, usually lists an occupation for those whose lives he describes; in her case, he simply lists "heroine." He claims that she carried a green flag for the insurgents at Ballynahynch.
Much folklore arose as a result, including some versions in which Betsy became the beautiful commander of a force of rebels. Her story eventually inspired Wesley Greenhill Lyttle to write the popular (but not especially accurate) novel Betsy Gray, or The Hearts of Down (1886).
Her story did not end in 1798, or even 1886: "Ballycreen, Country Down... was the burial place of Betsy Gray, a young County Down woman who went out with the rebels at the Battle of Balynahinch... and who was cut down with her brother and her lover. Afterwards she became an Ulster folk heroine and the subject of a popular book.
"In 1898 a celebration was planned for her grave; but on the eve of the gathering a group of local loyalists smashed her gravestone to pieces. When the Home Rulers of Belfast arrived for the ceremony, the reins of their horses were cut and their carriages were overturned. As one local put it, 'they meant no disrespect to Betsy's memory,' but 'the local protestants were inflamed because it was being organized by Roman Catholics and Home Rulers. They did not like these people claiming Betsy'" (Bartlett/Dawson/Keough, p. 172).- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: Moyl082

Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid) [Laws M20]

DESCRIPTION: The son of the landowner is in love with Betsy, a servant. His mother, who opposes the match, has the girl transported to Virginia. The boy dies for love; (Betsy is drowned at sea)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: love separation exile death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(South)) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Laws M20, "Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid)"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #80, pp. 2-3, "Bonnie Betsy" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1094, "Bonny Betsy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 17, "Young Betsy" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 7, "Betsy" (3 texts)
Randolph 48, "Betsey Is a Beauty Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 95, "Betsy" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 74, "Betsy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 60, "Betsy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 36, "Johnny and Betsy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 666-667, "Betsy, Betsy from London Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 31, "Bessie Beauty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 55, "Betsy the Waiting Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 7, "Betsy Beauty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 9-11, "Betsey (Betsy, the Waiting Maid)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 57, "Betsy B" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 70, "The Lancaster Maid" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 70, "The Lancaster Maid" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 26, pp. 66-68, "Johnny and Betsy" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 201-203, "Fair Betsy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 69-70, "Miss Betsy" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN46, "Alas! my dearest dear is gone"; ZN2523, "There was a maiden fair and clear/"
DT 434, JONBETSY BETSY FAIRBTSY*
Roud #156
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "Betsy, the Servant Maid" (on HCox01) [mistitled 'A Week of Matrimony' on album jacket and label]
Jack Knight, "Betsy Bay" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Jack Swain, "Betsey Grey" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(23a), "The Betrayed Maiden," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Betsey Evans
File: LM20

Betsy Mealy's Escape

DESCRIPTION: "As I roved for recreation in the springtime of the year, I met a noble fisherman, the day was fine and clear." He asks the girl to go with him to sea. When a storm comes up, he and the crew abandon her. She is rescued by Frenchmen, and curses his home
AUTHOR: John Quill (source: James Murphy, Old Songs of Newfoundland; also Michael Murphy, Pathways through Yesterday)
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Murphy, Old Songs of Newfoundland); reportedly written 1849
KEYWORDS: sailor courting travel ship storm disaster rescue
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, editor, _Old Songs of Newfoundland_, James Murphy Publishing, 1912 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 5, "Betsy Mealy's Escape" (1 text)
James Murphy, _Songs Their Fathers Sung: For Fishermen: Old Time Ditties_, James Murphy Publishing, 1923 (PDF available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 10, "Betsey Mealy's Escape" (1 text)
Newfoundland Stories and Ballads, Volume XII No. 1 (Summer/Fall 1974), p. 61, "Betsey Mealy" (1 text, derived from the 1927 edition of Doyle)
Roud #12530
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Star of Logy Bay" (tune)
File: JMOSN05

Betsy of Ballindorn Brae

See Bessie of Ballington Brae [Laws P28] (File: LP28)

Betsy of Dramoor

DESCRIPTION: "As I walked out one evening, I roamed for recreation" and provided us with classical allusions. He sees a girl fairer than Diana or Helen of Troy. He begs her come away. She says she must wait until her declining parents die, but after that they marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty father mother age
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 79, "Betsy of Dramoor" (1 text)
ST GC079 (Partial)
Roud #3667
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:091, "Betsy of Drumore," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Castleroe Mill" (theme)
cf. "We'd Better Bide a Wee" (theme)
NOTES [52 words]: With references to Aurora, Flora, Phoebus, Boreas, Aeolus, Diana, Dido, Susannah, and Helen of Troy, the literary component in this song will be evident. Other than that, it sounds like a very Irish sort of piece (compare the cross-references). I suspect a literary rewrite of one or another aged-parents song. - RBW.
File: GC079

Betsy of Dromore

See Betsy of Dramoor (File: GC079)

Betsy of Dundee

DESCRIPTION: The singer returns from the wars. He "from nymph to nymph resorted" but falls in love with Betsey. Her father discovers them and threatens him with transportation. When Betsey threatens to leave with the singer her father agrees to their marriage.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(178))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage father
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 8, "Betsy of Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 61, "Betsy o' Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2791
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(178), "Betsy of Dundee ("You sailors of this nation, pray you give attention"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Johnson Ballads 161, Harding B 20(234), Harding B 11(3309), Harding B 17(24b), Firth c.26(45) [partly legible], Firth c.12(133), "Betsy of Dundee"; 2806 c.14(23), "Betsey of Dundee"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(120), "Betsey of Dundee," unknown, c.1840
NOTES [218 words]: Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(120) commentary: "Whilst 'Betsey of Dundee' follows a common theme found in many early ballads, mainly that of love involving a returning or departing sailor, the end is something of a surprise. In most other cases, the young couple either elope and tragically die en route or the young suitor meets a grisly end at the hands of his sweetheart's father. Here, however, Betsey and the sailor appear to live happily ever after."
The broadside version -- specifically NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(120) -- is the basis for the description. Both the beginning and end are missing from Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 8, leaving Creighton to conclude with reason, but incorrectly, "she probably went away with him, and was deserted." - BS
Creighton thought Angelo Dornan's version composite; she was probably right, but the broadsides show that the combination preceded Dornan. Looking at this, I can't help but think that it's a conflation of two pieces, one being perhaps "The Banks of Dundee (Undaunted Mary)" [Laws M25], the other something like "The Plains of Baltimore." There may be a bit of "Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid)" [Laws M20] in there, too.And whoever put the pieces together had much too much classical education. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: CrSNB029

Betsy the Waiting Maid

See Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid) [Laws M20] (File: LM20)

Betsy Walton

See The Effects of Love (File: GrD61160)

Betsy Watson

See The Effects of Love (File: GrD61160)

Betsy, Betsy from London Fair

See Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid) [Laws M20] (File: LM20)

Betsy, My Darling Girl

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going up yonder to yonders town, Where the cannon balls flash round and round," there to spend "My weeks, my months, my wretched life." He will appeal to Betsy. He will love her until he dies, an bets her to come in
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Morris, Southern Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: love courting floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #67, "Betsy, My Darling Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5008
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] (lyrics)
File: Morr067

Better Be Safe Than Sorry

DESCRIPTION: "Better be safe than sorry ... 'cause life's a funny thing." Stories of failed risk-takers: a flier's parachute fails, a non-swimming fisherman drowns, a hotel owner goes broke, and a man in a monkey suit attracts a female ape.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Blind Blake Higgs: see WIHIGGS01)
KEYWORDS: warning commerce fishing flying money ship humorous nonballad animal
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Better Be Safe Than Sorry" (on WIHIGGS01)
File: RcBBSThA

Better Bide a Wee

See We'd Better Bide a Wee (File: HHH598)

Better Get Your Ticket

DESCRIPTION: "Better git yo' ticket (x2), Train's a-comin', Lord-ee-ee, Lord-ee-ee! Um-um-um-um-um-um-um-um-um." "Hold your bonnet, Hold your shawl, Don't let go that waterfall, Shout, Sister Betty, Shout!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: train religious
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 239, (no title) (1 short text)
NOTES [34 words]: I suspect this is a variant on one of the "Gospel Train" songs, but the form is different enough and Scarborough's text so short that it's not possible to tell which one. So it gets a separate entry. - RBW
File: ScNF239B

Better Live Humble

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Better live humble, Better live mild, Better live like some heavenly child." Unbelievers cried to be let onto Noah's ark. Green trees die as well as the parched. People with an elaborate grave die like those with a simple grave.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Redfearn)
KEYWORDS: Bible floatingverses nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Susan Fort Redfearn, "Songs from Georgia," Vol. 34, No. 131 (Jan-Mar 1921), p. 121, "Have You Seen the Sha?" (1 text)
NOTES [167 words]: In Redfearn's text the singer will discuss how things die with the Father and the Son. See the notes to "John, John" for other examples. - BS
The mention of the green trees dying is presumably a reference to Luke 23:31, "For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" (King James). A better translation might be "If they do this in [the] wet (υγρω, hygro) wood/tree, what will come in the dry (ξηρω, xero)?" (There is some disagreement about whether to add or omit the word "the" before "wet"; two very important manuscripts, B and C, omit it.) No one seems sure what the phrase means, except that things are likely to get worse rather than better in future; it has been suggested that it is a proverb. I incline to think that it has something to do with fire: If the current times, when the wood is wet, bring fire and burning, how much more will you be afflicted by fire when the wood is dry. But what social conditions distinguish wet from dry wood I have no idea. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: AdBeLiHu

Betty and Dupree

See Dupree [Laws I11] (File: LI11)

Betty Anne

See Shady Grove (File: SKE57)

Betty Boop, Isn't She Cute?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Betty Boop, isn't she cute? All she can eat is vegetable soup."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Emrich and Korson, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food | Betty Boop
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #35, "Betty Boop, isn't she cute?" (1 text)
NOTES [24 words]: The character of Betty Boop was created in 1930, according to various Internet sources that I don't trust much but which all seem to agree. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR035

Betty Botter Bought Some Butter

DESCRIPTION: "Betty Botter bought some butter," only to find that it is bitter/bad. So if she puts it in her batter, it will make the batter bitter/bad. So she takes action to get some better butter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Notes & Queries, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: food wordplay | butter tongue-twister
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 41, "Betty Botter bought some butter" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #753, p. 283, "(Betty Botter bought some butter)"
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 148, "Betty Botter Bought Some Butter" (1 text)
NOTES [36 words]: Jean Redpath used to use this as a demonstration of glottal stops, and her text does not entirely match most of the printed versions, so it probably went through oral tradition. I don't know if it was ever sung. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DCCR148C

Betty Brown (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Now, since he's gone, just let him go; I don't mean to cry. I'll let him know I can live without him if I try." She accuses him of slander. She despises "hateful Betty Brown," whom he is visiting. But at last she admits being wrong and wishes him back
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: love courting betrayal rejection
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 148, "Betty Brown" (1 text)
ST Fus148 (Partial)
Roud #3689
NOTES [45 words]: This starts out sounding much like "Farewell He" or something similar, but eventually converts to a lost love song. I wonder if it might not be composite. Compare "Harry Lumsdale's Courtship," which also features a girl resenting Betty Brown, who has stolen her man. - RBW
File: Fus148

Betty Brown (II)

See Betsey Brown (File: R384)

Betty Fair Miss

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Betty Grable Went to France

See Charlie Chaplin Went to France (File: CarMF80A)

Betty Mull's Squeel

DESCRIPTION: "She tauk's aboot Judas and said he was coorse, Bit a braw stock was Aul' Abraham; She thocht his graifstane was aye to be seen On a knap [knoll] up abeen Kaper-naum"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad religious
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #29, p. 2, "Betty Mull's Squeel" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 684, "Betty Mull's Squeel" (1 text)
Roud #6105
NOTES [301 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Greig/Duncan3 fragment.
Abraham is buried in the cave of Machpelah [Genesis 25.10] at Hebron, not Capernaum at the Sea of Galilee. - BS
[With however a footnote: The cave at Machpelah is not mentioned outside of Genesis (the bones of Joseph were carried out of Egypt, with the presumption that they were to be buried at Machpelah -- but Joshua 24:32 says they were buried at Shechem. One might speculate that Machpelah was still in Canaanite hands at the time of the burial). However, a tradition preserved its location; indeed, we have various accounts of Christians and Moslems visiting the shrine, and indeed built shrines about it. We know that Crusaders visited it in the early twelfth century -- and where Crusaders found relics, they stole them. Often they carried them in battle, and there were battles by the Sea of Galilee. So it is possible that, in fact, some of Abraham's bones do rest near Capernaum. A Scottish folksinger wouldn't know this, of course. More likely someone who didn't hear the name clearly converting the unfamiliar "Machpelah" to "Capernaum" or "Caphernahum" by dropping the first syllable. - RBW]
Greig: "Betty's seminary ... her teaching seems to have been of the true dame-school order." - BS
"Dame schools" being a common phenomenon in nineteenth century Britain, in which a woman took in children allegedly to educate them but mostly to keep them out of their parents' hair. Dickens has a description of an extreme example of school and teacher in chapter seven of Great Expectations: "She was a ridiculous old woman of limited means and unlimited infirmity who used to go to sleep from six to seven every evening in the society of youth who paid twopence per week each for the improving opportunity of seeing her do it." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Grd3684

Betty, Betty Stubbed Her Toe

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Betty, Betty stubbed her toe, On the way to Mexico, On the way she broke her back, Sliding on the railroad track."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Brewster, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope injury railroading
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #34, "Betty, Betty stumped her toe" (sic.) (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Joe, Joe, Broke His Toe" (form)
NOTES [43 words]: Although Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes does not indicate it, I suspect this ends with a counting line, something like, "How many ties did she cross? One, two, three...."
I would probably have lumped this with "Joe, Joe, Broke His Toe," but Abrahams split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR

Betty, Betty, Set the Table

See Mabel, Mabel (File: SuSm104A)

Between Stanehive and Laurencekirk

DESCRIPTION: "Between Stanehive and Laurencekirk Last term I did fee." The singer gets along well with the master, and better with the serving girl, whom he courts. The master catches them in the stable. He blames the daughter, who wanted his attentions herself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming courting servant children father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #49, pp. 1-2, "Between Stanehive and Laurencekirk" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 376, "Between Stanehive and Laurencekirk" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 259-260, "Between Stanehive and Laurencekirk" (1 text)
Roud #5589
File: Ord259

Between the Forks and Carleton

DESCRIPTION: "Last Saturday night young William Tate Enrolled his scouts, he would not wait, But galloping up though he was late Between the Forks and Carleton." The soldiers report that "for the French we've made a shroud" and "Middeton had made them run"
AUTHOR: Billy Smith
EARLIEST DATE: 1958
KEYWORDS: battle Canada
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 12, 1885 - Battle of Batoche. Defeat of the Metis under Louis Riel
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 132-133, "Between the Forks and Carleton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4514
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Riel's Song" and references there (subject)
NOTES [90 words]: Billy Smith (born c. 1870) was a youth living not far from Batoche at the time of the Métis uprising (for which see the notes to "Riel's Song"). The title of the song refers to the site of the Battle of Batoche, where General Middleton defeated the rebels when their ammunition ran out.
"The Forks" is not a river fork but a trail fork; one branch of the road led to Prince Albert (the closest major town to Batoche) and the other led to Fort Carleton.
The tune is said to be based on "Johnny Cope," though obviously somewhat worn down. - RBW
File: FMB132

Between the Meadow and the Moss

DESCRIPTION: Jinnie meets a tailor lad whose "needle's stoot an's thimble's clear." Her mother warns her against deceiving men but Jinnie will "hae anither heat" and reminds her mother that she kissed men on the muir when she was young.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting sex dialog mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1340, "Between the Meadow and the Moss" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #7222
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sprightly Young Damsel" (theme: daughter reminds mother of her own indiscretions)
cf. "Mother Bunch" (theme: daughter reminds mother of her own indiscretions)
File: GrD71340

Beulah Land (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I've reached the land of corn and wine, And all its riches freely mine... Oh, Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land... My heav'n, my home forevermore." The singer rejoices at being at home with the Savior
AUTHOR: Words: Edgar Page Stites / Music: John R. Sweney (1837-1899)
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (source: Morgan, p. 157)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 365, "Beulah Land" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 264, "Beulah Land Mazurka" (1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 156-157, "Beulah Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4899
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Saskatchewan" (tune)
cf. "Dakota Land" (tune)
cf. "O Prairie Land" (tune)
cf. "Kansas Land" (tune, form)
cf. "Kansas Fool" (tune)
cf. "Grand Idaho" (tune)
cf. "Webfoot Land" (tune, theme)
cf. "Harvest Land" (tune, theme)
cf. "Bering Sea" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Bering Sea (File: HGam113)
O Prairie Land (File: Macl013)
NOTES [433 words]: The name "Beulah," used in Isaiah 62:4, means "married"; it isn't really an appropriate name for a country, but this is not evident from the King James Version. The usage in this song appears to derive instead from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress: "As a tranquil land where pilgrims pause before crossing the River of Death in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (pt. 2) Beulah assumed a visibility unprecedented in either Jewish or Christian commentary.... Also on the strength of Bunyan's influence, but modified by later Protestant typology, Beulah figures in gospel songs and American spirituals as a synonym for Heaven itself" (Jeffrey, p. 87).
In its own right, this probably doesn't qualify as a folk song, but it has inspired two folk parodies (all lumped by Roud), so I include it for reference purposes. It should not be confused with "Dwelling in Beulah Land," sung by Helen Schneyer.
The authorship is a matter of dispute. Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook lists it as by Edgar Page and John R. Sweeney (three e's). However, Morgan says the words are by Edgar P. Stites and the music by John R. Sweney (two e's). And Morgan has a biography of Stites. Julian, p. 1685, would seem to explain this confusion; it reports that Ira D. Sankey, in different places, credited the words to Edgar Page and E. P. Stites, and such was Sankey's influence that his attribution to Page "stuck" even though it is likely that this is merely a transcription error for Edgar Page Stites.
Only one of eight hymnals I checked contained the piece, and hymnals are generally a poor source of authorship information anyway, but it listed Stites and Sweney as the authors. So does EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 389, so I'm going with that spelling.
EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 388, calls Sweney "[o]ne of the most popular song leaders of his day, the author of more than a thousand hymns, and compiler of more than sixty collections of songs." According to p. 389, he directed the regimental band of the Third Delaware in the civil war, and after the war was a professor of music at the Pennsylvania Military Academy as well as music director of a Presbyterian church.
EncycAmericanGospelMusic adds that "'Beulah Land' was sung by Ira D. Sankey at Sweney's funeral. Its melody... is essentially the same as that of several earlier secular songs, including 'Maryland, My Maryland,' 'Sweet Genevieve, and the German traditional carol 'Tannenbaum.'"
EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 389, says that Stites was the cousin of another writer of religious songs, Eliza Hewitt, who also supplied lyrics to be set by Sweney. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB365A

Beulah Land (II)

See When My Blood Runs Chilly and Cold (File: LxU104)

Beverly Maid and the Tinker, The (The Tinker Behind the Door)

DESCRIPTION: A tinker comes to sell a servant girl a pen. The gentleman being out, the tinker "got this maid behind the door and gently laid her on the floor." She gives him 20 guineas and invites him back. Soon his gold is gone and he has to do as he'd done before.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(186))
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy servant tinker money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 179, "Tinker's Courtship" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 103, "The Tinker's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 318-319, "The Tinker Behind the Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #110, "In Bibberley Town" (1 text, 1 tune, heavily rewritten)
DT, TINKCRT*
Roud #585
RECORDINGS:
Leonard Hulan, "The Tinker Behind the Door" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(186), "Beverley Maid and the Tinker," T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Firth b.34(21), Harding B 11(1529), "[The] Beverley Maid, and the Tinker[!]"; Firth b.26(33), 2806 c.18(29), 2806 c.17(30), Firth b.34(24), Johnson Ballads 163, "The Beverly Maid and the Tinker"; Harding B 11(3317), "The Tinker and the Chambermaid"
Murray, Mu23-y1:090, "The Glasgow Maid and the Tinker," unknown, 19C
File: Pea318

Bewar, sqwyer, yeman, and page

See If Thou Serve a Lord of Price (For Service Is None Heritage) (File: MSITSLOP)

Beware Chalk Pit

DESCRIPTION: "There's a tale I'll tell to you, It's remarkable but true, Of Sir Paulet St. John and his noble steed... Back in 1873." Paulet jumps a hedge and he and his horse fall into a chalk pit, but survive. He names the horse, a famous racer, "Beware Chalk Pit"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire)
KEYWORDS: horse racing injury
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 25-28, "Beware Chalk Pit" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BrHa025

Beware of an Aberdonian

DESCRIPTION: "I've had misfortunes ane an' twa, They're no worthwhile tae mention," but if you go on a spree, "beware o' an Aberdonian." "As I gaed doon intae Dundee," the singer met a girl from Aberdeen, she eats an amazing amount; and takes his purse and watch
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: warning drink theft food courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 33, "Beware of an Aberdonian" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #22214
File: Gath033

Beware of Larry Gorman

DESCRIPTION: Larry Gorman tells of how people react to his coming: "And when they see me coming, Their eyes stick out like prongs, Sayin', 'Beware of Larry Gorman; He's the man that makes the songs." He describes teasing a housewife who fed him poorly
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: nonballad humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 258, "Beware of Larry Gorman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi, p. 34, (no title) (fragment of text)
Roud #9422
NOTES [22 words]: Apparently inspired by a woman who, without knowing who he was, fed Gorman weak tea and stale bread. Thus did Gorman gain revenge. - RBW
File: Doe258

Beware, Oh Take Care

DESCRIPTION: The young girls are warned about sporting men, who look handsome and speak well -- but have a deck of cards and a bottle hidden. "Beware, young ladies, they're fooling you; Trust them not, they're fooling you; Beware, young ladies... Beware, oh take care"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Trifet's Budget of Music)
KEYWORDS: courting cards drink abandonment rake
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 381, "Beware, Oh Beware" (2 texts plus a quotation from Trifet, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 311-313, "Beware, Oh Beware" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 381B)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 248, "The Inconstant Lover" (4 tunes plus text excerpts; the "B," "C," and "C(1)" tunes presumably belong with "On Top of Old Smokey"; "H" appears to be "Beware, Oh Take Care")
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 90-92, "Beware, Oh, Beware" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 70-71, "Beware, Oh Take Care" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 167, "Beware, Oh, Take Care" (1 text)
DT, BEWARYG*
Roud #7619
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "Beware, Oh Take Care" (on NLCR10); "Beware" (on NLCR12)
Blind Alfred Reed, "Beware" (Victor 23550, 1931; on TimesAint02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boys Won't Do to Trust" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bold and Free
NOTES [153 words]: Credited in the Digital Tradition to Blind Alfred Blake (which Paul Stamler points out should be "Blind Alfred Reed"), but -- since the piece has been in circulation since at least the 1880s -- it would appear that Reed, at most, retouched it into the "popular" form.
Laura Ingalls Wilder quotes a scrap of the song in By the Shores of Silver Lake (chapter 6). If legitimate, that would push the date back even farther -- to 1879.
Dichter/Shapiro: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 159, list a piece "Beware! Take Care" with words by "H Longfellow" and music credited to Charles Moulton. This was published in 1865 by G. Schirmer of New York. Longfellow's poem (said to be based on a German original) is clearly related to "Beware, Oh Take Care," but I do not know if this Moulton arrangement is the source for the folk tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: R381

Beware, Squire, Yeoman, and Page

See If Thou Serve a Lord of Price (For Service Is None Heritage) (File: MSITSLOP)

Bewick and Graham [Child 211]

DESCRIPTION: Two prideful old men, each claiming his son is the better man, demand their sons, who are sworn blood-brothers, fight a fight to the death. When Graham sees that Bewick is dying, he falls on his own sword so that both die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: pride youth death family suicide father
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Child 211, "Bewick and Graham" (1 text)
Bronson 211, "Bewick and Graham" (1 version)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 211, "Bewick and Graham" (1 version)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 100-102, "The Bewick and the Graeme" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 560-566, "Bewick and Graham" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 176-184+343-344, "Bewick and Graham" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 83-89, "Bewick and Graham" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 121-128, "Bewick and Grahame" (1 text)
Roud #849
NOTES [872 words]: The theme of blood brothers ending up in a quarrel is old -- see, for instance, Chaucer's Knight's Tale. That has interesting parallels to this piece. Palamon and Arcite's quarrel, unlike that between Bewick and Graham, is genuine -- both are fighting to win the same woman, Emily (against her desire). That does not parallel this song (As Reed, p. 91, comments of the explanation of the quarrel in "Bewick and Graham," "Not the best stanzas in the ballad as literature, but surely astonishing, indeed unique, in invoking literacy, or lack of it, as pretext for a family feud."). Chaucer's Palamon and Arcite do have an extended fight, as in this song, but that's a commonplace. But the Knight's Tale parallels "Bewick" in that the winner of the battle is the first to die. Palamon, in the Tale, is wounded "by chance" (as is Bewick), so Theseus (who is overseeing the combat) declares Arcite the winner. But before Arcite can claim Emily, he is thrown from his horse and mortally wounded. So the winner dies, and the loser claims Emily. Again, it's not a full parallel, since Palamon survives, but the one who receives the first serious wound, and would have been eliminated, instead is the one who lives longer.
For a romance in which blood brothers are willing to do almost anything for each other, see "Amis and Amiloun" ("Amys and Amylion"), in which one is willing to sacrifice his children to save the other.
Ballad scholars might be interested in observing that the standard critical edition of "Amis and Amiloun" was edited by MacEdward Leach.
"The story of the friendship between Amis and Amiloun was one of the most popular of the Middle Ages. The earliest known version is a Latin text of the end of the eleventh century, but the story also survives in Anglo-Norman, continental French, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, Welsh, Dutch, German and Norse" (Fellows, p. xiv). Leach's edition of "Amis," pp. ix-xiv, lists 34 different analogues of the story from about Europe, seven of them, including the Middle English romance under discussed above, being part of the "romantic group [which] presents the extraordinary friendship of Amis and Amiloun, true knights of romance, and the testing of that friendship to the point of child sacrifice." Since all other members of this group appear to be Latin or French, it is likely that a French version underlies the English. The other 27 versions constitute the "hagiographic group," in which the two blood brothers are so virtuous that miracles happen around them and they end as martyrs. This version exists in many Latin versions but also in many, many vernaculars.
According to Foster, p. 1, "The premise of [Amis and Amiloun] is the deep and abiding friendship of Amis and Amiloun first manifested in their mutual pledge of 'trewthe,' total loyalty and fidelity. Such pledges were apparently common, and elaborate descriptions of them ornament many romances." (Foster's "trewthe" is usually spelled "trouthe," and it's more than just "truth" or honesty; it is also fidelity, self-honesty, and being true to one's own nature and place; it is the key to another Chaucer romance, the Franklin's Tale.)
Although "Amis and Amiloun" does not resemble "Bewick and Graham" in plot, it has some of the same aspects of moral dilemma. In the romance (among other complex adventures which pose serious ethical dilemmas), Amiloun develops leprosy, and it is revealed that he can only be healed if Amis kills his children and uses their blood to anoint Amiloun (Foster, pp. 6-7). To ask Amis to do so is a violation of the blood brotherhood (just as it is a violation for Bewick and Graham to fight), but Amis does the deed (just as Graham commits suicide). The dilemma, in both cases, is that the two blood brothers are forced to violate their blood brotherhood but also to keep it. In "Amis and Amiloun," we see a deus ex machina rescue (the children, despite being killed, are found alive); there is none such in "Bewick and Graham."
Wells, while calling "Amis" "rather melodramatic" (p. 159), on pp. 157-158 lists four manuscript copies -- making it one of the most popular of all Middle English romances; it is suggested that it is from the late thirteenth century. Leach's version has 2508 lines, which matches Foster's text and Wells's count; Fellows prints a text of 2496 lines (i.e. one fewer 12-line stanza).
Child suspected that there was an older "Bewick" ballad that preceded his printed texts from the early eighteenth century. I think he might be right, but I wonder if the older work, instead of a ballad, was a metrical romance, perhaps one with some sort of happier (or at least more fitting) resolution which was eliminated when the romance was cut down to the length of a (long, long) ballad. As a wild guess, one of the parents might have been testing one of the sons: "Will you obey me even to the point of killing your best friend?" Once it is shown that the son will, the test is canceled or the contestants allowed to survive. This has many parallels, including the Biblical story of Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22), the Middle English romance "Sir Amadace" (see the description in Leach, p. li), and in part even "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: C211

Bewick and Grahame

See Bewick and Graham [Child 211] (File: C211)

Bewick and the Graeme, The

See Bewick and Graham [Child 211] (File: C211)

Beyod the Sky

See Resting In My Home (File: RcResIMH)

Bhean Iadach, A

See An Sgeir-Mhara (The Sea-Tangle, The Jealous Woman) (File: K003)

Bheir Me O

DESCRIPTION: Love lyric in Scots Gaelic: "Sad am I without thee." The singer calls (her?) lover "the music of my heart," hearing (his) voice in the calling of the seals, and finds herself turning back to his home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides)
KEYWORDS: love foreignlanguage nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Hebr))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides I, pp. 52-54, "An Eriskay Love Lilt (Gradh Geal mo cridh)" (1 text+English translations, 1 tune)
DT, BHEIRMEO*
NOTES [29 words]: Gordon Bok seems to imply that this song is traditional in his family -- but his text is straight out of Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides. Don't ask me to explain. - RBW
File: DTnheirm

Bible A-B-C, The

See The Bible Alphabet (The Bible A-B-C) (File: Wa183)

Bible Alphabet, The (The Bible A-B-C)

DESCRIPTION: Typical Alphabet song, with Biblical references: "A is for Adam who was the first man, B is for Bethlehem where Jesus was born," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad wordplay | alphabet
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 183, "The Bible A-B-C" (1 text)
Roud #16404
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Alphabet of the Bible" (subject)
NOTES [501 words]: There have been many poetic alphabets based on Bible themes published over the years; a list of some of the older ones, some of which may be related to this; for a list, see the notes to "The Alphabet of the Bible."
The various scripture references in this version:
"Adam, who was the first man": Genesis 1:27, 2:7, etc.
"Bethlehem, where Jesus was born": Matt. 2:1, Luke 2:1-4
"Cain who slayed his brother": Gen. 4:1, 8
"Dan'l who was cast in the lion's den": Daniel 6
"Elijah, who was taken up to heaven": Elijah's story occupies 1 Kings 17-19, 21, 2 Kings 1-2. His ascension occurs in 2 Kings 2:11.
"the flood that drownded the world": Gen. 6-8
"Goliath who was slain by David": 1 Samuel 17 (but cf. 2 Samuel 21:19)
"Hannah who gave her son Samuel to the Lord": 1 Samuel 2
"Isaac the son of Abraham": Gen. 17:15f.,21:1f., etc.
"Jacob who interpreted the dream": Probably a mixed reference. Jacob had a dream at Bethel in Gen. 28:11-22, but it was his son Joseph who made a reputation for interpreting dreams (Gen. 40-41)
"Korah who was swallowed up by the earth": Gen. 16
"Lazarus who Christ raised from the dead": John 11
"Methuselah who was the oldest man": Gen. 5:21-27
"Nazareth the home of Jesus": Matt. 2:23, Mark 1:9, Luke 2:2, etc.
"Olive the mount where Jesus prayed": Mark 14:26f., etc.
"Pharaoh who was drowned in the Red Sea": Cf. Exodus 14. Note that the Bible account does not say that Pharaoh was killed, though his army was ruined. Egyptian history gives no hint of a drowned Pharaoh.
"Queen of Sheba who visited Solomon": 1 Kings 10, etc.
"Rome where Paul was put in prison": Paul went to Rome after his non-trial in Jerusalem (Acts 25:12), but the Bible does not say he was imprisoned there (though he was imprisoned in many other places); he preached there "without let or hindrance" (i.e. freely)
"Sodom the city destroyed by fire": Gen. 18-19
"Tyre where Paul preached all night": Paul's visit to Tyre is mentioned in 21:3-6. There is no evidence that Paul preached there for such a long time, however; the reference is probably to Troas, where (Acts 20:6-12), where Paul (to put it bluntly) droned on so long that he put a boy named Eutychus to sleep and caused him to fall out a window.
"Uzzah who steered the Ark" - 2 Samuel 6:2-11. We might note that Uzzah tried to keep the Ark from falling off its cart, and God killed him for it.
"the vine, represents Christ": allusion to John 15:1
"Watchman on the wall of Zion": Probably a generic allusion; there is no explicit reference to a watchman on Zion's walls. The image of the watchman is probably most typical of Isaiah (21:6, 52:8, 56:10; also, though from a different Hebrew root, 21:11, 12, 62:6)
"X is for the cross of Christ": Not a true scriptural reference. Ironically, the first letter of "Christos" in Greek is χ, chi, which looks like an X.
"the yoke of Christ": cf. Matt. 11:28-30, etc.
"Zion the home of the blessed": Numerous references starting with 2 Sam. 5:7; this appears to me to be another generic reference. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Wa183

Bible Baseball Game, The

DESCRIPTION: "Adam stole first, and Eve stole second, St. Peter umpired the game; Rebeah went to the well with the pitcher, Ruth in the field won fame... And Noah gave out the checks for -- You know he gave out the checks for the rain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: humorous Bible sports campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #37, p. 16, "The Bible Baseball Game" (1 text, tune referenced)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 185, "The Biblical Baseball Game" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12784
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Good Morning, Mr. Zip" (tunes, according to Harbin-Parodology)
NOTES [46 words]: The Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook and Harbin-Parodology, although they use most of the same gags, have quite a few different words, and it looks as if the verse form is also different, so there appears to have been some actual oral transmission involved. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Paro037

Bible Is a Holy and Visible Law, The (Rope-Jumping Rhyme)

DESCRIPTION: "The Bible is a holy and visible law" (or, "By the old Levitical law" or "By the holy and religious law"), "I marry this (Indian) to this (squaw), By the point of my jack-knife, I pronounce you man and wife."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty Bible Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: US(NE,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #183, "Rhyme for Jumping Rope" (1 text with variants)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #53, "By the holy and religerally law" (sic.) (1 text)
File: Newe183

Bible Stories

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Bible Story, The

DESCRIPTION: Humorous exploits based loosely on Bible stories. The creation and Noah's flood are described. A man in heaven rejoices; even though he drowned, he's free of his wife. Some versions of the song contain references to Freemasonry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Journal from the _Nellie_)
KEYWORDS: Bible humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 264-266, "The Bible Story" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1179
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Walkin' in the Parlor" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "Free Mason Song" (themes, lyrics)
cf. "Derry Down" (tune) and references there
NOTES [191 words]: In terms of concept, this is so similar to "Walkin' in the Parlor" that I seriously considered calling them one song. But this piece is in triple time, to the Derry Down tune; I decided that was enough reason to keep them distinct.
It's not impossible that one song inspired the other. It's also possible that Huntington's version (the first I've seen) is conflate; the first verse (about a Freemason) doesn't even appear to have the same form as the others, which look like "Walkin' in the Parlor." For comparison, here are the first and fourth verses of the Huntington version:
But as she bewailed in sorrowful ditty,
The good man beheld and on her took pity.
Freemasons are so tender so he to the dame
Bestowed an apron to cover her shame.
...
Sure never was beheld so dreadful a sight
To see this old world in very sad plight
See her in the water all animals swimming
Men monkeys priests lawyers cats lap-dogs and women.
Roud lumps this item with the larger family we index as "Free Mason Song." There has been interchange of material, but the distinct nature of the forms makes me think the Masonic references here are incidental imports. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: SWMS264

Bible Tales

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Biblical Baseball Game, The

See The Bible Baseball Game (File: Paro037)

Biblical Cowboy, The

See The Cowboy's Soliloquy (File: FCW123)

Bicycle Built for Two (Daisy Bell)

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes his love for Daisy Bell. His poverty being what it is, he cannot offer a fancy wedding or carriage, but proposes they ride a "bicycle built for two." In the original, she accepts
AUTHOR: Harry Dacre
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love marriage technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 255, "(Daisy Bell)" (1 partial text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 247, "A Bicycle Built for Two (Daisy Bell)" (1 text)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 100-102, "Daisy Bell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 208-210, "Daisy Bell (A Bicycle Built for Two)" (1 text)
Fuld, pp. 188-189+, "Daisy Bell -- (A Bicycle Built for Two)"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 315, "Bicycle Built for Two" (notes only)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, posts 102, 103, 104, "Bicycle Built for Two" (1 mention from user Tess_W, with a verse from John5918 and the parody verse from Crypto-Willobie, all posted September 24, 2021)
DT, DAISYBEL* (DAISYBL2* -- containing many sundry parodies)
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 64-69, "Daisy Bell" (1 text, 1 tune, a print of the sheet music, with the tune shown in tonic sol-fa as well as music notation)
Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 107-110, "Daisy Bell (1 text, 1 tune, plus a color print of an early sheet music cover)
ST Gil255 (Partial)
SAME TUNE:
Calliope Song (File: ACSF315C)
Daisy, Daisy, What Do You Think of That? (File: PKKB059C)
NOTES [428 words]: Harry Dacre (formerly "Harry Decker," and probably born under the name "Frank Dean") was an Englishman who made a visit to the Americas in the 1890s. Among other things, he brought along a bicycle, upon which he was forced to pay duty. A friend remarked that it was well it had not been a bicycle built for two. Somehow that inspired this insipid song.
According to Waites & Hunter, no publisher was willing to touch it at first. But a singer named Katie Lawrence picked it up and made it a hit. She also contributed, in a small way, to women's liberation, since she dressed in pants to perform the song -- a woman in long skirts couldn't really operate a bicycle.
Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. 144-145, says that this song launched a minor explosion of bicycle songs, most not worth the effort of remembering. He also quotes Edward Marks to the effect that this launched the popularity of waltz songs, although that seems to have had many causes.
I thought it went without saying that the verse "Richard, Richard, here is your answer true, You're half crazy if you think that will do... But I'll be switched If I'll be hitched On a bicycle built for two" is a parody. But I've heard people sing it as part of the actual song. Such are the ways of tradition.
Another parody comes from the pen of none other than Lewis Carroll. In an 1893 letter to Hilda Moberly Bell (the niece of Charles Dodgson's close friend Gertrude Chataway), Dodgson wrote
Hilda! Hilda!
Give me your answer true;
I'm a crazy builder,
All for the love of you.
Dodgson added a verse for Hilda's sister Enid Moberly Bell:
Enid! Enid!
Give me your answer true;
It wasn't Hilda I meaned,
It was only you!
(Source: Morton N. Cohen, editor, with the assistance of Roger Lancelyn Green, The Selected Letter of Lewis Carroll, Pantheon, 1982, pp. 247-248).
And, finally, when Arthur C. Clarke was working on the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, his initial plan was to again kill the computer HAL. Everyone else hated the idea and wanted to save HAL. Lester del Rey wrote this item to help change Clarke's mind:
Arthur, Arthur, give me a chance, please do.
I've been murdered, all for your Volume 2.
Though I hate to cause commotion,
You'll win my deep devotion
If you'll revise my sad demise,
And the story'll be stronger too.
(Source: Neil McAleer, Arthur Clarke: The Authorized Biography, Contemporary Books, Inc., 1992, p. 302).
For another song apparently by Harry Dacre, see "Dorothy Dean." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Gil255

Bicycle, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer bought a beautiful bicycle "I ran right in to an old, old woman, I nearly mangled a kid." A crowd destroyed his bicycle. The destruction is described, step by step. "I'm damned if I'll ride again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1984 (Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: violence humorous nonballad technology injury
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 43, "The Bicycle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5233
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "The Bicycle" (on IRTLenihan01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gol-Darned Wheel" (theme)
NOTES [50 words]: Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan: "March 2nd, 1984. 'I got it from my sister Mary that came home from America 45 years ago. She got it in America. That's where that came from, Tom. ... I never sung it no place because I didn't ever get much sense, you know, in the bloody thing." - BS
File: RcThBicy

Biddy Mulligan the Pride of the Coombe

See Mrs Mulligan, the Pride of the Coombe (File: OLoc230A)

Biddy Rooney

DESCRIPTION: "Biddy Rooney, you drive me looney ... where have you gone?" Anyone that finds her "may take her bag and baggage" It shouldn't be hard to find her: "As she goes walking ... she walks left handed with both feet"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 127, "Biddy Rooney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 164-165, "Biddy Rooney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2705
File: CrMa127

Biddy You Are So Handsome

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets Biddy Small at a Donegal fair. The chorus says "if you'd only marry me sure I wouldn't care at all Should there never grow a potato in the town of Donegal." They marry happily, with a farm, animals and "lots of little children around"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage farming Ireland animal children
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 744, "Biddy You Are So Handsome" (1 text)
Roud #6174
File: GrD4744

Biddy, Biddy, Hold Fast My Gold Ring

DESCRIPTION: "Biddy, Biddy, hold fast my gold ring, Hey, Mamma, hoo-ay, Never get-a London back again, John saw the island." "You drink coffee and I drink tea...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: nonballad ring drink
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Bahamas,Jamaica)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 82-83, "Biddy, Biddy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #97, "Hold Fast My Gold Ring" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: Olive Lewin, "Rock It Come Over" - The Folk Music of Jamaica (Barbados: The University of the West Indies Press, 2000), pp. 72-73, "Biddy Biddy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olive Lewin, Forty Folk Songs of Jamaica (Washington: General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, 1973),, pp. 41-42, "Biddy Biddy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Martha Warren Beckwith and Helen Roberts, _Folk-Games of Jamaica_ (Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1922 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #21 pp. 27-29, "Biddy, Biddy, Hold Fast" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #15652
File: LxSi082

Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)

DESCRIPTION: "Well, way down yonder in Louisville, Lived a cat named Big Bad Bill... Had the whole town scared to death When he walked by they all held their breath" -- but he got married, and it tamed him; "Big Bad Bill is Sweet William now" -- even doing housework
AUTHOR: Words: Jack Yellen / Music: Milton Ager (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recordings, Ernest Hare, Billy Murray, and others)
KEYWORDS: marriage | bully housework
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Guy Wolff, "Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)" (Piotr-Archive #428, recorded 01/08/2023)
File: DPio428

Big Bal' Eagle

See Old Bald Eagle (File: Skea035)

Big Ball's in Boston

See Roll on the Ground (Big Ball's in Town) (File: CSW200)

Big Ball's in Town

See Roll on the Ground (Big Ball's in Town) (File: CSW200)

Big Ben Strikes One

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope/counting rhyme: "Big Ben strikes one. Big Ben strikes two. Big Ben strikes three." And so on.... Or. "Big Ben strikes ten In the middle of London. One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Douglas, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | Big Ben counting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #36, "Big Ben Strikes One" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 27, "(Big Ben Strikes Ten)" (1 text)
Roud #19549
NOTES [12 words]: One wonders what happens when it's time for Big Ben to strike 13.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AJRR036

Big Ben Strikes Ten

See Big Ben Strikes One (File: AJRR036)

Big Black Bull, The

DESCRIPTION: The big black bull comes down the mountain, spies a heifer, jumps the fence, jumps the heifer, then returns to the mountain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: animal bawdy humorous
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 195-198, "The Big Black Bull" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #7612
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "The Little Black Bull" (on PeteSeeger09, PeteSeegerCD02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)"
cf. "The Old Black Bull" (lyrics, form, theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Houston
Sam Houston
The Old Black Bull
NOTES [93 words]: This is related to the sea chanty, "A Long Time Ago." - EC [Known in this index as "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)" etc. Paul Stamler considers "The Old Gray Mare" group to be the "cleaned up" version of the bawdy song, and also notes that in some of the bawdy versions the bull "missed his mark and (phhfft) in the meadow." - RBW]
I would be inclined to lump "The Big Black Bull" (explicitly bawdy) and "The Old Black Bull" (same plot and form, but not as dirty) as one song, but I've followed Roud in splitting them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM195

Big Boat Up de River

See Alabama Bound (Waterbound II) (File: BMRF598)

Big Boat's Up the Rivuh

See Alabama Bound (Waterbound II) (File: BMRF598)

Big Brazos River

See Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos (File: LxA058)

Big Camp Meeting in the Promised Land

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "O this union, this union band, this union. Big camp meeting in the promised land." Alternate lines in verses are "Big camp meeting in the promised land." Verse: "I ain't got time to stop and talk, The road is rough and it's hard to talk"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 29, "Big Camp Meeting in the Promised Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: J.B.T. Marsh, The Story of the Jubilee Singers Including Their Songs (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1903 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #114 p. 280-281, "A Great Camp-meeting in the Promised Land"
John Wesley Work, Folk Song of the American Negro (Nashville: Fisk University, 1915 ("Digitized by the Internet Archive")), pp. 45-46, "Great Camp Meeting" (1 text)
John W. Work, American Negro Songs (New York: Crown Publishers, 1940 (republished by Mineola: Dover Publications, 1998)), pp. 143-145, "There's a Great Camp-Meeting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11970
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Walk Together Little Children (Great Camp Meeting in the Promised Land)" (theme, chorus structure)
NOTES [209 words]: The description is based on the Barton-OldPlantationHymns text. Barton has this hymn, with its "this Union" chorus, as a likely example of a hymn with a Civil War "army origin." [This is likely; the King James Bible never uses the word "union," although there are a few references to "unity." I could argue that the word usually translated "brotherhood" should properly be translated "union" or "fellowship," but it's unlikely the hymn-writer had the Greek to know that. - RBW] In this case, at least, another version of the hymn, does without this reference to that war. Work and Marsh's chorus is "Going to mourn and never tire, mourn and never tire, Mourn and never tire, There's a great camp meeting in the Promised Land." The verses share a "don't get weary" theme; for example, "Get you ready children, don't get weary"(2x) "There's a great camp meeting in the promised land."
Barton-OldPlantationHymns also includes the floating verse "You can hinder me here, but you can't do it there, For He sits in the heavens and he answers prayer."
Where I have "this union" Barton-OldPlantationHymns has "dis union," and maybe "disunion" is what was intended. See abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison's article "Disunion" in June 15, 1855 The Liberator. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart029

Big Combine, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes the crew of "harvest stiffs" on the big combine (harvester) in Oregon, including Oscar (Nelson), an IWW member; the horse-puncher ("the things he tells the horses...I can't tell you") and the singer himself, who is head puncher.
AUTHOR: Jock Coleman
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (composed); first printed 1923
KEYWORDS: bragging farming harvest labor-movement work moniker nonballad boss worker IWW migrant
FOUND IN: US(NW)
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "The Big Combine" (on Thieme03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Casey Jones (I)" [Laws G1] (tune) and references there
NOTES [27 words]: The Pacific Northwest was the center of the IWW (Wobbly) movement in the early 20th century; migrant farmworkers and lumberjacks were its principal supporters. - PJS
File: RcTBgCom

Big Corral, The

DESCRIPTION: "Here's an ugly brute from the cattle chute, Press along to the Big Corral, The big galoot's got a bottle in his boot, Press along...." "Press along, cowboy, press along...." Other verses are may be unrelated but are mostly about cows and cowboy life
AUTHOR: Romaine Lowdermilk and friends
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (date of composiiton, according to White)
KEYWORDS: work cowboy nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 140-143, "The Big Corral" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 106-116, "And That's How a 'Folksong' Was Born" (1 text, 1 tune, plus various excerpts and a history of the song)
ST JIWGA106 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Press Along to the Glory Land" (tune)
File: JIWGA106

Big Day in Atlanta

See Skewball [Laws Q22] (File: LQ22)

Big Diamond Mine, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was hoboes from Kerry, and hoboes from Cork, Some from New Jersey, and more from New York" who are hired by the Big Diamond Mine. The singer was hired May 1. He quits after four shifts, and mentions all the types of people who work the mine
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Werstern Folklore 9, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: work mining
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 563, "The Big Diamond Mine" (1 text)
File: CAFS2563

Big Eau Claire, The

See The Shanty Boy on the Big Eau Claire [Laws C11] (File: LC11)

Big Fat Hog (Insult Rhymes)

DESCRIPTION: Insults in rhyme to those who are fat. "Big fat hog, You look like a fish And stink like a dog." "Fatty in the teapot, Skinny in the spout, Fatty blew off And blew Skinny out." "Jenny fun, Jenny fat, Hit her in the tummy with a baseball bat." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty food
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 130, ("BIg Fat Hog)" (4 stanzas, probably independent but all on the same subject)
File: SuSm130A

Big Fat Mama

See Big Fat Woman (File: LoSi370)

Big Fat Mama Blues

See Big Fat Woman (File: LoSi370)

Big Fat Turkey

DESCRIPTION: "There's a big fat turkey on grandpa's farm, And he thinks he's very gay.... You should hear him gobble at the girls and boys; He thinks he's singing when he makes that noise. He'll sing his song another way, Upon Thanksgiving Day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2022 (Derek Piotr collection)
KEYWORDS: humorous food bird farming | turkey
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Artricia Gordon, Katrina Esocoff, "Great Big Turkey" (Piotr-Archive #368, recorded 11/26/2022)
NOTES [56 words]: This turns up all over the internet, with only small variations in the lyrics; I suspect it is very close to the original. But no one seems to know who wrote it.
It sounds like it ought to be a camp song, but it isn't mentioned in Averill's collection of camp songs, probably because there aren't summer camps at Thanksgiving time. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio368

Big Fat Woman

DESCRIPTION: "Lord, a big fat woman with the meat shakin' on her bones... Every time she wibble, a poor man's dollar gone." The singer has a sweet gal; he doesn't want a black woman to tempt -- or kill -- him. He speaks of the blues
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Tommy Johnson)
KEYWORDS: love sex nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 370-371, "Big Fat Woman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15184
RECORDINGS:
Tommy Johnson, "Big Fat Mama Blues" (Victor V38535, 1928)
Mississippi Fred McDowell, "Big Fat Mama" (on USMississippi01)
File: LoSi370

Big Five-Gallon Jar, The

DESCRIPTION: Jack Jennings, a boarding-master, and his wife Caroline are expert at finding sailors. Should the supply ever dry up, they haul out their "big five-gallon jars" of liquor and use that to round up sailors.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: drink sailor shanghaiing
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 111, "The Big Five-Gallon Jar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 16-17, "The Big Five Gallon Jar" (1 text)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 60-61, "Larry Marr," "The Five-Gallon Jar" (2 texts, 2 tunes) [AbrEd, pp. 56-57]
ST Doe111 (Partial)
Roud #9412
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sound the Jubilee
NOTES [139 words]: According to Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, Jack Jennings was a real proprietor of a grog shop in Liverpool, Nova Scotia around 1890. - RBW
See a similar but [distinct] broadside, LOCSinging, sb20267b, "Larry Maher's Big Five-Gallon Jar," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864. Maher operates out of New York City "But when you wake next morning, you'll be far outside the bar, Removed away to Liverpool"; the tune is "Irish Jaunting Car." [For this see also Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1218, p. 84, "Larry Maher's Big Fve-Gallon Jar"" (3 references); this song is less about recruiting sailors and more about pure robbery. - RBW]
Broadside LOCSinging sb20267b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: Doe111

Big Gun Shearer (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "The big gun toiled with his heart and soul Shearing sheep to make a roll, Out in the backblocks far away, Then off to Sydney for a holiday." Once there, he gets drunk and chases the girls -- and soon finds himself broke and having to scrape for a living
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1941 (Bill Bowyang's Bush Recitations, according to Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition)
KEYWORDS: sheep work drink poverty
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 140-141, "The Big-gun Shearer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 305-308, "The Big Gun Shearer" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jog Along Till Shearing" (plot)
cf. "The Big-Gun Shearer (II) (The Tomahawker)" (plot)
NOTES [36 words]: "The Big Gun Shearer (I)" and "The Big Gun Shearer (II)" are rather similar in plot; I rather suspect one inspired the other. But they seem to have no lyrics at all in common. So I have, tentatively, split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: FaE140

Big Indians

See (references under) Ten Little Injuns (File: OO2376)

Big Jeest, The

See Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)

Big Jim

DESCRIPTION: "Cold and chill is de winter wind, Big Jim's dead and gone." The singer regrets her man Jim, who is "good and kind to me," but is "a grinder." Jim is killed by another woman in a fight in a hop house; the singer hopes to join him soon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: death homicide drugs love separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 111-112, "Big Jim" (1 text)
Roud #15549
File: LxA111

Big Jim in the Barroom

DESCRIPTION: "My mama told me, Long time ago, Quit all my rowdy ways And drink no more." "Big Jim in the barroom, Little Jim in jail, Big Jim in the barroom, Drinking good ale." "Played cards in England...." "Don't dance her down, boys,,, Her man's in town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad cards warning floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #43, "Big Jim in the Barroom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5011
NOTES [44 words]: Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida's notes mentions hints of "The Roving Gambler," "Stewball," and "Big Jim" in this song. But I find myself much more strongly reminded of "Roll on the Ground (Big Ball's in Town)," although it's more a feeling than any particular lyrics. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: Morr043

Big Jimmie Drummond

See The Choring Song (File: McCST097)

Big Kilmarnock Bonnet

DESCRIPTION: Jock quits plowing, puts on his hat, and goes to Glasgow. As a joke, Sandy Lane tells him to look up Katie Bain. He meets a girl who takes him to Katie. The girls roll him and get him drunk. He gets 60 days in jail for jumping into the Clyde.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan2); 19C (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(37b))
KEYWORDS: prison drink Scotland trick farming travel clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 296, "My Guid Kilmarnock Bonnet" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #5861
RECORDINGS:
Willy Kemp and Curly McKay, "Wi' Ma Big Kilmarnock Bonnet" (on Voice05)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(37b), "Big Kilmarnock Bonnet," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fairmer Broon
NOTES [38 words]: From the NLScotland commentary on broadside L.C.Fol.70(37b): "The 'Kilmarnock Bonnet' of the title is a famous piece of headgear, dating back at least to 1647, when the 'Kilmarnock Corporation of Bonnet Makers' was founded" - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: RcBiGkBo

Big Maquoketa, The

DESCRIPTION: "We was boomin' down the old Miss'ip', One splugeous summer day, When the old man yells, 'Now let 'er rip! I see the Maquotekay!" The sailors wonder what Captain Jones drank: "What? Water? Yes, water. Dry up... you liar... Cause his innards was a-fire."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Russell)
KEYWORDS: river sailor ship drink
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, p. 839, "(The Big Maquoteka)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Edward Russell, _A-Rafting on the Mississip'_, 1928 (republished 2001 by the University of Minnesota Press), pp. 208-209, "The Big Maquoketa" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BaF839

Big Red Rooster and the Little Red Hen, The

See The Little Red Rooster and the Old Black Hen (File: List198)

Big Roaring Fire, The

See A Good Roarin' Fire (File: HayU032)

Big Rock Candy Mountain, The

DESCRIPTION: The hobo arrives and announces that he is heading for the Big Rock Candy Mountain. He describes its delights: Handouts growing on bushes, blind railroad bulls, jails made out of tin, barns full of hay, dogs with rubber teeth, "little streams of alcohol"
AUTHOR: Unknown; popularized by Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (version by Marshall Locke & Charles Tyner published); see NOTES
KEYWORDS: hobo railroading dream food drink
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 79, "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax- FSNA 221, "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 884-886, "The Big Rock Candy Mountains" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 116-117, "Big Rock Candy Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 66, "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 203-204, "(The Big Rock Candy Mountain") (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 534-535, "The Big Rock Candy Mountains, I"; pp. 536-537, "The Big Rock Candy Mountains, II" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 61, "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" (1 text)
DT, BIGRKCND BIGROCK2 (BIGROCK3 -- bawdy parody)
Roud #6696
RECORDINGS:
Bill Boyd & his Cowboy Ramblers, "Hobo's Paradise (Big Rock Candy Mountain)" (Bluebird B-6523/Montgomery Ward M-7029, 1936)
Ben Butler, "Rock Candy Mountain" (Madison 1934, c. 1929)
Vernon Dalhart & Co., "The Big Rock Candy Mountains" (Edison 52472, 1929)
Jerry Ellis [pseud. for Jack Golding] "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" (Champion 15646, 1928; Supertone 9342 [as Weary Willie], 1929)
Arthur Fields. Rock Candy Mountain (Grey Gull 4225/Radiex 4225/Madison 1934 [as Ben Butler], 1929)
Frankie Marvin, "The Big Rock Candy Mountains" (Columbia 1753-D, 1929)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "The Big Rock Candy Mountains" (Victor 21704, 1928; Montgomery Ward M-8121, 1939); "The Big Rock Candy Mountains" (AFS 10,506 A4, 1951, on LC61) (Decca 5689, 1939) (on McClintock01)
Goebel Reeves, "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" (Perfect 13099/Conqueror 8470, c. 1935) (MacGregor 851, n.d.)
Pete Seeger, "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" (on PeteSeeger17) (on PeteSeeger27)
Hobo Jack Turner [pseud. for Ernest Hare] "The Big Rock Candy Mountains" (Diva 2807-G/Velvet Tone 1807-V, 1929)
SAME TUNE:
Fisher Hendley, "Answer to the Big Rock Candy Mountains" (Vocalion 02543, c. 1929/Regal Zonophone [Australia] G22174, n.d.)
Charley Blake, "The Big Rock Candy Mountain, No. 2" (Supertone 9556, 1929)
Bill Cox, "In the Big Rock Candy Mountains - No. 2" (Supertone 9556, 1929) [Note: Also issued as by Charley Blake, same record number]
Stuart Hamblen, "The Big Rock Candy Mountains - No. 2" (Victor V-40319, 1930)
NOTES [350 words]: A number of sources, including Sing Out!, Volume 30, Number 2 (1984) credit this to "Haywire Mac" McClintock, but the earliest date shows that the song precedes him. He did doubtless make it much more popular.
The concept of the song predates the Locke/Tyner version, too A seventeenth century piece, "Invitation to Lubberland," has words such as these:
The rivers run with claret fine, the brooks with rich canary,
The ponds with other sorts of wine to make your hearts full merry:
Nay, more than this, you may behold the fountains flow with brandy,
The rocks are like refined gold, the hills are sugar candy.
John Masefield published a text of "Lubberland" in his 1906 book "A Sailor's Garland," so that could have directly inspired the Locke/Tyner rewrite -- although there is reason to think Haywire Mac had already started working on the song in 1905.
Another possible source is "The Land of Cokaygne," found in the British Library MS Harley 913.
Also, there are accredited instances of wells and fountains with sweet or sour water -- in the case of the latter, a little sugar could make the water taste like lemonade. At least one of these seems to have been known as a "lemonade spring."
Most of the information cited here comes from Jeffrey Kallen and Jonathan Lighter and Abby Sale. I wish I could disentangle it more, but the rest is all very speculative. I would add one other parallel, L. Frank Baum's first significant fantasy, Adventures in Phunnyland, written in the 1890s (published 1900 as A New Wonderland). According to Katharine M. Rogers, L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz, 2002 (I use the 2003 Da Capo press edition), p. 59, in Phunnyland, "the ground is maple sugar, the rain is lemonade, and the snow is popcorn." And Michael O. Riley, Oz and Beyond: The Fantasy World of L. Frank Baum, University of Kansas Press, 1997, p. 35, reports such features as paths made of taffy, mud that is jelly or chocolate, a plain of loaf sugar with boulders of rock candy, rivers of root beer or maple syrup, a lake of sugar syrup, and islands of whipped cream in a pond of custard. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LxU079

Big Sam

DESCRIPTION: Big Sam starts a job at the plant cutting seal fat. Tiring of that he starts skinning pelts. He has enough of that and works emptying a long boat until he's had enough of that. He decides at the end that "I'll work here no more, the work is too fast"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: commerce humorous worker
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 72, "Big Sam" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab072 (Partial)
Roud #9982
NOTES [152 words]: Although Leach says that this song is about a man who works in seal rendering, I think it possible that it refers to the actual hunting of seals instead. Both those who worked on the ships and those who worked in the fat factories had to cut fat -- a seal hunter, when he killed a seal, "sculped" it -- i.e. cut away the skin and fat to bring to the ship, leaving the rest behind. When the "sculps" came to the plants, the workers there cut off the skin and put the fat into the vats for rendering down. Other than the reference to the "plant," I can't see anything that would let us decide between the two.
Whichever it is, I strongly suspect that the ship name Danny R in the next-to-last verse is an error. There was no sealing ship by that name. There was, however, a famous sealer named Diana ("Dianar"; "Dyan R"), for which see "Arrival of 'Aurora,' 'Diana,' 'Virginia Lake,' and 'Vanguard,' Loaded." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: LLab072

Big Ship Sailing, A

DESCRIPTION: "There's a big ship sailing on the illie-alley-oh...." "There's a big ship sailing, rocking on the sea...." "There's a big ship sailing, back again...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Dann)
KEYWORDS: nonballad ship
FOUND IN: Ireland New Zealand
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 6, "The Big Ship Sails" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p 162, "The Big Ship Sails" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 36, "(The big ship sails)" (1 short text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 386, "A Big Ship Sailing" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 15, "The Big Ship Sails on the Ally-Ally-O (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: Hollis Dann, First Year Music: Rote Songs for Kindergarten and First Year (New York, 1914 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 90-91, "The Holly, Holly, Ho" ("The big ship sails thro' the Holly, Holly, Ho ... On the last day of December") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4827
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Alley-Alley-O
The Illie-Alley-O
The Eely Ily Oh
NOTES [100 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame has a version referring, with the wrong date, to the 1914 sinking of the Lusitania ("The big ship's name was the Lusitania ... On the fourteenth of November"). Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "The explanation most often heard is that the song celebrates the opening in 1894 of the Manchester Ship Canal ... but this seems to be precluded by a recollection of the game in New Zealand in 1870." - BS
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 15, also cite the building of the Manchester Ship Canal, which took place in 1894, without direct supporting evidence. He describes it as a skipping game. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FSWB386A

Big Ship Sails, The

See A Big Ship Sailing (File: FSWB386A)

Big Shirt, The

See Kate's Big Shirt (File: Pea069)

Big Stone Gap

DESCRIPTION: "Big Stone Gap's gettin' mighty cold, honey, Big Stone Gap's getting mighty cold, babe, Big Stone Gap's gettin' mighty cold, Can't make a dollar to save my soul, honey." Police hauled the singer off the train. They can't bluff him. He doesn't need women.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Roberts-SangBranchSettlers)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses train police
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #52, "Big Stone Gap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3414
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cumberland Gap" (form)
File: Robe052

Big Strong Man

See My Brother Sylveste (File: Hopk180)

Big-Eyed Rabbit

DESCRIPTION: "The rabbit is the kind of thing What travels in the dark, Never knows when danger's round...." "Big-eyed rabbit, Boo! Boo!" "The rabbit came to my house, Thought he'd come to see me, When I come to find him out, He'd 'suaded my wife to leave me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs)
KEYWORDS: animal infidelity
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 100, "Big-Eyed Rabbit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4200
NOTES [30 words]: Roud lumps Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs's piece with a number of other "big-eyed rabbit" songs that share the title but seem to me to have rather different intents. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Rich100

Big-Gun Shearer (II), The (The Tomahawker)

DESCRIPTION: "Now, some shearing I have done, and some prizes I have won, Through my knuckling down so close to the skin... For that's the only way to make some tin." The singer boasts of success with women and declares that his tally is never less than ninety-nine
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Wannan)
KEYWORDS: sheep drink bragging injury
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 61, "The Big-Gun Shearer" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 296-297, "The Big-Gun Shearer" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Big Gun Shearer (I)" (plot)
NOTES [107 words]: "The Big Gun Shearer (I)" and "The Big Gun Shearer (II)" are rather similar in plot; I rather suspect one inspired the other. But they seem to have no lyrics at all in common. So I have, tentatively, split them. Unfortunately, Wannan simply lists this as traditional, with no source, so I have very little information about it. The key to identifying this version is probably the reference to "tomahawking" (or "tommyhowking" in the Wannan version) -- a reference to shearing so close the the skin that the sheep suffers many cuts. This was a fast way to shear, helping the shearer to a high tally, but obviously was not good for the sheep. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Wanna061

Bigerlow

See The Bigler's Crew [Laws D8] (File: LD08)

Bigler's Crew, The [Laws D8]

DESCRIPTION: The Bigler sets out for Buffalo from Milwaukee. A number of minor incidents are described, and the Bigler's lack of speed sarcastically remarked upon: "[We] MIGHT have passed the whole fleet there -- IF they'd hove to and wait"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: ship travel humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Laws D8, "The Bigler's Crew"
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 47, "The Bigler's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 47, "The Bigler's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 19-20, "The Bigler's Crew" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 101-103, "The Bigler's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 129-135, "The Timber Drogher Bigler" (1 text plus excerpts from several other versions, 1 tune); p. 135, "The Stone Scow" (1 text, which Walton considered a separate adaption of this song but which has the same chorus and is exactly the same sort of plot as "The Bigler," so there seems litle reason to split them)
Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs, pp. 25-29, "The Schooner Bigler" (1 text, 1 tune, arranged as a choral piece)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 243, "Buffalo" (1 fragment)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 19, "Jump Her, Juberju" (this version rather heavily folk processed); 20, "The Bigler" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 141, "The Cruise of the Bigler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 56, "The Cruise of the Bigler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 46, "The Bigler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 220-222, "The Bigler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 174-175, "Bigerlow" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 200-202, "The Cruise of the Bigler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 105-108, "The Bigler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 843-845, "The Bigler's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 611, BIGLRCRW*
ADDITIONAL: David C. Peterson, "Wisconsin Folksongs," chapter in _Badger History: Wisconsin Folklore_, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Volume XXV, Number 2, November 1973), pp. 61-62, "The Bigler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #645
RECORDINGS:
Stanley Baby, "The Trip of the 'Bigler'" (on GreatLakes1)
Harry Barney, "The Timber Drogher Bigler" (1938; on WaltonSailors)
Asa M. Trueblood, "The TImber Drogher Bigler" (1938; on WaltonSailors)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Crummy Cow" (tune)
cf. "The Dogger Bank" (tune, chorus, meter)
cf. "The Great Northern Line" (tune, chorus, meter)
cf. "The Knickerbocker Line" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Light on Cape May" (tune, chorus, meter)
cf. "The Tramway Line" (tune, chorus, meter)
cf. "Ten Thousand Miles From Home" [Lomax AFSB A, pp. 28-29] (chorus & meter)
cf. "The Second Front Song" (tune, one chorus phrase & meter (see Notes))
cf. ("The Erie is raging and the gin is getting low") [Lomax AFSB pp. 461-462] (chorus)
SAME TUNE:
The Crummy Cow (File: HHH501)
The Light on Cape May (File: Doe130)
NOTES [524 words]: According to Julius F. Wolff, Jr., Lake Superior Shipwrecks, Lake Superior Port Cities Inc., Duluth, 1990, p. 42, a ship named J. Bigler was lost near Marquette, Michigan in 1884, but he was unable to find many other details. Walton said that the John Bigler was built in Detroit in 1866 and was wrecked in 1884, confirming Wolff's account. I know of no proof that this was "the" Bigler, but it seems likely. - RBW
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario: "Aemilius Jarvis, from whom Mr. Snider learned this song, had heard it when sailing on the Lakes in 1875, and believed it dated from about 1871." - BS
According to one of Walton's informants, the song's description of the Bigler's sailing qualities is fairly accurate. The ship was built to carry waneys (partly cut logs), and like most such ships (known as timber droghers), she was narrow, with high sides, to fit through the Welland Canal between Lakes Erie and Ontario. Most such ships were rather slow. The Bigler carried more sail than most, but also had an extremely square bow, making her hard to steer and meaning that the extra sail did little to improve her speed.
Walton considers this the most popular of all the Great Lakes songs, and prints "The Stone Scow" as a parody on this basic pattern. Looking at the versions, I suspect this has in fact happened many times -- sailors would take "The Bigler" and supply details of their own voyages. I am not aware of any of these variants which have "taken off," and for the moment am classifying "The Stone Scow" and other similar variants here. - RBW
Solomon Foster has found links with information about several of these ships (slightly edited):
The Bigler: http://greatlakeships.org/2902970/data?n=1
Robert Emmett: http://greatlakeships.org/2900231/data?n=1
The Bigler was built in 1866, while the Emmett was renamed Colonel Graham in 1869, so that suggests the events of the song occurred between those years.
There were two tugs Sweepstakes in that time period, both living near Lake St Clair, so I don't see any obvious way to conclude which one it was:
http://greatlakeships.org/2895959/data?n=2
http://greatlakeships.org/2895880/data?n=4
Though only the second is explicitly listed as a St. Clair River tug.
There are three possibilities for the Maple Leaf and loads of them for the "Hunter".
One possibly interesting point: given that "The Stone Scow" (at least [Walton's version]) doesn't mention any ship names at all, it's conceivable it was actually still about the Bigler! According to greatlakesships.org, the Bigler's last cargo was stone. - (RBW, quoting Solomon Foster)
"The Second Front Song" is another parody, dating from World War II. It was recorded by Ewan MacColl on "British Army Songs," Washington Records WLP 711 LP (1965). The chorus keeps enough of the "Bigler's Crew" chorus to show the parody's source: "It's hitch 'em. It's hitch 'em. / It's the second front for you. / In spite of our old Atlantic war we're the boys to see it through. / It won't take long to finish it / When we have got their range / And then we can all go home and live like humans for a change." - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LD08

Bilberry Town

See The Brewer Laddie (File: FVS095)

Bile 'Em Cabbage Down

See Bile Them Cabbage Down (File: LoF269)

Bile dem Cabbage Down

See Bile Them Cabbage Down (File: LoF269)

Bile That Cabbage Down

See Bile Them Cabbage Down (File: LoF269)

Bile Them Cabbage Down

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Boil them cabbage down, Bake that hoecake brown, Only tune that I can play is Boil them cabbage down." Fiddle tune, with floating verses from anywhere, e.g. "Raccoon has a bushy tail, Possum's tail is bare" or "Raccoon up a 'simmon tree"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recordings, Uncle Dave Macon, Fiddlin' John Carson)
KEYWORDS: fiddle dancing nonballad animal food floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 269, "Bile Them Cabbage Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 710, "Bile dem Cabbage Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, p. 11, "Bilin' Cabage" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 432, "Boil Them Cabbage Down" (1 fragment); also perhaps 155, "Jaybird Up a Simmon Tree" (1 text plus mention of 1 more; both are singles stanzas, "Jaybird up a 'simmon tree, sparrow(s) on the ground," which float; I list them here because this seems the most popular of the songs with the stanza, though they might instead be "Possum Up a Gum Stump" or something else)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 432 "Boil THem Cabbage Down" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 124-125, "Bile dem Cabbage Down" (1 text, with some unusual variants in the chorus); p. 168, "Boil Dem Cabbage Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 88, "Bile 'Em Cabbage Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 96-97, "Bile Dem Cabbage Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 121, "Bile Dem Cabbage Down" (1 text)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 68-69, "Bile That Cabbage Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 40, "Bile Them Cabbage Down" (1 text)
Roud #4211
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Boil Dem Cabbage Down" (OKeh 40306, 1925; rec. 1924)
Crockett's Kentucky Mountaineers, "Bile Dem Cabbage Down" (Crown 3101, 1931/Varsity 5046, n.d.; on KMM)
Dixie Crackers, "Bile Them Cabbage Down" (Paramount 3151, 1929)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers, "Boil Dem Cabbage Down" (OKeh 45112, 1927)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Bile Dem Cabbage Down" (Vocalion 14849, 1924; Vocalion 5042, c. 1926)
Clayton McMichen's Wildcats, "Bile Dem Cabbage Down" (Decca 5436, 1937)
Riley Puckett, "Bile Dem Cabbage Down" (Columbia 254-D, 1924; Harmony 5127-H, n.d.)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Bile Them Cabbage Down" (on Stonemans01), "Bile 'em Cabbage Down" (on Autoharp01)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Bile Them Cabbage Down" (Columbia 15249-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
Jack Youngblood, "Bile Dem Cabbage Down" (Columbia 21103, 1953)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Raccoon" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Possum Up a Gum Stump" (floating lyrics)
File: LoF269

Bili Boi

See Billy Boy (File: R104)

Bilin' Cabbage

See Bile Them Cabbage Down (File: LoF269)

Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?

DESCRIPTION: Bill (a B&O brakeman) and his woman have a fight; he storms out. She begs, "Won't you come home, Bill Bailey... I'll do the cooking, honey, I'll pay the rent; I know I've done you wrong." (At last Bill shows up in an automobile)
AUTHOR: Hughie Cannon
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (sheet music, recordings by Arthur Collins and Dan W. Quinn)
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 216-217, "Bill Bailey" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 124, "Bill Bailey" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 253, "Bill Bailey" (1 text)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 205-210, "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 145-146, "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?"
DT, BLLBAILY*
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 29-33, "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please ----- Come Home" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Roud #4325
RECORDINGS:
Perry Bechtel's Colonels, "Bill Bailey" (Brunswick 498, c. 1930)
Al Bernard, "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home" (Brunswick 312, 1929; Panachord [UK] 25148, 1931; rec.1928)
Homer Brierhopper, "Bill Bailey" (Bluebird B-6903/Montgomery Ward M-7242, 1937)
Big Bill Broonzy, "Bill Bailey" (on Broonzy01)
Arthur Collins, "Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home" (CYL: Edison 8112, 1902)
Warde Ford, "Bill Bailey" [fragment] (AFS 4215 B3, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Dan W. Quinn, "Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home" (Victor 1411, 1902)
Jess Young's Tennessee Band [or Young Brothers' Tennessee Band], "Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home" (Columbia 15219-D, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hop-Joint" (some lyrics; character of Bill Bailey)
cf. "Oh, Baby, 'Low Me One More Chance" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey?
NOTES [245 words]: Although obviously not a folk song in origin, this strikes me as a popular enough piece as to belong here. Fuld mentions several papers examining who "Bill Bailey" might have been. He seems to find none of them entirely convincing.
The story in Geller is that William Bailey was a "lazy shiftless Negro whose angry spouse, weary of supporting him, had finally turned him out." Cannon, apparently too sexist to fathom this, was convinced she would take him back, and made the wife the lazy one.
Philip Furia, The Poets of Tin Pan Alley: A History of America's Greatest Lyricists, 1990 (I use the 1992 Oxford paperback with a new preface), p. 29, says that the original sheet music of this shows "wooly-haired caricatures" of the protagonists, and notes that this makes the idea of throwing him out "with nothing but a fine-toothed comb" particularly un-helpful, because a fine-toothed comb would be useless on such hair.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 258, estimates that this was the sixth-most popular song in America in in 1902, reaching #1 in September of that year.
Spaeth's A History of Popular Music in America mentions another 1902 song, "I Wonder Why Bill Bailey Don't Come Home" (by Frank Fogarty, Woodward, Mills), and still another, "Since Bill Bailey Came Back Home," by Billy Johnson and Seymour Furth. Unfortunately, he supplies no details. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FSWB253B

Bill Brown the Poacher

DESCRIPTION: In 1769 Bill Brown is shot and killed while hunting hare with his friends and their dogs. At trial gold frees his killers. Though the law supports his killers, Brown's blood "for vengeance cries"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1832 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.17(32))
KEYWORDS: homicide poaching trial death dog money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, p. 133, "Bill Brown" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: CJ Davison Ingledew, The Ballads and Songs of Yorkshire (London: Bell and Daldy, 1860 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 162-164, "Bill Brown the Poacher" ("In seventeen hundred and sixty-nine") (1 text)
Roud #609
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(32), "Bill Brown" ("In seventeen hundred and sixty-nine"), W. Wright (Birmingham), 1820-1831; also Firth b.34(27), "Bill Brown"; Firth c.19(46), "Bill Brown of Brightside town"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Bill Brown" (subject)
File: KiTu133

Bill Cutlass, the Pirate Rover

DESCRIPTION: "My name's Bill Cutlass, bold and free, I came into the world by piracy, And while I can steer a craft at sea, I'll be a pirate rover." He takes gold "by steel and blood" and makes women slaves but protects shipwrecked sailors. He won't be taken alive
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1845 (The Pirate's Songster, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate money freedom rescue sailor slave
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 64, "Bill Cutlass, the Pirate Rover" (1 text, 1 tune, with the words of "The Roving Sailor" being printed with the tune, which needs modification to work with the "Bill Cutlass" text; #38 in the first edition)
Roud #V23230
File: FrPi064

Bill Dunbar

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you sympathizers, I pray you lend an ear. It's of a drowning accident as you shall quicklie hear." Hotel manager Bill Dunbar, liked by all, attends a race. On his return, he and (Bob Cunningham) go through the ice and drown
AUTHOR: (Billy Lyle and) Dave Curtin ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Fowke); c. 1957 (recording, Emerson Woodcock)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Bill Dunbar, a kind hotel-keeper, and Bob Cunningham lose their way while returning from the races; they drive their team onto the ice, break through and are drowned; Bill throws his mitts onto the ice to show where they went in. Bill leaves a wife and child, and is sorely mourned; once a foreman for Mossom Boyd, he was known for bravery. Singer hopes to meet on a brighter shore "there to live in happiness and old acquaintance to renew"
KEYWORDS: racing death drowning grief travel mourning lament animal horse children family wife friend landlord
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1894 (other sources say c. 1885) - Drowning of Bill Dunbar and Bob Cottingham at Gannon's Narrows on Pigeon Lake in Ontario
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #40, "Bill Dunbar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3677
RECORDINGS:
Emerson Woodcock, "Bill Dunbar" (on Lumber01)
NOTES [48 words]: One of Fowke's informants told her the song, widely known in the Peterborough area, was written in about 1900. Mossom Boyd, for whom Dunbar worked, came to Canada in 1834, died 1883; he was the first European to settle in the Sturgeon Lake region, and was successful in the lumber trade. - PJS
File: FowL40

Bill Grogan's Goat

DESCRIPTION: Bill Grogan has a goat; "He loved that goat just like a kid." One day the goat, "Ate three red shirts from off the line." Bill angrily ties the goat to the railroad track. The goat "coughed up those shirts (and) flagged down the train."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (sheet music, The Tale of a Shirt)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous train
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 214-215, "Thorne's Goat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 288-295, "Papa's Billy Goat/Rosenthal's Goat" (3 texts plus some excerpts and a sheet music cover of "The Tale of a Shirt," 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 514, "The Billy Goat" (1 short text)
Peacock, p. 65, "Joey Long's Goat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 140-141, "(The Goat)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 404, "Bill Groggin's Goat" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 54-55, "Papa's Billy Goat" (1 text, 1 tune, with additional elements added)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #135, "Pap's Old Billy Goat" (1 text, 1 tune, with what seem to be a couple of verses from a train song added at the end)
Harbin-Parodology, #61, pp. 21-22, "Goat Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 233, 235, 308, "Bill Grogan's Goat"/"Old Hogan's Goat" (notes only)
DT, GOATSHRT*
Roud #4574
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Papa's Billy Goat" (OKeh 4994, 1924; rec. 1923) (Okeh, unissued, 1927) (Bluebird B-5787, 1935; rec. 1934)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Papa's Billie Goat" (Vocalion 14848, 1924)
Joshua Osborne, "Joey Long's Goat" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Riley Puckett, "Papa's Billy Goat" (Columbia, unissued, 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Reuben and Rachel" (tune of some versions, including Fiddlin' John Carson's)
cf. "Sweet Adeline" (tune of the Harbin-Parodology version)
cf. "Paddy McGinty's Goat" (theme)
NOTES [205 words]: Almost certainly based on a poem by Robert Service -- which may, however, have been based on a folk song or story. - PJS
The Service poem is "The Ballad of Casey's Billy-Goat," in which the goat is named Shamus; it ends
What power on earch could save them? Yet a golden inspiration
To god and goats alike may come, so in that brutish brain
A thought was born -- the ould red shael.... Then rearing with elation,
Like lightning Shamus threw it up -- and flagged and stopped the train.
Norm Cohen, however, makes no mention of this; he notes that the 1904 "Tale of a Shirt" (the earliest precisely dateable version) is very distinct from the common text, requiring recensional activity. The earliest traditional version seems to be Brown's, from 1913. Cohen also notes a link to a Will Hays song, "O'Grady's Goat," published by 1890.
It sounds to me as if the thing goes back into the mists of time, with periodic performers grabbing some traditional fragment and expanding it into a full-blown song.
Carson's version, incidentally, has a final verse in which the singer marries a widow and the widow's daughter marries the singer's father. It's not "I'm My Own Grandpa" -- but it's very possibly an inspiration for that song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: SRW141

Bill Groggin's Goat

See Bill Grogan's Goat (File: SRW141)

Bill Hopkin's Colt

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas over in Cambridge county In a barroom filled with smoke Where all the neighbors... Talk horse and crack a joke." Hopkins tells how his father planned to shoot an ugly colt, but Bill urged him to spare it -- and it has become a champion racer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: horse racing father
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 39-42, "Bill Hopkin's Colt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-ChapBook Flanders-VermontChapBook, pp. 24-29, "Bill Hopkins' Colt" (1 text)
ST FlBr039 (Partial)
Roud #4156
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Creeping Jane" [Laws Q23] (theme)
NOTES [12 words]: As "Bill Hopkins's Colt," this is item dH36 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: FlBr039

Bill Hopkins' Colt

See Bill Hopkin's Colt (File: FlBr039)

Bill Jones

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas off the coast of Guinea Land, Full sixty leagues from the shore we lay." The sailors suffer horribly at the Captain's hands. Bill Jones calls for mutiny against the Captain. Bill is killed, but he curses the Captain, who is soon lost at sea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton-RealSailorSongs)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor death mutiny ghost
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #86, "Bill Jones" (1 tune)
Roud #17540
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(281), "Bill Jones" ("'Twas off the coast of Guinea land"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(282), J. Harkness; Harding B 11(196)=Firth c.12(305), "Bill Jones," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; Harding B 11(1587), C. Paul (London), n.d.; Firth b.26(70)=Johnson Ballads 657=Johnson Ballads 658, C. Paul (London); Firth b.28(38), unknown, n.d.
File: AshS086

Bill Martin and Ella Speed

See Ella Speed (Bill Martin and Ella Speed) [Laws I6] (File: LI06)

Bill Mason

DESCRIPTION: The song opens with chat about Bill Mason, then notes that he was called to "bring (down) the night express." His new wife, seeing vandals destroying the tracks, she brings out a lantern and saves him and his train
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: probably 1873 (100 Choice Selections, Volume 6)
KEYWORDS: train rescue sabotage
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 282-287, "Bill Mason" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 84, "Bill Mason" (1 text)
Roud #12393
RECORDINGS:
Roy Harvey and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Bill Mason" (Paramount 3079, 1927)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Bill Mason" (Columbia 15407-D, 1929)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bill Mason's Bride
NOTES [32 words]: This poem somehow came to be associated with Bret Harte, but is not in any of the works written in his lifetime; this seems to be a case of an incorrect attribution that somehow "stuck." - RBW
File: LSRai282

Bill Miller's Trip to the West

DESCRIPTION: "When I got there I looked around; No Christian man or church I found." Alleged to describe the adventures of Confederate captain Bill Miller of North Carolina, but the two lines quoted above are all the text known
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: clergy
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 268, "Bill Miller's Trip to the West" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 268, "Bill MIller's Trip to the West" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Roud #6625
NOTES [46 words]: Many editors print occasional fragments of songs they can't identify, but as of this moment, I think this is the most anonymous fragment I've yet seen in a book of traditional song. Schinhan compares the tune to the "Volga Boat Song," which seems pretty unlikely in context. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: BrII268

Bill Morgan and His Gal

DESCRIPTION: Bill Morgan takes his girlfriend out to eat; she orders such a huge dinner that he remonstrates with her, saying, "My name is Morgan, but it ain't J. P." Other examples of her profligacy follow; at last Morgan gives up on her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (recording, Bob Roberts)
KEYWORDS: food humorous lover money
FOUND IN: US(So) West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 142, "Bill Morgan" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, AINTJP*
Roud #11344
RECORDINGS:
Buster Carter & Preston Young, "Bill Morgan and his Gal" (Columbia 15758-D, 1932; rec. 1931)
Blind Blake Higgs, "J. P. Morgan" (on WIHIGGS01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Bill Morgan and his Gal" (on NLCR05, NLCRCD1, ClassOT)
Bob Roberts, "My Name Is Morgan, But It Ain't J.P." (CYL: Edison 9227, 1906)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Had But Fifty Cents" (theme: the date that eats and drinks unbelievable quantities)
cf. "The Half Crown Song" (theme: the date that eats and drinks unbelievable quantities)
cf. "Pretty LIttle Dear" (theme: the date that eats and drinks unbelievable quantities)
cf. "Go Easy, Mabel" (theme: the date that eats and drinks unbelievable quantities)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My Name is Morgan (But It Ain't J. P.)
NOTES [151 words]: John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), mortgage banker, was probably the most powerful financier in American history; he controlled railroads, steel mills and the largest bank on Wall Street. The size of his enterprises is demonstrated by the fact that his bank actually financed the Federal Reserve Board in its early years.
Morgan also (at the request of Theodore Roosevelt) managed the stock market problem which led to the Panic of 1907. Using his own money and money he pried out of other bankers, he managed to stabilize the financial system, though the resulting recession hurt ordinary people badly. - PJS, RBW
This has the hallmarks of a vaudeville song. - PJS
And the New Lost City Ramblers version heightens this impression with an additional chorus. - RBW
We should note that this is NOT the same as the Mitchell Trio song "My Name Is Morgan," though that was doubtless suggested by this piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcBMAHG

Bill Peters, the Stage Driver

DESCRIPTION: "Bill Peters was a hustler From Independence town...." "Bill driv the stage from Independence... Thar warn't no feller on the route that driv with half the skill." Bill drives faster, stops less, and kills more than anyone, but at last he stops a bullet
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax, Cowboy Songs)
KEYWORDS: travel death talltale
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 60, "Bill Peters, the Stage Driver" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 194-195, "Bill Peters, the Stage Driver" (1 text)
Roud #8012
File: Saffe194

Bill Scrimshaw and the Scotsman

DESCRIPTION: Bill Scrimshaw is ordered by his landlord to quit wrestling. He relents when a Scotsman calls Bill a coward. Bill and the Scotsman wrestle. Bill wins easily, and he and the Scotsman spend the night drinking.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (OShaughnessy-Yellowbelly1)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Bill Scrimshaw farms on Sir Robert Heron's land. Sir Robert orders Bill to stop wrestling; else he'll turn him off the farm. A Scotsman challenges Bill and accuses him of cowardice for refusing the bout. Sir Robert relents and tells Bill to "lay that Scotsman low." Bill makes short work of the Scotsman and they retire to a tavern for a night to "wrestle John Barleycorn Till he throws us on the floor"
KEYWORDS: fight sports pride
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OShaughnessy-Yellowbelly1, pp. 85-87, "Bill Scrimshaw and the Scotsman" (1 text)
Roud #1089
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lincolnshire Wrestler" (subject, one verse, and references there)
NOTES [53 words]: The first verse of this text is the very close to the last verse OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 "The Lincolnshire Wrestler" -- with lines swapped -- and, consequently, to the one verse collected by Butler.
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 has this text from a 1958 issue of The Lincolnshire Historian. - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: OSY1085

Bill Seymour the Bold Seaman

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you bold heroes who wear jackets of blue" to hear of two twins, Bill and Warren Seymour, who court the same woman. Warren wins her; Bill vows revenge. They take ship and fight; lightning strikes; somebody dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (collected from Alonzo Lewis by Helen Hartness Flanders)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection ship battle death storm
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 150-151, "Bill Seymour" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [80 words]: According to Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, this is based on a story by Henry P. Cheever, "The Rival Brothers, or, the Corsair and the Privateer; A tale of the last war" published in 1845. Google Books, as of this writing, does not have a copy of the tale available but lists a publication in a 66 page booklet. Lane/Gosbee admit that the song as given -- even after they edited it -- doesn't make sense; you have to read the story. I strongly doubt it's worth the bother. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LaGo150

Bill Stafford

See The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II) [Laws H1] (File: LH01)

Bill the Bullocky

DESCRIPTION: "As I came down through Conroy's Gap I heard a maiden cry, 'There goes old Bill the Bullocky, He's bound for Gundagai!'" Bill is said to be very honest, but has a difficult time doing his work
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: Australia dog work travel hardtimes
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 139, "Bill the Bullocky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, p. 101, "Bill the Bullocky" (1 text)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, p. 131, "Bullocky Bill" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, p. 51, "Bullocky Bill" (1 text)
ADDITiONAL: A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, pp. 308-309, "Bullocky bill" (1 text)
Roud #10221
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nine Miles from Gundagai (The Dog Sat in the Tuckerbox)" (lyrics)
NOTES [75 words]: The version in Manifold is only two verses long, and one of them is largely derived from "Nine Miles from Gundagai" (with which Roud lumps it). Even the lines not derived from that song generally have parallels elsewhere. Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, p. 238, claims it was reconstructed from a lost original by a reporter named Tom Kinnane. I'm not sure this counts as an independent song. But I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: PASB139

Bill the Weaver

See Will the Weaver [Laws Q9] (File: LQ09)

Bill Vanero (Paul Venerez) [Laws B6]

DESCRIPTION: Bill/Paul hears that a band of Indians is coming, and rides to tell his love Bessie Lee and her fellow ranchers. Fatally wounded, he writes a warning in his own blood. The letter is carried by his horse, and the ranch is saved
AUTHOR: Eben E. Rexford (as "The Ride of Paul Venerez")
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 ("Youth's Companion")
KEYWORDS: death Indians(Am.) horse warning
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws B6, "Bill Vanero (Paul Venerez)"
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 40-45, "Billy Venero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 4, pp. 42-47, "Billie Vanero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 199, "Bill Vanero" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 184-186, "Bill Vanero" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 199A)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 210, "Billy Vanero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 46, "Billy Veniro" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 99, "Billy Venero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 68-71, "Billy Venero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 262-263, "The Ride of Paul Venarez" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 374, BVANERO* BVANERO2*
Roud #632
RECORDINGS:
Billie Maxwell, "Billy Venero" (Parts 1&2) (Victor V-40148, 1929; on WhenIWas2)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Billy Venero" (Victor 21487, 1928)
Glenn Ohrlin, "Billy Venero" (on Ohrlin01)
Luther Royce, "Billy Vanero" (AFS, 1941; on LC55)
Art Thieme, "Billy Venero" (on Thieme01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Billy Vanero
NOTES [97 words]: Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging notes a complicated story here. He states that Eben E. Rexford published "The Ride of Paul Venerez" in 1881. But it was in 1882 (July 17) that the White Mountain Apaches broke out of their reservation. Riders did bring warning of the outbreak, which allowed the settlers to protect the Burch Ranch near Payson, Arizona.
Rexford's one big hit was "Silver Threads Among the Gold."
There is no documentation of a rider named Billy Vanero, so while the Rexford poem was probably adopted to the Arizona situation, the details are anything but clear. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LB06

Bill Wiseman

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Bill rode out one morning just at the break of day; He said he was sure of his bait-tub of squid up here in Hiscock Bay." The song ends "It's all about Bill Wiseman jiggin' his squid in Hiscock Bay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: sailor sex bawdy humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Bill Wiseman" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 14-15 in the 3rd edition
Peacock, pp. 40-42, "Bill Wiseman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 12-13, "Kitchy-Coo" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Kitchey Coo" (on NFOBlondahl01)
Ken Peacock, "Bill Wiseman" (on NFKPeacock)
NOTES [161 words]: What are Bill, George, Patience, Tom, Ethel, Lisa and Judge Pippy doing between the first and last verse? They may be jigging but I doubt it has anything to do with squid; guessing at keywords could be like taking Bessie Smith literally when she sings "He's a deep sea diver."
Omar Blondahl recorded a version as "Kitchey Coo" -- from the nonsense chorus? -- on Rodeo LP RLP7 [per Neil Rosenberg, "Omar Blondahl's Contribution to the Newfoundland Folksong Canon" in Canadian Journal for Traditional Music, 1991]
Peacock (NFKPeacock notes): "The man who sang it for me was somewhat embarassed by the presence of women, a valuable clue to the involved symbolism of both the verses and the chorus. To an outsider unfamiliar with local sexual symbols it appears obscure, though perhaps mildly suggestive. Similar songs occur in our own popular music too.... Millions know the words but only a few know what's going on. In Newfoundland, everyone knows what's going on." - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doyl3014

Billboard Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "As I was walking down the street" the singer sees a billboard damaged by weather, which now contains many odd ads: "Smoke Coca-Cola cigarettes, chew Wrigley's Spearmint beer," or try other unorthodox techniques
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Camp Clavell and Girl Reserve Club Songs)
KEYWORDS: humorous food commerce campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 183, "The Billboard Song" (2 texts)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 94, 142, 257, 285, "The Billboard Song"/"The Billoard" (notes only)
Harbin-Parodology7, #126, p. 38, "The Billboard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15715
NOTES [24 words]: Averill says that this song varies "from camp to camp, and from season to season," no doubt depending on what is currently being advertised. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF094A

Billie Johnson of Lundy's Lane

See General Scott and the Veteran (File: Wa013)

Billie Magee Magaw

See The Three Ravens [Child 26] (File: C026)

Billie Vanero

See Bill Vanero (Paul Venerez) [Laws B6] (File: LB06)

Billy and Diana

See Vilikens and His Dinah [LawsM31A/B] (File: LM31)

Billy and Nancy

See Fare Thee Well, Cold Winter (File: ReCi038)

Billy Barlow (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Let's go a-huntin', said Risky Rob, Let's go a-huntin', said Robin to Bob, Let's go a-huntin', said Dan'l to Jo, Let's go a-huntin', said Billy Barlow." They hunt a (rat/possum), kill it, cook it, and divide it. All get sick except Billy, who feels fine.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: hunting humorous animal disease poison
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 57, "'Let's Go A-Hunting,' Says Richard to Robert" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 101-102, "Billy Barlow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 252-254, "Hunting the Wren" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 143-144, "Hunting the Wren" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 159, "Let's Go A-Huntin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 165-166, "Let's Go a-Huntin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 204, "Billy Barlow" (1 text)
DT, BLLYBRLO
Roud #236
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Billy Barlow" (on PeteSeeger03, PeteSeegerCD03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cutty Wren" (form)
cf. "Cricketty Wee" (form)
NOTES [81 words]: Thought by many to be an Americanized version of "The Cutty Wren." The similarity, both in form and in subject matter, is there -- but the two have gone in such separate directions that it seems better to keep them distinct; it is barely possible they are independent (and quite possible that "Billy Barlow" is a deliberate parody).
I can't help but add Paul Stamler's comment, though: "If this is independent from 'Cutty Wren,' I'll eat that possum." (Yes, but would you eat the rat?) - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: SBoA165

Billy Barlow (II)

DESCRIPTION: William Barlow "come[s] before you with one boot and one shoe." He arouses the wonder of the girls, is given free entrance to the races, and is more unusual than any animal in the circus. He hopes some young lady will accept him as a beau
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: talltale courting clothes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 253-255, "Billy Barlow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7758
NOTES [202 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety notes this as a comic song performed as far back as 1842, and popular enough to parody during the administration of Franklin Pierce (1853-1857). Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety also notes that Edgar Allen Poe refers to his ex-publisher as "Billy Barlow," implying that, by 1840, the name was already used for a buffoon.
Joy Hildebrand brings to my attention Sam Cowell (1820-1864), who performed as Billy Barlow. From the dates, it looks like Billy probably predates Cowell. But Hildebrand speculates that Cowell might have converted Billy into a character in the "Cutty Wren" type song "Billy Barlow (I)." So far, this is just speculation -- but it makes some sense.
Cowell was successful enough that a chapbook was printed, bearing the proud advertisement "SAM COWELL'S SONG-BOOK, Containing all his best Copyright Songs, for SIXPENCE." The songs listed on the cover include "The Ratcatcher's Daughter, Alonzo the Brave, Billy Barlow, Richard III, La Somnambula, Mazeppa, Aladdin, The Forty Thieves, The Merchand of Venice, Lord Lovel, Hamlet, and Othello. Evidently, when he wasn't playing Billy Barlow, he was parodying Shakespeare. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Beld253

Billy Barlow (III - Civil War)

DESCRIPTION: "Good evening, kind friends, how do you all do? 'Tis a very long time since I've been to see you." Billy has volunteered for the Union. He goes to Richmond, where Jeff Davis is jealous of him. He describes his hard times in the army
AUTHOR: Words: various versions by Ed Clifford, H. Angelo, Moses Gibler, and perhaps others
EARLIEST DATE: before 1870 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar humorous soldier courting derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 314-316, "Billy Barlow"; p. 316, "Billy Barlow -- On the TImes" (2 texts, 1 tune, the texts being different versions but with the same general ideas)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #141, p. 11, "Billy Barlow o. 2" (X references)
NOTES [88 words]: Billy Barlow was a popular enough character in the Civil War era to inspire multiple imitation songs, as shown by the two songs cited by Wolf:
-- Billy Barlow No. 2, "Good evening, kind friends, how do you all do," eight verses and chorus, credited to Ed Clifford, with at least two editions by de Marsan, and
-- [New] Billy Barlow, "O, good evening, gentlemen, how do you do," seven stanzas and chorus, "composed and sung by Moses Gibler, at various concerts."
It seems pretty clear they were borrowing things from each other. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: SCWF314

Billy Barlow in Australia

DESCRIPTION: "When I was at home I was down on my luck And I earned a poor living by driving a truck." Billy inherits a thousand pounds, but a merchant sells him a station and he is cheated of the whole inheritance. He returns to Sydney to beg a job
AUTHOR: Benjamin Griffin (source: Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, _A Guide to Australian Folklore_, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 29)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Maitland Mercury and Hunger River General Advertiser; see Patterson/Fahey/Seal)
KEYWORDS: money trick home unemployment
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 255-257, "Billy Barlow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 75-178, "Bill Barlow in Australia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 34-35, "Billy Barlow in Australia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 149-155, "Billy Barlow in Australia" (1 text plus an excerpt)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 68-71, "Billy Barlow" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), p. 282-285, "Billy Barlow in Australia" (1 text)
Roud #8397
NOTES [62 words]: Obviously not to be confused with the American "Billy Barlow."
I'm far from sure it's a folk song, either. Banjo Paterson published it in "Old Bush Songs," but Paterson is no reliable source -- how many folk songs are there about truck drivers? (Although the "truck" in question appears to be the pre-internal combustion engine sort.) The tune is also of suspect origin. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: PASB034

Billy Boland

DESCRIPTION: Ball-game played with multiple balls. "Billy Boland, Biscuit Baker, Ballybough Bridge."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: cook nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 66, "Billy Boland" (1 text)
Roud #38119
File: BAAI066C

Billy Booster

DESCRIPTION: "Billy, Billy Booster Had a little rooster; The rooster died and Billy cried, Poor little Billy, Billy Booster"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: chickens death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 107, "Billy Booster" (1 text, half this and half "Not Last Night But the Night Before")
File: ZiZa107B

Billy Boy

DESCRIPTION: Asked where he has been, Billy says he has been courting, and has found a girl, "but she's a young thing and cannot leave her mother." In response to other questions, he describes her many virtues, always returning to his refrain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: courting age youth
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England(North,South)) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES (56 citations):
Bronson (12 Appendix), "Billie Boy," 29 versions (though Bronson omits a higher fraction than usual of the versions known to him)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 12, "Billie Boy" (4 versions: #2, #6, #15, #20)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 499-501, "Billy Boy" (2 texts)
Randolph 104, "Billy Boy" (1 text plus a fragment and 5 excerpts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 131-133, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 104A)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 121, "Billy Boy" (2 texts plus an excerpt; the headnotes mention 47 texts in the Brown collection)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 121, "Billy Boy" (4 tunes plus text excerpts)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #222, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 133, pp. 278-280, "Billy Boy" (4 texts, condensed, plus mention of "at least" 8 more)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 10-11, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 296-298, "Billy Boy" (4 texts, mostly short; 1 tune on p.435) {Bronson's #27}
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 38, "Billy Boy" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 17, pp. 24-27, "Billy Boy" (2 texts plus 2 fragments, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 190-192, "Billy Boy" (2 texts)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 24-25=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, p. 141, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 141-143, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, pp. 114-115, "Billy Boy" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 246-248, "Billy Boy" (2 texts plus 2 fragments, 1 tune) {Bronson's #20}
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 44-45, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #20, although with a change of key that could affect the scale used}
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 162-163, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronon's #29}
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 166-167, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #19}
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 121, "Billy Boy"; p. 153, "(Notes on 'Billy Boy')" (2 texts) (pp. 102, 131 in the 1919 edition)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 154-155, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 14, "Billie Boy" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #26}
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 105, "Billy Boy" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 45-46, "Billy Boy" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 89, "My Boy Billy" (3 texts, 3 tunes) {B=Bronson's #22, C=#8}
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 58, "My Boy Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 115, "My Boy Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 12, "Billy Boy" (1 text)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #31, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #22}
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 320-322, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #28}
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 450-452, "Billy Boy" (3 texts, 2 tunes) [AbrEd, pp. 336-338]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 171, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 50-51, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 113, pp. 231-232, "Billy Boy" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #197, "Billy Boy" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 168, "Billy Boy" (4 texts)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 8-9, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 166-167, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 87, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #45, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #1, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 267, "Billy Boy" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, p. 6, "Billy Boy" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 45, "Where have you been all the day, My boy Billy?" (2 texts)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 690-691, "Bili Boy (Billy Boy)" (1 Hawaiian text plus English translation; it is clearly a rewrite, not just a translation)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #140, p. 11, "Billie Boy" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #10, p. 62, "Billy Boy" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 477, "Billy Boy" (source notes only)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 95, 237, 286, "Billy Boy" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 38-39, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 59, "Billy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 4, "My Boy Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT (12), BILLYBOY BLLYBOY2* BLLYBOY3*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #40, "My Boy Tammy" (1 text)
Roud #326
RECORDINGS:
Ray Covert, "Billy Boy" (Gennett 6204/Herwin 75564, 1927)
Frank Crumit, "Billy Boy" (Victor 19945, 1926)
Tom Hanford, "Billy Boy" (Piotr-Archive #653, recorded 08/16/2023)
Chris Miles, "Billy Boy" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #545, recorded 03/14/2023)
Donnie Stewart & Terry Perkins, "Billy Boy" (on JThomas01)
Erica Warnock, "Billy Boy" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #456, recorded 01/26/2023)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1057), "The Lammy" ("Whar hae ye been a' day, my boy Tammy"), D. Bass (Newcastle), 1800-1810; also 2806 c.14(107), "The Lammie"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Randal" [Child 12]
NOTES [183 words]: A number of scholars have linked this simple little song with the classic ballad "Lord Randall." Since they only have two things in common, however (the courting theme and certain metrical traits), in the Ballad Index at least we keep them separate.
De la Mare attributes the "My Boy Tammy" text to Hector MacNeill (1746-1818), a prolific author now almost forgotten. (Granger's Index to Poetry, for instance, cites only one of his poems: This one.) Given the dates of other versions, it seems unlikely that MacNeill originated "Billy Boy," but he may well have created a popular recension. - RBW
The Bodleian "Lammy"/"Lammie" texts match the first verse of Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 45 second text.
The "Lammy"/"Lammie" texts are well enough known to have parodies. See, for example: NLScotland, L.C.1270(002), "Parody on the Lammy" ("O whar hae ye been a' day, creeshie souter Johnnie"), unknown, c.1845, an anti-alcohol song; Bodleian, Harding B 27(44), "Bottom's Song" ("Whar ha'e ye been a' day"), McNeil and Co. (Edinburgh?), no date, a song on 19th century politics. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R104

Billy Brink

See Bluey Brink (File: FaE148)

Billy Broke Locks (The Escape of Old John Webb)

DESCRIPTION: John Webb was imprisoned and well guarded, but "Billy broke locks and Billy broke bolts, And Billy broke all that he came nigh." Billy and John Webb escape on horseback, then relax by organizing a dance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Barry, Eckstorm, Smyth)
KEYWORDS: prison escape dancing freedom
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 393-400, "John Webber" (1 text plus four versions from newspapers and such, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 4, "Billy Broke Locks" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JOHNWEBB*
Roud #83
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Archie o Cawfield" [Child 188] (tune & meter, theme)
NOTES [109 words]: An American rework of "Archie o' Cawfield," with which Roud lumps it; the revised version dates perhaps from the 1730s. It may have arisen out of an attempt at currency reform. In the early days of the English colonies, there was no universal system of coinage; Spanish money was common, but there was no fixed exchange rate.
Parliament decided to settle the matter by issuing a paper money, the "tenor." However, after a time the "Old Tenor" (referred to in the song) was replaced by the "New Tenor" -- resulting in civil disturbance. One of the chief culprits was one John Webb (Webber), a mint-master, who ended in prison but was rescued by friends. - RBW
File: LoF004

Billy Byrne of Ballymanus

DESCRIPTION: In (17)99, United commander Billy Byrne is caught in Dublin and brought to Wicklow jail. Informers Dixon, Doyle, Davis, and Doolin swear he fought at Mount Pleasant, Carrigrue and Arklow. He is hanged. The devil has a warm corner for the informers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: rebellion betrayal execution trial Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
September 26, 1799 - Billy Byrne executed in Wicklow Town. (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 15, "Billy Byrne of Ballymanus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 12, "Billy Byrne of Ballymanus" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 124, "Billy Byrne of Ballymanus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 68-71, "Billy Byrne of Ballymanus (1) (2)" (2 texts; 1 tune on pp. 21-22)
Roud #2376
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wicklow Mountains High" (subject)
NOTES [258 words]: Knowing the subject of this song is a bit tricky; it appears that there were *two* Irish rebels from the 1798 rising named William Byrne, both of Wicklow, and both ending their lives on the scaffold. This Billy Bryrne is, in terms of the history of the rebellion, the lesser-known; if you read a history of the 1798 Rebellion, you're more likely to encounter the other:
William Byrne was the son of Garrett Byrne, a Catholic squire. He was a United Irish delegate from Wicklow, and a colonel in the United army around the time of New Ross.
He was taken to Dublin for trial in the summer of 1798.
According to Thomas Pakenham's The Year of Liberty, p. 287, the chief witness against him was Thomas Reynolds, a paid informant. Byrne was one of the few delegates whose guilt was so obvious that the government felt sure it could convict him.
Pakenham date his execution to the end of July 1798. It was one of a series of five, and it encouraged the 80 or so other United leaders in custody to agree to tell all in return for emigrating to the United States. (Their alternative, of course, was being tried and, probably, hanged.) Among those who took that deal was Thomas Addis Emmet, the brother of Robert. - RBW
Apparently broadside Bodleian, Harding B 40(12), "Billy Byrne of Ballymanus" ("Come all you loyal heroes, pay attention to my song"), J.F. Nugent and Co.? (Dublin?), 1850-1899 is this song but I could not download and verify it.
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "An authentic 1798 ballad still popular after more than 160 years." - BS
File: OLcM015

Billy Came over the Main White Ocean

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Billy Go Leary

See Yo Ho, Yo Ho (File: EM318)

Billy Goat, The

See Bill Grogan's Goat (File: SRW141)

Billy Grimes the Rover

DESCRIPTION: The girl comes to her mother and asks if she can marry Billy Grimes. Mother refuses her blessing; Billy is poor and dirty. The girl points out that Billy has just come into a large inheritance; the mother suddenly praises Billy and gives her blessing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1852 (published by an N.C. Morse, who claimed authorship)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage mother poverty
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 251-252, "Billy Grimes" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 33-34, "Billy Grimes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 193, "Billy Grimes the Drover" (1 composite text derived from 8 unprinted versions)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 193, "Billy Grimes the Drover" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 76, "Billy Grimes" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #73, "Billy Grimes" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 26, pp. 47-48, "Billy Grimes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 228-229, "Across the Fields of Barley/Billy Grimes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 58, "Billy Grimes, the Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 406-407, "The Courtship of Billy Grimes" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 63-65, "Billy Grimes, the Drover" (1 text) (pp. 52-53 in the 1919 edition)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 96, pp. 205-206, "The Courtship of Billy Grimes" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #48, "Billy Grimes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 59, "Billy Grimes the Drover" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 176, "Billy Grimes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 24, "Bily Grimes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #2/72, p. 46 and #2/64, p. 46, "Billy Grimes the Rover" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #143, p. 11, "Billy Grimes the Rover" (1 reference)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 477, "Billy Grimes" (source notes only)
DT, BILGRIME*
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, pp. 241-242, "Tomorrow Morn I'm Sweet Sixteen" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Pearl Jacobs Borusky)
ST MN2033 (Full)
Roud #468
RECORDINGS:
I. G. Greer, "Billy Grimes" (AFS; on LC14, TimesAint02)
Marie Hare, "Billy Grimes the Drover" (on MRMHare01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Billy Grimes the Rover" (on NLCR04, NLCR11)
Shelor Family, "Billy Grimes the Rover" (Victor 20865, 1927; on GoingDown)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1852 510300, "Billy Grimes" or "The Country Lassie and her Mother," Firth, Pond and Co. (New York), 1852; same broadside as sm1852 691750; sm1852 520830, "Billy Grimes the Drover"; sm1853 540400, "Billy Grimes" same broadside as sm1853 700610 (tune)
LOCSinging, as101050, "Billy Grimes the Rover," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as101060, sb10018b, "Billy Grimes the Rover"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Will Ray" (plot)
cf. "Peggy in the Morning" (plot)
NOTES [310 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety asserts that Billy Grimes was properly a "drover," not a "rover" (even though his informant used the word "rover"), and it's possible that this was original -- but, as the list of titles shows -- Billy quickly became transformed.
The composite text in Brown ends with the drover rejecting the girl because she wants his money. Chappell also has this ending This is, however, the "minority version" even in Brown, and seems rare elsewhere; if it is original, it had generally been dropped. More likely it's a North Carolina variant.
Although clearly an American song, it seems to have been associated with the Irish, at least in New York City. Edward Harrigan's noval The Mulligans, G. W. Dillingham, 1901, p. 79, has Dan Mulligan quoting this when a Black woman mentions turning sixteen. For Harrigan, and his use of Irish material, see the notes to "Babies On Our Block." - RBW
The following broadsides are duplicates, or so close to being duplicates that I don't find a difference:
LOCSheet sm1852 510300 and sm1852 691750: these claim "words by Richard Coe, Esq Music by W.H. Oakley"
LOCSheet sm1853 540400 and sm1853 700610: these claim the song was "composed by [usually meaning "music by" ] Wm H Oakes"; the story ends with the mother explaining that she is in favor of Billy.
LOCSinging as101050, as101060 and sb10018b[same text, different printer]: no attribution; the story has Billy reject her at the end.
The remaining American Memory broadside, LOCSheet sm1852 520830 is "by N C Morse"; it ends when the daughter announces Billy's ten thousand pound capitalization and 600 pound annual income."
Broadside LOCSinging as101050: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MN2033

Billy Hughes's Army

DESCRIPTION: "Why don't you join (x3) Billy Hughes's army? Six bob a week and nothing to eat, Great big boots and blisters on your feet, Why don't you join...." Or ""Come on and join, come on and join... Lord Kitchener's army, Ten bob a week, Plenty grub to eat." "
AUTHOR: unknown / Music: "Alexander's Ragtime Band" by Irving Berlin (1911)
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1914-1916 - Horation Herbert Kitchener British Secretary of State for War
1915-1923 - William Hughes Prime Minister of Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 3, "Come On and Join" (2 fragments, one about Lord Kitchener's Army, the other about Billy Hughes's Army)
ADDITIONAL: Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, _A Guide to Australian Folklore_, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 177, "(Billy Hughes' Army)" (1 partial text)
Roud #10587
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alexander's Ragtime Band" (tune)
NOTES [749 words]: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver has two versions of this, one about Lord Kitchener's Army, the other about Billy Hughes's. Every indication is that the Kitchener's Army verse is older, but Arthur does not indicate a version from tradition, and Davey and Seal imply that they do have a traditional version of "Billy Hughes's Army." So here it files. (Besides, I found out the Hughes version first.)
Lord Kitchener was, of course, Horatio Herbert Kitchener, First Earl Kitchener (1850-1916), a career soldier whose record had earned him first a viscountcy and then an earldom, mostly for his work in Africa. In August 1914 he became the British Secretary of State for War (OxfordCompanion, p. 549; Pope/Wheal, p. 270). At the time of World War I, all the European powers had mass conscript armies, except Britain, which relied upon its navy and a small highly professional army. It showed, very clearly: At the start of World War I, when the Germans attacked France according to the Schlieffen Plan, the Germans attacked with eight armies (that is, collections of two or more corps). The French had about five armies on the front, and would count nine by the time of the Battle of the Marne. The British Expeditionary Force consisted of... two corps, barely enough to count as a single army (Forty, p. 78 -- although, because its men were professionals, and many of them good marksmen, they were much more effective than two ordinary rifle corps. But they had only enough artillery and other equipment for a weak force, and too few machine guns even for their small numbers). Even if the unit had survived intact, it wouldn't have made much difference in the war -- but, in any case, it was effectively destroyed by the end of 1914 (Forty, p. 79; Pope/Wheal, p. 86).
The British still didn't want to turn to conscription, but they had to have more troops, so they mounted an intense recruitment campaign. These men -- by March 1915, 27 divisions worth (Forty, p. 80), or the equivalent of three new armies -- responded to a poster of Kitchener saying he needed men. (Pope/Wheal, p. 270, calls it "perhaps the world's most celebrated recruitment poster.") Since the recruiting drive was organized by Kitchener, they became known as Kitchener's Army. Although inexperienced, they were generally the best Britain had to offer. Sadly, they too would be ground to shreds, eventually forcing the British into conscription in 1916 (a fact which contributed greatly to the rebellion in Ireland). Kitchener didn't see the worst of it; he had drowned in 1916 when the ship carrying him, H. M. S. Hampshire, hit a German mine and sank (OxfordCompanion, p. 549).
Billy Hughes had the same problem of finding recruits, only in Australia. Bassett, p. 135, reports that William Morris Hughes (1862-1852) was born in London but moved to Australia in 1884, becoming a union official, being admitted to the bar in 1903, and serving in the House of Representatives from 1901 to 1952 (!). In that time, he represented Labor, National Labor, Nationalist, United Australia, and Liberal parties. He was expelled from *three* of those parties, mostly over conscription issues. He was Prime Minister from 1915 to 1923, and was responsible for trying and failing to pass conscription in World War I; hence this song. He also explicitly supported racism.
Learmont, p. 269, calls him one of Australia's "most colorful and controversial political personalities" and says that he was a member of the New South Wales Parliament "in 1894, and of the Commonwealth Parliament from the first federal elections until his death. Hughes was small in stature, and in compensation for this as well as for the harsh conditions of his early life, he was hard, overbearing and arrogant. At the same time a brilliant political mind was accompanied by ready wit."
In 1916, he visited the Western Front of World War I, where he gained the name "The Little Digger."
Clark, p. 232, says that the first referendum on conscription was held October 28, 1916 (in other words, more than a year after the Gallipoli landings showed Australia just how deadly World War I would be, and after the death of Kitchener); 52% of the electorate voted against it. Clark, p 234, says that the second referendum, December 20, 1917, had 54% vote against. I am frankly amazed that Hughes survived two such substantial rejections. To be sure, he was kicked out of his party. The astounding thing is that he always managed to stitch together another coalition. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: DSeBHuA

Billy Johnson's Ball

DESCRIPTION: On his first wedding anniversary Johnson throws a party to celebrate it (and the arrival of a baby six months earlier). Johnson dances with all the girls; Mrs. Johnson gets jealous; the singer can't tell how it ended; he woke next morning under the table
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recorded from Peter Reilly by Kennedy)
LONG DESCRIPTION: On his first wedding anniversary Billy Johnson throws a party to celebrate the occasion (and the arrival of a baby six months earlier). The baby is introduced, Mrs. Johnson faints, someone gives her a drop to drink, and the dancing begins. Families are introduced; the party moves to a pub; Johnson dances with all the girls, and Mrs. Johnson gets jealous; the singer can't tell you how it all ended, only that he woke the next morning underneath the table
KEYWORDS: jealousy pride marriage dancing drink party baby family wife humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 266, "Billy Johnson's Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2139
NOTES [34 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland, in his usual inexplicable way, compares this to Percy French's "Phil the Flut(h)er's Ball." The only connection I can see is that they're both about Irish parties. - RBW
File: K266

Billy Ma Hone

DESCRIPTION: "Love is sweet and love is pleasant, Long as you keep it in your view." A man asks Missis Mary why she can't favor him. Her love is on the ocean. He says her Billy Ma Hone is dead. She screams. He reveals himself and shows her the ring she gave him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation marriage disguise ring brokentoken
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 267-270, "Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor" (3 texts; this is the third; the first, "Young Willie's Return, or The Token," with tune on pp. 426-427, is "The Dark-Eyed Sailor (Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor)" [Laws N35]; the second, "The Sailor," with tune on p. 427, is "John (George) Riley (II)" [Laws N37])
ST ScaSC270 (Partial)
Roud #265
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
NOTES [88 words]: Roud files this with Laws N35 ("The Dark-Eyed Sailor (Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor)"), mostly, I think, because that's where Scarborough files it. Laws, however, does not file it there -- nor anywhere else that I can see -- and the name and form are sufficiently unlike the other Riley ballads that I finally decided to treat it as a separate song.
It is, no doubt, based on one of the myriad other songs of this type, probably rewritten (perhaps to apply to some local person), but I haven't a clue which such song. - RBW
File: ScaSC270

Billy Magee Magaw

See The Three Ravens [Child 26] (File: C026)

Billy McCoy

See Oceana Roll (File: DPio592)

Billy Modick

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Billy My Darling

DESCRIPTION: "Billy, my darling, Billy, my dear, When you think I don't love you it's a foolish idea -- Up in the tree-top high as the sky, I can see Billy, Billy pass by."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 288, "Billy My Darling" (1 fragment plus mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 288, "Billy My Darling" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down in the Valley" (lyrics)
NOTES [38 words]: Based just on the text in Brown, I would probably have classified this as a by-blow of "Down in the Valley." But a tune was recorded, apparently *not* "Down in the Valley." So it lists separately -- though I remain dubious. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3288

Billy O'Rourke

DESCRIPTION: Billy sets out for Dublin and takes ship. Though a great storm blows up, Billy pays no attention. After he lands, a robber tries to hold him up, but Billy's shillelagh is quicker. Billy tells of his other adventures
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1820 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads); 1849 (Journal from the Euphrasia)
KEYWORDS: emigration Ireland robbery
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro) Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 145, "Billy O'Rourke" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #172, "Paddy O'Rourke" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 318-320, "Billy O'Rourke" (1 text)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 51, "Billy O'Rourke" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 99, "Billy O'Rourke" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #64, p. 2, ("Some fell on their bended knees") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan2 262, "Billy O'Rourke" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 139, "Billy O'Rourke" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: The Quaver; or Songster's Pocket Companion (London, 1844 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 283-285, "Billy O'Rourke" (1 text)
ST E145 (Full)
Roud #2101
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as101080, "Billy O'Rourke," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Duncan Campbell (Erin-Go-Bragh)" [Laws Q20] (theme of Irishman being abused and fighting back) and references there
NOTES [49 words]: Broadside LOCSinging as101080: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Roud lumps this with "The Hold-Up"; there is plot similarity, but I'm not sure about the text - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: E145

Billy of Tea, A

DESCRIPTION: "You may talk of your whisky or talk of your beer, I've something far better waiting for me." The singer describes the tasks he performs while waiting for the billy to boil. He even holds off on dinner until the tea is ready
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: work food drink drugs nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 175-176, "A Billy of Tea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 51-52, "The Billy of Tea" (1 text)
File: AnSt175

Billy Pitt and the Union

DESCRIPTION: Billy Pitt convinced the British that Union with Ireland would solve their problems. Ireland would gain no more from union than the Sabines gained through union with Rome. "They may take our all from us and leave us the rest." Hibernia must reject union.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: England Ireland nonballad political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1759-1806 - Life of William Pitt the Younger, Prime Minister 1783-1801 and from 1804 until his death
1798 - United Irish rebellion causes England to decide on Union with Ireland
1800 - Act of Union passed by British and Irish parliaments, causing a parliamentary Union to take effect in 1801
FOUND IN:
Roud #V8767
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 14(314), "A new song Billy Pitt and the Union ("Come neighbours attend, while I tell you a story"), unknown, 1798
NOTES [232 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 14(314) is dated "Dublin, December, 1798." Zimmermann p. 40 cites it as a broadside ballad circulated against William Pitt.
What is the original of the "poisoned pill"? The broadside warns "Arrah Paddy beware, there's snake in these offers, For Billy can gild, whilst he poisons the pill." In 1909, in Fallen Fairies; or The Wicked World W.S. Gilbert wrote "Oh, love's the source of every ill! Compounded with unholy skill, It proves, disguise it as you will, A gilded but a poisoned pill." - BS
Both Ireland and Scotland had people who, in their time, opposed Union with England. I've seen it argued that the Scots were wrong, because they needed English trade. (I'm not sure it's that simple, but the case can be made.)
Ireland, though, really did get a poisoned pill -- because they lost their own parliament (Grattan's, for which see "Ireland's Glory") but did not get Catholic Emancipation in return. Prime Minister Pitt wanted to grant voting rights to Catholics, but the English parliament simply would not go along. So while Ireland had seats in the British Commons, they weren't really popularly elected. Eventually, leaders like Parnell would learn how to use their position, and sometimes hold the balance of power between Conservatives and Liberals, but that was a long time coming. In the short run, Union simply cost Ireland self-government. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BrdBPatU

Billy Po' Boy

See All In Down and Out Blues (File: RcAIDAOB)

Billy Richardson's Last Ride

DESCRIPTION: "Through the West Virginia mountains came the early mornin' mail Old Number Three was westbound...." Engineer Bill Richardson is "old and gray," but still wants to make good time. He dies when his head strikes a mail crane
AUTHOR: Words: Cleburne C. Meeks / Music: Carson J. Robison
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (letter from Meeks to Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 14, 1910 - Death of William S. Richardson (1848-1910) after he looks out of the FFV train and is hit in the head
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 232-233, "Billy Richardson's Last Ride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 222, "Billy Richardson's Last Ride" (1 text)
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 68-76, "Billy Richardson's Last Ride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10440
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Billy Richardson's Last Ride" (Columbia 15098-D [as Al Craver], 1926) (Gennett 3378, 1926) (Victor 20538, 1927)
NOTES [80 words]: Although the accident described in the song happened, roughly as described, in 1910, Cohen reports that the song was written 16 years later. Poet Meeks heard Vernon Dalhart's recording of The Wreck of Old 97, decided to produce his own train wreck item, and sent it to Dalhart. Carson J. Robison added the tune, and Dalhart started on his usual cycle of recording for every label known to humanity.
The Meeks/Robison combination also gave us "The Wreck of the C & O Number Five." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LSRai232

Billy Riley

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Oh Billy Riley was a dancing master, O Billy Riley. Old Billy Riley, screw him up so cheer'ly, O Billy Riley O." Verses name members of Riley's family and/or their occupations. Refrain changes each time based on which Riley is named in the verse.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
KEYWORDS: shanty
FOUND IN: West Indies Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 74, "O Billy Riley!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 452-453, "Billy Riley" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbrEd, p. 338]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, LVIII, p. 63, "O Billy Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Hug452 (Full)
Roud #4701
NOTES [43 words]: The liner notes to the Lloyd/MacColl recording "Blow, Boys, Blow" state "The sail would need to be light, or the occasion desperate, for men to haul at the halyards to tbe beat of such a fast song as this." But other sources don't seem to have noticed this. - RBW
File: Hug452

Billy Taylor

See William Taylor [Laws N11] (File: LN11)

Billy the Barber

DESCRIPTION: "Billy the barber Shaved his father With a rusty razor. The razor slipped And cut his lip. Three cheers for Billy the barber."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: injury father | barber razor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 59, "(Billy the barber)" (1 text)
Roud #29328
File: BAAI059D

Billy the Kid (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing you a true song of Billy the Kid, I'll sing of the desperate deeds that he did." Billy "went bad" in Silver City as "a very young lad." He soon has 21 notches on his pistol, but wants Sheriff Pat Garrett for 22. But Garrett shoots Billy first
AUTHOR: Andrew Jenkins
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recordings, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: outlaw youth death police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1859 - Birth of William H. Bonney, the man most often labelled "Billy the Kid"
1881 - Death of William Bonney at the hands of Pat Garrett, who traced him to the home of a Mexican girlfriend
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 202, "Billy the Kid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 137-138, "Billy the Kid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 96, "Billy the Kid" (3 texts, 1 tune, but the "C" text is "Billy the Kid (II)")
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 193, "(Song of Billy the Kid)" (1 excerpt)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 551-552, "Billy the Kid" (1 text)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 180-183, "Billy the Kid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 110-111, "Billy the Kid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 319-320, "Billy the Kid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 208, "Billy the Kid" (1 text)
DT, BILLYKID
Roud #5097
RECORDINGS:
Bill Bender (The Happy Cowboy), "Billy the Kid" (Elite X17, n.d., rec. 1939)
Vernon Dalhart, "Billy the Kid" (Columbia 15135-D [as Al Craver], 1927) (Brunswick 100, 1927) (OKeh 45102, 1927) (one of these recordings is on RoughWays2, but we don't know which)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Billy the Kid or William H. Bonney" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh (File: Arn165)
NOTES [645 words]: This song has been (falsely) credited to Woody Guthrie, who recorded it in the 1940s. - PJS
Might this be because the tune has come to be better known as (the verse of) "So Long, It's Been Good to Know You"?
This song, like so many "bad man" ballads, is a mix of the false and the true. Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong says that Jenkins and his stepdaughter Irene Spain took their information from Walter Noble Burns's The Saga of Billy the Kid.
Walker, p. 112, writes, "Why Billy the Kid is among that handful of Old West names... that are instantly recognized around the world is not clear. The Kid had no significant history. He never served in a war, never blazed a trail, never traveled beyond a few hundred miles of his boyhood home, had no special talents, and knew no one of importance.... He rose to a brief regional prominence in an obscure regional power struggle [starting in 1878] and by the summer of 1881 he was dead."
Yet Walker believes that at there are at least 900 books, major magazine articles, poems, and plays about him (based on a bibliography which listed over 400 as of around 1950, with the number only increasing since).
According to O'Neal, p. 4, only four deaths can be unequivocally blamed on Billy the Kid, even though he boasted of killing 21 "not counting Mexicans." O'Neal on p. 5 does credit Billy with five "possible killings or assists," and lists him as participating in 21 gunfights.
According to O'Neal's main entry on Billy (pp.198-203), the future Kid was born Henry McCarty, in Indiana or New York in 1859 (the Concise Dictionary of American Biography lists New York only, with no hesitation, and lists Billy's birth name as William Bonney, the name he used throughout his later career. But Walker agrees with O'Neal in calling him Henry McCarty, of Irish ancestry, possibly born in New York City. How this is reconciled with the statement that he never traveled far I am not sure).
The family moved to Kansas when Billy was very young, then to New Mexico after Billy's father died. His mother remarried in 1873, but died in 1874 (Walker, p. 113).
Soon after, Billy (then still just Henry McCarty, or "Kid Antrim" after the name of his stepfather) started in on a life of petty crime. The song is right in accusing him of "going bad" in Silver City, in New Mexico; soon after his mother died, he was engaged in petty theft. Imprisoned, he soon escaped (Walker, p. 113).
His career for the next two years was obscure, but he killed a man in Bonito, Arizona in 1877 (Walker, p. 114). Again imprisoned, he again escaped, and took the pseudonym "William Bonney."
He was actively involved in a range war the next year. In the process, Billy's boss John Henry Tunstall was killed. Billy declared that Tunstall was the only man he ever worked for who treated him fairly, and so insisted on revenge (Walker, p. 116). Several people died in the next few months, though Billy was not responsible for most of the deaths.
In 1878, newly-appointed territorial governor Lew Wallace offered an amnesty, but Billy was under an independent indictment, so though he offered testimony, he then took off and formed an outlaw gang (Walker, pp. 118-119).
Captured and imprisoned in 1880 by a posse led by Pat Garrett (Walker, p. 120), he killed two guards and escaped in early 1881 (Walker, pp. 121-122). On the night of July 14, 1881, he paid a brief visit to a Mexican girlfriend (Walker, p. 122), then visited another house where Garrett was waiting in hiding, and Garrett shot him to death (Walker, p. 123).
For some reason, most famous outlaws seem to have had second lives, with impostors claiming to be the dead outlaws who somehow escaped their fates. (See "Jesse James (III)" for examples of the phenomenon). Walker, pp. 125-136, examines some of the Billy impersonators. In one case, he actually seems somewhat sympathetic to the claim. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: LoF202

Billy the Kid (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Billy was a bad man And carried a big gun. He was always after greasers And kept them on the run." Billy shot a white man "every morning." But one day he met a worse man, "And now he's dead and we Ain't none the sadder."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: outlaw death police
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 96, "Billy the Kid" (3 texts, 1 tune, but only the "C" text goes here)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 136-137, "Billy the Kid" (1 text)
Roud #5098
NOTES [32 words]: From the Fife text it is not clear whether this song actually refers to Billy the Kid; since Billy was white, it would appear not. But they may have other versions which imply otherwise. - RBW
File: FCW096C

Billy the Kid or William H. Bonney

DESCRIPTION: "Bustin' down the canyon, Horses on the run, Posse just behind then, 'Twas June first, '71." Billy and Alias Joe ride and fight for their lives until they reach Tombstone. Finally a chance shot by Pat Garrett kills Billy
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp (source: Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: outlaw death police
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 6-8, "Billy the Kid or William H. Bonney" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Billy the Kid (I)" (subject)
File: ThLo006

Billy Veniro

See Bill Vanero (Paul Venerez) [Laws B6] (File: LB06)

Billy Vite and Molly Green

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you blades both high and low And you shall hear of a dismal go." Billy Vite/White falls in love with Molly Green, but she denies him. The devil comes to him with arsenic; he poisons her; a sheep's head accuses him of murder and takes him to hell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8) (Digital Tradition claims a date of 1823)
KEYWORDS: homicide poison death sheep ghost devil
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1787, "Billy Vites" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 109-110, "Billy White" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 198-199, "Billy Vite and Molly Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 15-18, "Come All Yew Blaids What's Marryied," "(no title)", "THe Oldbury Chant" (2 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #12992
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Green (The Murdered Wife)" [Laws F14] (plot)
SAME TUNE:
Why Don't You Shave? ("Come all of you assembled now, I'll tell you of a jolly row") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 34)
File: FlBr109

Billy Vites

See Billy Vite and Molly Green (File: FlBr109)

Billy Weever

See Will the Weaver [Laws Q9] (File: LQ09)

Billy White

See Billy Vite and Molly Green (File: FlBr109)

Billy with the Lamp

DESCRIPTION: A chant for lamplighters. "Billy with the lamp, Billy with the light, Billy with his sweetheart Out all night."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: courting | lamp light lamplighting
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 18, "(Billy with the lamp)" (1 text)
Roud #38110
File: BAAI018C

Billy, Billy Burst

DESCRIPTION: Game to see who can be silent longest (?). "Billy, Billy Burst, Who speaks first?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | game silence
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 41, "(Billy, Billy Burst)" (1 short text)
NOTES [52 words]: I find it hard to believe that Withers has accurately described this game. My guess is that it is not to be silent longest but in fact to speak first. If you speak first, you aren't "out"; you are SAFE -- that is, you won't be "it" on this turn. This would make for a much faster way of determining who is "it." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: WEMM041A

Billy, the Rambling Soldier

See The Rambling Soldier (File: ShH43)

Billy's Downfall

DESCRIPTION: The singer swears by all things and people -- O'Connell, King Saul, Zozymus Moran, Dido, the Shannon, Brian Boru, dirty dealers -- that "I ne'er had a hand in King Billy's downfall." Billy will be rebuilt but had better not "dress as before" on July 12.
AUTHOR: probably by "Zozimus" (Michael Moran) (c.1794-1846) (Source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
EARLIEST DATE: 1836 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Ireland political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 8, 1836 - "The equestrian statue of William III, which stood in the centre of College Green, Dublin [the site of the "unified" out of existance Irish Parliament ... [was] blown up early in the morning." (source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 48, "Billy's Downfall" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [62 words]: July 12 is the Gregorian Calendar (adopted in England in 1752) date for celebrating the victory of William III of Orange in the Battle of the Boyne, July 1, 1690.
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: The statue "was annually coloured white and decorated with Orange lilies, a scarlet cloak and an orange sash, to commemorate the Protestant victory at the battle of the Boyne." - BS
File: Zimm048

Billy's Dream

DESCRIPTION: "I had a fight with Satan last night, As I lay half awake, Ole Satan came to my bedside, And he began to shake." He offers Uncle Billy riches in return for his soul. "Poor Black Bill" defies Satan; the Devil vanishes, and Billy is rewarded in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois); c. 1885 (Wehman's ... No. 6: see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: dream death devil Hell
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 215-216, "Billy's Dream" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Wehman's [Universal Songster] Collection of 96 Songs No. 6 (New York, n.d., digitized by Internet Archive), p. 31, "Billy's Dream" [see notes re source]
Roud #4323
NOTES [104 words]: Apparently a pop song associated with Billy Arnold which gained a faint foothold in tradition. - RBW
Regarding Wehman's Collection Norm Cohen writes, "Songbook #6 was undated, but most likely 1884-5." Each page except the first is headed Wehman's Universal Songster. The first page is undated but states, "Published Quarterly -- January, April, July and October. Norm Cohen's Finding List ... has WE29, Universal Songster as "monthly serial ... [beginning] 1881 (Norm Cohen, A Finding List of American Secular Songsters Published Between 1860 and 1899 (Middle Tennessee State University,Murfreesboro,2002), p. 150). - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Neel215

Billy's Wife

See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Bingen on the Rhine

DESCRIPTION: "A solider of the legion lay dying in Algiers, There was lack of woman's nursing, there was dearth of woman's tears." The soldier asks that messages be taken home, "For I was born at Bingen, at Bingen on the Rine." He recalls his history and died
AUTHOR: Words: Caroline Norton
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (broadside cited by Jim Dixon)
KEYWORDS: death soldier farewell
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 72-74, "A Soldier of the Legion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #10, pp. 48-51, "Bingen on the Rhine" (1 text
Roud #3517
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 20(48), "Ehren on the Rhine," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Johnson Ballads 2469, "Ehren on the Rhine," unknown, n.d.
NLScotland, L.C.1269(174)a, "Bingen on the Rhine" ("A soldier if the Legion lay dying in Algiers"), Poet's Box (location obliterated), 1867
SAME TUNE:
Just from Dawson (Deadwood on the Hills) (File: LxA440)
Strike Breaker's Lament (File: LDC174)
NOTES [31 words]: Although most versions of this stick close to the original text, it seems to have been set to music many times. Perhaps someone should undertake a history of the music to this piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Abrr072

Bingo

DESCRIPTION: "There was a farmer had a dog, And Bingo was his name, sir. B-I-N-G-O (x3), And Bingo was his name, sir." "That farmer's dog sat at our door, Begging for a bone, sir...." "The farmer's dog sat on the back fence...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1785 (_The Humming Bird_)
KEYWORDS: dog nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(MW,NE,SE) Canada(Ont) West Indies(Jamaica) New Zealand
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1618, "Bobbie Bingo" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 93, "Bingo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 212, "Bingo" (1 text, tune referenced)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 98, "Bingo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 137, "Bingo" (1 text, which seems to be a device for learning the vowels)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 137, "Bingo" (notes only); p. 537, "Bingo" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 168-169, "Bingo" (1 text, 1 tune, with an unusual chorus of "B with an I, I with an N, N with a G, G with an O, B-i-n-g-o, Called his name 'Old Bingo.'")
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 71, "Bingo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 117, "Bobby Bingo" (3 texts, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 107-109, "Bingo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 31, "(A farmer's dog lay on the mat)" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 390, "Bingo" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Emelyn E Gardner, "Some Play-Party Games in Michigan," Vol. XXXIII, No. 128 (Apr 1920), #3 pp. 93-94, Bingo" (2 texts, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, W.J. Wintemberg, "Folk-Lore Collected in Toronto and Vicinity," Vol. XXXI, No. 120 (Apr 1918), #62 p. 130 "Bingo" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 125, 174, 258, 394, 422, 498, 526-527, "Bingo" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 11, "Bingo" (1 text, 1 tune, a game based on the first verse)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 37, "(Little dog sat on the porch)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #553, "There was a farmer, had a dog" (1 text)
DT, BINGGO*
ADDITIONAL: The Humming Bird: or, A Compleat Collection of the Most Esteemed Songs (Canterbury, 1785 ("Digitized by Google")), #147 p. 399, ("The farmer's dog leapt over the style")
Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 380-382, "Bingo" (1 text, 1 tune)
[Thomas Chandler Haliburton],"The author of 'Sam Slick'," editor, The Americans at Home (London, 1854 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III, pp. 147-148, ("A farmer's dog sat on the barn-door") (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #88, "Bingo" (1 text, similar in form to Linscott's but spelling out various names and ending with Bingo's owner offering a girl a wedding ring: "Bingo," "Stingo," "Ring-o")
Henry Randall Waite, _Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 88 (1 text, 1 tune); new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 38, "Bingo" (1 text, 1 tune, "as sung at Brown")
Olive Lewin, "Rock It Come Over" - The Folk Music of Jamaica (Barbados: The University of the West Indies Press, 2000), p. 73, "Bingo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #589
RECORDINGS:
Chubby Parker, "Bingo Was His Name" (Conqueror 7892, 1931)
Pete Seeger, "Bingo Was His Name" (on PeteSeeger11)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Farmer's Dog
File: FSWB390D

Binnorie

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Binorie

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Bird and I

DESCRIPTION: Ojibwe poem translated into English: HIgh in the sky I go, High above the way below, By my side a bird will go, Bird and I will sail the sky."
AUTHOR: English version by Tina Lewis
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Niblock, Three Michigan Songs, according to Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage Indians(Am.) bird nonballad travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs, p. 1, "Bird and I" (1 text, 1 tune, neither demonstrably traditional)
File: LewMi01

Bird in a Cage (II)

See Down in the Valley (File: R772)

Bird in a Gilded Cage, A

DESCRIPTION: A couple sees a rich young woman. When the girl envies the fine lady's wealth, her companion replies that "she married for wealth, not for love." He pities her; "she's only a bird in a gilded cage... Her beauty was sold for an old man's gold."
AUTHOR: Words: Arthur J. Lamb / Music: Harry von Tilzer
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: money marriage age
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 52, pp. 70-72, "A Bird in a Gilded Cage" (3 texts)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 205-206, "A Bird in a Gilded Cage" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 317-318, "A Bird in a Gilded Cage" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 266, "A Bird In A Gilded Cage" (1 text)
DT, GILDCAGE
ADDITIONAL: Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 172-174, "A Bird in a Gilded Cage" (1 text, 1 tune)
Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 34-37, "A Bird in a Gilded Cage" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Margaret Bradford Boni, editor, _Songs of the Gilded Age_, with piano arrangements by Norman Lloyd and illustrations by Lucille Corcos, Golden Press, 1960, pp. 96-98, "A Bird in a Gilded Cage" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4863
RECORDINGS:
Leo Boswell & Elzie Floyd, "She's Only a Bird in a Guilded (sic.) Cage" (Columbia 15150-D, 1927)
Brown and Bunch [pseud. for Leonard Rutherford & John Foster], "She's Only A Bird In A Guilded (sic.) Cage" (Supertone 9375, 1929)
[Byron] Harlan & [?] Madeira, "Bird in a Gilded Cage" (CYL: Edison 7696, 1901)
Roy Harvey & the North Carolina Ramblers, "She Is Only A Bird In A Guilded (sic.) Cage" (Paramount 3079, c. 1928; Broadway 8133, n.d.; rec. 1927)
Marlow & Young, "She's Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage" (Champion 15691, 1929)
Frank & James McCravy, "A Bird in a Gilded Cage" (Brunswick 4335, 1929; Supertone S-2022, 1930; rec. 1928)
Joseph Natus, "A Bird in a Gilded Cage" (Zonophone J-9072,
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man" and references there
NOTES [521 words]: The image of a bird trapped in a golden cage and wanting to be free goes back at least to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. In the Manciple's Tale [Fragment IX in the Riverside Chaucer edition], we read:
Taak any bryd, and put it in a cage,
And do all thy entente and thy corage
To fostre it tendrely with mete and drynke
Of alle deyntees that thou kanst bithynke,
And keep it al so clenly as thou may,
Although his cage of gold be never so gay,
Yet hath this brid, by twenty thousand foold,
Lever in a forest that his rude and coold
Goon ete wormes and swich wrecchednesse.
For evere this brid wol doon his bisynese
To escape out of his cage, yif he may.
His libertee this brid desireth ay.
(Lines 163-174):
Take any bird, and put it in a cage,
And do all your intent and your ability
To foster it tenderly with food and drink,
Of all the dainties that you can think,
And keep it all as clean as you may,
Although his cage of gold be never so gay,
Yet had this bird, by twenty thousand fold,
Rather in a forest that is rude and cold
Go to eat worms and such wretchedness
For ever this bird will do its business
To escape out of its cage, if it may --
Its liberty this bird desires for aye.
It is suggested that Chaucer derived this ideas from Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy.
For that matter, the idea that "youth cannot mate with age" is prominent in several of the Canterbury Tales, notably the Merchant's Tale of January and May.
David A. Jasen, Tin Pan Alley: The Composers, the Songs, the Performers and their Times: The Golden Age of American Popular Music from 1886 to 1956, Primus, 1988, p. 41, says that in Arthur J. Lamb's original, the young woman was merely cohabiting with the rich old man. Harry von Tilzer, before setting the tune, insisted that they be married. I have to think this improved the result. After getting the words, "Von Tilzer went to a party which ended at a house of ill repute. He sat down at the piano in the parlor to compose music to the words. When he finished, he noticed that some of the girls were crying, and their reaction convinced him of the song's possibilities.
Jasen, p. 40, reports that Von Tilzer's real name was Harry Gumm; he took "Tilzer" from his mother's maiden name, and added "von" to make it sound more exalted. Born in 1872, all four of Harry's brothers also were involved in music. He himself ran away from home at age fourteen to join a circus. The famous singer Lottie Gilson told him he should be a songwriter. It took some time for Harry to establish himself, but obviously he eventually made it big. This song sold more than two million copies.
Not many of von Tilzer's hits seem to have established themselves in tradition, but in addition to this, he wrote the music to "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie."
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 251, estimates that this was the most popular song in America in March 1900, and the fifth-most popular song of the year as a whole (#1 for the year being James Thornton's "When You Were Sweet Sixteen"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SRW205

Bird in the Bush, The

See Three Maidens to Milking Did Go (File: K191)

Bird in the Cage

See Down in the Valley (File: R772)

Bird in the Lily-Bush, The

See Three Maidens to Milking Did Go (File: K191)

Bird Rocks, The

DESCRIPTION: "Twas winter down the icy gulf, The Gulf St Lawrence wide." The Bird Rocks lighthouse keeper, his son, and helper are swept away. His wife keeps the light burning until spring. Like her we should "in sorrow's darkest night ... show the world our light"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: grief death drowning sea wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 144, "The Bird Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 903-904, "The Bird Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 69-70, "The Bird Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 110-111, "The Bird Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST GrMa144 (Partial)
Roud #6348
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Thomas Walters, "The Bird Rocks" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [128 words]: Bird Rocks is an islet in the Gulf of St Lawrence, northeast of Magdalen Islands in East Quebec. - BS
There is also a Bird Rocks in Newfoundland, near Green Island, but I don't believe it had a lighthouse. It wouldn't have been a hot spot for seals in any case.
There isn't much in the way of evidence for dates in this song, but this story fits the conditions in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Newfoundland: Many communities had no communication with the outside world except by sea, and that was closed off in winter and early spring by ice. And it certainly fits the Newfoundlander's obsession with seals -- and the Gulf of St. Lawrence was one of the prime areas for hunting them. Tragedies like this were part of the lore of the "land-based hunt" in Newfoundland. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: GrMa144

Bird Song, The

See The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat) (File: K295)

Bird Starver's Cry

DESCRIPTION: "Shoo all o' the birds" "Out of master's ground Into Tom Tucker's ground Out of Tom Tucker's ground Into ..." and so on.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 13, "Bird Starver's Cry" (2 texts)
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #1, Song III, "(no title)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1730
File: ReSh013

Bird's Courting Song, The (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat)

DESCRIPTION: Various birds talk about their attempts at courting, and the effects of their successes and failures. Example: "Said the hawk to the crow one day, Why do you in mourning stay, I was once in love and I didn't prove fact, And ever since I wear the black."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1733 (broadside, Bodleian Harding Douce Ballads 2(243b)); other broadsides appear to date back to the seventeenth century "Woody Querristers" in the Roxburge collection
KEYWORDS: bird courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Randolph 275, "The Crow Song" (5 texts, 1 tune, but only the first three texts are this piece, with the "B" and "C" texts mixing with "The Crow Song (I)")
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 152, "Birds Courting" (3 texts plus an excerpt; the "D" text may be mixed); also 156, "Said the Blackbird to the Crow" (the "D" text mixes this with "The Crow Song (I)")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 152, "Birds Courting" (1 tune plus a text excerpt); 156, "Said the Blackbird to the Crow" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida #111, "The Woodpecker Song" (1 text); #112, "The Bird Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #20, pp. 170-171, "Pourquoi" (1 text, tune, probably amplified as it carefully has birds of all colors including some rarely encountered in nature)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 225, "Sapsucker" (1 text)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 193, (no title) (1 fragment, probably this)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 215, "The Bird Song" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes, but the "B" fragment is "The Crow Song (I)"; the "A" text is "The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat)" but with some "Crow Song" lyrics)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #47, "Bird Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 73, "The Bird Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 105-106, "The Bird Song"
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 295, "The Hawk and the Crow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 4, "Leatherwing Bat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sturgis/Hughes-SongsFromTheHillsOfVermont, pp. 48-53, "Birds' Courting Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 573-574, "Bird's Courting Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 90-91, "Bird Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 72-73, "Bird Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 397, "Leatherwing Bat" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 44, "The Bird Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 77, "The Bird Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 18, "The Bird Song" (1 text 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN968, "Give ear you lads and lasses all" (?); ZN2037, "Oh says the Cuckoo, loud and stout"; ZN2038, "Oh says the Cuckoo loud and stout"
DT, LEATRBAT* LEATHBA2*
ADDITIONAL: Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 49-51, "The Hawk and the Crow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #747 and 18169
RECORDINGS:
Virgil Sandage, "The Birds' Song" (on FineTimes)
Pete Seeger, "Leatherwing Bat" (on PeteSeeger09, PeteSeegerCD02) (on PeteSeeger32)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(243b), "The Woody Queresters" or "The Birds Harmony" ("Oh! says the cuckoo, loud and stout")[some words illegible], T. Norris (London), 1711-1732; also Douce Ballads 1(17b), "The Birds Lamentation"; Douce Ballads 3(110a), Douce Ballads 3(108a), "The Woody Choristers" or "The Birds Harmony" in two parts
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hind Horn" [Child 17] (tune)
cf. "The Crow Song" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Old Man at the Mill" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Hoot Says the Owl" (lyrics)
cf. "The Bird-Catcher's Delight" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Douce Ballads 1(17b))
NOTES [67 words]: Cox's "Pourquoi" title is, in effect, the French term for "Just So Story"; Cox applied it because the piece he collected (in Missouri, though from an informant born in Kentucky) had no title.
Roud splits off Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore's "Sapsucker" as #18169, but the first verse at least belongs here, and the rest is fairly nonsensical; I think it should be considered with this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: K295

Birdie Darling

DESCRIPTION: "Fly across the ocean, birdie, Fly across the deep blue sea, There you'll find an untrue lover...." The singer bids the bird to remind him of his promises to her and how he betrayed her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: love separation betrayal bird
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 210, "Birdie Darling" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #64, "Fly Across the Ocean Birdie" (1 text)
Roud #7948
File: Beld210

Birdie with a Yellow Bill

See Little Yellow Bird (Time to Rise) (File: Brne191)

Birdie, Birdie

DESCRIPTION: "Birdie, birdie, in the tree, See them, Mama, vun, two, three, See they spread their little wings, Oh, what darling pretty things. Snow white darlings look around, See your breakfast on the ground." They do not move, for "Papa made them out of snow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (SFQ IV, according to Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: bird father mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #227, "Birdie, Birdie" (1 text)
Roud #5043
File: Morr227

Birdie, Birdie, in the Sky

DESCRIPTION: "Birdie, birdie in the sky, Why'd you do that in my eye, I'm a good boy, I don't cry; I'm just glad that cows don't fly."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2023 (Derek Piotr archive)
KEYWORDS: bird scatological cattle
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Travis Johnson, "Birdie, Birdie" (Piotr-Archive #517, recorded 03/08/2023)
File: DPio517

Birdies' Ball, The

DESCRIPTION: "(The) spring (dove/once) said to the nightingale, 'I mean to give you birds a ball. Pray, ma'am, ask the birdies all.... Tra-la-la-la-la." The birds come in their best clothes. Wren, cuckoo, raven all dance, then go home to their nests
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: bird dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 274, "The Birdies' Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4462
File: Pet274

Birds

DESCRIPTION: Game with two characters, the "angel" and the "namer." The name names birds, red bird, blue bird, etc. Then the angel names a bird type, which runs away: "Who is that? It's me. What do you want? I want some birds. What color? (Blue). Run, (blue)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad bird
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #188, "Birds" (1 text)
File: Newe188

Birds in the Spring, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer sits down to listen to the birds sing, and praises the pleasure of their notes. Chorus: "And when you grow old, you will have it to say/You'll never hear so sweet... as the birds in the spring" or "...as the nightingale sing"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
KEYWORDS: lyric nonballad animal bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 124-125, "The Sweet Nightingale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 222-223, "By the Green Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BIRDSPRG
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 39, #4 (1995), p, 80, "By the Green Grove" (1 text, 1 tune, the Bob and Ron Copper version)
Roud #356
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "The Sweet Nightingale (The Birds in the Spring)" (on Maynard1)
NOTES [29 words]: I've entitled this, "The Birds in the Spring" to avoid confusion with, "The Sweet Nightingale" or "One Morning In May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing)," both unrelated songs. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: RcTBiITS

Birds in the Wilderness

See Here We Sit Like Birds in the Wilderness (File: ACSF164H)

Birds In Their Little Nests Agree

DESCRIPTION: "Birds in their little nests agree; And 'tis a shameful sight When children of one family Fall out, and chide, and fight." Fragment of a song beginning "Whatever brawls disturb the street, There should be peace at home...."
AUTHOR: Words: Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
EARLIEST DATE: 1715 (Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language For the Use of Children; the 1715 date is from various Internet sources although the Google Books version is dated 1832)
KEYWORDS: bird fight
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 109, "Birds in their little nests agree" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Isaac Watts, _Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language For the Use of Children_ J. G. & F. Rivington, 1832 (available on Google Books), Song XVII (pp. 19-20), "Love Between Brothers and Sisters" (1 text)
Roud #25519
NOTES [105 words]: For more on Isaac Watts, see the notes to "O God, Our Help in Ages Past." The "Birds in their little nests agree" line (the first line of the second verse in the Watts poem) has apparently become proverbial. It is quoted by Laura Ingalls Wilder in chapter 14 "Sent Home from School," of Little Town on the Prairie.
It's also quite wrong. Baby birds compete like crazy to get the last available bit of food from their parents. In some species, it's worse than that -- when there are two baby eagles in a nest, the larger eagle generally pushes the smaller to its death so as to monopolize parental care. Evolution is not pretty. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC109A

Birds on a Stone

See There Were Two Birds Sat on a Stone (File: BGMG049)

Birds Sing Sweeter, Lad, at Home, The

DESCRIPTION: "When but a lad of tender years my dear old dimpled dad This maxim would impress upon my mind:.... You'll find the lads sing sweeter, lad, at home." The singer has traveled far, and his father and mother are dead, but home is indeed sweeter
AUTHOR: Words: John F. Palmer / Music: Charles E. Pratt
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (reported copyright date)
KEYWORDS: home travel father nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "The Wanigan Songbook" by Isabel J. Ebert, p. 218, "The Birds Sing Sweeter, Lad, at Home" (1 text, sung by Emory DeNoyer)
File: EDeN218B

Birken Tree, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, lass, gin ye would think it right, To gang wi' me this very night, We'll cuddle till the mornin' licht...." The girl would like to meet him at the birken tree, but her parents watch closely. But she manages to sneak away; all ends happily
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1838 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(4027))
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion mother nightvisit
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 88-90, "The Birken Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan4 802, "The Birken Tree" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 100-101, "Johnnie's Got His Jean, O" (1 text)
DT, BIRKNTRE*
Roud #5069
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4027), "The Birken Tree" ("Lass gin ye wad think it right"), W. Stephenson (Gateshead), 1821-1838
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(058), "The Birken Tree," unknown, c. 1860; also L.C.Fol.70(15a), c. 1875
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonny Glasgow Green" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4, and form)
File: FVS088

Birks of Aberfeldy

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks "Bonnie lassie, will ye go To the birks of Aberfeldy?" He describes the summer there, birds singing, cliffs "crown'd wi' flowres," and so on. He would wish for nothing more than to be "supremely blest wi' love and thee"
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1840 371890); reportedly written 1787
KEYWORDS: courting lyric bird flowers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 523, "The Birks of Aberfeldy" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #170, pp. 280-281, "The birks of Aberfeldy -- Composed on the spot" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1787)
Roud #5070
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 20(15), "The Birks of Aberfeldy" ("Bonnie lassie will ye go, will ye go, will ye go"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866
LOCSheet, sm1840 371890, "The Birks of Abberfeldy," George Willig (Philadelphia), 1840 (tune)
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(7b), "The Birks of Aberfeldy," unknown, c.1875
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Birks of Abergeldie" (tune, per Burns)
NOTES [46 words]: Whitelaw: "This was composed by Burns to the old tune of 'The Birks of Abergeldy' in September, 1787, while standing under the falls of Aberfeldy, near Moness, in Perthshire."
Greig #56 p. 3 refers to "a fragment of the old song 'The Birks o' Abergeldie' which Burns adapted." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: BrdBiAbe

Birks of Abergeldie

See The Birks of Abergeldy (File: GrD4801)

Birks of Abergeldy, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks his girl to go with him to the Birks of Abergeldy. She fears betrayal. He promises to marry if she becomes pregnant. She complains "Abergeldy is too near my friends ... their eyes are on me steady" but she would go with him to Edinburgh.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1692 (according to the commentary to broadside NLScotland Ry.III.a.10(057))
KEYWORDS: courting elopement promise dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 801, "Birks o' Abergeldie" (1 text)
Roud #5070
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(057), "The Birks of Abergeldy," unknown, c.1701
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (II) (verse structure)
cf. "The Braes of Killiecrankie" (tune, per Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1, half of first two verses and structure)
NOTES [151 words]: Greig/Duncan4 is a fragment; broadside NLScotland Ry.III.a.10(057) is the basis for the description. - BS
Commentary to broadside NLScotland Ry.III.a.10(057): "The lyricist and composer of the piece have not been recorded, but the first recorded appearance of the melody was in 1692. It had been published south of the border by 1700. The lyrics were famously rewritten by Burns when he stayed at Aberfeldy in Perthshire. Those lyrics were originally entitled, 'The Birks o' Aberfeldy'."
Herd's version of "Birks of Abergeldie" has the man promise "a gown of silk, and coat of calimancoe" while she protests that "my minnie she'll be angry. Sair, sair wad she flyte." (David Herd, "Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc." (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)) V.II, pp. 221-222, "Birks of Abergeldie"). The form and sense of Herd's text matches the broadside but the lines are different. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD4801

Birmingham Boys, The

See The Man of Burningham Town (File: VWL068)

Birmingham Jail (I)

See Down in the Valley (File: R772)

Birmingham Jail (II)

See Sweet Thing (I) (File: R443A)

Birmingham Man, The

See The Man of Burningham Town (File: VWL068)

Birmingham Road

DESCRIPTION: "(chatter)" Chanteyman: "Birmingham Road!" Fishermen: "LAWD, LAWD, BIRMINGHAM ROAD!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950s (Frye-TheMenAllSinging)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frye-TheMenAllSinging, p. 185, "Birmingham Road" (1 short text)
NOTES [32 words]: The current description is all of the Frye-TheMenAllSinging fragment. This is part of a menhaden chantey. See the notes to "Help Me to Raise Them" for information about menhaden chanteys. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Frye185

Birmingham Town

DESCRIPTION: "I've traveled east and west... But I've never seen a town like Birmingham. Oh, she has certainly won the prize, Prettiest little town in Alabam." The singer has been many places, but even the air is better in Birmingham (Alabama)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Darby & Tarleton)
KEYWORDS: travel home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 330-332, "Birmingham Town" (1 text)
Roud #22312
RECORDINGS:
Tom Darby & Jimmie Tarlton, "Birmingham Town" (Columbia 15197-D, 1927)
File: CAFS1330

Birth of Green Erin, The

See The Origin of Ireland (File: BrS4325)

Birth of Robin Hood, The

See Willie and Earl Richard's Daughter" [Child 102] (File: C102)

Birthday Cake, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's a little round thing so nice and clean, Prettiest thin you've ever seen." "Get your hands off of it, 'cause it don't belong to you, And you'll never get a piece, I don't care what you do." "Make no mistake, This song here's about a birthday cake"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous food sex warning
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 199-200, "The Birthday Cake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16808
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Keep Your Hands Off of Her" (lyrics)
NOTES [46 words]: I don't think there is much doubt but that this is based on Lead Belly's "Keep Your Hands Off of Her" or one of its relatives. But the addition of the birthday cake lines, which give it a whole different twist, are (just barely) enough for me to regard it as a separate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: List199

Bisbee!

DESCRIPTION: "We are waiting, brother, waiting, Though the night be dark and long. "They have herded us like cattle." The workers have been dragged from their homes, whether unionist or not. They are being separated from families and deported
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (One Big Union Monthly, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement exile family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 12, 1917 - the Bisbee deportation, intended to break IWW activity in the area
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 537-538, "Bisbee!" (1 text)
File: CAFS2537

Bisbee's Queen

DESCRIPTION: "Say, pal, which way are you drifting? How's the cutting down the line?" The camps are working hard. The singer wonders about Bisbee. There is lots of work, but Bisbee's Queen and the bosses make false promises; they will collect your pay back for her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (April 11, 1907 [Denver] "Miner's Magazine," according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining travel hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 154-155, "Bisbee's Queen" (1 text)
NOTES [58 words]: A decade after this song was published, there was a "deportation" of IWW miners at Bisbee (see "Bisbee!"), which hints that the bosses really were hard on the workers there, but beyond that, I really have no idea what the song is about. The note on p. 144 of Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest mentions a speedup there, but no "Queen." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC154

Biscuits Mis' Flanagan Made, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is invited to a party at Flanagan's. He is invited to try the biscuits. They looked good, and were attractively presented, but the singer had never had "such nuggets of lead." To cut them, he advises the use of an axe and wedge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: food party humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 480, "The Biscuits Mis' Flanagan Made" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5000
File: R480

Bishop Scrope That Was So Wise, The

See The Death of Archbishop Scrope (File: MsDArScr)

Bishop Zack, the Mormon Engineer

See Zack, the Mormon Engineer (File: BRaF444)

Bishop, The

DESCRIPTION: ""I went to church the other day To hear the bishop preach and pray. They all got drunk but me alone, And I had to take the bishop home. Didn't I seem to like it? (x3) Well, I rather think I did."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: clergy drink home
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #225, "The Bishop" (1 short text)
Roud #10904
File: Hubb225

Bishop's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "O she was young and beautiful, the fairest of the fair," and she and Young John pledge their love. The Bishop sends John to spread Mormonism in England. Her father forces her to marry the Bishop (and her father will marry the Bishop's daughter). She dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation promise clergy marriage death
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #226, "The Bishop's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10905
NOTES [55 words]: According to Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah's informant, this is a true story, composed to be sung at the dead girl's funeral. The bishop then excommunicated the composer. But no names are given. Since the composer is said to have rejoined the church in 1889, it evidently happened during the Mormon Church's polygamous period. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: Hubb226

Bishoppe and Browne

See King James and Brown [Child 180] (File: C180)

Bitin' spider going 'round bitin' everybody, The

See Biting Spider (File: FrGB106)

Biting Spider

DESCRIPTION: "Biting spider going around biting everybody But he didn't bite me." Biting spider left darling Liza in Birmingham. The singer saw her leave the mountain and she didn't stop
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950s (Frye-TheMenAllSinging); 1960 (LomaxCD1708)
KEYWORDS: work floatingverses nonballad shanty worksong | spider bite
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Frye-TheMenAllSinging, p. 185, ("Bitin' spider") (1 text)
GarrityBlake-FishFactory, p. 106, ("The bitin' spider going 'round bitin' everybody") (1 text)
Roud #17296
RECORDINGS:
Bright Light Quartet, "Bitin' Spider" (on LomaxCD1708)
Willie Williams and Group, "Biting Spider" (on VaWork)
NOTES [290 words]: VaWork "Biting Spider" includes the "Hiking Jerry" verse, at least, from "Mule on the Mountain." These recordings on VaWork are by two different groups.
The LomaxCD1708 song is part of the "Menhaden Chanteys" track.
"Biting Spider" is a menhaden chanty. See the notes to "Help Me to Raise Them" for information about menhaden chanteys. The verse structure is illustrated and discussed in the notes to "Goin' Home."
GarrityBlake-FishFactory p. 106: "Older black crewmen of the menhaden industry equated the purse seine fishing net with a spider because it would spread over the water's surface like a giant black web.... Fishermen explained that this chantey was not about one of the many insects found on a menhaden fish boat. Rather, 'bitin' spider' was 'that big black net that's killed many a man.' Some crewmen suggested that 'bitin' spider' represented the captain, but others told me it referred to the net and the perils associated with it, which ranged from falling into the 'web' during fishing operations and drowning, to falling prey to an empty net and being unable to bring home any money."
Of the menhaden sources only VaWork has verses besides "Biting spider... biting everybody," and VaWork is missing that one. VaWork has two other verses noted in the description that refer to the spider and floating verses from "Mule on the Mountain," including verses Hurston assigns to that song: "I don't want no cold peas cornbread neither molasses... It hurts my pride" (Hurston has "Give me beans") and "I don't want no coal-black woman for my regular ... Too low down" (Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men (New York: Harper Perennial,1990 (paperback edition of J.B. Lippincott, 1935 original)), pp. 269-270, "Mule On de Mount"). - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: FrGB106

Bitter Withee

See The Bitter Withy (File: L689)

Bitter Withy, The

DESCRIPTION: Jesus is sent out by Mary to play. He is snubbed by a group of rich boys. He builds "a bridge with the beams of the sun," and the boys who follow him across fall into the river and drown. Mary beats her child with a withy branch
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols)
KEYWORDS: Jesus poverty punishment religious discrimination
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) US(Ap)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 689-690, "The Bitter Withy" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 125-126, "The Bitter Withy" (1 text)
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 181-184, "The Bitter Withy; or The Sally Twigs" (2 texts, the first perhaps mixed with "The Holy Well," 4 tunes)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 104, "The Bitter Withy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #44, "The Bitter Withy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 98-99, "The Bitter Withy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 188-189, "The Bitter Withy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 86-87, "The Bitter Withy" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 96-97, "Bitter WIthee" (1 text, 1 tune, possibly learned from a pop folk recordng)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 60, "The Bitter Withy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 5, "The Bitter Withy" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 152, "The Bitter Withy" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 123-124, "The Bitter Withy" (1 text)
cf. Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 102, "Jesus and Joses" (a legend he connects with this piece)
DT 310, BITWITHY*
Roud #452
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Holy Well" (plot)
NOTES [334 words]: It should perhaps be noted that this event has no place in the Bible, nor even in the (known) apocryphal gospels (though it reminds one of various events in the "Infancy Gospel of Thomas," which also contains some rather nasty miracles; Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire also mentions this obscure and vicious piece). Among his other acts, when the son of Annas the Scribe takes a withy branch and scatters the water in a puddle Jesus had made, Jesus causes the boy to drop dead (James, p. 50).
The bridge of sunbeams is a commonplace in religious art.
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols and others see this as an evolved version of "The Holy Well." If they are actually related, however, I would suspect the evolution of going the other way; the usual tendency of corruptions in religious pieces is for them to make God and Jesus look better, not worse. And it seems to me that most other experts I've read see the dependency as going the other way: "The Bitter Withy" came first and "The Holy Well" was the cleaned-up version. A scholar named Janet Graves explicitly suggested that "The Holy Well" is a version of "The Bitter Withy" adapted to a Protestant viewpoint (Severs/Hartung, volume 6, p. 1806). The main difficulty with this is that it would imply a much earlier date for both songs than our existing collections.
Belden sees a connection between this song and the folk legend "Jesus and Joses," in which Joses (Jesus's brother; cf. Mark 6:3) tattles on Jesus and Jesus is beaten with willow twigs. There is a fundamental difference, however: In "The Bitter Withy," Jesus is genuinely guilty; in "Jesus and Joses," he is said to be innocent.
Fowler, p. 51, connects this with a piece he calls "Childhood of Jesus," a medieval English poem; for more on it, see the notes to "The Cherry-Tree Carol" [Child 54].
According to Leather, the local title "The Sally Twigs" came about because, in Hereford, a willow wand is called a "sally twig." The phrase is not used in either text she prints.- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: L689

Bizzoms

See The Besom Maker (File: BdBesMa)

Black and Amber Glory

DESCRIPTION: "Their sparkling style we've come to know, since far-off days of yore, When first they blazed the victory trail in Nineteen hundred and four." Names and attributes of past stars of Kilkenny hurling.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (_The Kilkenny People,_ according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: pride sports Ireland moniker nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads, pp. 261-262, "Black and Amber Glory" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lily of the West" [OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 93] (tune)
cf. "Bold Thady Quill" (subject of hurling) and references there
NOTES [80 words]: For information see the KilKennyCity site re Black and Amber Glory by Jamesie Murphy: "From that historic day at Deerpark in Carrick-on-Suir in 1904 when Kilkenny represented by Tullaroan and captained by Jer Doheny won their first title right up to the current success in 2002, every final is covered not alone in poetry and song, but also with photographs of the winning teams." - BS
For another hurling song, as well as some information on the sport, see "Bold Thady Quill." - RBW
File: OLcM262

Black and Dirty

See All Ragged and Dirty (Here I Stand All Ragged and Dirty) (File: R573)

Black Ball Line, The

DESCRIPTION: "I served my time on the Black Ball line, To me way-ay-ay, Rio... Hurrah for the Black Ball line." "The Black Ball ships are good and true" and fast. They will lead you to a "gold mine." The listener is advised to travel to Liverpool and see the Yankees
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 131-133, "Hooraw for the Blackball Line" (1 text plus several fragments, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 107-108]
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 53, "The Black Ball Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 105-106, "The Black Ball Line" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXIII, p. 26, "The Black Ball Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 51-52, "The Black Ball Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 489-490, "The Black Ball Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BLAKBALL*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Blackball Line" is in Part 2, 7/21/1917.
Roud #2623
NOTES [204 words]: According to Fox, p. 3, "A group of textile importers in New York started the first [transatlantic] packet line. The main founder, Jeremiah Thompson, was an English immigrant from Yorkshire" who was 17 years old when he came to America as a representative of a family business.
Fox, p. 4, credits Thompson with the key idea behind the packets: They would sail on time whether they had a full cargo or not. This, for the first time, allowed receivers to count on passengers and cargo arriving on a fairly regular schedule. In 1817, Thompson and his associates announced regular packet service between New York and Liverpool.
Thompson's line started with four ships, "For identification they showed a large black ball on their fore topsail, at the highest point of the first mast. The 'Black Ball Line' at once earned a tight reputation for minding the calendar" (Fox, p. 4).
An interesting side effect of this was the first serious attempt to create luxury on shipboard. The packets were regular enough that the rich might travel on them just for the sake of travel -- and that meant that they had to be pampered. By 1823, Black Ball had packets with fine wooden tables, cabins with skylights, and silk curtains (Fox, p. 5). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: LxA489

Black Betty

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Lawd, Black Betty, bam-ba-lam (x2), Black Betty had a baby, bam-ba-lam (x2)." "Oh, Lawd, Black Betty... It de cap'n's baby." "Oh, Lawd, Black Betty... but she didn't feed the baby. "Oh Lawd, Black Betty... Black Betty, where'd you come from?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: prison prisoner punishment chaingang
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 60-61, "Black Betty" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BLKBETTY*
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 34, "Black Betty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11668
RECORDINGS:
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt, "Black Betty" (AFS 2643 B2, 1939)
NOTES [54 words]: According to the Lomaxes, "[Black Betty] is the whip that was and is used in some Southern prisons." Jackson, Wake Up Dead Man, p. 194, notes this use in the Lomax songs but says that in Texas prisons, "Black Betty" does not mean a whip but rather the locked and barred wagon used to take prisoners to and from prisons. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: LxA060

Black Billy Tea

DESCRIPTION: ""Kick out your fire, boy, Roll up your pack, Don't forget your billy, boy, Billy burnt and black... Black billy tea, boy, That's the stuff for me." It's better than beer. It keeps miners alive. It helps a man in a bog. It even helps catch game
AUTHOR: Words: Joe Charles / Music: Les Cleveland
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (recording by Les Cleveland, Canterbury Ballads of Joe Charles, Part I)
KEYWORDS: food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 149-150, "Black Billy Tea" (1 text)
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 24-25, "Black Billy Tea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 41-42, 116, "(Black Billy Tea)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Joe Charles, _Black Billy Tea: New Zealand Ballads_, Whitcoulls Publishers, 1981, pp. 6-7, "Black Billy Tea" (1 text)
NOTES [68 words]: Joe Charles reports that, in the 1950s, he was asked to put on the billy for the local shearers, and the Ray Pareka, the gun, told him, "No dish-water, Joe -- I like it BLACK!" The rhythm apparently came from an engine in the shed. The song has been recorded several times; one version, by Phil Garland, was "rearranged" -- which I suspect means Garland improved the tune and perhaps butchered the words. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo149

Black Bottle, The (The Bottle of Grog)

DESCRIPTION: "One day as I passed through a tavern door, I was... determined to pass by I'm sure," but the singer spots a bottle of grog. They converse; it says it does good; the singer says it does harm. He drinks it anyway -- but says he won't drink again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott)
KEYWORDS: drink travel dialog
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 51, "The Black Bottle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3832
NOTES [19 words]: If the singer thought a bottle of grog was talking to him BEFORE he drank it, what was he like after drinking it? - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: AbFo051

Black Bottom Blues

See Deep Elem Blues (File: DTdeepel)

Black Cat, Black Cat, Looking for a Witch

DESCRIPTION: "Black cat, black cat, Looking for a witch, Black cat, black cat, night as dark as pitch, You can see me with your eyes of green, Black cat Black cat soon it's Halloween."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (various web sites)
KEYWORDS: animal | black cat Halloween witch
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
C. Gardee, "Black Cat, Black Cat" (Piotr-Archive #658, recorded 08/31/2023)
NOTES [25 words]: This may actually be a traditional -- no two versions I found had the same words. But it's clearly recent, and no site I found listed an author. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio658

Black Cat, The

DESCRIPTION: "I brought a black cat home one night, And I brought some steak home too...." While the singer is out, the cat eats the steak. Cat and human fight, with the human generally coming off worse. Similar escapades follow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: animal humorous fight
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 141-142, "The Black Cat" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MCB141

Black Chimney Sweeper, The

See The Old Maid's Song (File: R364)

Black Cook, The

DESCRIPTION: One of three sailors, a black cook, has an idea to "rise cash." They sell his body as a corpse to a doctor. When the doctor goes to dissect the corpse it stands. The doctor runs to his wife, who bars the door and asks him to "leave off dissecting"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1911 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.14(57))
KEYWORDS: trick corpse humorous cook doctor sailor Black(s) money
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf,Ont) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(MA,NE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 297, "The Black Cook" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 856-858, "The Black Devil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 7, "Three Jolly Jack Tars" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 58-61, "The Black Devil (Three Jolly Jack Tars; The Black Cook)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 19, "The Black Cook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 12-13, "The Black Cook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 22-24, "The Black Cook" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BLCKCOOK*
Roud #2310
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "The Black Devil" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Richard Pennell, "The Black" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(57), "The Black Cook" or "The Doctor Outwitted," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 1851-1910; also Firth b.27(445), "The Doctor Outwitted"; Harding B 26(141), 2806 b.9(12)[many illegible words], "The Docter Outwited by the Black" (sic.)
NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(078), "The Black Cook, or The Doctor Outwitted," unknown, c. 1870
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Burke's Confession" (subject: sale of dead bodies for anatomical studies)
cf. "The Roon-Moo'ed Spade" (subject: sale of dead bodies for anatomical studies)
SAME TUNE:
cf. "Larry O'Gaff" (tune, per Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario)
NOTES [1285 words]: The shortage of cadavers for dissection which gave rise to this song is by no means exaggerated. Adams, p. 6, notes that, as early as 1505, Scottish surgeons were required to learn anatomy -- which meant finding bodies to take apart. The problem was so bad that the great William Harvey had to dissect his own father and sister (Roach, p. 42)! Anatomists need bodies; so do beginning medical students. And few people have been willing to donate their bodies to such causes. The well-to-do were buried, and that was that.
That left two sources of dead bodies: Executed criminals, and paupers. Sapolsky credits Henry VIII with passing a law giving dead bodies of criminals to the doctors. And Jameson, pp. 24-25, notes the various American "Anatomy laws": "Massachusetts in 1784 passed an act providing that the bodies of those killed in duels or executed for killing another should be given to the surgeons to be dissected.... Massachusetts in 1831 passed the first liberal law for the benefit of anatomy in any English-speaking country, giving to the surgeons the bodies of criminals and of State paupers who died without leaving relatives. But the New York law of 1789 had given judges the power to order the dissection of executed criminals as part of their sentence."
According to Roach, p. 40, this was considered an extra punishment to the convicted because of the belief at the time in the literal resurrection of the body -- meaning that a sliced-up body would need a lot more resurrecting!
These measures were inadequate in two ways. First, they did not provide enough bodies (especially since, according to Palmer, p. 66, there were people who thought that the dead bodies of executed criminals had medicinal effects and tried to make off with them, or parts of them). Second, and worse, the cadavers so obtained were not typical.
The bodies of the Henry VIII's criminals were usually healthy, but they had suffered from execution -- and, before death, had suffered the brutal conditions of English prisons, and very likely from torture as well.
The corpses of the poor were intact, but these people had died of starvation, illness, and the general brutality of life. Their deaths were theoretically "natural," but they were usually hastened by their workhouse conditions.
The result was that doctors generally were not in position to examine the bodies of people who died of a healthy old age. Indeed, this remains a problem to this day, according to Sapolsky. It is a genuine problem both for doctors and for medical researchers -- he notes on p. 121 that two artificial diseases (one related to the adrenal glands and one related to the thymus) went into the diagnostic manuals as a result of always performing dissections on poor and sick people. Children with healthy thymus problems was actually treated with radiation, to shrink glands that appeared larger than was expected. In fact the radiation damaged the healthy glands resulting in poorer health for those so treated plus a vast spike in cases of thyroid cancer (Sapolsky, p. 122).
Sapolsky, pp. 117-119, tells of how the desperate need for corpses for dissection gave rise to the occupation of the body snatcher -- people who went out and unearthed (often literally) the bodies of recently-dead people for use by doctors. (This is to be distinguished from "grave robbery," which consists of taking artifacts such as jewels left in the coffin but leaving the body intact; Roach, p. 43).
The first reasonably well-documented case of grave-robbing for anatomical purposes, according to Adams, pp. 9-10, took place in 1678. Adams, p. 8, describes the shortage of bodies as being so severe that, in 1794, a group of doctors circulated a letter in support of body-snatching. Happily, this did not become widely known.
There was also said to be an organized ring for taking dead bodies from Ireland to Scotland in ferries for resurrection purposes. This was discovered when one delivery went uncollected and the bodies were left to rot (Adams, p. 69).
Reportedly London in 1828 had ten full-time body snatchers and hundreds of others who occasionally engaged in the trade (Roach, p. 44). They worked only during the cool season; because of the problem of decay, anatomy lessons were held only during the winter.
This problem was bad enough that a coffin was marketed in 1818 as being safe from being opened by the snatchers. Another solution, according to Adams, p. 47, was a rentable coffin cover made of heavy metal; it could be placed over the grave until the body had decomposed enough to be useless. Others mounted guards on graves, or surrounded them with booby traps (Adams, p. 57). Under the circumstances, it is understandable that some doctors might be willing to work with the body snatchers. Ugly as their profession obviously was, it had the potential to bring good for many other people.
It appears that the sailors in this song are imitating the snatchers.
The fact that the cook was Black may have made his corpse even more desirable. According to Adams, p. 21, anatomists particularly liked unusual specimens such as dwarfs. In eighteenth or nineteenth century England, Blacks were rare enough that they might be considered a peculiar race.
The law was less willing to look the other way. Jameson, p. 24, notes that "New York in 1789 passed a law punishing the disinterment of bodies for purposes of anatomy"; other jurisdictions came to have similar laws.
For some reason, the problem was particularly acute in Scotland. Or, at least, was of greater concern to the citizens. Adams, p. 2, notes riots in 1742, widespread fear in 1752, and a notorious court case in 1753 among other things.
In Edinburgh in the late 1820s, two criminals, Burke and Hare, became famous for acquiring bodies for anatomists by any means necessary. Many broadsides were produced about their crimes and trial; for details, see "Burke's Confession." Although the number of corpses so used was probably relatively small, they gained enough attention that the body snatchers came to be known as "resurrectionists" (HistTodayCompanion, p. 647). Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario, p. 165, notes that "to burke" became a verb for committing murder in such a way that a charge could not be proved. Generally it means "to strangle."
The body snatchers became so infamous that folktales began to circulate about them, e.g. "The Corpse in the Cab" (Briggs, volume A.2, p. 48), in which two resurrectionists try to use their victim's body to hold a place for their cab, with regrettable results, and "Resurrection Men" (Briggs, A.2, p. 249), in which a local youth scares off two resurrectionists by appearing to rise from a grave.
We also see them made the subject of literature; Stevenson wrote "The Body Snatcher," and they are also mentioned in Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Edwards, p. 80).
As a result, Britain in 1832 passed the "Anatomy Act," This made the bodies of workhouse inmates and paupers available to the doctors (HistTodayCompanion, pp. 22-23; Roach, p. 41, dates it to 1836). According to Palmer, p. 44, "diggum uppers" continued to work for a decade or so, but the problem began to resolve itself. According to HistTodayCompanion, p. 23, however, the Anatomy Act contributed to the fear of the workhouse which endured into the Twentieth Century, and which so infests many of the works of Dickens.
Incidentally, there are still resurrectionists today. A 2018 article on the Ars Technica web site mentions the conviction of a husband and wife for buying diseased bodies, chopping them up, and selling them to medical students and such who needed to practice their craft and thought they were getting safe body parts. - RBW

Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: Pea858

Black Currant, Red Currant, Raspberry Tart

See Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who) (File: McIn110C)

Black Devil, The

See The Black Cook (File: Pea858)

Black Duck, The

See The Fox (File: R103)

Black Eyed Daisy

See The Black-Eyed Daisy (File: Br3310)

Black Eyed Davy

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Black Fish, White Trout

See One-ery, Two-ery, Tickery, Seven (File: McIn102B)

Black Fly Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas early in the spring when I decide to go For to work up in the woods in North Ontario." The unemployed singer joins a survey crew under Black Toby. He suffers from the flies, and is helped only by the cook. He vows never to work up north again
AUTHOR: Wade Hemsworth
EARLIEST DATE: 1957
KEYWORDS: work Canada bug cook unemployment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 212-214, "The Black Fly Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [25 words]: Wade Hemsworth worked for Ontario Hydro in 1949, seeking a site for a dam on the Little Abitibi. This song was a direct result of his experiences. - RBW
File: FMB212

Black Friday

See The Mermaid [Child 289] (File: C289)

Black Gal (I)

DESCRIPTION: "That old black gall keeps on a-hollering, Bout a new pair of shoes, buddy, bout a new pair of shoes." The singer gives her money, she comes back drunk. He hits her. She leaves (crying murder?). He visits her and is turned away; he ends up in prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recorded from J. B. Smith and Louis Houston by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: abuse separation punishment clothes money
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 294, "Black Gal" (1 text, 1 tune, definitely composite and probably bowdlerized)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 297-299, "Black Gal" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6714
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Heavy-Hipped Woman (Black Gal II)" (lyrics)
cf. "On My Way to Mexico" (lyrics)
NOTES [50 words]: Jackson notes links to several songs collected by the Lomaxes and others, probably including "Heavy-Hipped Woman (Black Gal II)." This song, however, has a distinct plot, which that one doesn't; I think they should be split -- though the possibility that this inspired that cannot be discounted. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM297

Black Gal (II)

See Heavy-Hipped Woman (Black Gal) (File: LoF294)

Black Gal, De

See Missus in the Big House (File: CNFM117)

Black Girl

See In the Pines (File: LoF290)

Black Girl's Beaus, The

DESCRIPTION: "Old coons look alike to me, I get another beau, you see, He's just as good to me As any nigger dared be -- And I don't like you nohow!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, F. Roy Johnson, "A Sampling of Eastern Oral Folk Humor," Vol. XXIII, No. 1 (Feb 1975), p. 10, "(Old coons look alike to me)" (1 short text)
NOTES [50 words]: This is one of a section of "rhymes" in this part of Johnson's article; it is not listed as a song. The other "rhymes" seem unlikely to have been songs, but this one feels like it is. Despite its racist tone, I've included it on that basis. It might even be fun if the racist elements were removed. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: NCF251BG

Black Hawk War Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "In our leaky tents we sit, Listening to the drip, drip, drip, Of the rain and snow that chills us to the bone." The singers long for home, or at least clear skies, as they sit in Sanpete. They wonder when they will be able to go home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes home storm
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #239, "The Black Hawk War Song" (1 short text)
Roud #10910
NOTES [30 words]: Although Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah calls this a war song, there is no mention of war, or of Black Hawks, in Hubbard's version; it's just a complaint about lousy weather. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: Hubb239

Black Hills, The

See The Dreary Black Hills (File: San264)

Black Horse, The

See The Airy Bachelor (The Black Horse) (File: HHH586)

Black Is the Color

DESCRIPTION: "(Black, black,) black is the color of my true love's hair...." The singer describes the beautiful girl he is in love with. (He regretfully concedes that they will never be married)
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting hair beauty separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 16, "Black Is the Color" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax- FSNA 100, "Black Is the Color" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 88, "Black is the Color" (1 text, 1 tune, with several floating lines including some that appear to be from "Lady Mary Anne" or something related)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 85, "Black is the Colour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 41, "Black is the Colour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 107, "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #103, "Pretty Little Pink" (1 text, 1 tune, clearly composite; about half of it is "Black is the Color" although it does not use those words; some of it is probably "Little Pink"; the end, in which the singer prepares to die and says she can look at his grave, seems to be from a third song)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 267-268, "Black is the Color" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 145, "Black Is The Color" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, p.17, "Black Is the Color" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BLACKCOL* BLACKCO2*
Roud #3103
RECORDINGS:
Dellie Norton, "Black is the Colour" (on OldTrad1, FsrMtns4)
Pete Seeger, "Black is the Color" (on PeteSeeger18)
NOTES [73 words]: John Jacob Niles, who is largely responsible for popularizing this song, also claims to have written it (or at least the tune; it would be interesting to go over all these versions and see which ones use his tune). For a recently composed song, however, it exists in unusually diverse and widespread forms. Randolph notes connections with English pieces, and Lomax correctly observes that the tune resembles "Fair and Tender Ladies." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LxU016

Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair

See Black Is the Color (File: LxU016)

Black Jack Daisy

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Black Jack Davy

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Black Leg Miner, The

See The Blackleg Miners (File: CBThBlMi)

Black Man Said, The

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "The Black man said [or My mother said] That you are 'A'; If you do not want to play, You can sling your hook away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | hook
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #37, "The Black Man Said" (1 text)
Roud #31895
File: ARR037

Black Men Are the Bravest

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "ye are black ... Bit I am white and bonny" and the colors complement each other. Black and white cocks crow but "the black cock crows the clearest" and "ladies say That black men are the bravest"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad Black(s)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1855, "Black Men Are the Bravest" (1 text)
Roud #13591
NOTES [19 words]: Is black the color of his hair or skin? This time I'm guessing skin, but compare "Although My Love Be Black." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81855

Black Mustache, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's O once I had a charming beau..." The singer describes his wealth and wooing. "And then there came a sour old maid, She's worth her weight in gold," whom the suitor prefers. She warns against "those stylish chaps that wear the black mustache"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925
KEYWORDS: courting hair money abandonment oldmaid
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Randolph 402, "The Little Black Mustache" (3 texts)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 20-21, "That Little Black Mustache" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 202, "The Little Black Mustache" (1 text plus 1 excerpt and mention of 4 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 202, "The Little Black Mustache" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #71, "The Black Mustache" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 69, "Little Black Mustache" (1 text plus mention of 5 more, 4 tunes)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 154, pp. 180-181, "The Black Mustache" (1 text)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 89-90, "Darling Black Mustache" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #141, "Little Black Mustache" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 62, pp. 85-86, "The Little Black Mustache" (2 texts)
Roud #471
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Little Black Mustache" (Edison 52118, 1927)
Nations Brothers, "Little Black Mustache" (Vocalion 03152, 1936)
[Ernest Stoneman &] The Dixie Mountaineers, "The Black Mustache" (Edison, unissued, 1927)
Henry Whitter, "My Darling's Black Mustache" (OKeh 40395, 1925)
File: CW180A

Black Phyllis

DESCRIPTION: "And then came black Phyllis, his charger astride, And took away Annie, his unwilling bride..." The singer sits in the storm and wishes his love Annie would be returned to him. Someone eventually kills Phyllis, but Annie is dead by then
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916
KEYWORDS: love death separation abduction disease
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 43, "Black Phyllis" (1 text)
ST JHCox043 (Full)
Roud #3628
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nottamun Town (Nottingham Fair)" (lyrics)
NOTES [184 words]: Cox's text is only a fragment, unfortunately, of what looks to have once been an excellent ballad, probably of British origin. Indeed, it almost looks like a narrative poem; the lyrical devices are complex.
I wonders, though, if "Phyllis" is not in fact "Syphilis." This would fit in with the mysterious feeling of the song -- and would also explain the connections with "Nottamun Town," which also seems to be the result of plague and hallucination.
Another thought is that "Black Phyllis" might be an error for "Black Annis," a blue-faced, sharp-toothed Leicester hag who ate people, especially disobedient children; she seems to have been used as a cautionary monster. But I know of no Black Annis tales in America.
Seeking for relatives has been an unrewarding process. The closest I've found is in Kinloch's Ballad Book (item #XXII, no title, a fragment of two stanzas) has a piece in the same meter, with equally mysterious lines ("First there cam whipmen, and that not a few, And there cam bonnetmen following the pleugh"), but I don't have any reason except the metre and mystery to link them. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: JHCox043

Black Pig, Black Pig Went to the House

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme, perhaps improvised: "Black pig, black pig went to the house, Up on the top he went and he fell, Single, single, Blackie Pig went, Father told him to get in the corner, Because he said, 'Shut up.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Journal of American Folklore, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: animal jumprope | pig
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #38, "Black Pig, Black Pig went to the house" (1 text)
Roud #29382
File: AJRR038

Black Pipe, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is a beggar, but "if I got the best of broth with helpings of cold tripe, I would rather have an extra reek of my black pipe." The singer describes how tobacco is better than fame or fortune or power, and hopes to be buried with his pipe
AUTHOR: English words by Andy Doey and George Graham
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: begging drugs
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H832a, p. 49, "The Black Pipe" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH832a

Black Pony Blues (Coal Black Mare)

DESCRIPTION: Singer's black mare can win against any horse; "ain't a horse in Kentucky my horse can't beat." He gives her gold teeth, earrings, and streamlined shoes. He rode her for days and she never broke her pace. He would follow her to any land.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (recording, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup)
KEYWORDS: sex racing nonballad horse lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, "Black Pony Blues" (Bluebird B-8896, 1941); "Coal Black Mare" (1969, on "Look on Yonder's Wall," Delmark DS-614)
Lovey Williams, "Coal Black Mare" (on USMississippi01)
NOTES [94 words]: The description follows Arthur Crudup's recording.
Charley Patton's "Pony Blues" (Paramount 12792, 1929) may have provided the idea for this blues. His first verse, as far as I can make out, is, "Baby, get my pony saddle my black mare (x2), I'm go find a rider baby in this world somewhere" --at least Son House (1998, on "The Original Delta Blues", Columbia CK 65515) sings it "somewhere" -- but the rest of the lyrics have not been picked up by Crudup or Lovey Williams. In any case Patton's, Crudup's and Williams's black mare is a stand-in for a black lover. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcBlPoBl

Black Ram Night Song (When All Our Work Is Done)

DESCRIPTION: "When all our work is done, and all our sheep are shorn, Then home with our Captain to drink the ale that's strong, 'Tis a barrel then of hum-cup, which we calls the Black Ram." The singer bets the Black Ram will make the hearer stagger and fall
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Simpson)
KEYWORDS: work sheep drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, p. 122, "(When all our work is done, and all our sheep are shorn)" (1 text)
File: Sim122

Black Ram, The

See The Sheep-Shearing (File: ShH95)

Black Rock Pork

DESCRIPTION: "I shipped aboard of a lumber-boat, Her name was Charles O'Rourke, The very first thing they rolled aboard Was a barrel of Black Rock pork." They have to eat salt pork at all meals. The boat sinks on a chunk of coal.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: canal humorous cook food wreck
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 243-244, 'Black Rock Pork" (1 text, which starts with the Black Rock Pork stanzas then takes in most of "The E-ri-e")
Roud #6589
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The E-ri-e" (plot, lyrics)
File: TNY243

Black Sarpent, The

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

Black Sheep

See All the Pretty Little Horses (File: LxU002)

Black Sheep Lullaby

See All the Pretty Little Horses (File: LxU002)

Black Sheep, The

DESCRIPTION: A father has three sons, one honest, two vile. The bad sons convince the father to evict the youngest. Then -- urged on perhaps by their wives -- they evict their father from the house. The third son, the "Black Sheep," comes forth and rescues the father
AUTHOR: William F. Gould (c. 1897) (source: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
EARLIEST DATE: 1897
KEYWORDS: father children rescue
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 79-80, "The Black Sheep" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 130-131, "The Black Sheep" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 105, "The Black Sheep" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 54-55, "The Black Sheep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 62-64, "The Black Sheep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 173-174, "The Black Sheep" (1 text)
DT, BLCKSHEP*
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 98-99, "The Black Sheep" (1 text)
Roud #4282
RECORDINGS:
[Tom] Darby & [Jimmie] Tarlton, "The Black Sheep" (Columbia 15674, 1931; rec. 1930)
[Blind James] Howard & [Charles] Peak, "Three Black Sheep" (Victor V-40189, 1930; rec. 1928; on KMM)
Ann(ie) Whalen, "The Black Sheep" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [80 words]: Yes, this song DOES sound like "King Lear." Given that it is patently a stage song, I can't help but think that the author was influenced by that play.
For a vaguely similar story, with a Lear-like opening and a happy ending in which the exiled daughter marries a rich man following a Cinderella courtship, see Joseph Jacobs, collector, English Fairy Tales, originally published 1890; revised edition 1898 (I use the 1967 Dover paperback reprint), pp. 51-56, "Cap o' Rushes." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: FSC105

Black Snake, Black Snake, Where Are You Hiding?

DESCRIPTION: Singing game in which a "black snake" tries to seize children who come too close to taunt it. "Black snake, black snake, Where are you hiding? Black snake, black snake, Where are you hiding? Don't you bite me!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth, pp. 28-29, "Black Snake, Black Snake, Where Are You Hidin'?" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: TrJo028

Black Socks

DESCRIPTION: "Black socks, they never get dirty. The longer you wear them, the stronger they get. Some times I think of the laundry, But something inside me says: Don't send them yet."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook)
KEYWORDS: clothes derivative humorous campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 34-35, "Black Socks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 101, "Black socks they never grow dirty" (notes only)
DT, BLAKSOCK*
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Black Socks/White Sails" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #382, recorded 12/14/2022; "White Sails" is a variant on "White Wings")
Deborah Paulukaitis, "Black Socks" (Piotr-Archive #721, recorded 10/28/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "White Wings" (tune)
File: PHCF035

Black Socks They Never Grow Dirty

See Black Socks (File: PHCF035)

Black Stream Driver's Song, The

See Louie Sands and Jim McGee (File: Be019)

Black Stripper, The

DESCRIPTION: "I have but one cow and she has but one tit, But she's better to me than one that has six, One drop of her milk would make the house ring." All his barley goes to feed her. He'll take her to town "and if I meet the gauger, I will knock him down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (_Songs of Uladh,_ according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad wordplay
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 29, "The Black Stripper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9755
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ewie Wi' the Crookit Horn" (subject, theme)
NOTES [22 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "The 'Black Stripper' is a Poitin Still." The gauger, in that case, would be a revenue collector. - BS
File: OLcM029

Black Swans, The

DESCRIPTION: "The restless shadows by me flit, And day will soon be o'er." The digger sees black swans fly by as he digs gum. He's fifty miles from a town, ten from the nearest pub. As the black swans mark the end of a dull day, they will in time bring the end of life
AUTHOR: E. L. Eyre? (soure: Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: worker loneliness New Zealand bird
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 40, "Black Swans" (1 text, 1 modern tune) (p. 23 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 191, "(Black Swans)" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Dave Calder, "Black Swans" (on NZSongYngCntry)
NOTES [34 words]: Black swans are not native to New Zealand; it was introduced from Australia, although it is now widespread. The date at which they were introduced would perhaps give a hint as to the date of this poem. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Colq023

Black Tail Range, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a roving cowboy Off from the western plains." Vignettes about cowboy life: One cowboy is rejected by a girl because he is poor. Another recalls leaving his family. Others tell of the dangers of mining and suggests hunting instead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Larkin-SingingCowboy)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work hunting mining
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 141-143, "The Black Tail Range" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5762
NOTES [52 words]: Larkin-SingingCowboy's informant Bob Norfleet claims that he and a group of cowboys made this up in 1893, with each cowboy contributing a verse on pain of having to do the day's cooking. Given the miscellaneous nature of the verses, this seems possible -- but it was a surprisingly poetic bunch of cowboys. - RBW
File: Lark141

Black Them Boots (Goin' Down to Cairo)

DESCRIPTION: "Black them boots an' make 'em shine, Goodbye, goodbye, Black them boots and make 'em shine, Goodbye (Liza/lazy) Jane." "Oh how I love her, ain't that a shame...." "See that snail a-pullin' that rail?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 25-26=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, p. 142, "Black Them Boots" (1 text, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 68-72, "Goin' Down to Cairo" (1 text, 1 tune plus many variant stanzas)
Randolph 550, "Black Them Boots" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7656
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Goodbye Liza Jane (I)"
NOTES [68 words]: From its form this would appear to be akin to "Goodbye Liza Jane" (or one of the other Liza Jane songs), but the fragment in Randolph is just too fragmentary for certainty. - RBW
[This is a variant of] "Goin' Down to Cairo," a southern Illinois fiddle tune with these verses and the chorus "Goin' down to Cairo/Goodbye, goodbye/Goin' down to Cairo/Goodbye, Liza Jane." The reference is to Cairo, Illinois. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: R550

Black Thing, The

DESCRIPTION: A hairy, toothless, "wee black thing" sits on a cushion. A piper and two little drummers come to play. The piper goes in and "when he came out he hang doon his head"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 69, "Black Joke" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: G. Legman, _The Horn Book_, (New Hyde Park, 1964), pp. 191-192, ("A little black thing on a cushion sat down")
Roud #3864
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Black Joke" (tune, per Legman; one line in Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1's version, bawdy text)
SAME TUNE:
Shandrum Boggoon (File: CrPS287)
The Rebels ("Ye brave, honest subjects, who dare to be loyal") (Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, pp. 50-51)
NOTES [459 words]: The Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 text has as a chorus a standard line from "Black Joke": "We her black Jock and her belley so white." The "plot" of Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 is different from the various "Black Joke" texts; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 plays a single metaphor while the "Black Joke" texts are literal in which each verse tells about a different man's experience with the harlot. Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 is very close to the text [no indication that it is sung] in Arthur Huff Fauset, Folklore from Nova Scotia (New York, 1931), #18 p. 133, ("Two little drummers whose fifes was so fair"). Where the Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 text has "A piper and twa little drummers came there To play wi the wee thing well covered o'er wi hair," Fauset has "Two little drummers whose fifes was so fair Seeking a castle all covered with hair." Fauset adds a final line, "Great God, says the drummer, the fifer is dead." Since "Black Joke" refers to a set of other songs and since, as Faucet shows, the black joke theme is incidental to this song, perhaps a better "master title" might be "Two Drummers and a Piper."
See Digital Tradition for much more about "Black Joke" including the tune (see "Black Joke," "Black Joke (3)," "Black Joke (4)," and Robert Burns's "My Girl She's Airy."
Definitions from Jonathon Green, Cassell's Dictionary of Slang (2nd edition, 2005):
"black jock n.1 1 [late 18C] pubic hair. 2 [late 19C (also brown jock, grey jock) the vagina...."
"black joke n (also coal-black joke) [mid-18C+] the female genitals. [.... E.P. suggests 'something to be cracked']."
For more on "joke" as "a bawdy name for the female genitalia," see Edgar V. Roberts, "An Unrecorded Meaning of 'Joke' (or 'Joak') in England" in American Speech, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2 (May 1962 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 137-140. In case there remained any doubt, Roberts, in a later paper, says, "the adjectives of color in phrases like *black joke* refer simply to the surroundings in which the *joke* itself appears; that is a *black joke* = a brunette, a *white joke* = a blonde, and so on" [Edgar V. Roberts, "More about 'Joke'" in American Speech, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 2 (May 1963 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 152].
The Legman text, attributed to Scott Douglas, replaces the Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 chorus with "with a fal, [&c]" and adds two explicit verses, in case the listener missed the point: "The piper had better been out o' the way And not be so fond to play f-u-c-k." "But pray who would not in the piper's place be To enjoy such a pretty black c-u-n-t?" Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 p. xlvi dates the Douglas text to "the late nineteenth century."- BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: LyCr169

Black Velvet Band (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets and courts a girl with fine hair tied up in a (black/blue) velvet band. As they are out (walking) one night, she steals a gentleman's (watch). The crime is discovered; she plants the evidence on the singer; he is convicted and punished
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1854 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 16(25c))
KEYWORDS: crime courting robbery transportation punishment clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(Ap,MW,So) Australia Ireland Canada
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Randolph 672, "The Blue Velvet Band" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 65-66, "Blue Velvet Band" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 49-50, 145-146, 192-193, "The Black Velvet Band" (2+ texts, 3 tunes)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 15-16, "The Black Velvet Band" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 47-49, "The Black Velvet Band" (1 text)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 48-49, "The Black Velvet Band" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 61-64, "The Black Velvet Band" (1 text plus an excerpt)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 10-11, "The Girl with the Black Velvet Band" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp6-7, "The Girl with the Black Velvet Band" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 535, "Black Velvet Band" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 313, "The Black Velvet Band" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 136-138, "The Black Velvet Band" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 178, "The Town of Dunmanway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 148-150, "The Girl in the Blue Velvet Band" (1 text)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp. 38-41, "The Girl with the Blue Velvet Band" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 658-661, "The Blue Velvet Band" (1 text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 213-216, "The Girl in the Blue Velvet Band" (1 text)
DT 313, BLACKVEL BLKVEL2 BLUEVEL (BLUEVELV2 -- definitely a parody, possibly traditional)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 449-450, "The Black Velvet Band" (1 text, with a tune on p. 604)
Roud #2146 and 3764
RECORDINGS:
Cliff Carlisle, "The Girl in the Blue Velvet Band" (ARC 5-12-61, 1935; rec. 1934)
Tex Fletcher & Joe Rogers, "The Girl in the Blue Velvet Band" (Decca 5403, 1937)
Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys, "The Girl In The Blue Velvet Band" (Columbia 20648, 1949)
Brian Oxberry, "The Black Velvet Band" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #59, recorded 07/27/2021)
Hank Snow, "The Blue Velvet Band" (Bluebird [Canada] B-4635, c. 1939)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(25c), "Black Velvet Band" ("To go in a smack, down at Ba[r]king, when a boy, as apprentice I was bound", Swindells (Manchester), 1796-1853; also 2806 c.16(199), 2806 b.10(116), "Black Velvet Band"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Black Velvet Band (II -- New Zealand)" (tune, meter, lyrics)
cf. "The Black Velvet Band (III)"
cf. "The Charming Young Widow I Met on the Train" (woman pickpocket theme)
cf. "Pretty Little Dear" (theme: man imprisoned, woman thief)
cf. "Tars of the Blanch" (tune, per Bodleian Harding B 16(25c))
SAME TUNE:
Hank Snow, "Answer to 'The Blue Velvet Band'" (Bluebird [Canada] B-4688, c. 1939)
NOTES [311 words]: Roud splits this into two songs, based perhaps on whether the band is black (#2146) or blue (#3764). It may well be that the "blue velvet band" versions are a rewrite. Certainly the version produced by Spaeth is the sort of thing you'd expect when someone "improves" a traditional piece: The stanza form is different, and it's full of cutesy forms.
But it's the same story, and the "blue" form is less popular, so I'm content to lump them while considering the blue velvet band secondary and the result of redaction.
It should be noted that the fullest versions of the "Blue" version, such as Spaeth's, are extremely full, with (in effect) two plots: First the wild meeting which results in the young man being convicted and punished, and then a final scene in which the young man misses the girl and goes to find her, only to find her dead. There is another "Blue" version (in the Index as "Blue Velvet Band (II)" ) in which the middle part, about the prison, has broken off. Genetically, it's still the same song, and perhaps should file here -- but the parts have separated so far that it seemed better to split them.
In any case, there are so many black and blue velvet bands floating around the tradition that you probably should check all songs which use these titles.
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin suggest that the song is a set-up: The owner of the watch and the girl worked together to frame the singer of the song in hopes of gaining a reward. Conceivable, of course, but at least one of them would need to testify to the crime, so this would take time, and the risk would be substantial.
Incidentally, it seems pretty certain that the song was well-known in the ninetheenth century; according to Spaeth's A History of Popular Music in America, p. 608, there was a popular piece of 1894 entitled "Her Eyes Don't Shine Like Diamonds" by Dave Marion. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R672

Black Velvet Band (II -- New Zealand)

DESCRIPTION: In a form clearly based on the transportation song "The Black Velvet Band," the singer -- who has chosen to emigrate to New Zealand -- bids farewell to his girl and sails away. He tells how he is saving up to be reunited with his girl in the velvet band.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: love separation clothes emigration New Zealand
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 26, "Black Velvet Band" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 17 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 56-56, "(Black Velvet Band)" (1 text)
DT, BLKVEL3*
RECORDINGS:
Bruce Hall, "Black Velvet Band" (on NZSongYngCntry)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Black Velvet Band (I)" (tune, meter, lyrics)
cf. "The Black Velvet Band (III)"
NOTES [60 words]: I suspect this is not really traditional, but rather is an adaption of the standard Black Velvet Band to New Zealand conditions (i.e. no transportation). But I gather it was found in some manuscript somewhere (Colquhoun lists the source as "P.D. Mary L. Rodgers" but the author as "Anonymous"), so it *may* have been passed from hand to hand at some time. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: DTBlkve3

Black Velvet Band (III), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer loves a girl who wears a blue (black) velvet band. He leaves her to find work. She appears to him by firelight; he returns home, to discover or learn from his captain that she has died. She is buried wearing his ring and the velvet band
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (recording, Stanley G. Triggs)
KEYWORDS: loneliness love rambling separation beauty clothes burial death work supernatural lover worker ghost
FOUND IN: Can(West)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, BLUEVEL2, BLUVELV2
RECORDINGS:
Stanley G. Triggs, "The Blue Velvet Band" (on Triggs1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Black Velvet Band (I)"
cf. "The Black Velvet Band (II - New Zealand)"
NOTES [63 words]: The relationship to the other "Black Velvet Band" songs is clear -- this one shares the chorus "Her cheeks were the full flush of nature/Her beauty it seemed to expand/Her hair hung down in long tresses/Tied back by the blue velvet band." But the theme of betrayal common in the other songs is wholly absent; in this case the lady is innocent, and dies. So I separate them. - PJS
File: RcBlVel3

Black Water Side, The [Laws O1]

DESCRIPTION: A boy and girl have long been courting. He offers to marry her; she objects that she is too poor. He says that, though he loves only her, this is her only chance; he has another girl in reserve. She gains her mother's permission and they are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: courting poverty love marriage
FOUND IN: US(NE) Ireland Canada(Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws O1, "The Black Water Side"
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 39-41, "Black Water Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 17, "The Blackwater Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H811, pp. 461-462, "The Blackwaterside" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 503-504, "The Blackwater Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 49, "The Blackwater Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #312
RECORDINGS:
Caroline Brennan, "The Blackwater Side" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Frank Knox, "The Blackwater Side" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [34 words]: Not to be confused with Kennedy's song "Down by Blackwaterside" ("Abroad As I Was Walking"), which is a seduction ballad. The two appear to have cross-fertilized heavily, but the plots are distinct. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: LO01

Black Waters o Dee

See The Waters of Dee (File: GrD3617)

Black Waterside

See The Lovely Irish Maid (File: Pea551)

Black Within, Red Without

DESCRIPTION: Riddle: "Black within, red without, Four corners round-about." Answer: a chimney
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: riddle nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Peggy Cole and Sally Poole, informants), "Riddles," Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 28, "(Black within, red without)" (1 text)
Roud #20798
File: NCF128A

Black Woman

DESCRIPTION: "Come here Black woman...ah-hmm, sit on Black daddy's knee." Singer asks if her house is lonesome with her biscuit-roller gone. He's going to Texas "to hear the wild ox moan. He asks where she stayed last night and threatens to tell her daddy on her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recording, Vera Hall)
KEYWORDS: separation loneliness courting love sex abandonment travel lyric nonballad animal lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 140-141, "(Black Woman)" (1 text); pp. 266-268, "Black Woman" (1 tune, partial text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 524-527, "Black Woman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10987
RECORDINGS:
Rich Amerson, "Black Woman" (on NFMAla1, DownHome)
Vera Hall, "Black Woman" (on AFS 4067 B1, 1940)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Wild Ox Moan
NOTES [19 words]: Vera Hall recorded this subsequently as "Wild Ox Moan," the name by which it became popular in the folk revival. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: CNFM140

Black-Eyed Daisy, The

DESCRIPTION: "Send for the fiddle and send for the bow, Send for the black-eyed Daisy, Don't reach here by the middle of the week, It's almost drive me crazy...." "Who'se been here since I been gone? Send for the... Pretty little girl with a red dress on...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 310, "The Black-Eyed Daisy" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 310, "The Black-Eyed Daisy" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 36, "Black Eyed Daisy" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Br3310

Black-Eyed Mary

See Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)

Black-Eyed Susan

See Black-Eyed Susie (Green Corn) (File: R568)

Black-Eyed Susan (Dark-Eyed Susan) [Laws O28]

DESCRIPTION: Susan boards a ship to seek William. He hears her voice and greets her on the deck, promising to be true wherever he goes. Susan bids a sad farewell as the ship prepares to leave
AUTHOR: words: John Gay / music: Richard Leveridge
EARLIEST DATE: 1720 (Gay, Poems on Several Occasions)
KEYWORDS: ship separation love
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US(NE)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws O28, "Black-Eyed Susan (Dark-Eyed Susan)"
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 131-132, "Black-Eyed Susan" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 90-91, "Black-Eyed Susan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 24, "Black-Eyed Susan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 165-167, "Black-Eyed Susan" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 4-5, "Sweet William's Farewell to Black-Eyed Susan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 28, "Dark-eyed Susan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 640-641, "Black-Eyed Susan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, "Sweet William's Farewell to Black-Eyed Susan" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Grg032 LXXXI, pp. 159-161, "Black-eyed Susan" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #153, p. 12, "Black Ey'd Susan" (2 references)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 131-132, "Black Eyed Susan" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 402-403, "Black-Eyed Susan" (1 text)
DT 672, BLKEYSUS
ADDITIONAL: John Gay, _Poems on Several Occasions_, Volumes 1-2, J. Tonson and B. Lintot, 1720 (available on Google Books), pp. 405-407, "Sweet WILLIAN's Farewell to Black-Eud' SUSAN. A BALLAD" (1 text)
Roud #560
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 1(7), "William and Susan," W. and C. Dicey (London), 1736-1763; also Harding B 1(12), Harding B 1(8), Firth c.12(3), Harding B 1(11), Harding B 1(6), Harding B 1(9), "William and Susan"; Harding B 11(304), Harding B 11(2498), Firth b.26(37), Harding B 11(307), "Black Eyed Susan"; 2806 c.16.(122), Harding B 11(306), "Black-Ey'd Susan"; Harding B 11(2206), Firth b.25(241), Harding B 11(527), Harding B 28(74), Harding B 28(74), 2806 b.10(120), Harding B 18(42), "Black-Eyed Susan"
NLScotland, L.C.1270(002), "Black-Eyed Susan," unknown, c.1840-1850
SAME TUNE:
Black-eyed Susan (broadside Bodleian Harding B 1(7))
Black-ey'd Susan (broadside Bodleian Harding B 1(6))
NOTES [267 words]: Written by John Gay, and fairly common in printed sources (Laws lists several broadsides, and it is item CLXVI in Palgrave's Golden Treasury). The only collections in oral tradition listed by Laws, however, are Nova Scotia versions found in Creighton; I am surprised to see that Laws regards it as a genuine traditional song. The Flanders version printed by Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors shows that he was right, however. - RBW
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou has a note on the transmission of this ballad.
Best collected the song from her mother who had also passed it to a friend who "wrote it down in her song scribbler." In the book's introduction Best notes that "we encountered women who had compiled their own songbooks, usually two or three scribblers bound together 'so as not to be always forgetting the words.' These books are treasured and carefully kept clear of the children." [Of] "Dark-eyed Susan," Best goes on to note "Great was my surprise to find out, much later, that John Gay of Beggar's Opera fame had composed it in 1760, and that our version matched his almost word for word."
Almost word for word, in fact. In comparing Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 28 to Harding B 1(6) no line is dropped or added or substantially changed. "The" may be replaced by "with" and "black-ey'd Susan" becomes "dark-eyed Susan," for example, but the most substantial change is that "In every port a mistress finds" becomes "In every port a sweetheart find": likely intentional censorship. Transmission then seems likely to have been from broadside through two hundred years of "scribblers." - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LO28

Black-Eyed Susie (Green Corn)

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses about courting and marriage: "All I want in this creation / Pretty little wife and a big plantation.... Two little boys to call me pappy, One named sup and the other named gravy. Hey, black-eyed Susie" (or "Green corn," or other chorus)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Gid Tanner & Riley Puckett)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage children nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Randolph 568, "Black-Eyed Susan" (1 short text plus a fragment, 1 tune); also perhaps 415, "Possum Sop and Polecat Jelly" (1 text, 1 tune -- a playparty that shares some lyrics and is too short to classify on its own)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 410-411, "Black-Eyed Susan" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 568A)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 311, "Black-Eyes Susie" (2 fragments, presumably of this piece)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 86, "Pretty Little Black-Eyed Susan" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 184, "Pretty Little Black-Eyed Susan" (1 text)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #71, "Black-Eyed Susie" (1 short text, 1 tune, presumably this although it's too short to be certain)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 66, "Black-Eyed Susie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 29, "Black-eyed Susie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 286-288, "Black-eyed Susie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 38, "Green Corn"; p. 39, "Black-Eyed Susie" (2 texts)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Bill Thatcher, "The Roan Mountain Hilltoppers: Old-Time Music from East Tennessee," Vol. XXVIII, No. 2 (Nov 1980, p. 74, "Black-Eyed Susie" (1 tune, possibly this although there are no lyrics)
DT, BLKEYESZ
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 58, "Green Corn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4954 and 3426
RECORDINGS:
Roscoe Holcomb, "Blackeyed Susie" (on MMOK, MMOKCD, ClassBanj)
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "Black Eyed Susie" (Brunswick 175/Vocalion 5179 [as the Hill Billies], 1927)
J. P Nestor, "Black-Eyed Susie" (Victor 21070, 1927; on TimesAint05)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Blackeyed Susie" (on NLCR07)
Land Norris, "Kitty Puss" (OKeh 40212, 1924)
Fiddlin' Doc Roberts, "Black-Eyed Susie" (Gennett 6257, 1927)
Pete Seeger, "Black-Eyed Suzie" (on LonesomeValley);"Green Corn" (on BroonzySeeger2)
Jilson Setters [pseud. for James W. "Blind Bill" Day], "Black Eyed Susie" (Victor V-40127, 1929)
Gid Tanner & Riley Puckett, "Black-Eyed Susie" (Columbia 119-D, 1924)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Black-Eyed Susie" (Columbia 15283-D, 1928)
Henry Whitter [Whitter's Virginia Breakdowners], "Black-Eyed Susie" (OKeh 40320, 1925)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shady Grove" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Hot Corn, Cold Corn (I'll Meet You in the Evening)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Davy" (meter)
NOTES [140 words]: It is possible that this song and "Hot Corn, Cold Corn (I'll Meet You in the Evening)" spring from the same sources, since they share lyrics and themes. However, they have evolved far enough apart that I feel I have to split them.
Roud seems to split the group even more, with "Black Eyed Susie" being his #3426 and "Green Corn" his #4954. The versions I've seen, though, are so mixed up that I decided to lump them because almost any split would be somewhat arbitrary. Nor are the titles any help; Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads's "Pretty Little Black-Eyed Susie." for instance, never mentions Susie; the girl in the song is Sally.
Jim Dixon points out that reference to a tune with [this[ title can be found in Maurice Thompson, Hoosier Mosaics (New York: E. J. Hale & Son, 1875; available on Google Books), page 44.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: R568

Black, Brown, and White

DESCRIPTION: About the troubles suffered by American blacks, who must take poor jobs (if any are available) for poor pay. "If you're white, you're all right; If you're brown, stick around, But if you're black, O brother, git back, git back, git back."
AUTHOR: Big Bill Broonzy
EARLIEST DATE: 1945
KEYWORDS: discrimination hardtimes work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 350-351, "Discrimination Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica316 , "Black, Brown, and White" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 176, "Git Back Blues (Black, Brown, and White Blues)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GITBACK*
File: SBoA350

Black, The

See The Black Cook (File: Pea858)

Blackberries, The

See Na Smeara (The Blackberries) (File: TST009)

Blackberry Grove

DESCRIPTION: The singer is eating blackberries when he spies a milkmaid. He asks to buy milk; she says the cow has kicked over the bucket. She hints that the loan of a shilling would be quickly repaid; he takes the hint, she takes the shillings, and he takes her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Baring-Gould and Sheppard)
KEYWORDS: courting sex commerce farming money food animal worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 122, "Blackberry Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BLKBERGR*
Roud #9176
RECORDINGS:
Ted Lambourine, "Blackberry Grove" (on FSBFTX13)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Harmless Young Jim" (innuendoes)
cf. "Buttercup Joe" (innuendoes)
cf. "The Spotted Cow" (theme)
cf. "Kitty of Coleraine" (theme)
cf. "Three Maidens to Milking Did Go" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
One Michaelmas Morn
NOTES [137 words]: Not to be confused with "Pretty Betsy the Milkmaid (Blackberry Fold)," despite their sharing a milkmaid and blackberries. Incidentally, one of the reasons milkmaids were held in such romantic esteem was for their smooth, fair, and un-pockmarked skin, which came from their contact with cowpox and resultant immunity to smallpox. - PJS
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland observes that the song dates itself to Michaelmas (September 29), a day on which hired workers finished their terms and were paid off. Thus the youth would have money to spend -- and the girl would have every reason to latch onto him *now* (even if it meant spilling the milk) before he left the vicinity.
I know of no version in which the two explicitly sleep together (and can't imagine Baring-Gould printing such!), but the implication is strong. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: K122

Blackbird (I), The (Jacobite)

DESCRIPTION: A lady is mourning for her blackbird, who "once in fair England... did flourish." Now he has been driven far away "because he was the true son of the king." She resolves to seek him out, and wishes him well wherever he may be
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1651 (Broadside, reprinted by Ramsay, 1740)
KEYWORDS: lament separation Jacobites
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1625 - Accession of Charles I
1649 - Execution of Charles I. Charles (II) forced into hiding. Britain becomes a commonwealth
1660 - Restoration of monarchy. Accession of Charles II.
1685 - Death of Charles II. Accession of James II and VII (a Catholic)
1688-1689 - Glorious Revolution deposes King James II
1720-1788 - Life of Bonnie Prince Charlie
1745-1746 - Jacobite rebellion of 1745, which ended in the defeat and final exile of Bonnie Prince Charlie
FOUND IN: US(So) Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 33, "The Blackbird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 117, "The Blackbird" (1 fragment)
Randolph 116, "The Blackbird" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 115-117, "The Blackbird" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 116B)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 78, "The Blackbird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 16-17, "The Royal Blackbird" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 36, "The Blackbird" (1 text)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 1, "The Blackbird" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 19-21, "The Royal Blackbird" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 148-149, "The Blackbird" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 130-131, "The Blackbird" (1 text)
DT, RYLBLKBD*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 139, "The Blackbird"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 246-248, "The Blackbird" (1 text)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 143-144, 510, "The Blackbird"
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), p. 255, "The Blackbird" (1 text)
Edward Bunting, The Ancient Music of Ireland (Mineola, 2000 (reprint of 1840 Dublin edition)), #98 and p. 92 [one verse], "The Blackbird"
Roud #2375
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "The Royal Blackbird" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(67), "The Blackbird" ("Upon a fair morning, for soft recreation"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 17(27a), Harding B 16(25a), Harding B 6(18), 2806 b.11(71), Harding B 11(297), Johnson Ballads 3041, Harding B 20(16), Firth c.26(219), "The Blackbird"; Harding B 19(107), Firth c.14(250), Harding B 11(1038), Harding B 11(3357), 2806 c.15(167) [almost entirely illegible], "The Royal Blackbird"
LOCSinging, sb10013b, "The Blackbird," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as112050, "Royal Blackbird"
Murray, Mu23-y4:016, "The Blackbird," John Ross (Newcastle), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.1270(003), "The Blackbird," unknown, c. 1845
SAME TUNE:
The Lark Is Up (broadside Bodleian 2806 b.11(71))
NOTES [351 words]: Sparling claims his six verse text is "an unmutilated version" accessible "for the first time in a hundred years.... In every other collection [including Duffy] it has appeared as three stanzas, made up of fragments." Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion's text agrees essentially with Sparling's. - BS
The first broadside versions of this song date to 1650, obviously referring to British King Charles II, who was then in exile following the execution of his father Charles I in 1649. It wasn't safe to refer to him by name, so the allegorical "blackbird" was used. It seems also to have been used of James II, and perhaps also to his son James III. However, the title came to be most strongly associated with Bonnie Prince Charlie.
After the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, the same situation arose as in 1650. It was generally not safe to speak of Charlie, so the Jacobites adopted various circumlocutions -- the "blackbird," the "moorhen," or simply "Somebody."
The Jacobite Rebellions had their roots in the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688/9. The British King James II (James VII of Scotland) was Catholic, and had just had a Catholic son. This was unacceptable, and James was overthrown on behalf of his Protestant daughter Mary II (died 1694) and her husband William III (died 1702). When Mary and her sister Anne died without issue (1714), the throne was awarded to the utterly disgusting George I of Hannover (died 1727). The result was the first Jacobite Rebellion in 1715, intended to bring James II's son James (III) back to the throne.
The rebellion sputtered, and another revolt in 1719 was stillborn.
In 1745, Prince Charles Edward (the son of James III) took up his father's cause. 24 years old, handsome, and with an aura of nobility, Charles thoroughly scared the Hannoverian dynasty, but was at last defeated and driven into exile. But his face and bearing burned their way into the hearts of the Scots for many years to come. - RBW
Also collected and sung by Kevin Mitchell, "The Royal Blackbird" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: R116

Blackbird (III), The

See Logan's Lament (File: E112)

Blackbird (IV), The

See Granua's Lament for the Loss of her Blackbird Mitchel the Irish Patriot (File: Zimm060)

Blackbird (V), The

See Cupid's Trepan (Cupid's Trappan, The Bonny Bird) (File: ChWII149)

Blackbird (VI), The

See I Am a Young Maiden (If I Were a Blackbird) (File: FSC38)

Blackbird (VII), The

DESCRIPTION: "Once a boy who was no good Took a girl into the wood, Bye, bye, blackbird," and "Took her... To a place where he could love and grind her" -- then turns her over and continues. She then "Told her story to a court." He ends up in prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: sex courting abuse punishment prison
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 141, "The Blackbird" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10147
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bye, Bye, Blackbird" (tune)
cf. "Take My Tip, Pack Your Grip" (tune)
cf. "Bye, Bye, Blackbird (Bawdy Version)" (tune)
cf. "I've Lost My Underwear" (tune)
NOTES [78 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 357, estimates that "Bye, Bye, Blackbird" (words by Mort Dixon, music by Ray Henderson) was the fourth most popular song in America in 1926, peaking at #1 in September 1926 (#1 for the year being Irving Berlin's "Always"). Yet it continued to spawn parodies through World War II and beyond. That's quite a long-lasting song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Hopk141

Blackbird and Thrush, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears two birds rejoicing because they are "single and free." The girl goes to meet Johnny, but "the dearer I loved him, the saucier he grew." At last he rejects her, and she says she can do better elsewhere
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection flowers gift
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H241, pp. 346-347, "The Blackbird and Thrush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 290-291, "So Abroad as I was Walking" (1 text, 1 tune, with no particular plot but with verses reminiscent of "Old Smokey" or this piece)
Roud #2380
RECORDINGS:
Turp Brown, "Abroad As I Was Walking" (on Voice01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On Top of Old Smokey" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Farewell He" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Ploughboy (I)" (theme)
NOTES [85 words]: The full version of this song, from the Sam Henry collection, is little more than a pastiche of floating lyrics (see the cross-references). I've thrown in the Copper text (which Roud actually splits off as its own song) because it, like the Henry text, contains lyrics we ordinarily associate with "Old Smokey." Presumably both songs derive from the same source as gave us the American text.
The key lines are "A meeting's a pleasure, a parting's a grief, And an (unconstant young man) is worse than a thief." - RBW
File: HHH241

Blackbird Get Up

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "Ay-ah." The shantyman sings "White bird get up... she break/shake she tail... Black bird get up... she do the same" "Donna ... Emmalina girl .. come go with me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: courting shanty bird Black(s)
FOUND IN: West Indies(St Vincent)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 75-78,93-94, "Blackbird Get Up" (2 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES [71 words]: A song to row by when blackfish whaling, but "when we reach fifty or sixty yards, we stop becau' we does need silence. We stop singing; when he hears some noise he would sound and go to bottom" [Abrahams].
For a comment by Blacks making the accusation that what the white man does, "the brown man does the same," see "She Gets There Just the Same (Jim Crow Car)"; in the West Indies, see Olive Lewin's version from Jamaica. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS075

Blackbird in the Bush, The

See Three Maidens to Milking Did Go (File: K191)

Blackbird of Avondale, The (The Arrest of Parnell)

DESCRIPTION: A fair maid mourns "Oh, where is my Blackbird of sweet Avondale." The fowler caught him in Dublin and he is behind "the walls of Kilmainham." She says "God grant that my country will soon be a nation And bring back my Blackbird to sweet Avondale"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: bird political Ireland prison reprieve
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct12, 1881 - Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891) is arrested in Dublin. He is released from Kilmainham Jail May 2, 1882 (source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 81, "The Blackbird of Avondale" or "The Arrest of Parnell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5174
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(59), "The Blackbird of Avondale" or "The Arrest of Parnell" ("By the sweet bay of Dublin whilst carelessly strolling"), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Michael Davitt" (subject and references there)
cf. "The Bold Tenant Farmer" (character of Parnell) and references there)
NOTES [269 words]: Parnell, who was born in Avondale, County Wicklow, is arrested under the Coercion Act of 1881, which was intended to inhibit Land League activities. Parnell was the head of the Land League at the time. (source: "Charles Stuart Parnell (1846-1891)" at the Alumni Website of Magdalene College, Cambridge) - BS
[We should note that almost all sources spell Parnell's name "Charles Stewart Parnell."]
For the Land League, see the notes to "The Bold Tenant Farmer."
This, incidentally, was one of the Great Mistakes of Britain's dealings with Ireland. Prior to his arrest, Parnell was in the uncomfortable position of leading a divided organization: Many Land Leaguers were for fighting the British with all their might, others favored purely parliamentary means. Both were growing somewhat suspicious of Parnell (who seems to have favoured whatever was most effective at a particular time). But the radicals' activism caused Gladstone to pass a Coersion Act, and to round up Parnell and his associates. That united all Ireland behind him; by the time he was released, he was Ireland's dominant politician (see Robert Kee, The Bold Fenian Men, being volume II of The Green Flag, pp. 81-85).
I should say, *almost* all Ireland. The exception was the Ulster presbyterians. According to Kee, p. 103, the Kilmainham "treaty" which led to the release of Parnell, and the accompanying British concessions, alarmed the workers of northeast Ulster. The result was the revival of the Orange Society, and the rise of the Ulster Unionists, and eventually partition; see, e.g. the notes to "A Loyal Song Against Home Rule." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: Zimm081

Blackbird of Mullaghmore, The

DESCRIPTION: For money the singer will "supply you with a good friend" and a glass. The "loyal blackbird" of Mullaghmore has been driven away to some fine still. "Her offspring are well proven in America, France and Spain" She will return "but not to the same place"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad emigration bird
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 123-124, "The Blackbird of Mullaghmore" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 4, "Blackbird of Mullaghmore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3474
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Loyal Blackbird
NOTES [78 words]: Tunney-StoneFiddle: "If poteen was so potent surely it inspired the poets. Isn't 'The Loyal Blackbird' or 'The Blackbird of Mullaghmore' one of the many songs in praise of stills and poteen-making?"
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition: .".. the Blackbird of the song is the hidden name for the hidden Still. Mullaghmore (The Big Height) is a townland on the slopes of the Mournes above Hilltown in County Down, where I first heard the song from Owen McAteer in July 1952." - BS
File: TSF124

Blackbirds and Thrushes (I)

DESCRIPTION: Young man meets young woman; she laments her Jimmy, who is off to the wars. She fears he will be killed, but when he returns, he finds her dead instead. He regrets having left.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation death soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 36, "Blackbirds and Thrushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 33, "Blackbirds and Thrushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12657
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cowboy Jack" [Laws B24] (plot)
cf. "C'est la Belle Francoise (Beautiful Francesca)" (plot)
cf. "The Lass of Roch Royal" [Child 76] (theme)
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there (theme)
cf. "Ball of Yarn"
File: ShH36

Blackbirds and Thrushes (II)

See Hares on the Mountain (File: ShH63)

Blackboard of My Heart, The

DESCRIPTION: "When I was young and went to school, They taught me how to write, To take the chalk and make a mark And hope it turns out right. Well that's the way it is with love...." "But my tears have washed I love you From the blackboard of my heart."
AUTHOR: Hank Thompson / Lyle R. Gaston (source: LyricFind; SecondHandSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (recording, Hank Thompson & His Brazos Valley Boys)
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection | school blackboard writing
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Bob Livingston, "The Blackboard of My Heart" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #106, recorded 03/23/2022)
NOTES [17 words]: The Livingston recording is pretty clearly learned from a commercial recording, not oral tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcBBoMH

Blackboy's Waltzing Matilda, The

See Waltzing Matilda (File: PBB119)

Blackell Murry Neet (Blackwell Merry Night)

DESCRIPTION: "Ay, lad! Sec a murry-neet we've had at Bleckell." The well-dressed folk are there to dance as the fiddle plays. They eat, drink, smoke, sing. The singer wishes health to Johnny Dawtson the clogger and hopes they will meet again
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Anderson (1770-1833), according to Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams
EARLIEST DATE: 1808 (Anderson)
KEYWORDS: music dancing nonballad food drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #9, "Blackwell Merry Night")
Roud #1529
File: VWP012

Blackest Crow, The

See My Dearest Dear AND Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove) (File: SKE40)

Blackeyed Susie

See Black-Eyed Susie (Green Corn) (File: R568)

Blackfoot Rangers

DESCRIPTION: "Mount! mount! and away o'er the greenwood so wide, The sword is our sceptre, the fleet steed our pride...." The Blackfoot rangers will raid and bushwhack the Federals, who cannot hope to defeat them; God will support them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: outlaw horse Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 354, "Blackfoot Rangers" (1 text)
Roud #7770
NOTES [172 words]: Although the reader may be tempted to refer this to the Blackfoot Indians (who lived primarily in Montana and Alberta east of the Rockies), Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety refers this to the Blackfoot region in Missouri, and to the Civil War, and he is likely right.
Missouri was long a center of intense guerrilla activity, starting actually *before* the Civil War (as raiders crossed over into "Bleeding Kansas" to try to force that state to become slave or free). These particular raiders were probably Confederate (since they were anti-Federal), but it's barely possible that they were abolitionist and trying to overthrow the pro-slavery Lecompton government.
In any case, given the way these guerillas behaved, the only god who could approve of their behavior is one which fed on human sacrifice.
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety does not mention an ancestor of this piece, but looking at it, I cannot help but feel that it is adapted from something else, though I'm not sure what. - RBW
File: Beld354

Blackjack Davy, The

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Blackleg Miners, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's in the even' after dark, When the black-leg miner creeps to work." "They take their picks and down they go To hew the coal that lies below." The singer warns against mining. Women avoid miners. Hearers are urged to join the union
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (collected by A. L. Lloyd, according to Raven)
KEYWORDS: mining labor-movement hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
DT, BLAKLEG*
ADDITIONAL: Norman Buchan, "Folk and Protest," in Edward J. Cowan, editor, _The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History_ 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition), pp. 166-167, "(The Dirty Black Miners" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 78-79, "The Black Leg Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3193
File: CBThBlMi

Blacklegs, The

DESCRIPTION: ""Curiosity caused me one evening to ramble"; by the Shoofly he hears two old ladies. One curses the blacklegs who are depriving union men of work. The other says the blacklegs are just trying to support their families. But times are still hard
AUTHOR: Patrick Johnson (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining labor-movement hardtimes boss
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 222-224, "The Blacklegs" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sliding Scale" (character of Franklin Gowen)
cf. "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32] (subject: the Long Strike and the Molly Maguires) and references there
NOTES [20 words]: For Franklin Gowen, the mine boss attacked in this song, see the notes to "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E25]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP224

Blackman's Dream, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer dreams of a mystical trip. At different points on the desert trip he is given colored garments to wear. He encounters the burning bush, a toad, armed strangers, mountains, a pyramid and a fountain and cup for toasting all that don't bow to Baal.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: dream ritual religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 35, "The Blackman's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Knight Templar's Dream" (subject) and references there
cf. "The Grand Mystic Order" (subject) and references there
NOTES [215 words]: Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark: "The title is a sufficient description of the song's contents." [?!]
According to Zimmermann, p. 303, "Other [than Orange Lodge] Protestant organizations, such as the Grand Black Chapter or the Royal Arch Purple Chapter, developed parallel with Orangeism, and their rituals were also themes of allegorical songs which appeared, along with masonic texts, in Orange collections." His footnote to that statement lists among songs not inspired by Orange ritual, "The Black Man's Dream."
The Royal Black Institution was formed in Ireland in 1797; the Orange Order had been formed in 1795. To this day it has an annual July 13 demonstration at Scarva in Co. Down. (source: "Our Background" at The Royal Black Institution site) - BS
The Burning Bush is of course a reference to Exodus 3. Most of the other references are non-Biblical, except for the one to bowing to Baal. I suspect this is a reference to 1 Kings 19:18. Elijah had fled to Mount Horeb, saying that he is left alone as a worshipper of YHWH, but YHWH answers, "Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Ba'al." This must have seemed unusually suitable imagery to the Protestants of Ulster, who were so conscious of being a minority in a Catholic nation. - RBW
File: OrLa035

Blacksmith (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "A blacksmith courted me, Nine months or better. He fairly won my heart, Wrote me a letter.... And if I were with my love, I'd live forever." Sadly, her love has departed (for the wars? To be married?); she wishes she were with him wherever he goes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901
KEYWORDS: love separation courting lie betrayal lament lover
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West)) Canada
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 146, "A Blacksmith Courted Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 22, "The Blacksmith" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #48, "The Blacksmith" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 56, "The Blacksmith" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople, p. 233, "(Have you seen my love pass by)" (1 fragment)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 45, "Shoemaker Courted Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BLAKSMIT* BLAKSMT2* BLAKSMI2*
Roud #816
RECORDINGS:
Harry Brazil, "A Blacksmith Courted Me" (on Voice11)
Phoebe Smith, "A Blacksmith Courted Me" (on FSBFTX15)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.18(130), "The Blacksmith," H. Such (London), 1863-1885
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brave Wolfe" [Laws A1] (tune & meter)
cf. "Our Captain Called" (tune & meter, lyrics)
cf. "Pining Daily and Daily" (theme)
cf. "Glasgow Ships" (one verse)
SAME TUNE:
Brave Wolfe [Laws A1] (File: LA01)
NOTES [373 words]: Lines are similar to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 270, "Brave news is come to town" (earliest date in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes is 1842).
Firth c.18(130): "Strange news has come to me, strange news is carried, And now it's all the talk, my love he is married."
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 270: "Brave news is come to town, Brave news is carried; Brave news is come to town, Jemmy Dawson's married." - BS
(For the items listed above, see also Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #280, p. 165, "(Brave news is come to town)"; also Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 96, "(Braw News is come to town)," in which the girl is Jean Tamson. The similarity is only in the lyrics, though, not in the plot.)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland lists in excess of a dozen collections of this song, almost all from the south of England. Normally I would interpret this to mean that it is recent but popular -- but of course it is old enough to have supplied the tune for "Brave Wolfe."
The Opies mention "Jemmy Dawson" as a man executed for supporting Bonnie Prince Charlie, but that of course doesn't prove that it's the same Jemmy Dawson. On the other hand, if Jemmy were being sung about circa 1745, the tune would still be remembered circa 1760, when "Brave Wolfe" was presumably written. - RBW
One verse, found at least in broadside Bodleian Firth c.18(130), specifically, "It's not what you promised when by me you did lie, You promised to marry me and never me deny; If I promised to marry you it was only to try you, So bring your witness in and I never will deny you" that dates back at least to about 1672. See:
* Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth, editor, The Roxburghe Ballads: Illustrating the Last Years of the Stuarts (Hertford, 1883 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. IV Part 1 [Part 10], pp. 22-25, "The Deluded Lasse's Lamentation" or "The False Youth's Unkindness to his Beloved Mistress" ("Is she gone? let her go. I do not care") (1 text) ["Probable date, 1672"]
Broadside EngBdsdBA 22124, Pepys 5.289, "The Deluded Lasses Lamentation" or "The False Youth's Unkindness to his Beloved Mistris" ("Is she gone, let her go, I do not care"), J. Deacon (London), 1689, accessed 08 Dec 2013 - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: K146

Blacksmith (II), The

See Whiskey Is My Name (Donald Blue) (File: HHH835)

Blacksmith (III), The

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a blacksmith An working in my shop I did kiss a bonnie lass Behind the working block." He describes her hair, eyes, teeth and skin. He compares birds to women. The last lines are enigmatic: "I winna lie in your bed Neither at stock nor wa"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting sex beauty nonballad bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 841, "The Blacksmith" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6249
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Behind the Stable Door
NOTES [95 words]: The verses seem as though they must be floating but I can't place them. For example, the verse describing the woman's hair is "The colour o my bonnie lovey's hair Was o the bonnie brown An ye widna see the like o my bonnie love In a' the country roun"; one of the verses referring to birds is "The blackbird it's a bonnie bird The cuckoo also vain But by a the creatures o the earth The woman's the prettiest one." - BS
The last lines may be from "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship." Comparison of people to blackbirds and cuckoos are of course too numerous to mean much. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4841

Blacksmith (IV), The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a blacksmith by my trade, from London I came down." "There's Monday, Tuesday Wednesday these are the days we smith... welcome Saturday night, Then we receive our weekly wage and pay our alehouse score." With or without money, he works cheerily
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Vaughan Williams collection)
KEYWORDS: work drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #6, "The Blacksmith" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1468
File: PECS006

Blacksmith Courted Me, A

See The Blacksmith (File: K146)

Blacksmith of Cloghroe, The

DESCRIPTION: "The rebels' hall of meeting was the forge of sweet Cloghroe" where they learned the soldier's drill. Sean Magee, the blacksmith there, is now buried in Kilmurry. "Ireland lost a gallant son in the blacksmith of Cloghroe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: rebellion death Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 66,122, "The Blacksmith of Cloghroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Skibbereen" (tune, per OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
NOTES [93 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork calls this "another patriotic song of West Cork." I assume that it is -- like many of the other songs in the collection -- a song of the Irish Civil Wars of 1920-1922. - BS
The flip side is, blacksmiths had often been at the center of earlier rebellions, simply because they could make pikes. By 1920, even the Irish had realized that pikes were useless against modern weapons. But, of course, the flip side is that rebellions such as 1848 and 1867 had almost no casualties. So the Civil War does indeed seem the most likely occasion. - RBW
File: OCan066

Blacksmith's Song, The

See Twankydillo (The Blacksmith's Song) (File: K286)

Blackwater Side (I)

See Down By Blackwaterside (File: K151)

Blackwater Side (II), The

See The Bann Water Side (File: HHH685)

Blackwater Side (III)

See The Lovely Irish Maid (File: Pea551)

Blackwaterside, The

See The Black Water Side [Laws O1] (File: LO01)

Blackwell Merry Night

See Blackell Murry Neet (Blackwell Merry Night) (File: VWP012)

Blades of Strawblane, The

See Braes of Strathblane (File: McCST053)

Blaeberries, The

See The Blaeberry Courtship [Laws N19] (File: LN19)

Blaeberry Courtship, The [Laws N19]

DESCRIPTION: A Lowland girl is induced to follow a Highland lad home "to pick blueberries" (and get married). The girl is worn out by the time they reach his home -- only to discover that his poverty is a sham and he is a great lord whom she knew in childhood
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 1570)
KEYWORDS: courting poverty money harvest
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws N19, "The Blaeberry Courtship"
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H193, pp. 487-488, "The Hielan's o' Scotland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #43, pp. 1-2, "The Blaeberry Courtship" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 852, "The Blaeberry Courtship" (16 texts plus a single verse on p. 561, 11 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 190-191, "The Blaeberry Courtship" (1 text)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 62-63, "The Blaeberries" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 18, "The Blaeberry Courtship" (2 texts)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 276-278, "The Blaeberries" (1 text)
DT 450, BLAEBRRY BLAEBRR2
ADDITIONAL: Robert Ford, Vagabond Songs and Ballads (Paisley: Alexander Gardner, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")) second series, pp. 77-82, "The Blaeberry Courtship" (1 text)
Roud #1888
RECORDINGS:
Howard Morry, "The Pride of Glencoe" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1570, "The Blaeberries" or "Highland Laird's Courtship," G Walker (Durham), 1797-1834
NLScotland, RB.m.143(004), "The Blaeberry Courtship," Pos Box (sic.), i.e. Poet's Box (Glasgow), c. 1880
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lizie Lindsay" [Child 226] (plot)
cf. "Glasgow Peggy" [Child 228] (plot)
cf. "Erin-go-bragh" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
NOTES [130 words]: Laws calls this a "modernization of the story" told in "Lizie Lindsay" (Child #226). It is possible that this is technically true -- that is, that "The Blaeberry Courtship" was inspired by the Child Ballad. Certainly a number of scholars (far too many!) have lumped them together. But they are clearly and obviously separate songs, and should be treated as such. In terms of plot, "The Blaeberry Courtship" is nearly as close to "Glasgow Peggy" as to "Lizie Lindsay"; note that the suitor reveals his wealth only *after* the lady comes away with him. - RBW
Ford comments on Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads: "In Whitelaw's Book of British Ballads there is a modern and verbally improved version given, but I prefer to print here the old chapman's copy in all its rude simplicity." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LN19

Blair Festival 1969

DESCRIPTION: "The festival has come again; they say it is the last. If it is, we still have memories...." The singer, evidently Belle Stewart, recalls the happy times the family has had there, and thanks Maurice Fleming for helping them as performers
AUTHOR: Belle Stewart (1906-1997)
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (presumably; printed 2006)
KEYWORDS: recitation music nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, pp. 88-89, "Blair Festival 1969" (1 text)
Roud #21432
NOTES [23 words]: Listed by Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather as a poem, not a song, and I am sure not traditional; it is too Stewart-specific. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: StQue088

Blanche Comme la Niege (White as Snow)

DESCRIPTION: French. A lady is taken home by a captain. They eat before making love, but she falls dead during the meal. She is buried in her father's garden. When her father comes, she calls him to open her tomb: She has pretended to be dead to save her honor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting sex virginity escape beauty trick burial father
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 174-178, "Blanche Comme la Niege" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 182-183, "Blanche Comme la Niege" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 30-31, "Blanche Comme la Neige (White as a Snowflake)" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best, "Blanche Comme la Neige" (on NFABest01)
Mme Arthur Felix, "Blanche Comme la Niege" (on PeacockCDROM)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
La Belle Qui Fait la Morte Pour Son Honneur Garder
NOTES [32 words]: In Peacock's version there is only one lady rather than three. In some versions one lady, white as snow and beautiful as day, falls asleep on a bed of roses and three captains come courting. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Pea174

Blanche, The

DESCRIPTION: The British frigate Blanche encounters the French frigate Le Picque. Although their Captain Faulknor is killed they repel a boarding party and capture the French frigate.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Curzon b.17(98))
KEYWORDS: battle death sea ship England France
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 4-5, 1795 - The British frigate Blanche captures the French frigate Pique (source: "HMS Pique (1795)" at Wikipedia site, accessed Sep 11, 2012).
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #39, pp. 237-239, "The Tars of the Blanche" (1 text)
Pakmer-Sea 73, "The Tars of the Blanche" (1 text)
Roud #4583
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Curzon b.17(98), "The Blanch" ("You Frenchmen don't boast of your fighting "), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 25(208), Harding B 17(27b), Firth c.13(49), Harding B 16(26a), Harding B 11(314), Harding B 16(26b), Firth c.13(50), "The Blanch"; Harding B 11(1515), Johnson Ballads 283 [many words illegible], Harding B 25(1885), Harding B 11(3739), Harding B 11(3740), Firth c.13(48), "The Tars of the Blanch"; 2806 c.18(28)[some words illegible], Harding B 11(315) [lacking a few verses], "[The] Blanch Frigate"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Adventures of Captain Ross" (tune)
NOTES [157 words]: I faintly suspect a relationship (thematic rather than textual) between this and "The Flash Frigate," which Shay thinks is about La Pique. But I have no evidence.
If it seems odd to see so many ships with French names in the British navy, the British would generally keep a French ship's name after capturing it. The British fleet had a lot of French-sounding ships in the Napoleonic era.
There is a fairly famous print of this that has some details about the fight: "The situation of His Mtys. Ship Blanche, of 32 Guns & 180 Men, & the French Frigate La Pique, of 40 Guns & 400 Men, at a quarter past 5 o'Clock in the Morning, about a quarter of an hour before the Pique surrendered, having been towed in that way near 3 hours and a half, and having made frequent attempts to board the Blanche without success." It is said to have been "Published by Js. Bretherton, 1 January 1797. Hand-coloured aquatint by C. Rosenberg after Orde." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DixP039

Blancheflour and Jellyflorice [Child 300]

DESCRIPTION: Blancheflour, a pretty servant girl, finds a place sewing for a queen. The queen warns the girl away from her son Jellyflorice, but the two fall in love. The queen would kill the girl, but Jellyflorice rescues and marries her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: royalty courting servant punishment rescue marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Child 300, "Blancheflour and Jellyflorice" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 221-222, "Blancheflour and Jellyflorice" (1 text)
RELATED: Versions of the Romance "Floris and Blanchefleur" --
Jennifer Fellows, _Of Love and Chivalry: An Anthology of Middle English Romance_, Everyman/J. M. Dent, 1993, pp. 43-72, "Florys and Blauncheflour" (1 text, of 1087 lines, based mainly on Cambridge MS. Gg. 4.27.2)
Erik Kooper, editor, _Sentimental and Humorous Romances_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2006, pp. 1-52, "Floris and Blancheflour" (1 text, of 1227 lines, based primarily on the "A" or Auchinleck manuscript with the first 366 lines from the Egerton 2862 text, here called "S")
Donald B. Sands, editor, _Middle English Verse Romances_, Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1966, pp. 279-309, "Floris and Blanchefleour" (1 text, of 1080 lines, based on the "E" or Egerton 2862 text)
Robert D. Stevick, editor, _Five Middle English Narratives_, Bobbs-Merrill, 1967, pp. 98-139, "Floris and Blanchefleur" (1 txt, of 1083 lines, based on the "E" or Egerton 2662 text)
J. Rawson Lumby, editor (1866), revised (1901) by George H. McKnight, _King Horn, Flori3 and Blauncheflur, The Assumption of our Lady_, Early English Text Society/Oxford University Press, 1901 (reprinted 1962), pp. 71-110, "Floris and Blauncheflur" (showing the Egerton, Cambridge, and Cotton manuscripts in parallel)
Walter Hoyt French and Charles Brockway Hale, _Middle English Metrical Romances_, Prentice-Hall, 1930, pp. 323-341, "Sir Orfeo" (1 text, nominally of 1030 lines, based on the "E" or Egerton 2862 text)
John Edwin Wells, _A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1400_, 1916 (references are to the 1930 fifth printing with three supplements), p. 140, "Floris and Blauncheflur" (a prose summary)
(No author), _The Auchinleck Manuscript: National Library of Scotland Advocates' MS. 19.2.1_, with an introduction by Derek Pearsall and I. C. Cunningham, The Scolar Press, 1977, (photographic reproduction of the manuscript), folios 100ra-104vb, (no title, as the first 384 or so lines have been lost)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #*45 [i.e. #45 among the pieces where the beginning has not been preserved]
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3686
MANUSCRIPT: {MSAuchinleck}, The Auchinleck Manuscript, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 19.2.1, folios 100r-104v, "(Floris and Blauncheflur)"
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, University Library, MS. Gg.4.27 (Part 2), p. 1
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Cotton Vitellius D.III, folio 6
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Egerton 2862 (previously Sutherland, Trentham Hall], folio 98
Roud #3904
NOTES [1749 words]: Depending on how you count, there seem to be between thirty and eighty Middle English metrical romances which have survived to the present day. Of these, if you exclude the works of Chaucer, three seem to get most of the critical attention: "King Horn," because it is the oldest; "Sir Orfeo," because because it is the best; and "Floris and Blancheflour," because it is the prettiest.
All three seem to have become ballads -- "King Horn" became "Hind Horn" [Child 17]; "Sir Orfeo" became "King Orfeo" [Child 19], and "Floris and Blancheflour" (also known as "Floriz and Blauncheflur," etc.) became "Blancheflour and Jellyflorice" [Child 300]. Briggs also compares the romance to the folktale "The Dorsetshire Garland or The Beggar's Wedding" (Briggs, volume A.2, pp. 400-401), but while there are thematic similarities, I wouldn't call them the same story.
The romance "Floris and Blancheflour" is not really the source of the plot of this song, but probably the ultimate inspiration. Dickins/Wilson, p. 43, report that there are two European versions of the story, one for aristocratic and one for popular audiences; both exist, e.g., in French. The oldest text of the aristocratic version is thought to go back to around 1200, and there is a translation (known as the Trierse Floyris, and surviving only in fragments) from around 1170. The original romance may go back to around 1150. There are versions in Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Old Norse, Spanish, and even Yiddish (Flere Blankeflere); Boccaccio also made use of it. It was printed as a chapbook as early as 1517 by the Dutch printer Jan van Doesburg; modern authors continue to work with it today (Gerritsen & van Melle, pp. 108-109). Wells, pp. 139-140, files it among the romances of Greek or Byzantine origin, although without any real supporting evidence.
The Middle English romance seems to be derived from the aristocratic French version (Sands, p. 280).
The plot of the romance is roughly as follows: A band of pilgrims is attacked by Saracens. A young pregnant widow is taken prisoner when her father is killed. Taken to Spain, she bears a daughter Blancheflur. On that day, the Saracen queen has a son Floris. Brought up together, they fall in love. The parents oppose the match, and sell Blancheflur into slavery. Floris attempts suicide; his parents relent and equip him for a journey to find her. He discovers her in an eastern harem and manages to rescue her.
(The popular version makes the ending simpler; Floris simply performs some of the tasks of a knight errant.)
The plot is common; Boccaccio used it in Il Filocolo, some claim to see the idea at least in Chaucer's "Franklin's Tale" (although I'd call that a real stretch), and the plot is said to go all the way back to India. (Although Alice B. Morgan, "'Honour & Right' in Arthur of Little Britain," Benson, p. 380, says, "Although romances offer numerous instances of a high-born lady ultimately accepting a knight of lower birth, there are few in which the process is reversed. (The sole example known to me is Floris and Blanchefleur.)")
The Middle English "Floris and Blauncheflur" romance, according to Dickins/Wilson, p. 43, has been "severely pruned... to such a degree that occasionally details vital to the plot have been omitted." This includes even the introductory material, about the capture of the Christian widow that motivates the plot -- though all the surviving Middle English versions seem to have lost material at the beginning, so that lack may be accidental.
The name "Blancheflour" -- "White Flower" -- also worked its way into the Percival legend (Lacy, p. 422), but that doesn't seem to be the same girl, just the same name.
Wells, p. 141, emphasizes that "The tale is not of passion, but of kinder, gentle, devoted love. There are no combats, there is no villain" -- not an unknown situation in the romances ("Sir Orfeo," e.g., has no combat, and no villain), but there are plenty of romances which are quite bloody; "Floris" clearly stands above that.
"Floris and Blancheflour" seems to have been very popular by romance standards. Most Middle English romances survive in only one copy (although we have three of "Sir Orfeo" and three of "King Horn"; the poor romance "Sir Eglamour of Artois" is even more common). "Floris and Blancheflour" tops that; there are four manuscripts:
* B.M. Cotton Vitellius D III (late XIII century, according to Dickens/Wilson, p. 44 and Sands, p. 280; c. 1300, according to Cooper, p. 1; Sands says that it suffered very badly in the Cotton Library fire -- unfortunate, since it seems particularly close to the French). Often cited as "V." This is the only poetic English work (known to have been) in it.
* Cambridge Gg.4.27.2 (early XIV century, according to Dickens/Wilson; late XIII according to Sands; c. 1300 according to Cooper, p. 1; Emerson, p. 263 puts it in the middle of XIII and considers this the best manuscript as far as extant), Often cited as "C." According to Evans, p. 92, this has more elaboration of the text than Egerton 2862, but less than Auchinleck. Note that this is the second part of Cambridge MS. Gg.4.27. The first part is a famous anthology of Chaucer -- the oldest known collection of Chaucer's works, not just the Canterbury Tales and Troilus but many shorter pieces. But part 2 is really a separate work, with "Floris," "King Horn," and "The Assumption of Our Lady."
* Edinburgh Auchinleck MS (probably written between 1325 and 1350; this is the best and most important of all Middle English romance manuscripts, but in this case, it is held in relatively low esteem because of the two older texts). Often cited as "A." According to Evans, p. 92, this is the most elaborated text of the romance.
* B. M. Egerton 2862 (early XV century according to most sources; c. 1400 according to Kooper, p. 1; about 1440, according to Lumley/McKnight, p. xlii, which calls it the "Trentham Manuscript" after an earlier location; although the latest manuscript, reducing its value, it is the most complete, probably lacking only a few lines at the beginning; it contains 366 lines not found in any of the others, according to Dickins/Wilson, p. 44). Often cited as "E." According to Evans, p. 92, this is the least elaborated text of the romance. It contains several other romances: "Richar Coer de Lion," "Sir Bevis of Hampton," "Sir Degare," "Amys and Amiloun," "Sir Eglamore or Artois," and "The Siege of Troy."
Dickins/Wilson, p. 44, make the odd claim that "All MSS. go back to a single lost original, but the wide discrepancies between them suggest that the intervening links were more probably oral than written." Similarly Kooper, pp. 1-2, believes oral tradition is responsible for many of the discrepancies.
Sands seems to offer a simpler explanation: The manuscripts have all been edited, with much material being omitted along the way. The result is erratic and the meter often defective, but Sands declares (p. 282) that it is a "well-structured story" and believes that this makes up for the "undistinguished verse."
Emerson, p. 263, describes the language as a mixture of southern and Midland; Wells, p. 139, says it was composed in the East Midland, farther north than King Horn, which he attributes to the central or southern midlands.
The earlier history of this romance is curious and disputed. Sands, p. 280, dates the English version c. 1250, and suggests that the French original was current 75-100 year before that. Wells, p. 139, also supports a date around 1250. Emerson, p. 263, says that the plot is "probably of Eastern origin, and brought to the West in the twelfth century, perhaps by crusaders. The English poem was freely translated and condensed from a French version."
GArnett-IHearAmericaSinging and Gosse, p. 117, call this the "most beautiful" of the romances, and note that it is "represented in most mediaeval literatures. The theory of its Spanish origin is inadmissible, but in tolerance and spirit of humanity it does seem to bear traces of influence from some land where Christian and Moslem often lived in amity." (This would seem to support the notion that it was carried by Crusaders, since -- prior to the formation of the Ottoman Empire -- it was in the Islamic regions of Palestine and Egypt that such toleration was most common.)
Bennett/Gray, p. 136, says that "Floris and Blancheflour, translated and modified from a French original somewhere in the South East Midlands in the mid-thirteenth century -- and soon copied in the South West -- is as near as we can come in English to the daintiness and charm of the more famous Aucassin et Nicolette, and has something of the perennial appeal, though little of the artistry, of that early masterpiece." On p. 137, however, they declare that "It was doubtless the Eastern magic and marvels -- the gleaming carbuncle, Babylon of 140 gates and 700 towers, the brazen conduit, a stream that runs from Paradise over precious stones and tests chastity -- that gave the poem its chief appeal." On p. 138, we read, "If we miss the verve of Aucassin, there is something in this tale for most tastes of the time, and a foretaste of the Arabian Nights."
All four manuscripts of "Floris and Blancheflour" have been published, typically in obscure volumes. Sands, pp. 282-309, prints a 1083 line version, slightly modernized, based mostly on the Egerton manuscript. Dickins/Wilson, pp. 44-48, print what they consider to be lines 639-824 based on the Cambridge manuscript. Emerson, pp. 35-47, prints about 400 lines based on Cambridge, starting with line 433 of that manuscript.
For a bibliography of the romance, see Rice, Middle English Romance, pp. 255-258 -- it is one of the more extensive entries in her work.
As already mentioned, several other ballads also derive loosely or from Middle English romance, or from the legends that underlie it, examples being:
* "Hind Horn" [Child 17], from "King Horn" (3 MSS., including Cambridge Gg.4.27.2, which also contains "Floris and Blancheflour")
* "King Orfeo" [Child 19], from "Sir Orfeo" (3 MSS., including the Auchinlek MS, which also contains "Floris and Blancheflour")
* "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" [Child 31], from "The Weddynge of Sir Gawein and Dame Ragnell" (1 defective MS, Bodleian MS Rawlinson C 86)
For further discussion, including some examination of the relationship between the ballad and English romance, see now Robert Waltz, Romancing the Ballad, Loomis House Press, 2013, especially pp. 40-41. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: C300

Blandon Blarney Stone, The

See The Blarney Stone (File: DTblrnst)

Blank and Ladder

DESCRIPTION: "In came a little man with a white hat; If you want a pretty girl, pray take that; Take your choice of one, two, or three; If you want a pretty girl, please take she. Blank and ladder! Halloo if you're far off, whistle if you're nigh."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #107, "Blank and Ladder" (1 text)
File: Newe107

Blanket Curant, The

See The Sea Captain and the Squire [Laws Q12] (File: LQ12)

Blankets and Sheets

DESCRIPTION: "O ladies be wary for when that you marry There's twenty things more in a day you've to do, There's blankets and sheets and preens are awanting And oh to be married if this be the way"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: marriage nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 889, "Blankets and Sheets" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6233
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4889

Blantyre Explosion, The

See The High Blantyre Explosion [Laws Q35] (File: LQ35)

Blaris Moor

DESCRIPTION: It would be "treason" to accuse Colonel Barber of "murder." Those shot "were lads of good behaviour" but "O'Brien and Lynch" betrayed them for gold. Offered a pardon and gold themselves, those condemned as "united" chose death, and were shot.
AUTHOR: ascribed to James Garland (d. c.1842) (Source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 ("as sung in Belfast in 1797," according to Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: army betrayal execution Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 16, 1797 - William and Owen McKenna, Peter McCarren and Daniel McGillain, soldiers in the Monaghan militia, executed after sentence by court martial. (source: United Irishmen handbill quoted by Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 6, "Blaris Moor" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #13386
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Blaris Moor" (subject)
NOTES [110 words]: Blaris is a civil parish in County Antrim and County Down.
IRCroppysComplaint notes re "The Blarismoor Tragedy": "In 1797 the Monaghan Militia were quartered in Belfast. In May of that year it was discovered that large numbers of them had been secretly recruited as United Irishmen."
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion quotes a 1798 United Irishmen handbill describing the execution and refusal by the men convicted as United Irishmen to inform in spite of offers of pardon and reward.
Zimmermann's two versions have many differences but share a rhyme scheme and so many lines that I would not separate them. One seems a badly remembered version of the other. - BS
File: Zimm006

Blarismoor Tragedy, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Lord, grant me direction To sing this foul transaction... Late done at Blarismoor." Three Irishmen are accused, and offered pardon and promotion if they list their accomplices. They refuse and are executed
AUTHOR: James Garland (d. c.1842) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (P.W. Joyce finds it in _The Weekly Nation_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion trial crime execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 17, 1797 - The Blarismoor Tragedy
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 86-87, "The Blarismoor Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 47, "The Blarismoor Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BLARISMOOR
Roud #13386
NOTES [55 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 has a long note, quoting Madden, describing the event.
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Jim McFarland, "The Blarismoor Tragedy" (on "The Croppy's Complaint," Craft Recordings CRCD03 (1998); Terry Moylan notes) - BS
File: PGa086

Blarney Stone, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a pretty girl on the road to Bandon, who tells him she's lonely and asks "where I'd find that little Blarney stone." He shows her, to their mutual delight. The chorus points out there's a Blarney Stone in every town in Ireland
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recorded by Shaun O'Nolan, according to Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a pretty girl on the road to Bandon, who tells him she's lonely and asks "where I'd find that little Blarney stone." He shows her, to their mutual delight -- "He rolled me in his arms where I never had been before/Sure he's kissed the blooming roses on my Bandon Blarney Stone." The chorus lists various places with Blarney Stones, ad notes that one is found in every town in Ireland
KEYWORDS: courting sex Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 41, "The Bandon Blarney Stone" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BLARNSTN, BLRNSTON
Roud #4800
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry w. Michael Gorman, "The Blarney Stone" (on Pubs1); Margaret Barry, "The Blarney Stone" (on IRMBarry-Fairs) (on Voice01)
Tom Lenihan, "The Bandon Blarney Stone" (on IRTLenihan01)
NOTES [60 words]: The famous stone is located at Blarney, County Cork; according to legend, if one can stretch across a gap between two cliffs and kiss the stone, one will acquire the "gift of gab" -- that is, the "eloquence of flattery," to use Rinzler's term. The song points out that everyone in Ireland has acquired that gift, Blarney Stone or no, and the chorus tells why. - PJS
File: DTblrnst

Blaser Kallt, Kallt Vader Ifran Sjon, Det (The Cold Weather's Blowin' in From the Sea)

DESCRIPTION: Swedish shanty. Sailor goes to sea at the age of 14. Sometime later meets a girl in Kalmar Harbour, convinces her to come along and marry him. Chorus after each verse line: "Det blaser kallt vader ifran sjon (The cold weather's blowin' in from the sea)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty courting
FOUND IN: Sweden
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 543-545, "Det Blaser Kallt, Kallt Vader Ifran Sjon" (1 Swedish plus 1 English text, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 98-99, "Det Blaser Kallt, Kallt Vader Ifran Sjon" (2 texts, Swedish & English, 1 tune)
NOTES [15 words]: Sternvall has a note that this was already popular by the beginning of the 19th century. - SL
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hugi543

Blaw the Wind Southerly

See Blow the Wind Southerly (File: StoR018)

Blaw, Blaw, My Kilt's Awa'

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope verse. "Blaw, blaw, my kilt's awa, My kilt's awa, my kilt's awa, Blaw, blaw, my kilt's away, Bring me back my troosers." "Meg, Meg, I broke my leg, I broke... Sae bring me back my troosers."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Bluebells My Cockle Shells, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope injury clothes | kilt broken leg
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #39, "Blaw, blaw, my kilt's awa'" (1 text)
Roud #20474
File: AJRV039

Blawin' Willie Buck's Horn

DESCRIPTION: Seemingly unconnected couplets. "I've a cherry, I've a chess, I've a bonny blue glass." A hare, or dog, or nothing, is in the corn, "Blawin' Willie Buck's horn." Willy Buck may have a cow, or cat, jumping like a Covenanter.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #20, p. 2, ("Keepit sheep, keepit swine"); #22, p. 2, ("Owre Don, owre Dee"); #159, p. 3, ("As I gaed owre yon heich heich hill") (3 texts)
Greig/Duncan8 1640, "Blawin' Willie Buck's Horn" (5 texts)
ADDITIONAL: James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1843 ("Digitized by Google")),#250 p. 144, ("Lazy dukes, that sit on their neuks")
Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 158-159, ("I've a cherry, I've a chess")
ST GrD81640 (Full)
Roud #13062
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Gibb Fyke
Willie Buck Had a Coo
NOTES [312 words]: There is no verse structure: sections of lines are glued together for no reason that I can understand. Greig quotes a correspondent: "...they used these long nonsense rhymes when they were spinning to count how many threads for the hank..." In Doh Ray Me, When Ah Wis Wee (Edinburgh, 2007), Ewan McVicar begins Chapter 5 by noting that, "There are many short, rhythmic pieces for counting out or counting in or eliminating, for choosing sides in games of football or cops and robbers, or choosing who is 'het' (it) -- who is to be chaser in a game of tig." He includes this Greig/Duncan8 piece and Chambers's as examples and explains some of the garbling [pp. 81-86]. The description is just a random sample. The Halliwell entry is included in the Supplemental Tradition File.
There are two connections among the Greig/Duncan8 texts:
1640A, 1640B, 1640C and 1640D: Excepting C and D, they have a section in the middle, "His fader wis a cadger, Sat ahin the cutty creels, Took a haddock by the heels"; all have a line towards the end, "I've [something], Blawin' Willie Buck's horn," followed by something like "Willie Buck had a coo, They ca'd her Bella Bentie, She lap o'er the Brig o' Dee Like ony Covenanter" [Greig #20]. Greig writes, "I recall a rhyme learned in early years which, differing from the above in the early part, begins to get in line with it at 'My father was a cadger' and maintains a fairly close correspondence to the end."
1640A, 1640B and 1640E: Have a section along the lines of .".. Gibb Fyke Staw the rumple fae my tyke -- Ti my ram -- Kent ye blin' Tam?" [Greig #20].
Neither of these connections is in Chambers, or its source, Halliwell, except "Blow, Willie, Buckhorn"; other lines link it to all of the sets.
For some background on the Covenanters see the notes to "The Bonnie House o Airlie" [Child 199] and "Bothwell Bridge" [Child 206]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81640

Blaydon Races, The

DESCRIPTION: "Aw went to Blaydon Races, Twas on the ninth of June, 1862... Aw took the bus from Balmbras." "All the lads and lasses there They all had smilin' faces, Gannin along the Scotswood Road To see the Blaydon Races." They have many adventures on the way
AUTHOR: Geordie Ridley (source: Digital Tradition)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Lloyd, Come All You Bold Miners)
KEYWORDS: travel racing injury doctor drink dancing
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, BLAYDONR*
Roud #3511
RECORDINGS:
Bob Graves, "The Blaydon Races" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #42, recorded 07/21/2021)
Beverly Wilson, "The Blaydon Races" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #72, recorded 08/18/2021)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(316), "Blaydon Races, Whit-Monday, June 3rd, 1895" (unknown, n.d.)
NOTES [15 words]: George Ridley is also responsible for another heavy-dialect song, "Cushie Butterfield." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DTBlaRa

Blazing Star of Drum (Drim, Drung), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer out late on a snowy night when he sees the girl. They meet again. He asks her dwelling. She says she is too young. He says he would treat her well if she would come away. He goes across the sea without her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (JIFSS)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty emigration rejection
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H197a, pp. 247-248, "The Blazing Star of Drim"; H197b, p. 248, "The Blazing Star of Drung" (2 texts, allegedly from the same source but with substantial differences, 1 tune)
Roud #2945
NOTES [34 words]: Reading this reminds me very strongly of "Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly)," and to a lesser extent of other courting/lost love type songs. Yet they don't actually have lyrics in common. - RBW
File: HHH197a

Bleach of Strablane, The

See Braes of Strathblane (File: McCST053)

Bleacher Lassie o' Kelvinhaugh

DESCRIPTION: "As I went out on a summer's evening," the singer meets a pretty girl in Kelvinhaugh. He asks what she is doing, then enquires if she will go with him. She refuses; she is waiting for her love, gone for seven years. He reveals himself as the missing lover
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love reunion disguise
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 77, "The Bleacher Lassie o' Kelvinhaugh" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #109, p. 1, "The Bleacher Lassie" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan5 1041, "The Bleacher Lassie" (13 texts plus two fragments on p. 628, 9 tunes)
Roud #3325
RECORDINGS:
Daisy Chapman, "The Bleacher Lassie" (on SCDChapman01)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(24b), "Bleaching Lassie of Kelvinhaugh," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890 [despite the title, the girl is called a "bleacher lassie"]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. esp. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
cf. "My Faithful Fair One" (tune, per Greig)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sweet Kelvinhaugh
The Bleacher Lassie o' Kelvinhaugh
File: Ord077

Bleacher Lassie, The

See Bleacher Lassie o' Kelvinhaugh (File: Ord077)

Bleaches So Green, The

See Braes of Strathblane (File: McCST053)

Bleaching Her Claes

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a shepherdess herding her flock and bleaching her clothes. He says he loves her. She continues bleaching her clothes because her mother has warned her to have no faith in young men. He kisses her. She says, "Laddie be true"
AUTHOR: George Murray (source: Whitelaw)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: courting warning farming mother clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan5 967, "The Bleachin' o' the Claes" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 594, "Bleaching Her Claes"
Roud #6766
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ballenden Braes" (tune, per Whitelaw)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bickerin' Burnie
NOTES [15 words]: Whitelaw notes at least one appearance earlier than his: "Once printed in Upper Canada." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD5967

Bless 'Em All

DESCRIPTION: Verses can be on any subject, though usually military and often obscene. Many units had their own versions. The conclusion, either "Bless 'em all" or "Fuck 'em all," is diagnostic
AUTHOR: F. Godfrey?
EARLIEST DATE: 1916
KEYWORDS: soldier war technology bawdy flying
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(SW) Canada
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 386-391, "Fuck 'Em All" (3 texts plus floating stanzas, 1 tune)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 105-106, "Bless 'Em All" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 107, "Bless 'Em All -- Corvettes" (1 verse); p. 107, "Bless 'Em All -- Lancasters" (1 verse); p. 108, "Bless 'Em All -- Wellingtons" (1 verse)
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 107, "Sod 'em All" (1 text, tune referenced -- a version whih uses only the chorus portion, not the verse)
DT, BLSSALL1* BLSSALL2* BLSSALL3* BLSSALL4* BLSSALL5* BLSSALL6* BLSSALL7* BLSSALL8* BLSSALL9* BLSSAL10*
ADDITIONAL: Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 232, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Roud #8402
SAME TUNE:
HMS Exeter Song (File: Tawn066)
NOTES [223 words]: Ed Cray notes, "It was a poor unit during the Second World War that didn't have at least one version of this classic...." It probably originated in World War I, and has been credited to "F. Godbey." A copyright version appeared in 1940; this is probably the cleanest version that has ever existed. Curiously, it is not attributed to Godfrey/Godbey; the copyright in Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear lists wordy and music by Jimmy Hughes, Frank Lake, and Al Stillman.
It is not immediately evident which of the two basic titles ("Bless" or "Fuck") is more common.
Many different services apparently had their own versions, as shown by the texts in Hopkins. Often these weapons systems have their own songs as well. E.g., for the Lancaster bomber, see "Flying Fortresses." For the corvettes, which were just as uncomfortable as the song implies, see "Beneath the Barber Pole."
For the Wellington bomber, see "Ops in a Wimpey."
The song was familiar enough that several books have used "Bless 'Em All" as a title, e.g. there are volumes by Doug Smith and Alan Saddler. Smith, at least, was a genuine air force man describing his life in World War II (I believe).
There was a sheet music version published in 1940. It obviously was not the original. I have not seen it, but I suspect it involved an extraordinary amount of bowdlerization. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: EM386

Bless Brigham Young

DESCRIPTION: "'Bless Brigham Young,' we children pray; 'The chosen Twelve in what they say, The elders, priests, and teachers, too; Their labors bless in all they do." The children ask for the Spirit of God to rest on them and to understand the Lord's will
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle)
KEYWORDS: religious children | Mormons Brigham Young
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cheney-MormonSongs, p. 98, "Bless Brigham Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, p. 326, "Bless Brigham Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10843
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brigham Young (I)" (character of Brigham Young) and references there
NOTES [148 words]: For background on Brigham Young, and the many songs about him, see the notes to "Brigham Young (I)." "The Twelve" might be several things. According to W. Paul Reeve and Ardis E. Parshall, editors, Mormonism: A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2010, p. 227, a "stake" (a group of congregations with something on the order of 5000 members) will have a stake president and a twelve member High Council. Higher up the ladder is the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the church's second highest governing body after the First Presidency; its members are appointed for life (Reeve/Parshall, p. 228). Thus a reference to Brigham Young and the Twelve, in Young's time, was a reference to the supreme leaders of the Saints.
Reeve/Parshall, p, 229, add, "The 15 members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve are revered by Latter-day Saints a living witnesses of Jesus Christ. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS098

Bless the Boat that First Brought Me Over

See That Dang Boat that First Took Me Over (File: MorU029)

Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

DESCRIPTION: Blessed are the poor in spirit / meek and lowly: they will wear a crown in glory. If you can't sing like angels or preach like Paul you can tell the love of Jesus and how he died for all.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Mitchell's Christian Singers)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #21792
RECORDINGS:
Mitchell's Christian Singers, "Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit" (on Mitchell's Christian Singers Vol.2 (1936-38) Document Records DOCD-5494 (1996))
Freddie Palmer, Brenton Jordan and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit" (on McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts)
NOTES [70 words]: The biblical reference is King James Matthew 5:3 and 5:5: "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of kingdom of heaven.... Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." [To the first of these, compare Luke 6:20. - RBW]
The description follows McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts. The McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts arrangement seems to follow the Mitchell's Christian Singers arrangement. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcBAtPiS

Blessed Be That Maid Mary

DESCRIPTION: "Blessed be that maid Mary, Born he was of her body," "Eia, Iesus hodie Natus est de virgine." Jesus is born in a manger. Kings come from "diverse lands." "To that child we sing, Gloria tibi, Domine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1430 (British Library -- Sloane MS. 2593)
KEYWORDS: nonballad Jesus childbirth religious foreignlanguage MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #24, p. 18, "Blyssid be that mayde Mary" (1 text)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 45-46, "(Eia Jesus hodie)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #527
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #859
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 4
NOTES [214 words]: There is, to my knowledge, no evidence whatsoever that this song was ever in tradition. It is found in the Sloane Manuscript, which seems to contain several traditional pieces, but I would not ordinarily index anything from Sloane if it were not found in another manuscript or source to indicate oral tradition.
However, the song is now well known because of a modern arrangement. I'm including it on that basis even though it is not traditional. David Willcocks around 1960 took the words, modernized the spelling (and maybe some other aspects), and set them to a tune that is reported to be from William Ballet's Lute Book of c. 1590 (Trinity College, Dublin. It is a popular tune book that also has melodies for "Greensleeves" and "There Was A Lover and His Lass" and the so-called "Lute-Book Lullaby"). I do not know how Willcocks chose that tune, but the result has been borrowed, adapted, rearranged, and reworked so many times that it is probably more popular than the vast majority of traditional songs. It should be repeated, however, that although both components of the result are old (at least before they were modernized), there is no reason to think they passed through tradition.
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSBlBMM

Blessed Be the Name of the Lord

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Blessed be the name (3x) of the Lord." Verses: "If you don't like your brother (preacher, elder), don't you carry the name abroad. Blessed be the name of the Lord, Just take him in your bosom and carry him home to God. Oh, blessed be...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt05)
KEYWORDS: derivative religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Blessed Be the Name of the Lord" (on MJHurt05)
NOTES [381 words]: The description is based on Hurt's text. That is significant because of the differences among the related texts.
Charles Wesley's hymn, "O for a thousand tongues to sing," is printed without chorus in some hymn books (see The Methodist Hymn-Book (London: The Methodist Publishing House, 1954), #1 p. 1; Ira D. Sankey, Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos (1200 Hymns) (London: Collins, 1921?), #243; Mrs. A.M. Townsend, The Baptist Standard Hymnal with Responsive Readings (Nashville: Sunday School Publishing Board National Baptist Convention, 1924 ("Digitized by Internet Archive)), #29 p. 27); also see George Pullen Jackson, Spiritual Folk-Songs of Early America (New York, 1964 (Dover reprint of 1937 edition)), #124 p. 145.
Date and Belden, under the title "Blessed be the Name," have Wesley's verse with Hurt's tune (by R.E. Hudson) and chorus (Henry Date, Pentecostal Hymns Nos. 1 and 2 Combined (Chicago: Hope Publishing Company, 1898 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #87 p. 83; F.E. Belden, Christ in Song (Washington: Review & Herald Publishing Assn, 1908 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #288).
Odum has a fragment without Wesley's words or a chorus but with alternate lines "Blessed be the name of the Lord," as "one of the present versions, most commonly sung" (Howard W. Odum, Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes, (reprint from American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, July 1909, Vol.3 pp. 265-365 "Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 99, ("If you get there before I do")).
Whether it is a good thing or bad to "carry the name abroad" depends upon the context. In Hurt's text it is bad to "carry the name abroad" of someone you don't like. From the last decades of the 17th century is another bad example: "Twas not enough they had destroy'd our King, to make our name abroad A mock and scorn to be" (J. Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads (Hertford: Ballad Society, 1893 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), p. 663). On the other hand, in at least three of Isaac Watt's hymns the name being sounded or spread abroad is God's, or the virtuous singer's (C.G. Sommers and John L. Dagg, The Psalms and Hymns of Dr. Watts arranged by Dr Rippon (Philadelphia: David Clark, 1839 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")): #54, #58 and #340). - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: RcBBtNtL

Blessed Zulu War, The

DESCRIPTION: "I love to tell the story As I've often told before How we fought in glory At the blessed Zulu war." The singer tells how Jack Smith is wounded in a bloody battle, and sends messages to mother and sweetheart before dying
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: soldier death war farewell
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1879 - The Zulu War. British forces annex Zululand, but only after a great deal of bungled fighting
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 67, "The Dying Sailor" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 155-158, "The Blessed Zulu War" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5362
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Soldier (Erin Far Away I)" [Laws J6] (plot) and references there
cf. "The Noble Twenty-Fourth" (subject of the Zulu War)
File: MCB155

Blessing on Brandy and Beer, A

DESCRIPTION: "When one's drunk, not a girl but looks pretty, The country's as gay as the city, And all that ones says is so witty. A blessing on brandy and beer!" The singer praises the effects of drink -- letting him defy his master, beat his wife, chase girls, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 33, "A Blessing on Brandy and Beer" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Arn033

Blessings of Mary, The

See The Seven Joys of Mary (File: FO211)

Blest Be the Tie that Binds

DESCRIPTION: "Blest be the tie that binds Our hearts in Christian love, The fellowship of kindred souls Is like to that above." Believers pray to God and "share each other's woes." They grieve to part "and hope to meet again"
AUTHOR: Words: John Fawcett (1739/40-1817) / Music: "Dennis" by Hans Georg Naegeli (1773-1836), adapted by Lowell Mason
EARLIEST DATE: 1782 (Fawcett, _Hymns adapted to the circumstances of Public Worship and Private Devotion, according to Marilyn Kay Stulken, _Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship_)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #286, pp. 69-70, "Blest Be the Tie that Binds" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 82, "Blest Be the Tie that Binds" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp, 70-71, "Blest Be the Tie that Binds" (1 text, 1 tune)
SAME TUNE:
Froggie He Am a Queer Bird (File: DPio349)
We'd Rather Have Beauty than Brains (Judy Cook, "The Froggy He Am a Queer Bird (with Variants)" (Piotr-Archive #363, recorded 11/23/2022))
I Know How Ugly I Are (Judy Cook, "The Froggy He Am a Queer Bird (with Variants)" (Piotr-Archive #363, recorded 11/23/2022))
Blest Be the Tie that Binds (parody) ("Blest be the tie that binds My collar to my shirt") (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 107; Roud #12809)
I Am Tired of Living Along ("I am tired of living alone, So I want me a wife of my own") (Harbin-Parodology, #31, p. 15; Judy Cook, "The Froggy He Am a Queer Bird (with Variants)" (Piotr-Archive #363, recorded 11/23/2022))
My Face/I'd Rather Have Fingers than Toes (Harbin-Parodology, #65, p. 22; cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 259)
We're Sorry/Going Away ("We're sorry you're going away") (Harbin-Parodology, #194, p. 52; Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 126)
The Pie Dream ("'I'm hungry,' she said with a sigh") (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 15)
NOTES [501 words]: According to Johnson, author John Fawcett was a Methodist-influenced Baptist. He came to be pastor of a congregation at Wainsgate, where he was successful enough that another congregation tried to steal him away with the offer of a better salary. When his own congregation could not match it, he prepared to move. Whereupon the Wainsgate church begged him to stay (and, presumably, anted up). Fawcett wrote this hymn because of the ties that bound him to his church.
Julian, p. 148, reports of this song's history:
Blest be [is] the tie that binds. J. Fawcett.... Miller, in his Singers and Songs of the Church, 1869, p. 273, says:--
"This favorite hymn is said to have been written in 1772, to commemorate the determination of its author to remain with his attached people at Wainsgate. The farewell sermon was preached, the waggons were loaded, when love and tears prevailed, and Dr. Fawcett sacrificed the attractions of a London pulpit to the affection of his poor but devoted flock."
Three sources of information on the matter are, however, silent on the subject -- his Life and Letters, 1818; his Misc. Writings, 1826; and his Funeral Sermon. Failing direct evidence, the most that can be said is that internal evidence in the hymn itself lends countenance to the statement that it was composed under the circumstances given above. Its certain history begins with its publication in Fawcett's Hymns, &c., 1782, No. 104, where it is given in 6 st[anzas] of 4 l[ines].
Reynolds, p. 44, says that the account of Fawcett's negotiations with the congregation (which refused to pay the full salary he asked) is "apocryphal," printed in 1861, and that the link of those negotiations with this song was first published in 1869. The first appearance of the tune "Dennis" was in Mason and Webb's The Psaltery, for the text "How Gentle God Commands"; it may originally derive from a German hymn. Rudin, p. 16, says that the Lowell Mason tune "Boylston" is also occasionally used for this text.
McKim, p. 301, says that Fawcett's original title for the poem was "Brotherly Love." She adds that, "As with most of [Fawcett's] one hundred sixty-six hymns, this one was written to be used after a sermon."
Rudin, p. 14, says that "Fawcett was born at Lidget Green, Yorkshire, England, in 1739, of very poor parents. When only thirteen years old... John was sent to the great city of London to be apprenticed to a tailor... For six years he remained with this tailor, until his term of apprenticeship was served." "As a boy of sixteen John Fawcett was converted by a sermon of that fiery evangelist, George Whitefield." (One wonders what, in 1755, he might have been converted FROM.) Rudin, p. 15, adds that he had to continue as a tailor for a few years, "so that it was not until ten years [after his conversion], in 1765, at the age of twenty-six, that he had completed the studies necessary to be ordained as a Baptist minister." Rudin then goes on to tell the story about Fawcett and Wainsgate. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: BdBBtttB

Blickerty Brown the Sailor

See Bollochy Bill the Sailor (File: EM081)

Blin' Auld Man, The

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Blin' Hughie

DESCRIPTION: "Wha hasna heard tell o' Blin' Hughie the singer? The last wandering minstrel o' Scottish sang-lore." The song describes his odd appearance and tells how he enlivened the marketplaces. Now he is dead; "Scotland will greet for her true-hearted wean"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: death music clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 46, "Blin' Hughie" (1 text)
File: Gath046

Blin' Man Stood on de Way an' Cried

See Blind Man (File: LoF245)

Blind and Helpless Child, The

See The Blind Child (File: R724)

Blind Beggar of Bednall Green, The

See The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green [Laws N27] (File: LN27)

Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, The

See The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green [Laws N27] (File: LN27)

Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green, The [Laws N27]

DESCRIPTION: Pretty Betsy, the blind beggar's daughter, seeks a husband. Many court her for her looks, but when she reveals that her father is a beggar, all but one change their minds. This one is surprised when her father proves able to give a large dowry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1624
KEYWORDS: begging courting marriage dowry
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(MA,MW,NE,SE) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Laws N27, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green"
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 279-289, "Bessie off Bednall" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 171-185, "The Beggar's Daughter of Bednall-Green" (1 text plus variant stanzas from the folio manuscript)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #3, pp. 60-71, "The Blind Beggar of Bednal Green" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 271-279, "The Blind Beggar of Bednall Green" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 255-256, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 434)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 6-7, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnall Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #60, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan5 1061, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 26, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 107-109, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 32, "The Blind Beggar" (1 text)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 57, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green" (1 text, 4 tunes)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 46, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 694-695, "The Blind Beggar of Bednall (Bethnal) Green" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 163, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall-Green" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 32, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnell Green" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 158-160, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 16-17, "The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green" (1 tune, partial text)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 11, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 129-130, "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1515, "It was a blind begger that long lost his sight"
DT, BLINDBEG* SIMONTFD
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 276
Roud #132
RECORDINGS:
Cyril O'Brien, "The Blind Beggar" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Paddy Reilly, "The Blind Beggar" (on IRTravellers01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 3(62), "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green," W. and C. Dicey (London), 1736-1763; also Harding B 3(61), Harding B 3(63), Harding B 28(269), "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal-Green"; Harding B 11(322), Firth c.21(11), Harding B 11(1438), Johnson Ballads 1393, Firth c.21(13), Harding B 11(323), Harding B 11(321), Harding B 25(214)[parts illegible], "[The] Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green"; Harding B 25(212), "The Blind Beggar"; Douce Ballads 3(4b), "The Blind Beggar of Bednal Green"; Vet. A3 b.43(3)[parts faded to illegibility], Harding B 5(18), "The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green"; Firth c.21(12), "Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnall Green"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Ambree" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Mary Ambree (File: OBB165)
Of a stout Cripple that kept the high way/..Stout Cripple of Cornwall (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2079)
The devil has left his puritanical dress/..Licentiousness of the Times (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN777)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonnie Bessie
NOTES [443 words]: This is "The Child Ballad that Wasn't." Printed in Child's preliminary edition, he later withdrew the piece on the grounds that it was not popular (even though it has been found regularly in tradition).
Most traditional versions are short, but the earliest text, from Percy, is extremely long (67 four-line stanzas!). In the second part of this version it appears that the blind beggar is none other than Simon de Montfort, who nearly overthrew England's King Henry III (reigned 1216-1272).
When King John died in 1216, his son Henry was only seven years old. Henry, naturally, never amounted to much. By 1254, Parliament was rebelling against him. In 1258 the nobles drafted the "Provisions of Oxford," which put the king under the control of a group of barons. Even stronger measures were passed in 1259, leaving Henry in a position he considered intolerable.
Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester and Henry's brother-in-law, was a leader of the rebels. Forced into exile in 1261, he returned to England in 1263 to start an organized rebellion. In 1264 his armies met those of the king. De Montfort won a smashing victory, despite inferior numbers, at the battle of Lewes. (The latter, incidentally, commemorated in The Song of Lewes, one of the "Harley Lyrics" found in British Museum Harley 2253; it's a bit surprising that Child did not include this in his canon, since it looks as popular as several of his other political pieces.)
Simon was now in control of England, and tried to strengthen his grip by a series of liberal reforms. But Henry's party had one great asset: the crown prince Edward (later Edward I). Edward gathered another army, and defeated and killed Simon at Evesham in 1265.
The author of this ballad apparently believed that, instead of being killed, de Montfort went into hiding as a beggar (but also reports that Simon lost his eyes fighting in France).
The title "The Blind Beggar of Bednall Green" was used for a play by Henry Chettle and J. Day. This presumably was written by 1607, the best guess for the year Chettle died, according to Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 104. The play was apparently published in 1659, and a modern edition by W. Bang came out in 1902, according to Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 105.
There is also a Stationer's Register entry for this song. Rollins, #211, p. 26, reads "blind beggar of Bednall Green, The rarest ballad that ever was seene, of the (M[ar]ch 1, 1675, ii, 498). [ Beg.'It was a blind Beggar that long lost his sight,' R[oxburghe] B[allads] I,37; P[ercy] F[olio] II.279]."
According to Alexander, p. 26, a pub named "The Blind Beggar," named for this song, long stood on London's Whitechapel Road. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: LN27

Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green, The

See The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green [Laws N27] (File: LN27)

Blind Beggar's Daughter, The

See The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green [Laws N27] (File: LN27)

Blind Boy (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Pardon, friends and neighbors, if I intrude upon your time, Please stop and read these verses and see that I am blind." Singer Edward Brodrick was a boiler-maker. He lost one eye, then the other; now he is a broommaker but needs money to start a shop
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Stout-FolkloreFromIowa)
KEYWORDS: injury commerce hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 110, pp. 138-139, "The Blind Boy" (1 text)
Roud #4881
File: Stou110

Blind Child, The

DESCRIPTION: "They tell me, father, that tonight You'll wed another bride, That you will clasp her in your arms Where my dear mother died." The child asks about the new wife, and hopes she will be kind. The child dies, and goes to heaven where no one is blind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: death mother father wife disease death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 275-276, "The Blind Child" (1 text plus mention of 4 more)
Randolph 724, "The Blind Child" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 472-473, "The Blind Child" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 724A)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 53-55, "Blind Child's Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 43, "Little Blind Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 79, "The Blind Child's Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 149, "The Blind Girl" (1 text plus mention of 12 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 149, "The Blind Girl" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #57, "The Blind Girl" (1 text)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #29, pp. 198-200, "The Blind Child's Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 146, "The Blind Orphan" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 128-129, "The Blind Girl" (1 text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 66, pp. 108-109, "The Blind Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 5, "The Blind Girl" (1 text); pp. 15-16, "The Blind Child" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 61, "The Blind Child" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 81, "The Blind Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #79, "The Blind and Helpless Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 59, pp. 79-80, "The Blind Girl" (1 text plus a fragment)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 247-249, "The Blind Orphan" (1 text)
DT, BLNDCHLD*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 203-204, "(The Blind Girl)" (1 text)
Bill Ellis, "'The Blind Girl' and the Rhetoric of Sentimenal Heroism,'" article published 1978 in the _Journal of American Folklore_; republished on pp. 250-267 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009
Roud #425
RECORDINGS:
Harvey Irwin, "The Blind Child" (OKeh 45014, 1925)
Bradley Kincaid, "The Blind Girl" (Champion 15968 [as Dan Hughey], 1930; Conqueror 7983, 1932)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "The Blind Child's Prayer" (Brunswick 167, 1927)
McMichen's String Band, "Blind Child's Prayer, pts. 1 & 2" (Columbia 15333-D, 1928)
Arnold Keith Storm, "The Blind Child" (on AKStorm01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Cannot Call Her Mother (The Marriage Rite is Over; The Stepmother)" (theme)
NOTES [197 words]: Cohen remarks, "Frankly, I think the saccharine little miss is overdoing it." To this I saw, "Amen." However, Ellis (p. 256 in the Cohen reprint) suggests that she responds to her situation "with constructive action," and goes on to demonstrate how she sticks it to her father. I'd still call it overdone.
As a matter of fact, from a biological standpoint, she blows it completely. Scott Forbes, A Natural History of Families, Princeton University Press, 2005, devotes significant sections of three chapters ("Family Harmony," "Cannibalism and Infanticide," and "Brave New Worlds") to parent-child conflicts, and makes the important point that, in the genetic sense, the parent can have other children just as closely related to him as any given child, but the child cannot. In other words, the father can replace the blind child, but the child cannot replace herself.
It is normal for children to try to get more out of their parents than they are getting (believe it or not, this conflict actually begins in utero, as mother and child fight a hormonal battle over the size of the placenta; see Forbes, pp. 66-75), but the blind child's strategy tries for too much and fails. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R724

Blind Child's Prayer, The

See The Blind Child (File: R724)

Blind Fiddler, The

DESCRIPTION: "I lost my sight in the blacksmith's shop in the year of 'Fifty-six." The singer, with no other trade available, has had to become a wandering fiddler. Not even Doctor Lane of San Francisco could help him. He hopes his family is safe and well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: homesickness poverty rambling separation fiddle injury family doctor hardtimes music
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 446, "The Blind Fiddler" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 364, "The Blind Fiddler" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 55, "The Blind Fiddler" (1 text)
DT, BLINDFID*
Roud #7833
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "The Blind Fiddler" (on PeteSeeger13, AmHist1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blind Man's Song" (theme)
cf. "Jilson Setters's Blind Song" (theme)
cf. "The Blind Man's Regret" (theme)
NOTES [152 words]: Until this century, there was nothing resembing a social safety net for the victims of industrial accidents -- in particular, no workers' compensation, and little chance of compensation by the employer.
Pete Seeger dates this song from 1850, with no supporting documentation; as the first line reads "I lost my eyes in the blacksmith shop in the year of '56", this date is doubtful. It has the feel of the mid-19th century about it, but I've dated it only back to the field recording for safety's sake. - PJS
Joe Hickerson, who probably would know, implies that this is the earliest recording known to him, though the fact that there is also a version in Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety implies that it is older. He speculates that it is derived from the earlier "The Rebel Soldier"(primarily on the basis of the final line; "I am a (blind fiddler/rebel soldier) and far from my home." - RBW
File: FSWB055

Blind Girl, The

See The Blind Child (File: R724)

Blind Johnny Boo

See Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

Blind Man

DESCRIPTION: "Blind man stood in the way and cried (x2), Wo, Lord, show me the way...." "Preacherman stood on the way and cried...." "My mother stood on the way and cried...." "My deacon stood on the way and cried...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Odum)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 245, "Blind Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 596, "Blin' Man Stood on de Way an' Cried" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Howard W. Odum, Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes, (reprint from American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, July 1909, Vol.3 pp. 265-365 "Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 91-92, "The Blind Man" (1 text)
Roud #12357
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Blind Man Sit in the Way and Cried" (on MJHurt05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blind Man Lay Beside the Way" (theme)
NOTES [43 words]: There are several accounts in the gospels of curing the blind (e.g. Matt. 9:27f., 20:29f.; Mark 7:22f.; John 9:1). The account here is most reminiscent of that in Mark 10:46f.=Luke18:35 (Bartimaeus; in the parallel in Matthew there are *two* blind men). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: LoF245

Blind Man He Can See, A

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Blind Man Lay Beside the Way

DESCRIPTION: "Blind man lay beside the way, He could not see the light of day, The Lord passed by and heard him say: 'O Lord, won't you help-a me?'" "A man he died, was crucified, They hung a thief on either side, One lifted up his voice and cried, 'O Lord...'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 452-453, "Blind Man Lay Beside the Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST San452 (Full)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blind Man" (theme)
NOTES [94 words]: The miracle most associated with Jesus was healing -- especially "casting out demons" (curing epilepsy and/or insanity) and giving sight to the blind.
There are several accounts in the gospels of curing the blind (e.g. Matt. 9:27f., 20:29f.; Mark 7:22f.; John 9:1). The account here is most reminiscent of that in Mark 10:46f.=Luke18:35 (Bartimaeus; in the parallel in Matthew there are *two* blind men).
Although Matt. 27:38, Mark 15:28, Luke 23:32, John 19:18 all mention the criminals crucified along with Jesus, only Luke 23:39 mentions one of them repenting. - RBW
File: San452

Blind Man Sit in the Way and Cried

See Blind Man (File: LoF245)

Blind Man Who Could See, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Blind Man's Regret, The

DESCRIPTION: "Young people attention give And hear what I do say...." "hen I was young and in my prime I used to go so gay, For I did not think right of time But idled time away." The singer laments wasting time and going blind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: injury hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 154, "The Blind Man's Regret" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 174, "The Blind Man's Regret" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST JHCox154 (Full)
Roud #6365
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Young People, Take Warning" (lyrics)
NOTES [112 words]: I know of no other version of this song (though see the notes on "Young People, Take Warning"), and I don't find it surprising. There really isn't much plot; with the exception of a single stanza claiming that the singer went blind in the "year of eighty-four," there is no story. It's just a series of warnings and complaints, quite repetitious, mostly warning against wasting time.
Cox's informant claims that this is the story of a man who tried to avoid being involved in the Civil War, and so hid in a cave and damaged his sight. This is not impossible -- but the song does not give the theory any support (and note that the blindness did not strike until 1884). - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: JHCox154

Blind Man's Song

DESCRIPTION: "My friends, I cannot labor, I will try and get along... I will try to sell my song... May heaven above preserve you From ever being blind." The singer lists the things he cannot see, and says he wants to work but can't; he wishes he had sight again
AUTHOR: Matthew Stovall?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: injury hardtimes music
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 179-180, "Blind Man's Song" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 183-184)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blind Fiddler" (theme) and references there
File: ThBa178

Blind Mattie

DESCRIPTION: "Just a box of old buttons tired and worn... It wis played by a dame, Blind Mattie's her name, As she sang around old Dundee town." Even as she grew old, she repeated her slogan, "Count your blessings." Now dead, her melodeon and picture are in a museum
AUTHOR: Stewart Brown (source: Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: music death disability
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 53, "Blind Mattie" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Gath053

Blind Orphan, The

See The Blind Child (File: R724)

Blind Sailor, The

See By the Lightning We Lost our Sight [Laws K6] (File: LK06)

Blinded by Shit

DESCRIPTION: An old woman, who must relieve herself, empties her bowels out a window. A passing night watchman (or cowboy) looks up, and is blinded by shit.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy injury scatological
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 125-128, "Blinded by Shit" (2 texts, 1 tune); see also under "Ditties," pp. 264-268, which contain other verses that fit "Sweet Betsy"
Roud #10306
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Blinded by Turds
NOTES [7 words]: Probably of British music hall origins - EC
File: EM125

Blinded by Turds

See Blinded by Shit (File: EM125)

Blinkin' O't, The

DESCRIPTION: "O it wasna her daddy's lairdly kin, It wasna her siller -- the clinkin' o't... 'Twas er ain blue e'e, the blinkin' o't... My heart an' a' she's stown awa' Wi' the lythesome, blythesome blinkin' o't." The singer praises the girl but is rejected
AUTHOR: James Grieg ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love rejection beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 169-170, "The Blinkin' O't" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 879, "The Blinkin' O't" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6135
NOTES [36 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quoting Greig: "Melody and words by Rev. James Greig, Chapel of Garioch, July 30th 1853." Ford says only that the text was found on thea back of an old letter "in Mr [Rev. James] Greig's handwriting." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: FVS169

Blithe Mormond Braes

See Blythe Mormond Braes (File: Ord060)

Blockader Mama

DESCRIPTION: The little girl begs mother not to visit the still; the sheriff is watching. Mother says she must; they need money and father never works. Mother goes to the still and is shot; the child laments when the body is returned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death children police drink
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 314, "Blockader Mama" (1 text)
Roud #6633
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dream of the Miner's Child" (theme)
NOTES [26 words]: This song has, I gather, had some small success in commercial country circles. Whether this success predates the North Carolina collection I do not know. - RBW
File: BrII314

Blockader's Trail

DESCRIPTION: The singer is arrested for moonshining.The singer claims the charge is false. The still is disassembled. The law officers take their turns with the captured brew (?). The singer complains about the conditions in the prison
AUTHOR: Henry D. Holsclaw
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink prison
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 313, "Blockader's Trail" (1 text)
Roud #6647
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Moonshine Can" (subject)
cf. "Ewie Wi' the Crookit Horn" (subject)
NOTES [56 words]: This is apparently based on a real incident, and the author thought enough of it to have it printed as a broadside -- but I'd have to declare it one of the most incoherent, invertebrate (47 verses!) things I've ever seen. On the other hand, the song seems to have worked as propaganda; Brown's informant thought Holsclaw was innocent. - RBW
File: BrII313

Bloke that Puts the Acid On, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Milit'ry Service Board Sat in state the other day To refuse or give exemptions"; they exempt a man with a wooden leg, "But the bloke that puts the acid on" wants him. The "bloke" takes the aged, even the dead -- but has no need for a healthy rich man
AUTHOR: Henry Kirk (died 1933), aka "The Mixer" (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (New Zealand Watersider, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: soldier money injury
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 116-117, "The Bloke That Puts the Acid On" (1 text)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 83, "The Bloke that Puts the Acid on" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [20 words]: An online source lists "Put the acid on" as digger dialect for "puts a stop to," which seems to be the meaning here. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: BaRo116

Blondie and Dagwood

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Blondie and Dagwood went downtown, Blondie bought an evening gown, Dagwood bought a pair of shoes, And Cookie bought the Daily News, And this is what it said, 'Close your eyes and count to ten.'" May have Ma/Dad for Blondie and Dagwood
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: travel mother father clothes jumprope | Blondie Dagwood counting
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #13, "(Blondie and Dagwood)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #40, "Blondie and Dagwood"; #593, "-- Went for a ride" (2 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 129, "Ma and Pa went to town" (1 text)
Roud #19212
NOTES [68 words]: A lot of different names seem to have been plugged into this; Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes mentions one with "Fred and Wilma [Flintstone]," implying that children are still modifying it into quite recent times.
I stuck Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes #593 here because it requires a name for the first word, and he doesn't give one, so there is no real way to file it independently, and Abrahams says they are linked.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRV013

Blood Done Sign Muh Name, De

See The Blood Done Signed My Name (II) (File: RcBDSMN2)

Blood Done Sign My Name

See Blood Signed My Name (File: HPR266A)

Blood Done Signed My Name (I), The

DESCRIPTION: A very simple hymn; consisting of little more than the title words: "Ain't you glad, ain't you glad, That the blood done sign(ed) my name." "In my hand, in my hand, Yes the blood done signed my name." "On the wall..." "In heaven..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 760, "The Blood Done Signed My Name" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Vennie Deas-Moore, "'Come Along, Let's Ride This Train': Santee River Testimonies, Praises, and Songs," Vol. XLVIII, No. 1-2 (2001), p. 54, "Oh, the Blood Done Sign' My Name" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 82, "Ain't You Glad (Blood Done SIgned My Name)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11678
RECORDINGS:
Dock Reed & Vera Hall Ward, "The Blood Done Signed My Name" (on NFMAla5)
File: BSoF760

Blood Done Signed My Name (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "O the blood, o the blood, the blood done signed my name (x3)." "Thank God the blood done signed my name") "Hallelujah, hallelujah,...." "Jesus told me, Jesus told me, ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (USSeaIsland03)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #11678
RECORDINGS:
Minnie Gracie Gadson, "De Blood Done Sign Muh Name" (on USSeaIsland03)
NOTES [88 words]: In Gadson's version, for each verse, the differentiating text, such as "Jesus told me, Jesus told me," is followed by "the blood done signed my name"; that is all repeated three times and followed by "Thank God, the blood done signed my name." I would split this from Roud's #11678 which has the form "x, the blood done signed your name"(x3) "the blood done signed your name" where x varies and takes values such as "ain't you glad, ain't you glad" (see Leadbelly and Dock Reed-Vera Hall: "The Blood Done Signed My Name" (I)). - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: RcBDSMN2

Blood of Jesus Ransomed Me, The

DESCRIPTION: "The blood of Jesus ransomed me, He paid the price and set me free, Every where I go I want the world to know, The blood of Jesus ransomed me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus | blood
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Melvyn Lloyd Butler, _Songs of Pentecost: Experiencing Music, Transendence, and Identity in Jamaica and Haiti_ (Ph.D. Dissertation, New York University, 2005) #40 p. 420, "The Blood of Jesus Ransomed Me"
RECORDINGS:
Revival Zion pastor and congregation, "The Blood of Jesus" (on JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
NOTES [145 words]: Butler has "The Blood of Jesus Ransomed Me" as a hymn of Haitian Pentacostals.
The JamaicaFaithWorkPlay track begins like a "shout," with harmonies, fast beat, clapping and drums, but maintains the same tone and pace through out the four minutes of repetition of the one verse, though the drumming varies wiithout speeding up. In his liner notes to JamaicaFaithWorkPlay Roberts describes the track as a "chorus" "sung (as is usual) to drumming of European provenance but African flair." It would have helped if Roberts, either in his liner notes or in Black Music of Two Worlds -- (New York: Original Music, 1972) -- where he does analyze musical roots of Caribbean music (Black Music of Two Worlds, pp. 93-128) -- had explained the European roots he hears in the drumming on this track or in Jamaican music (see Black Music of Two Worlds, pp. 119-133) generally. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcBoJRMe

Blood on the Saddle

DESCRIPTION: "There was blood on the saddle And blood all around, And a great big puddle Of blood on the ground. The cowboy lay in it All covered with gore, And he won't go riding no broncos no more.... For his bronco fell on him and mashed in his head."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905
KEYWORDS: cowboy injury death horse
FOUND IN: Canada(West) US(MW)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, p. 101, "Blood on the Saddle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 101, "Blood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 38, "Blood on the Saddle" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 72-75, "Blood on the Saddle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 440, "Blood on the Saddle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 36-37, "Blood on the Saddle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 331-332, "Blood on the Saddle" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 106, "Blood On The Saddle" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 110, 233, "Blood on the Saddle" (notes only)
DT, BLOODON
Roud #3685
RECORDINGS:
Harry Jackson, "Blood on the Saddle" (on HJackson1)
NOTES [186 words]: The Fifes trace this piece back to something called "Halbert the Grim" (published by Motherwell in 1827). The melody is said to be the same, and both involve vast quantities of blood. There has been a lot of evolution along the way, though; I would not consider the two related if it weren't for the melody.
Jim Bob Tinsley has it go back even earlier: One of the goriest of all cowboy songs can be traced indirectly back to a description of Hades written during the Middle Ages. In the first half of the thirteenth century, Matthew Paris, English historian and a monk at the monastery of St. Albans, wrote a highly graphic description of the abode of Pluto, ruler of infernal regions in classical mythology. These grim passages inspired the ancient Sotttish ballad 'Halbert the Grim....'"
The version we usually hear focusses solely on the blood, but the Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan text gives a brief biography of the cowboy and talks of his sweetheart who has lost her love. The common version seems to owe a lot to pop cowboy recordings; see the notes in Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FJ101

Blood Red Roses

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic lines: "Come/go down, you blood red/bunch of roses, Come down... Oh you pinks and posies, come down...." The verses generally refer to life at sea, with perhaps floating verses on other themes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Bolton)
KEYWORDS: shanty ship flowers
FOUND IN: US(NE) Bermuda
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 22-23, "Come Down, You Bunch of Roses, Come Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 365-367, "Bunch O' Roses," "Ho Molly!" (3 texts, 3 tunes - includes a fragment of text titled "Ho Molly! which seems to follow the same meter and rhyme) [AbrEd, pp. 275-277]
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 83-84, "Blood-Red Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 132-134, "Blood Red Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 27, "Blood Red Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 19, "Blood Red Roses" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 12 in the 1972 edition)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, H. Carrington Bolton, "Gombay, a Festal Rite of Bermudian Negroes", Vol. 3, No. 10 (Jul-Sep 1890), p. 224, "Pretty yaller girls, Come down" (2 texts)
DT, BLOODRED*
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, p. 124, (no title) (1 fragment, 1 tune, probably this)
Roud #931
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Blood Red Roses" (on Lloyd3, Lloyd07)
Henry Lundy & David Pryor, "Come Down, You Roses" (AAFS 511 A1, 1935; on LomaxCD1822-2)
Tamburlaine, "Blood Red Roses" (on NZSongYngCntry, but in a very untraditional style)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O Mary, Come Down!" (lyrics)
NOTES [77 words]: Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman comments of this piece, "I doubt that the movie version, with a 'blood red roses' chorus, is authentic folklore." However, that's the version I've always heard (including even an alleged New Zealand version), so I've adopted that title. Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman also thinks the "bunch of roses" refers to Napoleon. Obviously that is the case in other "roses" songs, but I can't see any connection here. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Doe022

Blood Signed My Name

DESCRIPTION: "((In the wilderness) (x2) And the blood put a mark on me) (x3) O Lord, the blood put a mark on me." In that pattern, "On the forehead...." "In Canaan...." "In Galilee...." Also, "And the blood...signed my name... O Lord, the blood signed my name"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 266-267, "Blood Done Sign My Name" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR266A

Blood-Red Roses

See Blood Red Roses (File: Doe022)

Blood-Stained Diary, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's just a little blood-stained book, Which a bullet has town in two; It tells the fate of Nick and Nate...." The singer recounts the words of Nathan D. Champion's diary as he and his companion are attacked in the Johnson County War
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: death homicide cowboy
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1891-1892 - Peak of the "Johnson County War"
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 175-177, "The Blood-Stained Diary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp 575-577, "The Blood-Stained Diary" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Laurence I. Seidman, _Once in the Saddle: The Cowboy's Frontier 1866-1896_, 1973 (I use the 1994 Facts on File paperback which has been edited in ways the copyright record does not clarify), pp. 107-109, "The Ballad of Nate Champion" (1 text)
Roud #22297
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Invasion Song" (subject)
NOTES [6949 words]: Burt-AmericanMurderBallads links this with the Johnson County War, a conflict in Wyoming between honest herders and cattle rustlers. There are conflicting versions of what happened -- or, rather, there is a strong disagreement about why it happened, with most of the residents of Johnson County telling one story and the large cattle owners telling another.
There are many books on the topic: Asa Shinn Mercer, The Banditti of the Plains, or the Cattlemen's Invasion of Wyoming in 1892 (the first book on the subject, 1894); Robert B. David, Malcolm Campbell, Sheriff; Billy O'Neil, The Johnson County War; John W. Davis, Wyoming Range War: The Infamous Invasion of Johnson County (cited below); Jack R. Gage, The Johnson County War Is A Pack Of Lies: The Baron's Side AND The Johnson County War Ain't A Pack Of Lies: The Rustler's Side; D. F. Babar, The Longest Rope: The Truth About The Johnson County Cattle War; Helena Huntington Smith, The War On Powder River (cited below); and Marilynn S. Johnson, Violence In The West: The Johnson County Range War And Ludlow Massacre: A Brief History With Documents (cited below). Other books sound as if they might be about it, but I can't be sure. Just those eight titles, though, show clearly how controversial the topic is! There is also a movie, "Johnson County War," with Tom Beringer, Luke Perry, Rachel Ward, and Burt Reynolds, but I suspect that there isn't a word of truth in that.... Wikipedia reports that the film "Heaven's Gate" is also loosely based on the war, or at least the people involved; the plot is said to be different.
According to Davis, p. 5, "within Wyoming the very mention of Johnson County still calls up a time of infamy." (Although perhaps not a lot of space in real histories. Larson, for instance, gives it about the equivalent of two pages.) Johnson, p. 8, considers it an example of western vigilantism, with big cattlemen claiming the law in Johnson County was ineffective and taking justice into their own hands; she considers it fairly typical of the legal process of the time as large landowners tried for "enclosure" (a term going back to British land management problems) and the rest of the people resisted.
Davis, pp. ix-x: "What constitutes the 'Johnson County War' has never been strictly defined, but the name refers generally to murderous episodes beginning in late 1891 and culminating in the full-scale invasion of the county in April 1892 by twenty-five big cattlemen and their top hands, along with another twenty-five hired guns [from Texas]." On p. x, he describes reviewing the writings of the period, and finding them confusing, contradictory, highly emotional, adversarial, and self-justifying. And, because nothing ever came to trial, there was never a real attempt to sort out all these conflicting stories.
Most of the accounts, according to Davis, p. xi, are from the invaders -- that is, the people who killed the heroes of this song. They certainly had most of the newspaper connections, especially those in Cheyenne, the most important town and the capital of the state. The political elite of the Republican party, oddly, freely sided with the out-of-state cattlemen over the people of Johnson County in their own state.
The song mentions two places, Buffalo, Wyoming, and Crazy Woman's Creek, and six people, "Nick" (Nick Ray), "Nate" (Nathan D. Champion, the writer of the diary of the title), Frank N. Canton of "Canton's Bloody Crew," Jack Flagg, "Bill Jones," and "Red Angus" (William Galispie "Red" Angus).
Crazy Woman Creek is a substantial waterway which runs mostly south to north; it is east of Buffalo and flows into the Powder River northeast of the town.
Buffalo (named after the city in New York, not the bison; Smith, p. 3) is the county seat of Johnson County -- a county which, at this time, was close to a hundred miles square, and almost completely undeveloped outside the town of Buffalo -- which itself was only about a decade and a half old, having grown up around the army base at Fort McKinney, which was founded in 1876 (Johnson, p. 13). This meant that most of the county had little law enforcement (the western part of the county, in the Big Horn range, was effectively inaccessible in winter). And the county was a little wild: at the time of organization, in the late 1870s, it had just 637 people -- and 17 saloons (Smith, p. 3).
Seidman, p. 98, calls the Johnson County War "the final effort to keep the open range unsettled."
The political situation was interesting: The county was used mostly for cattle raising, and the herd owners were depended on the use of unregulated Federal lands. Every time an individual staked a claim, it took that Federal land out of circulation, interfering with the herd owners' profits. If too much land was claimed, they would be out of business (Davis, pp. 35-37). Indeed, many were failing because of low cattle prices, leading to an 1887 depression in the industry.
There was also the issue of "mavericks" -- unbranded young cattle born on the range when the herds were mixed. This was a hot issue throughout the west (since whoever managed to nab a maverick got, in effect, a free calf), but most states had come up with reasonable laws. Wyoming Territory, by contrast, had had a bad law written by the big landowners. It had been repealed when Wyoming became a state, but the legacy lived on (Smith, pp. 58-59).
The big landowners had an organization, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, which they controlled and which lobbied for their interests (Davis, pp. 48-49). A quarter of the 1889 constitutional convention had been stockmen, and they had a very large representation in the state legislature -- nine of 24 in the 1890 lower house of the legislature, and five of twelve in the upper (Larson, p. 128). They were able to pass laws that gave exceptional advantages to large stock growers over small (Davis, p. 49).
All this resulted in a situation where law enforcement was spotty. Davis, pp. 25-26, reports that justice was not very effective and the acquittal rate in the small number of cases that went to trial was high. On pp. 26-29, he explains why: In a county of 10,000 square miles, with 2,000 people, at least 150,000 cattle, and no fences, keeping track of cattle was almost impossible and gathering evidence often hopeless. How much cattle crime was there in Johnson County? Quite likely not even the locals knew. Davis, p. 58, suggests that people thought crime was rare -- until the stock growers started promoting the idea that it was widespread (Davis, p. 58). Frank Canton openly declared in his autobiography that the county had an organized group of cattle thieves (Davis, p. 50).
The murders began on July 21, 1889, when Ellen Watson and James Averell -- two homesteaders who had claimed land in the cattle ranges -- were lynched (Larson, p. 129; Johnson, p. 14 says that they lived over the border in Carbon County). This murder is the subject of the poem on pp. 171-172 of Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, apparently entitled "Cattle Kate," which is not indexed because Burt claims to have had it from the author. It has few details except that Cattle Kate and James Averell were hung by stockmen -- but those details are correct as far as they go.
Watson in particular seems to have been a highly respected member of the community -- a Scottish immigrant, 28 years old, the survivor of an unhappy marriage, a cook and housekeeper, and very kind to her neighbors (Davis, p. 69; Johnson, pp. 52-53, has the firsthand account on which this seems to be based) -- not a prostitute as Smith, p. 121, alleges (Davis says this is based on a confusion of names; Johnson, p. 50, quotes the newspaper story that probably started the rumor -- from a paper that was associated with the stock growers) and Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 170, repeats. There is a photo of her on p. 15 of Johnson and in Smith's photo insert (which should have been evidence that she wasn't a prostitute; she doesn't look very pretty).
Averell was an army veteran who had lost his wife and baby and moved to Wyoming apparently to leave his memories behind (Davis, pp. 69-70). Watson and Averell apparently intended to marry but did not do so at once, since that let them claim more land (Davis, pp. 70-71). But, of course, it meant that they were more in the way of the big herders. And they paid dearly. The two built a small herd and were establishing a brand when attacked. Watson was away from her holding when vigilantes arrived and started tearing down fences. They demanded she give them the cattle she had legally bought. They kidnapped her, then Averell, hauled them off, and hung them by the Sweetwater River (Davis, pp. 72-74).
Because there were several witnesses, it was pretty clearly known who had committed the murders, But they "were not even indicted. These six men, clearly guilty of atrocious murders, walked free" (Davis, p. 76). Smith, p. 122, says that several witnesses could not be found and one likely was killed. Two of the killers even became members of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association's executive committee! This executive committee eventually came to resemble vigilante groups like the Klan: They would actually meet to decide who to assassinate. They considered it a judicial process -- but the accused did not even know they were on trial, so they could not defend themselves, and in any case, the Executive Committee was writing its own laws rather than those decided by the duly appointed government (Davis, pp. 94-95). They formed a semi-official hit squad: "Frank Canton, Fred Coates, W. C. 'Billy' Lykins, Joe Elliott, and, on at least one occasion, Mike Shonsey"; they committed their first murder in June 1891 (Davis, p. 95).
To give you an idea of what the Stock Growers' executives were like, we can look at the 1924 autobiography of John Clay, who became President of the organization. Of the lynchings, Clay wrote, "This of course was a horrible piece of business.... and yet what are you to do? Are you to sit still and see your property ruined...?" (Johnson, p. 54). On the next page, Clay declares that it is a bad thing that people complain about the lynching of black men!
On the other hand, the tragedy probably helped to encourage the inclusion, in the Wyoming constitution adopted at statehood in 1890, an explicit ban on private armies not authorized by the government (Davis, p. 78). But the big herders had one thing the local small owners didn't: a publicity machine. They were the ones filing stories with the outside newspapers (Davis, p. 90, etc.) For example, the Cheyenne Daily Sun in July 1889 reported on the hanging of Watson and Averell, declaring Watson a "prostitute... who recently figured in dispatches as Cattle Kate who held up a Faro dealer at Bessemer" (Johnson, p. 50) -- every word of which is false.
The "crime" for which Nate Champion was murdered was simply taking his 200 cattle to graze on public land that was also being grazed by 2000 cattle owned by Robert Tisdale. Tisdale moved his herd, taking some of Champion's animals with him; Champion then reclaimed them -- probably somewhat forcefully, conditions being what they were (Davis, pp. 99-100).
Champion certainly wasn't living a high life. Davis, p. 101, reports that on November 1, 1891, Ross Gilbertson and Nate Champion were sharing a cabin; Smith, p. 157, says it was called the "Hall Cabin"): "The cabin was 'unbelievably small,' just large enough to hold a stove and a bunk bed (the bed kept the door from swinging all the way open), and the roof was so low that an average man had to stoop to get in" (Davis, p. 101). It was surrounded by enough trees and undergrowth that it was easy to stay in hiding by those who approached secretly. It was there that Frank Canton, Fred Coates, Joe Elliott, and Billy Lykin prepared to attack, while Mike Shonsey held their horses. The men approached quietly and burst into the door while Champion was asleep. The opened the door, pointed their weapons at him, and called on him to surrender -- and he managed to pull his gun, mortally wound Lykins, and chase off the rest (Davis, p. 102; Smith, p. 158, quotes him as saying he was able to do this because he was left-handed). Little wonder he was held in high esteem.
Champion followed, found another man, John A. Tisdale, to serve as a witness, caught up with Shonsey, and got him to confess and name his confederates (Davis, p. 105). But someone assassinated Tisdale on December 1, 1891 (Davis, pp. 108-110).
Canton was widely suspected -- so he turned himself in and called for a swift trial. There hadn't been much time to gather evidence, and the only witness had been far away, so Canton was quickly acquitted (Davis, pp. 110-112; Johnson, p. 58, quoting Asa Shinn Mercer).
If the hit squad was bad, what followed was worse: "On April 5, 1892, just before the April roundup, a train carrying fifty men and three cars of horses left the Cheyenne station heading northwest. Calling themselves 'regulators,' the group was commanded by Major Frank Wolcott, a Civil War veteran and manager of a large ranching operation in southern Wyoming (Smith, p. 197, says however that he was "temperamentally unfit to lead men, and his stubbornness and bad judgment on two separate occasions doomed the expedition to failure). They debarked at Casper early the next morning, saddled up, and headed off for Johnson County with a list of seventy alleged rustlers to be hunted down and executed" (Johnson, pp. 14-16). And they had support in high places: Acting Governor Amos Barber, who supported the Stockmen, had given orders that the militia could not be called out by anyone else, so the local sheriffs were unable to get support from local troops (Davis, p. 135. This mattered -- when the invaders came to Johnson County, Sheriff Red Angus could not call on the militia; Davis, p. 158).
The "crime" which was used to justify the hit squad was merely this: the small herders had decided to hold a roundup about a month before the big herders held their roundup (Smith, p. 160, who says they named Nate Champion to lead it, probably just to irritate the stockmen). The big herders objected, and set out to stop it. And they did, without violence, because they owned the government agency responsible for cattle herding, and it ordered the small herders to stop. And they did. The big herders had already gotten the outcome they wanted. But they went ahead with their plans (Davis, p. 140), seemingly because they'd been given just enough excuse and they were a bunch of psychopaths who put no value on others' lives.
Astoundingly, the organizational plans for the hit squad -- including pay and other arrangements -- were actually put in writing, and have been preserved (Davis, p. 136, with copies of two of them, too small to be really legible, on p. 137). George Dunning, who had a major part in the expedition, received the two letters, and eventually talked about it, said that the organizers thought the invaders/regulators would end up killing about thirty men, which would drive the rest to flee the area -- leaving their cattle for the Stock Growers to appropriate! (Davis, pp. 136-137). Even if one accepts the big herders' contention that the rustlers were out of control (a claim I find extremely dubious, but I wasn't there at the time), it seems clear that the plans for the regulators were utterly lawless and excessive.
According to Davis, p. 142, "The invading force left Cheyenne about 6:00 p.m. Tuesday, April 5, 1892. They had one overriding imperative -- to get to Buffalo as rapidly as possible, there to kill Sheriff Red Angus and his deputies and to kill all the Johnson County commissioners. Having destroyed the leadership of the county, they could then destroy Johnson County men at their leisure." This, apparently, was based on the testimony of one of them. I'm not sure I believe it, but the fact that someone could even claim this shows how dramatic their plans were.
That part of the plot failed, for two reasons. One was bad weather that made it very hard to get the expedition from Casper to Johnson County; the other was a tactical mistake -- for what amount to personal reasons, the expedition decided to take out Nate Champion first rather than to attack the government in Buffalo (Davis, pp. 146-147; on p. 152 he says that several of the leaders disliked Champion so much that killing him was worth messing up the whole expedition).
The fight that formed the heart of the Johnson County legend was summarized by Smith, p. xi, as follows: "On the blizzardy morning of April 9, 1892, fifty armed men surrounded a cabin on Powder River in which two alleged cattle rustlers had been spending the night. The first rustler was shot as he came down the path for a morning bucket of water; he was dragged over the doorstep by his companion to die inside. The second man held out until afternoon, when the besiegers fired the house. Driven out by the flames, he went down with a dozen bullets in him." Champion, from his cabin, had managed to hit three men, two seriously, but none died (Davis, p. 150; Smith's full version of the events, as opposed to her summary, starts on p. 207).
Sam Clover's eyewitness account of this is on pp. 60-63 of Johnson. He describes how the attackers first captured two guests of Champion's, then shot Nick Ray as Ray came out to look for the guests, then started shooting at Champion, who was still inside. They almost got Jack Flagg as he drove by the area by chance, but he was able to escape. Knowing that Flagg was likely to bring help, they seized a hay wagon (according to Davis, p. 153, it was Flagg's own abandoned wagon), filled it with pitch and the like, and set it afire. Six of them rolled it up to Champion's cabin while the others kept up so heavy a fire that he couldn't come out. The cabin caught fire, and Champion finally had to come out, ready to fight. But two sharpshooters killed him before he could harm any of the attackers. They pinned a note saying "Cattle thieves beware" on his body and high-tailed it away (newspaperman Sam Clover reported this, and Smith, p. 208, says he in fact wrote it himself!). But they had lost too much time. Flagg and a neighbor, Terrence Smith, were on their way to Buffalo to raise the alarm (Davis, p. 151).
The response was dramatic: The attackers "had expected the people to rise in their support; the people rose, but in such a wave of fury as the West has never seen before or since. Thirty hours after their grisly victory on Powder River, the invaders were besieged in their turn by an army of several hundred hornet-mad cowboys and small-ranchmen, who would have meted out to them the same fate they had dealt their victims if the two United States senators from Wyoming had not been feverishly busy in Washington on their behalf. These gentlemen persuaded President Benjamin Harrison to order out the troops from nearby Fort McKinney, and the cattlemen's surrender was accepted in a somewhat ignominious mixture of rescue and arrest. So ended the Johnson County "invasion." Tragic and bizarre, it split the young state from scalp to toenails. The scars still show" (Smith, p. xii, writing in 1966, or 75 years after the event).
Flagg's memoirs tell how he gathered a large following, who gathered and encircled the regulators, eventually starting an actual siege. (The regulators, soon after killing Champion, realized that their insurrection could not succeed, headed for the T. A. Ranch on a branch of Crazy Woman Creek south of Buffalo, and entrenched; Davis, p. 161; photos on pp. 162-163 show the ranch and one of the rifle pits.) They couldn't even call for help; they had cut the telegraph wires (Davis, p. 167), only to discover that it was they, not the locals, who needed to contact their friends elsewhere! -- when one of them managed to sneak past the siege lines, he went to Buffalo and had no way to make contact, so they had to head for Cheyenne by horse (Davis, p. 169).
A list of those in the ranch is on pp. 185-189 of Smith; Davis, p. 207, has a photo of most if not all of them as they awaited the trial that never happened.
It's not known exactly how many men took part in the siege, but the minimum estimate places it at 200, rising to perhaps 400 at the end. And they were fairly well-equipped; a merchant in Buffalo had offered the run of his store to anyone who would join the fight against the regulators (Davis, p. 166). They proceeded to built a regular siege line around the ranch. This large crowd was very much to their advantage in the cold April nights (it snowed on the night of April 11): They had so many men that they could rotate them in and out of the front lines to keep warm. The besieged, though, were few, and they could not move around much because they would be shot if they did, and many of them had no way to keep warm in the outbuildings or defensive works (Davis, p. 170).
During the siege, the locals captured the regulators' supply train, including a paper listing seventy people to be killed (Davis, p. 165) -- more evidence of the scale of the planned insurrection; this wasn't just some casual terror campaign.
On April 12, 1892, Governor Barber finally got the word of how much trouble the invaders were in. He tried to get President Benjamin Harrison to intervene (starting with a telegram that was almost certainly deliberately ambiguous, opening "An insurrection exists in Johnson County," rather than, say, "The rebels I've been bribed to support are in danger"; Davis, p. 174; the full text is on p. 224 of Smith). Barber's messages to Harrison don't seem to have drawn a response, so he contacted the state's two Senators, and they managed to get Harrison's attention; he ordered troops to the area (Davis, p. 175). But the only local troops, those at Fort McKinney, knew more about what was happening -- and went out to the T. A. Ranch with his troops *and Sheriff Angus* (Davis, pp. 175-176).
The besiegers had actually constructed a siege engine and were moving in on the invaders when the 11 officers and 96 men from Fort McKinney, under Colonel J. J. Van Horn, showed up. The regulators promptly surrendered into the hands of the soldiers (Davis, pp. 176-177; Smith, p. 225; a description is quoted on pp. 66-67 of Johnson). Wolcott (who managed to get in one zinger when he said he would turn his force over to the military but never to Sheriff Angus; Smith, p. 226) surrendered 45 men plus horses and ammunition; one of the men had a wound that proved fatal. At least one man hid to avoid giving in (Davis, pp. 178-179).
The governor eventually took the invaders into his own custody and moved them to the southern part of the state, away from Johnson County (Davis, pp. 189-190). And when the defenders asked for a change of venue, they managed to get the case moved to Cheyenne (where all the Powers that Were were on their side) and get the judge removed (Davis, p. 212).
Had there been a trial in an honest court, conviction would have seemed a certainty, because Major Wolcott confessed openly to a reporter from the Chicago Tribune: "We have nothing to regret. Blood was shed, it is true, but it was not the blood of an honest man. If an innocent man had been killed, the charge of murder would have been justified, but Champion and Ray were pirates..." (quoted on p. 196 of Davis).
"Ultimately, no one was ever tried or convicted for the Johnson County violence and killings. After four months, the regulators were released on their own recognizance, and following protracted disputes over jury selection, the cases were dismissed in January 1893. One of the conflict's immediate effects was a political rebellion against the state's Republican leadership in the 1892 election, as Governor Barber and Wyoming senators Francis Warren and Joseph Carey were ousted by Democratic challengers" (Johnson, p. 17; Davis, p. 245, says that, in Johnson County, the Republicans, who held most of the government positions, lost 14 of 15 county offices, and the one they held was one where the man was endorsed by both sides! The situation in the government of the state was much more complex, as the Republicans resisted the results with all the stubbornness, and rather more competence, than Donald Trump in 2020; the result that the Warren Senate seat was left vacant in 1893-1894; the whole business takes most of pp. 255-266 of Davis).
"Some of the captives were charged with murder, but the case against them was dismissed in Cheyenne eight months later. Key witnesses who had been spirited out of the territory could not be found by the prosecution [According to Davis, p. 207, the two men who had been allowed to survive the Champion assassination were actually shanghaied to the eastern U.S.; Smith, p. 251, says they were also given post-dated checks to pay them off -- and the checks, once it was too late, proved to be bad]. The invaders had too many powerful friends in high places, too much money, and too much legal talent" (Larson, p. 130). Trials also cost money, and Johnson County didn't have the $12,000 the case would probably require and was prohibited by Wyoming law from levying the taxes needed to raise it (Davis, p. 203). By contrast, John Clay, who was arranging the defense, had $100,000 to spend (Davis, p. 206), plus he had a mole on the prosecution's legal team. Johnson County wanted to try just four men it regarded as ringleaders (Major Wolcott, Frank Canton, the leader of the Texas mercenaries, and one other), and try to use the convictions to get pleas fro the others, but the judge decided that, since all 45 had been charged together, they would be tried together (Davis, p. 213). Apart from increasing the expense, this meant that it would probably be impossible to seat a jury, since the defense would have hundreds of peremptory challenges (chances to strike a juror without cause). The prosecutors would probably die of old age before they could examine enough jurors.
Asa Shinn Mercer, soon after the conflict, claimed that the Johnson County sheriff was not being paid enough to house them, so the judge tried to demand bail, but they wouldn't pay, so the judge was forced to release them on their own recognizance, and no one ever managed to get the case back together (quoted by Johnson, pp. 77-79; similarly Davis, p. 214). In fact the case could not have been restarted; the Johnson County prosecutor gave up and dismissed the charges when it became impossible to pay for the case or seat the jury -- the lawyers supposedly went through every man in Cheyenne without being able to seat a full jury, so the prosecution offered to dismiss. Since the trial hadn't technically started, the defense refused (because new charges could be brought). So they brought in a man off the street, didn't question him, swore him in as the twelfth juryman, and *then* the prosecution dismissed, making it official and final (Smith, pp. 281-285; Davis tells the story in more detail but also more legal language).
The Stock Growers, while this was going on, had wanted to put Johnson County under martial law (Davis, p. 215), even thought their invasion was over; apparently they were hoping to fish in troubled waters. That was too much even for governor Barber, not because he objected but because he didn't want to face more political criticism (Davis, p. 217). A random murder eventually opened the door (Davis, pp. 218-220), but nothing much came of it.
President Harrison's response to all this was interesting. He didn't want to declare martial law, or get involved in a local mess, especially since the election of 1892 was approaching (Davis, pp. 221-222; he did win the state that fall, although he lost the election). He decided to send the Ninth U. S. Cavalry (Smith, p. 261), a Black unit that was recruited because it wasn't expected to have any local ties (Johnson, p. 17). They had a tendency to be assigned to trouble spots. But they were sent to the southeastern part of the county, not Buffalo; they had some problems, but the "War" was not re-kindled (Davis, p. 222).
Although the violence was over, the costs to Johnson County and Buffalo were still being paid. They had wanted a railroad. As a result of the War, the Burlington and Missouri took another route, through Sheridan (Smith, p. 229). And Buffalo remains a small town to this day....
It may be revealing that the lawyer who managed to arrange the invaders' non-trial was Willis Van Devanter (1859-1941) -- whose loyal service to the stockmen, and to the Republican Party they so largely controlled, resulted in his appointment to the U. S. Supreme Court by President Taft (Davis, p. 275; served 1910-1936). He became "the foremost intellectual conservative o the court during his twenty-six-year tenure," and was one of the "Four Horsemen" who opposed absolutely everything Franklin D. Roosevelt ever did (Hall, p. 894). He perhaps didn't actually believe that might makes right, but he certainly believed that might influenced right a lot.
The first major publication on the conflict, Asa Shinn Mercer's Banditti of the Plains, was anti-stock-growers, and the stockmen had one last small laugh: they obtained an injunction against its publication. It was sometimes said that the book burned, and Mercer jailed for mailing obscene materials! (Seidman, pp. 98-99, although Davis ignores this and Smith says the burning is exaggerated although Mercer did face all sorts of trumped-up legal charges).
This song seems to have come straight from the newsletters: "The Johnson County war might have been only a footnote on history's page were it not for two writers who, in reporting history, became part of it themselves. One was Sam T. Clover of the Chicago Herald. He... set the story down in five newspaper columns, every detail repeated so often since; the siege, the firing of the cabin, Jack Flagg's miraculous escape, and Nate Champion's bloodstained diary (Smith, p. vii). Smith, p. xi, says that Clover was "the only newspaperman even known to have been invited to a lynching" (that of Ray and Champion, described above).
According to Davis, both Flagg and Canton left eyewitness accounts -- but they are "diametrically opposed" (Davis, p. xiii). Flagg was directly involved but often regarded as partisan. "The writings of Frank Canton, the sheriff of Johnson County between 1883 and 1887, have been given more credence. Canton was a man in a position to know the whole truth about Johnson County's experiences, and his judgments upon the people of Johnson County are damning" (Davis, p. xiii). Canton published his story in Frontier Trails: The Autobiography of Frank M. Canton; I have not seen it.
O'Neal, p. 55, says that Nathan D. Champion was born in Texas on September 29, 1857, and died April 9, 1892; he lists his occupation as "Cowboy, cattle rustler." He arrived in Buffalo with his twin brother Dudley in 1881 after driving a herd up the Goodnight-Loving Trail. He had been in Wyoming for ten years or perhaps a little more (Smith, p. 155). "The big ranchers began to call him 'King of the Rustlers'" (O'Neal, p. 55) because, like most in the area, he played a little fast and loose with ownership marks.
"Nate Champion is described as stockily built, with steely blue-gray eyes; a quiet sort, people said, laconic, soft-spoken. He was also a lion of a man who feared nothing and would stand up to anybody, and he was lightning with a gun. The cattlemen hated him very greatly. Four of them couldn't kill him even in his bed. It took fifty men to do the job" (Smith, p. 155).
O'Neal, pp. 55-56, lists him as being in two gunfights, one on November 1, 1891, and the second the fight on April 9, 1892, in which he and Nick Ray were killed. His brother Dudley was killed in 1893; Davis, p. 270, regards Dudley -- who was shot by Mike Shonsey, the man Nick had captured after the first attempt on his life -- as the last casualty of the War.
Davis, pp. 98-99, says that "Nate Champion was admired and respected by most of the people in Johnson County. He was small and quiet but had a well-earned reputation as a tough man. The [Buffalo] Bulletin wrote of him in early 1892: 'No man who knows him would not swear by him. His reputation among men has always been the best. He was formerly one of the most trusted of Wyoming cowboys, but when he bought cattle for himself, he was put upon the black list, and has never complained.'" (A rule was "imposed on all member of the Wyoming Stock Growers' Association... forbidding them to employ any man who owned a brand or cattle"; Smith, p. 27. It was a lifelong blacklist.) Davis, p. 99, says that he was never charged by anyone with stealing cattle, even though the Stock Growers would have loved to pin such a charge on him. The worst that can be said is that his animals got mixed with larger herds, and there was disagreement over who should get which animals.
Davis, p. 192, says that a quarter of the population of Buffalo came to the funeral of Champion and Ray.
Davis has a photo of Canton on p. 8, of Angus on p. 13, and of Champion on p. 98. Smith, p. xi, quotes Sam Clover as calling Champion "the king of the cattle thieves and the bravest man in Johnson County." Smith's photo section has what is said to be the only photo of him, although it's not the same photo as in Davis.
Frank Canton came to Johnson County in 1881, saying he was from Virginia, where he was born in 1849, via Missouri and Colorado. But "his entire life [story] was a lie. The truth was that Frank Canton was Joe Horner, a fugitive from Texas with an extensive criminal history there." O'Neal, p. 150, also lists his birth name as "Joe Horner," and lists his occupations as "Cowboy, outlaw, rancher, law officer, packing plant superintendent, prospector, soldier, bank robber." O'Neal lists his first gunfight as taking place in 1874 and his last in 1896 -- not that that ended his career; he lived until 1927, and by then had ranged as far north as Alaska and as far west (or east, depending on how you look at it) as the Philippines.
In 1877, Joe Horner was convicted of bank robbery in Texas and sentenced to ten years' hard labor -- but managed to break out of the prison, cut the telegraph wire, and escape. He was soon caught, but he escaped again two years later, and this time, he was not recaptured (Davis, pp. 52-53). He does seem to have reformed after that, in the sense that he did not again become an outlaw -- but he kept the habit of excessively direct action.
When Horner/Canton came to Buffalo, he first worked as a detective, then became sheriff two years later (1883). boasting in his autobiography that, in four years as sheriff, he never once failed to bring back a fugitive (Davis, pp. 8-9). Tall and good-looking, "His personality was so strong that it seemed that his mere presence caused people anxiety; he intimidated men with only a look" (Davis, p. 8). He married a local woman, Annie Wilkerson, in 1885 (Davis, p. 22), although he apparently was perfectly willing to leave her behind when he went on his travels.
Despite his claimed success as sheriff at bringing in lawbreakers, he decided at the last minute not to run for re-election in 1886 -- and then ran in 1888 and was defeated (Davis, pp. 32-33; he had lost the job he had lined up in 1886 because of the 1887 cattle industry depression; Davis, p. 35). The new sheriff was "Red" Angus, of whom more below (Davis, pp. 43-46).
It was Canton who, along with Joe Elliott, Tom Smith, and Fred Coates, attacked Nate Champion in 1891, resulting in several injuries but no final settling of their disputes (O'Neal, pp. 103-104). Of course, he had his second chance in 1892....
Canton's attitude toward rustlers is utterly black-and-white: "The conditions in Johnson County grew from bad to worse. The ranch owners discharged their foremen who had 'double-crossed' them, and they also fired a great many of their men. The Stock Association 'blackballed' the whole bunch and signed an agreement not to allow any of them to work with the outfit of any member of the organization. The rustlers then banded together and worked the range with ack outfits, in defiance of the laws of the territory and the rules of range work among honest men" (from Canton's autobiography, quoted on p. 45 of Johnson).
"Red" Angus sounds like a character, although in his case, I don't mean that as a compliment. Angus was born in 1849. His nickname came from his red hair. After his family moved to "bleeding Kansas" in 1856, he served in the Civil War as a drummer boy, He again joined the army in 1868, spending some time fighting Indians. He moved around the west a lot in the years after his discharge, working with cattle, but came to Wyoming in 1880 and settled in Buffalo in 1881. He settled down in the red light district -- his first wife had worked in one of the whorehouses, and his temper was bad enough that he had a criminal record for pistol-whipping a man (Davis, pp. 12-13).
Davis, p. 59, says that O. H. "Jack" Flagg was one of those who took land and refused to be bullied by the stock owners. "Handsome Jack Flagg was a big, confident, contentious man, and a bit of a rogue. He liked women, gambling, and whiskey, and he refused to be pushed around. Born in 1860, he was the son of a prominent couple in Charleston, Virginia (later Wst Virginia).... [A]t age seventeen, he left West Virginia and headed west," stopping in Texas before reaching Johnson County in 1882. He purchased the "Hat brand," later forming what amounted to a cattle partnership in 1888 -- having already been blacklisted by the stock growers' association. But neither Flagg nor his partners would knuckle under.
Similarly Smith, p. 33: "[A]t the end of 1886 Jack Flagg had been blackballed and was unable henceforth to get a job with a cow outfit. Thereupon he took up a homestead on the Red Fork of Powder River and brought a brand and a little bunch of cattle and went into cattle-raising for himself; from this ensued and awesome train of consequences. The brand was alled the Hat."
Flagg and Canton had a personal grudge; among other things, Flagg had helped ensure Canton's defeat in the 1888 contest for sheriff (Davis, p. 60).
Davis doesn't mention him, at least by name, but according to O'Neal, pp. 183-184, Harvey Logan, the subject of the song "Harvey Logan" [Laws E21], was one of those who fought on Nate Champion's side.
None of the books I've consulted seems to mention a Bill Jones, Billy Jones, or William Jones as being involved in the war. But there was an Orly Jones -- a name easily mistaken for "Billy Jones." Orly E. Jones, known as "Ranger Jones," may have been one of those recruited by Nate Champion after the first attack on Champion's home (Davis, p. 103). But he was a 23-year-old who was assassinated at a distance by parties unknown (so Asa Shinn Mercer, quotes on p. 57 of Johnson), so it probably isn't him.
So who was "right" in the Johnson County War? The strong biases of my sources make it hard for me to form an impartial judgment. But what is certain is that outside mercenaries were hired by the cattlemen to invade Johnson County; that the outsiders murdered men without even trying to use the courts (they said the courts never convicted cattle rustlers, but they weren't even trying any more); that they were trying to interfere with local affairs without having any duly constituted authority to do so. And their writings smugly declare their own right without offering any justification except sweeping claims of wrongdoing by the residents of Johnson County. To me at least, it appears that the burden of proof clearly lies on the side of those who would justify the invaders.
The Blood-Stained Diary of the song's title was famous; Sam Clover claimed to have found it on Nate Champion's body; he published it in a news story in 1892. It wasn't really a diary -- just loose paper. But it no longer exists -- Clover claimed to have destroyed it (Davis, p. 155). Since it was perhaps the biggest find of his career, and the proof of his biggest scoop, one would think he would have kept the thing! What's more, it was evidence for a case involving two murders, so destroying it was tampering with criminal evidence. And there is apparently outside evidence that Clover was a thief (Smith, p. 198), so why not a forger as well?
There was eyewitness testimony to the existence of the diary (Davis, p. 156), but no one but Clover seems to have known what it said. Davis, pp. 285-286, reprints the longer of the two versions of the diary supplied by Clover. It is a fascinating document. There are a number of grammatical constructions which sound like deliberate low-class dialect, yet the spelling and orthography are correct. It does not seem to know the name of one of the men who was staying with Champion; it refers to "Bill Jones and another man." The author thinks he recognizes one of the men outside, but the name is crossed out -- the only thing in the whole document which is listed as crossed out, but so thoroughly crossed out that Clover didn't even hazard a guess. The only names mentioned in the document are "Nick" and "Bill Jones." The note has no preface explaining why it is written.
The obvious conclusion is that Clover made up his version of diary. There is very little doubt in my mind (though Smith, pp. 205-207, prints it without any signs of doubt), and Seidman, pp. 103-104, also prints most of it without question). But if the diary that gave this piece its title was fake, the fate of Nick and Nate was real.
For another piece about the Johnson County War, see "The Invasion Song." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: Burt175

Blood-Stained Soil

See The Dying Soldier (III) (File: Doyl3065)

Blood-Strained Banders, The

DESCRIPTION: "If you want to go to heaven, just over on the other shore, Keep out of the way of the blood-strained banders, O good shepherd, feed my sheep." Similarly, one should avoid "gun-shot devils" and "liars." Chorus: "Some for Paul, some for Silas...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (collected from Jimmie Strothers)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 25-26, "The Blood-Strained Banders" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15504
RECORDINGS:
Jimmie Strothers, "Keep Away from the Blood-Strained Banders" (on Field Recordings Virginia Vol. 1 (1936-1941) Document Records DOCD-5575 (1997))
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hear the Lambs a-Crying" (chorus lines)
File: LxSi025

Bloody Breathitt Farmer

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you folks and gather To hear the awful tale Of the bloody Breathitt farmer Taken from the county jail." Chet Fugate had murdered Clay Watkins (Christmas 1925?). Fugate is taken from prison by force and murdered, his body found by Jim Butler
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: homicide prison punishment revenge
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 17-18, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 31-32)
File: ThBdM018

Bloody Garden, The

See The Bloody Gardener (File: Pea668)

Bloody Gardener, The

DESCRIPTION: A lord loves a shepherd's daughter. His mother pays the gardner to kill and bury the shepherdess. The mother confesses and reveals the body. The lord kills himself. The lovers are buried together and the gardener is hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1764 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 1(100)); ; c.1705 (broadside, NLScotland S.302.b.2(063))
KEYWORDS: courting love virginity burial suicide homicide bird father mother gardening money punishment execution
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, pp. 668-670, "The Bloody Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 25, "The Bloody Gardener" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1700
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "The Bloody Garden" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 1(100), "The Bloody Gardener's Cruelty" or "The Shepherd's Daughter Betrayed," W. and C. Dicey (London), 1736-1763; also Harding B 1(101),"The Bloody Gardiner's Cruelty" or "The Shepherd's Daughter Betrayed"; Douce Ballads 3(2b), Harding B 1(103), "The Bloody Gardener's Cruelty" or "The Shepherd's Daughter Betray'd"; Harding B 1(102), Harding B 1(94), Firth c.18(7), "The Bloody Gardiner's Cruelty" or "The Shepherd's Daughter Betrayed"; 2806 c.17(39)[parts faded to illegibility], Harding B 5(113), Harding B 11(330), "[The] Bloody Gardener"; Harding B 1(104), "The Bloody Gardener's Cruelty"
NLScotland, S.302.b.2(063), "The Bloody Gardener's Cruelty; Or, The Shepherd's Daughter Betray'd," unknown, c. 1705 [poorly printed and nearly illegible]
File: Pea668

Bloody Orkney

DESCRIPTION: ""This bloody town's a bloody cuss, No bloody trains no bloody bus, And no one cares for bloody us, In bloody Orkney." The weather is awful. The beer is bad and expensive. The music, the movies -- all are awful, and the women won't talk to the servicemen
AUTHOR: unknown (set to music by Ian Campbell)
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes warning navy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 178-179, "Bloody Orkney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10605
NOTES [340 words]: At the beginning of the First World War, the Grand Fleet of the Royal Navy -- the main fleet, responsible for guarding the British Isles, which was usually based along the British coast -- was transferred to Scapa Flow in the Orkneys (Farquharson-Roberts), p. 38. This had the advantage of locating it closer to Germany and of allowing it to unite its major units rather than scattering them.
The British government had planned for this before the war -- in the sense that they had thought about moving the ships up there. But the British had been in a naval construction race with Germany, and every cent the Royal Navy got went into ships. For practical purposes, nothing was done to build a base at Scapa Flow -- or the Firth of Forth, or Cromarty Firth, or any of the bases the navy used to watch the North Sea (Massie, pp. 146-150); this would cause the Navy a good deal of grief once it was brought home that German submarines could reach the British harbors.
From the sailors' standpoint, the problem was, of course, that Scapa Flow was in the Orkneys, north of Scotland, exposed to horrid weather and with a very small local population. "The Orkneys are treeless and forbidding but the Royal Navy did its best to create something resembling a fully equipped base as fast as it could.... The island of Flotta was taken over for recreation, with soccer pitches, a nine-hole golf course and other amenities" (Preston, p. 76). The lack of amenities that a soldier would actually care about is obvious.
Scapa Flow was the main British naval base in World War II also (not being closed down until 1956), and I'm guessing (from the reference to the movies being "bloody old") that that was the period when this song was written, although the Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs text has no reference to datable events. There had been some improvements in the interim, but the British government was always starved for money between the wars, so they weren't much. And the civilian population (read: girls) naturally remained limited. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.2
File: DalC178

Bloody Tom

DESCRIPTION: "Who comes here? Bloody Tom. What do you want? My sheep. Take the worst, and leave the best, And never come back to trouble the rest." Alternately, Bloody Tom may be a fox seeking to catch a chicken
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty hunting bird animal
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #50, "Bloody Tom" (2 short texts)
File: Newe050

Bloody War (I)

See That Crazy War (File: CSW102)

Bloody War (II)

See Battleship of Maine (File: CSW100)

Bloody Warning, The

See The Silver Dagger (I) [Laws G21] (File: LG21)

Bloody Waterloo

See Lonely Waterloo [Laws N31] (File: LN31)

Blooming Bright Star of Belle Isle, The [Laws H29]

DESCRIPTION: The singer comes upon a beautiful girl hard at work. Poor as she is, she vows to keep hard at work until her lover returns to her. The singer reveals himself as her lover; the two are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland); c.1910 (Moulden)
KEYWORDS: courting love disguise
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws H29, "The Blooming Bright Star of Belle Isle"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 133, "The Blooming Bright Star of Belle Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 598-599, "The Star of Belle Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 144-145, "The Blooming Bright Star of Belle Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 46, "Star of Belle Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Blooming Bright Star of Belle Isle" (1 text, 1 tune), p. 73 in the 2nd edition
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 113, "The Blooming Bright Star of Belle Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 653, BELLISLE*
ADDITIONAL: John Moulden (indexed as Nioulden), "The Blooming Bright Star of Belle Isle: American Native or Irish Immigrant" in _Canadian Journal for Traditional Music_, Vol. XIV, (1986 (available online at "Canadian Journal for Traditional Music" site)), ("One evening as I strayed out for pleasure") (2 texts)
Roud #2191
RECORDINGS:
Eddy Primroy, "Blooming Bright Star of Belle Isle" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
cf. "The Green Shores of Fogo" (tune)
NOTES [63 words]: Moulden: "ms of c. 1910 but which contains texts of songs that were probably learned by the singer-compiler about 1870."
Moulden contends that the reference to "St John's" in the Irish texts should be to "St John" and that, in the Irish texts, the couple emigrate to New Brunswick. He makes the Belle Isle and Lough Erin of the song Belle Isle in Lough Erne in County Fermanagh. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LH29

Blooming Caroline of Edinburgh Town

See Caroline of Edinborough Town [Laws P27] (File: LP27)

Blooming Mary Ann

DESCRIPTION: The singier is a sailor. He courts blooming Mary Ann. Her father offers "a little money and a house and farm of land" if he'd stay on shore forever. They marry and are happy.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports; MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage beauty farming dancing father sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 505-507, "Blooming Mary Ann" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 254-255, "Lovely Mary Ann (Blooming Mary Ann)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 34, "Lovely Mary Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Peac505 (Partial)
Roud #6466
RECORDINGS:
Joseph Bruce, "Blooming Mary Ann" (on PeacockCDROM)
Cyril O'Brien, "Blooming Mary Ann" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: Peac505

Blooming Star of Eglintown, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer prepares "to take farewell of famed Salthill"; he is crossing the sea to seek his fortune. He meets his darling. He fears she will prove untrue. She promises to be faithful. He sets sail; they watch each other as long as his ship stays in sight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H170, p. 299, "The Blooming Star of Eglintown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6895
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Flowery Vale (The Irish Girl's Lament)" [Laws O29] (plot) and references there
File: HHH170

Blossom Time

DESCRIPTION: About a heavenly wedding: "There's a wedding in an orchard, dear, I know it by the flowers, They're wreathed on ev'ry bough and branch, Or falling down in showers." "And though I saw... no groom nor gentle bride, I know that holy things were asked"
AUTHOR: Words: Mary E. Dodge / Music: "The Wearing of the Green"
EARLIEST DATE: 1884
KEYWORDS: wedding nonballad supernatural
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 85, "Blossom Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: FSC085

Blow Away the Morning Dew

See The Baffled Knight [Child 112] (File: C112)

Blow Away ye Morning Breezes

DESCRIPTION: The singer curses her competitor: "thou shalt rue the very hour That e'er thou knewest the man." The singer will have the good (wheaten flour, crystal clear water, purple pall); her adversary the bad (bran, puddle foul, sorry clout).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest first edition)
KEYWORDS: infidelity love curse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #25, "Blow Away Ye Morning Breezes" (1 modified text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 9, "Blow Away ye Morning Breezes" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: S Baring Gould and H Fleetwood Sheppard, Songs and Ballads of the West (London, 1891? ("Digitized by Google")), #25 pp. 52-53, xxi-xxii, "Blow Away, Ye Morning Breezes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1025
NOTES [299 words]: In Songs and Ballads of the West Baring-Gould cites the same source as for the Baring-Gould manuscript Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 9. Since Songs and Ballads of the West includes all of the Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle text, completes verses three and four, and adds a fifth verse, I assume the additions are Baring-Gould's. The changes do not change the description. How much of the following statement by Baring-Gould in Songs and Ballads of the West is to be credited: "This very curious song is sung as a duet; that is to say, the first voice taunts the other, and the second replies to the taunt, then both unite in the chorus. We have omitted the retort, which is simply an application of the same words to the first singer." The retort is not in the Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle manuscript either.
Baring-Gould notes that some lines of this song occur also in Percy's text of "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter' [Child 110]: "Would I had drunk the water cleare When I had drunk the wine, Rather than any shepherd's brat Should be a lady of mine. Would I had drunk the puddle foule When I did drink the ale." The similar verses in Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle are: "Thou shalt drink the puddle foul And I the crystal clear.... For thou shalt wear the sorry clout And I the purple pall." Reeves concludes, "These are evidently a confused fragment from a ballad called "The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter (Child, No. 110)." I think Reeves takes Baring-Gould's observation too far.
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle and Baring-Gould both observe the similarity of this song's chorus -- "Blow away ye morning breezes, Blow ye winds, heigh-ho! Blow away the morning kisses, Blow, blow, blow!" -- to "a refrain usually associated with a different ballad, The Baffled Knight [Child 112]." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ReCi009

Blow Below the Belt, The

DESCRIPTION: In 1966 "the Government Plan was sent around" for resettlement from the outports. "When fifty percent... did sign The other fifty had no choice." Many found no one to buy their home. Many could not find work. Eventually, Premier Smallwood is voted out
AUTHOR: Words: Anthony Ward, Tune: Dave Panting
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: homesickness home parting unemployment hardtimes political money
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1950s-1970s - Newfoundland Resettlement Program
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 8, "The Blow Below the Belt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #30706
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Leaving of Merasheen" (subject of Newfoundland resettlment)
NOTES [1397 words]: Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou: "The Resettlement Program was carried out in Newfoundland during Joseph Smallwood's government.... Its aim was to relocate... coastal communities to larger centers where they would find better job opportunities and public facilities such as hospitals and schools.... When the smoke had finally cleared over three hundred communities had been completely closed down and those that remained were tombstones marking the passing of a large and noble part of our history."
The title is a reference to boxing as part of an analogy to [that sport]: "But when elections rolled around, we showed Joey [Smallwood] how we felt, We dropped him in his corner and gave Frank Moores the [championship] belt!"
See "The Leaving of Merasheen" for another resettlement song - BS
Joey Smallwood began his career as a radio broadcaster, and used his position to push Newfoundland into Confederation with Canada; according to Brown, p. 374, "Mainland prosperity, urged by Joey Smallwood... won out against the proud penury of independence."
But Smallwood, who went from broadcaster to Newfoundland premier and led the province for more than twenty years, by the late Fifties was turning to "increasingly illiberal one-man rule" (Brown, p. 491). "In Smallwood's chamber there were no advisors, only listeners" (Major, p. 417). The result of his policy was complaints like these.
For more about Smallwood, see especially "Anti-Confederation Song (II)," which tells how he came to power in Newfoundland.
The particular issue was "resettlement." Newfoundland's population was scattered in many small towns and villages, which made social services hard to provide. Indeed, even communication was hard -- with few roads, the outports were connected only by sea, and even those connections were possible only in summer when the seas were (relatively) safe (Chadwick, p. 60). Many people lived without social support or any knowledge of the outside world; they couldn't even read a newspaper if they had one. Smallwood genuinely wanted to provide a better life -- but instead of doing so by improving Newfoundland's infrastructure and training specialists, he got rid of the small towns by moving the people about:
"In 1954, the provincial government had turned to resettling the widely dispersed populations of coastal communities into centralized locations, thus reducing the cost of delivering health care, education, and public utilities such as electricity" (Cadigan, p. 246). "Under the provincial government's first centralization programme in the period 1954-1965, 115 outport communities were abandoned and their populations totalling 7,500 in larger centers with the aid of government grants. Since 1965 [through 1971] at least a further fifty to sixty outports have been abandoned under a new Fisheries Household Resettlement Programme, the cost of which is shared with the federal Departmenn of Fisheries, making a total, including those which had been abandoned without any government assistance, of well over two hundred settlements which have disappeared since Confederation" (Noel, pp. 264-265).
"Many rural people initially favoured resettlement, especially women, who had borne the high costs of trying to arrange the education of their children and maintaining their families' well-being in the absence of well-developed educational and medical facilities. Disillusionment quickly set in, however, as resettled people found little work, inadequate housing, poor land for supplementary farming, and insufficient financial assistance from government in their new communities" (Cadigan, pp. 246-247).
"Government men showed up offering financial aid for relocation. To qualify, at least 80 per cent of families had to agree to move. Communities were torn apart. Older people, the backbone of these [outport] communities, were 'unwillingly forced to decide,' amid their wharfs and kitchens and the graces of their ancestors....
"Between 1954 and 1975 more than 250 communities were resettled. Houses buoyed with oil drums, then towed across open water, had become a common sight. So, too, had the burning of churches, structures the departing people had det to flame rather than leave to vandals or see fall to ruin over time" (Major, p. 422).
Herbert Pottle, who was part of the early Smallwood governments and had a role in starting all this, would later admit that the allegedly voluntary nature of the program and its benefits were overblown (p. 58): "In many cases... [those who were resettled] were the losers -- in housing and school services.... While the government was protesting that no pressure was being applied to resettle, the fact that it was actually sponsoring resettlement severely limited the people's freedom of choice.... [resettlement] shook the Newfoundland 'way of life' where it was still ancestrally sensitive, namely, at the pulse of community; and they had the effect of UNsettling as many settlements as they recomposed." Someone even called it "the cattle-car syndrome," with all the obvious Nazi implications of that phrase. (This wasn't the only time people regarded Smallwood as a Nazi; at the 1969 Liberal party convention, "scores of [failed opposition candidate] Crosbie's supporters giving the fascist salute rushed toward the dais on which Smallwood was standing in triumph"; Hiller/Neary, p. 234).
Pottle concludes on p. 61, "[A]s the research studies have shown, the resettlement of fishing families was not based on any thought-out strategy in keeping with broader provincial ore national goals... for there were never any such goals. The whole operation of relocating people came to resemble strongly an end in itself: to serve the economic development model which demanded full-scale industrialization at a gale's pace" (and which failed to work).
It should be noted, however, that Pottle had an early personal conflict with Smallwood and quit his party, leaving Newfoundland when he failed to gain any support (DictNewfLabrador, p. 275; Hiller/Neary, p. 217).
"In recent years reunions to resettled communities have become commonplace. Descendants of people who moved have even made them the sites of their weddings. All seem to feel the need to reclaim a misplaced ancestry" (Major, p. 423).
Smallwood, despite major mistakes like that, both in economics and in working with people, managed to stay in charge of Newfoundland from the time of Confederation with Canada in the late 1940s until the early 1970s. (Of course, the fact that he twice gerrymandered the electoral districts to improve his prospects helped; Hiller/Neary, pp. 211-215; so did the fact that he carefully called general elections at times when the Conservatives were in disarray; Hiller/Neary, pp. 215-216). As late as 1966, Smallwood's liberals won more than 60% of the vote in Newfoundland. Yet there was a warning of things to come in 1968; in the federal election of that year, when most of Canada voted Liberal; the Progressive Conservaties won the Newfoundland federal delegation (Hiller/Neary, p. 226). And they had a new leader.
In 1968, Frank Duff Moores (1935-2005), who was then only 35 (33 years younger than Smallwood) entered politics as Member of Parliament for Bonavista-Trinity-Conception. What happened between 1968 and 1972 was extraordinarily complicated, as Moores rose to lead the Progressive Conservative party of Newfoundland despite his youth and as Smallwood tried various tricks to hang on to power. In 1971, there was a hung election, with no party really in control, but Smallwood was forced to give up his role as Premier in early 1972. A second election, on March 24, resulted in a clear victory for the Progressive Conservatives -- they won 33 seats to 9 for the Liberal party that had been Smallwood's. Moores as a result formed the next Newfoundland government, serving as Premier from 1972 to 1979, when he retired from elective politics to return to business, although he remained politically active (DictNewfLabrador, pp. 229-230).
From the notes in Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou, it would seem that the author of this knew people who were resettled. It's really more a protest song than a true folk song -- note that it was collected from the author.
For another song on the subject, not collected from the author, see "The Leaving of Merasheen."
For another gripe about Smallwood, see "The Loggers' Plight." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe008

Blow Billy Boy Blow

See Blow, Boys, Blow (I) (File: Doe025)

Blow Boy Blow

See Blow, Boys, Blow (I) (File: Doe025)

Blow Bullies Blow (I)

See Blow, Boys, Blow (I) (File: Doe025)

Blow Fo' Ma Dogoma

DESCRIPTION: For x=("Play", "Blow", "Root", "Dance"), "x boy, x boy, x fo' Ma Dogoma. Anansi oh! x fo' Ma Dogoma. See how them boys are. x fo' Ma Dogoma. Anansi oh! x fo' Ma Dogoma"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: death ritual dancing music nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 60, "Blow Fo' Ma Dogoma" (1 text, 1 tune)
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 9, "Ma Dogoma" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [78 words]: The current description is based on the Elder-Charlottville text.
Elder-Charlottville: "Ma Dogoma the folk say, guards the gates of Death. No one can die unless she comes. At a wake-house 'the boys sing for Ma Dogoma' and dance the bongo. The bongo is a 'mirror-dance' i.e. two dancers compete with each other in performing identical steps to choral singing ...."
Anansi is the eponymous spider trickster of West Indian and Ashanti (West African) "Anansi stories." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElCh060

Blow Gabriel (I)

DESCRIPTION: The leader tells the Archangel Gabriel to blow his trumpet and tell everybody "wherever they be On lan' and sea" ... "that they got to meet"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 14, pp. 87-88, "Blow Gabriel" (1 text)
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, pp. 110-113, "Blow, Gabriel" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Lawrence McKiver and the McIntosh County Shouters, "Blow Gabriel" (on McIntosh1)
Freddie Palmer and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Blow Gabriel" (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation)
Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Blow Gabriel (Judgement Day)(I)", St Simon's Island GA, October 1959, Association for Cultural Equity Alan Lomax Collection, ref=T923R11, accessed 19 July 2023 from Lomax Digital Archive at https://archive.culturalequity.org/field-work/southern-us-1959-and-1960/st-simons-island-i-1059/blow-gabriel-i
NOTES [53 words]: The description follows the leader's lines on McIntosh1. The responses to alternate lines are "Judgment" and "Judgment bar." - BS
The Parrish text and Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree/McIntoshShouters-RingShoutSongs text and track are "ring shout" songs. The McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation video shows the shout. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Parr014

Blow Gabriel (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, when I was lost in the wilderness, King Jesus handed the candles down, And I hope that trumpet going to blow me home, To the new Jerusalem. Blow, Gabriel." Moses smote the waters. The Israelites crossed. Joshua stopped the sun. Jesus was there.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus travel
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 755, "Blow Gabriel" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BrS5755

Blow High Blow Low

DESCRIPTION: "Blow high blow low let tempests tear The mainmast by the board My heart with thoughts of thee my dear And love well stored Shall brave all danger scorn all fear...." As the sailor works and rests aboard ship, he remembers his love
AUTHOR: Charles Dibdin (1745-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (date of composition)
KEYWORDS: sailor separation lover
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 256-257, "Blow High Blow Low" (1 text)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XCII, pp. 184-185, "Blow High, Blow Low" (1 text)
ST SWMS256 (Full)
Roud #2069
NOTES [438 words]: This is among the most popular of the works of Charles Dibdin (1745-1814), one of Britain's chief nautical songwriters.
Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, Editors, British Authors Before 1800: A Biographical Dictionary, H. W. Wilson, 1952 (I use the fourth printing of 1965), p. 153, note that Dibdin published an autobiography, The Professional Life of Mr. Dibdin, Written By Himself, Together with the Words of Six Hundred Songs. Of this 1803 book Kunitz/Haycraft say it "gives a good deal of interesting detail about the theatrical life of the day, although it is on the whole a dreary and egotistical account, notable for its inaccuracies." They also mention as a source W. Kitchener, A Breif Memoir of Charles Dibdin, With Some Letters and Documents Supplied by His Grand-Daughter. These do not appear to have made it to Google Books yet, although Google Books does have a two-volume chronological set of his works featuring a memoir by George Hogarth, who seems to have been published several other times as well.
It should perhaps not be regarded as surprising that Dibdin's autobiography is less than accurate, because he seems to have been a rather strange figure. His education, general and musical, seems to have been limited, according to Kunitz/Haycroft. He apparently began his professional musical career around the age of fourteen, when his brother Thomas, who had experience at sea, brought him to London.
Dibdin's first major work was a musical, "The Shepherd's Artifice," which he produced in 1762. He worked for some years with the well-known producer David Garrick, but they fell out and Dibdin began staging his own one man shows. Kunitz/Haycroft say he had "two wives and an extraordinary number of enemies." One wife, Harriet Pitt, was a dancer in Covent Garden; they had three children, two of whom became known as playwrights. But Dibdin's finances were as complicated as his private life; he was bad at managing money, and was usually in poverty.
He is credited with some 1400 songs, of which the nautical songs are widely regarded as the best, and 30 (generally musical) dramas, although the latter are not considered to be very good.
Other songs in the Index attributed to Dibdin include "Tom Bowling (I)" (which Kunitz/Haycroft consider his best; it was written to commemorate his brother Thomas), the "High Barbaree" version of "The George Aloe and the Sweepstake" [Child 285; Laws K33], "Tom Tough," "Sailor's Journal," "Lass That Loves a Sailor (II -- The Standing Toast)," and probably "Sailor's Consolation," "Poor Jack (III)," "The Greenwich Pensioner," and "The Lucky Escape" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: SWMS256

Blow Job Service

DESCRIPTION: Plug-in-a-name taunt song: "Don't be shy, don't be nervous, Go to X's blow job service, Bring a nickel, bring a dime, X will blow you any time. And if you pay with MasterCard, X will blow you extra hard. So don't be shy, don't be nervous, Go to X's...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2023 (Derek Piotr archive)
KEYWORDS: bawdy nonballad | insult
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Travis Johnson, "Blow Job Service" (Piotr-Archive #513, recorded 03/08/2023)
File: DPio513

Blow My Bully Boys

See Blow, Boys, Blow (I) (File: Doe025)

Blow On! Blow On! The Pirate's Glee

DESCRIPTION: "Blow on! blow on! we love the howling Of winds that waft us o'er the sea; As fearless as the wolf that's prowling Upon our native hills are we." "Flash on, flash on! We love the gleaming... The black flag still is proudly streaming...."
AUTHOR: Words: Arthur Morrill / Music: Benjamin Franklin Baker (1811-1889) (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (sheet music, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 54, "Blow On! Blow On! The Pirate's Glee" (1 text, 1 tune; as "The Pirate's Glee" the text is #51 in the first edition)
File: FrPi054

Blow the Candle Out [Laws P17]

DESCRIPTION: The singer comes to visit his love on a moonlit night. She lets him in. He points out that her parents are in bed in the next room; he suggests rolling into his arms and blowing out the candles. (Nine months later, when he is gone, she has a child)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1714 (Pills to Purge Melancholy) as "The London 'Prentice"
KEYWORDS: courting nightvisit pregnancy bawdy apprentice
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,NE,So) Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws P17, "Blow the Candle Out"
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 61-65, "Blow the Candle Out" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 114, pp. 140-141, "The Jolly Boatsman" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 788, "Blow the Candle Out" (5 texts, 5 tunes plus a single verse on p. 541)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 170, "Blow the Candle Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 74, "Blow the Candle Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 160, "Blow the Candle Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p.247, "Blow the Candle Out" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 95, "Blow the Candle Out" (1 text)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 197, "Your Father and Your Mother, Love" (1 fragment, 1 tune, probably this although the text is too short to have any plot)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 156, "Blow The Candles Out" (1 text)
DT 499, CANDLOUT*
Roud #368
RECORDINGS:
Jumbo Brightwell, "Blow the Candle Out" (on Voice10)
Jimmy Gilhaney, "Blow the Candle Out" (on FSB02, FSB2CD)
Martin Howley, "Blow the Candle Out" (on IRClare01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 168, "Blow the Candle Out," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(335), Harding B 20(139), Firth c.18(294), Firth b.25(299), Harding B 11(336), Harding B 16(26c), Johnson Ballads 1279, Firth b.34(33), Harding B 17(30b), "Blow the Candle Out"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dash Along" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Johnson Ballads 1279)
cf. "Come Into My Arms" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Harding B 17(30b))
cf. "Erin's Lovely Home" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The London 'Prentice
File: LP17

Blow the Fire, Blacksmith

DESCRIPTION: The singer would rather have "a young man, With an apple in his hand, Than I would have an old man, With all his house and land." An old man complains of his weary life; a young man "comes jumping in" to kiss his wife.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (_Cock Robin, and Other Nursery Rhymes and Jingles _)
KEYWORDS: age marriage nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 305, "(I'd rather have a young man with an apple in his hand)" (1 fragment) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 265, "I'd Rather Have a Young Man")
ADDITIONAL: "Cock Robin", Cock Robin, and Other Nursery Rhymes and Jingles (London, 1883 (date per Google Books, "Digitized by Google")), p. 16, "Blow the Fire, Blacksmith" (1 text)
Roud #12869 and 2897
File: WT305I

Blow the Man Down

DESCRIPTION: A tale of a sailor's adventures. Perhaps he serves under a difficult captain; perhaps he meets a girl (and "[gives] her my flipper") who spends his money or sells him off to sea; perhaps his heroic exploits in port earn him a night (or more) in prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Syracuse _Daily Courier_, July 25 edition, according to Jonathan Lighter)
KEYWORDS: bawdy shanty sailor travel shanghaiing
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Mar) West Indies(Bahamas,Tobago,Nevis,St Vincent)
REFERENCES (45 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 17-22, "Blow the Man Down" (5 texts, 2 tunes. The first text is influenced by "Ratcliffe Highway"; the fourth is "The Three Ravens" (!); the last is largely "The Salt Horse Song")
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 57-60, "Blow the Man Down" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 53-59, "Blow the Man Down" (3 texts, 1 tune. First text is what Hugill would call the Blackballer version; second text is the Flying Fish Sailor; third is along the lines of Ratcliffe Highway)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 92-95, "Blow the Man Down" (2 texts, 1 tune. Both texts are related to Ratcliffe Highway)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 122, "Goodbye, Fare-Ye-Well" (1 text, version C of "Homeward Bound") [AbrEd, p. 105]; p. 200, "Knock a Man Down" (1 text, 1 tune -- quoting Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys) [AbrEd, p. 155]; pp. 203-214, "Blow the Man Down" (6 texts plus several fragments, 1 tune. The first text is a sanitized "Ratcliffe Highway" version; the fourth is the "Song of the Fishes," the fifth is a version of "Rolling in the Dew," and the seventh is "Quare Bungo Rye.") [AbrEd, pp. 158-167]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 76, "Blow the Man Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 31-32, "Blow the Man Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXXIX p. 44-45, "Knock a Man Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 77-82, "Blow th' Man Down" (2 texts, 1 tune; the second text may have a bit of "Cruising Round Yarmouth" in it)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 86-88, "Blow the Man Down" (3 texts, 1 tune); pp. 172-173. "Blow the Man Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 48, "Yankee Backra" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 128-131, "Blow the Man Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 243-244, 'Blow the Man Down" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 209, "(Blow the Man Down)" (1 text, which appears to be two verses of "Blow the Man Down" and three of "Blow, Boys, Blow (I)" combined)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 38-39, "The Black Ball Line" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 39-40, "Blow the Man Down, I" (1 text); p. 40, "Blow the Man Down, II" (1 text plus an alternate chorus)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 21, "Blow the Man Down" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 107, "Blow the Man Down" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 68-69, "Blow the Man Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 459-460, "Blow the Man Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 31, (no title) (1 text, short, perhaps not this song but with the key line in modified form and too short to link to anything else) (OakEd, pp. 43-44)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #16, "Blow the Man Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 62-63,99-100,104-105, "Blow the Man Down" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 491-493, "Blow the Man Down" (1 full +2 partial texts, the second seemingly being actually "Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn)", 1 tune)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 48, p. 205, "Knock a Man Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 778, "Blow the Man Down" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 52-53, "Radcliffe Highway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 404-405, "Blow the Man Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 157-158, "Blow the Man Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 108, "Blow the Man Down" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 310-311, "Blow the Man Down" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 54-55, "Blow the Man Down!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 39, "Blow The Man Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 468, "Blow the Man Down" (1 short text, 1 tune, omitting most of the plot)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 152, "Blow the Man Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 90, "Blow the Man Down" (1 text)
Brand-BawdySeaSong 9, "Blow the Man Down" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 146-147, "Blow the Man Down"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 55, "Blow the Man Down" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 40, "Blow the Man Down" (1 text, 1 tune, which I suspect is rewritten)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 35, "Blow the Man Down" (1 text, 1 tune, probably rewritten)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 36, "Blow the Man Down" (1 text, probably rewritten)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 105, "Blow the Man Down" (1 short text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 16, "Blow the The Man Down" (1 text, 1 town)
DT, BLOWDOWN* BLOWDWN2* BLOWDWN3* BLOWDWN4* BLOWDWN5 BLOWDWN6*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Blow the Man Down" is in Part 3, 7/28/1917.
Roud #2624
RECORDINGS:
Almanac Singers, "Blow the Man Down" (General 5016A, 1941; on Almanac02, Almanac03, AlmanacCD1)
Noble B. Brown, "Blow the Man Down (I)" (AFS, 1946; on LC27)
Woody Guthrie, "Blow the Man Down" (Commodore 3006, n.d. -- but this may be the same recording as the General disc by the Almanac Singers)
G. Lotson, "Blow the Man Down" (AFS A-397, 1926)
Richard Maitland, "Blow the Man Down (II)" (AFS, 1939; on LC27)
Minster Singers, "Blow the Man Down" [medley w. "Rio Grande"] (Victor 61148, n.d., prob. c. 1903)
Pete Seeger, "Blow the Man Down" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a) (on PeteSeeger23)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ratcliffe Highway" (lyrics)
cf. "The Salt Horse Song" (lyrics)
cf. "The Three Ravens" [Child 26] (lyrics)
cf. "Ane Madam" (tune)
cf. "Et Nous Irons a Valapariso" (partial tune)
cf. "A Ship Was Becalmed in a Tropical Sea" (tune and form)
SAME TUNE:
Roll 'Im On Down (sung by David Pryor on AFS 507 B, 1935; on LC08)
Ane Madam (File: Hugi215)
Johnny Fernandes (Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 218-219)
NOTES [379 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas defines six versions of this: a) The Flash Packet (from Ratcliffe Highway); b) The Sailing of the Blackballer; c) The Flying Fish Sailor or Policeman - where a sailor is mistaken for a "Blackballer" or "packet rat" (whom the crews of clippers generally considered to be a lower form of marine life); d) The Fishes (i.e. "Song of the Fishes/Blow Ye Winds Westerly"); e) The Milkmaid (i.e. "Rolling in the Dew"); and f) Bungyereye (i.e. "Quare Bungo Rye"). - SL
The David Pryor recording ["Roll 'Im On Down"; see the "Same Tune" field] is actually a boat-launching song with different lyrics but the same tune and structure. - PJS
Some versions of this song mention that "Kicking Jack Williams commands the Black Ball." Williams was a historical figure, known for driving his crews hard; he commanded the American clipper Andrew Jackson (launched 1855 as the Belle Haxie and given a new name after changing owners). In 1859-1860, Williams caused the Jackson to make the fastest clipper trip ever, "pilot to pilot," from New York to San Francisco -- 89 days 4 hours. (The record for fastest trip, anchor to anchor, is held by the Flying Cloud, but circumstances were somewhat different in that case.)
The above information comes from Lincoln P. Paine's Ships of the World (entry on the Andrew Jackson, which cites this song). Shay, however, quotes Robert Greenhalgh Albion's Square Riggers on Schedule, which states that the only Captain Williams who served on the Black Ball Line was a different John Williams, commanding the Pacific. If so, it appears the two have been conflated.
To try to solve this, I consulted Glenn A. Knoblock, The American Clipper Ship, 1845-1920: A Comprehensive History with a Listing of Builders and Their Ships, McFarland & Company, 2014, p. 87, which has a photo and bio of Williams: "Captain John E. 'Jack' Williams. This native of England came to America at a young age and settled in Mystic, Connecticut. He rose through the ranks to become a noted officer in the Black Ball Line of packets sailing between New York and Liverpool, but gained undying fame when he took over command of the clipper Andrew Jackson and set the all-time speed record on the California run in 1859 and 1860." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Doe017

Blow the Wind Southerly

DESCRIPTION: "Blow the wind southerly, southerly, southerly, Blow the wind southerly, South or southwest." The girl hopes that her love will return to her quickly
AUTHOR: unknown (some versions reworked by John Stubbs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: love separation return
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 18-19, "Blaw the Wind Southerly" (1 fragment plus the Stubbs text, 1 tune)
ST StoR018 (Full)
Roud #2619
ALTERNATE TITLES:
cf. "Song of the Fishes (Blow Ye Winds Westerly)" (lyrics)
File: StoR018

Blow the Wind Westerly

See Song of the Fishes (Blow Ye Winds Westerly) (File: LxA496)

Blow the Wind Whistling

See Song of the Fishes (Blow Ye Winds Westerly) (File: LxA496)

Blow the Winds I Oh

See Ten Thousand Miles Away (File: MA084)

Blow the Winds, I-Ho!

See The Baffled Knight [Child 112] (File: C112)

Blow Ye Winds

See Ten Thousand Miles Away (File: MA084)

Blow Ye Winds High-O (Blow the Winds I-Ho, etc.)

See The Baffled Knight [Child 112] (File: C112)

Blow Ye Winds in the Morning

DESCRIPTION: The call is going out for whalermen in New England. The song warns of the conditions the potential recruit will face: Boarding masters, hard times at sea, the dangers of taking the whale. Chorus: "Blow ye winds in the morning, Blow ye winds high-o...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Journal of the Elizabeth Swift)
KEYWORDS: whaler ship sea work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 44, "Blow, Ye Winds in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 829-831, "Blow, Ye Winds" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 42-46, "Blow Ye Winds" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 24-26, "Blow Ye Winds" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 126-128, "Blow, Ye Winds" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 191-192, "Blow, Ye Winds" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 130-131, 211-213 "Blow Ye Winds in the Morning" "It's Advertised in Boston" (2 texts, 2 tunes -- second version has a different chorus, "Cheer up lively lads, in spite of stormy weather. Cheer up...we'll all get drunk together")
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 219-224, "Blow, Ye Winds" (3 texts plus several fragments, 3 tunes) [AbrEd, pp. 168-171]
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 118, "Blow Ye Winds" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 100-101, "Blow Ye Winds, Aye-O" (1 fragment, 1 tune, padded out to be a full song, but there is no real reason to think the additional words are the right ones)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 318-319, "Blow Ye Winds" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 85, "Blow Ye Winds In The Morning" (1 text)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 84, "Blow, Ye Winds" (1 text, 1 tune)
33MuchLovedSongs, pp. 2-3, "Blow, Ye Winds" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BLOWYE*
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, pp. 346-347, "Blow Ye Winds in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart Gordon, _A History of the World in Sixteen Shipwrecks_, ForeEdge, 2015, p. 172, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #2012
RECORDINGS:
Almanac Singers, "Blow Ye Winds, Heigh Ho" (General 5015A, 1941; on Almanac02, Almanac03, AlmanacCD1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Coast of Peru" [Laws D26] (floating verses)
cf. "Peter Gray" (chorus lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
There's Culling To Be Done (File: Garl290)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Blow, Boys, Blow
NOTES [122 words]: Whalers were considered the lowest sort of sailors; most seamen had to be desperate to ship on a whaler. This song perhaps helps explain why.
There is some hyperbole in here that perhaps takes some explaining. Versions may refer to the ship taking "500 sperm" in a season. This is not possible; a ship could not find that many whales, could not kill them, could not process them, and could not carry that much oil back to port! Checking records from the 1880s, the most whales I saw taken by any ship in a season was sixteen. There were doubtless cases of a ship taking more -- I was only spot-checking, and whales had been more common in the earlier years of whaling. But "500 sperm" is at least ten times the maximum possible. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LxU044

Blow Ye Winds, Ay Oh

See Ten Thousand Miles Away (File: MA084)

Blow Ye Winds, Aye-O

See Blow Ye Winds in the Morning (File: LxU044)

Blow Yo' Whistle, Freight Train

DESCRIPTION: "Blow yo' whistle, freight train, take me down the line...." "That old freight train movin' along to Nashville, Holds a charm that is a charm for me, Makes me think of good old boomer days gone by." The singer wants to ramble but cannot
AUTHOR: probably the Delmore Brothers
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (recording, Delmore Brothers)
KEYWORDS: train nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 519-520, "Blow Yo' Whistle, Freight Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
The Delmore Brothers, "Blow Yo' Whistle, Freight Train" (Bluebird 5925, 1935)
NOTES [51 words]: This song feels like it "ought to" have another verse, probably in which the singer explains that he can't leave his family/home/something, which makes me wonder if there isn't something which predates the Delmore Brothers recording. But Cohen mentions no such thing, and I have never met such a song. - RBW
File: LSRai519

Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel (Paul and Silas)

DESCRIPTION: "Paul and Silas, bound in jail." "Blow your trumpet, Gabriel, Blow louder, louder,And I hope the trump might blow me home." "There is a tree in paradise."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates) [see notes]
KEYWORDS: religious music floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 3, "Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel" (2 short texts, 2 tunes, both with the floating "Paul and Silas" verse; the first text also contains the floating "Tree in Paradise" verse)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 25, p. 212, "Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel" (1 text)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 86, "Blow Your Trumpet, Gabriel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11860
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All My Trials" (lyrics)
NOTES [171 words]: The notes to Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates's second text is "as heard ... in Charleston, some twenty-five years ago." - BS
This seems to be one of those pieces where everything floats; it may well be that it is a fragment of somen other song, but it's hard to guess which.
It should probably be noted that, while the Apocalypse associates trumpets with the end of the world (e.g. Rev. 8:2, 6, 13), the name of Gabriel is not mentioned at all in that book (some claim that, since he is one who stands in the presence of God, he must be one of the seven angels of Rev. 8:2, but that's a forced interpretation). Gabriel is mentioned only in Daniel and Luke, and in both cases he is messenger, not destroyer (though in Daniel he is explaining the last days).
The apocryphal books make more of Gabriel; and in Enoch he is charged with destroying the wicked. But that still isn't the same as sounding the Last Trump. The belief that this is Gabriel's responsibility is pure folklore, though early and common folklore. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: AGW003

Blow, Blow, Bully Boys Blow

DESCRIPTION: "A sailor is a flirtin' man, Blow, blow Bully boys, blow.... A-breakin' a lassie's heart if he can." Sailors drink. The singer won't treat "Burma Pete" to a drink. The girls don't stand a chance with sailors
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: sailor sex drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 141-143, "Blow, Blow, Bully Boys Blow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #319 and/or 703
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blow, Boys, Blow (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [56 words]: I can't really decide whether this is a version of "Blow, Boys, Blow (I)" or not. So I've split it. But there is almost certainly some degree of relationship. The version in Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe in any case seems to consist of several songs cobbled together. Roud has the same problem, listing it as "319 or 703." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: NiMo141

Blow, Boys, Blow (I)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Blow, boys, blow... Blow, my bully bows, blow!" Often liberally sprinkled with floating verses, the basic version seems to be about a shining Yankee clipper on her way to China. It describes several members of the crew
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor ship slavery Black(s) moniker
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Australia Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) West Indies(Jamaica,Tobago) Ireland
REFERENCES (31 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 25-29, "Blow, Boys, Blow" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 60-62, "Blow, Boys, Blow" (1 composite text plus some loose verses, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 93-94, "A Yankee Ship Came Down the River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 18, p. 27, "Blow, Boys, Blow" (1 fragment, probably this although it's too short to be sure)
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 57-58, "Blow, Boys, Blow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 126-127 "Blow, Boys, Blow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 238, "Rolling John" (1 short text, with lines typical of this song although it has the chorus "Ha, ha, rolling John" rather than "Blow, boys, blow")
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 59-60, "Blow, Bullies, Blow" (1 text plus a verse of another, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 126-127, "A Yankee ship came down East River" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 2, "Blow, Boys. Blow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #15, "Blow my bully boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 558-560, "Blow, Boys, Blow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 91-92, "Blow Bullies Blow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 100, "Blow, Boys, Blow" (1 text)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, p. 29, "Blow, Boys, Blow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 50-51, "Blow, Boys, Blow" (1 text plus 3 fragments, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 66-67, "Blow Boys Blow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 224-231, "Blow, Boys, Blow'" (4 texts, 2 tunes; the 4th text is a Norwegian version taken from Sternvall's _Sang under Segal_) [AbrEd, pp. 172-175]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 148, "Blow, Boys, Blow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, L, p. 55, "Blow, Boys, Come Blow Together" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 84-85, "Blow, My Bully Boys, Blow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 31-34, "Oh What a Hell of a Wedding"; pp. 55-57, "Blow Boy Blow" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 209, "(Blow the Man Down)" (1 text, which appears to be two verses of "Blow the Man Down" and three of "Blow, Boys, Blow (I)" combined)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 128, "(Blow, Boys, Blow)" (1 excerpt)
Heart-Songs, p. 465, "Blow, Boys, Blow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 30, "Blow, My Bully Boys, Blow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 35, "Blow, My Bully Boys, Blow" (1 tet)
DT, BLOWBOYS* BLOWBOY2* CONGORIV*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Blow, Boys, Blow" is in Part 1, 7/14/1917.
Olive Lewin, "Rock It Come Over" - The Folk Music of Jamaica (Barbados: The University of the West Indies Press, 2000), p. 99, "Blow Boy Blow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olive Lewin, Forty Folk Songs of Jamaica (Washington: General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, 1973), pp. 45-46, "Blow Billy Boy Blow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #703
RECORDINGS:
Noble B. Brown, "Blow, Boys, Blow" (AFS, 1946; on LC26)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shallow Brown (II)" (lyrics)
cf. "Blow, Blow, Bully Boys, Blow" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Glasgow Lasses
NOTES [440 words]: Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman reports that "[The] captain was sometimes said to be 'Bully Hayes ["Haines," in Bone-CapstanBars's text], the Down East bucko,' who was lost in 1848 with the clipper ship Rainbow (not to be confused with the later South Seas blackbirder)." There was at least one other well-known captain called "Bully Hayes," however; according to Robert Hoskins, Goldfield Balladeer: The Life and Times of the celebrated Charles R. Thatcher, William Collins (New Zealand), 1977, p. 68, in 1863, several shanties opened in 1863 in the Arrow region of New Zealand. "The proprietor of one hotel was the infamous Captain William Henry Hayes, known to all as Bully Hayes. Hayes was a picturesque villain -- big, handsome, powerful, pleasant in manner, an astute financier, and a clever navigator. He was also the Prince of Rogues -- unprincipled adventurer, liar, fraud, and notorious American freebooter." Apparently he decided to settle down in 1863, but Hoskins tells nothing of his previous career as a seaman. Obviously he did the Pacific, however, which fits the trip to China in some versions of the song. He was also missing an ear, which resulted in a good deal of ridicule from his competitors (Hoskins, pp. 70-71). - RBW
Other versions of the song are about a slave-ship taking contraband slaves past the embargo (after slaving was outlawed). - PJS
An example of this is Shay's text, and Bone-CapstanBars had heard such verses though they aren't part of his main version.
The importation of slaves into the United States was forbidden as early as 1808, with stronger enforcement passed in 1819. This wasn't entirely a moral act, however; legislators from northern slave states supported it because it let them breed slaves for the deep South. (Which is one reason why the Confederacy, after breaking off from the Union, maintained its own ban.)
The side effect of that was, of course, smuggling -- and a worsening of conditions aboard slavers. Native-born slaves had to be fed and housed as they grew up, making them expensive. Imported slaves were less useful, but the only expense was the importing. Even at prices far below American-born slaves, they brought high profits.
And, because even a sick slave brought some money, and there was no one regulating them, there was no incentive at all for the slaver to treat them decently. "Wastage," they called it, and treated it as part of the job. Somehow the words "wilful murder" never entered their vocabulary. - RBW
Abrahams's "Oh What a Hell of a Wedding" takes its theme and some lines from "The Monkeys Wedding," which we have from the West Indies. - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Doe025

Blow, Boys, Blow (II)

See Blow Ye Winds in the Morning (File: LxU044)

Blow, Bullies, Blow (II)

See The Liverpool Judies (Row, Bullies, Row; Roll, Julia, Roll) (File: Doe106)

Blow, Gabriel, Blow

DESCRIPTION: "Blow, Gabriel, bow -- blow the righteous home! I belong to the band, Hallelujah! Hallelujah, hallelujah, I do belong to the band... Blow, Gabriel, blow....." "If my mother wants to go, Why don't you come along." "If my sister wants to go...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 233, "Blow, Gabriel, Blow" (1 text)
Roud #18150
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Hope I'll Join the Band (Soon in the Morning)" (lyrics)
File: KiWaBlGB

Blow, My Bully Boys, Blow!

See Blow, Boys, Blow (I) (File: Doe025)

Blowin' in the Wind

DESCRIPTION: "How many roads must a man walk down Before you call him a man?" And other rhetorical questions, with the answer "blowin' in the wind"
AUTHOR: Bob Dylan
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (source: Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 254, 550, 551, "Blowin' in the Wind" (notes only)
DT, BLOWWIND
Roud #36094
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Many Thousand Gone (Auction Block)" (portion of tune)
SAME TUNE:
How Many Beans in a Can of Hormel? (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 254)
The Ants Are My Friends/Ants Are Blowing in thef Wind (cf. mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: Ants Are Blowing in the Wind")
NOTES [22 words]: Please note that no attempt will be made to list printings of this song. I'm listing only versions that hint at oral transmission. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ACSF254B

Blue

See Old Blue (File: R295)

Blue and the Gray (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "A mother's gift to her country's cause is a story yet untold, She had three sons...." All three boys died at war. Two died for the Confederacy in the Civil War; a third died for the Union in Santiago. The singer hopes mother and sons will meet in heaven.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922
KEYWORDS: war death Civilwar mother
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 56, p. 129, "The Blue and the Gray" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, p. 202, "The Blue and the Gray" (1 tune, partial text)
ST LPnd129 (Full)
Roud #4984
NOTES [182 words]: There were soldiers who fought in both the Civil War and Spanish-American War; a leading example is Joseph Wheeler, a Confederate cavalry general who was also a Major General at San Juan Hill and the siege of Santiago. M. Calbraith Butler was another Confederate cavalry general who also served in the later war. And then there was Johnny Clem, who joined the Confederate forces at age nine, and retired from the U. S. army as a general in 1916.
Still, the odds of one mother having a child die at Chickamauga (1863), Appomattox (i.e. probably Saylor's Creek in 1865, though very few men actually died there), and Santiago (1898) must be considered slight; the final son would surely have been a fairly senior officer, unlikely to be hurt -- and what are the odds that the mother would still be alive in 1898 anyway? She would have had to be in her seventies at least.
The feeling, though, is probably appropriate for this era of horrid sentimentality.
There were, of course, many poems of this name in the period shortly after the Civil War. Few had any more literary merit than this piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LPnd129

Blue and the Gray (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "By the flowing of the inland river, Where the fleet of iron has fled... Asleep are the ranks of dead." In one grave, the Blue (Union) soldier, in the other, the Gray. Most mourners leave flowers for only one, but one day, flowers appear for both
AUTHOR: Words: M. F. Finch / Music: Felix Schelling
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (sheet music published by Reed Meyer, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar death burial
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 353-355, "The Blue and the Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: SCWF353

Blue Bell

See Goodbye, My Blue Bell (File: Br3395)

Blue Bell Bull

DESCRIPTION: The cowboy boasts of his skill, only to draw "that Blue Bell bull." He admits "I'm lucky I ain't dead." He tries to ride the bull, but ends up spending "Eight long weeks in traction, I ain't never been the same." He warns other cowboys against bragging
AUTHOR: Johnny Baker
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: bragging cowboy injury injury
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 96, "Blue Bell Bull" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Ohr096

Blue Belle

See Goodbye, My Blue Bell (File: Br3395)

Blue Bells

See Bluebells, Cockleshells (File: SuSm104B)

Blue Bells of Scotland, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh where, please tell me where is your highland laddie gone? (x2) He's gone with the streaming banners where noble deeds are done...." He dwells in Scotland at the sign of the blue bell; he wears a plumed bonnet; if he dies, the pipes shall mourn him
AUTHOR: Annie McVicar (Grant) and Dorothy/Dorothea Bland Jordan (?)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1915 (recording, Inez Barbour), but known to have been in existence by the nineteenth century
KEYWORDS: soldier clothes separation home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(MA)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 196, "Blue Bells of Scotland" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 387, "The Blue Bells of Scotland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #24, "The Blue Bells of Scotland" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 60, "The Blue Bells of Scotland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 280, "The Blue Bells Of Scotland" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 739-740, "The Blue Bells of Scotland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 189, "The Blue Bells of Scotland" (notes only)
DT, BLUEBELL*
Roud #13849
RECORDINGS:
Inez Barbour, "Blue Bells of Scotland" (Phono-Cut 5198, c. 1915)
Ebor Morris, "Highland Laddie" (Piotr-Archive #70, recorded 08/15/2021, probably this although the text is truncated)
Ella Logan, "The Blue Bells of Scotland" (Brunswick 8196, 1938)
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y4:010, "The Blue Bells of Scotland," Sharp (London?), 19C; also Mu23-y4:029, "Blue Bells of Scotland," John Ross (Newcastle), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(083), "The Blue Bells of Scotland," unknown, n.d.
SAME TUNE:
The Pennsylvania Volunteers ("Oh! where, tell us where, are our gallant soldiers gone") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 126)
NOTES [93 words]: The notes at the National Library of Scotland site attribute this to the Napoleonic Wars. There is no evidence for this in the versions I've seen (it mentions "King George," but there was a King George continually from 1714 to 1837). There is a song in the Scots Musical Museum which may be related, but that *predates* the Napoleonic Wars.
According to Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, Dorothea Bland Jordan, often listed as the author, was an English actress. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB280A

Blue Bells, Cruicille Shells

See Bluebells, Cockleshells (File: SuSm104B)

Blue Bleezin' Blind Drunk (Mickey's Warning)

DESCRIPTION: "O friends, I have a sad story." The singer "married a man for his money, But he's worse than the devil himsel'. For when Mickey comes home I get battered." She vows to "get blue bleezin' blind drunk Just to give Mickey a warning" and hopes he reforms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (recording, Sheila Stewart)
KEYWORDS: drink money hardtimes abuse injury
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
Roud #6333
RECORDINGS:
Sheila Stewart, "Mickey's Warning" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
File: RcBlBlBl

Blue Bonnets Are Over the Border, The

DESCRIPTION: "Many a banner spread, Flutters above your head" as the Jacobites enter England. "March! March! Ettrick and Teviotdale... March! March! Eskdale and Liddesdale! All the blue bonnets are over the border." England will long remember the fight
AUTHOR: Sir Walter Scott?
EARLIEST DATE: 1822 (Scott, The Poetry Contained in the Novels, Tales, and Romances of the Author of Waverley)
KEYWORDS: Jacobite army travel
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 156-157, "Blue Bonnets Over the Border" (1 text) (p. 134 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #14076
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(43), "Blue bonnets over the border." A. Swindells (Manchester), 1796-1853; also Harding B 11(177), "Blue bonnets over the border" also Harding B 36(16)=Johnson Ballads fol. 26, "March! march! a favourite song," all J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(2308), "The blue bonnets are over the border," J Paul and Co. (London), 1838-1845; also Johnson Ballads fol. 140, "March! March!,"; also Johnson Ballads fol. 143, "March! march! Ettrick and Teviot dale,"; also Harding B 11(481)=Johnson Ballads 755=Johnson Ballads 756=Johnson Ballads 757, "March, march Ettrick & Teviodale" (sic); also Harding B 11(342), "The blue bonnets are over the border," all J. PItts (London), 1819-1844; also 2806 c.17(42), "Blue bonnets over the border," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also 2806 c.17(41), "Blue bonnets over the border," R. Peach (Birmingham), 1855-1875; also Harding B 11(3923), "Blue bonnets are over the border," unknown, n.d.; also Johnson Ballads 2532, "Scots, come o'e the border," unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 16(244c), "Scots, come o'er the border," unknown, n.d.; also Firth b.27(380), "The Blue bonnets o'er the Border," unknown, n.d.
NLScotland, RB.m.168(056), "The Blue Bonnets Are over the Border," unknown, n.d.
NOTES [47 words]: Often attributed to Sir Walter Scott (so, e.g., in Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania), but some have questioned this.
Laura Ingalls Wilder quotes a bit of this in The Long Winter, chapter 4, "October Blizzard" -- one of the strangest song citations in the whole series. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Shoe156

Blue Bottle

See The Holly Twig [Laws Q6] (File: LQ06)

Blue Cockade

See The Summer Morning (The White/Blue/Green Cockade) (File: StoR068)

Blue Eyed Ellen

See The Jealous Lover (II) (File: E104)

Blue Eyes

See Broken Ties (I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes) (File: BrII156)

Blue Flame, The

DESCRIPTION: "All under the stars, and beneath the green tree... A little blue flame, a-fluttering came." It comes to the cradle of the singer's baby, and steals the baby's soul away
AUTHOR: Words: Sabine Baring-Gould
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: death separation baby
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #67, "The Blue Flame" (1 text, 1 tune, the text non-traditional)
NOTES [79 words]: The notes in Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd seem to say that the tune of this was a version of "Rosemary Lane" [Laws K43], but that the text was too objectionable to print. For once, Baring-Gould wrote a song that had an actual plot worth mentioning, but it's still much too flowery. If he'd spent less time objecting to things, and more time printing what he actually collected, the world would probably be a better -- or at least more interesting -- place. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGSW067

Blue Glass

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, boys keep away from the girls I say, And give them plenty of room... Oh the blue glass, oh the blue glass, 'Tis a great discovery sure"; the "blue glass cure" will help you when sick. "It can even make an old maid young."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard)
KEYWORDS: warning courting drink
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 55-57, "Blue Glass" (1 text, 1 tune, part "The Bald-Headed End of the Broom," part "Blue Glass," a song which seems otherwise unattested)
Roud #2129
NOTES [107 words]: At Huntington notes, this is seems to be a combination of two songs, one the well-known "The Bald-Headed End of the Broom," the other, about the blue glass, otherwise unknown. Huntington thinks Welcome Tilton might have united them, which is certainly possible.
Huntington thinks the "blue glass" is one of those patent medicines that derived their "effect," such as it was, from alcohol. It does sound as if the "blue glass" is a liquid reinforcement, but I wonder a little if the "blue pill" -- the first effective syphilis cure, although very dangerous since it consisted of mercury compounds -- might not have influenced the song also. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: HuVi055

Blue Hen

See Betsy Brennan's Blue Hen (File: RcBBBHen)

Blue Jacket and White Trousers

See The Maid in Sorrow (Short Jacket) [Laws N12] (File: LN12)

Blue Juniata, The

DESCRIPTION: "Wild roved an Indian girl, bright Alfarata, Where sweeps the water of the blue Juniata." She lives free in the forest, praising her gentle lover. But now "Fleeting years have borne away the voice of Alfarata; Still sweeps the river of blue Juniata."
AUTHOR: Marion Sullivan Dix
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) love river
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 83, pp. 210-211, "The Blue Juniata" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 96, pp. 121-122, "Waters of Blue Juniata" (2 fragments)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #72, "Bright Alfaretta" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 157-158, "Alfarata, The Maid of Juniata"; "The Blue Juniata" (2 texts) (pp. 135-136 in the 1919 edition)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 98-99, "The Blue Juniata" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1042, p. 71, "The Indian Girl, or Bright Alfarata" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #6, p. 46, "The Blue Juniata" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 154, "The Blue Juniata" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 74, describes the original sheet music
Roud #4494
SAME TUNE:
Four Songs Within a Song ("Gay is our college life, With its fun and study") (by L. D. Pomeroy, [class of 18]68) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 14)
NOTES [525 words]: Laws condemns this as a mere "ballad-like piece," but it strikes me as very effective, as well as unusually sympathetic to Native Americans (though the girl's name is assuredly fake). Quite surprising for a piece composed in 1844 (see Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, p. 101).
According to Finson, pp. 260-261 n. 21, the first edition of this "lists Edward L. White as arranger, that is to say, he probably provided the 'symphonies' and accompaniments for piano. Little is known of [author Marion Dix] sullivan, save that she marries J. W. Sullivan in Boston during 1825."
Laura Ingalls Wilder quotes an unusually large excerpt of this in Little House on the Prairie (chapter 18, "The Tall Indian"). However, this particular section of the "Little House" books is of very dubious historical value -- the Ingalls family, although they did spend time in Kansas, did it very early in their careers; they moved to Kansas when Laura was only a year and a half old (Zochert, p. 22).
The sources I've consulted don't even explain why Wilder wrote Little House on the Prairie -- in her original non-fictional memoir, Pioneer Girl, she said very little about her early years (Hill, p. 7). Miller, pp. 205-207, cites family references to Little House on the Prairie as the "Indian Juvenile' -- but that doesn't explain it. All Hill can suggest (p. 8) is that Wilder, after finishing Little House in the Big Woods and Farmer Boy, was trying to give her fictional series a clear forward motion. But, of course, the family's peregrinations were not always westward: They went west from Wisconsin before Laura was old enough to remember, then headed back east. It would have been much more logical to proceed from Little House in the Big Woods, which could be based on her *second* stay in Wisconsin, to On the Banks of Plum Creek
The bottom line is that *nothing* in Little House on the Prairie can be treated as true autobiography, since it portrays Laura as a young but conscious girl, not a toddler. We're told that Laura heard about the time in Kansas from Ma and Pa and Mary Ingalls -- but, by the time Little House on the Prairie was written (finished early 1934, according to Miller, p. 205), all three of them were dead (Charles Ingalls in 1902, Caroline Quiner Ingalls in 1924, Mary Ingalls in 1928; Zochert, pp. 221-222).
For the later "Little House" books, Laura could consult her sister Carrie, and for the very late books, also her sister Grace and her husband Almanzo Wilder, but Little House on the Prairie is nothing but a memory of others' memories. And Laura had left South Dakota in the 1890s, so those memories of memories were mostly more than forty years old.
All that is to say that I really don't trust Little House on the Prairie as an indication of the popularity of this song in 1868-1869. The flip side is, it is quite clear that Laura Ingalls Wilder knew the song in the 1930s at least. And it wasn't because she had ever seen the Juniata, since the river is in Pennsylvania, flowing into the Susquehanna. The song is right in calling it beautiful; much of its length is considered scenic. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hud083

Blue Kerchief, The

See The Bonny Blue Handkerchief (File: HHH161)

Blue Monday

DESCRIPTION: "I went uptown last Saturday night, Intending to get one drink," "But it's always the same blue Monday, Blue Monday after pay, Your shots are bad...." The singer ways he won't have any more blue Mondays; he'll stop drinking and give his wife his pay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: drink wife money hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 368-370, "Blue Monday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7727
File: KPL368

Blue Mountain

DESCRIPTION: "My home it was in Texas, My past you must not know.... Blue Mountain, you're azure deep... Blue Mountain with a horsehead on your side, You've won my love to keep." Moments in the life of a cowboy: Drinking, wandering, wishing for mother
AUTHOR: F. W. Keller (source: Fife/Fife; Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work travel drink commerce moniker
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 88, "Blue Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 135-137, "Blue Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 605-606 "Blue Mountain" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, pp. 336-337, "Blue Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BLUMTNAZ*
Roud #10861
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "Blue Mountain" (on Thieme01)
NOTES [92 words]: Blue Mountain is a real place, in the Abajo Mountains in southeast Utah, about ten miles from the hamlet of Monticello; the nearest town of any size is Moab, a few dozen miles to the north. Google Maps lists it as a tourist attraction, but has no photos of it, so I can't tell if it has a horsehead on the side. There are many cliffs and crags in the vicinity, so the sides probably are steep.
According to the Fifes, Judge F. W. Keller had lived at Monticello, Utah early in his career. He was still alive when they published their book in 1956. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FCW088

Blue Mountain Lake (The Belle of Long Lake) [Laws C20]

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the "racket" on Blue Mountain Lake when Jim Lou and "lazy Jimmie Mitchell" fought. The song concludes with a joke about Nellie the camp cook, "the belle of Long Lake"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: cook fight moniker
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE,SE)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws C20, "Blue Mountain Lake (The Belle of Long Lake)"
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 59, "The Ballad of Blue Mountain Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 30-31, "The Ballad of Blue Mountain Lake" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 267, "(no title)" (4 sundry stanzas, from this or something like it)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 174-178, "The Belle of Long Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 49, "Blue Mountain Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 44, "The Rackets Around Blue Mountain Lake" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Frank L. Warner [nephew of Frank M. Warner], "Songs My Uncle Taught Me" Vol. XI, No. 1 (Jul 1963), pp. 24-25 "Blue Mountain Lake" (1 text)
DT 605, BLUEMTN*
Roud #2226
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Blue Mountain Lake" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Moosehead Lake" (floating verses)
cf. "Derry Down" (tune) and references there
NOTES [37 words]: This song shares at least three verses with "Moosehead Lake," as well as the "Derry Down" tune, but the remaining text (and the feeling) are just enough different that I -- very tentatively -- keep the songs separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LC20

Blue Muslin

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

Blue Ridge Mountain Blues

DESCRIPTION: "When I was young and in my prime, I left my home in Caroline, Now all I do is sit and pine, For those folks I left behind. I've got the Blue Ridge Mountain blues." The singer longs for home, and dreams of the aged parents at home whom he will soon see
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recordings, George Reneau [in April], Riley Puckett [in September])
KEYWORDS: separation home travel father mother nonballad homesickness home return reunion travel family dog
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 401, "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 401, "Blue Ridge Moountain Blues (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11758
RECORDINGS:
Bill Cox, "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues" (Champion S-16343 [as Luke Baldwin]/Superior 2778 [as Clyde Ashley], 1932; rec. 1931) (Melotone M12884/Oriole 8297/Conqueror 8232, 1933; Banner 32941/Romeo 5297/Perfect 12969, 1934) (Melotone (Canada) 45106/Champion 45106, 1935; rec. 1931)
Vernon Dalhart, "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues" (Banner 1611, 1925) (Challenge 164/Challenge 314, 1927; rec. 1925) (Broadway 8061, n.d.)
Cal Davenport & his Gang, Blue Ridge Mountain Blues (Vocalion 5398, 1929)
Sid Harkreader, "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues" (Vocalion 15193, 1926)
Al Hopkins & his Buckle-Busters, "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues" (Brunswick 180, 1927) [Hopkins had recorded the song with the Hill Billies in 1926, but I don't have the release number]
Wade Mainer, "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues" (Blue Ridge 109)
Charlie Newman, "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues" (OKeh 45184, 1928; rec. 1927)
Riley Puckett, "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues" (Columbia 254-D, 1924; Harmony 5127-H, n.d.) (Bluebird B-6196, 1935)
George Reneau (with uncredited vocals by Gene Austin), "Blue Ridge Blues" (Vocalion 14815, 1924)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues" (Okeh 45009, 1925)
Doc Watson, "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues" (on RitchieWatsonCD1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight?" (quoted)
NOTES [308 words]: The only authorship claim I've personally found for this lists it as copyright 1958 by Bill Clifton and Buddy Dee. Clifton, however, was born in 1931, and Riley Puckett recorded the song in 1924, so this claim is demonstrably false. Paul Stamler found it credited to Bill Cox, which is at least chronologically possible though he seems to have recorded it relatively late.
Jaan Kolk writes to me, "[Reneau's] earliest (known) recording credits 'Carson' as the songwriter on the disk label. Joop's page [http://jopiepopie.blogspot.ca/2013/06/blue-ridge-mountain-blues-1924.html] says (without reference) that the songwriter was Cliff Hess under the pseudonym Cliff Carson.This is plausible, as Hess did write songs, and other sources mention that it was Hess, as A&R man for Vocalion who did not like Reneau's voice and brought in Gene Austin to do the singing. Since both Austin and Hess worked for Victor as well, they might not have wanted their names on the label. I can find no other reference to Hess using that (or any other) pseudonym, however. When I saw the name 'Carson' I thought of Fiddlin' John Carson (from Georgia) who wrote a great many songs without filing copyright. But that is pure speculation on my part.
"Another site, http://www.paulcastlemusic.com/blue-ridge-mountain-blues.html attribute the statement that Hess wrote the song using the pseudonym Carson to musician and writer Kinney Rorer (great nephew of Posey Rorer)." Kolk does wonder, however, if Hess would have failed to put his name on a song that proved so popular.
I note also that the earliest recordings I've heard (Reneau's of 1924 and the Al Hopkins cut of 1926/1927) use a tune not quite the same as that generally heard in bluegrass circles today. Bill Monroe was surely responsible for popularizing the modified tune, but I don't know if he created it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Br3401

Blue Spells B-L-U-E

See Spelling Game (Blue spells B-L-U-E; T-W-O Spells Two; My Mother and Your Mother) (File: SuSm096F)

Blue Tail Fly, The

See The Blue-Tail Fly [Laws I19] (File: LI19)

Blue Tailed Fly,The

See The Blue-Tail Fly [Laws I19] (File: LI19)

Blue Velvet Band (I), The

See The Black Velvet Band (I) (File: R672)

Blue Velvet Band (II)

DESCRIPTION: Singer leaves home and his sweetheart, the girl in the blue velvet band. Five years later he still dreams of her every night. He returns home and "the old colored people" tell him she has died and been buried wearing his ring and the blue velvet band.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: love ring separation death
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 148-150, "The Girl in the Blue Velvet Band" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 51, "Blue Velvet Band" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3764
NOTES [282 words]: Hank Snow recorded this as "The Blue Velvet Band" in Montreal in 1937 on RCA LMP/LSP 6014 (source: Country Music Sources by Guthrie T Meade Jr, p. 40). You can see the lyrics on the Hank Snow site. In Snow's lyrics he hears the news when he reaches "the old country depot" rather than from "the old colored people." The cut is available on a number of CDs now including "Hank Snow -- I'm Movin On" on Prism Entertainment 928.
It's not clear to me whether the singer dreams of Blue Velvet Band every night for five years or one night after five years. That is, it may be that her appearance in his dream is what makes him decide to go home. Hank Snow apparently thought it was her appearance in the dream that was critical. In the lyrics Snow wrote to "The New Blue Velvet Band" the singer accuses Blue Velvet Band of "loving some man" and leaves her on "a tanker for Holland"; he dreams of her and is called on deck by the captain who tells him "This message just flashed o'er the wireless And your darlin' is dying tonight"; he goes back and knows she has died when he hears "the bell in the old country steeple." Source: sing365.com site - BS
The fullest forms of "The Girl in the Blue Velvet Band" (as in Spaeth) are a combination of the "Black Velvet Band" plot (girl causes guy to end up in prison) and the above "Blue Velvet Band" plot (he misses the dead girl). This great invertebrate mass was too long to be recorded on a 78, and Creighton declares that they are not to be confused. I (tentatively) disagree. I suspect that this version of the song is a "Blue Velvet Band" variant chopped down by someone to fit in three minutes. For more details, see "The Black Velvet Band (I)." - RBW
File: LLab051

Blue Wave, The

DESCRIPTION: The Triton, fishing the Grand Banks, hears that the Cape Dolphin and Blue Wave are sinking in a storm. They join the search for Blue Wave but "no sign of their missing boat was anywhere to be found"
AUTHOR: Jack Lushman
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 9, 1959 - Blue Wave and Cape Dauphin are lost but Cape Dauphin's crew are saved (per Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou, Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 9, "The Blue Wave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #30699
NOTES [46 words]: Frank Galgay and Michael McCarthy, Shipwrecks of Newfoundland and Labrador, [Volume I], Harry Cuff Publishing, 1987, p. 78, says of the Blue Wave, "Side trawler, foundered on the Grand Banks on or about 10 Fed 1959. Lost were Captain Charles Waters and a 16 man crew." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe09

Blue Yodel

DESCRIPTION: Fragments, mostly from Jimmie Rodgers Blue Yodels, with yodeling. See notes for examples.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (USDunbarS01)
KEYWORDS: love sex rejection travel derivative nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Scott Dunbar, "Blue Yodel" (on USDunbarS01)
NOTES [238 words]: The fragments, as modified, from Jimmie Rodgers Blue Yodels include:
Blue Yodel (No. 1) (Victor 21142, 1927): "... sleep in a holler log" and "I'm goin' wherer the water tastes like turpentine."
Blue Yodel No. 3 (Victor 21531, 1928): "Don't tell me no story, don't tell me no lie, Cause the day you quit me, that's the day I'll surely die," "Tell me baby where'd you stay last night" and "She telling me she ain't no hand me down."
Blue Yodel No. 4 (Victor V-40014, 1928) and Blue Yodel No. 5 (Victor 22072, 1929): "You talk about trouble, had it all day long."
Anniversary Blue Yodel (Blue Yodel No. 7) (Victor 22488, 1929): "Why would you, mama, even turn me down."
There are a number of candidate recording sources for one of Dunbar's line -- "Don't pick my peaches don't shake my tree" -- which may have come from Beale Street Sheiks (Stokes and Sane), "Mr. Crump Don't Like It," (Paramount 12552,1927) or Papa Charlie's (McCoy) Boys "Let My Peaches Be" (Bluebird B6408, 1936). Or it may have come from the "country" side of "Sitting On Top of the World"; for example, by Shelton Brothers "Sittin' on Top of the World" (Decca 6079, 1942 recorded 1935) and "I'm Sitting on Top of the World" (Decca 5190, 1936). Or, Dunbar may have heard it "on the street."
Finally, one fragment Dunbar repeats often to end a couplet is "coming in alone" which may have come from Mississippi Sheiks, "Yodeling Fiddle Blues" (OKeh 8834, 1930). - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcBlYod0

Blue Yodel #4

See California Blues (Blue Yodel #4) (File: Br3505)

Blue-birds and Yellow-Birds

See Bluebird (File: OpGa097)

Blue-Coat Man, The

See (tentatively) The Roving Gambler [Laws H4] (File: LH04)

Blue-Eyed Boy Is Mad At Me

See A Single Life (Single Is My Glory) (File: Br3018)

Blue-Eyed Boy, The

See My Blue-Eyed Boy (File: R759)

Blue-Eyed Ella

See The Jealous Lover (II) (File: E104)

Blue-Eyed Ellen

See The Jealous Lover (II) (File: E104)

Blue-Eyed Girl

See Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss (File: CSW066)

Blue-Eyed Lover

See Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection) (File: R755)

Blue-Haired Boy (Little Willie II, Blue-Haired Jimmy)

DESCRIPTION: (Willie/Jimmy) has gone ("He never died so suddenly before"). After undergoing horrendous medical treatments..."he sneezed and smiled and died/He blew his nose and smiled and died again". Singer vows to plant a bunch of whiskers on his grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (unissued recording, Cumberland Mountain Fret Pickers)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Parody of sentimental death songs; (Willie/Jimmy) has gone ("He never died so suddenly before). After undergoing horrendous medical treatments, including bathing his head in boiling lead and filling his mouth with glue..."he sneezed and smiled and died/He blew his nose and smiled and died again". Singer vows to go to the barber shop, per the deceased last request and plant a bunch of whiskers on his grave
KEYWORDS: disease grief request death dying mourning humorous nonsense paradox parody family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 30-31, "Blue-Haired Jimmy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 134-135, "Little Willie II" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #1411
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "Blue-Haired Jimmy" (on Barker01)
Cumberland Mountain Fret Pickers, "Little Blue-Haird (sic) Boy" (unissued Brunswick/Vocalion mx TK-145, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Willie (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [121 words]: It sounds like this should be a parody of a particular song, rather than a pastiche of a genre, but so far I haven't found an original on which it's based. - PJS
Listed by the Pankakes as being sung to "Jesse James," although other versions appear to use different tunes. One suspects that their tune is a retrofit by their informant -- or perhaps an assimilation to the familiar; the tune I seem to recall is similar to, but not quite the same as, "Jesse James."
The Pankakes also have a song (on the same page) called Little Willie I. It is by no means clear that this is the same song, but I haven't seen it elsewhere; I suspect it is a parody of all the various songs about murderers and other vile folks named Willie. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcBlHaJi

Blue-Haired Jimmy

See Blue-Haired Boy (Little Willie II, Blue-Haired Jimmy) (File: RcBlHaJi)

Blue-Tail Fly, The [Laws I19]

DESCRIPTION: A young slave is made into a household servant, with the particular task of keeping away the (stinging) blue-tail flies. One day the master goes out riding; a fly stings his pony; the master is thrown and dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844; a sheet music version was published by F. D. Benteen of Baltimore in 1846
KEYWORDS: bug servant death
FOUND IN: US(SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Laws I19, "The Blue-Tail Fly"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 414, "Jim Crack Corn" (1 text plus 2 mixed fragments and 2 excerpts)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #118, "Jenny Crack Corn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 453, "The Blue-Tail Fly" (1 text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 166-167, "Bluetail Fly" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 267, "The Blue-Tail Fly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 91-92, "Jim Crack Corn or the Blue Tail Fly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 201-203, "De Blue-Tail Fly" (1 text plus some fragments, 1 tune); also p. 190, (no title) (1 fragment, with a verse of "The Jaybird" and the chorus of this piece); also p. 224, (no title) (1 short text, with the "Jim crack corn" chorus and the "My ole mistus promised me" verse)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. ,64-65 "De Blue-Tail Fly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 212-214, "The Blue-Tailed Fly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 125, "The Blue-Tailed Fly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 217-219, "Shoo Fly" (1 text, 1 tune, mostly "Shoo Fly" but with the chorus of "Jimmie Crack Corn"/"The Blue-Tail Fly" [Laws I19])
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 66, "Jim Crack Corn (Blue-Tail Fly)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 709, "The Blue-Tail Fly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 12, "The Blue-Tail Fly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 72, "The Blue-Tail Fly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 68-70, "Jim Crack Corn" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 30, "The Blue-Tail Fly" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 312, "Jim Crack Corn"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 230, "Blue Tailed Fly"/"Jimmy Crack Corn" (notes only)
OneTuneMore, pp. 40-41, "Jimmie Crack Corn" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 477, "The Blue-Tailed Fly" (source notes only)
DT 669, BLUETAIL
ST LI19 (Full)
Roud #1274
RECORDINGS:
Bob Atcher, "Blue Tail Fly" (Columbia 20538, 1949)
Doc Hopkins, "The Blue Tailed Fly" (Radio 1410A, n.d., prob. late 1940s - early 1950s)
Bradley Kincaid, "The Blue Tail Fly" (Majestic 6010, 1947)
Pete Seeger, "Jim Crack Corn" (on PeteSeeger03, PeteSeegerCD03); "The Blue Tail Fly" (on PeteSeeger17)
Riley Shepard, "The Blue Tail Fly" (King 523, 1946)
Erica Warnock, Guy Wolff, "The Blue-Tail Fly" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #455, recorded 01/26/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shoo Fly" (chorus)
cf. "So Early in the Morning" (one verse)
SAME TUNE:
Good-By! Andy" ("Good-by, Andy, clear the way," an anti-Andrew Johnson song) (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 449)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jimmie Crack Corn
NOTES [191 words]: Sometimes credited to Dan Emmett (e.g. by Spaeth), and one of the earliest publications was in a series credited to him -- but the absence of his name on the earliest copies goes far toward discrediting his authorship. The connection probably arose because the Virginia Minstrels -- the band with which Emmett performed in the 1840s, which disbanded in 1844 -- played the song (see Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 181).- RBW
The subtext for this song is that the slave in fact killed the master himself, blaming it on the blue-tail fly. This is hinted at, to varying degrees, in some versions of the song. -PJS
Finson, p. 182, sees it differently, as part of a sort of levelling movement that arose out of the Jacksonian era. Many minstrel performers had their characters envision a world in which the dregs of society moved up (after all, if Blacks can rise in society, the argument would go, then anyone can). The Virginia Minstrels were not particularly noteworthy in this way, but this song had more of a political cast than most of their work. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LI19

Blue, and Green, and Red, and Yellow

See (references under) Apples and Oranges (File: ZiZa052B)

Bluebell (One Night I Thought I'd Enjoy Myself)

DESCRIPTION: "One night I thought I'd enjoy myself, I entered the music hall. The singer was singing 'Blue Bell," you could hear him in Montreal." Four singers in a row sing "Blue Bell" until someone hits him with a dumbell. Other jokes about "Blue Bell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2022 (Derek Piotr archive)
KEYWORDS: music humorous derivative horse racing marriage oldmaid
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
RECORDINGS:
Steve Gardham, "Bluebell" (Piotr-Archive #306, recorded 10/11/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Goodbye, My Blue Bell" (partial source of the tune and entire source of the joke)
cf. "The Old Maid and the Burglar" [Laws H23] ("Woman, for the Lord's sake shoot" line)
NOTES [98 words]: A parody of the 1904 song "Blue Bell" by Edward Madden (words) and Theodore F Morse (music), indexed as "Goodbye, My Blue Bell," which begins
Blue Bell, the dawn is waking,
Sweetheart, you must not sigh,
Blue Bell, my heart is breaking,
I've come to say goodbye....
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 265, estimates that this was the most popular song in America in 1904, peaking in popularity in May of the year, which would explain why Steve Gardham says everyone was singing it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio306

Bluebells, Cockleshells

DESCRIPTION: "Bluebells, Cockleshells, Evy ivy over, (You buy salt and I'll buy flour, And we'll bake a pudding). (Up the ladder And down the wall, A penny an hour Will serve us all.) Salt, mustard, vinegar, pepper"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty food jumprope | spices
FOUND IN: New Zealand US(MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(West) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #41, "Bluebells, cockleshells"; #42, "Bluebells, my cockleshells" (2 text, the first just "Bluebells, cockleshells, Eevy, ivy, over"; the second including the "SIx white angels by my side... two to carry my soul away" floating verse)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 104, "(Bluebells, cockleshells)" (2 texts); p. 107, "(Bluebells, cockleshells)" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 83, "(Bluebells, cockle-shells)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 26, "(Bluebells, cockle shells)" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 224, "Blue bells, cockle shells" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 50, "Dr. Brown"; "How Many Miles" (2 texts, with different conclusions but the same opening)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #2, "Blue bells, cruicille shells"; #17, "(Blue bell, cocker shell)"; #69, "(Blue bell, Cockle shell)"; #75, "(Blue bell, cockle shells)" (4 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 120, "Blue bells, cockle shells"; p. 126, "Bluebells, cockleshells" (2 texts); cf. p. 121, "Eevy Ivy, eevy, ivy, eevy, ivy, over" (1 text, with this chorus line although it's about Professor Bright teachig children)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Teri John, "A Collection of Jump Rope Rhymes," Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), p. 16, "(Silver bells, Cockle Shells)" (1 text); p. 17, "(Salt, Vinegar, Mustard, Pepper)"; "(Vinegar, Salt, And red-hot pepper)" (2 texts, which might be this or one of the other "vinegar" verses)
Roud #19213 and 19426
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mabel, Mabel" (verse regarding vinegar, salt, mustard, pepper)
cf. "Baker, Baker, Bake Your Bread" (verse regarding vinegar, salt, mustard, pepper)
cf. "One to Make Ready" (verse regarding vinegar, salt, mustard, pepper)
cf. "Up the Ladder, Down the Wall" ("You buy X and I'll buy Y" lyric)
cf. "Wavy, Wavy, Turn the Rope Over" (lyrics)
NOTES [83 words]: Based on the citations in Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, this must be one of the four or five most popular jump-rope rhymes in the English-speaking world -- although it takes on so many floating verses that it's hard to really decide what is this and what is some other verse. (More than half the citations in Abrahams appear to be mixes of this with other rhymes.)
The "Salt, mustard, vinegar, pepper" not only floats, it seems to have existed on its own; see the fragment on p. 78 of Brady-AllInAllIn. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SuSm104B

Bluebells, my cockleshells

See Bluebells, Cockleshells (File: SuSm104B)

Blueberry Ball, The

DESCRIPTION: The Jubilee lands its freight at Daniel's Harbour and stays three days. The crew and sharemen dance all night, have a good "scuff" and leave to "prepare for a time in the bay"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: fight ship dancing drink humorous brawl
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 43-44, "The Blueberry Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9945
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "The Blueberry Ball" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [26 words]: Daniel's Harbour is on the northwest coast of Newfoundland, north of St Paul's [perhaps, since 1973, I should place it north of Gros Morne National Park] - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea043

Blueberry, Raspberry, Strawberry Jam

See Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who) (File: McIn110C)

Bluebird

DESCRIPTION: "Here comes a [blue]bird through my window, Oh, Johnny, I'm tired! [or "Hey, diddle, hi dum, day"] ... Take a little dancer and hop through the garden ... Take a little partner, and pat him on the shoulder"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(Ap,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 39-40=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, p. 228, "Down in Jay Bird Town" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, "Little Bird, Go Through My Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 97, "Bluebird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #51. "Blue-birds and Yellow-Birds" (1 text)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 72, "Bluebird"; p. 101, "Fly Little Bluebird" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 7, "Bluebird, Bluebird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #176, "Here comes a little bird through the window"; #537, Take a little bird and hop in the corner" (2 texts, both possibly this but too short to properly identify)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Emelyn E. Gardner, "Some Play-Party Games in Michigan"," Vol. XXXIII, No. 128 (Apr 1920), #4 pp. 94-95, "Bluebird" (1 text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Leah Rachel Clara Yoffie, "Three Generations of Children's Singing Games in St. Louis," Vol. LX, No. 235 (Jan 1947), #49 p. 43 ("Here comes a bluebird through my window") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Ford, Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories (Paisley, 1904 (2nd edition, "Digitized by Google")), p. 78, "The Blue Bird" (1 text)
Roud #7700
RECORDINGS:
Lorraine Hammond, "Little Bird, Little Bird " (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #690, recorded 10/01/2023)
Stanley Hicks, "Here Goes a Bluebird" (on OldTrad2, FarMtns2)
NOTES [63 words]: This seems to have become relatively well-known from Elizabeth Mitchell on Folkways which begins
Little bird, little bird, fly through my window.
Little bird, little bird, fly through my window.
Little bird, little bird, fly through my window
And find molasses candy.
(It may be repeated with other birds instead of "little bird.") Did this arise organically? I don't know. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: OpGa097

Bluebird, Bluebird

See Bluebird (File: OpGa097)

Bluebird, The

DESCRIPTION: About Captain Moar's water-boat Bluebird. If you "come to Merrimashee, You will see the noble Bluebird, Through the waters she will fly, And the Captain says he'll run her Till the tank runs dry"
AUTHOR: Martin Sullivan of Kouchibougac (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: sea ship work nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 6, "The Bluebird" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi006 (Partial)
Roud #9204
NOTES [21 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "The water-boats were schooners fitted with tanks. They supplied the ships in port with water." - BS
File: MaWi006

Bluefield Murder

DESCRIPTION: "I was born in Bluefield, a city you all know well.... My name is Walter Summers, the name I'll never deny, I'm now behind the prison walls to stay until I die." Summers admits to murdering Ethel Sullivan. He now loves the song "Convict and the Rose"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Roy Harvey)
KEYWORDS: homicide prison punishment music
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 224, "Bluefield Murder" (1 text)
Roud #21294
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "The Bluefield Murder" (Paramount 3222, 1930; rec. 1929)
Roy Harvey and the North Carolina Ramblers, "The Bluefield Murder" (Brunswick 250)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boston Burglar" [Laws L16] (lyrics, form)
File: CAFS1223

Blues Ain't Nothin' But, The

See Blues Ain' Nothin, De (File: San234)

Blues Ain't Nothin', De

DESCRIPTION: "I'm gonna build myself a raft An' float dat ribber down, I'll build myself a shack In some ol' Texas town... 'Cause de blues ain't nothin... But a good man feelin' bad." The singer will go to the levee and rock until her sweetheart comes -- if he does
AUTHOR: (Attributed to Leroy "Lasses" White)
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (recording, George O'Connor)
KEYWORDS: separation nonballad river
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp.234-235 , "De Blues Ain' Nothin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4759
RECORDINGS:
George O'Connor, "Nigger Blues" (Columbia A2064, 1916; on Protobilly)
Georgia White, "The Blues Ain't Nothin' But..." (Decca 7562, 1938; on Protobilly)
File: San234

Bluestone Quarries, The

DESCRIPTION: "In eighteen hundred and forty one, They put their long red flannels on (x2), To work in the bluestone quarries." Stories of the Irish immigrants who became bluestone miners, and faced poverty, uncaring bosses, and cruel conditions
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: work mining boss poverty
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 174, "The Bluestone Quarries" (1 text + appendix, 1 tune)
ST FSC174 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paddy Works on the Railway" (tune & meter)
File: FSC174

Bluetail Flay

See The Blue-Tail Fly [Laws I19] (File: LI19)

Bluey Brink

DESCRIPTION: Bluey Brink, "a devil for work and a devil for drink," walks into Jimmy's bar and demands the closest available liquid -- the sulfuric acid used to clean the bar. Brink stomps out, and Jimmy fears for his life. But Brink returns next day asking for more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Finger-FrontierBallads)
KEYWORDS: Australia talltale humorous drink poison
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 148-149, "Bluey Brink" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 258-260, "Billy Brink" (1 text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 139-141, "Billy Brink" (1 text)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 124-125, "Bluey Brink" (1 text)
DT, BLUBRINK*
ADDITIONAL: A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 291, "Billy Brink" (1 text)
Roud #8838
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Bluey Brink" (on JGreenway01)
A. L. Lloyd, "Bluey Brink" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd08)
SAME TUNE:
The Wedding of Lochan McGraw (Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 181-182)
NOTES [275 words]: Fahey suspects this of having been the work of A.L. Lloyd, who originally collected it. Australians like to boast of their drinking, however (though their per capita consumption of alcoholic beverages, other than beer, is actually rather low), so they have gladly adopted the song. However, Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 46, claims that it is from the nineteenth century. Note that the name in Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition and MacDougall is "Billy Brink,"and Davey/Seal mention the name 'Bluey Brinks," implying some folk processing. Though the Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition version (collected from Simon McDonald by O'Connor and Officer) and Finger-FrontierBallads versions as clever as Lloyd's version. Perhaps the likeliest explanation is that Lloyd tightened up a traditional song.
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2 add that the tune for this is "The Wedding of Lochan McGraw."
Incidentally, it appears something vaguely like this actually happened once, although the situation was completely different -- it was on a whaler in the Arctic. Whalers were hard drinkers anyway, and when their ships were damaged, they had a tendency to attempt to drink the booze rather than let it sink with the ship. According to Norman Watson, The Dundee Whalers, Tuckwell Press, 2003, pp. 84-85, "The SS River Tay... sank in millpond calm on her maiden voyage in 1868 after being bumped by ice at Pond Bay. As she was sinking, crewman David Walker drank a bottle of carbolic acid thinking it was whiskey.... Walker died in 20 minutes." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FaE148

Blushing Bride

DESCRIPTION: Bride Mary Bell blushes as she walks down the aisle: "Every boy in every pew/Knows how she can bill and coo/No wonder she's a blushing bride." Even the preacher remembers her in her younger days; so does the best man.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Jim Miller & Charlie Farrell)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Mary Bell and Jackie Horner are to be married. The bride blushes as she walks down the aisle, and the singer says she has every reason to; "Every boy in every pew/Knows how she can bill and coo/No wonder she's a blushing bride." Even the preacher remembers her in her younger days; so does the best man. "Don't tell me she knows her stuff/She should; she's practiced long enough..."
KEYWORDS: courting marriage sex wedding humorous lover clergy
FOUND IN: US(MW)
RECORDINGS:
Edith Clifford, "No Wonder She's a Blushing Bride" (Columbia 901-D, 1927)
Golden Melody Boys, "Blushing Bride" (c. 1928 [unissued]; on TimesAint04)
Jim Miller & Charlie Farrell, "No Wonder She's a Blushing Bride" (Victor 20291, 1926)
[Moe] Thompson & [Carson] Robison "No Wonder She's a Blushing Bride" (Gennett 6062, 1927)
NOTES [14 words]: Nothing overt is mentioned, but I put "sex" as a keyword, and defy all challenges. - PJS
File: RcBluBri

Blushing Rose, The

DESCRIPTION: "Hold me to you, closely, darling, As you did in days of old." "Life is from me fastly fleeing... Place my head beneath a rose." "Take me back, for I am dying, I can love no one but you." "Lay me where sweet flowers mingle, Where the drowning lilies blow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: death separation love flowers
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 144, The Blushing Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9068
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broken Engagement (II -- We Have Met and We Have Parted)" (lyrics)
NOTES [69 words]: This is a conundrum. About half of this is the same as the Carter Family's "Broken-Hearted Lover," which itself seems to be a version of "The Broken Engagement (II -- We Have Met and We Have Parted)." But the lyric similaritoes are mostly in the second half, and the tunes are different. I am, very tentatively, splitting this off into its own song -- but you should surely consult "The Broken Engagement" also. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet144

Blyssid be that mayde Mary

See Blessed Be That Maid Mary (File: MSBlBMM)

Blythe and Bonny Scotland

See The Paisley Officer (India's Burning Sands) [Laws N2] (File: LN02)

Blythe Mormond Braes

DESCRIPTION: "O, wat ye wha's in yon wee hoose Beneath blythe Mormond Braes?" It is where pretty Nellie sits bleaching her clothes. The singer is poor. Her parents are opposed but the singer says he "will tak' her frae them a' And love her till I dee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: love courting dowry father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #123, p. 2, "Blythe Mormond Braes"; #2, p. 1, "Mormond Braes, No. 2"; #4, p. 3, "Mormond Braes, No. 2" (1 text plus 3 fragments)
Greig/Duncan4 712, "Blithe Mormond Braes" (2 texts plus two fragments on p. 526 [the same as those in Greig #2], 2 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 60-61, "Blythe Mormond Braes" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, p. 176, "Mormond Braes") (1 tune) [two verses]
Roud #4598 and 6152
NOTES [15 words]: Apart from the title, this has nothing in common with the better-known "Mormond Braes." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord060

Blythe Was She

DESCRIPTION: "Phemie was a bonier lass Than braes o' Yarrow ever saw." The singer describes her. "Phemie was the blythest lass That ever trod the dewy green." "Blythe [joyful], blythe and merry was she, Blythe was she but [outside] and ben [inside]"
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong); reportedly composed 1787
KEYWORDS: beauty lyric
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 191, "Blythe Was She" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #179, pp. 288-289, "Song -- Composed at Auchtertyre on Miss Euphemia Murray of Lentrose--" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1787)
Roud #6123
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blythe, Blythe and Merry Was She" (possible source, per Greig/Duncan4)
cf. "Andro' and his Cutty Gun" (tune, according to Burns, and some lines)
cf. "Greense's Bonny Lass" (chorus lines)
NOTES [172 words]: Notes to Greig/Duncan4 785, quoting Duncan: "Probably the song is the predecessor of Burns's and suggested it." On the other hand, the first lines of "Andro' and his Cutty Gun," which Burns chose for his tune, are "Blyth, blyth, blythe was she, Blyth was she butt and ben" (Herd, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc.). The same lines begin the chorus of "Greense's Bonny Lass." The same lines are mentioned in broadside, NLScotland L.C.1268, an 1822 "Letter from a Friend on a Journey to the North, to an Inhabitant of Auld Reekie [Edinburgh]; being a Curious and Entertaining Medly of Scotch Songs," which stitches the titles of well-known Scotch songs into a narrative.
Burns wrote his song in 1787, according to Whitelaw. Whitelaw quotes Burns: "The heroine was "Miss Euphemia Murray, commonly and deservedly called The Flower of Strathmore." - BS
Although the tune for this is usually known in tradition as "Andro and his Cutty Gun," Burns (according to Kinsley) listed it as "Andrew an' his cutty gun." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: BrdBlWSh

Blythe, Blythe and Merry Was She

DESCRIPTION: "Blythe, blythe and merry was she Blythe was she butt and ben Blythe when she gaed to bed And blyther when she rose again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1799 (Thompson's "Scottish Aires"); reportedly written 1787
KEYWORDS: sex nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Picture of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1828 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, p. 166, ("Blythe, blythe, and merry was she")
Roud #6123
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Andro and His Cutty Gun" (tune)
cf. "Blythe Was She" (some lines) and references there
cf. "Greense's Bonny Lass" (half the chorus and the sense of the chorus)
NOTES [363 words]: Chambers: "It is, moreover, handed down by tradition, that a daughter of one of the early chiefs of Scots -- a young lady of great beauty -- was the heroine of the first song to the tune of 'Andro and his Cuttie Gun;" which commenced with the fiollowing stanza: [text in DESCRIPTION]"
Greig/Duncan4 quoting Duncan: "Probably the song is the predecessor of Burns's and suggested it."
It is tempting to lump this with "Greense's Bonny Lass"; it could easily have been the chorus to that song instead of .".. Blithe when I gaed in the gate, And blithe to bid me come again."
The chorus to Burns's "Blythe Was She": "Blythe, blythe and merry was she, Blythe was she butt and ben; Blythe by the banks of Earn, And blythe in Glenturit glen." (Source: Robert Burns, The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (New Lanark,2005), pp. 216-217). Other songs to consider, in trying to place this song include:
The beginning of "Andro and his Cutty Gun": "Blyth, blyth, blyth was she, Blyth was she butt and ben; And we'el she loo'd a Hawick gill, And leugh to fee a tappit hen." (Source: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, pp. 18-19).
Lines from "The Lass That Made the Bed to Me": "Blythe and merry may she be, The lass that made the bed to me." (Source: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol I, pp. 243-244). Chambers says "There is an older and coarser song ...." - BS
That Burns set this to "Andro and his Cutty Gun" is confirmed by Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, pp. 250-251. This adds that the inspiration for Burns's song was one Euphemia Murray of Lintrose (born 1769). She "was known as 'The Flower of Strathmore.' She was eighteen when Burns stayed with [her cousin] Sir William [Murray] in 1787, and wrote the song 'Blythe, blythe and merry was she'...." She was visiting Ochtertyre when Burns visited, and he wrote that she "was a well-known toast, Miss Eupehenia Murray of Lintrose." Hoever, "The lady, according to tradition, did not appreciate the honour done her by Burns."
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RCBBMWS

Blythesome Bridal, The

DESCRIPTION: A call to a wedding: "Fy let us a' tae the bridal, For there will be lilting there, For Jock's tae be married tae Maggie, The lass wi' the gowden hair." The elaborate feast is described in extravagant and nauseating fullness, as are the guests
AUTHOR: Francis Sempill ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: marriage humorous wedding food party
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 606, "Fy, Let's A to the Bridal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 82, "The Blythesome Bridal" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 99-100, "The Blythesome Bridal" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume I, #58, pp. 58-59, "The Blithesome Bridal" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST PBB082 (Full)
Roud #5889
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(218), "The Blithsome Bridal" ("Come, fy, let us a' to the wedding"), unknown, no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lanigan's Ball" (theme)
cf. "A Glorious Wedding" (theme)
cf. "The Wedding at Ballyporeen" (theme)
cf. "Sheelicks" (theme)
cf. "Pat's Wedding"
cf. "The Skipper's Wedding" (theme)
cf. "Irish Song (The Gay Wedding)" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
The Sports o' Glasgow Green (File: Ord397)
The Bundle of Oddities ("Sit down, and I'll count owre my sweethearts") (The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany, p. 198)
NOTES [41 words]: By the seventeenth century, the "penny bridal" was common in Scotland: At a marriage, anyone could get into the feast by paying the penny fee. The results were often uproarious. - RBW
For another Penny Bridal song, see "The Road to Peterhead." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: PBB082

Bo Lamkin

See Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)

Bo-Cat

DESCRIPTION: "On the thirteenth day of may, You could hear old Bo-Cat say, 'Get my deed and policy....'" His wife Catherine asks Bo-Cat what he has done. He murders his wife, is caught, and now awaits execution. "It's a shame how Bo-Cat done he wife."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Courlander)
KEYWORDS: homicide husband wife river
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1932 - Limerick "Bo-Cat" De Lanzy murders his wife Catherine and drops her body in the river at Pin Point near Savannah, Georgia
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 371-372, "Bo-Cat" (1 text)
File: CoAA371

Bo-wow and Bo-wee

DESCRIPTION: A fragmentary ballad in which the old woman condemns the old man for "flashing," then has sex with him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, p. 135, "Bo-wow and Bo-wee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11501
File: RL135

Bo' Ranger

See Bold Ranger, The (File: R076)

Bo's'n, The

See The Bosun's Story (File: Harl157)

Boa Constrictor

See I'm Being Swallowed by a Boa Constrictor (File: ACSF516B)

Boar's Head Carol, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer brings in the boar's head, "bedecked with bays and rosemary," to help celebrate Christmas. Chorus: Caput apri defero, Redens laudes domino."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1521 (printed by Wynken de Worde from MS. Bodleian Rawlinson 470 598 (10)); c. 1500 (Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354; Wales National Library Porkington 10)
KEYWORDS: carol Christmas food party nonballad foreignlanguage MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #132, pp. 91-92, "(no title)" (3 texts, with other Boar's Head carols on the following pages)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics CXXXVII, p. 235, "(no title)" (1 text)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 259-260, "The Boar's Head in Hand bear I"; "A Carol Bringing in the Boar's Head" (2 texts)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 158-159, "A Carol On Bringing Up a Boars Head to the Table on Christmas Day" (1 text)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 19, "The Boar's Head Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 757-758, "The Boar's Head Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3313 (the version usually heard today), 3314 (a possibly-related version)
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #5219, 5220
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #42, p. 33, "[The Boar's Head]" (1 text)
Edward Bliss Reed, editor, _Christmas Carols Printed in the Sixteenth Century Including Kele's Christmas carolles newely Inprynted reproduced in facsimile from the copy in the Huntington Library_, Harvard University Press, 1932, p. 3 ([A]), "(A carroll bringyng in the bores heed)" (1 text)
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #32, p. 91, "(Caput apri refero)" (1 text)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #254, p. 532, "The Boar's Head" (1 text)
Rossell Hope Robbins, editor, _Early English Christmas Carols_, Columbia University Press, 1961, #2, pp. 13-15, "The Boar's Head" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rossell Hope Robbins, _Secular Lyrics of the XIVth and XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1952, #53-#56, pp. 47-50, "A Boar's Head Song," "A Boar's Head Carol, I," "A Boar's Head Carol, II," "A Boar's Head Carol, III" (4 texts, of which "A Boar's Head Carol, II" is the Richard Hill version; the others, especially the first, may be different songs)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, p. 207, "(Boar's Head Carol)" (1 text)
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #75, "The Boar's Head in Hand Bear I" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 228 [IMEV #3313]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPorkington10}, Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS. Porkington 10, folio 202 [IMEV #3314]
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson 4to 598, verso [IMEV #3313] (this is actually the print by Wynkyn de Worde, from 1521, reprinted by Edward Bliss Reed, but it's from the manuscript era and cataloged with them)
Roud #22229
NOTES [793 words]: The usual Latin chorus translates as "[The] head of [the] boar I bring, giving praises to God." Greene has a somewhat different version.
This is said to be the "earliest English carol to appear in print"; Ian Bradley's Penguin Book of Carols reports it to have appeared in van Wynken's Christmase Carolls Newly Emprynted at London (1521). If you're trying to find data about this book, that description is deceptive. The name of the printer is Wynken de Worde, who worked at the Sign of the "Sonne" [Sun] on Fleet Street. De Worde and his colleague/apprentice Robert Copland printed several editions of a book of Christmas Carols; one edition does indeed date from 1521.
Folklore also has a rather fantastic account of the origin of the song: An Oxford student named Copcot was on his way to mass when attacked by a boar. He allegedly killed it by stuffing a volume of Aristotle down his throat (an act, it seems to me, more likely to kill a lazy student than a boar), then took the head to the cooks.
Hindley, p. 26, has an even more amazing idea: He suggests that the fame of the boar's head goes back to Anglo-Saxon times. The boar's head does seem to be an Anglo-Saxon symbol; "boar's head" helmets were found at Sutton Hoo and elsewhere (see figures 21, 23, and 24 on pp. 229-230 of Beowulf/Heaney/Donoghue). Beowulf itself does not refer to a boar's-head helmet by that term, but in lines 1030-1034 (pp. 106-109 in Beowulf/Chickering; in Beowulf/Heaney/Donoghue they are lines 1029-1033 on page 27) Hrothgar gives Beowulf what sounds like one of these helmets.
It's a cute idea, but the linkage is lacking. I know of no evidence of boar's head symbolism in the later Wessex tradition or in Norman or Plantagenet England. In any case, the earliest boar's head helmets almost certainly are pre-Christian, and this song has Latin elements, clearly dating it after the arrival of Christianity.
A more plausible link may be with the Scandinavian julgalti, a pig with an apple in its mouth, used as a fertility offering to Freyr (Binney, p. 176).
There is a record of King Henry II carrying a boar's head in a processional dinner -- and bringing it to his son Henry the Young King, who scorned his father as a result (Boyd, pp. 196-197).
A facsimile of the Richard Hill manuscript is now available at the Balliol Library manuscripts resource at the Bodleian web site; go to http://tinyurl.com/tbdx-BalliolMSS and scroll down to MS. 354.
According to Greene, p. 22, this is one of only three carols found in manuscript before 1550 to have been found in oral tradition in modern times, the three being "The Boar's Head Carol," "The Corpus Christi Carol," and the obscure song "Christ Is Born of Maiden Fair." Of these, "Christ Is Born..." is, by Greene's admission, a vulgarization, and "The Corpus Christi Carol" has also wandered far; "The Boar's Head Carol" is almost unchanged, probably because it was regularly referred back to earlier sources. This is particularly surprising given the number of other Boar's Head songs (see Robbins) that exist.
Greene, p. 32, reports that this was still sung at Queen's College in the twentieth century, and that they continued the ancient usage "of advancing during the burden and remaining in place for the stanzas."
Greene's #33 (pp. 91-92) is another Boar's Head carol:
Nowell, nowell, nowell, nowell!
Tydynges gode Y thyngke to telle.
The bores hede that we bryng here
Botokeneth a Prince withouwte pere
Ys born thys day to bye us dere;
Nowelle, nowelle!
A somewhat modernized version of this is in Rossell Hope Robbins, editor, Early English Christmas Carols, Columbia University Press, 1961, #2, pp. 13-15, "The Boar's Head."
Greene's notes (p. 209) say that this is the only known instance of the boar's head as a symbol of Christ (as opposed to something traditionally associated with his celebration).
Robbins, p. 243, has a different take: "The importance of the boar's head in feasting is indicated not only by its appearance in medieval banquets as the first course, but by the survival of a 'sotelty' -- a short poem which was attached to the dish.... Index, No. 3886 ["Welcombe you bretheren godly in this hall"] is a 'sotelty' for a boar's head, serving as the first course of a bridal feast."
Another Boar's Head Carol begins "At the begynning of the mete"; it is Brown/Robbins #436. This occurs in the famous anthology Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), for which see "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)."
Greene, p. 35, notes that more than 40% of the carols reported from before 1550 mix English and Latin.; there is even one (his #15, pp, 68-69, "Novo profusi gaudio") which mixes Latin, English, and French. This is one of the few of these multilingual carols still remembered. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: OBC172A

Boar's Head in Hand Bear I, The

See The Boar's Head Carol (File: OBC172A)

Boarding-House, The

See Hungry Hash House (File: San207)

Boarding-School Maidens, The

DESCRIPTION: Johnny disports one after the other with "two boarding-school maidens, charming and bright."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II, pp. 658-659, "The Boarding-School Maidens" (1 text)
File: RL658

Boardman River Song

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of his work, skills and history on the Boardman River (and many others), saying he will never waste his money on drink, but will save it for his old age.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger drink
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 27, "Boardman River Song" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 21, "Boardman River Song" (1 text)
Roud #8857
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Manistee River Song"
cf. "The Kipawa Stream"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jolly Pinewoods Boys
NOTES [60 words]: According to Beck, the "Manistee River Song" is alleged to have been composed by Ole Nelson in 1880. However, he notes that this very similar song was being sung along the Boardman River in the 1880s. - PJS
And, similarly, note "The Kipawa Stream." Chances are that there is some ancestral pierce (we can hardly tell which) which various singers localized. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be027

Boat Shoves Off, The (We'll Have Another Dance Until the Boat Comes in)

DESCRIPTION: To the tune of the "Sailor's Horrnpipe": "Hey there Jack, have you ever seen the Queen, Have you ever seen a Blue-Jack kissing a marine? If you go to Gibraltar take a flying trip to Malta, And we'll have another dance until the boat comes in"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor navy royalty technology derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 130, "We'll Have Another Dance Until the Boat Comes in" (2 fragments, tune referenced)
Roud #23495
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailor's Hornpipe" (tune)
NOTES [33 words]: I feel quite certain that I've heard a version of this where the second line runs something like "Have you seen the Prince (?) in a submarine." But it doesn't seem to be part of the collected version.
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn097

Boat, A Boat, Across the Ferry, A

DESCRIPTION: Round: "A boat, a boat across the ferry, For we are going to be merry, To laugh and quaff and drink old sherry." Cf. "The Ferry" ("A boat, a boat to cross the ferry, We'll float and sing and all be merry, Sing, sing, sing and be merry")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown); for "The Ferry," 1938 (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings)
KEYWORDS: ship drink campsong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 225, "A Boat, A Boat, Across the Ferry" (1 text)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 37, "The Ferry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 35, "The Ferry"
Roud #21037
File: Br3225

Boat's Up the River

See Alabama Bound (Waterbound II) (File: BMRF598)

Boatie Rows, The

DESCRIPTION: "O weel may the boatie row, ⁠And muckle may she speed! And weel may the boatie row,⁠That wins the bairns's bread." Short images of the boat as it goes out fishing. The singer wishes it good fortune in future
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 (Scots Musical Museum); believed to be a shortened form of an older song
KEYWORDS: ship fishing food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 77, "The Boatie Rows" (1 text, 1 tune)
DR, BOATROW*
Roud #3095
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.26(263)=Harding B 20(18), "The Boatie Rows," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(350), "The Boatie Rows," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; Firth c.13(257), "The Boatie Rows," Sanderson (Edinburgh), 1830-1910; Firth c.13(292), "The Boatie Rows" (but actually a mix of two texts), W. Forth (Bridlington), n.d.
NOTES [60 words]: This appeared in the Scots Musical Museum with three tunes, only one of which is reported to be traditional. Burns, who was responsible for this entry, attributed it to John Ewen of Aberdeeon (1741?-1821), but Palmer says that Ewen merely shortened an earlier text, "The Fisher's Rant of Fittie." If that has gone into tradition, I have found no sign of it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: DTboatro

Boatin' on a Bull-Head

See The Bullhead Boat (File: RcTBulBo)

Boating Song (Across the Silver'd Lake)

DESCRIPTION: "Across the silver'd lake The moonlit ripples break, Their path a magic highway seems. We'll send our good canoe Along that highway, too, And follow where the moonlight beams. Ho, good fairies all, Hearken to our call, Come and frolic with us...."
AUTHOR: W. H. Neidlinger (1863-1924) (source: Niedlinger, Songs of the Camp Fire Girls of America)
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Niedlinger, Songs of the Camp Fire Girls of America)
KEYWORDS: ship travel campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 342, "Boating Song" (notes only)
NOTES [81 words]: W. H. Niedlinger's 1915 booklet was one of the first, if not the first, attempts to create song for a scouting group (the Camp Fire Girls). More than half of the songs Niedlinger published are cited by Averill -- but they consistently just *barely* met my threshold for inclusion. Which should not surprise anyone, because they are stilted, insipid, and -- in one case -- written in fake-minstrel dialect. I strongly doubt any of them went into actual tradition; they are too lousy. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF342C

Boatman

See Jack Williams [Laws L17] (File: LL17)

Boatman, The (Fhear a Bhata)

See Fhear a Bhata (Fhir a Bhata: I Climb the Mountains) (File: HHH834)

Boatman's Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: "When I was young and about sixteen, none was more light and gay." The singer lives happily, "a merry boatman's boy." He saves his money to buy a pocket knife, which he learns to use
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: sailor commerce animal
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 238, "The Boatman's Boy" (1 short text)
Roud #6591
File: TNY238A

Boatman's Dance, The

See De Boatman Dance (File: BMRF566)

Boatmen's Dance, De

See De Boatman Dance (File: BMRF566)

Boatsman and the Chest, The [Laws Q8]

DESCRIPTION: The boatsman's wife is being visited by the tailor when he comes home unexpectedly. The tailor hides in a chest. Knowing its contents, the husband deliberately takes the chest back to his ship. He tells the tailor he abducted him to keep him from his wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: infidelity punishment hiding abduction
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE) Canada(Newf) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Laws Q8, "The Boatsman and the Chest"
Greig/Duncan7 1432, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "The Devil in the Kist" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 46, "Jolly Boatman" (1 text)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #23, pp. 91-93, "The Wealthy Merchant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 138, "The Jolly Boatswain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 53, "The Boatswain and the Tailor" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 306-311, "The Old Bo's'n" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H604, pp. 505-506, "The Tailor in the Tea [Sea] Chest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 52, "The Boatswain and the Chest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #198. "The Boatsman and the Chest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 52, "The Boatsman and the Chest" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #123, "A Tailor in the Chest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 170-171, "The Tailor and the Chest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 16, "The Boatsman and the Tailor" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 26-27, "The Sailor and the Tailor" (1 text)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp.71-73, "The Boatswain and the Tailor" (1 text)
DT 346, BOATTAIL TRPRTAIL*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 38, #3 (1993-1994), p, 70, "The Charleston Merchant" (1 text, 1 tune, apparently from Sam Hinton)
[no author listed], Scenes & Songs of the Ohio-Erie Canal, Ohio Historical Society, 1971, "The Clever Skipper" (1 text, 1 tune, from Pearl R. Nye)
Roud #570
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Will the Weaver" [Laws Q9] (plot)
cf. "The Major and the Weaver" [Laws Q10] (plot)
cf. "The Dog in the Closet (The Old Dyer)" [Laws Q11] (plot)
cf. "The Trooper and the Tailor" (plot)
cf. "The Little Cobbler" (plot)
cf. "The Greasy Cook (Butter and Cheese and All, The Cook's Choice)" (plot)
cf. "Murphy in the Cupboard" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Randy Tailor
The Tailor and the Kist
NOTES [57 words]: In one version, the husband ships the chest (and the tailor) off to China. - PJS
This and similar songs are sometimes traced back to a story in Boccaccio (seventh day, second story: Gianella, Peronella, and her husband). But the story is really one of the basic themes of folktale, and doubtless predates Boccaccio as well as these songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LQ08

Boatsman and the Tailor, The

See The Boatsman and the Chest [Laws Q8] (File: LQ08)

Boatswain and the Tailor, The

See The Boatsman and the Chest [Laws Q8] (File: LQ08)

Boatswain Call the Watch

DESCRIPTION: Just past midnight the captain has the boatswain "call the watch, Sound your whistle shrill" to turn out the men. The mate objects that it's Sunday but the captain says it's just "another day." Before the dawn Jack turns out and curses the captain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: sea ship work sailor religious
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #27982
RECORDINGS:
Tom Cornelly, "A Boatswain's Life For Me" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [24 words]: The MUNFLA-Leach version has the ship going "east half south" from the King's Island lighthouse toward Hollyhead. I have no idea where that is. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3BoCtW

Boatswain's Call (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "All hands on deck, the boatswain cried, His voice like thunder roaring... To heave your anchor to the bow. And we'll think of the girls when we're far away (x2)." The boatswain gives other orders for sailing; the crew leaves Mobile Bay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Journal of the Pacific)
KEYWORDS: ship travel separation shanty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 108-109, "The Boatswain's Call" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8227
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Unmooring
File: HGam108

Boatswain's Call (II), The (The Courageous Mariner's Invitation)

DESCRIPTION: "Stout seamen, come away, never be daunted, For if at home you sray" then the fleet cannot be manned. "Lewis, that Christian Turk" (Louis XIV) is preparing to invade. If they succeed, they will earn promotion; at worst, the sea will be their final home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1697 (broadside Bodleian Don. b.13(39v))
KEYWORDS: ship battle death France mother wife
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 25, "The Boatswain's Call" (1 text)
Roud #V39810
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Don. b.13(39v), "The boatswains call; or The couragious marriners invitation to all his brother sailers ... to fight in the defence of their king and country, " Deacon, Blare, Brooskby, Back, London, 1683-1696
File: PaSe025

Boatswain's Life for Me, A

See Boatswain Call the Watch (File: ML3BoCtW)

Boatswain's Story, The

See The Bosun's Story (File: Harl157)

Bob at His Bowster

See Babbity Bowster (File: MSNR089)

Bob Cranky's 'Size Sunday

DESCRIPTION: "Ho'way and aw'll sing thee a tune, mun, 'Bout huz seein' my lord at the toon, mun... Nyen them aw cut a dash like Bob Cranky." The singer sets out for a celebration in town, gets drunk and dirty, and tells of the exploits of Cranky
AUTHOR: Words: John Selkirk? / Music: Thomas Train
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (Bell)
KEYWORDS: drink clothes humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 88-89, "Bob Cranky's Size Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR088 (Partial)
Roud #3146
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bob Cranky's Adieu" (character)
File: StoR088

Bob Cranky's Adieu

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell, farewell, ma comely pet! Aw's forced three weeks to leave thee; Aw's doon for parm'nent duty set." The singer must obey the sergeant during the long parting -- but if the girl wishes to see him, they can always meet in the "yell-house"
AUTHOR: Words: John Shield
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland); Shield died 1848
KEYWORDS: soldier separation drink reunion humorous parody
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 91-93, "Bob Cranky's Adieu" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR091 (Partial)
Roud #3148
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bob Cranky's 'Size Sunday" (character)
NOTES [22 words]: According to Stokoe, "This song is a parody on the popular song of the Peninsular War period, entitled 'The Soldier's Adieu.'" - RBW
File: StoR091

Bob Ingersoll and the Devil

DESCRIPTION: "Some dese days gwine hit 'im. Ingersoll sing anudder song When de debill git 'im. Debbil watch fo' sich as him." The singer describes with seeming relish how the Devil will gather Ingersoll and dance as the dead man suffers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: devil Hell humorous
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 348, "Bob Ingersoll and the Devil" (1 text)
Roud #11736
NOTES [84 words]: The presumed target of this song, Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899), was known mostly as a professional agnostic. Since the general attitude has always been that non-Christians, especially vocal non-Christians, were damnable, he is an obvious target for this particular piece of religious intolerance.
Bob Ingersoll's non-Christianity was so infamous that he apparently is mentioned in three different songs: "Bob Ingersoll and the Devil," "The Donkey Song," and some versions of "When This Old Hat Was New." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Br3348

Bob Norrice

See Child Maurice [Child 83] (File: C083)

Bob Ridley

See Old Bob Ridley (Hobo Diddle De Ho) (File: R499)

Bob Sims

See Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail) [Laws E17] (File: LE17)

Bob Vail Was a Butcher Boy

DESCRIPTION: Bob Vail is a butcher who would "rather fight than eat." He is bald on top and uses marrow to grease his hair. He courts Codfish Lize. When he asks her to marry "Her teeth fell out and she lost her wig"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous hair
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 67, "Bob Vail Was a Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB067 (Partial)
Roud #2760
File: CrSNB067

Bob-a Needle

DESCRIPTION: "Well oh bob-a needle bob-a needle, And oh bob-a needle." "Bob-a needle is a running, Bob-a needle ain't a-running." "And oh bob-a needle, bob-a needle... You got bob-a"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, children of Lilly's Chapel School)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 159, "(Bob-a Needle)" (1 text)
Roud #11001
RECORDINGS:
Children of Lilly's Chapel School, "Bob a Needle (Bobbin Needle)" (on NFMAla6, RingGames1)
Pete Seeger, "Bob-a-Needle" (on PeteSeeger21)
NOTES [37 words]: Courlander reports that a source suspects this title to be a mistake for "bobbing needle," but as he does not list either his own source or the source of the speculation, it is difficult to know what to make of this. - RBW
File: CNFM159A

Bobbed Hair, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer is horrified that "my Biddy darling ... had bobbed her hair." She says "'Tis all the fashion now.'" She says it was started by Black and Tans. He leaves her: "your neck is bare, like Paddy McGinty's drake." The asses, goats and swallows protest.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: hair humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 23, "The Bobbed Hair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3077
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Why Do You Bob Your Hair, Girls?" (theme)
NOTES [66 words]: The reference to the Black and Tans is curious. The Black and Tans were, of course, the soldiers the English imported to Ireland as an auxiliary police force after the First World War (see, e.g., "The Bold Black and Tan"). I recall reading, somewhere, of an Irish girl having her head shaved for being too close to the English. I can't recall hearing of one cutting her hair to imitate them. - RBW
File: RcTBobHa

Bobbie Bingo

See Bingo (File: FSWB390D)

Bobbin' Around

DESCRIPTION: "In August last on one fine day, Bobbin' around, around, around, When Josh and I went to make hay, We went bobbin' around." They have a "private talk" and start kissing. Josh proposes. But she knows he has another girl, and jilts him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #6)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage rejection | bridge church leave in lurch kissing
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 210, "Bobbin' Around" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #6, p. 7, "Bobbin' Around" (1 text)
Roud #1389
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(6)=Harding B 11(355), "Bobbing Around," J. T. Burdett (London), c. 1855; also Harding B 18(47), "Bobbing around No. 3," J. Andrews (New York), 1857; also Johnson Ballads 1311, "Bobbing Around," C Neesom (London), n.d.; also 2806 c.13(69)=Harding B 11(354), "Bobbing around," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also 2806 c.13(274), "Bobbing Around," unknown, n.d. (largely illegible); also 2806 c.18(35), "Bobbing Around" (unknown, n.d.); also 2806 d.31(82)=Firth b.27(160)=Harding B 11(2701)=Johnson Ballads 3365, "Bobbing Around," unknown, n.d.
File: NeDe211

Bobby Bingo

See Bingo (File: FSWB390D)

Bobby Bumble

DESCRIPTION: "Hurrah for Bobby Bumble, He never minds a tumble, But up he jumps and rubs his bumps and doesn't even grumble."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: injury
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 101, "Bobby Bumble" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #16284
NOTES [48 words]: Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama's informant Josie Miller said that this was a song she used with her kindergarten students. But I can't help but note how different the meaning would be if the word "bumps" were replaced by "rump" or "rumps." It just feels like it is a cleaned up item, somehow. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Arno101A

Bobby Campbell

DESCRIPTION: Bobby Campbell, though he weeps for the dead, hears the pipes "calling the clans to war," and remembers how his father told him not to dishonor the clan. He goes to war and is killed; his Mary grieves for him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: soldier death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 272, "Bobby Campbell" (1 text)
File: FSWB272B

Bobby Shafto's Gone To Sea

See Bobby Shaftoe (File: FSWB170A)

Bobby Shaftoe

DESCRIPTION: "Bobby Shaftoe's gone to sea, Silver buckles on his knee, He'll come back and marry me, Bonnie Bobby Shaftoe." The singer praises Bobby's appearance. (In some versions she ends by noting that he is "getting a bairn")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (Songs for the Nursery, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: sailor love beauty pregnancy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 132, "Bobby Shaftoe" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 132, (notes only due to a lost recording)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 12-13, "Bobby Shaftoe" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 198, "Bobby Shaftoe" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 60, "Bobby Shafto's gone to sea" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #153, pp. 116-117, "(Bobby Shafto's gone to sea)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 75, "(Bobbie Shaftoe's gone to sea)" (1 short text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 21, "Bobby Shaftoe" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 119, "Bobby Shaftoe" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 170, "Bobby Shaftoe" (1 text)
cf. Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 125, "Bobby Shafto, climb a tree" (1 text)
DT, BOBSHAFT
ADDITIONAL: [Cuthbert Sharp], _The Bishopric Garland, A Collection of Legends, Songs, Ballads, &c Belonging to the County of Durham_, 1834 (references are to the 1969 reprint), pp. 54-55, "Bobby Shaftoe" (1 text; 1 tune on p. 85)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; notes to #352, ("Bobby Shaftoe's gone to sea") (1 text)
Roud #1359
RECORDINGS:
Steve Gardham, "Bobby Shaftoe" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #340, recorded 11/02/2022)
Beverly Wilson, "Bobby Shaftoe" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #73, recorded 08/18/2021, consisting of only a couple of lines)

ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe
Bobbie Shaftoe
NOTES [427 words]: According to Stokoe, "Tradition connects this song with one of the Shaftoes of Bavinngton, who ran away to sea to escape the attentions of an enamoured lady of beauty and fortune.... The original air was entitled 'Brave Wully Forster,' and appears so in a manuscript music book in the Antiquarian Society's possession, dated 1694."
The Baring-Goulds, however, report that the "original Bobby Shafto is said to have lived at Hollybrook, County Wicklow, and died in 1737." (They may have derived this data from the Opies.) But they add that a later verse, not found in "Songs for the Nursery," "was composed by the supporters of another Bobby Shafto -- Robert Shafto of Whitworth, a candidate for parliament in the election of 1761. He was said to be exceedingly handsome."
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, pp. 21-22, also speaks of this Robert Shaftoe: "Both his father John and his uncle Robert were Members of Parliament and Robert the younger joined them in 1760 when he won the seat of County Durham. He held the seat until 1768 when he moved south and became the MP for Downton in Wiltshire. It was during his election campaigns that his supporters started calling him Bonny Bobby Shafto in an attempt to win public favor.
"Robert Shafto may have achieved political success but he was apparently notorious for his bad treatment of the women in his life. The story behind the rhyme is believed to derive from the callous ending of his long engagement to Bridget Belasyse by his sudden marriage to another woman (wealthy heiress ANne Duncombe) on 18 April 1774, the eve of their proposed wedding." He died in 1797, having managed to use up most of her fortune.
The unrepentantly inventive Thomas, p. 132, managed to dig up a quote which reads "Bee-beschaft is an old Saxon word, literally accomplished messenger or scout, and is here the popular sobriquet for the limiteur or friar to whom the duty of begging provisions for the convent was entrusted."
I don't know what version of "Saxon" Thomas meant, but in Old English (Anglo-Saxon), there are no words beginning "beebe," and very few that start with "bee." There is "be-scufan," "be-schufan," "to push/thrust" (Clark Hall/Merrit, p. 44), which might be what is meant here. Nor, in checking five quite substantial Middle English glossaries can I find it as a Middle English noun; I would guess that the reference is to "biseche," "to beseech." But as a word for a monk -- well, note that Bobby Shaftoe is supposed to marry the girl, not beg provisions from her!
I wouldn't bet on any of those identifications. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB170A

Bobby Went Down to the Ocean

See Johnny on the Ocean (File: DoDW385)

Bobree Allin

See Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)

Bodies o' the Lyne o' Skene, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "better never hae I seen dwals into the Lyne o' Skene." He names places from which "I've drawn mony a shinnin' groat." "May health and peace their steps attend ... the open-handed, kindly-hearted bodies o' the Lyne o' Skene"
AUTHOR: W Chisholm (died c. 1863) (source: Greig/Duncan3, quoting a broadside)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: virtue nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 512, "The Bodies o' the Lyne o' Skene" (1 text)
Roud #5996
NOTES [54 words]: Greig/Duncan3, quoting Duncan: "'Chisolm was a wandering packman, or pedlar, carrying odds and ends.'"
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Lyne of Skene (512) is at coordinate (h1,v7-8) on that map [roughly 11 miles W of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3512

Boers Have Got My Daddy, The

DESCRIPTION: "This morning in a busy street, A tiny lad I spied," who was saying, "The Boers have got my daddy, My soldier dad; I don't want to hear my mamma sigh.... I'm going on a big ship... I'm going to fight the Boers I am, And bring my daddy home again."
AUTHOR: A. J. Mills and Harry Castling (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: mother children soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1899-1902 - Boer War
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 67, "(The Boers have got my daddy)" (1 text)
Roud #38480
NOTES [27 words]: This was apparently a music hall song first sung by Tom Costello. There does not seem to be a record of the exact date of composition, but it was around 1900. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PKKB067E

Bog Down in the Valley-O

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

Bogend Hairst, The

See Rhynie (File: RcRhynie)

Bogey Man

See Whist! The Bogie Man (File: HaBrWtBM)

Boggart, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come listen to this merry tale of honest Farmer Bell, Who lived within an old farmhouse at the top of Moston Dell." A boggart haunts his home and farm. Farmer Bell decides to move out to escape it. But the boggart follows, so Farmer Bell returns home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire)
KEYWORDS: farming hardtimes travel ghost return | boggart
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 12, "The Boggart" (1 text, 1 modern tune)
NOTES [566 words]: These days, most people will know boggarts from the Harry Potter books, but they are older.
Harding says that someone slipped him the words for this, and he set the tune. I doubt the text is actually traditional, because it is simply a version of the most common of all boggart stories, converted to verse.
This description of the Boggart is based on my own research in On Myth and Magic, but I've trimmed it to omit the more Potter-ish parts.
"A mischievous Brownie, almost exactly like a poltergeist in his habits" (Briggs, p. 129). They are primarily known in northern England. "'Boggart,' by some writers is regarded as the Lancashire cognomen for 'Puck' or 'Robin Goodfellow.' Certainly there are, or were, many boggarts whose mischievous propensities and rude practical jokings remind us very forcibly of the eccentric and erratic goblin page to the fairy king" (Hardwick, p. 170).
In a way, boggarts are a sort of a reverse brownie: A figure usually associated with a particular place, and usually engaged in nastiness -- but occasionally known to do a good turn for the home's owners. Sometimes, however, they preferred to harass a particular family rather than a place. This song tells a variant of a Yorkshire tale in which a boggart so tormented a family that they decided to move out. They packed up their possessions and left their empty house -- and a voice from a milk jug declared that the boggart was still with them. So they turned around and headed back to their home -- better to be tormented at home than on the road (Alexander, p. 27; Simpson/Roud, p. 29).
Boggarts could also live outdoors, haunting, for instance, a pit or well or lane.
It is generally believed that the bogle (Scottish for "ghost") and "bogey/bogy" are variants on the boggart (Simpson/Roud, p. 29) as is the "bugaboo."
There are also English legends of the brownies/hobgoblins which are relevant. "Brownie is the name now used in Herefordshire for Robin Goodfellow, the Puck of the Midsummer Night's Dream. We have the Welsh form of the name in the 'Pwcha' farm, at Michaelchurch Eskley. Brownie, now all but forgotten, was a domestic elf, sometimes useful and hard-working, helping the maids with household tasks, more often mischievous, even evil and malicious. As elsewhere, the Brownie and the Bogie reduce themselves to different humours of the same uncanny thing" (Leather, pp. 47-48). Leather goes on to tell of a man who set aside a legacy to keep a bell ringing forever to placate or drive off a brownie who had tormented him.
"'What is a Boggart? A sort of ghost or sprite. But what is the meaning of the word Boggart? Brand says that 'in the northern parts of England, ghost is pronounced gheist and guest. Hence bar-guest, or bar-gheist....' Brand might have added that bar is a term for gate in the north, and that all the gates of York are named 'bars,' so that a bar-gheist is literally a gate-ghost" (Harland/Wilkinson, pp. 49-50).
Another claim, which I have been unable to trace, is that the name may be derived from the Middle English word "bogge," meaning "ghost" or perhaps "terror." But this is a rare word in Middle English, perhaps better known in early Modern English. Another link might be to the verb bigge, "to take up one's residence" (Sisam, in the Glossary by J.R.R. Tolkien, entry "Big, Bigge") hence "to haunt"; relatives of this word are still used in Broad Scots.
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: MHFL012

Boggie, The

DESCRIPTION: "Bonnie lassie, come my road and gangna through the Boggie O." The singer says her Boggie road down the river is scraggy and wet. His road is "up the waterside." He would have her go with him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 877, "The Boggie" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #6134
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Owre Boggie
NOTES [11 words]: The Bogie is a tributary of the Deveron River in Aberdeenshire. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4877

Boggy Creek or The Hills of Mexico [Laws B10b]

DESCRIPTION: A group of cowboys is hired for an expedition away from home. Mistreated by their boss, they eventually rebel (and kill him)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Haley, Publications of the Texas Folklore Society, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: cowboy revenge boss
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws B10b, "Boggy Creek or The Hills of Mexico"
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 196, "On the Trail to Mexico" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XV, pp. 195-218 (31-33), "Buffalo Range" (6 texts, 2 tunes, though the "B" text is "Boggy Creek," C and D appear unrelated, and E is "Canada-I-O")
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 30, "The Hills of Mexico" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 548-549, "The Hills of Mexico" (1 text)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 32-35, "The Hills of Mexico" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 372-373, "The Hills of Mexico (or Boggy Creek)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 109, "Trail To Mexico" (1 text)
DT 377, (ARIZONIO* -- clearly a member of this family of songs, and closer to this than Laws B10a or C17, although it perhaps should be classified as a separate piece)
Roud #634
RECORDINGS:
Cass County Boys, "Trail to Mexico" (Bluebird B-8806. 1941)
Roscoe Holcomb, "The Hills of Mexico" (on Holcomb-Ward1)
Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock, "The Trail to Mexico" (Victor V-40016, 1929; on MakeMe)
Carl T. Sprague, "Following the Cow Trail" (Victor 20067, 1926; Montgomery Ward M-4468, 1934; rec. 1925; on AuthCowboys)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Buffalo Skinners" [Laws B10a]
cf. "Shanty Teamster's Marseillaise" (plot)
cf. "Canaday-I-O, Michigan-I-O, Colley's Run I-O" [Laws C17]
File: LB10B

Boghead Crew, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer joins the Boghead harvest crew. The crew are described by name, task, and characteristics. The meals seem happy enough. "Noo, I mysel comes in the last My heart it is richt glaed To follow up the merry crew And wag the hinmost blades"
AUTHOR: James Trail (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #5, p.3)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: farming work moniker nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #3, pp. 1-2, "The Boghead Crew"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 44-45, "The Boghead Crew" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 409, "The Boghead Crew" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Roud #5406
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hairst o' Rettie" (subject: harvest crew moniker song) and references there
cf. "The Kiethen Hairst" (subject: harvest crew moniker song)
cf. "The Ardlaw Crew" (subject: harvest crew moniker song)
cf. "The Northessie Crew" (subject: harvest crew moniker song)
NOTES [111 words]: The song has the same happy tone about the harvest work as "The Kiethen Hairst" by the same author.
Greig/Greig/Duncan3 409A dates the harvest: "Twas in the year 1870, On August the 16th day From the parish of Longside I northward took my way."
Greig #7, p. 3 reports that he has in hand another version that "contains the two or three verses which I omitted; but as Mr Trail himself quite approves of the omission we need not re-open the matter."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Boghead (409) is at coordinate (h6-7,v9-0) on that map [roughly 38 miles N of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD3406

Bogie

See Bonnie Bogie (File: GrD4868)

Bogie Banks

DESCRIPTION: Sandy meets a girl by Boggie Banks and would not give her up "for a' the lands o' Alexander." He takes her to a parson's house and they marry. He takes her to his home and his father says "she'll be my daughter dear" Now she has many farm animals.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting wedding father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 948, "Bogie Banks" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6768
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'll Let You Know the Reason" (theme: rejecting the riches of Alexander)
File: GrD5948

Bogie's Banks and Bogie's Braes

DESCRIPTION: "I hae a housie oh my ain ... On the bonnie banks oh the Bogie" The singer lives there with grannie at her wheel, a cow, hen and duck and "a laddie leel an true" He knows every step and stone "frae Craig tae Huntly" He will soon sleep in the churchyard.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: age home nonballad animal bird chickens family
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 547, "Bogie's Banks and Bogie's Braes" (1 text)
Roud #6023
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Corn Riggs" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
File: GrD3547

Bogie's Bonnie Belle

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets Bogie and goes to work for him; his daugher Isabel meets him by the river. She delivers a son, and Bogie sends for the singer, who promises to marry her. Bogie says the singer's not worthy of his daughter. Bogie's daughter marries a tinker
AUTHOR: Unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan7)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, going to Huntley, meets Bogie and arranges to drive horses for him; his daugher Isabel chooses him for her guide, down by the river. Later, she delivers a son, and Bogie sends for the singer, who promises to marry her. Bogie says the singer's not worthy of his daughter, so (the singer takes his son away while) Bogie's daughter marries a tinker; the singer takes his leave (and boasts of having taken her maidenhead) (or he wishes her well)
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness courting seduction sex bragging pregnancy baby father lover
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1396, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Bogie's Bonnie Bell" (13 texts, 11 tunes)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 340, "Bogie's Bonnie Belle" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 81, "Bogie's Bonnie Belle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 200-203, "Bogie's Bonnie Belle" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BOGIEBEL*
Roud #2155
RECORDINGS:
Davie Stewart, "Bogie's Bonny Belle" (on FSB01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Adieu to Bogie Side" (lyrics)
cf. "The Plains of Waterloo" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
cf. "Erin's Lovely Home" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
NOTES [203 words]: According to Kennedy, a "literary" version of the song by John Riddel [indexed as "Adieu to Bogie Side" - RBW] was printed in Ford's Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland, 1900. - PJS
This is an instance of a difficult conundrum, which initially led me to lump the songs. There is good evidence that this "literary" version is a traditional song (Ford and Ord have very different versions, and Grieg found quite a few versions). And Ord's longish version has clear links to Kennedy's song. Links, but not really the same plot (e.g. the pregnancy vanishes). Still, I suspect there are versions which mix. Best to check the references to both songs.
I find myself wondering if Riddell didn't know both songs, and create his version (with its references to the muses, etc.) from scraps of both.
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin cites Peter Hall to the effect that "Belle" was Isabel Morison, born September 1823. Her son James Morrison was born June 1843; the man who seduced/raped her and fathered the child was James Stephens. Apparently James Morrison was raised by the family of James Stephens, while Isabel married someone else. Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin do not report the ultimate fate of any of them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DTbogieb

Bogie's Braes

DESCRIPTION: "By Bogie's streams that rin sae deep, Fu' aft wi' glee I've herded sheep... Wi' my dear lad on Bogie's braes.... But waes my heart the days are gane... While my dear lad maun face his faes." She laments all that she will do alone in his absence
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: love separation parody
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 114, "Bogie's Braes" (1 text)
Roud #5542
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Logan Water"
cf. "Logan Braes"
NOTES [32 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads notes that this is "simply a parody on Logan Braes," and (given its rarity) it might almost be filed with that piece -- but "Logan Braes" isn't in the index yet. - RBW
File: Ord114

Bogieside (I)

See Ye're Noo on Bogieside (File: Ord281)

Bogieside (II)

See Adieu to Bogie Side (File: FCS265)

Bogs of Shanaheever, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer recalls a hunting accident "a-coursing on the bogs of Shanaheever": he killed and buried Victor, a fellow hunter, and fled to "the wilds of the prairie; I watch for the Red man, the panther and beaver" He hopes to return "when the time is right"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (IROConway01)
KEYWORDS: exile return homicide escape burial death mourning hunting America Ireland dog friend
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #5335
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Conway, "The Bogs of Shanaheever" (on IROConway01)
File: RcRBoOSh

Bohunker and Kychunker

See Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead) (File: R428)

Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead)

DESCRIPTION: Old Grimes, "the good old man," was always dressed in a long black coat and was widely respected. He had two sons, (Tobias) and Bohunkus. "They has a suit of clothes... Tobias wore them through the week, Bohunkus on a Sunday."
AUTHOR: Words: Albert Gorton Greene?
EARLIEST DATE: 1822 (Providence Gazette)
KEYWORDS: father children death clothes humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 258-259, "Old Grimes is Dead" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 428, "Old Father Grimes" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 224-225, "Bohunker and Kychunker" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 321, "Josephus and Bohunkus" (2 texts plus a fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 321, "Josephus and Bohunkus" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #113, "Old Grimes" (2 texts)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 194, "Old Grimes" (1 fragment)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 217-219, "Old Grimes Is Dead" (1 text
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #201, "Old Grimes" (1 text, in which the brothers are Josephus and Cachecker)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 576-577, "Old Grimes" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 83-84, "Bohunkus" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 150-151, "Old Grimes" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #17, pp 22-23, "Tobias and Biancos" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 170, "Old Grimes" (1 text, with an "Old Grimes" first verse and the rest unrelated)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 156-157, (No title listed) (1 text, tune referenced)
Heart-Songs, p. 383, "Bohunkus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sumner-TheBesomMaker, pp. 17-18, "The Two Young Men of Kenilworth" (1 text, 1 tune, in which the men are "Abraham and Ishmael" and the scene set in England; it's clearly the same song but equally clearly a rewrite)
Harbin-Parodology, #404, p. 99, "Bohunkus" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 125, "Bohunkus" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 166, 282, 288, "Bohunkus" (notes only)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 51, "Old Abram Brown" (1 short text, of this or something similar)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 94, "Tobias and Cuancus" (1 text, tune referenced)
ST R428 (Full)
Roud #764
RECORDINGS:
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Josephus and Bohunkus" (Victor, unissued, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Auld Lang Syne" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Two Fleas ("Two little fleas on a fence-top sat, And one to the other said") (Harbin-Parodology, #14, p. 14)
NOTES [457 words]: This piece seems to fall into two parts, one describing Old Grimes, his clothes, and the respect with which he was treated (so, e.g., in Spaeth's Weep Some More and Botkin's New England Folklore).
The other describes the humorous exploits of (Tobias/Josephus) and Bohunkus (so in Speath, Read 'Em and Weep; also the "B" text and perhaps the "C" fragment in Brown), who shared almost everything, usually with one brother having rather the better of the distribution. In Randolph's version, for instance, Tobias gets the clothes for six days out of seven. The version of this in Dime-Song-Book #17 says it was copyrighted by Septimus Winner & Co., but it doesn't say if Winner wrote it or was just the publisher.
On the other hand, in Spaeth, when they went to the theatre, Bohunkus was in the gallery and Josephus in the pit; Bohunkus died of cholera but Josephus "by request"; Bohunkus went to heaven and Josephus to Hell (or, in one book, "Sing Sing"!). This version was printed at least as early as 1913 in Songs That Never Grow Old, and is listed there as anonymous.
Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House in the Big Woods, chapter 10) has a different sort of a plot, in which Grimes's wife is so stingy with cream that he blows away in the wind.
Based on the notes in Brown, it appears that Green wrote only the "Old Grimes" text, with the rest coming from elsewhere. But this does not solve the matter, for it appears that Greene was not responsible for the first verse of "Old Grimes"; when he confessed authorship in 1833, he denied writing the opening stanza.
Spaeth's "Old Grimes" text is so feeble that it's hard to believe such a thing could enter tradition. And, indeed, no traditional form similar to the printed versions from Spaeth and Botkin seems to have turned up; they all add some sort of comic ending (see Randolph, Cox, Wilder; Brown "A").
My feeble guess is that "Old Grimes" did not become traditional until it picked up some sort of humorous element, perhaps from "Bohunkus," and circulated only in that form. "Bohunkus" very possibly did not enter tradition at all on its own; although the Pankakes have a text which may have come from oral tradition, it is so short that it could be a fragment of a Grimes/Bohunkus conflation. But it's probably best if you examine the matter yourself.
This should not be confused with the piece called "Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey)" in this collection, which also goes under the title "Old Grimes." - RBW
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 6, "Old Abram Brown is dead and gone" is the usual first verse for this song: "Old Abram Brown is dead and gone, You'll never see him more; He used to wear a long brown coat That buttoned down before." - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R428

Boil dem Cabbage Down

See Bile Them Cabbage Down (File: LoF269)

Boil Them Cabbage Down

See Bile Them Cabbage Down (File: LoF269)

Boire un P'tit Coup C'Est Agreable (Sipping is Pleasant)

DESCRIPTION: French. Let's go to the woods together, marionette. We will gather apples and hazelnuts. Marie has a marionette; Marie has us both, we will sleep in the same little bed. Chorus: "Sipping is pleasant. Sipping is gentle. Swigging makes the spirit sick"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting sex drink bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 508-509, "Boire un P'tit Coup C'Est Agreable" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Mme Lucie Cormier, "Boire un P'tit Coup, C'Est Agreable" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea508

Bolakin

See Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)

Bolamkin

See Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)

Bold Abraham Munn

DESCRIPTION: "Come hither now grandchildren And listen to me" to learn about when people talked "of nobody But dashing Abraham Munn." None could stand before him. He was a great fisherman. But now he's old. He hopes his grandchildren will still respect him
AUTHOR: supposedly Abraham Munn (source: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: fishing family
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 166-167, "Bold Abraham Munn" (1 text)
Roud #23381
NOTES [20 words]: Abraham Munn is also credited by Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine with composing the equally obscure "Dunphy's Bear." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm166

Bold Adventures of Captain Ross

DESCRIPTION: "Come listen a while with attention, You seamen and landsmen likewise," to the tale of Bold (John) Ross. They sail to the "Pacific Ocean." They haul in the Fury's stores. They will see the North Pole or die. They find where the "magnet does bend."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (FIrth)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1829-1833 - John Ross's (second) expedition to the Northwest Passage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 96, "Bold Adventures of Captain Ross
Roud #V21104
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tars of the Blanche" (listed tune)
cf. "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream)" [Laws K9] (subject: the Northwest Passage)
NOTES [4740 words]: John Ross's 1829 VIctory expedition to seek the Northwest Passage was well worth of a ballad. It's sad that this feeble and erroneous piece is all that Palmer could find.
The tale the song tells is based on fact, but fact mixed with an incredible amount of fiction. Here are the examples of each:
This song is in the first person ("Bold Ross was our noble commander" -- although oddly enough it never specifies whether it was John Ross or James Clark Ross), but other than John Ross, only one of the sailors on the Victory published an account of the voyage -- and that account, by steward William Light and touched up and published by Robert Huish, was intensely critical of John Ross (Edinger, pp. 227-228, 256-257, etc. -- since Light's was the only other account of the voyage, it has to be cited by those who studied the expedition, even though Light is considered an extremely biased witness).
"We sailed to the Pacific Ocean": The reason sailors sought the Northwest Passage was indeed to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, but Ross (who entered the Passage from the Atlantic end) never came near the Pacific.
The Fury: When Ross's ship was stuck, he did indeed retreat to the place where the Fury had been wrecked a decade earlier, and used the leftover supplies from that ship (which had had a much larger crew than the Victory) to provision his men.
"Our mainmast was soon smashed to pieces, While we hauled in the ship, Fury's stores": The expedition did indeed use supplies from the wreck of the Fury, as noted above, but the Victory was still capable of sailing when she was finally abandoned and scuttled; she simply couldn't get out of the ice.
"The North Pole": Ross's goal was never to see the North Pole; he wanted to sail the Northwest Passage. As it happened, his nephew James Clark Ross would find the north MAGNETIC pole during the expedition.
"Parry" is William Edward Parry, who had been Ross's second-in-command on Ross's first Northwest Passage expedition, and had made three voyages to try to find the Passage after Ross was disgraced. "Cook" is Captain Cook, who never sought the passage but did explore the Bering Sea region, where the Passage would end if it could be found.
"The bright magnet": presumably the North Magnetic Pole.
"King William's Name": James Clark Ross named one of the regions he explored "King William Land" (although this was presumably retrospective naming, since George IV was still king when the expedition set out). It is now known that this was part of an island, so it's "King William Island" -- and it was where the Franklin Expedition came to grief. Many think that this happened because John Ross published a map of King William Land showing it as part of the mainland, causing Franklin -- who had to decide whether to go east or west of King William Land -- to make the disastrous choice to go west, resulting in his ships being trapped in the ice.
As you can probably tell, the Ross expedition to a degree informed the planning for the Franklin Expedition; for an overview of the latter, and of the whole Northwest Passage sage, see the notes to "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream)" [Laws K9]. But there is more to say about Ross's expedition than is found in the notes to that song, or in the text of this song..
It all started in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. The British Navy was huge -- too many ships and too many men for peacetime purposes. The Navy downsized as best it could -- many ships were dropped and many sailors paid off -- but getting rid of the officers wasn't so easy. With no ships to serve in, many of them were put on "half pay" -- that is, relieved of ship's duties but kept on the books at, yes, half the amount they were paid while on regular duty. Nobody liked this much -- the Navy didn't like paying even half the salaries; the officers didn't like getting only half the salary. There was intense competition for what jobs were available at sea -- and, indirectly, great political pressure to find something for them to do (Berton, p. 18; Williams, p. 170). Officers, after all, came from the upper classes, so they had clout.
One idea for finding occupations for a few ships was exploration. Among other things, in 1818 four ships were designated to explore the polar regions. Two, under David Buchan and John Franklin, would try to reach the North Pole. And two would resume the old, half-forgotten quest for the Northwest Passage (Williams, p. 171).
Command of the Northwest Passage expedition of 1818 went to "that stubborn and often maddening Arctic explorer Sir John Ross" (the description of Ross is from Berton, p. 13). He seemed, at first glance, a good choice: he was very brave, he was skilled at surveying, and he was clever about inventing things (e.g. he devised a tool for taking deep sea samples, and a device for drying the air inside a cold ship; for the latter, see Edinger, pp. 129-130). It was also argued that his experience in the Baltic made him at least a little more knowledgeable than most about working in cold conditions (Berton, pp. 22-23).
Ross was given command of the large whaler Isabella (a name to remember; we'll hear it again), and Parry, his second-in-command, was given the smaller (and, as it turned out, much slower) Alexander (Williams, p. 172). They were ordered to go through the Davis Strait (well explored by whalers), verify the existence of Baffin Bay (previously explored by, you guessed it, Baffin -- but his records were not taken very seriously), and then head west from Baffin Bay to look for the Northwest Passage. All this Ross did (Berton, p. 30); Baffin Bay was real -- and, as Baffin had said, there were openings to the west of it: Lancaster Sound, Jones Sound, and Smith Sound (which was more of a passage north than west). Ross picked the likeliest of them -- Lancaster Sound, the southernmost of the three -- and started on his way (Williams, pp. 176-177).
He didn't know it, but he had found the best entrance to the Northwest Passage (technically those other inlets, Jones Sound and Smith South, could also have led to passages, but being further north, they were almost always blocked by ice). In went Ross -- for perhaps 50 miles (Berton, p. 30, says 30; Edinger, p. xviii, says 80). The Isabella, being faster, went ahead of the Alexander in the heavy fog. Then the fog broke. And Ross saw... something. And instantly turned around, and headed everyone for home (Delgado, p. 57).
Ross would later claim that Lancaster Sound was closed. He had seen mountains -- he dubbed them the "Croker Mountains" after the First Lord of the Admiralty -- and that was enough reason to give up the whole expedition.
He didn't have to give up. Ross's ships had been provisioned to over-winter. Even if there were mountains, that didn't prove there was no way around them. But Ross, for whatever reason, had had enough. He not only headed home, he turned around so quickly, piling on all sail (Williams, p. 178) that Parry in the Alexander never even got to see Ross's mountains. And didn't believe they were there. No other officer every said he believed it, either.
Neither did the Admiralty (Delgado, p. 58). They wanted another try at Lancaster Sound. But the chance would not go to Ross. He was back on half pay for the rest of his career (Edinger, p. xvii; Bertens, p. 34). It was Parry who got command of the next expedition (Williams, p. 181).
It was a better expedition, too. Parry, instead of a whaler, got an actual Navy ship, the HMS Hecla, a "bomb" ship -- meaning that it was designed to throw very heavy shells, so, although slow, it was solid enough to deal with ice (Delgado, p. 58. On at least one occasion in 1825, Hecla's heavy construction let her survive an ice "nip" that would have sunk any other type of vessel; Delgado, p. 84). He also got stuck with a much less effective ship, the Griper, commanded by Matthew Liddon (Williams, p. 182), but still, it was clear the Navy was more committed than it had been to Ross. And Parry got results.
Parry headed back up Lancaster Sound, and quickly proved Ross wrong -- though Ross never really admitted it; even after Parry's voyage, he insisted on claiming that Lancaster Sound was blocked (he more or less said that what he had thought was mountains was in fact ice). This doesn't chance the fact that there were no Croker Mountains; Lancaster Sound was deep and wide and long, and led deep into what we now call the Arctic Archipelago. Indeed, although the name changes, there a sea path leading from Lancaster Sound essentially due west to the Bering Sea. Were it not for the ice, Parry could have made it all the way through the passage.
But the ice was there, and there was no usable Northwest Passage that way. Parry made it more than halfway through, but ended up stopped near Melville Island. He spent the winter of 1819-1820 there and headed home. He hadn't found the passage -- but he had made a valiant attempt, and made the existence of a passage seem very likely. Un-navigable, at least until global warming came along, but a path that was all water and ice as opposed to land.
He had also found, but not explored, several side inlets that might prove alternative routes if the straight westward waterway failed. One of these was Prince Regent Inlet (Williams, pp. 184-185), the first major unexplored body of water south of Lancaster Sound, between Baffin Island on the east and what we now know as Somerset Island on the west. Parry went only a short distance down the inlet, but it was noted for future exploration.
After returning home to great acclaim, Parry would make two more expeditions. His second expedition, ordered at the end of 1820 and setting sail in 1821 (Williams, p. 253) once again included the Hecla but this time with a sister ship, the Fury, as the second vessel (Berton, pp. 46). It was an attempt to reach the Passage via Hudson's Bay (Berton, p. 47). Everyone should have known better; although the maps of the Bay were somewhat imperfect, it had been explored enough that it should have been clear that there was no passage that way. But many doubted the earlier reports (Williams, p. 213).
This second expedition produced little. Parry spent two winters in the northern Hudson Bay area, but found no way to the west except a tiny channel between the mainland and Baffin Island that he named "Fury and Hecla Strait." Ice-clogged, it was clearly impassable (Williams, pp. 218-220). But exploring the area had given Parry an idea. To the west of Fury and Hecla Strait, he had seen what appeared to be ocean stretching to the west -- at about the longitude of Prince Regent Inlet that Parry had spotted on his first expedition.. And other explorers, notably John Franklin, had shown that there was ocean to the north of Canada at about the latitude where Parry was exploring. So, although Hudson Bay did not lead to the Northwest Passage, might it not be possible to head through Lancaster Sound, down Prince Regent Inlet, and then turn west along the north coast of Canada and complete the passage?
That was the basis for Parry's third expedition: He would go down Prince Regent Inlet and see if it led to the northern coast of Canada. So, in 1824, Parry set out again, once again in the Hecla and Fury, to try the Prince Regent Inlet route (Williams, pp. 222-223). Three other expeditions set out at the same time (Delgado, p. 79) to explore more of the coast of Canada. A land expedition was led by John Franklin, which succeeded in mapping much but not all of Canada's northern shore; Frederick Beechey took a ship through the Bering Strait to enter the passage from the west (this expedition accomplished relatively little); and George Lyon was sent to poke around in Hudson Bay again (this expedition also accomplished little; the Griper, Lyon's ship, was still a disastrously poor sailor and limited what he could do. The Griper barely survived, and Lyon was never given another command, but it clearly wasn't his fault; Williams, pp. 226-227).
Parry's expedition was the lynchpin. The ends of the Passage were known: Lancaster Sound and Alaska. The middle was not. Franklin and Beechey and Lyon, especially Franklin, might clarify some parts of the route, but only Parry was in position to locate the link in the middle.
Unfortunately for Parry, the weather -- which had been wonderful (by Arctic standards) for his 1819 voyage, and which hadn't been such a factor in his second because he sailed so much farther south, was a big problem in 1824. The ice was much heavier than in 1819, making it much harder to reach Lancaster Sound; they barely had time to reach Prince Regent Inlet before the ice shut them down (Williams, p. 223; Berton, pp. 84-85). They spent the winter at a place they called Port Bowen, at the extreme northwest end of Baffin Island (Delgado, p. 84), accomplishing nothing there except to demonstrate with absolute certainty that the North Magnetic Pole moved (Williams, p. 224); it was a much bleaker place than Parry's earlier wintering sites (Berton, p. 85). They would not escape until July 1825.
They then set out down Prince Regent Inlet. But before they could go more than about sixty miles, the wind came up so hard that it pushed Parry's ships into a trap between Somerset Island (the western boundary of the inlet) and the ice. Hecla survived, but Fury crashed into the shore so hard that it broke her keel and shattered her hull (Williams, p. 225). They put her ashore to try to fix the damage, but she was beyond repair (Delgado, p. 85).
With only one ship intact, Parry had no choice but to turn for home. Prince Regent Inlet was still unexplored; no one knew whether it could lead to the Passage or not.
Not even losing one of his ships ruined Parry's reputation with the Admiralty. They set the Passage aside, but authorized Parry to make an attempt at the North Pole. Like the Buchan/Franklin expedition, that didn't even make it close. Parry decided he had had enough of exploring; he never led another expedition. The Admiralty, for the moment, decided to stop messing around in the Arctic.
Which left an opening for John Ross to re-emerge. If the Navy wasn't going to try any more, he'd stage a commercial expedition that would let him do things his own way. He managed to convince Felix Booth, distiller of Booth's Gin, to fund most of his expedition (Delgado, p. 88; in what follows, note how many of the places Ross visited were given names that were variants on "Booth" or "Felix"). Ross thought he had a bright idea: A small ship, able to get through narrow passages -- and with a steam engine to power it when the wind did not cooperate (Edinger, p. 7).
In concept, Ross had a good idea. When the Passage was finally navigated by Roald Amundsen, he used a small boat with an engine. In practice, there were problems. Ross's steam engine would prove impossibly troublesome -- it used paddlewheels, not a screw propeller, and the lack of a flue meant that it didn't draw properly (two facts which, in combination, meant that it didn't have enough power to do any good), plus it regularly broke down (Edinger, pp. 8-9; according to Williams, p. 248, Ross and the designers eventually had such a pamphlet war about it that they almost fought a duel).
Worse, the ship Ross decided to use, the Victory, was so small that she could not carry enough provisions for an exploratory voyage, even for his small crew of just 23. But Ross had an answer for that, too. When the Fury had grounded in Parry's expedition, the crew had unloaded the Fury as they tried to lighten ship. All the supplies for dozens of men -- sails, ropes, clothes, guns, and most especially, non-perishable food -- were sitting there, waiting on the beach. For a small crew like Ross's, it would be a bounty that would last years. He would sail to Prince Regent Inlet, find the wreck of the Fury, and re-supply from the provisions she had left behind. (Edinger, p. 7. There was actually a lot more to his plan than that, involving a third ship, but the above is the essential part.)
There was some drama as Ross set out, including a mutiny on his supply ship and the permanent maiming of one of his engineers by the steam engine, but he got to Prince Regent Inlet as expected, and found Fury Beach. The wrecked hull was gone, but the food and supplies were there, and the Victory was able to fill her storage bins without even making much of a dent in the quantity of food (Williams, p. 230; Edinger, pp. 16-17; who adds that Ross blew up the remaining gunpowder lest it hurt visiting Inuit). Despite the cantankerous steam engine, Ross's voyage seemed to be off to a great start.
But although Prince Regent Inlet was south of Lancaster Sound, its entrance was still four hundred-odd miles north of the Arctic Circle. Ross had hardly started on his voyage down the Inlet before he started to have trouble with ice. Ross made it some two hundred miles farther south than Parry had (Edinger, p. 27; Delgado, p. 91, says 150 miles; Bertens, claims 300; I think the discrepancy is that the first is shoreline distance, the second north-south, and the third the total distance Ross travelled). Despite that, Ross didn't find any route west (there was a tiny passage, Bellot Strait, between Somerset Island and what Ross called Boothia Felix, now the Boothia Peninsula, but Ross missed it; Williams, p. 231. In any case, it wasn't navigable back then). In October, he was frozen in to a place he called Felix Harbour (off the body of water he called the Gulf of Boothia; Ross sure knew how to butter up the paymaster).
Ross's first wintertime activity was breaking down the steam engine he hated so much and dumping it on the beach (Williams, p. 231; Delgado, p. 91, has a modern photo of some of the abandoned parts still rusting away in Felix Harbor, although, with the Northwest Passage opening, I suspect many of them have since quietly vanished). More noteworthy was the arrival a tribe of Inuit, with whom Victory's men had interesting and profitable relations (Edinger, p. 62 and following; Williams, p. 234 and following -- one suspects that they brought the men of the Victory enough fresh food to help stave off scurvy). And James Clark Ross led a series of exploratory trips. One of these took him to the region, mentioned above, that he would dub "King Williams Land" (Delgado, p. 93). We now know it as King William Island. Had Ross known it, he had found the key link in the Northwest Passage -- but he didn't know it, and lack of supplies meant that he couldn't go on and connect his findings with other known territories (Berton, p. 114. He had hoped to make it to the point where Franklin had had to turn back, but they hadn't been able to properly cache supplied because a man on the sledge trip had suffered from snow blindness; Edinger, p. 107). So even though James Clark Ross's explorations helped fill in the middle in the gap in the maps, he hadn't filled in all of the gap; there were blank spots on both sides of what he had found. Or, rather, there should have been blank spots that should have been blank. John Ross's map (reproduced on p. 238 of Williams) showed King William Island as attached to the mainland, and the Franklin Expedition probably died as a result. In any case, John Ross had no way of getting across the Boothia Peninsula to the passage his nephew had (sort of) discovered. (And he might not have tried. John Ross, an imperious man, was not on good terms with either his sailors or his nephew by this time; Berton, p. 114.)
James Clark Ross named the place where he had to turn back "Victory Point," after this ship (Edinger, p. 109); in one of life's small ironies, it was on this point (although not at Ross's cairn) that the Franklin Expedition would leave their only written record.
James Clark Ross would also eventually prove that Prince Regent Inlet, and the bay it led to (which John Ross named the Gulf of Boothia) were just that: a bay, which did not lead to the Passage (Berton, p. 113).
The Inuit eventually left to return to their hunting. It took Ross a lot longer to break free. Not until July 1830 was it possible to move the ship at all -- and then only for a few miles. When the ice closed in again later that summer, Ross was still stuck in the vicinity of Felix Harbour (Berton, p. 111); he named this particular spot 'Sheriff's Harbour" (Felix Booth had been Sheriff of London, so this was another tribute to his patron; Edinger, p. 128)..
The second winter, the Inuit did not show up until April (Delgado, p. 95). It was a dull winter. But it was during this winter, on June 1, 1831, that one of James Clark Ross's journeys took him to the exact site of the North Magnetic Pole. (Naturally, Ross officially took possession in the name of Great Britain.) It took him most of two days to be sure of the location -- partly because the pole's position fluctuated somewhat and partly because, in the cold, it was difficult to handle metal instruments and hard to keep them operating properly; they wanted to stick (Edinger, p. 153). Ross and his party went a little further and built another cairn (Edinger, p. 154); this presumably was the cairn the Franklin Expedition was looking for in their last known message, but that was later....
On August 15, 1831, the Inuit left for what proved to be the last time (Edinger, p. 165). It was, as it turned out, an important moment -- because, from then on, the men of the Victory would get little fresh food. So far, the diet John Ross had offered to his men had kept them free from scurvy, though many of them hadn't liked it much. Starting from the time the Inuit left, they were subject to dietary diseases, which would get worse and worse for the rest of the expedition.
The Victory finally worked its way free on August 28, 1831 -- and made it only about ten miles before getting stuck yet again, in a place Ross named "Victory Harbour" (Delgado, p. 95; it was later changed to Victoria Harbor). That was the end. Ross realized that he simply could not free the Victory (Edinger, p. 171). He had no choice; he would have to abandon ship, and try to head back to Fury Beach on foot, then try for rescue by taking the ship's boats into Baffin Bay. He spent the next few months setting up supply dumps between Victory Harbor and Fury Beach (Williams, p. 242). When they left the ship, each man was allowed just ten pounds personal belongings -- which included the clothes he demanded they take (Edinger, p. 184). In late May, 1832, they nailed Victory's flag to her mast, drank a toast and left her for the last time (Edinger, p. 185). For a while, they tried hauling boats with them, until James Clark Ross reported that they could use the Fury's boats (Williams, p. 243; Delgado, p. 97; Edinger, p 190). It was still a hard haul; since they needed most of the crew to haul each sledge, and required several sledges, most of the ground had to be covered three times or more.
Arriving at Fury Beach on the night of July 1, 1832 (Edinger, p. 191), they built a shelter, grandly labelled "Somerset House," mostly from leftover parts from the Fury (Delgado, p. 99; according to Edinger, p. 192, Ross named it after North Somerset, the name Parry had given to the region). In August 1832, they sailed their small boats north in Prince Regent Inlet to try to break out into Baffin Bay (Edinger, pp. 192-193), but there was too much ice in Baffin Bay for them to reach the whaling grounds (Edinger, p. 197; Ross would use this ice to justify his claim that Lancaster Sound had been blocked in 1818, as if that were relevant). Back they went to Fury Beach to try to survive another winter and try again in 1833 (Berton, p. 118; Williams, p. 243). By this time, scurvy was starting to set in; their carpenter -- who was irreplaceable and vital to their survival -- died of it in February 1833, and others were too ill to be able to work (Williams, p. 244; Edinger, pp. 203-204). It was a hard winter in other ways; the food from the Fury, although still plentiful, was starting to spoil from years of exposure to frost and ice and wet (Edinger, p. 205), and Somerset House -- really a reinforced tent -- collapsed once (Edinger, p. 201).
In 1833, they were in luck -- they set out on August 15, and this time they found Lancaster Sound open, allowing them to head for Baffin Bay (Berton, p. 118; Edinger, p. 208). On August 26, they spotted whalers (Edinger, p. 209). The first one they saw, they failed to hail, but they managed to gain the attention of another (Edinger, pp. 209-210).
In an amazing coincidence, the ship they managed to reach was none other than the Isabella, Ross's ship from his failed expedition of 1818 (Berton, p. 119). When the Isabella's mate heard that Ross was aboard, he declared that Ross was two years dead. No doubt Ross took great satisfaction in proclaiming otherwise (Williams, p. 245; Edinger, p. 210).
According to contemporary accounts, it took a while to convince anyone of the truth, but "as Ross and his shipwrecked men pulled up alongside the whaler, her crew manned the rigging and received them with three hardy cheers.... Every one of Ross's men, with the strain [of desperately seeking rescue] suddenly removed, was on the verse of hysterics. 'Every man was hungry and was to be fed, all were ragged and were to be clothed, there was not one to whom washing was not indispensable, nor one whom his beard did not deprive of all English semblance....' Few of the rescued could sleep that night, but this was not due to excitement as to souther luxury. Long accustomed to a cold bed on the hard snow or bare rock, even Ross himself found a ship's bunk impossible and he turned out and spent his night in a chair" (Lubbock, p. 297).
It must have been deeply frustrating for Ross that the Isabella had not yet filled its holds with oil. The crew of the Victory could not head for home until a month later, when the Captain Humphreys of the Isabella decided the weather was too rough to stay (Edinger, pp. 211-212). Strangely, other whales had taken word of Ross's rescue to England; I've no idea why Ross and crew didn't transfer to one of the ships that went home earlier.
The men came home to great acclaim, which no doubt explains why this piece was written: John Ross was knighted (although not until a year later; Edinger, p. 216) and given honors by foreign governments as well (Edinger, p. 220). James Clark Ross was promoted to Captain (as well as having two birds named after him; Edinger, pp. 220-221), and the men were given extra pay (Williams, p. 246; under navy regulations, their pay would ordinarily have been cut off when their ship sank -- and although they were civilians, Ross's budged hadn't included pay for four years, so either the navy paid them or no one did; Ross was broke -- Edinger, pp. 216-218). Both Rosses had a meeting with King William IV not long after their return home (Edinger, p. 215). John Ross received more than 4000 pieces of fan mail (Edinger, p. 219) -- and, at age 57, managed to gain a 23-year-old wife (Edinger, p. 220, though she would eventually walk out on him; Edinger, p. 243). The voyage became famous enough that a panorama of it was exhibited publicly (Williams, p. 249); there were other museum exhibits and the like as well (Edinger, p. 221).
Felix Booth, in addition to having half the Arctic named after him, earned a baronetcy (Edinger, p. 220).
Yet John Ross also managed, yet again, to get in trouble, with excessive boasts at the expense of his nephew, as well as refusal to admit several of his errors. The song is right that he was bold. He was also ahead of his time (e.g. in his advocacy of steam and other new technologies). I don't think that really makes him a good officer; he was wrong as often as he was right, and he was stubborn and a terrible commander of men. And this piece, naturally, tells the good without the bad.
As Williams says on p. 248, "John Ross is a difficult character to assess. Irascible, cross-grained, cantankerous are all terms that come to mind in describing him; yet on the voyage of the Victory he survived more than four years in the ice (no other expedition to this time had been out for more than two winters), and brought back most of the crew alive." That is, I think, about as balanced a verdict as we can give. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: PaSe096

Bold and Saucy China, The

See The Bonnie Ship the Diamond (File: FSWB094)

Bold and Undaunted Youth, A

See The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)

Bold Aviator, The

See The Dying Aviator (File: MA142)

Bold Belfast Shoemaker, The

See James Ervin [Laws J15] (File: LJ15)

Bold Ben Hall

See The Death of Ben Hall (File: MA098)

Bold Benicia Boy, The

See Morrissey and the Benicia Boy (File: OCon044A)

Bold Benjamin, The

DESCRIPTION: Admiral Cole/Captain Chilver sails for Spain on the Benjamin with five hundred men, to gain silver and gold; he returns with sixty-one men. On their return to Blackwall, mothers and widows lament the lost sailors.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton-RealSailorSongs); before 1679 (Bodleian broadsides)
KEYWORDS: navy war death mourning ship shanty sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 23, "The Bold Benjamin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #38, "The Benjamin's Lamentations For their sad Loss at Sea, by Storms and Tempests" (1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 21, "The Benjamins' Lamentation for their sad loss at Sea, by Storms and Tempests" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN464, "Captain Chilver's gone to Sea"
ADDITIONAL: C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 89, "The Benjamin's Lamentation for their Sad Loss at Sea by Storms and Tempests" (1 text)
John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 209-212, "The Benjamin's Lamentation" (1 text)
Roud #2632
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Don. b.13(5), "The Benjamin's lamentation for their sad loss at sea by storms and tempests," F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, J. Clarke (London), 1674-1679 (scan not really legible); also Douce Ballads 1(16a), "The Benjamin's lamentation for their sad loss at sea by storms and tempests," W. Onley (London), 1689-1709
NOTES [227 words]: This song is a remake of the black-letter ballad (c. 1679) "The Benjamin's Lamentation for their Sad Loss at Sea, etc." - (PJS)
This is the broadside in the two Bodleian citations. They are very strange broadsides. The first one, the Coles broadside, was scanned in black and white and is very blurred, but it clearly closely related to the Onley broadside -- it appears they use the same woodcut, or at least that the Onley broadside imitated the first of the two woodcuts in the Cole piece. Stranger still, they are PARTLY blackletter. The text varies almost randomly between Roman and blackletter type. Take the first stanza of the Onley broadside. I'll reproduce it, showing the parts in Roman text in all caps.
Captain CHILVER's gone to Sea,
Ay, Boys, O Boys,
With all his Company, Ay,
Captain CHILVER's gone to Sea
With all his Company,
IN THE BRAVE Benjamin, O.
This is a curious imitation of the Cole broadside, which also mixes blackletter and Roman type (seemingly in the same way, although the blurry print makes it impossible to be sure at every point), plus it puts the name Benjamin in italics. One would guess Onley didn't have a lower-case italic type (although he had italic capitals) and so reverted to blackletter. But why the mix of Roman and blackletter? I have no idea.
I know nothing about the wreck in question, if indeed it was real. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: VWL023

Bold Black and Tan, The

DESCRIPTION: "Says Lloyd George to MacPherson, I give you the sack To uphold law and order you haven't the knack." The English create the Black and Tan army, which commits atrocities, but the Irish vow they will defeat the English
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Galvin)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion violence Civilwar IRA
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1920-1921 - The Black and Tan War
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 63-64, "The Bold Black and Tan" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT,BLACKTAN*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boys from County Cork" (subject: Irish Civil War) and references there
cf. "The Boys of Kilmichael" (subject: Irish Civil War)
cf. "The Burning of Rosslea" (subject: Irish Civil War)
cf. "Charlie Hurley" (subject: Irish Civil War)
cf. "Down in the Town of Old Bantry" (subject: Irish Civil War)
cf. "Mac and Shanahan" (subject: Irish Civil War)
cf. "General Michael Collins" (subject: Irish Civil War)
cf. "The Piper of Crossbarry" (subject: Irish Civil War) and references there
cf. "The Rineen Ambush" (subject: Irish Civil War)
cf. "The Quilty Burning" (subject: Irish Civil War)
cf. "The Valley of Knockanure" (subject: Irish Civil War)
cf. "The Valley of Knockanure (II)" (subject: Irish Civil War)
cf. "The Boys of Kilmichae" (subject Irish Civil War)
NOTES [610 words]: By 1920, Irish terrorism had clearly reached the point where the normal authorities could not control it.
This was especially true since the regular members of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) were losing their enthusiasm. By this time, though only a few dozen had been killed, their morale was falling; by late 1920, roughly 10% had resigned (Kee, p. 96), and the rest had perhaps lost their edge. The British saw a need for more replacements than could possibly be raised in Ireland itself (Kee, p. 97, says that they eventually recruited some 7000 new police), and started importing potential police from Britain itself. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George therefore recruited a special auxiliary force (known as the Black and Tans) to try to restore order.
The Black and Tans are often called the dregs of British society. This is at best an exaggeration. It is true that most were unemployed -- but this is hardly their fault; they were World War I veterans, often taken into the army as soon as they finished school, and then returned home to an England where all the jobs were filled.
As Younger puts it (p. 105), "They were not the dregs of English jails, as Irishmen have so often alleged, but bored, unsettled, often workless ex-soldiers, young men whose ordinary pity and honour had been dried up by their long and merciless ordeal in the trenches." One might add that, having been so long under discipline, it took only a few really bad apples to lead them to brutality.
Their black and tan uniform was largely an accident; as there were not enough Royal Irish Constabulary uniforms available, the Black and Tans received a mixture of oddments.
The Irish correctly accuse the Black and Tans of atrocities -- the British (exhausted by World War I) had little choice but to fight terror with terror. The Black and Tans were the worst mostly because they had no experience of the Irish except during the terrorism. With their comrades being attacked from hiding with terrorist weapons, they took revenge where they could -- even if it meant random revenge which hurt their cause more than it helped.
The British did not entirely ignore the Black and Tan problem; Kee reports (p. 117) that 218 of them were dismissed as unsuitable, and a few dozen were subjected to prosecution for their behavior. This did little to control the problem. Technically, the Black and Tans were keeping Ireland in British hands; Richard Mulcahy, the Irish Chief of Staff, who was one of those chiefly responsible for fighting them, observed that, for all the deaths, the Irish rebels had never managed to drive the English out of anything more significant than "a fairly good-sized police barracks" (see Kee, p. 145). But military control is not peace. (Just ask any citizen of Iraq.)
The results were intolerable. Both sides agreed to a truce in 1921, with elections to follow in Ulster and the rest of Ireland. As it proved, Sinn Fein won overwhelmingly in Ireland and Unionist (i.e. pro-British) parties almost as completely in Ulster. The path to Irish independence was at last clear -- as long as the country was willing to accept partition.
The MacPherson of the song is Sir Ian MacPherson, Lloyd George's Irish Minister, who believed in Home Rule and, although he fought to keep order, was not strict enough for the Prime Minister.
Macready is Major General Sir Nevil Macready, Commander in Chief of the British forces in Ireland. Dangerfield describes him as impartial in the Irish struggles; "he disliked both sides," i.e. nationalists and Ulstermen (p. 319; see also p. 110, where it is said he had "no sympathy for either Nationalists or Orangemen"). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: PGa063

Bold Blackamoor

See The Tinker (File: EM029)

Bold Brannan on the Moor

See Brennan on the Moor [Laws L7] (File: LL07)

Bold Captain Avery

See Captain Every (File: BdCapEve)

Bold Carter

See Polly on the Shore (The Valiant Sailor) (File: Wa057)

Bold Champions

See Tyler and Robinson (File: ReSh018)

Bold Daniels (The Roving Lizzie) [Laws K34]

DESCRIPTION: Bold Daniels and the "Roving Lizzie" meet a pirate ship which calls for their surrender. Though outnumbered, Daniels and the "Lizzie" fight so effectively that they capture the pirate and take it to (Baltimore) as a prize
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Erskine-TwentyYearsBeforeTheMast)
KEYWORDS: pirate battle ship
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws K34, "Bold Daniels (The Roving Lizzie)"
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 43, "Bold Daniel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 43, "Bold Daniel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 39-40, "Bold Daniel" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 257-259, "The Rovin' Lizzie" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 47, "The Roving Lizzie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 57, "Bold Daniel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 149-151, "Bold Daniels" (1 text)
Erskine-TwentyYearsBeforeTheMast, p. 5, "(Twas on the twenty-first of April, from Hampton Roads we sailed)" (1 text)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 24, "Bold Daniels" (1 text, 1 tune; #24 in the first edition)
DT 567, BOLDDANL
Roud #1899
File: LK34

Bold Deserter, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves a girl. "She first advised me for to list and afterwards desert" He is hiding, thinking of those he left behind, terrorized even by "the bird that flutters on each tree." He will return. If they "pardon me, I would desert no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(64))
KEYWORDS: courting soldier desertion
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 68, "The Bold Deserter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 8, "The Bold Deserter" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
DT, BOLDDSRT*
Roud #1655
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(64), "Bold Deserter" ("My parents rear'd me tenderly, I being their only son)," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Firth c.14(126), Harding B 26(66), 2806 c.15(183), Harding B 19(42), "[The] Bold Deserter"; Firth c.14(128), "The Bold Deserter" or "Why Did I Desert?"
File: OLoc068

Bold Dickie and Bold Archie

See Archie o Cawfield [Child 188] (File: C188)

Bold Dighton [Laws A21]

DESCRIPTION: The French on Guadeloupe have imprisoned hundreds of seamen. Dighton offers 500 guineas to relieve their distress and is himself imprisoned. He manages to free all the prisoners and, fighting off a pursuing ship, escape to Antigua
AUTHOR: P. Russell?
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: prisoner escape
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws A21, Bold Dighton"
Thompson-APioneerSongster 46, "Bold Dighton" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 94, "Bold Dighton" (1 text plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 83, "Bold Dighton," "The Tiger and the Lion" (2 texts)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 14-16, "Bold Dighton" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 67-71, "Bold Dighton" (1 text)
DT 696, BLDIGHTN
Roud #2209
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as101290, "Bold Dighton," L. Deming (Boston), 19C
NOTES [94 words]: Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia attributes this to P. Russell (of whom I know nothing) -- but this is based on an advertising blurb on a broadside copy, and we know what those are worth. Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors also attributes it to this P. Russell, and list various Russell publications. - RBW
"Being the account of an action fought off Gaudaloupe (sic.), in 1805, where ninety-five Americans, and near three hundred Britons made their escape from the prison at that place." (Source: Note included in America Singing as101290 broadside) - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LA21

Bold Doherty

DESCRIPTION: Doherty loves drink and women. He fools his mother into giving him money. He passes two tinkers fighting over the effect of Doherty on his wife. Doherty goes home. His mother has locked him out. He doesn't mind "for I can get lodging with Nora McGlinn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (recording, Mary Ann Carolan)
KEYWORDS: sex drink mother rake home
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #2992
RECORDINGS:
Mary Ann Carolan, "Bold Doherty" (on Voice13)
File: RcBolDoh

Bold Dragoon, A

See Trooper and Maid [Child 299] (File: C299)

Bold Dragoon, The

See The Bold Soldier [Laws M27] (File: LM27)

Bold English Navvy, The

See The Courting Coat (File: RcWMPBO)

Bold Escallion and Phoebe

See Corydon and Phoebe (File: K125)

Bold Fenian Men (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "See who comes over the red-blossomed heather, Their green banners kissing the pure mountain air...." Fenians come from all over Ireland, boasting of their victories (!) over the English. Refrain "Out and make way for the bold Fenian men!"
AUTHOR: Michael Scanlon
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 ("first printed in Chicago", according to Zimmermann p. 48 fn. 65)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 51-52, "The Bold Fenian Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 323, "The Bold Fenian Men" (1 text)
Roud #V8282
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(168), "The Fenian Men", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
LOCSinging, sb10126b, "The Fenian Men", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also as201000, "The Fenian Men"
NOTES [196 words]: The Fenians were an Irish Independence organization -- but they were also among the most absurdly inept plotters in history. The depth of their feelings are illustrated by the fact that they kept on after an endless litany of failures. (For examples, see "A Fenian Song," "The British Man-of-War," and "The Smashing of the Van (I)." Robert Kee, in The Bold Fenian Men, being Volume II of The Green Flag, p. 37, perhaps sums up their record best: "This iron, selfless dedication to a cause which, though often viewed with sympathy by the Irish people, was made consistently ludicrous by events, became an important feature of the Fenian movement.)
This song, however, appears to come from their heady early days, when they were still growing and had not started to mess up. For this early part of their history, see "James Stephens, the Gallant Fenian Boy." - RBW
Broadsides LOCSinging sb10126b and Bodleian Harding B 18(168): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadsides LOCSinging sb10126b and Bodleian Harding B 18(168) are duplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: PGa051

Bold Fisherman, The [Laws O24]

DESCRIPTION: The fisherman comes to court the lady. Having tied up his boat, he takes her hand and removes his coat. This reveals three golden chains. Seeing that he is rich, the lady asks forgiveness for calling him a fisherman. The two go home and are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3114))
KEYWORDS: fishing marriage courting money
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Laws O24, "The Bold Fisherman"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #179, p. 2, "The Rover of the Sea" (1 text)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 110, "As I Walked Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 5, "The Bold Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 282, "Bold Fisherman" (1 text)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 254-255, "The Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #21, "The Bold Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan4 834, "The Rover of the Sea" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 12, "The Bold Fisherman" (2 texts)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 62, "The Bold Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #22, "The Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 218-219, "The Bold Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 112-114, "The Bold Fisherman" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 603-604, "The Young Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 692-693, "The Bold Fisherman" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads, "The Royal Fisherman" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 42, "The Bold Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, pp. 18-19, "The Bold Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 483, FISHBOLD*
Roud #291
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "The Bold Fisherman" (on Voice01)
Leonard Hulan, "The Young Fisherman" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3114), "The Bold Fisherman," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Johnson Ballads 596; Harding B 11(840)=B 11(841), "The Bold Fisherman," H. Such (London), 1863-1885
NOTES [170 words]: The notes in Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory point out that several scholars see a link to the legend of the Fisher King. I frankly don't see it. The point of the legend of the Fisher King is not the fishing, nor the wealth, but the unhealed injury. - RBW
Since there are readings of this ballad "as a medieval allegory symbolizing the mystical union of Christ (the fisher king) and the soul" (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle citing Lucy Broadwood), note that the broadsides do not follow that line. Bodleian Harding B 11(840), for example, has "He took her by the lily white hand, It was his full intent; Then he untied her morning gown, And gently laid her down, There she beheld a chain of gold Hang dangling three times round." - BS
Palmer says that Broadwood also saw Gnostic symbolism in the song. Symbols similar to those in Gnosticism there may be, but the song cannot possibly be Gnostic, since Gnosticism was extinct well before the Norman Conquest and never made much progress in Latin Christendom anyway. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LO24

Bold Fusilier, The

DESCRIPTION: "A bold fusilier came marching down through Rochester, Off to the wars in the north country, And he sang as he marched the dear old streets of Rochester, 'Wha'll be a sodger for Marlbro' and me?'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941
KEYWORDS: soldier recruiting
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1650-1722 - Life of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
1701-1714 - War of the Spanish Succession, pitting France and Spain against Britain, Austria, and many smaller nations. Marlborough made a reputation by winning the battles of Blenheim (1704), Ramillies (1706), and Oudenarde (1708) (he fought a draw at Malplaquet in 1709)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
DT, (COMBSOLD* COMBSOL2)
ADDITIONAL: Matthew Richardson, _Once a Jolly Swagman: The Ballad of Waltzing Matilda_, Melbourne University Press, 2006, pp. 115-116, "The Bold Fusilier" (1 short text, partial tune)
Sydney May, _The Story of Waltzing Matilda_, W. R. Smith & Paterson Pty. Ltd., 1944, p. 21, "The Bold Fusilier" (1 short text)
NOTES [360 words]: The currency of this song in oral tradition is rather open to debate. This is not due to any defect in the song itself, but its precise parallels to "Waltzing Matilda," which has made the history of the song rather a fetish for Australians.
The facts:
1. There are no early collections of the song, and some have judged the language inappropriate for the early seventeenth century. There do not appear to be broadside prints. (The verses quoted in the Digital Tradition are modern reconstructions by Peter Coe of the extant fragments remembered by recent informants). Harry Pearce in 1971 reported a claim that Kathleen Cooper's grandfather Henry Bushby learned the song from his grandfather, George Bushby, who was born in the third quarter of the eighteenth century (see Matthew Richardson, Once a Jolly Swagman: The Ballad of Waltzing Matilda, Melbourne University Press, 2006,p. 214). Based on Cooper's description, it would seem that the song was "not suitable for children," which might explain why it has so rarely been found. But in itself this is a very tenuous chain of attribution.
2. The song clearly *refers to* events of the time of the War of the Spanish Succession, when Marlborough was the English general in chief and when the recruiting sergeant still roamed the streets sweeping up recruits.
Does this date the song to the seventeenth century? The only other alternative I've seen is a suggestion that the song was written during the Boer War (1899-1902) as some sort of parody on the Churchills. I find this hard to believe.
My personal opinion is, despite the incredibly tortured explanations given by many Australians to "prove" that the tune of "Waltzing Matilda" derives from "Thou Bonnie Wood of Craigeilea," that this is the tune Christina MacPherson gave to Banjo Patterson for that song -- after all, she didn't remember the tune's name or where she learned it! -- or at least that Marie Cowan, who arranged the popular version of "Waltzing Matilda," conformed it to "The Bold Fusilier." The question will probably never be settled to everyone's satisfaction, however, barring discovery of an early broadside print or the like. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: DTcombso

Bold General Wolfe

See General Wolfe (File: FMB050)

Bold General Wolff

See General Wolfe (File: FMB050)

Bold Grenadier, The

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

Bold Hawke

DESCRIPTION: Sir Edward Hawke takes Royal George out of Torbay December 18 and December 28 fights a French fleet of five ships. They sink Lily and burn Rising Sun and Glory.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: battle navy sea France
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 20, 1759 - "Sir Edward Hawke [defeats] the Brest fleet... at Quiberon Bay on the coast of France" (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 10, "Bold Hawke" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18256
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Heart of Oak" (context of the Battle of Quiberon Bay)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hawke's Engagement
NOTES [851 words]: A 1760 Bodleian broadside, "Admiral Hawke's welcome to old England, on his compleating the ruin of the French navy," says about the battle that "Five Ships did, reluctant, the Combat sustain While eight, trembling, sneaked up the River Vilaine And the rest flew, like Feathers, all over the Main" -- shelfmark 5 Delta 278(16). Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou: "This battle was recorded in British history as one of the greatest naval victories of all time." Hawke had been driven to Torbay by a November gale, giving the French a chance to sail from Brest (Source: Royal Navy site re Royal Naval History "The Battle of Quiberon Bay 1759"). Torbay is in Devon, on the English Channel, though it may have tickled Newfoundlanders to transfer the base in their mind's eye to Torbay, seven miles north of St John's. - BS
Sir Edward Hawke (1710-1781) was, after Anson, the chief admiral of the late phase of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), and was to prove a brilliant innovator. Lacking political connections (he was the son of an unimportant barrister), he rose to the rank of captain on merit. Early in the war, he had disobeyed the orders of his commander, Admiral Mathews, at Toulon, capturing the only significant prize -- an affair resulting in a nasty set of charges and counter-charges (Herman, pp. 266-267). It nearly cost Hawke his job; he was slated to be "promoted" from active-duty Captain to half-pay (inactive) Rear Admiral. But George II himself objected, and Hawke was kept on (Herman, p. 271) -- and assigned to minor duties.
He then got lucky. He had been assigned to what amounted to a desk job, but briefly assumed command of the Western Squadron when Vice Admiral Warren came down with scurvy. And, during what was supposed to be a minor tour of duty, the French tried to break a convoy out of Brest. Hawke caught up with them and won a brilliant victory at the second battle of Cape Finisterre in October 1747 (Herman, pp. 271-273. One of his captains at this time was Philip Saumarez, who became the "Captain Somerville" of "Warlike Seamen"). From then on, Hawke's career was secure.
He took good advantage, revising naval tactics (modifying the line-ahead method of attack and also creating a system of blockade based on a few ships close in to watch for breakouts while the main fleet stood out to sea to guard against other fleets arriving) -- and solving the scurvy problem by having supply ships regularly bring fresh food to his ships on patrol. Never again would ships on patrol duty be forced to return to port every few weeks, though scurvy would still bother sailors on long-distance voyages (Herman, p. 280).
The Seven Years' War had initially gone well for France, but by 1759, they were taking a beating in Canada, and decided to try for an assault on Britain (yes, this sounds very much like Napoleon and the Trafalgar campaign; see Borneman, pp. 238-239). This required the French to concentrate their fleet.
The key to this was getting the force in Brest down to Quiberon Bay. Admiral Hawke was blockading the port. Eventually, helped by weather that troubled the British fleet the French got out (Mahan, pp. 300-301) -- but Hawke caught up with them at Quiberon Bay, chased them when they sailed toward shore, and inflicted a signal defeat.
As Mahan says (p. 304), "All possibility of an invasion of England passed away with the destruction of the Brest fleet. The battle of Novermber 20, 1759 was the Trafalgar of this war" (compare Borneman, pp. 242-243, which in fact quotes Mahan on the point).
Hawke was truly inspiring during the battle; his ship was in the van, and did much of the damage to the French, and Hawke forced his ship to keep fighting when the pilot and others expressed concern about the rocky conditions (Stokesbury, p. 143).
The bravado worked; although seven ships escaped, others had to throw away their guns to flee up a river, and several were destroyed in the battle, and Admiral Conflans's flagship destroyed itself on the rocks (Stokesburg, p. 144).
Quiberon Bay itself is the bay off Lorient in Brittany, which after the unification of France gradually became one of France's chief havens.
This song appears rather confused; the dates match neither Quiberon Bay nor Cape Finisterre, and neither do the circumstances. (E.g. Quiberon Bay went as it did largely because it was fought in terrible storms.) The description in the song may be based on the fact that the French fleet lost five ships at Quiberon Bay, though the names are wrong. The song is correct in calling Hawke's flagship the Royal George.
Hawke's exploits seem to have inspired several songs and poems; in addition to this and the broadside mentioned by Ben, C. H. Firth, Publications of the Navy Records Society , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 197, has an item called "Admiral Hawke," and on p. 217 prints "Hawke's Engagement," with "Lord Anson and Hawke" found on page 225. The Roud index lists a number of broadsides of "Admiral Hawke" and so forth. But this appears to be the only traditional song about Hawke, and even it barely survives. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe010

Bold Irvine

See James Ervin [Laws J15] (File: LJ15)

Bold Jack Donahoe

DESCRIPTION: The singer sadly recalls the death of Donahoe. He and his companions are overtaken by three policemen. Walmsley refuses to fight, and Donahoe is left alone. He is shot and killed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks); c.1870 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Australia death cowardice fight outlaw
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 1, 1830 (the ballad says Aug 24) - Jack Donahue, formerly of Dublin (transported 1823), is killed by police near Sydney
FOUND IN: Australia US(MW,NE,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 63-64, "Bold Jack Donahoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 50-51, "Bold Jack Donahue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 122-123, "The Adventures of Jack O'Donohoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 10-12, "Bolf Jack Donahue" (1 text)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 38-40, "The Bold Undaunted Irishman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 89, "Bold Jack Donohue" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 244-246, "Bold Jack Donohue" (1 text, mixed enough that it might be this or "Jack Donahue")
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 95, "Bold Jack Donohue" (1 text
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 6, "Jack Donahue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 304-205, "Bold Jack Donahue" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 22-23, "Bold Jack Donahoe" (1 text)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 76, "Bold Jack O'Donoghue" (2 texts, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 33, "Bold Jack Donohue" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 196, "Jack O'Donohoe"; p. 197, "The Adventures of Jack O'Donohoe" (2 texts, with tunes on p. 568)
Roud #611
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Bold Jack Donohue" (on IRECronin01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack Donahue" [Laws L22]
cf. "Jack Donahue and His Gang" (subject)
cf. "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (tune)
cf. "The Wreck of the Eliza" (tune)
cf. "The Aranmore Disaster" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Jim Jones at Botany Bay (File: PBB096)
The Wreck of the Eliza (File: Ran056)
The Aranmore Disaster (File: Ran125)
NOTES [434 words]: This ballad often mixes with "Jack Donahue" [Laws L22] (for obvious reasons), and they are lumped by Roud, but the two can be distinguished by the mention of Donahue's companions at the time of Donahoe's capture. Some scholars think this the older of the two.
This is the Jack Donahoe ballad that does not mix with "The Wild Colonial Boy."
For historical background on Donahue, see "Jack Donahue" [Laws L22]. - RBW
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 76 makes a Fenian connection: "I turned out as a Fenian boy as I'd often done before"; "...that Fenian bold called Jack O'Donoghue."
Zimmermann: "The name of Captain Mackey ["There was MacNamara, Andrew Ward, and Captain Mackey too, They were the chiefs and associates of bold Jack Donoghue"] helps us to date this version. William Mackey commanded the Fenians at Ballyknockane, County Cork, in an attack upon the police barracks during the rising of 1867. He was sentenced to 12 years' penal servitude in March 1868." The connection with Jack O'Donoghue, killed in 1830, would -- if Zimmermann is right -- be fictitious.
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin, like to Zimmerman, has the cause of Donahue's "transportation" from Ireland being his association with the United Brotherhood, a natural lead in to his association with "Captain Mackey" and the Australian Fenians: "For being a bold United Boy they sent me across the main... I was no longer than six months upon the Australian shore / I turned out a Fenian Boy which I often did before / There were McNamara and Andrew Ward and Captain Mackey too...." For another story of the Irish Brotherhood exiles among the Australian Fenians see "The Fenian's Escape (The Catalpa)" and the notes there for some background. - BS
Zimmermann's version is attributed to "John McCarthy." But the list of co-conspirators is unusual at best. The version of this song I know best lists Donohue's companions as "Jacky Underwood, and Webber and Walmsley too."
According to Harry Nunn's Bushrangers: A Pictorial History, p. 16, the members of the Underwood Gang (active 1820-1832) were "William Underwood, John Donohue [not O'Donohue, note], George Kilroy, William Smith, John Walms[l]ey, John Webber and others." It notes that "Donohue and Webber shot by police 1830. Underwood shot 1832. Walmsley turned informer, Smith and Kilroy hanged 1832." Thus my guess would be that McCarthy took an existing song and converted it for Fenian purposes.
What can be said with certainty is that this was not originally a Fenian song, because Donahoe died in 1830, before there were any Fenian organizations of any kind. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MA063

Bold Jack Donahoe (II)

See Jack Donahue [Laws L22] (File: LL22)

Bold Jack Donahoo

See Jack Donahue [Laws L22] (File: LL22)

Bold Jack Donahue (II)

See Jack Donahue [Laws L22] (File: LL22)

Bold Jack Donohue

See Bold Jack Donahoe (File: MA063)

Bold Jack O'Donoghue

See Jack Donahue [Laws L22] (File: LL22)

Bold Kidd, the Pirate

DESCRIPTION: The singer's ship is newly put to sea when she spots a pirate. The mate identifies the ship as Captain Kidd's. The captain turns about and flees. After a long chase, she escapes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: escape pirate sea
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1699 - Arrest of Captain William Kidd in Boston
May 23, 1701 - Execution of Captain Kidd
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 16-18, "Bold Kidd, the Pirate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 15, "Bold Kidd, the Pirate" (2 texta, 2 tunes; the first from Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, the second a reconstruction; #51 in the first edition)
ST FO016 (Partial)
Roud #528
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Kidd" [Laws K35]
cf. "The Bold Princess Royal" [Laws K29] (plot)
NOTES [34 words]: For background on Captain Kidd, see the notes to "Captain Kidd" [Laws K35]. It seems highly unlikely, however, that this song is contemporary with Kidd; it doesn't appear to fit Kidd's actual behavior. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: FO016

Bold Larkin (Bull Yorkens)

DESCRIPTION: In 1855 the Elizabeth runs for land in a heavy sea. Andrew Shean/Sheehan, a sailor, falls into the sea. Captain Bull Yorkens reluctantly orders the rescue attempt abandoned. At St John's he consoles the parents and offers a prayer for Sheehan.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Murphy)
KEYWORDS: death drowning mourning ship sea father mother sailor storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, pp. 907-908, "Bull Yorkens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 11, "Bold Larkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4420
RECORDINGS:
Charles Dawe, "Harkin's Voyage" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mike Kent, "Bold Larkin" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Patrick Pennell, "Andrew Sheehan" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Monica Rossiter, ("Come all you bad companions and listen unto me") (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "New York to Queenstown" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Loss of Andrew Sheehan
NOTES [131 words]: According to Lehr, "'Bold Larkin,' also known as 'The Loss of Andrew Sheehan,' was composed by John Grace. Sheehan was a native of St John's. In a version of the song printed in Murphy's Songs Their Fathers Sung, the date of the event is '55 and not '65 as in our version. Larkin is also written Harkin in Murphy's book."
Cape Spear is less than four miles from St John's harbour.
The [MUNFLA/Leach] site has no text for Monica Rossiter's song but she sings the first two verses. - BS
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou do not identify which edition of Songs Their Fathers Sung they quote, nor the page, although their bibliography claims it is the 1923 edition. But it is not in the 1923 copy of Songs Their Fathers Sung digitized on the Memorial University of Newfoundland site. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Pea907

Bold Lieutenant, The

See The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)

Bold Lover Gay [Laws P23]

DESCRIPTION: The young man wins shy May's heart with promises of an easy life and fine clothes. He takes her to his home across the sea. His promises prove false; a year later she is homesick and pregnant, with no fine clothes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: seduction marriage poverty pregnancy
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws P23, "Bold Lover Gay"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 208-209, "All on Account of a Bold Lover Gay" (1 text)
DT 505, LOVERGAY
Roud #996
File: LP23

Bold M'Dermott

See Bold McDermott Roe (File: OLoc028)

Bold MacCartney

See Bold McCarthy (The City of Baltimore) [Laws K26] (File: LK26)

Bold Manan the Pirate [Laws D15]

DESCRIPTION: The pirate Bold (Manning/Manan) captures a merchant ship. To prevent the sailors from fighting over a young woman found on board, Manning kills her. But (the next day) Manning encounters a warship and the pirate ship is sunk
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan1) (but see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: pirate homicide sea
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws D15, "Bold Manan the Pirate"
Peacock, pp. 848-851, "William Craig and Bold Manone" (1 texts, 2 tunes)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 59-61, "Manning, The Pirate" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 45, "Young Mannon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 139-141, "Bold Manning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 259-265, "Bold Manan the Pirate" (2 texts plus a fragment)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 230-231, "Bold Manning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 25, "Bold Manaan the Pirate" (1 text, 2 tunes; composite; #25 in the first edition)
DT 752, BLDMANAN
Roud #673
RECORDINGS:
George Decker, "William Craig and Bold Manone" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Mrs. Ghaney, "The Pirate Song" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Merchantman and the Pirate
NOTES [54 words]: "On Shanties," article in E(neas) S(weetland) Dallas, editor, Once a Week, New Series, Number 31, August 1, 1868 (published by Bradbury and Evans and available on Google Books), p. 93, refers to an "old sea ballad" "Manning (a buccaneering ditty)," which I suspect is this, in which case it goes back to at least 1868. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LD15

Bold Manning

See Bold Manan the Pirate [Laws D15] (File: LD15)

Bold McCarthy (The City of Baltimore) [Laws K26]

DESCRIPTION: Bold McCarthy sails from Liverpool (as a stowaway) on the City of Baltimore. An argument with the mate turns into a fight, and the Irishman handily defeats the mate (and several others). The captain appoints McCarthy an officer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: sea fight rambling
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland US(NE)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Laws K26, "Bold McCarthy (The City of Baltimore)"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 128-129, "The City of Baltimore (Bold McCarthy)" (1+ texts, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, p. 183, "Earlly in the Morning or City of Baltimore" (1 fragment, probably this although too short to be certain)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 174, "Bold McCarthy" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 860-861, "Bold McCarthy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 46, "The City of Baltimore" (1 fragment)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 58, "City of Baltimore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 54-55, "The City of Baltimore" (1 text, 1 tune)\
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 187-189,242, "Bold McCarthy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 62, "The City of Baltimore (Bold McCarthy)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 109, "The City of Baltimore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p.56, "Bold MacCartney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 96-97, "Bold McCarty" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
DT 408, CITYBALT* CITYBAL2
Roud #1800
RECORDINGS:
John Connors, "City of Baltimore" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
George Hatfield, "City of Baltimore" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [182 words]: The Inman line of steamers, active starting in 1850, had a history of naming ships "The City of X," e.g. the City of Philadelphia, the City of Manchester, Brinnin, pp. 208-209. Many of these became notorious; Inman line ships seem to have become famous mostly for spectacular wrecks. But the City of Baltimore seems to have had a quiet and efficient career (e.g. Fox, p. 186, notes an instance of her beating some of competitor Cunard's transatlantic boats); she was in service in the late 1860s. The line as a whole was at its peak from about 1855-1880.
To give the Inman Line its due, one of its primary goals was the relatively efficient transportation of steerage passengers emigrating from Ireland to America. This meant that its ships had to be operated on a relatively low budget and had to carry a lot of passengers (Fox, pp. 174-181). The inevitable result was that, if a wreck happened, it killed a lot of people. At least they crossed the ocean faster than the emigrant sailing ships they replaced, so there were far fewer deaths by disease than on the sailing vessels. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: LK26

Bold McCarty

See Bold McCarthy (The City of Baltimore) [Laws K26] (File: LK26)

Bold McDermott Roe

DESCRIPTION: McDermott Roe heads the Roscommon Defenders but is taken, tried and convicted. He is taken to Dublin to hang in spite of his parents' wealth. "To back the poor against the rich with them did not agree, And so McDermott Roe must die in shame and misery"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.10(12)); c.1800? (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion trial execution Ireland patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 28, "Bold McDermott Roe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 23, "Bold McDermott" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 43, "Bold McDermott Roe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 50-51, "(A New Song Called) Bold M'Dermott" (1 text)
ST OLoc028 (Partial)
Roud #3021
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(12), "Bold M'Dermott," W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867; also Harding B 19(83), "Bold M'Dermott"
NOTES [206 words]: In the late eighteenth century, as more legitimate Irish nationalists combined to form the United Irishmen, a more extreme branch went on to form the Defenders, devoted to defending Catholicism against the Protestants, notably in Ulster.
The Defenders, though they started mostly by demonstrating against the Protestant Peep o' Day Boys, eventually attacked a group of the latter -- who, though outnumbered, were victorious and eventually turned into the Orange Society.
The precipitating event was the so-called Battle of the Diamond, a riot "won" by the Protestants in September 1795 (see Robert Kee, The Most Distressful Country, being Volume I of The Green Flag, p. 71).
The Defenders, poor and Catholic, continued to grow after this, and the British, with their brilliant ability to always do the wrong thing in Ireland, cracked down ever harder. This song no doubt tells of one of the victims of that oppression -- though one suspects that McDermott Roe was probably guilty of more than just politics; the Defenders engaged in quite a bit of looting and burning.
For another song on the battles between these two groups, see "The Noble Ribbon Boys." For the Battle of the Diamond itself, see "The Battle of the Diamond." - RBW
File: OLoc028

Bold McIntyres, The

DESCRIPTION: "In County Kildare on Hibernia shore Lived a fam'ly of John McIntyres. There was Mike and Tim, the twins, as they stand upon their pins; We're the elegant bold McIntyres." The song continues through the rest of the family
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recording, Arthur Moseley)
KEYWORDS: family nonballad moniker
FOUND IN: US(MW)
Roud #5413
RECORDINGS:
Arthur "Happy" Moseley, "The Bold McIntyres" (AFS, 1940; on LC55)
File: RecTboMc

Bold Nelson's Praise

DESCRIPTION: "Bold Nelson's praise I'm going to sing, Not forgetting our glorious king, He always did good tidings bring." A song in praise of Lord Nelson and other English heroes. Details are sketchy.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: war navy drink
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1758-1805 - Life of Horatio Nelson, Britain's greatest naval hero, killed at Trafalgar
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 88, "Bold Nelson's Praise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 80, "Bold Nelson's Praise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1574
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar (Brave Nelson)" [Laws J17] and references there (subject)
File: ShH88

Bold Nevison

DESCRIPTION: The robber Nevison is found at an alehouse and taken by a constable. At trial he says "I've neither done murder nor kill'd But guilty I've been all my life." He always gave to the poor. "Peace I have made with my Maker... I'm ready to suffer the law."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Ingledew); before 1859 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.17(8)))
KEYWORDS: crime execution robbery trial outlaw
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 5, "Bold Nevison" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: C.J. Davison Ingledew, The Ballads and Songs of Yorkshire (London: Bell and Daldy, 1860 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 125-128, "Bold Nevison, the Highwayman" ("Did you ever hear tell of that hero") (1 text)
Roud #1082
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.17(8), "Bold Nevison the Highwayman" ("Did you ever hear tell of that hero "), J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1855-1858; also Firth c.26(172) [last three lines illegible], Firth c.17(9), "Bold Nevison the Highwayman"
NOTES [162 words]: Ingledew's text, like the broadsides, has 13 stanzas; OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 has nine.
For another ballad about Nevison, see EngBdsdBA 20777, Pepys 2.157, "The Highwayman's Advice to His Brethren or Nevison's Last Legacy to the Knights of the High-Pass" ("Follow bonny lad by the high-way side"), I. Wright (London),1684, accessed 08 Dec 2013. There are no lines shared with "Bold Nevison" and there is nothing about giving to the poor. It is about highway robbery, sharing a pint with his "brothers," spending their gains together on "our lasses and our wine," and, at the end, "we both will swing together."
OShaughnessy-Yellowbelly1: "William Nevison was born in Yorkshire, in 1639. His colourful career as highwayman and protection-racketeer ended on the gallows at York in 1685.... The famous ride to York, attributed to Dick Turpin, was one of Nevison's exploits...." For more on this story see the notes to "My Bonny Black Bess (II)" [Laws L9]. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OSY1005

Bold Northwestern Man, The [Laws D1]

DESCRIPTION: A band of Indians, come to sell furs, find weapons aboard the "Lady of Washington"; they try to capture the ship. Eventually they are defeated, losing some sixty/seventy of their number. The Europeans raid the Indian village to reclaim their property
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (broadside, according to Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
KEYWORDS: fight Indians(Am.)
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1791 - Attack on the Lady Washington
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws D1, "The Bold Northwestern Man"
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 118-119, "The Bold Northwestmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 843, BOLDNW*
ADDITIONAL: F. W. Howay, "The Ballad of the Bold Northwestman, an Incident in the Life of Captain John Kendrick ," article in _Washington Historical Quarterly_, Volume 10, No. 2 (April 1929) (available online via journals.lib.washington.edu), pp. 115-117, "Bold Nothwestman" (1 text, apparently from the Deming broadide)
Scott Ridley, _Morning of Fire: John Kendrick's Daring American Odyssey in the Pacific_, William Morrow, 2010, p. 305, "The Ballad of the Bold Northwestman" (excerpts from the Deming broadside)
Roud #2227
NOTES [3550 words]: In the aftermath of the American Revolution, the newly independent United States became interested in western North America and the fur trade. A group of Boston merchants in 1787 chose to fit out two ships to try to trade in the areas of what became Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia. The larger was the Columbia Redivivus or Columbia Rediviva (the sources seem to disagree on the name), the other, smaller and more maneuverable, wgas the Lady Washington (Dietrich, pp. 63-64). Initially, the Columbia was commanded by 47-year-old John Kendrick, the Lady by Robert Gray (who was not particularly thrilled about being under Kendrick's orders; Ridley, p. 21. Kendrick seems to have been a real pain to serve under; in his first few months in command, he drove his first and third mates and ship's doctor off the ship; Ridley, pp. 30-32).
It was basically a moonshot -- with the American economy in the doldrums, people were seeking Big Ideas. The voyage would be hard -- two years, in small ships that would have to make it around Cape Horn and then manage to trade in country that hadn't even been fully explored by Europeans! (Ridley, pp. 13-15). What's more, the Spanish -- who owned the coast of South America that the ships would have to pass, and also had claims to the more northern area the ships would visit -- were hostile to the whole idea and might well attack the vessels (Ridley, pp. 39, 42, etc.).
The Lady Washington, according to Ridley, p. 19, "was a coastal sloop of sixty feet and ninety tons, built low and tough in the shipyards north of Boston as early as 1750, probably with two-inch oak planking on her hull. Her single, gaff-rigged mast was stepped at an angle." Hardly the ship one would pick for an around-the-world voyage -- she was just too small! But the Columbia (212 tons) would be able to carry more cargo. At least, that was the idea....
Both ships were armed, although not very heavily; Ridley, p. 20, says the Columbia had ten cannon plus swivel guns, and the Lady Washington fewer.
The trip to the west coast was long and hard; they took the short but dangerous route around Cape Horn, and it hit them hard. The ships were separated, and Gray used this as an excuse to set out on his own (Ridley, p. 46), though they would later meet again. Both ships were hit by scurvy in the weeks after they rounded the horn -- on the Lady Washington, it struck seven of the eleven crew, some of them very badly (Ridley, pp. 58-59).
The Columbia would be the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe, and would also be the ship that discovered the Columbia River, though she by then had changed captains and lost several of her crew to scurvy along the way (Dietrich, p. 64).
It was the Lady, still under Gray, that had had the first fatal adventure, though. Gray, more willing to take risks than most captains of the period, went into what is now called Tillamook Bay, which is almost due west of Portland, Oregon. The Tillamook Indians were cautious, but a party from the ship went to shore.
One of them, a black man named Marcus Lopez or Lopius who was sailing as Gray's servant, left a cutlass on the ground. Someone picked it up; Lopez took off after him. In the aftermath, Lopez was killed and the rest of the landing party fled back to the ship. Some were injured, and Gray had to fire the ship's cannons to scare off the Tillamook. The ship ran aground in the confusion and barely got off after a very frightening night (Dietrich, pp. 64-65; Ridley, pp. 62-65; Scofield, pp. 92-93). The captain therefore named the place "Murderers' Harbor" (Scofield, p. 220).
The two ships finally met again at Nootka, in what is now British Columbia, in September 1791 (Ridley, p. 76). There were also two British ships there, but they left before Kendrick, who decided to spend the winter. Things got even more interesting when the Spanish, who claimed the entire American west coast (and had bases in Latin America, so they had more ability to control the area than the Americans), showed up. But that's not really relevant to the song.
Interestingly, given his eventual battle with Indians, it seems that Kendrick was much more willing than most men of his time to try to learn about and accept their culture; he spent a lot of time with the Mowachaht of Nootka (Ridley, pp. 88-89).
After that. Kendrick swapped ships with Gray and took over the Lady. Even Gray doesn't seem to be quite sure what Kendrick was up to; he recorded "Captn Kendrick thought it best to change vesels and take all the property on board the Washington and Cruize the Coast himself and for me to take the best of my way to the Sandwich Islands [Hawaii] to procure sufficient provisions to carry me to Canton. Our provisions on the Coast [i.e. what they have managed to gather there] not being sufficient for both vessels to Cruize the Season was the reason for our separation" (Scofield, p. 144; the strange spellings are original). He also reshuffled the crew, giving himself more specialists (Ridley, p. 140), probably arguing that the Columbia would be heading back to port sooner. Interestingly, Kendrick sent his son Solomon on the Columbia rather than keep him on his own ship. The Columbia set off for Hawaii, and Macao, while the Lady went exploring the Canadian coast. He appears to have believed, based on some very confused Indian testimony about Puget Sound (or some such place), that there was a way to get from the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Hudson's Bay, offering a Northwest Passage (Ridley, p. 142). This even though explorations of Hudson's Bay had already conclusively demonstrated that there was no passage there.
Where Kendrick went from there is apparently not quite clear -- the little we know comes from outside sources. Historians disagree about whether he circled Vancouver Island or not (Ridley, p. 144; if he did, he was the first non-native to do so). But there is no doubt about where they ended up: they found themselves in a place off the British Columbia coast they called Barell's Sound (Dietrich, p. 146; named after Joseph Barrell, who dreamed up the expedition; Ridley, p. 145, says it's in the Queen Charlotte Islands, now usually called Haida Gwaii, off the northern coast of British Columbia, near the Alaska border). "Barrell's Sound" is properly the Houston Stewart Channel, between the main island, Moresby Island, and the southernmost major island of the group, Kunghit Island.
It was their second visit there; they had been there two years earlier (Scofield, p. 219). Kendrick was ready to trade; he fired a signal cannon and waited for the natives to visit (Ridley, p. 146). But not every native was willing to trade; several of them stole from the ship, including someone who made off with Kendrick's linen as it was being washed and left to dry! (Ridley, pp. 147-148). Eventually Kendrick got fed up and told a chief to return what had been stolen. When the chief, Coyah, refused to, or was unable to, satisfy him, Kendrick took the chief hostage (Ridley, p. 148). Eventually -- perhaps after a beating -- he set him free, but Kendrick's relations with the people were permanently soured (Ridley, pp. 148-149).
Kendrick then headed to China to trade his cargo. This took a while, so he amused himself in other ways (and was sick for a time). Among other things, he had his men add a second mast to the Lady Washington, making her a brigantine (Ridley,p. 190, although on p. 85, he seems to date the conversion much earlier, while still on the Pacific coast. Scofield, p. 216, also dates it to the time in China). This strained his supplies of cordage and such, but he apparently felt that a one-masted ship was too vulnerable to be wandering around the Pacific (Scofield, p. 119. It was probably a good idea, but you have to wonder why he didn't to it in Boston!).
Apparently he wanted to try to make his way to Japan (Ridley, pp. 219-222), which at that time was still closed to the outside world. He decided to make sure the Lady was well-armed, just in case; she left China with an armament of eight four-pound cannon and twelve swivels (guns which could kill a lot of people at short ranges), plus light guns and a lot of hand weapons (Ridley, p. 222). He managed to contact some fishermen, but there was no real trade, and he soon had to flee; the Japanese authorities were coming after him (Ridley, p. 223-225).
With new supplies, Kendrick headed back to the Pacific Northwest, and back to the Queen Charlotte Islands. The song says that they met the Indians -- the same group they had quarreled with before! -- on June 16, 1791. Despite their previous problems, Kendrick allowed many visitors to come on board his ship rather than talking with them over the side (Scofield, p. 222). It was a mistake; the chief he had earlier fought with, Coyah, was one who came aboard -- and, once he realized that Kendrick and his men were not carrying their arms, seized the arms chest and prepared to attack Kendrick (Ridley, p. 227; Scofield, p. 222). Kendrick apparently told his men, if they had the chance, to jump into the hold and grab what weapons they could. Accounts differ about what they found, but there were some (Scofied, p. 224). It is possible, as the song said, that Kendrick wanted them to blow up the ship rather than give in, but before it could come to that, Coyah made a mistake.
It sounds as if Coyah thought the crew was helpless and wanted to explore his prize. He headed for the hold -- and Kendrick jumped him. Kendrick took a slight wound, but it allowed Kendrick and his armed crewmen to reunite and counter-attack. The undisciplined Indians did not know how to respond, and soon were fleeing the ship (Scofield, pp. 224-225). Ridley, p. 228, says that about fifteen were killed in the fight on board the Lady Washington. With the ship back in their hands, the Americans used their cannon and firearms to attack the Indians. And while there seems to be no reliable record of the casualties their inflicted at this stage, they were certainly many; one account says they killed forty, including Coyah's wife and two children, with Coyah himself being wounded (Scofield, p. 225); another claims fifty locals dead (Dietrich, p. 65).
Impressively, Kendrick lost no men in this conflict; indeed, in a very rare accomplishment for a long voyage of this period, no one under Kendrick's command died of disease on the voyge, although one died of probable suicide (Ridley, p. 206) and Lopius was murdered.
Gray and the Columbia arrived in Boston, having circumnavigated the globe, on August 9, 1790 (Ridley, p. 202), but the expedition was a bust financially; the goal had been to bring home 600 chests of tea, but Gray had only 221, and more than half of that had been ruined on the voyage (Ridley, pp. 203-204). But the consortium that has chartered the expedition decided to send him out again, and in July 1791, just a month after Kendrick's fight, he arrived in the Queen Charlotte Islands. There he learned that Coyah had, in effect, been deposed because of his failures (Scofield, p. 226; Ridley, p. 241) -- although he apparently had regained power by 1794 (Scofield, p. 227); it sounds as if he was a poor chief but an excellent politician/maniuplator. Coyah wouldn't make the same mistake in future; he slaughtered whole crews (Scofield, p. 227). The events of this song perhaps started a long chain of hostilities; Dietrich, p. 144, reports that the Boston, Atahualpa, and Tonquin were sunk by northwestern Indians between 1805 and 1811 -- but then the white men's diseases came and the Indians lost so much population that they were relatively easily shoved aside.
Even though the Haidas never saw Kendrick again, they definitely got their revenge: one of those killed in the massacres on the later trading ships was Solomon Kendrink, John Kendrick's son (Scofield, p. 330), whom he had sent with the Columbia when he took over the Lady Washington.
Some time after the battle with the Haidas, the Lady Washington again met the Columbia, now on her second trip to the Pacific Northwest (Scofield, pp. 235-237). But they would not voyage together; Kendrick was on his own. What his plans were -- if indeed he had plans -- is unknown. He did manage to "purchase" a bunch of land for the United States in exchange for, ahem, ten muskets (Ridley, pp. 233-236), with other "purchases" to follow for even lower values. Obviously a better word for what he did was "swindle"; in the end, in exchange for a few muskets and powder, he ended up "owning" almost 700 square miles of land around Vancouver Island (Ridley, pp, 235-237).
Kendrick would never make it back to the United States, and may not have wanted to (some thought he avoided coming home lest he have to answer for the expedition's failure; Ridley, p. 209; Ridley himself on p. 342 suggests that he preferred staying in the Pacific where he "was a king," in complete charge of what he did). So he went to China to the furs he had collected in the Pacific Northwest, and built a tender for the Lady Washington so that he could keep sailing! (Ridley, p. 280). That ship didn't last long; it was destroyed in a storm that almost took out the Lady as well, but she managed to limp back to Macao, having rescued several shipwrecked locals along the way (Ridley, pp. 281-283).
Kendrick was later killed in Hawaii by a British cannon shot (Scofield, p. xiv; Ridey, p. 359, quotes the news as it reached New England, where it was reported that he died "by a salute, by accident). The circumstances were peculiar. The Hawaiians were fighting among themselves, and two British ships under William Brown were supporting one side, hoping to gain control of the islands themselves. We have two accounts of what happened, which contradict each other (Scofield, p. 309), but it's clear that the British were happy about the outcome of a particular engagement, and decided to fire a salute to celebrate. They arranged with the Americans so that there would be no fighting. The first two guns of the salute, which had been unloaded, were fired without incident, but the British gunner found that the third gun (which was probably intended to be the last) had not been primed, so he went to a fourth gun and fired that -- and it hit the Lady Washington and killed Kendrick (Scofield, pp. 309-310; Ridley, pp. 352-354). Brown is reported to have found Kendrick a pain in the side, so he obviously would have been happy to be rid of him. And what are the odds that the British gun would have been aimed in such a way as to kill the man they most wanted to kill? On the other hand, how could they know where to aim to hit him, especially on short notice? It was certainly a peculiar outcome -- but if it happened deliberately, no one ever admitted to it.
It's ironic that Kendrick the loose cannon died by a loose cannon. His subordinate Gray's record wasn't much better; it eventually became clear that he was a reckless commander who had slandered Kendrick, and he ended up not making much money (Ridley, pp. 284-285).
I must admit that I simply cannot figure out what Kendrick actually wanted out of his voyage, especially after that reunion with Gray in 1791 where he found out that the expedition's backers had written him off. It's almost as if he decided to play at being a Flying Dutchman, sailing the Pacific forever.
The Lady Washington herself was wrecked in southeast Asia (Dietrich, p. 67); according to Scofield, p. 327, it's not clear who commanded her at the time (Kendrick had long since left her), but "at some subsequent time [she] ... 'had been cast away in the Straits of Malacca,' the reef-fanged passage between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. She would have been on her was to Calcutta."
Gray, too, would have further adventures, and would be involved in further fights with natives (Kendrick, p. 274). In the long run, Gray's discoveries were far more important, and are more often recorded in histories, than Kendrick's battle. (I suspect a lot of modern historians are embarrassed by the massacre.)
Some background on Kendrick: According to Ridley, pp. 4-5, Kendrick was born in Cape Cod in 1740, of a family with deep New England roots. His family moved to Nova Scotia as the American colonies became more rebellious, but Kendrick himself stayed behind. At the end of 1767 he married Huldah Pease. In the years that followed, he commanded a whaler and a ship that sounds like it was a smuggler visiting Spanish territory. His family claimed he was involved in the Boston Tea Party. He certainly smuggled arms at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, then commanded a privateer. The proceeds of his first voyage made him well-to-do, and he used some of the money to found the first school at his new home of Wareham (Ridley, p. 6).
On his second trip, he and his ship were captured; the British tried to convince his men to change sides. Those who wouldn't were eventually set adrift in a boat. But he managed to make it to the Azores, Portugal, and eventually home (Ridley, p. 7). The travels showed clearly his courage, determination, and occasional bull-headedness.
Scofield, p. 222, prints most of this piece, and lists it as one of six accounts available of this part of the Lady Washington's voyage -- an unusually high number of records for events of this period. He calls it "a doggerel ballad perhaps written by a member of the Washington's crew who took part in the affair.... [it] was published as a broadside -- sharing space with a sad little poem about a pair of Swiss orphans -- by a part-time barber named Leonard Deming, whose place of business the sheet lists as 'No. 62 Hanover Street, 2d door from Friend Street, Boston.' The ballad had apparently long been a favorite aboard the fur-traders' vessels and in the home of New England sailors, though Deming did not commit it to print until about 1834. Titled 'Bold Northwestman,' it makes no mention of Kendrick by name."
Deming was a fairly industrious printer; several dozen of his broadsides are catalogued in the Index.
Ridley, p. 305, quotes three stanzas of this song and believes Kendrick would have heard it in the 1790s, but his footnotes show that he has no evidence for this.
I can't prove it, but I suspect that the original tune of this was intended to be "Warlike Seamen (The Irish Captain)" or whatever song was the ancestor of that. This is not, however, the tune transcribed by Barry.
Everyone seems sure that this song is about Kendrick's battle in the Queen Charlotte Islands, but we should perhaps note that, while the song mentions the Lady Washington, it never mentions Kendrick (or Gray). Some versions have a date that matches Kendrick's battle, but some do not. Thus it is at least possible that it might be about, or have conflated details of, some other parts of the voyage or some of Gray's other fights. Still, Kendrick's battle is clearly the best fit, as the following observations will show.
Looking over the Barry and Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors versions of the song, the third line reads "'Twas on the Lady Washington at Cowper where she lay"; the Ridley text gives this as "was on the Lady Washington decoyed where she lay." Obviously "Cowper" is an error, and "decoyed" is possible (since the ship's crew was surprised) but seems forced. I wonder if the original didn't mention a local landmark which had its name corrupted (though the best possibility I can think of is "Clayoquot," which is a stretch), or perhaps if there was a reference to "Coyah."
Scofield's reference to "Queen Charlotte Island," found also in Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, is wrong (there was no single island with that name), but Barry's "Queen Charlotte Islands" is acceptable; that was the name of the whole island group.
Different versions of the song give different dates for the tragedy -- e.g. it's November 2, 1791 in the Barry/Digital Tradition and Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors texts; Scofield gives June 16, 1791. Neither Ridley nor Scofield seems to give an exact date of the event (!), but it was in the week of June 13, 1791.
The song is correct in saying that the Haida came aboard. The keys to the gun chests apparently were indeed in the locks -- although the song says it was the gunner's fault, and a source quotes by Scofield, p. 223, says that the gunner had warned Kendrick about the natives, and Kendrick abused him. There is no certain record of how many Indians were involved in the attempt to take over the ship, but certainly there were some. The versions of the song disagree on how many weapons the men found when they went below, but so do the other sources; all that is certain is that it was not many. Scofield's version appears correct in saying that the watchword of the men was "blow her up" rather than "fight them off" in the Barry version, the fact that the men did in fact fight off the Indians notwithstanding. The number of Indian dead and wounded was never known; the various versions of the song probably exaggerate.
The conclusion, to never trust an Indian, would surely have been denied by Kendrick himself, who had successful and friendly relations with other tribes; it was just the Haida of the Queen Charlotte Island who gave trouble. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: LD01

Bold Northwestmen, The

See The Bold Northwestern Man [Laws D1] (File: LD01)

Bold O'Donahue

DESCRIPTION: "Well, here I am from Paddy's land... I've broke the hearts of all the girls for miles round Keady town." The singer boasts of his ability to court, wishes his love were a rose so he could rain on her, and speaks of courting Queen Victoria's daughter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (fragment in the Sam Henry collection from 1924)
KEYWORDS: courting flowers
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H10i, p. 3, "(Old Choir Rhymes -- Additional Verses, text #1)" (1 text)
DT, BOLDODON
NOTES [54 words]: The Sam Henry text (reportedly sung to the tune "Irish") is only a fragment, a dialect version of
I wish my love was a red rose
Beside yon garden wall,
And I myself a drop of dew
Upon that rose to fall.
This (half)-stanza almost certainly floats, but the only song I've met it in is "Bold O'Donahue," so here it files. - RBW
File: HHH010i

Bold Peddler, The

See The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood [Child 132] (File: C132)

Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood, The [Child 132]

DESCRIPTION: Robin Hood and Little John meet a pedlar. Neither Robin nor John can out-wrestle the pedlar. They exchange names, and the pedlar (Gamble Gold, a murderer) proves to be Robin's cousin. They celebrate the reunion in a tavern
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1775
KEYWORDS: Robinhood fight return robbery family outlaw
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,North),Scotland(Aber)) US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Child 132, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (1 text)
Bronson 132, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (14 versions+ 2 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 132, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (5 versions: #3, #6, #8, #11, #12)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 4-5, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #4, pp. 71-74,242, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 279-281, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #41, "Robin Wood and the Pedlar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #21, "Robin Hood and the Pedlar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 457-461, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (1 songster text plus extensive notes)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 217-218, "Bold Robing Hood" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #14}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 67-69, "Bold Robin Hood and the Pedlar" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 101-106, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (2 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #3, #14}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 37-38, "Robin Hood and the Peddlar" (1 text, 1 tune) {Same indormant, although not the same session, as Bronson #8}
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 67-69, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 6, "Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (1 text, called "Pedlar Bold" by the singer, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 383-385, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 46, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (1 text, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 88, "Robin Hood and the Pedlar" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5, emended}
DT 132, RHPEDLAR* RHDPDLR2
Roud #333
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(381), "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(380), Harding B 11(382), "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood"
Murray, Mu23-y4:007, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant" [Child 282] (plot)
cf. "Robin Hood Newly Revived" [Child 128] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bold Peddler
NOTES [134 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Fully half the Robin Hood ballads in the Child collection (numbers (121 -- the earliest and most basic example of the type), 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, (133), (134), (135), (136), (137), (150)) share all or part of the theme of a stranger meeting and defeating Robin, and being invited to join his band. Most of these are late, but it makes one wonder if Robin ever won a battle.
Child considered this a variation of "Robin Hood Newly Revived" [Child 128], but Bronson argues that this is not so. Stephen Knight, however, points to what he considered an intermediate version in Child's additions and corrections; he thinks this text an orally shorted version of "Robin Hood Newly Revived." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: C132

Bold Peter Clarke

See Peter Clarke (File: MA100)

Bold Pirate, The [Laws K30]

DESCRIPTION: A British ship is overhauled by pirates. Though outnumbered, the sailors beat off the pirates. A broadside prevents the pirate's escape. The pirate ship is hauled back to England, and the sailors are made rich by the spoils
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia); 19C (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.12(64))
KEYWORDS: pirate ship money fight
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws K30, "The Bold Pirate"
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 229-230, "Pirate Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 150-151, "On the Twenty-First of May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 128-130, "The Bold Pirate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 254-255, "The Bold Pirate" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 80-81, "The Bold Pirate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 21, "The Bold Pirate" (1 text, 2 tunes; text from Eckstorm & Smyth, tunes adjusted; #21 in the first edition)
DT 411, BOLDPRT
Roud #984
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(64), "The Bold Pirate," J. Scott (Pittenweem), 19C
File: LK30

Bold Pirates (I), The

See High Barbaree [Child 285; Laws K33] (File: C285)

Bold Pirates (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Still pirates bold, we'll be, boys, Upon the chainless sea, boys, We'll rove and plunder free, boys, Beneath our sky-blue flag. All dangers still we dare.. True to our guns we'll stand, boys, And ere they shall command, We'll sink with our sea-blue flag"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1845 (The Buccaneer Songster, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate freedom ship death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 65, "The Bold Pirates" (1 text, 1 tune; #39 in the first edition)
Roud #V36787
File: FrPi065

Bold Poachers, The

DESCRIPTION: Three brothers go poaching one night in January. The sound of their guns brings the gamekeepers. One shoots a gamekeeper, then another. The brothers are taken prisoner; two are sentenced to be transported, the third is hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1862 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.19(47))
KEYWORDS: violence crime execution poaching punishment transportation death homicide
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 98, "The First Day in October" (1text, 1 tune); this entry also contains 1 nearly-complete text for "The Bold Poachers" (collected by E. J. Moeran, not by them)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, p. 134, "The Oakham Poachers" (1 fragment)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 32-35, "The Oakham Poachers" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, POACHRS
Roud #1686
RECORDINGS:
Brian Oxberry, "The Bold Poachers" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #58, recorded 07/27/2021)
Wiggie Smith, "The Oakham Poachers" (on Voice18)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.19(47), "Oakham Pachers [sic] ("Young men in every station"), E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1855-1861; also 2806 c.15(253), Harding B 20(199), "Oakam Poachers" or "The Lamentation of Young Perkins"; Firth c.19(63), Johnson Ballads 2038, "The Oakham Poachers"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Keepers and Poachers" (plot)
cf. "The Poacher's Fate" [Laws L14] (subject)
NOTES [38 words]: MacColl & Seeger call "The First Day in October" a composite, and so it is, but the similarities to "The Bold Poachers," particularly the use of the name Parkins for the guilty young man, have persuaded me to place it here. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: McCST098

Bold Princess Royal, The [Laws K29]

DESCRIPTION: The Princess Royal is overtaken by an unknown ship which tries to come alongside. The captain realizes that the other is a pirate, and safely outruns the other.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1870 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(145))
KEYWORDS: ship pirate escape
FOUND IN: US(NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Laws K29, "The Bold Princess Royal"
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 6, "The Bold Princess Royal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 142-143, "The Bold Princess Royal" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 148-149, "The Fair Princess Royal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 421, "The Princess Royal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 132, "The Fourteenth of February" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 35, "The Bold Princess Royal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 835-836, "The Bold Princess Royal" (1 texts, 2 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 75, "Bold Princess Royal" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 53, "Bold Princess Royal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 153, "The Bold Princess Royal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 91, "Kelly, the Pirate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 126-128, "The Bold Prince of Royal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 256-257, "The Royal Prince Regent" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 40-41, "The Bold Princess Royal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 150, "The Prince Boys" (1 text, 1 tune, incorrectly equated with Laws K39)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 119, "The Lorena Bold Crew" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 119, "The Lorena Bold Crew" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 26, "Buxter's Bold Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #1, "The Bold Princess Royal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 206-207, "The Bold 'Princess Royal'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 47, "The Bold Princess Royal" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 57, "Bold Princess Royal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 20, "The Bold Princess Royal" (2 texts, 3 tunes; the first is composite; #20 in the first edition)
DT 410, PRNCROYL*
Roud #528
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "The Bold 'Princess Royal'" (on Voice12)
George Decker, "The Bold Princess Royal" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Sam Larner, "The Bold Princess Royal" (on SLarner01, SLarner02, HiddenE)
Bob Roberts, "The Bold Princess Royal" (on LastDays)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(63), "The Bold Princess Royal," H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Firth b.25(136), 2806 b.11(9), Harding B 11(384)[some illegibility], "The Bold Princess Royal"; Firth c.12(65), "The Old Princess Royal, and the Pirate Ship"
Murray, Mu23-y4:019, "Bold Princess Royal," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(145), "Bold Princess Royal," unknown, c.1870
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Kidd, the Pirate" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Buxter's Bold Crew
Prince of Royal
She Came Bearing Down On Us
NOTES [352 words]: Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland names the ship Prince of Royal and refers to a variant that calls the ship Royal Apprentice.
In Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast's version the usually anonymous pirate announces "This is Kelly, the Pirate"; that is the only mention of the name that gives the version its title.
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 12" - 11.9.02: "Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen dates this song to the beginning of the American War of Independence." - BS
There were a number of British ships named Princess Royal; including a battlecruiser that fought at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 (unlike several of her sister ships, she survived). But the most famous was probably the flagship of the fleet of Admiral John Byron (1723-1786). Byron served in the Caribbean in the late 1770s, with limited results. At the Battle of Grenada, his fleet was mauled by a superior French force, and he ended up fleeing the fight. This, I would guess, is the basis of Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen's date (though she also mentions the usage of "glass" for an hour, a usage which died out about that time).
If Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen's guess is accurate, is it possible that this was inspired as some sort of slur on Byron for fleeing the battle?
On the other hand, Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors suggests that the song refers to a contest in 1789 between the mail packet Princess Royal (6 guns) and the French Aventurier (16 guns), in which the former fought off the latter despite being heavily outgunnes.
The Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine text, which is heavily folk processed, gives the ship name as the Royal Prince Regent, which name seems to be unique. Which is as it should be; while Britain has had many Princesses Royal, it has had only one Prince Regent: The future George IV when he was regent during the bouts of madness of his father George III. (There have been several other instances of de facto Princes Regent, usually uncles watching over their nephews, but the titles were different, e.g. "Lord Protector.") - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LK29

Bold Prisoner, The

See Archie o Cawfield [Child 188] (File: C188)

Bold Privateer, The [Laws O32]

DESCRIPTION: (Johnny) tells (Polly) that he must go to sea. She begs him to stay safe at home. (He points out that her friends dislike him and her brothers threaten him. He offers to exchange rings with her), and promises to return and marry her if his life is spared
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1831 (Broadside Bodleian Harding B 25(240))
KEYWORDS: sea farewell
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE) Britain(England(North,South)) Ireland Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Laws O32, "The Bold Privateer"
Randolph 233, "The Union Volunteer" (1 text, 1 tune, with a "Union Volunteer" substituted for the "Bold Privateer" but no other substantial changes)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 79, "The Bold Privateer" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 138, "The Bold Privateer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 322, "The Bold Privateer" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 34-35, "The Bold Privateer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 502, "Bold Privateer" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, p. 101, "The Bold Privateer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H514, pp. 297-298, "The Bold Privateer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 123-124, "The Bold Privateer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 35, "The Bold Privateer" (1 fragment, padded out to a full text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #171, p. 13, "The Bold Privateer" (4 references)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 53 and #1/64 p. 49, "Bold Privateer" (1 text)
DT 486, BOLDPRIV BLDPRIV2*
ST LO32 (Full)
Roud #1000
RECORDINGS:
Tom Brandon, "The Bold Privateer" (on Ontario1)
Robert Cinnamond, "The Wild Privateer" (on IRRCinnamond03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(240), "Bold Privateer," R. Walker (Norwich), 1780-1930; also Firth c.17(207)=Firth c.17(311), "The Bold Privateer," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.13(53)=Harding B 16(30a)=Johnson Ballads 170, "The Bold Privateer," (ibid.); also Harding B 25(241), "The Bold Privateer," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(386), "The Bold Privateer," (ibid.); also Harding B 11(585), J. T. Burdett (London), c. 1855; also Firth c.13(52), "The Bold Privateer," The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1858; also Harding B 18(50), "The Bold Privateer," Thomas M. Scroggy (Philadelphia), n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pleasant and Delightful" (meter)
cf. "Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy" (lyrics)
NOTES [214 words]: Some versions of this are so mixed with "Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy" that they might almost be one song. But there are sufficient distinct versions that I think they must be considered separate songs.
A thread by "Rory" on mudcat about this song suggests that the earliest version is "George and Nancy's Parting. A New Song," Bodleian, Harding B 12(140), Burbage and Stretton (Nottingham), 1797-1807. The plot is identical; the words distinctly different. I could make a case for this as a rewrite of that, or a mix, or just another song on the same plot. Roud initially split them, filing "George and Nancy's Parting" as V32745, but has now transferred it to #1000, the number for this song. I'll let you decide.
The Sam Henry text contains an interesting reference, "The French they are treacherous, right very well you know, Did they not kill their own poor king not so very long ago?" Presumably this refers to the execution of Louis XVI in 1793, though there are other possibilities, including Louis's son Louis XVII, who died in 1795, some say by poison.
Huntington placed his version of "Our Captain Calls All Hands (Fighting for Strangers)" here, and early editions of the Index did the same, but while there is some similarity in theme, they are certainly separate songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LO32

Bold Rake, The

DESCRIPTION: Johnny meets Sally at Culgreany chapel. He promises to marry her. They spend two nights and all her money together and he decides to leave. Johnny will confess to his clergy; if forgiven he will "go home to Longacre and live with my own lawful wife"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.9(60))
KEYWORDS: seduction infidelity promise separation rake wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 37, "The Bold Rake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3036
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(60), "The Bold Rake" ("I am a bold rake and this nation I travel'd all round)" , P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867
LOCSinging, as101320, "The Bold Rake," P. Brereton (Dublin), 19C
NOTES [19 words]: Broadside LOCSinging as101320 appears to be the same as Bodleian 2806 b.9(60) printed by P. Brereton (Dublin). - BS
File: OLoc037

Bold Ranger, The

DESCRIPTION: The huntsmen go out to seek the fox: "Come and hunt Bull (Ranger) (Reynard?) Among the hills and rocks." Along the way, they meet various people, who may tell them where the fox has gone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (Long-Wight)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 67-68, "The Three Jolly Huntsmen" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO WT 472)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 274
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 196-197, "Bold Reynard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 76, "Bold Ranger" (2 texts, 1 tune)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 26, "A.. Fox Hunting" (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 84, "The Ranger" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 122, "Portsmouth Fellows" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 164, "The Ranger" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 66-67, "Bo' Ranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 113, "Tom Reynard (The Fox in Legend)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 190, "Three Jolly Welshmen" (5 text, but only "A" and "B" are "Three Jolly Huntsmen"; "C," "D," and "E" appear to belong here)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 101, "The Foxes" (1 text, 1 tune, a bare fragment with no mention of Reynard; it includes only the conversations with the people the hunters meet, and might possibly belong to other members of this song group)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 117, "Bold Rangers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 269-270, "Old Fodder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 135-136, "Come All You Jolly Hunters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 23, pp. 43-44, "The Hound and the Fox" (1 text, 1 tune, which Wolfe calls a version of "Three Jolly Huntsmen" but which is clearly this)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 7+10, "Tom Redman" (1 text; tune on p. 385)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 214, "The Three Huntsmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: W H Long, A Dictionary of the Isle of Wight Dialect to which is appended ... Songs Sung by the Peasantry" (London, 1886 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 117-118, "The Jovial Sportsmen" ("There was zome jolly sportsmen Went out to hunt a fox") (1 text) [Not yet indexed as Long-Wight pp. 117-118]
ST R076 (Partial)
Roud #796
RECORDINGS:
J. L. Peters, "How Happy is the Sportsman" (AFS, 1946; on LC55)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)" (form, theme, lyrics)
cf. "Three Jolly Huntsmen" (theme, some lyrics)
NOTES [61 words]: This appears very much to be a worn-down version of "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)," possibly influenced by "Three Jolly Huntsmen." For further discussion, see the notes to "Bold Reynard."
It's worth noting that Roud subdivides this song differently, with "The Hare's Dream" being one group and "Bold Reynard" plus the "Bold Ranger" being the other. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: R076

Bold Rangers

See Bold Ranger, The (File: R076)

Bold Reynard

See Bold Ranger, The (File: R076)

Bold Reynard ("A Good Many Gentlemen")

DESCRIPTION: "A good many gentlemen take great delight in hunting bold Reynard, the fox, for he... lives upon fat geese and ducks." The hunters give chase, and catch and kill the fox. They go home and rejoice at having taken the rogue
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(261))
KEYWORDS: animal hunting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 63-64, "Bold Reynolds" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO We 435)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 316, "You Gentlemen That Take Delight" (1 text)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 272-273, "Gentlemen of High Renown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 243, "Bold Reynard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 36, "Huntsman's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, REYNFOX
Roud #1868 and 190
RECORDINGS:
Guy Wolff, "Reynard the Fox" (Piotr-Archive #434, recorded 01/08/2023)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1254), "The Fox" ("Most gentlemen take delight"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 25(492), "Death of the Fox"; Harding B 28(261), "Sly Reynard the Fox" ("Some gentlemen take great delight"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)" (theme)
cf. "The Echoing Horn" (theme)
cf. "Joe Bowman" (theme)
NOTES [157 words]: Although this song has points of similarity to "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)," Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland and others clearly state that they are different -- and indeed, they have few details in common except that they describe a foxhunt. - RBW
Roud assigns #358 to the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text and a fair case could be made for considering it a separate ballad. Comparing Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames (40 lines) and Kennedy (32 lines), 20 lines are close or virtually the same and the different lines do not change the story line, though place names are different. I think they should be kept together. - BS
A similar situation occurs with the Copper "Gentlemen of High Renown," Roud's #190. There are many examples of that type, but I don't see a way to divide it from this. The Reynard/fox hunting songs are an incredible mess; see the notes to "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K243

Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)

DESCRIPTION: "The first morning of March in the year '33" the King's County fox hunt finally takes Reynard. He asks for pen, ink and paper to write his will. He leaves his estate and money to the hunters and backs it up by giving them a check on the National Bank.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland); before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.34(114))
KEYWORDS: animal hunting political lastwill Ireland humorous
FOUND IN: US(So) Britain(England(Lond,South,West)) Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 124, "The Fox Hunt" (1 text)
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, p. 208, "Reynard the Fox" (1 fragment)
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 84-85, "The Cork National Hunt" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 57, "Tally Ho! Hark Away!" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 14)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 717, "Tally Ho! Hark Away!" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #126, "The Huntsman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 265-266, "The Fox-Hunting Chase" (1 text); also probably pp. 264-265, "The Herefordshire Fox-Chase" (1 text), though the latter appears reworked or mixed
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 180, "Hunting Songs" (sic.) (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 96, "The Dublin Hunt" (1 fragment, possibly this although it's hard to tell)
DT, REYNRDFX RENOLDS
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 295-296, "Reynard the Fox" (1 text)
Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 72, "Tally Ho" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2349
RECORDINGS:
Eugene Jemison, "Come All You Merry Hunters" (on Jem01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.34(114), "The Fox Chase"("The sun had just peep'd his head o'er the hills"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(1255), Firth c.19(120)[some words not legible], "The Fox Chase"; Johnson Ballads 505, "Fox Chase" or "Tally Ho Hark Away" [all versions end with the fox being taken]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hare's Dream" (lyrics)
cf. "Bold Reynard ('A Good Many Gentlemen')" (theme)
cf. "The Bold Ranger" (form, theme, lyrics)
cf. "The Echoing Horn" (theme)
cf. "Joe Bowman" (theme)
cf. "The Call of Quantrell (form)
cf. "The Kielder Hunt" (subject, phrase)
cf. "Donagh Hill" (form, hunting theme)
cf. "The Hunting of Arscott of Tetcott" (theme, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Balriginor
Bull Raider
NOTES [523 words]: This is a real mess -- so much so that every new text I've turned up has forced me to reclassify the old ones. There seem to be four related families of texts here. This is lyrically very close to the Irish song "The Hare's Dream," but after much hesitation I've split that off because it's found mostly if not entirely in Ireland (perhaps only in Ulster), and it's about a hare, not a fox.
That leaves three versions with English roots:
1. The political "Bold Reynard" versions.
2. The Fox Chase versions not ending in the death of the fox
3. The Fox Chase versions ending in the death of the fox
The first of these seems to exist in fragments, so although the political content seems clear, it's not obvious just which politicians are involved.
The second is the one I have heard recorded -- though it came from a bunch of folkies, so they may have preferred a non-hunting version. My original description of that form was: "The hunters set out in pursuit of Reynard the Fox. Crafty Reynard leads hunters and hounds on many a wild goose chase. At last the hunters give up, and Reynard returns to his snug den. (He sends the hunters a cheque to pay for their losses!)"
The third, which is the basis for the description, is what appears in Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire and O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland.
Possibly these types should be split, but it would be impossible to split fragments and one has to suspect that all the rewriting is deliberate.
In the United States (or possibly in England, if a fragment from Baring-Gould constitutes evidence), the song changed even more dramatically -- so much so that, after some hesitation and discussion, we reclassified it as a separate song, "The Bold Ranger."
The song is still about a hunt (sometimes for "Reynard," but now often for "Rainer" or "Ranger"), but the result is almost a moniker song, with verses perhaps influenced by "Three Jolly Huntsmen." No longer does the song start in the victim's lair; no longer is Reynard leading the huntsmen astray; rather, they meet various people who tell them how to find the fox. The choruses in this version are often extravagant, though the verse retains the "Tallyho" form.
The Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania fragment is typical of the problem. There are two long verses, describing those who assembled for the hunt. But it is never said what they hunt, and it breaks off before the hunt actually starts. I've put it here because it's a hunting song with a date that uses this form. But I'm far from sure.
Leather reports that her version was written by a Richard Matthews "in the reign of George III." Matthews may well have been responsible for a particular version, but without more evidence, I hesitate to attribute the whole song to him.
Although this song has points of similarity to "Bold Reynard ('A Good Many Gentlemen')," Kennedy and others clearly state that they are different -- and indeed, they have few details in common except that they describe a foxhunt. - RBW
Hoagland begins "The first day of spring in the year ninety-three" and adds a subtitle of "A Song Celebrating the Great Hunt of 1793." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DTReynrd

Bold Richard, The

DESCRIPTION: The "Phoebus[?] frigate Young Richard" cruises the French main with the Shannon. They encounter two merchants and "the finest frigate that did sail out of Brest." They sink all three, rescue their crews and land in Kingston where they enjoy drinks.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (ENMacCollSeeger02)
KEYWORDS: battle sea ship drink France
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
Roud #1351
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Bold Richard" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
NOTES [240 words]: From ENMacCollSeeger02 album cover notes: "E.J. Moeran recorded this song from James Sutton, 'Old Larpin', of Winerton, Norfolk, in 1915. In a note to the song printed in the Folksong Journal, Ann Gilchrist suggests that The Bold Richard is an English adaptation of an American sailor's song which describes the adventures of Paul Jones' ship, Old [sic] Richard." The song is nothing like either of Laws's Paul Jones ballads (Paul Jones, the Privateer [Laws A3] and Paul Jones's Victory [Laws A4]) - BS
If we assume "Phoebus" is an error for "famous," then it is likely that Paul Jones's Bonhomme Richard is indeed meant. But she never sailed with the Shannon; the consorts of the former Duc de Durac were the Alliance, Pallas, and Vengeance -- none of them in any way famous.
And this still leaves us with the curiosity of the reference to Kingston. Is this Kingston in England? In that case, the singers can hardly be telling of John Paul Jones, who fought against England. Is the reference, then, to the Quasi-War with France fought in the years before 1800? But Jones died in 1792 -- and I can't find any battle involving other ships which fits. Alternately, is it Kingston, Jamaica? Jones sailed the Carribean several times early in his career -- but as a merchant saior, not a naval captain.
In the end, I think we simply must conclude that we don't know what this is about. Probably it's mixing two or more battles. - RBW
File: RcBolRic

Bold Robert Emmet

DESCRIPTION: "The struggle is over, the boys are defeated, Old Ireland's surrounded with sadness and gloom... And I, Robert Emmet, awaiting my doom." Emmet, "the Darling of Ireland," recounts the failure of his rebellion and awaits execution
AUTHOR: Sometimes ascribed to Tom Maguire (Source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, Hoagland)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1900 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Ireland death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1778 - Birth of Robert Emmet, younger brother of Thomas Addis Emmet (a leader of the United Irishmen)
1798 - Robert Emmet expelled from Trinity College; he eventually goes to France
1798 - the (failed) Irish Rebellion
1802 - Emmet returns to Ireland
1803 - Emmet attempts a new rebellion. The revolt is quickly crushed, and Emmet eventually hanged
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, p. 32, "Bold Robert Emmet" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 87, "Bold Robert Emmet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 155, "Bold Robert Emmet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 91, "The Last Moments of Robert Emmet" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ROBTEMMT*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 626-627, "Bold Robert Emmet" (1 text)
Roud #3066
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Emmet's Death" (subject)
cf. "Emmet's Farewell to His Sweetheart" (subject)
cf. "My Emmet's No More" (subject)
cf. "The Three Flowers" (briefly mentions Emmet)
cf. "She is Far From the Land" (thought by some to refer to Emmet)
cf. "Oh! Breathe Not His Name" (thought by some to refer to Emmet)
cf. "When He Who Adores Thee" (thought by some to refer to Emmet)
cf. "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (thought by some to refer to Emmet)
cf. "The Man from God-Knows-Where, The" (thought by some to refer to Emmet)
NOTES [1153 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "The ballad is sometimes sung to the American tune 'The Streets of Laredo'." See that song for more information on the history of that tune.
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 40: ... Robert Emmet's rising, on 23rd July, 1802. After a skirmish in the streets of Dublin the revolt fizzled out. Emmet was executed on 23rd September. In spite of his failue, he became the favourite hero of the Irish patriots, "the darling of Erin" (song [Zimmermann] 91); but this glorification did not take place immediately. In 1803, nowhere in the country does there seem to have been much enthusiasm for the rising." - BS
Robert Emmet's fruitless revolt is usually treated as a sequel to the 1798 Rising. This is oversimplified. The British government reacted to 1798 by proclaiming the Union of Ireland and Britain.
Ironically, a series of Catholic Relief Acts in 1778 and 1782 had given Catholics more rights, and under the (informal but working) constitution of 1782, Britain no longer could compel Ireland into Union. But the English managed to pull it off anyway, by much the same means as they had earlier used to form the union with Scotland: Bribery, by-elections, and every other sort of political trick. Kee, p. 158, notes the "inadequacy of the word 'corruption'" to describe the level of under-the-counter payoffs.
To make it worse, the statute that finally passed altered Pitt's original Union proposal, eliminating the provisions for Catholic Emancipation. (This even though Viceroy Cornwallis, who had finally suppressed the rebellion, argued that they should be kept. But the only way to get the proposal through the parliaments -- especially the all-Protestant Irish parliament -- was to use the Union as a stick to beat the Catholics.)
Union was passed in 1800, and came into effect in 1801. The terms were actually quite favorable to Ireland in terms of seats in the British parliament; had there been an Irish party, it would almost always have held the parliamentary balance of power in Britain (as Charles Stuart Parnell would eventually show, almost a century later; see the notes to "We Won't Let Our Leader Run Down" and "The Blackbird of Avondale (The Arrest of Parnell)"). But the Irish, with no program of their own, could neither fit into the British political system nor form a strong party. And the Catholic/Protestant problem continued to plague them. As a result, Ireland found itself politically neutralized.
Emmet of course did not know this. He, like the vast majority of Irishmen, knew only that he didn't like the changes. But, once again, he had no answer to the problems of Union, and so was unable to produce either a working political party or a working rebellion -- only about thirty people were killed, mostly by ambush. These included the Lord Kilwarden, Chief Justice of Ireland (Golway, p. 92; Kee, p. 167, adds that Kilwarden was a "remarkably humane man," while Fry/Fry, p. 215 note that he was "not an unpopular man." Edwards, p. 67 n. 1, notes that he had earlier been prepared to postpone the execution of Wolfe Tone, but Tone had already mortally injured himself. Stewart, p. 46, does note that he presided over the trial of William Orr, for whom see "The Wake of William Orr").
Another element of Emmet's personal tragedy was that he very nearly left the country, which would have saved everyone a lot of trouble. But with his brother Thomas Addis Emmet (1764-1827), a leader of the United Irish rebellion, in exile and unable to return, Robert decided that he could not leave their aging parents alone and grieving (Kee, p. 162). Obviously, as it turned out, he did leave them alone, and grieving even more.
Emmet also started a sad tradition that persisted in Ireland for more than a century: The Rebellion By Gimmick. Emmet's forces had fold-up pikes (that could be hidden under a coat) and black powder rockets, and similar "secret weapons." What they didn't have was a real organization -- which, on the one hand, meant that the government didn't know of their existence, but on the other, meant that they had absolutely no way to accomplish anything. All he did was assemble a small mob and watch it be dispersed.
Emmet is remembered less because of his defiant acts (after all, there were many others equally rebellious and entirely obscure) but because of a brilliant farewell speech which eventually was widely quoted by nationalists: "Let no man write my epitaph.... When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then and not till then, let my epitaph be written" (Golway, p. 92; Fry/Fry, p. 215; also Kee, p. 168, and Edwards, p. 69, with the note that Emmet's spoke without a script and his words probably were not taken down with perfect accuracy. Not that it mattered; what counts is what people *thought* he said).
Townshend, pp. 8-9, suggests that the simplicity of Emmet's message contributed to his fame: "Theobald Wolfe Tone, a serious political thinker, was less widely accepted than the simple heroism of his youthful successor Robert Emmet. Tone, a child of the Enlightenment... aimed to reconstitute Irish identity through eroding the separate traditions of 'Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter [.'] The secularization this envisaged was less attractive than his simple slogan 'break the connection....' Emmet's failed rebellion of 1803 became an icon of romantic activism, its incompetence ignored while the brutality of the British reaction was played up. (Emmet never got his tiny force out of its assembly point, Thomas Street, toward his target, Dublin Castle; his hoped-for 2,000 insurgents had dwindled to 20 by the time they reached the end of the street.)"
It is perhaps not coincidental that Emmet became one of the chief inspirations for the future head of the 1916 Rebellion, Padraig Pearse (Townshend, p. 23); for Pearse's hazy notion of a mystic sacrifice redeeming Ireland, see the notes to "The Boys from County Cork."
It is ironic that Robert's brother Thomas, whose association with rebellion was much older and deeper, lived. Thomas Emmet was one of the United Irish leaders taken when the British raided their Dublin leadership in early 1798. (That may not have been smart on the British part; Emmet was a cautious man who was trying to cool things down. By taking him, the British left the leaderless United Irish chapters to rise in desperation.)
Thomas Emmet spent some time in prison, but was released in 1802, went briefly to France, then emigrated to the United States in 1804, where he found success in the legal profession.
According to Hoagland, Tom Maguire was born c. 1870 and went on to join the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood (the chief independence organization in the late nineteenth century -- a largely secret group), and later became part of the Irish parliament. But I've seen no absolute proof he wrote this song; much depends on when it actually first appeared. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.0
File: PGa032

Bold Robin Hood (I)

See Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires [Child 140] (File: C140)

Bold Robin Hood and the Pedlar

See The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood [Child 132] (File: C132)

Bold Robin Hood Rescuing the Three Squires

See Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires [Child 140] (File: C140)

Bold Robing Hood

See The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood [Child 132] (File: C132)

Bold Robinson

See Tyler and Robinson (File: ReSh018)

Bold Roving Thieves

DESCRIPTION: "You land-lubber rogues play a cowardly game, And skulk in false jackets, but we, Tho' we glory in plunder, we fight for bold fame, The brave roving thieves of the sea." They take orders from no captain or middie; no ship can catch them; they fear nothing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1848 (American Sailor's Songster, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 66, "Bold Roving Thieves" (1 text; #40 in the first edition)
Roud #V6761
File: FrPi066

Bold Shoemaker, The

See James Ervin [Laws J15] (File: LJ15)

Bold Sir Rylas

See Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Bold Sodger Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: "O! There's not a trade that's going, Worth showing or knowing, Like that from glory growing For the bold sodger boy." The singer describes how the girls watch the marching soldiers, and urges the listeners to follow the soldier's trade
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Dime-Song-Book #9)
KEYWORDS: soldier recruiting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 321-322, "The Bold Sodger Boy" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 140-141, "Bowld Sodjer Boy" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 44, "The Bowld Sojer Boy" (1 text)
Roud #12829
File: FVS321

Bold Soldier, The [Laws M27]

DESCRIPTION: A father threatens to kill his daughter because she loves a soldier. He settles for sending (seven) men to kill her lover. The soldier fights the brigands off. The frightened father is then negotiated into making the soldier his heir
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1679 (Roxburghe)
KEYWORDS: father children love soldier fight
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (37 citations):
Laws M27, "The Bold Soldier"
Bronson 7a, "The Lady and the Dragoon" (24 versions)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 377-382, "The Soldier's Wooing" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 232-233, "The Poor Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #14}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 131-149, "The Bold Soldier" (7 texts plus a fragment, 5 tunes) {C= Bronson's #18, F=#14}
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 103-104, "The Soldier's Wooing" (1 text)
Randolph 70, "The Valiant Soldier" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 88-90, "The Valiant Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 70A)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 3, "Earl Brand" (3 texts, 1 tune, but all clearly this piece) {Bronson's #3}
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 10, "A Soldier of Late" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 46, "The Bold Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 397-399, "Bold Soldier" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 86, "The Soldier's Wooing" (4 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 86, "The Soldier's Wooing" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 50, "The Lady and the Dragon" (sic.) (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia [4], "[Earl Brand]" (1 text, filed as an appendix to that ballad)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 78, "Lady Flower" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 201-202, "The Lady and the Dragoon" (1 text, with local title "A Brave Soldier"; 1 tune on pp. 409-410) {Bronson's #16}
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 5, "Erlinton" (1 text, called "The Soldier's Wooing" by the informant)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 51, "The Lady and the Dragoon" (4 texts plus 4 fragments, 8 tunes) {Bronson's #19, #8, #21, #23, #20, #24, #22, #17}
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 30, "The Lady and the Dragoon" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version) {Bronson's #23}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 6, "The Dragoon and the Lady" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #13}
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #24, "The Lady and the Dragoon" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 55, "Only a Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp 47-48, "Little Soldier Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 248-249, "The Bold Dragoon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 115-116, "The Bold Dragoon" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 15)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 11, "The Bold Dragoon" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 12, "Song of a Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #15}
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 32, "The Soldier and the Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 27, pp. 68-69, "The Soldier" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 117, "The Soldier's Wooing" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 116-117, "The Valiant Soldier" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 169, "The Bold Soldier" (1 text)
DT, (DOUGTRD4*)
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 164-167, "The Master piece of Love Songs" (1 text)
Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden, _Wisconsin Lore: Antics and Anecdotes of Wisconsin People and Places_, Wisconsin House, 1962, pp. 108-109, "The Raftsman" (1 text, presumably from Wisconsin although no source is listed; in this the soldier becomes a raftsman but the plot is the same)
Roud #321
RECORDINGS:
Harry Brazil, "Bold Keeper" (on Voice18)
Pete Seeger, "The Valiant Soldier" (on PeteSeeger29)
Cas Wallin, "Little Soldier" (on OldTrad1, FarMtns4)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2237), "The Bold Dragoon" ("My father is a lord, a lord of high renown"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Firth c.14(210, "The Bold Dragoon"; Harding B 22(320), "The Valiant Dragoon"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Earl Brand" [Child 7]
cf. "Erlinton" [Child 8]
NOTES [73 words]: It will be observed that Bronson lists this as an appendix to Child 7, "Earl Brand," though he notes the obvious signs of broadside publication. Laws mentions that others have connected it to Child 7 (and Child 8, "Erlinton," which is where Barry et al file it), but does not seem himself to consider the two related. Neither does he mention Bronson's title, "The Lady and the Dragoon." Cazden connects it with Child 214 and/or 215. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LM27

Bold Tenant Farmer, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer, drinking in Ballinascorthy, overhears a landlord's son and a tenant farmer's wife. He threatens eviction. She says the National Land League protects the tenants and they are members. She praises Father O'Leary, John Dillon, and Davitt. He leaves.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recording, Mickey Cronin)
KEYWORDS: drink farming political labor-movement
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1879 - formation of the Irish Land League
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #5164
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Bold Tenant Farmer" (on IRClancyMakem02)
Mickey Cronin, "The Bold Tenant Farmer" [fragment] (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
Joe Heaney, "The Wife of the Bold Tenant Farmer" (on Voice08)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Moneygran Pig Hunt" (subject)
cf. "The Blackbird of Avondale (The Arrest of Parnell)" (subject of Charles Stewart Parnell)
cf. "The Land League's Advice to the Tenant Farmers of Ireland" (character of Parnell, plus the Land League)
cf. "We Won't Let Our Leader Run Down" (subject of Charles Stewart Parnell)
cf. "The Phoenix Park Tragedy" (subject of Charles Stewart Parnell)
cf. "Michael Davitt" (subject) and references there
cf. "The Devil and Bailiff McGlynn" (subject of problems during the Land War)
NOTES [655 words]: Another eternal frustration from Lomax; he tells us that this is part of a "cocky and aggressive" Land League ballad, but gives not a clue of the subject matter.
Formed in 1879, the Irish tenant farmers' Land League fought evictions and spearheaded land reforms through Parliament. - PJS
IRClancyMakem02 has only four verses that mention the dispute and Land League but not the resolution. The Musica site has a thirteen verse version used as the basis for the description. - BS
The tenants' rights movements began in the 1840s (in Ulster of all places!), but did not become a major force until 1879. In that year, Michael Davitt (whose family had been thrust off its land when he was a child; see the notes to "Michael Davitt") came back to Ireland from America. He formed the Land League in his ancestral home in County Mayo. The new Gladstone government tried to make concessions in 1880, but was blocked by the House of Lords.
This was even though the landlords of Ireland were good for very little except brutality. They kept rents as high as possible, and discouraged land improvements. They were so widely despised that Belfast M.P. Joseph Biggar declared that he opposed shooting landlords on the grounds that the assailant often missed and might hit someone else (see Robert Kee, The Bold Fenian Men, being volume II of The Green Flag, p. 79).
The Land League reacted with strikes and demonstrations (the word "boycott" is believed to date from this event; Charles Boycott was a British officer charged with evicting tenants). Kee writes (p. 79) that by "1880 there were parts of Ireland where the queen's writ no longer ran." It *did* run on Boycott's land -- but it reportedly took 7000 British soldiers to guard the workers he had brought in from Ulster! (Kee, p. 81.)
Davitt (and Charles Stewart Parnell, another leader of the movement, who also was the de facto leader of the Irish representatives in the British parliament) opposed violence, but their followers were not so peaceful. The pressure was on the English parliament. Their first reaction was to tighten restrictions on the Irish, suppressing the Land League -- but the English people at last began to understand the plight of the Irish tenants.
One of Parnell's lines summarizes the whole idea of the "bold tenant farmer": "Parnell agreed to speak at the great land-meeting at Westport on 8 June, and there he gave a headline to the whole ensuing agitation: 'hold a firm grip on your homesteads and lands'" (see T. W. Moody, F. X. Martin, and Dermot Keough, with Patrick Kiely, The Course of Irish History, fifth edition, 2011 (page references are to the 2012 paperback edition), p. 249).
Gladstone eventually (1881) came up with laws to protect the tenants (it was these which, in effect, finalized the split between Ulster and the rest of Ireland; Ulster was satisfied, Catholic Ireland was not). But Parnell refused his whole-hearted support. He certainly favored the law, but he wanted Home Rule and he didn't want to offend the more radical Irish. The British, in an act of incredible stupidity, arrested him briefly (see "The Blackbird of Avondale (The Arrest of Parnell)." This further radicalized the Irish; even as Parnell was released, they took to assassinating British officials.
In 1882, the outlawed Land League was replaced by the Irish National League -- a true political party rather than an activist group. This group won nearly every Irish seat in Parliament in the next election. This allowed Parnell to gain land concessions from the minority Conservative government, and also meant that Parnell was the controlling element in the next Parliament -- whichever party he supported would govern. The Land League had, in effect, triumphed.
Unfortunately, Parnell simply couldn't work out a Home Rule compromise. Conditions in Ireland improved, but not enough. Ireland continued on its destructive road to eventual independence. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: RcTBTF

Bold Thady Quill

DESCRIPTION: Girls "anxious for courting" should see Thady Quill. He is a champion in field events, a partisan for Ireland, and a star at hurling. At the Cork match a rich and sickly lady remarked that she would be cured by "one squeeze outa bold Thady Quill"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (IRClancyMakem01)
KEYWORDS: sports Ireland humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, THADQUIL*
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Bold Thady Quill" (on IRClancyMakem01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Victorious Goalers of Carrigaline and Kilmoney" (subject of hurling)
cf. "Black and Amber Glory" (subject of hurling)
cf. "The Convict of Clonmel" (subject of hurling)
cf. "The Carrigaline Goalers Defeated" (subject of hurling)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bould Tadhy Quill
NOTES [379 words]: The description is from the Digital Tradition text for "Bold Thady Quil"; although its credit is "Recorded by Clancys" its version has more verses than that in IRClancyMakem01.
IRClancyMakem01 cover notes refer to Thady Quill as "a champion hurler from county Cork, whom I understand is still alive" [1959]. - BS
Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 14, has a very different story (which he admits is "legend") of Thady: "It is reported that Thady Quill was no athlete at all, but a lazy farm worker employed by a farmer named Johnny Tom Gleeson in Ballinagree, a townland in Muskerry. The local story goes that Johnny Tom Gleeson penned these verses as a satire to Thady's laziness and inactivity."
Chris Brennan (message to the Ballad-L mailing list) has a version which also involves Gleeson, but in this case, Quill had cut a field for Gleeson, and Gleeson was slow to pay, and Quill induced Gleeson to write the song as a substitute for cash.
On the other hand, Soodlum's Irish Ballad Book reports that "Thady Quill is rumoured to have lived in the Mushra Mountains near Macroom, Co. Cork."
James N. Healy, Ballads from the Pubs of Ireland [Volume 1: Popular Songs & Ballads], 1965, 1985; Ossian edition published 1996, p. 5, also attributes it to the area between Macroom and Millstreet, but calls the author Johnny PAT Gleeson.
Hurling is an ancient Irish sport, somewhat similar to hockey (it involves sticks, two teams of 15, and a complicated set of rules for sticking or kicking or carrying the ball), seemingly mentioned in twelfth century records and possibly before that. According to the Oxford Companion to Irish History, the rules were formally codified in 1870 and the Irish Hurley Union formed in 1879.
It was already mentioned in song before that, to be sure; see "The Victorious Goalers of Carrigaline and Kilmoney."
There is an interesting political twist on this, because the sport is Irish: It is seen, in a small way, as a form of anti-Protestant demonstration.
The Irish nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891) doesn't appear to have anything significant to do with hurling, but the Hurley Union dissolved around the time of his death, with other leagues having gradually taken its place.- RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: RcBoThQu

Bold Tinker,The (Daniel O'Connell)

See Daniel O'Connell (I) (File: RcDanOco)

Bold Trainor O

DESCRIPTION: The singer is seduced by Trainor who is studying at Trinity for the priesthood. She asks him, in vain, not to become a priest. She would avoid the marriage her parents would arrange. "To the way of Religion myself I will incline"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3357))
KEYWORDS: love seduction rejection lover clergy
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 31, "Beautiful and Bold Trainer-O" (1 text)
Roud #12821
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian,Harding B 11(3357), "Bold Trainor O" ("I am a young damsel that lies here in bondage"), H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also 2806 b.9(233), "An admired song called Bold Trainor O"
File: OCC031

Bold Trellitee, The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Bold Trooper, The

See The Trooper and the Tailor (File: FSC139)

Bold Turpin

See Dick Turpin and the Lawyer [Laws L10] (File: LL10)

Bold Undaunted Irishman, The

See Bold Jack Donahoe (File: MA063)

Bold William Taylor (I)

See William Taylor [Laws N11] (File: LN11)

Bold William Taylor (II)

See Keepers and Poachers (File: K254)

Bold Wolfe

See Brave Wolfe [Laws A1] (File: LA01)

Bold, Brave Bonair, A

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

Boll Weevil Blues, The

See The Boll Weevil [Laws I17] (File: LI17)

Boll Weevil Song

See The Boll Weevil [Laws I17] (File: LI17)

Boll Weevil, The [Laws I17]

DESCRIPTION: The boll weevil, which is just "a-lookin' for a home," inevitably comes in conflict with the cotton farmer. The farmer tries many techniques to drive the weevil out; the weevil, far from being inconvenienced, is often represented as thanking the farmer
AUTHOR: possibly Postal McCurdy & Emabel Palmer
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (excerpt quoted in H. V. Benedict and John A. Lomax, The Book of Texas, p. 75)
KEYWORDS: animal bug poverty farming
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 1898 - Boll Weevil arrives in the southern U.S. from Mexico
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So,SE)
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Laws I17, "The Boll Weevil"
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #105, "The Boll Weevil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 214, "Boll Weevil Blues" (2 texts)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 72, pp. 199-200, "Mister Boll Weevil" (1 text)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 66, (no title) (1 excerpt, probably of this song); pp. 77-79, "Mr. Boll Weevil" (plus other versions with no title) (2 texts plus 3 excerpts, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 319, "The Ballet of the Boll Weevil" (2 texts+1 fragment, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 8-10, "Boll Weevil Song"; 252-253, "De Ballet of de Boll Weevil" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 316-318, "The Ballad of the Boll Weevil" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 69, "The Boll Weevil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 112-117, "De Ballit of de Boll Weevil" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 285, "The Boll Weevil Holler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 916-918, "Boll Weevil Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 66-67, "The Boll Weevil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 90-91, "Boll Weevil Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 140-141, "Boll Weevil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 751, "Boll Weevil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 244-246, "Mississippi Bo Weavil Blues"; "The Boll Weevil" (2 texts)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 118, "Ballad Of The Boll Weevil" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 82-83, "Boll Weevil Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 24, "Boll Weevil Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BOLLWEEV* BLLWEEV2* (BOLWEV2)
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 163, (no title) (1 fragment)
Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 23, "Boll Weevil" (1 text, 1 tune, heavily adapted by Lead Belly)
Roud #3124
RECORDINGS:
Pink Anderson, "Bo Weevil" (on ClassAfrAm, PinkAnd1 [as "Bo' Weevil"])
Arkansas Trio, "Boll Weevil Blues" (Edison 51373-R, 1924)
Al Bernard, "Boll Weevil Blues" (Brunswick 2092, 1921)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Dixie Boll Weevil" (OKeh 40095-B, 1924)
Jaybird Coleman, "Boll Weevil" (Black Patti 8055, 1927; on StuffDreams1)
[Vernon] Dalhart, [Ed] Smalle & [Harry] Reser, "Boll Weevil Blues" (OKeh 40156, 1924)
Fats Domino, "Bo Weevil" (Imperial 5375, 1956)
Woody Guthrie, Sonny Terry & Cisco Houston, "Boll Weevil Blues (Boll Weevil)" (on WoodyFolk)
Vera Hall, "Boll Weevil" (AFS 1323 A1, 1937)
Ernest Hare, "Boll Weevil Blues" (Vocalion 14151, 1921)
Lead Belly, "The Boll Weevil" (Musicraft 226, rec. 1939)
W. A. Lindsay & Alvin Condor, "Boll Weevil" (OKeh 45346, 1929; rec. 1928)
The Masked Marvel (pseud. for Charley Patton), "Mississippi Boweavil Blues" (Paramount 15805B. 1929; on AAFM1, BefBlues2)
Blind Willie McTell, "Boll Weevil" (on USWMcTell01)
Charlie Oaks, "Boll Weevil" (Vocalion 5113, c. 1927)
Ma Rainey w. Lovie Austin & her Blues Serenaders, "Bo-Weavil Blues" (Paramount 12080, 1924)
Tex Ritter, "Boll Weevil" (Capitol 40084, 1948)
Carl Sandburg, "The Boll Weevil" (Victor 20135, 1926)
Pete Seeger, "Boll Weevil" (on PeteSeeger05) (on PeteSeeger43); "Ballad of the Boll Weevil" (on PeteSeeger31)
Bessie Smith, "Boweavil Blues" (Columbia 14018-D, 1924)
Gid Tanner & Riley Puckett, "Boll Weevil Blues" (Columbia 15016-D, c. 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Man Blues" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Frankie and Albert" [Laws I3] (tune)
NOTES [204 words]: Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag reports collections of Boll Weevil verses dating back to 1897, but it is not clear in context whether these are actually part of this song. - RBW, PJS
And indeed, the origins of the song are obscure, or at least messy. The Bernard, Hare & Arkansas Trio recordings credit the authorship to McCurdy & Palmer, as does a regional guide to the town of Fakes Chapel [state unknown] which claims that McCurdy wrote the "'well-known' folk song" there in 1923. The recordings, of course, make this date impossible, but he seems to have had a hand in the creation of some well-known verses. Fiddlin' John Carson copyrighted his version in 1924, and it certainly contains some of the classic lines. - PJS
Sandburg, incidentally, enjoyed this song so much that he occasionally signed letters "Boll Weevil"; see Herbert Mitgang, editor, The Letters of Carl Sandburg, Harcort Brace & World, 1968, pp. 207, 241. - RBW
Not all the versions included here are "looking for a home" but they all share the set of boll weevil verses. Some are in a traditional blues form, and those don't share tunes or line structure; listen, for example, to Pink Anderson, Charley Patton, Bessie Smith, and Blind Willie McTell. - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LI17

Bolliton Sands

See The Red Herring (File: VWL086)

Bollochy Bill the Sailor

DESCRIPTION: A dialogue song in which Bill -- who "just got paid and wants to be laid" -- seeks to get the fair young maiden into bed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: bawdy dialog sailor seduction
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US Canada
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1759, "Blickerty Brown the Sailor" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 49, "Abram Brown the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 81-86, "Bollochy Bill the Sailor" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 204, "Rollicking Bill the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune, probably truncated since it ends with Bill asking for a place to sleep and the girl declaring she has only one bed)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 151, "Rollicking Bill the Sailor" (1 text, like the preceding, probably truncated)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 182-183, "Abram Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 164-166, "Barnacle Bill the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 440-442, "Abel Brown the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbrEd, pp. 331-333]
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 151, "Bollocky Bill the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 127-128, "Abraham the Sailor" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 128-129, "Barnacle Bill the Sailor"
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 46, "Who's That Knocking At My Door?" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 104, 237, "Barnacle Bill"/"Banacle Bill the Sailor" (notes only)
DT, BARNBILL BARNBIL2
ADDITIONAL: Simon J. Bronner _"Who's That Knocking at my Door?": Barnacle Bill the Sailor and his Mates in Song and Story_ (Occasional Papers in Folklore Number Five), Loomis House Press, 2016, includes about a dozen texts, various fragments, tunes, and related pieces, plus history
Roud #4704
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singers, "Barnacle Bill the Sailor" (on Unexp1)
Bix Beiderbecke w. Paul Whiteman's Orchestra, "Barnacle Bill the Sailor" (Victor 25371, 1936)
Bud & Joe Billings (Frank Luther & Carson Robison), "Barnacle Bill The Sailor" (Victor V-40043, 1929; Victor V-40153, 1929 [as Bud Billings & Carson Robison])
Ned Cobbin [pseud. for Irving Kaufman], "Barnacle Bill the Sailor" (Harmony 861-H/Diva 2861-G, 1929)
Billy Costello (Popeye), "Barnacle Bill, the Sailor" (Decca 1573, 1937)
Frank Luther & His Pards, "Barnacle Bill the Sailor" (CYL: Edison 5678, c. 1929) (Edison 52532, 1929)
Arthur Fields, "Barnacle Bill the Sailor" (Harmony 861-H/Velvet Tone 1861-V, Diva 2861-G, 1929)
Carson Robison, "Barnacle Bill, the Sailor" (Broadway 4054, c. 1932)
Pete Wiggins, "Barnacle Bill, the Sailor" (OKeh 45295, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Quaker's Wife" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
SAME TUNE:
Frank Luther & his Pards "Barnacle Bill the Sailor, No. 2" (Edison 20008, 1929)
Bud & Joe Billings (Frank Luther & Carson Robison), "Barnacle Bill The Sailor No. 2" (Victor V-40102, 1929)
Bud & Joe Billings (Frank Luther & Carson Robison), "Barnacle Bill the Sailor No. 2" (Victor V-40102, 1929); "Barnacle Bill The Sailor No. 3" (Victor V-40153, 1929)
Carson Robison, "Here I Go to Tokyo, Said Barnacle Bill, the Sailor" (Bluebird B-11460, 1942)
Vernon Dalhart, "Barnacle Bill the Sailor - No. 2" (Harmony 1304, 1931)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Barnacle Bill the Sailor
NOTES [244 words]: For a history of this onetime sea song, see Cray, Erotic Muse II, pp. 83-85. - EC
Most of the printed versions of this song are fairly "clean." But Cray and Fuld are in agreement that it is properly a bawdy song, and Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear has a version that is very coarse indeed. Fuld doubts the existence of its ancestor "Abram Brown the Sailor," but Cray quotes a text from the Gordon collection, Bronner, p. 27, has an image of a broadside version, [and there is a version in Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland- (BS)].
There is also a nursery rhyme about Abram Brown, found in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes, #6, and in Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #230, p. 150, ("Abram Brown is dead and gone"), but if that is associated with any song, it is probably "Old Grimes Is Dead."
Carson Robison is sometimes credited with a popular version of this ("Barnacle Bill the Sailor"), but obviously his part was no more than a clean-up (and production of sequels).
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 228, record a World War I verse (not a song, I believe) that ran
Help, help, there's a woman overboard!
Who will save her? I will!
Who are you?
Ballocky Bill the sailor, just returned from sea. - RBW
In the interest of history, it is worth recording that the scientists of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, during the Sojourner mission, named a particularly lumpy rock on the surface of Mars "Barnacle Bill the Sailor." - PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM081

Bollocky Bill the Sailor

See Bollochy Bill the Sailor (File: EM081)

Bolo'd

DESCRIPTION: A "goo-goo" "went down to bare ass to get a fuck on... got bit on the leg... he'd ought ta been boloed"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 60, "Bolo'd" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: Apparently from the Spanish-American War. "Goo-goo" is a derogatory term for Filipino. A bolo is a machete. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: BrE2060

Bolsum Brown

DESCRIPTION: "There's a red light on the track for Bolsum Brown, for Bolsum Brown, for Bolsum Brown... And it'll be there when he comes back." "Hop along, sister Mary, hop along.... There's a red light on the track And it'll be there when he comes back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: railroading
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 355, "Bolsum Brown" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ST San355 (Full)
File: San355

Bombed Last Night

DESCRIPTION: "Bombed last night, bombed the night before, Gonna get bombed tonight." The singer curses the German bombers, and notes that there isn't enough shelter for four men. Similarly, "Gassed last night, gassed the night before...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: war hardtimes technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 43-46, "Bombed Last Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 56, "Bombed Last Night" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10531 parody
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drunk Last Night" (tune, according to Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
File: NiM043

Bombin Raid, The

DESCRIPTION: "Hey listen and I'll tell ye hoo The Jocks spent their New Year": they were in the trenches fighting the Kaiser. Now the Germans are "sorry they made that bombin raid," since they faced the men of Dundee. The Scots repel the German raid
AUTHOR: Tom Shannon (source: Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: war battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 73, "The Bombin Raid" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Gath073

Bon Soir, Ma Cherie

DESCRIPTION: French (often mangled by American soldiers, who are trying to hook up with women): "Bon soir, ma cherie, comment allez-vous? Bon soir, ma cherie, je vous aime beaucoup. Avez-vous un fiance, ca ne fait rien, Voulez-vouz couchez avec moi ce soir...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: soldier courting foreignlanguage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, p. 50, "Bon Soir, Ma Cherie" (1 text)
Roud #FFF
File: NiM050

Bon Ton

See Sissy in the Barn (File: TrJo002)

Bon Vin, Le (The Good Wine)

DESCRIPTION: French. We drink and a friend sings [the chorus] in my ear. Be careful of this beautiful woman. She had three captains, one in Bordeaux, one in La Rochelle and the other in Versailles. Chorus: "Good wine makes me dead, Love wakes me again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage sex wine bawdy nonballad rake mistress
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 249-250, "Le Bon Vin" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Mme. Josephine Costard, "Le Bon Vin" (on PeacockCDROM)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Passant par Paris
File: Pea249

Bonaparte (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you natives far and near Come listen to my story... Boni would not be content Until he was master of the whole world." He divorces his wife, fights the church, fights England, fails at Waterloo, and is exiled
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1834 (Journal from the L.C. Richmond)
KEYWORDS: Napoleon war wife pride exile
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1769 - Birth of Napoleon Bonaparte
1796 - Napoleon marries Josephine de Beauharnais (1763-1814)
1796 - Napoleon given command of the Army of Italy. Over the next eight years he will have many conflicts with Austria and the Pope in the Italian peninsula
1809 - Napoleon divorces Josephine (partly on the grounds of her notorious infidelity, partly because she is barren); he marries Maria Louisa (Marie Louise) of Austria the next year
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
July 15, 1815 - Napoleon is sent to Saint Helena on the Bellerophon
1821 - Death of Napoleon. He died with Josephine's name on his lips
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 209-212, "Bonaparte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Erskine-TwentyYearsBeforeTheMast, p. 261, "(Come all ye nations, both far and near)" (1 text)
ST SWMS209 (Full)
Roud #1992
NOTES [25 words]: This seems to be the only text of this song known; it may never have gone into tradition. But I decided to include it to show the wealth of Napoleon songs.
Last updated in version 4.1
File: SWMS209

Bonaparte (II)

See Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)

Bonaparte on St. Helena

See Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)

Bonaparte's Farewell

DESCRIPTION: Bonaparte bids farewell to France which has abandoned him because of its weakness: "Decay'd in thy glory and sunk in thy worth!" "But when Liberty rallies Once more in thy regions, remember me then ... and call on the Chief of thy choice"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, LOCSinging as200400 and Bodleian Harding B 18(52))
KEYWORDS: freedom Napoleon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 208, "Bonaparte's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #174, p. 13, "Bonaparte's Farewell" (1 reference)
Roud #V21130
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(52), "Bonaparte's Farewell," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864 [same as LOCSinging, as200400]; also Harding B 18(593) [yet another copy of the same sheet]
LOCSinging, as200400, "Bonaparte's Farewell," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864 [same as Bodleian, Harding B 18(52)]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain O'Kean" (tune, per broadsides LOCSinging as200400 and Bodleian Harding B 18(52))
NOTES [150 words]: This song has absolutely no historical references; the only proper noun in the whole song is "France." Theoretically, the speaker might not even be Napoleon -- though the bombast fits him. The only specific reference is that a diadem crowned him -- more relevant to a parvenu emperor than to the legitimate Bourbons, but Bourbon *could* have said such a thing.
Still, Napoleon seems to be the intended speaker. It sounds like something he would have said before his exile to Elba (1814), rather than the exile to St. Helena (1815). This because, in 1813-1814, Paris and the government actually voted him out of power. In 1815, there wasn't time for any of that. - RBW
Broadsides LOCSinging as200400 and Bodleian Harding B 18(52): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Moyl208

Bonavist Line, The

DESCRIPTION: An old man tells of the workers' hardships imposed by the "red roaring devil" management while building the line. Outrageous amounts are charged for trivial services. Awful food: pork can drive you mad and flour is like lime. The old man will quit
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: sex food hardtimes railroading nonballad worker
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 768-771, "The Bonavist Line" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 92, "Riverhead Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, pp. 82-83, "The Bonavist Line" (1 text)
Roud #5206
RECORDINGS:
Bernard Houlihan, "Shoal Harbour Line" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
James John, "The North Shoreman's Line" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Track to Knob Lake" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The North Shoreman's Line
The Shoal Harbour Line
NOTES [1751 words]: Peacock says the Bonavista Line serving the tip of the Bonavista peninsula and Riverhead Line serving Conception Bay are spurs of Newfoundland's now defunct narrow-gauge trans-insular railway.
Whichever branch line is in question, the complaints are the same. Sometimes the old man is omitted and the complaints are the singer's own.
For the history and a map of the Newfoundland railroad branch lines see "The Branch Lines" at http://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/economy/railway-branch-lines.php, accessed Febraury 25, 2017. According to that article the Bonavista Line operated from 1911 until 1983. - BS
For a little more on the Newfoundland Railroad, which was simply not economically viable because the population was so scattered that it didn't pay to run the trains, see "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie"; others songs with notes about the railroad include "Downey's Our Member," "The Loss of the Bruce," and "Drill, Ye Heroes, Drill!"
The history of the rail project explains the "red roaring devil" management; the first attempt at building a Newfoundland railroad, in 1881, was predicated on a government subsidy (Penney, p. 27), but the "Blackman Syndicate" that had won the contract was badly under-capitalized and run by people with limited rail experience; they didn't really know the job. (They proposed a narrow gauge line -- easier to build, harder to keep open; it was to prove a long-term problem; Kearley, p. 56. According to Major, p. 284, "That particular decision, which would put it out of step with practically every other line in North America, would be one to regret for the life of the railway." One company which bid on the contract told the government that a narrow-gauge rail would never be reliable -- and was dropped from the bidding for the crime of being correct; Harding, p. 40) What's more, the Newfoundland government didn't supply the bond guarantees Blackman wanted, limiting its support to land grants (Hiller/Neary, p. 131), in part because they got little support from Britain (Major, p. 284).
Little surprise that Blackman's group ran into financial difficulties very early, and so were trying to build track as quickly as possible and as cheaply as possible to get their hands on parts of the subsidy for running (as opposed to building) the route. The result was that much of the railway was badly designed and built (e.g. the rails were of incredibly light steel, short-lived and prone to damage; Lingard, p. 1), and even so, the whole thing failed financially: "Less than three years [after the work began] Blackman was bankrupt. Much of what the company had built was substandard, and it fell forty-three kilometers short of Harbour Grace. A shame-faced government was left to quietly encourage the bondholders in their task of completing the connection to Harbour Grace in order to see some return on their investment" (Major, p. 285).
The branch lines, including the Bonavista Line, were often built very quickly simply because everyone knew the money could dry up fast. "It [became] something of a tradition in Newfoundland to construct a railway prior to a general election. The branch lines were the result. A branch line was a make-work project. A railway would give the unemployed something useful to do and inject some money into the local economy, at least until the votes had been counted. As a legacy of this 'enlightened' policy, a traveler going down the main line would encounter long stretches of rusty-looking track that began at no particular point, ended at no particular point, and on which the amount of freight and passengers was not very great" (Harding, pp. 91-92).
The song doesn't exaggerate the hard times the workers experienced. For instance, the workers in 1890 had no lodgings while working inland: "There were no bunkhouses provided and the men shacked themselves.... [T]he railroad labourer would be given a roll of tar paper or felt and a handful of nails. He and a buddy went into the nearest clump of woods, cut a few poles for a frame and built a tar-paper shack" (Penney, p. 39). They also had to cook their own food. They also suffered from the weather; Newfoundland is never warm, but the rail went through one of the highest, coldest, windiest points on the island in the Gaff Topsails area -- a route chosen because it was shorter than any alternative, but it meant that the rail was very vulnerable to snow, and there was no demand for rail service there! (Lingard, p. 2); it also meant that the railroad had extremely steep grades -- "Grades are higher than in the Rock Mountains," and curves were extremely tight (Lingard, p. 55). According to Harding, p. 11, "the Newfoundland line had the curviest roadbed of any railroad in North America. Of its seven hundred miles of track, almost six hundred were expended in curves.... Railway engineers in Canada an the United States balked at the idea of building curves of ten degrees -- six is considered the optimal maximum. But in Newfoundland, curves of fourteen degrees were common. Moreover, the builders could not afford frills like tunnels and signals. There was a bridge every four miles on average and for a time there was but one signal on the whole line. On the entire length of the Bullet's track there was not a single tunnel, though steep hills were common." So common, in fact, that the trains spent much of the trip with their brakes on; they were almost guaranteed to need new brake shoes after just one round trip from St. John's to Port-aux-Basques. Sometimes, they needed new shoes after only a one-way trip! (Penney/Kennedy, p. 3). And hills were so steep that even short trains needed two engines, and hence two engine crews, adding dramatically to the expense (Penney/Kennedy, p. 41).
To make matters worse, "The work was done entirely without the aid of cranes, derricks, or any large machinery. The construction gang worked with hand tools and a few horses and carts and that was all" (Harding, p. 41). The first fatalities occurred in 1882, before the line was even open; a train carrying workers hit a cow, and three workers were thrown to their deaths (Harding, p. 46).
Things didn't get better even after the rail was built; because it was so vulnerable to snow, wind, ice-laden bridges -- even waves along the seaside washing out the track. So navvies had to be ready to head off on a moment's notice to repair it -- and the railroad didn't even supply them with food or shelter as they did so (Hardin, pp. 72-73),
The Reid syndicate that succeeded Blackman was truly a rip-roaring organization -- a thousand-odd workers working ten hours a day (Major, p. 286).
By Newfoundland standards, the pay under the Reid group that succeeded the Blackmans was decent but not great -- "The gang men worked for one dollar a day and [had to pay] two dollars and fifty cents a week for room and board" (Kearley, p. 57). Wages in Newfoundland were rarely more than a few dollars per week, but on the other hand, the men had to be away from home, and given the quality of the "housing," the price for "room and board" was absurdly high. For an example of complaints about working in the interior of Newfoundland (although not on the Bonavista branch), see "Reid's Express."
It's possible that the different versions of the song refer to different stages in the construction of the Newfoundland Railway. The original plans for the Railway, which began in 1881, included some service to Conception Bay (at least to Harbour Grace). But Bonavista, at the end of the long cape between Trinity and Bonavista Bays, was an economically unviable spur (88 miles long, according to Kearley, p. 59 and CuffEtAl, p. 11) that didn't get any attention until the second round of railway planning and didn't get built until 1913. It was basically a boondoggle; Edward P. Morris knew that the railroad was not viable (after all, the deal with the Reid railroad company had all but destroyed the Conservatives in the early years of the century), but he promised lines to places like Bonavista in the election of 1909, which he and his new "People's Party" won -- so contracts were signed in 1909 for six branch railroads. The Bonavista line, from Goose Bay/Lethbridge to Bonavista, was one of these, begun November 1909 (Penney, p. 95; there is a map of the route on p. 75).
By 1980, there were only three branch lines, including the Bonavista Line, operating. In that year, TerraTransport (the name some marketing hack had come up with for the Newfoundland Railway after it became part of the Canadian National Railway) proposed closing down the remaining branches. (Not for the first time; the first proposal to shut down the line to Bonavista had come in 1971; Penney/Kennedy, p. 67). The last three branches were all closed by 1984 (Kearley, p. 63); the Bonavista Line, even though it had been the busiest of the branches (Penney/Kennedy, p. 66), had seen its last train run on November 23, 1983 (Harding, p. 130). In 1988, the main line was closed also, and Newfoundland no longer had a railway. Within two years, even the tracks and ties had been taken up -- and hauled away by road. Newfoundland hadn't even figured out what to do with the land before it was all torn up (Kearley, p. 64).
Many of the branch lines did not have telegraph communication with the main line in the early days, and the trains were rarely on time, so apparently, after all that work, no one ever knew when the trains would arrive! (Harding, p. 93).
According to Harding, p. 175 (quoting a contemporary account), the first train on the Bonavista branch left St. John's on Tuesday, November 7, 1911, with an engine and ten cars, and carried about eighty passengers. Both the Governor and the Prime Minister were aboard, and used the various stops to make speeches. The arrival of the train drew hearty welcomes despite that.
The "Mr. Devine" of Peacock's "B" text is probably either John V. Devine, famous for writing "The Badger Driver" and apparently "Drill Ye Heroes Drill," or M. A. Devine (1857-1915), several of whose songs landed in the Doyle songbooks. If I had to pick one, I'd guess John Devine, since his songs were more relevant to the interests of the writer of this one. In fact, I wonder if John Devine might not have written the original "Bonavist Line" and someone else turned it into "The Riverhead Line."
For other songs about the problems of working on the Newfoundland Railway, see "Reid's Express," "Drill Ye Heroes, Drill!," and indirectly "Downey's Our Member." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea768

Bonavista Harbour

DESCRIPTION: "They started to make a harbour here quite early in the Spring; The people came from Canada with all kinds of machines ...." A list of people doing all the jobs but now that they've finished they'll surely have to come back and patch it every year.
AUTHOR: Stewart Little (1944) (source: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: moniker warning technology work tasks worker nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Bonavista Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 16-17 in the 3rd edition
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 52, "Bonavista Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 67-69, "Bonavista Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7290
NOTES [47 words]: [The breakwater described was built sometime between 1943 and 1945.]
As the song predicts, by the end of 1945 there are already comments about improving the harbour by dredging [per Charles Granger, "Bonavista Cold Storage Co., Limited" in Fishermen's Advocate, December 21, 1945] - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doyl3016

Bondsey and Maisry

See Young Benjie [Child 86] (File: C086)

Bones

See All the Pretty Little Horses (File: LxU002)

Boney

DESCRIPTION: Napoleon's story in the space of a shanty: "Boney was a warrior, Way up! A warrior and a tarrier, John Francois!" He fights the Russians, comes to Waterloo, is defeated, goes to Saint Helena, and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 ("Once a Week")
KEYWORDS: shanty Napoleon exile battle Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1812- Napoleon's Russian campaign
1815- Battle of Waterloo
1821- Death of Napoleon on Saint Helena
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 13, "Boney" (1 text)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 6-7, "Boney" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 78-79, "Boney" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Bone-CapstanBars, p. 42, "Boney" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 29, "Boney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 88-90, "Boney Was a Warrior" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 40-41, "Boney" (1 text, 1 tune plus 1 fragment of "Jean Francois")
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 27-28, "John Francois (Boney Was a Warrior)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 445-446, 448 "Boney," "Hilonday" (2 English and 1 French text, 2 tunes) [AbrEd, pp. 333-335]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 75, "Jean Francois de Nantes" (2 texts, French and English, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XLIX, p. 54, "Bonny Was a Warrior" (1 text, 1 tune)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #26, "Boney was a warrior" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 63, "Oh, Boney was a warrior" (1 fragment)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 310, "Boney" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 88, "Boney Was A Warrior" (1 text)
DT, BONEYNAP*
ADDITIONAL: "On Shanties," article in E(neas) S(weetland) Dallas, editor, _Once a Week_, New Series, Number 31, August 1, 1868 (published by Bradbury and Evans and available on Google Books), p. 93, "(Oh, Boney was a warrior, away a yah)" (3 excerpts)
Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919)." Boney was a Warrior" is in Part 4, 8/4/1917.
Roud #485
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bud Francois" (parody)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John Francois
File: Doe006

Boney on the Isle of St. Helena

See Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)

Boney Was a Warrior

See Boney (File: Doe006)

Boney's Defeat

See Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)

Boney's Lamentation

DESCRIPTION: "Attend, you songs of high renown, To these few lines which I pen down, I was born to wear a stately crown." Napolien beats Bealieu and Wurmser, he wins in Egypt, but his men are lost in Moscow. After Leipzig, he is forced to lament/abdicate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood)
KEYWORDS: Napoleon battle death royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 6, 1814 - Napoleon signs the instrument of abdication
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 34-35, "Boney's Lamentation" (1 text, 1 tune, with some historical corrections to the garbled Burstow original)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 138-139, "Boney's Lamentation" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2547
NOTES [299 words]: SInce this song makes no mention of Elba, the Hundred Days, Waterloo, or Saint Helena, one must suspect the original was published very soon after his first (1814) abdication.
All data on the contents of the song is based on the relevant entries in Stephen Pope, Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars, Cassell, 1999 (I use the undated Facts on File hardcover edition).
Beaulieu - Johann Peter Beaulieu (1725-1819). He was one of the first victims of Napoleon's Italian campaign, being beaten at Borghetto and forced to retire.
Wurmser - Dagobert Sigismond Wurmser (1724-1797). Austrian officer who suffered several defeats in the Italian campaign. He died soon after taking his defeated forced to Mantua, where they were besieged and forced to surrender.
"I did pursue the Egyptians sore Till Turks and Arabs lay in gore" - The Ottomans (Turks) had nominally controlled Egypt for more than a millennium, but Egypt was restive and had recently asserted itself. Thus when Napoleon invaded in 1798, he fought both and either and neither. From Egypt, Napoleon invaded Palestine -- unquestionably Turkish. But after the British won the Battle of the Nile and cut off the French forces in the Middle East, Napoleon abandoned his troops there.
"Moscow town was set on fire" - The Invasion of Russia took place in 1812. Moscow was occupied September 14. The fires began September 15 and lasted two days. More than half the city was destroyed. Napoleon abandoned it October 19.
Leipzig - "The Battle of the Nations" took place on October 16-19, 1813. It effectively destroyed Napoleon's power outside France and moved him much closer to his overthrow.
Montmartre - March 30-31, 1814. The last battle in the defense of Paris. The badly outnumbered French could do little. Napoleon abdicated a week later. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LEBC034

Bonhomme Tombe de L'Arbre, Le (The Fellow Falls from the Tree)

DESCRIPTION: French. Willie goes hunting for partridges. He goes up in a tree to see his dogs running. The branch breaks; Willie falls and breaks his thigh. All the girls in the village hear his cries and run to bandage his leg.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage help hunting injury
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 45, "Le Bonhomme Tombe de L'Arbre" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Pea045

Bonhomme! Bonhomme!

DESCRIPTION: French: "Bonhomm', Bonhomm', sais-tu jouer?" "My friend, my friend, can you play this? Can you play the violin... flute... drum... horn... jug."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954
KEYWORDS: cumulative nonballad music foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 120-121, "Bonhomme! Bonhomme!" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 90-91, "Bonhomme! Bonhomme! (My Friend! My Friend!)" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
File: FJ120

Bonie Dundee

See Bonnie Dundee (II) (O whar gat ye that hauver-meal bannock) (File: Gath058)

Bonjour Ma Cherie

DESCRIPTION: "Bonjour, ma chèrie, And how the hell are you? Bonjour, ma chèrie, COmment vous portez-vous?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: nonballad foreignlanguage | greeting French
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 63, "Bonjour, ma chèrie" (1 short text)
Roud #25497
File: KSUC063C

Bonnet o' Blue

See Jacket So Blue, The (The Bonnet o' Blue) (File: FSC43)

Bonnet o' Blue, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm nae for a lass that rins hame to her mither Whenever it comes on a skelp o' ill weather, If she couldna gang bare leggit thro' the long heather She wadna dee weel wi' a bonnet o' blue"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: marriage hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 856, "The Bonnet o' Blue" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6225
NOTES [75 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 texts.
The blue bonnet seems to mark the singer as a Scottish soldier. See, for example, "Scots Soldiers True," "Our Brave Scotch Lads," "The Bonnet o' Blue" version of "The Jacket So Blue" and, maybe, "Cock Your Beaver." Also, consider the following lines in "Haud Awa, Bide Awa": "What think ye o' the Highland dress ... Wi' his bonnet blue and brocklamore Twad gar a' the French dogs flee ...." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4856

Bonnet of Blue, The

See Jacket So Blue, The (The Bonnet o' Blue) (File: FSC43)

Bonnet sae Blue, The

See Jacket So Blue, The (The Bonnet o' Blue) (File: FSC43)

Bonnets o' Blue, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing ye a sang in praise o that land Whaur the snaw never melts ..." Culloden is recalled: "nae traitors were there mang the bonnets o blue" The "brave Forty Twa" in Egypt, Waterloo, Lucknow and "avenging Cawnpore" is recalled.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: pride army war Scotland nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 16, 1746 - Battle of Culloden Muir ends the 1745 Jacobite rebellion
1801 - Black Watch fought at Aboukir (Mar 8) and subsequent battles between March and August in the Egyptian campaign against Napoleon (source: "French & Napoleonic Wars, 1793-1815: Egyptian Campaign 1801" at Land Forces of Britain, the Empire and Commonwealth [regiments.org] site)
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
Sept 20, 1854 - Battle of Alma. The allies win an expensive victory over the Russians
July 17, 1857 - Recapture of Cawnpore in the Sepoy Rebellion (source: "Background" in _Second Battle of Cawnpore_ at Wikipedia)
November 1857-March 1858 - Capture of Lucknow in the Sepoy Rebellion (source: "Indian Sepoy Rebellion 1857-1858" at Land Forces of Britain ...)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 524, "The Bonnets o' Blue" (1 text)
Roud #6006
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(22a), "The Bonnets o' Blue," The Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "McCaffery (McCassery)" (subject: 42nd Highlanders or Black Watch) and references there
cf. "Wha Saw the Forty-Second" (subject: 42nd Highlanders or Black Watch) and references there
cf. "The Gallant Forty-Twa" (subject: 42nd Highlanders or Black Watch)
cf. "Here's to the Black Watch" (subject: 42nd Highlanders or Black Watch)
NOTES [1022 words]: Commentary to broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(22a): "This ballad sings the praises of the Royal Highland Regiment, better known as the Black Watch, who wore small round blue bonnets. It concerns an incident during the Crimean War, 1854-6, when Queen Victoria sent her 'lads wi' the Bonnets o' Blue' 'up the Alma's grim heights for tae conquror[sic] or die'." If so, it celebrates other deeds as well. Greig/Duncan3 replaces "Victoria" with "King Edward" in broadside lines "Victoria kens ; aye, she kens braw an' weel, That oor ain kiltie lads are as true sa their steel" - BS
Re "avenging Cawnpore": Cawnpore was captured by the Indian rebels in 1857. The rebels broke a safe-conduct agreement condition of surrender, killed some of the British and took others hostage. When the British were about to recapture Cawnpore in July "the prisoners, about two-thirds of whom were women, children & babies, were butchered by their captors." (source: "First War of Independence 1857" in Kanpur at Wikipedia).
General Neill was left in charge of Cawnpore and avenged the massacre by lashing and hanging those identified as perpetrators, "a piece of savagery unrivalled in British military history." (source: "James George Neill" at FirstFoot.com, which describes itself as "Scotland's humour site." )
For another discussion of Cawnpore see David. The massacre of the British is discussed on pp. 199-200, the retribution on pp. 258-260. The discussion of the retribution illustrates how the perpetrators were forced through tabus against their caste. David writes (p. 259) that the retribution was considered just by most Britons in India at the time. - BS
Farwell, p. 107, gives an example of British feeling. Major William Hodson "appears to have worked himself into a frenzy. Seizing a carbine from one of his sowars, he ordererd the princes to strip and then personally shot each of them in cold blood, one after the other. The horrified crowd drew back in silence. Hodson ordererd the corpses to be thrown into a bullock cart and then carried them into Delhi. 'I am not cruel,' he wrote to his brother, 'but I confess I did rejoice at the opportunity of ridding the earth of those wretches.'"
Chandler/Beckett, p. 184, report, "British authority [in India] was restored only after fourteen months of fierce fighting which assumed, on both sides, the horrors of a war of races marked by mindless slaughter and bloodthirsty reprisals. Public opinion at home [in Britain] was shocked and outraged at the challenge to Britain's civilizing mission and lurid accounts in newspapers of atrocities perpetrated on European women and children stirred up fears, fantasies, and racial animosities. Vengeance and retribution were demanded of the army, and subsequent victories were reported by a jubilant press which overlooked the indiscriminate killing, burning, and looting committed by British troops, the vital contributions of loyal sepoy troops, and the defects of supply and medical service (8,987 of the 11,021 British casualties died from sickness or sunstroke)."
Spear, p. 142, notes that the British were greatly shaken by the attack on their supremacy: "The British on their side seemed hopelessly outnumbered and saw themselves and their families suddenly threated with destruction. Their world of easy authority had dissolved in a moment, their most trusted subordinates had risen in revolt, they could no longer distinguish between friend and foe; their former self-confidence was profoundly shaken. Many of the atrocities on the British side were an index of this shaken morale. The later reprisals were inexcusable but must be understood as the acts of men distraught by the loss of their families as well as their comrades, and by many months of campaigning in conditions of terrible strain."
Spear, p. 139, blames it ultimately on cultural differences: "[The] Mutiny of 1857-1858... has been variously regarded as a military mutiny only, as a deep-laid conspiracy set off too soon, as a popular movement of protest against innovations of various kings, and as the first modern Indian war of independence. There were elements of all these factors to be found in the upheaval, but it is best understood by viewing it against the social and ideological background of nineteenth-century India....
"[A]n exhausted country in 1818 was quite ready to accept another foreign regime... provided that the socio-religious fabric of society, both Hindu and Muslin, was left untouched.... But this imposition of neutral rule over a traditional society was... just what the British did not do.... Western civilization, through the medium of western education and learning, of Christian missionary propaganda, of western material techniques and instruments, and above all the English language, was to be introduced. There was to be no destruction of the old, but an introduction of the new alongside."
The mutiny started over the stupidest of reasons: rifle bullets greased with animal fat -- of both cows and pigs, which made the bullets unclean to both Hindus and Moslems (Spear, p. 141). The British apologized -- but the lack of cultural sensitivity was obvious. He does point out that planning for revolt had apparently begun earlier: the Mutiny, "though commencedc on caste grounds by Hindus, was blamed on the Muslim community as an anti-British revolt."
Still, before we start making pious-sounding comments about cultural imperialism, I have three words: the already-mentioned "Caste," plus "Thuggee" and "Suttee." The latter two had in fact largely been suppressed by 1857 -- but the memory was still very recent. Three wrongs no more make a right than do two, but British-Indian relations were still scarred by the very recent memories of ritual murder.
For the Battle of Culloden, see especially the notes to "The Muir of Culloden." For Alma, see "The Heights of Alma (I)" [Laws J10]. It is interesting to note that the commander of the Highlanders at both Alma (where he commanded the Highland Brigade) and the Indian Mutiny (where he was the overall boss) was Sir Colin Campbell, for whom see "The Kilties in the Crimea." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3524

Bonnets of Bonnie Dundee, The

See Bonnie Dundee (I) (File: MBra179)

Bonnie

See My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean (File: DTmybonn)

Bonnie Annie [Child 24]

DESCRIPTION: A ship's captain seduces (Annie) and takes her to sea with him. The ship they are sailing is caught in a storm which will not die down. (The crew) decides that Annie is the guilty party and throws her overboard. (The captain may order her rescue)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: seduction sea death storm childbirth pregnancy bastard
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland) US(NE)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Child 24, "Bonnie Annie" (3 texts)
Bronson 24, "Bonnie Annie" (18 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 24, "Bonnie Annie" (3 versions: #2, #16, #17)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 85, "The High Banks o Yarrow" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 20, "Bonnie Annie" (1 text)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 9, "The Banks of Green Willow" (1 text)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 29, "The Banks of Green Willow" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #31, "The Banks of Green Willow" (1 text, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 15, "The Banks of Green Willow" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 12, "The Banks of Green Willow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 4, "The Banks of Green Willow" (1 reconstructed text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 85, "Banks of Green Willow" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 45, "Bonnie Annie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1225, "Bonnie Annie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads LXXIV, pp. 142-144, "Bonnie Annie" (1 text)
DT 24, GREWILLO* BONNYANN*
Roud #172
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B) [Laws K22]" (Jonah theme) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
There Was a Rich Merchant that Lived in Strathdinah
NOTES [401 words]: In the VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs version, the sailor Johnny has persuaded the girl to steal her mother's money and run away to sea with him. When she has his baby, he (not the crew) throws her overboard, along with her baby. - PJS
Many versions seem to blame the disaster on the simple fact that there is a woman aboard the ship. This Female Jonah idea was well-known among sailors. Even such a relatively enlightened character as Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, Nelson's second in command at Trafalgar, could write, "I never knew a woman brought to sea in a ship that some mischief did not befall the vessel" (see Cordingly, p. 154).
Child comments that the versions known to him are "much disordered," and this applies to the versions I know also. The defects forced Child to speculate on the "true" form of the ballad. He didn't find much except the Jonah connection. I find myself wondering, however, if it might not be influenced by Marie de France's Breton Lai "Eliduc," which was probably fairly well known in England in the Middle Ages. Eliduc is forced to flee France due to slander, leaving his wife behind. In England, he becomes involved with the princess Guilliadun. After some complications, they elope. A storm arises, and Guilliadun, learning that Eliduc is a bigamist, dies and is thrown into the sea. There is a complicated ending in which Guilliadun is brought back to life (for a summary, see Gerritsen & van Melle, 94), but the middle section of the romance sounds very like this ballad.
Other versions sound much like a version of the romance of Apollonius of Tyre, on which Shakespeare's "Pericles" is based -- well-known in Latin; Enk, p. 232, says there are about sixty copies. Enk, p. 228, describes a section of the romance as follows (thanks for Steve Roud for making this available to me): "So Apollonius went once more aboard a ship, this time accompanied by his wife. At sea she gave birth to a child, but at the delivery she fell into a state of coma. Since no corpse was tolerated on board, the inconsolable Apollonius had a watertight coffin made, and placed alongside the lifeless body a quantity of gold, as well as an inscribed wax-tablet and, sad at heart, entrusted the coffin to the sea."
That description comes from the Latin romance. In English, it was known mostly from Gower. Who, to be sure, was not a likely source for a folk ballad! - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: C024

Bonnie Annie Laurie

See Annie Laurie (File: FSWB150A)

Bonnie Annie Livingstoun

See Bonnie Baby Livingston [Child 222] (File: C222)

Bonnie Banks o' Airdrie, The

See Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14] (File: C014)

Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond, The

See Loch Lomond (File: FSWB257B)

Bonnie Banks o' Ugie, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer seduces a maid on Ugie banks. She tells a church session he is the father. He is called to appear at church and is scolded and fined. He pays the fine and promises the parson that he won't do it again.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex accusation promise punishment pregnancy nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 42, ("The parson then began to scold") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan7 1314, "The Bonnie Banks o' Ugie" (7 texts, 6 tunes)
Roud #7206
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny Doyle" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
File: GrD71314

Bonnie Banks of the Virgie, O, The

See Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14] (File: C014)

Bonnie Barbara O

See Bonnie Lass of Fyvie, The (Pretty Peggy-O) (File: SBoA020)

Bonnie Barbara, O

See Bonnie Lass of Fyvie, The (Pretty Peggy-O) (File: SBoA020)

Bonnie Bell the Bravity

DESCRIPTION: "The Davidsons and their heigh heids There wisna word o' lammer [amber] beads, There wisna word o' auld pleugh [plough] heids, Wi' bonnie Bell the Bravity [elegantly dressed], She's bonnie braw baith neat and sma' She's bonnie Bell the Bravity"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: beauty clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 730, "Bonnie Bell the Bravity" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6163
NOTES [16 words]: The current description is all of Greig/Duncan4 730. The translations are from Greig/Duncan4- BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4730

Bonnie Belleen

DESCRIPTION: Lord Ross marries Belleen of Avonwood and takes her to gloomy Todecliff Tower. Ross marries again; a voice heard at the revelrie threatened Ross. Belleen is drowned by a water spirit. Her brothers kill Ross whose ghost "still howls by the Warlock Tree"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: infidelity marriage curse abandonment revenge death drowning party brother wife ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 64, "Bonnie Belleen" (1 text)
Roud #3862
NOTES [119 words]: Was this literary piece ever in oral tradition? Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 quotes a Crawfurd note: "Peggy Walker committed this from a book which was belonging to Miss Jamieson' [p. 224]. Its references to water spirits, a gloomy tower "that frowns o'er the dashing tide," and haunted warlock trees remind me of "The Warlock Laird of Skene," which Greig admired. However, Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 p. xliii quotes the first verse from another source attached to a version of the story -- the rest of the text having been forgotten -- more in line with traditional ballads in which the brothers take offence at an elopement and kill the groom: no water spirits, gloomy tower or ghosts. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr164

Bonnie Bennachie

DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams about Mary, far away in Scotland. "The gowd is gained, the gems are won" and he would give them to her for a smile. He asks her to write "To say ye mind on me." He wishes he were home.
AUTHOR: Miss Farquharson (source: Greig/Duncan6)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: homesickness love separation money Scotland nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1251, "Bonnie Bennachie" (1 text)
Roud #6787
File: GrD61251

Bonnie Bessie Logan

DESCRIPTION: "O, bonnie Bessie Logan Is dainty, young, and fair, The very wind that's blawin', It lingers in her hair... But bonnie Bessie Logan is owre young for me." All the lads pursue her; the singer wishes he could, too, but she is too young
AUTHOR: Words: Probably Alexander Anderson (1845-1909)
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 ("The Later Poems of Alexander Anderson"
KEYWORDS: love beauty courting | youth age
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, BONBESLO
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Anderson, edited by Alexander Brown, _Later Poems of Alexander Anderson, 'Surfaceman'_, Frasher, Asher * Co., Glasgow, 1912 (called "Surfaceman's Later Poems" on the cover; available in a very poor OCR transcription on archive.org or in a better one on Google Books), pp. 115-116, "Bonnie Bessie Logan" (1 text)
Roud #21824
File: UnkBoBL

Bonnie Betsy

See Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid) [Laws M20] (File: LM20)

Bonnie Black Bess

See My Bonnie Black Bess I [Laws L8] AND My Bonnie Black Bess II [Laws L9] (File: LL09)

Bonnie Blue Eyes

See More Pretty Girls Than One (File: CSW192)

Bonnie Blue Flag, The

DESCRIPTION: "We are a band of brothers, and native to the soil, Fighting for the property we gained by honest toil... Hurrah for the bonny blue flag that bears the single star." The states which joined the Confederacy are chronicled and praised
AUTHOR: Words: Harry McCarthy (1834-1888)
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (sheet music published by A. E. Blackmar & Bro. of New Orleans)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar patriotic
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 357-359, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (1 text)
Randolph 214, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 379, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (1 text plus mention of 1 more probably from the same informant)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 71-72, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (1 text)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 359, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (1 text, a copy of a Wehman broadside)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 34-38, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, p. 220, "The Bonny Blue Flag (Southern)" (1 partial text, tune referenced)
Silver-CivWarFull, pp. 65-67, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (1 text, 1 tune); also "The Bonnie White Flag" in p. 69
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 52-53, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 210, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (1 text)
Krythe-SamplerOfAmericanSongs 8, pp. 133-141, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 60-61, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 122-123, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 349-350, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #C26, p. 187, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (1 reference)
DT, BONBLUE*
ST R214 (Full)
Roud #4769
RECORDINGS:
Mary C. Mann, "Bonnie Blue Flag" (AFS A-488, 1926)
Old South Quartette, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (Cyl.: Edison Amberol 389, 2175, 1909)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Jaunting Car" (tune& meter)
cf. "The Homespun Dress" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Northern Bonnie Blue Flag" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Southern Girl's Reply (True to the Gray)" (tune & meter)
cf. "Counties of Arkansas" (tune & meter)
SAME TUNE:
The Southern Girl's Reply (True to the Gray) (File: Wa156)
The Homespun Dress (File: R215)
The Northern Bonnie Blue Flag (File: SBoA218)
The Counties of Arkansas (File: R876)
Gathering Song (by Annie Chambers Ketchum) (War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy, pp. 329-330)
The Bonnie White Flag (by Col. W. S. Hawkins) (Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 69)
(Reply to) The Bonnie Blue Flag ("We are a band of patriots Who each leave home and friend") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 13; Dime-Song-Book #10, p. 44)
White Irishmen Have Done ("Ye gallant sons of Erin Isle, come listen to my lay") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 173)
College Days ("Four years ago the College stream Allured us to embark") (words by F. T. Glover, [class of 18]67) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 62)
NOTES [433 words]: This song was written by an immigrant Irishman very early in the Civil War (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety has a note that Fitz-Grald credits the words to Annie Chambers Ketchum, with Harry McCarthy supplying the tune, but almost all sources credit the song to McCarthy). It refers to the first Confederate flag, later succeeded by the "Stars and Bars."
The order the states are mentioned is roughly the order in which they left the Union. South Carolina was first, obviously, followed by the various states of the Deep South (Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida; Louisiana and Texas took slightly longer because of their remote location). It was not until after the attack on Fort Sumter that the border states of Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and (last of all) North Carolina seceded.
Jefferson Davis was, of course, the first and only President of the Confederacy, and Alexander Stephens its Vice President.
Krythe-SamplerOfAmericanSongs's notes on this song contain several errors. The captain of the Alabama was not "Admiral Symmes" but Captain (later Admiral) Raphael Semmes, and General Wickham's first name was not William but Williams (with an s).
Harry McCarthy was only 27 when he wrote this song, but managed to avoid Confederate service as a British citizen. What's more, he fled to the North once the outlook for the Confederacy turned bad enough. He never wrote anything else of note, either.
Interestingly, it appears that no copies of the original printing survive. See the notes in Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 119.
E. Lawrence Abel, Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861-1865, Stackpole, 2000, has an extensive section (chapter 3, pp. 52-66) on this song. Apparently Harry McCarthy was in Jackson, Mississippi when that state seceded, and either saw or heard about the occasion when Mrs. Homer Smythe, the wife of one of the leading delegates to the secession convention, brought a blue flag with a white star onto the stage after secession was declared (p. 52). The publisher ended up paying McCarthy $500 and a piano for the piece, McCarthy made quite a show of performing the piece (along with acting using various accents and other gimmicks; pp. 53-57).
McCarthy continued to perform after the war, but with his "hit" no longer in demand, his audiences shrank (p. 62); he died in near-obscurity, so broke that a subscription fund had to be raised for his burial, and few newspapers published notices of his death (p. 63). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R214

Bonnie Blue Handkerchief, The

See The Bonny Blue Handkerchief (File: HHH161)

Bonnie Bogie

DESCRIPTION: She says Bogie is cold and bare. He says it is not. She fears he will steal her heart and tempt her to follow far away to Bogie. He says he would keep her from care. She agrees to go. They marry and she's "ne'er had cause to dree"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage travel dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #49, p. 1, "Bonnie Bogie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 868, "Bogie" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #5645
NOTES [11 words]: The Bogie is a tributary of the Deveron River in Aberdeenshire. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4868

Bonnie Bonnie Banks of the Virgie-O, The

See Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14] (File: C014)

Bonnie Bower, The

See The Famous Flower of Serving-Men [Child 106] (File: C106)

Bonnie Boy I Loved, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "Once I loved a bonny boy ... the more that I loved him, the sacerer [saucier] he grew." He left her, but then sent a rose to win her back. She returned his rose: "her's to you and your love and hear's [sic] to me and mine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting flowers nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1137, "The Bonnie Boy I Loved" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6827
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (theme) and references there
File: GrD61137

Bonnie Braes o' Turra

See The Braes o' Turra (File: GrD61124)

Bonnie Breast-knots

See The Bonnie Breist-knots (File: FVS303)

Bonnie Breist-knots, The

DESCRIPTION: "Hey, the bonnie, ho, the bonnie, Hey, the bonnie breist-knots, Blythe and merry were they a' When they got on their bonnie breist-knots." "There was a bridal in the toun" to which many came; the song tells of their happy and wild adventures
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (_Scots Musical Museum_ #214)
KEYWORDS: marriage music dancing clothes husband wife food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 303-306, "The Bonnie Breist-knots" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan3 611, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Hey the Bonnie Breistknots" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #13, p. 33, "Bonnie Breast-Knots" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #214, pp. 222-223, "The Breast knots" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5888
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:087, "The Bonnie Breast-Knots," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
SAME TUNE:
The Merry Mormons (File: Hubb2122)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hey the Bonnie Breistknots
The Breast Knots
NOTES [83 words]: According to the Vocal Companion [(no author listed), The Vocal Companion, second edition, D'Almaine and Co., 1937 (available from Google Books), pp. 1810-181., T'he Bonnie Breast-Knot"], the music to this is by "Parry." I strongly suspect, however, that this refers to the arrangement; several other pieces in the book are also listed as by "Parry."
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 681, has a piece, "The Breast Knot." Since it has no lyrics, I can't tell if it's the same as this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FVS303

Bonnie Brier Bush, The

DESCRIPTION: "There grows a bonnie brier bush in oor kailyaird, And sweet are the blossoms on't in oor kaildyaird. Beneath the... bush a lad and lass were scared... busy courtin'." The singer tells of the joys of courting in the kailyaird, as was first done by Adam
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 157, "The Bonnie Brier Bush" (1 text)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 31, "The Green Brier Bush" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 205-209, "The Bonnie Brier Bush" (1 text plus various relatives)
Roud #1506
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(39b) "Bonnie Brier Bush," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
NOTES [41 words]: Kennedy lumps this with "The Cuckoo's Nest (II)" and this equation is accepted by Roud. But that song is definitely erotic, and this is merely a courting song. I can't see lumping them, though I'm sure other sources have been guilty of doing so. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: FVS157

Bonnie Broom-Fields, The

See The Broomfield Hill [Child 43] (File: C043)

Bonnie Broughty Ferry Fisher Lass

See Bonnie Fisher Lass, The (File: GrD3485)

Bonnie Buchairn

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks, "Quhilk o' ye lasses will go to Buchairn (x3) And be the gudewife o' bonnie Buchairn?" He turns down the pretty girls, wanting "the lass wi' the shaif o' bank notes." He describes his plans for the wedding
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: courting wedding money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook XX, pp. 69-70, "Bonnie Buchairn" (1 text)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 119-121, "Glowerowerum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #19, pp. 1-2, "Glowerowerem" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 816, "Glowerowerem" (6 texts, 3 tunes)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 96-97, "Glowerowerum" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST KinBB20 (Full)
Roud #1101
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Balcairn's Knowes
NOTES [57 words]: In dealing with old songbooks which do not list sources, it is a perpetual problem to determine what is traditional and what is just space-filling garbage. Kinloch's looks a little artsy and archaizing, as if touched up -- but the basic text seems very traditional.
Either that, or it's the first-ever proposal for an urban renewal grant. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: KinBB20

Bonnie Bunch of Roses, The

See The Bonny Bunch of Roses [Laws J5] (File: LJ05)

Bonnie Doon

See The Banks o' Doon (File: CTbnksbr)

Bonnie Dundee (I)

DESCRIPTION: "To the Lords of Convention 'twas Claverhouse spoke, Ere the King's crown go down there are crowns to be broke." The Jacobite army gathers and prepares to fight for James II and VII
AUTHOR: unknown (adapted by Sir Walter Scott)
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Cameron's Selection of Scottish Songs); believed to date to at least the eighteenth century
KEYWORDS: soldier drink political Jacobite
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 27, 1689 - Battle of Killiecrankie, at which Jacobites under Claverhouse/Dundee are victorious but their commander killed, resulting in the failure of their cause
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 10, "The Bonnets of Bonnie Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 80-81, "Bonnie Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 124-134, "Bonnie Dundee" (1 text plus many related, or unrelated, ancestral pieces)
Dime-Song-Book #6, p. 55, "Bonnie Dundee" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), p. 179, "Bonnie Dundee" (1 text)
ST MBra179 (Partial)
Roud #8513
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Riding a Raid" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Riding a Raid (File: SCWF082)
Bonnie Dundee (II) (O whar gat ye that hauver-meal bannock) (FIle: Gath058)
Scalp Song ("To the base churls of Congress 'twas Brooksy who spoke," referring to the attack on Senator Sumner by congressman Brooks, and attributed to Maria Jane Peytoun Middletonne Fitz-Fysshe, believed to be a pseudonym for George Templeton Strong) (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 333)
Dan Ragg ("My name ii is Ragg, sir! Dan Ragg, if you please; My eyes have grown dim and I'm weak in the knees") (by Robert E. Rich) (Foner, p. 250)
NOTES [243 words]: The common version of this is by Sir Walter Scott, who published it in the 1830 play "The Doom of Devorgoil" (so, e.g., Carroll/Gardner, p. 260, n. 13; Carroll/Green, p. 270; Williams/Maden/Green/Crutch, p. 313 say it is from Act II, scene ii), but there is enough variation in the publications that I am not entirely convinced that Scott originated it. Ford-SongHistories, lists an amazing collection of ancestors, by-blows, influences, and rewrites; among other things, pointing out "Crookit Bawbee" as a sort of not-even-fraternal twin, with both having links to a verse,
O, whar gat ye that haver-meal bannock?
Silly, blind body, O! dinna ye see
I gat it frae a brisk sodger laddie,
Atween St. Johnston and Bonnie Dundee.
The relationship of that to "Crookit Bawbee" is pretty obvious. Its relationship to "Bonnie Dundee" appears to me to consist of... just those two words.
It is certain that Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll rewrote it for Through the Looking Glass, Chapter IX, "Queen Alice," where it becomes a poem that begins
To the Looking-Glass world it was Alice that said
"I've a sceptre in hand, I've a crown on my head.
Let the Looking-Glass creatures, whatever they be
Come dine with the Red Queen, the White Queen and Me!"
What is less obvious is why Dodgson picked this particular item to parody. It is not one of his more subversive pieces, and he uses only a few bits of the original lyric. Perhaps he just liked the poem and its form. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: MBra179

Bonnie Dundee (II) (O whar gat ye that hauver-meal bannock)

DESCRIPTION: "O whar gat ye that hauver-meal bannock? O, silly blind boyd, o, dinna ye seee?" It came from a soldier. She hopes the soldier will be well, but he is "Awa' frae his lassie and bonnie Dundee." She will dress her baby like his daddy
AUTHOR: unknown (adapted by Robert Burns)
EARLIEST DATE: 1787 (source: Kinsley)
KEYWORDS: love soldier separation baby
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 58, "Scots Callan o' Bonnie Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #157, pp. 270-271, "Bonie Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1787)
Roud #8513
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jockey's Escape from Dundee" (opening lines)
NOTES [28 words]: Roud lunps this with "Bonnie Dundee (I)" ("To the Lords of Convention 'twas Claverhouse spoke"), with which it shares a tune. But they are clearly not the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Gath058

Bonnie Eloise

DESCRIPTION: ""Sweet is the vale where the Mohawk gently glides... But sweeter, yes, dearer far than these... is Blue-eyed, bonnie bonnie Eloise, The belle of the Mohawk Vale." He remembers home and love, but regrets the crumbling away of his old home
AUTHOR: Words: C. W. Elliot / Music: J. R. Thomas (soure: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (date of composition, according to Huntington)
KEYWORDS: love river separation home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 309-310, "The Belle of the Mohawk Vale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 108-109, "Bonny Eloise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 36, "Bonny Eloise" (1 text)
Roud #4244
File: HGam309

Bonnie Farday

See Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14] (File: C014)

Bonnie Fisher Lass, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets and is captivated by "a bonny fisher lass" on her way "to get my lines in order" and get bait. Her father's "on the ocean wide, a toiling on his boat" and she worries "when a storm arises ... lest he should meet with a watery grave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #153, p. 2, "The Bonnie Fisher Lass" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 485, "The Bonnie Fisher Lass" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 62, "Bonnie Broughty Ferry Fisher Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5881
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Fisher Lass
NOTES [34 words]: Greig: "There are not many traditional songs dealing with fisher folk; and as for fisher folk themselves they do not seem to have any old minstrelsy dealing with their special calling and interests." - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: GrD3485

Bonnie George Campbell [Child 210]

DESCRIPTION: Bonnie George Campbell sets out on his horse. The horse comes home, but he does not: "High upon Hielands and low upon Tay, Bonnie George Campbell rade oot on a day; Saddled and bridled and gallant rade he; Hame cam his guid horse but never cam he"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1807
KEYWORDS: death horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord)) US(Ap,NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Child 210, "Bonnie James Campbell" (4 texts)
Bronson 210, "Bonnie James Campbell" (5 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 210, "Bonnie James Campbell" (2 versions: #1, #4)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 205-206, "Bonnie George Campbell" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 279-284, "Bonnie George Campbell" (2 text plus a printed version and a composite reconstruction, 1 traditional plus one printed tune) {The "C" reprint is Bronson's #1, the traditional tune "D" is Bronson's #23}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 237-238, "Bonnie James Campbell" (1 badly damaged fragment)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 310-311, "Bonnie George Campbell" (1 text, with a peculiar final verse probably not traditional and edited by Ford)
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 35, pp. 267-269, "Bonnie James Campbell" (1 text)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 25-26, "Bonnie George Campbell" (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 38-39)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, p. 60, "War Song" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 41, "Bonnie James Campbell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, p. 560, "Bonnie James Campbell" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 96, "Bonnie George Campbell" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 106, "James Campbell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 57, "Bonnie George Campbell" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 162+335, "Bonnie George Campbell" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 34, pp. 126-127, "Bonnie James Campbell" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 145, "Bonnie George Campbell" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 18, "Bonnie James (George) Campbell" (2 texts)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 24, "Bonnie George Campbell" (1 text, 1 tune)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, p. 27, "Bonnie George Campbell" (1 text)
DT 210, GEORCAMP* GEORCMP2*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 25, #4 (1977), p, 21, "Bonnie James Campbell" (1 text, 1 tune, from Frank Proffitt)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #50, "Bonnie George Campbell" (1 text)
Roud #338
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Caudill Hurst & Carolyn Margaret Hurst, "Bonnie George Campbell" (on JThomas01)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Bonnie George Campbell" (on BLLunsford01) {Bronson's #2}
Frank Proffitt, "James Campbell" [excerpt] (on USWarnerColl01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cumberland Gap" (tune)
cf. "The Killin' in the Gap"(Stevie Allen) (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonnie Johnnie Campbell
NOTES [158 words]: Although several names have been suggested as the original hero of this ballad, the details suggested in the song are so few that none can be viewed as more than a possibility. There were, after all, many casualties in the long conflict between the MacDonalds and the Campbells -- including the very first Campbell known to history, Collin Campbell, ambushed at the String of Lorne in 1296 (see Thomson: Oliver Thomson, The Great Feud: The Campbells & The Macdonalds, Sutton Publishing, 2000, p. 3).
In an interesting twist, it seems likely that this song was known to relatively upper-class southerners in the Civil War era. Shelby Foote, The Civil War: A Narrative (Volume I: Fort Sumter to Perryville) (Random House, 1958), p. 131 quotes a South Carolina lady's description of an early visit from Robert E. Lee to her area: "Preux chevalier, booted and bridled and gallant rode he, but so far his bonnie face has only brought us ill luck." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C210

Bonnie Glasgow Green

DESCRIPTION: "As I went out one morning fair On Glasgow green to tak the air, I spied a lass wi' yellow hair And twa bewitching e'en, O." The girl will not betray her mason. He asks if she can trust a mason. She decides to turn to the singer. He praises Glasgow Green
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection betrayal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 121-122, "Bonnie Glasgow Green" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #119, pp. 1-2, "Glasgow Green" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1130, "Glasgow Green" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Roud #6262
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Birken Tree" (form); also tune per Greig/Duncan4)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonny Glasgow Green
The Banks o' the Don
Ythan Side
NOTES [32 words]: And the singer *wants* a girl who changes her mind that easily? Ouch.
At least some versions of this appear to have been sung to "The Birken Tree," to which it is highly similar in detail. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord121

Bonnie Glenshee

See Busk, Busk, Bonnie Lassie (File: McCST033)

Bonnie Harvest Moon

DESCRIPTION: "Of all the seasons of the year, I like the autumn best, Ere winter comes with giant strength Or Flora gangs to rest, I am joyfu'." The breezes blow. There is a harvest moon. The reapers sing. The fields are golden
AUTHOR: Words: John Barr (source: Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (Barr, Poems and Songs, according to Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: nonballad farming
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 33, "Bonnie Harvest Moon" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [74 words]: According to Gordon McLauchlan, editor-in-chief, New Zealand Encyclopedia, David Bateman Limited, 1984, p. 46, "BARR, John (1809-89) was born in Paisley, Scotland and emigrated to N[ew] Z[ealand] in 1852, settling in Dunedin. He became a well-known poet and songwriter, contributing to the Otago Witness and Saturday Advertiser. His Poems and Songs was published in 1861 and revised and reissued in 1874. He inaugurated the Burns Club. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Col2033

Bonnie Highland Laddie

See Hieland Laddie (File: Doe050)

Bonnie Hind, The [Child 50]

DESCRIPTION: A sailor, new come from the sea, sees a girl and sleeps with her. After the deed is done, they exchange names, only to find they are brother and sister. The sister stabs herself; the brother buries her and goes home grieving
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1771 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: incest death seduction mourning suicide grief
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 50, "The Bonnie Hind" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 172, "The Bonny Hind" (1 text)
DT 50, BONNYHND
Roud #205
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The King's Dochter Lady Jean" [Child 52] (plot)
cf. "Sheath and Knife" [Child 16] (plot, lyrics)
cf. "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie" [Child 14] (plot)
cf. "Lizie Wan" [Child 51] (theme)
NOTES [60 words]: Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads states that the only recorded collection of this song was from a Scottish milkmaid in 1771. -PJS
On the scientific evidence that brothers and sisters raised apart are particularly likely to fall in love, and some further speculation as to why, see the notes to "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14]." - RBW
File: C050

Bonnie House o Airlie, The [Child 199]

DESCRIPTION: Argyle sets out to plunder the home of his enemy Airlie while the latter is away (with Bonnie Prince Charlie?). Argyle summons Lady Airlie, asking for a kiss and threatening ruin to the house if she will not. She refuses; they plunder the house
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1790 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: feud courting
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1640 - Argyle commissioned to clean up certain "unnatural" lords
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Canada(Mar) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,So)
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Child 199, "The Bonnie House o Airlie" (4 texts)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 199, "The Bonnie House o Airlie" (4 versions: #1,#11, #12, #13)
Bronson 199, "The Bonnie House o Airlie" (15 versions)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 82-84, "The Bonnie House o' Airly" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 545-546, "The Bonnie House o' Airly" (1 text)
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 76, "Young Airly" (1 text, 1 tune)
GlenbuchatBallad, pp. 217-218, "Airly" (1 short text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #58, p. 2, "The Bonnie House o' Airlie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 233, "The Bonnie Hoose o' Airlie" (9 texts, 5 tunes) {A and E=Bronson's #4 and #10, C=#9, D=#5}
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #28, pp. 162-163, "Bonnie Hoose o' Airlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 65, "Airlie House" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 266-269, "The Bonnie House of Airlie" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 191-192, "The Bonnie House of Airlie" (1 fragment, "The Sacking of Arlee")
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 80, "Prince Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 296-299, "The Bonnie House o' Airlie" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 20, "The Bonnie House o' Airlie" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 37, "Lady Ogalbie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 470, "The Bonnie House o' Airlie" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 15, "The Bonnie House o' Airlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 70-71, "The Bonny House o' Arlie" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #16}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 537-538, "The Bonnie House of Airlie" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 135, "The Bonnie House o Airlie" (1 text)
DT 199, BONAIRLI*
ADDITIONAL: R. H. Cromek, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, (London, 1810), pp. 226-228, "Young Airlie"
Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 129-131, "Tne Bonnie House o' Airlie" (1 text, 3 tunes) {#3=Bronson's #12}
Roud #794
RECORDINGS:
John MacDonald, "The Bonnie Hoose O' Airlie" (on Voice17)
Belle Stewart, "The Bonny Hoose o' Airlie" (on FSBBAL2) (on SCStewartsBlair01)
Lucy Stewart, "The Bonnie Hoose o' Airlie" (on LStewart1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.15(264), "The Bonnie House o' Airly" ("It fell on a day, a bonny summer day"), R. McIntosh (Glasgow), 1849-1859; also Firth b.26(179), "The Bonnie House o' Airly"
Murray, Mu23-y1:027, "The Bonnie House o' Airly," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Young Airly" (subject and tune)
cf. "Wae's Me For Prince Charlie" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Bonnie Den o' Airlie (broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(130b), "Bonnie Den o' Airlie" ("It fell upon a day, on a bonnie simmer's day"), Poet's Box (Dundee), n.d, with no tune indicated but clearly this is meant)
NOTES [809 words]: This song seems to have originated in the period when Scotland was in open rebellion against Charles I over the issue of religion -- Charles had tried to impose an Episcopal prayer book on Scotland; that Presbyterian nation reacted with the Covenant, a defiant rejection of Charles's religious schemes. (For this see, e.g. Mitchison, p. 206ffff.)
Although almost all of Scotland accepted the Covenant, a religious agreement was not a government. The various factions proposed various ways to govern their nation. The two key factions were those headed by Montrose (who still stood by the monarchy, and who would by his military genius later become its chief prop) and Argyle (who was anti-royalist and out for his own profit).
On June 12, 1640, as Charles I was trying to attack Scotland but being delayed by his finances and the increasing unrest of his English subjects, Argyle was empowered by the Scottish parliament (then meeting for the first time without a royal representative) to deal with certain lords as enemies of the Church. One of those under suspicion was the Earl of Airlie (then away in England, apparently to avoid signing the Covenant).
Montrose had taken the lands of Airlie from the Earl's son Lord Ogilvie, but Argyle felt the urge to deal with the house more strenuously.
The earliest copies of the ballad refer to Airlie being present with "King Charlie" (Charles I, reigned 1625-1649). In later versions, "King Charlie" became "(Bonnie) Prince Charlie," a confusion perhaps encouraged by the fact that the Earl of Airlie of 1745 was a follower of Charlie.
Another possibility, mentioned by Cowan on p. 45, is that although the ballad "is usually thought to refer to Argyll'e sacking of Airlie in 1640... it may have originated in an earlier Campbell invasion of the Braes of Angus in 1591." Other than citing an article of his own, however, he gives no evidence for this, and the description above is not enough to identify the incident in the standard histories. There is a logic to the claim, since this was a period of significant conflict between James VI (who had only recently taken power in his own hands) and the Kirk over the relative responsibilities of each (Magnusson, pp. 388-390), but conflicts of that sort were so common as to prove nothing.
Cowan, p. 46, notes that the Argyle of 1640 was a prim presbyterian who surely would not have asked for a kiss; he suggests that this insertion was symbolic: Just as Argyle had plundered and ravaged the lands of Airlie (supposedly causing seven thousand pounds of damage), he was metaphorically ravising his wife as well.
The "B" text in Barry et al is even more confused, it dates itself to the days of "the wars of Roses white and red And in the days of Prince Charlie" -- which is, of course, impossible, since the Wars of the Roses took place two and a half centuries before the Jacobite rebellions, and a century and a half before Airlie's first commission. Nor were any of the royal pretenders of the period named Charles. (Indeed, until the Stuart succession, there was never a member of the English royal family named Charles; it was, after all, a French name!) The context of the version suits the Forty-Five. - RBW
Among the parodies is NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(130b), "Bonnie Den o' Airlie," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890.
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 76 is one of two texts Hogg has entitled "Young Airly." The other is not the Child ballad, though it shares its subject and tune.
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2: "... from the verses in Cromek [i.e. Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song], and a street ballad collated." Cromek's text is one of the ones cited by Child as a source for his version C.
"Cromek died [1812] shortly after the issue [1810] of Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, which was mostly written by Cunningham, though palmed upon Cromek as recovered antiques." (source: J. Ross, The Book of Scottish Poems: Ancient and Modern, (Edinburgh, Edinburgh Publishing Co, 1878), "Allan Cunningham 1784-1842," p. 738; other sources agree)
A side note illustrating a Cunningham forgery: in 1810 Cromek printed "O Who Is This Under My Window?", a version supposedly as sung by Martha Crosbie and a probable source for Robert Burns's "A Red, Red Rose." In 1834, Cunningham, under his own name, printed "Who is this under my window?", a version supposedly sung by Martha Crosbie and a probable source for Robert Burns's "A Red, Red Rose." The difference is that in 1810, Cromek was printing one of Cunningham's "finds" as enhanced for Cromek's benefit, while 24 years later -- and 20 years after Cromek's death -- Cunningham's scholarly objective was to print the song as he really had it from the oral tradition. See Cromek pp. 178-179, "O Who Is This Under My Window?" and Cunningham pp. 419-420, (“Who is this under my window?"). - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: C199

Bonnie House o' Airly

See The Bonnie House o Airlie [Child 199] (File: C199)

Bonnie James Campbell

See Bonnie George Campbell [Child 210] (File: C210)

Bonnie Jean

DESCRIPTION: Bonnie Jean meets Robie, "the flower and pride of a' the glen." He courts her and asks her to "leave the mammie's cot And learn to tent the farms wi' me?" "At length she blush'd a sweet consent And love was aye between them twa"
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: before 1887 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1627))
KEYWORDS: seduction farming
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1335, "There Was a Maid and She Was Fair" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #414, pp. 551-553, "A Ballad" [Bonnie Jean] (1 text, from 1793)
Roud #7147
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1627), "Robie and Jeanie" ("There was a lass, and she was fair"), G. Walker, jun. (Durham), 1834-1886; also Harding B 15(264a), "Ronnie and Jeanie"
NOTES [77 words]: Greig/Duncan7: "Burns's song was written for a traditional tune which has been listed as "untraced"; it seems that this fragment, both words and music, is a version of his source." Burns's text is the source of the description. The Bodleian broadside texts are almost identical to Burns's text.
Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (New Lanark,2005): "Jean McMurdo, daughter of John McMurdo of Drumlanrig ... is said to have been the heroine of this ballad song." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71335

Bonnie Jean O' Aberdeen, She Lang'd for a Baby

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, there was a farmer's daughter And she longed for a baby And she rolled up a big grey hen And she put it into the cradle ... she rocked the cradle, saying: If it wasn't for your big long neb I would gie ye a draw of the diddy, oh"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Mother Goose's Melody, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: bird baby humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1419, "Bonnie Jean o' Aberdeen, She Lang'd for a Baby" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 183, "A girl in the army" (4 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 25, ("There was a miller's dochter")
Roud #2293
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "The Farmer's Daughter" (on IREButcher01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rose Tree in Full Bearing" (tune, notes to IREButcher01)
NOTES [143 words]: The opening lines of the four Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes texts are "A girl in the army She longed for a baby,' "There was a miller's dochter, She couldna want a babie,' "The little lady lairdie She longt for a baby" and "There once was a lady Who longed for a babby oh."
"Neb" can be either beak or nose. "Diddy" is teat. (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976).
See Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, (Cardiff,2001), #28, pp. 227-228, "As I Bung Through the Dodder's Wood" [Scotto-Romani/Tinklers' Cant from MacColl and Seeger, Till Doomsday in the Afternoon (1986)].
In Chambers's text (also reported in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes as Chambers 1842) the girl takes her father's greyhound and complains about its "lang beard." Maybe a grey goat is meant. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: OOx2183

Bonnie Jean o' Bethelnie

See Glenlogie, or, Jean o Bethelnie [Child 238] (File: C238)

Bonnie Jean o' Foggieloan

DESCRIPTION: "Bonnie Jean o' Foggieloan ... As sure as a gun, she'll get a son"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex pregnancy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1420, "Bonnie Jean o' Foggieloan" (1 fragment)
Roud #7264
NOTES [39 words]: NOTES:
The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan7 fragment.
The fragment follows "Bonnie Jean O' Aberdeen, She Lang'd for a Babye" in Greig/Duncan7. It shares Jean's wish with that song but is certainly not the same song. - BS.
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71420

Bonnie Jeanie Cameron

DESCRIPTION: "You'll a' hae heard tell o' bonnie Jeanie Cameron, how she fell sick... And a' that they could recommend her Was ae blythe blink o' the Young Pretender." She sends a letter to Prince Charlie, who arrives soon after and takes her in his arms.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love disease Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 221-223, "Bonnie Jeanie Cameron" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13082
NOTES [290 words]: Ford has several stories allegedly about the later life of this young woman, who supposedly died in 1773. I checked both a biography of Bonnie Prince Charlie and assorted histories of the Forty-Five, however, and found no mention of a liaison, even brief, with a woman of this name.
Abby Sale pointed me to the apparent solution to the question. According to a web commentary on Eyre-Todd's Ancient Scots Ballads, based on Ray's Complete History of the Rebellion, Cameron had been born as early as 1695, and had been in trouble with men by the time she was in her mid-teens. Not even putting her in a nunnery could apparently control her passions, and after the death of her father and brother, managed to take a spot as "tutor" to her nephew, who reportedly was of limited intellectual capacity.
At the time of the 1745 rebellion, Ray reports, Cameron raised the Camerons of Glendessary, bringing some 250 men to Bonnie Prince Charlie, who under the circumstances naturally treated her to a large dose of his considerable charm. Considering that Jean Cameron was rather older than Charlie's mother, one doubts any romantic connection. But singers might easily ignore that.
The Eyre-Todd report continues through much contradictory data, finally going so far as to speculate that perhaps there were *two* Jean Camerons. But the real answer appears to be that it's all a Hanoverian smear: ""the Hanoverians tried to make propaganda of 'affairs' with mistresses in Scotland, especially poor, innocent Jenny Cameron, who did nothing more than bring a group of Cameron men to join his army, but was piloried by pamphleteers and cartoonists, and Flora MacDonald" (Hugh Douglas, Bonnie Prince Charlie in Love, Alan Sutton, 1995, p. 4). - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: FVS221

Bonnie Jeanie Shaw

DESCRIPTION: "I'm far awa frae Scotland, Nae lovin' voice is near, I'm far frae my ain folk... I'll wander hame to Scotland An' my bonnie Jeaanie Shaw." The singer misses the sights, sounds, people of home, and repeatedly promises to go back
AUTHOR: Words: Alexander Melville
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: home emigration return
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1326, "Jeannie Shaw" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 344, "Bonnie Jeanie Shaw" (1 text)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 100-101, 153, "Bonnie Jeannie Shaw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3945
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(24a), "Bonnie Jeanie Shaw," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
File: Ord344

Bonnie Jeannie Deans

DESCRIPTION: The singer is far from Scotland but thinks of "Auld Reekie" [Edinburgh] "home of Scotland's bonniest lass, my bonnie Jeannie Deans." She wins a pardon for her sister from the Queen. "Sir Walter Scott's immortalized you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan4); c.1890 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(119a))
KEYWORDS: pardon Scotland royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 715, "Bonnie Jeannie Deans" (1 text)
Roud #6129
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(119a), "Bonnie Jeanie Deans," Barr (Glasgow), c.1890; also L.C.Fol.70(118b), "Jeanie Deans"
NOTES [85 words]: From the NLScotland commentary to broadside L.C.Fol.70(119a): "Jeanie Deans, 'the cow-feeder's daughter', was the heroine of Walter Scott's 'The Heart of Midlothan' (1818). This song outlines her journey on foot to London to obtain a pardon for her sister, Effie." From the NLScotland commentary to broadside L.C.Fol.70(118b): "The character of Jeanie Deans was loosely based on Helen Walker [d.1791] who did indeed walk to London to obtain a pardon for her sister who was imprisoned for murdering her child." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4715

Bonnie Jeannie o Bethelnie

See Glenlogie, or, Jean o Bethelnie [Child 238] (File: C238)

Bonnie John Seton [Child 198]

DESCRIPTION: Forces from north and south prepare for battle at the Brig o' Dee. John Seton, with great foresight, makes his will. He is killed in the battle, and the highlanders routed by cannon. The leaders of the enemy forces despoil Seton's body
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c, 1818 (Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads)
KEYWORDS: battle death nobility
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 18, 1639 - Montrose's attack on the Bridge of Dee
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 198, "Bonnie John Seton" (2 texts)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads pp. 171-172, "Major Middleton" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 535-536, "Bonnie John Seton" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 36, "Bonny John Seton" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 126-127, "Bonny John Seton" (1 text)
Roud #3908
NOTES [85 words]: Were it not for the mention of Montrose in the final stanzas of Child's "B" version, it would be almost impossible to connect this with historical events. As it is, the ballad focuses entirely on Seton; the setting of the battle is entirely ignored. It relates to a minor incident of the English Civil Wars, but this is rather trivial in context. Child provides such additional background as is available. The notes on pp. 243-244 of Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads are also very full and quite useful. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: C198

Bonnie Johnnie Campbell

See Bonnie George Campbell [Child 210] (File: C210)

Bonnie Johnnie Lowrie

See Johnny Lowre (File: FVS193)

Bonnie Kellswater

See The Lover's Curse (Kellswater) (File: HHH442)

Bonnie Lad That Handles the Plough, The

See The Laddie That Handles the Ploo (File: Ord081)

Bonnie Laddie, But Far Awa, A

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that her parents have "ta'en frae me my dearest dear He's over the seas and far far awa'." They'll give her no money unless she gives him up. She will work for money and go to join him, and tell him what she has gone through.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad father mother money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1113, "A Bonnie Laddie, But Far Awa" (4 texts plus a single verse on p. 546, 3 tunes)
Roud #6848
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lurgan Town (I)" (theme: parents drive lover away)
cf. "Richard and I" (theme: parents drive lover away)
cf. "Ye Guardian Powers (Nancy Wilson)" (theme: parents drive lover away)
cf. "The Flowers of Edinburgh" (I) (theme: parents drive lover away)
cf. "As I Was Walking Down in Yon Valley" (theme: parents drive lover away)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Laddie that Is Far Awa
File: GrD61113

Bonnie Laddie, Hieland Laddie

See Hieland Laddie (File: Doe050)

Bonnie Lass Among the Heather

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a shepherdess and offers to buy her sheep if she would live with him: he has cattle and lives on "level ground," not in the cramped highlands among the heather. She tells him to keep his land and money; she is happy at home with her parents.
AUTHOR: Paddy Tunney
EARLIEST DATE: 1991 (Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection dialog sheep
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 30-31, "Bonnie Lass Among the Heather" (1 text)
Roud #2894
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Queen Among the Heather" (theme) and references there
cf. "The Fair o' Balnaminna (The Lass Among the Heather)" (theme)
NOTES [175 words]: Although Tunney's title "Bonnie Lass Among the Heather" suggests "Queen Among the Heather," the two share only a few lines and the story outcome is different. In answer to a query, John Moulden clarified the relationship between McWilliams's "The Lass Among the Heather" [see John Moulden's book Songs of Hugh McWilliams : schoolmaster, 1831]/"The Fair O' Balnaminna"/"The Blooming Heather" versions and Tunney's song. In a note posted to IRTRAD-L on September 21, 1996 he wrote "almost certainly, all this except [four lines] have been written by Paddy Tunney." John Moulden is researcher at the "Centre for the Study of Human Settlement and Historical Change" at National University of Ireland, Galway whose subject is "the printed ballad in Ireland."
To compare Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder with the "original" see
John Moulden, Songs of Hugh McWilliams, Schoolmaster, 1831 (Portrush,1993), p. 15, "The Lass among the Heather"
Gavin Greig, Folk-Song in Buchan and Folk-Song of the North-East (Hatboro,1963), XLIV, p.1, "The Fair o' Balnaminna" - BS
File: TST030

Bonnie Lass Come Owre the Burn

DESCRIPTION: "O bonnie lass, come owre the burn, I'm the lad'll dae your turn." He tells the bonnie lass, he's the one to help her out. He asks why she is crying; he tells her he is the father of her child, she should come to him
AUTHOR: Words: James Honeyman (?) (source: Porter-Gower-Robertson)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Carpenter MSS)
KEYWORDS: nonballad courting rescue lover bastard father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #36, pp. 177-178, "Bonnie Lass Come Owre the Burn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3359
NOTES [40 words]: Porter-Gower-Robertson note that this "probably derives from the words written by the Rev. James Honeyman of Kinnef, Kincardineshire, who died about 1779."
For my nickel, that is not enough for "author" but you can decide [for yourself]. - DGE
Last updated in version 5.3
File: RPG036

Bonnie Lass o Hietoun Hie, The

See The Wylie Wife of the Hie Toun Hie [Child 290] (File: C290)

Bonnie Lass o' Benachie, The

DESCRIPTION: William Graham was secretly married to Lady Jean. Her father has him sent to war. Her father intercepts his letter and tells her that William is slain. She goes to Germany to find his grave. She finds him alive. Her father accepts the marriage.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1808 ("a chapbook by J. and M. Robertson, Glasgow," according to Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love marriage separation reunion lie father soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #8, p. 1, "The Bonnie Lass o' Benachie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1005, "The Bonnie Lass o' Benachie" (2 texts plus 2 fragments on pp. 612-613, 3 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 440-441, "The Lass o' Bennochie" (third version) (1 text)
Roud #6737
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany" [Laws N7] (plot) and references there
cf. "The Lass o' Bennochie" (plot) and references there
cf. "The Gallant Grahams" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5 quoting an 1808 chapbook)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lass o' Benachie
NOTES [80 words]: Greig/Duncan5 notes that Greig's version is a composite.
Greig: "Tradition says that 'The Bonnie Lass o' Benachie' was a Miss Erskine, heiress of Pittodrie, an estate close to Benachie in the parish of Chapel of Garioch. She was born about 1747 and married to her soldier lover about 1770. There is another and better known ballad ["Locks and Bolts"] which is said to refer to the same love episode." Greig then goes on to note "certain chronological difficulties to be faced." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1005

Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie, The

See Bonnie Lass of Fyvie, The (Pretty Peggy-O) (File: SBoA020)

Bonnie Lass of Fyvie, The (Pretty Peggy-O)

DESCRIPTION: A troop of soldiers comes to town. The (captain) falls in love with (Peggy). He asks her to marry; she says she will never marry a soldier. When ordered to leave, he asks more time to persuade her. It is denied. He departs, and dies for love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.16(125))
LONG DESCRIPTION: A troop of soldiers comes to town. The (captain) falls in love with (Peggy). He asks her to marry; she says she will never marry a soldier. When ordered to leave, he asks more time to persuade her. It is denied. He departs, and dies for love (or alternatively, he asks what her mother would think when she hears the guineas clink)
KEYWORDS: love courting soldier hardheartedness rejection death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 121-123, "Bonnie Barbara, O" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 84, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "The Bonnie Lass O' Fyvie" (23 texts, 19 tunes)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #15, pp. 1-2, "The Bonnie Lass O' Fyvie" (2 texts)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 304-305, "The Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie" (1 text)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #63, p. 227-228, "Bonnie Barbara O (The Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 414, "Sweet Peggy O" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 169, "Pretty Peggy O" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 381, "Pretty Peggy" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 381, "Pretty Peggy" (2 tune plus text excerpts)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 49, pp. 165-166, "Pretty Peggy-O" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 75, "Pretty Fanny O" (1 text, 1 tune, so worn down that Browne thinks it a comic song)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 95, "Pretty Peggy O" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #32, "Pretty Peggy O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 170-171, "Pretty Peggy O" (1 text, 1 tune, with the verses badly disordered)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 62-63, "The Bonnie Lass of Fyvie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 20-22, "The Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 282, "Peggy-O" (1 text)
DT, FYVIOLAS* FENARLAS* FYVIOLS2 (FYVINOTE -- background notes)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 276-277, "The Bonny Lass o' Fyvie" (1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Pretty Peggy and Pray Pa-Pa, illustrated by Rosina Emmet, illustrated chapbook by Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, 1980, "Pretty Peggy" (1 text, presented both continually and in an illustrated version, 1 tune)
Roud #545
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Maid of Fife-E-O" (on IRClancyMakem02)
Jimmy McBeath, "Bonnie Lass O' Fyvie" (on Voice01)
John Strachan, "The Bonnie Lass O' Fyvie" (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.16(125), "Pretty Peggy of Derby" ("There was a regiment of Irish dragoous [sic]"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 15(244a), "Pretty Peggy of Derby"; Harding B 25(1565), "Pretty Peggy of Derry"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Noble Duke O'Gordon" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Pretty Peggy of Derby
Lowlands o' Fyvie
NOTES [100 words]: Christie: "[The informant] was of the opinion that the Ballad was composed after a company of Dragoons had escorted the O'Connors to Fort-George, who had been engaged in the Irish rebellion in 1798. If so, this would account for the 'Irish Dragoons' in the Ballad. The Dragoons may have been at 'Lewes of Fyvie' on their way to, or from Fort-George."
Christie's captain "was ca'd Captain Ward." He notes, "In one of the copies of the Ballad sent to the Editor, the hero is called 'Captain Ned,' in another 'Captain Ade.' He has given the name 'Captain Ward,' from the copy referred to in the note." - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: SBoA020

Bonnie Lass Owre the Street

DESCRIPTION: The singer says: "bonnie lassie o'er the street" [is she a street-walker?], don't weep; I'm your baby's father. He asks what "sorra ails ye?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex nonballad baby questions
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1400, "Bonnie Lass Owre the Street" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Roud #7254
File: GrD71400

Bonnie Lassie O

See The Shearin's Nae for You (File: RcShNaYo)

Bonnie Lassie, Braw Lassie, Faur Are Ye Gaun?

DESCRIPTION: A man meets a maid "gaun to the greenwoods for to milk kye." He says he would lay with her if the grass weren't wet. She says the sun will soon dry it. "He laid her doon ...." She becomes pregnant.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex pregnancy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1317, "Bonnie Lassie, Braw Lassie, Faur Are Ye Gaun?" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #7209
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonnie May
File: GrD71317

Bonnie Lassie, Come to the North Hielands

See The North Highlands (File: Ord087)

Bonnie Lassie's Answer, The

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell to Glasgow city, likewise to Lanarkshire, Farewell, my dearest parents, I'll never see you more." Poverty forces the young man to sea. The girl wishes he would stay, or that she could come along, "the bonnie lassie's answer was aye no, no."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.26(493))
KEYWORDS: poverty separation love rejection sailor war navy cross-dressing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 68-70, "The Bonnie Lassie's Answer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #53, pp. 2-3, "The Bonnie Lassie's Answer" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 98, "The Bonnie Lassie's Answer" (8 texts, 8 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 73-75, "The Bonnie Lassie's Answer Was Aye Oh No" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3326
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(493), "The Bonny Lassie's Answer ("Farewell to Glasgow, Likewise to Lanarkshire"), G. Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Harding B 26(70), 2806 c.15(269), "The Bonny Lassie's Answer"; Harding B 11(2149), 2806 c.14(48), 2806 c.14(52), "The Bonnie Lassie's Answer"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.73(127b), "The Bonnie Lassies' Answer," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c.1870; also RB.m.168(063), L.C.Fol.178.A.2(087), L.C.Fol.178.A.2(078), "The Bonnie Lasses' (sic.) Answer," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c. 1880; also L.C.Fol.178.A.2(087), "The Bonnie Lassie's Answers," unknown, n.d. (part of a multi-song sheet also containing a "Kangaroo" song)
File: FVS070

Bonnie Lassie's Pleydie's Awa', The

See The Wind Blew the Bonnie Lass's Plaidie Awa' (File: RcWBTBLP)

Bonnie Light Horseman, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on listeners to hear of a "maid in distress" who wanders forlorn; "She relies upon George for the loss of her lover." She tells how he went to fight Napoleon and was slain. (She wishes she could join her lover at his grave, and die there)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1107))
KEYWORDS: soldier death separation burial bird Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1760-1820 - reign of George III (the George of the song)
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar) US(MA)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #41, "TBonny Light Horseman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan8 1584, "Broken Hearted I Wander" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H122a, pp. 88-89, "The Bonny Light Horseman" (1 text, 1 tune, with many variations in the source texts)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 181, "The Bonny Light Horseman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 69, "Bonny Light Horseman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 28, "The Bonny Light Horseman" (1 text)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 92-93, "The Bonnie Light Horseman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 191-192, "The Bonny Light Horseman" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #47, "Broken-hearted I wandered" (1 fragment, of the chorus)
DT, BONLGHT* BONLGHT3 BONLGHT4*
Roud #1185
RECORDINGS:
Martin Howley, "The Young Horseman" (on Voice08)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1107), "The Light Horseman Slain in the Wars ," J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 25(260), Harding B 28(165), Firth c.14(182), Firth c.14(183), Firth c.26(266), "[The] Bonny Light-Horseman"; Harding B 18(55), Harding B 16(34a), 2806 c.16(249), Johnson Ballads 1914, Harding B 20(174), "[The] Bonny Light Horseman"; Firth b.25(230), Harding B 11(413), Harding B 15(29b), "Bonny Light Horseman Slain in the Wars"; Harding B 11(3413), "Bonny Light Horseman Slain in the Wars!"; Harding B 11(1106), "The Light Horseman Slain in the Wars" or "The Lamenting Maiden"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonny Light Horseman" (adult version, per Greig/Duncan8)
NOTES [188 words]: Napoleon was famous for his handling of artillery (he was the one who gave a crowd the "whiff of grapeshot"), so it is no surprise to find a reference to "Boney" "[fixing] his cannon the victory to gain." - RBW
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "The Bonny Light Horseman" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) Hall, notes to Voice08: "'The Young Horseman' is the story of a British soldier who dies in the Egyptian campaign, 1798-1802"; "I once loved a soldier ... To the dark plains of Egypt he was forced for to go.... It was brave Napoleon ... slew brave MacDonald coming over from Spain." - BS
Though, to be nitpicky, Napoleon didn't himself fight the British in any significant way in Egypt. After the British beat the French fleet in Aboukir Bay, Napoleon fooled around a little in Palestone, then left the area, leaving his army in Egypt to be defeated and captured. - RBW
Probably should not be split. See Henry pp. 88-89 to help decide. - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: HHH122a

Bonnie Lizie Lindsay

See Lizie Lindsay [Child 226] (File: C226)

Bonnie Lyndale

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls "bonnie Lyndale, My dear and early home." He recalls the glens, peaceful homes, the robin's and milkmaid's songs. He thinks of the plowman: since leaving "I've plowed the sea. I've sailed with sailors ... Far from bonnie Lyndale"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: home lyric nonballad emigration
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 115-116, "Bonnie Lyndale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12460
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" and references there
File: Dib115

Bonnie Mally Stewart

DESCRIPTION: "The cold winter is past and gone, And now comes on the spring, And I am one of the King's Life-Guards, And must go fight for my king, my dear, And must go fight...." She offers to go with him. When he leaves, she follows; (when they meet, he denies her)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: soldier separation reunion betrayal cross-dressing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 174-175, "Bonnie Mally Stewart" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 97, "Molly Stuart" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5789
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "It Was A' for Our Rightfu' King" (lyrics)
cf. "I Once Loved a Boy" (tune)
NOTES [96 words]: This song ends with a verse also associated with Burns's "It Was A' for Our Rightfu' King," and follows the same metrical pattern. Ford thinks it the source of the Burns song, and this is certainly possible -- except that this song, which also looks composed, is not attested until the nineteenth century, and in broadsides. - RBW
The verse shared with "It Was A' For Our Rightfu' King" -- and the only lines shared -- is "He turn'd him right and round about, Upon the Irish shore; And gae his bridle reins a shake, With adieu for evermore, my dear, And adieu for evermore." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: FVS174

Bonnie Mason Laddie (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Simmer's gaun awa'... And the bonnie mason laddies They'll be comin' home... And the bonnie mason laddie He will marry me." The singer describes all the men she will not have (sailor, ploughman, blacksmith, weaver), "But I will hae the mason."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: love courting work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #40, pp. 1-2, "The Bonnie Mason Laddie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 464, "The Bonnie Mason Laddie" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 108, "The Bonnie Mason Laddie" (1 text)
Roud #5540
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me)" (theme: professional comparison) and references there
cf. "The Masons" (subject: praise of masons)
cf. "The Mason Laddie" (subject: praise of masons)
NOTES [31 words]: This is so like "Soldier Boy for Me" in lyrics and theme that at first I lumped them. I still suspect cross-fertilization, but this is sufficiently close-knit that I've split it off. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord108

Bonnie Mason Laddie (II), The

See The Mason Laddie (File: GrD3465)

Bonnie Mill-Dams o' Binnorie, The

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Bonnie Moorhen, The

DESCRIPTION: "My bonny moorhen's gane over the main" and won't return before summer. Her feathers are red, white, green and gray, "but nane o' them blue" "Ronald and Donald are out on the fen, To break the wing o' my bonny moorhen"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1819 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1)
KEYWORDS: Jacobites bird exile colors
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 77, "The Bonny Moorhen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 17, "(The bonnie moor-hen)" (1 short text)
Roud #2944
NOTES [289 words]: With only the internal evidence of the text, Hogg says "the song is only a fragment."
Hogg comments that "the allegory is ... perfectly inapplicable, but there can be no doubt who is meant [James III and VIII]. Had it been a moorcock the likeness would have been much better. The colours are supposed to allude to those in tartans of the Clan-Stuart." - BS
This is one of those conundrums. The lyrics by the Montgomeries seem to be a simple rhyme about a bird. But sources going back to Hogg's Jacobite Relics have a fuller text in which the singers give a toast to the bonnie moorhen, who is in exile, and who wears red, green, white, and grey but not blue feathers (colors associated with the Stuart tartan).
It seems clear that these two forms are related, though which is earlier I cannot tell.
Then there is the version that provides most of Roud's texts, often starting "You brave lads of Wardhill/Wardale I pray tend an ear." This exists in several Bodleian broadsides [Harding B 25(261), ""Bonny moor hen," Stephenson (Gateshead), 1821-1850; also Harding B 11(414), Firth c, 19(39)]. This is an even fuller text, mostly about hunting, though there might be some Jacobite elements in there somewhere. My feeling is that that should be split off, though Roud lumps them.
Incidentally, it might be noted that Bonnie Prince Charlie, handsome though he was, would not have met the moorhen standard for attractiveness. According to Olivia Judson's tongue-in-cheek book on evolutionary biology, Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation (Henry Holt, 2002), p. 126, the ideal male moorhen is fat (because the males sit on the eggs, and a fat bird can sit on them longer) and small (because a small bird can get fat more easily). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: RcMyBoMu

Bonnie Muirhen (I), The

See The Bonnie Moorhen (File: RcMyBoMu)

Bonnie Muirhen (II), The

See The Muir Hen (File: KinBB18)

Bonnie Parks o' Kilty, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the south side o Perth there lived a fair maid, She wandered late and ear' and never was afraid." A young man stops her and lays her down. Her father comes out and demands that the lad marry her. He agrees, and she becomes lady o' Kilty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: love courting seduction sex marriage nobility
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 113-114, "The Bonnie Parks o' Kilty" (1 text)
Roud #3953
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broom of Cowdenknows" [Child 217] (plot)
cf. "The Wylie Wife of the Hie Toun Hie" [Child 290] (plot)
cf. "The Dainty Doonby" (plot)
File: Ord113

Bonnie Redesdale Lassie, The

DESCRIPTION: "The breath of spring is gratefu', As mild it sweeps alang... Yet the bonnie Redesdale lassie Is sweeter still to me." The singer praises each season, but loves the girl best; he would not trade her for kingdoms
AUTHOR: Words: Robert White
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 37-38, "The Bonnie Redesdale Lassie" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR037 (Partial)
Roud #3057
File: StoR037

Bonnie Sandy's Red and White

DESCRIPTION: "Bonnie Sandy's red and white And he's a' my heart's delight." Sandy did "vow and swear" to make the singer "his dear" but "cruel fate" has interfered. She still hopes to "get him for my portion"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting promise nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1105, "Bonnie Sandy's Red and White" (1 text)
Roud #6835
File: GrD61105

Bonnie Ship the Diamond, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Diamond is a ship my lads, For the Davis Straight she's bound." The ship goes whaling near Greenland, "Where the sun it never sets." The singer toasts various ships, and promises to return home. When the ship returns, sailors and girls go on sprees
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: ship sea whaler return sex
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #85, p. 2, "The Diamond Ship"; #87, p. 2 (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan1 11, "The Diamond Ship" (10 texts, 8 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 312-313, "The Bonnie Ship the Diamond" (1 text)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 47-48, "(The Bold and Saucy China)" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 319-320, "The Diamond" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 94, "The Bonny Ship the Diamond" (1 text)
DT, BDIAMOND*
Roud #2172
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Bonny Ship the Diamond" (on Lloyd9)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Pretty Ship the Diamond
NOTES [258 words]: According to Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, The Bonnie Ship the Diamond sailed from Aberdeen -- and, yes, he considers the ship's name to be The Bonnie Ship the Diamond, not just The Diamond. He does not, however, cite a source.
The internal date for this song seems to be the first quarter of the nineteenth century, based on its mention of the Resolution. According to Lincoln P. Paine's Ships of the World, p. 430, the ship sailed from North Whitby. Her most famous captains were William Scoresby Senior, who commanded from her fitting out in 1803 until 1810, and his son William Junior, captain from 1810 to 1813.
In 1806, Scoresby took Resolution to 82 degrees 30 minutes north latitude (see Pierre Berton, The Arctic Grail, p. 97) -- the unofficial record for "farthest north" at the time, not to be broken for twenty years, and not to be broken by a ship for many years after that. The Scoresbys became famous, and some thought the younger one (whose discoveries set the Admiralty to thinking about the Northwest Passage, since they reported that the polar ice was retreating) should have led John Ross's northward expedition (for background on these, see the notes to "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream)" [Laws K9]). The navy wouldn't trust a civilian whaler, however.
The Resolution was sold in 1813 (Scoresby the Younger would eventually turn to the priesthood), but Paine reports that she continued to work out of Whitby until 1829. She was sold to Peterhead interests in 1829; Paine does not record her final fate. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: FSWB094

Bonnie Susie Cleland

See Lady Maisry [Child 65] (File: C065)

Bonnie Tyneside

DESCRIPTION: "After long years of absence... In far distant countries" the singer is returning to Tyneside. He recalls his youth and friends no longer there to greet him. His lover has waited for him and they'll marry and build a new home.
AUTHOR: George Chapp (source: McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Willie Scott SA1986.135)
KEYWORDS: love marriage rambling return reunion separation travel England lover
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 110-111, 154, "Bonnie Tyneside" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Willie Scott, "Bonnie Tyneside," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1986.135,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 14 September 2013 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/84912/1
Roud #21748
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Inishcara" (theme)
File: McSc110

Bonnie Udny

DESCRIPTION: "O Udny, bonnie Udny, you shine whaur you stand." The singer praises the land and its people; he recalls walking the land and going out to meet his beloved. "Wherever I wander, I'll still think on you"; he hopes to return to the place and its people
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: home travel separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #32, pp. 1-2, "Bonnie Udny"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 21, ("And the lang weary walks o' Udny") (2 texts plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1089, "Bonnie Udny" (19 texts, 12 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 341-342, "Bonnie Udny" (1 text)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #69, p. 239-240, "Bonnie Udny" (1 text, 1 tune)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 135-136, 156, "Bonny Udny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3450
RECORDINGS:
Daisy Chapman, "Bonny Udny" (on SCDChapman01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shrowsbury For Me" (some lines) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lang Walks o' Wudny
All the Lads in Bonnie Wodny
NOTES [69 words]: "Bonnie Udny" shares some of the distinctive lines of "Shrowsbury For Me." It includes an "O'er hills and high mountains" variant close to "Bonnie Udny" and "The Wandering Maiden." It shares the "roving young blades" type of verse (which is not the same as the blades verse of "The Poor Stranger"); that verse is virtually the Shrowsbury text (in this case it ends "Of all gates in Scotland, Bonnie Udny for me"). - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Ord341

Bonnie Wee Lass of the Glen, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes "up to a neat little cottage" and is amazed at the beauty of the girl living here. When he courts her, she accuses him of flattery and deception, and says she is too young to marry. He wishes her happiness and hopes to change her mind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H14a, pp. 356-357, "The Bonnie Wee Lass of the Glen" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 8, "The Bonny Wee Lass o' the Glen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6879
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid with the Bonny Brown Hair" (tune)
File: HHH014a

Bonnie Wee Lassie Fae Gouroch, The

DESCRIPTION: Piper MacFarlane will wed the daughter of a grocer in Gouroch. He's "popped her the question and bought her the ring." Everywhere the couple go she causes a stir among men. In "a first-class hotel" they show they are not city folk.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (recording, Belle Stewart)
KEYWORDS: courting fight humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
Roud #5212
RECORDINGS:
Belle Stewart, "The Bonnie Wee Lassie Fae Gouroch" (on Voice01)
NOTES [77 words]: Gourock is about 25 miles west of Glasgow at the mouth of the Clyde. - BS
According to Steve Byrne, this is a version of Harry Lauder's "Piper MacFarlane"; see Chris Wright, "'Forgotten Broadsides and the Song Tradition of the Scots Travellers" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition, Ashgate, 2014, p. 99 and note 50. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: RcTBWLFG

Bonnie Wee Lassie That Never Said No, The

See The Bonnie Wee Lassie Who Never Said No (File: DTnevsay)

Bonnie Wee Lassie Who Never Said No, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer invites a lass to drink with him; she accepts; she is the "bonnie wee lassie who never said no." She says to take the night's rent from her pocket, but he'll owe half a crown for laying her down. He reaches in, finds 5 pounds, and takes off with it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1856 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(985))
KEYWORDS: sex abandonment money drink landlord whore
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #52, pp. 209-210, "The Bonnie Wee Lassie Who Never Said No" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 30, pp. 72-74,117,168, "Bonnie Wee Lassie that Never Said No" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NEVSAYNO
Roud #2903
RECORDINGS:
Jeannie Robertson, "The Bonnie Wee Lassie Who Never Said No" (on FSB02, FSB2CD, Voice13)
BROADSIDES:
John Maguire, "Bonny Wee Lassie That Never Said No" (on IRJMaguire01)
Bodleian, Harding B 11(985), "The Bonny We [sic] Lassie That Never Said No" ("You lads of this nation, of high and low station"), W. Wright (Birmingham), 1842-1855
File: DTnevsay

Bonnie Wee Thing

DESCRIPTION: "Bonnie wee thing, cannie wee thing, Lovely wee thing, wert thou mine, I wad wear thee in my bosom, Lest my jewel I should tine." "Wistfully I look and languish In that bonny face of thime." She has such "wit and grace" that "To adore thee is my duty"
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1792 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: beauty love nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 265-270, "Bonnie Wee Thing" (1 text plus various related items)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #357, pp. 490-491, "The Bonnie Wee Thing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V628
NOTES [179 words]: Although Ford praises this for its lyric effectiveness, it is a rather pointless piece, and has little if any place in tradition.
According to both Ford and Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, pp. 100-101, this was written about a young woman named Deborah Duff Davies, who was said to be very small but very pretty.
How much Burns desired Davies is hard to know. The sarcastic part of me observes that she was female and under the age of forty, so obviously he must have been interested. She was above his station, however, and it seems clear that he had no physical relationship with her; they did exchange letters, according to Lindsay, but his were very artificial.
Ford retells at length a story from Cunningham about Davies's unfortunate relationship with a Captain Delaney, which had no result and caused her a fatal decline. On this point, Lindsay quotes Ferguson: "Any one who cares to believe Cunningham is free to do so." Which, I think, tells us how much we ought to do so.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RoBuBoWT

Bonnie Wee Tramping Lass, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer passed the carter's mill on a Saturday night and meets "a bonnie wee tramping lass", She explains her job "winding hanks of yarn." They discuss love and go home together. They marry happily and now have three children.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: love marriage sex children
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1917, "The Bonnie Wee Trampin' Lass" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #157, p. 2, "The Bonnie Wee Trampin' Lass" (1 text)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 80-81, 152, "The Bonnie Wee Trampin Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5129
RECORDINGS:
Willie Scott, "The Bonnie Wee Tramping Lass" (on Voice10)
NOTES [19 words]: Hall, notes to Voice10, describes this as an "innocent courtship" leading to a "fortunate and happy marriage." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: RcBWTrLa

Bonnie Woodha'

DESCRIPTION: The singer and his Annie must part; he is a soldier and has been called away. His regiment goes into battle and he is wounded. He says he would recover better if Annie were there. He regrets leaving the collier's trade. (He thinks of deserting)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: mining soldier separation injury desertion
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H476, p. 84-85, "Bonnie Woodha'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #82, p. 2, "Bonnie Woodha'" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 947, "Bonnie Woodha" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 310, "Sweet Calder Burn; or Bonnie Woodha'" (1 text)
Roud #3778
File: HHH476

Bonnie Woodhall

See Bonnie Woodha' (File: HHH476)

Bonnie Woods o' Hatton, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye comrades and companions... To my sad lamentation I pray ye give an ear." The singer courted a beautiful girl, but at last she bid him depart. Now he prepares to leave home, still remembering her in Hatton and hoping that she will regret her decision
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 185, "The Bonnie Woods o' Hatton" (1 text)
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, pp. 111-112, "Hatton Woods" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5531
RECORDINGS:
Cathie Stewart, "Hatton Woods" (on SCStewartsBlair01) [called "Hattan Woods" on the LP jacket but "Hatton Woods" on the lyrics sheet]
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(32), "Hatton Woods or the Bonnie Woods o' Hatton," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
Hattan Woods
File: Ord185

Bonny Anne

See The Sea Apprentice (File: HHH739)

Bonny at Morn

DESCRIPTION: "The sheep's in the meadows, The kye's in the corn, Thou's ower lang in thy bed, Bonny at morn." "Canny at night, Bonny at morn, Thou's ower lang in...." The parents complain of the children's laziness: "The lad winnot work And the lass winnot lairn."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: work mother children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 66-67, "Bonny at Morn" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BONMORN BONYMORN
Roud #3064
File: Stor066

Bonny Baby Livingston [Child 222]

DESCRIPTION: Glenlion carries Bonny Baby Livingston off to the Highlands. She refuses to show any favor unless she is returned. At Glenlion Castle, Glenlion's sister helps Baby get a letter away to her true love. He arrives with armed men, and carries Baby back home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Bonny Baby Livingston is carried off to the Highlands by Glenlion. She refuses to smile or speak or show any favor unless she is returned. Glenlion's brother John wants to return her, but Glenlion hopes to win her love. At Glenlion Castle, Glenlion's youngest sister helps Baby get a letter away to her true love Johnny at Dundee. He arrives with armed men, and carries Baby back home.
KEYWORDS: love abduction rescue family
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Child 222, "Bonnie Baby Livingston" (5 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's [#1]}
Bronson 222, "Bonnie Baby Livingston" (1 version+1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 222, "Bonny Baby Livingston" (1 version)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 238-248, "Bonny Baby Livingston" (2 parallel texts)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 168-172, "Baby Livingston" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1264, "Bawbie Livingstone" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 111, "Bonnie Annie Livingstoun" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 579-583, "Bonny Baby Livingston" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 147, "Baby Livingston" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 24, "Bonny Baby Livingston" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 96-98, "Bonnie Baby Livingston" (1 text)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 3, "Bonnie Annie Livingston" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3, with the key changed}
DT, BABLIVST*
Roud #100
NOTES [36 words]: David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 312, suggests that this is Anna Gordon Brown's answer to "Jock o the Side" [Child 187], made to be more pro-feminine. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: C222

Bonny Banks of Ardrie-O, The

See Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14] (File: C014)

Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84]

DESCRIPTION: A knight lies dying for love of Barbara Allan. His servant summons her, but she scorns him. As she returns home, she hears the death-bell, repents, and in turn dies. Buried close together, a briar grows from her grave, a rose from his; they entwine
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1740 (Tea-Table Miscellany; mentioned by Pepys in 1666)
KEYWORDS: love hardheartedness death flowers
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord,Hebr),England(All)) US(All) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont,West) Ireland West Indies(Nevis)
REFERENCES (135 citations):
Child 84, "Bonny Barbara Allan" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #79}
Bronson 84, "Bonny Barbara Allan" (198 versions+2 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 84, "Bonny Barbara Allan" (20 versions: #2, #12, #14, #28, #30, #33, #38, #40, #44, #52, #60, #63, #78, #79, #83, #94, #137, #142, #156, #167)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 195-200, "Barbara Allen" (3 texts plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #15, #188}
Thompson-APioneerSongster 2, "Barabara Allen" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 378-379, "Barbara Allen" (1 text plus an excerpt)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 127-129, "Bonny Barbara Allen"; pp. 129-130, "Sir John Graham and Barbara Allen" (2 texts) (pp. 107-109 in the 1919 edition)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 128-130, "Barbara Allen's Cruelty"; pp. 133-135, "Sir John Grehme and Barbara Allen" (2 texts)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques LIII, p. 98,"Barbara Allen's Cruelty"; LV, "Sir John Grehme and Barbara Allan" (2 partial texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #14, #40}
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 60-65, "Barbara Allen" (1 full text+3 fragments, 4 tunes, plus references to 11 other versions) {G=Bronson's #55, K=#159, M=#158, N=#181}
Randolph 21, "Barbara Allen" (11 texts plus 4 fragments, 6 tunes) {A=Bronson's #114, B=#135, E=#172, J=#163, M=#119, N=#162}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 41-44, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 21M) {Bronson's #119}
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 27, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 87-89, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 8-9, "Barb'ry Allen" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #86}
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 16, "Bonny Barbara Allen" (4 texts plus 2 fragments (the fragments might be any rose-and-briar song); 4 tunes) {Bronson's #191, #53, #22, #160}
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 137-139, "Barbara Allen" (1 text)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 67, "Barb'ry Allen" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 8, "Barbara Allen" (1 text plus an excerpt and mention of 1 more; 1 tune) {Bronson's #187}
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp.281-288, "Barbry Allan" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 197-200, "Mary Alling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2, pp. 246-292, "Barbara Allen" (16 texts plus 9 fragments, 13 tunes -- some of the items rather oddly related, e.g. H1, H2, H3 are said to derive from the same informant but the melodies of H2 and H3 differ)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 163-164, "Barb'ry Ellen or Barbara Allen" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 24, "Bonny Barbara Allan" (28 texts plus 4 fragments, 12 tunes, all entitled "Barbara Allen"; 56? more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #89, #101, #102, #189, #169, #75, #182, [#s, unprinted], [#t, unprinted], #141, #171, #184}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 25, pp. 182-198, "Bonny Barbara Allen" (7 texts plus a fragment, 8 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 27, "Bonny Barbara Allen" (9 texts plus 10 excerpts and citations of 12 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 27, "Bonny Barbara Allen" (3 texts plus 13 excerpts and mention of 1 more, 16 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 13, "Bonny Barbara Allen" (1 short text)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, pp. 129-141, "Bonny Barbara Allen" (6 texts plus mention of 7 more, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #192, #73}
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, pp. 21-22, "Bobree Allin"; pp.45-46, "Barbara Allen" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 255, "Barb'ry Allen" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #161, "Bonny Barbara Allen" (4 texts, 4 tunes) {Bronson's #66, #68, #132, #140}
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 16, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 15, pp. 95-107, "Bonny Barbara Allen" (6 texts plus 7 excerpts and mention of 3 more)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 14, "Barb'ra Allen" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #109}; 15, "Barbara Allen" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #100}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 24, "Barbara Allan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 49-53, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #67, "Sweet William")
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 23-26, "Barbara Allen" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 36-38, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #9, "Barbara Allen" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 47-48, "Barbara Allen" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 66-68, "Barbara Allen" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 248, "Barbara Ellen" (1 fragment)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 5, pp. 11-13, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 7-8, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 39, "Barbara Allen" (1 short text, 1 tune); pp. 41-42, "Barbry Ella" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 51-52, "Barbry Allen" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 57-58, "Barbry Allen" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 74-76, "Barbara Allen" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 28-29, Baarbue Ellen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 72, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 85, "Barbry Allen" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 83-96, collectively titled "Bonny Barbara Allen"; individual versions are "The Ballet of Barbara Allan," "Barbry Ellen," "Barbara Allen," (no title), "Barbare Allen," (no title), "Barbara Ellen," "Barbara Ellen," "Barbarie Allen" (9 texts; 5 tunes on pp. 386-388) {Bronson's #183, #107, #180, #168, #118}
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 59-60, (no title; the song uses the name "Bob-ree Allin") (1 text)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 2, "Barbara Alling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 15, "Barbara Allen" (12 texts plus a fragment and mention of 1 more, 1 tune) {Bronson's #150}
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 4, pp. 8-10, "Barbary Allen" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #196, the tune being a version of "For He's a Jolly GOod Fellow"}
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 49-58, "Bonny Barbara Allen" (6 texts plus 1 fragment, 4 tunes) {Bronson's #85, #36, #37, #38}
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 13-14, "Bonny Barbara Allan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 12, "Barbree Ellen" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 649-661, "Barbara Allen" (4 texts, 6 tunes)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 9, "Barbara Allan" (1 text); "Barbara Ellan" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #18}
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 22, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 277-280, "Bonny Barbara Allen" (3 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 115-116, "Bonny Barbara Allen" (1 text)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 1, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #151}
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, pp. 97-98, "Barbara Allen" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 88, "Barbara Allen" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 158, "Barbara Allen's Cruelty" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 40, "Barbara Allen"; 187, "Barbara Allen" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the first tune is in 5/4 and seems to be the only American instance of this metre, commonly found in British tunes in Bronson's "A" group)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 59, "Bonny Barbara Allen" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 102-105, "Barb'ry Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 412, "Barbara Allan" (1 text)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #5, "Barbary Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #21, "Barbrey Allen" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 94-95, "Barbara Ellen" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #149}
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, pp. 6-7, "Barbary Ellen or Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 24 "Barbara Allen" (7 texts plus 6 fragments, 16 tunes){Bronson's #88, #116, #136, #76, #176, #152, #178, #184, #106, #121, #110, #48, #49, #78, #111, #137}
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 7, "Barbara Ellen" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 4, "Barbara Ellen" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #133}
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #12/12A, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #54}
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 72-74, "Barbra Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 113-114, "Barbry Ellen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 36, "Bonny Barbara Allan" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols #42, "Bonnie Barbara Allan" (3 texts [2 from Child, 1 from Niles]
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 19, "Barbara Ellen" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #49}
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 57, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #35}
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 7-8, "Bawbee Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 278-279, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 89, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune, probably composite as no source it listed)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 169-171," [Barbry Ellen]" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #142}
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 73, "Barbry Ellen" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #142}
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 172, "Babie Allan" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #79}
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #165, p. 1, "Barbara Allan"; #166, p. 1, "Bawbie Allan"; #173, p. 2, "Barbara Allan" (3 texts plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1193, "Barbara Allan" (7 texts, 5 tunes) {a=Bronson's #43, b=#127, c=#128, d=#44, e=#42}
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 476-477, "Barbara Allan" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 204-207, "Barbara Allen" (2 texts) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 388; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 205); Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 155, "Barbara Allen" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 5, "Barbara Allen" (2 texts)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 36-40, "Barbara Allen" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 3, "Barbara Helen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, pp. 22-23, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #97}
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 51-52, "Cruel Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #40, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 6, "Barbry Allen" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 820-822, "Bonny Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 12, "Bonny Barbara Allan" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H236, pp. 375-376, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 9, "Barb'ry Ellen" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 30, "Barbara Allen" (2 texts, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 11, "Bonny Barbara Allen" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 25-26, "Barbara Allen" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 68-69, "Bonny Barbara Allen" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, p. 143, "(Barbara Allen)" (1 tune, partial text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 3, pp. 7-9, "Barbery Allen"; p. 10, "Barbara Allen" (2 texts)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 16, "Bonny Barbara Allen" (9 texts plus mention of 3 more; 2 tunes) {Bronson's #138, #91}
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 57-58, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 3, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #19, "Barbara Allen" (notes only)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 50-54, "Barbara Allen"; "Barbro Allen" (2 texts)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 30-33, "Bonny Barbara Allen" (2 texts)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 79, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 142-144, Barbara Allan" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #75, "Barb'ra Allen" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 247, "Barbara Allen" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 104, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 14, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 179 "Barbara Allen" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 538-539, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1459, "In Scarlet Town where I was bound"
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Donald Underwood Thompson, "'Barbara Allen,' Papa Underwood, and Me," Vol. LXI, No. 1-2 (Winter/Spring/Summer/Fall 2014), pp. 76-77, "Barbara Allen" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 202, 281, "Barbara Allen"/"The Red Rose and the Briar" (notes only)
OneTuneMore, pp. 22-23, "Barbara Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 84, BARBALEN* BARBALN2* BARBALN3* BARBALN4 BARBALN5
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #221, p. 230, "Bonny Barbara Allan" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #40}
John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 173-175, "Barbara Allen's Cruelty" (1 text)
Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 212-213, "(Barbara Allen)" (1 text)
Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 148, "The True Ballad of Barbara Allen's Cruelty" (reproduction of a broadside page)
Ed Cray, "''Barbara Allen': Cheap Print and Reprint" article published 1967 in _Folklore Internation: Essays in Traditional Literature, Belief and Custom in Honor of Wayland Hand_; republished on pp. 159-168 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #368, "Bonny Barbara Allan" (1 text)
Roger D Abrahams, "Child Ballads in the West Indies: Familiar Fabulations, Creole Performances" in _Journal of Folklore Research_, Vol. XXIV, No. 2 (May-Aug 1987 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 115, "Barbry Alone" (1 text)
Roud #54
RECORDINGS:
Garrett & Norah Arwood, "Barbara Allen" (on FarMtns3)
Bob Atcher, "Barbara Allen [pts. 1 & 2]" (Columbia 20481, c. 1948; rec. 1947)
Gerald Aylward, "Barbara Allen" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Alex Barr, "Barbara Allen" (AFS 4228 A/4228 B, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
John Byrne, "Barbara Ellen" (on IREarlyBallads)
Andy Cash, "Barbary Ellen" (on IRTravellers01)
James B. Cornett, "Barbara Allen" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Judy Cook, "Barbara Allen" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #253, recorded 09/13/2022)
Debra Cowan and Kristina Olsen, "Barbara Allen" (on HCargillFamily)
Elizabeth Cronin, "Barbara Allen" (on IRECronin01) {Bronson's #30?}
Vernon Dalhart, "Barbara Allen" Brunswick 117/Vocalion 5140, 1927; Supertone S-2002, 1930 {Bronson's #131}) (Okeh 45090 [as Tobe Little], 1927) (Columbia 15126-D [as Al Craver], 1927) (Grey Gull 4239 [as Jeff Calhoun], 1928) (Champion 15246/Black Patti 8028, 1927; Supertone 9228, 1928) (Challenge 268, 1927)
Rosie Day, "Barbara Ellen" (on JThomas01)
Arthur Fields, "Barbara Allen" (Grey Gull 4239/Radiex 4239, 1928)
Patsy Flynn, "Barbara Allen" (on IRHardySons)
Connie Foley, "Barbara Allen" (Copley 9-179-A, n.d.)
Newton Gaines, "Barbara Allen" (Victor V-40253 [as Jim New?], 1930) {cf. Bronson's #71}
Molly Galbraith, "Barbara Allen" (on Saskatch01)
Texas Gladden, "Barbara Allen" (AFS 5232 A1; on USTGladden01) {Bronson's #102}
John Greaves, "Barbara Allen" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #69, recorded 08/11/2021, very difficult to hear)
G. Marston Haddock, "Barbara Allen" (Musicraft 262, c. 1944)
Seena Helms, "Barbara Allen" (on HandMeDown2)
Stanley Hicks, "Barbara Allen" (on FarMtns2)
(Queen) Hule Hines, "Barbara Allen" (AFS 2714 B2, 1939)
Rebecca King Jones, "Barbara Allen" [excerpt] (on USWarnerColl01)
Bradley Kincaid, "Barbara Allen" (Supertone 9211, 1928); (Melotone 12349/Conqueror 7982, 1932; Vocalion 02685, 1934; rec. 1930)
Sam Larner, "Barbara Allen" (on SLarner01)
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Barbara Allen" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
Sarah Makem, "Barbara Allen" (on Voice17)
Jessie Murray, Fred Jordan, Charlie Wills, Ma[r]y Bennell, Thomas Moran, Phil Tanner [composite] "Barbara Allen" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
William Nash, "Barbary Ellen" (on PeacockCDROM)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Barbara Allen" (on NLCR10)
Bill Nicholson w. Zane Shrader, "Barbara Allen" (AFS; on LC14) {Bronson's #70}
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt, "Barbara Allen" (AFS 201 A, 1933; on LC54)
Granny Porter w. Wade Ward, "Barbry Allen" (on Persis1)
Mr. Rew, "Barbara Allen" (on FieldTrip1)
Jean Ritchie, "Barbry Ellen" (on JRitchie01) {cf. Bronson's #142}
Roxana Robinson, "Barb'ry Ellen" (Piotr-Archive #701, recorded 10/01/2023)
Pete Seeger, "Barbara Allen" (on PeteSeeger16) (on PeteSeeger40)
Betty Smith, "Barbara Allen" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #17, recorded 09/24/2020); "Barbara Allen" (Piotr-Archive #178, recorded 05/17/2022)
Lucy Stewart, "Barbary Allen" (on LStewart1)
Duane Terrell, "Barbara Allen" (Exvery shor fragment: Piotr-Archive #125, recorded 04/17/2022)
Art Thieme, "The Cowboys' Barbara Allen" (on Thieme01) (on Thieme06 [as "Cowboy's Barbara Allen"])
The Vagabonds, "Barbara Allen" (Bluebird B-5300/Montgomery Ward M-4442, 1934; rec. 1933)
Erica Warnock, "Barbara Allan" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #457, recorded 01/26/2023)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 3(49), "Barbara Allen's Cruelty" or "The Young Man's Tragedy," J. Davenport (London), 1800-1802; also Douce Ballads 3(3a), "Barbara Allen's Cruelty" or "The Young Man's Tragedy"; Harding B 25(115), Harding B 11(730), Johnson Ballads 266, Firth c.21(22), Firth c.21(23), Harding B 16(14a), 2806 c.17(19), Harding B 11(1011), Firth c.21(21), Harding B 11(729), "Barbara Allen"; Harding B 11(2121), "The Life, Death, and Love, of Barbara Allen"
Murray, Mu23-y1:138, "Barbara Allen" and "Barbara Allen the Cruel," Poet's Box (St. Andrew's), 19C [two distinct texts, with critical introduction]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shantyman's Life (I)" (tune)
cf. "Brother Green" (tune)
cf. "Leslie Allen" (tune)
cf. "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" (floating verses)
cf. "Make Me a Garment" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Barbara Ellen
Barbary Allen
NOTES [1534 words]: Ed Cray makes the interesting note that, in a study he did with Charles Seeger, he found four basic versions of the text of this song (which can be initially sorted by their first lines), and Seeger found four basic tune families. But the text groupings and tune groupings do not overlap.
Bronson, too, finds four tune families -- doing the work twice, in fact, once based on what was surely the first computerized comparison of ballad tunes -- see The Ballad as Song, pp. 234-236, where he describes "one class is mainly English, consistently major and heptatonic, and divided about equally between authentic and plagal ranges.... Another class is mainly Scottish, with a darker modal cast, from Dorian to AEolian... It favors common time.... A third class, which includes many American variants, is habitually in that pentatonic scale which lacks the fourth and seventh degrees.... Its members are mostly plagal tunes, frequently in 3/4 or 3/2 time.... The first class is composed almost entirely of American variants of a tune that goes back at least to the seventeenth century.... Its usual form nowadays is only the second half of the ancient double-strain tune; and the final makes a rather dubious tonic without the missing half to rationalize it.
In The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads, Bronson offers Group A of 39 tunes, B of 11, C of 87, and D of 54, plus a handful of odds and ends. Not all of Bronson's texts can be proved to be Barbara Allen (e.g. #1 could come from several ballads), but spot checks of Bronson seem to support at least partly Cray's thesis. While many versions could not be identified based solely on first lines, I found the following:
Of the 39 texts in Bronson's "A" group, 12 have the opening "In Scarlet Town (Reading Town, London Town, Scotland) where I was born," 7 start with "All in the merry month of May (June)," and 3 open with "So early, early in the Spring."
Of the texts in the "B" group, 4 begin "It was about the Martinmas time," two are "Merry month of May," and one is "Scarlet Town."
In the huge "C" group, 34 versions were "Merry month," 20 were "Scarlet Town," 2 were "Martinmas," and 4 were "So early."
In the "D" group, 27 were "Merry Month," 9 were "Scarlet Town," and 2 were "So early."
Based on this, we might speculate that:
1. The original text was "All in the merry month of May" (70 instances) and that the tune was, if anything, Bronson's "C" group. This group is described as pentatonic, though the timing varies.
2. "Scarlet Town" goes with the "A" group, and might be next in age, since the first line is second to "Merry month" in popularity (42 instances). Bronson considers this tune to be primarily English, and perhaps somewhat related to the "C" tune.
3. "Martinmas" is originally (and still primarily) associated with the "B" group. Bronson lists this group as primarily Scottish.
4. "So Early," might seem, by elimination, to go with the "D" group. But this group is entirely American, and the tune (according to Bronson) is related to "Boyne Water," so this seems unlikely. Perhaps tune family "D" has no special text associated with it.
But this is all very tentative (and based on only a few minutes' work on my part); if studies of classical texts teach us anything, it's that variants are to be weighed and not counted!
Phillips Barry speculates that this is based on the lives of King Charles II and Barbara Villiers, whom he made Duchess of Cleveland. This is characteristic of Barry: Clever but completely unconvincing. Villiers was his mistress, and not even his sole mistress, although it is reported that she used tantrums to get her way with him (Hutton, in the notes on the reproduction of Villiers in the photo insert following p. 274). Charles didn't die for love; all indications are that he had a stroke (or something with similar symptoms; Hutton, p. 443, suggests kidney disease; others have suggested mercury poisoning; Fraser, p. 450) and died not too much later. - RBW
The name "Barbara," cognate with "barbarian," means "foreigner" [technically, someone who doesn't speak Greek - RBW]; Martin Carthy has conjectured that the original story involved a Gypsy or North African woman, and that racial prejudice explains why William slights her, and why she is so cold to him as a result. - PJS
If we're going for the way-far-out, Underwood, pp. 343-344, has a tale which sounds amazingly like this one: Edmund Graeme (a name not far from that sometimes used for Barbara's swain) fell in love with an unnamed girl. They were engaged, but she betrayed his trust. He died for love. She repented within moments of his death. She asked to be buried (alive, in Underwood's version) with him. His story is that her ghost haunts the site.
Of course, all this would be much better for documentation. And dates; it might well be more recent than Barbara's story.
There is an element that is certainly older, though, because it occurs in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, in the book of Daniel. The earliest ("Old Greek," or LXX) translation of Daniel has a paraphrase of chapter 5 of the Hebrew book, which opens with a summary. King "Baltasar" (Belshazzar) is having a feast, and "in high spirits from the wine and boasting I his cups, praises all the cast and carved gods of the nations, but did not praise the Most High God." How similar to Our Hero drinking "a toast to the ladies all" but omitting Barbara Allen. In this case, there cannot be literary influence -- the Old Greek rendering was probably made in the first century B.C.E., but was quickly set aside for a version closer to the Hebrew; only two Greek copies of this version survive, plus one in Syriac, and one of those was only discovered in Egypt in the twentieth century -- and it badly damaged. It cannot be the source, but it shows how easily an idea like this can re-emerge!
There is one element in the song which does have a strong foreign element: The rose-and-briar ending. This, of course, is not unique to this song, though it's most strongly associated with Barbara and her love. But the rose-and-briar-and-lover's-knot theme has been found as far away as Hungary (Romania?); Karpeles, p. 228, prints a Transylvanian version, "Kadar Kata," "Katie Kadar," with a loose English translation. In that version, the mother has drowned the girl, and the boy drowns himself where he finds her ghost. In that version, he is the rose, she the briar -- and the mother tears them out of the ground. The rose then curses his mother. (Could this be the origin of some sort of legend of the undead?)
The story also has roots in Ireland. For a version of the story of Deirdre of the Sorrows, see Colum, pp. 73-83; also the much shorter summary in Ellis, pp. 80-81. Deirdre, it was foretold at her birth, would grow up to be the most beautiful woman in Ireland, but also to cause great grief to the one who married her and to his nation. Although Conor cared for the child, promising to wed her himself (and hence prevent any sorrow for anyone who mattered), she was not interested in an old man (more to the point, perhaps, she may have felt the normal aversion children feel for those they grow up with; for background, see the notes to "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14]"). She instead fell in love with Naisi, and though strenuous efforts were made to keep them apart, he was killed and she killed herself. They slept side by side, and a tree grew from each, and the trees intertwined.
The intertwining of branches is also found in the romance of Tristan and Iseult; there, the intertwining plants are a rose and a grapevine. This motif occurs in Eilhart von Oberge's Tristrant, which is believed to date from the last third of the twelfth century (Lupack, pp. 376-378). The Icelandic text "Tristrams Kvaethi," which has ballad characteristics and may well be from before 1500, has two trees grow from their graves (Lupack, p. 381; this is significant, given the scarcity of trees in Iceland)
The earliest version of the idea known to me is the story of Baucis and Philemon, found in Book VIII of Ovid's Metamphoses. Baucis and Philemon are visited by Jupiter and Mercury, and are found to be the only hospitable people in Phrygia. They are rewarded in life, and after death they are turned into two trees which intertwine.
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads claims there is a Spanish romance parallel to "Barbara Allen." Unfortunately he does not name it. Still, it seems clear that the rose-and-briar-intertwining theme is widespread at least across Europe. Cultural cross-fertilization, independent invention, or does this go back all the way to Indo-European? Perhaps there is a dissertation in there somewhere. - RBW
Broadside Murray Mu23-y1:138, "Barbara Allan the Cruel," ends as a parody in which Barbara "gets another spark" after Johnny dies and, when she eventually dies," she is buried beside him "For she wished to be his bride in death, Though in life she couldn't abide 'un."
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 388 adds two verses to the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text on pp. 204-205: the rose and briar spring from the bodies and tie in a true lover's knot at the chancel top. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C084

Bonny Bay of Biscay-O, The

DESCRIPTION: The sailor fondly recalls his home, knowing that in a year he will be able to settle down with his love: "Of all the harbors east or west, There is one place that I love best, So whichever way the wind doth blow, I'll steer for the bonny Bay of Biscay-O"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: sailor love
FOUND IN: US(NE) Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 67, "The Bonny Bay of Biscay-O"
DT, BISCAYO*
Roud #6949
File: Wa067

Bonny Bee Ho'm

See Bonny Bee Hom [Child 92] (File: C092)

Bonny Bee Hom [Child 92]

DESCRIPTION: The lady sits lamenting her absent love. She vows to wait seven years. Meanwhile, her love has received a talisman which will tell him if his love is dead or untrue. (After a year), the talisman turns dark. He sails for home, but his love is already dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: death separation magic
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 92, "Bonny Bee Hom" (2 texts)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 287-288, "Bonny Bee Hom" (1 text)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 229-230, "Bonny Bee Ho'm" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 74, "Bonny Bee Ho'm" (1 text)
Roud #3885
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lowlands of Holland"
NOTES [547 words]: "Bonny Bee Hom" is often linked with "The Lowlands of Holland" ("The Lily of Arkansas"), a link dating back to Child. The matter has been much studied, without clear conclusion. The tendency has been to assume that "Bonny Bee Hom" is the older, just because it is the Child Ballad, but the fact that "Lowlands of Holland" is so much more common may be a counter-argument. Fowler, p. 323, suggests that "Bonny Bee Hom" is Anna Gordon Brown's rewrite of "Lowlands." It might be noted, however, that "Bonny Bee Hom" involves a magic device (the stone that tells the lover whether his sweetheart is true), a theme not found in "The Lowlands of Holland."
The idea of a token which reveals infidelity (a "fidelity-token") is widely known. We find a magic ring with this ability, e.g., in the romance of "Floris and Blancheflour" (CHEL1, p. 308). which is the full story from which the ballad of "Blancheflour and Jellyflorice" [Child 300] was extracted. "Hind Horn" [Child 17] is built around a similar device, although it also serves as a "recognition token.". "The Boy and the Mantle" [Child 29] also features such a thing, although it is used more as an apple of discord than as a lovers' device. In the Mabinogion, Math son of Mathonwy uses his wand to determine whether his niece is a virgin (Mabinogion/Gantz, p. 106). This is quite similar to what is described as the very first Breton Lai, Robert Biket's Lai du Cor which probably dates from the twelfth century, in which the magic object is a drinking horn which will spill on a drinker with an unfaithful wife; Arthur, naturally, is drenched by it (Brengli, pp. 355-356).Yvain, in Chretien's French romance of the same name has a ring "which will keep him safe as long as he remembers the giver" (Moorman, p. 47). Examples could easily be multiplied. Leach-TheBalladBook, p. xli, lists several and cites sources for others. "Ornament as chastity index" is Thompson motif H433.
There were also "life-tokens" that revealed other things such as the state of health of one or another person, e.g. Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. xl-xli, mentions a Georgian tale of a life-token in the form of cup of water that turned red when the person died and a Russian tale in which a sample of a person's blood turns black when he is in danger. (Note that George MacDonald was still using this idea in the nineteenth century in The Princess and Curdie.)
Emeralds in particular were said to ensure fidelity (Pickering, p. 97; Joes-Larousse, p. 163) -- and to lose their color if a lover was unfaithful.
This idea was so widespread that it was actually used by monarchs -- around 1525, the English sent an emerald ring from the young Mary Tudor, heir to the English throne, to the Emperor Charles V, who was officially engaged to her but still shopping for other brides (Prescott, p. 32). It didn't work -- Charles married a Portugese princess, although Mary Tudor would in time marry a younger Habsburg (who quickly ignored her).
It probably goes without saying that emeralds don't lose their color that easily. Chances are that someone found a green gem of some other sort (green quartz, perhaps? I haven't found a clear suggestion on that). It was mistaken for an emerald, then denatured perhaps in sunlight -- and so gave rise to the legend. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: C092

Bonny Bird (I), The

See Cupid's Trepan (Cupid's Trappan, The Bonny Bird) (File: ChWII149)

Bonny Bird (II), The

See The Bonny Boy (I) (File: FSC037)

Bonny Birdy, The [Child 82]

DESCRIPTION: A bird tells a knight that his wife is unfaithful. The two speed to his home, to find his wife in the arms of another man. He slays the intruder.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783/1799 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: infidelity death bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 82, "The Bonny Birdy" (1 text)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 210-214, "The bonny birdy" (1 text, printed parallel to blank pages)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 35, "The Bonny Birdy" (1 text, 1 tune -- another instance where it is left to the reader to decide if Niles's version could possibly be legitimate)
Roud #3972
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" [Child 81] (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Tattletale Birdy
File: C082

Bonny Black Hare, The

DESCRIPTION: A hunter goes out to shoot at the bonny black hare (hair), meets a willing maid, and beds her until his "ramrod is limber" and he cannot fire more.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1856 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(347))
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex hunting
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1427, "The Bonnie Black Hare" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 9-10, "The Bonny Black Hare" (1 text, from a broadside, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 42-43, "The Bonny Black Hare" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT, BLACKHAR*
ADDITIONAL: Roger Elbourne, Music and Tradition in Early Industrial Lancashire 1780-1840 (Totowa, 1980), p. 76, "The Bonny Black Hare" (fragment)
Julie Henigan, "Ozark Ballads as Song and Story," article in _Missouri Folklore Society Journal_, Volume 27-28 (cover date 2005-2006, but published 2015), pp. 159-185; pp. 167-168, "The Bonny Black Hare" (1 text)
Roud #1656
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Bonnie Black Hare" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(347), "Black Hare" ("One morning in summer by the dawn of the day"), E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie Moorhen"
NOTES [15 words]: Legman's notes link this broadside ballad to the older Scottish "The Bonnie Muir Hen." - EC
Last updated in version 4.5
File: RL042

Bonny Blue Handkercheif Under Her Chin

See The Bonny Blue Handkerchief (File: HHH161)

Bonny Blue Handkerchief, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl with a blue kerchief under her chin. She says that it is a local fashion. Entranced by her beauty, he offers her marriage and wealth. In some versions, she accepts; in others, she refuses; the handkerchief is a token from her love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(400))
KEYWORDS: love courting clothes work factory
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(South,West),Scotland)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H161a+b, p. 456-457, "The Pretty Blue Handkerchief (I and II)" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #112, p. 2, "The Hanky"; #114, p. 2, "The Hanky" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan5 1040, "The Hanky" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 436, "Bonny Blue Handkerchief Under Her Chin" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #87. "Bonny Blue Handkerchief" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GreenGroves, p. 77, "Bonnie Blue Handkerchief" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #40, "The Blue Kerchief" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #61, "The Bonny Blue Handkerchief" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #378
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(400), "The Bonny Blue Handkerchief" ("As early one morning I chanced for to stray"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Johnson Ballads fol. 122, "Bonny Blue Handkerchief"; Harding B 11(2521), "My Bonny Blue Handkerchief"
Murray, Mu23-y4:024, "Blue Handkerchief," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jersey-Blue Handkerchief" (parody of this piece)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Under Her Chin
NOTES [76 words]: In the first Sam Henry text, we are explicitly told that the two went to church. In the second, it's not made explicit, but the song ends after his proposal, so it sounds as if she agrees to marry. The Hamer text also ends with him offering a ring. In the Murray broadside, she turns him down. Looking at the three, I thing the broadside text more likely to be original; the Henry texts are choppy, and the verse where she accepts appears an intrusion. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: HHH161

Bonny Blue-eyed Jane

DESCRIPTION: Leaving his native home, the singer will think of "my blooming girl, my bonny blue-eyed Jane." The girls from sunny Spain may win his friendship but not his love. If he gets rich he'll hurry back to marry Jane.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: courting love separation Spain
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 12, "Bonny Blue-eyed Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #26132
File: LeBe012

Bonny Blue-Eyed Lassie, The

DESCRIPTION: If the singer were at the top of the mountain with gold in his pocket and money for counting he would give it all to have his fancy and marry blue-eyed Nancy. Some say she's too low in station and will be his ruination but he would marry her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: love marriage nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord)) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 33, "The Bonnie Blue-Eyed Lassie" (1 text)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 148, "The Bonny Blue-Eyed Lassie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT, BLUEYNAN
Roud #3870
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "The Bonny Blue-Eyed Lassie" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [44 words]: The second O Croinin text is a copy of the Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 text.
Also see Bothy Band, "How Can I Live at the Top of a Mountain" (on Bothy Band, "Afterhours," Green Linnet SIF 3016 (1984)), which is very close to the Digital Tradition text. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LyCr133

Bonny Bobby Shaftoe

See Bobby Shaftoe (File: FSWB170A)

Bonny Boy (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The girl says, "I once had a boy, a bonny bonny boy, A boy that I thought was my own." But the boy has taken another girl. She adds, "Let him go... I never will mourn." The ending varies; she may unsuccessfully seek another or refuse to do so
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside Bodleian Harding B 16(31b)) (Chappell dates it to "the reign of Charles II")
KEYWORDS: courting separation loneliness abandonment betrayal love
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Ireland Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1141, "I Once Loved a Boy" (4 texts plus a single verse on p. 553, 2 tunes)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 146-147, "My Bonnie, Bonnie Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 90, "Now, My Bonny, Bonny Boy" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 131, "Once I Courted a Pretty Little Girl" (1 text, 1 tune, with the genders reversed)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 37, "The Bonny Boy' (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 43, "My Bonny, Bonny Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 52, "My Bonny, Bonny Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 65, "My Bonny Bonny Boy" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 60A, "The Grey Hawk" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 488, "My Bonny Boy" (1 text)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #106, "The Bonny Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H215, pp. 393-394, "The Bonny Bonny Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 172, "I Once Loved a Boy" (1 text)
DT, BONNBOY*
Roud #293
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs, "My Bonny Boy" (on Briggs1, Briggs3)
Daisy Chapman, "I Once Had a Boy" (on SCDChapman01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(31b), "The Bonny Boy," J. Pitts (London), before 1845; also Firth c.18(127) "The Bonny Boy," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Grey Hawk"
cf. "The Twitcher" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Cupid's Trappan
The Bonny Bonny Bird
NOTES [61 words]: Don't be misled by Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 60A title of "The Grey Hawk." There is no bird here: it begins, "I once loved a boy and a bonny sweet boy." The title goes with Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 60B, which is indexed here with "Cupid's Trepan (Cupid's Trappan, The Bonny Bird)," where you can find an ancestor of this song and "The Disappointed Lover (I)." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSC037

Bonny Boy (II), The

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

Bonny Boy from Underneath My Apron, The

See Gathering Rushes in the Month of May (Underneath Her Apron) (File: DTundrap)

Bonny Boy in Blue, The

See My Sailor Boy (A Sailor Boy in Blue) (File: HHH759)

Bonny Braw Lad an' a Swagg'rin, A

DESCRIPTION: "A bonny braw lad an' a swagg'rin' A bonny braw lad an' a swagg'rin' Gin ever I marry a man in my life, He maun be a braw lad a' a swagg'rin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 753, "A Bonny Braw Lad an' a Swagg'rin" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6178
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ca'eries Hae Sookit the Kye Dry" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4753

Bonny Broom, The

See The Broom of Cowdenknows [Child 217] (File: C217)

Bonny Brown Girl, The

See The Brown Girl (I) [Child 295] (File: C295)

Bonny Brown Hen, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer's brown hen is missing. He tells how it laid six eggs a week and never strayed. He gives the bird's pedigree. He offers a reward for the return of the hen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: chickens abduction
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H88, p. 18, "The Bonny Brown Hen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9053
File: HHH088

Bonny Brown Jane

See William and Nancy (II) (Courting Too Slow) [Laws P5] (File: LP05)

Bonny Brumefeils, The

See The Broomfield Hill [Child 43] (File: C043)

Bonny Bunch of Roses (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Father, mother, may I go?" The singer is allowed to go [to the ball? wall?] for "the bonny bunch of roses." She dresses, goes, and meets her lover on the way. They kiss, and, in some versions, part.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901(Maclagan)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes father lover mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,High)) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1614, "The Big Big Bunch o' Roses" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 91, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (4 texts)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 25, "(Father, father, may I go?)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Craig Maclagan, The Games and Diversions of Argyleshire (London, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 61-63, "Bonnie Bunch o' Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12980
NOTES [92 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "In some curious way the game appears to be connected with... 'The Birks of Abergeldy,'" referring specifically to Herd's version in which the suitor promises "a gown of silk" to accompany him; she rejects the offer because "my minnie she'll be angry." The verse structure is similar. Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "Mother, mother, may I go, May I go, may I go? Mother, mother, may I go, To the bonny bunch of roses?" Herd: "Bonnie lassie, will ye go, Will ye go, will ye go, Bonnie lassie, will ye go To the birks o' Abergeldie?" - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GrD81614

Bonny Bunch of Roses, The [Laws J5]

DESCRIPTION: Young Napoleon promises his mother that he will capture "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (Great Britain). She warns him of his father's disaster in Russia and of the strength of the British. They sorrowfully prepare for the lad's death.
AUTHOR: George Brown (source: Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes); c.1830 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Napoleon dialog family political war Russia
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1805 - Battle of Trafalgar ends Napoleon's hopes of invading Britain
1811 - Birth of Napoleon Francis Joseph Charles Bonaparte (Napoleon II)
1812-1813 - Napoleon's Russian Campaign
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon forced into exile
1821 - Death of Napoleon I
July 22, 1832 - Death of Napoleon II
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(All),Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (31 citations):
Laws J5, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #94, pp. 1-2, "The Bonnie Bunch of Roses" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 155, "The Bonnie Bunch o' Roses" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 84, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 68, "Bonny Bunch of Roses O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 3, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 105-107, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 202-203, "Bonny Bunch of Roses, O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 391, "Bonny Bunch of Roses O" (1 text)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #27, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #2, "Bonny Bunch of Roses O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 200, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 207-209, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 16, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 32B, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses, O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 184, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 17-18, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (1 text)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 7, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 301-302, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 85, "The Bonnie Bunch of Roses" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 14, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (1 text)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 29-31, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 988-989, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 72, "The Bonnie Bunch of Roses" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 127, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (1 text)
Behan-IrelandSings, #8, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 132-134. "The Bonnie Bunch of Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 222-223, "Bonny Bunch of Roses" (1 text)
DT 392, BONBUNCH* BONBUNC2
ADDITIONAL: Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), pp. 18-19, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (text, music and reference to Regal Zonophone recording [probably Regal Zono MR-2830 recorded ca. May 1938])
_Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 22, #1 (1973), p, 15, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses-O" (1 text, 1 tune, the Seamus Ennis version)
Roud #664
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Sam Larner, "Bonny Bunch of Roses" (on SLarner01)
Tom Murphy and Minnie Murphy, "The Bonnie Bunch Of Roses" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Cyril Poacher, "The Bonny Bunch O' Roses" (on Voice08)
Ernest Poole, "Bonny Bunch of Roses" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Anthony Power, "The Bonny Bunch Of Roses" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Brigid Tunney, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(403), "The Bonny Bunch of Roses, O!" ("By the dangers of the ocean"), J. Harkness (Preston) , 1840-1866; also 2806 c.16(296), Harding B 16(31d), Harding B 11(404), Harding B 11(406), Harding B 11(405), "Bonny Bunch of Roses, O"; Harding B 17(350a), Harding B 11(18), Firth b.25(245), Harding B 11(4381), "Young Napoleon" or "The Bonny Bunch of Roses"; Firth b.27(457/458) View 1 of 4, "Bonny Bunch of Roses"; Firth b.27(8), "Young Napoleon"
LOCSinging, as109240, "Young Napoleon" or "The Bonny Bunch of Roses," Taylor's Song Mart (London), 19C
Murray, Mu23-y1:115, "Bonny Bunch of Roses," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The New Bunch of Loughero" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
The Bunch of Rushes, O! (per broadsides Bodleian Harding B 17(350a), Bodleian Harding B 11(18), Bodleian Harding B 11(4381))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bold Blucher
NOTES [133 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "The bunch of roses is usually said to symbolize England, Scotland, and Ireland, or the red coats of the English soldiers. In a ballad printed both in England and in Ireland, 'The Grand Conversation on Napoleon', we find the lines: 'The bunch of roses did advance And boldly entered into France,' alluding to Napoleon's enemies after Waterloo."
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001))
The probable recording date and id for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LJ05

Bonny Bunch of Rushes Green

See Gathering Rushes (File: RcABLtlb)

Bonny Bush o' Broom, The

DESCRIPTION: He: Sit by "the bonny bush o broom" and don't be afraid of me. She: I'm afraid you would kiss me. He: "a desenter young fellow ye ne'er did see." She sits, he kisses her, and gives her three guineas.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: seduction money dialog nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1313, "The Bonny Bush o' Broom" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 27, "The Bush of Broom"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1, pp. 237-238, "Bonny Bush of Broom" (2 texts)
Roud #3860
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Next Market Day' (seduction theme and three guinea payment)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
To Newcastle I Wad Be
File: GrD71313

Bonny Bushes Bright, The

See The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father [Child 248] (File: C248)

Bonny Busk of London, The

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Bonny Ca' Laddie for Me, A

DESCRIPTION: "On a mossy bank Jenny was sitting She had on a gay gown sae new And busily she was a knitting A yarn of bonny sky blue" "Last night ... He fed me with gingerbread sweet, He called me his dear and his honey And everything else that was neat"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes food
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 33, "A Bonny Ca' Laddie for Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2276
File: CrMa033

Bonny earl of Livingston, The

See Fair Mary of Wallington [Child 91] (File: C091)

Bonny Earl of Murray, The [Child 181]

DESCRIPTION: The Earl of Huntly slays the Earl of Murray (in his own bed?) as a result of the violent feud between them. The largest part of some versions is devoted to describing how noble Murray was
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1750 (Ramsay)
KEYWORDS: feud homicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 7, 1592 - Murder of the Earl of Moray. James VI ordered the Earl of Huntley to apprehend Moray/Murray (said to be involved in rebellion), and Huntley apparently decided to do more than that
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(MA,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Child 181, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (2 texts)
Bronson 181, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (6 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 181, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (4 versions: #1, #3, #4, #5)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 69-71, "The Bonnie Earl of Murray" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 468-469, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (notes to a version called "The Treachery of Huntley" plus parts of 2 texts from Child)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 226-228, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XXVIII, p. 68, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (1 partial text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XXVIII, p. 68, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (1 partial text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 133-134, "Earl of Murray" (1 text)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 185-189, "The Bonnie Earl of Murray" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 36, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 36, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (1 excerpt, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, p. 23, "(no title)" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 491-493, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (2 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 90-91, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 264, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 95, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 155+334, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 144, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 16-17, "The Bonnie Earl of Murray" (2 texts)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 57-59, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 24, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 107-108, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 212, "The Bonny Earl Of Murray" (1 text)
DT 181, EARLMURY* EARLMUR2*
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #177, p. 185, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Edward D. Ives, _The Bonny Earl of Murray: The Man, The Murder, The Ballad_, Tuckwell Press {in Great Britain]/University of Illinois Press [United States], 1997 (ncludes multiple texts and tuns plus extensive historical background)
Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 97-98, "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (1 text, 1 tune) {should be Bronson's #1, but the printed version shows differences}; pp. 246-247 (1 text, unsourced and very unlike the usual versions)
ST C181 (Full)
Roud #334
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Willie Macintosh" [Child 183] (characters & situation)
NOTES [1221 words]: James Stewart (c. 1567-1592) became Earl of Moray as a result of marrying Elizabeth Steward, the elder daughter of Lord James Stewart (1531-1570), the bastard of James V who had been Regent of Scotland for much of the early reign of James VI prior to being murdered (Mitchison, p. 160). The younger James succeeded to the Moray earldom in 1590 -- a generation after the assassination of his father-in-law. (For background on all this, see the notes to "Mary Hamilton" [Child 173]).
The elder Moray had been an unpleasant sort who happily threw his half-sister Mary Queen of Scots to the wolves to preserve his own power (it is speculated that, even though he was illegitimate, he was angling for the crown); the younger Moray wasn't much better -- Hamilton, p. 241, calls him an "ultra-Protestant."
Moray's murder by Huntley seems to have been the result of a feud between the two, though James VI (by then ruling in fact as well as name) didn't seem too bothered by it; Huntly (c. 1563-1636), despite several quarrels with James VI (some of which look suspiciously like rebellion) was made a marquis in 1599. It probably helped that Huntly had married a daughter of the Earl of Lennox, a favorite of James's (Mitchison, p. 151).
The murdered Moray doesn't seem to have been a particularly noteworthy figure, except for his looks and the fact that he was murdered. In a place as messed-up as sixteenth century Scotland, getting killed by a rival was probably a positive.
In a combination of police work and propaganda, Moray's mother had a painting made of his corpse, of which a copy can be seen in one of the photo sections of Magnusson. The corpse has a caption (it almost looks like a speech balloon), "God revenge my cavs [cause]."
The artist looks to have been completely incompetent -- but, if the drawing is accurate enough to depict where the blows fell, it's hard to tell what actually killed Moray. There is a large wound on his leg, but that could not have been fatal unless he bled to death. The only wounds in the chest area are a couple of small scratches on his right side, the largest near the shoulder and not in a particularly vital area; in any case, it does not appear deep. There are the scratches on the face, but both look like flesh wounds (though one came close to Moray's right eye).
According to Thomson, p. 60, the conspiracy was also supposed to eliminate several senior members of Clan Cambell, who controlled the great Earldom of Argyll, but little came of that part of the plot.
According to Magnusson, pp. 396-397, the conspiracy arose because James VI was having trouble with his barons (in other words, nothing unusual in Scotland). The Earl of Bothwell had been fighting against the King -- at one time almost capturing him -- and Moray was allied with Bothwell.
James was even more afraid of Bothwell than he would have been of an ordinary rebel, because he was deeply superstitious, and Bothwell was reputedly involved with witches (Mitchison, p. 150). The king commissioned Huntley to put down Bothwell's faction, meanwhile negotiating with Moray. But Huntley had a grudge against Moray (whose father had enriched himself at the expense of an earlier Huntley -- plus Huntley had a chance to perhaps inherit the Monray earldom).
Moray was at Donibristle, awaiting the chance to confer with the King, when Huntley showed up on February 7 and set fire to the castle. Moray reportedly escaped out a side gate, but was found and killed -- folklore claims that Huntley struck the first blow.
Stewart, p. 131, gives a substantial account of what happened: James VI was already involved in a controversy involved with the Earl of Bothwell. "Matters worsened two month later when James was implicated, probably without foundation, in the vicious murder of one of Scotland's most popular young Protestant heroes, the Earl of Moray, by Huntly, whom James had so long protected. Huntly was caught up in a long-standing feud between his family, the Gordons, and the Morays, dating back to the reign of James's mother. Mary had created her half-brother Lord James Stewart (who later became James's regent) Earl of Moray, an earldom which the fourth Earl of Huntly had hoped to gain. On Moray's death, the title had passed to James Stewart of Doune, husband of Regent Moray's eldest daughter, and had fuelled his ambition to extend his influence in the north-east of Scotland, which would hit at the Gordons' powerbase. James decided that he had to sort out this squabble once and for all. He ordered that Moray and Huntly should come to arbitration. The enemies made their way south, but arbitration was the last thing on Huntly's mind. On 7 February 1592, Huntly suddenly and unexpectedly crossed the Forth, turning up at Donibristle, Moray's mother's castle, where Moray was temporarily lodging, and put the house to the torch. Moray tried to flee, but ran straight into Huntly's path, and was murdered in a cave.... One account told of how Moray ran towards the five, his hair and the plume of his helmet in flames, and that Huntly killed him with a dagger blow to the face. The handsome Moray allegedly died saying 'You have spoilt a better face than your own.'"
James was widely blamed, and there was even a story that Moray was the love of Anne of Denmark, James's queen, which makes the remark in some versions of the song, that Moray "might have been a king," particularly pointed.
James may have been prepared to negotiate with Moray, but he certainly didn't grieve for him; Huntley was merely placed under house arrest for a week. This is what caused Moray's mother to raise such a stink; she wanted justice for her son.
James VI never did catch up with Bothwell, though the earl eventually fled into exile. But he did not die until 1624, only a year before James himself.
Cowan, in the article "Calvinism and the Survival of Folk," notes on p. 43 that, shortly before Moray was killed, Sir John Campbell of Cawdor was also killed. These two were both strong supporters of the Kirk, and Cowan reports a speculation that, instead of being killed for political reasons, they were killed by enemies of Calvinism. Cowan suggests, "The ballad was almost certainly Kirk-inspired and it attacks King James at several vulnerable points."
It appears that Cowan is referring to the lines stating that the earl, "He might have been a king," and "He was the Queen's love." Moray, as the husband of the descendent of a bastard of James V, was not in line for the kingship -- but some might have seen him so. As for being the Queen's love, this is pretty definitely false -- but it plays upon James VI's apparent homosexuality; James had children by his wife Anne, but was known for his male favorites.
Cowan on p. 44 says that James was forced to accept legislation establishing Presbyterianism in May 1592.
This is certainly an interesting speculation but its ultimate weakness is that there seems no hint of it in the chronicles, and the ballad as we now have it has no Presbyterian references that I can see.
It is ironic to note that this ballad is best-known for an error of hearing *after* it moved out of tradition: The lines "They ha(v)e slain the Earl of Murray And laid him on the green" was heard as "They have slain the Earl of Murray and Lady Mondegreen," giving us the word "mondegreen." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C181

Bonny Flora Clark, The

DESCRIPTION: "Six sporting youths" borrow Donald's Bonny Flora Clark "in the chilly months of autumn" and sail up Grand River Harbour. They go through ice to a party and drink and fight. As Donald dreams, Bonny Flora Clark is wrecked in the ice on the way home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: moniker fight ship dream drink party river wreck humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 210-212, 242, "The Bonny Flora Clark" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13986
NOTES [13 words]: Grand River is on the north coast of Prince County, Prince Edward Island. - BS
File: IvDC210

Bonny Foot-Boy, The

See The Kitchie-Boy [Child 252] (File: C252)

Bonny Garrydoo

DESCRIPTION: On March 1, 1845, the singer leaves his comrades in Garrydoo. He crosses the seas (? or to Ballydoo?). He joins (departs?) a Masonic lodge, where McCracken is the master; there are 31. He praises the Orangemen and their girls, "Orange flowers."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H800, p. 164, "Bonny Garrydoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13473
NOTES [35 words]: This is a confusing song. Does the singer leave Garrydoo, or come there? If he started and ended there, why did he go to sea? Is he a Mason or a patriot? Did he join before or after sailing? I can't tell. - RBW
File: HHH800

Bonny Green Tree, The

See Tripping Over the Lea [Laws P19] (File: LP19)

Bonny Grey, The

See The Cock-Fight (File: VWL027)

Bonny Helen Symon

DESCRIPTION: "There are three lads into this braes... They made an oath to take her frae us, I do mean Helen Symon." They want her not for money but for her beauty. They take her away on a horse. She eventually marries (one of them,) George
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (broadside, according to Lyle)
KEYWORDS: abduction horse beauty foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Emily Lyle, _Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition_, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, pp, 253-254, "The Abduction of Nelly Symon" (1 short text, perhaps partly Gaelic); pp. 255-257, "Bonny Helen Symon" (1 text plus a reduced copy of a British Library broadside)
NOTES [156 words]: The extant copies of this song don't really make it clear what is going on -- just what role was Helen Symon's role in this? Was she willing to be abducted? And who did she choose to marry, and how? Unless additional versions come to light, we may not be able to find out. Lyle thinks she married one of her abductors, which is indeed the most obvious interpretation, but as I read the broadside, it seemed to me that there was a gap where a verse had probably been lost, and this missing verse might have had her marry one of her rescuers instead.
Lyle considers this to be earlier than any of the four abduction ballads with which she links it: "Bonny Baby Livingston" [Child 222]; "Eppie Morrie" [Child 223]; "The Lady of Arngosk" [Child 224]; and "Rob Roy" [Child 225].
Abductions for dowry were not rare in Scotland. Abductions of a woman for her looks, especially with three or four men involved, strike me as much more peculiar. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: AdBoHeSy

Bonny Hills of Scotland

See The Paisley Officer (India's Burning Sands) [Laws N2] (File: LN02)

Bonny Hind Squire, The

See Proud Lady Margaret [Child 47] (File: C047)

Bonny Hodge

DESCRIPTION: Hodge leaves his plow for a kiss from Dolly who is milking her cow. Dolly flirts but refuses. The impatient cow kicks over the stool and pail. Impatient Hodge says he'll go to Betsy. Dolly calls him back, they kiss, and go off to be married by a parson.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1841 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 616)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage wedding request rejection farming
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 214-215, "Dolly and Hodge" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 17)
Roud #1285
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 616, "Bonny Hodge" ("As Dolly sat milking her cow"), J. Jennings (London), 1790-1840
LOCSinging, as101460, "Bonny Hodge" ("As Dolly sat milking her cow"), W. S. Fortey (London), no date
NOTES [156 words]: "Bonny Hodge" includes elements of "Roger and Dolly" (II) and "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" (II). "Bonny Hodge" begins, "As Dolly sat milking her cow, Young Hodge he by chance came that way"; "Roger and Dolly" (II) begins, "As Dolly was milking of the cows, Young Roger came tripping it over the plain." The relevant verse of "Tom, the Piper's Son" begins, "As Dolly was milking her cow one day Tom took his pipe and began for to play"; the verse continues, "So Doll and the cow danced 'The Cheshire Round,' Till the pail was broken and the milk ran on the ground"; in "Bonny and Hodge", the cow "kicked the stool, milking pail down and all." "Bonny Hodge" is also reminiscent of "Roger the Ploughboy" which starts, "Young Roger the plow boy was a crafty young swain And as he went whistling o'er the plain" he met Sue "walking along with the pail on her head"; she rejected his advances, then accepted them, and "soon they got married." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT214

Bonny Irish Boy

DESCRIPTION: "His name I love to mention, in Ireland he was born." The girl recalls her Irish boy, now gone to America. She follows him, seeking him in New York and other cities. She dreams of him -- and finds him at her door. They marry and live free and happy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation emigration dream reunion marriage
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 560-561, "My Bonnie Irish Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 54, "Bonny Irish Boy" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 97-98, "Bonny Irish Boy" (1 text)
Roud #5684
File: Pea560

Bonny Irish Boy, The

See The Bonny Young Irish Boy [Laws P26] (File: LP26)

Bonny John Seton

See Bonnie John Seton [Child 198] (File: C198)

Bonny Kilwarren

DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears two lovers beside the canal in Kilwarren. He is leaving and he'll miss her sweet smile. He says birds must leave -- "gone to their nest" -- in their time. "Make few words excuse me for I must away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond01)
KEYWORDS: love parting
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #6991
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Bonny Kilwarren" (on IRRCinnamond01)
NOTES [17 words]: Cinnamond says this is about lovers parting as he goes to war. Kilwarren is a parish in County Galway. - BS
File: RcBoKilw

Bonny Laboring Boy, The [Laws M14]

DESCRIPTION: A rich girl loves a working boy. Her parents try to prevent the marriage by locking up the girl and exiling the boy. Both manage to escape; they flee to (Belfast) and prepare to take ship for America
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1860 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2525))
KEYWORDS: love prison exile escape emigration
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Britain(England(Lond,South)) Ireland
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws M14, "The Bonny Labouring Boy"
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 52, "The Bonny Laboring Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 66, "The Bonny Laboring Boy" (1 text)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 200-202, "The Railroad Boy" (1 text, 1 tune -- a Canadian adaption which has lost most of the plot, including the girl's imprisonment and the escape to America, but which retains so many of the lyrics that it can still be considered the same song)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 69, "The Bonny Labouring Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H576, pp. 435-436, "The Bonny Labouring Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 564-565, "My Bonny Labouring Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 69, "The Bonny Labouring Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 84-85, "My Bonny Laboring Boy" (1 text)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 9, "The Bonny Labouring Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 147, "The Bonny Labouring Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #95, "The Bonny Labouring Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 4, "The Bonny Labouring Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #2, "The Bonny Labouring Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 433, LABORBOY* LABORBO2
Roud #1162
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Beades, "The Bonnie Labouring Boy" (on Voice05)
Harry Cox, "The Bonny Labouring Boy" (on HCox01) (on FSBFTX15)
Pattie Maher, "The Bonny Labouring Boy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Martin Sullivan, "The Railroad Boy" (on Ontario1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2525), "My Bonny Labouring Boy," A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1845-1859; also Johnson Ballads 311, Firth b.27(109/110) View 1 of 2, Firth c.18(178), 2806 c.8(287), 2806 b.9(252), Harding B 19(17), Harding B 19(18), Harding B 19(43), "[The] Bonny Labouring Boy"; Harding B 11(838), "Bonny Laboring Boy"; Firth c.18(179), Johnson Ballads 1110, Harding B 25(256) (largely illegible), "My Bonny Labouring Boy"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Plains of Baltimore" (theme)
cf. "My Jolly Shantyboy" (tune, theme)
File: LM14

Bonny Lad That's Comin' in the Mirk to Me, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer waits for her lover to come to her this night. "Come he late or e'ar when there's ne'en to see He's welcome aye in the mark to me." She will spin at her wheel and think "wi mirth and glee" of his coming. He arrives and promises to marry her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love marriage nightvisit
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 796, "The Dark" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Roud #6203
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Comin' Thro'n the Dark
The Weary Dree
NOTES [80 words]: The first three lines here ("This is the night my lovey set And promised for to come and see But I'm afraid he's lost the way") are close to the first three lines of "This Is the Nicht My Johnnie Set" ("This is the nicht my Johnnie set, And promised to be here; Oh what can stay his laggin' step"), but the fourth lines ("The bonnie lad that's comin in the mark to me" and "He's fickle grown I fear," respectively) set the tones to be entirely different, though both end happily. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4796

Bonny Laddie, Hielan' Laddie

See Where Ha'e Ye Been A' the Day? (File: FowOn025)

Bonny Lass of Anglesey, The [Child 220]

DESCRIPTION: A group of lords is come to "dance and win" the crown away from the king (?!). The king, knowing he cannot prevail, summons the Bonny Lass of Anglesey, who easily out-dances all comers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: dancing royalty contest
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 220, "The Bonny Lass of Anglesey" (2 texts)
DT 220, ANGLELAS*
Roud #3931
File: C220

Bonny Lass, A Happy Lass, A

DESCRIPTION: "A bonny lass, a happy lass, On one rainy day, I took my true love by the hand And led her far astray." The girl offers to let him do it again, "But baldy he won't stand." Grandma said that a young girl's maidenhead "would bring the dead to life."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (recording, Bascom Lamar Lunsford)
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex virginity
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 107, "A Bonny Lass, A Happy Lass" (1 text)
File: Grim107

Bonny Light Horseman, The

See The Bonnie Light Horseman (File: HHH122a)

Bonny Lighter Boy (I), The

See Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser) [Laws N6] (File: LN06)

Bonny Lighter Boy (II), The

See The Bonny Sailor Boy [Laws M22] (File: LM22)

Bonny Lizie Baillie [Child 227]

DESCRIPTION: Lizie goes to Gartartain to visit her sister, and there meets Duncan Grahame. She falls in love, and declares that she will have a Highlander rather than any lowland or English lord. Her family tries and fails to change her mind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads)
KEYWORDS: love courting family
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 227, "Bonny Lizie Baillie" (1 text)
Bronson 227, "Bonny Lizie Baillie" (1 version)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 227, "Bonny LIzie Baillie" (1 version)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 140-145, "Lizie Baillie" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 585-588, "Bonnie Lizie Baillie" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 290-291, "Lizie Baillie" (1 text)
DT, LIZBAILI*
Roud #341
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(045), "Bonny Lizie Balie," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Glasgow Peggy" [Child 228] (theme)
NOTES [28 words]: Reportedly based on an actual story, but no real details are forthcoming. The NLScotland notes claim the broadside was printed in 1701, but offers no basis for this. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: C227

Bonny Mary Hay

DESCRIPTION: "Bonny Mary Hay, I will lo'e thee yet, For thine ee is the slae and thy hair is the jet." After praising Mary's looks, the singer asks her to come away with him. He says it is a holiday for him when she is with him. He begs her not to refuse him
AUTHOR: Archibald Crawford; tune by R.A. Smith (source: Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1825 (according Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, see notes); 1829 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H568, p. 226, "Bonny Mary Hay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 7, "Bonnie Mary Hay" (1 text)
Roud #7975
NOTES [57 words]: Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong: "The author of this song is Archibald Crawford, a native of Ayr. It originally appeared in the Ayr and Wigtonshire Courier, and was afterwards introduced into one of a series of stories by Mr Crawford, published at Edinburgh, in 1825, under the title of 'Tales of My Grandmother.' The composer was R.A. Smith." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: HHH568

Bonny Mary of Argyle

DESCRIPTION: "I have heard the mavis singing His love song to the moon... But a sweeter song has cheer'd me At the evening's gentle close"; it is the voice of Bonny Mary of Argyle. She may lose her looks and her voice, but he loves her for more than that
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Jeffries (source: Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd)
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #5)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Heart-Songs, pp. 482-483, "Mary of Argyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #106, "Mary of Argyle" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 24 and #5/64, pp. 20-21, "Mary of Argyle" (1 text)
Roud #12904
File: JMSSo105

Bonny Moor Hen, The

DESCRIPTION: Hard times and "almost starving" Wardhill miners, as in the past, hunt the moorhen. "The fat man of Oakland ... lays claim to the moors," preventing the miners from hunting. An army of gamekeepers is driven off by the miners in a battle at Stanhope.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(414))
KEYWORDS: battle poaching hunting mining hardtimes bird landlord
FOUND IN:
Roud #2944
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(414), "Bonny Moor Hen" ("You brave lads of Wardhill I pray lend an ear"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth c.19(39), "Bonny Moor Hen"
NOTES [174 words]: The last two verses,
Oh this bonny moor hen she's gone over the plain,
When summer returns she'll come back again,
They will tip her so neatly that no one can tell,
That ever they ruffled the vbonny moor-hen
Oh this bonny moor-hen has got feathers anew,
She has many fine colours but none of them bluw
Oh the miners of Wardhill are all valiant men,
They will fight till they die for the bonny moor-hen.
are close to two verses of Hogg's Jacobite "The Bonny Moorhen,"
My bonny moorhen's gane over the main,
And it will be simmer or she come again;
But when she comes back again, some folk will ken.
Joy be wi' thee, my bonny moor hen!
My bonny moorhen has feathers enew,
She's a' fine colours, but nane o' them blue;
She's red, and she's white, and she's green, and she's gray.
My bonny moorhen, come hither away.
So, have I taken this too seriously? Is it just a parody? There is no incident about a miner's battle at Stanhope in the Times of London. On the other hand, this may have been a serious event that was beneath the Times's notice. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BdTBoNH

Bonny Paisley

DESCRIPTION: The singer regrets "leaving of my sweetheart In Paisley behind." He wishes he were in Paisley where the weavers "are clever young blades" and lasses "despise all other trades." He'd build her a bower and be her weaver.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1795 ("From a Chap copy," according to Logan-APedlarsPack)
KEYWORDS: homesickness courting separation weaving nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #32, p. 2, "Bonny Paisley" (1 text)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 405-406, "Bonny Paisley"
ST Gre0032 (Partial)
Roud #5638
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian Harding B 22(381), "A New Song" ("Over hills and high mountains"), unknown, no date)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonny Portmore" (theme and "shines where it stands") and references there
cf. "The Wandering Maiden" (opening verse: "Over hills and high mountains")
cf. "Shrowsbury For Me" (line of text: "Of all the towns in ---, --- is for me.")
NOTES [173 words]: Logan-APedlarsPack in 1869: "Those who are familiar with the Irish song ... entitled "The Boys of Kilkenny," which was written about forty years ago, ... will recognize several of the stanzas ...."
Bodleian broadside Harding B 22(381), which Bodleian does not date, would seem by its font (non-final long "s," some arbitrary capitals but no italics), to be about as old as the 1795 chapbook cited by Logan [c.1770?-c.1830?]. A reference to King George is not much help in refining the date. The name of the town -- or in this case, section of London -- is omitted: "And when they come in Company with their pritty Maids, O they hugg them and kiss them, and spend their Money free And of all parts of London --- for me." It shares its first verse with "The Wandring Maiden" or "True Love at Length United" (See Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth, editor, The Bagford Ballads: Illustrating the Last Years of the Stuarts (Hertford, 1878 ("Digitized by Google")), Second Division, pp. 572-575, "The Wandring Maiden" or "True Love at Length United"). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Gre0032

Bonny Peggy Irvine

See The Earl of Aboyne [Child 235] (File: C235)

Bonny Pit Laddie, The

DESCRIPTION: "The bonny pit laddie, the canny it laddie, The bonny pit laddie for me, O! He sits in his hole as black as a coal, And brings the white siller to me, O!" "He sits on his cracket, and hews in his jacket, And brings the white siller to me, O!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1834 (Sharp, The Bishopric Garland)
KEYWORDS: mining love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: [Cuthbert Sharp], _The Bishopric Garland, A Collection of Legends, Songs, Ballads, &c Belonging to the County of Durham_, 1834 (references are to the 1969 reprint), p.54, "The Bonny Pit Laddie" (1 short text, 1 tune on p. 86)
File: CSBG054

Bonny Portmore

DESCRIPTION: The singer mourns the loss of Portmore's trees which have been cut down and floated away by "the long boats from Antrim" The birds weep saying "Where will we shelter or where will we sleep?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition)
KEYWORDS: lament nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 5, "Bonny Portmore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3475
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Bonny Portmore" (on IRRCinnamond01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Portmore" (origin[?] of "O bonny [wherever], ye shine ...") and notes there
cf. "Lowlands of Holland" (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 81A: "shines where it stands")
cf. "Yarmouth is a Pretty Town" (theme and "shines where it stands")
NOTES [301 words]: OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition: In 1761 the castle built in 1664 by Lord Conway was removed. When the estate was broken up many of its trees were sold. The text comments on the "woeful destruction of your ornament tree"; O Boyle says this refers to "the Great Oak of Portmore which was blown down in 1760.... It was fourteen yards in circumference."
See Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H775, p. 171, "Bonny Portrush" (1 text, 1 tune), apparently written by Henry "by request.... The first verse is parodied on the old ballad 'Bonny Portmore.'" I wouldn't call it a parody: the O Boyle lines are "If I had you [Portmore] as I had once before All the Lords in Old England would not purchase Portmore"; the Henry lines are "Were I near you now as I once was before, All the gold of old England would ne'er part us more."
Greig #32 dicusses parallels between "Bonny Portmore" and "Bonny Udny" and similar songs. While his "Bonny Portmore" is not this song (Greig's has nothing to do with trees) it begins with practically the same lines: "O bonny Portmore, ye shine where ye charm, The more I think on you it makes my heart warm" but continues "But when I look on you it makes my heart sore To think of the valiant in bonny Portmore." Greig notes the same sort of pattern in "The Boys of Kilkenny" ("Kilkenny's a pretty town, and shines where it stands, And the more I think on it the more my heart warms; Oh! If I was in Kilkenny I'd think myself at home, For 'tis there I get sweethearts, but here I get none.") and "Bonnie Paisley."
See the notes to "Glenlogie, or, Jean o Bethelnie" [Child 238] for an example of the floating fill-in-the-blanks verse found in Bonny Portmore.
See "Bonny Paisley" for Logan's comment on the relationship of "Bonnie Paisley" and "The Boys of Kilkenny." - BS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: OBoy005

Bonny Robin

See As Robin Was Driving (File: BuDa008)

Bonny Sailor Boy, The [Laws M22]

DESCRIPTION: A rich girl and a poor sailor are in love. The girl's father hears them courting in the garden, bursts in, and threatens the boy with transportation. The girl swears to remain faithful
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: poverty sailor love transportation
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(South)) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws M22, "The Bonny Sailor Boy"
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 163, "My Darling Ploughman Boy" (1 text, 1 tune, much worn down)
Greig/Duncan3 413, "My Ploughman Boy" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1117, "My Darling Sailor Boy" (2 fragments plus a single verse on p. 547, 2 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 328, "My Bonnie Sailor Boy" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, p. 179, "Jolly Young Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 18, "The Newry Prentice Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 39, pp. 127-128,171, "The Dandy Apprentice Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 745, BONSAIL*
Roud #843
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy McBeath, "My Darling Ploughman Boy" (on FSB01) (on FSBFTX15)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Servant Man" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bonny Lighter Boy
NOTES [97 words]: This seems a group of songs sharing a single verse in which the father overhears the lovers and threatens to transport the man and a verse in which the woman talks of making her bed with leaves. Roud numbers Greig/Duncan3 as #5935.
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 18: the boy is "a weaver lad and him apprentice bound." Roud makes this version #2934.
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday is like another Irish version (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads) in that the apprentice is a weaver; it ends "And so she sang and the valleys rang and she gained her apprentice boy." - BS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: LM22

Bonny Saint John

DESCRIPTION: "Where have you been, My bonny Saint John? You've bidden sae lang (x2)." "Up on yon hill... And I couldna win hame." "Now, what will you give me Unto my supper?" "A clean dish for you And a clean spoon, For biding sae long."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Montgomerie)
KEYWORDS: food home travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 191, "Bonny Saint John" (1 text)
Roud #3899
NOTES [26 words]: Sort of a cross between "Lord Randall" and a scold to a child for being late for dinner. If it didn't go back to Buchan, I'd have guessed a sixties parody. - RBW
File: MSNR189

Bonny Scotch Lad, The

See Jacket So Blue, The (The Bonnet o' Blue) (File: FSC43)

Bonny Tavern Green

DESCRIPTION: The singer falls in love with a girl in Tavern Green. Her killing glances wounded his heart. "If I was Queen of England as Queen Ann was long ago ... she never would want money while I would rule as queen"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (IRPTunney01)
KEYWORDS: love floatingverses nonballad royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1702-1714 - Reign of Queen Anne of England, daughter of James II. She was succeeded by her cousin Geroge I
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 155, "Bonnie Tavern Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3110
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "Tavrin Green" (on IRPTunney01); "Bonny Tavern Green" (on Voice15, IRPTunney03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Girl" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Lover's Resolution" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [256 words]: Floating verses: from "The Irish Girl": "Oh, love it is a killing thing, I hear the people say."
Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Reviews - Volume 15" by Fred McCormick - 27.2.99: "I am also curious over the fact that this song is told from a man's perspective, since the last verse fantasises about him being Queen of England 'as Queen Ann was long ago'. Are we witnessing a former woman's song which has undergone a less than perfect gender change?"
Maybe this is a corrupted version, with roles reversed, of "Lover's Resolution." That would explain the "If I was Queen of England" line which both share; they also share "love it is a killing thing, I hear the people say." - BS
The reference to Queen Anne is interesting. Anne was hardly the most famous Queen of England (obviously Elizabeth I earns that distinction), and she wasn't particularly noteworthy for brains or (especially) looks, but she was the *last* ruling queen until Victoria ascended in 1837. Indeed, prior to Victoria, Anne and Elizabeth I had been the only queens to really rule England. So maybe that explains the references to her.
The other possibility is that Queen Anne was not ruling queen, but merely wife of a king. The last wife of a King named Anne was Anne Hyde, wife of James II, but she died before he succeeded and can be ignored.
Prior to that, James VI and I was married to Anne of Denmark. And Henry VIII had had two wives named Anne.
Given the careers of those consorts Anne, I have to think the ruling queen is meant. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: RcBoTaGr

Bonny Udny

See Bonnie Udny (File: Ord341)

Bonny Wee Lass (As I Went Out One Summer's Day)

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes out and meets a shy girl on the road. He cajoles her into talking to him; they talk of her work and of love. They are married and live happily ever after; he looks fondly on the road where he met her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H763, p. 458, "The Bonny Wee Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Wee Trampin'
File: HHH763

Bonny Wee Lass o' the Glen, The

See The Bonnie Wee Lass of the Glen (File: HHH014a)

Bonny Wee Window, The [Laws O18]

DESCRIPTION: Johnny comes to visit Nellie, whose window lacks a pane. The two talk until Nellie must go to bed, when Johnny sticks his head through the window for a kiss -- and finds himself stuck! Nellie's grandmother beats him till he pulls out frame and all
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899; music apparently for sale in 1891 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous nightvisit
FOUND IN: US(So) Britain(Scotland,England(North)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws O18, "The Bonny Wee Window"
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 20-23, "The Bonnie Wee Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #123, pp. 1-2, "The Bonnie Wee Window" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1512, "The Bonnie Wee Window" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Randolph 122, "The Bonny Wee Window" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 123, "The Bonny Wee Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 99-100, "The Bonnie Wee Window" (1 text)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 76, "The Neat Little Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 479, WEEWINDO*
Roud #989
RECORDINGS:
Jack Goodfellow, "The Bonny Wee Window" (on FSBFTX13)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(314), "Kissing at the Window," Haly (Cork), 19C; also Firth b.27(282), 2806 b.11(278), Harding B 19(41), "Kissing at the Window"; Harding B 26(312), "Kissing Through the Window"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Crockery Ware" (plot)
SAME TUNE:
Imphm (by James Nicholson)
NOTES [68 words]: Jim Dixon points out to me that there is an advertisement for a song of this title, one of a set of "Humorouus Part-Songs" published by Bayley and Ferguson, in The Musical Times, Vol. 32, No. 575, for January 1, 1891 (London, Novello, Ewer, and Co.), p. 59 (available on Google Books). I cannot prove that this is the same song, but it seems likely. It was listed as arranged by William Moodie. - (JD), RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: LO18

Bonny Willie Macintosh

See Willie Macintosh [Child 183] (File: C183)

Bonny Wood Green

DESCRIPTION: Singer enlists at Kells Barracks "to fight for my Queen" and leaves Nellie behind in Wood Green. He leaves in a troop ship from Larne Harbour. He is shot in Flanders and asks his comrades to take a message to Nellie in Ireland near Portaballintree.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (IRHardySons)
KEYWORDS: love war parting death Ireland soldier
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #9246
RECORDINGS:
Packie McKeaney, "Bonny Wood Green" (on IRHardySons)
NOTES [101 words]: Notes to IRHardySons: "It would appear to be an Antrim song, given the mention of Portballintree, but there's no parish or townland called Wood Green anywhere nearby." - BS
There is also the curiosity of fighting "for [the] Queen" in Flanders. Which Queen? Elizabeth I? Too early. Victoria? There were no major British interventions in Flanders in her time. Which leaves us only Queen Anne and the War of the Spanish Succession. But that's a lot of time for things to get confused. My guess is that this is a song from some earlier war, perhaps in Victoria's reign, imperfectly updated for World War I. - RBW
File: RcBoWooG

Bonny Young Irish Boy, The [Laws P26]

DESCRIPTION: The girl is sorely hurt when her Irish boy leaves her to cross the ocean. She follows him across the sea, only to learn that he has married another. She dies of a broken heart and asks to be buried in Ireland
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 20(178))
KEYWORDS: separation rejection marriage death burial
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Newf,Ont) US(Ro)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Laws P26, "The Bonny Young Irish Boy"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #48, p. 1, "My Bonnie Irish Boy" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1080, "My Bonnie Irish Boy" (9 texts, 6 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 162-163, "My Bonnie Irish Boy" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 152-153, "The Bonny Irish Boy" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 95, "The Bonny Young Irish Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 562-563, "My Bonnie Irish Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 275-279, "My Bonny Irish Boy (Bonny Irish Boy)" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 44, "My Bonny Irish Boy" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H168, pp. 399-400, "My Bonnie Irish Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 40, pp. 128-129,171, "The Bonny Irish Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 64, "The Bonnie Irish Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #66, "My Bonny Irish Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 506, YNGIRISH*
Roud #565
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Bonny Irish Boy" (on Abbott1)
Mr. M. Curran, "The Bonny Irish Boy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
John Maguire, "The Bonny Irish Boy" (on IRJMaguire01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 20(178), "The Bonny Irish Boy" ("It's once I was courted by a bonny Irish boy"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also 2806 b.11(276), "Bonny Irish Boy"; 2806 b.11(186), "My Bonnie Irish Boy"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cupid's Trepan (Cupid's Trappan, The Bonny Bird)" (tune)
NOTES [60 words]: In the Bodleian broadsides the singer has not died yet: "In rattling of my chains and on a bed of straw I lie."
One of Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's texts is a verse from Bodleian broadside 2806 b.11(186), cited above. Another is a verse from Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H168, pp. 399-400, "My Bonnie Irish Boy." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LP26

Bonny, Bonny

DESCRIPTION: The singer, or his love, recalls his beautiful home and situation. But now he has been taken by the press gang and serves aboard the Nightingale. He will depart soon, and expects once more to be pressed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (JIFSS)
KEYWORDS: pressgang
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H75b, pp. 199-200, "Bonny, Bonny" (1 text, 1 tune, a fragment to which Henry added four stanzas)
NOTES [45 words]: The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "The Nightingale" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
File: HHH075b

Bonsoir, Old Thing

See Goodbye-ee (File: BrPa220A)

Bony Lost it Fairly

DESCRIPTION: "Lord Wellington long kept him down, And boldly did advance, He drew his armies out of Spain, And then invaded France. For all his quick and warlike tricks, They tossed him from his station, No more to rise and reign again The scourge of every nation"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: war France Spain Napoleon
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 150, "Bony Lost it Fairly" (1 fragment)
Roud #5823
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Miller of Drone" (tune)
NOTES [86 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan1 fragment. - BS
It is, at least, reasonably accurate as a description of the situation in 1814. Wellington had finally won the battle for Spain (the Peninsular campaign) and was preparing to cross the Pyrenees into France as the other allies closed in on Paris; Napoleon agreed to abdicate and went to Elba. Of course, Napoleon didn't stay abdicated; he came back and fought at Waterloo. Given the state of the fragment, we don't know whether that was covered. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1150

Bony's Lament

See Napoleon's Farewell to Paris (File: GC089)

Boodie Bo

DESCRIPTION: The singer courts a girl unsuccessfully. He dresses his friend Boodie Bo in white one night. They meet his girl. She is frightened and goes to the singer's chamber "for fear of Boodie Bo." They have sex. When she rues her action he marries her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1689 (see note)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage seduction disguise trick ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1496, "Boodie Bo" (1 text)
DT, BOGLEBO
Roud #7163
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo)" [Laws O3] (theme and many lines)
NOTES [355 words]: Greig/Duncan7 quoting Bell Robertson: "This was mother's and Mr Greig said it [was] the only version that had point as the foggy dew ["The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo)" [Laws O3]] seemd so senseless."
That the effect is intended is shown by "when she meant to go away again came Boodie Bo."
The only difference between this song and Laws O3 is that the bugaboo, or foggy dew, is an apparently frightening person named Boodie Bo.
Jno Pauraig's Drinking Songs & Barroom-lore site has a copy of a 1689 broadside "from vol. 5 page 250 of the Pepys Ballad collection": "The Fright'ned York-shire Damosel, or, Fears Dispersed by Pleasure." The broadside and Greig/Duncan7 texts share line fragments. The only difference in plots is that the broadside ghost -- Bogulmaroo, a grinning sprite -- may be real.
According to the Online Scots Dictionary, "bogle" is "spectre, a hobgoblin."
A similar trick is used in "The Bogle-Bo." Hab marries Bessie, who turns out to be a shrew ("frae nicht till the dawin they battled" and she gets the better of it). Tailor Tam comes to Hab's rescue by appearing at the couple's bedside dressed in an ox hide with horns and tail, threatening to take Bessie away. See, said Hab, "whare your tantrums wad en'." Bessie surrenders: "'O dear, dear Habby, my jewel! Keep me frae the Bogle-bo." Moral : "Now, lasses ... when [the men] their services tender, And ye wad say yes, say na no; Wi' frankness and caution surrender, For fear o' the Bogle-Bo" (Robert Jamieson, Popular Ballads and Songs from Tradition, Manuscripts, and Scarce Editions (Edinburgh, 1806 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, pp. 292-300, "The Bogle-Bo" (1 text)).
For "The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo) [Laws O3]" see the discussion of EngBdsdBA Pepys 5.250. The main difference between Pepys and "Boodie Boo" is that in Pepys the "spright" is real. There are some shared lines, as there are between Pepys and other "Foggy Dew" texts. One feature that both Pepys and "Boodoe Bo" lack is the common "Foggy Dew" verse "All through the first part of the night We did sport and play And through the latter part of that night She in my arms did lay." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD71496

Boogaboo, The

See The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo) [Laws O3] (File: LO03)

Booger Man

DESCRIPTION: The Booger Man talks with the children: "What are you doing down there?" "Eating grapes." "How big are they?" "Big as your head...." "What would you do if you saw the Booger Man coming?" "Run like a turkey."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains)
KEYWORDS: playparty food dialog questions nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 29, "Booger Man" (1 text)
File: Skea029

Booker T. Washington

DESCRIPTION: "Old Booker T. Washington, the big Black man, To the White House went one day. He wanted to see the President in a quiet sort of way." "Teddy" invites him in. "And you can't blame Booker for making those goo-goo eyes." The singer insults both
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: political Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 135, "Booker T. Washington" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11342
NOTES [126 words]: According to Louis Auchincloss, Theodore Roosevelt [a volume in the American Presidents series edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.], Times Books, 2001, p. 63, "Early in his first term TR [Theodore Roosevelt] had invited Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House, which had aroused a howl of protest in newspapers throughout the South. Roosevelt's response was: 'As things have turned out I am very glad that I asked him, for the clamor aroused by the act makes me feel as if the act was necessary.... I do not intend to offend the prejudices of anyone else, but neither do I allow their prejudices to make me false to my principles.'
"But in private he admitted that the invitation had been a political mistake, which he did not repeat...." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne135

Bookerman, The

DESCRIPTION: "Got to sleep, little baby, Before the bookerman catch you, Turkey in the next Can't get a rest, Can't get a rest for the baby."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: lullaby nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 157, (no title) (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wind Is in the West" (theme)
File: ScNF157B

Books of the Bible, The

See Old Testament in Verse (The Books of the Bible) (File: R875)

Boom-de-yada

See Boomdeada (File: AverBoom)

Boom, Boom, Ain't It Great to Be Crazy?

See Ain't It Great to Be Crazy? (File: DTgrtcra)

Boomdeada

DESCRIPTION: "I (like/love) the mountains, I love the rolling hills, I love the flowers, I love the daffodils, I love the fireside, When all the lights are low, Boomdeada, Boomdeada....." (Repeat as needed, possibly with the text lines repeated over the "Boomdeada"s
AUTHOR: Words: unknown / music: based on "Heart and Soul" by Hoagy Carmichael
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: travel flowers nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 149, "(Boom-de-yada)t" (1 text, from user cpg, posted October 21, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 30, 261, 315, 317, 441, "Boomdeada" (notes, with an unusual stanza on p. 261 and an unusual ending on p. 315)
ST AverBoom (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Heart and Soul" (lmelody)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Love the Mountains
I Love the Flowers
NOTES [246 words]: This is widespread in camps, and no author seems to be known. I have to think it composed, though, because of the chord sequence, I-Vim-IIm/IV-D (i.e. G-Em-Am/C-D in the key of G), which was a feature of a tremendous number of songs centering around the 1950s. (I seem to recall it being called "The Great Fifties Chord Sequence"; Wikipedia has an entry on the "Fifties Progression," though some of the songs listed there don't really use the sequence). The quintessential example is "Heart and Soul," and you can actually use this melody as the bass line for that song although they aren't *quite* identical (I'm pretty sure the versions I've heard are folk-processed versions of "Heart and Soul"). The sequence is also known for its use in doo-wop. I suspect someone took the sequence -- probably from "Heart and Soul," which is the tune attributed by Averill, and which I spotted without her hint -- and used the words as a harmony teaching tool, possibly even to use with the lyrics from "Heart and Soul."
Which doesn't change the fact that it's a great tune.
There is evidence of oral transmission. The Winds of the People songbook has the song buried in the section on "Sun and Rain," with no attribution -- but reverses the first two lines and has a slight variation on the last line also. (In fact, it looks as if there was a disagreement about the order of the words, because the typed text in Winds of the People has a handwritten correction in the lines!). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AverBoom

Boorowa Was Boorowa

DESCRIPTION: "Boorowa was Boorowa when Young was a pup, And Boorowa will be Boorowa when Young is buggered up."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 17, page headed "After several social visits..."], "(no title)" (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "So Give Me Old Boorowa" (subject of Boorowa)
NOTES [95 words]: Boorowa is a small town and a river in New South Wales, north and somewhat west of Canberra, west and somewhat south of Sydney, almsot due west of Woolongong. Young is a slightly larger town to the west, which according to Andrew and Nancy Learmonth, Encyclopedia of Australia, 2nd edition, Warne & Co, 1973, p. 605, was once a gold mining town. Thus the residents of Boorowa, who were not dependent on mining, might think their town would still be around when its neighbor shut down. But Young found other ways to survive, so this song's boast is (so far) false. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: FaWBooro

Booth Killed Lincoln

DESCRIPTION: "Wiles Booth came to Washington, An actor great was he, He played at Ford's Theater And Lincoln went to see." Booth sneaks up on Lincoln and shoots him, then flees. The dying Lincoln says "'Of all the actors in this town, I loved Wilkes Booth the best'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: death Civilwar homicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 14, 1865 - John Wilkes Booth shoots Abraham Lincoln.
Apr 15, 1865 - Lincoln dies
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 224-225, "(Booth Killed Lincoln)" (1 text)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 111-112, "Booth Killed Lincoln" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 90-91, "Booth Killed Lincoln" (1 text, 1 tune)n
Roud #16990
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Booth Killed Lincoln" (LOC AAFS L29, 1949)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Booth Shot Lincoln
NOTES [145 words]: Five days after Robert E. Lee's surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia (an event that guaranteed that the Confederacy would not survive), John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865) entered Abraham Lincoln's box at Ford's Theatre and shot the President. Booth fled across the stage and, despite breaking his leg, escaped. Eventually he and his fellow conspirators were caught; Booth died when the barn in which he was hiding took fire. Most of the other conspirators were sentenced to death or long imprisonment.
Had Booth killed Lincoln earlier, it might have made a difference. As it was, the only difference the assassination made was to cause Andrew Johnson to succeed as President. Johnson tried to protect the South from the vengeance of radicals in congress, but he was so inept that one suspects the South would have been better off if Lincoln had remained alive. - RBW, (PJS)
Last updated in version 6.1
File: SCW90

Boothbay Whale, The

DESCRIPTION: Lauding the clever fisherfolk of Boothbay. One-legged Skipper Jake sets out to catch a whale, even though it is too big for his boat. He jumps on the whale's back, sticks his peg in its blowhole, and causes it to blow out its brains as it tries to exhale
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: whale humorous talltale fishing
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 399, "The Boothbay Whale" (1 text)
File: FSWB399A

Bootlegger, The (Trammell's Bootlegger)

DESCRIPTION: "Hee-haw, hee-haw, Blind Jack is my name, I romp, I paw, I snort, I snooze, For I am in the business of selling booze." But the police are after him; he hopes to escape, but apparently is punished -- and hopes to win a prize for his poetry about it
AUTHOR: "Trammell"
EARLIEST DATE: Dated to 1915; printed by Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands 1931
KEYWORDS: drink punishment judge
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 154, "The Bootlegger" (1 text)
ST Fus154 (Partial)
Roud #16369
NOTES [30 words]: Seemingly not traditional, and certainly not very good (or very easy to understand), but Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands includes it as a "type of extreme modern ballad." - RBW
File: Fus154

Boozer (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a howler from the prairies of the West! If you want to die with terror look at me!" The boozer boats of all the things he is: "I'm the snoozer from the upper trail! I'm the reveler in murderer in gore." "I can snatch a man bald-headed while he waits"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy bragging
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, p. 9, "The Boozer" (1 text)
Roud #8029
File: ThFi009

Boozer (II), The

See The Pig Got Up and Slowly Walked Away (File: RcPGUSWA)

Boozers All

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, We're boozers all, you can tell us by our nose; We're from the land where beer and whisky flows... We belong to the Salvation Army. Could you go? (x2) If a feller came up to you... Could you go a glass of beer? Yes, my word, could you go!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1942 (according to Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 109, "Boozers All" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Clev109

Border Affair, A

See Spanish Is the Loving Tongue (A Border Affair) (File: FCW052)

Border Trail, The

See The Far Northland (The Border Trail) (File: ACSF282F)

Border Widow's Lament, The

See The Famous Flower of Serving-Men [Child 106] (File: C106)

Bordon's Grove

DESCRIPTION: The singer wanders by Bordon's Grove and hears a girl lamenting. He courts her; she says she is waiting for Johnny. He asks about Johnny, and (s)he says he was wounded in Flanders. She sees his love token, and declares they will never meet again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation reunion brokentoken
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H529, pp. 320-321, "Bordon's Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 46, "Borland's Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 17, "By Borden's Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2322
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Borland's Groves
NOTES [75 words]: The Sam Henry version of this is very fragmentary; there is little real deceit. Presumably more happened in the original versions. Although Dave McMahon's Ontario version, in Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario, is hardly more detailed, except that it has the man, not the woman, say that Johnny was wounded in Flanders.- RBW
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario [1965]: "Mr McGoogan learnt the song from his mother sixty years ago." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HHH529

Bores Heed in Hand Bring I, The

See The Boar's Head Carol (File: OBC172A)

Boring for Oil

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes boring for oil with his "auger," and in some versions contracts a venereal disease.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex disease warning
FOUND IN: Canada(West) US(MA,MW,NE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 58-60, "Boring for Oil" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 26, pp. 160-162, "Boring for Oil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 263, "Boring for Oil" (1 text, 1 tune, possibly slightly expurgated)
DT, BOREOIL*
Roud #10094
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fire Ship" (plot) and references there
NOTES [71 words]: Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging says this "may be the oldest bawdy oil occupation song in tradition." There isn't much competition for that title. But Logsdon's version refers to "Oil City," which he believes to be in the Pennsylvania oil fields, which might date the song as early as the 1860s. And one of Randolph's variants apparently did date back to c. 1910. So while proof is lacking, Logsdon's claim is possible. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: RL058

Boris, Boris

DESCRIPTION: "Boris was a gentleman In the Tsar's regime... Boris had a lady fair... And ev'ry night she'd wake in fright, And this is what she'd scream: Boris, Boris, save me, save me." He sags in the middle and rides a horse. He dies and leaves his beard to the girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs); Digital Tradition gives a date c. 1953
KEYWORDS: love hair horse wordplay campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 129, 414, "Boris" (notes plus a partial text on p. 129)
DT, BORSBORS
File: ACSF129B

Borland's Grove

See Bordon's Grove (File: HHH529)

Born Free

DESCRIPTION: "Born free, as free as the wind blows." The animal (or person) is urged to "live free" and "stay free"
AUTHOR: Words: Don Black / Music: John Barry (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (movie "Born Free")
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 391, 556 "Born Free" (notes only)
DT, BORNFREE
File: ACSF391B

Born in Hard Luck

See Talking Hard Luck (File: CSW214)

Born On Days

See Monday's Child (File: OO2353)

Boss of the Section Gang, The

DESCRIPTION: Mike Cahooley, an Irish immigrant, goes to work on the railroad; he advances to boss of the section gang. When the company president comes around, he shakes Mike's hand; his workers fear him. He is going home to his wife, but hearers are welcome to visit
AUTHOR: Possibly "Cyclone" Harry Hart
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (broadside by Harry Hart)
KEYWORDS: pride bragging emigration railroading work family boss worker
FOUND IN: US(So)
Roud #8585
RECORDINGS:
Minta Morgan, "The Boss of the Section Gang" (AFS 922 B2, 1937; on LC61)
File: RctBotSG

Boston

See Boston Harbor (File: BAF831)

Boston Burglar, The [Laws L16]

DESCRIPTION: The youth is brought up by honest parents, but turns wild. At last he is taken and, despite his parents' entreaties, sentenced to transportation (in American texts, prison). He dreams of release, plans to give up bad ways, and warns others to do the same
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(4372)); c.1840 (broadside, NLScotland APS.4.86.33); Anderson dates his broadside copy c. 1828
KEYWORDS: crime outlaw trial punishment warning father mother transportation prison
FOUND IN: US(All) Britain(England(West),Scotland) Australia Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (54 citations):
Laws L16, "Botany Bay A [Laws L16A]/The Boston Burglar (Botany Bay B) [Laws L16B]"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #132, p. 1, "The Boston Smuggler" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 260, "Boston Smuggler" (3 texts)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 350, "Botany Bay" (1 text)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 10-12, "Bot'ny Bay" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 73, "Charlestown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 136, "The Louisville Burglar" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 52-53, "Boston City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 43, "The Boston Burglar" (1 text); also a broadside print on p. 45
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 85, "The Boston Burglar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 131, "Botany Bay" (1 short text); 137, "The Boston Burglar" 1 text pllus an excerpt and mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 64-65, "Bound for Charlers Town"; pp. 96-97, "Bound for Sydney Town"; pp. 139-140, "Moreton Bay"; pp. 257-258, "Boston City" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 6-7, "Botany Bay II" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 31-32, "The Transport, or Botany Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 48-50, "The Botany Bay Transport" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 53-54, "Boston Burglar" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 253-254, "Botany Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sturgis/Hughes-SongsFromTheHillsOfVermont, pp. 40-43, "Botany Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 42-44, "The Boston Burglar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 220, "Botany Bay; p. 222, "The Boston Burglar" (2 texts)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 114, "The Boston Burglar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, "The Colton Boy" (1 short text)
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, pp. 61-62, "TheBoston Burglar" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 242, "The Boston Burglar" (1 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 242, "The Boston Burglar (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 56, "The Boston Burglar" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #208, "The Boston Burglar" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 69-71, "Botany Bay (The Boston Burglar)" (1 text)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 289-296, "The Boston Burglar" (5 texts plus a fragment of a playparty, with local titles "The Boston Burglar," "Covington," "I Was Borned and Raised in Covington," "Frank James, the Burglar" (which despite the title is clearly not about Jesse's brother), "The Boston Burglar"; 3 tunes on pp. 433-435)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 243-244, "To Huntsville" (1 text, which seems to have lost the beginning)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #134, "The Boston Burglar" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 41, "The Boston Burglar" (2 texts plus mention of 3 more)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 10-11, "Bound for Botany Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H691, p. 119, "Botany Bay"; H202, pp. 119-120, "The Boston Burglar" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 44, "Boston City" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 149, "The Boston Burglar" (1 text)
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, p. 73, "The Boston Burglar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 88-89, "The Boston Burglar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 132-133, "Louisville Burglar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 158-160, "The Boston Burglar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 23, pp. 57-58, "The Boston Burglar"; pp. 59-60, "Charlestown" (2 texts)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 84, "The Boston Burglar" (3 texts)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #29, p. 105, "The Boston Burglar" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 92, "The Boston Burglar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 101, "The Boston Burglar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 96, "Boston Burglar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 70-72, "The Boston Burglar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 162-163, "The Boston Burglar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 232-233, "Botany Bay" (1 text, 1 tune, falsely said to be Roud #5478)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 108-110, "Botany Bay"; "Louisville Burglar" (2 texts)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 67, "The Boston Burglar" (1 text)
DT 425, BSTNCITY BOTNYBAY
ADDITIONAL: Geoffrey C. Ingleton, _True Patriots All: or News from Early Australia as told in A Collection of Broadsides_ ("Garnered and Decorated" by Ingleton), Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1988, p. 120, "Botany Bay" (1 text)
Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 62, "The Transport, or Botany Bay" (1 text, with a tune on p. 542); compare pp. 492-493, "Adieu to Old England or the Transport's Farewell" (1 text, perhaps a rewrite of this, with a tune on p. 610)
Roud #261
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Boston Burglar" (OKeh 40419, 1925)
Vernon Dalhart, "Boston Burglar" (Brunswick 2942, 1925) (Edison 51608 [as Vernon Dalhart & Co.], 1925)
Hickory Nuts, "Louisville Burglar" (OKeh 45169, 1927; on RoughWays2, ConstSor1)
Frank Hutchison, "The Boston Burglar" (OKeh 45425, 1930; rec. 1929)
Amelia Kinslow, "The Boston Burglar" (on NFAGuigné01)
Claude Moye, "Boston Burgular" (Gennett 6748 [as Pie Plant Pete]/Champion 15752 [as Asparagus Joe]/Supertone 9351 [as Pie Plant Pete], 1929) (Conqueror 8435 [as Pie Plant Pete], 1934)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Louisville Burglar" (on NLCR02)
Riley Puckett, "The Boston Burglar" (Columbia 15050-D, 1926; rec. 1925)
L. D. Smith, "Frank James, the Roving Gambler (The Boston Burglar)" (AFS; on LC14)
Carl T. Sprague, "The Boston Burglar" (Victor 20534, 1927)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4372), "Botany Bay" ("Come all young men of learning, take warning by me"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Firth c.17(55), "The Transport" or "Botany Bay"
NLScotland, APS.4.86.33, "The Edinburgh Convicts," Walker (Durham), after 1840
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Harrison Town" (theme)
cf. "The Prisoner's Song (II)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Coon-Can Game" [Laws I4] (floating lyrics)
cf. "Bluefield Murder" (lyrics, form)
cf. "Terrell" (lyrics, form)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bound for Charlestown
Bound for Sydney Town
I Was Born in Boston
NOTES [139 words]: For the history of the penal colony (that never was) at Botany Bay, see the song with that title.
The original version of the piece was a transportation song to Botany Bay, but this seems to have been largely overshadowed by the ""X Burglar" type, so we have lumped them and filed them under the "Burglar" type.
The subfamily of texts known as "The Boston Burglar" is now credited (Marks, Spaeth, Cazden et al; cf. Randolph) to Michael J. Fitzgerald. The amount of reworking done by Fitzgerald, however, was slight, and older and newer versions continue to mix. - RBW
One of the Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia references goes under the name "Moreton Bay". This should not be confused with the song by the same name, indexed as "Moreton Bay (I), which includes the killing by an Aborigine of the oppressive Captain Logan. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LL16

Boston City

See The Boston Burglar [LawsL16] (File: LL16)

Boston Come-All-Ye, The

See Song of the Fishes (Blow Ye Winds Westerly) (File: LxA496)

Boston Harbor

DESCRIPTION: "From Boston Harbor we set sail, The wind was blowing the devil of a gale." The captain gives cruel orders, curses the sailors, demands drink, and goes to his cabin to avoid the storm. They hope he dies; (when he does, they threaten his son)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor storm death hardtimes drink children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 168-169, "Boston" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 155-157, "Boston" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 831-832, "Boston" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 22, "From Sweet Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BSTNMRBR*
Roud #613
File: BAF831

Boston Smuggler, The

See The Boston Burglar [LawsL16] (File: LL16)

Boston Tea Party (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "As near beauteous Boston lying on the gently swelling flood" were "three ill-fated teaships." "This was Hampden, that was Sidney, with fair Liberty" and tools of vandalism. "Tell you masters they were dreamers when they thought to cheat the brave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs)
KEYWORDS: rebellion ship patriotic food sabotage
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec. 16, 1773 - Boston Tea Party. Americans protest the British tax on tea by dumping a shipload into Boston Harbor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 6-7, "The Boston Tea Party" (1 text)
Roud #24153
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ballad of the Tea Party" (subject)
NOTES [15 words]: Poor poetry and frankly not very accurate. File under "propaganda." Or maybe "agitprop." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: CDam006

Boston Tea Party (II), The

See Ballad of the Tea Party (File: BNEF538)

Boston Tea Tax, The

DESCRIPTION: "I snum [declare] I am a Yankee lad, And I guess I'll sing a ditty." The singer describes all that his people would have done then had America been free (e.g. crossed a bridge that wasn't built yet). Failing that, they dumped the tea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933; the broadside is believed to be from 1831 or earlier
KEYWORDS: rebellion ship patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec. 16, 1773 - Boston Tea Party. Americans protest the British tax on tea by dumping a shipload into Boston Harbor
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 539-541, "The Boston Tea Tax" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 52-53, "[Boston] Tez-Tax" (1 text)
DT, TEATAX*
NOTES [35 words]: Although this song refers to events of 1773, the references to changes which took place after that time make it clear that it is more recent. Botkin dates it to the period 1830-1840. Cohen suggests 1829-1831. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: BNEF539

Bosun's Alphabet, The

See The Sailor's Alphabet (File: RcTSAlp)

Bosun's Story, The

DESCRIPTION: Exaggerated story about a whaling voyage. The crew nails the ship to a whale's tail and thus sails to the North Pole and back. Each stanza ends with "'And that's the truth', said he."
AUTHOR: Words: Fred E. Weatherly / Music: J. L. Malloy
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Treasury of Favorite Songs)
KEYWORDS: shanty whale bragging talltale
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 157-159, "The Bos'un's Story" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 55, "The Sailor'sTale" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Piersol McCaskey, compiler, _Treasury of Favorite Songs_ (in three volumes), J. P. McCaskey, 1916 (available on Google Books), Volume III, p. 346, "The Boatswain's Story" (1 text, 1 tune)
The Trident Society/John W. Crosley, music editor, _The Book of Navy Songs_, Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1930 (available on Google Books), pp. 94-95, "The Bo's'n" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9141
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay" (humorous song about reaching the North Pole)
NOTES [84 words]: [Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips's version is] taken from a 1935 issue of Sea Breezes magazine, published in Liverpool, as given by Capt. A.G. Cole. - SL
Harlow isn't the only one to think this a traditional Walkaway (stamp and go) shanty, although I would think the verse form would give it away. The earliest copy I've found is from 1916 (the sheet music in the Library of Congress is undated), but I suspect it's from the very early 1900s, when the North Pole seemed like it might be unreachable (
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Harl157

Bosworth ffeilde

See The Battle of Bosworth Field (File: BdTBOBoF)

Bot'ny Bay

See The Boston Burglar [LawsL16] (File: LL16)

Botany Bay (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer is paying for his life of crime by being transported to Botany Bay. He describes the miserable fate of the convicts on board the prison vessel, warns others against such crimes, and wishes he could return to his love at home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1885
KEYWORDS: transportation separation crime Australia
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1788 - First penal colony founded in Australia
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(So) Australia
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Randolph 96, "Botany Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 36-37, 113, "Botany Bay" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 4-5, "Botany Bay I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 86, "Botany Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 24-25, "Botany Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 40-41, "Botany Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 22, "Botany Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 29-30, "Farewell to Old England" (1 text, 1 tune)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 129-131, "The Convict's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 67, "Botany Bay" (1 text)
DT, BOTBAY2*
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 149-150, "Botany Bay" (1 text)
A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 63, "Botany Bay" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 263-264, "Botany Bay" (1 text)
Roud #3267
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Botany Bay" (on JGreenway01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "Too Rally" (tune)
cf. "The Prisoner's Song (I)"
SAME TUNE:
The Kriegie Ballad (File: DalC223)
Turalai (File: Kins178)
NOTES [135 words]: The American Revolutionary War meant that, after the 1780s, Britain could no longer transport convicts to America. In 1788, therefore, an expedition was mounted to carry prisoners to Australia.
The fleet's original destination was Botany Bay (so-called because of all the wildlife found by the original explorers), but this proved so barren that the fleet's commander, Captain Arthur Phillip (1738-1814; governor 1788-1792), decided to move a short way up the coast to Sydney. Despite the fact that Botany Bay was never settled, its name came to be synonymous with Australian penal colonies.
This song seems to have begun life in the music halls, perhaps as a rewrite of "Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries." It is credited to Stephens and Yardley, and appeared in the 1885 comedy "Little Jack Shepherd." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: R096

Botany Bay (II)

See The Boston Burglar [LawsL16] (File: LL16)

Botany Bay (III)

DESCRIPTION: "Let us drink good health to our schemers above, Who at length have contrived from this land to remove Thieves, robbers...." who are sent to Botany Bay. The singer describes all the sorts of people who will be transported and hints at their life there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland), from a broadside estimated to date from 1790
KEYWORDS: transportation crime punishment travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 8-10, "Botany Bay III" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 33-35, "Botany Bay, a New Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 24-26, "Botany Bay, A New Song" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Geoffrey C. Ingleton, _True Patriots All: or News from Early Australia as told in A Collection of Broadsides_ ("Garnered and Decorated" by Ingleton), Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1988, pp. 8-9, "Botany Bay: A New Song" (1 text)
Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 95-96, "Botany Bay, a New Song" (1 text, with tune on p. 549)
Roud #V27861
File: SAFS008

Botany Bay (IV -- Come All You Young Fellows)

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you young fellows Whoever that you be, Who delight in a song, Join chorus with me." The singer describes "some poor lads Who were sent to Botany Bay." One girl tries to buy a man release. But they are put on the coach to start their journey
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland); Anderson estimates his broadside as c. 1820
KEYWORDS: exile transportation separation love money floatingverses
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 37-38, "Botany Bay" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 22, "A New Song Made upon the Lads sent to Botany Bay"; p. 134, "Botany Bay" (2 texts, with tunes on pp. 536, 555)
Roud #261
NOTES [75 words]: Roud appears to lump this with Laws L16, "The Boston Burglar," which has versions about transportation to Botany Bay. But this is clearly a separate song. It does have some similar characteristics, but if lyrics floated in from somewhere else, the other song appears to be "Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail)" [Laws E17], which also has the verses about the criminal's girl bringing in all the money she can raise to try to earn his release. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AnFa037

Botany Bay Courtship (The Currency Lasses)

DESCRIPTION: "The Currency Lads may fill their glasses And drink to the health of the Currency Lasses, But the lass I adore... Is a lass in the Female Factory." Having met Molly (who was "tried by the name of Polly"), the two plan marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1832 (SYdney Gazette, July 14, 1832, according to Ingleton)
KEYWORDS: courting Australia punishment robbery drink transportation
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 68-69, "The Currency Lasses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 33-34, "Botany Bay Courtship" (1 text)
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 131-132, "Australian Courtship" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 160-161, "Botany Bay Courtship" (1 text)
Geoffrey C. Ingleton, _True Patriots All: or News from Early Australia as told in A Collection of Broadsides_ ("Garnered and Decorated" by Ingleton), Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1988, p. 120, "Botany Bay Courtship" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Washerwoman" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Railroad Corral" (tune and references for the "Irish Washerwoman" tune)
NOTES [441 words]: The "Female Factory" was the compound at Parramatta where female immigrants were kept. Settlers were allowed to come in and seek wives. (There was one in Van Dieman's Land as well, but it doesn't seem to have been the one described here.)
The Factory wasn't much of a solution to Australia's problems; fewer than one transportee in six was female, and not all of them were of "marriagable age" (though the authorities eventually started trying to send young women). The women at the Factory, in addition, were those who were not wanted by contractors. Often being sent to a Factory was a punishment for misbehavior in the colonies rather than in Britain (Alexander, pp. 94-95).
According to Murphy, pp. 118-119, in addition to the factory at Parramatta, there were smaller ones at Hobart and Launceston in Tasmania. But the Parramatta Factory housed many more (designed for 1800, and often overpopulated; Hobart did not exceed 900 inhabitants, and Launceston had just 160).
To top it off, the Parramatta Factory was quite a dreadful place, a hall above a prison, not nearly large enough for all the women sent there. Many had to be lodged on the town, and the whole place presented a picture of squalor and, hence, of other vices as the women strove to survive.
A "currency lad" or "currency lass" was a child born in Australia in the colony's early years, and usually illegitimate. The title arose because Australia had very little money, and so turned to odd, makeshift native products. These were collectively called "currency," by contrast to legal British money. Since the children, too, were native products, they were called "currency." This was by contrast to the handful of British-born non-convict landowners, the "Sterling." (for this, see the quote from Baker's The Australian Language quoted Wannan, p. 122).
Murphy, p. 89, says "The expression ['Currency'] was used frequently in the 1820s and 1830s when the native-born population was on the increase, but as they came to predominate in the colonies the description was used less. The expression also carried with it an element of hostility in that the home-grown product had rights to his native land before the immigrant who in some ways was seen as an intruder. As the early Currency lads and lasses were mainly the offspring of convicts, they often avoided occupations that spelt subservience, as agricultural laborers, for instance, or police or military work."
The broadside printed by Ingleton says this was "sung in the Theatre Royal, Sydney, by Mr. Bert Levy, in the character of the Ticket-of-Leave Holder," but no printer is listed, nor is there a name for the play. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: FaE068

Botany Bay Transport, The

See The Boston Burglar [LawsL16] (File: LL16)

Both Sexes Give Ear

See When Adam Was Created (Wedlock) (File: SKE55)

Both Sides Now

DESCRIPTION: "Bows and flows of angel hair And ice-cream castles in the sky": the singer has seen clouds that way -- but having seen them from both sides, her view is different. Similarly with life and with love: one may win or lose
AUTHOR: Joni Mitchell
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (recording, Judy Collins, according to Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 187, 550, "Both Sides Now" (notes only)
DT, BOTHSIDE*
Roud #36095
NOTES [48 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 187, suggests that this had some hold in camp tradition not because campers understood its "world-weary" lyrics but because they liked the tune. Likely enough. Perhaps slightly ironic in that Mitchell was only in her mid-twenties when she wrote the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF187B

Bothwell Bridge [Child 206]

DESCRIPTION: Earlston bids farewell to his family and sets out for Bothwell Bridge (to join the Covenanters). Monmouth, who commands the enemy, welcomes him but orders him to disarm. The two sides cannot agree, and a bloody battle ensues
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: battle death nobility
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 22, 1679 - Battle of Bothwell Bridge (Bothwell Brig)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 206, "Bothwell Bridge" (1 text)
Bronson 206, "Bothwell Bridge" (4 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 206, "Bothwell Bridge" (3 versions: #2, #3, #4)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 84-86, "The Battle of Bothwell-Bridge" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 551-553, "Bothwell Bridge" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 538-544, "Battle of Bothwell-Bridge" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 1175-176, "Bothwell Bridge" (1 text)
Roud #337
NOTES [678 words]: The Restoration of the Stuarts produced a real mess in Scottish church affairs. The Scots wanted a presbyterian system; Charles II wanted an episcopal organization, which would make things much easier for him. Charles got his way, but at the cost of a lot of opposition and a church filled with non-entities (Hutton, p. 179). Eventually the presbyterians had enough, murdered the Archbishop of St Andrews, and set about trying to have things their way. This rebellion resulted in the battle of Drumclog (1679; see "Loudon Hill, or Drumclog," Child 205), at which Dundee was defeated. It brought many more men to the Covenanter cause. These new men, however, were anything but disciplined; they didn't even really agree on what they wanted (they were anti-Episcopal, but there were all sorts of ways to oppose bishops!).
Brennan, p. 56, says the rebels at this battle were led by Robert Hamilton. They ended up massing along the Clyde, with the Royalist army led by Charles II's illegitimate son James Scott, Duke of Monmouth on the other side, with Bothwell Bridge the only way to cross other than by boat. The Covenanters tried to parley, but refused Monmouth's demand to lay down their arms in return for his promise to seek leniency. Monmouth -- who is estimated to have had an army twice the size of the rebel force -- began an assault, hitting the rebels with his artillery and then attacking the bridge. The Covenanters were quickly routed (Keay, p. 207; Brennan, by contrast, says that Monmouth had 5000 men, Hamilton 6000). Whatever the numbers, there is no question, though, that Monmouth had better, more disciplined troops; they were able to force the bridge and rout the rebels.
According to Clark, pp. 260-261, the presbyterian forces lost about 400 killed and over 1000 captured; many were sold into slavery in Barbados. Brennan, p. 56, says that 500-700 rebels were casualties and 1200 were transported. (Given how poor records were in that period, that constitutes pretty close agreement. According to Brennan, p. 57, many thought Monmouth too lenient.)
The very fact that Monmouth had the command when Charles II's brother James was then living in semi-exile in Scotland is interesting. It probably should have been James's job, but Charles perhaps did not wish to risk the after-effects if James, who was Catholic, was in charge of suppressing Protestants.
Monmouth's win was very convenient for Charles II -- he had not had the money to raise the six regiments that had been thought necessary to suppress the rebellion, and had thought he would have to turn to a parliament which would very likely have demanded the exclusion of James from the line of succession. "It had apparently been a narrow escape, and Charles himself may be blamed for the policy which had encouraged the trouble to break out. It had cost 1,200 lives" (Hutton, p. 376. For Charles's policies, see again "Loudon Hill, or Drumclog," Child 205).
Despite the failure of the rising, the mere fact that it happened caused the Duke of Lauderdale (John Maitland, 1616-1682), the Secretary of State for Scotland who had implemented the High Church policy, to lose most of his power (Miller, pp. 106-107, who explains that Lauderdale was getting old and losing his touch anyway).
The ballad implies that Claverhouse was a senior officer at Bothwell Bridge -- but in fact he was only a captain of no great importance at this battle. Furthermore, it says that Monmouth was killed. It is true that Monmouth eventually lost his head -- but that was in 1685, after he rebelled against James II; for background, see "The Monmouth Rebel." I wonder it those lines floated in from a ballad about the Battle of Sedgemoor. I'm surprised Walter Scott didn't edit it out.
It should be noted that various sources list July 2 as the date of the battle. This is, I believe, a case of Old Style (Julian) versus New Style (Gregorian) dates.
There is at least one unrelated (but quite old) broadside about this battle, NLScotland, APS.4.99.4, "Bothwell-Bridge: Or, Hamilton's Hero," T.B. (London), 1679 - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: C206

Bothy Lads o' Forfar, The

See Tattie Jock (File: GrD3377)

Bottle Alley Song

DESCRIPTION: "Where yoy git dem bongee shoes? Git 'em from Mullally. Where Mullaly keep he store? Corner King and Bottle Alley." Similarly, one singer inquires of the other where he acquired that "mookum," "pongee shirt," "dog-bed suit," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Southern Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: commerce clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 301, "Bottle Alley Song" (1 text)
File: CAFS130A

Bottle O

See Sailor Likes His Bottle-O, The (File: Hugi055)

Bottle of Pop, A Big Banana, A

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "A bottle of pop, a big banana, We're from southern Louisiana, That's a lie, that's a fib, We're from Colorado."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: food jumprope | pop banana Colorado Louisiana
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #102, "(A bottle of pop, a big banana)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #2, "A bottle of pop, big banana" (1 text)
File: AJRV102

Bottle Up and Go

DESCRIPTION: "She may be old, ninety years, But she ain't too old to shift them gears. You got to bottle up and go... All you high-power women." The singer encourages women to have fun, and appreciates their existence
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (recording, Picaninny Jug Band)
KEYWORDS: courting sex nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 73, "Bottle Up and Go" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Tommy McClennan "Bottle It Up and Go" (Bluebird B-8373, 1940, rec. 1939)
Memphis Jug Band, "Bottle Up and Go" (OKeh 8959/Vocalion 03080, 1935; rec. 1934)
Picaninny Jug Band, "Bottle Up and Go" (Champion 16615, 1933; Varsity 6025, n.d.; rec. 1932)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Salty Dog" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Step it Up and Go"
NOTES [40 words]: This song and "Step It Up and Go" look very alike at first glance, but the verses seem to be very different. They might both be "Salty Dog" spinoffs. Until I see an intermediate version, I am (tentatively) classifying them separately. - RBW
File: FSWB073B

Bottled in Bond

DESCRIPTION: "Well, I'll tell you, boys, There is something gone wrong; From the way I feel, I won't be here long..... Don't drink nothing but that bottled in bond." The singer advises using a chair to drive off a quarreling woman; she'll come back when she's hungry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1)
KEYWORDS: drink wife food rejection
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 23-24, "Bottled in Bond" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7018
NOTES [23 words]: I think this is supposed to be humorous, but I refuse to assign that keyword, because it's not funny; this is about an abusive drunk. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BuWV1023

Bottler

See Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Bought a Cow

See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

Bought Me a Cat

See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

Boulavogue

DESCRIPTION: "At Boulavogue, as the sun was setting... A rebel hand set the heather blazing And brought the neighbors from far and near." Father Murphy's rebels for a time defeat the English, but at last are defeated and Murphy executed
AUTHOR: P. J. McCall (1861-1919) (Source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 ("First printed in the _Irish Weekly Independent_, 18th June, 1898," according to Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Ireland death clergy execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 26, 1798 - Beginning of the Wexford rebellion
May 27, 1798 - The Wexford rebels under Father John Murphy defeat the North Cork militia
June 5, 1798 - The Wexford rebels attack the small garrison (about 1400 men, many militia) at New Ross, but are repelled
June 21, 1798 - The rebel stronghold a Vinegar Hill is taken, and the Wexford rebellion effectively ended
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 28-29, "Boulavogue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 90, "Father Murphy of the County Wexford" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 58, "Boolavogue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Behan-IrelandSings, #9, "Boolavogue" (1 text, 1 tune, a modified version of the "Come All You Warriors" text perhaps used by McCall as a source)
DT, BOULVOGE*
Roud #2356
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Boulavogue" (on IRClancyMakem03)
Davie Stewart, "Boulavogue" (on Voice08)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Father Murphy (I)" (subject of Father Murphy) and references there
NOTES [420 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion pp. 65: "The ceremonies marking the centenary of the 1798 rebellion brought out a new flow of ballads, (the best was song [Zimmermann] 90)"
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 90: "P.J. McCall most probably found the inspiration for this song in the old ballads "Come all you warriors" and "Some treat of David" (Songs [Zimmermann] 10 and 11), though he never borrowed more than half-a-line at a time." - BS
Behan-IrelandSings considers the source ""Come All You Warriors" to be the work of Myles Byrne.
Boulavogue is a small town in County Wexford.
Although many parts of Ireland rose in rebellion in 1798, the revolts were uncoordinated and much too late; the leaders of the rebellion, for the most part, were already in British hands (the British authorities arrested most leaders of the United Irishmen in March 1798; the last major leader, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, was taken into custody, mortally wounded, on May 19. For more about him, see the notes to "Edward (III) (Edward Fitzgerald)").
The Irish had been waiting for foreign help, but it was not forthcoming (for the Bantry Bay fiasco and the Battle of Camperdown, see the notes on "The Shan Van Vogt").
What was left of the organization (which wasn't much, really; with the leaders gone, there was no way to coordinate a rebellion) decided to proceed with their planned attack Dublin on May 23. The idea was to pin down the British leaders. Unfortunately, the United Irishmen had nothing left in Dublin; all the forces there were dispersed.
In Ulster, rebellion did break out, but it was so uncoordinated that it really amounted to little more than rioting (with absolutely no coordination between Irish Catholics and Protestants, whose distrust of each other was heightened by events in Wexford), and was quickly put down.
As a result, only the Wexford uprising had any success. Led by the "Croppy Priest," Father John Murphy (for whom see especially "Father Murphy (I)"), the Catholics killed hundreds of Protestants at Vinegar Hill and other places and forced the English (who were already engaged in pacifying the county, as they feared a French invasion) to gather real forces to defeat them. But defeat them she did, with much violence -- and though the English government disclaimed the violence and offered more liberal terms, it was the violence that the Irish remembered.
The British, now led by Cornwallis, proceeded to offer generous amnesties -- only to have the French finally invade! (See "The Men of the West") - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: PGa028

Bould Tadhy Quill

See Bold Thady Quill (File: RcBoThQu)

Boum Badiboum

See Boum-Ba-Di-Boum (File: BerV074)

Boum-Ba-Di-Boum

DESCRIPTION: French. Singer's mother wakes her at dawn and has her fetch water from the fountain. She talks with a cavalie. She asks, "What shall I say to mother?" "Just say to your mother / The fountain boiled today". Refrain: "Boum-ba-di-boum tra-la-la-la!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting work humorous lover
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Que) France
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 74, "Boum-ba-di-boum!" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 34-35, "Boum Badiboum" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [109 words]: The French word for what the fountain did is "brouillait" or "brouillee"; the editors of Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes translate that as "boiled" but online translators say "blurred" or "scrambled". None of them make sense. I note, however, that Lead Belly's song "Scrambled Eggs" uses "brouillee", but how would a fountain get scrambled? In any case, French for "the fountain boiled" is "la fontaine bouillie". - PJS
If it's a natural spring, the flow of water might, under certain circumstances, dramatically increase, causing the water to bubble and roil. I suspect this is the intent. I have no idea why this would be an excuse for delay, however. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BerV074

Bounce Around

See The Brown Jug (Bounce Around) (File: R534)

Bounce Ball, Bounce Ball

DESCRIPTION: "Bounce ball, bounce ball, One, two, three, Underneath my right leg And round about my knee. Bounce ball, bounce ball, Bird or bee, Flying fro the rosebud Up into the tree." SImilarly for the left leg and around the toe, with a butterfly flying to the sky
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: bug bird | ball bouncing game
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 31, "(Bounce ball, bounce ball)" (1 text)
Roud #20702
File: PKKB031D

Bounce Upon Bess

DESCRIPTION: The Irishman every night spends what he earns each day on Walker's "Bounce upon Bess." English porter and ale grow bad as they grow stale; this whisky improves with age. It's good in all weather. Give your sweetheart some and her heart will grow soft.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 86-88, "Bounce Upon Bess" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Priest and His Boots" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
NOTES [149 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "'Bounce upon Bess' seems to have been a cant term for strong whisky." Croker [explains the term by telling] a long story about a woman who had such strong liquor that "it knocked her down so flat, she couldn't stand after it." As in the song, the liquor was "Walker's best whisky.... The song is given from a manuscript copy, which has been in the Editor's possession upwards of twenty years [that is: before 1819]. Mr Walker was an eminent distiller in Cork." - BS
Despite Croker's improbable tale, my guess is that "Bounce upon Bess" is rhyming cant, perhaps inspired by hope of revenge upon Queen Elizabeth ("Bess"), during whose reign much of Ireland was conquered. The problem, with this theory, I admit, is that "Bess' does not rhyme with any term for strong drink that I can think of except for "Guinness." Which obviously doesn't fit very well here. - RBW
File: CrPS086

Bounce, Bounce, Ball, Ball

DESCRIPTION: "Bounce, bounce, ball, ball, Twenty lassies on the wall, One boy among them all, Bounce, bounce, ball, ball."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 118, "(Bounce, bounce, ball, ball, twenty lassies on the wall)" (1 text)
File: SuSm118C

Bouncing Girl in Fogo, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a bouncing girl in Fogo that I am going to see... She is the sweetest colour of roses a soldier ever knew... You may talk about your Scotland girls, from Boston or the Strand, But you'll get no girl to suit you like the girls from Newfoundland"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (England)
KEYWORDS: courting love separation derivative soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, p. 354, "The Bouncing Girl in Fogo" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: George Allan England, _Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt_ (also published as _The Greatest Hunt in the World_), Doubleday, 1924, p. 235, "(no title)" (1 text)
ST Pea354 (Partial)
Roud #2800
RECORDINGS:
Leo Halleran, "The Girls from Newfoundland" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
George Hatfield, "Girls of Newfoundland" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Mrs. Wallace Kinslow, "The Bouncing Girl in Fogo" (on PeacockCDROM)
John Molloy, "Girls of Newfoundland" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Henry Nash, "The Girls From Newfoundland" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (theme, lyrics)
NOTES [487 words]: Peacock says "This is the only surviving fragment of a native love eulogy. Fogo is a strongly Irish community off the northeast coast of Newfoundland. The song probably dates from the World War I period."
Considering how close an adaptation the words are of "The Yellow Rose of Texas" [Roud in fact lumps them - RBW], it is strange that the tune has not also been used. The "Bouncing Girl" tune is in 6/8 time and is not at all related to "Yellow Rose."
As in Peacock, the tune of the MUNFLA-Leach songs is not "Yellow Rose of Texas."
While the Peacock version is a fragment, the MUNFLA-Leach Leo Halleran text has chorus and seven verses, and the girl is "a girl from St John's city." Bolstering the idea that the war here is World War I is that the singer used to take his girl to the "Nickel" on weekday nights, when movie ticket prices at the "Nickelodeon" were two-for-a-nickel (at least in the New York City of my parents). There is a promise, if the singer returns, "never more [to] part," but most of the song is to "keep the old flag flying and help to win the day."- BS
That Peacock's text is from World War I seems certain, since it refers to the Regiment, i.e. presumably the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, for which see "The Valley of Kilbride." However, England's text, which is both older and fuller than Peacock's, does not mention the regiment; where Peacock has "No fellow in this regiment knows her but only me," England has "No other fellow knows her, No masher only me!" The word "Masher" does not occur in the StoryKirwinWiddowson, but "mash" is a common Newfoundland pronunciation of "marsh"; Fogo Island is covered with small lakes and ponds. Although I suppose "masher" could also be a corruption of "marcher," which might be a soldier who marches. The man calls himself a hobo.
England's version also gives her a name, "Matilda Jane," and says that they will play the comb and jew's harp together as they sing the old songs.
Fogo is both an island and a town on the island; it is not obvious which one the song refers to. But it is certain that the town contributed its share in World War I. Pickett, p. 153, lists residents of Fogo who served in the Great War: 32 served in the Navy, of whom nine were casualties; 17 served in the Newfoundland Regiment, of whom eight are listed as casualties and one, Frank Lind, is described as "war hero." This from a town that, in 1911, had had 1065 residents (Pickett, p. 51) - RBW
The ITMA/CapeShoreNL tune and text, including the St John's reference, are close to the MUNFLA/Leach recordings. It's updated slightly in that the nickelodeon is replaced by movie.
The notes to ITMA/CapeShoreNL also states that the tune is "Yellow Rose of Texas." I have been too quick to argue against that. DaCosta Waltz and Gene Autry recordings (see the Index entry for "The Yellow Rose of Texas") have tunes that may be the one the Newfoundland singers are following. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.5
File: Pea354

Bound Away on the Twilight

DESCRIPTION: "She's an iron ore vesel, a vessel of fame, She sails from Oswego and the Twilight's her name." The singer tells of saiing west to Marquette, where the singer's hands get sore loading ore. He proceeds to describe the voyage back east
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from John S. Parsons by Walton)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship travel
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 122-124, "Bound Away on the Twilight" (1 text)
Roud #19839
RECORDINGS:
Ed Vandenberg, "Bound Away on the Twilight" (1955; on WaltonSailors; this version, with guitar accompaniment, seems to be sung by a revival singer, not an original informant)
NOTES [326 words]: The notes to Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors think this is based on "Red Iron Ore," which it obviously resembled thematically. The difficulty is that its form is more typical of "The Dreadnought" [Laws D13]. Of course, Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors's version of "Red Iron Ore" seems to use the tune of "The Dreadnought." But at least one other Great Lakes version of "Red Iron Ore," Dean-FlyingCloud's, uses the Derry Down tune. So we have a complicated question of dependence here, which Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors ignore. - RBW
Solomon Foster, who has researched this song in some detail, agrees with me that "The Dreadnought" is the more significant source, and has also worked to identify the ships in the song -- in the process finding its probable date:
Twilight (bark): http://greatlakeships.org/2895979/data?n=12
Launched 1865, enrolled Oswego 1867, no record for it after that.  There's only one other Twilight in the database that's a bark (which the song specifies), and this is the one from Oswego (also specified in the song).
Walker (tug): http://greatlakeships.org/2897870/data?n=2
I'm not entirely happy with this one, but the only other Walker in the database was launched 1887, which would be really late IMO.  This Walker was launched 1871 and seems to have spent time in Lake Huron, which is reasonably close to the Soo Locks that the Walker works in the song.
W. S. Lyons (Schooner): http://greatlakeships.org/2901885/data?n=1
This identification is rock solid, though it only appears in one line of the song, so I guess it's possible it's a later insert to the song.  Anyway, the Lyons was launched in 1866 and was wrecked on October 11, 1871.
If we take these ship IDs at face value, then "Bound Away on the Twilight" must cover events which happened 1871, as that would have been the only year the Minne Walker and the Lyons were both active. - Solomon Foster, (RBW)
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM122

Bound Down to Newfoundland [Laws D22]

DESCRIPTION: Young Captain Stafford Nelson of the Abilene falls sick. Unable to get up on deck, he cannot navigate the ship, and none of the other sailors know the coast. Unable to reach Halifax, they wind up in Arichat, where the captain dies
AUTHOR: Captain Cale White
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: sea wreck disease death
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws D22, "Bound Down to Newfoundland"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 156, "The Schooner Mary Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 905-906, "Bound Down for Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 201-203, "Bound Down to Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 73, "The Schooner Mary Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 104, "Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 195-196, "Bound Down to Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 87, "Newfoundland" (1 text)
DT 615, BNDNEWF* BNDNEWF2*
Roud #647
RECORDINGS:
James Maher, "Bound Down to Newfoundland" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mike McGrath, "The Schooner Mary Ann" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Joe Sutton, "Schooner 'Mary Ann'" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(588), "The Loss of the Mary Ann" A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1845-1859; also Firth c.13(58)=Harding B 16(132b), "The Loss of the Albion," unknown, no date
NOTES [546 words]: In Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland the schooner is Mary Ann and the illness, which kills all but two, is smallpox. - BS
Smallpox seems to have been a recurring problem for Newfoundland -- perhaps not surprising given their primitive public health system. As late as 1924, there was an outbreak on the Annie M. Parker, killing one man and putting others in hospital (Parsons, p. 203). Even more shockingly, since it involved a large, modern ship, in 1918, there was an outbreak of smallpox on the ship Florizel (Brown, pp. 6-7). I seem to recall reading of smallpox epidemics among sealers in the decades immediately before that as well.
This story has interesting similarities to the story of the clipper Neptune's Car, though that ship sailed around Cape Horn rather than in Canada. The story has been widely retold; I found versions Baker/AmHist; in Paine, p. 356; in Cordingly, pp. 109-115; and in Hoehling, pp.11-12.
Shortly before the Car was to set sail from New York to San Francisco in 1857, her first mate broke her leg. Captain Joshua Adams Patten was forced to sail with a mate hired by the shipping company.
It turned out to be a bad decision; the mate may have been a ringer (Patten was racing two other ships around the Horn). Whatever the mate's reasons, he seems to have tried to slow the ship's passage. Patten had him arrested.
But that left Patten as the only qualified navigator aboard -- and he was suffering from tuberculosis (so Paine and Baker/AmHist; Hoehling calls it a "mysterious" ailment; Cordingly says that they thought at the time that it was pneumonia -- but it also caused him to temporarily lose his sight, and later his hearing. I wonder if he didn't have a venereal disease). He tried to work two shifts, and eventually collapsed.
In a sense, the story of Neptune's Car was happier than this song. Salvation came in the form of Patten's wife, a teenager who was pregnant for the first time -- but whom Joshua Patten had taught navigation on a previous voyage. With the help of the crew and the second mate (who could handle sail but could not navigate), she took over the ship, brought her through Cape Horn, and eventually got it to San Francisco. It was a slow passage, but they made it.
Her name? Mary Ann.
But if the Neptune's Car made it to port, the story then reverts to what is found in this song: The captain did not survive. Joshua Patten, who was barely 30, died in mid-1857, and Mary Ann Patten, not yet 25, had contracted tuberculosis and died in 1861. (The ship itself outlived them; Neptune's Car was still in service, under the British flag, in 1870.)
The Neptune's Car doesn't seem to have had a particularly happy history. According to Cordingly, on a previous voyage under Captain Patton, she had been hit by lightning, causing several injuries. Mary Ann Patten helped nurse the injured -- clearly she was a useful person to have around.
There were other instances of captain's wives helping to run ships, documented in Cordingly, p. 118fff. These do not seem to have been as well known.
The source of this song? Probably not. But one wonders if there might not have been a Neptune's Car song which mixed with the Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland version. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: LD22

Bound for Amerikee

See Riley's Farewell (Riley to America; John Riley) [Laws M8] (File: LM08)

Bound for Botany Bay

See The Boston Burglar [Laws L16] (File: LL16)

Bound for Canada

See My Dear, I'm Bound for Canady (File: GrMa154)

Bound for Charlestown

See The Boston Burglar [Laws L16] (File: LL16)

Bound for Glory Noo

DESCRIPTION: The singer is a "really saved" carter "wha loves the Lord and hates the drink." He used to whip and kick his horse. He was known by police "when drink set me aflame." "Withoot an oath I couldna speak." He's "bound for glory noo"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad religious horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 680, "Bound for Glory Noo" (1 text)
Roud #6103
File: GrD3680

Bound for South Australia

See South Australia (File: Doe071)

Bound for Sydney Town

See The Boston Burglar [LawsL16] (File: LL16)

Bound for the Promised Land

DESCRIPTION: "On Jordan's stormy banks I stand And cast a wishful eye To Canaan's fair and happy land Where my possessions lie. I am bound for the promised land...." The rest of the song describes the wonders of the promised land.
AUTHOR: Words: Samuel Stennett
EARLIEST DATE: 1787 (source: Morgan)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 581, "I Am Bound for the Promised Land" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 581, "I Am Bound for the Promised Land" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Randolph 624, "I'm Bound for the Promised Land" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 99, "Bound for the Promised Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 116-117, "Jordan's Stormy Banks" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 98, "I Am Bound for the Promised Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 52-53, "On Jordan's Stormy Banks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11897
RECORDINGS:
Charles Butts Sacred Harp Singers, "Promised Land" (OKeh 45252, 1928)
Harmon E. Helmick, "Bound for the Promised Land" (Champion 16744, 1934)
Alfred G. Karnes, "I Am Bound for the Promised Land" (Victor 20840, 1927)
Frank & James McCravy, "The Promised Land" (OKeh 40371, 1925)
Old Southern Sacred Singers, "I Am Bound for the Promised Land" (Brunswick 161, 1927; Supertone S-2096, 1930)
Singers from Stewart's Chapel, Houston, MS, "New Jordan" (on Fasola1)
Turkey Mountain Singers, "I Am Bound for the Promised Land" (Victor 20942, 1927)
Walker Brothers, "I'm Bound for the Promised Land" (Broadway 4121, c. 1932?)
Frank Welling & John McGhee, "I'm Bound for the Promised Land" (Perfect 12780, 1932)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Heavenly Port," "Jordan," "Jordan's Shore," "My Home," "New Jordan," "Sweet Prospect" (all share "On Jordan's Stormy Banks" verses)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Promised Land
NOTES [488 words]: Randolph describes his fragmemt ("I'm bound for the promised land, I'm bound for the promised land, Oh who will come an' go with me? I'm bound for the promised land") as a "jump-up song" which could be used as the chorus to several hymns. It is apparently used most often with "On Jordan's Stormy Banks."
The Sacred Harp lists no fewer than seven tunes ("Heavenly Port," "Jordan" [this not the same as the Missouri Harmony's "Jordan"], "Jordan's Shore," "My Home," "New Jordan," "Sweet Prospect," "The Promised Land") for Samuel Stennett's "On Jordan's Stormy Banks." The Missouri Harmony has it to the tune "Canaan."
One of those shape note tunes (according to the editors of Brown, quoting Jackson) is described as "practically identical with the old Scottish 'The Boatie Rows."" The lyrics do fit "The Boatie Rows," but to declare any of the Sacred Harp tunes the same as "The Boatie Rows" appears an extreme stretch to me.
According to William Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal, Broadman Press, 1976, pp. 174, 376, the tune "Promised Land" was converted from minor to major to Rigdon M. McIntosh (a Methodist Episcopal musician, professor, and music publisher, 1836-1899), and this is now the Baptist tune for the piece.
According to Morgan, p. 53, Stennett's original title for his poem was "Heaven Anticipated."
John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), pp. 1091-1092, says that Stennett was "Grandson of Joseph Stennett [described as 'the earliest English Baptist hymn-writer whose hymns are now in [common use]"]... and s[on] of the Rev. Joseph Stennett, D.D., was b[orn], most probably in 1727, at Exeter, where his father was at that time a Baptist minister. When quite young he removed to London, his father having become pastor of the Baptist Church in Little Wild Streets, Lincoln's Inn Fields. In 1748, Samuel Stennett became assistant to his father in the ministery, and in 1758 succeeded him in the pastoral office at Little Wild Street. From that time until his death, on Aug. 24, 1795, he held a very prominent position among the Dissenting ministers of London. He was much respected by some of the statemen of the time, and used his influence with them in support of the principles of religions freedom.... In 1763 the University of Aberdeen conferred on him the degree of D.D...." He published sermons, pamphlets about the problems of Baptists in England, a few poems, "and contributed 38 hymns to the collection of his friend Dr. Rippon." Even Julian, who usually is generous with praise of hymnwriters, admitted "His poetical genius was not of the highest order," but lists 28 hymns from his pen. Based on their first lines, none of the others sound very interesting. - RBW
The Karnes recording is a hybrid; the words are "Bound for the Promised Land," but the tune is a direct lift from "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down." - PJS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: LxU099

Bound For the Rio Grande

See Rio Grande (File: Doe064)

Bound for the Stormy Main

See The Greenland Whale Fishery [Laws K21] (File: LK21)

Bound Steel Blues

DESCRIPTION: "I'm gonna leave you honey, I ain't gonna ride no train. I'm walking out, crawling, calling your name." "You'll see my picture on the wall ... won't be your daddy at all." "Some day you'll miss me but I won't come home no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: farewell home parting rambling separation travel nonballad lover
FOUND IN:
Roud #10627
RECORDINGS:
Bill Shepherd with Hayes Shepherd and Ed Webb, "Bound Steel Blues" (on StuffDreams1)
NOTES [54 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought.
The title of "Bound Steel Blues" is from the first verse, which I can't quite make out. It sounds to me like "Now I said now mama, I said go down in steel. When I think about my past time, Lord, I been a ... fool." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcBoStBl

Bound to Australia

See The First of the Emigrants (File: Doe149)

Bound to California

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Good-bye my lads good-bye, no one can tell me why. I am bound to California, to reap the shinning gold. Good-bye, my lads, good-bye."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (C. Fox Smith, _A Book of Shanties_)
KEYWORDS: shanty mining farewell gold
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 118, "Bound to California" (1 short text, 1 tune) [AbEd, o. 101]
Roud #11253
NOTES [22 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas guesses this is of Negro origin. C. Fox Smith thinks it has some relationship to "Shallow Brown." - SL
File: Hug118

Bound to Go (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I built my house upon the rock, O yes, Lord, No wind, no storm can blow it down, O yes, Lord. March on, member, bound to go; Been to the ferry, bound to go...." The singer builds a stout house, picks sweet berries, and gathers in brothers and sisters
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment); 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, pp. 22-23, "Bound to Go" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 2, p. 199, "Bound To Go"; 16, p. 208, "O Yes, Lord" (2 texts)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 202-203, "Bound to Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 323-324, "Bound to Go" (1 text)
Roud #11974
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hosannah! Mi Bui' Mi House (Hosannah! I Built My House)" (theme: "built my house upon the rock ... no storm can blow it down")
NOTES [17 words]: For the story of the men who built their houses on rock and sand, see Matt. 7:24-27; Luke 6:47-49. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: SBoA202

Bound to Go (II)

See Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go) (File: Doe062)

Bound to Rio

See Rio Grande (File: Doe064)

Boundless Mercy (Drooping Souls, No Longer Grieve)

DESCRIPTION: "Drooping souls, no longer grieve; Heaven is propitious. If in Christ you can believe, you will find him precious." "From his hands, his feed, his side Flows the healing balsam." "Boundless mercy, how it flows; Now I hope I feel it."
AUTHOR: Thomas Hastings?
EARLIEST DATE: 1838 (Knoxville Harmony)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 528, "Drooping Souls, No Longer Grieve" (1 text)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 95, "The Mourner's Comfort" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11820
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Zion's Sons and Daughters"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Mourner's Comfort
NOTES [120 words]: John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 494, reports that the song "Drooping Souls, No Longer Mourn" first appeared in "Spiritual Songs" in 1831. This particular song is not explicitly attributed to Thomas Hastings (born 1784), but is "in his style," so he is the likeliest author. Is it the same song? I'd say so; it begins
Drooping souls! no longer mourn,
Jesus still is precious;
If to him you now return,
Heaven will be propitious;
Jesus now is passing by,
Calling wanderers near him;
Drooping souls! you need not die,
Go to him, and hear him!"
Nonetheless the song has clearly undergone a lot of modification over the years. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: Br3528

Bounty Jumper, The

DESCRIPTION: "Friends and jolly citizens, I'll sing you a song... It's all about a jumper, Old Donald was his name." Captured at last, he prefers death to revealing where his money is hidden. The jumper is condemned, executed, and buried.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: death execution money Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 17, "The Bounty Jumper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 92-93, "The Bounty Jumper" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 101, "The Bounty Jumper" (1 text)
ST FSC017 (Partial)
Roud #1976
NOTES [284 words]: During the Civil War, the Union grew so desperate for men that it began to use drastic recruitment measures. One of these was the bounty -- paying a man a large sum (sometimes as much as $300) to enlist, and then giving him leave to go off and spend it. Naturally, a large number of men -- the "Bounty Jumpers" -- took the money and ran. The harsh punishment a captured jumper received did little to discourage the practice.
Mark M. Boatner III, The Civil War Dictionary, 1959 (there are many editions of this very popular work; mine is a Knopf hardcover), p. 75, articles "Bounty Broker" and "Bounty Jumper," describes how "Bounty Brokers," would sometimes encourage men to enlist, collect their bounty, desert, and repeat. "One man confessed to deserting 32 times and was sentenced to four years in prison [a very light sentence, considering that deserters were usually shot!]. The large bounty payent, rather than having the amount spread over the period of enlistment, was partly responsible for the high desertion rate of the Union Army, totaling 268,000 men" (meaning that probably between 5% and 10% of men inducted eventually deserted).
It appears there were at least three songs by this name, although this seems to be the only one that went into tradition. Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 14, also lists one credited to J. Cross Casten, using the tune "Joe Bowers, which begins "My song is of a fast young man whose name was Billy Wires," and one called "The Bounty-Jumper #2" with no author but clearly a parody of "Just before the battle, mother," since it uses that as its first line. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FSC017

Bounty Was a Packet Ship

See Packet Ship (File: HSoSe152)

Bounty, The

DESCRIPTION: "From Portsmouth Harbour we did set sail, The glass was high and foretold a gale, For fair Tahiti we sailed away...." They stop at many places before they reach Tahiti. Bligh forces the men to leave. Fletcher Christian rebels against Bligh
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor rebellion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 28, 1789 - Mutineers overthrow the command of William Bligh on HMS Bounty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 32-36, "The Bounty" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Packet Ship" (subject of the Bounty mutiny)
File: BrHa032

'Bout Ship's Stations, Lads, Be Handy

See Paddy, Get Back (File: Doe054)

Bow and Balance

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Bow Belinda

See O Belinda (File: OpGa046)

Bow Bow Belinda

See O Belinda (File: OpGa046)

Bow Down

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Bow Lamkin

See Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)

Bow Low, Elder

DESCRIPTION: "Bow low, Elder, Jesus lis-a-ning, Bow low, Elder, Jesus died." "When you see me on my knees, Raise me, Jesus, if-a you please." "When you see my coffin come, Then a-you know my soul's gone home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 74, "Bow Low, Elder" (1 text)
Roud #12068
File: FSAN074

Bow Low, Mary

See Sail, O Believer (File: SBoA197)

Bow Wow Belinda

See O Belinda (File: OpGa046)

Bow Wow Wow

DESCRIPTION: Primarily as tune used for various broadsides and late folk songs, recognized monotonal measures followed by arpeggios on a pentatonic scale. Chorus something like "Bow wow wow, all the dog did say to them was, Bow wow wow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chappell); before 1770 (according to Kidson; see note)
KEYWORDS: dancetune nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 717-718, "The Barking Barber" (1 excerpt, 1 tune, the text being "The Barking Barber" but the chorus and tune is this)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, p. 183, "The Barking Barber" (1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Guy Fawkes" (tune)
cf. "Jog Along Till Shearing" (tune)
cf. "Row-Dow-Dow" (tune)
cf. "The Carrier's Song" (tune)
cf. "Joseph Tuck" (tune)
cf. "The Voyage to Australia" (tune, some lyrics)
cf. "Kumara Volunteers' Song" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Guy Fawkes (File: LPnd084)
Jog Along Till Shearing (File: MA086)
Row-Dow-Dow (File: K354)
The Carrier's Song (File: FaE104)
Joseph Tuck (File: OpOx087)
Kumara Volunteers' Song (File: BaRo072)
The Voyage to Australia (File: AnSo029)
That's What's the Matter #3 ("New York is quite a little town") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 155)
The War Is Over Now ("The Cruel war is over; Peace has come again, sirs") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 168)
Gombo Chaff (song about a character created by Thomas D. Rice; see the notes to "Jump Jim Crow")
The Court of Momus ("What a shabby Government you have; Some ground should be selected") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, pp. 162-164)
Bryant's Ranges ("Oh, what a curious world is this, So various in its changes") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (N.B. not to be confused with Thatcher's "Bryant's Ranges O," which is a different song) (Anderson-GoldrushSongster, pp. 50-51; Anderson-ColonialMinstrel p. 39)
Chinamen In Court ("The Chinese are a curious rae, And there's a deal of sport") (by Charles R. Thatcher, in the "Colonial Minstrel") (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 17-19)
The Dog Nuisance [Part 1] ("What a crusade's carried on against The canine population") (by Charles R. Thatcher, in the "Colonial Minstrel") (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 6-7)
The Fight at the Rush ("Just read the papers, and you'll find From rows we're never quiet") (by Charles R. Thatcher, in "Thatcher's Colonial Songster") (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 68-70)
Advertising ("The march of intellect just now Is really quite surprising") (by Charles R. Thatcher, in the "Victoria Songster") (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 147-148)
English Imitations (As I rode own the Melbourne road -- 'Twas only the other morning") (by Charles R. Thatcher, in the "Victoria Songster") (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 166-168; Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 55-56)
The Bendigo Milling Match ("Oh, you may talk of Bryan'ts run, And try to make us stare") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 49-50)
Change: A Song of the Present Times ("This world's seen many changes, sirs since it was first created") (by John L. Zieber, fl. 1860) (Bodleian, broadside Harding B 18(79))
The Barking Barber (Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 717-718)
NOTES [316 words]: I've yet to find a complete text of this piece, which makes it hard to write a proper description. I'm not sure Bow Wow Wow, as a song in its own right, exists in tradition. But it was used for so many traditional songs (see the cross-references) that it clearly belongs here.
With regard to the date, Conrad Bladey sends me this useful material from Frank Kidson (I think; the references Conrad sent me required a user ID which I of course did not have):
"[W]e may take the famous "Bow, wow, wow" as a typical example. The original song was a feeble production that first came into notice about 1760 or 1770. In a rather lame manner it showed in doggerel verse (no pun meant), how every class of humanity might be likened to the canine race. A barking chorus of "Bow, wow, wow!" with some "fol-diddle-dols" to fill up, gave every one a chance to join in. This is a specimen verse out of at least a dozen, all equally bad:
A swindler he's a sorry dog, he's always cheating;
A Frenchman he's a nimble dog, he runs from every beating;
The soldier he's a noble dog, in every rank and station,
And a sailor he's a hearty dog, as any in the nation.
Bow, wow, wow, etc.
Nevertheless the tune is good and it quickly took the public's fancy. The words underwent revision and were frequently sung. Then ,as a natural consequence, came "mew,mew, mew," in which with equal banality, the human race was compared to cats; this was publicly sung in 1788....
Dogs and cats banished, a classical flavour was imparted by a song written and sung by Collins in a table entertainment, about 1790. This was a sort of moral comic, ditty which dealt in scholastic fashion with the misfortunes of Belisarius its title was "Date obolum Belisario," and it was even worse than the original of the dogs. Then the tune changed a little, to fit more neatly other songs, which included "The Barking Barber" and others...." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ChWII183

Bow-legged Dutchman Walking Down the Street

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Bow-legged Dutchman, walking down the street, Bow-legged Dutchman, have a (little sweet/seat)... drink a glass of wine... close your eyes and count to nine. One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Dodson, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food | Dutchman counting
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #44, "Bow-legged Duchman walking down the street" (1 text)
File: AJRR044

Bow-Legged Ike

DESCRIPTION: "Bow-legged Ike on horseback was sent From some place, straight down on this broad continent." He's been riding all his life. A man bets Ike can't ride his sorrel. Ike rides it with ease while rolling a cigarette. He wishes for an "interesting" horse
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Doubleday, Cattle Ranch to College, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse gambling talltale
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 356-357, "Bow-Legged Ike" (1 text)
Roud #11310
File: LDC356

Bow-Legged Rabbit

DESCRIPTION: A dance song: "Bow-legged rabbit, A box ankle Joe, Flea bite me so bad I can't dance no mo'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 709, "Bow-Legged Rabbit" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BSoF709

Bowery, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Bowery... They say such things and they do strange things... I'll never go there any more." Misadventures of a "new coon in town" who doesn't understand the street talk. E.g. he tells a babbling barber to "cut it short" and has his head shaved.
AUTHOR: Words: Chas. H. Hoyt/Music: Percy Gaunt (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach); 1892 (sheet music, Percy Gaunt and Charles H Hoyt)
KEYWORDS: fight violence humorous wordplay Black(s) hair
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Wehman Bros. [Collection of Songs] No. 39 Song Book (New York, 1893 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 19, "The Bowery" ("Oh! the night that I struck New York") (1 text)
Roud #17616
RECORDINGS:
John M. Curtis, "The Bowery" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod16053 Harding B 18(58), "The Bowery" ("Oh! the night that I struck New York"), H.J. Wehman (NewYork), 1892
Percy Gaunt and Charles H Hoy,. Songs from Hoyt's A Trip to Chinatown. T.B. Harms & Co., New York, NY, 1892. Notated Music. https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200004920/ , accessed August 22, 2018, Library of Congress Notated Music
NOTES [87 words]: For another word play example: the singer is accosted by a shill; a friendly cop "chased him away, and I asked him why. 'Wasn't he pulling your leg,' said he. Said I, 'He never laid hands on me!'"
The Bowery was a New York red-light district in the 1890's. It is in downtown Manhattan, on the edge of the lower East Side, south of Cooper Union and running down close to the Brooklyn Bridge. Later, a skid row with bars and pawn shops. - BS
This was the major song coming out of the 1891 musical "A Trip to Chinatown." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ML3Bowry

Bowes Tragedy, The

DESCRIPTION: "Let Carthage Queen be no more The subject of our mournful song."Roger Wrightson of Yorkshire courts Martha Railton. The parents oppose the lovers and keep them separate. After a year, he dies of love. She dies soon after. Parents are warned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Denham, according to Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation mother father death reunion burial warning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 326-333, "The Bowes Tragedy" (1 text)
ST BeCo326 (Partial)
NOTES [26 words]: The "Carthage Queen" of the first line is Dido, who died for love of Aeneas. that reference alone seems to prove that this is not of traditional origin.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: BeCo326

Bowie, Bowerie

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Bowl of Green Peas, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing you a ditty Of a fair maid so pretty Who lives from the city Some seventeen miles." The singer went to court "Mariar" in a briar. When he asked to wed, she smashed a bowl of green peas over his head. Now his friends are always offering him peas
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 378, "The Bowl of Green Peas" (1 text)
Roud #7629
File: R378

Bowld Sodger Boy

See The Bold Sodjer Boy (File: FVS321)

Bowld Sojer Boy, The

See The Bold Sodjer Boy (File: FVS321)

Bowlegged Women

See Popeye the Sailor Man (File: OpGa146)

Bowling Green

DESCRIPTION: "Wish I was in Bowling Green sittin' in a chair, One arm 'round my pretty little miss, the other 'round my dear." The singer offers to let her man go, wishes she were a bumblebee who could settle on her man, and sets out to ramble because she has no home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (recording, Cousin Emmy)
KEYWORDS: home love betrayal abandonment rambling
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 43, "Bowling Green" (1 text)
Green-OnlyAMiner-RecordedCoalMiningSongs, p. 230, "Bowling Green" or "Shady Grove" (1 fragmentary text)
DT, BOWLGREN*
RECORDINGS:
Cousin Emmy [Cynthia May Carver], "I Wish I Was in Bowling Green" (Decca 24214, 1947)
Cousin Emmy with the New Lost City Ramblers, "Bowling Green" (on ClassOT)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary from Dungloe" (floating verse)
File: FSWB043

Bowling on Bowling Green

DESCRIPTION: "Let's go bowling on bowling green, We can't go bowling on bowling green, Why can't we go bowling on bowling green? Because of the king. What king?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2104 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonsense royalty campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 127, "(no title)" (1 short text)
File: ACSF127B

Bows o London, The

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Bows of London, The

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Bowton's Yard

DESCRIPTION: "At number one i' Bowton's Yard, mi gronni keeps a schoo', She hasno' mony scholars yet...." Each house number has its peculiar tenant, e.g. shopkeeper Ned Grimes at #3, the singer at #5, an empty space at #7, a cobbler at #9
AUTHOR: Samuel Laycock (1826-1893) (source: Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire)
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire)
KEYWORDS: humorous moniker home
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 14, "Bowton's Yard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5313
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(574)=Firth c.16(365), "Bowton's Yard," John Macleod (Staleybridge), n.d.; also Harding B 11(425), "Bowton's Yard," unknown, n.d.
File: HHFL014

Box Them Off, My Jolly Tars

See The Little Fighting Chance [Laws J19] (File: LJ19)

Box Upon Her Head, The

See The Undaunted Female (The Box Upon Her Head; The Staffordshire Maid; The Maid and the Robber) [Laws L3] (File: LL03)

Boy and a Girl in a Little Canoe, A

See Get Out and Swim (File: NCFJGeSw)

Boy and the Mantle, The [Child 29]

DESCRIPTION: A boy enters King Arthur's court wearing a rich mantle. He offers the mantle to whichever woman proves virtuous (the appearance of the mantle will show who is chaste and who is not). Only one woman in the court proves virtuous.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: clothes infidelity magic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Child 29, "The Boy and the Mantle" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 301-311, "Boy and Mantle" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 3-12, "The Boy and the Mantle" (1 text); cf. pp. 315-323, "The Boy and the Mantle" (a rewritten version)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 257-264, "The Boy and the Mantle" (1 text, from "The Charms of Melody" rather than tradition)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 113-118, "The Boy and the Mantle" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 17, "The Boy and the Mantle (A Ballad of King Arthur's Court)" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 89-95, "The Boy and the Mantle" (1 text)
DT 29, BOYMANT1
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2627
ADDITIONAL: Melissa M. Furrow, _Ten Bourdes_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2013, pp. 130-140, "The Boy and the Mantle" (1 text, with a different set of emendations from Child's)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 284
Roud #3961
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Twa Knights" [Child 268] (theme)
NOTES [1083 words]: According to Fowler, p. 158 n. 25, this is one of eighteen ballads in the Child collection found only in the Percy Folio. Furrow, p. 131, follows Fowler in thinking it goes back to the Middle Ages, although the only evidence for this are a few lines which do not rhyme properly in seventeenth century English but which would in Middle English or which would rhyme if an archaic word were used.
The custom in Arthur's court of always having an entertainment before dinner (at least on a high day) occurs also in the (somewhat earlier) "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," Stanza 4 (lines 85-106) -- a story in which, interestingly, it is the *man's* fidelity which comes under attack. We also find a variant on it in "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117], where Robin and his men ask their involuntary guests for tales.
The contest over women's fidelity is common in folklore; in the Child canon, cf. e.g. "The Twa Knights" [Child 268]. Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland mentions the French fabliau Le Mantel Mautaillie (which is also the first analog mentioned in Child's notes) and von Zatzikhoven's Lanzelet. Garnett/Gosse, volume I, p. 300, also believe this ballad derived from a French fabliau, though they do not specify the particular tale. Lacy, p. 155, notes thematic parallels to The Romance of Sir Corneus of c. 1450. Derek Brewer, "The International Popular Comic Tale," mentions a piece called "The Cokwold's Dance" (known from an early sixteenth century copy) in which men at Arthur's court "must drink from a bugle horn, and a cuckold is bound to spill the drink. King Arthur himself spills the drink, but 'he has no gall,' though the queen is ashamed. The other cuckolds dress in scarlet and dance" (Heffernan, p. 134). "Sir Corneus" and "The Cokwold's Dance" are in fact the same tale (Furrow, p. 111), preserved exclusively in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 61 (Bodleian 6922). There are edited versions in Furrow, pp. 118-124 and Shuffleton, pp. 164-170.
In Chaucer, we find in the ending of the misogynist Clerk's Tale mention (p. 152, line 1188 in Chaucer/Benson) of the Chichevache, a creature which supposedly ate only virtuous women and hence was always close to starvation (Barbes/Riches, p. 41); the creature was also the subject of a poem by the pedestrian but popular poet Lydgate, "Bycorne and Chychevache" (Pearsal, p. 179). The name is French, meaning "lean cow" (Rossignol, p. 82).
Lupack, p. 121, notes that Le Mantel has the ladies of Arthur's court try the mantle, "and it fits all of them poorly though in different ways -- ways which are sometimes related, in fairly crude jokes, to the manner of the woman's infidelity."
Even Malory's Morte D'Arthur has a drinking horn that reveals unchaste women, which Morgan le Faye intended for Arthur but ended up with King Mark of Cornwall (Furrow, p. 112).
Child gives extensive Arthurian parallels to what happens in this ballad, but these are so exhaustingly long that he perhaps gives too little attention to other tests of fidelity. The Bible, for instance, offers a rather dreadful example, in which a man who suspected his wife of infidelity (but not a wife who suspected her husband) could haul her before a priest, force her to drink the "water of bitterness" (which was carefully prepared to have a high probability of being full of dangerous bacteria), and wait to see if she got sick. If she did, she was guilty of adultery; if she didn't, she was clear (Numbers 5:11-31). So, apparently, you could fool around all you wanted as long as you had a strong immune system.
And it is true that Arthurian versions are common; Ernest Hoepffner wrote (reprinted on p. 356 of Brengle), "Though stories of chastity tests are spread far and wide, and though the Lay du Cor was not derived directly from the Welsh, it may be significant that all medieval versions of the horn test are set in Arthur's banquet hall, and that the hero bears a name renowned in Wales and Brittany."
A possible source for the early Welsh versions of this tale is found in the Mabinogion, in the tale of Math son of Mathonwy. In the middle of the tale, for complicated reasons, Math and his colleagues need to find a virgin. Gwydion suggests Arianrhod daughter of Don, Math's niece. Math asks if she is a virgin, and she answers "I do not know but that I am" (in the translation of Mabinogion/Gantz, p. 106. The incident is a little less than half way through the story). Math sets his wand on the ground and orders her to step over it to test her. In doing so, she "drops" a child, whom Math arranges to be baptized under the name Dylan; he would later be killed by one of his uncles. Curiously, the rest of the story never seems to come out, but the parallel to the tests of fidelity is clear.
For other examples of a magic device to test fidelity, see the notes to "Bonny Bee Hom" [Child 92].
The theme of the "wise child," who speaks up and challenges authority, is also very old. Moore, p. 88, notes a version in the Thousand and One Nights, as well as a Mongolian analog. And the reason that Moore brings it up is that these tales are similar to the story of Susanna in the deuterocanonical/apocryphal addition to the book of Daniel. In that tale, the wise child is Daniel, and he is actually a young man, but it has been speculated that the tale of Daniel's intervention might be based on a "wise child" story. Since the tale of Susanna is known to have been in existence in the second century C.E., and probably was in existence in the first century B.C.E., and the folktale on which it is based is presumably even older, the "wide child" motif must be very ancient indeed -- although it is not absolutely clear that this ballad is derived from any of those other versions.
Incidentally, the Sir Craddoccke (Caradoc) of this song makes a brief appearance in Gilbert and Sullivan: In The Pirates of Penzance, the Modern Major General tells us that "I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's"; one suspects Gilbert got it from Percy (the notes in Gilbert/Sullivan/Bradley, p. 118, appear to contain a reference to this song). Nor is this the only use of the idea in more modern writings; Lupack, pp. 123-124, mentions several retellings of the tale, including an 1844 anonymous American text, "A Romaunt of the Tyme of Gud Kynge Arthur Done Into English from an Authentic Version" which claimed no author except "a Daughter of Eve," plus Stephen Jackson's 1903 "The Magic Mantle." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: C029

Boy from Wexford, The

See The Croppy Boy (I) [Laws J14] (File: LJ14)

Boy He Had an Auger, A

DESCRIPTION: "A boy, he had an auger, It bored two holes at once; A boy, he had an auger, It bored two holes at once. And some were eating popcorn, And some were eating pickles (Spoken:) And the 'G' is silent as in 'fish.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: nonsense nonballad technology wordplay
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 343, "A Boy He Had an Auger" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Louisiana Lowlands" (another parody of "The Golden Vanity" verse beginning "Some were playing cards and some were playing dice")
NOTES [58 words]: The only part of this I'll try to explain is the line about "the 'G' is silent as in 'fish.'" This may go back to Shaw, who proposed to spell the word fish "ghoti." Other verses and other conclusions (e.g. "The Q is silent as in electricity") make even less sense.
This may, I suppose, have been *very* loosely inspired by "The Golden Vanity." - RBW
File: San343

Boy in Blue, The

See The Express Office (He Is Coming to Us Dead) (File: R696)

Boy In Love That Feels No Cold, The

See When a Man's in Love [Laws O20] (File: LO20)

Boy in Love, The

See When a Man's in Love [Laws O20] (File: LO20)

Boy Killed by a Falling Tree in Hartford

DESCRIPTION: Young Isaac Alcott, newly arrived in Hartford, goes riding. He goes to "cut some timber for a sled" and is hit by a falling branch. Found many hours later, it is too late to save his life. His funeral is described; the song ends with a moralizing stanza
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: death burial mourning injury warning
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 167-169, "Boy Killed by a Falling Tree in Hartford" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FO167 (Partial)
Roud #4680
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Harry Dunn (The Hanging Limb)" [Laws C14] (plot) and references there
File: FO167

Boy Meets Girl

DESCRIPTION: "Boy meets girl, hold her hand, Visions of a promised land." They sleep together. They get married. They have children. The wife is cranky. The children are cranky. But he "can't forsake those sexy habits, Breeding kids like bloody rabbits."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: sex marriage children
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 159, "Boy Meets Girl" (1 text)
Roud #10245
File: RuSoBoMG

Boy of Love, The

See When a Man's in Love [Laws O20] (File: LO20)

Boy on the Land, The

DESCRIPTION: Little boy, working on the land, is given an old coat, "old stiff collar button'd to the throat." Second, he's given an old gun; "Sometimes she gave fire, sometimes she gave smoke, She gave my shoulder the devil's own poke"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: farming work worker
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 164, "The Boy on the Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #520
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kerry Recruit" (hints of plot, lyrics)
NOTES [88 words]: This is a conundreum; from the fragmentary text it's not clear whether the boy gets the coat and gun for his agricultural work or because he's been conscripted into the army. If the latter, just possibly "The Kerry Recruit" is related, but it's all very tenuous. - PJS
Roud in fact lumps them, but until we find some sort of substantial version, it will be hard to prove either way. I'll admit that I probably would have lumped them; although the first of Sharp's verses seems unique, the rest looks like "The Kerry Recruit." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ShAp2164

Boy Stood on the Burning Deck, The

DESCRIPTION: "The boy stood on the burning deck." Various jokes follow, e.g. "...deck, His feet ere full of blisters. He burnt a hole in the seat of his pants And had to wear his sister's." Or "His father was in the public house And the beer ran down his whiskers"
AUTHOR: unknown (based on the work of Felicia Hemans (1794-1835))
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: fire injury humorous derivative
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 79, "(A boy stood on a burning deck)," "(The boy stood on the burning deck)" (3 short texts)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 41, "(The boy stood on the burning deck)" (1 text)
Roud #16232
NOTES [314 words]: This is of course derived from "Casabianca" by Felicia Hemans (1794-1835):
The boy stood on the burning deck,
Whence all but he had fled;
The flame that lit the battle's wreck,
Shone round him o'er the dead.
Benet, p. 184, explains that the poem "celebrat[es] the heroic death of Giacomo Jocante Casabianca, the little son of a French naval captain. The boy was set by his father on watch. The ship caught fire, and his father was burnt to death. As the flames spread, the boy called to his father, but stood by his post until the ship blew up."
That's the official story, anyway, but it's debatable. Uden/Cooper, p. 339, says, "There is much conflict of evidence about what actually happened to Casabianca and his son. One story has it that both left the ship but drowned before they could be picked up." The fight was the Battle of the Nile (Aboukir Bay), Nelson's famous victory over the French fleet in Egypt in 1798. Uden/Cooper note the irony that the most famous English poem about the Battle of the Nile involved French navy men!
Harvey, p. 379, gives a capsule biography of Hemans, "née Browne, married Captain Alfred Hemans in 1812, but separated from him in 1818. Her writings were highly popular in America, and she was the 'Egeria' of Maria Jane Jewsbury's 'Three Histories.' Her collected works (issued in 1939) include 'Translations from Camoens and other Poets,' 'Lays of Many Lands, 'The Forest Sanctuary,' and 'Songs of the Affections.' She is perhaps chiefly remembered as the author of 'Casabianca' ('The boy stood on the burning deck'), 'The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers,' 'England's Dead,' and 'The Better Land.'"
Although obviously inspired by the Hemans poem, I don't think this is directly derived from it; note that the Hemans poem is in standard ballad stanzas, with 4-3-4-3 feet, whereas this seems closer to 4-4-4-4 although the lines often drag a bit. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: BAAI079B

Boy That Found a Bride, The (Fair Gallowa')

DESCRIPTION: The singer, born in Gallowa', has taken to rambling when he sees a beautiful girl. He courts her urgently until he must return home. He asks her to marry him before he takes to the road. After some hesitation, she agrees; they marry and live in Gallowa'
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (Poet's Box broadside, according to Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: home rambling marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H665, pp. 454-455, "The Boy that Found a Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #167, pp. 1-2, "Fair Gallowa'" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 949, "Fair Gallowa'" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6300
NOTES [28 words]: Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(43), "Fair Galloway" ("It was in the month of August"), unknown, no date is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: HHH665

Boy That Wore the Blue, The (The Soldier's Letter)

See The Soldier's Letter (File: R244)

Boy the Burned in the Berryville Jail. The

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Floyd Eddings the son of old Dock, He truly disowned me but I am one of his flock." Eddings turns robber, is arrested, and is imprisoned. His father won't help. The jail catches fire; the jailor does not rescue him; the jail burns around him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (High-OldOldFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: robbery father prison fire
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 27-28, "The Boy That Burned in the Berryville Jail in 1888" (1 text)
Roud #15764
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Flor Ednings
NOTES [181 words]: According to the web site for Carroll County, Arkanses, where Berryville is located, "In 1887, a young inmate named Floyd Eddings set fire to the Berryville Jail and it burned to the ground. Floyd was a troublemaker and the son of a well-respected physician in Carrollton. He had been jailed in Berryville for breaking into a store in Carrollton and stealing an overcoat. In his effort to burn a hole in the wall of the jail, he was unable to escape as he had planned, and was the sole victim of the blaze."
There are at least three collections of this (by Fred High of Berryville, Arkansas, in the northwestern part of the state; by "Mr. Alford" of Delmar, Arkansas, a short distance to the east, and by "Mrs. Rubibow" of Seligman, Missouri, in the southwestern part of that state), plus a version sung by Neal Morris at Mountain View (which might be a revival version). Curiously, the transcriptions give different names for the victim (Floyd Eddings, Floyd Edings, Flor Ednings), but the rest of the text seems to be almost the same. I suspect an undiscovered broadside somewhere. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: Hogh027B

Boy Who Wore the Blue, The

See The Soldier's Letter (File: R244)

Boy With No Shoes

See Tooraloo (Boy With No Shoes, All Tattered and Torn, I Dreamt I Had Died) (File: Gard014)

Boy's Best Friend Is His Mother, A

DESCRIPTION: "While plodding on our way, the toilsome road of life, How few the friends that daily there we meet" but "A boy's best friend is his mother," "So cherish her with care, and smooth her silvery hair." All will eventually learn this lesson.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard)
KEYWORDS: mother love friend nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 69-70, "A Boy's Best Friend Is His Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1756
File: HuVi069

Boyibus Kissibus

DESCRIPTION: Macaronic pseudo-latin chant about courting. "Boyibus kissibus Sweet/Priti Girliorum, Girlibus likabus, Wanty some moreum." Perhaps continues "Pater puellibus [i.e. her father] enter parlorum Kickabus boyibus exitus doorum."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (from a yearbook dated to that year, according to the Formalist Saurian web site)
KEYWORDS: humorous courting father foreignlanguage | pseudo-Latin
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 65, "Boyibus Kissibus" (1 text)
Roud #25498
NOTES [23 words]: I'm not sure this is a song, but it is so often quoted that I am sure it is traditional. There are many variations and additions, too. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC065B

Boyndlie Road

DESCRIPTION: "The year 1803 Our gentlemen did all agree To make a live road o'er the lea Out through the haughs o' Boyndlie." When nothing was being done Forbes made a plan and he and a few men fought "our esquires ... to make the roads thro' Boyndlie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: commerce travel
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #8, p. 3, ("'Twas in the year eighteen hundred and three") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 459, "Boyndlie Road" (1 text)
Roud #5962
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Buchan Turnpike" (subject: road building)
NOTES [19 words]: Greig: "We give a few verses of the homely rhyme." Greig gives the first four verses reported in Greig/Duncan3. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3459

Boyndlie's Braes

DESCRIPTION: "Boyndlie's banks and braes are steep And decked wi' flo'ers o mony a hue...." "There does dwell my bonnie Nell... And I cam' ower frae Aberdour To lat her taste my fruits sae rare." He is young and poor, but they expect to keep company in the future
AUTHOR: John Anderson of Upper Boyndlie (d.c.1870) (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #21, pp. 1-2, "Boyndlie's Braes"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 36-37, "Boyndlie's Braes" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan4 718, "Boyndlie's Braes" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 88, "Boyndlie's Braes" (1 text)
Roud #5585
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drumdelgie" (tune, per Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
cf. "The Barnyards o' Delgaty" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
File: Ord088

Boyne Water (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "July the First in Ouldbridge Town there was a grievous battle...." The song describes William's attack on the Irish positions at the Boyne. The listeners are reminded that the "Protestants of Drogheda have reason to be thankful"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (_Constitutional Songs_, according to Zimmermann)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "July the First in Oldbridge town there was a grievous battle." William, shot in the arm, refused Schomberg's advice to avoid personal involvement. "William said, 'He don t deserve the name of Faith's Defender, Who would not venture life and limb to make a foe surrender'." When Schomberg was killed William "would be the foremost; 'Brave boys,' he said, 'be not dismayed, for the loss of one commander, For God will be our King this day, and I'll be general under.'" He rescued the Protestants of Drogheda who had been tried at the Millmount. The French left Duleek for Dublin, setting the fields on fire as they fled. William let his men rest rather than pursue the French: "sheathe your swords and rest a while, in time we'll follow after."
KEYWORDS: battle Ireland royalty rebellion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1685-1688 - Reign of James II (James VII of Scotland), the last Catholic king of Britain
1688 - Glorious Revolution overthrows James II in favour of his Protestant daughter Mary II and her husband and first cousin William III of Orange
Mar 12, 1689 - James arrives in Ireland and begins, very hesitantly, to organize its defense.
April-July, 1689 - Siege of Londonderry. James's forces fail to capture the Protestant stronghold, leaving Ireland still "in play" for William
August, 1689 - Marshal Schomberg brings the first of William's troops to Ireland. James continues to be passive, allowing more troops to reinforce them
March, 1690 - James receives reinforcements from France but still does nothing
June 14, 1690 - William lands in Ireland
July 1, 1690 - Battle of the Boyne. William III crushes the Irish army of James, at once securing his throne and the rule of Ireland. Irish resistance continues for about another year, but Ireland east of the Shannon is his, and the opposition is doomed.
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 117-119, "The Battle of the Boyne" (1 text, mixing this and "The Boyne Water (I)")
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, p. 15, "The Boyne Water" (1 partial text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 72, "The Battle of the Boyne" (2 texts, one short and from tradition, the other an excerpt from Peter Buchan's 1817 text; it is probably this version, since it mentions William's injury and title as Faith's Defender, but it's too fragmentary to be sure)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 302-307, "The Battle of the Boyne" (1 tet, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 46-47, "The Battle of Boyne Water" (1 fragment, 1 tune, a probable Protestant parody since it contains the line "Ten thousand Micks got killed with picks At the battle of the Boyen Water")
DT, BOYNWATR*
Roud #795
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(186), "Battle of the Boyne. Enniskillen, Aughrim, Boyne, Derry, 1690" ("July the first in Oldbridge town," The Poet's box (Glasgow), 1854
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of the Boyne (I)" (subject: The Battle of the Boyne) and references there
cf. "The Battle of the Boyne (II)" (lyrics)
NOTES [1088 words]: The cross reference in broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(186) implies that there is a previous song as source of the tune.
Three ballads seem confused: the most commonly recorded "The Boyne Water (I)," the "old version," "The Boyne Water (II)," and Colonel Blacker's "The Battle of the Boyne." The three are clearly distinct though Roud currently numbers both "Boyne Water" ballads as #795 and Colonel Blacker has been named by some as author of "The Boyne Water (I)" for more than 100 years. While this discussion may not settle the confusion, it may provide a fair starting point.
One missing piece of evidence is Rev Abraham Hume's "The Two Ballads on the Battle of the Boyne," in Ulster Journal of Archeology (1854).
Zimmermann, pp. 300-301, says "An old ballad on this subject, known as 'The Boyne Water' [II], was later replaced by a shorter one entitled 'The Battle of the Boyne' [I]. Gavan Duffy gave a fragment of the old version in 1845, and Rev Abraham Hume published the whole ballad - nineteen stanzas - in 1854 [Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 9 has twenty]. The shorter version was then said to have first appeared in 1814, which is not true, as it is found in song books printed in the 1790's [Fn 28] For instance in Constitutional Songs, 1798 [when Colonel Blacker was 21 years old], pp. 9-12]."
Duffy (Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845)) prints (I) as an anonymous "Old Ballad" though he knew Colonel Blacker's work and included Blacker's "Oliver's Advice" in his book. He comments that "This version of the 'Boyne Water' is in universal use among the Orangemen of Ireland, and is the only one ever sung by them. But that it is not the original song, written a century and a half ago, is perfectly certain" [p. 144] In Note A to the Appendix he prints the fragments. He comments that "They appear to us infinitely more racy and spirited than anything in the song which has strangely superseded them."
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), reprints Duffy's texts and some of Duffy's comments. On page 509 he writes of his "Battle of the Boyne" that it is the "accepted version of this famous song which is sung at Orange meetings; wrongly attributed to Colonel Blacker"; on p. 495 he notes "The 'Battle of the Boyne' is wrongly attributed to him; he wrote a poem of that name, but not the famous song."
As Sparling noted, Colonel William Blacker (1777-1855) did write a poem on the subject which Hayes printed in 1855 (Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859 (reprint of 1855 London edition)), Vol I, pp. 210-211) and O'Conor reprinted in 1901. I don't know that it was ever sung; it is included in the Index to help clear up the confusion.
The Index entry for each of the three ballads includes a LONG DESCRIPTION that should eliminate any thought that the three are related. The texts of Duffy's fragments (II) and Colonel Blacker's poem are included in the Supplemental Tradition Text File; the text of (I) is available at a Digital Tradition site.
Versions of (I) and (II) share only the two lines of William's comment on the death of Schomberg ("He says, 'my boys, feel no dismay at the losing of one commander For God shall be our king this day, and I'll be general under.'") though Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 9 (II) replaces them ("I'll go before and lead you on-Boys use your hands full nimble; With the help of God, we'll beat them all, And make their hearts to tremble.") Colonel Blacker's poem shares no lines with the other two.
Of the songs collected since Duffy I know of only one that is clearly the "old version." Art Rosenbaum, in Folk Visions & Voices (1983) prints "King William, Duke Shambo, collected in Georgia in 1980 (p. 65).
The last two verses of Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry are from "the old version": the Prince Eugene reference and "Now, praise God, all true Protestants ..." [see the Supplemental Tradition Text File].
The common fragment (for example, George Korson,Pennsylvania Songs & Legends)
They fought with clubs and they fought with stones, King William on a charger,
"He says now boys, don't be dismayed on losing a commander"
On and on the battle raged, 'til caught by the fearful slaughter
Ten thousand Micks got killed with sticks at the Battle of Boyne Water
might be from either version (I) or (II). - BS
The Battle of the Boyne was nearly the last gasp of fighting directly connected with the Glorious Revolution of 1688. James II, having been forced to abdicate, fled, but returned to Ireland to try to regain his throne. William of Orange gathered an army and followed.
James showed some military sense in choosing his position along the Boyne; William's army was larger, better equipped, better trained, and better disciplined. The only Jacobite hope was to hold a strong defensive position. But this wasn't enough; the English and their allies quickly got across the Boyne, and from then on, the battle was little more than a rearguard action by Irish cavalry against the advancing English.
In the aftermath, the power of Old Ireland, and of the Old English who were the primary Irish leaders from the time of Henry II to that of Elizabeth -- already much diminished by Cromwell -- was completely and finally broken.
For a fuller description and background, see the notes to "The Battle of the Boyne (I)."
Ford-SongHistories, p. 136, claims that "More heads have been cracked over [the singing of this song] surely than were ever cracked in the battle which it faithfully enough describes," and says that the song will always survive because of its fine tune even though the words are banal.
The Hoagland text includes several scriptural references. Nabal of Carmel lived during the time of King Saul of Israel, and David's rebel band asked him for protection money. (The Bible doesn't say so straight out, but that's what it was.) Nabal refused; his wife Abigail paid behind his back, then told him; it sounds as if he had a stroke and died a few days later. The story occupies most of 1 Samuel 25.
The reference to Zerubbabel as deliverer is strange; Zerubbabel led one of the several Jewish returns to Jerusalem after the Babylonian Captivity, and was the secular leader who started the building of the Second Temple -- but, if we piece together the data in Ezra, Haggai, and Zechariah together, he wasn't around at the end. And he was too young for a natural death to have been likely. The best guess is that the Persian authorities thought him a rebel and removed him. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PGa015

Boyne Water (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "July the First, of a morning clear, on thousand six hundred and ninety, King William did his men prepare...." The forces of James and William clash; Schomberg is killed; William's forces win the battle; Protestants are urged to plaise God
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Duffy)
LONG DESCRIPTION: July the First, of a morning clear," 1690, King William and 30000 men faced King James near the Boyne. They advanced to "Lillibalero." When Duke Schomberg was killed William said, "my boys, feel no dismay at the losing of one commander For God shall be our king this day, and I'll be general under." William's forces formed a body bridge to cross the Boyne. Dermot Roe fled. Lord Galmoy advanced but "never three from ten of them escaped." The French were battered. Prince Eugene advanced against James's forces who ran away because "the brandy ran so in their heads." The Enniskillen men were restrained from following the fleeing Jacobite forces; in contrast, though James would have tried to restrain them, "had the Papists gain'd the day, there would have been open murder."
KEYWORDS: battle Ireland royalty rebellion drink
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1685-1688 - Reign of James II (James VII of Scotland), the last Catholic king of Britain
1688 - Glorious Revolution overthrows James II in favour of his Protestant daughter Mary II and her husband and first cousin William III of Orange
Mar 12, 1689 - James arrives in Ireland and begins, very hesitantly, to organize its defense.
April-July, 1689 - Siege of Londonderry. James's forces fail to capture the Protestant stronghold, leaving Ireland still "in play" for William
August, 1689 - Marshal Schomberg brings the first of William's troops to Ireland. James continues to be passive, allowing more troops to reinforce them
March, 1690 - James receives reinforcements from France but still does nothing
June 14, 1690 - William lands in Ireland
July 1, 1690 - Battle of the Boyne. William III crushes the Irish army of James, at once securing his throne and the rule of Ireland. Irish resistance continues for about another year, but Ireland east of the Shannon is his, and the opposition is doomed.
FOUND IN: Ireland US(SE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 9, "The Boyne Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 117-119, "The Battle of the Boyne" (1 text, mixing this and "The Boyne Water (I)")
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 14-15, "The Battle of the Boyne" (1 text)
Graham-TheOrangeSongster, p. 8, "The Boyne Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 64-65, "King William, Duke Shambo" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 248-249, "The Boyne Water"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 249-250, "The Boyne Water"
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 13-14, 448-450, "The Boyne Water"
Charles Sullivan, ed., Ireland in Poetry, pp. 105-106, "The Boyne Water" (1 text)
Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 179-180, "The Boyne Water" (1 text)
ST PGa014 (Partial)
Roud #795
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of the Boyne (I)" (subject: The Battle of the Boyne) and references there
cf. "King William and King James" (story and some text; tune similar)
NOTES [500 words]: "[On the Duleek road during the retreat,] there was a small riot when some men broke ranks and smashed open barrels of spirits and proceeded in a number of cases to become very drunk" (source: Michael McNally, Battle of the Boyne 1690: the Irish Campaign for the English Crown (Oxford, 2005), p.86). For another ballad with the theme of drink after a loss see "The Boys of Wexford."
Viscount Galmoy's mounted regiment joined the French brigade, Maxwell's dragoons and Sarsfield's horse. When James left the field Sarsfield's and Maxwell's regiments were sent to protect him, leaving Galmoy's among the inadequate force left to counteract the Williamite cavalry. (source: McNally, p. 86)
I found no reference in McNally to McDermott Roe or Prince Eugene of Savoy in this battle. [Since McDermott Roe lived in the era of the Defenders, a century after the Boyne, he obviously was not there. Eugene was at least alive at this time, but he was making his reputation in Italy at the time. I think this is an extended confusion -- Eugene worked with Marlborough, and Marlborough with William III and Anne. - RBW]
Of the songs collected since Duffy I know of only one that is clearly the "old version." Art Rosenbaum, in Folk Visions & Voices (1983) prints "King William, Duke Shambo, collected in Georgia in 1980 (p. 65).
The last two verses of Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 117-119, "The Battle of the Boyne" [version I] are from "the old version": the Prince Eugene reference and "Now, praise God, all true Protestants...."
Was Prince Eugene at the Battle of the Boyne? McNally, quoted above, does not mention him. Neither does Ellis [Peter Barresford Ellis, The Boyne Water: the Battle of the Boyne, 1690 (London, 1976)], nor Plunket [ascribed to Nicholas Plunket, Derry and the Boyne: a contemporary Catholic account of the Siege of Derry, the Battle of the Boyne, and the general condition of Ireland in the Jacobite war (Belfast, c1990)]. McKay says, "soon after the [antiFrench coalition] alliance was signed [June 1690] Eugene, now promoted to general of cavalry, arrived in Turin with his close friend Commercy to take command of five regiments of Imperial troops being transferred to Italy'; he fought against the French at Staffarda 18 August 1690 [Derek McKay, Prince Eugene of Savoy (London, c1977), pp. 33, 270.] - BS
(I have also checked several sources for the Boyne, including notably G. A. Hayes-McCoy, Irish Battles: A Military History of Ireland, Barnes & Noble, 1969, 1997, and none of them mention Eugene being at the Boyne. It is clear he was not. Possibly the song was inspired by one of the Wild Geese who later fought against Eugene on the continent? - RBW)
For background on the Battle of the Boyne, see "The Battle of the Boyne (I)." For the relationship between this song and "The Boyne Water (I)" (which are much confused because both begin "July the First" and refer to many of the same events), see the notes to "The Boyne Water (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: PGa014

Boys a Dear, I Found a Penny

See Boys O Boys I Found a Penny (File: KSUC018A)

Boys a-Plenty

See One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (File: BGMG615)

Boys About Here

See A Comical Ditty (Arizona Boys and Girls) (File: JHCox057)

Boys and Girls Come Out to Play

DESCRIPTION: "Boys and girls come out to play, The moon doth shine as bright as day. Leave your supper and leave your sheep... Come with a good will or not at all... A halfpenny loaf will serve us all... And we'll have a pudding in half an hour."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1744 (Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, p. 187, "An English Round" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 75, "Boys and GIrls Come Out to Play" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #17, p. 34, "(Girls and Boys)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 23, "Boys and Girls, Come Out to Play" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 121, "Boys and Girls Come Out to Play" (1 text)
ST FlBr187 (Full)
Roud #5452
NOTES [94 words]: The first line of this occurs in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, Volume II (1744?), and the Tommy Thumb text occurs in various texts of the period (see Opie-Oxford 75); this may explain why Flanders and Brown call this "An English Round," but I know of no English collections of the actual form in Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, which proceeds "Boys and girls come out to play, You must have a holiday. Heigh-o, heigh-o, have a holiday." "If you want hay sweet and fine, Rake it when the sun doth shine. Heigh-o, heigh-o, when the sun doth shine.". - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: FlBr187

Boys Around Here, The

See A Comical Ditty (Arizona Boys and Girls) (File: JHCox057)

Boys at Ninety-Five, The

DESCRIPTION: Mike takes the Bonavista Branch to Deer Lake and is sent to lumbercamp 95 "with not a decent tree." The skipper, foreman, and cook are named with comments on drink and dawn-to-dark hard work
AUTHOR: Mike Brennan
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: lumbering drink moniker cook logger
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 746-747, "The Boys at Ninety-Five" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9802
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wabash Cannonball" (tune)
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (theme)
NOTES [134 words]: The melody shown by Peacock is very close to "The Wabash Cannonball." He notes that the "writer was away during my visit, so I had no opportunity to get the 'correct' tune." He collected the song at Stock Cove, near Bonavista.
The Bonavista Branch of the narrow gauge Newfoundland Railway started at Bonavista on the northeast coast. Deer Lake is about 350 miles west by Trans-Canada 1 and other roads that pretty much follow the route of the railway. The Bonavista Branch ran from 1913 to 1989 according to the Blanford site. - BS
The failure to collect a tune is particularly sad given the likelihood that this is derived from some other logging song, e.g. "We Work for Hay and Company" (which also uses "The Wabash Cannonball"). For more on the Bonavista line, see the notes to "The Bonavist Line." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea746

Boys Can Whistle, Girls Can Sing

DESCRIPTION: "Grandma (Gruff/Grunt) said a curious thing, Boys can whistle but girls must sing." Various people confirm this observation: "[Papa] said to me, 'It's the usual thing For boys to whistles and girls to sing.'" Whistling girls will reportedly meet a bad end
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 145, "Whistling Girls and Crowing Hens" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 145, "Whisting Girls and Crowing Hens" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 144, "Grandma Gruff" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 73, "Boys Can Whistle, Girls Can Sing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, pp. 51-52, "Grandma Grunts" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7012
NOTES [48 words]: The first place I saw this was in the Prairie Home Companion book, and the Brown and Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection collections prove that it is a genuine folksong. Sadly, the Prairie Home Companion book does not document sources, so we do not know where this song survives. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: PHCFS073

Boys from County Cork, The

DESCRIPTION: "You've read in history's pages of heroes of great fame...." The singer notes that the heroes of Ireland's history are those who died in the 1916 rebellion. The singer lists heroes from old Ireland, noting that the Boys from Cork beat the Black and Tans
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion nonballad IRA
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 24, 1916 (Easter Monday) - beginning of the Easter Rebellion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, p. 70, "The Boys from County Cork" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 95, "The Boys from Rebel Cork" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9774
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Foggy Dew (III)" (subject)
NOTES [1434 words]: People and things mentioned in this song include:
"The Black and Tans" (for which see "The Bold Black and Tan") -- a special English constabulary recruited to quell Irish violence. They failed, and in fact contributed to the brutality.
MacSweeney -- presumably Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, who was arrested for seditious speech, then died in a hunger strike (1920; OxfordComp, p. 339). (See the notes to "Shall My Soul Pass Through Ireland"), though others in his family were also involved in the struggle against the British.
The other possibility is Terence's sister Mary, who was one of the die-hards who fought in parliament against the Free State Treaty with England. (Coogan, p. 307, quotes her speech against the Anglo-Irish treaty: "This is a betrayal, a gross betrayal... I tell you there can be no union between the representatives of the Irish Republic and the so-called Free State." In Coogan's view, her statement ended any hope of peace between the radicals and the more rational majority. Certainly a pointless civil war followed.)
Cathal Brugha - An officer in the resistance forces, famed for how hard he fought. He was also a political leader, arguing strenuously for a Republican government; he refused to join the delegation that negotiated with Lloyd George to negotiate the treaty of semi-independence. He was killed in 1922 (OxfordComp, p. 61); for details of his eventual fate, see "The Death of Brugh."
de Valera -- Eamon de Valera (1882-1975) was born in America but became a leader of the 1916 rising, and barely avoided execution after its collapse. (He was among those about to be executed, but the British government realized he was an American citizen and halted the executions). Having survived, he was nominated in a parliamentary by-election in 1917 (the first chance to nominate a Nationalist since the Easter Rising) -- and was elected by a 2:1 margin (Kee III, pp. 27-28). He became the President of Sinn Fein in 1917, then of the rebel Irish parliament; he opposed the Treaty which led to the partition of Ireland, but formed the Fianna Fail party and won the 1932 election, then established the 1937 constitution. He remained Ireland's leading politician for fifty years, serving as President from 1959 to 1973.
Padraic Pearse (1879-1916) -- Irish poet and historian, acclaimed provisional president of the 1916 Irish Republic. He declared the Republic on Easter Monday of 1916, surrendered it the following Saturday, and was executed on May 3 of that year.
It is interesting to note that Pearse had once played a crucified criminal in one of his own plays (Edwards, pp. 167-168).
According to Kee (II, pp. 206-207), "Patrick Pearse [his name before he Gaelicized it] [was a] Gaelic League poet and schoolmaster, son of a Birmingham stone-mason and an Irish mother, who since 1908 had been running a nationally minded school for boys called St Enda's at Rathfarnham on the outskirts of Dublin." It is ironic that this man so associated with Irishness was an English atheist his living creating monuments he did not believe in for Catholics, and his mother was a Unitarian (Edwards, pp. 120-121); they sang "God Save the Queen" at formal family dinners (Edwards, p. 121). So this man who was so deeply responsible for the creation of Catholic Ireland would probably have been condemned by his nation and ended up in Ulster if anyone had been paying attention to his history.
(I can't help but wonder if Pearse wasn't a bit autistic. Edwards, pp. 123-124, describes him as aloof, lacking friends other than his brother, unlike his family in his intellectual skills, shy, with an odd carriage, and a dislike of athletic activities; p. 127 adds that his speech was unnatural and difficult to listen to; p. 128 speaks of his rigidity in dress; p. 142 describes him as uncomfortable with the opposite sex and literally fleeing the presence of a woman. Little wonder, in that case, that he developed a special and intense interest in things Irish.)
Townshend, p. 13, notes that his first major activity was with the Gaelic League journal An Claideamh Soluis: "When he became editor in 1903 his position as chief ideologue of the language movement was cemented."
But Irish nationalism at this stage was very fragmented (even Pearse apparently started out by trying for a Gaelic revival, not a revolt). What the vast majority opposed could still come about in the hands of a determined minority (the whole thing, frankly, reminds me of how Lenin first hijacked Russian Communism and then all of Russia).
In May 1915, a small part of the leadership of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood appointed Pearse, Joseph Plunkett, and Eamonn Ceannt to look into a rebellion. Kee notes that it wasn't until September that even the full Supreme Council of the IRB knew of Pearce's committee. And the IRB was a minority in the Sinn Fein Volunteers, which was a minority of the National Volunteers, who did not represent all of Ireland (Kee II, p. 236). The Easter Rebellion was not a popular rebellion; had it somehow succeeded, it would have been called a coup d'etat, and its leaders a junta. But, of course, it did not succeed in anything except laying much of Dublin in ruins.
In one sense, the rebels' timing was bad; with millions of British troops fighting in France, Britain had to end the rebellion with all possible speed -- i.e. with great brutality. But that made the rebels martyrs -- and *that* reawakened the nationalist cause. Many English leaders begged to have the rebels treated leniently (see Kee III, p. 1).
Pearse, perhaps more than any other, foresaw the course of the Rising -- including its spectacular failure. The failure was fully expected, at least by Pearse and some of his associates. (Indeed, Pearse in 1915 wrote a play, "The Singer," about a hypothetical Irish rebellion, in which he described a handful of men going into battle against a multitude; told it was foolish course, one of the lost-hopers replied "And so it is a foolish thing. Do you want us to be wise?" -- see Kee II, p. 255. The hero went forth unarmed, but declaring "One man can free a people as one Man redeemed the world"; Townshend, p. 15).)
Many nationalist leaders opposed the Rising for this very reason (Kee II, p. 235). In a way, Pearse didn't even want to succeed. He thought Irish independence could only be achieved by a sort of mystic sacrifice -- and set out to make it. In this sense, they were wise -- think how the fate of William Wallace roused Scotland, or in later years how the destruction of the Algerian liberation organizations caused the Algerian public to demand independence. It's the modern version of Tertullian's dictum "The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church."
Kee summarize this attitude as follows (II, p. 235): "Pearse... consistently proclaimed to the effect that a blood sacrifice, however hopeless its chances of military succes, was necessary to redeem Ireland from her loss of true national pride, much as Jesus Christ by his blood had redeemed mankind from its sins." It's probably not coincidence that Pearse much admired Robert Emmet despite the utter futility of the latter's rebellion (Townshend, p. 23. For background, see the notes to "Bold Robert Emmet.")
And, because the rebels were repressed, it changed public opinion. Until then, it seems certain that most Irish wanted home rule and peace. After the Rising, the IRA and resistance took over. Pearse sacrificed himself to win a free Ireland. One might say that the gods accepted the sacrifice. But they also exacted a price. J. C. Beckett (amplifying and paraphrasing a comment of Michael Collins) remarks that Pearse's sacrifice placed Ireland under the "tyranny of the dead." The dead cannot compromise. If the Rising had not taken place, Ireland might have found a peaceful solution. Because it did take place, Ireland was condemned to the Black-and-Tan War and the Civil War which followed.
The whole story shows how tragic the fate of Ireland was. The rebels destroyed much of Dublin, and the ordinary Irish, who had no part in the rebellion, at first reviled them. But, as Golway notes (240-241), the speed and brutality of British justice caused public opinion "to turn against Britain's pursuit of vengeance. The spat-upon rebels were becoming martyrs." In the end, it was Pearse's mystic incompetents -- schoolteachers and poets who thought themselves soldiers, though it turned out that Pearse couldn't even stand the sight of blood -- who became the Irish heroes. Kee III, p. 15, mentions a case of a girl actually making reference to "Saint Pearse. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.0
File: PGa070

Boys from Mullaghbawn, The

See The Boys of Mullabawn (File: LcMullB)

Boys from Rebel Cork, The

See The Boys from County Cork (File: PGa070)

Boys in Blue, The

See The Express Office (He Is Coming to Us Dead) (File: R696)

Boys in This Country Trying to Advance

See A Comical Ditty (Arizona Boys and Girls) (File: JHCox057)

Boys O Boys

See Oh Boys Oh (File: McSc130)

Boys O Boys I Found a Penny

DESCRIPTION: "Boys, O boys, I found a penny. Boys, O boys, I found a bap. Boys, O boys, I ate it up. Boys, O boys, it made me fat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: food money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 18, "Boys O Boys I Found a Penny" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 48, "(Boys a dear, I found a penny)" (1 text)
Roud #19540
File: KSUC018A

Boys of Bedlam

See Tom a Bedlam (Bedlam Boys) (File: Log172)

Boys of Coleraine, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer invites listeners to drink to the boys of Coleraine. He recalls the exiles, and calls for another drink. He looks over the sea, and the thought saddens him. He once again toasts the boys of Coleraine
AUTHOR: Robert Thompson ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home emigration drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H87b, p. 182, "The Boys of Coleraine" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #8005
File: HHH087b

Boys of Fair Hill, The

DESCRIPTION: The boys of Fair Hill love the girls, hunting with the Harrier Club, drinking water at Fahy's well and porter at Quinlan's pub, and spending "a day with our Hurling Club." "Here's up 'em all say the boys of Fair Hill"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: hunting sports drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 34-35, "The Boys of Fair Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [85 words]: Fair Hill is a suburb of Cork City.
OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "This is one of Cork's most popular songs." The current [1978] pub version had inconsequential or disrespectful lines compared to the original. For example, "Shandon steeple stands up straight and the River Lee flows underneath," "The Blarney hens don't lay at all and when they lays they lays them small," "The Blackpool girls are very small up against the Sunbeam wall," "The Montenotte girls are very rude; they go swimming in the nude," and so on. - BS
File: OCan034

Boys of Kilkenny, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh the boys of Kilkenny are brave roaring blades." They kiss and coax every girl they meet. The singer remembers a "pretty dame" from Kilkenny. Now he's in exile; if he were in back there, he could get "sweethearts but here can get none"
AUTHOR: Words: Arthur Matthison/Music: W. F. Wellman
EARLIEST DATE: 1807 (sung by Thomas Moore, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: homesickness courting exile nonballad rake
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 73, "The Boys of Kilkenny" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 44, "The Boys of Kilkenny" (1 text)
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 196-199, "The Boys of Kilkenny" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #32, p. 2, "The Boys of Kilkenny" (1 fragment)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 47, "Boys of Kilkenny" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #88, "The Lads of Kilkenny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 46, "The CHaps of Cocaigny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 134-135, "The Boys of Killarney" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #190, p. 14, "The Boys of Kilkenny" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 49 and #3/62, p. 49, "The Boys of Kilkenny" (1 text)
Roud #1451
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2403), "The Boys of Kilkenny," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth b.26(318), Firth b.25(595/596) View 2 of 2, 2806 b.11(171), "[The] Boys of Kilkenny"
LOCSinging, as101550, "The Boys of Killkenny," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. The Boys of Virginia (theme, some lyrics)
cf. "The Old Head of Denis" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
cf. "Bonny Portmore" ("it shines where it stands") and references there
NOTES [126 words]: Kilkenny is one of many places that "shines where it stands" in song. Bodleian broadside Harding B 11(2403) includes the typical lines "Kilkenny's a pretty town and shines where it stands And the more I think of it the more my heart warms." See also the discussion of Steve Gardham's notes for "The Poor Stranger."
Source: Re author--the Bodleian Library broadside.
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland says Thomas Moore, whom he admits he incorrectly believed wrote the song, "sung 'The Boys of Kilkenny' in England, where he became a permanent resident about 1807."
Broadside LOCSinging as101550: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Ocon044

Boys of Kilmichael, The

DESCRIPTION: When honouring "the martyrs who have long since died," remember the boys of Kilmichael who "conquered the red white and blue." The Tans left Macroom November 28 with two Crossley tenders and were wiped out by the Column. The Column returned to Glenure.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: rebellion battle Ireland patriotic IRA
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 28, 1920 - Tom Barry's IRA Flying Column ambushes Auxiliaries at Kilmichael (source: Donal Buckley, _The West Cork Trail: Scenes From the Anglo-Irish Civil Wars, 1920-1922_, "The Kilmichael Ambush" on The Wild Geese Today site).
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 50-51,121-122, "The Boys of Kilmichael" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bold Black and Tan" (subject: Irish Civil War) and references there
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (tune) and references there
cf. "The Men of the West" (tune and some phrases)
cf. "The Piper of Crossbarry" (subject: the exploits of Tom Barry)
NOTES [480 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "At Kilmichael, West Cork's Flying Column under Commander Tom Barry, ambushed a group of Auxiliaries - a force introduced by the British some three months previously."
Kilmichael and Macroom are in County Cork. - BS
Robert Kee in Ourselves Alone, being Volume III of The Green Flag, pp. 120-121, describes this event (and quotes am accurate version of this song which uses language coarse enough that he expurgated it):
"Two lorry-loads of the company of Auxiliaries stationed at Macroom Castle ran into a well-laid ambush position prepared by Tom Barry an the West Cork Flying Column on a lonely site of bogland and rocks near Kilmichael. It was the Auxiliaries' first major engagement and a terrible one.
"After a savage fight at close quarters in which three IRA were killed and, according to Barry, the Auxiliaries made use of the notorious 'false surrender' tactics, the entire convoy as wiped out, and seventeen of the eighteen Auxiliaries were killed. The eighteenth was so severely wounded that he was in hospital for long afterwards. Some of the Auxiliaries' bodies were afterwards found to have wounds inflicted after death and the first officer on the scene after the fight said that although he had seen thousands of men lying dead in the course of the war, he had never before seen such an appalling sight as his eyes met there."
Calton Younger has a stronger stomach for atrocity. In Ireland's Civil War, pp. 13-14, he writes:
"Tom Barry set up his ambush, not in a place he would have chosen, but one dictated by circumstances, a little to the south of Kilmichael on the road to Gleann. It is treacherous, eerie country, where heather grows sparsely on the bogland and the only cover is provided by outcrops of gaunt rock. Barry's plan was brilliantly conceived an his column, only one or two of whom ha fired a shot in anger, matched with courage his inspiration.
"Eighteen Auxiliaries in two lorries died that day. Some need not have died but their own treachery recoiled upon them. Crying surrender, they fired again when some of the column showed themselves. Barry was merciless then and his men did not let up until every one of the enemy was dead. An when the morale of his own men showed signs of cracking, he drilled them in the light of the burning lorries until discipline gripped again. Three men he had lost, two of them because of the surrender trick."
Younger does not supply a citation for his information, I suspect Barry's Guerilla Days in Ireland. Kee also examined Barry's book, but took additional information from the Irish Times (which documented the mutilations the Auxiliaries suffered after death) and other sources. It will be evident that all eyewitness testimony was from Barry's side. Given Barry's overall record, I don't think this can be trusted very far, particularly as regards the false surrender. - RBW
File: OCan050

Boys of Mullabawn, The

DESCRIPTION: "A vile deceiving stranger ... has ordered transportation for the boys of Mullabawn." The women lament and "without hesitation, we are charged with combination And sent for transportation from the hills of Mullabawn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.9(265))
KEYWORDS: farming transportation Ireland political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 56, "The Boys of Mullabawn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 42, "The Boys of Mullaghbawn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 26-27, "The Boys of Mullabawn" (1 text)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 6, "Boys of Mullaghbawn" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 205-206, "The Boys from Mullaghbawn" (1 text, with a tune on p. 570)
Roud #2362
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(265), "The Boys of Mullaghbawn," W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 c.15(180), Harding B 19(40), "The Boys of Mullaghbawn"
NOTES [133 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "This song records a real happening during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, the transportation of peasant farmers for some agrarian offence at Mullaghbawn near Newry, Co. Armagh. (See F. J. Bigger: The Ulster Land War.)"
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "This song could be about Defenderism or United Irishmen or, according to one theory, the transportation of men who had attempted to abduct an heiress, an activity for which clubs existed in 18th-century Ireland. It is set in the heart of Defender country in south Armagh, but local tradition associates the song with the United Irishmen." At the end of the eighteenth century the Catholic "Defenders" were opposed to the Protestant "Peep o'Day Boys" or "Orangemen" (source: Zimmermann). - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LcMullB

Boys of Mullaghbawn, The

See The Boys of Mullabawn (File: LcMullB)

Boys of Newfoundland, The

See The Roving Newfoundlanders (I) (File: Doy55)

Boys of Ohio

DESCRIPTION: "Step forth, ye sons of freedom, Who strangers are to fear, Repair unto your quarters, And enter volunteers." The singer promises to obey his officers when fighting Indians and British, and cheers presidents and other officials
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1847 (Forget-Me-Not Songster)
KEYWORDS: soldier patriotic nonballad battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 22-23, "Boys of Ohio" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 398-399, "Boys of Ohio" (1 text)
ST CAFS2398 (Partial)
Roud #V25260
File: CAFS2398

Boys of Old Erin the Green, The

DESCRIPTION: "Concerning that terrible battle, Where bloodshed and battery was seen, With the beef-eating bullies of England And the boys of old Erin the Green." The boys stop at an alehouse and head for the English in the market. The "cowardly English" are banished
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: battle drink Ireland humorous patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 101, "The Boys of Old Erin the Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3050
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Harvestmen's Triumph" (subject)
File: OLoc101

Boys of Sandy Row, The

DESCRIPTION: Orangemen, remember King William who "ended Popish sway." Presbyterians, defend your rights "from Fenians and Papists vile." At Sandy Row we made the Papists "fly like chaff before the wind." Toast Johnston. Remember the Boyne and Derry Walls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland nonballad political religious
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 12-19, 1857 - Belfast riots between Catholics of the Pound and Protestants of Sandy Row (source: Janice Holmes, "The Role of Open-Air Preaching in the Belfast Riots of 1857," Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy_ v. 102c, pp. 47-66 (2002)).).
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 25, "The Boys of Sandy Row" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [323 words]: The chorus is "Then band together firmly, and Popery overflow, Like to your gallant brethren, the boys of Sandy Row."
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark: "[The song] refers to the riots of 1857 over the open-air preaching of Rev. Hugh 'Roaring' Hanna and other Protestant Evangelicals... Despite the reference to William Johnston [see 'Bangor and No Surrender' and references there] the song may have been written 1868 by which time he was already well-known as a champion of Orangeism through his editorship of the Downshire Protestant"
I wonder if the riots referred to are not the 1872 riots in Belfast opposing the parade in support of Home Rule on Lady's Day (the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin). Both Rev. Hanna, Catholics from the Pound and Protestants from Sandy Row were involved [again, as they were in 1857] (source: Neil Jarman and Dominic Bryan, From Riots to Rights; Nationalist Parades in the North of Ireland (1997), pp. 13-14). That date would also make toasting William Johnston more reasonable. Johnston was, admittedly, a public figure in 1857, the date of "his first and unsuccessful bid to enter Parliament as the Member for Downpatrick"; in the 1860's he bacame "the leading campaigner against the unpopular Party Processions Act of 1850. It was his opposition to this legislation which was to make William Johnston of Ballykilbeg a folk-hero." (source: Ian McShane, "William Johnston of Ballykilbeg" on OrangeNet site).
On the other hand, the reference to Johnston may be to one of the Presbyterian Ministers of that name involved in the 1857 conflict (see Holmes, cited in Historical References, above). [But William Johnston fits very well; see in this index the notes to "William Johnston of Ballykilbeg." - RBW]
For background on "Derry Walls" see "Derry Walls Away" and its Notes.[Also "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry." - RBW
For background on the Fenians see Notes to "A Fenian Song (I)." - BS
File: OrLa025

Boys of Sanpete County, The [Laws B26]

DESCRIPTION: A wagon train from Sanpete County, headed by Captain (William Stewart) Seeley, must cross the Green River. The wagons are safely ferried, but as the crew attempts to bring the cattle over, six of them are drowned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: travel river death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1868 - Captain Seeley's expedition sets out for Laramie, Wyoming
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws B26, "The Boys of Sanpete County"
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #211, "The Boys of Sanpete County" (1 text, tune referenced)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 128-129, "We the Boys of Sanpete County" (1 text, tune referenced)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp 570-571, "The Boys of Sanpete County" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 254-255, "The Boys of Sanpete County" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 830, SANPETE*
Roud #3245
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (tune)
File: LB26

Boys of the Island, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, from Prince Edward Island, warns against life in the logging camps. Many Islanders have headed for the Maine woods, to be instantly spotted by the old hands. In an place of bad drink and hard work, he must suffer without recourse to the law
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman? (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: logger abuse hardtimes foreigner
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 49-52, "The Boys of the Island" (1 text plus a fragment)
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, p. 44, "The Boys of the Island" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 19-20,242, "The Boys of the Island" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 123-125, 191, "The Boys of the Island" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 218-219, "The Boys of the Island" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 118-120, "The Boys of the Island" (2 texts)
Roud #9427
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Dalton, "The Boys of the Island" (on MREIves01)
File: Doe218

Boys of Virginia, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh the boys of Virginia are brave roaring blades, Deceiving young maidens is part of their trade...." "I'll build you a castle on Virginia's free ground... And if anyone asks you whatever's my name, My name is Joe Thorpe, from Virginia I came"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: rake courting home parody
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 670, "The Boys of Virginia" (1 text)
Roud #1451
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boys of Kilkenny" (tune, meter, floating lyrics)
NOTES [47 words]: This is so close to the "Boys of Kilkenny" that I thought of classifying it as a localized variant; Roud unsurprisingly lumps them. But it has some lyrics I have not seen in "Kilkenny" versions, and Randolph's text does not specify a tune, so I tentatively keep them separate. - RBW
File: R670

Boys of Wexford, The

DESCRIPTION: "In comes the captain's daughter, the captain of the yeos Saying 'Brave United Irishmen, we'll ne'er again be foes.'" They win at Ross and Wexford, lose at Vinegar Hill. "For bravery won each battle But drink lost evermore"
AUTHOR: Robert Dwyer Joyce (1830-1883) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Joyce's _Ancient Irish Music_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion battle death drink Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
October 1791 - Society of United Irishmen founded in Belfast
September 1795 - The Battle of the Diamond
May 23, 1798 - United Irishmen seize the Dublin mail coaches as a signal to start the uprising
May 26, 1798 - 34 suspected United Irishmen executed at Dunlavin
May 26, 1798 - Father John Murphy launches the Wexford rebellion
May 27, 1798 - Murphy's almost-unarmed force defeats a small militia force at Oulart (called "Oulast" in one version)
May 29, 1798 - Father Murphy leads the insurgents against Enniscorthy
May 29, 1798 - new leaders appointed to head the Ulster Provincial Council of the United Irishmen
June 5, 1798 - The Wexford rebels attack the small garrison (about 1400 men, many militia) at New Ross, but are repelled
June 7-8, 1798 - Rebel defeat at Antrim
June 9, 1798 - Father Murphy, trying to lead his forces into Wicklow, defeated at Arklow
June 12, 1798 - United Irishmen under Henry Monro defeated at Ballynahinch
June 21, 1798 - Vinegar Hill is lost
[some dates from _The 1798 Irish Rebellion_ by Professor Thomas Bartlett at the BBC History site)]
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 48, "The Boys of Wexford" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 68, "The Boys of Wexford" (1 text, 1 tune); 69, "The Boys of Wexford" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 28, "The Boys of Wexford" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 217, "The Boys of Wexford" (1 text)
DT, BOYSWEXF* BOYSWEX2*BOYSWEX3*
ADDITIONAL: C. Day Lewis, editor, English Lyric Poems (1961), "The Boys of Wexford"
Roud #3015
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Boulavogue" (historical setting)
cf. "Father Murphy (I)" (subject of Father Murphy) and references there
cf. "The Flight of the Earls" (tune)
NOTES [412 words]: Re "In comes the captain's daughter, the captain of the yeos": "Following an affray at Loughgall in Co. Armagh in 1795 the Orange Order was founded [the successor of the earlier Peep o' Day Boys - RBW], while the Yeomen were also established in June 1796. These were made up mainly of men from the Orange Lodges." (source: The 1798 Rebellion on the Hogan Stand site).
Zimmermann p.64 and fn.20: "'The Boys of Wexford' was ... one of the rallying songs of the Parnellites" [in the 1890's]. "Some of Parnell's well-known supporters were from County Wexford."
Moylan attributes Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 68 to Robert Dwyer Joyce; Moylan 69 is a revision by Edmund Leamy (1848-1904) and published in 1922. They are similar enough that I have not split them. - BS
The riot that turned the Peep o' Day Boys into the Orange Order was a Protestant/Catholic clash known as "The Battle of the Diamond" (for which see "The Battle of the Diamond"). A group of Defenders attacked a smaller party of Peep o' Day Boys, but were driven off "leaving twenty or thirty corpses on the field" (see Robert Kee, The Most Distressful Country, being Volume I of The Green Flag, p. 71).
It would be hard to claim that alcohol ruined the 1798 rebellion; that was foredoomed by lack of planning and the fact that the United Irish leadership was informant-riddled. (As, indeed, some versions of this song note: "...for want of leaders We lost at Vingegar Hill"). But the Fenians of the nineteenth century did often fall prey to drink. A still later rebel, Vinnie Byrne, claims it nearly cost them even after the 1916 rebellion: "[Michael] Collins was a marvel. If he hadn't done the work he did, we'd still be under Britain. Informers and drink would have taken care of us." (See Tim Pat Coogan, Michael Collins, p. 116.) - RBW
P.W. Joyce, in A Concise History of Ireland. 1916, Chapter LXVI "The Rebellion of 1798 A.D. 1798 - George III" discusses the part played by drink in the defeats after Vinegar Hill. For example, "But there was no discipline; they fell to drink; and the soldiers returned twice and twice they were repulsed. But still the drinking went on; and late in the evening the military returned once more, and this time succeeded in expelling the rebels." (source: A Little Bit of Ireland site at Celtic Cousins). Drink in battle, after defeat, is a theme of "The Boyne Water (II)"; in 1798 that ballad was apparently still in wide use, at least among Orangemen. - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OLoc048

Boys Won't Do to Trust, The

DESCRIPTION: "The boys are very pretty, And sweet as they can be... But now you'd better watch them For they won't do to trust." The girl describes the tricks boys use, and the fine letters they write, but experience shows that none (at most one) can be trusted
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting trick betrayal
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 461, "The Boys Won't Do to Trust" (1 text plus a fragment and an excerpt of 1 more)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 207, "The Boys Won't Do to Trust" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 78, "The Boys Won't Do to Trust" (1 text plus an excerpt and mention of 2 more, 2 tunes)
Roud #6495
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beware, Oh Take Care" (theme)
cf. "Dark and Dreary Weather" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Girls Won't Do to Trust
File: R461

Boys, Keep Away from the Girls

See The Bald-Headed End of the Broom (File: FaE190)

Boys, Stay Away from the Girls

See The Bald-Headed End of the Broom (File: FaE190)

Bra' Rabbit (Oyscha')

DESCRIPTION: Gullah dialect song: "Bra' Rabbit, wa' 'ere da do dere?" "I da pickin' oyscha' fa' young gal. Da oyscha' bite mah finger, Da young gal tek dat fa' laugh at."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 175, "Bra' Rabbit -- (Oyscha')" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: ScaNF175

Bracey on the Shore

DESCRIPTION: "It was of a young ssea captain, on Cranberry Isles did dwell, He took the schooner Arnold" and drove her aground. Various people have adventures aboard. They make a living smuggling. Captain Bracey is warned to stop drinking and chasing girls
AUTHOR: Mary Bulger Hamer (source: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor crime travel
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 332-334, "Bracey on the Shore" (1 text, tune referenced)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 32-33, "Bracey on the Shote" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brennan on the Moor" [Laws L7] (tune)
File: EcSm332

Braddock's Defeat

DESCRIPTION: "It was our hard general's false treachery Which caused our destruction that great day." The singer tells how Braddock attacks his own men (?). Other generals take command, but it is too late; the forces across the river are slaughtered.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: battle death trick river
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1754-1763 - French and Indian War ("Great War for Empire"; fought in Europe 1756-1763 as the Seven Years' War)
July 9, 1755 - Defeat and Death of Edward Braddock in the Battle of the Wilderness
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 526-527, "Braddock's Defeat" (1 text)
ST LxA526 (Full)
Roud #4027
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Courrier, Courrier, Qu'y a-t-il de Nouveau? (Courier, Courier, Say What News Hast There?)" (subject)
cf. "Indian War Song" ("Over' the Hills with Heart we go"; found in the Same Tune field for "O'er the Hills and Far Away (I)") (subject of Braddock's March)
NOTES [3582 words]: "Not until the golden-haired Custer failed to emerge from the Little Bighorn more than a century later would another leader's defeat be so personalized" as that of Major General Edward Braddock (Borneman, p. 40).
The English colonial situation in the 1750s was uncomfortably restricted. They had many more colonists in the Americas than had the French, but the French and their Indian allies controlled most of the land beyond the Appalachians. The French were stretched very thin, but had good communications via the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, the Ohio River, and the lower Mississippi (Fowler, pp. 6-12).
The English colonists, with an expanding population but no internal connections by river and very little by road, naturally wanted more land. The French would not allow it; if the English controlled the Ohio country, the two halves of New France could not hold together (Crocker, p. 17). And the French were in a difficult situation in Europe since the War of the Austrian Succession had ended in 1748, so they were looking to strengthen their position outside Europe (Crocker, p. 41).
The English colonials made many attempts to escape their hemmed-in colonies. In 1753, they mounted a filibustering expedition into Maine (Fowler, pp. 25-26). At about the same time, they started pushing into the Ohio country -- they had founded an "Ohio Company" in 1749, and King George II granted them lands inside the French sphere (Fowler, p. 33, who notes that Pennsylvanians and Virginians both wanted the lands.)
Virginia Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie, who was competing both with the French and the Pennsylvanians, decided that occupation was nine points of the law (Crocker, p. 2, comments that "Virginia under Dinwiddie, if not a[n independent] kingdom, had its own foreign policy," and Anderson, p. 51, observes that he had no authorization for his acts). He sent a party under young Major George Washington to put in a claim in the Ohio area (Fowler, p. 34; Anderson, p. 41, says that Washington's only real qualification for the job was that he was willing to do it). The French officers he met were polite but kept him from accomplishing anything (Fowler, p. 35).
At about the same time, Dinwiddie sent a force to the Forks of the Ohio, the confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongahela (the site of modern Pittsburgh; see Pulliam, p. 53). He wanted to build a fort; what he did was start a war (Fowler, p. 36).
The English at the Forks had a difficult winter; their defenses were hardly begun when a French force under Claude-Pierre Pecaudy de Contrecouer arrived on April 16. The English, whose commander was away, found themselves short of food and with no hope of defending the site; they quickly agreed to leave (Anderson, p. 49; Fowler, pp. 36-37).
The French at once set to work improving the site, which they called Fort Duquesne (named for Ange Duquesne de Menneville, Governor of French Canada from 1752; Fowler, pp. 28-29). Because of transport problems, it had few cannon (just eight, and nothing bigger than a four-pounder), but it was well-situated and strongly constructed (Crocker, p. 65). The one drawback was that it was small -- it could hold at most about 200 men (Anderson, p. 49). Any other troops had to stay outside in an external barracks. Still, Anderson declares it, other than Detroit and Niagara, the strongest fortress in North America away from the coasts.
The first English attempt to gain the land back was another force under George Washington, this one of about 150 men with no experience and little equipment (Fowler, p. 38; Anderson, p. 50, says that they were poor troops who enlisted only when promised land upon discharge).
Washington's troops won a small skirmish between patrols (Fowler, pp. 41-42; Crocker, pp. 6-7, notes that this resulted in Washington's men being accused of atrocities, and Anderson, pp. 53-59, thinks the limited evidence supports the accusation) and then settled down to build a fortified base -- which, however, was badly sited and too small (Anderson, p. 60). The French quickly captured it (Fowler, pp. 45-46) and forced the English to retreat -- as well as causing Washington (who knew no French; Crocker, p. 10) to sign what he thought were articles of parole but which also contained an admission of guilt to an "assassination" (Fowler, p. 47).
The Fort Duquesne affair finally roused the British government, which until then had ignored the Ohio situation (Fowler, p. 52). Their objective was to do something about the loss of the Forks. If possible, this was to be done quietly, so as to prevent the trouble from spreading to Europe (Anderson, p. 67; Borneman, p. 42). In effect, the British government was trying to invent the colonial proxy war. The goal was to fight and win local battles with pauses between, in hopes the French would negotiate (Anderson, p. 68). But the plans for small-scale war quickly started to blow up (Anderson, p. 69).
Edward Braddock (1695-1755) was appointed in 1754 to command the American colonies in the French and Indian War. (Which technically hadn't been declared yet, but hey, if we can fight undeclared wars in this century, why couldn't they do it then?) According to Borneman, p. 41, and Crocker, p. xiii, this was based on the recommendation of the Duke of Cumberland, the infamous butcher of Culloden, who had little good on his military record except that one victory. (And who would later be held responsible for England's loss of its one continental possession in Hanover. After that, even George II had to get rid of his less than brilliant son; Borneman, pp. 96-97.)
Braddock, who had spent most of his career in behind-the-lines posts (he had been an officer in the Coldstream Guards), seemed well enough suited for this task; he came from a military family (his father had also been a major general; Crocker, p. 24) and had a good administrative record. Plus he seems to have been considered politically reliable (Anderson, p. 86).
On the other hand, he had obtained his commission by purchase (Fowler, p. 52; Crocker, p. 25, notes the curious fact that this was his only real inheritance -- his father had left all his money to other members of the family), and he had spent a very long time as a mere lieutenant (Crocker, p. 27, although his lack of money was a major reason for that). Thus he had only the slightest experience in handling large bodies of troops even in peacetime, especially compared to other officers of his age and length of service. Even when he finally obtained a significant posting, in 1753, it was as the commander of Gibraltar (Crocker, p. 35), where his main duty was enforcing discipline.
What's more, he had spent most of his career in London and had rarely experienced field conditions (Crocker, p. 36). To top it all off, he had no combat experience (Pulliam, p. 53). And he seems to have been very tactically orthodox, and he was determined to follow London's orders exactly (Anderson, p. 90) -- and in the Ohio campaign, he was called upon to do something that couldn't be done "by the book." Yet he tried -- and as a result quickly angered the colonials with his peremptory orders (Borneman, p. 46).
Braddock was assigned portions of two understrength regiments. They were selected on Cumberland's recommendation because they were available and could be shipped off quickly (Fowler, p. 52). Both were relatively new units, organized during the War of the Austrian Succession (Crocker, pp. 50-51). Neither had a good record; they were in need of discipline, training, and recruits, all of which Braddock was supposed to supply in the colonies.
Crocker, p. 52, reports that the two regiments were "reinforced" with the worst troops from other regiments; after that, the units were very bad indeed. Drunkenness and desertion would become major problems from the moment the troops arrived in the colonies (Crocker, pp. 88-89).
Braddock set our for America in December 1754, before his troops sailed, in order to prepare the groundwork for the upcoming campaign (Fowler, p. 53). He theoretically had command of all forces in North America (Crocker, p. 55) -- but this amounted to only five established regiments (the two he was bringing plus three in Nova Scotia, too far away to be any use in Virginia), plus some artillery, a few independent companies, and whatever he could scrounge in the colonies (Fowler, p. 54).
Although it was the largest professional army to serve in American to this time (Crocker, p. 49), Braddock was being asked to conquer a continent with what amounted to an unorganized brigade! And the locals who joined his forces were so poor that he refused to enlist them into his regular regiments (Fowler, p. 55).
To top it all off, Cumberland and his officers in London had planned the campaign based on wildly inaccurate maps (Crocker, p. 56). And Braddock does not seem to have bothered to gather intelligence (Crocker, p. 94). And he refused to believe that Indians could ambush British regulars (Anderson, p. 95; Crocker, p. 118). It was a recipe for disaster.
In early 1755, Braddock set out to capture Fort Duquesne. Knowing it would he a hard nut to crack, Braddock decided to bring as much heavy artillery as possible (Borneman, p. 48). Neither it nor he would ever come within range of the walls; his quartermaster found it almost impossible to acquire enough horses to move the artillery and supplies (Fowler, p. 58). The original plan had been to used more water transport, but this was based on those inaccurate maps the English generals had used in their planning (Crocker, p. 104). It was Benjamin Franklin who finally induced Pennsylvania citizens to make their transport available (Crocker, pp. 118-120). Even so, Braddock at one point almost abandoned his march, but supplies arrived just in time (Crocker, pp. 147-148).
Braddock recruited George Washington as a sort of guide-plus-staff-officer, but only unofficially; Washington wanted a higher rank than Braddock could give him (Fowler, p. 58; Crocker, pp. 72-73, suggests that Braddock took on Washington -- whose reputation by this time was not of the best -- at the recommendation of, and as a sort of liaison to, Governor Dinwiddie). Washington's service, we might note, was a violation of his earlier parole (Crocker, p. 74), but he was one of the few men available who had some knowledge of the area the army would traverse.
Braddock has his defenders -- Crocker, although often critical of Braddock, concludes that he "never stood a chance" (p. 242). George Washington, who was on Braddock's staff, and Benjamin Franklin, who knew him, both said he might have been a good officer in Europe, but both noted that he was opinionated, and Franklin through he was too harsh toward local troops (Crocker, pp. 241-242). Middlekauff, p. 7, also gives a mixed verdict: "Not stupid but surely inept and ignorant of his ignorance."
Chandler/Beckett, pp. 117-118, argue that he tried to train his troops for their task but didn't have time to whip them into shape. This is true as far as it goes, but it doesn't change the fact that he moved slowly in order to keep his forces together. And when the men, who were unused to frontier conditions, struggled, Braddock treated them harshly (Fowler, p. 59), which if anything made them slower.
The French national response was vigorous -- six battalions were sent to Canada, or about twice as many regulars as Braddock had (Fowler, p. 64). And while they did not end up at Duquesne, other Canadian forces did; the garrison, although still smaller than the English forces, had been substantially reinforced by the time Braddock reached the scene.
Braddock would have been better off moving as quickly as possible -- Crocker, p. 65, declares that Braddock would have won "an almost certain victory if he had struck in April or early May." Instead, he wasted a lot of time and effort building a road in the mountainous forest for his wagon train, which accomplished nothing much except to give the French a clear area in which to take pot shots at the British, and a whole month in which to do it (Braddock spent 32 days covering an estimated distance of 110 miles; Morison, p. 162).
To manage even that, he had to leave a third of his force behind (Pulliam, p. 55). He shuffled his command arrangements in the process, meaning that many troops were under inexperienced officers (Crocker, pp. 179-180). Nor, it appears, had anyone scouted in advance to find the best course for his road (Crocker, pp. 159-163). And he didn't even have a force of Native American scouts to watch for the enemy (Borneman, p. 52); according to Anderson, pp. 95-96, Fowler, pp. 60, 63, his bad treatment had driven them off, although Crocker, pp. 138-140, insists that he had negotiated with them fairly.
The first serious contact with the enemy came on July 6, about 20 miles from the fort, when Indians allied with the French raided the column. Losses were slight but included one of the few Indians accompanying the British, killed by "friendly fire" (Crocker, pp. 196-197).
Ironically, the French had little hope of halting Braddock; they were very close to surrender at this time (Crocker, pp. 203-204; Anderson, p. 97, adds that in addition to the fort being too small to hold all the French soldiers, the Indians would not sit around to be besieged). If it came to a stand-up fight, the French would lose. But they waited before giving in -- in effect, running a bluff against Braddock. And a French officer, Daniel Hyacinth-Marie Lienard de Beaujeu, convinced many Indians to fight (Crocker, pp. 204-206). The fort's commander put half the French forces -- over 250 Europeans and 600 Indians -- at his disposal (Anderson, p. 99). Even so, their attack on Braddock was probably intended to be a delaying action (Fowler, p. 67).
On July 9, the British finished crossing the Monongahela and started their final march on the fort (Crocker, p. 210).
The French and Indians ran into Braddock about twelve kilometers from Fort Duquesne. It was not an ambush, technically, since the French were surprised too (Anderson, p. 99; Borneman, p. 53) -- some of them fled, and Beaujeu was killed very early (Crocker, p. 211). But the French responded quickly and effectively. And the British colonel in charge of the van was soon killed (Crocker, p. 212), which meant the British did not deploy effectively.
Braddock apparently reacted by shoving more troops into the battle without making any attempt to build a defensive position (Borneman, p. 54). He wouldn't even let his men position themselves behind natural objects such as trees (Pulliam, p. 56), nor let them spread out to use their superior numbers (Fowler, p. 71). And the soldiers were trained for set piece battles between armies in rigid formation anyway; forest fighting confused them. This often meant that British units were firing on each other (Anderson, p. 102). And Braddock just kept shoving troops into the meat grinder. With troops trying to move along a narrow road, the situation quickly turned to chaos.
Braddock's staff was slaughtered; only George Washington the volunteer officer survived unwounded. Braddock himself spent an hour and more whipping his troops forward, having four horses shot out from under him. Finally he took a bullet in the side. The wound was mortal; he died four days later (Pulliam, p. 57). Fowler, p. 71, thinks Braddock had already ordered a retreat; whether he had or not, his troops gave up around this time.
While Braddock lived, the British carried him on their retreat; when he died, they quickly buried him in the road and marched the rest of the army over the grave -- supposedly to keep the enemy from despoiling it (Anderson, p. 104), although I'm sure many of Braddock's troops enjoyed the thought of stomping on it.
The French had suffered less than a hundred casualties, their Indian allies even fewer (Borneman, p. 55). Braddock, by contrast, had almost certainly lost more than half his force. Some put the casualties as high as two-thirds, at least in the leading elements that were under fire the longest (so, e.g., Anderson, p. 105). Crocker cites a figure of 877 killed and wounded out of 1466 in Braddock's force. Among officers, it was worse -- more than 60 out of 89 present (Crocker, p. 227).
It was a major French victory, as it left the western parts of the American colonies exposed. Braddock's successor, Colonel Dunbar, made it worse by abandoning several defensible forts and going into "winter quarters" in July (Anderson, p. 105; Borneman, p. 67, Morison, p. 163). This even though there was no pursuit (Crocker, p. 233) and the Indians soon abandoned the French, leaving Fort Duquesne again vulnerable (Anderson, p. 105). According to Crocker, p. 233, much military equipment, including artillery, was destroyed to free up transport for the wounded. As a result, much territory held by British citizens was vulnerable; many settlers were forced back across the Allegheny Mountains. They were pushed along by the French and Indians, who were emboldened to engage in the atrocities known as "the Outrages" (Crocker, p. 243).
On top of it all, the Defeat helped turn a local war into a world war (Borneman, p. 60).
Formally, the name of the fight is most often given as "The Battle of the Monongahela" (Pulliam, p. 50; Crocker, p. 254, lists a few other names), but everyone seems to call it "Braddock's Defeat" (Borneman, p. 40).
Despite this song, there is absolutely no record in our sources hinting that Braddock was a traitor, and he certainly was never in the French fort. We also note that the song is incorrect in speaking of a river battle; although the French planned to attack the British at a river crossing, they could not actually mount the attack because their Indian allies were not ready.
That isn't the only inaccuracy in the (Lomax) text of this song. The command structure is all wrong. Braddock certainly wasn't succeeded by "General Gatefore," nor by "General Gates." "Gatefore" might perhaps be an oral corruption of "St. Clair," the officer responsible for building Braddock's Road, but John St. Clair was wounded and out of action before Braddock himself (Crocker, pp. 214, 219); Braddock's successor, as noted, was Colonel Thomas Dunbar (who was, however, soon relieved because of the black mark the retreat had left on his reputation; Crocker, p. 261).
Braddock did have an officer named Horatio Gates, but his rank was captain, not general! Gates would later be a general on the American side in the Revolutionary War, and would command at the Battle of Saratoga (Crocker, pp. 262-263). But he didn't exercise command on the Monongahela. Thus the only really historical part of this song is the fact that Braddock was defeated.
It does occur to me that the mentions of Gatefore and Gates might be a much-distorted reference to the order of march of the army. The leading element was under Lt. Col. Thomas Gage, then came Gates's company (Anderson, p. 97). Lt. Col. St. Clair's pioneers followed (Borneman, p. 51). So when Gage fell, St. Clair in effect took command of the vanguard. He in turn was wounded, and Gates took charge. So if Braddock is confused with Gage, and St. Clair heard as "Gatefore," and Gates promoted from captain to general, you might get this mess. But it's a huge "if."
If the vicious description in the song is based on anything, it perhaps has to do with rumors that Braddock was killed by his own men. The song repeats a legend that one Thomas Fausett killed Braddock after Braddock killed Fausett's brother Joseph for hiding behind a tree (Crocker, p. 222). But the only evidence for this was Fausett's own word, and most historians disbelieve the story -- the man also claimed to be 109 when he died (Crocker, p. 262), so he clearly could tell whoppers.
One thing about Braddock's Defeat would prove very important: It allowed George Washington to gain combat experience. Two decades later, when the Continental Congress needed someone to run the army, "George Washington, a Virginia planter, was appointed to chair a committee on military supply. [He was t]he highest ranking former British officer with active military experience" (as a brevet brigadier); Weintraub, pp. 11-12.
Fort Duquesne would eventually fall, much later in the French and Indian War, after British victories in the Great Lakes area had cut it off from France. An expedition under John Forbes (who was dying as his army slowly advanced) reached the site to find that the French had burned the fort (Stokesbury, p. 146). The British built Fort Pitt on the site (Middlekauff, p. 9), naming it for William Pitt the Prime Minister, whence the modern name Pittsburgh.
Crocker, p. 100, makes the fascinating point that many of the issues leading to the American Revolution came out of the French and Indian War, and specifically Braddock's expedition. Braddock had tried to get the colonies to fund his expedition; the colonial governors said that only parliament could impose the proper taxes. In other words, the governors demanded taxation without representation! When, after the war, Parliament decided to do just that, the colonial view shifted instantly.... On this basis, Crocker, p. 51, argues that, without Braddock's Defeat, there would have been no American Revolution.
Crocker, p. 253, also points out that the road Braddock had built with so much labor eventually became a key westward migration route.
This song is item dA28 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: LxA526

Brady

See Duncan and Brady [Laws I9] (File: LI09)

Brady, Why Didn't You Run?

See Duncan and Brady [Laws I9] (File: LI09)

Braemar Poacher, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is "a rovin' Highlander, a native of Braemar." He recalls poaching, his capture in Benabourd, and trial in Aberdeen. He wishes success to poachers: "May they always be at liberty, with money at command." Now he is bound for Van Dieman's land.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: poaching transportation trial
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #33, pp. 1-2, "The Poacher of Benabourd"; #35, p. 2, "The Roving Highlander" or "Braemar Poacher" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan2 253, "The Braemar Poacher" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #373
NOTES [37 words]: Greig: "Benabourd is on Upper Deeside [about 60 miles west of Aberdeen]. The ditty appears to deal with a real character who had a reputation as a poacher. Caught at length he was tried and sentenced to transportation." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD2253

Braes o Killiecrankie, The

See The Braes of Killiecrankie (File: LyCr161)

Braes o Yarrow, The

See The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214]; also Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie [Child 215] (File: C214)

Braes o' Abernethy, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a lass behind her father's locked gates. If she were cold he would give her his "plaidie to rollabout her." If he were rich he'd give everything for one night with her. There's another girl he likes better but she's far away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: sex nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 867, "The Braes o' Abernethy" (6 texts, 5 tunes)
Roud #3784
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lad Wi' the Tartan Plaidie" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
cf. "Over Hills and Mountains" (theme: singer would give up the crown or great wealth he doesn't have for love)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Braes o' Invernessie
Invernessie
Ye'll Bring to Me
NOTES [236 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quoting Greig: "The author ... was Alexander Lesley, Esq. of Edin, on Doverin side .... The fair one whom he thus immortalizes was Helen Christie, who afterwards proved with child to him.... The song was composed in the year 1636." Greig, as quoted by Greig/Duncan4, notes "Cf. 'Banks of Invernessie', etc." Roud also lumps "The Banks o' Deveron Water" with "The Braes of Abernethy." I am not convinced. The songs share some lines and themes. For example, Ord includes
Tho' I had a' King Croesus' rents,
And all possessed by Alexander;
I'd gie it all, and ten times mair,
For ae poor nicht to be beside her.
The closest Greig/Duncan4 versions agree, replacing Croesus by Caesar or Queen Sheba. Other songs come close to the same sentiment. "The Belfast Beauty" includes
Had I wealth and grandeur like Great Alexander
That noble commander who lived in days of yore
All earthly treasure I'd resign with pleasure
To wed with this damsel whom I do adore.
"Lough Erne Shore" includes
"O had I the Lamp of Great Aladdin, [I think I've heard "Alexander" - RBW]
His rings and his genie, that's more,
I would part with them all for to gain you
And live upon Lough Erne Shore.
"The Braes o' Abernethy" includes up to three verses of a theme not in Ord at all: the singer is from the lowlands, a girl that loves him is in a nearby town, but his sweetheart is in the highlands behind her father's locked gates. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4867

Braes o' Ballochmyle, The

DESCRIPTION: In winter Maria sang "Fareweel the braes o' Ballochmyle." While the birds, silent now, will sing again in spring, she won't be here to hear them.
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: farewell nonballad bird
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #96, pp. 96-97, "The Braes o' Ballochmyle" (1 text, 1 tune, from before 1796)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #276, p. 285, "The Braes o' Ballochmyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST BrdBrBal (Partial)
Roud #6168
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1852 501500, "The Braes o' Ballochmyle," Sarles and Adey (Springfield), 1852 (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lass o' Ballochmyle" (form, rhyme and reference to "The Braes o' Ballochmyle") and references there
File: BrdBrBal

Braes o' Balquhidder (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "Let us go lassie, go To the braes o' Balquhither." "I will twine thee a bower" and cover it with flowers. In winter "we'll sing As the storm rattles o'er us" in our dwelling. "Summer us in prime ... Let us journey together"
AUTHOR: Robert Tannahill(1774-1810)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1843 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(431)); c.1838 (Ramsay)
KEYWORDS: courting lyric
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Phillip A Ramsay, The Poetical Works of Robert Tannahill (London, c.1838), pp. 15-16, "The Braes o' Balquhither"
Roud #541
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(431), "Braes o' Balquhither" ("Let us go, lassie, go"), W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle), 1832-1842; also Harding B 11(2422), "Braes o' Balquither"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Three Carls o' Buchanan" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(431) and Ramsay)
File: BrdBroBa

Braes o' Birniebouzle, The

DESCRIPTION: "Will ye gang wi' me Lassie, To the braes of Birnibouzle?" The singer details all the things he will supply if the girl will wed, and promises that she will be content
AUTHOR: James Hogg (source: Whitelaw)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong); before 1845 (broadside NLScotland, RB.m.168(070))
KEYWORDS: courting promise clothes food dialog nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 876, "The Braes o Birniebouzle" (3 texts)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 509-510, "Birniebouzle" (1 text)
Roud #3343
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(37a), "Braes o' Birniebouzle" ("Will ye gang wi' me, lassie"), Sanderson (Edinburgh), 1830-1910
NLScotland, RB.m.168(070), "Braes of Birniebouzle," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Braes of Tullinmet" (tune, per Whitelaw)
NOTES [63 words]: The broadsides and Greig/Duncan4 876B give one verse to the woman who says her chiefest aim shall be "ever to content ye" and help him fish and farm; even that verse is given to the man in Greig/Duncan4 876A.
"About twenty years ago, this was a popular street song. It was written by the Ettrick Shepherd to the tune of 'Braes of Tullinmet'" (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, 1843). - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: BrBrBirn

Braes o' Broo, The

DESCRIPTION: "Get up, get up, ye lazy loons, Get up, and waur them a', man, For the braes o' Broo are ill to ploo." "But the plooman laddie's my delight." The plowman must work very hard on the poor land, but the girl loves him enough to support him even so
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: love farming hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #65, pp. 1-2, "The Braes o' Broo" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 443, "The Braes o' Broo" (6 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 254-255, "The Braes o' Broo" (1 text plus an excerpt from Greig consisting of "modern verses")
Roud #5572
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Plooman Laddie
The Ploughman Laddie's My Delight
NOTES [12 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "'From Mary Duffus, servant, about 1850. Noted 1905.'" - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ord254

Braes o' Killiecrankie (battle song), The

DESCRIPTION: "Whare hae ye been saw braw, lad? Whare hae ye been sae brankie, O?" The hearer is asked if he has been by Killicrankie. He fought "the devil and Dundee On the braes o' Killicrkanie, O." Casualties are listed and King William evaluated
AUTHOR: James Hogg?
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Lyric Gems of Scotland 2)
KEYWORDS: battle death Jacobite
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 27, 1689 - Battle of Killiecrankie, at which Jacobites under Claverhouse/Dundee are victorious but their commander killed, resulting in the failure of their cause
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 11, "Killiecrankie" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 183-184, "The Braes o' Killiekrankie" (1 text)
ST MBra173 (Partial)
Roud #8187
File: MBra173

Braes o' Strathblane, The

See Braes of Strathblane (File: McCST053)

Braes o' Strathdon, The

See Braes of Strathblane (File: McCST053)

Braes o' Turra, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a maiden lamenting that she has been deserted by "false deluding" Johnny the schoolmaster. His education made her think him a man of honor while she, a servant and poor shepherd's daughter, has "neither gold nor breeding"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love servant abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #134, p. 2, "The Bonnie Braes o' Turra"; #131, p. 3, ("As I walked out one mornin' fair") (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1124, "The Braes o' Turra" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #6323
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Johnny the Schoolmaster
File: GrD61124

Braes of Balquhidder (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks a lass to "leave your father and your mither" and join him "on the braes o' Balquither" She refuses. He wins her over and she agrees to "leave acquaintance a' for thee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19c (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia); 1906 (Greig/Duncan4 862A)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection elopement
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 862, "The Braes o' Balquhidder" (1 text, 3 tunes)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 84-85, "The Braes of Balquhidder" (1 text)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 23, "The Braes of Belquether" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 97-101, "Hiawatha's Wooing"; "Paraphrase of Hiawatha's Wooing"; "Come Live With Me In My Little Canoe"; "The Little Canoe' or Burman Lover"; "The Braes o' Balquither" (1 text from tradition, 1 text said to be a retranslation of a translation into Ojibwe, 1 text of "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love", 1 none-traditional text of that poem, and 1 text of "The Braes o' Balquhither") (pp. 82, 87-89 in the 1919 edition)
DT, BALQUID
Roud #541
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(267), "The Braes O Balquither" ("Frae far beyond the Grampian hills"), unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 25(269), "The Braes o' Gleniffer"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Braes of Balquhidder (II)" (some lines)
cf. "Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena)" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Firth c.16(84))
cf. "The Fair o' Balnaminna" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
NOTES [179 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quoting Duncan: "Tannahill wrote a song ["The Braes of Balquhidder (II)"] called by the name beginning, 'Will ye go, lassie, go to the braes o' Balquhidder?' and mentioning 'the deer and the roe', but otherwise different -- except that the stanza (not very usual) is the same. Are Mrs Walker's verses [Greig/Duncan 862A] from the old song, and the basis of Tannahill's?"
This is not the poem/broadside of the same name by Robert Tannahill (1774-1810). That is a lyric: "Let us go, lassie, go To the braes o' Balquither." The singer will build her "a bower By the clear siller fountain" He describes their happy life in winter and summer among the moors "and the wild mountain thyme":
NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(202), "Braes o' Balquhither," unknown, c.1880
Bodleian, Harding B 11(431), "Braes o' Balquhither" ("Let us go, lassie, go"), W. & T. Fordyce (Newcastle), 1832-1842; also 2806 c.14(84), 2806 c.14(36), Firth b.25(231), Harding B 11(429), Harding B 25(266), Harding B 11(3873), 2806 c.14(109)[partly illegible], Harding B 11(2422), "Braes o' Balquhither." - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SmHa084

Braes of Balquhidder (II), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer: "let us go, lassie, go To the braes of Balquhither." He'll make a bower covered with flowers. In winter they'll sing in the bower protected from storms. Now in summer flowers are blooming and "wild mountain thyme A' the moorlands perfuming"
AUTHOR: Robert Tannahill, music by R.A. Smith (according to OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
EARLIEST DATE: 1838 (Tannahill, _The Poems and Songs of Robert Tannahill_, according to Greig/Duncan4 p. 564))
KEYWORDS: courting love flowers nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 151, "The Braes of Balquidder" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Tannahill, Complete Songs and Poems of Robert Tannahill (Paisley:Wm Wilson, 1877 ("Digitized by Microsoft")) pp. 6-7, "The Braes of Balquhither" [Air "The Three Carles o' Buchanan"] (1 text)
Roud #541
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "The Braes of Balquidder" (on IRECronin01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(431), "Braes o' Balquhither" ("Let us go, lassie, go"), W. & T. Fordyce (Newcastle), 1832-1842; also 2806 c.14(84), 2806 c.14(36), Firth b.25(231), Harding B 11(429), Harding B 25(266), Harding B 11(3873), 2806 c.14(109)[partly illegible], Harding B 11(2422), "Braes o' Balquhither."
NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(202), "Braes o' Balquhither," unknown, c.1880
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Braes of Balquhidder (I)" (some lines) and references there
cf. "Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go" (lyrics, theme)
File: OCC151

Braes of Belquether, The

See The Braes of Balquhidder (I) (File: SmHa084)

Braes of Carnanbane, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer prepares to leave Carnabane for America, and will praise it as he leaves. He recalls the beauties of the land and the girls; it pains him to leave, but he has no choice. He blesses Carnabane
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H651, p. 160, "The Braes of Carnanbane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13457
File: HHH651

Braes of Killiecrankie, The

DESCRIPTION: A soldier asks a maid to go with him to the "Braes of Killiecrankie"; he'll buy her a silk gown and fine coat. She won't go because her mother would be angry and her father would follow them. The soldier sleeps alone with his pack.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: seduction rejection derivative dialog father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 61, "The Braes of Killiecrankie" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 167, "The Braes o Killiecrankie" (1 text)
Roud #3874
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Birks of Abergeldy" (tune, per Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1, half of first two verses and structure)
NOTES [56 words]: Of "The Braes of Killiecrankie" and "The Birks of Abergeldy," one must be source and the other derivative. The tune, according to the commentary at broadside NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(057), "The Birks of Abergeldy," was first recorded in 1692. The broadside itself is from c.1701. I'm guessing "The Birks of Abergeldy" is the source. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr161

Braes of Strachblane, The

See Braes of Strathblane (File: McCST053)

Braes of Strathblane

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a girl. He wants to marry her; she says her parents would be displeased if she married a rover. He'll go court another. She begs him to come back; she's changed her mind. She regrets slighting him, fearing she'll never find another
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes); c.1850 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(063))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a young girl, bleaching her clothes. He tells her he's been wanting to marry her for the past year; she tells him to hold his tongue, as her parents would be displeased if she married a rover. He tells her the clouds are heavy, and he fears it will rain, so he'll go court another. She tells him to come back, for she's changed her mind. But he leaves, and she regrets slighting him, fearing she'll never find another man
KEYWORDS: courting rejection parting rambling lover
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord,High)) Canada(Mar,Newf) US(Ro)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 77-78, "The Braes o' Strathblane" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 125, "The Braes o' Strathblane" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 53, "The Braes of Strathblane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #18, pp. 1-2, "The Braes o' Strathdon" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 90-91, "The Braes of Strathblane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan6 1132, "The Braes o' Strathdon" (8 texts, 9 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 499-500, "The Beach of Strablane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 61, "The Bleaches So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 45, "Just As I Was Going Away" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 104-105, "The Blades of Strawblane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 60, "The Braes of Strathblaine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #47, "The Braes of Strachblane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1096
RECORDINGS:
M. Curran, "The Banks of Tralee" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Nicolas Keough, "The Beach of Strablane" (on PeacockCDROM)
Mrs. McCarthy, "Beaches So Green" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mike McGrath, "The Bleach of Strathblane" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(73), "The Braes of Strathblane," unknown, n.d.; also Firth c.26(240), "The Braes of Strathblane"
Murray, Mu23-y1:044, "The Braes of Strathalbene," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(063), "The Braes of Strathblane," unknown, c.1850
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rejected Lover" [Laws P10] and references there
cf. "The Chippewa Girl" [Laws H10] (words, theme)
cf. "As I Stood At My Cottage Door" (tune, see notes for broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(063))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Blades of Strawblane
NOTES [76 words]: Commentary to broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(063): "This song, indeed, an identical match to the lyrics of 'The Braes of Strathdon', which lies in Aberdeenshire. On other broadsides the suggested to tune to these lyrics is often 'As I stood at my cottage door'."
According to the ITMA/CapeShoreNL notes for this song, "The Bleach of Strathblane," "The 'bleach' refers to the hills around Strathblane where local women laid their laundry to dry." - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: McCST053

Braes of Sweet Kilhoyle, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks his listeners to hear him sing of Kilhoyle. He describes how all the boys and girls play there, admits that "Sometimes I work, more times I rest" there. He describes all the towns you can see, and says the locals are always friends in need
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H464, pp. 167-168, "The Braes of Sweet Kilhoyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13480
File: HHH464

Braes of Yarrow (I), The

DESCRIPTION: A man tells his bride-to-be to forget Yarrow where he killed her lover. She had warned her lover against the fight. Now her brother Douglas wants her to marry. She thinks of the dead body and won't marry. The groom tells her: "dry thy useless sorrow"
AUTHOR: William Hamilton (1704-1754)
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (Ritson, _Scotish Songs_, Greig/Duncan2 refers to the 1869 reprint of the 1794 publication)
KEYWORDS: wedding fight death brother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 148-152, "The Braes of Yarrow" (1 text, apparently Hamilton's original)
Greig/Duncan2 216, "The Braes of Yarrow" (1 fragment)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 195, "The Braes o Yarrow" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #341, pp. 572-576, "The Braes of Yarrow" (William Hamilton of Bangour)
Roud #5838
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(003), "Braes of Yarrow," The Poet's box (Glasgow), 1870
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Busk Ye
NOTES [129 words]: Child notes to 214, "The Braes o Yarrow": "'The Braes of Yarrow' ('Busk ye, busk ye, my bonny, bonny bride'), by William Hamilton of Bangour, was suggested by the present ballad."
Greig/Duncan2 is a fragment; Eliot is the basis for the description.
Broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(203), "Braes of Yarrow" ("Busk ye, busk ye, my bonnie, bonnie bride!"), The Poet's box (Glasgow), 1870 could not be downloaded and verified. It appears to be the same as NLScotland RB.m.143(003).
This is not to be confused with Broadside Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 28, "The Braes of Yarrow" ("Busk ye, busk ye, my bony [sic] bride"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838 by Allan Ramsay. That song ends with the man saying "O Queen of smiles, I ask nae mair, Since now my bony Bell's consenting." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: GrD2216

Braes of Yarrow (II), The

See The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214]; also Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie [Child 215] (File: C214)

Braes of Yarrow (III), The

See Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie [Child 215] (File: C215)

Braiding Her Glossy Black Hair

DESCRIPTION: The April sun is shining, the larks singing, when the singer sees Mary as he heads off to work. His heart is ensnared as he watches her braid her hair. Others report that he is never the same cheerful worker again; he is distracted by dreams of Mary
AUTHOR: Words: Andrew Doey
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H493, pp. 237-238, "Braiding Her Glossy Black Hair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9472
File: HHH493

Brain Boxer

See My Hand on My Head (Hand on my Heart, Nicky Nicky Nu) (File: ACSF285N)

Brak the Barn

DESCRIPTION: "(This is the one/boy/man that) brak (into) the barn, This is the man that stole the corn, This is the man that bent the saw, This is man that told all, This is the man that ran awa', And poor Willie Winkie had to pay for it all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Tobar an Dualchais collection)
KEYWORDS: crime punishment theft
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 47, "(This is the boy that broke into the barn)" (1 text)
Roud #20110
File: PKKB047G

Brake of Briars

See The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)

Brakeman on the Train

DESCRIPTION: (O')Shaughnessy takes a job as brakeman. He doesn't know the signal to stop the train. The train is derailed though no one is killed. They tell him to throw a switch; the train goes in the ditch. He gets the blame. And it's a hard, cold, dirty job.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: railroading ordeal wreck train wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 99, "Brakeman on the Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 510, "Twisting on the Train" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 16-17, "O'Shaughanesey" (1 text)
ST LLab099 (Partial)
Roud #8587
RECORDINGS:
Nobel B. Brown, "Oh, I'm a Jolly Irishman Winding on the Train" (AFS 8473 A2, 1946; on LC61)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
O'Shaughnessy
NOTES [24 words]: I assume this is the same person as the "Noble B. Brown" featured on other LC recordings. Again, I have no idea which spelling is correct. - PJS
File: LLab099

Bramble Briar, The (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32]

DESCRIPTION: A girl wishes to marry a man her family disapproves of. Her brothers take the lad hunting and kill him. They claim to have lost him, but he appears to his lover in a dream and reveals the truth. Accused by their sister, the two brothers are forced to flee
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3995)); 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster) [see the note quoting Steve Gardham, below, which would make the broadside a different ballad]
KEYWORDS: homicide brother love accusation dream
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England(Lond,South)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (31 citations):
Laws M32, The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 109-111, "The Bramble Briar" (2 texts)
Randolph 100, "The Jealous Brothers" (1 text, 1 tune)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 34, "Two Lovers Sat Sparking" (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 27, "The Bramble Brier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 62, "The Bramble Brier" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 62, "The Bramble Briar" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 68, "The Bramble Briar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 83-84, "Late One Sunday Evening" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 48-49, "Late One Sunday Evening" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #21, "The Branbury Briars" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 32, "The Bramble Briar" (1 text plus a mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 11, "The Apprentice Boy" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 705-707, "In Brunton Town" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 48, "In Seaport Town" (9 texts, 9 tunes)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 2, "Bruton Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #22, "Bruton Town (In Seaport Town)" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 24-25, "The Bramble Briar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 37, "A Famous Farmer" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 270, "Farmer's Daughter and Her Servant Man" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #59, "It's of a Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 22, pp. 53-54, "The Bamboo Briars"; pp. 54-58, "The Apprentice Boy" (2 texts)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 88, "The Bramble Briar" (2 texts)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #16, pp. 70-72, "The Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, probably composite, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 89-90, "The Jealous Brothers"; pp. 90-91, "The Jealous Brothers II" (2 texts, 1 tune; the third text, "The Constant Farmer's Son," is probably "The Constant Farmer's Son"[Laws M33])
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 69-70, "The Two Jealous Brothers" (1 text, 1 tune, filed by the editors as "The Constant Farmer's Son" [Laws M33], an attribution accepted by Roud, but most of the lyrics seem more typical of this song)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 20, "Brake of Briars" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 22, "The Bridgewater Merchant" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 119-120, "In Zepo Town" (1 text)
DT 309, JEALBROS JEALBRO2 JEALBRO3 JEALBRO4* SEAPRTWN*
ADDITIONAL: Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, pp. 48-49, "In Bruton Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LM32 (Full)
Roud #18
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "Bruton Town" (on LEnglish01)
Louis Killen, "The Bramble Briar" (on ESFB2)
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Bramble Briar" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
Lisha Shelton, "In Zepo Town (In Seaport Town)" (onOldLove, DarkHoll)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3995), "The Merchant's Daughter and Constant Farmer's Son" ("It's of a merchnt's [sic] daughter in London town did dwell"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Johnson Ballads 1223, Firth c.18(183), Harding B 16(148a)[some words illegible], Johnson Ballads 1947, Harding B 11(2402), "The Merchant's Daughter and Constant Farmer's Son"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Constant Farmer's Son" [Laws M33]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bamboo Briers
The Bomberry Briar
NOTES [366 words]: Boccaccio includes the story, hence my "14th century" date. It's also listed by Hans Sachs in the 16th century. Sachs' was in verse form, whereas Boccaccio's was prose. I'm tempted to list Sachs' version. -PJS
H. M. Belden wrote an article on the relationships of these texts, "Boccaccio, Hans Sachs, and The Bramble Briar," published in Publications of the Modern Language Association of America in 1918.
The Boccaccio story involved is the fifth story of the fourth day, the Tale of Isabetta and Lorenzo. Keats would in turn make this into a poem, "Isabella, or the Pot of Basil." It should be noted, however, that the Boccaccio version is fuller than the song. The beginning is the same, with the young couple falling in love and the brothers murdering their sister's swain, after which she finds the body. But the sequel in the Decameron is macabre: She takes her lover's head and hides it in a pot of basil. The brothers steal the pot and bury it. I would not categorically deny the link between the Italian story and the English, but the English tale is noticeably more natural.
Stewart suggests that the second half of the tale, of the girl preserving the head but not the body, is a link to the tale of the decapitated Celtic hero Bran, which became an oracle. Of course, this doesn't explain how the head came into the Italian version of the tale but not the British. - RBW
Logan English learned this piece from a young Kentucky woman practicing it with a dulcimer on the sidelines of a folk festival... and concluded from textual evidence that she'd learned it from Cecil Sharp's book. Tradition, twentieth century style. - PJS
For a discussion of this ballad, and the importance to the researcher of the Thompson-APioneerSongster text see Steve Gardham's MusTrad article Dungheap 21, "The Bridgewater Merchant," available at http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/dung21.htm (accessed August 12, 2012). Steve makes a point in passing that "the later period broadside ballad, much reprinted, which tells the same story The Merchant's Daughter and the Constant Farmer's Son was quite likely based on our ballad, but has no phrasing in common and must be considered a separate ballad." - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LM32

Bramble Brier, The

See The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)

Bramble, The

DESCRIPTION: "Thy fruit full well the schoolboy knows, Wild bramble of the brake, So put forth thy small white rose, I love thee for his sake." The singer tells how the tame flowers fade or are put aside; the wild bramble still blooms and lets the singer feel young
AUTHOR: Words: Ebenezer Elliot
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection); the author died 1849
KEYWORDS: flowers nonballad age
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H628, pp. 62-63, "The Bramble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13333
File: HHH628

Bran' Een duh Fo'head

See Branded on the Forehead (File: HPR276A)

Branch Hero, The

DESCRIPTION: A fisherman meets Betsey and convinces her to sail with him to "that place called Branch up in St Mary's Bay." A gale blows them off course and they land who-knows-where. Betsey says, if the listener meets that fisherman then toss him overboard.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: travel sea ship storm humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #29053
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Ghaney, "The Branch Hero" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [15 words]: "Oh Branch," says the fisherman, "it is a lovely place; it's the best in Newfoundland." - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3BrHer

Brand Fire New Whaling Song Right from the Pacific Ocean, A

DESCRIPTION: "But here it lies why blast my yes, You've often heard I'll pledge my word Of what they call Japan boys." A tale of hunting whale in the Pacific -- a whale is spotted, pursued, killed, all in tedious detail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (published as a small booklet, according to Huntington)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor whaler death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 2-14, "A Brand Fire New Whaling Song Right from the Pacific Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maggie Lauder" (tune)
NOTES [21 words]: Technically, this is a fairly well-done song. But it is extremely tedious, and there is no sign it has gone into tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HGam002

Branded Lambs [Laws O9]

DESCRIPTION: A girl, seeking her branded lambs, sees Johnny asleep under a thorn and asks if he has seen the flock. He tells her to seek them in a distant meadow. She seeks them; Johnny follows. They are not there, but he takes the chance to woo her. They are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: sheep courting marriage love shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws O9, "Branded Lambs"
Greig/Duncan5 966, "The Strayed Lambs" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 79, "Jockie and the Fair Maid" (1 text)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 252-253, "Young Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 134, "The Long and Wishing Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 58, "Long and Wishing Eye" (1 text)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #11, "As Johnny Walked Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #36, "Searching for Lambs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 133-134, "Branded Lambs" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LO09 (Full)
Roud #1437
RECORDINGS:
George Spicer, "The Long and Wishing Eye" (on FSBFTX13)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 22(266), "The sex, by Mr. Holt. Jockey and the Damsel's Courtship" ("As Jockey was walking one midsummer morn"), unknown, no date (but apparently pre-1825; see note)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Searching for Lambs" (theme)
NOTES [290 words]: This song represents an instance where Laws perhaps produced a great deal of confusion with his classification. He cites only two texts, Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia and Joyce, the latter of which he calls incomplete.
But is the Joyce text incomplete, or is it a different song? Laws's "Branded Lambs" has a plot, summarized in the description. The Joyce text doesn't really.
On its face, Joyce appears to be an instance of another song group, "Searching for Lambs" ("One Morning Clear"), which has no plot beyond the elementary one of "boy meets girl while watching flocks."
The problem is, the two have common lyrics as well as a common theme. Either they've cross-fertilized or the lyric "Searching for Lambs" is a wearing down of "Branded Lambs." Scholars are divided; Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland (who admittedly lumps songs based on only the feeblest of connections) lumps them; the notes to Henry/Huntington/Herrmann explicitly deny the connection.
Unfortunately, almost all the texts are in manuscript and not readily available. Roud distinguishes the two; "Searching for Lambs" seems to be his #576; "Branded Lambs" is #1437.
The earlier editions of the Index lumped the song, in desperation. I still feel desperate about some versions -- e.g. the Copper text is difficult; it has the length of the lyric version but is more reminiscent of the ballad version in its wording. But we're splitters, and have now separated the songs. Still, readers should probably consult both entries for absolute certainty. - RBW
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 22(266) attributes its text to a Mr Holt. I would guess from the long-s typography that the date is between 1625 and 1825, and more likely between 1660 and 1790. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LO09

Branded on the Forehead

DESCRIPTION: "(See that ship Maria, branded on the forehead)(x3), Coming up (3x)." The half line changes in every verse. For example, "See my loving savior," "Yonder comes the liar," "John saw the number," "See Paul the apostle," "See my dear grandmother"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 276-277, "Bran' Een duh Fo'head" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR276A

Brandon on the Moor

See Brennan on the Moor [Laws L7] (File: LL07)

Brands

See Whose Old Cow (File: TF21)

Brandy Leave Me Alone

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, brandy leave me alone (x3), Remember I must go home." "Oh, brandy, you broke my heart (x2); Oh, brandy, leave me alone; Remember I must go home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: drink home nonballad Africa
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 231, "Brandy Leave Me Alone" (1 text)
DT, BRNDYLV*
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Brandy Leave Me Alone" (on PeteSeeger06, PeteSeegerCD01); "Brandy Leave Me Alone" (on PeteSeeger12)
NOTES [40 words]: The history of this song is rather obscure; it probably does not qualify as a true ENGLISH-language folksong. Joseph Marais and Miranda seem to have found the chorus in South Africa, and added enough material to make it an actual song. - RBW
File: FSWB231

Brandywine

See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Brannan Fair o' Banff

DESCRIPTION: The people at the fair -- Cocker, Shusie, "Geordie Raeburn an' Willie Beer, But noo I see they're wantin there"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming moniker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 370, "Brannan Fair o' Banff" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Roud #5913
NOTES [58 words]: Greig/Duncan3 text count includes one verse on p. 626.
The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan3 fragments. While placed among songs about hiring fairs it is not clear to me that this is about a hiring fair.
Greig/Duncan3: "The song described those that used to appear at the fair, but then all gone, with other sights of the day." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3370

Brannigan's Pup

DESCRIPTION: Brannigan's pup fought "seventeen hours of battle." The dog was ugly to begin with, and scarred, but it would attack anything -- clothes, other dogs, a young girl's leg -- until at last it attacked an organ grinder's monkey and choked on the tail
AUTHOR: Gus Phillips ? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills)
KEYWORDS: animal talltale dog
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 122, "Ol' Mickey Brannigan's Pup" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bethke-AdirondackVoices,pp. 107-108, "Mickey Brannigan's Pup" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 260-262, "Mickey Mulligan's Pup (Brannigan's Pup)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MICKPUP*
ADDITIONAL: Lockwood Honore, Popular College Songs (Cincinnati: John Church Company, 1891 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 84-85, "Brannigan's Pup" ("Ould Mickey Brannigan had a Bull pup") (1 text, 1 tune)
Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 55, "Brannigan's Pup" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #79, p. 120, "Brannigan's Pup" (1 text)
Roud #2971
NOTES [81 words]: The attribution of this song to Gus Phillips (made by Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills) seems fairly strong, which makes it interesting that it was included among the works of Johnny Burke. But it occurs late in the White/Kirwin collection of Burke's ballads, among the pieces added to the Burke canon long after Burke was dead. Burke, who was born in 1851, could have written the song and Phillips could have stolen it, but the weight of evidence is the other way. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: FSC122

Brannit Coo, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a maid going to milk her "brannit [streaked brown] coo." They greet and she asks how far he's going; she's going a mile or two to milk her cow. He asks "what harm could I do love, to come along with you. And I will wait ..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1318, "The Brannit Coo" (1 text)
Roud #7210
File: GrD71318

Brannon on the Moor

See Brennan on the Moor [Laws L7] (File: LL07)

Brass-Mounted Army, The

DESCRIPTION: The soldier complains of the unfairness of Army life and the abuse he suffers at the hands of officers: "Oh, how do you like the army, The brass-mounted army, The high-falutin' army Where eagle buttons rule?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865
KEYWORDS: Civilwar abuse soldier army
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph 221, "The Brass-Mounted Army" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 211-213, "The Brass-Mounted Army" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 221)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 198-200, "The Brass-Mounted Army" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 20-21, "The Brass-Mounted Army" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 180, "The Brass-Mounted Army" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BRSSARMY*
Roud #6693
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wait for the Wagon" (tune)
NOTES [223 words]: Silber attributes this to "an anonymous soldier of Col. A Buchel's regiment." This appears to be Augustus Carl Büchel (1813-1864), who was a German soldier with extraordinary experience, having studied in Russian and obtained the rank of Colonel in the Turkish army. He then went to America, fighting in the Mexican War on the staff of Zachary Taylor. He became a Texan, and was colonel of the 1st Texas Cavalry when he was killed in 1864.
T. R. Fehrenbach, Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans, American Legacy Press, 1968, p. 351, lists him as one of a handful of foreign-born officers, and the only prominent German, to join the Texas armed forces. Fehrenbach also says that the few Germans in Texas mostly supported the Confederacy; I wonder if Buchel (as he took to spelling his name after moving to the New World) helped influence that.
I don't know why the song would be attached to him; possibly it was because those old German officers were considered so rule-bound. But there certainly isn't anything in the song that is specific to him; indeed, I would have guessed it was a northern song.
Some southern versions refer to a [General] Kirby, presumably General Edmund Kirby Smith, sent to command in Texas when Grant's Vicksburg campaign was cutting the Confederacy in two. This is another interesting link to Texas. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R221

Brats of Jeremiah, The

See Unhappy Jeremiah (The Brats of Jeremiah) (File: FSC134)

Brave Ben Hall

See The Death of Ben Hall (I) (File: MA098)

Brave Boys

See The Greenland Whale Fishery [Laws K21] (File: LK21)

Brave Boys are They

See Many Brave Boys Must Fall (File: Pet237)

Brave Defender, The

See The Banished Defender (File: Zimm024)

Brave Doodley, The

See The Dudley Boys (File: JRVI080)

Brave Dudley Boys, The

See The Dudley Boys (File: JRVI080)

Brave Earl Brand and the King of England's Daughter, The

See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Brave Engineer (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Georgie's mother came to him with a bucket on her arm." She warns him against trying to run his train too fast in order to make up time. He says he will heed her, but he drives too hard at Big Bend Tunnel and he crashes and is killed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Roy Harvey)
KEYWORDS: train railroading warning mother wreck death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 23, 1890 - Death of engineer George Alley when the FFV train on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad was wrecked by a landslide near Hinton, West Virginia
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, p. 47, "The Brave Engineer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #255
RECORDINGS:
Carver Boys, "The Brave Engineer" (Paramount 3198, 1930/Broadway 8246 [as Carson Boys], n.d.; rec. 1929)
Roy Harvey & the North Carolina Ramblers, "The Brave Engineer" (Columbia 15174-D, 1927; rec. 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck on the C & O" [Laws G3] (subject)
NOTES [60 words]: Lyle files this in the same entry as "The Wreck on the C & O," and Roud files them under the same number (probably on this basis), but they are pretty clearly distinct song (this is reported to be to the tune of "The Ship That Never Returned"); I've split them. Nonetheless it is possible that some of the listed recordings of that song are actually this. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: LySc047

Brave Engineer (II), The

See The Wreck of Number Nine [Laws G26] (File: LG26)

Brave Fireman, The (Break the News to Mother Gently)

DESCRIPTION: A fireman, mortally injured while rescuing a child, makes his last request: "Break the news to mother gently, Tell her how her son had died, Tell her that he done his duty...." His family and colleagues grieve but honor his memory
AUTHOR: Charles K. Harris
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: death fire rescue farewell mother
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 687, "The Brave Fireman" (1 text)
Roud #7371
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Break the News to Mother" (tune, theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Break the News Gently
NOTES [143 words]: Spaeth (Read Em and Weep, pp. 175-176) has another song built around the line "Break the news to mother." The plot, however, is completely different, and involves a soldier boy killed while rescuing a company's battle flag. That piece is by Charles K. Harris - RBW
The Spaeth song is Harris's 1897 rewrite, "Break the News to Mother," of his own "The Brave Fireman." - BS
Randolph's appears to be the only printed version of this piece taken from oral tradition, but it appears to have been found elsewhere. Tim Murphy contacted me about a fragment of the song he heard from his grandmother, Francis Mary Lawlor Skinner, born in 1880 in St. John's, Newfoundland; she later migrated to the United States. Based on Mr. Murphy's comments, it may be that the song was repeated in fire houses. In any case, it was known somewhere in eastern North America. - RBW
File: R687

Brave General Brock [Laws A22]

DESCRIPTION: Brock leads his men on a forced march against the Americans. The surprised U.S. commander surrenders soon after the fighting begins.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959
KEYWORDS: war Canada
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1812 - The Michigan campaign of Hull and Brock
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws A22, "Brave General Brock"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman pp. 272-274, "Come All You Bold Canadians" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 62-65, "Come All You Bold Canadians" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 697, GENBROCK
Roud #2210
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Queenston Heights" (for the death of Isaac Brock)
NOTES [1127 words]: One of the major American aims in the War of 1812 was to conquer Canada. The primary responsibility for the defense of Canada fell on the shoulders of Brigadier General Isaac Brock, Governor of Upper Canada, who faced several threats.
According to Mahon, pp. 17-18, Brock had had a rather spectacular career, joining the army when very young and commanding a regiment by the time he was 28. He had combat experience in Europe, and had also spent years in Canada, so he was close to the ideal commander in Upper Canada (what we now call Ontario).
The overall British commander in North America, Sir George Prevost, thought him a little too impetuous, but there were only three active-duty infantry general officers in Canada (Prevost, Brock, and Major General Francis Rottenberg; Mahon, p. 34), so Prevost had little choice but to employ Brock. Very short of soldiers, and wanting to enforce the strategic defensive, Prevost limited Brock to 1600 regular troops to keep him from getting too lively (Mahon, p. 19). It was to prove a fateful decision for Brock, who would perform brilliantly but eventually die at Queenstown in part because of lack of troops.
There were supposed to be three American attack on Canada: One in the Detroit area (or, at least, in the region between Lakes Huron and Erie), one in the Niagara region between Lakes Erie and Ontario, and one up from Lake Champlain. The goal was to coordinate these attacks. The goal failed (which would allow Brock to personally deal with two of them).
The first attack came from the west (Mahon, pp. 38-39). The governor of Michican Territory was William Hull (1753-1825), a veteran of the Revolutionary War -- but he was by training a lawyer, and the highest rank he had held in the Revolution was lieutenant colonel (Mahon, p. 43). He was still relatively young at 58, but looked older; he had lost much of his energy (Berton, p. 92, calls him "a flabby old soldier, tired of war, hesitant of command, suspicious of the militia who he knows are untrained and suspects are untrustworthy. He has asked for three thousand men; Washington finally allows him two thousand. He does not really want to be a general, but he is determined to save his people from the Indians.... There is a soft streak in Hull, no asset in a frontier command. As a young man he studied for the ministry, only to give it up for the law, but something of the divinity student remains").
Similarly Catton, p. 62, "Hull was a stout old smooth-bore, with a good record in the Revolutionary War, but he was in decay now and the fire was gone out of him."
Gathering a motley and ill-equipped force of militia, with only a few regulars (and their commander outranked by the untrained militia officers; Mahon, p. 44), Hull crossed from Michigan into Ontario on July 12 (Hickey, p. 81; Mahon, p. 45), only to find that the local inhabitants didn't care and didn't want to be liberated (Borneman, p. 62). Especially by a blowhard giving speeches about how they lived under tyranny and demanding that they *like* being invaded and then saying that the Indians -- allies of the British -- would scalp them if they didn't become Americans (McNaught, p. 72, who prints part of the speech. It makes it quite clear that Hull had absolutely no idea what was going on).
Meanwhile, Brock was maneuvering behind Hull's rear, taking Fort Mackinac in northern Michigan. According to Caton, p. 63, "The American garrison consisted of fifty-odd men under Lieutenant Porter Hanks, and since it took a long time for news to reach the Straits from the Atlantic seaboard, these people, on July 17, did bot yet know there was a war on; signs of impending trouble had been visible, but no one in the American government had thought to do what British General Brock did, who got speedy woods runners to gake the news to the British post on St. Joseph Island, at the mouth of the St. Mary's River." The local officer quickly assembled a force, occupied ground above Fort Mackinac, and forced the fort to surrender. This also had the effect of putting the local Indians firmly on the British side (McNaught, p. 72).
Facing what seemed to be a threat to his rear (although the British force was too weak to go much farther), Hull fell back on Detroit (Borneman, p .67; Mahon, p. 48).
Brock brought up a few British forces to Detroit, made them look like more, and threatened to turn the Indians loose on Hull (Hickey, pp. 82-83). The American commander seemed utterly unable to comprehend what was going on as Brock maneuvered forces all around him (Mahon, p. 50). Although he could in fact have defeated Brock in detail, and very possibly could have prevailed in an open battle because of superior numbers, Hull -- to the shock of his subordinates (Catton, p. 62) -- surrendered Detroit on August 16, 1812 (Borneman, pp. 68-69).
Brock reportedly had 2500 prisoners; he listed his own forces as 750 whites and 600 Indians (Mahon, p. 50). Hull eventually would be court-martialed for cowardice (McNaught, p. 73) and sentenced to death, though his life would be spared (Borneman, p. 69; Hickey, p. 84; Mahon, p. 51). The only good thing that came out of the debacle, for the American side, was that it forced them to start working on a fleet on Lake Erie, because they would need control of the lake to securely retake Detroit.
For the later career of Brock, see "The Battle of Queenston Heights."
Incidentally, as well as a good soldier, Brock seems to have had more liberal feelings than most people of his time. In an era when most people sneered at the Native Americans, Brock wrote of the "wrongs they continually suffer" (Berton, p. 66). Of course, he was trying to enlist them as allies in any possible war with the United States, so maybe he had an ulterior motive.
Berton, pp. 81-82, says that Brock was utterly frustrated in Canada, and repeatedly requested transfer -- but, when finally granted the right to take a post in Britain, the War of 1812 was at hand, and he decided to stay at his post out of a sense of duty.
Berton, pp. 82-83, describes him as follows: "He is a remarkably handsome man with a fair complexion, a broad forehead, clear eyes of grey blue (one with a slight cast), and sparkling white teeth. His portraits tend to make him look a little feminine -- the almond eyes, the sensitive nostrils, the girlish lips -- but his bearing belies it; he is a massive figure, big-boned and powerful, almost six feet three in height. He has now, at forty-two, a slight tendency to portliness... but he is, in his own words, 'hard as nails.'
"He is popular with almost everybody, especially the soldiers who serve him -- a courteous, affable officer who makes friends easily and can charm with a smile. But there is also an aloofness about him. -RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: LA22

Brave Hunter, The

DESCRIPTION: "Little boy went out to shoot one day, He took his arrows and boy, For guns are dangerous things for play." A little bird (sparrow, cuckoo) declares he can't shoot it. The boy can't hit the bird, and cries; the little bird laughs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook)
KEYWORDS: bird violence
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook [7-8], "The Brave Hunter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7013
File: BrGr007

Brave Irish Lady, A

See A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.) [Laws P9]; also "The Brown Girl" [Child 295] (File: LP09)

Brave Irish Soldier, A Gallant Dragoon, A

See Banks of the Nile (II) (The Soldier's Letter) (File: KSUC019D)

Brave Lafitte, The

DESCRIPTION: "Each young land bird I'm sure has heard Of the ocean lamb and wolf," for Lafitte/Laffite is known by both titles. His piracy makes him rich, and he brings a girl to his island home. He is attacked near home, and his girl killed; he vows revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (The Forecastle Songster, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate death revenge disguise cross-dressing
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 1809-1821 - Career of Jean Laffite
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 41-43, "The Brave Lafitte" (1 text)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 68, "The Brave Lafitte" (1 text; #41 in the first edition)
Roud #V28306
NOTES [385 words]: Much of this song is "sort of true." The Dictionary of American Biography gives a brief account of the life of Jean Laffite (the DAB spelling). He and his brother Pierre were real pirates, probably of French origin; by 1809 he was operating in the Gulf of Mexico and marketing his wares in New Orleans. In 1814, as the British prepared to attack New Orleans, they tried to bring Laffite to their side. Instead, he sided with the Americans, and helped fight off the British in the New Orleans campaign of 1814-1815; the Lafittes were given pardons as a result.
That didn't make them good citizens, though. If this song refers to anything, it is either to an attack by the Americans on Laffite in 1814, or more likely an attack in 1821, which ended with Laffite burning his island settlement and sailing away. His eventual fate is unknown.
In neither case is there any evidence of a girlfriend who is killed while in disguise. This appears to derive not from actual history but from popular journalism; Jan Rogozinsky, Pirates, Facts on File, 1995; republished as The Wordsworth Dictionary of Pirates, Wordsworth, 1997, p. 189, tells us that "Novels and fictional biographies have heightened the romantic elements" in his life, As examples he cites Byron's "The Corsair" and Joseph Ingraham's 1836 story "Lafitte, the Pirate of the Gulf." According to Rogozinsky, p. 190, Ingraham's book tells of Lafitte being "Redeemed by the love of a good woman." So I would guess that it is the source of this song.
There are many books about Lafitte; this list is not comprehensive (and may not always be the first edition):
Mary Devereux, Lafitte of Louisiana, ?, 1902
Ariane Dewey, Lafitte the Pirate, Greenwillow Books, 1985
Catherine T. Gonzalez, Lafitte: The Terror of the Gulf, Eakin Press, 1981
Winston Groom, Patriotic ire: Andrew Jackson and Jean Lafitte at the Battle of Los Angeles, Alfred A. Knopf, 2006
Lyle Saxon, Lafitte the Pirate, Pellican Publishing, 1989.
Robert Tallant, The Pirate Lafitte and the Battle of New Orleans Random House, 1951
There is also The Journal Of Jean Laffite: The Privateer-Patriot's Own Story, which I suspect is not worth the paper it's written on.
There was also apparently a movie by Cecil B. DeMille, "The Buccaneer." But I suspect it's pure fiction. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: TNY041

Brave Lieutenant, The

See The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)

Brave Lord Willoughby

See Lord Willoughby (File: Perc2238)

Brave Marin (Brave Sailor)

DESCRIPTION: French. A brave sailor returns from war and stops at an inn. The hostess cries; she recognizes him as her husband. He asks why she has more children. She had reports that he had died and so remarried. He leaves silver and returns to his regiment.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill), with a possible origin in the period 1562-1630
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage marriage reunion children wife sailor husband wife money return foc's'le
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) France
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 13, "Brave Marin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 111-112, "Le Retour du Marin" (1 fragment (in French), 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 48, "Retour du Marin" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Grace Lee Nute, _The Voyageur_, Appleton, 1931 (reprinted 1987 Minnesota Historical Society), pp. 145-147, "Le Retour du Mari Soldat" (1 text plus English translation, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best and Pamela Morgan, "Brave Marin" (on NFABestPMorgan01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Le Jeune Militaire" (theme)
cf. "Jack Robinson" (theme)
cf. "Snapoo" (similar tune)
NOTES [273 words]: Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou: Best says "It dates from the wars of Louis XIV (the late 1600s) and was very popular in the southwest of France." Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou makes "Le Jeune Militaire" a version of "Brave Marin"; while the themes are very close the words are not. - BS
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen theorizes that this is the ballad from which "Snapoo" and subsequently "Mademoiselle from Armentières" were derived. The tune is similar (though slower) and the lines end with the words "tout doux" which could have been transliterated into "snapoo." Tennyson used the same theme in his classic poem "Enoch Arden" in 1864.
Hugill (in Songs of the Sea, 1977) says that the song comes from the days of Louis XIII (1610-1643) and that the theme may have been derived from the story of Martin Guerre, which took place around 1560, though a significant difference in the two is that in "Retour du Marin" (and in "Enoch Arden") the returning sailor eventually goes on his way, rather than impersonating someone as Martin Guerre did. - SL
Obviously none of these theories of origin can be proved, though in some ways, the earlier, the better, as long as the song is of French/Catholic origin. By the eighteenth century, a Catholic woman could not remarry unless she could not only show her husband was dead but could point out the body -- a cause of much distress at Trafalgar, e.g.; the English would bury their dead at sea, but the French and Spanish wanted to stack their ships full of bodies.
Incidentally, in "Enoch Arden," the returned sailor dies for love. Whether that is a better ending is, I think, debatable. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LeBe013

Brave Nelson

See Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar (Brave Nelson) [Laws J17] (File: LJ17)

Brave Old Oak, The

DESCRIPTION: The oak "ruled the greenwood long." "In the days of old" maidens "frolicked with lovesome swains" but they are dead and the tree remains. Now gold is king "but he never shall send our ancient friend To be tossed on the stormy sea"
AUTHOR: Henry Fothergill Chorley (1808-1872) (source: Bodleian notes to broadsides)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3541))
KEYWORDS: death gold nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 203, "The Brave Old Oak" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 21)
Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 62, "The Brave Old Oak" (1 text)
Roud #1281
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3541), "The Brave Old Oak" ("A song to the oak, the brave old oak"), G. Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Harding B 11(1771), Harding B 11(1508), Harding B 11(1389), Harding B 11(464), Harding B 11(1678), Harding B 11(439A), Firth b.26(370), Harding B 11(3312), Harding B 11(439), Firth b.28(35), Firth b.27(35), Johnson Ballads 2366 [some words illegible], Firth b.27(202) [some words illegible], Johnson Ballads fol. 113, Harding B 15(32b), "[The] Brave Old Oak"; Harding B 11(1065), "The Old Oak Tree"
LOCSheet, sm1878 03170, "The Brave Old Oak", White, Smith & Co (Boston), 1878 (with tune); also sm1882 08793, "The Brave Old Oak" (with tune)
LOCSinging, as101610, "The Brave Old Oak " ("A song to the oak, the brave old oak"), Harris' Card and Job Printing Office (Philadelphia), no date; also as109310, " The Brave Old Oak "
SAME TUNE:
The Whig Chief ("A song for the chief the brave whig chief," by J. H. Warland) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 176)
File: WT203

Brave Queen's Island Boys, The

DESCRIPTION: "Belfast may boast ... of its far-famed ships." "May the name of Harland and Wolff still stand At the top of the ship-building trade" "The Island Boys are marvels .... With their 'White Star Liner.'" If a "Greyhound" is needed Belfast gets the contract.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1890-1918 (J Nicholson ballad sheet, according to Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: pride commerce ship nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 37, "The Brave Queen's Island Boys" (1 text)
NOTES [567 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: "The song dates from the 1880s." Dargan's Island, renamed Queen's Island "after Queen Victoria's visit to the town in 1849," in the River Lagan, was part of the world-famous Belfast ship-building industry. "This reputation was largely due to the efforts of the Harland and Wolff company which formed in 1861.... In 1870 Harland and Wolff signed a contract to build ships for the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, better known as the White Star Line." [The Titanic was built in Belfast for the White Star Line.] - BS
According to Butler, p. 4, "The origins of Harland and Wolff dated back to the 1840, when dredging of a deep-water passage in the of section of the River Lagan known as the Victoria Channel created Queen's Island in the middle of the channel. Robert Hickson built a shipyard on the new island and began construction of iron ships there in 1853. Edward J. Harland came to the yard, which was known as Hickson and Company, as a manager in 1854 and bought it outright from Hickson in 1859. Gustav Wolff was a silent partner when he first joined Harland in 1861, but by 1862 the yard was known as Harland and Wolff."
It was a line which produced many innovations, mostly at the instigation of Edward Harland, eliminating most of the equipment of sailing ships from the steamers of the White Star and other lines (Butler, p. 5). It also managed to build what we would now call a "vertical monopoly": It designed the ships, built them, and even built the primary components such as boilers and propellers.At its peak, the shipyard employed 14,000 men. It was a Harland and Wolff ship, the Oceanic, which created the luxury liner concept and put White Star at the forefront of the transatlantic trade. The two ended up with an arrangement that was satisfactory to both: Harland and Wolff produced the ships for White Star, and billed the line for its actual costs plus a fixed percentage of profit.
After Harland's death in 1894, William James Pirrie (who had started with the firm as an apprentice in 1862 at the age of 15) succeeded him; he became Lord Pirrie in 1895 (Butler, p. 6). He was still in charge at the time the Titanic and her sisters were ordered, though Thomas Andrews handled most of the detail work.
"Harland and Wolff were considered the highest-priced and most painstaking shipbuilders in Europe" (Wade, p. 13).
Not even the Titanic could change that. Irish partition and a series of economic downturns could. The Belfast shipping industry went into recession. Eventually Harland and Wolff was sold to a Norwegian company. Not even that could save the shipyards. And that company in 2003 sold the land of Harland and Wolff's old shipyard to a property developer. It may become a Titanic memorial. It almost certainly won't be used to build ships (Barczewski, pp. 244-245.
The reference to a "greyhound" is ironic. If the song really does come from the 1880s, it predates the time of the most extreme transatlantic competition, when German and British companies were constantly building bigger, faster ships. At last two ships were built that were called "greyhounds," and for nearly a quarter century, no one tried to build faster ships. The two ships were the Lusitania and Mauretania -- but they were built for Cunard, not White Star, and Harland and Wolff was not involved in the design. They were built in Britain, not Ireland. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: Leyd037

Brave Seaman, The

DESCRIPTION: "The waves dash high against the rocks with a mighty thund'ring roar." A ship is in distress. On shore, a man declares, "I must save them." He takes his boat out to the reef and rescues the sailors
AUTHOR: Words: Kathleen Clark / Tune: supplied by Kris Paprocki (source: Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
KEYWORDS: ship rescue wreck disaster
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 72, "The Brave Seaman" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [57 words]: According to Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, this was written by a schoolgirl in 1928. Although relatively accomplished for a student piece, there is no hint whatsoever that it went into tradition, and it was probably a poem for a class, not a spontaneous composition. If it's folk, I'm a Martian. But I'm indexing it for completeness. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LaGo072

Brave Volunteer, The

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

Brave Volunteers, The

DESCRIPTION: Henry leaves Margaret, his wife, and baby to volunteer "to fight 'neath a monarch of Portugal's banner." All 500 volunteers from Ireland and Scotland are lost with his ship on Galway's coast, outbound from Greenock, on Wednesday, November 28/29.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.12(120))
KEYWORDS: grief marriage war drowning wreck Ireland Scotland lament baby wife
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. Dec 4, 1832 - The Rival, out of Greenock bound for Oporto in Portugal with 472 volunteer troops to support Dom Pedro in the Miguelista War, sinks off the Galway coast.
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 432-433, "The Brave Volunteers" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea432 (Partial)
Roud #9784
RECORDINGS:
Henry Campbell, "The Brave Volunteer" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Mrs. Mary Ann Galpin, "The Brave Volunteers" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(120), "The Brave Volunteers" ("One cold stormy night in the month of November"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 26(74), "The Brave Volunteers"
NOTES [1309 words]: Greenock is on the west coast of Scotland across the North Channel from Ireland. Galway is on the west coast of Ireland.
[The song refers to the Miguelist] War of Two Brothers [and] an expedition from Britain supporting Pedro II [November 28, 1832 was a Wednesday ]
The real work on the historical basis of the ballad is in the following notes on other sources and historical references, posted between 3/8/2004 and 3/28/2004 to [the Ballad-L mailing list] by John Moulden. The references are used with his permission. In response to my [BS] query re the possible historical basis for the ballad John looked at his source texts to help narrow the date to the Miguelista War and then pinned down the likely actual disaster.
Begin John Moulden's notes:
Other Sources:
This appears on Irish printed ballad sheets and eight page song-books
The references I have are:
8 page song book:
The bonny light horseman together with The brave volunteers. The burial of General Sir John Moore. Steady she goes all's well. Waterford. Printed at W Kelly's. Cut - oval -horse (nose at right) , left foreleg raised, unsaddled, tail up, under tree. [Walter Kelly printer evidently worked in the 1830s - the sole firm date I have for him is 1839 but he was probably working as early as 1835.]
National Library of Ireland I6551 Song books Waterford (LO560) 4(3) British Library 11621aaa16 #9
Royal Irish Academy Irish song books Volume 1 12b'11 - 7
Queen's University Belfast Massey Gibson Collection Item 7:5
Ballad sheet:
Brave Volunteers The One cold stormy night in the month of November
Trinity College Dublin John Davis White Collection 189t1 273 7 verses [8 lines] [The White Collection was made around the 1860s to 70s - this ballad has no imprint]
According to Steve Roud's Broadside index it was also printed by Such (Catalogue Entry only) and a copy is in the British Library's Crampton Collection
Further to this: Kelly, Waterford printed this song in another 8 page book:
The loss of the Brave Volunteers together with Auld Lang Syne, Shule Agra, Molly Brannigan Waterford printed at W Kelly's, National Library of Ireland I6551 Song books Waterford (LO560) 33, Dublin City Library 821.04 (Song-books 1820-1845) No 12 Dix Donation 2588
British Library 11622 b 30 #16
Trinity College Dublin Early Books 66 u 165 - 35
Royal Irish Academy Irish song books Volume 1 12b'11 - 5
I copied the copy of this in DCL. It bears a text identical in all respects but for one word to the other Kelly printing (dreams for thoughts in the Line "Dark were my thoughts that night on my pillow." ) Kelly in both versions, has the ship sailing from Greenock on December 1st and foundering on "That night of the dark 21st of December" and it is said to have been a Saturday!
The Bodleian offerings are by Such (presumably the print referred to [above]) but the print by Haly of Hanover Street is another Irish printing, made in Cork. Such dates the event [November 28], Haly [November 29]. The range of (probable) dates I can offer for Haly in his occupancy of the Hanover Street Address are 1826-1852. He occupied those premises in 1821 but is listed as a Straw Hat Maker and by 1853, he (or his daughter) had moved to South Main Street.
Historical References:
I am fortunate to have a friend, Robert Anderson of Coleraine, who is an expert on matters maritime in Ireland and has good resources. On the basis that this happened, from the likely dates that the song was printed, in the range of years 1830-35 he searched the Shipwreck Index of Ireland and came up with a probability: The Rival, a brig, Captain John Wallace which had been hired to transport soldiers to Portugal, left the Clyde bound for Oporto and was reported lost on 4th December 1832.
I then used my own resources to investigate further. Edward J Bourke Shipwrecks of the Coast of Ireland vol 3. cites Lloyd's List and gives a sailing date for the Rival of 24th November. Straw bedding and casks of rum were washed ashore. Citing the Dublin Newspaper the Freeman's Journal Bourke says it's not clear how many were aboard and says "This wreck may be the subject of a ballad."
It seems fairly conclusive. More extensive newspaper search is indicated
End of John Moulden's notes.
Further confirmation is from two notes in the London Times archives
"Yesterday the Lusitania sailed from the Broomielaw, having on board 172 men for Oporto, to join forces under Dom Pedro. n the course of the present week another vessel, the Rival, will sail from the Broomielaw, having on board 472 men, destined for the same port and service. Glasgow Chronicle of Monday" [The Times Nov 16, 1832; pg. 2; Issue 15011; Start column: D 2048 words. Elec. Coll.: CS34627440. (Copyright 2002 The Gale Group)]
"Dublin, JULY 16. The Sarah, of Pwlheli, was lately fitted up with a diving-bell and suitable apparatus for the purpose of raising 11 vessels wrecked close to the Galway shore during the last severe winter, amongst which are understood to be the Thais, Falmouth packet; the Whitbread of London, the James of Tynemouth, the Rival of Glasgow, which had Don Pedro's troops on board ..." [The Times Jul 19, 1834; pg. 7; Issue 15534; Start column: C 854 words. Elec. Coll.: CS118514419.( Copyright 2002 The Gale Group)]
The following information has been supplied by Charlie Napier, President of the Clan Napier Society, and is quoted with his permission. While looking for information about the Miguelist War that might shed some light on "The Brave Volunteers" disaster I found no helpful references. The only promising reference was a book not available to me: "An Account Of The War In Portugal Between Don Pedro And Don Miguel" by Admiral Sir Charles Napier. Since Admiral Napier was a major player in that war and apparently remained popular with volunteers from Ireland and Scotland through the early Crimean War I hoped that he would have considered a loss like the Rival to be worth a comment.
Fortunately, I came across the Clan Napier Society website and asked if there might be a reference in the 1836 book to support what was, at the time, a speculation. Charlie Napier researched the matter at the National Library of Scotland. Here is his report:
1. The book is in two volumes, with approximately 300 pages in each and about 9 inches by 5 inches.
2. The book was published in 1836, only two years after the War finished.
3. There are no dates anywhere in the main text of the book, so it is very difficult to work out which year you are in if you just dip into the book.
4. Each volume has an Appendix which contains a number of transcripts of letters, proclamations and speeches. These are dated, which is a little help.
5. There is no index in either volume, although there are voluminous "Contents Lists" at the beginning of each volume. These were really no help in trying to find the relevant passage.
6. After skim-reading Volume I from the beginning, I eventually found what I think is the passage relevant to your question.
7. It starts about two thirds of the way down page 121 and finishes about one third down page 122. It reads as follows:
"On the 5th of January nearly two hundred Scotch arrived and were put under the orders of Major Shaw, who was much pleased with having the command of his countrymen. Six hundred had been recruited in Glasgow, four hundred of whom were wrecked on the coast of Ireland, and every soul perished. This was a severe blow to the cause at a time when both men and money were so much wanted at Oporto. On the 15th a reinforcement of two hundred Portuguese arrived from the islands, and four hundred French; the whole were safely disembarked under the lighthouse, whose provisions continued to be landed, though frequently interrupted by surf."
8. There was no mention of the name of the ship that was lost and I think that the year in question must be 1833. - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Pea432

Brave Wolfe [Laws A1]

DESCRIPTION: Disappointed in love, Wolfe gives his beloved a ring and leaves her. He lands at Quebec to battle the French. Wolfe is mortally wounded, but when he learns that a British victory is assured, he says, "I die with pleasure."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1759 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: death war courting battle separation Canada injury | Wolfe Montcalm Quebec
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1727-1759 - Life of General James Wolfe, British commander at the Battle of Quebec
1754-1763 - French and Indian War (in Europe, the Seven Years' War, fought 1756-1763)
Sept 13, 1759 - Battle of Quebec. Wolfe and Montcalm killed.
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,NE,SE,So) Canada(Newf,Mar) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Laws A1, "Brave Wolfe"
Randolph 664, "Brave Wolfe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 120-122, "Brave Wolfe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 55-57, "Brave Wolfe/General Wolfe" (2 texts, 1 tune; the first text is in half-stanzas and does not use the "Blacksmith" tune; the second is the Green Mountain Songster version)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 43, "Brave Wolfe" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 323-324, "Brave Wolfe" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 108-111, "Brave Wolfe" (1 text) (pp. 92-94 in the 1919 edition)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 716-719, "Brave Wolfe" (2 texts)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 288, "Brave Wolfe" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 44, "Bold Wolfe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 986-987, "Bold Wolfe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 21-23, "Brave Wolfe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 2, "Bold Wolfe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 46-49, "Brave Wolfe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 75, "Quebec" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 21, "The Ballad of Montcalm and Wolfe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 63-64, "The Ballad of Montcalm and Wolfe" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 36-38, "The Death of General Wolfe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 43, pp. 153-155, "Brave Wolfe" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 36, "Brave Wolfe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 16, "Brave Wolfe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 123-124, "Brave Wolfe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 136-137, "Brave Wolfe" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 45-47, "Brave Wolfe" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 156-157, "Brave Wolfe" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Frank L. Warner [nephew of Frank M. Warner], "Songs My Uncle Taught Me" Vol. XI, No. 1 (Jul 1963), p. 28, "The Ballad of Montcalm and Wolfe" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 478, "Brave Wolfe" (source notes only)
DT 358, BRAVWOLF* BRVEWLF2*
ST LA01 (Full)
Roud #961
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "Bold Wolfe" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as111310, "General Wolfe" ("Cheer up your hearts, young men, let nothing fright you"), Leonard Deming (Boston), 19C; also as102840, "The Death of General Wolf"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blacksmith" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Dark-Eyed Sailor (Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor)" [Laws N35] (tune)
cf. "General Wolfe" (subject)
cf. "How Stands the Glass Around (General Wolfe's Song)" (attributed to Wolfe)
SAME TUNE:
The Blacksmith (File: K146)
NOTES [3631 words]: When William Pitt the Elder came became Britain's Prime Minister in 1757 (the first man ever to hold that title, which was coined because there was no real cabinet role for him otherwise), he decided that the army -- newly involved in the Seven Years' War (known in the American colonies as the French and Indian War) -- needed a good dose of youthful energy. In 1755-1756, the early years of the war, British results had been disastrous (see, e.g., the notes to "Braddock's Defeat"; also McNaught, pp. 40-41). The American colonies were in danger of being boxed in by the French, and the British were suffering losses -- mostly pinpricks, but losses -- all over Europe.
The Canadian expedition is an example of Pitt's determination to shake things up. Carroll, p. 61, notes that the French at this time were giving military commands to the nobility, competent or not, but "Pitt was constantly on the lookout for a sizzling young patriot willing to do the impossible -- to the devil with his ancestry." At the time of his appointment in 1758, North American army commander Jeffrey Amherst (1717-1797) was only forty years old, and newly jumped up from Lieutenant Colonel (Borneman, p. 100) and naval commander Edward Boscawen (1711-1761) was still on the young side of fifty (Bryant, p. 64).
Even in this company, James Wolfe (1727-1759) was almost a baby; he was commanding the equivalent of a division at the age of 30. The most famous story about him has to do with his appointment to the command in Quebec. A courtier, shocked, asked George II how he could appoint such a man. The courtier allegedly said that Wolfe was mad. King George replied, "Mad, is he? Then I wish he'd bite some of my other generals." (The exact words of this legend vary. I'm not sure where I met the above phrasing. Borneman, p. 207, has George II say "Then I hope he will bite some of my other generals!")
According to Borneman, p. 105, Wolfe was "tall and slight -- one might say gangly [Carroll, p. 23, lists his height as 6'3"] -- with reddish hair and a constitution given to a host of chromic ailments. He had been born in Westerham, Kent, on January 2, 1727... In 1741, at the age of fourteen, young Wolfe was given a commission as a second lieutenant in his father's marine regiment, though he soon transferred to the army because of his seasickness (Carroll, p. 22). Two years later, at Dettingen in Bavaria, Wolfe... received his first real test in battle.... Two years after that, at Culloden against the last gasp of the Stuarts, his regiment again suffered the most, losing one-third of its men."
The assault on Canada began with an amphibious assault on the great fortress of Louisbourg in Cape Breton, a fortress and naval base which, if properly supplied, could prevent any expedition up the Saint Lawrence. Bryant, p. 64, says that 8000 sailors and 12,000 soldiers were involved in capturing the place; Wolfe, though not in charge, served bravely in the battle. (He also gained a reputation as a well-rounded man; Carroll, p. 27, notes that he was a flute player who kept up his practicing even in wartime. His cousin, the famous author Oliver Goldsmith, once sent him a dog -- Carroll, p. 39 -- though this was before Goldsmith achieved his real fame. And, as the ships headed for the landing above Quebec, he is reported to have said that he would rather have written Thomas Gray's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard" than capture Quebec -- Stacey, p. 122, though he doubts the detailed truth of the legend. Reilly, p. 303, not only reports the incident but says that Katherine Lowther gave him the copy of the poem that was read to him as the boats prepared for the river crossing.)
Although Wolfe's illnesses are not a major subject of this song, they do seem to have affected his behavior: Since he thought he was gravely ill anyway, he probably didn't worry much about his survival. But no one seems to have figured out what his problem was. Carroll, p. 20, notes that he has been called a hypochondriac, though she dismissed the charge. Page 215 of Borneman, describing Wolfe's final illness, sounds to me rather like a venereal disease (Borneman, p. 215), though Carroll, p. 6, offers the opinion that it was kidney stones (on p. 37, she lists his full catalog of complaints as "fevers, scurvy, rheumatism, kidney stones, and possibly tuberculosis"). Keegan/Wheatcroft, p. 334, suspect consumption. Carroll, p.31, says that Wolfe's brother Ned died of consumption, so there is a likelihood that Wolfe himself would have been subject to the disease (not all people are vulnerable), but in that case, it would be surprising if he took so long to contract it. On the other hand, Reilly, p. 4 says that both boys were consumptive from their youth.
Although Amherst was in overall command of the attack on Louisbourg, it was Wolfe who led most of the tactical thrusts, including the initial landing west of the town (Borneman, pp. 108-114). Surrounded, and starving even before the siege started, the defenders surrendered on July 27, 1758 (Borneman, p. 116).
Louisbourg was the main French base in Canada. With it gone, the British could safely advance up the Saint Lawrence. They also could attack on other fronts -- and they did.
Much of the credit for the loss of Canada must go not to Wolfe himself but to the foolish enemy commanders. After the Battle of Fort Dequesne (for which see "Braddock's Defeat") and the victory at Ticonderoga, where the French had captured Fort William Henry and seen the Indians massacre defenders after they surrendered (Borneman, pp. 90-94), the French really had only to stand on the defensive and hold their ground (Brabant/Masters, p. 71, notes that the French success in the Champlain forced the British to give up on that area and turn to the St. Lawrence, which should have been much easier for the French to hold).
But the French had several problems. One was divided command. The governor of New France was Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil (who, according to Carroll, p. 47, cared only about Quebec, not about France, and who even in Quebec did little to control corruption; Carroll, pp. 48-49). The general-in-chief was an officer sent from France, the Marquis de Montcalm, who would fight Wolfe at Quebec. And the two didn't see eye to eye on anything (Borneman, pp. 82-83. According to Carroll, p. 43, Montcalm at one point commented on the inept administration in Quebec, "What a country! Here all the knaves grow rich and the honest men are ruined!"; she adds on p. 44 that he did not wish to go, but took the Canadian command out of duty.)
After the Battle of Fort Carrillon (or Ticonderoga -- the battle where Major Duncan Campbell was killed), Montcalm's prestige went sky-high (Keegan/Wheatcroft, p. 214, credit him with "virtually invent[ing] a new method of warfare"); he had, after all, defeated a much larger British force under Abercromby (Borneman, pp. 129-139). The fact that Abercromby had ordered a frontal attack on a strongly-defended position he had never seen was irrelevant. Montcalm was promoted over Vaudreuil, without really clarifying their relationship.
And that didn't solve the other problem of New France: The French had never really built a self-supporting colony, and there were shortages of food and other things (Borneman, pp. 98-99). In late 1758, the one thing Montcalm and Vaudreuil agreed on was that things were close to collapse (Borneman, p. 189). And Montcalm was not a local to know how to deal with this fact; he tried to run a colonial war as if it were a European war, and failed badly. By 1759, the English had taken other forts besides Louisbourg, and the Quebec economy was being strained to the breaking point. Though most of Canada was still in French hands, there was a feeling that this was a last stand. Particularly since the British were attacking on several fronts.
Even though Amherst had been in charge at Louisbourg, he was relegated to the background in 1759, being handed command of the overall American theater. Wolfe was given command of the Quebec expedition -- a surprising appointment for a man who had only been made a colonel in 1757, and who had only had command of a brigade for one brief campaign (Stacey, p. 2).
Wolfe almost blew it by returning to England in the absence of orders (Borneman, pp. 204-205). But there was a reason: He was courting a woman named Katherine Lowther, and they became engaged during his time at home (Borneman, pp. 205-206. Carroll, p. 8, says that he had fallen in love three times; presumably this was love #3. We know little about the romance, though, since not one letter between them survives, according to Stacey, p. 123. He does report that she later became Duchess of Bolton). It seems to have been a whirlwind romance, based on the account on pp. 210-11, 216 of Reilly; although they had known each other for some time, they apparently spent only a few weeks in each others' company.
Having proposed, Wolfe set out for his date with destiny.
The Battle of the Plains of Abraham is not really as much of a contest as is generally made out. Wolfe had 8500 men in the theatre, of very high quality (Stacey, p. 5), though not all made it to the plateau (Reilly, p. 309, suggests Wolfe had 3826 in the field); his opponent, Montcalm, only 4500 actually present in the field although there were thousands more that would arrive if he waited. Wolfe himself noted the quality difference: "Montcalm is at the head of a great number of bad soldiers and I am at the head of a small number of good ones," (Brown, p. 186).
Montcalm had to decide between attacking quickly with what he had at hand and waiting for additional forces or letting Wolfe entrench; he decided to attack at once (Reilly, p. 309).
Brumwell, p. 49, argues that Wolfe was relying on another advantage: A different fighting technique. British soldiers in the past had used a fire discipline going back to Marlborough a century before. This resulted in inaccurate fire and battle chaos. The new order made soldiers more effective in combat: "a line only two deep, the famous 'thin red lne' of the British Army, was thus seen for the first time on any balttlefield" (Reilly, p. 306). Thus Wolfe probably thought his soldiers not just more disciplined than Montcalm's (which they certainly were) but also capable of inflicting more damage.
Wolfe's ability showed best in his ability to get his troops to the battlefield. Quebec is a very hard nut to crack -- the name itself is Algonquin for "river narrows" (Borneman, p. 208), and the city is atop a large triangular bluff with cliffs carved by rivers on two sides. The city is effectively impregnable from land attack except from the southwest (upstream), and completely immune to naval gunfire. Wolfe did manage to get some batteries erected on neighbouring heights, and they tossed in a few cannonballs, but they did trivial damage (Borneman, p. 211). So Wolfe's task was somehow to get his troops ashore in a position where they could get to the Plains of Abraham southwest of the city.
His first attempt, on July 31, was a disaster (Bryant, p. 64); Montcalm had twice as many troops in the theater as Wolfe; they were numerous enough that the French could man the banks of the Saint Lawrence at every useful landing place, and even though they were inferior soldiers, they had the advantage of fighting from land. That July 31 landing cost the British 443 men and accomplished nothing (Borneman, pp. 212-213).
There was no choice for it. Wolfe had to go above the town, even though it meant that the French might be able to cut his supply line (Borneman, pp. 213-214). Six weeks after the July fiasco, he had most of his troops upriver, and he proceeded to sneak his troops across the river and up an "impassable" cliff by night (Borneman, pp. 217-218). The admiral in charge of getting the troops to the foot of the cliff called the plan "the most hazardous and difficult task I ever engaged in" -- but he pulled it off (Borneman, pp. 218-219). It helped that the French were expecting to shift supplies by water that night, so they failed to note all the naval coming and goings (Stacey, p. 120). Apparently they were challenged by a small sentry post, but one of Wolfe's French-speaking officers bamboozled them (Stacey, p. 127). Some 4000 troops -- half of Wolfe's army -- managed to climb up to the Plains of Abraham. Finally they were in position to actually attack the city.
Needless to say, the line in the song about Montcalm and Wolfe meeting before the battle is false -- Wolfe would have had to have been truly insane to allow Montcalm more time to bring up troops. Carroll, p. 6, says in fact that the two never met in their lives. I wonder if the notion might not have arisen because they spent so much time dressing their line before the battle (Carroll, p. 15, says that this took an hour -- which is quite a delay for a maneuver that troops would have much experience in performing. Maybe Wolfe really did want his troops arranged "in a line so pretty").
By this time, Wolfe was in dreadful health (see the description above), and it may have encouraged some of his earlier errors in the campaign. But it was Montcalm who made the big mistake. He still had that two to one edge in numbers in the theater, and he could have tried to stand on the defensive. But he didn't. With perhaps 4500 men -- a quarter of his total forces -- he attacked Wolfe head-on on September 13 (Borneman, p. 221). This even though reinforcements were on the way and would have arrived in short order (Stacey, p. 169). In Montcalm's defence, he probably hoped to take advantage of the British disorganization after they climbed the cliffs (Brown, pp. 187-188). It might have seemed like a good idea -- if it had worked. Instead, the British regulars calmly awaited the assault, and tore them apart.
Wolfe had been hit in the wrist by then (Borneman, p. 221). But he wouldn't let it slow him down; he ordered a bayonet charge, and in leading it suffered fatal injuries, dying on the field of battle (Borneman, p. 222). There is some dispute about how many wounds he suffered; although many accounts say he was hit three times (wrist, then groin, then breast; so, e.g., Reilly, pp. 310-311), Stacey, p. 149, observes that the groin wound ("an inch below the navel," according to the Gentleman's Magazine) would almost certainly have been crippling if real (whereas Reilly says he brushed that one off) and notes that Brigadier Townshend witnessed only two wounds, wrist and breast. In any case, he stayed with the colors after the wrist injury (which he bound up with a handkerchief), and was killed by the breast wound.
Leckie, p. 364, and Reilly, p. 312, tell a story of Wolfe's last words which almost parallels the song. One of his men declared, "The run! See how they run!" Wolfe asked which side ran. "The enemy, sir. Egad, they give way everywhere!" Wolfe made few final orders, concluded,"Now, God be praised, I will die in peace!" -- and breathed his last. Stacey, p. 150, reports that the words came from the careful research of Captain Knox, and may be accurate -- but notes that there are other versions.
In terms of deaths of commanders, the battle was a draw; Montcalm too suffered a mortal wound (perhaps during the retreat; Stacey, p. 151) and died the day after the battle. But the ratio of casualties heavily favored the British (Borneman, p. 223, lists 60 British soldiers killed and 600 wounded; the French had 200 killed, 1200 wounded).
Not everyone was impressed with Wolfe's leadership in the campaign. Brebner/Masters, p. 71, declares, "The men who won the British victory have received too much attention, for students of warfare have demonstrated that their talents were moderate." Stacey, p. 170, notes that Lord Wolseley, the best British general of the late nineteenth century, regarded him as "never anything more than 'a good regimental officer.'" Stacey himself says that "His performance as a strategist... was sadly ineffective," and notes that he seemed unable to make a plan and stick with it. Even the strategy which finally worked, of landing above Quebec, Stacey notes on p. 172, was largely the idea of Wolfe's subordinates; his only real contribution was to choose the landing point (closer to the town than the brigadiers would have chosen; Wolfe's plan was more likely to win big but also carried greater risks, and Stacey, p. 173, thinks the plan unsound. I'm frankly not convinced).
Keegan/Wheatcroft, p. 334, "Wolfe was a safely dead hero, and many of the less attractive features of his personality were forgotten. Had he lived, he might have been the brilliant general which the British so desperately needed in the War of American Independence; but perhaps (more likely) he would have been yet another of those insubordinate generals whose wild schemes were to ruin the British cause."
The apotheosis of Wolfe began quickly. The most famous painting of his death is by Benjamin West, who painted several versions -- with certain officers allegedly paying West to include them in the picture! (Brumwell, p. 53). Indeed. the fame of Wolfe and of the painting was so great that a Wedgwood pottery series incorporated it (Chandler/Beckett, p. 111, although if I were Wolfe, I'm not sure I'd have wanted people eating off a picture of me dying. Not sure I'd want to be the eater, either).
Katherine Lowther, after Wolfe's death, found that his mother and relatives gave her the cold shoulder; Wolfe's family had never approved of her (Reilly, pp. 318-319).
After Montcalm's defeat, Governor Vaudreuil told the new commander at Quebec City to surrender once his supplies were exhausted (Borneman, p. 223). That took place on September 18.
The French around Quebec could perhaps have fought on -- Borneman, pp. 223-224, gives arguments why they could and perhaps should have. Indeed, the coming April, a force from Montreal came down to attack Quebec, and the British officer in charge after Wolfe's death emulated Montcalm, attacked from a poor position, and was whipped back into the town (Borneman, pp. 235-237). But the French government was too busy at home to support those remote efforts, and after its defeat at Quiberon Bay (for which see "Bold Hawke") had no way to support the colony anyway.
The population stopped supporting the militia, and it became almost impossible to put a strong force in the field. The British forces under Amherst came at Montreal from several directions. Montreal surrendered in 1760 (Borneman, pp. 251-252), and Britain ruled Canada.
It took a few more years to settle the Seven Years War -- peace was not made until 1763, and there were some Indian problems even after that -- but little that happened after than mattered much. The Treaty of Paris did some small shuffling around of European and Caribbean territories, but the main result was to put Canada in British hand (Borneman, p. 279).
There was one other side effect. Pitt had beaten the rest of the world -- but he had spent a vast amount of money doing it, and the Treasury needed to make it up. Pitt himself certainly would not have placed that burden on the colonies (see Borneman, p. 298) -- but Pitt had been out of power for four years by then. George III's new ministry, headed by people like Bute and Grenville, passed laws such as the Stamp Act to get the money out of the Americans. The result would cost the British more than the taxes ever gained them. For further details, see "Taxation of America." - RBW
While the Bodleian collection has a number of broadsides for other ballads on the death of General Wolfe it has none for this one. It has:
* Bodleian, Firth c.14(14), "Death of General Wolfe" ("In a mouldering cave where the wretched retreat"), J. Pitts (London), 1802 and 1819 ; also Harding B 11(832), Firth c.14(13) View 1 of 2, "The Death of General Wolfe"; Harding B 25(718), "Death of Wolfe"
* Bodleian, Harding B 25(718), "Gen. Wolfe's Song" ("How stands the glass around"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Johnson Ballads 2584, "General Wolfe's Song"; Harding B 28(7), "How Stands the Glass Around"; Harding B 11(1588), Harding B 25(866), 2806 c.18(146), "How Stands the Glass Around?" [Digital Tradition "How Stands the Glass Around (Why, Soldiers, Why?)"]
* Bodleian, Firth c.14(12), "Wolfe and Saunders" ("We'll gang abroad in a king's ship, and lead a soldier's life"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819
* Bodleian, Harding B 25(716), "General Wolfe" ("Now general Wolfe to his men did say"), J. Grundy (Worcester), 18C; also Harding B 25(717), "General Wolfe"; Harding B 28(208), "General Wolf" [Digital Tradition "Bold General Wolfe (3)"]
* Bodleian, Firth c.14(16), "Britain in Tfars [sic] for the Loss of the Brave General Wolfe ("If ancient Romans did lament"), J. Jennings (London) , 1790-1840
* Bodleian, Firth c.14(11), "The Siege of Quebec"("Sound your silver trumpets, now, brave boys"), unknown, n.d.
My other usual online net broadside sources have none at all for other ballads on the death of General Wolfe. This all seems to support Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia: "In both England and America the death of young General Wolfe in 1759 stimulated the ballad-makers to the production of songs of admiration and sorrow. [Mackenzie 75] is evidently of American composition."
Lines are similar to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 270, "Brave news is come to town" (earliest date in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes is 1842).
Firth c.18(130): "Strange news has come to me, strange news is carried, And now it's all the talk, my love he is married."
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 270: "Brave news is come to town, Brave news is carried; Brave news is come to town, Jemmy Dawson's married." - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: LA01

Bravery of Pouch Cove Fishermen

See The Water Witch (File: LeBe116)

Bravo Bravissimo

DESCRIPTION: "Bravo, Bravo, Bravo, Bravissimo, Bravo, Bravo, Jolly well done, Bravo, Bravissimo, Bravo, Bravissimo, Bravo, Bravissimo, Jolly well done." The last word may well be replaced by a set of nonsense sounds, or more "bravos" instead of "Jolly well done"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 126, 144, 193, 379, "Bravo Bravissimo" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 57, "Bravo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 16, Bravo" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _Songs of Many Nations_, Cooperative Recreation Service, Inc., undated 96 page edition (1962?), p. 30, "Han Skal Leve" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [45 words]: The Songs of Many Nations version of this is a medley with "Han Skal Leve," and based on Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 193, this is the normal way of handling the songs in camps, although the Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings has just the "Bravo Bravissimo" part. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACFS144B

Braw Black Jug, The

See Good Ale (I) (File: K273)

Braw Irish Lad, The

See Limerick Races (File: GrD81751)

Braw Servant Lasses, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye decent auld women, I'll sing you a song" to complain about the follies of the young. They dress up, go out "like a ship in full sail," visit the church but ignore what is said -- and end up pregnant. The singer admits being a 63-year-old bachelor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: clothes vanity pregnancy age bachelor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast 98, pp. 1-2, "The Braw Servan' Lasses" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 654, "The Servan' Lasses" (7 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 275-276, "The Braw Servant Lasses" (1 text)
Roud #5597
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Meditations of an Old Bachelor (The Good Old-Fashioned Girl)" (subject)
cf. "The Hills of Glenorchy" (tune, per Greig)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Am an Aul' Bachelor
NOTES [8 words]: I'm tempted to create a keyword "sour-grapes." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ord275

Bread and Butter for My Supper

DESCRIPTION: Rope-skipping rhyme/game. "Bread and butter, For my supper, That is all my mother's got."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty food mother
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 105, "(Bread and butter)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #45, "Bread and butter" (1 text)
File: SuSm105E

Bread and Butter, Sugar and Spice

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Bread and butter, Sugar and spice, How many boys Think I'm nice? One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Worstell, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: food jumprope | counting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #46, "Bread and Butter" (1 text)
File: AJRR046

Bread and Cheese to Rorie

DESCRIPTION: "Bread and cheese to Rorie, For doin o't, for doin o't And cheese and bread to Rorie, To do't again, to do't again again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: food humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1878, "Bread and Cheese to Rorie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13571
NOTES [35 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
Greig/Duncan8: "The tune is the well-known fiddle tune. It was sung widely to the above, the words being coarse." [I don't recognize the tune.] - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81878

Bread and Roses

DESCRIPTION: "As we come marching, marching, Through the beauty of the day... The people hear us singing, 'Bread and roses, bread and roses'." The working women demand not just better pay but respect and the chance to live a decent life
AUTHOR: Words; James Oppenheim (1882-1932) (source: Sullivan) / Original tune: Caroline Kohlsaat
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (The American Magazine)
KEYWORDS: worker food feminist flowers
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 12, 1912 - Beginning of the Lawrence Textile Strike, which came to be called the "Bread and Roses Strike"
Mar 12, 1912 - Agreement reached on terms to end strike
Mar 27, 1912 - Last strikers return to work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
DT, BRD&ROSE*
ADDITIONAL: Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 2, #7 (1952), p. 9, "Bread and Roses" (1 text, 1 tune, the tune being Martha Coleman's)
Upton Sinclair, editor, _The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest_, John C. Winston Company, 1915 (available on Google Books), pp. 247-248, "Bread and Roses" (1 text)
Julie Baker, _The Bread and Roses Strike of 1912_, Morgan Reynolds Publishing, 2007, p. 141, "Bread and Roses" (1 text)
Bruce Watson, _Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and the Struggle for the American Dream_, Viking, 2005 (also available from Penguin, 2006), p. 118, "(no title)" (1 text)
NOTES [4673 words]: I find it hard to believe that such a well-known song is almost never printed in anything with pretensions to either scholarship or poetic merit... but apparently it isn't.
The usual story you hear today is that this arose out of the troubles in the cloth factories of Massachusetts. We should state at the beginning that this is not so -- but we need to tell the story to understand the folklore.
Weir/Hanlon, volume I, p. 103, report that, when founded in 1821, "Lowell [Massachusetts] was designed to be the antithesis of English factory towns, which were infamous for their harsh working conditions and the squalor in which people lived. By contrast, Lowell featured sturdy boarding houses, tree-lined streets, public gardens, and other amenities amidst its red brick factory buildings. Virtually every institution from the schools and churches to the lyceum and literary journal was controlled by the company. The targeted workforce was composed of single farm women rendered available by a slump in New England agrarian revenue." Hence, e.g., the "Lowell Factory Girl" described in "No More Shall I Work in the Factory."
But, as usually happened, the company's original good intentions were quickly replaced by a stern insistence upon profit. By the 1830s, the bosses were cutting wages; the factory girls went on strike for the first time in 1834. (For a radical view of this process, see Philip S. Foner, editor, The Factory Girls, University of Illinois Press, 1977 -- a book I have not seen. Also Joanne Weisman Deitch, The Lowell Mill Girls: Life in the Factory, Discovery Enterprises, 1997, a short book of 48 pages).
This song is usually associated with a 1912 strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Lawrence was founded later than Lowell, but the idea was much the same -- the plan to found Lawrence had, in fact, been created at Lowell in 1845! And it was built on the same river, the Merrimack, just twelve miles downstream (Baker, p. 32). The town was named after Abbott Lawrence, who proposed the town (Baker, pp. 21-22).
If conditions in Lowell had decayed over time, those in Lawrence were almost inhuman. Factory owners of course wanted the cheapest labor possible, and whenever the workers tried to improve their lot, the owners brought in greater and greater numbers of immigrants; between 1890 and 1910, some 35,000 had been brought in (Watson, p. 39) to a town that, in 1912, still numbered only about 86,000 (Watson, p. 42, which adds that only about 12,000 would be considered native-born Whites). To keep the workers close to the factories, the town had been built up so that residences were right next to each other, with no green space anywhere (Baker, p. 27). The population density was extraordinarily high, and it was estimated that seven-eighths of the residents were low-paid immigrants, or the second-generation children of immigrants; half of them had been in America for five years or less, and they came from almost everywhere (Watson, p. 8). Conditions for mill workers were so poor that the average life expectancy for a mill worker was 39, and very few were still able to work after age fifty (Watson, p. 9. The life expectancy for America as a whole at this time was about 53 or 54, but the mill workers were ruining their lungs with textile dust). Infant and child mortality was horrid -- in 1911, almost half of deaths in Lawrence were children five and younger (Watson, p. 27).
Despite those horrid conditions, there might not have been a strike had not the Massachusetts legislature tried to make things better. This was a time when many places around the country still had sixty hour weeks. In Lawrence, the standard was 56 hours. But the Massachusetts legislature passed a law stating that, starting January 1, 1912, women and children could not be required to work more than 54 hours a week. The factory owners, to keep from having to deal with staggered shift changes, cut everyone (men as well as women and children) back to 54 hours (Baker, p. 31; Watson, p. 13).
The owners cut pay proportionally. And the workers were already on the brink of starvation. It wasn't much of a cut (typically 32 cents a week). But it was a cut. And the manager who made the cut was a self-made man with very little compassion for the troubles of others, William Madison Wood, often referred to as Billy Wood (Baker, pp. 32-40, tells how, when his father died, the 12-year-old Wood had gone to work in a mill in New Bedford, and by carefully studying how every aspect of the trade worked, had eventually come to boss the biggest mill in Lawrence. He had done such a thorough job of becoming a pillar of society that he even stopped admitting his Portuguese ancestry, listing Scotland instead; Watson, p. 134). He and his fellow owners had worked vigorously to keep unions out of Lawrence, evicting anyone who acted like an organizer (Baker, pp. 42-43).
But it wasn't a union that called the strike -- not exactly. It was a strange combination of an organized and a spontaneous walkout. In one mill, workers simply shut down the machines and sat down when handed checks with two hours' less pay than before (Baker, p. 47). A group of Italian workers led by a man named Angelo Rocco (who was much better off than most of the millworkers) had decided not to accept the conditions imposed upon them; they had raided some of the mills, attacking the machinery and pushing the workers back (Watson, pp. 12-19).
There was enough destruction that the police were called out; they kept some but not all the mills safe. Watson, p. 46 estimates that 11,000 were on strike by that afternoon, but thousands more were still at work. Billy Wood gave the press a statement that disclaimed blame and said that competition with other mills meant his had to cut pay when hours were reduced (Baker, pp. 48-49; Watson, p. 45) -- which I doubt, given the high efficiency of his operation. The statement certainly revealed him to be a complete jerk -- he had no compassion for the workers he was oppressing at all.
No one in Lawrence really knew what to do. Some mills that had not been shut down locked out their workers (Watson, p. 50) -- even though some groups, notably English, Irish, French Canadians, and Germans were mostly willing to keep working (Watson, p. 59). The mayor, Michael Scanlon, had only taken office at the start of the year (Baker, p. 50), and the police hadn't had any practice at this sort of thing. Scanlon was an interesting case; he had been an anti-corruption crusader, but he had little sympathy for the workers (Watson, pp. 66-67). Scanlon promised to listen to strikers' meetings, and the strikers tried to prevent violence (Baker, p. 51).
But there was a complication. Rocco, the man who had done more than anyone to start the walkout, had called on the Industrial Workers of the World (Baker, p. 44). And they responded. Soon after the start of the strike, an IWW organizer named Joseph Ettor arrived (Baker, p. 51; according to Watson, p. 51, he hadn't wanted to go, but Big Bill Haywood convinced him to do so. He was literally a union man born -- when he was still an infant, his father had been injured in the 1886 Haymarket riot/strike; Watson, pp. 52-53. He had once stayed in Lawrence with Rocco; Watson, p. 55). Soon after, Mayor Scanlon called a meeting, and many strikers attended. Scanlon called for peace -- and then Ettor, in English and Italian, gave a speech telling them it was a fight for workers everywhere. There had been no union in Lawrence before this, and no strike organizer. There still wasn't a union, not really. But there was a leader; Ettor and his followers started setting up planning committees (Baker, pp. 56-57; Watson, p. 59, says the strike committee consisted of four men from each of fourteen nationalities). The IWW was recognized as the power behind the strike; some 4500 strikers (probably between a fifth and a quarter of the total) would join the IWW (Watson, p. 71).
The workers' demands were not radical: a 15% pay bump, overtime pay for those who worked overtime, changes to a bonus system that Wood used on his workers, and no retaliation against strikers. The committee -- against Ettor's advice -- was even willing to accept arbitration, which the owners rejected (Watson, p. 71).
The fact that the strike was turning organized caused Mayor Scanlon to request the militia; five companies were turned out (Baker, p. 58. Eventually they would call for more, but the city of Lawrence had to pay them out of its own funds -- Watson, p. 110 -- so they tried to limit the number of troops used. There was no declaration of martial law, which was a power reserved to the Massachusetts legislature, but the troops would act as if there had been). Meanwhile, strikers stood outside the mills in the January weather, blocking picket-crossers from going to work (Baker, p. 59). Scanlon tried to get Ettor to calm things down, only to have Ettor disclaim responsibility. Scanlon therefore put the militia commander, Colonel E. Leroy Sweetser, in charge of the mill district (Baker, p. 63). It was probably a mistake. Thousands marched peacefully on January 17, and Sweetser ordered his men not to fire on them (Baker, pp. 63-66), but after an even bigger parade the next day, Sweetser banned large-scale marches in the mill district (Baker, p. 67),
Then dynamite was found (Baker, p. 67; Watson, p. 81). Ettor again disclaimed responsibility (probably truthfully, since a former city alderman named John Breen was eventually charged in the case; Baker, p. 78, and we can at least say that it was found before it was used; there were no big explosions). But since the IWW and Bill Haywood were involved in the strike, people would surely have thought of the murder by explosives of Frank Steunenberg in 1905, for which Haywood had been tried for homicide. Other unions has also tried sabotage during strikes as well (Watson, pp. 83-84).
(It's not really relevant to this song, but some mystery arose later about that dynamite -- Baker, pp. 135-136. A man named Ernest Pitmann confessed to acquiring the dynamite for John Breen, then committed suicide -- Watson, pp. 221-222 -- but he had produced pay vouchers that were marked as approved by William Wood -- implying that Wood had been involved in the dynamite plot. Which would imply that Wood either wanted it exposed or wanted it blamed on the strikers. Which explains another curiosity: It was Breen who supplied most of the information about the plot that he himself was undertaking -- Watson, p. 109. Wood was eventually tried and acquitted; Watson, pp. 249-250.)
At most, a few strikers were involved in the attempted bombing, but all were involved in mass picketing. The strikers carried signs, marched, and sang (Baker, pp. 70-71). Really, though, things were at a stalemate, and although the strike committee was trying to organize things, there were no funds. People were going hungry and running short of fuel (Baker, pp. 71-72). Ettor realized that something needed to be done to revive the strikers.
The "something" was the arrival of Big Bill Haywood (Baker, p. 72). It didn't help; the owners refused to meet the IWW representatives (Baker, p. 74. It is true that the IWW hadn't represented the Lawrence workers before the strike, but they clearly did now -- but the one time Billy Wood met with Ettor, they spoke for only a few minutes, then Wood declared negotiations at an end and started trying to trick the strikers into returning to work; Baker, p. 75).
The law, of course, was biased toward the owners; the judge in charge of most cases, Jeremiah J. Mahoney, handled cases swiftly and with minimal regard for facts or, sometimes, the law (Watson, p. 65), though he treated women and children relatively gently (Watson, p. 178).
As often happened, the strikers tried to prevent other millworkers from crossing a picket line; on January 29, they attacked a trolley car, and in the fight that followed, many were hurt, nine strikers arrested, and 16 streetcars reported damaged (Baker, p. 76). Later that day, as the militia tried to prevent more problems, another fight broke out, and in that fight, someone -- it's not known who, or even whether it was militia or a striker -- fired a shot that killed 33-year-old striker Anna LoPizzo (Baker, pp. 76-77; Watson, pp. 106-107, notes that even her name is uncertain. She was an Italian immigrant worker with, seemingly, no family, and there is disagreement about the spelling of her name. According to Watson, p. 112, there was only one mourner at her funeral, although a line blocks long had come to view her body; Watson, p. 116. Almost all that is known about her is her age -- from immigration records -- plus where she worked and lived). She was the first to die in the strike; another striker, 18-year-old Syrian John Ramy or Rami, was bayonetted by a soldier the next day (Baker, p. 82) and died soon after (Watson, pp. 112-113). The police took LoPizzo's death as an excuse to take Ettor and another man, Arthur Giovannitti, into custody, charged with being accessories to murder -- a capital charge (Baker, pp. 78-79), and a useful one to the authorities because it meant no bail (Watson, p. 115; they had thought, if arrested, it would be on a charge of inciting a riot). Giovannitti, ironically, wasn't even a member of the IWW! (Watson, p. 217). The court kept them in prison even though several witnesses identified police officer Oscar Benoit as having fired the fatal shot (Baker, pp. 93-94). The authorities also called in more militia.
Nonetheless, the murder changed the situation dramatically. When the news services heard about it, they started sending reporters -- and the reporters discovered the inhuman conditions in Lawrence, and started to publicize it (Baker, pp. 80-81). Suddenly, America knew what was going on -- and reacted.
The newspapers also discovered one of the owners' tricks: to try to convince people that people were crossing the picket lines, they powered up their machinery and set it to making noise -- but the reporters discovered that there were no workers there to guide the machines, so no cloth was being made (Baker, p. 82; Watson, p. 112).
Meanwhile, the strikers were suffering hunger and want. The IWW did what it could; Big Bill Haywood put out a call for other workers to assist the strikers (Baker, pp. 82-83). He also adopted a European tactic and asked people outside Lawrence to open their homes to the children of strikers (Baker, pp. 86-87); in the official paperwork, the trips were called "vacations" (Baker, p. 88). On the first trip, 119 children, ill-clad and without baggage, headed to New York with "The Rebel Girl" Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and others. When they and the next batch of children were examined upon arrival (by Margaret Sanger, among others), few had coats, many were in rags, the majority were malnourished, and most had swollen tonsils (Baker, pp. 92-94; Watson, p. 145); such were the conditions in Lawrence.
This was late February. It was a little disorganized. The next exodus was carefully planned, with the children carrying signs such as "Someday we will remember this exile," "We came from Lawrence for a home," and "A little child shall lead them" (Watson, p. 159). At this time, the police started beating women strikers, as well as assaulting the parents who were trying to send their children away (Baker, pp. 11-17, 95). A newly-appointed police chief, John Sullivan made it clear that he would use as much force as he deemed necessary to control the strikers. Many children were taken from their parents; some were placed in custody (Baker, pp. 96-97; Watson, pp. 167-169). If anyone wonders why there was violence, I think we can safely point straight at Sullivan the Fascist; reading about the behavior of the police leaves me simply furious. I'm not the only one. As stories were published across the nation, people became increasingly angry. Even Senator William Borah, who had prosecuted Haywood for his actions in Idaho in the Harry Orchard case (see "Harry Orchard"), would say that he saw no legal justification for the police action (Baker, pp. 98-99; Watson, pp. 174-175).
Women took a noteworthy part in the strike. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was the most visible, since she was young and an outsider, but Watson, pp. 156-158, lists other women of importance in the strike and shows how much influence women had.
Under the laws of the time, Congress didn't have much power to intervene, but they eventually looked into that business of blocking children from leaving the state when they had properly-purchased tickets. A few children and adults headed for Washington; none had so much as a suitcase (Baker, p. 102). (I find it emblematic of the times that, when President Taft saw the poor ragamuffin children sent to testify to Congress, he personally contributed $1000 for their care -- quite a lot of money, in 1912! -- but doesn't seem to have considered proposing legislation; Baker, p. 108; Watson, p. 191.) Their testimony put enough heat on the bosses that they offered a 5% pay raise -- which, as I calculate it, would roughly have given the workers their two hours back. But they didn't make the offer to the Union, and they put out press releases which, while accurate if you dug through the details, gave a very misleading impression of the pay they were offering, stating the typical pay of the median wage class, not the median worker (Baker, pp. 102-103). And they didn't grant any of the other demands (Watson, p. 183). Workers started to give in and come back to work (Watson, p. 190, believes that, after eight weeks, almost half had come back), but the others remained militant.
The congressional testimony didn't really yield much except absolute proof that either the strikers or the owners were lying about the poverty in Lawrence, and either the strikers or the police were lying about the level of violence -- but it did bring out the fact that William Wood's mills had earned more than 11 million dollars in 1911 (Baker, p. 116). In other words, Wood was not so poor that wage cuts were forced upon him.
The congressional hearings did not produce any legislation, but they did make the mill owners decide that they didn't like the combination of lack of production and bad publicity. They started negotiating (Baker, pp. 117-118). At first, they tried to get away with vague proposals, but the strike committee wasn't biting (Baker, p. 118). Even the owners of mills outside Lawrence started talking for fear of sympathy strikes (Baker, p. 119).
Eventually Wood came back with a proposal that, in some ways, was actually more progressive than what the IWW had called for. Wood promised time and a quarter for overtime (less than the IWW wanted, but still an improvement), changes to the hated bonus system, no retribution -- and variable pay raises, with the lowest-paid workers getting a 20% pay raise, the top-paid workers getting a 5% boost, and those in between getting intermediate raises (Baker, p. 120; Watson, pp. 200-201, describes how the management negotiators seemed at first to be trying to offer incomplete proposals, but the striker committees forced them to make it all explicit). It wasn't a deal with all the mills, but the strikers gladly accepted it (Baker, p. 121), and eventually the other mills made similar offers (Baker, p. 122). (According to Baker, p. 122, when Haywood, Flynn, and others put the terms to a crowd of thousands of strikers, only six raised their hands to oppose the deal; Watson, p. 210, says five opposed it.) The vote to approve the deal was on March 14, 1912, 63 days after the strike started, with work resuming the following Monday; the strike committee closed up shop on March 24 (Watson, p. 215). There were still labor actions in other mill towns, but eventually settlements were made almost everywhere.
In Lawrence, they even began a degree of urban renewal; the city started to build playgrounds for the children later in 1912 (Watson, p. 221).
About the only mention of roses I can find in this story comes at this point: Three bouquets were brought, for Haywood, Ettor, and Giovannitti. Haywood said to take the petals from his bouquet to the strikers who were still in jail. The jailors refused to deliver the bouquets to Ettor and Giovanitti, so the flowers were placed on the graves of the murdered strikers, Anna LoPizzo and John Rami (Watson, pp. 240-241).
Wood treated his workers much better during World War I (Baker thinks it was to keep unions out of Lawrence) -- so much so that by 1920 the workers were cheering him (Watson, p. 252). But his personal life was falling apart; he lost his daughter to the World War I influenza plague, then a son to a high-speed car crash. He but was forced out of management in 1924 as the mills produced less profit, and had a stroke the same year. Little wonder if all that left him depressed; in 1926, he had his chauffeur drive him to a quiet place were he shot himself (Baker, pp. 136-137; Watson, pp. 252-253).
That left the problem of Ettor and Girovannitti, plus a third man, Joseph Caruso, who was arrested as a sort of murderer-by-proxy in the LoPizzo murder: the authorities didn't have an actual suspect, so they charged Caruso with "assisting" with it because he had earlier gone after a police officer (Baker, p. 125; Watson, p. 220).
The trial began at the end of September, in Salem, not Lawrence. The case had gotten so much coverage that the initial jury pool consisted of 350 men (yes, men), and it wasn't enough; they needed to summon more. In all, 506 men had to be examined to get a jury of 12 (Watson, p. 230).They ended up with a jury that sounds like it was all skilled and semi-skilled workers -- no mill workers (Baker, p. 128; Watson, p. 230, calls them all "laborers"). The trial took months -- public contributions let Ettor et al hire top lawyers (Watson, pp. 233-234) -- and it was something of a circus at ties, but it resulted in an acquittal (Baker, p. 131; according to Watson, p. 239, it took about six and a half hours for the jury to reach their verdict).
Ironically, the IWW derived little benefit from organizing and winning the strike; after the tensions had died down, the strikers split back up into ethnic factions and lost their ability to deal with management (Watson, p. 244). And the IWW leaders themselves did not get along; Ettor and Giovannitti both quit the IWW; Flynn eventually went her own way (Watson, p. 245), and Haywood of course eventually fled to Russia (though he was very unhappy there). Lawrence was one of the greatest IWW triumphs, but its leaders did not have the skills to follow up.
And it was hardly "happy ever after" for Lawrence. Already the textile industry was growing in the south -- where textile strikes would have less success (see, e.g., the notes to "Chief Aderholt," for the Gastonia strike). Lawrence's mills ceased to be profitable, and started to shut down; the last traditional mill closed in 1957 (Watson, p. 255), and the town experienced a new kind of poverty.
The strikers certainly sang during the strike -- but often they were radical songs, "The Internationale," in its many languages, and "The Marseillaise" (Watson, p. 142). (Because John Golden's Central Labor Union (a union of skilled workers akin to the AFL) had tried to interfere with the IWW (e.g. it wanted its workers to accept the 5% pay raise the other workers rejected; Watson, p. 183), Joe Hill had written a song, "A Little Talk with Golden," to the tune of "A Little Walk with Jesus," which strikers sometimes sang (Watson, p. 150; Smith, p. 27, with a text on pp. 27-28), but it wasn't a big part of their repertoire, nor is it often sung today. They did occasionally sing Hill's "The Preacher and the Slave," with its "Pie in the Sky" chorus (Watson, p. 208), and a parody of "In the Good Old Summertime" called "In the Good Old Picket Line" (Watson, pp. 88. 207).
It is widely reported that, at this strike, the workers often carried signs reading something like "We want bread, and roses too" (Sullivan, p. 33). However, "Local legend has it that a photograph from the strike dhows a woman holding a picket sign reading 'WE WANT BREAD, BUT WE WANT ROSES, TOO.' No such photograph has ever been found (Watson, p. 256). Watson p. 5, says that the slogan "Bread and Roses" "was probably never used during the strike," and Baker, p. 139, also says there is doubt about the use of the slogan. The popular name for the event, "The Bread and Roses Strike," came later, and indeed, most of the participants seem to have disliked the name (Watson, pp. 256-257). So why waste all those words describing a strike that had nothing to do with this song? Because, of course, everyone associates the two, including many of the notes too the song in various songbooks.
Nonetheless it must be remembered that the song "Bread and Roses" did not come out of the strike. The poem was written in 1911, and was adopted and set to music in 1912 for a different strike.
Sullivan, p. 33, says that author James Oppenheim was "a Whitmanesque poet, novelist, and literary magazine editor." Benet, p. 799, describes him as "American free verse poet and fiction writer. His best poems are collected in The Sea (1924). [Now available on Google Books, but this poem is not in it.] His stories of Dr. Rast are his best prose and a reflection of his early experiences as a social worker. In his later years he was exceedingly interested in psychoanalysis...."
DAB's biography of Oppenheim is in Volume VII, Part II (volume 14 of the original edition), pp. 46-47. It says he was born of Jewsh parents in Saint Paul, Minnesota, but grew up in New York City. He lost his father at age six. He lost at least one teaching job because of his radicalism; DAB comments, "He believed that his writing was warped by the necessity for making it pay -- he had a wife and two sons to support. The fault probably lay as much in the fact that his natural fervor exceeded his ability to convey it." He actually became a psychoanalyst (but of a Jungian rather than a Freudian type, which is at least a little less obnoxious). He divorced in 1914, had his second love die without having married her, then married Linda Gray before dying of tuberculosis in 1932.
My eighth edition of Granger's Index to Poetry lists 14 well-known poems by him: "Action," "As to Being Alone," "Death," "The Future," "A Handful of Dust," "Hebrews," "Immoral," "The Lincoln-Child," "The New God," "Night," "The Reason," "The Runner in the Skies," "Saturday Night," and "The Slave." Note that this is not in the list.
The poem was originally set to music by Caroline Kohlsaat. This is the proper tune, but it apparently didn't satisfy everyone. Sing Out! lists its version as having music by Martha Coleman; this is the tune to which I have heard the song, and it is an excellent melody. But it wasn't known to Judy Collins or Mimi Baez Farina. Farina set it to music, and Collins recorded Farina's tune, and thus was an Historic Injustice born; the Collins/Farina tune has to a significant extent driven out Kohlsaat's and Coleman's.
The Sing Out! column seems to have been fairly influential in folk circles. It perpetuated the legend of the "Bread and Roses" strike, even though the song and the strike aren't related, and it treated the Coleman tune as the only tune. It looks to me as if, in practical terms, it created the folksingers' version of the Bread and Roses legend.
The song apparently inspired several books, including Watson's and Baker's, plus William Cahn, Lawrence, 1912: The Bread and Roses Strike, Pilgrim Press, 1980; Milton Meltzer, Bread--And Roses: The Struggle of American Labor, 1865-1915, Facts on File, 1967; Robert Forrant, Lawrence and the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike, Arcadia Publishing, 1913. Also at least one fiction book, Katherine Paterson, Bread and Roses, Too, apparently a novel about the Bread and Roses Strike which won a 2013 Laura Ingalls Wilder award. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: RcBrdRos

Break at Jerry's Rock, The

See The Jam on Gerry's Rock [Laws C1] (File: LC01)

Break the News to Mother

DESCRIPTION: "While shot and shell were screaming Across the battlefield, The boys in blue were fighting, Their noble flag to shield." The flag falls. A boy volunteers and rescues the flag; he dies asking that someone "break the news to mother"
AUTHOR: Charles K. Harris
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: army battle war dying mother youth
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 179, "While the Boys in Blue Were Fighting" (2 texts)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 91, pp. 113-116, "Break the News to Mother" (3 texts plus a fragment)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 212-213, "Break the News to Mother" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 175-176, "Break the News to Mother" (1 text, 1 tune).
Roud #4322
RECORDINGS:
George J. Gaskin, "Just break the News to Mother" (Berliner 065, 1899; on Protobilly)
Louvin Bros., "Take the News to Mother" (Capitol 1769, 1956; on Protobilly)
Mr. Walsh, ("As shot and shell were screaming") (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Brave Fireman (Break the News to Mother Gently)" (tune, theme)
NOTES [138 words]: Charles K Harris wrote "The Brave Fireman" in 1891. He rewrote it as "Break the News to Mother" in 1897.
Brett Page in "Writing for Vaudeville" quotes Harris: "When Gillette's war plays, 'Held by the Enemy' and 'Secret Service' caught the national eye, I caught the national ear with 'Just Break the News to Mother.'"
Realist playwright Gillette's "Held by the Enemy" was a hit in 1886; "Secret Service" opened in New York October 5, 1896 and ran for a year. Both are set in the Civil War.
Harris wrote "Just Break the News to Mother" in 1897 and it became a big hit the following year with the outbreak of the Spanish-American War.
It became a hit again in 1917 when the World War I field uniform was no longer blue; in fact, blue uniforms were being phased out by 1898.
Harris's text can be found on the Mudcat Cafe site - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrMa179

Break the News to Mother Gently

See The Brave Fireman (Break the News to Mother Gently) (File: R687)

Breaking in a Tenderfoot

See The Horse Wrangler (The Tenderfoot) [Laws B27] (File: LB27)

Breaking of Omagh Jail, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a bold undaunted youth from the county of Tyrone," now in prison because "a girl against me swore." Soon to be sentenced, the singer makes a plan to escape, and manges to flee. He goes over the sea to escape his punishment
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: prison escape parting
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H181, pp. 131-132, "The Breaking of Omagh Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3581
File: HHH181

Breast Knots, The

See The Bonnie Breist-knots (File: FVS303)

Bredalbane

DESCRIPTION: The singer's parents lock her in a room but she goes out the window when they go to town. She meets her sweetheart who tells her "he was listed in Bredalbane's Grenadiers"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting parting father mother soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1091, "Bredalbane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6829
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Locks and Bolts" [Laws M13] (theme: girl locked away by father) and references there
NOTES [578 words]: Maybe this should refer to "Breadalbane" rather than "Bredalbane." There was a Breadalbane Regiment in the 1790s that included Grenadiers. See, for example, "An account of the trial of eight Soldiers belonging to Breadalbane Regiment of Fencibles, for a mutiny in the city of Glasgow, four of whom received sentence of death, three of which received a pardon at the place of execution, and the fourth was shot on Tuesday the 27th day of January 1795" (source: National Library of Scotland site). - BS
It should be noted that most regiments had a grenadier company -- generally composed of the tallest, healthiest men; presumably they were the ones the girls were most attracted to.
The first mention I can find of a Breadalbane with a standing army is "Grey John" Campbell (1635-1717), who in the reign of Charles II declared himself Viscount Breadalbane, raised a force, and started causing trouble. Charles II, not liking people who engaged in self-promotion, took away all three of Campbell's claimed titles -- but made him Earl Breadalbane and Holland (Thomson, p. 79).
Two of Grey John's sons fought on the Jacobite side at Sheriffmuir, though the old man himself was too cagey to be involved (Thomson, p. 83).
Grey John himself had in 1690 submitted some "Proposals Concerning the Highlanders" to William III -- an idea William did not accept at the time, but he did start raising troops from the Clans (Prebble, p. 21). Such forces as the crown accepted were, however, disbanded by 1717 due to fears about their loyalty (Prebble, pp. 25-26). In 1725, a few new companies were recruited, to become the famous Black Watch (Prebbler, pp. 26-27), but they were not associated with Breadalbane.
By the 1790s, though, the Jacobite cause was dead and the Highlands were considered a good sourdce for troops; several regiments were authorized (Prebble, p. 272). The fourth Earl of Breadalbane, a descendant of the uncle of Grey John, was one of those involved in raising these 23 regiments (Prebble, p. 273). One of these was called at the time the Perthshire Regiment of Fencibles, but it was composed mostly of men from Breadalbane. The Earl of Bredalbane ended up raising two battalions in 1793 (Prebble, pp. 320-321), which came to be known as the Breadalbane Fencibles. A third battalion was added in 1794.
According to Brander, p. 81, this unit mutinied in 1795, with four of the soldiers being condemned to death. Several others were sentenced to 1000 to 1500 lashes (Prebble, p. 349). Three of the four men sentenced to death were reprieved at the very last moment (Prebble, p. 351), but one was executed.
After that, it became harder to recruit for the regiment (Prebble, p. 358). Two of the battalions were reduced in 1798 (so Brander, p. 210) or 1799 (so Prebble, p. 358); only the third battalion, which was willing to serve in Ireland (at the time of the 1798 rebellion, note!) was retained. The whole was disbanded in 1802.
This raises interesting questions about the dating of the song. Was the girl imprisoned because she loved a solder -- or because she loved a soldier of particularly ill repute? If, for instance, the date of the song is 1715, she might have loved a Jacobite soldier while her parents were Hannoverian. If we date it to 1795, it might be one of the mutinous soldiers, whom her parents did not want her to approach. Or -- who knows -- maybe her parents just didn't like Campbells. Without more information, we can't really tell. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD61091

Brennan on the Moor [Laws L7]

DESCRIPTION: Irishman Brennan, perhaps in revolt against the English, turns robber in the hills. After various escapades, he is captured, only to be freed by a blunderbuss smuggled in by his wife. At last, betrayed by a woman, he is taken and hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1862 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3014))
KEYWORDS: outlaw rambling execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1804 - Hanging of William Brennan, a highwayman who worked in County Cork
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,NW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Britain(England(North,South),Scotland(Aber)) Australia
REFERENCES (41 citations):
Laws L7, "Brennan on the Moor"
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 245-246, "Bold Brannan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan2 258, "Brannon on the Moor" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #18, pp. 141-143, "Brennan on the Moor (Laws L7)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 123-126, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #15, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 284-286, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text plus a reference to 1 more)
Randolph 176, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 236-237, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 124, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 98-99, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 745-747, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 130-132, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 191-192, "Brennen on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 295-297, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a broadside print)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 126-127,242-243, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 135, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 79, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #138, "Brandon on the Moor" (1 text)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 300-301, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 371, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 110, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 242-243, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 114, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 317-319, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 264-266, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 204, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 315, "Brennan's on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 539, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #132, "TBrennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 73, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 59, "Brennen on the Moor" (1 text)
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 22, page headed "this item was obviously...."], "(Willy Brennan)" (1 short text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 202-204, "Willie Brennan (Brennan on the Moor)" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 137-138, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #200, p. 15, "Brennen on the Moor" (1 reference)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 103-106, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 28, "Bold Brennan on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 325, "Brennan On The Moor" (1 text)
DT 421, BRENMOOR
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 250-252, "Brennan on the Moor" (1 text)
Roud #476
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Brennan on the Moor" (on IRClancyMakem02)
Carlton Hawkes, "Brennan on the Moor" (onUSWolfRiver)
Patsy Judge, "Brennan On The Moor" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
William Jacob Morgan, "Brennan on the Moor" (AFS, 1946; on LC55)
Neil Morris, "Willie Brennan" (on LomaxCD1705)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3014), "Brennan On the Moor," J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1858-1861; also 2806 c.8(304), Firth b.26(276), Harding B 11(2135), 2806 b.9(178), Firth c.17(11)[some words illegible], 2806 b.9(242), Harding B 11(3014)[some words illegible], Harding B 11(443), Harding B 11(442), Harding B 19(26), "Brennan On the Moor"; 2806 b.10(112)[some words blurred], "Bold Brannan"; Harding B 11(365), 2806 c.15(240), Harding B 11(364), "Bold Brennan on the Moor"; Harding B 26 (341), "A Lament on the Execution of Captain Brennan"
LOCSinging, as101620, "Brennen on the Moor," Horace Partridge (Boston), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.1270(015), "Brennan On the Moor," unknown, c. 1880; also APS.4.95.15(4), "Bold Brannan on the Moor" ("The first of my misfortunes was to list & desert"), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Quantrell" (tune & meter, theme, lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Tariff on the Brain (File: Wels073)
Bracey on the Shore (File: EcSm332)
NOTES [166 words]: Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice quote a source (Healy 1965) that Brennan "started as a farm laborer, ... robbed a British officer on a dare, and had to flee as an outlaw; he was caught and tried at Clonmel in 1804 and condemned to death" (p. 142). A website reproduces several other sources, pointing to William Brennan's execution in 1809 or several years later (http://www.justanothertune.com/html/brennanonthemoor.html, accessed 7/15/2023). Loyalty or betrayal stand in the center of this Robin-Hood-like ballad. - DGE
The two non-fragmentary texts from Greig/Duncan2 258 begin "The first of my misfortunes was to list and desert." That leads him "over hedges and ditches" into robbing. This is not in the broadsides. - BS
This was popular enough in America at the turn of the twentieth century that Ned Harrigan has one of his characters call on a performer at a reception to play it; see Edward Harrigan, The Mulligans, G. W. Dillingham, 1901, p. 301. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LL07

Brennen on the Moor

See Brennan on the Moor [Laws L7] (File: LL07)

Brethren, We Have Met to Worship

See Holy Manna (File: Morr094)

Brewer Laddie, The

DESCRIPTION: "In Perth there lives a bonnie lad... And he courted Peggy Roy." "He courted her for seven long years... When there came a lad from Edinborough town." The girl goes off with the stranger, but ends up deserted; the brewer rejects her when she returns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment return rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 95-97, "The Brewer Laddie" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #165, p. 3, "The Brewer Lad" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 916, "The Brewer Lad" (5 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 178-179, "The Brewer Lad" (1 text)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 31-32, "The brewer laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 86-88, "The Brewer Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 8, "Bilberry Town" (1 text)
DT, BREWRLAD*
Roud #867
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosie Anderson" (plot)
cf. "Peggy and the Soldier (The Lame Soldier)" [Laws P13] (plot)
NOTES [23 words]: In Greig/Duncan4 916A the brewer, originally from Edinburgh, moves to Perth, "An there he courted another lass An took her to himsel O." - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: FVS095

Brewer Without Any Barm, A

DESCRIPTION: "A brewer without any barm, he makes the most pitiful beer (x2)." Other workers are also condemned if they done make the right products or use the right tools.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Hammond collection)
KEYWORDS: drink worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 19, "A Brewer Without Any Barm" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #1357
NOTES [18 words]: Barm is the foam produced in fermenting, so a barmless beer would be flat and, presumably, low in alcohol. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Dors019

Brian O Linn

See Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn) (File: R471)

Brian O'Linn

See Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn) (File: R471)

Brian O'Lyn

See Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn) (File: R471)

Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn)

DESCRIPTION: Vignettes about Brian/Tom. Each describes a situation he finds himself in and ends with his comment, e.g., "Tom Bolyn found a hollow tree / And very contented seemed to be / The wind did blow and the rain beat in / 'Better than no house,' said Tom Bolyn."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Halliwell, citing a book printed c. 1560; reputedly mentioned in The Complaynt of Scotland, 1549); Jonathan Lighter notes a mention of a bawdy song called Brian O'Lynn in Hugh Henry Brackenridge's 1793 _Modern Chivalry_, volume III, p. 214
KEYWORDS: poverty talltale humorous clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(All),Scotland) US(Ap,NE,Ro,So) Canada(Newf) Australia
REFERENCES (40 citations):
Randolph 471, "Bryan O'Lynn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 155-157, "Brian O'Lynn" (2 fragmentary bawdy texts, 2 tunes)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 501-502, "Tom Bo-lin" (1 text)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 11, "Bryno-o-Lynn" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 146, "Brian O'Lynn" (1 fragment)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 178-179, "Old Tombolin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 151, "Tom Bolynn" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 71-72, "Tom Bo Lyn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #143, "Bryan O'Lynn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wells-TheBalladTree, p. 167, "Brian O'Lyn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #171, "Brian O'Linn" (1 fragment)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 169, "Rise Up Gudewife"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 170, "Arise Gudewife" (2 texts)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 181-182, "Bryan O'Lynn" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 113)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 16, "Bryan-a-Lynn" (2 texts)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 19, pp. 25, 49, "The Old Mare" (3 texts, 1 tune plus a text called "Old John Blythe" that I would not consider the same song but is not from tradition)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #42, "Tommy A' Lynn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #103, "Bryan O'Lynn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 16, "Brian O'Lynn" (1 text, 1 tne)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 290, "Brian-O-Linn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H480a+b, pp. 52-53, "Bryan O'Lynn" (1 text, 2 tunes)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 15, "Brian O Linn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 32, "Brian O'Linn and his wife and his mother" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 199, "Brian O Linn" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 189, "Bryan O'Lynn" (1 text)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 110, "Brynie O'Linn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 117-118, "Tom Boleyn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 109, "Brian O'Linn" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 64, "Bryan O'Lynn" (1 text)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 9, "Brian O'Lynn" (1 text plus assorted additional verses, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 513, "Tommy o'Lin, and his wife, and wife's mother" (5 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose, p. 149, note 34, "(Tommy O'Lin, and his wife, and his wife's mother)"; compare #228, p. 150, ("The two grey kits") (this mentions Tom Boleyn, and is the right form, but doesn't feel like it originated with the piece somehow)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 174, "(Tam o the linn came up to the gate)" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 35, "O'Brien O'Lin" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 132-133, "Btyan O'Lynn" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2356, p. 158, "Tom Bowling" (2 references)
Behan-IrelandSings, #12, "Brian O'Lynn" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
Dime-Song-Book #2/72, p. 27 and #2/64, p. 27, "Bryan O'Lynn" (1 text)
DT, TOMBOLYN* TOMBOLY2* JONBOLYN
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 33, "Tam o' the Linn"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 252-254, "Brian O'Linn" (1 text)
Roud #294
RECORDINGS:
Thomas Moran, "Brian-O-Linn" (on FSB10)
Tony Wales, "Bryan O'Lynn" (on TWales1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(307), "Bryan O'Lynn," Stephenson (Gateshead), 1821-1850; also 2806 b.11(217), Harding B 15(36a), Harding B 11(480), Firth c.26(41), Firth c.20(135), 2806 b.11(106), Harding B 26(80), "Bryan O'Lynn"; Harding B 11(445), "Brian O'Lynn"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old John Wallis" (style)
cf. "Jim O'Lynn" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Widow Mulroony's Ball ("Listen a while, and I'll sing you a ditty") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 179)
Down Trodden Maryland ("Down-trodden, despised see brave Maryland") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 188)
NOTES [552 words]: Sam Henry claims that Bryan O'Lynn (fl. 1770-1793) was an "apprizer" and grand juror in Cashel during the years specified. - RBW
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms offers good notes on sources to this ballad. - EC
A variant of the melody to this song is a popular fiddle tune in Ireland.
I'm wary of the "Complaynt of Scotland" (1549) citation until I see it. The title given, "Thom of Lyn," and the title "Ballet of Thomalyn," licensed 1558, are both perilously close to "Tam Lin," which is not only the name of a ballad (Child 39) but also a fiddle tune. And in our indexing of "Tam Lin", we note a reference from 1549 -- is that "Complaynt of Scotland"? The plot's getting thicker, says Brian O'Lynn. - PJS
Indeed, Dixon (notes to "Tam a Line," his version of "Tam Lin") cites the references from the Complaynt of Scotland; they are to the dance "thom of lyn" and the "tayl of the yong tamlene." For the reference to "Thom of Lyn" see James A. H. Murray, editor, The Complaynt of Scotland, volume I (Introduction plus Chapters I-XIII), Early English Text Society, 1872 (I use the 1906 reprint; the Complaynt was published in 1549), p. lxxxviii; for the "tayl of the yong tamlene," see p. lxxix.
These titles obviously sounds more like "Tam Lin" than "Tom Boleyn," but the tunes I've heard for "Tam Lin" are not very danceable. (Bronson's #1, from Ireland, might work as a dance tune, but it is nothing like any of the others.) "Brian O'Lynn" seems much more suitable for dancing.
To make the confusion worse, there are versions of this song beginning "Tom o' the Linn was a Scotsman born."
The Opies, after mentioning the Complaynt of Scotland reference (which in full refers to "the tayl of the 3ong tamlene and of the bald braband"), note a "ballett of Thomalyn" licensed c. 1557. This appears to be the same as Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), pp. 230-231, #2665, "a ballett of Thomalyn," registered by "Jno. Wally and Mrs. Toy" in 1557/1558.
The first absolutely clear reference is from a play, "The longer thou livest, the more foole thou art," registered 1569; it has the lyric
Tom a lin and his wife, and his wives mother
They went ouer a bridge all three together,
The bridge was broken, and they fell in,
The Deuil go with all quoth Tom a lin.
Thus it seems sate to say the song goes back at least to the sixteenth century.
But not, perhaps, without contamination. There is the report that Charles Dibdin wrote a piece, "[Poor] Tom Bowling." Could this have given rise to the "Tom Boleyn" version? There is a copy in Heart-Songs, pp. 236-237; it opens "Here a sheer hulk, lies poor Tom Bowling, The darling of our crew, No more he'll hear the tempest howling, For death has broach'd him to."
Just in case you wanted more to worry about, Sing Out, Volume 35, #3 (1990), p. 76, prints a piece which it calls "Tumble O'Lynn's Farewell." There is only one stanza, so it's hard to be sure it's based on this piece, but it looks as if it is -- and the notes say "The composer is supposed to have been one Thomas Paginton, the court musician who presumably ghostwrote most of the music credited to Henry VIII." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R471

Brian the Brave

See Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave (File: OCon048)

Briar-Rose

See Sleeping Beauty (Thorn Rose, Briar Rose) (File: HHH599)

Brick House

See In Some Lady's Garden (I) (File: ScNF114B)

Brid Og Ni Mhaille

See Bridget O'Malley (File: K027)

Bride of Bogie, The

DESCRIPTION: "The beam of joy's in every eye" to see "a bonny bride To grace the Banks of Bogie." A toast to "'Huntly and his bonny Bride': 'They're welcome to Strathbogie.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1815 (_Aberdeen Journals_, according to Murdoch-Lawrance)
KEYWORDS: wedding beauty drink nonballad derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #20, p. 2, "The Cogie" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: R. Murdoch-Lawrance, "The Cogie" in Aberdeen Journal Notes and Queries 1908 (Aberdeen, 1908 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, p. 54, ("The beam of joy's in every eye") (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cauld Kale in Aberdeen (I)"
NOTES [86 words]: Murdoch-Lawrence: .".. here is a parody [of "Cauld Kail in Aberdeen"] which I discovered in the 'Aberdeen Journal,' November 15, 1815, which, according to that paper, was described as new words to 'The Cogie,' sung on 4th November, 1815." Murdoch-Lawrance is also Greig's correspondent but Greig only quotes Murdoch-Lawrance's first verse. Perhaps the tune is from "Cauld Kail in Aberdeen" but I don't see anything in this text to suggest it derives from that song. For references see "Cauld Kale in Aberdeen (I)." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Grg020c

Bride's Death, The

See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

Bride's Farewell, The

DESCRIPTION: A bride bids farewell to her mother, father, sister and brother. She has reservations about her groom: "he may deceive me... he may wound who should caress me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3866))
KEYWORDS: wedding farewell parting nonballad brother father mother sister
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 83, "The Bride's Farewell" (1 text)
Roud #2062
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3866), "The Bride's Farewell" ("Farewell, mother! tears are streaming"), Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Firth c.20(22), Harding B 11(3350), Harding B 11(449), Harding B 15(33b), Firth b.27(399), Firth b.27(400), Harding B 11(450), Firth b.26(175), Harding B 11(452), Harding B 40(26b), 2806 b.10(52), Firth c.26(55)[last four lines illegible], "The Bride's Farewell"
File: TPS083

Bride's Murder, The

See The Cruel Brother [Child 11] (File: C011)

Bridge Was Burned at Chatsworth, The

See The Chatsworth Wreck [Laws G30] (File: LG30)

Bridge, The

DESCRIPTION: "I stood on the bridge at midnight, As the clocks were striking the hour, And the moon rose o'er the city, Behind the dark church-tower." As the waters flood, the singer's eyes flood with tears. He wishes the flood would take him back home across the sea
AUTHOR: Words: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow / Music: Miss M. Lindsay
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (Lindsay's tune published; the text is older)
KEYWORDS: separation homesickness river
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 190, "The Bridge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11316
File: Brne190

Bridget Ann, The

DESCRIPTION: "Sez I, me boys, don't you want to go fishing? I'll ship you off in the Bridget Ann." Captain and crew take many fish and salt them in the hold. They sail until the hold is full, despite bad weather, then head for home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
KEYWORDS: ship fishing travel
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 252-253, "The Bridget Ann" (2 texts, 1 tune; the two texts have almost nothing in common except the name "Bridget Ann" and may be separate songs; the tune is from another source)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
On Board the Bridget Ann
NOTES [52 words]: The description is based on Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors's primary text; a description of their second text would be entirely different. They may well be separate songs, but with only one instance of each form, it's not really possible to know. Nor is the tune any help, because Lane and Gosbee fitted it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LaGo252

Bridget Donahue

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of the pretty town of Kelorgan, noting "what makes it interesting Is my Bridget Donahue." From America, he asks her in Ireland, "Just take the name of Patterson And I'll take Donahue."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: love courting emigration marriage separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 784, "Bridget Donahue" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 153, "Bridget Donahue" (1 text)
Roud #7416
NOTES [24 words]: Randolph had a songbook, which he could not identify, crediting this to Johnny Patterson. But we know how much attention to pay such claims. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: R784

Bridget O'Malley

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments that Bridget has left him heartbroken. He describes her beauty most fulsomely, and says his Sundays are now lonely and full of another. (She is now married, but) he bids her meet him on the road to Drumsleve
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal abandonment marriage foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 27, "Brid Og Ni Mhaille (Bridget O'Malley) (1 text+translation, 1 tune)
DT, BRIDOMAL*
NOTES [78 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland does not seem aware of any English-language versions of this Irish Gaelic song, but Silly Wizard found a text somewhere. It may well be a modern translation; it's awfully flowery. Indeed, the publication in Sing Out!, Volume 37, #4, p. 84, implies that it was assembled by Ruth Morgan (although it does not make it clear how much was already translated). But I decided to include the song here because some might search for it. - RBW
File: K027

Bridgewater Merchant, The

See The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)

Bridgwater Fair

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you lads and lasses dear, That like to revel at the fair. The fiddle's merry on the green." Singer tells of the delights of Bridgwater Fair and the colorful characters to be found there. "Master John" is warned: don't kiss the girls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: dancing party nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 76, "Bridgwater Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 132, "Bridgwater Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, p. 28, "Wilton Fair" (1 short text, 1 tune); p. 29, "Marlborough Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1571 and 17807
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Truro Agricultural Show"
NOTES [27 words]: [Sharp writes,] "St. Matthew's Fair at Bridgwater is a very ancient one, and is still a local event of some importance, although it has seen its best days." - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: ShH76

Bridle and Saddle, The

DESCRIPTION: "The bridle and saddle hang on the shelf, Fol an day chine day cheer an Cheerily an cherry (x2); If you want any more you can sing it yourself."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 224, "The Bridle and Saddle" (1short text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 80, "The Bridle and Saddle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3666
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pork in the Cupboard" (lyrics)
NOTES [47 words]: This ending occurs in occasional texts of a vast variety of songs, including "Frog Went A-Courting," "The Swapping Boy," "Going to Banbury," and at least as many more that I've forgotten. I'm not even going to try to classify it. Sharp's version does have a unique chorus line. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: SKE80

Brien the Brave

See Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave (File: OCon048)

Briery Bush, The

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Brigade at Fontenoy, The

DESCRIPTION: "The green flag is unfolded" before the battle. "There are stains to wash away." "Thrice blest the hour that witnesses The Briton turned to flee" from the French and Irish. God "grant us One day upon our own dear land Like that at Fontenoy!"
AUTHOR: Bartholomew Dowling (1823-1863) (source: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Duffy; also Duffy's magazine _The Nation,_ according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: army battle England France Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 11, 1745: the French defeat the British and their allies at Fontenoy in South West Belgium (War of the Austrian Succession or King George's War) (source: _The Battle of Fontenoy 1745_ at BritishBattles.com site; "Irish" does not appear in the article)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 129, "The Brigade at Fontenoy" (1 text)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 13, "The Brigade at Fontenoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 215-218, "'The Brigade' at Fontenoy"
Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 229-231, "The Brigade at Fontenoy"
Roud #9758
NOTES [783 words]: The first Irish Brigade, sent to France in 1688, became an integral part of the French army after the Jacobite defeat in Ireland. The Irish Brigade served the French army -- and did fight at Fontenoy -- until it was dissolved in 1791 as a result of the French Revolution. (source: The Irish Brigade, A Brief History by David Kincaid at the Haunted Field Music site) - BS
Of course, by the time of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), it was a completely new set of Irish exiles from those who departed Ireland c. 1690.
The War of the Austrian Succession came about for complex reasons: When the Habsburg Emperor Joseph I died in 1711, just six years after his father, the Empire passed to his brother Charles VI even though Joseph had sons; the boys were too young to rule, and no one wanted a regency.
But Charles VI wasn't willing to pass the crown back when he died; instead, as early as 1713, he devised the "Pragmatic Sanction" to pass the succession to his descendants. Which, since he had no sons, meant his daughter Maria Theresa (Browning, p. 18).
There was no particular reason for other countries to interfere, but the Habsburg Empire was a big place even prior to the reign of Charles VI, and Charles had gone so far as to try to reclaim Spain. So, at one time or another, Spain, France, Bavaria, Saxony, and Prussia went after Habsburg lands. (And, in Prussia's case, picked up a lot of them.)
The Fontenoy campaign began in April 1745, with Maurice of Saxony (Hermann Maurice, comte de Saxe, 1696-1750) leading a mostly French army against an alliance of Austrian, Dutch, Hannoverian, and British forces under the Duke of Cumberland (yes, the future "Butcher" Cumberland of Culloden) in the low countries. Cumberland's goal was to stop Saxe from taking Tournai.
Saxe, however, was much the better general; Cumberland, a typical Hannoverian, was brave and aggressive -- and stupid. Saxe picked the ground, and even though the English infantry proved better than the French, he used his artillery with enough effect to win the day (Browning, pp. 206-209). Saxe probably had numerical superiority as well (Brumwell/Speck, p. 138), making Cumberland's decision to attack even more absurd.
The histories of the battle vary in what they say about Irish contributions. Browning, the fullest of the histories, doesn't mention them at all. Brumwell/Speck, p. 139, however, credits them with the final charge that decided the battle. I find myself suspecting that the documentation of the battle is inadequate and that the histories are influenced by the folklore.
Tactically, Fontenoy was close to a draw: Both sides had about 50,000 troops in action, and both suffered about 15% casualties (Browning, p. 212). But Saxe had won the campaign, relieving pressure on France; he had also lowered the reputation of British infantry. Maybe *that* is why the Irish celebrated it.
It's just possible that the Irish would have been better off had they done worse at Fontenoy. Kybett, p. 111, implies that the result of the battle put great pressure on Bonnie Prince Charlie and his colleagues in Paris at the time. They of course wanted to invade Britain, but the French were not being helpful. Had the French felt more pressure, they might have given Charlie enough support to do some good -- which might have led to a Stuart restoration, which would certainly have helped the Irish. As it was, the French gave Charlie just enough support to get in trouble: They sailed off to start the Forty-Five, but with no money, no French soldiers, no French generals to argue around the inept clan chiefs, and no equipment. The surprise is not that the Forty-Five failed; it's that such a hurried, under-funded botch came so close to success.
Fontenoy resulted in a famous incident which says much about the fighting methods of the time, in which British and French soldiers invited the other to fire first (Wawro, p. 7). This wasn't politeness; in an era when muskets were extremely inaccurate, the side that fired first generally wasted its first volley, and it took a long time to relaod.
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland apparently lists the author as B. "Bowling" rather than "Dowling"; given that Bartholomew Dowling is a recognized if relatively minor poet (Granger's Index to Poetry has citations to his works "Our Last Toast," "The Revel," "Revelry for the Dying," and "Stand to your Glasses), I'm assuming "Dowling" is correct.
There is another Irish nationalist piece on Fontenoy; Thomas Davis wrote a poem "Fontenoy," published e.g. in Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 476-478. I've seen no evidence that it is traditional. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: OLcM013

Brigantine Sinorca

See Brigantine Sirocco (File: SmHa015)

Brigantine Sirocco

DESCRIPTION: The Sirocco/Sorocco/Sinorca/Sirorca springs a leak and lays aground at Shelburne. The leak is found and fixed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-Nova Scotia)
KEYWORDS: sea ship
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 15, "Brigantine Sorocco" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 106, "Brigantine Sinorca" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST SmHa015 (Full)
Roud #1814
NOTES [102 words]: No two versions of this song seem to give the ship the same name. I've called the song "Brigantine Sirocco" because that's the only title that means anything in a language I know. A sirocco is a desert wind, not exactly suitable for a ship -- but it's also a fast wind, so maybe it makes sense.
The other possibility is that "Sinorca" is a corruption of "Saint (something-or-other)," and the rest corruptions of that. But only one of the four names known to me starts with the S[?]n phoneme combination; the others are S[?]r. So I think Sinorca a secondary corruption, probably of something like "Sirorca." - RBW
File: SmHa015

Brigantine Sorocco

See Brigantine Sirocco (File: SmHa015)

Brigg Fair

DESCRIPTION: Singer goes to Brigg Fair expecting to meet his sweetheart; she arrives and he takes her hand, rejoicing, and hopes they will never part.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (recording, Joseph Taylor); 1905 (collected from Taylor by Grainger, according to OShaughnessy-Yellowbelly1, p. 67)
KEYWORDS: love courting reunion lover
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 3, "Brigg Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 8, "Brigg Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Journal of the Folk-Lore Society, Vol. II, No. 7 (1905 (available online by JSTOR)), #2 p. 80, "Brigg Fair" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #1083
RECORDINGS:
Isla Cameron, "Brigg Fair" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
Joseph Taylor, "Brigg Fair" (cylinder, on HiddenE)
Guy Wolff, "Brigg Fair" (Piotr-Archive #504, recorded 02/27/2023)
NOTES [9 words]: About as basic a story as can be, but still complete. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcBF

Brigham the Prophet

DESCRIPTION: "Brigham the Prophet he is our head, He is our Seer since Joseph [Smith] is dead, The keys of the Kingdom of God he now holds... For the lion of the Lord Is Brigham, is Brigham, is Brigham Young." Young has rescued the Mormons from disaster
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Homsher, South Pass 1868; reportedly written 1869)
KEYWORDS: nonballad political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1801-1877 - Life of Brigham Young
1832 - Young becomes a Mormon
1844 - Young becomes leader of the Mormons
1847 - Mormon migration to Utah
1850 - Young made Governor of Utah territory. From 1857, however, the U.S. Government enforced various restrictions on the Mormons and their governor, mostly in response to polygamy.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 603, "[Brigham the Prophet]" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brigham Young (I)" (character of Brigham Young) and references there
File: CAFS603B

Brigham Young (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Now Brigham Young (is/was) a Mormon bold" with "five and forty wives." He leads the Mormon citizens of "Great Salt Lake, Where they breed and swarm like hens on a farm." Most of the song describes how Young's wives have sapped his vigor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Lomax, Cowboy Songs)
KEYWORDS: marriage humorous age
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1801-1877 - Life of Brigham Young
1832 - Young becomes a Mormon
1844 - Young becomes leader of the Mormons
1847 - Mormon migration to Utah
1850 - Young made Governor of Utah territory. From 1857, however, the U.S. Government enforced various restrictions on the Mormons and their governor, mostly in response to polygamy.
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #215, "Brigham Young I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 176-178, "Brigham, Brigham Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, pp. 121-123, "Old Brigham Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 212-213, "Brigham Young, II" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 432-433, "Brigham Young" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 290, "Brigham Young" (1 text)
Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 525-527, "Brigham, Brigam Young" (1 text)
Roud #8056
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brigham Young, Lion of the Lord" (subject of Brigham Young)
cf. "Brigham the Prophet" (subject of Brigham Young)
cf. "Brigham Young (II)" (subject of Brigham Young)
cf. "Brigham Young (III)" (subject of Brigham Young)
cf. "Brigham Young (IV)" (subject of Brigham Young)
cf. "Brigham Young (V)" (subject of Brigham Young)
cf. "Where Now Is the Prophet Brigham?" (subject of Brigham Young)
cf. "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19]. (Brigham Young and the Massacre)
cf. "Bless Brigham Young" (subject of Brigham Young)
cf. "Brigham Young's Birthday" (subject of Brigham Young)
cf. "The Dying Prophet" (subject of Brigham Young)
NOTES [1068 words]: In defense of Young (if not of Mormon doctrines of polygamy, which reportedly are still secretly practiced in some circles, resulting in severe inbreeding), it should be noted that he was a forceful and effective leader who successfully founded the Mormon colony in Utah, allowing the faith to survive despite severe persecution. And, ironically, he apparently originally opposed polygamy: "I was not desirous of shirking from any duty... but it was the first time in my life I had desired the grave" (Bushman, p. 63).
Denton gives a brief account of Young's early life starting on page 32. Young was one of several children of John Young, a revolutionary war veteran. The family moved to Whitingham, Vermont, in 1801, and Brigham was born later that year. The family quickly fell into poverty; that, plus severe family discipline, seemed to forge a strong determination in Brigham.
Very handsome in his early years, he first married in 1824, and watched in despair as his wife sickened and he failed to prosper. Then his brother Phinehas gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon, just recently published. In 1832, Brigham was baptised into the Mormon church. He met Mormon founder Joseph Smith later in that year, and once his wife died, Young became one of Smith's key assistants. By this time, the Mormons were starting on their wanderings. When Smith was killed in Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1844, the church was twice in crisis: It had no leader and it was finding it almost impossible to find a home.
The contest to succeed Smith ended in what was reported as a miracle. Denton, pp. 30-31, reports that "When [Young] opened his mouth to speak, it was not his voice that emanated, according to many of those in the audience, but a voice uncannily like that of Joseph Smith. Many in the crowd rushed the platform to see if their prophet had risen from the dead, only to be further mystified by the same 'supernatural radiance' that had enveloped Smith now illuminating Young." Stegner's version of this (p. 34) is that Young took on the appearance and voice of Smith. DeVoto, p. 77, concurs: "[T]he Saints beheld a transfiguration. [Young's] pudgy body suddenly became the tall, handsome, commanding body of the martyred prophet." Combine that with good organizing ability, and Young naturally became head of the Mormons.
Not everyone accepted this, to be sure, including many of Smith's relatives. Many who did not accept Young would coalesce into the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (Denton, p. 37). This group is largely concentrated in southern Missouri. A member of the group tells me that while they still use the Book of Mormon and other Smith-related writings -- in editions slightly different from those used by the "regular" Mormons -- they generally fall closer to orthodox Christianity DeVoto, p. 77, mentions some other splinters that broke off the main body of the church: "all told these half dozen, dividing by mitosis, were to form over twenty minute churches, each one the true apostolic succession from the prophet."
But the majority of the Mormons accepted Young. "This was a much greater man than Joseph. Instead of a man drunk on deity... who could produce no effective leadership, no effective government, no effective social organization, there had come to lead the Church out of the land of Egypt one of the foremost intelligences of the time, the first American who learned how to colonize the desert" (DeVoto, p. 77).
Young gradually consolidated his position, and in 1847 had a revelation which caused him to order his people to head for Utah (Denton, pp. 54-55). The land was so poor that Young was forced to change the Mormon economy, already rather socialist, into something approaching a Leninist centrally-directed communism (Denton, pp. 59-60). Unlike Russian Leninism, though, Young made his version work -- perhaps because he ran it himself, with fewer communist functionaries; perhaps because the people were all volunteers and actually gave it their best shot; perhaps something of both.
It is little surprise, then, that Nevins, p. 315, declares that "Brigham Young was the most commanding single figure of the West. This rugged Vermonter, who had been given only eleven days' formal schooling before he set to work as carpenter, glazier, and painter, possessed an inexhaustible energy, a domineering temper, and a rocklike will which made him seem truly the Lion of the Lord."
Young's goal in moving to Utah seems to have been partly one of getting out of the United States (Utah was Mexican territory prior to the Mexican War) and partly to move to land no one else would want. He didn't really succeed in either; the Mexican War ended with all that land becoming part of the U.S., and land hunger in the east was so great that people settled even the basically uninhabitable parts of New Mexico territory. Young put small colonies in many areas of his "Deseret" territory. Most struggled even more than the settlement by the Great Salt Lake. And when Utah Territory was organized, it was much smaller than Young's projected fiefdom (Denton, p. 66). Still, President Fillmore appointed Young its governor after Thomas Leiper Kane turned down the job. Young also was given the titles of commander of the militia and superintendant of Indian affairs (Nevins, p. 315, who declares that, "In short, he confirmed Young's dictatorship").
Nevins, p. 316, adds that "Despite his coarse and brutal vein, his egotism, and his frequent pettiness, Brigham Young was popular. He treated his own people with affability, throwing his arm over any Mormon's shoulder and asking cordially about his wives and children. His rough and ready manners, provincialisms of speech ('leetle,' 'beyend,' 'disremember,' and 'they was'), his kindness, an his justice in business dealings, were all assets in [Deseret]."
Young, like Joseph Smith before him, had problems with authoritarianism, which would result in the Utah War (and probably, indirectly, in the Mountain Meadows Massacre; see "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19] for details).
Folklore lists Young as having as many as sixty wives; it should be noted, however, that only 17 wives (along with 56 children) were alive at the time of his death. Of course, he had repeatedly denied that the Mormons engaged in plural marriage at all, until John Williams Gunnison exposed the truth (Denton, p. 69-70). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: LxA432

Brigham Young (II)

See In the Midst of Those Awful Mormons (File: FSSS123B)

Brigham Young (III)

DESCRIPTION: "I'd like to take a pleasure trip To have a little fun, Get on the Utah Southern And go see Brigham Young. Nice little family, Nineteen wives or more, A lot of good old mother-in-laws To cheer him up also." The singer declares, "I haven't long to stay"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: travel wife
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1801-1877 - Life of Brigham Young
1832 - Young becomes a Mormon
1844 - Young becomes leader of the Mormons
1847 - Mormon migration to Utah
1850 - Young made Governor of Utah territory. From 1857, however, the U.S. Government enforced various restrictions on the Mormons and their governor, mostly in response to polygamy.
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #217, "Brigham Young III" (1 short text)
Roud #10901
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brigham Young (I)" (character of Brigham Young) and references there
File: Hubb217

Brigham Young (IV)

DESCRIPTION: "Brigham Young saw the lights Of the Saints a-burning blue, And he sent for Brother Jeddie, Who was always firm and true, To stir up the watchmen... To find us a-noddin', anid, anid a-noddin', To find us a-noddin' To our mountain home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: home Devil
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1801-1877 - Life of Brigham Young
1832 - Young becomes a Mormon
1844 - Young becomes leader of the Mormons
1847 - Mormon migration to Utah
1850 - Young made Governor of Utah territory. From 1857, however, the U.S. Government enforced various restrictions on the Mormons and their governor, mostly in response to polygamy.
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #218, "Brigham Young IV" (1 short text)
Roud #10902
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brigham Young (I)" (character of Brigham Young) and references there
NOTES [21 words]: This would appear to be based on "We're All Nodding," but with such a short text, and no tune, there is no way to be certain. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: Hubb218

Brigham Young (V)

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing ye a song that has often been sung About an ould Mormon they call Brigham Young; Of wives he had many, who were strong in the lungs. Several verses describe Young's problems with his wives; the last refers to his problems with Uncle Sam
AUTHOR: J. W. Conner? (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (Conner's Irish Song Book, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: humorous wife husband | Brigham Young
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1801-1877 - Life of Brigham Young
1832 - Young becomes a Mormon
1844 - Young becomes leader of the Mormons
1847 - Mormon migration to Utah
1850 - Young made Governor of Utah territory. From 1857, however, the U.S. Government enforced various restrictions on the Mormons and their governor, mostly in response to polygamy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, p. 123, "Brigham Young" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 210-211, "Brigham Young, I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8055
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brigham Young (I)" (character of Brigham Young) and references there
NOTES [151 words]: Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle does not list a tune for this, but it seems clear that it's sung to "Vilikens"/"Sweet Betsy from Pike." This is the tune used by Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest.
The Fifes date this to the "Marching Through Georgia, and Wearing of the Green, Songster," but they date the songster to 1847! Since "Marching Through Georgia" is about an event of 1864, that date cannot be right, and I used the source cited by Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest. That book also attributes the song to Conner, but I'm not sure that has been proved.
The last verse of the Fife text, and the last two in the Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest version, clearly refer to problems between the Mormons and the United States, but I'm not entirely sure if it's about the Utah War or just the fact that the U. S. discriminated against the Mormons because of polygamy. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSSS123A

Brigham Young, Lion of the Lord

DESCRIPTION: "The opening seals announce the day By prophets long foretold, When all in one triumphant lay Will join to praise the Lord. Brigham Young is the lion of the Lord, the prophet and revealer of his word, The mouthpiece of God and to all mankind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1801-1877 - Life of Brigham Young
1832 - Young becomes a Mormon
1844 - Young becomes leader of the Mormons
1847 - Mormon migration to Utah
1850 - Young made Governor of Utah territory. From 1857, however, the U.S. Government enforced various restrictions on the Mormons and their governor, mostly in response to polygamy.
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #206, "Brigham Young, Lion of the Lord" (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brigham Young (I)" (character of Brigham Young) and references there
NOTES [104 words]: The "opening seals" is probably a reference to the Revelation to John, chapters 6-8, where seven seals portend the end of the world.
The description of Brigham Young as a lion has all sorts of metaphorical significance; he divided the flock (after the death of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Church split half a dozen ways, with Young managing to control the largest fragment); he caused them to live in the desert (it was Young who sent the Mormons to Utah), and he was harsh, violent, and unforgiving to his enemies. For some details on that, see the notes to "Brigham Young"; also "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19]. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: Hub206

Brigham Young's Birthday

DESCRIPTION: "God bless the chosen Seer, To the Saints of God most dear, We rejoice to see his 75th birthday... Oh God, bless thy servant Brigham, Prolong his life for many a year." "May he live to see... the Holy Priesthood reigning o'er the earth"
AUTHOR: Charles L. Walker (Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | Brigham Young
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 1, 1801 - Birth of Brigham Young (who lived until 1877)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, p. 99, "Brigham Young's Birthday" (1 text)
Roud #10844
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brigham Young (I)" (character of Brigham Young) and references there
NOTES [27 words]: This song wishes Brigham Young a long life, but in fact he died the year after it was inflicted upon him. It's so awful that I almost suspect cause and effect. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMD099

Brigham, Brigham Young

See Brigham Young (File: LxA432)

Brighidin Ban Mo Store

DESCRIPTION: "I am a wandering minstrel man, and love my only theme. I've strayed beside the pleasant Bann, and eke the Shannon's stream," but nowhere has he seen anyone like Brighidin. He would not trade even "the high-born Saxon queen" for Brighigin
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Walsh (1805-1850)
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Hayes)
KEYWORDS: love music
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol II, pp. 32-33, "Brighidin Ban Mo Store" (1 text)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), p. 220, "Brighidin Ban Mo Storer" (1 text, with even the note on the text lifted, almost verbatim, from Hayes or some source with the same notes as Hayes)
NOTES [196 words]: This poem does not properly belong in the Index; it is not traditional. But it was set to music by Andy M. Stewart, and recorded by Stewart, Manus Lunny, and Phil Cunningham on "Fire in the Glen." There it is stated that the text is traditional, or at least based on a traditional Irish text. However, as Hayes shows, the poem is by Edward Walsh. I suspect that someone read that the words were public domain (which they certainly were) and read it as "traditional." I suppose you could argue that this is a "translation," but given how banal the piece is, the word hardly has meaning.
I am still trying to find out where Walsh published this poem. It is not in either of his best-known works, Irish Jacobite Poetry and Irish Popular Poetry.
I find myself wondering about the singer's lack of interest in "the high-born Saxon queen." Is that English women in general -- or, just possibly, Queen Victoria herself, who was of course Queen of the English -- but also a Queen of German descent. Of course, Walsh could have meant both....
I have seen a report that the text was sung before Stewart set his tune, using an O'Carolan melody, but it was not specified which one. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: EHay0232

Bright Alfaretta

See The Blue Juniata (File: Hud083)

Bright Amanda

See Olban (Alban) or The White Captive [Laws H15] (File: LH15)

Bright and Shining City

DESCRIPTION: "There's a bright and shining city in the land beyond the sky, Where the good shall be happy and be free." "We drifting down the rugged streams of time." Sinners are warned. Judgment is coming. Jesus died on Calvary. The singer is drifting home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Roberts-SangBranchSettlers)
KEYWORDS: religious death Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #38, "Bright and Shining City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3401
File: Robe038

Bright Eyed Little Nell of Narragansett Bay

See Little Nell of Narragansett Bay (File: Brew88)

Bright Fine Gold

DESCRIPTION: "Spend it in the winter or die in the cold, One a pecker, Tuapecka, bright fine gold." "Some are sons of fortune, And my man came to see" but found no gold. "I'm weary of Otago... Let my man strike it rich, And then we'll go. Bright fine gold...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Ruth Park, "One a Pecker, Two a Pecker"; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: gold mining hardtimes travel New Zealand
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1861 - the Tuapecka Gold Rush
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 55, "(Bright Fine Gold)" (1 excerpt)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 49, "Bright Fine Gold" (1 text, 1 "reconstructed" tune) (p. 29 in the 1972 edition)
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 101, "Bright Fine Gold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 36, 69-70, "(Bright Fine Gold)" (1 text and various loose verses)
ST BaRo055A (Partial)
NOTES [665 words]: Usually regarded as a New Zealand folk song, it appears that this is an example of the extremely complex interaction between oral tradition and print. Ruth Park in the 1950s was called upon to write a book about the New Zealand gold fields. This was "One-a-pecker, Two-a-pecker," with the title based on a traditional fragment, usually regarded as the chorus to this piece. Park and her husband wrote a couple of verses and published the book. Her text is on p. 68 of Garland; I've never encountered a case of her words being sung. But after she published, other verses started to show up. Better verses, I would add. It's these that are usually considered to be "the" song "Bright Fine Gold." But the extent to which they are based upon Park is not clear. It is likely that there was a song in existence before she wrote, and there is certainly one in existence now, but I don't think we can prove continuity of existence.
It is perhaps worth noting that Parks wrote at least one other lyric that was set to music, "Drinking Rum and Raspberry" (Harding, p. 67), so she wasn't above writing her own poetry.
The tune is often said to be "Hot Cross Buns." The "Bright fine gold" line does use that tune (although usually sung so slowly that it's hard to recognize it), but the way I've heard the rest of the song is somewhat different.
According to McLauchlan, pp. 224-225, New Zealand in the mid-nineteenth century had almost a permanent floating gold rush. I'll summarize the dates given:
1852: Coromandel gold rush. Very little gold actually found
1856-1857: Rush near Collingwood and Nelson
1861: Gabriel Read finds gold near Tuapeka in Otago, resulting in "the first gold rush worthy of the name," bringing in about 17,000 miners and hangers-on (more than doubling Otago Province's population); the rush lasted until late 1863.
1864: Rush on the Wakamarina near Havelock in Marlborough. Little gold found.
1865-1867: Multiple rushes on the west coast, some of which brought in miners from Australia. The town of Charleston, mentioned e.g. in "The Stable Lad," existed mostly because of these mines.
1867: Miners reach the Thames region, where there is some gold but in different sorts of rocks which required more capital to exploit. This eventually happened, but the problems of mining it caused the string of gold rushes to end.
The Tuapeka rush is, of course, the subject of this song. Otago is the southernmost of all New Zealand's provinces; the climate is "rigorous" (McLauchlan, p. 403); Reed, pp. 234-243, has several stories of miners suffering severely in the hills in the winter. Even the Maori never made much use of the land. Little wonder, then, that the song talks about the cold.
The Otago gold rush seems to be the one best remembered, and is the basis for modern gold rush songs. It could have begun in 1859, when one Edward Peters, known as "Black Peter," found some gold at Tuapeka (Reed, p. 229), but somehow this was ignored. In 1861, Gabriel Read dug up seven ounces of gold with a butter knife around Tuapeka, and announced the find in a letter to a newspaper (Reed, pp. 230-231), which started the first Otago rush. Tuapeka was the most accessible site, and the one mentioned in this song. Later, someone named Fox made a find by the Arrow river (Reed, p. 239), referred to at the beginning of Martin Curtis's "The Gin and Raspberry"; Curtis's song is set in the Cardrona goldfields (and became popular enough to inspire an Australian rewrite). Paul Metsers's "Farewell to the Gold" refers to the Shotover rush, which occurred at about the same time (Reed, p. 240). (Though Dave Jordan's "The Hills of Coromandel" is about the Coromandel rush, which took place on the North Island.)
According to Reed, p. 243, from 1861 to 1865, over £7,000,000 worth of gold came out of Otago, and about £500,000 per year in the ten years after that -- a decent rate, but certainly not enough to make all the miners comfortable. And it brought major social problems to Otago. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo055A

Bright Morning Stars (For the Day Is A-Breakin' In My Soul)

DESCRIPTION: "I hear the Savior calling (x3) (For the) day is a-breaking in my soul." "How I long to meet him...." "The golden bells are ringing...." "I want to see my father...." "I want to meet my Jesus...." "Bright morning stars are rising...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (collected by Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains from Norman Lee Vass)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 89-90, "For the Day Is A-Breakin' In My Soul" (1 text, 1 tune, which does not mention the Bright Morning Stars)
DT, BRTMORNS*
Roud #7335 and 18268
RECORDINGS:
Patricia Campbell, "Bright Morning Stars" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #245, recorded 09/11/2022)
NOTES [27 words]: I'm not sure that the title "Bright Morning Stars" is actually traditional for this song, but I chose it because that's the title I've heard sung in the revival. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Shel089

Bright Orange Stars of Coleraine, The

DESCRIPTION: Marching song. The singer describes the celebrations on the twelfth of July. The marchers celebrate to the memory of William (of Orange). The singer praises Coleraine, and intends never to forget William's triumph
AUTHOR: Robert Thompson ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: political Ireland nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 1, 1690 - Battle of the Boyne. William III crushes the Irish army of James II, at once securing his throne and the rule of Ireland. Irish resistance continues for about another year, but Ireland east of the Shannon is William's, and the opposition is doomed.
July 12, 1691 - Battle of Aughrim. Decisive defeat of Irish Catholic forces
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H87a, pp. 181-182, "The Bright Orange Stars of Coleraine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8006
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of the Boyne (I)" (subject: The Battle of the Boyne) and references there
NOTES [61 words]: This is probably the most political song in the Henry collection, and gives little evidence of being traditional. The Northern Constitution was published in Ulster, of course, so such sentiments were permissible -- but I'm still surprised it was published. Other Irish songs may allude to William of Orange's triumph, but this is one of the few to gloat over it. - RBW
File: HHH087a

Bright Phoebe

DESCRIPTION: "Bright Phoebe was my true love's name, / Her beauty did my heart contain." The singer and his love agree to marry when he returns from sea. By the time he returns, she is dead. He promises to spend the rest of his life mourning
AUTHOR: Words: Silas Ballou (1753-1837) (source: Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation sea death mourning
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 70, "Bright Phoebe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 104,"Sweet Mary Jane" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 119-120, "Bright Phoebe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 434-435, "Bright Phoebe" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 96-97, "Phoebe" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 79-80, "Bright Phoebe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 120, "The Downeast Maid" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
DT, BRTPHOEB
Roud #1989
RECORDINGS:
Charlotte Decker, "Bright Phoebe" (on PeacockCDROM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Lovel" [Child 75] (plot)
NOTES [30 words]: For another song by Silas Ballou, see "Old England Forty Years Ago." This appears to be his most popular song in tradition, but I haven't seen absolute proof of his authorship. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: FSC070

Bright Shades of Blue, The

DESCRIPTION: The convict recalls leaving Britain in chains, saying, "I'd left all my joys in those bright shades of blue." Once in Australia, he prospers, and at last returns to Britain -- to find that he misses Australia. He is old and alone far from his new home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: Australia transportation homesickness
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 136-137, "The Bright Shades of Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA136

Bright Sherman Valley

See The Red River Valley (File: R730)

Bright Sparkles in the Church Yard

DESCRIPTION: The singer hopes the Lord "will be glad of me." At the tomb among summer flowers (and fireflies?) she thinks of her mother, and how she rocked her in the cradle; she hopes her mother in heaven will rejoice for her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious baby mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 174-179, "Bright Sparkles in de Churchyard" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 200-201 in the 1874 edition)
ADDITIONAL: John Wesley Work, Folk Song of the American Negro (Nashville: Fisk University, 1915 ("Digitized by the Internet Archive")), pp. 84-85, "Bright Sparkles in the Church Yard" (1 text)
NOTES [122 words]: Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute quotes Fenner's 1874 contributor: "This peculiar but beautiful medley was a great favorite among the hands in the tobacco factories in Danville, Va."
Work writes, "The song, 'Bright Sparkles in the Church Yard,' is the incoherent wailing of a delirious soul suffering from the remorse of waywardness. The most authentic and reliable history names a wayward girl as the producer of this song. She has left the paths laid out for her by her sainted mother, and the wild, riotous fires have consumed her life forces and brought her down through sickness, pain, and sorrow to the brink of death." Well, maybe. I don't find all of that in the text of the song. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett174

Bright Star of Derry, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves Mary, a widow's daughter, and praises her as the bright star of Derry. She is beautiful, sweet, and gentle.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1809 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: love beauty lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 33, "The Bright Star of Derry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9754
File: OLcM033

Bright Sunny South, The

See The Sweet Sunny South (I) [Laws A23] (File: LA23)

Bright-Eyed Little Nell of Narragansett Bay

See Little Nell of Narragansett Bay (File: Brew88)

Brighter Days in Store

DESCRIPTION: "I will sing of the Mormons, the people of the Lord, Since the time that Joseph prayed for light." "'Tis the song, the sigh of the Mormons, Hard times... have pressed us sore." But the more they suffer, the more the church grows
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious hardtimes bug | Mormons
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 91-92, "Brighter Days in Store, or, Brigham Young's Hard Times Come Again No More" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, p. 89, "(Every time that the wicked has tried to overthrow)" (1 text)
Roud #10842
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hard Times Come Again No More" (tune)
NOTES [112 words]: I am filing the Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle text here with some hesitation. The last two verses are unquestionably this, but the first verse, "Each time the wicked have tried to overthrow And to bring the work of God to naught, The way has been opened for the Saints of God to escape A ram in the thicket was caught" is almost impossible to sing to "Hard Times Come Again No More." The second verse also needs some prodding to fit that tune.
The ram caught in the thicket is surely an allusion to Genesis 22, where Abraham is ordered to sacrifice his only legitimate son Isaac, but then God says, "Ha-ha, only joking, murder that poor innocent trapped ram instead." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS091

Brightest and Best

DESCRIPTION: "Hail the blest morn when the great Mediator down from the regions of glory descends." The song describes the baby Jesus's humble birth and the feeble gifts they offer him. "Brightest and best of the sons of the morning, Dawn on our darkness...."
AUTHOR: Words widely credited to Reginald Heber (1783-1826)
EARLIEST DATE: 1811 (Christian Observer, according to Marilyn Kay Stulken, _Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship_, Fortress Press, 1981, p. 185)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus Christmas gift
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 763, "Star in the East" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 150-151, "[Brightest and Best]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 55, "Brightest and Best" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 27, "Brightest and Best" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #13, "Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning" (1 text)
Roud #5743
RECORDINGS:
Ritchie Family, "Brightest and Best" (on Ritchie03)
NOTES [735 words]: Earlier editions of this index credited this piece to Reginald Heber (1783-1826), on the basis of Irwin Silber's The Season of the Year. McKim, p. 65, unequivocally credits it to Heber and says it was published in the November 1811 edition of The Christian Observer. Ian Bradley's The Penguin Book of Carols also attributes the song to Heber, and says it was the first hymn he wrote. The New Oxford Book of Carols , however, credits the arrangement to William Walker, while submitting that the "refrain and vv. 2-4 [are] after Reginald Heber." But Spaeth places the whole thing in the hands of Walker.
George Pullen Jackson does not mention either Walker or Heber; he finds it first in William Caldwell's 1837 Union Harmony (but it's not clear whether this is text or tune or both).
Julian, p. 182, has quite a bit to say of the song:
"Brightest and best of the sons of the morning. [By] B[isho]p R[eginald] Heber. [Epiphany.] 1st pub[lished] in the Christian Observer, Nov. 1811, p. 697, in 5 st[anzas] of 4 l[ines] (the last being the first repeated); and again in his posthumous Hymns &c., 1827, p. 25. Few hymns of merit have troubled compilers more than this. Some have held that its use involved the worshipping of a star, whilst others have been offended with its metre as being too suggestive of a solemn dance."
Julian, although accepting without hesitation the attribution to Heber, notes a Presbyterian hymnal which attributes it to Tate and Brady. He also mentions a Latin translation, "Stella, micans coelo nitido magia omnibus una," by Reverend R. Bingham.
Julian, pp. 503-504, offers a brief biography of Heber, beginning "Born at Malpas, Apil 21, 1783, educated at Brasenose College, Oxford; Vicar of Hodnet, 1807; B[isho]p of Calcutta, 1823; d[ied] at Trichinopoly, Indian, April 3, 1826." He showed his skills as a poet from a young age, and was a friend of Southey among others; he wrote most of his works during his years at Hodnet, during which time he also engaged in literary scholarship; he gave up literature when he took up his episcopate. Julian lists more than two dozen hymns from his pen, but apart from "Brightest and Best," the only two I've ever encountered are "From Greenland's icy mountains" (which, Julian notes, has mentions of India but was written before Heber transferred there) and "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty." "God, That Madest Earth and Heaven" is also still found in a few hymnals, and Rudin, p. 26, claims popularity for "The Son of God Goes Forth to War," which sounds awful to me..
Rudin, pp. 26-27, says that Heber started writing poetry while very young, and also was noteworthy for his early piety and generosity, and says on p. 27 that his role as Bishop of Calcutta also put him in charge of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Australia. One presumes he didn't travel his diocese much.
Bradley cites Routley to the effect that 19 different tunes have been used for this set of lyrics. I don't have a full list, but I find in my library that the Lutheran book The Parish School Hymnal of 1926 lists the tune as by J. P. Harding (1861-?). This is also the tune used in the modern Presbyterian edition. McKim, p. 68, says James Proctor Harding wrote it in 1892; it was set to these words in 1894. However, McKim gives Harding's dates as 1850-1911, which disagrees with the Lutheran dates. Harding, according to McKim, was born in London and spent 35 years as organist and choirmaster for St. Andrew's Church, Thornhill Square, Islington.
The phrase "sons of the morning" is thought to have been inspired by Isaiah 14:12, which the King James Bible renders "How art though fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" This connection has sparked some controversy, because "Lucifer" is widely equated with Satan. But this is one of those over-reactions to the King James rendering. The translators used "Lucifer" in its Latin sense of "Light-bringer," which is a fair rendering of the Hebrew word which means something like "one who brightens." Modern versions render the Hebrew word something like "Day Star"; it's thought by some to be a reference to the pretensions of the Kings of Babylon.
I'm a bit leery of this whole interpretation anyway. The idea of "Children of Light" or "Children of the Morning" is a common one in mythology, and might just have occurred to the author (whether Heber or someone else) because it sounds good. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: JRSF150

Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning

See Brightest and Best (File: JRSF150)

Brighton Camp

See The Girl I Left Behind Me (lyric) (File: R546)

Brigtown's Plantins

See Forglen (Forglen You Know, Strichen's Plantins) (File: Ord079)

Brilliant Light, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer asks "a brother" to be "admitted." He passes a test and is taken to a door. He is admitted. He begins his ordeal. He meets Moses at the burning bush, casts his own rod as serpent, and is shown a great light. He swears not to reveal the secrets.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.21(36))
KEYWORDS: ritual religious
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, p. 302, "The Brilliant Light" (1 fragment)
Roud #V30261
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.21(36), "The Brilliant Light" ("Come all you loyal marksmen that circle around"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1865; also Harding B 1(35) View 2 of 2, "An admired Masonic song, called the Brilliant Lights" ("Come all you loyal Crafts-men that's circled round")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Grand Mystic Order" (subject and some phrases)
cf. "The Knight Templar's Dream" (subject)
cf. "The Grand Templar's Song" (subject)
NOTES [114 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 302: "The songs inspired by the ritual of the Orange Institution are the most extraordinary. They are resolutely cryptic, with lines like: 'I'll tell you a secret your enemies do not know ...' ['Brilliant Light']."
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 302 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Firth c.21(36) is the basis for the description. - BS
Moses's rod (later Aaron's rod) that became a serpent is first mentioned in Exodus 4:3. I'm not sure if there is a direct significance to the great light. Perhaps it's a reference to the light that shone at the conversion of Paul/Saul (Acts 9:3, etc.), or a reference to Isaiah 9:2=Matthew 4:16, etc. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Zimm302

Brimbledon Fair

See Rambleaway (File: ShH31)

Brindisi Di Marinai

DESCRIPTION: Fisherman's shanty for hauling the nets, refrain "Lampabbo! Lampa!" Verses revolve around drinking.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Favara, _Canti della Terra e del Mare di Sicilia_)
KEYWORDS: shanty fishing drink foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Italy Sicily
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 245-246, "Brindisi Di Marinai" (1 text [Italian and English], 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 115, "Brindisi Di Marinai" (2 short texts, Italian and English, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Reuben Ranzo" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lampabbo Lampa
NOTES [67 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas theorizes that this may have been the origin of "Reuben Ranzo." The hauling of nets and the hauling of halyards are similar jobs, and the two songs have identical melodies and the pulls are in the same places. The method of singing is also the same as deep-sea shanties, where the final note of the refrain is overlapped with the first note of the solos, and vice versa. - SL
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hug245

Bring Back My Barney to Me

See Bring Back My Johnny to Me (File: HHH007)

Bring Back My Blue-eyed Boy

See My Blue-Eyed Boy (File: R759)

Bring Back My Bonnie to Me

See My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean (File: DTmybonn)

Bring Back My Johnny to Me

DESCRIPTION: "He's gone, I am now sad and lonely, He has left me to cross the salt sea, And I know that he thinks of me only, And will soon be returning to me." The singer misses (Johnny), and asks, "Blow gently, sweet winds of the ocean, And bring my Johnny to me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: love separation sailor poverty
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H7, p. 290-291, "Bring Back My Barney to Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 161, "Send Back My Barney to Me" (1 text)
DT, BRINGJON*
Roud #1422
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean"
NOTES [72 words]: A. L. Lloyd, in his liner notes to the Watersons' "For Pence and Spicy Ale", says [this] was "A stage song favoured by Irish comedians from the 1860s on. During the 1880s, apparently on American university campuses, close-harmony groups remade it into the better-known -- and even more preposterous -- "My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean...." - PJS
Steve Roud notes British songster versions starting from 1872 and possibly earlier. - (RBW)
Last updated in version 6.1
File: HHH007

Bring Good Ale

See Bring Us Good Ale (File: MEL82)

Bring Him Back Dead or Alive

DESCRIPTION: "Gannon killed a man in Texas in the year of forty-five, Bring him back dead or alive!" The sheriff follows. Gannon kills the sheriff, then realizes it is his brother he has killed. He gives up: "If you will hang me quick I'll escape my brother's voice!"
AUTHOR: Paul Kelso (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959
KEYWORDS: homicide brother police crime punishment
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 91, "Bring Him Back Dead or Alive" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11205
NOTES [230 words]: Paul Kelso, who claims authorship of this song, gave me the following information in February 2012:
"Bring Him Back Dead Or Alive was first collected by Austin Fife in 1959 from me, in my apartment in Denton, Texas, where I was a student at North Texas State. The song was listed in the Fife Collection with myself as source. Mr. Fife later wrote in his Cowboy and Western Songs: a comprehensive anthology, 1969, that I was respondent or source, and that he had never collected or seen the song previously in any other collection.
"The reason for that is that I wrote both lyrics and score. I told Fife that. I also contributed 7-8 other songs on that occasion, some that I had collected versions, and perhaps two others I wrote.
"The song is also attributed to me in the Songs 'Round The Campfire collection from Center stream publishers and I understand that Curley Fletcher recorded it before he died and cited me, although I have not found a specific reference for Fletcher and the song. A website selling sheet music - www.justsheetmusic.com - says author is 'unknown,' but lists 'Paul Kelso' as an alternate title! That is curious.
" I realize we are talking about a recording that took place fifty-two years ago, I am now seventy-five, but I was an active folksinger for decades in Iowa and Texas folk circles and unlikely to forget about a song I performed many times. " - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: FCW091

Bring In That New Jerusalem

DESCRIPTION: "I've got a mother who's gone to glory (x3), Bringing in that new Jerusalem." "It's all free grace and never-dying love (x3), Bringing in that new Jerusalem." Repeat with father, brother, sister
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death father mother brother sister
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 79, "Bringing in That New Jerusalem" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21328
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Other Bright Shore" (lyrics) and references there
File: Joyn079

Bring in the Punch Ladle

See Fathom the Bowl (File: K268)

Bring Me A Little Water, Silvy

See Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie (File: LoF283)

Bring Me a Rose in the Wintertime

DESCRIPTION: "Give me a rose in the wintertime When it's hard to find Give me a rose... I've got roses on my mind A rose is sweet Most any time, and yet... How easy we forget." Repeat with "Bring me a smile," "a friend," "a kiss," "love in my autumn years"
AUTHOR: Ernie Sheldon (source: mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: Bring Me a Rose (Ernie Sheldon")
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (The Limeliters album "More of Everything)
KEYWORDS: flowers friend love nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p, 195, 543, "Give Me a Rose"/"Bring Me a Rose" (notes only)
NOTES [72 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs on p. 195 calls this "Give Me a Rose," but I'm assuming she means this song, since it's the only camp song I can find that sounds remotely like this, and Averill's second invocation calls it "Bring Me a Rose." According to Frank Hamilton on mudcat.org, "Ernie Sheldon" was a pseudonym for Ernie Lieberman, once of People's Songs, who replaced Glenn Yarborough in The Limeliters when Yarborough went solo. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF194B

Bring Me Back the Boy I Love

See My Blue-Eyed Boy (File: R759)

Bring Me Back the One I Love

See My Blue-Eyed Boy (File: R759)

Bring Me Half a Hoe

DESCRIPTION: Call-response. Calls: "Bring me half a hoe run come go' me yah." "Bush-a want I fi go dig up pitatah." Responses: "Bring me half a hoe." "Bring me half a hoe come gi' me yah."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad worksong | hoe
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Olive Lewin, _Rock It Come Over - The Folk Music of Jamaica_ (Barbados: The University of the West Indies Press, 2000), p. 96, "Bring Me Half a Hoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
unknown, "Half a Whole" (on JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
NOTES [37 words]: The current description follows Lewin. Lewin's second call says "Bush wants me to dig up potatoes"; this is a digging song. On JamaicaFaithWorkPlay almost all the calls are "Bring me half a hole/hoe[?] run come gimme yuh." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcBMHaHo

Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie

DESCRIPTION: "Bring me little water, Sylvie, Bring me little water now, Bring me little water, Sylvie, Ev'ry little once in a while." The field worker, toiling in the hot sun, calls on Sylvie to bring him something to drink. (She points out that she is coming.)
AUTHOR: credited to Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly)
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (recording, Lead Belly)
KEYWORDS: work worksong nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 283, "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 87, "(Bring Me a Little Water, Sylvie" (partial text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 128, "Bring Me A Little Water, Sylvie" (1 text)
DT, WATRSYLV
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 60, "Bring Me a Little Water, Silvy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11654
File: LoF283

Bring Me My Shotgun

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Bring me my shotgun and shells...." Singer's lover has left or kicked him out.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (recording, Lightnin' Hopkins)
KEYWORDS: infidelity nonballad lover rejection
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Lightnin' Hopkins, "Shot Gun" (Imperial 5834, 1948)
Sonny Boy Watson, "Bring Me My Shotgun" (on USMississippi01)
NOTES [53 words]: Lightnin' Hopkins and Sonny Boy Watson have a different slant on this blues. Lightnin' Hopkins's shotgun may be a phallic symbol: he's going to take it home; there'll be trouble if he doesn't find "competition." Watson is going to look for his lover: "if I don't find my baby there's going to be some trouble here." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcBrMeMS

Bring the Gold Cup Back to Newtown

DESCRIPTION: Three hundred supporters cheer for the Newtown football team at Enniskillen. The critical plays and players are named as Newtown defeats Irvinestown. "We've conquered two great teams: Lisnaskea and Roslea and "brought the gold cup for the second time"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (IRHardySons)
KEYWORDS: sports moniker
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #17890
RECORDINGS:
Big John Maguire, "Bring the Gold Cup Back to Newtown" (on IRHardySons)
NOTES [17 words]: Notes to IRHardySons: "All the place-names mentioned make it clear that Newtown is Newtownbutler." - BS
File: RcBtGCBN

Bring Us Good Ale

DESCRIPTION: The singer, "for our blessed Lady's sake," demands that the server "Bring us in good ale." Other foods are rejected (e.g. "Bring us in no brown bread, for that is made of bran, And bring us in no white bread, for therein is no gain.")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1475 (Oxford, MS. Bodl. Eng. Poet. e.1)
KEYWORDS: food drink nonballad MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #422, pp. 285-286, "(no title)" (2 texts)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics CXXVIII, pp. 222-223, "(no title)" (1 text)
Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics 82, "(Bryng Us in Good Ale)" (1 text)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, p. 245, "Bring us in Good Ale" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 43, "(no title)" (1 text, in an appendix to a "Christmas Carol," i.e. the Salutation Carol)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 30-31, "Nowell, Nowell" (1 tune, with a fragment of this text appended)
DT, BRINGALE*
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #549
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #893
ADDITIONAL: Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Mdieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #88, pp. 154-155, "(Bryng us in good ale, and bryng us in good ale)" (1 text)
Rossell Hope Robbins, Secular Lyrics of the XIVth and XVth Century , Oxford University Press, 1952, pp. 9-10, "Bring Good AleI" (1 text)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #222, p. 482, "Bring us in Good Ale" (1 text)
Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, pp. 31-32, "(no title)" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #72, "Bring Us In Good Ale" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 41
MANUSCRIPT: {MSHarley541}, London, British Library, MS. Harley 541, folio 214
Roud #32821
NOTES [184 words]: This is another song that cannot be demonstrated to have circulated in oral tradition. Its prevalence in the printed collections (starting with Ritson and Gammer Gurton's Garland), however, argues for its inclusion here -- especially as there are two distinct Middle English texts, from Bodleian MS. Eng. poet e. 1 (eight stanzas) and British Library MS. Harley 541 (six stanzas), a manuscript with only about nine poetic items although there is much other material.
According to RIckert, one of the manuscripts contains a note which seems to say that this is sung to the same tune as a carol which begins, "Nowel, nowell, nowell, This is the salutation of the angel Gabriel" -- i.e. the song indexed as "The Salutation Carol." For this tune, see Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic. However, Nettel, p 31, says that the association of text and tune is due to a bookbinding mistake, and that the carol and drinking song do not even fit the same melody.
For more about the famous anthology Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: MEL82

Bring Us in Good Ale

See Bring Us Good Ale (File: MEL82)

Bringing Him In Alive

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you folks of the timberlands and listen to my song About a guy... so gallant, green, and strong. He said he'd battle any bear," so the loggers send him out to find one -- but unload his gun. He soon returns, claiming "I'm bringing him in alive"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: bragging logger hunting animal bug humorous talltale
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 43, "Bringing Him In Alive" (1 text)
Roud #18188
File: BeLo043

Bringing in the Sheaves

DESCRIPTION: The farmers go out "sowing in the morning (evening, sunshine, shadows, etc.), sowing seeds of kindness." In the end, "We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves"
AUTHOR: Words: Knowles Shaw (1834-1878) / Music: George A. Minor (1845-1904)
EARLIEST DATE: Change to 1874 (words), 1880 (music)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 173-175, "Bringin In the Sheaves" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 351, "Bringing In The Sheaves" (1 text)
DT, BRINGSHV*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 194-196, "Bringing in the Sheaves" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14041
RECORDINGS:
Eva Quartette, "Bringing In the Sheaves" (Gennett 6335, 1927; Champion 15448 [as Dixie Sacred Quartette]/Challenge 402 [as Ellington Sacred Quartette or McDonald Quartette]/Superior 365 [as McDonald Quartette]/Supertone 9271 [as Brockman Sacred Singers], 1928; Silvertone 8175 [as Dixie Sacred Quartette], 1933; Silvertone 8261 [as McDonald Quartette]; Herwin 75567 [as Woodlawn Quartette]. n.d.)
Earl Johnson's Dixie Entertainers, "Bringing In the Sheaves" (OKeh 45512, 1931; rec. 1930)
Parker & Dodd, "Bringing In the Sheaves" (Conqueror 8131, 1933)
Stamps Quartet, "Bringing In the Sheaves" (Victor 21035, 1927)
SAME TUNE:
Bringing In the Cows (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 105)
We'll Make the Nation Dry ("Come ye loyal workers, join the temp'rance army") (by George A. Minor) (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 23)
Montana's Going Dry ("Come, ye loyal workers, join the temperance army") (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 30)
NOTES [63 words]: Based, rather loosely, on Psalm 126:6, translated in the King James version as "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." In the New Revised Standard Version, this becomes "Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, Carrying their sheaves." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: FSWB351C

Brisbane Ladies

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to the Brisbane Ladies, promising, "We'll rant and we'll roar like true Queensland natives...." He describes the trip he and the boys make from town "to the old cattle station. What joy and delight is the life in the bush!"
AUTHOR: Saul Mendelsohn? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (_Boomerang_ magazine, according to AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: travel work Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 162-163, "Brisbane Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, p, pp. 26-27, "Ladies of Brisbane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 120-121, "Ladies of Brisbane (The Drover's Song)"; pp. 122-123, "Ladies of Brisbane (Augathella Station)" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 214-216, "Brisbane Ladies" (1 text)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 226-227, "The Drover's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 41-42, "Farewell and Adieu to You, Brisbane Ladies" (1 text)
DT, QUNSLAND*
Roud #687
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Brisbane Ladies" (on JGreenway01)
A. L. Lloyd, "Brisbane Ladies" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd08)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Spanish Ladies" (plot, tune, lyrics) and references there
NOTES [182 words]: An Australian rewrite of "Farewell and Adieu to you Spanish Ladies." The differences between the two, in this case, strike me as large enough to require separate classification.
According to John S. Manifold, Who Wrote the Ballads? Notes on Australian Folksong, Australasian Book Society, 1964, p. 91, "In about 1890, a Mr Saul Mendelsohn at Nanango (jackarooing there, if I rightly recall what his son told me some years ago) came across the song [i.e. "Spanish Ladies"] and wrote a sort of parody, changing teh sea-marks into landmarks, and the voyage from Ferrol into a homeward trip from Brisbne. Under the name of 'The Drover's Song' it was published in The Boomerang in 1891... Sentiments and diction alike are irreproachably jackaroo, except where lines of the sea-going original are retained." Manifold on p. 92 prints two verses of this to prove his point; the text is also available in Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. But then Manifold demonstrates how much oral tradition has changed the Mendelsohn text. Can it still be regarded as Mendelsohn's? Opinions may well vary. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: FaE162

Brisk and Bonny Lad

See The Brisk and Bonny Lass (The Brisk and Bonny Lad) (File: K244)

Brisk and Bonny Lass, The (The Brisk and Bonny Lad)

DESCRIPTION: Cheerful description of the life of a farm girl. She wakes at dawn and milks the cows as the larks sing; at haying time they go dancing, At harvest they work, then celebrate; even in winter, all are happy; she declares herself content to be a country lass
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Barrett)
KEYWORDS: courting farming harvest work dancing nonballad worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 244, "The Brisk and Bonny Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 120, "Happy Country Lass" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #17, "The Country Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 268-269, "The Brisk and Bonny Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #606
RECORDINGS:
James & Bob Copper, "The Contented Country Lad" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD41)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Country Life" (theme)
cf. "The Contented Countryman" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Country Lass
Harvest Home Song
NOTES [74 words]: With mechanization and the change from female to male labor on farms, some versions have switched the sex of the narrator. - PJS
Sometimes in midstream, in fact.
I find myself wondering if this didn't start out as a fragment of a proper ballad about a brisk farm girl, with the actual plot (about a marriage, perhaps? -- the beginning of the song sounds very much like a ballad of that type) being broken off and replaced by these lyrics. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: K244

Brisk and Lively Lad, The

See The London Heiress (The Brisk and Lively Lad) (File: MoMa033)

Brisk Young Bachelor (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Young man, recently married, laments the hard work his wife forces him to do and counsels other bachelors, before marrying, to reflect on his fate.
AUTHOR: unknown ("The Party That Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was a Married Man" by Fleta Jan Brown)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: marriage shrewishness work nonballad humorous bachelor
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(SE) Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1291, "The Poor Man's Labour" (7 texts, 4 tunes)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 142, "The Old Bachelor" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 31, "The Poor Man's Labor's Never Done" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 69, "The Brisk Young Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 19, "Brisk Young Bachelor" (5 texts)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 133, "The Brisk Young Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 71-72, "Poor Man's Sorrows" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 72-74, "The Man Who Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was a Married Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1572
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Morton w. orchestra, "The Party That Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was a Married Man" (Victor 5513, 1908; Victor 16758, 1911; on Protobilly)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Man Who Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was a Married Man" (on NLCR03)
Charlie Parker & Mack Woolbright, "The Man Who Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was A Married Man" (Columbia 15236-D, 1928; rec. 1927; on GoodForWhatAilsYou, Protobilly)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 14(152), "Poor Man's Labour Never Done," unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.16(22), "Poor Man's Labour Never Done"; Harding B 25(1535) [partly illegible], "A Poor Man's Labour's Never Done"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sporting Bachelors" (plot)
cf. "Young Munro" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
cf. "Home, Sweet Home (Parody)" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Was a Young Man
NOTES [120 words]: Although the theme is identical with "The Sporting Bachelors", it's a separate song, in my opinion.
Although the tune, chorus, etc. of ["The Man Who Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was a Married Man" ] are completely different from the British song, I unhesitatingly lump them together; the verses are essentially identical, although not identically worded.
The compilers of the compilation "Good For What Ails You" have unearthed the fact that the lyricist of the original "Home Sweet Home," John Howard Payne, in fact never was a married man. - PJS
Lyle Lofgren writes that Fleta Jan Brown wrote "The Party That Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was A Married Man" in 1908. So it presumably is a knock-off of the British song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: ShH69

Brisk Young Bachelor (II), The

See The Holly Twig [Laws Q6] (File: LQ06)

Brisk Young Butcher, The

DESCRIPTION: A (butcher) stays at an inn; he offers a serving girl money to lay with him. She does. Given his bill, he says he gave the girl the money and didn't get change. A year later, he comes back. She shows him her child and says it is his change
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 216)
KEYWORDS: money trick sex pregnancy travel
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #152, p. 2, ("It's of a brisk young butcher"); "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 25, ("It was a brisk young butcher lad") (4 fragments)
Greig/Duncan7 1466, "The Butcher and the Chambermaid" (12 texts, 8 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 158-159, "The Butcher and Chamber Maid" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #38, "The Brisk Young Butcher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, pp. 52-53, "The Manchester Chambermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, XMASGOOS XMASGOO2*
Roud #167
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Butcher and the Chambermaid" (on Lloyd5, Lloyd12)
Harvey Nicholson, "The Copshawholm Butcher" (on Voice10)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 216, "The Leicester Chambermaid" ("Its of a brisk young butcher as I have heard 'em say"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(2105), Firth b.28(25a) View 2 of 2[some words illegible], Harding B 11(2103), Firth c.18(304), Harding B 11(2104), Harding B 11(2654), "The Leicester Chambermaid"; 2806 c.17(232), "London Butcher"; 2806 c.17(68), "The Chambermaid"
Murray, Mu23-y1:040, "The Butcher and the Chamber Maid," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Basket of Eggs" (plot) and references there
cf. "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Christmas Goose
The Ten Dollar Bill
The Jolly Flesher
Aikey Fair
File: DTxmasgo

Brisk Young Farmer, The

See William Hall (The Brisk Young Farmer) [Laws N30] (File: LN30)

Brisk Young Lad, The

DESCRIPTION: "There cam' a young man to my daddie's door... a-seeking me to woo." The singer feeds him while she bakes. He just sits there. At last she bids him depart. He trips over the "duck-dub"; they shout and laugh at him as he departs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1790 (_Scots Musical Museum_ #219)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 294-296, "The Brisk Young Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan4 892, "The Brisk Young Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 359, "The Cauldrife Wooer" (1 text)
DT, BRISKLAD
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #219, p. 228, "The Brisk Young Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6139
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4132), "The Brisk Young Lad ("There came a young man to my daddy's door"), W. McCall (Liverpool), 1857-1877
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "An Old Man Came Over the Moor (Old Gum Boots and Leggings)" (theme)
cf. "Bung Your Eye" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4) / "Bung Your Eye In The Morning" (tune, per Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
File: FVS294

Brisk Young Lively Lad, The

See The London Heiress (The Brisk and Lively Lad) (File: MoMa033)

Brisk Young Lover, A

See Tavern in the Town (File: ShH94)

Brisk Young Lover, The

See The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: LP24)

Brisk Young Man He Courted Me, A

See Tavern in the Town (File: ShH94)

Brisk Young Plougboy, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you jolly ploughboys, come listen to my lays... I'll sing the ploughboy's praise." Early in the morning, he cares for his team, then sets out to plow. The farmer feeds them well for their work. The corn is growing and all celebrate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Broadwood, Old English Songs, according to Palmer)
KEYWORDS: farming food horse nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #4, "The Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 200-201, "Brisk Young Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1205
File: PECS004

Brisk Young Rover, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer enlists in the army, is sent to Scotland, and falls in love. He gives her a ring and "she gave me her right hand." He is sent to the Indies. At sea, "still I thought on yon weel-faured maid The bonnie lass I loved most dearly"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: courting love army separation Scotland soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #103, p. 2, "The Brisk Young Rover" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 85, "The Brisk Young Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5794
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Martimas Time" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
When I was in My 18th Year
File: GrD1085

Brisk Young Sailor Lad, The

See Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)

Brisk Young Sailor, A

See Tavern in the Town (File: ShH94)

Brisk Young Sailor, The

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Brisk Young Widow, A

DESCRIPTION: "In Chester town there lived a brisk young widow, For beauty and fine clothes none could excel her." "A lover soon there came, a brisk young farmer." She wants a "lively lad" who has money. But when a "sooty collier" courts her, she marries him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: love wife courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 138, "A Brisk Young Widow" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: KaCr138

Bristol Channel Jamboree

See Whip Jamboree (Whup Jamboree) (File: Br3230)

Bristol City

DESCRIPTION: In Bristol City the singer hears Polly singing about her sailor, "so true to his love": sailors are honourable and courageous in war. The sailor praises Polly. He will build her a castle. "You shall be my shepherdess, and I'll be your dear swain"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
KEYWORDS: love war separation sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #32, p. 2, "Bristol City" (1 fragment)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 162-163, "Bristol City" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 26, "The Jolly Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1087
NOTES [69 words]: Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs: "From 'A Favorite Ballad, sung by Mr. Huttley, at the Convivial Societys [sic] of Bath and Bristol.' Printed by Preston and Sons, London. No excuse need be offered for including this pretty tune, though the song is, strictly speaking, outside the scope of the collection, since it is not in any sense traditional." Nevertheless, the song is said to be from Somersetshire. - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: Grg032a

Bristol Coachman, The

DESCRIPTION: A coachman is enticed home by a girl. Her husband catches him. The coachman proposes "if I have slept with your good wife, I'll let you sleep with mine." The husband demands forty or fifty pounds.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(109))
KEYWORDS: infidelity bargaining humorous husband rake
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 409, "Up at Piccadilly oh!" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #238, p. 153, "(Up at Piccadilly oh!)"
Roud #19723
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(109), "Whip Away For Ever O" ("Come all you country lasses, come listen to my song"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 25(287), "The Bristol Coachman"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Jolly Bristol Coachman
File: OO2409

Bristol Garland The

See The Merchant's Daughter of Bristol (File: BeCo216)

Bristol Town

DESCRIPTION: "Bristol Town, as I heard tell, A rich merchant there did dwell." His daughter loves a sailor. The father tells a servant to kill the sailor. The servant instead tells the sailor to hide. When the father dies, the girl and the sailor marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting sailor father trick death reunion marriage servant
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 10-15, 114-115, "Bristol Town" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Roud #1058
File: LEBC010

Britannia on Our Lee

DESCRIPTION: "A wet sheet and a flowing sea And a wind that follows fair... Away our good ship flies and leave (Columbia/Britannia) on our lee." The singer hopes for a good wind and rejoices in the life at sea
AUTHOR: Words: Allan Cunningham (1785-1842)
EARLIEST DATE: 1822 (Atheneum, or Spirit of English Magazines, according to Jim Dixon. Four different nineteenth century broadsides are listed in Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 172)
KEYWORDS: ship sea sailor nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 186, "A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 49-50, "A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads, XXXIX, p. 57, "A Sea Song" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2548, p. 172, "A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea" (4 references)
Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 50, "A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: [No author listed], _The Household Treasury of English Song_, T. Nelson and Sons, 1872, pp. 182-183, "A Sea-Song" (1 text)
[no editor listed], _Atheneum, or, Spirit of the English Magazines_, Volume 12, Boston, 1822 (available on Google Books), p. 195
Roud #2014
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Low, Black Schooner" (lyrics, tune)
SAME TUNE:
Alma Mater (by A. T. Pierson, [Class of 18]57) ("All hail to dear old Hamilton, 'Sweet mother' of our youth") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 6)
Come Raise the Song ("Come brothers, let us raise the song, Let hearts and voice agree") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 52)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Columbia on Our Lee
File: SWMS049

Britannia Sat Weeping

DESCRIPTION: Britannia weeps as pleasure is replaced by war and sailors fight for "country and king"; "John Bull has been ruin'd by pension and place." Rich and poor are brothers and we can never kindle war and still flourish with liberty in our happy home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.15(294))
KEYWORDS: war England political
FOUND IN:
Roud #V7898
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.15(294), "Britannia Sat Weeping" ("Britannia sat weeping as pleasure pass'd by"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(3769), Harding B 16(37c), "Britannia Sat Weeping"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Daughter of Israel" (tune, per broadside Bodleian 2806 c.15(294))
NOTES [45 words]: Zimmermann p. 54 uses "Britannia Sat Weeping" to illustrate the popularity in the 17th and 18th centuries of a country -- Italy, France, Ireland and Britain -- as "a poor woman asking for help."
Does the reference to the king date the origin to a war before Victoria? - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BrdBrSWe

Britannia, the Pride of the Ocean

See Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean (Britannia, the Pride of the Ocean) (File: FSWB044)

British Buonaparte, The

See My Master's Gun (I'm a Prentice Boy, My Name Is Bob) (File: PCL011)

British Grenadiers, The

DESCRIPTION: "Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules... And such great men as these..." but none can compare, "with a row- row-row, row-row-row To the British Grenadiers." The prowess of the Grenadiers is praised, and toasts are offered to them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (_Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_, Vol. XIV, No. LXXVIII, p. 9)
KEYWORDS: soldier drink battle nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 109-112, "The British Grenadiers" (plus parody, "Aitcheson's Carabineers")
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 152-153, "The British Grenadiers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 262-264, "Nancy; or, Sir Edward Noel's Delight; or All You That Love Good Fellows" (3 tunes, reputed to be ancestor of this song although Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime links it to "The Valiant London Apprentice" [Laws Q38])
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 31-33, "British Grenadiers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 36, "The British Grenadiers" (1 tune, partial text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 198, "The British Grenadiers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 44-45, "The British Grenadiers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #20, "The British Grenadiers" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 279, "The British Grenadiers" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 153-154+, "The British Grenadiers"
DT, BRITGREN*
ST Log109 (Full)
Roud #11231?
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Cornwallis's Surrender" (tune)
cf. "Free America" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Free America (File: Arn014)
Lord Cornwallis's Surrender (File: SBoA088)
Eight Hour Day (Sing Out!, Volume 28, #3 (1980), pp. 28-29)
The New Masacusetts Liberty Song ("That Seat of Science Athen's, and Earth's great Mistress Rome") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 37; Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, pp. 22-23; also used as the frontispiece)
Washington: A Favorite New Song in the American Camp ("Vain Britons, boast no longer with proud Indignity") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 63)
NOTES [112 words]: That this song is old is obvious. Logan-APedlarsPack argues that the words must date from between 1678 (when the Grenadier companies were formed) and the reign of Queen Anne (died 1714), when Grenadiers ceased to carry grenades and became simply elite troops. The earlier date is fairly solid; the latter, of course, has the problem that a songwriter might not know that grenadiers had become a general term.
The same problems attend the tune. Fuld reports on various prints from around 1750, and the various parodies and adaptions categorically date it before 1780. It appears the tune is much older (and may not even be British), but no precise data can be offered. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Log109

British Man-of-War, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a sailor telling his love that he must leave her; he must go into battle. She begs him not to go. He says that he might win glory. He has fought before; he will fight again. He tears his handkerchief in two and gives her half as a token
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: war separation farewell brokentoken
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE,So) Canada(Newf) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 145, "British Man of War" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 38-39, "The British Man-O'-War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 379-380, "The Yankee Man of War" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 13, "The Yankee Man-of-War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 181-182, "British Man-O'-War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 96, "Lovely Susan" (1 stanza, which the editors cannot identify but which matches many texts of this song)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 96, "Lovely Susan" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 226-227, "The Yankee Man o' War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 48-49, "The Fenian Man o' War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 108-110, "The British Man-of-War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 62, "The Yankee Man-of-War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2691, p. 182, "A Yankee Man-of-War" (5 references); #2692, p. 182, "Yankee Man of War, A Companion to the 'Bold Privateer'" (3 references)
DT, BRITMANO
Roud #372 and 4616
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(397a), "[Young] William of the Man-of-War" ("One winter's day as I was walking"), W. Jackson and Son (Birmingham), 1842-1855; also Harding B 16(309b), Harding B 11(4232), Harding B 11(4233), Harding B 11(4234), 2806 c.16(59), "William of the Man-of-War"; Harding B 31(127), Harding B 31(141),"[A] Yankee Man-of-War"; Harding B 11(466), Firth c.12(135), Firth b.26(180), "British Man-of-War"
LOCSinging, hc00037c, "A Yankee Man-of-War," Charles Magnus (New York), no date; also as115330, "Yankee Man of War"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(139), "British Man-of-War," unknown, no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lowlands of Holland" (tune, theme)
cf. "The Cork Men and the New York Men" (subject)
cf. "On Board of a Man-of-War (Young Susan)" (theme, lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
A Yankee Man of War, No. 2 (by M. Hogan) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 182)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Fenian Man-of-War
NOTES [258 words]: As the titles make clear, this general text and tune were applied to whatever war seemed most convenient at the time (e.g. the Mexican War, the Civil War; a British text refers to fighting "the proud Chinee," presumably during the Opium Wars).
The Fenian version (named for the Fenians, a group of Irish-Americans who thought they could gain freedom for Ireland by invading Canada) is slightly changed; the opening is the same, but the broken token is missing, and in the end Bridget agrees that her Patrick should fight for Ireland.
The Fenians actually did purchase a ship, which they named Erin's Hope, but it accomplished nothing except to make one voyage to Ireland -- where no one wanted them. (For more details, see the notes to "The Cork Men and New York Men.") Similarly, they invaded Canada -- and were easily repelled, with many taken captive. Later they built a submarine; its only use was as a fundraising device.
Viewed from any standpoint except pure Irish patriotism, the Fenians were utterly ineffective and really quite silly. (For other examples, see "A Fenian Song (I)" and "The Smashing of the Van.") - RBW
Broadsides Bodleian Harding B 11(466), Firth c.12(135) and Firth b.26(180) refer to the Opium War of 1840-1842; Harding B 31(141) and Harding B 31(141) refer to the American Civil War of 1861-1865; the "William" broadsides are not specific. There are also "answers" [such as Bodleian, 2806 c.16(90), "Susan's Adventures in a British Man-of-War"] and "No. 2's" [such as LOCSinging, cw106880, "Yankee Man-of-War. No. 2." - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: FSC013

British Soldier (I), The (A British Soldier's Grave)

DESCRIPTION: "The war was all ended, And the stars were shining bright" as a soldier lies dying. He sends messages home, telling mother he has kept her gift and promising to meet in heaven. He bids his sister not to weep. He recalls home and the old beech tree
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: soldier death farewell mother sister war burial lover
FOUND IN: US(Ap) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 171-172, "The British Soldier" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 110, "The British Soldier's Grave" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 194-196, "A British Soldier's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1223
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 2600, "A British Soldier's Grave" ("The battle it was over, the stars were shining bright"), unknown, no date; also Harding B 11(470), "A British Soldier's Grave"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying British Sergeant" (subject)
File: MHAp171

British Soldier (II), The

See The Dying British Sergeant (File: Wa010)

British Soldier's Grave, The

See The British Soldier (I) (A British Soldier's Grave) (File: MHAp171)

Britons, Strike Home

DESCRIPTION: "Our ship carried over 900 men, And out of 900, 500 were slain, For range the wild seas, where the wind blows so strong, While our rakish young heroes cry, 'Britons, strike home, my boys,' Cry, 'Britons, strike home.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
KEYWORDS: ship battle death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 729, "Britons, Strike Home, My Boys" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #1187
NOTES [17 words]: Chappell mentions that Henry Purcell wrote a piece, "Britons, Strike Home" -- which is not this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: CPMBSH

Britons, Strike Home, My Boys

See Britons, Strike Home (File: CPMBSH)

Brixham Town

DESCRIPTION: "All ye that love to hear Music performed in air, Pray listen, and give year...." "In Brixham town so rare, For singing sweet and fair, Few can compare." You can read about music in Scripture: David was a musician who played for Saul
AUTHOR: unknown (but see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: music | Saul David
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #9, "Brixham Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #44780
NOTES [132 words]: The notes in Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd say this was "clearly composed at the time of the Commonwealth, 1640-1661," presumably because it defends music at a time when the Puritans were in power and doing away with many old traditions of music. However, the Commonwealth did not execute Charles I until 1649, and Charles II was restored in 1660. In any case, I don't find the argument compelling.
Steve Roud (who has catalogued the many Baring-Gould manuscripts of this) thinks, and I incline to agree, that this really isn't a Commonwealth song; the text at least contains a lot of Baring-Gould's own work.
The story of David occupies part of 1 Samuel, all of 2 Samuel, and the first two chapters of 1 Kings, but the story of David being Saul's musician begins in 1 Samuel 16. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGSW009

Bro' Ephram

See Uncle Eph (File: RcUncEph)

Broad-striped Trousers

See As I Roved Out (I) (Tarry Trousers II) (File: LoF014)

Broadlan' Lan'

DESCRIPTION: The laird of "Broadlan'" hunts in the south where he falls in love with and has sex with a local girl. He would take her home. Her parents say "he's nae the laird o' Broadlan'" but she goes with him anyway. Now she's "the lady o' Broadlan' lan'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: love marriage sex hunting pregnancy father mother nobility
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1494, "Broadlan' Lan'" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #7176
File: GrD71494

Brockagh Brae

DESCRIPTION: John leaves Mary "to take a trip strange lands to explore." He promises to be true and leaves for Belfast. He sails. When he lands at Greendock [sic] he is told to return home. He does, and returns to Mary. They marry and settle at Brockagh Brae.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (recording, Geordie Hanna)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage parting return reunion separation Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #5171
RECORDINGS:
Geordie Hanna, "Brockagh Brae" (on Voice04)
NOTES [61 words]: Hall, notes to Voice04: "'Brockagh Brae' at first sight seems to fall into the category of a footloose young man seeking adventure in emigration, but is actually about the seasonal migration of farm workers to the harvest in Scotland."
Brockagh Mountain is in the Dublin/Wicklow area. Greenock is on the west coast of Scotland across the North Channel from Ireland. - BS
File: RcBroBra

Brocklesby Fair

See Rambleaway (File: ShH31)

Broder Eton Got de Coon

See Uncle Eph (File: RcUncEph)

Broke-Down Brakeman, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas a very cold night in December, ANd the winds were driving the snow," as a "warm-hearted young brakeman" is going off-duty after three days on the job. He dreams of his family, then is called back to work and killed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs)
KEYWORDS: train railroading dream separation death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 62-64, "The Broke-Down Brakeman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3516
File: Abrr062

Broken Breid o' Auchentumb, The

DESCRIPTION: The broken bread of Auchentumb and the burnt scones of Braka displease the singer.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1648, "The Broken Breid o' Auchentumb" (1 fragment)
Roud #13052
File: GrD81648

Broken Bridges

See London Bridge Is Falling Down (File: R578)

Broken Down

See Hard Up and Broken Down (File: R838)

Broken Engagement (I -- She Was Standing By Her Window), The

DESCRIPTION: The girl asks her fiancee if he truly loves another rather than her. He says he does. She releases him from his promise, and says they will be strangers henceforth. She dies; (he realizes as he stands by her coffin that she was his true love)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Kelly Harrell)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Randolph 771, "The Broken Engagement" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 496-498, "The Broken Engagement" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 771)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 171-173, "The Broken Engagement" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 147-148, "The Broken Engagement"; pp. 149-150, "He Was Standing By the Window" (2 texts)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 157, "They Were Standing by the Window" (4 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 157, "They Were Standing by the Window" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, p. 29, "Broken Engagement" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 47, "Dark Blue Eyes and Raven Hair" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #3535
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "The Broken Engagement" (Decca 5067, 1935)
Betty Garland, "Broken Engagement" (on BGarland01)
Kelly Harrell, "Broken Engagement" (Victor 20280, 1926; on KHarrell01)
Charlie Oaks, "The Broken Engagement" (Vocalion 15144, 1925; Vocalion 5076, c. 1927)
C. A. West, "The Broken Engagement" (Challenge 429, 1928)
Henry Whitter, "The Broken Engagement" (OKeh 45081, 1927; rec. 1926); Henry Whitter & Fiddler Joe [Samuels], "The Broken Engagement" (OKeh, unissued, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broken Engagement (II)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Broken Heart
NOTES [77 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety and Randolph both have songs from the Ozarks called "The Broken Engagement," and they share some lyrics. But the plots are so distinct that I have to list them as separate songs.
Kelly Harrell's song "The Broken Engagement" is again quite different, but it clearly goes with Randolph's text (which it predates and might even have inspired) rather than Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: R771

Broken Engagement (II -- We Have Met and We Have Parted), The

DESCRIPTION: "You may go and win another, Go and win her for your bride." The singer says he has "broke the trust you've plighted." She says not to think of her, though she is true. They will meet as strangers. She will return his letters, and wish they never met
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 212-213, "The Broken Engagement" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 155, "We Have Met and We Have Parted" (4 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 155, "We Have Met and We Have Parted (5 excerpts, 5 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 248, "The Inconstant Lover" (5 texts plus a fragment, admitted by the editors to be distinct songs but with many floating items; "A," "B," and "C" are more "On Top of Old Smokey" than anything else, though without that phrase; "D" is primarily "The Broken Engagement (II -- We Have Met and We Have Parted)," "E" is a mix of "Old Smokey" and "The Cuckoo," and the "F" fragment may also be "Old Smokey")
Randolph 755, "The Broken Heart" (9 texts, 2 tunes, several of which, notably "H," but also the "D" fragment, go here or at least mix with this song)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 165-166, "Last Good-Bye" (1 text)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, p. 42, "We Have Met and We Have Parted" (1 text, 1 tune, which does not mention a broken engagement)
Roud #4250
RECORDINGS:
Frank Blevins, "We Have Met and We Have Parted (Columbia, 1928; unissued but probably this)
Otis High, "Young Ladies Take Warning" (on HandMeDown1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broken Engagament (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Blushing Rose" (lyrics)
NOTES [96 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety and Randolph both have songs from the Ozarks called "The Broken Engagement," and they share some lyrics. But the plots are so distinct that I have to list them as separate songs (note that Randolph also has a text of this song, which he filed with the "Dear Companion/Fond Affection" group).
Kelly Harrell's song "The Broken Engagement" is again quite different, but it clearly goes with Randolph's text (which it predates and might even have inspired) rather than Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Beld212

Broken Engagement (III)

See Broken Ties (I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes) (File: BrII156)

Broken Heart (I), The

See Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection) (File: R755)

Broken Heart (II -- Dearest One, Don't You Remember)

DESCRIPTION: "Dearest one, don't you remember The last time we did part? My feelings of[t]times have been tender While piercing pains roll through my heart." The singer recalls how they loved each other; she says troubles caused them to part. She still dreams of him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 158, "The Broken Heart" (1 text)
Roud #6575
NOTES [29 words]: Standard treacle, and not necessarily a song; it comes from manuscript. Neither the editors of Brown nor I recognize it. It looks rather composed to me -- it's quite stiff. - RBW
File: BrII158

Broken Heart (III), The

See Broken Ties (I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes) (File: BrII156)

Broken Home, The

DESCRIPTION: "The church bells they were ringing... Just two short years ago... Two hearts had been united, Fair (Lillian) and Joe." All was well until a former lover showed up and stole Ann away. Now Joe is left lamenting with a broken home and a child in the cradle
AUTHOR: Will H. Fox
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Spaeth)
KEYWORDS: love marriage betrayal separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 768, "The Broken Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 166-167, "The Broken Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 270-271, "The Broken Home" (1 text)
ST R768 (Full)
Roud #7411
NOTES [33 words]: The plot here is sort of a cleaned-up, de-mystified version of the "House Carpenter." It pretty well demonstrates the intellectual impoverishment that results from appealing to popular culture. - RBW
File: R768

Broken Ring (I), The

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Broken Ring (II), The

See The Dark-Eyed Sailor (Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor) [Laws N35] (File: LN35)

Broken Ring Song

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Broken Ring Song fragment

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Broken Shovel, The

DESCRIPTION: "Good Christians all, come and lend an ear... It's of Barney Gallagher so bold and thrue, Arrah that broke me shovel." Neddy Kearn asks why Gallagher did it. Gallagher says he will break the jaw of those who question him. He and McGlynn fight.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining fight
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, p. 56, "The Broken Shovel" (1 text)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 371-373, "The Broken Shovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7717
File: KPL371

Broken Ties (I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes)

DESCRIPTION: "It would have been better for us both to have never In this wicked world never met." The singer recalls how the other once loved (her?); when she is dead, she asks if he will come and shed a tear on her grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal death burial
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 156, "Broken Ties" (3 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 156, "Broken TIes" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Randolph [811], "How Sadly My Heart Yearns Toward You" (omitted from the second edition)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 140, "Broken Vows" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 60, "Blue Eyes" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 167, "Blue Eyes" (1 text)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 229-230, "The Broken Heart" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 60, "The Old Prisoner's Song" (1 text, 1 tune, the first verse of which probably floated in from "Broken Ties (I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" although the rest is clearly "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight" or part of that family)
DT, BLUEEYES
ADDITIONAL: Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirschberg, _Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone: The Carter Family & Their Legacy in American Music_, Simon & Schuster, 2002, pp. 217-218, "(I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes)" (1 text)
Roud #460
RECORDINGS:
Gene Autry, "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" OKeh 06648 /Columbia 36587, 1942; Columbia 20049, n.d.)
The Carter Family, "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" (Victor V-40089, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-4230, 1933) (ARC 35-09-23/Conqueror 8539, 1935; Vocalion 04442/OKeh 04442, 1938)
Jimmie Davis, "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" (Decca 6006/Melotone [Canada] 45484, 1941)
Denver Darling & his Texas Cowhands, "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" (Decca 6005, 1941/Decca 46225, 1950)
Montana Slim [pseud. for Wilf Carter] "I'm Thinking Tonight of my Blue Eyes" (Bluebird [Canada] B-4735/Bluebird B-9032, 1942; Victor 20-2071, 1947; rec. 1941)
Saddle Tramps, "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" (Vocalion 04037, 1938)
Shelton & Fox, "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" (Decca 5184, 1936)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Great Speckled Bird" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
[Same tune as the Carter Family melody "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes:]
The Great Speckled Bird (File: R621)
The Wild Side of Life (by Hank Williams)
It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels (by J. D. Miller)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Broken Engagement
NOTES [367 words]: Paul Stamler suggests that we should call this song "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes." Certainly that's the version most of us know today, thanks to the Carter Family and all its spinoffs. It appears, however, that the majority of traditional versions are called either "Broken Ties" or "Broken Vows." Of course, the whole family is rather amorphous; I could argue, for instance, for splitting off Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands's "Broken Vows." As it is, I split it more than Roud, who also includes the "Forget You I Never May" family here.
Pre-Carter Family texts of this seem to lack the "Blue Eyes" chorus, but some later versions (e.g. the "C" text in Brown, from 1930) add it; there may be some sort of cause and effect.
D. K. Wilgus, in Paredes/Stekert, pp. 156-157, makes an interesting point about the "I'm Thinking Tonight of my Blue Eyes" version: it inspired and supplied the tune for two of the most influential songs in the history of pop country music: Hank Thompson's "The Wild Side of Life" and the J. D. Thompson song "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels," the 1952 Kitty Wells answer to "The Wild Side of Life." (Reportedly Wells was coaxed out of retirement to record the latter, and sold 800,000 copies. I don't know if that is true -- I don't have a reliable source for that statement -- but it is certainly true that she hadn't had much success to that point; EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 422..) It's also close to the "The Great Speckled Bird." This was something that gave Ralph Peer, who owned the copyright to both "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" and "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels," a lot of chances for copyright fun (Mazor, p. 239).
Zwonitzer/Hirschberg, p. 217, tells that when the Carter Family was working on border radio in February 1939, Sara Carter one night announced that she was dedicating a performance of this song to Coy Bays, her one-time boyfriend who had been pushed to leave Clinch Mountain. They would, of course, soon reunite.
Sara didn't remake the song for the purpose, of course; the Carters had first recorded their modified version of the traditional song a decade before. But it obviously gave it extra meaning. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: BrII156

Broken Token (I), The

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Broken Token (II), The

See The Female Highwayman [Laws N21] (File: LN21)

Broken Token (III), The

See The Dark-Eyed Sailor (Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor) [Laws N35] (File: LN35)

Broken Vows

See Broken Ties (I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes) (File: BrII156)

Broken-down Gentleman, The

See Epsom Races (File: K318)

Broken-Down Sport

See The Tramp (II) (File: R843)

Broken-Down Squatter, The

DESCRIPTION: "For the banks are all broken they say, And the merchants are all up a tree, When the bigwigs are brought to the bankruptcy court, what chance for a squatter like me?" Tales of a (bankrupt and now wandering) squatter's life in depression times
AUTHOR: Charles Flower
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson, _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: horse poverty Australia hardtimes
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 42-43, 236-237, "The Broken-Down Squatter" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads, pp. 12-13, "The Broken Down Squatter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 147-149, "The Broken-Down Squatter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 154-155, "The Broken-Down Squatter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 60-61, "Broken Down Squatter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 115-118, "The Broken-Down Squatter" (1 text)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 16, "The Broken Down Squatter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 43-44, "The Broken-Down Squatter" (1 text)
DT, BRKSQUAT*
Roud #8392
NOTES [229 words]: Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia date this to a period of economic downturn between 1891 and 1893 (which to me hints that the squatter may have been the victim of the shearer's strike of 1891). The Penguin Book of Australian Folksongs dates it to the 1880s. Patterson/Fahey/Seal says that author Flower was driven off his property by the economic troubles of the 1880s, so perhaps that is the most likely date. Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong also offers a date in the 1880s although it does not list an author. Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads says specifically 1893.
The notes in Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads suggest that this dates from the period before the squatters had legal rights to their land, meaning they had no recourse in times of trouble. I'm not sure this follows; in any case, they do not date the song or show awareness of the author.
According to Edward E. Morris, A Dictionary of Austral English, 1898 (I use the 1972 Sydney University Press with a new foreword but no new content), p. 420, a "slip-rail" is "part of a fence so fitted that it can be removed so as to serve as a gate. Used also for the gateway thus formed. Generally used in the plural." His first cited instance is from 1870. Thus to "leave the slip-railings down" is to leave the paddock open because there is nothing left for it to hold in. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: MA042

Broken-Hearted (Lost Rosabel)

DESCRIPTION: "They have given you to another; They have broken every vow; They have given you to another." The singer complains that gold has caused her lover's mother to turn to another man. He wishes he had loved her as a brother; he loves her yet
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (Bodleian broadsides)
KEYWORDS: love mother wife rejection
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 238-239, "Broken-Hearted" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 51, "Lost Rosabel" (1 text)
Roud #4332 and 13786
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1264)=Johnson Ballads 830, "Lost Rosabel," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(3405), "Lost Rosabel," A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1845-1859; also Harding B 11(3679), "Lost Rosabel," J. O. Bebbington/J. Beaumong (Manchester and Leeds), 1858-1861; also Firth b.25(600/601)=Firth b.34(275), W. Oroyno (Nottingham), n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Thou Hast Learned to Love Another" (lyrics)
File: Neel238

Broken-hearted Boy, The

See The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)

Broken-Hearted Gardener, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a broken-hearted gardener and don't know what to do, My love she is inconstant and a fickle jade too." The singer calls her his myrtle, geranium, and other flowers. He botanically describes his misery, but rejects suicide because she wants him dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment flowers suicide
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H499, pp. 387-388, "The Broken-Hearted Gardener" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7966
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broken-Hearted Fish Fag"
NOTES [501 words]: This resembles "The Gardener" (Child #219) in its use of flowers to describe emotions, but doesn't use the same sort of emotional symbolism. To this singer, the girl is the flower; in "The Gardener," the flowers describe their relationship.
The fullest description of flower symbolism I've found is from a piece in Norman Ault, Elizabethan Lyrics From the Original Texts, pp. 69-73, "A Nosegay Always Sweet, for Lovers to Send for Tokens of Loave at New Year's Tide, Or for Fairings," which was printed 1584. It offers this list:
"Lavender is for lovers true....
"Rosemary is for remembrance....
"Sage is for sustenance....
"Fennel is for flatterers....
"Violet is for faithfulness....
"Thyme is to try me [the usual meaning is of course virginity]....
"Roses is to rule me....
"Gillyflowers is for gentleness....
"Carnations is for graciousness....
"Marigolds is for marriage....
"Pennyroyal is to print your love So deep within my heart....
"Cowslips is for counsel...."
It will be noted that many of the broken-hearted gardener's flowers aren't in this list. Our Singer offers wild rose, cabbage (!), myrtle, geranium, sunflower, marjoram, tulip, honeysuckle, violet, hollyhock, dahlia, mignonette, apple, sweet pea, snowdrop, ranunculus, hyacinth, gillyflower, polyanthus, heartsease, pink, water lily, buttercup, daisy, daffodowndilly, cherry, mushroom (!), cucumber (!), dandelion, nettle, beetroot, chickweed, and pumpkin. It seems pretty clear that the author of this song knew of the idea of flower symbolism -- but didn't know the details, or simply made up his own.
Most of these herbs had some sort of traditional use as well as a symbolism; sometimes the two were linked. Sage, for instance, was said to improve the mind; Nicolas Culpeper declared that "Sage is of excellent use to help the memory" (Binney, p. 149). William Turner said that lavender was a "comfort to the brain" (Binney, p. 117). Robert Hacket by 1607 declared that rosemary "helpeth the brain, strengtheneth the memory, and is very medicinable for the head" (Binney, p. 86).
According to J. R. R. Tolkien, "heart's ease" was attested as a flower name by the sixteenth century, used for the wallflower or the pansy, and he believes it might have been referred to in Chaucer (Bowers, p. 113), although Bowers does not make it clear what Tolkien was citing (I suspect, after much sleuthing, that it is to line 519 of the "F" prologue, or line 507 of the "G" prologue, of "The Legend of Good Women": "The dayesie, and myn owene heartes reste" ("heartes rest" being equivalent to "heart's ease").
And so forth.
Not every herb is so closely linked in use and meaning; fennel, for instance, was used as a digestive aid (Binney, p. 131; for more on its usage history, see the notes to "The Seven Virgins (The Leaves of Life)"). And thyme, used perhaps in more songs than any plant but the rose, is not mentioned at all in Binney's long list, which includes (I believe) every other plant in Ault's long list except pennyroyal. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: HHH499

Broken-Hearted I Wandered

See The Bonnie Light Horseman (File: HHH122a)

Broken-Hearted Leaser, The

DESCRIPTION: "In a rusty, worn-out cabin sat a broken-heated leaser, his singlejack was resting on his knee," and he tells it, "I still believe you'll strike it just the same." He's been at it for forty years without success, but he still dreams of striking it rich
AUTHOR: Charles E. Winter (soure: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Winter, Grandaon of Sierra, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 148, "The Broken-Hearted Leaser" (1 text)
File: LDC148

Broken-Hearted Milkman, The

See Polly Perkins of Paddington Green (File: HHH132)

Broken-Hearted Shearer, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a broken-hearted shearer and ashamed to show my face." Having earned a good cheque, he heads to Sydney and falls in love with a barmaid. He spends freely and ends up broke. She tells him she is married, so he is left with neither money nor girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: sheep work money hardtimes courting rejection wife
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 184-185, "The Broken-Hearted Shearer" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: AnSt184

Bronc Peeler's Song

DESCRIPTION: "I've been upon the prairie, I've been upon the train, I've never rid a steamboat" but he has ridden many treeless trails. Now he sees wire fences enclosing the land. Soon all will be gone and the "cowdogs" will be in hell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work home technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 11-12, "Bronc Peeler's Song" (1 text)
Roud #8052
File: ThLo011

Broncho Buster, The

See The Bucking Broncho (The Broncho Buster) [Laws B15] (File: LB15)

Bronco Buster, The

DESCRIPTION: "I once knew a guy that thought he was swell... He tooted and spouted... He could ride any critter that ever wore hair." A group of cowboys bring a horse, Sue, to test him. He is thrown: "The evidence shows that he didn't make good."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse recitation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 82, "The Bronco Buster" (1 text)
File: Ohr082

Bronco Jack's Thanksgiving

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas this time jest a year ago on this Thanksgivin' Day That me and' Bronco Jack stood up, an' pa gave me away." This though she had been warned that Jack was wild. They have twin children. He is a good husband but hopes there will be no more children
AUTHOR: Words: James Burton Adams
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy marriage children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 12-14, "Bronco Jack's Thanksgiving" (1 text)
File: ThLo012

Bronco Lane Had a Pain

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme: "Bronco Lane had a pain, So they sent for Wagon Train." "Wagon Train was no good, So they sent for Robin Hood." And so on, through a potentially endless chain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Ritchie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope Robinhood
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #48, "Brone Lane had a pain" (1 text)
Roud #20189
File: AJRR048

Bronk That Wouldn't Bust, The

See I've Busted Broncs (File: PRJL037)

Brookfield Murder, The [Laws F8]

DESCRIPTION: Joseph Buzzell, who is being sued by Susan Hanson for breach of (marriage) contract, hires [Charles] Cook to kill her. The body is discovered by the family. Young ladies are warned against "reptiles" such as Buzzell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: homicide corpse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1847 - Joseph Buzzell arranges for the murder of Susan Hanson. The murder is carried out by Charles Cook, who is mentally handicapped. Buzzell was therefore executed and Cook condemned to life in prison
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws F8, "The Brookfield Murder"
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp.175-177, "The Brookfield Murder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 20 "The Brookfield Murder" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 552-553, "The Brookfield Murder" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 667, BROOKFLD*
Roud #2257
NOTES [35 words]: Although Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland's text, seemingly the only collected and printed version (Botkin's version is from Linscott) calls the girl "Hanson," Laws at one point calls her "Heston." Typo? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: LF08

Brooklyn Fire, The

See The Brooklyn Theatre Fire [Laws G27] (File: LG27)

Brooklyn Theatre Fire, The [Laws G27]

DESCRIPTION: A large audience is in the Brooklyn Theatre (to watch a performance of "The Two Orphans"). The scenery catches fire and the crowd panics. The next day the theatre is a charred ruin packed with bodies. A mass funeral is planned
AUTHOR: P. J. Downey
EARLIEST DATE: before 1882 (Wehman broadside reproduced by Cohen)
KEYWORDS: fire death funeral disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 5, 1876 - 295 (?) people die in a fire at a Brooklyn theatre
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws G27, "The Brooklyn Theatre Fire"
Randolph 688, "The Brooklyn Fire" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 243, "The Brooklyn Theater Fire" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 324-329, "The Brooklyn Theater Fire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 78-80, "The Two Orphans" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 114-116, "The Two Orphans, or, The Brooklyn Theatre Fire" (1 text plus a broadside print)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 285-287, "The Two Orphans" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 82-84, "The Two Orphans" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 107-108, "The Two Orphans" (1 text) (p.86 in the 1919 edition)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 266-268, "The Two Orphans [Brooklyn Theater Fire]" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 640, BRKLYNFR*
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 104-105, "The Brooklyn Theatre" (1 text)
Roud #3258
NOTES [280 words]: In the mid-nineteenth century, theatre fires were a standard occupational hazard in New York. According to E. J. Kahn, Jr., The Merry Partners: The Age and Stage of Harrigan and Hart, Random House, 1955, p. 224, "A couple of surveys made in 1878 and in 1882 revealed that one out of every four theatres burned within the first four years of its construction, and that the average flame-free life expectancy of any theatre was a mere twelve years."
On p. 227, Kahn says, "The worst toll exacted by any theatre fire occurred on December 6, 1876, when the Brooklyn Theatre, then barely five years old, burned. The Two Orphans was playing there.... Twelve hundred people were in the audience that night, and the play had nearly ended, when fire broke out in the fly gallery. At first the flames were visible only to the cast and backstage crew, and the actors, after hesitating momentarily, went on with their lines, while the stagehands tried ineffectually to stop the blaze. Since there were neither hoses nor buckets on hand, there wasn't much they could do. Then the audience spotted the fire, and a stir of apprehension swept through it." One of the actresses, Kate Claxton, tried to calm the crowd so they could exit calmly, but then the fire exploded. Many managed to escape, but after the fire died down, many bodies were found in the wreckage. Kahn, p. 228, says that there were 289 deaths in all.
Kahn, p. 228, adds that Claxton continued to perform in "The Two Orphans" for another two decades, and watched half a dozen theatres burn during her career, eventually becoming so traumatized that she would never go more than one flight of stairs away from street level. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LG27

Brooklyn, The

DESCRIPTION: "There is a bark, a gallant bark, which lies in Boston Bay, Awaiting there her orders... She is bound for the coast of Cuba." She encounters a Spanish-speaking "private" (pirate?). The Brooklyn sinks her; the singer drinks success to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: ship battle pirate drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 28, "The Brooklyn" (1 text, 3 tunes; from different sources)
Roud #V29712
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Warlike Seamen" (lyrics, form)
NOTES [70 words]: This is clearly derived from the same basic song as "Warlike Seamen"; I thought about lumping them. But clearly one is a rewrite of the other, so we keep them separate. Frank suggests that this might be the original, because it was collected earlier, but "Warlike Seamen" gives every evidence of referring to an earlier period; I strongly doubt "The Brooklyn" is older. Whether it is traditional is open to question. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Fran028

Broom Dasher

See Green Broom (File: ShH49)

Broom o the Cowdenknowes (II - lyric), The

DESCRIPTION: "How blythe each more was I to see My lass come ower the hill, She tripped the burn and ran to me, I met her wi' good will." The singer is exiled for loving the girl (who is above his station?). "To wander by her side again Is a' I crave or care."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1725 (_A Collection of Old Ballads Vol III_, #69)
KEYWORDS: love separation exile
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Bronson 217, "The Broom of Cowdenknows" (21 versions+1 in addenda; the #4 version belongs here, implying that at least some of #1-#6 also go with this piece)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 293-295, "The Broom of Cowden-Knowes" (1 excerpt plus a text and tune from the Child ballad)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 458-461, "The Broom, The Bonny Broom" (1 excerpt, 1 tune, which could be either the lyric or the ballad, but it's more likely the lyric because it's the tune and chorus typical of the lyric and unusual for the ballad) {Bronson's #1}
DT, COWDENKN*
ADDITIONAL: [Ambrose Phillips?,] A Collection of Old Ballads Vol III, (London, 1725), #44, pp. 236-237, "The Broom of Cowdenknow" [.".. Cowdenknows" in Table of Contents]
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume I, #69, p. 70, "The Broom of Cowdenknows" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST DTcowden (Partial)
Roud #8209
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broom of Cowdenknows" [Child 217] (tune & meter)
NOTES [321 words]: Although this song is very popular in folk revival circles (probably because it has the excellent "Cowdenknowes" tune but is short), it is much less popular in tradition than its ballad cousin.
It's interesting to note that the Scots Musical Museum version, which is by far the earliest known to me, is longer than any I've ever heard sung: Eight stanzas plus the chorus. I rather suspect rewriting, because some of the verses are pretty poor. The tune is not quite the same as what we usually hear today.
That the song is even older than that seems nearly certain from the existence of a broadside, NLScotland, Ry .III.a.10(007), "The New Way of the Broom of Cowden Knows," unknown, n.d. Said broadside clearly is based on this song -- the lyric begins "Hard Fate that I should banishet be, And Revell called with Scorn. For serving of a Lovely Prince, As e'er yet was Born. O the Broom, the Bonny Broom, The Broom of Cowding (sic.) knows, I wish his Frinds had Stayed at home, Milking there Dadys Ewes."
There can be no question that this is originally a Jacobite song. The notes at the NLScotland site suspect it of coming from the 1715 rebellion, probably because it mentions Huntly and his treachery, plus Seaforth. I'd be more inclined to date it to 1746, because 1. It refers to a *prince* (James III was King, in the Jacobite view, in 1715 as well as 1745), and it wishes his friends had stayed at home -- a much more likely sentiment after 1746, when the Highlanders were ruined, than in 1715, when nothing much happened.
Either way, though, the broadside is strong evidence for the existence of the lyric version of "Broom" long before the 1797 publication. - RBW
re A Collection of Old Ballads Vol III: Ambrose Philips, whose name does not appear in the Google Books copy is, according to Google Books, the editor. The New York Public Library catalog says "Compilation usually attributed to Ambrose Philips" - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: DTcowden

Broom of Cowdenknows, The [Child 217]

DESCRIPTION: A gentleman sees a pretty (shepherdess), and lies with her (without her leave). She becomes pregnant. Some weeks or months later, the gentleman returns and claims her for his own
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1768 (Percy collection; tune mentioned 1632)
KEYWORDS: seduction pregnancy abandonment return marriage bastard
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 217, "The Broom of Cowdenknows" (15 texts)
Bronson 217, "The Broom of Cowdenknows" (21 versions+1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 217, "The Boom of Cowdenknows" (3 versons: #6, #9, #17)
Greig/Duncan4 838, "The Cowdenknowes" (10 texts, 10 tunes plus a single verse on p. 555)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 178, "The Tod Wi the Twinkland Ee" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 32, "The Laird of Ochiltree Walls" (1 text, 1 tune); 49, "The Laird o' Ochiltree" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 293-295, "The Broom of Cowden-Knowes" (1 text plus an excerpt from "Broom (II)," 1 tune) {Bronson's #21}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 43, "The Bonny Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 288-289, "The Broom of Cowdenknows" (1 text)
Roud #92
RECORDINGS:
Stanley Robertson, "The Ballad of the Ewe Buchts" (on Voice06)
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:041, "Ewe Buchts," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.1270(004), "Ewe Buchts," unknown, n.d. (the site says 1840-1850, but a second ballad on the sheet refers to [Charles Stewart] Parnell, which puts it least thirty years after that); also L.C.Fol.70(2b), "Ewe Buchts," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wylie Wife of the Hie Toun Hie" [Child 290] (plot)
cf. "The Dainty Doonby" (plot)
cf. "The Sleepy Merchant" (plot)
cf. "The Bonnie Parks o' Kilty" (plot)
cf. "A Nobleman" (plot)
cf. "The Broom o the Cowdenknowes (II - lyric)" (tune & meter)
SAME TUNE:
The New Way of the Broom of Cowden Knowes (Broadside NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(007), "The New Way of the Broom of Cowden Knowes" ("Hard Fate that I should banisht be, And Rebell called with Scorn, for serving of a Lovely Prince, As e'er yet was born"), unknown, prob. 1716)
The Glasgow Factory Lass (per broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:010, "The Glasgow Factory Lass," unknown (Glasgow), no date)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Laird o Ociltree Wa's
Laird o Lochnie
Ewe Buchts
Bonnie Mary Is to the Ewe Buchts Gane
The Laird o' Youghal Tree Wells
NOTES [148 words]: Note that this melody is used for two pieces, both called "Broom o' the Cowdenknow(e)s," and both Scottish: The ballad listed here, and a more lyric piece about a man who must leave home because he fell in love with a girl above his station.
Although the texts of this piece are generally quite late, the tune appears much older. Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2610, "Through Lidderdale as lately I went," registered in 1632, claims a "pleasant Scotch tune, called, The broom of Cowdenknowes" as its melody.
It's ironic to add that the tune you've almost certainly heard for this song (Bronson's #1) is from Playford, without lyrics -- and neither the Playford tune nor any of its immediate relatives in Bronson has a text (Bronson's group Aa includes six tunes; #4 has a single stanza of lyrics, the rest none -- and that stanza in #4 is the lyric version of the song, not the ballad!). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: C217

Broom, Green Broom

See Green Broom (File: ShH49)

Broom, The Bonny Broom, The

See The Broom o the Cowdenknowes (II - lyric) (File: DTcowden)

Broomfield Hill, The [Child 43]

DESCRIPTION: A girl wagers with a boy that "a maid I will go to the Broomfield Hill and a maid I shall return." At home she regrets her error, but a witch tells her how to make her love sleep on the hill. She arrives on the hill, leaves a token, and wins her wager
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: magic wager sex trick witch
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland) US(Ap,NE,Ro) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (31 citations):
Child 43, "The Broomfield Hill" (6 texts)
Bronson 43, "The Broomfield Hill" (30 versions -- but the last six are "The Maid on the Shore" -- plus 1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 43, "The Broomfield Hill" (8 versions: #3, #4, #10.1, #13, #17, #20, #23, plus #27 which is "The Maid on the Shore")
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #14, pp. 116-119, "The Merry Broomfield, or the West Country Wager" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 297-300, "The Merry Broomfield" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #65, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 30-31, "Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #24, "Merry Green Broom Fields" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan2 322, "The Bonnie Broom-Fields" (2 texts)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 109, "The Bonny Brumefeils" (1 text)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 29, "Merry Bloomfield" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 75, "The Maid's Wager" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 210)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 21, "The Broomfield Wager" (3 texts)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 19, "The Broomfield Wager" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire 3, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #63, "Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #21}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 438-442, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 songster version plus extensive notes)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 275-279, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #4, "The Broomfield Hill" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 150-152, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 24, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 148, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 16, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 26, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #23}
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 11, pp. 113-114, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H135, p. 414, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 7, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 192-194, "The Broomfield Wager" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 33-33-34, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
DT 43, BROOMFLD* BROMFLD2* BROMFLD3
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #325, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
Roud #34
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "A Wager, A Wager" (on Maynard1)
Walter Pardon, "Broomfield Hill" (on WPardon01, HiddenE)
Cyril Poacher, "Broomfield Hill (The Broomfield Wager)" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1) (on Poacher1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid on the Shore (The Maid on the Sea Shore; The Sea Captain)" [Laws K27]
cf. "Martinmas Time"
cf. "Lovely Joan"
cf. "The Maid and the Horse"
cf. "The Sleepy Merchant" (plot)
cf. "Geaftai Bhaile Atha Bui (The Gates of Ballaghbuoy)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Broomfield Wager
Green Broom
The Merry Green Fields
NOTES [184 words]: For some inexplicable reason, the notes in Sam Henry claim that H133, "Bess of Ballymoney" (p. 461) is this song. I believe this is an accidental repetition of the notes on H135.
Fowler, p. 281, says that the first known text of this song omits the magical element; the girl goes to the hill, finds the man asleep, leaves a token, and leaves. On this basis, he suggests that the magic sleep is an intrusion. Textually, this makes sense, but it costs the song some of its motivation; if the girl wanted an assignation, why didn't she wake him up, and if she didn't, why did she go at all?
- RBW
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople is a composite of six texts including three fragments. - BS
Some texts, instead of having the girl go to the Broomfield Hill and return a maid, have her go to the Merry Green Wood. This is a fascinating statement in context, because there was an analogy that was very well known in medieval times, in which the Virgin Mary was a green wood which could make a dry tree spring to life (Jeffrey, p. 779). But I suspect that analogy was forgotten by the time this song was made. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C043

Broomfield Wager, The

See The Broomfield Hill [Child 43] (File: C043)

Broomhill's Bonnie Daughter

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas at the summer feeing time, When ploughmen lads they fee, That I engaged with Broomhill His foremost lad to be." The daughter of the place steals his heart; he tries to win her; she agrees, saying she loved him at first sight also
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: farming courting marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #126, p. 1, "Broomhill's Bonnie Daughter"; #128, p. 2, "Broomhill's Bonnie Daughter"; #118, p. 3, ("Broomhill's bonnie daughter"); "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 36, ("'Twas on a summer's evening As I walked roon the toon") (2 texts plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan4 723, "Broomhill's Bonnie Daughter" (10 texts, 7 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 232-233, "Broomhill's Bonnie Dochter" (1 text)
Roud #2175
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Breemie's Bonnie Betsy
File: Ord232

Broomhill's Bonnie Dochter

See Broomhill's Bonnie Daughter (File: Ord232)

Broon Cloak On, The

See The Broon Cloak (File: FVS086)

Broon Cloak, The

DESCRIPTION: "Some lads are ne'er at rest Till wi' crowds o' lassies press'd... But pleasure mair I find... Wi' ae lassie true and kind, And her broon cloak on." Relatives warn the lad of falling in love too young or wrongly, but he still loves the brown-cloaked girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love clothes family warning mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 86-88, "The Broon Cloak On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #68, p. 1, "The Broon Cloak" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 906, "The Broon Cloak" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #5648
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie" (tune, per Greig)
File: FVS086

Broon Coo's Broken the Fauld, The

DESCRIPTION: The brown/blue cow broke its pen and ate the corn, "And oor gudeman's hitten me." The singer will leave in the morning to follow Hielan' Donal "ow're Urie, ow'r Gadie, .... An carry's powder-horn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (_Scottish Notes and Queries_)
KEYWORDS: travel punishment farming nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #114, p. 3, ("The broon coo's broken the fauld") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1732, "The Broon Cow's Broken Lowse" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT, HIEDONAL (3 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Scottish Notes and Queries (Aberdeen, 1890 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III, No. 11, April 1890, p. 173, "[Query ]411. Old Ballad" ("The broon coo's broken the fa'")
Roud #6317
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hielant Donalie
NOTES [168 words]: Roud lumps this with "Hielan' Donal' Kissed Katie" but, except for the person of "Hielan' Donald" I don't see a connection.
The Scottish Notes and Queries query for more words apparently had no response. The writer there speculates: "Was this the lilt of a herd-laddie of the time of Donald of the Isles? Did the feasting of the 'Broon Coo' have a disturbing influence, sufficient to induce him to follow to the field that martial lord?" - BS
I think this highly unlikely, since Donald Dubh, the last Lord of the Isles, died in 1545. And since this Donald crossed so much territory, the reference is more likely to Donald II, who fought at the Battle of Harlaw in 1411 (for details on that, see "The Battle of Harlaw" [Child 163] ). A song from that time would be extremely unlikely to survive into the nineteenth century unless it told a more coherent story -- and besides, a follower of Donald II would probably sing in Gaelic, not English, and a soldier in 1411 would not be carrying a powder-horn! - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Gr81732

Brother Alligator Come Out Tonight

DESCRIPTION: Brother alligator come out tonight, "te-la lallah bam." Plenty of guinea hen here tonight, "te-la lallah bam." Plenty of pigeons here tonight, "te-la lallah bam."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad animal bird
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 119, ("Bu' alligator, alligator come out tonight") (1 text)
NOTES [39 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. I don't know what's happening in this song. If "te-la lallah bam" is the sound of shooting, then alligator, guinea hen, and pigeon are on the menu. - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parp119B

Brother Come to Help You

DESCRIPTION: Response: "Jordan just behind you." Leader lines: "Brother come to help you," "Fight your way and travel through," "Only a step to go," "O me brother fight them," "Fight your way and jump across," "Roll Jordan"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Michael Williams, "Brother Come to Help You" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [104 words]: Donald R. Hill and Lise Winer, liner notes for WITrinidadVillage02: "... identified by one of the singers ... as a Salvation Army song." The one line call, one line response is not a structure I find in Salvation Army Song books (see, for example, William Booth, Salvation Army Songs (London: The Salvation Army Book Department, 1911 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")); Evangeline Booth, The Salvation Army Songs and Music (New York: The Salvation Army Book Department, 1922)). While the themes of fighting and crossing Jordan are there, and in other hymnals, I haven't found any of the lines, except "Roll Jordan." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcBCtHYo

Brother Ephrum Got de Coon and Gone On

See Uncle Eph (File: RcUncEph)

Brother Green

DESCRIPTION: The dying singer asks Brother Green to write a letter to his wife, "For the southern foe has laid me low." He prays for his family, tells his wife not to grieve, and remembers his brothers who are fellow soldiers for the Union. He prays (and dies)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar dying soldier
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 377, "Brother Green" (1 fragment)
Randolph 211, "Brother Green" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 38-39, "Brother Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 180, "Brother Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 274-275, "Brother Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 77, "Brother Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #149, "Brother Green" (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 111, "The Song of Brother Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 18 "Brother Green, or the Dying Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 193-194, "Brother Green" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 13-14, "The Dying Soldier" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 212-213, "Brother Green" (1 text)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #24, "Brother Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 72, "Brother Green" (2 texts)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 153-154, "Brother Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 393, "Brother Green" (1 very full text plus mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 393, "Brother Green" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 47, "Brother Green" (1 text)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 250-251, "Brother Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, p. 15, "Brother Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 397-399, "Brother Green, or The Dying Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R211 (Partial)
Roud #3395
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "The Dying Soldier" (Montgomery Ward M-4735, 1935)
Clarence Ganus, "The Dying Soldier" (Vocalion 5396, 1930; rec. 1929)
Buell Kazee, "The Dying Soldier" (Brunswick 214, 1928; on TimesAint01, KMM)
Doug & Berzilla Wallin, "Brother Green" (on FarMtns3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Barbara Allen" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Go Tell Little Mary Not to Weep
NOTES [54 words]: Various legends swirl about the origin of this song; they are not compelling. Although every text known to me is from the Civil War (usually Union; Randolph mentions a Confederate text), the name, style, and reference to the Virgin Mary (in some versions; others manage to cover it up) lead one to suspect Irish ancestry. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: R211

Brother I Got Jesus

DESCRIPTION: "If you got Jesus, hold him fast, Brother, I got Jesus. If you got Jesus, hold him fast, Brother, I got Jesus. I had a mighty struggle, but I got it at last. Brother, I got Jesus...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 245, "Brother I Got Jesus" (1 text)
Roud #18151
File: KiWa245B

Brother Jack, If You Were Mine

DESCRIPTION: The singer would give claret wine, good and fine, to Brother Jack. "Through the needle-ee, boys"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1801 (_Youthful Sports_, according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: drink playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 3, "Through the Needle-ee" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Thread the Needle" (game) and references there
File: OpGa003

Brother Jim Got Shot

DESCRIPTION: Singer and brother Jim start a fight in a restaurant; Jim is shot and killed. Jury says singer is innocent. Singer's wife gets scared one night, and a mouse runs down her throat. Later, she swallows a rat, cat, cheese. Jury still says singer is innocent.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: fight homicide trial death humorous nonsense animal wife
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #16643
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "Brother Jim Got Shot" (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1)
NOTES [29 words]: This song, almost certainly of minstrel-show origin, probably circulated as a "ballot" (song sheet). For sheer surrealism, it's up there with the works of Uncle Dave Macon. - PJS
File: RcBJGS

Brother Jonah

DESCRIPTION: Brother Jonah is called to duty, but is reluctant and goes to sea; the winds begin to blow, and the whale swallows him. The whale feels ill, and eventually throws Jonah up. Refrain: "Yessir, the whale he swallowed Brother Jon-oh. Oh! Brother! Jon-oh!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (recording, Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham)
KEYWORDS: travel storm Bible religious animal whale
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham, "Brother Jonah" (Champion 50025, c. 1935; rec. 1932; on VocQ2)
NOTES [30 words]: The story of Jonah and his travels is, of course, the subject of the Biblical book of Jonah. The Bible, however, consistently calls the sea creature that swallowed him a "fish." - RBW
File: RcBrotJo

Brother Moses Gone

DESCRIPTION: "Brother Moses gone to the promised land, Hallelu, Hallelujah."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 49, "Brother Moses Gone" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #12006
NOTES [99 words]: A rather ironic title; presumably the "Moses" of this song is a slave, not the Biblical Moses -- but if it is the Biblical Moses, he in fact did *not* enter the Promised Land: "Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And YHWH showed him all the land.... And YHWH said to [Moses], 'This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, "I will give it to your descendants." I have let you see it... but you shall not enter it.' So Moses the servant of YHWH died there in the land of Moab...." (Deuteronomy 34:1-5). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG049A

Brother Noah

DESCRIPTION: "Brother Noah, Brother Noah, May I come into the Ark of the Lord, For it's growing very dark and it's raining very hard." Noah says that the other cannot come aboard. The rejected man curses Noah and predicts light rain. Noah says it will rain like hell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: religious ship rejection
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 200-201, "Brother Noah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 10-11, "Brother Noah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8821
File: ShaSS200

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

DESCRIPTION: "They used to tell me I was building a dream...." The singer worked to build a railroad, a tower. He was a soldier in the war. The listener used to cal him "Al" and be his pal. Now, it has all come crashing down; he begs, "Brother, can you spare a dime?"
AUTHOR: Words: E. Y. "Yip" Harburg / Music: Jay Gorney
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (source: Hischak)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes request money
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, BRODIME*
Roud #23551
NOTES [497 words]: Gardner, p. 393, estimates that this was the eighth most popular song in America in December 1932 (#1 for the year being John Young, Little Jack Little, and John Siras's "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town"). Ironic that a song that didn't make much of a splash on the pop charts (Gardner estimate it as #41 for the year as a whole) appears to be far better remembered than any of the songs that were more popular at the time.
According to Hischak, pp. 38-39, this "is one of the first theatre songs to have a potent sociological message, and it remains one of the most poweful of the genre. Jay Gorney (music) and E. Y. Harburg (lyric) wrote it for the revue Americana (1932), where it was sung by Rex Weber and a male chorus as they wait in a breadline." "Gorney used strains from a Russian-Jewish lullaby in his chantlike music that casually sneaks up on you until it becomes a howl of lost faith." "The song was deemed too serious for the usually escapist nature of the Shubert brothers' revues and was nearly cut in rehearsals. The Depression was at its lowest point when Americana opened, and the audience immediately seized on the gripping number. Just as many were disturbed by the song, and the Republican administration was particularly worried with an election less than a month away. Attempts were made to ban the song from radio play, but it was already spreading due to popular recordings of it by Bing Crosby and Al Jolson. 'Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?' became the unofficial theme song of the Depression era...."
The use of a Jewish melody is interesting, because this phenomenon of "forgetting" a person who is poor is found in the Hebrew Bible. Perhaps the best example is Proverbs 19:7, which the King James Version renders, "All the brethren of the poor do hate him: how much more do his friends go far from him? he pursueth them with words, yet they are wanting to him." In the New Revised Standard Version, this becomes
If the poor are hated even by their kin,
how much more are they shunned by their friends!
When they call after them, they are not there.
(The meaning of the third line is uncertain; the Hebrew is probably corrupt, and the Greek translation seems to ignore the line.)
The idea shows up in English as early as the time of Chaucer; the Man of Law's Prologue in the Canterbury Tales tells us
If thou be povre, they brother hateth thee,
And alle thy freendes fleen from thee, allas! [Fragment II/B1, lines 120-121, p. 88 in Chaucer/Benson.]
i..e.
If you be poor, your brother hates you,
And all your friends flee from you, alas!
Similarly in the Tale of Melibee,
And if thy fortune change that thou wexe povre, frewel freendshipe and felawshipe [Fragment vii/B2, line 1595, p. 232 in Chaucer/Benson.]
i.e. "And if your fortune change, so that you become poor, farewell friendship and fellowship!
The idea of course is still remembered, as exemplified by songs such as "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" and "Money Is King." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: DTbrodim

Brother, Guide Me Home

DESCRIPTION: "Brother, guide me home an' I am glad, Bright angels biddy me to come;" "What a happy time, children (x3), Bright angels biddy me to come." "Let's go to God, children, Bright angels biddy me to come."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 86, "Brother, Guide Me Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12044
File: AWG086

Brother, You Oughtta Been There

See Love Come Twinkling Down (Seek And You Shall Find) (File: Rose046)

Brother's Revenge

See The Cruel Brother [Child 11] (File: C011)

Brothers John and Henry Sheares, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the sentencing and execution. The informer watches. The verdict is guilty. "One day between the sentence and the scaffold." No sword is raised to save them. They are beheaded. The bodies in their coffins are "life-like to this day"
AUTHOR: "Speranza" (Jane Francesca Elgee, Lady Wilde) (source: Hayes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Edward Hayes, _The Ballads of Ireland_ (Boston, 1859), Vol I)
KEYWORDS: rebellion betrayal execution trial patriotic brother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 14, 1798 - John and Henry Sheares, members of the National Directory of the United Irishmen, hanged. (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 107, "The Brothers John and Henry Sheares" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 240-242, "The Brothers"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tree of Liberty" (same subject from the other side)
NOTES [908 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: The brothers were hanged [not beheaded]. As described in the ballad, the informer, Captain John Warneford Armstrong, had "enjoyed the hospitality of their family home." Further, the "bodies lie in the vaults of St Michan's Church in Church Street, Dublin, where they remain in a state of preservation due to some remarkable property of their surroundings." - BS
Kee, p. 46, writes of John Sheares, "His death was in fact to be particularly ignominious, for by some clumsiness on the part of the executioner he was hauled up on the rope for nearly a minute before being lowered again to the platform for his final drop." Kee also notes his lack of fame: "He has a small street named after him in Cork but otherwise his name... has little popular appear in modern republican Ireland." And, indeed, three of the first four histories I checked do not even mention the Sheares Brothers.
Yet the two were among the most important figures of 1798. When the British captured most of the leaders of the United Ireland movement in March of that year, "leadership of the metropolitan organization... devolved on Lord Edward [Fitzgerald, for whom see "Edward (III) (Edward Fitzgerald)"], John and Henry Sheares and, recently released from prison, Samuel Neilson. All, including a fatally wounded Lord Edward, were in custody by the eve of the rebellion" (Smyth, p. 176).
The informer Captain Armstrong did indeed betray them, but much of the fault belongs with the rebels. Pakenham, p. 78, tells of how Armstrong visited tbe bookstore of Patrick Byrne. He browsed "left-wing pamphlets," and apparently this was enough to cause Byrne to introduce him to the Sheares brothers, and enough to make them trust him! Pakenham, p. 81, reports that "Lawless and the Sheares brothers staked all on the loyalty of... Captain John Warneford Armstrong." To be sure, Pakenham notes that these leaders were now effectively cut off from the rest of the United Irish movement, including all the fighters they had so painfully raised. They needed help from the other side -- Armstrong. They didn't get it.
Pakenham, p. 90, reports that the brothers were lawyers with no understanding of military issues anyway (although Henry had served in the British army for three years, according to Boylan, p. 355). What leadership they did apply was largely negated by another government spy, Francis Mangan, who had actually been appointed to the Directory (Pakenham, p. 91).
The Sheares Brothers resigned from the Directory shortly before the rising began (Pakenham, p. 92).
On May 21, the brothers were arrested, and a proclamation of independence, in the handwriting of John Sheares, was found among their papers (Pakenham, p. 96).
Their trial came a month and a half later. Pakenham (pp. 285-287) describes it as all hanging on the testimony of Armstrong, a self-declared atheist and liberal. In a truly ironic twist, the lawyer for the Sheares Brothers, John Philpot Curran (for whom see "The Deserter's Lamentation" and "Emmet's Farewell to His Sweetheart") tried to use the fact that Armstrong was a follower of Thomas Paine (who of course inspired much of the Irish thinking) as reason not to trust his testimony. It didn't help. The jury (which apparently was carefully chosen) declared both brothers guilty in just 17 minutes. They were hanged the following day, and apparently their heads were severed after death.
Moylan's statement about the preservation of the body perhaps requires some caution. Pakenham's account (p. 287) describes a shorter term of preservation: "In the peculiar atmosphere of [St. Michan's], the coffins soon crumbled away. Twenty years later Curran's son visited the place and was shown the severed heads, trunks, and 'the hand that once traced those lines' not yet mouldered into dust."
Of course, that account was contemporary when "Speranza," the author of this piece, was born. "Speranza," a frequent contributor to the nationalist publication The Nation was in fact Jane Francesca Elgee (died 1896; birth date variously listed from "c. 1820" to 1826, but 1821 is the most common). She wrote much Irish nationalist poetry, most of it after the death of that paper's founder Thomas Davis in 1845 (according to Boylan, p. 401, she became a nationalist after Davis's funeral inspired her to read his poems), though only a few pieces can be found in present-day anthologies. (Granger's Index to Poetry, in fact, cites only one: "The Famine Year": "Weary men, what reap ye? -- 'Golden corn for the stranger.' What sow ye? -- 'Human corses that wait for the avenger.' Fainting forms, hunger-stricken, what see ye in the offing? 'Stately ships to bear our food away amid the stranger's scoffing....'" (For the full text, see Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 494-496, or Charles Sullivan, editor, Ireland in Poetry, (Abrams, 1990), pp. 98-99.)
She also published several books on Irish folklore. Ironically, she spent her later years in London (Boylan, p. 401).
Golway, p. 111, describes her as "tall, dark, and attractive" (which, if the portrait he prints on page 110 is to believed, strikes me as an understatement), and a heavy reader. Still, she married rather late; it was not until 1851 that she wed Sir William Wilde. They had two sons; the younger of them was Oscar Wilde.
For a poem possibly by John Sheares himself, see "The Shamrock Cockade." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: Moyl107

Brothers St. John, The

DESCRIPTION: "We are Two Irish Maltese." "We're the twins, tinga linga ling (x2), We're the Brothers St. John and you know where we're from. When we're out, There's no doubt, We're so much alike in our figure and height." They often visit the seaside together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor travel
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 138-139, "The Brothers St John" (1 text, with tune on p. 154)
NOTES [84 words]: I will confess to finding Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy's text of this hard to understand. Is it about homosexuality or something else? I'm not sure. I do find it interesting that the Knights of St. John, or the Hospitallers (members of the "Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem) settled in Malta in 1530 after being driven out first from the Holy Land then the Ottoman Empire. Napoleon had driven them out of Malta in 1798, when they moved to Rome, but they were long remember in Malta. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn105

Broughty Wa's [Child 258]

DESCRIPTION: Burd Helen, heir of Broughty Walls, is being visited by her beloved when she is abducted by armed Highlanders. Her kidnappers try to console her, but she refuses comfort. At her first chance, she swims to escape, while one who pursues her drowns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Harris manuscript)
KEYWORDS: drowning abduction love separation escape
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 258, "Broughty Wa's" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 258, "Broughty Wa's' (1 version)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 78-83, "Burd Helen" (2 texts, 1 tune}; pp. 206-208, "Burd Helen" (1 text, from Buchan's papers) {Bronson's [#1]}
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 2, "Broughty Wa's" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #108
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Glasgow Peggy" [Child 228]
NOTES [117 words]: It appears to me that Child has misinterpreted this ballad (which seems to be missing a key stanza or two). He believes that, when Helen is kidnapped, her love Glenhazlen follows, and it is he who drowns when she flees across the river.
There is, however, no evidence in the text that her lover followed; all we know is that, after she threw herself into the water, "It was sae deep he [who "he" is is unidentified] couldna wide, Boats werna to be found, But he leapt in after himsell, And sunk down like a stone." Also, Helen rejoices at her freedom following her escape. So it sounds to me as if one of the Highlanders (presumably the prospective husband) is the one who drowned, not Helen's lover. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: C258

Brow Bender

DESCRIPTION: Game in which a finger is typically placed on the brow, the eye, etc. "Brow bender, Eye Peeper... Knock at the door, ring the bell, Lift the latch, Walk in, Take a hair, Sit there, How d'you do this morning?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1788 (Tommy Thumb's Song Book, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: wordplay home | game
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 80, "Brow Bender" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 18, "(Knock the Knocker)" (1 short text)
Roud #19553
File: PKKB018H

Brow of Sweet Knocklayd

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls watching the lambs play by sunset on Knocklayd. Now she (?) must leave friends and parens behind "to cross the ocean to some far-off foreign shore." The song ends with the moon rising over Knocklayd
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H19b, p. 196, "Brow of Sweet Knocklayd" (1 text, tune referenced)
File: HHH019b

Brow-bender

DESCRIPTION: "Brow-bender, Eye-winker, Nose-dropper, Mouth-eater, Chin-chopper, Tickle, tickle." Mother's rhyme used to teach babies about body parts. Also used as a tickling rhyme. Reportedly it has developed pub and rugby versions
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: mother nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 121, "(Eye-winker, Tom tinker, Nose dropper....)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 49, "(Brow-bender)" (1 short text)
File: SeSh049A

Brown Adam [Child 98]

DESCRIPTION: Brown Adam is a smith, banished from his kin. He builds a bower where he lives with his love. He goes hunting, returns to overhear a knight attempting to woo his love, finally threatening her life. He rescues his love, defeating the knight.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783/1799 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: knight love separation home hunting courting rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Child 98, "Brown Adam" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Bronson 98, "Brown Adam" (2 versions)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 252-254, "Brown Adam" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 126-27, "Brown Edom/Broun Edom" (2 short texts, 1 tune) {Child's #2}
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 128-131, "Brown Adam" (2 parallel texts plus a photo of the badly-transcribed tune; also a reconstructed tune on p. 269)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #88, p. 1, "Brown Edom" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 994, "Brown Edom" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 285-286, "Brown Adam" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 48, "Brown Adam" (1 text)
DT, BRNADAM*
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 385-386, "Brown Adam" (a short prose summary, noteworthy mostly because Briggs compares Brown Adam to Robin Hood and the characters of "Adam Bell....")
Roud #482
File: C098

Brown and Yellow Ale, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer and his wife are walking when they meet the Brown and Yellow (Ale/Earl). He asks to take the wife aside. When she returns, he is so ashamed that he dies and is buried
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Behan-IrelandSings), and said to have been sung by James Joyce; the Irish is older
KEYWORDS: seduction drink nobility death adultery
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Behan-IrelandSings, #13, "The Brown and Yellow Ale" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
DT, BRWNYLLW BRWNYEL2
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 80-81, "The Brown and Yellow Ale" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Brown and Yellow Earl
NOTES [253 words]: Reportedly a translation of the Irish "Chuaca Lan De Bui." Several translations are said to exist, including one by James Joyce.
What's interesting is the two titles: "The Brown and Yellow Ale," Dominic Behan's title (said to have been translated by James Stephens) and followed by Harte, and "The Brown and Yellow Earl," which I heard from Debby McClatchy. Obviously one could be an error of hearing for the other -- indeed, *must* be an error of hearing, since the mistake could not occur in print. And yet, how could such an error slip through? There seem to be no genuinely traditional collections to explain it.
And which is original? Presumably the Irish Gaelic would make it clear, but I failed to turn up a reliable text, and Cliff Abrams did an earlier search which didn't net much either, at least in the way of genuine folk sources.
"Ale" seems much the more strongly attested -- but it hardly makes sense. Harte offers Sean O'Boyle's explanation, which is that drink has rendered the husband impotent so that his wife prefers a younger man. This is possible, but a stretch. Whereas if the Brown and Yellow item is an Earl, then he is exercising droit de siegneur, and the husband is a cuckold and commits suicide as a result. This makes perfect sense.
The flip side is, it makes such perfect sense that it's hard to imagine the change going the other way. So I think the weight of evidence favors "Brown and Yellow Ale." A mudcat thread on the topic concluded the same. I wouldn't bet much on it, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Hart080

Brown and Yellow Earl, The

See The Brown and Yellow Ale (File: Hart080)

Brown Bird, The

See Darling Little Joe (File: R712)

Brown Duck, The

See The Fox (File: R103)

Brown Edom

See Brown Adam [Child 98] (File: C098)

Brown Eyes

DESCRIPTION: "One evening when the sun was low, Brown Eyes whispered, 'I must go.' Not one moment would she wait. She kissed my cheek and left the gate." He meets her with another man. She dies; he says she will be waiting for him in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recording, Blue Sky Boys)
KEYWORDS: love separation death reunion
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #21, "Those Brown Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3394
RECORDINGS:
Blue Sky Boys, "Brown Eyes" (BlueBird 8693, 1940)
File: Robe021

Brown Flour

DESCRIPTION: Hard times on Fogo. All we get is brown flour from Russia that won't rise, makes you "merry" and smells like banana. Merchants say we owe them money. You trade work for government rations: "you must shovel snow, This will help 'em reduce the taxation."
AUTHOR: Chris Cobb
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes starvation nonballad political food
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 46-47, "Brown Flour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9946
RECORDINGS:
Ken Peacock, "Brown Flour, 1926" (on NFKPeacock)
NOTES [19 words]: Per Peacock: the song dates from the late twenties or thirties. Fogo is off the northeast coast of Newfoundland. - BS
File: Pea046

Brown Girl (I), The [Child 295]

DESCRIPTION: The Brown Girl's former lover tells her he cannot marry her because she is so brown. She cares not. He writes again, saying he is sick and asking her to release him from his promise. She comes slowly and releases him, but promises to dance on his grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1788
KEYWORDS: courting promise betrayal revenge death
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber,High)) Canada(Mar) Ireland US(Ap,MW,NE,NW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 295, "The Brown Girl" (2 texts)
Bronson 295, "The Brown Girl" (49 versions+2 in addenda, but mostly these are Laws P9; of the 49, #1, #3, #8, #13, #16, #17, (#19), #24, #25, #35, #36, #41, #44, #8.1 are listed by Laws as "A Rich Irish Lady," as is #8 though it mixes with "The Death of Queen Jane"; #2, #5, #10, #15, #20, #21, #29, #32a/b, #34, #37, #38(a), #45, #47, #49, #41.1 are apparently LP9 as well; #4, #6, #7, #11, #31, #39, #42 are fragments which appear more likely to be LP9; #14, #22, #23, #27 are fragments identified by Laws with LP9 though this cannot be proved; #9 (Baring-Gould's) is definitely the Child version, and #33, #48 probably; #18 is a fragment that might be part of "Glenlogie"; #26, #28 have no text; #30, #40, #43 might be either)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 295, "The Brown Girl" (5 versions: #1, #20, #26, #41, #47, although only #1 is certainly this piece)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 678-680, "The Brown Girl" (2 texts, but "B" is Laws P9)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 4, "The Bonny Brown Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 157, "The Brown Girl" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Paul Robertson, "Ballads & Bytes: The Digitally Reproduced Folksong Collections of Dr. I. G. Greer and Dr. W. Amos Abrams" Vol. LV, No. 2 (Fall-Winter 2008), p. 56, "The Brown Girl" (1 partial text, a reproduction of the last page of a decorated manuscript copy; based on the reproduction, it's hard to tell if it is Child 295 or Laws P9, but it's clearly one or the other)
Roud #180
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. esp. "A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.)" [Laws P9]
cf. "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" [Child 73]
NOTES [136 words]: Identified by some (including Roud) with the ballad Laws calls "A Rich Irish Lady" and Randolph labels "Pretty Sally of London." The difference between the two is that, in "The Brown Girl," the girl is unforgiving; in "Pretty Sally" it is the man. Laws therefore declares that the two ballads are related but distinct.
It should be observed that "A Rich Irish Lady" is much, much, much more popular; other than Baring-Gould's text (Child's B), I know of no traditional texts of the Child song. Any text listed as Child 295 should be carefully checked to see if it is not Laws P9 instead.
No attempt has been made to list here all the songs claimed as Child #295 when in fact they are Laws P9.
For further discussion on this point, including the opinions of various editors on the matter, see the entry on Laws P9. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: C295

Brown Girl (II), The

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Brown Girl (III), The

See The Banks of the Bann (I) [Laws O2] (File: LO02)

Brown Jug, The (Bounce Around)

DESCRIPTION: "I (took/sent) my brown jug down to town (x3) So early in the morning (or "Tra de al de ay," etc.)." "It came back with a bounce around (or "all flounced around")...." "Just us four to bounce around...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (JAFL24, according to Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ro,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 534, "The Brown Jug" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 83, "Bounce Around" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 427, "Bounce Around" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 387, "I Sent My Brown Jug Downtown" (1 text, with some verses apparently from "Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle)")
Roud #7644
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Play Party" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b) (on PeteSeeger22)
NOTES [21 words]: Roud lumps the Ames/Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty "Bounce Around" text with "Skip to my Lou," but I don't see it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R534

Brown Robin [Child 97]

DESCRIPTION: The (king's) daughter loves lowly Brown Robyn, informs him so by song, sneaks him in to her bower, sneaks him out again by dressing him as one of her ladies. (His is shot by a suspicious porter who is hanged for it/They are allowed to marry.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783/1799 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: love disguise cross-dressing marriage death royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 97, "Brown Robin" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 97, "Brown Robin" (2 versions)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 194-199, "Brown Robin (2 parallel texts plus a photo of the badly-transcribed tune; also a reconstructed tune and a tune from a different manuscript on p. 286)
Greig/Duncan8 1932, "Brown Robin" (2 texts)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 58, "Brown Robin" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 18, "Brown Robin" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's #1}
Roud #62
File: C097

Brown Robyn's Confession [Child 57]

DESCRIPTION: Brown Robyn and his men go to sea and meet a fierce storm. They cast lots to learn who is to blame, and Brown Robyn himself is thrown overboard. He sees the Virgin Mary, who offers to let him come to heaven or return to his men. He chooses heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: ship crime sea storm religious incest
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 57, "Brown Robyn's Confession" (1 text)
Bronson (57) [Brown Robin's Confession], comments only with the tune belonging to "Captain Glen"
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 21, "Brown Robyn's Confession" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 8, "Brown Robyn's Confession" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 142-143+331, "Brown Robyne's Confession" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #412, "Brown Robyn" (1 text)
Roud #3882
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B) [Laws K22]" (Jonah theme) and references there
NOTES [296 words]: This appears to be the only legitimate ballad that supports the doctrine of Justification by Faith. It is rather odd to find such a thing in Presbyterian Scotland. Especially given that Robyn had had incestuous relations with both his mother and his sister. - RBW
The theme of the sailor thrown overboard to calm a storm sent by God is found in Jonah 1.1-16. - BS
It should be noted that the "Jonahs" actually did exist, and did suffer for it. One case with an interesting analogy to this ballad happened in the reign of King Stephen of England (1135-1154). Stephen, for most of his reign, was plagued by revolt and civil war. One of those who rebelled against him was Geoffrey de Mandeville. But de Mandeville was killed by a crossbowman in 1144 (see Jim Bradbury, Stephen and Matilda: The Civil War of 1139-1153, 1996 (I use the 1998 Sutton paperback), p. 131).
As was normal at the time, Geoffrey's personal army started to dissolve after his death; his followers were loyal to him, not to his cause. His senior infantry officer was named Reiner. Reiner tried to flee to the European mainland (whence he apparently came), but his ship grounded. The sailors cast lots to determine who was guilty, and Rainer and his wife were chosen. They were cast adrift in a small boat and died (Bradbury, p. 132).
Child calls this a Miracle of the Virgin -- the only one in his collection. I would call that a little strong -- the Virgin doesn't actually perform a miracle, just offers one -- but it is certainly an approximation of the type.
The Miracles of the Virgin were a common form in the Middle Ages. The best-known today is surely Chaucer's "Prioress's Tale." For side notes about that tale and the Miracles, see the notes to "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" [Child 155]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: C057

Brown-Eyed Boy

See Likes Likker Better Than Me (Brown-Eyed Boy) (File: CSW075)

Brown-Eyed Gypsies, The

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Brown-Eyed Lee

DESCRIPTION: "Kind friends, if you will listen, A story I will tell, About a final dust-up...." The singer courts Brown-Eyed Lee; her parents disapprove. He says he will win her anyway, but she proved untrue. He curses the day he met Lee but can't forget her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Larkin-SingingCowboy); reportedly written 1889
KEYWORDS: cowboy love betrayal mother
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 72-74, "Brown-Eyed Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 396-397, "Brown-Eyed Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4042
NOTES [63 words]: This song is item dB35 in Laws's Appendix II.
It supposed was composed by the rejected lover himself. For once, this seems rather likely, because he clearly can't decide if he hates or loves her.
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest reports that an informant claimed this was based on an actual event of 1899, but no one seems to have had any evidence to support this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Lark072

Brown-Haired Lass, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to country and to the brown-haired lass. He describes courting the girl, and their sad farewell. He says he will never be happy until he marries the girl. As the ship sets sail, he offers a toast to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration parting separation love courting
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H116a+c, pp. 201-202, "The Brown-Haird Lass (a), (b)" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 10, "The Brown-Haried Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH116a

Brown-Hairled Girl, The

See The Brown-Haird Lass (File: HHH116a)

Brown-Skinned Woman, A

DESCRIPTION: "A brown-skinned woman and she's choc'late to de bone, A brown-skinned woman and she smells like toilet soap...." The woman can make a train slide, or make a preacher "lay his Bible down"; "I married a woman, she was even tailor-made."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 278, "A Brown-Skinned Woman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11639
NOTES [20 words]: Scarborough lists this as a blues; neither the form nor the apparent happiness of the singer supports this conclusion. - RBW
File: ScNF278A

Brown's Ferry Blues

DESCRIPTION: About a "hard-luck papa," etc.; "Hard-luck papa counting his toes... smell his feet wherever he goes"; "Hard-luck papa standing in the rain/If the world was corn, he couldn't buy grain"; "Refrain: "Lord, lord, got those Brown's Ferry blues."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recording, Delmore Brothers)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 224-225, "Brown's Ferry Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 73, "Brown's Ferry Blues" (1 text)
DT, BRWNFERY
RECORDINGS:
Frank Bode, "Brown's Ferry Blues" (on FBode1)
Bill Cox, "Brown's Ferry Blues" (Melotone 13161/Oriole 8380, 1934)
Delmore Bros., "Brown's Ferry Blues" (Bluebird B-5403Montgomery Ward M-4750. 1934; rec. 1933) (King 592, 1947)
McGee Brothers (Sam, Kirk), "Brown's Ferry Blues" (Decca 5348, 1937); (Champion 45033, 1935; Decca 5373; rec. Aug 14, 1934)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Brown's Ferry Blues" (on NLCR01, NLCRCD1) (NLCR12) (NLCR16)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jackhammer John" (tune)
cf. "Dog House Blues" (tune)
cf. "Rubberneck Blues" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Shirt Factory Blues (by Cleda Helton and James Pyle) (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 143)
Philyaw Brothers, "Brown's Ferry Blues, No. 4" (Vocalion 04186, 1938) [that's not a misprint, I said Philyaw - PJS]
Delmore Brothers, "Brown's Ferry Blues - Part 2" (Bluebird B-5893/Montgomery Ward M-4553, 1935)
Delmore Brothers, "Brown's Ferry Blues, Part 3" (Bluebird B-8230, 1939)
Callahan Brothers, "Brown's Ferry Blues - No. 2" (ARC 6-04-59/Conqueror 8627, 1936 [as Walter Callahan]; the ARC master was issued on Melotone, Perfect and other labels owned by ARC, sometimes under the name of Walter Callahan)
Log Cabin Boys, "New Brown's Ferry Blues" (Decca 5103, 1935)
Jackhammer Blues (by Woody Guthrie) (Greg Vandy with Daniel Person, _26 Songs in 30 Days: Woody Guthrie's Columbia River Songs and the Planned Promised Land in the Pacific Northwest_, Sasquatch Books, 2016, p. 46; (Woody Guthrie), __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 48-49)
Grand Coulee Powder Monkey (by Woody Guthrie) (Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 46-47)
NOTES [83 words]: Both the McGee Brothers and the Delmore Brothers claim authorship of this piece. The obvious conclusion is that neither actually wrote it.
The success of the Delmore Brothers recording was such that, when station WLW in Cincinnati formed a gospel super-group in 1943 consisting of the Delmores, Merle Travis, and Grandpa Jones, the group decided to take the name the Brown's Ferry Four after the Delmore song (W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 53). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: CSW224

Brownie Smile Song

DESCRIPTION: Motion song. "I have something in my pocket, It belongs across my face, I keep it very close at hand, In a most convenient place. I'm sure you couldn't guess it... So I'll take it out and put it on It's a great big Brownie smile. Cheese!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 517, "Brownie Smile Song" (notes only)
File: ACSF517B

Brownsville Mountain

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

Bruce's Address to his Army

See Scots Wha Hae (Bruce Before Bannockburn)r (File: FSWB299)

Bruce's Lines

DESCRIPTION: The singer told Annie that he was leaving for the Highlands to be a shepherd for a while. He said they should be true. "He had in the Highlands But a short time to be But ere he came back O married was she." He warns young men "never love a rose too much"
AUTHOR: Rev. Andrew Bruce (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity parting return shepherd warning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #24, p. 1, "Bruce's Lines" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1195, "Bruce's Lines" (8 texts, 8 tunes)
Roud #6276
ALTERNATE TITLES:
One Midsummer Evening
Bonny Annie
File: GrD61195

Bruce's Log Camp

See Burns's Log Camp (File: Doe217)

Brudenlaws, The

See Twas on Yin Night in Sweet July (File: McSc039)

Brughaichean Ghlinn-Braon (Braes of Glen Broom)

DESCRIPTION: Scottish Gaelic. "Lying in a French prison... No order from England To send me home free...." The singer thinks of his lost love, "the maid of thick tresses ... In the braes of Glen Broom"
AUTHOR: William Ross (1762-1790)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love separation war prison lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 773-774, "Brughaichean Ghlinn-Braon" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [154 words]: Peacock notes that this "is called a milling song... used to accompany the work of shrinking wool homespun. The wet cloth is alternately kneaded and pounded on a large table by several people either seated or standing. A leader sings the verses, and everyone comes in on the chorus." "Milling wool" and "waulking tweed" is the same process. For a note on the process and the songs see "Waulking" by Craig Cockburn at the Silicon Glen site.
The description is based on a translation by George Calder in Gaelic Songs by William Ross Collected by John MacKenzie Translated by George Calder (Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1937), specifically Ross 25, pp. 148-151.
Calder's Note G to Ross 25: "The song may have been composed by a prisoner of war in France and improved by Ross, or it may have been composed by Ross himself and based on one or other of the many tales of the French wars which raged during his short life." p. 192 - BS
File: Pea773

Brule Boys, The

DESCRIPTION: Two men from Brule go to St Peter's to bring back rum in winter. They become lost in a storm and drift until Captain Harvey and his crew save them. They are taken to Marystown and from there return home. Moral: wait till spring to go to St Peter's.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: crime rescue sea ship storm drink
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 14, "The Brule Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #26142
NOTES [44 words]: Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou: Brule, on Merasheen Island in Placentia Bay "was one of the prime smuggling areas for the St Pierre rum-running operation." Other Newfoundland songs about running rum from St Pierre include "Young Chambers" and "Captain Shepherd." - BS
File: LeBe014

Bruntie's

See Auld Luckie of Brunties (File: Ord246)

Brunton Town

See The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)

Brush Creek Wreck, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of a wreck near Bevier. As the train, moving at high speed, crosses a bridge, the switch "flew backward And sent them through the bridge." The engineer finds several fatally injured; the people of Brookfield mourn their dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 1, 1881 - The Brush Creek Wreck (actually wrecks, as the rescue train also went off the tracks, causing worse casualties)
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 421-422, "The Brush Creek Wreck" (1 text)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 272, "Brush Creek Wreck" (notes only)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 369-370, "The Brush Creek Wreck (1 text)
Roud #4137
NOTES [71 words]: This is item dG37 in Laws's Appendix II.
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety does not comment on the form of this piece, and has no tune, but it appears to me nearly certain that it was sung to "Casey Jones." Though it would take some squeezing to make it fit any tune; the text is highly irregular (and more than a little forced. Belden doesn't think it went far into tradition, and it's easy to see why). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Beld421

Brush Ye Back My Curly Locks

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, brush ye back my curly locks, An' lace my midle sma', And nan'll ken by my rosy cheeks That my maidenheid's away. " When she returns to Dundee, the singer will look bonnie, and who will question whether she's a maiden?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Jeannie Robertson)
KEYWORDS: seduction sex virginity bragging beauty hair shape-changing nonballad mistress whore
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #57, pp. 219, "Brush Ye Back My Curly Locks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7286
NOTES [30 words]: Porter and Gower note: "Her virginity gone, the protagonist looks forward to amorous encounters as she celebrates her sexuality" (219). Brushing hair is often a metaphor for sex. - DGE
Last updated in version 5.3
File: RPG057

Brushy Mountain Freshet, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the month of July, in the year 'sixteen, Came the awfullest storm that's ever been seen." The song describes the progress of the storm, and presumably details the various people killed or rendered homeless
AUTHOR: Pink Dugan? (source: NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: disaster storm flood
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 16, 1916 - A thirty hour rainfall causes floods in North Carolina
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 284, "The Brushy Mountain Fresher" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Time Was: Its Lore and Language," Vol. XIX, No. 2 (Mar 1971), p. 44, "(The Great Nineteen Sixteen Fresh)" (1 text)
Roud #6643
NOTES [1172 words]: The notes in Brown describe notes attached to this song about the storm of 1916. The song, however, is so fragmentary that little can be verified about its connection with actual events. Similarly with the excerpt cited in NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal. The latter claims to have at least ten verses but quotes only one. I'm joining them only because they are supposed to be about the same event.
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal links the tune to "Titanic (I), The ("It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down") [Laws D24] (Titanic #1)." This certainly fits the verse form:
Down the roarin(g) river
Come a lumberhack (sic.)
And on it a old hen
Walked for'ard and back,
In them days when the Great Fresh come down.
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal dates this to July 14, 1916, but I rather suspect it was two days later, the day of the "Great Flood of 1916" (which you can google). Sharpe, p. 20, also has the date wrong, but his description is graphic: "on June 16 and 17, 1916, the worst rain storm ever to hit the whole of North Carolina dealt a staggering blow. More than twenty-two inches of rain fell within twenty-four hours. The downpour has been captioned 'The 1916 Flood,'" and among other things it almost blew away an incomplete hydroelectic dam.
Similarly Sharpe, p. 233, "[I]n 1916, the 'fountains of the deep' opened up, and for several days the rains came, due to a storm which came up out of the Gulf and across the mountains.... Never had people seen so much water at one time in the valley. Whole sides of the Blue Ridge Mountains slid off. Trees were up-rooted, houses swept away, bridges wiped out, and mills destroyed. Many lives were lost. Whole towns were almost washed away. Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro suffered a great loss since the two towns were built so close to the river. Other towns along the Yadkin suffered similar damage. Railroads and highways were impassable. Crops were literally washed out of the fiedls by the 'June, 1916 flood.'"
That was just in Stanly County and the Yadkin valley. But the damage included a broad area drained by the French Broad, Swannanoah, and Yadkin rivers among others. Web articles say that it was the heaviest rainfall ever measured in the United States to that time.
Michael Hill, in the Foreword to Bandel (p. v), says, "The 1916 flood had a significant impact on western North Carolina and the western Piedmont, leaving unprecedented destruction. Practically all rail lines west of Winston-Salem were affected with scarcely a mile of track between Statesville and Asheville left undamaged. Bridges along the length of the Cawawba, Yadkin, and French Broad Rivers were torn from their piers. Hardest hit was agriculture. With topsoil ripped from the field and waterways literally rerouted, farmers coped with the effects for a generation."
Damage was estimated at somewhere between 10 and 25 million 1916 dollars (Bandel, p. 13). That probably means at least half a billion 2020 dollars, and likely more. And that doesn't count the effects of water- and insect-borne diseases. And there wasn't a government disaster agency at the time, although the federal government made a special $540,000 appropriation, plus there were private donations (Bandel, p. 15).
Bandel, p. 2, says that "North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, and Mississippi would all need relief aid in the months following the flood," but it was worst in North Carolina.
Newspapers sometimes claimed more than eighty dead, but Bandel, pp. 26-27, lists exactly fifty verified dead. They came from seventeen different towns and townships, and ranged in age from 77 down to eleven months. Belmont in Gaston County suffered the most, with nine dead.
The Brown version lists the site of one of the local tragedies as Jack's Branch, with the notes saying two children died in that event. Bandel doesn't list any dead in "Jack's Branch," but her list is by towns, not river names. But the only Jack's Branch, North Carolina that I can find is somewhat east of Charlotte, which is the far eastern limit of the flood. But there might well be a "Jack's Branch" that isn't on the map. There are four instances in Bandel where at least two children in a single family were killed; two have exactly two children, the other two instances have a third person killed:
1. Polly and Sue Collins (ages unknown) of Volga, Buncombe County (the county around Asheville)
2. Annie and Brison McGee (ages 6 and 3) of North Cove, McDowell County
3. Bonnie, Fred, and Stacy Hill (ages 8, 11, 14) of Bat Cave, Henderson County
4. Doctor Louis (sic.), Jennie May, and John Perry Russell (ages 7, 6, and 9) of Little River, Alexander County
Bandel has a description of the loss of the Hills on p. 11. They were caught in a mudslide: "Around 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. [Brown E.] Huntley arose from bed to investigate unnerving noises from outside. He first thought it was the sound of water rising from the creek below his house, but as he opened the door to step outside, a wall of rock, mud, and wood slammed against the tiny structure and pushed it -- and his family -- right into the cluthes of the flood. Huntley lost his twenty-nine-year-old wife, Belle, and their two adopted children, Bonne and Fred Hill, ages seven and eleven" (note that the ages do not match those Bandel gave on p. 27!).
Bandel, p. 11, also has an account of the death of the Russells: "On the Little River in northern Alexander County, a landslide crashed down on the home of Lonas and Lillie Russell. The couple managed to escape the house, but their three oldest children -- Jennie, Louis, and John, ages 6, 7, &9 -- were swept away in the slide. John's body was never recovered" (here again the text doesn't match the table on p. 27!).
Of course, it is possible that some people were killed whose deaths were not recorded.
Brushy Mountain itself is near Wilkesboro. There was one fatality in Wilkes County -- but it was 44-year-old Jonathan Perry of Union, North Carolina. I think we have to say that one or another of our pieces of information about the Brown fragment -- "Brushy Mountain," "Jack's Branch," or "two and only two children" -- is wrong.
One other possibility is that the attribution to 1916 is wrong. There is no collection date on the Brown fragment. The 1916 flood was the greatest in North Carolina history, but there was also a 1940 flood that was "infamous" (Peña/Hayes, p. 85; Sharpe, p. 233, says that, in Stanley County at least, it was "even worse" than the 1916 event -- though Sharpe's opinion might have been influenced by the fact that he would have remembered the 1940 flood). Odds are that the informant would have known which flood was meant, but it's just possible that the song refers to 1940 rather than 1916.
There are apparently at least a few books about the 1916 flood: Bandel's, (though it's only a few dozen pages long); W. M. Bell, The North Carolina Flood: July 14, 15, 16, 1916; and Matthew C. Bumgarner, The Floods of July 1916: How the Southern Railway Met an Emergency. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: BrII284

Bruton Town

See The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)

Bryan Campaign Song

DESCRIPTION: "Voters come and hear my ditty, What was done at Kansas City, David Hill, the New York Lion, Nominated Billy Bryan." "Get out of the way, you Grand Old Party, You're so old, you're getting warty." Other details of the 1900 convention are summarized
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Nevada Folklore pamphlet; probably written in 1900)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1900 - William Jennings Bryan makes his second run for President against William McKinley. This song can be linked to the 1900 election because it refers to Kansas City as the site of the nominating convention and it says that David Hill of New York nominated Bryan. It also refers to "Mack and Teddy" -- William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt; Roosevelt was not on the ticket in 1896. Bryan however lost even more decisively than in 1896; in the 1896 election he won 47% of the vote and 176 electoral votes; in 1900, he won 46% of the vote and 155 electoral votes, taking only four states (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Nevada) that had not been slave-holding states before the Civil War
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 78-79, "Campaign Song" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Nebraska Folklore, Pamphlet Twenty, "More Farmers' Alliance Songs of the 1890's," Federal Writers' Project, 1939, p. 20, "Campaign Song" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Dan Tucker" (tune)
cf. "Free Silver" (subject of William Jennings Bryan and the 1896 election) and references there
NOTES [112 words]: For some background on William Jennings Bryan, see "Free Silver," as well as "Bye, Old Grover." See also "Don't You Know (Way Over in Williamson)"
It is ironic to note, in light of the statement that the GOP was so old as to be "getting warty," that, in 1900, the Republican party was only 46 years old -- hardly ancient. Whereas the Democratic Party certainly would have to be traced back at least to Andrew Jackson's campaign of 1824, making it 76 years old. Many people remembered the founding of the Republican Party; few remembered the founding of the Democrats! But perhaps this song was written by a supporter of one of the smaller parties such as the Populists. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Wels078B

Bryan O'Lynn

See Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn) (File: R471)

Bryant's Ranges O

DESCRIPTION: "Most blackly looked the weather, The showers down did gush As Joe and I together Were tramping to the rush" on Bryant's Ranges. The trip is slow; Joe drinks too much; the sun is hot; the mining pays very little
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: mining travel hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 35-36, "Bryant's Ranges O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-GoldrushSongster, pp. 48-49, "Bryan'ts Ranges O" (1 text, 1 ttune)
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 192-193, "Bryant's Ranges O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, pp. 177-178, "Bryant's Ranges O" (1 text)
ST AnSo035 (Partial)
NOTES [144 words]: For brief background on Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong.
Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher says this was sung to the tune of "Bow Wow Wow" ("Guy Fawkes"/"Jog Along Till Shearing"). The fit is imperfect -- close, but there are lines that I just can't make scan to that tune. Anderson's tune doesn't look like the "Bow Wow Wow" I know, either. It appears that Hoskins confused the attribution of "Bryant's Ranges O" with another Thatcher song, "Bryant's Ranges," which is also said to use "Bow Wow Wow" and which fits the tune perfectly;it begins, "Oh what a curious world this is, so various in its changes." The full text of the latter is in Anderson-GoldrushSongster, pp. 50-51, Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 27-28.- RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: AnSo035

Bryng Us in Good Ale

See Bring Us Good Ale (File: MEL82)

Brynie O'Linn

See Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn) (File: R471)

Bryno-o-Lynn

See Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn) (File: R471)

Bu' alligator, alligator come out tonight

See Brother Alligator Come Out Tonight (File: Parp119B)

Buachaill Na Gruaige Brea Bui

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a crying maiden. She says she once loved a boy from Tralee and she would "give all the riches in North Germany" for one of his kisses. He reveals that he is that boy and asks her to marry. She agrees. They marry and go to Tralee.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage reunion separation Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 34, "Buachaill Na Gruaige Brea Bui" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [13 words]: The title may translate as something like "lad with the fine yellow hair." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC034

Buachaill On Eirne (Boy from Ireland)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Singer claims great wealth and would marry a girl without a dowry. He doesn't work but drinks and plays with women for a short time each. He warns not to marry an old man; a young man who lives only one year can give her a son or a daughter.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (IRLClancy01)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting marriage warning drink nonballad rake
FOUND IN: Ireland
RECORDINGS:
Liam Clancy, "Buachaill On Eirne" (on IRLClancy01)
NOTES [21 words]: The description is based on the translation for "Buachaill on Eirne (Boy from Ireland)" for the Clannad site at jtwinc.com. - BS
File: RcBuOnEi

Buachaill Roe, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer's lover, at twenty three, fought "for the cause of Ireland ... He never once retreated though his wounds were deep and sore." He was killed and his remains are at Inniskillen.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: love battle rebellion death Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 147-148, "The Buachaill Roe" (1 text)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 16, "Charming Buachaill Roe" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 152, "The Buachaill Rua" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5730
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "The Buachaill Rua" (on IRECronin01)
Joe Tunney and Paddy Tunney, "My Charming Buachal Roe" (on IRPTunney01)
Paddy Tunney, "The Buachaill Roe" (on IRPTunney02)
NOTES [42 words]: Paddy Tunney on IRPTunney02 translates the title as "The Red Haired Boy."
In Elizabeth Cronin's version the singer writes to the Queen to ask her to pardon her lover. Then, "she has granted me my darling... and I'll crown my love with laurels...." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: RcTMCBR

Buachaillin Donn

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes her lover as being "like a war eagle fearless and free" of "the race of O'Connor"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: lover Ireland patriotic bird
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 35, "Buachaillin Donn" (1 text)
Behan-IrelandSings, #53, "Mo Buacaillain Donn" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
File: OCC035

Bubble Gum

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Bubble gum, bubble gum, Chew and blow. Bubble gum, bubble gum, Scrape your toe. Bubble gum... tastes so sweet. Get that bubble gum off your feet." Alternately, for counting-out: "Bubble gum, in a dish... How many pieces do you wish?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: food jumprope | gum counting-out
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 60, "Bubble Gum" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 123, "Bubblegum, bubblegum, in a dish" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #49, "Bubble gum, bubble gum, chew and blow"; #50, "Bubble gum, bubble gum, in a dish" (1 text)
Roud #19256
File: ZiZa060B

Bubble Gum, Bubble Gum in the Dish

See Bubble Gum (File: ZiZa060B)

Bubbleg Gum, Bubble Gum, Chew and Blow

See Bubble Gum (File: ZiZa060B)

Bubblegum

See Choo'n Gum (Chewing Gum; Chew, Chew, Chew; Bubblegum) (File: ACSF142C)

Bubblegum, Bubblegum in a Dish

See Bubble Gum (File: ZiZa060B)

Bubbo Le' Me Lone

DESCRIPTION: "Bubbo le' me 'lone." "Me no a-married yet." "When me married oh Bell go ring ... Shell go blow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection nonballad youth
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 2, "Bubbo Le' Me Lone" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [50 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "... To be let alone the marriageable must hide or avoid company. 'Bubbo' is a common name for the pestering young man who wouldn't accept no for an answer. But he must be patient. In the village, conch shells are blown and the bells ring when a pretty girl gets married." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo002

Buccaneer's Bride, The

DESCRIPTION: "Away, away, o'er the boundless deep, On merrily (we/they) roam." A "gallant band" of sailors bring the sailor's love over the sea. He welcomes her to Hihgland home. "Thy brothers" will wait for the buccaneer "till the dew on the twilight falls"
AUTHOR: Joseph Rodman Drake (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (Journal of the Hillman)
KEYWORDS: pirate travel ship sailor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 133-134, "The Buccaneer's Bride" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 42, "The Buccaneer's Bride" (1 text, 1 tune; from Chappell; #35 in the first edition)
ADDITIONAL: Jared Benedict Graham, _Handset Reminiscences: Recollections of an Old-time Printer and Journalist_,1915, p. 89, "The Buccaneer's Bride" (1 text)
Roud #25993
NOTES [65 words]: The Graham book describes this as a popular sailor's song, and there do seem to be a few sheet music copies. The January 5, 1899 Saline Observer says that it was "very popular thirty or forty years ago," and the person who put it in the newspaper learned it from his father's singing, but I find no evidence of it in tradition except the fact that it was twice copied into ships' logs. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: HGam133

Buccaneer's Song to His Love, The

DESCRIPTION: "Do you ever think of me, love, Do you ever think of me? When I'm far away from thee, love, With my bark upon the sea." The sailor thinks of her often, and of home, and imagines her being with him, and hopes she does the same
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1845 (The Buccaneer Songster, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor separation home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 67, "The Buccaneer's Song to His Love" (1 text; #43 in the first edition)
Roud #13939
NOTES [18 words]: Roud lumps this with "Do They Miss Me at Home?"; I frankly don't see any connection beyond the thematic. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: FrPi067

Buccaneers, The

See Dead Man's Chest (File: LxA512)

Buccoo Bay Young Girl

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that she hung her pork by her fireside and a Buccoo Bay girl stole it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage01)
KEYWORDS: theft escape food
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Wright and Edna Wright, "Buccoo Bay Young Girl" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
File: RcBuBYoG

Buchan Bobby, The

DESCRIPTION: McQueen, raised in Buchan, courts Nancy who won't have him unless he has a non-farming job. He joins the Aberdeen police. When he returns to marry Nancy he finds she'd wed a farmer. "There are better quines in Aiberdeen, Now she can go to...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (SCDChapman01)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity marriage home parting return separation farming police
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
Roud #15746
RECORDINGS:
Daisy Chapman, "The Buchan Bobby" (on SCDChapman01)
File: RcBucBob

Buchan Hunt

DESCRIPTION: "In Buchan forrest as we hear A hunting day was set." The hunters are named. The "din dog that we did seek" led the hunters "thro Straiton and Carpshairn" but "the Buchan dog ... gripit him" and tore him limb from limb: he'll worry no more ewes or lambs.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: hunting moniker dog violence
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 95, "Buchan Hunt" (1 text)
Roud #15098
File: LyCr2095

Buchan Laddie, The

See Courtin' Owre Slow (File: GrD4896)

Buchan Miller, The

See Miller Tae My Trade (File: K218)

Buchan Turnpike, The

DESCRIPTION: In 1808 "a road thro' Buchan was made straucht And mony a Hielan' lad o' maucht Cam' owre the Buchan border ... To put the road in order" Some of the workers are named. "This turnpike it will be a boon"
AUTHOR: John Shirris (source: Greig/Duncan3)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: commerce technology
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 27-28, ("'Twas in the year auchteen hun'er and aucht"); #7, p. 1, "The Buchan Turnpike" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan3 460, "The Buchan Turnpike" (6 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #5961
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnnie Cope" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
cf. "Boyndlie Road" (subject: road building)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Buchan Road
The New Turnpike
In the Year Auchteen Hunner an' Aucht
The Road-Makin'
NOTES [244 words]: Not all the singers are happy about the road. Greig/Duncan3 460E: "The thieves into my hoose they cam', An' to my leathern bags they ran, An' oot o' them they filled their han', An' sert them oot o' order."
[I wonder if this mightn't be a memory of something older, having to do with government repression. Most of the earliest roads in northern Scotland were built by the government to watch the Jacobite clans and allow quick movements of military forces. Of course, it also made it possible for the glens to eventually join the British economy. After they had been cleared, to be sure.]
Greig: "The making of a turnpike road, however important an event in its own way, hardly looks a subject for verse; and nowadays one could scarcely imagine a bard condescending on such a prosaic theme.... Any number of people throughout Buchan know about the making of the Peterhead and Banff turnpike from this song and from no other source of information; and here in the year 1908 we print the song in honour of the event which it commemorates."
Greig's text concludes "The writer's name gin you should spier, I'm Jamie Shirran frae New Deer, A name weel kent baith far and near, I dwell near the road's border." Greig/Duncan3 460C text has it as "I'm Jamie Shirris ...." Greig/Duncan3 notes that Duncan "identified the author as John Shirran" and remembered three men who sang the name as "John Shirris, and all understood it to be the work of the well-known rhymer." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD3460

Buck Creek Gal

See Cripple Creek (II) (Buck Creek Girls) (File: SKE64)

Buck Creek Girls

See Cripple Creek (II) (Buck Creek Girls) (File: SKE64)

Buck Goat Song, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer loses a fight to a billy goat while digging potatoes. "Now Wilcox he thinks he's a boxer, Joe Louis he thinks he's just swell, But they'd all lose their bout in a hurry, If they had to fight that old bill"
AUTHOR: Edmund Chaffey
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: fight humorous animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 15, "The Buck Goat Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #30708
File: LeBe015

Buck Sheep, The

See The Hesleys (File: FSC163)

Buck-Eye Rabbit

DESCRIPTION: "I wanted sugar very much, I went to Sugar Town, I climbed up in that sugar tree And shook that sugar down. Buck-eye rabbit, Shoo! Shoo!" "I went down to my sweetheart's house... She fed me out of an old hog trough And I don't go there no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: talltale humorous courting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 120, "Buckeye Rabbit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 266, "Buck-Eye Rabbit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6706
File: LoF266

Buck-eyed Jim

See Buckeye Jim (File: LxU001)

Buckets of Water

See Draw a Bucket of Water (File: BGMG652)

Buckeye Jim

DESCRIPTION: "Way up yonder above the sky, A bluebird lived in a jaybird's eye. Buckeye Jim, you can't go, Go weave and spin, you can't go, Buckeye Jim." Vignettes of the lives of odd creatures in odd places
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947
KEYWORDS: lullaby animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 1, "Buckeye Jim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 388, "Buckeye Jim" (1 text)
DT, BUCKEYJM* BUCKEYE2*
Roud #10059
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Limber Jim"
cf. "Jaybird Died With the Whooping Cough" (floating lyrics)
File: LxU001

Buckeye Rabbit

See Buck-Eye Rabbit (File: LoF266)

Bucking Broncho, The (The Broncho Buster) [Laws B15]

DESCRIPTION: A girl is in love with a bronco buster who has promised to give up his trade for her. She warns others not to rely on such promises; most breakers will leave their women to head up the trail on their horses
AUTHOR: claimed by James Hatch and Billie Davis (1882)
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 ("The Rawhide" by Edward White, in McClure's Magazine)
KEYWORDS: cowboy love promise
FOUND IN: US(Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws B15, "The Bucking Broncho (The Broncho Buster)"
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 58-60, "My Love Is a Rider" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 200, "The Bucking Bronco" (1 text plus 1 excerpt and 2 fragments, 1 tune, which Cohen implies might be wrongly transcribed)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 196-198, "The Bucking Bronco" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 200A)
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XI, pp. 121-134 (26-27), "Bucking Broncho" (9 texts, 3 tunes); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 14-15, "Bucking Broncho" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 60, "Bucking Broncho" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 417-418, "Bucking Bronco" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 199, "My Love is a Rider" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 14, "My Love Is a Rider" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging, pp. xix-xx, "(The Bucking Broncho)" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 401, "Bucking Broncho" (1 text, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 29-30, "The Broncho Buster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 163, "Bucking Bronco" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, p. 200, "Bucking Broncho" (1 text)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 12-15, "My Love is a Rider" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 382, BUCKBRNC*
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, pp. 12-13, "My Lover's a Cowboy (Wild Broncos He Breaks)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #934
RECORDINGS:
Girls of the Golden West [Mildred & Dorothy Good], "Bucking Broncho (My Love is a Cowboy)" (Bluebird B-5752, 1935; on AuthCowboys)
Powder River Jack & Kitty Lee, "My Love is a Cowboy" (Bluebird B-5298, 1934; on WhenIWas2)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Cowboy's Hat
NOTES [240 words]: Has anyone else noticed the remarkable number of possible double-entendres in this song? - PJS
This, I think, is the result of a dirty song being cleaned up -- probably by N. Howard Thorp. (At least, he confessed to cleaning it up. The question then becomes, what was the history of the song before the 1904 publication? Was it originally clean, then made dirty, then clean again? Or was it originally dirty, and twice expurgated? It's hard to tell, at this stage.)
Thorp, if Logsdon is to be believed, started the story that Belle Starr was responsible for this piece -- a claim mentioned though not really endorsed by Randolph, and also found in Larkin-SingingCowboy.
Randolph goes on to point out that there is no evidence that Starr ever wrote poetry of any kind. Logsdon is more pointed (p. xix), noting that Thorp claimed to have met Belle Starr but doubting he did so. The doubts seem reasonable -- Thorp did not make the claim until the 1920s, but Starr died in 1889. Thus, if Thorp *did* meet her, it was well before he first published the song. So why didn't he mention her authorship in his 1908 edition?
Starr of course has become a legend -- so much so that I'm frankly amazed there are no songs about her (other than Woody Guthrie's, which is not traditional and which swallows the legend hook, line, and sinker). She did lead a wild and adventurous life -- but many of the stories about her seem to be things she invented. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LB15

Bucking Bronko, The

See The Bucking Broncho (The Broncho Buster) [Laws B15] (File: LB15)

Buckingham Betrayed by Banister

DESCRIPTION: "You barons bold, marke and behold The thing that I will write." The Duke of Buckingham "flourished" in the reign of Edward IV. Buckingham, scorning Richard III's usurpation, rebels, is defeated, and is betrayed by Banister; Banister goes un-rewarded
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: rebellion nobility royalty betrayal death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1483 - Death of Edward IV. His 12-year-old son is destined to become Edward V, but is set aside by Richard III and Buckingham. Buckingham rebels, is defeated, and is executed
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 253-259, "Buckingam betrayd by Banister" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 270
NOTES [1668 words]: There is no indication that this is traditional, unless you accept the fact that the piece is in the Percy Folio as evidence. But Hales and Furnivall indicate the existence of two other Duke of Buckingham ballads:
- The Life and Death of the Great Duke of Buckingham, who came to an untimely End, for consenting to the deposing of the two gallant young princes, King Edward the Fourth's children. To the tune of Shore's Wife" (i.e. the piece indexed as "Jane Shore"?). It is by Robert Johnson.
- A most sorrowful song, setting forth the miserable end of Banister, who betrayed the Duke of Buckingham, his Lord and Master.
Hales and Furnivall suggest, p. 255, that "Perhaps all three ballads are founded on some common older original." I think this unlikely, but I'm indexing the Percy Folio piece as the reference for that probably unreal original.
What is definitely unreal is the history in this song. Debate as much as you like how guilty Richard III was in the usurpation of 1483 and likely murder of Edward IV and Richard Duke of York (you can find plenty of details in the entry on "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34]). What is certain is that there was plenty of blood on the hands of the Duke of Buckingham.
King Edward IV died on April 9, 1483, after a short illness; his death was utterly unexpected, since he was just forty years old (Wagner, p. 82). His heir was a 12-year-old son, Edward V, who was obviously too young to rule in his own right. Edward IV had provided in his will that his younger brother, Richard Duke of Gloucester, who had always been conspicuously loyal, would be Lord Protector.
"Lord Protector" was an undefined term. It was not a regency. Since Edward V was too young to rule, there was a free-for-all to gain power.
What made this interesting is that all the principals were in different places. The queen mother, the former Elizabeth Woodville, was in London along with the government -- but the new King himself was not there; he was in the Welsh marches, under the tutelage of his maternal uncle, Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers. And the Lord Protector, Richard of Gloucester, was in the north.
The Woodvilles planned an immediate coronation and apparently intended to set Richard (and all others except their allies) aside. The coronation was key: "Although obviously too young to rule alone, in need of others to guide him and govern him, constitutionally Edward would be of full age, with no need for a minority council or protectorate" (Hicks, p. 140). And the Woodville faction certainly felt confident in their power; the Marquis of Dorset, Elizabeth Woodville's son by her first marriage and thus the king's older half-brother, declared, "We are so important that even without the king's uncle we can make and enforce our decisions" (Hicks, p. 141). Is it any wonder that the rest of the nobility was concerned?
"The first moves in the struggle for power were initiated by the Woodville group in London during the days immediately following King Edward's death on 9 April 1483. They evidently planned to maintain their position by force if necessary, by seizing the royal treasure in the Tower, putting a fleet to sea under Woodville command, arranging for an early coronation of the young king, bringing him to London at the head of an army controlled by Earl Rivers and his friends, and devising a form of interim government from which the Duke of Gloucester would be largely excluded" (Ross, p. 65).
Rivers of course immediately started out for London with the king and an escort of 2000 men. Richard, with 600 men, arranged to meet him on the way. Rivers, having settled the King in Stony Stratford, in fact rode with a small escort to meet Richard at Northampton. "Richard politely invited the Earl to stay to supper. They could ride together to join the King in the morning.
"During the meal Richard received a second visitor in the person of Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham. 'Harre Bokingham, as he signed himself, was the joker in the royal pack who played out the tragedy of Richard III. Lineal descendant of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, fifth son of Edward III, he ranked as the first peer of England after Richard and the King's nine-year-old brother Richard Duke of York. He also harboured a deep-seated grudge against the Queen.... No doubt he saw in Richard the instrument of his revenge" (Cheetham, p. 107).
There is no witness to what happened next. But Cheetham, p. 108, suggests "Buckingham's later career will show that he was ambitious, conceited and reckless. He was also an accomplished and persuasive speaker. He must now have pointed out to Richard the danger of pursuing the prudent course of action he had so far undertaken. Once Rivers had delivered the King to his mother in London and set a crown on his head, only a civil war could unseat the Woodvilles.... If they were to act, it must be now.
"At dawn on 40 April Richard ordered the arrest of RIvers" (Cheetham, p. 108). Hicks, who disapproved of Richard very strongly, says, "What Richard actually did, with the support of Buckingham, was to anticipate the impending crisis by a pre-emptive strike against the Wydevilles" (Hicks, p. 142). The two Dukes then took possession of Edward V. Eventually Richard set Edward V aside and was crowned himself as Richard III (again, see the notes to "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34]). Edward V and his brother soon disappeared.
Richard's rewards to Buckingham were immense; Buckingham became one of the richest landowners in English history: "first the three men who had made [Richard's] usurpation possible received their rewards. Buckingham had the lion's share: he was appointed Constable and Great Chamberlain of England. In addition recognized his long-standing claim to a large part of the de Bohun inheritance, with an annual income of over £700" (Cheetham, p. 129. £700 was roughly equivalent to the income from another earldom).
Despite all this, Buckingham within months was plotting rebellion, aligning himself with the forces trying to overthrow Richard and put Henry Tudor on the throne. This is very hard to explain. "Perhaps Buckingham really hoped to win the throne for himself, using Henry Tudor as a pawn in the game.... Yet if he were moved by such vaunting ambition, why then did he abandon it in favour of supporting Henry Tudor? Richard had already given the duke as much as any subject could hope for, and he could scarcely have expected more from Henry Tudor, who was still a largely unknown and unpredictable personality" (Ross, pp. 114-115). Ross guesses that perhaps Buckingham thought that Richard would be overthrown and Buckingham wanted to be on the winning side. But the rebellion had no chance without Buckingham; indeed, even with him, it was a fizzle ("By 25 November the king was back in London, less than six weeks since he had first heard news of the rebellion"; Ross, p. 117).
"Buckingham's rebellion makes no sense unless it is assumed that his earlier support of Richard's cause was, all along, part of a grand design to clear his own path to the throne" (Cheetham, p. 136 -- Buckingham could argue that his claim to the throne was senior to Tudor's; at minimum, his claim was in legitimate line and Tudor's was illegitimate).
"Drenched by the rains and harassed by the guerillas, Buckingham's retainers lost heart and melted away as they struggled across the Welsh borders into Herefordshire.... Sick with fear, the Duke himself deserted what was left of his following. He disguised himself as a commoner and took refuge in the Shropshire cottage of one of his servants, Ralph Bannaster of Wem. For Master Ralph the chief attraction of his guest lay in the £1,000 reward the King had set on his head, and he promptly betrayed the Duke to the local sheriff" (Cheetham, p. 139). "Buckingham, tried and sentenced by the Vice-Constable, Sir Ralph Asheton, was beheaded in Salisbury market place on Sunday, 2 November" (Cheetham, pp. 139-140). At that, it was easier that the standard traitor's death of hanging, drawing, and quartering.
This version of the tale is clearly the one that underlies this song. It isn't the only account of what happened, though. The Croyland Chronicle, written probably in 1486 and certainly the work of an insider in Richard's council, recorded, "Finding that he [i.e. Buckingham] was placed in a position of extreme difficulty, and that he could in no direction find a safe mode of escape, he first changed his dress, and then secretly left his people; but was at last discovered in the cottage of a poor man, in consequence of a greater quantity of provisions than usual being carried thither. Upon this, he was led to the city of Salisbury, to which place the king had come with a very large army, on the day of the commemoration of All Souls; and, notwithstanding the fact that it was the Lord's day, the duke suffered capital punishment in the public market-place of that city" (Lander, pp. 186-187).
Bottom line: We don't really know who planned the events of 1483 -- whether Richard or Buckingham proposed capturing the king, and whether Richard or Buckingham proposed the usurpation; whether Richard, or Buckingham, or the next king, Henry VII, had the princes executed. At the time, although most people naturally blamed Richard, there were quite a few contemporaries who suspected, or were open to, the idea that Buckingham ordered the murders (Hicks, p. 182). What we do know is that Buckingham was in all this up to his neck. He was as guilty as Richard -- and he was a double-crosser. The rough outline of the facts in this piece are correct, but the emphasis is utterly wrong -- I don't recall ever seeing a modern historian who did not think that Buckingham richly deserved what he got. But, of course, after Richard III was overthrown, any enemy of Richard was suddenly viewed in a better light; one suspects that there were several attempts to rehabilitate Buckingham's memory. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: PeFoBBbB

Bucklich Mennli, Des (The Little Humpback)

DESCRIPTION: German. "Marjets wann ich uffschteh, Schau ich an de Wolke." When the singer gets up in the morning, he asks if the work is done. Everywhere he goes, the little hump-backed man is there doing the work or scolding or getting in the way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage work mother
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 91-92, "Des Bucklich Mennli (The Little Humpback)" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [49 words]: There are brownie legends in Germany (with the brownie being known by several names, such as a "house-girl"), and this appears to be the descendent of one of those legends. It is somewhat unusual in that the brownie is so regularly seen, and also in that it is not merely deformed but small. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: KPL091

Buckskin Bag of Gold

DESCRIPTION: "Last night I met him on the train, A man with lovely eyes," who had "jet black eyes," a "grand mustache," and a "buckskin bag of gold." He makes a splash -- and eventually flees town once "Papa's bank Is robbed of ev'ry cent"
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (sheet music published by S. Brainerd's Sons with copyright by Root & Cady)
KEYWORDS: courting robbery theft abandonment
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 209-210, "The Buckskin Bag of Gold" (1 text)
Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work, pp. 47-51, "The Buckskin Bag of Gold" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Dime-Song-Book #31, pp. 38-39, "The Buckskin Bag of Gold" (1 text)
Roud #11710
File: SMBuBaGo

Buckskin Joe

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas a calm and peaceful evening in a camp called Arapahoe." There is music, drink, dancing. Hankey Dean, who hates losing at cards, grows enraged at a stranger. The stranger pins the 5 of spades to the wall and shoots out the spades. Dean shuts up
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy fight cards gambling
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 15-18, "Buckskin Joe" (1 text)
Roud #4949
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Zebra Dun" (theme of a tenderfoot who knows what he is doing)
File: ThLo015

Bucktail Boys, The

DESCRIPTION: "When first our country was beset By rebels strong and bold," Pennsylvanians enlisted to fight. The regiment is led by Kane, then Biddle. They fight in Western Virginia, then return to Pennsylvania, then to Virginia proper
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: soldier battle death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1861-1864 - career of the 13 Pennsylvania Reserves, the "Bucktails"
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 190-190, "The Bucktail Boys" (1 text)
Roud #15022
NOTES [1830 words]: Identifying the regiment involved in this song is easy; identifying the events is harder.
First, the regiment: It is the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves (officially known as the 42nd Pennsylvania, but rarely called that). They were informally known as the "Pennsylvania Bucktails." The name "bucktails," plus the mentions of Kane and Biddle, makes this certain. The name came about because they informally added a bucktail to their hats.
Folklore said that each recruit was required to supply his own bucktail to prove that he was good enough shot to kill a deer (Boatner, p. 637). I do not know if this is true, but it is certain that the regiment organized itself as a rifle regiment -- they weren't just another bunch of volunteers; they were supposed to be good shots, though it was some time before the government gave them the equipment to prove it.
The collective title "Pennsylvania Reserves" for thirteen regiments of Pennsylvania troops arose out of the peculiar circumstances at the start of the Civil War. After Fort Sumter, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers, assigning quotas to the various states. Pennsylvania's quota was about 15,000. But many more than twice that many volunteered. The Secretary of War didn't want them -- particularly from Pennsylvania; Secretary of War Cameron was a political opponent of Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin. Since the Federals wouldn't take the excess troops, Pennsylvania organized thirteen regiments of "Pennsylvania Reserves"; the regiments would serve as a unit for most of the next three years (Boatner, p. 635).
Fox, p. 261, gives this capsule account of the regiment (obviously Thomson/Rauch is much fuller): "Known also as the First Pennsylvania Rifles, or Kane Rifles. It was recruited in April 1861, from the lumbermen of the Pennsylvania forests; the men were strong and hardy, each being a skillful marksman, armed with his own rifle. The regiment was subsequently [after an uncomfortable period when they had to fight with ancient smoothbore muskets] with Sharpe's rifles [a breechloader with a higher rate of fire than the standard infantry muzzle-loader], and then again with Spencer seven-shooters [the best weapon of the war in many ways; few infantry got to have them].
"Each man wore a bucktail in his hat, and hence their name; one which became famous throughout the army, because of the extraordinary efficiency of the regiment. It took the field in June [1861], proceeding to Cumberland, Md, in which vicinity it was actively engaged on scout and picket duty until October, when it joined its division -- the Pennsylvania Reserves -- at Washington. In the spring of 1862, four companies, under Colonel Kane, served in the Shenandoah Valley, while the other [six companies] accompanied the Reserves to the Peninsula [for McClellan's Peninsular Campaign which ended in the Seven Days' Battles].
"The regiment was united again at Manassas [i.e. the second Battle of Bull Run], in which battle they were engaged, and then marched with General McClellan to Antietam, where Colonel McNiel [the regimental commander] was killed. The Bucktails met with a severe loss at Fredericksburg, their casualties amounting to 19 killed, 113 wounded, and 29 missing; total, 161 [at a time when a full-strength regiment had 800 men, and most had about 500 actually in the ranks]. At Gettysburg the brigade, led by the gallant McCandless, rendered good service near Little Round Top [losing its commanding officer, Colonel Taylor, in the battle].... The Bucktails did good work under Grant at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, after which they were mustered out at Harrisburg, Pa., June 11, 1864, their term of service having inspired."
(It is interesting to note that, at a time when many regiments re-enlisted, most of the Bucktails did not.)
The name "Kane Rifles" arises from the regiment's organizer and sometimes-commander, Thomas Leiper Kane (1822-1883), who was a bit of a character. His father was a federal judge who once found it necessary to confine his own son for not respecting the Fugitive Slave Law (Warner, p. 256); his brother was the physician and Arctic explorer Elisha Kent Kane (Boatner, p. 448), who also had occasional problems keeping contact with reality. Thomas Kane in the late 1850s had helped negotiate peace between the Mormons and the American government (Warner, pp. 256-257) before stepping up to recruit a regiment at the start of the Civil War.
He was slightly wounded at the Battle of Dranesville on December 20, 1861, then on June 6, 1862, was wounded and captured in the Shenandoah Valley (Warner, p. 257). In September 1862, he was made a brigadier general (Phisterer, p. 277; he would be made a brevet major general in March 1865; Phisterer, p. 259, but he was out of the army by then). When he was promoted, he was assigned to a brigade in the XII corps, so he was done with the Pennsylvania Reserves. He commanded a brigade at Chancellorsville, came down with pneumonia, fled the hospital to command his brigade at Gettysburg, but then resigned due to ill health in November (Warner, p.257).
The statement in the song that the regiment was led by "the gallant Kane," but then went to Harrisburg, "Where Biddle was elected," described an unusual event in the history of the regiment. The regiment was one of those allowed to elect officers, and initially Kane was elected colonel (Thomson/Rauch; p. 31; at a time when the American regular army was very small and the supply of West Point graduates limited, choosing officers by election was normal, and the organizers of the regiments usually took the top jobs). Unlike most political officers, though, Kane recognized his lack of experience. He wanted the regiment to have a veteran commander, and so arranged a new election of officers which raised Charles J. Biddle, a Mexican War veteran, to the colonelcy. Kane was elected lieutenant colonel and second-in-command (Thomson/Rauch, p. 34).
Biddle (1819-1873) was not to stay with the regiment for very long. He was appointed brigadier general as of August 31, 1861, but did not serve; he was elected to congress and resigned from the army (Boatner, pp. 62-63; Phisterer, p. 270).
Roy Stone, who was elected major, may have had a more distinguished career than either; although he never made it to brigadier (except by brevet; Phisterer, p. 302); he commanded a brigade in the famous I Corps that served brilliantly and tragically at Gettysburg (his brevet promotion was for that battle, according to Boatner, p. 800).
Although Kane resumed command of the regiment after Biddle's resignation, it was never again, properly, "his" regiment; Hugh W. McNeil was the next man appointed colonel, and then Charles F. Taylor after McNeil was killed, and once Taylor was killed at Gettysburg, the Bucktails never had another colonel (Fox, p. 261).
The incident in the poem that took place "On the fourteenth of July, Just as day began to break," in which one Pennsylvanian was killed but the Bucktails "shot sixteen of their number" appears to be a reference to the "battle" of New Creek (I put "battle" in quotes because the battle is not listed in Phisterer's semi-official list of battles; it was more like a raid by Kane).
The Bucktails at this time were camped at Cumberland, Maryland, in the western part of the state just across the North Branch of the Potomac River from what is now West Virginia. New Creek is in West Virginia, about 25 miles southwest of Cumberland; it's perhaps twelve miles almost due west of Romney, West Virginia. There were Confederates in the vicinity, but they didn't seem to be doing anything, so Kane convinced Colonel Biddle to let him seek them out (Thomson/Rauch, p. 46). Kane selected about sixty men and went out hunting. They made their first brief foray on July 10, but returned to camp. On July 12, they scouted toward Piedmont, about five miles north of New Creek, when word came that the enemy was near New Ceek (Thomson/Rauch, pp. 47-48). Kane left ten men at Piedmont and advanced with his remaining fifty to New Creek. Kane then did something blatantly stupid that nonetheless worked: He found a secessionist minister and sent him to the local Confederate commander, Colonel McDonald, with what amounted to a challenge to come fight at New Creek (Thomson/Rauch, p. 48). The rebels, who were apparently as chuckle-headed as Kane, obliged.
The rebels had found Kane's guide, a young man named Kelly, and killed him in his sleep (the song says they shot him, but Thomson/Rauch says they cut his throat, which seems more likely since it would be soundless. Of course, it was an atrocity either way). The Confederates kept coming, and in the skirmish which followed, three Rebels were killed at once. Thomson/Rauch, p. 50, declared "Of the enemy, several of those wounded died subsequently. The attacking force must have been slightly over a hundred, and their loss in wounded about twenty."
Thus the details in the song are mostly correct, except for one glaring error: The fight took place on July 13, not July 14 as in the song. (Or maybe on July 12; I've seen web sites that make that claim.) But that's the sort of error that could easily arise. And the Bucktails did spend the next few days in the vicinity.
At the end of July, the unit started back for Pennsylvania, as in the song; after some marching, it took a train to Harrisburg on July 30 (Thomson/Rauch, p. 54). The units were finally mustered into Federal service after the First Battle of Bull Run (Thomson/Rauch, pp. 55-58), when the federal government realized it needed more men. Which is the last interesting thing to happen to the Bucktails prior to October 1861, when Shoemaker claims the song was written -- and certainly it does not appear to refer to events after that.
To that point, the war had been rather a lark -- the men had had to do a lot of marching, had been given poor food and equipment, had suffered their share of disease, but had had no casualties to speak of. Some of them had even gotten to make river rafts to join the rest of the regiment! Life would not stay as fun. Men of the Bucktails would fight in the Shenandoah Valley, in the Seven Days, at Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and the early parts of the Wilderness Campaign -- some of the bloodiest battles of the war. Fox, p. 261, calculates that, in all, 1165 men served in the regiment. 162 were killed in combat and 90 died of disease -- 22% of the total. And many more were wounded and maimed.
The claim that this song was sung by men of McKean, Potter, and Tioga counties might possibly be used to figure out more about just who sang this song; Companies A and E of the Bucktails was recruited in Tioga County (Thomson/Rauch, pp. 18, 23), and some of the other companies may have come from those counties though some definitely did not. This would require research into just which towns were part of which counties in 1861, which was more work than I cared to do! - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe190

Bud Francois

DESCRIPTION: "Francois de bully man, Way oh! Francois de bully man, Bud Francois!" He stole Mrs Clement's cock, hid in a cellar and hung himself on a mango tree, but John Thomas cut him down. The singer would bury him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: theft escape suicide rescue parody shanty Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 38, "Bud Francois" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Boney" (original shanty)
NOTES [74 words]: This is a localization to the point of parody of "Boney." Elder-FolksongsFromTobago has this "very famous sea chanty sung by most Tobago fishermen" about "Bud Francois," "a real hero figure in the Moriah, village. Long before I recorded this shanty, in fact near to fifteen years before that, I had met Pa Bud (as they called Old Bud Francois) then and had spoken with him about some of his great escapades as a 'highway man', Tobago style." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo038

Bud Jones

DESCRIPTION: A tramp stops at the home of "a snug little farmer that earns his bread ... and some dinner requested." The farmer agrees to trade dinner for work. After a hard luck story about why he can't work the tramp agrees to turn a ram. The ram does not agree.
AUTHOR: Lawrence Doyle
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: farming humorous animal migrant
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 108-109, "Bud Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12457
File: Dib108

Budd Lake Plains

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of working as camp cook at Frank Young's lumber camp on Budd Lake plains. He is stuck with bad provisions. Eventually he's jailed for twelve days; on his release, he vows not to return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of coming to Frank Young's lumber camp on Budd Lake plains, working as camp cook. He is stuck with bad provisions -- "Many a poor mule's been killed up on Budd's Lake plains." Eventually he's jailed for twelve days; on his release, he vows not to return: "For since I have got out/I won't go again/For they wear striped pants/Up around Budd Lake plains."
KEYWORDS: lumbering work prison food cook
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 15, "Budd Lake Plains" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 28, "Budd Lake Plains" (1 text)
Roud #8866
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" and references there
cf. "Punchin' Dough" (theme)
cf. "Boomer Johnson" (theme)
NOTES [26 words]: Clare County, Michigan, which includes Budd Lake, had a reputation as a rough and tough area.
Beck notes that only one informant could remember the song. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be015

Budded Roses

See Down Among the Budded Roses (File: RcDATBR)

Buddies and Pals

DESCRIPTION: "You and me, we’re going to be partners You and me, we’re going to be pals You and me, we’re going to be partners Buddies and pals," Repeat, but with openings such as "From now on, we're going to be partners...." "Till the end, we're going to be..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: friend nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 437, "Buddies and Pals"
File: ACSF437Q

Buddy Bolden's Blues

See Funky Butt (Buddy Bolden's Blues) (File: RcFunkBu)

Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line

DESCRIPTION: First verse describes leasing out of convicts to act as scabs in a miners' strike; rest of song describes bad conditions for the convicts.
AUTHOR: Uncle Dave Macon?
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (collected by Robert W. Gordon; text in Green-OnlyAMiner-RecordedCoalMiningSongs)
KEYWORDS: strike labor-movement mining work scab prisoner
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Green-OnlyAMiner-RecordedCoalMiningSongs, p. 195-197,"Roll Down the Line"; p. 198, "Convict Song" (1 text); p. 210, "Chain Gang Special" (1 text); p. 203, "Roll Down the Line" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 208, "Lone Rock Song" (1 text); p. 216 ,"Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line" (1 text, transcribed from Uncle Dave Macon's recording); p. 220, "Rollin' Down the Line" (1 text); p. 223, "Lone Rock Mine Song" (1 text); p. 225, "Humpy Hargis" (1 text)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 205, "Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line" (1 text)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 98 "Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 204-205, "Buddy, Won't You Roll Down the Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 366-367, "Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line" (1 text)
ST ADR98 (Full)
Roud #17485
RECORDINGS:
Allen Brothers, "Roll Down the Line" (Vocalion 02818, 1934); "Roll Down the Line" (Victor 23551, 1931; Bluebird B-5700, 1934; Bluebird B-6148/Montgomery Ward M-4799, 1935; rec. 1930); Hey Buddy, Won't You Roll Down the Line" (OKeh 02818/Vocalion 02818, 1934)
Thaddeus Goodson & Belton Rice, "Roll Down the Line" (AFS 3792, 1939)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line" (Brunswick 292, 1929; rec. 1928; on AAFM3)
Negro prisoners, Memphis, TN, "Rollin' Down the Line" (AFS 174)
Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry, "Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line" (on SeegerTerry)
Pete Seeger, "Roll Down the Line" (on PeteSeeger13)
William H. Stevens, "Convict Song" (AFS A-107, 1925)
[Wilmer] Watts & [Frank] Wilson "Chain Gang Special" (Paramount 3019, 1927/Broadway 8114 [as Weaver & Wiggins], n.d.; on RoughWays1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Coal Creek Troubles" (subject)
cf. "The Irish Girl" (lyrics)
NOTES [203 words]: This strike apparently took place in Tennessee in the 1880s, according to notes in Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic.
Like most of Uncle Dave Macon's songs, this piece is basically free-association. - PJS
Though it may in fact predate him. He gave it the authentic Uncle Dave spin, but how many other Uncle Dave songs have such strong historical roots? Many believe the song to go back to the actual event it describes. (For details, see the notes to "Coal Creek Troubles.") - RBW
Macon's song seems to have been a rewrite of "Chain Gang Special," with the "leased the convicts out" verse tacked onto a song that's basically the lament of a black convict who's been sentenced to the chain gang. The racial overtones that Macon softens are clear in the Watts & Wilson recording: "Big nigger, won't you roll down the line." Interestingly, their song is clearly (and sympathetically) told from the black prisoner's point of view, rare for a white band.
"Lone Rock Mine Song" and "Humpy Hargis" date from the early 1890s, but they are fragments; I've somewhat arbitrarily placed the Earliest Date for a non-fragmentary version of the song at 1925, when it was collected by Gordon from William H. Stevens. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ADR98

Budgeon It Is a Delicate Trade, The

See references under The Miller of Dee (File: K229A)

Buduran's Ball

DESCRIPTION: On Saturday morning people (men and women?) gather "to finish the yarn... and then we'd go dancing to Boduran's Ball." There was dancing after dinner and drinking until morning. Of all the parties and picnics "I never saw better than Buduran's Ball"
AUTHOR: Sean O Tuama (Johnny Nora Aodha) (source: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: dancing drink food music party moniker
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 36, "Buduran's Ball" (2 texts)
Roud #16235
NOTES [127 words]: Re: "to finish the yarn... and then we'd go dancing" per Margaret Lynn Steiner: "there is a tradition in Ireland of reciprocal help called a meitheal. People would go to a neighbor's to help with whatever task was needed, and this was usually followed by a ceilidh." Following up on that, the following seems relevant: "Tailors used to travel from place to place making clothes, and the bygone methods of turning flax and wool into yarn are described, as also the manner of haymaking and turfcutting, as well as the meitheal or "gang" method of mowing, harvesting, hauling, building, and spinning" (Review by J.H.H. of C.M. Arensburg and S.T. Kimbal of Family and Community in Ireland in Folklore, Vol. 53, No. 4 (Dec 1942 ("available on JSTOR")), p. 220.) - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC036

Buena Vista (I)

DESCRIPTION: "From the Rio Grande's waters to the icy lakes of Maine Let all exult for we have met the enemy again." Details of battle sung, regiments and commanders named, "our brave old General another battle won"
AUTHOR: Words: Albert Pike (source: Eggleston and Thompson-APioneerSongster)
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Eggleston)
KEYWORDS: army battle death Mexico soldier memorial moniker patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 22-23, 1847 - Battle of Buena Vista. 5000 troops under Zachary Taylor defeat 15,000 Mexicans under Santa Anna
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 56, "Buena Vista" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: George Cary Eggleston, editor, _American War Ballads and Lyrics_ (New York, 1889), pp. 153-158, "Buena Vista"
Roud #2829
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On Buena Vista's Battlefield" (subject)
File: THP056

Buena Vista (II)

See On Buena Vista's Battlefield (File: R225A)

Buffalo

See The Bigler's Crew [Laws D8] (File: LD08)

Buffalo Boy

DESCRIPTION: The girl asks the Buffalo Boy when they will wed. He suggests soon. (Assorted stanzas follow.) She asks who he will bring to the wedding. He suggests his children. She didn't know he had children. When assured he does, she calls off the wedding
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Mr. & Mrs. Ernest V. Stoneman)
KEYWORDS: courting wedding children rejection humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA,Ap)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 239, "My Dear Old Innocent Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 162, "Buffalo Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 75, "Dear Old Ages Boy" (1 text, 1 tune, with two "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" verses added at the end)
Cray-AshGrove, p. 36, "Buffalo Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 345, "Buffalo Boy" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: MacEdward Leach and Henry Glassie, _A Guide for Collectiors of Oral Traditions and Folk Cultural Material in Pennsylvania_, Pennsylvania historical and Museum Commission, 1973, pp. 35-36, "A Mountaineer's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #313
RECORDINGS:
Mr. & Mrs. Ernest V. Stoneman, "The Mountaineer's Courtship" (OKeh 45125, 1927; on AAFM3) (Victor 20880, 1927)
The Hillbillies, "Mountaineer's Courtship" (Vocalion 5115, c. 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Country Courtship" (theme)
NOTES [31 words]: Kennedy considers this to be a version of "The Country Courtship," and the forms, and even the verses, are similar. Roud lumps them. However, this version has a different punch line. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: LoF162

Buffalo Gals

DESCRIPTION: As requested, the Buffalo [Bowery, etc.] girls promise to come out tonight, to dance or otherwise disport themselves by the light of the moon.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: A Christy Minstrels' version was copyrighted in 1848
KEYWORDS: bawdy playparty dancing
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,SE,So) West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (29 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, p. 32=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, p. 227, "Cincinnati Girls" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 58, "(Shanty-Boy Dance Jingles: "Danced with a gal With a hole in her stockin'") (1 floating fragment, perhaps this)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 76-77, "Buffalo Gals" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 152, "The Lushbaugh Girls" (1 text, with three verses that appear to be from three different songs; the first is "Buffalo Gals"; the second might be influenced by "De Boatman Dance," and the third stars "I dances with the girl with a hole in her stocking") (pp. 129-130 in the 1919 edition)
Randolph 535, "Buffalo Gals" (2 texts plus an excerpt and a fragment, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 127, "Alabama Gal" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 159, "Buffalo Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 76-78, "Buffalo Gal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 81, "Buffalo Gals" (2 short texts); also 491, "We'll Have a Little Dance Tonight, Boys" (1 fragment, too short to properly classify but it might go here)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 81, "Buffalo Gals" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 112-114, (no title) and "Buffalo Gals" (2 texts plus a fragment possibly from this, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 424-425, "Buffalo Gals" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 33, "Buffalo Gals" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 288-290, "Louisiana Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 101, "Buffalo Gals" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, p. 841, "(Buffalo Gals)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 233, (fourth of four "Fragments from Maryland") (1 fragment)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 36-37, "Buffalo Gals" (1 text, 1 tune)
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 22, "Lambeau Gal Le' A-We Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 58, "Buffalo Gals" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 107-108, "Buffalo Gals" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 38-43, "The Cowboy's Christmas Ball" (1 text, 1 tune, with elements of "Buffalo Gals" and "Skip to My Lou" as bridges)
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 74-75, "Buffalo Gals" (1 text, 1 tune, "Sung by the Ethiopian Serenaders")
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 34, "Buffalo Gals" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 66-67, "Buffalo Gals" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 366-367, "Buffalo Gals" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 43 and #5/64, p. 43, "We'll have a Little Dance To-Night, Boys" (1 text); #13, p. 62, "We'll Have a Little Dance To-Night" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 36, "Buffalo Gals" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Edward Russell, _A-Rafting on the Mississip'_, 1928 (republished 2001 by the University of Minnesota Press), pp. 211-213, "Buffalo Gals" (1 text, 1 tune); also a "Cornfed Gals" stanza on p. 219
ST R535 (Full)
Roud #738
RECORDINGS:
Dana Borusky, "Buffalo Gals" (Piotr-Archive #578, recorded 05/05/2023)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Alabama Gal (Won't You Come Out Tonight?)" (OKeh 40204, 1924)
Collins & Harlan, "Ain't You Coming Out To-Night?" (CYL: Edison [4-min.] 480, n.d.)
Crockett's Kentucky Mountaineers, "Buffalo Gal's Medley" (Crown 3075/Homestead 23039/Varsity 5088 [as Hale's Kentucky Mountaineers]/Montgomery Ward M-3026 [as Harlan Miners Fiddlers]/Joe Davis [as Kentucky Mountaineers], all c. 1930)
Vernon Dalhart, "Ain't-Ya Comin' Out Tonight?" (Columbia 257-D, 1924)
Vernon Dalhart & Co., "Ain't You Comin' Out Tonight?" (Edison 51430, 1924)
Emmett & Aiken String Band, "Dance in the Light of the Moon" (Okeh 45022, 1925)
Frank Hutchison, "Alabama Gal Ain't You Coming Out Tonight" (OKeh 45313, 1929; rec. 1928)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers [or Earl Johnson and his Clodhoppers], "Alabama Girl Ain't You Comin' Out Tonight" (OKeh 45300, 1929; rec. 1928)
Guy Massey, "Ain't Ya Comin' Out Tonight" (Perfect 12170, 1924)
Shorty McCoy, "Buffalo Gals" (Bluebird 33-0511, 1944)
Pickard Family, "Buffalo Gals" (Brunswick 363/Banner 6371/Conqueror 7326, 1929)
Riley Puckett, "Alabama Gal" (Columbia 15185-D, 1927)
Bookmiller Shannon, "Buffalo Gals" [instrumental] (on LomaxCD1707)
Pete Seeger, "Buffalo Gals" (on PeteSeeger17)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hangtown Gals" (tune)
cf. "Horsham Boys" (tune)
cf. "Gwine Follow" (partial form)
cf. "Rig-a-Jig" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Birdie in the Cage / Buffalo Gals (Square dance calls) (Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 87-89)
Quadrille/Variant (square dance call) (Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, p. 119)
New Found Land (by Woody Guthrie) (Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 30-31)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Alabama Gals
NOTES [170 words]: According to Spaeth (A History of Popular Music in America, p. 101), this originated as the Cool White (John Hodges) song "Lubly Fan" (1843). From the present perspective, it's hard to prove whether Hodges actually did write the thing or borrowed an existing piece -- but I rather suspect the latter. (Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird credits it to White, but its attributions are not reliable.)
Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 191, says that Hodges (1821-1891) was a member of the Virginia Serenaders in 1843, sang this song in 1844, was later a member of the Sable Melodists, and eventually founded Cool White's Broadway Minstrels. Finson, p. 192, seems to suggest that White wrote the words but used a fiddle tine.- RBW
The tune to Elder-FolksongsFromTobago is close to the usual one and has the same structure. Here, the Lambeau gals are called to dance at Carnbee Hall, at what was once a great sugar plantation. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R535

Buffalo Hunt, The

DESCRIPTION: "Now list tot he song of the buffalo hunt, Which I, Pierre the rhymester, chant of the brave. We are Bois-Brules, Freemen of the plains." The scouts find the "herd"; the "hunters" silently attack. There is meat forall
AUTHOR: Words: Agnes Laut (inspired perhaps by Pierre Falcon) / tune adapted from Jean Klinck's "Cecelia"
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Laut in "Lords of the North")
KEYWORDS: hunting animal Canada food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba, #3, pp. 16-22, "The Buffalo Hunt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25772
File: Macl03

Buffalo Hunters

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you pretty fair maidens, these lines to you I write, We're going on the range in which we take delight...." The singer describes hunting buffalo and other animals in the west, then heads off for a drink
AUTHOR: "Whiskey" Parker ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: hunting drink
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 2, "The Buffalo Hunters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 412-413, "The Buffalo Hunters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4633
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sam Bass" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
NOTES [16 words]: Reportedly written by "Whisky" Parker in 1872, although the supporting evidence is slight. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FCW002

Buffalo Hunters, The

See The Buffalo Skinners [Laws B10a] (File: LB10A)

Buffalo Range (I)

See The Buffalo Skinners [Laws B10a] (File: LB10A)

Buffalo Range (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer declares "I wouldn't exchange the buffalo range For the world and all of its gold." It is where he makes his home, and where he'll "live and die." He describes the beautiful wildlife. He "thank[s] the Great Boss in the sky" for creating it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: home religious cowboy nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 127, "The Buffalo Range" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [10 words]: Obviously not to be confused with "The Buffalo Skinners." - RBW
File: FCW127

Buffalo Skinners, The [Laws B10a]

DESCRIPTION: A promoter named (Crego) hires a group of men to skin buffalo. He consistently cheats and mistreats them. Eventually they kill him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910
KEYWORDS: work homicide boss revenge
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Laws B10a, "The Buffalo Skinners"
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 773-775, "Canaday I. O. (The Buffalo Skinners)" (2 texts, but only the first goes with this piece; the other belongs with "Canaday I-O" [Laws C17])
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 170-172, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 6, "The Buffalo Song" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 429, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 110, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 270-272, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XV, pp. 195-218 (31-33), "Buffalo Range" (6 texts, 2 tunes, though the "B" text is "Boggy Creek," C and D appear unrelated, and E is "Canada-I-O")
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 91-94, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 139, "Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 5-6, "The Buffalo Hunters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 52, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 390-392, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 335, "The Range of the Buffalo" (1 fragment, 1 tune, sung by none other than J. A. Lomax)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 854-855, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 84, pp. 181-183, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 410-411, "The Range of the Buffalo" (1 text, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 23-24, "The Range of the Buffalo" (1 text, 1 tune, with the murder omitted but a yodel added)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 520-521, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text plus excerpts from Canaday-I-O)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 169-170, "The Buffalo Skinners" (1 text)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 63, "Buffalo Skinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 110, "Buffalo Skinners" (1 text)
DT 377, BUFFSKIN* BUFFSKI2
Roud #634
RECORDINGS:
Bill Bender, The Happy Cowboy, "Buffalo Skinners" (Asch 410-3 [as "Buffalo Skinner"]/Stinson 410-3/Varsity 5144, n.d., rec. 1939)
Woody Guthrie, "Buffalo Skinners" (on Struggle1, Struggle2, CowFolkCD1)
John A. Lomax, "Buffalo Skinners" (AFS, 1940s; on LC28)
Pete Seeger, "Buffalo Skinners" (on PeteSeeger13, AmHist1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Boggy Creek" [Laws B10b]
cf. "The Trail to Mexico [Laws B13]" (a few overlapping lyrics)
cf. "Canaday-I-O, Michigan-I-O, Colley's Run I-O" [Laws C17]
cf. "Shanty Teamster's Marseillaise" (plot)
cf. "Way Out in Idaho (I)" (lyrics, plot)
File: LB10A

Buffalo Whore, The

See The Winnipeg Whore (File: EM202)

Buffalo, The

See Shoot the Buffalo (File: R523)

Buffer, Don't You Cry for Me

DESCRIPTION: "What ups and downs and bobberies, what changes we do see"; life changes quickly. The singer is "doomed for seven years" because he "took a gemman's ticker." He bids farewell to many. He bids farewell to Hannah and says how much he loves her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland); Anderson dates his broadside c. 1830
KEYWORDS: crime transportation separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 75-76, "Buffer, Don't You Cry for Me" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 8, "Buffer, Don't You Cry for Me" (1 text, with tune on p. 534)
Roud #V47334
NOTES [42 words]: Anderson does not mention any tune that was indicated for this, but it looks to me as if it was "Oh! Susanna."
In the Royal Navy, "buffer" was a term for the chief bosun's mate. I don't know if that is the meaning here, but I thought I'd mention it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AnFa075

Bugaboo, The

See The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo) [Laws O3] (File: LO03)

Bugerboo

See The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo) [Laws O3] (File: LO03)

Bugger Burns

DESCRIPTION: "Bugger Burns has gone to rest, WIth a forty-four (caliber) in his breast." He is killed on the fourth of July. The bullet in his head proves his death. He is kicked out of heaven. The singer says if Burns were his brother, he'd kill him and do the time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (collected from John T. Vance)
KEYWORDS: death homicide Hell wife clothes
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 331-332, "Bugger Burns" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4169
NOTES [7 words]: This is item dI21 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LoSi331

Buggery Boo, The

See The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo) [Laws O3] (File: LO03)

Bugle Britches, The

See Trooper and Maid [Child 299] (File: C299)

Bugle Played for Me

See The Swapping Boy (File: E093)

Bugle, Oh!

DESCRIPTION: Corn-husking song. "Goin' down the country, bugle, oh (x2), Red breast horses, bugle oh!, Red breast horses, Bugle, oh! Oh, bugle, oh!" "Comin' in a canter, meet my darlin'." The lovers court, marry, dance, have a baby
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 197, "Bugle, Oh!" (1 text); 204, "Run, Sallie, My Gal" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 204, "Run, Sallie, My Gal" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
NOTES [58 words]: The notes in Brown admit uncertainty as to whether his two pieces are one; they have no lyrics in common except the chorus, and that is distorted in one or the other. But both are listed as corn-shucking songs, they have that same chorus, and "Run, Sallie, My Gal" is a fragment; if they aren't the same, they also aren't worth separate entries. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3197

Bugs Go Wild, Simply Wild, Over Me

DESCRIPTION: "Bugs go wild, simply wild, over me, I'm referring to bedbugs and the fleas." The singer refers to all the insects and arachnids that show up (in camp?): Daddy-long-legs in his clothes, ands, mosquitos, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: bug hardtimes derivative campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 154, "Bugs Go Wild, Simply Wild, Over Me" (1 text, tune referenced)
Harbin-Parodology, #249, p. 61, "They Go Wild" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 96, "The Bugs Go Wild Over Me" (notes only)
Roud #15687
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "They Go Wild, Simply Wild, Over Me" (tune)
NOTES [25 words]: The source song, "They Go Wild, Simply Wild, Over Me," words by Joe Goodwin, music by Fred Fisher, was published in 1916 and became a hit in 1917. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF096B

Bugs They Go Wild Over Me, The

See Bugs Go Wild, Simply Wild, Over Me (File: ACSF096B)

Build a Brick House

DESCRIPTION: "I went down town to build a brick house, To get a pail of water, Threw one arm around the old man, The other around his daughter. Fare you well, my darling girl...." "I went down town to build a brick house... Every room... Was lined with punkin pie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: home food travel floatingverses playparty
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 74-75, "Build a Brick House" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 78-79, "Build a Brick House" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14050
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Joe Clark" (lyrics)
NOTES [44 words]: I suspect this is a broken-off fragment of something else, very likely "Old Joe Clark" (they share some lyrics) but the extraordinarily simple tune (a quadritonic -- only notes are do, re, me, sol) is not "Old Joe Clark," so I've very tentatively split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: McIn074

Build a House in Paradise

DESCRIPTION: "My brother build a house in Paradise, Build it without a hammer and a nail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 29, "Build a House in Paradise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11983
File: AWG029B

Building a Slide

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you young fellows from near, far, and wide, And I'll tell you a story of buliding a slide." The singer describes the loggers on the crew, thinks they are nearly done with work, and joins them in drinking
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: work logger lumbering moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #18, "Building a Slide" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4386
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Logger's Alphabet" (tune, chorus)
cf. "Chapeau Boys" (lyrics)
File: FowL18

Building of Solomon's Temple, The [Laws Q39]

DESCRIPTION: A Masonic ballad referring to Solomon as a "freemason king"! The ballad details the building of the Jerusalem temple, including the vast crews which worked on it. The end of the ballad concerns modern Freemasonry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (National Library of Scotland chapbook)
KEYWORDS: royalty Bible
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 960-c. 921 B.C.E. - Reign of King Solomon in Israel. (Both dates have about a ten year margin for error.) Solomon began to build the Temple early in his "fourth year" (i.e. c. 957); he finished it seven years and six months later
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws Q39, "The Building of Solomon's Temple"
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 309-312, "Song of Solomon's Temple" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #148, pp. 1-2, "The Building of Solomon's Temple" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 467, "The Freemason King" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 159, "The Building of Solomon's Temple" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 480, "King Solomon's Temple" (source notes only)
DT 546, SOLTEMPL
Roud #1018
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.21(41), "The-Free Mason King," The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1858; also Firth b.34(115)=Firth c.21(40)=Harding B 25(687), "The Free Mason King"; M. W. Carrall (York), n.d.
NLScotland, L.C.2826(35), "The Building of Solomon's Temple," T. Johnston (Falkirk), 1821 (often illegible)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rules of Masonry" (theme: Building the First Temple)
cf. "The Plumb and Level" (theme: Building the First Temple)
NOTES [8794 words]: The earliest verifiable copy of this known to me, National Library of Scotland copy (a chapbook which also contains "Maggie's Lament") says this is "A new song by a brother of St. Luke's Lodge, Edinburgh." Certainly it is by a mason -- but one, I think, with a good bit of education. It has a "derry down" chorus that has been dropped in many other versions.
[The NLS copy may not be the very earliest. Michael Taft points out to me an item listed as of or by or about "The Maryland Ahiman Rezon, of Free & Accepted Masons," by Baltimore: W. Pechin for George Keatinge, 1797, with first line "In history we read of an ancient old King" and 21 stanzas. We can't be sure it's this, but it's a candidate.]
The Maryland broadside is interesting, because there seem to be no American field collections. But it likely was sung in America -- Walter Kittredge, who wrote "Tenting Tonight," reported singing a song with a similar name: "My repertoire of songs include such old things as 'King Solomon's Temple' [and] 'The Bachelor's Woe'.... 'King Solomon's Temple,' I remember, was a favorite among the Freemasons.... The music for 'King Solomon's Temple' I composed myself, as, in fact, I came to do more or less with all my songs [that I performed]" (Carter, pp. 19-20). True, the song had a British tune -- but if it came to be known in America from broadsides, then it was obviously fair game to have a tune fitted. Unfortunately, I have not found Kittredge's text to be able to know if it is this song.
The building of the (first) Jerusalem Temple occupies chapters 5-8 of 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles chapters 2-6 (with a foreshadowing in 1 Chron. 28-29 and elsewhere). The account in Kings is the primary source for Chronicles, although the Chronicler either had a secondary source or made up a bunch of things; in neither case should the Chronicles account be trusted. 1 Kings Chapter 5 describes the preparations (negotiations with Tyre, gathering of the materials, and -- in 5:13-18 -- the assembly of the laborers); Chapter 6 the building; Chapter 7 the furnishings (with an aside about Solomon's other projects), and Chapter 8 the dedication.
Early Freemasons made at least two attempts to link their rituals to events in the Jewish Bible. The earliest surviving record, which Béresniak, p. 26, attributes to "the Regius Manuscript," perhaps from c. 1400, claims that the guild goes back to not long after the Flood. It makes "Nemrod" the first mason. "Nemrod" is the Latin Vulgate spelling of the king who is called "Nimrod" in the English versions of Genesis 10:8-10; he was "the first on earth to become a mighty warrior" and built a kingdom around Babel, Erech, and Akkad. It is presumably on this basis the Regius Manuscript asserts that he was responsible for the Tower of Babel, and that made Nimrod the first mason. But the account of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 never mentions Nimrod.
The Nimrod story had a vogue for a while, but it seems to be out of favor with the Freemasons now. The link between the Masons and Solomon's Temple is almost as old, and it is still quasi-doctrine. Masonic legend says that "The living channels of the Secret Tradition in Israel -- otherwise the successive mouthpieces... are Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Solomon, and then -- after long ages... Rabbi Simeon ben Yochai [Shimon bar Yochai, or Rashbi] at the beginning of the Christian Dispensation" (Waite, volume I, p. 260). Thus Solomon is considered an important transmitter of masonic tradition -- indeed, they regard him as their founder. Béresniak, p. 26, quotes the "Cooke Manuscript," which he dates to 1410, as saying "Solomon himself taught them [the workers] their methods (that is to say their traditions and practices) which are not very different from those of today."
Waite, p. 140, says of the Cooke manuscript, "The second of the old Constitutions or Charges in point of date is in prose -- like the long subsequent series -- and is referred to the early portion of the fifteenth century or alternately to the latter portion. The year 1430 has been proposed as an approximate date.... The original editor, Mr. Matthew Cooke, conjectured that it was 'used in Assemblies of Masons as a textbook of the traditional histories and laws of the Fraternity,' and this is at least a sound description of the contents. It opens with the praise of the liberal sciences, especially geometry, out of which came Masonry, instituted no longer by Euclid but by Jabal among the children of Lamech" (referring to Genesis 10, as above).
Waite, pp. 140-141, says that it describes three pillars inscribed with wisdom which were found after the flood by Pythagoras and Hermes. It mentions Nemrod and Babel, but doesn't connect him with Masonry; rather "It was Abraham in later days who taught Euclid Masonry [never mind that they lived a thousand-odd years apart!], but it was Euclid who called it geometry, and he who instructed Egypt. The craft of Masonry was learned by Israel in the land of bondage and they carried it into Palestine, where David and Solomon favoured and protected Masons." It then skips ahead to Charlemagne and St. Alban of England. Obviously it's completely impossible historically.
The Cooke Manuscript is British Library, MS. Additional 23198. A digitized copy can be seen at the British Library site. The British Library site merely dates it fifteenth century. It is in English; glancing at it, the hand would be compatible with a 1410 date, I think, but the English... all I can say is, it seems pretty modern for an early fifteenth century book.
The Library's description of it as a book on geometry is not very accurate by our current standards; it mentions geometry a lot, but it doesn't give diagrams or propositions; the sections I read looked more like Bible stories mixed with mumbo-jumbo. (But the Masons said that "The fifth science is geometry, also known as Masonry"; Béresniak, p. 50.) It's not just about Solomon; as Waite said, folio 11r (e.g.)mentions Jabal and Jubal, the ancestors of herdsmen and of musicians, mentioned in Genesis 4:20-21; there are many other Biblical allusions. But it does mention David and Solomon -- folio 23v says, e.g., that "Kyng Dauid loued well masons," with much of this story on the following pages.
The Cooke Manuscript a tiny little book, just 105x85 mm (about four inches by three and a third).I note that the book was never quite finished; it is illuminated with color penwork, but this ceases on folio 27v; folio 28r-38r have no illuminations. I see that it has almost no corrections or alterations. This surely means that the scribe was not making up his account as he went along; he was copying an earlier document. So there was a source document older (although probably not much older, given the relatively modern English) than the manuscript itself. And the legend was evidently popular; Waite, pp. 141-146, lists a great many manuscripts which repeat, expand, and retell the story; some are described as almost as ancient as Cooke although some of Waite's statements make sound very dubious paleographically. Waite, p. 147, seems to imply that these others are directly descended from Cooke, with additions; I would not wish to bet that they are actually descended from it, but presumably they derive from the same groups of people.
This song is another (obviously much more recent) version of the tale found in Cooke. The signs of Freemason origin in this song are clear and strong, and it includes several instances of Masonic legend that have absolutely no Biblical basis.
Incidentally, the reference to the Temple as "Solomon's Temple" is significant. There were, depending on how you count it, two or three Jerusalem Temples: Solomon's (the First Temple, destroyed when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E.), the second or post-Exilic Temple, and Herod the Great's Temple (destroyed by the Romans in 69 C.E.). Herod's Temple was a dramatic expansion and improvement of the Second Temple, so much larger that it is sometimes regarded as the Third Temple, but it had continuity with the Second, so they are usually regarded as one.
What is more, the Freemasons, although they regarded the building of Solomon's Temple as a founding event, also regarded the building of the Second Temple as important (and for that matter they have their own Temples). Without going into too much detail, after the Persians had freed the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity in 539 B.C., there were two attempts to resettle Judah. The first accomplished little, but a second attempt, approved by the Persian Emperor Darius I in 520 B.C.E., was more ambitious. It was headed by the High Priest Jeshua/Joshua and by Zerubababel, considered the heir of David and of Solomon. (There were about seventeen generations between Solomon and Zerubabbel, though there is some murkiness in the genealogy.) The story of the founding of the Second Temple is told in chapters 1-6 of the Book of Ezra, and is also the main subject of the book of Haggai and the early chapters of the book of Zechariah. Because Zerubabbel was the Davidide present at the founding of the Second Temple, it is often called Zerubabbel's Temple (so the masons, e.g.) -- although it appears that Zerubabbel had vanished or been removed by the Persians by the time the Temple was finished (Myers-Ezra, pp. xxix-xxx; Bright, p. 372. Haggai 2:20-23 is a promise to Zerubbabel of success building the Temple -- and the book breaks off there. Zechariah 6 is an account of the crowning of... somebody; two crowns are mentioned, but the only one crowned is Jeshua the High Priest; it seems clear that the account has been revised to take out Zerubabbel. And the account of the completion of the Temple in Ezra 6:13-18 never mentions Zerubabbel.)
As we shall see, the account in this song is based entirely on the account in Chronicles of the building of the First Temple; there is no material whatsoever that is specific to the account in Kings, and where Kings and Chronicles differ, the song either follows Chronicles or has something that agrees with neither. I do not know the reason for this peculiar choice, unless it is simply that Chronicles gives an even more glowing picture of Solomon than Kings (despite the fact that Solomon's excessive spending and lack of attention to problems of governance destroyed the Empire that his father ha built; he may have been good at proverb-making, but he was a lousy king); in Judaism, Chronicles was held in low esteem compared to other books of the Bible (Kings was one of the prophetic books, Chronicles merely one of the "Writings," and the very last of the writings in canonical order), and Kings also comes earlier in Christian Bibles. Moreover, the Kings account is clearly more reliable; a number of the changes made by the "Chronicler" (the name used for the author of Chronicles, who may have been Ezra the scribe but may not have been) are so dramatic as to amount to historical distortion.
Looking at the versions available to me, it appears that this song was rewritten at least once, because no version contains all the various references. Possibly there was an attempt to remove (or add!) Masonic references.
I can't hope to produce a commentary on every version, but I'll take a few versions and try to annotate. The versions are:
-- The Falkirk chapbook in the National Library of Scotland, printed in 1821. A full text. This is the earliest version known to me, and probably close to the original, but it appears to have been printed on very cheap paper with much bleeding-through of ink. The NLS scans are unreadable at many points, so at times I have simply had to ignore its reading or conjecture parts of it. Some of the less certain readings I have marked with a "?" to indicate that I won't swear to the text I cite. Cited as "Falkirk."
-- Huntington's version, from the 1827 log of the Galaxy, written by Ira Poland, cited as "Galaxy."
-- Mackenzie's version, from Richard Hines, Pictou County, Nova Scotia, cited as "Hines."
-- The several Bodleian broadsides. Several of them contain more than one version of this song, but there appear to be just two versions. The longer is the 1858 Poet's Box broadside, which appears to be disordered but at least tells the full story; it is cited as "PoetsBox." The shorter, undated, broadside was printed by M. W. Carrall; between its brevity and its disorder, it misses much detail. It is cited as "Carrall."
Notes on the various versions:
"Mount Moriah" (Falkirk, Galaxy, Hines, Carrall)/"Mount Horeb" (PoetsBox): This name "Mount Moriah" is nowhere used in 1 Kings; the Temple site is simply the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, which David bought in 2 Samuel 24:18-25 . (It is not explicitly said that the Temple will be built there; Myers-2Ch, p. 17). In 2 Chronicles, the seller's name becomes "Ornan the Jebusite" (there is much uncertainty about the exact name even in 2 Samuel; McCarter, p. 512; possibly this helps explain the change). Also, the price David paid is much increased. The threshing floor is said in 2 Chronicles 3:1 to be on Mount Moriah. "Moriah" is mentioned elsewhere only in Genesis 22:2, where the reference is to the land of Moriah, where Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac (Myers-2Ch, p. 16, thinks that the author of Chronicles used the name to connect the building of the Temple with the Abraham's act, hinting that the Temple Mount was not otherwise known as Mount Moriah).
The reading "Mount Horeb" of PoetsBox is a pure error; "Mount Horeb" is the name used in the writings of the Deuteronomic school for the mountain other witnesses call "Mount Sinai," the place where Moses received the law. (There are three instances of "Horeb" in Exodus -- 3:1, 17:6, 33:6, all thought to be from the so-called "E" source -- but the name occurs nine times in Deuteronomy: 1:2, 6, 19, 4:10, 4:15, 5:2, 9:8, 18:6, 29:1. this is more than half the 17 Biblical uses. "Sinai" is twice as common in the Hebrew Bible, and is the only name used in the New Testament. There has been much theorizing about the reason for the two names, but no definitive answer.) Although not as commonly used as "Sinai," "Horeb" is a much more familiar name than "Mount Moraih," which probably explains the slip.
"Him that slew Goliath" (Falkirk?, Galaxy)/"He who conquered Goliath" (Hines)/"He that slew Goliath" (PoetsBox): obviously referring to David the father of Solomon; the story of David and Goliath is told (twice) in 1 Samuel 17.
"He gave all the pattern in writing to me" (Falkirk): According to 1 Chronicles, it was David who gave Solomon the plan of the Temple: "Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of the mercy seat, And the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the LORD, and of all the chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things..." (1 Ch 28:11-12; the list of details continues through 28:19. Modern translations tend to use "plan" instead of "pattern"; so, e.g., NRSV, Myers-1Ch, p. 188). There is no hint, in 1 Kings, of anyone giving Solomon a "pattern"; 1 Kings "attributes everything to Solomon as far as the planning and execution of the project were concerned," whereas in Chronicles it is "credited to the divinely inspired mind of David" (Myers-1Ch, p. 192).
"And purchased that ground for to raise that design" (Hines): As mentioned above, David purchased the threshing floor of Araunah/Ornan the Jebusite in 2 Samuel 24:18-25=1 Chronicles 21:18-30 (interestingly, this is one of the rare places where the Chronicler significantly expands the account in Samuel rather than cutting it down). In the run-up to this, David had decided to take a census of Israel (in 2 Samuel 24:1, God incited him to do it; in 1 Ch 21:1, it's Satan). After some negotiations between God and David about how God would punish David for it, God sent a severe plague, which supposedly stopped at Araunah's threshing floor. So David bought the floor to build an altar, plus the accessories for sacrifice -- paying the very low price of 50 shekels of silver in 2 Samuel 24:24 and the absurdly high price of 600 shekels of gold in 1 Ch 21:25.
"He ordered King Solomon... To finish the building that he [David] had begun" (Galaxy, Hines)/"And ordered young Solomon, he being his son, To rear up the strongholds which he had begun" (PoetsBox): If this is supposed to be the Temple, it is an error to say that David had begun it; David had proposed to build a permanent home for the Ark of the Covenant in 2 Samuel 7:2, but the prophet Nathan conveyed word that God forbade it; David's son would build the Temple. (Every serious source analysis of 2 Samuel that I have seen regards the bit about David's son building the Temple as a later addition or as altered by editorial glue as sources were combined -- for a list of those who thought so, see e.g. McCarter, pp. 210-211 -- but the author of Chronicles, who wrote his work half a millennium after Kings, took the notion that it had originally been David's idea and seized on it.) The command to Solomon is made explicit in 1 Chronicles 21-22 and 28, where David buys Ornan's land and tells Solomon to build the Temple; in 1 Chronicles 29, we read about all the supplies and contributions David gathered for the work. Thus, in the view of Chronicles, David was largely responsible for the building, although Solomon oversaw it. In Samuel, David's role is much smaller; Chronicles extensively rewrites to make David the perfect king and give him an important planning role (Myers-1Ch, p. 191, etc.).
On the other hand, the line does not explicitly say that Solomon was to finish the Temple that David had begun -- just that Solomon was to finish some project or other. There were other buildings of David that Solomon really did improve or complete. For example, 2 Samuel 5:9 and 1 Chronicles 11:8 refer to David building the Millo, thought to be a "filling" in the walls of the City of David, and 1 Kings 9:24, 11:27 refer to Solomon working on the Millo.
"King Solomon... numbered all the workmen that was in the land" (Galaxy, Hines): in 2 Chronicles 2:17 we read that Solomon took a census of all the "strangers" (i.e. foreigners, aliens); in 1 Kings 5:13 we read that Solomon conscripted forced labor but there is no mention of a census or of having only "strangers" do the work (Myers-2Ch, p. 10).
"Seventy thousand to bear burden he then did reserve; Eighty thousand on the mountain to hew, cut, and carve. Three thousand six hundred he ordered to be The masters of workmen and [Hines "for"] to oversee" (Falkirk, Hines; PoetsBox has only the last two lines)/"Four thousand five hundred he kept in reserve, Eight thousand in the mountains to cut him and carve" (Galaxy)//"One thousand for Jerusalem he did reserve, Seven thousand to the mountains to cut and carve" (Carrall): 1 Kings 5:15 says that Solomon had 70,000 burden-bearers and 80,000 hewing stone in the mountains; 5:16 adds that 3300 oversaw the work, 2 Chronicles 2:2 and 2:18 says that 70,000 bore burdens, 80,000 hewed stone, and 3600 were overseers. Thus Hines has the exact numbers found in Chronicles (but differs from Kings), though the Bible never says anything about a "reserve." Galaxy's and Carrall's numbers don't match any of the Biblical sources. (But transmission of numbers is notoriously bad through generations of repetition; one suspects that "eight thousand in the mountains," at least, is a transmission error for "eighty thousand.")
"Orange and blue" (Falkirk, Galaxy, Hines, PoetsBox): Non-biblical -- indeed, the word "orange" never appears in the Bible (at least in the King James and New Revised Standard versions). Freemasons, when entering the society, are said to have been enrolled in the "Blue Lodge." Further, the Master Mason wore a blue apron (Waite, volume II, p. 115). I couldn't find a Masonic link between blue and orange, though. (Roman Catholics in Ireland sometimes linked the Orange Order and Masons, but the Masons would not make that link, and in any case that's Ireland, and the best indications are that this song was Scottish in origin -- at least, that's where the oldest texts are from.) Waite, volume I, p. 150, mentions a "Loyal and Friendly Society of Blue and Orange," but it wasn't actually a society of Masons, and it was based in Leicester Fields; it isn't likely to have been well known to our author.
"Then Solomon a letter to Tyre did send" (Falkirk, Carrall)/"Then straightway to Tyre a letter he sent" (Hines)/"Straight into Tyre a letter did send" (PoetsBox): The order in Hines violates the Biblical sequence of events (the contact with Tyre came before the Temple was begun), but the request is Biblical: 1 Kings 5:2 says that Solomon sent to Hiram, who was identified as King of Tyre in 5:1 (although no letter is mentioned; one suspects that Solomon sent a messenger); 2 Ch 2:3 says Solomon sent to "Huram the king of Tyre." (Although Chronicles sometimes calls him "Huram," the name "Hiram" is the one usually used today.)
David's Israel and Hiram's Tyre seem to have had a mutually beneficial relationship; Tyre's superior culture and engineering skills gave them the ability to design and build a Temple that was beyond the capabilities of still-primitive Israel; Israel could supply food to relatively barren Tyre.
Bright, p. 218, goes so far as to declare, "The Temple was built by a Tyrian architect (1 Kings 7:13f.) after a pattern then current in Palestine and Syria. Rectangular in shape, it faced to the east, with two free-standing pillars (v. 21), presumably bearing dynastic oracles, in front of it. The building itself consisted first of a vestibule, then the main hall of the sanctuary, the 'Holy Place' (hekhal), a large rectangular chamber lighted by small windows under the roof; and, finally, at the read, the 'Holy of Holies' (debîr), a small windowless cube where reposed the Ark. There in his earthly house the invisible Yahweh was conceived of as enthroned, guarded by two giant cherubim. The Temple was begun in Solomon's fourth year (ca. 959), completed seven years late (ch. 6:37f.), and dedicated with great ceremony, Solomon himself residing (ch. 8)." Bright's description need not be taken as assured -- InterpretersDict, Volume IV, pp. 534-538, shows several other floorplans and proposed reconstructions -- but all agree on the strong Phoenician element. (Frankly, if anyone should be the "freemason king," it should be Hiram, since he was the one whose people had the technical skills.)
"Hoping king Hiram he would him befriend" (Falkirk)/"Requesting King Hiram for to be his friend" (Hines)/"Beseeching King Hiram to stand him a friend" (PoetsBox); Galaxy mentions Hiram elsewhere but not here): The proper name of the king the Bible calls Hiram or Huram was Ahiram, son of Abibaal, but consistently called "Hiram" in Samuel and Kings (with the equally incorrect "Huram" found only in Chronicles). His approximate dates of reign were 969-936 B.C.E. in William F. Albright's chronology (Bright, p. 204 n. 45), in which David reigned roughly 1000-961 B. C. E. and Solomon roughly 961-922. (This is based on some citations of Menander by Josephus, who says that Hiram was in the eleventh or twelfth year of his reign when Solomon began the Temple in the fourth year of the latter's reign; McCarter, p. 145. Albright's chronology is far from assured; we don't have a reliable date peg until the Battle of Qarqar in 853, when we know Ahab was King of Israel. Masonic tradition claims the Temple was dedicated in 1000 B.C.E. -- Béresniak, p. 18 -- but I don't think any serious scholar would accept a date that early).
Whatever the exact date, Josephus's testimony indicates that Hiram came to the throne late in David's reign and continued through more than half of Solomon's. (There is one reference to him early in David's reign, in 2 Samuel 5:11=1 Ch. 14:1, but this is either a reference to his father or a misplaced element.) Hiram is mentioned 16 times in 1 Kings (nine times in chapter 5, five in chapter 9, 2 in chapter 10); 2 Chronicles has eight references to either "Hiram" or "Huram." (The difference in the number of citations, it seems to me, is that the Chronicler downplays the role of the Tyrians, attributing more of the design and building to Solomon himself. But it seems pretty clear that all the brainwork was done by the Phoenicians; Israel supplied the money and the forced labor but couldn't have pulled it off on their own.)
As regards Solomon asking Hiram to be his friend, In 1 Kings 5:1, it is Hiram who writes first to Israel: "And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room [place] of his father." 2 Ch suppresses this, in line with its policy of elevating the Davidic dynasty, having Solomon make the first move to contact Tyre (2 Ch. 2:3). Probably this is hair-splitting, but if the author of this song is precisely following either account, instead of just loosely recounting, the account he's following is Chronicles.
Like Hiram Abiff (below), Hiram had his own standard Masonic abbreviation, H~K~T=Hiram, King of Tyre (Waite, volume I, p. xviii).
"Send him that cunning workman call'd Hiram the brave" (Falkirk)/"Sent a gay cunning craftsman called Hiram Bereaf" (Hines)/"Sent him that cunning craftsman Hiram the brave" (Carrall)/"Send that craft workman called Haron the brave" (PoetsBox): This is perhaps the most explicitly Masonic item in the whole song -- and to some extent the meaning depends on whether the original read "Hiram the brave" or "Hiram Bereaf" or something else. Mackenzie suggests that "Hiram Bereaf" is "the Hiram Abiff of masonic tradition," This is all but certain supposition if Hines's reading is correct -- Abif (the spelling used on volume I, p. 366 of Waite, although he spells it "Abiff" on p. xvii) was genuinely part of Masonic legend, a symbol of their keeping their secrets.
But why "Hiram Abiff"? In the King James Bible, 1 Kings 7:13-14 reads, "And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. He was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass [=bronze]: and he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass. And he came to king Solomon, and wrought all his work." 2 Ch 2:13-14 offers "And now I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, of Huram my father's, The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him...."
But the Hebrew of Chronicles does not say "of Huram my father's." It says, literally, "of Huram-abi" (or "Huramabi") and is so rendered in, e.g., the New Revised Standard Version and in Myers-2Ch, p. 9. "-abi" is the root for "father," so Huram-abi is "Huram-father," hence the King James rendering. Others interpret this variously, e.g. the earliest texts of the Septuagint Greek (B* 55 127) offered "Chiram my father," most other Greek texts (A V B**) "Chiram my servant." The Revised English Bible interprets father more broadly and suggests "my expert Huram," while the Jewish Tanakh translation proposes "my master Huram." Is -abi part of the artisan's name, or part of his title? Opinion is divided but tends toward the former.
Possibly the change in names from Kings to Chronicles is explained by the fact that Chronicles expands Huramabi's portfolio: not only does he work in bronze, as in Kings, he works in many other materials. This is similar to the two craftsmen Bezalel and Oholiab, who in Exodus 31 built the tabernacle that was the center of the Israeli cult prior to the making of the Temple. It has been suggested (e.g. InterpretersDict, volume 2, p. 664) that the name "Huramabi" was made by combining "Huram" with the element "-ab" of Oholiab. This would also explain why the Chronicler made his mother a Danite woman; Oholiab was from the tribe of Dan. (But, also, the lands of the tribe of Dan were closer to Tyre, so it makes sense anyway that a Tyrian an a Danite would marry.)
Bottom line: The name "Hiram Abif" is surely derived from "Huramabi." But how the masons found the name "Huramabi" -- which is not in either the King James or Geneva Bible -- is complicated and apparently runs through the Kabbalah. Waite, volume I, pp. 366-367, says that "The Legend of the Master-Builder is the great allegory of Masonry. It happens that is figurative story is grounded on the fact of a personality mentioned in the Holy Scripture, but this historical background is of the accidents and not the essence" -- and then goes on to note the references given above. Emmett McLoughlin's Introduction to Freemasonry (Waite, volume I, p. xxxii) says that "The ritual of the Blue Lodge, the foundation of all Masonic bodies, is structured around the story of the building of King Solomon's Temple and the murder by ruffians of Hiram Abif of Tyre, the chief architect and master of all the stonemasons in the construction of the Temple." He is such an important figure as to have his own standard abbreviation, H~A~B (Waite, volume I, p. xviii)
Béresniak, p. 28, after recounting the legend that "Nemrod" founded the masons, says "However, it was in Solomon's Temple that the murder of Hiram the architect took place. A mystical tale has arisen around the incident. It speaks of a Lost Word, the word of life, key to all secrets, which was substituted at that time, as much because it was lost, as because such a word could not be spoken." Sort of a masonic Philosopher's Stone -- except that there is no evidence whatsoever that Huram-abi was murdered. But masonic legend even has him "'reborn to a new life.' In a word, the Master-Builder arises as Christ" (Waite, volume I, p. 314).
See also Béresniak p. 102: "the murder of Hiram, the architect of Solomon's Temple, who was killed by three of his fellows, is the central legend of Freemasonry and is taught in all the rites. It is the legend of mastership. At the grade of Master, the Freemason has lived through the passion of Hiram. The legend, which does not figure in the Bible, is extremely ancient and is part of our shared cultural inheritance. It has been made accessible to everyone by Gérard de Nerval in his text Les nuits du Ramaan, one of the chapters in his Voyage en Orient. And Nerval was not a Freemason.
"e was son to a widow, a daughter of Dan" (Falkirk)/"He being a son of a widow of the daughters of Dan" (Hines)/"The son of a widow daughter of Dan" (Carrall)/"He is son to a widow and brother to Dan" (PoetsBox): See note on "Hiram Bereaf." Hiram/Huramabi was the son of a Danite woman in 2 Chronicles but not in 1 Kings.
"He exceeded them all at the casting of brass" (Falkirk; Hines, PoetsBox "...all in the...," from which Carrall omits "the"): Both 1 Kings 5:14 and 2 Ch 2:14 refer to Hiram's/Huramabi's skill in metalwork. Although the King James Bible says he worked in "brass," there was no word for "brass" at this time, and no standard recipe for making it since zinc had not been discovered (though there are a few ancient brass artifacts); the New Revised Standard Version, e.g., refers to "bronze" instead of brass.
"He cast two fine pillars, five cubits in height" (Falkirk)/"He cast two great pillars... They were full fifty cubits" (Hines)/"He built two fine pillars... Fully fifty five cubits" (Carral)/"He cast two fine pillars... They were full eighteen cubits as they stood upright" (Falkirk): The casting of the two pillars (named Jachin and Boaz) is told in 1 Kings 7:15-22, 2 Ch 3:15-17. In 1 Kings 7:15, they are 18 cubits high with capitals five cubits high; in 2 Ch 3:15 they are 35 cubits high with capitals five cubits high. Thus in Chronicles they are arguably 40 cubit high in total, which might be mis-heard as fifty, as in Hines and Galaxy. It is, however, most unlikely that anyone would make pillars 60 or 75 feet high at that time! Falkirk actually shortens the pillars; perhaps it is referring to the capitals. PoetsBox is unique in matching one of the Biblical values -- but it has the value from Kings, not that in Chronicles. Thus the strong evidence is that PoetsBox corrected the text toward Kings.
Note that the pillars were free-standing, not weight-bearing. Waite, pp 280-281, cites several Kabalistic mentions of them, which perhaps influenced the masons a little. On p. 94 he mentions that the two pillars "signif[ied] respectively two seekers after natural and supernatural philosophy." Béresniak, p. 44, says that "The pillars of Solomon's temple serve as signposts for Freemasons," then describes how pillars are set up in the lodge, with apprentices facing the north pillar and fellows the south; there are also Wardens for the pillars. They frankly sound more important to the Freemasons than to Solomon's Temple.
Waite, p. 280, explains how the Masonic doctrine came from the Kabalah: "Jachin and Boaz -- On this text the Kabalistic treatise, entited, GATES OF LIGHT, comments as follow: 'He who knows the mysteries of the two Pillars, which are Jachin and Boaz, shall understand after what manner the Neshamoth, or Minds, descend with the Ruachoth, or Spirits, and the Nephasoth, or Souls, through El-Chai and Adonai [titles of God, the former I would guess a distortion of El Shaddai, the Almighty, the latter meaning the LORD] by the influence of the said two Pillars.'"
"He set one on each side of King Solomon's porch" (Falkirk, PoetsBox)/"They stood one on each side of King Solomon's porch" (Hines)/"He built them on each side of Solomon's porch" (Carrall): 1 Kings 7:21 KJV: "And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple"; 2 Ch 3:17 KJV: "And he reared up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left...." (Modern translations often use a different word, such as "vestibule," for "porch.")
"That Israel might see them as they went to church" (Falkirk, Carrall, PoetsBox): Since the public was barred from the inner Temple (even the priests were generally barred from the innermost parts), the exterior pillars were about as close as most of them got. Of course, the public of Israel didn't go to "church" -- or even to synagogue, at this stage; Israelite religion was built less about the actions of individuals than about the priestly cult.
"He cast two great pillars of an immense worth, They spread forth their wings for to cover the earth" (Hines): Neither Kings nor Chronicles mentions wings on the pillars; they had nets, chains, and perhaps lilies and pomegranates (so Kings). There were, however, two winged creatures in the Holy of Holies, which might explain the line in Galaxy:
"They built up two chariots of the emage whise (sic.) They stretch forth their wings for to carry the ark" (Galaxy): Whatever the Galaxy copyist thought he was writing, "chariots" is a misunderstanding of "cherubs" or similar, as in Falkirk:
"He cast two cherubims of fine image-work, They spread forth their wings to cover the ark" (Falkirk): clearly referring to the cherubim in the Holy of Holies, which are described in 1 Kings 6:23-28 and 2 Chronicles 3:10-13. 1 Kings 6:23-24 runs as follows in the KJV: "And within the oracle he made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten cubits high. And five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub: from the uttermost part of the one wing unto the uttermost part of the other were ten cubits." ("Cherubims" being a false plural; the singular is "cherub," the plural either "cherubs" or "cherubim.")
What the cherubim actually were is a very open question. InterpretersDict, volume I, p. 557, suggests a link to Akkadian karubu, a winged bull. (This hints to me at a connection with the molten calf of Exodus 32 and King Jeroboam's golden calves of 1 Kings 12:28). Mazor, p. 378, believes they "were probably sphinxlike, with the body of a lion or bull, the wings of an eagle, and the head of a man -- a well-known motif in Canaanite, Phoenician, and Syrian art of the Bronze and Iron ages. (Although later Israelites would vigorously deny it, there is strong evidence that Solomon took most of his ideas for the Temple from the other civilizations of Canaan.)
InterpretersDict, volume I, p. 131, mentions them guarding the Tree of Life (Gen. 3:24) and supporting the throne of God (Isa. 37:16). One carries God in 2 Sam. 22:11. Their images are associated with the Ark of the Covenant in Exodus 28:14, 16, so it makes sense they would be mounted over it in the Temple. But what were they? Ezekiel 1 describes them with four wings and four faces, but InterpretersDict, volume I, p. 131, warns that Ezekiel's vision "is idiosyncratic rather than typical." (Personally, I'd say Ezekiel was a nut case....) The Greek translation of Kings simply transliterated as χερουβειν/χερουβιμ, cheroubin/cheroubim, rather than attempting to translate; similarly the Latin Vulgate has cherub or cherubin. As long ago as the first century C.E., Josephus wrote that "no one can say or imagine what they looked like" (Josephus/Thackeray/Marcus, p. 611; Antiquities, Book VIII, section 73). We really have no good knowledge of what they were like in the Israeli cult.
"They were made by old Eliab and by Bezalel" (Falkirk)/"They were made by Ahalabus and great Basaleel" (Hines)/"They were made by old Ailebane or by Baserele" (PoetsBox): Not workers on the Temple but the builders of the Tabernacle in Exodus 31. In Exodus 31:2, the senior worker is "Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah" in the New Revised Standard Version, and 31:6 refers to "Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan"; the King James Bible has "Bezaleel" and "Aholiab" (the son of "Ahisamach"). Other translations used slightly different spellings, though I can't recall anything like most of the versions in the song. For the name "Oholiab" see also the note on "Hiram Bereaf" above. Presumably the original reference was to their work on the tabernacle.
The error "Eliab" in Falkirk was probably inspired by the other Eliabs in the Bible (of whom there were about six, the most important being David's older brother; InterpretersDict, volume 2, p. 86).
"And the molten sea thirty cubits about" (Hines)/"The molten sea was eight cubits about" (PoetsBox):1 Kings 7:23 KJV: "he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.." 2 Ch 4:2 is effectively identical -- although Kings later says it held 2000 baths, Chronicles 3000. (Don't worry about the fact that the Bible thinks π is equal to three; the Israelis were mathematical incompetents to the core; probably one or the other measurement was sloppy. The Greek translation, made by people who could do math, increases the circumference to 33 cubits.) The molten sea's actual shape is unknown; Josephus thought it was a hemisphere, but others assume a cylinder (InterpretersDict, volume 4, p. 253). As for what a "molten sea" is, it almost certainly means it was made from molten metal -- i.e. it was cast. (Myers-2Ch, p. 19, in fact translates "cast-metal sea"). Kings never says what it was used for; 2 Ch 4:6 says the priests used it to wash in. It is not impossible that its purpose changed over the years. It was destroyed and the metal taken away when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians took Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. (2 Kings 25:13-16).
The "eight cubits about" of PoetsBox is interesting. How one gets from thirty to eight via oral tradition I can't see -- but could it be a distortion for something like "eight cubits across"? This would be another way to solve the problem that a sea with diameter ten cubits would have a circumference of more than thirty cubits -- although eight cubits is too small.
"And the brazen oxen without any doubt" (Hines; PoetsBox omits "the"): 1 Kings 7:25 KJV: "It [the molten sea] stood upon twelve oxen," three each facing north, south, east, and west; again, 2 Ch 4:4 is effectively identical. The stands did not last as long as the sea itself; King Ahaz moved the sea onto a pediment of stone (2 Kings 16:17) because of the King of Assyria (2 Kings doesn't explain this in detail; presumably Ahaz used the bronze for tribute). It is likely that the twelve oxen corresponded to the twelve tribes of Israel (Myer-2Ch, p. 23). 2 Ch 4:3 seems to say in addition that there were reliefs of "likenesses" of oxen on the sea itself -- a detail not in 1 Kings, which may have suppressed it out of fears of idolatry (Myers-2Ch, p. 23).
"And the place where he cast them... It was in a valley they called Jordan's plain, Between Succoth and Zarthan" (Hines)/"And the place where he cast them is still to be found, In the plains of Jordan, into the clay ground" (PoetsBox): 1 Kings 7:46 KJV reads "In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarthan"; 2 Ch 4:17 is identical except that it has "Zeredathah" for "Zarethan." (Most modern translations read "Zeredah") There is no reason to prefer Kings over Chronicles or vice versa as to the name of the second place; it is not attested elsewhere under any of the names. (Succoth is known from elsewhere.) PoetsBox is obviously right in preserving the reference to the clay ground, which would be needed for casting.
"That on the fine building no hammer should sound" (Galaxy)/"That on that great temple no hammer should sound" (Hines)/"In this fine building no hammer did sound" (Carrall)/"That upon this fine building no hammer would sound" (PoetsBox): 1 Kings 6:7 KJV: "And the house, when it was in building [=being built], was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building."
"They put on the top of that beautiful pile There were three golden rods lest the birds should defile" (Hines)/"They were on to of this beautiful pile, Three beautiful rods lest the birds they should file (sic.)" (PoetsBox): There is no biblical basis for this statement about rods or their uses. Checking a King James Version concordance, the word "bird" does not occur anywhere in either 1 Kings or 2 Chronicles; neither does the word "rod"; I can't even find a use of the word "three" that might have inspired this. Perhaps it's another thing from the Kabbalah.
"It was all overlaid with the gold of Parvail" (Hines); cf. "Were all quite laid over with gold superfine" (PoetsBox): The interior of the Temple was indeed largely golden. But Hines's reading "gold of Parvail" is probably an error of memory (note that it doesn't rhyme with the previous line). 2 Ch 3:6 says that "the gold [that overlaid the Temple] was gold of Parvaim." Parvaim is unknown; this is the only use of the name. (That particular statement has no parallel in Kings.) We have only guesses as to where it might be located. Rabbinic tradition said that the gold was of a reddish hue (InterpretersDict, volume 3, p. 662), but this need not be taken seriously and is unlikely to have been known to a Gentile anyway.
"Queen of Sheba": Hines and Carrall have a single verse, PoetsBox the equivalent of two, and Falkirk and Galaxy two verses about the Queen's visit, which is told in 1 Kings 10:1-13, 2 Chronicles 9:1-12 (the two accounts are not verbatim, but close; clearly Chronicles took over the Kings account without addition or substantial deletion. The queen's hearing of Solomon's fame is told in 1 Kings 10:1=2 Ch. 9:1; her seeing his wealth and being so amazed by it that there was "no more spirit in her" is 1 Kings 10:5-6=2 Ch 3-4; her asking him hard questions is in 1 Kings 10:1=2 Ch 9:1, with Solomon answering in 1 Kings 10:3=2 Ch 9:2 (compare PoetsBox's "Till he told her all the secrets that were in his heart"). As for "she loved him well," nowhere does the Bible say that the Queen loved Solomon or vice versa, but 1 Kings 10:13=2 Ch 9:12 says that Solomon gave the queen "all her desire." Tradition has turned this into a story of him sleeping with her, or even marrying her, but there is no Biblical warrant for this; if the visit actually happened, it was probably a trade visit (InterpretersDict, volume IV, p. 311).
"She asked him hard questions according to art" (Falkirk)/"She proved him with questions according to wit" (PoetsBox): As above: 1 Kings 10:1, 2 Ch 9:1 describe the Queen of Sheba coming to Jerusalem to test Solomon with "hard questions," which he answered successfully.
"King Solomon, the grandson of Jess'" (Falkirk, Hines): Solomon was of course the son of David; David was the son of Jesse (a fact so well-known that it was often sufficient to refer to "the son of Jesse" without having to make David's name explicit). The first mention of the connection between David and Jesse, in the Christian order of books, is in Ruth 4:17-22; in the Jewish order, it's in 1 Samuel 16:10.
"When bright Phoebe...." (Hines)/"When Pompeus..." (PoetsBox): A thoroughly non-Biblical reference (there is a "Phoebe" in the New Testament, in Romans 16:1, but it's a Greek name, the feminine of Phoebus Apollo). "Pompeus" is, if anyone, Pompey the Great, who certainly didn't make the sun shine! Both readings are pretty clearly errors for "Phoebus" (Apollo).
"Jerusalem was a city with walls great and high, 'Twas a wonder to strangers as they did pass by" (Falkirk)/"Jerusalem is a city of walls great and high, It's a wonder to all strangers that do pass it by" (Hines)/"Jerusalem's city with walls great and high, A wonder to all strangers as they pass by" (PoetsBox): At the time of Solomon, an exaggeration. The oldest part of Jerusalem -- the "City of David," so-called because David captured it from the Jebusites -- was very strongly fortified (2 Samuel 5:6-10 describes how the residents of Jerusalem were sure he could not get in). But it was small -- the so-called "old city" is built on two hills between the wadis of the Kidron and of the sons of Hinnom, but the City of David occupied only the southern part of the eastern hill -- and probably was not impressive. David did build up the city (2 Samuel 5:11 says that Hiram of Tyre built a house for David, which is surely anachronistic because Hiram wasn't on the throne yet, but likely Tyrians did do the work). But it still probably wasn't very big. Solomon did more building -- 1 Kings 7:1-9 includes a catalog, including a much fancier palace than David had had -- but the temple was underway before he'd made much progress.
"It's the top of that vision of which we have seen, On the Isle of Patmos, by St. John the Divine" (Falkirk)/"I'm sure it's a type of that vision was seen On the Isle of Patmos by John the divine" (Hines)/"On the top of this vision there was to be seen, In the Island of Patmos by John the Divine" (PoetsBox): A reference to the Apocalypse in the New Testament. In Rev. 1:1 says that the revelation was to John, and John's name is mentioned several more times in the book. Which John is not identified, although tradition claims it was John the Apostle and Evangelist. It is possible that the book is by John the Apostle, but only if that John is not the Evangelist. Anyone who reads Greek can tell that the Apocalypse and the Gospel of John are by different writers. The Gospel uses very simple language but is grammatically correct; the Apocalypse is clearly the work of someone who thought in Aramaic and didn't really know Greek very well (InterpretersDict, volume 4, p. 59, says that the wording is so peculiar "as to have given rise to the suggestion that for the Apocalypse a 'grammar of ungrammar' must needs be written"). Many scholars in the early Church knew this; it's one reason why the Apocalypse was not universally accepted as canonical. But the Latin church largely forgot the fact.
The title "St. John the Divine" is complicated. John the Apostle was of course considered a saint, and since he was considered to be the same as the evangelist, obviously John the Evangelist was also a saint. But was the author of the Apocalypse a saint? The King James Bible titles the book "The Revelation of Saint John the Divine," but a Greek Christian might not recognize that title. The Textus Receptus, from which the KJV was translated, called the book "αποκαλυψις ιωαννου του θεολογου," apocalypsis Ioannou tou theologou, "apocalypse/revelation of John the theologian." This is the most common title in the manuscripts. Of the dozen manuscripts whose book titles are listed on p. 735 of NA28, *none* include the word "saint" (αγιου) except one (manuscript 2050) that piles on several other titles as well. And the two oldest manuscripts with a title (A and the corrector of א -- both fifth century) call it just the "apocalypse/revelation of/to John." The King James title probably got a boost from the Latin Vulgate translation, late manuscripts of which call the book "Apocalysis Beati Ioannis Apostolos" -- "apocalypse/revelation of (the) holy/saint John the Apostle." But the earliest Vulgate manuscripts omit "beati," "holy/saint." Thus there is no actual warrant for calling the author of the Apocalypse anything other than "John" -- but the author of this song would have used the title from the King James Version.
Whoever he was, Rev. 1:9 says that John had his vision on the island of Patmos, where he was in exile (presumably during the persecution of Domitian in the 90s C.E.). The vision mentioned here is no doubt a reference to the New Jerusalem, which came down from heaven in Rev. 21:2, 10 (and that city is explicitly said to have high walls in 21:12). I doubt what John saw was actually a vision that resembled the earthly Jerusalem, though; Rev. 21:16 says that the New Jerusalem was "foursquare" (τετραγωνος), which is the Greek word for square ("foursquare" is a hypertranslation), and the real Jerusalem, which was thoroughly unplanned, was definitely not square!
"When our noble Free Masons in a Lodge they all join, Each brother is clothed with jewels most fine" (Falkirk)/"When our brethren do meet in a lodge for to shine, Each man he is clothed in a garment so fine" (Hines): The references to fine clothes and a master on a chair are a good fit for John's vision; God is on his throne (Rev. 20:11) and there are several references in the book to how the residents of heaven are clothed. And the Masons had special garments (aprons and gloves), and "thrones," and so forth. So the link between the vision and the master of a masonic lodge are well-calculated
"compass and square" (Hines, PoetsBox): Not a biblical reference; although both the words "compass" and "square" are used in the King James Bible (indeed, the doors to the Temple are said to be square in 1 Kings 7:5), the references in the Bible are not to measurement tools. And the dozens of uses of "compass" in the KJV are almost always to encompassing, surrounding, encircling; the NRSV changes all of them except one, in Isa. 44:13, which is apparently a reference to the device for drawing circles. So the reference here is rather to the compass and square angle of the primary Masonic logo. "Square and compass -- The universal emblematic devide of Craft Masonry and chief among the working tools" (Waite, volume I, p. xxiii). The masons regard the tools as going back to the Greeks -- which isn't quite right; the Greeks did geometry with compass and straight edge, not compass and square. But since compass and straight edge can be used to generate a right angle, the masons were just taking a minor shortcut.
"The great architect of honour you see He gave this a pattern in wrighting to me" (Carrall): A brilliant line but a little confusing; see the note on "He gave all the pattern in writing to me" above.
As a footnote, the Masonic legends aren't the only instance of the Temple being invoked for other lessons; Béresniak, p. 26, points out that no less a figure than John Bunyan, of Pilgrim's Progress fame, wrote a short book, Solomon's Temple Spiritualized, in 1760.
Note incidentally that, as mentioned above, Solomon's Temple was destroyed at the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E.; "Zerubabbel's" second Temple occupied the same spot but was a different building, and Herod the Great rebuilt the whole site in the late first century B.C.E. Thus even such Temple relics as now can be seen in Jerusalem are not part of Solomon's temple. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: LQ39

Buinnean Bui

See An Buinnean Bui (File: HHH830)

Buinnean Bui, An

DESCRIPTION: (Gaelic.) The singer laments to see the dead buinnean (bittern) upon the shore, and conjectures "Not want of food," but rather lack of liquor, killed the bird. He laments the bird. His wife wants him to drink less, but he cannot live without drink
AUTHOR: Gaelic: Cathal Buidhe MacGiolla Gunna (or Cathal Buidhe MacElgun, or Cathal Bui Mac Giolla Gunna) (Tawny Charlie) (1680-?) (source for date: Tunney-StoneFiddle)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection); Hoagland gives the author's date as c. 1750
KEYWORDS: drink death bird foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H830, pp. 64-65, "The Yellow Bittern/An Bunnan Buidhe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 170, "An Bunnan Bui" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 88-90, "An Buinnean Bui" ("The Yellow Bittern") [Gaelic and English]
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 235-236, "The Yellow Bittern" (1 text, translated by Thomas MacDonogh)
Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, _The Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1958, 1979), pp. 117-118, "The Yellow Bittern" (1 text, translated by Thomas MacDonogh)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 200-201, "The Yellow Bittern" (1 text, seemingly translated by Kinsella)
Roud #5332
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Conway, "The Bonnan Bui" (on IROConway01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Buinnean Bui
NOTES [100 words]: This has to be the feeblest excuse for alcoholism I've ever seen.
The poet allegedly saw a dead bittern by a frozen shore around 1700, and this song is the result. It seems to have been variously translated. It's worth noting that human interference extirpated bitterns from Ireland. - RBW
Tunney-StoneFiddle includes Paddy Tunney's English translation (no Gaelic).
TBell/O Conchubhair: "One hard winter's morning, perhaps 'hungover' after a night's or even many nights' carousing, he [Cathal Bui] came across a yellow bittern, lying stiff and cold; lost for a sip from the water of the frozen lake." - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: HHH830

Buinnean Buidhe

See An Buinnean Bui (File: HHH830)

Bull Connor's Jail

DESCRIPTION: "Down in Alabama, In the land of Jim Crow, There is a place where Lots of folks go. Birmingham jailhouse, Birmingham jail, Waiting for freedom in Bull Connor's jail." How three thousand peaceful protesters were harassed and imprisoned by Connor
AUTHOR: Words: Guy & Candie Carawan, Ernie Marrs
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: discrimination prison political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 1963 - The Birmingham demonstrations against segregation. Children and adults were attacked by police officers and police dogs commanded by Bull Connor, who was responsible for "public security."
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 372-373, "Bull Connor's Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down in the Valley" (tune) and references there
File: SBoA372

Bull Dog Down in Tennessee

DESCRIPTION: Parody of "The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee." Singer goes to court his girl, but her father sics a bulldog on him. As the dog attacks him, he flees over the hills and hollers back to his home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Doc Walsh)
KEYWORDS: courting derivative humorous parody dog father lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #7879
RECORDINGS:
Ashley & Foster, "Bull Dog Sal" (unissued, prob. Vocalion, 1933; on StuffDreanm1)
Lester "Pete" Bivins , "Bull Dog in Tennessee" (Bluebird B-6950/Montgomery Ward M-7229. 1937)
Carolina Tar Heels, "The Bulldog Down in Sunny Tennessee" (Victor 20941, 1927)
Doc Walsh, "Bull Dog Down in Tennessee" (Columbia 15057-D, 1926; rec. 1925)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee" (tune, object of parody)
NOTES [47 words]: It was a tossup whether these recordings should be entered as "Same Tune" items under "Girl I Left In Sunny Tennessee" or given their own entry. But the song has its own distinct plot, and it managed to get into the repertoires of several performers, so I decided to dignify it. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: RcBDDITe

Bull Dog, The

See The Bulldog On The Bank (File: FSWB399B)

Bull Fight on the San Pedro, The

DESCRIPTION: "Under command of Colonel Cooke, While passing down San Pedro's brook... While on the road to California," the soldiers camp and encounter a bull. They kill the first, but more follow. In the battle, many bulls and two of the soldiers' mules are killed
AUTHOR: Levi Hancock (source: Tyler; Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Tyler)
KEYWORDS: battle travel animal death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1846 - The Mormon Battalion's expedition to California during the Mexican War. In the later stages of the journey they are commanded by Philip St. George Cooke
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #241, "The Bull Fight on the San Pedro" (1 text)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 42-45, "The Bullfight on the San Pedro" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 258-259, "The Bull Fight on the San Pedro" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Daniel Tyler, "A Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War," no publisher listed but copyrighted 1881 (available on Google Books), pp. 221-223, "The Bull Fight on the San Pedro" (1 text)
Roud #4048
NOTES [39 words]: This is item dB44 in Laws's Appendix II. Given the number of versions collected, it probably should be promoted to be B44.
The song is a mostly-accurate description of a real event; for background see "Mormon Battalion Song (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hubb241

Bull Frog

DESCRIPTION: "Bull frog sitting on a river bank on a pallet leaf looking up in the sky.... Pallet leaf give way, Bull frog got water all in his ole eye, Hi, hi, hi, hi, hi... He can't see me any more But I see him, He's got water in his ole eye"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: animal river
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 84-86, "Bull Frog" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: NCF16284

Bull Frog, The

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Bull Run (War Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Away down in Belden Green... The whole earth shook in a quiver; Every devil had done his best To outrun the rest To get back to Washington to shelter." After the Union defeat, Abe Lincoln laments the cost of the battle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 21, 1861 - First battle of Bull Run/Manasses fought between the Union army of McDowell and the Confederates under J. E. Johnston and Beauregard
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 68, "Bull Run"; 69, "War Song" (2 texts, the latter perhaps mixed with "The Happy Land of Canaan")
Roud #5459
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Bull Run" [Laws A9] (subject: the battle of Bull Run) and references there
NOTES [566 words]: As the song says, the First Battle of Bull Run ended in a Union rout. This was, however, an oddly minor result. The Union army was made up mostly of volunteers called up for only ninety days of service; they were greener than grass, and not really able to fight, but the politicians forced Irvin McDowell to lead his troops into battle before their enlistments expired (McDonald, p. 19; McPherson, pp. 334-335, 339).
The Confederates, equally green, had the advantage of being on the defensive, and so were able to hold on. The Union army retreated, and the retreat became a rout, with soldiers streaming back to Washington. But the Confederates, as disorganized by victory as the Union troops were by defeat (and badly disposed; Beauregard's staff was so bad that more than half his troops were acting in response to orders Beauregard had thought meant something else), were unable to pursue (Freeman, volume I, pp. 72-78, with documentation on pp. 57-58 of the staff errors and a map on p. 47 showing how most of Beauregard's troops were improperly disposed for the defensive battle he actually fought. For more about this battle and its outcome, see "The Battle of Bull Run" [Laws A9]).
Cox 68, which he titles "Bull Run," never mentions that battle, but since the Federal troops are routed and run back to Washington, it definitely sounds like First Bull Run.
Cox does not recognize the second of these texts, which he calls "War Song," as the same as the first. It seems clear to me, however, that they are.
The confusion comes in the first line. Cox's "Bull Run" begins
Away down in Beldon Green, where the like was never seen
The whole earth shook in a quiver.
The "War Song" starts
Down in Bowling Green, such a sight was never seen,
The earth all stood in a quiver.
The temptation, of course, is to associate the latter piece with a battle of Bowling Green (Kentucky). But there was no battle of Bowling Green (see the lack of an entry in Boatner, p. 76; Phisterer lists two engagements there in early 1862, but the first, on p. 93, involved only a single company and the second, on p. 94, is the unopposed Federal occupation of the town). In 1861, the Confederate forces of Leonidas Polk moved into that part of Kentucky, and Albert Sidney Johnston had his headquarters there in late 1861 and early 1862 (Boatner, p. 440), but Johnston's position was weak (McPherson, p. 397) and he retreated without battle after Fort Donelson fell; he would soon have to give up Nashville, Tennessee as well (McPherson, p. 402).
Braxton Bragg's 1862 invasion of Kentucky never moved as far west as Bowling Green, although Union troops passed through the town as they chased him (see the map on p. 521 of McPherson). After that, except for a few minor cavalry raids, the Confederates never came close to Kentucky.
The only reasonable supposition is that "Bowling Green" is an error for the "Belden Green" of "Bull Run," or perhaps that "Bowling Green" refers not to a town but to an actual bowling green.
Additional support for this hypothesis comes in the chorus to Cox 69, which says that "The Black Horse cavalry a-coming." Union soldiers at First Bull Run did in fact refer to an attack by a "Black Horse Cavalry" (McDonald, p. 170).
I will admit to having no idea where "Belden Green" might be. After studying the maps in McDonald, I can find no feature of the Bull Run area with a similar name. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: JHCox068

Bull Yorkens

See Bold Larkin (Bull Yorkens) (File: Pea907)

Bull-Dog, The

See The Bulldog On The Bank (File: FSWB399B)

Bull-Whacker, The

See Root, Hog, or Die! (III -- The Bull-Whacker) (File: LoF171)

Bulldog and the Bullfrog, The

See The Bulldog On The Bank (File: FSWB399B)

Bulldog on the Bank, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the bulldog on the bank, and the bullfrog in the pool (x3), The bulldog called the bullfrog a green old water fool." Animals interact, with unusual results: A snapper catches the bullfrog's paw; a monkey gives an owl ink to drink; etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (College Songs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad humorous animal
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Heart-Songs, p. 393, "The Bull-Dog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 399, "The Bullfrog On The Bank" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 47, "The Bulldog and the Bullfrog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 49, "The Bull Dog" (1 text, 1 tune, an elaborate two-part arrangementwhich is not to the tune of "John Brown's Body")
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 76, "The Bull-Dog" (1 text, 1 tune) (part 3, pp. 48-49 in the 1876 edition)
ST FSWB399B (Partial)
Roud #15368
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune & meter) and references there
File: FSWB399B

Bullfrog (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Bullfrog jumped in the middle of the spring, And I ain't a-gwine to weep no mo'. He tied his tail to a hick'ry limb...." "He kicked an' he rared an' he couldn't make a jump." Chorus expresses a wish to go to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 198, "Bullfrog" (1 text, 1 tune, though the chorus may be imported from "I Hope I'll Join the Band"); also p. 199, (no title) (1 fragment)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Hope I'll Join the Band (Soon in the Morning)" (lyrics)
File: ScaNF198

Bullfrog (II)

DESCRIPTION: "The funniest sight I've ever seen Was a bullfrog sewing on a sewing machine, He sewed so fast and fine and wide, He sewed a polecat to a tomcat's hide."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: animal technology
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 103, "Bullfrog" (1 text)
File: ZiZa103D

Bullgine Run, The

See Margot Evans (Let the Bullgine Run) (File: LoF029)

Bullhead Boat, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a mule-driver, gets work steering a canal boat. One pilot is killed by a low bridge. The singer spies a low bridge, but fails to warn the (drunken) captain, as he's busy tumbling end over end. He warns listeners never to drive a bullhead boat.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (recording, Art Thieme)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a mule-driver, gets work steering a canal boat; it's miserable work, and the captain drinks. One pilot is killed by a low bridge. One day the singer spies a low bridge coming, but fails to warn the (drunken) captain, as he's busy tumbling end over end. He warns listeners never to drive a bullhead boat, but rather spend their time on a line barge; "The bridge you won't be hatin'/And you'll live till Judgement Day"
KEYWORDS: warning death canal ship work worker pilot
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 242-243, "Boatin' on a Bull-Head" (1 text)
DT, BULLHEAD
Roud #6590
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "The Bullhead Boat" (on Thieme04)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Erie Canal" (subject)
NOTES [61 words]: According to Art Thieme, a bullhead boat was an unusually tall canal boat. Since most canal boats on America's early waterways were built low (e.g. the Erie Canal carried mostly barges), bridges over the canal were often quite low. This meant that serving on a bullhead boat could be quite dangerous.
For more on low bridges, see the notes to "The Erie Canal." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcTBulBo

Bullockies' Ball, The

DESCRIPTION: The bullock drivers hear word that there is to be a ball. They descend in great numbers. The drink flows freely, and the girls are not shy. Soon a brawl breaks out, and many of the partygoers wind up covered with loose food and/or bruises
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: fight drink party brawl
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 110-111, "The Bullockies' Ball" (1 text+fragments, 1 tune)
Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads, pp. 16-17, "The Bullockies' Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BULLBALL*
ADDITIONAL: A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, pp. 187-188, "The Bullockies' Ball" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Finnegan's Wake" [Laws Q17] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fanny Flukem's Ball
NOTES [13 words]: Meredith and Anderson consider this a parody of "Finnegan's Wake" [Laws Q17]. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: MA110

Bullocky Bill

See Bill the Bullocky (File: PASB139)

Bullocky-O

DESCRIPTION: "I draw for Speckle's Mill, bullocky-o, bullocky-o, And it's many a log I drew, bullocky-o... I'm the king of bullock drivers, don't you know, bullocky-o." The singer describes all the other (less competent) workers he competes against
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Queensland Pocket Songbook)
KEYWORDS: work moniker animal
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 136-137, "Bullocky-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 217-218, "Bullocky-O" (1 text)
DT, BULLCKOH*
File: PASB136

Bullshit Bill

DESCRIPTION: "Bill has took it in his noddle For to take a little toddle Up the river where some gold he might be earning. For he took his pick and shovel And he closed his little hovel, For B.S.B. is leaving in the morning." He'll hunt gold rather than bet on horses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: gold home rambling gambling
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 228-229, "Bullshit Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [34 words]: I strongly suspect that there is something missing here -- e.g. a description of how Bill got his nickname. But the piece is clearly un-bowdlerized (consider the title!), so I can't guess what it is. - RBW
File: MCB228

Bully Boat, The

See Ranzo Ray (File: Hugi247)

Bully Brown

DESCRIPTION: A failure as a coal-yard worker fails as a Liverpool policeman also and finally "shipped as a mate with Bully Brown." The captain kicks him out of the cabin and the sailors do not allow him in the bunk, so he "steals a pound of bread"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: work humorous sailor thief
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 862-863, "Bully Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9805
RECORDINGS:
James Decker, "Bully Brown" (on PeacockCDROM)
File: Pea862

Bully Crew, The

DESCRIPTION: Every year the sealer Ranger, commanded by Henry Dawe, joins the "heroes of the slaughter with 18,000 prime young harps." Food aboard will "make the stomach rattle": flipper stew and whitecoat's hearts. And "no napkins"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach); probably written 1900 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: hunting sea ship food humorous nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #29052
RECORDINGS:
Mr. Powers, "The Bully Crew" (on MUNFLA-Leach) (2 versions)
NOTES [240 words]: There are lots of holes in the MUNFLA-Leach text but the sense seems to be like that in "The Squid-Jiggin' Ground": "If ye gets cranky without yer silk hanky, ye'd better steer clear" [of sealing.
The sealer Ranger is cited in the notes to "The Ferryland Sealer." - BS
The history of the Ranger -- which lasted longer than any other Newfoundland sealer -- is discussed in more detail in "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912." Henry Dawe of Bay Roberts is mentioned in more songs than perhaps any other sealing skipper; see "The Sealing Trip of the S. S. Greenland 1891"; "Arrival of the 'Grand Lake' and 'Virginia Lake' With Bumper Trips"; "I Am a Newfoundlander"; "The Sealer's Song (II)"; "Captains and Ships."
Dawe commanded the Ranger 1898-1902 (Feltham, p. 115). His sealing totals in those years, according to Chafe, p. 90, were 5735 (1898), 16992 (1899), 18800 (1900), 26749 (1901), and 22034 (1902). Thus the likeliest year this song was composed was 1900.
For a description of the diet experienced by sealers while at sea, see the description of a sealing voyage in England. Seal meat was obviously an important part of the diet, since it was available; England, p. 107, describes how Captain Abram Kean, at least, relished seal flippers.
Terms used in the song:
"harps": harp seals, the primary object of the seal hunt
"whitecoats": the baby harps, which had white coats during their first weeks of life. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3TBuCr

Bully in the Alley

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Refrain: "So help me bob, I'm bully in the alley, Way-ay bully in the alley. So help me bob, I'm bully in the alley, bully down in Shinbone Al." Verses involve courting, being rejected by, and/or leaving Sally.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
KEYWORDS: shanty courting rejection
FOUND IN: West Indies Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 522-523, "Bully in the Alley" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 382]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXXV, pp. 40-41, "Bully in the Alley" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BULLYALL*
Roud #8287
NOTES [20 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas says that "Shinbone Alley" is a place name often referred to in American Negro songs. - SL
File: Hug522

Bully of Lot Eleven, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am the bully of Lot Eleven, My name is Robert Ramsay." "Mr. Yeo, don't you know, Is sure of his election" to the Ottawa parliament. The singer declares that "When the battle it is won, Surely I'll get something"
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Ives-LarryGorman)
KEYWORDS: political bargaining
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-LarryGorman, pp, 18, 191, "The Bully of Lot Eleven" (1 text)
Roud #25156
File: LaGoBoLE

Bully of the Town, The [Laws I14]

DESCRIPTION: The bully has terrorized the entire town, including even the police. At last a hunter catches up with him and kills him. The people rejoice; all the women "come to town all dressed in red."
AUTHOR: frequently credited to Charles Trevathan; see NOTES
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (published by Charles Trevathan)
KEYWORDS: homicide punishment police clothes
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws I14, "The Bully of the Town"
Leach-TheBalladBook, p. 767, "Lookin' for the Bully of the Town" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 89, pp. 112-113, "The New Bully" (1 short text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 242-243, "The Bully of the Town" (1 text)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 100, "Stacker Lee #1" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment, probably of this song though it does mention Stacker Lee)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 97-99, "'The Bully' Song (May Irwin's 'Bully' Song)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 209-210, "[Bully Song]" (1 partial text)
DT 823, BULLYTWN
ADDITIONAL: Stanley Appelbaum, editor, Show Songs: from The Black Crook to The Red Mill , Dover Publications, 1974, pp. 77-81, "May Irwin's Bully Song" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the sheet music)
Sharon Ammen, _Singing, Shouting, and the Shadow of Minstrelsy_, University of Illinois Press, 2017, pp. 94-95, "(The Bully Song)" (1 excerpt, the opening of May Irwin's version; Irwin did not have a fixed text but sometimes added and subtracted verses)
Roud #4182
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff, "Bully of the Town" (Columbia 20561, 1949)
Fiddlin' John Carson & his Virginia Reelers, "Bully of the Town" (OKeh 40444, 1925)
Cherokee Ramblers, "Bully of the Town" (Decca 5123, 1935)
Sid Harkreader, "The Bully of the Town" (Paramount 3022, 1927; Broadway 8056, c. 1930)
May Irwin, "The Bully (May Irwin's Bully Song)" (Victor 31642/ Victor 35050, rec. 1907; on Protobilly)
Frankie Marvin, "The Bully of the Town" (Radiex 4149, 1927)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Bully of the Town" (Brunswick 116, 1927)
McMichen's Hometown Band, "Bully of the Town" (OKeh 45034, c. 1926; rec. 1925)
Byrd Moore, "The Bully of the Town" (Gennett 6763, 1928/Supertone 9399 [as by Harry Carter])
North Carolina Hawaiians, "Bully of the Town" (OKeh 45297, 1929; rec. 1928)
Prairie Ramblers, "Lookin' for the Bully of the Town" (Melotone 6-08-56, 1936)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Bully of the Town" (matrix #7225-1 recorded 1927 and issued as Banner 2157/Domino 3984/Regal 8347/Homestead 16500 [as by Sim Harris]/Oriole 947 [as by Harris]/Challenge 665/Conqueror 7755, 1931/Pathe 32279/Perfect 12358/Supertone 32279/Cameo 8217/Romeo 597/Lincoln 2822) (Broadway 8056-D, c. 1930); Ernest V. Stoneman and the Dixie Mountaineers, "The Bully of the Town" (Edison 51951, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5314, 1927)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Bully of the Town" (Columbia 15640-D, 1931; rec. 1926; on Protobilly)
Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & Uncle John Patterson, "Bully of the Town" (on DownYonder)
Tweedy Brothers, "The Bully of the Town" (Gennett 6447/Champion 15486, 1928)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, rpbaasm 0994, "May Irwin's 'Bully' Song," White-Smith Music Publishing Co., (Boston), 1896 (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Bully of the Town - No. 2" (Columbia 15640-D, c. 1931)
Vin Bruce, "Fille de la Ville" (Columbia 20952, 1952; on Protobilly)
NOTES [1164 words]: Laws describes "The (New) Bully" (for which cf. Spaeth, Read 'Em and Weep, pp. 193-195, or Gilbert, Lost Chords, pp. 209-210) as an offshoot of this traditional piece. Personally, I'd call "The New Bully" an arrangement, but I follow Laws.
Norm Cohen discussed the history of The Bully in the brochure notes to JEMF LP 103: Paramount Old Time Tunes.... "Basically, there are two received accounts of the genesis of this song. One was first published by James J. Geller in his 'Famous Songs and their Stories' (1931) [pp. 97-100, with the titles "'The Bully' Song" or "May Irwin's 'Bully' Song" - RBW]. This is the anecdote about sports writer and horse racing judge, Charles E. Trevathan, on the train back to Chicago from San Francisco in 1894, playing his guitar and humming popular airs to amuse the passengers around him among whom was May Irwin. He said he had learned the tune of 'The Bully' from Tennessee blacks. Irwin suggested that he put [clean] words to the tune, which he did, and published it in 1896. She incorporated the song in her stage play, 'The Widow Jones.'
"The other account, first published, as far as I know, by E. B. Marks in 'They All Sang' (1934) is that the song was popularized before he got his hands on it by 'Mama Lou,' a short, fat, homely, belligerent powerhouse of a singer in Babe Connor's classy St. Louis brothel, a popular establishment in the 1890s that drew from all social classes for its clientele.
"Either Trevathan picked up the song from Mama Lou, or, equally likely, both learned it from black oral tradition in the South of the early 1890s. In support of this position is the fact that there were several sheet music versions of 'The Bully' published, some preceding Trevathan's 1896 version."
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 209, also mentions the connection to Mama Lou; he quotes Orrick Johns to the effect that she was "a gnarled, black African of the purest type [who] sang, with her powerful voice, a great variety of indigenous songs." Johns cites her as one of the earliest sources for "Frankie and Johnnie" and apparently for "Ta-ra-ra Boom-der-e." But Gilbert also notes a version in Delaney's songbook #12, from 1896, with words credited to Will Carleton and music by J. W. Cavanagh.
Brown, p. 107, describes Mama Lou as "short, fat, black, often belligerent, and always herself," and quotes a source that says that nine-tenths of her songs were obscene -- which is perhaps reasonable, given that she worked in a high-class whorehouse. Brown adds, "Babe [Connor]'s bordello originated the 'coon song' craze, which swept the nation. Mama Lou was the first woman to sing blues commercially."
Finson, p. 233, says that "Both James Weldon Johnson and W. C. Handy claimed that 'The Bully Song' derived from an African-American folk tune heard along the Mississippi. Trevathan maintained that he heard it in a St. Louis bordello, and that he merely supplied the lyrics at Irwin's request."
It does seem likely that May Irwin (1862-1938) is largely responsible for the song's popularity. Irwin was a notable popular singer who was at the height of her powers in the 1890s; in Spaeth she is credited with the song, "Mamie, Come Kiss Your Honey Boy" (pp. 265-266), and with popularizing George M. Cohan's "Hot Tamale Alley" (pp. 282, 339) as well as such songs as "I Couldn't Stand to See My Baby Loose" (p. 347) and "Mister Johnson, Turn Me Loose" (p. 285). She presumably also had some part in the song we index as "May Irwin's Frog Song (The Foolish Frog, Way Down Yonder)" (which see for more background on Irwin), and is of course the subject of Ammen. Her biggest success of all (based on how many popular music histories mention it) was apparently "May Irwin's Bully Song," the Trevathan version of this song.
Ammen, pp. 93-94, says that there were many "Bully" songs in this period (perhaps referring in part to other versions of this song), and that Irwin sang a few, but "her most popular number of all was a Bully song. Titled 'The Bully' (sometimes 'The New Bully), this was the song most closely identified with May Irwin. Irwin recorded it twice under Victor's label... and its popularity was extolled in all of Irwin's obituaries. One retrospective of her life noted, 'For years, 'Have You Heard May Irwin sing "the Bully" was a catch phrase'" (Ammen, p. 94). She performed it while marching around stage with a tuba accompaniment, which added to the humor.
According to Jasen, p. 27, "[Irwin] became the first actress to appear on film when she re-enacted the scandalous 'Kiss Scene' from The Widow Jones in 1896."
Appelbaum, pp. xxix-xxx, says that "The Widow Jones was a comedy with song interludes. May Irwin... had her first starring role in this play, in which she also established a new reputation as a singer of 'coon' songs" (although she didn't sing in blackface). "The Widow Jones opened at the Bijou Theatre in New York on September 17, 1895. It played in New York and on the road until late in 1896. The plot (written by the Bostonian John J. McNally) concerns an heiress so besieged by suitors that she pretends to be the widow of a certain Jones. To complicate matters, Jones turns up alive.... May Irwin sang the 'Bully Song' with a chorus during the second act (of three), which was set in an apartment in Paris."
Brown, pp. 108-109, quotes William Marion Reedy as saying, "Her fun is not elusive. It knocks you out in a heap." He said that "She can't sing, musically. But she can sing a 'nigger' song inimitably, and she can gag the part unceasingly.... Twenty years ago this woman was worth seeing. Today she is the perfect profundity of her vulgarity."
Brown, p. 81, says that "Politically, St. Louis [in the 1890s] was, according to scholar William Barlow, 'a ward system of government based on the ethnic composition of a large working class population.' Each ward was assigned an unofficial 'mayor,' such as the 'mayor of Little Italy,' 'the mayor of Kerry Patch.' Deep Morgan's, known as the 'bully of the town,' was usually a black who owned a saloon." Given the association of this song with Saint Louis, it seems likely that the earliest hearers of this song would have known that title -- and, presumably, known the person to whom it referred. Without an exact date, of course, we can't say whether this was meant to refer to someone in particular. On the other hand, Brown mentions four important Deep Morgan bartenders in this period: Bill Curtis, Henry Bridgewater, "Bad Jim" Ray -- and Lee Shelton, the subject of "Stagolee (Stackerlee)" [Laws I15]. Brown, p. 82, says that Ray also was involved in a murder, and Bridgewater was associated with Billy Lyons, Stagolee's victim. So one of these men may well have been meant.
According to Ammen, pp. 96-97, when Eugene O'Neill's Emperor Jones first went on a national tour, Charles Gilpin, who played Jones, made his opening appearance, coming out of his palace, whistling the Irwin/Trevathan "Bully" tune to help set his character. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: LI14

Bully, Long Time Ago

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "Bully yea-ay-ay bully boys/Bully long time ago" The shantyman sings: We catch him. Must not let him go deep. Hell of a long time he's moving but we hold him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: work sea shanty whale whaler
FOUND IN: West Indies(St Vincent)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 78-80, "Bully, Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [22 words]: Abrahams quotes a blackfish whaler, "... we strike and kill 'im. We do a good fishing and, well, we have a shanty we start to sing." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS078

Bully, The

See references under The Bully of the Town [Laws I14] (File: LI14)

Bum on the Stem

DESCRIPTION: "On the highways and the railroad tracks, You'll find bums everywhere." The singer enjoys living in their "shady jungle." When a farmer asks him to harvest his potatoes, he says the person who planted them should dig them. Finally he catches another train
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Milburn, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: unemployment travel | hobo
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 530-531, "The Bum on the Stem" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9848
File: LDC530

Bum, Bum, Bailey-O

DESCRIPTION: "Bum, bum, bailey-o, Two to oe a (nailey/barbel)-o. Barbel-ee, barbel-o, Bum, bum, bailey-o."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: nonsense game
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 6, "Bum, bum, bailey-o" (1 short text)
Roud #35883
File: BAIA006A

Bum, Bum, Bum, Here We Come

See Here We Come (Jamestown, Virginia) (File: Newe179)

Bumblebee Cotton, Peckerwood Corn

DESCRIPTION: Liza grabs the singer, demanding sexual gratification. The singer responds appropriately.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous seduction sex
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 325-328, "Bumblebee Cotton, Peckerwood Corn" (7 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES [36 words]: According to Ronald G. Killion and Charles T. Waller, A Treasury of Georgia Folklore, Cherokee Publishing Company, 1972, p. 192, a "peckerwood" is a woodpecker, but I rather doubt that is the meaning here.... - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RL325

Bumblebee, Bumblebee, Stung Jack Fry

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme: "Bumblebee, bumblebee, stung Jack Fry. How many feet did it make him fly? One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Haufrecht, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: bug jumprope | bumblebee
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #51, "Bumblebee, bumblebee, stung Jack Fry" (1 text)
File: AJRR051

Bump Me into Parliament

DESCRIPTION: "Listen all kind friends of mine, I want to move a motion, To make an El Dorado here... Bump me into Parliament... On next election day." The singer says he is clever; some can talk for an hour, but "I can talk forever." He offers other odd justifications
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Bollinger & Grange, Kiwi Youth Sings [sic.], according to Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: political humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 87-88, "Bump Me into Parliament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 238-239, "Bump Me Into Parliament" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (tune) and references there
File: Clev087

Bumpers, Bumbers, Flowing Bumpers

DESCRIPTION: The watchman calls "4" but we have to finish one more bottle. Anyone who wants to leave: "out of the window at once with him." Our whisky is from a still. Let's toast the sun rising as we did when it set. Then we'll go out and "leather" the watchman.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (_Blackwood's Magazine_, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 94-95, "Bumpers, Bumbers, Flowing Bumpers" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lillibullero" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
NOTES [72 words]: Bumper: [noun] "a cup or glass filled to the brim or till the liquor runs over esp. in drinking a toast"; [verb] "to fill to the brim (as a wineglass) and empty by drinking,""to toast with a bumper,""to drink bumpers of wine or other alcoholic beverages" (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976). Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: One bottle of whisky is about thirteen tumblers. - BS
File: CrPS094

Bumpers, Squire Jones

DESCRIPTION: If you like claret, or pine for female companionship, "don't pass the good House Moneyglass." Bumpers Squire Jones's claret will make you forget Cupid. Soldiers, clergy, lawyers, and foxhunters should forget their chores and dogs and stop for this claret.
AUTHOR: Arthur Dawson, Baron of the Exchequer (ca.1695-1775), music Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738) (source: Sparling; see also Andrew Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion site)
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Sparling)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 56-57, "Bumpers Squire Jones" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 470-473, 498, "Bumpers, Squire Jones"
Roud #6532
NOTES [182 words]: The description is from Sparling, a more complete version than Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry.
Sparling: "For the origin of this song see Dublin University Magazine, January 1841."
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry: "Moneyglass House, which still [1925] stands neer Toomebridge in the County Antrim, was the residence of Bumpers Squire Jones, a character famous for his riotous hospitality. He is still talked about throughout the district, and this song is widely popular."
Bumper: [noun] "a cup or glass filled to the brim or till the liquor runs over esp. in drinking a toast"; [verb] "to fill to the brim (as a wineglass) and empty by drinking,""to toast with a bumper,""to drink bumpers of wine or other alcoholic beverages" (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976). Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: One bottle of whisky is about thirteen tumblers. - BS
The word "bumper" for a full tumbler is reportedly first found c. 1660, making its relation with the subject of this song somewhat interesting. - RBW
File: HayU056

Bumpkin Brawly

See Babbity Bowster (File: MSNR089)

Bunch O' Roses

See Blood Red Roses (File: Doe022)

Bunch of Bastards

DESCRIPTION: "We're a bunch of bastards, bastards are we, We of the Air Force are assholes of the earth... 'Cause we're a bunch of bastards, Morphidites [?] are we, We'd sooner fuck than fight for victory." Or "We're a bunch of bastards... We're the dockyard cavalry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (term paper, Goldstone, College Songs that Are Unprinted (for Obvious Reasons, according to John Patrick)
KEYWORDS: soldier navy bawdy
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 113, "Bunch of Bastards" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 42, "The Dockyard Cavalry" (1 short text, tune referenced)
Roud #29395 and 29949
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Our Director" (tune, according to Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
cf. "On the Steps of I.U." (tune, according to John Patrick)
NOTES [320 words]: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear claims there are many versions of this, but cites only one verse. Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy's stanza is different -- a navy version rather than an army version -- but it seems to demonstrate Hopkins's claim.
John Patrick pointed me to the 1934 term paper by Sherle R. Goldstone, "College Songs That Are Unprinted (for Obvious Reasons)," which is available on The Internet Archive (currently at https://archive.org/details/1934-college-songs-that-are-unprinted-for-obvious-reasons-sherle-r-goldstone). On pp. 24-25, it offers two versions, one clean:
We're a bunch of pharmacists, Pharmacists are we, We hail from A.C.P. Union University... We'd rather hail than fight For A.C.P.
The second version is much closer to the military versions, although it's clearly a college song:
We're a bunch of bastards, Scum of the earth, We hail from Colgate, Rottenest dump in these United States.... We'd rather (----) than fight For victory.
These versions are listed as sung to "Old Gray Bonnet," but as Patrick noted, the tune doesn't fit.
Patrick also found a version from p. 26 of "Apples of Eden," from 1945:
We're a bunch of bastards, Scum of the earth. We're from the U. of C., The asshole of the earth, And all the Universe; Oh, we're a bunch of fairies, Morphodites are we. We'd rather fuck than fight For Victory.
None of these collections were properly published; they are all in typescript rather than typeset.
Interestingly, every version seems to consist of a single verse. It seems clear that there was an original somewhere that was adapted by all sorts of people. Clearly a very "underground" song.
Patrick also managed to find five recordings. He notes that two are sung to "Our Director March," which presumably is the tune indicated by Tawney, two are sufficiently corrupt as to not really have an identifiable tune, and one has shifted to "I've Been Working on the Railroad."
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hopk113

Bunch of Blue Ribbons

See Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be? (File: FSWB150B)

Bunch of Nuts, The

See The Cluster of Nuts (File: GrD71431)

Bunch of Roses

DESCRIPTION: "Little bunch of roses, Big bunch of roses, I'se Mist'iss' house gal, Wait on de table."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: flowers servant
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 145, "Bunch of Roses" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #16301
File: Arn145B

Bunch of Rushes

See Gathering Rushes (File: RcABLtlb)

Bunch of Violets, The

DESCRIPTION: The day before he is to go to war his sweetheart gives a soldier a bunch of violets, vowing to be true. He is killed. A comrade returns the violets to his sweetheart on her wedding day. "An old man's gold had won her from her lover far away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (SCDChapman01)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity love wedding war parting death flowers lover soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Linda-May Ballard, "Isabella McBride - Traditional Singer" in Folk Music Journal, Vol. 9, No. 4 (2009 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 512-513 "The Bunch of Violets Blue" ("Out in the moonlit garden not far from the ballroom grand") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5348
RECORDINGS:
Daisy Chapman, "The Bunch of Violets" (on SCDChapman01)
File: RcBunVio

Bunch of Watercresses

See Watercresses (File: Peac320)

Bundaberg, The

See The Glendy Burk (File: MA109)

Bundle and Go (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Frae Clyde's bonnie hills, whaur the heather is blooming... I'm come, my dear lassie, to mak' the last offer.... " His father (and mother?) are dead, his house eerie; he loves none but her. She decides to leave her parents and "bundle and go" to his home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love courting father abandonment dowry
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 37-39, "Bundle and Go" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 138-139, "Bundle and Go" (1 text)
Roud #3329
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:056, "Bundle and Go," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(075), "Buudle and Go" (sic. -- the text says "bundle," not "buddle"), unknown, n. d.
SAME TUNE:
Delays are Dangerous (per broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:056)
NOTES [67 words]: There are several broadsides in the NLScotland collection entitled "Rise Up Noble Britons, Bundle and Go," apparently written in response to the Indian Mutiny (1857; for which see, e.g., "Erin Far Away (I)" [Laws J6] and "The Dying Soldier (I) (Erin Far Away II)").
It is not evident from the sheets whether it is built around this piece, another "Bundle and Go" song, or is entirely independent. - RBW
File: FVS037

Bundle and Go (II)

DESCRIPTION: "The winter is gane, love; the sweet spring again, love, Bedecks the blue mountain." "For far to the west, to the land of bright freedom... I would conduct you." They will leave home for a better place; "then hey, bonnie lassie, will you bundle and go?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love home emigration travel
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 35-37, "Bundle and Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan4 888, "Bundle and Go" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 139-140, "Bundle and Go" (1 text)
Roud #3330
RECORDINGS:
Morris Houlihan, "Bundle and Go" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(38a), "Bundle and Go," unknown, n.d.
NOTES [67 words]: There are several broadsides in the NLScotland collection entitled "Rise Up Noble Britons, Bundle and Go," apparently written in response to the Indian Mutiny (1857; for which see, e.g., "Erin Far Away (I)" [Laws J6] and "The Dying Soldier (I) (Erin Far Away II)").
It is not evident from the sheets whether it is built around this piece, another "Bundle and Go" song, or is entirely independent. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: FVS035

Bundle of Truths, A

DESCRIPTION: "Barney Bodkin broke his nose" is followed by truths, more or less: "without feet we can't have toes," "crazy folks are always mad," "a taylor's goose will never fly, ... And now, good folks, my song is done, Nobody knows what 'twas about"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1811 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 10(11))
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad nonsense
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 34, "Barney Bodkin broke his nose" (1 fragment)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #272, p. 163, "(Barney Bodkin broke his nose)"
Roud #19760
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 10(11), "A Bundle of Truths" ("Barney Bodkin broke his nose"), Laurie and Whittle (London), 1811; also Harding B 16(39d), Douce Ballads 4(58), "A Bundle of Truths"; Harding B 25(1879), Harding B 11(3728), "A Tailor's Goose Can Never Fly"; Harding B 25(36), "All Truth and No Lies" or "A Tailor's Goose Will Never Fly"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I've Money I am Merry" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Harding B 25(1879))
NOTES [85 words]: The first verse of the Bodleian broadsides is quoted in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 34, "Barney Bodkin broke his nose."
The chorus and two truths of the Bodleian broadsides are quoted in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 235, "Hyder iddle diddle dell": "Right fol de riddle del, A yard of pudding's not an ell, Not forgetting didderum hi, A taylor's goose can never fly."
A "tailor's goose" is a flat iron with a twisted wrought iron grip that, I guess, reminds someone of a goose's neck. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: OO2034

Bung Yer Eye

DESCRIPTION: Singer praises his girlfriend, Kitty, and tells of a rowdy dance he takes her to where (Long Tom/Silver Jack) "bossed the whole shebang", Big Dan plays the fiddle, and Tom (Jack) eventually "cleans out" the joint. Chorus: "Bung yer eye! Bung yer eye!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer praises his girlfriend, Kitty, and tells of a rowdy dance he takes her to where (Long Tom/Silver Jack) "bossed the whole shebang," Big Dan plays the fiddle, and Tom (Jack) eventually "cleans out" the joint by kicking out sailors (farmers). Chorus: "Bung yer eye! Bung yer eye!"
KEYWORDS: fight dancing drink lover
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(West)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 33, "Bung Yer Eye" (1 text)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 33, "Bung Yer Eye" (1 text)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 41, "Bung Yer Eye" (2 texts)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 189-190, "Bung Yer Eye" (2 short texts)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 56, "Bung Yer Eye" (2 texts)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #4, "A-Lumbering We Go" (1 text, 1 tune, a mixed text starting with two stanzas of "Once More A-Lumbering Go" and continuing with a version of "Bung Yer Eye" minus the chorus)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 450-451, "Bung Yer Eye" (1 text)
Roud #6513
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Silver Jack" (character)
cf. Quare Bungo Rye" (chorus lyrics)
NOTES [42 words]: This should not be confused with the "Bung Your Eye" that is a version of "Quare Bungo Rye." No relation other than the chorus. The "Silver Jack" referred to in one version of this song is the same character that stars in the song of the same name. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be041

Bung Yer Eye (II)

See Quare Bungo Rye (File: Log416)

Bung Your Eye (II)

See Quare Bungo Rye (File: Log416)

Bungle Rye

See Quare Bungo Rye (File: Log416)

Bunker's Hill, A New Song

See Ballad of Bunker Hill (File: CAFS1044)

Bunkhouse Ballad

DESCRIPTION: Parody of "Fifteen Men on the Dead Man's Chest": "Sixteen men in a pine-slab bunk/Waken with grunt and growl...Coffee and flapjacks, pork and beans/Are waitin' to fill your snoots". In other words, yet another account of life in a lumber camp.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger nonballad parody
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 18, "Bunkhouse Ballad" (1 text)
Roud #8863
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fifteen Men on the Dead Man's Chest"
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (theme) and references there
NOTES [51 words]: Fifteen Men on the Dead Man's Chest" was included in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. In 1891 Young E. Allison, of Louisville, KY, published a long and bloody version. Beck speculates that the composer of this parody may have seen Allison's, but without that text, it's impossible to tell. - PJS
File: Be018

Bunkhouse Orchestra

DESCRIPTION: How the cowboys have a dance: "It' the best grand high that there is within the law When seven jolly punchers tackle 'Turkey in the Straw.'" The dance lets the cowboys forget their troubles, their aches, and the women they pretend not to miss
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Badger Clark
EARLIEST DATE: 1920
KEYWORDS: dancing cowboy party
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 103, "Bunkhouse Orchestra" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 163-164, "The Bunk-House Ochestra" (1 text)
Roud #11093
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Turkey in the Straw" (tune & meter) and references there
File: FCW103

Bunnit of Straw, The

DESCRIPTION: "A buxom young damsel a stage-horse was approaching, Cried 'Help' from afar for her bunnit of straw, For the horse he reached forward, without any addressing, And he seized her straw bunnit in her hungery jaw!" The girl laments the ruined hat.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: clothes horse humorous
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 177-179, "The Bunnit of Straw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3728
NOTES [69 words]: Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland reports, "The first straw bonnet braided in the United States was made by Miss Betsey Metcalf in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1798. Straw bonnets were worn long before straw hats; and although the art of plaiting straw is very ancient, it was not known in England until introduced there by James I." This information she apparently derives from the Encyclopedia Americana. - RBW
File: Lins177

Buonaparte on St. Helena

See Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)

Burd Ellen

See Child Waters [Child 63] (File: C063)

Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane [Child 28]

DESCRIPTION: Burd Ellen is at her knitting, crying over her baby. Young Tamlane, apparently the father, bids her rock the child. Rock the child she will not, and he departs with her curse.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (Maidment)
KEYWORDS: bastard curse children mother abandonment curse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Child 28, "Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane" (1 text)
Roud #3962
NOTES [364 words]: Child expresses no doubts about this ballad, but I wonder a little. "Burd" is a genuine English word, meaning primarily "maiden," but also just "young woman" (Warrack, p.76). RobinsonEtAl file it under the spelling "bird" and says "orig. only in verse, latterly (la18-) ch[iefly] familiar or disparaging a lady, woman; a girl la15- [ME bird, burd, perh f OE byrde, well-born]."
But it is in fact older than that "late fifteenth century" date. The Harley Lyrics are from c. 1340, and use the word several times -- e.g. Brook's #3 (p. 31), "Annot and John," opens
Ichot a burde in a bour ase beryl so bryht
i.e.
I wot [know] a burd in a bower, as beryl so bright [as bright as beryl].
J. R. R. Tolkien, in "Some Contributions fo Middle-English Lexicography," traced it back even earlier, to Layamon's Brut, which is a few decades older than the Harley Lyrics. He cited instances where he thought a "burde" was a weaver or embroideress, and believed that went back to an Old English word "*brydan," specifically of embroidresses and embrodery (Ruud, p. 421). This song is much more recent than that, but it's interesting that Burd Ellen was spending her time in knitting rather than any other activity.
By the time this song was collected, the word was archaic. It lasted a little longer in Scots, but given the dubious collection practices of some of those old collectors, I wouldn't be surprised if this were retouched.
The other "Burd" ballad in the Child collection, "Burd Isabel and Earl Patrick" [Child 257], seems better attested, since there are multiple, clearly distinct versions. "Child Waters" [Child 63] also often refers to a "Burd" in its title, e.g. "Burd Ellen" or "Burd Helen." I find it interesting that, in all three of these cases, the young woman has or will have a child. I've seen no hint in any of my sources that it refers to a woman who is pregnant out of wedlock, but I wonder.... In addition, "Lady Isabel" [Child 261] has a "Burd Isabel" version. That song doesn't seem to reefer directly to pregnancy, but the few versions we have, there is a hint of incest with her father. Might the accusation have arisen because she was pregnant? It would fit.... - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C028

Burd Helen (I)

See Child Waters [Child 63] (File: C063)

Burd Helen (II)

See Broughty Wa's (File: C258)

Burd Isabel and Earl Patrick [Child 257]

DESCRIPTION: Patrick promises to marry Isabel if the child she bears is a son. He delays until his parents die, then delays again and plans to wed a noblewoman. (His wife) wishes to see his son; Isabel will not give him up, and curses Patrick. The curse takes effect
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1818 (Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads)
KEYWORDS: nobility wedding pregnancy baby lie curse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 257, "Burd Isabel and Earl Patrick" (3 texts)
Bronson 257, "Burd Isabel and Earl Patrick" (1 version)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 160-164, "Earl Patrick" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 626-629, "Burd Ellen and Earl Patrick" (1 text)
Roud #107
NOTES [18 words]: For the curious title "Burd" for a young woman, see the notes to "Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane" [Child 28]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C257

Burd Isbell

See Lady Isabel [Child 261] (File: C261)

Burden Down Lawd

See Since I Laid My Burden Down (File: ADR70)

Bureau, The (The Lads fae the Tap o' the Hill)

DESCRIPTION: "We're the lads fae the tap o' the hill, We never worked, we never will, We're on the Bureau." SIngers from many places (Gelly Burn, Mid Craigie, etc.) say how they lost or could never find work, and their adventures with their unemployment pay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: worker hardtimes humorous derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aberdeen))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 45, "The Bureau" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #22212
File: Gath045

Buren's Grove

DESCRIPTION: "The day is hot, we will leave the spot, And together we will roam, We'll find a spot in some cooler cot Within fair Buren's grove. Each morning fair to take the air I walked to Buren's Grove"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 10, "Buren's Grove" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #2787
NOTES [78 words]: The [above] description is all of the Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick fragment.
It seems a shame to make a separate entry for so brief a fragment. It is tempting to include it under "Bordon's Grove" (Roud #2322) but there are no common lines. The note in Henry regarding the relationship of Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 10 and Henry H529 describes Creighton's entry as "too short to say that it is the same with any certainty." Henry p.324 - BS
File: CrSNB010

Burgeo Jail

DESCRIPTION: Rose Blanche men are sent by boat to Burgeo jail for sixty days. On the trip, "good food and good comfort, no passage to pay." In jail they did't work in the rain, had tobacco, and lights out at midnight. Burgeo jail is the place to rest in the fall.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: prison work food humorous prisoner
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 81-83, "Burgeo Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25318
RECORDINGS:
Martha Osmond, "Burgeo Jail" (on NFAGuigné01)
NOTES [61 words]: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports: "Good times in the pen .... we're home once more To the place we were born on the old western shore. We'll never forget it wherever we go The wonderful time that we spent in Burgeo." Rose Blanche is at the west end of Newfoundland's south shore. Burgeo is further east but reached more quickly by boat than by land. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Guig081

Burges

DESCRIPTION: "I'm glad that I am born to die, From grief and woe my soul shall fly, And we'll all shout together in that morning, In that morning, in that morning, And we'll all shout together in that morning."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Jackson)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 565, "Burges" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LxA565 (Full)
Roud #15560
RECORDINGS:
Southeast Alabama and Florida Union Sacred Harp Singing Convention, "Sweet Morning" (on USFlorida01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In That Morning" (lyrics)
File: LxA565

Burglar Boy, The

See The Old Maid and the Burglar [Laws H23] (File: LH23)

Burglar Man, The

See The Old Maid and the Burglar [Laws H23] (File: LH23)

Burglar, The

See The Old Maid and the Burglar [Laws H23] (File: LH23)

Burial of Sir John Moore, The

DESCRIPTION: "We buried him darkly at dead of night" without a funeral, in a narrow grave, without a coffin. "The foe was sullenly firing." "We carved not a line, we raised not a stone, But left him alone with his glory!"
AUTHOR: Rev. Charles Wolfe (1791-1823) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815, Gardner, Turner)
EARLIEST DATE: 1817 (_Newry Telegraph_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: war burial death soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 16, 1809 - Moore is killed during the Battle of Corunna and is buried in the ramparts of the town (source: "John Moore (British soldier)" at the Wikipedia site)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 183, "The Burial of Sir John Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 164-165, "The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 138-139, "Burial of Sir John Moore" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #227, p. 17, "Burial of Sir John Moore" (2 references)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol II, p. 288, "The Burial of Sir John Moore"
Colin Andrews, _Shepherd of the Downs: The Life and Songs of Michael Blann of Upper Beeding_, (first two editions 1979, 1986 by Worthing Museum; third edition apparently self-published by Andrews, 2006), (no page number visible), "The Burial of Sir John Moore" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, _The Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1958, 1979), pp. 37-38, "The Burial of Sir John Moore" (1 text)
Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #494, pp. 822-823, "The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna" (by Charles Wolfe)
Martin Gardner, editor, _Famous Poems from Bygone Days_, Dover, 1995, pp. 166-168, "The Burial of Sir John Moore" (1 text)
Michael R. Turner, _Victorian Parlour Poetry: An Annotated Anthology_, 1967, 1969 (page references are to the 1992 Dover edition), pp. 47-48, "The Burial of Sir John Moore" (1 text)
ST Moyl183 (Partial)
Roud #13873
SAME TUNE:
Report ("Not a sigh was heard not a farewell groan") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p. 46)
NOTES [709 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: Sir John Moore re-captured Wexford town from the rebels in June 1798. He was killed as Commander in Chief of the British forces fighting the French in Portugal in 1808. - BS
It is interesting to wonder how Moore's reputation would have stood had he lived. Although much praised, he had little experience as a commander-in-chief. Administratively, he was probably better than Wellington, but he had not the latter's incredible sense for the strengths and weaknesses of a position (few did, to be sure), and his one chance in sole command ended in partial failure and his own death.
Of the senior officers in Ireland in 1798, Moore (1761-1809) was surely the best -- firm (he allowed his men, as they sought to disarm the rebels before the rising, to act harshly and commandeer provisions; Pakenham, p. 66) but opposed to straight-out looting (Pakenham, p. 258, tells how he personally imposed order on his men when they threatened to devastate the path along which they marched) and generally humane (Pakenham, p. 281); he was the one leading officer who did not hold any courts-martial or military tribunals (Pakenham, p. 284). Many of the very best generals are of this type.
He also had a key role in the British invasion of Egypt.
Chandler, whose book is magisterial (if not particularly readable), writes of him (p. 627), "During the critical days when Britain was awaiting Napoleon's impending invasion, Moore had trained up a division of light infantry on new principles.... instilling a high degree of personal responsibility in officers and men alike, training the rank and file to think and fight as individuals rather than mere members of a military machine. To technical improvements... Sir John added a great gift for administration."
But the Peninsular campaign was his first independent command, and very nearly his first action was the retreat which ended in his death at Corunna; Chandler (p. 627) admits that "it was to be some little time before he found his feet among the familiar and baffling surroundings of Portugal and Spain."
Corunna was essentially a French attempt to cut off the British retreat. The British inflicted about 1500 casualties on the French, in exchange for about 800 losses of their own -- but in the course of the battle Moore was hit in the shoulder by a cannonball (Chandler, p. 656), dying (like Wolfe or Nelson) in the knowledge that the battle was won. Won, but the position lost; he was buried on January 17, and his men evacuated Corunna on January 17 and 18.
Napoleon said of him, "His talents and firmness alone saved the British army," but of course by so saying, Napoleon covered over his own flawed Spanish strategy.
According to HouseholdTreasury, p. 198, Moore "was mortally wounded and buried at midnight on the ramparts of Corunna. As no coffin could be procured, the body was simply wrapped in a military cloak and blankets.
Household Treasury also says that "Rev. Charles Wolfe, born at Dublin 1791, died 1823, owes his fame to this one brief but touchingly-beautiful composition, of which any poet might have been proud. Some of Wolfe's other lyrics, however, are characterized by intense pathos and power of expression. He died of consumption, hastened by incessant clerical labour, in his thirty-third year."
According to NewCentury, he died in Cork in 1823. The Handbook lists this poem as his one noteworthy writing. John Russell wrote a memorial in his 1825 posthumous Poetical Remains.
I've always been surprised that a piece that has such a non-folk feeling has been so popular. Andrew Rouse points out to me that it used to be included in a lot of school anthologies. That wouldn't by itself make it popular with the folk, but it might help explain why people were able to remember it.
For more about Moore and the history of the song, see Andrew C. Rouse,  "The Burial of Sir John Moore After Corunna -- from history to literature to folksong, or; across the seas from Scotland, to Spain, to Ireland, to England...to Hungary, to Spain...," in Zsuzsa Csikai and Andre C. Rouse,, editors, Critical Essays in Honour of Mária Kurdi Tanulmányok Kurdi Mária tiszteletére, SPECHEL e-ditions, Vol. 3, 2017 (available on Google Books), pp. 107-131. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: Moyl183

Burial of Wild Bill, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes how he and his comrades buried their friend Wild Bill, reminiscing about his good character and talents. Characteristic last line of each verse: "As we covered him with the sod"
AUTHOR: Captain Jack Crawford
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recordings, Jenkins' Pilot Mountaineers)
KEYWORDS: burial death cowboy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 194, "(The Burial of Wild Bill)" (1 excerpt)
ST RcTBoWB (Partial)
Roud #11542
RECORDINGS:
Oscar Jenkins' Pilot Mountaineers [or Frank Jenkins & his Pilot Mountaineers: Oscar Jenkins, Frank Jenkins, Ernest V. Stoneman], "Burial of Wild Bill" (Broadway 8249/Paramount 3240, 1929); Alex Gordon [pseud. for Frank Jenkins & his Pilot Mountaineers], "The Burial of Wild Bill" (Conqueror 7270, 1929) [One of these recordings, probably the Conqueror, is on WhenIWas2.]
Glenn Ohrlin, "Burial of Wild Bill" (on Ohrlin01)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "The Burial of Wild Bill" (Conqueror 7270, 1929)
NOTES [151 words]: The uncertainty over the name of the bandleader on the Pilot Mountaineers records stems from its listing as "Frank Jenkins & his Pilot Mountaineers" on the Yazoo reissue and in Gennett logs (the Conqueror issue used a Gennett master), but "Oscar Jenkins' Pilot Mountaineers" on the Paramount/Broadway issues.
On both records, the vocalist (uncredited, as he was under contract to Victor) was Ernest Stoneman. Notice that the succeeding record on Conqueror is the same song, listed as by Ernest Stoneman, while Frank Mares' catalog lists 7269 as a different song by Stoneman, with Jenkins' Mountaineers. Oy.
Oh, and it's quite hard to tell from the text, but it doesn't sound like the subject of this song was Wild Bill Hickok. - PJS
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads claims it *is* Hickok (1837-1876), but she cites only one stanza -- though she says Crawford dedicated the song to Hickok's friend Charley Utter. - RBW
File: RcTBoWB

Burke's Confession

DESCRIPTION: Irishman Burke comes to Scotland looking for work. He and McDougall join Hare who kills poor lodgers and sells the bodies to doctors; "sixty men and women I willingly did kill." They are taken, Hare turns state's evidence and Burke is hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: execution homicide Scotland gallows-confession
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 28, 1829 - William Burke is hanged for the murder of Mrs Docherty (source: broadside NLScotland Ry.III.a.6(028)).
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #36, p. 2, "Burke's Confession" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 192, "Burke's Confession" (3 texts plus 2 fragments, 3 tunes; the "E" text looks as if it is something else)
Roud #5640
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Black Cook" (subject: sale of dead bodies for anatomical studies)
cf. "The Roon-Moo'ed Spade" (subject: sale of dead bodies for anatomical studies)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Burke and Hare
NOTES [5142 words]: For an account of "Execution, Confession, and a list of all the Horrid Murders committed by Burke, also the decision of Hare's Case" "List of the 16 Murders committed by Burke" see broadside NLScotland, Ry.III.a.6(028), "Broadside regarding the Burke and Hare trials," unknown, 1829. That broadside explains some of the ballad's loose ends. The episode is known as the "West Port Tragedies." When a man died in Hare's house, he and Burke sold the body to "anatomists" for 10 GBP. Surprised at the windfall they decided to kill people not likely to be missed and sell those bodies. They killed sixteen, rather than sixty, and one of those was Mrs. Docherty. Helen McDougal was a prostitute who went with Burke; the ballad gives the impression that Burke was turned in by McDougal but the broadside does not mention that. The broadside confirms that Hare turned state's evidence; after that the High Court found that Hare could not be tried for those crimes and he was released. - BS
There is also a long account, titled "Burke and Hare," on pp. 207-210 of Briggs.
NLScotland has several broadsides on Burke and Hare in addition to the one Ben cites above, and indeed has a whole category on "body snatching." Some of the titles include "Burke and Hare trials," "Confessions made by William Burke," "Confessions, Lamentations, & Reflections of William Burke," "Hare's Confession and Death!," "Hare's Dream!," "Horrible and Barbarous Murder of Helen M'Dougal," "Life and Transactions of the Murderer Burke and his Associates," "Lines On The Gilmerton Murder," "Lines Supposed to have Been Written by Mrs. Wilson, Daft Jamie's Mother," "Trial and Sentence of William Burke and Helen McDougall," "Trial and Sentence of William Burke, 1828," "William Burke -- A New Song," "William Burke's Confession," and "William Burke's Murders in the Westport."
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, pp. 26-27, also has one called "The Recent Murders -- A New Song," which appears to be based on "Chevy Chase." It lists most of the murder victims, and appears to have been written just after Burke's trial, since Hare's fate is not yet known.
As best I can tell, the Roud numbers on these are:
-- Burke's Confession (this song): #5640. Typical openings: "It's William Burke it is my name, in Ireland I was born" or "All ye that stand around me, I pray to you attend"
-- Burke and Hare A: Also #5640, but it opens something like "Tae help the folk in medical school, word is passed around." This is DT, BURKHARE*
-- Burke and Hare B: #19130. Known opening is "Burke and Hare, they were a pair." This may just be a single verse of a jumping rhyme rather than an independent song.
-- Daft Jamie: #V49915, "O dark was the midnight when Hare flew away"
-- Lines on the Gilmerton Murder: #53065, "There was these murderers Emond, Stewart, Burk and Hare"
-- William Burke A: #V44534, "Come all you resurrection men, I pray you now beware"
-- William Burke B: #V48867, "Ye people of Scotland give ear to this sad tale"
-- WIlliam Burke C: #V53739, "O Burke, cruel man, how detested thy name is"
-- William Burke's Execution: (no number): "Let old and young unto my song a while attention pay"
There are others which don't seem to have made it into the Roud catalog. Despite the popularity of the subject in broadsides, it appears that this is the only substantial piece to have gone into tradition, and even it hasn't spread much.
Incidentally, the Burke and Hare case seems to exert continued fascination. It appears that at least four books have been written about them since the middle of the twentieth century, although the only one I have seen is Edwards.
For background on anatomists and the context of Burke and Hare's activities, see the notes to "The Black Cook."
Edwards attempts to give us a rather different, and more sympathetic, view of Burke than is found in most sources. Both Burke and Hare were Irish Catholics from Ulster who were driven to Scotland by poverty. They were originally respectable; Burke, who was born in 1792, served in the Irish militia from 1809 to 1816 (Edwards, p. xvii) before coming to Scotland.
The two met in 1827, when Burke and his girlfriend took lodging with Hare and his wife (Edwards, p. ix). Unlike other resurrectionists, they do not seem to have robbed graves (Edwards, p. 23, says that Burke denied this to the very end, by which time the denial could do him no good and a claim of grave-robbing would have allowed him at least some vengeance on Hare who betrayed him) -- but they did kill at least fifteen people, although the first murder, in early 1828 (Edwards, p. xvii) may have been accidental.
They earned between eight and ten pounds for each cadaver supplied, meaning they earned sixty to seventy pounds each in a period of ten months (Young, p. 102) -- easily enough to live on at this time. (This was a dramatic improvement on earlier rates. Adams, p. 13, tells of a 1751 case with many similarities to the Burke and Hare murders: A child was forcibly made drunk and suffocated, and the body sold -- but, in this case, for a mere five shillings.)
According to Edwards, p. 3, many of the stories about Burke and Hare are inaccurate or misreported. He notes, for instance, that the Dictionary of National Biography falsely stated that Hare was executed with Burke, and points out also that it seems likely that Burke was born in Urney, Ulster, rather than a non-existent town of Orrey.
Burke's native tongue was probably Irish rather than English (Edwards, p. 6). Even so, he seems to have been a loyal British citizen; according to Edwards, p. 13, "Burke's years in the militia meant a good deal to him. He was to speak of them afterward with affection... it is probable that they were the best [years] of his life." But Edwards, p. 19, points out that the casual brutality of the militia might well have fostered in him an attitude that life is cheap.
For a man of his background, Burke was highly unusual in that he was apparently literate (Edwards, p. 76).
If we have some records of Burke's early life, we have nothing at all about the origins of William Hare (Edwards, p. 29, although he proceeds to speculate at length). It is possible that he had already gotten in trouble in Ireland and been forced to flee (Edwards, p. 40) -- but, like many other Irishmen including Burke, there was also the lure of work in Scotland; thousands left overcrowded pre-Famine Ireland to work as navvies on the Union Canal or find other jobs (Edwards, p. 41). Burke and Hare were among those who worked on the Union Canal, both apparently starting in 1818.
Navvy work cannot have been easy for Burke, who was a small man (Edwards, pp. 46-47). In any case, the project was finished in 1822, and the canal boom went bust after that; there would have been few other opportunities for such unskilled jobs. Burke was about thirty years old anyway, and Hare about the same age, so they could not have continued such back-breaking work for much longer. Burke seems to have drifted into odd jobs; Hare eventually became a slum landlord (Edwards, p. 49).
Burke seems to have traded, to some extent, on his looks and his charm with the ladies (despite the fact that his native language was Irish); Edwards, p. 55, thinks he got a girl pregnant and married her. They had two children (Edwards, p. 59), but that didn't keep him from picking up another woman, Helen MacDougall, in Scotland (Edwards, p. 60, who notes that she too seems to have had previous children although Edwards, pp. 63-64, reports that observers found her very unattractive). Hare's relations with women seem also to have been very complicated and likely bigamous.
Edwards, p. 62, considers whether Burke would have discussed his murderous activities with Helen MacDougall. The mob of course felt her to be an accessory after the fact. Edwards, p. 63, suspects that she did not know the truth, at least at first, although she may eventually have guessed.
MacDougal gave her age as 33, making her about three years younger than Burke, but we cannot be sure of this; even her birth name is somewhat uncertain (Edwards, p. 65).
Burke and MacDougal were together by 1827, when they spent the summer as agricultural laborers (Edwards, p. 66). Margaret Hare met them when the season was over and invited them to lodge with her and her husband (Edwards, p. 67, who considers Margaret Hare the least sympathetic of the four principals, Burke, MacDougall, and the two Hares).
Edwards, pp. 68-69, suggests that the Hares may have turned to murder even before they went into the body-snatching business. Margaret Hare's first husband James Logue died rather suddenly, and Margaret married Hare very soon thereafter; Edwards thinks they might have had an affair and decided to eliminate her husband. It is true that Burke never accused Margaret Hare, even after the Hares turned on him, but he had no way to know what the Hares were doing before he met them. Edwards thinks that his refusal to indict Mrs. Hare was because Burke was "a gentleman."
Whatever happened to Logue, Margaret Logue and Hare found themselves with a small boarding-house, and one of their lodgers was Burke.
All four were apparently heavy drinkers (Edwards, p. 68), which both increased their expenses and left them more open to various temptations. Burke, MacDougal, and the Hares all were involved in ordinary work in 1828 -- Burke as a cobbler, Hare as a boatman or hawker, Burke and MacDougall as agricultural laborers (Edwards, p. 77). But these were not lucrative occupations.
It appears that the idea of body-snatching came to them when one of Hare's lodgers died (Roach, p. 49). The man was a pensioner, paid quarterly, and the Hares had extended him credit -- and, due to his death, lost their chance to be paid (Edwards, pp. 78-79; Adams, pp. 77-78). They found a unique way to make up for the loss....
Although the evidence is conflicting, Edwards, p. 79, thinks it was Burke who first suggested harvesting the corpse; having been in the militia, he would be more aware of doctors' need for cadavers. He was also the first to "borrow" the body (Edwards, p. 80), filling the coffin with tanner's bark so that the burial could proceed.
Burke and Hare, having acquired their cadaver, don't seem to have known quite what to do with it; they headed off for Edinburgh's Old College and seemingly started trying to find an anatomist. They were referred to Dr. Robert Knox in Surgeon Square (Edwards, p. 81). Knox apparently asked few questions and promptly offered seven pounds, ten shillings, which they took (Edwards, p. 82).
Knox was a surprisingly young man, born probably in 1792 or 1793 (Edwards, p. 120); perhaps he had less access to legitimate cadavers than most. His history to this time had mostly been good; he had been a military surgeon in 1814 (Edwards, p. 121). He would go on, in 1850, to write a thoroughly prejudiced book, The Races of Man, based on his anatomical work -- but his conclusions don't seem to have bothered anyone at the time.
He was unusual in other ways -- he had a "blasted eye" and a "satanic smile," according to Edwards, p. 121, and happily married below his station (although he did not otherwise associate with the lower classes). He gave an air of intelligence and wit (Edwards, p. 122) -- but, according to a fellow physician who was not overly squeamish himself, he was "a man of undoubted talent, but notoriously deficient in principle and in heart... exactly the person to blind himself against suspicion" (Edwards, p. 126).
Edwards, p. 135, declares (without proof, we should add) that "Knox simply did not regard the Burke and Hare murders as criminal; on the contrary, he looked on them as an enlightened method of disposing of useless derelicts with ultimate betterment to the more desirable segments of humanity."
He was a popular lecturer and teacher, having as many as 400 students, so apparently he was under genuine pressure to dig up enough bodies to give his demonstrations (Edwards, pp. 130-131). This seems to have been the core of his defense to the committee which eventually investigated his conduct. Certainly it was at the core of the one and only public statement he made on the matter (quoted by Edwards, pp. 132-134): He regretted what happened but disclaimed any responsibility -- and hinted at political persecution. The committee disapproved of his actions but did not revoke his licence or otherwise interfere with his future work.
The fact that Knox made no attempt to investigate (Roach, p. 49), but simply ordered his assistants to pay men who hauled in a dead body, will tell you something about the market in cadavers at the time. Indeed, Edwards, p. 83, suggests that this may be what inspired Burke and Hare's next steps. He suggests that they had a legal, or at least a moral, right to the corpse (since the dead man owed Hare money) -- but that Dr. Knox, since he asked no questions, clearly thought that they had obtained it illegally. Which set them thinking about obtaining bodies by less legitimate means.
They certainly don't seem to have done much to conceal their identities. They used the names William and John in dealing with Knox (Adams, p. 77).
It is not absolutely certain which of their victims came next, but Edwards, p. 86, thinks that it was probably a miller named Joseph, who was dying of fever. At most, Burke and Hare hastened the process along. But, obviously, they had started down a slippery slope.... And, indeed, they seem to have become more bold as more bodies passed through their hands. One early victim was an old pensioner whom they got drunk to the point of illness, then disposed of (Edwards, pp. 87-88).
There isn't much to be said about the next several murders; Burke and Hare, for obvious reasons, generally did not get to know their victims closely, and naturally did not keep records (Adams, p. 78), so they eventually started to blur in their memories (Edwards, p. 88); they would disagree on the order of the murders (Adams, p. 78). And it appears that Hare may have committed at least one murder on his own, without involving Burke (Edwards, p. 104).
Their activities seem to have expanded over the months; having done their initial work in Hare's boarding house, they took to operating in other sites because they ran out of room (Edwards, p. 105).
One of the first victims to be identified was a prostitute, Mary Paterson (Edwards, p. 89). It is true that she had no real defenders -- but, apparently, a number of men knew and remembered her. And Dr. Knox kept her body preserved in alcohol, apparently because she was pretty (Roach, p. 52), which obviously simplified identification.
Also noteworthy for its vileness was the murder of a middle-aged woman and her son or grandson, the latter being about twelve and perhaps not mentally sound (Edwards, p. 92). This was a more-than-usually brutal murder, since the boy's back was reportedly broken (Edwards, p. 86, although his next several pages seem to imply he distrusts the account, and Adams, p. 82, also questions it) -- but Dr. Knox still asked no questions.
There was also an instance in which they killed a mother and daughter, but that may have been more forced -- the daughter came nosing around trying to find out what happened to her mother (Edwards, pp. 105-107).
Burke later admitted that they became bolder as the weeks passed; initially, they brought the corpses to Knox at night, but they carried Mary Paterson's body (e.g.) in daylight (Edwards, p. 101). Eventually they even took a seeming relative of Helen MacDougal (Edwards, p. 108). Little surprise that they finally slipped up!
Their downfall began when they took a man named James Wilson, commonly called "Daft Jamie." Born in 1809, he had apparently been cast from home because he was wild and destructive and developmentally disabled (Edwards, pp. 111-112; on p. 113, he describes Jamie as if his mental age were about seven or eight, and on p. 129 he mentions his "malformed feet"). Adams, p. 81, also refers to malformed feet and says that he walked with a stoop. On the one hand, he probably seemed like someone who could safely be murdered. On the other hand, he still had a family -- as well as recognizable physical peculiarities....
The deformities may have contributed to his demise, although this does not seem to have come out in testimony. According to Adams, p. 21, anatomists particularly liked unusual specimens such as dwarfs.
The exact date of the murder is not known, but it was probably in mid-October 1828. Sadly, it appears Hare was unable to get Jamie drunk, so this was true murder; Jamie was conscious and alert (insofar as he was ever capable of being aware of what was going on) while he was killed (Edwards, p. 113).
Adams, p. 82, admits that Burke seems to have had qualms by this time -- a point which is the main subject of Edwards. But he didn't stop his activities.
There was, apparently, only one more murder after that, of an old woman named Docherty (Edwards, p. 114).
Although the murders were detected, the authorities seem to have had little idea of what was going on until a married couple, the Grays, visited the criminals and reported to authorities that they had seen a dead body -- Docherty's -- there (Edwards, p. 138; Adams, p. 83). And even that clue was not enough to give the prosecutors a clear case. They needed more.
Burke and his girlfriend Helen MacDougall were finally arrested on November 1, 1828, apparently just one day after the death of Docherty, whose un-dissected body was found the next day. The Hares were arrested on that same November 2. Another man, John Brogan, was briefly arrested but soon released (Edwards, p. 146) The initial court appearance was on November 3 (Edwards, p. 139).
For whatever reason, the government from the start seemed to want to get Burke in particular (Edwards suggests that it is because he was literate and therefore suspected of being the ringleader). When it was concluded that the evidence was not sufficient to gain a conviction without an admission by someone, prosecutors tried first to get something out of Helen MacDougall. She refused to reveal anything (Edwards, p. 146; indeed, he suggests on p. 175 that she did not learn what was going on until the time of the last murder). Next they turned to Hare. He turned King's evidence and was let off in return for helping prove a capital charge against Burke.
Edwards describes Burke's initial statement as odd -- "Burke comes very close to telling the Sheriff-substitute... that he got the body from the fairies" (Edwards, p. 139). It also makes a claim that he was the middleman in the resurrectionist business rather than the original collector of corpses. As for evidence that the body of Mrs. Docherty seen in his home, he explained that she had died there -- and he had sold her rather than calling authorities (Edwards, p. 147).
Burke and MacDougall were tried only for the murder of Mrs. Docherty. (Charges had been initially filed for the murders of Docherty, Daft Jamie, and Mary Paterson, but apparently the prosecutor decided to try the single count because the only body they had was Docherty's, plus perhaps they didn't want to arouse the mob; Edwards, pp. 153-155. As it turned out, dropping the counts regarding Jamie and Paterson roused the mob at least as much as the trial would have; Edwards, p. 155. Still, the Scottish law supplied good lawyers for the defense, so it might have been easier not to give them much to work with).
Hare, when turned, proved very clever. Although he was asked only about Mrs. Docherty, he gave testimony about all the murders -- thus in effect giving himself immunity from prosecution for any of them (Edwards, p. 152).
The decision to concentrate on the Docherty case, and to spare the Hares, had the secondary effect of taking Knox out of the equation, since he had never seen Docherty's body (Edwards, p. 161). Edwards, pp. 248-249, seems to grant that the Hares were needed to prove the Docherty case -- but that there were sufficient secondary witnesses to prove the Patterson and Daft Jamie murders. He suggests that the Crown's decision to proceed as it did was largely political
The trial opened with theatrics, with the defense showing its willingness even to quibble over such things as a distinction between "also" and "likewise" (Edwards, p. 158). I doubt this endeared them to the court.
According to Edwards, p. 156, no evidence was ever brought forward making Helen MacDougall a participant in the murders; at most, she was an accessory before and after the fact. Of course, with fifteen or more murders, that's a lot of accessorizing. And Edwards, p. 181, thinks her incoherent testimony was damaging to Burke.
The trial began on Christmas Eve 1828 and took all of two days (Young, p. 102. We should add that they were very long days, with sessions ending after midnight; supposedly the second session lasted more than 17 hours; Edwards, p. 205). Hare was called upon to testify on Christmas Day (Edwards, p. 182). His testimony was confused and confusing (Edwards, pp. 182-183), and at least some of it appears to have been perjured (Edwards, p. 185), but clearly he described murder. This was vital, because every other witness's testimony was consistent with accidental death and an attempt to sell the body.
John Wilson ("Christopher North") would say contemptuously of the testimony, "First ae drunk auld wife, and then inither drunk auld wife -- and ten a third drunk auld wife -- and then a drunk auld or sick man or twa. The confession got unco monotonous... tough, to be sure, poor Peggy Paterson, the Unfortunate, broke in a little on the uniformity, and sae did Daft Jamie" (Adams, p. 79).
Margaret Hare offered no noteworthy testimony; it has been suggested that she was given immunity simply because her husband could not testify against her, so there could be no case against her (Edwards, p. 191). Sadly, the record of Hare's confession has been lost, so we do not know details (Edwards, p. 237).
Interestingly, the defense called no witnesses (Edwards, p. 199); their whole case was built on discrediting the prosecution and maintaining that Mrs. Docherty could have died a natural death (probably from alcohol poisoning) -- a point on which the feeble forensics of the time simply could not testify.
Burke's defense ultimately consisted of an argument that the prosecution had not proved that a crime had been committed -- that the only proof of murder, as opposed to accident, was the evidence of William Hare, and that that was inconsistent (true) and tainted by having been purchased (true). From a logical standpoint, it was a strong argument (Edwards, pp. 211-214); I would have hated to have been on the jury required to deal with it. It might even had worked had Burke's own story been more consistent.
Interestingly, Helen MacDougall's defense was conducted separately, and her lawyer assumed Burke's guilt but argued that she had not known what was going on.
It should be recalled that Scottish law, unlike English, allowed THREE verdicts, "guilty," "not guilty," and "not proven" -- the special Scottish verdict to say that the jury simply couldn't be sure of what happened (although Adams, p. 19, notes that cynical Scots paraphrase this as "not guilty -- but don't do it again"). MacDougall's lawyer, in fact, made the curious plea to the jury that they find the case against her "not proven" rather than "not guilty." (Edwards, p. 222). Which, in fact, is exactly what they did (Edwards, pp. ix-x). The case was given to the jury at about 8:30 on Christmas morning, and they returned their verdict about an hour later (Edwards, p. 229).
Burke, however, was convicted, and, after his conviction, eventually confessed (Edwards, p. x). Burke gave two fairly complete confessions, but it was some time before these were released. As a result, a vast number of false confessions began to be published (Edwards, p. 275). This song probably derives from some of these, since Burke killed only about sixteen people, not sixty.
Burke's personal prospects in the trial were apparently so slight that he pinned what little hope he had on the survival of MacDougall. At least, when the "Not Proven" verdict came down, his first response was apparently to fling his arms around her neck and declare, "Thank God, you are safe!" (Edwards, p. 230).
Burke naturally was condemned to death. Once his fate was settled, he really did give a full and detailed confession -- possibly with a goal of making Hare swing as well (Edwards, p. 251). If so, it didn't work. Hare was free -- and fleeing -- before the confession became known.
Oddly enough, when asked what sort of ministers he would like to visit him before his execution, Burke said he was not a bigot and asked for those of all available denominations (Edwards, p. 281), although he was Catholic and clearly placed the most importance on the visit with the priest. But he had Presbyterian as well as Catholic clergy present at his execution (Edwards, p. 282).
Burke was hanged in Edinburgh on January 28, 1829, with tens of thousands of spectators looking on (Edwards, p. xviii). A typical estimate is that 25,000 witnessed the event (Roach, p. 51); it is thought to have been the largest crowd ever to have seen an execution in Edinburgh (Edwards, p. 285). Young, p. 102, observes that the crowd would not have been large by Glasgow standards, but was very large for Edinburgh, which did not have a green for such things. (Interestingly, this crowd seems to have been mostly male; according to Edwards, p. 275, the few women in it were extensively hassled.)
The authorities had made special preparations to guard Burke from being lynched on his way to the gallows (Edwards, pp. 283-284). When the execution was slow in starting, the crowd became vocal, shouting "Burke him!" (Young, p. 103). "To burke" thus became a word for "to strangle or suffocate" (the latter is the usage supplied on p. 111 of Partridge, who dates it to 1829 -- i.e. to this execution).
The hangman was either incompetent or malicious; Burke's neck was not broken when he was dropped, and he was left to strangle for many minutes (Young, p. 103). Given that executioner Thomas Young had held his job since 1820 (Young, p. 158), one suspects this was deliberate.
The crowd wanted both Hare and Knox on the scaffold with him (Young, p. 103; Edwards, p. 285). They of course were not accommodated.
Burke's cadaver was used for anatomy lectures (Edwards, p. xix). Supposedly 30,000 viewed his dead body at the time, and many more since -- his skeleton was preserved (there is a photo of it on p. 62 of Adams; you can see where his skull was opened. Adams, p. 63, has sketches of Burke and Hare, and on p. 68 a sketch of where Knox had his office). Several wallets were made from Burke's skin (Roach, p. 51). This use of a dead man's body was not new; a man named James McKean has similarly been skinned in 1797 (Adams, pp. 11-12). It is also reported that Burke's skin was used to bind a copy of a book now in the Surgeon's Hall Museums; according to https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/12/dark-archives-come-for-the-floating-goat-balls-stay-for-the-fascinating-science/, protein tests have now verified that this book is bound with human skin.
Hare still had to face a hearing on whether he had done enough to be allowed his freedom. Edwards, p. 266, doesn't think much of this proceeding; he observes that several of the judges had been involved in the Burke case, and the two who were not both opposed setting Hare free. But, because it was a split decision, the state abandoned all proceedings against him. He did have to face a civil case from the family of Daft Jamie (Edwards, p. 266), but apparently this was given up when they realized Hare was destitute; all they were doing was giving him a place to stay (even if it was a prison) until the case was settled (Edwards, p. 268). On February 5, 1829, Hare was set free.
Hare fled Scotland; apparently nothing is known of his whereabouts after February 9, 1829 (Edwards, p. xix; Adams, p. 88). Although Hare disappeared and his fate is unknown, it appears that Margaret Hare had already left him by the time he vanished (Edwards, p. 72).
There was apparently a tradition that Hare was thrown into a lime-kiln and ended up as a blind beggar (Edwards, p. 29), although Edwards is forced to add that Hare was the only known mass murderer to have been in the hands of police but never punished in any way. Another tradition says that he survived for more than half a century as a peddlar in Aberfeldy (Adams, p. 88).
Knox was hanged in effigy (Edwards, p. 134) but was able to continue his work, eventually producing his magnum opus of racism. He did suffer, however, as his home was heavily damaged by rioting. He also found his number of students dwindling (Adams, pp. 88-89).
Helen MacDougall was several times assaulted by mobs; it is possible although not certain that she was eventually lynched by one (Edwards, p. 153).
Apart from all those modern books and contemporary broadsides describing the Burke and Hare story, the case seems to have inspired at least a few contemporary literary poems, such as Thomas Hood's "Mary's Ghost," cited on p. 129 of Edwards. In addition, Dylan Thomas wrote "The Doctor and the Devils" about Burke, Hare, and Knox; this was later made into a movie. And it is reported that the characters Morris and MacCab in Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October are based on Burke and Hare (although the resemblance is very slight, and my source -- The Road to Amber, Volume 6: The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny, NESFA Press, 2009, p. 477 -- does not give a reference for this claim).
Apparently Madame Tussaud actually commissioned waxworks of Burke and Hare -- the former from his death mask, the latter naturally from seeing him (Adams, p. 114). Macabre either way. One of those who saw them was Lady Jane Franklin, the wife of Sir John Franklin of Northwest Passage fame (McGoogan, p. 133).
A side effect of the Burke and Hare case was a revision of the Anatomy Acts (Roach, p. 49). Since the time of Henry VIII, the only cadavers doctors could legally obtain were those of executed criminals (Roach, p. 40). These were simply not enough for doctors to learn their trade. The result was the horrors of the Burke and Hare situation. A bill was quickly introduced to curb the demand (Edwards, p. 274). The first attempt died in the Lords, but then a pair of killers named Bishop and Williams brought Burkeing to London. They even confessed to imitating Burke and Hare, and were hanged in December 1831 (Adams, p. 91). That managed to push even the Lords into action. The Anatomy Act was given the royal assent on August 1, 1832 (Adams, p. 97), and made things at least a little better. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: GrD2192

Burke's Dream [Laws J16]

DESCRIPTION: [Thomas] Burke, the singer, dreams he has rejoined his comrades to fight the British. They win a great victory, and he returns home. The scream his mother makes when he returns to her wakens him, and he finds he is still in his cell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland); c.1867 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: rebellion battle dream prison mother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 1, 1867 - "General" Thomas F. Burke is convicted of high treason for his leading part in the Fenian insurrection of 1867. He is condemned to die, but the sentence is commuted
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws J16, "Burke's Dream"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 71, "Burke's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 70, "Burke's Dream" (1 text)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 71, "Burke's Dream" (1 text)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 46-48, "A Dream of General T. F. Burke" (1 text)
DT 813, BURKDREM
Roud #1893
NOTES [429 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 263 makes this song about Richard O'Sullivan Burke who "had become a colonel in the Federal Army during the American Civil War. He was sent back to Ireland by the Fenian Brotherhood, organized the 'Manchester Rescue', was sentenced to fifteen years' penal servitude in 1867, but returned to America in 1874."
See what seems to be a broadside on the same subject, Bodleian, Harding B 26(663), "A New Song Call'd the Vision in Col Burke's Cell" ("Come all you Irish patriot's"), P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867 - BS
Although the "Burke" mentioned is called "Thomas Burke," it's not absolutely clear who this song is about. Robert Kee's history, The Bold Fenian Men (being Volume II of The Green Flag) mentions two Burke/Bourkes of significance. Page 41, refers to "an Irish-American 'general' with a shrunken leg, T[homas] F. Bourke." He commanded at the Battle of Ballyhurst (March 7, 1867), in which the Fenian forces fled at the first government volley. Condemned to be hanged, beheaded, and quartered, he managed a fine speech which put him into Irish folklore (Kee, p. 42). The government finally spared him on the grounds that his execution would have no deterrent effect (Kee, p. 49).
Richard O'Sullivan Burke was in 1867 a captain of engineers in the U. S. Army (Kee, p. 32), who travelled Europe to gather arms for the Fenians. Zimmermann is wrong; he was not a colonel (at least not at regular rank; he may have been breveted). According to the State of New York Adjutant General's Report, volume 2, p. 236, he was only made captain of the 15th New York Engineers on May 17, 1865, to date from April 29 of that year, and was mustered out as a captain on July 2.
His closest thing to a big moment apparently came when he told the crew of the arms runner Erin's Hope that there was no point in landing weapons in Sligo (Kee, p. 43; see the notes to "The Cork Men and New York Men").
In typical Fenian fashion, an attempt was made to rescue him after the British arrested him; in typical Fenian fashion, it was bungled -- and produced a heavy loss of civilian lives (Kee, pp. 49-50).
Neither B(o)urke seems to have had much real effect on Irish events; Kee's is the only one of seven histories I checked to mention either.
I do not think it possible to tell from the song which one is meant. Both of course ended up in prison. The song makes one mention of the singer being in battle leading Irish forces, which sounds like T. F. Burke at Ballyhurst, but it also describes his hard work in prison, which sounds like R. O. Burke. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: LJ16

Burlesque on the Fashions of the Day, 1870, A, or, The Grecian Bend

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye gents and ladies And listen to my rhyme... It's of the modern fashions That seem to have no end, And the latest one that's all the rage Is this stylsh Grecian Bend." Women used to be natural; now all are distorted by fashion from far away
AUTHOR: Charles L. Walker (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: clothes hair | fashion complaint
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 154-156, "A Burlesque on the Fashions of the Day, 1870, or, The Grecian Bend" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10868
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Grecian Bend" (subject of the Grecian Bend)
cf. "What Our Girls Are Coming To" (subject of strange fashions)
NOTES [40 words]: The Grecian Bend seems to have been a greatly exaggerated bustle that seems, based on illustrations, to have almost forced the wearer to lean forward dramatically while wearing it. In addition to looking strange, it frankly looks painful. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ChMS154

Burly, Burly Banks of Barbry-O

See Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14] (File: C014)

Burn, Fire, Burn

DESCRIPTION: "Burn, Fire, Burn, Stoke your inner fire, Let the coal inside you rise Blow that flame to life."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: fire nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 337, "Burn, Fire, Burn" (notes only)
File: ACSF337B

Burnfoot Town

DESCRIPTION: "A paradise for racketeers and they call it Burnfoot Town." Shops, stores, petrol pumps, and sign posts "springing up like mushrooms overnight ... one day will all come down, And when Ireland's free prosperity will leave the Burnfoot Town"
AUTHOR: Tom Molloy? (source: McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: crime commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 13, "Burnfoot Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [158 words]: McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen: "[The song] tells, tongue in cheek, of how the racketeers set about to 'clean up' in the area during and after the second World War. Their shops stand silent and derelict today in Burnfoot Town." - BS
The curiosity in this is that Ireland *was* free during World War II; Neville Chamberlain had given back the Irish naval bases shortly before Munich. And Ireland did not take part in the war; there was a certain amount of blockade-running, of course, but hardly enough to explain this. The one possibility that might explain this link is that the song perhaps comes from a Catholic in Northern Ireland, who would consider Ulster an "unfree" part of Ireland.
The other possibility would be to associate the song with the First World War, which directly involved Ireland and came at a time when Ireland was still under British rule. Of course, there weren't many petrol pumps in Ireland then. - RBW
File: McB1013

Burnie, The

DESCRIPTION: A stream turns a mill wheel and runs through the rocks. Flowers bloom on its banks. It joins a river and runs to the sea. "Nae vain repinin' at the hardness o' its lot"; good and ill "it took as micht be"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Carnegie)
KEYWORDS: virtue river sea flowers nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #62, p. 2, "The Burnie" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Andrew Carnegie, An American Four-in-Hand in Britain (New York, 1907 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 193-194, ("It drappit frae a gray rock upon a mossy stane") (1 text)
Roud #5629
NOTES [29 words]: Greig: "Mr Jamieson says that he picked up the song long ago from the singing of a young lady from the Mearns."
Carnegie attributes "The Burnie" to "a true poet, Ballantyne." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Grg062a

Burning o' Auchindoun, The

See Willie Macintosh [Child 183] (File: C183)

Burning o' Lady Marjorie, The

See Lady Maisry [Child 65] (File: C065)

Burning of Auchindoun

See Willie Macintosh [Child 183] (File: C183)

Burning of Auchindown, The

See Willie Macintosh [Child 183] (File: C183)

Burning of Frendraught, The

See The Fire of Frendraught [Child 196] (File: C196)

Burning of Henry K. Robinson's Camp in 1873, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you rambling young men and listen unto me, While I relate a story that happened in seventy-tree...." The men in Robinson's logging operation see their camp, food, and clothes burn. But they are able to rebuild after three hard days
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: logger fire work home disaster
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 48-51, "The Burning of Henry K. Robinson's Camp in 1873" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 10-11, "The Burning of Henry K. Robinson's Camp in 1873" (1 text)
Roud #4067
File: CA1010

Burning of Loudon Castle, The

See Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon [Child 178] (File: C178)

Burning of Rosslea, The

DESCRIPTION: The rebels march to Rosslea and start burning houses of RIC B's in the center of town. In return B's "pillaged and looted and carried away, The stuff of poor Catholics" A month later the B's "three houses they burned for each one in Rosslea."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion fire IRA police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1920-1921 - The Black and Tan War
March 21, 1921 - The Monaghan Brigade of the IRA attacks Rosslea (source: Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday).
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 55, pp. 152-153,176-177, "The Burning of Rosslea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2937
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Quilty Burning" (subject) and references there
NOTES [171 words]: RIC: Sir Robert Peel established the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1812. (source: Sir Robert "Bobby" Peel (1788-1850) at Historic UK site.) For more information on the Black and Tan War see RBW note for "The Bold Black and Tan."- BS
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday: "During the 'troubles' of 1921 the R.I.C. barracks in Rosslea was one of the many in 'risky' area, evacuated at an early stage. When the A-Specials (Mobilized B-Specials) were formed, they took it on themselves to police the area." Morton goes on to discuss the history behind the burning, including an earlier burning of Catholic homes by Specials. In the burning described by the song "fourteen houses were burned, and ... four officers were shot, two fatally." The plan had been to burn sixteen houses and shoot four Specials. - BS
A little internet searching shows that there were killings in Rosslea in 1972 as part of the Troubles. I can't help but wonder if that didn't encourage someone to dust off this song as Morton prepared his book. - RBW
File: MoMa055

Burning of the Bayou Sara, The

See The Bayou Sara (File: DTBayous)

Burning of the Granite Mill, The [Laws G13]

DESCRIPTION: Workers in a Fall River factory are routinely locked into their workplace. The mill catches fire and the workers -- who could have been saved if conditions had been better -- die in agony
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: fire death disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 19, 1874 - Burning of the Granite Mill in Fall River, Massachusetts. The tragedy, in which 20 died, three disappeared, and 36 were injured, was aggravated by the failure to sound a fire alarm for twenty minutes
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws G13, "The Burning of the Granite Mill"
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 118, "Granite Mill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 229-231, "The Burning of the Granite Mill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 105-106, "The Granite Mill" (1 text)
DT 675, GRANITML
Roud #1823
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Granite Mill Fire" (subject)
File: LG13

Burns and His Highland Mary [Laws O34]

DESCRIPTION: (Robert) Burns meets Mary on the banks of the Ayr. Mary is returning to the Highlands to visit friends, but promises to return quickly. Both promise to be true. Mary departs, but soon falls sick and dies. Burns "ne'er did... love so fondly again."
AUTHOR: unknown (see notes)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.26(512))
KEYWORDS: courting love death separation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1759-1796 - Life of Robert Burns
1786 - Death of Mary Campbell while on a visit to the Highlands
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar,Newf) US(NE) Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws O34, "Burns and His Highland Mary"
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 112-114, "Burns and His Highland Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #76, pp. 1-2, "Burns and His Highland Mary"; "#9, p. 2, ("In green Caledonia there ne'er were twa lovers"); Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 19, ("In green Caledonia there ne'er were twa lovers") (1 texts plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan6 1249, "Burns and His Highland Mary" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 312-313, "Burns and His Highland Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 354-355, "The Parting of Burns and Highland Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 108-111, "The Clear, Winding Ayr" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, p. 159-161, "Burns and His Highland Mary" (1 text)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 88-89, "Burns and His Highland Mary" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 56, "Burns and His Highland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 427-429, "The Banks of the Ayr" (1 text, 2 tunes)
DT 488, BURNMARY
Roud #820
RECORDINGS:
Frank Knox, "Highland Mary" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mrs. Clara Stevens, "The Banks of the Ayr" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(512), "Burns and Highland Mary," G. Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Harding B 15(37a), Harding B 11(3216), Harding B 11(496), Harding B 26(84)[some words illegible], Harding B 26(85), "Burns and Highland Mary"; 2806 c.14(5), 2806 c.14(4)[some words illegible], Johnson Ballads 3180[some words illegible], 2806 c.14(3)[some lines illegible], "Burns and His Highland Mary"
Murray, Mu23-y1:009, "Burns and Highland Mary," J. Bristow (Glasgow), 19C; also Mu23-y1:026, Mu23-y4:024, "Burns and Highland Mary"
NLScotland, RB.m.168(082), "Burns and His Highland Mary," unknown, c.1840; also APS.3.80.4, RB.m.143(030), L.C.Fol.70(10a), "Burns and His Highland Mary"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Laurel Hill" (tune)
cf. "Highland Mary" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
In Green Caledonia
NOTES [611 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads lists this as being by a "police constable named Thomson," c. 1865 -- but since the song is known to have been in print by no later than 1835, this can hardly be right, at least as regards the date.
"Highland" Mary Campbell (1763-1886) is widely regarded as the great love of Burns's life, but she died very young. Our information about her is very limited; most of what follows is from Lindsay, pp. 64-66. She was the eldest of four children of Archibald and Agnes Campbell, who lived first at Dunoon, then at Campbelltown, then at Greenock. Later descriptions of her she was tall, fair-haired, blue-eyed, not very pretty, but with a winning manner.
In the mid-1770s, she became a nursemaid in Ayrshire, then a dairymaid.
Burns, by the time he met her, was already involved with Jean Armour (the subject, e.g., of "Of A' the Airts the Wind Can Blaw"). But Armour's parents tried to separate Jean from Burns. He apparently wrote his song, "Highland Mary" (also known as "The Highland Lassie, O") in the spring of 1786. The little we know of their relationship seems to derive mostly from a note Burns wrote:
"My Highland lassie was a warm-hearted, charming your creature as ever blessed a man with generous love. After a pretty long tract of the most ardent reciprocal attachment, we met by appointment, on the second Sunday of May, in a sequestered spot by the Banks of Ayr, where we spend the day in taking farewell, before she should embark for the West Highlands to arrange matters among her friends for our projected change of life. At the close of autumn following she crossed the sea to meet me at Greenock, where she had scarce landed when she was seized with a malignant fever, which hurried my dear girl to the grave in a few days, before I could even hear of her illness" (Lindsay, pp. 64-65).
Our information does not permit us at this time to know what the "projected change of life" was, but best guess is that Burns intended to marry her and take her to Jamaica; this seems to be referred to in "Will Ye Go To the Indies, My Mary?"
In the aftermath, Burns would end up married to Jean Armour after all. But the idea of Burns pining away for the girl who died before he could join her was too romantic to pass up. Hence this song. And certainly it is possible that he loved Mary Campbell more than any other; it's just that we don't know.
We don't even know what she died of. Of course Burns says a "malignant fever" -- but there is another possibility. Mary was buried in the West Highland Churchyard in Greenock, but in 1920, this was redeveloped for industry and her grave was opened. In it was found what seems to have been the bottom board of an infant's coffin. Did Mary bear Burns a child? Or did she miscarry, and die of complications? We can't know, but it would explain Burns's plans to elope. This song, however, was written long before the grave was opened.
(Lindsay, p. 383, quotes a Dr. Robert S. Gilchrist as suspecting Mary died of typhus, which might have caused her to miscarry before she died. There is also a possibility that James Montgomerie, a friend of Burns's, might have been the father of her child rather than Burns himself; Lindsay, pp. 241, 383.)
Lindsay quotes some other tales -- "gossip" is perhaps the best word for it -- but the above seems to be the sum total of what is reliably known.
Lindsay, pp. 27-28, says that Highland Mary and Burns at one time exchanged Bibles; the one she gave him is lost, but the one he gave her has been preserved, although somewhat the worse for wear (including damage to the inscriptions); it is a two-volume Bible, and volume I contains a lock of her hair. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LO34

Burns's Farewell

DESCRIPTION: Robert Burns, dying, asks Jean to pray with him "that the widow's God may saften the road For my helpless bairns and thee." He dies. She wears a lock of his hair and will work for the family until she joins him. He is buried in St Michael's churchyard.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: burial death mourning religious children wife
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 21, 1796 - death of Robert Burns
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 701, "Burns's Farewell" (1 text)
Roud #6117
NOTES [156 words]: The title of the Greig/Duncan3 entry may be confused with the entirely different poem about freemasonry, "The Farewell to the Brethren" by Robert Burns (Robert Burns, The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (New Lanark,2005), pp. 164-165); the broadsides of Burns's poem frequently were entitled, simply, "Burns Farewell": see Bodleian, Harding B 25(316), "Burns's Farewell" ("Adieu, a heart-felt warm adieu"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 28(225), Harding B 17(43a), Harding B 11(312), "Burns's Farewell"; Harding B 11(1934), Firth b.25(90), Firth c.21(43), Firth c.21(42), "Burn's Farewell"
Another similarly named broadside is for an entirely different poem, "Ae Fond Kiss" by Robert Burns (Robert Burns, The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (New Lanark,2005), pp. 320-321): Bodleian, 2806 c.16(311), "Burns's Fareweel" ("Ae fond kiss and then we sever"), G. Walker , jun. (Durham), 1834-1886 - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3701

Burns's Log Camp

DESCRIPTION: The singer arrives in the logging camp to find horrible conditions: "The floors were all dirty, all covered with mud; The bed quilts were lousy, and so was the grub." The very first night, a fight erupted, "And thus I was greeted at Burns's log camp."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: logger hardtimes fight
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 217, "Burns's Log Camp" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 7, "Bruce's Log Camp (Hunter's Log Camp)" (3 fragments, 1 tune)
ST Doe217 (Partial)
Roud #9203
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (theme) and references there
NOTES [28 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "Mr Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman tactfully changed the name of the camp from Bruce's to Burns's, to avoid giving offense." - BS
File: Doe217

Burns's Lovely Jean

See Of A' the Airts the Wind Can Blaw (File: DSB01441)

Burnt Islands

DESCRIPTION: In March, a ship stops at Burnt Islands, Channel, Port aux Basques, and Cape Ray; they go by sail. At each port the crew goes ashore and they stay a short time. We don't know their business, but they have a good time.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: travel commerce sea ship shore
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18197
RECORDINGS:
Stanley Insha, "Burnt Islands" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [12 words]: All of the ports named are at the southwest corner of Newfoundland. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcBurIsl

Burnt-Out Old Fellow, The [An Seanduine Doighte]

DESCRIPTION: Irish Gaelic: Younger woman complains about her old husband; he sleeps too much, and sports with too many ladies. She sends him to town, then spots him with various women. If she could, she'd lock her old man up and keep company with young men.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Irish Gaelic: Younger woman complains about her old husband; he sleeps too much, and sports with too many ladies. She sends him to town, then spots him with three women enticing him and four kissing him. She sends him to the west country, a place known for whores; "his genitals lessened and his jaws became bony/And he came back to me like a newly-born pony." She says that, if she had the chance, she'd lock her old man up and keep company with young men. Chorus: "O my old man O pity I fed you/O my old man O pity I wed you/O my old man O pity I bed you/Sleepin' your sleep for ever and ever"
KEYWORDS: age infidelity jealousy marriage sex bawdy foreignlanguage humorous husband whore wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 45, "An Seanduine Doighte [The Burnt-Out Old Fellow]" (1 text in Irish Gaelic + translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man" (theme) and references there
NOTES [76 words]: The parallel with "Maids When You're Young..." is obvious, although it should be noted that the wife in that song seems to have the opposite problem from the wife in this one. - PJS
Kennedy claims there are "probably more versions of this song than any other in the Irish language," and it's certainly true that his reference list is longer than usual. The problem, as always with Kennedy, is determining if his references are actually to the same song. - RBW
File: K045

Bury Me Beneath the Willow

DESCRIPTION: The singer has been abandoned by (her) lover. Tomorrow was to be their wedding day, but now he is off with another girl. The singer asks her friends to "bury me beneath the willow... And when he knows that I am sleeping, maybe then he'll think of me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: separation infidelity love death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 482-483, "Under the Willow Tree" (2 texts)
Randolph 747, "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (3 short texts, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 505-506, "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 747B)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 54, "Weeping Willow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 267, "The Weeping Willow" (3 texts plus 4 excerpts and mention of 4 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 267, "The Weeping Willow" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, "The Weeping Willow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 144-145, "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 91-92, "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 46-47, "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 37, "Bury Me Beneath the Willow"; "Weeping Willow Tree" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 126, "The Weeping Willow" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 85, "O Bury Me Beneath the Weeping Willow" (1 text)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 130, "O Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #91, "Weeping Willow Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 56, "The Weeping Willow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 314-315, "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 227-229, "Weeping Willow" (2 texts)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, p. 58, "(Bury Me Beneath the Willow)" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 178, "Bury Me Beneath The Willow" (1 text)
DT, BURYWLLW*
Roud #410
RECORDINGS:
Burnett & Rutherford, "Weeping Willow Tree" (Columbia 15113-D, 1927; rec. 1926; on BurnRuth01)
Smiling Bill Carlisle, "Beneath the Weeping Willow Tree" (Vocalion 02839, 1934)
Carter Family, "Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow" (Decca 5234, 1936; Montgomery Ward 8004, 1939)
Jim Cole & his Tennessee Mountaineers, "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (Crown 3122, 1931)
Delmore Brothers, "Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow" (Bluebird B-7741/Montgomery Ward M-7833, 1938)
Red Foley & the Andrews Sisters (!), "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (Decca 29222, 1947)
Kelly Harrell, "Beneath the Weeping Willow Tree" (Victor 20535, 1925; on KHarrell01)
Lookout Mountain Revelers, "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (Paramount 3143/Broadway 8213, 1928)
Asa Martin, "Bury Me 'neath the Weeping Willow" (Banner 32426/Melotone M-12497 [both as Martin & Roberts]/Royal [Canada] 91402, 1932)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Weeping Willow Tree" (Brunswick 199, 1928; rec. 1927)
Monroe Brothers, "Weeping Willow Tree" (Bluebird B-7093, 1937)
Holland Puckett, "Weeping Willow Tree" (Champion 15334/Supertone 9243, 1928)
Riley Puckett, "Bury Me 'Neath the Willow Tree" (Bluebird B-6348, 1936)
Red Fox Chasers, "Weeping Willow Tree" (Supertone 9322, 1929)
Almeda Riddle, "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (on LomaxCD1707)
Shelton & Fox, "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" (Decca 5184, 1936)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Bury Me Beneath the Weeping Willow" (CYL: Edison [BA] 5187, 1927) (Edison 51909, 1927)
Ernest Thompson, "Weeping Willow Tree" (Columbia 15001-D, 1924)
Henry Whitter, "The Weeping Willow Tree" (OKeh 40187, 1924; rec. 1923); "Go Bury Me beneath the Willow" (OKeh 45046, 1926)
SAME TUNE:
Carter Family, "Answer to Weeping Willow" (Decca 5234, 1936; Montgomery Ward M-8004, 1939)
Karl & Harty, "We Buried Her Beneath the Willow" (Melotone 6-04-61, 1936) [I am guessing here, not having heard the record - but I'll betcha - PJS]
NOTES [142 words]: According to Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirschberg, Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone: The Carter Family & Their Legacy in American Music, Simon & Schuster, 2002, p. 99, this was the very first song the Carter Family played for Ralph Peer at the "Bristol Sessions" in 1927. So this song has a very big place in the history of old time country.
Michael Orgill, Anchored in Love: The Carter Family Story, Fleming H. Revell, 1975, p. 98, claims the lyrics of this are "based on Psalms 137:2." Not exactly. Yes, the Carter version opens "We hanged our harps upon the willows," which resembled the King James version of Psalm 137:2: "We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof." But the song as a whole is not based on the psalm, and most versions don't use this line anyway. It would appear that the Carter line floated in from the psalm. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R747

Bury Me in the Cornfield, Nigger

See Bury Me in the Garden (File: Br3266)

Bury Me in the Garden

DESCRIPTION: "Bury me in the garden, mother, mother, Bury me in the garden, mother, mother, mother dear, Bury me in the garden." "O, the moonlight... shines so bright... way down in the garden 'neath the sycamore tree."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death burial mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 266, "Bury Me in the Garden" (1 text)
Roud #15743
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bury Me in the Cornfield, Nigger
File: Br3266

Bury Me Not on the Chickamauga

See Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie [Laws B2] (File: LB02)

Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie [Laws B2]

DESCRIPTION: A cowboy is dying. He asks to be taken home and buried in his family home. His request is ignored; he is buried in a small and isolated prairie grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: +1901 (JAFL14)
KEYWORDS: cowboy death burial
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NW,Ro,So,SE) Canada(Newf,West)
REFERENCES (34 citations):
Laws B2, "The Dying Cowboy (Oh Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie)" (sample text in NAB, pp. 81-82)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 37-39, "The Lone Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 13-14, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 387-392, "The Lone Prairie" (5 texts)
Randolph 184, "Oh Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 262, "The Lone Prairie" (2 texts)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 93, pp. 222-223, "O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 147A, "The Dying Cowboy"; Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 147B, "Bury Me Not on the Chickamauga" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 151-154, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a text of "The Ocean Burial")
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 436, "The Lone Prairie" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 92-93, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 153-154, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 20, "Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 62-63, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 117, "The Dying Cowboy" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 80-83, "O Bury Me Not on the Lone Praire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 421-422, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #166, "O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 169, "The Lonesome Prairie" (3 fragments, 3 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 60, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 78, pp. 171-173, "O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 54, "The Lone Prairie" (2 texts)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #9, p. 143, "The Lone Prairie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, p. 22, "Oh, Bury Me Not On the Lone Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 203-204, "Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 164-165, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 110, "Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 201-203, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 396-398, "Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie"
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 77, 'The Dying Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 39, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 78-79, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 370, LONEPRAR*
ADDITIONAL: Louise Pound, "Folk=Song of Nebraska and the Central West: A Syllabus," _Nebraska Academy of Science Publications_, Vol. 9, No. 3, 1915, p. 111 (available on Google Books), "Bury Me Not on the Prairie" (1 text)
Roud #631
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "The Dying Cowboy" (Columbia 15463-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Jules [Verne] Allen, "The Dying Cowboy" (Victor 23834, 1933; on BackSaddle)
Bentley Ball, "The Dying Cowboy" (Columbia A3085, 1920)
Bill Childers, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (OKeh 45203, 1928)
Vernon Dalhart, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (Columbia 969-D, 1927) (Romeo 431/Perfect 12361, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5315, n.d. but prob. 1927)
Arthur Fields, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie " (Grey Gull 4239/Radiex 4239, 1928)
Phil & Frank Luther, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (Melotone M-12143, 1931)
Asa Martin, "The Dying Cowboy" (Banner 32426/Melotone M12497 [both as Martin & Roberts]/Royal [Canada] 91402, 1932)
Sloan Matthews, "The Dying Cowboy" (AFS, 1940s; on LC28)
Pickard Family, "Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie" (Columbia 15141-D, 1927)
Holland Puckett, "The Dying Cowboy" (Silvertone 25065, 1927; Supertone 9253, 1929)
Herbert Sills, "O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (on Saskatch01)
Carl T. Sprague, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (Victor 20122, 1926; Montgomery Ward M-4099, 1933; on MakeMe)
Vel Veteran [pseud. for either Arthur Fields, Vernon Dalhart, or Irving Kaufman] "O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (Grey Gull 4239, 1928)
Richard Villmer, "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (Extremely short fragment, recited rather than sung: Piotr-Archive #718, recorded 10/24/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ocean Burial"
cf. "Going to Leave Old Texas (Old Texas, Texas Song, The Cowman's Lament)" (tune)
cf. "I've Got No Use for the Women" (lyrics)
NOTES [95 words]: Probably adapted from "The Ocean Burial," attributed to Rev. Edwin H. Chapin (1839). For the complex question of the tune, see the notes on that piece.
The 1922 edition of Thorp (quoted also by Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety) claims that the adaption to "The Lone Prairie" is by H. Clemons and written in 1872. I know of no supporting data. - RBW
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest has only the first verse of "Bury Me Not on the Chickamauga" so I cannot judge whether or not this should be a separate song. I have no other text for it. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LB02

Bury Me Out on the Prairie

See I've Got No Use for the Women (File: FCW065)

Bury the Dead

DESCRIPTION: "List, shipmates, list that solemn call Falls heavy on the ear. Tread lightly, ye that bear the pall; a noble heart rests here." The sailors knew the dead man only briefly. They wrap him in his hammock and cast him out to sea -- a fit grave for the sailor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (Journal of the Lexington)
KEYWORDS: sailor death burial
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 118-119, "Bury the Dead" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25992
File: HGam118

Bush Christening, The

DESCRIPTION: A man offers a doctor extra payment for services. He explains that it is on behalf of his baby who nearly died unbaptized. His wife had tried to take the child to a church, but no water was available. Had not a doctor chanced by, the baby would have died
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
LONG DESCRIPTION: A man offers a doctor extra payment for services. He explains that it is on behalf of his baby who nearly died unbaptized, and his wife who nearly went mad as a result. The nearest church had only occasional services, as the preacher travelled widely in the bush. When the child took ill, they hoped to get the child baptized before death, but no water was to be had at the church, and a drunkard drank the water they had brought in a gin bottle. Had not a doctor happened by their hut, the baby would have died unchristened -- but the doctor saved the baby
KEYWORDS: children clergy disease recitation
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 171-173, "The Bush Christening" (1 text)
NOTES [93 words]: Banjo Paterson published a poem, "A Bush Christening" ("On the outer Barcoo where the churches are few And men of religion are scanty") which shares many plot elements with this piece. The details are distinctly different, however (in the Paterson piece, the child is ten years old, and deliberately flees christening until whiskey is thrown over his head). Meredith's source claims to have learned this around the beginning of the twentieth century. One suspect this is another case where Paterson found a traditional piece and put his own stamp on it. - RBW
File: MCB171

Bush of Broom, The

See The Bonny Bush o' Broom (File: GrD71313)

Bushel and a Peck

DESCRIPTION: "Caught a fellow in my corn patch. He had a bushel; His wife had peck. The baby had a roasting ear Tied around his neck."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: father mother baby food
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 82, "Bushel and a Peck" (1 text)
NOTES [17 words]: Obviously not to be confused with Frank Loesser's song "A Bushel and a Peck," from "Guys and Dolls." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ZiZa082A

Bushel of Wheat

DESCRIPTION: Rhyme for counting time or selecting a person: "Bushel of wheat, bushel of rye, All ain't ready, holler 'I." Bushel of wheat, bushel of clover, All ain't ready can't hide over."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: playparty food
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 16, "(Bushel of wheet)" (2 short texts)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Rachel Cranford, collector), "Games and Game Rhymes", Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 13, "(Bushel of Wheat)" (1 text)
Roud #16335
File: NCF1013A

Bushes and Briars

DESCRIPTION: "Through bushes and through briars I lately took my way." "Long time have I been waiting for the coming of my dear." "Sometimes I am uneasy... Sometimes I think I'll go... And tell to him my mind." But she fears being too bold
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: love separation animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 18, "Bushes and Briars" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #16, "Bushes and Briars" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BUSHBRIR*
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 42, "Bushes and Briars" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1027
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Through Bushes and Briars
File: FSOE026

Bushman, The

DESCRIPTION: "When the merchant lies down, he can scarce go to sleep" because of worries about his trade. Soldiers worry about promotion, sailors about wind, but bushmen have no worries. "So him alone we'll envy not, who true bushmen are."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 168-170, "The Bushman" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: AnSt168

Bushman's Farewell to Queensland

DESCRIPTION: "Queensland, thou art a land of pests, From flies and fleas one never rests." The singer complains of the bugs, the illnesses, the reptiles, the birds, the bushrangers, the ill-timed rains, and anything else that comes to mind, finally likening it to hell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1992 (MacDougall)
KEYWORDS: Australia warning bug
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 84-85, "Bushman's Farewell to Queensland" (1 tet)
ADDITIONAL: A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 236, "Bushman's Farewell to Queensland" (1 text)
File: Marcd236

Bushman's Lullaby, The

DESCRIPTION: "Lift me down to the creek-bank, Jack, It must be cooler outside." The singer may not see another day; he wants to watch the sunset and waters. He recalls the time with his mate, in England and here. The singer bids farewell and dies
AUTHOR: Rolf Boldrewood (1826-1915)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Beatty)
KEYWORDS: death river recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 272-273, "The Eumerella Shore" (1 text)
NOTES [60 words]: Beatty presents this as a traditional song (or at least a traditional recitation), listing no author. I have seen no other evidence of this, and the author is known to have been Rolf Boldrewood (pen name of T. A. Browne). His best-known word is said to be Robbery Under Arms, but as best I can tell, this comes from another book, Old Melbourne Memories. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BBTAF276

Bushman's Song, A

See The Castlereagh River (File: MA045)

Bushranger Jack Power

DESCRIPTION: "On the eighth day of August In the year sixty-nine," Jack Power, "an aspirant for the gallows," comes to Beechworth and begins robbing Cobb and Co coaches. He holds up an armed trooper. He is declared to surpass even Ben Hall and his gang
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (_Argus_, according to AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: outlaw robbery Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 133-135, "Bushranger Jack Power" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 269-270, "Jack Power" (1 text)
Roud #9116
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin-go-Bragh" (tune, according to Beatty)
cf. "Erin's Lovely Home" (tune, according to AndersonStory)
NOTES [335 words]: This is a curious song. I find no mention of a bushranger named Jack Power in any of the following:
George Boxall, The Story of the Australian Bushrangers, Swan Sonnenschein & Co, 1899 (I use the 1974 Penguin facsimile edition)
Manning Clark, A Short History of Australia, Penguin, 1963; fourth edition, 1995
Andrew and Nancy Learmonth, Encyclopedia of Australia, 2nd edition, Warfne & Co, 1973
Harry Nunn, Bushrangers: A Pictorial History, Ure Smith Press, 1979, 1992
Boxall and Nunn both mention a "Harry Power" who also used the name "Johnson"; I have no idea if he provided part of the inspiration. But the version of this song in Beatty, at least, looks rather literary; I initially suspected some anonymous poet wanted to create an ideal outlaw. The notes in Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, however, say he was real; he committing his cries in 1869, was captured, released from fifteen years' servitude in 1885, and died in 1893. His main claim to fame was that he worked with a young Edward Kelly.
John S. Manifold, Who Wrote the Ballads? Notes on Australian Folksong, Australasian Book Society, 1964, p. 67, referring I presume to this ballad, writes, "Harry Power was a polite and jovial highwayman, at least for a time; but his second gaol sentence seems to have soured him. In his middle age -- for he was old as bushrangers reckon age -- he sank to bullying women for meals. He hardly deserves his one ballad, feeble as it is. It is a slightly odd ballad both in diction and in sentiment, and possibly ought to be classed as 'new-chum Irish' rather than as Australian."
I did at least get it right in assuming that this is literary; one copy is signed "Isaac Hall."
I'll give a wild speculation about how "Harry Power" became "Jack Power"; it is said that Harry Power's real name was Harry Johnson. If Johnson were heard as "John," it might produce the nickname "Jack," which might then be substituted for Power's first name rather than his last. But that's a loooong stretch.... - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Beat269

Bushwhacker's Song

DESCRIPTION: "I am a bushwhacker, The thicket's my home (x3)... And them that don't like me can leave me alone." "I'll tune up my fiddle And rosin my bow (x3)... And I shall find welcome Wherever I go." "My kinfolks don't like me, And that I well know."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: home music floatingverses Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 383, "Bushwhacker's Song" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 383, "Bushwhacker's Song" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11751
NOTES [34 words]: Evidently a parody of something like "The Wagoner's Lad." Brown's informant gave detailed references connecting it to a gang of Civil War deserters, but there is no actual evidence for this in the text. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3382

Business of Makin' the Paper, The

DESCRIPTION: Making paper is begun by cutting pine and spruce and sending it by truck, train, or river to the mill. There it is barked, chipped, digested, and cooked. It is ground to pulp, treated with sulphite and finally rolled into paper and shipped by A.N.D.
AUTHOR: Omar Blondahl
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing)
KEYWORDS: commerce technology nonballad work
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 37-38, "The Business of Makin' the Paper" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [86 words]: Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing: "The song was used in a Christmas greeting -- to all, from the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company Limited. The A.N.D., as it is better known, is one of Newfoundland's great pulp and paper mills. This little song is not included as a ... folk song. It does, however, give us a small idea of the mechanics of paper-making and, as this is one of Newfoundland's prime industries, perhaps we do no harm, after all." - BS
Other songs that mention AND are "The Badger Drive" "Twin Lakes." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Blon037

Busk and Go to Berwick, Johnnie

See Go to Berwick, Johnny (File: MSNR009)

Busk, Busk, Bonnie Lassie

DESCRIPTION: Singer asks girl to go with him. He points to shepherds and soldiers marching, and the snowy hills, which parted many lovers and will part them. Refrain: "Busk, busk, bonnie lassie, and come alang wi me/I will tak' ye tae Glenisla near bonnie Glenshee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (collected from Charlotte Higgins)
KEYWORDS: courting love travel parting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 33, "Busk, Busk, Bonnie Lassie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #34, pp. 173-174, "Bonnie Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #832
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! No, No" (lyrics)
NOTES [29 words]: No relation to "Lass of Glenshee." - PJS
To busk, in this context, is to prepare to travel. - PJS, RBW
Roud lumps this song together with "Oh! No, No" (Ord136) in his Index. - DGE
Last updated in version 5.3
File: McCST033

Busker's Song

DESCRIPTION: "And now my song is ended, You may sit at your ease, But if you have a few pennies to spare, Just tip them this way, if you please."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong)
KEYWORDS: music money begging
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 277, "Busker's Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5254
File: NeDe277

Busted Cowboy's Christmas, A

DESCRIPTION: "I am a busted cowboy And I work upon the range." The cowboys work in summer and get a check at Christmas. They spend the winter in town and end up broke. They spend their money fast. He won't have a good Christmas; "I'm a cowboy who is broke"
AUTHOR: "Iyam B. Usted" (so the 1893 Stock Growers' Journal); probably a pseudonym for D. J. O'Malley
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Miles City Stock Grower's Journal, December 23, 1893, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: cowboy hardtimes money Christmas
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 200-201, "A Busted Cowboy's Christmas" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 353, "A Busted Cowboy's Christmas" (1 text)
Roud #11288
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cowboy's Christmas Ball" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
File: GFGW200

Buster Brown (I)

See Mrs. Brown Went to Town (I) (File: GrD81617)

Buster Brown (II)

See What's Your Name? (File: SaKo120B)

Buster Brown Shoes

DESCRIPTION: "Does your shoe have a boy inside? What a funny place for a boy to hide. Does your shoe have a dog there too? Well, the boy is Buster Brown and the dog is Tige, his friend, and they're really just a picture, but it's fun to play pretend...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: clothes dog nonballad | shoe advertising picture
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Sheila Klapper, "Buster Brown Shoes" (Piotr-Archive #627, recorded 08/03/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Buster Brown Was One" (subject of Buster Brown)
NOTES [64 words]: "Buster Brown" was originally a comic strip; Wikipedia reports that it originated in 1902 and was created by Richard Felton Outcault. The Buster Brown Shoe followed in 1904. The shoes outlasted the comic strip, and ads featuring Buster were still running on televition as late as the 1990s. The obvious suspicion is that this was learned from the advertising, not from tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcBuBrSh

But For Your Sake I'll Fleece the Flock

See No Dominies For Me, Laddie (File: GrD4872)

But gin I had the sair hairst shorn

See Lescraigie (File: Ord285)

But He Ain't Comin' Here t' Die No Mo' (Jesus Ain't Comin' Here t' Die No Mo')

See Jesus Isn't Coming Here to Die No More (File: Dett103)

But I Forgot to Cry

DESCRIPTION: "Johnie cam to our toun, to our toon, to our toun... The body wi' thet ye. And O as he kittled me... But I forgot to cry." "He gaed thro' the fields wi' me... And doun amang the rye. Then O as he kittled me... But I forgot to cry."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook XXV, p. 79, (no title) (1 text)
ST KinBB25 (Full)
Roud #8155
File: KinBB25

But Oh, Let Man Learn Liberty

See The West's Asleep (File: Moyl115)

But the Mortgage Worked the Hardest

DESCRIPTION: "We worked through spring and winter, Through summer and through fall, But the mortgage worked the hardest." Conditions change; crops are good or bad, there are restful days, but the mortgage is always there. Eventually the farm wife dies of the mortgage
AUTHOR: Will M. Carleton (1845-1912)
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 ("The International Library of Famous LIterature, Volume 19," available on Google Books)
KEYWORDS: humorous money farming hardtimes death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 50-51, "But the Mortgage Worked the Hardest" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 475, "But the Mortgage Worked the Hardest" (1 text)
NOTES [105 words]: Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, p. 50, claims that "During the hard times of the 1890's, this song... was quite popular in Nebraska." But the book offers no proof; I can find no sign of traditional collections, or of a tune -- and although Will M. Carleton wrote quite a bit of poetry, some of it published in books with the word "ballad" in the title (e.g. "Farm Ballads," "City Ballads"), he doesn't seem to have been popular in tradition; the only traditional piece I know of that might be his is "The Murder of Alan Beyne." That a poem such as this, about the troubles of farmers plagued by bankers, was popular I do not doubt. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Wels050

Butcher and Chamber Maid, The

See The Brisk Young Butcher (File: DTxmasgo)

Butcher and the Baker, The

See Rub-a-dub-dub (File: BGMG133)

Butcher and the Tailor's Wife, The

DESCRIPTION: A tailor lives in London with his wife Mary Bell. She buys a joint from the butcher, and he asks a nightvisit as the price. She tells her husband to lay in wait. The butcher overcomes him. The tailor begs the butcher to spare him and take his wife.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1845 (Bodleian broadside)
KEYWORDS: bawdy husband wife fight trick adultery
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #7, "The Lousy Tailor" (1 tune; the text was not taken down by Vaughan Williams but is supplied by Palmer from a broadside)
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 150, "Three Maids A-Milking Would Go" (reproduction of a broadside page with "Three Maidens to Milking Did Go" and "The Butcher and the Tailor's Wife")
Roud #1528
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.34(296)=Harding B 11(3815)=Johnson Ballads 1964, "The Butcher and the Tailor", Williamson (Newcastle), c. 1845
NOTES [23 words]: The Shepard and Bodleian broadsides are the same. The whole song, of course, is yet another riff on the proverbial feebleness of tailors. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: BdBuTaWi

Butcher Boy (II), The

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Butcher Boy, The [Laws P24]

DESCRIPTION: The butcher boy has "courted [the girl's] life away," but now has left her (for a richer girl?). She writes a letter expressing her grief, then hangs herself. Her father finds her body and the note asking that her grave show that she died for love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 18(72))
KEYWORDS: seduction suicide pregnancy betrayal abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Australia
REFERENCES (58 citations):
Laws P24, "The Butcher Boy"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 201-207, "The Butcher Boy" (3 texts plus excerpts from 2 more and references to 3 more, 3 tunes); see also pp. 478-480, "The Blue-Eyed Boy" (4 texts, though "D" is a fragment, probably of "Tavern in the Town" or "The Butcher Boy" or some such)
Randolph 45, "The Butcher Boy" (4 texts plus 4 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 34-35, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 66-67, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 141, "The Butcher Boy" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 41, "The Butcher Boy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 37, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 4 more, 2 tunes); also 25, "The Sailor Boy" (1 short text; the first 6 lines are "The Sailor Boy" [Laws K12]; the last twelve are perhaps "The Butcher Boy")
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 204, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 26, pp. 37-41, "The Butcher Boy" (4 texts pus 5 fragments)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 145-149, "The Butcher Boy" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 115-116, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 179-181, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 737-738, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 387-388, "The Butcher's Boy/In Jersey City" (1 text plus an excerpt)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 81, "The Butcher Boy" (6 texts plus 5 excerpts and mention of 3 others; although most are clearly Laws P24, Renwick believes the "M" text is "Beam of Oak (Rambling Boy, Oh Willie)")
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 254, "Little Sparrow" (4 texts plus 1 excerpt and 1 fragment; the "F" text, however, is primarily "The Butcher Boy" or an "I Wish I Wish" piece of some sort)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 81, "The Butcher Boy" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 258, "A Railroad Boy" (1 text, short enough that it might be either "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24) or "Tavern in the Town")
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #179, "The Butcher Boy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 282-288, "The Butcher Boy" (8 texts, with local titles "The Butcher Boy" (a single stanza), "Butcher Boy," "The Butcher Boy," "Jersey City," (E has no title and is a single-sentence fragment about Polly Perkins), "In Johnson City" (this short might be "Tavern in the Town" or similar), "Butcher's Boy," "The Girl Who Died For Love" (this version too might be a simple "Died for Love" piece); 3 tunes on pp. 431-433)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 34, "The Butcher's Boy" (3 texts plus mention of 6 more)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 101, "The Brisk Young Lover" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #35, "The Brisk Young Lover (Butcher Boy)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 121, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 66-68, "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #41, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 59, "Rude and Rambling Boy" (1 text, 1 tune, much worn down but pretty clearly this piece)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 110, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 45, pp. 160-161, "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text plus mention of 11 more)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 89-90, "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 68, "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #29, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 21, pp. 40-42, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, p. 28, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 267-268, "The Maiden's Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune, with an unusual introduction in which the false lover is a soldier)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 7, "The Sailor's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune, rather short, and with elements of "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24}, "Tavern in the Town," and perhaps even "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" [Laws P25]; if I had to file it with one, it would probably be "The Butcher Boy," but I'm not sure; Roud lists it as #60, which is both "Tavern in the Town" and "Love Has Brought Me to Despair")
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 324, "Go Bring Me Back My Blue-Eyed Boy" and "London City" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 230-231, "In Sheffield Park" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 339, "In Sheffield Park" (1 text)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 28 "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 160, "In Sheffield Park" (1 text plus a second in the notes, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 230-231, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 60-62, "Snow Dove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #229, p. 17, "The Butcher Boy" (1 reference)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 128-129, "In Jersey City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, p. 77, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 24, pp.60-62, "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text; the "B" text is "Tavern in the Town")
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 145, "The Butcher Boy" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 73, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 707-708, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 16, "Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 59, "The Butcher Boy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 12-13, "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 139-140, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text); also pp. 141-142, "Morning Fair" (a complex text, with all sorts of floating elements, but with the final stanzas of this song)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 178, "The Butcher's Boy" (1 text)
DT 320, BUTCHBOY*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 207, "(The Butcher's Boy)" (1 fragment)
Roud #409
RECORDINGS:
Garrett & Norah Arwood, "The Butcher's Boy" (on FarMtns3)
Blue Sky Boys, "The Butcher's Boy" (Bluebird B-8482/Montgomery Ward M-8668, 1940)
Ben Butcher, "In Sheffield Park" (on FSBFTX15)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Butcher's Boy" (Perfect 12330, 1927)
Bert Fitzgerald, "The Butcher Boy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Kelly Harrell, "Butcher's Boy" (Victor 19563, 1925; on KHarrell01) (Victor 20242, 1926; on KHarrell01)
Buell Kazee, "The Butcher's Boy" (Brunswick 213A, 1928; Brunswick 437, 1930; on AAFM1, KMM); "Butcher Boy" (on Kazee01)
Jean Ritchie & Doc Watson, "Go Dig My Grave (Railroad Boy)" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchieWatsonCD1)
Enos White, "In Sheffield Park" (on FSBFTX15)
Henry Whitter, "The Butcher Boy" (OKeh 40375, 1925)
Ephraim Woodie & the Henpecked Husbands, "The Fatal Courtship" [uses tune of "Banks of the Ohio"] (Columbia 15564-D, 1930; rec. 1929; on LostProv1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(72), "The Butcher Boy" ("In Jersey city where I did dwell"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also Harding B 18(71), "The Butcher Boy"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Must I Go Bound" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "The Sailor Boy (I)" [Laws K12] (lyrics)
cf. "Betsy, My Darling Girl" (lyrics)
cf. "Died for Love (I)"
cf. "Died for Love (V)" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Tavern in the Town"
cf. "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" [Laws P25] (lyrics)
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)"
cf. "Careless Love" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Ye Mariners All" (tune)
cf. "Dink's Song" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Every Night When the Sun Goes In" (lyrics, plot)
cf. "Farewell, Sweetheart (The Parting Lovers, The Slighted Sweetheart)" (lyrics)
cf. "Beam of Oak (Rambling Boy, Oh Willie)" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "Lizzie Watson" (theme, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jersey City
The Wild Goose Grasses
NOTES [469 words]: Most scholars hold that this song is a combination of two others (Randolph follows Cox in claiming *four*). The primary evidence is the shift in narrative style: The first part of the ballad is in first person, the rest (affiliated with "There is an Alehouse in Yonder Town/Tavern in the Town") is in the third person. Leach, on the other hand, considers it to be a single song of American origin. Given the extreme variations in the form of this ballad (e.g. a significant number of versions omit the fact that the butcher boy left to marry a richer girl; some of the most poignant imply that the butcher boy rather than the father found her body) and the amount of floating material it contains, any theories of dependence must be examined carefully.
The two songs, "My Blue-Eyed Boy" and "Must I Go Bound," are clearly related (probably decayed offshoots of this song), now so damaged as to force separate listing. But there are, as so often, intermediate versions; one should check the references for those songs.
"Died for Love (I)" is perhaps a worn-down fragment of this piece, consisting of the lament without the suicide. Similarly the Brown collection's piece "My Little Dear, So Fare You Well."
MacColl and Seeger have classified related texts under fully seven heads:
* "Deep in Love," corresponding roughly to "Must I Go Bound" in the Ballad Index. Generally lyric.
* The Butcher Boy. Characterized by the story of betrayal and eventual suicide (informal translation: If the girl kills herself, file the song here no matter *what* the rest of it looks like. If she dies but doesn't kill herself, it's something else, perhaps "Died for Love (I)"). If there is a core to this family, this is it.
* Love Has Brought Me To Despair. (Laws P25). This shares lyrics with this family, notably those concerning the girl's burial, but has a slighly distinct plot.
* Waly Waly/The Water Is Wide. Related primarily by theme, it seems to me.
* The Tavern in the Town. Shares lyrics, but a distinct song (or at least recension) by our standards.
* Careless Love. Clearly distinct.
* Died for Love (I). This shares the stanzas of lamentation with "The Butcher Boy," but is distinct in that the girl is certainly pregnant (the girl in "The Butcher Boy" may be, but not all versions show this), she laments her folly, but she does *not* kill herself. It's much more lyric than "The Butcher Boy." - RBW
Kennedy has both the Enos White and Ben Butcher recordings as made by Bob Copper in 1955. On FSBFTX15 both singers have only two verses, and only one of White's is in the book; Kennedy 160 may be a composite.
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 18(72): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LP24

Butcher's Daughter, The

DESCRIPTION: A squire gives the butcher's daughter gifts to sleep with him; he says falsely he will marry her. She says it must be dark to save her reputation. She hires a black woman to replace her in bed. In the morning he admits he was outwitted. They marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1812 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 3(2)); 18C? (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 39(162))
KEYWORDS: marriage seduction sex disguise humorous Black(s) Devil trick
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 312, "The Butcher's Daughter" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 116-117, "The Butcher's Daughter" (1 text)
Roud #5831
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 39(162), "The Butcher's Daughter's Policy" or "Lustful Lord Well Fitted" ("I pray now draw near, all you that love fun"), Bow Church Yard (London), 1736-1799?; also Harding B 3(2), "The Butcher's Daughter's Policy" or "Lustful Lord Well Fitted"; Firth c.26(14), "The Butcher's Daughter"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Glasgerion" [Child 67] (theme)
cf. "Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor)" [Laws K40] (theme: sex and disguise by darkness)
cf. "Jack Simpson the Sailor" (theme: sex and disguise by darkness)
cf. "The Wee Tailor from Tyrone" (theme: sex and disguise by darkness)
cf. "The Frolicksome Farmer" (theme: the hazards of sex in the dark)
NOTES [199 words]: As a side theme: when he wakes the squire "ran down the stair in a terrible fright, Said I've been kissing the Devil all night." The answer is "Ye noble young squire, be not affright, I'm not the Devil, althou' I'm not white." - BS
The trick of the wrong woman being in a man's bed goes back at least to the Biblical tale of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel in the Bible (Genesis 29): Jacob wants to marry Rachel, but her father instead slips in Rachel's older sister Leah.
A situation even more similar to this one allegedly occurred in Norman history. According to Harriet O'Brien, Queen Emma and the Vikings, Bloomsbury, 2005, Duke Richard I (father of Queen Emma of England and great-Grandfather of William the Bastard/Conqueror) met a married girl named Sainsfrida and wanted to sleep with her. Rather than damage her honor, Sainsfreda had her sister Gunnor take her place in the Duke's bed. Gunnor became first Richard's senior mistress and eventually his wife.
The reverse idea -- of the wrong man slipping into a girl's bedroom at dark -- occurs in such songs as "Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor)" [Laws K40] (with a happy ending) and "Glasgerion" [Child 67] (with a tragic ending). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: GrD2312

Butcher's Shop, The

DESCRIPTION: "Hop to the butcher shop" but don't stay or mother will say "I've been playing with the boys down yonder." "Grass is green" ["Red stockings, blue garters"] I have silver lined shoes, a rose on my breast and a gold ring.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (Nicholson)
KEYWORDS: ring clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber, High))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1612, "Green, Green the Grass is Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 79, p. 322, "(Hop, hop, hop, to the butcher's shop)"; Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 90, "The Butcher's Shop" (6 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edward W.B. Nicholson, editor, Golspie: Contributions to its Folklore (London, 1897 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 156, "Hop, Hop, the Butcher's Shop" (1 text)
Roud #12979
NOTES [22 words]: This -- "Hop, hop, hop to the butcher's shop" -- is not the same song as "Hippity-hop to the barber shop To buy a stick of candy" - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD81612

Butt-Cut Ruler

DESCRIPTION: "Don't you walk on down, I'll drive you in the timber If you dare to walk in the timber, I'm a butt-cut ruler." A very free form, probably allowing improvisation, about life for a prisoner cutting timber
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (recorded from C. B. Kimble by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: work prison hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 72-73, "Butt-Cut Ruler" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [44 words]: Jackson describes this as just barely qualifying as a song, and also sees it as satiric -- a "butt-cut ruler" was a man strong enough to do the hard task of cutting the thickest part of a felled tree. Yet the format is halting, as if the song is a false brag. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM072

Butter and Cheese

See The Greasy Cook (Butter and Cheese and All, The Cook's Choice) (File: CoSB236)

Butter and Cheese and All

See The Greasy Cook (Butter and Cheese and All, The Cook's Choice) (File: CoSB236)

Butter, Levi, Boni, Stry

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "Butter, levi, boni, stry, Hair, brit, brof, nack; We, wo, wack. O, U, T, spells Out goes he."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: food nonsense | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 18, "(Butter, levi, boni, stry)" (1 text)
File: WEMM018A

Buttercup Joe

DESCRIPTION: Singer prides himself on his plain tastes. In summer the girls like to romp and roll with rustic lads in the hay. His ladyfriend, Mary, a dairymaid, makes fine dumplings; he plans to "ask her if she won't supply/A rustic chap like I am."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (New Prize Medal Song Book, according to Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer prides himself on being rustic with plain tastes; the gentry laugh at him, but he laughs at them in turn. In summer the girls like to romp and roll with rustic lads in the hay. His young woman, Mary, a dairymaid, makes fine dumplings; he plans to "ask her if she won't supply/A rustic chap like I am." Cho: "Now I can guide a plow, milk a cow, and I can reap and sow/Fresh as the daisies in the fields/and they calls I Buttercup Joe"
KEYWORDS: courting love sex food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 540, "Buttercup Joe" (1 text)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 37-39, "Buttercup Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #93, "Buttercup Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1635
RECORDINGS:
Tony Wales, "Buttercup Joe" (on TWales1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Husbandman and the Servingman" (subject, a few phrases)
cf. "Harmless Young Jim" (innuendoes)
cf. "Blackberry Grove" (innuendoes)
NOTES [169 words]: Wales's informant told him the words were being sung in Sussex in 1889, but offered no evidence, so I remain conservative in assigning an earliest date. I strongly suspect a music-hall origin. - PJS
Nonetheless, the song is fairly well established in English tradition, though it hasn't been printed much. I suspect there may have been one or two rewrites along the way; some of the versions vary a great deal.
I doubt it has any significance, because I doubt anyone other than me would bother checking on this, but I find it interesting that the lad's home town is more often listed as "Fareham" than anywhere else. Fareham is mentioned all the way back in the Domesday Book of 1086, as "Fernham" (Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names, fourth edition, Oxford University Press, 1960, p. 174) -- that is, "Fern Ham/Hamm, which might be "passage-town" but is probably "fern-town," i.e. "a place with a lot of plants." So: an old town where the people have all the brains of a fern? - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcButJoe

Butterfly

See Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Go Upstairs (File: RWTdBrTd)

Buttermilk Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: A poor boy tells his mother of his plan to get buttermilk, sell it to buy eggs, raise chickens, sell chickens, etc., and so get rich. Very early on, he spills the goods and his schemes come to naught. Listeners are warned against counting their chickens
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: money commerce poverty
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 40, "A-Begging Buttermilk I Will Go" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 432)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H57a, pp. 57-58, "The Buttermilk Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1227
File: HHH057a

Buttermilk Hill

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

Button Willow Tree

See Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: LK43)

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?

DESCRIPTION: Singing (or at least chanting) game: "Button, button, who's got the button?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA, MW,NE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #97, "(Button, button)" (1 short text, filed under "Hold Fast My Gold Ring")
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 99, "Button, Button" (a description of the game)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke, _Red Rover, Red Rover: Children's Games Played in Canada_, pp. 92-93, "Button, Button, Who's Got the Button" (a description of the game)
Ron Young, _Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador_, Downhome Publishing Inc., 2006, pp. 205-206, "Button, Button" (a description of the game)
NOTES [27 words]: This doesn't seem to have much place in folklore collections -- but I learned it growing up in the Midwest in the 1960s, so it probably belongs in the Index. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Newe097A

Buxom Blade

See The Female Highwayman [Laws N21] (File: LN21)

Buxter's Bold Crew

See The Bold Princess Royal [Laws K29] (File: LK29)

Buy a Broom

DESCRIPTION: The singer says she comes "to dear happy England in summer's gay bloom" and asks "fair lady, and young pretty maiden" to "buy of the wandering Bavarian a Broom" Use them to brush away insects. In winter she will return home. Spoken epilog.
AUTHOR: D.A. O'Meara and George Alexander Lee (source: Greig/Duncan8)
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (according to Scott); before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 15(37b))
KEYWORDS: travel England Germany work nonballad bug
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1845, "Buy a Broom" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 38-39, "Buy a Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #10, p. 61, "Buy a Broom" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 176-177, "Songs and Cries of the Wyrley Broom Selles" (2 texts, perhaps not genetically related to the other items listed here)
Roud #13229
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(37b), "Buy a Broom" ("From Teutschland I come with my best wares all laden"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 16(42b), Johnson Ballads fol. 129 [barely legible], Johnson Ballads fol. 126, Harding B 11(177), Harding B 36(20)[many illegible words], Harding B 11(972)[no spoken epilog], "Buy a Broom"
SAME TUNE:
Old Tip's Broom ("Come, patriots, come, and let's clare out the kitchen") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, p. 19)
NOTES [227 words]: Greig/Duncan8 is a fragment; broadside Harding B 15(37b) is the basis for the description.
Greig/Duncan8: Duncan speculates that "Teuchland" must have been from a printed source "which contained the word 'Deutchland' for Germany. The word would be pronounced very likely 'Deuchland' (with the gutteral 'ch'), but would soon be changed into 'Teuchland', as 'teuch' would suggest some meaning to the Scottish ear.'" Teutschland is already in the Bodleain Harding B 15(37b) text before 1830.
"The success of 'Buy a Broom' dated as far back as 1827, when a play called 'The Hundred Pound Note' was produced at Covent Garden...; and as to 'Buy a Broom,' the ballad sung by Madame Vestris in the character of Harriet Arlington, it was hummed by every one and became the rage. 'From Deutchland I come ...'" [source: Clement Scott, The Drama of Yesterday and Today (1899, London ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, pp. 122-123].
In 1826, Hone described "these poor 'Buy-a-Broom' girls": "These girls are Flemings. They come to England from the Netherlands in the spring, and take their departure with the summer. They have only one low, shrill, twittering note, 'Buy a broom?' sometimes varying into the singular plural, 'Buy a brooms?'" [source: William Hone, The Every-Day Book or Everlasting Calendar (1826, London ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, pp. 404-405]. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GrD81845

Buy a Charter Oak

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going to tell my mother, I'm going to tell my pa, I'm going to tell my brother and all my brothers-in-law, I'm going to tell my uncle and all my cousins' folk To buy, to buy, to buy a Charter Oak."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: technology commerce
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 487, "Buy a Charter Oak" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7588
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wilson Patent Stove" (theme)
NOTES [50 words]: For all that this sounds like a (Nineteen-)Sixties TV commercial, Charter Oak stoves were advertised in the Ozark region in the Eighteen-Sixties.
Spaeth mentions a "sacred song" called "The Charter Oak" (by Henry Russell) of around 1837. I don't know if the jingle is to the tune of Russell's song. - RBW
File: R487

Buy Away (Playing Shop)

DESCRIPTION: When children play at running a shop, they may announce it by singing, "Buy away, buy away, A new shop opens, Hams, jams, anything you want, ma'am."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: commerce food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 29, "Playing Shop" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BAAI029

Buy Baby Ribbon

See Bye Baby Bunting (File: Br3112)

Buy Broom Besoms (I Maun Hae a Wife)

DESCRIPTION: The besom-seller calls his wares, then confesses, "I maun hae a wife, whaso'er she be." He will take anything, e.g., "If that she be bonnie, I shall think it right; If she should be ugly, what's the odds at night?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: husband wife marriage oldmaid humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 20-21, "Buy Broom Buzzems" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan3 489, "Buy Broom Besoms" (4 fragments, all consisting of the chorus only; 2 tunes)
DT, BROOMBES* BROOMBES3*
Roud #1623
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fine Broom Besoms (When I Was wi' Barney)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Besom Maker" (chorus)
NOTES [161 words]: The besom-seller's cry, "Buy broom besoms, wha will buy them noo? (Fine heather ringers), better never grew" is obviously very old, and inspired Burns in 1796 to write "Wha will buy my troggin."
It isn't really a song, though, and it evidently invited completion, as I am aware of at least three texts with this burden:
* I Maun Hae a Wife, probably Scottish, in which the old besom-maker desperately seeks a companion. This humorous text seems to be the best-known of the variants
* The Sam Henry text "Fine Broom Besoms," in which the singer misses Barney
* The Besom Maker, a song of seduction, printed as a broadside.
Volume 38, number 4 of Sing Out! (1994), p. 73 has a conflate modern version (presumably of this, but hard to tell in the circumstances) which declares "The tune is Blind Willie Purvis, born 1752, a Newcastle street singer and fiddler." I assume that should read "The tune is BY Blind Willie Purvis," but I know of no supporting evidence. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: DTbroomb

Buy Broom Buzzems

See Buy Broom Besoms (I Maun Hae a Wife) (File: DTbroomb)

Buy Me a China Doll

See Milking Pails (China Doll) (File: R356)

Buy Me a Rocking Chair

See Milking Pails (China Doll) (File: R356)

Buy My Caller Herrin'

See The Silver Herring (Caller Herring) (File: RcSilHer)

Buy You Own Land

DESCRIPTION: Response: "Buy your/my own land." "I'm going to by me land in Canaan ... Buy me land in Canaan ... The spirit is waiting on me to ..." "For the spirit want to rejoice ... For the spirit want to come in ... For the children want to come in ..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Lorna McDaniel, "Memory Spirituals of the Ex-Slave American Soldiers in Trinidad's 'Company Villages'" in _Black Music Research Journal_, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Autumn 1994 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 137, "Buy Me Own Lan'" (1 text fragment, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Henry Williams, Allan Lovelace, George Robert, "Buy You Own Land" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [18 words]: This is a Spiritual Baptist Hymn. The current description is based on the WITrinidadVillage02 recording. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcBuyYOL

Buying Land

DESCRIPTION: "I came out here two years ago... And as I'd been successful, Thinks I, I'll purchase land." Many selections are offered, and many seek to buy. The singer ends up paying a high price for land based on its description -- only to find it a worthless swamp
AUTHOR: probably Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1857 (Thatcher's Colonial Songster, according to Ingleton)
KEYWORDS: commerce trick hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 109-111, "Buying Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-GoldrushSongster, pp. 73-75, "Buying Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Geoffrey C. Ingleton, _True Patriots All: or News from Early Australia as told in A Collection of Broadsides_ ("Garnered and Decorated" by Ingleton), Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1988, p. 257, "Buying Land" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sold!" (subject of buying a swamp)
cf. "Calder Fair" (tune)
NOTES [29 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AnSt109

Buzz

DESCRIPTION: "(Josie's) got the buzz and she's got it good, She got it all over the neighborhood, She go in, out, all about, She go in, out, all about, Turn to the one that loves you best."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads)
KEYWORDS: playparty love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 127-128, "Buzz" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ByGo127B

Buzzard Lope

See Throw Me Anywhere (File: Parr020)

By a Chapel as I Came

See Merry It Is on a May Morning (File: Gree068)

By a Fireside Bright and Cheerful

DESCRIPTION: "By a fireside bright and cheerful" (something happened), "So off we went on the Wallaby Track, And down to the Riverine. There's Jack with the fiddle And Tom with the flute and Paddy the concertine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger)
KEYWORDS: travel music derivative
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 18, page headed "When the Harvest Time is Over, Jessy, Dearf"], "(no title)" (1 short text)
NOTES [53 words]: Fahey suggests that this is derived from "When the Harvest Time Is Over, Jessy, Dear," i.e. Howard Graham and Harry von TIlzer's "When the Harvest Days are Over, Jessie, Dear" (Roud #18328). Probably true, but with only one line and the chorus available, it appears to be different enough to count as a separate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: FaWBaFBC

By an' by-e I'm goin' t' see the King

See I Wouldn't Mind Dying (File: Parp243)

By and By (I)

DESCRIPTION: "By and by I am going to lay down my heavy heavy load." "Oh one of these mornings, sometimes I'm so sad, I am going to lay down my heavy heavy load." "I know my robe's going to fit me well... I tried it on at the gates of Hell." "Gonna take my wings"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 124-125, "By and By" (1 text, 1 tune)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 70, "By and By" (1 text)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 173-174, "By and By" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #11963
File: Ow2E173

By and By (II)

See By'n By (File: San453)

By Borden's Grove

See Bordon's Grove (File: HHH529)

By By, My Honey

See Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot (plus related references, e.g. The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76]) (File: C076A)

By Chance It Was

DESCRIPTION: "By chance it was I met my love, It did me much surprise." They encounter each other among the flowers. He asks why she is coy. They go to watch their flocks. He must serve three more years, but when it is done, they will marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1770 (The Court of Apollo, Being a Collection of New Songs)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #1, "By Chance It Was" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6901
NOTES [85 words]: This is so "pastoral" that it makes me want to scrape off my shoes.
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd found this in "The Court of Apollo," which claims to be a collection of new songs, and is from 1770, but Baring-Gould et al think it more likely that it is from the reign of James I or Charles I, i.e. 1603-1649. I'll admit that the language seems a bit older than 1770, but that was probably just an attempt to be flowery. It does not sound old enough to belong to the early seventeenth century. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGFS001

By Kells Waters

See The Lover's Curse (Kellswater) (File: HHH442)

By Kells Waters (Kellswaterside)

DESCRIPTION: The singer sets out and stops, seemingly at random, at a cottage by Kellswater. He introduces himself to the girl, and asks her to marry. She thanks him for the offer but refuses. He tells her of the birdsongs and other joys of his home. She gives in
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.11(201))
KEYWORDS: love courting home marriage beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H802, p. 466, "Kellswaterside" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 26, "Fair Randalstown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 104, "The Sweet Town of Anthony" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 51, "By Kells Waters" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, KELLWAT2*
Roud #2730
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(201), "Bonny Kell's Waters," The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1856
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sweet County Antrim"
SAME TUNE:
Camlachie March (per broadside Bodleian 2806 b.11(201))
File: HHH802

By Memory Inspired

DESCRIPTION: "By Memory inspired And love of country fired, The deeds of Men I love to dwell upon... Here's a memory to the friends that are gone. O'Connell, William Orr, John Mitchel, McCann, John and Henry Sheares, Maguire, Emmet, and others are recalled
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion memorial
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance. pp. 101-102, "By Memory Inspired" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 163, "By Memory Inspired" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Grand Dissolving Views" (II) (subject and references there)
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
cf. "The Wake of William Orr" (subject)
cf. "The Brothers John and Henry Sheares" (subject)
NOTES [292 words]: Among those mentioned in versions of this song:
O'Connell: Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847), who tried to convince the British to reform administration of Ireland and who was the leading figure on behalf of Catholic Emancipation. (For his history, see the many songs cited in the cross-references to )"Daniel O'Connell (I).")
John Mitchel - One of the 1848 rebels. (For his history, see "John Mitchel").
Emmet - Robert Emmet (1778-1803), for whom see "Bold Robert Emmet." - RBW
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 adds information for those mentioned in the song:
"Edward" Lord Edward Fitzgerald's capture is cited here, but in less detail than in "Edward" (III)
William Orr - Farmer, arrested in September 1796, charged with administering the United Irish oath, and executed October 14, 1797. His death inspired a well-known poem by William Drennan, "The Wake of William Orr," which also is found in this Index though I'm none too sure it's traditional.
Thomas Reynolds - member of the Leinster Directory of the United Irishmen turned informer.
John McCann, Bond and William Byrne - Among the members of the United Irish leadership taken in a raid based on Reynold's information.
The Sheares brothers - members of the new National Directory set up to replace the one destroyed by the raid based on Reynold's information.
Fr Thomas Maguire - parish priest who engaged in a public debate on theological matters in 1827. His poisoning, mentioned in the ballad, took place in 1847.
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "By Memory Inspired" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998)) - BS
File: PGa101

By Sea to Santiago

See Pilgrim's Sea-Voyage and Sea-Sickness, The (Pilgrim's Song; Pilgrims to St. James) (File: MSPSVASS)

By the Banks of the Manistee

DESCRIPTION: "I'm an old jack from the pine-wood track By the banks of the Manistee" who has logged with all sorts -- but the best loggers are those who came from Maine and Quebec. He tells tales from before the forests were logged out, and still dreams of that time
AUTHOR: Judge George Angus Belding (source: Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: logger lumbering fight death trick drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 30, "By the Banks of the Manistee" (1 text)
Roud #18194
File: BeLo030

By the Blazing Council Fire

DESCRIPTION: "By the blazing council fire's light, We have met in comradeship tonight. 'Round about the whispering trees, Guard our golden memories. And so before we close our eyes... Let us pledge each other that we'll keep Scouting friendships...Till we meet again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1997 (BoyScoutSongbook1997)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 336, 338 (?), "By the Blazing Council Fire"/"Round the Blazing Camp Fire" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 126, "By the Blazing Council Fire" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Till We Meet Again" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Till We Meet Again
By the Blazing Council Fire's Light
File: ACSF338B

By the Cross Where I First Saw the Light

See At the Cross Where I First Saw the Light (File: RcACWFSL)

By the Dry Cardrona

DESCRIPTION: "I can tell where cherries grow, By the dry Cardrona, Where I picked them long ago, On a day when I was sober." His mother died of sorrow, because "I was never sober." His love marries another man. He asks to be buried by the dry Cardrona, drunk or sober
AUTHOR: Words: James K. Baxter (1926-?) / different tunes set by James McNeish and by D. Tomms
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: drink courting rejection death burial river New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 153-154, "By the Dry Cardrona" (1 text, 1 tune -- the McNeish melody)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 241-242, "(By the Dry Cardrona)" (1 text)
DT, CARDRONA
File: DTcardro

By the Edge of the Sea

See Isabeau S'y Promène (Isabel) (File: SBoA297)

By the Green Grove

See The Birds in the Spring (File: RcTBiITS)

By the Holy and Religerally Law

See Bible Is a Holy and Visible Law, The (Rope-Jumping Rhyme) (File: Newe183)

By the Hush

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on his listeners not to go to America; "there is nothing here but war." Unable to make a living in Ireland, he emigrates, is shoved straight into the army, joins the Irish Brigade, loses a leg, and is left without his promised pension
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (recording, O. J. Abbott); there is a nineteenth century broadside
KEYWORDS: poverty emigration soldier injury war Civilwar disability
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont,Que) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 6, "By the Hush, me Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 20, "By the Hush, Me Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 57, "By the Hush, Me Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BYHUSH*
ADDITIONAL: Derek Warfield, Irish Songster of the American Civil War (Kilcock, 1999), #6 p. 18, "By the Hush, Me Boys"
Roud #2314
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "By the Hush, Me Boys" (on Abbott1)
Roisin White, "By the Hush" (on IRRWhite01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell to Slieve Gallen" (plot)
cf. "Pat Murphy of the Irish Brigade" (subject)
NOTES [3446 words]: There is much historical truth in this song. There were indeed new Irish immigrants in the northern armies in the Civil War: "According to one account, some of the 88th's recruits [soldiers in the 88 NY Regiment, one of the regiments of the Irish Brigade] enlisted shortly after they had exited the immigrant landing point at Castle Garden, and spoke no English, only the Irish Gaelic of the landless Catholic tenant farmer" (Bilby, p. 27). And the unit they joined, the Irish Brigade of Thomas Francis Meagher (pronounced "Marr"), had a horrendous loss rate even by Civil War standards.
In the first two years of the war, the brigade -- originally 63 NY, 69 NY, 88 NY; 28 Mass, another Irish unit, added before Fredericksburg (Bilby, p. 63) and the not-so-Irish 116 PA added in October 1862 (Bilby, p. 61) -- had the highest casualty rate of any comparable unit in the Army of the Potomac. According to Bilby, p. ix, "In its four year history, the brigade lost over 4,000 men, more than were ever in it at any one time, killed and wounded. [p. 239 calculates that, in all, 7715 men served in the brigade.] The Irish Brigade's loss of 961 soldiers killed or mortally wounded in action was exceeded by only two other brigades in the Union army."
The unit suffered in many battles. In the Seven Days' Battles, for instance, the 69 NY alone had 155 casualties (Bilby, p. 45), although other regiments of the brigade suffered less. At the end of the Peninsular Campaign, the 69th had only 295 men with the colors (Bilby, p. 49) -- meaning that it had already suffered 60% casualties. Meagher did manage to drum up a few recruits that summer, but not enough to offset the brigade's losses (Bilby, p. 50).
At the Battle of Antietam, the first division of the Second Corps, which contained the Irish Brigade, suffered 212 killed, 900 wounded, and 24 missing (Murfin, p. 375); the Irish Brigade alone is said to have lost 506 of 2944 men (Beller, p, 74). At the start that battle, the four regiments of the brigade were commanded by one colonel and three lieutenant colonels; at the end, they were commanded by two lieutenant colonels, one major, and one captain (Murfin, p. 347). Sears-Antietam, p. 243, says that the 63rd and 69th New York both suffered casualties on the order of 60%. Craughwell, p. 98, says that one company had every man killed or wounded, and on p. 105 says that the thousand-man-strong brigade suffered 540 casualties. Since the brigade started with roughly 3000 men, it had lost two-thirds of them prior to Antietam, and by the end of that battle, five out of six were killed, wounded, captured, victims of disease, or had deserted.
(Given the casualty rates, I find it highly ironic that, when General McClellan was removed as commander of the Army of the Potomac, General Meagher had his brigade throw its flags in the dirt in protest; Sears-Antietam, pp. 342-343. This even though McClellan had been ultimately responsible for the brigade's slaughter. And it is hard to believe that the fire-breathing Meagher and McClellan the pro-Slavery Democrat really had anything in common -- had McClellan been British, he would surely have opposed Irish independence with a passion.)
Even with all its reinforcements, the Brigade had only about 1200 men at Fredericksburg (Bilby, p. 65), or a mere 30 percent of what it should have had, making it one of the most attenuated units in the Union army. Meagher's own summary, in his report, was that "Of the one thousand two hundred I led into action the day before, two hundred and eighty only appeared" (Beller, p. 76). Even this may be a little high; one report is that in the immediate aftermath of the battle, only 263 men were still in ranks (Bilby, p. 70), and at least one company had only one man, a private (Bilby, p. 71). That is perhaps a little exaggerated -- some of the men were lost or needed more time to sneak away from proximity to Confederate soldiers. But the final numbers were bad enough. Boatner, p. 594, notes that the 69th New York at Fredericksburg had 18 officers and 210 men, and 16 of the officers and 112 men were casualties. In the 28 Mass (transferred to the Irish Brigade after Antietam), losses at Fredericksburg were 158 out of 416 (Boater, p. 518). For the whole brigade, losses were 545, or almost half the unit's strength -- in terms of total casualties, if not percentage casualties, the worst day of the war for the Irish (Craughwell, p. 122, who adds that this led to a feeling that the Union command was anti-Irish, which in turn made it harder to recruit Irishmen).
The brigade's losses at Chancellorsville were lighter -- just 92 if we believe Craughwell, p. 141, or 64 according to Beller, p. 82. That was still enough to induce Meagher to resign a few weeks later on the grounds that the brigade was too much weakened to be effective (Boatner, p. 540); he wanted to leave the army to try to bring in recruits, but his requests were ignored by Secretary of War Stanton. Although 59 of his brigade's officers (which must have been the large majority of them) signed testimonials to his leadership, the resignation was blandly accepted (Craughwell, p. 142). This may have been because of the rumors about his drinking. His resignation would be rescinded later, but he would not serve with the Irish Brigade at or after Gettysburg; the unit was led by Col. Patrick Kelly of the 88 NY (one of only two colonels left with the brigade, and commissioned only in October 1862 -- NYReport, volume III, p. 75 -- which again shows the high rate of casualties in the unit); the 69 NY was led by Captain Richard Maroney.
Meagher would later help try to get more recruits for the brigade, declaring that commanding it was the highest distinction he had ever achieved (Bilby, p. 96; Craughwell, p. 162). But the brigade had almost gone out of existence by then.
By Gettysburg, the brigade had only 530 men (Sears-Gettysburg, p. 289) out of over 4000 originally enrolled, and the three New York regiments had fewer than a hundred men each -- a casualty rate in excess of 90%. (I do not have a source for this data; I copied it some decades ago out of an unknown book). The 69th New York -- which, as an independent regiment should theoretically have been commanded by a colonel -- was under a captain at Gettysburg, and by the end of the battle, it was under the command of a lieutenant! (Sears-Gettysburg, p. 519).
Craughwell, p. 8, declares "The Brigade suffered 4,000 casualties, arguably the highest of any brigade in the Civil War" (there can be no definitive statement about which brigade had the highest casualties because brigades weren't permanent organizations, and regiments were swapped in and out regularly; also there is the question of men wounded more than once, and of men missing -- are they casualties or deserters? Still, given that it lost as many men as it initially numbered, it is obvious that the Irish Brigade is a serious candidate for most losses).
It should be noted that some sources have written very inaccurately about Meagher and the Irish Brigade -- particularly about the 69 NY. Meagher himself (1823-1876) was quite a character; an Irish patriot, he was transported to Tasmania in 1849, and escaped to the U. S. in 1852.
When the Civil War began, he reasoned that British sympathy would be with the Confederacy, and so joined the Union army. (In this he was not entirely correct; while many in the British aristocracy sympathized with the Confederate planters, the British people were anti-slavery, and so anti-south, and the government wasn't going to commit to either side.) Meagher quickly raised a company for the three-month unit known as the 69th New York Militia (a unit which still exists, in a sense -- it fought in both World Wars and even through the Iraq War; cf. Bilby, p. xi -- but which wasn't, properly speaking, part of the Irish Brigade). Hasty recruitment at the start of the war took this demi-battalion (245 men) up to regimental strength (1040 soldiers; Bilby, p. 5), although the more experienced men weren't really used as a cadre for the rest of the regiment; Meagher's Company K, for instance, didn't join the 69th Militia until the day they crossed the Potomac into Virginia (Bilby, p. 7).
As part of this militia unit -- which he did *not* command; its leader was another famous Irish exile, Michael Corcoran, while Meagher led his company -- Meagher fought at First Bull Run, where his bravery proved conspicuous (McDonald, p. 144); "Meagher of the Sword" finally got to use his stupid pig-sticker for something: he used it to rally his troops as they fled (Craughwell, p. 59). The unit had substantial casualties -- although some of those "missing" are rather suspicious (McDonald, p. 192, lists the 69th NY with 38 killed, 59 wounded, and 95 missing; the 2nd Wisconsin of the same brigade -- which would become one of the best regiments in the Union army -- had 24 killed, 65 wounded, but only 23 missing.)
Meagher's account of First Bull Run can be found in Colum, pp. 326-331, under the title "The 69th in Virginia."
After Bull Run, the 69th militia was mustered out; its three months were up. Meagher then set out to raise an Irish *brigade* (Craughwell, p. 63), starting with the rebuilt 69th New York (which was not the same as the militia unit, despite Meagher's association with both); he initially hoped to also include regiments from Pennsylvania and Massachussetts. He succeeded in getting the 63rd New York (which was already organizing) to join his force, and raised the 69th and 88th New York, with many of the officers having been part of the 69th militia (Beller, p. 32, says that 500 men of the Irish Brigade game from the 69th militia) and most of the most of the men from New York City although Meagher took Irishmen from all over the state and even the nation (Craughwell, p. 65). His plans to unite the Irish regiments into a brigade failed, however; he didn't manage to bring the 69th Pennsylvania (for which see "The Irish Sixty-Ninth") or the Massachusetts unit into his force (Bilby, p. 20); the Irish Brigade initially consisted of just the three New York regiments at a time when four was normal for a brigade (and some brigades had five or six). The 69th New York, which was the first to reach its enlistment quota, was known as the "First Regiment, Irish Brigade"; the 88th, which was given its colors by Mrs. Meagher, was "Mrs. Meagher's Own" or, sometimes, the "Connaught Rangers," after a famous 88th Regiment of the British Army (Bilby, p. 22).
Although he had helped recruit up the new unit, Meagher was never the colonel of the 69 NY (which had only one colonel, Robert Nugent, in its entire existence; NYReport, volume III, p. 8. Nugent had been lieutenant colonel of the 69 NY Militia -- Bilby, p. 9 -- so Meagher had been promoted over his head. But Nugent, unlike Meagher, was willing to stick with the brigade; he "fought with the Irish Brigade in every one of its battles except Antietam, when he was ill"; Beller, p. 38). Meagher had originally proposed James Shields to command the brigade, but Shields aspired to higher command, and the officers endorsed him, so Meagher got the brigade (Bilby, p. 23). Just as well, perhaps, that Shields wasn't in charge; given command of a division in the Shenandoah Valley in 1862, Shields had the uncomfortable experience of learning that Stonewall Jackson was a far better soldier than he. But the side effect was that Meagher was made a brigadier as of February 3, 1862 (Phisterer, p. 273) -- giving him much too much seniority; if he had still been with the army at Gettysburg, he would have been in command of the first division, II corps, at the start of the battle, and ended it in command of the corps. He would have been, by my count, the #6 brigadier in the Gettysburg army, and about #20 in the Union army as a whole. Much too much seniority for a man who went on week-long binges!
Meagher perhaps had an ulterior motive for forming the brigade; he wanted to train Irishmen to be good soldiers so they could help overthrow the British (Beller, p. 21). This would probably have worked better if Meagher hadn't done such an effective job of killing off his own men. Romantic that he was, he claimed that "the last thought that left their hearts was for the liberty of Ireland" (Beller, p. 28). I strongly suspect that their last though was "this hurts!"
Meagher's obsession with swords may have contributed to the brigade's heavy losses; he never really figured out the tactics required by rifled muskets. To be sure, his own troops were long stuck with smoothbore (un-rifled) muskets, which couldn't be aimed with any accuracy. But even that was likely the general's own choice (Bilby, p. 33): the musket "was General Meagher's preferred weapon because it was deadly at close range, especially when loaded with buck-and-ball, cartridges that contained a .64-caliber lead ball and three .30 caliber buckshot pellets. Meagher envisioned his Brigade attacking the enemy head-on, discharging a deadly volley of buck-and-ball, then charging in with bayonets" (Craughwell, p. 69). Napoleon, who lived before rifle muskets became practical due to the invention of the Minie Ball, would have loved it. So would anyone who faced the Irishmen and got to tear them to shreds. It is even reported (although I don't trust the report) that at one battle the Irishmen were actually ruining their muskets by smashing them over their enemies heads! (Bilby, p. 45).
Apparently this bit of stupidity was an example of Meagher's Irish romanticism. The (European) Irish Brigade had succeeded at Fontenoy with smoothbore muskets and a bayonet charge, so Meagher wanted to do that again. Problem is, Fontenoy was before rifle muskets came into use, when bayonet charges still worked. At Antietam, they didn't, and the Irish paid for Meagher's folly (Bilby, p. 55).
Nor was this the only way in which Meagher's failings cost his men. He didn't do much to maintain their camps (Bilby, p. 136), and even in an army of amateurs, he seems to have been noteworthy for his failure to try to learn military theory (Bilby, p. 137). One of his non-commissioned officers said that Meagher "wanted to gain so much praise that he would not spare his men" (Bilby, p. 136). It is not a good record. Little wonder if some of his soldiers became bitter.
Some sources say the Irish Brigade was shattered at Gettysburg. As the statistics above show, it was shattered well before Gettysburg, although it lost a third of its remaining men in Pennsylvania (Craughwell, p. 154) -- the 69th lost 25 of its 75 remaining troops, and the 28th Mass was said to have lost more than half its soldiers (Bilby, p. 91). Twice in 1863, the units had been reorganized, with the 116th Pennsylvania reduced to a battalion in January (and its commander, Lieutenant Colonel Mulholland, having to take a demotion to major), and the New York regiments were reduced to two companies after Meagher quit, and a number of officers forced to retire as a result (Bilby, p. 81).
It's hard to justify the claim that it was somehow singled out for especially har treatment; the entire first division of the second corps, which contained the Irish Brigade, was in awful shape by then. The table of organization on page 386 of Pfanz shows this. At Gettysburg, the division had four brigades; nominally, such an organization should have been commanded by a major general, with brigadiers in command of the brigades and colonels in command of the regiments. At Gettysburg, the division was commanded by a brigadier, and the brigades were initially led by one brigadier and three colonels. At the end of the battle, three of the brigades were led by colonels and one by a lieutenant colonel. The division contained eighteen regiments. At the start of the battle, just seven were commanded by colonels, eight by lieutenant colonels, one by a major, and two by captains; at the end, only ONE was commanded by a colonel (five of the six other colonels were casualties; one had risen to command his brigade), six by lieutenant colonels, five by majors, five by captains, and one by a lieutenant! According to Bilby, p. ix, "The II Corps' First Division lost more men killed in action than any other Federal division, and the Irish Brigade lost more men than any other brigade in that division."
The brigade had managed to recruit itself back up to about two thousand men by early 1864 (Craughwell, p. 164), partly by getting injured men back in the ranks and partly by bringing in new ones, but that didn't change the fact that the brigade had been slaughtered; it just gave them a new batch of cannon fodder -- and not even cannon fodder with a few veterans to guide them; most of the 1864 recruits went into new companies (Bilby, p. 98), so the three New York regiments weren't even very homogenous any more.
The brigade's losses in later campaigns remained heavy. At the Battle of the Wilderness, the reinforced brigade suffered about 25% casualties (Craughwell, p. 180), and more than a thousand total in the campaigns of 1864; the units ended up being completely reorganized twice (Craughwell, pp. 192-193). By June, the brigade was temporarily being commanded by Major Richard Moroney (Bilby, p. 114) -- a brigade properly should have been led by a man ranked three grades higher! But all units in the Army of the Potomac suffered horribly in this period.
At the end of June, the three New York regiments were, in effect, combined into one, and the 28 Massachussetts and 116 Pennsylvania split off; the Irish Brigade, as an independent entity, had ceased to exist (Bilby, p. 115). Which doesn't mean it was done taking casualties.... Oddly enough, it was reconstituted in November 1864 (Bilby, p. 119), but the new troops were mostly worthless and suffered many casualties due to capture and desertion (Bilby, pp. 120-121).
The history of the Irish Brigade's commanders is another indication of the high casualties the unit suffered. Four officers followed Meagher in the official command of the brigade. Col. Kelly was killed at Petersburg. Temporary commander Thomas Smyth was killed after transfer to another brigade. Col. Richard Byrnes was killed at Cold Harbor. Brig. Gen. Richard Nugent then commanded the brigade to the end of the war (Boatner, p. 427).
Meagher himself had a difficult time after giving up his command (Craughwell, pp.165-166): Shortly after Gettysburg, he tried to get his resignation rescinded. Secretary of War Stanton ignored him. Although reinstated in 1864, he was not given a command. In August of that year, he went on a week-long drinking binge and was ordered off the army base where he was staying. He was eventually given a command in Tennessee -- over untrained troops. At one stage, he lost track of several thousand of his troops while they were being transported by rail. Since this came at a time when he was again found to be under the influence, he was relieved of duty in early 1865 and never served again. With the war over, he resigned again on May 12, 1865, and the resignation was accepted May 15 (Bilby, p. 140). Frankly, given his record, I think the Union showed remarkable patience with him.
For Meagher's career before and after the Civil War, see the notes to "The Escape of Meagher."
For the various Irish Sixty-Ninth regiments, see "The Irish Sixty-Ninth."
The notes to Margaret Christl and Ian Robb's recording of this song make the curious observation that, although this song is about an Irishman in America, it seems to be known only in Canada!
There were some attempts in Ireland to prevent Irishmen from going to America to serve in the Union armies -- priests, for instance, didn't like seeing all their congregants (read: the people who earned them their livings) depart for America (Bilby, pp. 96-97). Is it possible that this is the source of this song?
Several people on the Ballad-L mailing list recently attempted to trace the history of this song. Relatively little was found. There is a broadside, "Pat in America," beginning "Arragh, bidenhust my boys, Sure and that is hold your noise," with the tune listed as "Happy Land of Erin." But it cannot be dated precisely, and there is little evidence of the song in tradition in the century after that.
I also find a broadside, "The Tipperary Boys" (broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:061, "The Tipperary Boys," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C), which seems built on the same pattern and formula.
Williams, p. 43, claims that there were "dozens of ballads relating to the exploits of the Sixty-Ninth Regiment," but few were traditional; I do not know if he would include this song among the list. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: DTbyhush

By the Hush, Me Boys

See By the Hush (File: DTbyhush)

By the Lightning We Lost our Sight [Laws K6]

DESCRIPTION: The singer is on a journey from Gibraltar to England when a hurricane strikes. Sent aloft to reef the sails, he and four others are blinded when lightning strikes the mast. The storm washes several others overboard. (The singer marries but remains blind)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: sailor storm death disability
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US(NE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws K6, "By the Lightning We Lost Our Sight"
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 86, "By the Lightning We Lost Our Sight" (1 text)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 76-78, "The Blind Sailor" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 152, "The Lightning Flash" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 557, LIGHTNNG
Roud #1894
RECORDINGS:
Morris Houlihan, "Come All Ye Jolly Sailor Boys" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Burke" [Laws K5]
File: LK06

By the Rosy Banks So Green

See The Rosy Banks of Green (File: Pea701)

By the Silv'ry Rio Grande

See My Heart's Tonight in Texas [Laws B23] (File: LB23)

By the Silvery Rio Grande

See My Heart's Tonight in Texas [Laws B23] (File: LB23)

By This Wild and Stormy Weather

DESCRIPTION: "By this wild and stormy weather I Join this rogue and w-- together; For years they've lived wi' ane anither, Lord this will surely change the weather"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: marriage storm
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1457, "By This Wild and Stormy Weather" (1 fragment)
Roud #7282
NOTES [26 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan7 fragment.
Greig/Duncan7 quoting from Greig: "Blacksmith marrying a couple of questionable character." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71457

By West of Late As I Did Walk

See The Honeymoon (By West of Late As I Did Walk) (File: PJSe022)

By west off late as I dyd walke

See The Honeymoon (By West of Late As I Did Walk) (File: PJSe022)

By'm By

See By'n By (File: San453)

By'n By

DESCRIPTION: "By'n by, by'n by, Stars shining, Number, number one, Number two, number three, Good Lord, by'n by, by'n by, Good Lord, by'n by."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 453, "By'm By" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 358, "By And By" (1 text)
Roud #11600
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "By'm By" (on GrowOn2)
File: San453

Bye and Bye

See Don't You Grieve After Me (I) (File: R257)

Bye and Bye I'm Goin' To See the King

See I Wouldn't Mind Dying (File: Parp243)

Bye and Bye You Will Forget Me (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Bye and by you will forget me, When your face is far from me, And the day when I first met you Only lives in memory." She recalls that sad day, urges him to forget -- but if she dies, THEN she asks him to remember
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown), but clearly in existence by 1926 when Kelly Harrell made the recording cited
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad death burial
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 161, "Bye and Bye You Will Forget Me" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 53, "Faded Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6577
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "Bye and Bye You Will Forget Me" (Victor 20535, 1926; on KHarrell02 -- primarily a "Dear Companion/Fond Affection" variant, but with elements from this song)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down Among the Budded Roses" (lyrics)
File: BrII161

Bye and Bye You Will Forget Me (II)

See Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection) (File: R755)

Bye Baby Bunting

DESCRIPTION: "Bye, baby bunting, Daddy's gone a-hunting To get a little rabbit skin To wrap the baby bunting in." "Sister stayed at home To rock-a-bye-a-baby bunting. Mama stayed at home To bake a cake for baby bunting."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammar Gurton's Garland, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad baby hunting family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) West Indies(Jamaica,Tobago) New Zealand
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 112, "Bye Baby Bunting" (assorted stanzas from sundry collections)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 112, "By Baby Bunting" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 25, "Bye, baby bunting" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #551, p. 226, "(Bee baw bunting)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 173, "Bye, Baby Buntin" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1556, "Baby Baby Bunting" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 243, (no title) (1 short text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 89, pp. 141-142, "Bye, Baby Bunting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 23, "Buy Baby Ribbon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 126, "(Baby, baby, bunting)" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 101, "Baby Bunting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 54-55, "Bye, Baby Bunting" (1 text)
Roud #11018
NOTES [131 words]: The Opies, as their #24, print what looks like a by-blow of this, "Bye, baby bumpklin, Where's Tony Lumpkin? My lady's on her death-bed, with eating half a pumpkin." The Opies observe that Tony Lumpkin is a character in Oliver Goldsmith's 1773 She Stoops to Conquer; he is a rather obnoxious country squire. I have no idea if that is significant.
Boswell's version of this song is very different from the common one, with two long verses about the parents. I suspect these came from a different source.
I would guess that George MacDonald knew this piece from oral tradition; he has a poem beginning "baby baby babbing / your father's gone a-cabbing" (sic.; it has no upper-case letters or punctuation) in chapter 17, "Diamond Makes a Beginning" of At the Back of the North Wind.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Br3112

Bye Bye My Darling

See One More Kiss Before I Go (File: MHAp168)

Bye-bye Sweet Rosianna

See Sweet Rosie Anna (File: GaBl099)

Bye, Bye, Baby

DESCRIPTION: "Bye, bye, baby, baby, bye, My little baby, baby, bye."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians)
KEYWORDS: lullaby nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 232, "Bye, bye, Baby (Lullaby)" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #16594
NOTES [18 words]: Is this part of another lullaby in the Index? Very possibly, but hard to prove with such a short text! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ShAp232

Bye, Bye, Blackbird (Bawdy Version)

DESCRIPTION: "Once a boy was no good, Took a girl into a wood, Bye bye blackbird, Laid her down upon the grass" -- and had sex with her. She goes to law enforcement. He is convicted and sent to prison for eighteen months
AUTHOR: unknown (original "Bye Bye Blackbird": words by Mort Dixon, music by Ray Henderson, c. 1925)
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: sex warning trial punishment prison derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 184, "Bye, Bye, Blackbird" (1 text)
Roud #10148
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bye, Bye, Blackbird" (tune)
cf. "The Blackbird (VII)" (tune) and references there
File: RuSoBBBl

Bye, Bye, Longjohns

See I've Lost My Underwear (File: ACSF101U)

Bye, Old Grover

DESCRIPTION: "William Jennings Bryan, Sitting on the fence, Trying to make a dollar Our of fifty cents, Bye, old Grover, bye, oh, Bye, old Grover, bye. I saw the train go 'round the curve, Goodbye, old Grover, goodbye, All loaded down with Harrison's men, Goodbye..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad money
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1884 - Grover Cleveland elected president the first time, beating James G. Blaine
1888 - Benjamin Harrison elected President by the Electoral College even though Grover Cleveland won the popular vote
1892 - Cleveland wins the rematch with Harrison
1896 - William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan (the first time)
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 20, "Bye, Old Grover" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Free Silver" (subject of William Jennings Bryan and the 1896 election) and references there
NOTES [415 words]: McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks's informant says that this song was from the election of 1888, when Benjamin Harrison defeated Grover Cleveland 233 to 168 in the electoral college although Cleveland won the popular vote 49% to 48%. The story is that it was sung in 1889, at the time of the actual transition. There are two problems with this. First, who would bother with an anti-Cleveland song AFTER the election? And second, why the mention of William Jennings Bryan, who in 1889 was not yet thirty and unknown?
This leaves two possibilities. First, the Bryan verse was not part of the proper song. This seems not unreasonable. Second, the song is from the election of 1896, when Grover Cleveland was on his way out of the White House, to be replaced by either Bryan or William McKinley. The latter explanation strikes me as more likely, although I'd hate to be dogmatic; Cleveland was very unpopular after the Panic of 1893 (even though economists generally believe that the Panic was caused by the sorts of policies espoused by Bryan and opposed by Cleveland), so Republicans would be happy to say, "Let's get rid of Cleveland, and not replace him by Bryan."
For more on this, see "Free SIlver."
I doubt the statement "Trying to make a dollar Our of fifty cents" is intended literally -- but, in fact, there were times when it was precisely true. The 16:1 gold-to-silver equation went back to the Coinage Act of 1837, when that was almost exactly the ratio of market values (see Stanley L. Jones, The Presidential Election of 1896, University of Wisconsin Press, 1964, p. 6). That had gone entirely out the window with the Coinage Act of 1873 (Jones, p. 7), but the ratio was remembered and was a basis for the 16:1 ratio. But by the 1890s, "Those opposed to the free coinage of silver protested that since 1837 the market value of silver had declined by almost half [partly because more silver had come on the market and partly because other countries had stopped buying it up] and that in reality the market value between the two metals was about 32 to 1" (Jones, p. 12). In other words, instead of 16 ounces of silver being worth an ounce of gold, 16 ounces of silver was worth half an ounce of gold. Or, put another way, sixteen silver dollars' worth of silver was worth only half a gold dollars' worth of gold. So if Bryan had had his way and silver been coined at 16:1, he would have been trying to make gold dollars out of fifty gold cents worth of silver. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: McIn020

Byker Hill

DESCRIPTION: Dance tune with sketchy narrative; singer's wife sits up late drinking. Singer asks her to return home (bringing the beer). He also tells of working in Walker Pit and the poor wages for coal-cutters, singing ironically "Walker Pit's done well by me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (John Bell, "Rhymes of Northern Bards")
LONG DESCRIPTION: Usually a dance tune (in 2-2-2-3 time!), but with sketchy narrative; singer's wife sits up late drinking, neglecting home and family. Singer pleads with her to return home (but to bring the beer with her). He also tells of working in Walker Pit and the poor wages for coal-cutters, singing ironically "Walker Pit's done well by me," and a verse of "Geordie Charlton he had a pig/He hit it with a shovel and it danced a jig"
KEYWORDS: mining work drink wife worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, BYKERHIL*
Roud #3488
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Walker Shore and Byker Hill" (on Lloyd01); "Walker Hill and Byker Shore" (on Lloyd3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Dearie Sits Ower Late Up" (tune)
cf. "Elslie Marley" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Byker Hill and Walker Shore
File: DTbykerh

Byrontown

DESCRIPTION: The singer claims that he "belongs" in Byrontown, where "young ladies gay I will betray, And give them all their due." The rest of the song is devoted to complaining about women, e.g. how they lure men on and spend their money
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917) ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1949
KEYWORDS: courting oldmaid money
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 261-262, "Byrontown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 8, "Byrontown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 69-71, "Barren Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doe261 (Partial)
Roud #9202
NOTES [56 words]: In some versions, the city is "Barren Town," a nickname for Renous, New Brunswick. This is, as you can see, the name Ives uses. - RBW
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "This song is always credited to Larry Gorman, but it does not seem quite like Gorman." - BS
Ives, on the other hand, seems to have no question about Gorman's authorship. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Doe261

Bysshop Scrope, that was so wyse, The

See The Death of Archbishop Scrope (File: MsDArScr)

C & O Freight & Section Crew Wreck, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the Big Shady Valley of Kentucky, a division of the famous C & O," a train with Jay Thompson and Doc Compton aboard is wrecked in the Big Sandy Valley in a collision with three motor cars
AUTHOR: Words: Rev. E. J. Shumway?
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (C & O Historical Society Newsletter, according to Lyle)
KEYWORDS: train wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1918 - the C & O collision
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, p. 160, "C. & O. Freight and Section Crew Wreck" (1 text)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 274, "The C & O Freight & Section Crew Wreck" (notes only)
File: LSRa274L

C-H-I-C-K-E-N Spells Chicken

DESCRIPTION: "C, that's the way to begin; H, the next letter in...." The teacher in a country school calls on Ragtime Joe to show the class how to spell "chicken." When Parson Johnson's show in the church fails Joe saves the day by singing his song to spell "chicken."
AUTHOR: Sidney Perrin & Bob Slater
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (sheet music published)
KEYWORDS: food humorous nonballad animal bird chickens animal children Black(s) campsong
FOUND IN: US(SE,Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 125, 314, "Chicken" (notes only)
DT, CHICKEN
Roud #21063
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Collins, "Dat's De Way to Spell Chicken" (CYL: Edison 8301, 1903)
Mississippi John Hurt, "Chicken Song" (on MJHurt05)
John & Emery McClung, "C-H-I-C-K-E-N Spells Chicken" (Brunswick 135, 1927)
McGee Brothers "C-H-I-C-K-E-N Spells Chicken" (Vocalion 5150, 1927)
Kirk McGee & Blythe Poteet: "C-H-I-C-K-E-N Spells Chicken" (Vocalion 5150, 1927) (Conqueror 7257, 1929; Gennett 7022, 1930; rec. 1928). [These are definitely different recordings. - PJS] (on "Good for What Ails You - Music of the Medicine Shows 1926-1937," Old Hat CD CD-1005, 2005)
Fiddlin' Doc Roberts Trio, "Ragtime Chicken Joe" (Conqueror 8566, 1935; rec. 1933)
Three Tobacco Tags, "De Way to Spell Chicken" (Bluebird B-7973, 1938)
NOTES [311 words]: The recent version by the Red Clay Ramblers fits this chorus with an outline in which Ragtime Joe is made to spell "chicken" in school. Not having heard some of the early recordings, I don't know if this is integral to the song or if someone added it later. - RBW
The "Ragtime Chicken Joe" verse is indeed part of the original piece, published as a "coon song." - PJS
McGee and Poteet... sing [this] as a minstrel-type song. The chorus spells it out: "C - that's the way to begin, ... E - I'm near the end, C-H-I-C-K-E-N. That am the way to spell chicken."
About 1906 a settlement house minstrel show included "songs [that] reverted to the traditional minstrel genre and included 'Humming Coon' and 'Dat Am De Way to Spell Chicken.'" (Daniel Bender, "Perils of Degeneration: Reform, the Savage Immigrant, and the Survival of the Unfit" in Journal of Social History, Vol. 542, No.1 (Fall 2008 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 15-16).
Hurt sings only one verse, not usually sung with this song: "Chicken, chicken, you can't roost or hide from me, Chicken, chicken, better come on out of that tree. You can't roost or hide from me." Hurt's verse may be from another minstrel song. White, from 1915-1916, has "Chicken, come down out of that sycamore tree, You cannot roost too high for me." (Newman I. White, American Negro Folk-Songs (Hatboro: Folklore Associates, Inc, 1965 (facsimile reprint of Harvard University Press, 1928)), #xii.44 pp. 373-374) - BS
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 261, estimates that this was the eighth most popular song in America in February 1903, and the twentieth most popular song of the year as a whole (#1 for the year being Charles K. Harris's "Always in the Way"). The published title is "Dat's de Way to Spell Chicken." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcCHICKE

C. & O. Wreck, The (1913) [Laws G4]

DESCRIPTION: Men are at work on the C & O bridge at Guyandotte, but a train is given permission to cross it. The bridge fails, taking the train, the engineer, and seven bridge workers with it. The ballad ends with the usual wish for the widow and orphans
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, George Reneau)
KEYWORDS: train death wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 1, 1913 - Reported date of the C. & O. Wreck at Guyandott(e), West Virginia
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws G4, "The C. & O. Wreck"
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 121, "The Seno Wreck" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 73, pp. 172-174, "The C. & O. Wreck" (1 text)
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 83-91, "The Guyandotte Bridge Disaster" (1 text
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 274, "The C & O Wreck" (notes only)
Roud #3248
RECORDINGS:
George Reneau, "The C & O Wreck" (Vocalion 14897, 1924)
NOTES [65 words]: Laws has some notes about the actual facts of this case (NAB, pp. 65-66). Lyle has much more, noting that the bridge involved had caused problems before and was in the process of being strengthened; also, the water level was high that day. But there wasn't much choice about using the bridge; it was a major bottleneck (the rest of the line had been double-tracked) on a major rail line. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: LG04

C.C. Rider

See Easy Rider (File: LxU022)

C'est a Paris Y-A-T'Une Noce (There's a Wedding in Paris)

DESCRIPTION: French. The young girl the singer married was at least 80 years old: married Monday, buried Tuesday. But he didn't marry her; he married her money. If he marries again it will be with a girl 15 years old.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage age greed marriage burial death oldmaid wife money
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 255-256, "C'est a Paris Y-A-T'Une Noce" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Mme Josephine Costard, "C'est a Paris Y-A-T'Une Noce" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea255

C'est L'Aviron (Pull on the Oars)

DESCRIPTION: French: "C'est l'aviron, qui nous mene, qui nous mene, c'est l'aviron qui nous mene en haut." A young man goes riding, picks up a pretty girl, and takes her home to get a drink. Once home, "turning to me, she toasted her own lover"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (Gagnon, Chansons populaires du Canada, according to Fowke/Johnson)
KEYWORDS: courting drink family foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf,Que)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 58-59, "C'est L'aviron (Pull on the Oars)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 49, "C'est L'Aviron" (1 English and 1 French text, 1 tune)
Peacock, p. 517, "En Revenant de la Jolie Rochelle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 46-47, "De Paris a Rochelle" (1 French text plus a semi-singable English translation, lacking the "C'est Laviron" chorus and substituting a nonsense refrain)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 16-17, "C'esst L'aviron Qui Nous Mene En Haut" (1 English and 1 French text, 1 tune)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 23, "It Is the Oar" (1 text, 1 tune)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 7, "It Is the Oar" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 72-73, "C'est L'aviron (Pull on the Oars)" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
ST FJ058 (Partial)
RECORDINGS:
Mme Josephine Costard, "En Revenant de la Jolie Rochelle" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
It's the Oars
NOTES [116 words]: "Over the years, more than ninety variants of this song have been written down or recorded on cylinders, discs, or tapes in French Canada. A few variants have also been found in the northeastern United States and France." [from] "'M'en, revenant de la Joli'Rochelle'::A song from c/ 1500 in the current French-Canadian repertoire" by Jay Rahn in Canadian Journal for Traditional Music, vol 16, 1988. See archives of the site for the Canadian Journal for Traditional Music. - BS
The 48MuchLovedFolkSongs/33MuchLovedSongs translation, which is quite different from the one in Fowke, is credited to "K. F. R." It is probably a little more literal than Fowke's, but it's also much more stiff. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FJ058

C'est L'aviron Qui Nous Mene En Haut

See C'est L'Aviron (Pull on the Oars) (File: FJ058)

C'est la Belle Francoise (Beautiful Francesca)

DESCRIPTION: French. "C'est la belle Francoise, hut-a-la-ma-le-lon-la", soon to be wed. Her lover finds her weeping. She has heard that he'll soon march away. "Arriving in the village, I hear the church-bells say ... 'Tis beautiful Francesca, whom now they lay away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage grief love army war return burial death lover soldier
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 30, "C'est la belle Francoise (Beautiful Francesca)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 20-21, "C'est La Belle Francoise (The Fair Francoise)" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blackbirds and Thrushes (I)" (plot)
NOTES [38 words]: The plot is similar to "Blackbirds and Thrushes (I)", but they differ in who says what to whom, and the gestalts don't match. No, I don't know why she's Francoise in the French version and Francesca in the English translation. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.1
File: BerV030

C'est la Poulette Grise (The Pullet)

DESCRIPTION: French. Lullaby. "The little pullet gray / In the church will lay" a little "coco" (egg) for the baby who will go "do, do, do" (sleep)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage lullaby nonballad animal bird chickens baby
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 32, "C'est la poulette grise (The Pullet)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
File: BerV032

C'etait Trois Jeunes Garcons Partis Pour un Voyage (Three Young Boys Go on a Voyage)

DESCRIPTION: French. Three boys go on a voyage to distant islands, leaving loved ones. The youngest walks on the shore and cries. From far away he hears the voice of a swallow speaking to him about love. Beautiful swallow, fly to "la belle" and sit on her knee.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love separation bird lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 512, "C'etait Trois Jeunes Garcons Partis Pour un Voyage" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Mme Josephine Costard, "C'etait Trois Jeunes Garcons Partis Pour un Voyage" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea512

C'etait une bergere

See Bergere Fait du Fromage (The Shepherdess Makes Cheese) (File: Pea241)

Ca the Yowes to the Knowes

See Yowe Lamb, The (Ca' the Yowes; Lovely Molly) (File: K124)

Ca' Hawkie Through the Water

DESCRIPTION: "Ca' Hawkie, ca' Hawkie, 'Ca Hawkie through the water, Hawkie is a sweir beast, And Hawkie winna wade the water." Hawkie is praised for her milk but blamed for her stubbornness; girls are advised to be brave and bold with men
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: animal river courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 132-133, "Ca' Hawkie Through the Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan3 428, "Hawkie" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 172, "Caw Hawkie" (1 fragment)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 27, "(Caw Hawkie, drive Hawkie)" (1 text)
DT, CAHAWKIE
ADDITIONAL: "Rhymes of the Nursery" in Robert Chambers, Selected Writings of Robert Chambers (Edinburgh, 1847 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 187, ("Ca' Hawkie, drive Hawkie, ca' Hawkie through the water")
"Nursery Rhymes" in William Paul, Past and Present of Aberdeenshire (Aberdeen, 1881 ("Digitized by Google")), #10 p. 149, "Hawkie"
Roud #3159 and 5945
NOTES [25 words]: Greig seemed to think that Hawkie was an unwilling horse, but he had only a fragment. The Northumbrian version makes it clear that Hawkie is a cow. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: StoR132

Ca' Hawkie, drive Hawkie, ca' Hawkie through the water

See Ca' Hawkie Through the Water (File: StoR132)

Ca' the Ewes to the Knowes

See Yowe Lamb, The (Ca' the Yowes; Lovely Molly) (File: K124)

Ca' the Ewes Unto the Knowes

See Yowe Lamb, The (Ca' the Yowes; Lovely Molly) (File: K124)

Ca' the Yowes (II)

See Yowe Lamb, The (Ca' the Yowes; Lovely Molly) (File: K124)

Ca'eries Hae Sookit the Kye Dry, The

DESCRIPTION: The calves have sucked the cows dry but even if they all go dry "there's milk in the beddie where I lie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: nonballad animal mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1454, "The Ca'eries Hae Sookit the Kye Dry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7281
File: GrD71454

Cabbage and Goose

See Sale of a Wife (File: HHH226)

Cabbage Head Song, The

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Cabbage-Tree Hat, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's something neat in a cabbage-tree hat, When it fits the wearer's crown." All sorts of people wear them; they conceal social classes; even new chums learn about the headgear in order to blend in
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: clothes worker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 173-174, "The Cabbage-Tree Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9115
File: AnSt173

Cabin Boy

See The Maid in Sorrow (Short Jacket) [Laws N12] (File: LN12)

Cabin Boy (I), The

See Captain James (The Captain's Apprentice) (File: SWMS054)

Cabin Boy (II), The

See The Little Cabin Boy (File: FSC056)

Cabin Creek Flood, The

DESCRIPTION: "A sad and mournful history Of which I now will speak Concerning that awful storm That flooded Cabin Creek." Five hours of rain washes away the miners' homes. The government and neighboring towns send relief
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: flood disaster death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 106-107, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 114-116)
NOTES [25 words]: Although certainly based on a historical incident, the few details in the song and in Thomas's account do not let me locate it in historical records. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa106

Cabin in the Valley of the Pines

DESCRIPTION: "Oftentimes I find myself a-dreamin', Dreamn' of a mother's lullaby" that he heard in a southern cabin. He recalls the life there. "When my roamin's over I am goin'... To a little gray haired mother And my cabin in the valley of the pines."
AUTHOR: Albert E. Brumley (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 ("Super Specials," according to Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
KEYWORDS: home mother travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 33, "Cabin in the Valley of the Pines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V12705
File: ABLT033

Cadence Count

See Sound Off (Cadence Count, Jody Chant) (File: LoF317)

Cadger Bruce

DESCRIPTION: "The lottery would hae been complete Had cadger [traveling dealer] Bruce gane there to see't Or Jamie Birse the lousy breet Had he been there in the mornin'." Many people -- smiths, ploughmen, ... -- did go and "the lottery it's raised muckle din"
AUTHOR: Peter McCombie (source: Greig/Duncan3)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 621, "Cadger Bruce" (1 text)
Roud #6059
NOTES [38 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Baldyvin (621) is at coordinate (h2,v6) on that map [near Alford, roughly 23 miles W of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3621

Cadgers o' Dundee

DESCRIPTION: "Among some cadgers o' Dundee An awfu' row began, Between brave Charlie Perrie and famous Honey Tam." An angry Tam takes a knife to murder Perrie. Charlie catches Tam and hits him between the eyes; Tam surrenders
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: fight food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 50, "Cadgers o' Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Gath050

Caesar Boy, Caesar

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "Caesar boy, Caesar." The shantyman sings "Caesar drummer want paper drum." "Caesar drummer want kettle drum." "You look on Caesar no look on me" "Caesar drummer go boom boom boom"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: shanty
FOUND IN: West Indies(Nevis)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 42-43, "Caesar Boy, Caesar" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [26 words]: Abrahams has this as a Nevis hauling shanty. "The most common of the hauling shanties is directed at the drummer [in this case Caesar], making fun of him." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS042

Caesar, oh, Caesar

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "Caesar oh Caesar/ Thomas sailor run 'way" The shantyman sings: "See what frien' have done to frien'." Thomas promised to marry in May but he left his wife and went to sea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: marriage separation travel abandonment sea ship shanty husband wife whaler
FOUND IN: West Indies(St Vincent)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 100-102, "Caesar, oh, Caesar" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [26 words]: Abrahams quotes a blackfish whaler, "Thomas whaler, ... he leave his wife home and he went to sail... He leave an' he go to Trinidad. His wife she die." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS100

Caesar's Victory, The

DESCRIPTION: ""As was was sailing on the main, Well laded with great store of gain, We was in danger to be ta'en; FIve pirates' ships appeared." The crew of the "Caesar" resolve to fight, and succeed in beating off the pirates although one man is killed and seven hurt
AUTHOR: Words: unknown / Music: "Cannons Roar" by Christopher Fishburn
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Firth); tune said to have been written 1683
KEYWORDS: pirate ship battle escape
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 31, 1686 - The Caesar's five hour battle with pirated off St. Jago, according to Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 23, "The Caesar's Victory" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: PaSe023

Cahan's Shaden Glen

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes rambling and sees beautiful "Eliza of Cahan's shaden glen." Hecourts her, but "She will not condescend; I have no gold in store." He wishes her well and departs, wishing he could have gained her favor
AUTHOR: Francey Heaney?
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H538, pp. 364-365, "Cahan's Shady Glen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6882
NOTES [19 words]: Very possibly not traditional; Sam Henry did not list a source, and no other traditional versions are known. - RBW
File: HHH538

Cailin Deas Cruite Na MBo

See The Pretty Girl Milkin' Her Cow (File: San040)

Cailin Deas, The

DESCRIPTION: At Clontarf the singer meets a "charming cailin deas." He asks her name and father's dwelling place. She is Brian the Brave's daughter and loves to visits where her father "slew the Dane." The singer would give "all England's wealth" to see her again.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (recording, Siney Crotty on Topic TSDL369)
KEYWORDS: love beauty Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
976 - Brian Boru becomes King of Clare from 976
1014 - Brian Boru dies in battle against the Vikings at Clontarf
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #3074
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Conway, "The Cailin Deas" (on IROConway01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Eileen McMahon" (theme; also the aisling format and references there)
cf. "Granuaille" (theme; also the aisling format and references there)
cf. "Erin's Green Shore" (theme; also the aisling format)
NOTES [36 words]: This song is patterned on the "aisling." For more on aislings see the notes to "Eileen McMahon."
Conway learned the song from Siney Crotty (see Topic TSDL369, "The Lambs on the Green Hills," recorded in 1976/1977. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: RcTCaiDe

Cailin Gaelach, An (The Irish Girl)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer thinks of how nice it would be to have an Irish girl by his side. One morning, herding his cows, he sees a vision of a woman. He will care for the herds well because young women marry when they see a well cared for herd.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage marriage farming nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 7, "Cailin Gaelach" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [41 words]: O Boyle does not translate the text. There is a text on DruidStone site in Gaelic with English translation. The description follows that translation. O Boyle's conclusion that "men marry for the sake of cattle" disagrees with that translation. - BS
File: Oboy007

Cailin Rua, An (The Red-Headed Girl)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer praises his beautiful red-headed girl even though she drained his purse by drinking his ale and spending in the market on fancy shoes and ribbons instead of food and even though she ran off with the shop-boy. He prefers her to wealth.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love infidelity nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 8, "Cailin Rua, An" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ANCAILIN
NOTES [40 words]: O Boyle summarizes the text in English but does not translate it. There is a Digital Tradition text in Gaelic with English translation that is compatible with O Boyle's summary. The description follows the Digital Tradition translation. - BS
File: OBoy008

Cain and Abel (When the Great Day Comes)

DESCRIPTION: "Well, the Good Book says that Cain killed Abel, Yes, Abel, That he hit him in the head with the leg of a table." In the lion's den, Daniel tells the "cullud men" to get their white robes. "Oh, Lord, I'se ready, I'll be ready when the great day comes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious homicide nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 557, "Cain and Abel" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 557, "Cain and Abel" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, "Yes, Good Lord" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 14, "Yes, Good Lord" (1 text)
Roud #11827
RECORDINGS:
Cotton Belt Quartet, "We'll Be Ready When the Great Day Comes" (Vocalion 15263, 1926) [tentative identification; I have not heard the record - PJS]
File: Br3557

Cain Killed Abel

DESCRIPTION: A shanty about cane-cutting (!). "I was a cane-cutter but now I'm at sea, Stoop it, and top it, and load it, my boys; Once Cain killed Abel, but it won't kill me." "I worked very hard until I went to sea/" ""This cutting of cane it isn't much fun."
AUTHOR: Words: Merv Lilley / Music: Chris Kempster
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: work shanty nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 200-201, "Cain Killed Abel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 171, "Cane Killed Abel" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: FaE200

Cairistiona

DESCRIPTION: Scots Gaelic. The singer calls to Cairistiona, "Will you answer my cry?" After courting her, he went across the sea for years, and returns to find her dead.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love separation return death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Hebr))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 5, "Cairistiona (Christina)" (1 text+English translation, 1 tune)
Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides II, pp. 182-184, "Caristiona" (1 text+English translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [61 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland somehow fails to note the connection between his piece and that in Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides (the minor difference in names seems small excuse; the tunes are rather different, but both irregular, which probably hastened the process of change), but they share lyrics and plot; I do not doubt they are the same. - RBW
File: K005

Cairn-o'-Mount

DESCRIPTION: The singer rides out and hears a girl singing, "The Cairn-o'-Mount is bleak and bare, An' cauld is Clochnabane." The man offers her wealth and land if she will marry him. She promises to be true to her Donald. He reveals himself as Donald, and rich
AUTHOR: Alexander Balfour
EARLIEST DATE: c.1847 (according to Christie, 1876)
KEYWORDS: love courting disguise trick
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 106-109, "Cairn-o'-Mount" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #55, pp. 1-2, "Cairn-o'-Mount" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1042, "Cairn o' Mount" (11 texts plus a single verse on p. 629, 8 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 436-437, "Cairn-o'-Mount" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 26-27, "The Laird Abeen the Dee" (1 tune)
Roud #3794
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] (plot) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Scotland's Queen
The Mills o' Dye
Clochnaben
NOTES [17 words]: Christie: "The Ballad was written from the singing of a farm servant in Buchan about the year 1847." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: FVS106

Cairo (I)

DESCRIPTION: "There's a place out West where the Union troops Take toll from Rebel ships and sloops... She must recognize a custom house at Cairo." The Southerners will have a hard time taking Cairo, the key to Mississippi navigation. Prentiss and Lane will stop them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (Songs for the Nation for 1861, according to SilberCivWarFull)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar river
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 248-249, "Cairo" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The White Cockade" (tune) and references there
File: SCWF248

Cairo (II)

DESCRIPTION: "I would go to Cairo but the water's too high for me." "The girl I love got washed away ... swimming after me." "Cairo ... water running all over town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Bessie Mae Smith)
KEYWORDS: death drowning river flood nonballad lover
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1927 - Mississippi River floods, devastating the Delta region and leaving thousands homeless.
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Lil' Son Jackson, "Cairo Blues" (1960, on "Lil' Son Jackson," Arhoolie F 1004)
St. Louis Bessie (Bessie Mae Smith), "High Water Blues" (OKeh 8483, 1927)
Big Bad Smitty, "Cairo" (1991, on "Mean Disposition," Genes GCD 4128)
James "Son Ford" Thomas, "Cairo" (on USMississippi01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mighty Mississippi" (subject) and references there
NOTES [131 words]: Cairo (pronounced Kay-ro) is at the southern tip of Illinois, where the Ohio River joins the Mississippi.
From David Evans's liner notes to USMississippi01: "[Son] Thomas's 'Cairo' is partly based on a recording made by Li'l Son Jackson in 1948, but Jackson based his song on an earlier recording of Bessie Mae Smith from 1927." - BS
From The Knickerbocker Press, Albany NY, October 4, 1927, quoting from a speech by President Coolidge: "While high water in this [Mississippi River] basin has been of constant recurrence, the rise this year [1927] was two or three feet above any other record from Cairo to the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of over a thousand miles. Dikes were broken down in 145 places, submerging over 20,000 square miles, involving 174 counties in parts of seven states."
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcCair2

Caisson Are Rolling Along, The

See The Caissons Go Rolling Along (Caisson Song, Field Artillery Song) (File: NiM064)

Caisson Song

See The Caissons Go Rolling Along (Caisson Song, Field Artillery Song) (File: NiM064)

Caissons Go Rolling Along, The (Caisson Song, Field Artillery Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Over hill, over dale, as we hit the dusty trail, And the ciassons go rolling along...." "Then it's Hi! Hi! Hee! in the field artillery." The artillerymen are always available; they go into formation and fight
AUTHOR: Edmund L. Gruber (1879-1941)
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (source: Fuld)
KEYWORDS: soldier war nonballad travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 64-67, "Caisson Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, "The Caissons Are Rolling Along" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 156-157+, "The Caissons Go Rolling Along"
DT, CAISONS*
Roud #9547
SAME TUNE:
The Fighting 43rd (Flle: Hopk040)
in the Cellar of Murphy's Saloon (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 157)
Hiking ("Over hill, over dale, We will hit the greenwood trail") (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 85; Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 28; BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 57)
Over Hill, Over Dale ("Over hill, over dale, We have hit the dusty trail... cough, cough") (Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 112)
NOTES [56 words]: According to Fuld, Edmund L. Gruber wrote this song in 1907 for the Fifth Artillery Regiment, when portions of the regiment were reunited after a long separation. It was reportedly first printed in 1918, with an incorrect attribution to John Philip Sousa (perhaps based on the fact that he had created an arrangement for the song). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: NiM064

Caitilin Ni Uallachain (Cathaleen Ni Houlihan)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Irish nobles wander, banned, hoping for "the coming-to of Kathaleen Ny-Houlihan." She would be queen "were the king's son at home here." It is a disgrace that she is vassal to the Saxon. May he who led Israel through the waves save her
AUTHOR: Sparling: "A Jacobite relic translated [by James Clarence Mangan, 1803-1849] from the Irish of William Hefferan, called William Dall, or Blind William"
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Duffy)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion patriotic foreignlanguage nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, p. 31, "Caitilin Ni Uallachain" (1 fragment)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 94-96, "Caitilin Ni Uallachain (Cathaleen Ni Houlihan)" (1 text, 1 tune; no translator listed)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 89-90, "Kathaleen Ny-Houlahan"
Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 231-232, "Kathaleen Ny Houlahan" (1 text, translated by J.C. Mangan)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 141-142, 504, "Kathaleen Ny-Houlahan"
Charles Sullivan, ed., Ireland in Poetry, p. 62, "Kathaleen Ny-Houlahan" (1 text, translated by James Clarence Mangan, 1803-1849)
Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 273-275, "Kathaleen Ny-Houlahan" (1 text) [translated by James Clarence Mangan]
NOTES [262 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 31 fn. 73 is a fragment in Irish and English; Duffy/Sparling's translation by Mangan is the basis for the description.
Zimmermann p. 31 refering to "Caitilin Ni Uallachain": "In the eighteenth century poets were clinging to the hope that [help] would arrive from France or Spain, and they frequently alluded to a fleet bringing back to Ireland the Stuart king and his mighty allies"
Zimmermann p. 55, Sparling p. 141: Caitlin Ni Uallachain as a secret or coded name. for Ireland. - BS
Kinsella attributes the original Irish to William Hefferman.
Translator James Clarence Mangan, ironically, knew no Irish, according to Henry Boylan, A Dictionary of Irish Biography, second edition, St. Martin's Press, 1988, pp. 240-241; he took others' literal translations of poetry and versified them.
The image of Ireland as a lady wronged was very popular in Ireland (even though no one can seem to agree on the spelling). This lyric was one of the first examples. In 1902, William Butler Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory staged the play "Cathleen ni Houlihan," about the 1798 rebellion. Sir John Lavery painted Lady Lavery, with harp, as Kathleen in 1923. This beautiful image came to be used on Irish money and can be seen in Sullivan, p. 63.
My original description applies to Scott's English version: "Our hopes run high, the time is nigh To make the text of war. Our plans are laid, our weapons made, And soon our guns will roar." The [Irish] rebels prepare for war, calling upon Jesus to bless (and free) Cathaleen Ni Houlihan (=Ireland) - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: SBoA094

Cake, Cake, and Cairneyquhing

See The Lass o' Gonar Ha' (File: GrD4724)

Calabar, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls "dry-land sailors" to hear of the (Calabar), sailing the (Strabane canal). The food runs out. They hit mud, and throw off the captain's wife to lighten ship. They fight off a "pirate" scow. The captain says he'll take the train next time.
AUTHOR: John Trainor (1910) (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: canal humorous food disaster wreck
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H502, pp. 98-99, "The Cruise of the Calabar" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 17, "The Cruise of the Calabar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, pp. 32-33, "The Cruise of the Calibar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 62-63, "The Cruise of the Calibar" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CALABARR
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 16-17, "The Cruise of the Calabad" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 45-46, "The Cruise of the Calibar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1079
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The E-ri-e" (theme) and references there
cf. "The Wreck of the Mary Jane" (theme and first line)
cf. "The Wreck of the Varty" (theme and first line)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Manchester Canal
The Wreck of the Calibar
The Good Ship Calabah
The Strabane Fleet
NOTES [106 words]: Sort of an Irish version of "The E-ri-e." It doesn't follow that it's older, though; there are references to steam.
Harte makes the interesting comment that he never encountered a serious canal song, adding that a canalman told him that the worst danger on the canal boats was fleas! Harte's statement is a little strong -- there are a couple of minor canal disaster songs in the American tradition -- but he isn't far wrong. - RBW
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "Cruise of the Calabar" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)) - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: HHH502

Calais Disaster, The

DESCRIPTION: "Now all you good people of every degree, Come listen one moment with attention to me." On June 15, [18]73, many people take a boat ride to their homes. The boat leaks, and five of the people aboard are killed
AUTHOR: Reuben D. Waters (source: Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
KEYWORDS: death ship disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 15, 1873 - A boat accident near Calais, costing the lives of Lafayette Teachout, his wife, his daughter Dell, Mrs. Amasa McKnight, and Anna Tobey
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 215-217, "The Calais Disaster" (1 text)
Flanders-ChapBook Flanders-VermontChapBook, pp. 46-48, "The Calais Disaster" (1 text)
ST FlNG215 (Partial)
Roud #4654
File: FlNG215

Calder's Braes

DESCRIPTION: The narrative tells that the young man was present at the storming of Seringapatam (the capital of Tippoo Sahib, sultan of Mysore) which took place in 1798. He returns safe home but finds that his lass has died.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1806 (C. Randall, chapbook _The Bonny Lass of Calder Braes_, according to Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: love war separation return death Scotland India soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 95, "Calder's Braes" (1 fragment)
Roud #5790
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Logan Water" (tune, broadsides Bodleian Harding B 11(3238), 2806 c.15(284) and Firth b.28(13))
NOTES [41 words]: The description is quoted from the Greig/Duncan1 summary of the 1806 chapbook The Bonny Lass of Calder Braes. The Greig/Duncan1 fragment is one verse sung by the soldier who "left to face my country's faes, My weeping maid on Calder's Braes." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1095

Caledonia (I)

See Jamie Raeburn (Caledonia) (File: MA085)

Caledonia (II)

See Canada-I-O (The Wearing of the Blue; Caledonia) (File: HHH162)

Caledonia (III -- Jean and Caledonia)

DESCRIPTION: "Sair, sair was my heart, an' the tears stood in my een As I viewed my native hills an' I thought upon my Jean." Pressed by poverty (?), the two sadly part; he promises to be true, and wed no other, and someday to come back to marry her
AUTHOR: William Lockhart (source: Whitelaw, but see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: love separation emigration poverty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 237-239, "Jean and Caledonia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan8 1522, "Farewell to Caledonia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 116, "Jean and Caledonia" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 90, "Native Caledonia" (1 text)
Roud #3801
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Flowery Vale (The Irish Girl's Lament)" [Laws O29] (plot) and references there
cf. "Johnnie Doyle" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
cf. "The Dusky Glen" (tune, per Whitelaw)
NOTES [147 words]: Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(64), "Caledonia O" ("Sair, sair was my heart"), J. Lindsay (Glasgow), 1851-1910 is this song but I could not download and verify it.
Ford has seen two versions. "Whitelaw's book includes a song of two double stanzas bearing on the same theme, and with some lines nearly identical, but ours is a much more interesting, a fuller, and more individual performance." Whitelaw's text matches Ord-BothySongsAndBallads's -- with some spelling differences -- and, from what I could tell, broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(64). The two versions have almost the same two first verses; they share no other lines but the description above describes them both. Greig/Duncan8 is the Ford version.
Whitelaw: "This popular strain was written by William Lockhart." That leaves the origin of Ford's version in doubt, as well as the question of "which came first." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: FVS237

Calendar Rhymes

DESCRIPTION: Rhymes detailing the months of the year, e.g. "January brings the snow, Makes our feet and fingers glow"; "February brings the rain, Thaws the frozen lake again"; and so on to "Chill December brings the sleet, Blazing fire and Christmas treat"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: probably of various ages; nearly all published in nineteenth century nursery rhyme books
KEYWORDS: nonballad wordplay
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 45, "A Stratton Carol of the Months" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #329, p. 180, "(January brings the snow)"; #336, p. 182, ("February brings the rain"); #341, p. 182, ("March brings breezes, loud and shrill"); #354, p. 185, ("April brings the primrose sweet"); #359, p. 186, ("May brings flocks of pretty lambs"); #371, p. 188, ("June brings tulips, lilies, roses"); #377, p. 189, ""Hot July brings cooling showers); #383, p. 190, ("August brings the sheaves of corn"); #389, p. 190, "Warm September brings the fruit"); #393, p. 191, "Fresh October brings the pheasant"); #402, p. 193 ("Dull November brings the blast"); #412, p. 194, ("Chill December brings the sleet")
Roud #1599 and 1954
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Months" (Flanders and Swann parody incorporating some of the traditional elements; DT JANMONTH)
NOTES [75 words]: Some of the verses of this are slightly similar to "The Months of the Year"; Roud to some extent combines them, and it is likely enough that "The Months" swallowed some of these rhymes. But that song is so different in form that I have split them.
Even with that separated out, this is a very amorphous item, and may not have been sung in the consecutive form implied by the Baring-Gould entries. But tracking each fragment individually is hopeless. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: BGMG329

Calibar, The

See The Calabar (File: HHH502)

Calico Printer's Clerk, The

DESCRIPTION: In Manchester, the singer met Dorothy Drew at a ball in 1863. They danced and while "doing Varsoviana [he said] "I love you." While she visited "a near relation" he read that she had married -- "danced away with" -- "Jones, a calico printer's clerk"
AUTHOR: Harry Clifton (source: Greig/Duncan8)
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.27(412))
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity love marriage dancing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1900, "The Calico Printer's Clerk" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, pp. 18-19, "The Calico Printer's Clerk" (1 text, 1 modern tune)
Roud #13210
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.27(412), "Calico Printer's Clerk" ("In Manchester, that city"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1865; also Harding B 16(180a), "The Calico Printer's Clerk"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rock the Cradle, John" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
NOTES [50 words]: Greig/Duncan8 is only the chorus; broadside Bodleian Firth b.27(412) is the basis for the description. - BS
For background on Harry Clifton (1824-1872), see the notes to "The Good Ship Kangaroo." The tune in Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire is not Clifton's; it was set byNic Jones and Dave Moran. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: GrD81900

California (I)

DESCRIPTION: "California, Klondike, Victoria, Tuapecka, Dunstan, Who wants to know? Where else to go? Where is the gold? Some place with snow! Where is the gold?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: mining gold travel nonballad
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 59, "California" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Col2059

California (II)

See Ho for California (Banks of Sacramento) (File: E125)

California (III)

DESCRIPTION: "On Zion's land there shall be rest For all the Saints that's here oppress'd." "To California's land we'll go, Where, from the mountains, wine doth flow." "Zion's band" will leave their homes for a better place, for which they thank the Lord
AUTHOR: Elder John Parry (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Millennial Star, according to Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: travel home wine | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 57-59, "California" (1 text)
Roud #10826
NOTES [28 words]: It should be noted that the Mormon migration was to Utah; they never got near California, even in the larger sense in which that term was sometimes used in the 1840s. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS057

California As It Is

DESCRIPTION: "I've been to California and I haven't got a dime, I've lost my health, my strength, my hope, and I have lost my time." All he has left are spade and pick -- and a cold. The singer regrets all the things he left behind. Don't go to California.
AUTHOR: Words: Thaddeus W. Meighan (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (apparently printed as a broadside, based on Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: gold mining hardtimes travel warning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 100-102, "California As It Is" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jeanette and Jeannot" (tune) and references there
File: LDC100

California Ball

DESCRIPTION: "'Twould make out eastern people cave To see the great and small... all 'splurging' at a ball." "Wait for the music (x3) And we'll all have a dance!" The singer describes the dancers, babies, old maids, drunks -- but still people want another ball
AUTHOR: Words: John A. Stone ("Old Put")
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Put's Golden Songster, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: music dancing humorous baby drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 94-95, "California Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wait for the Wagon (I)" (tune) and references there
File: LDC094

California Bloomer

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes Miss Ella, an educated female gold-miner who has "taken two degrees" and wears bloomers to show her knees. He'll leave for the States soon. Cho: "Take your time, Miss Ella, do And I will rock the cradle Give the ore all to you"
AUTHOR: Words: Probably John A. Stone ("Old Put") (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Put's Original California Songster)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer describes Miss Ella, an educated female gold-miner who has "taken two degrees" and wears bloomers so that she can show her knees. He describes her crossing the plains and washing her feet in a brook; she has also done some successful panning for gold dust. He says he'll leave for the States as soon as he can. Cho: ."..Take your time, Miss Ella, do/And I will rock the cradle/Give the ore all to you"
KEYWORDS: return travel clothes mining work worker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1849 - California gold rush begins
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 103, "California Bloomer" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "California Bloomer" (on LEnglish02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lucy Long (I)" (rune)
cf. "Lucy Long (II)" (tune)
NOTES [132 words]: In the late 1840s Amelia J. Bloomer designed the loose trousers, gathered at the knees, that immediately were called "bloomers." They were widely popular among young women, whom it freed up to be far more physically active than they could be in the long dresses of the time. Men viewed them with alarm and derision, calling the women who wore them "bloomer girls," not a complimentary term. - PJS
The song says "Miss Ella, she is twenty-nine." It should probably be noted that, in the 1850s, that makes her very much an old maid -- and the fact that she apparently hasn't had much luck with men even in the Gold Rush, where women were rare, clearly marks her down as even less desirable. In fact, at first reading of this song, I wondered if "Miss Ella" was actually a mule, not a woman. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RcCalBlo

California Blues (Blue Yodel #4)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going to California where they sleep out every night (x2), I'm leaving you, mama, You know you don't treat me right." The singer claims he has a home everywhere he goes. He refuses to worry, and will ride the blinds if he has no railroad fare.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952
KEYWORDS: separation travel train
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 505, "The California Blues" (1 text)
Roud #11804
NOTES [21 words]: Although Brown's text is obviously a popular Blue Yodel, the version recorded apparently did not include a yodeling part. - RBW
File: Br3505

California Boys

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

California Brothers, The

See The Dying Californian (I) (File: R183)

California Joe (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Well, mates, I don't like stories," so the singer tells his: of rescuing an orphan teenager when riding with Jim Bridger. She says she will love him, then her uncle takes her to his home. She is told Cowboy Jack is dead, but at last they are reunited
AUTHOR: Captain Jack Crawford, "The Poet Scout"
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (Crawford, in The Poet Scout)
KEYWORDS: cowboy love rescue orphan reunion drowning
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So,SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 136-139, "California Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 30, pp. 173-181, "California Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #74, "California Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CALIFJOE
Roud #4645
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "California Joe (II)" (parody of this piece)
NOTES [167 words]: Crawford describes this as a true story written in the year California Joe died (1876), though he does not explicitly identify California Joe.
The Concise Dictionary of American Biography notes that John Wallace "Captain Jack" Crawford (1847-1917) served in the Union army from 1862, and "succeeded Buffalo Bill Cody as chief of scouts" [in the 1876 Sioux campaign]. It adds that he wrote "sincere but banal verse." This last description seems to be true: Granger's Index to Poetry cites only three of his poems, none of which is cited more than once. The three are this poem, "The Death of Custer," and (get this) "Broncho versus Bicycle." It appears Crawford is remembered primarily for his scouting work; I couldn't find his name or descriptions of his writings in any literature or poetry references.
Additional information about Crawford can be found in Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging.
Western scout Jim Bridger (1804-1881) was part of many exploratory expeditions from 1822 to 1868. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Lark137

California Joe (II)

DESCRIPTION: "I am a Forty-niner, come here long ago," working on the Yuba and making a fortune. His wife begs him to return home. But he had an accident, went insane, went to prison. All his family died before he could return home. Now he's mining again
AUTHOR: Hector A. Stuart (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (The [San Jose, CA] Pioneer, June 16, 1877, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: gold mining separation prison return death family derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 104-105, "California Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "California Joe (I)" (original that this derives from)
NOTES [44 words]: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 86, calls this a parody of "California Joe (I)," and sets it to the tune of that piece. The relationship seems to me much weaker than parody, although it is certainly possible it was intended to use the same tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC104

California Oranges

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "California oranges, Tap me on the back." Or, "...fifty cents a pack."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food | oranges
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #77, "California Oranges" (1 short text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #54, "California oranges, 50¢ a pack" (1 text)
File: AJRV077

California Song, The

See The Rolling Stone [Laws B25] (File: LB25)

California Stage Company, The

DESCRIPTION: "They started as a thieving line." The shortcomings of the California Stage Company are described. Passengers are crowded into dirty, smoky cars; passengers must often help push or walk. The singer urges listeners to rise up against the Company.
AUTHOR: John A. Stone (Old Put)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Put's Golden Songster)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The shortcomings of the California Stage Company are described. Passengers are crowded into dirty, smoky cars; women must sit in tobacco spit while men talk politics and swear; it's dusty, and passengers must often help push or walk. The singer urges listeners to rise up against the Company. Cho: "They started as a thieving line In eighteen-hundred-and-forty-nine All opposition they defy So the people must root hog or die"
KEYWORDS: travel technology ordeal nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1849 - Beginning of California gold rush
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 54-55, "California Stage Company" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8060
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "The California Stage Company" (on LEnglish02
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dandy Jim of Caroline" (tune)
NOTES [11 words]: Again, we need the keyword "bitching," plus, perhaps, "squalor." - PJS
File: RcCaStCo

California Trail

DESCRIPTION: A complaint about the troubles of the trail to Mexico: Bad food (e.g. antelope steak), having to cook with buffalo chips rather than wood, fires that burn cooking women, Indians, people who shirk guard duty, etc. The singer advises giving up
AUTHOR: unknown (Credited by Thorp to "Montana Kate" Childs, 1869)
EARLIEST DATE: 1900
KEYWORDS: warning travel hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys IV, pp. 58-60 (15-16), "California Trail" (1 text, 1 tune); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 18-20, "California Trail" (1 text)
Roud #8051
File: TF04

Calinda

See Michie Preval (File: CNFM166)

Calino Casturame

See Callino Casturame (Colleen Og a Store; Cailin O Chois tSiure; Happy 'Tis, Thou Blind, for Thee) (File: HHH491)

Call Dinah

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: The singer has five miles to walk but back problems slow her down. She asks Dinah to go in her place to buy sugar, coconut oil, and fish. Dinah won't answer.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: disability hardheartedness request rejection food nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 10-11, "Call Dinah" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Call Dinah" (on WIEConnor01)
File: JaMu010

Call John the Boatman

DESCRIPTION: The singer orders, "Call John the Boatman." A storm is rising, and he is needed -- but he sleeps too soundly for even the tempest to rouse him: "Well, the louder that you call him, the faster he'll sleep." Sometimes sung as a round
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Girl Scout songbook "Sing Together") (but see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: sailor storm
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 173, "Call John the Boatman" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 99, "Call John the Boatman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9433
NOTES [402 words]: Steve Woodbury writes about a quest to find the sources of this song. I have shortened these slightly, but the work is all his. - RBW
I found "Call John the Boatman" in Sing Together: A Girl Scout Song Book published in 1949. That's probably the source for its current circulation. However, there are some differences in the words. Sing Together credits John Hilton (1599-1657) for the song, but I couldn't find it in Hilton's Catch That Catch Can or other collections of old rounds....
It turns out that 'Call John the Boatman' was also collected by Doerflinger from an old deepwater sailor who reported its being sung on shipboard. Doerflinger published it in Songs of the Sailor and Lumberjack. (Slight variants in tune and words.) Sing Together credited "Call John" to The School Round Book (n.d.; 1852?) which is available online. They indeed have the tune, credited to Hilton, but with different words: "Now When the Summer's Fruits Are Past." But again, I couldn't find any round with that opening line in Catch That Catch Can or other sources of early rounds. The round, "Call John the Boatman," also appears in The School Round Book!
So now we have the same round, with two different sets of words, attributed to Hilton, but not traceable to Hilton.
Then [I looked] in Rimbault's The Rounds, Catches and Canons of England (1865). To "rescue" the rounds music of the early English composers, Rimbault re-published many of them, with "the words revised, adapted, or re-written by the Rev. J. Powell Metcalfe" to avoid any drinking, ribaldry, or other topics unsuitable to modern use.... Sure enough: there is "Now When the Summer's Fruits Are Past" and the information that Hilton's original words were "Call George Again, Boy." While I didn't find this title in Catch That Catch Can, it is in Drinking Songs, ed by Laura Conrad.
So now we have the round that Hilton actually wrote: "Call George Again, Boy." With Hilton's title... [I located] the round in Hilton's 'Catch That Catch Can' (1652) [Da Capo Press reprint, 1970].
And we have the new (non-drinking) words presumably written by the Rev. Metcalfe (though also published in 1852(?)): "Now When the Summer's Fruits Are Past."
And we have a different set of words, from sometime before 1852(?): "Call John the Boatman." (From the initial words, would appear to derive directly from "Call George Again, Boy.")
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Doe173

Call Lummy Koo

See Ena, Mena, More, Mi (File: DeSh052B)

Call Me Hangin' Johnny

See Hanging Johnny (File: Doe031)

Call Me Moma Gie Me

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks that mama be called to get him out of the plantation jail. Call his mama and his gal and tell them his good friends are not good friends any more: they don't do what good friends should do.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1994 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: request prison help nonballad friend mother
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 20, "Call Me Moma Gie Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ElTO020

Call My Little Dog

DESCRIPTION: "Call my little dog. What shall I call him? Call him Ponto, Call him Carlo, Call him J-A-C-K."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad dog
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 138, "Call My Little Dog" (1 text)
Roud #15765
File: Br3138

Call of Home, The

DESCRIPTION: "Across the foaming ocean... In a corner of old Ireland there's a spot that's dear to me." The singer recalls the cottage where he was born. The ocean has called him away, and now he lives in a great dirty city. He cannot go home, but wishes it well
AUTHOR: Jean Currie ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H674, p. 219, "The Call of Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH674

Call of Quantrell, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls his hearers to rise; Penick's Union forces are coming, "But the Quantrell they seek shall be far, far away." The singer promises that, when Penick flags, they will turn on him and regain their territory
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (Immortelles)
KEYWORDS: outlaw Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 21, 1863 - Quantrill's Raiders destroy Lawrence, Kansas, killing about 150 men.
May 10, 1865 - Quantrill is mortally wounded on his way to Washington (where he hoped to stir up trouble by assassination). He dies 20 days later.
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp.353-354, "The Call of Quantrell" (1 text)
Roud #7771
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Quantrell" (subject) and references there
cf. "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)" (form"
NOTES [230 words]: As is so often the case with outlaw ballads, this paints much too pretty a picture. For a brief background on Quantrill (the name used in Confederate records), see the notes to "Charlie Quantrell."
To tell this song from other Quantrell pieces, consider this first half-stanza and chorus:
Up! Up! comrades, up! The moon's in the west,
And we must be gone ere the dawning of the morn;
The hounds of old Penick will find out our nest,
But the Quantrell they seek shall be far, far away....
Cho: Rouse, my brave boys, up, up and away,
Press hard on the foe ere the dawning of day;
Look well to your steeds so gallant and [i.e. in?] chase,
That they may never give o'er till they win in the race."
Based on both form and content, I think this was inspired by "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)" or one of its relatives.
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety says that W. R. Penick, who pursued Quantrill, was eventually a Missouri brigadier. Based on Boatner's Civil War Dictionary, however, he did not attain that rank in Union service. Either he was a brigadier only by brevet (though even that is probably excluded by his absence from Phisterer's Statistical Record of the Armies of the United States), or he was only a state brigadier, with a lower national rank. Or he may have been a colonel who had command of a brigade without appropriate rank. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Beld353

Call of the Fire, The

DESCRIPTION: "The call of the fire comes to us through the shadows That follows the close of the day, Its flames bring us peace and a calmness of spirit That drives all our troubles away.... May we go on believing in this love we're receiving...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 286, 337, 473, "Call of the Firel" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 99, "The Call of the Fire" (1 text, tune referenced)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 50, "The Call of the Fire" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wonderful One" (tune, according to Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings)
File: ACSF286C

Call the Hogs to Supper

DESCRIPTION: "Call the hogs to supper." One is fat, one is lean, and one is for the butcher.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 37, ("Tiggotty tiggotty gutter") (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Thread the Needle" (game) and references there
NOTES [19 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame has this rhyme for a "Thread the Needle" game played as "Pig in the Gutter" on May Day. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGap37B

Call to the Races at New-Market, The

See New Market (The Call to the Races at New-Market) (File: JACB257)

Callahan

DESCRIPTION: "It being in the depth of winter," the Hilton under Callahan goes to catch halibut. The dories are out but the snow storm forces them to return empty handed. "The courage of Gloucester fishermen... I'm sure they are the best"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea ship ordeal storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18198
RECORDINGS:
Pat Sullivan, "Callahan" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcCallah

Callieburn

See You Boys O' Callieburn (File: RcYBoCal)

Calling In, Calling Out

DESCRIPTION: Rope-skipping rhyme/game. "Calling in, calling out, I call (Mary) in and our."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 105, "(Calling in, calling out)" (1 text)
File: SuSm105C

Callino Casturame (Colleen Og a Store; Cailin O Chois tSiure; Happy 'Tis, Thou Blind, for Thee)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic, verses telling the blind to be happy because they cannot be dazzled by the beauty of the girl he loves, apparently in vain
AUTHOR: English words by Douglas Hyde
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Hyde, Abhráin grádh chúige Connacht) (title known to and music arranged by William Byrd, died 1623)
KEYWORDS: love beauty foreignlanguage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H491, p. 225, "Happy 'Tis, Thou Blind, for Thee" (1 text, 1 tune -- the Hyde translation set to music by Sam Henry, with very unhappy results. The various components may be traditional; the result is not)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 793, "Callino Casturame" (1 tune, presumed to be this based on Chappell/Woodridge)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 84-85, "Calino Casturame, or Colleen Oge Astore" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Douglas Hyde, _Abhráin grádh chúige Connacht, or, Love songs of Connacht_, T. F. Unwin, 1893 (available on Google Books), p. 131, "Happy It Is" (1 text, apparently with an Irish original)
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 267-259, "Colleen Oge Asthore" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream)" [Laws K9] (tune?)
cf. "The Croppy Boy (I)" [Laws J14] (tune?)
cf. "McCaffery (McCassery)" (tune)
NOTES [255 words]: For background on the work of Douglas Hyde, see the notes to "My Own Dark Maiden."
According to Hoagland, this is the tune used for "The Croppy Boy," though she doesn't say which "Croppy Boy" poem she means. John Faulkner says that "The Croppy Boy," "Lord Franklin," and "McCaffery" use the tune, so it's presumably "The Croppy Boy (I)" [Laws J14], but I'm not sure how far to trust Faulkner.
Hoagland also claims that Shakespeare refers to this in Henry V, act IV, scene iv (line 4, I believe, though she doesn't say so). I don't buy it, though. The text of the First Folio is corrupt here, and the claim rests on a conjectural emendation. Editors don't even agree on the emendation. It's hard to accept a claim of dependence based on a text that isn't even secure!
In the First Folio, it isn't even in Act IV; it's in Act III, and no scene divisions are marked. The actual line is:
Pist[ol:] Qualtitie calmie cutture me.
Art thou a Gentleman? What is thy Name? discusse.
The Riverside Shakespeare emends the relevant words to (the suggestion being Malone's):
Qualtitie! [Calen o] custure me!
The SIgnet emends:
Qualttie calmie custure me!
and glosses "possibly a corruption of an Irish refrain to a popular song: 'Calen o custore me,' for 'the girl from the (river) Suir.'" This is also the approximate reading (and explanation) of the Orgel/Braunmuller Penguin edition, except that it has "Qualitie," not "Qualtitie," but still says it is gibberish.
The only part I'm sure of is the last three words of the above statement. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HHH491

Calliope (This House is Haunted)

DESCRIPTION: "This house is haunted, this house is haunted, It fairly makes my blood run cold."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: ghost supernatural nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 349, "Calliope" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: San349

Calliope Song

DESCRIPTION: Pseudo-instrumental, with three or more groups imitating instrumental sounds: "Oom-pah-pah," "Um-sss-sss," "Up-peep-peep," "Um-tweedle-tweedle," with the chorus of "Bicycle Built for Two" perhaps sung over the instruments
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad music derivative campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 315, 318, "Calliope" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bicycle Built for Two (Daisy Bell)" (tune)
cf. "The More We Are Together," i.e. "Did You Ever See a Lassie" (tune)
cf. "O Where O Where Has My Little Dog Gone" (alternate tune)
File: ACSF315C

Calm

DESCRIPTION: "Had I the downey goney's wings That hover round our trackless way Not all the wealth that whaling brings Should tempt me longer here to stay." He would not be afraid of Pacific storms, since he could fly away. He longs for his family at home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1832 (Journal of the Pocahontas)
KEYWORDS: home separation return
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 55, "Calm" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2011
NOTES [45 words]: Round lumps this with "The Wings of a Goney, found on pp. 40-42 of Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang. But the only line they have in common is the very first, and even that is not identical. I'm splitting them until and unless a third version shows up that links them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HGam055

Calomel

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes how the doctor makes regular visits and with equal regularity prescribes Calomel. He comments, "I'm not so fond of Calomel," and asks, "How many patients have you lost? How many patients have you killed Or poisoned with your Calomel?"
AUTHOR: possibly J. J. Hutchinson (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety); Brewster's manuscript copy was dated 1832
KEYWORDS: doctor medicine humorous disease
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 441-442, "Calomel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 40, "Mister A. B." (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 334, "Calomel" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 91, p. 217, "Calomel" (1 text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 69, "Calomel" (2 texts)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 79, pp. 100-101, "Calomel" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 203-204, "Calomel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 54, pp. 126-127 "Calomel" (1 text)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 222, "Calomel" (1 fragment)
DT, CALOMEL(*)
ADDITIONAL: Sarah Stage, _Female Complaints: Lydia Pinkham and the Business of Women's Medicine_, 1979 (I use the 1981 Norton paperback), p. 49-50, "(Calomel)" (1 excerpt)
Roud #3770
NOTES [464 words]: Calomel (Hg₂Cl₂, or Mercury (I) chloride) was one of the first tools in the physician's repertoire that actually did what it was supposed to do. Of course, given what it was used for (a purgative), it is questionable whether it was often needed. In addition, it contains mercury, which is poisonous -- sufficiently so that its use was discouraged long before it was banned; it could be used as a poison. Indeed, the kidneys are usually the first to suffer. Heiserman, p. 280, notes that it is now used as a fungicide and insecticide -- and yet it was used on (or, rather, in) human beings!
MacInnis, p. 137. also notes that calomel was used to make tracer bullets. Fun stuff.
Stage, p. 49, says that in addition to its laxative effect (the thing the doctors used it for) it caused intense salivation and that it was particularly harmful to the tissues of the mouth, which would bleed and lose their outer surfaces, often resulting in loss of teeth as well as great pain.
As a chemical, it is so old that the origin of the name is unknown. Crosland, p. 72, reports, "the term was used to denote the white mercurous chloride, whereas the name suggests a black substance" (apparently connected with Greek μελας, melas=black). The name, according to Crosland's footnote, goes back to Turquet de Mayerne, who died in 1654 or 1655.
Emsley, p. 35, says Calomel began to be used in 1886 and was heavily used until 1919 (which, to be sure, contradicts the date in Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana; Blum, p. 114, refers to it as an "old-time remedy," implying that it had been around for quite a while. We know that mercury salts were used for many years as a treatment for syphilis; probably calomel was one of the forms so used).
Over-use of mercury compounds could lead to a number of fatal conditions, especially involving kidney and liver failure. But the compounds were widely used as skin conditioners because they sometimes resulted in giving the skin an attractive pink color. When this condition arose naturally, e.g. from overuse of calomel, it was known as "pink disease" (Emsley, p. 41).
Despite all these uses, the main medical use of calomel was as a very high-powered laxative. The use of purgatives to treat almost any disease was common in some places and times. There was a medieval view that all illnesses were caused by poisons or toxins, so the only cure was to bleed or purge the toxin out. Of course, the usual effect of this was to kill the patient -- but that just proved that there had been poison, right? So it wasn't until 1863, e.g., that the United States Army stopped supplying its doctors with calomel (Stage, p. 62).
According to Stage, p 49, this song was sung by the Hutchinson Family. Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong says J. J. Hutchinson wrote it. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: SWM203

Calton Weaver, The

See Nancy Whisky (File: K279)

Calvary

DESCRIPTION: Story of Jesus' crucifixion told from the point of view of one of his grieving followers. Jesus carries his cross to Calvary, where he is crucified, suffers, and dies without complaint. There is darkness over the earth, but Jesus is resurrected.
AUTHOR: Words: Beverly F. Carradine (1848-1931), Music (of the Boggs version): Unknown, possibly Dock Boggs (source: Stephen Griffith)
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (lyrics copyrighted); 1968 (recording, Dock Boggs)
KEYWORDS: grief execution punishment resurrection death dying Easter ordeal Bible religious supernatural clergy Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #12169
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "Calvary" (on Boggs3, BoggsCD1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Saw You My Savior?" (plot)
NOTES [68 words]: This should not be confused with the Sacred Harp hymn of the same name. - PJS
Based on Paul's description, it would appear that this song generally follows the passion account of John rather than the other three gospels -- e.g. Jesus carries his own cross (John 19:17; compare Mark 15:21, etc., where Simon of Cyrene carries the cross) and makes no complaint (compare John 19:25-30 to, e.g., Mark 15:34). - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: RcCalva

Calvin C

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you aged people, come listen to me, While I sing you the praises of old Calvin C," who is so big and hairy he looks like a bear. His family is bear-like. The singer hopes that next year there will be "a bounty on bear" (so he can shoot Calvin)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: humorous animal hunting
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 107-108, "Calvin C" (1 text)
File: EkSm107

Cam' Ye By the Salmon Fishin'

See Salmon Fishers (File: MSNR078)

Cambric Shirt, The

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Camden Town

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a pretty girl, asks her to sit by him (and proposes marriage; they make love); she refuses to marry a man who has led her astray, whereupon he pushes her into the river to drown (or she drowns herself, whereupon he is seized with remorse)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (collected from William Hughes)
KEYWORDS: courting sex rejection seduction river violence homicide death drowning suicide lover
FOUND IN: Britain(England) Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 76, "Camden Town" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #564
RECORDINGS:
Mary Delaney, "In Charlestown There Lived a Lass" (on IRTravellers01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wexford Girl (The Oxford, Lexington, or Knoxville Girl; The Cruel Miller; etc.)" [Laws P35] (plot)
cf. "Down by Blackwaterside" (plot)
NOTES [95 words]: This seems to be an amalgamation of "Down by Blackwaterside" and "The Wexford Girl," but as it shares few words with either song, and the denouement is quite different, I classify it separately. - PJS
Roud lumps it with "Pretty Little Miss" [Laws P18], and that, given its textual state, is possible. But, when in doubt, we split. - RBW
Mary Delaney's version on IRTravellers01 includes a verse from "The Silvery Tide"; specifically "Now as Willie, he went out walking, He went out to take fresh air, And he seen his own love Mary In the waves of the silvery tide." - BS
File: McCST076

Came a Riding (Zum ta di ya)

DESCRIPTION: "Came a-riding on a day / Came a-riding on a day, Zum-ta-di-ya-di-ya." "Suitor jaunty, bold and gay, Zum-ta-di...." "Oft he asked in manner bold, how could I this wreathe withhold?" "This little heart I'll give to you, Could I be sure your own were true"
AUTHOR: English translation of (allegedly) Czech song by Martha C. Ramsay (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (SongsOfManyNations)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 145, "Came a Riding" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "Came A-Riding" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 8) (12th edition, p. 7)
NOTES [23 words]: Averill's statistics imply that this is fairly well known. But the only non-camp reference I can find is to a Latter-Day Saints hymnal. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF145C

Came A-Riding

See Came a Riding (Zum ta di ya) (File: ACSF145C)

Came Ye O'er Frae France

DESCRIPTION: Geordie [George I] is ridiculed. "Jocky's gane to France, And Montgomery's lady" to learn to dance. He'll return with "Sandy Don," "Cockolorum," "Bobbing John, And his Highland quorum" "How they'll skip and dance O'er the bum o' Geordie!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1819 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1)
KEYWORDS: nonballad political Jacobites royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 53, "Cam Ye O'er Frae France?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 120, "Cam Ye O'er From France?" (1 text)
DT, CAMFRANC*
Roud #5814
NOTES [1535 words]: Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1: "'Montgomery's lady' may have been the lady of Lord James Montgomery, who was engaged in a plot in 1695, and who, it is likely, would be connected with the Jacobites. Neither can I tell who 'Sandy Don' and 'Cockolorum' are; but it is evident that by 'Bobbing John' is meant John. Earl of Mar, who must, at the time this song was made, have been raising the Highlanders."
Greig/Duncan1: "From a manuscript book owned by William Walker. "Jacobite Song, from an old chapbook - about 1796-8." - BS
The level of sarcasm in this song is obviously high. "Geordie Whelps" is George I -- a likely target for jokes even from his British supporters, given that he was old, fat, ugly, and spoke no English. As for what the Jacobites thought, well, there are limits to what we can repeat....
"And his bonnie woman": There are wheels within wheels on this one. George I's wife, whom he married when he was still just the heir to the duchy of Hanover, was Sophia Dorothea of Luneburg (Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 31). But George I grew tired of her after she bore him two children, and after being ignored long enough, she had an affair with one Count Philip Konigsmarck. It was discovered, Konigsmark was made to vanish, and George I was officially divorced from Sophia Dorothea. He also had her imprisoned for the rest of her life (Sinclair-Stevenson, pp. 39-44).
That left George I free to carry on with his mistresses, who were widely regarded as extremely ugly -- one of them was about fifty (Balen, p. 39), which obviously is decades older than the average mistress and a cause of genuine astonishment. Thackerey (quoted by Sinclair-Stevenson, p.26), describes them as follows: "The Duchess [Madame Schulenberg, made Duchess of Kendal by George] was tall, and lean of stature, and hence was irreverently nicknamed the Maypole. The Countess [Madame Kielmansegge, George's Countess of Darlington] was a large-sized noblewoman, and this elevated personage was denominated the Elephant." Schulenberg also was nicknamed "the goose," and so George I came to England "riding on a goosie."
Hatton, p. 50, reports that "Melusine was tall and thin enough to be called a malkin (a hop-pole or scarecrow) by George's mother, annoyed at the complications which her son's love affair were bringing into her life, and the 'Maypole' in England after 1714, were she was contrasted to the 'Elephant,' George's half-sister, Sophie Charlotte von Kielmansegg, who by then had become quite matronly in figure. The one known portrait, head and shoulders only, from Melusine's youth shows a most attractive, if shy, face; but compared with the petite and charmingly plump Sophia Dorothea, there may well have been something awkward and gawkish in Melusine's carriage caused by her consciousness of being taller than most women and certainly taller than George."
Hatton adds (p. 51) that she was "intelligent and well-educated, though clearly not as clever as either George's mother or sister." They had three daughters, (Anna) Louise, (Petronella) Melusine, and (Margarethe) Gertrude, who was most unusual among Hannoverians as being esteemed for her beauty. But George refused to acknowledge any of the girls (Hatton, p. 35); they were officially listed as children of Melusine's relatives (Hatton, p. 52).
Robert Walpole eventually declared that Melusine was "as much 'Queen of England as anyone was,'" and there were even reports that George I married her -- but, perhaps because of the complicated English marriage laws, the liaison never had any official status in Britain (Hatton, p. 63). But George I seems to have cared for her children and grandchildren far more than his son and heir George II -- who, after all, was the child of the wife he put away.
Hatton, pp. 50-51, says that Melusine actually proved useful in George's relationships with the English nobility, but of course that wouldn't endear her to the Jacobites!
Madame Kielmansegge -- Sophia Charlotte, Freiin von Keilmansegg (1675-1725) -- was not in fact George I's mistress; she was his half-sister, the daughter of Klara Elizabeth von Meysenbug (Hatton, p. 23). Little surprise, though, that George liked her; being illegitimate, she was no threat to him, but she was like him in a lot of ways. She married Johann Adolf von Kielmansegg in 1701 (Hatton, p. 99); he went on to become the Master of Horse in Hannover, but came to England with George when he became King there (Hatton, p. 129).
The nickname "Bobbing John" for the Earl of Mar was well-earned. The first Jacobite rebellion, such as it was, came in the aftermath of the 1707 passage of the Act of Union between England and Scotland. It wasn't so much a rebellion as a scream of protest, and naturally went nowhere, even though Louis XIV of France supported it. The Earl of Mar enthusiastically supported Queen Anne at this time (Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 50).
When George I showed up, though, Mar changed his tune and gathered many Highland chiefs to rebel (Sinclair-Stevenson, pp. 45-47). Hence the "Highland Quorum."
Ewan MacColl says that the "blade" who would "drive a trade at the loom o' Georgie" is the Count Konigsmark. This seems nearly certain; as mentioned above, Count Philip Christopher von Konigsmarck (the spelling used by Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 27) had an affair with Sophia Dorothea, the wife of George I, in the early 1690s (Sinclair-Stevenson, pp. 36-39).
Both parties were warned about their indiscretions (Hatton, p. 56), but it made little difference. They didn't even manage to find consistently reliable go-betweens. Sophia Dorothea wanted a divorce (Hatton, p. 57) -- after all, George I was so antisocial that he spent much of his time living in just two rooms (Balen, p. 71) -- but that was not easily arranged.
George I was understandably miffed (though you can hardly blame the wife of such a creature for seeking something more nearly resembling a human being; apparently she at first tried to resist Konigsmarck, but his attentions were too flattering and she gradually gave in; Hatton, pp. 54-55).
Eventually it appeared that they were planning a secret meeting in Hanover; it was thought that they would flee together (Hatton, pp. 58-59 -- although how they would have paid for al this is an open question; Konigsmark had little money, and Sophia Dorothea's finances were in the hands of George himself). But they never managed to meet.
Konigsmark was made to disappear (Sinclair-Stevenson, pp. 40-41; Hatton, p. 59, although the exact way in which he was murdered is unknown, and Hatton, p. 66, declares that George cannot have had a role in it). George demanded and got a divorce from his wife, and -- thinking it would make her free to marry Konigsmark -- she agreed (Hatton, p. 60). But her blade was dead, and she had no defenders; at 28, she was locked away (Sinclair-Stevenson, pp. 42-43). She would spend the remaining 32 years of her life under guard. Hatton, p. 61, says that the confinement was not as strict as sometimes supposed -- but it wasn't freedom, not even of the limited sort usually granted noble and royal wives. Hatton blames most of her troubles on politics among the electors of the Holy Roman Empire. Small comfort. Hatton's conclusion on p. 64 is surely correct: "She was essentially lonely, George was not."
George I's dynasty was not actually harmed (though there were a few Jacobite remarks that his children were not his), but it was certainly embarrassed. Fortunately there was already a royal heir, the future George II.
"If George [I] was troubled by guilt at any point throughout [Sophia Dorothea's] long exile, he gave no sign of it. He never commented on his ill-starred marriage, nor its tragic end. He did not marry again, but lived in apparently placid contentment with Melusine von Schulenberg, whom he later ennobled as the Duchess of Kendal.
"Yet there remained in George's carefully preserved, quiet life an unignorable reminder of a partnership he had never wanted, and which had caused him such public humiliation. The two children he had fathered with Sophia Dorothea could not be expunged or denied. His daughter he seems to have regarded benignly, although she played almost no part in his daily life; but his relationship with his son could not be similarly consigned to the margins of his public world. As his heir, the young Prince George represented a dynastic and political fact which George was compelled to acknowledge. But he could not -- and would not -- be brought to love the boy" (Hadlow, p. 26)
The rumors of illegitimacy about George II, the son of George I, were almost certainly false; he was in many ways like George I, though not quite as bear-like. Indeed, he was far more like his father than his mother, since she was said to be quite pretty and gay -- two words that no one has ever applied to *any* Hannoverian that I can recall.
There was a sort of scandalous history of all this, the Historie secrette de la duchesse d'Hannover, published in 1732, supplying a lot of (probably untrue) gossip (Hatton, p. 66). It might have influenced this piece. On the other hand, it's hard to believe that a song about George I, who died in 1727, would have been written so late. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 3.5
File: DTCYOFF

Camel's Hump Is an Ugly Lump, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Camel's hump is an ugly lump Which well you may see at the Zoo...." "We climb out of bed with a frouzly head, And a snarly-yarly voice. We shiver and scowl and we grunt and we growl." The cure for the hump is to go out and garden
AUTHOR: Words: Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (Just So Stories for little children)
KEYWORDS: animal disease gardening | camel hump
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 170-171, "When you climb out of bed with a frowsly head" (1 text)
Roud #25408
File: KSUC170D

Cameloun

DESCRIPTION: "It's Tarvis parish that I cam frae... To the Fyvie lands in the mornin'." The singer works at Cameloun, where they make him rise too early and feed him dreadful food. He lists the people he works with. If any ask about him, he says to say he is gone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: food hardtimes work farming
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #16, p. 2, "Cameloun"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 72-74, "Cameloun"(2 texts, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan3 389, "Cameloun" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 260-261, "Cameloun" (1 text)
Roud #5592
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pitgair" (tune, per Greig)
NOTES [36 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Cameloun (389) is at coordinate (h4,v8) on that map [roughly 25 miles NNW of Aberdeen] - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ord260

Cameron's Gotten's Wife Again

DESCRIPTION: "Cam'ron's gotten's wife again Cam'ron's gotten's wife again ... Before he risk his life again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1730, "Cameron's Gotten's Wife Again" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13130
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Gr81730

Cameronian Cat, The

See The Presbyterian Cat (The Cameronian Cat) (File: FVS319)

Cameronian's Dream, The

DESCRIPTION: "In a dream of the night I was wafted away, To the muirlands of mist, where the martyrs lay; Where Cameron's sword and his Bible are seen...." The speaker watches the skies open to carry Cameron to heaven
AUTHOR: James Hyslop [Hislop] (1798-1827) (source: Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania and many internet sites)
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Edinburgh Magazine)
KEYWORDS: death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 22, 1680 - Battle of Ayre-moss/Airds Moss, in which Richard Cameron was killed
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 269-270, "The Cameronian's Dream" (1 text, probably composite or compared with print)
Roud #15005
NOTES [504 words]: I strongly doubt that this was ever sung, but as a poem it is fairly well known. Or, at least, there are lots of copies of it around the Internet. Author James Hyslop is famous enough to have a Wikipedia bio, and an entry in the Dictionary of National Biography, so I won't repeat details, but he doesn't seem to have written anything noteworthy except this piece.
Hyslop may have been impressed with Richard Cameron (1648-1680), but I'm not. The word "fanatic" seems almost too weak for him. Keay/Keay, p. 127, say that he was born at Falkland in Fife, and brought up in the Episcopal tradition of what was then the Scottish church; he was educated at St Andrews University. "Field preachers" converted him to an extreme Covenanter viewpoint. He was sent to the Netherlands in 1678, and ordained there the next year.
Magnusson, p. 492, has this to say about the lead-up to his death:
"The divisions in the Covenanting party which had become apparent in the weeks before the Battle of Bothwell Brig [in 1679, for which see "Bothwell Bridge" [Child 206]] had widened even further in defeat. After the battle, Richard Cameron, the spiritual leader of the 'Cameronians,' returned to Scotland from Holland to stir things up. He was implacably opposed to any compromise with the state and to anyone who accepted the government's indulgences."
Eventually Cameron went into open rebellion; on the anniversary of Bothwell Brig, June 22, 1680, he pulled a Luther and nailed a declaration, the "Declaration of Sanquhar," to a cross in that town. In it, he "disown[ed] Charles Stewart," i.e. King Charles II. It was, literally, a declaration of war: "Also we... do declare a war with such a tyrant and usurper and hte men of his practices, as enemies to our Lord Jesus Christ, and His cause and covenants" (Keay/Keay, p. 127; Magnusson, p. 493).
It didn't work too well. Cameron didn't spark a popular religious rising; rather, he and his handful of followers were hunted. On July 22, 1680, he and sixty followers were found by about 120 dragoons ((Magnusson, p. 493) set out by General Tam Dalyell (Keay/Keay, p.21) at Airds Moss in Ayrshire. The Cameronians inflicted casualties on the government troops, but seven including Cameron and his brother were killed, and most of the rest captured, tortured, and transported to the colonies. (Magnusson, p. 493; Keay/Keay, p. 127, say that nine Cameronians were killed).
Even after the Church of Scotland got rid of its bishops and most Covenanters rejoined, the Cameronians (originally known as the "Society People" until Cameron's death) refused to reunite; they felt that the Church should be independent of the state and supreme (OxfordCompanion, p. 156). They survived in folklore, and in a small sect, for many years, but as a political movement, they never amounted to much.
A lot of the imagery of this seems to come from the ascension of Elijah in 2 Kings 2:9-13 and the ascension of Jesus in Acts 1:9, but more seems to be just from general prophetic imagery, e.g. Ezekiel. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe269

Camp 13 on the Manistee

DESCRIPTION: "As husky a bunch as ever was seen Was the lumberin' crew of Camp Thirteen," one of whom, Sam the blacksmith, intimidates them all and attacks the name of Christ. Jack the Trapper beats Sam in a fight. All celebrate the defeat of Sam and/or atheism
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: Bible fight logger recitation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 55-63, "Camp 13 on the Manistee" (1 text in irregular stanzas)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 22, "Camp Thirteen on the Manistee" (1 text in irregular stanzas)
Roud #6519
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Silver Jack" [Laws C24] (subject of beating a non-religious man)
NOTES [175 words]: This is a bit of a curiosity (and was surely never a folk song, although it may have been a folk recitation). Jack the trapper, despite his humble occupation, knows the Latin instruction "De mortuis nihil nisi bonum" (from Greek ον τεθνηκοτα μη κακολογειν), at least in the English rendering "Never speak ill of the dead" (the more common English rendering being, "Of the dead, nothing but good"). Yet Jack asserts that this should apply to Jesus. It is true that Jesus died -- but Christian doctrine, which Jack is allegedly defending, asserts that Jesus, since his resurrection, is alive, and was carried alive into heaven (although Acts 1:9 does not explicitly use the word "alive," clearly it regards Jesus as being alive when carried up. Rev. 1:18 explicitly asserts, "I [Jesus] was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever." There are numerous mentions of dead humans being "alive with Christ" or similar. Thus there is a fundamental weakness in Jack's argument about why one should not speak ill of Jesus, no matter what one's religion. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: BBun055

Camp a Little While in the Wilderness

DESCRIPTION: Spiritual. "Oh fathers are you ready? Ready? Oh, ready?... For I am going home... We're all making ready." "We'll camp a little while in the wilderness... And then I'm going home." "Zipper" song: for "fathers", later verses have "mothers," "children."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (recording, Cas Wallin)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious home
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Cas Wallin, "Camp a Little While in the Wilderness" (on OldTrad2. FarMtns3)
File: RcCLWITW

Camp at Hoover Lake, The

DESCRIPTION: "The first day of September we were all at hand For to go to the shanty at Sheehan's command." The crew leaves families to work at Hoover Lake. They live in a shanty built "like a nest of mudhens." The workers in the camp are described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: work logger lumbering moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #19, "The Camp at Hoover Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4373
NOTES [26 words]: For melodic reasons, Fowke suggests that this is composite. It's hard to tell from the lyrics, which are typical of logger songs, but she's probably right. - RBW
File: FowL19

Camp Barber's Song, Black Forest

See The Love-of-God Shave (Lather and Shave) [Laws Q15] (File: LQ15)

Camp Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Ike and Jerry, hiking down de main Southern (x2)." "Dead on time, Lawdy, Lawdy, Lawdy (x2)." "I don't want no corn bread,meat, and black molasses." "My old captain, he don't treat me like he used to." "Goin' back home, good Lawd."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad food
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 232-233, "Camp Blues" (1 short text)
Roud #18177
File: KaWa232C

Camp Fire Goodnight

See Camptire Goodnight (Now as the Sun Sinks Slowly) (File: ACSF463G)

Camp Fire Has Gone Out, The

DESCRIPTION: "Through the progress of railroads our occupation's gone, So we will put ideas... into a song." The cowboy came west, but now is gone. The singer misses the old days. The angels say, "Oh, here they come to heave, the campfire has gone out."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy unemployment railroading
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 20-21, "The Camp-Fire Has Gone Out" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 407, "The Campfire Has Gone Out" (1 text)
Roud #8035
File: ThLo020

Camp Fire Law, The

DESCRIPTION: "Worship God -- Seek beauty, give service, and nowledge pursue. Be trustworthy ever, in all that you do. Hold fast onto health, and work glorify, and you will be happy in the law of the Fire."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 167, "The Camp Fire Law" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 81, "Campfire Law" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 52, "Camp Fire Law" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton" (tune)
NOTES [38 words]: This song argues that we should have a keyword "moralizing." Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs reports a very high number of collections (35), but I strongly doubt it was voluntarily sung by anyone except your 97-year-old maiden aunt. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF167C

Camp Fire's Burning

See London's Burning (File: Dolb136)

Camp Hymn

See God Who Touches Earth with Beauty (File: ACSF332G)

Camp Meeting Tonight On the Old Camp Ground

DESCRIPTION: "There is preaching (singing, meeting) tonight on the old camp ground (2x), There is preaching (singing, meeting) tonight (2x), There is preaching (singing, meeting) tonight on the old camp ground"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt05)
KEYWORDS: derivative religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Camp Meeting Tonight On the Old Camp Ground" (on MJHurt05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tenting Tonight" (source)
NOTES [8 words]: Hurt's hymn is derived from "Tenting Tonight." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: RcCMTOCG

Camp Menu Song

See Today in Monday (Slumgullion Song) (File: ACSF098A)

Camp of Israel, The

DESCRIPTION: "Altho' in woods and tents we dwell, Shout, shout O Camp of Israel!" "Though oppression's waves roll o'er us... We've a better day before us." Anything is better than "the cursed Gentile yoke." They hope to escape their persecutors
AUTHOR: Eliza R. Smith (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1848 (Millennial Star, according to Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes home travel | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 49-50, "The Camp of Israel" (1 text)
Roud #10821
NOTES [58 words]: This seems to me to clearly be invoking Israel's time in the wilderness after the Exodus (which makes Brigham Young the equivalent of Moses). The comparison is interesting: In the Wandering in the Wilderness, every adult in Israel, except Caleb and Joshua, was said to have been killed. Surely not what the Mormons wanted as they headed for Zion! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS049

Camp on de Cheval Gris, De

DESCRIPTION: French-Canadian dialect song. Singer visits his abandoned lumber camp and reminisces. He recalls his friend Johnnie reading a letter over and over, and discovers it's a love-letter. He tells Johnnie he's never revealed the letter's secret.
AUTHOR: William Henry Drummond
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (Drummond, The Habitant)
LONG DESCRIPTION: French-Canadian dialect song. Singer visits his old lumber camp, now abandoned, and addresses this song to his old friend, Johnnie, reminiscing about the crew and the times they had. He recalls Johnnie reading a letter over and over, and one day finding the letter himself, reading it, and realizing it's a love-letter. He dreams they are back together, but awakens to find himself back in the old camp with his grandson. He tells Johnnie he's never revealed the letter's secret.
KEYWORDS: love return lumbering work logger moniker friend dream
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 73, "De Camp on de Cheval Gris" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: William Henry Drummond, M.D., _The Habitant and other French Canadian Poems_, Putnam, 1897, pp. 112-117, "De Camp on de 'Cheval Gris''" (1 text)
ST Be073 (Partial)
Roud #8847
NOTES [48 words]: Note that this is a composed piece, and I find no evidence of a tune; I'm not sure that it justifies its inclusion in Beck. William Henry Drummond also wrote "The Wreck of the Julie Plante," which is probably traditional, and "'Poleon Doré," which is in the Index but probably isn't. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Be073

Camp on McNeal, The

DESCRIPTION: Times and names of the crew that worked one winter for A and R Loggie. While times don't seem very hard "some of the boys ... brought with them the flu"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: lumbering moniker logger disease
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 58-60, "The Camp on McNeal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1945
NOTES [45 words]: Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick: "McNeal Brook flows through the wilderness between the Little Sevogle and the Little Southwest Miramichi Rivers....around 1920 Arthur and Stanley MacDonald put in a winter there in one of the camps of A & R Loggie Ltd of Loggieville." - BS
File: IvNB158

Camp Seven Song

DESCRIPTION: "It was early in October, fall of 1896, I found myself in Menominee and in an awful fix, We hired out to Arseneau." They need to cut two million feet of lumber before they can go home. The singer describes the hard work and toasts Arsenaeu and the loggers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes lumbering moniker food cook
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 226-227, "Camp Seven Song" (1 text)
Roud #6496
File: BBun226

Camp Thirteen on the Manistee

See Camp 13 on the Manistee (File: BBun055)

Campaign for General Smith

DESCRIPTION: "Kinderhoos, Kass, Kalhoun, or Klay, Kan surely never win the day" but "General" Smith can. Or "Come then, O Americans, rally to the standard of liberty"; trample the tyrant, "Then yon proud eagle to its height may soar, And peace,,, reign forevermore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Journal of American Folklore LVIII)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1844 - Presidential election of 1844, won by James K. Polk, in which Joseph Smith made a gesture toward running prior to his lynching
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 33-35, "Campaign for General Smith" (2 fragments)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 251, "(No title)" (1 text)
Roud #10814 and 10815
NOTES [209 words]: Although these appear to be separate songs, and Roud gives them separate numbers, they seem always to appear together, so I didn't see much point in splitting them.
The context, as pointed out by Cheney, is the Election of 1844, and the list of candidates indicates it was written before either party had made its nominations. "Klay" is of course Henry Clay, who had been one of the three anti-Jackson candidates in 1824 (coming in fourth in the electoral vote), then the "National Republican" candidate in 1832, then the Whig nominee in 1844. "Kalhoun" is John C. Calhoun, who had been Andrew Jackson's vice president (although they didn't get along any too well); he was never a major party nominee although he was often given consideration. "Kass" is presumably Lewis Cass, who would eventually be the Democratic nominee in 1848.
Which leaves "Kinderhoos." I don't think there can be any question but that this is a mistake for "Kinderhook," the home town of Martin van Buren, Andrew Jackson's hand-chosen successor in 1836, who was defeated for re-election in 1840 and wanted his job back.
It's ironic that the song seems to have no hint of the actual Democratic nominee of 1844, James K. Polk -- who was, to be sure, the prototypical "dark horse." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS033

Campaign of 1856, The

DESCRIPTION: "Old Benton had a daughter, Fair Jessie was her name, The Rocky Mountain ranger A-courting her he came." "Buck and Breck, neck and neck, A yoke of oxen true, Pulling to the Kansas log -- Gee, whoa, haw!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: courting political
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 341, "The Campaign of 1856" (1 text of two stanzas, perhaps not from the same song)
Roud #7838
NOTES [221 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety has no actual proof that this piece (pieces?) connects to the Campaign of 1856, let alone that it is a campaign song, but there is little doubt that it comes from that era. "Buck and Breck" are James Buchanan and his Vice President, John C. Breckinridge. The "Kansas Log" is the problem of "bleeding Kansas," a burning issue that neither president Pierce nor president Buchanan ever solved.
The first verse quoted by Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety is another matter. It might be unrelated to the 1856 campaign, although it clearly describes John C. Frémont (1813-1890), the Republican candidate of 1856 (the first Republican presidential candidate ever, in fact).
Frémont made his reputation as a western explorer; hence his common title "The Pathfinder" and the reference in the song to the "Rocky Mountain Ranger." Frémont married Jessie Benton (1824-1902), the daughter of Thomas Hart Benton (1782-1858).
Benton and Frémont had an interesting relationship: Benton didn't like the younger man sniffing after his daughter, so he managed to have Frémont explore the Des Moines river. But John and Jessie Frémont married secretly after his return in 1841. Benton then became a strong supporter of Frémont and helped arrange for other expeditions. - RBW
File: Beld341

Campaign Song

See Bryan Campaign Song (File: Wels078B)

Campanero, The

DESCRIPTION: The sailor complains about the conditions on the Campanero. "The skipper is a bulldozer... The mate he wants to fight." He finally concludes that getting married -- even getting married twice -- is better than serving on that ship
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Fragment in Frothingham, _Adventure_)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor abuse humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 84-85, "The Campanero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 471-472, "The Handy Bandy Barque" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 349-350]
ST Doe084 (Partial)
Roud #3094
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Campanayro
File: Doe084

Campbell the Drover

See Campbell the Rover (File: K269)

Campbell the Rover

DESCRIPTION: "The first day of April I'll never forget; (Three) English (lasses) together they met." They offer Campbell a spree in a pub, then leave him to pay the bill. He escapes by tricking the landlord and leaving him with his thumbs plugging a cask
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs; MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: drink trick party landlord
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 269, "Campbell the Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 126-127, "Three English Rovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 68, "Campbell the Drover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 297-299, "Paddy and the Three English Plagues (Three English Rovers)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DROVCAMP
Roud #881
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. John Powers, "Pat" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irishtown Crew" (tune & meter)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Three English Blades
Three English Rovers
Campbell the Drover
File: K269

Campbell's Mill

DESCRIPTION: The singer wanders out and sees a pretty girl. He goes up to her and courts her. She refuses to give her name, and asks why he is talking to her. He offers to marry her and take her away from the mill. She refuses; she has a love and is no match for him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty rejection
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H762, p. 368, "Campbell's Mill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 10, "Campbell's Mill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6884
NOTES [95 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: In 1830, Campbell's Mill "was the last building on the town side of Belfast and beyond was open countryside ...; it finally ceased trading as the Irish Flax Spinning Co Ltd in about 1920."
In Leyden's version, taken from Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H762, the maid "works in Campbell's Mill." Leyden comments that "It makes a welcome change in a traditional song that not only does the girl rebuff the advances of this 'fine well looking gentleman' for her lover's sake, but also because she has the security of a trade." - BS
File: HHH762

Campbells Are Coming, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Campbells are coming, o-ho, o-ho! (x2), The Campbells are coming from bonnie Loch Lomond...." Argyle leads the van; the pipes sound. The singer expects them to win honor and success
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1748 ("A Choice Collection of 200 Favorite Country Dances")
KEYWORDS: Scotland soldier nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 116, "The Campbells Are Comin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 281, "The Campbells Are Comin'" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 44, "The Campbells are Comin'" (1 text)
Fuld, pp. 157-158, "The Campbells Are Coming"
DT, (CAMPBLL* -- the Burns text)
Greig/Duncan1 116, "The Campbells Are Comin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 37, "The Campbells are Coming" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #314, p. 432, "The Campbells are comin" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1790)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #299, p. 309, "The Campbells are comin" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSWB281B (Full)
Roud #5784
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Yankees Are Coming" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Yankees Are Coming (File: Hud124)
The Camlachie Militia/The Russians are Coming (broadsides Murray, Mu23-y2:002, "The Camlachie Militia," ("The Russians are coming, oh dear, oh dear!"), Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1855; same broadside as NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(49); [in broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:074, "The Russian in Glasgow," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C, this is given the tune "Joanne of Paris," but it's clearly this song; another Murray broadside, broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:075, "The Russians Are Coming," James Lindsay (Glasgow), probably c. 1855), does not appear to be the same piece]
The Northmen Are Coming (by George Perry) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 110)
Our Jackson Is Coming, oh, ho! oh, ho! (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 244)
The Gallant Old Hero ("In a little Log Cabin, From whose humble door") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 274)
The Hero Statesman ("He comes from the West, in the strength of his name") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p. 58)
Old Abe's Lament ("Jeff Davis is coming, Oh! dear, Oh! dear") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 192)
The Southrons Are Coming ("The Southrons are coming, heigho! heigho") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 195)
NOTES [73 words]: Various theories have been offered about the historical significance of this song, which was certainly in existence by 1745. One has it that it concerns the suppression of the 1715 Jacobite rebellion; another, that it is concerned with the events around Mary Stewart's deposition. These theories and others like them are, at best, possible.
Robert Burns rewrote the song for the Scots Musical Museum (#299), keeping chorus and one verse. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB281B

Campfire Has Gone Out, The

See The Camp Fire Has Gone Out (File: ThLo020)

Campfire Meeting, The, or Gather Round the Campfire, Brethren

DESCRIPTION: "Gather round the campfire, brethren, On these we here have met To rejoice... For the State of Deseret." Here amid the mountains they can practice their religion in safety. there "Modern Israel's glorious gospel banner To all men will be unfurled"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious home
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 75-76, "The Campfire Meeting, or, Gather Round the Campfire, Brethren" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10832
File: ChMS075

Campfire Prayer

DESCRIPTION: "For nights with stars: For paths, for paths to follow, And for the hills, the hills to climb; For love to cast Its glow in deeply shadowed places... for all these wonderfully glorious things, We thank thee, Lord, we thank thee, thank thee, Lord"
AUTHOR: Words: Rowe Wright (soource: Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings)
KEYWORDS: religious campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 188, 195, "Camp Fire Prayer" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 93, "Campfire Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition,, p. 52, "Campfire Prayer" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Danny Boy (The Londonderry Air)" (tune) and references there
NOTES [47 words]: Zander and Klusmann's two editions list this to different tunes; Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition lists it to "Danny Boy," but Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings lists it as being to "The Tender Apple Blossoms." The tune they print is pretty close to "Danny Boy," though. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF188C

Camphor Balls

DESCRIPTION: "Camphor balls, Four-a-penny, If you don't come quick, You won't get any."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | camphor balls
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 44, "(Camphor Balls)" (1 text)
Roud #19547
File: PKKB044B

Camphor Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "The old man went to the barn, To get some corn to fed some pigs." A pig is lying on the ground. The old man tries to revive it. The pig jumps on him. Sister Sal brings camphor to revive him. "He has never been to feed them hogs since."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Henry, collected from Mrs. Samuel Harmon)
KEYWORDS: animal injury humorous farming
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 7-8, "The Camphor Song" (1 text)
NOTES [31 words]: Camphor -- C(10)H(16)O -- is the characteristic component of mothballs. It thus can be used both to revive a person (in small quantities) and to hurt animals (usually in larger doses). - RBW
File: MHAp007

Campin' Song

DESCRIPTION: "Go wash in Hoot James's mudhole (mudhole), Go wash in Hoot James's mudhole, Some soap and some sand and a cob in each hand, Go wash in Hoot James's mudhole."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 96, "Campin' Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #16293
File: Arno096

Camping in the Bend

See Four Little Johnny Cakes (File: PFS276)

Camptire Goodnight (Now as the Sun Sinks Slowly)

DESCRIPTION: "Now as the sun sinks slowly, And birds are going to nest, All of the Camp Fire maidens, too, Must take their rest. Then as the fire grows fainter, And we go into the night, Good Great Spirit guard us And guide our steps aright."
AUTHOR: Kathryn Court (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: fire nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 463, "Camp Fire Goodnight" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Now Our Camp Fire Fadeth" (frequently sung together)
File: ACSF463G

Camptown Races

DESCRIPTION: "De Camptown ladies sing dis song, Doo-da! Doo-da! De Camptown racetrack five miles long... Gwine to run all night! Gwine to run all day I'll bet my money on the bob-tail nag...." The singer describes the races and how he won a "pocket full of tin"
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1849
KEYWORDS: racing money nonballad horse
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 39-42, "Gwine to Run All Night or De Camptown Races" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 419, "Camptown Races" (1 fragment)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 41-42, "Camptown Races" (1 text, 1 tune, plus the parody "'Lincoln Hoss' and Stephen A.")
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #239, p. 17, "The Camptown Raxer, or, Gwine to Run All Night" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 45 and #5/64, p. 45, "Camptown Races" (1 text)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 40, "The Camptown Races" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 34, "Camptown Races" (1 text)
Saunders/Root-MusicOfStephenCFoster-Vol2, pp. 477-478+496, "Camptown Races Arranged for the Guitar" (1 text, 1 tune, probably not arranged by Foster)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 270, "Camptown Races" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 10-11, "'Gwine To Run All Night,' or De Campton Races" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 352-354, "Camptown Races" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 64, "De Camptown Races" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 76-78, "De Camptown Races" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 158-159, "(De) Camptown Races--(Sacramento)"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 167, "Camptown Races" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 23, "Camptown Races" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 11, "De Camptown Races" (1 text)
DT, CAMPTWN*
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, part III, p. 44, "Camptown Races" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST RJ19039 (Full)
Roud #11768
RECORDINGS:
Kanawha Singers, "De Camptown Races" (Brunswick 337, 1929)
Pete Seeger, "Camptown Races" (on PeteSeeger24)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lincoln Hoss and Stephen A." (tune)
cf. "De Six-Bit Express" (tune)
cf. "Ho for California (Banks of Sacramento)" (tune)
cf. "The Du Dah Mormon Song" (tune)
cf. "Du Dah Day" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Lincoln Hoss and Stephen A. (File: SRW042)
De Six-Bit Express (File: NiMo212)
Ho for California (Banks of Sacramento) (File: E125)
The Du Dah Mormon Song (File: Hubb236)
Du Dah Day (File: Hubb237)
Hurrah for the Bigler Boys (1851 gubernatorial campaign song written by Stephen Foster himself) (Evelyn Foster Morneweck (Stephen Foster's niece), _Chronicles of Stephen Foster's Family_, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1944, p. 390)
We'll Beat 'Em ("The Garfield boys they sing this song, We'll beat 'em, beat 'em") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p.19)
NOTES [209 words]: Spaeth, p. 107, notes that a "folk-song" called "Hoodah Day" is very similar to this song, and speculates that it or "Sacramento" could have been the original of the Foster song. Fuld, however, notes that no verifiable printing of either piece predates the Foster song.
Emerson reports an interesting bit of folk processing applied to this song in the late twentieth century: He came across a man who was singing the chorus, "Gwine to WORK all night, Gwine to WORK all day," which Emerson says suggests the laborer saw himself in the role of the (work)horse.
TaylorEtAl, p. 63, "Within a few years [of the publication of the song] the town of Camptown, New Jersey changed its name to Irvington. A newspaper writer suggested that Foster's race-track song had brought the New Jersey town so much notoriety that its citizens changed the name of their town in self-defense." This appears not to be the reason for the change, but it makes good folklore.
It appears that most of us now sing this song in a way Stephen Foster did not intend. Morneweck, p. 377, reports, "The second syllable of the little refrain, 'Doo-dah!' is pronounced dah as in dandy, not daw as in dark. At least that is the way Morrison [Foster, Stephen's brother] sang it." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: RJ19039

Camptown Races, De

See Camptown Races (File: RJ19039)

Can a Dockyard Matey Run?

DESCRIPTION: A smear on workers in naval dockyards. "Can a dockyard matey run? Yes, by Christ, I've seen it done. When the policeman rings the bell, He drops his tools and nips like hell"; when in danger, evidently, he can be made to work (but perhaps not otherwise)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy work police derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 70, "Can a Dockyard Matey Run?" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come" (tune)
File: Tawn053

Can Cala Me

See Padstow May Day Song (File: K086)

Can I Forget the Days of Bliss

DESCRIPTION: "Can I forget the days of bliss, that I so often spent with thee, Can I forget the parting kiss, Thy pledge of love to me?" No, he cannot forget her, though the seas take him away; her voice will stay with him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 46, "Can I Forget" (1 barely legible transcription, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _The National Melodist: First Series_, W. Glass, 1837 (scans available at the National Library of Scotland), p. 35, "Can I Forget the Days of Bliss" (1 text)
NOTES [44 words]: It''s hard to believe this is traditional, but the Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania version differs from the National Melodist text at several points, plus it has tune, and the National Melodist does not. So someone remembered it. Don't ask me why. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe046

Can I not syng but hoy

See Jolly Wat (File: OBB103)

Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight?

DESCRIPTION: The tramp asks to be allowed to spend the night in the barn, adding that he had no tobacco or matches. He explains how he used to live a settled life, but then a stranger came to town and made off with his wife and son.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recordings, Charlie Poole, George Reneau)
KEYWORDS: abandonment rambling poverty hobo request
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Randolph 841, "Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight?" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 502-504, "Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight?" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 841A)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 40, "A Tramp in the Rain" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 356, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister?" (2 texts)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 70, "Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight Mister" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 117-118, "May I Sleep In Your Barn To-Night, Mister" (1 text)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #82, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 93, "The Tramp" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 116-118, "Let Me Sleep In Your Barn" (1 text, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 15-15, "May I Sleep In Your Barn To-night Mister?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 28, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #768
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley & Tex Isley, "Can I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister?" (on Ashley01)
Gene Autry, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister?" (Conqueror 7765, 1931)
Boone County Entertainers, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister" (Supertone 9182, 1928)
Jeff Calhoun [pseud. for Vernon Dalhart], "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister?" (Grey Gull 4118, 1927)
Kentucky Mountain Boys, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister?" (Supertone S-2027, 1930)
[Walter "Kid" Smith & the] Carolina Buddies, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister" (Perfect 160, 1930)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Can I Sleep In Your Barn?" (Victor V-40264, 1930)
Frank McFarland & Robert Gardner, "May I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight" (Brunswick 203, 1928; Supertone S-2027, 1930; rec. 1927)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight Mister" (Columbia 15038-D, 1925; on CPoole02)
Catherine Power, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Red Fox Chasers, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister?" (Gennett 6547/Supertone 9182, 1928)
George Reneau, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister?" (Vocalion 15149, 1925)
James Roberts, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister?" (Conqueror 7254 [as Joe Reeves], 1929; rec. 1928) (Banner 32205/Perfect 12726/Romeo 5074/Conqueror 7765 [as Joe Reeves], 1931)
Ernest V. Stoneman and Fiddler Joe [Samuels], "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister?" (Okeh 45059, 1926); Ernest V. Stoneman, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister?" (Challenge 153/Challenge 312/Gennett 3368/Herwin 75530, 1926)
Tennessee Mountaineers [Charlie Poole?] "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister" (Broadway 8146, rec. 1929)
Jim Whalen, "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister?" (Champion 15545, 1928)
Kid Williams & Bill Morgan [pseuds. for Walter Smith & Lewis McDaniel], "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister?" (Perfect 160, 1931)
Marc Williams, "Can I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister" (OKeh 45467, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tramp's Story" (plot)
cf. "The Lehigh Valley" (plot)
cf. "The Deserted Husband" (theme)
cf. "Red River Valley" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Let Me Sleep in Your Tent Tonight, Beal (by Odell Corley, then 11 years old) (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp.137-138; fragment, perhaps from Greenway, in Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 187; Kristina Horton, _Martyr of Loray Mill: Ella May and the 1929 Textile Workers' Strike in Gastonia, North Carolina_, McFarland & Company, 2015,, p. 198. For Manville Jenckes, the villain of the song, see the notes on "Chief Aderholt")
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Honest Tramp
Can I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister?
NOTES [22 words]: Carson J. Robison credits this to E. V. Body, but "Body" gets credit for too many things for the attribution to amount to much. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R841

Can of Grog, The

DESCRIPTION: "When up the shrouds the sailor goes And ventures on the yard, The landsman who no better knows Believes his lot is hard." The sailor describes his hard life, but notes the comfort the sailors take in grog
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Journal from the Ann)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 73-74, "The Can of Grog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2023
File: SWMS073

Can of Spring Water, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a lass on her way to a well. He asks her parents' name. She rejects his advance but he seduces her. Subsequently she marries someone else but has a baby to go with her to the well.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 19(64))
KEYWORDS: seduction sex marriage children
FOUND IN:
Roud #5215
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(64), "The Can of Spring Water" ("One evening in May as I carelessly strayed"), J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899; also 2806 c.15(35) [barely legible], "The Can of Spring Water"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Well of Spring Water" (form)
NOTES [12 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 19(64) is the basis for the description. - BS
File: BdCaSpWa

Can the Circle Be Unbroken?

See Will the Circle Be Unbroken (File: R635)

Can We Clean Your Windows?

DESCRIPTION: "Can we clean your windows, mum? We'll make 'em shine, Bloody fine; We'll make 'em shine, Bloody fine. Not today. Run away! 'All right,' says poor Jim, As he threw down his bucket, And he called out 'Drat it! Can we clean your windows, mum?'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, "Can We Clean Your Windows?" (1 text)
Roud #10539
File: BrPa067B

Can Ye Sew Cushions

DESCRIPTION: "O can ye sew cushions, And can ye sew sheets, Can you sing ba-loo-loo When the bairn greets?" "And hee and baw, birdie, and he and baw, lamb... My bonnie wee lamb." (The singer talks of the child's future life.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: nonballad baby
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 135, "(O can you sew cushions)" (1 text)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 64, "O can ye sew cushions" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 82, "Oh, Can Ye Sew Cushions" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SEWCUSHN* CUSHION2
Roud #5527
NOTES [45 words]: Insignificant as this item sounds, it's had some pretty big names associated with it; both Burns and Lady Nairne are said to have worked on it. Murray Shoolbraid's Digital Tradition notes give information on a putative Gaelic source; I have not been able to check this. - RBW
File: MSNR135

Can You Rokker Romany?

DESCRIPTION: "If you jump up on my barrow, I'll take you for a ride. And maybe in the springtime you can be my bride." Can you speak Romany, play the fiddle, eat prison food, cut the wood, break a horse, sleep with a girl and make someone not Romany?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Wandsworth, according to Coughlan)
KEYWORDS: sex fiddle food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, (Cardiff,2001), #15, p. 214, "Can You Rokra Romany?" [from Wandsworth]
George Borrow, _Romano Lavo-Lil: Word-Book of the Romany or English Gypsy Language_, 1874 (references are to the 2011? Lost Library reprint), frontispiece, "(Can you rokra Romany?)" (1 short text with translation)
RECORDINGS:
Peter Ingram, "Can You Rokker Romany?" (on Voice11)
NOTES [57 words]: The text in Voice11 translates the Romany words into English (for example, "rokker" is translated as "speak"). The description relies on that translation.
Coughlan #15 is a single verse corresponding to Ingram's second verse. For a more general discussion see Coughlan, #15-22, pp. 214-225. Coughlan #15 is the earliest of these citations. - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: RcCYRRom

Can You Rokra Romany?

See Can You Rokker Romany? (File: RcCYRRom)

Can You Walk a Little Way with it In

DESCRIPTION: "Can you walk a little way with it in, with it in, Can you walk a little way with it in, with it in, She answered with a smile, I can walk a (something) mile, With it in, with it in, with it in."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: bawdy travel nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 21, "Can You Walk a Little Way With It In?" (1 short text)
Roud #10308
NOTES [24 words]: The Morgan/Green-RugbySongs verse really feels as if it should have a sequel, perhaps about how the girl gets pregnant, but none is supplied. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RugS021

Can' Ya Dance the Polka

See Can't You Dance the Polka (New York Girls) (File: Doe058)

Can'cha Line 'Em

DESCRIPTION: Work song/shout, with chorus, "Ho, boys, can'cha line em? (x3) See Eloise go linin' track." Many of verses are on religious themes ("If I could I surely would Stand on the rock where Moses stood"; "Mary, Marthy, Luke, and John, all... dead and gone")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recording, Allen Prothero)
KEYWORDS: railroading work religious worksong
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So,SE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 78, "Can'cha Line 'Em" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 14-17, "Tie-Shuffling Chant" (1 text with extra verses, 1 tune)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 646, "Track Linin'" (1 text)
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 446, "Track Lining Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 97, (no title, but compare "The Captain Can't Read" on the previous page) (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 328, "Jack the Rabbit" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 86, 'Can't You LIne 'Em" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men (New York: Harper Perennial,1990 (paperback edition of J.B. Lippincott, 1935 original)), pp. 264-266, "Can't You Line It?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10070
RECORDINGS:
Henry Hankins, "Lining Track" (AFS 2946 A1, 1939; on LC61)
Lead Belly, "Linin' Track" (on ClassRR)
Allen Prothero, "Track-Lining Song" (AFS 179 A1; on LC8)
T. C. I. Section Crew, "Track Linin'" (Paramount 12478, 1927)
James Wilson and Group, "Can't You Line 'Em" (on VaWork)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep" (floating verses)
cf. "Track Lining" (subject)
NOTES [178 words]: Since this is one of those wonderful songs that is "adapted and arranged" (usual translation: "completely fouled up") by the Lomaxes, I can't tell if it comes from the same roots as "Can't You Line It?" There are almost no similarities beyond the titles, but that doesn't mean much. - RBW
Looking at the lyrics of the Prothero field recording, they seem to have almost nothing in common with, "Can't You Line It?" as summarized in the latter's description. I'd guess the songs are, at best, distantly related. - PJS
The Darling "Jack the Rabbit" text looks rather different (indeed, the feeling is almost closer to "Grizzely Bear") -- but it has a line similar to this one, so I'm sticking it here for now, more in desperation than anything else.
Cohen's "Track Linin'" song also has the "Jack the rabbit" line, so it files here on hte same basis.
According to Cohen, this is one of only two railroad Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work released on a commercial 78 (the other being "Section Gang Song"). He thinks they may be the earliest worksong recordings of any sort. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LxU078

Can't Cross Jordan

DESCRIPTION: Can't cross Jordan and you can't go around," with chorus "They've taken my Lord away, away... Oh, tell me where they've laid him." Also floating verses: "What kind of shoes does a Christian wear?" "As I went down in the valley to pray." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 558, "Can't Cross Jordan" (1 text plus a fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 558, "Can't Cross Jordan" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11879
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Christ Was Born in Bethlehem" (floating verses)
cf. "Down in the Valley to Pray" (floating verses)
cf. "What Kind of Crowns Do the Angels Wear?" (floating verses)
NOTES [114 words]: From the looks of this, the Brown text has swallowed up lyrics from almost everywhere. The chorus, "They've taken my Lord away, Tell me where they've laid him" is an allusion to John 20:13, 15.
The reference to Ezekiel walking into heaven defeats me; while Ezekiel probably holds the record for strange visions, there is no report of him going directly to heaven; that description fits only Enoch (Gen. 5:24), Elijah (2 Kings 2:11), and Jesus himself (Acts 1:9).
The rest of the song -- about 75% of the whole, in the Brown text -- is floating material. Some of it is fairly characteristic of particular songs (see the cross-references), but much is too generic even to classify. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3558

Can't Dance Chicken Foot

See Chicken Foot (File: Morr139)

Can't Help But Wonder

See I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound" (File: FSWB052)

Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound

See I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound" (File: FSWB052)

Can't Help Crying Sometimes

DESCRIPTION: 5, 6 and 7 line verse. Most end "That's the day I began to cry, Lord I can't help crying sometimes." Singer's mother died. He promised to meet her "on Canaan's happy shore" "Just lay your trust on Jesus, That's all that you can do."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious mother Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 268-269, "Cyan' Help from Cryin' Sometime" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR268A

Can't Hide Sinner

DESCRIPTION: "You may run to the rock... For a hidin' place... An' the rock cry out...." "You may run to the sea... For a hidin' place... An' the sea cry out...." "Oh, sinner man ... What you going to do... In the Judgment day...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 30, pp. 143-144, "Can't Hide Sinner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 251, "Can't Hide Sinner" (1 text, which appears to combine "Sinner Man" with "No Hiding Place" to produce this)
Roud #16450
RECORDINGS:
Church of God in Christ, "You Can't Hide Sinner" (on USMississippi01)
Georgia Sea IslandSingers, "Run to the Rock", St Simon's Island GA, October 1959, Association for Cultural Equity Lomax Digital Archive, ref=T925R15, accessed 19 July 2023 from LomaxArchive at https://archive.culturalequity.org/field-work/southern-us-1959-and-1960/st-simons-island-i-1059/run-rock
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "No Hiding Place (I)" (theme)
NOTES [52 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. In Parrish's text, and the USMississippi recording, each verse line is followed by "can't hide," and the tag line is "you can't hide sinner, you can't hide."
The LomaxArchive track is the accompaniment for a "ring shout." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Parr030

Can't Hide Sinner (I)

See Sinner Man; also No Hiding Place (File: SKE61)

Can't They Dance the Polka

See Can't You Dance the Polka (New York Girls) (File: Doe058)

Can't Ye Hilo?

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Young gals, good gals, bad gals, O! Cho: Young girls can't ye Hilo? I will take 'em all in tow, Cho: Young girls can't ye Hilo?" Other verses have rhymes about dancing and women in general.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Robinson in _The Bellman_)
KEYWORDS: shanty dancing
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 265, "Can't Ye Hilo?" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 194-195]
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Young Girls, Can't You Hilo? is in Part 3, 7/28/1917.
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jean Francois de Nantes
NOTES [13 words]: The word "hilo" in this case seems to refer to some sort of dance or jamboree. - SL
File: Hug265

Can't You Dance the Polka (New York Girls)

DESCRIPTION: The sailor meets a girl, who offers to take him home to her "family." He sits down to dinner, is drugged, and goes to bed with the girl. In the morning he awakens to find himself naked and without his money. He is forced to go to a boarding master
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1882
KEYWORDS: sailor whore robbery drink drugs shanghaiing
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 58-60, "Can't They Dance the Polka!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 108-109, "Can't You Dance the Polka?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 37-38, "Can't You Dance the Polka?" "Santy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 369-376, "Away Susanna!" "Can't Ye Dance the Polka?" "The New York Girls" (4 texts, 4 tunes -- also includes a fragment from the Swedish shanty book _Sang under Segal_ titled "Seafarers", the words being the same as Hugill's first version of "Can't You Dance the Polka")
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 71, "Can't You Dance the Polka?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 52-53, "Can't You Dance the Polka?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 160, "Can't You Dance the Polka?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 87, "Can't You Dance the Polka" (1 text, which appears truncated, with an ending in which the girl puts off the man by saying she has a husband)
Brand-BawdySeaSong 4, "Can' Ya Dance the Polka" (1 text)
DT, NYGIRLS* (NYGIRLS2? -- this looks like a modern parody; compare Silber's version)
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). Robinson called his version (in Part 1, 7/14/1917) "Oh My Santi"; the verse has with words very similar to "My Irish Jaunting Car" though the meter, tune, and chorus are from this song.
Roud #486
RECORDINGS:
Bob Roberts w. Peter Kennedy, "Can't You Dance the Polka?" (on LastDays)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gold Watch" [Laws K41] (plot) and references there
SAME TUNE:
Chu Yen (RECORDING, Saul Broudy, Tom Price, Robin Thomas, on InCountry)
NOTES [34 words]: The Martin Churchill mentioned in the last verse of some versions was a boarding master of the mid-Nineteenth century. (For background on boarding masters, see the notes to "Dixie Brown" [Laws D7]). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Doe058

Can't You LIne 'Em

See Can'cha Line 'Em (File: LxU078)

Can't You Line It?

DESCRIPTION: "When I get to Illinois, I'm gonna spread the word about the Florida boys. Shove it over! Hey, hey, can't you line it?...." The singer complains about hard times and high prices, and describes the conditions in which he works
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Hurston, Mules and Men)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes railroading
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 293, "Can't You Line It?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 746, "Can't You Line It?" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Zora Neale Hurston, _Mules and Men_ (New York,1990 (paperback edition of 1935 original)), pp. 264-266, "Can't You Line It?" (with tune)
Roud #10070
File: LoF293

Can't You Live Humble

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Can't you live humble? Praise King Jesus Can't you live humble To the dying Lamb?" Verses: The singer asks Jesus to see him on his knees praying. "A man's been here from Galilee ... left me free."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Johnson and Johnson)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, The Books of American Negro Spirituals (New York: Viking Press, 1969 (copyright 1925, 1926)), Book 2, pp. 138-139, Can't You Live Humble" (1 text, 1 tune)
John W. Work, American Negro Songs (New York: Crown Publishers, 1940 (republished by Mineola: Dover Publications, 1998)), p. 151, "Can't You Live Humble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11952
File: JJoCaLH

Canaan

See Sweet Canaan (File: TPS072)

Canada (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm on my way to Canada, that cold and dreary land, The dire effects of slavery I can no longer stand. So fare you well old master, Don't come after me, Just in sight of Canada..." yet the slave fears she will be caught before reaching it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Thomas-DevilsDitties)
KEYWORDS: slave freedom escape dog
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 174-175, "Canada" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #8891
NOTES [86 words]: Thomas claims to have learned this from her mother, but I don't think it's folk -- let alone from Black tradition." What ex-slave would use the words "the dire effects of slavery"? Also, what are the odds that a slave in sight of the Canadian border would have hounds on her tail? Yes, it theoretically could happen after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law as part of the Compromise of 1850 -- but even if the hunt tailed the slave all the way north (unlikely), the hounds would have been left behind by then. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: ThDD174

Canada (II)

See My Dear, I'm Bound for Canady (File: GrMa154)

Canada I O (I)

See Canaday-I-O/Michigan-I-O/Colley's Run I-O [Laws C17] (File: LC17)

Canada I O (II)

See Canada-I-O (The Wearing of the Blue; Caledonia) (File: HHH162)

Canada-I-O

See Canaday-I-O/Michigan-I-O/Colley's Run I-O [Laws C17] (File: LC17)

Canada-I-O (The Wearing of the Blue; Caledonia)

DESCRIPTION: When her love goes to sea, a lady dresses as a sailor and joins (his or another's) ship's crew. When she is discovered, (the crew/her lover) determine to drown her. The captain saves her; they marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1982))
KEYWORDS: love separation betrayal disguise cross-dressing sailor rescue reprieve marriage
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(MA)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H162, pp. 333-334, "Canada[,] Hi! Ho!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #77, pp. 1-2, "Caledonia" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 227, "Pretty Caledonia" (11 texts [including 3 verses on p. 537], 8 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 117-118, "Caledonia" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 437, "Canada-i-o" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 90, "Canadee-I-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 48, "Wearing of the Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 109, "She Bargained with a Captain" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 19, "Canada-I-O" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 114-115, "Canada I O" (1 text)
DT, CANADIO3* CALEDONIA*
Roud #309 and 5543
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Canadie-I-O" (on IRRCinnamond03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1982), "Kennady I-o," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.12(329), Harding B 11(2039), "Lady's Trip to Kennedy"; Harding B 25(1045), "The Lady's Trip to Kennady"; Firth c.12(330), "Canada Heigho"; Firth c.13(240), Firth c.12(331), Harding B 11(2920), 2806 c.16(72), "Canada I, O"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Canada Heigho!!
Kennady I-o
Lady's Trip to Kennady
The Isles of Daniel
NOTES [319 words]: Based on similarity of title, some connect this song with "Canaday-I-O, Michigan-I-O, Colley's Run I-O" [Laws C17]. There is no connection in plot, however, and any common lyrics are probably the result of cross-fertilization. (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast has a report that "Canaday-I-O" was written in 1854 by Ephraim Braley using this song as a pattern.)
The Scottish song "Caledonia" is quite different in detail -- so much so that I'm tempted to separate it from the "Canada-I-O" texts (Roud, surprisingly, does split it; "Canaday-I-O" is his #309; "Caledonia" is #5543). But the plot is too close to allow us to distinguish.
There is a curious anachronism in most of the "Canada-I-O" texts, in that the girl concludes by saying something like "You see the honor that I have gained By the wearing of the blue." However, the British navy did not adopt a uniform for ordinary sailors until 1857 -- this being, of course, the familiar blue serge and white duck (see Arthur Herman, To Rule the Waves, p. 455). This being after the date of the earliest broadsides, it presumably is an intrusive element. - RBW
I don't believe anyone else has said that Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick fragment belongs here (it is Roud #2782). Here is all of Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick: "She bargained with a captain Her passage to go free, That she might be his comrade To cross the raging sea"
The usual arrangement in Canada-I-O is "She bargained with a sailor [or the sailors], All for a purse of gold." However, broadside Bodleian Firth c.12(330) has the following wording:
[...]
She was courted by a sailor
Twas true she loved him dear,
And how to get to sea with him
The way she did not know.
[...]
She bargained with a captain
All for a purse of gold
And soon they did convey the lady
Down into the hold.
[...]
The plot continues as usual, with the captain coming to her rescue. - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: HHH162

Canada, Hi! Ho!

See Canada-I-O (The Wearing of the Blue; Caledonia) (File: HHH162)

Canaday I O

See Canaday-I-O/Michigan-I-O/Colley's Run I-O [Laws C17] (File: LC17)

Canaday I-O

See Canaday-I-O/Michigan-I-O/Colley's Run I-O [Laws C17] (File: LC17)

Canaday-I-O, Michigan-I-O, Colley's Run I-O [Laws C17]

DESCRIPTION: A group of lumbermen suffers a winter or cold and poor conditions. When winter ends, they joyfully return to their homes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks's ""The Jolly Lumbermen" version)
KEYWORDS: logger work separation lumbering
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (27 citations):
Laws C17a, "Canaday I-O"; C17b, "Michigan I-O"; C17c, "Colley's Run I-O (The Jolly Lumbermen)"
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 37-40, "Canaday-I-O" (1 text, plus sample stanzas from "The Buffalo Skinners," "Canada-I-O (The Wearing of the Blue; Caledonia)," and a railroading song all built on the same pattern); pp. 41-43, "The Jolly Lumbermen" (1 text, from Shoemaker)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 21-24, "Canaday-I-O" (2 texts)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 5-6, "Canada-I-O" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 408-409, "Michigan-I-O" (1 text)
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 8, "Michigan-I-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 8, "Michigan-I-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 105, "Michigan--I-O" (1 text plus mention of 2 more, 1 tune)
Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs,, p. 12, "Michigan-I-O" (1 short text, 1 tune, probably cut to eliminate the description of the bad times)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #2 , "Michigan-I-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 181-183, "Canaday-I-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 773-775, "Canaday I. O. (The Buffalo Skinners)" (2 texts, but only the second goes with this piece; the other belongs with "The Buffalo Skinners" [Laws B10a])
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 171-172, "Canaday I O" (1 text)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 343-345, "The Jolly Lumbermen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, "The Jolly Lumbermen" (1 text) (pp. 76-78 in the 1919 edition)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 415, "Canaday-I-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 68-69, "Canaday-I-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XV, pp. 195-218 (31-33), "Buffalo Range" (6 texts, 2 tunes, though the "B" text is "Boggy Creek," C and D appear unrelated, and E is "Canada-I-O")
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 57, "Canada-I-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 569-570, "Canada I O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 1, "Michigan-I-O" (2 texts); 2, "Coolie's Run-I-O" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 109-115, "Michigan-I-O" (2 texts plus a fragment)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 5, "Michigan-I-O" (2 texts); 7 "Coolie's Run-I-O" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 179-181, "Canaday I-O" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 104, "Canada-I-O" (1 text)
DT 377, CANADIO* CANADI2 CANADIO2 CANADIO
ADDITIONAL: MacEdward Leach and Henry Glassie, _A Guide for Collectiors of Oral Traditions and Folk Cultural Material in Pennsylvania_, Pennsylvania historical and Museum Commission, 1973, pp. 36-37, "The Jolly Lumbermen" (1 text)
Roud #640
RECORDINGS:
L. Parker Temple, "Colley's Run I-O" (AFS, 1940s; on LC28)
Lester Wells, "Michigan I-O" (AFS, 1938; on LC56)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Buffalo Skinners" (Laws B10a)
cf. "Boggy Creek or The Hills of Mexico" [Laws B10b]
cf. "Shanty Teamster's Marseillaise"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Jolly Lumbermen
NOTES [164 words]: The text known as "Canaday-I-O" is credited by Fowke and by Eckstorm to one Ephraim Braley, who worked in the Canadian woods in 1853. (The date 1853 is found in several versions.) Leach, in his notes to his #109, "Canadee-I-O," states that he based his song on the piece we have indexed as "Canada-I-O (The Wearing of the Blue; Caledonia)"-- though that song too appears to have been quite new at the time. Alan Lomax apparently accepts this interpretation, but also mentions the Scots song "Caledoni-o," which is also mentioned by Leach. Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks also links this song to "Canada-I-O (The Wearing of the Blue; Caledonia)," and argues that that song came first, then this, and that this gave rise to "The Buffalo Skinners."
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania seems to consider it a variation on "Once More A-Lumbering Go," though I can't see any reason why.
Probably the whole complex deserves a more thorough examination than it has gotten. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LC17

Canadee-I-O

See Canada-I-O (The Wearing of the Blue; Caledonia) (File: HHH162)

Canadian Boat Song, A

DESCRIPTION: "Faintly as tolls the evening chime, Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time.... Soon as the woods on shore look dim, We'll sing at St. Anne's our parting hymn." An encouragement to and prayer for good rowing when there is no wind
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1804
KEYWORDS: river nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 60-61, "A Canadian Boat Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #240, p. 17, "The Canadian Boat Song" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 8, "The Canadian Boat Song" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 151, "Canadian Boat Song" (reproduction of a broadside page with "The Pretty Plough Boy," "The Spotted Cow," and "Canadian Boat Song")
Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #489, p. 819, "A Canadian Boat-Song" (by Thomas Moore)
ST FJ060 (Partial)
Roud #13847
NOTES [80 words]: Moore's poem is sung to a French folk tune, "Dans mon chemin j'ai rencontre," but the result does not qualify as a voyageur piece and does not seem to have circulated extensively in oral tradition. (Granger's Index to Poetry cites three anthologies, but none of them folk-influenced.)
Moore wrote it after a visit to Canada during which he sailed from Kingston to Montreal. The winds on this trip were so poor that the sailors were obliged to row the whole way; hence the poem. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FJ060

Canadian Wilderness

See Life of a Voyageur (Canadian Wilderness) (File: ACSF459C)

Canal Boat Song

DESCRIPTION: "I hired a shawny boat, a dollar forty-nine. If you don't work for this cap, you'll never get your time." The singer goes to get a drink of cider and sees even the bugs fighting. "When you wants to have a fight, then you needs the backing."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: ship work bug fight drink
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 216, "Canal Boat Song" (1 short text) (p. 156 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #15007
File: Sho216B

Canal Dance, A

See One Night in Cleveland (A Canal Dance) (File: OHSOnNCl)

Canal Street

See Walking Down Canal Street (File: EM214)

Canaller's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "I shipped aboard a fat old tub, Two mules were on the tow, She hauled the length of the Erie Canal." "The name she bore was Prickly Heat, The captain's name was 'Scratch.'" The singer describes the crew of the canaller, often in racist terms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1952 (collected from Robert Collen by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship travel moniker
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 168-169, "The Canaller's Lament" (1 text)
Roud #19886
NOTES [61 words]: I tagged this as a moniker song, even though few names are actually named; the singer describes the crewmen; it seems that he just didn't bother to learn their names.
Walton did not indicate a tune, but several of the verses are reminiscent of "True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man)"; I suspect that was the melody used. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM168

Canalman's Farewel (Lay Me on the Horse-Bridge)

DESCRIPTION: "Lay me on the horse-bridge, WIth my feet toward the bow; And let it be a Lockport Laker, Or a Tonawanda scow." The singer described the problems the mules have in towing the canal-boat, and perhaps asks to be buried by the canal
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: canal humorous animal wreck burial
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 246-247, "Canalman's Farewell" (2 short texts)
Roud #6592
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The E-ri-e" (lyrics) and references there
File: TNY247

Candlelight Fisherman, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a fisherman, tells how his father taught him to test the wind at night by sticking a candle lantern outside: "Open the pane and pop out the flame/To see how the wind do blow". He tells how he does it, and advises listeners to do the same
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recorded from Phil Hammond)
KEYWORDS: fishing technology work humorous nonballad father wife worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 219, "The Candlelight Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 144, "The Candlelight Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CANDLEBLO*
Roud #1852
RECORDINGS:
Phil Hammond, "The Candlelight Fisherman" (on FSB3)
Bob Roberts, "The Candlelight Fisherman" (on BRoberts01, HiddenE)
NOTES [64 words]: The joke is that while one is testing the wind with the lantern, its light attracts fish. Doing this, of course, is against the law. - PJS
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland adds another joke along the lines of the "Arkansas Traveller": If the wind blows out the candle, it's blowing too hard to go out; if the wind doesn't blow out the candle, there isn't enough wind to sail. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: K219

Candy Man

DESCRIPTION: Blues, often bawdy, about the exploits of the Candy Man. The candy man's candy almost certainly gets its possessors in trouble, but many still seek it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Mississippi John Hurt)
KEYWORDS: nonballad bawdy floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 298, "Candy Man Blues" (1 text)
DT, SALTYDOG
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt "Candy Man Blues" (OKeh 8654, 1929 (rec. 1928); on MJHurt01, MJHurt02) (on MJHurt03); "Candy Man" (on MJHurt04)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Salty Dog" (assorted references)
NOTES [18 words]: Neither text nor melody of this is fixed; it may not be one song (but with blues, who can really tell?). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: DarNS298

Candy Man Blues

See Candy Man (File: DarNS298)

Cane Creek Massacre, The

DESCRIPTION: "The boys have lived in peace upon the farm, A mother's care had shielded them from harm...." "So was their mother shot by cowardly hand.... Their youthful blood was on the hearthstone spilled." The (Mormon) singer blames the Christians
AUTHOR: James H. Hart
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide mother children
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 113-114, "The Cane Creek Massacre" (1 partial text)
File: Burt113

Cane-Cutter's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "How we suffered grief and pain Up in Queensland, cutting cane." The singer describes the hard working conditions and the bad boss. He is particularly upset with the food and the Chinese cook. He vows never again to cut cane in Queensland
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: work cook Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 202-203, "The Cane-Cutter's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: FaE202

Canned Heat Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Canned heat ... killing me." "Think alcorub is tearing apart my soul." "Canned heat don't kill me ... I'll never die." "Woke up this morning canned heat was on my mind." "Run in here somebody Take these canned heat blues."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Tommy Johnson)
KEYWORDS: grief drink nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1919 - The Volstead Act estabishes prohibition of "intoxicating liquors" to carry out the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
1933 - The 21st amendment to the U.S. Constitution ends prohibition.
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Tommy Johnson, "Canned Heat Blues" (Victor V-38535, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Got the Jake Leg Too" (Prohibition alcohol surrogates) and references there
NOTES [80 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought.
"Canned heat" is Sterno -- a cooking fuel -- which contains denatured alcohol [i.e. an ethanol and methanol mix - RBW]. Alcorub is rubbing alcohol. During prohibition they were among the surrogates people drank as a replacement for illegal "intoxicating liquors." Both are seriously damaging poisons. - BS
For more on these alcohol substitutes, see "Got the Jake Leg Too." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcCaHeBl

Cannibal King Medley, The

DESCRIPTION: "A cannibal king with a big nose-ring" courts a maid and sings to her under a bamboo tree. "When we are married happy we will be ... under the bamboo tree." "If you'll be M-I-N-E mine ... I'll L-O-V-E love you all the T-I-M-E time." May use kissing sounds
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: love marriage playparty wordplay campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, pp. 453-454, "The Cannibal King Medley" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 124, 150, 153, 193, 234, 285, 385, 390, "Cannibal King"; pp. 125, 193, 517, "Under the Bamboo Tree" (notes only)
cf. Harbin-Parodology, #421, p. 103, "If You'll Be M-I-N-E" (1 text)
Roud #20036
NOTES [95 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "In 1895 Harry Harndin's comic song 'A Cannibal King' was published (music by Harriet Harndin), and in 1902 Cole and Johnson's 'Under the Bamboo Tree'...survived ... with a third element, 'If you'll be M-I-N-E') as a composite student song known as 'The Cannibal King Medley'." - BS
"The Cannibal King" was evidently popular in scout camps, but it's not clear to me how many used all of it and how many used parts. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 193, implies that more used the "Cannibal King" verse than the "Under the Bamboo Tree" verse. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: OpGap453

Cannibal Maiden, The

DESCRIPTION: "A cannibal maid and her Hottentot blade, They met in a rocky defile." But a Zulu appears to challenge the Hottentot over the girl. They both die in the quarrel, and she eats both of them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: humorous food battle death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 146-147, "The Cannibal Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9541
NOTES [32 words]: I presume that it goes without saying that this allegedly humorous piece is completely inaccurate about the practices of both Zulus and the Khoikoi (the people most often called "Hottentots"). -RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: SBar146

Cannily, Cannily

DESCRIPTION: "Cannily, cannily, bonnie wee bairnikie, Don't you cry now, my little pet. Hush-a-bye, now, your daddy is sleeping; It's no time tae wauken him yet." Daddy needs his sleep, as soon he will go driving his engine. In time, the child will have its own engine
AUTHOR: Ewan MacColl
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads)
KEYWORDS: lullaby work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, p. 22, "Cannily, Cannily" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 410, "Cannily, Cannily" (1 text)
DT, CANNLY*
ADDITIONAL: Ewan MacColl, _Journeyman: An Autobiography_, re-edited and with an introduction by Peggy Seeger, 1990; revised edition, Manchester University Press, 2009, pp. 345-346, "(Cannily, Cannily)" (1 text)
NOTES [165 words]: According to Ewan MacColl's book Journeyman: An Autobiography, re-edited and with an introduction by Peggy Seeger, 1990; revised edition, Manchester University Press, 2009, p. 268, this was one of the songs that came out of MacColl's first serious period of songwriting, when he was mildly influenced by Woody Guthrie, Seamus Ennis, and people he knew of through Alan Lomax. MacColl wrote that "I had recently become acquainted with English country songs through Bert [Lloyd]'s singing and through field-recordings made by Alan and it was these that provided models for my next group of songs which included 'The Dove,' 'The Trafford Road Ballad' (written for my son, Hamish), 'Cannily, Cannily,' 'Ballad of the Carpenter' and 'Go Down, You Murderers.'" On the other hand, p. p. 345, he reports writing it for the "Ballads and Blues" series of programs, where he wanted something with less drive than the other songs in the program; it was sung a capella by Isla Cameron for the program. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FSWB410A

Cannon Ball, The

See The Cannonball (File: CSW116)

Cannonball Blues

See The Cannonball (File: CSW116)

Cannonball, The

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses; singer says he will catch the train called the Cannonball (from Buffalo to Washington), his girl left him, and he's leaving her. More or less.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Lesley Riddle; recorded by the Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: love farewell rambling train travel abandonment floatingverses lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 413-425, "Cannonball Blues/Whitehouse Blues" (2 texts, 2 tunes, the first being "Mister McKinley (White House Blues)" and the second the "Cannonball Blues," plus a version of a song called "Mr. McKinley" from _The Week-End Book_, which is so different that I would regard it as a separate though perhaps related song, probably not traditional)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 116-117, "The Cannonball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 463, "Cannonball Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, (CANONBL3 adapted by Bruce Phillips?)
Roud #4759
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "The Cannon Ball" (Victor V-40317/Bluebird 6020/Montgomery Ward 4742, 1930)
Kilby Snow, "The Cannonball" (on KSnow1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mister McKinley (White House Blues)" (words, tune)
cf. "Joking Henry" (tune)
cf. "That Lonesome Train Took My Baby Away" (floating verses)
SAME TUNE:
Mister McKinley (White House Blues) (File: LoF143)
It Takes a Married Man to Sing a Worried Song (by Woody Guthrie) (Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 38-39 -- and, yes, despite that title, the tune is this, not "Worried Man Blues")
File: CSW116

Canny Miller and His Wife, The

DESCRIPTION: When the miller returns home his wife hides her lover. Claiming illness she sends the miller out to buy gin as a cure. He puts on the lover's trousers, discovers fifty pounds, confronts his wife and decides he could not have made as much money milling.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: adultery clothes money drink humorous husband lover wife miller disease
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1459, "O Poor Man the Miller" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 388-392, "The Canny Miller and His Wife" (1 text)
ST GrD71459 (Partial)
Roud #7152
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Dicky Wigburn" (theme: wife sends husband away so she can have her lover come to the house)
NOTES [130 words]: Logan-APedlarsPack [1869]: "'The Canny Miller and his Wife' has ostensibly been written to records a local event in the neighborhood of Edinburgh, seemingly about fifty years ago." Logan's version of 25 verses seems "literary" when compared to the Greig/Duncan7 11 verse text. The outlines of the story are preserved in Greig/Duncan7 along with six lines of text, three lines that are close, and isolated references to the lover as "spark" and the lover's watch. In Logan the wife claims to have bought the trousers for him at auction and the miller seems to accept her explanation ["with his wife he is content"] while in Greig/Duncan7 he says the trousers are "Spark's as that ye know And after him ye'll tramp and go." "Spark" refers to the lover and is sometimes his name. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD71459

Canny Newcassel

See Canny Newcastle (File: StoR043)

Canny Newcastle

DESCRIPTION: "'Bout Lunnon aw'd heard sec wonderful spokes, That the streets were a' covered wi' guineas." The singer describes the sights in London, mentions seeing King George, recalls being robbed, and declares he likes his home better
AUTHOR: Thomas Thompson
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland); Thompson died 1816
KEYWORDS: travel home humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 43-45, "Canny Newcassel" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR043 (Partial)
Roud #3060
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mountains of Mourne" (plot)
NOTES [50 words]: Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland calls this song by two different names: The first page labels it "Canny Newcastle" at the head; the name at the top of the complete text is "Canny Newcassel," in the chorus the town is spelled "Newcassel," and the end notes file it as "Canny Newcassel." - RBW
File: StoR043

Canny Shepherd Laddie o the Hills, The

DESCRIPTION: Shepherds are "all the same breed." On the mountains before dawn with his collie, he's "quick to swee a mawkit yin or a sheep that's strayed awa." He risks his life in snow for his sheep. He's generous with his hospitality and with drink among pals.
AUTHOR: Jack Mowat (source: McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Willie Scott SA1986.139)
KEYWORDS: virtue storm drink nonballad shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 120-122, 155, "The Canny Shepherd Laddie o the Hills" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Willie Scott, "The Canny Shepherd Laddies o the Hills," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1986.139,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 14 September 2013 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/85036/1 [includes verses not in McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen]
Roud #3088
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Keep Your Feet Still Geordie Hinny" (tune, per McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
File: McSc120

Canoe May Be Drifting, A

DESCRIPTION: "A canoe may be drifting at sunset, When the skies are all purple and gold, And a campfire down by the water With songs that will never grow old." These things are everywhere -- but friendship makes this camp unique
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 339, 346, 347, 348, 431, 470, 473-476, 500, 558, "A Canoe May Be Drifting" (notes, with 2 texts on pp. 475-476; bibliography on p. 698)
Roud #37847
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Red RIver Valley" (elements of tune)
File: ACSF339D

Canoe Song

See Our Paddle's Keen and Bright (File: ACSF415O)

Canso Strait

DESCRIPTION: The crew is finishing a quiet voyage when a gale blows up. The drunken captain decides to take advantage of the storm by getting up the best speed possible. The alarmed sailors at last mutiny to get things back in control
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship drink storm rebellion
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 183-184, "Canso Strait" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 871-872, "The Drunken Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 40, "The Drunken Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 31, "The Drunken Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 107, "Canso Strait" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 194, "In Canso Strait" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 170-171,244-245, "The Drunken Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CNSOSTRT*
Roud #1815
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "The Drunken Captain" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Martin Reddigan, "The Drunken Captain" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Ned Rice, "The Drunken Captain" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Dermot Roche, "The Drunken Captain" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drunken Captain (I)" (subject)
NOTES [272 words]: This song, erroneously titled "Casno Strait," is item dD52 in Laws's Appendix II.
Manny and Wilson, in their notes on "The Cedar Grove" [Laws D18] say that Canso Strait "was between Nova Scotia and the Island of Cape Breton. Now, by the magic of modern engineering, there is no strait, but a causeway has been built to connect the island and the mainland."
Stories like this can happen in other places, though. Benson Bobrick, Master of War: The Life of General George H. Thomas, Simon & Schuster, 2009, p. 75, tells a story of the famous Civil War general George H. Thomas, in the period before the war: "On one of his shuttles up from Charleston to New York for recruiting duty... he saved the ship and all on board from the besotted orders of a drunken captain in a violent storm. As the ship plunged and lurched in the tumultuous waves off Cape Hatteras, the first made came to him and appealed for help. Thomas confined the captain to his stateroom, assumed overall responsibility for the ship, and with the first mate (who might otherwise have been charged with mutiny) rode out the storm."
I should add that Bobrick does not cite a source for this tale.
Marc Milner, Canada's Navy: The First Century, University of Toronto Press, 1999, pp. 91-92, mentions accounts of skippers of Canadian corvettes in World War II with drunken captains -- a real problem, given that the crews of corvettes were often so hastily assembled that only the captain could navigate the ship; the junior officers had no navigation training. And these officers often served in the vicinity of Canso. But this was after this song originated. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Doe183

Cant-Hook and Wedges

See Wrap Me Up in my Tarpaulin Jacket (File: FR439)

Cantie Carlie, The

DESCRIPTION: James, a widower, is tired of lying alone. He courts Bell Grant, young enough to be his granddaughter, and she agrees to marry. A storm delays the bride's trip from Aberdeen. Finally they reach the church and are married. "And ten months brings a son"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: age courting sex wedding travel storm humorous baby
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #174, pp. 1-2, "The Cantie Carlie"; #16, p. 3, "The Cantie Carlie" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 618, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "The Cantie Carlie" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Roud #6055
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Wanton Carlie
NOTES [117 words]: The wedding has "December linked to June." When Bell finally arrives "tho' he was near four score Lap like a spainin' lamb." When the parson is delayed he would take Bell to bed, but she refuses -- and threatens to call the whole thing off -- until the bride's maid proposes that the three of them sleep together for warmth with her as chaperon. The last verse concludes "Fair fa' the Cantie Carlie, The bride she lov'd him dearlie; May they get babies yearlie, -- I ha'e nae mair to say."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Auchronie (618) is at coordinate (h1,v8) on that map [roughly 9 miles W of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD3618

Cantique De Noel

See O Holy Night (File: JMSo216)

Cantu a Timumi

DESCRIPTION: Italian. Forebitter shanty, about the timuni (helmsman). "A sciacca bucanura e bucareddi." The reasons why towns are famous are listed, e.g. Sciacca for its skewers, Trapani for pink coral, Marsala for its fish. Priests bless people. Grapes make wine
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: shanty nonballad fishing clergy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 50, "Cantu a Timuni" (2 texts, Italian & English, 1 tune)
File: HSeSo050

Canuck's Lament

DESCRIPTION: "When you're sitting around in a dirty old shack, You can't keep your mind from wanderin' back To the happy old days... When we hunted all day and gambled all night." The poet describes the life he used to lead, and the quarrels he used to have
AUTHOR: J. K Trout
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: cowboy recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 92, "Canuck's Lament" (1 text)
File: Ohr092

Canute Song, The

See Merie Sungen the Muneches Bennen Ely (Merry Sang the Monks of Ely) (File: MSMStMoE)

Cap Stone, The

DESCRIPTION: "Have you heard the revelation Of this latter dispensation...." The poet tells how the Saints are persecuted in Illinois and Missouri, and describes how they will work "till we make Nauvoo as Eden"
AUTHOR: W. W. Phelps
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Times and Seasons)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad abuse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1830 - Joseph Smith founds the Latter-Day Saints
1831 - The Saints settle in Kirtland, Ohio. Later in the year, Smith chooses Independence, Missouri as the Holy City
1840 - The Saints found their town of Nauvoo, Illinois
1844 - Smith is killed by a mob at Nauvoo, to be succeeded by Brigham Young
1846 - Many Mormons leave Nauvoo for Council Bluffs, Iowa
1847 - Brigham Young leads the Mormon vanguard to Great Salt Lake
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 457, "The Cap Stone" (1 text)
Roud #7835
File: Beld457

Cap'n Don't You Know All Your Crew Is Goin' to Leave You

See Section Gang Song (File: LSRai647)

Cap'n Paul

DESCRIPTION: Captain Paul and the seven men of the Big Mariner set out from Kennebunk(port) for the West Indies. The ship foundered in a gale; the six crewmen were drowned and only Captain Paul was saved
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: sea storm wreck drowning death
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 241-242, "Cap'n Paul" (1 text)
ST FO241 (Partial)
Roud #4685
NOTES [19 words]: Charles L. Cooke, who gave this song to Helen Flanders, said it was about his great-grandfather, Jeremiah Paul. - RBW
File: FO241

Cap'n, I Believe

DESCRIPTION: "Cap'n, I believe, Cap'n, I believe, Cap'n, I believe, believe, believe I'll die. (Spoken): Oh, no, you ain't gonna die. Come on with that motah."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: railroading death nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 363, "Cap'n, I Believe" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
File: San363

Cape Ann

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

Cape Breton Boy, A

DESCRIPTION: A Cape Breton boy leaves home to make money. After jobs aboard ship he goes west to go lumbering. Injured there, he spends six months in the hospital. He warns: go west if you want, "But you'll find when you're sick boys there's no place like home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: warning home rambling return lumbering sea ship work injury father mother brother sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #25803
RECORDINGS:
Frank Knox, "Jack Timmins" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [21 words]: The Cape Breton Boy's name is reported as Jack Kinsey, Jack Tibbot and Jack Timmons, according to the Roud Folk Song Index. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3CaBrB

Cape Breton Murder

DESCRIPTION: In Cow Bay on December 8, 1874 "this young man was led like a sheep to slaughter ... He was wilfully murdered"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: homicide
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 191, "Cape Breton Murder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2717
NOTES [13 words]: Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs: The singer "said this happened during a riot." - BS
File: CrMa191

Cape Cod Chantey

See Cape Cod Girls (File: LoF023)

Cape Cod Girls

DESCRIPTION: "Cape Cod Girls they have no combs, Heave away, heave away! They comb their hair with codfish bones...." "Heave away and don't you make a noise, For we're bound for Australia." Sundry lyrics on the oddities of Cape Cod girls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor separation nonballad talltale
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 91, "The Codfish Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, 196, "South Australia" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 152-153]
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 120, "Hanstead Boys" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 50-51, "Cape Cod Girls" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 23, "Cape Cod Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 84, "Cape Cod Girls" (1 text)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, p. 24, "Codfish Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 561-562, "Cape Cod Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 244-245, "Cape Cod Girls" (1 text, tune referenced)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 316-317, "Cape Cod Girls" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 96, "Cape Cod Girls" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 55, "Cape Cod Girls/Australia Girls" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 37, "Cape Cod Chantey" (1 text)
OneTuneMore, p. 19, "Cape Cod Chantey" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CAPCODGL
Roud #325
RECORDINGS:
Charity Bailey, "Cape Cod Girls" (on GrowOn2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "South Australia (I)"
cf. "Round the Bay of Mexico" (lyrics)
NOTES [59 words]: There is no true dividing line between this song and "South Australia"; they merge into each other. However, the difference in local colour and focus is enough that they should be separated. Some versions of "South Australia" even have a rudimentary plot, and the tune can be somewhat different. The problem is classifying the intermediate versions.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LoF023

Cape Cod Shanty

See Cape Cod Girls (File: LoF023)

Cape St Mary's

See Western Boat (Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's) (File: Doyl3039)

Capital Ship, A

DESCRIPTION: Parody of fo'c'sle song; describes miserable conditions on the "Walloping Window Blind," including descriptions of the officers. They are stranded for a time on the "Gulliby Isles"; they commandeer a Chinese junk and escape, leaving its crew on the island
AUTHOR: Charles Edward Carryl?
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Untermeyer, _The Golden Treasury of Poetry_)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck humorous parody sailor moniker nonsense campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 243, "A Capital Ship" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 100, 288, "A Capital Ship" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 27, "A Capital Ship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 33, "A Capital Ship" (1 text)
DT, CAPSHIP
RECORDINGS:
James Chapman, "The Walloping Window Blind" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #87, recorded 12/19/2021, with much interruption)
Judy Cook, "The Walloping Window Blind" (Piotr-Archive #275, recorded 09/27/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (tune)
cf. "Ho for California (Banks of Sacramento)" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Walloping Window Blind
NOTES [42 words]: This is basically a nonsense parody of "Ten Thousand Miles Away"; I suspect it was composed by some collegiate character in the 1890s or so. - PJS
Except for the date (I believe it's somewhat earlier that that), that seems indeed to be the story. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB243

Cappabwee Murder, The

DESCRIPTION: "Doubtless you must have heard of that life I took away." John Sullivan admits killing Jim Ring as Ring left a funeral. Ring identified Sullivan from his death bed. Sullivan waits trial expecting "transportation all my life or step the gallows tree"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: crime homicide execution punishment transportation trial gallows-confession
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 153, "The Cappabwee Murder" (1 text)
Roud #5302
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "The Cappabwee Murder" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [41 words]: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin: "This ballad is the confession of John Sullivan, who murdered Denis Ring and was condemned to death. The murder was committed at Cappabwee, near the Pass of Keimaneigh, west of Ballingeary, Co. Cork." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC153

Cappy, or The Pitman's Dog

DESCRIPTION: A pitman lives near Newcastle with his family and their dog, "Weel bred Cappy, famous au'd Cappy, Cappy's the dog, Tallio, tallio." Cappy and owner set out for town. A robber attacks Cappy. The owner returns home, and is amazed to find the dog alive
AUTHOR: Words: William Mitford
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (T. Thompson et al, A Collection of Songs, Comic, Satirical, and Descriptive, Chiefly in the Newcastle Dialect: And Illustrative of the Language and Manners of the Common People on the Banks of the Tyne and Neighbourhood)
KEYWORDS: animal thief dog death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 84-85, "'Cappy'; or, The Pitman's Dog" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: T. Thompson, J Shield, W. Midford, H. Robson, and others, _A Collection of Songs, Comic, Satirical, and Descriptive, Chiefly in the Newcastle Dialect: And Illustrative of the Language and Manners of the Common People on the Banks of the Tyne and Neighbourhood_, (John Marshall, Newcastle, 1827), p. 49, "Cappy, or The Pitman's Dog" (1 text)
Roud #3145
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Body in the Bag" (theme)
NOTES [13 words]: Thanks to Geoff Chambers for pointing out to me the copy in Thompson et al. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: StoR084

Capt. Frederick Harris and the Grates Cove Seal Killers of 1915

DESCRIPTION: "Attention all, both great and small, A tale I have to tell Of Captain Frederick Harris And young Florizel." The singer lists various seal hunters, tells of the beginning of their voyage, and wishes them success
AUTHOR: Joshua Stanford
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Stanford, Fifty Years of My Life in Newfoundland)
KEYWORDS: ship hunting moniker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 101, "Capt. Frederick Harris and the Grates Cove Seal Killers of 1915" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V44803
NOTES [644 words]: In earlier editions of the Index, I wrote, "From internal indications, it appears that the Florizel of this song is not the passenger ship described in 'The Wreck of the Steamship Florizel.'" I was wrong. It's a sealing ship from 1915 named Florizel, and called "young"; I think it nearly certain that it was in fact the same ship (the Florizel was built in 1909, so it was still fairly new in 1915, and although it was a passenger ship for most of the year, it regularly went to the seal hunt in March).
Nonetheless, it is very easy to misunderstand the song. At first glance, for instance, you would probably think that Captain Frederick Harris commanded the Florizel in 1915 (or in some year, anyway). Nope. For her entire eight year career as a sealer, the Florizel was commanded by one of the Kean dynasty of sealers, either Abram Kean (for whom see "Captain Abram Kean") or his son Joseph Kean. Abram -- the "Bumper" Kean of the song, so-called because he so often filled his ship to the bumpers -- commanded the Florizel 1909-1911, then turned her over to son Joe for 1912-1914. After Abram was faulted for his part in the Newfoundland Disaster (for which see "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)"), Abram went back to the Florizel for 1915 and 1916 (Chafe, p. 100).
There was no sealing captain named "Frederick Harris" (Chafe, p. 91). I'm guessing that he is not a ship's captain but an army captain, of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment during World War One; many members of that regiment had been sealers before volunteering to serve in Europe. Another possibility is that he was a Master Watch, leader of a group of sealers, informally referred to as a Captain. The third and final possibility is that he was a captain but not a sealing captain -- the fact that he's out on April 30 hints at this; according to Chafe, p. 82, the Florizel returned to St. John's on April 15 (with a terrible haul that was only about a sixth of what she had taken the year before; 1915 was a disastrous season in which only two ships took more than 3000 seals; by that standard, the Florizel's 2592 was almost respectable). Maybe Harris took her over after that, and the references in the final verses to other sealing captains are confused. I simply don't know.
William Winsor, mentioned in the song under the name "Bill Winsor," was a member of a famous family of sealer captains; for him, see "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912." William Bartlett was the father of Robert Bartlett, for whom see "Captain Bob Bartlett."
The comment at the end about everyone looking around for "Bumper Kean" is very real. Abram Kean had such a towering reputation that other captains often followed him to try to find the "main patch." "One of his favourite gambits was to head off in one particular direction until the other ships were all following him: then, with his stokers tending their furnaces carefully to avoid emitting sparks through the funnel, he would change course abruptly after nightfall for the point where he estimated that his prey would be found. Captain Kean was in some respects as sought after as the seals, but both his pathfinding and the task of keeping up with him could be strenuous work" (Keir, p. 126).
Similarly England, pp. 80-81, describing what happened when he was with Kean on a sealing voyage: "The Thetis and Diana dogged our every 'jife' and 'cut.' They spied on us. Not if they could help it should Cap'n Kean steal a march on them. He, 'admiral of the fleet,' should not be allowed to strike the fat and leave them out of it.
"'An' if they make a blank, I'll be blamed,' the Old Man [Kean] complained. 'Whatever happened, I'm blamed. I mind one spring they all tagged me, an' it was an off spring. Nobody got into the main patch at all. An' what d'you think, ir? They blamed me for leadin' 'em 'stray!'" - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm101

Captain Abram Kean

DESCRIPTION: "We should not forget the Commodore, The old king of the sailing fleet." "With unerring aim and judgment rare He would strike each sealing patch." "For fifty years he butted the ice." "So we should not forget... The late Captain Abram Kean"
AUTHOR: Otto P. Kelland (1904-2004)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Kelland, Anchor Watch)
KEYWORDS: sailor hunting nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 146, "Captain Abram Kean" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Otto P. Kelland, _Anchor Watch: Newfoundland Stories in Verse_ (privately printed, 1960), pp. 88-89, "Captain Abram Kean" (1 text)
Roud #V44802
NOTES [4572 words]: There aren't many details in this piece, but what there are are accurate: Abram Kean was known as "the Commodore" (so, e.g., William Joseph Moores on p. 372 of Ryan-Last), and he did take a million seals in his fifty year career that began when sailing ships were still the norm. And that total will surely never be surpassed, because the seal hunt will surely never again be the major industry it was in his prime.
The notes in Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff tell us that Abram Kean died in 1945, at the age of 90, and that he captained sealing expeditions for over fifty years (his last year was 1936) bringing in more than a million animals (Kean, pp. 96-97, catalogs exactly how many seals he took year by year, and starting on p. 144 details all the congratulations he received when the millionth seal was taken, such as a letter from the governor). No other sealer even came close to that; the next-highest total, by George Barbour, was just 752,563 (Ryan/Drake, p. 75). Even Chafe, p. 32, which obviously approves of sealing, says, "It is a good thing that there are not many like him or there would be no seals left out there." Chafe also says that "He stands for the greatest number of seals ever brought in by one ship, the greatest weight ever brought in by one ship and the greatest value."
He came to be known as "Admiral of the Fleet" (England, p. 203), although the sealing fleet -- being owned and operated by multiple companies -- didn't have an overall commander. He did hold a Royal Navy reserve commission and a semi-official commodore's title (England, p. 203n. Higgins, p. 23, has a photo of him with what appears to be a navy coat over his regular clothes. It does not have epaulets, and the angle is such that it is hard to be sure about the braid on his sleeve, but it looks as if it could be a commodore's stripes.)
"Arrival of 'Aurora,' 'Diana,' 'Virginia Lake,' and 'Vanguard,' Loaded" further declares that Abram Kean "holds the record at the ice, and well deserves the name," but that song, based on the ships mentioned, cannot refer to events later than 1908, and probably refers to 1903 or earlier (Kean commanded the Aurora 1898-1905; Feltham, p. 25), so that that cannot be a reference to his all-time haul; it must refer to what he pulled in on one particular trip.
His fame can be told by the number of Newfoundland tales mentioning him -- among those indexed in this collection, "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full," "Arrival of 'Aurora,' 'Diana,' 'Virginia Lake,' and 'Vanguard,' Loaded," "The Sealer's Song (II)," "The Terra Nova," "The Swiler's Song," and "Captains and Ships," -- though only the last appears to be traditional, and "Captains and Ships" mentions Kean only briefly. Other songs, such as "A Noble Fleet of Sealers," mention other members of his family.
O'Neill, p. 961, calls him "a fearsome immortal in the story of the [seal] hunt." Looker, p. 17, declares him "a proud man with an iron will and a narrow and suspicious mind" -- which seems an excellent summary to me. Even when he was alive, Maclean's Magazine called him "a combination of Al Capone, Admiral Byrd, and Sir Herbert Holt [a very efficient, even rapacious, businessman]" (ButlerHanrahan, p. 110) -- which, given that Admiral Byrd lied about reaching the pole, seems to sum up most of his traits, although the list omits Kean's ostentatious (and Pharisaical) Christianity.
Abram Kean was born July 8, 1855, at Flowers Island on Bonavista Bay (Tarver, p. 169). Kean, p. 1, says that "Flowers Island" is actually two islands, one of them, Kean's Island, being his family home (Winsor, p. 110, has a photo of the two islands showing just how rough and wind-swept they were and presumably are. Don't bother with Google Maps for this; they don't have the same island names, and the photos are too poor to show anything anyway). Brown, pp. 3-5, says that he was the son of an illiterate fisherman. His parents were Joseph and Jane Kean, and they had five other sons and three daughters (Kean, p. 1). Abram was the only one of his family to go to school, although he quit at age eleven after just three years actual tuition (Kean, p. 3; he didn't like it, and his uneducated family saw no need for it, so they let him quit. Later, when his children went to school, he went with them, studying navigation -- and so, presumably, math -- while they took elementary classes; Kean, pp. 16-17).
He went to sea at 13, serving in his family's collection of four sailing boats (Kean, p. 5), at about the same time his mother died at the age of 54. He first went sealing, with his family, at age 17 (Kean, p. 6). He married at 17 -- to a woman seven years older, Caroline Yetman, who was his father's housekeeper (Kean, p. 7; Tarver, p. 169). She would die in 1920 -- a quarter of a century before her husband -- after seven years of a paralytic illness (Kean, p. 51).
He first joined a seal hunt, under one of his brothers, at that same age (it is noteworthy that his uncle William Kean commanded one of the two very first sealing steamers, the first Wolf, in 1863; Chafe, p. 25, Kean, p. 88). Helped by his connections, Abram rose to command a "watch" of sealers at twenty. In 1882, at age 27, "becoming impatient and not wishing to serve any longer under another man" (Kean, p. 8), he applied for and was given his first sealing ship, the Hannie and Bennie -- and failed to bring anything home. The next year, a storm almost sank the Hannie and Bennie -- and Kean stayed with her even when word came that his father was dying (Kean, p. 9, although apparently he managed to make it home shortly before his father's death). So, in 1883, he was broke, without a ship, and with a large family of his own and his relatives' to raise (Kean, p. 11).
But he was competitive from an early age: "I soon learned that there was rivalry in school, and in a very short time I was doing my best to lead. I succeeded in doing so" (Kean, p. 2. He was probably eight years old at the time). He wouldn't let setbacks stop him. In 1884 applied to be an officer in a steamer. The first captain he talked to turned him down, but Joe Barbour was willing to take him on (Kean, p. 11). Kean does not name the ship, but based on Chafe, p. 98, it must have been the Ranger, for which see "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912."
In 1885, the Tories nominated him for the legislature because they needed a Methodist teetotaler (Brown, p. 5; Kean, p. 13; on p. 59, he declared: "I have always been a great temperance advocate... but I take no credit for being temperate. I could not be otherwise, for I hate drunkenness as I hate poison"). His "campaign" was hardly that -- his explanation isn't very clear, but it sounds as if there was An Arrangement Made (Kean, pp. 13-15). This wasn't atypical; many famous Newfoundland sealers had political careers, including Edward White, Sr. and Samuel Blandford (Ryan-Ice, p. 241; for the latter, see "Sealer's Song (I)"); Captain Charles Dawe not only served in parliament but at the end of his last term found himself the nominal leader of the opposition in the House of Assembly (Noel, p. 53, although his health at the time was so bad that he had to resign his seat without functioning in the role). And Kean had another advantage in that election 1885 was a year when the parties in Newfoundland were re-aligning, with former Premier William Whiteway giving up his post under pressure and everyone trying to figure out what came next (O'Flaherty, pp. 153-156). It was a good time to be a political newcomer -- Kean was just thirty, and there were three Assemblymen who were still in their twenties (O'Flaherty, p. 156): A. B. Morine (for whom see "The Sealer Lad (The Fisherman's Son to the Ice is Gone)") and future premiers Robert Bond and E. P. Morris.
Kean served in Newfoundland's House of Assembly until 1889, decided not to run for re-election because it conflicted with the sealing season (Kean, p. 25), then changed his mind and was elected to a different constituency 1897-1900 (he went back into politics when the session time was moved so that it no longer conflicted with the sealing season; Kean, pp. 25-26). He later served in various government offices, including Minister of Fisheries (Ryan/Drake, p. 76) -- which was reasonable, since he was still commanding sealers. He likely could have held the office longer (he had it only in an acting capacity; Kean, p. 26), but he wanted to go back to sealing. He spent 19 years in charge of either the Newfoundland or Labrador Coastal Service (Kean, p. 58).
On May 22, 1888, having finished his second round of school, he gained his master's certificate, and was given a mail ship, the Curlew, soon after (Kean, p. 17). His political connections gained him command of the steamer Wolf in 1889 (Kean, p. 17). His decision not to run for re-election to parliament left him free to command her (Kean, p. 25, which makes me wonder a little if someone didn't give him a ship in order to get him out of the way) and it proved a smart move; he promptly took an amazing 31,473 seals (Chafe, p. 92). He would command eight other steamers in his 48 year career.
He eventually received the Order of the British Empire (Looker, p. 25; Kean, p. 146, in almost the only moment of humility in his entire book, says that he never dreamed of receiving a royal honour; Kean, p. 147, has a press report of him receiving it). Kean, p. 132, shows an ancient-looking Kean meeting Britain's King George VI in 1939.
Kean commanded a sealing steamer every year from 1889 to 1936 except 1896 (Kean, on the second, unnumbered, page of Ryan's introduction; obviously this is less than the fifty years cited above that he spent commanding a sealer, the difference being that, before he commanded a steamer, he had command of a sailing vessel).
Somehow he found time to father eight children (six sons, two daughters; Tarver, p. 228), the first being born just eleven months after his marriage (Kean, p. 7), so he was just 18 at the time. He raised eleven other children as well, orphaned offspring of relatives (Tarver, pp. 169-170; Kean, p. 7). He also helped establish the (Methodist-affiliated) school at Flowers Island. This even though he does not seem to have been particularly good at managing his own finances, and he left Flowers Island for Norton's Cove (which he renamed Brookfield) in 1879 (Kean, p. 8).
He admitted to a hasty temper but boasted that he had taught himself not to use profanity (Kean, p. 59). Frankly, his personality reminds me of the standard view of an old-time deacon: Sure of himself, completely devoid of flexibility, self-righteous, showing obvious outward piety and eschewing luxury but with an exceptionally high opinion of what was owed to him.
Or perhaps he was more like a prophet, for many of his men treated his ideas almost as the oracle of God (England, p. 62), even though others by then firmly condemned his lack of concern for his men.
In the off season, he had mail and passenger contracts for Labrador (Candow, p. 104).
His autobiography, Old and Young Ahead: A Millionaire in Seals - Being the Life History of Captain Abram Kean, was published in 1935. He retired the next year at age 80 (Ryan/Drake, p. 76). He probably would have liked to continue to command, but apparently Bowring's, the sealing firm, felt that he was too old to continue in the job and quietly put him out to pasture (Ryan-Last, p. 59, from an interview with a member of the Bowring family). He really was getting weak by then; one of the sealers who sailed under him toward the end recalled that he could no longer climb to his lookout station while wearing his heavy winter coat, so he climbed without it and had it hoisted to him! (Ryan-Last, p. 141).
There is a photo of him on p. 20 of Looker and a different one on p. 183 of Feltham; Brown has two in her section of photos following p. 118, and Ryan/Drake has one on p. 76. Chafe has one after p. 92, and Tarver one on p. 169. England, facing p. 181, has two, one on the bridge of the Terra Nova and one out on the ice. Collins, p. 151, has a very different one; I suspect he was much younger then. (Or maybe it was before he got the wig that his granddaughter said he wore; Ryan-Last, p. 300. One sailor said he had several, in multiple colors; Ryan-Last, p. 302). Kean has several photos of the Kean family. There is an 1899 photo of Captain Kean, along with other sealing stalwarts such as Arthur Jackman, on p. 25 of Winsor; WInsor has another photo on p. 73.
He "would not abide softness in his crew, and no efforts by the Fisherman's Protective Union to improve the sailors' lot could withstand Kean's opposition." When legislation was passed to (very slightly) improve sealers' conditions of service, "Kean lamented that the sealers had softened from too much 'luxury,' what with hot food to eat and real bunks to sleep in. He longed for the days when sealers were 'real men'" (Candow, p. 91).
He was apparently physically impressive; George Allan England, watching him come aboard the Terra Nova when in his late sixties, declared him "A fine old sea dog: proud, virile, dominant. One of the real 'fore-now' men, which is to say, the genuine old heart-of-oak breed of mariners, now, alas, dying out" (England, p. 29).
As far as I can tell, the only original thought he ever had was a technique of cutting off seal tail flippers that made it easier to count the hunt (Candow, p. 78). Otherwise, he was old-fashioned -- e.g. he declared using aircraft to seek seals completely useless (Candow, p. 81). Kean, p. 94, cites numbers to demonstrate his claim -- but I would say he fudged the numbers (doing the math, the average "take" for the years when the plane was in action were 156,396 seals, for when it was not, the average was 156,230 -- but to make this work, Kean had to include among the "plane years" the two years before the aircraft was working. Take out 1921-1922 and the "plane years" average 168,852. The plane may not have been cost-effective, but it can't really be said that it didn't help the hunt!).
He had a strange attitude toward the law. In a quote that shows his unique mix of closed-mindedness, stupidity, and pomposity, he declared in his book, "The laws and constitution of the English Government are the best in the world because they approach nearest to the laws God has established in our natures. Those who have attempted this barbarous violation of the most sacred rights of their country deserve the name of rebels and traitors, since they have not only violated the laws of their King and country but the laws of Heaven itself" (Kean, pp. 72-73).
Yet he showed a definite willingness to flout rules and norms, both in word and in deed. Just pages after declaring that British law was heaven's law, he said that he had "glanced" (his word) at the 1933 Newfoundland sealing regulations, and that 100 of the 140 pages could be "dispense[d with]" (Kean, p. 75).
His defiance wasn't restricted to word. All sealing captains tried to get out of port at the earliest moment allowed by law, so that they got first crack at the seals, but Kean on at least one occasion cheated more than the usual, only to be stopped by the ice (Ryan-Ice, p. 180). And when Newfoundland put limits on sealing on Sundays, Kean started keeping track of which sealers insisted on taking Sundays off: "If you were with Abram Kean, and you were a Sunday man, you were finished. Don't come looking for a berth no more" (William Lowe, on p. 394 of Ryan-Last).
He certainly wasn't above trickery; "[o]ne of his favourite gambits was to head off in one particular direction until the other ships were all following him: then, with his stokers tending their furnaces carefully to avoid emitting sparks through the funnel, he would change course abruptly after nightfall for the point where he estimated that his prey would be found. Captain Kean was in some respects as sought after as the seals, but both his pathfinding and the task of keeping up with him could be strenuous work" (Keir, p. 126. To be sure, trickery was almost an accepted part of the sealing game; Rycroft, pp. 87-88, tells of a case where locals, who pretended to be seal-spotters employed by his company, tried to steer Captain James Fairweather away from a patch of seals).
George Allan England described Kean's response to having others follow him: "The Thetis and Diana dogged our every 'jife' and 'cut.' They spied on us. Not if they could help it should Cap'n Kean steal a march on them. He, 'admiral of the fleet,' should not be allowed to strike the fat and leave them out of it.
"'An' if they make a blank, I'll be blamed,' the Old Man complained. 'Whatever happened, I'm blamed. I mind one spring they all tagged me, an' it was an off spring. Nobody got into the main patch at all. An' what d'you think, sir? They blamed me for leadin' 'em 'stray!'" (England, pp. 80-81).
England also says that he didn't always follow the rules in checkers, although England doesn't quite call it cheating, and he says that Kean was good enough that he rarely needed to step around the rules (England, pp. 109-110).
There were reports that his behavior on the ice, including stealing other ships' seals, contributed to the 1898 Greenland disaster (Brown, pp. 31-32; Cadigan, p. 185). Certainly his single-mindedness played a large role in the Newfoundland disaster (see "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)"); he was held "morally responsible" for that disaster, and there was actually a public demonstration against him in St. John's (Looker, p. 25). Indeed, the first time he lost an election was in 1919 (ButlerHanrahan, p. 112), which was the voters' first real shot at him after the Newfoundland Disaster. His autobiography completely brushes off the charges, and declares he couldn't have done anything (Kean, p. 31; his denials are frankly absurd) -- then devotes pages to his legal contest with Sir William Coaker about whether he was at fault (Kean, 31-35 and beyond).
He certainly had no qualms about nepotism, bringing his sons on his trips (e.g. in the year England sailed with him, his son Nathan Kean was Abram's Second Hand and his grandson Cyril was also aboard; England, p. 64) and encouraging his sons to become sealing captains themselves -- his oldest son Joe Kean would be a successful sealer before dying on the Florizel (see "The Wreck of the Steamship Florizel"), and Nathan and Westbury Kean also commanded ships (Kean, p. 29), although Westbury in particular had less success (he shared with his father most of the responsibility for the Newfoundland disaster; again, see "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)." To his credit, Westbury, unlike his father, at least felt bad about it).
Abram Kean's faith in his own abilities was astounding -- which perhaps explains why he didn't believe he was responsible for the deaths on the Newfoundland; he seems to have been unable to admit error or lack of ability. For example, he declared that if he had given his primary attention to politics instead of sealing, he had "no doubt that... I might today find myself in the same position as many another ex-Prime Minister."
His parliamentary career lasted, first to last, for more than a third of a century (although he was only in office for eight years of that span; Kean, p. 58); in 1927, he was promoted to Newfoundland's Legislative Council, the (appointed) upper house of parliament (Kean, p. 55). In that capacity, he voted, against his own desires, for the abolition of Newfoundland's representative government, i.e. for "Commission of Government" (Kean, p. 56); for more on this, see "Anti-Confederation Song (II)." In his typically superior way, he blames the failure of the Newfoundland government on Newfoundlanders' lack of "moral courage" (Kean, p. 56). This of a people whose quite often died of sailing or sealing in conditions that would make any normal person hide in a storm cellar!
"Kean's last involvement in public life came in the 1940s when he wrote a series of letters to the press urging Newfoundlanders to consider confederation," i.e. joining Canada (DictNewfLabr, p. 184). He did not live to see the outcome of that question.
I am genuinely surprised at the reverence in which he was seemingly held. Yes, he was the only captain to take a million seals -- but it took him a long, long time, and people were in awe long before that. The 21,610 seals he averaged per year (Chafe, p. 97) for the years listed in Chafe was indeed the highest career average for any whaler with at least ten years' service (Chafe actually lists Job Knee with a higher average, but this was a computational error), but Sam Blandford's 19,509 and Joe Barbour's 19,057 aren't that far behind. Similarly, if we look at total seals in a ten year period, Kean's 273,571 in the years 1909-1918 was more than anyone else's ten year total ever -- but Kean commanded either the Florizel or the Stephano for eight of those ten years; he had the advantage of the best available ship for almost the entire time. (Even so, he complained later that he would have gotten his millionth seal sooner if he'd had better ships; Kean, p. 57.) And his totals aren't that much greater than Blandford's 244,253 in 1895-1904, working in inferior ships (mostly the Neptune), or Barbour's 239,847 in 1880-1889 (mostly in Ranger, which was a clunker), or Henry Dawe of Bay Roberts's 233,622 in 1900-1909 (in three different ships), or Ed White Sr. and his 231,262 all the way back in 1868-1877 (in three different ships).
The total value of seals taken by Kean is also easily a record -- $1,983,475 for Kean, compared to $1,351,442 for Barbour, $1,284,027 for William C. Winsor and $1,034,057 for Blandford (Winsor, pp. 109-110). But, again, he served for 12 more years than Barbour, 14 more than Winsor, 16 more than Blandford. He had the best per-year rate, but not by an extraordinary amount. Maybe it really was that magisterial attitude of his that caused him to be so respected.
Even the celebration of his great milestone in 1934 was related to the death of seals -- "the world's largest [seal] flipper supper" was staged to celebrate the killing of his millionth seal (ButlerHanrahan, p. 108).
Kean was not always as successful as this piece might imply, though; in 1896, while commanding the Wolf (the second of that name, for which see "Captain Bill Ryan Left Terry Behind"), he allowed his ship to be trapped in the ice off Fogo Island; she was crushed and lost (Feltham, pp. 163-165). "The Terra Nova" is the story of how three men under his command died in 1924. Also, according to Brown, p. 4, while playing with a gun at age ten, he killed his three-year-old nephew and injured his own hand. (This account is mentioned on p. 3 of Kean. He admits that "nemesis" came his way, but mentioned no punishment for it except for his own anguish which interfered with his school career).
He was also a bore. Andy Short talks of his speeches to the men, which they had to listen to, "a speech about this, that, and the other thing... and all this kind of stuff" (Ryan-Last, p. 159). His book is not long (148 pages in the Ryan edition), but it really doesn't offer much detail about his career; half of it is political philosophy that has aged very poorly, and most of the rest is disorganized. (One reason why this account is also disorganized; I didn't have any structured biography to work from.) The only reason anyone would care about him is his sealing career, but apart from the statistics about seals taken, the book never mentions most of his trips to the ice.
He was also sexist (not that that was rare for men of his era). One of his business ventures, organized on behalf of his relatives, was the "Little Stephano Company," named after the ship he had commanded in the 1910s. Several female relatives held shares. When it was proposed that the company acquire another ship, the women voted against it -- so Kean ordered the women out and the men voted to buy the ship. And (Kean is at least honest enough to admit) it was a mistake; the women had been right. But his admission is linked with a slam against ALL women as being too cautious (Kean, pp. 40-41).
George Wilson told a story of when another sealer, the Ranger, was in a patch of seals but briefly trapped, Kean took his ship, the much more powerful Beothic, and used it to smash the ice and scare off the seals, depriving the Ranger of much of her catch (Ryan-Last, p. 231).
There were plenty of sailors who didn't like him. Don Fowler said, "That Abram Kean. He was a bugger.... [He] was a case; no one liked him" (Ryan-Last, p. 299). Jesse Codner declared, "Old Abram Kean was an old bastard, God forgive me. He should have been shot years ago. That old son of a...," after which Codner described how Kean's actions harmed him, plus the disasters Kean had contributed to, concluding "He thought he was God. He'd sooner have the seal than the man. He was after seals. He wasn't bothering about the men's welfare" (Ryan-Last, p. 149) -- a statement I would regard as largely true.
Jack Boone declared, "Kean was a bad man, old Abram Kean. A man was no more than a dog," and describes him running over sailors (Ryan-Last, p. 297), referring presumably to the incident described in "The Terra Nova." Jerry McCann declared, "He should be shot.... He was a dog" (Ryan-Last, p. 303).
Andy Short was more generous but still recalled him as hard; Kean was "a wonderful man. He was a good man... But he wasn't a man to take any mercy on men. He thought that the men were animals. He had no mercy on them whatever. No matter what the weather, you had to go out" (Ryan-Last, p. 159). William Noseworthy also called him a "hard old man" (Ryan-Last, p. 304), Oliver James said he was "a bit wild" (ibid.), and Wilfred Vincent said "He was the devil. He was a hard, hard man" (Ryan-Last, p. 305).
On the other hand, Edgar Kean (presumably a relation, but I don't know of what degree) declared "He was a clean-living man; a perfect gentleman" (Ryan-Last, p. 301), and Hayden Thomas, who called him a "terrible man," admitted "The northern men adored Abram Kean. If he said to them, 'Go jump overboard,' I believe they would" (Ryan-Last, p. 300). Sam Mifflin said, "I liked him. You could speak to him, he was a mannerly man. He was the best" (Ryan-Last, p. 304). Israel Pierce declared, "He was all right. I found the man all right. People give him a bad name, but I found the man all right" (Ryan-Last, p. 305). Stanley Sturge's opinion was that "Some would give their life for old man Kean I didn't find anything wrong with old man Kean. I didn't blame him for the Newfoundland disaster. I blame the master watches. [Which is ridiculous.] He was a good old fellow, really. Never smoked in his life and he never drank in his life" (ibid.)
Despite all his faults, his was an amazing career. But I'm very glad I didn't work with or for, or even around, him. Psychopaths don't appeal to me.
Otto Kelland, who wrote this piece, is best known for "Western Boat (Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's)"; see his biography there. He also produced "Captain Bob Bartlett," "The Dying Seal-Hunter," and "We Will Always Have Our Sealers," the latter three, like this piece, being included in the index based on their inclusion in Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff; there is no other evidence that they are traditional. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: RySm146

Captain and the Squire, The

See The Sea Captain and the Squire [Laws Q12] (File: LQ12)

Captain Avery

See Captain Every (File: BdCapEve)

Captain Barnwell

See Sarah Barnwell (File: GrD2218)

Captain Barton's Distress on Board the Lichfield

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you brave seamen that ploughs on the main, Give ear to my story" of the Lichfield that was wrecked "on the Barbary shore." 130 men die and 220 reach shore in the wreck. They are enslaved by the Moors and hope they will be ransomed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (FIrth)
KEYWORDS: wreck death slave disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 1760 - the survivors of the Lichfield wreck are ransomed and taken to Gibraltar
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 48, "Captain Barton's Distress on Board the Lichfield" (1 text)
Roud #V1856
File: PaSe048

Captain Bill Ryan Left Terry Behind

DESCRIPTION: "Terry is a fine young man, But he has lots of 'chaw.'" As several ships, including Terry's Esquimaux, get stuck in the ice, Bill Ryan abandons Terry "To paddle his own canoe."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship disaster
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 32, "Captain Bill Ryan Left Terry Behind" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Shannon Ryan, _The Ice Hunters: A History of Newfoundland Sealing to 1914_, Breakwater Books, 1994, pp. 152-153, "Captain Bill Ryan Left Terry Behind" (1 text)
ST RySm032 (Partial)
Roud #12532
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paddle Your Own Canoe" (tune)
NOTES [1560 words]: Although Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff does not date this piece, it appears certain that it refers to events of 1867, even though it's not clear from the piece just what is being referred to. Naturally, I spent a great deal of effort piecing it together before finding that Ryan, p. 152, documented the whole thing.
According to FelthamSteamers, p. 160, the Bloodhound and the Wolf were the first two Newfoundland-based steamers to be involved in the Newfoundland seal hunt, in 1863. (The first steamers of any kind to be involved were a handful of Dundee whalers in 1862, including the Polynia, for which see "The Old Polina.") Within four years, there were seven other steamers in the hunt, but the two pioneers were not very successful; the Wolf averaged only about 3500 seals per year before being lost on May 3, 1871. Nonetheless she was historic in more ways than one; her captain at that time was William Kean (Winsor, p. 69), and the commander of the last sealing steamer, the Eagle (for which see "The Ice-Floes"), was Charles Kean (Winsor, p. 28), so the Kean family was involved in the seal hunt from the very beginning to the very end.
It doesn't necessarily follow that the 1871 Wolf is the Wolf involved in this song. A second Wolf was launched in 1871 and joined the seal hunt in 1872 (FelthamSteamers, p. 160). She was much more successful as a sealer than her namesake, averaging more than 15,000 seals per year over a career that lasted for a quarter century; the Wolf II was lost in 1896 when she was trapped and crushed in the ice off Fogo Island; her captain Abram Kean (for whom see "Captain Abram Kean") and crew had to walk home (Winsor, p. 70).
The Wolf in this song, however, appears to be the first one, because Captain Bill Ryan is William Ryan (1825-?), whose last turn as a sealing skipper was in 1872 in the Eagle. Before that, he had commanded the Bloodhound 1866-1868 and the Merlin 1869-1871 (Chafe, p. 95), plus other ships before the steamer era. His father was Charles Ryan, who had been a famous captain of sealers in the days of sail (Ryan, p. 219). William had first gone to the ice as early as 1836, at the age of eleven. It is likely that he first commanded a sealer in 1857 (Ryan, pp. 219-220).
Although there were several famous sealers named Dawe (Henry Dawe is mentioned in "The Sealing Trip of the S. S. Greenland 1891," "Arrival of the 'Grand Lake' and 'Virginia Lake' With Bumper Trips," "I Am a Newfoundlander," and "The Sealer's Song (II)"), the only Captain Dawe to command a sealer Lion was Robert Dawe, whose only year in command of a steamer was in 1867 as skipper of, yes, the Lion (Chafe, p. 90). So the strong indication is that the year is 1867. According to Ryan, p. 207 n. 115, Dawe went back to sailing ships after 1867; in 1872, he commanded the Huntsman, which was one of several sealers which sank in that year (taking Dawe, his son, and many of his crew with it; Galgay/McCarthy, pp. 75-82, have an account; most of the men on the other wrecked ships survived, but because the Huntsman was trapped and then overwhelmed by waves, only eighteen men of a crew of about sixty survived. A partial list of the dead is on pp. 168-169 of Galgay/McCarthy).
The career of the Lion supports the 1867 date on other grounds. Her first trip to the ice was in 1867 (Chafe, p. 101); she returned every year until 1881. On January 6, 1882, on a non-sealing trip (she is believed to have carried ten crew and eighteen passengers; Galgay/McCarthy, p. 84), she left St. John's and was never seen again, although a small amount wreckage and a body were eventually found off Baccalieu (FelthamNortheast, p. 20; Galgay/McCarthy, pp. 86-87). The reason for the loss of the ship is unknown; a boiler explosion has been suggested (Ryan/Drake, p. 13), or perhaps an explosion of the gunpowder she carried to blow up ice (Candow, p. 87), but it has been pointed out that, if that had happened, it would surely have been heard (FelthamNortheast, p. 21). A collision is unlikely, since the weather was clear (FelthamNortheast, p. 20). So we will surely never know the answer with certainty. There are reports of a ghostly version of the Lion sometimes appearing off Baccalieu (FelthamNortheast, p. 21).
There is a picture of the Lion on p. 13 of Ryan/Drake; I can't help but notice how very many sails she had. She was formally a steamer, but clearly the sails were her primary movers. A partial list of those lost with her is on pp. 169-170 of Galgay/McCarthy.
The "Terry" of this song seems to be mentioned also in "Captain Henry Thomey" and "Sealing Fifty Years Ago." However, he is not "Captain Terry"; he is Captain Terrance Halleran, who commanded the Esquimaux in 1867, the latter's first year on the ice (it had been built in 1865; Archibald, p. 62, and was first used to take a cargo to Archangel, but was promptly converted to a whaler; Archibald, p. 149). She would not serve as a sealer again until 1878, although she didn't miss another year after that until 1895 (she went ashore in the Davis Strait that year; Archibald, p. 149) and made her last trip in 1900 (Chafe, p. 99), when she was involved in lawsuits because her captain was accused of stealing others' seals (Ryan, p. 182) and was sold (Winsor, p. 38). After that she was renamed America and sent on an Arctic expedition (Tarver, p. 50), being crushed by the ice and sinking in 1903 (Tarver, p. 54), with the men being rescued by the Terra Nova (Watson, p. 172; the Terra Nova was the default rescue ship of the era; it had just rescued Robert Scott's first Antarctic expedition). It's likely that the Esquimaux is the "Husky" of "The Old Polina"; that appears to be the only other mention of her in sealing songs.
Mowat/Blackwood, which is not a very reliable source but whom I see no reason to doubt in this case, on p. 68 portrays a sealer who sailed on the Esquimaux. She is described as "a little thing, only about a hundred feet long, and had been a whaler for thirty year (sic.) before being bought up for the sealing."
It's perhaps no surprise that the Esquimaux did not get another sealing job for some time after Halleran commanded her, even though she was the largest sealing steamer of the period (Ryan, p. 152); she took only 150 seals in that year (Chafe, p. 99). Apparently Halleran, not used to handling steamers, got her stuck in the ice (Ryan, p. 152), (No wonder the song says she was "left behind.") Nor did Terrance Halleran ever command another sealing steamer (Chafe, p. 91). Probably he was getting old (the comment that "Terry is a fine young man" presumably being ironic); "Captain Henry Thomey" implies that Halleran and Thomey went back many years -- into the age of sailing sealers, although the first mention I can find of Halleran is in 1859 (Chafe, p. 41). He had been a successful sealer in the days of sail, being the "high liner" in 1859 and 1861, when he took 9500 and 8600 seals, respectively (Ryan, p. 502) -- good numbers for a sailing ship, although the steamers would soon eclipse such totals. But many sealing captains who had been successful on sailing ships proved failures in steamers (Ryan, p. 221, who adds that it seems to have been more helpful for a steamer captain to have experience as a junior officer on a steamer than to have commanded a sailing ship).
Of the other ships mentioned in the song, the Panther was purchased for sealing by Harvey and Company in 1867 (Busch, pp. 66-67), making her one of the oldest sealers in the fleet. She took a mere 2800 seals in her first year -- her lowest total until 1883. She was one of three sealers lost in 1908, along with the Walrus and the Grand Lake (O'Neill, p. 972) when ice stove in her bow (Ryan, p. 191; according to Winsor, p. 58, her loss might have killed most of her crew had not the ice that jammed her kept her afloat until they could leave safely; she sank in about three hours once the ice loosened). It was a bad time for sealers; seven were lost in the course of three years (FelthamSteamers, p. 151). The Mastiff brought home her crew (Greene, pp. 268-269). The Panther is also mentioned in "The Sealer's Song (II)"; there is a photo of her on p. 58 of Winsor.
The Mary Joyce was not a steamer or even one of the major sailing brigs; Ryan, p. 207 n. 115, says the was "a small St. John's sailer of 58 tons, which was the only vessel (clearing from St. John's, at least) owned by E. Smith and Co." Ryan speculates that she was mentioned either because she was nearby at the time of the incident or was simply much smaller than all the big steamers.
The Osprey was one of the first steamers, going to the ice for the first time in 1864. In 1867 she sailed under Captain James Winsor (whose only time as commander of a sealing steamer was on the Osprey in 1867-1868; Chafe, p. 96, although many other Winsors would become successful captains). It's perhaps no surprise that he did not serve again, since she took only 2600 seals in 1867, and a mere 400 in 1868; no doubt the owners wanted a new captain!
She missed the season in 1869, then returned to action in 1870 (WInsor, p. 57). Never a very successful ship (only once did she take as many as 7500 seals), Osprey was lost in 1874 (Chafe, p. 32), with the crew rescued by the Panther (Greene, pp. 268-269). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: RySm032

Captain Bob Bartlett

DESCRIPTION: "A rugged Newfoundlander as ever sailed the seas, He was born and raised in Brigus in the bay." Bartlett's career as a sealer, then as captain, is told, as is his work with Admiral Peary. "He's resting now at Brigus where his grave o'erlooks the bay."
AUTHOR: Otto P. Kelland (1904-2004)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Kelland, Anchor Watch)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship exploration
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1875-1946 - Life of Robert Abram Bartlett
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 83-84, "Captain Bob Bartlett" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Otto P. Kelland, _Anchor Watch: Newfoundland Stories in Verse_ (privately printed, 1960), pp. 43-44, "Bob Bartlett" (1 text)
Roud #V45400
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ballad of Captain Bob Bartlett, Arctic Explorer" (subject)
cf. "The Roving Newfoundlanders (I)" (brief mention of Bob Bartlett)
NOTES [8787 words]: For information about Otto Kelland, the author of this piece, see the notes to "Western Boat (Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's)."
Songs which are about Robert (Bob) Bartlett in some capacity or other are "Captain Bob Bartlett" and "Ballad of Captain Bob Bartlett, Arctic Explorer"; there is also a minor mention in "The Roving Newfoundlanders (I)."
He became a hero in Newfoundland, an island which in the 1930s lost its self-government, and was desperate for heroes. It's an interesting and complex question whether he was deserving. He often was involved in important events -- and they often turned out badly.
There was something odd about him, I think. Bartlett was one of the few men on Robert Peary's arctic expeditions who reportedly did not take an Inuit mistress (HHorwood, p. 59) and he never married (Ryan/Drake, p. 77); HHorwood, p. 166, says that his mother was "the only woman, apparently, who was ever important in his life," which makes me wonder a little about his sexual orientation. (In later years, he was like a captain married to his ship -- he declared that the Effie M. Morrissey was "all I've got. When she stops, so do I"; NivenIce, p. 365.) He also seems to have been prone to depression (e.g. HHorwood, p. 79) -- so much so that there was a time when he was sleeping fourteen hours a day (HHorwood, p. 77; sleep disorders are a very frequent side effect of depression). He came close to drinking himself to death (HHorwood, pp. 123-124). His inability to understand or control men was obvious during the Karluk voyage. Yet he was also quick to come up with new ideas. There are other hints of unusual behavior; I doubt he was psychologically normal. (I frankly suspect he was autistic -- I'm allowed to say that, since I'm autistic myself -- but it's beyond proof at this date.)
None of that shows up in the songs, which are about Bob Bartlett the Hero. The details in this song are mostly correct. Bartlett was born in Brigus, and Brigus is on Conception Bay, one of the many small outports on the west side of that body of water. Bartlett did indeed command Robert Peary's ship in 1906. He later commanded the schooner Effie M. Morrissey, and he died in 1946 and is buried in Brigus.
The statements in the "Ballad of Captain Bob Bartlett, Arctic Explorer" are similarly correct; Bartlett was born in Brigus, and Peary did employ him on the way to the North Pole. Bartlett did spend much time on the Morrissey. As a sealing captain, he did command the Nimrod (1903-1904), the Algerine (1905), the Neptune (1912-1913), the Bonaventure (1915), and the Kite (1901) (Chafe, p. 87).
If a non-Newfoundlander refers to "Captain Bartlett," it probably means Bob, but not every mention of "Captain Bartlett" in Newfoundland songs is to Robert Bartlett; the Bartletts were a Newfoundland dynasty. His grandfather William Bartlett was reportedly the first captain to go sealing on the Labrador Coast, as early as 1800 (Ryan, p. 213 and 272 n. 6, though how a man who was already a captain in 1800 could have a grandson born 1875 is beyond me). Indeed, Robert wasn't the only Bartlett who worked with Robert Peary; so did his uncle John Bartlett (Bob was John's first mate when John took Peary to Ellesmere Island in the Windward in 1898; HHorwood, p. 53). Bob's cousin Sam Bartlett carried Josephine Peary north to meet her husband Robert in the arctic in 1900, apparently because she wanted to check out the Inuit teenager with whom Peary was having an affair (HHorwood, p. 59); young Bob was mate on that expedition also (Bryce, p. 212). Sam Bartlett would also take a supply ship north to meet up with Peary's returning expedition in 1909 -- and incidentally take home some people who were sick of Peary's antics (HHorwood, p. 96). A cousin, Moses Bartlett, had an ironic role as the captain the of ship that took Frederick A Cook, Peary's great rival, to the arctic on the trip where Cook claimed to reach the North Pole (Bryce, pp. 298, 849). Bryce, p. 294, says Moses "had a fabulous reputation as an ice pilot, and like many of the Bartletts from Brigus, Newfoundland, including his second cousin, Bob, he had an equal reputation as a hard drinker."
Improbably, NivenIce, p. 40, says that Bob Bartlett was a teetotaler! HHorwood, p. ix, offers this as an example of Bartlett's "taste for embroidery at the expense of historical accuracy," saying that "he was not a lifelong teetotaler, though he often protested that he was." As we saw, he seems to have been an alcoholic in the 1920s -- but he didn't admit it. Bartlett in fact claimed that he once swam across an open lake of sea water during the seal hunt, and refused a drink after concluding it. But, as Horwood notes, the captain who allegedly offered him the drink was Bartlett's own father, a true teetotaler who would hardly offer his sixteen-year-old son a drink!
Rounding out the Bartletts who achieved some fame in the Arctic was Bob's uncle Isaac Bartlett, who in 1871 had captained the Tigress and rescued George Tyson's party of survivors of Hall's ill-fated Polaris (Henderson-Fatal, p. 220; Feltham, pp. 140-141; Chafe, p. 42). According to Loomis, p. 265, Isaac Bartlett told the story of the Hall rescue story so often to young Bob that the youth snuck away whenever Isaac showed up -- but Bob still went on to become a sealer and arctic explorer. (For more on these expeditions, see the notes to "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay.")
Isaac Bartlett was a bit like Bob: A rather mixed bag of success and dramatic failure. The Tigress had suffered a fatal explosion in 1874, killing 22 sailors, although the ship made it home and was repaired (Feltham, p. 142); she sprang a leak and sank the next year (Feltham, p. 143). Funny to note that Isaac was the only sealing captain ever to have a boiler explode, and Bob was with the Viking when she too suffered an explosion.
Uncle John Bartlett's style may also have contributed to Bob's future behavior; John "seems to have been been a foolhardy driver of a captain, even by Bob's standards, which weren't very exacting, for he himself was no paragon of caution when it came to handling a ship" (HHorwood, pp. 55-56).
Much of the fame of the Bartletts seems to have been generated post-Peary. Chafe, pp. 31-32, has a list of the most noteworthy sealing captains. There are no Bartletts in the list, although there is a one-word mention in a list of dozens of sealing families. But DictNewfLabrador, pp. 16-17, has biographies of five members of the Bartlett family, although Bob's is half again as long as the other four combined.
Until Bob Bartlett became involved in arctic exploration, his fame was local, as a sealing captain -- an activity which usually didn't involve much navigation or real ship-handling; the ship went a few dozen miles to the ice and sent out the watches of sealers and waited for them to return. Bartlett's family wasn't nearly as entrenched in sealing lore as the Kean family (for which see "Captain Abram Kean") or the Barbours or Winsors (for whom see "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912"), but they certainly spent a lot of time at the ice. Other Bartletts who commanded ships mentioned in sealing songs include (this is mostly from Chafe, p. 87):
* John Bartlett Sr. commanded the Wolf ("Captain Bill Ryan Left Terry Behind") in 1867 -- his only command of a sealing steamer.
* John Bartlett Jr. commanded the Bloodhound ("The Sealer's Song (II)") in 1869-1870 -- his only command of a sealing steamer. (He did command the Panther -- a ship which had a Bartlett in command every year from 1867 to 1895 -- on an arctic expedition in 1869; DictNewfLabrador, p. 16).
* Abram Bartlett (1819-1889) commanded the Panther ("Captain Bill Ryan Left Terry Behind") 1867-1883 -- his only command of a sealing steamer; he retired after that. There is a photo of him facing p. 93 of Chafe. He was one of the first Newfoundlanders to command a sealing steamer.
* William Bartlett Sr. (1851-1931), Bob's father, first went fishing at the age of 15 (Tarver, p. 228), served on the Panther starting in 1867 (DictNewfLabrador, p. 17), commanded the Panther ("Captain Bill Ryan Left Terry Behind") 1884-1894 (Bob Bartlett would serve on the Panther in 1892, 1894, and 1895; HHorwood, p. 181), the Iceland 1896-1897 (with Bob as his "second hand" or first mate), the Hope 1898-1901 (losing her in the latter year), the Algerine ("Loss of the S. S. Algerine") 1902-1903 (Bob Bartlett was the Algerine's first mate in the first of those years; HHorwood, p. 182), the Viking ("To the Memory of the Late Captain Kennedy") 1904-1913 and 1916-1923, and the Terra Nova ("The Terra Nova") 1914-1915. There is a photo of one or the other William Bartlett -- I would guess it's the senior -- facing p. 92 of Chafe.
* William Bartlett Jr. commanded the Viking ("To the Memory of the Late Captain Kennedy") 1914-1915 and the Ranger ("First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912") in 1916.
* Henry Bartlett commanded the Nimrod ("The Nimrod's Song") 1890-1892 and the Algerine ("Loss of the S. S. Algerine") 1893-1894.
* Moses Bartlett commanded the Nimrod ("The Nimrod's Song") 1893-1894, the Panther ("Captain Bill Ryan Left Terry Behind") 1898, and the Southern Cross ("The Southern Cross (I)") 1909.
Isaac Bartlett (c. 1821-1906), interestingly, never commanded a ship mentioned in song. Neither did Sam Bartlett. In fact, Isaac commanded sealing steamers for just eight years (1867-1875; Ryan, p. 495), and Sam for just three.
In any case, there are a lot of stories the songs don't tell....
Robert Abram Bartlett (born 1875 in Brigus, Newfoundland; died 1946 in New York City, but his grave and monument are at his home in Brigus) is now remembered mostly as an arctic explorer -- Robert Peary, the alleged discoverer of the North Pole, took him on three expeditions; in 1913-1914 Bartlett, as commander of the Karluk, was wrecked, and saved his expedition by a sledge trip to Alaska; in 1926, he was on the ship that carried Robert Byrd's plane to Spitzbergen for Byrd's flight toward the pole, though Bartlett was not to be in the plane.
It was those sorts of exploits that led HHorwood, p. 28, to write, "If Bartlett was a hero in the nineteenth-century mold... he was a hero with certain flaws and certain persistent failures. One of his failures was his inability to accept blame, even when he was wrong."
As a boy, Bartlett apparently was small and sickly, but he worked very hard to strengthen himself. He also developed the habit of being extremely profane while still a boy (HHorwood, p. 33). His mother allegedly said he was "never dry" from all the time he spent around water and ice, and he had no respect for rules (HHorwood, p. 44). He was "never dry" in another sense, too -- all through his boyhood and teens, he continued to wet his bed at night, which caused him to give up on education (HHorwood, p. 43) -- although he didn't earn much academic distinction when he was in school (HHorwood, p. 45), so this might have been an excuse for why he didn't go to college. He first went sealing at age sixteen with his father. On the voyage in which he made it to Able Seaman, the ship was wrecked (HHorwood, pp. 47-48). It wouldn't be the last time he had a ship destroyed under him.
He didn't necessarily have much sense, once jumping into freezing water to cross a lead between ice patches (HHorwood, p. 50, who mentions that there are many false versions of this story). And, early in life, he was accused of theft, though in the end another was blamed for the crime (HHorwood, pp. 49-50).
His first, brief, command was of the family fishing schooner Osprey(HHorwood, p. 181), but he apparently generally had poor luck in the fishing trade (HHorwood, p. 51). He went on to be a Master Watch (leader of one of the groups of sealers on a ship), then a Second Hand (the sealer's equivalent of first officer or second-in-command), preparing him to become a captain (HHorwood, p. 51). He formally passed the exam for ship's master when he was 22 (HHorwood, pp. 51-52).
Locally, he first generated notice as a sealing captain -- though his experience as a sealing captain was limited at the time he hooked up with Peary, and he never became a true "regular" at the ice (he first went north with Peary as first mate on the Windward in 1898; HHorwood, p. 182). From 1901, when he had his first sealing command, through 1923, he only eight times commanded a sealer. His first command was the Kite in 1901 (see see "The Kite Abandoned in White Bay"); she hit bottom on that voyage, but survived (HHorwood, p. 182). But he had to go back to being first mate on the Algerine in 1902 (although that's only a small demotion, since the Kite was a very small ship). In 1903-1904, he was given command of the Nimrod (for which see "The Nimrod's Song") in 1903-1904 -- and had a bad voyage in 1903, then violated the law by taking seals on a Sunday in 1904, those being the only seals he got. In 1905, he as back as commander of the Algerine (for which see "Loss of the S. S. Algerine"). He missed the 1906 season to go with Peary, then received command of the Leopard in 1907 -- which he promptly wrecked. Admittedly 1907 was a bad year for sealers, and many Newfoundlanders were wrecked at one time or another -- but it wouldn't be the last time Bob commanded a ship that he wrecked. Then he had charge of the Neptune (for which see "Neptune, Ruler of the Sea") in 1913, then went on the Karluk expedition (HHorwood, p. 182). His last time in command of a sealer was in the Bonaventure in 1915.
I find it funny that Bartlett, the self-proclaimed great sealing captain, when in the ice with the Karluk, seems to have left his men (who knew nothing about seal-hunting) to do the hunting, and he doesn't seem to have been able to tell his cook much about how to prepare seal (NivenIce, p. 48).
Bartlett was proud of his work as a sealer; in his book Sails over Ice, he wrote, "I have always been a high liner, never coming back without the seals, always with the best ship, and with the best crew, and it was my proud boast that I had never lost a man" (quoted by Busch, p. 65).
The last of these claims is genuine grounds for boasting, but the bit about always having the best ship is pure bunk. To take just one example, his command in 1912-1913, the Neptune, was by then four decades old (Feltham, pp. 92-93). The best ships at the time were Bowring's liners Florizel (for which see "The Wreck of the Steamship Florizel") and Stephano. So Bartlett was exaggerating his memories, although probably by accident.
He wasn't particularly successful as a sealer, either. In his eight trips from 1901-1915, he averaged only 10,009 seals per trip, at a time when the best sealers would hope for at least 15,000 per trip and might get close to 40,000 on a truly great trip. And that's his average, much magnified by his two and only two good years (23,160 in 1913, and 25,985 in 1915). His median haul was just 6062 seals. His brother Will said he was too impatient to be a good sealer (HHorwood, pp. 113-114). He actually averaged fewer seals per trip than his father, despite having much better ships, although he did do better than any other Bartlett (HHorwood, p. 183; Chafe, p. 97).
As for being a high liner -- that is, the first to return to port (Busch, p. 77), so called presumably because they occupied a high line in lists of returns such as those in Chafe -- that's bunk too. In 1901, he was the next-to-last sealer to return, and the only one to come in after him had more than twice as many seals (Chafe, p. 68). In 1903, he was again next-to-last (Chafe, p. 70). In 1904, he was dead last (Chafe, p. 70). In 1905, he "improved" to #13 out of 22 sealers (Chafe, p. 72). In 1913, he was #11 of 19. In 1915, and only in 1915, was he high liner (Chafe, p. 82). Apparently that was the only year he was capable of remembering, because that was also the year he hit the mother lode -- his 25,985 seals were not only the best in the fleet, they represented more than half the total seals taken, and almost three times the next-best ship total. (Chafe, p. 44, says that an ice barrier blocked the other steamers from the seals.) But to put this in perspective, four sealers in 1916 exceeded Bartlett's 1915 total, and a fifth came close; he had come in first in one of the worst years on record.
The song's mention of Bartlett and Robert Peary is significant and should perhaps be gotten out of the way next. Bartlett figures very strongly in the question of Peary's 1909 trip to the North Pole. Bartlett served as commander of the Roosevelt, Peary's ship, and the explorer gave Bartlett much credit for keeping the ship afloat in his 1905 expedition, when the ship barely made it home with her hull badly damaged. (I can't help but note how often Bartlett got involved in poorly-built Arctic ships. The Roosevelt was built for Peary's expedition, but with defects, and went to the ice without ever being given proper trials; HHorwood, pp. 64-65. And when two of her three boilers blew up, Bartlett refused to turn back; HHorwood, p. 66. When Roosevelt went north again in 1909, she was "still underfitted"; HHorwood, p. 80. Whereas other Arctic ships like the Terra Nova and the Fram, both built decades before the Roosevelt, still had long, useful careers ahead of them, the Roosevelt was relegated to the status of a tug not long after Peary was done with her; Paine, p. 436. As for the Karluk, she was hopeless....)
If Peary made Bartlett famous, it's clear that Bartlett didn't want to be "Peary's captain"; he wanted to be part of the group that made the Pole. Peary developed a system -- really, the only possible system at the time -- of working with a large support crew that wasn't intended to reach the Pole; they just shuttled supplies. In 1909, using this system, Peary made his final attempt for the Pole. (He had made several failed attempts in the past, but this was almost sure to be his last; Peary was too old and broken-down, and his financial backers too tired of the whole business, for him to have much hope of another chance if the 1909 expedition failed.)
When Peary reached up his northernmost supply stop, Bartlett was with him, and expected to be one of those on the crew that went to the Pole. But Peary left him behind -- disappointing the young captain so much that he actually started to set out for the Pole himself, on foot, before coming to his senses.
The fact that Peary left him behind is highly indicative. There are no proper witnesses to the last part of Peary's journey. As noted, Peary dropped off various men along the way, resupplying the remaining sledges from theirs.
As the expedition reached the final stages, only three men were left who could read a sextant and hence measure the latitude: Peary, Bartlett, and Ross Marvin. Marvin was dropped at the next-to-last stop, leaving Peary with a signed statement of his position -- but he never made it home; apparently he was murdered by the Inuit (see Bryce, p. 698; Henderson-True, pp. 218-219). Then Peary got rid of Bartlett. Peary's crew on the last leg of his trek consisted of "Commander" Peary himself (whose correct Naval title was not "Commander" but merely "Civil Engineer"), his servant Matthew Henson, and a handful of Inuit. In other words, by leaving Bartlett behind, Peary had made sure that no one could verify his claimed position.
Peary's justification is that he could only take one companion, and he had to take Henson. Somewhere in Bryce (I lost my note on this, and the book's index is no help) is Henson's explanation for this: Bartlett was a slow sledger, and had damaged his legs, meaning that he should not continue. There are very strong reasons to think this not true: Bartlett was in good enough shape that he actually started to walk to the pole, and he had broken trail for much of the trip north, strongly implying that he was a better sledger than the others with Peary. Peary had also had him break trail on the 1905 expedition (HHorwood, p. 68). On p. 878, Bryce notes that Bartlett made it back from where he parted with Peary in 24 days. Another of Peary's sledgers, Borup, needed 23 days to sledge back from a point more than two degrees further south. And Bartlett sledged just fine during the Karluk voyage. In fact, when Peary temporarily made Henson the lead sledger, he did so badly that Peary took him off the job (Larson, p. 200). So Henson's (self-justifying) explanation simply doesn't hold up.
Peary also suggested that Henson couldn't navigate his way home using a sextant -- which is true. The implication being that there was no way for Henson to navigate his way home. Also true. But, according to Rawlins, p. 104, Bartlett wasn't given a sextant or the data to calculate his position on the way back, either, so Bartlett could no more engage in celestial navigation than Henson could; he just had to follow the path back home. There is no reason Henson could not have done the same -- after all, Bartlett did it!
Incidentally, those records of position used by Bryce are from Peary, and while Peary noted the positions where the others left, he listed his own return time without listing his own farthest north! It's as if he hadn't yet decided whether to pretend he had reached the Pole. As HHorwood, p. 90, says, the latitude of 87 degrees 47 minutes north recorded by Bartlett is "the highest confirmed latitude" reached by humans before aircraft explored the arctic.
Once the National Geographic Society had accepted Peary's alleged proofs, he kept them under lock and key; not even a congressional committee was allowed to keep them overnight -- obviously making verification extremely tricky. And Peary's records, it was noted, show none of the grease and grime one would expect of someone keeping a diary while on a polar trek, eating greasy pemmican and having no way to wash. (Though Bryce, p. 879, says that Peary's diary is so full of egotistical statements that it's hard to imagine why he would have included them in a fake record. Bryce's only explanation is that Peary was unwilling to throw anything away -- unless it argued against his polar claim.)
The map in Roberts, p. 141, is strongly illustrative. Peary left land at a northern point on Ellesmere Island, roughly 500 miles south of the North Pole. Bartlett turned back 133 miles south of the Pole -- roughly a quarter of the remaining distance. It took Bartlett 18 days to cover the distance back to land, and six more to return to the Roosevelt. Peary, who would have had to cover at least 250 additional miles had he reached the pole, arrived back at the ship two days after Bartlett (Roberts, pp. 142-143).
To manage that, Peary, in that last part of the trip in which he travelled with no other companion who could read a sextant, claimed to cover distances which no other sledging party ever managed; indeed, they were more than twice his own average for the rest of the trip. For part of the distance, he was claiming fifty miles a day (Roberts, p. 148). Roberts notes that the best average distance ever recorded on a verified trek was 36.6 miles per day. Peary justified the claims on the grounds that the ice got better -- which would indeed have allowed him to move faster if it were true, but Henson said that the ice remained just as bad for the next several days; it took four days before Henson felt that they made even thirty miles in a day! (Rawlins, p. 110).
And Peary, who had damaged his feet and lost eight toes due to frostbite, made this claim even though he generally had to ride in a sledge rather than operating under his own power (see Bryce, p. 442, Henderson-True, p. 214, HHorwood, p. 91); Bryce, p. 852, writes, "as Henson attested, he was not much more than a load of freight." O'Neill, p. 979, claims that Bartlett was ahead of Peary on the next-to-last leg of the trip; "Bartlett blazed the trail which Peary followed across the frozen wastes of the north. In this way the American travelled in ease, after the Newfoundlander carried the burdens and the risks.... [Bartlett] could have gone on to the pole with little difficulty and claimed the glory for himself, but he stopped just short of the 88th parallel and waited for Peary to catch up. Instead of allowing him to share in the final reward, Peary ordered Bartlett to stay behind because he was not an American."
Any objective observer would say that it was Bartlett, not Peary, who should have made the final run to the Pole. He was fitter, younger, as determined as Peary, at least as competent -- and less obnoxious. But even if Peary wasn't planning to cheat about reaching the North Pole, he wanted to be the only "white man" to reach the Pole. (Bryce, p. 296. And, yes, Peary does seem to have been that sort of a racist; in years of traveling with the Inuit, he never learned their language, and some of the things he said about his faithful Black assistant Matthew Henson are frightful -- even though Henson, as his memoirs show, was in many ways a wiser and better man than Peary.)
(I'll offer a wild speculation here: perhaps Peary initially thought that Bartlett -- who was young and rather a doofus -- was not yet skilled with a sextant and could be influenced to give the reading Peary wanted. When he realized that Bartlett wouldn't play such games, Peary sent him home. And that leads to the further speculation that perhaps Peary hinted that it wouldn't be bad if Marvin didn't make it home, either. But I have no evidence for either of these points, and don't really believe them -- especially the one about Marvin; that Bartlett had a peculiar set of abilities and lacks thereof can hardly be doubted.)
It must have been truly wearing for Bartlett, who accompanied Peary on many speaking tours -- and was given a bunch of silver medals at the time when Peary was given gold (Bryce, p. 489). Talk about adding insult to injury! If Peary did in fact make it to the pole, then Bartlett certainly could have done so also -- and Peary could not have piloted the Roosevelt far enough to make the run for the pole possible. So who deserves more credit?
It appears Peary had pulled the same trick on Bartlett during his previous (1905-1906) expedition toward the Pole (HHorwood, p. 70; Fleming, pp. 340-343). Little is made of Peary's lack of documentation on that trip, since he did not reach the Pole, and apparently had no hopes of reaching it by the time he left the last of his support crew behind. The best he could hope for was a new "Farthest North," to encourage his financial backers -- and even his claim to that is dubious (Rawlins, p. 68, who notes that, just as in 1909, Peary claimed to have covered the most distance sledging at times when he was rid of anyone who could read a sextant; cf. Bryce, pp. 853-854, who notes also the inadequacy of his equipment).
The classic book on this subject, according to Berton, is the already-cited Peary at the Pole: Fact or Fiction? by Dennis Rawlins. See also Berton, especially pp. 577-582. Rawlins convinced Berton -- and Rawlins's extremely negative tone may have contributed to Berton's own harsh statements. Indeed, Rawlins's violent anti-Peary tone may have lessened the book's effect (Bryce, p. 757; I can testify that it's a tough book to read). Still, the evidence is strong: Peary never made the Pole. And, unlike other Arctic expeditions, he didn't gather any useful scientific data. Nor did he care.
But that's Peary's story, not Bartlett's. (Although HHorwood, who is sure that Peary did not make the pole, declares his certainty on p. 91 that if it had been Bartlett, not Peary, who made the final run north, Bartlett would have reached the pole.) Even in Peary's story, and in Peary's war with Frederick Cook over who reached the Pole first, Bartlett stands out (e.g. when Peary tried to destroy Cook's equipment to render his claim unprovable, Bartlett helped hide some of the equipment from Peary's wrath; Bryce, p. 415).
The flip side is, Bartlett in 1910 took another ship, the Beothic (another well-known whaling vessel), north to investigate some of Cook's records (Bryce, pp. 908-909) -- although the voyage also let him take some rich tourists north; HHorwood, p. 105, believes Bartlett was simply playing celebrity captain to some rich fools. Whatever Bartlett's real reason, his work was not constructive. Bryce thinks Bartlett was doing Peary's dirty work at this point, destroying rather than investigating. Bryce, p. 920, goes so far as to state, "If Peary had a 'co-conspirator' in his fraudulent claim to the North Pole, it was Bob Bartlett, and his autobiography shows that he either was a clumsy liar or had an incredibly poor memory." Bryce, it will be clear, favors the former interpretation. I am inclined to disagree; the impression I get from Bartlett's writings is of a man who often acted before he thought, and suffered for it; this would help explain why Peary was able to lead him around by the nose. This is somewhat similar to Horwood's view that Bartlett was simply prone to wild exaggeration. But Horwood has no alternative explanation for how Cook's records were found missing after Bartlett and Company opened Cook's cairn (HHorwood, p. 107).
After messing with Cook's records, Bartlett and Co. continued their tourist trip around the Arctic, engaging in such silliness as capturing a live polar bear and starting into the Northwest Passage -- and nearly losing their ship in the process (HHorwood, pp. 108-109). "They touched bottom an uncounted number of times -- Bartlett literally didn't bother to note all the minor groundings in his log -- and ran solidly on the rocks on five different occasions" (HHorwood, p. 111). The repair bill for the ship ran to the equivalent of millions of dollars today. And their hunting "probably did permanent damage" to the local wildlife which lived so precariously in the Arctic Archipelago (HHorwood, p. 110).
HHorwood, p. 112, says that Bartlett hadn't even had the sense to make an arrangement with the hunter/tourists to get paid. Fortunately, they gave him a very big tip.
In World War I, he was given a commission in the U. S. Navy, but apparently hated the work he had to do (HHorwood, p. 115). In 1917, after one of Peary's associates went on a voyage to confirm the existence of Peary's "Crocker Land" northwest of Ellesmere Island (which turned out not to exist) Bartlett took the Neptune on a relief expedition -- and managed to smash a hole in her bow (HHorwood, pp. 115-116). He tried to sell more expeditions, and even designed what he thought would be an ideal arctic ship, but he couldn't get the money he needed (HHorwood, p. 117).
He didn't stop trying. HHorwood, p. vii, counts in total 28 voyages by Bartlett to the arctic (although most of them went over well-travelled waters and added little to our knowledge); HHorwood, p. 110, declares, "From the age of twenty-three until his death at the age of seventy, he never spent a summer anywhere else [other than the Arctic] if he could help it." Frankly, Bartlett looks like an obsessive.
After the war, he became more than obsessive; he became a drunk and a depressive, according to HHorwood, p. 123 -- even though he was living in America in the Prohibition era! In 1924, he suffered a broken leg and ribs when hit by a laundry wagon; he spent three months in the hospital -- and finally cleaned himself up (HHorwood, p. 124).
Despite all the discussion of the Pole and the Arctic, I would argue that the real key to Bartlett's reputation, and the criticism of the same, is the Karluk voyage. This time, there was no Peary; the expedition was chartered by Vilhjalmur Stefansson, but he abandoned the ship early on, leaving Bartlett in charge of the show -- without ever having gotten his supplies and personnel onto the right ships (McKinlay, p. 19, says that all that was supposed to be organized when the expedition's three ships rendezvoused at Herschel Island, adding "Heaven help us all if we failed to reach Herschel Island." And, of course, they never did reach it. In fact, none of Stefansson's ships reached it, and two of the three were lost, and so was one of their captains, later on; McKinlay, p. 31).
The Karluk was intended to take Stefansson and his scientists to explore the western portions of the Canadian arctic, where Stefansson expected to find uncharted islands. Bartlett was Stefansson's second choice to be captain (McKinlay p. 12), which means he didn't have any real part in the planning. The ship was trapped in the ice, and Stefansson proceeded to take a few scientists and leave. Bartlett, his sailors, the remaining scientists, and the Karluk were trapped, drifting west until they were close to Wrangel Island off Siberia, where the ice smashed the ship's hull. With the ship in the middle of the ice pack and sinking steadily if slowly, Bartlett managed to get the men on the ice, brought them (or most of them) to Wrangel Island, then set off for Alaska to find rescue.
This probably wasn't the original plan; he wanted to go to Wrangel Island only as a stopping point on his way to Siberia, taking the whole crew with him. But so many of the men suffered injuries just getting to Wrangel that Bartlett decided to leave them there and go on alone (McKinlay, p. 91).
Not all the men he left behind lived, though. Three scientists and a sailor, who apparently did not trust Bartlett, had set off on their own (NivenIce, pp. 147-149). Niven calls it "mutiny," which is sort of true, but I thing "terminal disgust" might be a better phrase; they'd been handing Bartlett formal letters for months (McKinlay, pp. 37-38), and apparently Bartlett and their leader were not speaking to each other (McKinlay, p. 56). They died without reaching land. (Bartlett demanded that they leave a written document saying it was against his advice and absolving him of responsibility; HHorwood, p. 16; Levy, pp. 144-148.)
Bartlett's decision to let the three scientists go off on their own contributed to the disaster; one of them was the expedition's physician, and in his absence, most of the men on Wrangel Island -- though not, interestingly, the Inuit -- suffered constant illness and frostbite and gangrene, and the men, with no medical training, had to do their own amputations and such, often with unsuitable tools (McKinlay, p. 105, etc.; Levy, pp. 232-233, 255-256, etc.).
Four sailors, including the Karluk's first and second mates, were sent by Bartlett on a side trip to uninhabitable Herald Island, and died there -- and Bartlett never admitted he had ordered them there (HHorwood, pp. 15, 29-30; Levy, pp. 148-151; NivenIce, pp. 133-151, etc. claims that they were supposed to go to Wrangel Island but went astray. Bartlett's role here is at best peculiar; even though he sent his second-in-command, he put the party under the command of a junior scientist; McKinlay, pp. 72-73. It looks as if he was playing favorites with his best friend among the scientists. It doesn't seem as if he was able to write coherent orders, either).
Nor did Bartlett have much of a backup plan when he set out for Siberia. If he didn't get through, the men would die. He left *one* message in a capsule, and didn't drop than until long after the ship was wrecked (McKinlay, p. 81). Admittedly messages in capsules hadn't much chance of working (observe the fate of the Franklin expedition) -- but they didn't take much effort, either!
The bodies of the men lost on Herald Island would not be found until 1924 (NivenIce, pp. 368-379; NivenAda, p. 344, notes the supreme irony that they were discovered during an expedition which was trying, without much success, to rescue the men of another Viljalmur Stefansson expedition to Wrangel Island) -- and their absence left Bartlett with no competent officer to leave on Wrangel Island to manage the men left there -- which raises the real question of why he sent both of his junior officers. Did he not trust his second mate? (Possibly not; see below.)
It sounds as if his failure to properly arrange for the Herald Island party caused Bartlett to make a too-hasty trip to Wrangel Island as well (McKinlay, p. 79).
It wasn't much better for those who made it to Wrangel Island with Bartlett than for those who went to Herald Island. Two scientists died on Wrangel of dietary diseases, and one sailor died of a gunshot wound (probably murder; NivenIce, pp. 387-293); nearly everyone else, except for the expedition's handful of Inuit, ended up with severe frostbite and lost teeth or toes or other flesh. Of six scientists, 13 sailors including Bartlett, one trapper, and five Inuit (including a family of husband, wife, and two young daughters) on the Karluk when she sank, only one scientist, seven sailors, the trapper, and the five Inuit lived to return home.
How much of this is Bartlett's fault? This is debatable. Mirsky says on p. 289, "Had Bartlett not been there, it is doubtful if any would have come out of that nightmare alive." In his defense, he *did* lead the sledging voyage which eventually resulted in the rescue of the survivors, and this was certainly heroic. Not one man died in his presence, and only four were under his orders at the time of their deaths (and even they were on a sledging trip, and were lost due to an order given by one of the scientists, not Bartlett).
The other side of the coin is, he left his men on Wrangel Island with no proper authority (the only officer left was an engineer, who seems to have had no skill in handling men and who separated himself from the majority of the survivors once they started slipping out of control -- though the orders Bartlett left him, as quoted on p. 94 of McKinlay, were almost impossible. The orders for where the men were to assemble were not obeyed, nor was Bartlett able to keep his own timetable). It is true that Bartlett had few junior officers; shortly before the Karluk sailed, he had fired his first officer (NivenIce, p. 21, though she does not explain the circumstances; HHorwood, p. 15, points out that the new first officer was only twenty years old!). This left him without competent assistance, and caused him to spend most of his time on duty -- which cannot have helped his performance under crisis. And then the first officer vanished on a trip to Herald Island.
But the Karluk expedition was not a military command; he didn't have to follow hierarchy. He could have put someone else in charge. In that racist age, the men might not have accepted one of the Inuit as their leader, but he could have appointed trapper John Hadley, who knew how to live in the Arctic. Bartlett didn't do that; instead, he put the engineer in charge, with no junior officers -- and told them to split up, so there was no unified command. Under the pressures of arctic survival, the effect of leaving the men without a real commander was disastrous.
I can't help but note how much the whole story resembles that of the Jeannette, told in the notes to "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay" (and more fully in Guttridge). Bartlett and crew also noted the resemblance (see especially Bartlett-Karluk, pp. 93-94). But they did little to avoid that fate, except that Bartlett made the decision to leave most of his men at Wrangel Island (where their chances of survival were best) and seek rescue on his own; the Jeannette crew, by contrast, had all sought to return to land together, and ended up with even heavier casualties than the Karluk.
To be fair, Bartlett had little voice in the selection of his crew; they were offered low pay and recruited rather late in the game; NivenIce, pp. 20-21, says they were inexperienced, of poor character (two were under assumed names and one was an open drug user), and mostly ill-equipped. But this was actually one of the charges brought against him by the admiralty commission that examined the Karluk affair: he should never have let such a poorly-prepared ship go to the ice. He shouldn't have let the mutinous scientists leave, either (NivenIce, pp. 365-366). HHorwood, p. 114, says that the findings were "clearly unfair," but they seem entirely reasonable to me. Bartlett messed up big time, and the fact that his heroism saved the survivors doesn't change the fact that he created a disaster. He came close to a disaster even before the big mess-up. Even before the Karluk was finally trapped, Bartlett had once run her aground (NivenIce, p. 33).
Bartlett would eventually publish several books, including two about his arctic experiences, The Last Voyage of the Karluk (cited here as Bartlett-Karluk) and The Log of "Bob" Bartlett (1928). Both are highly dramatic; Bartlett-Karluk begins "We did not all come back," while the Log tells us that "I have been shipwrecked twelve times. Four times I have seen my own ship sink, or be crushed to kindling against the rocks. Yet I love the sea as a dog loves its master who clouts it for the discipline of the house." Several of the Karluk survivors (and one of the dead scientists) left journals; the one surviving scientist, William Laird McKinlay, also produced a heavily-researched book praising Bartlett. Bartlett's own books, however, "were heavily edited by a professional ghost writer, who tried to meet certain preconceived literary standards" (HHorwood, p. viii; he claims the ghost writer did Bartlett a disservice -- and that Bartlett's manuscripts, where preserved, are more interesting than what was published).
On the whole, the impression I have of Bartlett is of a man of some skill but rather greater enthusiasm. He saved the Roosevelt, he rescued many of the men from the Karluk -- but if he had not gotten into such fixes in the first place, he wouldn't have had to save anything. His navigation of the Roosevelt, as described by HHorwood, pp. 74-76, strikes me as a little crazy; certainly he should have gotten better use of his sails.
Stories from Bartlett-Karluk further illustrate this. In chapter III, Bartlett saw a polar bear and actually took the Karluk off her course to shoot it. Shooting at bears was pretty natural at the time -- a seal hunter certainly had no worries about ecology! -- but it was a waste of time and fuel with no particular reward except that he had a hide to take home and a little extra food for the dogs. (And it's worth remembering that the Karluk was wrecked because the ice trapped her before she had made enough distance east. Anything that delayed her added to the disaster.) Similarly, in chapter VII, he reports refusing treatment after a bad skiing accident lest everyone realize that he was "such a duffer." This was typical of his clumsiness; on the way to the pole in 1909, he at various times nearly cut his own throat, and almost impaled his foot, chopping ice.
Perhaps my favorite, though, is from chapter IX of Bartlett-Karluk, where he decided to clean out his clogged cabin stove by firing it with flashlight powder. He ended up blowing pieces of the stove all over the room. The astonishing thing is, he tried it despite having had a somewhat similar disaster on the Roosevelt in 1909, when he set a fire in his cabin (Rawlins, p. 97). There is also a story of a reporter feeding Bartlett dinner to try to get his opinion on whether Peary had reached the Pole in 1909. Bartlett thought he probably had, or near enough -- but his language in describing being left behind was so salty that he was kicked out of the club where they were dining (see Fleming, p. 384).
Another story from his sealing days may perhaps illustrate both his ability to get into scrapes and his ingenuity in getting out of them. In 1907, he commanded the sealer Leopard, and rather than work her through the ice, he tried to take her through the narrow lane of open water just off-shore (HHorwood, p. 79). Instead of finding a shortcut to the seals, he ran the Leopard ashore off Ferryland. But he and his crew managed to tear up her deck and build a bridge over the ice that let them get ashore with their kits before the ship sank (Ryan/Drake, p. 22).
When it came to describing how the Karluk was lost (Bartlett-Karluk, chapter 11), Bartlett is surprisingly reticent; he devotes a single paragraph (p. 88) to the subject, simply noting that the ice crushed the ship's side and the pump. No explanation of why the Karluk was so damaged when few other ships suffered such damage in Arctic exploration (the Arctic was a graveyard of ships, but few were destroyed solely by ice; usually they were trapped and abandoned). NivenIce (pp. 117, 123) shows that the Karluk stayed afloat for about 21 hours after her hull was breached, without help of pumps; was it not possible that the ship could have been saved? Why, after months on the ice, was the ship not better prepared to be evacuated? Much that was useful went down with the vessel. And yet, once the water entered her, Bartlett spent much of the time listening to music on his victrola rather than doing anything useful; he apparently set things up so that the victrola was playing Chopin's Funeral March as the ship went down (McKinlay, p. 67). A cute gimmick, but didn't it mean that he was at risk of going down with the ship when he didn't have to?
And why, why, why did he not make better command arrangements when he left the crew behind to seek rescue? The troubles on the island were almost solely due to bad leadership -- plus the fact that the people who knew something about survival in the arctic (the Inuit and the trapper John Hadley) had no authority.
Some of this was initially the fault of Viljalmur Stefansson, the expedition commander who had purchased the Karluk as part of his arctic expedition, but who then had bought many of the wrong supplies and caused them to be loaded in an extremely haphazard manner. He also assembled most of the inadequate crew. He would show this sort of sloppiness in the future, too, assembling his own expedition to Wrangel Island without securing funding (NivenAda, pp. 39-43, etc.); four of the five people involved would die. (Stefansson had a deep vein of showmanship and compulsiveness -- the man was born "William Stephenson" but changed his name to sound more arctic-explorer-ish; NivenAda, pp. 18-19.) But Stefansson had abandoned the expedition shortly after the Karluk was frozen in, giving Bartlett the opportunity to straighten things out. So why the mad rush at the last moment? He had ages to make proper plans. And why did he have so much trouble with so many members of the ship's company?
To be fair, Bartlett seems not to have liked speaking ill of anyone. He never publicly questioned Peary's claim to have reached the Pole, and in the Last Voyage he does not say much about the problems he had with the scientists. Maybe the ship's mechanical problems were worse than he lets on. NivenIce, pp. 8-9, notes that Bartlett considered the Karluk completely unsuitable for the voyage, demanded (and got) many repairs done on her, and had repeatedly told Stefansson that he would need additional equipment.
I'm truly not sure what to think about his record. Given those shipboard frictions, perhaps it's not a surprise that not everyone wanted to follow Bartlett back home. In considering the Karluk voyage, what shines through again and again is that things he took care of personally worked, but whenever he delegated a task, or planned something which he would not be present to implement, disaster followed. He simply did not know how to delegate tasks. I'd say he had a lot of real skills -- but that figuring out how to get people to do things when he wasn't around was not one of them. He could manage surprises, but he could not plan for contingencies. Certainly his record is more contradictory than these poems would indicate -- or than Bryce's blanket condemnation would allow.
In later years, Bartlett's primary ship was the schooner Effie M. Morrissey (AHorwood, p. 92 calls her the Effie May Morrissey instead), built in 1894, which Bartlett bought as a derelict in 1925 -- or, rather, a rich man, James B. Ford, paid for the ship and gave her to Bartlett (HHorwood, pp. 125-126). Bartlett sailed her all over the place (mostly to Ellesmere Island and northern Greenland in the 1930s; HHorwood, p. 183) but it's not clear that he accomplished anything except to control his own itchiness; he made a lot of "scientific" collections and took wealthy young men on board as paying apprentices (HHorwood, pp. 127-128). The book about that, Sails Over Ice, was a flop. The Effie M. Morrissey was still around in 1970, but Newfoundland wouldn't buy her to use as a museum ship (O'Neill, p. 980). It's now a museum ship in Massachusetts, according to Wikipedia. (For a song somewhat indirectly about her, see "The Mary L. Mackay.")
Incidentally, Bartlett ran her hard aground in one of his first voyages (HHorwood, p. 134). Bartlett came up with one of his typical screwball answers: he lightened the ship as much as possible, and put up her sail in a storm -- and although he came within a hair of capsizing her or breaking her keel or both, it got her off the rocks (HHorwood, pp. 135-136). The next trip, he ran her aground again, near Cape Dorset, although this time, it was just tidal effects, so she got off without major damage (HHorwood, p. 141). On another trip, he headed into a hurricane and barely escaped going on the rocks (HHorwood, pp. 153-158.) You have to wonder how many times a guy could get in trouble and not lose his funding.... He did manage to slightly extend the charts of the Arctic, correcting some errors around the west coast of Baffin Island (HHorwood, pp. 142-143). Also, he provided data that showed substantial declines in the populations of some arctic species -- but, in typical Bartlett fashion, dreamed up a hypothetical creature on which to blame it rather than accept that human hunting, much of it HIS OWN hunting, was responsible (HHorwood, pp. 151-152).
His other source of income was commercial endorsements -- Winchester guns, Wheaties, Pullman cars. He apparently didn't negotiate these very well, since he had problems collecting at least some of the payments (HHorwood, pp. 160-161). He also hunted up animals for zoos, and frankly didn't care for them very well (HHorwood, pp. 163-164. Not that the zoos treated the animals much better).
Bartlett also managed to get a job as a movie actor in the 1930s, when a production eventually known as "The Viking" was made. Bartlett was to play a sealing captain -- not quite himself, but close. Bartlett caused the crew some amusement at his difficulty in learning his lines (Ryan/Drake, p. 69). For more about the film and the disaster which occurred during its making, see "To the Memory of the Late Captain Kennedy."
His last major job came in World War II, hauling supplies around the Arctic for the allies (HHorwood, pp. 166-167).
Fleming, p. 422, sums up the later part of his life as follows: "Robert Bartlett never got over his experience with Peary. He returned to the Arctic again and again. Some of his voyages were successful but others -- like the Karluk expedition -- were harrowing failures. He wrote a few books, the last of which sold so badly that its earnings failed to cover his tobacco allowance.... He died on 26 April 1946."
In the last years of his life, he seems to have become an obsessive writer, even though writing had never earned him much, but he doesn't seem to have made any real attempt to finish what he was working on (HHorwood, pp. 170-171). In April 1946, he came down with pneumonia, but regarded it as just a "spring cold," and refused to have it treated. By the time a relative got him to the hospital, it was too late; he died three days later.
HHorwood, p. vii, calls him the "greatest Canadian ice captain who ever lived -- the greatest, by general consent, of any nationality in this century." This even though he wasn't a Canadian; Newfoundland was a separate dominion until shortly after his death (and he was an American citizen by then anyway. According to HHorwood, p. 114, Bartlett changed nationality because no one but the Americans would finance his Arctic expeditions). ButlerHanrahan is even more one-sided in their pangyric tale; their article (pp. 89-93) describes his love of flowers, and of classical music, and his bravery, and never mentions his ineptitude.
I'd personally call him a menace. But a CHARISMATIC menace, at least as long as you didn't have to serve under him. A good hero, as long as you didn't look too closely. And Newfoundland didn't. Hence pieces like this. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: RySm083

Captain Bover

DESCRIPTION: "Where hae ye been, ma canny hinny, Where hae ye been, ma winsome man? I've been to the norrad, Cruising sair and lang; I've been to the norrad, cruising back and forrard, But daurna come ashore For Bover and his gang."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: pressgang home
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, p. 90, "Captain Bover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3147
NOTES [60 words]: According to Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, "Captain [John] Bover was the commander of the press-gang on the Tyne for many years, but appears to have carried out harsh laws as leniently as he could to be effective. He died 20th May 1792."
Ray Fisher sang this fragment alongside "The Weary Cutters," but the connection seems to be a casual one. - RBW
File: StoR090

Captain Bunker

See The Coast of Peru [Laws D26] (File: LD26)

Captain Burke [Laws K5]

DESCRIPTION: The singer ships on Captain Burke's Caroline, carrying a cargo of slaves. Sent aloft to reef sail in a storm, he and three others are hit by lightning and lose their sight. The singer wishes he could return to sea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: sailor storm disability
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws K5, "Captain Burke"
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 54, "Captain Burke" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 24-25, "The Blind Sailors" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 556, CAPBURKE
Roud #834
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "By the Lightning We Lost Our Sight" [Laws K6]
NOTES [36 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast's version makes the captain's name Gibson, the ship the Gallant, and [has] differences in wording that are strange but not strange enough to make me consider this not to be Laws K5. - BS
File: LK05

Captain Calls All Hands, The

See Our Captain Calls All Hands (Fighting for Strangers) (File: Pea416)

Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon [Child 178]

DESCRIPTION: (Captain Carr) decides to take a castle, calling upon the lady who holds it to surrender and lie by his side. She refuses (despite the appeals of her children). Carr burns the castle and slaughters the inhabitants
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1755; the Cotton manuscript is from no later than the early seventeenth century; the Percy Folio is from c. 1650
KEYWORDS: death homicide fire family
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (31 citations):
Child 178, "Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon" (9 texts)
Bronson 178, "Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon" (6 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 178, "Captain Car, or Edom o Gordon" (2 versions: #4, #5)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 79-83, 'Captaine Carre" (1 text)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 60-64, "Edom o' Gordon" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 7-11, "Adam Gordon, or The Burning of Cargarff" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 231, "Edom O' Gordon" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 100, "The Burning of Loudon Castle" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 140-150, "Edom o' Gordon" (2 texts, one a fragment from the Percy folio and the other Percy's published text, drawn partly from other sources)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 103-108, "Edom o' Gordon" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 134-139, "Adam Gorman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 173-184, "Captain Car, or Edom O Gordon" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "B" text is from "The Charms of Melody" rather than tradition)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 488-491, "Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon" (1 text) {Bronson's #6, which he places in an appendix}
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 256, "Captain Car (Edom o' Gordon)" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 77, "Edom o Gordon" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 46, "Edom o Gordon" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 146-150+332, "Captain Car, or Edom o Gordon" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 111, "Captain Car (Edom o' Gordon)" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 53, "Edom o Gordon"; 54, "Edom o Gordon" (2 texts)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 180-185, "Captain Car" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 103-107, "Captain Car" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 226, "Sick, Sick, and Very Sick" (1 text, 1 tune) {Brosnon's #2}
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 73-75, "Sick, Sick" (2 tunes, partial text) {Tune I is listed as Bronson's #2, but recast; Bronson does not print Chappell's tune II)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 110-111, "Edom o' Gordon" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN3329, "It befell at martynmas, When wether waxed colde"
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2702 (refers only to the version in MS Cotton Vespasian A.xxv; no other versions of the song are cited)
DT 178, ADAMGRMN*
ADDITIONAL: Peter J. Seng, _Tudor Songs and Ballads from MS Cotton Vespasian A-25_, Harvard University Press, 1978, #38, pp. 125-135, "(It befell at martynmas)" (1 text)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, pp. 191-195, "(Captain Car)" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 34
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Cotton Vespasian A.xxv (67), folio 187
Roud #80
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Corgraff
NOTES [296 words]: Said to be the "sick tune" referred to, e.g., in "Much Ado about Nothing," III, iv, 42. This text, first found in the British Museum manuscript Cotton Vespasian A.25 (late sixteenth century) is associated with a piece found in several lute books beginning no later than 1597. The events described are dated by Ritson to 1571; a piece labeled "Sick, sick" was licensed in 1578. - RBW, AS
David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 123, considers this "the first ballad in the minstrel tradition... having a refrain." On p. 124, that "Captain Car" "was composed to fit a known melody" -- the first ballad to meet this description, and thus the harbinger of a new style. Which strikes me as a pretty strong statement -- even if it is the oldest surviving ballad to meet that description, surely there might have been others before it that do not survive....
For more information about the manuscript British Library Cotton Vespasian A.xxv, see the notes to "The Hawthorn Green."
The actual event this is said to have been based on is the attack of Captain Ker (an agent of Sir Adam Gordon, brother of George Gordon, 5th Earl of Huntly) upon the Forbes stronghold at Towie on October 9, 1571 (during the minority of James VI, when the Regency had great difficulty controlling the country).
The song, however, is by no means an accurate account of the assault -- which is curious given that the song seemingly came into existence so soon after the event.
(Incidentally, the 5th Earl of Huntly and his brother were sons of the 4th Earl, also George Gordon, who died in 1562 while in rebellion against Queen of Scots, and who is sometimes said to be the hero of "Geordie" [Child 309] -- though I find that equation unconvincing.) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C178

Captain Coldstein

See Captain Coulston (File: HHH562)

Captain Colson

See Captain Coulston (File: HHH562)

Captain Colstein

See Captain Coulston (File: HHH562)

Captain Colster

See Captain Coulston (File: HHH562)

Captain Conrod

DESCRIPTION: The singer drunkenly signs aboard "a brig called the Mary belonging to Starr." He goes below and finds the mate has finished his brandy. The captain gives them "salt cod and religion" to eat. "To hell with Starr's Mary and Captain Conrod"
AUTHOR: Harry Rissal ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton/Nova Scotia)
KEYWORDS: ship ordeal drink food sailor shore
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 14, "The Mary" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 108, "Captain Conrod" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST SmHa014 (Partial)
Roud #1816
RECORDINGS:
Edmund Henneberry, "Captain Conrod" (on NovaScotia1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "As Now We Are Sailing" (tune)
NOTES [155 words]: [This song is item] dD51 [in Laws's Appendix II].
Creighton-NovaScotia: "According to the singer, this was composed by Harry Rissal, a seaman with whom Mr Henneberry's brother sailed. Starr was the name of a well-known Halifax firm, in sailing ship days, and Captain Conrod a Halifax man." Creighton's Introduction puts an early date of 1929 on her collecting this song. Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia Introduction claims Smith's songs were "sung aboard vessels out of Liverpool, Nova Scotia in the '70's, '80's and '90's." I suppose it's possible that the attribution is correct. - BS
Looking at the text of this, I have to think it was intended to be sung to the Derry Down tune (in fact, it looks like a parody of "Red Iron Ore"). But Creighton's tune is not the Derry Down tune. - RBW
Really two songs in one. The song refers to Halifax, N.S., but it was collected in Devil's Island, nearby. - PJS
File: SmHa014

Captain Coulson

See Captain Coulston (File: HHH562)

Captain Coulston

DESCRIPTION: Captain Coulston's ship sails for America (carrying Irish emigrants?). She is overtaken by pirates. Following a desperate fight, Coulston and crew defeat the pirate; his wife shoots the pirate chief. They take the pirate ship to America as a prize
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.10(58))
KEYWORDS: pirate battle emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H562, pp. 113-114, "Captain Coulston" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 78-79, "Captain Coulston" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 15, "Captain Colster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 5, "Captain Colstein" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 55, "Captain Colstein" (1 text, 1 tune)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 26, "Captain Coulston" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
DT, CAPTCOUL
Roud #1695
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "Captain Coldstein" (on Abbott1)
William Sutton, "Captain Wholesome" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Brigid Tunney, "Captain Colston" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
Paddy Tunney, "Captain Coulson" (on Voice12)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(58), "Captain Colston", H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Firth b.26(492), Firth c.12(62), Harding B 11(534), Harding B 19(95), 2806 c.15(193), "Captain Colston"; Firth b.25(41/42), "Captain Colston" or "The Pirate Ship"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Terrible Privateer" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Captain Colston
Captain Coulson
NOTES [117 words]: Early versions of this song, such as Sam Henry's, make no mention of emigration; this may have been a later addition.
All versions seem to reveal a not-very-smart pirate: He demands the passengers give up their valuables, and then he'll sink them. In such a context, what choice was there but to fight? - RBW
A number of the texts, including MUNFLA/Leach, say that the passengers "were all teetotallers, except a very few, The lemonade was passed around...." Of the texts I've seen, it is often not the captain's wife who shoots the pirate captain, though she is on board. "There was one young man on the deck and his lover at his side ... And with a pistol ball she took the pirate captain's life." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HHH562

Captain Death

DESCRIPTION: The English privateer Terrible is captured after a bloody battle by a French privateer and her Captain, named Death, and all but 16 of her crew of 200 are killed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783 (Ritson)
KEYWORDS: battle death sea ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 23, 1757 -The French "Grand Alexander" captures the English privateer "Terrible"
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 30-32, "Captain Death" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 104-106, "Captain Death" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Joseph Ritson, Select Collection of English Songs (London: J Johnson, 1783), Vol. II, #64 pp. 179-181, "Captain Death" (1 text)
ST KiTu104 (Partial)
Roud #1103
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Terrible Privateer" (subject)
NOTES [65 words]: Ritson: "[The French privateer is] called the Vengeance. The strange circumstance mentioned by some writers of one of the Terribles lieutenants being named Devil, the surgeon Ghost, and of her having been fitted out at Execution-dock, seems entirely void of foundation" [p. 180 note]. But Logan writes that Ritson "gives no authority for contradicting the received impression" [p. 31]. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: KiTu104

Captain Devin

See Whisky in the Jar (The Irish Robber A) [Laws L13A]/The Irish Robber B (McCollister) [Laws L13B] (File: LL13)

Captain Don't Feel Sorry for a Longtime Man

DESCRIPTION: A composite song, in many ways more a religious musical than a performance. The singer writes to his mother asking for prayers. He asks his captain for pity. He laments a life term. One singer prays as another recites the Lord's Prayer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recorded from Marshall Phillips, Ebbie Veasley, and Theo Mitchell by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes mother religious
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 132-142, "Captain Don't Feel Sorry for a Longtime Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [80 words]: This song, as given by Jackson, could not be sung by fewer than two singers, and really needs three or more. It uses elements of many other songs, such as "Please Have Mercy on a Longtime Man," "Godalmighty Drag," an Old Rattler song, and probably a work or hammer song, plus a religious item. Even though the components are commonplace, I can't recall seeing anything like the combined result in the annals of folk song; I frankly am somewhat dubious about counting it as such. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM132

Captain Don't You Know

See Section Gang Song (File: LSRai647)

Captain Doorley and the Boyne

DESCRIPTION: John Doorley, 18, son of a wealthy farmer, joined the United men against the Orange at Naas, Timahoe, Prosperous, and Kilcullen. The target of a Yeoman manhunt, he was wounded at the Boyne: "Four hours I lay bleeding and my Nancy at my side"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion manhunt Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 26, 1798 - John Doorley of Lullymore leads about 5000 rebels to occupy Rathnagan, County Kildare (source: an article by Mario Corrigan, published by Kildare County Council, at Kildare Community Network site)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 14, "Captain Doorley and the Boyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 57, "Captain Doorley and the Boyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V8384
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(90), "John Doorly -- a Song of 1798" ("I hope you'll pay attention and listen unto me"), J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899; also 2806 c.15(177), "John Doorly -- a Song of 1798"
NOTES [177 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion's has "no indication" of the tune used but lists a 1798 tune that fits the ballad. - BS
Rathangan (as it is usually spelled) is on the boundary between Kildare and King's County (now County Offaly). It was little more than a village, and its occupation had little significance except to expand the rebel-occupied territory toward the west. Unfortunately, the rebels needed to move east, toward Dublin, if they wanted to help the cause.
Even more unfortunately, the town had a garrison, which the rebels attacked. According to Thomas Pakenham, The Year of Liberty, pp. 133-134, the attackers (estimated as 5000, though most such estimates were high) killed two yeoman officers and 26 privates. After they surrendered.
To be sure, when the place was retaken (Pakenham, pp. 167-168), there seems to have been a counter-massacre. But it's understandable why the British would pursue the rebel forces.
The Boyne is a long day's march, or a somewhat shorter ride, north of the town, so Doorley may have been pursued the whole time. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Zimm014

Captain Dwyer

DESCRIPTION: Ireland is ending the slavery binding it "Since Cromwell and his damned decree." Captain Dwyer's exploits against the cavalry and Captain Byrne are recounted: skirmishes at Hackettstown and Keadun bog avenging Stratford, Baltinglass and Dunlavin.
AUTHOR: R. R. Madden (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Madden's _Literary Remains of the United Irishmen of 1798_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: army battle rebellion Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 144, "Captain Dwyer" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Michael Dwyer (I)" (subject of Michael Dwyer) and references there
NOTES [190 words]: The Oliver Cromwell reference is to the August 1652 Act of Settlement of Ireland and its consequent expropriation of Irish lands. [For background on Cromwell's subjection of Ireland, and the horrors it caused -- it was perhaps the worst atrocity committed by anyone from the time of the Roman Empire until the Twentieth Century, attempting to push all the native Irish into Connaught -- see the notes to "The Wexford Massacre." - RBW]
Hackettstown, Stratford-on-Slaney, Baltinglass and Dunlavin are in County Wicklow.
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "Michael Dwyer was a Wicklow man, a member of the United Irishmen, who fought during the 1798 rebellion, and who waged a guerilla war in the Wicklow mountains for several years afterwards." This song, unlike the others, deals with his activities in May and June of 1798. "The village of Stratford-on-Slaney was attacked on the 24th of May. Hackettstown was attacked the following day, and again one month later on the 25th of June." Dwyer's was appointed Captain commanding a company on June 24.- BS
For more on Dwyer, see the notes to "Michael Dwyer (I)" or "Michael Dwyer (II)." - RBW
File: Moyl144

Captain Every

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you young seamen with courage so bold, Will you venture with me? I'll glut you with gold." Henry (Every/Avery), (mutineer and) pirate, enlists sailors to the "Fancy." The singer declares he has done England no wrong
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1696 (Burgess, who claims three distinct broadside versions published in that year)
KEYWORDS: pirate mutiny money ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 6, 1694 - Henry Every's rebellion
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 12, "Captain Every" (1 text, from Firth; #12 in the first edition)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 32, "A Copy of Verses composed by Captain Henry Every" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Douglas R. Burgess, Jr., _The Politics of Piracy: Crime and Civil Disobedience in Colonial America_, ForeEdge, 2014, p. 81, "(The Ballad of Captain Avery") (partial text)
ST BdCapEve (Partial)
Roud #1674
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(33a), "Bold Captain Avery" ("Come all ye young sailors of courage so bold"), J. Pitts (Seven Dials), 1819-1844; also Firth c.12(448); Harding B 25(232); Johnson Ballads 3009, all by Pitts; also 2806 c.18(39)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Captain Avery
Bold Captain Avery
Copy of Verses Composed by Captain Henry Every
NOTES [945 words]: The handful of popular versions of this song seem to call the hero/villain "Captain Avery," a name also used by Daniel Defoe (who called him "John Avery"; DictPirates, p. 115). Defoe's spelling seems to have been adopted by both Ritchie and Zacks. But the original and official spelling was Henry Every, as shown by the proclamation against him reproduced on p. 79 of Burgess, and Burgess and Hendrickson call him "Every."
And it seems certain that the song refers to the Henry Every of the proclamation, because the ship in the song is named the Fancy. Originally the ship had been the Charles II, and it had been intended for service in the war against Spain (Ritchie, p. 85). Every -- a man of unknown origins, although possibly of the Every family of Derby, since the song seems to refer to their arms; Burgess, p. 81 -- had been her first mate (Burgess, p. 52) or perhaps second mate (Ritchie, p. 85). On May 6, 1694, with the crew having spent months without pay, he led a bloodless mutiny against the captain and renamed the ship the Fancy (Burgess, p. 52).
One of his men quoted Every as saying, "I am a man of fortune, and must seek my fortune" (Ritchie, p. 86).
Every's actions after that drove the British government to distraction. He took the Fancy to the Indian Ocean, there to prey on the East India trade. There were plenty of pirates doing that, and often local officials turned their back. But Every (and several other ships that had banded with him; RItchie, pp. 87-88) attacked the Indian ship Ganj-i-Sawai (anglicized as "Gunsway") -- and sacked it, taking a great deal of money when he did.
But it was what the pirates did to the passengers that caused the real outrage: "the Pyrates... did so very barbarously by the People of the Gunsway and Abdul Gofor's ship, to make them confess where their money was... and forced several other Women, which caused one person of quality, his Wife and Nurse, to kill themselves to prevent the Husbands seeing them (and their being) ravished" (Burgess, p. 52, quoting a colonial official of the time). In other words, they tortured some of the men and raped some of the women, and others of the passengers threw themselves into the sea and drowned (DictPirates, pp. 115-116). One version claimed that Every himself had raped the Grand Moghul's niece! (Zacks, p. 123); another account says that the Moghul's daughter was raped, although apparently not by Every (Hendrickson, p. 211).
India demanded that Every be found and punished. The British government tried; for a while, "Henry Every was the most hunted Englishman on earth" (Burgess, p. 91). Colonial governors were ordered to find and imprison him. But one, Thomas Trott, gave him shelter (in return, it would seem, for a pretty good bribe), and Every eventually managed to disappear into Ireland (DictPirates, p. 116).
Every was never found, and most of his crew also escaped with their winnings. The protests from India forced the British government to increase their control of trade; the Board of Trade was created in 1696 (Burgess, p. 51). And six of Every's pirates were found and put on trial in that same year. That they were guilty of piracy seems certain -- but the jury refused to convict them (Burgess, pp. 65-70). The British, desperate to secure a conviction, brought a new indictment, this time for mutiny -- and, although they used effectively the same arguments and evidence (making it a clear case of double jeopardy), this time they managed a conviction (Burgess, pp. 70-77).
So why weren't Every's men convicted? Probably because England had a tradition of patriotic pirates -- think Sir Francis Drake. In popular esteem, Every seems to have been more fighter for England than sociopathic sea-robber. This attitude is probably false, but this song probably arose to take advantage of that opinion -- it claims, correctly, that Every did not prey upon British ships (Burgess, p. 83). Every apparently gone so far as to issue a proclamation saying that he would not attack British vessels (RItchie, p. 87; Hendrickson, pp. 210-211, quoted this text, which includes such statements as "I have never as yet wronged any English or Dutch [the Netherlands and Britain both being ruled by William III], or ever intend whilst I am commander.... As yet an Englishman's friend." The account is dated February 18, 1695.).
The British government engaged in a vigorous publicity campaign to try to make people believe piracy was a crime, but it would be several decades before the message came home (Burgess, p. 92).
So Every ended up a folk hero. Some have even thought that Henry Every did in fact write the words to this poem. In 1709, one Adrian van Broek produced a (very faintly historical) account, "The Life and Adventures of Captain John Avery," which ends with Every being elected king of St. Mary's Island (Burgess, p. 93). There was also a play, "The Successful Pyrate," by Charles Johnson (Burgess, p. 64), although it seems to have been largely forgotten.
Folklore had a lot to do with him, claiming that he turned pirate after finding another man in bed with his wife. He was also called "Long Ben" despite being "middle-sized, inclinable to be fat, and of a jolly complexion" (Hendrickson, p. 210, from "a contemporary account"). A version of the tale of his "kingship" reports that he married the Grand Moghul's daughter! (Hendrickson, p. 211).
The agitation created by the Every case ultimately underlay the case of Captain Kidd also; Kidd, who was in the Indian Ocean two years after Every's act (Zacks, p. 123) suffered from the change in British attitudes brought about by the Every case (Ritchie, pp. 89, 96). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.4
File: BdCapEve

Captain Fielding's Tragedy

See George Jones [Laws D20] (File: LD20)

Captain Fowler

DESCRIPTION: Orangeman Captain Dick Fowler arrives in hell. Fowler says that if a croppy brings him water he will "own to him I've done great wrong." Beelzebub explains that no croppy can help him: "it was for Freedom those boys fell And heaven is their station"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1970 (Healy's _Mercier Book of Old Irish Street Ballads_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: death humorous patriotic Devil Hell religious rebellion
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 39, "Captain Fowler" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth S. Goldstein, "A Report on Continuing Research into 'Treason Songs': A Private Newfoundland Tradition," essay on pp. 126-153 of Gerald Thomas and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, _Studies in Newfoundland Folklore: Community and Process_, Breakwater Books, 1991, pp. 141-142, "Dick Fowler" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Orangeman's Dream" (theme of an Orangeman trying to get into heaven)
cf. "The Prooshian Drum" (theme of an Orangeman trying to get into heaven)
NOTES [194 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "Richard Fowler was a distiller living in Dunlavin, who in November 1797 had been condemned in the Union Star as 'a notorious informer and one of those principled murderers, orangemen'." Moylan lists other "activities" contributing to Fowler's reputation. - BS
In my original notes on this song, I wrote, "I can't help but think this is inspired by the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), for which see, e.g., 'Dives and Lazarus"' [Child 56]. I can't prove it, though."
Having seen the Newfoundland "Dick Fowler" version, I no longer have any doubts. In the parable, found in Luke 16:19-31. Jesus's version is much more convincing; the rich man goes to Hell in part because he directly refused Lazarus charity, and he asks Lazarus's help. I really doubt Jesus would have felt his parable applicable in this case.
Apparently the Moylan version is humorous. The Newfoundland version strikes me as entirely un-funny; it's just a case of one set of bigots hating another set of bigots.
In Newfoundland, this was regarded as a "Treason Song." For background on Treason Songs, see the notes to "The Prooshian Drum."- RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Moyl039

Captain Frazer's Nose

DESCRIPTION: Captain Frazer's nose is so big you can see it a mile away. Its snores are louder than Niagara. If French invaders try to land, one sneeze would sink their ships. When he dies, Frazer's nose should be left to stand "like some big druid stane"
AUTHOR: Norman Macleod (source: Ford)
EARLIEST DATE: 1771[?1871] (according to Macleod)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad talltale
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #170, p. 2, "The Nose o' Captain Frazer" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland [second series] (Paisley, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 187-189, "Captain Frazer's Nose" (1 text)
Donald Macleod, Memoir of Norman Macleod, D.D. (Toronto, 1877 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 340-341, "Captain Frazer's Nose" (1 text)
Roud #6296
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lass o' Gowrie" (tune, per Macleod)
File: Grg170d

Captain Glen's Unhappy Voyage to New Barbary

See Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B) [Laws K22] (File: LK22)

Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B) [Laws K22]

DESCRIPTION: A ship sets out to sea; many of the crew become ill. The captain has a dream which causes him to reveal his dreadful crimes to the boatswain. In the face of a severe storm, the boatswain reveals the captain's sins. He is tossed overboard; the storm abates
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1794
KEYWORDS: ship crime execution revenge storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(South),Scotland) US(MA,SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Bronson (57 -- Appendix to "Brown Robyn's Confession"), 10 versions
Laws K22, "Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B)"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #130, pp. 2-3, "Captain Glen" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 191, "Captain Glen" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 265-266, "The Guilty Sea Captain" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 445)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 586, "Guilty Sea Captain" (1 text)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 72-73, "The New York Trader" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's 10}
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 35, "Captain Glen" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 47-50, "Captain Glen's Unhappy Voyage to New Barbary" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 396-397, "New York Trader" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 55, "Captain Glen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 90, "Captain Glen" (1 text); 91, "The New York Trader" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 697-698, "William Glen" (1 text)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 76-77, "The Cork Trader" (1 text)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #82, "Captain Glen" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 56, "Captain Glen's Unhappy Voyage to New Barbary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads LVI, pp. 100-103, "Captain Glen" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 76-78, "Captain Glen"; pp. 100-101, "The New York Trader" (2 texts)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2534, "There was a ship, and a ship of fame"
DT 563, NYTRADR WILLGLEN
ST LK22 (Full)
Roud #478
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2902), "The New York Trader," T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; Harding B 11(2700), Johnson Ballads 220, Johnson Ballads 569, Harding B 11(2163), 2806 b.11(232), Harding B 11(2699), Firth c.13(204), "The New York Trader"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brown Robin's Confession" [Child 57] (Jonah theme)
cf. "Cruel Ship's Carpenter, The (The Gosport Tragedy; Pretty Polly)" [Laws P36A/B] (Jonah theme)
cf. "The Pirate"
cf. "The Sailor and the Ghost"
cf. "The Man and the Two Maidens"
cf. "Willie Was As Fine a Sailor" (Jonah theme)
cf. "Willie Grahame" (Jonah theme)
cf. "Bonnie Annie" [Child 24] (Jonah theme)
cf. "The Sailor and the Ghost" [Laws P34A/B] (Jonah theme)
cf. "Two Jinkers" (Jonah theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
William Guiseman
Sie William Gower
There Was a Ship
NOTES [496 words]: See also Creighton and MacLeod Gaelic Songs in Nova Scotia 38, pp. 120-121, "Uilleam Glen (William Glen)" which alternates Gaelic and English verses. The English verses are close enough to Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia to be considered the same ballad.
The theme of the sailor thrown overboard to calm a storm sent by God is found in Jonah 1.1-16.
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast's version seems mangled with one four line stanza, three of five lines and three of six; no tune is supplied which, in Ranson's case, probably means the ballad was recited. Further, the contributor seems to be recalling the ballad as she remembers it from her late husband. The version has a few elements from the beginning of "Captain Glen": the number of the crew is mentioned (but only 34), and the captain is named (William Gore). From that point on couplets, rather than verses, and a few compressed single lines follow Catnach's "New York Trader" broadside at Bodliean Firth c.13(204).
What ship/boat was sunk? The versions are not all clear. Even the broadsides are not of one mind, so to speak. And Laws is ambiguous: "He goes to sea to escape her spirit, but she appears in a boat ... the ghost threatens a violent storm unless he is produced. The captain complies, the girl denounces her lover, and the boat sinks in flames with him aboard." Did she sink the ship? Was he forced by the sailors into her boat, which then sunk in flames? Most versions allow the second conclusion, and some explicitly rule out the first. The two Bodleian broadsides are typical:
2806 c.8(242): "You balked me once [she says], but I have you now He and the boat sank in a flash of fire Which made the sailors all admire [from a safe distance?]."
Harding B 10(68): "Then, to preserve both ship and men, Into a boat they forced him; The boat sunk down in a flame of fire, Which made the sailors all admire."
Some, for example, Greig-Duncan2 341A, have it that "into the [presumably her] boat they forced him." The exception is Greig-Duncan2 341B, which - to me - seems confused: "So to preserve both ship and men He rushed him to the topmast end The boat it sank in a flame of fire [preserving what?] Which made this young men [sic] to admire."
In any case this is another ballad with a Jonah (Jonah 1.4-15) theme. Here, for the captain -- knowing his Old Testament -- just the threat of a storm was enough to have him produce the ghost's lover. - BS
This may not be the only song about Captain Glen's misdeeds. The National Library of Scotland has an item, broadside NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(46a), "Captain Glen" ("As I was walking to take the air, To see the ships all sailing O"), unknown, c. 1890, describes Captain Glen seducing Betsy Gordon and abandoning her -- but he returns to her later. This has now been indexed as "The Noble Duke O'Gordon."
The idea of the sea raging against a criminal aboard a ship is, of course, a popular theme going back all the way to the Biblical book of Jonah. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LK22

Captain Grant

DESCRIPTION: Singer, an apprentice in Northamptonshire, takes to highway robbery and is imprisoned in Edinburgh. Escaping, he hides in a wood, but is betrayed by a woman and reimprisoned. He prays for mercy on his soul and for his wife and children.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(4211))
KEYWORDS: captivity betrayal crime execution prison punishment robbery escape gallows-confession family outlaw prisoner
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 29, 1816 - Jeremiah Grant executed for burglary (source: Knapp and Baldwin [see Notes]).
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 216-217, "Captain Grant" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 323)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 91, "Captain Grant" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CAPTGRNT*
ADDITIONAL: Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, (Cardiff,2001), pp. 411-412, "Captain Grant the Highwayman" [English text reported by Sharp]
Roud #1286
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4211), "Captain Grant" ("My name is Captain Grant I make bold for to say")[Note [1]] , J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(536), 2806 b.11(60), 2806 b.11(61), "Captain Grant"[Note [1]]; also Harding B 11(537), Harding B 11(538), "Captain Grant"[Note [2*]]; Harding B 11(539), "Captain Grant, the Highway Robber"[Note [3]]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bold Captain Grant
NOTES [371 words]: The Bodleian texts are fairly close but can be divided into three variants. In all three a woman is the cause of the singer's capture -- similar in that aspect to "General Monroe"/"General Owen Roe" -- but even closer to "Whisky in the Jar." All three variants begin "with my brace of pistols and trusty broad sword, Come 'stand and deliver,' was always the word." [1] Captain Grant escapes from Maryborough/Marlborough prison; "With my metal bolts, I knocked the sentry down, And made my escape out of Maryborough town ... Until a wicked woman did us betray, She had us surrounded as a sleeping we lay." [2] Captain Grant, an admitted robber, escapes from Edinburgh jail where he was sentenced to be hanged "For sheltering M'Kay Although I had no hand in that robbery ... But there was a wicked woman that did me betray, And I was surprised as asleep I did lay. I was surrounded -- away I could not get, They seized my arms for my powder was wet." [3] Like [2] but with the "Whisky in the Jar" theme: "Not finding my sword, then my pistols I took, But she had wet my powder, I was forced to give up."
Apparently the [1] broadside variant is not too far from true. The song would have Grant give half his proceeds to the poor. Whether it actually came to that or not, "his improvident liberality secured for him the esteem and blessings of the lower orders.... At every farmer's table he was welcome, and the cottages that gave him shelter were sure of reward; for he freely shared the contributions he obtained with danger." "With the ladies he was a second Macheath [re 'Beggar's Opera'], and more wives than one claimed him for their husband." He escaped from Maryborough jail through the bars that he had cut from the window. He was recaptured in Wexford -- though whether betrayed by a woman is not stated -- and sent back to Maryborough, Queens County, tried, convicted and executed. (Source: "Jeremiah Grant Executed for Burglary" in Andrew Knapp and William Baldwin, The Newgate Calendar (London, 1828 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. IV, pp. 185-187).
See also Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, (Cardiff,2001), #159, pp. 411-412, "If you Diks up a Funy'Chel" [Romani-English fragment reported by Merrick]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: McCST091

Captain He Go To Him Cabin

DESCRIPTION: "New York... Captain he heard it, he was troubled in his mind... Captain he go to him cabin, he drink wine and whiskey... You go to America? You as well go to heaven."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Kingsley; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: travel sea ship drink humorous shanty
FOUND IN: West Indies(Virgin Islands)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, p. 20, "Captain He Go To Him Cabin" (1 fragment)
NOTES [66 words]: The Abrahams fragment -- quoted in the description without the chorus -- is from pp. 21-22 of the 1872 edition [published by Macmillan and "digitized by Google"]. The same text is on Charles Kingsley, At Last: A Christmas in the West Indies (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1871 ("Digitized by Google"), p. 34; p. 144 refers to a past event of June 24, 1870 so the trip must be Christmas 1870. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS20A

Captain Henry Thomey

DESCRIPTION: "Upon the past I'm thinking, To it my heart is linking, When fifteen thousand hardy men Trod the frozen floe. Oh, those days were merry And everyone felt cheery When men sailed 'long with Terry and Thomey long ago."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Murphy, The Seal Fishery)
KEYWORDS: hunting nonballad moniker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 15, "Captain Henry Thomey" (1 single-stanza text)
Roud #V44634
NOTES [427 words]: Based on the very short form in Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, this isn't really a moniker song -- but the whole thing is about Henry Thomey, who apparently headed sealing expeditions for nearly sixty years. Monikerish enough. Whether it's traditional I don't know; no author seems to be known, but there is no collection information either.
According to Chafe, p. 32, Thomey "was selected as Master for one of the Sailing vessels before he was twenty years of age, and continued until he was nearly eighty years of age, and rarely failed to bring in a good trip." That first year as a captain was apparently 1842 (cf. Ryan, p. 214). Most of Thomey's career was spent commanding sailing ships (he commanded the Isabel Ridley of Harbour Grace for 28 years; DictNewfLabrador, p. 337), but he did move over to steam ships at the end of his career, commanding the Commodore 1878-1881 and the Greenland 1886-1889 (Chafe, p. 95). By this time, his son Henry Thomey Jr. was apparently commanding sealers (Feltham, p. 32), but the younger Thomey never graduated to a steamer.
Ryan, p. 273 n. 29 says that "Capt. Henry Thomey (1820-1911), was primarily a sailing captain, first for Ridleys and then for Munns. He averaged 4,000 pelts a year for 40 years, never had a serious accident at the ice and 'never lost a man' (see Evening Telegram, 9 January 1911)." He is quoting Thomey's obituary, which he reprints in full on p. 383.
There are disputes about his dates; DictNewfLabrador, p. 337, says he was born in 1819 (both agree that he died in 1911).
The Harbour Grace Standard of May 10, 1879 apparently had a poem about the elder Thomey, including the words:
He's the man that roams the ice fields
Keen of scent as any hound --
For thirty years or more he's gone there
Where's his equal to be found?
(Feltham, p. 35).
I'm not sure every Newfoundlander would have approved of Thomey as much. In the 1890s, an interest from the Canadian Maritimes tried to break into the Newfoundland sealing trade -- and hired Thomey to be in charge. The Newfoundland media definitely did not approve (Ryan, p. 176-177).
Henry wasn't the only Thomey to be a saling captain. In 1853, two Captain Thomeys saild from Harbour Grace, one commanding the Orange (118 tons, 40 men) and the other the Scotch Lass (123 tons, 45 men). Both were supplied by the firm of Arthur Thomey (Ryan, p. 462), so I suspect the two skippers were Arthur and Henry Thomey.
The "Terry" of this song appears to be Captain Terrance Halleran. For him, see also "Captain Bill Ryan Left Terry Behind."- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm015

Captain Holler Hurry

DESCRIPTION: "The Captain holler hurry, Goin' to take my time... Say he makin' money, And I'm tryin' to make time. Say he can lose his job, But I can't lose mine. I ain't got time to tarry, Just stop by here. Boys if you got long You better move along."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Willie Turner)
KEYWORDS: prison work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 106-107, (no title) (1 partial text); pp. 265-266, "Captain Holler Hurry" (1 tune, partial text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 412, "Captain Holler Hurry" (1 text)
Roud #10989
RECORDINGS:
Willie Turner, "Captain Holler Hurry" (on NFMAla6)
File: CNFM106B

Captain Howley

See The Gallant Brigantine [Laws D25] (File: LD25)

Captain If You Fire Me

See Going Back to Weldon (File: GaBl061)

Captain James (The Captain's Apprentice)

DESCRIPTION: (Captain James) has a servant who commits a "trifling offense." James ties him to the mast, abuses him, starves him, and leaves him to die of thirst, torture, and exposure. Brought to trial, James thinks money will save him, but he is hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1768 (Journal from the _Two Brothers_)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor death homicide crime punishment trial execution
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond)) US(MW,NE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 54-59, "Captain James" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 132, "The Cabin Boy" (1 text)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 28, "The Sea Captain" (1 text)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 88, "Captain James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 52, "Captain James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 93-95, "Captain James" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Fred High, "Sea Captain", Max Hunter Folk Song Collection, Cat #0372 (MFH 586), accessed 26 February 2017 from http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=372. (1 text, 1 tune)
ST SWMS054 (Partial)
Roud #835
RECORDINGS:
John Power, "The Little Apprentice" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Captain's Apprentice (II)" (theme of apprentice mistreated and finally murdered by his captain)
cf. "Andrew Rose" (theme of sailor mistreated by his captain)
NOTES [1257 words]: Although the versions of this I've seen don't clearly state that the vessel in this story was a navy ship, the picture here fits the British navy. The captains, in this era, were almost entirely isolated from their crews, and they weren't really examined for fitness for promotion. Many were incompetent, and many were barbaric.
An extreme example of the latter was Hugh Pigot of H. M. S. Hermione, who killed at least two of his sailors with the cat, at least once ordered fourteen sailors flogged on the same day, and after giving an impossible order which resulted in injuries to two young sailors, had them thrown overboard. The result was a mutiny -- but while Pigot was killed, the admiralty officially stood by him.
A summary of Pigot's career is given in Guttridge in pp. 75-82. On pp. 75-76, he reports, "Hugh Pigot came from a family whose wealth and political influence (his father had been on the board of the British Admiralty) were possibly factors in his attainment of naval command at the age of twenty-two. It would be said in Pigot's defence that he was a skillful if ill-tempered officer who demanded proficiency from inferiors and too readily believed he could flog it out of them."
Guttridge,p. 76, speculates that his assignment to the remoteness of the tropics may have affected his mind: "[H]is average of two floggings a week on HMS Success, a punishment rate not really excessive, was to worsen rapidly after he transferred his command to the 32-gun frigate Hermione early in 1797."
In the autumn of 1797, during a storm, Pigot ordered some canvas taken in, and decided the men were working too slowly. "He threatened to flog the last man down. In the scrambling descent three mizzentopmen missed their footing and plunged to their deaths. Pigot ordered the bodies thrown overboard and blamed a dozen men for clumsiness aloft and had them all flogged" (Guttridge, p.77). Since the ship had a crew of about 170, that means he in one day injured or killed almost 10% of his men -- a patently unsustainable rate. And, indeed, the crew mutinied that night and killed him; Guttridge says "the intruders practically fought each other to get at him." Repeatedly stabbed, he was then thrown overboard, perhaps still alive (since some men reportedly heard his cries; Guttridge, p. 78). I'd consider it a measure of his inhumanity that Pigot actually thought he might be worth rescuing.
Unfortunately, Pigot's insanity had infected the crew, and three more officers were killed before the bloody spree ended. When things calmed down a little, a series of mock-trials were held, and most of the remaining officers executed (Guttridge, p. 79). Apparently one of the mutineers also raped the wife of the boatswain, who was one of those murdered (Cordingly, pp. 99-101).
The crew, realizing they had no hope of mercy, headed for Venezuela, where they begged asylum (claiming falsely to have set their officers adrift). One suspects they got it because their ship was valuable, not because anyone believed them.
The British eventually managed to recover and hang some two dozen of the mutineers (Guttridge, p. 81), though most were not ringleaders. Over a hundred managed to avoid recapture by the British (Guttridge, p. 87); many probably ended up in the United States. The Hermione itself, renamed Santa Cecilia by the Spanish, was eventually retaken by the British (a crew from the Surprise led by Captain Edward Hamilton was able to capture her, according to Uden/Cooper, p. 209), though her career was over; returned to Portsmouth in 1802, she was soon paid off, and broken up in 1805 (Paine, p. 243; Uden/Cooper, p. 209, reports that the British renamed her the Retribution to hide her history before getting rid of her).
Compare also the captain described in "The Flash Frigate (La Pique)."
It was largely the behavior of officers that eventually led to the Spithead mutiny (which resulted, among other things, in many officers being transferred or put ashore; for details on Spithead, see "Poor Parker"). Captain James may not have been real (none of the books I've read seem able to trace him), but he was true-to-life.
Incidentally, an incident almost parallel to this happened within a year of the early ecorded text from the Two Brothers -- involving none other than John Paul Jones! According to Morison's biography (p. 17), Jones (then known simply as John Paul) was in 1769 the commander of the John; he had aboard a carpenter named Mungo Maxwell. (Truly. Mungo Maxwell. That's what it says.) Jones became so upset with him that he had him flogged. Maxwell filed charges against Jones, and while they were dismissed, Maxwell died on a voyage soon after. Jones faced a murder charge in consequence, though he was acquitted.
In addition, I'm reading Paul Watson's new book on the Franklin Expedition, Ice Ghosts, and on pp. 110-111 is the account of one W. Parker Snow, who is known for having had a dream that located the Franklin Expedition in about the right place. Snow would go on one of the rescue expeditions, but accomplished nothing.
Snow had suffered a traumatic brain injury as a boy, and it seems to have affected him for the rest of his life -- and caused others to abuse him. "Snow was severely abused as a child apprentice under a vicious captain who regularly had the boy flogged and tied to the mast." He was forced to sit on high spars, constantly beaten, and sleep deprived. "'I was stripped, and sent forward to be tarred, then stand in a tub while water was called up, poured over me as a further punishment, and then, thus tarred, sent out to straddle the jib, to represent, as he said, a new figurehead.'"
Snow survived, although he was very badly injured in both body and mind. But when I read of that, I couldn't help but think of "Captain James." Presumably the date of this is some time in the early decades of the 1800s. - RBW
Palmer notes the similar treatments of Andrew Rose and Captain James's apprentice. However, "Andrew Rose" has few phrases in common with the earlier ballads, "Captain James" and "The Captain's Apprentice (II)."
Palmer has his The Oxford Book of Sea Songs text from a Boston broadside "printed between 1810 and 1814."
The Forget Me Not Songster is undated. However, according to Sidney F. Huttner and Elizabeth Stege Hunter, A Register of Artists, Engravers, Booksellers, Bookbinders, Printers and Publishers in New York City, 1821-1842 (New York: The Bibliographical Society of America, 1993), p. 164, Nafis and Cornish are at 278 Pearl St., New York, only in 1842 for 1821-1842.
The three Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang texts are from the logs of ships out of Massachusetts or Connecticut ports:
1. rig: ship, name: Cortes, home port: New Bedford, year voyage begins: 1847
2. rig: brig, name: Two Brothers, home port: Wethersfield, year voyage begins: 1768
3. rig: ship, name: Walter Scott, home port: Nantucket, year voyage begins: 1840 (pp. 324-325).
For what it's worth, all of the "Captain James" texts we have indexed so far are from North America. Further, while "The Captain's Apprentice (II)" texts mention Newgate, London or Bristol, the only mention of England in our "Captain James" texts is in the title of the 19c broadside printed by Palmer: "Captain James who was hung and gibbeted in England for starving to death his cabin boy." I don't give much weight to the historical accuracy of that title because it was printed more than forty years after the Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang 1768 text from Two Brothers. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: SWMS054

Captain Jenks

See Captain Jinks (File: R547)

Captain Jim Rees and the Katie

DESCRIPTION: "Captain Jim Rees said when the Katie was made, Arkansas City goin' to be her trade." The remaining verses describe the life and plans of a river worker, perhaps on the Kate Adams
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: sailor work river
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 10-12, "Captain Jim Rees and the Katie" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 20-21, "She Leaves Memphis" (1 text, 1 tune); also perhaps p. 22, "Vicksburg Round the Bend" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MWhee010 (Full)
Roud #9997
NOTES [220 words]: According to Wheeler, James Rees ran a steamboat manufacturing company from 1854. In the aftermath of the Civil War, he built several boats for use on the southern Mississipi and offered them to southern firms on credit.
Three boats on the Mississippi were named Kate Adams. The second was responsible for a run from Helena, Arkansas to Memphis (ninety miles) in less than five and a half hours. The third was said to be the subject of this song, and the Jim Rees was the son of the founder of the Jim Rees Duquesne Engine Works.
Wheeler's second text, "She Leaves Memphis," has only the one verse in common with her first -- but since it's the key verse, and all the others are the sort of generic items one expects of bluesy songs, I concluded they were the same.
Even more complicated is the case of "Vicksburg Round the Bend." The first stanza is generic, with different cities being used; the second is standard blues, the third is found also in "What Does the Deep Sea Say," the fourth is the "Katie" verse, and the fifth is from "The Katie and the Jim Lee Had a Race."
More than anything else, these two versions (and even the first) show the difficulty of classifying songs of this type. These may be distinct in their origins, but they have cross-fertilized to the point where no clear line can be drawn. - RBW
File: MWhee010

Captain Jinks

DESCRIPTION: "I'm Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines, I feed my horse on corn and beans And court young ladies in their teens Though a Captain in the army." Jinks describes his money troubles, his fancy clothes, army training, and perhaps his life with the girls
AUTHOR: Words: William Horace Lingard (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (sheet music published by J. L. Peters; a publication by Lee & Walker might be slightly earlier but is undated)
KEYWORDS: clothes courting money pride soldier army playparty marines
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Randolph 547, "Captain Jinks" (2 short texts, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 84, "Captain Jinks" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 84, "Captain Jinks" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 139, "Captain Jinks" (1 short text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 16, pp. 23-24, "Captain Jinks" (1 text plus 2 fragments)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 133-137, "Captain Jinks" (2 short texts, 2 tunes, of "Captain Jinks (playparts)," plus sheet music of the origina lCaptain Jinks)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 80, "Captain Jenks"; pp. 81-82, "Captain Jinks" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 430-431, "Captain Jinks" (1 text)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 211, "Captain Jinks" (1 fratment)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 47-48, "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 61, "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines" (1 fragmentary text); pp. 86-87 contains a parody about Mrs. Jinks
Heart-Songs, pp. 54-55, "Captain Jinks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 38, "Captain Jinks" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 4, "Captain Jinks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #23, pp. 63-64, "Captain Jinx" (1 text)
DT, CAPTJINK
Roud #4858
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Captain Jinks" (on PeteSeeger21)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Jinks (playparty)" (characters, lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
The Captain of the Cowboys (File: LDC334)
"I am Captain Grant of the Black Marines" (1868 Democratic campaign song) (Paul F. Boller, Jr., _Presidential Campaigns_, second revised edition, Oxford University Press, p. 124)
Mistress Jinks, of Madison Square ("I am Mistress Jinks, of Madison Square, I wear fine clothes and I puff my hair") (Dime-Song-Book #24, p. 5)
Captain Vane of the Lifeguards Pink (Dime-Song-Book #26, p. 43; tune not listed but almost certainly this)
NOTES [353 words]: Randolph states that this song dates back to the Civil War era, and there are reports of public performances as early as 1901. Few substantial details seem to exist, though. E. J. Kahn, Jr., The Merry Partners: The Age and Stage of Harrigan and Hart, Random House, 1955, p. 152, says that William Horace Lingard wrote the words to the song, and that his conductor was the later-famous David Braham (for whom see "Babies on Our Block"). Kahn does not give a date for this song, but describes Lingard, who in 1864 was managing Wood's Theatre in New York, as "a protean man who was an accomplished female impersonator, the lyricist for Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines, and, in 1867, the much acclaimed renderer of Lingard's Great Statue Song, a quick-change routine in which, with only a few seconds' pause between metamorphoses, he transformed himself from Mayor John T. Hoffman to Governor Horatio Seymour to Horace Greeley to Benjamin F. Butler to Ulysses S. Grant to President Andrew Johnson."
The earliest dated account of the song in tradition seems to be that of Laura Ingalls Wilder, who reports her father singing in in 1872 (Little House in the Big Woods, chapter 7) and, more significantly, in 1879 (By the Shores of Silver Lake, chapter 15). Laura also sang a parody at the latter time -- the same one mentioned by Gilbert-LostChords:
I am Mrs. Jinks of Madison Square,
I wear fine clothes and curl my hair,
The Captain went on a regular tear,
And they kicked him out of the army.
This would seem to imply a song well-established in tradition -- but we should note that Wilder was writing sixty years later, and that her account is in any case not actual autobiography but fiction based loosely on her life.
According to Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 103, the Lee & Walker sheet music credit this to "T. Maclagan." But the roughly contemporary sheet music by J. L. Peters does not credit an author.
Note that this song gave rise to a separate playparty, which we have filed as "Captain Jinks (playparty)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R547

Captain Jinks (playparty)

DESCRIPTION: Dance featuring the infamous Captain Jinks (of the Horse Marines): "Captain Jinks came home last night, Gentleman passes to the right, Swing your lady very polite, For that's the style in the army. All join hands and circle left...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana)
KEYWORDS: playparty soldier nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 27-29=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 159-160, "Captain Jinks" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 133-137, "Captain Jinks" (2 short texts, 2 tunes, of "Captain Jinks (playparts)," plus sheet music of the origina lCaptain Jinks)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 309, "Captain Jinks" (1 short text; the material on p. 308 might also go with this song)
Tobitt-SkipToMyLou, p. 5, "Captain Jinks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 523, "Captain Jinks" (notes only, so it's not clear if it's this or the regular "Captain Jinks," but it's a dance, so I would guess it belongs here)
Roud #4858
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Jinks" (character, lines)
NOTES [69 words]: This is clearly "about" THE Captain Jinks of the ballad of the same name, and Roud lumps the two -- but this is simply a dance, with no plot; the only common material is that it's about Captain Jinks and he dances with ladies. I would consider them separate songs.
There is a third song about Captain JInks, "Hello, Hawaii, How Are You?" by Bert Kalmar, Edgar Leslie, and Jean Schwartz, which was popular in 1916. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: WOlf027

Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines

See Captain Jinks (File: R547)

Captain John

See Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)

Captain Kid's Farewell to the Sea

See Captain Kidd [Laws K35] (File: LK35)

Captain Kidd (II)

See Through All the World Below (File: LoF034)

Captain Kidd [Laws K35]

DESCRIPTION: Captain Kidd tells the tale of his wicked life. His early sins include the murder of William Moore and one of his ship's gunners. He repents for a time, but slides back into piracy. Finally captured, he has been sentenced to death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1701 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: execution gallows-confession pirate
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1699 - Arrest of Captain William Kidd in Boston
May 23, 1701 - Execution of Captain Kidd
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (34 citations):
Laws K35, "Captain Kidd"
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 28-32, "Captain Robert Kidd" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 116, "Captain Kidd" (1 text)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 27, "The Pirate" (a single confused stanza, but clearly this song)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #20, "Captain Kidd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 100, p. 238, "Kidd's Lament" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 129, "Captain Kidd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 131-134, "Captain Kidd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 245-248, "Captain Kidd" (fragments only)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 98-99, "Captain Kidd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 837-839, "Captain Kidd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 141-144, "Captain Kidd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, 449, "Captain Kidd" (1 text, 1 tune); "Samuel Hall" (1 text, 1 tune -- same tune and format as Kidd, but substituting other names and nonsense rhymes)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 110, "Captain Robert Kidd" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 366, "Captain Kidd" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 23-25, "(Captain Kidd)" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads , "Captain Robert Kidd" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 501-504, "Captain Robert Kidd" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 5, "Captain Kidd-I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 72, p. 160, "Captain Kidd" (1 text)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 187-189, "The Ballad of Captain Kidd" (1 text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 29-32, "The Ballad of Captain Kidd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 27-29, "The Ballad of Captain Kidd" (1 text)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 14, "Csptain Kidd" (1 text, 5 tunes (most of them for "Sam Hall" or "Wondrous Love"); #14 in the first edition); compare #80 [#59 in the first edition], "An Elegey on the Death of Captain William Kidd" (1 text, probably not a song but obviously on the same topic)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 33, "Captain Kid's Farewell to the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 43, "Captain Kidd" (1 partial text)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp. 73-75, "The Ballad of Captain Kidd" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 200, "Captain Kidd" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1837, "My name is Captain Kid who has sail'd, &c."
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Henry B. Ansell, "Recollections of a Knotts Island Boyhood," Vol. VII, No. 1 (Jul 1959), p. 12, "(My name was Robert Kidd, as I sailed, as I sailed)" (1 text)
DT 413, CAPNKIDD* CAPNKID2
ADDITIONAL: Bertrand Bronson, "Samuel Hall's Family Tree,'" article published in the _California Folklore Quarterly_ (1942); also published in Bertrand Harris Bronson, _The Ballad as Song_ (essays on ballads), University of California Press, 1969, pp. 18-36; republished on pp. 30-47 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009. The article discusses "Sam Hall," "Captain Kidd,,""Admiral Benbow," and related songs, with all or part of 16 texts and 9 tunes
C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 134, "Captain Kid's Farewel to the Seas; Or, The Famous Pirate's Lament" (1 very detailed text, with the tune listed as "Coming Down")
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; notes to #87, "Told How a Crew Was Cursed" (1 short text)
Roud #1900
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "Captain Kidd" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as101900, "Capt. Robert Kidd," unknown (Boston), 19C; also as101910, "The Dying Words of Capt. Robert Kidd: a Noted Pirate, Who Was Hanged at Execution Dock, in England"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Kidd, the Pirate" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
Admiral Byng and Brave West (C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 210)
NOTES [6886 words]: One of the tunes for this song is also used for the American hymn "Wondrous Love"; another is used for the English hymn "Come Ye that Fear the Lord." -PJS, RBW
The Missouri Harmony has a song, "Captain Kid" (sic.), which has still another set of lyrics (not "Wondrous Love"), but the sheet music is so cramped that it is literally impossible to match the text with the tune. It's the standard tune, though. - RBW
Several of the ballad versions note that, after murdering William Moore, Kidd killed the gunner. According to Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, Moore *was* the gunner; Kidd killed him because he was allegedly planning a mutiny. - PJS
There is a lot more to this story than we find in this song. Although the British hung Captain Kidd as a pirate, the view of him in the song is probably too harsh. In his own mind he was a privateer, if perhaps an overly zealous one. Hendrickson, p. 214, sums up his character as follows: "Rather than a ruthless pirate, [he was] a man not without a conscience but lacking in cunning and shrewdness -- certainly not a man possessing a criminal mind. Captain Kidd was more dupe than demon, more political victim than swashbuckling pirate king."
This may be over-generous, but it shows how complex the situation was. Herman comments on p. 247, "Kidd had fallen victim of a new, less tolerant attitude toward the time-honored tradition of theft at sea. A few years earlier, Kidd's exploits would have been business as usual." Similarly, Cordingly, p. xiv, described the reign of Charles II (1660-1685) as the period when buccaneers were most active in the Caribbean. But by 1701, Britain was doing all it could to stop piracy; the gibbeted bodies of pirates were displayed all along the Thames to try to discourage potential pirates (Ritchie, p. 1).
The truth is, there was a long history of piracy in the British navy. Francis Drake, the second man to circumnavigate the globe, made his profit by preying on the Spanish, e.g. (Cordingly, pp. 28fff.; Rodger, p. 244).
As long as England was a self-sufficient nation, without colonies, and its enemies such as Spain had colonies, this made perfect sense. It was only in the seventeenth century that Britain began to find trade more profitably than raiding, and so started to suppress piracy (Ritchie, p. 128). Similarly Hendrickson, p. 214, "In the seventeenth century, England had difficulty controlling manufacture and trade in the growing colonies. The colonies resented interference from the mother country and turned increasingly to pirates [for their needs].... But the powerful East India Company, with its fleet of great merchant ships, claimed it was being jeopardized by pirates. King William... appointed the loyal Earl of Belomont as governor of New York and Massachusetts. His specific aim as to halt piratical abuses."
The change in the British attitude came at precisely the wrong time for Captain Kidd; another pirate, Henry Every (for whom see "Captain Every") had created an international incident by attacking the vessels of the Great Moghul of India, and the Moghul had demanded that Britain do something. They were unable to catch Every, so they created the new "Board of Trade" to bring some order to navigation and to control piracy (Burgess, p. 51). Every himself was never caught, but a few of his sailors were, and the Every case "prove[d] to be a crucial precedent for the second great piracy trial of the age, that of William Kidd" (Burgess, p. 96).
William Kidd (or Kid; this is the spelling preferred by Firth) was born in the middle of this transition period and was active at the worst moment possible. Few details of his early life survive, but he was said to come from Greenock, Scotland, and to have been born around 1645 (so Ritchie,p. 27; DictPirates; and all three biographical dictionaries I checked; Zacks, p. 9, makes him 42 in 1696, and on p. 60 says he was born in 1654. Clifford, p. 5, also gives the date 1654, and lists his birthplace as Dundee).
His father is said to have been a Presbyterian minister (so Ritchie, p. 27; Clifford claims Kidd's father was "a sea captain who died when Kidd was very young"), which would accord with the statement in the song that Kidd's parents "taught me well to shun the gates of hell." But the extent to which his faith influenced his early career simply cannot be known; we don't have the information.
Clifford, p. 5, believes Kidd spent time as a petty officer in the Royal Navy -- but no petty officer would know how to navigate a ship.
By 1689, Kidd was a buccaneer in the Caribbean (Ritchie, p. 29). In that confused region, with different islands ruled by different powers, semi-official piracy still flourished. In that year, seemingly with some official encouragement, he took command of the Blessed William, technically a privateer (Kidd in fact had helped capture her, and she was manned, in effect, by volunteers; Zacks, pp. 62-63) but part of a relatively regular navy flotilla (the lines between regular and irregulars were much less clearly drawn in remote stations); Ritchie, p. 30.
Trouble began when his crew didn't like how he ran his ship; they soon deposed him (Ritchie, p. 32; Zacks, p. 72). Kidd and his former vessel ended up chasing each other around the Atlantic. But Kidd did good work in New York during the confusion resulting from the ouster of James II in 1689 (Zacks, p. 79ff.); he used his new ship to help bluff the old governor out of his post.
Kidd went on to marry a well-to-do young New York widow in 1691 (Ritchie, p. 36; Zacks, pp. 82-83, describes the complications of their courtship and her inheritance, and Clifford, p. 23, notes that they married only four days after her previous husband died, but none of that affects Kidd's story much). They would have a daughter, Sarah, named for her mother (Zacks, p. 11).
Kidd seems to have been a perfectly respectable citizen; among other things, he served on a Grand Jury for a time (Zacks, pp. 90-91). Though it was hard to be entirely respectable in New Yorkin this period; the place was a favorite pirate hang-out, where no one asked many questions about where goods came from (Clifford, pp. 32-33).
Eventually life on land paled, though we have no clue as to why (Clifford, p. 23); in 1695 Kidd went to England to seek a privateer's licence (Ritchie, p. 40; Zacks, pp. 91-93, thinks he actually tried to gain a captain's commission in the Royal Navy, but given his low social status, this is almost too absurd an idea to contemplate). He did not get either warrant at this time; a shortage of trained sailors forced the British navy to grab every hand it could find. So no letters of marque were issued during this period (Ritchie, pp. 42-43).
There were ways around this. According to Bryant, p. 34, "By 1698, the loss of revenue and trade brought about by the smugglers and pirates had reached such large proportions that the English government was moved to action. But since the Royal Navy was fully occupied in the war with Louis XIV, a private company was organized to hunt down and destroy some pirates.... [Among its stockholders] were King William [of Orange], Lord Bellomont.... Lord Chancellor Somers, [and] the Duke of Somerset...." What it really came down to was, Kidd and some acquaintances came up with a way around the restrictions on privateers: They would offer up their ship for purposes of hunting the pirates. In return, they wanted to have a much freer hand in dealing with the booty they captured (Zacks, pp. 102-104).
We will meet Bellomont again; he was not born a member of the nobility, but was a soldier who had helped bring Charles II back to the throne; he had been rewarded with a title, but had little property to support it (Clifford, p. 34). His poverty, and his desire to do something about it, would play a large role in what followed.
(In an interesting aside, the man who dreamed up this scheme, and who introduced Kidd to his other patrons, was one Robert Livingston. According to Zacks, p. 100, he was of the Livingston family that, a century and a half earlier, had produced Mary Livingston, one of the "four Maries" who went with Mary Stewart when Mary went to wed the king of France.)
Initially, the goal of Bellomont's group seems to have been to have a relatively small number of shareholders, to keep the profits high. This proved unfeasible; too many people, including King William, had to approve the venture. So more partners were brought in and the charter rewritten (Ritchie, pp. 50-55). To get King William's assent to the whole deal, he was given a 10% stake.
Raising the money was difficult enough that Kidd sold his old ship, the Antigua (Zacks, p. 105). What's more, he signed what Zacks, p. 104, describes as a performance bond for twenty thousand pounds. Apart from his land in New York, much of which was really his wife's property, he was betting everything he had -- and if he failed, even the land might be forfeit, unless his wife could have the marriage dissolved. (Zacks thinks this is proof that Kidd either intended to cheat or to turn pirate. He ignores the possibility that Kidd was tricked -- which, given that Kidd was starry-eyed enough to hope for favors from the British government, seems to me quite possible.)
To make his problems worse, his backers were slow to come up with their parts of the funding, meaning that he lost a significant amount of his capital to interest on debts he piled up while he waited (Zacks, p. 106).
Kidd's ship, the Adventure Galley, was still new; it was designed for it task and built in 1695. It was, by the standards of the time, quite an unusual vessel; in the century since the Spanish Armada had seen its oared vessels thoroughly out-maneuvered by the race-built English sailing ships, oared ships had almost disappeared from the seas. And the Adventure Galley did have a full sailing rig -- but it also had oars, and was designed for rowing (Ritchie, p. 58; Zacks, p. 105). This would make it easier to maneuver in combat and close with a pirate, which was its purpose (Clifford, p. 6, calls it the "first ship ever built by the British to hunt pirates") -- but it also probably resulted in a cramped, slow ship in ordinary conditions. And she was ill-equipped for sailing in the tropics, where wooden hulls were constantly under attack; her planking was thin, and there was no metal coat (Zacks, p. 119). One suspects, given how leaky she was, that the wood was also of low quality.
But she could certainly fight, being armed with over 30 cannon (32, according to Zacks, p. 9; 34, according to DictPirates, Paine, and Clifford, p. 45). On the other hand, Clifford seems to say that her guns were four-pounders -- very light artillery indeed; even field artillery was usually in the six-pound to twelve-pound range, and a ship of the line would carry 24-pounders or heavier. (To be sure, Zacks, p. 119, believes at least some were sixteen-pounders.) Paine estimates her at 285 tons, DictPirates at 300; Zacks and Clifford give the improbably precise figure of 287 tons -- a fairly large ship for the time; even a ship of the line was generally under 1500 tons.
Finding a crew was problematic. Given the naval crisis, Kidd was only allowed to take 70 men from England, and only half of them were permitted to be experienced sailors (Ritchie, pp. 58, 63; Zacks, pp. 105-106). This was more than enough to sail the vessel, but not nearly enough to fight her efficiently; for that, Kidd needed about 150 men. So it was decided that she would sail to his old stomping grounds in New York to pick up more crew.
As he started on his way to America, Kidd showed some of the arrogance that would eventually get him in trouble; as he was leaving England, he refused to accord proper recognition to naval vessels. He nearly lost his ship as a result; Ritchie, p. 61, and did lose some of his better crew members; Zacks, pp. 107-108; Clifford, p. 50. Plus the whole business was starting to look pretty under-the-table; Zacks, pp. 106-107, thinks Kidd's backers were trying to get him out of the country fast so he could be out making money rather than get stuck in something as tedious as fighting off a French invasion fleet intent on restoring James II.
My sources disagree about exactly what happened in New York. Ritchie says that the war with France had caused something of a depression in New York, making it easy to recruit crew. But Kidd was signing crewmen to the standard privateer's "no prey, no pay" contract: They received a percentage of the booty, but no other pay except in the event of injury (Ritchie, pp. 58-59).
Recall that a high percentage of the profit had already been promised away to expedition's financers (including that 10% promised to King William). Ritchie thinks that this wasn't a problem; Kidd found his crew. But DictPirates says that Kidd promised 60% of the booty to his men, and 60% to his backers -- obviously not a possibility. Clifford, p. 36, also says the backers were promised 60%. Zacks, p. 14, has an even more extreme equation: All the crew combined were to be granted only a quarter of the booty; Clifford, p. 47, also says the crew would get only 25% (with no data on the other 15%) -- and adds that privateering crews usually would get 50% of the take. Since there were 150 men, a 25% share for the crew meant 1 part in 600 for each man. So when Kidd, on the voyage over, captured a French vessel judged to be worth 350 pounds, each man would have gotten just over half a pound. Given the length of the voyage, that works out to pennies a day at best. Few sailors were interested.
Zacks, p. 14, claims that Kidd then turned the arrangement on its head: The sailors would get 75%, the backers 25%. This, we note, was cheating the crown -- hardly a good idea. But, whatever Kidd did, he finally pulled together a crew -- though, according to Zacks, p. 16, quite a few of them were "known pirates."
One of the key members of this crew was William Moore, who was appointed gunner. This meant that he was responsible for training the ship's crew in the proper handling and use of the ship's guns (Ritchie, p. 70). Zacks, p. 16, describes him as a known troublemaker, who had attacked his captain at age 18; he also spent time in prison in the Caribbean. Zacks speculates that Kidd wanted a "belligerent" gunner.
On September 6, 1696, the Adventure Galley left New York bound for Madeira, the first stop on the way around the Cape of Good Hope (Ritchie, pp. 69-70). In this period, he seems to have followed the rules against piracy scrupulously; he could have attacked several ships safely (Ritchie, p. 70), but refrained when they proved to be from friendly countries. In fact, he gave one disabled British ship sails and a mast (Zacks, p. 24) that he would later sorely miss (Ritchie, p. 90).
He first found himself in trouble a little later, when he ran into a naval squadron in the South Atlantic commanded by Commodore Thomas Warren. The squadron had gotten lost, and suffered heavily from scurvy, and had been under-manned even before that; they wanted to requisition some of Kidd's crew (Clifford, pp. 62-63). Kidd managed to slip away (apparently by rowing when the fleet was becalmed; Clifford, p. 64) -- but he didn't dare stop at the Cape of Good Hope, since that was where the fleet was headed. Needing supplies himself, and also facing an outbreak of scurvy, he set sail for Madagascar (Ritchie, pp. 77-79). The crew, who hated the idea of being impressed into the Navy, was probably thrilled. But Warren would remember being abandoned.... (Zacks, p. 38).
Madagascar, at this time, was a haunt mostly of pirates; European attempts at colonization had largely failed (Ritchie, p. 82). And there was enough trade with India sailing around Cape Horn to support a fair number of predators.
Kidd stopped at the island of Mohilla to careen his ship -- and lost about thirty of his men to disease (Ritchie, p. 91; Zacks, p. 120, describes it as bloody dysentery, and says about 40 men died). The tropics at this time were still very deadly for Europeans. Kidd managed to find a few replacements, but Ritchie hints (p. 92) that the new men were even rougher than the old; Clifford, p. 66, believes they were veteran pirates, and that they changed the feelings of the crew: The majority were now in favor of actual piracy.
So far, the expedition had been a financial disaster: With no prizes taken since they left New York, Kidd would be in trouble with his bosses. And the absence of loot also made the crew restless. Clifford, p. 70, notes that at the end of her first year at sea, the men had made effectively nothing -- less than a piece of eight per man. Bryant, p. 35, writes, "As their search in the Indian ocean for pirates and booty proved futile, the crew became mutinous, demanding that the ship devote its time to a little pirating on its own account...." According to Ritchie, p. 94, "When Kidd rounded the horn [of Africa -- the region now known as Somalia] and turned due west into the Gulf of Aden, he was all but announcing he had turned pirate." He first tried stalking an East India convoy, but it was too strong to attack (Ritchie, pp. 97-98).
By this time, the Adventure Galley "was now 'leaky and rotten' and the men pumped water daily" (Ritchie, p. 99), even though they had made several stops to careen and repair the ship. Between the loss of men, the hot weather, the lack of prizes, and the state of the ship, Ritchie is of the opinion that morale was terrible. Clifford, p. 69, says that a visitor to the ship saw a crew very disrespectful of their captain. Zacks, p. 127, notes that Kidd didn't have any authorization from anyone of importance in the Indian Ocean (e.g. the East India Company or one of the local Moslem rulers), so it was almost impossible for him to visit a decent port; that can't have helped morale either. Under all these pressures, Kidd stopped an English ship in Indian waters. He took her captain hostage as a guide, and his men, by abusing the crew, managed to find a small amount of cash (Ritchie, pp. 99-100). It was a relatively minor act, but it was piracy.
Men were starting to jump ship (Ritchie, pp. 101-102). "Confronted with a desperate situation, Kidd had to do something quickly, and it appears he set out to make a big strike as fast as possible" (Ritchie, p. 102). He blundered into a fight with a small Portuguese squadron (Zacks, pp. 139-141), fled, then managed to capture the smaller Portuguese ship (which had out-sailed its larger companion; Ritchie, p. 103). This too was piracy, since Portugal was not at war with England -- though fighting a ship from a Catholic nation wasn't likely to get Kidd in trouble, and he could at least argue that the Portuguese started it.
By this time, reports of Kidd's piracy were common and very exaggerated (Zacks, pp. 142-143). Yet when Kidd met an actual English ship, the Thankfull, he once again let it pass (Ritchie, p. 104). And when he encountered an East India Company ship, the Loyal Captain, he again refused to attack her -- though the crew wanted to seize the ship (Ritchie, p. 105; Clifford, p. 71; Zacks, p. 147, gives a substantial but undocumented account of how he faced the crew down).
It was in this context that the problem with William Moore arose. Moore had already caused a little trouble. When the Adventure Galley overtook a small ship named Mary, Kidd had stopped her and spent much time talking to her captain in his cabin. While his back was turned, members of the crew, including Moore, had ransacked the Mary. It didn't yield much, and according to Zacks, p. 134, Kidd actually made them return much of what they had taken (evidence that Kidd was not yet committed to piracy). But refusing them even this small bit of booty can't have made the crew any happier.
Later, the Adventure Galley spotted a Dutch ship, and Kidd refused to attack it. Moore was discussing with some of the crew how it might be taken. Kidd overheard and flew into a rage. "Moore... when called a 'lousy dog,' had the temerity to reply, 'If I am a lousy dog, 'tis you who have made me so! [Kidd] ...hit Moore such a smart blow on the head with a wooden bucket that next day the gunner died" (Bryant, p. 35; there are circumstantial accounts in Zacks, p. 149, and Clifford, pp. 72-74, though they do not entirely agree with the accounts in other sources. Certainly there is no authentic and contemporary record of what was said that day; all is from later recollection.)
If the description in Clifford, pp. 73-74, is correct, it sounds as if Kidd was formally in the right: Moore was openly mutinous. Properly, Kidd should have given orders for Moore's execution -- but this raises the possibility that his orders might not have been obeyed (according to Zacks, p. 148, the agreement Kidd had signed with his sailors gave him relatively limited powers; he had to get a vote of the men even to punish a mutineer!). It was a dreadful situation, thought Kidd's response was certainly unwise.
With the crew more upset than ever, Kidd finally got lucky -- or so he thought. Kidd's mistake arose in part because of the tendency at the time to fly false flags. Soon after, while himself flying French colors, he encountered a ship called the Rupparell (Ritchie, pp. 106-107). He stopped the ship and tricked the captain into showing a French pass. The ship in fact wasn't French, but since she had passed herself off as such, Kidd felt entitled to take her. Finally his men earned something worth having -- it even gave him a second ship, which eventually was renamed the November. But it was rather a sharp bit of business.
It wasn't the last time false colors would get Kidd in trouble. It was on January 30, 1698 that they spotted the Quedah Merchant (Ritchie, p. 108; the ship is sometimes called simply the Quedagh; so Herman, pp. 246-247, or the Quedagh Merchant, Clifford, p. 84, contra Ritchie, Bryant, Paine, p. 6). It was quite a prize -- Zacks, p. 155, calculates it at at least fifty thousand pounds, or twice the amount supplied by Kidd's investors. Of course, there was also the crew to pay....
Since Kidd was flying a French flag, the Quedah Merchant did the same, and sent over a French pass when called upon to show her papers (Clifford, p. 84; Zacks, pp. 151-152). France was clearly an enemy of England, and Kidd took her -- but in fact she was carrying Indian cloth. So he was arguably guilty of again attacking a British ship. Certainly a ship of a British ally. (According to Clifford, p. 86, he came to realize this, and later tried to return the vessel, and Zacks, p. 156, says he tried to talk the crew into not holding the ship. But this sounds like an after-the-fact apology to me.)
Worse, the ship had been under the control of Muklis Khan, a high official at the Indian court (Ritchie,p. 127; Clifford, pp. 134-135). Taking it didn't just cost the East India Company money; it got them in hot water with the locals they had to deal with. They were already in trouble with the locals, and struggling to maintain their monopoly (Ritchie, pp. 128-134); Kidd made their problems much worse. They would not forget -- and they wanted a scapegoat. Kidd apparently was the one chosen (Ritchie, p. 137; Clifford, p. 136).
It was about the end of his voyage. Already the ship had been out longer than he planned, and between the state of his ship, and the fact that everyone was after him, it would be hard to take another major prize. Kidd managed to pick up a few more small ships after the Quedah Merchant (Ritchie, p. 109), meaning he by now had a small fleet at his disposal -- but only the Adventure Galley was really a fighting ship. And she was no longer in fighting shape; her pumps were always active (manned mostly by slaves; Clifford, p. 85), and Ritchie, p. 110, thinks she was now too slow to catch a merchantman. And she might not survive even a moderate storm (Ritchie, p. 111. It makes you wonder a bit about Kidd's ship-handling if he couldn't keep her in seaworthy shape for just two years. Though Zacks, p. 105, notes that she was built in five weeks and may not have been properly constructed and caulked.)
Kidd took his motley fleet out of the Indian Ocean and headed back to the pirate haunt of Madagascar. This is a noteworthy point, because if Kidd had really been trying to work with the authorities, he could have gone to a British port. (To be fair, every time he had tried that in India, he had gotten in trouble.) Instead, he arrived at the island of Saint Marie, off Madagascar, in April 1698, and assured the pirates who watched the entrance to the harbor that he was "as bad as they" (Ritchie, p. 116). It took some time for all his ships to arrive (Clifford, p. 120, says that the Quedah Merchant arrived some five weeks after the Adventure Galley), but they all showed up eventually.
The crew then insisted on a distribution of the spoils (Clifford, p. 121), and there was much grumbling at how much Kidd held back for his sponsors. The crew went to far as to loot one of their own smaller vessels, which ended up sinking (Ritchie, pp. 118-119).
The crew did more than just take their money. They also quit. Maybe they were sick of Kidd, maybe they didn't think they were getting paid enough; maybe they just wanted more treasure. But a large majority (nearly 100 of the 117 remaining sailors, according to Ritchie, pp. 124-125) left Kidd to serve aboard the pirate ship Resolution, commanded by Robert Culliford. Ritchie describes it as if they just voted to quit, but Clifford, pp. 122-123, describes it in terms of mutiny: The men raided the property, threatened Kidd, and headed off to join Culliford. You have to give them a certain credit for foresight, because Culliford was to be very successful -- and even managed to cop a pardon when he arrived home. (This part of the story seems to have been pretty obscure; Firth, p. 348, thought Culliford followed Kidd to the gallows, as he probably should have.)
Whatever Kidd had hoped to do at this point, the loss of his crew meant he didn't have much choice now but to head for home; although he could and did recruit local slaves to do most of the shipboard work, he didn't have enough sailors to do any more fighting.
It also meant he had to give up on the leaky Adventure Galley, There wouldn't be enough men to man the pumps (Clifford, p. 124). The crew beached the ship, burned it to recover the relatively valuable iron fittings and cannon, and set out for New York in the former Quedah Merchant, now renamed the Adventure Prize (Ritchie, p. 126). It was a curious decision: The loss of his specialized ship would surely not go over well with his backers, and the design of the Adventure Prize was highly recognizable as an Indiaman (meaning that, unless Kidd had taken it from pirates, he must have captured it by his own piracy; Clifford, p. 124).
It was a while before he was able to sail, though we don't know the exact date (Ritchie, p. 160). Ritchie thinks that Kidd fabricated a narrative during this time to explain his deeds (cf. Clifford, p. 125): He admitted to taking two legal prizes, and beyond that, every action forced upon him had been at the behest of his crew. And he destroyed his log so it could not be used against him (Ritchie, p. 125; Clifford, p. 161, says Kidd claimed the crew stole it).
Clifford, however, notes a major problem with this line of argument: Kidd still had a significant amount of loot (Clifford, pp. 145, 148). If the crew had truly mutinied, would they have left him with so much? And could he, as he apparently claimed, have realized so much money for selling the fittings of the Adventure Galley after she was abandoned (Clifford, p. 161)? Kidd, it seems to me, was on a cleft stick: If he came back with money, he was in trouble with the Crown; if he came back with none, he would answer to his investors. It is, perhaps, a measure of his devotion to his family that he came home at all.
While Kidd was gone, the laws against piracy, which previously had been difficult to enforce, had been made much stiffer (Ritchie, pp. 151-155, etc.). And Kidd's was only the first of many ships sent to stop the pirates (Ritchie, p. 159). The government might have forgiven mere failure; it would not forgive a privateer turned pirate. Kidd was officially declared a pirate at this time.
There are many rumors about Kidd's return voyage -- Clifford mentions stories of men murdered and a mutiny suppressed. There does not seem to be any hard evidence of this, and Kidd probably didn't have enough men for the costly mutiny described.
Kidd did not sail back directly to either England or New York; his first stop in the New World was the island of Anguilla, where he picked up water and some fresh food (Ritchie, p. 165). He then headed to the Dutch port of Saint Thomas, apparently to avoid the Royal Navy. After some more flitting around the Antilles, he sold his ship and some of his goods (Ritchie, pp. 166-167) and transferred to a vessel he bought, the Saint Antonio. The Quedah Merchant was finally fired in the islands (Ritchie, p. 168).
Kidd then headed for New York, occasionally stopping along the coast to get rid of cargo, and apparently negotiating with Lord Bellomont, one of his original financial backers and now colonial governor (Ritchie, pp. 177-180). Being granted an official post seemed to have done something to Bellomont's memory; he certainly did not welcome Kidd with open arms. He had an interesting problem: He could accept Kidd's account of what happened, take his share of Kidd's profits, and try to get Kidd a pardon for whatever crimes he was considered to have committed -- or he could turn Kidd in.
Ritchie, p. 180, estimates that Bellomont could make on the order of a thousand pounds for cooperating with Kidd, and on the order of 13,000 if he himself turned Kidd in. Plus he would strengthen his political position by making himself look tough on piracy (Clifford, pp. 156-157). A scrupulous man might have hesitated -- but a scrupulous man probably wouldn't have gotten tied up in Kidd's adventure anyway. As Kidd arrived to present his case to the colony's council, Bellomont had him seized (Ritchie, p. 182) and imprisoned in Boston (Ritchie, p. 183; Clifford, p. 162). So strictly was he guarded that not even his wife was allowed to see him (Clifford, p. 178)..
So great was government interest in making Kidd a symbol that a special ship was sent to transport him to England (Ritchie, p. 184), though it had to turn back before crossing the Atlantic (Ritchie, p. 185). He finally was sent to England in 1700 aboard the Advice (Ritchie, p. 192). The trip being urgent, the ship sailed in winter, and a harsh winter at that (Clifford, p. 179), with the result that Kidd became very sick (Ritchie, p. 193). Clifford adds that he was kept in solitary confinement to make sure he didn't reveal any of his high-placed backers' embarrassing secrets.
By this time, Kidd had even been discussed in Parliament (Ritchie, p. 188-192) -- he came to be a pawn in the contest between Whigs and Tories (Ritchie, pp. 202-203).
In April, Kidd's testimony was taken by a Board of Examiners. He was asked to sign off on the transcript, then placed in solitary confinement in the notorious (and thoroughly unsanitary) Newgate Prison, unlike most other naval captives, who were sent to Marshalsea (Ritchie, pp. 196-199). His confinement nearly killed him; after a while, he had to be granted somewhat more liberty to keep him alive (Ritchie, pp. 200-201). After a time, he was called upon to testify before Parliament. What he said is unfortunately not recorded, since the MPs eventually washed their hands of him (Clifford, p. 181), but it ended with him being ordered to stand trial (Ritchie, pp. 203-205).
It wasn't much of a trial; it lasted only two days: May 8-9, 1701 (Ritchie, p. 206). Under the rules of the time, Kidd was not given a lawyer (Ritchie, p. 206). Nor was he given full access to the documents used against him; the government did give him access to some, but others that might have helped his cause could not be found, and Kidd was given no help in searching for them (Ritchie, p. 208).
Kidd was charged with piracy and murder, and was tried along with several others accused simply of piracy. (Ritchie, p. 211, who notes that the "judges were activists -- in Kidd's case, active on the side of the prosecution").
The trial did not, however, proceed according to the script, because the procedures of the time required a prisoner to plead innocent or guilty first, without benefit of a lawyer or anything else. Kidd didn't want to play this game; he wanted details of the case, and assistance, before entering a plea (hardly unfair, given that he had not been given particulars of the charges against him! -- Ritchie, p. 212). After much jousting, and being informed that not pleading was equivalent to a guilty plea, he gave in and said "not guilty" -- which meant that the trial could proceed and Kidd's needs basically ignored (Ritchie, p. 213).
Kidd was tried initially for the murder of William Moore (Ritchie, pp. 213-216; Clifford, p. 198, notes that the indictment charged him with murder with "malice aforethought" -- i.e. first degree murder, which of course was absurd). Kidd could hardly contest that Moore was dead; his arguments were that he had the right to discipline his sailors (which was true, and the discipline could even include death, particularly in the case of mutiny) -- yet, at the same time, that he was sorry Moore had died.
Witnesses were presented showing that Moore was not engaged in mutiny at the time Kidd killed him, and that Kidd killed him in passion. Kidd disputed this (Clifford, p. 210), but was told "You will not infer that if he was a mutineer it was lawful for you to kill Moore" (Clifford, p. 213). Since this was the basis of Kidd's defence, he hadn't much to say after that. He tried again to make his point during the summary made by one of the justices, and that was what we would call the instructing of the jury. But further statements by the defence were not allowed.
The first jury then left to decide Kidd's fate. A second jury was empaneled, and proceeded to try Kidd and others for piracy, primarily with regard to the Quedah Merchant. The jury was still hearing the charges when, after only about an hour, the first jury returned and convicted Kidd (Ritchie, p. 217; Clifford, p. 214). There was no appeals process, except for the King's mercy. Nonetheless, Kidd continued his defence on the other charge. Kidd offered his privateering commission, information about the false passes offered by the Quedah Merchant's crew, and other evidence; some of the others on trial tried to claim that they had been under the King's pardon (Ritchie, p. 218-219).
Unfortunately for Kidd, much of his defence rested on the French passes offered by the Quedah Merchant and other ships, and Kidd had given them to Lord Bellomont, and Bellomont wasn't about to given them back (Clifford, pp. 199-200).
The second jury came back even faster than the first one; in half an hour, Kidd had received his second conviction of a capital crime, and all but three of the others their first.
That still left two counts of piracy, meaning two more juries were empaneled and the trial went on. The result, of course, was more convictions, and finally the sentence (Ritchie, p. 220). When asked to give a reason why he should not die, all Kidd could reply was, "I have nothing to say, but that I have been sworn against by perjured and wicked people." All were sentenced to death (Ritchie, p. 220).
By modern standards, it was an absurdly unfair trial -- though it was not atypical of the justice of the day.
On May 10, King William III -- who earlier had held a share in Kidd's venture -- approved the death sentence (Ritchie, pp. 220-221). The execution was scheduled for May 23, 1701.
Kidd did try one more trick: He claimed to have a large sum hidden in the West Indies, and appealed to Robert Harley, Speaker of the House, and others to set him free to recover it for them (Ritchie, p. 221). The appeal went nowhere. Its main effect was to start a legend of buried gold that people keep hunting for (Ritchie, p. 232); indeed, it eventually gave rise to the whole notion of treasure maps and such, as exemplified in books such as Treasure Island. But Kidd's voyage did not take enough prizes to produce such a vast treasure (Ritchie, p. 238, has a list of other captains who earned far greater sums), and much of what he did take was recovered by the authorities (Ritchie, pp. 230-231). Ironically, British justice was so inefficient that Coji Babba, the man whose complaints against Kidd made the East India Company so angry at him, was unable to get satisfaction for his claim (Ritchie, p. 232).
It seems pretty clear that Kidd genuinely believed in his innocence; unlike most of the other pirates, he refused spiritual consolation and adamantly maintained his innocence (Ritchie, p. 225). The ordinary (chaplain) of Newgate was still after him for a confession as he started on his way to the gallows. He didn't give it. Herman, p. 247, reports that Kidd was thoroughly drunk when hanged (cf. Ritchie, p. 225, Clifford, p. 240) -- but still managed a thoroughly defiant proclamation of his innocence (Ritchie, p. 226; Clifford, p. 243).
Luckily for him, this apparently didn't take long enough for him to sober up, since the first rope used to hang him broke (Paine, p. 7; according to Clifford, p. 244, the hangman was also drunk). Kidd fell dazed to the ground, supposedly finally repented, then was successfully re-stretched (Ritchie, p. 226; Clifford, pp. 244-245). From Wapping, his body was taken to the side of the Thames and tied into its gibbet (Ritchie, p. 227).
Ironically, the man who had gotten Kidd into most of his trouble, Lord Bellomont, had died weeks earlier, on March 5 (Ritchie, p. 229), though apparently word of this did not reach London until after Kidd's death. Bellomont had for a time imprisoned Mrs. Kidd, but she managed to regain her freedom, and even remarried; she lived until 1744 (Ritchie, p. 229).
Ritchie, p. 2, reports that a ballad about Kidd's death circulated immediately, but it is not clear which song is meant. Clifford, p. 245, quotes a broadside which is clearly this song, though not much like the common versions of the song. Not that it's much more accurate (e.g. it includes the error "Robert Kidd").
Versions of this song often print a line such as "Now to execution('s) dock I must go, I must go." This should read "Execution Dock"; Execution Dock was a place in Wapping where pirates were often hung (Zacks, p. 2). Clifford notes the irony that it was within sight of the spot where the Adventure Galley started its ill-fated voyage (Clifford, p. 245).
Rumors about wealth left hidden by Kidd have of course been many, and the source of a lot of the pirate legends we know today. Poe's "The Gold Bug," for instance, is about decoding a message leading to Kidd's hidden gold (though it strikes me as almost impossible -- Kidd does not sound literate enough to produce Poe's message). But, as Clifford notes on p. 260, despite many hunts, "no gold was ever found" from Kidd's alleged buried treasure.
Clifford's book, which was published in 2003, is about the hunt for the wreck of the Adventure Galley at Saint Marie. Roughly half the book is about Kidd's history (and seems to feature no original research, though he uses sources I haven't seen); the other half is about the search for the ship -- or, rather, mostly about the fights Clifford had with the Madagascar government to get permits to search. In the end, Clifford found what he thinks was the Adventure Galley (though the evidence he offers seems to me to fall slightly short of proof). There doesn't seem to have been anything of great value left on the ship, though Clifford's search was brief due to all those problems with the government.
You have to wonder, a little, if Britain knew what it was starting. Piracy in Kidd's day was still relatively gentlemanly, with pirates simply after wealth. But starting around the time of his death, nearly every country renounced it. Only in the eighteenth century did pirates start to fly the skull and crossbones, meaning that they truly had no allegiance to anyone, while England and other countries devoted significant naval forces to stopping pirates (Ritchie, pp. 234-238). Their success was, for a time, limited -- but the rise of steamers and the need for a coaling port meant the effective end of piracy by the mid-nineteenth century. (At least until Sonalie revived it in the twenty-first.)
Modern debate about Kidd has, it seems to me, been rather irrelevant to the issue of how we should view Kidd, because most of it is, well, modern. Was he guilty of piracy by the standards of the day? Pretty definitely yes. But did he regard himself as a pirate? Probably not -- even his most extreme actions were done under pressure from the crew. I would have to say that he deserved some punishment, but hardly death. On the other hand, there were few punishments except death at this time.... - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: LK35

Captain Larkins

DESCRIPTION: "The hardships that do attend at sea": One December Captain Larkins sails a stormy voyage from St John's through Gibraltar's strait. The men go hungry and complain, "but pinchin' slyly Captain Larkins sayin' we got our share"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness travel commerce sea ship ordeal storm sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #29051
RECORDINGS:
John M. Curtis, "Captain Larkins" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [32 words]: Although this has many thematic similarities to "Bold Larkin (Bull Yorkens)," there are very few words in common; after looking at both carefully, I am forced to consider them separate songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3CaLar

Captain Mansfield's Fight with the Turks at Sea

See The Royal Oak (File: VWL091)

Captain Mills

See The Captain's Apprentice (II) (File: BdCapMil)

Captain of the Cowboys, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm Captain Jack of Kurber Creek, I wear good clothes and keep 'em sleek... I do work which I think to be Consistent with the dignity Of a captain among the cowboy." He works hard when it's corralling time. You don't want to see him on branding day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Colodado Springs Gazette,Jan 4, 1873, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work clothes derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 334-335, "The Captain of the Cowboys" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Jinks" (tune)
File: LDC334

Captain of the Heads' Lament

DESCRIPTION: "My job is to clean a naval latrine, I'm the man with the plan for the pan that everyone uses.... I clean it by night, and I clean it by day... Terrifically clean is my latrine." He complains of those who are not careful in their use of his charge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes derivative scatological
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 25-26, "Captain of the Heads' Lament" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Begin the Beguine" (tune)
File: Tawn008

Captain Old Blue

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns the sheriff not to bother "Captain Old Blue." The song describes the various outlaws who work in the Snake River area
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (apparently mentioned in an article by Harry Oster)
KEYWORDS: outlaw moniker police
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
ST PrivCOBl (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dreary Black Hills" (tune)
NOTES [93 words]: David Wahl sent me a copy of this text, along with discussion by those who knew it. It does not appear to have been published in any collection, but apparently made it into oral tradition in eastern Oregon and Idaho.
Newell Stubblefield wrote to the Idaho Farmer magazine about the piece, saying that it was written by the father of one John Bare.
"Old Blue" was apparently an outlaw named Bruce Evans, who was active in Wallowa County, Oregon in the 1880s. He committed several murders, was apprehended, but escaped from prison and was not found again. - RBW
File: PrivCOBl

Captain Osborn

DESCRIPTION: "There was once a gay maiden, Her name was fair Kate. She traveled the Big Waters Both early and lave." Many court her; she loves only Captain Osborn. But he speaks in anger, and her love turns cold. He is married and has a daughter anyway
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: courting river children music
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 33-34, (no title) (1 text, probably somewhat confused) (OakEd, p. 46)
File: ThMa033

Captain Power

DESCRIPTION: Captain Power's crew prepares to fish for cod. Before they go they caulk and repair the ship, build the wharves, and rush to be in time for the caplin surge to get cod bait. "Now the fight is over the codfish we have none
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea ship work hardtimes
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #29062
RECORDINGS:
Mike Molloy, "Captain Power" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3CaPow

Captain Robert Kidd

See Captain Kidd [Laws K35] (File: LK35)

Captain Shepherd

DESCRIPTION: Captain Shepherd sails to St Pierre. In a storm he stops at Bonne Bay where he is turned in for smuggling liquor. The police find no evidence. Shepherd gets another schooner. The singer hopes this fall "dis brave, undaunted man will have a drop to sell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: crime sea ship drink police
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 83, "Captain Shepherd" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab083 (Partial)
Roud #9977
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kenneth Shephard" (character)
NOTES [235 words]: Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast: "It is a local song of the Prohibition era ... St Pierre: an island off the southeast coast of Newfoundland belonging to France. During prohibition it became a wholesale warehouse supplying rum-runners all along the coast." - BS
Newfoundland had a large Irish Catholic minority that would never have supported prohibition, and many Protestants also drank. But there were also many Protestants who absolutely opposed the use of alcohol and favored restricting its use. One of those who did so was William F. Coaker, head of the Fisherman's Protective Union (for whom see "Coaker's Dream"), who in the 1910s was one of Newfoundland's most influential men. He was a firm advocate of prohibition (S. J. R. Noel, Politics in Newfoundland, University of Toronto Press, 1971, p. 132).
World War I gave them their chance: "[I]n 1915, in an excess of 'temperance,' which its zealots somehow confused with patriotism, Newfoundlanders voted in a national plebiscite to prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages (Noel, p. 131. Footnote 48 on that page says that 24,965 voted in favor of prohibitions, 5348 against -- but that more than half the electorate did not vote. And it was obviously the zealots who turned out). Prohibition went into effect at the start of 1917, causing Newfoundland, like the United States, to develop a culture of defying restrictions on liquor. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: LLab083

Captain Spinney

See Ocean Queen (File: CrNS136)

Captain Strachan

DESCRIPTION: "Here's a health to Captain Strachan" and his men. Three leagues from Aladdin Strachan sees the 36-gun frigate Moselle with 500 men out of Marseille. In the battle they board the Moselle, hoist the English colors and take the prize to Gibraltar.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: battle navy war
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 990-991, "Captain Strachan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9814
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "Captain Strachan" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [487 words]: Speculation! This seems to be about the Napoleonic Wars. Admiral Sir Richard Strachan -- pronounced Strawn -- one of Nelson's sea captains, engaged in a number of important battles.
On November 2, 1805, in Caesar with eight other ships, [Strachan] captured four French warships that had escaped from Cadiz into the Bay of Biscay after the Battle of Trafalgar. The ships -- the Duguay-Trouin, Formidable, Mont Blanc, and Scipion -- were taken to Gibraltar (source: Houghton Mifflin Ships of the World site re HMS Implacable [the British renamed Duguay-Trouin "Implacable"]; 1911 Edition Encyclopedia site re Trafalgar; Decision at Trafalgar by Dudley Pope,p. 92).
That seems likely to be the battle intended here. But there are problems with this speculation: (1) There is only one French warship in the ballad and the warships named Moselle during the Napoleonic wars were British, not French, with 24 and 18 guns) (source: PlusNet webspace site re Index of 19th Century Naval Vessels) (2) The battle seems to take place outside Marseille -- that is, in the Mediterranean -- rather than at Cap/Cabo Ortegal at the northwest corner of the Iberian peninsula.
This battle is the only reference to Strachan in The Naval Achievements of Great Britain, From the Year 1793 to 1817 by James Jenkins; there are no references there to Moselle. A quick scan of the London Times for the period of the Napoleonic Wars turned up no clues and no references to Crockett, Captain Strachan's second in command for the ballad.
As for the site of the battle "three leagues from Alladin" that is most likely a corruption of a real or imagined place on the Mediterranean coast of Africa.
Maybe this ballad is putting a positive spin on an attempted blockade of Rochefort by Strachan in 1808. In this case one French ship was crippled in a gale and returned to Rochefort but the other French ships made it safely to Toulon. This story ends near Marseille but Strachan's part takes place even farther north than his 1805 battle. Source: Britannia Rules by C. Northcote Parkinson (Sutton, 1992) p. 135.
It would be nice to have a broadside for this one that might resolve the conflicts. Incidentally, Admiral Strachan's adversary in the Bay of Biscay after Trafalgar was Admiral Villeneuve [the loser at Trafalgar - RBW]; Roud's broadside database cites "Captain Villineuve's Whimsical and Laughable Tale" starting "Long had Gallia been forc'd by Britannia to bow" which may refer to that battle or may not -- he was on the losing side of a number of other important battles -- or may have nothing to do with this Villeneuve at all. - BS
In addition to the Strachan references cited above, he also figures in "Admiral Strachan's Victory," on p. 304 of C. H. Firth, Publications of the Navy Records Society , 1907 (available on Google Books). It refers to another fight by Strachan, on November 4 of an unnamed year. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea990

Captain Thompson

DESCRIPTION: The singer boards Captain Thompson's ship Fame to America. They escape stormy seas and "a mount of ice" off Newfoundland and land safely at Quebec. He thinks of Ireland and hopes to see his family again "and live together peacefully in love and liberty"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation sea ship ordeal Canada Ireland family
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 72A, "Captain Thompson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2373
File: OLcM072A

Captain Thunder

DESCRIPTION: "Dear Pinckaninny, if half a guinny, To love will win ye, I lay it here down. We must be throfty, 'twill serve to shift ye." The woman will have none of it: "Ods I wonder You dare be so bold... Or dream too of taking My Fort with small gold."
AUTHOR: Thomas D'Urfey (source: Frank)
EARLIEST DATE: 1694 ("The Comical History of Don Quixote," according to Frank)
KEYWORDS: pirate courting rejection gold money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 16, "Captain Thunder" (1 text, 1 tune; #16 in the first edition)
Roud #V16978
File: Fran016

Captain Ward and the Rainbow [Child 287]

DESCRIPTION: Captain Ward asks the king to grant him a place to rest. The king will not grant a place to any pirate (though Ward claims never to have attacked an English ship), and commissions the (Rainbow) to deal with Ward. Ward defeats the Rainbow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1733 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 1(80b))
KEYWORDS: ship pirate battle royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 1604-c. 1609 - Career of Captain John Ward. A fisherman from Kent, Ward's first notable act was his capture of a royal vessel in 1604.
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,West),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar,Newf) US(MA,MW,NE,SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (38 citations):
Child 287, "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" (1 text)
Bronson 287, "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" (11 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 287, "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" (4 versions: #3, #8, #9, #10)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #128, p. 2, "Captain Ward and the Rainbow"; #114, p. 3, "Why lie ye here at anchor"; #117, pp. 2-3, "We focht from eight in the mornin'" (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan1 39, "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" (3 texts, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #8, B=#6}
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #54, "Ward the Pirate" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #3, "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 49-50, "Saucy Ward" (1 text)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, pp. 38-39, "Saucy Ward" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 10, "Captain Ward" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 167-170, "A Famous Sea-Fight Between Captain Ward and the Rainbow" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 347-363, "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" (2 texts plus a fragment and a version from the Forget-me-not Songster and a possibly-rewritten broadside, 2 tunes, plus extensive notes on British naval policy) {Bronson's #9, #10}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 204-206, "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11}
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 242-244, "Captain Ward and the Rain-Bow" (1 text from the Green Mountain Songster)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland4, pp. 264-270 "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" (2 texts, 1 tune, the first text being the Green Mountain Songster version)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 8, "Captain Ward" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 33-36, "(Captain Ward)" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 300-301, "Captain Ward, the Pirate" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 83, "Captain Ward" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 840-841, "Captain Ward" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 22, "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" (1 text)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 99, "Captain Ward" (1 text)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #29, "Three Brothers from Old Scotland" (1 text, which has an opening typical of "Sir Andrew Barton" [Child 167] but ends with a verse of "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" [Child 287]
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 670-673, "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 362, "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" (1 text)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 1-10, "Captain Ward" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 41-44, "Captain Ward" (1 text)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #3, "A Famous Sea Fight between Captain Ward and the Rainbow" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 10, "The Famous Sea Fight between Captain Ward and the Rainbow" (1 text)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads LIII, pp. 91-94, "A Famous Sea Fight between Captain Ward and the Rainbow" (1 text; the next item, LIV, is "The Seaman's Song of Captain Ward," associated in the broadsides with "Dansekar the Dutchman," not this)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 9, "Captain Ward" (1 text, #9 in the first edition); also 11, "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" (1 text, 2 tunes, composite; #11 in the first edition)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 112-115, "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 116-119, "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN949, "Gallants you must understand"; ZN2410, "Strike up you lusty Gallants"
DT 287, WRDRNBOW* WRDNBW2*
ADDITIONAL: C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 30, "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" (1 text)
Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 145, "A Famous Sea Fight Between CAPTAIN WARD and the RAINBOW" (reproduction of a broadside page)
Leslie Shepard, _John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844_, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 108, "A Famous Sea Fight Between CAPTAIN WARD and the RAINBOW" (reprint of a Pitts broadside)
ST C287 (Full)
Roud #224
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(80b), "A Famous Sea-Fight Between Captain Ward and the Rainbow" ("Strike up ye lusty gallants)", T. Norris (London), 1711-1732; also Harding B 4(107), "A Famous Sea-Fight Between Captain Ward and the Rainbow"; Harding B 4(108), "A Famous Sea Fight Between Captain Ward and the Rainbow"; Firth c.12(8), "Famous Sea Fight Between Capt. Ward and the Gallant Rainbow"; Harding B 11(831), "Capt. Ward and the Rainbow" ("Come all you English seamen with courage beat your drums"); Firth c.12(6), "Captain Ward"; 2806 c.16(334), Harding B 11(4034), Firth c.12(7), "Ward the Pirate[!]"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Outlaw Murray" [Child 305] (theme)
cf. "Sir Andrew Barton" [Child 167] (theme)
cf. "Dansekar the Dutchman" [Child 287] (mention of Captain Ward)
SAME TUNE:
Captain Ward (per broadside Bodleian Douce Ballads 1(80b))
The Wild Rover (per broadside Bodleian Firth c.12(6))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Jolly Mariner
NOTES [1132 words]: Compare with this broadside for a different ballad on the same subject: Bodleian, Wood 402(39), "The Seamans Song of Captain Ward, the Famous Pyrate of the World, and an English[man] Born" ("Gallants you must understand"), F. Coles (London), 1655-1658; also Douce Ballads 2(199a), Wood 401(79), "The Seamans Song of Captain Ward, the Famous Pyrate of the world and an English Man Born" - BS
In addition to the above, Rollins, p. 206, #2393, lists a piece "the seamens songe of Captayne Warde, the famous Pirate of the world an Englishman," registered July 3, 1609 by Jno. Busby Sr.; this is probably the same as Rollins #2390, "The seamans song of Captaine Ward," registered March 1656. Plus STC #6184 (pp. 137-138) is "A christian turn'd Turke, or the tragicallliues and deaths of two pyrates, Ward and Dansiker," registered February 1, 1612. STC #25022 (p. 583) is "Newes from sea, of two notorious Pyrates, Ward and Danseker," registered to J. Busby January 2, 1609.
Although the "historical" Captain Ward was active during the reign of Britain's King James I, the context sounds more like that in the time of Charles I. The religious and political situation, as well as financial interests, dictated that Charles should have been allied with the Protestants of the Netherlands and Germany against Spain -- but instead Charles implicitly supported Spain while quarreling with the Dutch about herring fishing.
The result was an undeclared war between many of Charles's sailors and Spain. And many of the fighters, like Ward or the later Captain Kidd, thought right was on their side. Indeed, the Earl of Warwick was creating a group of pirates who were carefully trained according to Calvinist principles -- Puritan raiders (Herman, p. 157f.)
This would also explain why the king was trying to crack down: Piracy had gotten completely out of hand in his father's reign. Ritchie, p. 140, writes, "Only the most inept pirates ended their lives on the gallows during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The nadir of English concern and ability to control piracy came during the reign of James I. Taking no special pride in the Royal Navy and abhorring the expenses generated by the fleet, James sold some of his ships and let most of the others rot at the docks. The resulting growth of piracy in and around English waters caused the Dutch to request permission to send their ships into English waters to attack the brigands. Bereft of means to do the jobs, James acquiesed."
Stokesbury, p. 47, notes that the strong navy of Elizabeth was down to 37 ships by 1607, and most of them in poor repair; he attributes this to the corruption of the Treasurer of the Navy, Sir Robert Mansell. As a result, Stokesbury declares on p. 48, "[T]his was the high point of the era of piracy; the Moorish pirates in particular, raiding out of ports on the North African shore, virtually ruled the sea. Thousands of sailors were enslaved, and there was a waste of about seventy English merchant ships a year to pirates. In some cases they were so bold that they even raided along the southern English coasts, seizing peasants, whom they carried off to slave markets. Not since the days of the Norsemen had there been such a scourge at sea."
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine, however, try to relate the whole thing to the politics of James I -- and to the opposition to that king. Of course, Charles I generated even more opposition, and talking about events in his father's reign might make the discussion slightly safer. The drawback is that the historical Captain Ward was dead by then.
DictPirates, p. 360, gives Ward's dates as 1553-1623; he was imprisoned for piracy in England in 1602, impressed in 1603, turned pirate, and took to the Mediterranean. In 1606, he took service with the ruler of Tunis. In 1607, his fleet suffered a series of setbacks. He may have tried to buy a pardon from the King of England, but the idea failed. He turned to Islam and lived more or less happily ever after.
If we accept that Ward was active at the very start of the reign of James I, that gives us still another scenario, which ties in with the death of Elizabeth I and the accession of James I. Elizabeth of course spent much of her reign at war with Spain; famous incidents in this war were the voyage of the Spanish Armada and Drake's circumnavigation of the globe. Semi-official piracy was one of Elizabeth's key weapons against the Spanish; her ships captured Spanish treasure ships and interfered with Spain's attempts to build a stronger navy.
But all wars come to an end. Ritchie, p. 13, notes that peace was made with Spain in 1603, the year James I succeeded to the English throne. And suddenly English privateers who had been attacking the Spanish had to become either unlicensed pirates or join someone else's service. If Ward kept raiding the Spanish after peace was made, that might explain the King's attitude toward him. We know that James I really disliked piracy.
According to Mancall p. 194, "Ward was a particularly dangerous pirate whose exploits proved to be ideal fodder for the peddlars of pamphlets in London. He was a threat no only to those whose ships he attacked, but even to the men on his own vessels. Wine flowed freely on his ship, but rumor had it that if a man killed another while in a drunken state, he was to be lashed to the corpse and both of them thrown overboard. Such claims made Ward into a kind of dark celebrity and the fitting subject of the plot of a play. Newes from Sea, of two notorious Pyrates, publicly performed in London in 1612, told the tale of 'A Christian turn'd Turke.'"
The comment about the captain being king upon the sea does date to the reign of James I -- but, according to Rodger, p. 349 and Herman, p. 144, it was not made by Ward but by one Peter Easton (or Eston). Easton, who took over the pirate fleet of Richard Bishop in 1611, did so much damage that he was offered a pardon in 1612, refused it, saying, "I am, in a way, a king myself." The next year, he was offered a lordship in Spain, which he took.
There is one other source which might perhaps have influenced this song a little, although the names are reversed (that is, the Captain Warde involved is not the pirate but his victim). A Flemish pirate named John Crabbe became famous along the Channel in the early fourteenth century, and his first noteworthy prize was a ship called the Waardebourc captained by John de Warde (McNamee, p. 209). - RBW
Greig #114 (before Greig recognized this as a "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" fragment): "... a ballad about Wallace and the Red Reiver...." The reference is to the 1298 capture of the pirate Richard Longoville, a.k.a. the Red Reiver, by William Wallace (see the Wikipedia article "William Wallace"). - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C287

Captain Ward, the Pirate

See Captain Ward and the Rainbow [Child 287] (File: C287)

Captain Wasgatt

DESCRIPTION: "Captain Wasgatt in the John, He just got homr from Thomaston, He just got fitted out, they say, To go fishing in Frenchman's Bay." The crew is "Bill and Sam and Sally and Dan." Sal has trouble hauling a hake and hopes for a ginger cake at home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: ship fishing food
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 330-331, "Captain Wasgett" (1 text)
File: EcSm330

Captain Webster

DESCRIPTION: Webster wishes to marry a poor girl, but his parents tell him that he must marry a wealthy woman. The young man bids farewell to his sweetheart, then kills himself. Parents are warned against placing undue emphasis on money
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (recording, Sara Cleveland)
KEYWORDS: suicide love money poverty mother father
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 21, #2 (1972), p, 14, "Captain Webster" (1 text, 1 tune, the Sara Cleveland version)
Roud #5713
RECORDINGS:
Sara Cleveland, "Captain Webster" (on SCleveland01)
NOTES [43 words]: The notes to the Sara Cleveland record suggest that this is a localization of a British original, though the editor (Kenneth S. Goldstein) cannot suggest an original. I have to agree; the feeling is old, but I cannot locate a true forerunner of the piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: RcCapWeb

Captain Wedderburn's Courtship [Child 46]

DESCRIPTION: (Captain Wedderburn) sees a fair lady, and wishes to sleep with her. She takes an instant dislike to him, and will consent only if he can answer her riddles. He answers them, and the two are wed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783 (New British Songster)
KEYWORDS: courting riddle marriage contest
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,NW,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES (32 citations):
Child 46, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Bronson 46, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (26 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 46, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (4 versions: #7, #13, #14, #24)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 294-297, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp/ 62-68, "Captain Wedderburn" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 93-99, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (2 texts plus 2 fragments, one of which might be "Riddles Wisely Expounded" or something else, 2 tunes; all the texts are rather damaged and even the full ones consist mostly of the riddles); p. 451 (1 tune) {B.II=Bronson's #12, C=#9; the tune on p. 451 is #17}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 43-46, "A Strange Proposal" (1 text)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 299-315, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (3 texts plus two fragments, 5 tunes; the "A" text and the F fragment and tune are mixed with "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (Child 1) and the "I" and II" texts and tunes are "I Gave My Love a Cherry")
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 21-25, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (3 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #19, #20, #21}
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 6, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 48, "Mr. Woodburn's Courtship" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the "B" text is short and in the first person; it shows signs of deliberate modification) {Bronson's #24, #15}
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 151, "Three Dishes and Six Questions" (1 text, 1 tune, consisting only of questions without any plot, but probably this rather than one of the other riddle songs because each verse ends "you'll lie next to the wall")
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 158-162, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (3 texts)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 3, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 6, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 3, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #22}
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 4, "Six Questions" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #13}
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 137, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (2 texts, but the second is "I Gave My Love a Cherry")
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 13B, "The Six Questions" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 35-36, "A Gentle Young Lady" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #25}
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 124, "The Rich Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 416-420, "The Laird o' Roslin's Daugher, or, Captain Wed
Greig/Duncan4 842, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (11 texts, 6 tunes)derburn's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 48, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 1, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H681, p. 490, "The Keeper of the Game" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 11, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune, short enough that it might be another riddle song but probably this)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 44, "Mister Woodburren" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 152-153, "The Chicken and the Bone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 53-55, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #17}
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 70-72, "Captain Wedderburn" (1 text)
DT 46, CAPWEDER* THREESIX*
Roud #36
RECORDINGS:
Willy Clancy, "The Song of the the Riddles" (on Voice01)
Logan English, "Bold Robington's Courtship" (on LEnglish01)
Seamus Ennis, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (on FSB4)
Warde Ford, "Many Questions/Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (AFS 4196B, 1938; in AMMEM/Cowell) {Bronson's #26}
Pat MacNamara, "Mr Woodburren's Courtship" (on IRClare01)
Thomas Moran, "Captain Woodburn (Wedderburn's Courtship)" (on FSBBAL1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1143), "Lord Roslin's Daughter's Courtship," Stephenson (Gateshead), 1821-1850
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Gave My Love a Cherry"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Devil and the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Six Dishes
It's I Must Have
NOTES [894 words]: Many versions of this song tell a rather confused story, with the following plot outline:
1. Captain Wedderburn sees the Laird o' Roslin's daughter and says, more or less, "Gotta have her"
2. He asks her to marry him; she says, "No; it's time for supper."
3. Immediately upon turning him down, she gets on his horse, goes to his lodging-house, and prepares to go to bed with him.
4. Pause: The lady says, "Before I do this, you have to answer my questions." She proceeds with the riddle game.
5. Captain Wedderburn answers the riddles, and they are married.
It will be evident that steps 4 and 5, as they are found in these texts, should precede step 3.
It's also worth noting that the lady's riddles seem to be older than the song itself (the riddles are found in "I Gave My Love a Cherry," which as "I Have a Yong Suster" dates to 1430 or earlier).
My suggestion was that steps 4 and 5 were a later addition to the song. Alternately, the song has become disordered. Don Duncan counter-proposes that the song is a rape ballad -- she is forced on the horse, and to the lodging-house, and the riddles are her last attempt at a defense. The happy ending is a later touch-up.
Fowler, p. 22, has another suggestion " the captain's plan for seduction is skillfully transformed by the girl's riddles into a marriage proposal. By the time we reach the song's last riddle, the 'priest unborn' is standing outside the door, and indeed for poor Captain Wedderburn the handwriting is already on the wall next to which the ingenious girl ha insisted she will not lie." The problem with this proposal (apart from the fact that I don't see any hint of it in the texts that I know!) is that there is no reason for the woman to do such a thing. She is a lord's daughter -- too good for a mere Captain.
None of this can be proved, and none of the suggestions is altogether convincing. But it is not unlikely that the song has changed its form somewhere along the line.
Because scholars so often confound this with "I Gave My Love a Cherry," one should see that song also for the complete list of songs sometimes associated with this ballad.
Another curiosity concerns the name "Wedderburn." This is an old Scottish name (from an early date, the author of the 1549 Complaynt of Scotland was listed as "Vedderburn" -- Complaynt, p. cx) -- but the OxfordCompanion, in its thousand large pages of biographies, lists only one Wedderburn, that being Alexander Wedderburn (1733-1805).
Cook, sketches him on pages 183-184: he "had a quick mind and was known as one of the most intelligent, formidable debaters in Parliament.... At the same time, he was one of the nastiest, most unscrupulous, most ambitious politicians of the time.... He grew up in Edinburgh and began his career in the Scottish law. Handling a case in court at age twenty-four, he became so abusive of the court president... that an apology was demanded by the entire bench. Instead, Wedderburn withdrew from the Scots bar and decamped for London.... Lord North decided politically that it would be better if Wedderburn... were inside the government rather than in opposition. For his part, Wedderburn was not inhibited by principles and could readily lend his debating talents to any side of any question. He was appointed solicitor general."
That was in 1771. In 1778, he became attorney-general. Eventually, tempted by Pitt, he joined the government as Lord Chancellor, finally retiring with an earldom in 1801. He wasn't very nice, either -- Weintraub, p. 35, tells of him questioning Benjamin Franklin for an hour and a half -- and keeping the 68-year-old Franklin standing the whole time. Weintraub, p. 126, also mentions that he nearly fought a duel over a simple remark about politics.
Unscrupulous enough for this song, obviously, but he was never a captain, and since "Captain Wedderburn" was circulating by 1783, he can't have been the original subject, right?
Well, sure, but there is one other thing. To what earldom did George III appoint him in 1801? The earldom of -- Rosslyn. (So, at least, the Oxford Companion, which in general I have found to be reliable; Weintraub, p. 345, says he became "1st Earl Loughborough in 1801").
There were other Wedderburns, of course; Complaynt, p. cxi, although it discounts the claim that a "Wedderburn" wrote the Complaynt (since the book is credited to "Vedderburn" by a secondary source), still has this to say about the Wedderburns:
"the family took their name from the lands and barony of Wedderburn in Berwickshire, and the Wedderburns of Blackness and of Gosford both figure in the Baronage of Scotland. A member of the family settled in Dundee in the reign of James III, where the Wedderburns had multiplied into a numerous connection in the middle of the sixteenth century" (although Dundee is much more distant from Roslin than either Blackness or Gosford, both of which, like Roslin, are near Edinburgh). Several Wedderburns were involved in the Reformation (Complaynt, pp. cxi-cxii). I don't see any particular connection of any of them with the sea, though.
A few versions of this ballad, perhaps under the influence of songs such as "Riddles Wisely Expounded [Child 1]," would have us believe that the Captain was the Devil in disguise (Buchan/Harris, p. 70), but this is clearly not original. Captain Wedderburn was a jerk, but he was a human jerk.- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: C046

Captain Went Below, The

DESCRIPTION: "O, the captain went below, For to light the cabin lamp, But he couldn't light the lamp Because the wick was too damn' damp, Heave-ho, you sons of glory, The Golden Gates are passed."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: sea travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 125, (no title) (1 fragment)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 16, "Navy Fragment" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9637
File: ShaS125A

Captain Wholesome

See Captain Coulston (File: HHH562)

Captain William Jackman, A Newfoundland Hero

DESCRIPTION: "The fierce winds blow among the cliffs Of rugged Labrador." Jackman is on the beach in a snowstorm and hears cries from a wreck on a reef "some hundred fathoms from shore." He swims to the wreck 27 times and rescues all on board.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Murphy, Songs of Our Land, Old Home Week Souvenir); supposedly published 1889
KEYWORDS: rescue storm wreck recitation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1837-1877 - Life of William Jackman
Oct 9, 1867 - The Loon/Sea Clipper wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 145, "Captain William Jackman, A Newfoundland Hero" (1 text)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 29-31, "A Newfoundland Hero" (1 text)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Captain William Jackman -- A Newfoundland Hero" (1 text): pp. 85-86 in the 4th edition
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, compiler/publisher, "(Old Colony Song Book: Newfoundland)," James Murphy, 1904 (available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site; the cover is missing, but I suspect it is a copy of "Songs of Our Land"), p. 44, "A Newfoundland Hero" (1 text)
James Murphy, compiler, _Songs & Ballads of Terra Nova_, Evening Telegram publishing, 1903 (available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 76, "A Newfoundland Hero" (1 text)
Captain Joseph Prim and Mike McCarthy, _The Angry Seas: Shipwrecks on the Coast of Labrador_, Jesperson Publishing, 1999, pp. 30-32, "A Newfoundland Hero" (1 text)
ST GrMa145 (Partial)
Roud #6349
NOTES [2023 words]: The site for the Captain William Jackman Memorial Hospital in Labrador City states "On October 9, 1867, during the worst storm of the decade, two ships collided. The Loon quickly sank and The Sea Clipper was able to save the passengers and crew of the smaller ship. Soon the strong gales drove the injured ship into a reef near Spotted Island, Labrador. Twenty-seven people on-board were in peril of their lives.
Captain Jackman was visiting the island and as [he] and his host went for an evening walk, they noticed the troubled ship. Few people knew how to swim in that day; however, Jackman was an avid swimmer. He made 27 trips through the cold October waters and each time brought a survivor to shore. The storm had claimed 42 ships and 40 lives; however, all were saved from The Sea Clipper because of the exploits of Captain Jackman."
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland has the date as October 29, 1866 and notes that Jackman's "health was broken. Queen Victoria sent him a medal." [The Dictionary of Canadian Biography notes that Jackman, born in 1837, died at the age of 39. - RBW]
The October 9, 1867 date is confirmed by Northern Shipwrecks Database 2002. - BS
Droge's book Jackman: The courage of Captain William Jackman, one of Newfoundland's greatest heroes the only full-length account of him, is officially listed as fiction. Droge says that he did real research but then filled in some gaps with his own imagination (Droge, p. 12). It is certainly not entirely accurate, e.g. on p. 119 it says that the first sealing steamer Jackman commanded was the Hawke in 1862. But Chafe, p. 92, says that his first steamer was the Hawk (no "e") in 1867 -- and in fact there were no sealing steamers based in Newfoundland in 1862! Nonetheless Droge was the basis of the entry on pp. 76-81 of ButlerHanrahan. So it would seem that there is no reliable source for Jackman's exploits. I've quoted Droge only when he seems to be in non-fiction mode.
Chafe, p. 32, says, "[Jackman] was one of the famous seal killers of his day, and a brother of Captain Arthur Jackman. He will always be remembered for his great exploit at Labrador in the terrific gale of October 9, 1867, when so many vessels were lost. He rescued 27 men, women and children by his own exertions swimming ashore with him through the surf." Ryan, p. 495, adds that he was the brother of the famous sealing captain Arthur Jackman (for whom see "The Old Polina" and "Sealer's Song (I)"); that he was born in Renews, and that he first commanded the sealing steamer Hawk in 1867 and held his last command in the Eagle in 1876 (for the first and second sealing steamers named Eagle, see "The Ice-Floes"; Jackman commanded the first).
Apparently it was common to refer to him as "Jackman the Hero" (DictNewfLabrador, p. 174).
Although Jackman made a dozen sealing voyages in his life, he apparently thought of himself primarily as a cod fisherman (Droge, p. 111).
Jackman was said to have sprung from an old Newfoundland family that first came to the island in 1637. A William Jackman and his wife had been shipwrecked near Renews in 1637; William the Hero was said to be their sixth generation descendant (Droge, p. 39). Johanna Jackman, the wife of the first William, was supposed to have been the first schoolteacher in all of Newfoundland; she and her husband made an addition to their house where she would teach any children who would come (Droge, p. 41).
This sounds awfully folkloric, but supposedly Thomas Jackman, the father of William and Arthur, personally built his first vessel, a small schooner (Droge, p. 41), and did well enough that he was able to buy a much bigger ship, which he renamed Fanny Bloomer; she became famous under that name (Droge, p. 44).
There are other elements in this story which make Jackman seem more like a romance hero than a real human being. For instance, Droge, p. 116ff., has his sealing party involved in a disaster that resembled a small-scale version of the future Greenland and Newfoundland Disasters (for which see the songs with those names). Droge, p. 102, claims Jackman obtained his Master's certificate before he turned nineteen, making him one of the youngest men to attain that honor. Yet the photo on the same page shows a certificate dated August 1868, when Jackman was 31. And Jackman was said to be a friend of the Innu of Labrador (Droge, p. 106) at a time when few were. He frankly sounds too good to be true.
There is some dispute about the name of the ship that sank after the wreck described in this song; the modern sources I have read call her the Sea Clipper, but early sources sometimes called her the Sea Slipper. (On p. 137, Droge prints a newspaper account that, in the space of one paragraph, calls her the Sea Slipper and the Sea Skipper! Greene, p. 291, quotes a letter to a newspaper: "A vessel called the Sea Slipper had struck on a reef near the Spotted Islands, Labrador. She had been in collision with another schooner, and sank near Indian Tickle, taking on board her crew and passengers. It was between noon and one o'clock when the Sea Slipper struck the fatal reef, the hurricane blowing at its full from the north-west....")
On the same page, Droge says that the name of the ship that hit the Sea Clipper is not known; he apparently made up the name Loon, and everyone else adopted his name without reading his footnote. Prim/McCarthy, p. 26, give a different story -- that the Sea Clipper hadn't suffered a collision; rather, she had rescued the crew of another vessel, but even though Captain Rideout had ordered the Sea Clipper's spars cut, her anchor chain had parted and she went aground herself; the damage to the ship came from being pounded on the rocks. In either case, she was doomed. Hardly surprising; Prim/McCarthy, p. 33, declares, "The great Labrador gale of October 9, 1867, was perhaps the worst storm ever experienced on the coast of Labrador in terms of wrecked ships, death[,] and destruction of coastal property, which left over two thousand persons destitute."
The local population of Spotted Island was small -- just a few dozen. But more showed up regularly in summer because the fishing was so good (Droge, p. 122). Jackman was one of those who was visiting for that reason -- but he had thought a storm was coming and had put in to land. The crew of the Sea Clipper had not been so foresighted (Droge, p. 123). Jackman quite coincidentally decided to take a walk near the shore, despite the bad weather; he later claimed that he felt compelled to stay near the shore (Droge, p. 125). And it was well that he did, because he saw the wreck while on that walk.
Apparently Jackman wasn't the only one involved in the rescue of those stuck on the Sea Clipper -- but he was the only one who could swim, so he had to do most of the work. Three others, John and Samuel Howell and Robert Mesher eventually rigged ropes so that, after Jackman had saved some of the survivors, he didn't have to swim quite as far; he would bring a survivor part way in and then the others would take them the rest of the way (ButlerHanrahan, pp. 78-79, say this happened after he had rescued about six; Droge, p. 131, and Galgay/McCarthy, p. 24 say it was after he had rescued eleven; the newspaper cited by Greene, p. 291 -- the one that has the ship's name wrong -- also says eleven). Jackman still deserved credit for all the swimming, but if it hadn't been for the others, he surely would not have had the strength to rescue as many.
The people from the ship often weren't much help; one gripped Jackman's neck so tightly that Jackman couldn't breathe, and Jackman had to break his nose to get the guy to ease off (Droge, p. 130). The last one he carried had been knocked unconscious by the collision (Jackman didn't even know she was still on the ship; the people he had already rescued had to tell him there was one more woman aboard). A weary Jackman actually had to tie her to him to carry her ashore (Droge, p. 134; sadly, she died of her injuries two days later; Droge, p. 135. Note that this contradicts the claim in Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland's notes that "the woman recovered").
It was an amazing physical feat. He had to swim more than five miles, half of it while carrying someone -- and in water near the freezing point, and with the water so rough that it was easier for him to swim mostly underwater (Droge, p. 127). I suspect that a modern professional swimmer would have had difficulty with the task.
Jackman was in bed for two days before he could return to his ship (Droge, p. 135). He'd earned the rest!
ButlerHanrahan claim that William Jackman was genuinely humble (compare Galgay.McCarthy, p. 26); Droge, p. 145, claims that he asked his brother Arthur to accept an honor for heroism in his place (and Art Jackman laughed it off). I must admit to finding it hard to believe that the brother of Arthur Jackman could be self-effacing. But perhaps he had been more battered by fate than the rest of his family; when still quite young, he had gone on a berrying expedition with some friends, and had seen a girl in the group die of exposure when a sudden blizzard overtook the party (Droge, pp. 73-79).
The people on the Sea Clipper were extremely lucky; the 1867 storm is reported to have destroyed 42 ships and cost 40 lives (Droge, p. 136; I rather suspect the latter figure is low; Prim/McCarthy, p. 26, say it came to be known as the "Great Labrador Gale").
Folklore said that the rescue shortened Jackman's life (according to Galgay/McCarthy, p. 26, this was apparently based on a newspaper account at the time of his death). Greene, pp. 124-125, for instance, says that "He swam 27 times through the bitter cold of icy waters out to, and back from, a hopeless wreck had run ashore in a blizzard at Spotted Islands, Labrador -- in October 1 1867 -- saving 27 lives but sacrificing his own brave self in the doing of it, the exposure causing the disease which led to his untimely death." Observe, however, that he lived another ten years. According to Droge, p. 151, in the early 1870s, he started to feel more tired and to want more sleep. At age 38, he started losing weight. He grew weaker. Doctors could not tell what the problem was (Droge, p. 152). We still don't know; Droge, p. 153, and ButlerHanrahan, p. 81, mention the possibility of cancer.
In any case, he had a history of getting in trouble, including a near-drowning and a fall from a cliff that resulted in massive infection (Droge, pp. 83-85 and elsewhere). If he did die of the effects of excessive exertion, one of those earlier experiences could also have resulted in severe physical strains -- although the latter also caused him to become a fitness freak and practice swimming a lot (Droge, p. 92), which obviously served him in good stead at the time of the wreck!
Spotted Island is no longer inhabited; it was one of the towns that was resettled by Joey Smallwood's Newfoundland government after confederation with Canada (Droge, p. 161).
Droge, p. 141, claims that Jackman was almost forgotten until 1965, when the decision was made to name the hospital in Labrador after him. But note that the Kelland poem mentioned below had to have been written at least five years before that.
Droge has various photos relevant to the story. P. 22 shows Spotted Island, Labrador, where the wreck took place. Jackman himself is pictured on p. 120 (along with brother Arthur), and again on p. 154; there are family photos starting on p. 156. Page 134 shows a stamp of Jackman that Canada issued in 1992; it looks nothing like Jackman's photo.
This poem "became a very popular recitation at school concerts after it was published in one of the Christmas editions of 1889" (Prim/McCarthy, p. 30). It is not the only poem about Jackman. Otto P. Kelland wrote one called "Brave Captain William Jackman"; it can be found in Otto P. Kelland, Anchor Watch: Newfoundland Stories in Verse (privately printed, 1960), p. 45. And Droge, pp. 145-147, has one written by Marcus Hopkins for a celebration of Jackman's deed. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: GrMa145

Captain with His Whiskers, The

See O! They Marched Through the Town (The Captain with His Whiskers) (File: Wa069)

Captain's Apprentice (I), The

See Captain James (The Captain's Apprentice) (File: SWMS054)

Captain's Apprentice (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The captain has an apprentice from a work house. The boy offends him. He is bound to the mast, then beaten to death. The crew lock the captain in his cabin and have him arrested in port. He is convicted and held in Newgate until he is hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1801 (St Bride broadside S509 (see notes))
KEYWORDS: ship sailor death homicide crime punishment trial execution
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, "The Captain's Apprentice" (1 text, 1 tune) (see notes)
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, Cecil Sharp's Collection of English Folk Songs (London: Oxford University Press, 1974), Vol. 2 p. 300, "The Captain's Apprentice" (1 text, 1 tune) (see notes)
E.J. Moeran, A.G. Gilchrist, Frank Kidson, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Lucy E. Broadwood, "Songs Collected in Norfolk" in Journal of the Folk Song Society, Vol. 7, No. 26 (Dec 1922 (available online by JSTOR)), #3 pp. 4-5, "The Captain's Apprentice" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Lucy E. Broadwood, Frank Kidson, A.G. Gilchrist, "Songs of Soldier and Sailor Life" in Journal of the Folk Song Society, Vol. 7, No. 27 (Dec 1907 (available online by JSTOR)), #14 pp. 66-67, "The Captain's Apprentice" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lucy E. Broadwood, Cecil J. Sharp, G.S.K. Butterworth, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Frank Kidson and A.G. Gilchrist, "Songs from Various Counties" in Journal of the Folk-Lore Society, Vol. 4, No. 17 (Jan 1913 (available online by JSTOR)), #22 pp. 335-336, "The Captain's Apprentice" (2 fragments, 1 tune) (see note)
Colin Davis, "The Captain's Apprentice," London 1951, Association for Cultural Equity Alan Lomax Collection,ref=T926R05,accessed 26 February 2017 from http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=7077
Joseph Taunton, "The Captain's Apprentice" ("I took him from St. James's Workhouse"), Ralph Vaughan Williams Manuscript Collection accessed 5 Mar 2017 at https://www.vwml.org/record/HAM/5/34/13
Roud #835
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "Come All You Men Throughout This Nation" (on Voice12)
A.L. Lloyd, "The Cruel Ship's Captain" (on Lloyd9) (see notes)
BROADSIDES:
StBride, Broadside S509,"A New Copy of Verses, Made on Captain Mills, now under Confinement in Newgate, at Bristol, for the murder of Thomas Brown, his Apprentice Boy" ("You Captains all throughout the nation"), unknown, n.d., obtained Mar 9, 2017 from St Bride Foundation at http://www.sbf.org.uk/
NOTES [2233 words]: A.L. Lloyd's version named "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" on the CD is correctly labelled "The Cruel Ship's Captain" in the liner notes to Lloyd9.
Re Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams: also see "Songs Collected from Norfolk" in Journal of the Folk-Song Society (London: Atheneum Press, 1906 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) Vol. II, #15 pp. 161-162, "The Captain's Apprentice" (1 text, 1 tune). That earlier text was only five verses -- instead of Palmer's seven. Palmer notes that his additional two verses were in Vaughan Williams's scrapbook "additional to those sung by Mr Carter (perhaps remembered later by him, and sent on)." I have used Palmer's seven verse text. James (see notes below) considers the two added verses to be a separate text.
Re Broadwood, Sharp, et al, "Songs from Various Counties": The second fragment is a verse "sung by a Bridgewater sailor" as the first and last of his version. The apparent full text is Karpeles's.
Re Karpeles's Cecil Sharp's Collection of English Folk Songs: Thanks to Frazer Clarke for a copy of the page. Karpeles attributes the text and tune to Joseph Laver. The Ralph Vaughan Williams Manuscript Collection has the tune and full text as two separate entries collected the same date and place. The tune and first verse attributed to Joseph Laver is at https://www.vwml.org/record/CJS2/10/1009 ; the full text attributed to Richard Laver is at https://www.vwml.org/record/CJS2/9/1038 (both accessed March 7, 2017). The following is a note from Derek Schofield on March 7, 2017: "It's not the only Laver song where there is confusion about whether the name is Richard or Joseph (assuming they are the same person). In 1901 census, there is a Joseph Laver, market gardener, aged 64 (so 69, not 72 in 1906). Or a Robert Laver, an auctioner, 71 in 1901, so 76 in 1906. There's no Richard Laver."
COMPARING "CAPTAIN JAMES" AND "The Captain's Apprentice (II)"
Both "Captain James" and "The Captain's Apprentice (II)" share a pattern of verses:
-- Warning to captains not to abuse their seamen/servants.
-- The boy is apprenticed to the captain.
-- On the trip home the captain murders the boy: the remaining verses give the details.
-- The boy "offends" the captain and is tied to the mast in punishment.
-- The boy is whipped and the crew dares not help him.
-- The boy dies.
-- The crew has the captain arrested
-- The captain is tried, convicted and condemned.
With that pattern in common what justifies splitting "Captain James" and "The Captain's Apprentice (II)"?
While the texts I group as "Captain James" share lines as well as themes by verse, and the same is true of the texts I group as "The Captain's Apprentice (II)", almost no lines are shared between groups. Here are some examples of typical verses.
-- The warning is different but has no clearly differentiating aspects.
"Captain James":
Come all you noble bold commanders
That on the foaming ocean cruise
By my sad fate now take a warning
See that your poor seamen you do not abuse
"The Captain's Apprentice (II)":
You captains all throughout the nation
That has got servants at your call
O see that you never ill-use them
While you are on the raging sea.
-- The verse about the apprenticeship, when present, always gives some name to the boy in "Captain James" and always names a workhouse in "The Captain's Apprentice (II)"; conversely, "Captain James" never refers to a workhouse and "The Captain's Apprentice (II)" never names the boy. The boy and captain are both named in the title of the St. Brides's broadside, but not in the text.
"Captain James":
Richard Perry was my servant
And a sprightly lad was he
His mother did apprentice him
All for to cross the raging sea.
(Richard's last name may also be Paddy, Spry, Pavy, Peva, Peve, Farris or Ryan).
"The Captain's Apprentice (II)":
This boy was bound apprentice
Because of his being fatherless
From St. James's work house I hailed him
His mother being in distress.
-- By the same token, other verses, while agreeing in theme, are different in the details. "Captain James" is returning from Carolina; "The Captain's Apprentice (II)" is returning from the West Indies, the Spanish shore, or -- as Lloyd sings -- Greenland. The boy is tortured one day in "Captain James" and nine in "The Captain's Apprentice (II)." The whipping is "eighteen stripes" in "Captain James" and "with a shroud of rope ... because I could not bear to hear his cries" in "The Captain's Apprentice (II)." The "Captain James" crew "had me apprehended When I had got home from sea"; "The Captain's Apprentice (II)" crew "in my cabin close they confined me A prisoner brought me in the Bristol shore." In "Captain James" the condemned captain is "taken and put in [an unnamed] prison"; in "The Captain's Apprentice (II)" "In Newgate jail I'm condemned to die."
Besides the matching pattern verses each ballad may have its own set of distinct verses.
For "Captain James":
The crew is warned not to help the boy.
The boy complains of hunger after three days.
The boy complains of hunger and thirst after six days; he refuses to drink urine but is forced to drink his own blood; the boy calls on his mother.
After nine days the boy asks to be fed any morsel "the dogs would despise" or to be killed; when he refuses to eat his own excrement he gets another eighteen stripes and dies.
The crew curses the captain and he threatens to have them hung for mutiny.
The captain expects his money to save him but the boy's mother, refusing his bribe, insists on prosecuting him.
Captain James -- named in the text for the first time -- having been convicted, realizes he deserves no mercy but prays "yet some mercy show me Lord."
A final warning: may "his sad example teach others the like to shun."
"The Captain's Apprentice (II)":
The crew "earnestly me requested To let him loose but all in vain."
"Soon as the boy he did expire Then I was sorry for what I'd done."
The captain wishes he had listened to his crew: "I might have saved a poor boy's life and mine."
"Tho' murder was not my intent ... I heartily repent."
Summing up, the ballads are so different that any fragment of a verse or more is easily assigned to one or the other. I don't doubt that one ballad set the pattern for the other, [unless] a third ballad set the pattern for both. The notes to "Captain James" show that this murder scenario was common enough in the age of sail that there was plenty of material as source to be plugged into this ballad pattern. While an early date, so far, for "Captain James" is 1768 and a late date for the St. Brides text for "The Captain's Apprentice (II)" is 1801, I have no way of saying which ballad originated earlier (see Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, p. 325, for Two Brothers in 1768; also see notes re Nash below).
JAMES, LLOYD, AND THE EFFECT IF ANY OF THE KING'S LYNN CRIMINAL CASE ON "The Captain's Apprentice (II)."
James, writing in 1999, "investigates the possibility that the folk song The Captain's Apprentice, collected by Vaughan Williams in 1905 (fn.1), was based on events reported in 1857 on a ship based in King's Lynn.... Although earlier versions of the song are known, it is possible that the 1857 events influenced local variants of the song" (fn.2). Earlier, Lloyd wrote "Early in the nineteenth century, a whale skipper was charged in King's Lynn with the murder of an apprentice. A broadside ballad, in the form of a wordy gallows confession and good night, appeared, and in course of circulating around the East Anglian countryside it got pared down to the bone" (fn.3, fn.4).
The earliest "Captain's Apprentice" (II) broadside I have seen so far is StBride, Broadside S509,"A New Copy of Verses, Made on Captain Mills, now under Confinement in Newgate, at Bristol, for the murder of Thomas Brown, his Apprentice Boy" (fn.5). Palmer says of the St. Bride broadside, "it is without imprint probably dating from about 1800" (fn.6). Nash, who does not mention this broadside, would make the probable date before 1801. He discusses two factors that restrict the date. First, as Palmer notes, there is no imprint; second, the St Bride broadside keeps the non-final long s in words. Nash writes that the 1799 "Seditious Societies Act" imposed "severe financial penalties for those who printed books and broadsides without including their names and addresses, or with false or inaccurate imprints" (fn.7). Nash also discusses technological and stylistic changes that converged on 1800: "the generality of printers continued to use the long s until 1800. Then, within the course of this one year, the character was removed from most printers' typecases" (fn. 8).
James considers whether the Vaughan Williams's King's Lynn text reflects the King's Lynn criminal case. If so there should be significant differences between the pre-crime St Bride broadside and Vaughan Williams's text. In fact the significant differences are that the Vaughan Williams text omits lines from the broadside. As for substance, no facts of the King's Lynn criminal case are in the Vaughan Williams text (fn. 9). Among factors that do not change are that the boy is from St James's work house, that he is beaten with a rope of some sort, and that the captain is made prisoner by his crew and brought to Bristol. It is important to James that there is a St James work house in King's Lynn, but since that is already the name of the workhouse in the St Bride broadside, that does not help to make the coincidence significant.
James looks to other versions for some influence of the case on the texts of the ballad. Those versions do not make the case either. For example, the Cox, Davis, and Moeran et al texts change the name of the workhouse so that it no longer matches the King's Lynn workhouse. The destination for the Taunton text, and one of the texts from "Songs of Various Counties," is given a more specific Caribbean locale, "the Spanish Shore" (and Greenland for Lloyd's text). The Cox, Davis, and Moeran texts have the captain brought to London, but since all the texts are from England's east coast it is not surprising that they relocate the prison from Bristol Newgate in the west to London Newgate in the east. A number of texts end with the boy's death and so do not deal with the captain's imprisonment, trial and execution.
James concludes, "The Captain's Apprentice was not a completely new form of Captain James, written to commemorate the tragedy of young Robert Eastick of Lynn; that 'St James' Workhouse was not inspired, at least initially, by the King's Lynn Union; that Captain Doyle [of the King's Lynn criminal case] inherited the mantle not only of the mysterious Captain James but also of a Captain Mills who may or may not have met an ignominious end in Bristol c. 1800" (fn. 10).
FOOTNOTES
(1) Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #53 pp. 84-86.
(2) James, p. 579.
(3) Lloyd. In another context, Lloyd wrote that he "thought he had seen the text on a broadside a long while before 1971 but no details." James speculates that, "What he saw may well have been the single broadside discovered by Mike Yates in the St Bride Institute, London." James, p. 583.
(4) Lloyd continues, "The poet George Crabbe was interested in the case, and took it as a model for his verse-narrative of 'Peter Grimes,' which subsequently formed the base o[sic] Britten's opera. The opera is in three acts. The same ground is covered in three verses by a song as bleak and keen as a harpoon head." James pointed out (James, p. 586) that Lloyd may not have known the date of the King's Lynn case, 1857, which was after Crabbe's 1810 publication. The Peter Grimes of Crabbe's poem is a fisherman whose boat can be "paddled up and down" (Crabbe, p. 310) and who is a serial murderer of apprentices from the local workhouse. It is unusual when he must sail as far as London (Crabbe, p. 304), so he is hardly the whale skipper Lloyd has him patterned after. Grimes's final sentence is to be prohibited to have a workhouse apprentice and, since no freeman would work for him, must fish alone, shunned by all who knew him. Grimes dies delirious in a Parish-bed, rather than on the gibbet. "The original of Peter Grimes was an old fisherman of Aldborough, while Mr. Crabbe was practising there as a surgeon. He had a succession of apprentices from London, and a certain sum with each. As the boys all disappeared under circumstances of strong suspicion, the man was warned by some of the principal inhabitants, that if another followed in like manner, he should certainly be charged with murder" (Crabbe4, p. 39, n.1). Crabbe's poem is relevant to "The Captain's Apprentice" in its comments on workhouses -- "Slave-shops" (Crabbe, p. 303) -- and the "Workhouse-clearing Men, Who, undisturb'd by Feelings just or kind, Would Parish-Boys to needy Tradesmen bind: They in their want a trifling Sum would take, And toiling Slave of piteous Orphans make" (Crabbe, p. 301))
(5) James refers to the St Bride text as "Captain Mills."
(6) Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs Songs, p. 84.
(7) Nash, p. 14.
(8) Nash, p. 9.
(9) In the King's Lynn criminal case the voyage was to Ceylon rather than the West Indies, the crew fed the boy and the boy committed suicide -- none of which is in any version of the ballad -- and the captain was imprisoned for only three months, rather than executed. James, pp. 585-586.
(10) James, p. 588.
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.2
File: BdCapMil

Captain's Ball, The

See The Sailors' Wives (File: PaSe147)

Captain's Got a Luger

See Going Back to Weldon (File: GaBl061)

Captain's Lady (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Small boats land in Wild Bay among Blacks; the crews, including the captain's lady, are captured, stripped, and driven. Joseph, a Black slave crewman, saves them. He is freed, and the captain's lady returns safely to London.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: captivity return escape sea ship slavery Black(s) rescue
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 775-776, "The Captain's Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9799
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "The Captain's Lady" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [11 words]: Not to be confused with the Burns fragment of the same name. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea775

Captain's Son, The

See The Main-Truck (A Leap for Life; The Captain's Son) (File: Shoe115)

Captaine Carre

See Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon [Child 178] (File: C178)

Captains and Ships

DESCRIPTION: "To Harvey's I'll start and to Bowring's I'll go, I'll name all the ships and the captains also." He names ships, captains, and companies, and wishes them all good luck.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Peacock; MUNFLA/Leach); see NOTES
KEYWORDS: moniker commerce fishing sea ship work nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Captains and Ships" (1 text, 1 tune, based on the Peacock field collection but with a different, I would say poorer, transcription): p. 19 in the 3rd edition
Peacock, pp. 865-866, "Captains and Ships" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 97-98, "Captains and Ships" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 76-77, "Captains and Ships" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Farley Mowat, _Wake of the Great Sealers_, with prints and drawings by David Blackwood, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1973, p. 48, "(Sealer's Song)" (1 text)
ST Doyl3019 (Partial)
Roud #7291
RECORDINGS:
Jim Rice, "Ships and Captains" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Some Ships in Port" (catalog of ships)
NOTES [3060 words]: The amount of detail in this song is immense, and clearly shows detailed knowledge of the the sealing expedition in some particular year. The trick is to determine the year. Although it has no explicit date references, the ships mentioned allow us to date it without much hesitation to 1910; the notes below will show how I reach that conclusion.
Harvey's and Bowring's, mentioned in the first verse, were companies that hired and supplied sealing vessels; so was Job's, mentioned in the third verse. Bowring's was the largest and longest-lived of the bunch, although that was because of their diversity -- they were a shipping and insurance company as well as equipping sealers. There is a company biography, David Keir, The Bowring Story, The Bodley Head, 1962; the company was still in business until recent decades, when it was merged into a larger insurance conglomerate.
I suspect but cannot prove that the Ad is the Adventure, for which see "I Am a Newfoundlander." There was no sealing captain named "Doyle" (see list on Chafe, p. 97); I strongly suspect this is an error of hearing for Captain Henry Dawe of Bay Roberts, who commanded the Adventure 1906-1910. For this Henry Dawe, see especially "The Sealer's Song (II)."
The Belle is probably the Bellaventure, which was commanded by Job Knee from 1909-1913 (Chafe, p. 98). We know from Rosenberg p. 87, that she was called the Bell or Belle. Job/Jobie/Joby Knee is also mentioned in "The Sealer's Song (II)" and implicitly in "Arrival of 'Aurora,' 'Diana,' 'Virginia Lake," and 'Vanguard,' Loaded;" there is a photo of him on p. 75 of Winsor. The Bellaventure was part of the sealing fleet from 1909 to 1915; she is probably most famous for being the ship that rescued most of the survivors of the Newfoundland Disaster of 1914 (for which see "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)").
Similarly, I would guess the Bon is the Bonaventure. She was commanded by John Parsons 1909-1914 (Chafe, p. 98), which is every year she went to the ice except 1915, when she was captained by Robert A. Bartlett (both Bartlett and the Bonaventure are also mentioned in the "Ballad of Bob Bartlett, Arctic Explorer"). In 1913, she hit the Beothic, also mentioned in this song as well as in "Success to the Hardy Sealers." The Bonaventure was able to proceed on her way, but the Beothic was crippled and barely survived (O'Neill, p. 984; there is a picture of the two ships together on p. 39 of Ryan/Drake. The collision and its aftermath at least forced ships to stop trying to race each other out of St. John's Harbour; Candow, p. 58). The Bonaventure was sold to Russia in 1915-1916 (Greene, p. 278).
John Parsons (1868-1949) is also mentioned in "The Sealer's Song (II)." He was a businessman from Bay Roberts; the family business lasted until 1979. He was also active in politics, and spent his last years unsuccessfully opposing Confederation with Canada (Tarver, p. 229). His first command was in the Newfoundland in 1906, followed by the Bonaventure. He did not command a steamer in 1915 or 1916, but when he came back in 1917, he took more than 21,000 pelts in the Erik. He commanded the Erik in 1918 also, then switched to the Diana. (Chafe, p. 94). He was the captain who lost the Diana in 1922 (for this incident, see "Arrival of Aurora,' 'Diana,' 'Virginia Lake,' and 'Vanguard,' Loaded"). His last command was the Terra Nova in 1929 and 1931 (Ryan-Ice, p. 500).
There are several Captains Kean mentioned in the song, and they pose problems. "Jolly Gay Kean" of the Newfoundland is a conundrum, since there was no one named "Gay Kean"; I strongly suspect the original text referred instead to Jacob Kean. The Newfoundland is one of five ships in the song commanded by a member of the extended Kean family. The various Keans in the song are without doubt confused by oral transmission. Abram Kean, the patriarch of the family (for whom see "Captain Abram Kean") is not mentioned in the song, and his oldest son Joseph/Joe Kean, the oldest (and probably the best and most famous) of Abram's sons, is mentioned twice, as master of the Erik and the Eagle. And there are other Keans in charge of the Florizel, Iceland, and Newfoundland.
Abram Kean, who had commanded a great many ships in his career, commanded the Florizel 1909-1911 before shifting to the Stephano in 1912 (Chafe, p. 92); Joe Kean commanded the Eagle from 1907 to 1911, inheriting the Florizel from his father in 1912-1914 (he would later die in the wreck of that ship, although not during the sealing season); Job Kean commanded the Erik from 1902 to 1913 (Chafe, p. 93; for Job Kean see also the notes to "Lukey's Boat"; he was the nephew of Abram Kean, and later married Virtue Hann, presumably related to George Hann; Kean, pp. 22-23). The only Kean to command the Iceland was Edwin Kean, who was her commander in 1909-1910; she was crushed in the ice and lost in the latter year (Winsor, p. 48; Chafe, pp. 93, 100-101; Kean, p. 22; there is a photo of her burning in the ice on p. 81 of Ryan/Drake, and a photo of her in harbour on p. 48 of Winsor). The Iceland was Edwin Kean's only command. Jacob Kean commanded the Newfoundland in 1910, then Westbury Kean took her out in 1911-1914 (Chafe, p. 103); for Westbury, it was his first command, and for reasons explained in "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)," he would not get another sealer until after World War I.
Abram Kean had six sons and a huge flock of nephews, but no Kean who was a ship captain was named "Evan," listed in the song as commander of the Florizel. One of Abram's nephews was Edwin Kean, who did well as a fisherman, but as stated, the only sealer he commanded was the Iceland in 1909-1910. Therefore I suggest that the song should be emended to put Abram Kean, rather than Evan Kean, in charge of the Florizel, "Jolly Jake Kean" (or possibly "Jolly Wes Kean") in the Newfoundland, Job Kean in charge of the Erik, (Ed) Kean in the Iceland, and Joe Kean in the Eagle.
The mention of the Florizel in that list is the single most obvious date peg in the song. The Florizel, which is the subject of "The Wreck of the Steamship Florizel," was built in 1909, and her first trip was in that year (Chafe, p. 100). She was sunk in 1918, before the seal harvest of that year.
The Newfoundland also gives us a date peg. The Newfoundland survived the 1914 horror that killed so many of her sailors (again, see the notes to "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)), but she was sold in the next year, and renamed the Samuel Blandford (after a famous sealing captain; see "Sealer's Song (I)") in 1916, so her mention forces us to the years before that.
The Florizel's much larger sister Stephano, built 1911 and mentioned in "Success to the Hardy Sealers," is not mentioned in this song. This does not absolutely prove that she was not in commission, but the Stephano usually went to the ice under one of the Captains Kean, patriarch Abram or his sons. Observe that the song mention various Keans sailing in the Newfoundland, the Eric, the Iceland, the Florizel, and the Eagle. That's a lot of older, lesser ships with Keans aboard. This is strong evidence that the lyrics predate the Stephano. To be sure, the Stephano was sunk in World War I, so it's just possible that the year could be after 1917, after her loss, but then we have to account for the mentions of other ships lost during the war, such as the Newfoundland and Florizel.
The Iceland was built in Dundee, and first went to the ice in 1872. She went through several owners before being destroyed in 1910, with her crew rescued by the Eagle (Ryan/Drake, p. 16; Winsor, p. 48, says a few ended up on the Florizel). She is also mentioned in "The Sealer's Song (II)"; Ryan/Drake have a picture on p. 16. A portion of another poem about her on p. 309 of Ryan-Ice says that she was the last sealer to sail from Harbour Grace rather than St. John's.
The Diana, built in 1870 as the Hector, was given her name in 1889, sold in 1918, and sank in 1922; for more details, see "Arrival of 'Aurora,' 'Diana,' 'Virginia Lake,' and 'Vanguard,' Loaded." Her skipper Joe Blandford seems to be mentioned only here, but see the ship Samuel Blandford above. Joe Blandford commanded the Diana from 1909 to 1912; it was the only sealer he ever commanded (Chafe, p. 89).
George Barbour commanded the Beothic 1909-1911 (Chafe, p. 88); for his career, see especially "The Greenland Disaster (I)." The Beothic went to the ice only in 1909-1912 plus 1914-1915 (as mentioned above, she had a collision in 1913); William C. Winsor commanded her in 1912, 1914, and 1915 (Chafe, p. 98). She is also mentioned in "Success to the Hardy Sealers."
There were two ships Neptune which sailed from Newfoundland; for one of them, see "Neptune, Ruler of the Sea." The one in this song must have been the second, which made her first sealing voyage in 1888 and lasted until 1943 (Feltham, pp. 93, 97) ; she was commanded by Alpheus Barbour (for whom see "The Sealer's Song (II)") 1909-1911 and Robert Bartlett 1912-1913.
The ship here called the Erik is also mentioned in "The Sealer's Song (II)." There is disagreement about her name; O'Neill, pp. 972, 978, calls her the Eric, but this is almost certainly an error; Chafe, Greene, Galgay/McCarthy, Feltham, and Winsor call her Erik. She was built at Dundee in 1865 (Feltham, p. 51), and was transferred to Newfoundland ownership in 1901; she became a sealer in 1902 (Feltham, p. 52; Winsor, p. 41). She was captained by Job Kean from 1902 to 1913 (Feltham, p. 52), and by Nathan(iel) Kean in 1916. She broke a propeller shaft in 1908 but was repaired (Feltham, p. 53; Winsor, p. 42, says the had a collision with the Aurora in that year).
After the 1918 sealing season, Erik went back to other work (as many sealers did in the off season), and was commanded by a captain named Lane who was not a sealer (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 65). She was hauling coal when she was overtaken by a U-boat on August 25, 1918 (Feltham, p. 55; Galgay/McCarthy, pp. 67-69; O'Neill, p. 978). Despite the late stage of the war, the U-boat's actions toward her crew were extremely polite (one guesses that he realized that he faced little threat from an ancient wooden sealer!); although he shelled the Erik to make her stop, he did not torpedo her. And, once she stopped, the boat's medic actually treated the wounded. Since there were no working lifeboats left, the sub put a bomb aboard the Erik and took the crew to another ship (Feltham, pp. 55-56; Galgay/McCarthy, pp. 69-70).
There is a photo of the Erik on p. 30 of Ryan/Drake and one on p 41 of Winsor.
The Bloodhound (the second of that name) is also mentioned in "The Sealers's Song (II)." She lasted from 1873 to 1917, and was commanded by a Winsor (not "Windsor") for much of this period -- William Winsor Jr. in 1907-1908, Jacob Winsor in 1909-1911, Jesse Winsor in 1913-1914 (George Clarke captained her in 1912). I would guess "Gate Windsor" is an error for "Jake Winsor." For the Winsor clan, see "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912."
In "The Sealer's Song (II)," which also mentions the Bloodhound, her captain is listed as "Bill Windsor." As "Bill Winsor" (the correct spelling) he is mentioned in "Capt. Frederick Harris and the Grates Cove Seal Killers of 1915."
Walter Baine Grieve (1850-1921) was a leader of the company Baine, Johnson & Co, which in 1863 had brought the first sealing steamer (the original Bloodhound) to Newfoundland (O'Neill, pp. 915-916). His political history was somewhat dubious; I'm surprised there is no hint of that in the song.
The Cross is probably the Southern Cross, which vanished in the storm of 1914 that also killed so many men of the Newfoundland (O'Neill, p. 974); see "The Southern Cross (I)." She was commanded by John Clarke in 1910-1913 and by George Clarke in 1914, when she was lost (Chafe, p. 104). John Clarke's only other command was the Diana in 1915; George's, the Bloodbound in 1912.
Baxter Barbour, here listed as the commander of the Labrador, was lost on the Dunelm in 1915; see the notes to "The Nimrod's Song." He commanded the Labrador in 1909-1910. The Labrador is mentioned also in "The Sealer's Song (II)" and "Success to the Hardy Sealers." She had sailed under George Hann (1850-1942) from her first trip in 1896 until 1908 (Winsor has a photo of Hann on p. 50, as well as a photo of the Labrador. Barbour took her for two years, then D. Martin commanded her from 1911 until her loss in 1913 (Chafe, p. 101). She doesn't seem to have been very successful; the figures on p. 50 of Winsor say that she averaged a hair less than 10,000 seals per trip. Only once did she take more than 20,000 seals, and only three times more than 15,000; she took less than 7,000 in Barbour's two years. Although Winsor, p. 50, calls her one of the strongest of the wooden ships, she went ashore during a blizzard in early March 1913 and was a total loss, although the crew survived.
There does not seem to have been a sealer names Louise, and there was no sealing captain named "Crosbie"; rather, Crosbie was a shipping company and outfitter of sealing ships (and, later, a Newfoundland political dynasty). Probably the line should refer to the Harlaw instead of the Louise, for reasons explained below. The Harlaw, unlike many of the other sealers mentioned in the song, may not have been very familiar to Newfoundland singers. She had a relatively short career as a sealer, going to the ice under D. A. Scott 1896-1903 and under J. Farquhar in 1910, and averaging less than 7000 seals per year (Chafe, p. 100), so she wouldn't have been famous.
The Kite is mentioned in more sealing songs than almost any other ship; for more about her, see "The 'Kite' Abandoned in White Bay." She sailed every year from 1877 to 1914, then made one last sealing voyage in 1918 and was lost later in that year (Chafe, p. 101; Feltham, p. 83). William Carroll was her captain from 1909 to 1912 (Chafe, p. 101); she was the only ship he ever commanded.
The Eagle (one of two ships of that name) was built in 1902 and lasted until 1950, when she was scuttled; for more about her, see "The Ice-Floes," as well as the notes on the Kean family above.
There is an interesting connection between the mentions of the Kite and the Eagle. Note that they are consecutive in the song:
The Kite, Captain Carrol[l], I wish him good luck,
Once more in the Eagle Joe Kean showed his pluck.
Although the Kite's Captain Carroll was William Carroll, there was another famous sealer named Carroll: Tom Carroll (1868-1961). At least three of Ryan's oral histories mention him (Ryan-Last, pp. 215-216), and he came to be known as "Skipper Tom" (Squires, p. 7) He was not actually a steamer captain, but he was a bosun for many decades -- he was still serving in that role in the 1940s, when he was around eighty! (Squires, p. 7, says he was 81 in 1944; the dates given are those from DictNewfLabrador -- it will show you how famous he was that he has an entry in the dictionary, being almost the only sealer who never became a captain to have an entry. Mount Carroll in the Falkland Islands is named for him). And which was his ship for all those decades? Why, the Eagle of course. So the song's construction links the Kite, under skipper (William) Carroll with the Eagle, which was the ship of "Skipper" (Tom) Carroll. I don't know if the Carrolls were related, but it's a cute link.
The Viking was built in 1881 and acquired by Bowring's, presumably for sealing, in 1904 (O'Neill, p. 968); it blew up in 1931; see "To the Memory of the Late Captain Kennedy." The "Captain Bartlett" of the song is not Robert Bartlett, known from "Captain Bob Bartlett," who never commanded her, but rather William Bartlett Sr., who commanded her 1904-1913 and 1916-1920. There is a photo of him after p. 92 of Chafe.
Captain Daniel Green (born Newtown, Bonavista Bay; Ryan-Ice, p. 499) held commands for most of the years from 1891 (in the Ranger) to 1911 (in the Aurora); he skippered the Aurora (not mentioned in the song) 1906-1911 (Chafe, p. 91). For the Aurora see "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full"; also "The Spring of '97." Dan Green is also mentioned in "The Sealer's Song (II)"; there is a photo of him on p. 73 of Winsor.
The Ranger is little dating help; she went to the ice every year but one from 1872 to 1941 (although she missed 1915); see "First Arrival from Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912." S. R. Winsor (Sam Winsor, born 1872, of the Winsor family mentioned above, and apparently the "Bob Winsor" of the "Sealer's Song (II)")) commanded her 1909-1911 and again starting in 1917; there is a photo of S. R. Winsor on p. 75 of Winsor.
The Algerine was lost in 1912; see "The Loss of the Algerine." Noah Bishop (born Swain's Island, Bonavista Bay; Ryan-Ice, p. 499; brother of the better-known Edward/Ned Bishop) commanded her from 1909 to 1912; she was the only sealer he commanded. There is a picture of Noah Bishop on p. 72 of Winsor.
If we look at all the above, we find that, except for flat-out mistakes such as "Evan Keen" and "Gate Windsor," the mentions in this song tell a consistent story. It describes the seal hunt of 1910.
As additional evidence we may look at the list of sealers that went to the ice on p. 77 of Chafe. Nineteen ships sailed that year: Viking, Harlaw, Southern Cross, Algerine, Florizel, Newfoundland, Eagle, Bellaventure, Bonaventure, Labrador, Beothic, Erik, Kite, Nepture, Adventure, Bloodhound, Ranger, Aurora, Diana, under captains Bartlett, Farquahar, Clarke, Bishop, Abram Kean, Jacob Kean, Joseph Kean, Parsons, B. Barbour, G. Barbour, Job Kean, W. Carroll, A. Barbour, Dawe, Jacob Winsor, S. R. Winsor, Green, and Blandford . Seventeen of those nineteen ships, and no others except the Louise, are mentioned in this song, and an eighteenth, the Aurora, is implicitly mentioned (or its name may have been lost). Only the Harlaw, commanded by J. Farquhar, is omitted from the list in the song. What are the odds? No other year had such a close fit in both ships and captains. It is on this basis that I conjecture that the Louise should in fact be the Harlaw.- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: Doyl3019

Capture and Destruction of Sebastopol

See Sebastopol (Old England's Gained the Day; Capture and Destruction of Sebastopol; Cheer, Boys, Cheer) (File: SmHa041)

Capture of For Garry, or Riel's Retreat

See (File: Macl07)

Capture of New Orleans

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you Union-loving men, wherever you may be." The singer will tell of the Union capture of New Orleans. The song details the maneuvers of the fleet as they pass the Mississippi River defenses. The _Brooklyn_ is a proud part of the fleet
AUTHOR: William Densmore of the _Brooklyn_
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (Cohen); probably written in 1862
KEYWORDS: Civilwar navy battle river patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 344-347, "Capture of New Orleans" (1 text plus a reduced copy of the original broadside)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #249, p. 18, "Capture of New Orleans" (1 reference)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell (Mansfield Lovell)" (subject of the capture of New Orleans)
NOTES [108 words]: For background on the capture of New Orleans, see the notes to "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell (Mansfield Lovell)." The fact that this song refers to George McClellan as a Union general strongly implies that it was written in 1862, between the attack on New Orleans in April and McClellan's removal in the fall of that year. I'd guess it was composed very shortly after Farragut's fleet ran the New Orleans defenses.
It is effectively certain that it was in existence by 1870, given that it is mentioned on p. 19 of Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: CAFS1344

Capture of the Crown, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the 26th of April, or so it does appear, The brave boys of Bristol fitted out a privateer, In command of Captain Tucker" to capture the "Bream." They find and capture the "Crown." The singer wishes good luck to the crew
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 ("The Life of Commodore Samuel Tucker")
KEYWORDS: ship war fight
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1813 - battle between the "Increase" and the "Crown"
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 10-11, "The Capture of the Crown" (1 composite text)
ADDITIONAL: John Habbibal Sheppard, _The Life of Samuel Tucker, Commodore in the American Revolution_, Alfred Mudge and Son (Boston), 1868 (republished by Applewood Books, 2009; available on Google Books), pp. 369-371, "(no title)" (1 text)
NOTES [260 words]: Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors say their tune is "The Bonnie Ship the Diamond." The form certainly fits, but it's not the tune I know for "The Bonnie Ship...."
I checked five histories of the War of 1812, looking for this battle; none of them mentioned it. That is not to say that it didn't happen; it's just that it wasn't important enough to get much notice outside its local area. Samuel Tucker was more noteworthy -- but for his actions in the Revolutionary War, not the War of 1812. Jameson, p. 665, for instance, gives this capsule biography:
Tucker, Samuel (1747-1833), of Masschusetts, while commander of the "Franklin" and the "Hancock" in 1776, captured more than thirty vessels. From 1777 to 1780 he commanded the "Boston," and captured many pries, including the sloop-of-war "Thorn." He commanded the "Thorn" from 1780 to 1781, when he was captured by the British frigate "Hind." He was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature from 1814 to 1818.
His entry in DAB (volume X, part 1, pp. 39-40) is much longer but doesn't mention the event either -- and in its footnotes says that the account in Sheppard, from which this song is derived, "is not free from legendary materials." I wonder if that isn't in part a reference to the giant sailor who, according to Sheppard and the Lane/Gosbee notes, threw a ship's anchor to grapple the Crown.
A perhaps-more-reliable source is Foster Smith, Captain Samuel Tucker (1747-1833) Continental Navy, Essex Institute, 1976, but this seems to be out of print and used copies are rare and expensive. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: LaGO010

Capture of William Wood by the Blackfoot Indians, The

DESCRIPTION: "Blackfoot Indians left their settlements, Seven hundred miles or more... Minnesota to explore." They attack the family of William Woods, killing his mother and sisters. They cut off Woods's hand, but the chief's daughter begs them to spare him
AUTHOR: A. W. Harmon
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (according to Cohen, with the original print probably from the 1870s)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) homicide war disability
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 460, "The Capture of William Wood by the Blackfoot Indians" (a reprint of the original broadside)
NOTES [10 words]: A. W. Harmon is also credited with "The Granite Mill Fire." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: CAFS2460

Car Ferry Marquette and Bessemer No. 2

DESCRIPTION: "Loud roared the dreadful doomday And stormy was the night When the car ferry Bessemer 2nd Left the port called Canneaut. With two and twenty sailors...." "Let us all unite together... for the loved ones We will never see again." Captain and others die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from William E. Clark by Walton)
KEYWORDS: death storm ship wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 7(?), 1909 - loss of the _Marquette and Bessemer No. 2_
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, p. 223, "The Car Ferry Marquette and Bessemer No. 2" (1 fragment)
Roud #19866
NOTES [409 words]: Details about this particular shipwreck seem rather fuzzy. All the sources I've checked agree that the ship involved was very strong, and still fairly new. Most ships avoid the Lakes in December, but this particular vessel was thought solid enough to stand up to even a December storm. Yet she disappeared in 1909, and there is no real information on what happened to her. The wreck has not been located (as of 2008), and is considered one of the most sought-after of the lost ships of the Great Lakes.
Beyond that, accounts differ slightly. Ratigan, p. 232, calls the ship the Bessemer & Marquette No. 2, and says it set out from Conneaut, Ohio to Port Stanley, Ontario on December 9, 1909. He says that 36 crewmen were lost.
Berman, p. 253, agrees with Walton in calling her the Marquette and Bessemer No. 2. He gives no date for the sinking except "December 1909." He says that 31 lives were lost.
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors says only that all aboard were lost. It lists the ship as five years old, but Berman says it was built in 1905, which would make it four years old, and Ratigan also says it was four years old.
The ship is enough of a mystery that I found five web sites with details about the ship and the wreck. All seem to suspect the same problem: The Marquette and Bessemer No. 2 was a car ferry, designed to take on fully-loaded railroad cars and transport them across the lakes. This was possible because she had wide doors in the back of her hull, not much above the waterline. This would be no problem if the doors sealed tight, but it is suspected that they did not, and that the doors flooded in the 1909 storm.
Bourrie, pp. 180-188, produces a far more dramatic tale. His speculation is that a storm hit, and the ship was unable to make port, and wandered around the lakes for many hours, and as a result the crew mutinied. They then abandoned the ship in a lifeboat, which was found with ten men aboard, but all dead.
The evidence for this is very thin -- the fact that Captain McLeod's body, when it was found much later, seemed to have been injured, and the men in the lifeboat were ill-dressed for the weather and had seemingly stuck a knife into the rail of the boat. Bourrie thinks a good prosecutor could sell this tale to a jury; I think he'd be laughed out of courts. All that is certain is that everyone aboard -- believed to have been no fewer than 30 and no more than 36 men -- died. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM223

Caramy Achy

See Linstead Market (File: FSWB335)

Carcasho

DESCRIPTION: In winter 1916 a 73-year old Labrador trapper goes out to see to his traps. He gets lost and spends the night camping away from home and has a fight with a wolverine. The next day a search gang finds him and takes him home to Lelette.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: rescue hunting ordeal animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 69, "Carcasho" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab069 (Partial)
Roud #9985
NOTES [33 words]: Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast: "This is a local song composed immediately after the event it celebrates." - BS
Leach adds that Carcasho (=carcajou) is Canadian French for a wolverine. - RBW
File: LLab069

Card Song, The

See The King Takes the Queen (File: FSWB232)

Cardinals Be Damned, The

See Son of a Gambolier (II) (File: EM327)

Careless Billy

DESCRIPTION: Billy squandered his parents' riches but is happier than ever. "Light heart & thin pair of Breeches, goes through the world merrely my boys." Riches and responsibilities bring problems. Poor now, "I am as full of content as ever I was since I was born"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1795 (_Vocal Music_, vol. III, according to Ebsworth)
KEYWORDS: poverty commerce money humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth, editor, The Roxburghe Ballads: Illustrating the Last Years of the Stuarts (Hertford, 1891 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. VII part II, p. 520, "[Careless Billy] The Frolicksome Spark" (1 text) [Roxburghe III. 756]
Roud #8795
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1493, "Careless Billy" ("Ye frolick-some sparks of game, ye being both wretched and old"), D. Wrighton (Birmingham), 1812-1830
NOTES [153 words]: Ebsworth: "A modern paraphrase of 'Careless Billy,' includes certain lines ...:-- 'And when the rats nibble my toes, as I sit alone by the bare shelf. I don't drive 'em off, 'cause I knows -- What it is to be hungry myself' This half-chorus had never belonged to the original song, which must have preceded 1773 ...."
Baring-Gould: The chorus "Then why should we quarrel for riches, Or any such glitterring toys? A light heart and a thin pair of breeches, Go through the world, brave boys!" predates the Vocal Music text; it 'belongs to a much earlier song that is in 'Perseus and Andromeda,' which was acted at Drury Lane in 1728" (source: S. Baring-Gould, English Minstrelsie (Edinburgh, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VI, pp. 108-109, xi-xii, "Adieu to Old England" (1 text, 1 tune)).
For a more on Baring-Gould's discussion of his text of "Adieu to Old England" and this text see "Adieu to Old England." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ebs2520

Careless Love

DESCRIPTION: A young girl's lament for having loved unwisely, worrying what her mother will say when the girl returns home, wearing her apron high (i. e. pregnant).
AUTHOR: Unknown, sometimes attributed to W. C. Handy
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (JournalOfAmericanFolklore)
KEYWORDS: sex seduction pregnancy lament
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Randolph 793, "Careless Love" (3 texts, 1 tune. The "B" text is, however, derived mostly from other materials -- it does not even have the "Careless Love" refrain -- of which "Little Pink" seems to be the most important)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 498-500, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 793A)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II, pp. 648-650, "Careless Love" (2 texts)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 173, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 42-43, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 167, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 13, pp. 91-93, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 fragments, of which "A" is the "Pretty Little Foot" with a chorus from "Careless Love" and "B" is two "Pretty Little Foot" stanzas artificially and wrongly extracted from "Wild Bill Jones")
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 2, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune, the "Pretty Little Foot"/"Careless Love" combination from Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 13)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 21, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 40-41, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 50, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 103-104, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 20, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 309, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 901-902, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 89-90, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 138-139, "(Careless Love)" (fragments of two texts); pp. 272-273, "Careless Love" (1 tune, partial text)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 11, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Handy/Silverman-BluesAnAnthology, p. 55-57, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune, with a verse from "Free Little Bird" and others added by blues composers)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 46, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 163, "Careless Love" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 162-163, "Careless Love"
DT, CARELOVE*
Roud #422
RECORDINGS:
[Clarence] Ashley & [Gwen] Foster, "Times Ain't Like They Used to Be" (Vocalion 02554, 1933; on Ashley04)
Emry Arthur, "Careless Love" (Paramount 3298, 1931)
Slim Barton & Eddie Mapp, "Careless Love" (QRS R-7088, 1929)
Dock Boggs, "Careless Love" (on Boggs3, BoggsCD1)
Anne, Judy & Zeke Canova, "Reckless Love" (Oriole 8044/Perfect 12685/Regal 10299, 1931)
[Tom] Darby & [Jimmie] Tarlton, "Careless Love" (Columbia 15651-D, 1931; rec. 1930)
Delmore Brothers, "Careless Love" (Bluebird B-7436, 1938)
Johnny Dodds w. Tiny Parham, "Careless Love" (Paramount 12483, 1927)
Fats Domino, "Careless Love" (Imperial 5145, 1951)
Four Southern Singers, "Careless Love" (Bluebird B-8392, 1940; rec. 1933)
Blind Boy Fuller, "Careless Love" (Vocalion 03457, 1937/Conqueror 9012, 1937/Melotone 8-02-66, 1938; rec. 1937)
W. C. Handy, "Careless Love" (AFS 1620 B3, 1938)
Ed Hudson, "Careless Love" (Champion 16464, 1932/Champion 40086, 1936; rec. 1931)
Johnson Brothers, "Careless Love" (Victor 20940, 1927)
Lonnie Johnson, "Careless Love" (OKeh 8635, 1928)
Lulu Johnson, "Careless Love Blues" (Vocalion 1193, 1928; Supertone S-2227, 1931; [as Lulu Williams] Banner 32387/Oriole 8119/Perfect 195/Romeo 5119, all 1932; all of these rec. 1928)
Ruth Johnson, "Careless Love" (Paramount 13060, 1931)
Asa Martin, "Careless Love" (Melotone 5-11-63/Oriole 5-11-63 [as by "Martin & Roberts"], 1935)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Careless Love" (Vocalion 5125, 1927)
Brownie McGhee, "Careless Love" (on McGhee01, DownHome)
Amy Michels, "Careless Love" (Piotr-Archive #161, recorded 05/10/2022)
Byrd Moore & his Hot Shots, "Careless Love" (Columbia 15496-D, rec. Oct 23, 1929)
Eva Parker, "Careless Love" (Victor V-38020, 1929; rec. 1928)
Riley Puckett, "Careless Love" (Columbia 15747-D, 1932; rec. 1931) (Bluebird B-5532/Montgomery Ward M-4507, 1934)
Pete Seeger, "Careless Love" (on PeteSeeger18)
Bessie Smith, "Careless Love Blues" (Columbia 14083-D, 1925) (Columbia 3172-D/Parlophone [UK] R-2479, 1938 -- I'm going to guess this is a different (electrical) recording from 14083-D)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Careless Love" (Edison 52388, 1928) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5530, 1928)
Georgia White, "Careless Love" (Decca 7419, 1938)
Lee Wiley, "Careless Love" (Decca 132, 1934)
Richard Williams, "Tain't But the One Thing That Grieves My Mind" (on USFlorida01)
Ella Mae Wilson and Richard Williams, "Careless Love" (on USFlorida01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] (floating lyrics)
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)"
cf. "Dink's Song" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Every Night When the Sun Goes In" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I Have No Loving Mother Now" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
I Have No Loving Mother Now (Kelly Harrell & Henry Norton, Victor 20935, 1927; on KHarrell02)
Loveless Love (Noble Sissle & his Sizzling Syncopators, Pathe 20493, 1921; Katherine Handy, Paramount 12011, 1922; Alberta Hunter w. Henderson's Dance Orch., Paramount 12018, 1922; Billie Holiday, OKeh 6064, 1941; Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, Vocalion 04387, 1938; Milton Brown & his Brownies, Bluebird B-5715/Montgomery Ward M-4758, 1935)
NOTES [88 words]: The "Loveless Love" lyrics seem to have been written by W. C. Handy in 1921, using the tune and structure of "Careless Love". He also seems to have claimed "Careless Love" at times, but in other contexts he called it a folk song. So do I. One online biography of Handy called it an 18th-century English folk song ("Dear Companion"?) which by the early 1800s had become a Black rivermen's song. No references, unfortunately. But Wheeler associates the song with the Ohio packet Dick Fowler, running between Cairo and Paducah. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R793

Carey's Disguise

DESCRIPTION: Carey's friends advise him that the best disguise would be to "dress as a lady and pass as Miss Grady." His wife shaves his every hair and glues on a wig. He dons a "chimese," etc. His wife wears his suit and moustache and smokes "a mild Havannah"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: cross-dressing disguise clothes
FOUND IN:
Roud #V8864
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(89), "A new song on Carey's disguise" ("Before he could go from his head to his toe"), unknown, no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Phoenix Park Tragedy" (possible subject: the Phoenix Park murders) and references there
NOTES [230 words]: The description follows broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(89).
Speculation only: This may be a sarcastic reference to James Carey's "disguise" trying to escape into exile. If so, this is another reference to the Phoenix Park murders of May 1882 and the subsequent arrest, trial and executions in 1883. Carey was the Crown's key witness/informer and was assassinated by Patrick O'Donnell in July 1883 on board the "Melrose Castle." (There is more information, and references to other ballads on the subject, at "The Murder of the Double-Dyed Informer James Carey.") [Also, for the full list, "The Phoenix Park Tragedy" - RBW.]
"The Assassination of Carey", The Times, Aug 2, 1883, p. 7, Issue 30888 column E, Copyright 1883, The Times, Article CS118408450, Copyright 2002 The Gale Group: the article mentions Carey's disguise before the "Melrose Castle' assassination but does not explain the nature of the disguise. On the Melrose Castle Carey boarded as J Power with 2 of his children, and his wife boarded as Mrs Power with 5 children.
Tom Corfe, The Phoenix Park Murders (London, 1968) says that Carey simply shaved off his beard as a "disguise" but that he spoke so freely that he was identified out of his own mouth by O'Donnell, who just happened to be on board (p. 258). There is no mention of a disguise for his wife and children, beyond the assumption of aliases. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BdCarDis

Carfindo, The

See The Lucky Escape (File: Arn020)

Cargo Workers

DESCRIPTION: "I lift the cargo from out of hold (x3), It's ruddy heavy, but it ain't gold." "I lift the lamp-black from out the hold (x3), It's ruddy sooty, but it ain't coal." It's a dangerous job, but he'll work until he's old. He's a wharfie, and a wharfie's son
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 141, "Cargo Workers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 82, "Cargo Workers" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 61 in the 1972 edition)
RECORDINGS:
Driving Creek, "Cargo Workers" (on NZSongYngCntry)
File: BaRo141

Caribou, The

See The Loss of the Caribou (File: Guig244)

Caristiona

See Cairistiona (File: K005)

Carle He Cam' Ower the Craft, The

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Carle o' Killyburn Braes, The

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Carle Sits Upon the Sea

See Quo' the Haddock to the Skate (File: GrD81644)

Carlie, Can Ye Hushle Ony?

DESCRIPTION: Jenny, "nae regarded by naebody," invites John to cuddle, and then to "hushle." She has a baby but says she regrets it. He reminds her of her encouragement. At the naming the parson tells John it is not his. John promises to "put a trick upon her"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: seduction sex marriage childbirth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1382, "Carlie, Can Ye Hushle Ony?" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #7244
NOTES [40 words]: We can assume that the couple marry. When the parson says, "This bairn's no been got by you, The lassie young she does you truckle, This is the wye she does you cuckol'," he clearly intends to turn those tables.
Greig/Duncan7: "Circa 1860." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71382

Carlisle Lady, The

See The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)

Carload of Alphabets, A

See (references under) I Love My Love with an A (File: BGMG667)

Carmack Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "George Carmack in Bonanza Creek went out to look for gold" despite being told that there would be no gold in the cold water. But he and his companions find gold and now are in position to celebrate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Roseland, Alaska Sourdough Ballads and Folk Songs, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: gold mining warning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 17, 1896 - Gold found in the Klondike
FOUND IN: US(NW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 674, "The Carmack Song" (1 text)
File: CAFS2674

Carmagnoles, The

DESCRIPTION: In 1793 the French planted "a symbol of great Liberty." In 1794 "they gave to Flanders liberty." June 1 the French convoy was saved from British attack. The Batavian line extends freedom to the Netherlands. Kings and drones will "tumble unlamented"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (_Paddy's Resource_(Philadelphia), according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: battle navy rebellion England France freedom
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1793 - French Revolution: France declares war on Great Britain and Holland (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
June 1-3, 1794 - "[Admiral] Villaret-Joyeuse's squadron was attacked off Ouessant by Admiral Howe and lost seven ships in the three-day battle. Nevertheless he kept the way clear for the hundred grain transports to reach the port of Brest, which was on the verge of starvation. (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 20, "The Carmagnoles" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [91 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "The 'Great Batavian Line' refers to the regime established by the French revolutionaries in the Netherlands." - BS
Moylan's description of the battle pretty well sums up the result of the June 1 battle: It helped the current French government survive. But the British name for the battle reveals something about how the winners felt about the result: They called it "The Glorious First of June." And the French losses would weaken their fleet for years, and the psychological blow was also significant. - RBW
File: Moyl020

Carnabane

DESCRIPTION: "When I was young and foolish still, Amerikay ran in my head, I from my native country strayed..." He recalls how friends took their parting from him. When he arrives in St. John's, he will drink and stop grieving, but still think of home and his girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation farewell
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H100a, pp. 188-189, "Carnabane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13545
File: HHH100a

Carnal and the Crane, The [Child 55]

DESCRIPTION: A carnal (crow) and a crane discuss various stories of Jesus, such as the roasted cock that crowed, the miraculous harvest of grain, and the adoration of the animals. (These accounts often became separated in tradition.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1833 (Sandys)
KEYWORDS: bird Jesus religious carol
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
4 B.C.E. -- Death of Herod the Great, whose actions motivated much of the plot of this song
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West,South))
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Child 55, "The Carnal and the Crane" (1 text)
Bronson 55, "The Carnal and the Crane" (3 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 55, "The Carnal and the Crane" (2 versions: #1, #2)
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 188-189, "The Carnal and the Crane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #43, "The Carnal and the Crane" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 74-75, "King Pharaoh [Gypsy Christmas Carol]" (1 text plus a "restored version," 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 102, "King Herod and the Cock" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 91-95, "The Carnal and the Crane" (1 text)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 186-187, "King Herod and the Cock" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 102, "The Carnal and the Crane" (1 text)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 53, "The Carnal and the Crane"; 54; "King Herod and the Cock"; 55, "The Miraculous Harvest" (3 texts, 3 tunes) {#53=Bronson's #1; compare #3; #55=Bronson's #3; this melody is said to be the English hymnal tune "Capel"}
DT 55, PHARMKNG* PHARMKN2*
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 169-170, "Herod and the Cock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #306
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Saint Stephen and Herod" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Herod and the Cock
King Pharim
NOTES [5658 words]: Child refers to this ballad as being "fixed in its present incoherent and corrupted form by print." Incoherent it generally is -- there is no actual plot, just an introduction and a series of stories. But it is worth noting that Child's version (a conflation of three printed texts) is longer than any of the dozen or so traditional versions, and of his printed sources, "c" is significantly shorter than the others. There appears little chance of reconstructing the original. We can only look at the sources of what still exists.
The rough outline of Child's thirty stanza version would be as follows:
I. The singer overhears a crane instruct a carnal (crow) about Jesus
II. Jesus was born in a manger, between an ox and ass
III. The mother of Jesus was a virgin, "Conceived by the Holy Ghost."
IV. Jesus slept in a manger, not a golden cradle nor silken sheets
V. The Wise Men met King Herod, who declared that, if their story is true, the roasted cock in the dish would crow. It did.
VI. Herod ordered the massacre of children under two, causing Mary, Joseph, and Jesus to flee to Egypt
VII. They halted along the way because Mary was weary, and the wild animals came to adore them; the lion, which comes first, is declared the king.
VIII. The family met "an husbandman" sowing his grain, and Jesus caused the grain to miraculously grow to maturity. The husbandman tells Herod that Jesus came by as the seed was sown, causing Herod's men to turn back because Jesus had (they assume) passed by nine months earlier
IX. For the sake of the massacred innocents of Bethlehem, hearers are told not to "forbid" or "deny" little ones.
Of these sections of the song, III, V, VII, and VIII are entirely non-Biblical -- and they constitute almost two-thirds of the song. Indeed, they represent more than two-thirds if we omit the introductory verses about the crane and crow.
INCIDENT II, that Jesus was laid in a manger, is canonical; Luke 2:7, 12, 16 refer to the baby in the manger. The ox and ass beside him are not Biblical (neither the word "ox" nor the word "ass" appears in the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke) -- but obviously perfectly possible. The mention of the animals here is probably derived from the Gospel of the Pseudo-Matthew; and indirectly from Isaiah 1:3 and the Greek (mis)translation of Habbakuk 3:2. Chapter XIV of Pseudo-Matthew not only mentions the animals but describes them as worshipping Jesus (Cartlidge/Dungan, pp. 27-28; Barnstone, pp. 395-396).
INCIDENT III, that "the mother of Jesus [was] conceived by the Holy Ghost," is the beginning of the purely non-Biblical material. The Bible says nothing -- nothing! -- about the parents of Mary. (To be sure, some people have claimed that the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3:23-38 is in fact a genealogy of Mary. But this is absurd -- not only does the genealogy say that it is the genealogy of Jesus, not of Mary, but Luke 1:36 calls Mary a kinswoman of Elizabeth, and Luke 1:5 says that Elizabeth was of the Aaronite priesthood. So Mary presumably is also an Aaronite.)
So where did the claim that Mary was born of the Holy Spirit come from?
From a non-canonical gospel, that's where. To be specific, the Protevangelium Jacobi, or Infancy Gospel of James (called the Proto-Gospel of James by Ehrman; I have never seen this name elsewhere).
There is significant dispute about this book. I have six translations (Barnstone, Cartlidge/Dungan, CompleteGospels, Ehrman, FunkEtAl, Hone), and they have three different chapter-and-verse systems (this even though Barnstone doesn't even give chapter numbers). Hone knew a suggestion that the book was composed in Hebrew, but the only scholar cited by Jordan who allows this possibility is Wake (Jordan, p. 6). Jordan, p. 1, discusses the possibility that the book is by James the brother of Jesus, or James son of Zebedee, or the "other" James of Mark 15:40 (said to be the author in the Gelasian Decree of c. 495 C.E.) -- but goes on to note that the author does not seem to know Palestinian geography. Barnstone, p. 385, quotes Ron Cameron to the effect that the Protevangelium is full of allusions to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. The weight of evidence for a Greek original frankly appears overwhelming.
Jordan on p. 2 cites three scholars who thought it might be from the first century -- but goes on to note nine others who date it to the late second century (which still makes it early for an apocryphal gospel). I can add that CompleteGospels, p. 381, dates it to the middle of the second century. Ehrman, p. 63, says it is mentioned by Origen and possibly alluded to by Clement of Alexandria, meaning that it was probably circulating by 150 C.E. Barnstone, p. 384, says that the book can hardly have been written before 150 C.E. (and adds on pp. 383-384 that Jerome, translator of the Vulgate, condemned it). FunkEtAl, p. xvii, follow Cameron in dating it roughly 150-225 C.E. Harnack proposed to date it to the fourth century (Jordan, p. 6), but this late date can be set aside; the latest possible date is the end of the third century, since Papyrus Bodmer V, found in Egypt and forming the basis for Cartlidge/Dungan, is dated paleographically to around 300 C.E. (Bodmer 5, under the symbol 𝔓72, is also the oldest known copy of the Biblical books of 1-2 Peter and Jude.) This seems, however, to be the only early copy; the other manuscripts cited in Tischendorf's nineteenth century Greek edition are all tenth century or later (Jordan, p. 3).
Barnstone, p. 384, mentions manuscripts in Greek, Syriac (Aramaic), Armenian, Ethiopic (proto-Amharic), Georgian, and Old Church Slavonic. Jordan, p. 6. also mentions a Sahidic Coptic text -- but says the majority of manuscripts are in Greek or Slavonic. In 1980, de Strycker counted 140 Greek manuscripts (Jordan, p. 6) -- an amazing number for a non-canonical work. Even more amazing, parts of it turn up in Greek lectionaries.
Interestingly, Barnstone, pp. 384-385, says that "No Latin manuscript survived the early condemnation of the book in the west." However, much of the Protevangelium's content was preserved in the Gospel of the Pseudo-Matthew, which is in Latin, so the material could have been passed on to European singers that way.
It should be noted that the Catholic Church accepts much of the material which follows, on the basis that, although not found in the Bible, it was revealed by saints (Englebert, p. 35). Englebert's whole account is from the Venerable Maria de Agreda, but it seems to parallel the tale of the Protevangelium.
The book begins with the story of the birth of Mary. Mary's mother is Anna (an interesting name, since Anna is the Greek form of Hannah, and in 1 Samuel 1, Hannah is barren until she visits the temple and prays for a child; in due time, she bore Samuel). Anna is married to Joachim. We are told that both are righteous and chaste, and both are ashamed at the fact that they have no children. Finally, Joachim goes out into the desert to pray about it, while Anna prays at home.
While they are separated, an angel appears to each. It promises Anna that she will have a daughter. But it is the annunciation to Joachim which is really interesting. I'm going to cite all six translations, with their page number and their chapter/verse number if they have one:
Hone, p. 26, 4:4 -- "The Lord God hath heard thy prayer, make haste and go hence, for behold Anna thy wife shall conceive."
FunkEtAl, p. 266, 4:2 -- "Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God has heard your prayer. Go down; behold, your wife Anna has conceived [shall conceive]."
CompleteGospels, pp. 384-385, 4:4 -- "Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God has heard your prayer. Get down from there. Look, your wife Anna is pregnant."
Barnstone, p. 386, "Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God heard your prayer. Go down from here; for behold, your wife Anna is pregnant."
Cartlidge/Dungan, p. 11, 4:4 -- "Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God heard your prayer. Go down from here; for behold, your wife Anna is pregnant."
Ehrman, p. 65, 4:2 -- "Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God has heard your prayer. Go down from here, for see, your wife Anna has conceived a child."
JamesNT, p. 40, 4:2 -- "Ioachim, Ioachim, the Lord God hath hearkened unto thy prayer. Get thee down hence, for behold thy wife Anna hath conceived.."
The difference between "to be(come) pregnant" and "to conceive" is translational. The difference in verb tenses is not; as FunkEtAl implies (and CompleteGospels says in a note on p. 385), the manuscripts differ on whether Anna *already is* or *will become* pregnant. Greek tenses do not correspond exactly to English, but the Greek future indicative corresponds pretty closely to the English future tense. The future tense of Hone and [FunkEtAl in brackets] is a description of something to happen after the present. The present tense of FunkEtAl (non-bracketed), CompleteGospels, Barnstone, James,and Cartlidge/Dungan indicates that Anna is already pregnant. And, since Joachim has been in the wilderness for weeks, he is not the father -- implying that the Holy Spirit is.
As to which is the superior reading, I note that the modern editions all say "is pregnant." This includes Cartlidge/Dungan, which is directly translated from the oldest manuscript, Bodmer Papyrus V. The probability is high that "is pregnant" is the original reading. However, this is not certain; JamesNT, pp. 38-39, points out that the story has never been properly edited.
It should be noted that none of this bears any real connection to Hebrew law. Virginity is valued, of course, but not celibacy. Once Mary and Joseph were betrothed, there was no reason for them not to sleep together. Indeed, having children approached the status of duty (as, indeed, the story reveals, because Joachim is condemned for his childlessness; see JamesNT I.2, p. 39). But there were a number of early Christian sects (all of them, of course, extinct) which believed sex to be evil. Evidently our author was of that school. The obsession with virginity continues throughout the Protevangelium:
At the age of three, Mary is consigned to the Temple, where she stays until she reaches menarche at age 12 (CompleteGospels, p. 387; Hone, p. 28, Ehrman p. 66, etc.). Since menstruation is ritually impure, she then has to leave. By lot, Joseph is assigned to be her husband (CompleteGospels, p. 387; Hone, p. 29, etc.) -- even though, in this account, he is already old and has children (the source of the "Joseph was an old man" item in "The Cherry-Tree Carol" [Child 54]) and is afraid of being a laughing-stock. But he is convinced to accept Mary as his wife.
Then, at age sixteen (JamesNT, p. 44, etc.) Mary gets pregnant. (Ehrman, p. 67, etc. The language here resembles that in Luke regarding the Annuniation.)
Of course, there is no reason under Jewish law why she shouldn't be pregnant; she is betrothed. Indeed, if four years have gone by, she would certainly be considered married. But that's too simple for our author, since he and we know that she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit. So he claims that Joseph would be in trouble with the authorities (JamesNT, pp. 44-45, etc.), and contrives to have Mary's virginity tested, on the grounds that she and Joseph had been separated for months. And, yes, she's still a virgin (CompleteGospels, p. 391; Hone, p. 32, etc.) And, after Jesus is born, a woman named Salome checks -- and, yes, Mary is still a virgin (CompleteGospels, p. 393; Hone, p. 34; Ehrman, p. 70, etc.)
Of course, the mere fact that an ridiculous extra-canonical book with a radical view of sexuality said that Mary, like Jesus, was born of a virgin didn't make it church doctrine. Other than the Protevangelium, I don't know of any other early Church Father who even discusses the matter.
Still, veneration of "Saint Anne," the mother of Jesus, began early; LindahlEtAl, p. 16, reports that the Roman Emperor Justinian dedicated a church to her.
The subject of Mary's origin began to be an issue around the turn of the second millennium C.E., but was then still a matter of debate. Bettenson, p. 271, notes that St. Anselm (1033-1109), for instance, believed Mary was born in sin. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) believed her to have been born in sin but to have lived a sanctified life. Duns Scottus (died 1308) believed in the full-blown Immaculate Conception. In 1483, the Pope had to caution both sides not to go too far, since the matter was not settled.
The Catholic Church finally made its decision in 1854. In that year -- before Papal Infallibility, we might note -- "[Pope] Pius IX on his sole authority... [issued] the Definition of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, welcomed by the Archbishop of Trani because it made her 'the complement of the Trinity and above all our co-redemptress.' No Protestant could accept such blatant Mariolatry" (Christie-Murray, p. 198).
The actual statement, on p. 271 of Bettenson, reads in part, "we [i.e. Pius IX] with the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and with our own, do declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the Virgin Mary was, in the first instant of her conception, preserved untouched by any taint of original guilt, by a singular grace of Almighty God, in consideration of the singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, in consideration of the merits of Christ Jesus the savior of mankind." This was on pain of "lawful penalties if [those who disagree] shall dare signify, by word or writing or any other external means, what they shall think in their hearts."
I have to add that, ten years later the Church would declare that science would be what the Pope said, not what the facts said (Article II of the Syllabus of Errors of 1864; Bettenson, p. 272). Pius IX, pope from 1846-1878 (the longest tenure in Papal history) was a disaster as a head of state, losing the Papal States and being allowed to continue in his job only on the sufferance of the new state of Italy (Kelly, pp. 309-310) but making up for it by increasingly centralizing the church and making its doctrines more strict and explicit. Kelly, p. 310, declares his three greatest innovations the Immaculate Conception, the Syllabus of Errors (which condemned liberal thoughts of all types) and, with the support of the First Vatical Council, papal infallibility.
Pius IX of course made his declaration long after the "Carnal" was written (and by doing it the way he did it, made dead sure that no non-Catholic could even consider the Immaculate Conception). But even before his pronouncement, the doctrine -- with its complete lack of Biblical foundation -- was dead in Protestant circles. This would seem to imply that the "Carnal" is either a Catholic product or predates the Reformation. On its face, the former would seem more likely, since the Immaculate Conception was not doctrine at the time of the Reformation -- but this is far from sure. There was a famous compilation of tales, the "Golden Legend," which contains much of this material. William Caxton published an English edition in 1483, and it contained the story of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Since the Golden Legend was in print in English before the Bible and before the Reformation, it might have inspired something.
We might incidentally note that Broadwood writes away this item in her "restored" text, changing the reading "Whether the blessed Virgin Mary Sprung from an Holy Ghost" to "Is Jesus sprung of Mary And of the Holy Ghost?" This is sound Anglican doctrine, so it might make the text more suitable for churches -- but I really doubt that the text was corrupt at the point where Broadwood proposed to emend it.
INCIDENT IV, in terms of Biblical content, is equivalent to Incident II: Basically Biblical, but embroidered.
INCIDENT V, the wise men meeting Herod and declaring the birth of the Savior, starts with a Biblical story; the coming of the Magi (μαγος, plural μαγοι, a word far better translated "Astrologers" or "Diviners" than "Wise Men" -- and typically transliterated when referring to Simon Magus of Acts 8; it is also used of the magician Elymas in Acts 13). They saw a star in the eastern sky and came to Herod (Matthew 2:1-7). But Matthew makes no mention of roasted cocks -- instead, Herod tries to trick the Magi into finding the pretender for him. Nor can we blame this on the Protevangelium; it has a miracle in which Elizabeth and John the Baptist are saved from Herod (Ehrman, p. 71), but no roasted fowl. The tale of the cock proves to have a very complex history. (Witness the fact that the device is used in three different ballads in diverse ways: In this one, in "Saint Stephen and Herod" [Child 22], and in "The Wife of Usher's Well" [Child 79]).
Tales of birds speaking are, of course, quite common, and a French medieval play tells of a crow declaring "Christus natus est," i.e. "Christ is born" (Mercantante/Dow, p. 239). But that is a living bird. Interestingly, although Thompson motif E168.1 is "Roasted cock comes to life and crows," all his examples are from the Child corpus.
We first find a roasted cock coming to life, according to Nagy, p. 7, in the Acts of Peter, in which, at the Last Supper, Jesus orders the cock to follow Judas out as he goes into the night to betray Jesus (an incident building on John 13:26-30). The bird follows, reports on Judas's activities, and is rewarded by being sent to Heaven. (The Acts of Peter liked this sort of thing; Peter also brought a dried fish to life, according to Nagy, p. 21).
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, p. 155, on the other hand, gives another version "related about 1200 by Vincent of Beauvaise, who, however, tells it of two men at a dinner-table, one of whom, carving a fowl, said that he would do it so thoroughly that not Peter nor our Lord Himself could put it together again. Whereupon the cock was feathered and crowed, and both men became lepers."
Similarly, JamesNT, p. 150, has a Coptic tale of Jesus reviving a cock that had been cut up and roasted, and sending it into the sky for a thousand years. (To be sure, there would be no way for a Coptic tale to make its way to Britain.)
The problems with the tale in the Acts of Peter are myriad (and I'm not talking about whether miracles happen or not, since the authors of these pieces had no doubts on that score). For starters, the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke date the Last Supper to Passover day, in which case the meal would have had lamb, not a cock. But even if one accepts that the Last Supper took place on Passover Eve, as in John, there is no sign in that gospel that a bird was served. Plus, according to Barnstone, p. 426, the Acts of Peter is an Encratite work (that is, it holds to the view that all sexual activity is sinful), and it seems to have originated in the east; it is little quoted in the west. Nagy, p. 14, reports that Melchisedech Thevenot (d. 1692) brought back the tale from Coptic oral tradition.
The first version of the roasted cock crowing a message is often stated to go back to the Gospel of Nicodemus (also known, after what is probably its oldest section, as the Acts of Pilate). Judas, having betrayed Jesus, was fearful that Jesus would rise again and prepared to hang himself. His wife assured him that that would no more happen than that the cock would crow three times. The cock, of course, then did its thing. The Gospel of Matthew says that Judas did hang himself (27:4), although Acts gives him a different ending (1:18).
The Gospel of Nicodemus is variously dated; Hone, who gives a full translation, on p. 63 mentions scholars who thought it from the third century. Barnstone (who quotes only snippets) declares on p. 359 that it is from the third or fourth century. Sisam, p. 171, dates it to the fourth century. Nagy, p. 8, says it is from the early fifth century with some material from earlier dates; this seems to be based on the date of the earliest manuscript (Nagy, p. 9). FunkEtAl, p. xvi, claims "The original AcPil was probably written in Greek sometime during II/III CE" (i.e. probably around 200 C.E.), but this is the date of only a portion of the work (and not the relevant portion); the whole came later. Versions exist in both Greek and Latin, with Latin texts apparently the more common; JamesNT, p. 94, says that Tischendorf had eleven Greek manuscripts of the section involving the Passion (which Tischendorf broke into two recensions), and twelve in Latin; for the Descent into Hell, Tischendorf had three manuscripts in Greek and seven in Latin.
Whatever the date of the original, there was an Old English version, and at least three translations into Middle English: a stanzaic version, existing in four fifteenth century manuscripts; a couplet version; and a prose version, existing in ten manuscripts and three early printings, from 1507, 1509, and 1529 (Severs/Hartung, pp. 448-449). Thus it would surely have been available to anyone interested from as at least the late 1300s.
Interestingly, the author seems to have known at least a little Hebrew (Aramaic?), since he quotes a little of it in what JamesNT, p. 97, prints as section I.5
This contradictory dating for the writing is somewhat peculiar, since the work contains an internal date. Funk, p. 305, and Barnstone, p. 362, both translate the prologue to the Acts (omitted, oddly, from Hone's translation). This says that the whole was assembled by one Ananias in the "eighteenth year of the reign of our emperor Flavius Theodosius," Although Theodosius I had the other name "Flavius" and Theodosius II did not, since Theodosius I "the Great" reigned only 16 years (379-395 C.E.), this must be his grandson Theodosius II (reigned 408-450 C. E.), making the year 426 C.E. This is confirmed be the fact that the eighteenth year of Theodosius is listed as being the ninth indiction. The indictions were a fifteen year cycle created in the reign of Diocletian (abdicated 305), and the ninth indiction corresponds to the year 426 (roughly; the indictions did not run from January to January but from a time in mid-fall).
Whoever put together the work in 426 didn't know his early Roman history, though. He cites earlier records with four date pegs:
* The nineteenth year of the Emperor Tiberias [other texts say "fifteenth," probably to make the work contemporary with Jesus's ministry; JamesNT, p. 96]
* The nineteenth year of Herod King of Galilee
* The high priesthood of Caiaphas
* The fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad
It is worth noting that the only date in the New Testament is in Luke 3:1, the fifteenth year of Tiberias. That is 29 C.E., implying that Jesus was crucified in 30 C.E. So the nineteenth year of Tiberias (33 C.E.) is a chronologically possible year for Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea to testify about the crucifixion (which is the primary content of Nicodemus).
Joseph Caiaphas was High Priest from 18-36 C.E. (according to a whole bunch of data in Josephus which I won't bother to cite). He thus was High Priest during Pontius Pilate's entire tenure of office as procurator, probably being retired when Pilate was recalled. So this dating too is possible, and compatible with the preceding. But:
Herod Antipas became King (actually Tetrarch) of Galilee on the death of his father Herod the Great in 4 B.C.E. (Josephus/Marcus/Wikgren, p. 459; this is Antiquities XVII.188-191, or XVII.viii.1 in the pre-Loeb numbering). Thus Herod the Tetrarch's nineteenth year was 15/16 C.E. -- *before* the Crucifixion!
The Olympic Era began in 776 B.C.E., and each Olympiad was four years long. Thus the year 1 C.E. was the first year of the 195th Olympiad. The fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad would be 28 CE -- another date before the Crucifixion!
Thus, although our four pegs are within twenty years, no two of the three precise pegs points to the same year! One error of this sort might be brain cramp or scribal error; two such strongly implies forgery.
Nonetheless, the number of copies shows that people were reading Nicodemus in the Middle Ages. The whole breaks up into three basic parts: The passion of Jesus, accounts of the resurrection by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, and the Harrowing of Hell. According to Nagy, p. 9, the Harrowing of Hell is a second century tale appended to the others in perhaps the fifth century.
The Gospel of Nicodemus is well-known in the west; "The popularity of its matter is attested by pictorial representations in miniatures, mosaics, manuscript illuminations, ivory carvings, enamel, stained glass, and paintings" (Wells, p. 326). There are two translations into Middle English, one poetic and one prose. Hulme knew of four manuscripts of the verse translation, all from the fifteenth century (Hulme, p. xv), which are distinct enough to imply a significantly earlier original., and nine manuscripts of the prose translation (Hulme, p. xxxii), although only four of these apparently originally contained the whole thing (Hulme, p. xxxiii; most of this is confirmed by Wells, pp. 326-327). These may be different translations; the earliest English text goes back to the twelfth century. And we find English works based on the Nicodemus book; Sisam, p. 171, observes that the York play of the Harrowing of Hell (found in a manuscript of c. 1450) is founded on the Gospel of Nicodemus, and Wells, p. 326, adds that most other Easter miracle-play cycles had a Harrowing of Hell play.
It should be noted, however, that the roasted cock is not found in all versions of Nicodemus. JamesNT, has two versions of that work, with variations from others. P. 116, has the Nicodemus version of the tale -- but says it's found in just one manuscript! So it's almost certain that the tale was not an original part of Nicodemus.
Furthermore, as best I can tell from a search of Hulme, the tale of Judas and the cock was never found in the English versions of Nicodemus. Nor, based on the section heads, is it found in the text translated by Hone. Nagy, pp. 13-14, declares that it is not found in the Latin versions, nor in the "A" family of the Greek text -- nor in most of the "B" manuscripts; her best estimate (based on incomplete published data, but better data than JamesNT had available) is that only two of thirty "B" group manuscripts contain it. The main reason we know about its inclusion in that work is that Constantin von Tischendorf, the greatest scholar of Biblical and related manuscripts ever to live, had a text of the Judas tale one of his Nicodemus versions (Nagy, pp. 15-16).
Child, in his notes on "Saint Stephen and Herod" [Child 22], says that the "ultimate source of the miracle of the reanimated cock is an interpolation in two late Greek manuscripts of the so-called Gospel of Nicodemus." But, as the above demonstrates, this can hardly be true, since the Greek story would not be known in Western Europe. The ballad versions must come from some other, Western, source (perhaps one of the many analogs of Child 22 which Child mention), with the Coptic version perhaps being the source of the insertion into the handful of Gospel of Nicodemus texts which have it.
Nagy, the most recent scholar of the problem known to me, seems not to have a clear opinion on the source of this legend as found in the English ballads. I rather suspect a floating folklore motif, perhaps derived from a French tale; this would explain how the same miracle managed to occur in three different settings.
INCIDENT VI. The flight into Egypt. Herod is looking for Jesus, so the Holy Family heads for Egypt. This is straight out of Matthew (2:15-17). This is somewhat problematic historically (Egypt was a sort of closed colony of Rome, so it would be hard for anyone to get there, and Josephus never mentions such a massacre; the whole thing seems just to be a way for "Matthew" to get in another Bible citation and set up a parallel between Moses and Jesus). But at least the story is canonical.
INCIDENT VII. The Adoration of the Beasts. Here again the likely source is the Gospel of the Pseudo-Matthew, mentioned above under Incidents II and III. In the Adoration, we are dependent entirely upon Pseudo-Matthew. There is some disagreement about this book. Cartlidge/Dungan, p. 27,. thinks it might be from the third or fourth century. Barnstone, p. 394, says eighth or ninth century -- one of the widest gaps in dating I can ever recall. The Cartlidge/Dungan dating may be due to the fact that it claims to have been translated into Latin by Jerome, who also translated the Vulgate (the official Bible of the Catholic Church), and who was almost the only Christian scholar of the first millennium to understand Hebrew. But it is evident that he did not in fact create the Latin version, which to my semi-trained self seems to be from about the sixth or seventh century.
It is at least agreed that the book is in (and was likely composed in) Latin, and is largely based upon the Protevangelium Jacobi, but with some additional material, including the Adoration.
Joseph, Jesus, Mary, and their attendants (e.g. Joseph's earlier sons) rest during their flight to Egypt. They are resting by a cave when dragons (yes, dragons) come out of the cave. Jesus gets out of Mary's lap and stands before them; the dragons halt and worship him. Lions and leopards then show up and follow them (Pseudo-Matthew, chapters XVIII and XIX; Cartlidge/Dungan, pp. 29-30; Barnstone, pp. 396).
Why a procession of dragons, lions, and leopards are not sufficient to keep Herod away is never explained.
INCIDENT VIII. The Miraculous Harvest is a favorite of illustrators. The infant Jesus, who is still fleeing Herod, tells a farmer who is sowing grain to stop; the grain miraculously matures, and the farmer begins to harvest it. Herod's soldiers arrive, are told Jesus passed when the grain was sown, and turn back.
This tale is not found even in the apocryphal gospels, according to JamesCat, p. xli, the earliest illustration of this is "on a thirteenth-century cope of English work now at Anagni."
The idea of a "miraculous harvest" might have a vague New Testament root; the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:3-8 and parallels) refers to the sower harvesting thirty, sixty, or a hundred-fold. At this period, a typical harvest is said to have been sevenfold, and an excellent one was tenfold; thus the sower did harvest miraculously. But not instantly. The story gets even more exaggerated in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas -- here the eight-year-old Jesus himself sows one seed of grain and gets back a hundred measures (Thomas 12:1-2; FunkEtAl, p. 251; Cartlidge/Dungan, p. 39; Barnstone, p. 401; JamesNT, p. 52, 62 [the latter is the Latin version, slightly closer to the full-blown Miraculous Harvest than is the Greek]; CompleteGospels, p. 376 says Jesus sowed one "measure" of grain instead of a single seed; Ehrman, p. 61, says he sowed one grain and harvested a hundred "large bushels"; JamesNT, p. 52, is probably correct in footnoting "cors," which were a Hebrew measure). But here again it happens only after the crop has had a full season to grow. The Gospel of the Pseudo-Matthew also has the incident, probably from Thomas, with a smaller harvest but a hint that it happened at once (JamesNT, p. 77). The idea of the instant harvest may simply have been an extension of the phrase "Miraculous Harvest" -- but it is definitely an extension.
INCIDENT IX: Derived from Matthew19:14 and parallels -- although the motivation is different; in the Gospels, the disciples are trying to keep the children from being healed by Jesus, and there is no mention of the Massacre of the Innocents. (The Massacre of the Innocents, in fact, is mentioned only in Matthew, Chapter 2; there is no hint of it anywhere else in the Bible.)
A FINAL OBSERVATION: There is one other irony about the ballad as found in tradition. Although Child's text correctly refers to the King who tries to kill Jesus as "Herod," in many of the traditional texts this becomes "Pharaoh," "King Pharaoh," or "King Pharim." The confusion is perhaps understandable -- the names are somewhat similar, and Pharaoh oppressed Moses and the Israelites in the Old Testament.
By the time Herod was born, native Egyptian kings had ceased to rule Egypt; the people in charge were the Macedonian dynasty of the Ptolemies. The title "Pharaoh" was extinct, but if anyone could be called Pharaoh, it would be the Ptolemaic monarch.
And the Ptolemaic monarch, in 40 B.C.E. when Herod became monarch of Judea, was none other than Cleopatra (officially Cleopatra VII). And Cleopatra and Herod hated each others' guts. Herod once advised Mark Antony that the way to gain control in Rome was to kill Cleopatra (Josephus/Marcus/Wikgren, p. 91; Antiquities XV.191=XV.vi.1 in the older editions), and Cleopatra tried to deprive Herod of his throne (Josephus/Thackeray, p. 169; Jewish War I.361= I.xviii.4 in the older editions). Herod, although he had initially supported Antony (who had helped establish him on the throne) in the Civil Wars, eventually turned against Antony, and did so early enough to make peace with Octavian and retain his throne. No doubt his treatment at the hands of Cleopatra made his betrayal easier for him.
To be sure, the source for Josephus's comments is the history of Nicolas of Damascus (Tarn/Griffith, p. 276), and Nicolas was a servant of Herod's, so we are probably getting mostly Herod's side. But the modern sources I checked all seem to think Herod's and Cleopatra's mutual loathing was real. To call Herod "Pharaoh" would be very insulting to him.
Apart from the various sources of content, David C. Fowler, on p. 1758 of Severs/Hartung, Volume 6, sees a similarity between certain ballads, including this one, and an early modern English poem "The Fermorar and His Dochter." The similarity, however, is in form rather than plot; for that poem, see the notes to "Crow and Pie [Child 111]."- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: C055

Carnatogher's Braes

DESCRIPTION: The singer says that no place on earth as dear as his old home by Carntogher's Braes. He recalls life and friendship there. "But cruel fate has ordered it that I must sail the seas"; he expects to return home once he has made his fortune
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection; the Derry Journal may have printed the song a few years earlier)
KEYWORDS: emigration poverty home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H237, p. 189, "Carnatogher's Braes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13546
File: HHH237

Carnlough Shore

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes a trip through Ireland. He stays then days with Jon McNeil, surrounded by kind people, then visits Pat McGavrock on Stony Hill. He says that, come the next summer, he will visit Stony Hill again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: rambling music
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H686, pp. 160-161, "Carnlough Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13458
NOTES [16 words]: This sounds to me like a piece a rambling fiddler would make up to please his current host. - RBW
File: HHH686

Carol for Presenting the Wassel-Bowl, to be Sung upon Twelfth-Day at Night

See A Carol for the Wassail-Bowl (File: RitA352)

Carol for Saint Stephen Day, A

See Saint Stephen and Herod [Child 22] (File: C022)

Carol for Saint Stephen's Day, A

See Saint Stephen and Herod [Child 22] (File: C022)

Carol for St. Edmund's Day, A

DESCRIPTION: "A newe song I wil behynne, Of kyng Edmund that was so fre, How he deyid [died] withoute synne, And bow[n]dyn his body was to a tree." He is shot with arrows, his hed cut off, but a wolf guards the head, and we should pray to him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1430 (British Library -- Sloane MS. 2593); printed by Ritson 1790
KEYWORDS: death religious royalty MiddleEnglish
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
869/870 - Death of Edmund of East Anglia during a Viking invasion
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #312, p. 215, "(A newe song I wil begynne)" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 123-124, "A Carol for Saint Edmunds Day" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #80
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #130
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 25
NOTES [1027 words]: Although it doesn't occur in any ballad collections, this is a song, or at least a poem, with the remnants of a plot, and parts of it are in ballad meter (one suspects it was badly damaged over the years by the changes in the English language, and perhaps also by translation from one dialect to another).
And the source is very important. There is only one manuscript copy -- London, British Library MS. Sloane 2593 -- but this is one of the most important sources of Middle English folk poetry. One must be open to the possibility that anything it contains is a folk song or carol. I'm not sure, in this case, but I'm including the song just in case. For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115].
Note that this Edmund should not be confused with Saint Edmund of Abingdon, subject of a life by Matthew Paris, nor with Kings Edmund I and Edmund Ironside of Wessex, long-ago members of the modern royal family
Very little is really known about the life and martyrdom of King Edmund of East Anglia. His death came during one of the many periods of Viking invasion of England. StentonEtAl, p. 248, says, "In the autumn of 868 the invader returned to York, and twelve months later they descended again on East Anglia.... Within a few weeks of their arrival, at or near Hoxne in Suffol, they met and defeated an army led by Edmund, the East Anglian king. Either in battle, or, more probably, as a captive in their hands, Edmund was killed. The contemporary West Saxon author of the [Anglo-Saxon] Chronicle records his death without any sign of interest, but within a quarter century he had come to be honoured as a saint in East Anglia, and the early development of his cult suggests very strongly that a basis of fact underlay the legend of his martyrdom."
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle truly is laconic in recording the event. The Parker Chronicle (A) text records for 869 or 870, "In this year the [Viking] host rode across Mercia into East Anglia ,and took winter-quarters at Thetford; and the same winter King Edmund fought against them, and the Danes won the victory and slew the king and overran the entire kingdom" (Garmonsway, p. 70); two other texts (the Laud Chronicle E and the Canterbury epitome F say much the same, although E calls him "Saint Edmund the King" and adds that the Vikings destroyed monasteries; F simply calls him "the King").
Asser's Life of King Alfred reports of this time, "In the same year, Edmund, king of the East Angles, fought fiercely against that army. But alas, he was killed there with a number of his men, and the Vikings rejoiced triumphantly... and they subjected the entire province to their authority" (AsserEtAl, p. 78, section 33). Asser was alive at the time of the battle, but living in the hinterland of Wales; he probably was not aware of the events at the time. It is likely that, when he wrote two or so decades after the battle, he consulted the Chronicle or its direct source and interpreted it in the sense that Edmund died in the battle.
OxfordCompanion, p. 325, says, "Edmund... known as 'the Martyr.' More famous in legend and because of the grotesque method of his martyrdom than in his life and works, Edmund, the lsat effective king of the East Angles of native stock, was killed by the Danes, probably under their leaders, Ingware and Ubba, on 20 November 870. Stories quickly grew concerning his sanctity, his refusal to forswear Christianity, and the nature of his death (tied to a tree and shot to death by Danish arrows). His burial place at Bury St Edmunds became a shrine of special veneration...."
OxfordSaints, p. 161, states that he was born in 841 and became king before 865, and has more on the method of his death: "He was then killed, whether by being scourges, shot with arrows, and then beheaded, as the traditional account relates, or by being 'spread-eagled' as an offering to the gods in accordance with Viking practice elsewhere.... In c. 915 his body was found to be incorrupt" and was then translated to the town that became known as Bury St. Edmunds. "His most usual emblem is an arrow, the supposed instrument of his passion, or else a wolf, who was believed to have guarded his head after death. It was also claimed that his head and body were miraculously rejoined, but if he was never beheaded there is no extraordinary phenomenon to explain" (OxfordSaints, pp. 161-162).
The first mention of his translation to Bury is apparently from AEtheweard's Chronicle (Swanton, p. 70 n. 2); AEtheweard died in 998. There were earlier coins calling him a saint, though: "From the evidence of his coinage Edmund had reigned for some years. A generation after his death, commemorative coins were being struck to 'Saint' Edmund" (Hindley, p. 188).
It is possible that some of the Danes who slew him were responsible for his cult (Hindley, p. 198) -- although only after Alfred the Great beat them off and caused them to rethink their religion; possibly they were trying to make their English subjects happy.
There were later attempts to translate his body from Bury, but its present location is not certain (OxfordSaints, p. 162); I will spare you the arguments.
There is obviously no evidence of actual virtue in his private life -- although there isn't any evidence against it, either.
Thus our reliable information is very slight -- so slight that editors aren't even sure about the date of his death; Garmonsway, StentonEtAl, Swanton, and OxfordSaints state that the king was killed in 869; OxfordCompanion prefers 870. If you want late, unreliable information, though, there is plenty of that, as well as some noteworthy iconography. In the 980s, Abbo of Fleury wrote a passion tale, allegedly based on a report of St. Dunstan, who had it from Edmund's armor-bearer in his old age; according to it, Edmund chose martyrdom rather than shedding blood (Hindley, p. 188). A manuscript "Life," with illuminations, is in the J. P. Morgan library (MS. 736); John Lydgate wrote another life which was presented to King Henry VI in 1439; he was also one of the saints painted along with Richard II in the "Wilton Diptych" (OxfordSaints, p. 161). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSCfSED

Carol for the Wassail-Bowl, A

DESCRIPTION: "A jolly wassail-bowl, A wassail-bowl of good ale, Well fare the butlers soul, That setteth this to sale: Our jolly wassail." The singers are "maidens poor" who wish good luck to others and hope they will join in. They choose Twelfth Night king and queen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1833 (Sandys)
KEYWORDS: request ritual drink food begging nonballad wassail royalty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 351-354, "A Carol for Presenting the Wassel-Bowl, to be Sung upon Twelfth-Day at Night" (1 text)
Roud #209
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Somerset Wassail" (subject) and references there
NOTES [39 words]: Roud lumps this with the many other wassail songs, but the form is very different, and it's much longer than most wassails. I have no hesitation in splitting them.. If it belongs with any wassail, it's Palmer's "Grampound Wassail." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RitA352

Carol for Twelfth Day

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet master of this habitation, With my mistress be so kind As to grant an invitation If we may this favor find" to join the musical party and "contribute to the wasel bowl." May the master have a virtuous wife and may all have a fine meal
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall)
KEYWORDS: food party wassail nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 18, "Carol for Twelfth Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3312
File: Gund018

Carol of Bringing in the Boar's Head, A

See The Boar's Head Carol (File: OBC172A)

Carol of Hunting, A

See A Hunting Carol (At A Place Where I Me Set) (File: MSAHuCar)

Carol of the Annunciation, A

See The Salutation Carol (File: MsSalCar)

Carol of the Cherry Tree

See The Cherry-Tree Carol [Child #54] (File: C054)

Carol of the Twelve Numbers, The

See Green Grow the Rushes-O (The Twelve Apostles, Come and I Will Sing You) (File: ShH97)

Carolina

See Charlotte the Harlot (V) (Carolina) (File: RuSoCaro)

Carolina Crew, The

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Carolina Lady

See The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)

Caroline

DESCRIPTION: Creole French, in hopes of winning Caroline: "AIne, de, trois, Caroline, ca ca ye comme ca ma chere (x2), Papa di non, mamman di non, C'est le moule, c'est le ma pren...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 111, "Caroline" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: AWG111A

Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold (Young Sailor Bold II) [Laws N17]

DESCRIPTION: Wealthy Caroline loves a poor sailor. The sailor tries to discourage her, but she disguises herself and follows him to sea. She "proves true" even in a shipwreck. In time she returns home and gains her father's permission to marry her young man
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(4391)); found in 1840 in a journal from the Walter Scott
KEYWORDS: poverty sailor courting cross-dressing marriage wreck father
FOUND IN: US(NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws N17, "Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold (Young Sailor Bold II)"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #163, pp. 1-2, "Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 176, "Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold" (3 texts, 4 tunes)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 196-198, "Caroline the Rich Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 542, "Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 392, "Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold" (2 texts)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #65, "Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 103-105, "The Nobleman's Daughter" (1 text plus a portion of another, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 159-161 (Caroline and Young Sailor Bold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 102, "A Rich Nobleman's Daughter" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 140-141, "Caroline & Her Young Sailor Bold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 329-330, "Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 29, "Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 33, "Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 39, "Caroline and Her Young Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 448, CAROSAIL
Roud #553
RECORDINGS:
Sarah Makem, "Caroline and her Young Sailor Bold" (on LastDays)
Thomas Williams, "Young Carolina" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4391), "The Young Sailor Bold. Answer to the Gallant Hussar," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 16(44a), Firth c.12(241), Firth c.12(242), Harding B 11(542), 2806 c.15(182), Harding B 19(42), "Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold[!]"; Harding B 20(204), Harding B 16(268a), Johnson Ballads 2987, "[The] Young Sailor Bold"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie Lass o' Benachie" (plot)
cf. "The Rich Nobleman and His Daughter" (plot, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Young Sailor Bold
File: LN17

Caroline and Her Young Sailor Boy

See Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold (Young Sailor Bold II) [Laws N17] (File: LN17)

Caroline and Young Sailor Bold

See Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold (Young Sailor Bold II) [Laws N17] (File: LN17)

Caroline of Edinboro Town

See Caroline of Edinborough Town [Laws P27] (File: LP27)

Caroline of Edinborough Town [Laws P27]

DESCRIPTION: Caroline's parents do not approve of her suitor Henry, so the two of them run off to London to be married. It is not long before her husband grows sick of her, abuses her, and goes off to sea. After some wandering, she drowns herself in the sea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3065))
KEYWORDS: courting elopement abuse abandonment separation suicide
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (32 citations):
Laws P27, "Caroline of Edinburgh Town" (Laws gives a broadside text on pp. 91-92 of ABFBB)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #70, p. 1, "Caroline of Edinburgh Town"; #72, p. 2, "Caroline of Edinburgh Town" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1151, "Caroline o' Edinburgh Toon" (9 texts, 5 tunes)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 543, "Caroline of Edinburgh Town" (1 text)
Randolph 50, "Caroline of Edinborough Town" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 75, "Caroline of Edinborough Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 59, "Caroline of Edinburgh Town" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 13, "Caroline of Edinburg (sic.) Town" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 53, "Caroline of Edinburg Town" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 79-83, "Caroline of Edinburgh Town" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 183-185, "Caroline of Edinboro Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 69, "Caroline of Edinboro' Town" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 16, "Caroline from Edinboro Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 28, "Caroline of Edinboro Town" (1 text)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 99-100, "Caroline of Edinborough Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H148, pp. 411-412, "Blooming Caroline of Edinburgh Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 28, pp. 70-71,115,167-168, "Blooming Caroline from Edinburgh Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 112, "Caroline of Edinburgh Town" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #19, pp. 81-82, "Fair Caroline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 137-141, "Lovely Caroline" (1 text plus portions of another, 1 tune)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 20, "Caroline of Edinburgh Town" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 383-384, "Caroline of Edinburgh Town" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 210-212, "Caroline of Edinboro Town" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 124, "Caroline of Edinburgh Town" (1 text plus 1 excerpt)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 124, "Caroline of Edinburgh Town" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 51, "Henry Was a High-Learnt Man" (1 text, in which "Edinborough" becomes "Winton Goldburg"!)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 31, pp. 143-145, "Edinburgh Town" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 186-187, "Blooming Caroline o' Edinburgh Town" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 51, "Caroline of Edinburgh Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 29, "Edinburgh Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 175-177, "Caroline of Edinburg Town" (1 text)
DT 342, CAROEDIN* CAROEDN2*
Roud #398
RECORDINGS:
Charles Ingenthron, "Caroline of Edinboro' Town" (AFS; on LC14)
Tom Lenihan, "Caroline of Edinburgh Town" (on IRClare01)
Mike Molloy, "Caroline of Edinburgh Town" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3065), "Poor Caroline of Edinburgh Town," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(3063), Harding B 16(207b), Harding B 11(3064), "Poor Caroline of Edinburgh Town"; Harding B 11(4395), Firth c.12(183), Harding B 11(1208), "Poor Caroline of Edinboro' Town"; Harding B 11(544), "Caroline o' Embro' Town"; Firth b.26(371), "Caroline of Edinboro' Town"; Firth c.26(276)[some lines illegible], Firth c.26(48), "Caroline of Edinbro' Town"; Johnson Ballads 2148a, "Carroline of Edinborough Town"
NLScotland, APS.3.96.25, "Carroline of Edinborough Town," P Brereton (Dublin), c.1865
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Crossing the Plains" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The New Jersey Third! ("Come all ye true Americans, I pray you lend an ear," by H. E. Loper, Company F) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 107)
Our Gallant Colonel ("Come all ye jolly lads and members of Company I") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 120)
File: LP27

Caroline of Edinburg Town

See Caroline of Edinborough Town [Laws P27] (File: LP27)

Caroline Pink

DESCRIPTION: "Caroline Pink Fell down the sink, She caught the Scarlet Fever, Her husband had to leave her." Or, "Old Mother Ink Fell down the sink. How many think She went..." Some number respond, say two: "T-W-O spells TWO, And out you must go If I say so."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty disease doctor colors
FOUND IN: Britain New Zealand
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 96, ("Old Mother Ink") (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #56, "Caroline Pink, she fell down the sink" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #97, "(Caroline Pink)" (1 text)
Roud #19389
File: SuSm096B

Caroline the Rich Merchant's Daughter

See Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold (Young Sailor Bold II) [Laws N17] (File: LN17)

Carpenter's Wife, The

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

Carrbridge Castle

See The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)

Carrickfergus

DESCRIPTION: "I wish I were in Carrickfergus, Only for nights in Ballygrand. I would swim over the deepest ocean... my love to find." "I wish to meet a handsome boatsman To ferry me over, my love to find." Since (she) is gone, the singer will drink, forget, (and die)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: love separation drink
FOUND IN: US Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 323, "Fond Affection" (1 short text, perhaps derived from "Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection)" but which in the absence of a tune reminds me strongly of this piece)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H641, p. 383, "Ripest of Apples" (1 text, 1 tune, a tiny fragment of two verses, one of which often occurs with this song while the other is associated primarily with "Wheel of Fortune." The tune is not "Carrickfergus")
Peacock, pp. 475-476, "Love is Lovely" (1 text, 1 tune, strongly composite, starting with a verse perhaps from "Peggy Gordon," then the chorus of "Waly Waly (The Water Is Wide)," two more which might be anything, and a conclusion from "Carrickfergus")
Behan-IrelandSings, #37, "The Kerry Boatman" (1 text, 1 tune, with a new middle verse by Behan)
DT, CARRKFRG
Roud #26183
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Deep In Love, My Mind Is Troubled" (lyrics)
NOTES [41 words]: Frequently heard as an instrumental, but probably originally a song as the lyrics show little variation. - RBW
The construct noted for Peacock is neither unique nor recent. For a discussion of a verse recorded in 1778 see "Weary of Lying Alone." - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: San323

Carrickmannon Lake

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets the "Venus of the north" at Carrickmannon's lake. He says, "Give me my way or else I'll stray." She tells him to depart. He would leave Killinchey for her sake and go to North America. He warns other young men to shun the lake.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (recorded by Richard Hayward)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), p. 17, "Carrickmannon Lake" (text, music and reference to Decca F-3125 recorded Aug 12, 1932)
Roud #5177
RECORDINGS:
Sarah Anne O'Neill, "Carrickmannon Lake" (on Voice04)
NOTES [33 words]: Killinchey and Carrickmannon Lake are in County Down.
The date and master id (GB-4734-1) for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. - BS
File: RcCarLak

Carrie Belle

DESCRIPTION: Response is "Hunh!" Leader lines include "Carrie Belle," "Don't weep," "Don't you ... Hang your head ... And cry," "Ain't going to hurt nobody," "I never... get drunk... no more," and floaters like "This old hammer... Kill John Henry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad shanty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 56, pp. 222-224, "Anniebelle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21448
RECORDINGS:
John Davis and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Carrie Belle" (on LomaxCD1713)
NOTES [55 words]: Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands: "Of all the shanties, this... appears to be adaptable to the most varied uses, and to be the most widely distributed... stevedores who loaded lumber on the vessels... 'spikin' steel' on the railroads... chopping wood or swinging the weed cutter. In the mines it is called a 'hammerin' song.'"
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr056

Carried Water for the Elephant

DESCRIPTION: Singer has no money to see the circus; he's told that he can get in free if he carries water for the elephant. He does (although he can't fill it up), gets his ticket and sees the animals in the menagerie, who make appropriate noises
AUTHOR: Probably Leroy Carr
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Leroy Carr)
KEYWORDS: poverty work humorous animal
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Leroy Carr [& Earl "Scrapper" Blackwell], "Carried Water for the Elephant" (Vocalion 1593, 1931 [rec. 1930]; on CrowTold02)
File: RcCWfTE

Carrier Dove, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer has been captured in war; "the chain of the tyrant is o'er me now." He sends a message by dove to his sweetheart explaining why she has not heard from him. He waits for the bird to return "a line from my lady love"
AUTHOR: Daniel Johnson (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (broadside, Bodleian LOCSheet sm1839 370510)
KEYWORDS: captivity love war separation nonballad bird lover
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 29, "The Carrier Dove" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 486-487, "The Carrier Dove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #255, p. 18, "The Carrier Dove" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #6, pp. 24-25, "The Carrier Dove" (1 text)
Roud #2814
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(77), "The Carrier Dove" ("Fly away to my native land, sweet dove"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also Harding B 15(39a), Harding B 11(2550), Harding B 11(3481), "The Carrier Dove"
LOCSheet, sm1839 370510, "The Carrier Dove Ballad," George Willig (Philadelphia), 1839 (1 text, 1 tune)
LOCSinging, sb10046b, "The Carrier Dove" ("Fly away to my native land, sweet Dove"), J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as101920, sb10046a, as101940, "The Carrier Dove"
VonWalthour, CD Drive>c>c(13), "The Carrier Dove" ("Fly away to my native land, sweet dove"),J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
NOTES [59 words]: Broadsides LOCSinging sb10046b and VonWalthour CDDrive>c>c(13) appear to be the same edition.
Broadside LOCSinging sb10046b, VonWalthour and Bodleian Harding B 18(77): J. Andrews and H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: TPS029

Carrier's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: About the roads of Australia: "It's strange to know the once good tracks we can no longer trust, sir... Dust! Dust! Dust! Along the roads there's nothing there but dust, dust, dust." He calls for rain, and soon "nothing there but rain, rain, rain"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1984
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 104-105, "The Carrier's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bow Wow Wow" (tune) and references there
File: FaE104

Carries and Kye (Courting Among the Kye)

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a lad and lass talking. He is courting her; she tries to hold him back, pointing out that she is still young and that she has no dowry. She offers to introduce him to another. He says he wants none but her; they marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love courting dowry marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #6, p. 2, "Cauries and Kye" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 878, "Carries and Kye," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Carries and Kye" (19 texts, 12 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 37-39, "Courting Among the Kye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3785
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Ox May Droon in the Meadow
File: Ord037

Carrigaline Goalers Defeated, The

DESCRIPTION: "For ages hold on record Kinalea with ecstacy ... defeating with the greatest bravery The goalers that were famed upon the banks of Onnabuoy" The crowd, predictions of the outcome and newspaper reports are described, but not the contest.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (Cork broadside, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: pride sports Ireland
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 155-158, "The Carrigaline Goalers Defeated" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Roving Journeyman" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
cf. "Bold Thady Quill" (subject of hurling) and references there
cf. "The Victorious Goalers of Carrigaline and Kilmoney" (subject of hurling, plus these particular games)
NOTES [55 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "A reply to the preceding song ["The Victorious Goalers of Carrigaline and Kilmoney"], on the defeat of the aforesaid 'Victorious Goalers of Carrigaline and Kilmoney,' by a party belonging to Tracton, a neighboring district, which match appears to have been played in the ensuing spring [1829]." - BS
File: CrPS155

Carrion Crow

DESCRIPTION: "A carrion crow (kangaroo) sat on an oak, To my inkum kiddy-cum kimeo, Watching a tailor mend a coat...." The tailor tries to shoot the crow, but misses and kills his old sow. The family mourns the dead animal
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (Francis Grose papers)
KEYWORDS: animal bird death talltale nonsense hunting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 422-423, "The Carrion Crow" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 227, "The Carrion Crow and the Tailor" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 393)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 128, "The Tailor and the Crow" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 270-271, "The Carrion Crow" (2 texts)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 34, "Lank Dank" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 259-260, "Saw an Old Crow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 145, "Saw an Old Crow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 15-16, "The Carrion Crow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 62, "The Tailor and the Crow" (2 texts)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #211, "The Carrion Crow" (2 texts, 1 tune, the "B" text is clearly this, although the "A" text appears to have verses from something else)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 244-246, "The Carrion Crow" (2 texts plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 133, "The Carrion Crow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 124-125, "The Carrion Crow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 156, "The Tailor and the Crow" (1 text); "The Carrion Crow" (2 texts)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 185-186, "The Carrion Crow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 222, "The Carrion Crow" (2 short texts, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 121, "The Carrion Crow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 72, "The Kangaroo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 87, "A carrion crow sat on an oak" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #172, p. 127, "(A carrion crow sat on an oak)"
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 99-100, "The Carrion Crow" (1 text)
DT, CARCROW CARCROW2 KANGROO*
Roud #891
RECORDINGS:
Otis High, "Captain Karo" [referred to in notes as "Carrion Crow"] (on HandMeDown1)
Margaret MacArthur, "Carrion Crow" (on MMacArthur01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 12(10), "Carrion Crow" ("As I went forth one May morning"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819 ; also 2806 c.18(55), "The Carrion Crow"
LOCSinging, as112630, "Sly Young Crow," L. Deming (Boston), 19C
NOTES [2884 words]: A rhyme often said to be from the time of Charles I (ascended 1625; executed 1649) reads, "Hie hoe the carryon crow for I have shot something too low I have quite missed my mark, & shot the poore sow to the harte Wyfe bring treakel in a spoone, or else the poore sowes harte wil downe."
The odds are high that this is related to "Carrion Crow." The question is, how did it originate?
It has been suggested that it is an allegory on Charles's reimposition of high church ritual (and consequent dismissal of Calvinist clergy) at a time when many in Britain were tending toward more puritan opinions. I find this suggestion far from convincing, but I'll give you the background to decide for yourself
Religious affairs in the time of Charles I were definitely complicated. Religious tensions in both England and Scotland were strong from the moment James VI and I succeeded Elizabeth I in 1603. England was split between Catholics, Anglicans, and Presbyterians/Puritans, and Catholics hoped James would be sympathetic because he had been tolerant in Scotland and was the son of a Catholic, while Presbyterians hoped he would by sympathetic because Scotland was Presbyterian.
But James was a natural Anglican who wanted to unite his two peoples under one church (Fry/Fry, p. 165), and was eventually convinced that repression was necessary (Magnusson, p. 409). The bitterly disappointed Catholics were once again forced to hope for a change of regime. The Gunpowder Plot, which was linked to Catholics, although most of course had no part in it, took place in 1604 (Davies, p. 205) -- one of two Catholic plots that year (Magnusson, p. 409).. But James faced just as much pressure from the other side -- the Puritans and Presybyterians who wanted episcopal church organization eliminated.
James was famous for his belief in episcopacy --"no bishop, no king," he declared (Davies, p. 68). He was even willing to contemplate reunion with Rome -- as long as Rome gave up its claim to be sovereign over kings (Davies, p. 203). Calvinist doctrine bothered him far more than Roman practice, despite his Presybterian background (Ashton, p. 212). In 1604, he called the famous Hampton Court conference to try to achieve some sort of peace with the radicals -- but in the end James told the Puritan delegates "that he would make them conform to existing usage or harry them out of the land" (Davies, p. 68; Magnusson, p. 412). The only constructive result of the Hampton Court Conference was that it was decided to produce an improved translation of the Bible (Ashton, p. 213) -- a translation we know as the Authorized Version or King James Bible.
In 1617, James tried to take his English church into Scotland -- visiting his native land for the first time since becoming King of England, and bringing with him an organ (horrors!) and a set of doctrines known as the Five Articles. These went over like a lead baptismal font (Magnusson, p. 414).
To the very end of the James's reign (he died in 1625), the Puritans were a real nuisance. To try to keep them from political preaching, "in 1622 instructions were issued that preachers should adhere strictly to their texts, that their afternoon sermons should be confined to some part of the catechism, or a text from the Creed, the Ten Commandments, or the Lord's Prayer" (Davies, p. 72).
All this took place against the backdrop of the Thirty Years' War, which had stared in 1618 and cranked up Catholic/Protestant tensions even higher. James tried to stay out of the war, and even be a peacemaker, but it takes two to make a peace.... (Kishlansky, pp. 92-93).
The situation became even more extreme when Charles I ascended. There were two reasons: Charles I's wife, and his Archbishop of Canterbury.
It had been James I who appointed William Laud (1573-1645) Bishop of St. David's; prior to that, he had been Dean of Gloucester. But it was Charles I, the son of James VI and I, who really gave Laud's career a boost, translating him to be Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1626, then Bishop of London in 1628, then Archbishop of Canterbury in 1633 (OxfordCompanion, p. 562).
And Laud instituted something which approached a reign of terror for those not enamored of High Church behavior. Among his reactionary reforms were the "wearing of the surplice, bowing at the name of Jesus, and the churching of women after child-birth," plus moving the communion table "to the east side of the chancel and protect[ing] it by rails" (Wedgwood-Peace, p. 105); he prosecuted violators in ecclesiastical courts.
"It is difficult to see Laud himself through the mass of invective aimed at him. It is undoubtedly true that he was blamed for much of which Charles himself was guilty, yet it was Laud who proclaimed that resistance to the doctrine of the divine right of kings would bring damnation as its punishment. He was equally ruthless and tactless, a hard, masterful man; but he was not vindictive and he was personally upright" (Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 312).
Similarly Lyon, p. 211: "the beliefs of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633, and those he influenced did involve a clear movement away from the austerities of Calvinism. Laudians placed greater emphasis on the sacraments than on preaching and favoured more elaborate ritual and ceremonial. Over 350 years later, their beliefs and practices seem insufficiently radical to arouse the hatred than (sic.) they actually did. Rather, the hatred and the role of religion in the drift towards civil war came from the attempt of Laud and his confederates to impose their doctrines and practice on the kingdom by force, and the growing belief among a deeply anti-Catholic population that the country was being returned to 'Popery.'"
In 1637, Charles went so far as to impose a prayer book, similar to the English Book of Common Prayer, on Presbyterian Scotland. Folklore has it that on July 23, 1637, a woman named Jenny Geddes, offended by the prayer book, declared, "Daur ye say mass at my lug?" and started a riot (Magnusson, pp. 418-419). Lyon, p. 212, has a slightly less elaborate tale, "when the new prayer book was first used, [it] set off... an unidentified woman who hurled a stool at the bishop, shouting, 'The mass is entered among us.'"
Whatever the true story, the imposition of the book led to the drafting and accepting of the Solemn League and Covenant (OxfordCompanion, p. 256).
OxfordCompanion, p. 191, argues that the opposition to Laud was because he was Arminian -- that is, he did not believe in predestination to grace, or rather, arbitrary and capricious damnation by God. Laud's Arminianism does appear to have represented a theological change; the earlier Anglican archbishops seem to have been more Presbyterian, according to Ashton, p. 282. And it it certainly true that Presbyterians utterly oppose Arminianism, but it is not an inherently Catholic doctrine; Jacob Arminius [1560-1609] belonged to the Reformed church and taught at Leiden, according to Christie-Murray, pp. 165-166. And Methodists, who are about as un-Catholic in ritual as you can get, are Arminian. It was Laud's mumbo-jumbo that the Covenanters could not escape; it's just that, having gone in for rebellion, the Covenanters weren't going to stop with half measures; they brought in *all* of Calvinist doctrine, not just the parts about low-church worship.
James I had tried, to an extent, to play both ends of the religious spectrum. His daughter Elizabeth, the "Winter Queen," was married to a Protestant German prince (there is some additional background on this in the notes to "The Vicar of Bray"). Poor Elizabeth would see her husband cast off his throne, and all of Germany cast into the horrid many-sided conflict we call the Thirty Years War -- although among her descendants were the Hannoverian monarchs of England who reign to this day. But, at the time, her marriage mostly brought calls for Britain to intervene in the continent.
That was no part of James's plans. He hoped to balance off his daughter's Protestant marriage by marrying his oldest son to a Catholic (Kishlansky, p. 92). That failed when the boy died -- but James passed the idea on to his eldest surviving son, the future Charles I.
And Charles I agreed with the idea. Worse, he had actually snuck out of the country in one of his attempts to do so: In 1623, while he was still Prince of Wales, Charles made "a total and absolute commitment to the 'Spanish Match.' As a result, [he and the Duke of Buckingham] departed incognito for Madrid in March 1623 to conclude the match personally" (Kenyon, p. 88). The marriage did not actually happen at that time, leaving Charles feeling betrayed (Kenyon, p. 89). But he still married a Catholic, Henrietta Maria of France (1609-1669) in 1625 (OxfordCompanion, p. 463). Some scholars blame her for certain of Charles's policies (OxfordCompanion, p. 464), although Charles was quite capable of being stupid on his own. She did not really bring Catholicism back to England -- but many feared she would.
Charles also imposed an unprecedented Act of Revocation on Scotland. Such Acts were common when monarchs came of age -- a new king, once he gained control, revoked some egregious acts made in his minority. But Charles had never been a minor king -- the first Stuart to succeed to the Scottish throne as an adult in two centuries -- so his right to impose such revocations was dubious.
A more cautious monarch might have revoked only a few minor grants. Not Charles. Firm in his belief in Divine Right, he passed an act which covered new classes of property -- and which went all the way back to 1540! (Ashton, pp. 296-297), during the reign of James V of Scotland, Charles's great-grandfather. Much of what he reclaimed was church land. There was fear -- false but understandable -- that he would give it back the the Catholics, or at least to Anglicans. The Scots Presbyterians began to watch and worry. The more so since Charles, although "Scottish," had been only three years old when James VI and I had moved the family to London (Magnusson, p. 420); Charles had never been back, and would not go to Scotland to be crowned until eight years after he ascended! (Magnusson, p. 421).
As this was going on, Buckingham, the man who had gone to Madrid with Charles, was stumbling into more trouble. For details about George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, the special friend (and likely love interest) of James VI and I, see the notes to "A Horse Named Bill," which has also been connected to him. In this context, suffice it to say that he came to power under James, then after Charles came to the throne, led an expedition to Spain (which had become The Enemy again after the marriage alliance fell through), and was in trouble with Parliament when he conveniently was assassinated.
After his fall, the Howard family increased in power -- and many of them were Catholics. Loyalist to the core, but Catholic. It added still more to the worries about Popery (Kishlansky, pp. 94-95).
As support for a link between Buckingham and crows, there is another verse from about this period, cited under #355 in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes, which runs, "There was Two Craws sat on a stane, Ane flew awa & there remain'd ane." This too is said to refer to Buckingham (and presumably Charles), but obviously that would be hard to prove, and so would be any link to "Carrion Crow."
Charles also appointed a bishop as Lord Treasurer in 1636 (Ashton, p. 298). This certainly wasn't any help to Catholics -- but after a long period of mostly secular high officials, the Scots saw it as another move away from Presbyterianism and toward episcopacy.
Charles I made his problems worse by trying to rule without parliament. It wasn't really one man rule; Charles relied heavily on Laud and on his de facto Prime Minister, Thomas Wentworth (1593-1641), whom Charles made Earl of Strafford. But eventually Charles, who had not summoned a parliament from 1628 to 1640, had to call what became the "Long Parliament"; he had been defeated by the Scots (yes, his own subjects!) and needed to raise money (OxfordCompanion, p. 594).
What he raised instead was a rebellion. Strafford was impeached on vague charges by the House of Commons (Wedgwood-Peace, p. 272). Strafford went on trial before the Lords, and because the charges were mostly trumped up, gave a very good defense of himself (OxfordCompanion, p. 894). Since acquittal seemed likely, the Commons took emergency action, passing an act of attainder against Strafford (Wedgwood-Peace, p. 413). In other words, they declared him guilty of being someone they didn't like, and executed him for it. It will tell you how pathetic Charles I was that he refused to sign the act until Strafford himself asked the king to do it, in order to avoid making Charles's position worse (Wedgwood-Peace, pp. 427-428).
But Charles's sacrifice of his most able subordinate did not help him significantly. The Long Parliament had tasted blood. Laud's case was next: "[T]he long drawn out trial of Archbishop Laud had gratified his more vindictive enemies and served, though not very adequately, to keep before the public the knowledge that Presbyterians and sectaries alike abominated the episcopal church. But once again, as with Strafford, the prosecutors found that the law strictly interpreted could not be stretched to find the Archbishop guilty" (Wedgwood-War, p. 384). The trial lasted from 1641 to 1644; in the latter year, they finally gave up and attainted him, as they had Strafford; Laud was executed in January 1645. To the end, he protested that he opposed reunion with Rome (and his papers proved he meant it; Wedgwood-War, pp. 400-401; OxfordCompanion, p. 562). But it was certainly hard to tell from his actions.
By now, the Long Parliament was growing accustomed to attainders, and was purging itself of members willing to compromise. Nor was Charles I showing any signs of backing down himself; his belief in the Divine Right of Kings to be Really Really Stupid was unshaken to the end, even though (it should be noted) there is absolutely no Biblical basis for this idea; indeed, in the books of Samuel and King we find numerous kings of Israel and Judah condemned, and a few even executed by the people. Finally Parliament attainted *him*, and he was executed in 1649 (OxfordCompanion, p. 191).
So if the original verse was about religion and church-state relations in the early seventeenth century, we have many possible dates:
* If the song is from shortly after 1604, it is probably about the Gunpowder Plot (which misfired)
* If it is from 1623-1625, it is probably about Charles's Spanish marriage (which misfired)
* If it is from 1625-1627, it is probably about Buckingham's Spanish expedition (which misfired), or perhaps about Charles's marriage to Henrietta Maria
* If it is from around 1641, it might refer to Strafford or Laud (in which case it might imply that Parliament missed the big target to focus on the small)
* If it is from around 1645, it might refer to Laud
* If it is from around 1649, it might refer to Charles I himself.
* If it is at some other time after 1618, it might refer to the Thirty Years War, which was almost always a very hot topic because it pitted Catholics against Protestants
All of these are possible -- but all of them are stretches. Several of the sources (Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes and several online sites) think the song was from c. 1627, although none say why. The best guess, then, is that it is a reference to Buckingham. It is certainly true that his expedition certainly "missed his mark" -- but then the second claim, that the song is about high church practices, is false. Or could it be that the versifier though Buckingham's assassin should have aimed for Charles? These are the sorts of questions that make all these attempts to find political subtexts in short songs rather difficult -- particularly when you consider that the song just possibly *might* be about a carrion crow....
There is another caution. The text of this that is said to be "from the reign of Charles I" is found in British Library MS. Sloane 1489. But this is not a dated manuscript. I've seen dates for it as early as 1600 (which clearly means it cannot be about Charles I, although it might just possibly be about his father), and dates around 1627 are common. But the only absolute date we have for the manuscript is that it is from the Sloane Collection. Hans Sloane was born in 1660 (BarkerEtAl, p. 14) and died in 1753 (BarkerEtAl, p. 17), with his large collection becoming one of the chief components of the British Library. The other contents of Sloane 1489 seem to imply an early seventeenth century date, but we cannot assume any particular date. It is for this reason that we show the "earliest date" for this song as that of the 1796 Grose papers. Although I suppose 1753 would be safe.
For some reason, this seems to have been made into a music hall song. George Leybourne (1842-1884) rewrote this as "The Tailor and the Crow"; a version of this can be found in Sing Out! magazine, Volume 30, #3 (1984), pp, 45-46, which has notes linking the song with the behavior of Charles II. The comments in that article, however, are based on a comment by Purslow, which may have been misunderstood. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: LoF072

Carrion Crow and the Tailor, The

See Carrion Crow (File: LoF072)

Carroll Ban

DESCRIPTION: Carroll is sentenced and hung in Wexford. He had "fought the Saxon foemen by Slaney's glancing wave" and now "the silent churchyard blossom blooms softly over him."
AUTHOR: John Keegan Casey (1846-1870)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution trial memorial patriotic Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Wexford Rebellion
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 17, "Carroll Ban" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #30697
NOTES [41 words]: I do not know if "Carroll Ban" refers to an historic person. - BS
I believe it does, given the nature of John Keegan Casey's work (he also wrote "The Rising of the Moon"). But I can't find a 1798 hero named "Carroll." Perhaps it's a code name? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe017

Carrot Greens

DESCRIPTION: "The other night I had a dream, I dreamt that I could fly." He meets St. Peter at the gate of heaven, but all they it is "Good old carrot greens, Corn bread and buttermilk and good old carrot greens." He has the same meal with Moroni
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: food humorous | Mormon
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 145-146, "Carrot Greens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 268-269, "Carrot Greens" (1 text)
Roud #4491
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Greens" (lyrics, subject)
cf. "Turnip Greens" (lyrics, subject)
NOTES [106 words]: Roud lumps this with the song I've indexed as "Greens." I flatly don't see it; that is a song about food, with no religious references; this is basically a religious song. It is probably related to, indeed derived from, "Turnip Greens," but this has been rewritten enough that I've split them. I wouldn't argue much with someone who lumped them.
In Mormon legend, the Angel Moroni was credited with showing Joseph Smith the gold tablets that formed the basis for his revelation (Claudia Lauper Bushman and Richard Lyman Bushman, Building the Kingdom: A History of Mormons in America, Oxford University Press, 1999, 2001, pp. 4-5). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS145

Carrowclare

See Killyclare (Carrowclare; The Maid of Carrowclare) (File: HHH298)

Carry Him To the Burying Ground (General Taylor, Walk Him Along Johnny)

DESCRIPTION: Pulling shanty. Internal chorus: "Walk him along, John, Carry him along... Carry him to the burying ground." Refrain: "Way-ay-ay you storm and blow (you Stormy)...." Some texts refer to General Taylor, others to Dan O'Connell or Old Stormy.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
KEYWORDS: shanty burial battle floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain West Indies
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 78-80, "Walk Me Along, Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEb, pp. 72-73]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXXIII, pp.38-39, "General Taylor" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GENTAYLR
Roud #216
RECORDINGS:
Martin Bartlett, "General Taylor" (Piotr-Archive #80, recorded 09/10/2021, a rather noisy pub recording)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Stormalong" (lyrics)
cf. "Dig My Grave With a Silver Spade" (lyrics)
cf. "Deep Blue Sea (II)" (lyrics)
cf. "Santy Anno" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Walk Him Along, John
NOTES [77 words]: This is recognized much more by its tune than by its verses, which float freely. The most obvious source is "Stormalong" (which shares so much with some versions of this song that Roud lumps them), but there are also "silver spade" lyrics from "Dig My Grave With a Silver Spade" or "Deep Blue Sea (II)"; lyrics about General Taylor from "Santy Anno" or something similar, and one or another Daniel O'Connell song. There are probably others I haven't noticed. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Hugi078

Carry Me Away

See The Funeral Hymn (File: Fus207)

Carry Me Back to Green Pastures

DESCRIPTION: "Carry me back to green, green pastures, That's where I long to be, Carry me back to green pastures, That is the place for me. I want to see the fields of cotton" and other sights of home, "Down where the Jordan rolls"
AUTHOR: Harry S. Pepper? (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1933 (recording, Paul Robeson)
KEYWORDS: home travel nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, p. 25, "Carry Me Back to Green Pastures" (1 text)
NOTES [62 words]: I can find no reference to this song that does not go back, in some form or other, to the recording by Paul Robeson. I strongly suspect it is composed, presumably by the Harry S. Pepper credited in the sheet music (which came out around the time Robeson recorded the song). But since it is often listed as traditional, I include it here. I really am dubious, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Mess025

Carry Me Back to Old Virginny

DESCRIPTION: "Carry me back to old Virginny, There's where the cotton and corn and tatoes grow." The former slave yearns to return to the old master and the old plantation, there to "wither and decay."
AUTHOR: James A. Bland
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (sheet music published by John F. Perry of Boston)
KEYWORDS: Black(s) slave exile
FOUND IN: US(SE) Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 43-46, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Krythe-SamplerOfAmericanSongs 11, pp. 158-176, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 164-165, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny"
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 199, "Carry Me Back to Old VIrginny" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 40-41, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 84, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 180-183, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 164-165,"Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #119, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 456, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (notes only)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 36, "Carry Me Back to Ol' Virginny" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 29, "Carry Me Back" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, p. 69, "(Carry Me Back to Old Virginia)" (1 text, cleaned up; tune on pp.197-199)
ST RJ19043 (Full)
Roud #15431
RECORDINGS:
Lucy Gates & the Columbia Stellar Quartet, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (Columbia A6015, 1917)
John Greaves, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #67, recorded 08/11/2021; very noisy)
Zack [Hurt] and Glenn [?], "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (OKeh 45212, 1928)
Harry McClaskey, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (Gennett 4532, 1919)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (Brunswick 475, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Way Down in Old Virginia" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
O, Carry Me Home ("O, carry me back to my Childhood's home") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 111)
Jim Garfield of the West ("Say, have you seen our Jim, my boys! Jim GARFIELD, of the West?") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 5)
NOTES [391 words]: James A. Bland (1854-1911), one of the leading songwriters of the 1870s, was a university-educated Black (born in New York) who spent many years in England. That he stooped to produce such a piece of nostalgia for slavery says something about the commercial climate of the time (the piece was probably written in 1875 and was published in 1878).
Bland also wrote "[Oh, dem] Golden Slippers" and "In the Evening by the Moonlight."
Until very recently this was the state song of Virginia -- though the official title was changed to "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia." Apparently the people of the state could handle the idea of people yearning for slavery, but couldn't accept a slight mispronunciation. It lost its status as state song in 1997 (William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology, The Haworth Press, 1997, 69).
Although I have never seen any suggestion that Bland did not write this piece, I find it interesting that there are broadsides, "Dear Liberty or Maryland Will Be Free" ("by Miss R. L., a Daughter of Dixie") and "General Lee," said to be to the tune of "Carry me back to Old Virginny." The song looks as if it would have been published by Confederates, which would hint at a date long before Bland wrote this song. See also Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #274, p. 19, "Carry Me Back to Ole Virginny" ("De floating scow ob ole Virginny," said to have sung by "all the Minstrel Bands"). When I saw that, I speculated, "Perhaps there was an older 'Carry me back' song that Bland referenced?"
It turns out that there is; according to Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 201, the song 'took its inspiration from 'Carry Me Back to Old Virigina,' as arranged and sung by E. P. Christy (1847)." The idea of that song is rather different, though; in the Christy song, according to Finson, "Virginny" is his fisherman's boat!
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 307, estimates that this was revived in the 1910s and became the thirtieth most popular song in America in 1915, peaking at #11 in May 1915 (#1 for the year being J. Keirn Brennan and Ernest Ball's "A Little Bit of Heaven"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RJ19043

Carry Me Back to the Mountains

DESCRIPTION: Singer "was a wild careless youngster, longing to roam" and "left my home in the mountains And broke my poor darling's heart." He gets a letter that she has died. Now "lonesome and weary," he wants to go back to his home in the mountains: "lay me to rest"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (recording: Chuck Wagon Gang); as a traditional song, 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness love rambling death youth
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30152
RECORDINGS:
Albert DeWitt, "Carry Me Back to the Mountain" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Chuck Wagon Gang, "Carry Me Back to the Mountains" (ARC 7-06-73, 1936)
File: ML3CMBTM

Carry mi' akee goa Linstead Market

See Linstead Market (File: FSWB335)

Carry the News to Mary

See We're All Surrounded (File: Harl006)

Carryin' Sacks

DESCRIPTION: "I'm goin' up the river to carry them sacks (x3), I'll have your lap full of dollars when I get back." "I asked my sugar for a little kiss..." "You go back up the river and carry some sacks, (x3), You can get my kisses when the boat gets back"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: work love separation money
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 29-30, "Carryin' Sacks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1005
NOTES [21 words]: A ballad in miniature, though it really is more of a blues, and I suspect no two singers would do it quite the same way. - RBW
File: MWhe029A

Carse o' Pommaize, The

See Arlin's Fine Braes (File: Ord250)

Carter and the Erie Belle, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the late month of November upon a low'ring day The schooner called Carter stood across the Georgian Bay." On the last trip of the season, a storm blows up; they go aground. The tug Erie Belle tries to help, but its boiler explodes; the crew is killed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from Dave Remington and others by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 1883 - The _J. N. Carte_r grounding and _Erie Belle_ explosion
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 226-227, "The Carter and the Erie Belle" (1 text)
Roud #19863
File: WGM226

Carter, The

DESCRIPTION: "I once was a bold fellow and went with a team, And all my delight was in keeping them clean, In keeping them clean, boys, to show their bright color...." The singer rises early to care for the horses, and works hard. He describes the horses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams)
KEYWORDS: horse work travel nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #98, "The Carter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2408
File: VWP098

Carter's Health, The

DESCRIPTION: "Of all the horses in the merry greenwood The bobtailed mare bears the bells away .... Hey, Ree, Hoo, Gee, But the bobtailed mare bears the bells away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad horse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 142, "The Carter's Health" (1 text, 12 tunes)
Roud #1384
NOTES [28 words]: Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs: "In the 'Chorus' part, the four names are sung by four of the singers in order, all joining in at 'But the bobtailed mare.'" - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BrMa142

Cartin Wife, The

See The Wife of Usher's Well [Child 79] (File: C079)

Carve Dat Possum

See Carve that Possum (File: R276)

Carve That Possum

DESCRIPTION: Concerning a possum hunt and the pleasures of eating the animal. Recipes may be offered, as may details of the hunt. The listener is urged to "Carve that possum" and/or "Carve it to the heart."
AUTHOR: Sam Lucas
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (sheet music published)
KEYWORDS: hunting food animal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 276, "The Possum Song" (3 short texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 237-238, "The Possum Song" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's )
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, pp. 36-37, "carve Dat Possum" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R276 (Full)
Roud #7780
RECORDINGS:
Harry C. Browne w. Peerless Quartet, "Carve Dat Possum" (Columbia A-2590, 1918; rec. 1917)
Uncle Dave Macon and his Fruit Jar Drinkers, "Carve That Possum" (Vocalion 5151, 1927; on GoingDown)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sail Away, Ladies" (tune of the verse)
NOTES [26 words]: Norm Cohen describes tune of this as "basically the spiritual 'Let My People Go.'" If he means the song I know by that title, I don't see the resemblance. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: R276

Casadh an tSugain (The Twisting of the Rope)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Singer is drunk. He complains that he had come to this place "full of love and hope But the hag she forced me out with the twisting of the rope." "How many fine girls waste for taste of man in bed ... But the hag she drove me out ..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage seduction escape trick drink nonballad tasks
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 149-151, "Twisting of the Rope, The" (1 text)
NOTES [100 words]: Translation is by Paddy Tunney, who includes the tale upon which the song is based. The story, which helps explain the song, may be summarized as follows: Singer asks for shelter on a rainy night but there are only two women in the house and he forces his way in. He claims he means no harm. The older woman asks him if he is able to twist a grass rope they need made. His pride hurt that his ability might be doubted, he agrees to twist the rope. As the rope grows too long to fit in the house, he must take it through the door and out into the street. The older woman slams the door in his face. - BS
File: TSF149

Casam Araon Na Geanna Romhainn

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer meets a beautiful woman herding her geese. He asks her to marry, promising wealth and affection. She agrees.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting marriage beauty farming money bird
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 37, "Casam Araon Na Geanna Romhainn" (2 texts)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC037

Casey Jones (I) [Laws G1]

DESCRIPTION: Casey Jones's train is late with the mail. He is pushing the train as fast as he can when he sees another train ahead. There is no time to stop. Casey tells his fireman to jump; he himself dies in the wreck
AUTHOR: Original text by Wallis/Wallace/Wash Saunders/Sanders (?); "Official" text copyrighted 1909 by Newton & Siebert
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: death train wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 30, 1900 - Death of John Luther "Casey" Jones, of the Illinois Central Railroad, near Vaughan, Mississippi
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (30 citations):
Laws G1, "Casey Jones"
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 132-157, "Casey Jones" (4 fairly complete texts plus many tunes an the cover from the 1909 sheet music, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 167-171, "Casey Jones" (2 texts)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #53, "Casey Jones" (1 text, tune referenced)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 216, "Casey Jones" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 87, pp. 214-215, "Casey Jones" (1 text, quite dissimilar to the popular version, focusing on the bad conditions and Casey's heroism)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #190, "Casey Jones" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 309, "Casey Jones" (7 texts, mostly fragmentary)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 366-368, "Casey Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 75, "Casey Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 301, "Casey Jones" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 34-36, "Nachul-Born Easman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 249-250, "Casey Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 57-58, "Casey Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 106-109, "Casey Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp. 90-92, "Casey Jones" (1 text)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 185-186, "(Casey Jones)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 59, pp. 133, "Casey Jones" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 48, "Mack McDonald" (1 text, clearly "Casey Jones" even though the engineer's name has been changed)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 335-336, "Casey Jones" (1 text plus a 1911 sheet music cover)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 13-16, "Casey Jones"; "Casey Jones II" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 209-213, "Casey Jones"; "Casey Jones"; "Kassie Jones" (3 text, with the first two being here"Joseph Mica" and the third being the full "Kassie Jones" text of Furry Lewis)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 231-234, "Casey Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 142, "Casey Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 165+, "Casey Jones"
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 98, "Casey Jones" (1 text, from user Tess_W, posted September 24, 2021)
DT 633, CASEJONE
ADDITIONAL:Fred J. Lee, _Casey Jones: _Epic of the American Railroad_, 1940, 286-287, "(Casey Jones)" (1 text, said to be the originale Wallace Saunders version)
Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 403-405, "Casey Jones" (1 text)
Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 396-397, "Casey Jones" (1 text)
ST LG01 (Full)
Roud #3247
RECORDINGS:
Arthur "Brother-in-Law" Armstrong, "Casey Jones" (AFS 3987 B4, 1940)
DeFord Bailey, "Casey Jones" (Victor 23336, 1932/Victor 23831, 1933; rec. 1928)
Al Bernard, "Casey Jones" (Brunswick 178, 1927/Supertone S-2044, 1930)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Casey Jones" (OKeh 40038, 1924; rec. 1923)
Arthur Collins & chorus, "Casey Jones" (CYL: Indestructible 3163, 1910)
[Arthur] Collins & [Byron] Harlan, "Casey Jones" (Columbia A907, 1910)
Elizabeth Cotten, "Casey Jones" (on Cotten03)
County Harmonizers, "Casey Jones" (Pathe Actuelle 020670, 1921) (Pathe 20670, 1921) [these are separate issues; the Actuelle is a lateral-cut record, while the other is vertical-cut]
Vernon Dalhart, "Casey Jones" (Oriole 454 [as Dick Morse], 1925) (Victor 20502, 1927; rec. 1925)
Dixie Demons "Casey Jones" (Decca 5140, 1935)
K. C. Douglas, "Casey Jones" (on ClassAfrAm)
Jesse James, "Southern Casey Jones" (Decca 7213, 1936; on Protobilly)
Fred Kirby & the WTB Briarhoppers "Casey Jones" (Sonora 3040, n.d. but post-World War II)
Wingy Manone & his orchestra, "Casey Jones (The Brave Engineer)" (Bluebird B-10266, 1939/Mongomery Ward M-8354, 1940)
John D. Mounce et al, "Casey Jones" (on MusOzarks01, ClassRR)
Billy Murray w. the American Quartet, "Casey Jones" (Victor 16843, 1910) (CYL: Edison 10499, 1911) (CYL: Edison [BA] 1550, 1912) (CYL: Edison [BA] 450, 1910; on Protobilly)
Riley Puckett, "Casey Jones" (Columbia 113-D [as George Riley Puckett], 1924)
George Reneau, "Casey Jones" (Vocalion 14813, 1924)
Bob Skiles Four Old Timers, "Casey Jones" (OKeh 45225, 1928)
Pete Seeger , "Casey Jones" (on PeteSeeger13)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Casey Jones" (Columbia 15237-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
Wilmer Watts & the Lonely Eagles, "Knocking Down Casey Jones" (Paramount 3210, 1930; on TimesAint02)
Fred Wilson, "Casey Jones" (Harmony 5118-H, 1930)
Jack & Tom Wilson, "Casey Jones" (Diva 2480-G, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long)" [Laws I16]
cf. "Casey Jones (II)" (bawdy parody)
cf. "Casey Jones (IV) (Casey Jones the Union Scab)"
cf. "Casey Jones (VI) (World War I version)
cf. "Casey Jones the Miner"
cf. "Ben Dewberry's Final Run" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "J. C. Holmes Blue" (form, lyrics)
cf. "Steamboat Bill" (tune)
cf. "Duncan and Brady" [Laws I9] (lyrics)
cf. "Peggy Howatt" (tune)
cf. "The Big Combine" (tune)
cf. "E. P. Walker" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Casey Jones (IV) (Casey Jones the Union Scab) (File: FSWB102)
Casey Jones, the Miner (File: LDC146)
Hunting Deer (File: RDL065)
Come On You Scabs If You Want to Hear (by Odell Corley, then 11 years old) (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 138; Kristina Horton, _Martyr of Loray Mill: Ella May and the 1929 Textile Workers' Strike in Gastonia, North Carolina_, McFarland & Company, 2015, p. 199. For background, see the notes on "Chief Aderholt")
Casey Jones the Rooster (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 109-110)
The Big Combine (on Thieme03)
Tenor solo, "Casey Jones" [Ku Klux Klan lyrics] (Special K-1, rec. c. 1924)
W. R. Rhinehart, "The Klansman's Friend' (100% K-5, rec. 1924)
NOTES [1792 words]: John Luther Jones was brought up in Cayce, Kentucky (hence his nickname).
Joe Hill (pseud. for Joseph Hillstrom, born Joel Hagglund) wrote a parody of this song, entitled "Casey Jones the Union Scab," based on the Southern Pacific strike of 1911. -PJS
This piece shows the power of song: Mrs. Jones, who died in 1958 at the age of 92, spent half a century disclaiming the accusations of infidelity in the song. Fireman Simeon Webb lasted almost as long, dying in 1957 at age 83.
In reading Laws's notes to "Casey Jones" and "Joseph Mica" [Laws I16], it seems clear to me that there is no true distinction between the ballads. Laws files the more complete forms here, and the fragments and related pieces under "Joseph Mica." How does one decide which pieces to put where? I'm really not sure.
To make matters worse, Laws has garbled the entry and the information about Lomax and Sandburg. I did the best I could, but one should check "Joseph Mica" for additional versions.
Cohen offers a reasonable explanation for this: There was an existing train song, possibly "Jay Gould's Daughter," which Saunders adapted to apply to Casey Jones -- but it was a blues ballad, without a strong plot. The 1909 version converted this to a true ballad -- but, fragments being what they are, it's not really possible to distinguish the two.
Cohen also lists several alternate nominees for the title of the "original" Casey Jones.
Laws distinguishes "Jay Gould's Daughter" as a separate song (dI25); I think this distinction hopeless; it is just another worn down version, and should be filed with "Joseph Mica." - RBW
It should be noted that Furry Lewis' "Kassie Jones" is a fragmentary stream-of-consciousness incorporating a single verse from "Casey Jones" and many floating verses, including a couple from "On the Road Again". - PJS
Cohen (whose main text is the Lewis version) says that Lewis recorded the song ten times, with none of the texts being entirely the same.
According to Davey/Seal, p. 231, there is an Australian parody, "Billy Sheehan," which so far I have not seen, but in which "Sheehan tried to outrun the Spirit of Progress express in a steam train but the steam train's boiler explodes, killing him and the fireman." Sort of Casey Jones meets John Henry.
There is a "biography" of Casey Jones, Lee's. Unfortunately, although author Lee worked with Casey's brother Philip for several years, it has been hideously fictionalized, so I don't know what parts of it can be trusted. Plus Lee is a patent racist. The book frankly made me extremely uncomfortable. I'll mention only a few of the more important parts.
"John Luther Jones was born on March 14, 1863 in a backwoods region of Southeastern Missouri that cannot be definitely located. His father, Frank Jones, was a poor country school teacher. His mother, Ann Nolen Jones, was a woman of considerable strength of character..... in September, 1876, the family turned their backs upon their primitive home and emigrated to the western part of Kentucky, settling near the town of Hickman. John Luther -- or simply Luther as he was more generally known in this early period of his life -- was the oldest of five children, four boys and one girl. In order, following Luther, the boys were Eugene, Frank, and Philip. Their sister's name was Emma. The four Jones brothers all became in time engineers on the Illinois Central Railroad" (Lee, pp. 2-3). In fact, only one of the Jones brothers, Frank, died a natural death, in 1919 (Lee, p. 216). The whole Jones family seems to have been jinxed. Casey's sister Emma died in a steamboat wreck in 1896 (Lee, pp. 244-245).
When John Luther Jones left home in his teens, it was to seek a railroad job -- but his family's original idea was that he take the more prestigious job of telegrapher (Lee, p. 29). Supposedly he got the job in part because he was a good baseball player (Lee, p. 47). And because there were so many Jones on the payroll, he needed a nickname (Lee, p. 46). They called him "Cayce" after the Cayce water tower near his family's home.
Lee, p. 98, claims that Casey picked up telegraphy unusually quickly, and describes him quickly being employed -- but says that he was quickly redeployed as a brakeman (p. 111; this makes little sense, since telegraphers were harder to train). Some of it may have been his physical abilities; Lee, p. 137, says he was six feet four inches tall and strong in proportion. Soon after, he became a fireman and engineer-in-training (Lee, pp. 142-143). He also converted to Roman Catholicism to please Jane Brady, the girl he hoped to marry (Lee, p. 148), being baptized on November 11, 1886 (Lee, p. 160). Two weeks later, on November 25, they were married. A son, Charles, was born July 15, 1888; a daughter Helen followed on October 10, 1890; their last child, John Lloyd Jones, was born March 27, 1896 (Lee, p. 215).
Despite changing rail lines in 1888, which cost him seniority, Jones made it to engineer early in 1890 (Lee, p. 173) -- and quickly developed a reputation for driving at extremely high speeds (Lee, pp. 180-184 and elsewhere). Polenberg, p. 166, says that he had been suspended nine times for recklessness. He even raced other engineers on mail runs, which were usually relatively slow (Lee, pp. 181-182; note that the song mentions Casey carrying the mail). He was such an obsessive about power that on at least one run he over-pressured his boiler by more than 10% to climb a hill (Lee, pp. 221-223), which was not only against the rules but extremely dangerous; the great danger of steam engines was boiler explosions!
Lee, p. 188, says that Jones had already had one minor train crash in his career, at Toone (22 miles south of Jackson, Tennessee), although he doesn't give a date; there were no injuries although there was minor property damage to the train and its baggage. It was after this that he supposedly took over Engine #638, the high-power engine apparently specially associated with him. Lee has a photo of Jones and engine 638 facing p. 212; similarly Polenberg, p. 168.
Jones later transferred to a different route and was given Engine #382; there is a photo of this engine facing p. 256.
"On the night of April 29th, 1800, Casey pulled into Memphis with [mail] train #4, on time, and was informed that engineer Sam Tate had been taken suddenly ill and would be unable to take out train No. 1. Although Casey was jut in from the long run from Canton, he was asked to double out [that is, make a second run without resting] with train No. 1. He agreed at once" (Lee, p. 260) -- although he insisted on using his regular engine rather than an unfamiliar one, meaning that he needed extra time to check her over.
The train was an hour and a quarter late (Lee, p. 262), and the track wasn't particularly good. Yet Lee, pp. 262-263, and Polenberg, pp. 164-165, report that Jones drove so fast that he almost made it on time. Lee calculates that he must have covered parts of the route at a hundred miles an hour -- twice the usual speed. Jones actually was in position to finish on time -- until a scheduling goof on another train set him back again (Lee, p. 268). It was only a few minutes, but it meant that Casey again insisted on speeding. After an extremely long tour of duty. And the time was a little before 4:00 in the morning. And then -- a train in the wrong place (Lee, p. 270). There was no time to stop -- no room to stop! Jones ordered fireman Sim Webb, "Jump, Sim! Unload!" (Lee, p. 271). Jones stayed with the train, to slow her as much as possible. He couldn't do much.
"Casey Jones lay dead among the wreckage, an iron bolt through his neck, a bale of hay resting across his body" (Lee, p. 271).
Jones was the only one killed. Webb was badly injured but survived. Only one other person was seriously hurt (Lee, p. 272). The railroad promptly and correctly placed all the blame on Jones (Polenberg, p. 166).
Lee, in his typically racist way, says that "Sim Webb was a colored boy distinctly above the average of his race in intelligence, character and general ability. He had studied to become a doctor. But the lure of the railroad caused him to give up the medical profession" (p. 257). I read this to mean, "Sim Webb studied to be a physician, but bigotry forced him to take a railroad job rather than using his real talents." There is a photo of Webb facing p. 265 of Lee.
After Casey's death, despite what the song says, Mrs. Jones ran a boarding house and "lived a long, blameless life" (Polenberg, p. 170).
Lee gives the name of the author of this song as Wallace Saunders (so spelled), but his picture of Saunders is hardly flattering: "Wallace Saunders was just such a Negro as the text portrays: ignorant, unlettered, extremely simple-minded" (Lee, p.284) But Lee is a patent racist, referring repeatedly to "darkys." He seems to describe Saunders as an odd-jobs-man hanging around the whorehouses of Columbus, Ohio (where he knew Casey Jones) -- but also on p. 78 described him as a Primitive Baptist deacon. I have no idea how much of this to believe, except that I am sure that Saunders was not the servile imbecile as Lee describes.
Lee, pp. 139-141, describes Saunders as having written another song, "Boomer Bill," about Jones and about a bully Jones out-fought; the chorus ran "Lift 'em up, lay 'em down." Lee makes it sound as if it went into tradition, but I can't find any collections of it.
Lee, p. 285, explains how the song came to be widely known. The Saunders version was sung by railroaders, and "[t]here was an engineer on the Illionis Central in the year 1900 and for several years thereafter whose two brothers constituted a team of vaudeville performers.... The engineer's name was William Leighton. The brothers were Bert and Frank Leighton, and their attention was directed to the possibilities contained in Wallace's crude ballad. The Leighton Brothers sang a version of Casey Jones in various theatres of the country, adding a chorus.
"In 1909 a song Casey Jones was published by T. Lawrence Siebert and Eddie Newton, the former being credited with the lyric and the latter with the music. The lyric wandered far afield, but the melody corresponded to the one sung by the Leighton Brothers and was a close approximation of the original melody."
Gardner, p. 288, estimates that the Siebert/Newton version of this was the sixth most popular song in America in 1910, peaking at #3 in January 1911 (#1 for 1910 being "Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland"). - RBW
Jones, facing p. 14, has a photo of the railroad station at Cayce, Kentucky from which Casey took his nickname. There is a picture of Mrs. Casey, taken long after Casey died, facing p. 253. A photo of Sim Webb faces p. 288. Polenberg has a photo of Casey on p. 165. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: LG01

Casey Jones (II)

DESCRIPTION: In this bawdy parody of the familiar copyright song, Casey goes to a whorehouse and has sex with ninety-eight whores until his powers fail him. He takes a shot of whiskey, finishes the remaining two, and dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923
KEYWORDS: bawdy contest death
FOUND IN: US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 154-158, "Casey Jones" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 471-476, "Casey Jones" (6 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #3247
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Casey Jones (I)" [Laws G1] (tune, characters) and references there
NOTES [21 words]: Legman offers extensive notes and an early bawdy text of the ballad dating to 1923 in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I. - EC
File: EM154

Casey Jones (III)

See Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)

Casey Jones (IV) (Casey Jones the Union Scab)

DESCRIPTION: Casey Jones keeps working when the rest of the workers strike. (Someone puts railroad ties across the track, and) Casey is killed. St. Peter hires him, but "Angels' Union # 23" sends him to Hell, where the Devil puts him to shoveling sulfur
AUTHOR: Words: Joe Hill
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (according to Stavis/Harmon)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Casey Jones, an engineer on the Southern Pacific, keeps working when the rest of the workers go on strike. (Someone puts railroad ties across the track, and) Casey's engine derails, killing him. In heaven, St. Peter hires him to scab on the musicians, but "Angels' Union # 23" sends him to Hell, where the Devil puts him to shoveling sulfur -- "That's what you get for scabbing on the S. P. line"
KEYWORDS: strike violence train homicide death railroading labor-movement Hell scab worker Devil derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1911 - Southern Pacific workers strike; the craft unions representing engineers refuse to join the walkout
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 186, "Casey Jones, The Union Scab" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 82-82, "Casey Jones, the Union Scab" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 376-377, "Casey Jones, the Union Scab" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 102, "Casey Jones (Union)" (1 text)
DT, UNCASJON*
ADDITIONAL: (Barrie Stavis and Frank Harmon, editors), _The Songs of Joe Hill_, 1960, now reprinted in the Oak Archives series, pp. 8-10, "Casey Jones the Union Scab" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gibbs M. Smith, _Joe Hill_, 1969 (I use the 1984 Peregrine Smith Books edition), p. 23, "[Casey Jones -- the Union Scab]" (1 text); p. 241 (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Casey Jones (The Union Scab)" (on McClintock01 - two versions) (on McClintock02)
Pete Seeger , "Casey Jones" (on PeteSeeger1, PeteSeeger48)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Casey Jones (I)" [Laws G1] and references there (tune, characters) and references there
NOTES [247 words]: For the life of Joe Hill, see "Joe Hill."
According to Stavis and Harmon, this was written in 1911 in response to a strike in California. The song was specially printed on playing card sized broadsides, which made it easier to spread around the country.
Foner, p. 11, says that this was Hill's first known song, written (naturally) to help the workers of the Southern Pacific line during a strike.
Adler, p. 183, gives a slightly different account. He says that this was Hill's second IWW song, following "The Preacher and the Slave" -- but the first IWW songbook to contain "The Preacher" did not credit it to Hill. So "Casey Jones" was the first IWW song popularly associated with Hill.
According to Adler, it was written in San Pedro, California, shortly after the beginning of the strike against the Southern Pacific Railroad, which began on September 30, 1911. About 1300 workers were involved in the strike.
Adler, p. 184, reminds us that Hill's father had been a railroad worker in Sweden, so Hill probably knew more than most about railroad operations. He points out also that Hill carefully inverted the ending of the original "Casey Jones," in which Casey ends up in heaven for his heroism. Hill has Casey arrive in heaven -- and get tossed out.
According to Smith, p. 23, "Among labor unions 'Hill's version of "Casey Jones" has become more popular than the original railroad ballad. It is one of the few songs that no labor-song anthologist would dare leave out.'" - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB102A

Casey Jones (V)

DESCRIPTION: Casey's wife and child cry and ask him not to go but he has the fireman fire up and go. A flock of sheep on the track delays them. As they speed up to make up time a frightened passenger sings "Lord have mercy... Save me Jesus."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt04)
KEYWORDS: parting separation death train wreck railroading religious wife family
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Talking Casey Jones" (on MJHurt04)
NOTES [19 words]: Hurt's "Talking Casey Jones" is a cante fable spoken and sung against slide guitar playing that mimics the train. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: RcTalCaJ

Casey Jones (VI) (World War I version)

DESCRIPTION: "Casey Jones, Standng on the fire-step, Casey Jones, with a pistol in his hand, Casey Jones, Standing on the fire-step, Firing Very lights into No Man's Land."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 65, "Casey Jones" (1 text)
Roud #3247
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Casey Jones (I)" [Laws G1] (tune, characters) and references there
NOTES [14 words]: "Very lights" were pistol-fired small starshells used to light the battlefield. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: BrPa065B

Casey Jones the MIner

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you muckers and gather here, If you want to hear the story of a miner dear." Casey makes his name on a Burleigh machine at the Liberty Bell mine. Casey is killed in a mine explosion. He had wished to try different drilling equipment
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Southern Folklore Quarterly 6)
KEYWORDS: mining derivative death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 566-567, "Casey Jones the Miner" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Casey Jones (I)" [Laws G1] and references there
File: CAFS2566

Casey Jones, the Miner

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you muckers and gather here If you want to hear the story of a miner dear." "Casey Jones was a ten day miner" on a Burleigh machine. Eventually he gets sloppy and is mortally injured. He wishes he had tried an Ingersoll jackhammer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining death technology derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 146-147, "Casey Jones, the Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Casey Jones (I)" [Laws G1] (tune, characters) and references there
File: LDC146

Casey's Whiskey

DESCRIPTION: Casey and the singer get drunk and meet policeman Flannigan. They invite him to have a drink. Although "drinking's against the law." Flannigan doesn't notice the bottle is empty. He takes Casey in but lets the singer go as too much of a handful.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous police
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 73, "Casey's Whiskey" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS073 (Partial)
Roud #1806
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dH51 in Laws's Appendix II. - BS
File: CrNS073

Cashel Green (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer is out walking when he sees a pretty girl. He tells her she has ensnared his heart. She says that that's his problem; men are always using lines like that. He promises to be faithful. She agrees to marry him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H647, p. 462, "Cashel Green (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9461
File: HHH647

Cashel Green (II)

DESCRIPTION: In 1878, landlord Campbell permits a race on Cashel Green. The race is won by the horse of McCloskey, "that youth of fifteen." The singer praises the horse and rider, describes the collection of bets, and wishes all well
AUTHOR: Francis Heaney ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: racing horse gambling
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H154, p. 33-34, "Cashel Green (II)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13353
File: HHH154

Cashmere Shawl, The

DESCRIPTION: A man criticizes a girl for ostentatiously wearing a cashmere shawl. She answers that she got it "by my hard earnings." Besides, he is dressed like a dandy himself. He says "with pride you are gone to the devil for wearing the cashmere shawl".
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: pride vanity clothes dialog
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 777-778, "The Cashmere Shawl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9942
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Clara Stevens, "The Cashmere Shawl" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea778

Casro, Manishi-O

DESCRIPTION: Travellers' cant. Singer asks a girl to come with him and takes his bagpipes out. After three or four years she has borne him four children; he brags of woman and children. She too brags; they can visit the public house and have money because of his pipes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (recorded from Davie Stewart)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Travellers' cant. Singer, riding through town, spies a girl. He asks her to go away with him and takes his bagpipes out; after glowering once at him, she goes. First they bed down in a barn, then in a Travellers' camp. After three or four years she has borne him four children; he calls all travellers and hawkers to look at him, for now he goes to town and plays his pipes, and has a woman and children. She brags about him in turn; she goes with him to the public house, and has money from his playing the pipes
KEYWORDS: pride courting love bragging travel music foreignlanguage children family lover Gypsy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 341, "Casro, Manishi-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2156
NOTES [8 words]: The title translates as "Greetings, woman-o." - PJS
File: K341

Cassino Town

DESCRIPTION: "There's a track winding back To some broken-down old shacks Along the road to Cassino town, Where the olive trees are growing, And the purple death is flowing...." The noise of Hitler's weapons is often heard; the road leads only to broken-down shacks
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1944 (according to Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: soldier war drink | Hitler World War II Cassino
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 93, "Cassino Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Clev093

Cassville Prisoner, The

DESCRIPTION: "To old Cassville they did me take, But did not chain me to an iron stake, The faults they swore was more than one, To send me on to Jefferson. Jefferson didn't bother my mind, It was leavin' you behind, To run around with other boys...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: prison crime separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 147, "The Cassville Prisoner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5485
NOTES [16 words]: "Jefferson" refers to Jefferson City, the long-time home of the Missouri State Penitentiary. - RBW
File: R147

Castaways, The

See The Silk Merchant's Daughter [Laws N10] (File: LN10)

Castel Frentano

DESCRIPTION: "There's a little village Just beyond the Sangro, Just a village on a hill, And though we're many weary miles Beyond the Sangro, That's where my thoughts Keep turning still. Oh, Castel Frentano... I'd rather be there Than in Milano, Castel Frentano."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: war nonballad
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 63, "Castel Frentano" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Clev063

Castle by the Sea (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "There was silence in the Castle, the 'cons' were fast asleep." The guards are on duty, but the prisoners manage to cut away their bars -- only to have to descend sixty feet to the ground. The singer's friend is recaptured, but will try again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Finger-FrontierBallads)
KEYWORDS: prison escape injury
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 24-28, "The Castle by the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8834
File: Fing024

Castle by the Sea (II), The

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Castle Gardens (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer, "convicted and... forced to go," leaves Ireland for America. He yearns for Ireland "where the dear little shamrock grows." He would return for his sweetheart, but she dies (of grief?) and is buried by the singer's father
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954
KEYWORDS: emigration transportation death Ireland
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 81-82, "Where the Green Shamrock Grows" (1 text)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 54, 149-150, "Castle Gardens" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #1455
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Apprentice Boy" [Laws M12] (theme)
cf. "My Name is McNamara" (exile theme and mention of Castle Garden)
NOTES [269 words]: Meredith and Anderson connect this with "Covent Gardens" (properly "The Apprentice Boy," Laws M12), but the plot (at least of their first version), although it has some similarities, is distinct. - RBW
Both Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder and Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia pp. 149-150 have the singer "evicted" by a landlord for owed back rent, rather than "convicted" as in Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia p. 54. While Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia p. 54 might lead you to believe that it is the singer's sweetheart that died and was buried by his father's side, Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia pp. 149-150 hints and Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder confirms that it is the singer's mother that died and was so buried.
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder includes the lines .".. the wind is blowing fair Full sail for Castlegarden"; in both Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia versions the line is "We're/I'm bound for Castle Gardens...." Castle Garden, before and again "Castle Clinton" at The Battery in New York, was entry point for immigrants between 1845 and 1890 [see, for example, "Castle Garden, New York" transcribed from The Illustrated American of March 1, 1890 at Norway-Heritage site]. One problem with using "Castle Garden" for dating is that the name may have remained synonymous with "entry point for New York" long after the building became the New York Aquarium. In my own family I heard about "Kesselgarten" sixty years after it closed although my grandfather arrived in New York in 1903.
For a similar Castle Garden(s) reference see the notes to "Good bye Mursheen Durkin." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: MA054

Castle Gate, The

DESCRIPTION: "So-and-so's at the castle gate, Open up the door and let her in." "She does a wiggle woggle, wiggle woggle, with her bum, Turn around and choose the one you love."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty love
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 101, "The Castle Gate" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: I'd love to know what the average parent thought upon catching children playing this particular game.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa101

Castle Hyde

DESCRIPTION: By Blackwater side the singer admires Castle Hyde's charming meadows, warbling thrushes, sporting lambkins, fine horses; foxes "play and hide," wild animals "skip and play," and trout and salmon rove. Whereever he rides he finds no equal to Castle Hyde.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3740))
KEYWORDS: nonballad lyric animal travel
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, p. 67, "Castlehyde" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 254-255, "Castlehyde"
Roud #2364
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "Castlehyde" (on IRPTunney03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3740), "Castle Hyde" ("As I rode out on a summer's morning"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(3739, Johnson Ballads 283[many illegible words], Firth c.26(96), Firth c.21(11), Firth b.25(486)[some illegible words], Harding B 11(323), Harding B 11(552), 2806 c.18(60), "Castle Hyde"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Last Rose of Summer" (tune, per Hoagland)
cf. "Groves of Blarney" (tune and theme, per Hoagland)
cf. "The Groves of Blarney" (theme: extravagant praise of Cork) and references there
NOTES [371 words]: Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(3740) is the basis for the description.
The Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder fragment is verse 5 of Hoagland [two lines of which are not in the Bodleian broadsides]. Hoagland's comment on "Castlehyde": "This song is commonly regarded as a type of the absurd English songs composed by some of the Irish peasant bards who knew English only imperfectly.... In burlesque imitation of this song, Richard Alfred Milliken of Cork composed the famous 'Groves of Blarney'; this song -- working as a sort of microbe -- gave origin to a number of imitations of the same general character." On p. 362 "Milliken at a party declared he could write a piece of absurdity that would surpass 'Castle Hyde'.... The Groves of Blarney was the result and Millikin became famous for it."
Castle Hyde is near River Blackwater in County Cork.
Croker has the beginning of the story. "An itinerant poet, with the view of being paid for his trouble, composed a song in praise (as he doubtless intended it) of Castle Hyde, the beautiful seat of the Hyde family on the river Blackwater; but, instead of the expected remuneration, the poor poet was driven from the gate by order of the then proprietor, who from the absurdity of the thing, conceived that it could be only meant as mockery; and, in fact, a more nonsensical composition could scarcely escape the pen of a maniac." (source: Thomas Crofton Croker, Popular Songs of Ireland (London, 1886), p. 137).
For other examples of "lambkins ... sporting" paired with birds sweetly singing, see "The Bonny Young Irish Boy" [Laws P26] and "Moorlough Mary." For more "literary" examples see "To the Portrait of Helen" (Works of Peter Pindar, Esq (1818, London ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. V, p. 376), and a poem by "a local [Northumberland] poet, Mr Proudlock," beginning "Flow on, lovely Allen" (William Lee, Historical Notes of Haydon Bridge and District, (1876, Hexham ("Digitized by Google")), p. 12), and Robert Porter's 1749 "A Farewell Hymn to the Country Attempted in the Manner of Spenser's Epithalamion" (The Poetical Register and Repository of Fugitive Poetry for 1804 (London, 1806 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 407). - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: TST067

Castle of Dromore, The (Caislean Droim an Oir)

DESCRIPTION: "October winds lament around the Castle of Dromore, But peace is in her lofty halls...." The mother comforts her child: none cannot threaten them, and Mary is watching. She bids the child "take time to thrive" before moving on to adult tasks
AUTHOR: unknown (English words, at least, by Harold Boulton)
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recorded by Richard Hayward)
KEYWORDS: lullaby nonballad children foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 154-155, "The Castle of Dromore (Caislean Droim an Oir)" (2 texts (1 English, 1 Irish Gaelic), 1 tune)
Behan-IrelandSings, #17, "The Castle of Drumboe" (1 text, 1 tune, heavily modified to give a political sense)
DT, CASTDROM
ADDITIONAL: Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), p. 5, "The Castle of Dromore" (text, music and reference to Decca F-2266 recorded Feb 6, 1931)
Roud #31057
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Castle of Dromore" (on IRClancyMakem02)
NOTES [74 words]: This song has always suggested a political subtext to me. -PJS
Really? (Or are you looking at the Behan-IrelandSings version?)
This song exists in both English and Irish versions; both have been claimed to be original. As best I can tell, the correct Gaelic title is "Caislean Droim an Óir." - RBW
The date and master id (GB-2647-1/2) for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: SBoA154

Castle of Drumboe, The

See The Castle of Dromore (Caislean Droim an Oir) (File: SBoA154)

Castle on the River Nile

DESCRIPTION: "In my castle on the River Nile I'm gonna live in elegant style, Inlaid diamonds on the floor And a baboon butler at my door. I'm gonna marry that princess Anna Mazoo/Kalamazoo And my blood's gonna change from red to blue... In my castle on..."
AUTHOR: Words: James Weldon Johnson and Bob Cole / music: James Rosamond Johnson (source: Jim Dixon in mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: MY CASTLE ON THE NILE")
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 ("Sons of Ham," according to Jim Dixon in mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: MY CASTLE ON THE NILE")
KEYWORDS: royalty marriage river campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 236, "Castle on the River Nile" (notes only)
NOTES [189 words]: The camp song version is only the chorus of the original song, which is in part about the difficulty of rising in the world; the singer wants to go back to his ancestral homeland. The song is apparently from the musical "Sons of Ham," produced in 1900. Apparently it was also used in "In Dahomey," which was far more famous.
There are a number of ironies in the song. For starters, the nation of Dahomey (which is part of modern Benin) is nowhere near the Nile.
Second, since the original is obviously a "coon song," it was sung by a Black performer. There are, of course, Blacks who live along the upper Nile. But when one thinks of a castle on the Nile, the nation that surely springs first to mind is Egypt -- and the residents of Egypt are not Blacks as the term is usually defined today -- and never were. It is true that Genesis 10:6 makes Mizraim (the Hebrew name for Egypt, and so translated e.g. in the New Revised Standard Version) one of the sons of Ham. But the Ptolemies, who ruled Egypt in the pre-New Testament era, were Macedonians (sons of Japeth), and the population now is Arabic, and Arabic is a Semitic language. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF236C

Castlebar Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: Pat says "I am a boy from ould Ireland ... the darlings they call me the Castlebar boy ... I will fight for the [forefather's] sod." He goes to England and none could beat him at reaping and mowing. The English should not take every Irishman for a fool
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: courting travel farming England Ireland
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 94, "The Castlebar Boy" (1 text)
Roud #19486
NOTES [5 words]: Castlebar is in County Mayo. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OCon094

Castlehyde

See Castle Hyde (File: TST067)

Castlemaine

DESCRIPTION: "Now Herechi told the council, Said much benefit they'd reap," offering to survey the town for a low price, though the surveyors say he will cost more. The song lists the various odd locals -- the excess barber, the incompetent drivers and fishermen
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: humorous moniker worker money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 69-71, "Castlemaine" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [29 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: AnSo069

Castlepollard Massacre, The

DESCRIPTION: Castlepollard fair was peaceful "until the Peelers were brought out to raise a riot there ... their chief he bade them fire." The "murderers" were sent to jail but freed after "a sham trial"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (_Dublin Evening Mail_, August 8, 1831, according to Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: violence death Ireland political police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 21, 1831 - "Seventeen people were killed by the police at Castlepollard ... in one of the bloodiest affrays of the Tithe War. An inquest followed but the policemen were finally acquitted of the charge of murder." (source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 40, "A New Song Called the Castlepollard Massacre" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Carrickshock" (subject: The Tithe War) and references there
cf. "Dicky in the Yeomen" (subject: Castlepollard)
NOTES [202 words]: The context is "The Tithe War": O'Connell's Catholic Association was formed in 1823 to resist the requirement that Irish Catholics pay tithes to the Anglican Church of Ireland. The "war" was passive for most of the period 1823-1836, though there were violent incidents in 1831 (source: The Irish Tithe War 1831 at the OnWar.com site)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 18: "In the early 1830's a veritable state of insurrection prevailed in Leinster and Munster, when the military and the police were called in to assist in collecting the tithes or seizing and auctioning the cattle or crops of those who refused to pay."
Sir Robert Peel established the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1812 and its success led, in 1829, to the Metropolitan Police Act for London. Originally the term "Peeler" applied to the London constabulary. (source: Sir Robert "Bobby" Peel (1788-1850) at Historic UK site.)
Castlepollard is in County Westmeath, about 50 miles northwest of Dublin. - BS
There was certainly a tendency for police to fire on crowds in Ireland. But I checked six histories without finding an account of this particular tragedy, at least under this title. One suspects more was going on than the song reveals. - RBW
File: Zimm040

Castlereagh River, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm travelling down the Castlereigh, and I'm a stationhand...." The singer mentions all the stops he's made, and all his reasons for leaving (non-union Chinese workers, an arrogant boss, etc.). He advises, "So shift, boys, shift...."
AUTHOR: claimed by A.B. "Banjo" Paterson (1864-1941)
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (The _Bulletin_)
KEYWORDS: Australia work travel
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 45-46, 83-84, "The Old Jig-Jog"; p. 57, "Travelling Down the Castlereagh; pp. 210-211, "A Bushman's Song" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, pp. 93-94, "THe Old Jig Jog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, "A Bushman's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 132-133, "Travelling Down the Castlereigh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 290-293, "A Bushman's Song" (1 text)
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 14, page headed "Joe Watson has always..."], "A Bushman's Song" (1 text)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 158-159, "Travelling Down the Castlereigh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 171-173, "A Bushman's Song" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 196-197, "A Bushman's Song" (1 text)
DT, CSTLREAG
ADDITIONAL: A. B. "Banjo" Paterson, "The Works of 'Banjo' Paterson" [with an anonymous introduction], Wordsworth Poetry Library, 1995, pp. 66-67, "A Bushman's Song" (1 text)
Roud #8399
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "The Castlereagh River" (on JGreenway01)
NOTES [452 words]: Paterson's title for this was "A Bushman's Song," and this is the title used by Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong and others -- but it is perhaps noteworthy that few traditional singers knew it by that title.... Joe Cashmere, when he supplied a version of the song to John Meredith, believed he learned it before Paterson published the song. But, as Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition note, it's hard to prove it predated Paterson.
What's more, it cannot have preceded Paaterson by much, because of the reference to non-union shearers. According to O'Keeffe, p. 113, the first attempt to unionize shearers came in 1885 -- and it failed. It wasn't until William Spence, who had successfully unionized Australian miners, took charge that progress was made. A decisive factor was a proposal by the owners to cut shearers' pay by an eighth (O'Keeffe, p. 115). The Amalgamated Shearers' Union started to be significant in the late 1880s (O'Keeffe, p. 117), causing some stations to hire non-union shearers. Thus this song, if not by Paterson, still must have been composed at most three or four years before its appearance in The Bulletin. And The Bulletin was where Paterson first made his mark, publishing his works as "The Banjo," without a surname (O'Keeffe, pp. 104-105). I have a certain tendency to doubt authorship claims by Paterson, but I think this one is genuinely his.
The slur on (non-Union) Chinamen shearing is patently unfair. Yes, any Chinese shearers would have been non-Union. But that was not necessarily their choice. "Clause 62 of the rules of the Amalgamated Shearers' Union of Australia specifically stipulated that 'no Chinese or South Sea Islander shall be enrolled as members of A. S. U. of Australia'" (O'Keeffe, p. 167).
Manifold, p. 127, says, "Paterson wrote what he called 'A Bushman's Song' quite early in his career; but he can hardly haveintended what heppened then; for the words got up off the printed page, went bush, and grew themselves a whole set of folktunes there. 'A Bushman's Song' became, without capitals or quotation marks, genuinely a bushman's song."
Davey/Seal, p. 253, say this is usually sung to the tune of the humorous Irish song "Pat from Mullingar." This is a bit of a conundrum. There is a song in the Index, "Pat of Mullingar," which predates this piece, and the tune fits Paterson's lyric -- but it isn't humorous and it isn't the tune Greenway sings. There is another song "Pat from Mullingar" or "Pat of Mullingar," which also fits -- but it's about the IRA and mentions the Black and Tans, so it must have been composed after World War I (probably well after), and also well after this piece. So I'm not sure which tune is meant. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: MA045

Castleroe Mill

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl on Lammas Day. He tells her that he has saved up enough to emigrate to Canada, and asks if she will go with him. She cannot leave; her parents are "on the decline." He departs but hopes he can return to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection father mother emigration age
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H22b, p. 361, "Castleroe Mill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4719
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We'd Better Bide a Wee" (theme)
cf. "Betsy of Dramoor" (theme)
File: HHH022b

Castles in the Air

See English Miner, The (The Coolgardie Miner, Castles in the Air) (File: MA115)

Castles in Toviska

DESCRIPTION: Czech (Moravian), translated as "Toviska, Toviska, Castles in Toviska, Were there no lassies, I'd ne'er be a soldier." " Hoo-ya, hoo-ya-ya (x3), Ya-ya-ya. "Toviska, Toviska, I will sing Toviska, Sweetheart at home,I will never forget you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: English version 1950 (John Walter Beattie and William Charles Bridgman, The American Singer, Vol. 7, according to Jim Dixon on mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: Castles in Tovishka? (Toviska)")
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage soldier love separation campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 146, 498, "Castles in Toviska"/"Toviska" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "Toviska" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 24)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 11 "Toviska" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [120 words]: The mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: Castles in Tovishka? (Toviska)" has a post by Jim Dixon describing the earliest printings of the English version of the song. A poster supplied these Czech lyrics:
Tovačov, Tovačov, tovačovský zámek
nebyl bych vojákem dyby ne galánek.
Hujá, hujaja, hujá, hujaja
hujá, hujaja, hujajaja.

Tovačov, Tovačov, tovačovský hatě
nemohu, má milá, zapomenout na tě.
Jednou zapomenu, po druhé vzpomenu,
po třetí chodníček slzama poleju.
So the correct name ot the place should be roughly "Tovachov." But no one seems to have found the translator. Tovačov is a town in the eastern part of the Czech Republic (so it really is Moravian), about a third of the way along a line from Brno to Ostrava. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF146C

Casto Hole, The

DESCRIPTION: "Far in the woods on Upper Tug, they wrap ol' Union in a rug"; amid Confederate sympathizers, the Castos rally around (and hide in) a cave, "the Casto Hole." Various people set out from the cave and eventually flee back
AUTHOR: Eliah Power? (source: Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2)
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 22-23, "The Casto Hole" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 25, "The Casto Hole" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Roud #7015
NOTES [181 words]: Bush's notes to this say, Although this song never became widely distributed, it is well known in Jackson County where it originated. During the Civil War, most of Jackson County backed the Conferderacy. The large Casto family, however, remained loyal to the Federal Union. Because of their pro-Union activities -- in particular, their association with the so-called 'Underground Railroad' -- the Castos were forced to 'hole up' in a cave near Statts Mill."
This is more than a little odd. West Virginia became a state because the population didn't want to be part of the Confederacy. Not all West Virginians of course agreed with this, but Jackson County was fairly far north and likely to have been pro-Union. And the Underground Railroad didn't really need to operate during the Civil War -- even before the Emancipation Proclamation, runaways would have been taken as "contraband." So the only time this would have made any sense was in 1861, probably when George McClellan was operating in the area. This is possible, of course, but there is no hint of it in Bush's excerpt. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Boet 025

Castor Oil

DESCRIPTION: "C-a-s-t-o-r O-i-l spells castor oil, It's the only decent kind of medicine, Guy who made it must have been an Edison, C-a-s-t-o-r O-i-l you see. It's a lick on a spoon, guaranteed to kill you soon It's castor oil for me!"
AUTHOR: Music ("Harrigan, That's Me") by George M. Cohan
EARLIEST DATE: 2003 (mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: L-o-double l-i-p-o-p spells lollipop")
KEYWORDS: medicine wordplay nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 162-163, "Davenport" (1 text, tune referenced, consisting f the verses of "Davenport," "Castor Oil," and "Lollypop")
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 266, "Castor Oil" (notes, plus 6 texts labeled "Lollypop" on pp. 270-275; of these six, the "Lollypop" verse is found in A, C, D, E, F; "Castor Oil" is in A, D, E; "Davenport" is in D; and A, B, C, E, F have other material as well; bibliography on pp.671-673)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Harrigan" (tune) and references there
NOTES [36 words]: This is often sung as part of "Lollypop," which is among the most popular of all camp songs and with which it shares the "Harrigan" tune, but apparently it circulated separately as well, so I'm keeping it separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF266C

Castration of the Strawberry Roan, The

DESCRIPTION: The roan's owner, tired of it siring equally stubborn offspring, decides to put an end to the matter by gelding the beast. They rope it down, and a cowboy commences the operation. Before it can be completed, the roan bites off the owner's own equipment
AUTHOR: probably Curley Fletcher
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Legman, _The Horn Book_, cites the Sons of the Pioneers recording)
KEYWORDS: horse humorous bawdy injury derivative
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 13, pp. 86-96, "The Castration of the Strawberry Roan" (3 texts, of which "A" is this, 1 tune)
Roud #10089
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous [Sons of the Pioneers], "Strawberry Roan" (no label, number 204-A, n.d. but probably late 1940s)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Strawberry Roan" [Laws B18] (tune, character of the Roan)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Emasculation of the Strawberry Roan
NOTES [189 words]: The story of this song apparently begins in a fit of pique.
According to Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging, Curley Fletcher wrote the original "Strawberry Roan" as a poem, to which a melody was later added. But Fletcher didn't write the chorus/bridge, which was the work of Fred Howard and Nat Vincent. So he produced this extremely anatomical parody to get back at them.
How traditional it is is an open question. The Sons of the Pioneers recorded it, anonymously, and Baxter Black sang Logsdon a variant on that. Legman, on p. 404 of The Horn Book, considers it one of the few genuine songs on a "private party" 78. But I suspect the Sons of the Pioneers recording is the source for nearly all of the few versions collected.
Logsdon's entry on this song includes two other Strawberrry Roan variants that could not be sung in polite society. One was simply a more detailed saga of riding the roan; the other is about a visit to a whorehouse and is basically "Kathusalem (Kafoozelum) (II)" adapted to cowboy circumstances. These two might be traditional, but until I find additional collections, I'm merely going to note them.- RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Logs013

Cat and Her Kittens, The

DESCRIPTION: "The cat and her kittens reclined in the sun, Mew! Mew! Mew! They're fond of their food and they're fond of their fun," and they sing "Mew!" together. Mother tells them that they will have their own homes; they should kill mice, not kill birds, avoid dogs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook)
KEYWORDS: animal mother warning
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook 5, "The Cat and Her Kittens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22139
File: BrGr004

Cat Came Back, The

DESCRIPTION: (Old Mister Johnson) makes many attempts to rid himself of his cat -- blowing it up, shipping it away, etc. But in every instance "The cat came back the very next day... They thought he was a goner, but the kitty came back...."
AUTHOR: probably Harry S. Miller
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (sheet music attributed to Henry S. Miller); as a traditional piece, 1924 (recording, Fiddlin' John Carson)
KEYWORDS: animal separation return humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Randolph 444, "The Cat Came Back" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 350-352, "The Cat Came Back" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 444)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 144-145, "The Yaller Cat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, p. 147, "The Cat Came Back" (fragmentary text, partial tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 400, "The Cat Came Back" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 233, 325, 418, "The Cat Came Back" (notes only)
DT, CATBACK CATBACK2
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 52-54, "The Cat Came Back" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the sheet music)
Roud #5063
RECORDINGS:
Yodeling Slim Clark, "The Cat Came Back" (Continental 8063, n.d.)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Cat Came Back" (Okeh 40119, 1924)
Riley Puckett, "The Cat Came Back" (Columbia 15656-D, 1931; rec. 1930) (Decca 5442, 1937)
Fiddlin' Doc Roberts, "And The Cat Came Back" (instrumental) (Challenge 307, 1927; Silvertone 8179, 1928)
NOTES [94 words]: Spaeth, in A History of Popular Music in America, p. 265, says that Harry S. Miller's version of this song was popular in 1893. (Spaeth once calls him "Henry S. Miller," but uses "Harry" thereafter.) The sheet music is copyrighted in this year and proclaims it "The Song that Beats 'McGinty,' and shows a cat with a paw in a sling and a bandage over an eye. The sheet music is in dialect, and has only two verses and a chorus somewhat different from the one I've heard.
Thanks to Jim Dixon for pointing out to me that Miller used the name "Harry," not "Henry." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R444

Cat Came Fiddling Out of a Barn, A

See The Fly and the Bumblebee (Fiddle-Dee-Dee) (File: Lins196)

Cat Has Kittled in Charlie's Wig, The

See The Grey Cat Kittled in Charlie's Wig (File: MSNR040)

Cat Played Fiddie on My Fee, The

See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

Cat That Walked By Himself, The

DESCRIPTION: "Pussy can sit by the fire and sing, Pussy can climb a tree... To amuse herself, not me. But I like Blinky, my dog, because He knows how to behave. Blinky's the same as the First Friend was And I am the man in the cave"
AUTHOR: Rudyard Kipling (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (Just So Stories, according to Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: friend dog | cat
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 144, "Pussy can sit by the fire and sing" (1 short text)
Roud #25537
File: KSUC144B

Cat's Eye

DESCRIPTION: "I was going up the hill, I met a girl on a bicycle, Run her into the garden wall, Smashed her tire and broke her fall," and more rhymes like that. The chorus likens Jim to a cat eating fish-bones, scratching, on the fence at night, a "cat's eye"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad nonsense animal food
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 108, "Cat's Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab108 (Partial)
Roud #9972
File: LLab108

Cat's Got the Measles and the Dog's Got Whooping Cough, The

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses; "Cat's got the measles and the dog's got whooping cough, doggone/Doggone a man let a woman be his boss, doggone my time" "I ain't good looking... but my main occupation's takin' women from their monkey men...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Walter Smith)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Floating verses; "Cat's got the measles and the dog's got whooping cough, doggone/Doggone a man let a woman be his boss, doggone my time" "I ain't good looking and my teeth don't shine like pearls, doggone..." "...but my main occupation's takin' women from their monkey men, doggone my time"
KEYWORDS: sex bragging floatingverses nonballad | cat dog whooping cough
FOUND IN: US
Roud #22731
RECORDINGS:
Alabama Sheiks "Lawdy Lawdy Blues" (Victor 23265, 1931)
Papa Charlie Jackson, "The Cat's Got the Measles" (Paramount 12259, 1925)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Cat's Got the Measles and the Dog's Got Whooping Cough" (NLCR14, NLCRCD2)
Walter "Kid" Smith, "The Cat's Got the Measles and the Dog's Got Whooping Cough" (Gennett 6825/Champion 15772/Supertone 9407 [as by Jerry Jordon], 1929; on GoodForWhatAilsYou)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Cow Died of Whooping Cough" (theme of animal disease) and references there
NOTES [58 words]: Other than the similarity in title, this song has nothing in common with "Sow Took the Measles", not even enough for a cross-reference. - PJS
There is also "Old Cow Died of Whooping Cough," which also has a somewhat similar title but not much else in common. See that song for information about measles in particular, and its occurence in animals. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcCGTMDG

Cat's in the Well, The

See Ding, Dong, Bell (File: OO2134)

Catalina Madalina

DESCRIPTION: "Catalina Madalina Whoopastina Wilamina Oopsy Doopsy Woopsy was her name." "She had two eyes that were in her head One was yellow and the other was red." "She had two teeth in her mouth One pointed east and the other pointed south"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonsense campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 176-177, "Catalina Magdalena" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 289, 293, 318, 517, "Catalina Madalina"/"Catalina Matalina" (notes only)
Roud #12800
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Madal'na catal'na
Agdalena
NOTES [28 words]: It appears this was turned into an illustrated book, "Catalina Magdalena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan Was Her Name" by Ted Arnold. I haven't seen it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF289C

Catalina Magdalena

See Catalina Madalina (File: ACSF289C)

Catalina Matalina

See Catalina Madalina (File: ACSF289C)

Catalpa, The

See The Fenian's Escape (The Catalpa) (File: FaE056)

Catch a Fish, Put It in a Dish

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Catch a fish, Put it in a dish. Catch a mucket (?), Put it in a pocket. Catch a hen, Put it in a pen." And so forth, through as many rhymes as one can remember
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Midwest Folklore, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope fishing bird
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #57, "Catch a Fish" (1 text)
File: AJRR057

Catch a Pickled Herring

DESCRIPTION: "Catch a pickled herring, put it in a barrel, Watch the neighbors move away." ""Catch a pickled herring, put it in a barrel, No matter what your friends may say."
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 2023 (Derek Piotr collection)
KEYWORDS: humorous derivative food
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
The Crofut Family, "Catch a Pickled Herring" (Piotr-Archive #668, recorded 09/17/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Catch a Falling Star" (tune)
NOTES [45 words]: This is sung to (the chorus of) "Catch a Falling Star," words by Lee Pockriss, music by Paul Vance, recorded in 1957 by Perry Como. Presumably, then, the song dates from after that. The Crofuts did not sing it as a round, but I wonder if it wasn't intended to be one. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio668

Catch Me If You Can

DESCRIPTION: A man -- sometimes a soldier -- seduces a pretty girl. She asks his name. He answers "Catch-me-if-you-can." He leaves, sometimes for service overseas. Her parents either catch him or he escapes overseas and the girl has a baby.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: seduction sex virginity abandonment manhunt childbirth father mother soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 20, "Catch Me If You Can" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 329, "Catch Me If You Can" (1 text)
Roud #1028
File: ReCi020

Catch of the Season

DESCRIPTION: "Now we are facing a wonderful future, Gone are the winters we've always endured": unemployment insurance for fishermen. After 20 weeks of rated hauls, "sit back and do nothing for the rest of the year"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (NFOBlondahl02, NFOBlondahl03, NFOBlondahl05)
KEYWORDS: fishing unemployment political humorous nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1957 - Canada extends unemployment insurance to fishers (see notes)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Catch of the Season" (on NFOBlondahl02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Unemployment Insurance" (theme)
NOTES [122 words]: Source of Historical Reference: History of Newfoundland and Labrador Summary Chronology of Events by Dr. Melvin Baker (Royal Commission on Renewing and Strengthening Our Place in Canada, March 2003), available as bakerchronology.pdf as a research paper at the Newfoundland and Labrador government site of the Royal Commission on Renewing and Strengthening Our Place in Canada
Blondahl02, NFOBlondahl03, and NFOBlondahl05 have no liner notes confirming that this song was collected in Newfoundland. Nevertheless, this seems so much in the Newfoundland style that I am "finding" it there.
There is no entry for "Catch of the Season" in Newfoundland Songs and Ballads in Print 1842-1974 A Title and First-Line Index by Paul Mercer. - BS
File: RcTCOTSe

Catfish Blues

DESCRIPTION: "If I were a catfish swimming deep down in the blue sea These gals setting out hooks for me." "I went down to the church house on my knees to pray, Not a word to say." "I'm going to write a letter to see See my baby hanging her little old thing for me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (recording, Robert Petway)
KEYWORDS: courting sex bawdy nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Robert Petway, "Catfish Blues" (Bluebird B8838, 1941)
Moses Williams, "Catfish Blues" (on USFlorida01)

File: RcCatfBl

Catfish, The (Banjo Sam)

DESCRIPTION: "Catfish, catfish, goin' up stream, Catfish, catfish, where you been? I grabbed that catfish by the snout, I pulled that catfish inside out, Yo-ho! Banjo Sam." Other verses also tall tales, usually involving animals, e.g. the terrapin and the toad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians)
KEYWORDS: animal nonsense talltale floatingverses fishing humorous music
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 182, "The Catfish" (1 text plus 3 fragments)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 251, "The Jackfish" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 98, (no title) (1 single-stanza text, regarding the terrapin and the toad, which could be from this or almost anything else); also p. 199, (no title) (1 fragment, probably from this though it's too short to tell)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), p. 91, "Cat Fish" (1 fragment, 1 tune, perhaps this)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Charles Bond, "Unpublished Folklore in the Brown Collection," Vol. XX, No. 1 (Feb 1972), pp. 15-16, "Miss Lucy, or Twistification" (1 text, with chorus "Roll on the floor (x3), Till life's roll is o'er" and verses "I went down to see Miss Lucy, Oh, I'd never been there before" and "As I was a-goin' down the road, I met a rabbit and I met a toad"; although the game "Twistification" is sometimes linked with "Weevily Wheat," the verses look more like "The Catfish (Banjo Sam)" and perhaps "Roll on the Ground (Big Ball's in Town)" or "Karo Song")
Roud #7010
RECORDINGS:
Poplin Family, "Catfish" (on Poplin01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Turkey in the Straw" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Sweet Heaven" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (fish story)
NOTES [81 words]: This is complicated, because every one of Brown's verses is associated with "Turkey in the Straw." But the three texts all lack that chorus, and "A" has a "banjo Sam" chorus line of its own. And apparently all had a different tune. When in doubt, we split. - RBW
For some reason, this song makes me think of "Whoa Back Buck," but not quite enough for a cross-reference. It almost certainly derives from minstrel sources, and shouldn't be confused with the popular "Catfish Blues." - PJS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Vr3182

Catharine Johnstone

See Katharine Jaffray [Child 221] (File: C221)

Cathedral of Rheims

DESCRIPTION: "It's midnight, and as by the hearth The fading embers glow, And visions they come to me... Of Europe and her mighty war." The singer notes in particular the suffering of Belgium, and the palace of Rheims. He begs God, "Bring peace to then once more."
AUTHOR: Words: John J. Friend
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: war nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 190-191, "Cathedral of Rheims" (1 text)
NOTES [800 words]: Rheims (also spelled Reims) is one of the oldest and most storied cities in France. Legend has it that Clovis the Frank was baptized there in 496, marking (in effect) the beginning of the Frankish Empire (Webster's, p. 1005). Archbishop Tilpinus of Rheims seems to have been inspired the name of the Archbishop Turpin of the Song of Roland (Roland/Sayers, p. 18). We have a record of Charlemagne leaving gifts to the Archbishopric in his will (Einhard, p. 88). French kings were crowned there starting with Philip Augustus (Webster's, p. 1005); even in medieval times, the policy seems to have been inviolate: You weren't king until you went to Rheims, and once you were crowned there, all succession questions ended. (This would be key during the Hundred Years's War, at the time of Jean Darc.)
That history was not enough to protect it during World War I, when nothing was sacred. The city is east and somewhat north of Paris, and was directly in the path of the Schlieffen Plan for attacking France. 35 days after the start of the beginning of German mobilization, the Kaiser himself exulted to know that Rheims was under siege (Keegan, p. 112). The town, in fact, was near the pivot of the attack, in the area of Hausen's Third Army (Stokesbury, p. 51), which was the easternmost of the three armies which constituted Schlieffen's great wheel. The Third Army, strong because it was part of the wheel and relatively rested because it had less ground to cover than the Second and First armies to the west, probably hit harder than any other force in the German advance.
Eventually the Germans made it past the city (see the map on Keegan, pp. 124-125). But after the great Battle of the Marne saved Paris, the Germans shortened their lines. Rheims fell back into French hands -- but just barely. The French front ran just north of it; Rheims was actually inside a small salient into the German trench lines. According to Keegan, p. 126, the French battle plans were frequently "hindered by their need to hold Rheims, recaptured on 12 September."
And the city was not to enjoy calm. In the fighting around the city, it was "subjected to devastating bombardment in the days that followed; the damage done to its famous cathedral, outside which stands the statue of Joan of Arc, would cause as much discredit to the invaders as the sack of Louvain a month later" (Keegan, p. 126).
The relief of Rheims did not end the city's ordeal. After the Marne, the Germans and the Allies engaged in the "Race to the Sea" -- a contest to get a force around the enemy's eastern flank. Both sides threw all their available reserves (including the new units they continued to mobilize) into the Race. The eastern part of the front was left quiet, which meant that "From Rheims to the Swiss fronter, therefore, the Germans... [were] carrying out Moltke's order of 10 September to 'entrench and hold' the positions held after the retreat from the Marne" (Keegan, p. 179). Rheims remained "within range of German artillery for most of the war" (Keegan, p. 185).
Nor was this the end of major operations in the area. In February 13, the French tried an offensive between Rheims and Massiges; as Baldwin notes on p. 54, "the French gained yards and lost thousands, though the Germans, too, died in droves." Another attempt was made in September 1915 (Stokesbury, pp. 98-99), with an equal lack of results in terms of ground gained and an equally long result in terms a Frenchmen killed because their leaders belonged to the Donald Rumsfeld school of "we'll do it the same brainless way until it works." The 1915 Rheims offensives were supposedly coordinated with the British (Liddell Hart, p. 195). That served only to prove that two inept offensives are just as ineffective as one.
One presumes this poem was written in response to the situation in 1914 or 1915 (since it was published by 1916), But Rheims was still not safe. The third of the great Ludendorff Offensives of 1918 was just west of Rhiems (see the map on p. 396 of Keegan), and left the city in a salient; the fifth offensive was to be centered on the city itself (Stokesburg, pp. 278-279). The fifth offensive failed, and Rheims held, but the fight did further damage.
That was, finally, the last. When the Ludendorff Offensives burned out in July 1918, the Germans were still far from Paris, and their army was nearly used up, and over the next few months, the Americans started to arrive in force. Hindenburg, the theoretical German commander in chief, was yelling at his subordinate Ludendorff, "Make peace, you idiot!" (Stokesbury, p. 280), but it would be three months and more before the peace came. Rheims was finally safe, but many more soldiers would die before the French and Germans had their chance to dictate a peace of retribution. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: Gray191

Catherine Berringer

DESCRIPTION: Broadside account of a murder: "Muse breathe the Dirge o'er Delia's tomb...." "She from the man she once did love... received the fatal cup... And drunk the poison up." "O Bernard t'was a barbarous deed." The girl hopes others will mourn her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide poison
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 36-37, "An Eulogy on the Death of MISS CATHERINE BERRINGER who was poisoned by her lover" (1 text, excerpted)
NOTES [40 words]: Don't ask me why the girl is named Catherine but called Delia (and the poem uses the name "Delia" at least twice). Whatever the girl's real name, it's at least as dreadful as the quoted sections -- and pretty definitely not traditional. - RBW
File: Burt036

Catherine Etait Fille (Catherine was a Girl)

DESCRIPTION: French. Catherine is the king's daughter. Her mother is a Christian but her father is not. Her father finds her praying. She says that she prays to God, but he does not. He kills her with his sabre. Catherine is in heaven, but her father is not.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage homicide religious father royalty questions violence crime death discrimination Hell
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 154-155, "Catherine Etait Fille" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Laura McNeil, "Catherine Etait Fille" (on MRHCreighton)
NOTES [110 words]: The description is based on the translation in the notes to MRHCreighton. - BS
There are a number of early Christian legends about this sort of martyrdom. (Interesting that the name "Katherine" is from Greek καθαρος, "katharos," "pure.") This one doesn't ring any bells as written, though. The closest I can think of is the story of St. Barbara, whose father, upon learning she was Christian, had her turned over to the pagan authorities and executed. But he didn't do it himself. The name "Katherine" might perhaps have come in from Catherine of Alexandria, who allegedly died in 310 at the hands of the pagan emperor Maxentius. But that' just speculation. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CrMa154

Catherine Street

DESCRIPTION: "Ae day I wandered a' alane, Ma thochts contrived tae mak me greet, It wis on a wee bit skelp o grund That aince wis kent as Catherine Street." The area has been demolished as unfit to live in. The singer wishes he could be with the people who lived there
AUTHOR: Jim Reid (source: Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: home homesickness
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 77, "Catherine Street" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Gath077

Cathie and Me

DESCRIPTION: "The sun kissed the brow of lovely Ben Ledi And wrapt it in raiment of rainbowlike hue" as the singer strolls with Cathie. They enjoy the charms of nature, and he thanks the fates that brought them together
AUTHOR: Walter Towers
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads); reportedly published by Towers in 1885
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 59-60, "Cathie and Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5570
File: Ord059

Catholic Dogs

DESCRIPTION: "Catholic dogs Jump like frogs (stink like dogs, etc.), Don't eat meat on Friday." Or "Catholic, Catholic, Ring the bell."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal food
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 126-127, "(Catholic dogs)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Protestant Dogs" (answer to this piece)
File: SuSm126F

Cats on the Rooftops

DESCRIPTION: Stanzas on how various animals (people, military stuffed shirts, politicians) "revel in the joys of fornication"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950
KEYWORDS: sex animal soldier bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SW) Canada Britain(England)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 368-372, "Cats on the Rooftops" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 54-56, "Cats on the Rooftop" (1 text)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 174-175, "Cats on the Rooftops" (1 text plus some variants, 1 tune)
DT, CATSROOF* CATROOF2*
Roud #10258
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Peel" (tune)
File: EM368

Catskin

DESCRIPTION: A king's daughter is forced to leave home. She hides her rich clothes and dresses in the skins of donkeys/cats. She takes service with a lord, and when he holds a ball, appears in her fine clothes. He seeks her and learns she is Catskin. They marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland); as a folktale, it is clearly older
KEYWORDS: love courting disguise servant royalty trick clothes marriage incest
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 335-342, "The Wandering Young Gentlewoman" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 177-179, "CAtskin I: The Wandering Gentlewoman's Garland"; "Catskin II: The Princess and the Golden Cow" (2 prose versions, one of them summarized)
Maria Tatar, editor, _The Classic Fairy Tales_, A Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1999, pp. 109-116, "Donkeyskin"; pp. 122-125, "Catskin" (2 prose versions, one of them a translation)
Maria Tatar, _The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales_, edited and with an Introduction by Maria Tatar, Norton, 2002, pp. 212-228, "Donkeyskin" (1 prose version, a translation from Perrault)
Jack Zipes, _The Great Fairy Tale Tradition_, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 2001, pp. 26-50, section on Incestuous Fathers, "Tebaldo," "The Bear, "Donkey-Skin," "All Fur" (4 prose versions, translations from Giovan Francesco Straparola, Giambattista Basile, Perrault, and the Grimms)
ST BeCo335 (Partial)
Roud #20165
NOTES [99 words]: I have no evidence that this was ever an actual song. But the tale of Catskin/Donkeyskin is a very common folktale, as the ADDITIONAL references indicate, so I've included it.
According to Jack Zipes, editor, The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales: The Western fairy tale tradition from medieval to modern, Oxford, 2000, p. 134, the tale was already popular when Charles Perrault created his "Donkey-skin" version; Zipes pushes its literary heritage back to Sraparola's "Doralice" ("Tebaldo") and Basile's "L'Orza." He also notes a twentieth century movie version featuring Catherine Deneuve. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: BeCo335

Cattern and Clemen Be Here, Here, Here

See Souling Song (File: BGMG408)

Cattie Rade to Paisley, The

DESCRIPTION: The cat rode to Paisley on a harrow tine and lept home on the singer's mare. It was on a windy Wednesday, if the singer remembers rightly
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonsense animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #154, p. 2, ("The cattie rade to Paisley") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1676, "The Cattie Rade to Paisley" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #41, p. 33, ("The cattie rade tae Paisley, tae Paisley, tae Paisley")
Roud #13023
File: GrD81676

Cattie Sits in the Kiln Ring, The

DESCRIPTION: "The cattie sat in the kiln-ring, Spinning, spinning, And by cam a little wee mousie, Running, running." Cat and mouse converse about their activities: The cat spinning a sark for its kit; the mouse cleaning and thieving. (The cat eats the mouse)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Jacobs); there is said to be a parallel fragment somewhere in Halliwell
KEYWORDS: animal clothes food money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 195, "(The cattie sat in the kiln-ring)" (1 text)
DT, CATSPIN
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 513-514, "The Cattie Sits in the Kiln-Ring Spinning" (1 text)
Katherine Briggs, _British Folktales_ (originally published in 1970 as _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales), revised 1977 (I use the 1977 Pantheon paperback edition), 102-103, "The Cattie Sits in the Kiln-Ring Spinning" (1 text, the same as the above)
Joseph Jacobs, collector, _English Fairy Tales_, originally published 1890; revised edition 1898 (I use the 1967 Dover paperback reprint), pp. 48-50, "Mouse and Mouser" (1 text)
File: MSNR195

Catting the Anchor

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Moderate 3/4 tempo. "Pull one and all. Hoy, hoy. Cherry men! On the cat fall! Hoy, hoy. Cherry men! Answer the call! Hoy, hoy! Cherry men! Hoy. Hau-lee. Hoy! Hoy! Oh cherry men!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Robinson in _The Bellman_)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919)."Catting the Anchor" is in Part 2, 7/21/1917.
File: RobCatAn

Cattistock Hunting Song

DESCRIPTION: "In Cattistock parish in fair Dorsetshire Liv'd a pack of fox-dogs I'll vow and declare." They are fit for anything, but after a long hunt, the fox climbs a high roof and defies the dogs. The squire is impressed and lets the fox go free
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Purslow-TheConstantLovers)
KEYWORDS: hunting escape dog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 12-13, "Cattistock Hunting Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1658
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Old Bitch Fox
File: PCL012

Cattle Call

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes life while "singing [his] cattle call": "When the new day is dawning I wake up a-yawning, Drinkin my coffee strong." "Each day I do ride o'er a range far and wide... I don't mind the weather, my heart's like a feather...." With yodels
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: cowboy work | yodeling
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 111, "Cattle Call" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11089
RECORDINGS:
Audrey Mae (group), "The Cattle Call" (Piotr-Archive #610, recorded 07/08/2023; a festival recording)
File: FCW111

Cattle Kate

See (notes under) The Blood-Stained Diary (File: Burt175)

Cattleman's Prayer, The

DESCRIPTION: "Now, O Lord, please lend Thine ear, The prayer of the cattleman to hear." He prays, "Won't you bless our cattle range," and asks for good weather, adequate forage, safety from fires, good prices, and many offspring for the cattle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (Socorro [N.M.] Bullion)
KEYWORDS: cowboy religious nonballad animal
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 126, "The Cattleman's Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, p. 52, "The Cowman's Prayer" (1 text)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 51, "The Cowman's Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 108-111, "The Cowman's Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 44-45, "The Cowman's Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FCW126 (Partial)
Roud #5101
RECORDINGS:
Carl T. Sprague, "Cowman's Prayer" (Victor 21402, 1928)
File: FCW126

Caught a Fit

See Johnny's It, Caught a Fit (File: ZiZa078A)

Caul's Takin' Me, Gudeman, The

See The Miller's Daughter (The Fleeing Servant) (File: KinBB06)

Cauld Blaws the Win' Ower the Knock and the Bin

DESCRIPTION: It's winter and the singer has lost his home. He is in the cold. His wife wept after the loss and died
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: poverty death husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #7, p. 2, ("Cauld blaws the win' ower the Knock and the Bin") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1925, "Cauld Blaws the Win' Ower the Knock and the Bin" (1 fragment)
Roud #16134
NOTES [35 words]: At least part of the text is to be found in William Lewery Blackley, A Review of Bishop Percy's Folio Ballad Manuscript (London, 1867), apparently only in the 1953 reprint, p. 14, according to Google Books. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81925

Cauld Kail in Aberdeen (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Ilka lad has got his lass" but the singer would not trade his cask for all the girls in Bogie. Johnnie Smith's wife is stingy with his drink; the singer would duck her in a bog. He'll drink with anyone but would duck every snarling wife.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness drink nonballad wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1872, "The Cogie" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 46, "Cauld kail in Aberdeen" (1 short text, which appears closest to this)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol I, p. 276, "Cauld Kail in Aberdeen"
Archibald Bell, Melodies of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1849 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 104-105, "Cauld Kail in Aberdeen"
Roud #8502
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bride of Bogie"
NOTES [536 words]: There are at least five versions of "Cauld Kale in Aberdeen"; I have made each a separate Traditional Ballad Index entry [although Roud lumps them - RBW]:
(I) Chambers labels this the "earliest" and, with the Greig/Duncan8 fragment, it may be the only one of the five that entered the oral tradition. At some point it must have been widely available in print since Duncan says, "Mrs Gillespie remembers the next verse, just as in the books: 'Sanny Smith', etc." and doesn't bother to continue the quote or even name the song.
(II) The Herd version, printed by Maidment from Herd, and by Farmer from Sharpe's Ane Pleasant Garden. I don't know if this was collected from an oral source.
(III) The Gordon version which was printed in Johnson's Musical Museum and many times after that.
(IV) The Reid version.
(V) The Nairne version.
These versions share the same tune and the first two lines ("Cauld kail [cabbage, broccoli?] [cabbage soup, possibly with other greens or oatmeal -RBW] in Aberdeen, And castocks [kail stalks] in Strabogie"); the Gordon version took the second two lines of version (I) as well ("Ilka lad has got his lass, Then see gie me my cogie [[drinking] bowl]!"). Otherwise, they share nothing except the word "cogie," which appears in all, usually in connection with drink. I have excluded songs that share only the tune and the title line.
Dick writes, "The peculiarity of this song, of which there are so many versions, is that it was known for at least sixty years before the tune was printed. It is cited in Ramsay's Miscellany, 1725, but the music originally was printed in the Museum, 1788, with the Duke of Gordon's verses which Burns communicated. That the Museum tune is the old air I do not doubt; for (1) George Thomson and Burns had a long correspondence about a new song for the tune, and both refer to it as a well-known air; and (2) there are verses in the precise rhythm and measure as old as the beginning of the eighteenth century" (source: James C. Dick, Notes on Scottish Song by Robert Burns (London, 1908 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 31-32 [quotes the first two verses and chorus], 94-95).
The background of each entry is discussed in its entry.
Greig/Duncan8: "Not traditional. Mrs. Gillespie remembers the next verse, just as in the books: 'Sanny Smith', etc."
The Greig/Duncan8 fragment of four lines is the chorus of Chambers's first verse: "Then see gie me my cogie, sirs, I canna want my cogie; I wad na gie the three-gird stoup [cask] For a' the queans [lasses; he previously said that each lad may have his lass but he will have his cogie] in Bogie." Chambers's second verse [notice "Johnnie Smith"] is: "Johnnie Smith has got a wife, Wha scrimps him o' his cogie; Gin she were mine, upon my life, I'd douk [duck] her in a bogie [bog]."
Rogers quotes Chambers's first verse and says it was first published anonymously in Dale's Scottish Songs (source: Charles Rogers, The Scottish Minstrel; The Songs of Scotland Subsequent to Burns (Edinburgh, 1885 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 14) [Joseph Dale? (c.1750-1821)]
Bell starts with the first two of Chambers's three verses and adds four of his own. The Chambers version is the basis of the description. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: GrD81872

Cauld Kail in Aberdeen (II)

DESCRIPTION: Cold cabbage of Aberdeen is "warming" but to no end. Aberdeen, why woo a lass to whom it means nothing, whatever it means to you. Women of Bogingicht love to dance and are not so shy they can't get better playthings than out-of-date old folks.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1729 (according to Maidment)
KEYWORDS: age courting dancing humorous nonballad nobility
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
ADDITIONAL: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, p. 205, "Cauld Kale in Aberdeen"
James Maidment, Scotish Ballads and Songs (Edinburgh, 1859 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 19-20, "The Cald Kail of Aberdeen"
John Stephen Farmer, editor, Merry Songs and Ballads, Prior to the Year 1800 (1897 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol V, p. 265, "Cald Kaill of Aberdene"
Roud #8502
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cauld Kale in Aberdeen (I)" (tune and some lines) and references there
NOTES [440 words]: For the origin of the five different versions of "Cauld Kale in Aberdeen" and some background on common elements of the song, see the notes to "Cauld Kale in Aberdeen (I)" - (BS, RBW)
Farmer has his text "from Ane Pleasant Garden (c. 1800); edited by C Kirkpatrick Sharpe."
Maidment: "'The oldest song to this tune,' says Stenhouse, 'that I have met with is the following. The author is anonymous, but the song was collected by Herd, and printed in his second volume in 1770 [sic]; but he told me it was much older.' In the Library of the Faculty of Advocates, there is a collection of fugitive pieces of poetry ... found amongst the papers of James Anderson, ... who died in 1728. Amongst these occurs the under-mentioned song, which proves it must have been composed at least before Anderson's demise, and, indeed, the handwriting affords tolerable proof that it was written at the commencement of last century.
"From the language, the authorship may be safely assigned to an Aberdonian, and we suspect the song refers to the first Earl of Aberdeen, who died 20th April 1720, in the eighty third year of his age. That the object of the song was to ridicule an old man for wooing a young lass, is evident, and probably the ancient nobleman, whose wife ... predeceased him, had been flirting with some of the youthful beauties of his native county. As the name is specially given, there cannot be much difficulty in identifying the hero with the Sir George Gordon of Haddo, born 3rd October 1637, who was Lord Chancellor of Scotland from 1682 to 1684, and who was created Earl of Aberdeen ... 1682, to him and the heirs-male of his body. Bog of Gight, or Bogengight, was the ancient designation of the seat of the ducal family of Seton-Gordon. It is now termed Gordon Castle... The Bogie is a river in western Aberdeenshire...."
"Lord Lewis Gordon ... in the '45 ... declared for Prince Charles.... When all the Pretender's hopes were blasted at Culloden ... [he] fled to France, where he died in 1754. [For a song about him, see "Lewie Gordon (Lewis Gordon)" - RBW.] One of his sisters, a young lady of great beauty, became the third wife of William Earl of Aberdeen, which gave rise to the following lines in the well-known song of 'Cauld Kail in Aberdeen, and Custocks in Strathbogie:' Now, Aberdeen, what did you mean, Sae young a maid to woo, sir? I'm sure it was nae joke to her, Whate'er it was to you sir! For lassies now are na sae blate, But the ken auld folks out o' date, And better playfair can they get Than custocks in Strathbogie" (source: Fraser's Magazine (London, 18668 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. LXXIII, p. 575).- BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BdCKAb2

Cauld Kail in Aberdeen (III)

DESCRIPTION: The singer prefers dancing with a lass to drinking all night. He describes different (national) dances. Every lad has a lass "save yon auld doited fogey." The dancers rest and drink, "And try ilk ither to surpass, wishing health to every lass"
AUTHOR: Alexander, Duke of Gordon (1743-1827) (source: Eyre-Todd)
EARLIEST DATE: 1788 (The Scots Musical Museum, #170)
KEYWORDS: age courting dancing drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 237-238, "Cauld Kail in Aberdeen" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #162, p. 170, "Cauld Kail in Aberdeen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol I, pp. 276-278, "Cauld Kail in Aberdeen"
George Eyre-Todd, Scottish Poetry of the Eighteenth Century, (Glasgow, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 43-45, "Cauld Kail in Aberdeen"
ST BdCKAb3 (Partial)
Roud #8502
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cauld Kale in Aberdeen (I)" (tune and some lines) and references there
cf. "Cauld Kale in Aberdeen (II)" (tune, two verses and subject) and references there
NOTES [129 words]: For the origin of the five different versions of "Cauld Kale in Aberdeen" and some background on common elements of the song, see the notes to "Cauld Kale in Aberdeen (I)" - (BS, RBW
Eyre-Todd: "Famous chiefly as the patron of Robert Burns ... the representative of the ancient house of Gordon and Huntly ... raised two Highland regiments for the King.... The song is believed to have been a satire on an aged nobleman who had sought unsuccessfully to woo a young lass [see 'Cauld Kale in Aberdeen' (II)]."
"The second volume of the [Johnson's] Museum, issued in the spring of 1788, included 'Cauld Kail in Aberdeen,' notified as composed by 'the D of G" (source: Charles Rogers, The Book of Robert Burns, (Edinburgh, 1889 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, p. 341). - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: BdCKAb3

Cauld Kail in Aberdeen (IV)

DESCRIPTION: "There's cauld kail in Aberdeen ..." but naething drives awa' the spleen Sae weel's a social cogie" "Whene'er I'm fasht wi' worldly cares, I dron them in a cogie." Let's sing an old Scots song: that's never wrong "when o'er a social cogie"
AUTHOR: William Reid (1764-1831) (source: Graham)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 238, "Cauld Kail in Aberdeen" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: George Farquhar Graham, The Popular Songs of Scotland, (Edinburgh, 1887("Digitized by Google")), p. 143, "Cauld Kail in Aberdeen"
Gems of Scottish Songs, (Boston, 1894 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 75, "There's Cauld Kail in Aberdeen" (1 tune)
Roud #8502
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cauld Kale in Aberdeen" (I) (tune and some lines) and references there
NOTES [30 words]: For the origin of the five different versions of "Cauld Kale in Aberdeen" and some background on common elements of the song, see the notes to "Cauld Kale in Aberdeen (I)" - (BS, RBW)
Last updated in version 3.2
File: BdCKAb4

Cauld Kail in Aberdeen (V)

DESCRIPTION: Will married Mary but left her rocking a borrowed cradle to drink. Their money had been spent on drink. Reeling home one night he falls off the bridge over Bogie, prays to be saved and gives up drink. "Now Mary's heart is light again"
AUTHOR: Carolina Oliphaunt, Lady Nairne (1766-1845) (source: Rogers)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: drink hardtimes injury river
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 256-257, "Tee-total Song" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Rogers, Life and Songs of Baroness Nairne with a Memoir and Poems of Caroline Oliphant the Younger, (Edinburgh, 1905 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 225-226, "Cauld Kail in Aberdeen"
Roud #8502
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cauld Kale in Aberdeen" (I) (tune and some lines) and references there
NOTES [64 words]: For the origin of the five different versions of "Cauld Kale in Aberdeen" and some background on common elements of the song, see the notes to "Cauld Kale in Aberdeen (I)" - (BS, RBW)
Whitelaw has no attribution. Since Whitelaw has confirmed attributions for the other songs I have found in this book I take this to mean that Baroness Nairne's authorship was not well known in 1845. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: BdCKAb5

Cauld Kale in Aberdeen (I-V)

See Cauld Kail in Aberdeen (I-V) (File: BdCKAb2)

Cauldrife Wooer, The

See The Brisk Young Lad (File: FVS294)

Cauries and Kye

See Carries and Kye (Courting Among the Kye) (File: Ord037)

Cavalilly Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "As from Newcastle I did pass, I heard a blythe and bonny lass That in the Scottish army was, Say, 'Prithee let me gang with thee, man.'" She begs her Cavalier to let her come with him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1670 (The Dancing Master)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 330-441, "Cavalilly Man" (1 tune, partial text)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 22-27, "Cavalilly Man" (1 tune, partial text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II)" [Laws N9] (plot) and references there
SAME TUNE:
Hi-ho, my heart it is light/The Well-shaped West-Country Lass (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1153)
Hie hoe, pray what shall I do/Roger, the West Country Lad (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1154)
From the tap in the guts of the honourable stump/A Litany from Geneva (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN936)
NOTES [81 words]: The text in Chappell is incomplete, so it is impossible to tell if this is actually a cross-dressing song along the lines of "The Banks of the Nile." The plot, however, is obviously similar.
The reference to a "Cavalilly" (i.e. a Cavalier) is clearly a reference to the Cavaliers, supporters of Charles I in the English Civil War of the 1640s.
This is another song which cannot be shown to exist in tradition. Its use for several broadsides, however, argues for its presence here. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ChWII026

Cavan Buck, The

DESCRIPTION: Going to Lord Farnham's to join a July 12 Orange walk, Walker's buck has a fight with MacNamee's bulldog. The buck asks for mercy. He would even dress in green. The goat is let go but the dog follows and kills him. MacNamee wishes for more such dogs.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
LONG DESCRIPTION: July 12 Walker's buck is dressed in purple robes, given "a word and a sign," and sent to Lord Farnham's to join the Orange walk. On the way he meets MacNamee's bulldog and explains his mission. The dog, claiming to be sent by Sarsfield, challenges him but the buck won't fight because he might ruin his finery. The dog attacks anyway. The buck asks for mercy. He would even dress in green. The bulldog doubts the goat's sincerity but releases him. The goat runs home to Walker. He tells his story and, despite Walker's urging, runs away (probably forgetting his oath to dress in green). The dog follows and kills him. MacNamee says if he had fifty more dogs "just half as well inclined as he, I'll give you my oath in Cavan town, an Orange walk you ne'er would see"
KEYWORDS: fight death humorous political talltale
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 38, "The Cavan Buck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2882
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Peeler and the Goat" (tune, according to Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
NOTES [155 words]: The Orange Walk on July 12 celebrates the victory by William of Orange at the Boyne in 1690. Orangemen dress in their colors, sing Orange songs, and march. As can be imagined, the "other side" was often offended.
The choice of a buck to represent the Orange is standard. Having an [English] bulldog represent the other side seems a strange use of a symbol; apparently even the goat was taken in until told that the bulldog, in this case, represented Sarsfield: the primary hero on the other side of the Battle of the Boyne. [For the career of Sarsfield, see the notes to "After Aughrim's Great Disaster." - RBW]
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster: "Many attempts have been made to stop the marches in the past, especially at times of strained relations in the community. The 1820s constituted such a time. The mention of Lord Farnham would suggest that this song comes from that period. Farnham was a staunch and convinced Protestant." - BS
File: MorU038

Cave Love Has Gained the Day

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

Cavehill Diamond (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "In Ireland's ancient days" when Belfast was small Mary herded sheep on Lagan side. Prince Dermoid hunted deer on Cave Hill. He loved Mary whose eyes were brighter than the Diamond. She asked that he bring her the diamond. Trying, he fell to his death.
AUTHOR: Robert Hanna (source: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1890-1918 (J Nicholson ballad sheet, according to Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: courting request death royalty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 4, "The Cavehill Diamond" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3579
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cavehill Diamond (II) (subject of the Cavehill Diamond)
cf. "Belfast Mountains (The Diamonds of Derry)" (subject of the Cavehill Diamond)
cf. "Belfast Town" (subject of the Cavehill Diamond)
NOTES [42 words]: See "Belfast Mountains (The Diamonds of Derry)" for the background for the Cavehill Diamond.
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: "[Hanna] was obviously inspired by the much older ballad 'Belfast Town', from which he plagiarized the second and third verses." - BS
File: Leyd004

Cavehill Diamond (II), The

DESCRIPTION: There was a feud between Magennis and O'Neill. Princess Ellen, Red Hugh O'Neill's daughter, loved Magennis. She disappeared when she was to wed old Earl James. After three years Magennis went to consult a holy hermit living on Cave Hill. It was Ellen.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1890-1918 (J Nicholson ballad sheet, according to Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: courting feud reunion separation disguise royalty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 5, "The Cavehill Diamond" (1 text)
Roud #3579
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cavehill Diamond (I) (subject of the Cavehill Diamond)
cf. "Belfast Mountains (The Diamonds of Derry)" (subject of the Cavehill Diamond)
cf. "Belfast Town" (subject of the Cavehill Diamond)
NOTES [66 words]: The Diamond, though in the title, is never mentioned in the text; I suppose we are to take Princess Ellen as the diamond of the title. See "Belfast Mountains (The Diamonds of Derry)" for the background for the Cavehill Diamond. - BS
For Red Hugh O'Neill, see the notes to "O'Donnell Aboo (The Clanconnell War Song)." This seems to be the only song linking the O'Neills to the Cavehill Diamond. - RBW
File: Leyd005

Cavenagh Hill

DESCRIPTION: "I'm bidding adieu to old Ireland." The singer recalls "childhood days that I spent Around dear old Cavenagh Hill," hunting fields, poteen and the football team from Scotshouse town. Years have passed. He has news that a huntsman, McCabe, has died.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (IRHardySons)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell death hunting sports drink Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #17896
RECORDINGS:
James Halpin, "Cavenagh Hill" (on IRHardySons)
NOTES [25 words]: Notes to IRHardySons: "This might not be a Fermanagh song; the village of Scotshouse is just over the Monaghan border on the R212, south of Clones." - BS
File: rcCavaHi

Caviar Comes from Virgin Sturgeon

DESCRIPTION: This quatrain ballad extols the virtues of caviar as an aphrodisiac; reports that the singer's parents were a lighthouse keeper and a mermaid; and details the sex lives of various denizens of the deep
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous animal
FOUND IN: Australia Canada Britain(England) US(MW,So,SW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 240-243, "Caviar Comes from the Virgin Sturgeon" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp. 124-126, "The Ballad of The Virgin Sturgeon" (1 text)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 172-173, "Caviar Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 130-131, "The Virgin Sturgeon" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 157, "The Virgin Sturgeon" (1 text)
DT, VRGNSTRG* VRGNSTR2* VRGNSTR3*
Roud #10131
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singers, "The Keeper of the Eddystone Light" (on Unexp1)
Charley Drew, "Caviar Comes from Virgin Sturgeon" (Party 6A/Musicraft Party 6A/Gala 2101, n.d. but probably 1939-1940)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Reuben and Rachel" (tune)
cf. "The Keeper of the Eddystone Light" (theme)
NOTES [31 words]: While the recording on "The Unexpurgated Folk Songs of Men" is [listed as] "Eddystone Light," it's mostly this song. Of course, they overlap so heavily that the distinction is fishy. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM240

Caviar Song

See Caviar Comes from the Virgin Sturgeon (File: EM240)

Caw Caw Caw Says the Old Black Crow

DESCRIPTION: "'Caw, caw, caw,' says the old black crow. 'Haw hee haw,' sings the donkey down below. 'Chirp, chirp, chirp,' goes the sparrow on the wall, But divil the note has Hooligan's canary got at all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: bird animal | canary
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 146, "'Caw cay cay,' says the old black crow" (1 short text)
Roud #25396
File: KSUC146B

Caw Hawkie

See Ca' Hawkie Through the Water (File: StoR132)

Cawsand Bay

DESCRIPTION: A ship is preparing to depart when a lady hails the ship. She demands the release of (Henry Grady), one of the sailors. The Captain objects, but she offers his discharge. The two depart and live happily ever after
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (Nautical Sketches)
KEYWORDS: love sea freedom reunion ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 168, "Cawsand Bay" (1 text)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 90-91, "Cawsand Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CAWSAND*
ADDITIONAL: Hamilton Moore, Jr., _Nautical Sketches_, William Edward Painter, 1840 (available on Google Books), p. 168 "(In Cawsand Bay Lying)" (1 text, tune referenced)
C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907, p. 328,"Cawsand Bay" (1 text)
ST OBB168 (Partial)
Roud #22827
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of the Dee" (tune, according to
cf. "The Jolly Plowboy (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy)" [Laws M24]
NOTES [12 words]: Thanks to Nigel Parsons for locating the "Nautical Sketches" version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: OBB168

Caze Love Has Gained the Day

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

Cease Rude Boreas

See The Tempest (Cease Rude Boreas) (File: SWMS070)

Cease, Ye Stormy Winds

See The Wanderer (I) (File: WT234)

Cecil Gone in the Time of Storm

DESCRIPTION: In 1933, young Cecil sails to Mastic Point; he vanishes. After eight days they search. Cecil's mother finds the boat but not him; singer says Cecil's been drowned, and the mother falls on the ground in agony, asking God to make peace with his soul
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (recording, Frederick McQueen & group)
LONG DESCRIPTION: In 1933, young Cecil decides to sail to Mastic Point; he gets in the boat and sets off, but vanishes. After eight days his family and friends search; his uncle says he made it as far as Nicholas Town, but he hasn't been seen since. Singer meets Cecil's mother, who says she's found the boat but not him; singer says Cecil's been drowned, and the mother falls on the ground in agony, asking God to make peace with his soul
KEYWORDS: grief travel death drowning mourning sea ship disaster storm wreck family mother
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 140-142, "Cecil Lost in the Storm" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Frederick McQueen & group, "Cecil Gone in the Time of Storm" (on MuBahamas2)
NOTES [41 words]: Although Frederick McQueen certainly shaped the song into its most-sung form, Samuel Charters notes that there is evidence Willie Bullard from Long East Cay was singing the song in the 1930s. As a result, I've left the author field "Unknown." - PJS
Last updated in version 3.4
File: RcCGITOS

Cecil Lost in the Storm

See Cecil Gone in the Time of Storm (File: RcCGITOS)

Cecilia

DESCRIPTION: French. Cecilia's father sends her away; the bargeman asks her to embrace. She refuses; her father would beat her. He asks who would tell her father. "The forest birds," the girl replies. The bargeman regrets that the birds have been taught to talk.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
LONG DESCRIPTION: French. Cecilia's father sends her away; the bargeman transporting her falls in love with her and asks her to embrace. She refuses, saying that if she consented her father would beat her. "And who but you would tell him?" asks the bargeman. "The forest birds," the girl replies. "Do birds talk?" asks the bargeman. "Yes, they speak both French and Latin," says the girl. The bargeman regrets that the birds have been taught to talk. Chorus: "Ah-ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah,
KEYWORDS: love sex travel humorous animal bird father
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 54, "Cecilia" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 60-62, "Cecilia" (1 French text + translation, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 26-27, "Cecilia" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
File: BerV054

Cedar Grove, The [Laws D18]

DESCRIPTION: The "Cedar Grove" sails from London to America. She runs aground off Canso because the helmsman cannot violate discipline. The captain, two crew members, and a passenger are lost, and the ship sinks
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: sea wreck death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 20, 1882 - Wreck of the Cedar Grove off Saint Andrew's Island near Canso, Nova Scotia. She was on her way from London to Halifax
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US(NE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws D18, "The Cedar Grove"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 186-187, "The Loss of the Cedar Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 89, "The Cedar Grove" (1 text)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 136-139, "The Cedar Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 9, "The Cedar Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 136-137, "The Cedar Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 687, CEDARGRV
Roud #1959
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid of Timahoe" (tune)
cf. "The Loss of the Albion" [Laws D2]
NOTES [174 words]: Naval discipline dictated that the helmsman could not speak or be spoken to. Normally this was a good idea -- it prevented distractions -- but here it proved disastrous. (For a similar mix-up, see, of all things, Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark.)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman considers this to be derived from "The Loss of the Albion."
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors says that there were 23 aboard the Cedar Grove when she sank, and that the song is right that four of them were lost: Captain Jacob Fritz, two engineers, and a 19 year old passenger, Julia A. Fairall. - RBW
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "The song is said to have been written by James A Dillon, author of the Rescue of the E A Horton." - BS
I have a note (which was included in prior editions of the Index) stating that the song is by Captain Cale Maitland. I can't find my source for this statement, so I have removed the name from the Author field, but presumably I had some reason for putting it there, so I am leaving the author unknown. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LD18

Cedar Swamp

DESCRIPTION: "Way low down in the cedar swamp, Waters deep and muddy, There I met a pretty little miss...." The singer builds a home for the girl, who is "a honey"; "Makes me work all through the week, And get stove-wood on Sunday."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (copyright, Jean Ritchie/Geordie Music)
KEYWORDS: work playparty
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 76, "Cedar Swamp" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST RiSo076 (Partial)
Roud #7408
NOTES [43 words]: I rather suspect this is derived from "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss" or one of its myriad relatives, but the lyrics are different, and the tune, while it could be related, is a few notes shorter in the chorus, so I am splitting them without hesitation. - RBW
File: RiSo076

Celebrated Working Man, The

See In the Bar-Room (The Celebrated Working-Man) (File: RcITBRCW)

Celebrated Workingman, A

See In the Bar-Room (The Celebrated Working-Man) (File: RcITBRCW)

Celie

See Old Doctor Collins (Celie) (File: Morr124)

Ceo Draiochta Sheol Oiche Chun Fain Me

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer sees a vision of a beautiful woman, the spirit of Ireland.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage beauty dream Ireland patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 38, "Ceo Draiochta Sheol Oiche Chun Fain Me" (2 texts)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC038

Cert'nly Lord

See Certainly Lord (File: RcCerLor)

Certainly Lawd

See Certainly Lord (File: RcCerLor)

Certainly Lord

DESCRIPTION: "Have you been to the river, Certainly Lord" (x3) "Certainly, certainly certainly Lord." "Have you been baptised, Certainly Lord...." "Did you get good religion, Certainly Lord...." "I feel all right now, Certainly Lord...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Doc Reed/Vera Hall recording)
KEYWORDS: ritual nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, p. 5, "Cert'nly Lord" (1 text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 71, "Cert'nly Lord" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Certainly, Lord" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 52) (12th edition, p. 53)
Roud #16357
RECORDINGS:
Minnie Gracie Gadson, "Certainly Lawd" (on USSeaIsland03)
Doc Reed and Vera Hall, "Certainly, Lord" (on "Field Recordings Vol. 4: Mississippi & Alabama (1934-1942)," Document Records CD DOCD-5578 (1997))
File: RcCerLor

Cetch in the Creel, The

See The Keach i the Creel [Child 281] (File: C281)

Chahcoal Man

DESCRIPTION: A street cry? "O-o-o-oh, lil' man, Go get yo' pan, Tell-a yo' mam Hyeh come de chahcoal man-n-n. Chahcoal!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: work commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 459, "Chahcoal Man" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: San459

Chain Gang Song (Prison Moan)

DESCRIPTION: "If I had a-listened to what my mother said, I would have been home sleeping in my cold iron bed." But the singer refused to listen to mother. He says he will not live in sin if he ever gets free. He has no friends, and prays for help in his trouble
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from Robert Higgins)
KEYWORDS: prison mother hardtimes sin
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 41, "Chain Gang Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 361-362, "Prison Moan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15595
File: LoSi361

Chain Gang Special

See Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line (File: ADR98)

Chain of Gold

See Young Ellender (File: RcYoElle)

Chainmaker Lad, The

DESCRIPTION: "The chaimaker lad he's a masher, He's always a-smoking his pipe, He's always a-whistling the wenches, Especially on Saturday night." He is always after the singer. She praises collier boys
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Palmer, Songs of the Midlands)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 42, "My Chainmaker Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 245-246, "The Chainmaker Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1126
NOTES [43 words]: Although all collections of this song are from the same informant (Lucy Woodall), at least three different people collected it, and they all put different titles on it.... The Raven tune, at least, appears to be based on "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: JRUI245

Chairs to Mend

DESCRIPTION: Round. "Chairs to mend? Old chairs to mend? Rush or cane bottom; ...? New mackerel! ... Old rags? ... Any hare skins, or rabbit skins?"
AUTHOR: William Hayes (1708-1777) (according to Heighes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1773 (Hayes, according to Heighes)
KEYWORDS: commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 92, "Old chairs to mend! Old chairs to mend!" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 1, "Chairs to Mend")
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 300, "Chairs to Mend" (1 text)
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 26-27, "Three Oxford Cries" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 438, 447, "Chairs to Mend" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 104, "Chairs to Mend" (1 text, 1 tune, listed as "adapted")
SongsOfManyNations, "Chairs to Mend" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 9)
ADDITIONAL: Joseph Ritson, Gammer Gurton's Garland (London, 1810 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 43, "Old Chairs and Old Clothes" (1 text)
Roud #1335
NOTES [151 words]: According to "Chairs to Mend" at The Fabulous Songbook at the Kristin C Hall site, "This round clearly comes from 'Three Oxford Cries' made into a round by W Hayes published in 1786.... These would have been the cries made by a chair-mender, fishmonger, ragpicker & skinner in turn as they plied their trades daily on the streets of Oxford in the 1700s & 1800s." The first line, "Chairs to mend, old chairs to mend," is listed among the catalog of works of William Hayes printed in William Hayes, Catches, Glees and Canons, Three, Four and Five Voices; The Third Edition (Oxford, 1773) according to Simon Heighes, The Lives and Works of William and Philip Hayes (1708-77 & 1738-97) (New York, 1995), pp. 330-331.- BS
Roud lumps this with "If I'd As Much Money As I Could Spend," which clearly was inspired by "Chairs to Mend," but I am not convinced they are of common origin, so I've split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: WT300

Challenge, The

DESCRIPTION: "She was at a noble wedding" and sees a young lawyer. He ignored her. She sends him a letter challenging him to a duel. He is advised by a friend to attend the duel: "faint heart never won fair lady." At dawn "the young lady came, it seems" [end of text]
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love wedding lawyer fight
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 847, "The Challenge" (1 text)
Roud #6221
NOTES [139 words]: The line "faint heart never won fair lady" goes back to Don Quixote, and even there, is is called an old saying. It became cliche enough that Gilbert made it the chorus in a song of platitutes in Iolanthe.
Could this somehow be related to Iolanthe? After all, it involves (among much Gilbertian intricacy) the possibility of a duel between Earls Tolloller and Mountararat over the right to court Phyllis. And Phyllis is supposed to make a choice among nobles over who will win her love.
Even more closely parallel, but more obscure is a tale of the marriage of "Berkshire Lady," Frances Kendrick (born 1687?), which is called the "Sword-Point Wedding." That sounds very much like this, but what would a Berkshire story be doing in Scotland? And I have found no real documentation of the story -- just a few Internet references. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4847

Chamber Lye

DESCRIPTION: In the original text -- the song was updated to the first world war -- a Confederate agent asks the ladies of Montgomery, Alabama, to save their night water, so that saltpeter necessary for the manufacture of gunpowder might be extracted.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: scatological bawdy Civilwar derivative
FOUND IN: US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II, pp. 659-662, "Chamber Lye" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Cray, The Erotic Muse (1st edition ), pp. 140-141, 17, "Chamber Lye" (1 text)
Roud #8391
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree)" (tune) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John Harloson's Saltpeter
NOTES [1638 words]: Said to date from 1864 and a request made in either Selma or Montgomery, Alabama.
By the later portion of the 20th Century, this ballad had apparently fallen out of oral currency. - EC
In earlier editions of the Index, I questioned the truth of the report about the song coming from Alabama, simply because Union troops were so late in reaching central Alabama. But the request need not have been local to that area. Saltpeter (needed to make black powder) was not available in many parts of the South, and Isaac M. St. John (1827-1880), chief of the Mining and Nitre Bureau, did appeal to southern women to save the contents of their chamber pots.
Saltpeter had always been a useful product. Even in ancient times, it was used by fullers and dyers; it helped fix colors, and also helped create some otherwise hard-to-achieve hues. We still use it today for things such as reducing the pain of sensitive teeth (Field, p 171), although it is now possible to produce it artificially.
It appears that "saltpeter" in ancient times was not a precise term. It seems to have been used most often for potassium nitrate, KNO₃, but other nitrates such as sodium nitrate (NaNO₃, sometimes called "Chile saltpeter" or "caliche") were sometimes used before chemistry became more precise. For many purposes, the difference between nitrate types was rather minor; it was the nitrate, not the metal to which it was attached, that gave the "bang" -- and also contained the nitrogen which made waste materials a good fertilizer. (Note that ammonium nitrate, NH₄NO₃, which might have been considered a saltpeter by the ancients, is still used as a fertilizer and as the basis for explosives! Sodium nitrate does not make as good a gunpowder as potassium nitrate, since it is more likely to absorb water and degrade, but the two are relatively easy to convert; see Bown, p. 148)
But natural saltpeter was rare. Early on, it was discovered that it could be manufactured from animal wastes. Mammal urine contain urea (CO(NH₂)₂), and bird droppings contain uric acid (C₅H₄N₄O₃), both of which could be reacted with alkalis to produce saltpeter. The usual method was to place the droppings on an alkaline soil and then going through various purifying steps (Bown, pp. 28-33).
As early as Roman times, then, we see dyers collecting their own urine, plus whatever others wanted to donate. This was adequate for cloth manufacture, but it left no excess.
And then the demand skyrocketed. The reason is simple: Black powder (gunpowder) consists of sulfur, charcoal (carbon), and saltpeter.
From the start, saltpeter was the largest component; Roger Bacon's formula in the thirteenth century was five parts charcoal, five parts sulfur, seven parts saltpeter (so Emsley, p. 412). But it was quickly found that more saltpeter was better; Ashdown, p. 361, says that "Schwartz, a German Frank, perfected it about a century [after Bacon]." This would mean that Edward IV, for instance, would use the more modern formulation -- and, indeed, when he invaded France in the 1470s, we find that he had need to carry with him "hundreds of shot of stone, barrels of gunpowder, sulphur, brimstone, saltpetre" (Jenkins, p. 104). It's not clear why sulfur is mentioned twice and charcoal not at all (perhaps the English expected to make the charcoal on the spot?), but it is clear that no one expected local supplies of saltpeter or sulfur to be adequate.
By the time the use of gunpowder was widespread, the saltpeter made up two-thirds to three-quarters of the total (the modern formulation is 75% saltpeter, 15% charcoal, 10% sulfur, according to Field, p. 177), yet it was the hardest component to find and to purify. With limited natural supplies, saltpeter had to be manufactured on a large scale.
Which meant -- let's face it -- that a lot of waste had to be gathered and processed. According to Bown, pp. 33-34, it was Charles I of England who in 1626 made what was apparently the earliest proclamation ordering people to collect the contents of their chamber pots. (It almost makes you wonder if that's why they rebelled against him.) The result was the institution of the "saltpetermen" or "petermen" (Bown, pp. 36-38) -- people whose intrusive behavior hardly endeared them to the population. It's interesting to note that, in later usage, the word "peterman" came to mean a thief. France also had such an institution, although Jaffe, p. 82, says that the great chemist Lavoisier was able to have them abolished by coming up with better methods for producing saltpeter.
Bown, p. 47, goes so far as to argue that France lost the Seven Years' War in part due to saltpeter shortage. I have not seen this claim advanced in any of the usual histories of the period, however.
After a time the dirty business was exported, mostly to India (Bown, p. 40), where there were lots and lots of people -- which meant both lots of human waste and lots of unemployed people to process it. Later, an even more concentrated source was found in the bat and bird guano found in Latin America (Darrow, p. 216, says that Chilean saltpeter began to be exported in 1830; see also "Tommy's Gone to Hilo"). Bown, p. 149, implies that caliche was in use even before that, being used to make gunpowder during the Napoleonic Wars. It wasn't until the twentieth century that the Haber process made it possible to extract atmospheric nitrogen. Until then, a country had to either import nitrates or mine or make them from local, er, materials.
A nation at war burned through its supplies quickly. During the Napoleonic Wars, Britain is said to have imported 20,000 tons of saltpeter a year (Bown, p. 48).
The Confederacy probably needed even more. The standard charge of a Civil War rifle musket was 60 grains, or 4 grams. So that's 3 grams of saltpeter. A typical infantryman carried 40 rounds when going into battle -- 120 grams. (He would often fire far more rounds than that, to be sure.) Let's say that there were 75,000 Confederate soldiers at Gettysburg (which is about right). The typical soldier probably fired about 65 rounds. So that's 75,000 soldiers times 65 rounds times 3 grams, or 14,625,000 grams. 14,625 kilograms. 15 tons of saltpeter just for the *infantrymen* in one single battle. Artillery, which took much larger charges, would have required even more.
And the Confederacy spent the entire war under Union blockade. Importing materials by land was impossible; whatever they had had to come in by sea. Initially blockade runners could bring in some. But the blockade tightened as the war progressed. By 1863, the blockade was pretty tight. That left domestic manufacture as the only source of saltpeter. Hence the collection of slops from Confederate bedrooms -- and hence this song.
Incidentally, even the replacement of gunpowder with smokeless powders did not eliminate the need for nitrates. Nitroglycerin and its successors required nitric acid, and this too was derived from saltpeter and its relatives. Cordite, for instance, the propellant in British firearms, consisted of nitroglycerin and guncotton (both of which required nitrates to manufacture) plus vaseline. During World War I, therefore, nitrates once again became an issue -- Germany had the Haber process, but the Entente powers were still using Chilean saltpeter, according to Darrow, p. 215.
(As a matter of fact, some historians, cited by Bown, p. 218, speculate that Germany did not dare start World War I until the Haber process guaranteed their nitrate supply. I grant that, until 1914, the Germans hadn't pushed diplomatic crises so hard -- but World War I came about largely because of the ineptitude of Wilhelm II of Germany and Franz Joseph of Austria, and what are the odds that either of them made such calculations?)
(Haber's work would earn him the Nobel Prize in chemistry, and it was surely deserved. The award had to be given almost in secret, however, because he had spent the bulk of the Great War working on poison gas -- many forms of which also used nitrogen. He was not someone you would want to know; his role in gas warfare actually led his first wife to commit suicide -- Bown, p. 226.)
There was a brief time after the Battle of Coronel when Graf Spee's German fleet had driven the English away from Chile. Britain moved instantly to crush Graf Spee's fleet (which they would do at the Battle of the Falkland Islands). Most histories of World War I viewed this as an issue of prestige, but Darrow, p. 216, argues that the saltpeter was needed for the war effort, and Bown, p. 192, thinks this was a reason for the swift British response, though he admits there is no evidence for this. Bown, p. 198, argues that the infamous "shell shortage" of 1915 was also due to nitrate bottlenecks, though most histories simply assert "manufacturing difficulties." My guess is, British factories had enough nitrates for the amount of shell they actually were able to provide but would not have had enough to make all the weapons the generals wanted -- note that, according to Bown, p. 200, nitrate exports from Chile increased 50% during the War even though Germany was completely cut off from the market. At one time, according to Bown, p. 201, there was a 300% price premium during the war.
Even in the period after the Great War, Darrow (p. 229) says that the United States maintained a Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory. As late as the 1920s, Chile was still supplying almost a third of the world's nitrates (Darrow, p. 230), though refinements of the Haber process were rapidly making more available, and new research also allowed nitrogen to be extracted from coal as it was converted to coke. It wasn't until 1926 (according to the numbers in Darrow, p. 233) that the nitrate business really began to decline -- the stocks of the companies fell by more than 50% in that year. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: RL659

Chaming Woman

See Woman Charming Woman, O! (File: GrD1069)

Champagne Charlie

DESCRIPTION: "I've seen a deal of gaiety throughout my noisy life; With all my grand accomplishments I ne'er could get a wife... For Champagne Charlie is my name (x2), Good for any game at night my boys." The singer details his drunken life
AUTHOR: Music by Alfred Lee/Words by Lee and/or George Leybourne
EARLIEST DATE: 1864
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad courting
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 47-52, "Champagne Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 60-61, "Champaign Charlie" (1 text)
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 116-117, "Champagne Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #279, p. 20, "Champagne Charlie" (1 reference)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 3, "Champagne Charlie Was His Name" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Peter Davison, _Songs of The British Music Hall_, Oak, 1971, pp. 16-18, "Champaigne Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a photo of the sheet music cover)
Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 92-94, "Champagne Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 209, "(no title)" (partial text)
Roud #V17415
RECORDINGS:
Blind [Arthur] Blake, "Champaign [sic] Charlie Is My Name" (Paramount 13137/Crown 3357, 1932; on BefBlues3)
SAME TUNE:
Champaigne Charlie Was His Name/Champaigne Charlie No. 2 ("Some time ago I had a beau, and Charlie was his name") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 20, Dime-Song-Book #19, p. 12 -- the girl's perspective on Charlie the drinker)
NOTES [179 words]: This is one of several songs developed as vehicles for George Leybourne (real name: Joe Saunders; c. 1842-1884), a singer and actor who made a living spoofing the life of upper-class British society. As "Heavy Swell," Leybourne exaggerated the hard-drinking, hard-gambling life of the young London dandy -- but only slightly.
Of all the songs Leybourne used, this was the most popular. It is, however, questionable whether he actually had a hand in the lyrics; many believe that they, like the tune, come from Alfred Lee. In America, it also received two new texts, one by H.J. Whymark and another by George Cooper.
Waites & Hunter make the interesting observation that this started a sort of a songwriting race between George Leybourne and his rival Albert Vance. Freely accepting subsidies from the liquor industry, they started singing the praises of various intoxicating beverages, working their way down the price scale until Vance hit bottom with "Beautiful Beer." Other than this song, however, none of these productions seems to have been in any way memorable. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RJ19047

Champagne Charlie Was His Name

See Champagne Charlie (File: RJ19047)

Champion at Keeping Them Rolling

See notes under The Limerick Rake (File: DTlimera)

Champion He Was a Dandy

DESCRIPTION: Michael McCarthy bets that his twenty-pound bulldog Champion can beat all comers. He matches him with a black-and-tan terrier to fight in a ring in the bog. The terrier kills the bulldog. McCarthy kicks the terrier into the bog for revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960s (recording, Jack Elliotr)
KEYWORDS: fight death gambling dog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
Roud #12934
RECORDINGS:
Jack Elliott, "Champion He Was a Dandy" (on Voice18)
File: RcChHWaD

Champion of Court Hill, The

See The Champion of Coute Hill (File: LeBe018)

Champion of Coute Hill, The

DESCRIPTION: William White meets Kate and convinces her to "try our skill" on Coute Hill. Though "manys a time he said to me 'No one I love but thee'," he marries Belle Madel, leaving her "ruined right, by William White, the champion of Coute Hill"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: infidelity marriage sex lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 18, "The Champion of Court Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 75, "In Smiling June the Roses Bloom" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LeBe018 (Partial)
Roud #7066 and 9209
NOTES [124 words]: Is this "Coute Hill" or "Court Hill"? From Last Name Meanings site re "Coote": (origin: Local) Welsh Coed, a wood; Cor. Br., Coit and Cut. Coot-hill or Coit-hayle, the wood on the river." OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 67 and some -- but not all -- broadsides for "Nell Flaherty's Drake"/"Nell Flagherty's Drake" begin "My name it is Nell, quite candid I tell, I live near Cootehill I'll never deny..." (source: Bodleian Catalog; for example, see shelfmarks Firth b.27(148), Harding B 26(461), Harding B 15(216b); a Clonmell counter-example is Bodleian shelfmark 2806 b.11(218), and O'Conor p. 14 makes it "a cool hill"). - BS
Of course, there is always the possibility that someone just made a typographical error on a survey map somewhere.... - RVW
File: LeBe018

Champion of Moose Hill, The

DESCRIPTION: "You people all, both great and small, I pray you lend an ear." The singer, Emery Mace, who likes to fight, recalls getting drunk on Moose Hill. He gets into a fight; Mrs. Giles lays him out. He will stop fighting and says that Helen is the new Champion
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: fight drink warning brawl
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 126-127, "The Champion of Moose Hill" (1 text)
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 96-97, 191, "The Champion of Moose Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4157
NOTES [24 words]: This song is item dH37 in Laws's Appendix II. To my mind, it has the unusual trait, for a Larry Gorman song, of being more funny than mean. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LaGoCoMH

Chance McGear

DESCRIPTION: Young Chance McGear, against his parents' advice, becomes a logger. While he and his partner are loading logs, one swings around and strikes him in the head, killing him. The logging company sends his body back to his parents.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering logger work death family
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 60, "Chance McGear" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 164-168, "Chance McGrear" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 76, "Chance McGear" (1 text)
Roud #4054
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Harry Dunn (The Hanging Limb)" [Laws C14] (plot) and references there
NOTES [34 words]: This song is item dC32 in Laws's Appendix II. Beck says it was patterned on "Harry Dunn," and that several people claimed the incident took place on January 9, 1892, as found in the text of the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be060

Chandler's Shop, The

See The Chandler's Wife (File: FSWB157A)

Chandler's Wife, The

DESCRIPTION: (The tailor's boy) goes to the chandler's shop; he hears a "knock, knock, knock" overhead. He surprises the chandler's wife with the apprentice boy. Men should either watch their wives or give them so much (knock, knock, knock) that they want no more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (recording, Warde Ford); c. 1832? (Bodleian broadsides)
LONG DESCRIPTION: (The tailor's boy) goes to the chandler's shop; finding no one there, he hears the sounds of sex (a "knock, knock, knock") overhead. Running upstairs, he surprises the chandler's wife with the apprentice boy. She offers the interloper sex whenever he's so inclined. The moral is drawn that men should either lock their wives up, tie them down, or give them so much (knock, knock, knock) that they want no more
KEYWORDS: sex adultery infidelity promise bawdy humorous apprentice
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 72, "The Tailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 185-186, "The Chandler's Shop" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 157, "The Chandler's Wife" (1 text)
DT, CHNDWIFE* CHNDWIF2
Roud #10256
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "The Tailor Boy" (AFS 4204 A1, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian Harding B 25(356), "The Chandler's Wife" ("A Taylor-boy went out one day"), unknown (n.d); also Harding B 27(52), "The Tailor's Boy" ("A tailor's boy went on one night some candles for to bring"), unknown (n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Farm Servant (Rap-Tap-Tap)" (plot)
cf. "The Jolly Barber Lad" (theme)
cf. "The Coachman's Whip" (theme)
cf. "The Lincolnshire Poacher" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Tailor's Boy
NOTES [48 words]: I'm astonished to not find this in the Index -- I could have sworn it was there. - PJS
Yes, but aren't you glad that *you* got to write the description? :-)
I am surprised that it's not in Cray-EroticMuse. There are similar plots, of course, but nothing I recognize as the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FSWB157A

Change Islands Song

DESCRIPTION: Describes the work of the men from Change Islands as they move up north along the coast. Activities include fishing, hunting seals, and canning berries -- but there is a scarcity of everything this time. Only the fishing improves a little later.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: work hunting fishing hardtimes
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 124, "Change Islands Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Change Islands Song" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 61 in the 2nd edition
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 93-95, "The Change Islands Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6343
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Merman (Pretty Fair Maid with a Tail)" [Laws K24] (tune)
NOTES [341 words]: Change Islands is near Fogo Island on the east coast in Hamilton Sound. Most of their excursions seem to be to the very northern tip of the island and "across the Strait" which would be Labrador. Many personal names are mentioned in the song to make it more authentic. - SH
The version of this in Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland calls the ship the Neta C., the captain "Thomas Hines," and the second hand (first mare) "Walter." The use of the term "second hand," as opposed to "first mate" or similar, strongly implies that the boat was in fact a sealer, as the song says; "second hand" was a sealing term, although sometimes applied to officers in other businesses (StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 459).
A search of the many sealers listed in Ryan fails to turn up one named the Neta/Netta C. That doesn't prove anything; Ryan's lists do not cover every year for every port -- and even if he did, there were lots of little ships in Newfoundland too small for anyone to notice or register. But it raises at least the possibility that the name of the ship was mis-remembered. In that case, the best fit I can find is the Minnie, which sailed from La Poile in 1869 under Captain Hynes -- a tiny boat of fourteen tons, with a crew of six. In the same year, a much larger Clara Jane sailed from Greenspond under captain Haines (Ryan, p. 492). La Poile is on the south shore of Newfoundland, the side opposite Change Islands; Greenspond, on the northern coast, fits better geographically, but I can't see any way to mishear Clara Jane as Neta C.
There is some evidence that it was hard to catch much in the way of marine life in the Change Islands. Abram Kean (for whom see "Captain Abram Kean") records visiting the area in his capacity as a government minister and hearing extensive arguments from the locals about how they should be allowed to use illegal fishing methods (Kean, p. 78). Since, however, Kean was essentially a fascist trying to convince people of his fascist position, I'd take this with a grain of salt. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy61

Changing Bedrooms

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Changing bedrooms number 1, Changing bedrooms number 2, Changing bedrooms number 3, Everybody out."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | bedrooms
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #103, "(Changing bedrooms number one)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #58, "Changing bedrooms number one" (1 text)
Roud #19430
File: AJRV103

Changing Berth

DESCRIPTION: Fury sails for the Brewery at one o'clock. The mate is drunk so the frightened nipper has to steer. After nine hours they land, thankful to have avoided "the cowld Torrid Zone Or the deserts of Nova Zimbley." They jump to the bank and walk home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: river commerce ordeal humorous sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 51A, "Changing Berth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9779
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The E-ri-e" (theme) and references there
File: OlcM051A

Chanson d'un Soldat (Song of a Soldier)

DESCRIPTION: French. The singer, a soldier, deserts for love of a brunette; in the process of deserting, he kills his captain. He is captured by his comrades; before they shoot him, he confesses his love for the brunette, and asks them not to tell his mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (recording, Mrs. Louis Amirault, on NovaScotia1)
KEYWORDS: love army desertion crime execution homicide punishment death foreignlanguage lover mother soldier rejection
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Louis Amirault, "Chanson d'un Soldat" (on NovaScotia1)
File: RcChduSo

Chanson de L'Annee du Coup

DESCRIPTION: French. The governor asks the messenger what is the news. He reports a disaster, territory taken and people slain. The governor warns the people to prepare to flee
AUTHOR: J. B Trudeau
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (St. Louis Weekly Reveille)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage battle death warning Indians(Am.)
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 1780 - Indians attack the trading post at St. Louis (founded 1764 and occupied by the Spanish 1771). Thirty inhabitants are killed.
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 519-520, "Chanson de L'Annee du Coup" (1 text)
NOTES [63 words]: Acording to Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's notes, the Indians who attacked St. Louis did so at the instigation of the British -- but with French Canadian support. The people blamed the Spanish commander. This seems awfully complicated for an event of 1780, and such hints as I can find in the histories don't mention the fact -- but that's not proof. - RBW
File: Beld519

Chanson de la Grenouillere ("Song of Frog Plain," Falcon's Song)

DESCRIPTION: French: "Voulez-vous ecouter chanter Une chanson de verite?" Describes the Metis defense of their land against the English. Singer Pierre Falcon tells how the Metis defeated and pursued the English invaders
AUTHOR: Pierre Falcon
EARLIEST DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: Canada battle foreignlanguage
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 19, 1816 - Battle of Seven Oaks. Some 70 Metis horsemen under Cuthbert Grant encounter 28 Hudson's Bay Company men under Governor Semple on Frog Plain. Only six of Semple's men survive
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba, #1, pp. 1-9, "La Bataille des Sept Chenes" (1 Frennch text plus English translation "The Battle of Seven Oaks," 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 121-123, "Falcon's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Riel's Song" and references there (subject)
NOTES [127 words]: The Métis (French-Indian half-breeds; they called themselves Bois-Brules) had a difficult time in Canada, as neither English nor Indians, nor even the Voyageurs, had much use for them.
The Métis for a time gave as good as they got. When, in 1811, Lord Selkirk tried to establish a colony (mostly Scots who had lost their homes to sheep farms) on the Red River, the Métis constantly harassed the colony, and burned it more than once.
The Battle of Seven Oaks marked the climax of their efforts. Pierre Falcon (born 1793) was reported to be one of the Métis involved in the attack, and to have composed the song that very night. Whatever its origins, it became a Métis anthem, and was sung during Louis Riel's 1870 uprising (for which cf. "Riel's Song"). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FMB121

Chanson de Louis Riel (Riel's Song II)

DESCRIPTION: "C'est au champ de bataille, j'ai fait ecrir' douleurs. On couche sur la paille, ca fait fremir les coeurs." Riel's letter from prison describes his grief and pain and asks friends and family pray for him and the country he fought for
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (recording, Joseph Gaspard Jeannotte)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer, on the battlefield, cries in pain; he gets a letter from his mother but has no pen or ink to reply. He dips his penknife into his own blood and writes to her; she falls on her knees weeping. He tells her that since everyone has to die someday, he prefers to die as a brave
KEYWORDS: Canada war prison execution foreignlanguage grief army battle fight rebellion violence separation death family mother Indians(Am.)
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1870 - Louis Riel's first uprising
1884 - Riel's second uprising/Northwest Rebellion
1885 - Riel hanged
FOUND IN: Canada(West)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 8, "Chanson de Louis Riel" (1 French and 1 English text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Joseph Gaspard Jeannotte, "Chanson de Riel" (on Saskatch01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Riel's Song" and references there (subject)
NOTES [204 words]: From Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs - "Louis Riel, the leader of the Métis in both the Red River Rebellion in 1870 and the Northwest Rebellion in 1885, was taken prisoner when his followers were defeated at Batoche on 12 May 1885. He was tried, sentenced to death, and hanged in Regina jail on 16 November 1885. Since then his career has inspired books, plays, and an opera and the Saskatchewan Métis still talk and sing of him.
Mrs. Cass-Beggs got this song from Joseph Gaspard Jeannotte, an old Métis living at Lebret, Saskatchewan. He said that Riel had composed it while in jail, which may well be true for he is known to have written other poems and songs. It appeared first in Mrs. Cass-Beggs' Eight Songs of Saskatchewan (Toronto, 1963). English words by Barbara Cass-Beggs."
Though attributed to Riel, the song has no reference to him, the Métis, or to the rebellion. It is written in the form of a letter from a prisoner to his mother as he is facing execution. - SL
Although the subject is similar, and both songs are attributed to Riel himself, the plot of this one is utterly different from that of "Riel's Song." You should look at that one too, though -- and see RBW's extensive notes there. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FowM008

Chanson de Mardi Gras, La

See (File: CAFS1349)

Chanson des Metamorphoses, La

See Les Metamorphoses (Metamorphoses) (File: Pea788)

Chanson des Metis (Song of the Metis, or McDougall at the Border)

DESCRIPTION: Canadian French: "De Macdougall, amis, chantons la gloire." "Friends, let us sing to... glory of the great McDougall." McDougall, the "Sovereign Ruler," sets out in luxury to announce his appointment, but opposition is strong and he ends up drunk
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Dugas, according to MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba)
KEYWORDS: Canada humorous royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1869 - As part of the organization of the Dominion of Canada, the western regions of the new nation were surveyed. William MacDougall was appointed governor of the territory in which the Metis lived. The Metis regarded him as an interloper coming to take their lands; the result was Louis Riel's first rebellion
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba, #6, pp. 41-46, "Song of the Metis, or McDougall at the Border" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Riel's Song" (subject of the Metis rebellion) and references there
cf. "Les Tribulations d'un Roi Malheureux (Misfortunes of an Unlucky 'King')" (subject of McDougall's attempt to govern the Metis)
File: Macl006

Chanson sur le Desastre de Baie Ste-Anne (Song on the Baie Ste-Anne Disaster)

DESCRIPTION: French. The fishermen of Baie Ste-Anne and Escuminac go out expecting to return but the sudden storm takes 35 lives. Hearers are told to be prepared to meet God suddenly. Life is like a large ocean and each day we go toward eternity as in a light boat.
AUTHOR: Jerry Hebert of Lagaceville (source: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (source: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage fishing sea ship storm wreck death religious warning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 19, 1959 - 22 salmon boats and 35 crewmen from Escuminac lost in a storm (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 17b, "Chanson sur le Desastre de Baie Ste-Anne" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [90 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "Baie Ste-Anne is the French-speaking settlement south of Escuminac." A source for information about the disaster is The Ecuminac Disaster by Roy Saunders. - BS
The Escuminac tragedy was one of those defining moments for its community. Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi report that performers sang no fewer than five songs about it at the 1959 Miramichi Folk Festival, and another in 1960 -- one, in fact, a tribute to the area by one of the drowned men. Of these six, they reported three, including this one. - RBW
File: MaWi017b

Chant of the Coal Quay, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Coal Quay market in my native town O! that's the dwelling where 'tis easy telling If your sense of smelling is not up to snuff." There are second-hand bookstands, organ monkeys, "animals in congregation," and other assorted riff-raff
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 84B, "The Chant of the Coal Quay" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OLcM084B

Chanty Song (I)

See So It's Pass (File: CrNS056)

Chanty Song (II)

See The Powder Monkey (Soon We'll Be in England Town) (File: CrNS057)

Chapeau Boys

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a jolly good fellow, Pat Gregg is my name. I come from Chapeau, that village of fame." The singer and others hire out "to go up the Black River... for to cut the hay." Most of the song describes the trip to and from the farm
AUTHOR: Patrick Gregg
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Fowke); probably composed c. 1875
LONG DESCRIPTION: Men from Chapeau hire out to Caldwell Farm for haying; they travel by boat, then on foot, stopping to play fiddle on the way. They walk 16 miles to Reddy's, 46 to the Caldwell; they arrive exhausted. Singer praises the food at the Caldwell; after haying, they pack up and head for the woods to fell the pine. The singer hopes for a good drive and arrival home, but ends the song and prepares to roll into bed
KEYWORDS: travel work food farming lumbering dancing fiddle logger worker
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Ont,Que)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #14, "The Chapeau Boys" (1 text plus some excerpts, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 6, "Chapeau Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 80-82, "The Chapeau Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FowL14 (Partial)
Roud #1885
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Chapeau Boys" (on Lumber01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Building a Slide" (lyrics)
NOTES [80 words]: Chapeau is located on Allumette Island in the Ottawa River just north of Pembroke. Fowke estimates the song comes from the 1890s, but without documentation I won't make that the official earliest date. - PJS
Particularly since Fowke elswehere estimates the date as c. 1869! - RBW
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick: "Chapeau ... is about a hundred miles up the Ottawa River valley, and, according to the best information available, one Pat Gregg made the song up early in the 1880s." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: FowL14

Chapels of France

See French Cathedrals (Orleans, Beaugency) (File: ACSF437F)

Chaps of Cocaigny, The

See The Boys of Kilkenny (File: Ocon044)

Charge at Fredricksburg, The

See The Last Fierce Charge [Laws A17] (File: LA17)

Charge the Can Cheerily

DESCRIPTION: "Now coil up your nonsense 'bout England's great Navy, And take in your slack about oak-hearted Tars, For frigates as stout, and as gallant crews have we." The singer boasts of the successes of the War of 1812
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1813 (The Port Folio, according to Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents)
KEYWORDS: navy bragging ship battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 19, 1812 - the 44-gun U.S.S. Constitution defeats and captures the 38-gun H.M.S. Guerriere in the north Atlantic
Oct 25, 1812 - the 44-gun U. S. S. United States, commanded by Stephen Decatur, defeats the 38-gun H. M. S. Macedonian in the mid-Atlantic
Dec 29, 1812 - U. S. S. Constitution defeats the 38-gun H. M. S. Java off Bahia, Brazil
Feb 24, 1813 - U. S. S. Hornet defeats H. M. S. Peacock
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 197, "Naval Song[:] Charge the Can Cheerily" (1 text)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 167-169, "Charge the Can Cheerily" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ye Parliament of England (I)" (theme, ships)
cf. "Yankee Tars (II)" (general idea)
NOTES [753 words]: This is about as accurate as the German claim to have won the Battle of Jutland based on tonnage sunk: It's true -- and completely ignores the broader facts. The American frigates of the United States class (which included among others the Constitution) were much stronger and heavier (and more expensive) than the standard British 38-gun frigate (Pratt, pp. 55-57). Thus they won most of the ship-to-ship battles they fought. (Most, but not all; Hickey, p. 216, notes how the President ran aground and lost her speed, and not even Stephen Decatur could save her from the Endymion, the Pomone, and the Tenedos, which captured her on January 15, 1815. Hickey, p. 217, also notes the defeat of three smaller American ships -- Frolic, Syren, and Rattlesnake -- and the disappearance, for unknown reasons, of the Wasp).
Good as the American frigates were, they were not ships of the line, and survived the war only by fleeing when a major British battleship came in sight (or failed to flee and were defeated, as in the case of the Wasp in another context). By the end of the War of 1812, nearly every American ship was blockaded in port (Mahon, p. 122, gives a catalog). They had hurt the British about as much as a stinging fly -- and, if the war had kept on, the British (with Napoleon safely on Saint Helena) would doubtless have turned and swatted them.
The Americans could perhaps console themselves with the fact that they made the British merchant fleet miserable; Hickey, p. 218, notes that American privateers caused a spike in insurance rates for ships sailing between Britain and Ireland; according to one paper at the time, the rates were three times higher than during the Napoleonic Wars!
The song itself quotes "of Lawrence the spirit, 'Disdaining to strike while a stick is left standing.'" The dying captain James Lawrence said, "Don't give up the ship!" Why did he say it? Because H. M. S. Shannon was blowing Lawrence's Chesapeake to fragments -- something the poet fails to note. (For details, see the various "Chesapeake and Shannon" songs, especially "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (I)" [Laws J20]. For additional background on the naval aspects of the War of 1812, see also "The Constitution and the Guerriere" [Laws A6].)
Among the people mentioned in the song:
Dacres - James R. Dacres (1788-1853), commander of the Guerriere. His defeat was not held against him; he later commanded the Tiber, which captured the Leo (Jameson, p. 181) and he eventually rose to the rank of vice admiral (Heidler/Heidler, p. 141)
Carden - John Surman Carden, commander of the Macedonian. Like Dacres, the British accepted his explanation for his defeat, and he eventually became an admiral (Heidler/Heidler, p. 82).
Hull - Isaac Hull, commander of the Constitution in the fight against the Guerriere (Jameson, p. 318; see also "The Constitution and the Guerriere" [Laws A6]).
Decatur - Perhaps the greatest American naval hero of the early part of the century; he commanded the United States against the Macedonian (Paine, pp. 538-539).
Jones - John Paul Jones, America's first significant naval captain, dead 20 years by the time of the War of 1812 (Jameson, p. 341).
Lawrence - James Lawrence, who commanded the Hornet when she beat the Peacock (Paine, p. 251), but then led the Chesapeake to destruction against the Shannon (again, see "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (I)" [Laws J20]).
Bainbridge: Evidently the poet couldn't think of any other naval heroes, so he stuck in a disaster. William Bainbridge (1774-1833) had his ship Retaliation captured during the Quasi-war with France -- the first U. S. Navy officer to surrender his ship (Heidler/Heidler, p. 30). He also commanded the Philadelphia when she was captured by the Barbary Pirates (Pratt, p. 67, declares, "It was an accident, and William Bainbridge who commanded the frigate was never blamed for it." But why wasn't he taking soundings?). He at least proved his courage in the War of 1812, being commander of the Constitution when she beat the Java; he was twice wounded in that action -- but the ship had been badly handled and suffered far more damage than in its other battles and had to return to port for repairs. And that lone victory of his was sort of an accident; according to Hickey, p. 216, he had tried to trade the Constitution for the President in 1814, even offering $5000 for the right to command the latter ship. Lucky for him Captain John Rogers turned him down. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: ShaSS167

Charge to Keep, A

DESCRIPTION: "A charge to keep I have, a God to glorify, A never-dying soul to save, And fit it for the sky. Arm me with jealous care, As in thy sight to live, Thy servant, Lord, prepare, A strict account to give. To serve the present age, My calling to fulfill...."
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Wesley
EARLIEST DATE: 1762 (Short Hymns on Select Passages of Holy Scripture, according to Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 522, "A Charge to Keep" (1 fragment)
Roud #11817
NOTES [125 words]: This, like many shape note hymns, appears with a bewildering variety of tunes. William Walker apparently printed it to "Carolina." "Songs of Zion" put it to "Kentucky." And in the Sacred Harp, it is called by the text-title "A Charge to Keep"; it's said to have a tune by Paine Denson. This large collection of melodies hasn't stopped moderns from fitting even more tunes; William J. Reynolds, editor of Baptist Hymnal, composed a tune "Keegan" for it.
The text is said to be based on Leviticus 8:35. As is common in these cases, there really isn't much in common between the Biblical verse and the song text except the word "charge."
For the life of Charles Wesley, author of the lyrics of this piece, see the notes to "Jesus Lover of My Soul." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3522

Charity Seed, The/We Never Died in the Winter Yet

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears two people discussing "Wealthy people and their greed" and farmers with good crops "all applying for the charity seed." In good times, food is plentiful, but the bad brought "great distress"; now Gladstone will repair the matter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: food poverty hardtimes money farming
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H766, p. 43, "The Charity Seed/We Never Died in the Winter Yet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13357
NOTES [257 words]: This is a curious song, seeming to refer to the potato famines-- but with other references arguing for a later date (perhaps 1869). The famines of 1845-1851 saw the British government try, ineptly and with insufficient commitment, to supply relief -- but the results were not sufficient to the problem. (For details, see the notes to "Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small)".)
Frankly, given the technology of the time, the British probably could not have saved all the people who starved -- but they certainly could have done more, and done it more efficiently. The blame for this, however, did not fall on Disraeli, but on Sir Robert Peel (Disraeli opposed Peel's measures, but did not become Prime Minister until 1868).
Disraeli served as Prime Minister twice: 1868 and 1874-1880, and was twice replaced by Gladstone, who served 1868-1874, 1880-1885 (plus 1886 and 1892-1894).
The best date for this song in its current form is thus 1869, when the newly-elected Gladstone put a final end to the corn laws (the original law, passed 1815, had forbid imports of grain except in conditions of extreme famine; modified slightly in 1828, Peel had managed to get the rates reduced in 1846, in response to the famine, but a slight duty remained until Gladstone ended it).
Incidentally, dying in winter (or spring) was a genuine problem for those dependent on the potato, since they had effectively no other food. Although most peasants had enough land to grow a year's worth of food, the potatoes would often rot by the end of that time. - RBW
File: HHH766

Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson [Laws D19]

DESCRIPTION: Anderson, the singer, is about to be hanged. He had had a good childhood, but went away to sea on the "Saladin." There he joined in a conspiracy with one Fielding; they murdered the ship's captain and others. Now he must pay the price
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: sea execution mutiny
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1844 - The Saladin mutiny
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US(NE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws D19, "Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 290-293, "Charles Gustavus Anderson" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 158, "Fielding" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 867-868, "Charles Augustus Anderson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 109, "Charles G Anderson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 196-197, "Saladin Mutiny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 113, "Charles Augustus Anderson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 180-182, "Charles Gustavus Anderson" (1 text)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 197-198,243, "Charles Gustavus Anderson" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 352, SLDNMTY2*
Roud #646
RECORDINGS:
Sr. Fitzgerald, "Charles Augustus Anderson" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mrs Thomas Walters, "Charles Augustus Anderson" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "George Jones" [Laws D20] (subject)
cf. "Saladin's Crew" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Charles Gustavus Anderson
NOTES [800 words]: The story of the Saladin mutiny is roughly as follows: The pirate Fielding, taken aboard the Saladin out of charity, convinces part of the crew to mutiny against Captain "Sandy" Mackenzie. (Mackenzie seems to have been a harsh officer, but the Fieldings -- a father and son -- probably hoped to capture the money stored on the ship.) Mackenzie and five others are killed, and the conspirators, realizing that they might be next, turn against the Fieldings and throw them overboard. The ship, left without an experienced navigator, is wrecked off Halifax (a place now called "Saladin Point"); the remaining conspirators are executed.
Most sources date the mutiny to 1844; Laws says 1843, but I'm guessing this is one of the many typos in his song list. Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 178-180, gives a fairly detailed account of the mutiny and says that it was in 1842 that Captain Fielding and his teenage son George left England on the Vitula for Valparaiso, where he tried to capture a nitrate vessel. It was not until 1844 that he convinced Captain Mackenzie to take him home.
The four men executed were Charles Anderson, George Jones, John Hazelton, and William Trevaskiss. Three of the four have ballads about them. This one, about Anderson, is the most popular; "George Jones" [Laws D20] is also well-known; "Saladin's Crew," about Hazelton, was found only by Helen Creighton.
Creighton quotes an account from the 1924 Acadian Recorder that seems to imply that all three songs were written by a "Mr. Forhan" who saw the mutineers hanged when he was six years old.
In his notes on "Saladin's Crew," Ben Schwartz says, "Another of the Saladin conspirators speaks out (cf. "Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson [Laws D19]" and "George Jones [Laws D20]"). Here is John Hazelton. Hazelton -- like Anderson and Jones -- was convicted and hanged. Has William Trevaskiss, the fourth of the hanged mutineers, a ballad as well?" The answer is, seemingly, no -- at least, I've not encountered it. But at least one of the survivors was also the subject of a ballad: Albert Hicks was the subject of "Hicks the Pirate," although that song is known only from broadsides, not from tradition.
And, amazingly, Hicks actually did give a confession before being hung, and he allegedly actually made up a song about it. Rich Cohen, The Last Pirate of New York, Spiegel & Grau, 2019, p. 191, cites it. It opens:
My own, my dear loved mother,
If I could see thy face,
I'd kiss thy lips in tenderness
And take my last embrace.
The larger portion is devoted to the Saladin mutiny:
I shipped on board the Saladin
As you may understand,
Bound to South America,
Captain Kenzie in command
We arrived in that country
Without undue delay,
When Fielding came on board,
Ah! cursed be that day.
Cohen does not list his source, but Ben Schwartz was able to locate part of in Harper's Weekly, June 16. 1860 (available on Google Books), p. 374 (by the internal page number; it's p. 350 in Google's PDF). Interestingly, the Harper's version omits the introduction and starts directly with the line "I shipped on board the Saladin." That led me to the full text, which appears in the New York Times, June 2, 1860.
The reason I mention this is because Hicks's verse has substantial similarities to the text of this song (e.g., in Doerflinger's version):
I shipped on board the Saladin as you may understand.
She was bound to Valparaiso, Mackenzie in command.
We arrived there in safety without the least delay,
When Fielding came aboard of us, curse on the fatal day!
This permits only two possibilities that I can see: Either Hicks's piece was printed, presumably as a broadside, and used as a basis for "Charles Augustus Anderson," or "Charles Augustus Anderson" was already in existence and Hicks borrowed part of it. Both face objections: no one seems to have found a broadside of the Hicks text (it occurs only in newspapers), but neither has "Charles Augustus Anderson" been collected at any time close to 1860; the earliest versions are from half a century later.
In 1844, James Bowes published Trial of Jones, Hazelton, Anderson and Trevaskiss, alias Johnson, for Piracy and Murder on board barque Saladin, with the Written Confessions of the Prisoners, Produced in Evidence on the said Trial; To which is Added, Particulars of their execution on the 30th of July; Also, the Trial of Carr and Galloway, for the murder of Captain Fielding and his son on board the Saladin. Compiled from the Halifax Papers. I have not seen it; without more information, I find it hard to trust a book with a title like that! There have also been at least two fictional retellings, William Crooker with Elizabeth Pierce, Saladin: Piracy, Mutiny and Murder on the High Seas and Henry S. Whittier, The Other Watch. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LD19

Charles G Anderson

See Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson [Laws D19] (File: LD19)

Charles Gibbs

DESCRIPTION: The pirate recalls his tender parents and his inheritance, but he paid no heed. "No pity have I ever shown, Lord, who would pity me, But here I lie and long to die." He tells of his adventures with his "bloody knife." He bids farewell to his family
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from Charles Tillett)
KEYWORDS: pirate prison father mother death execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1831 - Death of Charles Gibbs
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 28, "Charles Gibbs" (1 fragment)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 61-63, "Charles Gibbs (1 text)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 70, "Charles Gibbs" (1 text, 1 tune; #42 in the first edition)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 72-74, "Charles Gibbs" (1 text)
Roud #16892
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Flying Cloud" [Laws K28] (plot and piracy theme)
NOTES [98 words]: A native of Rhode Island, Charles Gibbs served in the War of 1812, then turned Argentine privateer and, eventually, pirate. He quickly became notorious for his brutality, and serious efforts were made to capture him. An attempt in 1821 failed, but he was taken and hanged in 1831. If the stories of his torture and rape of those he captured are true, the punishment probably was deserved.
Cohen, p. 63, says that he was the last pirate to be hung in the United States.
Although the lyrics are different, the plot of this is so close to "The Flying Cloud" that I wonder about dependence. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: CFRA028

Charles Giteau

See Charles Guiteau [Laws E11] (File: LE11)

Charles Guiteau [Laws E11]

DESCRIPTION: Charles Guiteau, having assassinated President Garfield, is unable to escape the law. His insanity defense is rejected, and he is sentenced to die.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution gallows-confession madness
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 2, 1881 - James A. Garfield is shot by Charles Guiteau, who thought Garfield owed him a patronage job. Garfield had been president for less than four months
Sept 19, 1881 - Death of Garfield
June 30, 1882 - Hanging of Charles Guiteau
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,So,SE)
REFERENCES (30 citations):
Laws E11, "Charles Guiteau"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 412-413, "Charles Guiteau" (1 text)
Randolph 134, "Charles Guiteau" (2 texts plus 3 excerpts or fragments, 3 tunes)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 113, "Charles Guiteau" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 168, "Charles Guiteau" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 118-119, "Charles Guiteau" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 128, "Charles Guiteau, or, The Murder of James A. Garfield" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 88, pp. 110-112, "Charles Guiteau" (2 texts plus 3 fragments)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 360-363, "Charles Giteau" (1 text, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, p. 172, "Death of Garfield" (1 fragment)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 159-160, "Charles Guiteau" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 249, "Charles Guiteau" (4 texts, 3 fragments, plus 1 excerpt and mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 249, "Charles Guiteau" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 111, "Charles Guiteau" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #32, "Charles Guiteau" (1 text plus mention of at least two more, 1 tune)
Wells-TheBalladTree, p. 323, "(no title)" (1 short text, from Chappell)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 101, pp. 238-239, "Charles Guiteau" (1 text plus mention of 3 more)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 230, "Charles Guiteau" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 56-59, "Charles Guiteau" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 58, pp. 186-187, "Charles J. Guiteau" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 142, "Charles Guiteau" (1 text, 1 tune, claiming to be a transcription of the earliest recorded version by Kelley Harrell -- but in fact the text has been slightly modified)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 65, pp. 146-148, "Charles Guiteau or James A. Garfield" (1 text, joined with "The Murder of F. C. Benwell")
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 226-227, "(Charles Guiteau)" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #135, "Charles Guiteau" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, "James A. Garfield" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 192-193, "Charles Guiteau" (1 text plus a fragment of "James Rodgers")
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 48 "Charles Giteau" (sic) (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 290, "Charles Guiteau" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 478, "Charles Guitea" (source notes only)
DT 623, CGUITEAU*
ST LE11 (Full)
Roud #444
RECORDINGS:
Loman D. Cansler, "Charles Guiteau" (on Cansler1)
Kelly Harrell, "Charles Giteau" (Victor 20797B, 1927; on KHarrell02, AAFM1)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Charles Guitau" [instrumental version] (on Holcomb1)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Charles Guitea" (LOC AAFS L29, 1949)
Wilmer Watts, "Charles Guiteaw" (Paramount 3232)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Murder of F. C. Benwell" [Laws E26] (tune & meter)
cf. "Jack Rogers" (form and meter)
cf. "Gustave Ohr" (meter)
cf. "George Mann" (meter)
cf. "Ewing Brooks" [Laws E12] (tune & meter)
cf. "Gruver Meadows" (meter, some lyrics)
cf. "The Fair at Turloughmore" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Big Jimmie Drummond" (lyrics)
cf. "Mister Garfield" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
The Murder of F. C. Benwell (file: LE26)
Jack Rogers (file: Dean050)
Gustave Ohr (file: E121)
George Mann (file: E122)
Ewing Brooks (file: LE12)
A New Song on the American War (probably to this tune; see Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 159, "A New Song on the American War" (reproduction of a broadside page))
NOTES [10593 words]: The song probably derives from "The Lamentation of James Rodgers" (executed Nov. 12, 1858) or one of its kin (e.g. "My Name it is John T. Williams") - PJS, RBW
According to Mazor, p. 84, this song owes its old-time popularity to a peculiar circumstance. Andrew Jenkins had written a song about a fire (Mazor doesn't say which song). The famous A&R man, Ralph Peer, worried about copyrights, discovered that Jenkins had used many aspects of "Charles Guiteau." This meant that the song Jenkins had copied was old, he didn't have to worry about defending Jenkins's copyright -- but Peer liked the song, and induced Kelly Harrell to record it. It has been well-known ever since.
It's worth remembering that, at the time Harrell recorded the song, there were still people around who remembered the assassination of James A. Garfield, although they were older and perhaps not the most likely people to buy recordings.
The story of Garfield is enigmatic. Only one President (William Henry Harrison) spent less time in office, and much of the time Garfield spent as President was occupied with dying. He hadn't had much time to establish policy as President, and his campaign was a typical late-nineteenth-century all-hoopla-and-no-substance campaign; "the Republicans made [much] of his birth in a log cabin, the last time that venerable cliche was dragged out" (Morison, p. 735). But there is reason to think that he could have been a distinguished President. His intellectual gifts were noteworthy, and his interests were unusually diverse. According to Jameson, p. 258:
"Garfield, James Abram (November 19, 1831-September 19, 1881), twentieth President of the United States, was born at Orange, Cuyahoga County, O[hio], and after miscellaneous experiences, including work on a canal tow-path, he entered Hiram College in Ohio. From there he went to Williams College, and graduated in 1856. For a short time he taught the classics in Hiram College, and in 1857 became President of that institution. Two years later he entered the State Senate. In the opening year of the [Civil] war he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of volunteers; having been entrusted with a small independent command he routed the Confederates at Middle Creek, Ky., January 10, 1862. He was made Brigadier General, served at Shiloh, etc., and became chief of staff in Rosecrans' Army of the Cumberland. [He] was made major-general after Chickamauga."
Remini, p. 232, says of him, "A former college president and war hero who loved to read classical literature in the original languages, Garfield stood six feet tall and exuded massive physical strength. In addition, 'he was handsome, a soldier, widely read, eloquent of speech, and charming in manner.'"
He was elected to Congress in the election of 1862, and Jameson reports he "took his seat in December, 1863. From this time he served continuously and was one of the leading debaters and orators on the Republican side. He was member of important committees, like Military Affairs and Ways and Means, and was chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency and on Appropriations. General Garfield served on the Electoral Commission of 1877 [more on this below] and was elected U. S. Senator from Ohio in 1880."
Few presidents were more self-made; Garfield lost his father before his second birthday (Rutkow, p. 4). Although large and strong, he rarely applied himself in early life. His reading had caused him to dream of a life at sea, so he left home at 16 (Rutkow, p. 5) and went to work on a canal. This proved disastrous -- he couldn't swim, and nearly drowned several times (Rutkow, p. 6), so he returned home in 1848.
Having learned his lesson, he finally took his education seriously. He started at Western Reserve Eclectic Institute in 1851 (Rutkow, pp. 6-7). It wasn't much of a college, but Garfield proved quite capable of educating himself, learning Greek and Latin, studying the classics, and teaching himself geometry. He then went to Williams College, where he added astronomy, chemistry, German, mechanics, and political economy to his list of subjects and earned his degree in 1856 (Rutkow, pp,. 7-9),
In this period, he became involved in politics, with a strong anti-Slavery bent. In 1858, he married Lucretia "Crete" Rudolph, a childhood sweetheart (Rutkow, p. 12). Soon after, he became the youngest member of the state legislature (Leech/Brown, p. 94). When the Civil War began, he volunteered, was made lieutenant colonel, was quickly promoted colonel, and as acting brigade commander won the minor skirmish at Middle Creek in early 1862 (resulting in a couple of dozen casualties on each side; Rutkow, p. 15). It was trivial, but it earned him headlines and a commission as a brigadier general (to date from Jan. 11, 1862, according to Phisterer, p. 272 -- the day after Middle Creek).
He ran for congress at this time, knowing that the congress elected in November 1862 would not actually go to Washington until December 1863 (Rutkow, p. 17). After winning election and hanging around Washington for a time (Rutkow, p. 18), he went back into military service as Chief of Staff to General Rosecrans (Rutkow, p. 19), commander of the Army of the Cumberland (the Union army based in Tennessee). Garfield's role in the disastrous battle of Chickamauga was perhaps somewhat ambiguous -- but he was rewarded with a major generalship (to rank, according to Phisterer, p. 255, from September 19, 1863, the first day of the battle of Chickamauga) before he retired to take up his seat in congress (Rutkow, p. 23).
Garfield in congress was an ally of the Radical Republicans, and went so far as to oppose Lincoln's renomination in 1864 (Rutkow, pp. 25-26). He supported the impeachment of Andrew Johnson (Rutkow, p. 28) and was a firm supporter of a hard money policy (Rutkow, p. 30). This was typical of his economic views; he was pro-business, anti-labor, and in favor of (eventual) free trade (Rutkow, pp. 30-31). He helped pass civil rights legislation in 1875, although not until after it was watered down (Remini, p. 213).
He was probably the most scientifically-inclined President since Thomas Jefferson -- he is, for instance, the only President to have produced an independent proof of the Pythagorean Theorem (Crease, pp. 30-31; who says Garfield came up with his proof in 1876. There are hundreds of independent proofs of the theorem, but few are by politicians! Dunham gives a version of the method on pp. 97-99, and declares it "really a very clever proof" although he points out a page later that something rather similar went back to the Chinese mathematicians).
In congress, Garfield found financing for federal scientific expeditions and publications, and was important in founding the United States Geologic Survey (Rutkow, p. 32). He was the single most important voice in creating what later became the Bureau of Education (Leech/Brown, p. 166). Library of Congress records show that he spent more time using the library than any other congressman (Rutkow, p. 45). Frankly, we could use a few hundred more congressmen with his interests today....
After he was elected President, The Nation wrote in 1881 that Garfield "does not, like Lincoln, or Grant, or Hayes, need cabinet officers to teach him, or 'keep him straight,' on any point whatever, There is not one of the departments of which he is not himself fully competent to take charge" (quoted by DeGregorio, p. 303).
If he had a weakness, it was leadership. Although he had been a general, he had been primarily a staff officer. He was a thinker, not a "decider." This combination of strong intellectual gifts with a lack of organization and self-control has led to internet speculation that he had autism spectrum disorder. (Speculation which I think almost certainly correct; I've marshaled the evidence for this in the appendix.)
Rutkow, p. 137, sums him up by saying he "was not a natural leader and did not dominate men or events. He was a kindhearted and intelligent individual who was also a calculating politician. Garfield uneasily occupied two worlds, one of ego-driven actions and another of introspection and prudence. Ultimately, it was his lack of assertiveness and worry over the slightest hint of criticism that interfered with his presidential decision-making." His contemporaries knew it; ex-President Hayes declared that "He was not executive in his talents -- not original, not firm, not a moral force." Senator Sherman later declared, "His will power was not equal to his personal magnetism. He easily changed his mind and honestly veered from one impulse to another" (DeGregorio, p. 304).
There were also rumors that his relationship with his wife was strained -- Rutkow, p. 43, says that he "maintained intensely close relationships with a number of women.... Whether an of these associations included a sexual element remains historical conjecture." Ackerman, p. 148, claims he had an affair in 1863; Leech/Brown, pp. 70-73, tell of a complex three-way relationship before the Civil War. (Indeed, Leech/Brown, pp. 121-122, claim that he didn't fall in love with his wife until four years after they married, and only then came to rely on her.)
Accusations of infidelity apparently plagued him throughout his career, including even claims that he visited a brothel in the 1870s (Leech/Brown, p. 195). Yet Leech/Brown, p. 195, point out that "No evidence has been found that, after the Mrs. Calhoun episode [which ended no later than 1867 and probably years before], Garfield ever again engaged in extramarital dalliance." And he and his wife had seven children, although two of them died young (Rutkow, p. 44).
Personally, I think the doubts about his fidelity exaggerated; his letters to his wife seem to have been genuinely affectionate, and after he was shot, he desperately wanted her by his side (Ackerman, p. 389). Once he wrote to her, "When you are sick, I am like the inhabitants of countries visited by earthquake" (Leech/Brown, p. 2). In his diary, he would declare, "This is the anniversary of our wedding which took place 17 years ago. If I could find the time... to write out the story of Crete's life and mine... and the beautiful results we long ago reached and are now enjoying, it would be a more wonderful record than any I know in the realm of romance" (Leech/Brown, p. 194).
Garfield was one of the congressmen implicated in the Crédit Mobilier scandal of the 1870s (Rutkow, p. 33, who on p. 60 notes that Democrats in 1880 made a slogan of "329" -- the amount of his stock dividends). He also seemed to profit from a retroactive congressional pay increase (Rutkow, p. 34). There were other financial oddities involving his law practice. It appears from his diary that Garfield considered his actions entirely ethical, but even the sympathetic Rutkow (p. 37) calls his actions "naive."
On the other hand, he led the defense in the vital case of ex parte Milligan, and did it on a pro bono basis (Rutkow, pp. 45-46). Milligan and his associates were anti-war Democrats during the Civil War who, in 1864, were arrested for actions harming the war effort. Although they were not taken in a war zone, and were unquestionably American citizens, they were put before a military commission and sentenced to death (Hall, pp. 549-550).
The case went all the way to the Supreme Court -- and it was there that Garfield became involved. "Most lawyers do not begin their practice by pleading before the Supreme Court. Garfield did" (Leech/Brown, p. 185). The lawyers for Milligan called on him in 1866 -- and Garfield won the case; the court ruled that military commissions could not be used in areas where the civil courts were open; the Constitution applies even in wartime. Jameson, p. 416, summarizes it "Regarding the military commission, it was maintained that the power of erecting military jurisdictions remote from the seat of war was not vested in Congress, and that it could not be exercised in this particular case; that the prisoner, a civilian, was exempt from the laws of war and could only be tried by a jury; and finally, that the write of habeas corpus could not be suspended constitutionally, though the privilege of that writ might be." Hall declares it a "constitutional landmark" (p. 550),
Despite this, he was no moderate. As President, he would appoint several Blacks to federal offices, including Frederick Douglass as Washington, D.C., recorder of deeds and Blanche Bruce as registrar of the Treasury (Ackerman, p. 367).
His liberalism didn't keep him from being a vigorous Republican (Rutkow, pp. 38-39) -- one of those who served on the Electoral Commission that made Rutherford B. Hayes President in 1876 (the Hayes/Tilden election, in which Samuel Tilden won the popular vote, but the electoral college count was disputed; there were two sets of numbers submitted from three states, and the Electoral Commission, which had one more Republican than Democrat, gave all of the electoral votes to Hayes even though Tilden surely deserved enough of them to be President. Thus Garfield was a party to a major defiance of the popular will).
Despite this somewhat questionable history, Garfield was easily elected to Senator for Ohio in 1880 (Rutkow, p. 42).
Garfield's election to the Presidency had a whiff of the partisanship he had shown in 1876. President Hayes, being self-honest enough to know that he had been elected by a very divided nation, proceeded to govern in a largely non-partisan way, ending Reconstruction in the southern states still under Federal control and avoiding the sort of partisan appointments that had so marred the Grant administration. It made him a pretty good president -- and turned the more steadfast Republicans against him. Hayes announced early on that he would not run again (PresElections, p. 1492).
Hayes's refusal to pursue the Spoils System hardened the wing of the Republican party known as the "Stalwarts," who believed firmly that to the victors belonged the spoils of office and opposed Civil Service reforms (Rutkow, p. 52). The other Republican faction, the "Half-Breeds," didn't care much for Hayes, either (PresElections, p. 1492). That meant that, in 1880, there was no incumbent running, nor could the incumbent pick his successor. And that meant a wide-open nomination.
The leading candidate was Ulysses S. Grant, who of course had been President for the two terms before Hayes (PresElections, p. 1492). But he was not entirely liked -- the Panic of 1873 had hurt him, and so had the corruption of many of his appointees, and some people just didn't think a man should serve more than two terms even though it was still constitutional at that time to do so. The Half-Breed leader, James G. Blaine (who would eventually be the Republican nominee in 1884), also had strong support, and John Sherman had a significant number of supporters (PresElections, p. 1493), plus there were the usual assortment of vague hopefuls.
Everyone thought the contest would be between Grant (the favorite of the Stalwarts) and Blaine (who claimed to be running only to stop Grant). But Blaine snubbed Sherman (PresElections, p. 1493), and Sherman wasn't going to stand for that. And the rules that were adopted allowed states to split their votes, which hurt Grant (PresElections, p. 1494). This left a convention with no clear favorite -- on the first ballot, Grant had 304, Blaine 284, Sherman 93, and three others a combined 75 (PresElections, p. 1495). With 756 total delegates, a candidate needed 379 to be nominated, and that meant that it was largely up to Sherman, who wasn't about to support either of the leaders.
Garfield's role in this was curious. He had actually been the man who had placed Sherman in nomination (perhaps with an understanding that Sherman might support him if the convention deadlocked; Rutkow, p. 49), and his nominating speech "was prudent, sincere, and tactful, and this restrained eloquence won more admiration for himself than for the man whose cause he espoused" (PresElections, p. 1495).
The convention proceeded through more than thirty ballots without much happening -- although there was some behind-the-scenes dealing when they halted for the night after 28 ballots (Rutkow, p. 55). On ballot #34, Wisconsin cast 17 votes for Garfield. Garfield stood up to say that they didn't have the right to vote for him. He was ruled out of order. Ballot #35 saw Indiana swing to Garfield, giving him 50 votes and placing him fourth. Sherman perhaps gave in at this point and supported Garfield (Rutkow, p. 55). On ballot #36, it appears a "stop Grant" movement swept the convention: All but three of Sherman's votes went to Garfield, and all but 42 of Blaine's supporters voted for him; with five votes for a minor candidate. Garfield ended up with 399 votes, to 306 for Grant and 50 for others. Garfield -- who had never even been formally placed in nomination -- was the nominee (PresElections, p. 1496).
It was very nearly the last truly open convention in American history; according to Brams, p. 46, the next one would be the 1952 Democratic convention, and there hasn't been another one since then. Indeed, Brams, p. 47, offers mathematical evidence that it was the most complete turnaround in a nomination contest ever.
Nonetheless, the nomination wasn't quite as spontaneous as it looked. Garfield's friends had thought there might be a Grant/Blaine deadlock, and had been prepared, encouraging applause whenever he spoke, arranging for delegates to occasionally case a vote for him in the early convention ballots, and then arranging the Wisconsin and Indiana actions to encourage a landslide (PresElections, pp. 1496-1497). There is genuine disagreement about how much Garfield had to do with this (Rutkow, p. 50), but even if he wasn't part of the planning, it's clear that he felt himself ready to be a candidate for president.
Nonetheless, his diary seems to reveal that he did not plan for or expect the nomination (Rutkow, p. 49; Leech/Brown, pp. 203-204, quotes a diary entry which seems to imply that he thought his chances of being president would be better when he was a little older). A letter he wrote to his wife in the early stages of the convention reveals that he had heard talk of nominating him -- and shows him uncertain of how to respond (Ackerman, p. 92). It apparently shocked him (Leech/Brown, p. 208); one friend declared, "Garfield never seemed the same man after he was nominated for President" (Leech/Brown, p. 209).
It perhaps shocked others as well. Many feared that Garfield would prove indecisive (PresElections, p. 1498). They never really found out one way or the other.
Garfield was a Half-Breed, but he knew that the Republicans needed the support of the Stalwarts, and did his best to bring them aboard with his Vice Presidential pick. Plus he needed to win New York. So he first supposedly approached New York Stalwart Levi Morton -- but the powerful senator Roscoe Conkling -- who disliked the Half-Breeds and hated their leader Blaine with a passion (Ackerman, pp. 5-16, documents the beginning of the feud) -- convinced Morton to turn down the job. Then Garfield turned to Chester A. Arthur, another New York Stalwart who also happened to be the head of the New York convention delegation (Karabell, p. 39).
Arthur had done very well for himself in New York politics, and had a result been a target of the Hayes administration attempts to clean up the party (Karabell, p. 33) -- which had the ironic effect of making the local glad-handler nationally known. He wasn't entirely without principles -- he had fought hard for the rights of Blacks, and had secured for them the right to ride New York's streetcars (Ackerman, p. 62) -- but one of his principles seems to have been feathering his own nest; he was known as "Gentleman Boss." His office as Collector of the Port of New York brought with it a salary of $20,000 per year -- which was a very good salary indeed in the late 1870s!
Arthur was a Conkling protege -- indeed, Karabell, p. 21, says that they had a "symbiotic relationship. Arthur was best in a supporting role; Conkling followed only himself." Ackerman, p. 62, calls Arthur "a consummate political henchman." His career to this point had been mostly due to Conkling's help; there was little reason to think he would go against his mentor.
The details of the what passed between Conkling and Arthur are known only from secondary sources (Karabell, p. 41), but it is said Conkling tried to talk Arthur out of taking the job, but Arthur -- well aware that he was unlikely to achieve such high office on his own -- decided to accept (PresElections, pp. 1497-1498; Rutkow, p. 56). Since Garfield was still a relatively young man (his mother was alive to witness his inauguration -- the first woman to see her son inaugurated President; Rutkow, pp. 70-71), Arthur probably did not have any hopes of becoming President -- nor of having any influence, since he and Garfield did not know each other well and were from different Republican factions.
Arthur had never held elective office (Karabell, p. 140); although he had held many government positions, all were appointed -- a most unusual resume for a man who became President. Nor had be been under the national spotlight (Karabell, p. 43), and he perhaps found it uncomfortable. He hadn't seen anything yet.... But he did bring genuine value to the ticket, not so much because of his reputation or ability to inspire but because of his fundraising skills (Karabell, p. 47).
The Democrats were probably overconfident. They felt (almost certainly correctly) that they should have won in 1876, and as a result of Hayes's ending of reconstruction, they now controlled three more states than they had in that year. All they had to do was repeat 1876 and they would be victorious. They nominated General Winfield Scott Hancock, a hero of Gettysburg, whose main attribute was that he had no obvious defects (PresElections, p. 1501).
The Democratic calculations were too optimistic. The panic of 1873 was over, so Republicans no longer carried that stigma. Hancock, while intelligent, produced an acceptance letter that made him seem naive (PresElections, p. 1504), and he was never able to shed this label. The differences between the parties on substantive issues were slight, except for differences over tariffs (PresElections, p. 1506) -- which mostly interested those whose party affiliations were already set.
Neither campaign was very intelligent -- there were no burning issues; the campaign "was a contest of organization and will, not a battle over the future direction of the country" (Karabell, p. 45). "To Henry Adams, E. L. Godkin, and others, Stalwart, Half-Breed, Democrat, and Republican were all arbitrary labels that could easily have been shuffled without altering anything but the names of the combatants. They had a point. What was the election about, really, other than who would win?" (Karabell, pp. 45-46).
Garfield did manage to show his intellectual gifts at least once; one of his few public campaign appearances was a speech in German to Germans in Ohio -- reportedly the first time a Presidential candidate had given a speech in a foreign language (Ackerman, p. 216).
But if the issues were trivial, the Republicans were better at hoopla, producing blank books which claimed to be a list of Hancock's "achievements" and encouraging people to sing a parody of Gilbert and Sullivan's "When I Was a Lad" which stressed Hancock's supposed popularity in the South: "In the Union War I fought so well That my name is greeted with the 'rebel yell'" (PresElections, p. 1508). Democrats responded with dirty tricks such as a faked letter which claimed Garfield favored free importation of low-paid Chinese laborers (Rutkow, p. 61) -- but the letter was easily shown to be a forgery; the writing was not Garfield's and it actually misspelled his name! (Ackerman, p. 218). Nor could the purported recipient be found. The newspaper that ran the letter finally admitted after the election that it was forged (Ackerman, p. 219).
Both parties knew that the election would turn on a handful of states, with New York and Indiana being the most important. And Democrats organizers in New York were too disgruntled to go all-out (the local boss was more concerned with retaining his own power than helping the national ticket, according to PresElections, p. 1513), and Republican organization in Indiana was just enough better than Democratic to let them eke out a narrow victory (PresElections, pp. 1509-1510, which notes that immense amounts of money were spent in the state; the results came very close to buying votes). Garfield had an edge of less than ten thousand out of nine million popular votes cast (the closest popular vote in American history; Ackerman, pp. 220-221; Rutkow, p. 62), and took only 20 of 39 states, but he won in the electoral college by 214 to 155 (PresElections, p. 1558). Garfield thus became simultaneously a seated congressman, a Senator-elect, and a President-elect -- the only time any person has been all three at once (Rutkow, p. 62).
And that meant that he had to start filling patronage jobs. Garfield had bought Republican unity at a high price in promises. Quite possibly an even higher price than he realized -- PresElections, pp. 1511-1512, thinks that Roscoe Conkling expected a much higher payoff than he got, including control over appointments in New York, whereas Garfield probably considered himself simply to have promised to consult him. John Hay, the future secretary of state, described Conkling's behavior thus: "He really thinks he is the Savior of the Situation, and makes no bones about it" (Ackerman, p. 224). Which, naturally, meant that he expected a reward.
Karabell, p. 49, says that "Arthur and the Stalwarts were certain that 'pledges had been made,' and that Garfield had promised cabinet positions, patronage power, and carte blanche in New York State in return for help in winning the election. In his own notes of the meeting, however, Garfield said that he was 'very weary but... no mistakes had been made and probably much good had been done. No trades, no shackles.'"
The real difficulty was that both Blaine, the standard-bearer of the Half-Breeds, and Conkling wanted their plums -- and they were so bitter in their hatred that they could not work together. Garfield made Blaine Secretary of State, and that meant no cabinet post for Conkling (Karabell, p. 52). Indeed, Ackerman, p. 226, thinks that Garfield appointed Blaine specifically to hold off Conkling. But this produced tensions so high that, as late as February 1881 -- more than three months after the election -- Garfield still had only one cabinet officer lined up: Blaine as Secretary of State (Rutkow, p. 67). As things finally worked out, there was only one Stalwart in the cabinet (Karabell, p. 55). The battle became increasingly intense. (And Vice President Arthur had rather a strong role in this. The Senate was evenly divided, 37 Republicans to 37 Democrats, so Arthur had the casting vote; Karabell, p. 54. This, in effect, gave the Stalwarts a controlling hand on appointments.)
The problem, as a contemporary noted, was that "the method of appointment to office in this country has got to be changed.... It has outgrown those methods adopted for an old system of things never sufficient for them; but it was never dreamt by those who created it that it would be applied to the condition of things now existing in this country. It can no longer be that 200,000 office-holders can be appointed by the methods that were fit and proper for the appointment of 1,000" (White, p. 301, quoting Senator Henry L. Dawes). But, until something could be done, the whole job was on Garfield's shoulders.
The conflict was sufficiently bitter that Vice President Arthur turned against Garfield. Vice Presidents rarely had much to do in this period, but it appeared that Arthur was obeying Conkling, not Garfield. And even after the cabinet was settled (surprisingly, considering the controversies, it was approved as a body after only half a day's debate; Ackerman, p. 262), others still wanted lesser jobs. Garfield repeatedly complained about it in his diary: "The stream of callers which was dammed by my absence became a torrent and swept away my day." "Once or twice I felt like crying out in the agony of my soul against the greed for office and its consumption of my time." (White, p. 94). And then Charles Guiteau got into the act.
It is ironic to note that Senator John Sherman, after Garfield was elected, warned the President-elect to beware of assassination in light of the bitterness of the campaign. Garfield brushed it off as an unavoidable risk of the job (Rutkow, p. 63). There was no budget for guards anyway; Garfield would have had to pay out of his own pocket (Ackerman, pp. 277-278).
Assassin-to-be Charles Guiteau was the child of a mother who reportedly suffered from schizophrenia (although, contrary to the song, she had died long before, in 1848; Ackerman, p. 135) and a father who was a religious fanatic. His sister was officially declared insane in late 1882, half a year after Guiteau's execution, and some thought she should have been institutionalized even before that (Rosenberg, p. 256). Guiteau was himself mentally troubled and "stole from everyone he knew" (Rutkow, pp. 71-72). He had even stolen the copies of the book he had had privately printed (Ackerman, p. 280). As a child, he could not keep still and was beaten regularly (Fetherling, p, 171). His father tried to put him in the Oneida community, but even in that society which allowed free love, no one would go near him. He managed to marry a woman named Annie Bunn, but he beat her and committed various crimes around her; the marriage ended after five years (Ackerman, p. 135).
It is Fetherling's opinion that he suffered from syphilis, acquired from a prostitute. Certainly he patronized at least one such woman; it was part of the process of obtaining a divorce (Fetherling, p. 172). But given his family history, and the strong genetic element in most mental disorders, it is reasonable to assume he was born with his problems.
By the time of the election of 1880, Guiteau was forty years old, small and unimpressive, "a self-educated lawyer [who] fancied himself more a world-class theologian and novelist" (Rutkow, p. 71). After working for the famous evangelist Dwight Moody, he was fired because he was such a poor preacher (Fetherling, p. 172). Nonetheless, he wrote and tried to sell a book, The Truth: A Companion to the Bible (Ackerman, p. 134); he also sold insurance, but without much luck. He tried to gain work as a lawyer -- and defrauded his clients (Fetherling, p. 172).
Guiteau initially hoped to be part of Garfield's administration; on one occasion he handed a paper to Garfield, "a copy of a short speech, 'Garfield against Hancock,' on which, boldly written in pencil, were the words 'Paris Consulship' connected by a drawn line to the author's name, Charles Julius Guiteau" (Rutkow, p. 71). Guiteau made several other attempts to gain a job (meanwhile defrauding those who rented him rooms; Ackerman, p. 273), but finally was told (by Blaine, not Garfield) to stop pestering the White House staff; he was finally barred from the building at a time when people were routinely admitted without being screened (Rutkow, p. 72).
While Guiteau was trying to get a patronage job, the issue of patronage itself was the issue in the Senate. Garfield and Conkling had been fighting over appointments, with Conkling stopping Senate business entirely. But Garfield managed to outfox him by maneuvering a vote on the appointment Conkling opposed above all (Ackerman, p. 330). Conkling, seeing his caused doomed, resigned his Senate seat in an attempted power play (Karabell, pp. 57-58), and even induced the junior Senator from New York to do the same (Ackerman, pp. 342-344). For Conkling -- who had expected to be reappointed to the job with his prestige enhanced it was a flop; he was out of a job for no profit, and New York did not reappoint him.
As a side effect, Charles Guiteau concluded that Garfield could not be trusted to give patronage appointments to those Stalwarts such as himself to whom the new President supposedly owed so much (Ackerman, pp. 345-345). Clearly Garfield had to be gotten out of the way.
According to DeGregorio, p. 382, Guiteau three times approached Garfield with a weapon, but chickened out each time. Rutkow, p. 79, mentions an occasion when Guiteau visited Garfield's church and started shouting during the service -- which Garfield even noted in his diary: "a dull young man, with a loud voice, trying to pound noise into the question, 'What think ye of Christ?'" (Rutkow, p. 79). Guiteau planned to attack Garfield at the church the next week, but Garfield coincidentally decided not to visit the church that week (Rutkow, pp. 79-80).
Garfield's wife Lucretia was sick at this time, with what is believed to have been malaria (Rutkow, p. 80); it apparently was almost fatal (Ackerman, p. 332, describes the high fever and other symptoms). The first family had decided to take a vacation to try to help her recover. Guiteau actually prepared to shoot Garfield at the time but abandoned the plan because Mrs. Garfield looked so frail (Rutkow, p. 80). But they planned another trip to help her recover, and it was announced in the papers that Garfield would be leaving on a 9:30 train from the Baltimore and Potomac depot. Guiteau wrote one more explanation for his conduct and prepared for the final confrontation (Rutkow, p. 81).
The story of the assassination is a tale of one botch after another. Rutkow, p. 2, points out that even in 1881, when Lincoln's assassination was still a matter of personal memory to most Americans, the President had no guards, and his itinerary was often published. Garfield was talking with Secretary of State Blaine (who had driven him to the train station; Rutkow, p. 82) as he prepared to leave town. The song alludes to the fact that the assassination took place at a train station when it says Guiteau was "down at the depot."
Rutkow, p. 2, says that Guiteau took up a position just a short distance behind Garfield and fired two shots with a pistol. "The first shot caused a slight flesh wound of the right arm but the second entered the middle of the right side of Garfield's back, jolting him forward."
It was an utterly inept attempt at assassination; the first bullet wound was trivial and the second, although more serious, need not have been fatal.
Guiteau tried to flee, but was quickly taken into custody by a policeman by the name of Patrick Kearney (DeGregorio, p. 382). Supposedly he said something like, "I did it and will go to jail for it. I am a Stalwart and Arthur will be president" (Rutkow, p. 2) or "I am a Stalwart! Arthur is now President!" (Morison, p. 735). As he was taken away, he brandished a paper he said would explain everything (Rutkow, p. 84). We have record of Guiteau writing to the new President, Chester A. Arthur, on the day Garfield died, declaring "My inspiration is a God send to you and I presume that you appreciate it.... It raises you from a political cypher to president of the United States" (DeGregorio, p. 383). He carried another letter saying that the death of Garfield was sad but necessary for it would save the Republican party (Karabell, p. 61).
Nothing seemed to be working on that fatal day. As Garfield's wife Lucretia sped back to Washington, her train engine broke down, leading to significant delays (Rutkow, p. 89).
It took time to find a doctor, and when one was located, he did little except probe the wound and feed Garfield a useless mix of brandy and ammonium salts (Rutkow, pp. 84-85. The latter, presumably, was to rouse the president -- but while ammonia does tend to jerk people awake, it is not in fact a stimulant and is no help medically; Schwarcz, p. 29). It sounds very much as if Garfield was in shock, but nothing useful was done to counteract the condition except to get him away from the crowd (Rutkow, p. 85).
Even when more respected doctors showed up, they proved equally incompetent. The first genuine medical act was to give Garfield morphine (Rutkow, p. 90), which seems to have induced nausea. The wives of several of the cabinet secretaries served as nurses for a time (Rutkow, p. 91). This was probably good; unlike the doctors, they didn't do any active harm.
Eventually one Doctor Willard Bliss (whose given name was Doctor -- Rutkow, p. 85) took charge. He had been a successful Civil War surgeon (Rutkow, p. 92). But surgery had changed since the Civil War. Louis Pasteur began to enunciate the germ theory of disease in 1865. Joseph Lister had started using carbolic acid (phenol) as a sterilizing agent in that year, and had published his work in 1867. In the 1870s, Robert Koch had shown that heat and steam could sterilize surgical instruments. (Porter, p. 437). When Bliss had been trained, sterile working conditions were unknown, and half of all surgical patients had developed septic infections. By 1881, septic infections were nearly unknown in the more developed parts of Europe.
But many American surgeons, including Bliss, had paid little attention. Rutkow, p. 97, caustically declares, "For Bliss and his minions, ancient remedies, old-world philosophies, and a stubborn resistance to scientific progress characterized their every word and deed." A contemporary doctor would accurately remark that "ignorance is Bliss" (Rutkow, p. 131). The situation resembled a bunch of alchemists trying to clean up a chemical spill. Nothing was done to create a sterile environment for the President, and Garfield's clothing was changed only infrequently (Rutkow, p. 90). The doctors at the White House, like those at the train station, probed Garfield's wound with unwashed, un-gloved hands (DeGregorio, p. 383). It was that which proved fatal. Plus their constant prodding of his shattered rib (Rutkow, p. 94) doubtless increased his pain and prevented healing. He could not eat, he was feverish, and he probably suffered from an infected abscess somewhere (Rutkow, p. 96). The doctors released regular reports, but their accuracy was dubious at best.
On top of that, it appears Garfield was overdosed with morphine and supplied with unsuitable foods. And Bliss and Co. refused to let Garfield's regular doctor come near him (Rutkow, pp. 104-105), even though (or perhaps because) this Dr. Boynton actually knew the value of cleanliness. Nor did they remove the bullet (Rutkow, p. 116-117), which makes you wonder why they spent so much time probing the wound.
Garfield took two and a half months to die -- the assassination was on July 2; the President died September 19. There had been several crises in the interim. On July 22, Garfield's wound discharged much fluid, and he began to display chills, tremors, and an exceptionally high pulse and fever (Rutkow, p. 113). It was believed at the time that he was dying. Eventually surgery was done to drain the fluid and clean up Garfield's damaged ribs, but the surgery was not antiseptic (Rutkow, p. 115).
By August, the signs of secondary infections were manifest, such as a facial carbuncle which caused intense pain (Rutkow, p. 119). By August 14, Garfield was unable to eat and the doctors "fed" him by shoving food up his rectum toward the intestines -- a technique which does not in fact supply significant nutrition (Rutkow, p. 120). Fewer and visitors were allowed; even his children were denied entrance by the incompetent Bliss (Rutkow, p. 122).
Rutkow, p. 122, believes Bliss wrote deliberately deceptive bulletins for the public. Garfield himself, although not always lucid, apparently wanted a change, but it was not permitted (Rutkow, pp. 121, 123). Finally, on September 5, the President demanded to leave Washington, and was allowed to do so; special cars on a special rail line carried him to the New Jersey seashore. (Rutkow, pp. 123-124). It sounds like it was a dreadful journey for the dying man -- and it afforded Bliss the opportunity to get rid of more of Garfield's doctors (Rutkow, p. 125).
On September 17, Garfield began to exhibit signs of pneumonia. Although he still had lucid moments, he was delirious most of the time (Rutkow, pp. 126-127). Bliss still managed to issue optimistic medical bulletins. But on the evening of September 19, Garfield began screaming to the man watching him about chest pain. Bliss was summoned, and listened to Garfield's heart (although he refused, in his typical way, to use a stethoscope; Rutkow, p. 127). At 10:35 p.m., Garfield -- who was not quite fifty years old -- died.
An autopsy showed that the bullet had damaged two ribs but had not punctured any organs (Rutkow, p. 128). The cause of death was massive infection, as demonstrated by the several cavities of pus in his emaciated body.
To add insult to injury, many of the doctors proceeded to bill the government for thousands of dollars for their work on the President. Fee-for-service was a source of controversy even in 1881, it seems -- Bliss asked for $25,000; Congress finally granted him $6500, and most of the others had their requests similarly pared down (Rutkow, pp. 134-135). We will never know what Dr. Doctor Bliss thought of his incompetence, as he left no diaries or memoirs, but one of his assistants committed suicide in 1884 (Rutkow, p. 134).
Vice President Arthur was inaugurated the day after Garfield died (Karabell, pp. 63-64). Karabell suggests that Garfield's lingering death helped prepare the nation; there was no real succession crisis. And Arthur began to dismantle the spoils system, if only because, after Guiteau's action, he didn't dare be accused of rewarding the Stalwarts too strongly (Karabell, pp. 70-73).
His actions in promoting civil service reform initially met with little success, but after the Republicans were slaughtered in the 1882 congressional elections, a bill which had initially been proposed by a Democrat was brushed off and pushed through (Karabell, pp. 101-104). From that time on, the number of patronage jobs declined dramatically. (It will perhaps tell you something about American politics at the time that the Senate vote on the Pendleton Civil Service bill was 38-5 -- with 33 abstentions! -- Karabell, p. 105. It became law in January 1883; Karabell, p. 106).
Initial news reports of the crime were unclear of what to make of Guiteau. Karabell, pp. 64-65, points that he "was not, as news accounts labeled him, a disgruntled office seeker, except in his own mind. He had been floating around Washington and New York for years trying to catch the favor of the powers that were. In an era when there were fewer gatekeepers separating men of influence from those who wanted to meet them, Guiteau had wandered into Senate offices and White House anterooms seeking audiences, and he had written a steady stream of letters to dozens of congressmen and federal officials. He imagined himself a loyal Republican who had been repeatedly denied a post because of factional maneuvers between Stalwarts and Half-Breeds, and he believed that killing Garfield would remove that logjam."
Among Guiteau's papers were a request to General Sherman (who of course was fond of General Grant, which presumably in Guiteau's mind made him a Stalwart) asking Sherman to take troops to occupy the jail where Guiteau was held. Plus Guiteau told President Arthur who to name to his cabinet!
According to Karabell, p. 74, Guiteau was "deemed an unhinged loner." Frankly, he does sound wacko, and the song is correct in saying that Guiteau tried to "play off insane." His defense, according to Karabell, pp. 86-87, hinged on three parts:
* Insanity: "[I]t was God's act and not mine. The Divine pressure on me to remove the president was so enormous that it destroyed my free agency, and therefore that I am not legally responsible for my act."
* Malpractice: That Garfield would have recovered had his doctors been competent.
* Lack of jurisdiction: Since Garfield died in New Jersey, the court that was trying him did not have authority over the case.
Thus Guiteau never attempted to contest the fact that he had shot Garfield. And the absurdity of the latter two points is obvious. So Guiteau's only real defense was the insanity argument. (On this point, as at many others, Guiteau disagreed strongly with his lawyers. He also spent much of his time in the court shouting and making a spectacle of himself; Rutkow, p. 130; Ackerman, p. 444. Apparently he was only allowed to stay in the court because having him removed would have been considered an admission by the court that he was insane; Fetherling, p. 175.)
In previous versions of this Index, I declared "I am no diagnostician, but [Guiteau] really, really sounds like a paranoid schizophrenic, which would also explain why he refused to pursue a pure insanity defense -- most paranoid schizophrenics cannot tolerate being called insane."
I based this on the sources available to me Rosenberg, p. xiii, says, "There is no doubt that Guiteau suffered from mental illness.... The precise diagnosis is another matter.... Those twentieth-century clinicians, however, who have studied the cause of Guiteau tend to agree in their evaluation of the assassin's mental status: he was, in the facetious words of one such author, 'a common garden variety of paranoid schizophrenia.'"
On the other hand, Kiehl, pp. 50-77, tries to give Guiteau a posthumous assessment for psychopathy, based mostly on Guiteau's constant cheating of his friends. His conclusion, on p. 76, is that Guiteau would have achieved a score of about 37.5 out of 40 on a scale of psychopathy -- an incredibly high score, 25% above the guideline to be diagnosed a psychopath and more than nine times the population average. But Kiehl's case is strongly based on his claim that Guiteau had no delusions (Kiehl, p. 76). But this is false; he had delusions of hypercompetence. He had no hallucinations, but that is different.
I am still not a diagnostician, but since those paragraphs were written, I have learned a great deal about clinical diagnosis, and I cannot agree with either hypothesis. Kiehl's case is weakened by the fact that Guiteau seems to have actually believed he had earned the offices and money and such that he sought. This requires more than a diagnosis of psychopathy; at minimum, we need to throw in narcissistic personality disorder. The diagnosis of schizophrenia is badly weakened by the fact that Guiteau showed no evidence of psychosis. He said the idea to assassinate Garfield occurred to him; it was not suggested by someone outside him (Rosenberg, p. 39). And his memory for dates and places was regarded as good -- he was constantly correcting the witnesses in his trial (Rosenberg, p. 180). This is not typical of schizophrenia.
Rosenberg's diagnosis was made at a time when Americans were much too willing to diagnose anything and everything as schizophrenia; studies made in the 1970s showed that American and Russian authorities had "a much broader concept of schizophrenia" than those in the rest off the world (DSM-IVGuidebook, p. 8) -- and when it came time to actually enunciate criteria for schizophrenia, the guidelines matched those for the rest of the world.
According to the latest authority, DSM-5-TR (pp. 113-114), a schizophrenia diagnosis requires a patient to meet at least two of five criteria: A1. delusions, A2. hallucinations, A3. disorganized speech, A4, grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior, and A5. what are called "negative symptoms." Guiteau had delusions. He did not have disorganized behavior, negative symptoms, or hallucinations (in fact, he explicitly denied having visions or hearing voices in his erratic final statement at his trial; Rosenberg, p. 215). He showed some signs of disorganized speech, but generally only in relation to his delusion of grandeur. To be sure, the understanding of schizophrenia has changed since the mid-twentieth century (among other things, since 2013, the subtypes such as paranoid schizophrenia have been eliminated). But, clearly, a lesser disorder than schizophrenia is indicated.
My feeling is that he had Delusional Disorder plus possibly Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. It fits well; "the central feature of Delusional Disorder is the presence of NONBIZARRE delusions [emphasis mine] with the preservation of functioning apart from the results of the delusions (DSM-IVGuidebook, p. 182). The criteria for Delusional Disorder, as given on pp. 104-105 of DSM-5-TR, are: A. Delusions. B. The "A" criteria for schizophrenia not met. C. outside of the area of delusion, functioning is not markedly impaired. D. No mood disorder. E. Not caused by drugs. The amazing thing about Guiteau is that, despite the burden of his over-inflated ego, he managed to survive pretty well. And he didn't smoke or drink (and schizophrenics tend to smoke like chimneys and use other drugs to excess).
What's more, one of the recognized "specifiers" for delusional disorder (DSM-5-TR, p. 105) is "Grandiose type: This subtype applies when the central theme of the delusion is the conviction of having some great (but unrecognized) talent or insight or of having made some important discovery." Guiteau could be the poster child. All that technical analysis doesn't change the fact that Guiteau was an absolute loonie toon. It does, however, affect the question of how he understood his actions.
According to Hall, p. 433, the insanity defense was clearly recognized in U. S. law by this time (indeed, Boatner, p. 760, notes that the first successful defense on the ground of temporary insanity had come some twenty years earlier), although the criteria for insanity were somewhat unclear. But although it was possible to plead insanity, in general the M'Naghten/McNaghten rule used in Britain (that the victim was so far gone that he did not recognize or have control over his behavior; Fetherling, p. 226) was accepted in America also, and Guiteau clearly did not meet the M'Naghten standard; he was sane enough to know what he was doing and to know it was against the law. What's more, jurisprudence in the twenty-first century has defined McNaghten very strictly -- so strictly that a criminal who understands right and wrong but is so insane as to not realize that his own actions are wrong can be condemned to death (Halgin, p. 362-366, citing arguments in a 2007 case involving a schizophrenic murderer named Scott Panetti). So Guiteau -- even if his illness was schizophrenia, not merely delusional disorder -- could be sentenced to death, despite his mental illness, even today.
Such were the conditions of the time that at least one prominent politician, Crittenden of Missouri, called for Guiteau to be torn limb from limb (Fetherling, p. 147).
The trial took place in December 1881 and January 1882. Since there was no question of Guiteau's guilt, and since the malpractice claim went nowhere (Rosenberg, p. 122), most of the arguments were about his sanity, and since he clearly met the M'Naghten standard, the defenders for the most part were reduced to producing expert witnesses arguing that insanity needed a broader definition than M'Naghten. This took a long time (Rosenberg devotes most of pp. 123-152 and 155-166 to describing it), but Guiteau's cheap legal team apparently didn't handle it very well -- one suspects the expert witnesses didn't *really* want to say that Guiteau should get off. (The main thing that I noticed in reading Rosenberg's summary of the case was how mind-numbingly wrong these alleged experts were, about just about everything. Some had worked at length with patients suffering from mental disorders, but at best they had impressions; they had no science, and no interest in any.)
(If the question be asked if Guiteau was morally responsible for his behavior and how he should be treated, my answer would be that he was close to the borderline, but minimally responsible. Today, our goal would be to spare him and cure him; in the 1880s, with no tools to do either, I think executing him made sense lest he offend again. Nonetheless, according to Rosenberg, p. 243 and following, after Guiteau's death many observers changed their minds and concluded he was too insane to be responsible for his acts. Rosenberg, p. 253, suggests that he would not even have been put on trial had he not had such a high-profile victim.)
He did at least receive a lot of recognition; many people came to visit him in prison, or seek his autograph -- he had become something of a tourist attraction. Most of them apparently told him that they thought he should be acquitted -- and he, in his delusion, took them seriously (Rosenberg, p. 188).
"On January 23, 1882, to Guiteau's evident surprise, the jury took all of an hour to sentence him to death" (Karabell, p. 87). He promptly denounced the jury to the press, but of course that didn't help. His lawyers promptly petitioned for a new trial, but the request was summarily rejected by Judge Walter Cox (Rosenberg, p. 224). Guiteau at once turned on his lawyer (who was also his brother-in-law). This prompted Cox, who no longer needed to show judicial calm, to tell Guiteau just what he thought of him. Having done so, he sentenced him to hang on June 30, 1882. Guiteau, evidently furious, was by this time insulting the judge and trying to escape the bailiffs (Rosenberg, p. 225).
On May 22, 1882, the appeals court rejected all defense motions to overturn the verdict, ordering the execution to go forward as scheduled, leaving Guiteau and his lawyers no option except an appeal to President Arthur for clemency (Rosenberg, pp. 226, 232).
Fortunately, Arthur was not as much of a nut as Guiteau, and did *not* do Guiteau any favors. He knew that he had to make it abundantly clear that he had nothing to do with Garfield's assassination, and tried to avoid even coming to Washington until Blaine and the cabinet begged him to leave New York (Karabell, p. 62). He certainly didn't consider a pardon! Guiteau then declared that Arthur and his cabinet were doomed to perdition (Karabell, pp. 87-88); he told a clergyman that "Arthur has sealed his own doom and the doom of the nation. He and his cabinet are possessed of the devil" and declared that they would learn the truth when in hell (Rosenberg, p. 234). Apparently Guiteau had expected to be exonerated, somehow, until about a week before his execution. Once he finally accepted the truth, he started writing absurd fictions about what was to come -- e.g. Rosenberg, p. 234, prints a bit of a "tableaux" (short play) about Arthur being sent to hell.
Ironically, once he accepted that he would be hanged, Guiteau did his best to assure that it would be a proper spectacle (Rosenberg, p. 235).
So great was the anger against him that there were two attempts to assassinate him on the way to the gallows (Ackerman, p. 444).
Guiteau did compose a poem before his execution. It was entitled "I Am Going to the Lordy" (Karabell, p. 87). This song is not it; it opened
I am going to the Lordy, I am so glad,
I am going to the Lordy, I am so glad,
I am going to the Lordy,
Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah!
I am going to the Lordy.
I love the Lordy with all my soul,
Glory hallelujah!
A full text can be found at http://tinyurl.com/tbdx-GoLordy, or on pp. 237-238 of Rosenberg.
Guiteau reportedly dropped the paper when they placed the black cap on his head (Ackerman, p. 445); his body was autopsied and many of the remains went into the National Museum of Health and Medicine (Ackerman, p. 446).
If anything good came out of the assassination, it is that medical training in the United States was dramatically improved over the next several decades (Rutkow, pp. 132-133). And, of course, the Guiteau case advanced the cause of Civil Service reform -- Ackerman, p. 446, comments that although Guiteau was the nuttiest of all successful Presidential assassins, he was the only one whose actions resulted in significant legislation.
Garfield's widow and children were treated fairly well -- but not by the government; a private subscription raised some $300,000 for them (Rutkow, p. 135); the government managed a $50,000 pension (Ackerman, p. 441). "Crete" Garfield lived until 1918; she founded the first real Presidential Library, was a proud Progressive in 1912, and saw one of her sons become a cabinet member and another President of Williams College (Ackerman, p. 442).
APPENDIX: The Case for Garfield's Autism
I've mentioned several times the possibility that James A. Garfield was autistic -- a condition, I should emphasize, that does make him very different, although not in any way defective or insane. Being autistic myself, this subject is of particular interest to me. The evidence, in Garfield's case, is quite strong; the list below shows the the autistic traits I am aware of:
- It is typical of autism sufferers that their friends are unusually likely to be of the opposite sex and of a different generation. There were many murmurs about Garfield and young women, some of which sounds very familiar to me. This was less harmful to politicians then than now, but Garfield doesn't seem to have tried to hide it. It is noteworthy that he also had a close friendship with a female teacher half a generation *older* than he was (Leech/Brown, pp. 36-37, who imply that he considered marrying her).
- The way Garfield's marriage grew stronger as he grew older, described above, is very typical of autistics; exaggerated loyalty is very common for those with autism.
- This sense of devotion is seen in his other relationships, in which he showed extreme loyalty; he declared that "It is my greatest weakness to feel almost unable to criticize anyone I love."
- Garfield was noted for his clumsiness (at one point nearly killing a cousin because of his inability to control an ax; Rutkow, p. 5, and also causing himself much injury; Leech/Brown, p. 20), and autistics often lack fine motor control.
- Garfield was not only highly intelligent, but his intelligence was of a type typical of autistics: Detailed, with strong skills in mathematics and language. Note, in addition to his proof of the Pythagorean Theorem, his knowledge of Greek, Latin, and German. He also read French histories in the original language (Ackerman, p. 322).
- His early lack of self-application is very common in autistics, who have a strong tendency to "drift" in society.
- He apparently suffered from insomnia after being elected President (Ackerman, p. 232). Admittedly he was facing a pretty tough job. But it's a job most politicians would covet. Autistics often have severe sleep problems -- it is estimated that 80% suffer from insomnia, and almost as many have other sleep difficulties.
- Garfield liked to keep a firm and fixed schedule (Ackerman, p. 275); he seemingly disliked change; he "hated to end a way of life" (Leech/Brown, p. 43). Those with autism very much like their routines.
- Even more than most people, he hated job-seeking; he considered himself to have only once actively sought a job, and even said that job-seeking was unlucky for him (Leech/Brown, pp. 24-25). Job-hunting is one of the two biggest problems suffered by autistics (getting dates being the other).
- His indecision is another typical autistic trait; many autistics have peculiarities in the areas of the brain associated with decision-making. (The letter quoted by Ackerman, p. 92, shows Garfield at his most indecisive -- he declares that he wishes his wife were there to help him with her decision-making ability. Ackerman, p. 146, quotes Senator Henry Dawes as saying Garfield had "more brains, but no such will as Sherman, brilliant like Blaine, but timid and hesitating.")
- Even his ally James G. Blaine said that Garfield was a great debater but not a great parliamentary leader (Leech/Brown, p. 171). In Blaine's view, Garfield lacked the required tactical skills (Leech/Brown, p. 172). The defects Blaine describes are very typical of autism.
- Rutherford B. Hayes would later say that Garfield "could not face a frowning world" (Leech/Brown, p. 172). Others around him said similar things -- he could not stand up for his beliefs in the face of strong opposition. Speaking as one who has been there, this is a *terrible* problem for autistics -- I have, many times, had others impose their emotions on me. Disapproval, especially from someone whom the autistic person respects, is almost intolerable.
- Garfield's reactions to stress was so strong that it made him physically ill (Leech/Brown, p. 205). As with rejection, autistics tend to be acutely sensitive to stress.
- Garfield, in thinking about marriage, went through an almost mechanical process of selection, "'studying' [his future wife] Lucretia's qualifications to last a lifetime" (Leech/Brown, p. 49). This tendency to substitute the rational for the emotional is very autistic.
- Garfield's mother seems to have been more than a little neurotic (Leech/Brown, pp. 7-8), and the parents of autistics often have their own peculiar problems. Eliza Garfield sounds very much like some of the parents of autistics I have known. Garfield's brother Thomas is thought to have suffered from mild epilepsy (Leech/Brown, p. 13), and epilepsy and autism are genetically linked.
- Garfield is described as having suffered "emotional disturbances" as a boy (Leech/Brown, p. 18). Not all autistics suffer from such, and there are plenty of other reasons why an orphan boy might be disturbed, but such disturbances fit an autism diagnosis. Garfield seems to have suffered a bout of depression after his work on the canals (Leech/Brown, p. 22), and again in during the later phases of his education (e.g. Leech/Brown, pp. 41, 77), and it is estimated that 80% of those with autism suffer from depression to some degree.
- We have only a few descriptions of Garfield's mental state after the tremendous Union defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga, but what is described on p. 147 of Leech/Brown sounds very familiar to me -- surging feelings, indecisiveness, mood swings, uncertainty. It sounds very much like the reaction to stress of someone with autism.
- Garfield had a very hard time understanding and responding to others' grief (Leech/Brown, p. 63). Inability to respond to situations like this is one of the key signs of autism.
- Garfield, in his diary, called himself a "poor hater" (Ackerman, p. 453) -- that is, one who was not good at hate. Autism sufferers are prone to sudden rages but tend not to carry the grudge.
- Garfield was a conciliator, but he was not good at compromise or negotiating deals; his attempts at filling the intermediate levels of his administration made everyone mad at him (Ackerman, pp. 299-347, with an especially strong example on p. 327). Problems with negotiating are hardly unique to those with autism, but many with autism have that problem.
- Topping it all off is his very un-politician-like feeling about people: "I love to deal with doctrines and events. The contests of men about men I greatly dislike" (Ackerman, p. 236).
Combine all these elements and the case for autism is very strong. Which helps explain why Garfield was not an executive; those with autism are rarely good leaders -- they lack what is called "executive function," or the ability to make strong decisions. He was fit for almost any job -- except the top job. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: LE11

Charles Gustavus Anderson

See Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson [Laws D19] (File: LD19)

Charles J. Guiteau

See Charles Guiteau [Laws E11] (File: LE11)

Charles O'Neill

DESCRIPTION: "Twas on the quarter deck that I saw my love stand... He's the hero of bonny Carlo." Before they parted "he spoke a few... words which I could not understands" She watches his ship sail out of sight. She returns home and weeps all night
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: grief love farewell parting separation travel ship
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18201
RECORDINGS:
Will O'Brien, "Charles O'Neill" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [19 words]: The description is based on the Will O'Brien text. [The name] "Charles O'Neill" does not appear in that text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcChaONe

Charleston Earthquake

DESCRIPTION: "It was a pleasant August evening, an the city was at rest, Peace and quiet reigned on every hand, When a dreadful crash was heard...." An earthquake hits the city. There is much damage; some residents are killed. The song begs for relief.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1887 (Wehman print)
KEYWORDS: disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 31, 1887 - Charleston earthquake
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 300, "Charleston Earthquake" (1 text)
File: CAFS1300

Charleston Gals

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses: The terrapin and the toad, the overworked old horse whose owner will tan its hide if it dies, dancing with the girl with the hole in her stocking. Chorus: "Hibo, for Charleston gals, Charleston gals are the gals for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: animal death dancing floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 88, "Charleston Gals" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 162-163, "" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 296-297, "Charleston Gals" (1 text plus some assorted verses)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 905-906, "Charleston Gals" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ScaNF162 (Full)
Roud #12046
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Virginny Never Tire" (style)
cf. "Save de Union" (style)
cf. "Bell Tune" ("Danced all night" stanza)
NOTES [39 words]: This, like "Old Virginny Never Tire" and similar songs, is a pure collection of floating verses with its own chorus. It's hard to know what to do with such things; for the moment, we're splitting them on the basis of the chorus. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: ScaNF162

Charlestown

See The Boston Burglar [LawsL16] (File: LL16)

Charley Barley

DESCRIPTION: "Charley Barley, buck and rye, What's the way the Frenchmen fly? Some fly east, and some fly west, And some fly over the cuckoo' nest." "Charley Barley, butter and eggs, Sold his wife for three duck eggs, When the ducks began... Charley Barley flew away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty bird food wife nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #294 n. 90, p. 170, "(Charley Barley, Butter and Eggs)"
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #113, "Charley Barley" (1 short text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 69, "The Old Cuckoo's Nest" (1 text, combining the "Wire Briar" portion of "Intery Mintery Cutery Corn" with the "Some flew east" portion of "Charley Barley")
Roud #19303
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Georgie Porgie" (lyrics)
NOTES [65 words]: I'm not sure these two Charley Barley rhymes are the same, but they're both rare enough that I just decided to lump them. The Baring-Goulds lump it with "Georgie Porgie," presumably because of the last line about flying away.
Roud lumps this with "Charlie, Charlie, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck," which I don't see, and "Charlie Chuck Married a Duck," which I'd consider possible but not certain. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Newe113

Charley Bell

DESCRIPTION: "If you ever go to lumbering woods, Please take my advice": don't work for Charley Bell. His spruce is rotten, his road is too crooked to be steered, his food squeals when bitten, and you get eaten alive by lice from Charley.
AUTHOR: Patrick Murphy
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: warning lumbering ordeal humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 10, "Charley Bell" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi010 (Partial)
Roud #9201
NOTES [32 words]: And he's ugly, too.
(No, amazingly enough, the song doesn't say that. Author Patrick Murphy is said to have been a circus performer. His act must have been interesting, to say the least.) - RBW
File: MaWi010

Charley Brooks

See The Two Letters (Charlie Brooks; Nellie Dare) (File: R735)

Charley Hill's Old Slope [Laws G8]

DESCRIPTION: Nine miners are riding a car out of the mine when the chain breaks. The car falls back into the mine, and all nine are killed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1865 - The mine car accident
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws G8, "Charley Hill's Old Slope"
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 196-197, "Charley Hill's Old Slope" (1 text)
DT 785, OLDSLOPE
Roud #3251
File: LG08

Charley Over the Water

DESCRIPTION: Singing game, with a child in the center who tries to catch those who dance in a ring around him. "Charley over the water, Charley over the sea, Charlie catch a blackbird, Can't catch me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty bird
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #121, "Charley Over the Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [57 words]: The children in this game surely did not connect this with Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobite Rebellions. But I think it interesting that the bird Charley catches is a blackbird, sometimes used as a symbol for Jacobitism. I don't know of British versions of this, but it might be derived from something which originated in Scotland. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: Newe121

Charley Snyder

See Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)

Charley Warlie had a cow

See Katie Bairdie (File: MSNR092)

Charley, Charley Stole Some Barley

See Charlie Charlie Stole Some Barley (File: AJRR059)

Charley, Charley, Wheat and Rye

See Georgie Porgie (File: OO2181)

Charley, He's a Good Old Man

See Weevily Wheat (File: R520)

Charley's Escape

See Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)

Charley's Letter

See The Two Letters (Charlie Brooks; Nellie Dare) (File: R735)

Charlie (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer sets out "to gain the heart o' Charlie." She milks his cow, churns his cream, washes his clothes, shines his shoes and has sex. The midwife delivers little Charlie. Now she is bound for life as wife while her friends can all go to Fife.
AUTHOR: William Lillie (1753-1840) (source: Greig/Duncan7)
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: love marriage sex childbirth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1273, "Charlie" (10 texts, 5 tunes)
Roud #7188
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Woods o' Tillery" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bold Charlie
A' the Hoose Was in a Steer
NOTES [18 words]: Greig/Duncan7: "Lines by William Lillie ... composed on Elspeth Kidd or Mrs Andrew Mitchell ... about 1810." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71273

Charlie (II)

See Weevily Wheat (File: R520)

Charlie and Mary

See The Sailor and His Bride [Laws K10] (File: LK10)

Charlie and Sally

See Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)

Charlie Case Songs

See The Fatal Glass of Beer (File: SBar174)

Charlie Chaplin Came to Duluth

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Charlie Chaplin came to Duluth To have a dentist pull his tooth, First he hollered, then he screamed, Then he asked for a dish of ice cream."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (North Star Folk News, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food | Charlie Chaplin Duluth dentist
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #61, "Charlie Chaplin came to Duluth" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Chaplin Went to France" (subject of Chaplin) and references there
NOTES [22 words]: I suspect this is a form of one of the other Charlie Chaplin rhymes, but with no tune and just one verse, it's hard to know which. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR061

Charlie Chaplin Has Big Feet

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Charlie Chaplin has big feet, He thinks he owns the whole darn street. If the street were made of glass, Charlie would fall and break his... Don't get excited, don't get alarmed, Charlie would fall and break his arm."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (New York Folk Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope wordplay injury | Charlie Chaplin fall street
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #62, "Charlie Chaplin Has Big Feet" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Chaplin Went to France" (subject of Chaplin) and references there
cf. "Three Little Angels" (general form of wordplay)
cf. "There Was a Little Fellow, His Name Was Jack" (general form of wordplay)
File: AJRR062

Charlie Chaplin Sat on a Pin

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "Charlie Chaplin (Hitler, Bettie Grable) Sat on a pin. How many inches Did it go in? One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty injury jumprope | Charlie Chaplin counting pin
FOUND IN: New Zealand US(Ro,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 108, "(Charlie Chaplin)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 53, "Tim, Tim" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #112, "(Charlie Chapman sat on a pin)" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 127, "Tim, Tim, sat on a pin" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #63, "Charlie Chaplin sat on a pin" (1 text)
Roud #19270
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Chaplin Went to France" (subject of Chaplin) and references there
File: SuSM108A

Charlie Chaplin Walks Like This

See Charlie Chaplin Went to France (File: CarMF80A)

Charlie Chaplin Washing Up

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme: "Charlie Chaplin washing up, Broke a saucer and a cup, How much did they cost?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Opie, The Lore and Language of School Children)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | Charlie Chaplin washing saucer cup broken
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #64, "Charlie Chaplin Washing Up" (1 text)
Roud #20774?
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Chaplin Went to France" (subject of Chaplin) and references there
File: AJRR064

Charlie Chaplin Went to France

DESCRIPTION: "Charlie Chaplin went to France, To teach the girls (the hula) dance, A heel, a toe, around we go. Salute to the captain, Bow to the queen, Touch the bottom of the submarine." Others (Betty Grable, Shirley Temple, Marco Polo) may replace Chaplin
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Carey)
KEYWORDS: playparty travel dancing | Charlie Chaplin Betty Grable Marco Polo Shirley Temple
FOUND IN: US(MA,Ro,SW) Ireland New Zealand
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, p. 80, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 102, "Marco Polo" (1 text, basically this although it's Marco Polo, not Charlie Chaplin, who does the travelling)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #48, "(Betty Grable went to France)"; #124, "(Shirley Temple went to France)"; #141, "(Charlie Chapman went to France)" (3 texts, which AInsworth links to "I'm a Little Dutch Girl" but are clearly this)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 112, (Charlie Chaplin went to France)" (1 text); p. 118, "(Charlie Chaplin Went to France)" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 54-55, "(Charlie Chaplin went to France)" (2 texts, 1 tune); p. 85, "(Charlie Chaplin went to France)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #65, "Charlie Chaplin went to France" (1 text)
Roud #19102
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Chaplin Sat on a Pin" (subject of Chaplin)
cf. "The Moon Shines Bright on Charlie Chaplin" (subject of Chaplin)
cf. "Charlie Chaplin Came to Duluth" (subject of Chaplin)
cf. "Charlie Chaplin Has Big Feet" (subject of Chaplin)
cf. "Charlie Chaplin Washing Up" (subject of Chaplin)
cf. "Charlie Chaplin Went to War" (subject of Chaplin)
cf. "Shirley Temple Walks Like This" (subject of Chaplin in some versions)
cf. "Here Comes the Teacher" (lyrics)
cf. "The King of England Went to France" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Benjamin Franklin Went to France
Donald Duck Went to France
File: CarMF80A

Charlie Chaplin Went to War

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme: "Charlie Chaplin went to war, When he came back his pants were tore."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Fargo Forum, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope clothes war | Charlie Chaplin
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #66, "Charlie Chaplin went to war" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Chaplin Went to France" (subject of Chaplin) and references there
File: AJRR066

Charlie Chapman Sat on a Pin

See Charlie Chaplin Sat on a Pin (File: SuSM108A)

Charlie Chapman Went to France

See Charlie Chaplin Went to France (File: CarMF80A)

Charlie Charlie Stole Some Barley

DESCRIPTION: "Charlie, Charlie stole (some/the) barley, Out of the baker's shop. The baker came out, And gave him a clout, Which made poor Charlie hop." May be used as a jump-rope rhyme
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Gillington, Old Surrey, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: food thief punishment jumprope
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 95, "Charley, Charley" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #59, "Charley, Charley stole some barley" (1 text)
Roud #19916
File: AJRR059

Charlie Chuck Married a Duck

DESCRIPTION: "Charlie Chuck Married a duck. The duck died And Charlie cried, Sitting by the fireside."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: marriage bird death | duck
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 100, "Charlie Chuck" (1 text)
Roud #19303
NOTES [44 words]: Roud lumps this with "Charlie Barley," which I'd consider possible but not certain, so I split them. It's probably the same as "Charlie, Charlie, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck (which Roud also lumps), but the form is different, so I even more tentatively split them. - RBW - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC100A

Charlie Had a Pigeon

DESCRIPTION: "(Charlie/Geordie" (had/was) a pigeon a pigeon a pigeon, Charlie had a pigeon a pigeon had he. It flew in the morning, it flew in the night, and when it came home it was covered in..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2021 (LibraryThingCampSongsThread)
KEYWORDS: nonballad bird scatological campsong
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 4, "(Charlie Had a Pigeon)" (1 short text, from user John5918, posted August 28, 2021)
ST LTCSCHAP (Full)
NOTES [111 words]: Although this doesn't seem to appear in any folk song collections, internet searches reveal quite a few cases of people singing it.
The version in the Supplemental Tradition, from John5918, is interesting because it permits of *two different* scatological endings, depending on which word is used for the rhyme. If the last line is considered to rhyme against "A pigeon had he," then the final word could start with a "p"; if the last line is considered to rhyme against "It flew home in the night," then the final word would be "sh.te." Or you could probably use it as a surprise line and say, "And when it came home It was covered in... feathers." (Or some such.) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LTCSCHAP

Charlie Hurley

DESCRIPTION: "Foremost of all in the battle's red lightning with the boys from West Cork was this man from Barr Lia." While wounded and surrounded Hurley continued to fight. "Soon his cruel rivals were lying at his feet." He died the same day as the Crossbarry ambush.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: rebellion battle death Ireland patriotic IRA
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 19, 1921 - Nationalist victory at Crossbarry
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 32-33, "The Ballad of Charlie Hurley" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Piper of Crossbarry" (subject: Irish Civil War) and references there
cf. "The Bold Black and Tan" (subject: Irish Civil War) and references there
NOTES [47 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "Charlie Hurley is one of the great heroes of West Cork. He was a Commandant in Tom Barry's famous Flying Column (1919-1921) and noted for his bravery." - BS
For Crossbarry, and for the beloved terrorist Tom Barry, see the notes to "The Piper of Crossbarry." - RBW
File: OCan032

Charlie Is My Darling

DESCRIPTION: Charlie comes to town; he spies a lass. He runs up the stairs; she opens the door, and he sets her on his knee. The rest is left to imagination. Chorus: "Charlie he's my darling, my darling, my darling/Charlie he's my darling, the young Chevalier"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1775 (Ritter and Henderson)
LONG DESCRIPTION: [Based on Ritter] Charly came to town "recruiting grenadiers" A "maid both young and sweet" saw him from her window and, being alone at home invited him in "to please a bonny lass" He gave a her purse of gold "as long as her arm" She sings, "up the rosy mountains and down the scroggy glen; We dare not go a milking for Charly and his men. Yet we will go a milking let them say what they will, And if we dare not milk the cow our maids will milk the bull" She put on her best, met him in Aberdeen, and followed him to Inverness. "Her true love was forc'd to fly, and leave Culloden muir," leaving her behind. She says she'll wait for him till he comes home; if she could, she would follow him over the sea.
KEYWORDS: courting army soldier Jacobites seduction
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1745-1746 - The '45 Rebellion, led by Bonnie Prince Charlie
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(MA)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 49, Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 50, "Charlie Is My Darling" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan4 803, "'Twas on a Monday Mornin'" (1 fragment)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 305-306, "Oh, Charlie Is My Darling" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 140, "Charlie Is My Darling" (1 text)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 42-43, "Charlie Is My Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #24, p. 47, "Charlie is my Darling" (1 text)
DT, CHARDARL*
ADDITIONAL:Robert Chambers, The Picture of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1828 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, p. 166, ("Blythe, blythe, and merry was she")
ADDITIONAL: Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, pp. 125-126, "Charlie Is My Darling" (1 text, being Lady Nairn's strongly pro-Charlie rewrite)
Otto Ritter, Neue Quellenfunde zu Robert Burns (Halle, 1903 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 9-11, "Charlie is my Darling"
(no author listed), _The Vocal Companion_, second edition, D'Almaine and Co., 1937 (available from Google Books), pp. 74-75, "Charlie Is My Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #562, pp. 666-667, "Charlie he's my darling" (1 text, 1 tune, from the Scots Musical Museum)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #195, "Charlie He's My Darling" (1 text)
Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #336, p. 566, "Charlie Is My Darling" (by Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne)
Roud #5510
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shane Crossagh" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Twas on a Monday Mornin'" (form and some lines)
cf. "Johnny Is My Darling" (tune)
cf. "The Fairies (Up the Airy Mountain" (lyrics, form)
SAME TUNE:
Johnny Is My Darling (File: SCW11)
NOTES [1062 words]: This is a mess; the song sounds like a fragmentary remnant of a Jacobite song (there is a final verse, "We daurna gang a-milking/For Charlie and his men") but the political content is virtually gone, and we're left with a song of seduction, and a bowdlerized one at that. - PJS
The Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 50 and Burns texts are virtually the same. The Nairne and Digital Tradition texts are virtually the same. The two sets of texts share their first two verses. - BS
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 49 is a more political version, though it shares only the first verse with the Digital Tradition version. Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2: "I wrote [Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 49] some years ago, at the request of a friend, who complained that he did not like the old verses. I have, however, added [Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 50, which is the same as the Burns text] that those who delight in the fine original air may take which they choose." In Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 49, The lasses sing at the king's return for Charlie and his men being "Out-owre yon moory mountain, And down yon craigy glen." - BS
The common version of this, which Paul describes (probably correctly) as bowdlerized, is also rather slanderous; although most of the single women of Scotland (and more than a few of the married ones) swooned after Bonnie Prince Charlie (1720-1788), his behavior was generally above reproach. Indeed, there are "many reports of aloofness towards women during the rising" (Douglas, p. 4); "women played only a secondary part in the life of this frustrated man of action" (Wilkinson, p. 158).
According to Wilkinson, p. 233, "He was always clumsy in his dealings with women." Douglas, p. 7, says, "He was shy and awkward with women, and he loved them, yet he could never give himself totally to them -- not even to those with whom he had passionate affairs." It sounds to me, frankly, as if Charles had some sort of mental condition, either borderline personality disorder (which would explain his terrible relations with women and his youthful anxiety and need for reassurance [Douglas, pp. 44-45) or very high-functioning autism (which would explain the relations with women, his anxiety, how easily he fell into alcoholism, and the fact that he couldn't stand steadily until age three [Douglas, p. 33], and his curious mix of abominable spelling and brilliant linguistic abilities -- he had what are known as "splinter skills" in autism circles).
It is reliably reported that Charlie left only one illegitimate child -- Charlotte (1753-1789), by Clementina Walkinshaw, with whom he lived for several years (c. 1752-1760; Wilkinson, pp. 233-234). Walkinshaw seems to have been the great love of his life, or at least the only liaison with any durability; he did not marry until 1772, and this marriage was dissolved. It is possible that Charlie was nearly sterile, as his marriage produced no children, but it seems more likely that his wife Louisa was infertile, as she had no children despite repeated proofs of adultery.
The fact that the girl is called "Jenny" is interesting; it is of course a solidly Scots name, but "the Hanoverians tried to make propaganda of 'affairs' with mistresses in Scotland, especially poor, innocent Jenny Cameron, who did nothing more than bring a group of Cameron men to join his army, but was piloried by pamphleteers and cartoonists, and Flora MacDonald" (Douglas, p. 4).
The Digital Tradition version of this song is much more political than the common text, and lacks the sexual element; I wish I knew more about its origin.
Long after this song was collected, William Allingham (1824-1889; for his history, see the notes to "Lovely Mary Donnelly") wrote his poem "The Fairies" ("Up the airy mountain, Down the rushy glen, We daren't go a-hunting For fear of little men..."). That that verse and this song are related seems undeniable -- though the nature of the link is unclear. For Allingham's complete poem, see Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 509-510, "The Fairies"; Walter de la Mare, Come Hither, revised edition, 1928; #133, "The Fairies"; or Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, The Oxford Book of Irish Verse (Oxford, 1958, 1979), pp. 82-84, "The Fairies (A Child's Song)."
Incidentally, the reference to Charles as the "Young Chevalier" is quite proper; one of the titles of James III was the Chevalier de Saint George, which would eventually pass to Charles.
GirlScouts-SingTogether credits this to Lady Nairne, but given that she was born in 1766 and the song was known c. 1775, this seems impossible. It is not in the collection of her works published as Lays from Strathearn. - RBW
Henderson -- T.F. Henderson, "'Charlie He's My Darling,' and other Burns's Originals" in The Scottish Historical Review (Glasgow, 1906 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III, pp. 171-178 -- prints and comments on "the original 'Charlie He's My Darling,' or at least a portion of it, for there are several stanzas, which, after the lapse of a century and more, no longer quite accord with the current notions of propriety." Ritter quotes the same text but includes the four of fourteen verses Henderson omits. Ritter's source is a volume of broadsides in the British Muuseum (shelfmark 1346.m.7(24), undated, c.1775). Henderson's source is "a volume containing a large number of rare white-letter broadsides, the majority of which are dated either 1775 or 1776. The 'Charlie He's My Darling' broadside ... is undated, but print and paper are identical with those of the 1775 and 1776 sheets ...."
Henderson makes the case that the Scots Musical Museum "Charlie He's My Darling" (1796) is a Burns work based on the 1775-1776 broadside text.
Looking at the broadside text, rather than the Museum text, Henderson writes that "Most probably it has reference to the affair of Clementina Walkinshaw. She rejoined Prince Charlie in France on his escape from Scotland and became the mother of Charlotte Stewart, whose hard fate in being debarred from her supposed heritage, the throne of her ancestors, is lamented by Burns in 'The Bonie Lass of Albanie."
"Milk the bull" is usually taken as a metaphor for a foolish attempt, in the absence of a "cow" readily yielding milk, to do the impossible. Here the metaphor is entirely realizable. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB140A

Charlie Jack's Dream

DESCRIPTION: The singer, asleep in Philadelphia, dreams of Glen Ullin church. The McLaughlins are preaching, and Irish heroes such as the Parnells and Dan O'Connell are present. His wife shakes him awake, and he realizes he is far from the old home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homesickness patriotic dream
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H799, p. 221, "Charlie Jack's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
cf. "The Bold Tenant Farmer" (subject of Charles Stewart Parnell) and references there
NOTES [237 words]: I must assume that the several clergymen mentioned here are local figures; I cannot find any clear historical references to any of them. The political figures are another matter. They include:
The Parnell Family - Charles Stewart Parnell (1845-1891) was leader of the Land League from 1879, and supported Home Rule for Ireland for the rest of his life. Imprisoned in 1881, he became an Irish hero, and from 1885-1890 he held the balance of power in the English parliament, but found himself distrusted by both sides and, eventually, discredited by a personal indiscretion (see "We Won't Let Our Leader Run Down").
Dan O'Connell - Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847), a crusader for tenant freedom, for whom see Erin's Green Shore [Laws Q27]
Brian Boru - an odd name in the list; Brian Boru was King of Clare from 976, and died in battle against the Vikings at Clontarf in 1014. Held up as an Irish hero, he was never actually King of Ireland, and did not fight against the Anglo-Normans, who invaded centuries after his death.
The Redmonds -- The date of the song here becomes important. I am guessing that it is a reference to John Redmond (1856-1918), who managed in 1900 to recreate Parnell's Irish coalition and restore the Home Rule campaign in the British parliament.
The O'Sullivans -- perhaps Sheamus O'Sullivan, a minor poet who wrote in support of Parnell, and/or Sean O'Sullivan, a minor leader in the 1916 Rising. - RBW
File: HHH799

Charlie Knell's Wedding

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in the month of April when our youngest widow wed, And it was almost eight o'clock before they went to bed." "The boys" have a party and call on Charlie Knell for music, wine, a dance hall. The quieter people wish they'd stop ringing bells
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: wedding party | widow
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 160-161, "Charlie Knell's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10870
File: ChMS160

Charlie Lawson

See The Lawson Murder (Charlie Lawson) [Laws F35] (File: LF35)

Charlie Likes Whiskey

See Weevily Wheat (File: R520)

Charlie Mackie

DESCRIPTION: "There was a farmer on Isladale, Possessions he had mony. He had an only daughter fair...." The girl Annie falls in love with her father's servant Charlie Mackie. The father dismisses Charlie. She grows sick, is sent to the sea, and finds Charlie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love courting servant separation reunion disease
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #77, p. 2, "Charlie Mackie" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan5 1032, "Charlie Mackie" (13 texts, 10 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 452-454, "Charlie Mackie" (1 text)
Roud #5621
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Andrew Lammie" [Child 233] (lyrics, form, themes)
cf. "The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
cf. "Tifty's Annie" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
NOTES [73 words]: This shares not only a general theme but a metrical form and even quite a few words with "Andrew Lammie," though this is a much feebler thing. There can be no question that the two songs are related. All evidence points to "Andrew Lammie" as the elder song; it is stronger, it employs fewer cliches; it omits the sea cure. Nonetheless the references in Ord and Grieg make it clear that "Charlie Mackie" is traditional in its own right. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord452

Charlie MacPherson [Child 234]

DESCRIPTION: MacPherson comes to (Kinaldie) to wed Helen. Arriving, he is told that she has gone to wed at Whitehouse. MacPherson sets out for Whitehouse, but finding her apparently truly married, he wishes her well.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1800
KEYWORDS: courting marriage separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 234, "Charlie MacPherson" (2 texts)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 82-85, "Charlie MacPherson" (2 texts)
Roud #3881
NOTES [58 words]: This ballad is lost except for the two fragments in Child, and leaves many questions. Throughout the ballad, one expects MacPherson to abduct the girl (as in "Katherine Jaffray"); why else go to all that effort? Yet there is no indication of this happening; all ends quietly. If we had a truly complete text, it might be much more interesting. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: C234

Charlie Mopps

DESCRIPTION: "A long time ago... all they had to drink was nothing but cups of tea." Then came Charlie Mopps, who invented beer. This brought him great praise and even a ticket into heaven. "Lord bless Charlie Mopps, the man who invented beer!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: drink talltale
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 150-151, "Charlie Mopps" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10678
NOTES [90 words]: The amount of truth in this song is, to put it mildly, limited.
Stewart Gordon, A History of the World in Sixteen Shipwrecks, ForeEdge, 2015, p. 101, reports that the English weren't even the first to add hops to beer. It was first done in eastern Germany. The original purpose seems to have been to add flavor, but hops also prevented the beer from spoiling, so it turned beer into a product that could be mass-produced and transported. Thus, the man who added hops to beer really did change brewing, but the person involved is unknown. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: FaE150

Charlie Napier Gordon

DESCRIPTION: Charlie Napier Gordon gives a girl and her father a ride in his gig. He has the father get out and abducts the girl. She screams, the gig overturns and a weaver sees Charlie try to rape her. She gets away and Charlie bribes the weaver to keep quiet.
AUTHOR: William Dalgarno (source: Greig/Duncan6)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: abduction escape rape father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1266, "Charlie Napier Gordon" (7 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #6795
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Laird o' Esselmont
NOTES [97 words]: The alternate title is Charles Napier Gordon's title. The last verse attributes the ballad to Willie Dalgairn of Aucterlethen. Greig/Duncan6 quotes Greig: "I learned from my father and if my memory turns aright it was sold in the markets (the composer William Dalgarno being at one time a servant with my father). Charlie Napier Gordon raised an action against William Dalgarno and he had to pay some few grounds of damages." - BS
Digging around online, I find that Charles Napier Gordon of Esslemont apparently lived 1811-1864 and had no children. So the dating, at least, fits. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61266

Charlie on the M. T. A.

See M. T. A. (The MTA Song; Charlie on the M. T. A.) (File: ACSF055M)

Charlie over the Ocean

DESCRIPTION: "Charlie over the ocean (x3), Charlie over the sea." "Charlie caught a (blackbird/blackfish) (x2), Can't catch me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, children of East York School)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 159-160, "(Charlie Over the Ocean)" (1 text)
Roud #729
RECORDINGS:
Children of East York School, "Charlie Over the Ocean" (on NFMAla6m RingGames1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny on the Ocean" (lyrics)
NOTES [64 words]: Both the reference to "Charlie over the ocean" and the mention of a blackbird hint at a Jacobite background in Courlander's text -- but the keyword is "hint." This clearly has been long forgotten in the American tradition (though Roud links it to several Bonnie Prince Charlie songs).
To me, this looks more closely related to "Johnny on the Ocean." But we really need more texts. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: CNFM159

Charlie Quantrell

DESCRIPTION: A story of Charlie Quantrell, the Kansas highwayman who raided Nebraska and Missouri (during the Civil War). He is held up as a noble robber who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. The plot follows "Brennan on the Moor," on which the song is based
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938
KEYWORDS: outlaw trial punishment execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 21, 1863 - Quantrill's Raiders destroy Lawrence, Kansas, killing about 150 men.
May 10, 1865 - Quantrill is mortally wounded on his way to Washington (where he hoped to stir up trouble by assassination). He dies 20 days later.
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 179, "Charlie Quantrell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 26, "Charlie Quantrell, Oh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 302-303, "Quantrell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #476
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brennan on the Moor" [Laws L7] (tune & meter, theme, floating lyrics)
cf. "Quantrell" (subject)
cf. "The Call of Quantrell" (subject)
NOTES [1151 words]: This pretty picture of William Clarke Quantrill (1837-1865), also known as "Charlie (Hart)" or "Billy" Quantrill, is even more deceptive than the typical outlaw ballad.
Quantrill (this is the spelling used in the official records) was born July 31, 1837, in Canal Dover, Ohio, son of Thomas Henry and Caroline Clarke Quantrill (Wellman, p. 26). He seems to have been somewhat strange-looking but in an attractive way; Wellman, p. 22, quotes an 1872 description: "Quantrell might be likened to a blond Apollo of the prairies. His eyes were very blue, soft and winning. Looking at his face, one might say there is the face of a student."
If he was a student, his degree must have been in violence. His public career actually began life as a jayhawker in an anti-Slavery force; this was when he first used the name "Charley Hart." But Wellman tartly remarks that he was happy to liberate other property while allegedly devoting his efforts to liberating slaves. Wellman, p. 27, observes, "By 1860 Quantrill had become a confirmed bandit, thief, and murderer, yet as a criminal he might have remained relatively obscure... had not the dislocations of the Civil War enabled him to capitalize on the inflamed emotions of the period and win his page in history -- deserved or not -- as the arch-ogre of the border."
Wellman, pp. 28-29, tells a legend about how Quantrill during one of these raids was called upon to attack the family of a girl he was involved with, and betrayed the raiders. Whether true or not, he clearly saw more opportunity on the Confederate side of the Civil War -- and came up with a tall tale about being from Maryland and having headed west where he survived some sort of massacre (Settle, p. 19; Wellman, pp. 29-30).
Perhaps one can best measure the amount of legend in all this by noting that Quantrill's horse at this time was allegedly named "Black Bess" (Wellman, p. 29). And, yes, Black Bess was exceptionally fast (Wellman, p. 31)
Having officially changed positions, he became a pro-Confederate terrorist (having fought at Wilson's Creek -- Wellman,p. 31 -- he was commissioned Captain C.S.A. in August 1862) whose raiders brought fear and pillage to Nebraska and any other Union area that looked vulnerable.
Nominally a Confederate officer, he almost never acted like it; according to Castel, pp. 163-164, he only once filed an official report: On October 13, 1863, he sent General Sterling Price a report on the Lawrence massacre. For what it's worth, he signed it "W. C. Quantrill."
Although there were many other guerrilla bands in Missouri and Kansas at this time, and Bloody Bill Anderson in fact commanded what we might call Quantrill's Raiders for much of the war, it was Quantrill who developed their terrorist tactics. As a result, an order was issued that they were to be killed without trial if caught in an act of terrorism (Wellman, p. 35).
Murder without trial is probably never justified, but it must be admitted that that was just what Quantrill's raiders did to Lawrence, Kansas -- admittedly a Unionist stronghold, but still, they were civilians. And Quantrill shot them down without checking their characters (Wellman, p. 39ffff.)
Different sources cite different casualty totals, usually between 150 and 200. McPherson, p. 786, credits them with killing 182 men and burning 185 buildings. McPherson reports that Quantrill told his men to "Kill every male and burn every house."
Ironically, Quantrill's men missed the pro-Union extremist and sometimes Senator James Lane, the #1 target. (Wellman, p. 46, notes that Lane would respond by inducing the authorities to issue General Order #11, which caused the forced evacuation of four counties of Missouri -- the worst official act of the war in its effect on the civilian population.) This order much inflamed anti-Union sentiment, causing the locals to support Quantrill's men, such as the James Brothers, after the war (Wellman, p. 48) -- even though, as McPherson notes (p. 785), Quantill "attracted to his gang some of the most psychopathic killers in American history."
To give the Confederacy credit, Quantrill apparently travelled to Richmond at one point to seek a colonel's commission, and was turned down cold (Wellman, p. 38). McPherson, p. 785, states that he was given a captain's commission "and thereafter claimed to be a colonel."
Massacre though it was, the attack on Lawrence apparently had some propaganda value; it came in the period after Gettysurg and Vicksburg, when the Union forces were feeling triumphant, and reminded them that there was a lot more fighting still to come (Nevins, p. 180).
In 1864, Quantrill and his gang headed for Texas -- where a regular officer tried to arrest Quantrill. The outlaw escaped (Wellman, p. 51), but his informal army started to break up after that (Wellman, p. 52).
Union attempts to suppress the guerillas largely failed -- but, in the end, their own side ruined them. In late 1864, the former Missouri governor Sterling Price invaded Missouri from Arkansas. He used the guerillas as scouts and raiders -- and, being forced to attack fixed positions, were defeated and their formations broken up. (Price ended up back in Arkansas, having lost half his command.) Bloody Bill Anderson was killed. Quantrill lived, but headed off east with a few followers (supposedly on a quixotic plot to kill Lincoln; McPherson, pp, 787-788). getting himself killed in the process. Wellman, p. 61, claims that the commander of the cavalry troop that killed him was himself a Confederate deserter.
Wellman, pp. 62-63, tells two stories about his legacy which may or may not be true, but which surely illustrate his legend. According to one, he left a legacy of $2000 to his old flame Kate Clarke, which she used to establish a house of prostitution. According to the other, his mother eventually found his body, had it brought home to Ohio -- and then disposed of the property on which he was buried. As Wellman puts it, she "sold her son's bones as curios." (In fairness, the mother of Jesse James did something similar -- but she merely sold stones she scattered over his grave. She kept the corpse itself safe.)
After the war was over, a number of Quantrill's followers (including the James Brothers) took off on their own -- but in fact used the techniques they learned from Quantrill. (This, in fact, is the whole theme of Wellman's book -- how there was a continuous linkage of outlaws stretching all the way from Quantrill to Pretty Boy Floyd three-quarters of a century later.)
To tell this song from other Quantrell pieces, consider this first stanza:
Young people, listen unto me, a story I will tell.
His name was Charlie Quantrell, in Kansas he did dwell.
'Twas on the Kansas plains that he made his wild career,
Then many a wealthy nobleman before him stood with fear.
This, obviously, derives from "Brennan on the Moor," and Roud lumps them (!). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.8
File: LoF179

Charlie Rutledge

DESCRIPTION: "Another jolly cowboy has gone to meet his fate. We hope he'll find a resting place inside the Golden Gate." Charlie Rutledge is the third man to die on the XIT range. One of the cattle tries to escape, Charlie heads it off; in the confusion, Charlie dies
AUTHOR: Words: D. J. O'Malley
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Miles City, Montana Stock Grower's Journal)
KEYWORDS: death cowboy horse
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 1, pp. 27-31, "Charlie Rutledge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 430-431, "Charlie Rutledge" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CHRLRTLG*
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 73-100, "D. J. 'Kid' O'Malley, Cowboy Poet" (1 text, the original, on pp. 84-85)
Roud #8024
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Charlie Rutlage
A Cowboy's Death
NOTES [83 words]: D. J. O'Malley is also credited with "The Horse Wrangler (The Tenderfoot)" [Laws B27], which also appeared in the Miles Ciry journal in the 1890s, and a number of other cowboy poems.
For background on O'Malley (and some prints from the Miles City newspaper), see the John I. White article cited in the ADDITIONAL references. On p. 83, White says that O'Malley's original title was "A Cowboy's Death"; it was based on "The Lakes of Ponchartrain." O'Malley signed it with the initials D. J. W. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Logs001

Charlie You Can't Lose-A Me

See You Cain't Lose-A Me, Cholly (File: LoF264)

Charlie, Charlie, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Charlie, Charlie, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck, Went to bed with two old ducks. One died, the other cried, Charlie, Charlie, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Daiken, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope bird death | duck
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #67, "Charlie, Charlie, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck" (1 text)
Roud #19303
NOTES [33 words]: Roud lumps this with "Charley Barley," which I don't see. It's probably the same as "Charlie Chuck Married a Duck" (which Roud also lumps), but the form is different, so I tentatively split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR067

Charlie, Charlie, rise and rin

See The Fraserburgh Meal Riot (File: GrD2240)

Charlie, O Charlie (Pitgair)

DESCRIPTION: The farm owner prepares for a trip, instructing Charlie in how to run the farm in his absence, e.g. "To the loosin' ye'll put Shaw, Ye'll pit Sandison to ca'." He gives orders to the workers also, including Missy Pope, who will "sit in the parlor neuk."
AUTHOR: "Mr. Shaw" (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #51, p. 2 and #102, p. 3)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: farming travel humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #51, pp. 1-2, "O Charlie, O Charlie"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 74-75, "Pitgair"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 21, ("Charlie, O Charlie, come owre frae Pitgair") (2 texts plus 1 fragment, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan3 401, "Pitgair" (7 texts, 6 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 216-217, "Oh Charlie, O Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2584
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Binorie" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Come O'er frae Pitgair
NOTES [131 words]: The best-known recording of this is probably Ewan MacColl's, on "Popular Scottish Songs," learned from John Mearns of Fyvie. MacColl speaks of the "thread of tender irony which runs through it," but ironically, MacColl failed completely to understand the song. It is line-by-line parallel to Ord-BothySongsAndBallads's text, but what MacColl sings (or, at least, what is transcribed in the Folkways booklet) is frequently nonsense -- though Ord's transcription makes clear sense. - RBW
Greig/Duncan3: "August 1906. Learned at Northfield of Gamrie, 1869."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Pitgair (401) is at coordinate (h6,v7-8) on that map [near Banff, roughly 35 miles NNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord216

Charlie, Won't You Rock the Cradle

See What'll I Do with the Baby-O (File: R565)

Charlie's Neat

See Weevily Wheat (File: R520)

Charlie's Sweet

See Weevily Wheat (File: R520)

Charlotte

See Young Charlotte (Fair Charlotte) [Laws G17] (File: LG17)

Charlotte the Harlot (I)

DESCRIPTION: When a rattlesnake slips into the vagina of Charlotte the Harlot, "the pride of the prairie," her cowboy boyfriend draws his pistol, shoots at the snake, but kills Charlotte instead. Her funeral procession is forty miles long.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Austin E. Fife collection)
KEYWORDS: bawdy funeral humorous animal whore
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US(SW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 162-169, "Charlotte the Harlot I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging, pp. xviii-xix, "Charlotte the Harlot" (1 text)
DT, CHARLTT
Roud #4839
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot II, III, IV"
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot (V) (Carolina)"
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot Lay Dying (The Dying Harlot)"
cf. "The Sewing Machine"
NOTES [65 words]: According to Walker D. Wyman, Wisconsin Folklore, Univeristy of Wisconsin extension (?), 1979, p. 3, a graveyard in the infamous town of Tombstone, Arizona, has a grave marker which reads
Here lies the body of good old Charlotte,
Born a virgin, died a harlot,
For 14 years she kept her virginity
Which is quite unusual in this vicinity.
Wyman suspects it's a fake to attract tourists. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM162

Charlotte the Harlot (II)

DESCRIPTION: Not a ballad at all, this song is a paean to Charlotte's promiscuity.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy nonballad whore
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, p. 169, "Charlotte the Harlot II" (1 text)
Roud #4839
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot I, III, IV"
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot (V) (Carolina)"
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot Lay Dying (The Dying Harlot)"
cf. "The Sewing Machine"
File: EM169

Charlotte the Harlot (III)

DESCRIPTION: Charlotte, or Lupe, is now the singer's "Mexican whore." The song celebrates her sexual career from cradle to grave.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous whore
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 169-171, "Charlotte the Harlot III" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 523-524, "Charlotte the Harlot" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #4839
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot I, II, IV"
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot (V) (Carolina)"
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot Lay Dying (The Dying Harlot)"
cf. "The Sewing Machine"
cf. "Down in the Valley" (tune) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lupe
File: EM169B

Charlotte the Harlot (IV)

DESCRIPTION: In this formula song, Charlotte wears differently colored clothing in each stanza.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy clothes humorous whore
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 171-173, "Charlotte the Harlot IV" (1 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #4839
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot I, II, III"
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot (V) (Carolina)"
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot Lay Dying (The Dying Harlot)"
cf. "The Sewing Machine"
File: EM171

Charlotte the Harlot (V) (Carolina)

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls "Carolina, the cow-puncher's whore." One day he finds her using a stick rather than a man to fulfill her needs, so he takes over. His energy is such that he blows her into a swamp. She expresses great satisfaction but dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: bawdy death whore
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 157-158, "Carolina" (1 text)
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 164-165, "(Charlotte the Harlot)" (partial text plus notes)
Roud #4839
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot I, II, III, IV" (character and partial plot)
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot (V) (Carolina)"
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot Lay Dying (The Dying Harlot)"
NOTES [50 words]: Ed Cray, in quoting this, calls it another variant of "Charlotte the Harlot." The woman is called "Carolina" in the Morgan/Green-RugbySongs version (which is the only one he quotes), but the first stanza is largely the same, so he is probably right. Roud lumps all the "Charlotte the Harlot" songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RuSoCaro

Charlotte the Harlot (VI)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm Charlotte the Harlot, The queen of the whores, The pride of Picadilly, All covered with sores, Oh, you should smell me When I lift up my drawers, I'm Charlotte the Harlot, The queen of the whores."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: whore clothes bawdy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 26, "Charlotte the Harlot" (1 short text, plus a text of the source, "Gilbert the Filbert")
Roud #4839
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gilbert the Filbert" (tune, according to Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
File: AWTBW026

Charlotte the Harlot Lay Dying (The Dying Harlot)

DESCRIPTION: "Charlotte the Harlot lay dying, A piss-pot supported her head." She declares, "I've been had by the army, the navy..." and many other things, although, until now, not maggots. She tries to repent, but her ghost haunts the town, repeating her refrain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: whore death humorous bug sex
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 185, "Charlotte the Harlot Lay Dying" (1 text)
Cray-EroticMuse, p. 165, "(no title) (1 excerpt)
Roud #10130
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot I, II, III, IV"
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot (V) (Carolina)"
NOTES [14 words]: Roud seems to lump this with "Life Presents a Dismal Picture." I'm not sure why. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RuSoChHD

Charlotte, the Frozen Girl

See Young Charlotte (Fair Charlotte) [Laws G17] (File: LG17)

Charm Against Ague

DESCRIPTION: "Ague, ague, I thee defy! Three days shiver, Three days shake; Make me well for Jesus's sake." Or "...I thee defy; Ague, ague, to this tree I thee tie." Magical rhymes to get rid of ague
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Simpson)
KEYWORDS: disease magic nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, pp. 83-84, "(Ague, ague, I thee defy") (2 short texts)
File: SimFS083

Charming Beauty Bright [Laws M3]

DESCRIPTION: The singer and a girl are in love. When her parents learn of it, they lock her away from him. At last he goes away and serves in the army for seven years, hoping to forget. When he returns home, he learns that she has died for love; he goes mad or nearly
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(154))
KEYWORDS: love separation family father mother death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Laws M3, "Charming Beauty Bright"
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 346, "Once I Courted a Fair Beauty Bright" (1 text)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 35, "Once I Courted a Damsel" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 17, "Once I Courted a Damsel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 94, "My Own Father Forced Me" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 110, "The Lover's Lament" (3 texts plus 5 excerpts or fragments, 8 tunes)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #40, "Once I Did Court (Don't You Remember)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sturgis/Hughes-SongsFromTheHillsOfVermont, pp. 30-33, "The Soldier's Return" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 164-165, "Charming Beauty Bright" (1 text)
Randolph 86, "The Beauty, Beauty Bride" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 81-83, "The Beauty, Beauty Bride" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 86A)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, "Fair Lady Bright" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 36, "Charming Beauty Bright" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 208, "Once I Courted a Charming Beauty Bright" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 11, "The Charming Buty Bright" [sic] (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 88, "Charming Beauty Bright" (3 texts plus 1 excerpt)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 88, "Charming Beauty Bright" (6 excerpts, 6 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 73, "The Lover's Lament" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #184, "Charming Beauty Bright" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 89, "The Fair Young Miss" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 86-88, "Fair Beauty Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 51-52, "Once I Courted a Fair Beauty Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 311-312, "The Lover's Lament" (1 text, with local title "A Soldier's Sweetheart"; 1 tune on p. 439)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 33, "Charming Beauty Bright" (1 text)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 76, "Charming Beauty Bright" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 136, "The Fair Beauty Bride" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 65-66, "A Lover's Lament"; pp. 79-81, "The Charming Little Girl" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 70-71, "Charming Beauty Bright" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 98, "A Fair Beauty Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 103, "Charming Beauty Bright" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 112-113, "Charming Beauty Bright" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 575, CHRMBRT BEAUTBRT
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, pp. 239-240, "Once I Courted a Charming Beauty Bright" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Mrs. M. G. Jabobs)
Roud #405
RECORDINGS:
Pearl Jacobs Borusky, "Once I Courted a Charming Beauty Bright (Lover's Lament)" (AFS, 1940; on LC55)
Ollie Gilbert, "Once I Courted a Lady Beauty Bright" (on LomaxCD1707)
Lisha Shelton, "Don't You Remember" (onOldLove, DarkHoll)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(154), "The Beauty Bright" ("One time I courted a fair beauty bright"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824
File: LM03

Charming Belfast Lass, The

DESCRIPTION: "Passing down by York Street mill" the singer meets Mary Brown, "charming Belfast Lass." She agrees go with him "to yon rural plain." "Our talk of love was all sincere As on the flowery banks we lay." The next day they go to church and are married.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1825 (according to Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage sex
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 24, "The Charming Belfast Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Leyd024

Charming Betsey

See Coming Round the Mountain (II -- Charming Betsey) (File: R436)

Charming Blue-eyed Mary

DESCRIPTION: Jimmy meets Mary, "got the will of" her, and gives her a diamond ring as a token. He returns from sea after eight months as a captain. He proposes. She accepts.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: marriage ring sex reunion separation lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 19, "Charming Blue-eyed Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H785, p. 399, 'My Darling Blue-Eyed Mary" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 278, "An Admired Song Called Blue-Eyed Mary" (a reprint of the Alex Mayne broadside)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 51, "My Charming Blue-Eyed Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3230
RECORDINGS:
Mary Delaney, "Charming Blue Eyed Mary" (on IRTravellers01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3354), "Blue Ey'd Mary" ("As I walked out one morning"), J. Pearson (Epworth), n.d.
Murray, Mu23-y1:031, "Blue Ey'd Mary," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(041), "Blue Ey'd Mary," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c. 1855
NOTES [35 words]: There may be one broadside for this ballad as "Charming blue-eyed Mary" at Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue printed at Glasgow between 1851 and 1910, shelfmark 2806 c.13(72); I could not read this copy. - BS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: LeBe019

Charming Bride, The

See Love Let Me In (Forty Long Miles; It Rains, It Hails) (File: LLab048)

Charming Buachaill Roe

See The Buachaill Roe (File: RcTMCBR)

Charming Buty Bright, The

See Charming Beauty Bright [Laws M3] (File: LM03)

Charming Judy Callaghan

See Barney Brallaghan (File: OCon045)

Charming Little Girl (Ephraim Brown; Walter Clements)

DESCRIPTION: "My name is (Ephraim Brown), a farmer, near Plymouth I reside." He hopes to marry a girl, but the two cows he has given her father are enough; the father wants another. Then he kisses her after she had eaten onions, and declares he wants her no more
AUTHOR: Joe Scott
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker)
KEYWORDS: love courting father rejection food commerce humorous
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker, pp. 320-321, "(no title)"; pp. 322-323, "Charming Little Girl" (2 texts)
File: ISco320

Charming Little Girl (I)

DESCRIPTION: "There's a charming little girl, Just the sweetest in the world, And I love her, for she's pretty and refined." "If I knew that she loved me, What a different man I'd be, I would kiss that little girl and call her mine." He isn't interested in other girls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric, from a manuscript probably written in the 1920s)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 11, "Charming Little Girl" (1 text)
Roud #11381
NOTES [17 words]: I don't know quite why, other than format, but this makes me thing very strongly of "Lulu Walls." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: BRne011

Charming Little Girl (II), The

See Charming Beauty Bright [Laws M3] (File: LM03)

Charming Mary O'Neill

See Mary Neal [Laws M17] (File: LM17)

Charming Moll Boy, The

See Pretty Polly (I) (Moll Boy's Courtship) [Laws O14] (File: LO14)

Charming Molly

DESCRIPTION: "Charming Molly, fair, brisk, and gay, Like nightingales in May, All round her eyelids young Cupids play." The "swains" all admire her for her beauty. "Chaming Molly she is all divine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Copper-Season)
KEYWORDS: courting beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, p. 242, "Charming Molly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1213
File: CoSea242

Charming Nancy

See Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)

Charming Sally Ann

DESCRIPTION: The singer falls "head 'n heels in love with charming Sally Ann." He finds her "frying sausingers for Bob." When he asks her to return his jewelry she runs off with Bob. Eventually Bob and Sally Ann are taken prisoner. The singer gets his jewelry back
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: infidelity love sex crime punishment
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont,Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 20, "Charming Sally Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 37, "My Charming Sally Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3825
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Week's Matrimony (A Week's Work)" (imagery)
cf. "In Duckworth Street There Lived a Dame" (imagery)
File: LeBe020

Charming Sally Greer

See Sally Greer (File: FMB092)

Charming Sweet Girl That I Love, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer mourns the loss of his sweetheart, whose name he can't reveal. He thinks of their days together, which she has forgotten. "It's now I am rejected, forsaken and forlorn, for the sake of that fair one I'm dying." "How I long for the girl that I love"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 154, "The Charming Sweet Girl That I Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9259
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "The Charming Sweet Girl That I Love" (on IRECronin01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Flower of Corby Mill" (hidden name) and references there
File: OCC154

Charming Young Widow I Met in the Train, The

See The Charming Young Widow I Met on the Train (File: R390)

Charming Young Widow I Met on the Train, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a young widow with a baby on a train. They talk; she claims to see her husband's partner and flees the train, leaving him the baby. As the train pulls out, he finds she has stolen his watch and purse and left him a fake child
AUTHOR: W. H Gove
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(4400))
KEYWORDS: trick money theft train
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Randolph 390, "The Charming Young Widow I Met on the Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 315-317, "The Charming Young Widow I Met on the Train" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 390)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 190-191, "The Charming Young Widow I Met on the Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 95-96, "The Charming Young Widow I Met on the Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 145-147, "The Charming Young Widow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 49-50, "The Charming Young Widow I Met in the Train" (1 text)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp. 45-47, "The Charming Young Widow" (1 text)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 46-51, "(The Charming Young Widow I Met in the Train)" (2 excerpts plus photos of two versions of the sheet music)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 140-143, "The Charming Young Widow I Met on the Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #289, p. 20, "The Charming Young Widow I Met in the Train" (3 references)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 7, "The Charming Young Widow I Met in the Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CHRMWIDW*
Roud #3754
RECORDINGS:
Jim O'Brien, "Charming Young Widow" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4400), "The Charming Young Widow I Met in the Train," J. Harkness (Preston) , 1840-1866
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(071), "The Charming Young Widow I Meet in the Train" (sic.), unknown, c. 1860
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Quare Bungo Rye" (theme: the singer is left with a baby; but not "The Basket of Eggs" where the girl gets the baby back)
cf. "The Black Velvet Band" (I) (theme: the woman pick-pocket)
NOTES [565 words]: Cohen believes that there are "two closely related ballads, both dating from the 1860s" with this title. It doesn't seem worthwhile to split them, though. - RBW
I think there are three ballads here:
1) Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland has the singer going to Montreal on the train to pick up an inheritance left by an uncle. He meets the "widow" and "baby." She leaves him with the "baby" after picking his pocket, but there is no mention of the baby being dead or "fake."
Broadside Harding B 11(4400) has the singer going to London on the train to pick up an inheritance left by an uncle. He meets the "widow" and "baby." She leaves him with the "baby" after picking his pocket. The baby is a "dummy." The singer has no money to pay for his ticket and must settle the next day. This one is at least recognizable as Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland and the ballad behind the DESCRIPTION above.
Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(071)f like Bodleian Harding B 11(4400); the difference is that the singer is on the train to Glasgow. The commentary includes this statement: "There are many broadsides which warn more naive citizens against charming women pick-pockets."
2) See LOCSinging, sb10057a, "The Charming Young Widow I Met In The Train," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878: the uncle is dying in Boston. The singer meets the "widow" and "baby" on the train to Boston. She leaves him with the "baby" after picking his pocket. The baby is dead and she leaves a note asking that he bury it. He does. There are no lines in common with the other two ballads; tune: "Jenny Jones." (This version is a variant of Bodleian, Harding B 11(1684), "The Charming Young Widow I Met in the Train," W.S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885 that takes place on the way to London; tune: "Jenny Jones" )
3) See LOCSinging, sb10056b, "The Charming Young Lady I Met in the Rain," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878: this one takes place in London: There is no inheritance, no train, no baby; the pick-pocket trick remains. A crowd blocks his pursuit and he is charged with assault. When he can't pay the fine -- because he has lost all his money -- he must spend a fortnight in jail. There are no lines in common with the other two ballads. This is attributed, on the broadside, to J.G. Peters. (There is a duplicate at Bodleian, Harding B 18(83), "The Charming Young Lady I Met in the Rain," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878.) (This version is a variant of Bodleian, Firth b.26(366), "The Charming Young Widow I Met in the Train," H. Such (London), 1863-1885.)
The H. De Marsan New York broadsides are so close to each other and to "The Charming Young Widow I Met on the Train" -- without being the same ballad -- that it is clear that two are derived from a third. [H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site] - BS
In addition, there is "The Charming Young Lady I Met in the Rain," credited to J. G. Peters, which I would assume is a parody of this although I have not seen it; such information as I have comes from Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 20. Both this parody and Wolf's version of the "Charming Young Widow" are said to be the tune "Jenny Jones." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: R390

Chase of the O L C Steer

See Chase of the O. L. C. Steer (File: TF017)

Chase of the O. L. C. Steer

DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever hear of the O L C Steer With widely flaring horns He smashes the trees as he splits the breeze And the cowboy ropes he scorns." Cowboys Rap, Johnny, and Bob vow to catch the steer, but it escapes and they spend their lives making excuses
AUTHOR: Agnes Morley Cleveland ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1908
KEYWORDS: animal escape cowboy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XVII, pp. 225-227 (36-38), "Chase of the O. L. C. Steer" (1 text); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 21-23, "Chase of the O L C Steer" (1 text)
Roud #12500
NOTES [32 words]: The only claim of authorship of this piece was made by Agnes Morley Cleveland in a 1945 letter to Neil M. Cleveland. She gives the initials of the steer as "A. L. C.," pronounced "Alcy." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: TF017

Chase That Squirrel

See Chase the Squirrel (File: R537)

Chase the Buffalo (I)

DESCRIPTION: Lads and "girls of New England," let's seek "new pleasures ... on the banks of the pleasant Ohio." There's plenty of fish, grain in Kentucky, gold from the New Mexico. Girls spin, lads farm, and we'll range the wild woods and hunt the buffalo.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1860 (broadside, LOCSinging sb20164b)
KEYWORDS: travel farming fishing gold hunting America nonballad settler
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1103, "To Chase the Buffalo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 17, "The Buffalo" (1 text)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 50, "Chase the Buffalo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #932, p. 63, "Hunt the Bufalo, or the Banks of the Pleasant Ohio" (2 references)
Roud #1026
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1742), "The Buffalo" ("Come all you young fellows that have a mind to range"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885
LOCSinging, sb20164b, "Hunt the Buffalo" or "The Banks of the Pleasant Ohio" ("Come all ye likely lads that have a mind for to range"), J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pleasant Ohio" (lyrics)
NOTES [130 words]: Roud splits the British song from the US play-party song, though the structure and tunes are similar. The songs are certainly related, if not deserving of being lumped. The phrase "chase the buffalo" shows up in the poem "I Think of old Ireland, Wherever I Go" attributed to J. H. Howard:
And 'tis soon I'll be home, in the land I love best,
In my own dearest Emerald Isle of the West,
Though now I am chasing the wild buffalo,
For I think of old Ireland wherever I go.
[from] LOCSinging, as106400, "I Think of Old Ireland Wherever I Go," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
Broadsides LOCSinging sb20164b and as106400: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: GrD61103

Chase the Buffalo (II)

See Shoot the Buffalo (File: R523)

Chase the Squirrel

DESCRIPTION: "Ev'rybody teeter up and down, Grab 'em by the waist an' a whirl them around, An' around an' around an' around." "Chase the squirrel, chase the squirrel, Chase the purty girl round the world...." "First to the center, then to the wall...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (JAFL 24)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 30-32=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 151-152, "Chase the Squirrel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 537, "Chase the Squirrel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 83, "Chase That Squirrel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 90-91, "Chase the Squirrel" (1 text, a square dance call which does not mention the squirrel but appears to be the same dance)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 512, "Chase the Squirrel" (1 short text, 1 tune, more like this than any other squirrel game)
Roud #7645
File: R537

Chase, Chase the Hairy Elephant

DESCRIPTION: "Chase, chase, chase the hairy/baldy elephant That never told a lie on (someone); that was (someone else)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: animal | elephant game
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 71, "Chase, Chase" (1 text)
Roud #31511
NOTES [24 words]: Yes, elephants have hair -- sometimes quite a lot of it, if it is not removed. For some reason, zoos and circuses make hair removal a priority. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI075A

Chased Old Satan Through The Door

DESCRIPTION: "I chased old Satan through the door, Hit him in the head with a two-by-four, I'm gonna wear a starry crown over there." Humorous verses about the singer's religious progress.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: religious humorous floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
The Woodie Brothers, "Chased Old Satan Through the Door" (Victor Vi-23579)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Never Will Turn Back Any More" (floating verses)
NOTES [31 words]: This reads like a humorous take on a church hymn; several of the verses float. It looks a lot like "I Never Will Turn Back Any More," but that seems to be built on a different hymn. - RBW
File: RcCOSTTD

Chastity Belt, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks, "Gentle maiden, may I be your lover." She cannot; she is married to Sir (Oswald), who is off to the wars with the key to her chastity belt. A locksmith cannot free her. Sir Oswald returns but has lost the key. But his page has a duplicate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: humorous bawdy courting rejection trick technology
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 52-53, "The Chastity Belt" (1 text)
DT, CHASBELT*
Roud #10125
NOTES [287 words]: Patently composed (the "nonny nonny" chorus alone should prove that!), but no author has ever confessed to creating the piece (and whoever came up with it is surely dead by now). It is clever enough that it has spread widely, although I don't know how many people managed to learn it without reference to print.
I doubt anyone thinks the song very old, but the earliest possible date is in the nineteenth century. It wasn't until 1840 or so that Linus Yale Sr. went into business, and not until 1850 that his son Linus Jr. joined the company; not until the 1860s did Linus Jr. come up with the cylinder lock -- the true "Yale." Allowing a few years for the name to become famous and we are forced to date the song after 1870. Obviously the use of the Yale lock is a deliberate anachronism.
There is one glitch by the author that I don't think was deliberate: the woman's husband is "Sir Oswald, that cunning old Celt." But Oswald is a Saxon name -- there was a Saxon King of Northumbria, St. Oswald, who helped lead Northumbria to Christianity n who reigned from 634 until probably 642, when he was killed by the army of Penda of Mercia..
In a mudcat thread about this song, a number of people felt that the song should have had additional verses; a few even supplied them. But I'm fairly sure that the usual ending -- "Then up stepped the page-boy... I'll open it up with my duplicate key" is the proper ending: the shocked realization that all Sir Oswald's elaborate precautions, which led to a disaster, were completely pointless because the page-boy had had the ability to get at Mrs. Sir Oswald any time he liked.
That thread, incidentally, does prove oral circulation, since the number of variations is quite high. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RuSoChaB

Chatham Merchant, The

DESCRIPTION: "In Chatham lived a merchant, a very wealthy man" who has a beautiful daughter. Rich men court her, but she loves a solder. She disguises herself and becomes his comrade. He is wounded. She helps him recover. They return home and greet her father
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (collected from Mrs. Stanley Horn by Boswell)
KEYWORDS: love soldier father cross-dressing disguise injury
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 27, pp. 48-50, "The Chatham Merchant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11037
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany)" [Laws N7] (theme) and references there
NOTES [79 words]: Wolfe in his notes to Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee is unable to discover any exact parallels to this song, and I haven't seen any either. But the general plot is obviously of the same type as "Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany)" [Laws N7] and all the related songs references in that entry. The similarity to "The London Heiress (The Brisk and Lively Lad)" is particularly notable. I frankly think this song is a rewrite of some song of that type. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BoWo027

Chatsworth Wreck, The [Laws G30]

DESCRIPTION: A train is bringing happy travelers to Niagara Falls when it crashes through a burned bridge and is wrecked. A hundred people are killed
AUTHOR: Thomas P. Westendorf
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: train death disaster wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 10, 1887 - A train from Peoria, Illinois goes through a bridge near Chatsworth, Illinois on its way to Niagara Falls. 81 people are killed and 372 injured
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws G30, "The Chatsworth Wreck"
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 242, "The Chatsworth Wrec" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 422-423, "The Chatsworth Wreck" (1 text)
Randolph 681, "The Chatsworth Wreck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 447-449, "The Chatsworth Wreck" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 681)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 33, pp. 59-61, "The Chatsworth Wreck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 47-448, "The Bridge Was Burned at Chatsworth" (1 text plus a broadside print)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 272, "The Bridge Was Burned at Chatsworth" (notes only)
DT 641, CHATWRCK*
Roud #2198
NOTES [20 words]: Called "The Bridge Was Burned at Chatsworth" by the author, though this name hardly seems to exist in the tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: LG30

Chauffe Fort!

DESCRIPTION: French: "C'etait l'automn' dernier, J'etais travailer, Je m'en vas au Grand Tronc, c'etait pour m'engager." The penniless singer goes to the Grand Trunk (railway) to look for a job. He is made to shovel coal till he is exhausted. He warns of the work
AUTHOR: unknown/English words by Allan Bernfeld
EARLIEST DATE: 1919
KEYWORDS: railroading work hardtimes foreignlanguage
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1836 - Building of Canada's first railway, the Champlain and St. Lawrence
1852 - Incorporation of the Grand Trunk Railway (financed mostly by British rather than Canadian interests)
1853 - The Grand Trunk becomes a major player by taking over Canada's first international line, the St. Lawrence and Atlantic
1862 - First government cleanup of the Grand Trunk, brought about by the Grand Trunk Arrangements Act
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 203-205, "Chauffe Fort!" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [191 words]: Fowke/Mills reports that the Canadian railroad system grew by over 60% between 1900 and 1914. Most of this new track was laid by the Grand Trunk, which finished the second trans-Canadian railway and also ran the line from Montreal to Ottawa.
Always badly undercapitalized and overambitious, the Grand Trunk faced financial crises at regular intervals.The problem was rendered that much worse by the early twentieth century boom in railroad building. One Trans-Canadian railroad already existed, and the time had seemingly come for another. But there were two companies which wanted the rights (and the government's help): The Grand Trunk, which wanted to extend its eastern routes to the west, and a western conglomeration, which wanted to enter the eastern markets.
The government made a slight attempt to get the two to work together, but nothing came of it, and the two rail companies proceeded, with government subsidies, to create two different networks.
Not surprisingly, neither was successful. The Grand Trunk vanished in 1923, when it went bankrupt and was taken over by the Canadian National Railway.
The title means "Shovel hard." - RBW
File: FMB203

Chaun Fine My Deary Hunney

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Chaun fine my dear hunney." On Saturday night I go to town. I look behind the trees and bushes [for a girl?]. I wash my pot, boil it sweet, sweep the house, clean my knife, make my bed soft and....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1834 (Wentworth; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: sex food worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 13-14, "Chaun Fine My Deary Hunney" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [109 words]: I concede that finding sex in this song is speculating on double entendre.
Abrahams says about the chorus that "the reference to 'chaun fine' is probably what the author heard for 'shant' fine,' a phrase still heard from members of the chorus as encouragement to the singing leader."
The Abrahams text is from Trelawney Wentworth, The West India Sketch Book (London: Whittaker & Co, 1834 ("Digitized by Google"), Vol. 2 p 67 (Abrahams has this as Vol. 1). Wentworth writes that this is a song that would be sung by a few workers loading and unloading carts taking sugar cane to the mill, and carrying the cane on their head to the mill [pp. 63-68]. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS13

Chebungo Trail

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I haven't got pipe nor 'backer... I haven't got short, and my brad boots hurt, For I'm not a-wearin' socks. Oh, the wangan's all enchanted, boys... And I don't give a dam what's the price of ham, 'Way up on the Chebungo trail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Beck-FolkloreOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes clothes food
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, p. 260, "Chebungo Trail" (1 short text)
Roud #4736
File: BeMe260

Cheechaco's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Joseph Pennman, I have a comrade, Jack. I'll tell you why I left the States...." "I caught the Klondike fever." "We boated down the Yukon."Having reached Dawson, the singer finds much misery and little gold. He returns home
AUTHOR: Harry W. Brown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Klondike Nugget, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: work mining hardtimes gold return
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 679-681, "The Cheechaco's Lament (Dedicated to Joseph Pennman)" (1 text)
File: CAFS2679

Cheer Up Sycamore

DESCRIPTION: "Cheer up, 'Sycamore,' They're known everywhere. They knocked down 'Liberty' And left them lying there. 'Liberty' cried... But mercy wasn't there.... It's a rare old team to play for... There's going to be a fight, And good old 'Sycamore' will be there"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: sports fight
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 176-177, "Cheer Up" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #38158
File: BAAI176B

Cheer Up, Cheer Up Ye Auld Horse

DESCRIPTION: "Cheer up, cheer up, ye auld horse Ye'll never harrow here again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: farming horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1776, "Cheer Up, Cheer Up Ye Auld Horse" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13526
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81776

Cheer Up, Sam

DESCRIPTION: Minstrel song. Former slave tells of his love for Sarah Bell. He offered all he had, but she left him for a white man with money. Cho: "Cheer up Sam, now don't let your spirits go down, for there's many a belle that we know is lookin for you in town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850s (American broadsides)
KEYWORDS: minstrel slavery love rejection foc's'le
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 562, "Cheer Up, Sam" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #295, p. 21, "Cheer Up am, or Sarah Bell" (2 references)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sarah Bell
NOTES [38 words]: Popular "shore song" adapted for use at the capstan. - SL
Popular it may have been, but I long searched without success for any sign of it before I found the mention in Wolf. I suspect a better description is "widely touted." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: Hugi562

Cheer Up! Russell Street

DESCRIPTION: "Cheer up, (Russell) Street, It's known everywhere...." "It's a rare old street to play for, It's a rare old street to know." The street has a sad history. The competing singers don't care about success or failure; they intend to go where there is a row
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Behan-IrelandSings)
KEYWORDS: fight nonballad home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Behan-IrelandSings, #19, "Cheer Up! Russell Street" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [65 words]: Behan-IrelandSings claims that there are variations of this for many streets and parts of Ireland, but cites no sources, claiming to have learned it as a child. I have not found any parallel versions, but this might be because Behan has modified the song somewhat -- although in this case, he claims only an arrangement credit, whereas he usually claims to have rewritten his materials. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Beha019

Cheer, Boys, Cheer (I)

See Sebastopol (Old England's Gained the Day; Capture and Destruction of Sebastopol; Cheer, Boys, Cheer) (File: SmHa041)

Cheer, Boys, Cheer (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Cheer, boys, cheer! No more of idle sorrow, Courage, true hearts, shall bear us on our way." The sailors (soldiers? emigrants?) are urged to be happy as they leave England in search of fortune. They set out for a new land
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Mackay / Music: Henry Russell (1812-1900) (sources: Scott, Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats)
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Dime-Song-Book #1/72)
KEYWORDS: patriotic nonballad travel home farming
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 86-87, "Cheer! Boys, Cheer!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 165-170, "Cheer, boys, cheer!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 83-84, "Cheer! Boys, Cheer!" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #290, p. 20, "Cheer Boys, Cheer" (1 reference); also probably #291, p. 20, "Cheer! Boys, Cheer!" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 15 and #5/64, p. 15, "Cheer, Boys, Cheer" (1 text)
Roud #13845
NOTES [409 words]: Although I have not seen the broadsides involved, Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 20, lists two broadsides with the title "Cheer, Boys, Cheer," which are clearly related to this song. This would date the song to the 1870s or earlier. No author is listed.
Henry Russell wrote the tunes (and perhaps occasionally the lyrics) to more than a dozen songs in the Index, although only a few became truly popular. The list includes:
-- Woodman, Spare That Tree (probably his most popular piece)
-- A Life on the Ocean Wave
-- Cheer, Boys, Cheer (II)
-- Wind of the Winter Night
-- I'm Afloat, I'm Afloat (The Rover of the Sea)
-- Some Love to Roam (The Pirate's Life for Me)
-- Life of the Bold Buccaneer
-- If I Had But a Thousand a Year
-- The Main-Truck (A Leap for Life; The Captain's Son)
-- Rockaway (On Old Long Island's Sea-Girt Shore)
-- There's a Good Time Coming (probably)
-- The Indian Hunter (III) (probably)
-- Grandmother's Chair (either this or the following)
-- The Old Arm Chair (I) (either this or the preceding)
-- There's a Good Time Coming (probably)
In an interesting footnote, Charles Dodgson (not yet famous as Lewis Carroll) attended a concert by Russell on February 9, 1857. Dodgson's verdict: "As a singer he does not strike me as anything remarkable. He is an amusing lecturer" (Edward Wakeling, editor, Lewis Carroll's Diaries: The Private Journals of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, Volume 3, January 1857 to April 1858, Lewis Carroll Society, 1995, p. 23).
This sees to be a minority opinion. According to Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 113, "Russell (1812-1900) was also British and began his career as a member of 'The Children's Opera Company' at the Drury Lane Theater. In 1825 he departed for Bologna to study at the conservatory there, since Italian opera was all the rage in London at the time.... [He] emigrated to Canada, settling later in Rochester, New York, during the 1830s. He stayed in the United States just long enough to take the pulse of American popular song, and before he returned to London in 1842, he produced many early hits. In fact, he was probably the most influential composer of his generation."
His autobiography was entitled "Cheer! Boy! Cheer! Memories of Men and Music," and was published in 1895. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Wins165

Cheer, Boys, Cheer (III -- New Zealand)

DESCRIPTION: "Cheer, boys, cheer, the polling day's before us, Head of the poll we'll have our hero brave... Cheer, boys, cheer, we'll crush the Wakefield faction... Cheer, boys, cheer, for gallant Featherston." "May God defend the right"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Wellington _Independent_, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: political New Zealand nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1858 - election pitting radical Ashton St Hill against incumbent Isaac Featherston in the contest for Superintendent of Wellington province. Featherston was re-elected (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 25, "Cheer, Boys, Cheer" (1 text)
NOTES [158 words]: Said to be to the tune of "Cheer, Boys, Cheer," but it's not clear which song of that name is meant. Presumably it was the tune that Charles R. Thatcher (for whom see "Where's Your License") created his own "Cheer, Boys, Cheer" parody.
According to Gordon McLauchlan, editor-in-chief, New Zealand Encyclopedia, David Bateman Limited, 1984, pp. 178-179, "FEATHERSTON, Isaac Earl (1813-1876) was born in England and graduated as a physician in Edinburgh in 1836. He sailed for New Zealand as a surgeon on the New Zealand Company's vessel, Olympus, in 1840, and became a well-known politician in the early days of the colony." He served in elective office (initially Superintendent of Wellington Province) 1853-1870,and was Member of Parliament for that entire period. He also fought in the Maori Wars, being awarded the New Zealand Cross for his efforts. He ended his career as New Zealand's Agent-General to London fro 1871 until his death. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: BaRo025

Cheer, Boys, Cheer (IV)

DESCRIPTION: "There are many ups and downs as through this world we ramble," so the singer will be as happy as possible, despite being poor, while drinking and smoking. His wife is a great source of trouble, always complaining (and abusing him when he spills the milk)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard)
KEYWORDS: drink drugs wife husband hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 61-64, "Cheer, Boys, Cheer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11621
NOTES [34 words]: Huntington suggests this is as music hall song, and the form certainly isn't very folk-like. I suspect he's right. On the other hand, I don't find it even vaguely funny that a slob and his wife quarrel. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: HuVi061

Cheer, Boys, Cheer (V -- The Song of the Mangle)

DESCRIPTION: "Cheer, boys, cheer! My mother has a mangle, Cheer, boys, cheer! She fills it with stones... She turns it with the handle, For she mangles all me clothes." Or, "My brother turns the handle... My sister gives out the clothes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: clothes mother work derivative
FOUND IN: US(MA) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 236, "The Song of the Mangle" (1 short text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 167, "Cheer Boys Cheer" (2 short texts, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 87-88, "Cheer, boys, cheer" (1 text)
Roud #13845
NOTES [57 words]: Roud files this along with the "regular" "Cheer, Boys, Cheer (II)," but it is clearly a deliberate rewrite. And at least two versions are known, from two different countries (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania's Pennsylvania version and Brady's and Alice Kane's Irish version), with variations. I'd call that an independent song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Shoe236A

Cheer'ly Man

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Oh, Nancy Dawson, hio! Cheer'ly, man! She's got a notion, hio! Cheer'ly, man! For our old bosun, hio! Cheer'ly, man, Oh! hauley, hio! Cheer'ly, man!" Various women are mentioned, perhaps linked to members of the crew, who are urged to pull hard
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart-Songs)
KEYWORDS: shanty nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 32-34, "Cheer'ly, Man" (2 texts)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 77, "Cheerly, Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 312-315, "Cheerily Man," (2 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 234-237\
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XLV, p.50, "Cheerly Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, "Creer''ly Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 90-91, "Cheerly Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 75, "English Chanry" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CHEERLY
Roud #395
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Haul 'Er Away (Little Sally Racket)" (form, lyrics)
NOTES [174 words]: Shay believes that this is mentioned in Dana's Two Years Before the Mast. The section quoted makes it appear likely, but Dana did not actually quote text, merely the singing of "Cheerily, men," which might just possibly be ship's idiom.
Similarly, the article "On Shanties," in E(neas) S(weetland) Dallas, editor, Once a Week, New Series, Number 31, August 1, 1868 (published by Bradbury and Evans and available on Google Books), p. 92, gives this fragment:
Pull together, cheerily men,
'Gainst wind and weather, cheerily men,
For one another, cheerily men, O,
Cherrily men, O, cheerily men.
There is a further excerpt on p. 93. The form is different enough that I would not say categorically that it is the same song without a longer sample. Still, it is likely that the song is much older than the known texts.
Lloyd and others lump this with "Haul 'Er Away (Little Sally Racket)." There is certainly similarity in the form, and in some of the lyrics, and in the idea, but the choruses are different enough that I tentatively split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ShayS032

Cheer'ly Men

See Cheer'ly Man (File: ShayS032)

Cheerful Arn, The

See When Bucks a Hunting Go (File: GrD4727)

Cheerily, Man

See Cheer'ly Man (File: ShayS032)

Cheerly Man

See Cheer'ly Man (File: ShayS032)

Chef de Gare, The

DESCRIPTION: French. "Le chef de gare, il est coucou (x2), Qui est coucou? Le chef da gare, C'est que sa femme voulut -- voulut -- oh..ee...." The station chief is "cuckoo." Who is cuckoo? The station chief. It's because his wife is... uh-oh...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage wife nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 46, "Le Chef de Gare" (1 short text)
File: SBar046

Cheitie Cheitie Bawdrons

See Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, Where Have You Been? (File: OO2428)

Cherokee Hymn (I Have a Father in the Prog Ni Lo)

DESCRIPTION: "I have a father in the prog ni lo, And you have a father in the prog ni lo, We all have a father in the prog ni lo." "Nee I ravy, Nee-shi, nee-shi ni-go, Three I three-by an shee prog no lo." "I have a (brother/mother/sister) in the prog ni lo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 658, "Cherokee Hymn" (1 text, supposedly partly in Cherokee; "Prog Ni Lo" is said to be Cherokee for "Promised Land")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 658, notes only
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 51-52, "Nishi" (1 short text, 1 tune, with different words but it appears to be a much-distorted version of the same idea)
Roud #4213
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Way Over in the Promised Land (I)" (form, lyrics)
NOTES [64 words]: Roud lumps Brown's version with "Where Is Old Elijah? (The Hebrew Children, The Promised Land)" (and does not index the Riddle version). I don't see it. Abrahams notes that several American collections regard this as a Native American song, which he notes "defies explanation unless it was used by missionaries."
To me, it looks like an adaption of "Way Over in the Promised Land." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Br3658

Cherries are Ripe

DESCRIPTION: "Cherries are Ripe, cherries are ripe, (The robin sang one day)." Various endings: cherries are given to the baby, or the students greet their teacher. The origin might be a cherry-sellers cry: "Cherry ripe, cherry ripe, Some are black and some are white"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Tobitt)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad food
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 99, "Cherries are Ripe" (1 text, possibly a parody of more normal texts, but the other versions I've seen of this are so short that it could also be a "straight" fragment that didn't survive elsewhere)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 26, "Cherries Are Ripe" (1 short text, 1 tune; I suspect this is ancestral to the Pankake version)
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 121, (no title), a cherry-seller's rhyme from Warwickshire in the 1920s, which might be related to the original source of the piece
RECORDINGS:
Margaret MacArthur, "Cherries Are Ripe" (on MMacArthur01)
File: PHCFS099

Cherry Creek Emigrant's Song

DESCRIPTION: "We expect hard times, we expect hard fare." "Then ho, boys, ho, to Cherry Creek we'll go, There's plenty of gold in the west, we are told, in the new Eldorado." Many seek the Pikes Peak gold. Girls who are disappointed should wait a year.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Rocky Mountain News, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: gold mining derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 112-113, "Cherry Creek Emigrant's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp 589-590, "Cherry Creek Emigrant's Song" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "De Boatman Dance" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
File: CAFS590A

Cherry Orchard, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer remembers meeting Louise "down in the old cherry orchard." "She sang love songs to me." "She spoke those words that set my heart aflame." He told her love stories.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: courting love nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: W. T. (Tuce) Jernigan, "Down By The Old Cherry Orchard" (7/12/59). https://www.lyon.edu/songs/song/down-by-the-old-cherry-orchard accessed July 17, 2023
Roud #17055
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Stephen Rowsell, "The Cherry Orchard" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [54 words]: "Down In The Old Cherry Orchard," recorded by Tom Darby and Jimmy Tarlton, repeats two lines of this song -- "Down in the old cherry orchard, Under the old cherry tree" -- several times but has no other connection that I can make out (on "Tom Darby and Jimmy Tarlton -- Atlanta 1929-1930," JSP Records JSP 7746B CD (2005)). - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AddCheOr

Cherry Tree Carol, The

See The Cherry-Tree Carol [Child #54] (File: C054)

Cherry Tree Joe McCreery

DESCRIPTION: "You rivermen have surely heard About the appropriation That was made to clear our little ditch." Cherry Tree Joe McCreery is given the job. The workers praise and curse him; tall tales are told about him; now phantom raftsmen chase his ghost
AUTHOR: Henry WIlson? (Source: Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: lumbering canal work talltale humorous ghost
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 346-348, "Cherry Tree Joe McCreery" (1 text)
Roud #7738
File: KPL346

Cherry Tree, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, a cherry tree's a pretty tree When it is in full bloom; And so is a handsome young man When he a-courting goes." The young man claims to be well to do, and wins the girl; now she finds herself poor, with no land and no home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: courting marriage poverty promise lie
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 169-170, "The Cherry Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2947
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "I Long For To Get Married" (on IREButcher02)
NOTES [25 words]: Whether this has anything to do with the folklore associating the cherry tree with female sexuality I do not know. But I mention it because it might. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: MA169

Cherry-Tree Carol, The [Child 54]

DESCRIPTION: Joseph and Mary are walking. Mary asks Joseph for some of the cherries they are passing by, since she is pregnant. Joseph tells her to let the baby's father get them. The unborn Jesus orders the tree to give Mary cherries. Joseph repents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1768 (Gilbert MS)
KEYWORDS: carol Jesus religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,SE,So) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Ma,rNewf,Ont,West)
REFERENCES (46 citations):
Child 54, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (4 texts)
Bronson 54, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (30 versions + 2 in an appendix, one of them being "Mary With Her Young Son"' in addition, #27 contains "The Holly Bears a Berry" and #29 a scrap of "The Holly and the Ivy")
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 54, "The Cherry-Tree Carol" (3 versions: #1, #3, #16)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #147, "The Cherry-Tree Carol" (1 text, 1 tune){cf. Bronson's #10}
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #160, p. 1, "The Cherry-Tree Carol"; #164, p. 3, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan2 327, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (2 texts plus 6 verses on p. 579)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 14, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine p. 446, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (notes only)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2, pp. 70-73, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Randolph 12, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #30}
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 15, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (2 texts)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 13, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text plus 2 fragments; the only substantial text, "A," begins with two verses clearly imported from something else; 1 tune) {Bronson's #14}
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #155, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #23}
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 36-37, "Carol of the Cherry Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #3, "Joseph and Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #13, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 34, "The Cherry Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 154, "The Cherry Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 60, (no title) (1 single-stanza excerpt)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 16A, "Joseph and Mary"; 16B, "Joseph Was An Old Man" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 34-35, "Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #22, #11}
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 38-39, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #22}
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, pp. 89-91, "The Cherry Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 222-231, "(The Cherry Tree Carol)" (2 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 224-231)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 175-177, "The Cherry-Tree Carol" (2 texts)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 59, "The Cherry-Tree Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 88-90, "The Cherry-Tree Carol" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 101, "The Cherry-Tree Carol" (1 text)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 66, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text (separated into smaller parts, the last being "Mary With Her Young Son"), 4 tunes) {for the "First Tune" cf. Bronson's #1; the "Second Tune" is Bronson's #32}
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 128-129, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #22}
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 2, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 23, "The Cherry Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 15 "The Cherry-Tree Carol" (5 texts plus a fragment, 6 tunes) {Bronson's #28, #17, #16, #19, #15, #21}
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 12, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #16; cf. #20}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 94, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #25}
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #6, "Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #17}
-TheBalladTree, p. 187, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #16}
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 151, "The Cherry-Tree Carol" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 758, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 19, p. 47, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 40-42, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 380, "Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 25, "Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 54, CHERTREE*
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 225-227, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text)
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #42, "Joseph Was an Old Man" (1 text)
Roud #453
RECORDINGS:
Susan Brown, "The Carol of the Cherry Tree" (on HCargillFamily)
Maud Long, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (AFS; on LC14)
Jean Ritchie, "Cherry Tree Carol" (on JRitchie02)
Mrs. Lee Skeens, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (AFS; on LC57)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary With Her Young Son"
cf. "Joseph and Mary (Joseph Being an Aged Man, Joseph an Aged Man Truly)" (theme of Joseph's doubts)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Cherry Tree
Joseph and Mary
The Sixth of January
NOTES [3195 words]: This song is very similar to a passage in one of the Coventry Mystery Plays, cited on pp. 153-154 of Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, in which Mary and Joseph come upon a cherry tree out of season and it miraculously sprouts cherries for Mary -- after which the rest of the action proceeds as in the song (including a line, "Therefore let him pluck you cherries, begot you with child").
Wells-TheBalladTree p. 183, quotes Mary's speech:
Now good Lord, I pray the, graunt me this boun,
To have of these cheries, & it be yo' wylle;
Now, I thonk the god, this tre bowyth to me down,
I may now gadyr anowe, & etyn to my fylle.
I would assume that both that tale and this song derive from the same legend, whatever it is.
According to Fowler, p. 48, there is another parallel, to a Middle English poem he clls "The Childhood of Jesus," the relevant verse of which he quotes. This poem comes from British Library MS. Additional 31042, the famous London Thornton manuscript. This appears to be "Almyghty God in Trynytee Þat boughte mane"; Index of Middle English Verse #250, also found in Harley MS. 2399 and Harley MS. 3954. According to Thompson, pp. 17-18, it is item #29 in the manuscript, apparently here titled "Ihesu Christi... the Romance of the childhode of Ihesu Cristi þat clerkes callys Ypokrephum" (i.e. it's an apocryphal tale). It is in two columns, from folio 163 verso to folio 168 verso; the standard stanza is 12 lines, rhymed ababababcdc. In Harley 3954, it is prefaced, "Hic incipit infancia salvatoris." It apparently hasn't been edited since 1885 (by Horstman), although Harley 3954 has been scanned and is on the British Library web site.
The source is usually said to be the Infancy Gospel of the Pseudo-Matthew (Latin, ninth century); Child, for instance, declared that "The proper story of this highly popular carol is derived from the Pseudo-Matthew's gospel, chapter xx." In that book, however, the miracle took place AFTER Jesus's birth. Joseph, Jesus, and Mary were fleeing from King Herod when Mary became faint. Joseph led her under a date palm to rest. Mary begged Joseph to get her some of the dates. Joseph was astonished; the tree was too tall to climb. But Jesus (who was no more than two years old) commanded the palm, "Bow down, tree, and refresh my mother with your fruit." And bow down it did, and remained so until Jesus ordered it to straighten up. Jesus also ordered it to reveal its water source, and a spring arose. Later, Jesus ordered a branch of the palm to be carried into heaven! (chapter xxi; a fuller version is given on p. 57 of JamesNT).
Child's suggestion should be taken with some caution, although it certainly shouldn't be rejected outright. It's worth remembering that Child did not know the "new source" published by JamesInf, which (since two copies were found in England) was probably unusually popular there and which uses the Pseudo-Matthew story, but in much-modified form (most of the introduction of JamesInf is devoted to source criticism of Pseudo-Matthew, the Infancy Gospel of James, and the "new source"). I am not claiming this song is derived from the "new source"; I merely offer it as evidence that many stories of this source were floating around England.
Miraculous cherries also occur in the Middle English romance of "Sir Cleges," which is one of the few romances of the period which appears to be entirely native to English soil. They are even associated with Christmas: Cleges has given away so much of his property that he is reduced to poverty. At Christmas, cherries appear on a tree in his garden. He plucks some of them and (on his wife's advice) takes them to King Arthur's court, where Arthur gives him gifts that restore his dignity. (Wells, p. 161. For a bibliography of "Sir Clegges," see Joanne A. Rice, Middle English Romance: An Annotated Bibliography, 1955-1985, Garland Publishing, 1987, pp. 407-408.)
The only part of this with any basis in the canonical gospels is Joseph's jealousy (Matt. 1:18-20) and the angel's announcement that Joseph should care for the child (Matt. 1:20-25 -- where, however, the message comes in a dream).
Not to fear, though, Pseudo-Matthew had an explanation for that. Supposedly Matthew wrote his infancy account in Hebrew but did not publish it in his gospel. Eventually the infancy account was discovered by Jerome, translator of the Vulgate. He was hesitant to publish it, because Matthew wanted it kept secret, but eventually was persuaded to put it into Latin (JamesInf, pp. xii-xiii).
The link between this song and the pseudo-Matthew is not universally accepted; Baring-Gould linked the thing to a tale in the Kalevala (canto L -- the very last canto of the book; it was canto XXXII in the "Old Kalevala"; Pentikainen, p. 58) In the story of the virgin Marjatta, a berry cries out to the girl (lines 81-94 on p. 634 of Kalevala-Kirby). Kalevala-Kirby calls the berry a cranberry, but Joseph-Larousse, p. 105, makes it a cherry; Pentikainen at one place calls it an "odd berry," but on p. 147 calls it a lingonberry. (I'd be inclined to accept the latter reading, since lingonberries are a characteristic Scandinavian fruit.)
Marjatta -- whose very name means "berry" in Finnish, according to Kalevala-Kirby, p. 661, but which Pentikainen, p. 148, declares to mean "Saint Mary" -- eats the berry, brings forth a boy, loses him, finds him, brings him to be baptized, and is condemned by Vanamoinen -- but the child (who begins to speak at the age of two weeks!) defends himself and is baptized as a king. (Complications ensue, of course.)
The parallels are obviously interesting -- but it must be recalled that the Kalevala as assembled is more recent than the Cherry-Tree Carol; Elias Lonnrot published it in 1849 (Kalevala-Kirby, p. xi). Marjatta's tale may be older than the compiled Kalevala -- it existed in the "Old Kalevala," which is much more traditional than the final form (Pentikainen, pp. 48-48) -- but it is much more likely that both stories come from common roots. (Lonnrot, although he thought that particular "rune" of the Kalevala was among the newest, still believed it to be on the order of five hundred years old; Pentikainen, p. 85. This strikes me as absurd; what is certain is that he couldn't prove it. What's more, Lonnrot introduced the tale of Marjatta into that final rune; it had not been there previously! -- Pentikainen, p. 147. And Lonnrot was deliberately making the Kalevala a more Christian work; the original singers supposedly thought it part of a cyclical history; Pentikainen, p. 150)
An even more interesting parallel than either of those is in the Quran. In Surah 3:46 ("The Imrans"), Jesus "will preach to men in his cradle"; the statement is repeated in 5:110 ("The Table"). More amazing, though, is 19:22f. ("Mary" or, in more literal translations, "Mariam"): Mary, as she goes into labor, wishes she had died. The child speaks up and commands the date-palm to feed her. Later, as the unmarried Mary comes among her people, she is accused of whoredom. She points to the infant Jesus, who justifies her from the cradle.
It is perhaps interesting that, in the carol, it is the *cherry* tree that bows down. Various legends swirl about the cherry, including one from China that associates it with female sexuality (Pickering, p. 55; the English parallel is presumably obvious). There is also a Swiss legend that offers cherries to new mothers.
Even Pseudo-Matthew was the ultimate source, there might have been intermediate stages. The legend of the tree giving Mary its fruit took multiple forms in English. There was one in the well-known Cursor Mundi. The Middle English stanzaic Childhood of Christ, called a romance by Robert Thornton (who copied one of the surviving versions in the fifteenth century), goes beyond that. "In the more traditional rendering of this episode, found in the Cursor, after the child Jesus commands the tree under which Mary sits to bend down and offer its fruit, Jesus then has the tree make a well from its roots so that they may drink water to their fill (lines 11657-11730). In Childhood, wells of water and wine spring up from the tree's roots, a conscious link to the biblical miracle at the wedding at Cana" (Julie Nelson Couch, on p. 217 of Fein/Johnston. For the Wedding at Cana, see chapter 2 of the Gospel of John).
The legend that Joseph was old when he married Mary has no direct scriptural basis. It is true that, at this time, Jewish husbands were often older than their wives (RankEtAl, p. 212), but this isn't proof of anything. The Egyptian document JamesNT calls "History of Joseph the Carpeter,or Death of Joseph" says that Joseph lived to be 111, and that he was 89 when his first wife died; he married Mary two years later (JamesNT, pp. 84-85). But this is a late work that was unknown in Latin Christendom anyway. The only early testimony seems to be from the Protevangelium Jacobi or Infancy Gospel of James. In what Hone calls chapter 8, verse 13, Joseph -- upon being told to wed Mary, who had been brought up as a virgin in the Temple but now was being put out because she had reached puberty -- declares, "I am an old man, and have children, but she is young, and I fear that I should appear ridiculous in Israel" (Hone, p. 29; there is a somewhat looser translation on p. 388 of Barnstone as well as p. 387 of CompleteGospels; in CompleteGospels, it is chapter 9, verse 8; in Cartlidge/Dungan, p. 15, it is chapter 9, verse 5). We also find Joseph's sons accompanying Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem (CompleteGospels, 17:5, p. 392=Cartlidge/Dungan 17:4, p. 20=Hone, 12:5, p. 32, but Hone's translation is not parallel to the other two).
The Protevangelium also mentions the famous but un-scriptural detail of Mary and Joseph sheltering in a cave rather than a stable as in the Gospel of Luke (CompleteGospels, 18:1, p. 392=Cartlidge/Dungan 18:1, p. 21=Hone, 13:1, p. 33). It also claims that a midwife found Mary still a virgin after the birth -- miraculously, obviously.
After Mary and Joseph reach the cave, Joseph goes out and has a vision, as is found in some long versions of the Cherry-Tree Carol. The vision is found in CompleteGospels, 18:3-11, p. 392=Hone, 13:2-11, p. 32)-- but the two versions (based on different manuscripts) bears little resemblance to each other, and neither resembles the angel's conversation with Joseph in the Carol. The earliest witness to the Protevangelium, Papyrus Bodmer V, omits the passage entirely, causing Cartlidge/Dungan to include it on pp. 21-22 in double brackets, indicating a later insertion. Cartlidge/Dungan number it 18:2-7.
Hone, p. 24, suggests that the Protevangelium Jacobi was originally written in Hebrew, and claims there was a Latin translation. However, Barnstone, pp. 384-385, says that "No Latin manuscript survived the early condemnation of the book in the west."
Very little of what Hone says has held up any better. Although Jordan, p. 1, discusses the possibility that the book is by James the brother of Jesus, or James son of Zebedee, or the "other" James of Mark 15:40 (said to be the author in the Gelasian Decree of c. 495 C.E.), he goes on to note that the author did not know Palestinian geography, a strong argument against the possibility that it is by any of them. As for the language, Wake is the only scholar cited on p. 6 of Jordan to think a Hebrew original a possibility; almost everyone else argues for Greek. Barnstone also (p. 385) quotes Ron Cameron to the effect that it is full of allusions to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. The weight of evidence for a Greek original frankly appears overwhelming.
Jordan on p. 2 cites three scholars who thought it might be from the first century -- but goes on to note nine scholars who date it to the late second century (which still makes it relatively early for an apocryphal gospel). To these nine I can add that CompleteGospels, p. 381, dates it to the middle of the second century. Barnstone, p. 384, says that the book can hardly have been written before 150 C.E., and said that Jerome, translator of the Vulgate, condemned it (pp. 383-384).
The latest date I have seen is Harnack's, who argued for the fourth century (Jordan, p. 6). This late date can now be set aside; the latest possible date is the end of the third century, since Papyrus Bodmer V, found in Egypt and forming the basis for the Cartlidge/Dungan translation, is dated paleographically to 300 C.E. or shortly earlier (which, incidentally, makes it older than our oldest complete copy of any of the canonical gospels, although two other Bodmer papyri, known as P66 and P75, contain large portions of John from the third century, and P75 also contains a big chunk of Luke; there are earlier fragments of all four canonical gospels). But there is very little other early evidence of its existence; the other manuscripts cited in Tischendorf's nineteenth century Greek edition are all tenth century or later (Jordan, p. 3).
Barnstone, p. 384, notes manuscripts in Greek, Syriac (Aramaic), Armenian, Ethiopic (proto-Amharic), Georgian, and Old Church Slavonic. Jordan, p. 6. also mentions a Sahidic Coptic text -- but says the majority of manuscripts are in Greek or Slavonic. In 1980, de Strycker counted 140 Greek manuscripts (Jordan, p. 6) -- an amazing number for a non-canonical work. Even more amazing, parts of it turn up in Greek lectionaries.
I can't help but note that some manuscripts of the Protevangelium Jacobi make Mary only twelve years old at the time of the conception, and none makes her more than seventeen (Barnstone, p. 392). Yes, folks, the author of this book thought God was a pedophile!
It is perhaps worth mentioning that large portions of the Protevangelium Jacobi were incorporated into the Pseudo-Matthew Gospel (Jordan, p. 5) so often cited as the source of this Carol.
Since the Protevangelium did not survive in Latin, it is probably not the direct source for the Carol's claim that Joseph was old. Pseudo-Matthew is a more likely source. But it is not absolutely necessary to assume either as the source. The story seems to have been widespread -- presumably because it fit the sort of thinking that early church fathers loved. The logic is indirect: Mary was still alive at the time of Jesus's ministry (Mark 3:31fff. and parallels), death (John 19:25fff.), and resurrection (Acts 1:14). Joseph, however, is not mentioned anywhere in the context of Jesus's ministry; the only mentions of him as a living man are in the infancy portions of Matthew and Luke. Thus the assumption was that he was dead at the time of Jesus's ministry, and hence implicitly that he was much older than Mary.
Assuming Joseph was dead allowed the Church to solve another problem: The mention of brothers of Jesus (James and others are mentioned in Mark 6:3 and parallels, and James alone in Acts 12:17, 15:13, 21:18, Gal. 1:19, etc.) when it was maintained (again on no scriptural basis) that Mary was a perpetual virgin: The argument (which obviously matches the argument of the Protevangelium Jacobi) was that Mary was Joseph's second wife, and Jesus's brothers were in fact half brothers: Joseph's children by the previous wife. (Making them, genetically if not legally, no brothers of Jesus at all, since Joseph was not Jesus's father.)
This cannot be disproved, of course. But two points need to be made. To begin with, we have only two canonical date pegs for the life of Jesus: First, he was born in the reign of Herod the Great (so both Matthew and Luke), and second, he was active in ministry in the fifteenth year of Tiberius the Caesar (Luke 3:1).
Herod the Great is known to have died in 4 B.C.E (Josephus/Marcus/Wikgren, p. 459; Antiquities XVII.191 in the Loeb numbering, or XVIII,viii.1 in the older editions)., meaning that Jesus must have been born by that year. There are inferential reasons to think he was born in 6 or 7 B.C.E. -- Herod, after all, ordered the killing of all children under two years old in Matthew 2:16.
Tiberius succeeded the emperor Augustus in 14 C.E. Thus his fifteenth year was probably 29 C.E. Jesus was very likely crucified in 30 C.E. This means that he was probably at least 36 years old at the time of the crucifixion.
So if Joseph had been a young man of 22 when he married Mary, he would have had to live to at least age 58 to be around when Jesus died. Lots of people in Roman Palestine died before age 58! The fact that Joseph was almost certainly dead in 30 C.E. is no evidence at all for the claim that he was old in 6 B.C.E. It's possible, but not all that likely.
The other evidence, about Jesus's brothers, is also weak. James is the one member of Jesus's family to be mentioned outside the Bible: Josephus/Feldman, pp. 107-109 (Josephus, Antiquities XX.200 in the Loeb edition, XX.ix.1 in older editions) say that James was stoned to death soon after the Judean procurator Festus died. Festus, we know from Josephus, died in 62 (Josephus/Feldman, pp. 106-107). James, under the "son of Joseph's first wife" theory, would have had to be at least seventy at this time, and probably -- since he is always the first-mentioned of Jesus's four brothers -- closer to eighty. Certainly possible, but it's a lot easier to assume James was born after Jesus, and hence only in his sixties or perhaps even younger. I stress that there is no proof, but the strong weight of evidence is that Joseph was *not* old when Jesus was born.
One other crazy idea, which strikes me as even less likely than most of the preceding: That this story is somehow connected with Chaucer's "Merchant's Tale," in which the old lecher January purchases a young wife May, then goes blind; she is having sex with her young lover Damian in a tree when January recovers his sight, sees what is going on -- but is convinced it didn't mean what he thought.
According to ChaucerHussey, p. 28, "The final episode [of the Merchant's Tale], the tree-tryst, may be traced to a variety of sources, both oral and written. A version such as that known as The Enchanted Pear Tree was probably known to Chaucer. A more daring parallel exists in the legend that inspired the Cherry Tree Carol, one in which the husband Joseph (some legends say suspicious of his wife's mysterious pregnancy) has to satisfy the longing of Mary for cherries. A fresh dimension is added to the entire sequence if it is recalled that the pear has been held as a male sexual-symbol...."
Kenneth A. Bleeth, "The Image of Paradise in the Merchant's Tale" (published in Benson) points out that this parallel "has been discussed at length by Bruce Rosenberg: May's desire for "fruit," in addition to linking her with Eve, recalls the legend (preserved in the "Cherry-Tree Carol" and the Ludus Coventriae cycle) in which the pregnant Mary asks Joseph for cherries from a tree in a garden. Rosenberg suggests that the contrast between the tro pregnancies -- Mary's "sacred and archetypal," May's "feigned for an immoral purpose" -- focuses our perception more strongly on May's guilt." The source is "The 'Cherry-Tree Carol' and the Merchan't Tale," in Chaucer Review 5 (1971). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C054

Chesapeake and the Shannon (I), The [Laws J20]

DESCRIPTION: The U.S.S. Chesapeake sails out of Boston Harbor, confident of victory, to engage H.M.S. Shannon. The well-trained British crew of Captain Broke quickly defeats the American ship and takes it as a prize
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: war navy ship political battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 1, 1813 - Battle between the Chesapeake and the Shannon
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Laws J20, "The Chesapeake and the Shannon I"
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 69-72, "Chesapeake and Shannon" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 293, "The Chesapeake and the Shannon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 24-25, "The Chesapeake and the Shannon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 68-70, "The 'Chesapeake' and the 'Shannon'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 79, "The Chesapeake and the Shannon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 187-188, "Shannon and Chesapeake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 159-160, "'Shannon' and 'Chesapeake'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 85, "Shannon and Chesapeake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 165-166, "The Shannon and the Chesapeake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 111-112, "The Chesapeake and the Shannon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 96-97, "The Chesapeake and the Shannon" (1 text)
DT 398, CHESSHAN*
ADDITIONAL: C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 311, "Shannon and Chesapeake" (1 text)
ST LJ20 (Full)
Roud #1583
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(383), "Shanon & Chesapeak" ("The Chesapeake, quite bold")[title not entirely legible], unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Constitution and the Guerriere" [Laws A6] (historical setting)
cf. "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (II), (III), (IV), (V)" (plot)
NOTES [1030 words]: The victory of the Constitution over the Guerriere (for background, see "The Constitution and the Guerriere," Laws A6) significantly improved the morale of the American navy. Other victories followed, giving the Americans still more confidence.
One of these confidence-building victories was the fateful meeting between U.S.S. Hornet and H.M.S. Peacock, for which see "The Hornet and the Peacock." The Hornet was commanded by a bold up-and-comer by the name of James Lawrence. That earned Lawrence, who was still only 31 in 1813, command of the Chesapeake, one of only half a dozen frigates in hte U. S. Navy at the time (Borneman, p. 113).
Sadly, confidence, in Lawrence at least, quickly turned into overconfidence. In the late spring of 1813, a "single combat" was arranged between Lawrence's U.S.S. Chesapeake and Captain Philip-Bowes-Vere Broke's H.M.S. Shannon. (The challenge was supposedly written, though it's said that Lawrence did not receive the actual written challenge; Borneman, p. 115; Hickey, p. 154; Pratt, p. 83.)
The American decision was not wise. Chesapeake was already a hard-luck ship; in 1807, H. M. S. Leopard had demanded the right to search her for deserters (the right to reclaim deserters was one of the key issues of the War of 1812); being refused, Leopard fired into the American ship -- which was manned by an inexperienced and largely incompetent crew -- and had their way. (Borneman, pp. 22-24; Paine, pp. 108-109. Berton, pp. 35-36, describes the men's theft of property when they deserted and thinks that the whole thing started because the British ship commander, although he didn't want an incident, had said too much to back down. Hickey, p. 17, notes the irony that the British would disclaim the Leopard's action and returned three impressed sailors, though Berton, p. 37, adds that one was hanged at Halifax.) This led to increased tension between Britain and the U. S., but not open war -- yet.
By 1812, Chesapeake was of course seaworthy again, but her crew was hastily-assembled (many veteran sailors had refused to re-enlist due to arguments over prize money; Hickey, p. 155), and Lawrence didn't know them; only one officer had served aboard her for any length of time (Borneman, p. 115). Many of the crew weren't even English-speakers; Pratt, p. 88, reports that about three dozen were Portugese. It should have been obvious that Chesapeake's sailors were no match for an experienced British crew. The ship had had some success early in the war taking small British prizes, but that was with Samuel Evans in command.
Captain Broke, by contrast, had commanded the Shannon since 1806, and he had turned his ship and crew into one of the best in the British fleet -- and, unlike some officers, he insisted on target practice, so his gunners were unusually good shots (Pratt, p. 83). He in fact worked to improve fire control methods (inventing some sort of device to make this easier), and -- unlike most officers below the rank of admiral -- also devoted considerable attention to naval tactics (Rodger, p. 568).
The battle took place on June 1, 1813. Apparently the Chesapeake failed to clear for action properly (Rodger, p. 568), and Lawrence failed to take his one chance to cross the T on Shannon's stern, and that effectively ended the battle. Within minutes Lawrence had been mortally wounded (his last words were, "Don't give up the ship! Fight her till she sinks," but they did little good, the more so since the bugler refused to relay them; (Borneman, p. 117) and the British were boarding the Chesapeake.
The American ship's executive officer was also wounded, but survived, and he needed a scapegoat, so he filed charges blaming the defeat on the probationary officer William S. Cox, who had moved Lawrence out of the line of fire and then found himself commanding the ship after all the other officers were disabled -- though there really wasn't much Cox could have done by then. Cox was dishonorably discharged, dying 62 years later without his case being re-examined; he finally was exonerated by act of congress in 1953 (Mahon, pp. 124-125). As far as I know, no one has had the guts to formally blame Lawrence for his folly.
It was a truly brutal defeat for the Americans: Not only did they lose the ship and Captain Lawrence, but also the first lieutenant and fourth lieutenants mortally wounded, as was the marine commander, and the second and third lieutenants wounded. Total losses were 47 killed, 14 mortally wounded, and 85 with lesser wounds. The Shannon had 24 killed and 59 wounded, some mortally; Captain Broke, who had himself led the boarding parties, was too wounded to return to sea. The whole battle had taken 15 minutes. (Hickey, p. 155; Henderson, pp. 154-160, although this account is very pro-British and ignores the rather sorry state of the Chesapeake).
It is odd to note that neither Chesaapeake nor Shannon was badly damaged (they came together so quickly that both ships still had all their masts). The British had raked Chesapeake repeatedly (Rodger, p. 568), but while this caused many casualties, it did little structural damage. The British probably could have taken Chesapeake into the Royal Navy -- and, given the general quality of American ships, might have been well-advised to do so. But the Napoleonic Wars were winding down, so she was sent to England and broken up (Borneman, p. 118); according to Hickey, p. 155, her timber eventually was used to build a flour mill.
The victory meant that the British, who had been stung by the popular broadside "The Constitution and the Guerriere," finally had something to celebrate out of the naval war. The promptly produced this piece, reported by Logan-APedlarsPack to be sung to the tune of "Yankee Doodle" but usually printed with the tune "Landlady of France"or "Pretty Peggy of Derby, O."
To tell this song from the other "Chesapeake" ballads, consider this stanza:
The Chesapeake so bold out of Boston we've been told
Came to take the British frigate neat and handy, O.
All the people of the port they came out to see the sport,
And the bands were playing Yankee Doodle Dandy, O. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.4
File: LJ20

Chesapeake and the Shannon (II), The [Laws J21]

DESCRIPTION: A sailor on H.M.S. Shannon narrates how, on the "fourth" (!) of June, his ship sailed out to meet the U.S.S. Chesapeake. After only ten minutes of fighting the British (who claim to have been outnumbered) board the American and strike her colours
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: war sailor ship battle navy
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 1, 1813 - Battle between the Chesapeake and the Shannon
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws J21, "The Chesapeake and the Shannon II"
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 266-267, "Chesapeake and Shannon" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 748, CHESHAN2
Roud #1891
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (I), (III), (IV), (V)" (plot)
NOTES [20 words]: For the background on the Chesapeake/Shannon fight, see the notes on "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (I)" [Laws J20]. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: LJ21

Chesapeake and the Shannon (III), The [Laws J22]

DESCRIPTION: Captain Broke of H.M.S. Shannon challenges Captain Lawrence of U.S.S. Chesapeake to battle. The Chesapeake comes out to meet the enemy; within minutes the two ships are locked together (and the British are boarding the American vessel)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1829 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(144))
KEYWORDS: war ship battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 1,1 813 - Battle between the Chesapeake and the Shannon
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws J22, "The Chesapeake and the Shannon III"
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 80, "The Chesapeake and the Shannon" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 138, "Captain Brooks and His Gallant Crew" (1 text)
DT 552, CHESSHA2
ADDITIONAL: C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 312, "Battle of the Shannon and Chesapeak" (1 text)
Roud #963
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(144), "Battle of the Shannon and Chesapeak" ("On board the Shannon frigate, in the fine month of May"), T. Batchelar (London), 1817-1828 ; also Harding B 11(3541), "X"; Harding B 25(1758), Harding B 11(3476), "The Shannon and Chesapeak"; Firth c.12(50), Firth c.12(51), Harding B 11(1046), "Battle of the Shannon and Chesapeake"; Harding B 11(190), Harding B 15(82b), Johnson Ballads 183, "Battle of the Shannon and Chesapeak"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (I), (II), (IV), (V)" (plot)
NOTES [20 words]: For the background on the Chesapeake/Shannon fight, see the notes on "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (I)" [Laws J20]. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: LJ22

Cheshire Cheese

See The Cheshire Man (File: BrMa029)

Cheshire Gate, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was just against the Cheshire Gate, A story true I will relate, Of two neighbors and their wives, How they led their wanton lives, And went to bed with each other's...." While one drinks or travels, his spouse fools around with the neighbor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams)
KEYWORDS: infidelity sex husband wife travel drink humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #115, "The Cheshire Gate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1543
NOTES [42 words]: This appears to have been collected only once, from Henry Burstow, and his version is very confused, so the description is something of a guess. What seems clear is that there were two couples, both of which wanted to swap spouses with the other. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: VWP115

Cheshire Hunt, The

See When Bucks a Hunting Go (File: GrD4727)

Cheshire Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "A Cheshire man sailed into Spain To trade for merchandize." A Spaniard boasts "what fruit and spices fine Our land produces twice a year." The Cheshire man shows his Cheshire cheese "our land brings twice a day." They duel. "Never let the Spaniard boast"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1746 (according to Jones/Timbs)
KEYWORDS: pride bragging fight commerce food England Spain
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 29, "The Cheshire Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: R Wilberham Jones, "Note No. 71 - June 31 [sic]: Cheshire Cheese" in The Cheshire Sheaf (1880, Chester ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, (Chester "Courant" May 1, 1878), p. 144, "Cheshire Cheese" (1 text), quoting "Timbs' 'Nooks and Cornersof English Life,' 1867, page 210."
Roud #1370
NOTES [44 words]: Jones/Timbs: "Chester retains its celebrity for cheese-making. The pride of its people in the superiority of its cheese may be gathered from the following provincial song, with the music, published in 1746, during the Spanish war, in the reign of George 2nd." - BS.
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BrMa029

Chest-Nut Tree, The

See Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree (File: ACSF517U)

Chester (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Let tyrants shake their iron rods... We fear them not, we trust in God, New England's God forever reigns." The generals who would conquer America are listed. The song glories in the victory of "beardless boys" over veterans. God is thanked
AUTHOR: William Billings
EARLIEST DATE: 1778 (Singing Master's Assistant, according to Dichter/Shapiro)
KEYWORDS: patriotic religious rebellion freedom
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 536-537, "Chester" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 81, "Chester" (1 text, 1 tune, reprinted from the 1778 publication)
Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, pp. 70-71, "Chester" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 6, "Chester" (1 text)
DT, CHSTER*
NOTES [1248 words]: The British officers listed in the second stanza are as follows:
Howe: Presumably William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe (1729-1814), who commanded the British forces at Bunker Hill (Middlekauff, p. 287) and later became the commander in chief of British forces in America (succeeding Gage) from 1776 to 1778 (he resigned after Saratoga, and properly, as his inaction led to Burgoyne's defeat. Morison, p. 239, quips that "Sir Billy was one of the greatest bus-missers in British military history"). Might also refer to his older brother Richard (4th Viscount and Earl, 1726-1799), who served primarily in the navy.
Burgoyne: John "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne (1722-1792), commanded a British army sent down from Canada against the American revolutionaries. Burgoyne (re)captured Fort Ticonderoga in 1777, but in 1778 was defeated and his army taken at Saratoga. (The fault for this was largely Howe's, however, as the plan of campaign called for simultaneous advances against the rebels, and Howe quickly gave up his push, leaving the colonials free to deal with Burgoyne. For further background, see the notes to "The Fate of John Burgoyne.")
Clinton: Sir Henry Clinton (c. 1738-1795), became commander in chief in America in 1778 (Lancaster, p. 191). He served as commander in chief until 1781 (long after "Chester" was written). Despite losing the war, many historians regad him as the best officer the British had in America, leading the outflanking force which pushed Washington from Long Island (Lancaster, p. 146) as well as one of the few raids Howe sent out to distract colonial attention from Burgoyne.
Prescott: The British forces did not have a senior officer named Prescott (!). I'm guessing the reference is to Richard Prescott 1725-1788), described by Weintraub, p. 341 thus: "Colonel, 7th Foot with rank in America of brigadier general from November 1775. Captured, exchanged, and recaptured again (sic.) in July 1777 to exchange for Charles Lee. His reputation for arrogance was satirized in the British Press."
The other possibility is that this is by confusion with the American Col. Samuel Prescott, whose first major service was in defending Bunker Hill (Middlekauff, p. 283), but this seems an unlikely error.
Cornwallis: Charles Cornwallis, 1738-1805. At the time this song was written, the senior officer after Clinton in America, and the most aggressive of Clinton's subordinates. He lost the climactic battle of the war at Yorktown (Weintraub, p. 33, or see the notes, e.g., to "Lord Cornwallis's Surrender"), but this of course was later. And he wasn't actually a bad officer, as his later service in India and Ireland would show (for the latter, see, e.g., "The Troubles").
William Billings, the author of this song, seems to have been rather a character. Born in Boston in 1746, Fisher, p. 12, calls him "the eccentric, one-eyed, snuff-taking tanner's assistant." MasonEtAl, p. 49, declare that "It is unfortunate that this pioneer American composer should have become the butt of so much ridicule; yet one must admit that he invited ridicule. There was something ludicrous even in his personal appearance. 'He was somewhat deformed,' says Ritter, 'blind of one eye, one leg shorter than the other, one arm somewhat withered.... [He also had a] stentorian voice, made, no doubt, rough as a saw by the effects of the quantity of snuff that was continually rasping his throat.'"
He is sometimes called the first American composer. This isn't quite true; James Lyon, in his publication Urania of 1761 or 1762, supplied half a dozen original melodies (Fisher, p. 12), and also set one of Isaac Watts's poems to music (MasonEtAl, p. 49). But I can't find any works of Lyon's that are still sung.
In addition, Francis Hopkinson (1737-1791) explicitly claimed to be "the first native of the United States who has produced a musical composition" (Scholes, p. 489), and in 1759 produced "My Days Have Been So Wondrous Free," listed by MasonEtAl, p. 46, as being "the earliest secular composition extant" [from the Americas]. Similarly, Dichter/Shapiro, p. xix, call Hopkinson's piece "the first American ballad by a native composer," adding that the words were by Thomas Parnell -- but that it was "unpublished until the 20th century" (p. xx). Hopkinson did sign the Declaration of Independence (MasonEtAl, p. 46), but his only real claim to musical fame is being the father of Joseph Hopkinson, writer of "Hail, Columbia!"
Mates, p. 13, mentions "'the first American composer's concert," featuring the music and the performance of Giovanni Gualdo, in Philadelphia in 1769." But Gualdo, although he was a violinist and minor composer who settled in America, was an Italian who made his living primarily as a merchant and whose works seem to have been forgotten.
Billings, who wrote this, "When Jesus Wept," and "David's Lamentation" among others is clearly better-known. He published The New England Psalm Singer in 1770 (Fisher, p. 13), and followed it with The Singing Master's Assistant (1778), Music in Miniature (1779), The Psalm-Singer's Amusement (1781), and The Continental Harmony (1794) (Fisher, pp. 13-14). To this list, Scholes, p. 510, adds The Suffolk Harmony of 1786. He also led a singing class which in 1786 organized itself as the Stoughton Musical Society, which Wikipedia says still exists today under the title "The Old Stoughton Musical Society," making it the oldest musical organization in the United States.
Although his early writings were mostly religious, MasonEtAl, p. 52, say that "What were written originally as psalm-tunes he had no difficulty in turning into ringing patriotic songs [once the Revolution broke out]. Many of them were sung by the New England soldiers throughout the war, and the tune known as 'Chester' was a favorite with Continental fifers."
He is also credited with introducing the pitch pipe into America "where it was badly needed," as well as allowing the 'cello a place in church performances (MasonEtAl, p. 52). But he is more important, according to Scholes, p. 507, because "(a) discarding the traditional psalm tunes, he actually composed, and that (b) following the English examples of Watts and Wesley, he wrote hymns and not mere psalm paraphrases. The work of Billings, then, marks the beginning of modernity in church song in American."
MasonEtAl, p. 50, declare that "Billings was an original genius with an unaffected, fervent and sincere love of his art. His very naivete is refreshing in an age which artistic artificiality had rendered almost sterile." This is followed by the statement that "Of musical knowledge he possessed very little," but this is softened on pp. 51-52 by the admission that "All of his works show a most primitive conception of the art of composition and a very hazy knowledge of the rules of hamony and counterpoint. But they contain melodic and rhythmic force and originality. Billings could not write a good fugue, but he could write a good tune."
Billings died in 1800. It is ironic to note that the composer of this so-patriotic song is believed to be buried in an unmarked grave in the same enclosure as the British soldiers killed at Bunker Hill (Fisher, pp. xiv-xv).
There is a recent study of Billings, David Phares McKay and Richard Crawford, William Billings of Boston: Eighteenth-Century Composer, 1975, now published by Princeton University Press.
The tune for this song is sometimes cited as "Retrospect," according to Dichter/Shapiro, p. 10. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: BNEF536

Chester (II)

See O Chester (File: Paro402)

Chester Have You Heard about Harry

See O Chester (File: Paro402)

Chevy Chace

See The Hunting of the Cheviot [Child 162] (File: C162)

Chevy Chase

See The Hunting of the Cheviot [Child 162] (File: C162)

Chew Tobacco, Chew Tobacco

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme and school cheer (?). "Chew tobacco, chew tobacco, Spit on the wall. Who do we appreciate Most of all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope drugs | spit
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #70, "Chew tobacco, chew tobacco" (1 text)
NOTES [22 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes says this is common -- but he cites only one collection (his own!) and I don't recall seeing it elsewhere. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR070

Chewing Gum (I)

See Fond of Chewing Gum (File: R368)

Chewing Gum (II)

See Choo'n Gum (Chewing Gum; Chew, Chew, Chew; Bubblegum) (File: ACSF142C)

Chewing Gum (III)

DESCRIPTION: "I stood in a corner chewing gum, Along came (Jerry/a tramp) and said he wanted some, No, you dirty idler, No, you dirty bum, You ought to have a lickin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: hobo food jumprope | bubble gum
FOUND IN: US(Ro,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 104, "Chewing Gum" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #108, "(Sitting on the corner, Chewing bubble gum)"; #143, "(Down on the corner chewing bubble gum)" (2 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #528, "Standing on the corner" (1 text)
File: ZiZa104E

Chewing Gum Song

See Fond of Chewing Gum (File: R368)

Cheyenne Boys

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Chi-Chi Bud Oh (Company of Birds)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: A company of birds: some holler, some call. A succession of birds flies over: each time, some holler and some call: blackbirds, night owls, long tails, "john crows" (vultures) ...
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: nonballad bird worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 24-26, "Chi-Chi Bud Oh!" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time - Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), pp. 12-13, "Chi-Chi Bud" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Louise Bennett, "Chi-Chi Bud (A Flock of Birds)" (on WILBennett01)
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Chi-Chi Bud Oh" (on WIEConnor01)
File: JaMu024

Chicago (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh I have been east and I have been west, For in traveling a man may afar go Before he will find... A town to compare with Chicago." They won't let you life there unless you're a swindler, drunk, womanizer, gambler; clergy are banned; there are no morals
AUTHOR: Music: H. M. Higgins
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (sheet music); the poem came earlier, but probably not much earlier
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad home clergy gambling theft adultery
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 336-337, "Chicago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25991
File: HGam336

Chicago (II)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Chicken in the car and the car won't go,That's the way to spell Chicago."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Haufrecht, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: chickens technology travel jumprope | car Chicago
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 103, "Chicago" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #72, "Chick in the car" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "New York" (form)
File: ZiZa103B

Chicago Line

See Engine, Engine, Number Nine (File: SuSm096C)

Chichester Boys, The

DESCRIPTION: The story of the factory and town of Chichester. When founded by Eli Chichester, the workers were treated fairly and liked the conditions. Hard times forced the factory into bankruptcy and a takeover, and the singer left. Now he wishes he had stayed
AUTHOR: Bill Moon
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: work factory hardtimes
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1893 - Bankruptcy of the Chichester factory. The workers tried but failed to rescue the company, which was taken over by W. O. von Schwarzwalder (called Swashwaller in the Catskills text)
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 170, "The Chichester Boys" (1 text)
ST FSC170 (Partial)
File: FSC170

Chick Chick Chicken

DESCRIPTION: "Chick, chick, chick, chick, chicken, Lay a little egg for me! Chick, chick, chick, chick, chicken, I want one for my tea, I haven’t had an egg since Easter, And now it’s half past three, So, chick, chick, chick, chick, chicken, Lay a little egg for me!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Rowling); supposedly a popular song of the 1920s
KEYWORDS: chickens food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Marjorie Rowling, _The Folklore of the Lake District_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 113, ("I haven't had an egg since Easter") (1 short text)
File: Rowl113

Chick in the Car

See Chicago (II) (File: ZiZa103B)

Chick-a-dee-dee

See The Chickadee Song (File: Brne103)

Chick-a-li-lee-lo

See La La La Chick A La Le-O (File: Abrr042)

Chick, chick, chatterman

See Chinaman, Chinaman (Ching, Ching, Chinaman) (File: McIn105A)

Chicka-Hanka

DESCRIPTION: "Cap'n, go side-track you' train, Chicka-hanka, chicka-hanka, chicka-hanka! Cap'n, go side-track yo' train, Chicka-hanka, chicka-hanka, chicka-hanka! Number three in line, A-comin' in on time, Cap'n, go side-track yo' train! Chicka-hanka...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries)
KEYWORDS: train nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (IV), pp. 153-154, "Chicka-Hanka" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17444
File: CuBu153

Chickadee Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "The ground was all covered in snow one day, And two little sisters were busy at play, When a snowbird was sitting on a tree, And merrily singing his chick-a-dee-dee." The girls wish they could bring the chickadee inside to make it warm
AUTHOR: F. C. Woodworth?
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Franklin Square Song Collection, according to Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: children bird music clothes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 103, "The Chickadee Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook 1, "Chck-a-dee-dee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4382
NOTES [72 words]: The bird-watcher in me has to note some errors in this song. Chickadees sing "chick-a-dee," or "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" (the latter more than the former), but not "chick-a-dee-dee." And while they are very bold -- some birds will actually feed from a person's hand -- they aren't going to come inside when they're making that call; it's a warning of a minor danger (one might say that "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" means "large slow threat"). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Brne103

Chickama, Chickama-Craney Crow

See Chickee Chickee Ma Craney Crow (Hawks and Chickens) (File: R570)

Chickamy chickamy crannie crow

See Chickee Chickee Ma Craney Crow (Hawks and Chickens) (File: R570)

Chickee Chickee Ma Craney Crow (Hawks and Chickens)

DESCRIPTION: "Chickee chickee ma craney crow, Went to the well to wash my big toe, When I got there one of my black-eyed chickens was gone, What time o' day is it, old witch?" The witch answers, and eventually is allowed to catch one of the chickens circling her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: witch playparty chickens cumulative jumprope
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth, pp. 32-33, "Chickama, Chickama-Craney Crow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 136, "Chicken McCraney Crow" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 223-224, "What Time, Old Witch" (1 text)
Randolph 570, "Chickee Chickee Ma Craney Crow" (3 texts)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 244, (no title) (1 short text, beginning "Chickamy chickamy crannie crow" and in which the singer's "clillun," not her chickens, is missing; it is a cumulative version in which the witch counts through one o'clock, two o'clock, etc.)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 138, (no title) (1 fragment, with the first line "Chickamy, chickamy, crany crow")
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #102, "Hawks and Chickens" (1 text with several parts and many variants); #154, "Old Witch" (1 text of "Old Witch" plus 1 text of "Chickee Chickee Ma Craney Crow (Hawks and Chickens)")
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 26, "Chickie-Ma-Chickie-Ma-Craney-Crow" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 19, "(Cricky, cracky, craney, crow)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #73, "Chicky, cricky, cranery, crow" (1 text)
Roud #7661
File: R570

Chicken

DESCRIPTION: "Chicken, oh, you chicken, went up in a balloon, Chicken, oh, you chicken, roost behind the moon.... Tell it all to the bad boy, chicken don't roost so high... When they see me coming All round this old plantation, There can't be a chicken seen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: chickens bird technology
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 434, "Chicken" (1 short text)
Roud #11777
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Chicken Don't Roost Too High for Me" (subject)
File: Br434

Chicken and the Bone, The

See Captain Wedderburn's Courtship [Child 46] (File: C046)

Chicken Can Waltz the Gravy Around, A

See Chicken Don't Roost Too High for Me (File: RcCDRTHM)

Chicken Don't Roost Too High for Me

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells chicken not to roost too high, but to come down out of his tree. Sometimes there are other verses about chasing a chicken to kill and eat, but mostly this is a fiddle tune with incidental verses
AUTHOR: Fred Lyons
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (sheet music published)
KEYWORDS: death farming food nonballad animal bird chickens
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #18800
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Tom Collins, "Chicken, You Can't Roost Too High for Me" (OKeh 45140, 1927)
Dixie String Band, "Chicken Don't Roost Too High for Me" (Puritan 9160, n.d. but prob. c. 1926)
Georgia Potlickers, "Chicken, Don't Roost Too High" (Brunswick 595, 1932; rec. 1930; on StuffDreams1)
Earl Johnson & his Clodhoppers, "They Don't Roost Too High for Me" (OKeh 45223, 1928; on Cornshuckers2)
Riley Puckett, "Chicken Don't Roost Too High for Me" (Columbia 150-D, 1924)
Stovepipe #1 [pseud. for Sam Jones] & David Crockett, "A Chicken Can Waltz the Gravy Around" (Columbia 15322-D, 1928; on GoodForWhatAilsYou)
Uncle Tom Collins, "Chicken Can't Roost Too High for Me" (OKeh 45140, 1927)
Henry Whitter, "Chicken Don't Roost Too High for Me" (OKeh 40077, 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There's a Lock on the Chicken House Door" (subject)
cf. "Chicken" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dem Chickens Roost Too High [original sheet music title]
NOTES [29 words]: This barely makes it into the collection, but it's common enough to make it worth listing, if only to differentiate it from the other chicken and chicken-stealing songs. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: RcCDRTHM

Chicken Foot

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Can't dance, chicken foot, Can't dance nothing." Verses may float: "All them girls 'cross the river, Got my heart and part of my liver." "Old Mrs. Tally, I want your daughter, To cut my wood and tote my water." "I'm often drunk and seldom sober"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida; Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: dancing bird chickens floatingverses courting wife work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #139, "Can't Dance Chicken Foot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 142, "Chicken Foot" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5049
File: Morr139

Chicken in de' Bread Tray

See Granny Will Your Dog Bite? (File: Br3158)

Chicken in the Bread Tray

See Granny Will Your Dog Bite? (File: Br3158)

Chicken in the Bread Trough

See Granny Will Your Dog Bite? (File: Br3158)

Chicken McCraney Crow

See Chickee Chickee Ma Craney Crow (Hawks and Chickens) (File: R570)

Chicken Pecking on a Tamborine

DESCRIPTION: "As I went down to a 'tater patch, Tou-rink, dur-ink, fol-dink a-di-de-o... Up jumped an old chicken and she did scratch." "Went to the river and I couldn't get across." "Up jumped an old hen and told me of her dream... chckens a-pecking on a tambourine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad floatingverses river bird chickens dream
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 185, "Chicken Pecking on a Tambourine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11370
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Turkey in the Straw" and all the other floating verse songs ("Went to the river" verse and other floating material)
NOTES [49 words]: Enough of this is found in various versions of "Turkey in the Straw" that I would probably have lumped them if the tune were the same. But it isn't; this has a six-line stanza: First line, nonsense chorus line, first line repeated, two more verse lines, and a second nonsense chorus line." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne185

Chicken Run Fast

DESCRIPTION: "Chicken run fast, chicken run slow, Chicken run past the Methodist preacher, Chicken never run no more." "Turkey run fast, turkey run slow, Turkey run past the Baptist preacher." "Water (?!) run fast... Water run past the Campbellite preacher."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: animal clergy nonballad chickens
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 297, "Chicken Run Fast" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7825
File: R297

Chickens They Are Crowing

DESCRIPTION: Playparty, apparently about a girl who has spent all night with her lover: "Chickens they are crowing, For it's almost daylight." "My father he will scold me...." "My mama will uphold me...." (Others may add other sentiments or warn about boys)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1911 (JAFL28)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting family nightvisit chickens father mother
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph 541, "My Pappy He Will Scold Me" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 269, "The Chickens they are Crowing" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 66, "The Chickens They Are Crowing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #51, "There's Nothing to be Gained by Roving" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 105, "Chickens They Are Crowing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 150-151, "I'm on My Way to Georgy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3650 and 14005
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Won't Go Home Until Morning" (floating lyrics in a few texts)
cf. "Crow, Black Chicken" (words)
NOTES [45 words]: Roud files the Jane Hicks Gentry version of this, which begins, "There's nothing to be gained by roving," as #14005. Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians does not include it with #269.But the plot appears to be the same, and many of the lyrics are identical. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: R541

Chickety, Chickety, Chop

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Chickety, chickety, chop, How many times before I stop?" Presumably followed by a count
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (LaSalle, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | counting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #71, "Chickety, chickety, chop" (1 text)
File: AJRR071

Chickie-Ma-Chickie-Ma-Craney-Crow

See Chickee Chickee Ma Craney Crow (Hawks and Chickens) (File: R570)

Chickie, Chickie Chinaman, Sitting on a Fence

See Chinaman, Chinaman (Ching, Ching, Chinaman) (File: McIn105A)

Chicky, Cricky, Cranery, Crow

See Chickee Chickee Ma Craney Crow (Hawks and Chickens) (File: R570)

Chief Aderholt

DESCRIPTION: "Come all of you good people And listen while I tell The story of Chief Aderholt, The man you all know well." Aderholt is shot in Union Ground. The police imprison and prepare to try labor leaders; the singer calls on hearers to join the union
AUTHOR: Ella May Wiggins
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Greenway), but Wiggins was shot to death in 1929, the year of the events recounted
KEYWORDS: homicide police labor-movement
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1929 - The Gastonia/Loray Strike
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 186-187, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 248, "Chief Aderholt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 241-242, "Chief Aderholt" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _Let's Stand Together: The Story of Ella Mae Wiggins_, Metrolina Chapter, National Organization for Women (Charlotte, NC), 1979, p. 21, "Chief Aderholt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kristina Horton, _Martyr of Loray Mill: Ella May and the 1929 Textile Workers' Strike in Gastonia, North Carolina_, McFarland & Company, 2015, pp. 193-194, "Chief Aderholt" (1 text)
Roud #22302
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Floyd Collins" (tune)
NOTES [8695 words]: This song comes out of the Gastonia Strike of 1929, and the violence that it inspired. Two people would be killed: Police chief Aderholt, the nominal subject of this song, and Ella May (Wiggins), the woman who wrote the song. This entry will start with the story of the Gaston County strike, and Aderholt's death and its aftermath; the story of Ella May will follow.
Weir/Hanlan, p. 89: "The Gastonia Strike was part of a wave of labor struggles that hit the cotton textile industry in North and South Carolina in the spring of 1929. The most famous of these occurred at the Loray Mill in Gastonia, North Carolina, which featured the active involvement of youthful members of the Communist Party of the United States." It is thought to have been the largest Communist-inspired strike in American history (Horton, p. 23).
The South had become a center of textile milling after the Civil War, especially in the decades around 1900. Indeed, by the end of the decade, the South had surpassed the Northeast as the center of American textile production (Wiley, p. 88). The town of Gastonia had seven mills in 1929; the Loray Mill itself had been built in 1900, and the mills had caused the population of the town to grow to 5000 by 1900 (Salmond, pp. 10-11). Bessemer City, where Ella May Wiggins lived, was smaller, but the history was similar.
The Loray Mill derived its name from the two men who founded it, John F. Love and George A. Gray (LOve+gRAY). Love's grandson would eventually found Burlington Industries, which is still around a century later (Horton, p. 54), but Love and Gray by 1904 lost ownership of Loray; by 1919, it was in the hands of absentee owners (Salmond, p. 12).
Incidentally, although it was bought by Firestone in 1935 and was closed down as a factory in 1993, the Loray Mill building is still standing, though it has been rebuilt somewhat to look less grim; you can see it on Google Street View (look for "Loray Mill, Gastonia, NC"). It is one of those apartment-complexes-with-a-few-businesses-on-the-bottom-floor places; it doesn't appear that there is any memorial to its history except one small sign (shown on p. 185 of Horton; pp. 182-183 show the mill shortly before and after restoration).
The first strike against the Loray Mill came in 1919, the year the outsiders took over, but the strike -- and the union -- failed (Salmond, p. 13). And in its aftermath, things got worse. In 1927, Loray became the first mill in North Carolina to use the "stretch-out" -- putting workers on a piece-work basis, making them run more machines, and imposing pay cuts. The new manager cut annual costs by about a half a million dollars -- but he did it by getting rid of 1300 workers, and imposing pay cuts that amounted to 25% to 50% on the rest (Salmond, p. 14). In 1929, after all those changes, Loray had 2200 workers, and some 8000 people lived in its mill village (Horton, p. 55). Regular workers were expected to work between 60 and 66 hours per week, for pay of about $13. (this was about half the national average wage) -- and "spare hands" earned only about half of that too-low wage (Wiley, p. 88). Women and children were paid even less, with no greater protection (Horton, p. 58). By 1928, small, spontaneous labor actions were common (Salmond, pp. 14-15).
A new union, the National Textile Workers Union, affiliated with the Communist Party, had been formed in September 1928, with the goal of replacing an AFL-affiliated union with one that was more radical and aligned with the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, it was based in the North and didn't understand southerners very well (the northern organizers often came South and found the locals so hard to deal with that they fled back north; Salmond, p. 35, and those atheistic communists of course didn't understand southern religion; Salmond, pp.. 39-40). Despite that, the Party decided that southern mills would be the best place to organize (Horton, pp. 60-61. Economically, they were right; socially, they weren't). It was part of a new policy by the Communists of taking radical action rather than trying to gradually change things from within. (Later, the national party's insistence on party-building end political education rather than supporting the strike probably contributed to the strike's failure; Salmond, p. 28. Also, a lot of the older residents seem to have disapproved of the allegedly loose and/or un-feminine behavior of the young strikers and their supporters; Salmond, pp. 30-31). The NTWU sent a 33-year-old named Fred Beal, who as a teenager had heard Big Bill Haywood talk about the socialist ideals of the IWW, to encourage labor actions in North Carolina (Horton, pp. 61-62; there is a picture of Beal on p. 62; Baker, p. 73, quotes how Haywood showed Beal information about the 1912 Lawrence strike associated with "Bread and Roses").
Beal arrived in Gastonia at the beginning of 1929 (Horton, p. 63) and began organizing. There was a meeting on March 30 (Horton, p. 66) -- and the mine owners immediately started firing those who attended (Horton, p. 67). The Union wasn't ready for a strike -- they hadn't made plans, hadn't trained the employees about picketing, and didn't have much of a strike fund -- but if they didn't act at once, they would lose all their power. So they called a strike meeting that very day -- and it supposedly voted unanimously to walk out (Salmond, pp. 20-23). "The evening of April Fool's Day, 1929, the night shift didn't enter the Loray Mill and more than half of the 2,200 employees were on strike" (Horton, p. 69). The organizers didn't even have demands yet, but they presented a list on April 3.
The demands would frankly have made the mill uncompetitive -- the workers wanted a pay raise, a forty hour week, and didn't want a time clock; they also wanted equal pay for women, better working conditions in the factory and in the company towns (Horton, p. 69) -- plus recognition of the union (Salmond, p. 23). The company couldn't have done all of it -- but ownership didn't even seem willing to talk. (This even though they had infiltrated the strike committee and could know most of its plans; Salmond, p. 24.) And the local newspaper, the Gastonia Gazette, thundered against the union and against communism -- but by doing so, let the rest of the area know just how bad conditions were at Loray; it increased the level of activism at other mills (Horton, pp. 76-77).
The owners called on the governor (who himself had a stake in the mills, according to LetsStandTogether, p. 11), who brought in the National Guard to end the picketing (Salmond, pp. 24-25, who describes the minor violence that arose when the Guard deployed. There is a striking image on p. 25 of Salmond of a guardsman in a World War I-type uniform and a gun with a fixed bayonet in a physical confrontation with two much smaller women; Horton, p. 80, has a photo of half a dozen soldiers with what looks like a light artillery piece). Gastonia police chief Orville Aderholt also joined the request (Horton, p. 79). Apparently there were about 250 guardsmen active, with a general in command (Horton, p. 79).
The strike organizers tried hard to keep things peaceful (they even used primarily women on the picket line so as to seem less threatening; Horton, p. 84) and to keep their supporters from going armed -- but this was the American South. Often, the strikers went armed despite what the leaders wanted (Horton, p. 83).
On April 15, the Loray strike broadened to include Bessemer City (Horton, p. 88). The Bessemer City strike wasn't a very successful action; production was only "briefly" crippled, though the Bessemer strikers did provide some support for those at Loray. "Most important of all, the strike at the American Mill drew into the Gastonia story its most famous figure -- its balladeer and martyr, Ella May Wiggins" (Salmond, p. 50).
With the Guard in place, the situation on the ground was so bad that the NTWU felt they had to guard their headquarters and the supplies there day and night (Salmond, p. 41). On April 17-18, someone attacked their headquarters, destroying a wooden building and tossing out or ruining the supplies kept in a brick building that wa too strong to destroy, before disappearing again (Salmond, p. 41-42). This may have been the first act of a group that was known as the Committee of 100, a semi-official group whose formal role was simply to decide which mill workers were trustworthy (Horton, p. 87; Salmond, p. 44) but which in fact engaged clandestinely against the strikers; it "became the focal point of acts of violence against the strikers"; it took the place of the National Guard when they went home (Salmond, p. 43). For this reason, it was sometimes known as the "Black Hundred."
The unofficial head of the Committee was one Major A. L. Bulwinkle (Salmond, p. 44), a former congressman who had helped organize the local American Legion post after coming home from service in World War I (Salmond, p. 37); he had also served the mill bosses as a lawyer. As the National Guard left, he recruited Legionnaires to police the area (Horton, p. 88).
Interestingly, the National Guard had a camp only about a tenth of a mile away from the NTWU headquarters that were attacked, but they claimed not to have seen or heard any of what happened; certainly they did not intervene (Horton, p. 89). None of the attackers was ever arrested; instead, the people guarding the building were charged with destroying their own property! At the same time, an anti-parade ordinance was passed to control the strikers' picketing and demonstrations (Horton, p. 90).
After this, a committee, including Ella, went to Washington to testify about conditions in Gastonia (Horton, pp. 100-101, with a photo on p. 101 of those who made the visit), but little came of that -- except that one of Ella's comments, about having to lock up her children at home at night for lack of a better way to care for them, made national headlines (Salmond, pp. 57-59).
The strike did not fail all at once, but since the strikers had little savings and the Union wasn't supplying much support, workers were soon going back to work: "Only three weeks into the strike, the Gastonia Gazette was reporting that production at the Loray Mill was almost back to normal" (Horton, p. 92; cf. Salmond, p. 68). Certain of the most radical workers, however, were blacklisted; Ella was probably one of them, and certainly she stayed on the picket line (Horton, p. 93).
On May 6, with production close to normal, the mill owners started to evict the mill workers who were still on strike from their company housing (Salmond, p. 56). Thirty families were evicted on that first day; eventually the number reached about two hundred families -- a thousand people (Horton, pp. 108-109).
Meanwhile, the NTWU started to rebuild its headquarters -- and, by the end of May, was posting armed guards. And people around the headquarters sometimes accosted people in the streets, which bothered the local police (Salmond, p. 64). Although the strike was functionally over, the NTWU hoped to get the workers to walk out again on June 7 (Horton, pp. 112-113).
It's a little unclear what happened next. Did the mill owners plan a raid? Or was it just that a couple of drunk anti-union policemen, Gilbert and Roach, decided to act against the union camp? (Horton, pp. 114-115). Whatever happened, there was a fight (Salmond, p. 72) -- and Chief Aderholt and the police were either involved or came to try to stop the fighting.
"In May Chief Aderholt of the Gastonia police department raided the tent colony with several deputies, some of them alleged to have been drunk. The strike guards demanded a search warrant. The deputies tried to disarm the guards. [It seems likely that Gilbert, who was among them, said he didn't need a warrant; Salmond, p. 72.] Shots rang out. When the smoke cleared, two policemen were slightly wounded, one striker was seriously hurt, Chief Aderholt was dying. Cash notes reason to believe he was killed 'by a gun in the hand of one of his own officers'" (Joyner, pp. 21-22; compare Salmond, pp. 73).
Aderholt, unlike most of those who fought against the strikers, seems to have been an honest and respected officer (Horton, p. 113). He had been a member of the police for 19 years, and the chief for seven. "A tall, gaunt man who was easily recognizable by the large black hat he always wore, he had treated the strikers reasonably decently and, indeed, may have gone to the union hall mainly to keep an eye on Gilbert and Roach. If so, he paid dearly for his sense of duty. The Gastonia community and the Loray management now had their own martyr" (Salmond, pp. 73-74). He was shot in the back and lungs, and died in hospital the next day (Horton, p. 115). The defense would eventually use this as an argument that he was shot by his own men, and would also argue that he was shot by a shotgun, which was a weapon carried only by one man, one of the attackers (Salmond, p. 146). Indeed, it has been suggested that this man, Adam Hord, killed him deliberately because he wanted Aderholt's job (Salmond, pp. 149-150). But it sounds as if no one performed enough of an autopsy to demonstrate the nature of the deadly weapon; Salmond, p. 150, says that the truth can no longer be known, and I strongly suspect he's right.
There is a cropped photo of Aderholt on p. 114 of Horton, and Salmond, p. 73, has what I think is the uncropped photo, showing him with a National Guard officer.
"When news of Chief of Police Aderholt's death came on the following day, excitement in Gastonia reached fever pitch. Beal narrowly escaped lynching. The dead chief became a symbol of a community outraged. The [Gastonia] Gazette sponsored a fund for his family and demanded vengeance. Editorials on the day after the shooting called for the immediate expulsion of all Communists in the vicinity" (Pope, pp. 271-272). Reports claimed that 6000 people attended his funeral (Pope, p. 272).
In the aftermath, about seventy people were detained. 23 would be charged with crimes: 16 with murder and assault and seven with just assault. Eventually the case proceeded against 13: ten men accused of first degree murder and three women with second degree (it sounds as if the charges against the women were downgraded because the prosecution didn't like the publicity; Salmond, p. 101 -- and the women were glad to be released on bond and get out of the South). Among those initially charged were Fred Beal and several others from the national Communist party (Horton, p. 119). The men were all housed together in difficult conditions; the women were also together, although their conditions were better; the jailer is said to have treated them as well as he could (Salmond, pp. 89-91). But the jailer couldn't get them a fair trial.
In the aftermath of the Aderholt raid, the role of the Bessemer City strikers increased as the NTWU , or what was left of it, directed more of its efforts there there (Salmond, p. 80), and Ella suddenly became a major focus of attention (Horton, p. 119).
Not everyone initially accused went to trial, but over a dozen strikers were eventually tried for murder in the Aderholt case, out of hundreds arrested. Thirteen faced capital charges. The trial was held in Charlotte to avoid the tensions in Gastonia (LetsStandTogether, p. 12; Horton, pp. 122-123, who adds that the judge was carefully chosen by the governor because of his relative objectivity; Salmond, p. 101, describes the circus atmosphere that cause Judge Barnhill to move the trial). They had to examine 408 potential jurors to seat a jury (Pope, p. 289); because there were 13 defendants, the defense was allowed 168 peremptory strikes (Salmond, p. 115). The prosecution was truly a massive effort; sixteen lawyers were involved, including Major Bulwinkle of the Committee of 100 (Horton, p. 124). And the Party wasn't always very helpful to the defense; the International Labor Defense (ILD), the main party legal organization, was more interested in propaganda than saving the defendants, and often put out very un-helpful statements and organized mass demonstrations that offended many locals. This caused at least one defense lawyer to quit (Salmond, pp. 94-95). And it didn't pay on time, if at all (Salmond, p. 152), which led to problems with the appeals process and bailing out and all sorts of things. The defense also had internal disputes about what course to take (Salmond, p. 115).
The ACLU eventually started supporting the legal defense, but there simply weren't enough lawyers to fight the legal hordes retained by the mills and the local governments (Salmond, pp. 84-85; on p. 91 he reports that the defense had just five lawyers, meaning they were out-lawyered by more than three to one. And lead lawyer Tom JImison had been threatened with lynching; Salmond, p. 123. He didn't let it stop him, but it must have influenced him).
Despite the relatively honest judge, the prosecutors were allowed to build a clear bias against the defendants -- e.g. the defendants were asked about their religious beliefs, over defense objections. Most of them being orthodox Communists, they had to admit to atheism (Salmond, pp. 86-87). Clearly this was intended to prejudice the religious bigots on the jury (which was probably all of them) against the defendants. Salmond, p. 87, points out parallels to the Scopes Trial. Many noted parallels to the Sacco-Vanzetti trial as well (Salmond, p. 93), although that was probably not a good thing to publicize in the South!
In fact, under North Carolina law, non-Christians were not competent to bear witness (Salmond, p. 136) -- a law that we would declare patently unconsitutional today (and, indeed, some Carolina judges dd at the time; Salmond, p. 151), but the Constitution only matters when someone is willing to enforce it! But this essentially declared testimony from all the NTWU organizers unusable, and the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld the law during the appeals process (Salmond, p. 167).
The first trial resulted in a mistrial when a juror had to be removed-- according to LetsStandTogether, p. 12, he "went insane after the chief prosecutor displayed an effigy of Aderholt in the courtroom." (In fact it was a wax model dressed in Aderholt's blood-stained clothes -- a deliberate piece of theater inspired a movie; Pope, p. 290; Horton, p. 125, adds that the judge refused to allow the prosecution to use the thing, although he allowed them to show the clothing; Salmond, p. 117. On p. 126, Horton shows the juror being forcibly restrained and isolated. The juror had been quite amusing during jury selection; apparently no one realized that these were potential symptoms of mental illness; Salmond, pp. 116-117. The juror did not immediately go insane upon display of the effigy, but the defense declared the gimmick to be the cause of his problems; Salmond, p. 121).
The mistrial may have harmed the defense; the prosecution witnesses were all Loray employees with stories that sounded suspiciously similar (Salmond, p. 118). All had to admit that they did not know who had shot Aderholt (Salmond, p. 119). Several jurors said afterward that the evidence to that point inclined them toward acquittal, and most defense lawyers felt they would have been cleared; the testimony was that no one knew who shot whom (Pope, p. 290; Horton, p. 126). Some thought, too, that the prosecution, given a do-over, learned from the first trial did and didn't work, and so was able to offer a better case the second time (Salmond, p. 137).
The prosecution also decided to drop the cases against the three women and all but seven of the men. This was a sound tactical move -- since the charges were political anyway, they didn't care who they convicted, as long as they convicted someone. And, by having just seven defendants, it meant that the defense was allowed just 28 peremptory challenges of potential jurors, so the prosecution could get a jury much more to its liking (Salmond, p. 138). And the Communist Party, faction-riven and frankly too dumb to succeed, is thought by many to have coached its witnesses (who were not themselves on trial, note) to spout party propaganda rather than offer testimony best suited to clear the defendants (Salmond, p. 145). After the trial, it would kick out several of its appointed local leaders out of the party (Salmond, p. 174); the internal politics of the Communist party was one of the most disgusting things in the whole case.
After the mistrial was declared, the violence, which had been relatively mild during the court case, started up again (Pope, p. 290); raids on the union offices and camps continued, with workers beaten and kidnapped and the office itself being blown up (LetsStandTogether, p. 12; Horton, p. 127). During it, a party of toughs stopped a vehicle carrying Union organizers, and Ella was shot (more on this below, in the biography of Ella).
Ella was the only person other than Aderholt to die by violence in the Gastonia struggles (it is truly ironic that the only death resulting from the strike were of good people; the toughs on both sides survived). But her death didn't end the violence; the very next day, a union supporter was abducted and brutally beaten (Salmond, p.133). Pope, p. 293, calls what followed a ten day "reign of terror." On September 20, the Communist party and the NTWU gave up and suspended activities. By September 27, all the outsiders were gone (Pope, p. 293; Horton, p. 161).
On October 21, the seven men still on trial for Aderholt's murder were convicted; the jury needed only an hour to reach its decision (Salmond, p. 148) -- though the judge reduced the sentence from first degree murder to second degree, so none of them were executed (Horton, p. 184). The sentences the judge handed down were still harsh: Beal and three others received sentenced of 17-20 years, and even the lightest sentence was five to seven year (Salmond, p. 148). Given that there was clearly reasonable doubt that they had even killed Aderholt, it appears that being a Communist from outside of North Carolina was a crime deserving twelve years or so.
At this stage, the ILD's failure to function effectively was shown in sharp relief: Bail was available for the prisoners pending appeal, but the money wasn't available because the lawyers hadn't been paid. It was months before all the prisoners were out -- and in the meantime, lawyers and prisoners and Communist Party organs attacked each other. "It was a sad, bitter ending to what had started in April as a genuine attempt to provide assistance for an exploited and harassed group" (Salmond, p. 153). The lawyers weren't entirely blameless, but I think the bottom line is that the Communist Party had failed everyone at every level.
Eventually released on bond pending appeal, the defendants fled to Russia rather than see the case through to the end (Horton, p. 164); whlie the Soviet Union was hardly a good place to go, I suspect they were right to not trust the North Carolina appeals court.
Fred Beal would grow so disillusioned in the Soviet Union that he returned to the United States and went to prison rather than continue as a Communist (Horton, p. 165. Salmond, pp. 168-169, tells us that he claimed he never wanted to leave the U.S., and actually headed back upon arriving in Russia, prepared to serve his sentence once his appeal failed, but was convinced to go to the Soviet Union after all). He was taken into custody on February 16, 1938, and between a partial commutation of his sentence and parole, he was allowed to leave prison in January 1942. He died in 1954 (Salmond, p. 172). Apparently little is known of the others who defected, who stayed in the Soviet Union; there seem to have been various rumors, but nothing publicly confirmed (Salmond, p. 173).
That left the issue of those accused of killing Ella. Seven men were initially charged (Horton, p. 162). One of these, Horace Wheelus, is the man thought most likely to have fired the fatal shot (Horton, p. 163. He was easy to identify, since he had a deformed left hand -- and he was said to have tried to hide it in court; Salmond, p. 159; and scrambled hard to create an alibi; Salmond, p. 166. Curiously, there were deathbed confessions from others; Salmond, p. 166). But a Grand Jury refused to indict them (Salmond, p. 155). For once, the national indignation about the events in Gastonia provoked a response. The governor intervened; new investigators came in, and a new case was brought (Horton, pp. 165-166). The mill owners again bailed out their lackeys, to the tune of $37,500; Salmond, p. 159 -- in other words, enough to raise every striker's pay by about a dollar a week, or 10%, for three to four months). The ILD and the Communist Party played no part in this -- indeed, the Party didn't even want to cover it in the Daily Worker -- so what little help there was for the prosecution came from the ACLU (Salmond, pp. 159-160). This lack of funds was unfortunate, because a lot of important witnesses seemed to have faded from sight (Salmond, pp. 160-161).
The trial began February 24, 1930 (Salmond, p. 163). The prosecution -- which was led by the state's attorney general Dennis G. Brummitt! (Salmond, p. 162) -- was still hampered by the absence of key witnesses, but there were many, including Ella's lover Charlie Shope, who testified.
The defense spent much of its effort portraying Ella as godless, a communist, and a believer in racial equality (Horton, p. 166). It worked. On March 6, after less than an hour's deliberations, the jury acquitted all the defendants (Horton, p. 169), even though there is no serious question but that they were present at the murder; even if none of them fired the fatal shot, they were involved in a felonious assault in which someone died.
"Communism versus Americanism -- that was the issue of the Wiggins trial, as it had been throughout the year in Gastonia. The jury took less than thirty minutes to find all the defendants not guilty... [O]ne of the jurors explained why[:] The attorney general 'just didn't have witnesses that we could rely on,' he said. [Attorney general] Brummitt, for one, knew that perfectly well. After his closing argument, he had left the courtroom without waiting for the verdict. But 'unlike the local authorities,' wrote Fleet Williams [of the Raleigh News and Observer], Brummitt could hold his head up high. He had done all he could 'to secure exact justice" (Salmond, p. 165).
Pope, p. 295, writes, "The Wiggins trial ended the long series of criminal actions growing out of the Gastonia strikes, though several appeals were still pending. A North Carolina newspaperman wrote in summary: 'In every case where strikers were put on trial strikers were convicted; in not one case where anti-unionists or officers were accused has there been a conviction.'"
Workers managed to secure slightly shorter hours and an end to night work, but the NTWU failed and nothing replaced it (Weir/Hanlan, p. 188) -- indeed, after some mills imposed another pay cut in 1930 and the NTWU tried to return to Gaston County, "Striking workers seized the NTWU men and unceremoniously ran them out of town" (Salmond, p. 180). Joyner, p. 22, thinks the Communist Party misunderstood what was going on, and left the union to fail and Beal to face charges from the local authorities. Beal, thinking (probably correctly) that he could not get justice, fled to Russia.
In hindsight, it seems clear that the textile workers needed a union, and they needed collective action -- but the Communists completely blew it. Had they taken their time, gotten to know the people, and built a real union, they might possibly have been able to succeed. But they called the strike too soon, they insisted on wasting their time on Communist doctrine that Southerners rejected without thought, they antagonized the locals, and they had no understanding of the situation. In the end, it's likely they did more harm than good.
Fred Beal wrote a book about Gastonia, but it's listed as published in Moscow and is called "Proletarian Journey," so it perhaps has a little bias. There is also Pope's study, which is well-respected but which devotes much of its content to religion and the history of churches. Margaret Larkin wrote extensively about Ella and about Gastonia, but it all appeared in periodicals (including The Nation) rather than book form. Salmond is probably the best available book on Gastonia, and Horton is the only real book about Ella.
Salmond, p. 188( lists six novels that were written in the five years after the Gastonia strike based on the events there, but many were highly polemic and none of them had much acclaim or long-lasting success; some (based on searches of used bookstore sites) seem to have all but disappeared. Certainly you aren't likely to find them on the average library shelf.
There is a memorial marker to Aderholt, shown on p. 186 of Horton, and a memorial bridge.
In the aftermath of all this, Bulwinkle -- the lawyer who probably led the Committee of One Hundred and certainly led the prosecution of the accused strikers -- was re-elected to congress in 1930, running largely on the basis of his Gastonia success. It is a sad commentary on history that one of those he defeated in the primary was Tom Jimison, the most important defense lawyer (Salmond, p. 175).
This is one of the many songs by Ella May Wiggins about the strike. Note that it says relatively little about Aderholt and his death, and much about the trial of those accused of killing him -- it's not an anti-Aderholt song, it's a song demanding a fair trial. It uses the tune of "Floyd Collins" [Laws G22], and Horton, p. 136, notes how Ella converted the line "We'll never, no, we'll never let Floyd Collins die" into "We'll never, no, we'll never let our leaders die." This is not atypical of Ella's songs; like the early Bob Dylan, she often took an element of the song she was parodying and worked it into her rewrite.
There is a capsule biography of Ella, who was killed September 14, 1929 at the age of 29 (very possibly at the instigation of Loray mine owner Manville Jenckes), in Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 244-247. There were many witnesses to the murder, but no one ever went on trial.
In 1979, a booklet was published to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Wiggins's death, Let's Stand Together: The Story of Ella Mae Wiggins; here cited as LetsStandTogether. It's no longer easy to find -- and probably not worth the effort; although it has a very short biography of Wiggins and a few quotes from those who knew her, most of it is rhetoric on behalf of women's rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, and organized labor -- good causes, but not really relevant to Wiggins or her time. Wiley Cash's novel The Last Ballad is said by Wikipedia to have been "inspired" by her life; there are other fictionalized accounts. The primary biography is Horton's (written by a great-granddaughter of Wiggins), which has the benefit of family knowledge but the disadvantage of a severe lack of objectivity (and a severe lack of the ability to write coherently).
The spelling "Ella Mae Wiggins" found in LetsStandTogether occurs elsewhere also -- including on her tombstone -- but is incorrect; the correct form is "Ella May Wiggins." Horton, p. 27, explains that her maiden name was "May"; she became "Ella May Wiggins" when she married. After her husband left her, she often signed herself simply "Ella May" again (Horton, p. 48) -- Horton, p. 94, has a note with her signature which clearly reads "Ella May," and on p. 82 prints her union card, which also reads "Ella May."
Green, p. 78, refers to Wiggins as "the tragic martyr and song maker of the 1929 Gastonia strike." On p. 79, they quote a verse of this song as an example of Wiggins' work.
Horton, p. 21, opens its description of her by saying, "She demonstrated native intelligence and raw talent. She picketed on the line, sang at union gatherings, and at times would speak to the masses... in the pre-Depression era, within her own community she was considered a woman of ill repute. She spoke her mind against authority; she was brash, blunt, and did not follow the socially accepted behavior of a woman. She was associated with rabble-rousing and threatening the very livelihood of her neighbors. She intermingled with those outside her own race." And, of course, she spent her time with communists.
Horton, p. 30, says she was born September 17, 1900 in Sevierville, Tennessee, near the border with North Carolina. Her mother Catherine Maples May was just sixteen, of Cherokee heritage; her father James May was already thirty years old and already had children by another partner. The story of the Wiggins children was tragic; Ella's younger brother Wesley accidentally shot a still younger brother, Lum, to death in 1914. Another younger sister, Hattie, died at age four of hookworm (a disease that would also afflict Ella's daughter Millie, and probably her other children as well).
The May family initially lived by farming (Horton, p. 31), but in 1910 James May took a lumbering job. and the family started moving around with the lumber camps (Horton, pp. 31-32). Ella supposedly sang in the lumber camps -- Horton, p. 32, says she sang "Little Mary Phagan" (which was a very new song at the time; one wonders where she learned it), "Lord Lovell," and "Fair Margaret and Sweet William." (I find it somewhat ironic that she sang about Mary Phagan, who was almost exactly the same age as Ella, and both worked at a time when most women did not, and both died of violence in a work-related situation, and in neither case was the guilty party punished.) Margaret Larkin (who heard her just once, while visiting the strikers, and as a result started collecting her work; Salmond, p. 113) wrote "She had a clear, true tone in her untaught voice. She sang from the chest. Full throated, unmodulated, her voice rang out in the simple monotonous tunes" (Horton, p. 135). There are also several references to her playing guitar, although it is not clear how she could have afforded one.
Ella's marital situation somewhat resembled her mother's: an older husband who already had a child. John Wiggins was seven years older than Ella and had a three-year-old named Lula, whose mother had died in childbirth. Ella and John married around 1917; their first child, Myrtle, was born in a logging camp in 1918 (Horton, p. 33. The same page has a photo of a group of men including John Wiggins). The next year, her father died when a tree fell on him (Horton, pp. 33-34), causing Ella's mother and brother to move in with Ella and John. But her mother died of a kidney ailment in 1920 (Horton, p. 34), she would have been only about 36 years old. Then John Wiggins suffered a logging accident which crushed his leg, making it hard for him to continue as a lumberman. Plus the logging companies had cleared out the area; there was little work left for him. He supposedly disappeared for long periods of time, or turned up drunk, doing little for the family except getting Ella pregnant again and again (Horton, pp. 34-35). Some people who knew him called him a "ne'er-do-well" (Salmond, p. 50).
LetsStandTogether, p. 7, opens its biography of Wiggins by saying, "Like many millhands, Ella Mae Wiggins came to Gaston County seeking a better life. She came from the mountains near the North Carolina-Tennessee line near Bryson City. Her father was a logger, but times were hard and there was no future in the hills. In the early 1920's, she, her husband, John, and their three children settled in Bessemer City, near Gastonia. But the measly salary of $8 a week was not enough to feed the family. Her husband deserted her, now with nine children to support."
It wasn't quite that simple. Ella didn't go directly to Bessemer City. Ella spent some time working on a plantation before she arrived in the mills; Horton, p. 36, and tried her luck at several mills in her short period as a mill worker (Horton, p. 37).
Also, John Wiggins still turned up from time to time -- but he didn't supply any money. Ella never formally divorced him, but eventually she stopped using his name, and started spending time with a man named Charlie Shope (Horton, p. 35). There is a picture of her with Shope on p. 49. It appears Shope, not Wiggins, fathered her youngest child -- indeed, the birth certificate apparently agreed with that -- and he apparently had gotten her pregnant when she died; Horton, p. 49. (Ella doesn't seem to have had much judgment in men; Wiggins was a drunk, and the children said Shope was mean; Horton, p. 49. On the other hand, he had enough money to buy a car; Horton, p. 78. It fascinated Ella enough that she drove it when he was away -- and crashed it.)
Four of her nine children died young. Ella once told a crowd they all died of whooping cough, because she had no money for medical assistance. The mill supervisor wouldn't even let her change her shift to better care for them (Wiley, p. 93; Horton, p. 83). The children did die, of course, but Ella was oversimplifying (to give it the most generous interpretation). The situation as described on p. 37 of Horton is more complicated; the children did not die all at once, and not all of whooping cough. Two -- possibly twins -- died in Cowpens, South Carolina, the first mill where she worked; at least one (and probably both, if they were twins) died shortly after birth. Another child died after she arrived in Gaston County; Millie, of the surviving children thought this was a girl named Thelma. And a boy named Guy, born 1925, died in 1927 of pellegra. (Supporting evidence for this comes from surviving photos of the children. All have extremely short hair -- evidence that Ella was trying to do something about their skin rashes.) In America. In 1927. Although the cause of pellegra (niacin deficiency) was not discovered for another decade, it would take an extraordinarily poor diet to explain that! Nonetheless the children did suffer many diseases as well; Millie Wiggins is reported to have had diptheria, measles, chicken pox, and whooping cough in 1926-1927, in addition to hookworm. Plus malnutrition from having bad food and not enough of it (Horton, p. 51). They had poor clothes and no shoes (Horton, p. 52). They were so ill-clad that Ella would not send them to school (Horton, p. 52).
All that unconventional activity caused her to develop a bad reputation (Salmond, p. 51) -- understandable, by the standards of the time. She simply didn't fit the conventional society of rural North Carolina.
So Ella became a radical (LetsStandTogether, pp. 7-8) -- which meant that the mills often weren't interested in keeping her on despite their need for workers (Horton, p. 38) -- which perhaps explains how she ended up working at the American Mill #2; the working conditions there were reportedly the worst in the state (Horton, p. 46; Salmond, p. 51), and it was the one which suffered the most strikes (Horton, p. 53), so it was the place where the workers rejected by other mills would end up. She also lived farther from the mill than most workers because the housing there was cheaper (Horton, p. 47). She was truly radical, for a southern woman: She actually turned to Blacks, who were subjected to even worse conditions than the White workers, to try to form a common front. (The NTWU wanted to include the Backs, but no one local -- Black or white -- wanted to have the races mix. The Blacks wouldn't go near the NTWU organizers. It seems that only Ella could get them to listen; Salmond, pp. 65-66.)
Unfortunately, the Communists' willingness to treat Blacks as human beings probably hurt the strike (Horton, p. 95); the millhands might have been worked like slaves for pay little better than slaves, but at least they thought themselves better than those n****ers -- and crossed the picket line rather than see Blacks succeed alongside them. The White strikers disliked even songs like "Solidarity Forever," sung as it was to the objectionable tune of "John Brown's Body" (Salmond, pp. 61-62). But Ella treated people as people.
"Early in the strike Ella May became involved with the NTWU. Ella was not a regular speaker at the meetings in the beginning. However, Ella was a regular attendee, both at Bessemer City [her home] and Gastonia. She would stand to the side, listen t the speakers, and observe the crowd.... Se would often chew tobacco while attentively watching others speak. Unlike many of the single young women, she did not appear to primp herself prior to meetings. In fact, despite her youthful age of twenty-eight she looked older, won, and thin. Her plump belly, which contained her unborn child, stuck out against her petite frame. She often held her youngest baby Charlotte in her arms as she listened to strike organizers and fellow workers. While she did not always speak, she did always seem to have a song ready. After union business was done she would perform for the strikers" (Horton, p. 81).
Her role increased as more leaders were locked up (Horton, p. 136); she started giving speeches as well as singing -- though apparently she embroidered her facts sometimes (Horton, p. 83).
Her reward was reportedly that someone poisoned the spring where she got her water (LetsStandTogether, p. 9; Horton, p. 112, adds that the man who probably did it was caught trying to poison the strikers' camp, but was bailed out by the mill owners and never punished). And she spent time in prison; some of her songs were apparently written there (Horton, p. 84). It appears she wrote many more songs than have survived; she apparently worked on material almost every day, and would often be called upon to sing something in her "deep, resonant voice" at union meetings (Salmond, p. 61).
It is reported that someone attacked and raped Ella's 11-year-old daughter Myrtle in this period (Horton, pp. 111-112). I would not automatically assume this was an intimidation tactic, but it shows how the extent to which the forces of "law and order" felt entitled to attack the strike leaders. Clearly the man who did it thought he could get away with it.
After the Gastonia Strike was failing, and after the death of Aderholt, Wiggins helped organize a truckload of workers to go to a rally (LetsStandTogether, pp. 12-13). "On September 14, 1929, Ella and about twenty other Bessemer City union members prepared to travel seven miles east to South Gastonia. The NTWU had planned a rally.... [and] the Bessemer City group did not realize it had been canceled due to fear of retribution by the Committee of 100" (Horton, p. 147).
"Two dozen or so Bessemer City NTWU mambers gathered at their Bessemer City union headquarters. Ella, seven months pregnant, her lover Charlie, her brother Wesley, and the other NTWU members climbed aboard the bed of a rented pickup truck. Some men in the group wanted to bring guns for protection.... Ella was the one who convinced the men in the truck to travel unarmed" (Horton, p. 149).
The truck was stopped by an armed force. The truck driver, a hired man, accepted the guards' order to turn back (Horton, p. 149). The truck turned around -- and was pursued by several vehicles. One got in front of it; the truck and this other vehicle collided. Vera Buch Weisbord quoted Wiggins's cousin Charley's account of what came next (quoted on p. 13 of LetsStandTogether):
"[T]his Essex coach run right around the front o' us an' we collided with it. So we was stopped an' it was then that Ella Mae was standin' at the railin' of the truck leanin' against it, an' a man come up not fifteen feet away and raised a gun an' fired at her.
"She turned to me an' said, 'O my Lord, they've done shot and killed me.' I caught her in my arms and Ella died right then. They shot her through the heart and killed her." [N.B. the orthography -- in particular, the alternation between "an'" and "and" -- is in the original!]
Of course, that's just one person's account, and other witnesses differed. But there is no question: Ella was shot at the site of the collision. The bullet ruptured her aorta and lodged in her spine (Salmon, p. 128); she died within seconds.
Supposedly dozens of shots were fired thereafter, but there were only a few other injuries and no other deaths (Horton, p. 150).
When Ella did not come home that night, the children went to a black neighbor -- who knew what had happened and told them. Only Myrtle, the oldest, had any real possibility of understanding what had happened, and none of them knew what to do; they simply turned around and returned home. Charlie Shope, Ella's lover, who was there when she was killed said he came to them -- but didn't stick around long. It was the undertaker who handled Ella's body, Frank Sisk, who first took in the children (Horton, p. 151).
Ella was buried in a $10 grave, without a marker; it was feared that it would be vandalized if one were set up (Horton, p. 156); it was not until 1977 that a proper headstone was set up (Horton, p. 177, with a photo on p. 180). The children were in borrowed clothes (Horton, p. 157, with a photo on p. 158). They sang Ella's "Mill Mother's Lament" over her grave.
Her five surviving children ended up in orphanages (LetsStandTogether, p. 14); although the NTWU organizers wanted to take them in, no one in the mill country wanted them to fall into the hands of northern Communists (Horton, p. 157; given the propaganda mills the Party ran at that time, was probably wise). The children were better off than they had been with their mother, but apparently felt isolated and mistreated; Myrtle the eldest, at least, seems to have missed her mother dearly (Horton, pp. 157-158; there are photos of the four older children at the orphanage on p. 159). At times they were abused. When they visited their relatives, things often weren't much better (Horton, p. 160). All apparently suffered severe symptoms of anxiety and fear.
II is a sad and astonishing commentary on the way American politics works that Wiggins's children wound up being vigorously anti-union, and on the fiftieth anniversary of her death spoke against unions (Green, p. 80); in 1977, when Ella was commemorated by various unions, Millie, the second surviving daughter (and Horton's grandmother), thought the unions were exploiting her mother's memory (Horton, p. 178). Her brother Wesley also skipped the event (Horton, p. 179).
"For the mill faction, Ella May's death did settle the score, and things could and did get back to normal. For the strikers, Ella May's death confirmed the brutality of their oppressors and, in the manner of that confirmation, unsinewed their resolve. As the fall of 1929 wore on, the striking mill mothers and their children went back to mill life, their singing resistance and hope for a better life a memory."
(Ironic that, half a century later, their grandchildren were mourning the loss of the mills, as recounted, e.g., in Si Kahn's "Aragon Mill.")
Ella's death caused enough of a stink that the governor actually ordered it to be looked into -- and quickly. Seven men were arrested; the mill manager promptly bailed them out (Salmond, pp. 128-129).
"The Grand Jury, which met in Gastonia on January 13, 1930, had more than 60 witnesses willing to testify to the crime. One positively identified the killer. Indictments were returned against five Loray Mill workers. On March 6, 1930, however, they were all acquitted" (LetsStandTogether, p. 13. However, Salmond, p. 66, says "There is simply no evidence one way or another about who was responsible for May's death, and why." Horton, p. 154, admits the lack of certainty but thinks it "more likely that the shooter knew exactly what he was doing and who he was doing it to." It seems nearly certain that it was deliberate murder, although I don't think it certain that the murderer knew the identity of the person he shot. Vera Buch suggested that Ella was killed for a personal reason rather than he labor work as such: because she had reached out to Blacks; Horton, p. 155).
There is now an "Ella May Wiggins Memorial Committee"; their web site is ellamaywiggins.com. It has texts (but not tune references or music) for many of her songs.
The American Mill #2, where Ella worked, was still standing as of 2013; it had by then become the Dawn Processing plant. Dawn Processing still exists in Bessemer City in 2021; the listed address is 205 E Alabama Avenue (corner of Alabama Avenue and 11th Street), but it looks fairly decrepit and shows no signs of its history in the Google Street View photos.
It's interesting to ask whether there has been any folk processing between the Burt-AmericanMurderBallads and Greenway versions. The tunes differ by only a single note, and the lyrics by only a single word; either might have been a printing error. But they are ever so slightly different.
Wiley, p. 90 says that twelve songs from the strike survive in print, though he is sure there were others. All are new texts set to existing tunes.
For another song about these events, see "Up In Old Loray," sung to the tune of "On Top of Old Smokey"; it is listed in the "Same Tune" field to "Old Smokey." It too is in Greenway, and a version was printed in NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal; as of this writing, I have no reason to think it genuinely traditional, but it was remembered in North Carolina. The author was Odell Corley, whom Wiley, p. 90, was only eleven years old at the time of the strike, and worked as a "spare hand," so she earned very little (spare hands were paid less, even though they usually worked full shifts, and the bosses ignored child labor laws; Horton, p. 140). Salmond, p. 63, calls her "frail" and says that "the ILD dubbed [her] the poet laureate of the strike." Given her precocious skill, I'm surprised that we don't find more records of her as an activist or songwriter as an adult. She also wrote something called "May I Sleep in Your Tent Tonight, Beal?," which does not seem to have been as well-remembered. Horton, pp. 198-199, prints the latter under the title "Let Me Sleep in Your Tent Tonight, Beal," "Com on You Scabs If You Want to Hear" (built around "Casey Jones," and, like Ella's songs, using some of its imagery), and a fragment called "I Bought a Scab for Fifty Cents" (to the tune of "Mademoiselle from Armentières"). "Up In Old Loray" is on pp. 197-198 or Horton.
Another woman, Daisy McDonald (oddly enough, she, like Ella, was part-Cherokee, and had a crippled husband and a lot of children and had to support her family herself; Horton, p. 105), wrote a song "On a Summer Eve" (based on one or another member of the "Ship That Never Returned"/"Wreck of the Old 97" family) that in part was about Ella May's murder (Wiley, p. 91, although Horton, p. 144, notes a number of errors it contains); it is the last of the surviving strike songs (Wiley, p. 92). McDonald used the same melody for a song Salmond, p. 62, calls "The Speakers Didn't Mind." The two McDonald songs -- apparently the only two she wrote that survive -- are reprinted on pp. 199-201 of Horton.
But it was Ella May's songs that really took flight. The other Wiggins song in the Index is "The Mill Mother's Lament," to the tune of "Mary Phagan" [Laws F20] -- which, as we saw above, was a song Ella had known for a long time. "Two Little Strikers" has a "Same Tune" entry under "Orphan's Lament (Two Little Children, Left Jim and I Alone)." "All Around the Jailhouse," to the tune of the song we call "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum)" [Laws H2], apparently is about Ella May's own life (Wiley, pp. 92-93).
A quarter of a century later, Malvina Reynolds wrote a song, "Ballad of Ella Mae" (sic.), which is found on pp. 203-204 of Horton. On the following pages, Horton prints "The Murder of Ella May Wiggins Song," which Gary Green wrote and recorded on a Folkways album.
Horton, p. 186, lists six historical novels with Loray Mill strike links, many of which have characters based on Ella. I doubt they live up to the reality. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Burt186

Chieftain's Daughter, The

DESCRIPTION: Lord Ronald's daughter asks the boatman to "row me over the flowing tide ... Thou shalt have gold when I'm a bride." At first he refuses because of the "angry water" but he agrees when told who she is. The boatman gets his gold.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: escape river gold storm father money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #40, p. 2, "The Chieftain's Daughter" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1261, "The Chieftain's Daughter" (1 text)
Roud #6793
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Ullin's Daughter" (theme)
NOTES [121 words]: Greig: "Clearly this has some connection with Campbell's famous ballad of 'Lord Ullin's Daughter' [which opens 'A Chieftain, to the Highlands bound, Cries, 'Boatman, do not tarry! And I'll give thee a silver pound To row us o'er the ferry!', Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #455, pp. 773-775 (Thomas Campbell)]" In that poem Lord Ullin's daughter and her lover are fleeing from her father's men; the boatman takes them "not for your silver bright; But for your winsome lady."
The opening lines of Greig/Duncan6 ("Boatman, boatman, row me over, Row me over the flowing tide") are obviously related to "Row Us Over the Tide" but there seems to be no other connection. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61261

Chiefy Loves Me

DESCRIPTION: "Chiefy loves me, this I know, 'Cos the watchbill tells me so. I've the middle watch to keep While me mtes is fast asleep."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor work hardtimes derivative
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 31, "Chiefy Loves Me" (1 short text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesus Loves Me" (tune)
File: Tawn014

Chield Morice

See Child Maurice [Child 83] (File: C083)

Chien, Le (Le Petit Chien, The Little Dog)

DESCRIPTION: Creole French: "Il y a un petit chien chez nous, Que remue les pattes (x2)... Que remue les pattes tout comme vous." "There is a little dog at our house... who shakes his feet just like you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal dog foreignlanguage nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 123, "Le Chien" (1 short text with loose English translation)
File: ScNF123A

Chil Brenton

See Gil Brenton [Child 5] (File: C005)

Chilbridge Fair

See Strawberry Fair (File: ReCi125)

Child at Mother's Knee, A

DESCRIPTION: "I'd like to wander back again To days of long ago, To sit within the circle there and watch the firelight glow." The singer wishes to be back at mother's knee, and remembers all the good times to be had there and then
AUTHOR: Words: Ada Powell / Music: Austin Hazelwood
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
KEYWORDS: children mother nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 18, "A Child at Mother's Knee" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Smith's Sacred Singers, "A Child at Mother's Knee" (Columbia 15671-D)
File: ABLT018

Child in the Budget, The

DESCRIPTION: Tinkers, out drinking, exhaust their funds. One puts his baby in his tool bag and pawns the bag. When the baby cries the pawnbroker laughs at being outwitted, finds the tinker, and gives him a pound to take back the toolbag and contents.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.26(340))
KEYWORDS: trick drink humorous baby tinker money
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #2993
RECORDINGS:
Martin Long, "The Child in the Budget" (on IRClare01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(340), "The Tinker and His Budget ("Come all you good people attend for awhile"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Firth b.27(85), "The Tinkers Budget" or "Pawnbroker Outwitted"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Basket of Eggs" (baby in the basket motif)
cf. "Quare Bungo Rye" (baby in the basket motif)
NOTES [13 words]: Notes to IRClare01: "A budget is a bag or knapsack used for carrying tools." - BS
File: RcTCitB

Child is Born Among Men, A (Honnd by Honnd)

DESCRIPTION: "Honnd by honnd we schulle ous take, And joy and blisse schulle we make....." "A child is boren amoges man, And in that child was no wam [blemish], That child ys God, that child is man...." "Com to Crist, thy peys ys told."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Not later than the fifteenth century (Bodleian MS. Bodley 26, folio 202 verso)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #12, pp. 9-10, "(A child is boren amo[n]ges man)" (1 text with variants)
Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols #25, "(Honnd by hnnd we schule ous take)" (1 text)
Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics 41, "(Hond by Hond we shullen us take)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #29
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #20
ADDITIONAL: E. K. Chambers, _English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages_, Oxford, 1945, 1947, pp. 80-81 (no title)
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #6, p. 59, "(Honnd by honnd we schulle ous take)" (1 text)
Carleton Brown, editor, _English Lyrics of the XIVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1924, #88, pp. 110-111, Hand by Hand We Shall Us Take" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodley MS. 26 (Bodleian 1871), folio 202
MANUSCRIPT: London, University of London MS. 657 (formerly Helmington Hall LJ.1.7), folio 140 (1 verse only)
NOTES [794 words]: This item has never been collected in oral tradition, and perhaps should not be included in the Index. But Davies, p. 148, cites it as one of the earliest carols: "The opening words of one of the earliest surviving burdens (c. 1350) describe the singers joining hands in a ring-dance, 'Honnd by honnd we schulle us take....'"
Similarly Greene, p. 189, who calls it "the earliest Nativity carol yet discovered." Because of irregularities in the form, Greene suspects it is composite.
Reed, pp. xix-xx, explicitly declares it "The earliest English Christmas carol." Certainly the line about going "honnde by honnde" indicates a carol; the earliest carols seem to have been the musical accompaniment to ring dances where all held hands.
The only complete copy is found as part of a sermon. This is the version found on folio 202v of Bodleian MS Bodley 26. The date is slightly uncertain. Chambers includes it in his chapter "Fifteenth-Century Lyric" but dates the poem itself c. 1350. This is also the date given by Stevick and by Greene. Brown dates the hand "hardly later than 1350" and believes the writer a Franciscan. The notes that accompany the piece in the manuscript are in Latin.
Brown on p. 272 explains the context: "The homily in which these verses occur begins on fol[io] 201b with an exposition of the four locks by which the heart of the sinner is closed, of the several keys which will open these locks, and then of the banquet which Christ offers to those who will open the door to him." A section of the Latin follows, which quotes Rev. 19:9 ("Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb")
Fowler, p. 60: "The burden contains some interesting clues. From it we learn that the song was intended to accompany a dance in celebration of the Nativity, which is here viewed in light of its theological implications (the salvation of man). The fourth line may seem strange in its insistence that God's Son is made our 'mate,' but the meaning of this is clarified when we take note of the context for the song in the manuscript. The notes immediately preceding the Christmas carol as as follows (folio 201b): 'This is that mean spoken on in Apocalypse 19:9 of the blessed who are invited to the feast of the Lamb.' The biblical passage referred to contains a proclamation of the marriage of Christ and the Church (the Saints), ending with this exclamation: 'Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb' (Rev. 19.9). This messianic feast in heaven is of course far removed in time from the Nativity, but if we remember the dual emphasis of the liturgy of Advent on the first and second comings of Christ, an allusion to his return at the end of the world in a Nativity song should not be surprising. When the Child is born, can the marriage supper of the Lamb be far behind?"
In assessing the sermon it is important to look at the accompanying Latin text. The usual Greek and Latin versions of the verse are quite parallel; both would translate as
And [he/she/the angel] said to me, Write [this], blessed [are] th(ose) to the the feast the marriage [i.e. the marriage feast] of the Lamb called. And [he/she/the angel] said to me, These the words true [i.e. the true words] of God are.
(The Greek and Latin have different ways of saying "called," but this is trivial. They also differ in the word order of "These are the true words of God," and both Greek and Latin have differences in order of this phrase, but these make no difference in English. Some manuscripts also omit the second instance of "And [the angel] said to me," but this too is minor.)
The Latin text in Brown omits the word "marriage," which is a fairly significant distortion of the sense. Interestingly, however, the oldest Greek manuscript of the Apocalypse (ℵ*), and the fourth- or fifth-oldest (P), plus the many manuscripts of Andreas's Commentary on the Apocalypse, also omit the word. So do two early Latin witnesses, gig t. But the word is in every major manuscript of the Latin Vulgate, which would have been the text used by the writer of the sermon. It's hard to imagine the sermon author having use of a Greek manuscript, but maybe he had a Latin translation of Andreas's commentary. I don't know. It's a curiosity.
In addition to the full text of the carol in the Bodleian sermon, there is a copy of the third verse of the Bodleian text in University of London MS. 657 (Helmington Hall LJ.1.7). Neither manuscript contains very much poetry, and little of what they do have shows much evidence of being traditional.
Digging around trying to find a facsimile of the text, to try to see the handwriting, I didn't find the manuscript, but I found several "Communitarian" web sites which cited it. Whatever that tells you. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: NNHonCB

Child Maurice [Child 83]

DESCRIPTION: Child Maurice sends his page with love-tokens to "the very first woman that ever loved me." Her husband hears the page, finds Child Maurice, kills him, and brings the head to his wife. She reveals this was her son; he repents his murder. (They also die.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy Folio)
KEYWORDS: death family mother wife children homicide revenge
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Child 83, "Child Maurice" (7 texts)
Bronson 83, "Child Maurice" (7 versions+1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 83, "Child Maurice" (4 versions: #1, #4, #5, #7)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 500-508, "Childe Maurice" (1 text)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 101-106, "Gil Morrice" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 2, "Bob Norrice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #115, p. 1, "Gill Morice" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 113-117, "Gil Morice"; pp. 117-120, "Chield Morice"; pp. 120-122, "Childe Maurice"; pp. 122-123, "Child Noryce" (4 texts)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 11, "Gil Morissy" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 91-103, "Gill Morrice" (2 texts, one from the folio manuscript and one being the modified version printed by Percy in the Reliques)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques LI, p. 98, "Gil Morrice" (1 partial text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2, pp. 238-245, "Child Maurice" (1 text, from "The Charms of Melody" rather than tradition)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 273-277, "Child Maurice" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 47, "Childe Maurice" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 194, "Childe Maurice (Gill Morice)" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp.190-194+,345 "Child Maurice" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 60-64, "Gil Norice" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 83, GILMORIS
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #203, p. 212, "Gill Morice" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 346
Roud #53
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sir James the Rose" [Child 213] (tune)
NOTES [48 words]: Despite the plot, which seems to have more to do with Greek tragedy than typical folklore, David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, pp. 178-179, suggests that this song was influenced by "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" [Child 81]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C083

Child Noryce

See Child Maurice [Child 83] (File: C083)

Child of Elle (I), The

See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Child of Elle (II), The

DESCRIPTION: Emmeline's father chooses a knight to be her husband. She and Elle elope. The knight follows and Elle kills him. Her father and his men arrive. Elle calls on his own men. Standoff. Father agrees to their marriage, ending an old feud.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783 (Pinkerton's _Select Scottish Ballads_ , according to Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: elopement marriage feud fight father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #125, pp. 1-2, "The Child of Elle" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1026, "The Child of Elly" (1 text)
Roud #23
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Earl Brand" [Child 7] (some plot elements: elopement, chase by father)
NOTES [75 words]: The Greig/Duncan5 text is very close to the Percy's "Child of Elle" (see Thomas Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry ... with [an anonymous] Supplement (Porter & Coates, Philadelphia, 1876), 11, pp. 87-89, "The Child of Elle") of which Child said one fifth was genuine as a text for Child 7. The shorter of Percy's texts, with the same name, was accepted by Child as 7F. The Greig/Duncan collection includes its versions of Child 7 in volume 2. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD51026

Child of Elly, The

See The Child of Elle (II) (File: GrD1026)

Child of God

DESCRIPTION: "If anybody asks you who I am... Tell him I'm a child of God." "Peace on earth, Mary rocks the cradle... The Christ child born in glory." The singer reports on the coming of the Christ child, and reports being on the way to glory
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad Christmas
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 377, "Child of God" (1 text)
NOTES [28 words]: The Folksinger's Wordbook lists this as a Christmas song. It has Christmas verses, but I wonder; that is not its overall feeling. They look like they are grafted in. - RBW
File: FSWB377A

Child of Sorrow

DESCRIPTION: "Child of sorrow and of care, Would thou learn thy grief to bear, And an escape frome every snare? Trust in God. Human strength is weak, in vain... Humble ask and help obtain From thy God... He will never leave his own Till we reach the shiny throne."
AUTHOR: Jim Standlee?
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (High-OldOldFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 9, "Child of Sorrow by Jim Standlee" (1 text)
NOTES [55 words]: High-OldOldFolkSongs often lists a song as "by" someone, and this usually means that the someone is the informant. In this case, most unusually, he lists the "by" line in the song title, which I assume means that he considers Standlee to be the author. Since I cannot find any other trace of this poem, it seems not unlikely. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: High009A

Child of the Railroad Engineer, The (The Two Lanterns)

DESCRIPTION: "A little child on a sick-bed lay, And to death seemed very near." The child's father is a railroad engineer, and must go to work. He bids the mother show a red light if the child dies and a green if the news was good. As he drives by, she shows the green
AUTHOR: Words: Harry V. Neal / Music: Gussie L. Davis (1863-1899)
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: family children disease railroading
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. , "The Red and Green Signal Light/The Engineer's Child" (2 texts plus a copy of the sheet music cover, 1 tune)
Randolph 685, "The Two Lanterns" (1 text)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 43-44, "The Child of the Railroad Engineer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 140-141, "The Child of the Railroad Engineer" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CHILDENG*
Roud #5066
RECORDINGS:
Chuck Wagon Gang, "The Engineer's Child" (Vocalion 04105/OKeh 04105, 1938; rec. 1936)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "The Red and Green Signal Lights" (Victor V-40063, 1929); "Red or Green" (Gennett 6418/Champion 15465/Challenge 397 [as by David Foley], 1928)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Just Set a Light
NOTES [185 words]: It's hard to believe that every version I've seen of this song has a happy ending; it sounds like a nineteenth century tearjerker. But I can't find evidence to prove it.
I once heard Bob Bovee and Gail Heil joke that they had two versions of this, with happy and sad endings. But they sang the happy ending.
Norm Cohen raises an interesting possibility in this regard: When the song was written, in 1896, a red light meant danger -- but green meant caution. Not until 1898 was the green-for-good standard first adopted. So the song suddenly became more optimistic two years after its composition. Could this explain the complex endings?
The idea is of course much older, going back at least to versions of the story of Tristan. As he lay dying, he awaited the ship that was to fetch Isuelt to his side. If she was on the ship, it was to show white sails; if she had not come, it was to show black. In the Marie de France version, she comes, but Tristan is falsely told that the ship carries black sails, and dies.
For brief background on composer Gussie L. Davis, see the notes to "The Baggage Coach Ahead." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: R685

Child Owlet [Child 291]

DESCRIPTION: Lady Erskine wants Child Owlet to sleep with her. Owlet will not; Lord Ronald (Erskine's husband) is Owlet's uncle. Erskine takes revenge by cutting herself and accusing Owlet of raping her. Owlet is torn to pieces between wild horses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: execution infidelity rejection lie
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 291, "Child Owlet" (1 text)
DT 291, CHDOWLET*
Roud #3883
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sheffield Apprentice" [Laws O39]
NOTES [15 words]: Compare this story to the biblical tale of Joseph and Potiphar's wife (Genesis 39:1-20) - RBW
File: C291

Child Riddles

See Riddles Wisely Expounded [Child 1] (File: C001)

Child Wants a Nurse, The

See The Farmer in the Dell (File: DTfrmrde)

Child Waters [Child 63]

DESCRIPTION: Ellen tells Child Waters she bears his child. Offered two shires of land, she would prefer one kiss. He rides; she runs, swims; as his page, she brings a lady for his bed, gives birth in the stable. He hears her wish him well and herself dead; he relents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy Folio)
KEYWORDS: courting pregnancy love disguise childbirth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Child 63, "Child Waters" (11 texts, 1 tune)
Bronson 63, "Child Waters" (3 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 63, "Child Waters" (2 versions: #1, #2)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 269-278, "Childe Waters" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 96-105, "Fair Margaret" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 172-179, "Burd Helen" (1 text)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 142-151, "Burd Ellen/Lord John and Bird Ellen" (2 parallel texts)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 58-65, "Child Waters" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1229, "Fair Ellen" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2, pp. 76-81, "Child Waters" (1 text, titled "Earl Walter," from the 1818 "Charms of Melody" rather than tradition)
Randolph 13, "The Little Page Boy" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune, which Randolph places here though it also has lines from the "Cospatrick" version of "Gil Brenton" and which is so short it might go with something else) {Bronson's #3}
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 17, "Child Waters" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 17, "Child Waters" (notes only)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 201-205, "Child Waters" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 46, "Childe Waters" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 122, "Child Waters" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 47, "Child Waters" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 241-246+354-355, "Child Waters" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 10, "Child Waters" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 178-181, "Burd Helen" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 95-99, "Childe Waters" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 4, "Child Waters" (1 text)
DT 63, CHDWATER
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 274
Roud #43
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fair Margaret
Lord William and Lady Margaret
Burd Ellen
NOTES [599 words]: Chambers is the source of the Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads text (Robert Chambers, The Scottish Ballads (Edinburgh:William Tate, 1829 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), pp. 172-180, "Burd Helen").
In his notes to the text Chambers writes, "Mr Jamieson long afterwards [referring to Percy's publication of "Child Waters"; see Child 63A] published a Scottish version, under the title of 'Burd Ellen,' from the recitation of a lady of the name of Brown [see Child 63B]; adding some fragments of another copy, which he had taken down from the singing of Mrs Arrot of Aberbrothwick [see Child 63F]. Mr Kinloch has more lately given, under the title of 'Lady Margaret,' an imperfect copy [see Child 63C], superior in some points to that of Mr Jamieson; and more recently still, Mr Buchan, in his 'Ancient Ballads and Songs,' [see Child 63J] has presented a very complete one, which he entitles 'Burd Helen.' The present editor, in compiling this copy, has used not only all the above, more or less, but has been indebted for some valuable verses and lines to one which has been obligingly submitted to him in manuscript by Mr Kinloch [Child 63D?]. He has found in a few cases so much difficulty in selecting and associating the various ingredients of his ballads as in this: there being, in no other instance, so great a discrepancy in the various sets, while in a few he has had to deal with so many imperfect and meagre versions."
Chambers goes on to describe other changes he made to build his composite. [footnote, pp. 179-180]. - BS
Several of the versions of this refer to the heroine not as just "Ellen" or "Helen" but "Burd Ellen." For the background of this term, see the notes to "Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane" [Child 28]. - RBW
David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. calls this "undoubtedly the best [ballad] in the Percy folio MS.," adding "It has affinities with such different literary works as Chaucer's 'Clerk's Tale,' 'The Nut-Brown Maid,' 'The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter' ([Child] 110), and 'Layyes Ffall' (in the folio MS., p. 268)."
Fowler, in J. Burke Severs and Albert Hartung, editors, A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1500, in ten volumes with continuous page numbering; Volume 6 (edited by Hartung), Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1980, p. 1787, is even more explicit, saying that this "is reminiscent of Chaucer's Clerk's Tale of patient Griselda, and is the most thoroughly medieval selection in the entire Percy Folio MS," pointing out the similarity of the name "Waters" to "Walter," the vicious marquis in the Clerk's Tale who marries Griselda then takes away her children and casts her out before finally bringing her back to his home.
There is a similarity in that both this song and the Clerk's Tale involving a man testing a woman to the point of torture, but there is a fundamental difference: In the Clerk's Tale, Walter tests Griselda to determine her faithfulness to a promise to obey in all things; in this song, Waters tests Ellen's love for him. The torture is the same, but the motivation is completely different -- and much more emotional. Love is powerful but sometimes short-lived, whereas Griselda's fidelity to her promise took place over a very long time and, by the end, showed Walter to be a complete, utter, moral imbecile who should have been overthrown. (The proper ending of the Clerk's Tale would have been to have Griselda replace Walter as ruler of the nation.) So I would deny the similarity that Fowler sees; the torture is the same, but the point is not. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C063

Child Wedding

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

Child's Lullabye, A

See Oor Cat's Deid (File: HHH040b)

Child's Prayer, The

DESCRIPTION: "Way out in western Texas not so many years ago, Where the ranchers hated settlers worse than rattlesnakes, you know," a rancher determines to burn out a settler house. But he hears a child inside praying for her father and quickly calls off the attack
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: homicide fire children violence father
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 8, pp. 58-59, "The Child's Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Logs008 (Partial)
Roud #10088
File: Logs008

Child's Song (Dance for your Mammy)

See Dance To Your Daddy (File: FSWB409)

Childe Ether

DESCRIPTION: "Child Ether and Lady Maisry Were born baith at ae birth." They love each other all their lives. Childe Ether goes to fight the Paynim to build his reputation but does not return. Lady Maisry seeks him out in Gorinand, pays his ransom, and brings him home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (Chambers-ScottishBallads)
KEYWORDS: brother sister travel return rescue
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 254-256, "Childe Ether" (1 text)
Roud #3916
NOTES [23 words]: This looks to me like a short imitation of a medieval romance mixed with something like "Young Beichan" [Child 53]. But I can't prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ChaB254

Childe Maurice

See Child Maurice [Child 83] (File: C083)

Childe the Hunter

DESCRIPTION: "Come, listen all, both great and small To you a tale I'll tell.... It so befekl, as I've heard tell, There came the hunter Childe... On Dart-a-moor so wild." He is lost while hunting in the snow, and writes his will in his horse's blood
AUTHOR: probably Sabine Baring-Gould (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: death hunting horse burial storm lastwill | blood
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #33, "Childe the Hunter" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [66 words]: Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd claims that this is a real story about one Childe of Plymstock. A true story, perhaps, but not a true folk song. Steve Roud doesn't bother giving it a number, and rightly so, I think. Nor do the notes in Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd make it clear what tune they inflicted these words upon. Nonetheless the tune is alleged to be traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGSW033

Childe Waters

See Child Waters [Child 63] (File: C063)

Childhood Days (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh. we love to think of youthful and happy childhood days; They come like sweet music borne to me." The singer remembers the games and the other children. He wishes he could go back and visit those times
AUTHOR: P. M. Claunts (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
KEYWORDS: nonballad children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 6, "Childhood Days" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #29672
NOTES [60 words]: Blech.
In addition to this, P. M. Claunts is credited with several hymns, none of which I've ever heard of; the most popular seems to have been "She Died in Beauty Like a Rose," which appears to have been in print before 1860. If this is typical of his work, it's not hard to see why he is so forgotten that I can't even find out what his initials stand for. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: BrLT006

Childhood Days (II)

See Rosie Nell (File: San114)

Children Do Linger

DESCRIPTION: "O member, will you linger? See the children do linger here. I go to glory with you, Member, join." "O Jesus is our Captain... He lead us on to glory." "We'll meet at Zion gateway... We'll talk this story over." "He will bring you milk and honey"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 51, "Children Do Linger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12010
File: AWG051

Children Go Where I Send Thee

DESCRIPTION: Cumulative song: "Children, go where I send thee. How shall I send thee? I'm gonna send thee one by one, One for the little bitty baby...." Add "Two by two, two for Paul and Silas" on up to "Twelve for the Twelve Apostles."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (recording, Dennis Crampton & Robert Summers)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Jesus cumulative nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 115, "Come Let Us Sing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 254, "The Holy Babe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 163-164, 195, "[Children, Go Where I Send Thee]" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 54, "Little Bitty Baby (Children Go Where I Send Thee)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 754, "Holy Babe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 383, "Children, Go Where I Send Thee" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 34, "Children, Go Where I Send Thee" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GOSEND
Roud #133
RECORDINGS:
Alphabetical Four, "Go Where I Send Thee" (Decca 7704, 1940; on AlphabFour01)
Dennis Crampton & Robert Summers, "Go I'll Send Thee" (ARC 6-10-62, 1936)
Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet, "Go Where I Send Thee" (Bluebird B-7340, 1937; Victor 20-2134, 1947)
Kelley Pace, Aaron Brown, Joe Green, Matthew Johnson & Paul Hayes, "Holy Babe" (AFS 3803 A2+B, 1942; on LC10)
Reverend Smith and Family, "Children, Go Where I Send Thee" (on USMississippi01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grow the Rushes-O (The Twelve Apostles, Come and I Will Sing You)" (theme and structure)
cf. "Eleven to Heaven" (theme and structure)
NOTES [43 words]: This could well be an American version of "Green Grow the Rushes-O" (Roud naturally lumps those two and several others). But it's easy to create songs such as this one; in the absence of certainty, I treat them as separate. See also the notes on that song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LoF254

Children in the Wood, The (The Babes in the Woods) [Laws Q34] --- Part 01

DESCRIPTION: Two young orphaned children are left in the care of their uncle. He decides to murder them for their money. One of the hired killers has pity and spares them, but then abandons them. They die. The uncle meets countless disasters till his crime is revealed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1595? (title of piece in Stationer's Register)
KEYWORDS: orphan money death abandonment family children
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England) Australia Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (46 citations):
Laws Q34, "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)"
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 169-176, "The Children in the Wood" (1 text -- the long form)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques LXIII, p. 109, "The Children in the Wood" (2 partial texts, 2 tunes)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 278-283, "The Children in the Wood; or, The Norfolk Gentleman's Last Will and Testament" (1 text -- the long form)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 217, "Two Babes in the Wood" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 229)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #56, "The Babes in the Wood" (1 text, 1 tune -- the short form)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 198-199, "Babes in the Wood" (1 text, 1 tune -- the short form)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 161, "Oh say, don't you know how a long time ago" (1 fragment, probably of the short form)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 66, "(My dear, do you know, how a long time ago)" (1 text -- the short form)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 234-238, "The Children in the Wood" (1 text, 1 tune -- the long form)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 106-107, "The Babes in the Wood" (2 texts -- the short form)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 21, "Babes in the Woods" (1 text, 1 tune -- the short form)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 147, "The Babes in the Wood" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #215, "The Babes in the Wood" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "A" text is the long form, the "B" text and tune are the short)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 139, p. 285, "Babes in the Woods" (1 text -- the short form)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 57, (no title) (1 text, quite short, but it appears to be a fragment of the long form)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 117, "Babes in the Woods" (1 text -- the short form)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 71, "Babes in the Wood" (1 text -- the short form)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 58-65, "Two Babes in th Woods" (2 texts, 2 tunes -- the short form -- plus many excerpts including an older print edition)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 144, "Babes in the Woods" (1 text -- the short form)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 141, "The Babes in the Woods" (1 text -- the long form)
Randolph 92, "The Babes in the Woods" (5 texts, 2 tunes -- the short form)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 113-115, "The Babes in the Woods" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 92A)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 21-22, "Babes in the Woods" (1 text, 1 tune -- the short form)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #22, pp. 89-90, "Babes in the Wood" (1 text, 1 tune -- perhaps a fragment of the long form)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 47, "The Babes in the Wood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 106, "The Orphans (Babes in the Woods)" (1 text, 1 tune -- the short form)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #44, "Babes in the Woods" (1 text, 1 tune -- the short form)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 210, "(The Babes in the Wood)" (1 fragmentary text); pp. 295-296, "Babes in the Wood" (1 text+tune of the short form, plus an excerpt from the long form)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 87, "Babes in the Wood" (1 short text, 1 tune; although only a fragment, it is clearly derived from the long form)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 174, "The Children in the Wood" (1 text -- the long form)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 121-122, ""The Babes in the Woods (1 text, 1 tune -- the short form)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 115, pp. 233-234, "Babes in the Woods" (1 text -- the short form)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 285-286, "Babes in the Woods" (1 text, 1 tune -- the short form)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #226, pp. 148-149, "(My dear, do you know)" (the short form)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1966, "Now ponder well you parents dear"
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 200-201, "The Children in the Wood" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 92, "[The Two Children in the Wood]" (1 tune)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 56, "Babes in the Woods" (1 text, 1 tune -- the short form)
DT 542, BABWOOD2* PRETBABE*
ADDITIONAL: Iona & Peter Opie, The Oxford Book of Narrative Verse, pp. 42-46, "The Babes in the Wood" (1 text -- the long form)
Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 390-391, "The Children in the Wood" (a short prose summary of the long form, with the father of the children being "A gentleman of Norfolk")
Leslie Shepard, _John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844_, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 114, "THE CHILDREN IN THE WOOD, Or the Norfolk Gentelman's last Will and Testament" (reprint of a Pitts broadside)
Steve Roud "A Note on the Song 'The Babes in the Wood' (Roud 288/Laws Q34)," article in _Missouri Folklore Society Journal_, Volume 27-28 (cover date 2005-2006, but published 2015), pp. 146-154 (1 text plus reprints of several field collections and broadsides; the purpose of the article is to show that it is NOT the case that short forms of the ballad are American and long are English)
[No author listed,] _The Old Ballad of The Babes in the Wood_, illustrated by Edward Ardizzone and brief historical notes by Kathleen Lines, Henry Z. Walck, Inc., New York, 1972 (1 text, the long form, a part of a series of folktales with historical notes, although the notes in this case are much too short to be useful)
Suzi Jones, _Oregon Folklore_, University of Oregon/Oregon Arts Commission, 1977, p. 31, "Babes in the Woods" (1 text, 1 tune, the short form)
Roud #288
RECORDINGS:
Dorothy Howard, "Babes in the Wood" (on USWarnerColl01 -- the short form)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 4(30), "The Children in the Wood" or "The Norfolk Gentleman's Last Will and Testament," W. and C. Dicey (London), 1736-1763; also Harding B 4(31), Harding B 4(34), Harding B 4(36), Johnson Ballads 2400, Harding B 30(2), Harding B 4(35), Harding B 4(37), Harding B 4(38), "The Children in the Wood" or "The Norfolk Gentleman's Last Will and Testament"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dunbar the Murderer" (plot)
cf. "Three Lost Babes of Americay" (plot)
cf. "The Lost Babes" (plot)
NOTES [755 words]: Laws notes, "A three stanza lament on the fate of the children called 'The Babes in the Wood' is widely known in American tradition, but the long ballad is rarely met with." At first glance these two songs are hardly related (they don't even use the same metrical form), but Laws seems to want them lumped. Though we note that he lists only occurrences of the long form. But splitting seems inappropriate in the circumstances.
According to Waring, p. 14, "Interestingly enough, stage people believe that Robin Hood and The Babes in the Wood are ill-omened pantomimes, while Cinderella promises nothing but good.
Hales believes this piece to be by the same author as "The Lady's Fall." - RBW
The Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 87 is clearly a fragment of the Bodleian broadside version. - BS
The history and content of this song have inspired extensive discussion over the course of several centuries. It raises many difficult questions, both as to history and as to purpose. The result is a very long entry. I have therefore broken it up into the following sections, divided among four different entries in the Ballad Index. which you can search for if you don't want to read the whole thing. These aren't really chapters; the note is meant to be read continuously. But it may help you to find the part you most want. The larger part of this note is about the actions of Richard III and his usurpation of the English throne. You don't need to know all about that to be able to understand the part at the end about "The Legend of the Princes and the Content of the Song." You merely need to know that there is much debate about Richard III, and that Shakespeare's picture is impossibly one-sided. The great question is whether it is *completely* one-sided....
Contents:
*** Included in this entry:*
* Full References for the song
* Bibliography
*** Included in the Entry "Children in the Wood, The (The Babes in the Woods) [Laws Q34]" --- Part 02 (File Number Link LQ34A):*
* Speculations about the Origin of the Song
* The Historical Problem: The Black Legend of Richard III
* The Historical Sources
* Richard's Rediscovered Body
* The Background: The Wars of the Roses
*** Included in the Entry "Children in the Wood, The (The Babes in the Woods) [Laws Q34]" --- Part 03 (File Number Link LQ34B):*
* The Death of Edward IV and the Government of the Realm
* The Character of Richard III
*** Included in the Entry "Children in the Wood, The (The Babes in the Woods) [Laws Q34]" --- Part 04 (File Number Link LQ34C):*
* The Usurpation
* The Unknown Fate of the Princes
*** Included in the Entry "Children in the Wood, The (The Babes in the Woods) [Laws Q34]" --- Part 05 (File Number Link LQ34D):*
* Richard's Government and Tudor Government
* The Battle of Bosworth and the Death of Richard III
* The Legend of the Princes and the Content of the Song
---
Note on the Bibliography:
In my previous version of this article (the third), I gave a detailed annotated bibliography, trying to cite all the prejudices of each author. In an attempt to shorten things, I have now reduced this to two ratings: Pro-Richardness (on a scale of 0 to 10, 0 being Shakespeare, who can see no good in Richard, and 10 being Markham, who made him a saint. I have not cited any "10" sources). I would consider sources in the 3 to 7 range to be rational, with the truth most likely at 6 and the next most likely position being 3. A book with a 1, 2, 8, or 9 shows research but much influence by emotion; a book which is a 0 or a 10 is pure emotion with little use for facts. The level of research I have rated Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, Lousy (or variations upon that description). These ratings refer *only* to the material on Richard. I have omitted the ratings for books which are not directly concerned with Richard.
For what it's worth, the average Pro-Richardness of the 27 books I rated when I first instituted the system is almost exactly 4; the quality of research just a hair below "fair." There is effectively no correlation between pro-Richardness and research quality -- the correlation coefficient between the two is only .23. What is noteworthy is that I rated 9 books good or excellent in research, and seven of them have pro-Richardnesses in the 3-6 range; the other two are Hicks (2) and Kendall (8). No one with an extreme pro- or anti-Richard value has better than "fair" research.
Of the early sources, More, Rous, Hall, and Shakespeare would rate a 0, Vergil a 1, Croyland and Mancini about a 3 in Pro-Richardness.
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LQ34

Children in the Wood, The (The Babes in the Woods) [Laws Q34] --- Part 02

DESCRIPTION: Continuation of the notes to "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34]. Entry continues in "The Children in the Wood, The (The Babes in the Woods) [Laws Q34]" --- Part 03 (File Number LQ34B)
Last updated in version 6.7
NOTES [13993 words]: SPECULATIONS ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF THE SONG
This song is well enough known that it may have inspired various literary references. In Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies (1863), for instance, we read that young Tom would have been trapped in the rhododendrons "till the cock-robins covered him with leaves" (about two-thirds of the way through the first chapter; p. 22 in the Wordsworth Classics edition). The other possible explanation for this, however, is a legend of Jesus's flight into Egypt. Herod and his men are after Jesus, and looking for signs of where he went. Mary, in the legend, cut herself on thorns and was bleeding. The robin dragged leaves over the blood so as to hide the trail -- and thus became blessed (O hOgain, p. 36). Alexander, p. 234, has a variant in which the robins covered the body of Jesus after it was taken down from the cross. If either version of this legend underlies the song, it obviously emphasizes the innocence -- perhaps even the holiness -- of the murdered children.
The story of the Princes in the Tower isn't the only possible explanation for the song. Various sources for this legend have been mentioned. The Baring-Goulds cite an abandonment that took place at Wayland in Norfolk, but offer no names or dates. Based on the notes in the Opies, this is apparently based on an item licensed in 1595 entitled "The Norfolk gent his will and Testament and howe he Commytted the keepinge of his Children to his owne brother whoe delte most wickedly with them and howe God plagued him for it."
Interestingly, the story of the robin (and the wren) covering the dead with leaves goes back to about this same time; there is a hint of it in Shakespeare's Cymbeline, IV.ii (lines 224-227 in the Riverside Shakespeare second edition; p. 1595). Webster's "White Devil" of 1612 is even more explicit, saying that the robin and wren "with leaves and flowers doe cover The friendlesse bodies of unburied men" (Opie/Tatem, p. 329).
Percy, who contributed materially to the popularity of the piece, knew of no relevant legends, but mentioned a play of 1601 on the same theme. Briggs, volume A.2, p. 391, describes what appears to be the same item: "An Elizabethan play, Two Tragedies in One (Yarington), was written about 'The Babes in the Wood' but without the incident of the robins." Briggs, however, offers no historical parallels to the song, which probably means that she does not believe there are any.
Kathleen Lines, in the notes to the 1972 booklet illustrated by Edward Ardizzone, alludes to the 1601 play as "the second of Two Lamentable Tragedies," which is set in Italy, in which the father is Pisaurus, the uncle Androgus, the boy Cassander, and the girl Kate or Jane. (A truly odd collection of names, that, the men being classical and the girl having an English name.)
GArnett-IHearAmericaSinging and Gosse, volume I, p. 307, mentions that "The Babes in the Wood is conjectured, though doubtfully, to have been a veiled allegory of the murder of the young princes in the Tower." Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry, volume III, p. 170, says, "Sharon Turner and Miss Halsted favored the rather untenable opinion that the wicked uncle was intended to represent Richard III.... urner wrote in his History of England, 'I have sometimes fancied that the popular ballad may have been written at this time on Richard and his nephews before it was quite safe to stigmatize him more openly.'"
To expand on these brief comments, it has been suggested that this song is an account of King Edward V of England, his brother Richard Duke of York, and their uncle Richard III of Gloucester. Edward V was deprived of his crown, and then he and his brother vanished, never to be seen again, and Richard III took the throne. This seems to be the most popular explanation for the song -- for example, Hicks, in his biography of Edward V, p. 13, seems to take the link between the song and the princes for granted (or at least thinks most people assume the link). Seward-Richard, p. 112, states unequivocally, "Richard would be commemorated as the Wicked Uncle in the ballad of the Babes in the Wood... it was undoubtedly inspired by the fate of the little King and his brother."
Contrary to Seward (a *lot* in this note is going to be contrary to Seward, because of his biased attitude) the other explanations for the song show that the link with Richard III is very doubtful. If the possibility is to be admitted at all, it must surely depend on the continuity from the 1595 Stationer's Register piece about the "Norfolk Gentleman" to the modern song (even in 1595, it's hard to believe that there would be need for a *concealed* song about the Princes in the Tower, since it was about events more than a century old, and it is absurd if the song is more recent than that). If that identity is accepted, though, and if the song is in fact a century older than that date, it makes some sense to assume that this is one of Henry VII Tudor's attempts to blacken the memory of Richard III, whose throne he had usurped in 1485.
Pollard, for instance, states on p. 17 that the popular account of Richard III, found e.g. in Shakespeare, is a graft onto actual history from folktale, citing "the story of the children in the wood" as another instance of the legend. Pollard observes that the theme of children being abducted is found even in Chaucer's Clerk's Tale (the tale of Griselda), although that has a happy ending of sorts. In other words, in Pollard's view, Richard did not inspire the Babes in the Woods; rather, the folklore about Richard took on the existing theme which produced the song/tale.
Pollard, p. 19, does think that the Babes in the Woods took on some language from Shakespeare's "Richard III" -- but the text he cites comes from the section on the trial of George of Clarence, not the Princes in the Tower! I think he exaggerates the similarities -- and, in any case, he's looking at the Percy version of the song, which Percy almost certainly hacked at significantly; we have no solid reason for believing the words Pollard cites are actually original. On p. 20, Pollard quotes Seward's comment on "The Babes in the Woods" and replies, "This has it the wrong way round. The story of Richard III and his nephews, as it was repeated and elaborated after his death, fitted easily into the model of one of Europe's oldest folk tales concerning children who fall into the hands of an ogre.... Both were variants on the same archetypal story." He adds that there is "an inescapable literary dimension to the history of Richard III and the Princes in the Tower."
THE HISTORICAL PROBLEM: THE BLACK LEGEND OF RICHARD III
As Ross comments, on p. xi, the story of Richard and the Princes is a subject on which "William Shakespeare himself took a long look, and we have been living with the dramatic consequences ever since." Sadly, the Bard's was a thoroughly inaccurate look -- consider, e.g., the character of Margaret of Anjou in Shakespeare's "Richard III": She was *dead* by the time Richard III took the throne, having died in 1482 at the age of about 52 (Cunningham, p. 104). Oh, and there's that little detail in Shakespeare's "King Henry VI, Part II," in which Richard kills the Duke of Somerset at the first Battle of Saint Albans. Talk about growing up fast -- Richard was two years old at the time.
Part of the problem is the temptation is to see Richard as a modern man. He was not; he was a man from a brutal time who in some ways actually rose above it and in some ways, clearly, did not. As Ross comments on p. 228, "No one familiar with the career of King Louis XI of France, in Richard's own time, or Henry VIII of England, in Richard's own country, would wish to cast any special slur on Richard, still less select him as the exemplar of a tyrant."
Compounding the problem is a lack of sources; Lander, p. 1, notes the case of an earlier historian who found it impossible "to form a regular History out of such a vast Heap of Rubbish and Confusion." Pollard, p. 182, observes, "[A]lmost all surviving contemporary or near-contemporary comment on his character was made retrospectively by people who were hostile. In this respect it is as difficult to see Richard the royal duke before 1483 as it is to see Richard the king. Contemporaries quickly applied hindsight to their interpretation of his character and motives before 1483, even those writing before 1485. Richard himself never put his personal thoughts on paper; or rather no personal letters, diaries or memoirs of his have come to light. No confessor in whom he confided, or companion-in-arms whom he inspired, subsequently extolled his virtues." It's all hostile witnesses.
Or maybe the problem is simply Shakespeare; as Ross declares on p. xi, since that time "considerations of the life and reign of Richard Plantagenet have been largely concerned to rebut [or to confirm!] the historical interpretation on which Shakespeare's great play rested." This has been an immense problem for me in writing what follows; I am sure that much of what follows will sound more pro-Richard than it should, simply because I react so strongly against Shakespeare and the Tudor propaganda.
We have two questions here: What actually happened in 1483, and whether the events of 1483-1485 are actually related to this song. Unfortunately, we don't really know what happened then -- and I have to give you a long preface to explain why we are so ignorant, and then a long explanation in which I will try to give you the best chance of making your own decision. It may not help. It is very hard to manage neutrality on the subject of Richard III.
It is the most obscure period in post-Conquest English history. The Wars of the Roses caused many chronicles to be destroyed or abandoned (Cheetham, p. 202). The historians who wrote after the death of Richard III, since they had to keep Henry Tudor on his throne, were forced to produce the caricature of Richard III which eventually gave rise to Shakespeare's impossible portrait -- as Fields observes, p. 7, "It was politically correct and sound policy for any historian writing during Henry's reign to blacken Richard's reputation in any way possible."
Unfortunately, though the Tudor historians clearly had reason to lie, they are also the only detailed sources for most events of the period; there is no way to separate fact from propaganda. For example, everyone follows Polydore Vergil's account of the Battle of Bosworth, at which Richard III died, because there is no other account extant (Ross, p. 216; Kendall, p. 570; Burne, p. 286, says that it is the least-documented major battle in English history. Griffiths/Thomas, p. 158, says that "Aside from Polydore Vergil, the Croyland Chronicle and the Stanley Balladeers, no one living within a generation of that day has left a record of its momentous events." There may even have been a deliberate Tudor attempt to suppress the record; Bennett, p. 163, notes that Bernard Andre, Henry Tudor's official panegyrist, had to leave a blank in his "Vita Henrici Septimi" for Bosworth -- there is an actual gap left in the Latin manuscript!)
Where the Tudor historians are silent, we are often at a loss. Ross, p. 29, gives two examples of this. We do not know the date of Richard III's marriage -- the best guess is some time in 1472 (so, e.g. Pollard, p. 65), but the first mention of Richard as being married is in 1474. We don't even know to the nearest year the date at which his only legitimate son was born; Kendall suggests 1473, Ross prefers 1476! (Cunningham, p. 106, tentatively accepts the latter date; Seward-Richard, p. 67, offers late 1473 or early 1474. Etc.)
The usual effect of this lack of data is to cause students either to accept the Tudor propaganda, and treat Richard as Satan's Spawn -- or to deny everything and end up trying to whitewash him. Instances of the latter are myriad. Horace Walpole, Richard's first great defender, actually tried to claim that Perkin Warbeck -- of whom more below -- was really one of the Princes in the Tower, still alive (Potter, p. 180). Amazingly, Fields, pp, 217-219, seriously discusses the possibility as well, suggesting that perhaps the boys, or just Richard of York, had been smuggled out of England, probably with Richard's consent, by Sir James Tyrell; York then became "Perkin Warbeck."
If that weren't bad enough, each side has its partisans who, by selective presentation of the evidence, try to make it look as if everyone on the other side is engaged in a smear campaign (as, e.g., Ross does in a small way on p. 96, listing a series of wacko pro-Richard authors without mentioning more scholarly defenders. Potter is even more extreme in a pro-Richard way, reviling useful sources and blaming everything on the "Tudor Legend."). Or consider Seward's analysis of the death of the Princes in the Tower, whom he is sure Richard murdered. Seward-Richard, pp. 119-120, comments, "During the following reign HenryVII was to dispose of Warwick, the last surviving Plantagenet male... but would use legal murder (after trapping the youth into a technically treasonable plot). It is a measure of Richard's neurotic insecurity that he could not wait for the Princes to reach a more acceptable age and use the same method." Excuse me? Keeping someone in prison for six years, entrapping him, subjecting him to a kangaroo trial, and then killing him is better than just killing him? Oy.
The one thing that seems certain is that Richard was more complicated that Shakespeare's human cancer. On this point, observe that one of the men he executed, Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers, thought enough of Richard's honesty to name him one of the supervisors of his will, even though the will was written after Rivers was condemned! (Fields, pp. 102-103).
A specific example of how all this proceeds: Ross, pp. 96-97, mentions the common statement that Richard "could not have been convicted of murder in a modern court of law." Saul3, who like Ross thinks Richard guilty, says on p. 221 that "no modern jury would be convinced by [the case agains Richard]." Fields, p. 301, declares: "Richard would be acquitted of the crime by virtually any jury that heard the case. The possibility that no murders were committed, or that if they were, Henry [Tudor] or Buckingham committed them, together with the paucity of admissible evidence against Richard, would almost surely raise a 'reasonable doubt' in the jury's mind; and that , of course, would call for acquittal."
Yet Ross then goes on to list several historians who do "convict" him. Similarly, Weir, p. 163, remarks, "It has been stated many times.... that there is no proof that Richard III murdered the Princes in the Tower, and very little likelihood that the full facts.... will ever be known." She goes on to state, correctly, that historians can only try to learn as much as possible from such facts as we have. Her response to this, however, is not to become more cautious about the difference between fact and speculation; it is to lower her standard of accuracy!
Both responses ignore the point: Richard very likely was guilty of conspiracy to commit murder -- but the charge in fact could not even be brought because it cannot be proved that the princes were murdered!
The Tudors still influence historians: The Tudor era is often held up as a great era -- e.g. WilliamsonJ, pp. 22-23, waxes enthusiastic about their trade policies. Yet Gillingham, p. 11, claims that national income declined steadily during the reigns of Henry VII, Henry VIII, and Henry VIII's children. Russell gives detailed information on this point. On p. 5, he notes the steady inflation "which began about 1510 and continued, at rapid but varying speeds, at least until 1620." Some of this was due to gold and silver from the new world -- in a gold-based market, an increase in gold supply without a corresponding increase in production would cause inflation (Willson, pp. 276-277). But most of that gold ended up in Spain, not England; the increase in prices exceeded the increase in specie (the overall inflation over this period, according to Russell, p. 7, was on the order of fivefold, and on p. 10 he gives strong reasons why the increase in precious metals cannot be the primary explanation for the inflation). Russell's conclusion, on p. 11, is that the price rise was caused by increasing population, which put pressure on food supplies.
The only cure for this was agricultural improvements. But improvements are only possible where there is available capital to generate it. (Look at what happened to poor Ireland in the early 1800s. The situation in Tudor England which Russell describes on p. 13 sounds exactly like Ireland.) It was Tudor economic policies (high taxes, restrictions on movement of information and, indirectly, products, and, later, a debased currency), not those of the Plantagenets (including Richard III), which brought a permanent recession. Even Henry's policy of free trade, usually praised by economists, brought little benefit to England, because it had nothing to export except wool and a little Cornish tin, and it was already shipping as much wool as it could (Russell, pp. 23-24), and Henry actually increased the export duties on tin (Russell, p. 36).
(Please note: It will probably be evident that I strongly dislike Henry Tudor. This is not to imply that he was incompetent. Chrimes, p. 16, offers evidence that he was a very intelligent pupil. He was probably the best financial manager ever to hold the English throne -- it is genuinely unfortunate he could not have been placed in charge of the exchequer under other kings. What I object to are his despotism and his money-grubbing -- his tight-fistedness, for instance, kept England away from world exploration for many years. The Tudor monarchy did bring good things -- would England have turned Protestant without Henry VIII? And would there have been a counter-Reformation had he not turned Protestant? But the Tudors produced probably the worst reign of terror in England since Norman times. And I simply can't respect a monarch who insisted on the title "Your Majesty," rather than "Your Grace," the address used by his predecessors; Morris, p. 32.)
Mattingly, p. 25, sums up the Tudors, and their situation, about as well as can be said, I think: "Probably Henry admitted to himself that there was too much doubtful blood in his dynasty. The grandson of Owen Tudor, clerk of the Queen's wardrobe and heir to no more than a rocky mountainside and a few goats, could never have come to the English throne had not the Wars of the Roses almost extinguished the Plantagenet stock. Henry's own mother, Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond, gave the King his only drop of royal blood, and though she had descended from John of Gaunt... Margaret Beaufort's grandfather had the misfortune to be born on the wrong side of the blanket. Like so many of the Italian tyrants, whom they resembled in other ways, the Tudors sprang from bastard stock; and Henry VII knew that, though he had married the daughter of Edward IV to help set things right for his children, his own best claim to the throne was that he had won it by the sword and held it against all comers."
One thing I find fascinating is that the two worst Richard-haters of recent years, Seward and Weir, both base their opinions on the history of Richard III written by Thomas More. Yet this is a secondary source riddled with patent errors. To take it as a primary source, as Seward and Weir do, is to come at history having already decided what happened.
Cheetham, p. 202, makes the point that, to most historians, "the King's guilt or innocence in the murder of the Princes is an acceptable yardstick whereby we can judge everything else he did." This is fallacious. In a murderous age, the judgment on Richard III would be based on how well he reigned -- which would govern how people saw his treatment of the princes, not vice versa. We must look at him by the standards of the situation. So: Was he better than those around him, or worse?
Let me confess to being pro-Richard -- but also pro-truth. I truly do not know whether Richard III was a conniving schemer such as Seward portrays, or a near-saint such as we find in Kendall, though my very strong suspicion is that the truth lies in between -- probably slightly closer to Kendall, since the anti-Richard historians seem unable to distinguish their own opinions from documented facts. Unlike most authors cited here, I think our goal must be to "speak the dead" (to steal an idea from Orson Scott Card): To try to look both at who Richard was and why he did what he did. This rarely presents a simple picture, and to try to make it simple is an absolute failure. Seward would call me a portrayer of the "grey legend" -- the only version of history which treats Richard as an actual human being. I freely plead guilty.
I have tried to take all this into account in my citation patterns (though I can do this only imperfectly, because of the order I consulted the sources). For points in Richard's favor, I have cited the virulently anti-Richard Seward or Weir on the rare occasions they actually say anything useful. Since that is truly rare, I will usually end up citing the anti-Richard but sane Ross and Hicks if possible, the more neutral Jenkins or Cheetham or Cunningham if not, the pro-Richard Fields and Kendall if I must, and the extremely pro-Richard Potter as a very last resort. For anti-Richard material, I have tried to take things in the reverse order: Kendall's admission that Richard probably killed the Princes in the Tower is more meaningful than Cheetham's and Jenkins's concurrence, which means more than Cunningham's opinion on this point, which in turn is more important than the fact that Ross thinks Richard was responsible, which is more meaningful than the fact that Hicks thinks so, which in turn has more value than the irrational opinions of Seward and Weir.
As for the approach I take in what follows -- give that we *know* the Tudor historians are biased, it seems to me that we have to start with the little that we know from earlier sources. To summarize in advance: We know, to his extreme discredit, that Richard III executed several men (Lord Hastings, Earl Rivers) very abruptly and probably without trial (though Fields, p. 101, thinks that Rivers at least *did* have a trial. Seward-Richard, pp. 108-109, claims there was a trial but it had no validity). We know that he disinherited his brother's son Edward V, though he claimed legal justification. On the other hand, we know that he passed good legislation, and that he was the chief prop of his brother's throne from the age of 18 until the year Edward IV died.
THE HISTORICAL SOURCES
To understand how hard it is to learn the truth, we must look at our primary sources. (As Ross says on p. xxi, "The sheer power and endurance of the Tudor tradition, especially when consecrated by Shakespeare, makes a sober assessment of its historical value an essential pre-requisite for any consideration of the 'true' Richard.") We have a number of chronicles, letters, government documents, and passing comments, but only a few substantial narratives of the period -- and, really, only two substantial sources who were in England and near the center of things at the time of the key events: Mancini and the Croyland Chronicler.
The following list describes our most important sources:
* Dominic Mancini. Although contemporary, this document was unknown to early historians; it was not noticed until 1936, when it was found in France (Ross, p. xli). Mancini, an Italian in the employ of various French officials, went to England in 1482, and stayed there until July 1483; he wrote his account later in 1483 while the information was still very fresh in his mind. His document was actually prepared as a briefing for his superiors, so he was trying to give honest information and did not engage in rhetorical tricks to try to convey an impression.
There are nonetheless several problems with Mancini. The greatest one is that he apparently was not fluent in English (Ross, p. xlii). He had to rely on secondhand information, which could sometimes be distorted. Also, it seems to me he had a slightly anti-English attitude. He is often very critical of Richard III -- but some of this may be because Richard was the dominant player of the period he was covering. Still, he has proved crucial to our understanding of the period, because, as Ross notes, p. xliii, his narrative makes it clear that Richard had enemies from the start.
Laynesmith, p. 23, says that is now believed that he was fed misleading data, adding on p. 175 that "Horrox and Pollard have shown how inadequate this source is, and suggested that Mancini was influenced by [Richard III]'s anti-Woodville propaganda, even though he was aware himself of the attempts to arouse antagonism toward the queen's kin."
On the other hand, St. Aubyn says, p. 65, "The defects of Mancini's History... are principally those of omission. His account seldom looks beyond London.... his knowledge of English geography was inclined to be hazy and his understanding of the British Constitution preserved its mysteries intact. Throughout the whole of his History he only supplies one date, and that he gets two days wrong."
Still, given his lack of personal prejudice, he is a vital source for the period he covers.
* The Croyland Chronicler. In terms of inside information, clearly our best source -- we don't know who he was (many names have been mentioned, including most notably Bishop John Russell, Richard's Chancellor, although most scholars since Ross have discounted this suggestion), but we can be certain he was a member of Edward IV's government.
In April 1486, this unknown man (he says very little about himself except that he was a doctor of canon law and a diplomat during the reign of Edward IV) went to Croyland monastery and, over the space of several days, dictated his view of events from 1459 to 1486 (Dockray, pp. xiv-xv). These were added to the earlier sections of the chronicle kept at Croyland, so the 1486 text is technically known as the "Second Continuation of the Croyland Chronicle." But it is a much more important document than the other sections in the Croyland Chronicle.
A mystery about his work is that it is far less detailed about Richard III's reign than Edward IV's. This is the strongest single argument against Bishop Russell's authorship: Why would Russell know less about Richard's reign, in which he stood very high in the government, than about Edward's, where he stood lower? (Dockray, p. xv, also notes that Croyland's style differs markedly from Russell's own work elsewhere.) Kendall, p. 512, suggests that there are actually two authors involved, which would explain much: Russell dictated the first part, but halted or ran out of time before he had time to describe Richard's reign, and his amanuensis padded out the account based on brief comments by Russell or simply on the information he knew from outside the government. This hypothesis is possible but does not seem to have commended itself to historians.
Croyland is thus contemporary (though dictating from memory rather than documents) and very close to the center of things. Ross, p. xliii declares Croyland "the single most important source for the reign as a whole" (Ross, p. xliii). But he can be infuriatingly vague -- although anonymous, had a Tudor investigator at the time really wanted to know who he was, said investigator surely could have found out. So Croyland clearly covered his tracks on some points (Ross, p. xlv, says "he is a cautious and politic author who... unfortunately does not always choose to tell all he knows. His judgements were often elliptically phrased and sometimes appear intentionally inscrutable"). On certain points, such as the fate of the princes, he preferred to quote gossip or hearsay evidence rather than state something definitive. Despite his likely connection with the court, his chronicle is, as Ross says on p. xliv, "distinctly hostile" to Richard. Ross on p. xlvi lists several places where Croyland plays up evidence of "deceit and dissimulation which marked Gloucester's conduct." He also had a very strong dislike of Northerners -- Richard's strongest supporters (Fields, p. 14).
There may also be a few corruptions in the text. The original has been ruined by fire, and we must rely on transcripts (Fields, p. 11). In sum, there are reasons to question particular statements from Croyland, but in general it deserves much respect.
* John Rous (or Rows) was contemporary but far from reliable. As Ross says on p. xxi, "According to Rous, Richard was an Antichrist," a claim which Rous supported by saying Richard was born under Scorpio "and like a scorpion displayed a smooth front and a vicious swinging tail" -- but, even if you believe the astrological nonsense, Ross points out that Richard in fact was born under Libra! (See also Pollard, pp. 24-25, with supporting evidence, and Langley/Jones, p. 39). Saul3, p. 13, says that Rous was "the first writer to manifest a distinctly 'Tudor' view of the past."
Cheetham, p. 198, gives a brilliant example of Rous's Tudorization of history (cited also by Ross, pp. xxi-xxii): In the reign of Richard III, Rous penned a book which calls that king "an especial good lord... in his realm fully commendably punishing offenders of the laws, especially oppressors of the Commons, and cherishing those that were virtuous." (Note that Rous's patrons were not the Commons but the nobles -- his book was about the earls of Warwick -- so praising Richard for supporting the commons was not something to win him points. This is an argument, though rather a weak one, that Richard really *did* try to protect the Commons -- i.e. the vast majority of people.)
After Henry Tudor took over, Rous wrote a revised edition which he dedicated to Henry, and came forth with the statement that Richard was two years in his mother's womb, born with teeth and hair to (or perhaps growing from) his shoulders. (Ross, p. 139, notes the interesting fact that not even Rous calls him a hunchback; there seems no contemporary evidence for this at all). Since Rous's claim is physically impossible, I submit, it tells us nothing about Richard; it tells us only that John Rous was a suck-up -- but his statements have actually been repeated by historians who claim to have been serious.
Rous seems also to have been the earliest source for the claim that Richard poisoned his wife (Rubin, p. 315; Cunningham, p. 98).
St. Aubyn actually believes Rous's waste of good paper to have "some value," but admits (p. 68) that Rous's work "appears to be based on two assumptions: that Warwick is the centre of the universe, and that the principal purpose of writing history is to please patrons." Wolffe, p. 5, calls him a "syncophantic priest," and Bennett, p. 5, describes him as "scatter-brained and malicious."
* Philip(pe) de Commynes, or Commines. A Burgundian civil servant, diplomat, and historian. Starting around 1489, he compiled a memoir of his experiences. He knew most of the major figures of the period, including Edward IV and most major French lords (he worked for Louis XI; Dockray, p.xix), giving his account significant value, but as Dockray says on p. xx, "He had no first-hand knowledge of events in England; often he acquired information from others and drew on rumours circulating at the French court; and, when he finally set pen to paper, he had to rely a great deal on his own (perhaps defective) memory."
Kendall, p. 498, suggests that he had most of his information from Henry Tudor's court in exile, and accuses him of contributing to the Tudor legend. The former is likely true (Commynes met Henry Tudor in 1484, and Tudor reportedly complained of his long time in exile; Langley/Jones, p. 218), but the latter I think unfair. Commynes paints an unflattering picture of Richard, but, unlike (say) Rous, he wasn't trying to flatter any Englishman; he was trying to justify himself. What he says about Richard is often ill-informed, but we can assume that he is generally telling the truth as it was told to him. And, since his work was not published until 1524, it had no effect on More or Vergil, though it influenced Hall (and hence Shakespeare).
* A fifth near-contemporary source, dealing only with the final event of Richard III's reign, is "The Ballad of Bosworth Field," cited by Ross and found in the Percy manuscript, but rarely used by other authors. Child mentions it in his notes to "The Rose of England" [Child 166] but does not deign to print it. Its value is debated; see the notes to "The Ballad of Bosworth Field."
Somehow related to the "Ballad' is "Lady Bessy" or "The Song of the Lady Bessy," which Child mentions alongside "Bosworth Field" in his notes on "The Rose of England." Child correctly calls "Lady Bessy" a more interesting piece, telling of how Elizabeth of York, Henry Tudor's future wife, calls upon Lord Stanley to bring Henry Tudor to the throne and helps weave together a conspiracy. The earliest copy dates from the reign of Elizabeth I, and there is another copy in the Percy manuscript.
Child thinks "Lady Bessy" near-contemporary -- but there is the curiosity that it shares verses with "Bosworth Field." One, therefore, must predate the other, and "Bosworth Field" looks older to me. My personal guess is that "Lady Bessy" was written in the time of Elizabeth I to glorify her grandmother and namesake, Elizabeth of York. This would explain much -- e.g., why the ballad describes Elizabeth of York reaching out to Henry Tudor. Why, if she is so independent before her marriage, would she allow herself to be effectively enslaved by such a man? (And enslaved she was; Henry Tudor even saw to it that her coronation was muted, so that she had little chance to build up what was known as an affinity; Laynesmith, p. 92. He also refused to let her use the arms to which she was entitled as Edward IV's heir; Laynesmith, p. 184. And he deliberately restricted her dower lands so that she would be financially dependent on him; Laynesmith, p. 236. On the other hand, when she died, he truly went all-out to commemorate it; Laynesmith, pp. 123-127. Could this have been some sort of posthumous tribute from a king who so thoroughly rewrote history?).
It is easy to imagine Elizabeth of York working to overthrow Richard III -- but why not take charge in her own right, with a compliant husband and one who might also have a stronger claim to the throne? Weir seems to be the only author to take "Lady Bessy" at all seriously, although Laynesmith, p. 21, says that the nineteenth century historian Agnes Strickland also used it.
Griffiths/Thomas, p. 115, argue that "Lady Bessy" gives a much too active role to Elizabeth of York, and suggest that the role played by Lady Bessy in the ballad was actually the work of her mother Elizabeth Woodville. This is possible -- but if the song changes the role of such a key player, how can we rely on any other part of it? And how was it affected by Elizabeth Woodville's disgrace at the hands of Henry Tudor? Or her death in 1492? These questions we simply cannot answer.
To me, the woman in "Lady Bessy" sounds more like Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry Tudor, whom we know *did* plot against Richard III. Could the song be trying credit Margaret's actions to her daughter-in-law? In this connection, it is worth noting a well-known quote about Elizabeth and Margaret written to the Spanish court by Don Pedro de Ayala: "The King [Henry VII] is much influenced by his mother.... The queen, as is generally the case, does not like it" (Laynesmith, p. 208, who notes other indications of conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law).
The fact that this list of sources is so short is why so many scholars continue to trust in the Tudor historians:
* Polydore Vergil. Although he worked in the Tudor court, Vergil had no direct experience of what he was writing about. He was an Italian who came to England in 1502 (Ross, p. xxiii). Henry VII some years later asked him to write a sort of official history of England. Vergil's book went back to Roman times (Vergil apparently made himself unpopular by questioning the existence of King Arthur; St. Aubyn, p. 69), but it is most important for the Yorkist and Tudor periods, since that was the only era for which he could consult any significant sources we don't have now.
Vergil began writing probably in the period 1505-1507 (Fields, p. 14, supports the earlier date, Dockray, p. xx, says "not later than" the latter; either way, contrary to St. Aubyn, p. 68, Vergil could hardly have consulted Elizabeth of York, who was at least two years dead). The work was completed in 1517 (Fields, p. 14) but not published for another decade and a half.
Ross says of Vergil, rightly, that he "was no official hack. Equally, he could not afford to be wholly detached and impartial. He has been seen in the posture of 'a modern historian of repute who undertakes to write the history of a large business firm.'" He probably tried to get good information (Dockray, p. xx, says that his handling of sources was "remarkably scholarly and sophisticated by early sixteenth-century standards"), but he inevitably talked mostly to pro-Tudor people and was exposed to (and transmitted) pro-Tudor interpretations. Unlike More, he would not fabricate -- but because of his lack of sources, uncorroborated statements of his cannot be trusted absolutely. Ross, pp. xxiv-xxv, describes him as clearly attempting to make Richard look bad -- but subtly, with careful psychological digs. (Ironic that Ross has a tendency to do this himself.)
Saul3, p. 15, observes that it was Vergil who came up with the idea that the overthrow of Richard II, and the various troubles of the fifteenth century, were all one related problem. "His achievement was to give meaning to [Richard's] reign.... Previous writers... had seen his evil as a unique evil. Vergil saw things differently. He showed Richard's reign to be the final stage in a grand historical sequence That sequence had begun three-quarters of a century earlier with Henry of Lancaster's seizure of the crown.... It was Vergil, in other words, who invented the notion of the Wars of the Roses. It was Vergil who was the originator of the Tudor Myth."
* Thomas More. More is probably the most controversial of all the sources for the reign of Richard III, because of course he came to be famous for his integrity in the reign of Henry VIII -- and because he was by far the best stylist of any of our sources. And yet, Ross says, "Despite its author's great reputation, and the justified celebrity and wide influence of the work itself, Sir Thomas More's History of King Richard III deserves less serious consideration as a source of information for Richard's life and reign than does Polydore's Historia.... [I]t has long and with some justice been questioned whether More was seriously writing history in the modern as opposed to the classical sense of the word (i.e. drama)."
Ross, p. xxvii and following, goes on to describe More's invented details and invented speeches. Even St. Aubyn, who does not seem to realize the degree to which he has followed More, admits on p. 69 that this "most influential of early histories of Richard was also the least reliable." St. Aubyn goes on to echo Ross: "More never intended his book as history in the modern sense of the term." Dockray, p. xxi, adds that he had no first-hand knowledge of the period (he was born in 1478, and so was only five years old when the Princes vanished, and seven with Richard III died).
It is true that More studied under John Morton, Bishop of Ely (Fields, p. 16), who knew Richard -- and who was a prime move of events in the 1480s. St. Aubyn, p. 71, also mentions that the Earl of Surrey, who fought for Richard at Bosworth, was More's patron. But few believe Surrey had any part in the writing, and Morton worked hard to overthrow Richard even before Richard's usurpation really took shape (WilliamsonA, p. 76, believes him the single most significant anti-RIchard conspirator); even such parts of More's history that came from Morton were probably wildly distorted, and the rest seems to be completely un-researched. A notable feature of More is the lack of accuracy even on matters of simple fact -- e.g. his book was off by a dozen years on Edward IV's age, and it didn't know the name of the woman with whom Edward IV precontracted for marriage. The list could be vastly multiplied.
There are many curiosities about the work, such as the fact that it simply halts around the time of Buckingham's rebellion (Ross, p. xxvii). In all likelihood More abandoned it half-finished; it was found among his papers after his execution (Fields, p. 15). It was not published until 1543, and that in corrupt form; the first proper edition was in 1557 (Kendall, p. 499). It appears More began his work (which exists in slightly different English and Latin versions) in some time in the period 1513-1516.
Some have speculated that More abandoned his history because he came to realize that it was largely false. This frankly strikes me as unlikely -- he would not have come so far in preparing editions in two different languages if that were the reason. Probably he realized that it would not suit his purpose. As St. Aubyn, p. 70, remarks, "His 'History' shares much in common with medieval morality plays, in which fidelity to fact is scarcely relevant." My guess (following this idea and a hint on p. 500 of Kendall) is that More was trying to construct a guideline for what kings *should not* do, and stopped when he realized that the history was so far-out that no one (except crackpots like Seward and Weir) could take such a thing seriously ("There is no surer way to misinterpret More than to overlook his ever present irony and to accept literally what he intended as a joke," St. Aubyn says on p. 70).
Pollard, p. 120, goes so far as to say, "The clear similarities even in More's tale to the story of the Babes in the Wood, especially in the manner in which one of themurderers subsequently confessed, powerfully suggests a literary rather than factual inspiration [for More's history]."
Despite his originality and his undeniable personal integrity, it should also be remembered that More was not particularly honest or fair in his scholarly writings; Scarisbrick, p. 111, refers to the "mere assertion and jeering that is to be found in so many anti-Protestant works by Catholics, especially those of More." It is hard to understand why More is considered a significant reference -- except that it is the most anti-Richard of all the early sources.
* Edward Hall. Weir seems to like Hall a lot. But Ross, p. xxii, calls him simply the "principal plagairizer" of Vergil and More. Ross, p. xxxi, observes that Hall, who wrote in 1548, was a late source *and* writing to flatter the Tudors. What little good material there is in Hall comes from Polydore Vergil; much of the rest comes out of his head and is clearly designed to make Richard look bad (Ross, pp. xxxii-xxxiii, gives examples, including once case where Hall produces a flat-out falsehood to make his case). Hall was a primary source for Holinshed, who in turn supplied much material to Shakespeare (Fields, p. 19) -- but that doesn't make him any more accurate.
For the most part, Hall's peculiar material (I use the term in the technical sense of "things not found elsewhere") must be considered highly suspect, though he does seem to have gathered a certain amount of folklore. He is, for instance, the earliest printed source of the warning to the Duke of Norfolk before the Battle of Bosworth, which he quotes as "Jack of Norfolk be not so bold, For Dickon thy master is bought and sold" (in a curious note, Shakespeare's version of this, which begins "Jockey of Norfolk" rather than "Jack of Norfolk," is written on what is apparently the only painting of Norfolk. Ross, p. 141, and Jenkins, in reproducing the photo in a plate facing p. 112, say that the painting is probably from the sixteenth century -- meaning that it is not contemporary with Norfolk but probably predates Shakespeare. Might it be taken from an earlier painting? There is much that is curious about this painting -- the title at the top refers to the "Duke of Norfolke," but the text of the "Jockey" rhyme spells it "norfolk" -- no "e" and no initial capital, though it uses capitals for "Jockey" and "Dickon." It is also spaced strangely. I suspect the text of the rhyme may be a later addition).
It will be observed that these sources range from the not-really-biased-but-unfriendly-to-Richard (Mancini, Commynes) to the clearly hostile (Croyland, Vergil) to the outright propagandistic (More, Hall). We have nothing telling us Richard's side -- and, as Ross notes on p. xlviii, nothing from the north of England, where Richard was best known. All Richard's positions may have been as openly specious as the claim that Elizabeth Woodville used witchcraft to lure Edward IV into marriage (although even this wasn't as crazy as it sounds; Edward married her secretly, proving that he knew she was unsuitable as a wife; Laynesmith, p. 58). Elizabeth's mother Jacquetta of Luxembourg was also accused of sorcery at least once (Laynesmith, p. 214; again, this isn't as crazy as it sounds, since there was a story that the royal family of Luxembourg was descended from the demon Melusine; Langley/Jones, p. 121). George of Clarence had also condemned the marriage (Laynesmith, p. 61). In addition, the Church strongly disapproved of secret marriages, since it cost them control and also deprived outsiders of the chance to object (Laynesmith, p. 79); priests were not supposed to conduct them ( Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 105).
But we do not know his reasons for Richard's actions, and so we must be very careful not to fall into the trap of listening to the extremist sources when we don't know the other side.
There is one other source we should perhaps mention, the historian George Buc(k), who wrote in Stuart times (his work was first compiled in 1619, according to Pollard, p. 214). Buck was the first to attempt a serious defense of Richard. He cites several manuscript sources which can no longer be found. His material is extremely problematic. He had what we might call a conflict of interest -- his family had been attainted and ruined after Bosworth (Pollard, p. 214). This obviously makes the value of his discoveries somewhat questionable. But Buck's defence of Richard is very piecemeal, with no overall theme -- if he were inventing sources, why not create more? All that can really be said of Buck is that he presents material we cannot discount but cannot fully trust, either.
RICHARD'S REDISCOVERED BODY
From the time Mancini's work was discovered until the twenty-first century, essentially no additional information related to the controversy was discovered. But in 2012, a dig organized and promoted by Philippa Langley found a body believed to have been that of Richard III. The story of the dig need not retain us (it's the primary subject of Langley/Jones, and none of it is relevant to the ballad; you can read the book if you want). But Richard's body has much to tell us -- less about actual history (although it has some value even for that) than about the chroniclers who blackwashed him.
Of course, this matters only if it's Richard's body. Is it? The evidence discovered so far is as follows:
1. The body was found in Leicester, in what is believed to have been the Greyfriars monastery, which is the place Richard's body was said to have been buried. And he was buried so hastily that there seems to have been no proper shroud or coffin, and they didn't even provide enough space for the body to fit, causing it to be buried in a hunched position (Langley/Jones, pp. 207-208).
2. Radiocarbon dating gave conflicting analysis; if done strictly, it gave a date for the body of c. 1445. However, analysis of stable isotopes in the body showed that the man involved had had a diet rich in protein -- itself a rare thing, and evidence that he was, at the very least, a nobleman. But such a diet affects carbon dating; adjusting for that gives a death date of c. 1495 with a standard deviation of about 25 years (Langley/Jones, pp. 168-169). Since Richard died in 1485, that means the dating is just right for Richard.
3. The skull sutures say the body was of a man in his late twenties to late thirties (Langley/Jones, pp. 170-171), so that fits. The fact that his wisdom teeth had come in, but most of his teeth were in good condition, supports an age in his twenties or thirties. Richard was 32 when he died, so the age is a precise fit.
4. He had died violently; there were evidence of several un-healed blows to the head (Langley/Jones, pp. 173-174), at least one of which would have been fatal. Interestingly, all eight of these had been aimed at the back of the head; it seems likely that Henry Tudor wanted to be sure Richard's corpse would still be recognizable so there would be no false Richards (Langley/Jones, p. 176).
5. Two blows appear to have been inflicted after the victim was dead and his armor removed. One, based on the angle of the blow, appears to have been inflicted after the body had been flung over the back of a horse. He had been stabbed in the rear end. The experts regarded this as an "insult" blow -- a mocking assault on a dead man (Langley/Jones, pp. 176-177). Such a blow would probably only be inflicted on a significant enemy -- not necessarily King Richard, but if not the King, then presumably a member of his inner circle.
6. DNA unequivocally shows the body to have been male (Langley/Jones, p. 181), and analysis of the mitochondrial DNA (which is passed only in female line) showed the body to have the same mitochondrial DNA as a person whose maternal-great-in-the-seventeenth-generation-mother had the same mother as Richard III -- including one quite unusual genetic marker (Langley/Jones, pp. 181-182), one found in only a few percent of the population. So far, tests on Richard's Y chromosome have not been done to verify the match (Ashdown-HillDNA, pp. 48-149).
Thus we have the body of someone who was Richard's age, who was found where we would have expected to find Richard's body, who had been well-nourished for most of his life, who had died violently, whose body had been treated with scorn by his enemies after his death, who certainly died within fifty years of Richard's known death date and probably within ten, who has the DNA we would expect Richard to have. It's not proof beyond a reasonable doubt -- but by far the simplest explanation is that the body is Richard III's.
And while the body cannot tell us who Richard was or what he did, it tells us a lot about the stories told of him -- and the falsehoods they contained. There was no withered arm (Langley/Jones, pp. 137, 172). The one major abnormality was scoliosis -- a curved spine. There was no obvious cause for this; he probably did not suffer from it as a child (Langley/Jones, p. 171), and it probably did not affect his walk. It probably accelerated as he got older, so it only became a major issue in his later years. It likely caused one shoulder to be higher than the other; the shoulders in his skeleton are mismatched. He probably didn't have any other physical abnormalities. He wasn't a "crookback"; this was one of the stories his enemies spread to vilify him.
Having said all that, let's get down to the actual issues.
WARS OF THE ROSES
For a more detailed sketch of the history I am outlining here, see the notes to "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" [Child 164]. The story really begins more than a century before the Princes in the Tower, with King Richard II (reigned 1377-1399). Richard II was the grandson of King Edward III, who had started the Hundred Years War with France and won the great battle of Crecy in 1346; Richard II's father was Edward "the Black Prince" who had beaten the French at Poitiers in 1355. But the Black Prince had picked up some sort of disease in his travels, and died in 1376, a year before his father (Seward-Hundred, pp. 112-113). Little Richard II came to the throne as a 10-year-old surrounded by unprincipled uncles (HarveyJ, p. 152). Culturally, it was a great era -- the period of Chaucer, Langland, and the Gawain-poet (HarveyJ, p. 146) -- but politically it was difficult; the war with France, begun by Edward III, was going badly due to lack of money, and the king's uncles and many of the nobles thought that they had a quick fix to turn the war around. (Highly unlikely, but that's the way nobles thought in those days.)
Richard II did not gain power until 1387 (Seward-Hundred, p. 137), and when he finally took charge, it produced a rebellion by the nobles he had displaced. Richard managed to survive that, but in 1397 he took steps to stamp out the last survivors of the rebellion. Having done so, he tried to rule as an absolute despot (HarveyJ, p. 149, says that he insisted "upon the sacred and indissoluble nature of the regality conferred on him by his consecration"). In 1399, one of the men he had exiled, Henry of Bolingbroke, the Duke of Lancaster (hence the name "Lancaster" for his house, even though Henry, like Richard, was of the Plantagenet family) returned to England, deposed Richard II, and had himself crowned as Henry IV (HarveyJ, p. 160; Seward-Hundred, p. 142). Richard died, probably murdered, the next year.
Henry IV was a member of the royal family, and Richard II's closest relative in the male line, but not the true heir of Edward III or of Richard II. That distinction went to certain young members of the Mortimer family, descendants of Edward III's second son Lionel of Clarence by a female line (for their complicated ancestry, see HarveyJ, p. 192). Richard II had been the only surviving child of the Black Prince, Edward III's oldest son; Henry IV was the son of Edward III's third son John of Gaunt, and thus behind the Mortimers in the line of succession.
Some sources, notably Gillingham, try to deny a fundamental fact of the Wars of the Roses: That the wars were the consequence of the deposition of Richard II. He states his case explicitly on pp. 2-3, pointing out that this Shakespeare-inspired view is dramatically wrong. Shakespeare, following the Tudor historians, makes the fifteenth century a time of great evil, with the various upsets a sort of divine retribution and the Wars of the Roses a period of extreme violence. Saul3, p. 11, makes the point that Shakespeare's Richard II begins in 1397, as that king is already starting toward deposition, because his theme only begins there.
Tuck, p. 222, says that "it would be quite wrong to suppose that the ills that befell the Lancastrian dynasty... arose from a defective title to the throne in 1399." This is true; the Lancastrian dynasty fell because Henry VI was incompetent. But it was the weakness of Henry VI's claim to the throne that caused Richard of York, rather than someone else, to become the focus of the opposition.
As Saul3 puts it on p. 215, "Richard II's deposition ushered in almost a century of unparalleled political instability in England. For the act of deposition, once carried out -- or, rather, carried out twice -- was easier the third, fourth, or fifth time." He adds on p. 216 that, although all the coups were made possible by force, all depended on a claim of legitimacy. If Richard II had had heirs, there might still have been civil conflict -- but it would surely have taken different form. On pp. 225-226, he says that "Had Richard II not been deposed, there would have been no Richard III, or at least no Richard III in 1483. This is not to say that there would have been no Yorkist dynasty. Almost certainly, there would have been." But it would have followed a natural succession: "Richard [II]'s deposition changed everything. By opening the dynastic question, it paved the way for later depositions."
Still, Gillingham is correct at the heart. The Wars of the Roses were not as bad as painted, and it is by no means obvious that Henry VII cured a great evil. Unfortunately, Gillingham throws out the baby with the bathwater: Shakespeare's view of divine kingship needs to go, but not the fact that Richard II's deposition led to the Wars of the Roses.
Prior to the deposition of Richard II, English kings had been set aside, the most important example being Edward II in 1327. But Edward II had been succeeded by his son Edward III. The deposition of Richard II was the first time since the reign of Stephen in 1135-1154 that a monarch had not been succeeded by the previously-accepted heir. What is more, it was brought about by a revolution by the high magnates. This showed something that hadn't really been considered before (to twist Tacitus's observation about Galba's election to the Principate; Histories I.4): "A secret of the monarchy had been revealed, that the Barons could make a king."
Gillingham is right in part: Had the Lancastrian dynasty been successful and prolific, its illegitimate origins would surely have been forgotten, just as it has been forgotten that the Tudors were even more illegitimate. But the Lancastrians were not prolific, and Henry VI was a disaster. It was clear that he had to go. And *someone* had to succeed him. The barons had by this time been drawn into various factions, and Edward III had left many, many descendants with at least some claim to the throne. Given the certainty that a new king would have to be chosen, naturally they all tried to improve their situation by supporting their candidates. It was partisanship with longbows. The actual monarchs involved were, in some ways, almost incidental. (There is actually a board game, called "Kingmaker," produced by Avalon Hill, which makes them *entirely* incidental. They are just markers on the board. All power belongs to the nobles. This exaggerates, but it reveals the situation clearly.)
The Mortimer claim generally sat quiet for half a century, though there was one attempt to assert it in 1403 and another in 1413. But Henry IV was able to survive the attempts to overthrow him, though only barely. And his son Henry V (who came to the throne in 1413) had conquered much of France and been declared the heir to the French throne; no one wanted to depose him! Then Henry V died in 1422, at the age of 35 (Seward-Hundred, p. 188), and his heir was his son Henry VI, not yet a year old.
Before Henry VI reached the age of thirty, the English had been thrown out of France, and England was in chaos. As for Henry VI himself, he was a weakling even after he attained his majority, and in 1453 he had a nervous breakdown (Gillingham, p. 75. HarveyJ, p. 188, notes that his body was found to have a "rather small skull," whatever that tells us).
Henry's government also ran the royal finances into the ground, making it impossible to conduct the war against France or do much of anything else (Ross-Wars, p. 26, says that the debt in 1450 was 372,000 pounds, up more than 200,000 pounds from 1733, and the annual revenue no more than 33,000 pounds. Seward-Roses, p. 5, gives even more dire numbers: Henry's government by the end had income of only 24,000 pounds per year, and debts of 400,000; the royal income barely covered household expenses, with nothing left over to service the debt or provide government. Jenkins, pp. 8-9, notes how various nobles had taken over most of the government's sources of revenue, leaving Henry VI with far less than his predecessors). The Duke of York -- who was also the inheritor of the Mortimer claim to the throne -- ended up having to self-finance the war in France and his government in Ireland, something no ordinary man could possibly afford to do.
England is sometimes described as being in chaos in this period. This is exaggerated. Fighting was rare, and armies small; Gillingham, pp. 22-24, notes that the nobles were making no real attempt to fortify their lands, and quotes Commynes to the effect that England was the best-governed of the many nations he had visited (pp. 15-16, 24).Lander, p. 10, notes that no city in England suffered a prolonged siege, and none were forced to burn their suburbs. Many major towns, including Oxford, were not even fortified.
But the monarchy was non-functional. There was no question but that the government had to change: Either Henry VI had to go, or someone competent had to take charge for him. But the feeble-minded Henry had no skill to choose a minister to do what he himself could not do, and his wife Margaret of Anjou was absolutely unwilling to listen to sense (Rubin, pp. 232-233, attempts to defend Margaret. But it's an impossible task. Yes, Margaret was a strong leader, but she was not emotionally fit -- she played favorites and gave no attention whatsoever to the needs of the country. She forced nobles to be part of the court faction or the anti-court faction -- and then forced the anti-court faction into revolt).
Nor were there any immediate relatives to help out; Henry VI had no brothers, and one of his three uncles had died before Henry V, and the other two were both dead by 1447, all without issue -- Henry IV, amazingly, had had four sons, but only one legitimate grandson, Henry VI (Perroy, p. 335). Henry IV had had some half-brothers, the Beauforts, and there were quite a few of them left (including the Earl of Somerset and his heirs), but though Margaret of Anjou liked them a lot, they were neither particularly competent nor particularly popular. Their main claim to fame was that Henry Tudor was descended from them, but the future Henry VII hadn't even been born when the Wars started.
I won't bore you with the details of the first round of the civil war which began in 1455 (there are plenty of books on the subject, plus some brief notes in the entry on "The Rose of England" [Child 166]), but the final outcome was this: In 1461, Edward Plantagenet, who had become Duke of York when his father was killed in 1460 and who was the Mortimer heir (and hence the rightful king of England) as well as a descendent of Edward III's fourth son Edmund of Langley, was able to crown himself King Edward IV. He then won the battle of Towton, by far the largest battle of the Wars of the Roses, making him the master of almost all of England (Seward-Roses, p. 6).
Edward had to deal with some conspiracies in his reign, and at one time was even deposed in favor of the restored Henry VI (Gillingham, pp. 179-188; HarveyJ, p. 206), but he managed to crush all the rebellions by 1471 -- greatly helped in the final battles by his youngest brother, Richard of Gloucester.
The key battle of the 1471 civil war was the Battle of Barnet. Here we come to another of our conflicts in interpreting the evidence. Kendall, pp. 108-114, makes Richard the hero of that battle, saving Edward IV's right wing. This draws extreme criticism from Ross (pp. 21-22), who essentially accuses Kendall of fabricating the story -- yet to substantiate his claim Ross compresses six pages of Kendall's book down to seven lines of type. It is undeniable that Kendall's account is overly dramatic and detailed. But in essence it is the same as Burne, p. 257fff. The only differences between Kendall and Burne concern commanders at different parts of the front, and in fact Kendall's reconstruction is more reasonable at this point than Burne (Burne has the Earl of Warwick commanding the Lancastrian army from the left flank, whereas Kendall has him command the reserve, in the center of the army, and send it to the left flank. Interestingly, Ross-Edward, p. 167 note 2, points out Burne's error and is far less critical of Kendall). And Burne, p. 277 calls Richard "[the] hero of Barnet."
Even more ironic, Ross-Wars, p. 123, prints a map of Barnet which is without question directly derived from Kendall's of twenty years earlier.
Cheetham does not have a map of the battle, but his description of Barnet (pp. 70-71) is closest to Kendall though it does not give quite as much credit to Richard. Seward-Roses, p. 180, also gives an account much like Kendall's though he downplays the role of Richard; Seward-Richard, p. 51, questions whether Richard had actual command of the right wing, but names no alternate commander and agrees with Kendall's description of the battle.
The second battle of the conflict of 1471 was the Battle of Tewkesbury; here again Richard had command of a third of the army, so clearly Edward IV liked his performance at Barnet. And, again, Richard seems to have performed well (Young/Adair, p. 91; on page 92, they describe his performance as giving Edward "invaluable support").
It seems likely that Kendall and the others are mostly right in his praise of Richard here. Even his worst detractors regarded Richard as a great soldier -- see Seward-Roses, p. 257, who gathers the evidence of the Tudor historians on this point. Keegan/Wheatcroft, p. 262-263, declare that "Whatever the black legend of the Tudors may say of the character of Richard III, it does nothing to conceal his skills as a soldier.... Had Richard had the chance to display his military talents on a wider, European field, his military reputation would stand much higher." The Italian Mancini says that he was the chief prop of Edward's throne in the 1480s: "such was his renown that any difficult or dangerous task necessary for the safety of the realm was entrusted to his direction and generalship" (Fields, p. 60).
To be sure, Ross-Wars, p. 128, thinks Richard's military reputation inflated. He points out, correctly enough, that Richard's record consists of command of a wing at Barnet and Tewkesbury, control of an invasion of Scotland, and the lost battle of Bosworth. But Ross's own account reveals the relative insignificance of strategic planning at this stage. What counted was speed, good logistics, and tactical control of one's forces. Richard consistently demonstrated the first, showed the second in the invasion of Scotland, and clearly displayed the third at Barnet. The single best argument for his ability is the fact that Edward IV -- the only undefeated general of the Wars -- consistently gave Richard extremely senior posts. And it is noteworthy that the war with Scotland, although expensive, went well under Richard; once he became King and others took charge, it collapsed (Pollard, p. 159).
In the aftermath of Tewkesbury, Seward-Richard, p. 54, says that Richard "first sent men to execution without mercy" and accuses him of "his first murder." The first claim is technically true but extremely misleading. Richard was constable of England, and conducted trials of the leading survivors of the battle -- very quick trials. And they did result in executions (Young/Adair, p. 92, who note that the result was"inevitable"; Pollard, p. 51, says that "His role as constable presiding over the courts of chivalry was not exceptional, nor was the summary justice exercised unusual"). However, the chief victim of the trials was the Duke of Somerset. Somerset was unquestionably guilty of treason; he had commanded at Tewkesbury and had been a senior officer at Barnet. The penalty for treason was of course death. It is true that the traitors were executed very hastily -- but they had been taken in battle, so they certainly should have arranged their affairs earlier!
Ross-Edward, who is generally anti-Richard, barely mentions Richard in this context, saying on p. 172 that about a dozen "die-hard Lancastrians were sentenced to death and summarily executed in Tewkesbury market-place, though they were spared any of the usual indignities and given honourable burial afterwards. Not too much should be made of this incident as a lapse from Edward's record of clemency to his opponent. The victims were all men who had shown themselves irreconcilable, and nearly all had been pardoned by Edward in the past, only to abuse his generosity. Given their records, they could have expected little else."
There is an illustration of the execution of Somerset in an early French translation of the Arrival of Edward IV [a chronicle of Edward's return from exile]. Ross-Wars, p. 120, reproduces it. In the foreground, looking on carefully, is a man wearing a crown, whose shield bears the quartered arms of England and France -- the tokens of the English King. It is clearly supposed to be Edward IV. There can be little doubt that contemporaries thought Edward, not Richard, responsible for the execution.
Some have argued that the capture of Somerset and his men was a violation of the right of sanctuary; they were taken from a church in Tewkesbury. This has caused much debate over the years about whether that particular building had the right of sanctuary (Seward-Richard, p. 54; Kendall, p. 529). But even if it was a true violation, the decision was Edward IV's, not Richard's. And Henry VII would notably pressure the King's Bench to rule that there could be no sanctuary in cases of treason (Chrimes, p. 71).
If this tells us anything at all about Richard, it is only that he learned about justice in a very hard school, and to punish swiftly and forcefully. Lord Hastings would suffer unfairly as a result, but Richard probably was not deliberately unjust.
If you accept Seward's definition of "murder" as meaning "enforcing the law," then Seward is actually wrong about Richard's first murder, because he had in 1469 helped judge a court case resulting in a jury convicting two peers of a capital crime (Ross-Edward, p. 123). This was in a civil court, whereas the Tewkesbury executions followed what amounts to a court-martial -- but both were legal executions of men known to be guilty of treason.
Seward-Richard, p. 55, accuses Richard of murdering Edward, the Lancastrian Prince of Wales. Kendall, pp. 528-529, cites *seven* contemporary sources as saying Edward died on the field at Tewkesbury -- and quotes them to prove it. Seward brushes this off as "very few" sources and says that, since they aren't specific, we are still entitled to think Richard killed the prince. Dockray, p. 83, is wishy-washy but says "although there is considerable disagreement in the sources, the balance of likelihood is that Prince Edward of Lancaster was killed during the action." Pollard, p. 51, says flatly that "There is no contemporary evidence to support" the accusation against Richard. And Ross, p. 22, says unequivocally that "No shred of blame can fall on Richard for Prince Edward's fate." Burne, p. 283, agrees that Edward died in the battle. We can give Seward this much: Had Edward been captured, he would surely have been executed (indeed, this seems to be what the Arrival of Edward IV says happened: Edward "was taken, fleeing toward the town, and slain in the field"; Dockray, p. 92). But even that is not murder, given that Edward was old enough to fight.
Seward-Richard, pp. 56-57, and Weir, pp. 27-28, are on slightly firmer ground in accusing Richard of the murder of Henry VI. Thomas More said he did it, the equally unreliable Rous says Richard *might* have taken part, as does Commynes (WilliamsonA, p. 35), and a London chronicle reports Henry "was slain, as it was said, by the Duke of Gloucester" (Dockray, p. 91; note the slightly uncertain language). Warkworth makes the more ambiguous statement that Richard was in the Tower when Henry VI died (Dockray, p. 86; Pollard, p. 52). The argument loses some force, though, when one notes that Warkworth says "many others" were there also.
Adding to the confusion, Polydore Vergil says Richard killed Henry with a sword (Weir, p. 28), while Seward-Richard, p. 57, says that the dagger so used was venerated in Reading Abbey in 1534. Yet a 1910 medical examination of Henry's corpse found he had been beaten about the head. This is at best peculiar -- Henry VI was an imbecile, so why beat him before killing him? One has to suspect the blows to the head were the cause of death. (To be sure, WilliamsonA, p. 34, remarks that the skeleton, when examined in 1910, was too badly preserved to allow many clear conclusions about Henry's death -- or, presumably, life).
It is curious to note that, when Richard became king, he moved Henry VI's body to a better burial site (Pollard, p. 163), and perhaps tried to associate himself with the aura of sanctity starting to gather around Henry VI (Pollard, p. 164); Ashdown-HillDNA, p. 51, suspects he might even have helped foster Henry's reputation for sainthood. This reputation was undeserved -- Henry was a nitwit, not a saint -- but dead kings tend to grow on people, since by being dead they are incapable of doing anything else stupid or oppressive. And Richard might, possibly, have regretted Henry's murder, whatever his own role in it. (Henry Tudor himself would eventually upgrade Richard's own tomb, when Perkin Warbeck was threatening him and it was useful to remind people that Richard and the Yorkist line was dead. The location of Richard's burial was apparently known in the early 1500s; the grave was only lost with the dissolution of the monasteries, when the building containing it was probably despoiled; Ashdown-HillDNA, pp. 105, 108-109.)
Ross, p. 22 concludes, "An element of suspicion regarding his involvement in the death of Henry VI perhaps remains.... At most, however, he may have been the agent, not the director of King Henry's murder, since, as Gairdner pointed out long ago, the decision to murder another king could only have been made by [Edward IV] personally." Ross-Edward, p. 175, says that Richard may have been in the Tower, but that the decision was Edward's. Similarly Pollard, p. 55, although he thinks Richard played a role, says that "It is highly unlikely that Henry would have been killed on any authority but the king's. At worst Richard, if involved, was but Edward's agent; there is no reason at all to suppose that he personally stabbed Henry to death with his own dagger...." Lyon, p. 142, doesn't even mention Richard, merely saying that his death came about "almost certainly by murder on Edward IV's orders."
The Milanese ambassador, in fact, says explicitly that Edward IV decided to get rid of Henry (Dockray, p. 94), though the ambassador's statement is weakened by the fact that he though Margaret of Anjou had also been executed. Even Weir, p. 28, admits Edward's ultimate responsibility. Kendall, p. 121, seems to think Richard brought the order but took no part in the execution. HarveyJ, p. 188, claims that Richard was "away" at the time. Dockray, p. 82, tells us of the unlikely scene of a meeting between Edward IV and Henry VI before Barnet, which implies that Edward was trying to decide what to do. On p. 83, Dockray declares, "The official version of this even in the Arrival -- that [Henry] died 'of pure displeasure and melancholy' -- can surely be discounted, while any role... Richard of Gloucester may have had in the hapless Henry's demise is far from clear: Edward IV himself, in all probability, was responsible for ordering... the death of the last Lancastrian king."
But while he was likely innocent in fact, the various chronicles prove that at least some people *thought* Richard had killed Henry, which from a public relations standpoint was just as bad as having actually done it.
Seward-Richard, p. 58, also accuses Richard of murdering the Bastard of Fauconberg, though he admits no one knows how Fauconberg -- who led an army which attacked London around the time of Tewkesbury but then surrendered -- died. Not even Weir supports this allegation; Gillingham, who devotes pp. 208-213 to Fauconberg's fight, says on p. 13 that Edward IV had him beheaded and his head placed on London Bridge; he suspects that Fauconberg went back on his pardon. Kendall, p. 121, says much the same. Ross-Edward, p. 181, says that Fauconberg was executed "probably by Gloucester, for some new offence"; in his biography of Richard, Ross simply ignores the Bastard's execution, which implies that he does not think Richard acted wrongly. What is certain is that Fauconberg was a Neville (the illegitimate half-brother of the Earl of Warwick), and it is reasonable to assume he backed his family's cause even when it was lost. (Perhaps he went north to try to gather troops?)
After Barnet and Tewksbury, Edward IV's future seemed secure. In strict line of blood, the next heir of Henry VI if one reckons ancestry from John of Gaunt was King John II of Portugal, a descendent of King Henry IV by his second wife (Ross-Wars, p. 93), but he was foreign (which often debarred a succession), and his claim was in female line. The closest thing to a Lancastrian heir among men born in England was the young Henry Tudor, who sprang from the Beaufort family -- i.e. he was a descendent of John of Gaunt by his third wife (Henry IV had been the son of John's first wife) -- but the Beaufort children, as the children of the liason with Katherine Swynford came to be named, had been born before John of Gaunt had married their mother. Henry IV, although partially legitimizing them, had explicitly barred them from the succession (Kendall, p. 185). This apparently was done at the request of Archbishop Arundel in 1407 (Tuck, p. 236), although there is no obvious reason why Arundel would want such a thing (unless it was simply that the Beauforts were allying themselves with Henry V against their father and Arundel, which may have been the case; Tuck, p. 238. Givens-Wilson, p. 450, thinks that Henry did it mostly to keep the Beauforts from getting too ambitious; he trusted them, but didn't want anyone feeling too confident of their places).
This disbarment is another touchy point. Jenkins, p. 14, notes that the Beauforts had been explicitly legitimized by Richard II, with no stated restrictions on their rights to the succession, and that this was done by act of parliament. Saul3, p. 159, notes that Richard had called them "our own dear kinsmen... sprung from royal stock"; he suggests that Richard -- who had no son or brother -- may have been trying to strengthen his party. Henry IV had modified their standing by letters patent, which could not override an act of parliament (cf. WilliamsonJ, p. 15).
But there are three points here. First, people clearly did doubt the Beaufort claim (Ross-Wars, p. 93), which makes the actual law almost irrelevant.
Second, the King *could* regulate the succession -- as late as the reign of Anne, it was generally accepted that her heir would be whoever she said should take the throne. Even more to the point, Henry VIII had put Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I all in the line of succession, even though it is nearly impossible to find an argument which makes all of them legitimate. (this is the main argument of de Lisle, p. 23, who uses it to advance a claim that the Stuarts should never have succeeded Elizabeth I). Of course this is far later -- but Henry VIII could only claim the right because it existed prior to him
The bottom line is, the succession law had been repeatedly fiddled with prior to the time of Richard III, notably in the reigns of Henry I, Stephen, Henry II, John, and Henry IV himself. So Henry did have the right to say that legitimized children could not succeed, and (it seems to me) only an express act of parliament could override this clarification. And it was a clarification Richard II had not had to worry about; he still hoped for an heir at the time of his death, and in any case he had at least eight heirs senior to the Beauforts even if they were fully legitimized. He surely had no thought that they might succeed him, so they were not something he had to think about. They *were* a concern to Henry IV and his heirs, since they were Henry's closest relatives except for his sons. Despite the claim by Jenkins that that Henry IV's alteration of the succession was of dubious legality, it appears to me that parliament implicitly went along with Henry IV's restriction.
A third point is made in RicardianXIII, pp. 27-38, which lies at the heart of the whole Lancastrian claim to the throne. Henry IV, the first Lancastrian king, had known when he took the throne in 1399 that he was not the heir of the deposed Richard II. Oh, he was Richard's heir in male line, and this is usually treated as the basis of the Lancastrian claim. But although England had never had a ruling queen in 1399, it was established that claims could be trasmitted through females -- Henry II, the very first Plantagenet, had claimed the throne because he was the son of Matilda/Maud, the only child of King Henry I. So Henry IV, in taking the throne, offered as one of his claims the fact that he was descended from Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster, the brother of King Edward I.
The argument used by Henry IV was that Edmund Crouchback was actually older than his brother Edward, and should have been King, but was set aside due to his disabilities. This is quite certainly false -- Edward I was the older brother. But the interesting point is, if Henry IV claimed to be king by descent from Edmund Crouchback (which, apparently, he did), then the claim came from his mother Blanche of Lancaster, *not* his father John of Gaunt, the third son of Edward III.
But Henry Tudor, note, was descended not from John of Gaunt's first wife Blanche but from his third wife, who was not a descendent of Edmund Crouchback. Thus, even if you ignore his exclusion from the succession, he failed to have *either* of the characteristics of a Lancastrian claimant -- he was not descended from Edward III in male line (since his claim came only through his mother) and he was not descended from Edmund Crouchback at all.
As Ross-Wars, p. 93, puts it, "There was now no respectable Lancastrian claimant to the English throne left alive.' (In this sense, Ross points out, the original conflict of the Wars of the Roses -- the fight between Lancaster and York -- was over.)
Henry Tudor was so remote from the throne that he didn't even really have a hereditary title, and certainly not a royal title such as a dukedom. The only thing he could claim was the Earldom of Richmond, which had been given to his father by Henry VI, but which Edward IV took away from him (Jenkins, p. 22). In any case, Henry's claim to the throne passed through his mother, Margaret Beaufort -- who was still alive at the time Henry took the throne; if you allow Beaufort succession, she, not he, should have reigned. (Indeed, Henry would grant her the right to sign herself as "Margaret R"; Chrimes, p. 57 n. 2). There is *no* line of argument which makes Henry Tudor the hereditary king of England in 1485.
While Edward was relaxing his vigilance, Richard was building a power base in northern England. Pollard, p. 73, accuses Richard of being "an unsettling force in the early 1470s," and says that Edward had to work hard to restrain him. But this was not all bad. Pollard describes on pp. 74-77 how Richard built a power in the north, saying that "Within an exceedingly brief period he had risen from the distrusted interloper to the acknowledged lord of the north." He adds that "The use to which Richard put his power was largely beneficial to the north. By healing the old wounds between Neville and Neville, and Neville and Percy he removed the principal cause of the civil strife and disorder which had plagued the region since 1453."
Pollard, p. 78, also notes that, in this period, "Gloucester went out of his way to uphold the law even against his own men." He notes a great concern for justice in Richard (though he somehow doesn't view this as a virtue), and notes on p. 79 that Richard was "a benevolent lord" to the city of York; he made serious efforts ti improve the northern economy.
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File: LQ34A

Children in the Wood, The (The Babes in the Woods) [Laws Q34] --- Part 03

DESCRIPTION: Continuation of the notes to "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34] --- Part 02. Entry continues in "The Children in the Wood, The (The Babes in the Woods) [Laws Q34]" --- Part 04 (File Number LQ34C)
Last updated in version 6.7
NOTES [10623 words]: THE DEATH OF EDWARD IV AND THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REALM
Edward IV, in the latter part of his reign, almost completely ignored Henry Tudor (Ross-Wars, p. 94). With his more serious opponents displaced, Edward had time to relax and carouse -- and burn himself out. (Lamb, p. 15, speculates that Richard and Edward may have drifted apart during this period; certainly Richard seems to have avoided Edward's frivolous court when he could. Pollard, p. 83, thinks that this is exaggerated, as is the story of Richard's conflict with the Woodvilles -- but admits that Mancini reported that Richard avoided Edward's court to "avoid the jealousy of the queen.")
Edward died in 1483, after a brief and unexpected illness (Kendall, pp. 181-182). He was only 40, and had made few preparations for the succession except to name his brother Richard Lord Protector. At least, that is the general belief; Edward's will does not survive (Hicks, p. 139, Jenkins, p. 143, Ross, p. 40. Kendall, p. 539, speculates that the Woodvilles destroyed it. Cunningham, p. 32, questions whether Edward even named Richard protector; he implies that the title was claimed by Richard after Edward's death. Pollard, p. 97, observes that Croyland referred to a codicil in Edward's will but offers no details; he speculates on p. 91 that there was debate in the Council whether Richard should be protector or merely a member of the Council, and suggests that the compromise was that Richard should be chief councilor. The problem with this is that the Council had no such power of decisions -- and the contemporary witnesses all seem to have thought Edward made the declaration). Richard, unfortunately, was not present in London; he was in the North, where he was in charge of the war with the Scots.
There was every reason to expect chaos. In an attempt to cement his power in a period when the civil wars had extinguished many noble families and left others untrustworthy, Edward IV had created a few very powerful blocks of nobles, such as the Woodvilles at the court and Richard in the north (Hicks, p. 136; Dockray, p. 17, points out the fact that this was almost inevitable, because at this time there were so few trustworthy nobles. Richard continued the system -- but did not know which nobles to trust). Since Edward IV's son Edward was only twelve years old, it was inevitable that these factions started to quarrel over who would take charge. Many historians, from Mancini until the present day, have placed a large part of the blame for Richard's usurpation on the unsettled political situation left by Edward IV (Dockray, pp. 143-144).
The problem was, the court faction, the Woodville clan, was neither trusted nor trustworthy. They had no historic standing; the patriarch of the clan, Richard Woodville, had been a mere knight of no great wealth during the Lancastrian era -- the whole clan was Lancastrian. But Richard's children were very beautiful, and one of the daughters, Elizabeth, had managed to marry Edward IV in 1464 (Dockray, pp. 40-41, etc.). The methods by which she convinced him to marry her would come to be a source of great controversy.
Almost every authority agrees that the Woodvilles had risen too high too quickly -- although Ross-Edward, p. 96, notes that few of the children were given offices; they were merely granted rich marriages. Still, they had infiltrated themselves so heavily into the nobility that, in the 1460s, an ambassador wrote that the only other lord of any significance in England was the Earl of Warwick (Laynesmith, p. 181). Some of the families may have wanted Woodville marriages; it tied them to the monarchy (Laynesmith, p. 196). But that wouldn't mean that the children who were so married would appreciate it! And this doesn't explain the fast promotion in the church given to Lionel Woodville (Laynesmith, p. 200, quoting Wood).
RicardianXIII includes an article by Hicks noting the seven major power blocks built up by Edward IV in his second reign (pp. 263-264): Clarence's (based on Warwick lands), Gloucester's (also Warwick lands), the Prince of Wales's, the Duke of York's, Hastings's, Stanley's, and Dorset's. Clarence's was dissolved. Of the other six, three (the Prince of Wales's, the Duke of York's, and Dorset's) were given to sons of Elizabeth Woodville, and the first of those was run by her brother. Talk about a concentration of power in Woodville hands!
Laynesmith, pp. 127-128, notes that when Elizabeth Woodville died, only her personal friends and relations turned out for the funeral. Laynesmith thinks that she wanted a small, private service, and it is also possible that Henry VII deliberately kept things low-key -- but I have to think that this was possible only because of her unpopularity.
Only Dockray has the slightest sympathy for the Woodvilles -- and even he admits that "the queen's family was both large and predatory; in particular, Woodvilles virtually cornered the aristocratic marriage market for a time, completing no fewer than seven marriages (all with members of noble families) by the end of 1466" (Dockray, p. 41). In Edward IV's reign, they had been limited by the fact that they were merely allied to the crown. The obvious fear was that, with a King whose mother was a Woodville, they would dominate the crown -- and use it entirely for their own ends.
Ross makes the interesting observation, p. 36, that Edward IV had "made a frontal assault on the ark of the covenant of any landowning society -- the law of inheritance." And the Woodvilles were almost always the beneficiaries. Between 1464 and 1467, the father of the clan was made Earl Rivers and appointed Lord Treasurer. Six of the queen's sisters were married to peers -- one Duke, three earls, and two barons. Her brothers were given high posts (Seward-Richard, p. 39). Rivers even managed to grab the possessions of an arrested Lord Mayor of London, and apparently was never made to disgorge them (so Fabian's Chronicle; see Dockray, pp. 47-48). It was one of the most amazing power grabs in English history, and it set the stage for what they attempted in 1483. Ross-Edward, p. 337, quotes Pugh as saying that this gave much of the aristocracy "a vested interest in the downfall of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville."
On the other hand, Laynesmith, p. 203, declares, "Rivers and Scales did pervert the laws of inheritance and extort land on several occasions prior to 1469, but to see the queen's entire family as a horde of grasping and ambitious parvenus dominating the court is to exaggerate the behavior of the two principal members of the family and then unfairly attribute it to all their kin." But this, of course, is exactly what people were likely to do in the Middle Ages.
Elizabeth Woodville did have a problem few other Queens faced: She had two children other than those by Edward IV, and she needed a way to provide for them. This meant more pressure on Edward to find them titles and, perhaps, heiresses for wives (Laynesmith, p. 238).
How unpopular did all this make them? The women mostly survived, but the mortality rate among Woodville males was extremely high. Richard Woodville, the first Earl Rivers, the patriarch, was executed in 1470 along with one of his younger sons; Dockray, pp. 69, 71, 72. The second Earl Rivers, Anthony Woodville, was executed in 1483. And, of course, Edward V and his brother, whose mother was a Woodville, did not survive. Neither did one of Elizabeth Woodville's two sons by her first marriage. The Earl of Warwick's rebellion of 1468-1471 was largely blamed on resentment of Woodville influence; Dockray, p. 71.
Pollard, p. 103, claims that Richard rode a "Woodville scare" to the Kingship, and argues that the arguments about their power were false -- the Woodvilles never put up an effective resistance. This is another example of where our sources betray us. Certainly Pollard is right that the Woodvilles accomplished nothing in June 1483. Does this mean that they were powerless? Possibly, but it does not follow. Who would know of a Woodville plot except the Woodvilles, and we no more have a pro-Woodville source than we have a pro-Richard source. We don't even have a Croyland who was an insider. Richard succeeded because he acted quickly.
Richard, note, had the advantage of being just one man. The Woodvilles were a clan -- an unusually close-knit clan, but they had no head. The senior members of the family, Earl Rivers and the Queen, were at opposite ends of the country when Edward IV died; they could not really concert plans. Elizabeth Woodville was probably surprised by the doubts cast on her marriage; she would not have known of the precontract. By the time she knew of Richard's coup, her brother was in Richard's custody; so was one of her sons by her first marriage. Edward V himself was in Richard's hands. The Woodville conspiracy, if there was one, was foiled before it could start to act. We simply cannot tell if it existed.
On the other hand, Laynesmith, p. 201, notes that when the Earl of Warwick fulminated against the Woodvilles in 1469, it didn't earn him all that much support.
Ideally, the government officials should have stepped up to prevent the faction fight after Edward's death. But Edward's uncle by marriage, Henry Bourchier Earl of Essex, who had been Lord Treasurer, had died only days before Edward, leaving the govenment almost bereft of qualified administrators (Hicks, p. 138). The most experienced men left were the Chamberlain, Lord Hastings, and the Steward, Lord Stanley. Neither of these was much help; Hastings, Chamberlain since 1461 (Dockray, p. 37), had commanded a wing of the the Yorkist army at the great battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury, and was captain of Calais, home of England's one regular military force -- but in practice had been more Edward's companion in carousing than his colleague in government (Seward-Richard, p. 80 calls him "not very intelligent"). Stanley, though he held his post for more practical reasons, was not a policy-maker either, since he had no cause except his own advancement.
Nor were the nobles in parliament in position to calm things down. The Wars of the Roses had decimated the higher nobility (Ross-Wars, p. 119, notes that 12 peers died and six were executed in 1459-1461, and ten were killed and seven executed 1469-1471. Five more died 1483-1485. Some of these had successors or had new lords appointed in their places, but not all). The remaining lords often were not closely tied to their people; as SaulII observes on p. 441, "As a result of the long blood-letting many of the old regional lineages had been removed -- the Nevilles from Yorkshire, the Mowbrays from Norfolk and the Hastingses from the midlands. The crown stood almost alone...." Perroy, p. 341, observes, "The lord temporal, less and less numerous -- barely thirty by 1485 -- remained without any constructive program." The lower nobility had suffered badly; Ross, p. 154, says that only 26 barons were summoned to Richard III's one parliament in 1484; there had been over forty in the period 1453-1461.
The situation was even more extreme in the higher nobility. With Essex dead and his heir a grandson of about 11, Ross calculates on p. 41 that there were only eleven adult dukes and earls left in the realm in 1483: Duke Richard of Gloucester; the Duke of Buckingham, who became Richard's closest ally; Earl Rivers, the titular head of the Woodville family; the Marquis of Dorset, the son of Elizabeth Woodville by her first husband; the Duke of Suffolk (married to a sister of Edward IV); the elderly earls of Westmorland, Arundel, and Kent; and three fairly vigorous earls, Huntingdon, Northumberland, and Lincoln -- the latter being the son of Suffolk and eventually Richard III's endorsed heir. (This of course excludes the shadow Lancastrian earls such as Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond; Jasper Tudor, earl of Pembroke; and the de Vere Earl of Oxford)
Of the three younger earls, Ross, p. 55, thinks that Richard had Northumberland on his side (though certainly not whole-heartedly, given that Northumberland sat inert when Richard was fighting at Bosworth; Burne, p. 294. Northumberland would be killed by his own people as a result -- though the immediate cause was the taxes Henry VII tried to raise for a war he almost certainly didn't intend to fight; WilliamsonJ, p. 35-36). Huntingdon seems to have been a cipher, though he eventually married Richard's illegitimate daughter (Ross, p. 158). Lincoln became a supporter of Richard, but may have been hesitant at first.
Henry Tudor, incidentally, inherited the same extreme situation -- and made it even more extreme. Richard, according to Ross, p. 154, granted only four titles of nobility, mostly to men who were already titled: William, Viscount Berkeley became Earl of Nottingham; John, Lord Howard, became Duke of Norfolk; his son Thomas Howard became Earl of Surrey; and Edward, Lord Lisle became a Viscount. Meanwhile, three dukes -- Buckingham, Gloucester, and Norfolk -- died between 1483 and 1485. Thus Suffolk was the only adult duke left when Henry succeeded -- and he was not a royal duke, and Ross, p. 158, calls him "aged and ineffectual." Aged he was not, since OxfordCompanion, p. 758, says he was born in 1442 -- but he certainly kept a low profile; the OxfordCompanion calls him a "political lightweight."
Henry of course reinstated his own earls, such as the de Vere earl of Oxford -- meaning that he instantly created a near-majority in the Lords. But he kept the circle small, and entirely of his own cronies (Chrimes, pp. 138-139); sometimes he didn't even summon eligible Lords to parliament (Chrimes, p. 140). As a result, there was only one active Duke when Henry died; Halliday, p. 82. Plus, if Edward IV had violated the "covenant" between the monarchy and the nobility with his treatment of the Woodvilles, Henry made his own violations -- as when, e.g., he appointed his uncle Jasper Tudor Duke of Bedford; WilliamsonJ, p. 23. (Even stranger, Henry married Jasper to a Woodville, the wife of the Duke of Buckingham executed by Richard; RicardianXIII, p. 269). Dukedoms were supposed to belong to members of the royal family -- which Jasper was not; Henry Tudor had Beaufort blood, but Jasper did not. Being part of Henry's family was not the same thing.)
In that sense, the Tudor pretender was very lucky. He took advantage of his parliamentary strength, too, getting parliament to annul almost every land grant made since 1455, thus chopping off the Yorkists almost completely and vastly increasing his revenue; WilliamsonJ, p. 20. WilliamsonJ, p. 19, says that there were few executions and attainders after Bosworth -- though thirty hardly qualifies as "few" in my book -- but the taking of those lands had the effect of attainder, and gradually Henry would pick off his enemies. It was a cute trick: Make an outward show of mercy but don't carry it out. (Interesting how much that sounds like what the Tudor historians charged against Richard. Could it be that their own king gave them the idea...?) Even WilliamsonJ, p. 23, admits that "[the Yorkists] were adjudged to give it all back, and their mood was pardonably combative. The surprising thing is that they did not make a greater fight of it...."
Perhaps this explains why Henry made little use of parliament as a legislative body, preferred to solicit opinions from the justices whenever possible (Chrimes, p. 161).
Lyon, p. 144, says of Richard's usurpation, "Seen from a constitutional standpoint, Richard III's seizure of the throne followed earlier precedents," but also points out that "Henry IV and Edward IV could claim to be avenging wrongs done to themselves and their fathers, as well as taking the place of a predecessor unworthy of the crown. Richard III seized the throne from a boy very clearly innocent of any personal wrongdoing. The murders of Edward II, Richard II and Henry VI are regarded with hindsight as demonstrating the twisted values of a brutal age. The disappearance and probably murder of Edward V and his brother inspire a unique popular revulsion."
And Richard's following, especially in the south of England, was small. Referring to Richard's assumption of the throne, Ross says ( p. 147), "Never before had a king usurped the throne with so slender a base of committed support from the nobility and gentry as a whole.... Moreoever, earlier usurpations had found some justifications as protests against misgovernment."
Gillingham, p. 242, takes this to another level, claiming that apart from the reluctant Northumberland and the captive Lord Strange, only five peers -- Norfolk, Surrey, Viscount Lovell, Lord Ferrers (whose family had been ennobled and made rich by Edward IV in 1463; Dockray, pp. 31, 39), and Lord Zouche (who was the father-in-law of Richard's close friend William Catesby, according to Seward-Richard, p. 119, but who also was a ward of the Woodvilles in his youth, according to Dockray, p. 52) -- were present with Richard at the final battle at Bosworth. This, however, seems to be an argument from silence -- Gillingham lists only peers directly stated to have been present (Norfolk because he died, as did Lord Ferrers; Surrey because he was taken captive on the field; Lovell because he was stated to have escaped; I'm not sure about Zouche).
There is a big hole in this argument -- and that's the Earl of Lincoln. He was Richard's heir, and had borne the orb at Richard's coronation (Cheetham, p. 123); if Richard lost, he would certainly lose the chance to become King, and might well be executed -- yet he wouldn't take the field for Richard? It's ridiculous. Thus it is highly unlikely that the argument from silence can be accepted, and we have to say that we just don't know who fought with Richard.
And Ross, no friend of Richard, paints a very different picture of the behavior of the nobles than Gillingham. Ross, p. 159, counts eight active earldoms at the time of Bosworth. Ross says that three apart from Northumberland (Lincoln, Surrey, and Nottingham) were certainly present at Bosworth (note that Gillingham says that only Surrey was there). The evidence for Lincoln's presence is strong; Henry Tudor originally said he was slain at Bosworth (Chrimes, p. 51). Ross thinks it likely that Westmoreland was. Arundel was not, but he was old; his heir probably was present. The Earl of Kent was too old (and the "Ballad of Bosworth Field" says he was there anyway). Huntington was not present but probably worked to keep south Wales from supporting Henry Tudor. Thus only Northumberland showed active hostility to Richard -- and even he mostly just sat still (and, to give him his due, he had sat still during the wars of 1470-1471 also -- Ross-Wars, p. 89 -- though in that case, he seems not to have made even a pretense of participating in the conflict).
The "Ballad" -- which is probably one of Ross's sources -- lists as being present with Richard the Duke of Norfolk, his son the Earl of Surrey, the Earl of Kent, the Earl of Shrewsbury, the Earl of Lincoln, the Earl of Northumberland, the Earl of Westmoreland, "young Arrundell" (i.e. presumably the heir of the Earl of Arundel), and Lords including Ferrers, Zouche, Maltravers, Scroop, Dacres, Greystoke, Wells, Audeley, and at least five others whose names appear to be corrupted (or else I can't figure out the spelling). Bennett, p. 11, tentatively reconstructs several other names.
Bennett's list of those present (p. 95) is the Duke of Norfolk, the earls of Northumberland, Surrey, Lincoln, and Shrewsbury (an earldom Ross doesn't even admit was active at thie time!); and Lord Ferrers and Zouche, plus probably Scrope of Bolton, Scrope of Masham, Fitzhugh, Olgle, and Greystoke.
Ross also believes that a majority of the barons supported Richard; he counts at least 16 out of 26 on the King's side in parliament (Ross, p. 161). Some of these had of course been given grants by Richard, but Ross admits that "not all [were his supporters] for materialistic reasons."
In any case, Gillingham, p. 7, claims that most peers were unwilling to fight for *anyone* in this period, not just Richard. Whether this was true in 1460, or even 1470, is debatable, but the Paston Letters certainly seem to support the supposition in 1485. The Paston Letters (a trove of letters from a contemporary family of gentry) contains an appeal from the Duke of Norfolk for the Pastons to come to Bosworth (Letter #138 in the brief Oxford Paperback edition selected, modernized, and edited by Norman Davis). The Pastons simply ignored it; they did not fight for Richard, but neither did they fight for Henry Tudor. They had fought at Barnet.
Pollard, p. 171, says that it is almost certain we will never know how many peers fought for Richard. He does say that at least four Lords could not make it to Bosworth in time, and suggests that others may have come as part of Northumberland's contingent -- and hence been willing to fight but not in position to do so.
Pollard, p. 147, cynically notes that it is hard to tell which side most of the nobility really wanted to succeed: "After 22 August 1485 a veil was discreetly drawn; it was in nobody's interest to challenge the myth that they had all to a man longed for the return of their old lords." This supports the interesting note by Bennett, p. 13, that few of the lords on Richard's side were attainted after the battle. (They ended up losing lands, but that was much later, when they could no longer continue the fight.)
RicardianXIII, pp. 268-269 (an article by Hicks) gives data which gives it a different twist: In essence, all attainted lords supported Henry Tudor. Only a relatively small fraction of the un-attainted lords served Richard -- but most of them sat neutral. Except for the Stanleys, very few indeed supported Tudor.
Hicks, p. 58, makes another interesting point: when young Edward (V) was declared heir to the throne in 1471, 46 nobles -- five dukes, five earls, 16 barons, nine bishops, and 11 knights -- signed the document. 32 were still alive in 1483 when Edward IV died. Hicks thinks only Richard, Buckingham, and maybe Bishop Stillington betrayed the oath. Yet very few of the other 29 fought on the Tudor side.
In a deeper sense, though, Gillingham is right about Richard's troubles with the nobility. Even Thomas More said it: "with large gifts he got him unsteadfast friendships" (Gillingham, p. 245). Ross, p. 163, argues that "in the final analysis... Richard's political future depended upon the attitudes and loyalties of the four great surviving magnate families. They were the more important simply because they were so few."
Ross lists four of these "great magnates": The Duke of Buckingham, Lord Howard (who was made Duke of Norfolk by Richard, succeeding the extinct line of the Mowbrays), the Percy Earl of Northumberland, and Lord Stanley -- at this time only a baron, though he would eventually be made Earl of Derby under Henry VII (Chrimes, p.55). But his family had controlled the Isle of Man since 1405 (Tuck, p. 232), which gave them a very secure base.
Howard of Norfolk, the dominant power in East Anglia, had gone with Edward IV into exile in 1470 (Dockray, p. 77), and was loyal to Richard to the death. Buckingham, given great power in Wales, betrayed Richard at first chance, seemingly out of pure lust for power. Northumberland, the leading figure in the northeast, stood neutral. And the Stanley family, with much power in the northwest, had a foot in both camps but finally went against Richard. Seward-Richard, p. 116, agrees (in a passage which appears inspired by Ross, though Seward does not acknowledge the dependence in any way): "Buckingham, Norfolk, Northumberland, and Stanley, these were the four props of the new regime. They formed an alarmingly narrow power base. All were 'over mighty', with large private armies. The desertion of anyone of them could place Richard in grave peril."
(As, indeed, it turned out; the elimination of Buckingham left Richard scrambling to goven Wales. He had not entirely solved the problem when Henry Tudor invaded via Wales; RicardianXIII, pp. 172-173. For that matter, Richard was himself an example of an overmighty subject taking advantage of his might; according to Ross-Edward, p. 203, he used his power in the north to take the throne. It's worth noting that those overmighty lords weren't necessarily the richest men in the realm; Bennett, p. 30, notes that most of the nation's military might was found along the marches with Wales and Scotland -- and Northumberland and Stanley were both Marcher lords, and Buckingham had also had substantial power on the Welsh border.)
Seward-Richard, p. 73, puts it this way. "His modern defenders have made much of [Richard's] popularity in York [and elsewhere in the North]. But... they were politically negligible even though they paid good taxes and supplied soldiers. It is a cliche among historians of the Wars of the Roses that the cities took little part in the struggle. The Duke should have concentrated his energies on winning more friends among the magnates." This is unquestionably true -- though I've never quite understood how making friends with ordinary people and refusing to buy off the wealthy and powerful is a sign of moral turpitude.
It is true that Edward IV had followed a similar course in the 1460s, building up his friends and forgiving his enemies (Ross-Edward, pp. 41-42). But Edward had had more nobles to choose from -- and he was facing the incompetent Henry VI, not the unpleasant but intelligent Henry Tudor.
THE CHARACTER OF RICHARD III
This brings us to the heart of the issue: What was Richard like? This is where the Tudor smear campaign really makes things hard.
Even before the discovery of his skeleton, which shows spinal curvature but not a hump (Langley/Jones, p. 142), it was all but universally agreed that Richard was not a hunchback; see e.g. AshleyM, p. 622, Seward-Roses, p. 272 -- though Seward-Richard, p. 37, says he had a "imperceptible crookback." (Another case where the comment tells us more about the person who wrote it than the person it is written about. If it's imperceptible, then it isn't a crookback!) HarveyJ, p. 207, notes that "from his portraits he was by no means ill-looking," and the reconstruction of his face based on his skeleton seems to confirm this (see photos of the reconstruction facing p. 117 of Langley/Jones); it shows real similarities to his portraits (which may, of course, be due to unconscious influence), though Seward-Roses speaks of his "normally somewhat acid expression."
Based on his paintings, Seward's description seems correct -- except that the evidence is not contemporary and has been tainted. For this, see especially Fields, pp. 281-283. There are three early portraits of Richard. One, dated by tree rings analysis of the frame to the year 1516-1522, shows a perfectly normal man with dark hair, reasonably handsome, though his lips are tightly clenched. A second portrait, dated 1518-1523, may well be based on the first, but in its current form it is said to have been retouched to raise Richard's right shoulder and narrow his eyes (Saul3, p. 239; the purpose was perhaps to make him look more angry). It certainly shows an asymmetric man, and it is geometrically impossible as drawn.
And then there is the third painting, the so-called "broken sword" portrait, which looks rather unlike the other two. Tree ring examination makes it likely that it was painted in the period 1533-1543. X-ray evidence shows unquestionably that it was retouched. Weir, p. 145, says that "drastic alterations were made later on, when Richard's reputation was rehabilitated [um -- when was that?], to give the deformed-looking king a more normal appearance." Fields also thinks the current version shows a more natural-looking Richard than the painted-over version. Yet Ross, p. 139, says that the painting "in which, under recent X-ray examination, there was an original straight shoulder-line, [was] later painted over to give the impression of a raised right shoulder."
Cunningham, pp. 86, 97, shows both the painting and the X-ray, as does Fields; in both cases, the left shoulder appears higher than the other but it appears to me that in the final version of the painting, Richard's right shoulder has been raised and looks unnatural. So my (casual) examination seems to reveal that Ross is right and Weir wrong, but what does it tell you that moderns can't even agree on what still-extant evidence shows? (And why doesn't someone digitally superimpose the two images to make sure?)
It is possible that there is a fourth portrait of Richard, shown in in Cunningham, p. 10; Ross-Wars, p. 83; Pollard, p. 57. The painting is of an author (Waurin) presenting a book to Edward IV, and there is in the foreground a man wearing the emblem of the Order of the Garter. It is suggested that it is Richard. The man looks far less handsome than the other portraits, but he is wearing a short, tight coat and hose, there is no evidence of a crookback or a deformed shoulder. We also have some sketches, including one by Rous, which seem to show a normal man but which are generally too hasty to mean much and which are surely not taken from life.
Kendall, p. 52, concludes that Richard's only deformity was that one shoulder may have been somewhat larger than the other -- a common condition among those trained to arms in the Middle Ages. (Indeed, Richard's great-grandnephew Edward VI had mismatched shoulders; Morris, p. 98). Pollard, p. 29, allows this possibility but adds that "no one in [Richard's] lifetime thought [he had] a physical deformity... worth reporting." Pollard does speculate that Richard may have stooped.
Oddly, there is disagreement about which shoulder had the problem -- Thomas More says Richard's left shoulder was higher (Fields, p. 277), as seemingly does Polydore Vergil (Ross, p. xxv); John Rous (who was contemporary but not close to Richard or the court) said it was the right. Kendall concludes that Richard's right shoulder was larger, while Cheetham, p. 203, follows More. Kendall may have been going by the fact that it is usually the right shoulder that was larger (see, e.g. Prestwich, pp. 137-138, describing the case of a knight whose right arm was longer than his left, based on his skeleton). Ross, p. 139, mentions the possibility of something called "Sprengel's Deformity," which limits the use of the shoulder, but given Richard's generally-conceded martial prowess, this seems pretty unlikely to me. Keegan/Wheatcroft, p. 262, declare that "the 'deformed' shoulder was, in fact, the overdeveloped arm and shoulder of an expert swordsman."
The one voice arguing the other way is Seward-Richard, p. 22, who appears to accept that Richard had a withered arm, presumably based on the fact that Thomas More said it; he speculates that Richard may have been a breech birth. On this basis, he suggests (p. 37) that Richard developed mismatched shoulders because he over-exercised his intact arm. Possible, of course, except that there is no need for the major premise of a withered arm. (I suppose we should point out that, if he did have a withered arm, it must have been his left, because his handwriting was firm and attractive. But, as we saw, his skeleton shows no sign of a withered arm; Langley/Jones, p. 137.)
Fields, pp. 278-279, notes that no contemporary other than Rous reports Richard to have had any deformity; the Croyland Chronicler, who certainly knew him, never mentions it, the Great Chronicle has nothing to say of it, Mancini never describes any such thing, and Commynes, who actually describes Richard's appearance and who was very critical of Richard's acts, portrays a whole man. On pp. 280-281, Fields lists other sources who briefly describe Richards -- including the Countess of Desmond, who said that Richard was the handsomest man at a ball she attended except his brother Edward IV. The contemporary sketches -- including even those by Rous! -- show no deformities, though they are probably not intended to be accurate portrayals.
Seward-Richard, p. 85, deduces much about his appearance and character based on little evidence, but it is not unlikely that Richard was indeed high-strung and excitable. Vergil said that he would bite his lip and toy with a dagger at his belt when thinking -- which strikes me as one of several slight hints that Richard was on the autism spectrum (repetitive behaviors are one of the diagnostic criteria of autism), although More carefully described this behavior as a form of barely restrained violence, with Richard constantly handling his dagger and giving threatening looks (Langley/Jones, p. 45) rather than a mere repetitive trait.
Our genuine indications about his character are few but mostly positive. Pollard, p. 84, devotes much space to claims that Richard tried to aggrandize himself in the north of England -- but has no choice but to conclude that "He served his brother well." Seward-Roses, p. 257, credits him with being "impeccably loyal to Edward IV" and having much charisma, but also accuses him of "a streak of vicious rapacity." Elsewhere, Seward modifies this view: he thinks Richard feared and resented Edward IV (Seward-Richard, p. 41, where he bases this opinion on an interview between the two brothers which he admits to having simply imagined); he concedes that Richard probably also felt "deep affection" for Edward. Nearly every other source calls Richard loyal to Edward without all the rigmarole of resentment.
Curiously, Seward-Richard, p. 90, calls Richard's coup against Edward V "brilliant," but clearly regards him as a poor planner overall. Seward's conclusion on p. 91 is that Richard's coup was pre-planned, but here again he is almost alone; given the number of things Richard could not foresee in advance, pre-planning seems extremely unlikely.
Seward-Richard, p. 19, tells us that Commynes calls Richard "more filled with pride" than any other recent monarch. Commynes also reported that Louis XI of France called him "extremely cruel and evil" -- but even if you don't consider such a comment from the Spider King a compliment, it should be remembered that Richard had opposed peace with Louis's France. Louis, who would say anything, probably did. Commynes also thought Richard killed Henry VI, which is usually regarded as highly unlikely.
Wilkinson, p. 286, makes the observation, "Had he lived, Richard might have gone down in history as the first modern ruler of England." (Make of that what you may. Wilkinson does not seem to think it a compliment.) Saul3, p. 72, observes that Richard was unusually willing to trade, buy, and sell lands -- in other words, he had a modern attitude of trying to run an efficient holding. Saul considers this a sign of rapacity and considers it a disagreeable trait; again, I am not sure why. Saul3, p. 196, also notes that Richard's religious foundations were unusual in that they were intended to pray only for his immediate relatives, not his remote ancestors. This might be a sign of a different and more personal piety -- or of a lack of compassion for his ancestors. There is no way to tell.
Laynesmith, pp. 101-102, notes that the description of Richard and Anne Neville's coronation made them more than usually equal; usually queens were more subordinate. Laynesmith thinks this may just be an error in the description, but it might imply that Richard had a concern for women's rights.
HarveyJ, p. 206, says that "Richard was innocent of nine-tenths of the abominable charges made against him," while admitting the likelihood that he killed his nephews. He adds, p. 208, that "in many directions [Richard] gave proof of a genuine desire for conciliation."
AshleyM, p. 624, writes, "When his brief reign is viewed in the round, Richard was undoubtedly a worthy king... History... has chosen to focus on the vicious and ruthless side of his character rather than a balanced view. Richard was certainly not someone to have as either your friend or your enemy, but he was a better king than many who had come before him and many who would come after."
Jenkins, p. 205, suggests, "He was anxious above everything to make a good impression. He used the [royal] power well when he had paid its terrible price."
Cheetham, p. 202, considers Richard an enigma, while noting on p. 204 that "His loyalty to Edward IV during his brother's lifetime is beyond dispute" -- but concludes that Edward's wife Elizabeth Woodville "had valid reasons to be afraid of him."
On p. 214, Cheetham describes Richard as follows: "'Old Dick', for all his solid virtues as an administrator and his undoubted courage on the battlefield, lacked Edward [IV]'s knack of making friends. More's observation that he had a 'close and secret' nature hits on an uncomfortable truth.... The extraordinary circumstances of Richard's upbringing cannot have failed to leave their mark on him, just as they did on his brother George. But whereas George's shallow nature gave way to a mixture of paranoia and bravado, Richard became wary, self-reliant and inaccessible.... While he was Duke of Gloucester this self-reliance was a source of strength. But the King was a public figure whose words and gestures would be carefully marked."
Cheetham, pp. 204-205, also notes that Richard had a strong streak of what we would now call puritanism (the more hostile Pollard on p. 203 calls him "either a prig or... a hypocrite) -- he did father two bastard children (Ross, p. 138), but compared to Edward IV, who typically had three or more mistresses at the same time, that's pretty tame. (For a song about one of Edward's mistresses, see "Jane Shore.") Even Seward-Richard, p. 86 grants that he "does not seem to have shared [Edward IV's] taste for whoring." (WilliamsonA, p. 73, suggests that he was not puritanical but rather undersexed. Given that he did have the two bastards, however, this strikes me as unlikely. Besides, who is more likely to be a puritan than someone who doesn't understand the temptation others feel? Pollard's explanation, on p. 165, is that Richard wanted to give the same impression as the saintly Henry VI -- who, however, probably wasn't so much saintly as genetically defective.)
Mancini reports that Richard "set out to acquire the loyalty of his people through favours and justice. The good reputation of his private life and public activities powerfully attracted the esteem of strangers" (Fields, p. 61).
Cunningham, p. 93, confesses, "Assessment of Richard's morality is extremely difficult. His use of character assassination and defamation makes it hard to separate Richard's public presentation of himself from the private feelings he must have held. The Tudor vilification of Richard III only compounds the problem."
Ross, p. 136, thinks Richard's concern with sexual morality was a sham -- something he used as a means to attack the Woodvilles. Certainly he was always slamming their behavior in his proclamations; Ross, p. 137, says he was "the first English king to use character-assassination as a deliberate instrument of policy." But Richard certainly wasn't the first King to engage in propaganda; Dockray, p. xvii, notes two publicity pamplets released by Edward IV's government after the 1470-1471 rebellion, and Ross-Wars, p. 43, mentions Yorkist propaganda prior to the invasion of 1460; on p. 45 he quotes a popular ballad they used to influence opinion, beginning, "Richard duke of York,Job thy servant insigne, Whom Satan not ceaseth to set at care and disdain, But by Thee preserved he may not be slain."
Henry VII has in his own propaganda, at least as vile as Richard's (according to pp. 56-57 of Russell, during Lambert Simnel's rebellion, a man was said to have blasphemed, died, and turned black; Henry therefore claimed Lollard influence on the movement and campaigned as a champion of orthodoxy. Ironic indeed for the father of Henry VIII....) His propaganda was also utterly absurd, as when he petitioned three different Popes to make his half-uncle Henry VI a saint (Wolffe, p. 4); fortunately, the Popes were not bright enough to confuse idiocy with sanctity -- or to believe anything Henry Tudor said. And having affairs before getting married was pretty much standard procedure for royal dukes at the time.
Regarding Richard's bastard children and his later sexual strictness -- I strongly suspect Richard felt guilty in his later years about the raging hormones of his youth. Realize that the two children were probably conceived when he was between 16 and 20 years old. Hicks, p. 26, says that his older child, a daughter Katherine, was married in 1484 at the age of at least 14 (meaning that she was probably conceived when Richard, who was born in 1452, was 17), and estimates that Richard's son John of Pontrefract was born in 1471 -- Richard knighted the boy in 1483 (Ross, p. 138), so it is likely that he was indeed approaching his teens. Richard did not marry until at least 1472, and apparently had no side affairs after he married.
It is interesting to note that Katherine Plantagenet's husband, Richard Herbert, eventually seems to have been fairly friendly with Henry VII (RicardianXIII, pp. 170-171)
In connection with Richard's strait-laced behavior, we note that Sir William Stanley, who was a generation older than Richard and who would betray him, called him "Old Dick," as if the king were uninteresting in his lifestyle (Cheetham, p. 208). Ross, p. 19, mentions that, though Edward IV built up a significant library of romances, Richard's (rather smaller) library features no such light reading; the few books we know of seem to be mostly religious in nature (Ross, pp. 128-129, though Rubin, p. 316, says that he also had a copy of Geoffrey of Monmouth, which he annotated with his own hand. Geoffrey is almost pure fiction, but it seemed to describe ideal kings, and the annotations seem to imply that Richard wanted to be a good king of a peaceful land. Pollard, pp. 206-209, shows samples from several of Richard's books -- and notes that they were generally not heavily illuminated. Although this is heavily debated, this probably means that Richard actually read them, rather than showing them off; he was trying to learn, not make an impression).
Seward-Richard, p. 85, says that we know little of his personal tastes, though he argues that Richard was fond of fancy clothing and on p. 86 offers evidence that he was very fond of hawking.
Ross does give a list of rather sharp real estate dealings on Richard's part on p. 31. It is hard to deny that he used all the tricks available to him for his own advantage -- but this was standard operating procedure at the time (and Fields, p. 47, offers evidence that some were not necessarily unfair to the other parties). Ross, p. 29, observes that contemporaries thought the action in the case showed just how intelligent Richard and his brothers were. Even Ross, p. 128, says that "there is no good reason to doubt that Richard was a genuinely pious and religious man" though he is not convinced that Richard was very clever.
There would come a time when Edward IV would condemn his middle brother, George of Clarence, to death for treason. (And there isn't much doubt that the charge was valid -- George had been part of the Earl of Warwick's 1470 rebellion, and Edward had forgiven him for that, but George kept on conspiring.) Ross, pp. 32-33, declares that the contemporary sources all held Richard innocent in this, and that some say he was sorely grieved. Yet Ross on p. 33 concludes that Richard almost certainly had a hand in the overthrow of Clarence. His evidence for this is that Richard gained much in the apportionment of Clarence's lands which followed, plus a statement by More that Richard "secretly... lacked not in helping forth his brother Clarence to his death, which he resisted openly" (Dockray, p. 107). Dockray, p. 97, agrees with this and believes that Richard helped pack the parliament which condemned Clarence. Mancini, on the other hand, declares that Richard vowed revenge on the Woodvilles for bringing Clarence down (Lamb, p. 15).
Kendall, of course, makes Richard seem a near-saint. Weir makes him a pure demon intent on seizing the throne "as soon as possible." The only thing good to be said about Kendall's view is that it makes more sense than Weir's.
Richard seems to have had a genuine fondness for music, including secular music and dance; several bishops expressed disapproval of the sort of music he permitted at his court events (Ross, pp. 141-142; the clerics involved seem to have regarded it as licentious, but that probably just means it involved dancing and didn't have religious themes).
One point is rarely mentioned by the controversialists. They seem to think they know Richard III personally. But they did not. Neither did Thomas More. Edward IV did. And Edward IV entrusted Richard with his son. Mistakenly, to be sure, but could Richard really have fooled his older brother for more than thirty years?
Also, if it be charged that Richard III seems to have wanted power -- there isn't much doubt of that. (Most barons at this time did!) But consider this: In 1483, when Edward IV died, Richard was no worse than #9 in line for the throne, and probably higher. Henry Tudor stood at least three spots lower (behind Richard, Richard's son, and Henry's own mother), even if you discount the Beaufort illegitimacy. (It is interesting to note that, though Henry VII pretended to hereditary right, the act of parliament declaring him King asserts no such thing; WilliamsonJ, p. 19, or see the text on p. 62 of Chrimes. It in effect says, Look, he's king now and we aren't going to fight it. Or, as Russell says on p. 69, Henry VII "had shown that the only indispensable condition for possession of the throne was power," and Henry, unlike Richard, would let no hint of mercy or justice interfere with his possession of that.)
WilliamsonJ, p. 18, allows that Henry's claim came through the Beauforts, and grants that "On the most favorable interpretation the Beaufort claim was not the best of the existing claims to the throne.... The Beaufort claim was therefore the Lancastrian claim, strong in history though weak in law." Yet Henry could not logically call himself the Lancastrian claimant, because Lancastrian rule was based on succession in the male line, and Henry Tudor's claim came through his mother. In male line, Edward IV was the heir of Henry VI and his son, and then Edward IV's sons, and then George of Clarence and his son (barred by attainder), and then Richard III. There were *no other descendents of Edward III in male line*. None.
And if you ignore all that -- well, Henry's mother was still alive, so she surely came before him in line. And Henry Tudor was actually of dubious legitimacy on both sides -- supposedly his paternal grandfather, Owen Tudor, had married Katherine of France, the widow of Henry V, but no proof was ever offered (Cheetham, pp. 132-233), and even if they did marry, it is possible that the oldest son, Edmund Tudor was born before the marriage took place (Langley/Jones, p. 188). The children of this match, including Edmund Tudor the father of Henry VII, were ennobled by Henry VI -- but not due to any hereditary claims to a place in the English peerage. (They might have had claims to *French* titles -- after all, they were the nephews of Charles VII -- but they certainly never attempted to gain any.) So which one was madly ambitious -- Richard of Gloucester, who had a good claim to the throne, or Henry Tudor?
This is not to deny Richard's ambition, which is undeniable, nor to justify it. It's just to show that the choice at the time was Richard, or a government led by Edward V and dominated by the wildly ambitious Woodvilles, or a goverment led by the wildly ambitious Henry Tudor. Of the three, only Richard had demonstrated any sort of competence, and also had the best record of "public service."
And ambition did not make a bad king. Quite a few English kings other than Richard openly conspired in one way or another to take the crown -- starting, of course, with William the Conqueror. Of those who followed him, Henry I, Stephen, Henry II, John, Henry IV, Edward IV, Henry VII, and William III all took direct action to attain a crown that was not automatically theirs. Stephen and John are usually accounted bad kings, and Henry IV, Edward IV, and Henry VII are debated, but Henry I, Henry II, and William III are usually considered good kings by English historians.
Nor -- and this bears emphasizing -- was usurpation an uncommon thing. In the fifteenth century, as Pollard points out (p. 172) there were *four* usurpers -- presumably Henry IV, Edward IV, Richard III, and Henry VII. One could even argue for a fifth, the re-enthroned Henry VI. I've seen it argued that usurpation was only justified when the previous king had proved himself incompetent, and that Edward V never had the chance to prove himself one way or the other. But, by this token, then Henry VII must also be treated as unjustified; what little evidence Richard gave in his two years on the throne indicates that he would have been a good king.
Pollard concludes, p. 203, that ther were "profound contradictions in Richard's behavior, and perhaps, therefore, in his personality."
If you want my guess, it appears to me that Richard had a soldier's sort of impatience. (If the Yorkists collectively had a fault, it was an inability to control their lusts: Edward IV never controlled his desire for women and pleasure, George of Clarence never controlled his lust for the throne, and Richard seemed never to curb his lust for some sort of action.) Saul3, p. 68, suggests that his father has similar attitudes: "York's rather old-fashioned, traditional sense of chivalry was to be inherited by the youngest of his... sons." On p. 99, Saul3 suggsts that he wanted to restore "chivalric kingship" -- apparently by starting wars.
Richard clearly didn't like hanging around court, and he didn't like waiting for the slow wheels of justice (even though justice at that time was swift compared to today). This matches Croyland's assessment that he "never acted sleepily, but incisively and with the utmost vigilance" (Pollard, p. 190). Pollard agrees (p. 191) that Richard's "[i]ntelligence, alertness and decisiveness are not much in doubt." Whatever the problem, he leapt in and solved it (just witness the way he died! -- the one and only thing Shakespeare seems to have gotten right in "Richard III." WilliamsonA, p. 151, suggests that in his decision to charge Henry Tudor we sense "a crisis of temperament, the rage of a man who had shown rage before"). So he executed men like Lord Hastings and Earl Rivers without trial rather than wait for a court decision (Seward-Roses, pp. 258, 265-266).
I find myself wondering if some of Richard's tendency to rush to judgment might not be the psychological trauma of his childhood; he was born around the beginning of the Wars of the Roses, and by the time he was ten, he lost his father, an older brother, and an uncle, and had been repeatedly forced to flee home (cf. Cunningham, pp. 3-4). Ross, p. 23, adds that, by the time he was 18, he had seen brutal executions carried out on many occasions, either *of* people he loved or *by* people he loved: Margaret of Anjou had executed his father and brother in 1460; Edward IV had executed many in 1461; the Earl of Warwick, who had had charge of Richard's education in the 1460s and whose daughter Richard would later marry, had engaged in mass executions in his 1469-1471 power grabs; and Edward IV had ordered more executions in the aftermath of Warwick's rebellions -- including, eventually, George of Clarence, who was Edward and Richard's own brother.
Even Seward-Richard, p. 60, admits that Richard "never had time to be young" -- though few people at this time did have a childhood as we would now recognize the term. Still, most children merely found themselves farming in the fields or learning weapons by the age of eight or so; they were not subjected to the sorts of wrenching changes of fortune Richard faced.
Richard's brutality was hardly exceptional; Seward-Roses, p. 7, notes that in 1460-1461 alone eighteen peers died in battle or were executed; in the course of the Wars of the Roses, no fewer than twelve senior members of the Royal Family died. There is a report that, after Towton, 42 Lancastrian knights were beheaded. Seward claims that some 60 were attainted.
Richard's overall record was one of surprising mercy. Consider the first serious rebellion faced by Richard, that of the Duke of Buckingham,. Buckingham's rebellion was widespread and featured a man who had every reason to grateful to Richard -- Ross, p. 114, observes that no one at the time could figure out why Buckingham rebelled, since Richard had made him the most important man in the kingdom (he had been the richest noble in England even *before* that, and his lands would be used to endow many nobles after his death, according to Cheetham, p. 160).
Pollard, p. 91, notes that Buckingham was kept out of the government during Edward IV's reign, and conjectures that it was because Edward sensed that he was very ambitious. Similarly Ross-Edward, p. 335, who notes that Buckingham was not even allowed to participate in Edward's invasion of France. But, even if true, we don't know what Buckingham was ambitious *for*. Moderns have no more idea of what Buckingham was thinking than did his contemporaries. Chrimes, p. 20, and Cunningham, p. 52, speculate that the wily John Morton, Bishop of Ely, talked him into it, but while Morton had a mind more twisty than a snake with a broken back, that can't really explain what Morton offered him. Buckingham was descended from Edward III in two lines, but no matter how you look at it, he was pretty far down -- in the Beaufort line, he trailed Henry Tudor, and in the true Plantagenet line, he trailed not only Richard III but also all of Edward IV's surviving sisters and their children. Nonetheless, Cunningham, p. 104, concludes that he must have been trying for the throne, since there was nothing else he could aspire to.
More, who on this topic might have inside information from Morton, seems to imply that Morton worked to convince Buckingham to rebel, possibly tempting him to take the throne himself. But More's account breaks off just as things might have gotten really interesting (WilliamsonA, p. 100).
WilliamsonA, p. 84, does note that Buckingham's wife was the sister of Queen Elizabeth Woodville. Most historians think the marriage -- which was forced upon Buckingham -- was unhappy, but Williamson thinks Catherine Woodville might have brought him back to the family alliance. But why, then the alliance to Henry Tudor? Why not back the princes? Even this explanation is hard to fathom.
Bennett's suggestion (pp. 47-48) was that Buckingham thought the rebellion would succeed, and wanted to be among the winners. The problem with this is, Buckingham himself was by far the strongest supporter of the rebellion. Yes, the plotting probably preceded him -- but had he been devoted to suppressing it, it would surely have failed. He must have wanted it to succeed.
Though I have never seen this stated, it's possible that Buckingham's ambitions explain one of the contradictions of Richard III's usurpation: Was the official party line that Edward IV was illegitimate, or that Edward IV's children were illegitimate? For Richard, it was easier to argue that the children were illegitimate -- but, for Buckingham, it was better that Edward IV and all his siblings were bastards.
If you set aside all of Edward IV's siblings, and considered the Beaufort/Tudor connection to be barred by illegitimacy, then there was hardly anyone left senior to Buckingham in the line of succession (cf. Chrimes, p. 20). There were a few foreign descendants of John of Gaunt in the female line (doubly suspect because they were foreign and female), including the heiress of Burgundy, the King of Portugal, and the famous Queen Isabella of Castile (Fields, p. 153; cf. Mattingly, p. 25, who speculates that the wedding of Henry VIII with Catherine of Aragon was arranged partly to bring in her Lancastrian blood), but among residents of England, I see only Henry Bourchier, the grandson of the Earl of Essex and Richard III's first cousin once removed, who was only about 11 years old. Buckingham could surely have had him set aside, too.
So Buckingham could, perhaps, have been involved in a truly grand conspiracy: Use Richard III to eliminate all the Yorkists except Richard himself; used Henry Tudor to eliminate Richard III, and then let Henry Tudor's illegitimacy eliminate the Tudor (compare Cheetham, p. 136). Or maybe Buckingham planned to knock off Henry and argue that he was the next heir of the Beaufort line; Seward-Richard, pp. 90-91, seems to think this was Buckingham's primary idea. Most of this scheme worked, except that, ironically, Buckingham showed his hand too soon and wasn't around to pick up the pieces.
Had this been the real explanation for what happened, Richard could really have gone on a witch hunt. Many of the rebellion's leaders were in Richard's hands. Richard considered Buckingham ungrateful, and he was executed (Ross, p. 117). But few others suffered so; the rebellion resulted in "less than a dozen executions" (Cheetham, p. 211). WilliamsonA, p. 108, says that Henry Tudor, the Marquess of Dorset (Elizabeth Woodville's son by her first marriage), two Woodvilles, and Bishop Morton of Ely and the Bishop of Exeter were attainted, plus a few knights -- but many of them lived.
Even Ross, p. 117, admits that "few paid for their treason with their lives," though he adds (p. 119) that "none of the men pardoned in 1484 and 1485 was ever restored to the commissions of peace in his native county." (This is at least partly false, given that Lord Stanley retained his power, but it may have been generally true. Still, that's only two years!) Ross does add (pp. 119-120) that several of these men lost estates, which Richard arbitrarily re-granted to his supporters. Ross is probably right in thinking that this cost Richard some support -- but it happened in every regime of this period. Richard did not take any real action against Buckingham's young son -- he was executed by (ahem) Henry VIII, seemingly just because he was the leading descendent of Edward III who wasn't directly linked to the Tudors (WilliamsonJ, pp. 98-99).
We might note also that, when Richard had invaded Scotland in 1482 at Edward's orders, he had Edinburgh at his mercy -- but he did not burn it, as other English invaders had done (Ross, p. 47). The Croyland Chronicler was rather sarcastic about this act of humanity (Dockray, p. 114), though Edward IV officially told the Pope that Richard had "spared the supplicant and prostrate citizens" (Dockray, p. 118). This at a time when captured cities could expect to be sacked. Richard, in fact, must have had very good control of his men to have been able to keep them from wrecking the place. (Of course, that control could come from respect or from fear.)
Even at the end, at the Battle of Bosworth, Richard shows signs leniency. Lord Stanley, at that battle, refused a peremptory order to join his forces with Richard's. Lord Strange, Stanley's son, was in Richard's camp, and tried to escape. He was caught. Richard sent Stanley another order, on threat of Strange's head, and Stanley declared he had other sons.
(That's the story, anyway. Believe however much you wish. That tale has been told of others -- e.g., centuries earlier, of William the Marshal, the man who saved England after the death of King John. King Stephen had taken William hostage, and threatened to hang him unless William's father surrendered to him. The father declared he had other songs, and the king obviously did not kill his hostage; Davis, p. 34. It sounds as if this is one of those stories people like to tell about "bad" kings.)
Whatever Richard ordererd, Strange was not executed. (It's not quite certain what Richard actually did. Jenkins, p. 213, says Richard did not order the execution. though Wilkinson, p. 304, thinks Richard did order him executed, and his subordinates refused to carry it out. Cheetham, p. 191, splits the difference: "Either because Richard retreated when his bluff was called, or because his orders were disobeyed, Lord Strange survived his ordeal." Potter cites "the legend" as saying Strange's execution was ordered but postponed; the "legend" seems to be the "Ballad of Bosworth Field," which implies that Richard was willing to let Strange's fate be decided by the battle). Strange in fact, died in 1503 of what was said to be poison (AshleyM, p. 584). But note that it doesn't matter what Richard did; what matters is that, clearly *Stanley did not expect Richard to execute Strange*, or he would not have said what he said.
Quite frankly, Richard's clemency would in the end would cost him. (Fields, p. 92, mentions his "surprising leniency, a characteristic of Richard that was sometimes foolish and even reckless. Pollard, p. 148, has a more cynical explanation: Richard thought it safer to have Stanley in the government than out of it. But why, then, turn him loose when Henry Tudor invaded?) Seward-Richard, p. 75, makes the grim jest that Stanley was an "outstanding security risk," who would go on to help kill Richard. Stanley would not have been around to betray him had Richard not forgiven him earlier. Richard's soft treatment of Stanley is particularly surprising given that they may have had disputes over property as early as c. 1470 (Pollard, p. 47). Bennett, p. 76, thinks Richard had spared Stanley in 1483 because he "feared him more than anyone." But surely it would have been safer to eliminate Stanley in, say, 1484, than to not know what he would do at Bosworth!
Of course, what people really condemn Richard for was killing Edward V and Richard of York. Not that it was unusual to get rid of deposed kings. Edward II was murdered. So, in all likelihood, was Richard II. Henry VI was eventually disposed of. All of them, it is true, were adults -- yet the saintly but half-witted Henry VI was no more responsible for his actions than was the underage but intelligent Edward V. And don't forget that Henry VII would trick the Earl of Warwick -- another mentally fragile Plantagenet -- to justify executing him, and eventually Henry VIII would execute the Countess of Salisbury (Warwick's sister) on even feebler grounds. Don't forget, too, that Henry VII was trying for the throne even before Edward IV died, so he would also unquestionably have killed the princes.
Ross, p. 127, concludes, "Past discussions of Richard's character and ability as king of England have always been bedevilled by the problem of his motivation. Confronted by the paradox between a man apparently capable of ruthless political violence, indeed infanticide, [sic. -- Richard of York, his youngest possible victim, was about nine] on the one hand, and a seemingly beneficent, concerned, and well-intentioned monarch on the other, Richard's critics and detractors have had no hesitation in seeking a cynical explanation."
The real problem was that the situation in 1483 put Richard, and many others, in an impossible position. Ross-Wars, p. 94, admits "Probably it was fear for his own safety and future which inspired his action, rather than any deep-laid plan or the determination 'to prove a villain' which Shakespears and the Tudor tradition attributed to him." The problem arose when Edward IV died young in April of that year.
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File: LQ34B

Children in the Wood, The (The Babes in the Woods) [Laws Q34] --- Part 04

DESCRIPTION: Continuation of the notes to "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34] --- Part 03. Entry concludes in "The Children in the Wood, The (The Babes in the Woods) [Laws Q34]" --- Part 05 (File Number LQ34D)
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NOTES [19978 words]: THE USURPATION
When Edward IV died, his son Edward V was only twelve years old. So how was England to be governed until Edward V came of age? This was the question which destroyed both Edward V and Richard III.
Even Edward V's youth might not have mattered had he not been in the hands of his mother's family, the Woodvilles, who had already shown that they placed their own interests ahead of England's; if they were allowed to dominate Edward V, even pro-Tudor scholars generally agree it would have been disastrous. And even anti-Richard historians agree that they had been given far too much power -- they dominated Wales as part of the entourage of Edward V, who was of course Prince of Wales. The younger of Edward's sons, Richard Duke of York, had also been given the Dukedom of Norfolk when he had been married to the young Anne Mowbray. Anne had since died, so Richard should have lost the title, but Edward IV had never rescinded it, giving the Woodvilles power in East Anglia.
As Ross-Edward says on p. 103, "Edward had created a real risk to the future political peace of his realm in allowing his heir to be surrounded by Woodvilles from infancy, educated under their guidance, and necessarily under their influence. When Edward died prematurely in April 1483, the likelihood of a regency dominated by the queen's unpopular family was a prospect which recommended itself to no one." Nor had he built a useful circle of internal or external allies, because of the way he handled his own childrens' marriages; as Ross-Edward observes on pp. 246-248, Edward seemed to be letting monetary considerations determine all his alliances. Had Edward lived longer, it might not have mattered, but his early death meant that his daughters, who had been expected to marry kings, "had to be content with an earl, a viscount and a gentleman, a knight and a nunnery" (Ross-Edward, p. 249).
Give the chance to overcome their reputation, the Woodvilles blew it after Edward's death. It is ironic; they could have pointed, e.g., to the fact that Elizabeth Woodville ran her household on far less money than Margaret of Anjou (Laynesmith, p. 235) -- she may have aggrandized her family, but as a queen, she came cheap.
But instead of addressing the real problems, he clan simply moved quickly to gain control of the prince and set Richard of Gloucester aside -- they didn't even send messages to tell Richard that Edward IV was dead! (Jenkins, p. 143; Kendall, p. 193. Seward-Richard, p. 88, conceals this by saying that a messenger from Lord Hastings brought the message), and scheduled a very premature coronation for May 4 (Kendall, p. 196; Jenkins, p. 180, notes the irony that, when the time came, Richard himself would rush his own coronation to prevent any sort of rebellion or demonstration). They also seized the royal treasure and put a fleet to sea under their command (Ross, p. 65; Mancini reportedly thought this action so egregious as to amount to theft; Langley/Jones, p. 107). The only thing that made it appear anything less than a coup d'etat was the fact that they were of course loyal to the new King.
The Woodville-dominated council decided immediately after Edward IV's death not to give Duke Richard broad powers as protector (Hicks, p. 139; Ross, p. 65). One council member, the Marquis of Dorset -- one of Queen Elizabeth Woodville's sons by her first marriage -- went so far as to declare "We are so important that even without the King's uncle we can make and enforce our decisions" (Ross, p. 68; Lamb, p. 18). This even though, with Edward IV dead, they had no official role. Yet the Council sent out messages in the name of the Queen, without mention of Richard -- as if Elizabeth Woodville were regent, even though Parliament had not met (Lamb, p. 18).
The non-Woodville members of the council reportedly acted as it did out of fear that Richard of Gloucester would usurp power -- and so they responded by helping the Woodvilles grab it instead (Cheetham, p. 102, based on Mancini). It was a truly stupid move. It was also, in effect, a declaration of war on Richard. The Woodville plan seems to have been to crown Edward V, have him open a hastily-summoned parliament, and put themselves in complete control (Hicks, p. 147). They wanted Edward V to reach London no later than May 1.
Despite the panic in London, no one away from the capitol seems to have worried too much about the aftermath of the king's death. Things might have been different had the royal party set out for London at once. But Earl Rivers did not leave home with his nephew until probably April 24 (Kendall, pp. 195-196; on p. 540 he says the exact date is uncertain but most authorities seem to agree with his chronology). True, he had been requested to bring 2000 soldiers with him. But he could probably have set out quickly, gathering soldiers as he went; instead, he sat.
Once he heard of his brother's death, Richard gave overwhelming evidence of grief, according to Jenkins, p. 146, and Seward-Richard, p. 93.
The chronology here is murky. Edward IV died on April 9, 1483 at the age of 40 (Dockray, pp. 143-145, citing Croyland; it appears no other source gives the exact date). Seward-Richard, p. 88, says that the message from Lord Hastings reached Richard two days later. Kendall, p. 183, says it was "mid-April." Neither one documents their date. Some time not long after, word reached Richard from Hastings that the Woodvilles were taking charge. Seward-Richard, p. 92, seems to imply it happened almost at once; Kendall, p. 194, seems to imply a longer time. Seward-Richard, p. 93, has Richard at York on April 20, grieving for his brother.
Some time soon after that, a message from the Duke of Buckingham reached Richard, offering to bring a large force (Seward-Richard, p. 93). Richard told him to bring only 300 men, and to meet him at Northampton, where they would meet the King and Rivers.
Rivers had, by that date, made it to Stony Stratford, somewhat beyond Northampton. But Rivers himself returned to the town to meet Richard on April 29. There the Duke of Buckingham joined Richard -- and Richard, for reasons we can only guess, went from grief-stricken brother to man of action.
Had there been a battle, Rivers would surely have won; Rivers was supposed to have gathered 2000 men, whereas each duke, according to Kendall, p. 195, had only 300 retainers, and Ross, p. 74, credits them with only 500 combined. But there was no battle over the prince (Ross, p. 94, says there was "violence," but what he means is "swift action"). Richard managed to get Edward V out of the Woodville clan's hands (Seward-Richard, pp. 94-95, says he surrounded Rivers's hotel with his men), and to put Rivers and others of his party in custody (though, ironically, he sent Rivers a dish from his own table at the time).
It tells you something about the internal conflicts of this period that, the moment she heard Edward V was in Richard's hands, Queen Elizabeth Woodville took her other children and fled into sanctuary (Jenkins, p. 151; Seward-Richard, p. 95; Hicks, p. 145 notes that the Woodville faction made no attempt to negotiate. They just checked local opinion, found it was against them, and ran). Mancini says the Woodvilles tried to get the available nobles to support them -- and found that the nobles were not interested (Langley/Jones, p. 114).
Jenkins, p. 147, thinks the maneuvering by Richard shows how hard the Woodvilles were fighting him, but I'm not sure this follows. Although the other three Woodville brothers "were hated by everybody" (Seward-Richard, p. 79). Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers, who had custody of Edward V, was a bit different. Seward-Richard, p. 79, calls him "chivalrous, cultivated and travelled, a patron of letters, something of a mystic, and even a poet." Jenkins, pp. 168-169, notes the graciousness of his last will, which left large bequests to charity and did nothing which would have supported the Woodville cause, though Hicks, p. 126, accuses him of what we would now call real estate fraud; Laynesmith, p. 91, calls him "ambitious and frequently ruthless," and Ross-Edward, p. 98, reports that he made strong use of his rights as governor of the household of the Prince of Wales.
Ross, p. 69, Cheetham, p. 123, and Kendall, p. 204, all report that Rivers wore a hair shirt under his robes. He seems to have been driven by a strong and rather mystical piety (ironically, much like what we see in Richard III's surviving library and writings). And, although he was a noted jouster, he doesn't seem to have liked actually fighting -- several sources at the time called him a coward (Langley/Jones, p. 109), which, given the culture of the time, probably does not mean that he was afraid of combat but that he didn't like killing people. (Painter, p. 86, suggests that "something had come over the romantic Earl in 1471" that had changed his attitude toward fighting; Painter suggests that it might have been Warwick's execution of his father and brother, or his own role in the fighting in that year, or Edward's attitude when he wanted to go on pilgrimages).
I would add that Woodville's Sayings of the Philosophers was probably the first book from an English author printed in England; Caxton published it in 1477. Most English nobles at this time were literate -- Richard III wrote a beautiful secretary hand, though Edward IV had a pretty sloppy signature and Edward V's writing was rather stiff -- but few were scholars enough to compile a book like Woodville's.
Percy's Reliques, in fact, prints a poem by Rivers (as preserved by Rous, and supposedly written shortly before his execution); it is given under the title "A Balet by the Earl Rivers," and begins
Sumwhat musyng, And more mornying,
In remembring The [=Thy?] unstydfasness;
This world being Of such whelyng,
Me contrarieng, What may I gesse?
(Reprinted on pp. 48-49 of volume II of Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry.)
Cheetham, p. 123, speculates that this is precisely why Richard killed Rivers: he was "the one member of the [Woodville] family whose talents and popularity might have redeemed the greed and cruelty of his kin and threatened the ascendancy of his executioner."
Unfortunately for him, he had recently taken as a second wife a relative of the Beauforts (Painter, p. 116), so he was linked to both factions opposed to Richard, the Lancastrians and the Woodvilles.
Opinion in London at the time was apparently mixed, with the citizens fearing the coming of the Dukes. Richard managed to calm almost everyone (Seward-Richard, p. 96) -- except, of course, the Woodville faction.
Keep in mind that if the Woodvilles had reason to fear Richard, Richard had reason to fear them as well (even Seward-Richard, p. 81, admits this point). *Someone* had instigated the treason trial of George of Clarence, and it probably wasn't Edward IV (since he had hesitated long to sign the actual death warrant; Fields, p. 57, though Dockray notes on p. 97 that most sources say Edward was responsible for the whole thing). Almost everyone thinks the Woodvilles had pushed Edward into it (so Mancini; see Dockray, pp. 97, 102 -- though Thomas More, as Dockray puts it, accuses Richard of "conniving at" the execution). If the Woodvilles were willing to kill one of Edward IV's brothers, why not two? And there was the disturbing precendent of Humphrey of Gloucester, who had been Protector during Henry VI's minority: It was widely believed that his death in 1447 had been the result of murder (Fields, p. 73, and see below).
As Ross says on pp. 72-73, "The volte-face at Northampton and Stony Stratford is a key event in the history of Richard's usurpation, since for the first time the Woodville group was now deprived of the initiative. But it was very far from solving Richard's problems. When the news reached London on the night of 30 April-May 1, it produced consternation. The queen, taking her younger son, Richard of York, and her daughters with her, at once withdrew to sanctuary in Westminster Abbey, a clear indication of how little confidence she had in Richard's good faith. The Woodville group contemplated raising an army to recover the king by force, only to find it did not command enough support."
Elizabeth probably expected to stay in sanctuary a while; the history of Thomas More reports that she took so much stuff that they had to do some sort of reconstruction on the building to get it all in (Jenkins, p. 151; Poole, p. 6). Everything in More must be taken with a grain of salt, of course, but there is sense to this; she had fled to sanctuary once before (during the 1469-1471 rebellion against Edward IV -- Edward V in fact had been born there) and had found it an uncomfortable experience. This time, she would be ready. It's barely possible that she saved her life by fleeing, but what is certain is that by this act she "declared war" on Richard and his allies (Jenkins, p. 156). She had, in effect, said, "Either you or I rule the King" -- and Richard was "in possession." And he didn't look threatening; he had always been loyal to Edward IV (Bennett, p. 54, declares that "even in retrospect it is impossible to find evidence of any higher ambition" during Edward's reign), and he arrived in London with only a small escort (Hicks, p. 146).
The dowager Queen's behavior clearly put Richard in a bind (though neither he nor she may have realized it at the time). As Pollard says on p. 98, "Whatever their relationship before April 30, there can be no doubting the animosity between Richard and the Woodvilles thereafter." If the young King were allowed to rule with his mother's family at his side, their administration would very likely prove incompetent (since the only actual skill the Woodvilles had demonstrated was a keen ability to be social climbers) -- and Richard would be in grave personal danger, since they clearly distrusted him (Mancini in fact said that she and her family had driven him from the court, though Dockray, p. 98, questions this). For his own and the nation's survival, Richard probably needed to cement his power. (Indeed, Hicks, p. 148, thinks he executed Earl Rivers, Lord Grey, and Sir Thomas Vaughan -- associates of Edward V -- so hastily because, if Edward were crowned, Richard would no longer be Lord Protector and they could safely move against him.) As Ross says on p. 80, "No one familiar with the Woodvilles could have looked forward to gentle forgiveness."
It would be hard even for him to retreat to his lands. Although he had significant holdings as Duke of Gloucester, a very large portion of his wealth came through his wife, the younger daughter of the Earl of Warwick -- and some of that was in a strange legal position; he could only hold it as long as his wife's cousin was alive (Cunningham, p. 20; apparently this had to do with the fact that the boy George Neville, the son of Warwick's brother the Marquis of Montagu, was the heir of Warwick in male line. Pollard, p. 68, says that the arrangement was to protect more distantly related Nevilles: Richard could only keep the inheritance as long as the actual line of Neville traitors was alive). The idea had been Edward IV's (Langley/Jones, p. 82); apparently he didn't think much about the long-term consequences. And George Neville in fact died, seemingly unexpectedly, soon after Edward IV (Cunningham, p. 36; Langley/Jones, p. 119).
Cunningham therefore thinks that Richard may have been worried about his own and his son's position -- he would still hold the Gloucester dukedom, but Edward V, once he came of age, could take all his authority in the north away. This would effectively leave Richard without a power base. Similarly, if his wife died, many of his lands in the north would be lost. And Pollard, p. 85, speculates (while admitting that he had no "direct and irrefutable" evidence) thinks that Richard may have been financially overextended.
And Edward had handed Richard an office that had a history of being a very hot potato. In living memory, there had been two Protectors, both for Henry VI. Humphrey of Gloucester, the king' uncle, had held the post when Henry VI was a boy. Later, when Henry went insane, Richard of York (the father of Richard III) had held the post. Neither had survived. Humphrey had not been a great protector, but he hardly deserved his arrest in 1447 which led to his death (Rubin, pp. 231-232, though she gives the date of his death as 1448; Seward-Hundred, p. 246). Richard of York had governed reasonably well while in power (Gillingham, p. 82), but had all his acts reversed once out of power and was eventually hounded to death by Margaret of Anjou. (As Gillingham quotes on p. 84, "If Henry's insanity had been a tragedy, his recovery was a national disaster." It left Margaret in power, with no agenda but to pursue her feuds.)
To top it all off, England was in a foreign policy mess. Edward had invaded France in 1475, in association with the Burgundians. but had then let himself be bought off when the Duke of Burgundy went off on a wild goose chase (Kendall, p. 134). Richard opposed the peace (Kendall, p. 136), but Edward accepted a pension from Louis XI and made a deal to marry his daughter Elizabeth to the Dauphin.
Louis XI was playing for time. Burgundy had been the key to English foreign policy since the reign of Henry V. England plus Burgundy could defeat France. England without Burgundy could do nothing. When Charles the Rash of Burgundy died, his heir was a daughter. She married Maximilian of Austria -- and Louis XI, shortly before Edward died, put together a deal which obtained the reversion of a big chunk of Burgundy.
The result was that all of Edward's international policies came crashing down. France no longer needed to fear an alliance between England and Burgundy, which meant the French subsidy that had propped up Edward IV was halted (Fields, p. 61), leaving the English government broke. The French were raiding English property, and might threaten Calais. Louis broke the engagement between the Dauphin and the princess Elizabeth (engaging the Dauphin to the Burgundian heiress instead). Edward had let Burgundy be destroyed because he wanted Louis's money. Now he had neither. Mancini, the Croyland Chronicler, and even Polydore Vergil note that Edward IV himself realized that he was in a real mess (Dockray, p. 122; Commynes would actually suggest that despair over this hastened Edward IV's death; Dockray, p. 143). Croyland says explicitly that Edward "had been tricked by King Louis" (Dockray, p. 124). Plus the Flemish, who had been keeping France busy, agreed to peace terms in 1482 (Dockray, p. 130). And Edward was no longer around to pick up the pieces. Someone else -- someone forceful -- was clearly needed.
The first step once Richard reached London was to postpone Edward's coronation from May 4 to around June 23 (Ross, p. 74) -- a fairly obvious need, since the coronation would presumably eliminate the Lord Protector's role and leave England without a government apart from the Woodville faction.
Langley/Jones, p. 119, thinks Richard tried to have his protectorate extended after the coronation, but there was no precedent. A good regency law would really have helped, and the English must have known it; every child king since the Norman Conquest (Henry III, Richard II, Henry VI) had faced a major rebellion, and the latter two had been overthrown.
But William the Marshal, who had been regent at the beginning of the reign of Henry III, had insisted that he not have a successor in the role (Davis, p. 49), and perhaps as a result, England didn't have such a thing (Hicks, p. 139); indeed, Griffiths, p. 22, says that by 1428 laws had been passed forbidding naming someone regent. Lyon, p. 172, notes that it was not until the time of Henry VIII that actual statutes were passed to deal with royal minorities. To be sure, there had been a regency in England when Edward IV invaded France in 1475, with the queen and prince Edward nominally in charge, but it was understood that the council would manage the realm until Edward returned (Laynesmith, pp. 156-157). What would have happened had Edward died is a wide-open question.... It is noteworthy that, when Henry VI went mad, no law was passed; it was all ad hoc; Laynesmith, p. 160. But that probably hurt Elizabeth Woodville's chances for a regency; no one wanted to recall the bad precedent when Margaret of Anjou was de facto regent; (Laynesmith, p. 162).
Jenkins, p. 145, says that no one even really knew what the Lord Protector was supposed to do, and Ross, p. 75, notes the contradictory precedents of previous minority reigns (e.g. Richard II had been treated as an adult monarch when he came to the throne at age ten because there was no acceptable regent; SaulII, p. 28; Saul3, p. 51; Tuck, p. 175). There was no custom of queen mothers taking charge -- fortunately, in this case -- but neither was there a clear alternative. The best thing would surely have been to have the Lord Protector be in control until the King came of age -- it appears that some people were preparing for this, according to Ross, p. 75 -- but it never happened.
For, of course, the postponement of the coronation was also a first step toward displacing Edward V. Poole, p. 7, says, "So far all had gone well for Richard and so far he had behaved quite correctly. There was nothing as yet... to suggest that he was the monster that Shakespeare and the Tudor apologists made him out to be.... But perhaps the ease with which the Protector had got his own way with the Council and overcome the Woodvilles now awakened his dormant ambition to be King."
St. Aubyn, pp. 104-107, strongly implies that postponing the coronation was Richard's first move toward the throne, but still admits, "Because Richard finally seized the Crown, it is tempting to see his entire career as directed toward that end. Nevertheless, in April 1483 he had done nothing more than seek his own safety in a swift pre-emptive bid." Hicks, p. 142, says, "United by their hostility to the [Woodvilles], Buckingham and Hastings thought Richard was serving their purpose. What Richard himself intended, apparently a temporary protectorate and management of the new regime, may really have been much more ominous. It appears most likely [read, of course, 'I think but I can't prove it'] that he was already planning to usurp the throne when the time was right."
Wilkinson, p. 298, confesses that "The exact time when [Richard] first directed his ambition towards the throne will probably never be known," and on the same page points out, "If Richard allowed his dignity of Protector to be taken from him, or if what powers he had were diminished rather than increased, it was probable that his complete destruction [presumably at the hands of the Woodvilles] would be only a matter of time." "Thus it can be said in his defence that his enemies did not leave him the luxury of loyalty and moderation. They drove him to usurpation as a measure of self-defence." Yet Wilkinson also adds, on p. 299, that it does not appear that Richard did not "drift" into usurpation and murder; "All his actions seem to fall into a consistent pattern of a cold and deeply calculated design upon the throne."
Cunningham, p. 31, says that at the time of Edward IV's death, "There can be no suggestion at this stage of a conspiracy against Edward V. Rather, the confederation of these nobles [Richard, Buckingham, and Hastings] was probably a move to delay Edward's coronation, since such a ceremony in April 1483 may (sic.) have left the three lords isolated, making it difficult to gain footholds in the Woodville-dominated household and council that would surely have followed."
Seward-Richard, pp. 99-100, will not even admit the possibility that Richard had not already made up his mind; his only question is the point at which Richard *revealed* those ambitions to allies such as Buckingham and Howard; he is sure it was before Richard Duke of York was taken from sanctuary. The one relevant piece of data that Seward-Richard offers (p. 104) is that the Princes in the Tower seem to have been more closely confined after the death of Hastings -- which would seem to imply that Richard by then planned to set Edward V aside. Similarly Saul3, pp. 70-71, is convinced that "the spur to Richard's actions was naked ambition," and is sure he was gunning for the throne from the moment he heard of Edward's death.
Yet Cheetham, p. 124, contents that Richard was not planning usurpation at this stage: "The portrait makes better sense if Richard is seen as a man whose eyes were only by degrees opened to the logical consequences of his own actions. His reaction to each succeeding crisis bears the mark of an impulsive man of action taking the short cut to his immediate objective without pausing to work out the long term effects. If Richard is to be judged, then he must be accused of not too much guile but too little." I must say, this fits what appears to be his impetuous personality.
Jenkins, p. 171, remarks that Richard had perhaps set his foot on a slippery slope (a phrasing perhaps inspired by Thomas More, who accuses Richard of building "upon how slippery a ground"; Seward-Richard, p. 111). He had defeated the Woodvilles -- but he had also probably made an enemy of the boy king.
Bennett, p. 40, observes that the last known grant issued in the name of Edward V was made on June 8, and thinks it likely that that was when Richard made his decision.
Even Pollard, no fan of Richard, says on p. 96, "The earliest story, followed by Shakespeare, was that Richard had long intended to take the throne for himself and had only been awaiting the opportunity. This can be safely discounted. There is no evidence to suggest that Richard entertained such ambitions before Edward IV died; on the contrary the whole purpose and direction of his career until 9 April was to establish himself as a great northern magnate." But by taking action at Stony Stratford, he had left himself with no good options.
Ross, pp. 64-65, sums up this way: "The extraordinary problems of the evidence are highlighted by the difficulty which historians have always found in providing a convincing answer to one vital question: when, and why, did Richard decide to seek the throne for himself. We need not take seriously the Tudor back-projection, that he was planning to make himself king before the death of Edward IV, for he could not have anticipated that his vigorous, if debauched, brother would die at the age of forty. Was the violent seizure of Edward V at Stony Stratford a planned step on the way to the throne? Few historians would dare claim this with any certainty....
"Most scholars now tend to connect his final decision with the execution of Hastings on 13 June.... But even this is not without its difficulties. Was the violent action against Hastings an essential move in a pre-conceived plan, or did he decide only later, in the realization that his action was irreversible, and that having gone so far, he could only go further.... It has recently been argued that only as late as 20 June, two days before he claimed the throne, did he finally admit to himself that 'the spectre of continuing crises and conflicts' could only be dispelled by eliminating 'the one common bond among his enemies, loyalty to Edward V.'"
Ross seems to think this position extreme, and I agree. It is more likely, as Pollard suggests on p. 99, that Richard eliminated Hastings because he thought Hastings would interfere with his campaign for the throne. But Pollard's further conjecture -- that Richard invented a conspiracy by Hastings to justify his usurpation -- makes less sense; why, then, the execution without trial? More and Vergil both say Richard made up a conspiracy story so as to get rid of Hastings, but this shouldn't have been necessary; many modern observers think there really was a conspiracy and Richard simply acted quickly (Laynesmith, p. 176).
The problem shows how little we know of Richard's plans. Ross, p. 78, notes that the two most important contemporary observers (Mancini and Croyland) thought that Richard had decided to take the throne by the end of May. But both wrote this after his usurpation. Ross eventually (page 83) comes down firmly for dating Richard's decision to the time of the execution of Hastings. (This also strikes me as the most likely time, though this does not make the matter certain. As Ross says, every possibility raises difficulties; this one merely raises the fewest.)
On the other hand, St. Aubyn, p. 107, declares that "the majority of his early historians believed that he plotted to seize the Throne the moment his brother died." (To be sure, the early historians were all living under the Tudors, and didn't dare say anything else -- and not even St. Aubyn accuses Richard of plotting *before* Edward IV died.)
WilliamsonA, p. 64, suggests that Hastings had wanted to replace Richard as protector, but I know of no evidence for this.
If the execution of Lord Hastings is the key moment, it is an event we know little about. There are even those who argue that it did not take place on June 13 but on June 20 (WilliamsonA, p. 69), and it has been questioned whether Hastings was really executed without trial. Thomas More gave us a detailed version of the council meeting at which Hastings was arrested -- but he claims that Richard at this time declared his arm suddenly withered (Seward-Richard, p. 102, which actually repeats the whole scene as fantasized by More).
Since the arm was *never* withered, let alone suddenly by witchcraft, it's clear that the account is unreliable (Fields, p. 91) -- although, if you think about it, if Richard's arm *had* been withered, it must have happened suddenly since it wasn't born that way -- in which case Richard must have genuinely been a victim of witchcraft. Which casts an interesting light on More's story.... Recall that More was not a witness, and even if he had this from Morton, Morton by his own account was not present for much of the conversation! WilliamsonA, pp. 70-71, notes the oddity that we have no record but that of Morton/More of this meeting, and suggests the official account was destroyed, perhaps by Morton's nephew, who was Keeper of the Rolls under Henry VII.
The one thing that occurs to me is that More might have described an actual accusation of witchcraft but not the one he thought. That is, that Richard at that council meeting declared that magic had been performed against him, but not that it withered his arm but rather that it had caused his spine to become bent -- since he actually did have a deformed spine. Langley/Jones, p. 227, similarly conjecture that the "torpor" Vergil says Richard suffered from June 10 to 13 was the result of his condition, and that it was painful enough for him to suspect witchcraft. But, of course, there isn't a shred of evidence for this; if we're going to "conjecturally emend" More's history, why not emend it to say that Richard never made the accusation in the first place?
Jenkins, pp. 170-171, thinks that it was the execution of Hastings, which took place right after the meeting and arrest, which started people questioning Richard's motives. Certainly it is one of the biggest blots on his record. It was Hastings -- the former bosom friend of Edward IV -- who had first warned Richard about the Woodville conspiracy. Yet Hastings, according to Richard's charges, was soon sending messages to Elizabeth Woodville (using, of all people, Edward's old mistress Jane Shore as intermediary; Jenkins, pp. 162; Seward-Richard, p. 100, notes that even the anti-Richard historian Gairdner accepted that Hastings used this peculiar messenger), and that caused Richard to turn against his former ally. Jenkins, p. 163, seems to feel that it was at this time that Richard started thinking about the throne, because he could not trust a parliament to confirm his powers. Similarly, Langley/Jones, p. 123, suggest that it may have *forced* Richard to take the throne, because so many people blamed him for killing a popular lord; the only way he could protect himself from reprisals was for him to be king himself.
Richard's charges against Hastings may well have been unfair -- Ross, p. 81, calls the evidence "slight indeed,." But it was a strange turnabout, since Hastings and the Woodvilles had been trading accusations and spying on each other shortly before (Ross, p. 39). Richard, having disposed of Hastings, started calling his supporters to London (Jenkins, pp. 164-165).
It seems unlikely that many people held up Hastings as a paragon of virtue before his death, given the nature of his friendship with Edward IV. But, afterward, all that was forgotten. People started to wonder about what Richard was doing (Ross, p. 85). Ross calls the killing of Hastings an "irreversible" step toward taking the throne. It also removed the strongest member of the already-too-small moderate faction (that hostile to the Woodvilles, loyal to Edward V, and not inherently hostile to Richard).
Edward V's younger brother Richard Duke of York was at this time with his mother in sanctuary, but Richard of Gloucester eventually managed to lure him from there. It's not clear how. More claimed that Richard in effect told his mother to give him up voluntarily or he'd be taken by force; Jenkins, pp. 166-167. But that section of More seems very artificial. Hicks, p. 160, says that the Duke of York was simply "removed" from sanctuary, but does not footnote his basis for the statement. Ross, pp. 86-87, says that the Archbishop of Canterbury was somehow involved but admits that the sources are not clear on whether the boy was given up voluntarily or by force. Cunningham, p. 40, also says that the Archbishop was involved but can add little else. Fields, p. 94, offers the suggestion that Elizabeth may have been feeling resignation by then, while admitting the possibility of arm-twisting.
Poole, p. 16, makes the interesting observation that Elizabeth's relations with Richard III were cordial toward the end of the latter's reign -- very strange if she believed he had killed her sons! However, Ross, p. 100, and Cunningham, p. 45, manage to regard her exit from sanctuary as evidence against Richard: They argue that Elizabeth would never have accepted his olive branch if she thought there were any chance her sons could still succeed Richard, and that this was therefore proof that Richard had killed the princes. This makes no sense to me, but I suppose we'd better note this opinion.
There are plenty of other suggested explanations for why she left sanctuary, to be sure. Griffiths/Thomas, p. 115, suggest that the "Song of the Lady Bessie" refers to actions of Elizabeth Woodville, who returned to public life to open the door for Henry Tudor. And then there is the notion, mentioned by Magnusson, p. 271 although there is no hint of it in English records, that James III might marry Elizabeth Woodville and his son marry one of her daughters to cement Anglo-Scottish relations. One can imagine Elizabeth Woodville being interested in being the wife of two different kings and coming out to try to arrange it. But James III was born in 1452, making him at least a dozen years younger than his potential wife. Again, I don't see it happening.
It is noteworthy that, as soon as he had Richard of York in his possession, Richard of Gloucester issued writs canceling what was to have been Edward V's first parliament -- the one to establish the new administration (Ross, p. 87).
Suspicious as that seems in hindsight, it may have seemed justified at the time, because of the Woodville crisis. Maybe. If so, it was the last thing Richard did which was defensible if you assume the princes were the proper heirs to the throne. The events of the next two months form the basis of the great controversy over Richard III.
As Seward-Richard says on page 19,"The whole controversy about Richard III hinges on the interpretation of a very brief part of his life.... The usurpation of April to July 1483 is the one time when we are reasonably well informed about him" (which statement, however, is false -- Seward claims to have four sources, Croyland, Mancini, More, and Vergil. But, of course, the latter two are secondary. There is no denying that this period is the crux -- but in fact our information is utterly inadequate). When the period began, Richard was Lord Protector and Edward V was expected to be crowned in the near future. When it ended, Richard was on the throne and Edward V was one of the "Princes in the Tower," the subject of the greatest mystery in English history.
Richard now started taking steps that would certainly Edward V to hate him if by any chance he didn't hate him already. He executed Edward V's tutor Thomas Vaughan, who seems by all accounts to have been completely harmless, and a friend of the boy's. Plus he executed Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers, who also had been captured at Stony Stratford (Ross, pp. 87-88). It is hard to imagine Richard doing this if he ever expected Edward V to take the throne. Richard would probably have six years of power as Lord Protector -- but what could he expect when Edward V came of age? Of all the things Richard did, this is, to my mind, the most inexcusable.
Soon after, people began to hear whispers about the legitimacy of Edward V and his family. St. Aubyn, pp. 142-143, thinks Richard arranged for a cleric by the name of Ralph Shaa (sometimes spelled "Shaw"; so Poole, p. 8, and Bennett, p. 42; or Sha, in Seward-Richard, p. 84), the brother of the Lord Mayor of London, to preach a sermon on the subject on June 23. Thomas More, a source for this tale, thought Richard was supposed to arrive in the middle of the sermon (Seward-Richard, p. 105), and blew it -- but, of course, this is yet another thing More simply cannot have known (and Seward should have known he could not have known). Seward-Richard, p. 106, claims that "other preachers delivered similar sermons." As usual, he cites no source for this statement.
Whether Richard was behind it or not, the underlying text of Shaa's sermon is agreed by all authorities to be "Bastard slips shall not take root" (St. Aubyn, p. 146; Kendall, p. 263; Jenkins, p. 172; Seward-Roses, p. 271).
This is an interesting quotation in several senses. The source is Wisdom of Solomon 4:3. Wisdom of Solomon was at this time of uncertain canonical status; it is not part of the Hebrew Bible. Protestants have by and large rejected it. The Catholic church would eventually affirm its canonicity, but not until the Council of Trent more than half a century after Richard's time. Since England was Catholic, it used the Vulgate Latin version, but this was one of the books Jerome never translated from Greek into Latin, so the Vulgate used a very poor text.
The English translation is somewhat dubious, too. The highly scholarly A New English Translation of the Septuagint renders the Greek "But the prolific brood of the impious will be of no use, and illegitimate seedlings from them will not strike deep root or take firm hold." The New Revised Standard Version, which is less literal, reads "The prolific brood of the ungodly will be of no use, and none of their illegitimate seedlings will strike a deep root."
The Latin reads "spuria vitulamina non dabunt radices altas nec stabile firmamentum conlacabunt." There was, at this time, no English translation of the Bible accepted by Catholics (Wycliffe's translation, the only one available and the one Richard owned, was officially banned by the Catholic church, partly because it was heretical but mostly because it was something lay people could understand. It in any case has a rather different rendering: "plauntyngis of auoutrie schulen not yyue deepe rootis" -- "plantings of adultery shall not have deep roots").
Given the lack of a proper English text, preachers had to make up their own translation, and Shaa's rendering, while technically sort of correct, ignores context: The verse is really about the progeny of the unrighteous, and is not a condemnation of bastardy but a warning to those who stray from righteousness. So Shaa was preaching from a dubious rendering of a dubious book!
Although we know his text, there are conflicting accounts of what conclusion Shaa preached (Kendall, p. 318). Vergil says that Shaa called Edward IV illegitimate, and says that Edward IV's children were SAID to be illegitimate but were in fact legitimate ( Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 162). Among moderns, Hicks, p. 160, says that Shaa argued that Edward V was illegitimate (followed, e.g., by Bennett, p. 42). Ross, p. xxxix, thinks Shaa was arguing that *Edward IV* was illegitimate and that Richard III was the proper heir to the throne. Lyon, p. 146, accepts this but thinks the story was quickly changed to make Edward V the bastard.
Fields, pp. 96-98, gives a list of what the early sources said about the sermon: Fabyan (near-contemporary) says that Shaa declared only the princes illegitimate. Croyland (contemporary) seems to say the same, but does not mention Shaa directly. Mancini (contemporary) reports that "corrupted preachers" called Edward IV illegitimate. More (not contemporary) has Shaa declare the princes illegitimate and hint at illegitimacy for Edward and George of Clarence. Vergil (not contemporary) says that Shaa declared Edward IV a bastard -- and caused Edward's mother to become very upset (Hall amplifies this to say that Richard too was upset, according to WilliamsonA, p. 78, but Hall is too unreliable for this to mean anything); Vergil also mentions the claim that the princes were illegitimate, but does not mention the precontract that would have rendered them so and does not link the claim of their bastardy with Shaa. Hall, who amplified More, also reported that Shaa said Edward IV had married a different woman, Elizabeth Lucy ( Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 164; more on this below), but this is clearly just fiction by Hall. Rous, in his work written while Richard was on the throne, also says that Richard was descended from early English kings by "very [i.e. true] matrimony," which presumably is a swipe at Edward IV's marriage.
The claim that Edward IV was illegitimate is not as crazy as it sounds; the family claim to the throne came through their father Richard Duke of York, and Richard of York was short and dark. Edward IV was very tall, and he was fair-haired, as were most of Richard of York's other children. Only Richard III, who was dark-haired and not remembered as being tall (Ross, p. 139) really resembled his father (Seward-Richard, p. 84, says he bore a "striking" resemblance to Richard of York. Seward also calls Richard III "very short," but the authorities Seward cites are not Croyland or Commynes, who knew Richard, but Vergil, who did not, and Rous, who would say anything. Langley/Jones, p. 37, describe More calling Richard "little of stature," but again, this is not reliable testimony. Based on the skeleton that is believed to have been Richard's, he was 5'8" -- somewhat above average for the time, although short compared to Edward IV.)
Jenkins, p. 110, says that George of Clarence had spread rumors that Edward was illegitimate, and Hicks, p. 52, and WilliamsonA, p. 60, agree that such rumors were in circulation in 1469, spread because of Warwick's rebellion that year, and encouraged by the fact that Edward was born at Rouen (apparently Louis XI "the spider king," who loved to mess with other people's minds, at one time claimed that Edward was the son of Cecily Neville and a French archer!). Ross-Edward, p. 240, says that the spreading of such rumours was one of the charges Edward used to execute George. Ross-Edward, p. 133, observes that the whispers were widespread enough to be reported by the Milanese ambassador.
One of the key charges that Edward IV brought against Clarence, when he had Clarence condemned to death, was that George had claimed Edward was illegitimate. The indictment does not charge Clarence with calling the King's children illegitimate, although it does say he plotted against them (summary on pp. 154-155 of Ashdown-Hill-Queen).
According to Mancini, Duchess Cicely had threatened to call Edward IV illegitimate when he married Elizabeth Woodville; supposedly a man of royal blood would have been unable to even think of marrying such a woman (Laynesmith, pp. 68-69; cf. Seward-Richard, p. 39, although he couldn't be bothered to cite a source). He also suggests that this gave Richard an idea for future use. More likely, if it happened at all, George was the one who got ideas from the Duchess's statement. If the idea was still floating around in 1483, Richard could have called his mother to testify, and one non-contemporary source claimed she was willing to do so -- but Langley/Jones, p. 125, suggest that he didn't want to put his mother through that.
The problem with the 1469 rumors, which made George, not Edward, the heir was that George looked a lot like Edward; if Edward was a bastard, then George probably was too. Also, it made Richard's mother an adulteress -- and she was still alive in 1485! (Saul3, p. 218).
Dockray, p. 2, tells us that an examination of Edward IV's skeleton in 1789 revealed that he was six foot three. Fields, p. 101, observes that his brother George of Clarence was five foot five -- in other words, shorter than Richard. (Strangely, everyone seems to have regarded Clarence as tall -- Seward-Richard, p. 41. He wasn't short for the time, but he was far smaller than Edward. At least, assuming that the skeleton they checked was really his; according to Ashdown-HillDNA, p. 116, this is open to doubt; the bones do not appear to be the right age) But George was blonde, like Edward and unlike Richard. (At least, most sources regard Edward as blond; Ashdown-HillDNA, p. 45, claims Edward had dark brown hair -- but cites only a secondary, possibly a tertiary, source.) It's quite a difference in height -- but it's also worth remembering that Edward was already in his teens when the Wars of the Roses got serious. George was still quite young. It is just my speculation -- but some of his shortness may have been the inadequate diet he perhaps suffered while fleeing all over England when he was supposed to be having growth spurts.
Hicks, p. 26, does cite a modern authority who thinks, based on what is known about the locations of Richard Duke of York and Cicely Neville at the time of Edward IV's conception, that Edward actually was not the son of the Duke of York, but this is very thin evidence. Hicks, p. 165, mentions the possibility of DNA testing -- but, to this date, it has not been done. And, given that Elizabeth II has denied permission to test the bodies claimed to be those of the Princes in the Tower, I doubt she would allow a test of Edward IV's DNA either. And it's worth remembering that while Edward IV didn't look like his father, he *did* a lot like the earlier Plantagenets, who were mostly tall, blond, and handsome.
The bottom line: We have no clear evidence either way about the heredity of either Edward IV or his brothers, and won't until the DNA testing is done. In any case, it doesn't matter; what matters is how people responded to the stories spread by Shaa and others.
Jenkins, p. 173, quotes More to the effect that Shaa's sermon was greeted with such disdain that he went into hiding, and Ross, p. 92, cites the Great Chronicle to the effect that Shaa lost his popularity and died not long after. But eventually a tale emerged in which Edward IV was rightful king but Richard was his heir. It became the Official Party Line, because there was a bishop behind it: it is reported that Robert Stillington, Bishop of Bath and Wells, came forward to say that Edward IV, before he married his official wife Elizabeth Woodville, had been engaged to one Eleanor Butler (St. Aubyn, pp. 156-157; Kendall; pp. 257-258; Fields, p. 111.) (Saul3, p. 219 and n. 27 on p. 267 suggests that Stillington was not the originator of the story but merely a canon lawyer consulted about it. However, when Henry Tudor went about repealing the Titulus Regius that made Richard king, there were references to it as "Stillington's Bill," making it quite clear that Stillington had something to do with revealing the story; Langley/Jones, p. 127)
Eleanor Talbot, later Butler, was born about 1436, the daughter of John Talbot (c. 1387-1453), Lord Talbot and Furnival, later first earl of Shrewsbury (known as "Old Talbot"), and his second wife Margaret Beauchamp, daughter of the Earl or Warwick -- which means, ironically, that Eleanor Butler was the first cousin of Richard III's wife Anne Neville. (See the genealogies in Ashdown-Hill-Queen; the book also explains this in words, but tosses so many names about that it's almost impossible to keep track). Talbot was one of the heroes of the war with France; Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part I makes him the leading positive role model insofar as it has one, and his death at the battle of Castillon in 1453 finally settled the Hundred Years' War: England had lost.
Eleanor's first marriage was to Thomas Butler (at least, that's the modern spelling; the seal of the Butler family spelled it "Buttiler"; Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 53, with his plate #25 showing the seal; other spellings such as "Botiler" are also found). Thomas Butler, the son of Ralph Butler, Baron Sudely (1389-1473) was born about 1421; he and Eleanor Talbot were married around 1449 or 1450 (meaning that she was only about half his age, just barely in her teens; Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 58). Thomas Butler probably died in 1459 ( Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 62), without ever inheriting his father's title -- and without any children by Eleanor.
We do not know the cause, or even the exact date, of the death. Eleanor had by then lost her father and her oldest full brother, and her father's heir, her half brother, does not seem to have been fond of his father's second family ( Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 82). Plus there are hints her husband's family was Lancastrian (Thomas Butler's father had fought for Henry VI at the First Battle of Saint Albans, and even borne his banner; Ashdown-Hill-Queen, pp. 60, 84; he also served in the procession at Henry VI's restoration; Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 151; it appears Edward IV later punished him for this, although this was after Eleanor's death). And her income was not great -- Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 91, gives a very rough estimate of the income from her manors as 75 pounds per year, with not all the lands actually hers so she could not use them as securities.
So: she was both financially and politically struggling; she was probably in a vulnerable position when Edward IV proposed to her (if he did). Her one advantage is that she did have some access to the Yorkist court; even though she was probably considered Lancastrian, her younger sister Elizabeth was married into the Mowbray family, the Dukes of Norfolk ( Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 48), whose intervention in the Battle of Towton had won that great battle for Edward IV. And her social status was respectable if not especially high; as an earl's daughter, she out-ranked Edward's acknowledged wife Elizabeth Woodville, who until her father was made Earl Rivers was only a baron's daughter.
The two may have known each other even before Towton. Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 104, suggests that Edward's initial secrecy about the relationship with Eleanor Talbot Butler was because he met her while his father was still alive -- and his father surely would not want his son marrying a baron's widow half a dozen years older than he was. No doubt the last part is true, but evidence for the two young people knowing each other while the old Duke of York was alive is non-existent. We simply cannot say.
Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 101, claims Eleanor and Edward must have met by Spring 1461 at the latest.
And if he promised to marry her, but didn't, who can doubt that he was deceiving her to get into her bed? No other explanation makes sense, knowing Edward IV. And if he slept with her, having promised marriage, by law they *were* married. No clergyman needed, even. This was official church doctrine (Ashdown-Smith, p. 106): marriage was a "self-conferring" sacrament.
( Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 108, hints that Eleanor's real problem was her infertility: Since she never bore children to Edward IV, why should he admit to the marriage, which would have denied him an heir? It is true that there was a late report that Eleanor bore Edward a son, but nothing contemporary supports this assertion.)
Since engagement was considered equivalent to marriage, and Eleanor Butler was still alive when Edward married Elizabeth Woodville, the promise to Eleanor, or "precontract" (i.e. contract of marriage made before Edward's contract with Elizabeth) would have made Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth bigamous and his children illegitimate and unable to inherit (WilliamsonA, p. 55). To be sure, WilliamsonA, pp. 55-56, notes that in cases where one member of the marriage deceived the other, as was allegedly the case here, the children of the union were considered legitimate heirs at least of the innocent parent -- but only if the marriage had been publicly known (presumably so people could object), and Edward's marriage to Elizabeth has been secret. This, however, is irrelevant to the case; the innocent parent here was Elizabeth Woodville, and she could not transmit the succession.
Richard's later document affirming his right to the throne also claimed that the Woodvilles had seduced Edward IV by magic (Hicks, p. 163; Seward-Richard, p. 108) which to our modern ears makes the rest of his claim less plausible, but this is not really relevant -- George of Clarence was said to have accused the king of black magic ( Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 154), so it was presumably a common bit of propaganda. The marriage also was done without consent of Parliament; how much of a legal barrier this was is harder to state, but probably not much of one; past princes -- including Richard III himself -- had married without parliamentary consent. All that really matters is the precontract: Did Edward IV promise marriage to and sleep with Eleanor Butler, or did he not?
We should confess that our sources for this, apart from Richard's official explanation for taking the throne, are thin. Commynes said that Stillington "revealed to the Duke of Gloucester that King Edward, being very enamored of a certain English lady, promised to marry her, provided that he could sleep with her first, and she consented. The bishop said that he had married them when only he and they were present" (Dockray, pp. 45-46). It appears that neither Richard III's mother nor his sister objected to his usurpation ( Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 156). Mancini implies that George of Clarence knew of some such story and that it caused Elizabeth Woodville to turn against him and have him executed ( Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 153). Clearly this is at best rumor.
However, additional evidence that Stillington was the one who announced the "precontract" comes from the fact that Henry VII later had him imprisoned without charge; Fields, p. 116. I find it fascinating that Stillington helped officiate at Henry's coronation. What sort of man would help put Richard on the throne, then help put his successor on the throne, then be imprisoned by the successor? Even more interesting, after imprisoning Stillington, Henry gave him a free pardon -- apparently to prevent parliament from asking him questions about the precontract (Langley/Jones, p. 127).
Stillington, we might add, seems to have had a knack for trouble; Fields, p. 83, mentions that, soon after Clarence was executed, Stillington was also imprisoned. We don't know what he was accused of; it sounds as if the record was suppressed; Fields, p. 84; WilliamsonA, p. 59). This hints that perhaps Stillington blabbed the story to Clarence -- cf. Cheetham, p. 118 -- a strange thing to do if the story wasn't true, since clearly Edward would be very unhappy if word leaked.
It almost looks as if Edward set out to bribe Stillington at the time of the Woodville marriage; Stillington was given the first bishopric, which turned out to be that of Bath and Wells, that became available after the marriage -- even though the Pope had another candidate in mind ( Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 136). Edward was stubborn, and eventually had his way when the Pope's candidate died. Why not give Stillington a different bishopric? Presumably because Edward had given Stillington the temporalities of the office during the conflict ( Ashdown-Hill-Queen, pp. 113-114); clearly he really wanted Stillington to be a bishop at once.
Mancini and Vergil both make references to a previous contract of marriage but do not give a name although they say the woman was a member of the family of the Earl of Warwick; Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 105 -- which Eleanor was by marriage; her aunt was Warwick's wife.
Curiously, Sir Thomas More knew the story of the precontract, but seemingly did not know the name of the woman involved, and so listed the woman's name as Elizabeth Lucy. At least, this is what some authorities think is the reason for More's change: he needed a name and could not look the correct name up in the suppressed parliamentary records. Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 163, hints at another possibility: Since Elizabeth Lucy was a married woman (her maiden name was Wayte, at least according to Buck, although it's not clear if he had a real source), she could not marry Edward under any circumstances. Thus, although Edward could have offered her marriage, the marriage could not have taken place, even if they slept together, because Elizabeth Lucy was already married. In other words, in Ashdown-Hill's view, More suggests a precontract but one that pointed the other way. The whole idea, on this argument, was to confuse people's memories -- to make them have a different view of the precontract they vaguely remembered.
WilliamsonA, p. 54, suggests that the change was based on the fact that Elizabeth Lucy was known to have born Edward a child very early on; Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 102, says he was involved with Lucy by the fall of 1461. If so, the alteration was possibly deliberate (cf. RicardianXIII, p. 230, who lists Elizabeth Lucy's son as Arthur Plantagenet, later Viscount Lisle; although we do not know his date of birth except that it was before 1470 -- meaning that, if bastards were eligible for the throne, he, not Edward V, was the proper king! But Ashdown-Hill-Queen says Elizabeth Lucy bore Edward a daughter in 1462).
Fields, p. 286, suggests even more strongly that More's change was deliberate -- Elizabeth Lucy was a nobody, but Eleanor Butler was a daughter the great Old Talbot and not likely to be forgotten or ignored, so More had to suppress mention of her. Rubin, p. 312, makes another interesting point: That suits for annulment of a (second) marriage on the grounds of precontract were common at this time; what made the case of Edward IV unusual was the fact that it was a third party, not one of the participants, who wanted the later marriage declared invalid.
A half a century later, a papal envoy named Eustace Chapuys makes several references to Richard having declared the princes bastards (copies of the texts in Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 209). He seems to have believed it, but this was political (because the Papacy was upset with Henry VIII). In any case, it proves only that Richard's claims were remembered, not that there was anything to them.
Although the claim of Edward IV's own bastardy is implausible (and his mother apparently raised a stink about it, although the details here are very hazy -- Mancini heard that Cicely Neville's complaint was that Edward IV *was* illegitimate, not that he wasn't; Langley/Jones, p. 124), there is nothing inherently implausible about the claim of the precontract. The marriage between Edward and Elizabeth Woodville had also been secret; (Hicks, pp. 37-48; Dockray, p. 41, cites six early sources to this effect; the citations on pp. 46-47 show that few members even of their families knew about it -- e.g. Fabyan's Chronicle reports that "almost none but [Elizabeth Woodville's] mother was of council." The marriage was not revealed until Edward was forced to admit it to stop foreign negotiations for another marriage -- and it was greeted with incredulity among the nobles (Dockray, p. 41, has 11 sources for this. One of them, Gregory's Chronicle, notes that it was half a year before Edward revealed his marriage, and another half year before Elizabeth was crowned queen; Dockray, p. 44).
HarveyN, p. 6, says that Edward IV's own mother, Cicely Neville, had invented the precontract to try to scuttle Edward's marriage with Elizabeth Woodville. This speculation is based on Holinshed, who of course has no value (and apparently came up with yet another name for the Other Woman: Elizabeth Boulton).
Hicks speculates that Edward had tried to trick Elizabeth into his bed, and she counter-trapped him somehow (perhaps by having witnesses to overhear?). But if Edward *did* try some sort of false promise of marriage with Elizabeth, it of course makes it more likely that he might have done so with other women before he met her.
On the other hand, if he did so, why didn't Eleanor Butler raise a stink ( Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 115)? This, after all, is what church courts were for. To be sure, trying to get a judgment against the reigning King was likely to prove tricky....
Unlike Hicks, Dockray, p. 4, argues that Edward IV genuinely fell on love (as opposed to lust) with Elizabeth Woodville -- but lists on p. 5 the sources that tell the story of her refusing to sleep with him unless he married her. On p. 45, he quotes Mancini's version, in which Edward supposedly held a knife to her throat and was once again refused. There was another version, in circulation by 1468, in De Mulieribus Admirandis (Laynesmith, p. 67). The story that she refused him unless he married her, which is the indirect justification for the attack on Edward's marriage, was very widespread. And Laynesmith, p. 67, notes that the two supposedly married on May 1 -- a day which hints at a love match. So does the Queen's adoption of the red gillyflower -- an emblem of love and marriage -- as her device (Laynesmith, p. 69).
The more I think about it, the more it seems to me that the easiest explanation for the Shaa sermon is as follows: By the time Shaa preached, Richard of Gloucester was at least contemplating a bid for the throne, but had little claim. He had Shaa preach of Edward's bastardy, perhaps as a first step in Richard seizing the throne, perhaps to test the reaction. Obviously it went over like a lead balloon -- but Bishop Stillington, seeing which way the wind was blowing, came forward with the story of the precontract. Whether true or false, this was direct evidence of the princes' bastardy, and so was adopted as a reason to set them aside.
This raises a sore point among historians: Was Richard entitled to declare the children a bastard? In terms of legal inheritance of property, the answer at that time is certainly "no." Hicks, p. 165; Pollard, p. 100, and Seward-Richard, p. 120, all say that the matter should properly have been investigated in church courts. But this ignores the real-world problem: Under what circumstances is it practical for the church to declare the son of a king illegitimate? The answer is -- none. Edward IV would never have permitted it, since it would leave him without an heir. If the claim were asserted after the coronation of Edward V, then that king would have even more reason to suppress it. The only way to properly investigate was to bring in impartial experts at a time when there was no king. But there had to be a king! Thus, though Hicks et al would be correct for any other position in the land, I must respectfully disagree with their conclusions as regards the kingship. In that case, judgment *had to* rest with Parliament.
But it is a black mark against Richard that he never ordered an investigation into the point. He just took Stillington's story and ran with it; he quickly had Edward V declared a bastard.
That should have given the throne to the children of Edward's next brother George of Clarence -- but Edward IV himself had had George executed on a well-deserved charge of treason, and George's attainder was generally held to disbar his children (Hicks, p. 163; Ross, pp. 91-92. Both note that being attainted did not automatically mean that a man could not become king. This is true -- indeed, it was only in the reign of Henry IV that it began to be held that the act disbarred the heirs from succeeding to an estate; Given-Wilson, p. 444 -- but the general sense at the time was that an act of attainder, *if not repealed*, would bar one's offspring from the succession; Lander, p. 67n. And the act of attainder, according to Fields, p. 59, had specifically disbarred Clarence's children from the succession. This decision was enacted by Edward IV, not Richard III; one suspects the Woodvilles had wanted to be sure there were no more pro-Clarence conspiracies. But, with their usual tendency to ignore long-term problems in the quest for short-term advantage, they had made Richard III the heir should Edward IV's children be unable to succeed.)
(Incidentally, Henry VII got around that little problem by an interesting means; he had his lawyers declare that, although attainder barred a candidate from succeeding to the throne, it did not bar him from occupying the throne; Lyon, p. 163. By this bit of casuistry, Henry -- who was already on the throne -- got to stay there!)
With the candidates senior to him disbarred, Richard could, at least theoretically, take the crown himself as the legitimate heir of Edward IV. The parliament scheduled for 1483 did not officially meet; Richard's only parliament was summoned for 1484, and made the transfer of power official with the passage of Titulus Regius (Seward-Roses, p. 272, and Cunningham, p. 60, give portions of the text) -- though Hicks, p. 162, says that it is effectively identical to the document of 1483 giving Richard the crown. That document was accepted by a sort of quasi-parliamentary meeting (Ross, p. 93).
On a side note, some have questioned whether illegitimacy should have disbarred Edward V. Hicks, p. 164, argues that William the Conqueror had been illegitimate. However, that was the *Norman* succession, and irrelevant. Hicks also notes the succession of Henry IV -- but that too is irrelevant since Henry IV's descendants had been deprived of the throne. In any case, Henry IV was entirely legitimate; he just wasn't the legal heir general of Richard III, merely heir male. Finally, Hicks mentions the succession of Henry VII -- as if that illegal succession had anything to say about the *earlier* succession of Richard III!
In any case, Henry VII, unlike his ancestors in both the Beaufort and Tudor lines, was a legitimate child; it's just that, like Henry IV, he wasn't legal heir of anyone in particular. (The Beaufort legitimacy is discussed elsewhere in this article. On the Tudor side, Henry's father Edmund Tudor was the son of Owen Tudor and Catherine of Valois, and there is some doubt that this marriage was ever solemnized -- although Chrimes, p. 5 n. 1 says that the legitimacy was not questioned at the time; it is a modern doubt only.)
History is clear: In England, legitimacy was an absolute requirement for a monarch -- something which had been established as early as the grandson of William the Conqueror. The Conqueror's son Henry I, when he died, left behind several dozen bastards, one of whom -- Robert of Gloucester -- was clearly extremely competent and would surely have commanded universal support had he been legitimate. But he wasn't, and so the crown went to the disastrous King Stephen. (Warren-Henry, p. 17: "Fate was unkind to Robert of Gloucester. If he had not had the wrong mother he would have been the unquestioned king of England on his father's death, and the claims of Matilda and the pretensions of Stephen would have been unknown to history. [Thus saving England a civil war.] By all the evidence he was well fitted to rule.")
In any case, think of the chaos if all illegitimate children could succeed -- Edward IV is known to have had three illegitimate sons (Hicks, p. 25), and RicardianXIII, pp. 229-233, finds evidence of five illegitimate children, and in all likelihood (given his habits) there were actually at least a dozen others -- and you could easily have children claiming to be his bastards even if they weren't, should the succession be open to them. In the absence of DNA testing, it made *sense* that only legitimate children could succeed.
Fields devotes four pages (pp. 118-121) to the issue of Edward's succession; as a lawyer, his summary is "Assuming that there was, in fact, a precontract, Richard's assertion that the princes were disqualified as rulers and that he was the rightful king was not only a colorable claim but a strong one." Even Pollard, p. 99, admits that "The case finally put together concerning the bastardy of the princes... is theologically sound" (which does not make it factually accurate).
What's more, as WilliamsonA notes on p. 57, parliament did have the final word (if it didn't, then the whole argument over whether Henry IV could de-legitimize the Beauforts would never have come up). Parliament declared Richard III king -- and did so entirely properly. WilliamsA argues that this means Richard didn't even usurp the throne -- which may even be legally true, although it strikes me as more wordplay than reality.
Pollard, p. 101, makes the more subtle argument that parliament could have declared Edward V the heir, and the ceremony of the coronation and anointing would have removed the problem of illegitimacy. But "could" is not "must" or "should." Why should Richard have set himself aside to set up the Princes as heirs? No sane person will deny that Richard was ambitious; neither will any sane person deny that Richard had a record as a good leader, whereas Edward V had none. If Richard considered himself the proper heir, there was no reason for him to set aside his claim to raise a younger prince to an office for which he might not be competent, particularly as that prince might then turn against Richard.
To sum up: Richard's taking the throne was actually proper and legal -- *if* (and only if) Stillington's story was true. And Jenkins, p. 174, notes that, while the people hadn't seemed enthusiastic about Richard displacing Edward V, parliament gave less trouble. Some doubtless remembered Henry VI and were afraid of another royal minority. Jenkins recalls also the precedent of the Witan, which before the Norman Conquest had selected the King (though of course the Witan was defunct in 1483). And, as she notes, "no one was in doubt" of Richard of Gloucester's ability to rule. (Well, other than Seward and Weir, anyway, and they don't count.)
It is easy to see why the precontract generated controversy. According to Bishop Stillington's own account, there were only three witnesses, Stillington, Edward IV, and Eleanor Butler, and the latter two were dead. So it all depended on Stillington's word.
For doubters not convinced by this, Richard could also point to the undeniable fact that child-kings had been disastrous for England -- Edward the Martyr was murdered. Ethelred II "the Unready" was unable to face the Danish invasions. Henry III was nearly overthrown for incompetence. Richard II had turned despot. And Henry VI had been perhaps the worst King in English history. (The counter-argument being that Edward V was older than any of those child kings -- only a couple of years younger than the brilliant Edward III when that king succeeded, though Edward III had not taken power into his own hands until three years later.) Still, if I'd been living then, and known what could be known in 1483, I would rather have had Richard III than Edward V as king. Would I have wanted it enough to overthrow Edward V? I don't know. Would I have wanted Richard III to be king so badly that I would countenance the murder of Edward V? To that, I am forced to say "No."
Hicks, pp. 32-33, is not clear on what to believe; he thinks it odd that Butler did not make more noise about the marriage if she had been tricked, but observes that Edward IV could have used a promise of marriage to get into her bed, then told her that he simply would not go through with it -- and, without witnesses, she could prove nothing.
Fields, pp. 58-59, thinks there is some secondary evidence. Butler, who died in 1468, was said to have ended her life in a convent, never having married after the alleged precontract (Fields, p. 111). There is a story that she had an illegitimate child. For a woman of high birth, this is astounding (though poorly attested; if Eleanor was truly contracted to Edward, their child would have been rightful monarch of England, but there seems to have been no hint of this).
Edward's appetite for women was almost proverbial. Mancini reported, "He was licentious in the extreme; moreover, it was said that he had been most insolent to numerous women after he had seduced them, for, as soon as he grew weary of dalliance, he gave up the ladies much against their will to other courtiers. He pursued with no discrimination the married and unmarried, the noble and the lowly; however, he took none by force. He overcame all by money and promises and, having conquered them, dismissed them" (Dockray, p. 13). Thomas More declared, "[N]o woman was there anywhere, young or old, rich or poor, whom he set his eye upon... but without fear of God or respect of his honour, murmur or grudge of the world, he would importunately pursue his appetite and have her, to the great destruction of man a good woman" (Dockray, p. 14).
Edward IV was perhaps England's lustiest liege since Henry I three and a half centuries earlier. His gluttony eventually killed him. If he really wanted a woman who spurned him, might he not offer marriage? He did with Elizabeth Woodville....
Remember, in this context, that Edward married Elizabeth Woodville secretly. Had the marriage been public, perhaps Eleanor could have objected. But how could she object to a marriage she didn't know was happening?
The flip side is, Stillington wasn't exactly a paragon of virtue -- according to Weir, p. 202, he had an illegitimate son, and Ashdown-Hill-Queen, p. 137, says he had had multiple illegitimate children as a student in Oxford and was "essentially a man of the world" (p. 105). To give him his due, he founded a school in his home village, and set it up to teach useful rather than highly abstract subjects (Bennett, p. 32). And he had little reason to lie in 1483 -- he was by this time an old man (he had been doing diplomatic work for Edward IV since at least 1466, and had already gained his bishopric by then; Ross-Edward, p. 108; he had been Chancellor in 1468; Ross-Edward, p. 112), and he gained no rewards from Richard III, according to Fields, p. 110.
It's all very thin evidence; we simply cannot be sure, at this late date, whether the precontract was real. We can only confess that it was possible.
As for whether the precontract was real -- the question simply cannot be answered today. Historians have argued both ways: Ross, p. 89, considers Richard's claims against his brother's marriage "each inherently weak and implausible," and on p. 91, seems sure Stillington's tale is a fabrication. Poole, p. 8, argues that it must have been false because Butler was a Lancastrian, and married the Lancastrian Earl of Shrewsbury, and so wouldn't have gone near a Yorkist. This strikes me as weak -- after all, Elizabeth Woodville came from a Lancastrian family (Dockray, p. 41) and went on to marry Edward IV!
On the other hand, WilliamsonA, p. 58, notes that the three contemporary observers, Commynes, Croyland, and Mancini, "all show clear knowledge of the prior contract.... None attempts to claim it was a fabricated story." Improbably enough. Seward-Richard, p. 105, admits that "there may [have been] some truth in Sha[a]'s story," though he obviously denies its significance. HarveyJ, p. 195, thinks it likely on the grounds that so many -- including parliament -- accepted it at the time, but this too seems weak; parliament would doubtless have done the most expedient thing, not the "right" thing. Cheetham, p. 119, observes that 'There is in fact no reason to suppose that the story was not true; Edward could never resist a pretty face and troth plight was a common device for coaxing reluctant virgins to bed."
Personally, I think it not unlikely that the precontract was real. And, if real, it would have barred the succession of Edward V. That is all we can say now.
According to Mancini, after Stillington's story came out, Richard took off the black of mourning and started dressing in purple (Jenkins, p. 173; Cheetham, p. 120). Clearly he was now looking toward the throne -- though he reportedly feigned surprise when it was offered to him (Cheetham, pp. 121-123). He scheduled his coronation for July 6, 1483 (Ross, p. 93; Pollard, p. 99, considers him to have assumed the throne on June 26 -- just 13 days after the execution of Hastings) and set about the business of kingship --including a series of reforms which we shall cover below.
Cheetham, p. 129, says, "But first the three men who had made his usurpation possible received their rewards. Buckingham had the lion's share: he was appointed Constable and Great Chamberlain of England. In addition Richard recognized his long-standing claim to a huge part of the de Bohun unheritance.... To the Earl of Northumberland went the wardenship of the West March [with Scotland; he was already in charge of the East March] and Richard's palatinate in Cumberland. John Howard, the newly-created Duke of Norfolk, received crown lands... in Suffolk, Essex, Kent, and Cambridgeshire. The princely extent of these grants, which virtually created three principalities in Wales and the West Country, in the North, and in East Anglia, showed how desperately narrow had become the clique on which Richard's power rested."
Richard seems to have realized this eventually; as Cheetham goes on to observe on pp. 161-162, the king later gave much of Buckingham's wealth to lesser men, trying to build up a new faction: "The harsh lessons of the careers of Warwick and Montagu, Clarence and Buckingham had taught Richard not to build his fortunes solely on the shifting sands of baronial loyalty." Unfortunately, he had to rely mostly on northern men whom he knew, and they were too few and too weak -- and too resented by Southerners -- to become a force during Richard's brief reign. And Time would prove that his other choices were not always good....
THE UNKNOWN FATE OF THE PRINCES
Richard III's coronation left the problem of what to do with Edward (V) and Richard of York, the two brothers held in the Tower of London -- soon to be known as "The Princes in the Tower." It is important to note that, though the boys were lodged in the Tower, putting them there was not a sinister behavior; it was the Tudors who created its dreadful reputation. The Tower was primarily a fortress, where the boys could be kept safe, but it was also still a palace; the boys's sister Elizabeth would die there -- as Queen of England! (Poole, p. 7). And queens usually spent the night before their coronation there (Laynesmith, p. 83). In Plantagenet times, the Tower contained a decent royal residence which has since been taken down (Ashdown-HillDNA, p. 43).
The Tower was probably the best place for the boys -- although there were a half dozen royal residences around London, Westminster (the primary one) was too close to where Elizabeth Woodville had taken sanctuary (Seward-Richard, p. 98). And the other palaces were too far from the government center. It had to be the Tower, which was the #2 or #3 royal residence anyway (Hicks, p. 151). Plus, coronation processions started at the Tower (WilliamsonA, p. 51), so they would have to eventually spend some time there anyway.
In a time of relative stability, the two boys probably would not have been a threat to Richard. But whom one bishop or parliament could declare a bastard, another could re-legitimize (cf. AshleyM, p. 623). The princes were a pawn any power-seeker could seize on. And England had been through thirty years of civil war; there were many barons out to feather their own nests.
The boys did not immediately disappear, but Edward had of course lost his titles, and Richard III soon moved to take away Richard of York's titles as well. Richard of York's title Duke of Norfolk was given to Lord John Howard (Jenkins, p. 175).
This is frankly a very strange situation. York had been given the title because he was married as an infant to Anne Mowbray, the Ducal heir. But she had died in 1481, with the marriage obviously not only childless but unconsummated. The key to marriage was consummation -- that's why Edward's promise to Eleanor Butler could be regarded as binding! True, the title was supposed to remain York's even if Anne Mowbray died childless; Fields, p. 54. Edward IV had later given the Norfolk title to York unconditionally and for life; Seward-Richard, p. 97.
This made the transfer to Howard illegal, according to Jenkins -- but Bennett, p. 43, calls Edward's grant to his son the illegal part, and on its face this is clearly so. John Howard was clearly the heir if Anne Mowbray had been unmarried, so he had a strong claim to the Dukedom. And, unlike a pre-pubescent boy, he could actually use it -- important in those troubled times. And the Howard family certainly used it well; descendants of John Howard would win the Battle of Flodden and defeat the Spanish Armada. The Howard family still has the Norfolk Dukedom, making their house the senior Ducal family in England.
Over the summer, the boys were seen less and less often, though Jenkins, in talking of the withdrawal of their privileges, constantly uses words such as "it is said," rather than citing an actual source. Seward-Richard, p. 113, says that they were moved to more guarded quarters the day Richard executed Hastings. But, contrary to what Shakespeare would have us believe, the princes' fates are completely unknown. Seward, pp. 120-125, tries to catalog the evidence. Had he looked at the evidence without prejudice, he would have seen how thin it is -- effectively non-existent. Let us summarize:
Almost the only non-Tudor testimony we have is that of Mancini, who wrote in late 1483 that the boys had been seen "more rarely" toward the end of his visit to England (which ended in the summer of 1483), but that no one knew their fate (Kendall, p. 466; Jenkins, p. 176; Seward-Richard, pp. 120-121). Mancini did suspect that Richard would soon dispose of the boys if he hadn't already (Cheetham, p. 141), and said that many were deeply distressed by what happened to them (Langley/Jones, p. 160).
The Anlaby cartulary, it is true, says that Edward V died June 22, and a king list at Nottingham says June 27 (Saul3, p. 221). But these dates are extremely early, both sources display other errors, and how would they know anyway?
Commynes gives conflicting testimony (three different versions, according to Pollard, p. 123), at one point blaming Buckingham for disposing of the princes, elsewhere blaming Richard. The obvious conclusion is that he didn't know what happened. He thought the princes were dead before France's Louis XI died in late August 1483 (Seward-Richard, p. 121).
WilliamsonA, p. 94, observes that the evidence of the Great Chronicle of London claims that there was "whispering" after Easter [1483] that the boys were dead. However, Easter 1483 was before Richard usurped the throne, meaning that the date should probably be transferred to 1484. In any case, all this actually attests is the known fact that the boys vanished.
Bennett, p. 58, points out the peculiar fact that, while Richard would later loudly denounce the idea that he had considered marrying his niece, he never said anything about the fate of the Princes. This, to Bennett, implies guilt (and I have to agree that it is an indication, although by no means proof. It may well mean that Richard at least held himself somewhat responsible).
The first definite mention of them being dead comes from a French reference in January 1484 (Seward-Richard, p. 121). Given the nature of the situation, this is clear evidence that people thought the princes had been killed, but it is not in fact evidence that they were dead. Kendall, p. 468, and Cheetham, p. 141, doubt the value of this mention by the French Chancellor Rochefort; they believe it came from Mancini, who was merely hypothesizing, and think Rochefort, in typical political fashion, turned a possibility into a fact.
The last time they were seen by the public seems to have been July 1483, though Croyland says they were still around as late as September (Weir, p. 149). Weir seems to think this conclusive evidence that they were still alive, since Croyland was in the government, but by that argument he should also have known something about their death, and he didn't. I think we can only say that they died no earlier than July, with the latest possible date being early in the reign of Henry Tudor but an extremely high likelihood that they were dead before Buckingham's rebellion. Croyland does say that people *suspected* they had been killed by late 1483 (Kendall, p. 469), but never actually says that they were -- indeed, Cheetham, p. 141 says "the wording [of Croyland's account] here implies that the rumour may well have been spread by [Buckingham's] rebels with malice aforethought."
Pollard's summary, on p. 123, is "there is an impressive array of evidence dating from before 1500... which points to the boys meeting their deaths at Richard's hands in 1483. The reports are, however, muddled, contradictory, and inconclusive."
WilliamsonA, p. 121, mentions a wardrobe entry from March 1485 of clothes for the "Lord Bastard," a title sometimes used of Edward V -- but too vague to mean much.
Henry VII's 1486 act claiming the throne accuses Richard of "shedding of infants' blood" (Seward-Richard, p. 121). This appears to be the first open mention of the crime in England. Even if you ignore the fact that it offers no details at all, it will be clear that it has no evidentiary value -- Henry VII *had* to blame Richard (as WilliamsonA says on p. 61, the princes, if alive, "were in fact more dangerous [to Henry] than to Richard"), but apparently did not know what actually happened. As Chrimes says on p. 73, "If the princes in the Tower had still been alive after Bosworth -- a most unlikely conjecture -- they would hardly have survived that event very long. But Henry VII was never able to demonstrate the fact of their death."
WilliamsonA, p. 94, observes that the parliamentary act Titulus Regius, which formally gave Richard the throne, was passed in the parliament of 1484, yet refers to the boys in the present tense. The text cited by Cunningham, p. 60, however refers primarily to their bastardy in the present tense, and they would be bastards even if dead. In any case, Titulus Regius was probably drafted in 1483; it is quite likely that no one thought to amend the language. I doubt it is significant.
The main evidence appealed to by Seward and Weir is, of course, the account of Thomas More (quoted in detail, e.g. by Cheetham, pp. 142-146). It is extremely circumstantial, naming names all over the place -- some of them familiar to history as servants of Richard, such as Sir Richard Ratcliffe, Sir William Catesby, and Sir James Tyrell, some unknown such as the conveniently-named "'Black' William Slaughter." In this account, Richard gives (far too public) orders for the murder of the princes, which Tyrell proceeds to carry out by the hand of accomplices. The bodies are secretly buried near the Tower -- and then secretly exhumed and moved by an unnamed priest.
As Cheetham comments on page 146, "More's account, written in 1513, carries a certain glib conviction, because he claims as his source the confession of the alleged assassin, Sir James Tyrell, who was executed for treason in 1502. But to accept it at face value rasies a number of unanswerable questions: why would Sir James make such a damaging confession? Why did Henry VII never have it taken down in writing anc circulated? Why does his official historian, Polydore Vergil, omit all mention of the confession?" And why is it that no copy of the confession has survived (Pollard, p. 120)? Even Chrimes, who is mostly pro-Henry, admits (p. 93 n.1) that there is no "reliable evidence" that Tyrell actually confessed.
It is extremely curious that More, who has had a lot of trouble with dates and facts until this point, is so circumstantial. Was he working from a copy of Tyrell's confession? There is every reason to think Henry faked this account. There were no bodies and no living witnesses; Tyrell, the alleged murderer, was executed without making a public statement (Fields, p. 231; he notes on p. 232 that the public record of Tyrell's execution refers only to treason in aiding the Earl of Suffolk, the brother of Richard's heir the Earl of Lincoln). Weir, pp. 243-248, devotes a chapter to More's account of Tyrell's alleged confession, then on p. 249, says that Tyrell's confession was "suppressed." This, of course, makes no sense -- Henry VII needed it to be public.
WilliamsonA, p. 174, does offer a sort of an explanation: The alleged confession had to be kept hidden until the deaths of three women who could have demonstrated its falsehood if false or been offended by it if true: The grandmother of the princes, Cecily Duchess of York (died 1495), their mother Elizabeth Woodville (died 1492), and their sister, Queen Elizabeth of York (died 1503).
But why should Tyrell confess anyway? It has been argued that he wanted absolution -- but that's a matter for the confessional, not a public declaration. Confessing merely gave a weapon to the man who was about to execute him!
Plus, would Tyrell have been willing to turn against Edward IV's children? Yes, he worked for Richard -- but it was Edward IV who had knighted him in 1471, after the Battle of Tewkesbury, and given him enough offices and properties to make him one of the richest men in England (WilliamsonA, p. 91).
Finally, and even more conclusively, if More knew where the bodies were buried, why didn't someone tell Henry Tudor? As Jenkins, p. 195, observes, Henry cannot have known where they were, or he would have exhumed them in 1485 or 1486 to stop the pretenders. It is curious to note that, when Henry VII came to London, he seems to have made no attempt at all to find out what had happened to Edward V and Richard of York (Fields, p. 189); this is one of the reasons why the most extreme defenders of Richard accuse Henry Tudor of killing the boys (I remember Thomas B. Costain making a big argument about this in The Last Plantagenets, though it was more wishful thinking than actual reasoning).
Of course, the possibility exists that someone invented More's unnamed priest who moved the bodies to justify why Henry VII couldn't find them. But if we don't know who the priest was, how do we know he did anything? More's excessive details, far from bolstering his case as Seward and Weir claim, makes it weaker -- take out Slaughter and the claim of Tyrell's confession and the unnamed priest, and *then* you have an account which works. But there is no basis for this shortened version of More's tale.
Note, too, that the bodies which are claimed to be those of the princes were found, not where More says they would be found but where More said they were *before* the unnamed priest came along and moved them away! This says that either the bodies are not those of the princes or that More's tale is inaccurate in its conclusion. Either way, More is at least half wrong. As Poole says on p. 10, "No credit can be placed on the Tyrell story as reported by Sir Thomas More.")
Hicks allows a sort of pseudo-justification for murder of the princes -- that deposed kings had to die (Hicks, pp. 168-170). He notes the cases of Edward II, Richard II, and Henry VI. We might also mention that King John likely murdered his rival Arthur of Brittany. Certainly being an ex-king was a very dangerous career choice. On the other hand. William the Conqueror had spared Edgar the Atheling, the heir of the Saxon dynasty, and (admittedly this was later) Lady Jane Grey would be spared after the first attempt to place her on the throne; they didn't kill her until after the second try. And, contrary to what Hicks asserts, Edward V was *not* ever the actual king, since he was never crowned.
So it does not *automatically* follow that Richard would have killed his nephews. It was not the Yorkists who slaughtered their rivals (the Beauforts mostly were allowed to live, except when actually found on the battlefield, though not trusted too much); it was the Tudors who elevated murder-for-being-alive to an art form,, as Henry VII executed Clarence's son the Earl of Warwick and Henry VIII killed the Earl of Suffolk (Richard's nephew), the Duke of Buckingham (the son of Richard's Duke), the Marquess of Exeter, the Countess of Salisbury (Clarence's daughter), and even Lord Montagu, who had almost no Plantagenet blood at all.
In passing judgment on all these men, we must remember that it was a cruel age. Henry V, the allegedly great king, had ordered a friend of his burned at the stake, and had watched as another "heretic" was burned. John Tiptoft, responsible for "justice" under Edward IV, was so cruel that he executed children too young even to understand that they were being killed (Dockray, p. 32). Margaret of Anjou had murdered Edward IV's younger brother Edmund of Rutland -- one version of the story has it that this was after he had been made to watch his father being killed, and while this is an after-the-fact legend, it shows how Margaret treated other enemies. Traitors at this time were half-hung then drawn and quartered -- eviscerated while alive. (This would be the fate of Perkin Warbeck, for instance.) It was Henry VIII, not Richard III, who executed those who denied transubstantiation -- even after the Anglican revolution! (Halliday, p. 89). *Everyone* was bloody-handed by our standards; the question is not whether they were cruel but whether they were more or less cruel than others of the period. And Richard, based on all things other than the fate of the princes, seems to have been less cruel than most.
Oh, and speaking of princes disappearing in the tower -- Henry Pole, the last Yorkist prince (descended from Edward IV and Richard III's sister) -- vanished in the Tower in the 1540s (reign of Henry VIII). Henry never explained what happened to him.
Several stories circulated about the Princes' fate. The Burgundian chronicler Molinet thought they were walled up in a room and left to die (Poole, p. 9). And Ross, p. 97, has a tale of skeletons being found in a walled-up room that were said to be theirs. This was published in 1647, though Fields, p. 247, says that the actual discovery came earlier. But all evidence of this has vanished, and Ross dismisses it. And such stories were common at the time -- e.g. Richard III's friend Viscount Lovell disappeared after the Battle of Stoke, and there was a story that he too was walled up, and the skeleton later found in his home at Minster Lovell. Or, who knows, maybe that was the body of the princes.... This cannot possibly be checked; Minster Lovell was allowed to fall to ruin, and little but the foundation remains (Kerr, pp. 116-117).
Potter, p. 230, points out a story that the bodies were thrown in the Thames, but there is even less evidence for this.
Much more significant was the discovery, in 1674, of a coffin found under a stairway outside the Tower of London (Weir, p. 252). Details about the original find are unfortunately murky; it appears the coffin and the bones it contained were actually tossed on a rubbish heap for a time (Potter, p. 229; Fields, p. 240). We do know that , when recovered and opened, the coffin contained the bodies of two young children. (When it was reopened later, it was also found to contain oddities such as pig bones; Weir assumes that some of the children's bones had been stolen and replaced by animal bones, probably after the exhumation).
This is fascinating because at first glance it seems to match the circumstantial description found in Thomas More's history of Richard III. Except that, to repeat, it *doesn't,* because More says the bodies were moved after their initial burial, yet they were found right where we would expect them to have been had they not been reburied. As Pollard points out on p. 124, "In other words, if one chooses to believe More's highly improbable story, the skeletons cannot have been those of the princes; for according to him their final resting place was elsewhere."
Fields, p. 239, observes that though we do not really have precise details about where the coffin was located, we can offer a general idea, then goes on to demonstrate, pp. 240-246 that, contrary to Weir, the discovery does *not* match Thomas More's account of the burial and of Sir James Tyrell's confession (though of course More had the whole thing at about fourth hand and much could have been distorted). Nor is this the only problem with More's account. Jenkins, p. 197, observes that the initial report says they were buried ten feet deep. This report may, of course, simply be inaccurate -- but if accurate, could a hole large enough to contain a chest with two bodies in it truly be dug, and filled in, in a single night by a party small enough to keep a secret?
The bodies were claimed to be those of the princes, and eventually they were treated as such. Nonetheless, there was no evidence for this supposition except for the fact that no one knew of any other bodies likely to be there -- and while More's account could not explain where the princes' bodies were actually buried, it did offer an explanation for why there were children buried near the Tower. Ross, p. 97, makes the interesting point that the king at the time of the discovery, Charles II, had "a certain interest in this matter of deposition" -- as in, his father had been deposed and executed. Thus he would naturally be interested in tales of other deposed kings. Fraser, p. 329, notes that Charles was convinced that the bodies were those of the Princes, and ordered then to receive great care as a result.
In 1933, the bodies were re-examined by two experts (but not subjected to laboratory examination; Lamb, p. 77, and by experts who were convinced from the start that they were the princes; Pollard, p. 126). They concluded that their ages -- twelve or thirteen for the elder, probably nine or ten for the younger though with a larger margin of error -- were consistent with the ages of the princes in 1483 or 1484 (Weir, p. 257, based on both the 1933 examination and more recent discussions of the photographs taken in 1933). Although the bodies are widely claimed to have been male, both children were pre-pubescent, meaning their sexes could not be determined (Weir, p. 255; Jenkins, p. 200; Poole, p. 9; Pollard, p. 126).
No cause of death could be determined; indeed, the 1933 examiners couldn't even determine the approximate date of burial of the bodies. (Weir claims that we can date them based on a casual reference to "velvet" being found in the coffin when they were excavated. It is true that velvet was invented in the middle ages, so the bones had to be relatively recent if they indeed were wrapped in velvet. However, the quote is that there were "pieces of rag and velvet about them"; WilliamsonA, p. 183. The reference is clearly too vague to allow certainty as to whether it was really velvet.) The 1933 examiners did make some guesses about what had killed the children, but scholars since then have almost universally declared these guesses untrustworthy.
(So we are again stymied. Ross asks who the bodies belong to, if not the princes, but that is obvious special pleading. Hicks, p. 191, declares the matter "conclusively answered" but nowhere that I can see gives any reason to think that the bones were those of the princes, except that they were in the right place to fit More's account -- if you ignore the story that the bones were reburied and the fact that we don't actually know where they were found! Fields, p. 252, observes that several other bodies have been found on the Tower grounds, so what makes the bones of 1674 more likely to be the Princes?
Certainly, if the boys were Edward V and Richard of York, then they must have died during the reign of Richard III -- but it could not be established in 1674 or in 1933 that the skeletons were those of Edward and Richard (Kendall, p. 481). All we can say is that the skeletons fit such minimal details we have. The fact that they might be the right age to be the princes in 1483 does not prove that they are the princes, nor does it prove that the princes died in 1483. We must *either* know that the boys died in 1483 to prove that they are the princes, or know that they are the princes to know that the boys died in 1483.
Today, using genetic testing, we *could* determine if the bodies are Plantagenets, and a more accurate age at the time of their deaths, and a more accurate time of death (to within a century, anyway, as opposed to the only current objective dating, which is "we dunno"), and maybe even the cause of death -- but I read in an issue of Renaissance magazine that Elizabeth II forbade the re-exhumation of the bodies; this is confirmed by Fields, p. 257. The staff of Wesminster Abbey, which holds the bones, is also opposed (Weir, p. 256). Those who most doubt Richard's guilt wonder if it isn't possible that Elizabeth II knows that her ancestor Henry VII, rather than Richard III, killed the two boys, who were an even greater threat to him than to Richard. This strikes me as highly unlikely -- if Richard had had the boys, he would have exhibited them in 1485, when the invasion by Henry Tudor was threatening. So it seems nearly certain that they were dead by then.
Kendall, p. 482, concedes, "As the matter stands, it can be asserted that, (a), if these are the skeletons of the Princes, then the boys were killed in the summer of 1483; and (b) it is very probable that these are the skeletons of the Princes." This, contrary to Lamb, WilliamsonA, and Fields, is still the best summary of the case. But it is also so vague a statement that it cannot be used to start a chain of inference.
To add to the uncertainty. the years since the 1933 examination have led to many attempts to extract more information from the minimum made available at that time -- and the result has been much questioning of the 1933 results; Fields, pp. 251-255, lists a number of studies on the subject, which have given age estimates for the older boy ranging from perhaps as young as eight or nine to as old as fifteen or sixteen!
Similarly, Langley, pp. 152-153, called on modern authorities to re-assess the results, and "redacted" the conclusions from 1933. One expert concluded that there were two -- possibly three -- bodies in the coffin, with the ages consistent with the 1933 results, but the older body more likely to have been female than male. A second group of examiners allowed for a wider age range and was also open to the possibility that one or both bodies were female. But it must be stressed that these examiners had no access to the actual bodies, only to the reports. No additional tests were performed. The modern examiners were probably free of the biases of the original examiners, but they had less data, and for that matter, while the "redaction" may have reduced bias, it may also have cost them useful data. I do not think Langley's silly game added anything to our knowledge; the only thing that will will be to re-open the casket. Today, with Richard III's DNA at hand, we could prove that the bodies are, or are not, those of the Princes. But if they are not, it does not disprove More's account, and even if they are, it does not prove his account. The main purpose of any examination would be to learn all the things that a 1933 examination could not learn.)
Of course, Langley, pp. 176-177, offers what she calls a "Proof of Life" for Edward V in 1487 -- but it is no such thing; it is a foreign reference to King Edward, but since that was when Lambert Simnel was prefending to be Edward, Earl of Warwick, Simnel would have been called "King Edward."
Even if the bodies are those of the princes, and they were murdered, Kendall, p. 482, observes that this does not prove that Richard was the one who ordered their deaths -- though an honest person must admit that the probability of Richard ordering it is extremely high.
Pollard, p. 127, declares "Essentially the bones are a red herring. They cannot settle the question of whether Richard III murdered the princes." I would disagree in part. They cannot prove that Richard killed the boys. But modern methods *can* determine whether the two skeletons are those of the princes, and if they are, we can at least *prove* that the boys did not survive.
Although Richard III is obviously the leading candidate to have ordered the death of the princes, several other candidates have been mentioned. Two of them are genuine possibilities (Ross, pp. 102-104; Kendall devotes 31 pages -- pp. 465-495 -- to the issue): They had motive, and at some time or another also means and opportunity.
One is Henry Tudor. The case against him, in a way, is even stronger than against Richard III: Had the boys been alive, he would have *had* to murder them to take the throne. (Supposedly Henry Tudor, after Bosworth, said that if anyone of the line of Edward IV had a right to the throne, Henry himself would yield the throne to him; Arthurson, p. 2. As a way to suppress pretenders, it failed miserably.) And, being the man he was, Henry surely would not have hesitated. But, of course, he could only kill them if they were still alive. Which is nearly impossible if the 1674 bones are those of the princes, and unlikely even if the bones were someone else's.
(To be sure, WilliamsonA, p. 87, offers the suggestion that Henry managed to have someone kill the princes in 1483 while they were still in Richard's custody, the idea being that he had to get them out of the way so that he could marry Elizabeth of York. Henry is certainly sneaky enough to try such a thing, but it's hard to believe he could have pulled it off or that it could have gone unreported.)
The second possibility is the Duke of Buckingham, Richard's right-hand man in usurping the throne. Even Ross admits the possibility that he might have been the one to talk Richard into the murders. And Buckingham's influence in Richard's early reign was such that he might have been able to order their death on his own authority. But this does not answer *why* he might have done it. Some have argued that it was to make Richard look bad. Possible, since he went into rebellion soon afterward, but pretty convoluted. And, as Cheetham, p. 148, points out, Richard never once accused Buckingham of killing the boys. This does not entirely clear Buckingham, but it is a very strong argument in his favor. Pollard, p. 124, concludes that "the evidence is hardly enough to support the hypothesis... that [Buckingham] murdered the princes without the King's authority." However, even the anti-Richard Bennett notes that there is some circumstantial evidence for the hypothesis that Buckingham arranged for the deaths at the end of July -- and that Richard blew up when he learned (Bennett, pp. 45-46).
Occasionally others are mentioned -- e.g. John Howard, since he got the Dukedom of Norfolk out of it. I really doubt this, since Howard had little access to the Princes and probably would have been promoted anyway. WilliamsonA, p. 106, mentions that Lord Stanley was Constable after Buckingham's rebellion, and could have killed the Princes on his stepson's behalf. But this assumes, first, that Stanley would do something that blatant (which he never did at any other time), and second, that Richard failed to catch him at it. This us extremely unlikely. We truly have only three candidates.
In this context, genetic testing on the 1674 skeletons would really help. As Cheetham says on p. 147, "if the skeletons are those of the princes, and their ages have been accurately assessed... Henry VII is exonerated from any part in their deaths.... [I]f the prices died in the autumn of 1483, there are only two men who could conceivably have been responsible -- Richard and Buckingham."
There is another possibility, rarely brought out in the studies of the matter (as best I can tell, only Fields, p. 218, considers it, and primarily in the context of the extremely unlikely notion that Perkin Warbeck was Prince Richard). The 1933 examination of the bones did seem to reveal advanced dental problems in the older skeleton (Kendall, p. 472; Weir, p. 255; Jenkins, p. 176, notes that the report says the older boys "suffered from extensive disease, affecting almost equally both sides of the lower jaw; The disease was of a chronic nature and could not fail to have affected his general health. The gums in the lowar molar region would have been inflamed, swollen, septic and no doubt associated with discomfort and irritability").
Thus there is a real possibility that Edward (V) died of this, or of blood poisoning consequent to this, forcing whoever was in charge at the time -- probably Richard -- to cover it up. Modern examinations would doubtless make this clearer, too, but, again, no such examination has been permitted.
In connection with this, I note a report that Prince Richard was reported to have been ill in the period before he was taken into custody (WilliamsonA, p. 85). Is it possible that *he* was the older skeleton, the one with the infected jaw, and the younger some unknown playmate? Could he have lived that long, or could our birth date for him be that far off? If so, what happened to Edward V? The answer once again is surely, "We will never know."
WilliamsonA, p. 117, notes the curious fact that the feigned boys who arose in Henry VII's reign pretended to be Prince Richard, not Edward V. She speculates that this was because people knew Edward V was dead (implying that he died of natural causes). But there is absolutely no historical hint of this. Far more likely that the pretenders claimed to be Richard because he was less-known than his brother, and so easier to "fake." Plus a boy who was nine at the time of the key incidents would not be as likely to remember details as a boy of twelve. By pretending to be Richard, the claimants made it harder to disprove their claims.
It's also possible that one of Richard's followers killed the boys, not realizing the problems it would cause. It's also possible that someone -- likely Buckingham -- killed them in full knowledge that it *would* cause problems. Some of of Richard III's extreme partisans have argued, e.g., that Henry Tudor might have tried to kill them at this stage, to clear the way for his marriage to Elizabeth of York. And if he had a means to do so, he might have tried. But Henry never took useless risks. If he had sent an assassin, and the assassin had been caught, he would be completely discredited. Unless the assassin was almost certain to succeed, he wouldn't have tried. Which means that Henry would have had to have the cooperation of either Richard or Buckingham.
Cheetham, p. 148, summarizes the case against Buckingham while concluding it unlikely; Kendall, pp. 487-495, offers a much more detailed case, including the statement on p. 494 that "empirically, Buckingham appears more likely than Richard to have been the murderer of the princes." Hicks, while dismissing the possibility, notes on p. 182 that several contemporary or near-contemporary sources suspected Buckingham, and that he was the only possibility mentioned at the time other than Richard.
In practical terms, this makes no difference -- if either boy had died against Richard's will, either naturally or by murder without his knowledge, Richard would still have been blamed for the deaths; he might well have felt that a coverup was the best he could do. (It probably was, too, though I'd say he should have come out and told the truth anyway.)
As Kendall, p. 495, notes, "This famous enigma eludes us, like Hamlet: we cannot pluck out the heart of its mystery. But at least we can do better than Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who thought there was no mystery at all."
Richard's attackers frequently claim that his murder of children was exceptional -- this is the point at which they go into histrionics (about a third of Hicks's book is devoted to this point; so is Pollard, pp. 135-139). This is bunk. Tales of children being exposed because they were threats to the throne go back to tales of Oedipus and Cyrus. Cnut had devastated the Saxon royal family when he took the throne, and when William the Bastard became William the Conqueror, Edgar the Atheling, the Saxon heir who was about the age of Edward V, had to flee to Scotland. Henry Tudor killed the Earl of Warwick. Jane Grey was killed as a teenager. The correct statement is not that it was *unusual* to try to kill children, but that it was *more widely reviled*.
The flip side (rarely mentioned by Richard's defenders) is that, *even if he didn't kill them*, he still bears a significant portion of the blame for their deaths. By imprisoning them, he made them a fixed target. If Buckingham decided to kill them, he knew right where they were -- no risk of them being moved and word of the plot leaking out. If by some wild chance they were around for Henry Tudor to kill, *he* knew where they were. And even if they, or at least Edward V, died naturally, Richard prevented doctors from seeing them (admittedly any doctor of the time would have been completely useless, but the doctor could have made the situation known).
As Pollard says on p. 132, "At bottom, the difficulty facing all arguments to the effect that someone other than Richard III [or Buckingham] was responsible for the death of the princes, is the assumption that they were still alive on the morning of 22 August 1485. As an assumption this is less tenable than the assumption that they were dead by then."
Cheetham, p. 151, gives what seems to me the best summary: "We have thus come in a full circle back to Richard as the prime suspect [in the murder] and the early autumn of 1483 as the most likely date. The evidence is not conclusive in a legal sense, and never will be. Richard stands convicted not so much by the evidence against him as by the lack of evidence against anybody else.
"The murders leave an ineradicable stain on Richard's character.... But that does not prove that his nature was warped by a vein of deliberate cruelty. His treatment of the vanquished Nevilles and his defence of Clarence show Richard in a kinder light....
"More important than the moral issue were the political consequences. The murder of the Princes has often been described as a Renaissance solution in the manner later prescribed by Macchiavelli. In fact it was a colossal blunder. Nothing else could have prompted the deflated Woodvilles to hitch themselve to Henry Tudor's bandwagon...." (This point of view in fact goes back to contemporaries of Richard's; Ross, pp. xxxix-xl, quotes the Great Chronicle of London to this effect.)
Incidentally, this is not the only unsolved death of the period. Richard's friend Viscount Lovell seems to have vanished after his part in the Lambert Simnel rebellion of 1487. Ross, p. 50, says that "the circumstances of his death are even more mysterious than those of the princes in the Tower" -- and obviously this conundrum took place in the reign of Henry VII, not Richard III. One story had it that Lovell was left in a walled-up room in his own house -- note the similarity to that 1647 story about the princes!
All that seems really certain is that Richard no longer had the boys in his possession by September 1483, when Buckingham rebelled; under the circumstances, had Richard been able to bring them forth, the rebellion against him would have been weakened (Jenkins, p. 201) -- although it would have raised the hopes of those who wanted to restore the dynasty of Edward IV (Ross-Wars, p. 97). The odds are high that the boys were dead (though it occurs to me that it's just possible Buckingham had stolen them away as part of his scheme. But this is fairly unlikely, since Richard would presumably have proclaimed it, and he didn't.)
Nonetheless, Jenkins, p. 204, argues that at late as January 23, 1484, many thought the boys were still alive (this based on the fact that the Continuator of the Croyland Chronicle is widely thought to be Bishop John Russell of Lincoln -- so, e.g., Ross, p. xliv -- whose speech before parliament in 1484 showed no knowledge of their fate. Ross, however, thinks that the Croyland Chronicle did blame Richard for the deaths).
Interestingly, Richard, once Buckingham's rebellion was crushed, "treated the rebels with a magnanimity worthy of kingship. There were less than a dozen executions; no punitive measures were taken against Bishop Woodville, Sir Richard Woodville or the Marquess Dorset. Bishop Morton himself [probably the chief planner] was offered a pardon, but he did not come home to claim it. The widowed Duchess of Buckingham [another Woodville] was given an annuity; even that discreet but active conspirator the Lady Margaret Beaufort was not attainted..." (Jenkins, p. 203). Richard had also allows the widows of Earl Rivers and Lord Hastings to enjoy significant portions of their former revenues (WilliamsonA, p. 75). As Ross-Wars, p. 157, observes, "Henry VII was much tougher [in punishing rebellious nobles] than the Yorkists had been."
Cheetham, p. 158, gives a mixed verdict: "Ninety-five men has been singled out as leaders of the rebellion and had their lands confiscated.... These measures were not unduly harsh: at least a third of the attainders were subsequently revoked and many of those named had already found refuge at Henry [Tudor]'s court in exile." Richard probably felt that his kingdom was secure, so he didn't need to destroy the rebels -- but if he had been a more vengeful man, he probably could have killed them; they certainly weren't of any use to him!
That very magananimity demonstrates the convenience of the claims that Richard III was responsible for the deaths of the Princes in the Tower: Henry Tudor's justification for his ascension was that, first, Richard had killed the legitimate heir, meaning that Henry had at least some claim to the throne (though very dubious), and second, that Richard's crimes were so black that he needed to be overthrown.
It must be stressed: The Princes almost certainly died during Richard's reign, probably very early on, and very likely at his order. But the evidence, while strong, is not proof; we cannot draw absolute conclusions. Though, of course, this would not stop a good balladeer; it's a matter of legal proof.
The one person who truly benefitted from Buckingham's rebellion was probably Henry Tudor; it went far toward establishing him as the accepted alternative to Richard (Ross-Wars, p. 98).
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File: LQ34C

Children in the Wood, The (The Babes in the Woods) [Laws Q34] --- Part 05

DESCRIPTION: Conclusion of the notes to "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34].
Last updated in version 3.8
NOTES [11496 words]: RICHARD'S GOVERNMENT AND TUDOR GOVERNMENT
The claim that Richard did nothing but evil is patently false. He promoted learning and tried very much to establish justice; in better times, he very likely would have been a good king. Wilkinson, p. 300, says that "Richard took his business of ruling very seriously," adding that he brought able men into his council, encouraged trade, and established an admiralty as well as trying to clean up the national finances. Wilkinson concludes that he was "an able and effective king."
The laws passed in Richard's sole parliament were very positive. Cheetham, p. 158, lists as the major accomplishments laws regulating the granting of bail, assuring that juries were selected honestly and kept free from pressure, and governing the sale of property so that rich landowners couldn't cheat buyers. Jenkins, pp. 204-205, adds that he implemented laws to protect the property of those who were charged with crimes (WilliamsonA, p. 111, notes that the Woodvilles had been notorious for this). He set up a postal service. And he made revisions to the customs laws, most notably abolishing all duties on printed books and allowing foreign booksellers to sell their wares. (GArnett-IHearAmericaSinging and Gosse, p. 273. Think about *that*, Shakespeare fans! -- and note that Henry VIII repealed this and banned foreign booksellers; Steinberg/Trevitt, p. 49. Tudor renaissance? Hah.) One of Caxton's books was dedicated to Richard (Cunningham, p. 88).
He also banned the royal use of "benevolences" -- that is, forced loans (Russell, p. 38). These amounted to direct extortion from the nobles, especially as there was no real guarantee that they would be paid back. WilliamsonA, p. 109, notes that this was remembered -- apparently the citizens of London tried to use the precedents set by Richard to argue against Tudor tax policy. (It shouldn't take much knowledge of history to know how well *that* went over. The fact that anyone even tried the argument shows how strong was the contrast between Plantagenet and Tudor monarchy.)
The acts of Richard's parliament were published in English, according to Fields, p. 162 -- the first time the laws were published in the vernacular instead of in Latin. This was another help to the common people, since for the first time they could understand the law without having to rely on a cleric or lawyer.
Ross sourly comments (p. 189) that most of Richard's reforms were badly needed, and hence obvious -- but they had been obvious for decades and no one else made them; Ross-Edward, p. 347, documents how little constructive legislation had passed in the reign of Edward IV, and Chrimes, p. 136, admits that Henry VII's parliaments produced little significant legislation; Richard was the only genuine reformer of the fifteenth century. Ross observes that the 1484 parliament seems to have been full of Richard's supporters (it elected Richard's friend William Catesby as speaker even though Catesby had never served in parliament before; Ross, p. 185); Ross may be right in thinking that this indicates an unusual degree of parliament-packing, but I'm not sure why he thinks that so significant, since the results were still positive.
Pollard, p. 156, questions how much of the legislation was actually proposed by Richard, who allegedly had no "personal interest" in the acts involving commercial law (which he admits are good). But Pollard, like Ross, believes (although he admits that we have no data) that that parliament of 1484 was packed (Pollard, p. 151). If the parliament was under Richard's thumb, then Richard can be credited with the legislation. And even Pollard, p. 177, says that many of the changes which made Henry Tudor so strong a king (and he certainly was a strong king, if not a pleasant one) were in fact Richard's work. He goes on to compare Richard to Henry V -- a comparison which, I suspect, neither king's partisans would like.
Learning was clearly important to Richard. He gave major endowments to two colleges at Cambridge (Cheetham, p. 163; Ross, p. 135). Ross also says, on p. 130, that Richard endowed many foundations -- and that most of his activities of this sort came before he was king, when they became (in effect) part of his job. Among his foundations while still duke was Middleham College. He also started a college at York Minster as king, though he didn't have time to properly endow it. Pollard, too, notes his charities (p. 193), even while condemning his techniques of land aquisition. (Given the behavior of every other noble of the time, this strikes me as imposing modern morals on a medieval man.) Cunningham, p. 87, credits him with a grand total of ten major endowments. This is by contrast to his brother Edward IV, who (according to Dockray, p. 5) was neither especially religious nor especially devoted to learning.
Richard may also have enjoyed scholarly discussion himself; Ross, p. 149, notes an occasion when he spent two days listening to scholarly debate at Oxford (but can't resist adding a dig, "how much he understood of them is an open question.")
Nor was this the only time Richard listened to scholars debate. According to www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/grocyn.htm, Richard while Duke of Goucester heard a debate between William Grocyn and John Taylor. Richard gave Grocyn five marks and a buck -- a significant gift at the time. And Grocyn, according to Rylands, p. 18, became the first-ever teacher of Greek at Oxford. Although little is left from his pen, this makes him one of the most important classical scholars in English history -- but he seems to have gotten no support from the Tudors; only Richard heard and supported him. Like his support for books, Richard's support for Greek scholars gives strong evidence of his belief in the value of learning.
Protestants might be interested to note that, at a time when the Catholic Church refused to sanction vernacular translations and generally restricted ownership of the Bible (the Lancastrian dynasty had officially tried to suppress the Lollard translation of Wycliffe, along with a number of other books they or the Church did not like; Rubin, pp. 194-195), Richard had his own copy of the Wycliffe English Bible (Kendall, p. 386; Ross, p. 128, claims it was a "non-Lollard" version of Wycliffe's translation, but there is no such thing. Ross may be referring to an attempt by Cardinal F. A. Gasquet to prove that the translation known as Wycliffe's was orthodox and that the actual translation by Wycliffe has not survived. But we actually have copies of the Wycliffe translations in the autographs of translators Nicolas of Hereford and John Purvey; Kenyon/Adams, pp. 278-281, completely demolishes Gasquet's hypothesis. What Richard had was a Wycliffite Bible based on Wycliffe's and Hereford's first draft, without Purvey's heretical prologue to the revised translation).
I'm not saying Richard was a proto-Protestant; it appears he was always at peace with the official church, and in addition to that Bible, he owned a set of visions of St. Matilda (Saul3, p. 185) and a Book of Hours. But he does seem to have been someone who believed in the substance rather than the form of piety.
Richard's Book of Hours had originally been compiled for someone else -- but the prayers he had added to it are fascinating. One has the explicit statement "Keep concord between me and my enemies"; another, while asking that he be delivered from his enemies, asks that he might "find grace and favour in the eyes of his adversaries" (Saul3, pp. 188-189). These are sentiments which make a lot of sense in the context of the Wars of the Roses -- but are fascinating from a man so known for swift action! Even Saul3, no fan, admits on p. 197 that the evidence seems to indicate a troubled mind. He also thinks, p. 198, that Richard believed his religion justified his acts. We might not agree -- but certainly it makes his moral guilt a complicated matter.
Seward-Richard, p. 87, mentions Richard's Wycliffite Bible and other religious activities -- and concludes that Richard was a hypocrite who failed to acknowledge his actions. But this is precisely backward -- Richard's spiritual life was largely secret. If there is a key to Richard, I think it lies here: His definition of morality was not ours. We may not agree with Richard's (I certainly don't!), but in trying to assess what kind of man he was, we must ask if he was true to his morals, not ours. (Ross, in his final chapter, addresses this. Seward and Weir never do. Ironically, Kendall never really does, either.)
Richard was able to appoint only two bishops, but both were exceptional men (Ross, p. 133): Thomas Langton was first made Bishop of St. David's, then of Salisbury (and, under Henry VII, Bishop of Winchester and was nominated Archbishop of Canterbury but did not live to assume the post), and John Sherwood became Bishop of Durham (one of the most important of all English sees). Langton was a canon lawyer and a humanist; Shirwood, even more unusually, knew Greek as well as Latin and studied the actual Bible, not the badly-corrupted Latin Vulgate texts of the period that were the official Catholic texts. Richard even recommended that Shirwood be made Cardinal. For his own chaplain, he chose another Greek scholar, who had actually written a commentary on Plato (Ross, p. 134). Henry Tudor, by contrast, held bishoprics vacant in order to increase his own revenues (Russell, p. 57).
Richard established the Council of the North in 1484 (Cheetham, pp. 167-168, 209, Dockray, p. 111), which was maintained even by the Tudors; it lasted until the Union of the Crowns largely eliminated the Scottish border problem. Pollard, p. 176, observes that this solved a long-term problem: The crown had little control of the north, and many rebellions had come from there. Even Seward-Richard, p. 71, admits that "Beyond question the Duke's overall administration [of his territory in the North] was brilliantly successful.... [H]is firm hand and employment of Northern officials won him golden opinions and devoted servants among the townsmen and among some of the gentry." Dockray, p. 111, declares that Richard "brought a degree of stability to the region not seen for years." The problem was that it made him seem like the leader of a section of the country rather than the nation as a whole. The Tudors, in fact, adopted the idea and created a similar Council for Wales (Russell, p. 47). But Pollard, p. 150, suggests that the Earl of Northumberland may have resented the Council, since it reduced his power somewhat.
Richard also founded the ancestor of the modern Court of Requests, which gave ordinary people a chance to try to gain justice from their superiors (Cheetham, pp. 207-208; Jenkins, p. 205; Cunningham, p. 58, says that "Richard did have a genuine motivation to maintain impartial justice"; Ross, p. 175, notes the founding of the Court of Requests but sneers that Richard was prepared to ignore justice when it got in his way; Russell, p. 51, tries to deny the link to Richard by saying its "origins are obscure." According to Langley/Jones, p. 145, Richard had a substantial knowledge of and interest in the law; in the circumstances, perhaps it is not surprising he established a judicial circuit to deal with things other courts did not handle).
Ross, p. 151, quotes Bishop Langton as saying, "He contents the people wherever he goes best that ever did prince; for many a poor man that hath suffered wrong many days have been relieved by him and helped by him and his commands in his progress. And in many great cities and towns were great sums of money given him which he hath refused." Langton was allied with Richard, but this was in a private letter, so the sentiments are probably genuine. And Ross, p. 152, goes on to note that even hostile witnesses testify to his attempts to his attempts to supply tax relief and bring justice to the commons.
This seems to have been a genuine respect for all people. When he made an endowment to Queen's College, Cambridge, for a memorial to his dead soldiers, he didn't list just the highborn men; he appears to have included even the ordinary infantrymen -- a rare thing at the time (Langley/Jones, p. 191).
That respect for the common people reminds us of one of his other innovations -- one which may have been fatal. Richard tried to build his faction of relatively low-born men -- knights and esquires, rather than the high nobility (Cheetham, pp. 161-162; Seward-Richard, p. 117, calls them a "mafia"!). For example, when it came time to appoint a Lord Treasurer in succession to the deceased Essex, he did not choose a baron or a bishop, but gave the post to John Wood, the under-treasurer, a competent man but a commoner. He seems to have chosen men of high ability -- but, of course, the barons would have resented it, and in the period of the Wars of the Roses, they were in the habit of helping to decide who was king. As we have seen, several authors make exaggerated claims about how few of the high nobles fought at Bosworth. They usually blame it on repugnance for Richard. I suspect that the repugnance was more of a petty hissy fit, "How can he employ people like that? Just because their intelligence and education is greater than mine...."
It is often urged that the reign of Richard produced nothing in the way of literature and art, whereas Henry VII started the Tudor renaissance. It is true that there are no significant works from the period, and we have no record of Richard supporting the arts (Ross-Wars, p. 85). But we must note that the whole era was lacking; Amderson, p. 255, declares "No century in the history of English literature since the Norman Conquest has been more .often reproached for its barrenness than the fifteenth; and certainly its accomplishment is by any standard comparatively insignificant." Chaucer and Langland and the Gawain-poet and Gower were dead by about 1400 -- and no one succeeded them (barring the faint possibility that a great poet's work was lost. It could have happened; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, after all, survived in only one manuscript). There were "Chaucerians," to be sure, but the only tolerable writers among them, ironically, were Scottish! (Anderson, pp. 263-265).
The simple truth is, the Lancastrian era gave us no great writer except Thomas Malory (several authors speculate that the religious bigotry of the Lancastrians was a major factor in this), and the (much shorter) Yorkist era gave us none at all. Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur, written by a man who was in constant trouble with the law, was in fact published by Caxton in 1485, just days before Henry Tudor's invasion, meaning that Richard's reign was responsible for making available the only significant literary work of the era. (It is curious to observe that, of Caxton's early publications, Malory's is among the least preserved -- only one complete copy plus a second with quite a few leaves missing. It can't be that it was unpopular -- it was reprinted as early as 1498.)
But Henry VII's reign -- which lasted exactly as long as the combined reigns of the Yorkist kings -- also produced nothing. I checked four major poetry anthologies; between them they quoted only three poets born between 1420 and the death of Henry VII, and only two of them were mentioned in all the anthologies: John Skelton was in his twenties (probably 25) at the time of Bosworth, so he was formed by Yorkist tastes, not Tudor; Thomas Wyatt was only six when Henry VII died, so Henry can hardly claim credit for him!
The third poet of the period, Stephen Hawes appears in only one anthology, seemingly to bring in one early Tudor writer other than Skelton. (Hawes was one of Henry VII's grooms and a Chaucerian hack, according to Anderson, pp. 261-262. Kunitz/Haycraft, pp. 254-255, say that his writing was "essentially medieval," and marked by "sameness of... style" and "careless construction, confused meter, and bizarre and artificial wording." There is a work of his in Percy, but again, it seems intended to fill a chronological gap.) In any case, he seems to have worked primarily in the reign of Henry VIII, not Henry VII.
The next major poet after Wyatt was Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey -- and he came from the family to which Richard III had given the Norfolk earldom, and Henry VIII executed him as a result. Great way to start a renaissance.
Morris, p. 18, makes the startling observation that, in literature, "Tudor men and women talked and wrote as if they had virtually no 'inner life.'" Their art was little better. Morris, p. 21, declares, "Tudor taste was still very gothic; it was a taste for the excrescent, the florid, the flamboyant. It ran to profusion. It could not resist filling all available space with arabesque and ornament; it had to be lavish and garish in display."
The Royal Library, which formed the basis of what is now the British Library, was founded by Edward IV. Henry Tudor seemingly took no interest in it (so BarkerEtAl, p. 26). Considering that the printing press was active in the early Tudor period, as it had not been in the Yorkist, the lack of great works stemming from Henry's reign is noteworthy. Culturally, far from starting the Tudor renaissance, Henry VII continued the great cultural vacuum. It has been said that Henry VII paved the way for Elizabeth I (and there is no denying that hers was a great era culturally). But in truth Henry left little behind but a strong centralized government and a large war-chest -- and Henry VIII spend the latter and the reign of Mary (and indeed of Henry VIII and Edward VI) showed how dangerous the former could be. Even Elizabeth's regime censored publications.
The Vatican imposed censorship starting in 1487, and Tudor censorship was even more extreme -- Henry VIII had an index of prohibited books, just like theVatican (Gillingham, pp. 9-10). Ashley-GB, p. 223, notes that one reason the Reformation succeeded was that Henry VIII was able to publish books supporting his side, but suppressed Catholic books. We have actual physical evidence that Tudor officialdom hacked at at least one play which Shakespeare worked on. (Who knows what he might have done had he had a free hand? It has been observed that, of the English kings from Richard II to Henry VIII, Shakespeare wrote plays about all but Edward V, who hardly had a reign, and Henry VII...). Richard III appears never to have instituted prior restraint.
And Tudor England was not an economic success -- Henry Tudor faced a peasant revolt in 1497 which made it all the way to London (Morris, p. 26), and Henry VIII faced an even worse revolt in the 1520s (Russell, p. 79). The Tudor regime pushed taxes very high (Ashley-GB, p. 229, notes about an eight-fold increase from Henry VII's average to the average in the final years of Henry VIII; even allowing for inflation, that implies a threefold increase in effective tax rates), with bad results for the economy. It was in Tudor times that inflation first began to affect England seriously (Morris, p. 30; Ahsley-GB, p. 230, estimates that prices tripled from the beginning of Henry VIII's reign to the beginning of Elizabeth I's. That's not an extreme rate of inflation -- a little less than 2.5% per year -- but it was a dramatic change for a society used to almost no price fluctuation at all).
Henry VIII would debase the coinage (Morris, p. 31; Halliday, p. 92), something the Plantagenets had largely avoided and which made the inflation far worse. According to Gillingham, p. 11, real wages fell throughout the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth, hitting their nadir in 1597. Enclosure drove many off their lands, and the number of poor increased dramatically in Tudor times (Mattingly, p. 177). It seems clear that this was the result of the exceptional taxes levied by Henry VII and his heirs, and the currency manipulation of Henry VIII. Halliday points (p. 96) that when Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, England was a poor nation -- yet it had been one of the richest in Europe even during the nadir of the Lancastrian era!
The very pro-Tudor WilliamsonJ says, on pp. 16-17, that while Henry Tudor at the time of Bosworth was "cool, humorous... diplomatic... capable of instant decision... and... a man of his word" (a description which, even then, I find far too flattering), he concedes that this was not "an altogether just picture of the Henry VII of twenty years later" (in other words, Henry VII showed his real side when he was secure on the throne -- and it wasn't a very pretty picture).
Let us not forget who pushed through the legislation which empowered the Star Chamber (WilliamsonJ, pp. 27-28, though he tries valiantly to claim both that the Star Chamber was actually a positive step and that Henry didn't really create it. Russell, however, notes on pp. 49-50 that being summoned before the Council or the Star Chamber was "one of the most alarming experiences which might befall a Tudor gentleman." WilliamsonJ's rather delicate way, on p. 38, of describing Henry's regard for law is to say that "Henry's upbringing in foreign countries had not imbued him with the instinctive respect for the constitution which he might have had if he had been educated near the throne." In other words, he was a despot. It is rarely stated this way, but the Glorious Revolution of 1688 was largely an attempt to limit the powers the Tudor monarchs had taken to themselves).
The Tudors also added many more government officials -- some, like those who ran the Navy, useful, but many just to watch over people. Henry Tudor, for instance, created the county officials known as feodaries, responsible for collecting rents and fees for the king, plus the receiver, surveyor, and woodward (Russell, p. 49). Some of there tasks were important, but mostly they added to the burden of government. And, since government posts paid very little, most survived by squeezing people; at this time, big government was generally bad government (Russell, p. 45).
Henry Tudor's Engliand was, flatly, a police state for the noble families. According to Ross-Wars, p. 152, "Of the twenty families which made up the higher nobility... in 1485, only half still held their titles in 1509" -- and many of those under suspended attainder, meaning that Henry could pick them off at any time if they misbehaved. Ross-Edward, p. 339, quotes Lander's statement that it was a "terrifying system" and refers to one of the crown officers as the "chief agent of extortion." Hicks, on p. 269 of RicardianXIII, notes that Henry almost never fully reversed an attainder. The treason laws were also toughened; in the past, treason had required an actual act of rebellion, but under Henry VIII, just speaking seditiously was considered sufficient reason to die a traitor's death (Russell, p. 90). Had the nobles known in 1485 what they were getting themselves in for, I doubt Henry Tudor would have lasted a week on the throne.
It seems that more people trained in the law under the Tudors than under the Yorkist regimes (Russell, p. 54). And, since there still were no officers of justice other than the sheriffs, now badly underpaid and with little use for their task, there was a vast upsurge in informers (Russell, p. 45). Many of these were merely witnesses bringing stories about property crimes and the like -- but far too many were governmentinformants, or people who used the Tudors' security mania to get back at personal enemies.
Or consider this: Columbus, for his explorations of America, was granted great titles and revenue by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. But when John Cabot tried to explore the New World for the English, Henry Tudor gave him -- ten pounds (Mirsky, p. 24). Little wonder he eventually went into Spanish service (WilliamsonJ, p. 93). England eventually acquired overseas colonies, but would surely have done so sooner (and at less cost!) had Henry not been so unwilling to make investments in the future.
Or this: Erasmus of Rotterdam, arguably the greatest scholar of his age, came to England about the time Henry VII died. He left five years later -- because no one paid him enough to support him (WilliamsonJ, p. 92).
Or this: Henry VII's council was so unpopular that his son Henry VIII, on taking the throne, had not only to expel two of them but to execute them (WilliamsonJ, p. 76). This even though Henry VIII otherwise kept the rest of the council intact; he was not trying for a completely new policy.
Henry VII didn't even show much gratitude to the men who put him on the throne. Sir William Stanley, who saved his life, would be executed in 1495 (Kendall, p. 457). Rhys ap Thomas, who had brought in most of the Welsh troops that fought at Bosworth, was never promoted above the status of knight (Mattingly, p. 45).
Turning back to Richard, the one thing he clearly was not was a peaceful man -- at least before he became King. When Edward IV invaded France, the French quickly tried to buy off the English, and Richard opposed the deal. He commanded an invasion of Scotland, and probably wanted to lead more (Dockray, pp. 111-112, who clearly thinks the border war unwise; in this, he follows the Croyland Chronicler, who thought it an expensive boondoggle). But, in 1484, he agreed to a three-year truce and a marriage alliance with the Scots, agreeing to marry his niece (the daughter of the Duke of Suffolk and the sister of Richard's later heir the earl of Lincoln) to the future James IV (Ross, p. 193, though Ross interprets these attempts at peace as evidence that Richard wanted more war with the Scots).
The Scots were not a real threat to Richard's throne. The French were. Ross, pp. 195-196, notes that Richard's enemy Henry Tudor had long been sheltered in Brittany (which was, in practical terms, independent from France but very afraid of the French. Bennett, p. 85, thinks the time in Brittany was a help to Henry, since it exposed him to the Breton culture -- relatively close to Welsh culture, and Henry, who was a quarter Welsh, would desperately need Welsh support). Richard responded with a campaign of naval pressure on the Bretons (Ross, p. 197), even though they would have been logical allies against the French had he managed the relationship right. Later, after Richard convinced the Bretons to yield the Tudor, Henry escaped to the French (Ross, p. 199, who thinks that Henry's mother Margaret Beaufort may have warned him; she might well have learned of it from her husband Lord Stanley). And, because the French considered Richard their enemy, they let Henry loose and even gave him some French soldiers (Ross, p. 194).
Despite his George W. Bush approach to diplomacy, Richard was ahead of his time in many ways -- e.g. in his support of printing, which of course would make learning available to far more than ever before; in his personal version of spirituality, as shown by his English Bible and other books; in his tendency to appoint learned men rather than timeservers to high office (Ross, p. 76; Ross, p. 132, adds that he preferred Cambridge to Oxford men, but given that his Chancellor, Bishop John Russell, whom Thomas More called "one of the best learned men undoubtedly that England had in his time," was an Oxford man, I think this is exaggerated); and in his respect for the commons.
One of Shakespeare's incidents may have had a vague kernel of truth. Sadly, according to Jenkins, p. 208, Richard's wife Anne Neville was consumptive (probably; Weir, p. 206, says "tuberculosis or cancer"), and toward the end of her life doctors declared her illness contagious. So Richard, whose only legitimate son Edward had died in early 1484, was unable to share his wife's bed in the final months before she too died in early 1485 (HarveyJ, p. 208; Jenkins, p. 210; Seward-Richard, p. 168, in his desire to finish off Richard, apparently wanted him to sleep with her so he too could have gotten sick). While hardly the marriage of enemies Shakespeare portrayed, at the end it was perhaps chaste.
Weir, p. 210, is sure that Richard tried to hasten Anne's end, and cites on p. 211 Rous's statement that Richard poisoned Anne. This apparently was a genuine rumor, known also to Commynes. Seward-Richard, p. 169, says that the rumor came from "no less a witness than Richard himself" -- but he cites no statement of Richard's, instead mentioning Commynes.
Evidence and logic argue against it. Poison was becoming a political tool on the continent, but the English were very slow to adopt it (Lofts, pp. 88-89). In any case, the poisons of the period weren't reliable enough to make someone die of what seemed to be tuberculosis! Plus the Croyland Chronicler reports that, when their son Edward died, both Richard III and his wife were "almost bordering on madness" because of their grief (Ross, p. 145; Pollard, p. 159). Richard, given his illegitimate children, would surely have been of the opinion that he could have more offspring if he married someone else -- and, since he and Anne Neville were cousins, he could almost certainly have obtained an annulment of his marriage. Why poison her and risk discovery?
More to the point, Richard's marriage to Anne Neville helped maintain his alliances in the north, since she was the heir of one of the greatest northern families. Getting rid of her was not good politics (Bennett, p. 68). Even if he wanted her dead, he could surely have waited until Henry Tudor was dealt with. Seward-Richard, p. 168, claims that Richard used "psychological methods" to poison her, and claims support from Croyland -- but in his endnote cites only Polydore Vergil.
Weir admits (pp. 210-211) that Croyland tells us Richard wept openly by Anne's grave, and that his face was always drawn after this. Naturally Weir considers this another act on his part.
Saul3, p. 78, does note that Anne's death, plus the death of his son Edward, may have made Richard's cause seem "blighted," and adds that Richard cannot have expected her to bear another son, because her line didn't bear sons (a false statement, since Anne's sister Isabel had a son, the Earl of Warwick). But his note on p. 157, that the death of Richard's son was seen as a reflection on his treatment of Edward IV's sons and a token of his Richard's failure, is probably true.
There is disagreement about whether the marriage between Richard and Anne Neville was a love match -- Kendall thinks it was; Ross, p. 28, vigorously denies it, and Ross-Edward, p. 188, suggests Anne married Richard because he was the only man strong enough to prevent Anne from being despoiled by Anne's sister Isabel and her husband George. Seward-Richard, p. 62, in a rare moment of balance, confesses, "There is no evidence how he regarded her, nor even if their marriage was happy or unhappy."
The only direct evidence we have seems to be an ambassadorial report, which claims Richard married Anne for her property -- but it is so distorted that it doesn't even list Richard's earldom correctly (Laynesmith, p. 70). I doubt it counts as evidence.
I would note that Richard had Anne crowned Queen at the same time he was crowned -- very unusual in this period, according to Laynesmith, p. 75. Both Elizabeth Woodeville and Elizabeth of York had to wait quite a while to be crowned. Is this a sign that Richard loved or respected his wife? Hard to tell.
The strangest account is that of Harvey, who largely follows the Hall/Holinshed/Shakespeare version of history to the exclusion of primary sources, but for some reason thinks that Richard loved Anne passionately: After Warwick's death, "Clarence, her brother-in-law... tried to whisk her into obscurity. Disinherited, branded as a traitor, nameless and unknown, dressed in rags, forced to work the kitchens and empty the slops in mighty houses, he had survived for five years. She did not know that Gloucester had loved her, had sought for years to find her, to marry her...." Unfortunately for romantics, her father died in 1471, and Anne's son was born by 1474, so she wasn't hidden for five years.
Pollard, p. 65, declares, "Although the young couple had known each other in childhood, there is no evidence that theirs was a love-match. One might be drawn by the romantic notion that is was, particularly since Richard does indeed seem to have rescued the unfortunate girl from virtual arrest in Charence's household. Sadly there were mundane and material reasons for the match on both sides." On this basis Pollard seems certain that Gloucester married her for her lands (although, it should be noted, there was no guarantee that she would have any lands when he rescued her, since the threat of attainder still fell upon her father, and her mother was still alive).
The biggest obstacle to the idea of a love match is the four year gap in their ages (Ross-Edward, p. 94n., says Anne was born in June 1456. Richard was born in 1452). If a 19-year-old boy fell in love with a 15-year-old girl, it would be no great surprise. But how about an 11-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl? If Richard had any feelings about Anne when he met her, he probably thought she was a young pest.
In fact there is some evidence regarding their mutual feelings, but of questionable value. According to Potter, p. 170, Buck cited a manuscript claiming that Richard refused to take part in the killing of Edward of Lancaster because Richard loved Anne Neville, then married to Edward (WilliamsonA, p. 32). This manuscript, however, was presumably lost in the Cotton Fire if it existed at all, and in any case was probably written after the fact.
Seward-Richard, p. 41, suggests that her father the Earl of Warwick offered to have Anne marry Richard (Ross-Edward, in fact, suggests on p. 94 that, after Edward IV married Elizabeth Woodville, marriages to the Plantagenet princes were the only prospects left for his daughters, since the Woodville sisters had used up all the other eligible nobility); this is a possible but unsupported speculation and does not explain why the two went through with it after Warwick was killed. We can only try to infer. What is interesting to note is that Richard was one of few English Kings to have an English wife (since the Norman Conquest, there were only three others: John had married then divorced Isabel of Gloucester, Henry IV had married Mary de Bohun before he was in line for the throne, and Edward IV had married Elizabeth Woodville).
Of these four instances, only Richard would have known his bride for any length of time before they were married, since Richard lived in the Neville household in his early years. So Richard and Anne -- contrary to Shakespeare -- *could* have fallen in love. The Croyland Chronicler told a confusing story of George of Clarence hiding his sister-in-law and Richard rescuing her (Dockray, p. 100), but as several historians have pointed out, this makes little sense as told -- Anne Neville could have rescued *herself* had she wanted to.
Which leads to another point: Consider when Richard's two illegitimate children were conceived: Seemingly in 1469-1471. This was the period when Warwick was fighting Edward. Richard probably could have sired children before that, and *certainly* could have had illegitimate children after that -- but it appears he didn't. Lamb, p. 14, declares that "no gossip exists about his family life." The only time he sowed his wild oats was when Anne Neville appeared to be unavailable, since she was betrothed to Edward the Lancastrian Prince of Wales. It's an argument from silence, but it really does seem to imply that he cared for Anne Neville. Whether she returned the emotion is another question.
(In the Department of Odd Asides, Richard's marriage to Anne may have added to his tragedy. Charles of Burgundy was killed in 1477, his only heir being a daughter -- the most eligible heiress in Europe. Everyone in Burgundy wanted her to marry an Englishman, to form a marriage alliance. Edward IV couldn't manage it; his only available husband was George of Clarence, whom he simply could not trust; Ross-Edward, pp. 249-251. Richard would have done admirably, but he was married to Anne Neville. They perhaps could have gotten a divorce on grounds of consanguinity, but Richard seemingly did not want it. Whether this was for love, or because he did not wish to disinherit his son, or for some other reason, we cannot tell.)
The one thing that is certain is that Richard and Anne were able to cooperate; they engaged in several joint religious projects (Langley/Jones, p. 157).
Cheetham, p. 163, makes the interesting observation that the death of Richard's son may have changed the political equation, since Richard no longer had a dynasty to assure the future fortunes of his supporters. It's hard to know how important this would be to the nobles of the time -- it would doubtless disturb them that Richard had no heir, but Richard was only 32; he had plenty of time to sire another son. Except that, if Richard died young, as his brother had, then England would again have the problem of a boy king....
There was apparently another rumor, after Anne's death, that Richard wanted to take his niece, Edward IV's daughter Elizabeth, as his second wife. Weir, p. 203, claims that "it was only days [after Christmas 1484] before a passionate attraction was kindled between them." She also suggests that Elizabeth Woodville may have pushed her daughter in that direction. She bases this "passion" on a comment by Croyland (which she quotes on p. 204) about Richard wanting to marry Elizabeth to "put an end" to the hopes of a rival. Seward-Richard, p. 171, says there is "no question" that Richard intended to do so.
Harvey, p. 99, also mentions a rumor that Elizabeth had a child by Richard -- but cites no source for this information, and elsewhere states as if they were fact things which are rather her own imagination.
Apart from Croyland's comment, which we note is about politics, not passion, there seem to be only three pieces of actual evidence for the idea, all weak. One is that, at a Christmas ball in 1484, Anne Neville and Elizabeth of York wore similar dresses (Seward-Richard, p. 168). This led to a great deal of speculation about Elizabeth replacing Anne -- but raises the problem of why Anne would go along. Despite the gossip, Pollard's explanation (pp. 162-163) is that Richard was taking Edward's children back into favor, and the Woodvilles were now supporting Richard.
One might also note that the same dress might have looked good on both of them; the Croyland chronicler describes them as being "alike in complexion" (Laynesmith, p. 52).
The second bit of evidence is the testimony of Edward Hall, which Weir quotes with great approval. But we know Hall's testimony to be a mixture of (mostly) plagairism with a little hostile gossip. It has almost no real value.
The third item, and perhaps the most significant, is that Buck claimed to have seen a letter in which Elizabeth declared love for her uncle rather than the reverse! If real, this would explain much -- but the letter has not survived, and Buck is the only witness to it. And Buck also alluded to a lost letter claiming that Cardinal Morton and an unnamed countess (Margaret Beaufort?) arranged to having the princes killed (Lamb, p. 89). All these lost letters make him seem a dubious witness.
WilliamsonA, p. 142, suggests that Elizabeth's love letter was real because Buck was trying to defend Richard, and the mere thought of incest would cause his readers to disapprove of Richard. Similarly, Potter, p. 171, argues that the letter could be authentic, and says it is evidence that Richard III did not kill the princes. (I doubt the former and deny the logic of the latter; we can say, empirically, female primates other than humans often mate with males who killed their relatives, and in any case Elizabeth and Edward V were rarely together, so they would have no real basis for affection). Oddly enough, Weir, p. 208, also thinks it is real, but instead of being a statement about Richard's innocence of the death of the princes, she regards it as proof that he actually was sexually involved with his niece! (Weir, pp. 209-210).
Perhaps the best evidence that the whole thing is an illusion comes from Chrimes, p. 35, who points out that Elizabeth Woodville and her daughters left sanctuary *before* Richard's son and Anne Neville died. Thus there can have been no discussions of marriage at that time, and by the time Anne Neville died, Elizabeth of York's bastardy was quite official, meaning that marrying her could not strengthen Richard's claim.
We should note that uncle/niece marriages were not unknown in Europe in this period. The younger brother of France's king CharlesV, John Duke of Berry, would marry Charles V's daughter Katherine; Earle, pp. 82-83. But the patent defect with Weir's hypothesis is -- Richard had not had any illegitimate children for more than a dozen years. It should be remembered that, after 1471, he was the third man of the kingdom, and after 1478, he was the second; in the North, he was little short of a king. If he had been the sort to indulge his lust with any pretty girl who caught his eye, he'd have had bastards in half the parishes of Yorkshire. He didn't. He may possibly have lusted after his niece. It seems extremely unlikely he acted upon that lust.
And Elizabeth of York was used to being a pawn. She had already been betrothed twice -- once to George Neville when Edward IV was still allied with Warwick (HarveyN, p. 9), then to the Dauphin of France (HarveyN, p. 29).
Potter, p. 173, does raise one important point: One of the big reasons for Richard to marry Elizabeth, as Croyland said, would have been to assure that Henry Tudor could not marry her. Richard could have taken care of that by simply marrying her to someone else -- after all, she was 18 or 19, and (by the standards of the time) approaching spinster-hood. And, as the daughter of Edward IV -- said by some to be the handsomest man in England -- and Elizabeth Woodville, she was probably very pretty (though her only known portrait is not flattering. Her effigy, on p. 99 of Ross-Wars, is more attractive, but of course was made after her death). So why didn't Richard marry her off and drive Henry Tudor crazy? We can't say. Potter thinks he was honoring a promise to her mother to find her a good husband. But, of course, it's at least possible that he wanted her himself (hence the rumors), and was having to bide his time until he could get a dispensation.
There is also a claim that Richard tried to arrange a marriage with Joanna of Portugal (Langley/Jones, p. 164), which might have helped heal the Lancastrian rift -- Joanna (1452-1490, making her just Richard's age) was descended from John of Gaunt, although in female line; with the line of Henry IV extinct, the Portuguese house could claim to be the heirs of John of Gaunt and hence, arguably, the Lancastrian claimants to the throne (Joanna was the daughter of Alfonso V of Portugal, son of Edward of Portugal, son of John/Joao I of Portugal by Gaunt's daughter Philippa). Certainly they had a better claim than the Beaufort line which spawned Henry VII; there was no hint of illegitimacy in her lineage.
Richard, whatever his actual plans, publicly denied planning to marry Elizabeth (Potter, p. 171). Obviously Richard didn't have any modern handlers writing his speeches and telling him not to admit to anything; one suspects the denial made people take the rumor more seriously than they otherwise would have.
Richard, from what we can tell, had strong but localized popularity: The North of England revered him -- and Ross, p. 47-48, notes that the northerners' loyalty was not easily earned. But Ross, p. xlvii, offers strong evidence that he was disliked in the south. (He confesses to little data about the midlands, but Bennett has a fascinating map on p. 52 showing where Richard's known allies and enemies were based. Richard conplately dominated north of a line from Gloucester to the Wash. South of a line from Bristol to London, he had almost no supporters. In East Anglia, it was about an event split. Geographically, Richard dominated more than half of England. In terms of wealth and manpower, he was outnumbered.) And Richard really does seem to have an "if-you-aren't-with-us-you're-a-fiend" attitude reminiscent of some modern extreme conservatives; he labelled his enemies who were with Henry Tudor murderers, adulterers, and extortionists (Ross, p. 208). Ross is surely correct in thinking that these over-the-top statements hurt rather than helped Richard's cause.
Horace Walpole, whose Historic Doubts was one of the first great defences of Richard, claims (according to Potter, p. 179) that Richard's enemies accused him of ten significant murders: Henry VI, Henry's son Edward Prince of Wales, Richard's wife Anne Neville, his brother George of Clarence, Edward V, Edward's brother Richard, Lord Hastings, Earl Rivers, Elizabeth Woodville's son Richard Grey, and of Edward V's tutor Thomas Vaughan. An honest assessment gives a much more interesting scorecard:
Richard was certainly responsible for the deaths of Hastings, Rivers, Grey, and Vaughan. (And some, such as Lamb, p. 88, considers only the execution of Hastings to be unfair, although an honest judgment would surely find Rivers and Vaughan innocent as well.)
Richard was certainly innocent of the death of Edward Prince of Wales (as shown above). It is unlikely that he had a part in Anne Neville's death
If Richard had any part in the death of Henry VI, it must have been at the instructions of Edward IV. George of Clarence, according to the Croyland Chronicler, was prosecuted solely by Edward IV, with no other speakers for the prosecution and Clarence himself being the only man speaking in his defence (Dockray, p. 102; WilliamsonA, p. 37; it is interesting to note that the sentence of death on Clarence was pronounced by the Duke of Buckingham, Richard's future ally and enemy, who played his first major public role at this time). Mancini says Richard was very grieved by George's death. Even Thomas More says Richard publicly showed grief (Seward-Richard, p. 69), though naturally doesn't believe it to have been genuine (and Seward of course thinks More's mind-reading more accurate than actual data). The Princes in the Tower are the only remaining question.
Potter, p. 183, has an ironic note about Walpole's work. It was eventually translated into French -- by Louis XVI as he awaited execution. France's maligned king apparently sympathized with England's most maligned king.
I can't help but note the comparisons with another much-maligned English king, John. John, like Richard, killed a nephew (Arthur of Brittany) with a senior claim to the throne (HarveyJ, p. 82). As with Richard III, there have been attempts to defend John -- even claims that John was a proto-Protestant (which he was not; he was simply a skeptic, unacceptable to Catholic and Protestant alike). Certainly John was not as bad as the Robin Hood legends make him. But even Warren-John, which seems to be a deliberate attempt to defend the third Plantagenet king, is forced to conclude with words of faint praise: "He could be mean and nasty, and there was an ignoble small-mindedness about his suspicion, but he was not a devil incarnate" (pp. 257-258); "He had the mental abilities of a great king, but the inclinations of a petty tyrant" (p. 259).
No one, it seems to me, has made a convincing defence of John, despite several attempts. Richard, by contrast, has had many. The defence has hardly been a great success -- but the mere fact that it has been so regularly made implies that there is more to work with in the case of Richard than John. Let's face it: It would be a lot of fun for historians to have a Shakesperean King of England -- Seward in fact says as much. (It's too bad Shakespeare didn't try to work on Charles the Bad of Navarre....) But in fact there was no English king as vile as Shakespeare's monstrosity.
THE BATTLE OF BOSWORTH AND THE DEATH OF RICHARD III
Whether he deserved it or not, Richard's position in 1485 was precarious, due primarily to the decimation of the nobility. Edward IV had ruled prior to 1470 by giving much power to the Earl of Warwick. After Warwick's rebellion failed. Edward depended largely on Richard of Gloucester and the Woodvilles. (Dockray, p. xxxiv calls them "regional troubleshooters" and notes that it was a very dangerous precedent, since it created "overmighty subject[s]." According to Bennett, it was actually a justice in the reign of Henry VI who coined the phrase, which shows how obvious the problem was).
Richard III had followed his brother's precedent and turned to the Duke of Buckingham. With Buckingham dead, it was almost impossible to build a noble faction. (As Henry VII himself would discover.) Richard advanced the Howard Duke of Norfolk as far as he could (Bennett, p. 71), but only so much could be done for a man who, two years earlier, had not even been an earl, and had only been made a baron in 1470 (Cunningham, p. 107). Richard tried to bind Northumberland and Huntington to him, but this failed in the former case at least. It left him largely dependent on lesser men -- and caused him to bring a relatively small army to the greatest battle of his life; estimates run from about 3,000 to 10,000 men, the majority of them Norfolk's if you exclude the "neutrals."
Saul3, p. 100, suggests that Richard relied on his followers on the basis of chivalry, but that they had reached the stage where chivalry no longer bound them.
Meanwhile, Henry Tudor had been very, very lucky in his friends. The Bretons had planned to turn him over to Richard (in which case this discussion probably wouldn't be necessary), but he was warned just in time, and escaped to France. The French were temporarily in a very anti-English phase. And, just at the time when Richard was most distracted, they gave Henry Tudor a fleet and let him invade (Pollard, pp. 160-162).
The Wars of the Roses witnessed, in all, six changes of King, but only once, at Bosworth in1485, did the two rival claimants face each other in battle (Bennett, p. 99). And Bosworth proved decisive mostly because Richard III died there. Henry Tudor, the closest thing the Lancastrian faction had to a claimant, finally invaded. (I can't help but note the irony that he set out from Harfleur, the place where Henry V had invaded France seventy years earlier; Ross, p. 202). Henry's invasion force was sponsored by the French (Arthurson, p. 5) and initially consisted mostly of mercenaries from countries hostile to Richard (Ross, pp. 202-203), though of course he picked up some supporters in Wales.
For the actual Battle of Bosworth, see the notes to "The Battle of Bosworth Field." Here we will summarize by saying that four armies met at Bosworth, one led by Richard, one by Henry, and one each by Lord Stanley and Sir William Stanley. In the battle, Richard saw an opportunity to attack Henry directly. He attempted it -- and his company was attacked in the rear by the forces of William Stanley. Richard was killed, and Henry VII became King.
Perhaps we should give the last word to Ross-Wars, p. 100, who writes, "Richard was by no means the personification of evil which he was to become in the hands of hostile Tudor propagandists. He had charm, energy, and ability, and he worked hard to win popularity. But it took time to live down the legacy of suspicion and mistrust generated by the violence of his usurpation. Even in that ruthless age, many men were appalled by what they clearly believed to have been his crime against the princes.... Had Henry Tudor's invasion been long delayed, its outcome might have been very different, but in 1485, Richard was still far from having won the confidence of his people in general."
Even with Richard III dead without a direct heir, Henry Tudor had his problems. He wasn't Richard's heir by any line of thinking -- but there were three Yorkist possibilities:
1. Elizabeth, the oldest daughter of Edward IV, whose claim was blocked by the precontract that had blocked her younger brother Edward V;
2. The Earl of Warwick, son of Richard III's older brother George of Clarence, blocked by the fact that Clarence had been attainted (plus Warwick may have been mentally deficient; Potter, p. 168, mentions a contemporary report that he could not "tell a goose from a capon"; it is interesting that Richard III never imprisoned Warwick (Langley/Jones, p. 126) -- it was Henry VII who did that); and
3. John, Earl of Lincoln, the son of Richard III's oldest sister, who was rather far back in the line of succession if you ignore the precontract and such but who was Richard's official heir (at least, most sources say so, though Ross, p. 158, says that there is "no direct evidence" for this. Even Ross, though, admits on p. 159 that Lincoln was made Lieutenant of Ireland which was the standard post given the Yorkist heir; cf. Cheetham, p. 166; also, Ross notes on p. 182 that Lincoln was president of the Council of the North -- meaning that, in effect, he had been given Richard's own former bailiwick. If we don't have a direct statement that Lincoln was Richard's heir, the indirect evidence is overwhelming).
The Earl of Lincoln was probably the best choice of the three, but Chrimes, p. 72, says that Lincoln, who was in his early twenties, "does not seem to have been regarded as particularly suitable" for the throne. Warwick, being young and foolish, was also unsuitable, and of course Elizabeth was a woman.
The Yorkist confusion made it difficult for them to oppose Henry -- and Henry, though his only Plantagenet blood was in a bastard line from John of Gaunt, had all the Lancastrians behind him simply because English politics was so divided that it was better to support a pretender than a legitimate member of the enemy party. Even so, he had to marry Elizabeth of York to strengthen his claim. (Meaning that, even though Henry VII didn't really deserve to be on the throne, all his heirs did. At least genetically.)
(Let's be clear here: Henry Tudor had no claim to the throne no matter how you slice it. If descent had to be in male line, as the Lancastrians had once claimed, his claim came through his mother. If female descent was allowed, there were still plenty of descendants of Richard of York ahead of him. Plus the Beaufort line was barred from the succession anyway. As Chrimes says on p. 50, "Learned discussions on the subject of by what right Henry assumed the crown are largely otiose. There is no evidence of much if any overt discussion at the time." He took the throne by right of conquest, and that's that.)
Lincoln did raise a revolt in 1387, supposedly on behalf of the pretender Lambert Simnel, but it was crushed at the Battle of Stoke, the last real battle of the Wars of the Roses (Burne, p. 305; Cunningham, p. 79.)
In an interesting twist, Henry set about to destroy all copies of Titulus Regius the law which had declared Edward V and his siblings illegitimate -- one of Henry's first parliamentary acts tried to retrieve and destroy all copies (Chrimes, p. 66). Only one survived, and that seemingly by accident (Jenkins, p. 204). This had an interesting effect: In the absence of that parliamentary declaration, it would seem that Elizabeth of York was rightful queen (and should have been Queen regnant, except that few were ready for that at the time) -- but if somehow either of the princes were still alive, they would be senior to Elizabeth and the rightful rulers. In other words, Henry needed the princes to be legitimate but dead.
This furnishes the strongest evidence that (barring the extremely faint chance that Henry himself killed the princes) he did not know -- and never found out -- where the bodies were buried. If he had had them, he would have displayed them. It would have stopped the Pretenders.
The many, many Pretenders. As early as 1487, a youth named Lambert Simnel was declared to be the nephew of Edward IV and tried to claim the crown. (There was a real problem with this theory, in that Simnel was claiming to be the Earl of Warwick, son of Edward IV's brother George of Clarence, and Warwick was still alive in Tudor custody!) Henry VII let Simnel live (while executing the Earl of Lincoln, who had been deep in the conspiracy); the boy seemed harmless enough. (For more on Lambert, see the notes to "The Mayor of Waterford's Letter.")
Fields, pp. 203-205, reports on a speculation that Lambert was a scapegoat or stalking-horse for one of the real Princes, who had somehow survived and was now in a position to lead a rebellion against Henry. Lamb, pp. 90-93, is also sure that Richard did not kill them, and believes they survived. I just don't buy it; if the myriad conspirators had had a real Yorkist prince, they wouldn't have bothered with Lambert. (Fields, p. 225, even reports on modern attempts to prove that various sixteenth century people were the princes in hiding. One of these unlikely claims is made on behalf of Thomas More's son-in-law by adoption. Believe *that* if you can....)
In 1491, an even more serious impersonator showed up in Perkin Warbeck, who eventually claimed to be Richard of York, the younger prince in the tower. Warbeck -- who, unlike Simnel, was an adult directly involved in the plotting -- was executed in 1497, but he had gained a strong following before then. (For more on Perkin, see "The Praise of Waterford.") Arthurson, p. 3, thinks that it was Warbeck's rebellion which turned Henry into such a tyrant in his later years -- he wanted to stop any such outbreaks in future. (Even Thomas More called it a decade of "perpetual winter.") Henry's firmness didn't help. More rebellions would follow -- e.g. the Earl of Suffolk, the younger brother of the Earl of Lincoln was on the run from 1499 until Henry caught himin 1506 (Cunningham, p. 85). Supposedly there was even an attempt to prevent the succession of Henry VIII. But none of these plots was as dangerous as Warbeck.
Even Henry's own garrison of Calais struggled with the matter. In 1503, when Elizabeth of York died, the garrison debated the claims of Edward de la Pole (the brother of the Earl of Lincoln) and the Duke of Buckingham (the son of Richard's duke). Supposedly Henry VIII was not even discussed as a potential heir to Henry Tudor (Russell, p. 69).
Henry's response to the "feigned boys" should dispose largely of More's story of where the princes were buried, and entirely wash out Tyrell's confession. If either of these stories were true, then Henry VII would have known where the princes' bodies were, and would have exhumed them. Simple as that. It is Henry Tudor's behavior, not Richard's, that created the mystery of the Princes in the Tower. Had Henry sought to find out the truth, he might have found the bodies and he almost certainly would have found out the truth -- and the truth almost certainly would have pointed at Richard in some way. He *didn't* try, and so created a great mystery. (Not that that relieves Richard's guilt, of course -- it just means that the mystery remains.)
THE LEGEND OF THE PRINCES AND THE CONTENT OF THE SONG
Of course, the truth doesn't really matter here. The princes could have been taken up into heaven by chariots of fire for all the difference it made. What counts is that most people thought Richard had killed his nephews, and that Henry Tudor assuredly wanted them to believe it. And Henry Tudor was definitely capable of propaganda -- just consider the history he commissioned from Vergil. Of course, histories weren't (and aren't) much good at persuading the common people. Popular songs would be a more likely method.
We also know that there were propaganda songs composed in this period; the aforementioned "Ballad of Bosworth Field" is clearly Stanley propaganda, and "The Song of the Lady Bessie" also appears to be intended to make Elizabeth of York look good. Bennett, p. 10, also lists "The Rose of England" [Child 166] as a contemporary ballad, although our only real copy is from the Percy folio from centuries later. (By contrast, we have both the Percy version of "Bosworth Field" and a prose summary of the piece.) It does seem likely that "The Rose of England" is Tudor propaganda, since only an extreme Tudor partisan could possibly come up with the ridiculous praise for the Tudors it contains. But I could also imagine it being written in the reign of Elizabeth I to flatter her dynasty.
On the other hand, the fact that so few people associated the "Babes" with Richard III argues that, if it *was* propaganda, it was a little too subtle. But then, Henry VII was one of the sneakiest creatures ever spawned. Being direct and open probably never even occurred to him.
The various versions of the song (the oldest broadside, Bodleian Harding B 4(30), Percy) match the legend on these points:
* There were two children, taken away by their uncle, and the bodies were never found.
"They were taken away on a warm summer's day." EdwardV was originally to have been crowned in June. Richard III was crowned in July, by which time the Princes were almost gone from sight. So the disappeared in summer, though there is no specific day on which they vanished. And they may not have died until fall.
* The uncle faces disasters until brought to justice. Richard of course faced many blows -- Buckingham's rebellion, the death of his son, the death of his wife -- though they don't match those in the song.
On the other hand, the song differs from the situation of the Princes in the Tower in several important regards:
1. In the broadside and Percy's version, the children are a boy and a girl, not two boys (Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville had sundry daughters, but all the daughters lived -- indeed, the oldest became the wife of Henry VII).
2. In the broadside and Percy's version, the wife dies before the children -- but Elizabeth Woodville lived until 1492, dying nine years after Edward IV and at least six years after her sons died. It is true that Henry VII pushed Elizabeth Woodville out of public life in 1487 (Poole, p. 16) -- but that is still after the princes were dead.
3. In the Stationer's Register record (which has to be this song if the link to Richard III is to be maintained), the tale is of a "Norfolk Gentleman." Edward IV had very little to do with Norfolk -- prior to becoming King, he was Earl of March, a holding centered on the Welsh border. His father was Duke of York, based in the north; York also had extensive holdings in Ireland. If you had to pick one place where Edward IV had the least influence, it was surely East Anglia. Nor did Richard III have any significant holdings in Norfolk -- he was based mostly in the north, especially the northwest, and also had power along the Welsh border.
(This does raise one interesting possibility. The younger of the two Princes in the Tower, Richard, was theoretically Duke of Norfolk -- but he was *actually* Duke of York, and known by that title. Anywhere that "Norfolk" would fit, "Yorkshire" would fit -- and a reference to Yorkshire would be much clearer. Note that John Howard became Duke of Norfolk in Richard's reign, in the place of prince Richard. Norfolk was not prince Richard's uncle, but he *was* the heir of Anne Mowbray, prince Richard's wife in that unconsummated marriage. Although almost no one takes it seriously, there have been a few accusations that John Howard murdered the boys -- mostly to gain the Norfolk earldom. He was not the uncle of the princes, even by marriage; he was a cousin. But, given the age differences, might not a propagandist trying to blame things on Norfolk have called him the princes' uncle?)
4. The older child in the broadside is only five, whereas Edward V was twelve when his father died. In Percy's version, this is even more extreme, the boy was "not passing three years old," and the girl even younger. Of course this might have been suggested by Henry Tudor's claim that Richard III shed "infants' blood." But if the song had been written after Henry VII took power, why not use the actual ages of the children?
5. In Percy's text, the children are kept in Richard's house "a twelvemonth and a daye." But the Princes were never in Richard's house, and were (probably) eliminated within months.
6. In the ballad, one of the murderers confesses early on. In actual history, the only evidence for a confession is More's account of Tyrrell's confession, and even if More's account is true, that confession came more than a decade after the boys died.
7. This is a point of logic, not a matter of the content of the song, but recall that Henry VII for the most part tried to ignore the Princes, never searching for their bodies (Fields, p. 189) and waiting for years before releasing an unsubstantiated and absurd statement about their death. Would he have wanted the matter brought up again in a song?
It should also be noted that the case of Richard and the Princes is hardly the only case of the Wicked Uncle! There was a case that would have been well known in Richard's own time which is in many ways more like the ballad. The tale is told in RicardianXIII, pp. 12-19. Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, died during the siege of Harfleur in 1415. He left at least two sons. The older boy, Michael, of course became Earl in his turn -- but died a few weeks later at Agincourt. He left three (possibly four) young daughters but no son.
The girls' uncle William (1396-1450), who had gained some of the Suffolk lands because they passed in tail male rather than tail general, seems to have coveted what he did not inherit. And two of the daughters soon vanish from the records and the third was pushed toward a nunnery; the fourth is so shadowy that we are not even sure she existed (this is the point of the RicardianXIII article). We have no evidence of foul play, but neither do we have information on how the girls died, nor even their dates of death.
Eventually William gained the earldom, which later became a Dukedom -- in fact, his only son John would marry Edward IV's sister, and John's son was the Earl of Lincoln who was Richard's heir. William himself had dominated the English government in the 1440s and was eventually lynched as a result. And, in an interesting twist, while the de la Poles were Earls of Suffolk, they had intermarried with the Mowbray Dukes of Norfolk (RicardianXIII, p. 21), and John son of William made "high-handed efforts to dominate East Anglia" (OxfordCompanion, p. 758). Thus it is perfectly reasonable to assume that the "Norfolk Gentleman's" story in the Stationer's Register, if true, refers to the de la Poles, not the Plantagenet princes.
Am I seriously advancing this hypothesis? No. I am merely pointing out that, on historical grounds, it is as good a fit for "The Babes in the Woods" as is the Richard III story. The historical similarity asserted between the song and the account of Richard III is, in fact, not a significant similarity.
To sum up: this song could easily have originated as a piece of propaganda. But, of course, that requires that it be much, much older than even the Stationer's Register date, and we can't prove that even that is this song. And if the extant versions, including the Bodleian broadside, represents the original form (not a safe bet, to be sure), the allegory theory is much weakened.
At this point I'll offer a wild speculation, which I don't really believe: Could the short three-verse version be the original which some Tudor boot-licker proceeded to convert into a propaganda piece? (The problem with this theory, of course, is that there is absolutely no early evidence that anything like this happened.)
Or another speculation:The story of the bodies of the princes being walled up was found in a note in the margin of Thomas More's history, said note being written in 1647. Based on the circumstances described, this discovery must have been made by 1614 (though apparently after 1603; Fields, p. 247). This may also be the source of a stray reference in Buck's history (WilliamsonA, p. 191). The two bodies discovered at the time were thought to be six to eight years old. Obviously the bodies were of children too young to be the princes -- but they *could* be the children in the song!
For more details on the background to this final phase of the Wars of the Roses, see the notes to "The Rose of England [Child 166]"; also some tangential references in "Jane Shore" and (especially) "The Vicar of Bray."
One incidental note for the Science Fiction fans out there (I know a lot of SF fans like traditional music): Randall Garrett's much-loved "Lord Darcy" stories refer to a "Richard the Great" who revived the Angevin empire. According to "A Matter of Gravity," Richard the Great lived in the late fifteenth century. In other words, Richard the Great was Richard III. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: LQ34D

Children No Land No De

DESCRIPTION: Call and response. Response is "Children, no land no de a." Calls are "Children no land no de," "The land in celestial shining glory"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Emile Paul, Carl Monsegui, Allan Lovelace, "Children No Land No De" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [37 words]: Donald R. Hill and Lise Winer, liner notes for WITrinidadVillage02 have this as a Spiritual Baptist baptising song. The text is from WITrinidadVillage02 as transcribed in the liner notes; I could not make out some words. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcCNLNDe

Children of the Lord

See Rise and Shine (File: FSWB388A)

Children Of The Wilderness Moan For Bread

DESCRIPTION: "(I wonder where is (Moses/Master/Peter/Jonas) and he must be dead) (3x), Oh the children of the wilderness moan for bread."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 232-233, "Chillun ob duh Wilduhness Moan fur Bread" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR232A

Children, We All Shall Be Free

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Children we shall all be free (x3), When the Lord shall appear." Verses: We want "valiant hearted men ... not afraid to die." The pilgrim "with glory in his soul ... bids this world adieu." Christ will raise the dead and they will talk
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 107, "Children, We All Shall Be Free" (1 text) (1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Wesley Work, Folk Song of the American Negro (Nashville: Fisk University, 1915 ("Digitized by the Internet Archive")), p. 127, ("We want no cowards in our band") (1 text fragment)
Roud #15225
File: Dett107

Children's Song

See The Wife of Usher's Well [Child 79] (File: C079)

Children's Song on Valentine's Day, at Eastleach

DESCRIPTION: "Good Valentine's Day morning. "Blow the oats against the wind. We are ragged and you are fine, So please to give us a Valentine." "Rags behind and rags before, Pray, old lady, remember the poor." "We're hard up, hard up, without food or fire."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: nonballad clothes poverty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 303, "Children's Song on Valentine's Day, at Eastleach" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 84)
Hamer-GreenGroves, p. 20, "Valentine Chant" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Enid Porter, _The Folklore of East Anglia_, Batsford, 1974, pp. 56-58, "(no title)" (3 short texts plus some excerpts)
Roud #1142
File: WT303

Chile Girls, The

See Rounding the Horn (File: VWL090)

Chillun ob duh Wilduhness Moan fur Bread

See Children Of The Wilderness Moan For Bread (File: HPR232A)

Chilly Waters

DESCRIPTION: "Will the waters be chilly, Oh chilly, be chilly? Will the waters be chilly When I am called to die?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Thomas-DevilsDitties)
KEYWORDS: death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-DevilsDitties, p. 122, "Chilly Waters" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #8888
RECORDINGS:
Aunt Molly Jackson, "The River Is Chilly and Cold" (AFT 0820A3)
NOTES [29 words]: The AFS link for this song gives it the title "The River Is Chilly and Cold," but neither the Thomas text nor Aunt Molly Jackson's recording includes those exact words. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: ThDD122

Chilly Winds

DESCRIPTION: Characteristic line: "I'm going where the chilly winds don't blow." The others may complain about life, weather, or women: "I'm leaving in the spring, ain't coming back till fall." "Who'll be your daddy while I'm gone"
AUTHOR: unknown (credited on Paramount recording to Paul Carter)
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Charlie Jackson)
KEYWORDS: nonballad clothes home separation floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 293-294, "Chilly Winds" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #58, "Chilly Wind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 29, "I'm Goin' Down the River Befo' Long" (1 text, 1 tune, a combination of this with "I'm Going Down the River")
DT, CHILWIND*
ADDITIONAL: Zora Neale Hurston, _Mules and Men_ (New York,1990 (paperback edition of 1935 original)), pp. 255-256, "East Coast Blues" (with tune)
Roud #3419
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Jackson, "I'm Going Where Chilly Winds Don't Blow" (Paramount 12335, 1926; rec. 1925)
Riley Puckett, "I'm Going Where The Chilly Winds Don't Blow" (Columbia 15392-D, 1929; rec. 1927)
Charlie Woods, "Chilly Winds" (on FarMtns2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Going Across the Sea" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [49 words]: For those of us who first met this song in its touched-up Kingston Trio form, it may seem surprising to note that it's almost incoherent. But the truly traditional versions seem to be characterized largely by floating verses, with a plot frequently obscured under the weight of this material. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: MWhee029

Chimbley Sweeper

See I'm a Poor Old Chimney Sweeper (File: Wa189)

Chimes Grace

See Hark to the Chimes (File: ACSF437K)

Chimney Swallow, The

See I'm a Poor Old Chimney Sweeper (File: Wa189)

Chimney Sweep

See I'm a Poor Old Chimney Sweeper (File: Wa189)

Chimney Sweep, The

See Sweep, Chimney Sweep (File: K240)

Chimney Sweeper, The

See I'm a Poor Old Chimney Sweeper (File: Wa189)

Chimney-Sweeper

See I'm a Poor Old Chimney Sweeper (File: Wa189)

China Doll

See Milking Pails (China Doll) (File: R356)

China Merchant, The

DESCRIPTION: A chinaware merchant lodges with a baker's wife. She plots with her husband and servant to rob the merchant: the servant won't kiss the merchant until he shaves. They plan to pick his pocket while he is being shaved. The barber warns him. He escapes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: seduction warning escape husband wife servant thief hair trick
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 311, "The China Merchant" (1 text)
Roud #5865
NOTES [24 words]: The Greig/Duncan2 text omits the narrative that completes the story. The description follows the Greig/Duncan2 notes that fill in those gaps. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2311

Chinaman (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Dennis Clancy grew rich among the Chinese Tea growers. He died and left all to his nephew who takes the name Ling Chung Chang Awong, wears his hair "in one long plait" and plans to "found an Irish colony." He leaves Ireland for Hong Kong.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: emigration China Ireland humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 46, "The Chinaman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9762
File: OLcM046

Chinaman (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Thre's a land that bears a well-known name, Though it's not a little spot"; it's the land of the Chinamen. The Chinese are trying to get free. He works hard to get ahead. The singer concludes that "There's many worse than a Chinaman."
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: worker immigration travel China
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 56-57, "The Chinaman" (1 text, from "Thatcher's Colonial Songster")
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 96-98, "The Chinaman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-GoldrushSongster, pp. 88-89, "The Chinaman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, pp. 72-73, "The Chinaman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 77-78, "The Chinaman" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [39 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong.
This one is listed as "A new parody on 'The Englishman.'" - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: AnSt096

Chinaman Song, The

See Once There Was a Chinaman (File: LTCSOWAC)

Chinaman, Chinaman (Ching, Ching, Chinaman)

DESCRIPTION: "Chinaman, Chinaman, Walking down the street, Chinaman, Chinaman, Close your eyes and Jump on one foot to nine." "Ching Chong Chinaman, Bought a toy doll... Then it caught a cold.... Doctor couldn't come, Because he had a pimple On his tum, tum, tum"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: playparty travel nonballad injury disease doctor China | counting
FOUND IN: US(MW) New Zealand
REFERENCES (6 citations):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 105, "(Chinaman, Chinaman)" (1 short text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #62, "(Chickie, chickie Chinaman, Sitting on a fence)" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 127-128, "(Ching Chong Chinaman)"; "(Ching Ching Chinaman)" (2 texts)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p.286, "Ching-a-ling"/"The Chinaman" (notes only)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 117, "Chick, chick, chatterman" (1 text, perhaps expurgated)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #73, "Ching, chang, Chinaman"; #74, "Ching, chang, Chinaman bought a toy doll"; #76, "Ching, Ching, Chinaman Eats dead rats" (3 texts); also #536, "Tattletale, Tattletale, settin' on a fence" (1 text, which Abrahams claims is this)
Roud #10348? 19308? 20094?
NOTES [41 words]: There are a number of texts that begin "Chinaman, Chinaman," or "Ching, Ching, Chinaman," or (even worse) "Chink, Chink, Chinaman." How many are related I don't know; it might be worth a study. I'm sticking them all here pending said study. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: McIn105A

Chinee Bumboatman, The

DESCRIPTION: Forebitter with a pidgin-English chorus. Story involves a sailor (Wing Chang Loo) of the Yangtze who falls in love with a girl who is herself in love with a pirate. Loo declares war on the pirate, a battle ensues that ends up blowing up both their ships.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Forebitter with a pidgin-English chorus. Story involves a sailor (Wing Chang Loo) of the Yangtze who falls in love with a girl who is herself in love with a pirate. Loo declares war on the pirate, a battle ensues that ends up blowing up both their ships. Chorus: "Hitchee-kum, kitchee-kum, ya ya ya! Sailorman no likee me, No savvy the story of Wing Chang Loo, Too much of the bober-eye-ee, Kye-eye!"
KEYWORDS: shanty foc's'le sailor battle China pirate foreigner
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 455-456, "The Chinee Bumboatman" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 340-341]
Roud #10465
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Ah Sid" (style)
cf. "Das Sampanmadchen (The Sampan Maiden)" (some similar verses)
File: Hugi455

Chinese Baby-Song

See Snail, Snail (I) (File: Gund044B)

Chinese Fan

DESCRIPTION: Motion song. "My ship sailed from China with a cargo of tea, All laden with presents for you and for me. They brought me a fan -- Just imagine my bliss -- When I fan myself daily, Like this, like this, like this, like this."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: travel China campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 517, "My Ship from China"/"The Fan Song" (notes only)
File: ACSF517F

Chinese Government

DESCRIPTION: "Chinee love a girl": white man's daughter or black man's daughter. The wind blows high (sometimes, with a big sea) and blows the girl away, or gives her a black eye.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (King's _Street Games of North Sheilds Children_, according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: love sea playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber,Bord,High)) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 93, "Chinese Government" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 110, "Chinese Governor" (1 text)
Roud #13241
File: OpGa093

Chinese Governor

See Chinese Government (File: OpGa093)

Chinese Maiden's Lament

DESCRIPTION: "Me no likee English sailor When Yankee sailor come ashore. English sailor plenty money; Yankee sailor plenty more.... English sailor call me Chinese whore. Yankee sailor only shag for short time; English sailor shag forevermore."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor whore derivative money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 64, "Chinese Maiden's Lament" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT, CHINMAID*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "What A Friend We Have In Jesus" (tune)
NOTES [11 words]: I'm sure I've met this song somewhere else, but I can't find it. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn046

Chiney Doll

See Milking Pails (China Doll) (File: R356)

Ching Chang Chinaman

See Chinaman, Chinaman (Ching, Ching, Chinaman) (File: McIn105A)

Ching Ching Chinaman

See Chinaman, Chinaman (Ching, Ching, Chinaman) (File: McIn105A)

Ching Chong Chinaman

See Chinaman, Chinaman (Ching, Ching, Chinaman) (File: McIn105A)

Chinkapin

DESCRIPTION: "Once there was a little boy" who was "fair and brave"; his father equipped him as a hunter. But the boy's friend Chinkapin had no horse and no hunter's clothes, but the first boy, nicknamed "Captain Beau," finds ways for them to hunt together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine); reportedly learned 1848
KEYWORDS: hunting children friend clothes
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 373-377, "Chinkapin" (1 text)
Roud #4153
NOTES [45 words]: This is item dH33 in Laws's Appendix II.
I would assume that the name "Chinkapin" is derived from the tree name "chinquapin." There is a fiddle tune by that name, but I have no idea if they are related; there seems to be no preserved tune for the "Chinkapin" text. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm373

Chinning Music

See The Scolding Wife (III) (A Woman's Tongue Will Never Take a Rest) (File: BrII201)

Chip, Chap, Cherry

See Chip, Chip, Cherry (File: GFGW063A)

Chip, Chip, Cherry

DESCRIPTION: "Chip, chip, cherry, All the men in (London)derry, Can't climb chip, chip, cherry." A riddle, supposed answer being smoke from a chimney
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
KEYWORDS: riddle nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 63, "(Chip, chip, cherry)" (1 short text)
NOTES [45 words]: I have no real evidence that this little verse circulates as a song on its own. But Steve Roud lists one version of his #801 ("The Old Maid's Song (I)") as opening "Chip, chap, cherry, all the men in Londonderry." So there is some sort of traditional element to this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GFGW063A

Chipeta's Ride

DESCRIPTION: "From mountains covered deep with snow... Where once dwelt Ouray, the king of the land, With Chipeta his queen...." The Utes battle the whites, and disaster threatens. Ouray, striken with Bright's Disease, cannot lead; Chipeta bears his orders for peace
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Poems of the Old West)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) battle disease husband wife
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 147-149, "(Chipeta's Ride)" (1 excerpted text, which is unlikely to have had music since it is highly irregular; also a single stanza of another song perhaps about this event)
NOTES [317 words]: This is one of those places where, for the most part, the folklore is the story. According to Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, in 1878, one N. C. Meeker decided to forcibly convert the Utes of northern Colorado from hunter-gatherers into a "civilized" people.
What followed was ugly on all sides. Meeker plowed up a Ute racetrack, then called in the Army to defend himself. The troops were warned off by the Utes, but came on anyway, and a battle followed. Chief Ouray (c. 1833-1880) was far away and reportedly not part of the planning. When he heard of the battle, he ordered it stopped, and his wife Chipeta carried the order.
Ouray of course was real, and did indeed work to control Ute uprisings -- and to protect his people's interests. And Nathan Cook Meeker (1817-1879), Indian Agent to the Utes from 1878, did try to impose his ideas on them, and eventually was killed as a result. But history, as Burt-AmericanMurderBallads admits, doesn't document Chipeta's Ride.
Bright's Disease, mentioned in the song, is no longer in the medical manuals, but refers to a variety of kidney diseases, which were typically quite debilitating as the body could not rid itself of waste products. A common side effect was significant fatigue.
In the Really Strange Speculations department, reading Joseph Wheelan's Invading Mexico: America's Continental Dream and the Mexican War 1846-1848 (Carroll & Graf, 2007), pp. 91-92, I observe that major hostilities began when a Mexican force crossed the Rio Grande to try to interfere with American communications. An American scouting force, insufficiently cautious, was chopped to bits, the survivors captured. Their guide, who had refused to ride into the ambush, carried word of the disaster to the American general Zachary Taylor. This guide was named Chipita. I would assume this is coincidence, except that maybe it inspired the name of the heroine in this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Burt147

Chippewa Girl, The [Laws H10]

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a pretty Chippewa girl and proposes marriage. She refuses him, saying she is too young and her parents would not approve. The two part amicably, with the singer making a few general remarks about marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) courting family marriage
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws H10, "The Chippewa Girl"
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 45, "The Chippewa Girl" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 53, "The Chippewa Girl" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 94, "Chippawa Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 54, "The Chippewa Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
DY 705, CHIPGIRL
Roud #1938
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Braes of Strathblane" (words, theme and references there)
NOTES [163 words]: The Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast version is "The Braes of Strathblane" relocated to "the Chippewa stream." The difference between Laws H10 and Braes of Strablane is that Laws [does not in his description include the ending -- found] in Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast and Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia -- in which the girl is finally rejected.
Mackenzie -- with its change of mind by both parties -- strengthens the argument that this is just "Braes of Strathblane" relocated. My earlier thought that Laws had not seen such a version is demonstrated to be false; Mackenzie is one of his two sources for H10.
See D.K. Wilgus, "A Type-Index of Anglo-American Traditional Narrative Songs," Folklore Institue Journal, v. 7:2/3 (1970:Aug./Dec.), [Copyright (c) 2006 ProQuest Information and Learning Company, Copyright (c) Indiana University Press], p. 168 which considers "The Braes of Strathblane" to be the parent of "The Chippewa Girl." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: LH10

Chirping of the Lark, the

See Bronson's comments under Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne [Child 118] (File: C118)

Chisholm Trail (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Stories of the troubles of a cowboy watching the herds. Characterized by the chorus, "Come-a ti yi yippy, yippy yea, yippy yea, Come-a ti yi yippy, yippy yea, yippy yea." Dozens of verses, printable and unprintable, cover all parts of the cowboy life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax, Cowboy Songs)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (30 citations):
Randolph 179, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 217, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text, though one suspects it's composite since it's 29 stanzas long!)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 136, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 136-137, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 266-267, "The Lone Star Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #13, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 136-138, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 109-112, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 78, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (2 texts, 1 tune, the "B" text being "Eleven Slash Slash Eleven")
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 19-25, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 57, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs pp. 376-379, "The Old Chizzum Trail" (1 long text (compiled from many sources), 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 188, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 851-852, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 76, pp. 167-170, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #85, "Chisholm Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 510-511, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 22-27, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 64-65, "The Lone Star Trail" (1 text, 1 tune, with the staves somewhat disordered)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 366-369, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 39-42, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 125, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 108, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 long text, probably composite)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, p. 184-186, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 233, "Old Chisholm Trail" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 73, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 40, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 72, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 36, "Old Chisholm Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CHISHLM*
Roud #3438
RECORDINGS:
Jules Allen, "Chisholm Trail" (Victor V-40167, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-4463, 1933)
The Cartwright Brothers, "On The Old Chisholm Trail" (Columbia 15346-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Edward L. Crain, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (Crown 3275, 1932; Homestead 23003, c. 1932; Varsity 3044 [as Cowboy Rodgers], n.d.; Montgomery Ward M-3020 [as Bob Star (The Texas Ranger)], n.d.; rec. 1931)
Girls of the Golden West, "Old Chisholm Trail" (Bluebird B-5718, 1934)
Tex Hardin, "The Old Chisolm Trail" (Champion 16552, 1933; Montgomery Ward M-4954, 1936)
Harry Jackson, "The Dally Roper's Song" (on HJackson1)
Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock "The Old Chisholm Trail" (Victor 21421, 1928; on AuthCowboys, BackSaddle)
Patt Patterson & his Champion Rep Riders, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (Perfect 164/Banner 32091 [as Patt Patterson & Lois Dexter], 1931)
Sain Family, "The Texas Trail" (Montgomery Ward M-7187, 1937)
Jack Weston, "The Texas Trail" (Van Dyke 84292, n.d.; on MakeMe)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Chisholm Trail (II)" (tune & meter)
cf. "Eleven Slash Slash Eleven" (tune & meter)
NOTES [996 words]: It should be noted that there is no clear distinction between the "clean" and "dirty" versions of this song (the latter being "Chisholm Trail (II)"); a particular singer could make it as raunchy as desired. We split them not because they are distinct songs but because the song is so frequently bowdlerized. It would be slightly false to say the versions listed here are rewritten versions of the song and "Chisholm Trail (II)" are unedited versions -- but only slightly false.
E. A. Brininstool wrote a poem, "The Chisholm Trail." It is unrelated -- a reminiscence of cowboy days.
The Chisholm Trail inspired at least one recent book: Don Worcester, The Chisholm Trail: High Road of the Cattle Kingdom, 1980 (I use the 1994 Indian Head/Barnes & Noble edition). In his preface on p. xi, he declares:
"Although the Chisholm Trail was open for less than two decades, millions of cattle traveled north over it. More than any of the other trails from Texas, it was the major route of cattle and horses, cowboys and cowmen, to Kansas railheads as well as the new ranches springing up all over the former ranges of the buffalo andthe Plains Indians between 1867 and the Big Die-Up of 1886-1887. In fact, the name Chisholm Trail came to be applied indiscriminately to all the cattle trails north out of Texas."
The trail, according to Worcester, p. xviii, is named for Jesse Chisholm, descended from Scots and Cherokee, who was a trader, not an explorer. He hauled cargo over a trail in Kansas starting in 1865, and his name came to be associated with the entire trail.
In the period after the Civil War, there was much demand for beef in the eastern U. S., and many cattle in Texas, and the trick was to get it from one place to the other. According to Worcester, p. 11, it was one Joseph G. McCoy who set up the system of herding the cattle to railheads and then shipping them by train. The trick was to move the cattle around various points where they had been quarantined due to disease outbreaks. Kansas, which was at the limits of the rail network, was free of such regulations (Worcester, p. 12).
There were, according to Worcester, four basic cattle trails coming out of Texas (see the map on p. xix): The Goodnight-Loving Trail, running from near Fort Worth to the west, and then north through Las Vegas and Pueblo to Denver; the Western Trail, starting in San Antonio and running through Fort Griffin and then (with some changes over time) to Fort Laramie, Wyoming and then into Montana and Dakota Territories; the Shawnee Trail, from San Antonio to Waco to Dallas through Indian Territory and into Missouri; and the Chisholm Trail, from San Antonio to Waco to Forth Worth and then almost due north to Red River Stateion, across Indian Territory, to Caldwell, Kansas, and then with branches to railheads in Ellsworth and Abilene, Kansas.
The Chisholm Trail ran where it did because McCoy took a survey along the rail lines in Kansas. In Abilene, Kansas, he found a lot of land for sail at low prices -- something he needed to build cattle pens and such (Worcester, pp. 12-13).
A Colonel A. A. Wheeler and his partners are credited with being the first to bring their herds from Texas to Abilene. They started by following the existing Shawnee Trail, but split from it at a point south of Dallas and instead headed toward Fort Worth. Part of their route wan along Jesse Chisholm's wagon route through Indian Territory. But the cattle drive was not a financial success. (Worcester, pp. 13-14). McCoy therefore had the cattle trail surveyed and improved in 1867 (Worcester, p. 14), and also worked on his marketing (Worcester, p. 15). In 1870, some 300,000 cattle were sent from Texas to Kansas, and in 1871, the number was well in excess of half a million (Worcester, pp. 15-16). And cattlemen were learning to control the herds with fewer workers, so expenses went down (although the large number of cattle being driven made it harder to keep them healthy and well-fed).
Worcester, p. xviii, says that the name "Chisholm Trail" is first recorded in Kansas in 1870, and in Texas in 1874. This was fairly early in the history of the cattle drives. Worcester, p. 9, says that Oliver Goodnight and Charles Loving first used the trail named for them in 1866, and other herds went over the more eastern trails. In all, some 200,000 cattle were driven in that year.
The great cattle drives continued for fifteen years. But as this was going on, Europeans were gradually moving into Montana and Wyoming and the Dakota -- and discovering, apparently to their surprise, that cattle could live happily on the land from which the bison had been extirpated (Worcester, pp. 153-157). And, with the bison gone, the Indians could no longer live there to drive off settlers. Texas cowboys found jobs all over the west; the ranch owners in the northern states offered similar work and pay to those in the south but promised better conditions (Worcester, p. 164).
The locals in these areas did not like cattle passing through their territory, and were increasingly worried about the diseases carried by Texas cattle (Worcester, p, 167). WIth so many alternative sources now available, demand for Texas cattle fell and the prices made the cattle drives uneconomic. By the 1880s, most of the trails were closed, and in 1885, Kansas barred Texas cattle from crossing the state. The Chisholm Trail no longer had a terminus. Adding to the economic problems, there were several years of abominable weather in the 1880s, severely harming most herds (Worcester, pp. 168-171). This was known as the "Big Die-Up" (Worcester, p. 172).
In the aftermath of the "Die-Up," the cattle kingdom (perhaps better called the cattle bubble) collapsed. Of course, the demand for beef in the east continued, but the model changed. Barbed wire fences sprang up, the operators were fewer, and drives up the cattle trails ended; instead, cattle cars went to railheads all over the west (Worcester, pp. 174-175). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R179

Chisholm Trail (II), The

DESCRIPTION: This is a virtually endless sexual adventure of a cowboy punching the "goddam" herd. Versions of this ballad vary greatly, including laments for having contracted venereal disease from either the minister's or the Old Man's daughter.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax, Cowboy Songs)
KEYWORDS: bawdy cowboy humorous sex disease
FOUND IN: Australia US(Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 186-192, "The Chisholm Trail" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 199-205, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 9, pp. 60-69, "Jimmie Tucker" (2 texts, 1 tune, plus many excerpts from mostly-bawdy texts, including some from "Gonna Tie My Pecker to My Leg")
DT, (CHISHLM -- a combination of clean and dirty versions)
Roud #3438
RECORDINGS:
Cowboy Rodgers, "Old Chisholm Trail" (Varsity 5044, c. 1940)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gonna Tie My Pecker to My Leg"
cf. "The Chisholm Trail (I)" (tune & meter)
NOTES [67 words]: Annotator G. Legman in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I lumps "Chisholm Trail" with "Gonna Tie My Pecker to My Leg" versions. - EC
It should be noted that there is no clear distinction between the "clean" and "dirty" versions of this song; a particular singer could make it as raunchy as desired. The split here is a false split, mostly to emphasize that the song has been frequently bowdlerized. - RBW
File: EM186

Chivalrous Shark, The

DESCRIPTION: "The most chivalrous fish of the ocean, To ladies forbearing and mild, Though his record be dark Is the man-eating shark Who will eat neither woman nor child." The song details instances of the shark eating men but rescuing women and the young
AUTHOR: Wallace Irwin ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: talltale humorous monster animal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, pp. 400-401, "The Chivalrous Shark" (1 text)
DT, CHIVSHAR*
NOTES [22 words]: The Digital Tradition lists this as having been copyrighted in 1904 by Wallace Irwin, and certainly it looks like a composed piece. - RBW
File: FSWB400

Chivvy, Chivvy O

DESCRIPTION: "A pack of foxhounds ... [is] hunting an old bitch fox." After six miles the fox climbs a three storey house and taunts her pursuers. One calls off the hounds to give her a chance. She wishes she were safe under ground, but toasts his good health.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal dog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 62, "Chivvy, Chivvy O" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 314)
Roud #1241
NOTES [25 words]: Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames (1923): "This I first heard at South Marston, of the aged road-mender, whose father sang it a hundred years ago." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT062

Choice of a Wife, The

DESCRIPTION: "I will tell you the way I have heard some say To choose you a lovely young creature, To choose you a wife you would love as your life...." The singer says her heart should "be her best part" -- but demands blue eyes, brown hair, slender waist and ankles
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: courting beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 78, "The Choice of a Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST GC078 (Partial)
Roud #3695
NOTES [58 words]: For the record, the Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan text devotes one stanza to the girl's personality ("not given to flattery and cunning... with a nimble wit... tongue... not always running") but three stanzas to her need for good looks. There is no evidence that the boy brings anything good enough to let him be so picky. - RBW
File: GC078

Cholly Blues, The

DESCRIPTION: "Broke an' hungry, ragged an' dirty too (x2), Jes' want to know, baby, kin I go home wid you?" The singer describes how a hard life made him turn rambler, and promises her subtle rewards. He hopes to find a woman "an' roam no' mo.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: rambling hardtimes floatingverses home
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 201-203, "The 'Cholly' Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15554
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Stormalong" (floating verses)
cf. "Deep Blue Sea (II)" (floating verses)
File: LxA201

Choo'n Gum (Chewing Gum; Chew, Chew, Chew; Bubblegum)

DESCRIPTION: "My mother gave me a penny to see Jack Benny; I did not see Jack Benny, I bought some chewing gum." "My mother gave me a nickel to buy a pickle...I bought some chewing gum." The singer chews so much gum that she cries gum rather than tears
AUTHOR: Mann Curtis and Vic Mizzy (source: mudcat.org thread "Penny to buy chewing gum/Gershwin?")
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: food money campsong | chewing gum Jack Benny pickle downtown
FOUND IN: US(Ro,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #106, p. 31, "Chewing Gum" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 63, "The Thread Was Thin" (1 text, a combination of "Choo'n Gum (Chewing Gum; Chew, Chew, Chew; Bubblegum)" and of "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Go Upstairs")
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #83, "(I Went Downtown to See Miss Brown)" (1 text, which combines "Choo'n Gum (Chewing Gum; Chew, Chew, Chew; Bubblegum)" with "I'm a Little Dutch Girl"); #101, "(I went downtown And met Miss Brown)" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 138, "I went downtown, to see Miss Brown" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp, 142-143, 387, "Chewing Gum"/"Bubblegum" (notes only)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #269, "I went downtown" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #58, "(I went downtown To meet Mrs. Brown)" (1 text)
NOTES [61 words]: There is probably some deliberate irony in the idea of spending money to see Jack Benny, who often portrayed himself as an extreme miser, but the children in camp surely did not know this.
In any case, the song is older; the Harbin-Parodology version has no Jack Benny mention -- and no verse involving a penny. Interesting that a new verse could fit in so well. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF142C

Choose You a Seat 'n' Set Down

See Choose You a Seat And Set Down (File: LoSi034)

Choose You a Seat And Set Down

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Lordy, just give me a long white robe" (x2). "In the heaven, choose you a seat and set down" (x4). "Oh Jesus, was my mother there?" "Oh Lordy, was my brother there?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (collected from Dock Reed, Henry Reed, and Vera Hall)
KEYWORDS: clothes religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 34-35 "Choose You a Seat 'n' Set Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15503
File: LoSi034

Choose, Choose, Who'll Ye Tak

DESCRIPTION: "Choose, choose, who'll ye tak, Who'll ye tak, who'll ye tak? Choose, choose, who'll ye tak, A lassie or a laddie?" "I widnae ha' a laddie-o, A laddie-o, a laddie-o... I'd rather hae a lassie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | choose laddie lassie boy girl
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 62, "(Choose, choose, who'll ye tak)" (1 text)
NOTES [23 words]: I wonder if the choice, in this game, is of the sex of a partner, or of a baby. The significance of the choice definitely differs.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PKKB062D

Chopo

DESCRIPTION: "Through rocky arroyas so dark and so deep, Down the sides of the mountains so slippery and steep... You're a safety conveyance my little Chopo." The singer praises his horse Chopo and describes the excellent service the animal has done
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1908
KEYWORDS: horse cowboy nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XIV, pp. 191-194 (30-31), "Chopo" (3 texts, 1 tune); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 23-24, "Chopo" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 69, "Chopo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 389, "Chopo" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, pp. 44-45, "Chopo, My Pony" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8049
NOTES [34 words]: "Chopo" was the name of "Jack" Thorp's favorite horse, which he credits with saving his life during a stampede, and for whom he wrote this song. There is no evidence that it ever entered oral tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: TF014

Chopo, My Pony

See Chopo (File: TF014)

Choppin' Charlie

DESCRIPTION: "Choppin' Charlie, Great Godamighty, Oh Choppin' Charlie, Oh My Lord." "Well he chopped all day." "He don't a-eat no dinner." "He chopped through his supper." "Well he chopped with a hatchet." "Well he choppin' for the sergeant"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recorded from Johnny Jackson and Frank Young by Bruce Jackson)
KEYWORDS: work prison
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 259-260, "Choppin' Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Great God A'mighty" (lyrics)
NOTES [34 words]: This shares many of its verses, and its setting, with "Great God A'mighty." But "Choppin' Charlie" has a plot of sorts, and "Great God A'mighty" is just a chopping song, so I very tentatively split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM259

Choring Song, The

DESCRIPTION: Travellers' cant. Singer (Drummond) lay last night in a granary; now he's in prison, with "mort" (woman) and "kinshins" (children) scattered. If he gets back to stealing, he'll "moolie the gahnies [kill the hens] in dozens" to leave none to tell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (recorded from Travellers in Perthshire)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Travellers' cant. Singer (Big Jimmie Drummond, lay last night in a cold granary; tonight he's in a cold prison, with his "mort" (woman) and "kinshins" (children) scattered. He) swears that if he ever gets back to stealing, he'll "moolie the gahnies [kill the hens] in dozens" and there'll be no one left to tell on him (He says that if he ever goes to prison, he'll see all his friends, then go back to his wife and family)
KEYWORDS: separation prison theft foreignlanguage chickens children family wife prisoner thief Gypsy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 342, "The Choring Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 97, "Big Jimmie Drummond" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2157 and 2506
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cobbler (I)" (structure)
cf. "Young Jimmie Drummond" (theme)
cf. "Charles Guiteau" (lyrics)
NOTES [66 words]: "Choring" = stealing. This shares verse structure with "Dick Darby," and the "Drummond" version has the classic opening line "My name is Big Jimmie Drummond/My name I'll never deny" from Charles Guiteau and, presumably, its predecessor "The Lamentation of James Rodgers." But the plot, albeit minimal, is different, so it gets its own entry. The song is macaronic, mixing cant with English. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: McCST097

Chowan River

DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears a young woman lamenting her lover "gone over Chowan River." Her father had hired a captain to take her love away. The captain murdered her lover. Her father told her to take comfort and wait, but she drowns herself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love separation betrayal homicide father money children suicide ship drowning
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 74, "Chowan River" (1 text)
Roud #6570
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nancy of Yarmouth (Jemmy and Nancy; The Barbadoes Lady)" [Laws M38] (plot)
cf. "I Never Will Marry" [Laws K17] (theme)
NOTES [432 words]: The editors of Brown compare this to "Nancy of Yarmouth," but note that it is not the same song. In many ways it is better; it doesn't twist and turn as much.
The Chowan River has its headwaters in southern Virginia and flows into the North Carolina, meeting the sea in Albemarle Sound. But there is no localization beyond the mention of the river; one suspects British origin for the song (since it sounds like it involves a press gang).
Alternately, perhaps, the event dates from the American Civil War, when there was a conflict of sorts by the Chowan. Walter Clark, Editor, Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861-1865, volume II, (State of North Carolina)/Nash Brothers, N.D., p. 793fff., describes the action:
In January 1863, Companies B, E, F of the 42nd North Carolina, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel J. E. Brown, were sent to the area "to rid the country of the 'Buffaloes.' This organization was composed of thieves and cut-throats who claimed to be Union men and under the protection of Federal gunboats, had established a fortified camp on the Dillard Farm. From this point they pillaged the
country, and carried their booty to the entrenched block-house. Several attempts had been made to wipe out these Buffaloes, but each one had proven futile. General D. H. Hill had ordered that their fortifications be destroyed without fail, and this Colonel Brown determined to do at all hazards.
" Colonel Brown started with 150 men in small row-boats to surprise the enemy at daybreak. The distance (about twenty miles), however, proved too great, and at dawn his weary soldiers were not in striking distance, but too near to retreat. Calling a council of his officers, it was decided to conceal the men in the woods and watch the enemy's movements until night, when an attack would be made.
"The Buffaloes spent the day -- Sunday -- in target-shooting and general carousal.... However, one fellow spied the pickets, dashed back to the block-house, and gave the alarm.... In a few moments the gunboat began dropping shells around Colonel Brown's men, and they set out for camp, crossing the Chowan before day.
"Though foiled. Colonel Brown was by no means discouraged, and planned another expedition."
The account of this is quite confusing, but it produced casualties on both sides and ended up with Colonel Brown and some of the troops he led having to be rescued by their own men. The three companies seem to have spent enough time in the area, though, that they could have formed real relationships with the locals. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: BrII074

Chrissey's Dick

DESCRIPTION: Mary Ann sends Chrissey to borrow Aunt Margaret's dick [rooster] and set among the hens. In the morning the dick is gone. Chrissey goes out and finds it. Mary Ann will raise some chicks so "we won't have to bother Aunt Margaret for her dick"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy humorous wordplay chickens
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 21, "Chrissey's Dick" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #26076
NOTES [53 words]: In commenting on "Bill Wiseman," Peacock wrote "To an outsider unfamiliar with local sexual symbols it appears obscure, though perhaps mildly suggestive. Similar songs occur in our own popular music too.... Millions know the words but only a few know what's going on. In Newfoundland, everyone knows what's going on." - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe021

Christ Church Bells

DESCRIPTION: "Hark! the bonny Christ Church Bells." The first and second bell ring "every day at four and ten Crys ... come to prayers." The small bell rings at nine "to call the beerers home" but no man "will leave his can 'Till he hears the mighty Tom"
AUTHOR: Henry Aldrich (1647-1710) (see notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1814 (Clark)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 54, "Christ Church Bells" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 128)
ADDITIONAL: Richard Clark, The Words of the Most Favourite Pieces Performed at The Glee Club, The Catch Club, and Other Public Societies (London, 1814 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 111, ("Hark! The bonny Christ-Church bells") (1 text)
Roud #1237
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.34(275) View 2 of 2, "Merry Christ-Church Bells" ("Hark! the bonny Christ-Church bells"), W. Ordoyno (Nottingham), no date
NOTES [121 words]: Bodleian Library does not date any of its W. Ordoyno broadsides but there is a reference at the Coddington History Group site of 1815 ("O - Oats to Oxley", p. 2).
Henry Aldrich, who wrote "Christ Church Bells," was dean of Christ Church College of Oxford University. He was a musician and amateur[?] architect. "The mighty Tom" is the nearly 17000 pound bell in the Christ Church College Tower. (sources: Leigh Hunt, Table-Talk (1879, London ("Digitized by Google")), p. 51; Thomas Dinham Atkinson, English Architecture (1904, London ("Digitized by Google")), p. 198; George Laurence Gomme, editor, Topographical History of Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and Rutlandshire (1897, London ("Digitized by Google")), p. 56.) - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT054

Christ in the Garden

DESCRIPTION: The singer, wandering in a garden, meets a sorely troubled man. It proves to be Jesus. The singer kneels and begs forgiveness; Jesus grants it, and the singer goes out to spread the word
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 210-211, "Christ in the Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 79-80, "Christ in the Garden" (1 short text)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 64, "Christ in the Garden" (1 short text)
ST FO210 (Partial)
Roud #4682
NOTES [123 words]: This is rather a complicated mix of Biblical themes. Jesus's prayer before his arrest is said to have taken place in a garden in John 18:1, but Gethsemane is not called a garden in the other three gospels.
The mention of "blood, sweat, and tears" is unquestionably a reminiscence of Luke 22:43-44 -- verses which, however, are likely not part of Luke's original Greek; of the earliest seven Greek witnesses, six -- those known as P75 ℵ(1) A B T W -- omit, as do some later witnesses of great weight. The verses are found in the King James Bible, though, so English hymn-writers would certainly know them.
There is no known mention of visitors to Jesus in Gethsemane -- but, of course, the witnesses (Peter, James, John) were dozing off. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FO210

Christ Is Born in Bethlehem

See Christ Was Born in Bethlehem (File: MA189)

Christ Made a Trance (God Made a Trance)

DESCRIPTION: "Christ made a trance one Sunday at noon, He made it with his hand." Alternate opening: "O God's in France all Sunday." The power of Christ, and the dangers of hell, are told; listeners are warned to keep the sabbath and to teach their children well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19908 (Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus carol
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, p. 192, "Christ Made a Trance" (1 text, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 163-164, "God Made a Trance" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Leath192 (Partial)
Roud #2112
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Moon Shines Bright" (The Bellman's Song)" (lyrics)
NOTES [48 words]: Nearly every word of this is paralleled in "The Moon Shines Bright" and its relatives -- except the first verse. Songs beginning "God/Christ made a trance" go here; those which open with "The Moon Shines Bright" file there. Now if only we could figure out the actual relationship.... - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: Leath192

Christ Was a Weary Traveler

DESCRIPTION: "Christ was a weary trav'ler, He went from door to door, His occupation in life Was a-minist'ring to the poor." Jesus warns the disciples that his work is almost done, tells them what to do after his resurrection, and thanks God
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 559, "Christ Was a Weary Traveler" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 559, "Christ Was a Weary Traveler" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11882
NOTES [103 words]: Although most of this is quite closely parallel to Biblical accounts, very little is actual allusion. The song, for instance, states that "I thank God for none but the pure in heart Before his face shall stand." The closest parallel to this is probably Matthew 11:25 (parallel to Luke 10:21), "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and have shown them to the infants."
The name "Jekkel" for "Jericho" (cf. Joshua 6) is also new to me -- but we find "Shorty" Love, the informant in this case, using the same pronunciation in "Jekkel Walls." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3559

Christ Was Born in Bethlea

See Christ Was Born in Bethlehem (File: MA189)

Christ Was Born in Bethlehem

DESCRIPTION: "Christ was born in Bethlehem (x3) and in a manger lay." In stanzas of eight lines (but only two distinct), the song lights on Jesus' birth, his ministry, his betrayal, death, the empty tomb, and Jesus's resurrection
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire)
KEYWORDS: Jesus Bible Christmas
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,West)) Australia US(Ap,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire 4, "Christ Was Born in Bethlehem" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, p. 96, "Mary Lies Weeping" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 20-21, "Christ Was Born in Bethlehem" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 537, "Jesus Born in Bethlehem" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 537, "Jesus Born in Bethlehem" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 191, "Christ Was Born in Bethlehem" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 210, "Christ was Born in Bethlehem" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 7, "Christ Is Born in Bethlehem" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #57, "Jesus Born in Bethany" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 33, "Down Came an Angel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 189-190, "Edna's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 189-190, "Christ Was Born in Bethlehem" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 166-168, "Jesus Walked in Galilee" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 26, "Down Came an Angel" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 22-23, "The Gornal Nailmakers' Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1122
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Won't Go Home Until Morning" (tune) and references there
cf. "Can't Cross Jordan" (floating lyrics)
cf. "He Arose from the Dead" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Christ Was Born in Bethlea
Jesus Borned in Bethlea
Jesus Born in Galilee
NOTES [260 words]: The Wells-TheBalladTree version of this, from Edna Felter, begins "Christ was born in Bethlehem, And Mary was his niece." This is probably just an error. But it might be a reference to various post-Biblical legends which made Mary of Bethany (and her siblings Martha and Lazarus) the children of a relative of Jesus. I've also seen the brothers James and John sons of Zebedee called the children of Mary the sister of Jesus (based on a complicated accounting of the women said to be at the foot of the cross); perhaps this might be a distortion of that.
But, I repeat, the most likely explanation is just error.
Similarly Jane Gentry's "Jesus Born in Bethany." Bethany was the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus of Bethany (John 11:1, 12:1, etc.). There were legends that the family of Lazarus was related to Jesus. Thus it might make sense that Jesus was born in Bethany rather than Bethlehem (where Jesus does not seem to have had any relatives -- and, indeed, according to Luke, his family didn't live in Bethlehem). But the only real reason for thinking Jesus was related to Lazarus et al was the fact that Jesus was said to have loved them. Once again, the most likely explanation is simple error.
William Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal, Broadman Press, 1976, p. 48, says that a song "Christ Was Born in Bethlehem" is sung to the tune of "Michael Row the Boat Ashore." Since I do not know if that song is this, I do not list the tune in the cross-references. The version of this song that I have heard (from Jean Ritchie) is not "Michael Row." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: MA189

Christ-Child's Lullaby, The

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. A lullaby for the baby Jesus. The singer (presumably Mary) describes the child's beauty, admits her role in great events, and praises the "white sun of hope"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides)
KEYWORDS: lullaby Jesus religious nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Hebr))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides I, pp. 28-30, "The Christ-Child's Lullaby (Taladh Chriosta)" (1 text+2 slightly different translations, 1 tune)
DT, CHRISTLU
NOTES [62 words]: It is not clear whether this is Scots or Irish Gaelic in origin. Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides's version, from Eriskay with words from Allan Macdonald, is obviously Scots. The Digital Tradition version is said to be a translation by Seamus Ennis from Irish Gaelic.
The various translations have achieved some popularity in English based on the beautiful tune. - RBW
File: DTChrilu

Christian Automobile

See Christian's Automobile (File: RcChrAut)

Christian, Fight On, Yo' Time Ain't Long

See Christian, Fight On, Your Time Ain't Long (File: KiWa254C)

Christian, Fight On, Your Time Ain't Long

DESCRIPTION: "Christian, fight on, your time ain't long (x2), I step in the water and the water was cold, It chilled my body but not my soul. Christian, fight on...." "I've been 'buked and I've been scored, I've been talked about sa sure as you're born."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: religious fight nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 254, "Christian, Fight On, Yo' Time Ain't Long" (1 text)
Roud #18162
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "You Fight On ("fight on" lyric)
NOTES [17 words]: Roud lumps this with "You Fight On," but other than the words "fight on," I don't see much in common. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: KiWa254C

Christian's Automobile

DESCRIPTION: "Every child of God is running for Jesus Just to drive that automobile." "Prayer is your driver, Faith is your steering wheel." Check your brakes (wicked ways), ... Start your automobile ... I'm not worried about my parking space ... See my Savior.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (recording, The Dixie Humming Birds)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus technology
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #17297
RECORDINGS:
Bright Light Quartet, "Christian Automobile" (on LomaxCD1708)
The Dixie Humming Birds, "Christians Automobile" (Peacock 5-1780, 1957)
File: RcChrAut

Christians Automobile

See Christian's Automobile (File: RcChrAut)

Christina

See Cairistiona (File: K005)

Christine Leroy [Laws H31]

DESCRIPTION: The dying singer tells how happy her marriage was -- until beautiful Christine Leroy showed up and stole her husband. Now "you can tell then they murdered me, brother; God forgive him [her husband] and Christine Leroy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: death infidelity husband wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So,MW,Ro)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws H31, "Christine Leroy"
Randolph 797, "Christine Leroy" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 509-511, "Christine Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 797A)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp.189-190, "Christine LeRoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 237, 243-244, "No, Brother, I'll Never Be Better" (1 text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 48, pp. 82-83, "Christine Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 654, CRSLEROY*
Roud #2193
NOTES [54 words]: Cheney-MormonSongs, following Rosalie Sorrels, links his version to Mormon polygamy: The singer of the song is not an abandoned wife but one who sees her husband intent on taking a second wife. There is nothing in the song as printed by Cheney to forbid this, but I don't think that was the original intent of the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LH31

Christmas Comes But Once a Year

See Juba (File: BSoF708)

Christmas Day in the Morning

See Dame, Get Up and Bake Your Pies (Christmas Day in the Morning) (File: BGMG420)

Christmas Day in the Workhouse

DESCRIPTION: "It was Christmas Day in the workhouse, That season of good cheer." The workhouse master wishes the inmates good cheer. They answer, "Balls." Offended, the master says he will cut off their pudding. One pauper tells him where to put the pudding
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 64, "It Was Christmas Day in the Workhouse" (2 texts)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, "Christmas Day in the Workhouse" (1 text)
Roud #10181
File: BrPa064A

Christmas Drawing Near at Hand

See Christmas Now Is Drawing Near At Hand (File: JRUI162)

Christmas Hymns of the Crucifixion

See Hammering (File: Bart039)

Christmas Is Coming, the Goose Is Getting Fat

DESCRIPTION: "Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, Please put a penny in the old man's hat. If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do. If you haven't got a ha'penny, then God bless you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Baring-Gould)
KEYWORDS: money bird food Christmas
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 61-62, "(Please to remember the fifth of November)" (1 text, plus another fragment that might be from another Guy Fawkes game and a partial reqire of "Chrismas Is Coming, The Goose Is Getting Fat")
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #419, p. 195, "(Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 24, "Christmas Is Coming" (1 short text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 45, "Christmas is Coming" (1 short text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 49, "(Christmas is coming)" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 4, "(Christmas is coming)" (1 short text, from user John5918, posted August 28, 2021)
DT, XMASCOME*
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #153, "(Christmas Is Coming)" (1 text)
ST BGMG419 (Partial)
Roud #12817
NOTES [51 words]: This seems to be rare in tradition, and yet *I* learned it orally, in a version still close to the British, since it mentions ha'pennies (which I first heard as "hay-pennies," which made no sense at all). So I'm filing it on the assumption it's going to be collected in tradition in the future, at least. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BGMG419

Christmas Letter, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer weeps and asks daughter Kate to reread letters from grandchildren in America. "One by one the lot of them Sailed out across the great big sea." The grandchildren are named and recalled. "Somehow it makes me better Ah, each time I hear the news"
AUTHOR: Michael Scanlon? (source: Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan); Junior Creehan? (source: IROConway01)
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation America Ireland moniker family
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 28, "The Christmas Letter" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5220
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Conway, "Kate A Stor" (on IROConway01)
Tom Lenihan, "The Christmas Letter" (on IRTLenihan01)
BROADSIDES:
This Blessed Christmas Day
NOTES [100 words]: Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan: A text from another singer, Martin Crehan, adds a verse that explains "... in the pleasant County Clare, Where there lived a widow lonely with her one daughter only Who stayed at home to care [for] her while the rest were gone away.... 'twas the eve of Christmas Day. They got letters, they got money, they felt lonely, somehow funny" - BS
For another song by Michael Scanlon, see "The Bold Fenian Men (I)." Zimmerman reports that that song was first printed in Chicago in 1864, so it is perhaps reasonable to see Scanlon writing about emigration. - RBW
File: RcChrLet

Christmas Now Is Drawing Near

See Christmas Now Is Drawing Near At Hand (File: JRUI162)

Christmas Now Is Drawing Near At Hand

DESCRIPTION: "Christmas is now drawing near at hand, Pray, says the Lord, and be at his command." Hearers are reminded that man is made of clay. They are told to get on their knees in the garden. Hearers are warned about fine clothes and other idle display
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (collected by Sharp from Prudence Handy, according to RAven)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Christmas warning clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 162-163, "Christmas Now Is Drawing Near at Hand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #808
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Christmas Now Is Drawing Near
Christmas Drawing Near at Hand
File: JRUI162

Christmas Rum

DESCRIPTION: Two underage boys are sentenced to fourteen days in jail for drinking Christmas rum. In jail they "worked from daylight until dark." Soon they'll be twenty-one and will be able to have "Christmas rum"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: drink youth prisoner punishment
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 869-870, "Christmas Rum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9804
RECORDINGS:
Mrs Martha Osmond, "Christmas Rum" (on PeacockCDROM)
File: Pea869

Christmas Song

See Trees Are All Bare (Christmas Song) (File: CopSe202)

Christmas Stockings

See Countdown to Christmas (Christmas Stockings) (File: DPio370)

Christmas Time in Ireland

DESCRIPTION: The singer remembers "Christmas time in Ireland far away" with feasting, fife and fiddle play, and dancing. There is sorrow for those in exile and hope "God might send them safely back some day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: exile reunion separation dancing fiddle food music party Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #26203
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Bulger, "Christmas Time in Ireland" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3ChTII

Christofo Columbo

See Christopher Columbo (File: EM308)

Christopher Columbo

DESCRIPTION: Columbo, that navigating, masturbating son-of-a-bitch, sails the world round-o, master and crew engaging in a variety of sexual practices on land and sea.
AUTHOR: A (clean) version was copyrighted by Francis J. Bryant (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 and the Columbian Exposition in Chicago
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex humorous whore exploration | Christopher Columbus
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1451-1506 - Life of Cristoforo Colombo (who went by the Spanish name Cristóbal Colón), known in English as "Christopher Columbus"
1492 - first of Columbus's four voyages to the New World, which he never figured out was not the coast of Asia, because (although everyone knew the world was spherical) he used a blatantly wrong figure for its diameter and never thought to do an experiment to check the correct figure, which was known to everyone but him, He was indeed brave. He was also an extreme racist, so quarrelsome that his subordinates usually hated him, a credit-stealer, a money-grubber, and a bigot.
FOUND IN: Australia Canada US(MW,Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 55-58, "Christopher Columbus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 308-315, "Christopher Columbo" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 502-505, "Christopher Columbo" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp 152-153, "Christoper Columbo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 207-212, "Christofo Columbo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 18-22, "Christoforo Colombo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 173-174, "Christopher Columbus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 106-107, "Columbo" (1 text)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 186-187, "Christopher Columbo" (1 text)
DT, COLOMBO COLUMB2*
Roud #4843
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singer, "Christopho Columbo" (on Unexp1)
Arkansas Charlie [pseud. for Charlie Craver], "Oh Christofo Columbo" (Brunswick 410, 1930)
Billy Jones, "Christofo Columbo" (CYL: Edison [BA] 5008, prob. 1925)
Billy Jones & Ernest Hare, "Christofo Columbo" (OKeh 40397, 1925)
Andy Kirk & his Mighty Clouds of Joy, "Christopher Columbus" (Decca 729, 1936)
Old Ced Odom & Lil "Diamonds" Hardaway, "Fourteen Hundred and Ninety-Two (Christopho Columbo)" (Decca, uniss.; rec. 1936)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Good Ship Venus" (lyrics)
cf. "The Sailor in Nagasaki" (tune, according to Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
cf. "Christopher Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue" (character of Christopher Columbus)
cf. "Christopher Columbus Was a Very Brave Man" (character of Christopher Columbus)
NOTES [171 words]: This song frequently borrows verses -- identifiable by their internal rhyme in the third line or "limerick form" -- from "The Good Ship Venus."
This would not pass muster as a history of Christopher Columbus' voyage of 1492. - EC
A distinct understatement.
Incidentally, it is not clear whether this was originally clean or dirty. The 1893 date cited above is for a clean version, of which John Garst writes, "We all know 'Christofo Columbo' as a bawdy ballad, but in the Robert W. Gordon papers at the University of Oregon there is a 'clean' version, 'Written and Composed by Francis J. Bryant,' 'Copyright, 1893, by M. Witmark and Sons. Entered at Stationers' Hall, London.... If you wonder how the chorus could be 'clean,' here it is:
He knew the earth was round, ho! that land it could be found, ho!
The geographic, hard and hoary navigator, gyratory Christofo Columbo."
Shay's clean version has the chorus
Oh, Christofo Columbo,
He thought the world was round-o;
That pioneering, buccaneering,
Son-of-a-gun, Columbo! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: EM308

Christopher Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue In fourteen hundred and ninety-two."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Evans, Rimbles, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope travel | ocean Christopher Columbus
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1451-1506 - Life of Cristoforo Colombo (who went by the Spanish name Cristóbal Colón), known in English as "Christopher Columbus"
1492 - first of Columbus's four voyages to the New World, which he never figured out was not the coast of Asia, because (although everyone knew the world was spherical) he used a blatantly wrong figure for its diameter and never thought to do an experiment to check the correct figure, which was known to everyone but him, He was indeed brave. He was also an extreme racist, so quarrelsome that his subordinates usually hated him, a credit-stealer, a money-grubber, and a bigot.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #77, "Christopher Columbus" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Christopher Columbo" (character of Christopher Columbus)
File: AJRR077

Christopher Columbus Was a Very Brave Man

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Christopher Columbus was a very brave man, He sailed the ocean in an old tin can/frying pan. But the waves grew higher and higher and over." Counting: Five, ten, fifteen, twenty....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Singabout, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope travel | Christopher Columbus sailing waves counting tin can frying pan
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1451-1506 - Life of Cristoforo Colombo (who went by the Spanish name Cristóbal Colón), known in English as "Christopher Columbus"
1492 - first of Columbus's four voyages to the New World, which he never figured out was not the coast of Asia, because (although everyone knew the world was spherical) he used a blatantly wrong figure for its diameter and never thought to do an experiment to check the correct figure, which was known to everyone but him, He was indeed brave. He was also an extreme racist, so quarrelsome that his subordinates usually hated him, a credit-stealer, a money-grubber, and a bigot.
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #78, "Christopher Columbus was a very brave man" (1 text)
Roud #19214
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Christopher Columbo" (character of Christopher Columbus)
File: AJRR078

Christopher Robin (Parody)

DESCRIPTION: "Little boy kneels at the foot of the stairs" after castrating the cat. "Little boy kneels at the foot of the bed" where he is "shagging his nurse"; he "sits on a laboratory pan" to pleasure himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: derivative sex bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 149, "Christopher Robin" (1 text)
Roud #10240
NOTES [52 words]: This is a patent parody of A. A. Milne's "Vespers" ("Christopher Robin is saying his prayers") from When We Were Very Young (1924). Roud in fact lumps them. But this is a sharp contrast to that saccharine poem; even though it uses much of the original text, I think it clear that they should be separated. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RuSoChrR

Christopher White [Child 108]

DESCRIPTION: A lady, mourning Christopher White's banishment, is wooed by the singer. She warns "If I prove false to Christopher White, Merchant, I cannot be true to thee," -- but marries him. While he is away she sends for Christopher; they go off, taking much wealth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: love separation theft escape money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 108, "Christopher White" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume III, pp. 494-498, "Christop[h]er White" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2, "Abroad as I was walking, all by the Park-side"
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 513
Roud #3974
NOTES [48 words]: According to David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 158 n. 25, this is one of eighteen ballads in the Child collection found only in the Percy Folio. Bruce Olson seems to have thought there was another version, but I haven't seen it. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C108

Chuck Wagon's Stuck, The

See Trouble for the Range Cook (The Chuck Wagon's Stuck) (File: Ohr098)

Chuck-Time on the Round-Up

DESCRIPTION: "It was chuck-time on the round-up, and we heard 'Old Doughy' shout, 'You had better come and get this or I'll throw the whole thing out.'" The cowboys scramble for food. They're proud of Doughy; "He's cooked for us for twenty years and never lost a man"
AUTHOR: Austin Corcoran (source: Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cook food cowboy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 24-29, "Chuck-Time on the Round-Up" (1 text)
File: ThLo024

Chuck-Wagon Races

DESCRIPTION: "Come gather round the wagon, we'll sing a little song Of the wagon racing, it will not take us long, There's thrills and spills and doctor bills...." A description of the life of a wagon racer, and of many of the people in the wagon camp
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: travel cowboy recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 90, "Chuck-Wagon Races" (1 text)
File: Ohr090

Church Across the Way, The

DESCRIPTION: "On Easter Sunday morning when the sun was shinging clear," the congregation was having an intense service while the preacher's brother Ned lay dying across the way. The dying man wishes he had never gone astray
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: death crime clergy Easter
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 825, "The Church Across the Way" (1 text)
Roud #7438
NOTES [18 words]: This piece can't seem to decide if it's a moralizing ballad or a tearjerker. I'd say it fails at both. - RBW
File: R825

Church and State May Gang Tae Hell

DESCRIPTION: "The Church and State may gang tae Hell, And I'll gang to my dearie, O."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: love Hell | church and state
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 173, "The Church and State may gang tae Hell" (1 fragment)
File: KSUC173B

Church Cove Song

DESCRIPTION: Some say Captain Kidd buried gold "galore" at Church Cove on the Southern Shore, which was guarded by "the ghost of a darkie." "A crew from Burin" found the gold but "got turned inside out from the fright." A witness's whiskers, once white, "turned foxy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: gold ghost pirate hair
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18203
RECORDINGS:
Vince Ledwell, "Church Cove Song" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcChCove

Church in the Wildwood, The

See The Little Brown Church in the Vale (The Church in the Wildwood) (File: BdLBCitV)

Church of God, The

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "The church of God that sounds so sweet, The church, the church of God (x2), that sounds so sweet." Verses: "Jesus told you once before Go in peace and sin no more" and other floating verses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 80, "De Church of God" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 199 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #15261
NOTES [35 words]: "Go in peace and sin no more" is probably an allusion to John 8:11 (a text not an original part of the Gospel of John, but you can't tell that from the King James Bible), although it is not a direct quote. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett080

Church Song, The (Ding a Dong)

DESCRIPTION: "On Sunday afternoon, While the church was turning out," Vicar and Curate decide to compare how many members of the congregation they have slept, saying ding-dong or ping-pong. Thus it is revealed that the Curate has slept with the Vicar's wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy trick infidelity clergy humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 156, "The Church Song -- Ding Dong" (1 text)
Roud #10244
File: RuSoDiDo

Church Without a Prophet, A

DESCRIPTION: "A church without a prophet is not the church for me; It has no head to lead it, in it I would not be. But I've a church not built by man...." "The God that others worship is not the God for me." "A church without apostles is not the church...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Sacred Hymns and Spiritual Songs, according to Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah; Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest dates this book to 1871)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad patriotic discrimination
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #205, "A Church Without a Prophet" (1 text)
Cheney-MormonSongs, p. 144, "A Church without a Prophet" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 249, "A Church Without Apostles Is Not the Church for Me" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 190-191, "A Church Without a Prophet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10865
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rose That All Are Praising" (tune, according to Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
NOTES [161 words]: Jewish tradition held that prophecy ended with the prophet Malachi, some time around 350 B.C.E. (although later authors such as Daniel continued to portray their works as prophecy; they just pretended it was written pre-Malachi). Certainly there were no Jewish prophets after c. 100 B.C.E. Christianity believed that prophecy revived with the coming of Jesus (the New Testament contains multiple references to prophecy, and Paul encourages it). But that sort of prophecy too died out and was discouraged. In recent centuries, many denominations, such as Pentecostals, have encouraged behaviors such as speaking in tongues that are linked to prophecy. But, as far as I know, only the Mormons make Prophet an official church status. Of course, the Mormons were the first denomination of the second millennium to conclude that they had more scriptures than just the Hebrew and Greek Testaments, and to produce scriptures not written in the vernacular of the time. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hubb205

Church Without Apostles Is Not the Church for Me, A

See A Church Without a Prophet (File: Hubb205)

Church, I Know You're Going To Miss Me

See Zek'l Weep (File: San449)

Church's One Foundation, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Church's one foundation Is Jesus Christ her Lord, She is his new creation." The church draws people from everywhere. Jesus died for it. The singers hope to be taken to heaven
AUTHOR: Words: Samuel John Stone (1839-1900) / Music: Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (The Parish School Hymnal); reportedly written1866
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 206-207, "The Church's One Foundation" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "The Church's One Foundation" (1 text) (CC edition, p. 75) (12th edition, p. 93)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp, 58-59, "The Church's One Foundation" (1 text, 1 tune)
Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 106-107, "The Church's One Foundation" (1 text, 1 tune)
John Julian, editor, _A Dictionary of Hymnology_, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), pp. 1146-1147, "The Church's One Foundation" (1 text, with variant readings from two other versions)
Roud #5433
SAME TUNE:
We're Looking for the Kaiser (File: Tawn063)
NOTES [1198 words]: According to Johnson, this hymn was one of a series written by Samuel John Stone based (very loosely) on the Apostles' Creed. Morgan declares that Stone based it on the portion of the creed which reads, "I believe in the holy catholic church, the communion of saints...." (Julian, p. 1146, gives the source as the ninth article of the creed, and tells us that the hymn, written in 1866, was revised in 1868 and 1885, with the 1868 version being the most widespread).
It should be noted that the Apostles' Creed is not apostolic; Boer, p. 73, declares "it is called the Apostles' Creed because it faithfully sets forth the central teachings of the Apostles" -- but he admits that it took at least three centuries to assemble. Most scholars would say it took even longer. Bettenson, p. 24, says that the oldest text of the final Latin form of the Apostle's Creed exists in a document from c. 750. The earliest ancestor known to Bettenson is the creed of Marcellus of Ancyra, known as an Arian heretic; this version dates from c. 340.
McKim, p. 305, Johnson, and Morgan all report that Stone did his writing in response to the works of John William Colenso (1814-1883), the Anglican Bishop of Natal from 1853 (at least, that's the date on p. 329 of LarousseDict, p. 98 of Douglas/Elwell/Toon, and p. 217 of Ellis; Carroll/Gardner, p. [47], says 1846); Julian, p. 1146, clarifies that "The impression made upon [Stone's] mind by Bishop Gray's (Capetown) noble defence of the Catholic Faith against the teaching of Bishop Colenso, was in chief the origin of this magnificent hymn." According to McKim, p. 305, the direct response to Colenso is in the third stanza.
If the name "Colenso" is vaguely familiar today, it is probably from Lewis Carroll. Before becoming a bishop, Colenso had written a popular set of books on mathematics. If you look at Henry Holiday's original illustration to "The Beaver's Lesson," chapter five of The Hunting of the Snark (p. [49] in Carroll/Gardner), you will observe that one of the books shown there is Colenso's Arithmetic.
Once he became a Bishop, Colenso turned the analytical skills which he had previously used for mathematics to examining the Bible. One of his missions was to the Zulus, whose language he learned (a very unusual act for an Englishman of the time); he published a grammar and dictionary of the language, and began to translate the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer into Zulu.
This proved rather embarrassing, because the Zulus had a lot of tricky questions about his teaching (Carroll/Gardner, p. [47]). He began to analyze the Old Testament in mathematical and scientific terms (Ellis, p. 218). His results were published in The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua Critically Examined (completed 1879, according to LarousseDict, p. 329). Carroll/Gardner, p. [47], says that Colenso "reduced to absurdity the literal interpretation of the Bible." Among his calculations was an estimate that, to make the Bible literally true, six men would have had a combined 2748 sons, and that priests would have been forced to consume 88 pigeons daily (Green, p. 281).
Morgan considers his views to be part of a "poisonous fog" generated by German theologians, and Ellis, while avoiding the gratuitous insult, agrees that he was largely inspired by Germans. Green, p. 281, although more sympathetic, admits that he found these books no more inspired than "Cicero, Lactantius, and the Sikh Gooros."
Colenso also championed the rights of the Blacks of South Africa (supposedly to the point of defending polygamy in his book Remarks on the Proper Treatment of Polygamy).
WalkerEtAl, p 641, seems to associate Colenso with the "broad-church" movement (defined by Ellis as those who "believed the love of God was for all, not just for Christians"), with which WalkerEtAl also associates three of the greatest scholars of the nineteenth century, Brooke Foss Westcott, Joseph Barber Lightfoot, and Fenton John Anthony Hort. Almost every Bible translation published today is largely founded on the work of Westcott and Hort, and Lightfoot's influence on Biblical commentaries is immense. To be associated, even indirectly, with such great men is a strong testimony to the quality of Colenso's work.
So too is the list of subscribers to a fund which supported him: T. H. Huxley the evolutionary biologist, the brilliant naturalist Joseph D. Hooker, and the great geologist Charles Lyell, as well as writers including Trollope and Dickens; Tennyson also seems to have supported him.
Still, Ellis, p. 217, says that Colenso "has been described as the sharpest prickle in the Anglican rose," who "preferred confrontation to compromise." So much so, in fact, that he forced the first great international Anglican gathering, the 1867 Lambeth Conference (Ellis, p. 218).
For the great crime of being 100% right, Colenso was found guilty of heresy in 1864, although he was reinstated by the Privy Council in 1865 (Douglas/Elwell/Toon, p. 98). Excommunicated by the Archbishop of Capetown in 1866, he was deposed from his bishopric in 1869 -- although Douglas/Elwell/Toon say that he managed to keep the income of the diocese until his death.
Colenso is now largely forgotten (not even my several dictionaries of heresy mention him). There is an 1888 biography by George William Cox which was in print in 2016; I have not seen it. The song he inspired managed to make it into many hymnals, though it is not one of the more popular ones in tradition. To be sure, I can't see anything in the song that in any way relates to Colenso and his doctrines (and very little that really derives from the Apostle's Creed).
Colenso does have one other faint connection with folk music: He was one of the many guests who knew Lady Jane Franklin in the last years of her life, after Sir John Franklin's fate was known (McGoogan, p. 395).
Julian, p. 1095, gives these facts about Samuel John Stone: "s[on] of the Rev. William Stone, M.A., was b[orn] at Whitmore, Staffordshire, April 25, 1839, and educated at the Charterhouse; and at Pembroke College, Oxford, B.A. 1862; and M.A. 1872. On taking Holy Orders he became Curate of Windsor in 1862, and of St. Paul's, Haggerston, 1870. In 1874 he succeeded his father at St. Paul's, Haggerston." Thus, like many British clergymen, his career seems to have been secured largely by family and connections. Perhaps this makes it less surprising that he opposed ideas associated with evolution and science. At least he brought some originality to the post, although not enough to actually look at the data Colenso brought forward. Reynolds, p. 438, says he was involved in the 1909 edition of the famous collection Hymns Ancient and Modern.
Stone's hymns on the Apostle's Creed were published in 1866 in Lyra Fidelium; Twelve Hymns on the Twelve Articles of the Apostles' Creed (Stulken, p. 417). The tune "Aurelia" is also used, e.g., for "The voice that breathed o'er Eden" and "O Living Bread from Heaven" (Stulken, p. 281); Reynolds, p. 211, says it was written by Samuel S Wesley (the grandson of Charles Wesley) for the text "Jerusalem the Golden"; it was called "Aurelia" because "aurum" is the Latin word for gold. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: Rd005433

Churn Butter Churn, Come Butter Come

See Come, Butter, Come (File: ScNF215B)

Churn, Churn, Make Some Butter

See Come, Butter, Come (File: ScNF215B)

Churning Song

See Come, Butter, Come (File: ScNF215B)

Chylde and hes Stepdame, The

See notes under Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (II) (File: OO2507)

Cicely Sweet

See Sylvia Sweet as Morning Air (File: BGSW035)

Cielito Lindo

DESCRIPTION: Spanish: "Ese lunar que tienes, cielito lindo." Chorus: "Ay ay ay ay, canta y no llores, Porque cantando se allegran, cielito lindo, los corazones." The singer tells the girl of his love and how Cupid's arrow struck his heart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919
KEYWORDS: love courting Mexico foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Mexico
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 298-299, "Cielito Lindo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 23, "Cielito Lindo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 327, "Cielito Lindo" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 172, "Cielito Lindo"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 54, "Cielito Lindo" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "Cielito Lindo" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 9)
DT, CIELITOL
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Cielito Lindo" (on PeteSeeger17)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf "I-Yi-Yi-Yi (Limericks)" (tune)
cf. "The Gay Caballero" (tune)
cf. "Sweet Violets" (tune)
NOTES [46 words]: Fuld reports that Otto Mayer-Serro believes Quiruno Mendoza y Cortez wrote this song; Mendoza was granted copyright in Mexico in 1929. However, the earliest known printing (from 1919) lists no author, and Grove's Dictionary says the song was popular in Mexico before 1840. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: San298

Cigar Song, The

DESCRIPTION: In each verse, the singer goes someplace "the other day," drinks something alcoholic "behind the bar," and smokes a more-or-less expensive cigar.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Blind Blake Higgs: see WIHIGGS01)
LONG DESCRIPTION: In each verse the singer went further from Nassau "the other day," the drink "behind the bar" was distinctive of the place (moonshine in Miami) and the cigar he was smoking was more expensive. In "New York the other day, I was drinking champagne behind the bar And I was smoking a two dollar cigar." But finally, in "Nassau the other day, I was drinking Sunbeam behind the bar And I was smoking a one cent cigar"
KEYWORDS: travel money drink humorous drugs
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "The Cigar Song" (on WIHIGGS01)
File: RcTCigSo

Cigarettes Will Spoil Yer Life

DESCRIPTION: "Cigarettes will spoil yer life, Ruin yer and kill yer baby, Poor little innocent child."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: injury disease nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 335, "Cigarettes Will Spoil Yer Life" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: San335

Cincinnati Girls

See Buffalo Gals (File: R535)

Cinderella at a Ball

DESCRIPTION: Skipping rhyme/game. "Cinderella at a ball, Cinderella had a fall, When she fell she lost her shoe, Cinderella, Y-O-U."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: dancing disaster injury clothes jumprope | Cinderella ball shoe fall
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 105, "(Cinderella at a ball)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #79, "Cinderella at a ball" (1 text)
File: SuSm105B

Cinderella Dressed in Yella

See Cinderella Dressed in Yellow (File: CarMM079)

Cinderella Dressed in Yellow

DESCRIPTION: "Cinderella, dressed in yellow, Went downtown to see her fellow. How many kisses did the get?" "Made a mistake, And kissed a snake, How many doctors did it take?" "Dressed in red, Went downtown to buy some thread.... A fellow... shot her dead"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: courting colors clothes poison death jumprope | Cinderella counting
FOUND IN: US(MA.MW,Ro,SE,So,SW) Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, pp. 79, "(no title)" (1 text)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 116, "(no title; filed under "Rope Jumping") (1 short text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 224, "Cinderella" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 44, "(Cinderella, dressed in yellow)" (1 text, filed under "Jump Rope Rhymes"); pp. 60-61, "Cinderella," "Dressed in Green," "My Little Sister, "Dressed in Black"; p. 64, "Dressed in Brown"; "Powder Her Nose" (6 texts, listed as separate and with different endings but likely used together)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #24, "(Cinderella, dressed in yellow)"; #34, "(Cinderella, dressed in yellow)";#53, "(Cinderella, dressed in yellow)"; #56, "(Cinderella, dressed in yellow)"; #109, "(Cinderella, dressed in yellow)"; #120, "(Cinderella, dressed in yellow)"; #128, "(Cinderella, dressed in yellow)" (7 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 127, "Cinderella, dressed in yellow" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 37, "(Jean, Jean, dressed in green)" (1 text, perhaps this)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #80, "Cinderella, dressed in yellow" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 25, "(Cinderella)" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Joan McCaskill, collector), "Rope-Skipping Games", Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 10, "(Cinderella, dressed in yellow)" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Teri John, "A Collection of Jump Rope Rhymes," Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), p. 15, "(Cinderella, dressed in yellow)" (2 texts)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 12, "(Cinderella Dressed in Yella)" (1 mention, from user Crypto-Willobie, posted August 28, 2021)
Roud #18410
NOTES [18 words]: Based on the list in Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, this is one of the most popular jump-rope rhymes there is. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CarMM079

Cindy (I)

DESCRIPTION: "You ought to see my Cindy, She lives 'way down south, She's so sweet the honeybees Swarm around her mouth. Get along, Cindy, Cindy...." Describes attempts to court Cindy, as well as her occasional extravagances. Many floating verses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915
KEYWORDS: love courting playparty religious floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Randolph 564, "Get Along Home, Cindy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 136-139, "Cindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 114, "Cindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 404, "Cindy" (6 texts, mostly short, with the usual load of floating verses; some may be other songs with this chorus tacked on); also 163, "The Raccoon Has a Bushy Tail" (1 text plus 2 fragments; the "C" text has the chorus of "Cindy")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 404, "Cindy" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 42-43, "Cindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp. 230-231, "Cindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, p. 20, "Cindy" (1 short text, 1 tune, though it speaks of "Big Sandy" and not of "Cindy"; the text might be from another source)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 12-13, "Cindy in the Summertime" (1 text, 1 tune plus a mouthbow arrangement)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 178-179, "Cindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 24-26, "Cindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 172, "Liza Jane" (1 text, probably a version of "Po' Liza Jane" but with a "Cindy...Cindy Jane" chorus)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #70, "Cindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #129, "Shoo Fly (Cindy)" (1 text, 1 tune, which Roberts considers to be "Cindy" but which starts with the "Mass had a yeller gal" verses of "Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal)" and has other floating verses)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 65, "Cindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 28, "Cindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax- FSNA 119, "Cindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 899-900, "Cindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 52-53, "Cindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 61, "Cindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 35, "Cindy" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 276, "Cindy" (notes only)
DT, CIND
Roud #836
RECORDINGS:
Gene Austin, "Cindy" (c. 1927; on CrowTold01) (Victor 20873 [as by Bill Collins], 1927; this may be the same recording as the preceding)
Milton Brown & his Musical Brownies, "Get Along, Cindy" (Bluebird B-5654/Montgomery Ward M-4536, 1934)
Samantha Bumgarner & Eva Davis, "Cindy in the Meadows" (Columbia 167-D, 1924; Harmony 5097-H, n.d.; Diva 6010-G/Velvet Tone 7056-V, 1930)
W. E. Claunch, "Cindy" (AFS, 1939; on LC02)
Vernon Dalhart, "Cindy" (Challenge 405, c. 1928)
Lawrence & Vaughan Eller, "Cindy in the Summertime" (on FolkVisions1)
Ford & Grace, "Kiss Me Cindy" (OKeh 45157, 1927; on CrowTold02)
Ernest Hare & Al Bernard, "Cindy" (OKeh 40011, 1924; rec. 1923)
Hill Billies, "Old Time Cinda" (OKeh 40294, 1925); "Cinda" (Vocalion 5025/Brunswick 105 [as Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters], 1927)
Bradley Kincaid, "Cindy" (Champion 15851 [as Dan Hughey]/Supertone 9568, 1929) (Brunswick 464, 1930)
Bob Livingston, Derek Piotr, "Cindy" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #246, recorded 09/11/2022, with most of the lyrics supplied by Piotr)
Lulu Belle & Scotty "Get Along Home Cindy" (Conqueror 8594, 1935; Melotone 6-03-59, 1936; Vocalion 05487, 1940)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Get Along Home, Cindy" (Brunswick 228, 1928)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers "Kiss Me Cindy" ((Bluebird B-7289, 1937; on GoodForWhatAilsYou)
Shorty McCoy "Cindy" (Bluebird 33-0511, 1944)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Cindy" (on NLCR04)
Pickard Family, "Cindy" (Coast 253, n.d.)
Pope's Arkansas Mountaineers, "Get Along Home, Miss Cindy" (Victor 21577, 1928)
Poplin Family, "Cindy Gal" (on Poplin01)
Frank Proffitt, "Cindy" (on Proffitt03)
Riley Puckett (w. Clayton McMichen), "Cindy" (Columbia 15232-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jinny Go Round and Around" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Whoop 'Em Up, Cindy"
cf. "Liza Jane" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Get On Board, Little Children" (tune)
cf. "I Met a Handsome Lady" (lyrics)
cf. "Turn, Julie-Ann, Turn" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Early Monday Morning" (floating lyrics)
File: LxU028

Cindy (II) (Old Jude)

DESCRIPTION: Cantefable; "Railroad, a plank road, river and canoe/If it hadn't have been for Dr. Grey they wouldn't have killed old Jude." Old Jude was Dr. Grey's pregnant slave; Grey beat her to make her name the father, a white Gentleman; she died from the beating
AUTHOR: unknown (possibly Dan Tate)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1979 (collected from Dan Tate by Mike Yates)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Cantefable; "Railroad, a plank road, river and canoe/If it hadn't have been for Doctor Grey they wouldn't have killed old Jude." In a spoken explanation, singer says Old Jude was Doctor Grey's slave; she was pregnant, and Doctor Grey beat her to get her to name the father; in the end she died from the beating. The singer says that Jude said the father was "a white man and a gentleman" and adds, "That's the way that slaves were treated by people in this country." Chorus is a standard chorus from "Cindy (I)."
KEYWORDS: accusation violence abuse crime homicide death pregnancy slavery father slave Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Dan Tate, "Cindy" (on OldTrad1, FarMtns1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cindy (I)" (tune, chorus)
cf. "Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Brown Jug (Bounce Around)" (lyrics)
NOTES [17 words]: This is one of the very few acknowledgments in White traditional music of the horrors of slavery. -PJS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: RcC2OlJ

Cindy in the Summertime

See Cindy (File: LxU028)

Cinnamon, Ginger, Nutmegs, and Cloves

See Of All the Birds (File: ChWI141)

Circle Four in London

DESCRIPTION: "Circle four in London, And so I've heard then say, Right and left in London, And so I've heard them say." "Round the lady in London, And so..., Round the gent in London...." "Cut a figure eight in London...." "Twenty-five miles to sundown...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 558, "Circle Four in London" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Roud #7658
File: R558

Circle Game

DESCRIPTION: "Yesterday a child came out to wander, Caught a dragonfly inside a jar," but as the "season they go 'round and 'round," the child becomes a teenager, then a young adult, and faces new dreams and new challenges
AUTHOR: Joni Mitchell
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (recording, Buffy Sainte-Marie; Mitchell apparently did not release a recording prior to 1970's "Ladies of the Canyon")
KEYWORDS: dream nonballad bug
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 550, "Circle Game" (notes only)
DT, CIRCLGAM
File: ACSF550H

Circuit Rider's Home

DESCRIPTION: "Well, you know I have no permanent address, This rodeo cowboy's on the roam... The highway is a circuit rider's home." The rider mentions towns he has visited and horses he has ridden, and admits to whispering to the ladies before heading down the road
AUTHOR: Johnny Baker
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: cowboy rambling
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 93, "Circuit Rider's Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Ohr093

Citadel Hill

See Back Bay Hill (File: FJ165)

Citi Na gCumann (Kitty of Loves)

DESCRIPTION: Irish Gaelic: Singer comes to bargain with his love's parents over her dowry. They cannot agree; they've heard he's married. He denies it; he only trifles with young women. He asks her to elope with him, or to marry in secret, or to emigrate with him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recording, Maire O'Sullivan)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting dowry elopement love bargaining emigration father lover
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, CITI/NA
RECORDINGS:
Maire O'Sullivan, "Citi Na gCumann" [incomplete] (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
File: DTcitina

City Council

DESCRIPTION: "Wellington City Countil, W. C. C., Wellington City Council, you're not he." (Or "Auckland City Council, A. C. C.," or "Christchurch City Council, see, see, see," or presumably any other town)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty political
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 95, "Wellingon City Council)," "(Christchurch City Council)" (2 texts)
File: SuSm095C

City of Baltimore, The

See Bold McCarthy (The City of Baltimore) [Laws K26] (File: LK26)

City of Boston (I)

DESCRIPTION: Singer hears a woman mourning for her husband, lost on steamship City of Boston, bound to Liverpool from Halifax. He was "a gallant sailor ... A kind and loving husband" with six children. "Many now in Liverpool with aching hearts like me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: separation travel death drowning wreck children father husband mother wife
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 28, 1870 - City of Boston bound to Liverpool from New York via Boston and Halifax lost at sea with 207(?) dead (per Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18254
RECORDINGS:
Alexander March, "City of Boston" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "City of Boston (II)" (subject)
NOTES [118 words]: According to Robert C. Parsons, Cape Race: Stories from the Coast that Sank the Titanic, Flanker Press, 2011, pp. 111-113, the City of Boston was a liner belonging to the Inman Line, which named its ships "City of XXX," e.g. City of Boston, City of Philadelphia. Based on the picture on p. 112 of Parsons, she used both sail and steam. No trace was ever found of her; Parsons says that 177 were lost.
There is a footnote. Inman Line ships tended to sail a more northerly route than other liners. Newfoundlanders in 1892 found a "bank" (region of shallow water) about 32 km. ENE of Cape Race, which they thought was formed from the wreck of the City of Boston. But Parsons cites no direct evidence. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: RcCiBos1

City of Boston (II)

DESCRIPTION: Father left "to cross the briny main, In the missing City of Boston." Child asks mother to stop crying: father "may arrive tomorrow." But he has dreamt he saw the City of Boston "sink beneath the briny wave And every soul... perish'd in watery grave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (Broadside, Bodleian, Bod8503 Firth c.12(77))
KEYWORDS: separation travel death drowning dream storm wreck children father husband mother wife
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 28, 1870 - City of Boston bound to Liverpool from New York via Boston and Halifax lost at sea with 207(?) dead (per Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN:
Roud #V3333
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod8503 Firth c.12(77), "Child's Dream; or The City of Boston" ("Mother, dear give over crying), unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "City of Boston (I)" (subject)
NOTES [118 words]: According to Robert C. Parsons, Cape Race: Stories from the Coast that Sank the Titanic, Flanker Press, 2011, pp. 111-113, the City of Boston was a liner belonging to the Inman Line, which named its ships "City of XXX," e.g. City of Boston, City of Philadelphia. Based on the picture on p. 112 of Parsons, she used both sail and steam. No trace was ever found of her; Parsons says that 177 were lost.
There is a footnote. Inman Line ships tended to sail a more northerly route than other liners. Newfoundlanders in 1892 found a "bank" (region of shallow water) about 32 km. ENE of Cape Race, which they thought was formed from the wreck of the City of Boston. But Parsons cites no direct evidence. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: RcCiBos2

City of Refuge

DESCRIPTION: "There is coming a time and it won't be long, You will attend to your business and let mine alone." "You better run." ("Run to the city of refuge.") "Paul and Silas bound in jail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Earnest)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 560, "City of Refuge" (1 fragment)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 208-209, "City of Refuge" (1 fragment of the chorus, 1 tune (which includes the verse even though the informant did not remember the words))
ADDITIONAL: Joseph B. Earnest, _The Religious Development of the Negro in Virginia_ (Michie Company, Charlottesville, VA, 1914; avaialble on Google Books), p. 154, "[The City of Refuge]" (1 excerpt)
Roud #11828
RECORDINGS:
Blind Willie Johnson, "I'm Gonna Run to the City of Refuge" (Columbia 14391-D, 1929; on BWJ01)
James Garfield Smalls, "You' Gotta Run, Run, Run" (on USSeaIsland03)
NOTES [106 words]: Brown's version is not at all clear why this should be considered a "City of Refuge" text; it never mentions those words, and is a fragment. But there isn't much else to go on.
The mention in song of "cities of refuge" is strange in any case: The cities of refuge were for "the manslayer who kills any person without intent" (Numbers 35:11).
Nor is there any mention of the cities of refuge ever actually being used; they are not mentioned outside Exodus-Deuteronomy, and the few Biblical instances of people wanting sanctuary involve the criminal fleeing into the temple and seizing the horns of the altar (e.g. Joab in 1 Kings 2:28) - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: Br3560

Civil War Song

DESCRIPTION: "You good folks don't scarcely know What we poor soldiers undergo... To defend our country from all harms." The singer described early drill, "lean and tough" beef, etc. The singer gives his name as A. T. Hyte, who wrote the song while on picket in winter
AUTHOR: Credited in the lyrics to A. T. Hyte (Hiatt? Hite?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes soldier food Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 115, p. 257, "Civil War Song" (1 text)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 4-5, "The Soldier's Fare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4499
File: Hud115

Cl'ar de Kitchen

See Old Virginny Never Tire (File: ScaNF109)

Clady River Water Bailiffs, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells listeners where to go hunt salmon(-poachers). He praises the bailiffs who protect the streams, and describes how they watch the poachers. The bailiffs (?) will provide "dark and stormy weather" to any poachers on the water
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: fishing police
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H764, p. 32, "The Clady River Water Bailiffs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13352
NOTES [36 words]: Said by Sam Henry to have been written by a policeman, and while it's hard to tell because the song is so vague, this seems likely enough; the piece appears to praise the police who catch illegal salmon-fishers. - RBW
File: HHH764

Clairons Sonnaient la Charge, Les (The Bugler Sounded the Charge)

DESCRIPTION: French. The bugler, an old warrior, sounds the charge. The zouaves go to face the enemy. The bugler leads the charge on the bayonets, always sounding, sounding.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage army battle war death
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 992-993, "Les Clairons Sonnaient la Charge" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [75 words]: The zouaves were, originally, French infantry composed of Algerians. They became famous, and the model for the British West India Regiment and US Civil War regiments [though the many "zouave" units in the Civil War were so-called simply because of their ornate uniforms -- which they generally abandoned in short order - RBW], fighting on the heights of Alma during the Crimean War. Source: The site for Coppen's (1st Battalion Louisiana) Zouaves - BS
File: Pea992

Clanconnell War Song, The

See O'Donnell Aboo (File: PGa012)

Clancy's Prayer

DESCRIPTION: The speaker overhears Clancy praying, "May bad luck fall on one and all Who try to cut our wages." Clancy describes their misdeeds, accuses them of ruining New South Wales, and calls the devil down upon them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia)
KEYWORDS: Devil labor-movement curse
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 254-255, "Clancy's Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 15, page headed "CLANCY'S PRAYER"], "Clancy's Prayer" (1 text)
File: MA254

Clang, Clang, Clang on the Anvil

See Viking Song (File: KSUC086A)

Clap Hands for Daddy-O

See Clap Hands, Clap Hands (File: GrD81564)

Clap Hands, Clap Hands

DESCRIPTION: "Clap hands, clap hands, Till father/mammie comes home; For father's got money/Mammie will bring something But mother's got none/Daddy will bring none." Or, "...till Daddy comes home. Cake in his pocket For (someone) alone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Maclagan)
KEYWORDS: game baby father mother money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,High)), Canada(Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1564, "Clap Your Handies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 200, "Clap hands, clap hands" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #602, p. 240, "(Clap hands, clap hands)"
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 5, "Clap hands, clap hands" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 18, "(Clap hands for daddy-o)" (1 text, which might be "Clap Hands, Clap Hands" but seems to have a little of "Dance to your Daddy" in it as well)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, W.J. and Katherine H. Wintemberg, "Folk-Lore from Grey County, Ontario," Vol. XXXI, No. 119 (Jan 1918), #356, p. 112 "Clap Hands"
ADDITIONAL: R.C. Maclagan, "Additions to _The Games of Argyleshire_" in Folk-Lore, (London, 1905 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XVI, p. 453, ("Clap hands, clap hands till Mammie comes hame")
Roud #12963
NOTES [47 words]: According to Brady, this is one of the first game songs a child would learn -- parents would use it to teach very young children to clap their hands. Brady's version is very simple; those for older children more complex. Peirce also puts it among the rhymes for the very young. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GrD81564

Clara Nolan's Ball

DESCRIPTION: "(You/We) are all invited and the band is engaged, We are going to have some fun, For Clara (Nolan) gives a ball The day she's twenty-one, With borrowed knives and tablecloths... Be sure and bring your chair along"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Stout-FolkloreFromIowa)
KEYWORDS: nonballad dancing
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 111, p. 140, "Clara Noland's Ball" (1 text)
Roud #4480
File: Stou111

Clara Noland's Ball

See Clara Nolan's Ball (File: Stou111)

Clare de Kitchen (II)

See Old Virginny Never Tire (File: ScaNF109)

Clare's Dragoons

DESCRIPTION: "When, on Ramillies' bloody field, The baffled French were forced to yield, The victor Saxon backward reeled Before the charge of Clare's dragoons." The Irish soldiers proclaim their prowess and wish they were fighting for Ireland
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (a fragment quoted by Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, p. 85, from Thomas Davis _The Spirit of the Nation_, p. 292; the 1843 date for _The Spirit of the Nation_ is from "Thomas Davis" on "Mallow 'The Crossroads of Munster'" site.)
KEYWORDS: war battle bragging Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1706 - Battle of Ramillies. Forces of the Grand Alliance under Marlborough heavily defeat the French
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 19-20, "Clare's Dragoons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, p. 85, "Clare's Dragoons" (1 fragment)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 140, "Clare's Dragoons" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #317, p. 22, "Clare's Dragoons" (1 reference)
DT, CLAREDRG*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 479-481, "Clare's Dragoons" (1 text)
Roud #41683
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(86), "Clare's Dragoons", H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also 2806 c.8(203), "Lord Clare's Dragoon"
NOTES [141 words]: Thousands of Irishmen left home after the disasters of the Boyne and Aughrim. These "Wild Geese" often found employment as mercenaries. One such troop was "Clare's Dragoons," which fought for France during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). It doubtless gave the exiles some pleasure to fight with France against the Grand Alliance (Britain, Austria, and assorted lesser states).
Despite the boasting found in this song, the Irish did not significantly influence the outcome of Ramillies, which was an overwhelming Alliance victory.
Hoagland lists the song as by Thomas Davis, but all we can prove is that he published it. - RBW
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 18(86): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PGa019

Clarence McFadden Learning to Waltz

See Clarence McFadden (Teaching McFadden to Waltz) (File: GC170)

Clarence McFaden

See Clarence McFadden (Teaching McFadden to Waltz) (File: GC170)

Clarence McFaden (Teaching McFadden to Waltz)

DESCRIPTION: "Clarence McFaden he wanted to waltz, But his feet was not gaited that way." His teacher charges high because "your right foot is lazy, your left foot is crazy." He puts a girl on crutches, and kicks the floorboards from his bed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: dancing humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro,SE) Canada(Newf) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 10, pp. 90-93, "Teaching McFadden to Waltz" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 170, "Clarence McFaden" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #170, "Clarence McFadden Learning to Waltz" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, p. 50, "Teaching McFadden to Dance" (1 short text)
ST GC170 (Partial)
Roud #3707
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "Teaching McFadden to Waltz" (on NFJDowney01)
Hector MacIsaac and Jerome Downey, "Teaching McFadden to Waltz" (on NFHMacIsaac01)
Hector MacIsaac and Emma MacIsaac, "McFadden's Waltz" (on NFHMacIsaac02)
Roy Harvey, "Learning McFadden to Waltz" (Columbia, unissued, 1927)
Roy Harvey &Leonard Copeland, "Learning McFayden to Dance" (Columbia, unissued, 1930)
NOTES [10 words]: I'm almost tempted to give this the keyword "disaster." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: GC170

Clark Colven

See Clerk Colvill [Child 42] (File: C042)

Clark Sanders

See Clerk Saunders [Child 69] (File: C069)

Clarksdale Moan

DESCRIPTION: "Clarksdale, Mississippi always going to be my home." "I can have a good time there and not have one lousy dime." "Every day in the week I go down to Midtown Drugs, Get me a bottle o' snuff, and a bottle of Alcorub."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: home drink drugs nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1919 - The Volstead Act estabishes prohibition of "intoxicating liquors" to carry out the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
1933 - The 21st amendment to the U.S. Constitution ends prohibition.
FOUND IN:
BROADSIDES:
Son House, "Clarksdale Moan" (on StuffDreams1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Got the Jake Leg Too" (Prohibition alcohol surrogates) and references there
NOTES [69 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought.
During prohibition rubbing alcohol [Alcorub, i.e. isopropyl alcohol - RBW] was among the surrogates people drank as a replacement for illegal "intoxicating liquors." It was intended as a massage liniment and was never safe to drink. - BS
For more on these alcohol substitutes, see "Got the Jake Leg Too." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: RcClarMo

Claude Allen [Laws E6]

DESCRIPTION: Claude Allen is placed on trial and, due to the Governor's indifference, is handed over for execution, leaving his mother and sweetheart to mourn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: trial execution family mourning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1912 - Trial of the Allen family. While in court, Sidney Allen shot the judge, and the rest of the family was soon shooting too. Sidney was sentenced to prison, but Claud and Floyd Allen were sentenced to death
FOUND IN: US(Ro,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws E6, "Claude Allen"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 246, "Claud Allen" (2 texts plus mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 236, "Claude Allen" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 253-254, "(Claud Allen)" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 206-207, "Claude Allen" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Robert M. Rennick, "The Tragedy of the Allen Family of Hillsville, Virginia,'" Vol. VII, No. 2 (Dec 1959), pp. 11-12, "Claude Allen" (1 text plus some additional lyrics)
DT 771, CLAUDALN
Roud #2245
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley & Doc Watson, "Claude Allen" (on Ashley02)
Hobart Smith, "Claude Allen" (on FOTM) (on LomaxCD1705)
Ernest V. Stoneman and His Blue Ridge Cornshuckers, "Claude Allen" (Victor, unissued, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sidney Allen" [Laws E5] (characters)
cf. "The Triplett Tragedy" (tune)
NOTES [120 words]: For a bit of background to this song, see the notes to "Sidney Allen." Although the whole tragedy occurred in the twentieth century, it appears very little is known of this family.
Clarence Ashley said that he taught the ballad to Hobart Smith c. 1918, but that's a bit tenuous to assign an earliest date. - PJS
Even more curious are Burt-AmericanMurderBallads's notes. Her source was one Dragline Miller of Ely, Nevada, who from her description sounds to have been born in 1875 or earlier. He said he learned this *before* his prospecting days. Given that the shooting occurred in 1912, when Miller was at least 37, something odd is going on. Though the strongest likelihood is simply that Miller's memory was bad. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LE06

Claude's Wife

DESCRIPTION: Ethel is the singer. Poor Leon proposed to Ethel but she rejected him to marry wealthy Claude. Leon's mother cursed her. She has been married to Claude for 30 unhappy years. Leon dies on a battle field with Ethel's picture on his breast.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage rejection battle death money
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 173-175, "Claude's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6356
File: Ow1E173

Claudy Green

DESCRIPTION: The singer walks out to hear the birds sing and see the fish swim when he is distracted by a girl. He asks her if she is Diana or Venus, and says he will serve for fourteen years, as Jacob did, to win her. She rejects him and leaves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H115b, pp. 241-242, "Claudy Green" (1 text, 1 tune); H115a, p. 355, "Claudy Green" (1 text, 1 tune -- the same as the preceding)
Roud #9479
NOTES [56 words]: Finally a girl with the sense to turn down one of these brainless suitors! One wonders what the singer would have done if the girl *had* been Diana (mentioned in the a text though not the b), the eternally virgin huntress?
The story of Jacob serving for fourteen years to win the hands of Rachel and Leah is told in Genesis 29:15-30. - RBW
File: HHH115a

Clay Daubin, The (Pease Strae; Jock the New Laird Was New Wedded)

DESCRIPTION: "We went owre to Deavie' Clay Daubin, and faith, a rare caper we had." Various adventures: "For Jock the new laird was new wedded, His old sweetheart Jenny linked na'e, While some were all titter'n and flytin', The lads rubbed her down wi pease strae."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1808 (ANderson)
KEYWORDS: wedding rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
ADDITIONAL: R. Anderson et al, _Ballads in the Cumberland Dialect_, R. Hetherton, 1808, pp. 116-119, ballad LIII, "The Clay Daubin" (1 text, tune referenced, dated 1804)
Marjorie Rowling, _The Folklore of the Lake District_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 132, "(For Jock the new laird was new wedded") (1 short excerpt); p. "(We went ower to Deavie's Clay Daubin)" (1 long excerpt)
William Henderson, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders_, Longmans, Green, and Co., 1866 (available on Google Books), p. 26, "(For Jock the new laird was new wedded)" (1 excerpt)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Andrew Carr" (the listed tune in Anderson)
NOTES [37 words]: This appears to be a song created by Anderson, yet Rowling and Henderson both list it as if it were a traditional ballad, so I'm citing it. I might not have, had I seen Anderson before the others rather than after.... - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Rowl132

Clay Morgan

See Duncan Campbell (Erin-Go-Bragh) [Laws Q20] (File: LQ20)

Clayton Boone

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Clean Fireside, The

DESCRIPTION: "He's a bonnie, bonnie lad But he's owre far fae me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1797, "The Clean Fireside" (1 fragment)
Roud #12997
NOTES [107 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
The notes for the Greig/Duncan8 entry give no explanation for "A Clean Fireside" as the title. [Perhaps the girl is keeping a clean spot by the fireside where he can sit on his return? - RBW] There is a poem by Robert Tennant with that title that is a cheery poem having nothing to do with separation. W.J. Mickle has a widely anthologized poem, "The Sailor's Wife," which includes the lines "Rise, lass, and mak a clean fireside" and "wha can tell how Colin fared When he was far awa'?," but that is too much of a stretch even for me to connect with the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81797

Clean Hands and Clean Faces and Neatly Combed Hair

See The Folly of Finery (File: KSUC108E)

Clean Pea Strae

See When John and I Were Married (File: GrD71278)

Clean Song, A

DESCRIPTION: "There was a young sailor who looked through a glass, And spied a fair mermaid with scales on her... Island." The crew catches the mermaid, but she escapes, leaving them with a disease. "This song may be dull but it's certainly clean."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: mermaid/man wordplay bawdy sailor disease humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 169, "A Clean Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brand-BawdySeaSong 6, "A Clean Song" (1 text)
Roud #8354
NOTES [55 words]: This is one of those songs where the rhyme leads you to expect one word but supplies another, e.g.
[After] a while one man noticed some scabs
Soon they broke out with the pox and the... scratching.
I must confess that I can't figure out some of the missing words in this case. Which is perhaps a comment on just how bawdy it is. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Kins169

Cleansing Fountain, The

DESCRIPTION: "Behold the lamb whose gracious blood Poured from his opening veins." "I do believe, I will believe, that Jesus died for me." "The dying thief beheld the lamb." "We, too, the cleansing power have known." "For him, then, let our songs ascend."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Journal of the Andrew Hicks)
KEYWORDS: death religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 354, "The Cleansing Fountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [84 words]: There are many Biblical allusions in the version of this song printed by Huntington, although few direct quotes. The most obvious:
"The lamb" of God who takes away sins: John 1:29
"Opening veins": Jesus's side is pierced in John 19:34
"The dying thief": All three synoptic gospels mention others crucified with Jesus, but the repentant thief is found only in Luke 23:43
"Will cleanse our deepest stains": compare Rev. 7:14, " they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HGam354

Clear Away the Morning Dew

See The Baffled Knight [Child 112] (File: C112)

Clear Cauld Water, The

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell to whisky ... Now I wad leave ye a' for the clear cauld water." The singer bids farewell to ginshops, "a' drunken body," alewives, wine, porter, brandy, ruin, "filthy stews" and intemperance.
AUTHOR: Robert Gray Mason (source: Greig/Duncan3, correcting Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast's entry)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #175, p. 1, "The Clear Cauld Water" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 604, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "The Clear Cauld Water" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Roud #6052
NOTES [31 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "George F Duncan states that the song was sung by Robert Mackie's grandfather, who died at great age, and must have sung it about the beginning of the nineteenth century." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3604

Clear the Track (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Ho, the car Emancipation Rides majestic through the nation, Bearing on its train the story, Liberty! a nation's glory." Those who oppose freedom for the slaves are warned that the train is coming and will accomplish its end
AUTHOR: Words: Jesse Hutchinson / Music: Dan Emmett
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: freedom political slavery train
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 283-284, "Clear the Track" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 48-49, "Clear the Track" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 87, "Get Off the Track" (1 text)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 46, 48, "(Get Off the Track)" (1 excerpt plus a photo of part of the sheet music)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 132, "Get Off the Track" (1 text)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 305, "Get Off the Track" (1 text plus a copy of the sheet music cover)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 88-90, "Get Off the Track" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 67, gives a description of the sheet music
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Clear the Track" (on PeteSeeger28)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Dan Tucker" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Workingman's Train (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 87-88)
Harry Clay and Frelinghuysen (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, pp. 308-309)
NOTES [128 words]: The sheet music dedicates this to Nathaniel P. Rogers "as a mark of esteem for his intrepidity in the cause of Human Rights." Intrepid he may have been; famous he was not.
According to Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 122, this song was so controversial that it sometimes resulted in riots at Hutchinson Family concerts. Finson also notes (p. 123) that "The most remarkable feature of 'Get Off the Track,' though, was incidental to the abolitionist message intended by its author, and that was Jesse [Huthinson]'s representation of social progress through a metaphor of technological progress." A hint of this also shows up in another Hutchinson song, "Uncle Sam's Farm." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: SCW48

Clear the Track (II)

See Margot Evans (Let the Bullgine Run) (File: LoF029)

Clear the Track and Let the Bullgine Run

See Margot Evans (Let the Bullgine Run) (File: LoF029)

Clear the Track for the Maniac

DESCRIPTION: "Clear the track For the maniac."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 131, "(Clear the track)" (1 text)
File: SuSm131G

Clear the Track, Let the Bullgine Run

See Margot Evans (Let the Bullgine Run) (File: LoF029)

Clear, Winding Ayr, The

See Burns and His Highland Mary [Laws O34] (File: LO34)

Cleaverie, cleaverie, sit i' the sun

See Sinne, Sinne, Set Ye (File: GrD1636)

Cleedie's House

DESCRIPTION: Cleedie's house stands like a mountain. The crows stop there as they go down to Mormond.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1647, "Cleedie's House" (1 text)
Roud #13051
File: GrD81647

Clefs de la Prison, Les

DESCRIPTION: French. Conversation between parents and son. "Cher mom! On vient m' donner les clefs." The boy says that they are giving him the keys to the jail -- as in, they are going to hang him. He regrets knowing that he will die. His parents must fetch his body
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from Elida Hofpauir)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage death prison execution mother father
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 191-193, "Les Clefs de la Prison" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LoSi191

Clem Murphy's Door

See On the Steps of the Dole Office Door (File: MA225)

Clementine

DESCRIPTION: The singer reports on the death of his beloved Clementine, the daughter of a (Forty-Niner). One day, leading her ducklings to water, she trips and falls in. The singer, "no swimmer," helplessly watches her drown
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (sheet music for "Down by the River Lived a Maiden")
KEYWORDS: death drowning love
FOUND IN: US Ireland
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 159, "Ruby lips above the water... How I missed her, how I missed her" (2 fragments)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 148-151, "Oh My Darling Clementine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 34, "Clementine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 68, "Mazurka: Clementine" (1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, p. 85, "Clementine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 27, "Clementine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 272, "Clementine" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 657, "Clementine" (1 text plus some excerpts)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 23-24, "Clementine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 140-141, "Down by the River Lived a Maiden"; p. 142, "Oh My Darling Clementine" (2 texts)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #163, "Oh My Darling Clementine" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 82 "Clementine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 194-199, "Clementine" (2 texts)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 241, "Clementine" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 174-175, "Clementine"
Dime-Song-Book #14, pp. 36-37, "Down by the River" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 17, "(Oh my darling Clementine)" (2 mentions, from users TempleCat, John5918, posted August 28, 2021)
Harbin-Parodology, #103, p. 30, "Clementine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 126, "Clementine" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 76-77, "Clementine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 164-165, 233, 235, "Clementine" (notes only)
DT, CLEMENTI* (CLEMENT3*) (CLEMENT4)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, pp. 16-17, "Oh My Darling Clementine" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST RJ19148 (Full)
Roud #9611
RECORDINGS:
Dana Borusky, "Darling Clementine" (Piotr-Archive #577, recorded 05/05/2023)
Judy Cook, "Darling Clementine" (Piotr-Archive #364, recorded 11/23/2022, with the main text sung to "Cwm Rhondda"/"God of Grace and God of Glory" and several parody versus sung to the common tune.
Logan English, "Clementine" (on LEnglish02)
Bradley Kincaid, "Darlin' Clementine" (Decca W4271, 1934)
Pete Seeger, "Clementine" (on PeteSeeger24)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Silver Jack" [Laws C24] (tune)
cf. "The Old Gum-Diggers' Bar" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Old Gum-Diggers' Bar (File: BaRo146)
Found a Peanut (File: NCF211FP)
Clementine (Bawdy Version) (File: RuSoClem)
Oh My Monster, Frankenstein (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 219)
In the City (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 165)
The Atoms In Their Glory ("There the atoms in their glory, Ionize and recombine. Oh my darlings, oh my darlings, Oh my darlings, Ions mine"; said to have been sung by Ernest Rutherford himself; see Edward O. Wilson, _The Diversity of Life_, p. 46)
A Maiden's Romance ("For a long time to come, I'll remember quite well") (Harbin-Parodology, #5, pp 9-10)
NOTES [404 words]: In some of the modern versions, the song ends when the singer kisses Clementine's younger sister and forgets Clementine. - (PJS)
The words to this piece were first published in 1863 under the title "Down by the River Lived a Maiden," credited to H. S. Thompson. This printing had a melody, but it was not the "standard" melody. According to Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 92, it was marked as a mazurka. The text was also rather different (in minstrel dialect); Norm Cohen gives the first verse as
Down by the river there lived a maiden
In a cottage built just 7 x 9;
And all around this lubly bower
The beauteous sunflower blossoms twine.
Chorus: Oh my Clema, oh my Clema, Oh my darling Clementine,
Now you are gone and lost forever,
I'm dreadful sorry Clementine.
(For the full text, see Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo.)
In 1864 the text appeared in "Billy Morris' Songs" in which Clementine appears as little short of a legendary monster; she is even reported to have grown wool.
In 1884 the piece reappeared, with the famous tune, this time credited to "Percy Montrose," under the title "Oh My Darling Clementine." This version of the song, as printed in College Songs in 1887, is identical with the version I learned in my youth; there is no question but that people were copying the "Montrose" version -- and learning it from print.
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird comes up with yet another claim of authorship: he says it's from 1885 and written by Barker Bradford. But this is not the usual text.
Since Thompson (H. S. Thompson, the author of the well-known "Annie Lisle") certainly did not produce the common tune, and Montrose is otherwise unknown, the authorship of the song probably cannot be settled.
It is reported by reliable sources that this song was originally intended to be serious. No doubt a few thousand enterprising parodists would be amazed. As a typical example which, I strongly suspect and sincerely hope, has never been recorded elsewhere, there is a taunt song that my father learned in high school in Detroit, probably around the end of World War II, mocking the "enemy" school:
I'm a moron, I'm a moron,
I'm a moron till I die,
But I'd rather be a moron
Than to go to Cooley High.
Of which I can only say, my father remembered this thing for three-quarters of a century, but I can't imagine why. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RJ19148

Clementine (Bawdy Version)

DESCRIPTION: "There she stood beside the bar rail... I owe my darling, I owe my darling, I owe my darling Clementine" for her services. She gives amazing satisfaction. But now "that creeping poison ivy Laid its blight on Clementine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: derivative whore drink money
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 51, "Clementine" (1 text)
Roud #10257
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Clementine" (tune, form)
NOTES [23 words]: Morgan/Green-RugbySongs does not give a tune for this, but there can be no doubt that it parodies, and uses the tune of, "Clementine." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RuSoClem

Clerk Colven

See Clerk Colvill [Child 42] (File: C042)

Clerk Colvill [Child 42]

DESCRIPTION: (Clerk Colvill) is warned (by his mother/lover) not to be too free with women. He refuses the advice; "Did I neer see a fair woman, But I wad sin with her body?" A woman gives him a fatal headache and turns into a mermaid to avoid being killed by him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: sex sin courting infidelity magic death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Child 42, "Clerk Colvill" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Bronson 42, "Clerk Colvill" (1 version)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 42, "Clerk Colvill" (1 version)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 216-217, "Clark Colven" (1 text, plus a copy of the transcribed tune and a modern reprint for clarity; there are two tune reconstructions on pp. 293-294)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 149-150, "Clerk Colville" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 29, "Clerk Colven" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 30, "Clerk Colvill" (1 text, which includes textual interpolations heretofore unpublished)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 197-199+347-348, "Clerk Colven" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 39, "Clerk Colvill" (1 text)
DT 42, CLRKCLVL
Roud #147
NOTES [341 words]: A number of scholars (Coffin, Lloyd, Bronson) have speculated that "Clerk Colvill" is actually a fragment of a longer ballad, "George Collins," with "Lady Alice" [Child 85] forming the rest. See the discussion in the notes to "Lady Alice."
Bertrand Harris Bronson, The Ballad as Song (essays on ballads), University of California Press, 1969, p. 42, studying the text and tune of this, suggests that the tune collected from Mrs. Brown must have had an internal refrain, the text of which was not taken down. This apparently was a habit of the transcriber; he omitted the internal refrains of "Clerk Colvill," "Gil Brenton," and "Willie's Lady."
J. R. R. Tolkien fans may be interested to note that Tolkien's fascinating modern recreation of a Breton Lay, "The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun" (which I think his best writing other than The Lord of the Rings, although it did not reach book form until decades after his death) also involves commerce with a non-human magic-worker; Itroun is barren, so her husband Aotrou seeks out a "Corrigan" to find obtain a potion to make her fertile. The Corrigan agrees but says she will not name her price until the children are born. Once they are, she appears to Aotrou and demands that he make love to her. He refuses; she says that he will die shortly. He does, and Itroun dies soon after. It was suggested by Jessica Yates that Tolkien "wanted to write a version of the 'Clerk Colvill' story about a young man and a water nymph [and] was intrigued by the translations he found of the analogous Breton 'Lord Nann' ballad [found in Child]." (See Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond, The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Reader's Guide, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, p. 487). This hypothesis does not seem to have attracted much support, but it is highly likely that Tolkien -- who knew a lot about folklore -- was aware of the Clerk Colville/Lady Alice story; he at various times used other Child ballads, and Tom Shippey believed that he knew Wimberley's Folklore in the English and Scottish Ballads, - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: C042

Clerk in ta Offish, Ta

DESCRIPTION: "Noo Rosie se'll be prood, and Rosie she'll be praw.. For ta praw, praw lad's come an' tookit her awa'; She's a praw lad, a clerk in an offish." The clerk's education, mathematical ability, and lack of ancestry are emphasized
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: worker humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 283-284, "Ta Clerk in ta Offish" (1 text)
Roud #13099
NOTES [22 words]: Obviously a composed song, and a strange one at that -- the dialect appears to be Scots done with a "Dutch" (stage German) accent. - RBW
File: FVS283

Clerk Saunders [Child 69]

DESCRIPTION: (Clerk Sanders) and his lady are determined to be wed despite the opposition of her seven brothers. Despite great pains to conceal their acts, they are found abed together. The brothers stab him to death and leave him in bed for his lady to find
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: courting death homicide family
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Child 69, "Clerk Saunders" (7 texts)
Bronson 69, "Clerk Saunders" (3 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 69, "Clerk Saunders" (2 versions: #1, #2)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 211-217, "Clerk Saunders" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 44, "The Ensign and the Lady Gay" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 69-73, "Clerk Saunders" (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 234-236, "Clerk Saunders" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 27, "Clerk Saunders" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 94, "Clerk Saunders" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 30, "Clark Sanders" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 56, "Clerk Saunders" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp 65-68, "Clerk Saunders" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 35-37, "Clerk Sanders" (1 text)
DT 69, CLERKSAN
Roud #3855
NOTES [767 words]: Fowler, p. 193, suggests that "Clerk Saunders" [Child 69] and "Sweet William's Ghost" [Child 77] are fragments of a single long revenant ballad, pointing to one of David Herd's texts which contains both elements; he repeats this claim in Severs/Hartung, volume 6, p. 1798. But Child split them because both items exist separately (even Herd had versions which did not combine the two). At best, I think the matter remains open.
Fowler, p. 198, compares the plot to the story of Gareth and Lyonesse in Thomas Malory's Morte D'Arthur, in which the engaged-but-not-yet-married couple are attacked while secretly visiting -- only a partial parallel, however, since Gareth survives, and his attackers are not Lyonesse's brothers.
In Severs/Hartung, Volume 6, p. 1758, Fowler (who wrote this section of Severs/Hartung) suggests that the Pastourelle "De Clerico et Puella" is "related perhaps to Clerk Sanders." Severs/Hartung, Volume 2, p. 727, reports, "The pastourelle appears in MS Harley 2253 [i.e. the Harley Lyrics] (early fourteenth century) and begins "My deþ y loue, my lyf ich hate, for a leuedy shene." ["My death I love, My life I hate, for a lady bright."] West Midland (Böddicker called it North Midland); late thirteenth or early fourteenth century; nine quatrains aaaa in a septenarius line, though some read as an eight line stanza with alternate line rimes in b and other occasional rimes." [Presumably this means double ballad stanzas.] The piece itself is summarized as follows:
"The Clerk is dying for love and growing pale; he praises his leman and asks her what help she has for him. She calls him fool and orders him away; shame will come to him if he remains in her bower. He pleads again; she answers that her father and all her kin watch to slay him. He reminds her that once in a window they kissed fifty times. Once, she remembers, she loved a clerk; again he asks for pity as a clerk from school, and she yields to him (or recognizes him as her former lover?)."
The final incident is called a "possibility" of a recognition scene, but no more; they do compare it to the ballad, and mention a similarity to "The Nut-Brown Maid."
"De Clerico et Puella" is #24 in Brook (pp. 62-63); it really does scan like a ballad (that is, those seven-foot lines really do mostly feel as if they break into shorter lines of four and three feet), except that there are four lines that use the same rhyme rather than just two. It doesn't feel much like "Clerk Saunders" to me, though.
The various tricks the lovers use in the ballad, e.g. of using the sword rather than her hands to open the door, and covering her eyes when he comes in so she can say she has not seen him, are reminiscent of a trick in many versions of the Tristan legend: Isolde, on trial, crosses a brook carried on the shoulders of a beggar (who is actually Tristan in disguise). She then declares her fidelity by vowing that no man has ever come between her legs except the man who carried her across the stream.
I thought of that latter link on my own, but Fowler, on p. 1799 of Severs/Hartung, points it out too. In fact, he lists an amazing number of folklore parallels, in both halves of what he considers a single ballad. In the first half ("Clerk Saunders"), he perceives:
- The aforementioned link to the story of Sir Gareth
- The "saving of one's oath" as found in the Tristan story, "notably the 'ordeal by iron' in Béroul"
- The seven brothers, such as are found in "Earl Brand" [Child 7], who "are much more functional than the brothers who appear briefly" in "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" [Child 71]. "Margaret's vow of austerities is at least as old as The Squire of Low Degree (c. 1500)"
For the second half ("Sweet William's Ghost") Fowler mentions several stories about life after death, with the first one that has a true revenant being The Awntyrs of Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne, which features Guinevere's mother appearing to her daughter and Gawain
- "Another metrical piece, The Child of Bristowe, has a revenant, the child's father, who demands the return of a troth."
- He also sees "a Boethiean theme of consolation reminiscent of the Middle English Pearl, and Chaucer's Book of the Duchess.
I don't really think any of those parallels are strong. The first few are common folklore. And while it is true that both Pearl, and Chaucer's Book of the Duchess try to console someone who is grieving the dead, in Pearl it is a dead child, not a dead lover, and White (Blanche of Lancaster) in the Book of the Duchess died after years of marriage, with no promises unfulfilled.- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C069

Clerk's Twa Sons o Owsenford, The [Child 72]

DESCRIPTION: The clerk's two sons go to (Paris/Blomsbury/Billsbury/Berwick) to study. They lay with the mayor's two daughters. The mayor condemns them to hang. The clerk comes to buy their freedom but the mayor refuses. He tells his wife they're at a higher school.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Bronson); 1829 (Chambers) [see Notes]
KEYWORDS: adultery trial punishment execution lie family children
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Child 72, "The Clerk's Twa Sons o Owsenford" (4 texts)
Bronson 72, "The Clerk's Twa Sons o Owsenford" (2 versions)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 306-311, "The Clerk's Twa Sons o' Owsenford" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 237-238, "The Clerk's Twa Sons o Owsenford" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1931, "Do Weel My Sons" (1 fragment)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 53, "The Clerk's Twa Sons o Owsenford" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 31, "The Clerk's Twa Sons o Owsenford" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 231-233, "The Clerk's Twa Sons o' Owsenford" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Ballads (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1829 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), pp. 306-311, "The Clerk's Twa Sons o' Owsenford" (1 text)
Peter Buchan, Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland (Edinburgh: W & D Laing, and J Stevenson, 1828 ("Digitized by Microsoft") Vol. I, pp 281-288, "The Clerks of Oxenford" (1 text)
Roud #3902
NOTES [1307 words]: Bronson notes that both his tunes have texts mixed with "The Wife of Usher's Well." Since, however, both those texts appear to be composite, there is no proof that the two songs are related except that both involve sending children away for education (standard practice among the English nobility in the Middle Ages, even if "education" at the time meant training in weapons). - RBW
Chambers is the source for Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads.
Chambers (1829), footnote p. 306: "This singularly wild and beautiful old ballad is chiefly taken from the recitation of the editor's grandmother; (who learned it when a girl, nearly seventy years ago....); some additional stanzas and a few various readings, being adapted from a less perfect, and far less poetical copy, published in Mt Buchan's 'Ancient and Modern Ballads,' and from a fragment in the Border Minstrelsy, entitles 'The Wife of Usher's Well,' but which is evidently the same narrative."
Child 72A, writes Child, is from a manuscript of the text as sung by Chambers's grandmother, but "as sung [contrary to Chambers's statement], had a sequel of six stanzas, which is found separately [Child 79B] and seems to belong with another ballad, 'The Wife of Usher's Well.'" So we can take Chambers/Whitlaw-Ballads apart to see how it was constructed, how the Buchan and Scott texts are incorporated, and whether they belong to this ballad at all.
In the following analysis of Chambers, Kinloch A is Child 72A from Chambers' grandmother, Buchan is Child 72C, Scott is Child 79A, "The Wife of Usher's Well," and Kinloch B is Child 79B which is either from Chambers' grandmother (per Child) or an adaptation of Scott (per Chambers).
Chambers ll.1-8: The clerk's two sons are sent to Parish for higher education and, within a year, they are sleeping with the mayor's daughters. [Kinloch A ll.1-8 to Parish; Buchan ll.1-4,17-20 to Billsbury]
Chambers ll.9-12: The clerks learn, the ladies sing, and there's "mirth" in the ladies' chamber. [Buchan ll.21-24]
Chambers ll.13-20: The mayor hears that his daughters are sleeping with the clerk's sons and declares that he will hang them. [Kinloch A ll.9-16; Buchan ll.25-32.]
Chambers ll.21-26: Word comes [no messenger is mentioned: see Buchan ll.33-68] to the clerk that his sons are in prison; his wife instructs the clerk... [Kinloch A ll.17-22]
Chambers ll.27-30: ...to take gold and ransom at least one of the brothers. [Kinloch A ll.23-26; Buchan ll.77-80]
Chambers ll.31-32: The clerk sets out that night [viz., the nightingale is singing]... [Buchan ll.89-90]
Chambers ll.33-34: ...and arrives at Parish.
Chambers ll.35-38: The clerk rides around the prison and sees his sons at a window. [Buchan ll.93-96]
Ckambers ll.39-42: The clerk asks his sons whether they are being bound for thievery or some other offense. [Kinloch A ll.27-30]
Chambers ll.43-46: The sons say they are not being bound for thievery but for love. [Kinloch A ll.31-34; Buchan ll.101-104]
Chambers ll.47-50: The sons ask to be ransomed and the clerk says he will ransom them. [Buchan ll.105-108]
Chambers ll.51-54: The clerk meets the mayor and offers a ransom for his sons. [Kinloch A 35-38; Buchan ll.109-110, 115-116]
Chambers ll.55-56: or, the clerk asks whether his sons might be freed without ransom. [Kinloch A ll.39-40; Buchan ll.117-118 asks for Christ's sake]
Chambers ll.57-58: The mayor doesn't accept ransom. [Kinloch A ll.41-42; Buchan ll.119-120]
Chambers ll.59-60: The mayor won't free the clerk's sons without ransom. [Kinloch A ll.43-44]
Chambers ll.61-64: When the mayor says the clerk's sons will hang the next morning the mayor's daughters speak to the mayor. [Kinloch A ll.45-48; Buchan ll.121-124]
Chambers ll.65-66: The daughters cry. [Buchan ll.125-126]
Chambers ll.67-68: The daughters offer ransom. [Kinloch A ll.48-50; Buchan ll.127-128]
------------------ [Kinloch A ll.51-58: The mayor rejects the daughters' request and says the clerk's sons will hang the next morning.]
Chambers ll.69-98: The mayor whips his daughters and both he and the clerk would have them return to their bowers. Each son proposes marriage to a daughter and is accepted, while the mayor looks on. Unaffected [?], the mayor prepares to hang the clerk's sons, but has them remove their black hats so no one will know that clerks are being hanged. [Buchan ll. 131-158] [To execute a clerk was for long illegal because of the benefit of clergy - RBW]
------------------ [Kinloch A ll.59-62: The clerk's sons are hanged and the mayor tells the clerk to go home.]
Chambers ll.99-100: The clerks die in the morning and the mayor's daughters die at noon. [Buchan ll.159-160]
Chambers ll.101-102: The clerk goes home.
Chambers ll.103-118: The clerks wife, waiting for his return, asks the clerk about her sons. He says they are in a deeper place and higher school and won't return until Yule. She goes to bed, declaring she won't rise, eat or drink. [Kinloch A ll.63-78; this is the end of Kinloch A]
Chambers ll.119-122: At Yule (Christmas) the sons return wearing hats of bark. [Kinloch B ll.1-4; Scott 17-20, at Martinmas (28 Nov)]
Chambers ll.123-126: The bark of their hats is not earthly, but is from Paradise. [Scott ll.21-24]
Chambers ll.127-130: The clerk's wife would have fires lit and water brought for a feast since her sons are "well." [Kinloch B ll.5-8; Scott ll.25-28]
Chambers ll.131-134: The clerk's wife tells everyone to eat and drink because her sons have returned forever.
Chambers ll.135-146: The mother makes her sons' bed and covers them with her mantle. The cock crows and the older son tells the younger that they must leave. [Kinloch B ll.9-16; Scott ll.29-36]
Chambers ll.143-146: The older brother warns that, if they delay, the grave worms will complain and they will be missed. [Scott ll.41-44]
Chambers ll.147-154: The younger brother would stay a while, else their mother will go mad. They hang up their mother's mantle and, while it hangs, they'll remain covered. [Kinloch B ll.17-24; this is the end of Kinloch B]
Chambers's description -- "chiefly taken from the recitation of the editor's grandmother... some additional stanzas, and a few various readings, being adapted from a... copy, published in Mr Buchan's 'Ancient and Modern Ballads,' [Child 72C] and from a fragment in the Border Minstrelsy, entitled, 'The Wife of Usher's Well,; [Child 79A] but which is evidently the same narrative" [footnote, p. 306] is borne out by the analysis.
Chambers's assumption that Scott was "evidently the same narrative" was reasonable in light of Scott's own comment about his text: "a fragment never before published" and the disappearance of "The Wife of Usher's Well" in Scotland. However -- among our meager set of texts for "The Clerk's Twa Sons o' Owsenford" -- there is no text other than Scott derivatives that have the dead sons returning. Buchan ll.161-166, for example, has the clerk and his wife die and go to heaven with their sons and the mayor's daughters while the mayor goes to hell.
On the other hand, it's not entirely out of the question that there was a text that would justify Chambers's assumption. There are foreshadowings of such a return in some versions. In Greig/Duncan8 their mother warns the sons - before they set out - to do well or they won't see her at Yule. Child 72B [Robertson] and 72C [Buchan] have the message that comes to the clerk and his wife include a fear that they will not see their sons at Yule. Finally, when the clerk returns home after his sons are hanged he says - Chambers, Kinloch A, and Child 72D [Motherwell] - that they won't return till Yule.
Finally, as a side note, only Buchan has the messenger sequence - a messenger is sought, found, instructed to run swim and jump the wall, follows those instructions, and delivers the message - so common in the tradition. Is this a Buchan addition? - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: C072

Clerks of Parch's Cove, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas early one bright morning in the merry month of May, We all went up to Warrenton to have a jolly play." The store owner goes to a funeral. In his absence, drunks call themselves store clerks and clean out the store at prices that bankrupt the owner
AUTHOR: Bill Gross, according to Arnold's informant Janie Barnard Couch
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: commerce funeral drink robbery
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 26-27, "The Clerks of Parch's Cove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5112
File: Arno026

Clever Skipper, The

See The Boatsman and the Chest [Laws Q8] (File: LQ08)

Click Go the Shears

DESCRIPTION: A description of shearing life: The race to shear the most sheep, the boss complaining of the quality, the constant clicking of the shears. The rules for shearing are briefly mentioned. Chorus: "Click, click, click, that's how the shears go...."
AUTHOR: unknown (music by Henry Clay Work: "Ring the Bell, Watchman")
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (collected by John Meredith)
KEYWORDS: sheep work contest
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 24, "Click, Click, That's How the Shears Go"; pp. 193-194, "Click Go the Shears" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the first of these does not use the standard Henry Clay Work tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 152-153, "Click Go the Shears" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 56-57, "Click Go the Shears" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 180-183, "Click Go the Shears" (1 text)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 120-121, "Click Go the Shears" (1 text)
DT, CLKSHEAR*
ADDITIONAL: A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 290, "Click Go the Shears" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 291-292, "Click Go the Shears" (1 text)
Matthew Richardson, _Once a Jolly Swagman: The Ballad of Waltzing Matilda_, Melbourne University Press, 2006, pp. 45-46, "Click Go the Shears" (1 text)
Roud #8398
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Click Go the Shears" (on JGreenway01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ring the Bell, Watchman" (tune)
NOTES [327 words]: According to Richardson, p. 45, this is the "second most popular bush song" (presumably behind "Waltzing Matilda").
There is a fair amount of specialized vocabulary in this song:
A "blade-shearer" is one who shears with hand-shears, known as "blades" (NewZealandDictionary, pp. 21-22). "Blades" were eventually replaced by mechanical shearing machinery (Ramson, p. 62).
A "blow" is a shearing stroke, "especially as 'long blow'" (NewZealandDictionary, p. 23), although Ramson typically refers to "wide blows" and "wide blades".
A "blue-bellied" ewe or "joe" has no wool on the belly and so can be sheared quickly. Some versions refer to the animal as "bare-bellied."
The "board" "is the technical name for the floor on which the sheep are shorn" (Morris, p. 40, quoting the 1893 Melbourne Herald).
A "Colonial Experience man" was "a young man learning the squatting business" (Morris, p. 94) -- in essence, a young person from the city, or Britain, or somewhere, who didn't know the habits of the bush. Similar to "Jackaroo."
The "crutch" is "the hindquarters of a sheep" (Ramson, p. 184), giving rise to a verb, "to crutch," for shearing the wool in this area.
A "Jackaroo" was "a name for a Colonial Experience... a young man fresh from England, leaning squatting.... Compare the American 'tenderfoot' (Morris, p. 215).
The "ringer" was "the man who by his superior skill and experience 'tops the score' -- that is, shears the highest number of sheep per day" (Morris, p. 389, quoting the 1890 Argus).
"Shouting" or a "Shouter": A "shout" was a free drink (Morris, p. 417), so "shouting" was offering free drinks, and a "shouter" was one who bought them.
"Tar" was like any tar in that it hardened and worked as a sealant, but it was not made from a petroleum product; the tar used on sheep was "made from fine resins and... used... for anointing cuts made in sheep's skin during shearing" (NewZealandDictionary, pp. 270-271, in the entry on "Stockholm tar")
- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: MA024

Click, Click, That's How the Shears Go

See Click Go the Shears (File: MA024)

Cliffs of Baccalieu, The

DESCRIPTION: "We were homebound in October from the shores of Labrador) when a storm blows up, making visibility poor. The crew spots the deadly island of Baccalieu at the last moment and, with the ships lee rails going under, manages to turn to avoid the rocks
AUTHOR: Jack Withers (1899-1964)
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (recording, Ryan's Fancy, but definitely older, as it is found in the Leach archives); a post at Mudcat dates it 1934
KEYWORDS: ship escape storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, BACALIEU
ADDITIONAL: John Feltham, _Northeast from Baccalieu_, Harry Cuff Publications, 1990, p. 78, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #26209
NOTES [428 words]: Although apparently a composed song, it has become so well-known in Newfoundland that many sources (including the DT lyrics page, Stan Rogers, and Feltham) list it as traditional. At this point, I think it *is* traditional, even though it may well still be in copyright.
According to Philip Hiscock's notes to this song in West, p. 54, it was written for a radio serial, "The Adventures of the Irene B. Mellon." Jack Withers wrote and directed the show; the song first appeared in April 1934, and obviously took off from there.
Another Hiscock article, "Folk Process In A Popular Medium: The 'Irene B. Mellon Radio Programme, 1934-1941," on pp. 177-190 of Thomas/Widdowson, discusses the program at length.
"The 'Irene B. Mellon' was a serial programme, which is to say that the story continued from one episode to the next. It took place on board an old three-masted Newfoundland schooner with a crew of eight men and a stowaway little girl" (pp. 181-182) and had a complex series of adventures involving everything from gangsters to spies to U-boats. Jack Withers, in addition to writing the show, was the ship's captain (and his daughter Marie played the girl stowaway). The rest of the "crew" was mostly amateur musicians. The show was never recorded, but the large majority of the scripts survive (p. 182).
The show had a complicated history, being initially broadcast on upstart station VOGY. VONF, the "Voice of Newfoundland," soon swallowed VOGY, and the show was canceled, but revived on a new independent station, VOCM ("Voice of the Common Man"; pp. 182-183).
The show finally went off the air in 1941; all of the performers had other jobs, and when the Americans arrived in Newfoundland (the main staging area for getting American supplied to Britain, and the base for anti-submarine patrols), they found it easier to support the war work, so there was no one to keep the show alive (p. 185). But it became a legend; people even believed the show and the ship were real, and took action to try to help the Mellon.
Interestingly, Hiscock says that this is the only song Jack Withers ever wrote! (p. 183). But several other songs which seem to have become traditional in Newfoundland originated on the program ("My Father's Old Sou'wester") or at least gained fame from it ("The Squid-Jiggin' Ground").
Baccalieu was a famous trouble spot and Newfoundland landmark; StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 12, says that it was the standard point of navigation for many sailors -- so much so that it became a proverb: "wherever you are, steer northwest for Baccalieu." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: DTbacali

Clifton Tragedy, The

DESCRIPTION: "A gray-haried mother knelt in prayer Before the holy light And the image of Christ was there...." She prays to "He, who... changed a raging tempest To a calm...." But the storm raged on, and the Clifton sank. The crew begged for mercy on their souls
AUTHOR: probably Peter Gallagher
EARLIEST DATE: before 1952 (Helan Collar collection, included in the Walton collection)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor wreck death religious
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 21/22, 1924 - Loss of the _Clifton_
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 179-180, "The Clifton Tragedy" (1 text)
Roud #19835
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Seaman's Lament" (subject: The Clifton Wreck)
cf. "The Clifton's Crew" (subject: The Clifton Wreck)
cf. "The Clifton" (subject: The Clifton Wreck)
NOTES [338 words]: Bruce D. Berman's Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks (Mariner's Press, 1972) says that the Clifton, built 1892, foundered on the night of September 21, 1924; Walton says September 22. I would assume this is the same night. Walton says she went down with all hands; Berman that there were 27 men lost.
David Ritchie, Shipwrecks: An Encyclopedia of the World's Worst Disasters at Sea, 1996 (I use the 1999 Checkmark paperback edition), pp. 46-47, has extensive notes on the Clifton mystery. It was a "pig boat" or "whaleback," a craft designed with a very rounded bow, stern, and sides. These were designed to roll through Great Lakes storms -- and in fact most of them had admirable safety records. But they were not especially easy to maneuver.
The Clifton was worse than usual in this regard, because it had special loading equipment which made it very top-heavy.
The Clifton took on a load of crushed rock on September 20, 1924 at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, and headed for Detroit. A storm blew up during the voyage, but the boats which saw it on its journey reported no signs of trouble. Clifton was last seen by the tug Favorite off Forty Mile Point.
When the boat failed to reach its destination, a search was started, by air and water. Although wreckage was found almost at once, it took some time before the Glencairn found debris which could definitely be associated with the Clifton. One of the things recovered was the ship's clock, which had stopped at about four o'clock; presumably that was when the boat went down.
It is unlikely that there was anything mechanically wrong with the Clifton, which had sound engines and had been recently inspected. The cause of her loss is unknown. The suspicion, though, is that it had something to do with the way her deck equipment or hatches were designed.
This may be the most explicitly Catholic song I have ever seen among sailors; the sailors pray less to God or Jesus than to Mary. Presumably Captain Emmett Gallagher and his family were Catholic. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: QGM179

Clifton, The

DESCRIPTION: "Steaming out of the Straits of Mackinac, She blew her last salute, Five whistles told her company's name...." The Clifton sails for Detroit with a cargo of stone. A storm blows up without warning. The ships sinks with all hands
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1952 (Walton collection)
KEYWORDS: ship disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 21/22, 1924 - Loss of the _Clifton_
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 184-185, "The Clifton" (1 defective text, source unknown)
Roud #19838
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Clifton Tragedy" (subject: The Clifton Wreck) and references and notes there
File: WGM184

Clifton's Crew, The

DESCRIPTION: "We have heard of many happenings since last year first began, With crimes and troubles caused by war and earthquakes in Japan," but the wreck of the Clifton brought sorrow hom. The singer lists some of the dead, and hopes for their salvation
AUTHOR: probably Pat Bonner
EARLIEST DATE: 2002 (Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, which does not list an informant)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck religious family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 21/22, 1924 - Loss of the _Clifton_
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 181-184, "The Clifton's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #19837
RECORDINGS:
Patrick Bonner, "The Clifton's Crew" (1938; on WaltonSailors -- curiously, although recorded from the supposed author, the recording begins with the ninth verse of the printed text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Clifton Tragedy" (subject: The Clifton Wreck) and references and notes there
NOTES [64 words]: The notes in Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors note acidly that author Pat Bonner was by all accounts "a better fiddler than he was a poet." Certainly this song is much longer than it should be. It is also unusually explicit in its Catholic imagery -- a trait it shares with "The Clifton Tragedy." It would appear that the Clifton's crew was heavily Catholic. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM181

Climate, The

See We Sing of the Polar Bear (File: ACSF147P)

Climates

See We Sing of the Polar Bear (File: ACSF147P)

Climb Every Mountain

DESCRIPTION: "Climb every mountain, ford every stream." A song of aspiration: the listener should not cease striving "until you find your dream"
AUTHOR: Words: Oscar Hammerstein II / Music: Richard Rodgers
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (musical, "The Sound of Music")
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 555, "Climb Every Mountain" (notes only)
File: ACSF555C

Climb to Glory

See Rise and Shine (File: FSWB388A)

Climbing High Mountains, Trying To Get Home

DESCRIPTION: "I am climbing high mountains, trying to get home" (2x), "I am climbing high mountains" (2x), "I am climbing high mountains trying to get home". "I am bearing my burdens...." "The road is rough and rocky...." "I will see my mother when I get home...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (USWMcTell01)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #12104
RECORDINGS:
Blind Willie McTell, "Climbing High Mountains, Tryin' To Get Home" (on USWMcTell01)
File: RcCHMTGH

Climbing Up My Old Apple Tree

DESCRIPTION: Singer explains to Bridget why he is climbing the tree. "I'm not stealing apples, so I can explain. The wind blowed high and knocked 'em down. We're picking them up again!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (recording, Jasper Smith)
KEYWORDS: theft food humorous nonballad talltale
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
RECORDINGS:
Jasper Smith, "Climbing Up My Old Apple Tree" (on Voice14)
File: RcCUMOAT

Climbing Up the Golden Stairs

DESCRIPTION: Advice for getting into heaven. The listener is warned against bribing Peter, and is told of the sights on the Golden Stairs. Chorus: "Then hear them bells a-ringing, 'Tis sweet I do declare, To hear the darkies singing, Climbing up the golden stairs."
AUTHOR: unknown (credited on Kanawha Singers recording to "Heiser")
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recordings, Vernon Dalhart et al, Kanawha Singers)
KEYWORDS: religious music Bible clergy
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 301, "Climbin' Up the Golden Stairs" (1 text)
Roud #7779
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart & Carson J. Robison w. Adelyne Hood, "Climbing up de Golden Stairs" (Conqueror 7176, 1928)
Frank Welling & John McGhee, "Climbing Up the Golden Stairs" (Champion 15567, 1928)
Kanawha Singers, "Climbing Up de Golden Stairs" (Brunswick 205, 1928)
[John Wallace "Babe"] Spangler & [Dave] Pearson, "Climbing Up the Golden Stairs" (OKeh, unissued, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ridin' on de Cable Car" (tune)
File: R301

Climbing up the Ladder

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Climbing up the ladder In a caravan, You only pay a sixpence To see a funny man. The funny man choked, Tied to a rope, Ukulele, ukulele, Hop, hop, hop."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope injury money | ladder rope choke
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #81, "Climbing up the ladder" (1 text)
File: AJRR081

Climbing Up the White House Stairs

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the fourth of march is coming, And the cannons will be bumming, Climbing up the White House Stairs. Cleveland will be there, to occupy the chair." The song lists various women "climbing up the white house stairs" to court the bachelor president
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: political humorous marriage
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 1874 - Birth to the widowed Maria Halpin of Oscar Folsom Cleveland, the illegitimate son of Grover Clevelend (making it obvious that Cleveland was interested in women)
Mar 4, 1885 - Cleveland, who was not married at the time, inaugurated president for the first time
Jun 2, 1886 - 49-year-old Cleveland marries 23-year-old Frances Folsom at the White House (not the first time a President had gotten married while in office -- John Tyler had done it -- but he was the first to get married in the White House)
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 136, "Climbing Up the White House Stairs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11343
NOTES [508 words]: The existence of Grover Cleveland's illegitimate son was an issue in his presidential campaigns -- witness the anti-Cleveland jingle, "Ma! Ma! Where's my pa? Gone to the White House, ha! ha! ha!" (Henry F. Graff, Grover Cleveland [a volume in the American Presidents series edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.], Times Books, 2002, p. 64) -- so little wonder that someone thought he was looking to find a wife.
I'm not sure I would have wanted to be Cleveland's wife; apart from being quite overweight ("at least 250 pounds," according to Graff, p. 60), he had had the mother of that child put in an asylum (Graff, pp. 60-61). Graff thinks Maria Halpin, the mother of the child, was a loose woman who was put away because she was an alcoholic, but when *I* hear about a politician putting a woman away, I don't think "drunken woman," I think "concealing something worse that he did." Although, to be fair, the next source I checked, William A. DeGregorio, The Complete Book of U. S. Presidents, fourth edition, Barricade Books, 1993, p. 322, tells exactly the same story.
Later, Cleveland robbed the cradle, at age 49 marrying his 21-year-old ward Frances Folsom. According to Graff, p. 78:
"[I]t was long known to Cleveland's close associates that in 1875, in the course of managing the estate of his late law partner Oscar Folsom [who had also been associated with Maria Halpin -- she had named her child Oscar Folsom Cleveland], he had grown close to Mrs. Folsom, the widow, and to their daughter, Frances, then eleven years old. He became virtually her guardian. She knew him as 'Uncle Cleve.' Her name was actually Frank, because she had been named for an uncle, and that was how Cleveland always addressed her. She took the name Frances as she grew up, regarding it as more proper for a woman. In time the newspaper people would refer to her as 'Frankie,' an appellation she detested.
"Cleveland's relations with the Folsoms were so intimate that the gossipmongers were not sure whether his close friend was the widow or the daughter. When Frank was at Wells College in Aurora, New York, Cleveland obtained the mother's permission to correspond with her. In 1885 Cleveland and the pretty, spirited young woman became betrothed. The engagement had followed a series of letter exchanges in which the president proposed marriage. But mum was the word to the public."
The wedding was originally planned for the home of Frances's grandfather, but he died shortly before the marriage and the ceremony had to be shifted to the White House. It was an odd event; John Philip Sousa himself conducted the Marine Band -- but there were only 31 guests (Graff, p. 79). Fascinatingly, Frances did not promise to love, honor, and obey, but to "loev... honor, comfort, and keep" (Graff, p. 80).
If the papers had known about their courting, no doubt speculations like this song would not have come about. But Cleveland, although known for his rigid honesty, had a frigid relationship with the press and never let out any information he could conceal. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne136

Climbing Up Zion's Hills

DESCRIPTION: "If you don't mind, fathers, You'll be too late (x3), If you don't mind, fathers, You'll be too late, A-climbing up Zion's hills." "Heaven bells are ringing, I'm a-going home." "Bless the Lord, I'm almost there." Similarly for mothers, brothers, children
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Roberts-SangBranchSettlers)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #41, "Climbin Up Zion's Hills" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 624, "Old Satan's Mad" (5 text, of which the short "A" text is probably "Free at Last"; "B" is a variation on "Down By the Riverside (Study War No More)"; "C" has the "Old Satan's Mad" stanza but a "climbing Zion's walls" chorus and so might be this; D" is an unidentifiable fragment perhaps related to "I Belong to that Band; and "E" is also a fragment, perhaps of "Free At Last")
Roud #3404
File: Robe041

Clime Beneath Whose Genial Sun

DESCRIPTION: "Clime beneath whose genial sun Kings were quelled and freedom won, Where the dust of Washington Sleeps in glory's bed," farmers took up the sword to defend their rights. Judah, Greece, Rome have fallen low, but America is free; bow to (its) God
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart-Songs)
KEYWORDS: religious freedom nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Heart-Songs, p. 53, "Clime Beneath Whose Genial Sun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V28705
NOTES [54 words]: Heart-Songs lists this as an "Old Scotch Folksong." This is absurd; folk songs don't use words like "genial" and "quell'd," and why would a Scottish folk song refer to George Washington? Probably they mean that the tune is traditional. But I'm indexing the song to make it clear... that it shouldn't have to be indexed! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: HeaS053

Clinch Mountain

See Rye Whiskey AND The Wagoner's Lad (File: R405)

Clipper Ship Dreadnaught, The

See The Dreadnought [Laws D13] (File: LD13)

Clock Stands Still, The

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "The clock stands still While the hands go around, One o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Christian Science Monitor, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | time clock
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #82, "The Clock stands still" (1 text)
File: AJRR082

Clock, The

DESCRIPTION: At nine the clock said "quick, quick to bed" because "you'll never hae wealth, Gin ye dinna rise in the mornin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: warning work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 658, "The Clock" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6085
NOTES [16 words]: Greig/Duncan3 notes that there is at least a second verse but only two lines are remembered. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3658

Cloddy Banks

See The Banks of Claudy [Laws N40] (File: LN40)

Clones Murder, The

DESCRIPTION: John Flanagan was murdered after cashing a cheque for fifty pounds. His body was discovered in Clones town eight months later. The suspect is in Armagh gaol. "He who killed John Flanagan With revengence must repay." "God comfort his poor parents"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (IRHardySons)
KEYWORDS: homicide prison money
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
December 22, 1904 - Joseph Fee is executed for the April 16, 1903 murder of John Flanigan (source: Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday).
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #2919
RECORDINGS:
Tom Tinneny, "The Clones Murder" (on IRHardySons)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fee and Flannigan" (subject)
File: RcCloMur

Clonmel Flood, The

DESCRIPTION: Sprong, loaded with Indian ale, is caught in a heavy storm in the river Suir, grounds in Duckett Street, and floats in Church Lane. They dump ballast, including Kitty Conroy's pig. They anchor at Hearn's Hotel. The lifeboat crew bring whiskey and stout
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: river commerce ship storm humorous talltale sailor animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 17B, "The Clonmel Flood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9776
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The E-ri-e" (theme) and references there
NOTES [8 words]: Clonmel, South Tipperary, is on the river Suir. - BS
File: OLcM017B

Closet Key, The

DESCRIPTION: "I done lost de closet key, In dem ladies' garden, I done lost de closet key In dem ladies' garden." "Help me find de closet key...." "I done found de closet key...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 139, "The Closet Key" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11593
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Do, Do, Pity My Case" (lyrics) and references there
File: ScaNF139

Clothier, The

See Kate and Her Horns [Laws N22] (File: LN22)

Cloud Ships

DESCRIPTION: "Like snow white sailing boats on a blue sea High in the heavens are clouds floating free. If I could fly to one,... Sailing and sailing what pleasure 'twould be. We should look down from our ship in the sky... Anchor our cloud to a mountain top high."
AUTHOR: English Translation: Homer H. Harbour ? (source: Sanders)
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Concord Series No. 14, according to ChansonsDeNotreChalet)
KEYWORDS: nonballad travel campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 196, "Cloud Ships" (notes only)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, pp. 8-9, "Cloud-Ships" (1 text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 62, "Cloud Ships" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [40 words]: Sanders lists this as a "Tyrolese folk song," which presumably means the original is in German, although probably not standard German. I have not found a German text, not even in ChansonsDeNotreChalet which is so fond of foreign versions. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF196U

Cloud-Ships

See Cloud Ships (File: ACSF196U)

Cloudburst, The

DESCRIPTION: "...The worst tropical storm that ever was seen... struck with force on the mountainside." A little boy begs his parents to flee, but the house comes down around them. When neighbors seek the family, they learn that three of five children have died
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935
KEYWORDS: death storm children family disaster
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 92-93, "The Cloudburst" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MN2092 (Partial)
Roud #4776
File: MN2092

Clouds they Look Black Love, The

DESCRIPTION: "The clouds they look black love I'm afraid it will rain"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: storm
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1921, "The Clouds they Look Black Love" (1 fragment)
Roud #15119
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: GrD81921

Clough Water

See Cloughwater/The Shamrock Shore (File: HHH610)

Cloughmills Fair

DESCRIPTION: The singer is wandering toward Ballylig when he meets a "charming fair one." He asks leave to court her; she tells him she is not interested. He asks if he may walk along with her. She consents; the road is free. Now they are meeting regularly
AUTHOR: Hugh McWilliams (source: Moulden-McWilliams)
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (according to Moulden-McWilliams)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H121, pp. 270-271, "Cloughmills Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Moulden, Songs of Hugh McWilliams, Schoolmaster, 1831 (Portrush,1993), p. 12, "I'll See You in the Fair"
Roud #6921
File: HHH121

Cloughwater/The Shamrock Shore

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls coming to Philadelphia in May (18)56. He was received by friends, and is "happy and contented," but thinks often of Ireland. He remembers home, friends, family. He hopes to earn enough money to return to Erin
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration homesickness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H610, p. 208-209, "Cloughwater/The Shamrock Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 12, "Clough Water" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 274, "Cloughwater Or 'The Shamrock Shore'"(1 text, 1 tune in tonic sol-fa, a reprint of the original Sam Henry publication)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH610

Clown's Courtship, The

DESCRIPTION: "Quoth John to Joan, wilt thou have me?" He promises cow, calf, house, rents, "Oh, say, Joan, will not that do? I cannot come every day to woo." He gives other reasons to accept him. Her answer is not recorded
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic), from manuscripts several centuries older
KEYWORDS: love courting farming money home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 87-87, "Wolsey's Wild" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic, pp. 267-268, "Wolsey's Wild" (1 tune)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, p. 375, "The Clown's Courtship" (1 text)
ST BeCo374B (Partial)
Roud #1596
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Hae Layen Three Herrings a Sa't (I Cannot Come Every Day to Woo)" (subject)
File: BeCo374B

Club Fist

See What Have You Got There? (File: Newe075)

Club Fists

See What Have You Got There? (File: Newe075)

Cluck Old Hen

DESCRIPTION: "Cluck old hen, cluck and squall, you ain't laid an egg since way last fall." The exploits (?) of the hen are listed: "She laid eggs for the railroadmen." "The old hen cackled, cackled in the lot. Next time she cackled, she cackled in the pot"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (recording, Fiddlin' John Carson)
KEYWORDS: bird humorous nonballad chickens
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 120, "Cluck Old Hen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 268, "My Old Hen's a Good Old Hen" (1 short text, 1 tune, probably this)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 244, "Cluck, Old Hen" (1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 146-149, "Cluck Old Hen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 236, 246, "My Old Hen's a Good Old Hen" (1 short text)
DT, CLUCKHEN*
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, p. 249, "My Old Hen's a Good Old Hen" (1 short text, 1 tune, sung by Pearl Jacobs Borusky)
ST Wa120 (Full)
Roud #4235
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley & Tex Isley, "Cluck Old Hen" (on Ashley01)
Clarence Ashley, Clint Howard & Doc Watson, "Cluck Old Hen" [instrumental version] (WatsonAshley01)
Banjo Bill Cornett, "Cluck Old Hen" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Cluck Old Hen" (Gennett 6656/Champion 15629, 1928)
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "Cluck Old Hen" ((Brunswick 175, 1927; on CrowTold02; Vocalion 5179 [as the Hill Billies], 1927; on LostProv)
Vester Jones, "Cluck Old Hen" (on GraysonCarroll1)
Fiddlin' Powers & Family, "Cluck Old Hen" (Edison 52083, 1927; rec. 1925) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5246 [as, "Cluck, Old Hen"], c. 1926)
Wade Ward, "Cluck Old Hen" [instrumental] (on LomaxCD1702)
Wade Ward & Bogtrotters, "Cluck Old Hen" (on Holcomb-Ward1) (AFS, 1937; on WWard1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hen Cackle" (lyrics)
cf. "Henhouse Door (Who Broke the Lock?)" (floating verses)
cf. "Higgledy Piggledy, My Black Hen" (floating verses)
File: Wa120

Cluster of Nits, The

See The Cluster of Nuts (File: GrD71431)

Cluster of Nuts, The

DESCRIPTION: Jack and his mistress bet ten guineas on the number of nuts in a cluster. He says twelve; she says eleven. One nut has no kernel; who wins? They leave it to his master to decide; he decides in Jack's favor. She pays the ten guineas.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: adultery sex gambling husband wife servant trick
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1431, "The Cluster of Nits" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 132-133, "The Bunch of Nuts" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 139)
Roud #1261
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(50c), "Cluster of Nuts" ("As me and my mistress were riding down by the greenwood side"), unknown, no date; also Harding B 11(582), "Cluster of Nuts"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Proud Pedlar" (theme: cuckolded husband settles dispute/bet between his wife and her lover)
cf. "The Farm Servant (Rap-Tap-Tap)" (theme: servant describes sex with the master's wife in hidden terms)
NOTES [88 words]: Greig/Duncan7 quoting Mrs Gillespie's explanation to Duncan decodes the story as that the master leaves home with Jack in charge. The bet between Jack and the mistress of the house is how many times Jack will succeed having sex with her. In the morning they disagree on how the count should be made. That explains her answer to Jack's "I'll leave it to my master, when he comes home at night": "Why, you fool," says she, "would you let your master know?" Jack's description of the bet seems not to raise the master's suspicion. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD71431

Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker

DESCRIPTION: "A couple have just paid the price For living in fool's paradise, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker Have finally paid for their sins." Clyde, "a cheat," escapes from prison and teams up with Parker, whom he teaches to smoke. THey die in a shootout
AUTHOR: Joe Hoover, according to Cohen
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (recording, Dwight Butcher, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: prison crime death police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 23, 1934 - Deaths of Clyde Barrow (born 1910) and Bonnie Parker (born 1909) near Arcadia, Louisiana
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 530-531, "Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker" (1 text)
Roud #22311
RECORDINGS:
Joe Smith (pseud. for Dwight Butcher), "Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker" (Bluebird B5521, 1934)
Frank Luther Trio, "Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker" (unissued, 1934)
NOTES [53 words]: According to Meade, Spottswood, and Meade, this was recorded only twice, and only one of the two recordings was released. There don't seem to have been any other songs about Bonnie and Clyde, either. Given their notoriety, I'm quite surprised. You can tell it was the depression: No one had money for recordings. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CAFS2530

Clyde's Water

See The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water [Child 216] (File: C216)

Clyde's Waters

See The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water [Child 216] (File: C216)

Co Sheinneas an Fhideag Airgid?

See The Silver Whistle (File: K009)

Coach Boy, The

See The Footboy (File: FowM080)

Coachman's Whip

DESCRIPTION: Singer takes a job with young lady who needs a coachman to "drive her in style." He drives her "ten times round the room"; she asks for a look at his whip. He takes her riding, but on the first turn breaks a spring; her maid takes the next ride
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Pinto & Rodway, from a Nottingham broadside)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer takes a job as coachman; his employer is a young lady who informs him that she needs a coachman to "drive her in style." He drives her "ten times round the room"; she takes him to the cellar and feeds him whisky, then asks for a look at his whip. After holding it, she says, smiling, that by the look and length of it they could go ten miles. He takes her riding, but on the first turn breaks a spring; she calls for her serving maid, saying that while her spring is being repaired "I'll let him drive you for a while"
KEYWORDS: sex work drink bawdy humorous servant
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 172, "The Coachman's Whip" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COACHMN*
Roud #862
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Chandler's Wife" (plot)
cf. "The Farm Servant (Rap-Tap-Tap)" (plot)
cf. "The Jolly Barber Lad" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Coachman
The Jolly Driver
File: K172

Coaker Song

See Coaker's Dream (File: Guig084)

Coaker, The

See The Six Horse-Power Coaker (File: Doy74)

Coaker's Dream

DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams of William Coaker's death, rejection at Heaven, and acceptance and advancement in Hell. Coaker's plan to replace the Devil as boss is foiled; he is condemned to the furnace. The dreamer wakes before Coaker is demolished.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports; MUNFLA/Leach)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Coaker dies in the singer's dream. "Somehow underhanded" he got to Heaven, but is turned away by St. Peter. The Devil greets him: "I've been looking for you a long time." He talks the Devil into appointing him -- being the only Newfoundlander in Hell -- boss when the Devil leaves. When the Devil does go "out" Coaker runs an election to exile the Devil and make himself boss of Hell. Coaker loses. The Devil asks the crowd what is to be done, and they condemn Coaker to the furnace. He is headed into the furnace when the dreamer wakes.
KEYWORDS: rejection death dream humorous political Devil
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1871-1938 - Life of William Ford Coaker
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 84-87, "Coaker's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18204
RECORDINGS:
Frank Knox, "The Coaker Song" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Ned Rice, "Coaker's Dream" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [3024 words]: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports has a detailed review of William Ford Coaker's controversial life as a Newfoundland union organizer and politician from the turn of the century until the late 1930s. - BS
It was quite a career, and little wonder that no one trusted him at the end. The idea of something coming to him in a vision is perhaps not far-fetched. O'Flaherty, p. 249, says "He believed literally in the existence of an afterlife.... He claimed that living so long 'close to nature' cast him 'in a special mould,' which was not a word of a lie. This strange man had been active in district-level Liberal politics, and perhaps had even flirted with Tories, prior to 1908, but the 'Black Fall' of that year convinced him that a new politics was needed. He told the delegates in 1909 that 'something,' meaning divinity, 'inspired me to go ahead' with the 'mighty work' of forming the [Fishermen's Protective] Union."
Busch, p. 87, calls him "a strange, magnetic, gifted, melancholy, austere man, [who] had a greater vision in his mind than another craft union."
Coaker (1871-1938) was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, the son of carpenter, and left school young, in 1885 (DictNewfLabrador, p. 60; Hiller/Neary, p. 155; Major, p. 258, says he was thirteen; Noel, p. 78, says he was only eleven; Clarke, p. 260, says that he was between eleven and fourteen), although that still meant that he had a better education than most of his contemporaries. As early as 1884 had organized local fish handlers to strike for better wages. He drifted through several jobs, leaving St. John's at the age of sixteen (Noel, p. 78). His small business failed in the Newfoundland bank crash of 1894 (Cadigan, p. 178). He by then was involved in farming, on an isolated island, perhaps because he knew so little about fishing (Noel, p. 78; according to O'Flaherty, p. 248, "His farm appears to have been the only human activity on the island" -- and adds on p. 249 that "He seemed to relish the isolation of the island"). He also worked a great many odd jobs (Clarke, p. 261). Eventually he put together a real union, the Fisherman's Protective Union (FPU), in 1909 (Cadigan, p. 178). This even though he personally seems to have preferred the seclusion of the farm to living among or working with others (Noel, p. 78). But he started visiting small towns and meeting halls, walking or accepting wagon rides or even snowshoeing in the harsh Newfoundland winters (Noel, pp. 82-83).
The time was ripe for some sort of labor organization in Newfoundland. Newfoundland changed in the late nineteenth century in subtle but dramatic ways. "The principle hallmark of these alterations had been St John's rapid rise to ascendency over the island's commercial affairs, a process which further augmented the capital's social and political supremacy. The chief instrument of this process was the new technology of steam.... [A]s the century advanced the sailing schooners were gradually driven out of the seal fishery by steamers whose ownership was concentrated in the capital.... The number of sealers fell to 6,000, sealing skippers and sealing owners were bankrupted.... and the artisan class found itself reduced to the ranks of fishermen. The shock to outport interests was brutal and the social upheaval great" (Hiller/Neary, p. 149).
"Thousands of men formerly tied to the schooners now became independent small fishermen who now outfitted in St. John's.... [T]he island in general was beset by the problem of a population whose rate of growth was greatly outstripping the volume and value of codfish exports" (Hiller/Neary, p. 150). And "the growing financial stature of St. John's was not matched by a similar willingness to discharge the responsibilities that resulted from its improved stature" (Hiller/Neary, p. 151). In other words, even as a few St. John's merchants grew to commercial dominance, almost everyone else on the island was growing poorer. And since 28% of the population was illiterate (Hiller/Neary, p. 154), few fishermen could turn to other jobs. And, because the outports were so small and had such poor communications, there was no local government to appeal to, except in St. John's (Hiller/Neary, p. 154). So Coaker found willing ears.
"In 1908, conditions in the fishery were particularly favourable to the establishment of a fisherman's union. An unusually large catch coupled with disordered markets overseas produced a temporary but harsh depression that saw fish prices in many cases cut by half, leaving thousands of fishermen angry and frustrated.... In 1908 [their] leader emerged in the person of William Ford Coaker, a dynamic 37-year-old farmer who did more than anyone to channel the frustrated energies of the fishermen" (Hiller/Neary, p. 155).
Coaker adopted as a motto "to each his own" ("suum cuique"; O'Flaherty, p. 249) and organized the group to in many ways resemble the Orange Lodge, which was strong in Newfoundland (Cadigan, p. 179; according to Noel, p. 82, his first speech on behalf of his Big Union was in an Orange Hall; Clarke, p. 263, has a photo of that Orange Hall and on p. 261 says he had actually founded an Orange Lodge earlier in his life). He didn't just set out to improve the fishermen's bargaining position; he wanted a complex system of government involvement and a union-based business, the Union Trading Company (Cadigan, p. 179 -- a plan for his union to buy products in bulk and distribute them to members at prices they couldn't get otherwise; Noel, p. 86). He also wanted more power for the outports, and "called for free and compulsory education, outport night schools, non-denominational schools in settlements not large enough to support separate schools [for the different religious sects], small town hospitals, and universal old age pensions" (Hiller/Neary, p. 156) -- all except possibly the last now known to be definitely good things, but very expensive.
"Single-handedly, Coaker revolutionized the lives of Newfoundland's outport fishermen. He gave them their first union, forty of their own cash stores, a newspaper, a shipbuilding company and, most important of al, the Union Exporting Company, which was the colony's largest exporter of salt-cod by 1924" (Harris, p. 74).
The FPU eventually decided it needed a role in politics (Noel, p. 87). And because they were concentrated in the north, in Protestant districts -- in an area which the merchants of St. John's, who dominated Newfoundland politics, did not pay much attention to -- they were in position to gain a lot of seats and hold the balance of power (Noel, p. 95. This was in fact the goal stated in their constitution; the intent was that the FPU "shall not hold more than sufficient seats to secure the balance of power between the Government and Opposition parties, and no Union member of the Assembly shall be permitted to hold his seat if he sits on the side of the Government or Opposition, or receive any position from the Government"; Hiller/Neary, p. 159).
Easier said than done. The FPU, disgusted with the corruption of the so-called "People's Party" (Noel, p. 111; Hiller/Neary, pp. 160-161, says that Coaker had implicitly endorsed the People's Party in 1908 and 1909, but didn't get much in return), ended up abandoning the balance of power strategy (Hiller/Neary, p. 164) and allying with the Liberal party in 1913 (DictNewfLabrador, p. 61) -- only to see the Liberals swamped, in no small part because the Liberals and FPU still didn't trust each other and refused to coordinate their campaigns (Noel, pp. 112-113). The result was a mixed blessing for the FPU; the People's Party controlled the House of Assembly, so the FPU had little power -- but the FPU had nine delegates in the legislature, making them the leading opposition party (Busch, p. 88).
Interestingly, Coaker still had humility enough to realize that he did not know legislative procedure well, and so allowed the new Liberal leader, J. M. Kent, to fill the role of Leader of the Opposition, even though Coaker was entitled to the post (Noel, p. 118).
After the 1914 Newfoundland Disaster (for which see "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)"), Coaker went after Captain Abram Kean (for whom see "Captain Abram Kean"). Despite his terrible mistakes which were largely responsible for the disaster, Kean utterly rejected any notion of blame, and quickly became involved in litigation with Coaker (for Kean's side, see Kean, pp. 31-37 or so). Kean really did bear a lot of blame, and Coaker was mostly right, but because Kean was considered so skilled a sealing captain, Kean was not dismissed and Coaker had to give in and make partial apologies. Coaker did manage to pass some minor reforms in 1914, at least (Busch, p. 88).
But then came World War I, forcing all parties in Newfoundland to work together (Noel, pp. 120-121). It was a disaster for Coaker and the FPU (and everyone else, of course, but in a different way). There should have been an election during the war, but (to vastly simplify) the government suspended the constitution and bought off some of the opposition by inducing the British government to give Prime Minister Morris (whom the FPU hated) a peerage and send him off to Britain, never to return (Noel, pp. 124-125).
Coaker also was forced to support conscription, against the wishes of his members (Long, p. 27; Noel, pp. 126-127; Harris, p. 78, says he didn't have to do so but apparently felt it his duty as part of a unity government). He also supported prohibition, and many people, especially Irish Catholics, never forgave him or the FPU for that, either (Noel, pp. 132-133). Worse, the Catholic Archbishop Howley hated the FPU, and for a time forbid Catholics to join on the grounds that it was a secret society; even after the FPU changed its rules, Howley had nothing good to say of them (Hiller/Neary, p. 163). Those facts also made an alliance with the regular craft unions impossible (Noel, p. 135). And even as he was supporting those unpopular decisions, the war period took some of the newness off the FPU, and gave the merchants time to learn how to deal with it -- especially since the parliamentary majority for practical purposes turned the conduct of the war over to the merchants of St. John's who were the enemies of the FPU (Noel, p. 121). Noel thinks that, if the war had not come, the FPU would have taken over the government in the next election. But "by 1919 the impetus was spent" (Noel, p. 116).
In the election of 1919, Coaker made an understandable but costly mistake. He allied the FPU to Richard Squires (Noel, p. 141; Hiller/Neary, p. 168), allowing Squires to lead the coalition ticket. The Liberal Reform/FPU forces won the election, taking 23 seats to 13 for the People's Party (Noel, p. 295), and Coaker became Minister of Marines and Fisheries (Noel, p. 291), but Squires was completely untrustworthy and associating with him didn't get Coaker what he wanted (Hiller/Neary, p. 169) and surely tarnished him badly. (Among other things, Squires increased Newfoundland's national debt by more than 40% in just four years; Noel, p. 152. He also took at least $63,000 in graft -- the equivalent of millions today -- Hiller/Neary, p. 181. Coaker apparently didn't trust Squires at all -- Squires had taken advantage of him over conscription -- but in the short term saw no other way to gain influence; Hiller/Neary, p. 182. When Squires's corruption came out, some suspected Coaker was also involved; although it was later shown that he clearly wasn't, his exoneration didn't help; Hiller/Neary, p. 190.)
The new power he had gained allowed Coaker to pass a series of reforms of fishing regulation, but bad timing caused them to fail -- and meant that he got the blame (Noel, pp. 145-147). Indeed, it arguably did permanent damage to the economics of the fishery, and it meant that many refused to trust him thereafter (Noel, p. 150). R. M. Elliott also suggests that the legislation was "not forceful enough" (Hiller/Neary, p. 183) -- the effect, presumably, of Coaker not being in position to really control the government. And some of his reforms were repealed in 1921 anyway (Major, p. 360).
In 1923, Coaker decided he was tired of politics and wanted to return to organizing (Hiller/Neary, p. 169), but he couldn't seem to stick with his resolution, retiring and un-retiring several times (DictNewfLabrador, pp. 61-62). According to Hiller/Neary, p. 189, the instability caused by the Squires scandals contributed to this -- after Squires was forced out in 1923, the government needed Coaker, and he joined despite a lack of enthusiasm, but then the new premier Warren's government collapsed. Coaker was actually offered the chance to form a government after that, but refused (Hiller/Neary, p. 195) -- probably realizing that he could not form a stable coalition and would just come out looking bad. He had a point; the Hickman ministry that was eventually cobbled together lasted all of a month (Noel, p. 292; O'Flaherty, p. 324, implies that Coaker was the power behind the primer minister anyway).
Ironically, although the FPU emerged from the investigation of Squires with an entirely clean bill of moral health, it still suffered from association with Squires (who somehow escaped indictment) and all the shenanigans of the era; the opposition made the FPU the main focus of their campaign (Hiller/Neary, p. 195).
To add to his problems, Coaker could be accused of taking advantage of his power; in 1928, he bought a home in Jamaica, where he went in winter, allegedly to deal with a bronchial condition (Long, p. 58). These odd choices surely didn't help his cause; they just made him look bad. Noel's epitaph, on p. 216, is that he suffered a "sad and puzzling personal decline," which I think is true. Yet he was also the man who predicted, in 1926, that "in my opinion the day is not far distant when the country will be forced to decide, probably with its back to the wall, whether it will be governed by a Commission elected by the people, by nominees of the British Government governing as a Crown Colony, or as a poverty-stricken Godforsaken Island administered as a province of Canada" (Hiller/Neary, p. 172). In effect, all three came true in one form or another in the next quarter century. If anyone else in Newfoundland had had such prophetic sense, the island might have been spared much agony.
"Ed Roberts... suggested that Newfoundland's political history... cannot be understood without examining the contribution of William Coaker.... In contrast to most labour figures of his time, Coaker was not a socialist, though some of his comrades in the FPU were. He had more in common with the farmer-progressive movements of Western Canada and their appeals for group government and direct democracy, as the course of his political ideas eventually demonstrated. Coaker's failure to achieve lasting benefits for the 'toiling masses' of the Newfoundland outports is usually cited as the last great effort to save the country before the onslaught of the Depression" (Long, p. 12).
A lot of Coaker's ideas were laudable, e.g. his demand for a standard system for grading the quality of fish (the old system let the buyers both grade the fish and set the prices; Noel, p. 98) and his demand for free public education (Noel, p. 99). A lot of them were utterly impractical, too -- e.g. an automatic forgiveness of debts after two years (Noel, p. 99) and an unfunded pension reform (Noel, pp. 99-100) -- and he gradually became more and more disillusioned. As Newfoundland -- which had been deeply in debt for most of his life, and had never really been properly governed -- slid into the Great Depression, the one-time radical leftist decided that Newfoundland's answer was fascism (Cadigan, pp. 203-204). He was quite open to the idea of Newfoundland giving up its Dominion status and again being ruled by a British commission -- which is what happened in 1934 (Cadigan, p. 208); indeed, it was a variation on a suggestion he had made in the 1920s, though he seems to have favored a larger, more local, time-limited commission (Hiller/Neary, p. 171). It was the only answer he saw to Newfoundland's toxic party (and religious) divisions (Long, p. 19, and indeed that entire chapter of his book).
Coaker frankly strikes me as a rebel-without-a-cause; he wanted change, he knew things had to change, but he had no idea how to change them. And so, as often as not, he made things worse. Still, Clarke, p. 269, cites historian Ian MacDonald to the effect that Coaker had made an indirect difference: He made Newfoundlanders believe in their ability to run their own affairs and to turn away from their governing elite, plus it gave the fishermen pride in their work and their role.
Major, p. 358 has a photo of Coaker, in a suit; Clarke, p. 267, has one which he dates to c. 1919. I must admit that this rather handsome, elaborately dressed man is not at all what I imagined a labor organizer would look like. On p. 361, Major has a photograph of his grave site, which he accurately describes as having a "pseudo-grandeur"; it's a big plot with a low wall and a stair on a low rise leading to the grave itself; it looks like someone wanted to build a palace and forgot the inner buildings.
I can't help notice an item that didn't become folklore, but has a folkloric feel to it. In 1919, as he entered the cabinet, a schooner President Coaker was built by supporters of the FPU. In 1923, it set out on a trip to South America. Somewhere on its return trip, probably early in 1924, it vanished (Parson, pp. 201-205).
Incidentally, not all popular poetry about Coaker was hostile, although I have yet to see anything else about him that went into tradition. But Noel, pp. 88-89, quotes a couple of pieces (the source being apparently the writings of Joseph Smallwood) that make him almost a prophet or deliverer:
We are coming Mr. Coaker...
We are ready and a-waiting, strong and solid, firm and bold,
To be led by you like Moses led the Israelites of old.
Harris, p. 74, has a verse, "We are coming, Mr. Coaker, and we're forty thousand strong." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: Guig084

Coal Black Hair

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Coal Black Rose

DESCRIPTION: Halyard shanty, Negro origin. "Oh, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose, Don't ye hear the banjo ping-a-pong-a-pong? Oh, me Rosie, Coal Black Rose." Verses mostly nonsense, with a fair amount of onomatopoeia, i.e. "ping-a-pong-a-pong," "dinging an' a dang," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Bullen, _Songs of Sea Labor_)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 364, "Coal Black Rose" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 274]
Roud #9128
File: Hugi364

Coal Creek Troubles

DESCRIPTION: "My song is founded on the truth, In poverty we stand. How hard the millionaire will crush Upon the laboring man." The governor of Tennessee sends convicts to work the mines of Coal Creek. The miners oppose, but the legislature will not help
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")?
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (recording, Jilson Setters)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes strike political work chaingang
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1891-1892 -- Coal Creek War.
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 192-194, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 195-197)
Green-OnlyAMiner-RecordedCoalMiningSongs, p. 155-157, "Coal Creek Troubles" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 271, "Coal Creek Troubles" (1 text)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 205, "Coal Creek Trouble" (1 text)
DT, COALCRK*
Roud #22282
RECORDINGS:
Old Charlie,' "Coal Creek Rebellion" (AFS 12012, 1940)
Mike Seeger, "Coal Creek Troubles" (on MSeeger02)
Jilson Setters, [pseud. for James W. Day] "Coal Creek Troubles" (AFS 1017, 1937) [Note: This was Thomas's source. - PJS]
G. D. Vowell, "Coal Creek War" (AFS 1381, 1937)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pay Day at Coal Creek" (subject)
cf. "Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line" (subject)
NOTES [203 words]: The Coal Creek War had a long and disturbing history. Conditions at Coal Creek were terrible, as the deaths in 1902 and 1911 disasters show. Beginning in 1877, the state of Tennessee chose to relieve its shortage of prisons by putting miners to work in the Coal Creek mines. Many died, but the owners didn't care; convicts were cheap. At the time, there were enough jobs at other mines, so the miners didn't care much either.
In 1891, things turned ugly as the owners tried to deny the miners the right to choose their own check-weighmen. The miners struck; they were evicted from their homes and more convicts brought in. The miners peacefully freed the convicts and tried to convince governor "Buck" Buchanan to negotiate.
Buchanan made the worst possible choice: Force, but not sufficient force. He gathered a small escort of militia, came to Coal Creek, tried to argue with the miners, was refuted, then departed. He left the militia -- but they were only three companies, not enough to do any good. The miners forced them to surrender.
Buchanan sent more and more troops until the miners finally surrendered in October 1892. Buchanan failed of re-election, and eventually the convict labor system was abolished. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa192

Coal Miner's Child, The

See The Orphan Girl (The Orphan Child) (File: R725)

Coal Miner's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Working in the mines, boys, Mighty hard to stand; Lordy, lordy, these old mines Has killed many a man." The singer described the hard work, the bad food, the poverty, the waiting for the whistle, the "Mine boss at the office, Cutting down our pay."
AUTHOR: "Aunt Pricey Preston's Mose"?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes money nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 247, "The Coal Miner's Song" (1 text) (OakEd, p. 247)
NOTES [59 words]: Though Thomas does not list a tune, and does list an author (sort of), this looks to me more traditional than many of the pieces in her book. At the very least, I am sure the tune is traditional.
It appears from her account that the author managed to bring his guitar to work with him in the mines, allowing him to sing the song while there. Right. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa247

Coal Owner and the Pitman's Wife, The

DESCRIPTION: "A dialog I'll tell you as true as my life, Between a coal owner and a poor pitman's wife." The woman tells the owner she has come from Hell. They are turning out the poor to make room for "the rich wicked race." She tells him to treat his workers well
AUTHOR: William Hornsby?
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Lloyd, "Come All Ye Bold Miners")
KEYWORDS: dialog worker warning Hell
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, pp. 16-17, "The coal owner & the pitman's wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COALOWNR*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Derry Down" (tune) and references there
NOTES [36 words]: The notes in the Digital Tradition say this came from an 1844 strike. It is sung to the Derry Down tune, though the version in MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads isn't quite the Derry Down tune I know. - RBW
File: MacCS16

Coal Quay Market, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer buys an old flea-ridden chemise at Coal Quay. His wife won't have it. The lady that sold it to him won't take it back and beats him. "Pretty females": don't let a man interfere with your business; if you buy a chemise, buy a new one.
AUTHOR: Jimmy Crowley (source: OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: clothes humorous wife abuse
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 98-99, "The Coal Quay Market" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [58 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "This is one of Jimmy Crowley's best known songs and is very popular with Cork audiences, as it deals with the goings-on at one of the city's best known landmarks - the Coal Quay, between Castle Street and the river. It was traditionally a second-hand market, though you can now get both new and second-hand goods there." - BS
File: OCan098

Coal Ship Song (I)

DESCRIPTION: "A Life on the Ocean Wave, the fellow that wrote that song, I'd like to shit on his grave... 'Cause he's never been to sea On a Sunday afternoon, And he's never coaled ship with his watch below, Or he'd bloody well change his tune."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes scatological derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 19, "Coal Ship Song (I)" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Life on the Ocean Wave" (tune)
NOTES [14 words]: For the difficulties of coaling a ship, see the notes to "Coal Ship Song (III)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn002

Coal Ship Song (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Coaling, coaling, coaling, Always bloody well coaling." The sailors may be called upon to load coal at anu time on any day. "When the collier comes along, We'll sing this little song: Coaling, coaling, coalling... It's a good job we didn't join for ever"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes work derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 20, "Coal Ship Song (II)" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Holy, Holy, Holy" (partial tune)
cf. "Loch Lomond" (partial tune)
NOTES [14 words]: For the difficulties of coaling a ship, see the notes to "Coal Ship Song (III)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn003

Coal Ship Song (III)

DESCRIPTION: "In the good old cruiser Kent, in the good old cruser Kent, Coaling ship three times a week, Till all our energy's spent. We never was our coaling rig, And very good reason why, We'd be coaling ship again Before we could get them dry."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes work derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 20, "Coal Ship Song (III)" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In the Good Old Summertime" (tune)
cf. "The Noble Eighth of December" (subject of the ship Kent)
NOTES [862 words]: This song is right that coaling ship was a slow, difficult, dirty job. Coal was usually loaded in large, heavy sacks; just carrying them was exhausting, and of course it left coal dust everywhere. And once the coal was loaded from the collier, it had to be unbagged and distributed so that it would be available. Little wonder that an officer of the Cornwall, which served with the Kent in the Falklands, wrote sarcastically of the task as they approached Port Stanley, "The ever recurring delight of coaling ship is looked forward to directly anchorage is reached" (Yates, p. 194).
There were two British cruisers named Kent, one for each World War, but because the ship in this song requires coaling, it must have been the First World War ship; the World War II cruiser was an oil-burner.
According to Wragg, p. 184, the Kent was a member of the ten-ship Monmouth class of 1903-1904. These were vessels of 9800 tons, with triple expansion rather than turbine engines, with a top speed of 23 knots. Their main armament was 14 six inch guns (most of them in side mountings that badly restricted their arcs of fire). Although still in service in World War I, I'd regard her as pretty close to obsolete. (Farquharson-Roberts, p. 58, calls Monmouth a "relic... saved from the breaker's yard by the outbreak of the war," meaning that the Kent was also near the end of her useful life).
Indeed, her obsolescence had been shown dramatically on November 11, 1914 at the battle of Coronel, where the class leader Monmouth and the heavier but equally antique Good Hope had been sunk by the German Scharnhorst and Gniesenau under admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee (usually known just as Graf Spee) without doing any significant damage to the Germans (Beekman, pp. 26-29). This left the German vessels free to rampage the southern Pacific, and the south Atlantic, without British interference.
The British response was immediate and, probably, excessive. They sent two battlecruisers, Invincible and Inflexible, to deal with the pesky German heavy cruisers (Farquharson-Roberts, p. 60). One would surely have been enough; the British ships were heavier, better armed, and faster. But the British wanted to make sure they stopped the Germans. The Kent was one of the armored cruisers which joined the squadron, along with her sister ship Cornwall; Carnarvon, another heavy cruiser; and light cruisers Bristol and Glasgow (Yates, p. 191), the latter a survivor of Coronel.
By wild coincidence, Graf Spee's ships approaching the Falklands even as the British force under Admiral Sturdee was coaling after their long trip; the Germans, who had no idea there were substantial British forces in the area, wanted to put the base out of service (Yates, p. 195).
Two German ships, Gniesenau and Nürnberg went to see what was present at Port Stanley on the morning on December 8, 1914. It took some time, after the German ships were spotted, to get the attention of the crew of the battlecruisers -- the coal dust made it hard for them to see signals (Yates, p. 197), but many of the smaller cruisers, including Kent, were ready to go. Kent, in fact, was on guard, and had to retreat before the German force (Yates, p. 199). One of the ships in the harbor, the old pre-dreadnought Canopus was able to open indirect fire -- and scare the Germans into retreating. Most authorities seem to think that this was fatal to the Germans; if they had blocked the harbor entrance, they might have had a chance against Sturdee's heavy fleet, but once they let the British out, they were doomed (Beekman, p. 29, etc)..
Admiral Sturdee, once his fleet was at sea, ordered all his ships to engage in a "General Chase," meaning that they were to go straight after the Germans (Yates, p. 200).
It was the highlight of Kent's war. While the two battle cruisers dealt with Scharnhorst and Gniesenau Kent pursued and sank the Nürnberg (Farquharson-Roberts, pp. 60-61) -- an impressive feat, given that she was supposed to be slower than the German, and not really armed for the task. But the Germans had been away from port for a very long time, and could no longer make their theoretical top speed (Yates, p. 216), and the Kent's crew made extraordinary efforts to catch up. Both cruiser suffered multiple hits, but then the Nürnberg suffered a boiler explosion. and the Kent was able to destroy her (Yates, p. 2017), though she suffered 38 hits and 16 casualties (Yates, p. 218). One of the hits had taken out her wireless antenna, causing some anxiety on the other British ships, since she had sailed far away in pursuit of the Nürnberg (Yates, p. 220).
The Kent wasn't quite done with the German squadron. One cruiser, Dresden, had survived. She fled back into the Pacific, but was found at Juan Fernández Island on March 14, 1915 by Kent and Glasgow. The Germans, unable to fight because they were out of supplies, scuttled the ship (Beekman, p. 32).
For more on Coronel, and especially on the Battle of the Falklands, see the notes to "The Noble Eighth of December." Another song about the events is "Battle of the Falkland Islands." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn004

Coalmine, The

DESCRIPTION: Some men go a Mallore hill to find coal. "In a month's time we'll all be millionaires." They spend a hot day digging but the only thing black they find is a dead crow. They test burn some lumps but it's not coal. "Let the coal and the mine go to hell"
AUTHOR: Tom Molloy (source: McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: mining humorous moniker
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 17, "The Coalmine" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: McB1017

Coast of Barbary, The

See High Barbaree [Child 285; Laws K33] (File: C285)

Coast of Peru, The [Laws D26]

DESCRIPTION: (The captain promises the sailors that they will spot many whales off Peru.) A whaler spots a whale off the coast of Peru. The crew harpoons the whale and renders it. They look forward to seeing the girls at home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1832 (Journal of William Silver of the Bengal)
KEYWORDS: sea whale whaler return
FOUND IN: US(MA) New Zealand
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws D26, "The Coast of Peru"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 151-152, "The Coast of Peru" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 2-4, "The Coast of Peru" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 27-28, "Captain Bunker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 194-195, "Coast of Peru" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 222-223, "Coast of Peru" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 194, "The Coast of Peru" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 185-186, "The Coast of Peru" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 91, "Coast of Peru" (1 text)
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 15-16, "New Zealand Whales" (1 text, 1 tune, localized to New Zealand instead of Peru but still clearly the same song)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 36, "(New Zealand Whales)" (1 text)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 15, "New Zealand Whales." (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 8 in the 1972 edition)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 12-13, "New Zealand Whales" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 617, CSTPERU*
ADDITIONAL: Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, pp. 33-35, "The Coast of Peru" (1 text)
Roud #1997
RECORDINGS:
A.L. Lloyd, "The Coast of Peru" (on Lloyd9)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blow Ye Winds in the Morning" (floating verses)
NOTES [156 words]: A.L. Lloyd notes that "Mention of the mate 'in the main chains' dates the song from before the 1840s." -PJS
The "Captain Bunker" version in Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang is much shorter than most versions of this song, and it doesn't mention the Coast of Peru. But the longer versions sometimes mention Captain Bunker; Roud lumps the two, and I very tentatively do the same. It may be that "Captain Bunker" is a broken-off version of "The Coast of Peru" that picked up some additional material.
The "New Zealand Whales" version is clearly this, although localized for New Zealand. It is one of the several songs allegedly collected by John Leebrick although we know of them only through the publications of Neil Colquhoun. (For background on this, see the notes to "Davy Lowston") The history behind it was the subject of an article by Frank Fyfe, first published in Maorilander, parts 1-4 (1970-1971); I have not seen it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LD26

Coasts of High Barbary, The

See High Barbaree [Child 285; Laws K33] (File: C285)

Coat That Was Buttoned Behind, The (An Irishman's Coat It Is Buttoned Before)

DESCRIPTION: Doolan arrives in New York and sees two men boxing, sparring without hitting; when he fights it's with his "shillaly." Bullies taunt him expecting him to run but "in less than two minutes I cleared the whole green"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Pastor)
KEYWORDS: fight violence sports humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 89-91, "The Coat That Was Buttoned Behind (An Irishman's Coat It Is Buttoned Before)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Tony Pastor, "Tony Pastor's New Irish Comic Songster" in Tony Pastor's Book of Six Hundred Comic Songs and Speeches (New York: Dick and Fitzgerald, 1867 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 40-41, "An Irishman's Coat It Is Buttoned Before" ("Oh, my name is Mike Doolan - I've just come to town")
Roud #24895
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Duncan Campbell (Erin-Go-Bragh)" [Laws Q20] (theme of Irishman being abused and fighting back) and references there
NOTES [69 words]: The taunt is "Welcome, sweet Paddy, sweet Paddy from Cork. Now turn around, Paddy -- do just be so kind -- For I ne'er saw a coat that was buttoned behind.... Misther Pat, I would blacken your eye." That is, Paddy should be running away from this "big bully" so, if the bully sees his buttons they must surely be on the back of his coat. The song's title, not being part of the song, is Doolan's unspoken answer. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Guig089

Coatman's Saloon

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a young lady. He invites her to Coatman's for ice cream. She orders a steak. She says "her husband had gone to war" but at the ferry her "husband" threatens to shoot him. "The story will be continued in the 'Guardian' next week"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: lie food humorous husband
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 98-99, "Coatman's Saloon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12450
File: Dib098

Coaxing Polly

DESCRIPTION: "The girls in the city, they are happy, The boys in the country, they are jolly" and the singer courts Coaxing Polly. She demands furniture and china and refuses to work. He sets out to leave. She gives in and they marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle)
KEYWORDS: bargaining courting rejection work dialog
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 26-27, "Coaxing Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7514
File: Boet027

Cobalt Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "For we'll sing a little song of Cobalt, If you don't live there it's your fault, Oh you Cobalt where the wintry breezes blow...." The singer describes various bad mining towns, concluding "It's hob-nail boots and a flannel shirt in Cobalt town for mine."
AUTHOR: L. F. Steenman
EARLIEST DATE: 1910
KEYWORDS: mining home nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1903 - Discovery of silver in Cobalt, Ontario
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 195-197, "The Cobalt Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: FMB195

Cobbler (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, cobbler (Dick Hobson), comes from a questionable family and leads a questionable life. The song may end with an account of how he became free of his "lumpy" wife: I dipped her three times in the river / and carelessly bade her goodnight"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1731 (ballad opera, "The Jovial Crew")
KEYWORDS: abandonment rambling bawdy
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,Ro,So,SW) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Randolph 102, "Dick German the Cobbler" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 133-135, "Dick German the Cobbler" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 102A)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, ppp. 516-517, "Dick Darlin' the Cobbler" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Fubbard, #173, "Dick Darbin the Cobbler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 176-177, "Hobson, the Cobbler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 223-224, "Old Hewson, the Cobbler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 180, "Rusty Old Rover" (1 fragment, probably this piece); also 181, "Me Father Is a Lawyer in England" (2 short texts, 2 tunes, both very mixed; "A" has the first verse of "Me Father Is a Lawyer in England,"; the second is "Me father is a hedger and ditcher, and the third and the chorus are from "The Cobbler"; the "B" text is also clearly mixed though the elements are less clear)
Greig/Duncan3 483, "Dick Dorbin the Cobbler" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 222, "Fagan the Cobbler" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 98, "My Name Is Bold Hewson the Cobbler" (1 text)
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 111-113, "(My Name Is) Dick Darby, the Cobbler" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 42, "My Faither Was Hung for Sheep-Stealing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 144-145, "Cobbler's Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #475, p. 32, "Dick Darlin' the Cobbler" (1 reference)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 78-79, "Dick Darlin'" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 450-451, "My Name is Old Hewson the Cobbler" (1 tune with only a single line of text, but presumably a version of this)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 163-164, "Old Hewson the Cobbler" (1 tune with no text, but presumably a version of this)
DT, DICKDARB* DICKDAR2
Roud #872
RECORDINGS:
Johnny Cassidy, "Dick Daglen the Cobbler" (on IRCassidyFamily01)
Mrs. K. McCarthy, "Jack Johnston the Cobbler" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Lawrence Older, "Jed Hobson" (on LOlder01)
Wickets Richardson & chorus, "Fagan the Cobbler" (on FSB3)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(81), "Dick Darling the Cobbler" ("My name is Dick Darling the cobbler"), H. Such (London) , 1849-1862; also Harding B 11(891), Harding B 20(38), "Dick Darling the Cobbler"
LOCSinging, sb10093b, "Dick Darlin' the Cobbler" ("Och! my name is Dick Darlin' the cobbler"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My God, How the Money Rolls In"
cf. "Haben Aboo an' a Banner" (theme) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dick Darby, the Cobbler
The Souter
NOTES [643 words]: Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic report "The words of this song have not been recovered; but there can be little doubt that they were a political satire upon Colonel Hewson, who was one of Charles I's judges, and of those who signed his death-warrant.
"John Hewson was originally a cobbler, and had but one eye. He took up arms on the side of the parliament.... He was knighted by Cromwell, and afterwards made one of his Lords. He quitted England immediately before the Restoration, and died at Amsterdam in 1662."
The above may be taken with as many grains of salt as you desire.
This clearly circulated in both clean and dirty versions, and all shades in between (e.g. in the Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland version, the third line reads, "They call me an old fornicator," but the rest is clean).
For one of the more extreme versions, see "Haben a Boo and a Banner" (DT DICKDAR3).
William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 124, reports a stage routine which sounds related: "A Pat Rooney songster published in 1878 carries a routine, attributed to Johnny Roach, entitled 'The Cobbler.' The song is about a cobbler tormented by a tyrranical wife, whom he eventually shoves into the river, after which he 'cautiously bid her good night!' The performer's monologue patters on in between the verses." Apparently there is much description of the fighting.- RBW
See Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, (Cardiff,2001), #162, pp. 413-416, "My Manishi's Rumpy and Tumpy" [Scotto-Romani/Tinklers' Cant fragment from M'Cormick, The Tinkler-Gypsies (1906)]. - BS
The Bodleian and LOCSinging broadsides mix a story in with the verses. This might reflect the way broadside songs were frequently delivered in the streets and at fairs. Elbourne (Roger Elbourne, Music and Tradition in Early Industrial Lancashire 1780-1840 (Totowa, 1980), p. 73) notes: "In cities or towns the broadside was sold at stalls or fair booths, and by countless small shopkeepers. They were also hawked by street singers. The 'chaunter' sang and sold his songs through the streets of city, town and village, on street corners, at country fairgrounds, wakes or executions. A 'patterer' might provide a running commentary as each ballad unfolded. The 'pinner-up' festooned an expanse of wall or railings with ballads for public perusal."
The end of the last verse in the Bodleian and LOCSinging broadsides is about the singer's wife: "The old woman fell into the river, So politely I bid her good night."
There is different song (see broadside LOCSinging as102960) -- "Dick Heuston, the Cobbler" -- which begins pretty much the same way ("My name is Dick Heuston, the Cobbler, The people of London do tell -- They say I'm a very good workman, And that I do know very well") which does not mention the cobbler's family; as the song progresses he gets more and more drunk; the final verse repeats the first, but adds, "For I can (hic) work as well (hic) drunk as sober." I haven't found this song anyplace else yet. The closest to it is "Haben a Boo and a Banner," noted above. Also, see the note above about John Hewson.
Re earliest date: I don't find any song that mentions a cobbler in "The Jovial Crew" in what is supposedly a 1761 edition digitized by Google. In Air 30 in Act 2 (p. 31), Rachel sings, "My Daddy is gone to his Grave; My Mother lies under a Stone; And never a Penny I have, Alas! I am quite undone. My Lodging is in the cold Air, And Hunger is sharp and bites; A little Sir, good Sir, spare, To keep me warm o' Night." This seems a reach, but is the only song I found that mentions family.
Broadside LOCSinging sb10093b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: R102

Cobbler (II), The

See The Shoemaker (File: R566)

Cobbler (III), The

DESCRIPTION: "Walking up and down one day, I peeped in a window over the way. Pushing his needle through and through, There sat a cobbler making a shoe. Rap-a-tap-tap-tap, ticky-tacky-too, This is the way to make a shoe."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 149, "The Cobbler" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 149, "The Cobbler" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #15884
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ticky-Tack-Too" ("Tic Tac Toe" lyric)
cf. "Rick Rick Toe" ("Tic Tac Toe" lyric)
cf. "Tic-Tac" ("Tic Tac Toe" lyric)
NOTES [28 words]: I have the funny feeling that this is a scrap of a bawdy song, along the lines of "The Shoemaker's Kiss," but the fragment in Brown is clean -- and entirely pointless. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Br3149

Cobbler (IV), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is a poor uneducated shoemaker "mong the lowly ... scarcely owner of a groat." "Contented if I'm healthy ... If I keep the ravening wolf from my door". Don't long for what you don't have. Be satisfied while "around us be the everlasting arms"
AUTHOR: William Reid (d. c. 1903) (source: Greig/Duncan3)
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: poverty nonballad religious
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 482, "The Cobbler" (1 text)
Roud #5975
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cruiskeen Lawn" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
File: GrD3482

Cobbler (V), The

See The Little Cobbler (File: CoSB224)

Cobbler and the Butcher, The

See The Little Cobbler (File: CoSB224)

Cobbler Frightened, The

See Loppington Bear (The Cobbler Frightened) (File: AtRo041)

Cobbler, Cobbler, Mend My Shoe

See Cobbler, Cobbler, Where's My Shoe (File: BGMG585)

Cobbler, Cobbler, Where's My Shoe

DESCRIPTION: "Cobbler, cobbler, mend my shoe, Yes, good master, that I'll do; Here's my awl and wax and thread, And now your shoe is quite mended." Or, "...mend my shoe. Have it done by half past two, If half past two is far too late, have it done by half past eight"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1807 (Original Ditties for the Nursery, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: clothes jumprope | cobbler shoe time tools
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica) Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 103, "Cobbler, cobbler, mend my shoe" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #585, p. 235, "(Cobbler, cobbler, mend my shoe)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 29, "Cobbler, Cobbler, Mend My Shoe" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 98, "(Cobbler, cobbler, mend my shoe)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #83, "Cobbler, cobbler, mend my shoe" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Martha Warren Beckwith and Helen Roberts, _Folk-Games of Jamaica_ (Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1922 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #23 p. 30, "Hunt the Slipper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12749
NOTES [37 words]: It appears, from Halliwell, that this was a song used to induce children to put on their shoes. The Opies suggest a connection with the "Hunt the Slipper" game, and obviously the Beckwith/Roberts title supports this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BGMG585

Cobbler's Bill, The

DESCRIPTION: A cobbler shows his work -- "Here's cutting and contriving, Hammer, nails, and driving, Hemp, wax, and leather" -- and asks, "Madam, if you pleasee, To pay me your fees, It's fourpence ha'penny all together"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: commerce work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 304, "The Cobbler's Bill" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 545)
Roud #1327
NOTES [14 words]: The current description includes all of the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT304B

Cobbler's Boy, The

See The Shoemaker (File: R566)

Cobbler's Song

See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Coble o Cargill, The [Child 242]

DESCRIPTION: Davie Drummond o Cargill has a bed waiting for him in Balathy, another in Kercock. But one of the women "bored the coble (boat) in seven pairts," and it sinks as he tries to cross the Tay. He regrets his death; the song ends with repetitions of same
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads)
KEYWORDS: jealousy death drowning infidelity homicide
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 242, "The Coble o Cargill" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 293-294, "The Weary Coble o' Cargill" (1 text)
Roud #4021
NOTES [70 words]: Child reports a legend that Drummond was killed because one of his lovers suspected infidelity when he failed to visit her when he had opportunity. But he points out that such legends often grew up about ballads.
The song has very little plot, and that rather smothered in the repetitions at the end (of what sort of man Drummond was, and of how he drowned). It is not surprising that it did not flourish in tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: C242

Cocaine (The Furniture Man)

DESCRIPTION: "I've got a gal in the white folks' yard...she brings me meal, she brings me lard." Refrain: "Here comes Sal with her nose all sore/Doctor said she can't smell no more...." The furniture man looks for the singer's wife, repossesses all of his belongings
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Luke Jordan)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Confused, floating verses; "I've got a gal in the white folks' yard...she brings me meal, she brings me lard." Occasional refrain: "Here comes Sal with her nose all sore/Doctor said she couldn't smell no more...I'm simply wild about my good cocaine." The furniture man comes to singer's house looking for his wife, repossesses all of his belongings
KEYWORDS: drugs hardtimes floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap, SE)
RECORDINGS:
Luke Jordan, "Cocaine Blues" (Victor 21076, 1927)
Dick Justice, "Cocaine" (Brunswick 395, 1929; on RoughWays2)
Kentucky Ramblers, "Good Cocaine (Mama Don't Allow It)" (Broadway 8271, c. 1932; rec. 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cocaine Blues (I)" (subject) and references there
cf. "Ain't No Use Workin' So Hard" (lyrics)
NOTES [56 words]: This song clearly exists in both Anglo- and African-American traditions; just as clearly, Justice's performance was derived from Jordan's. The narrative is extremely confused, but (barely) sufficient to class it as a ballad. - PJS
For the effects of cocaine, and its history in the United States, see the notes to "Cocaine Blues (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: RcCo

Cocaine Bill and Morphine Sue

DESCRIPTION: "Cocaine Bill and Morphine Sue, Strolling down the avenue two by two," decide that a shot will do them no harm. They try to find cocaine, though it is no longer sold in the stores. Now they are dead and buried; no one knows where they went
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (recording, anonymous singers)
KEYWORDS: drugs death
FOUND IN: Britain(England) Canada
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 115, "Cocaine Bill and Morphine Sue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 150-151, "Cocaine Bill and Morphine Sue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 75, "Cocaine Bill and Morphine Sue" (1 text)
Roud #4790
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singers, "Cocaine Bill and Morphine Sue" (on Unexp1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cocaine Blues (I)" (subject) and references there
NOTES [105 words]: Cocaine was outlawed in the early part of this [the twentieth] century, which is probably why Bill and Sue couldn't get it at the drugstore.
This is clearly related to the cross-referenced pieces, but it includes more narrative than "Cocaine Blues", and lacks the "drug-afflicted possessions" so characteristic of "Cocaine Lil". I call it a separate song. - PJS
This is clearly so; even if it arose from one of the other cocaine songs (all of which have a certain sameness), it has gone its own way. For the effects of cocaine, and its history in the United States (it was banned in 1914), see the notes to "Cocaine Blues (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FSWB075A

Cocaine Blues (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Yonder comes my baby all dressed in blue, Hey, baby, what you gonna do? Cocaine all around my brain." "Hey, baby, won't you come here quick, This old cocaine is makin' me sick." "Yonder comes my baby all dressed in white, Hey... gonna stay all night?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (recording, Dave Van Ronk. Van Ronk learned it from Rev. Gary Davis, who would record it in 1965. In turn Davis said he learned it in 1905)
KEYWORDS: drugs sex
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 76, "Cocaine Blues" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cocaine Lil" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "Take a Whiff on Me" (lyrics, chorus)
cf. "Cocaine (The Furniture Man)" (subject)
cf. "Cocaine Bill and Morphine Sue" (subject)
NOTES [185 words]: The assorted cocaine songs mostly are right about the effects of the drug. According to Esther Gwinnell and Christine Adamec, The Encyclopedia of Addictions and Addictive Behavior, Facts On File, 2006, pp. 63-67, cocaine can have the following effects:
* heart attack, respiratory failure, stroke, or seizures, which of course can lead to death (as in "Cocaine Lil")
* Loss of the sense of smell and a chronically inflamed and runny nose (as in "Cocaine (The Furniture Man)")
* abdominal pain and increased risk of many diseases, especially sexually transmitted diseases, which might explain the mention in this song of becoming sick
Cocaine is strongly addictive, and there are some who die of withdrawal, which might explain the ending of Cocaine Bill and Morphine Sue."
Cocaine was first available in the United States in 1884, was found in Coca-Cola until 1906, was (mostly) banned by the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914, and was placed on the list of controlled substances in 1970. This would explain the references in "Cocaine Bill and Morphine Sue" to not being able to find the drug in drug stores. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: FSWB076B

Cocaine Lil

DESCRIPTION: Cocaine Lil "lived in Cocaine town on Cocaine Hill, She had a cocaine dog and a cocaine cat..." and other equally drug-afflicted possessions. One night, after a party, she "took another sniff and it knocked her dead"; her tombstone testifies to her habit
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: drugs death party burial
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 114, "Cocaine Lil and Morphine Sue" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 206, "Cocaine Lil" (1 text, tune referenced)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 153-154, "Cocaine Lil and Morphine Sue" (1 text)
DT, COKELIL
Roud #9543
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Willy the Weeper" (tune)
cf. "Cocaine Blues (I)" (subject) and references there
NOTES [18 words]: For the effects of cocaine, and its history in the United States, see the notes to "Cocaine Blues (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: PBB114

Cock a Doodle Doo

DESCRIPTION: "Cock a doodle doo! My dame has lost her shoe, My master's lost his fiddlestick, And knows not what to do." Occasionally continues, "Cock a doodle doo, What is my dame to do? Till Master finds his fiddling stick She'll dance without her shoe." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1765 (Mother Goose's Melody); the first two lines are in A Most Cruel and Bloody Murther of 1606
KEYWORDS: music fiddle clothes dancing
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 108, "Cock a Doodle Doo! (1 text plus extensive sitations of "A Most Cruel and Bloody Murther")
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #46, pp. 56-57, "(Cock a Doodle Doo)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 122, "Cock a Doodle Doo" (2 texts)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nineteen Hundred Forty Two" (lyrics)
File: OO2108

Cock a Doodle, Cock a Doodle

See Cooking the Cock of the North (File: KSUC177A)

Cock o' the Midden

DESCRIPTION: "Oh,I thocht when I wore the kilt, I could dance from Tay to Forth, Tranchlin' up an' doon the street, Whistlin' the Cock o' the North. But a' the youngsters shouted, 'Awa,, man, wha' are you kiddin'? ... You're only the Cock o' the midden."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (MacColl-PersonalChoice)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p 65, "Cock o' the Midden" (1 short text, 1 tune)
DT, COCKMDDN*
Roud #9749
File: MaPCCoMi

Cock of the North

See Cooking the Cock of the North (File: KSUC177A)

Cock Pecked Wife, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a wed woman, an' nobody con tell, What troubles aw go through each week, but myself." Her husband is rarely around; he "goes out ev're neet." They have three children. He snores -- when he's around. She wishes for the better days before she married.
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Brierley (source: Brierley)
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (The Countryfied Pieces of Thomas Brierley)
KEYWORDS: marriage hardtimes children husband
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, pp. 26-27, "The Cock Pecked Wife" (1 text, 1 modern tune)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Brierley, _The Countryfied Pieces of Thomas Brierley_, W. E. Clegg (for the author), 1894 (available on Google Books), pp. 131-132, "The Cock Pecked Wife" (1 text)
File: HFSL026

Cock Robin

See Who Killed Cock Robin? (File: SKE74)

Cock Up Your Beaver

See Cock Your Beaver (File: MSNR112)

Cock Your Beaver

DESCRIPTION: "When first my Jamie he came to the town, He had a blue bonnet, a hole in the crown, But now he has gotten a hat and a feather: Hey, Jamie lad, cock your beaver." Jamie now has"gold behind" and "gold afore," and is urged to show it proudly
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2); probably before 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: clothes money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 64, "Cock Up Your Beaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 163, "Johnie Lad and His Braw Baiver" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 219, "Cock Up Your Beaver" (1 text)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 112, "(When first my Jamie he came to the town)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 32-33, "Cock Your Beaver"
Roud #8257
NOTES [151 words]: A description for the Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 text is: The singer says her brave Johnnie has traded his blue bonnet for a hat with a feather and a white rose on the band. He's gone south with Andrew Ferrara and "Donald the drover, and Duncan the caird, And Sawney the shaver, and Logie the laird." Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 has no explanation except that it "is a clever old song" and "There are various sets of it sung in the country. Johnson, in his Museum, has made sure of leaving out all that may be misconstrued, by publishing only one verse to suit the air."
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong has only two verses, the second of which is "Cock up your beaver, And cock it fu' sprush, We'll over the border and give them a brush; There's somebody there We'll teach better behaviour -- Hy, brave Johnnie lad, Cock up your beaver," which is very close to Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2.- BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: MSNR112

Cock-a-doodle-doo

DESCRIPTION: Singer sees a man selling birds, he hands over his money and the seller hands him his cock; a young lady fears he will lose his cock; etc. "Cock-a-doodle-doo, It's nothing to do with you, It's a rare old cock and it's all I got
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous wordplay chickens
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Britain(England(South))
Roud #3464
RECORDINGS:
Norman Grey, "Cock-A-Doodle-Doo" (on "Gin and Ale and Whisky," Old House Music OHC 104 LP (1985))
Frankie Nash, "Cock-a-doodle-doo" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
File: ITMACADD

Cock-Fight, The

DESCRIPTION: Description of a cock-fight, wherein the grey defeats the charcoal-black, to the delight of the singer.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes)
KEYWORDS: fight bird gambling sports chickens
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 27, "The Cock-Fight (The Bonny Grey)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 135-137, "The Holbeck Moor Cock-Fight" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Pallmer-ECS, "#122, "Wa'ney Cockfeightin' Sang" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 24, "The Cockfight" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, p.. 200-201, "The Lee Bridge Cocking" (1 text, 1 tune, which may be a different song but which shares some elements)
Roud #211
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.19(37) view 1, "The Bonnie Gray," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wednesbury Cocking" (theme)
cf. "The Follom Brown-Red" (theme)
cf. "The Kildallan Brown Red" (theme)
NOTES [41 words]: Accrding to Roy Palmer, The Folklore of Warwickshire, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 117, cock-fighting became illegal in Britain in 1849, so there is a presumption (although obviously not a certainty) that this song is older than that. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: VWL027

Cock, The

See Night Visiting Song (File: DTnitevi)

Cockabendy

DESCRIPTION: "Cockabendy's lyin' sick Guess ye what'll mend him?" Twenty kisses. "Dinna gi'e the lasses drink, Dinna gi'e them brandy": give them cinammon sticks and lumps of sugar. Cockabendy had a wife who did strange things.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (Bulloch 1907)
KEYWORDS: courting sex bawdy humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1721, "Cockabendy" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 30, "Uncle John(I)"; Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 30, p. 160, "(Cockie Bendie's lyin' sick)"; Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 31, "Uncle John(II)" (5 texts, although many of them are "Uncle John is Sick Abed")
ADDITIONAL: John Bulloch, editor,Scottish Notes and Queries (Aberdeen, 1905 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VI, 2nd Series, No. 8, February 1905, p. 125, "[Query ]538. The Words of 'Cockabendy'"
John Bulloch, editor,Scottish Notes and Queries_ (Aberdeen, 1907 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VIII, 2nd Series, No. 11, May 1907, pp. 173-174, "[Query ]538. The Words of 'Cockabendy'"
Roud #13080
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cawdor Fair [Four and Twenty Blackbirds]" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
cf. "Uncle John Is Sick Abed" (lyrics)
NOTES [215 words]: Bulloch 1905 has the "Cockabendy's lying sick" verse with a request for more words. Bulloch 1907 has the "Dinna gi'e the lasses drink" verse and a cleaned up chorus (specifically, "He cock, hi cock, Hi cockabendy, Crack . . . . . . For a gill o' brandy"; Greig/Duncan8 has, for the omitted words, "a loose on Jeannie's wame").
The ("Cockabendy's lying sick") verse is very close to the first verse of the game song "Uncle John Is Sick Abed." There are no other shared lines. (See Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 30, "Uncle John" (I)).
"When Richard Townshend died, 1783, his son succeeded to a troubled inheritance. He had already entered public life, and sat as a member for the family borough of Dingle from 1781 to 1795. The first event in 1783 was the visit of a body of cavalry to Castle Townshend 'in quest of some insurgents, said to be meditating mischief against the inhabitants of that neighborhood. After scouring the country they apprehended Denis Conel, alias Cockabendy, who was charged with sounding a horn to assemble a mob.'[Tuckey's Cork Remembrancer]" (source: Richard and Dorothea Townshend, An Officer of the Long Parliament and his Descendants (London, 1892 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 161-162.)
See "The Belfast Cockabendy" [for a historical character of this name]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD81721

Cockfight, The

See Cock-Fight, The (File: VWL027)

Cockies of Bungaree, The

DESCRIPTION: The unemployed worker takes a job clearing for a cocky at Bungaree. He finds that the working conditions are miserable, and the cocky expects him to be at work before dawn. (Within days the singer concludes that anything is better than this, and quits)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, _A Guide to Australian Folklore_, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 68, claim it can be traced back at least to the 1890s)
KEYWORDS: unemployment work farming Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 128-129, "The Cockies of Bungaree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 104-105, "The Cockies of Bungaree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 264-266, "Cockies of Bungaree" (1 text)
DT, COCKBUNG* COCKBUN2*
Roud #20415
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "The Cockies of Bungaree" (on JGreenway01)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Cockies of Bungaree" (on Lloyd3, Lloyd08) (Lloyd4, Lloyd08)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Stringybark Cockatoo" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "Rhynie" (theme)
NOTES [351 words]: A "cocky," according to a folk etymology I saw somewhere, is a farmer who owns land so poor that it can't raise anything but cockatoos. This may be false. Morrris, pp. 92-93, defines the term "Cockatoo": "A small farmer, called earlier in Tasmania a Cockatooer (q.v.). The name was originally given in contempt... but it is now used by the farmers themselves. Cocky is a common abbreviation.... After the gold fever, circa 1860, the selectors swarmed over the country and ate up the substance of the squatters; hence they were called Cockatoos. The word is also used adjectivally." (Morris also cites it as a verb, "To be a farmer.")
Morris, p. 93, cites many examples of how the term was originally understood; one from 1867 is typical: "These small farmers are called cockatoos in Australia by the squatters or sheep-farmers, who dislike them for buying up the best bits on their runs; and say that, like the cockatoos, the small freeholder alights on good ground, extracts all he can from it, and then flies away to 'fresh fields and pastures new.'"
On the other hand, Learmonth, p. 120, offers "Cocky. A small farmer, often qualified, e.g. as in Cow Cocky for dairy farmers. Formerly cockatoo, the origin of this use is not certain; it may date from a convict term for a petty criminal, or refer to the birds of that name in a suggested likeness of habit, in that the smaller farmer, as opposed to the squatter, had to scratch for his livelihood. Another explanation is that large numbers of cockatoos were attracted by grubs living in ring-barked trees."
Ramson offers "Chiefly used of a small farmer but now often applied to a substantial landowner or to the rural interest generally" -- and does not cite a usage earlier than 1873.
Some versions refer to the cocky's wife "whipping the cat." NewZealandDictionary, p. 313, defines "to whip the cat" as "to complain, to express useless regret, to 'cry over spilt milk.'"
Bungaree, a short way north of Melbourne, lies within a large area of such poor land. (Even in the settled parts of Australia, the majority of the land is very bad.) - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: FaE128

Cockle Shells and Silver Bells

See Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) (File: K149)

Cockledemoy (The French Invasion)

DESCRIPTION: A cock on a dung hill sees a bull he wants to kill. He raises a navy and impresses ducks for a crew. He would lead the attack but his hen fears he'd be killed. His courage fails and he stays home but sends the ducks to fight John Bull.
AUTHOR: William Ball (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: "shortly after 1798" (according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: war chickens animal humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 31, "Cockledemoy" or "The French Invasion" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [232 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "The Cock is France, or perhaps Napoleon, and the Bull is England." - BS
The meaning depends much on the exact dating of the song, I think. After General Hoche's invasion of Ireland failed (for which see, e.g., "The Shan Van Vogt"), Napoleon twice contemplated amphibious action against Britain. In 1798, he considered invading Ireland -- but instead went to Egypt, leaving only a few ships and soldiers to sail for Ireland; they arrived after the 1798 rebellion had failed and accomplished very little.
In 1804-1805, Napoleon went for bigger things: He was going to invade England itself, and built up his forces dramatically. But then he headed east to fight the Third Coalition, leaving his fleet to be beaten at Trafalgar.
Either dating fits the events in the song, obviously, but all those impresseed ducks sound more like the inexperienced French navy of Trafalgar. The navy of 1798 wasn't any better, but it didn't send so many involuntary sailors to Ireland.
William Ball was a writer of humorous verse about Irish history; in this index, see "Cockledemoy (The French Invasion)," "Do as They Do in France," "The Dying Rebel," and "Faithless Boney (The Croppies' Complaint)" -- though he doesn't seem to have made much impression on the wider world of literature; I have been unable to find any of his writings in any of my literary references. - RBW
File: Moyl031

Cockles and Mussels

See Molly Malone (File: FSWB124B)

Cocky Doodle Doodle Doo (All Around the Kitchen)

DESCRIPTION: "All around the kitchen, cocky doodle doodle doo" (x2). "Now stop right still, cocky...." "Put your hand on your hop... Let your right foot slip.... Then do like this...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 76-77, "Cocky Doodle Doodle Doo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11599
File: LxSi076B

Cocky Robin

See Who Killed Cock Robin? (File: SKE74)

Cod Banging

DESCRIPTION: A fisherman remembers encountering a big barque and surviving the fight. Now the crowd meets them at Harwich pier to crack cod fish skulls. He concedes he may not have "got it complete 'Cause I've only been in the trade about a week"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (recording, Bob Hart)
KEYWORDS: battle fishing sea ship humorous talltale
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
Roud #1747
RECORDINGS:
Bob Hart, "Cod Banging" (on Voice02)
NOTES [10 words]: Harwich is an East Anglia port about 65 miles from London. - BS
File: RcCodBan

Cod Fish Song

DESCRIPTION: A man brings home a "cod fish," and places it in the chamberpot for safekeeping. When his wife goes to relieve herself, the codfish jumps up her "you-know-what." Husband and wife chase the fish around the room, and kill it with a broom.
AUTHOR: Oscar Brand has claimed a copyright on this version of "The Sea Crab."
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1955
KEYWORDS: animal bawdy humorous husband wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap) Britain(England(South)) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 5-6, "Cod Fish Song" (1 text)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 288-289, "Little Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #149
RECORDINGS:
Nora Cleary, "The Codfish" (on Voice07)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sea Crab"
File: EM005

Cod Liver Ile

See Cod Liver Oil (File: FSWB169A)

Cod Liver Oil

DESCRIPTION: Singer complains of having married a sickly wife. After he introduces her to cod liver oil, she goes wild for it, demanding it all the time. He warns young men to avoid sickly women, or they'll "end up a-swimmin' in cod liver oil!"
AUTHOR: possibly Johnny Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: disease marriage medicine humorous doctor
FOUND IN: US Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 155, "Cod Liver Oil Song" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 48-49, "Cod-Liver Oil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 28, "Cod-Liver Oil" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 30, "The Cod Liver Oil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, pp. 77-78, "Cod Liver Oil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 116-117, "Cod Liver Ile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 169 "Cod Liver Oil" (1 text)
DT, CODLIVR*
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke, _Burke's Popular Songs_, self-published, 1929 (a PDF is available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. [13], "If Your Wife Is Run Down, GIve Her Cod Liver Oil" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 18, "If Your Wife Is Run Down, Give Her Cod Liver Oil" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #61, pp. 97, "If Your Wife Is Run Down, Give Her Cod Liver Oil" (1 text)
Roud #4221
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Cod Liver Oil Song" (on NFOBlondahl02); "Cod Liver Oil" (on NFOBlondahl03)
Flanagan Brothers, "Cod Liver Oil" (Vocalion 84010, n.d.)
Jack Myrick, "Cod Liver Oil" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.34(89), "Dr. de Jongh's Cod Liver Oil ," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fair Do" (tune)
cf. "The Quilty Burning" (tune)
cf. "The Half Crown" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
When Your Old Woman Takes a Cramp in Her Craw Give Her Cod Liver Oil (by Johnny Burke) (Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 17) (Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #62, pp. 99-100) (Johnny Burke, _Burke's Popular Songs_, self-published, 1929 (a PDF is available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. [8])
Three Bottles a Week (by Johnny Burke) (Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #65, pp. 103-104) (Johnny Burke, _Burke's Popular Songs_, self-published, 1929 (a PDF is available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. [21]) (Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 47)
NOTES [373 words]: Cod liver oil, which contains Vitamin D in quantity, was touted as a cure-all in the 19th and early 20th centuries -- indeed, it was still being given to gagging children when I was growing up in the 1950s. - PJS
The theme is not very different from that of "The Dumb Wife" [Laws Q5], in which a man, to his eventual sorrow, goes to a doctor -- sometimes named John -- to cure his otherwise perfect wife of her inability to speak.
Newfoundland authorship attribution is not always to be treated as gospel. Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing notes "there are several popular versions of Cod-Liver Oil, the original to be credited to John Burke." Burke (1851-1930) is a very well known author of songs in Newfoundland. In Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing's version the potion comes from "dear Doctor John" and not Doctor de [or D.E.] Jongh. If Burke is indeed the author his work made its way to Ireland. - BS
I am not confident of the attribution to Burke, either, but he is not a bad possibility; Newfoundlanders were naturally deeply concerned with cod, including its oil. And Burke's best work was humorous material of this sort. I also note that he produced a sequel or rewrite. He did that at least one other time as well (with "Trinity Cake").
Also, Burke might have had a motive: Gerald S. Doyle, of the Doyle songsters, processed and sold cod liver oil (DictNewfLabrador, p. 87). So Doyle might have wanted something to promote it -- or Burke might have wanted to spoof Doyle's business.
The Newfoundland versions seem to be Burke-based (e.g. Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland's text has the "doctor, Dear John" error), but Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland list a bunch of songsters that printed the song in the 1870s or so -- a time when Burke was alive but not yet well known as a writer. Curiously, I can find no hint that any of those four songsters ever existed.
Also curious is the fact that Newfoundlanders did not always refer to this product as "cod liver oil." Sometimes it was "cod blubber," although the exact scope of that term seems to have varied, or simply "cod oil" (StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 105).
For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: FSWB169A

Cod Liver Oil Song

See Cod Liver Oil (File: FSWB169A)

Cod-Liver Oil

See Cod Liver Oil (File: FSWB169A)

Code of the Mountains

DESCRIPTION: "The code of the mountains way down in the backwoods... the unwritten law. There Harry and Joe Brown way down in the backwoods... shot Charlie McGraw." They find McGraw; he pleads for mercy; the shoot and bury him, because that's the code
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Roberts/Agey-InThePine)
KEYWORDS: crime death punishment execution | vigilante
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine 75, "Code of the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [38 words]: Nowhere does this song specify that McGraw's crime was. It is not clear to me whether this is a feud song, or if McGraw dishonored a Brown woman, or if he did something else. I wish we had other texts so we could find out. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RAInPi75

Codfish Shanty, The

See Cape Cod Girls (File: LoF023)

Cody Stampede

DESCRIPTION: "The pains of old Wyoming are wild and wooly still, I'mtellin' you that hearts are true in the lad of Buff'lo Bill." The singer celebrates the festivities in the first days of July. The singer celebrates the people of Cody -- especially the girls
AUTHOR: claimed by Powder River Jack Lee
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Powder River Jack & Kitty Lee Songbook)
KEYWORDS: cowboy home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, pp. 30-31, "Cody Stampede" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: PRJL030

Coe Creek Song

DESCRIPTION: "On Coe Creek three partners did dwell: Cool, Curtis, and Nye, we knew them right well." They own a swmill. The singer lists all the crew who work in the mill -- and complains, when you ask for pay, the bosses give "an order on the company store"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: lumbering moniker
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 107, "Coe Creek Song" (1 text)
Roud #18182
File: BeLo107

Coffee Blues

DESCRIPTION: The singer just has to have that "loving spoonful." The singer on his way to bring back his woman, and the preacher in his pulpit, need that loving spoonful before they start. Whiskey and tea don't satisfy the singer like that loving spoonful.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt04)
KEYWORDS: nonballad drugs
FOUND IN:
Roud #20956
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Coffee Blues" (on MJHurt04)
NOTES [28 words]: Hurt introduces this song with praise for Maxwell House coffee which, he says, has printed on the can, "good to the last drop." "And if I can get just a spoonful...." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: RcCoffBl

Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle)

DESCRIPTION: Playparty in two or three parts: "Coffee grows on white oak tree, The river flows with brandy o'er, Go choose someone to roam with you...." "Four in the middle, you can't get around..." (may have more verses) "Railroad, steamboat, river, and canal..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (JAFL 27)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting nonballad love train drink
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 33-35=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 161-163, "Coffee Grows in a White Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 121-124, "Coffee Grows in a White Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 524, "Four in the Middle" (1 text plus 8 excerpts and/or fragments, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 78, "Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees" (7 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more, but almost all mixed -- all except "H" have the "Coffee grows" stanza, but "A" also has verses from "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss"; "and "C" through "H" are mostly "Little Pink"; "B" is mixed with "Raccoon" or some such)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #117, "Coffee Grows on White-Oak Trees" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 154, p. 301, "Coffee Grows on White-Oak Trees" (1 short text); also 85, p. 212, "Going to the Mexican War" (1 fragment, with the "Knapsack on my Shoulder" text and also the "Coffee Grows" stanza)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 33, "Coffee Grows on White-Oak Trees" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 105-106, "Hold My Mule" (1 text, 1 tune, which Scarborough implies is a "Jim Along, Josie" by-blow but which appears to be built on the "Four in the Middle" segment of this song)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 97, "Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 86-87, "Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees"; pp. 102-103, "Four in the Middle" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 31, "Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RAGECANL*
Roud #735
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bheir Me O" (melody has same first lines as "Coffee Grows")
cf. "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Dance Josey" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Love Grows Under the White Oak Tree" (initial lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Raging Canal
NOTES [133 words]: For a Texas by-blow of this, see "Dance Josey." Both are ring games, described by Abernethy-SinginTexas as being played at a "Josey party."
The Chad Mitchell Trio songbook states unequivocally that the first line of this should be "Coffee grows on white FOLKS' trees," making it a Black protest against the whites who owned slaves (or, at least, all the property). An interesting thought, but you'd think at least a few collectors would have let the "white folks'" reading through -- but the only source that seems to have that reading, out of dozens of collections, is Talley. (Who, admittedly, had it from Black informant.) Furthermore, it doesn't explain the second line, equally impossible, about rivers running with brandy. And this playparty seems to have been well known to white children. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R524

Coffee Grows in a White Oak Tree

See Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle) (File: R524)

Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees

See Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle) (File: R524)

Coffee Grows on White-Oak Trees

See Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle) (File: R524)

Coffee Hot, Coffee Cold

See Pease Porridge Hot (File: Newe071)

Coffin To Bind Me Down, The

DESCRIPTION: Response for every line is "The coffin to bind me down." Verse lines include "a silver spade to dig my grave," "a golden chain to let me down," "a folding sheet upon my lips"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious death floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, pp. 22-23, "The Coffin To Bind Me Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Bart022A

Cogie o' Yill, A

DESCRIPTION: "A cogie o' yill (ale), and a pickle ait meal, And a daintie wee drappie o' whiskey Was our forefathers' dose...." The singer praises the martial exploits of the Scots, and their diet, concluding, "Then hey for the whisky, and hey for the meal...."
AUTHOR: Andrew Sheriffs; tune by Robert Macintosh (d.1807) (source: Johnson-Stenhouse)
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 (according to Johnson-Stenhouse)
KEYWORDS: drink food patriotic Scotland nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #144, p. 1, "A Cogie o' Yill" (1 text)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 329-330, "A Cogie o' Yill" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 262-263, "A Cogie o' Yill" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, William Stenhouse, editor, The Scotish Musical Museum (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1839 (Reissue of 1803 edition) (("Digitized by Internet Archive"), Vol. VI, #545, p 564 Illustrations p. 479, "A Cogie of Ale and a Pickle Ait-Meal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6316
NOTES [113 words]: For a clearly related song -- one must be a derivative of the other -- see Broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(81), "The Scottish Coggie o' Brose" ("When our auld scottish lads, wi' their claymores an' plaids"), unknown, no date. For this broadside, for example, the chorus is "Then hey for the coggie, and hey for the ale, And hey for the whisky, and hey for the meal; When mix'd a' thegither they do unco weel To mak' a chiel cheery and brisk aye."; the chorus from Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong is "Then hey for the whiskey, and hey for the meal, And hey for the cogie, and hey for the yill, Gin ye steer a' thegither they'll do unco weel, To keep a chiel cheery and brisk aye." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: FBS329

Cogie, The

See Cauld Kale in Aberdeen (I) (File: GrD81872)

Cohabs, The

DESCRIPTION: "Now, you cohabs, still dodging around, You'd better keep on underground, For if with #2 you're found, They'll put you into limbo." The song details the fate awaiting men discovered living with two or more wives (i.e. "cohabs," or "cohabitators")
AUTHOR: George Hicks? (Source: Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah's informant F. Y. Morse)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle)
KEYWORDS: love wife prison crime humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1890 - Mormon church abandons polygamy.
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #222, "The Cohabs" (1 text)
Cheney-MormonSongs, p. 82, "Put You into Limbo" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, p. 173, "(All you cohabs that dodge around)" (1 fragment); p. 332, "Put You Into Limbo" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 223, "The Cohabs" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10836
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The King of the Cannibal Islands" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
NOTES [171 words]: Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah appears to believe that this song dates from before 1890, when the Mormon Church abandoned polygamy. But, of course, some Mormons continued to secretly practice polygamy, so it is possible that it is newer.
Claudia Lauper Bushman and Richard Lyman Bushman, Building the Kingdom: A History of Mormons in America, Oxford University Press, 1999, 2001, p. 70, say "Polygamy per se was difficult to prove, so suspects were tried instead for 'unlawful cohabitation,' resulting in 1,004 convictions between 1884 and 1893, with 31 more convictions for polygamy itself.... The number of convictions would no doubt have been higher if many people had not simply disappeared from view, avoiding the law in an 'underground' of safehouses and hiding places. Federal marshals chased after, tracked down, and hunted the 'cohabs....' Church affairs slowed to a halt during the raids, with most leaders in jail or in hiding. Still, the Mormons did not capitulate." Until 1890, anyway, when they gave in. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hubb222

Cois Abhainn Na Sead

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer's lover is like the vision in an aisling. He wonders if he should continue to pursue her or leave the country.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting love beauty Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 40, "Cois Abhainn Na Sead" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Cois Abhainn Na Sead" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [41 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. The recording includes only the first two verses. - BS
For discussion of the aisling form, see the notes to "Eileen McMahon" and "Granuaile." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC040

Cold and Raw

See Mowing the Barley (Cold and Raw) (File: ShH60)

Cold Black River Stream, The

DESCRIPTION: A young man (Corkery) goes to work on McCormick's drive on the Black River even though his family begs him to stay at home. In the course of his work, he jumps from a log into the stream and, because he cannot swim, drowns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger death drowning
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #41, "The Cold Black River Stream" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #3679
File: FowL41

Cold Blow and a Rainy Night

See Let Me In This Ae Nicht (File: DTaenich)

Cold Blows the Wind

See The Unquiet Grave [Child 78] (File: C078)

Cold Blows the Winter's Wind

See The Unquiet Grave [Child 78] (File: C078)

Cold Frosty Morning

See On a Cold Frosty Morning (File: R283)

Cold Haily Windy Night

See Let Me In This Ae Nicht (File: DTaenich)

Cold Icy Hand

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Crying O Lord"(3x) "Death going to lay his cold icy hand on me" Verse: "Sinner, you better pray, ..., Or your soul be lost on judgement day...." "Sinner, be careful how you walk on the cross, ..., Your foot may slip and your soul be lost...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 8, "Cold Icy Hand" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, The Books of American Negro Spirituals (New York: Viking Press, 1969 (copyright 1925, 1926)), Book 2, pp. 93-99, "Death's Gwineter Lay His Cold Icy Hands on Me" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #16659
NOTES [11 words]: The description is based on the Barton-OldPlantationHymns text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart008

Cold Iron Door

See Behind the Cold Iron Door (File: MunLBCID)

Cold Mountains

DESCRIPTION: "Cold mountains here are all around me, Cold waters gliding down the stream; Oft in my sleep I think I find her But when I wake it's all a dream." The singer seeks his love, who is gone or has rejected him or is left behind at home; he bids her farewell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love separation farewell
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 277, "Cold Mountains" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 277, "Cold Mountains" (2 tune plus text excerpta)
Roud #16858
RECORDINGS:
Texas Gladden, "Cold Mountains" (on USTGladden01)
File: Br3277

Cold Scenes of Winter

See The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter [Laws H12] (File: LH12)

Cold Stormy Weather

See Reap, Boys, Reap (Cold Stormy Weather, Who'll Be the Binder?) (File: Newe022)

Cold Water Song

DESCRIPTION: "I asked a sweet robin one evening in May" what he sang about. "I am only a-singing the cold water song. Teetotal's the very first word of my lay ... All the birds to the cold water army belong"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: drink lullaby bird
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 82, "Cold Water Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB082 (Partial)
Roud #2767
NOTES [36 words]: Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick states that this song has been collected twice in the Maritimes as a lullaby, which is an interesting end for an anti-alcohol song. Creighton thinks it comes from Britain. - BS
File: CrSNB082

Cold Winter is Coming

See Remember the Poor (File: Wa161)

Cold Winter Night

See Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove) (File: Wa097)

Cole Younger [Laws E3]

DESCRIPTION: Cole Younger tells of his career as a robber, first with his brother Bob and then as part of the James Gang. His career ends when the gang tries to rob the bank in Northfield, MN. Though the Jameses escape, the robbery fails and Cole is captured
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax, Cowboy Songs)
KEYWORDS: outlaw robbery prison punishment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1876 - The raid by the James Gang and the Younger Brothers on the Northfield Bank
1903 - Cole Younger released from prison (despite being sentenced to life for murder)
1916 - Death of Cole Younger
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,So,SW)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Laws E3, "Cole Younger"
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 117-121, "Cole Younger" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Randolph 131, "Cole Younger" (3 texts plus an excerpt, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 143-146, "Cole Younger" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 131A)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 166, "Cole Younger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 80-81, "Cole Younger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 19, "Cole Younger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 38, "Cole Younger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, pp. 115-116, "Cole Younger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 182, "Cole Younger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 46 "Bandit Cole Younger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 94, "Cole Younger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 59, "Cole Younger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 40-41, "Cole Younger" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 456-457, "Cole Younger" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 321-322, "Cole Younger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 188-190, "Cole Younger" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 204, "Cole Younger" (1 text)
DT 356, COLEYNGR
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 20, #5 (1971), p, 9, "Cole Younger" (1 text, 1 tune, the Dock Boggs version)
Roud #2243
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "Cole Younger" (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1)
Edward L. Crain, "Bandit Cole Younger" ((Conqueror 8010 [poss. as Cowboy Ed Crain]/Broadway 4055 [as Cowboy Carson], 1932; rec. 1931) (Columbia 15710-D [as Edward L. Carin (The Texas Cowboy)], 1932; rec. 1931; on AAFM1, WhenIWas1)
Warde Ford, "Cole Younger" (AFS 4197 B2, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Oscar Gilbert, "Cole Younger" (on LomaxCD1705)
Glenn Ohrlin, "Cole Younger" (on Ohrlin01)
Marc Williams, "Cole Younger" (Brunswick 544, c. 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesse James (I)" (characters)
cf. "Jesse James (III)" (characters and historical background)
NOTES [2858 words]: Henry Washington Younger was the father of quite a brood: Fourteen children in all (O'Neal, p. 346, etc.). Four of these children would eventually become outlaws: Thomas Coleman ("Cole"), the seventh child, 1844-1916; James ("Jim"), 1848-1902; John, 1851-1874; and Robert ("Bob"), 1853-1889.
Born in Cass County, Missouri; the Youngers came of a good family; both their father and their grandfather were referred to as judges (Yeatman, p. 115) -- though Croy, p. 4, notes that "judge" in this context does not mean what we think it does; it was more nearly equivalent to the modern term "Commisioner." Wellman, p. 56, says that people also called Henry Washington Younger "Colonel," but admits that the title was probably honorary. Despite being a slaveholder, he was a Unionist during the Civil War (Croy, p. 6), but even so, he was killed and his property heavily damaged by Union forces (Croy, p. 17; Wellman, pp. 56-58).
According to Yeatman, "If anyone ever had even a remote excuse for outlawry, or any claim to anything close to a Robin Hood title, [the Younger brothers] did." Croy, pp. 16-17, tells how the patriarch, Judge H. W. Younger, was robbed and killed during the war. (Hence, perhaps, the stanza in some versions, "And then we started for Texas, where brother Bob did say, That on fast horses we must ride in revenge of our father's day... And we'll fight them anti-guerillas until our dying day.")
Cole had seemingly been a good student in his early years, and not given to trouble (Croy, p. 5). But the conflict on the Kansas-Missouri border apparently changed him, and the Civil War in Missouri made it worse. He was the first of the family to join the Confederate forces; Croy, pp. 11-12, says he joined Sterling Price's militia on July 5, 1861 (for Price, see "Sterling Price"; also "The Battle of Elkhorn Tavern, or The Pea Ridge Battle" [Laws A12] and "The War in Missouri in '61."). He joined the Quantrill raiders (for whom see "Charlie Quantrell," etc.) somewhat later, perhaps October 1861 (Croy, p. 12) or early 1862 (Settle, p. 23); he presumably first met Frank James in that company.
According to Croy, p. 12, he killed his first man on November 10, 1861.
Eventually a large part of the Quantrill force broke up to follow other leaders, of whom "Bloody Bill" Anderson was the most important. Finally, in August 1862, Cole joined the regular Confederate forces (Croy, p. 17), and was part of the rather silly Confederate probe into New Mexico; Cole ended the war in California (Settle, p. 26). By that time brother Jim had also become a guerrilla (Settle, p. 23).
It was some time in the mid-1860s that Cole Younger had whatever relationship he had with "Belle Starr" (Mira Belle Shirley). O'Neal and others say that they met in 1863, but Wellman, p. 75, dates their serious relationship to 1866. Croy, pp. 58-60, even describes some of their conversations of this period. What is certain is that the teenage Belle had a daughter, whom she called Pearl Younger. But what really happened is almost impossible to know -- the only real witnesses were Belle and Cole, and neither one had much reputation for truth-telling, and neither had much reason to be truthful in this case, either. All Settle will admit, e.g. (p. 212) is that Cole admitted to knowing Belle. Fortunately, the issue need not detain us.
After the war, Cole was the first of the brothers to be regarded as an outlaw, though there seems to be no absolute proof of his criminal behavior at the time. (Wellman, p. 65, says that the Youngers and the Jameses turned to robbery within seven months of the end of the war. But he offers no evidence of this. It sounds as if he has it from newspapers of 1874, which were blaming all available unsolved robberies on the James/Younger gang. Wellman on the same page says that the Jameses and Youngers were first cousins, which none of the more serious biographies support.) John Younger was the first to be directly involved with the law; he killed a Texas sheriff in 1871, and was killed in a shootout with the Pinkertons on March 17, 1874; two Pinkertons died in the process (Yeatman, p. 116). From then on, there is no question but that the surviving Youngers were bandits during their brief careers before the Northfield robbery -- though Wellmann, p. 99, describes them as acting like model citizens and singing in a Dallas church choir.
Although I know of no Minnesota version of this song, the Northfield Bank incident is one of the most celebrated events in Minnesota folklore, and is still commemorated today. Northfield, about forty miles south of the Twin Cities, was and remains a quiet college town; this is the Big Event in town history.
Although a few people claim there were nine outlaws (Huntington, p. 1, and Dellinger, pp. 90-116 prints a part of an article by John Koblas that claims to be "Confessions of the Ninth Man"), the overwhelming weight of evidence indicates that eight men involved in the September 7, 1876 robbery: Charlie Pitts (the name he was using at this time; his birth name was apparently Samuel Wells; O'Neil, pp. 336-337), Bill Stiles, Clell Miller, the three surviving Youngers (Cole, Bob, and Jim), and Frank and Jesse James (Yeatman, pp. 172-175; the description of the robbery below is also mostly from his pages except as noted. It should be mentioned that details are somewhat incomplete; Huntington, p. 11, observes that eyewitnesses did not tell a completely consistent tale).
Many of the details of the song are accurate; others are wrong. Some texts refer to the "God-forsaken country" of Minnesota. Some of us like it -- but this may be a reference to conditions in 1877. According to Yeatman, p. 170, much of western Minnesota was plagued by locusts in that year, causing severe distress. The James/Younger gang may even have decided against robbing the bank in Mankato (a larger, and presumably richer, town than Northfield) due to the harsh conditions -- though Huntington, pp. 6-7, claims that they were actually about to start the robbery when a large crowd showed up and made then decide not to continue.
They definitely did not understand local conditions, though -- before the robbery, they apparently tried to bet the restaurant owner that Minnesota would vote Democratic in 1876 (Wellman, p. 101). In fact, Minnesota *never* voted Democratic until it voted for Franklin Roosevelt in 1932! (After which it flipped completely; from 1932 to 2004, it voted Democratic in every election except 1952, 1956, and 1972.) Somewhere in there, the bandits may have picked up a heavy load of booze as well (see Settle, p. 95, where Cole Younger describes how they got drunk). The robbers in the bank apparently smelled of alcohol, and they certainly were incompetent in their behavior -- it makes you wonder how they had managed to get away with so much in Missouri.
"We stationed out our pickets" and "We are the noted Younger boys": of the eight robbers, only three -- Yeatman thinks it was Charlie Pitts, Bob Younger, and one of the James Boys, and Huntington, p. 13, gives the same list -- went inside. (Brant, p. 178, lists the men inside as Bob Younger and Frank and Jesse James; this apparently came from an 1897 report by Cole Younger, but Brant does not give enough information to trace his source. Wellman suggest it was Pitts, Bob Younger, and Jesse James. Whoever it was that entered the bank, they certainly did not proclaim their identities; for years the Youngers and the Jameses had been vary careful not to admit who they were.) Two robbers -- Cole Younger and Clell Miller -- stayed outside the door to stop anyone who might try to get in. Three more were posted at a greater distance.
Huntington, p. 17, reports that the bank was being reconstructed, so the employees were in "temporary quarters," more vulnerable than they would ordinarily have been. It did not prevent them from putting up resistance.
The first trouble came when one J. S. Allen tried to enter the bank. Miller stopped him from getting in -- but Allen managed to escape around the corner of the building and raised an alarm. Huntington, p. 25, notes that it was prairie chicken season, and many of the town's best hunters were out in the field, but within minutes, the townfolk were arming themselves and fighting back; the whole robbery and gunfight, according to Huntington, p. 38, lasted but seven minutes.
"The cashier being brave and bold denied our noted band; Jesse James fired the shot that killed that noble man" and "in vain we sought the money drawer while the battle raged outside": There were three employees in the bank when the robbers entered: teller Alonzo Bunker, acting cashier Joseph Lee Heywood, and assistant bookkeeper Frank J. Wilcox. They seem mostly to have played dumb -- e.g. claiming they couldn't unlock the safe (which apparently was literally true, since it was already unlocked). Cashier Heywood apparently smashed Frank James's arm in the safe (Brant, p. 179, but this from a source that, by its publication date alone, *cannot* have had reliable information).
The robbers proceeded to fumble around, missing not only the safe but the money drawer; their final take was reported to be $26.70. Bunker tried to flee and was shot in the shoulder.
Meanwhile, the townsfolk, having been warned, were starting to fight back. Few were armed, but enough managed to scrape up weapons that it was clear the robbers had to flee. As the inside crew left the bank, one of the robbers shot Heywood in the head after slashing his throat (Settle, p. 92; Huntington, p.41, etc. does not mention the throat-slashing). It seems to have been generally assumed that Jesse was the guilty party; he was pretty definitely the most violent of the gang. There was no reliable eyewitness testimony; Huntington, p. 24, merely said it was one of the robbers, unidentified. On the other hand, Cole Younger -- the last survivor of the Northfield raid -- would report, two days before his death on March 21, 1916, that it was Frank James who fired the fatal shot. To be sure, this was forty years later and Cole was dying -- and he wasn't inside.
A Swedish immigrant, Nicolas Gustavson, was killed outside the bank when he failed to understand (English-language) orders to clear the street (Settle, p. 92; Huntington, p. 16), with O'Neal blaming his death specifically on Cole (p. 348); several other Northfield residents were wounded.
By the time the gang fled town, two of them (Clell Miller and Bill Stiles, their primary guide) were dead, and Cole Younger had a hip wound plus some minor injuries from buckshot, while Bob Younger had been hit in the arm, nearly disabling him. They had also lost some horses, which handicapped them significantly; they ended up stealing various animals, but at least one was a plow horse and not much help (Yeatman, p. 177; Huntington, pp. 48-49 describes two unusable horses they requisitioned). In addition, Bob Younger had lost so much blood that he fainted in Shieldsville; they had to stop to have him attended to (p. 178), costing them more time. They finally decided to proceed on foot.
On September 13, near Mankato, the gang split up -- O'Neal, p. 348, says that Jesse wanted to abandon or kill Bob Younger, who could not move quickly (cf. Settle, p. 95). The other Youngers, who had wounds of their own, refused, so instead of abandoning Bob, they split into two groups. Charlie Pitts and the three Youngers formed one party; Frank and Jesse proceeded on their own. (The hope may have been that the fast-moving Jameses would lead the authorities away from the slower Younger party. It worked for a time -- Huntington, pp. 60-61, says that everyone went off after the Jameses, and thought the whole gang had escaped when they vanished into South Dakota -- but only for a time.) A romantic youngster near Madelia, Minnesota encountered them, was sure he had seen the robbers, and hurried off to tell the authorities (Huntington, pp. 64-65)
On September 21, a posse caught up with the Younger party at Hanska Slough near Madelia (the fact that they had gotten only that far -- Madelia is only 25 miles from Mankato -- shows how lost and hungry and hurt they were). In the shootout, three members of the posse were very lightly injured (Huntington, pp. 70-71). But the robbers were hit hard. Pitts was killed; Jim Younger lost several teeth to a bullet (Croy, p. 129, say that a doctor, working on his facial wound, extracted a section of his jaw with two teeth attached; Settle, p. 163, notes that he would live mostly on liquids for the rest of his life), and Cole Younger added more buckshot wounds to his collection (according to O'Neal, p. 348, he had eleven wounds, Jim five, and Bob four). According to Yeatman, p. 182, Cole wanted to fight on, but Bob talked him out of it; in Huntington's account (p. 71), only Bob was even able to stand up to surrender.
They apparently became celebrity prisoners (Trenerry, p. 95), but that didn't keep them from being charged. According to Huntington, p. 77, all three were charged as accessories in the murder of Heywood, with attacking Bunker with intent to do great bodily harm, and with robbery of the Northfield Bank. Cole Younger was charged with the murder of Gustavson, and the others as accessories. I'm not sure that any of these could have been proved, but they obviously were guilty of shooting it out with the police, which was problem enough.
Minnesota, as of this writing, has managed to resist the urge to reinstate the death penalty for those too poor or too non-white to have fancy lawyers. In 1876, it *did* have the death penalty -- but under a law of 1868 it required that a jury apply the penalty, not a judge. This law had never been fully tested in the courts, but it was widely interpreted to mean that a defendant who pled guilty to murder could not be hanged (Trenerry, p. 100). So the Youngers, rather than risk the gallows, formally pled guilty to sundry charges on December 11 (Settle, p. 94; Yeatman, p. 191), and were sentenced to life imprisonment (Huntington, p. 78).
Cole and Bob Younger became model prisoners. Jim Younger, always moody and now suffering from a speech impediment and an inability to eat solid foods due to his wounds, was perhaps not quite such a good inmate. But many thought they had earned release, including two of Minnesota's most important political figures, Alexander Ramsey and Henry Sibley (Huntington, pp. xx-xi). Then Bob Younger died in prison of tuberculosis in 1889. That made the pressure even greater; a law known formally as the "Deming Bill" and informally as the "Younger Act" was passed allowing parole for those who were serving life sentences (Huntington, p. xxiii). Jim and Cole were given parole and set free in 1901, a quarter century after their sentencing.
Upon his release, Jim fell in love with a girl half his age, but his parole did not permit him to marry (Settle, pp. 162-163). Nor could he work most jobs, because his signature, as a convicted felon, did not carry legal weight (Huntington, p. xxv). The girl involved petitioned the governor that he be pardoned (Trenerry, pp. 104-105), but this was denied. Jim shot himself on October 19, 1902, declaring himself in his suicide note a Socialist and supporter of women's rights (Huntington, p. xxv).
In reaction to Jim's death, Cole -- who up to that point had been working as a tombstone salesman -- was given a conditional pardon on the condition that he never return to Minnesota (Trenerry, p. 105); he went on to open a Wild West Show with Frank James. That was rather a disaster (see the notes to "Jesse James (III)" for a general history of the James family, including that show), and brought him some condemnation for taking such a large part (Huntington, p. xxvi), but Cole from 1905 to 1908 ran Cole Younger's Coliseum, which was a more sedate exhibition of guns, saddles, and other gear. He also wrote an autobiography (though this is widely regarded as being not very accurate). He finally died in 1916, the last survivor of the Northfield robbers.
A recent find of a prison journal from the period around 1880 (soon to be displayed by the Minnesota Historical Society) lists the brothers as frequently sick in prison, but Cole Younger did found a prison newsletter. The Stillwater area is still the home of one of Minnesota's leading prisons, too; I guess things don't change much in Minnesota. Though the town of Stillwater is now more noteworthy for its site on the St. Croix river, and the actual site of the old Stillwater prison was burned in 2002 in an act of vandalism.
It took the town of Northfield many years to decide that Jesse James and Cole Younger were part of its heritage. For many years it resisted attempts to put up a monument to the Great Robbery, preferring to point out its rich contribution to education (it is home to Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges, the former in particular noted for its extremely strict standards). Not until 1947 did the town start celebrating the anniversary of the robbery (Huntington, p. xxx) -- though now, sixty years later, it has become the biggest day in the town calendar. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: LE03

Coleen Bawn (I)

See William Riley's Courtship [Laws M9] (File: LM09)

Coleen Bawn (II)

See Limerick is Beautiful (Colleen Bawn) (File: OCon012)

Coleraine Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the beauty of Coleraine and the girl who lives there and sings in its valleys. He regrets leaving them behind; he would live there if he could. But he has found work with the fishing fleet (?), and must stay where he is to live
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: work homesickness separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H646, p. 209, "The Coleraine Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH646

Coleraine Regatta

DESCRIPTION: The singer, and many others, set out for the races at Coleraine. The train ride witnesseswild partying. Before it's over, many are separated from those they traveled with. At the course, many things are for sale. The singer gets drunk and falls asleep
AUTHOR: James McCurry ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: racing train party drink
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H36, pp. 74-75, "Coleraine Regatta" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2968
File: HHH036

Colin and Lucy

DESCRIPTION: "Of Leinster, fam'd for maidens fair, Bright Lucy was the grace.... Till luckless love, and pining care, Impair'd her rosy hue." A bell rings, a raven crows in the night; it tells of Colin's marriage to another. She dies; he dies when he learns
AUTHOR: Thomas Tickell
EARLIEST DATE: 1716 (Rimbault)
KEYWORDS: love courting betrayal death marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 312-315, "Lucy and Colin" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques LXXIV, p. 119, "Lucy and Colin" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 478, "Colin and Lucy" (source notes only)
Roud #13919
NOTES [38 words]: This, from all I can see, is just a cheap rewrite of the "Lady Margaret" theme. But Gardner and Chickering claim to have two copies from manuscript. So it's indexed, though I am far from confident of its traditional status. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: GC478b

Colin and Phoebe

See Corydon and Phoebe (File: K125)

Collard Greens

See Greens (File: San347)

Colleen Bawn, The

See Limerick is Beautiful (Colleen Bawn) (File: OCon012)

Colleen Dhas Cruthin Amoe

See The Pretty Girl Milkin' Her Cow (File: San040)

Colleen from Coolbaun, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets Mary Ann O'Donovan, "the colleen from Coolbaun." He proposes marriage to her father, listing his possessions. Her father rejects him as "a rover and a rake" but Mary Ann speaks in his behalf. Her father agrees but with a meager dowry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Voice01)
KEYWORDS: courting dowry marriage wedding drink father
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #9233
RECORDINGS:
Tommy McGrath, "The Colleen from Coolbaun" (on Voice01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Star of County Down" (tune, on Voice01) and references there
NOTES [36 words]: Coolbaun is in County Cork. At the end of Tommy McGrath's version on Voice01 we are invited to the wedding where "we'll drink long life to my charming wife She's the colleen from the Mullanbaun." Is that a surname? - BS
File: RcTCofCo

Colleen from Coolbawn (Sweet Combeana)

DESCRIPTION: "One morning being fair I rode to take the air" down by the river, where the singer sees "my sweet Colleen reu." He describes the features of "sweet Combeana" at length. Now he has lost her, and roves about seeking her night and day, high and low
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (Journal of the Polly)
KEYWORDS: love separation river beauty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 235, "An Old Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9233
File: HGam235

Colleen Oge Astore

See Callino Casturame (Colleen Og a Store; Cailin O Chois tSiure; Happy 'Tis, Thou Blind, for Thee) (File: HHH491)

Colleen Rue, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets and praises Colleen Rue. She rejects his "dissimulation and invocation." He says if he were Hector, Paris, or Orpheus he'd "range through Asia, likewise Arabia, Pennsylvania" to see her face.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (IRPTunney03)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 118, "The Colleen Rue" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 258-259, "Colleen Rue"
Roud #2365
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "The Colleen Rue" (on IRPTunney03)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Colleen Ruadh
NOTES [108 words]: As in "Lough Erne Shore" and "Sheila Nee Iyer," there is no resolution for the Tunney-StoneFiddle version. - BS
A curious set of literary references, this. Orpheus of course went to Hell to bring back Euridice (and then lost her at the end); this very loosely inspired the ballad/romance "King Orfeo" [Child 19]. Paris (Alexander) was the Trojan prince who abandoned his first wife Oenone to hook up with Helen of Sparta (married name: Helen of Troy; for this see especially Ovid's Letter from "Oenone to Paris" in the Heroides). And Hector, while faithful to his wife as far as we can tell from the legends, was not a significant traveler. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: TSF118

Colley's Run

See Canaday-I-O/Michigan-I-O/Colley's Run I-O [Laws C17] (File: LC17)

Collier Lad (II), The

See In Camden Town (File: CrSNB053)

Collier Lad, A

See The Collier Lad (Lament for John Sneddon/Siddon) (File: HHH110)

Collier Lad, The (Lament for John Sneddon/Siddon)

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells her tale of grief: Her love, John (Sneddon), is a collier. She dreams a dream of his death. In the morning, she learns that he has died in a cave-in. They were soon to be married and to travel to America. But he will return no more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: mining death love separation marriage emigration dream mourning
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H110, p. 144, "A Collier Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 25, pp. 64-65,114,166-167, "The Handsome Collier Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #921
RECORDINGS:
John Maguire, "The Handsome Collier Lad" (on IRJMaguire01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The High Blantyre Explosion" [Laws Q35] (theme, characters?)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lament for John Sneddon
Johnny Siddon
File: HHH110

Collier Laddie, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer (or someone) sees a bonnie lass, and steps up to court her. She rejects him; she loves a collier laddie. He goes to her father, offering land and wealth. She still says no. Years later, he turns up poor and begs at the door of girl and collier
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty rejection marriage begging
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #65, p. 1, "The Ploughman Laddie" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan5 991, "The Collier Laddie" (7 texts plus two fragments on pp. 607-608, 3 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 40-42, "The Collier Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 60, "Laird of Johnstone and Miss Jean Macdowall" (1 fragment)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 29-30, "The Collier Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COLLAD COLLAD2*
Roud #3787
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Laird o' Drum" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonnie Jeannie Gordon
The Ploughman's Lass
File: Ord040A

Collier Lass - Love Song

See Whistle Owre the Lave O't (File: GrD71414)

Collier Lass, The

DESCRIPTION: "My name's Polly Parker, I'm come over from Worsley, My father and mother work in a coal mine," and she works there too, to support the large family. She lists the dangers she faced. "And what would you do were it not for our labor?" But they are poor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1854 (broadside Harding B 16(55b))
KEYWORDS: mining mother father hardtimes | coal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 28, "The Collier Lass" (1 text, 1 modern tune)
Roud #V7863
RECORDINGS:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(55b)=Johnson Ballads 1910, "Collier Lass," J. Swindells (Manchester), 1796-1853; also 2806 c.13(180), "The Collier Lass," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866
File: MHFL028

Collier's Bonnie Lassie, The

DESCRIPTION: "The collier has a daughter" of great beauty. "A laird he was that sought her, Rich baith in lands and money." (She declares that she is too young and black to love a laird, and that she will have a man "the colour o' my daddie")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scots Musical Museum, #47)
KEYWORDS: mining love rejection nobility
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, p. 24, "The collier's bonnie lassie" (1 short text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, , p. 57, "The collir's bonnie lassie" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #8410
NOTES [96 words]: There are several early printed texts of this (reportedly Herd, Thomson, Johnson, etc.). Comparing the Scots Musical Museum version with MacColl's version, I have to think they are recensionally different -- the Museum version is a very flowery description of how the laird courts the girl, with no real ending; the MacColl text has her reject him.
I suspect the Museum text is one of its rewrites (not by Burns), and a weak one. But it's possible that the folk process improved a weak song.
The tunes, apart from one measure in the middle, are note-for-note identical. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: MacCS24

Collier's Rant, The

DESCRIPTION: As the singer and his marra/marrer (workmate) go to work, they meet the devil; the singer knocks off his horns and feet. The lights go out, the workmate goes the wrong way, and "Old Nick got me marra and I got the tram." He regrets the loss of his friend.
AUTHOR: Tommy Armstrong ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1809 (Ritson)
LONG DESCRIPTION: As the singer and his marra/marrer/marrow (workmate) are going to work, they meet the devil; the singer knocks the devil's horns and feet off with his pick. He breaks his bottle and spills the drink; the lights go out, the workmate goes the wrong way, and "Old Nick got me marra and I got the tram." He regrets the loss of his friend. Cho: "Follow the horses, Johnnie me laddie...Hey, lad, lie away, me canny lad-o"
KEYWORDS: fight death mining work friend worker Devil
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 74-75, "The Collier's Rant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 10-11, "The Collier's Rant" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, p. 15, "The Collier's Rant" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COLRRANT
ADDITIONAL: Joseph Ritson, The Northumberland Garland (London, 1809 (in Northern Garlands (London, 1810 ("Digitized by Google"))), #13 pp. 88-89, "The Collier's Rant" (1 text)
[Cuthbert Sharp], _The Bishopric Garland, A Collection of Legends, Songs, Ballads, &c Belonging to the County of Durham_, 1834 (references are to the 1969 reprint), pp. 52-54, "The Collier's Rant" (1 text, 1 tune on p. 86)
Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 70-71, "The Collier's Rant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1366
RECORDINGS:
Bob Davenport, "The Collier's Rant" (on IronMuse1)
Pete Elliott, "The Collier's Rant" (on Elliotts01)
NOTES [88 words]: Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs: "Words and tune from The Bishoprick Garland, p. 52." I don't find a tune there but it has an additional verse which, Sharpe writes, "does not appear to possess the same originality and antiquity with the foregoing."
Google Books has a no preview entry, apparently for a 1740 broadside, entitled "The Colliers Rant: a song," beginning "'As me and my marrow was ganning to wark." - BS
For (a little) background on author Tommy Armstrong, see the notes to "Durham Strike (Durham Lockout)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcTColRa

Colly, My Cow

DESCRIPTION: "A story, a sad one, I'll tell you just now, It's all about selling of Colly, my cow," which "will give no more milk to me now." Tom Tinker doesn't want her. The tanner bids three shillings and wins the cow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Halliwell); Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd claim to have seen a version from 1686 or earlier
KEYWORDS: cattle commerce | cow milk tanner
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #104, "Colly, My Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 88, "Oh Colly, My Cow" (1 text)
Roud #6914
File: SCCR088

Colomba's Sweet Shore

See Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser) [Laws N6] (File: LN06)

Colonel Ellsworth

DESCRIPTION: "It was in 1861 on the twenty-fourth of May... It was there that Colonel Ellsworth came to his untimely grave. He raises a New York Regiment and leads them to Alexandria. He tears down a flag and is shot by the owner, Jackson; the soldiers kill Jackson
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: death soldier punishment homicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1861 - Death of E. Elmer Ellsworth
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 354-355, "Colonel Ellsworth" (1 text)
Roud #6593
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ellsworth's Avengers" (subject of Elmer Ellsworth)
cf. "The Soldier's Funeral" (subject of Elmer Ellsworth)
NOTES [107 words]: This song is frankly too accurate to be traditional; clearly it is a poem written based on newspaper accounts after the event, and preserved in a broadside or something.
Elmer Elsworth was not the first Union soldier to die in the Civil War, but he was the first to get much newspaper attention. Invading the property of a Confederate sympathizer, he tore down a Confederate emblem -- probably an illegal act. The property owner killed Ellsworth -- and was promptly killed by one of Ellsworth's men. I'd say the "uncivilized" honors were pretty well balanced in this case.
For more about Ellsworth, see the notes to "The Soldier's Funeral." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: TNY354

Colonel Hay

DESCRIPTION: "He's a brave commander, Colonel Hay, An' I think it's him that we'll a' gang wi', He's enlistin' a body of fine young men, To fight the French." A good escape "if ye get a girl wi' child." He's a gentleman and has "plenty of everything you want"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: recruiting war Scotland France humorous nonballad soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 75, "Colonel Hay" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #5796
NOTES [89 words]: Greig/Duncan1: "In 1794 Colonel Alexander Leith-Hay, who was also known simply as Colonel Hay, raised the 109th Regiment of Foot (The Aberdeenshire Regiment), and in 1798 Colonel Andrew Hay raised the Banffshire Fencibles which saw service in Gibraltar before being reduced in 1802. The song could refer to either of these men but perhaps the use of a tune with Banff connections may point to the second as the more likely. Of course, if the song had been composed in 1794 it might have been applied to the other colonel Hay in 1798." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1075

Colonel Sharp

DESCRIPTION: A girl tells her lover that she was seduced by Colonel Sharp. Both are humiliated; they agree Sharp must die. They pursue the colonel; the man kills Sharp. He is taken and condemned to die. The two kill themselves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (JAFL 28)
KEYWORDS: homicide seduction suicide punishment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1825 - Murder of Colonel Sharp
July 7, 1826 - Deaths of Jeroboam Beauchamp and Ann Cook Beauchamp
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 790-792, "Colonel Sharp" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 247-248, "Colonel Sharp" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 38, #2 (1993), p, 33, "The Murder of Colonel Sharp" (1 text, 1 tune, the Douglas Wallin version)
Roud #4110
RECORDINGS:
Doug Wallin, "The Murder of Col. Sharp" (on FarMtns3)
NOTES [2859 words]: This song is item dF38 in Laws's Appendix II.
Earlier editions of this index dated Sharp's murder to 1824 (so, e.g., Patterson, p. 104; he also spells Sharp's name "Sharpe"; Cohen also dates it 1824), but the best sources I can find say 1825 (KentuckyEncyclopedia, Taylor, Kallsen).
Leach-TheBalladBook reports that this ballad is factually accurate except that the two lovers attempted suicide by poison rather than with a knife, and that the young man lived to be hung.
The Sing Out! article adds information from the 1915 JAFL account. It says that the girl was Ann Cook and her fiancee was Jeroboam Beauchamp. Cook agreed to marry Beauchamp on the condition that he kill Sharp. They were married, and then Beauchamp set out to eliminate Sharp. According to that account, "He and his wife both tried to commit suicide by drinking poison and the wife died an hour after her husband had been executed." This version of the story has been streamlined to the point of being somewhat deceptive.
The three principals are correct: Jeroboam Beauchamp, Ann Cook, and Solomon P. Sharp.
The curiosity is the question of what drew three such people into a relationship (not really a love triangle).
Sharp was the most noteworthy of the three. Born in 1787 and trained as a lawyer, he had served in the Kentucky House, then the U. S. house, and in 1821 he was elected to the Kentucky senate. He and his wife, the former Eliza Scott whom he had married in 1818, moved from Bowling Green to Frankfort (Taylor, p. 1). He served for a time as Kentucky Attorney General before again running for Senate (Taylor, p. 3).
I have little information about what Solomon Sharp was like, but his brother L. J. Sharp strikes me as a patent jerk as well as a bigot; he called Ann Clark "wholly destitute" or "moral and religious principles," and condemns her for being "an avowed disciple of Mary Woolsoncraft" (sic.; Kallsen, p. 134. What he meant was that she didn't believe that women should be slaves to men). This, of course, raises the question of why Solomon Sharp slept with this old, ugly, amoral woman -- and who seduced whom. Oh, and does he really think that insulting the dead makes his brother come out better?
Jeroboam Beauchamp, born 1802, was the son of farmer but himself taught school and then studied law (Kallsen, p. 6). He actually did legal work with Sharp for a while, and had sought to learn legal skills from the eloquent Sharp (Taylor, pp. 1-2; Kallsen, p. 6). However, they quarreled; Bauchamp claimed (Kallsen, p. 7) that it was over his treatment of Ann Cook.
Ann Cook (or Cooke; Beauchamp himself alternated between the spellings but usually used "Cooke," as on p. 6 of Kallsen) came from an Virginia family; she and her mother had come to Kentucky to be with her brother when her father died (Taylor, p. 2). It was after the move that Cook got in trouble. The details of this are murky, because most of it is from partisan sources -- but it appears that Cook became pregnant, probably by Sharp.
And the story came out, because Sharp had a political enemy, John V. Waring. A rival in the 1824 election, Waring had printed handbills accusing Sharp of seducing Cook and fathering a child on her in 1820 (KentuckyEncyclopedia). Taylor, p. 2, says that the baby was born dead -- but Ann Cook, in a letter to a friend (Kallsen, p. 151), says that it lived for six months before dying. Later, Sharp's own partisans printed a bill that said Sharp could not be the father of Cook's baby because it had been a negro (Taylor, p. 4). Thus both Sharp's enemies and Sharp himself, or his allies, had defamed Cook. (Incidentally, although we can't prove it now, it appears Cook did bear a child, and Sharp *did* father it, since Beauchamp said as much in his confession; Taylor, p. 12.)
Beauchamp came to visit her, then court her. Although at first she refused to see him -- it sounds as if she was trying to withdraw from the world -- eventually she consented to give him access to her library, and they ended up talking about books (Kallsen, pp. 8-9). And he courted her.
It is not obvious why. When they met, Beauchamp was just twenty. She was seventeen years older (Taylor, p. 3)! Also, Sharp's brother -- hardly a reliable witness, but almost the only witness we have -- said that she "was small, weighing about 90 pounds. She had dark hair and eyes. Her front teeth were gone. She was not very pretty and had a bad reputation" (Taylor, p. 12, condensing Kallsen, p. 334, where L. J. Sharp mentions her reading and her "vivacity" which was her "only recommendation" -- and even that tempered by her childish voice). Reading Beauchamp's confession, it sounds as if the handbills about her caused Beauchamp to become obsessed with her.
Whatever was going on in his mind, he proposed. She resisted for a time; Beauchamp's confession claims that the reason was that she would not marry anyone unless her husband was willing to kill Sharp -- she could only love a man who would give her revenge (Kallsen, p. 11). Indeed, she wanted to kill Sharp herself, and asked him to help her to learn to use a pistol (Kallsen, p. 17. Her last letter railed against Sharp: "Did he not wrong me -- rifle my innocence -- rob me of my character -- ruin my peace -- oppress and persecute me?" -- Kallsen, p. 162. Ironic that Beauchamp sought her out because she had been "ruined"). She seemingly did not have a chance to go after Sharp (they tried and failed to lure him to Bowling Green; Kallsen, p. 19), so it would have to be her husband who did it. But that was a condition he could live with (Taylor, p. 1; Beauchamp apparently felt the stain to her honor was bad enough that he proposed to go through with the murder (Taylor, p. 4). That settled, they were married in 1824 (Taylor, pp. 2-3).
Beauchamp and Cook lived in the Bowling Green/Green River area of Kentucky. It was a four day ride to Frankfort where Sharp lived (Taylor, p. 1).
KentuckyEncyclopedia says "On November 7, 1825, Colonel Solomon P. Sharp, a former attorney general of Kentucky, was murdered at his home in Frankfort. At approximately 2:00 a.m., he was awakened by a knock on the door, he was stabbed in the chest, severing his aorta and killing him almost instantly."
This isn't quite the way Beauchamp tells it; supposedly he wanted to fight a duel, but Cook convinced him that Sharp would not agree. So Beauchamp took two knives, offered one to Sharp and demanded that he fight (Kallsen, p. 13). Somehow Sharp convinced him to wait a day (Kallsen, p. 14) -- which makes little sense, since it would allow Sharp to find a way to protect himself. But we can't prove it wrong.
Beauchamp certainly came prepared; he wore clothes and used a knife that could not be traced to him. He claims that Ann had put poison on the knife (Kallsen, p. 26), though he doesn't say what poison, and it probably didn't matter anyway.
Political violence was suspected. (Indeed, Beauchamp claims he committed the murder when he did in order to encourage this idea; Kallsen, p. 23). Various parties pitched in to raise a reward of several thousand dollars (Taylor, p. 5). But although the murderer had been seen, detail were sketchy, and he did not use his own name, instead calling himself "John A. Covington" (Taylor, p. 5).
Suspicion quickly turned to Waring. But he had a very good alibi: He had been shot in the hips a few days before, and wasn't in Frankfort (Taylor, p. 5). Another political rival of Sharp's, Patrick Darby, also had an alibi (KentuckyEncyclopedia). Suspicion then turned to Beauchamp. He was known to have made a trip to Frankfort at the time of the murder.
Beauchamp made it to his home near Bowling Green, where Ann had given it out that they would move to Missouri (Kallsen, p.24; apparently explanation she gave for Beauchamp's absence was that he had already headed out of state). But, the next day, an arresting party arrived. According to Taylor, p. 7, a warrant had not yet been made out (it would be sworn out when he got back to Frankfort), and Beauchamp managed to covertly burn the only physical evidence they had (a bloody bandana from the murder scene). Despite these extreme irregularities, Beauchamp was tried in Frankfort on May 8, 1826 (KentuckyEncyclopedia), with the new Attorney General of Kentucky himself giving the closing argument (Taylor, p. 11). It took a pool of 48 to find twelve jurors who were thought to be unbiased (Kallsen, pp. 171-172).
Beauchamp, it seems to me, had done his own cause a great deal of damage. He had been seen in Frankfort, but that was no proof. Mrs. Sharp had apparently recognized his voice at the time of the murder -- but if Sharp himself had not known Beauchamp's voice, surely a good defense lawyer could have cast a reasonable doubt on that. However, Sharp's enemy Patrick Darby (who was worried about getting convicted himself) had a letter in which Beauchamp called on a friend to lie for him (Taylor, p. 10).
The jury needed about an hour to find him guilty of murder (Taylor, p. 11).
Ann had also been charged. Beauchamp's lawyers asked that sentencing be delayed until Ann had been tried. After a short trial, she was found innocent. The court then sentenced Beauchamp to die on June 16, 1826.
There was no appeal, but Beauchamp did try to gain clemency. (If I read the confession correctly, he had thought, before the murder, that the governor would be on his side.) It would not be granted (Taylor, pp. 12-13).
Beauchamp asked for a delay in the execution to allow him to write his memoirs. He was granted a delay until July 7 (Taylor, p. 11). His public memoirs constitute the first part of Kallsen (pp. 1-105). I found them extremely turgid and hard to follow. The preface to the work concludes with this statement: "I shall be unavoidably led, to give some few abstracted remarks, upon what sort of beings both myself and my wife are; for this murder [of Sharp] is neither imputable to the one or the other of us, but to both. And as my wife is, I know inflexible in her determination, that as I die for her, she will die with me, I have no motive to conceal the part which she has acted, -- the more especially, as she insists to let the world know all the agency she has had, in bringing about a revenge, for he deep indelible wrong, which Col. Sharp has done her, and her family" (Kallsen, p. 4).
In other words, Sharp had wronged her, and they both agreed that they should avenge her honor; both participated in the plan to kill him, and now they would jointly die for it.
Kallsen, pp. 113-163, is a collection of Cook's letters to a friend, "Ellen R." They are undated, but they certainly seem to reveal a woman descending into deep depression if not worse. And her hatred of Sharp is clear. Letter XII includes the words, "I said that I had become gloomy and silent after my recovery from the last delirium into which I had fallen by the cruelty of that cold blooded monster of treachery. My thoughts dwelt constantly on my condition, and the terrible magnitude of my wrongs" (Kallsen, p. 150).
Letter XIV (written July 4, presumably of 1826) is explicit: "This will be the last letter I shall ever write to you. The die is cast -- my fater is sealed. Before this reaches you I shall be no more; the cold grace, in which I have long wished to repose, will soon receive all that remains of your early and unfortunate friend" (Kallsen, p. 157). "Oh! Ellen, I have been long, long sick of life. It has been a weary and painful journey to me, and I hail its termination with a pleasure I cannot express, although under circumstances that society may deem horrible" (Kallsen, p. 161).
Beauchamp was kept closely confined in a windowless underground cell that could only be reached by a trap door (Taylor, p. 12). But his wife was allowed to visit him, spending the six weeks that remained of his life with him.
When Ann visited her husband in his cell on July 5, they took laudanum in a double suicide attempt -- but they botched it; apparently she took so much that she threw it up, and he perhaps didn't take enough.
KentuckyEncyclopedia continues: On July 7, the morning of the execution, they tried again. Ann smuggled in a knife, and managed to get the guard out of the cell by saying she needed to dress (KentuckyEncyclopedia). They both attempted suicide with the knife.
This time, they sort of succeeded: both had fatal wounds, hers probably worse than his, although neither died at once. Appended to the Confession is an "Account of His Execution" (Kallsen, pp. 105-107), apparently by Will H. Holmes. It confirms (p. 106) that Ann said she did not wish to live without her husband. It describes them drinking, then asking the guard to leave. Beauchamp then announced "tell my father, that my wife and myself are going straight to heaven -- we are dying." When the guard disagreed, Beauchamp answerd, "Yes, it is so -- we have killed ourselves" (pp. 106-107). The guard thought they had tried poison again. Then he saw the knife in her hand, which proved to be bloody. She had "a stab a little to the right of the centre of the abdomen.... She did not sigh, nor groan, nor show any symptom of pain.... He was stabbed about the centre of the body, just below the pit of the stomach, but his wound was not so wide as that of his wife. He said that he had taken the knife and struck first, but his wife had parried his arm, wrested the knife from him, and plunged it in herself. He said, he fared his wound was not mortal, and begged the guard to get some laudanum for him.".
Apparently Beauchamp, when the guards came in, asked that they try to save his wife. She declared, "I struck the fatal blow myelf, and am dying for my dear husband." After that, the pain finally hit her, and she started screaming (Kallsen, p. 107).
Doctors tried but failed to save Ann. They told Beauchamp that she would live -- but brought him to her, and he knew that she was dying. He was there when she died, kissed her goodbye, then told him he was ready to die in turn (Kallsen, p. 108)
Jeroboam was too weak to stand, but the officials weren't going to let the mere fact that he was apparently dying stop them from killing him! They had two men hold him up so they could string him up. At his request, they played "Bonaparte's Retreat" as they hung him (Patterson, p. 104; Taylor, pp. 15-16; KentuckyEncyclopedia; Kallsen, p. 108).
It took him two minutes to die (Taylor, p. 16), which makes me suspect that the execution was botched; they didn't break his neck.
The two were buried in a joint grave (Kallsen, p. 109) inscribed with a poem Ann had written. (It doesn't strike me as very good.) The gravestone, as transcribed by Taylor, p. 16, called her "Anna," not "Ann."
This song seems to be the only surviving one about the event, but there was also a poem or something (perhaps a printed broadside) called "Beauchamp's Confession," which either inspired "Frankie Silvers" [Laws E13] (Patterson, p. 105) or both of them were inspired by a still earlier, lost, gallows confession.
Taylor, p. 3, has a painting of Sharp.
There was a book published about this at the time, The Life of Jeroboam O. Beauchamp, Who Was Hung at Frankfort, Kentucky, for the Murder of Col. Solomon P. Sharp; Comprising, a Full and Complete History of His Intercourse and Marriage with the Beautiful, Accomplished, But Unfortunate Miss Anna Cooke.... There are print-on-demand reprints, but I wouldn't trust a word it says; it looks like another of those slapdash last-confession narratives. Taylor, Three Kentucky Tragedies, sounds better, since it's by a university press; I bought it on that basis. But it turns out to be a tiny little book (56 pages) written for an adult literacy program; it's not very deep. Kallsen is much longer, but it is a collection of four source documents only -- Beauchamp's written confession, a collection of Ann Cook's letters, transcripts of Beauchamp's trial, and a "vindication" of Sharp. These are important but heavily biased.
Other books which I have not seen are Coleman J. Winston, Beauchamp-Sharp Tragedy: An Episode of Kentucky History During the Middle 1820s's, Roberts Printing Company 1950 (a thin book, listed as 77 pages); and L. F. Johnson, Famous Kentucky Tragedies and Trials, The Baldwin Law Book Company, 1916 (apparently a revised edition was put out by Henry Clay Press in 1972). There is also a 1977 doctoral dissertation by Jack Edward Surrency, "The Kentucky Tragedy in American Literature: From Thomas Holley Chivers to Robert Warren." This can be found by searching for "Surrency the Kentucky tragedy."
The event also inspired a play by Thomas Holley Chivers, Conrad and Eudora, or, The death of Alonzo : a tragedy. In five acts : founded on the murder of Sharpe, by Beauchamp, in Kentucky 1834. One can presumably guess the quality of *that* from the fact that the date is nine years wrong! (According to Kalless, p. vii, it was never performed.) Kalless, p. vii, lists half a dozen other works inspired by the event, culminating in Robert Penn Warren's 1950 World Enough and Time, which Kalless considers the best. For other works about the event, see the Surrency thesis.- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: L790

Colonel Shelby

DESCRIPTION: "Colonel Shelby, Colonel Shelby, I do not think it right For you to charge on Dardanelle At such a time of night. This old coat, I don't want it, I guess I'll have to run, I've not got sword or pistol Nor even a shotgun"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier desertion
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 247, "Colonel Shelby" (1 text)
Roud #7713
NOTES [829 words]: Colonel (later Brigadier General) Joseph O. "Jo" Shelby (1830-1897) was one of those romantic figures so common in the Confederate cavalry. Born in Kentucky (CivilWarAlmanac, p. 375), and educated at Transylvania University before moving to Missouri to grow hemp (Shea, p. 89) and run the "Waverly Steam Rope Factory" (Gerteis, p. 41), he cut his teeth in the Kansas conflict (Foote, p. 784). He was a cousin of the political Blair family of Missouri, one of whom was Lincoln's postmaster general and another almost Lincoln's viceroy in Missouri, so his family hoped he would be Unionist. Indeed, he would eventually say that John Brown, i.e. the abolitionists, were right (Arthur, photo facing p. 143). But he quickly joined the secessionist forces (Gerteis, pp. 41-42). He first commanded cavalry under Sterling Price in Missouri, and served most of the war in the Trans-Mississippi, fighing at the battles of Wilson's Creek and Pea Ridge/Elkhorn Tavern as a junior officer (Shea, p. 89).
His unit proved exceptional enough that it came to be called "Shelby's Iron Brigade" (see the entry on "Shelby's Iron Brigade" in HTIECivilWar), and he was considered the best leader of cavalry raids west of the Mississippi (Castel, p. 201(,
When the war ended, Shelby fled to Mexico rather than surrender. According to CivilWarAlmanac, he took about 600 troopers with him, and tried to prop up the French-backed government of the Emperor Maximilian. When Maximilian fell, Shelby returned to Missouri (1867). In an interesting folkloric note, he testified on behalf of Frank James when the latter was on trial for murder (Shea, p. 89) -- perhaps not so surprising, since both were raiders who fought in the Missouri area, and Shelby is sometimes associated with Quantrill's Raiders, in which Frank James fought (see the notes to "Jesse James (III)" and "Charlie Quantrell").
Like so many cavalry officers, Shelby deliberately cut a dashing figure. This may have led to the disillusionment shown by his subordinate here.
Shelby seems to have inspired at least one other fragment of a song. Fred W. Allsopp's Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 222, has a stanza "Jo Shelby's at your stable door, Hide your mule, hide your mule... There's something up and hell's to pay, When Shelby's on a raid...." This is said to be an addition to the Union song "Hide Your Mule," which does not seem to have entered tradition.
Dardanelle is near Russellville, Arkansas, a little north of the halfway point of a line between Fort Smith and Little Rock. It probably goes without saying that there was no major battle there. Phisterer reports two skirmishes there (p. 174: May 10, 1864, involving the 6th Kansas Cavalry ; Jan. 14, 1865, involving the 2 Kansas Cavalry and some Iowa horsemen).
It's barely possible that one of these events is the fight mentioned, but they're both very minor and unlikely to inspire a song -- plus Shelby had been promoted by then. We know that it happened after Pea Ridge in March 1862, since Shelby was then still a captain (Shea, p. 112). My guess is that this refers to some event in the summer or fall of 1862. In June of that year, Shelby was a colonel organizing a cavalry brigade in northwestern Arkansas to take part in an invasion of Missouri. He fought at the battle of Prairie Grove, still in northwestern Arkansas, in late 1862 (for background on that battle, see the notes to "Prairie Grove"). By the middle of 1863, he was wounded in fighting in Helena, Arkansas, far east of Dardanelle, and he was promoted Brigadier General that fall.
The picture of unarmed Confederates is all too accurate. Price's Missouri militia was initially armed mostly with fowling pieces brought by the soldiers themselves, and the Confederates never did manage to build much of a munitions industry. To a great extent they had to depend on captured Federal weapons. And the earlier in the war, the poorer their equipment. (Even as late as Prairie Grove, lack of equipment was a major problem for them.) This adds to the impression that Randolph's fragment describes something that happened in 1862.
There are several biographies of Shelby, and histories of his wild career, including Arthur's. Unfortunately, there is reason to believe that these are completely unreliable. Arthur, p. 228, says that most of the information about Shelby comes from two books by John Newman Edwards, Shelby and His Men (1867) and Shelby's Expedition to Mexico (1872). Arthur says that historians are forced to rely on these because most of Shelby's own records were destroyed by fire. And Edwards was one of Shelby's officers and knew him well (Edwards takes up almost a full page in Arthur's index). But he is also the person who gave us the Frank and Jesse James legend, making it up essentially out of whole cloth. I think we have to treat him -- and, hence, every work on Shelby -- as fundamentally unreliable. Which is why these notes are as short as they are. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: R247

Colonial Courtship

DESCRIPTION: "The best of this colony is, The brides have no fine affectation." They don't faint from shock; they just drink brandy. So will their mothers. Girls don't consult their parents about whether to marry; they just want the ceremony to "be done quicker"
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)? (source: AndersonStory)
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Thatcher)
KEYWORDS: courting mother children marriage humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 8-9, "Colonial Courtship, or Love on the Diggings" (1 text, from the "Colonial Minstrel")
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 63-65, "Colonial Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 67-68, "Colonial Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drops of Brandy" (tune)
cf. "The Lady and the Bullock Driver" (by Charles R. Thatcher) (tune) and references there
NOTES [29 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: AnSt063

Colonial Experience

DESCRIPTION: The singer, newly arrived in Sydney, sees sights unlike any he's seen before. He also experiences firsthand the heat and drought, and has to work very hard. The mosquitoes and ants are always pestering him. It's an uncomfortable, laborious life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson, _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: work Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 159-161, "Colonial Experience" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 60-61, "Colonial Experience" (1 text, 1 tune -- a reworked version)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 111-113, "Colonial Experience" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 186-187, "Colonial Experience" (1 text)
Roud #9110
File: FaE060

Colonna's Lone Shore

See Corunna's Lone Shore (Wandering Nellie) (File: FVS081)

Colorado Home

DESCRIPTION: "Oh give me the hills and the ring of the drills, And the rich silver ore in the ground." The singer asks to for the camp, his steed and guns, his wife, and the hills, where "We'll work and we'll play All the livelong day, Oh there let me live till I die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Emrich, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining home horse wife derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p, 142, "Colorado Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Home on the Range" (form)
NOTES [80 words]: It seems pretty clear this is descended from "Home on the Range." Whether it was taken directly from that song, or derives from an intermediary text such as "Arizona Home," is not clear. Nor is it obvious why it is called "Colorado Home"; that state's name is never mentioned, although there is a brief mention of Glenwood in the third verse. There is a town called Glenwood in the Colorado Rockies, although there are several other towns named Glenwood in the United States. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC142

Colorado Trail, The

DESCRIPTION: "Eyes like the morning star, Cheeks like a rose, Laura was a pretty girl, God almighty knows. Weep, all ye little rains, Wail, winds, wail, All along, along, along The Colorado trail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: love beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 462, "The Colorado Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 46-49, "The Colorado Trail" (1 text, 1 tune, including non-traditional lyrics)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, p. 262, "The Colorado Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 211, "Colorado Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 45, "The Colorado Trail" (1 text)
DT, COLORADT*
Roud #6695
RECORDINGS:
Poplin Family, "Eyes Like Cherries" (on Poplin01, mixing verses of "The Colorado Trail," "Liza Up in a Simmon Tree," and others)
Pete Seeger, "Colorado Trail" (on PeteSeeger30)
NOTES [112 words]: Lee Hays added several verses to this beautiful little tune, and many singers have recorded them, or added others of their own. The only traditional lyrics, however, are those given above, taken from a horse wrangler who was hospitalized in Duluth, Minnesota and printed by Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag. And even those were slightly dubious until confirmed by the Poplin recording. - RBW
The Poplin recording has a chorus which is almost identical to the verse of "Colorado Trail," and to a verse from Bradley Kincaid's recording of "Liza Up in a Simmon Tree." The rest of the song, however, is completely different; I put it here because I couldn't find a better place. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.1
File: San462

Colored School Song

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Colors (Choosing Game)

See Who's Knocking at the Door (Colors) (File: Newe153)

Colour of Amber (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "The colour of amber was my true love's hair." "Many a time [his lips] they've been pressed to mine. I'd fish and catch him "with a line and hook" and never part. It's in vain. I'll never be a maid again.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (recording, Mary Ann Haynes)
KEYWORDS: courting love betrayal hair floatingverses nonballad fishing lyric
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
Roud #1716
RECORDINGS:
Mary Ann Haynes, "The Colour of Amber" (on Voice11)
NOTES [97 words]: "The Colour of Amber" is the reverse of "Black Is the Color" with the usual floating verse from the woman's point of view. It is tempting to lump this with, say, "Fair and Tender Ladies," but the amber and fishing verses make it stand aside for me. Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 11" - 11.9.02, refers to John Ashton's Real Sailor Songs "The Sailor Boy" [Ashton/Sailor *63] as another version; that does have the amber verse but is a version of "The Sailor Boy"(I) [Laws K12]. "Fair and Tender Ladies" would be a closer match than that. - BS
File: RcColAmb

Colour of Amber (II), The

See Early, Early in the Spring [Laws M1] (File: LM01)

Colter's Candy

See Coulter's Candy (File: MSNR154)

Colton Boy, The

See The Boston Burglar [LawsL16] (File: LL16)

Columbia on Our Lee

See Britannia on Our Lee (File: SWMS049)

Columbia the Free

DESCRIPTION: The singer was born in America. His "pack is all over American earth. My blood is as Irish as Irish can be." He is ashamed that the "tyrants" control "our poor plundered Ireland." He waits for the summons to return to Ireland with his rifle.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
KEYWORDS: emigration America Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 2, pp. 2-3,99,155, "Columbia the Free" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2926
NOTES [143 words]: There was a nineteenth century song, "Columbia the Free," in Dime-Song-Book #29 (p. 28), beginning "Up with the flag of the crimson and white." This is not it.
It is a curiosity that, in the late nineteenth century, the Irish in America were often more militant in favor of liberty than the Irish still at home. (Look at how many of the Fenian exploits were organized in America.) One can only speculate at the reasons: The Irish in America were not experiencing the slow liberalization that occurred in Ireland, they had more money and didn't have to scrabble as hard for a living -- and, of course, their ancestors included most of the worst troublemakers who simply could not stomach British rule.
For an example of such, see the notes to "Erin's Lovely Lee."
The Fenians would eventually plan an invasion of Ireland; as usual, nothing much came of it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: MoMa002

Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean (Britannia, the Pride of the Ocean)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, (Columbia/Britania) the (gem/pride) of the ocean... Thy banners make tyranny tremble When borne by the red, white, and blue." The singer boasts of his nation's success in war and its liberty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: patriotic nonballad
FOUND IN: US Britain
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 310-311, "Columbia the Gem of the Ocean"
Heart-Songs, p. 469, "The Red, White and Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 59 and #1/64 p. 54, "Red, White, and Blue"" (1 text); #34, pp. 35-36, "Red, White and Blue" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 44, "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 61-62, "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 6, "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p.4, "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 176-177+, "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean"
ADDITIONAL: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 72, has a description of the sheet music
Roud #25988
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(565), "Red, White and Blue", J. Moore ["Poet's Box"] (Belfast), 1846-1852 ; also Firth b.25(217) View 2 of 2 [difficult to read], Harding B 15(255b)[some lines illegible], Harding B 11(3246), Harding B 11(3401), "[The] Red, White, and Blue"; Firth b.26(377), "Britannia! the Pride of the Ocean"; Harding B 11(396), "Nelsons Last Sigh" or "The Red White & Blue"
LOCSheet, sm1844 410890, "Columbia the Gem of the Ocean", Osbourn's Music Saloon (Philadelphia), 1844; also sm1846 411040, "Columbia the Land of the Brave" (tune)
LOCSinging, cw104810, "Red, White & Blue" ("Oh, Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean"), J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also sb40454a, "Red, White & Blue"; cw10102a, cw101030, cw101040, "Columbia the Gem of the Ocean"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(015), "Red, White, and Blue", 1849, Mclntosh (Calton[Glasgow?]); also L.C.1269(175a), "Britannia, the Pride of the Ocean"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dixie, the Land of King Cotton" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Jackson County (File: McIn022)
"Nobody Hurt" (Old Abe) ("Mr. Lincoln a great speech was making," by John Ross Dix) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 110)
People's Campaign Song, No. 1. Lincoln & Hamlin ("Oh! Lincoln the hope of the nation") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 126)
Columbia the Land of the Brave (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 301)
The Gem of All Orders ("The Grange of the Gem of all orders") (by A. P. Knapp) (Albert P. Knapp, _Grange Songster_, 1915, p. 8)
The Home Guard ("Who will stand for the homes of our nation, The homes that were built by the brave") (by Kate Lunden Sunderlin) (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 18)
The Red, White and Black (by Ruth Lawrence) ("The Kaiser was counting his conquests") (Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 181)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Red, White and Blue
NOTES [492 words]: Fuld reports considerable controversy about the origin of this song: It is probably not possible, at this time, to tell with certainty whether the original is the American "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" or the British "Britannia, the Pride of the Ocean."
The earliest printed version, called "Columbia the Land of the Brave," was printed in 1843 and credited to George Willig. In 1852, a copy of "Brittania the Gem of the Ocean" was filed at the British Museum; it credits the song to D[avid]. T. Shaw (who sang the American version, and who is also credited in a number of American broadsides listed on p. 133 of Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963 -- who lists 15 different broadsides of the Amerivan version). The 1852 version, however, was not filed in the stationer's register.
The song has also been credited to Stephen Joseph Meany (words) and Thomas E. Williams (music; died 1854) (cf. Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, p. 98, who dates their "Britannia" version to 1854), and to the performer Thomas A. Beckett (so Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, although it spells his name "Becket"), but substantiating evidence is lacking in both cases. (e.g. Heart-Songs lists the words by D. T. Shaw and music by Thomas A Becket -- note the lack of a period in the latter; apparently the editor thought they meant Henry II's archbishop!) If you want the full details, you'd best see both Spaeth and Fuld.
What does seem fairly certain is that it became more popular in America. Whether it was ever really adopted by the people is another question. It's one of those songs that seems to show up all the time in a certain sort of anthology.... - RBW
The 1844 sheet music, LOCSheet sm1844 410890 notes "A Popular Song as sung by Mr Blankman & Mr Shaw." The 1846 sheet music LOCSheet sm1846 411040, and broadside LOCSinging cw101030 make David T. Shaw the writer.
The 1849 broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(015) third verse refers to "the memory of Nelson" (1758-1805). The 1856 broadside NLScotland L.C.1269(175a) third verse refers to "the mem'ry of Napier": "This could be either Naval Commander Charles Napier (1786-1860) or more likely, as the tribute appears to be posthumous, General sir Charles Napier (1782-1853), who achieved significant military victories in the Indian sub-continent." Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(565) refers to "the memory of heroes." Broadside Bodleian Firth b.25(217) View 2 of 2 appears to refer to Charlie Napier. The remaining Bodleian broadsides -- Harding B 15(255b), Harding B 11(3246), Harding B 11(3401), Firth b.26(377) and Harding B 11(396) -- refer to Nelson. The "Columbia" versions refer to "they."
Broadside LOCSinging cw104810: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB044

Columbo

See Christopher Columbo (File: EM308)

Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue

DESCRIPTION: "Columbus sailed/crossed the ocean blue In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Three ships came sailing in with him, too, Just so say the 'it' is you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes)
KEYWORDS: sea travel ship | Columbus counting-out
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 116, "Columbus crossed the ocean blue" (1 text)
Roud #19309
NOTES [22 words]: This doesn't seem to have been collected much, but I heard it when young (though I don't remember it as a counting-out rhyme). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DCCR116B

Columbus Stockade Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Way down in Columbus, Georgia, I want to go back to Tennessee. Way down in Columbus stockade, my friends all turned their backs on me. So you can go and leave me if you want to...." The singer laments his imprisonment and the loss of his love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Tom Darby & Jimmie Tarlton)
KEYWORDS: prison separation chaingang
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 137, "'Way Down in Columbus, Georgia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 102, "Columbus Stockade Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 308-309, "Columbus Stockade Blues" (1 text)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 53, "Columbus Stockade Blues" (1 text, 1 tune, linked with "Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection)" and "Little Darling Pal of Mine")
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 173, "Once I Loved a Railroad Brakeman" (1 text, with the lyrics of "Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection)" although I suspect the tune and chorus floated in from "Columbus Stockade Blues")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 65, "Columbus Stockade Blues" (1 text)
DT, COLSTKD
Roud #7480
RECORDINGS:
Bud & Joe Billings [pseud. for Frank Luther & Carson Robison], "Columbus Stockade Blues" (Victor V40031, 1929)
Cliff Carlisle & Wilbur Ball, "Columbus Stockade Blues" (Superior 2749 [as Jim & Otto Fletcher], 1931; Champion 16364, c. 1932; Champion 45186, c. 1935; Montgomery Ward M-8012, 1939) (Banner 32470/Melotone M-12434/Oriole 8144/Perfect 12815/Romeo 5144 [all as "Columbus Stockade"], 1932; Edison Bell Winner [UK] W40, c. 1933; rec. 1931)
Tom Darby & Jimmie Tarlton, "Columbus Stockade Blues" (Columbia 15212-D, 1927)
Jimmie Davis, "Columbus Stockade Blues" (Decca 6083/Melotone [Canada] 45555, 1943; Decca 46137, 1949; rec. 1942)
Flannery Sisters, "Columbus Stockade" (Decca 5256, 1936)
J. E. Mainer Band, "Columbus Stockade" (on LomaxCD1705)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection)" (tune)
NOTES [110 words]: Apparently a rework of an English lost love song, "Go and Leave Me" [which we have indexed as "Dear Companion" - PJS]. Frank Proffitt heard it sung by Blacks on a chain gang, and it has become a staple of the bluegrass repertoire. Its English origin has been completely forgotten in these traditions, even though the original lost love song is said to be widely known in the British Isles.
Silber credits this to Woody Guthrie; while Guthrie may have played with it a bit, clearly he was not the sole author. - RBW
Given the various 78 recordings, Silber's clearly wrong.... I'd guess Carlisle's recording was the source of the song's popularity in bluegrass. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Wa137

Comber Ballad, The

See The Next Market Day (File: FSWB158B)

Come a Long Way Home

See The Swapping Boy (File: E093)

Come a Rittum

DESCRIPTION: "Come, a rittam, chittum, chairum, Come, a ray, roe, raddy, O."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1786, "Come a Rittum" (1 fragment)
Roud #13528
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: GrD81786

Come A' Ye Buchan Laddies

DESCRIPTION: "... the news That's come frae Aberdeen. Hoo Tully's men ha'e gained the day, And Tully's lost it clean; Hoo stinkin' sowens [oatmeal husks] and buttermilk Ha'e forced his men awa"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 393, "Come A' Ye Buchan Laddies" (1 text)
Roud #5826
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There's Nae Luck at Tullo's Toon" (some lines)
File: GrD3393

Come A' Ye Jolly Ploo'men Lads

DESCRIPTION: "O come a' ye jolly ploomen lads That works amang the grun'." The singer tells of his happy life and work. He attends a hiring fair, works six months in a bothy, and shocks the minister by singing out when he weds Mary-Anne
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (recording, the Stewarts of Blair)
KEYWORDS: work food humorous marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
Roud #6855
RECORDINGS:
Belle, Sheila, and Cathie Stewart, "Come A' Ye Jolly Ploo'men Lads" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
File: RcCAYJPL

Come Aa Ye Tramps and Hawkers

See Tramps and Hawkers (File: K358)

Come Aff an' Ye'll Win On Again

DESCRIPTION: "Come aff an' ye'll win on again Come aff an' ye'll win on again, An' I'll gie you a pint o' wine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1761 (according to Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1729, "Come Aff an' Ye'll Win On Again" (1 fragment)
Roud #13143
NOTES [20 words]: Greig/Duncan8: "[This is] from two manuscripts 1730-1760."
The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Gr81729

Come Again, Sweet Love Doth Now Invite

DESCRIPTION: "Come again, sweet love doth now invite, Thy graces that refrain, To do me due delight, To see, to hear, to touch, to kiss, to With thee again in sweet sympathy." The singer asks her to return "that I may cease to mourn" and he may cease to weep
AUTHOR: probably John Dowland
EARLIEST DATE: 1597 (Dowland, The Firste Booke of Songes or Ayres)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Erica Warnock, "Come Again, sweet love doth now invite" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #505, recorded 02/27/2023)
NOTES [41 words]: This is a very beautiful and haunting piece, but traditional? It seems effectively certain that the Erica Warnock version derives from a recent recording. Note that Warnock gave Derek Piotr another early "classical" piece, "Rest, Sweet Nymphs." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcCASLDN

Come All Bold Britons

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you bold Britons, wherever you may dwell, Come listen unto me while a story I will tell," of how hard times are for farmers in Britain. The politicians must lower taxes and rates. All are one flesh and should have rights. God speed the plow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Copper-ASongForEverySeason)
KEYWORDS: farming hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 250-251, "Come All Bold Britons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1214
File: CoSe250

Come All Good People

See The Silver Dagger (I) [Laws G21] (File: LG21)

Come All My Old Comrades

See A Health to the Company (Come All My Old Comrades) (File: CrSe222)

Come All That Sail from Edgartown

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you that sail from Edgartown You very well do know When around Cape Horn that you are bound... You'll leave your heart's delight." The sailor sets out, thinking all the while of women, and hoping his beloved will be true while he is gone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Journal of the Young Phoenix)
KEYWORDS: whaler love separation return
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 40-42, "Come All That Sail from Edgartown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25990
File: HGam040

Come All Ye Blubber Hunters

See Eelie Bob (File: GrD1013)

Come All Ye Bold Young Countrymen

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye bold countrymen A warning take by me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes)
KEYWORDS: warning
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, p. 57, "Come All Ye Bold Young Countrymen" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #1092
NOTES [12 words]: The current description is all of the Kidson-TraditionalTunes fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: KiTu057

Come All Ye British Tars

See Admiral Byng (File: GrD1140)

Come All Ye Fair

See Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)

Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies

See Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)

Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies (II)

See The Silver Dagger (I) [Laws G21] (File: LG21)

Come All Ye Faithful

See Adeste Fideles (O Come All Ye Faithful) (File: RJ19001)

Come All Ye False Lovers

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye false lovers That love all alike; Give love-ly attention, And my counsel take." The singer will wait for Johnny to return, however long it takes. He eventually arrives, and they are married.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967
KEYWORDS: love separation return
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 135, pp. 147-148, "Come All Ye False Lovers" (1 text)
Roud #4297
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
NOTES [71 words]: This piece is clearly composite; there are many floating lyrics, and it shifts from first to third person in the middle. It appears to be a pastiche of Riley ballads (though the theme of disguise has been lost), with the moral ("Beware of false lovers; (don't ever give up on your true love") at the beginning.
Since it cannot be identified with any particular Riley ballad, I have perforce given it its own classification. - RBW
File: CW147

Come All Ye Jolly Hunters

DESCRIPTION: In 1958 Leonard Hynes and Walter Gale go hunting goose for Christmas. Dave Lomond, river guard, sees them and reports them. The Mounties come "to prosecute the murder of such a precious bird"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
KEYWORDS: crime poaching manhunt hunting humorous political bird police
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 17, pp. 120-122, "Come All Ye Jolly Hunters" (1 text)
Roud #24299
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "Come All Ye Jolly Hunters" (on NFJDowney01); "Come All Ye Jolly Hunters" (on NFHMacIsaac01)
NOTES [37 words]: Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong: "As far as he [Downey] knew, it was composed by a group of local lads, none of whom wished to claim authorship any more than they wished to get on the wrong side of the game warden." - BS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: BeDo120

Come All Ye Jolly Ice-Hunters

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye jolly ice-hunters and listen to my song; I hope I won't offend you; I don't mean to keep you long." The sealer Daniel O'Connell leaves Tilton Harbour March 14, 1833. Captain William Burke gets the badly damaged ship through a storm
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland); first mentioned in 1914
KEYWORDS: hunting sea ship storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 122, "Come All ye Jolly Ice-Hunters" (1 text)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 17, "Come All Ye Jolly Ice-Hunters" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Higgins: Pamela Higgins, _Perished: The 1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster_, Boulder Publications, 2013, p. 27, "Come All Ye Jolly Ice-Hunters" (1 text, a reprint of Doyle)
ST GrMa122 (Partial)
Roud #6345
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie" (theme)
NOTES [362 words]: Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland notes, per G.S. Doyle that "This song was written in 1833. It is about the oldest song of a sealing nature now in existence." - BS
Roud at one time lumped this with "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie." The two of course share plot components as well as some stylistic elements, but this one is apparently about a much older incident. Still, I have been cautious; I don't think we can trust Doyle's 1833 date for the song; it appears to be derived from a date found in Doyle's first stanza.
We do, however, have a mention of the song from 1914. Pamela Higgins, Perished: The 1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster, Boulder Publications, 2013, p. 38, quotes the log of William Coaker, the politician who was overseeing the seal hunt from the sealer Nascopie for April 1: "Held a gramophone concert in the officers' quarters after tea.... Levi Green sang 'Come all ye jolly ice hunters.'"
That being said, it is certainly an old sealing song, from before the era of steam sealers (the first steamer being employed in 1863, and sailing vessels having been effectively brushed aside by 1870; Levi George Chafe, Chafe's Sealing Book: A History of the Newfoundland Sealfishery from the Earliest Available Records Down To and Including the Voyage of 1923, third edition, Trade Printers and Publishers, Ltd., 1923 (PDF scan available from Memorial University of Newfoundland), p. 89, shows that there was no captain named "Burke" in the steamer era, and p. 99 shows that there was no steamer Daniel O'Connell. The fact that there were only 28 sealers aboard her reinforces this conclusion; by the 1850s, the sealing trade had largely been taken over by brigs which carried a hundred or more sealers, and the steamers carried as many or more than that.
I haven't identified the Daniel O'Connell with certainty, but in 1835, a sealer Daniel O'Connell, commanded by John Shea, was based in St. John's. She was 75 tons and carried 18 men. (See Shannon Ryan, The Ice Hunters: A History of Newfoundland Sealing to 1914, Breakwater Books, 1994, p. 471.) I would assume it's the same ship as in this song, two years later. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GrMa122

Come All Ye Jolly Sailor Boys

See By the Lightning We Lost our Sight [Laws K6] (File: LK06)

Come All Ye Jolly Soldiers

See The Rebel's Escape [Laws A19] (File: LA19)

Come All Ye Jolly Tinner Boys

DESCRIPTION: "Come, all ye jolly Tinner boys, and listen to me... Consarning Boney Peartie, the schaames which he had maade To stop our tin and copper mines....." If he invades, he shall flee, or "Why forty thousand Cornish boys shall knawa the reason why"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Deane/Shaw); usually said to be from c. 1807
LONG DESCRIPTION: "Come, all ye jolly Tinner boys, and listen to me... Consarning Boney Peartie, the schaames which he had maade To stop our tin and copper mines, and all our pilchard traade." The tiners cheer their home and family and work. If Napoleon invades, he shall flee, or "Why forty thousand Cornish boys shall knawa the reason why"
KEYWORDS: Napoleon mining battle
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 68, "(And should that Boney Peartie have roty thousand still)" (1 excerpt)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Trelawny" (lyrics)
File: DeSh068B

Come All Ye Lonesome Cowboys

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you (lonesome/jolly) cowboys... Now I'm going to leave you, To never return again." He recalls the sad parting from his mother, and the girl who promised to marry him. After all his rambling, he is leaving the boys forever (dying? going home?)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph; recordings, Frank Jenkins, Buell Kazee)
KEYWORDS: cowboy parting separation farewell
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 180, "Come All Ye Lonesome Cowboys" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 43, pp. 76-66, "Come All Ye Lonesome Cowboys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 58, "Come All Ye Western Cowboys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 59, "Roving Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune, Kazee's text, which is short)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 18, "A.. Ramblin Cow-Boy" (1 text)
Roud #5482 and 11077
RECORDINGS:
Texas Gladden, "Roving Cowboy" (on USTGladden01)
Frank Jenkins, "Roving Cowboy" (c. 1927; on BefBlues2)
Buell Kazee, "The Roving Cowboy"(Brunswick 156, 1927; Brunswick 436, 1930; Supertone S-2043, 1930; on KMM)
Clay Walters, "Come All You Roving Cowboys" (AFS, c. 1937; on KMM)
Jack Webb, "The Roving Cowboy" (Victor V-40285, 1930)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Jolly Cowboy
NOTES [108 words]: This is a definite problem piece. Roud splits it in two: #5482, which we might call "Come All You Lonesome Cowboys," (represented e.g. by the Randolph texts) and #11077, "Come All You Roving Cowboys" (represented by the Fife/Kazee text).
The problem is the Clay Walters version, which is a mish-mash of everything including perhaps some "Texas Rangers" material. Paul Stamler couldn't decide what to do with it; neither could I. So I'm lumping two songs until we get some better samples.
The same sort of mess describes the High-OldOldFolkSongs text -- but his transcriptions are often so strange that this might just be the way it was taken down. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: R189

Come All Ye Maidens in Town and City

DESCRIPTION: The singer grieves "all for the sake of a lovely sailor" [who,apparently, is dead]
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: grief love death nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1246, "Come All Ye Maidens in Town and City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6784
File: GrD61246

Come All Ye Maids and Pretty Fair Maidens

See Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)

Come All Ye Melancholy Folks

See Old Time Cowboy (Melancholy Cowboy) (File: TF19)

Come All Ye Nations, Both Far and Near

See Bonaparte (I) (File: SWMS209)

Come All Ye Old Comrades

See A Health to the Company (Come All My Old Comrades) (File: CrSe222)

Come All Ye Pretty Maids

See Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme) (File: FSWB163)

Come All Ye Southern Soldiers

See The Texas Rangers [Laws A8] (File: LA08)

Come All Ye Tramps and Hawkers

See Tramps and Hawkers (File: K358)

Come All Ye Unmarried Men

See William and Nancy (II) (Courting Too Slow) [Laws P5] (File: LP05)

Come All Ye Western Cowboys

See Come All Ye Lonesome Cowboys (File: R189)

Come All Ye Young Ladies

See Time Enough Yet (File: R369)

Come All Ye Young Lovers So Pretty

DESCRIPTION: "My heart is as light as a feather, It's never been troubled with care"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1832, "Come All Ye Young Lovers So Pretty" (1 text)
Roud #13599
NOTES [37 words]: Greig/Duncan8: .".. November 1908. Learned ... sixty to seventy years ago." - BS
I have a feeling this might be a version of "Over the Mountain (I) (Allanah Is Waiting for Me)." But I have no evidence except the feeling. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1832

Come All Ye Young Men That Want a Wife

DESCRIPTION: Advice for "all ye young men that want a wife. Choose "a proper wench and handsome," not a red-head, "fingers long and her middle small," "a nice little girl And one of a good behaviour." If she and her friends consent "ye are sure to marry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: marriage nonballad beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 918 "Come All Ye Young Men That Want a Wife," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Come All Ye Young Men That Want a Wife" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6236
File: GrD4918

Come All Yew Blaids What's Marryied

See Billy Vite and Molly Green (File: FlBr109)

Come All You "Solemncholly" Folks

See Old Time Cowboy (Melancholy Cowboy) (File: TF19)

Come All You Bold Britons

See The Famous Fight at Malago (File: OSLin005)

Come All You Bold Canadians

See Brave General Brock [Laws A22] (File: LA22)

Come All You Bold Fellows That Follow the Plow

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you bold fellows that follow the plough, Either hedging or ditching or milking the cow, The time has arrived and the Union flag waves." The singer calls the workers together; they will march and bless "our hero, the brave Joseph Arch"
AUTHOR: "Mr. Reader" (source: Palmer)
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Palmer-ThePainfulPlow)
KEYWORDS: farming work labor-movement
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #18, "Come all you bold fellows that follow the plough" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: PaPa018

Come All You Fair and Handsome Girls

See Come All You Fair and Tender Girls (File: WB2080)

Come All You Fair and Pretty Ladies

See Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)

Come All You Fair and Tender Girls

DESCRIPTION: Willie courts the narrator, asks her to go with him. She consents, but when they are far from home, he sends her back, saying it's his nature to ramble
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (collected by Olive Dame Campbell, in Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians)
KEYWORDS: courting elopement abandonment
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 103, "Come All You Young and Handsome Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 321-326, "Come All You Fair and Handsome Girls" (5 texts, with local titles "Come All You Fair and Handsome Girls," (no title), "Fair and Handsome Girls," "Fair and Handsome Girls," (no title); the "E" text appears likely to be some other song, of the vast "Rye Whiskey/Wagoner's Lad" type; 1 tune on p. 442)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 80, "Come All You Young and Handsome Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 49, "Sweet Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST WB2080 (Partial)
Roud #3606
RECORDINGS:
Banjo Bill Cornett, "Sweet Willie" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Green Maggard, "Come All You Fair and Handsome Girls" (AFS, 1934; on KMM)
Doug Wallin, "Little Willie" (on FarMtns3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fair Flower of Northumberland" [Child 9] (plot)
cf. "Fair and Tender Ladies" (lyrics)
NOTES [37 words]: Is it possible this is a ballad from which "Fair and Tender Ladies" has descended, with the narrative removed? It has warning verses at the beginning, although not those normally associated with "Fair and Tender Ladies." -PJS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: WB2080

Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies

See Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)

Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies (I)

See Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)

Come All You Fair Maidens (I)

DESCRIPTION: A man complains to "fair maidens" that men are taken in by girls who "come dancing before you great favors to gain" until "you're not your own man... for selling your freedom to buy you a wife."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage warning dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 107-108, "Come All You Fair Maidens" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Ow2E107

Come All You Fair Maidens (II)

See Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)

Come All You Friends and Neighbors

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you friends and neighbours, For you know that you are born to die, Come view my situation As helpless here I lie." The singer, in a "weakened condition," asks "never let me seek in vain." He hopes to be where "consumption And fever is no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death religious disease
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 561, "Come All You Friends and Neighbors" (1 short text)
Roud #11884
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lonesome Dove (I - The Minister's Lamentation)" (theme)
File: Br3561

Come All You Garners Gay

See Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme) (File: FSWB163)

Come All You Good People Who've Now Come to View

See James Munks's Confession (File: E113)

Come All You Handsome Jewels

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you handsome jewels, come sit you don by me, If ever I prove false or cruel to the girl that would marry me," the moon will melt, fire will freeze. Now he'll die for one who won't love him, leaving "poor Sally lamenting all on her native shore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation bird death floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 84-85, "Come All You Handsome Jewels" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7034
NOTES [38 words]: This seems very confused, perhaps because it has borrowed so many motifs, such as the turtledove sitting on her nest and the raging seas burning. Is the singer true to his love? Or did he abandon her? Or both? It's not clear. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BWV2084

Come All You Jack-Pine Savages

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes a visit to "Dr. Jones" (probably not a real doctor). He has a toothache; "Dr. Jones" gives him six prescriptions, he eats sixteen potatoes and a couple of loaves of bread, and he's cured. He tells listeners to take ills to "Dr. Jones."
AUTHOR: Probably Dent Bailey
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: disease medicine healing doctor
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 20, "Come All You Jack-Pine Savages" (1 text)
Roud #4064
NOTES [14 words]: As "Come All You Jack Pine Savages," this song is item dC43 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Be020

Come All You JackPine Savages

See Come All You Jack Pine Savages (File: Be020)

Come All You Jolly Cowboys

DESCRIPTION: The cowboy leaves home, mother, and sweetheart "to roam the prairie plain... to never return again." His love for his promised bride "has never died"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed)
KEYWORDS: love parting travel mother cowboy
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 55-56, "Come All You Jolly Cowboys" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [62 words]: This looks like a revised sailor song. Here is the first couplet:
Come all you jolly cowboys, bound on a stormy land
I'll tell to you some trouble that's happened to me
so I suppose the original first line ended "stormy sea." The story has been forgotten in Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed text so -- if I am right about this song's origin -- I cannot find an analogous sea song. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: Ow2E055

Come All You Jolly Hunters

See Bold Ranger, The (File: R076)

Come All You Jolly Ploughboys

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises the plowman's work he does. Masons, shoemakers, blacksmiths and millers are useful; the miller's needs "the sacks o' corn the plooboy does supply." If not for the soldier and plowman "what would our poor nation do"?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming worker nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 450, "Come, All Ye Jolly Plooboys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5958
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Poor Labouring Men" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "The Laddie That Handles the Ploo" (theme)
cf. "The Praise of Ploughmen" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Plooman
NOTES [43 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "'Learnt about thirty years [ago] from a Lumphanan shepherd. Noted 26th August 1908.'" - BS
This song and "We Poor Labouring Men" appear to be sisters; I've no idea which came first. This one was collected earlier, but is less well attested. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3450

Come All You Jolly Ploughboys (Here's April, Here's May; The Two Brothers)

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you jolly ploughboys, Come help me to sing." "There once was two brothers... One was a shepherd,,, The other a planter of corn." "Here's April, here's May... It's a pleasure to see the corn grow." The singer praises ploughboys and their life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Sumner-TheBesomMaker)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 33, "Ploughboy's Glory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #22, "The Jolly Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 214-215, "Two Young Brethren" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sumner-TheBesomMaker, pp. 23-25, "The Jolly Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 152-153, "The Jolly Ploughboy" (1 text, 2 tunes)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 25, "The Jolly Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #202
NOTES [86 words]: The notes in Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory link this with "The Painful Plow." But the only links I can see is that both are about plowing and have some Biblical references. In this case, the reference to "Two brothers... one was a shepherd, a tender of sheep, And the other was a planter of corn" is obviously to Cain and Abel, from chapter 4 of Genesis.
It seems to me that I have heard a version of this with a religious sort of message, based on the mention of Cain and Abel. But I can't remember details. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: BuDa033

Come All You Lads and Lasses

DESCRIPTION: The singer takes a prostitute to his room. He wakes to find her searching his room for money. He beats her, drives her away naked, and finds nine guineas and two five pound notes in the gown and coat she left behind.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: sex theft money clothes whore
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 22, "Come All You Lads and Lasses" (1 text)
Roud #1029
File: ReCi022

Come all you lads of high renown

See The Poacher's Fate [Laws L14] (File: LL14)

Come All You Maidens

See Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)

Come All You Mississippi Girls

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Come All You Poor Men of the North

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you poor men of the north... There is easier ways of gaining wealth... Go and dig the gold that lies in California." The singer describes California's wondrous climate and asks why poor can't have gold as well as rich
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad gold
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 348-349, "Come All You Poor Men of the North" (1 text)
Roud #7772
NOTES [70 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's informant claimed that California miners sang this piece. I find this close to unbelievable. (Of course, that might explain why no one else has recorded the piece in tradition: It bears no relationship to reality.) I'm almost tempted to suggest that it was written by a land speculator eager to latch onto stupid people's property by inducing them to head west. - RBW
File: Beld348

Come All You Pretty Fair Maids

See In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme (File: R090)

Come All You Roman Catholics

DESCRIPTION: Father McFadden is in Derry jail. Sub-inspector Martin had arrested him after Sunday Mass. "David ... by the Lord's command" killed Martin by sling shot "The people laughed and cheered" to see Martin taken away. "The Devil met him at the gates"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: violence homicide prison clergy police Devil
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 13-14, "Come All You Roman Catholics" (1 text)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 28, "Father McFadden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9459
NOTES [128 words]: McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen: "[Father McFadden] formed local branches of the Land League in West Donegal."
See the reference to the 1888 imprisonment of Father McFadden of Donegal in Derry Prison "for an agrarian speech" (source: Chapters of Dublin History site, Letters and Leaders of my Day Chapter XXII "Parnellism and Crime" (1887-8), by T.M. Healy). The description there has no "David" and sling shot. Instead, thinking that Martin had struck McFadden with his drawn sword, the congregants rooted up the pailing from McFadden's garden and "battered in Martin's skull." Some of the attackers were arrested with McFadden. The story of the convictions, plea bargaining and sentencing is told there from the defense attorney's viewpoint. - BS
File: TSF013

Come All You Rounders

See Moonshine (File: Wa131)

Come All You Tonguers

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you tonguers and land-loving lubbers, Here's a job cutting in and boiling down blubbers." The singer declares, "Go hang the Agent!" because "I am paid in soap, and sugar, and rum" for all his hard word as the Agent and Company get rich
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ); reportedly collected by John Leebrick in the 1920s
KEYWORDS: worker hardtimes whaler money
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p, 14, "Come All You Tonguers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 16, "Come All You Tonguers" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 9 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 49, "Come All You Tonguers" (1 text)
Tod-WhalingInSouthernWaters, p. 126, "Come All You Tonguers" (1 text)
NOTES [530 words]: According to NewZealandDictionary, p. 294, a "tonguer," in whaling, referred to "One who, for his work of cutting in whales or abandoned whale carcasses or parts of them, received the oil of the tongue (also of other parts) in payment." Rickard, p. 82, explains, "When the dead whale had been towed back to the station, it was hauled up by windlass up the planked way, where the blubber was cut off in pieces a foot or two square. This task was in the hands of the 'tonguer,' so called because he was paid with the oil of the whale's tongue, also from its heart and intestines, as a perquisite for the duties which he performed, duties which required a considerable amount of skill."
Bailey and Roth explain this as a song of the shore whalers of the 1820s and 1830s. These whalers worked close to shore, but it was apparently their payment method resembled a company store: They "were paid their wages in goods which were marked against their account," so it was hard for them to leave the job. This could be true even of the relatively well-paid tonguers; Rickard, p. 86, describes how several workers, including a tonguer, found themselves in debt to the company at the end of a term of service. These particular problems were probably especially bad in New Zealand, because workers were generally paid a percentage of the value of the oil and whalebone taken on the voyage, based on the price in New Zealand -- and the price in the South Seas was generally only about a quarter what the products would be worth back in Britain.
Morton, p. 240, says that in addition to their skills in cutting up whales, tonguers were also responsible for interpreting for the Maori who worked with the whales. (Which leads to an interesting question: Were they called "tonguers" because they were paid in tongue oil or because they spoke a foreign tongue?) Morton also states that tongue oil was less valuable than oil from the blubber -- but it was easy to account for it, which probably explains why it was given to the tonguers rather than giving them a share of the total oil.
Morton, p. 241, quotes a verse of this and says that it is "believed to have been composed in the 1830s at Heberley's station at Port Underwood." Given that the 1830s was the heyday of New Zealand whaling -- indeed, almost the only decade in which it was active -- the date is probably right, but I don't know why it is associated with Port Underwood. Heberley was "an experienced shore whaleman" (Morton, p. 231), and he apparently served as a translator (Morton, p. 268), but he was far less important than (e.g.) the Weller Brothers or Johnny Jones. Perhaps there is something in his reminiscences, which are apparently found in manuscript in the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington (based on the bibliography entry on p. 368 of Morton).
Like the better-known "Davy Lowston," although this is considered a New Zealand song, it was collected by John Leebrick, who did his work in the United States. (For background on this, see the notes to "Davy Lowston.") The history behind it was the subject of an article by Frank Fyfe, first published in Maorilander, parts 1-4 (1970-1971); I have not seen it. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo014

Come All You True Lovers

See The Old Maid's Song (File: R364)

Come All You Valiant Shepherds

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you valiant shepherds that's got a valiant heart, That goes out on a stormy night and never feels a smart." The singer tells of caring for his sheep on the hills in bad weather. He is happy to drink and relax, but will not forget his sheep
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Vaughn Williams collection; Palmer claims a printed version from 1858)
KEYWORDS: shepherd sheep drink storm
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #8, "Come All You Valiant Shepherds" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1470
File: PECS008

Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.)

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you (Virginia) girls and listen to my noise; Don't you court no West Virginia boys; If you do, your fortune will be Johnny cake and venison and sassafras tea." Concerning the dangers of courting and marrying boys from (somewhere)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: courting hardtimes warning humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NW,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (37 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 426-428, "Texan Boys" (1 text plus a fragment probably not part of this song)
Randolph 342, "The Arkansas Boys" (3 texts, 2 tunes);
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 277-278, "The Arkansas Boys" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 342A)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 12-13, "To Go Asparking"; p. 28, "The Misouri Girls" (sic.) (2 texts)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 186-188, "The Arkansas Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 328, "The Carolina Crew" (1 fragment, thought by the editors to be this song); 336, "If You Want to Go A-Courtin'" (1 text, clearly mixed; the first three stanzas are this song, the next four something completely unrelated about a fight and a very bad meal)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 328, "The Carolina Crew" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 81, "Want to Go A-Courting" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 144, "Mississippi Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 3-4, "Texas Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 110-112, "Come All You Mississippi Girls" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 128-129, "Hello, Girls"; "Kansas Boys" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 69, pp. 92-93, "A Married Woman's Lament" (3 fragments, with "A" and "B" probably being "I Wish I Were Single Again (II - Female)" and "C" being perhaps "Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.)")
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 95, "The Hunter's Song" (1 fragment)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 25-26, "Illinois Gals" (1 text); pp. 41-43, "If You Want to Go A-Courtin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 11, "When You Go A-Courtin'"; 12, "The Texian Boys" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 9, "Johnny Cake" (4 texts, 1 tune, though the "B" text is clearly "Little Fight in Mexico" and the "C" text is also quite distinct)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #227, "Don't Marry the Mormon Boys" (1 fragment)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 186-187, "Don't Marry the Mormon Boys" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 81, pp. 175-176, "Cheyenne Boys" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 54-55, "Kansas Boys" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 58, "The Tucky Ho Crew" (1 text -- a very mixed version which is only partly this song, but the rest doesn't look like anything I know. It may be a conflation with an otherwise lost ballad)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 42-44, "West Virginia Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 75, "If You Want to Go A-courting" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 189-191, "De Free Nigger" (1 text plus the first lines of many localizations of the song); p. 214, "West Virginia Gals" (1 text); pp. 361-362, "Arkansas Sheik"; Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 583, "Cheyenne Boys"; pp. 635-636, "Alsea Girls" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 452-453, "Kansas Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 26-27, "Kansas Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 67, "(Madam, is your Johnny cake baking brown)" (1 fragment, consisting of the single line quoted; although there is no way to be sure of the source song, the line is typical of this piece)
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, pp. 124-125, "Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 173, "Kansas Boys" (1 text)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 74, "On the Road to Californy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 43, "On the Road to Calforny" (1 text)
DT, WHNCORT1* WHNCORT2* WHNCORT3* WHNCORT4* WHNCORT5*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 207, "The Old Leather Bonnet" (1 text, fairly full but missing the opening verse)
Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, p. 530, "Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys" (1 short text, in which the girl finds that "Johnny cake and babies is all you'll see")
Suzi Jones, _Oregon Folklore_, University of Oregon/Oregon Arts Commission, 1977, p. 11, "Alsea Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tom Nash and Twilo Scofield, _The Well-Travelled Casket: Oregon Folklore_, Meadowlark Press, 1999, p. 14, "Alsea Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4275 and 2977
RECORDINGS:
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "West Virginia Gals" (Brunswick 318, 1929; rec. 1928)
Judy Cook, Dennis Cook, "Come All You Virginia Gals" (Piotr-Archive #600, recorded 06/08/2023)
Cousin Emmy, "Cousin Emmy's Blues" (also issued as "Come All You Virginia Gals") (Decca 24213, 1947)
Riley Puckett, "The Arkansas Sheik" (Columbia 15686-D, 1931; rec. 1928)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Arkansas Sheik" (on NLCR14)
Pete Seeger, "Texian Boys" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Go A Sparking" (theme, structure, tune)
SAME TUNE:
Ballad of Harriet Tubman (by Woody Guthrie) (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 90-92)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
California Boys
East Virginia Girls
Missouri Boys
Hello Girls
Mississippi Gals
The Mormon Boys
Free Nigger (title used in the 1841 sheet music)
De Free Nigger
NOTES [180 words]: The Fifes offer deep psychological explanations for some parts of this piece. I incline to believe it means what it says.
The original publication appears to be the version printed by Cohen, "De Free Nigger." Happily, that version seems to be extinct in tradition. McNeil says that it did not list an author, which is probably just as well (although McNeil points out that this might mean that the publishers took it from tradition rather than it being a composed piece. The counter-argument is that there are no reports of it from tradition until John A. Lomax published his "Texian Boys" version).
Most versions of this are warnings to women; a few, like McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks's "If You Want to Go A-Courtin',", are either warnings to men or gender-neutral. Roud splits these; #4275 is the women's version and #2977 seems to be the men's. The distinction is probably formally valid; someone rewrote the song. But when fragments turn up, there is no way to classify them with one or the other. So I've lumped them, although it's a tricky decision. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R342

Come All You Warriors

DESCRIPTION: Lay down your arms! Father Murphy will "cut down cruel Saxon persecution" He excels Caesar, Alexander and Arthur. His victories are listed until Enniscorthy. If the French had come we would have won. But we still have our pikes and guns.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion Ireland clergy patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 26, 1798 - Beginning of the Wexford rebellion
May 27, 1798 - The Wexford rebels under Father John Murphy defeat the North Cork militia
June 5, 1798 - The Wexford rebels attack the small garrison (about 1400 men, many militia) at New Ross, but are repelled
June 21, 1798 - The rebel stronghold a Vinegar Hill is taken, and the Wexford rebellion effectively ended
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 10, "Come All You Warriors" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Father Murphy (I)" (subject of Father Murphy) and references there
NOTES [40 words]: The claim that the Irish would have won is sadly typical of the 1798. But the real problem is that the Irish rebels of the time did *not* have many guns; they often fought nearly unarmed. For examples of this, see the notes to "Father Murphy."
File: Zimm010

Come All You Worthy Christian Men

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns Christians to behave properly, remembering Job and Lazarus. First verse: "Come all you worthy Christian men That dwell upon this land, Don't spend your time in rioting, Remember you're but man...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 13(263))
KEYWORDS: warning religious Bible
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 186, "One God Made Us All" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 216)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 91, "Come All You Worthy Christian Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 99, "Come All You Worthy Christian Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 60, "Job" (1 text, 4 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 47, "Come All You Worthy Christian Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #815
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 13(263), "One God Has Made Us All" ("Come all you worthy Christians") , J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth b.34(297a), Harding B 13(264), "One God Has Made Us All"; Johnson Ballads 2291, Johnson Ballads 2292, Harding B 13(265), "One God Made Us All"; Harding B 11(1883), Firth b.34(156), "Job, the Patient Man"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rounding the Horn" (tune)
NOTES [95 words]: The story of Lazarus is a parable of Jesus, recounted in Luke 16:19-31 (the Lazarus of John 11, 12 is unrelated). Thus there never was an actual Lazarus who lay at a rich man's door; he was simply an example.
The case of Job is, to say the least, more complicated. The Bible does indeed report that he was "the richest [man] in the east" (Job 1:3), that "he was brought to poverty" (Job 1:13-19), and that he "soon got rich again" (Job 42:10f.). But it can hardly be said that Job bore all this uncomplainingly; most of Job chapters 3-30 are devoted to his complaints! - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: ShH91

Come All You Young and Handsome Girls

See Come All You Fair and Tender Girls (File: WB2080)

Come All You Young Ladies and Gentlemen

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you young ladies and gentlemen... Once I was young like you, and then I was happy and single, Till my mother advised me to wed." His wife burns his boots, abuses his cat, sells his belongings, won't feed him; he wishes she were dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Vaughan Williams collection)
KEYWORDS: marriage wife hardtimes abuse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #97, "Come All You Young Ladies and Gentlemen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1507
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" [Child 277] (theme: a wife who is no help) and references there
File: PECS097

Come All You Young Men

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you young men and listen unto me, Never hang your shirt on a green briar tree, The leaves they will wither and the branches decay, And the graybacks will hatch out and pack your shirt away." A series of humorous warnings
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: humorous parody clothes bug
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 418, "Come All You Young Men" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes)
Roud #7684
NOTES [31 words]: This gives all the evidence of being a parody of one of the "rejected lover" type songs -- but there are other elements mixed in, so it's hard to say if there was only *one* source. - RBW
File: R418

Come All You Young of Wary Age

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you young of wary (every) age, Give hearing to my song." A young man sets out to visit a friend, but falls from his horse and dies. He was alone, so no other details are known. His family and neighbours grieve; his mother says "his work is done"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: horse death family funeral grief
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 705, "Come All You Young of Wary Age" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 285, "Man Killed by Falling From a Horse" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 285, "Man Killed By Falling from a Horse" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Roud #7373 and 6640
NOTES [50 words]: There was a note attached to Brown's transcript of this song saying that it happened in Richmond county, but given the song's appearance in Randolph (and it is certainly the same song) implies that this is just folklore. Particularly since Randolph's informant also claimed the event was local. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: R705

Come All Young People (The Dying Lovers)

DESCRIPTION: Listeners are called to hear the story of two lovers. He comes to her door, but her parents turn him away. She mourns, and no doctor can cure her. At last the parents let him come, but she dies for love and is buried. He then dies also
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love separation death mourning doctor warning
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 73, "Come All Young People" (1 text)
Roud #563
NOTES [88 words]: The theme of this song, obviously, is commonplace, but the editors of the Brown collection cannot trace it to any particular song (they suspect broadside origin), and I am similarly unable to find a relative. (Roud lumps it with Laws P12, but Laws does *not* equate them.)
The first stanza, for what it's worth, runs
Come all young people far and near,
A lamentation you shall hear
Of a young man and his true love
Whom he adored and sworn to love.
The song ends with the usual warning to parents against separating lovers. - RBW
File: BrII073

Come Along

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Come along, come along, I am sorry for to leave you, On the road to heaven come, Friends will you go." Verse: "I was but young when I begin, But now my race is nearly run"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus music
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 13, "Come Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Bart013B

Come Along Brother

DESCRIPTION: See notes. Verses include "My brother, it's no particular place [here] for you ... Come along brother, go with me ... Come go with me to the House of God." "Pray my bother, you'll soon be free ... Pray with the Spirit of God in your soul"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: Bible floatingverses nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 32, "Com' Long, Brother" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [56 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. Verses are two or three lines, each followed by "I saw a city in my new." The description has some of the verses.
A Bahamian (at least) floating verse is "Jacob's ladder must be long... The angels shout from heaven down" (see "I Never Saw a Man Speak Like This Man"). - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa032

Come Along Down

DESCRIPTION: "Come along down buddy... Drive 'em down big boy." "That's the blow... makes him go...." "Sally got great long bangs... Hangs way down...." "Who gonna curl them bangs... After I'm gone...." "One more time... That's all right."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (VaWork)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad worksong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
John Mantley and Group, "Come Along Down" (on VaWork)
NOTES [233 words]: Glenn Hinson, liner notes to VaWork, pp. 9, 29: "Certainly the more visible industries associated with Afro-American Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work have been outdoor occupations which require manual labor. Laying and straightening steel railroad tracks, loading and unloading heavy cargoes of seagoing ships, lifting and breaking stones in quarries, and building roads have all been associated with the rhythmic chants of Black workmen. One such class of occupational song which heretofore has never been documented consists of the 'horsing' chants of Afro-American boat caulkers, a hammer song tradition which disappeared in the late 1930's.... Comprised of a series of loosely structured quatrains, the song's lyrics are more directive than narrative, telling the hammerman when to strike.... This type of chant, with its multiple repetitions and fluid verse structure (using both the aaab and aabb line patterns), would have been sung by a single horsing team rather than in unison by several teams working on the same vessel." Hinson's notes explain "horsing" in some detail.
For the Sally verses see "Sally Let Your Bangs Hang Down." Guthrie T. Meade Jr. with Dick Spottswood and Douglas S. Meade, Country Music Sources (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002), p. 538, has the following note for that song: "Bowlegs, State Penitentiary, Parchman, Miss., 1933, AFS 1863 B2&3." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcCoAlDo

Come Along, Moses

DESCRIPTION: "Come along, (Moses/Aaron/judy), Don't get lost (x3) Come along, Moses, don't get lost. We are the (people/children) of God." "We have a just God to please our cause." "He sits in heaven and answers prayer." "Stretch out your rod and come across."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 104, "Come Along, Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12060
NOTES [69 words]: When Moses met God at the burning bush, Moses's staff became an object of power (Exodus 4;2-3) -- e.g. he turned it into a snake before the Egyptians, though in that instance, it was Aaron, not Moses, who threw it down (Exodus 7:8-11). The confusion over who had the Super De Luxe Staff continues throughout the Pentateuch, but it is certainly Moses's staff which was used to part the Red Sea (Exodus 14:16). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG104

Come Along, My Own True Love

See The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)

Come And Do Your Picket, Boys (Bugle Call Lyric)

DESCRIPTION: "Come and do a picket, boys, come and do a guard, 'Tisn't very easy, boys, 'tisn't very hard."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 234, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Roud #11240
File: BrPa234B

Come And Go With Me

DESCRIPTION: "(If you want to get to heaven just come and go with me) (x3), Hallelujah Amen." Other first lines include "Stop, listen, hear what Jesus says," "Jesus told the lame man 'Take up your bed and walk,'" "Jesus told the blind man, 'Open your eyes and see.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 230-231, "Come En Go Wid Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, pp. 7-8, "Come En Go Wid Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [105 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Jesus's telling the lame man to take up his bed and walk is in John 5:1-9 -- a controversial set of verses, because the manuscripts disagree dramatically about the form (and even the inclusion) of 5:3b-4; the best manuscripts omit both verses, but they are in the King James Bible. Plus the word here rendered "bed," Greek κραββατος, krabbatos, was considered vulgar. There are several mentions of Jesus curing the blind, none of which is exactly parallel to what is said here; I suspect the reference is collective. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR230A

Come and Go with Me to That Land

DESCRIPTION: "Come and go with me to that land (x3)... where I'm bound." "There ain't no moanin' in that land." "There ain't no bowin' in that land." "There ain't no kneelin' in that land." "There ain't no Jim Crow in that land."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Creighton collection)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 74-75, "Nothing But Peace in the Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 371, "Come And Go With Me To That Land" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, various authors, "A Singing Stream: A Black Family Chronicle" [an entire issue about a documentary of the Landis Family], Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 (Winter 1989), p. 57, "Come and Let's Go to That Land" (1 text, contained in the script of the documentary)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 196, "Come and Go with Me to That Land" (notes only)
33MuchLovedSongs, "Come and Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COMEGO
Roud #18072
NOTES [39 words]: The Creighton version of this is slightly different in form from the way I heard it from sixties pop groups. But it's unique, and very similar in thought, so I've put it here without much hesitation. Similarly the Landis version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB371

Come And I Will Sing You

See Green Grow the Rushes-O (The Twelve Apostles, Come and I Will Sing You) (File: ShH97)

Come and Jine

DESCRIPTION: "There are churches in our land Run by wicked, worldly men; They will stand and tell you, brother, Come and jine!" In those churches, you can smoke, drink, chew, even preach and fight, as long as you pay the preacher and don't have a real religion
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: religious drink drugs nonballad clergy
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #96, "Come and Jine" (1 text)
Roud #5057
File: Morr096

Come and Kiss Me, Robin

DESCRIPTION: "Come and kiss me, Robin, Come and kiss me now, Oh he came and kissed me, And he came and kissed me With my hands milking the cow!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 785, "Come and Kiss Me, Robin" (1 fragment)
Roud #5521
NOTES [68 words]: Randolph speculates that this may be related to Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag's item "The Pretty Girl Milkin' the Cow." They're both fragments, so it's possible -- but I don't see any clear links.
Similarly, Roud links this with the fragment "John, Come Kiss Me Now" in Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I (pp. 268-269) and now in the index under that title. Possible, but I need a lot more evidence. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: R785

Come and Let's Go to That Land

See Come and Go with Me to That Land (File: FSWB371)

Come Ashore Jackie Tar

DESCRIPTION: "Come ashore, Jackie Tar, an' yer trousers on." "Kiss a bonnie lass." "Hae a biscuit" "hae a dram." "Captain Charles" or "boats o' Boddam come ashore." "Hear cannons roar on the coasts of Labrador" or "the Bay of Baltimore."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #73, p. 2, "Jacky Tar" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 60, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Come Ashore Jackie Tar" (3 texts)
Roud #5812
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jacky Tar With His Trousers On" (some verses)
NOTES [46 words]: The GreigGreig/Duncan1 verses are pretty much disconnected from each other and probably float, though I haven't seen that.
Greig: .".. pretty much a vocalise, like the extemporised verses so often used for a dance when, in default of an instrument, the tune had to be sung." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1060

Come Away from that Old Man

DESCRIPTION: "Come away from that old man! He will kill you if he can. Come away, o-oh!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death age
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 208, "Come Away from that Old Man" (1 fragment)
NOTES [41 words]: This was given to Brown as a hog-call, but I have this feeling in my gut that this is a fragment of "Matty Groves" -- that these are the words Musgrave/Matty hears when Lord Arnold's horn sounds. But with only three lines, this can't be proved. - RBW
File: Br3208

Come Back Baby

DESCRIPTION: "Come back baby please don't go, Can't we talk it over one more time." "Don't break up my home, I'll miss you when you're gone, Can't we talk it over one more time." "This world wasn't built in one day, Can't we talk it over before you go away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recording, Walter Davis)
KEYWORDS: grief love parting nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Walter Davis, "Come Back Baby" (Bluebird B8510, 1940)
Moses Williams, "Come Back Baby" (on USFlorida01)
File: RcCoBaBa

Come Back to Erin

DESCRIPTION: The singer's sweetheart has left Killarney for England. He seems surprised that "my heart sank when clouds came between us... Oh, may the angels, oh, waking and sleeping Watch o'er my bird in the land far away." Does she think of me?
AUTHOR: Charlotte Alington Barnard ("Claribel") (1830-1869)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(965))
KEYWORDS: courting emigration separation nonballad Ireland
FOUND IN: US(MW) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 79-80, "Come Back to Erin" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 148, "Come back to Erin, mavourneen, mavourneen" (1 fragment)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 103, "Come Back to Erin" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 438-439, "Come Back to Erin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #95, "Come Back to Erin" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 26, "Come Back to Erin" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 177-178
Roud #13846
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(965), "Come Back to Erin", J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth c.12(253), 2806 c.8(238), Harding B 15(49a), Johnson Ballads 1898, 2806 b.11(224), Firth c.12(253), "Come Back to Erin"; 2806 c.8(237), "Come Back to Erin, Mavourneen, Mavourneen"
NOTES [205 words]: According to Spaeth, p. 143, Claribel "managed to turn out both words and music of a great many ballads that found immediate favor on both sides of the Atlantic. Her first song to make it mark here was called Janet's Choice, appearing in London in 1860, although its American publication was delayed until 1871.... [She] made her most lasting impression with Come Back to Erin (1868), which is still heard with honest preasure and often regarded as an Irish folk-song. Mrs. Barnard was a woman of some musical education, but depended chiefly on her intuitive expression of the sentimentality of her day."
I do not know how to reconcile Spaeth's statement that the song was published in 1868 with the broadside which seems to come from at least two years earlier. Williams, p. 41, also says "The song came out in 1866." Perhaps the broadside was pirated from one of Claribel's performances?
For another song in the Index credited to Claribel, see "We'd Better Bide a Wee." Williams, p. 41, seems to consider this her biggest hit, followed by "I Cannot Sing the Old Songs" (which can be found in Heart-Songs, pp. 282-283). Heart-Songs, pp. 265-2676, includes "Take Back the Heart," so that presumably was also fairly popular. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: OCon103

Come Back to Mother Again

DESCRIPTION: Father and son argue. Son crosses the sea. Father sends a letter saying that mother is sad and asks that he return. He reads the letter every night. He eventually returns to England and is reconciled with his family.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: home reunion separation England father mother youth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 1075, "Come Back to Mother Again" (1 text)
Roud #6762
File: GrD51075

Come Back, Paddy Reilly

See Ballyjamesduff (File: RcBalJDu)

Come Brave With Me the Sea, Love

DESCRIPTION: "Come, brave with me the sea, love, The empire of the free, love! There shalt thou dwell with me, love, My blessing and my pride." "Though fir the earth may be, love, It is not like the sea, love, With me all dangers dare, love, And be a sailor's bride"
AUTHOR: Music: Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1834 (I Puritani, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor love courting ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 41, "Come, Brave With Me the Sea, Love" (2 texts, 1 tune; with neither text being the Italian original; the tune is found with #39 in the first edition)
Roud #V41491
File: FrPi41

Come Buy My Roses

DESCRIPTION: Round. "Who'll buy my roses, Who'll buy my posies, Who'll buy my lilies, ladies fair? Taste and try before you buy, Fine ripe pears. Clothes, clothes, any old clothes...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (SongsOfAllTime)
KEYWORDS: food clothes nonballad commerce
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SongsOfAllTime, p. 61, "Who'll Buy My Roses?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17799
File: SATOlClo

Come By Here

DESCRIPTION: 'Someone's sick; Lord, come by here (x3), Oh, Lord, won't you come by here." "Someone's dying; Lord, come by here." "Someone's in trouble...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: religious disease death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 621, "O Lord, Won't You Come by Here?" (1 text)
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 308-309, "Come By Yuh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11924
RECORDINGS:
Rosa and Joseph Murray, "Come on Buh Here Lawd" (on USSeaIsland03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kum By Yah" (form)
File: Br3621

Come By Yuh

See Come By Here (File: Br3621)

Come Chise me Oot

DESCRIPTION: "Come chise me oot, come chise me in, Come chise me for a rabbit skin; Come chise me east, come chise me west, And give me the very one that I love best"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #159, p. 2, ("Come chise me oot, come chise me in") (1 short text)
Greig/Duncan8 1574, "Come Chise me Oot" (1 short text)
Roud #13505
NOTES [9 words]: The current description is all of the Greig text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81574

Come come pretty Sally and set you down by me

See Weary of Lying Alone (File: OCC144)

Come Down to Tennessee

DESCRIPTION: "Come down to Tennessee (Ride er ole grey horse). Yaller gal's de gal for me (Ride er ole grey horse). Kiss her under de mulberry tree (Ride er ole grey horse). Oh my, nigger, don't you see, Better come to Tennessee?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: courting horse
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 183, (no title) (1 fragment)
File: ScaNF183

Come Down with the Killock

DESCRIPTION: "Come down with the killock And out with the line; Of fish about here, boys, There is a good sign." The ship sails; it's "not like the fools Who are hunting for fat." The singer decides fishing is better than sealing: "Off to the ice Go fools in a rush."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Murphy, The Seal Fishery)
KEYWORDS: ship hunting fishing nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 26, "Come Down with the Killock" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Briton Cooper Busch, _The War Against the Seals: A History of the North American Seal Fishery_, McGill-Queen's University Press, 1985, p. 57, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #V44634
NOTES [335 words]: Sealing was almost like gambling: some years a ship and her sailors would make a (literal) killing, others they would come back with almost nothing. This was hard on both ship owners (who still had to pay the expenses of outfitting the ship) and sealers (who might not get paid anything and would have had to pay the expenses of getting to port; prior to 1902, the sealers also had to pay just to get on a ship; see the notes to "The Sealer's Strike of 1902 (The Sealers Gained the Strike)"). And sealers were at significant risk of death or injury; hunting seals ("hunting for fat"), although it was held in awe in Newfoundland, was frankly an occupation for those who liked to take silly risks.
Most would not have admitted that fact. The writer of this piece seems to have been an exception. He apparently preferred to go for cod (at that time, still a reliable harvest) rather than risk going bust as a sealer.
According to StoryKirwinWiddowson, pp. 285-286, "killock" is a variant of "killick," an anchor with a stone supplying the weight. This became proverbial in several ways: "If you lose your killick, you'll find it in the fall [on your bill from the merchant]"; a woman who was pregnant "had a rock in her killick"; "killick-stones" were, of course, the stones placed in the wooden cage of a killick. In this case, it would seem, the singer is saying, "Lower the anchor so we can take the fish around here."
The word "killick" was also known in the Royal Navy; according to Bradford, pp. 51-52, "a leading seaman [was] known as a 'killick' (little anchor) from the badge on his arm." Uden/Cooper, p. 247, note that this meaning led to two verb forms: to "ship the killock" was to be promoted to leading seaman, and to "up killock" was to leave the ship (often by deserting), from the image of raising the anchor. So, in a sense, the singer of this song has upped killock from the whole business of fishing. Probably, though, the singer did not know this usage, which was apparently navy-specific. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: RySm026B

Come Down, Sinner

DESCRIPTION: "Come down (x3), sinner you're none too late (x2)." "Some seek the Lord but don't seek him right, Come down ..., Little at day and none at night, Come down...." Pray hard, bow low, shout hard, mourn hard, leave Satan behind, "go in peace and sin no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Devil Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 132-133, "Come Down, Sinner" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 138 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #15247
File: Dett132

Come Down, You Bunch of Roses, Come Down

See Blood Red Roses (File: Doe022)

Come En Go Wid Me

See Come And Go With Me (File: HPR230A)

Come Follow

DESCRIPTION: "Come follow, follow, follow, Follow, follow, follow me Whither shall I follow, follow, follow, Whither shall I follow, follow thee? To the greenwood, to the greenwood To the greenwood, greenwood tree." (Some versions have "redwood tree")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (GirlScouts-SingTogether), but see NOTES
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 433, 434, "Come Follow" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 104, "Come Follow" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 29, "Come, Follow!" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [169 words]: The description above cites the camp song known as "Come Follow," as found in several camp songbooks. I can't prove that this is what Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs means by this title, but it seems probable. Averill asserts that this is the same song as "Come Follow," published by John Hilton in the 1652 book Catch that Catch Can. The lyrics printed by Hilton are as follows:
Come follow, follow mee,
come follow, follow mee,
and we will to the Taverne go
with mirth and merry glee:
wee'l each man take his Cup,
what ever us be-fall,
and we will drinke all up, all up,
and for another call:
then let us merry be,
be merry my noble hearts,
for a cup of old Sherry
will make us merry,
and wee'l sing well our parts. Come, &c.
I don't know about the tune, but they don't look alike to me, although the mention of the "greenwood" does hint at something old. I did not find anything like Hilton's text in my scouting songbooks. Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs seems to say that the tune, not the text, is from "Hilton." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF433F

Come Go With Me

DESCRIPTION: "Old Satan is a busy old man, He roll stones in my way; Mass' Jesus is my bosom friend, He roll 'em out of my way, O come-e go with me (x3), A-walking in the heaven I roam." "I did not come here myself, my Lord, It was my Lord who brought me here...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, pp. 57-58, "Come Go With Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12017
File: AWG057B

Come Hame to Yer Lingles

DESCRIPTION: Wife tells her drunk husband to come home from his Monday morning drinking among his cronies. She and the children are in tatters. He tells her to leave him and his friends in peace. She will follow him from inn to inn. He concedes; he must quit.
AUTHOR: Robert Tannahill (1774-1810) and Alexander Rodger (1784-1846) (source: Ramsay and Whitelaw)
EARLIEST DATE: 1838 (Alexander Rodger, _Poems and Songs_)
KEYWORDS: poverty drink dialog husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 588, "Come Hame to Yer Lingles" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 335, "Come Hame to Yer Lingles" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Rodger, Poems and Songs (Glasgow, 1838), pp. 103-104, "Come Hame to Your Lingels"
Phillip A Ramsay, The Poetical Works of Robert Tannahill (London, c.1838), pp. 89-90, "Come Hame To Your Lingels"
Roud #5892
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jock Robb" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
cf. "O, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad" (tune, per Whitelaw)
cf. "Farewell to Whisky (Johnny My Man)" (theme)
NOTES [20 words]: Whitelaw: "The first verse of this song was a fragment by Tannahill; the rest has been happily added by Alex. Rodger" - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD3588

Come Hither, Tom

DESCRIPTION: "Come hither, Tom, and make up three, And sing this catch with me; Though the tune be old, I dare be bold, Tis good, if we all agree ... Keep time upon his [Jack's] back .... listen to the bass For he will us disgrace ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1790 (_Old Poor Robin An Almanac_)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 300-301, "Come Hither, Tom" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 181)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Herrick [?; "Poor Robin"], Old Poor Robin An Almanack (London, 1790 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 6, ("Come hither, Tom, and make up three") (1 text) [Wikipedia article "Poor Robin's Almanack": "It was published from circa 1663 until 1828. The poet Robert Herrick is thought to have established it."]
Thomas Oliphant, La Musa Madrigalesca (London, 1837 ("Digitized by Google")),#333 p. 299, ("Come hither, Tom, and make up three") (1 text)
Roud #1336
NOTES [53 words]: Oliphant: "Music by W. Cranford, one of the Singing-men of St Paul's Cathedral."
Wildridge at Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO quoting Williams: "They never popular with the ordinary village minstrels and were seldom, if ever, heard at the inns", referring to "Come Hither, Tom," "'Twas You, Sir," and "Poor Johnny's Dead." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT300A

Come Home, Father

See Father, Dear Father, Come Home with Me Now (File: R308)

Come Humble Sinners

See You've Got to Be a Lover of the Lord (File: R654)

Come in My Garden

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme, apparently with no complete text known. "Come in my garden And give me your hand...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | garden
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #86, "Come in my garden" (1 fragment)
Roud #22180
NOTES [29 words]: I'm indexing this because Steve Roud did, but with no additional versions found in the century since Douglas gave us the partial text, I'm fairly sure this is lost forever. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR086

Come Into Me Arms

DESCRIPTION: "Come into me arms, Me bundle of charms, Get out of me site, You bundle of sh..." (sic. Presumably you can fill it in)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: love scatological
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 53, "(Come into me arms" (1 text)
Roud #22975
File: PKKB053B

Come Into the Lighter

DESCRIPTION: "Come into the lighter, Maude, The fuse has long been lit, Come into the lighter, Maude, And never mind your kit. The waves grow high, But what care I, I'd rather be seasick Than blown sky-high, So come into..., Or I'm off in the launch alone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1864-1917 - Life of General Sir F. Stanley Maude
1915 - The Dardanelles campaign. British forces attack Gallipoli; the Australians and New Zealanders form the spearhead of the second phase of the attack, at Suvla Bay. All the attacks are bloody failures
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 104, "Come Into the Lighter" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come Into the Garden, Maude" (tune, according to Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
NOTES [187 words]: According to Stephen Pope and Elizabeth-Anne Wheal, Dictionary of the First World War, 1995 (I use the 2003 Pen & Sword paperback), pp. 309-301, General Sir F. Stanley Maude began World War I in charge of a brigade on the Western Front (where he was severely wounded), then was promoted to divisional command in the Dardanelles campaign. He commanded the 13th Division, which suffered more than 50% casualties. After that, he, and it, were transferred to Mesopotamia. Put in charge of the Mesopotamian campaign, he was having success when he died suddenly of cholera in 1917.
Every source I have checked considers him the best commander the British had in Mesopotamia, and none seem to blame him for the losses at Gallipoli. But one can understand the perspective of the song: His troops took horrid casualties in the Dardanelles, and he was a British officer commanding colonials. Even if the losses weren't his fault, it's easy to understand how his soldiers would blame him. And when he slowed them down as they tried to leave the beaches under fire, as he apparently did, it's easy to see why they waxed sarcastic! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW102

Come Join the Huckleberry PIcnic

DESCRIPTION: "When Angel Gabriel blows his horn, You've got to go just as sure as you're born, And when you die you'll find a place...." "Come join the huckleberry picnic... I'm one of the committee and invite you." People are warned to "come get religion"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle)
KEYWORDS: food religious Devil
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 76-77, "Come Join the Huckleberry PIcnic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7517
NOTES [40 words]: This looks very much like a hymn to which the "huckleberry picnic" chorus was added, but I can't find any mention of a hymn "When Angel Gabriel blows his horn" except for a copyright claim made after Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle was printed. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Boet076

Come Lads and Lasses

See The Maypole Song (File: BeCo284)

Come Let Us Sing (I)

See Children Go Where I Send Thee (File: LoF254)

Come List to a Ranger (The Disheartened Ranger)

DESCRIPTION: "Come list to a ranger, you kind-hearted stranger... Who fought the Comanches away from your ranches And followed them far o'er the Western frontier." He complains of the hard conditions he suffered, and warns the listener to keep watch for Comanches
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax, Cowboy Songs)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) fight hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 181, "Come List to a Ranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 151, "The Disheartened Ranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 7, pp. 55-57, "Texas Ranger's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 268-269, "The Disheartened Ranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COMELIST*
Roud #5481
RECORDINGS:
Carl T. Sprague, "The Disheartened Ranger" (Victor V-40066)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Disheartened RangerThe
NOTES [143 words]: The Texas Rangers were initially founded during the period of the Texas Rebellion, as the defense force of the new county. And Texas, from the moment it declared independence to the time it joined the United States, had budget problems. So it would be little surprise to find a particular soldier ill-paid.
Several of the versions, such as Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging's, seem to go back to this period; the Ranger declares that he is quitting and going back to the "States." Other versions just sound like standard soldier complaints. It's not really clear which is original.
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest attributes this to "M. B. Smith" but offers no explanation for the attribution. Perhaps this was the authorship credit on the Carl T. Sprague recording that was the basis for the Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest text? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R181

Come Listen to Me, and Pray Give Attention

DESCRIPTION: The singer crossed the moor on the way home from the fair and saw an old woman sitting alone and milking her cow. She sang "the Marquis o' Doune" or some other song he doesn't remember.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad animal music
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1798, "Come Listen to Me, and Pray Give Attention" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12999
File: GrD81798

Come listen, all ye ploughman lads

See The Fyvie Ploughmen (File: GrD3420)

Come Love Here's a Letter

See The Last Letter (File: GrMa101)

Come O'er the Bourn, Bessy, to Me

See Come Over the Burn, Bessie (File: MECOtBBe)

Come O'er the Bourne, Bessy

See Come Over the Burn, Bessie (File: MECOtBBe)

Come On and Join

See Billy Hughes's Army (File: DSeBHuA)

Come on Buh Here Lawd

See Come by Here (File: Br3621)

Come On My Hearts of Tempered Steel

DESCRIPTION: "Come on my hearts of tempered steale (sic.) and leave your girls and farms... and hark away to arms." The recruiter (?) describes the soldiering life and declares that no foreigners will rule the Americas. They will live at ease when the war ends
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1781 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: soldier family separation patriotic
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson NewYork, pp. 336-337, "(no title)" (1 text)
File: TNY336

Come On Up to Bright Glory

DESCRIPTION: "You don't hear me prayin' here, you can't find me nowhere/Come on up to bright glory, I'll be waitin' up there." Other verses zip in "when I preach," "when I shout," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Rich Amerson)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #10977
RECORDINGS:
Rich Amerson, "Come On Up to Bright Glory" (on NFMAla4)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus" (tune, structure)
SAME TUNE:
If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus (RECORDING: Betty Mae Fikes, on VoicesCiv)
NOTES [36 words]: This is, of course, the song from which the freedom song "If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus" was adapted; interestingly enough, the latter seems to have originated in Alabama, where this song was collected. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: RcCOUtBG

Come on, Boys, and Let's Go to Hunting

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Come on, boys, let's go to huntin', Dog in the Woods, and he done treed sump'n."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: hunting dog
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 743, "Come on, Boys, and Let's Go to Hunting" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BSoF743

Come On, My Pink, an' Tell Me What You Think

See Late Last Night When Willie Came Home (Way Downtown) (File: CSW166)

Come Out the Wilderness

See Go in the Wilderness (File: RcGITW)

Come Over and See Me Sometime

DESCRIPTION: Floating-verse song, known mostly by the chorus: "Won't you come over and see me sometime (x2). Eat your breakfast 'fore you start, take your dinner in your hand, and leave before it's suppertime."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, p. 48, (no title) (1 fragment)
Roud #4947
RECORDINGS:
Morris Norton, "Oh, Come See Me When You Can" (on OldTrad1, FarMtns3)
File: ScaSC048

Come Over the Burn, Bessie

DESCRIPTION: Early modern English or late Middle English: "Come over the burne, Besse, Thou lytyll prety Besse, Come over the the burne, (Besse), to me." "Come over the burn, Bess(ie), Thou little pretty Bessie, Come over the burne, Bessie, to me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1530 (Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II)
KEYWORDS: love courting MiddleEnglish river
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 505 footnote a, "(no title)" (1 short text with discussion)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 121-122 "Come O'er the Bourne, Bessy" (1 tune plus 2 texts based on it)
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #5227
ADDITIONAL: Siegfried Wenzel, _Preachers, Poets, and the Early English Lyric_, Princeton University Press, 1986, p. 241, "(no title)" (1 fragment)
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library Ashmole 176 (SC 6659), folio 100
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge UK, Emmanuel College 263, folios i-ii
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, Trinity College O.2.53 (1157), folios 55-56
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library Additional MS 5665, folio 143
COMPARE:
ADDITIONAL: Vivian de Sola Pinto and Allan Edwin Rodway, _The Common Muse: An Anthology of Popular British Poetry XVth-XXth Century_, Chatton & WIndus, 1957, pp. 37-39, "A songe between the Quenes majestie and Englande" (1 text, William Birche's poem with this chorus)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
Come Over the Burne, Besse
Cum Ouer the Borne Bessey
Come O'er the Bourn, Bessy, to Me
NOTES [778 words]: This is truly a conundrum. The lyrics quoted in the description are never found in isolation. They are part of a piece the DIMEV titles "The burn is this world blind," described as "Christ's appeal from the cross." This poem is in six-line tail rhyme, which I am quite certain was not traditional. This fragment was the burden of it.
And yet the burden exists beyond the appeal from the cross. Wenzel, p. 242, says it was "extremely popular in Tudor England" and claims there are three manuscript copies of the music (without really citing them). Wenzel says Skelton's "Speke, Parrot" alludes to it; I believe he is referring to lines 235-240:
My propire Besse,
My praty Besse,
Turne ones agayne to me:
For slepyste thou, Besse,
Or wakeste thow, Besse,
Myne herte hyt ys with the.
Wenzel further claims it is quoted in William Wager's play "A Very Mery and Pythic Commedie, called The Longer Thou Livest, The More Foole Thou Art," from 1569. The DIMEV also cites variations and adaptions: "Cf. [#]5066; For a secular version see #3644; for late sixteenth-century political adaptations see Rollins (1924), 56, 205, Nos. 587, 2377" (a reference to various items listed in the Stationer's Register that appear to be ballads; according to Furness, p. 207, one of these ballads was registered in 1564).
And then there is a line attributed to Shakespeare:
Come o'er the [bourn], Bessy, to me.
This is spoken by Edgar while talking with the Fool in "King Lear"; it is line III.vi.25 on p. 1278 of ShakespeareEvans. There is, however, much doubt about the reading. None of our sources actually read "bourn" (or "burn," or "bourne"). The First Folio, in fact, omits all of scene vi from line 16 to line 56, including the reference to this song (for the text, or its absence, see the "Tragedies" section of the Folio, p. 299).
The First Quarto of "King Lear," the oldest surviving text of the play, is the source for the line, which ShakespeareEvans numbers as III.vi.25, but it doesn't actually read "Come o'er the bourn." What it has is "Come o'er the broome." It was Capell who suggested the reading "bourn," according to ShakespeareEvans, p. 1301. According to Furness, p. 207, Capell based the reading on the text of this song in Wager's play.
So what did Shakespeare write? Different editions of Shakespeare have different texts here; the Signet agrees with ShakespeareEvans in using Capell's emendation "bourne"; the Yale reads "broom" following the quarto; the New Pelican prints Quarto and Folio texts in parallel as separate versions and has this in the Quarto version as line 22 (ShakespeareOrgel, p. 1536). In the notes, ShakespeareOrgel give a strong argument for the reading "burn": the Fool's obscene reply to Edgar is "Her boat hath a leak, And she must not speak, Why she dares not come over to thee." In other words, it appears the Fool interprets "burn" not as a stream but as the burning pain of a venereal disease. This is not absolutely compelling, but it makes sense; if the reading "broome" were adopted, the Fool would not be replying to Edgar in a meaningful way, so the reading "burn" is much more effective.
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 505 has a different explanation for the origin of the lines, claiming "The allusion is to an English ballad by William Birch, entitled 'A Songe betwene the Quenes Majestie and Englande,'" in which England calls out to Queen Elizabeth with this verse. Birch, however, was quoting and imitating the verse, not originating it (Furness, p. 208).
Malone apparently claimed that Bessy was the partner of Poor Tom of Bedlam, according to Furness, p. 208, but I do not know if Malone had evidence for this.
Of the four manuscripts with the piece, Ashmole is clearly a Tudor manuscript with some other interesting secular pieces, e.g. one about Mary I dancing with her father Henry VIII. Emmanuel College 263 has no other Middle English poetry. Trinity College O.2.53 also has a reference to Henry VIII; it has several poetic pieces, though many are religious and not at all ballad-like. British Library Addit. 5665 is the most interesting of the lot; although the only other Ballad Index piece it contains is "Pray for Us, Thou Prince of Peace," and perhaps "I Have Been a Foster (The Old Forester)," it has a Boar's Head Carol and several other Christmas carols, plus the well-known "Pastime with good company." It is a very interesting set of sources.
Adding it all up, it seems nearly certain that there was some sort of popular song reading either "Come o'er the bourne, Bess(ie)" or "Blink o'er the bourne, Bess(ie)." All we have is this chorus. But I thought I'd better index it to keep track of it.... - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: MECOtBBe

Come Over the Burne, Besse

See Come Over the Burn, Bessie (File: MECOtBBe)

Come Over, Playmate

See See, See, My Playmate (File: OpGa148)

Come Raise Me in Your Arms, Dear Brother

DESCRIPTION: The singer has been mortally wounded in battle by his brother. The singer (apparently a Unionist) asks how his brother could oppose his father (also a Unionist). He asks his brother to bring the news to mother -- but not reveal who did the killing
AUTHOR: E. Bowers and P. B. Isaacs
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1928 (recording, James Ragan & Oliver Beck)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle death brother farewell
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 235, "Come Raise Me in Your Arms, Dear Brother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 208-210, "Come Raise Me in Your Arms, Dear Brother" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 235)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 42-43, "Come Raise Me in Your Arms Dear Brother" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 214-215, "Write a Letter to Mother" (1 text)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 91, "Write a Letter to My Mother" (1 text)
Roud #7708
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Write a Letter to My Mother" (Columbia 15711-D, 1930)
James Ragan & Oliver Beck, "Write a Letter to My Mother" (Challenge 390, c. 1928)
File: R235

Come Sweet Jane

See Sweet Jane [Laws B22] (File: LB22)

Come Tender-Hearted Christians

See Rody McCorley (File: OLcM021)

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Come thou fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing thy praise. Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise." "Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above." etc.
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Robinson (1735-1790)
EARLIEST DATE: 1758 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 207-298, "Come, Thou Fount" (1 text, 1 tune -- the tune being "Nettleton")
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 115-117, "I Will Arise" (1 text, 1 tune, with the usual confusion of verses following the "Come Thou Fount" opening stanza)
Heart-Songs, p. 506, "Come, Thou Found of Every Blessing" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp, 66-67, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15066
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Will Walk Through the Streets of the City"
cf. "This Old World" (lyrics, tune)
cf. "Come, Ye Sinners" (lyrics, tune)
cf. "I'm a Soldier Bound for Glory" ("Ebenezer" lyric)
NOTES [1224 words]: This text has been credited to Selina Hastings, countess of Huntingdon, but the strong evidence is that it is by by Robert Robinson (1735-1790; see Stulken, p. 517, and Reynolds, p. 53). Julian, p. 252, gives a very long discussion:
"As various and conflicting statements concerning this hymn abound, it will be necessary to trace, 1st its History, so far as known; and 2nd, to discuss the question of its Authorship.
"i. Its History. This in detail is: --
"1. In a church book, kept by Robert Robinson (q.v.), of Cambridge, and in the possession of the Rev. William Robinson, his biographer, there is an entry in Robert Robinson's handwriting which reads:-- 'Mr. Wheatley of Norwich published a hymn beginning 'Come, Thou Fount of Every blessing' (1758)....
"2. Nothing has yet been found which can be identified as being issued by 'Mr. Wheatley of Norwich' in which this hymn can be found.
"3. The earliest kbown text in print is in A Collection of Hymns used by the Church of Christ in Angel-Alley, Bishopsgate, 1759, now in the library of Drew Theolovical College, Madison, New Jersey, U.S.A. It is No. i, an in 4 st., beginning respectively:--
"St. i. 'Come, Thou Fount of every blessing.'
"St. ii. 'Here I raise my Eben-ezer.'
"St. iii. 'O, to grace how great a debtor.'
"St. iv. 'O, that day when free from sinning.'
"4. This text was repeated in the Hearers of the Apostles Collection of Hymns, Nottingham, 1777; and in a Dublin Collection, 1785. Shortly afterward, however, it seems to have fallen out of use.
"5. The second and well-known form of the hymn is the first three stanzas as given above is found in M. Madan's Ps[alms] & Hy[mn]s, 1760; G. Whitefield's Ps[salms] & Hymns, 14th ed., 1767; the Countess of Huntingdon's Coll., 1764...."
Julian then goes on to discuss whether Robinson or the Countess wrote it. The only evidence that Selina Huntindon did so is an early manuscript, not by the Countess, that attributes it to her. There is much more evidence that Robinson wrote it, including his own note cited above, although there is no autograph copy. Julian is therefore convinced that Robinson wrote it. And I see little grounds for argument.
Julian, p. 1557, mentions that other hymnals give this as "Father, Source of Every Blessing" and "Jesus, Source of Every Blessing."
Although it originated in the Anglican church, this is among the most popular of all shape note lyrics; in the Sacred Harp, for instance, we find it used with "Olney," "Family Circle," "Restoration," and "Warrenton" -- plus, with the first line "Come THY fount of every blessing," the tune "Rest for the Weary." In the Missouri Harmony, it has the tunes "Olney," "New Monmouth," and "Hallelujah."
The standard tune seems to be "Olney;" in Jackson's White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands, it occurs only with "Olney" (#40), as one of two possible texts for that tune. Nonetheless, the text travels a lot, and has acquired various tunes and choruses; see the cross-references.
If I understand Johnson correctly, he believes the original tune to have been "Nettleton," which he credits to John Wyeth (1770-1858), though "Nettleton" of course is also associated with the name of Asahel Nettleton (1783-1843), who published Village Hymns in 1824 (but, according to Julian, p. 794, cannot be proved to have written any hymns; Village Hymns is primarily if not entirely a compilation, and Reynolds, p. 54, says that it contains no tunes). This is the tune used in the Lutheran Hymnal, according to Stulken, p. 517. Reynolds, p. 53, seems to say that the Baptist Hymnal also uses "Nettleton." Heart-Songs does not name its tune but attributes it to John Wyeth (and the words to Robert Robinson).
Reynolds, pp. 53-54, thinks the chorus lyric "I am bound for the kingdom, won't you go to glory with me?" which sometimes floats into the "Come Thou Fount" text, comes from "Whither goest though, pilgrim stranger," found in the Baptist Songster of 1829; Reynolds prints a text. He seems to link it to the tune "Warrenton" (from the 1844 Sacred Harp).
Of author Robinson, Julian, p. 969 says that he was "b[orn] at Swaffham, in Norfolk, on Sept. 27, 1835 (usually misgiven [in] spite of his own authority, as Jan. 8), of lowly parentage. Whilst in his eighth year the family migrated to Scarning, in the same county. He lost his father a few years after this removal. His widowed mother was left in sore straits. The... boy (in his 15th year) was indentured in 1749 to a barber and hairdresser in London.... In 1752 came an epoch-making event. Out on a frolic one Sunday with like-minded companions, he joined with them in sportively rendering a fortune-telling old woman drunk and incapable, that they might hear and laugh at her predictions concerning them. The poor creature told Robinson that he would live to see his children and grand-children. This set him a-thinking, and he resolved more than ever to 'give himself to reading.' Coincidentlly he went to hear George Whitefield.... Robinson remained in London until 1758, attending assiduously on the ministry of Gill, Wesley, and other evangelical preachers. Early in this year he was invited as a Calvinistic Methodist to the oversight of a chapel at Mildenhall, Norfolk. Thence he removed within a year to Norwich, where he settled over an Independent congregation. In 1759, having been invited by a Baptist Church at Cambridge... he accepted the call... having been previously baptized by immersion." He was very popular with the congregation, and began his writing career in 1770. He retired in 1790, and died later in that year at Showell Green in Warwickshire.
The scriptural references are interesting. "Flaming tongues" is almost certainly related to the Pentecost incident of speaking in tongues (Acts 2:3).
The second verse says, "Here I'll raise my Ebenezer." There are three mentions of Ebenezer in 1 Samuel. In 4:1, the Israelites gather at Ebenezer to fight the Philistines -- and, as the following verses tell, are roundly defeated. The Ark of the Covenant is captured, and the Philistines take it from Ebenezer to Ashdod (5:1). Later, after an Israelite victory over the Philistines, Samuel sets up a stone near Ebenezer, which the Bible renders "stone of help" (7:12; McCarter, p. 146, notes that the root of "Ebenezer," and hence the meaning, is not entirely clear at this time, but "stone of the helper" and "stone of the warrior," which are both possible, would be good cultic terms for someone with Samuel's militant theology). Both sites could have suited Robinson's purpose; the battle in 1 Samuel 3 was a last stand by the Israelites, which fits someone "making [his] Ebenezer," and of course the symbolism of 7:12 is obvious.
It is not obvious that the two are the same place -- after all, the events in 4:1 and 5:1 take place BEFORE Samuel named his spot "Ebenezer." It is, of course, possible that 4:1 and 5:1 call the spot "Ebenezer" after the name Samuel later gave it -- in fact, since Ebenezer sounds rather deserted, it would seem likely. Except that the Philistines generally beat up on the Israelites until the time of Saul. Samuel seems to have been something of a Skanderbeg: He could protect the land the Israelites held, and maintain a scratchy independence, but he could not regain territory. Odds are that the two Ebenezers are distinct. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: NEctfoeb

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (II)

See We Will Walk Through the Streets of the City (File: Br3562)

Come To My Window

See Go From My Window (I) (File: ChWI146)

Come to Shuck Dat Corn Tonight

DESCRIPTION: "Come to shuck dat corn tonight, Come to shuck with all your might, Come for to shuck all in sight, Come to shuck dat corn tonight." "Come to shuck dat golden grain, Where dere's enough dere ain't no pain...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 198, "Come to Shuck Dat Corn Tonight" (1 short text)
File: Br3198

Come to that Happy Land

See There Is a Happy Land (File: DTtiahl)

Come to the Bower (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Will you come to the bower I have shaded for you? I have decked it with roses all spangled with dew. Will you, will you, will you, will you come to my bower? (x2)." "The rose of my heart" can rest in the bower. They will promise never to part.
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Moore (source: Abernethy)
EARLIEST DATE: 1994 (Abernethy)
KEYWORDS: love home flowers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 159-160, "Come to the Bower" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16910
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(340b), "Come to the Bower," J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also 2806 c.17(468), J. Catnach, 1813-1838 (cut out of a bigger sheet); Harding B 25(2081), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; Harding B 11(2500), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; Harding B 12(125), T. Ash (London)
File: Aber160

Come to the Bower (II)

DESCRIPTION: Come to the land of the Irish heroes: O'Neill, O'Donnell, Lord Lucan, O'Connell, Brian and St Patrick. Visit Dublin and the battlefields. "Will you come and awake our lost land from its slumber and her fetters we will break ... come to the bower"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 5, 1646 - Battle of Benburb. Owen Roe O'Neill defeats Robert Munroe
June 5, 1798 - Battle of New Ross - Wexford rebels attack the small garrison (about 1400 men, many militia) at New Ross, but are repelled
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 96, "Come to the Bower" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COMEBOWR
Roud #3045
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
NOTES [182 words]: Among the historical characters mentioned in this song:
O'Donnell - Probably "Red Hugh" O'Donnell, leader of the 1594 war against the English; for his career see, e.g., "O'Donnell Aboo (The Clanconnell War Song)."
O'Neill - There were many O'Neills of significance for Irish history; the likeliest, given the context, is Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, ally of Red Hugh O'Donnell (again, see the notes to "O'Donnell Aboo (The Clanconnell War Song)").
O'Connell - Obviously Daniel O'Connell, the campaigner for Irish rights; there are at least two songs bearing his name, and many more which allude to him, e.g. "By Memory Inspired" and "A Nation Once Again."
Brian - Brian Boru, winner of the Battle of Clontarf; see "Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave."
Owen Roe - Owen Roe O'Neill (c. 1582-1649), nephew of Red Hugh O'Neill; he served for a time in the Netherlands, then fought against the English in Ireland in the 1640s, though he did not cooperate very well with other Nationalist leaders.
Munroe - Robert Munroe, a Scottish general who was defeated by Owen Roe O'Neill at Benburb. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: OLoc096

Come to the Cookhose Door, Boys (Bugle Call Lyric)

DESCRIPTION: "Come to the cookhouse door, boys, Come to the cookhouse door. When you see the sergeant-cook smile, Come to the cookhouse door."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier food cook
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 233, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Roud #11252
File: BrPa233A

Come to the Fair

DESCRIPTION: "The sun is a-shining to welcome the day" of the fair. The happy time is described. Listeners are encouraged: "Hey, ho, come to the fair."
AUTHOR: Words: Helen Taylor / Music: Easthope Martin
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 178, "Come to the Fair"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 238, "Come to the Fair" (notes only)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, p. 6, "Come to the Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [19 words]: Fuld notes that this is "[f]requently mistaken for a folksong"; it is on this basis that I include the piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Fuld178

Come to the Highlands

See Red Is the Rose (File: So28n3a)

Come to the Hiring

See The Hiring of the Servants (File: RcHirOTS)

Come to the Spare Crew

DESCRIPTION: "Come to the Spare Crew, make no delay, Come to the Spare Crew, two bob a day, Sitting on the messdeck, nothing else to do...." "Joyful, joyful, will the Spare Crew be When the boats have all pushed off to sea." The regular crew don't want them
AUTHOR: unknown (music by George F. Root)
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor navy derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 117, "Come to the Spare Crew" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come to the Savior" (tune)
File: Tawn088

Come Under My Plaidie

DESCRIPTION: Old Donald invites Marion in from the snow to sit with him. She says she is going to meet young Johnnie. Donald says Johnnie has nothing, but he can give her fine things. She goes with Donald. Johnnie overhears and heads home through the snow.
AUTHOR: Hector Macneill (1746-1818) (according to Whitelaw (see Note))
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Johnson,_Scots Musical Museum_, according to Whitelaw)
LONG DESCRIPTION: 62-year-old Donald the butcher invites Marion in from the cold blast and snow to sit with him under his plaidie where "there's room in't, dear lassie! believe me for twa." She says she is going to meet 30-year-old Johnniewho's young, bonny, and a fine dancer. Donald says Johnnie has nothing but he himself can give her fine clothes, house and flunkies. She follows her mother's advice and goes with Donald. Johnnie overhears the wedding date being set and heads home broken-hearted though the snow.
KEYWORDS: age courting rejection money storm
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 32, "Come Under My Plaidie" (1 text)
Roud #8694
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(55b), "Come Under My Plaidie" ("Come under my plaidie, the night's gaun to fa'"), The Poet's box (Glasgow), 1851; also Harding B 16(55c), Harding B 11(631), Firth b.26(196), Firth b.27(69), "Come Under My Plaidie"; Harding B 11(663), Harding B 26(102), "Come Under My Plaidy"
Murray, Mu23-y4:018, "Come Under My Plaidie" ("Come under my plaidie, the nights gaun to fa'"), unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(34b), "Come Under My Plaidie" ("Come under my plaidie, the nicht's gaun to fa'"), unknown, c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sequel to Come Under My Plaidie" (theme)
cf. "Johnny Macgill" (tune, according to Bodleian broadsides Harding B 17(55b) and Harding B 11(663))
NOTES [33 words]: Broadsides Murray Mu23-y4:018 and Bodleian Firth b.27(69) are duplicates.
Whitelaw: "Written by Hector Macneil to the [tune] Johnnie M'Gill, and published in the sixth volume of Johnson's Museum." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: BdCoUnMP

Come Under My Plaidie (II)

See Sequel to Come Under My Plaidie (File: GrD71304)

Come Up an' See My Garritie

See Come Up and See My Garrett (File: RPG008)

Come Up and See My Garrett

DESCRIPTION: "Come up and see my garrittie, Come up and see it noo, Come up an' see my garritie, It's a' painted blue. A crecked cup and a saucer, A chair withoot a lag, A hupy-backit dresser, An' an aud bowdy bed."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice)
KEYWORDS: home humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #8, pp. 121-122, "Come Up an' See My Garritie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7285
File: RPG008

Come Write Me Down (The Wedding Song)

DESCRIPTION: Man offers gold and pearls; woman refuses, saying she'll never be at any young man's call. He tells her t he'll find another. He picks up his hat to leave, but she changes her mind. They are married the next day; "she'll prove his comfort day and night"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin); c.1840 (broadside, 2806 c.16(240))
LONG DESCRIPTION: "Come write me down the powers above/That first created a man to love." Man offers gold and pearls; woman refuses, saying she'll never be at any young man's call. He tells her to "go your way, you scornful dame"; he'll find another. He picks up his hat to leave, but, as could be predicted, she changes her mind. They are married the next day; "she'll prove his comfort day and night"
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage wedding dialog lover
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf) US(MW)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #159, p. 1, "My Joy and Comfort" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 980, "Look Ye Down, Ye Powers Above" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 126, "Come Write Me Down the Powers Above" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 571-572, "Oh Write Me Down, Ye Powers Above" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 9, "Pretty Polly" (1 text)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 10, "Polly Gathering Flowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 270-271, "Come Write Me Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 17, "Come, Write Me Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COMWRIT1
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, p. 153, "Powers Above" (1 text)
Roud #381
RECORDINGS:
Cecilia Costello, "Come Write Me Down the Powers Above" (on FSBFTX13)
Charlotte Decker, "Oh Write Me Down, Ye Powers Above" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.16(240), "The True Lovers" ("Look ye down, the powers of love"), W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle), c.1840
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Corydon and Phoebe" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Oh Write Me Down, Ye Powers Above
The Scornful DameThe Ways of a Maid
NOTES [115 words]: Like "Corydon and Phyllis," whose plot is virtually identical, this no doubt began life as a minstrel piece or "rural romance" broadside. But it's entered tradition, with over half-a-dozen collections cited by Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland. The song has long been associated with the Copper family of Rottingdean, Sussex, having been collected from them as early as 1899, but it is also found in Dorset, Hampshire, Devon -- and Newfoundland.
It is distinguished from "Corydon and Phyllis" by the characteristic phrases quoted in the [long description]. - PJS
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 32, "Purty Polly" is "the same as number 9, above" but does not repeat the text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: K126

Come Write Me Down The Powers Above

See Come Write Me Down (The Wedding Song) (File: K126)

Come Ye Inksmen

See The Old Maid's Song (File: R364)

Come Ye That Fear the Lord

DESCRIPTION: "Come ye that fear the Lord (x2), I have something for to say about the narrow way, For Christ the other day saved my soul (x2)." The singer recalls how Jesus came to free him, how others call him "undone," but how he looks forward to salvation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 201-202, "Come Ye That Fear the Lord" (1 text)
ST Fus201 (Partial)
Roud #16371
File: Fus201

Come You Not from Newcastle

DESCRIPTION: "Came you not from Newcastle, Came you not there away? Met yenot my trye love, Ricing on a bonny bay? Why should I not love my love?" The ginger has land at (Durham and Newcastle), and will use it to help the "gallant hound sedelee" (sic)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: love travel clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 253-254, "Came you not ffrom" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 339-340, "Cme You Not from Newcastle" (1 text, 1 tune)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 95
Roud #8086
File: PFCYNN

Come Youth and Age

See The Silver Dagger (I) [Laws G21] (File: LG21)

Come, All Ye Good People, I Pray You Attend

DESCRIPTION: "Now to all ye young women, I do you advise": we are "as full of flattery as a cloud's full of rain ... much like a garden with weeds overgrown" and men grow tired of us as time passes. .".. be modest and wise" and if he leaves you've done your best.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 917, "Come, All Ye Good People, I Pray You Attend" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6235
NOTES [20 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quoting Duncan: "It is from a manuscript book, and is entitled 'A Song', and is dated May 5th, 1860." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD917

Come, All Ye Roving Rangers

See The Texas Rangers [Laws A8] (File: LA08)

Come, All Ye Toiling Millions

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye toiling millions that labor for your life... Come, rally to your standard now in this gigantic strife Then we'll go marching to victory." "Join the Alliance." Neither Republicans nor Democrats do any good. Vote for someone who will
AUTHOR: Hannibal F. Johnson (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (Johnson, Poems of Idaho, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement money | voting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 482-483, "Come, All Ye Toiling Millions" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marching Through Georgia" (tune) and references there
NOTES [37 words]: For background on the western Farmers' Alliance, see the notes to "Marching for Freedom." The Alliance wasn't much of a force in Idaho, so this song seems a little out of place, but there were parallel organizations. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC482

Come, and Listen to My Ditty

See The Tempest (Cease Rude Boreas) (File: SWMS070)

Come, Birdie, Come

DESCRIPTION: "Beautiful bird of spring has come, Seeking a place to build his home." The singer tells the bird, "Beautiful bird, come live with me," promising, "You shall be free." It will no longer need to roam. "You shall be all the world to me."
AUTHOR: C. A. White
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (sheet music by White, Smith & Perry)
KEYWORDS: bird love home nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 102, "Come, Birdie, Come" (1 fragment)
Roud #7545
NOTES [34 words]: Roud seemingly lumps this with "The Little Girl and the Robin," but they are certainly separate; apart from everything else, "The Little Girl and the Robin" ends with the bird being killed by a hunter - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne102

Come, Butter, Come

DESCRIPTION: "Come, butter, come! De King and de Queen Is er-standin' at de gate, Er-waitin' for some butter An' a cake. Oh, come, butter, come!" A different version: "Come, butter come (x2), Peter stands at the gate, Waiting for a butter cake, Come, butter, come"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1656 (Ady's A Candle in the Dark, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: worksong nonballad food royalty food work children animal nonsense
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 215, (no title) (1 short text); p. 287, (no title) (1 short text, from Brand's Antiquities)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 85, "Come, butter, come" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #491, p. 213, "(Come, butter, come)"
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 23-24, "Churn, Churn, Make Some Butter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 126, "(Churn, butter, churn, Come, butter, come)" (1 short text)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 230, "Churning Song" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 87, (no title) (a 1-verse fragment that might be this or just possibly "Churn, Churn, Make Some Butter")
Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, p. 58, "(Come, butter, come!") (1 short text)
Roud #18167
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Snake Baked a Hoecake" (lyrics, some versions?)
NOTES [211 words]: The reference to Peter at the gate is sometimes interpreted as referring to Peter trying to get into heaven. But the logical assumption is surely that it is a reference to Acts chapter 12. Peter had been imprisoned by Herod Agrippa I, and was freed by an angel. He went to the home of Mary mother of John Mark, and knocked at the gate (12:13). The maid Rhoda was so shocked that she was very slow to answer.
Simpson, p. 58, says that this poem was used to invoke the aid of Dobbs, the helpful fairy/brownie. - RBW
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes: "Although this centuries-old charm was still in superstitious use at the time, it was set to music in 1798 as a 'Bagatelle for Juvenile Amusement.'" - BS
Earlier versions of the Index split Jean Ritchie's "Churn, Churn, Make Some Butter" into a separate piece. When the Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore text turned up, I decided to lump all the butter churning rhymes here, although I suspect some are at least partly independent. I would add that Roud places some butter churning lyrics -- including one version of Jean Ritchie's text -- with #3622 ("Snake Baked a Hoecake"), although several of Ritchie's other texts are filed here with #18167. I guess, even in song titles, butter doesn't always come easily. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: ScNF215B

Come, Come, My Jolly Lads

See Sling the Flowing Bowl (File: SWMS051)

Come, Come, Ye Saints

DESCRIPTION: "Come, come, ye saints, no toil nor labor fear; But with joy wend your way. Though hard to you this journey may appear, Grace shall be as your day." Don't worry about the difficulty of life; travel to the place where "All is well! All is well!"
AUTHOR: Words: William Clayton (1814-1879) / Music: "All Is Well" by J. T. White (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest/hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (Sacred Hymns and Spiritual Songs, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: religious travel derivative | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 181-182, "Come, Come, Ye Saints" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All Is Well" (tune)
NOTES [154 words]: Although this doesn't really seem to have gone into tradition, it seems to be quite well-known among the Latter-Day Saints; Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest titles their section of Mormon songs "Come, Come, Ye Saints," and I think I've seen that in other books as well, plus Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle quote it at least twice including on p. 208.
William Clayton is said to have been Joseph Smith's clerk. According to Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, 1945, 1971 (I use the 1995 Vintage edition), p. 303, he was one of the men to whom Smith first revealed his revelation of polygamy, along with such heavyweights as Hyrum Smith, Brigham Young, and Heber C. Kimball. He would actually conduct the ceremony of at least one of Smith's marriages (Brodie, p. 338). But this, obviously, was written later, after Smith's death, when the Mormons were preparing to go to Utah. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC181

Come, Dear, Don't Fear

See The Dolly Varden Hats (File: GrD3652)

Come, Emily

See The Jealous Lover (II) (File: E104)

Come, Gang Awa' With Me

DESCRIPTION: "Oh come, my love, the moon shines bright Across the rippling sea... Come gang awa' with me. 'Tis many a night since last we met... Then say ere yonder stars shall set You'll gang awa' with me. "...I pledge myself to thee... Forever thine I'll be"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #4)
KEYWORDS: love courting travel
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 783, "Come, Gang Awa' With Me" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 13 and #4/64, p. 13, "Come, gang awa' wi' me" (1 text)
Roud #7415
NOTES [58 words]: Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 24, lists two broadsides titles "Come, Gang Awa' Wi' Me," one by De Marsan and one by Wrigley, which is clearly this song; the song is said to have had three verses. They're long verses, though -- ten lines each! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R783

Come, Landlord, Fill a Flowing Bowl

See Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl (File: FSWB229A)

Come, Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl

See Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl (File: FSWB229A)

Come, Let Us Sing (II)

See Green Grow the Rushes-O (The Twelve Apostles, Come and I Will Sing You) (File: ShH97)

Come, Let's Be Singing

See Hava Nashira (Come, Let's Be Singing) (File: ACSF443N)

Come, Life, Shaker Life

DESCRIPTION: "Come, life, Shaker life, come, life eternal, Shake, shake out of me all that is carnal. I'll take nimble steps, I'll be a David, I'll show Michael twice how he behaved."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: Bible religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 37, "Come, Life, Shaker Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Deming Andrews, _The Gift to be Simple: Songs, Dances and Rituals of the American Shakers_, 1940 (references are to the 1962 Dover reprint), pp. 102-103, "Come Life, Shaker Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6669
NOTES [133 words]: Although every text of this song I have seen refers to "Michael," the correct name is "Michal." Michal was the younger daughter of Saul, who loved and was married to David (1 Samuel 18:20f.) and saved him from her father (1 Sam. 19:11f.).
Later, however, when David had become king, David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. During its progress, "David danced before YHWH with all his might" (2 Sam. 6:14). And "Michal daughter of Saul looked out... and saw King David leaping and dancing... and she despised him in her heart" (2 Sam. 6:16).
David and Michal apparently were never reconciled; when she scolded him, David's response was that the girls would like what he was doing (! - 2 Sam. 6:22). "And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child until the day of her death" (2 Sam. 6:23). - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: LoF037

Come, Little Leaves

DESCRIPTION: "'Come, little leaves,' said the wind one day, 'Come o'er the meadows with me and play; Put on your dresses of red and gold, For summer is gone and the days grow cold.'" The leaves fly away, greeting the crickets and lambs, then go to rest under the snow
AUTHOR: George Cooper (1840-1927) (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Wiggins and Smith, _Pinafore Palace_, according to Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: animal | leaves wind winter
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 148, "'Come, little leaves,' said the wind one day" (1 fragment)
Roud #1775
RECORDINGS:
C. Gardee, "Come, Little Leaves" (Piotr-Archive #655, recorded 08/31/2023)
File: KSUC148C

Come, Love, Come, the Boat Lies Low

DESCRIPTION: "Come, love, come, and go with me, I'll take you down about Tennessee. Open up the window, oh love do, Listen to the music I'm playing for you, Come, love, come, the boat lies low,...." The girl is urged to float "on the Old Ben Joe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: love courting home river floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 90-91, "Come, Love, Come, the Boat Lies Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jim Vandergriff, "'Nancy Dill': Searching for a Song My Mother Sang," article in _Missouri Folklore Society Journal_, Volume 27-28 (cover date 2005-2006, but published 2015), pp. 33-68, "Nancy Dill," "Nanc Till," "Nancy Till," "Nancy Till," "Uncle Bill" (parody), "Nancy Till," "Come, My Love, Come," "Down in de Cane Brake," "Come, Love Come," "Down in the Cane Brake," "Come, Love, Come," "Nancy Till," "Nancy Till," "Nancy Till," "Down in the Canebrake" (14 texts plus a parody, not all of them traditional; also a copy of the sheet music cover and one tune; it includes some versions that might perhaps file with "Come, Love, Come, the Boat Lies Low")
Roud #10033
RECORDINGS:
Eleazar Tillet, "Come Love Come" (on USWarnerColl01) [a true mess; the first verse is "Nancy Till", the chorus is "Come, Love, Come, the Boat Lies Low," and it uses part of "De Boatman Dance" as a bridge.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nancy Till" (chorus lyrics)
NOTES [85 words]: Another collection -- at least in Wheeler's version -- of mostly floating material. But the chorus and the mention of "Nancy Till" link it to that song. That this is related to "Nancy Till" is beyond question; the chorus is the same in both cases, and they're both courting songs. Roud splits Wheeler's version from the "Nancy Till" family. I'm not sure I would have, given classification issues, but in this case, I'm trying to align with his system. You should definitely check "Nancy Till" also, however. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: MWhee090

Come, My Lads, and Let's Be Jolly

DESCRIPTION: "Come my lads and let's be jolly, Drive away all melancholy." The singer prefers to follow Solomon in singing "praise and glory" over "evil-speaking and back-biting." There's no harm in eating, drinking, dancing, smoking, and keeping good company
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: dancing drink food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 54-55, "Come, My Lads, and Let's Be Jolly" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 438)
Roud #1238
NOTES [40 words]: The lines "Whilst we live, let's be jolly, And drive away all melancholy" quoted in passing in "Our Club at Paris", Fraser's Magazine for the Town and Country (London, 1838 ("Digitized by Google") Vol. XVII, No. 100 (April 1838), p. 417. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT055

Come, My Little Roving Sailor

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) (File: E098)

Come, My Love (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Come my love and go with me (x3), And I will take good care of you." "You are too young, you are not fit (x3), You cannot leave your mother yet." "You're old enough, you're just about right (x3), I'll ask your mother Saturday night"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Botkin, The American Play-Party Song)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting marriage mother
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 88-89, "Come My Love" (1 text, 1 tune); cf. pp. 90-91, "Consolation Flowing Free" (1 text, 1 tune);
Roud #12430
NOTES [110 words]: Roud's #12430 is assigned primarily to pieces which open "Come my love and go with me And I will take good care of you"; #7394 is for pieces which open "Consolation flowing free, Come my love and go with me." But these are often clearly the same song: they have the "Come my love and go with me" line, the complaint about somebody being too young, and the conclusion that (s)he is old enough. But there are also much longer versions of both pieces. The confusion, I think, goes back to Botkin, who seems to have classified solely based on first lines. I'm far from sure they should be split, but I'm following this general practice. See both songs, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Spurg088

Come, My Love (II)

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

Come, Open the Door, Sweet Betty

See Love Let Me In (Forty Long Miles; It Rains, It Hails) (File: LLab048)

Come, Polly, Pretty Polly

See Pretty Polly (II) [cf. Laws P36] (File: LP36B)

Come, Pretty Polly

See Pretty Polly (II) [cf. Laws P36] (File: LP36B)

Come, Rain, Come

DESCRIPTION: The singer hopes, "Come, rain, come, rain, come... To keep back the Yankees Until our ranks are filled up by recruits." The hungry singer complains, "I'm alone in my shanty, And rations they are scanty." He hopes for more and better food
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: food Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 385, "Come, Rain, Come" (1 text)
Roud #11753
NOTES [129 words]: Mud is, of course, the soldier's constant foe, but worse for the side on the offensive; hence the Confederates would appreciate bad weather more than the Unionists. There is no hint that this is a reference to the Army of the Potomac's "Mud March" of December 1862, but it would fit -- the weather stopped General Ambrose Burnside's advance cold.
Neither side had very good rations; the transportation systems of the time just weren't up to it. But at least the Union troops usually had enough to eat. Not so the Confederates, who were constantly hungry, especially as the war dragged on (which resulted in the loss of much farming land, the ruin of still more land, and the breakdown of the southern railroads). The hunt for food described here is quite true-to-life. - RBW
File: Br3385

Come, Sister,Come

See Put Me In My Little Bed (File: Beld279)

Come, Ye Friends of a Social Life

DESCRIPTION: Friends, "foes to discord, care and strife," have "a glass of good strong beer" before death stops us from drinking more.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: death drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 52-53, "Come, Ye Friends of a Social Life" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 340)
Roud #1236
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl" (theme: drink and good fellowship)) and references there
NOTES [35 words]: Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 340 is assigned to both "Here's a Health to All Good Lasses" and "Come, Ye Friends of a Social Life"; 341 appears not to have been assigned. The editor has been notified (11/28/2009). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT053

Come, Ye Sinners

DESCRIPTION: "Come ye sinners poor and needy, Weak and wounded, sick and sore, Jesus ready stands to save you, Full of pity, love and pow'r. He is able, he is willing, He is able, doubt no more."
AUTHOR: Lyrics: Joseph Hart
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Randolph; dated to 1759 in the Sacred Harp)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 623, "Come, Ye Sinners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 163, "I Will Arise and Go to Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 92, "I Will Arise and Go to Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 201, "I Will Arise and Go to Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 46-47, "I Will Arise and Go to Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7555
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "This Old World" (lyrics, tune)
cf. "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (I)" (lyrics, tune)
NOTES [107 words]: Randolph states that this is sung to the tune of "Go Tell Aunt Rhody." There is a similarity, but it is not the same tune (for one thing, this has two parts).
In the Sacred Harp, this appears with the tune "Beach Spring," which isn't even close to "Aunt Rhody."
Morgan's version, apparently based on Joseph Hart's original, has the chorus "I will arise and go to Jesus, He will embrace me in his arms. In the arms of our dear savior, Oh, there are ten thousand charms," which is also associated with "This Old World" and "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." The origin of this family of texts and tunes clearly needs more investigation. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: R623

Comely Young Dame, The

See My Bonny Brown Jane (File: HHH613)

Comet

DESCRIPTION: "Comet! It makes your teeth turn green. Comet! It tastes like gasoline. Comet (it/will) make you vomit, So get some Comet and vomit today."
AUTHOR: unknown (music by Lieutenant F. J. Ricketts, also known as Kenneth J. Alford, 1881–1945; published 1914)
EARLIEST DATE: 1986
KEYWORDS: nonballad parody humorous
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 38, "Comet" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Colonel Bogey March" (tune)
cf. "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball" (tune)
NOTES [27 words]: I make the assumption that, if I learned a kids's song from a source other than my parents or school, it qualifies as a folk song. This seems to fit that bill. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: PFCF038a

Comfort and Tidings of Joy

See Somerset Carol (File: FSWB377B)

Comfort in Heaven

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "There's comfort in heaven and I feel it in my soul, O glory hallelujah, Glory in heaven and glory in my soul, O glory...." Verse: "Jerusalem is my happy home, Name ever dear to me, where shall my labors have an end? Thy joys when shall I see?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 12, "Comfort in Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [253 words]: Barton-OldPlantationHymns's "Comfort in Heaven" illustrates the common practice of taking one verse, often the first, of a published hymn, and adding a chorus. Usually I would classify the resulting hymn as a variant of the published hymn. The Barton-OldPlantationHymns text is not that cut and dried, so I have left it to stand alone.
The Methodist Hymn Book (London: The Methodist Publishing House, 1933) has two related hymns. Hymn #655 p. 250, which it dates to the 16th or 17th century, begins "Jerusalem, my happy home, When shall I come to thee? When shall my sorrows have an end? Thy joys when shall I see?" [This is indexed as "Jerusalem, My Happy Home (Long Sought Home)" - RBW.]
Hymn #650 pp. 247-248, attributed to Joseph Bromehead (1748-1826), begins "Jerusalem, my happy home, Name ever dear to me! When shall my labours have an end, In joy, and peace, and thee?" So Barton-OldPlantationHymns's text mixes lines from the first verse of both hymns.
Jackson's text is very close to hymn #655, omitting some verses and adding a chorus of "Home, sweet home, my long sought home, My home in heaven above" (George Pullen Jackson, Spiritual Folk-Songs of Early America (New York: J.J. Augustin, 1937 (republished by New York: Dover Publications, 1964)), #221 p. 220, "Long-Sought Home").
On the other hand, Sankey and Moody, a popular source for hymns, has hymn #650, with one verse omitted and no chorus added (Ira D. Sankey, Sacred Songs and Solos Twelve Hundred Hymns (London: Collins, n.d.), #1010). - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart012B

Comical Dialog between an Honest Sailor and a Deluding Landlady, etc., A

See Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)

Comical Ditty, A (Arizona Boys and Girls)

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you good people, I pray you draw near... A comical ditty you shortly shall hear." The song notes how the boys dress up to court the ladies, and the girls dress up to court the men, but neither can get married of their own power
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: courting poverty clothes family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 430, "Comical Ditty" (1 text)
Randolph 461, "The Boys Around Here" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 131, "Boys in This Country Trying to Advance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 142, "Arizona Boys and Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 57, "A Comical Ditty" (1 text)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 118-119, "Boys About Here" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 1-2, "The Arizona Boys and Girls" (1 text)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 20, pp. 133-135, "They're Down and They're Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 73, pp. 96-96, "A Comical DItty" (1 text)
DT, COMDITTY
Roud #4868
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Putting on Airs" (theme)
cf. "A Restless Night" (lyrics)
cf. "The Hancock Boys" (theme)
NOTES [92 words]: Despite the title, this song does not strike me as in any way comic -- bitterly pathetic is more like it. Such slight humor as it has derives from its snarling sarcasm, but even this is too strong to be really effective.
I did not initially link the Randolph song with Cox's; they are shown with distinctly different metrical patterns, and Randolph's text isn't quite as sarcastic. But upon seeing more versions, it appears that they are just extremes of a constellation of forms.
A common tag line is "The boys around here, they think they are men." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: JHCox057

Comin Ower the Tay Brig

DESCRIPTION: "Comin owee the Tay Brig tae bonnie Dundee, Oh the braes of Balgay and Law Hill grand tae see." The singer has traveled far but is always happy to return to Dundee. He hopes that all others who travel far will eventually wish to come home also
AUTHOR: Stuartie Foy (source: Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: travel home return nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 79, "Comin Ower the Tay Brig" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Gath079

Comin' Back to Kansas

DESCRIPTION: "They are comin' back to Kansas, They are crossin' on the bridge, You can see their mover wagons...." Many people swore they would leave "this Kansas land infernal." But they had no luck elsewhere, either, so they are returning to Kansas
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: home emigration humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 180-181, "Comin' Back to Kansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 503, "Comin' Back to Kansas" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 472, "Comin' Back to Kansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4890
File: CAFS2503

Comin' frae Rora

DESCRIPTION: "Comin' frae Rora toon, There I met a bonnie lass And there I set her doon"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: sex
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 972, "Comin' frae Rora" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6742
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan5 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5972

Comin' In on a Wing and a Prayer

DESCRIPTION: "Comin' in on a wing and a prayer (x2), Though there's one motor gone, we can still carry on, Comin' in on a wing and a prayer." There was a great raid. One plane is late, but it finally arrives, damaged but still flying and with all her crew
AUTHOR: Words: Harold Adamson / Music: Jimmy McHugh (source: Gardner)
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (recording, The Song Spinners)
KEYWORDS: technology escape
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, posts 44, 46, "(Coming In on a Wing and a Prayer)" (1 text, from user John5918, posted August 29, 2021)
Roud #32497
RECORDINGS:
The Song Spinners, "Comin' In on a Wing and a Prayer" (Decca 18553, June 1943)
NOTES [543 words]: This clearly originated as a pop song, but there are just enough reports of oral survival that I am indexing it.
Although the authorship of Adamson and McHugh does not seem to be disputed, and there is little doubt that all known versions are derived from the popular 1943 recording by the Song Spinners, there is definite uncertainty about what inspired the song. The "This Day in Quotes" web site cites the story of the B-17 Flying Fortress "Southern Comfort," piloted by Hugh G. Ashcraft, Jr., which barely survived a mission on February 26, 1943. In that flight, as he brought the plane home, Ashcroft suggested to the men, "Those who want to, please pray." The plane managed to land.
The "This Day in Quotes" site think this the origin of the phrase "On a wing and a prayer." But Eric Partridge apparently thought it older, and British. I think this a significant possibility. The B-17 was a tough plane, but the British Wellington bomber was famous for its ability to survive damage; many, many Wellingtons returned on "a wing and a prayer" before the Flying Fortress even started flying.
Chaz Bowyer, The Wellington Bomber, William Kimber and Co, 1986, pp. 135-143, tells a typical example which resulted in the only Victoria Cross for a Wellington flyer: On July 7, 1940, R. P. Widdowson took a Wellington on a raid over Germany, with pilot-in-training James Allen Ward one of his crew. The plane was attacked over Germany and one of its two engines hit and set on fire. Widdowson told Ward to do something to put out the fire. Ward crawled out on the wing and tried. He couldn't put out the fire, but he tore enough canvas off the wing that the rest of the plane was safe, and Widdowson managed to bring home the plane -- with only one engine and a torn-off wing. Ward got the VC, and lesser awards went to Widdowson and others on the plane.
Note that the song says the plane has *one* motor gone. The B-17 had four engines. It could fly fairly well on three; the loss of one engine was not an absolute disaster, and if three were working, it still had to have a fair amount of wing left. If a two-engined Wellington lost one motor, it was truly in trouble. The song may have been directly inspired by "Southern Comfort," but the idea was probably floating around because of the Wellington.
For more about the B-17, see the notes to "Flying Fortresses"; for more on the Wellngton, see "Ops in a Wimpey."
It is perhaps worth noting that the Song Spinners recording features both male and female voices, even though a combat flight crew in 1943 would be all-male, whether the plane was British or American. The Soviets has female combat pilots, but not the western allies.
John5918 recalled the song almost verbatim from the early recordings, but since it's still in copyright, I don't think I can put the full text in the Supplemental Tradition.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 465, estimates that this was the seventh most popular song in America in 1943, peaking at #1 in June 1943 (#1 for the year being Johnny Black's "Paper Doll," with the famous lines "I'd rather have a paper doll to call my own Than a fickle-minded real live gal"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LTCSCIWP

Comin' Thro' the Craigs o' Culter

DESCRIPTION: "Comin' thro, gaun thro', Comin thro' the Craigs o' Culter, Duncan met a bonny lass, And row'd his Hielan' plaid aboot her'
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1315, "Comin' Thro' the Craigs o' Culter" (1 fragment)
Roud #7207
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Haud Awa Frae Me, Donald" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan7 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71315

Comin' Thro' the Hay

DESCRIPTION: Did you see "yellow coatie" coming through the hay, "drabbled" [smeared] all over?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1416, "Comin' Thro' the Hay" (1 text)
Roud #7263
NOTES [11 words]: The happy ending to "Lassie wi' the Yellow Coatie," perhaps? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71416

Comin' Thro' the Rye

See Coming Through the Rye (File: FSWB140B)

Coming Around the Horn

DESCRIPTION: "Now, miners, if you listen, I'll tell you quite a tale." The singer goes around Cape Horn to California, and describes the seasickness, bad food, long calms, and other poor conditions. Arriving in California, he finds his money was left in the States
AUTHOR: Words: claimed by John A. Stone (Old Put) / Music: "Dearest Mae" by L. V. H. Crosby
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 ("Put's Original California Songster")
KEYWORDS: ship travel hardtimes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 429-420, "Coming Around the Horn" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 23-24, "Comig Around the Horn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15539
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dearest May" (tune)
File: LxA429

Coming Day, The

DESCRIPTION: In each verse a line is sung 3 times, followed by the tag "To meet them at the coming day." Verses: "I want to go to Canaan," "O, remember, let me go to Canaan," "O brother, let me go to Canaan"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 9, pp. 203-204, "The Coming Day" (1 text)
File: RcTComDa

Coming Down from Bangor

See The Harvard Student (The Pullman Train) (File: R391)

Coming Down the Flat

DESCRIPTION: "If a body meet a body coming down the flat, Should a body 'Joe' a body, for having on a hat? Some wear caps, some wise-awakes, but I prefer a hat, Yet everybody cries out 'Joe!' coming down the flat." About the types of hats Australians wear
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel)
KEYWORDS: clothes parody Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 96-97, "Coming Down the Flat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-GoldrushSongster, pp. 44-45, "Coming Down the Flat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, pp. 7-8, "Coming Down the Flat" (1 text, tune referenced)
Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 11-12, "Coming down the Flat" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Coming Through the Rye" (tune & meter)
NOTES [29 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: FaE096

Coming Home from the Wake

See Nelly the Milkmaid (File: RL169)

Coming Home Late

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Coming Round the Mountain (I)

See She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain (File: San372)

Coming Round the Mountain (II -- Charming Betsey)

DESCRIPTION: "She'll be coming round the mountain, charming Betsey; She'll be coming round the mountain, Cora Lee; If I never see you any more, Pray God remember me." The song usually compares the homes, vehicles, etc. of the rich and poor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: separation money nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 436, "Charming Betsey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 335-336, "Charming Betsey" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 436)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 256, "All Around the Mountain, Charming Betsy" (2 short texts); also 17, "I Wouldn't Marry" (7 text (some short) plus 6 excerpts, 1 fragment, and mention of 5 more, of which "the "A" text appears to mix this with "I Won't Marry an Old Maid" and "Raccoon")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 256, "All Around the Mountain, Charming Betsy" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
DT, COMRNDMT*
Roud #7052
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Charming Betsy" (OKeh 40363, 1925)
Cleve Chaffin & the McClung Brothers, "Rock House Gamblers" (Paramount 3179, c. 1930; on RoughWays1)
Georgia Organ Grinders, "Charming Betsy" (Columbia 15415-D, 1929)
Davis & Nelson, "Charming Betsy"(Paramount 3227/Broadway 8177/QRS 9011, c. 1929)
Land Norris, "Charming Betsy" (OKeh 45033, c. 1926; rec. 1925)
Virgil Perkins & Jack Sims, "Goin' Around the Mountain" (on AmSkBa)
Henry Thomas, "Charming Betsy" (Vocalion 1468, 1930 [rec. 1929]; on Cornshuckers2, StuffDreams2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She Gets There Just the Same (Jim Crow Car)" (floating verses)
File: R436

Coming Through the Rye

DESCRIPTION: "Gin a body meet a body comin' through the rye, Gin a body kiss a body, need a body cry?" The singer remarks that no one knows her swain, but notes that all the lads smile at her in the rye. She observes that she has a love whom she keeps secret
AUTHOR: unknown (adapted by Robert Burns)
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: love courting bawdy nonballad farming
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1860, "Comin' Through the Rye" (1 fragment)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #369, p. 25, "Comin' Thro' the Rye" (1 reference)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 140, "Comin' Through the Rye" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 113, "Comin' Thro' the Rye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 8 and #5/64, p. 8, "Comin' thro' the Rye" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 178-179, "Comin' Thro' the Rye"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 165, 170, 189, 491, "Coming through the Rye" (notes only)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 27, "Comin' Thro' the Rye" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COMTHRYE*
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #560, pp. 664-665, "Comin thro; the rye" (1 text, 1 tunes, from 1796)
Roud #5512
RECORDINGS:
Edith Helena, "Comin' Thro' the Rye" (Gramophone & Typewriter Co. 3348, n.d. but pre-1907)
Nevada Vanderveer, "Comin' Through the Rye" (Bell 1117/Bell S-77, c. 1923)
Ruth Vincent, "Comin' Thro' the Rye" (Columbia 30024, c. 1906)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Miller's Wedding" (tune, per Burns)
SAME TUNE:
We Beat 'Em on the Marne (File: BrPa039A)
Coming Down the Flat (by Charles R. Thatcher) (File: FaE096)
There Was a Girl Who Came to Camp (File: ACSF166T)
Coming Through the Rye (Cold Cuts) (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 11; DT, COMTHRY2)
Comin' from the War ("If a body meet a body") (see Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 25)
The Grundys ("If you nominate a woman, In the month of May," a song mocking the presidential candidacy of Victoria Woodhall in 1972) (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 453)
The Saucy Little Turtle ("Down on the Mississippi River") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 193)
Our Bonnie Lad ("Gie's song o' hearty greetin', For our bonnie lad") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 129)
If a body ask a body In her book to write; If a body refuse a body, Need a body fight? (J. S. Ogilvie, _One Thousand Popular Quotations Comprising the Choicest Thoughts and Sayings of Eminent Writers of All Ages, Together With Nearly Three Hundred Original and Choice Selections, Suitable for Writing in Autograph Albums_, J. S. Ogivie, Publisher (New York & Chicago), 1884 (available on Google Books), p. 115)
The Power of Thought ("Not by cannon nor by saber, Not by flags unfurled, Shall we win the rights of labor") (Foner, p. 165)
Comin' Thro' the Rye (populist campaign song) ("If a Jacob meet an Esau, Starving in the street") (by C. A. Sheffield) (Foner, p. 281)
Help a Bit ("Eater, able money-getter, With your magic power") (by France B. Damon) (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 33)
NOTES [135 words]: Fuld observes that the earliest copies of this song (including the text known to Burns) were bawdy, and the Digital Tradition text is one of these. Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, p. 79, implies that this text too is by Burns.
The Burns version from the Scots Musical Museum opens with an eight-line stanza that is rarely if ever heard, followed by the familiar "Gin a body meet a body" stanzas. The tune, according to Lindsay, is "The Miller's Wedding."
There is a version of this in the Wilder family tradition (By the Shores of Silver Lake, chapter 15), but it looks imperfectly Scottish, as if learned from print. - RBW
The Digital Tradition version is Burns's. The Greig/Duncan8 fragment is that version's chorus. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB140B

Commend Me to the Plooman

See The Ploughman (I) (File: Ord217)

Commissary Store, The

See The Quartermaster Corps (The Quartermaster Store) (File: FSWB272A)

Commissioning of HMS Hood, The

DESCRIPTION: "You ought to go to Rosyth And see them dock the Hood, Dockyard maties running round With bloody great lumps of wood." The officers are at their stations. The "Jaunty" (master-at-arms) has never seen a gun, "Rajah, Rajah of the UJC"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1918 - Commissioning of H.M.S. Hood
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 71, "The Commissioning of HMS 'Hood'" (1 text)
NOTES [38 words]: For the story of the Hood, see the notes to "The Sinking of HMS Hood." But the Hood is mentioned only in line two of Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy's text; with the change of two lines, it could be about almost any ship. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn054

Common Bill

DESCRIPTION: The singer says Bill "isn't charming," and is "altogether green." He courts her relentlessly, to her scorn. At last he says that he will kill himself if she does not wed him. Citing the Bible's injunction against killing, she consents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Dime-Song-Book #9)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 891, "I Will Tell You of a Fellow" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 52-53, "I'll Tell You of a Fellow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 119, "Common Bill" (2 texts)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 57, "Common Bill" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 178, "Common Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 66, p. 90, "Common Bill" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 187-188, "Common Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 195, "Common Bill" (1 text plus 1 excerpt and mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 195, "Common Bill" (4 excerpts, 4 tunes)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #199, "Common Bill" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 80, "Common Bill" (1 text plus an excerpt and mention of 3 more, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 57, pp. 173-174, "Common Bill" (1 text)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 308-310, "Common Bill" (2 texts, 1 tune on pp. 437-438)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 62-63, "Common Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 325-326, "Hardly Think I Will" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 76, "Silly Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 104, pp. 214-215, "I Will Tell You of a Fellow" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 172, "Common Bill" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 48, "Woman's Resolution" (1 text)
DT, CMMNBILL*
Roud #442
RECORDINGS:
I. G. Greer w. Mrs. I. G. Greer, "Common Bill" (AFS; on LC14)
Arthur Fields, "Common Bill" (Grey Gull 4232/Radiex 4232, 1928)
Hill Billies, "Silly Bill" (OKeh 40294, 1925)
McGee Brothers, "Charming Bill" (Vocalion 5166, 1927)
McGee Brothers & Todd, "Common Bill" (on CrowTold02)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Common Bill" (on NLCR10)
Ernest Thompson & Connie Sides, "Silly Bill" (Columbia 15002-D, rec. 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Barney O'Hea" (theme)
File: R119

Common Sailor, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a man before the mast, I plough the trackless sea.... Common sailors we are called. Pray tell me the reason why, This sneering adjective unto us which you so often apply." The singer says that they let Britain rule the waves; they deserve respect
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor abuse work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 130, "The Common Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16880
File: PaSe130

Common Sailors

DESCRIPTION: "Don't you call us common men, We're as good as anybody that's on shore." We bring "silks and satins" for girls, cigars for "young gents," and no one appreciates us.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: commerce pride sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 24, "Common Sailors" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LeBe024

Companions, Draw Nigh

See Dying From Home and Lost (Companions, Draw Nigh) (File: R609)

Company Cook, The

DESCRIPTION: "The company cook had a greasy look, A nasty galoot was he, His only shirt was stiff with dirt...." The cook is "an autocrat," but "the stuff we got to put in the pot Was too often fit for swill." One day he dies and is buried; they expect he is in hell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: cook death army
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 551-552, "The Company Cook" (1 text)
Roud #15544
NOTES [20 words]: Makes me think of "The Bastard King of England," but the dependence seems to be merely a matter of vague allusions. - RBW
File: LxA551

Company of Boatmen, A

See Jacket So Blue, The (The Bonnet o' Blue) (File: FSC43)

Compass and Square, The

DESCRIPTION: Scottish Freemasons meet "the blessings of freedom and plenty to share, and walk by the rules of the compass and square." Kings and prophets have been Freemasons. "The Great Architect ... Instructed our sires in the great building scheme"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious ritual
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #155, p. 1, "The Compass and Square" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 469, "The Compass and Square" (1 text)
Roud #5966
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jocky the Ploughboy" (tune, per Greig)
File: GrD3469

Complainte de Springhill, La (The Lament of Springhill)

DESCRIPTION: French. February 21, 1891: In Nova Scotia you will never forget the underground devastation in the Springhill mine. We are told that one hundred and thirty appeared before God.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage grief death mining disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 21, 1891 - Springhill Disaster
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 183, "La Complainte de Springhill" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SPRINGH3*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Springhill Mine Disaster (1891)" (subject)
NOTES [107 words]: February 21, 1891: Springhill Coal Mine explosion kills 125 men. (Source: our roots/nos racines (Canada's local histories online) Story of the Springhill Colliery Explosion: comprising a full and authentic account of the great coal mining explosion at Springhill Mines, Nova Scotia, February 21st, 1891, including a history of Springhill and its collieries by R.A.H. Morrow.) - BS
For more on the disaster, see the notes to "Springhill Mine Disaster (1891)."
This was not the last disaster in the Springhill coal mines; there was another in 1956, and Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl documented the 1958 tragedy in "Springhill Mine Disaster." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: CrMa183

Complications of Life, The

DESCRIPTION: "This life here is a mixture of its troubles and its joys, All the way to ripe old age from tiny girls and boys; With many complications...." The singer tells of courting girls, of music, of toys, farm animals, a bad marriage, life's other trials
AUTHOR: probably assembled by John Daniel Vass
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (collected by Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains from John Daniel Vass)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes animal dog chickens mother humorous wife marriage separation army farming
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 45-46, "The Complications of Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7328
File: Shel045

Comstocker Died in Virginia, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Comstocker died in Virginia, We buried him high on the hill He watches over old C Street...." The singer is urged to join the (drinking) celebration for the dead Comstocker, and to Comstock itself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Who Shot Maggie in the Freckle, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: death burial drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 613, "The Comstocker Died in Virginia" (1 text)
File: CAFS2613

Concerning Charlie Horse

DESCRIPTION: Nine men go to pull Charlie horse's drowned body from Angle Pond where he had fallen through the ice. The men braved hunger to do the job "with two stout dories and a couple of ropes" and "gave him a decent send-off." The crew are all named.
AUTHOR: Omar Blondahl
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (NFOBlondahl03)
KEYWORDS: burial drowning moniker horse
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 18-19, "Concerning Charlie Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Concerning Charlie Horse" (on NFOBlondahl03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Return of Charlie Horse" (subject)
NOTES [118 words]: From Omar Blondahl's Contribution to the Newfoundland Folksong Canon by Neil Rosenberg in Canadian Journal for Traditional Music (1991):
"Another single paired 'Concerning Charlie Horse' and 'The Return of Charlie Horse,' two songs about a party involving the retrieval and burial of Charlie, the horse who fell through the ice of Angle Pond in Mahers near St. John's in the spring of 1956. 'Concerning Charlie Horse,' which Blondahl co-authored along with a local man, who along with Blondahl was one of ten named in the song, was a hit in St. John's and is a good example of a moniker song which achieved popularity in part because listeners could identify the names and nicknames of the men in it." - BS
File: Blon018

Concerning One Summer in Bonay I Spent

DESCRIPTION: The singer -- and others from all over Newfoundland -- congregated in "Bonay" one summer for wood "rhind" and fishing. The singer pokes fun at the girls that went along and at the men dressing up to meet them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 2nd edition)
KEYWORDS: courting work fishing
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Concerning One Summer in Bonay I Spent" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 33 in the 2nd edition, p. 21 in the 3rd, p. 20 in the 4th, p. 15 in the 5th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 29, "Concerning One Summer in Bonay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 92-94, "Concerning One Spring in Bonay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 46-47, "Concerning One Summer In Bonay I Spent" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7292
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Concerning One Summer in Bonay" (on NFOBlondahl03)
NOTES [153 words]: Doyle mentions that the song was written by a "simple fisherman" and that "Bonay" is in the Strait of Belle Isle which separates Newfoundland from Labrador. - SH
Peter Neary and Patrick O'Flaherty, Part of the Main: An Illustrated History of Newfoundland and Labrador, Breakwater Books, 1983, p. 125, mentions this song, and says that "Bonay" is shorthand for Bonne Esperance in Quebec. Despite being part of Canada rather than Newfoundland, it was one of the important centers of the Labrador fishery in the late nineteenth century.
According to G. M. Story, W. J. Kirwin, and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, Dictionary of Newfoundland English, second edition with supplement, Breakwater Press, 1990, p. 411, "rind" or "rhind" or "rine" is "The bark or cortex of a tree, specif a 6-ft (1.8 m) length of bark removed in one piece from a standing spruce or fir and used for various fisheries and building purposes." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy33

Condemned Men for the Phoenix Park Murders, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the evidence of a notorious wretch Far worse than they have been, Those men they are condemned to die" "Counsels for the Crown ... have well succeeded in their plan ... For basely British gold" Carey is cursed as "the cause of all this woe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: execution homicide trial Ireland political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Chronology of the Phoenix Park murders (source: primarily Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, pp. 62, 63, 281-286.)
May 6, 1882 - Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and the Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke are murdered by a group calling themselves "The Invincible Society."
January 1883 - twenty seven men are arrested.
James Carey, one of the leaders in the murders, turns Queen's evidence.
Six men are condemned to death, four are executed (Joseph Brady is hanged May 14, 1883; Daniel Curley is hanged on May 18, 1883), others are "sentenced to penal servitude," and Carey is freed and goes to South Africa.
July 29, 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell kills Carey on board the "Melrose Castle" sailing from Cape Town to Durban.
Dec 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell is convicted of the murder of James Carey and executed in London (per Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, pp. 28,63, "Lines Written on the Condemned Men for the Phoenix Park Murders" (2 fragments)
Roud #V8800
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(364), "Lines Written on the Condemned Men for the Phoenix Park Murders" ("Miserable indeed must those poor men be"),unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Phoenix Park Tragedy" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders) and references there
NOTES [69 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 62: "The Phoenix Park murders and their judicial sequels struck the popular imagination and were a gold-mine for ballad-writers: some thirty songs were issued on this subject, which was the last great cause to be so extensively commented upon in broadside ballads."
Zimmermann pp. 28 and 63 are fragments; broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(364) is the basis for the description. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BrdCMPPM

Condescending Lass, The

See I Am a Pretty Wench (File: BGMG082)

Conditor alme siderum, eterna lux credencium

See A Babe Is Born All of a May (File: MSBIBAOM)

Cone Along to the Queen's Arcade

See The Tin Gee-Gee (File: KSUC091A)

Coney Isle

DESCRIPTION: Verses that ought to be floating if they aren't already: "Some folks say that a preacher won't steal/I caught three in my corn field"; "Make that feather bed... Old man Brown gonna stay all night." Chorus: "I'm on my way, I'm going back to Coney Isle."
AUTHOR: Frank Hutchison
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Frank Hutchison)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 181, "Coney Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Lester "Pete" Bivins, "I'm Goin' Back to Coney Isle" (Bluebird B-6950/ Montgomery Ward M-7229, 1937)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Coney Isle" (on Holcomb1, MMOKCD)
Frank Hutchison, "Coney Isle" (OKeh 45083, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosie, Darling Rosie" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Take a Drink On Me" (words)
cf. "Uncle Eph" (words)
cf. "Some Folks Say that a Preacher Won't Steal" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Alabam
NOTES [22 words]: The "Coney Isle" referred to was Coney Island amusement park in Cincinnati, Ohio, not the better-known Coney Island in New York. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: CSW181

Confederate "Yankee Doodle"

DESCRIPTION: "Yankee Doodle had a mind to whip the southern traitors Because they didn't choose to live on codfish and potatoes... And so to keep his courage up he took a drink of brandy." The song notes that even the brandy didn't help at Bull Run
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Moore, Rebel Rhymes and Rhapsodies, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle parody derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 21, 1861 - First battle of Bull Run fought between the Union army of McDowell and the Confederates under Johnston and Beauregard
FOUND IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, p. 10, "(no title)" (1 text)
Randolph 249, "Confederate 'Yankee Doodle'" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 521-525, "Yankee Doodle" (4 texts, 1 tune, of which the third is this version)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 122, pp. 262-263, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 203, "Confederate Yankee Doodle" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT, YNKDOOD2*
Roud #7715
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (tune) and references there
File: R249

Conference Time

DESCRIPTION: "How many old-timers remember the day When attending the Conference with no place to stay, We slept in the hay in the tithing-yard barn...." The singer looks back to 1895 and the good and bad that came when the Mormons gathered for Conference
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: money hardtimes travel | Mormon Conference
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, p. 110, "Conference Time" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10895
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
File: ChMS110

Confession of Mc ifee

See McAfee's Confession [Laws F13] (File: LF13)

Congo Justina

DESCRIPTION: Who would marry Congo Justina? Her face is like a whale and she's just come from jail. The chorus is a dance instruction: "Leh go me hand / Leh me balance meself"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage01)
KEYWORDS: marriage humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Victoria Phillip and Dixon [Ebenezer] Philip, "Congo Justina" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
File: RcCongJu

Connaught Man, the

DESCRIPTION: The singer rambles from Connaught to the big cities of Ulster. He has various confrontations with city slickers, assumes a pub will give him credit, and winds up in a fight. He lands in prison. Once released, he vows to roam no more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: rambling prison home fight drink money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H219, pp. 177-178, "The Connaught Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13538
File: HHH219

Connaught Man's Trip to Belfast, The

See The Poor Chronic Man (File: FSC118)

Connaught Ranger, The

DESCRIPTION: Maguire is slighted by a lady from Lough Erin. Her father banishes her and she goes to England to find Maguire. They meet. She buys him a commission as captain for 500 pounds. They marry. "He raised his name, likewise his fame, which is Captain Maguire"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (broadside, Bod17641 Harding B 26(103))
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage reunion separation travel money England Ireland father soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18199
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. O'Driscoll, "Captain John McGuire" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod17641 Harding B 26(103), "Connaught Ranger" ("You lovers all both great and small"), Haly (Cork), 19C; also Bod17880 Harding B 26(104), Bod8619 2806 b.9(225) "The Connaught Ranger"
File: BdConRan

Connecticut

DESCRIPTION: "What land is that so nicely bound By Massachusetts and the Sound, Rhode Island and New York around.... Connecticut." The state fought King George. The people are beautiful and well-fed, they are religious, and they can trace their ancestry far
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1848 (The National Songster)
KEYWORDS: patriotic nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 83-84, "Connecticut" (1 text)
File: CAFS083

Connecticut Peddler, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a peddler, I'm a peddler, I'm a peddler from Connecticut... And don't you want to buy?" He offers "many goods you never saw before," such as pins, "tracts upon popular sins," and many sorts of seeds.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (sheet music published by Oliver Ditson, according to Douglas)
KEYWORDS: commerce money travel nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 317-320, "The Connecticut Peddler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 80, "The Connecticut Pedlar" (1 text)
Roud #15533
File: LxA317

Connecticut Pedlar, The

See The Connecticut Peddler (File: LxA317)

Connla

DESCRIPTION: In Irish Gaelic; dialog; woman asks, "Who's that down there tapping the window?", "...kindling the fire?", "...drawing the blanket off me?", "...breaking down fences?". In every case the reply is "'It's I, myself', says Connla"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recording, Mary Joyce)
KEYWORDS: sex dialog foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, CUNNLDR
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 24, #4 (1975), p, 21, "Cunnla" (2 texts, 1 Gaelic, 1 Engish, 1 tune, as sung by Joe Heaney)
RECORDINGS:
Mary Joyce, "Connla" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Cunnla
NOTES [14 words]: I haven't used the keyword "bawdy", despite the subject matter, because it isn't. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: DTcunnld

Connlach Ghlas an Fhomhair (Green Harvest Stubble, The)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Singer wishes he and his sweetheart were wed and on a ship sailing west. Everyone has other plans for her but he would oppose even the King of Spain. He sent her a letter to complain. "She promptly replied that her heart's love was truly mine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love nonballad emigration royalty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 166-167, "Connlach Ghlas an Fhomhair" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 113-114, "Coinligh Ghlas' An Fhomhair" ("Green Harvest Stubble") [Gaelic and English]
NOTES [160 words]: Tunney-StoneFiddle includes both the Gaelic and Paddy Tunney's English translation. However, I used Bell/O Conchubhair for the description because I thought I understood it better.
The text of the last verse, in both Gaelic and English, differ between Tunney-StoneFiddle and Bell/O Conchubhair. Tunney has the singer hear from gossips that she will wed soon; his advice is to delay "till Easter day When we'll be safe beyond their sight and wicked spite far, far away." - BS
The reference to the King of Spain is interesting. The Kings of Spain were the "Most Catholic Monarchs," and hence potentially the most likely to be helpful to the Catholics of Ireland, so opposing them would be particularly galling to a fervent Catholic -- but by the time emigration to America was common, Spain had fallen into extreme weakness and was no useful ally to anyone. Maybe the reference is just a leftover memory of the days of the Armada and the English/Spanish wars. - RBW
File: TSF166

Connor, The Fisherman

See References under The Dear Irish Boy (File: HHH142)

Conquest (Dark and Thorny Is the Desert)

See Dark and Thorny Is the Desert (File: BrS5767)

Conroy's Camp

DESCRIPTION: (The company sets out for camp and) arrives at Waltham, where they stop to drink. The singer describes the several men in the crew.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: travel drink logger moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #46, "Conroy's Camp" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #4558
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "How We Got Up to the Woods Last Year" (tune, lyrics, theme)
NOTES [36 words]: Like so many lumbering songs, this is a "moniker song" devoted mostly to listing the men in the crew-- though, in this case, it catalogs their behavior on their way to camp rather than their behavior *in* camp. - RBW
File: FowL46

Conscientious Objector's Lament, The

See Send Out the Army and the Navy (File: BrPa057C)

Conscript How Are You?

See How Are You, Conscript? (File: Pet233)

Conscript's Farewell, The

See Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot (plus related references, e.g. The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76]) (File: C076A)

Consider All Ye Fair Maids

See Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)

Consolation Flowing Free

DESCRIPTION: "Consolation flowing free., Come my love and go with me." "You are too young, you are not fit (x3), You cannot leave your mother yet." "You're old enough, you're just about right (x3), I'll ask your mother next Saturday night."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Ames, according to Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting marriage mother
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 90-91, "Consolation Flowing Free" (1 text, 1 tune); cf. pp. 88-89, "Come My Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7934
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come My Love (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [110 words]: Roud's #12430 is assigned primarily to pieces which open "Come my love and go with me And I will take good care of you"; #7394 is for pieces which open "Consolation flowing free, Come my love and go with me." But these are often clearly the same song: they have the "Come my love and go with me" line, the complaint about somebody being too young, and the conclusion that (s)he is old enough. But there are also much longer versions of both pieces. The confusion, I think, goes back to Botkin, who seems to have classified solely based on first lines. I'm far from sure they should be split, but I'm following this general practice. See both songs, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Spurg090

Constable of Dundee, The

DESCRIPTION: "Now fortune was false and betrayed a man, He was Constable of Dundee." His daughter loves a sailor, whom the Constable will not let her marry, especially after he is wrecked. But when the Constable loses his money, the sailor has money to save him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: sailor love rejection rescue money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 1, "The Constable of Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8261
NOTES [52 words]: Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee's notes connect this to Alexander Carron (Scrymgeour), Constable of Dundee in 1298, a follower of William Wallace. I don't see why, though. Possibly there is some folklore about the song; it is said to have come from an eighty-year-old woman, so it may be somewhat confused. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Gath001

Constancy

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! lovely Delia, virtuous, fair, Believe me now your only dear. I'd not exchange my happy state For all the wealth of all the great."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Shoemaker)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, "Constancy" (1 fragment) (p. 158 in the 1919 edition; not found in the third edition)
Roud #15007
NOTES [74 words]: I found two other references to this in histories of Pennsylvania found on the internet; both included only this single verse, and I suspect they were dependent on each other. Unfortunately, I can't cite them, since the chapters I found were incomplete! But this seems to be the only verse extant.
Roud includes this with the "Canal Boat Song," found two pages earlier in Shoemaker's first edition, but I think this is just a numbering glitch. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SMMP158Z

Constant Farmer's Son, The [Laws M33]

DESCRIPTION: Her parents consent to let their daughter marry a farmer, but her brothers will not agree. The brothers take the farmer out and murder him, claiming he has fled with another girl. The daughter finds the body, has her brothers executed, and dies of grief
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3995))
KEYWORDS: homicide family
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA,MW) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws M33, "The Constant Farmer's Son"
Greig/Duncan2 221, "The Constant Farmer's Son" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 632, "Merchant's Daughter" (1 text)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 28-29, "The Merchant's Daughter or The Constant Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 11, "The Constant Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #115, "The Constant Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 47, "The Constant Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H806, pp. 434-435, "The Constant Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 17, pp. 40-41,108,163, "The Constant Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 32, pp. 76-78, "The Constant Farmer's Son" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 93-94, "The Constant Farmer's Son" (1 short text, 1 tune, probably this, although Bush lumps it with two other songs, pp. 89-90, "The Jealous Brothers"; pp. 90-91, "The Jealous Brothers II" which are clearly "The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town)" [Laws M32])
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 141-142, "Constant Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 118, "The Constant Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 25, "Constant Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 26, "The Constant Farmer's Son" (1 text)
DT 309, CONSTFRM (JEALBRO5 incorrectly listed as Laws M32)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 96-97 "The Constant Farmer's Son" (1 text)
Roud #675
RECORDINGS:
Josie Connors, "Constant Farmer's Son" (on IRTravellers01)
Tom Lenihan, "Constant Farmer's Son" (on IRClare01)
John Maguire, "The Constant Farmer's Son" (on IRJMaguire01)
James McDermott, "The Constant Farmer's Son" (on IRHardySons)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3995), "The Merchant's Daughter and Constant Farmer's Son," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Johnson Ballads 1223, Harding B 16(148a), Firth c.18(183), Johnson Ballads 1947, Harding B 11(2402), "The Merchant's Daughter and Constant Farmer's Son"; Johnson Ballads 2675, "Merchant's Daughter" or "Constant Farmer's Son" ("It's of a merchant's daughter in London town did dwell"); 2806 b.9(265), "The Constant Farmer's Son"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town)" [Laws M32]
NOTES [54 words]: At the end of Tom Lenihan's version on IRCLare01, the brothers' bodies are given to doctors "for to practice by" "but Mary's thoughts both night and day On her dead love did run; In the madhouse cell poor Mary dwells For her constant farmer's son." See the notes to "A Maid in Bedlam" for other women driven to the asylum. - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: LM33

Constant Johnny

DESCRIPTION: "Charming Molly, I do love thee, There's none other I adore"; he wishes her to be his forevermore. But, "Constant Johnny, I reject thee... Your love I do decline." He mopes. She changes her mind. They will part no more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: love rejection marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #80, "Constant Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1702
File: BGSW080

Constant Lover, The

DESCRIPTION: "Although my parents me disdain, For loving of my own dear honey," the singer vows to be faithful. He lists all the things he would disdain were he allowed to woo the girl. He concludes that not even the honeycomb is as sweet as she
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 86, "The Constant Lover" (1 text)
Roud #5564
NOTES [83 words]: This song, literary in a rather obnoxious way, mentions both King Caesar's rents (though the Roman Empire did not use landrents as such) and Hero and Leander. The latter story tells of the young man Leander who swam every night to meet his love Hero, but who one night became lost and drowned; when she found his body, she drowned herself. The story comes from an ancient Greek poem, but was more popular in recent times; Marlowe, Byron, and Chapman were among the many who wrote on the theme. - RBW
File: Ord086

Constant Lovers (II), The

See Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover) (File: Ord089)

Constant Lovers (III)

See The Silk Merchant's Daughter [Laws N10] (File: LN10)

Constant Lovers, The [Laws O41]

DESCRIPTION: The sailor promises to marry the girl after he makes one more trip. His mother threatens to disinherit him for this, but he points out that she had been a serving girl herself until his father had raised her. He promises to be faithful to the girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(166))
KEYWORDS: sailor travel mother promise
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws O41, "The Constant Lovers"
Greig/Duncan6 1093, "Oh, Wait, My Mother, Ere I Tell You This" (1 fragment)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 110, "Sailor and the Farmer's Daughter" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #30, The Constant Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 18-19, "The Contant Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H634, p. 472, "One Penny Portion" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 4, "One Penny Portion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 95, "A Sailor Courted" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 49, "A Sailor Courted" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 44-45, "A Sailor Courted a Farmer's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 595, SAILCOUR
Roud #993
RECORDINGS:
John Thomas Powers, "A Sailor Courted a Farmer's Daughter" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Monica Rossiter, "The Farmer's Daughter" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(166), "The Constant Lovers" ("A sailor courted a farmer's daughter"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(3519), Firth c.13(259), 2806 c.17(79), 2806 c.17(78), Harding B 11(146), Harding B 11(147), Johnson Ballads 2079, Harding B 20(235), Firth c.26(62), Firth c.12(195), Firth c.12(290), Harding B 11(678), Harding B 11(677), "The Constant Lovers"; Harding B 11(2670) [15 8-line verses], "A New Song"; Harding B 16(108d), "Hard-Hearted Mother"; Harding B 4(87)[part 1: 9 8-line verses; part 2: 10 8-line verses; 7 8-line verses], Harding B 4(88), "The Goodhurst Garland. In Three Parts"; Harding B 25(1682), "The Sailor and the Farmer's Daughter"
NLScotland, APS.4.95.15(3), "The Sailor and Farmer's Daughter," unknown, c.1830
File: LO41

Constant Lovers' Garland, The

See Nancy of Yarmouth (Jemmy and Nancy; The Barbadoes Lady) [Laws M38] (File: LM38)

Constant Sorrow

See Man of Constant Sorrow (File: CSW113)

Constitution and the Guerriere (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Britannia's gallant streamers Float proudly o'er the tide; And fairly wave Columbia's stripes...." Dacres and his hip meet Hull's, and signals for battle. But "Vain were the cheers of Britons," The Americans, tried on the "Moorish shore," is victorious
AUTHOR: Words: L. M. Sargent
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (Boston Gazette, according to Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: sea war battle ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 19, 1812 - the 44-gun Constitution defeats and captures the 38-gun Guerriere
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 144-145, "The Constitution and the Guerriere" (1 text, from the Boston Gazette)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, pp. 194-195, "Yankee Thunders"; "Constitution and Guerriere" (2 texts, 1 tune, both copies of War of 1812-era printings)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 48-40, "Yankee Thunders" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Constitution and the Guerriere" [Laws A6] (subject)
cf. "Ye Mariners of England" (tune)
NOTES [174 words]: Although quite possibly older than the traditional "Constitution and Guerriere" (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks notes at least five publications in newspapers in September 1812, and two songsters in 1814-1815), there do not appear to be any traditional publications of this song -- probably because it's so wordy.
The song mentions three names: Dacres and Hull are the captains of the Guerriere and the Constitution, respectively. "Morris," not otherwise identified, is probably Charles Morris. of whom J. Franklin Jameson, Dictionary of United States History 1492-1895, Puritan Press, 1894, says:
Morris, Charles (1784-1856), Commodore, served in the war with Tripoli from 1801 to 1805. He was lieutenant of the "Constitution" in the engagement with the "Guerriere." He was chief of the Ordnance Bureau from 1851 to 1856.
It has several times been stated that the traditional Laws ballad about the Constitution and Guerriere goes back to an 1812 broadside. I suspect, however, that that may be a reference to this piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Gray144

Constitution and the Guerriere, The [Laws A6]

DESCRIPTION: Captain Dacres of the Guerriere expects to defeat the Americans as easily as Britain has defeated the French. Captain [Isaac] Hull's Constitution, however, easily defeats the British ship
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1813 (LOCEphemera rbpe 1130150a)
KEYWORDS: sea war battle ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 19, 1812 - the 44-gun Constitution defeats and captures the 38-gun Guerriere
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Laws A6, "The Constitution and the Guerriere"
Thompson-APioneerSongster 49, "Constitution and Guerriere" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 110-111, "The Constitution and the Guerriere" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 130-132, "The Constitution and the Guerriere" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 184-186, "The Constitution and the Guerriere" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 43, "The Constitution and the Guerriere" (2 texts)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 291, "The Constitution and the Guerriere" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 108-110, "The Constitution and the Guerriere" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 507-509, "Constitution and Guerriere" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 21, "Yankee Doodle Dandy-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 544-546, "The Constitution and the Guerriere" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 161-164, "The Constitution and the Guerriere" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 60, "The Constitution and the Guerriere (Hull's Victory)" (1 text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 30, pp. 54-55, "The Constitution and the Guerriere" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 75, pp. 97-98, "The Constitution and the Guerriere" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 159-161, "The Constitution and the Guerriere" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 286, "The Constitution and Guerriere" (1 text)
DT 362, CONSTGUR*
ADDITIONAL: Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, pp. 21-23, "The Constitution and the Guerriere" (1 text)
C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 309. "The Constitution and Guerriere" (1 text)
Roud #626
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Proud Dacus and Captain Hull (Captain Hull and proud Dacus)" [fragment] (AFS 4202 A4, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
BROADSIDES:
LOCEphemera, rbpe 1130150a [some words illegible], "The Constitution and Guerriere" ("We often have been told"), John Lane (New York), 1813; also rbpe 22802500, "The Constitution and Guerriere" ("It ofttimes has been told")
LOCSinging, as102370, "Constitution and Guerriere" ("I often have been told, that the British seamen bold"), L. Deming (Boston), no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Constitution and the Guerriere (II)" (subject)
cf. "Hull's Victory, or, Huzza for the Constitution" (subject)
cf. "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (I)" [Laws J20]
cf. "Iron Merrimac" (subject)
cf. "Yankee Tars" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
It Ofttimes Has Been Told (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p.48)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Captain Hill
Lo a Frigate
NOTES [1215 words]: Despite the alternate title "Yankee Doodle Dandy-O," this is obviously not to be confused with "Yankee Doodle." The tune is, in fact, related to "The Bonnie Lass of Fyvie-O (Pretty Peggy)"; some copies call it "The Landlady of France"; Williams says that "It is set to a very lively and emphatic air, called, indifferently, The Landlady of France and The Bandy-Legged Officer, from the coarsely comical words which George Colman the younger had written to it." [LOCEphemera rbpe 1130150a and rbpe 2280250 have the tune as "Landlady of France" - BS]
The United States declared war on Britain in 1812 due to British behavior at sea (impressing seamen off American ships -- for which see e.g. "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (I)" [Laws J20] -- and stopping American ships bound for the continent, among other things). Under ordinary circumstances, the Americans could not hope to beat Britain -- but, just as in the Revolutionary War, Britain had other things on its mind. In this case, Napoleon. Most of the British navy had to stay near France to combat the possibility of invasion. As a result, the Americans decided to send out their tiny navy -- only five frigates, though they were high-quality ships, and some smaller vessels -- to protect their merchant ships against such British ships as were operating out of Halifax and Newfoundland. In the end, most of the American fleet would end up bottled up in port.
Before that could happen, though, the Constitution went out commerce-raiding (July 12, 1812). It very nearly ended up being a short trip. Despite their preoccupation with France, the British had one significant task force in the Americas, built about the ship of the line H.M.S. Africa (Bormenam, p. 81; Hickey, pp. 93-94). That fleet came upon Constitution, but the wind died before they could engage, and the Constitution managed to get away by kedging her anchor plus putting as many men as possible in longboats to row her away (Fitz-Enz, pp. 11-14). Constitution made it to Boston, then set out again (Borneman, p. 84; Fitz-Enz, p. 14, comments on their survival against Africa, "Having outsailed or, to put it bluntly, outrowed the enemy, Captain Hull and his men were looking for a fight" Utt, p. 52, reports that Hull "stayed [in Boston] only a week to bring on board food, water, and new crewmen, shipping out on Sunday, 2 August). He sailed north past Halifax and took a few small prizes (Utt, p. 53), but nothing major until she met the Guerriere (the former French Guerrière) one of the ships from the Africa fleet now operating on her own.
The Guerriere freely went into battle with the Constitution, apparently in the belief that the Americans didn't know how to handle ships. Her Captain Dacres was even more aggressive than most (Fitz-Enz, p. 19). This was a bad move. Although the Constitution had only slightly more guns, it was a much better-built ship, and had been rebuilt just before hostilities had begun, and its weight of broadside was significantly larger; few frigates had long guns (that is, guns capable of firing a ball over long distances) heavier than an 18-pounder, but the Constitution had many 24-pounders -- a weight typical of ships of the line (Pratt,pp. 8, 36). Paine, p. 120, says, the Constitution initially had fully 30 of these ship-killers and 20 32-pounders carronades -- short-range guns designed to kill people more than ships). According to Mahon, p. 57, the Constitution had a broadside of 684 pounds, the British of 556 -- and the American ship had 456 crew to 272 on the British frigate. The British sailors probably were more experienced -- but they simply weren't very numerous.
The American ship-handling was in fact imperfect (Borneman, p. 86), which meant that the two ships actually came in contact for a time (Hull wanted to board, but there wasn't time for a boarding crew to cross; Utt, pp. 57-59). The Guerriere had already lost her mizzen by then, however, and soon after lost her other two masts; eventually she surrendered and proved so badly damaged that she had to be burned (Fitz-Enz, p. 23).
Supposedly Dacres and Hull remained friends for the rest of their lives, because Hull had arranged for his men to rescue Dacres's prize Bible, a family heirloom (Fitz-Enz, p. 23) .
The Constitution would win additional battles in the War of 1812, but this was the only victory for skipper Isaac Hull (1773-1843), who afterward requested and was given a shore command (Mahon, p. 59).
The ""Captain Hull" of the Warde Ford version is of course the aforementioned Isaac Hull (1773-1843), who commanded the Constitution during the battle. Supposedly he was so enthusiastic when his crew started firing at close range that he started jumping up and down and split his pants (Utt, p. 56).
"Dacus" is James R. Dacres (1788?-1853), the commander of the Guerriere. Lest he be thought incompetent, it should be noted that he obtained command at a very young age (note that he was still in his twenties!), and would later in the war capture the Leo. He was really more of a "test case" for the British belief that their seamanship (so demonstrated at Trafalgar) made them inherently better than the Americans. (Though he would later blame his defeat on the fact that his vessel was an inferior ship captured from the French; Borneman, p. 88).
Dacres was also gallant; ten of his sailors were impressed Americans, and he allowed them not to fight against their home nation even though he was short of crew (Utt, p. 55).
The "super frigates" did cause a significant reaction on the British side; in addition to the Constitution, the ship United States had easily dealt with the Macedonian (Hickey, pp. 94-96). The British questioned whether the American ships could really be called frigates rather than ships of the line (Hickey, p. 98), and caused the British to design heavy frigates of their own and to order their frigates to avoid American frigates if possible (Hickey, pp. 99). They also gave their light frigates orders to stay out of one-on-one engagements (Mahon, p. 59).
It's fortunate for the Americans that their ships were successful, because they weren't cheap. According to Heidler/Heidler, p. 196, the Constitution's "final price of $302,718.84 represented a 260 percent cost overrun from original appropriations."
The victory was very important in American politics. To that point, the Americans had done very badly in the war, being utterly defeated on the Canadian front (see, e.g., "Brave General Brock" [Laws A22] and "The Battle of Queenston Heights"). The Constitution's victory, while of no real significance, is credited with helping President James Madison to re-election in November 1812. It was a very close thing; had Pennsylvania gone for De Witt Clinton, Madison would have been turned out of office, and there was genuine concern that he *would* lose there (Hickey, p. 105)
It has several times been stated that this song goes back to an 1812 broadside. At one time I listed 1812 as the earliest date for this song on that basis. But the only prints of that period which I have located are in fact copies of "The Constitution and Guerriere (II)." I have therefore changed the date to the earliest instance which I am sure is this ballad.. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: LA06

Constoga on the Jordan Road

DESCRIPTION: "The devil and Goliath were playing seven up, All on account of half a dollar," but the Devil cheats. The Conestoga wagon will take riders to the other side of Jordan. Teamsters cuss but travel the road. The saints are on the other side of Jordan.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: derivative travel devil humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 249-250, "Constoga on the Jordan Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7741
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel" (tune) and references there
File: KPL249

Consumptive Sara Jane

See references under Sara Jane (File: RcSarJan)

Contented Countryman, The

DESCRIPTION: "Who would like a jovial count-e-rie life? Happy am I with my home and wife." The singer describes how his life "just suits me": They call him poor, but he has the larks and the clear sky and a loving wife. He would not "change for a crown-ed king."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.26(85))
KEYWORDS: home work farming nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 245, "The Contented Countryman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 490, "Out With My Gun in the Morning" (1 text)
Roud #1847
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy Knights, "Out With My Gun in the Morning" (on Voice18)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.26(85), "Out With My Gun in the Morning" ("I live a jovial country life"), T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899; also 2806 c.16(112), "Out With My Gun in the Morning"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Brisk and Bonny Lass (The Brisk and Bonny Lad)" (theme)
cf. "Country Life" (theme)
NOTES [39 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland lists several other collections of what he says are this song -- but given the generic nature of this song and Kennedy's willingness to lump, I can't bring myself to trust him without seeing them. - RbW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: K245

Contented Wife and Answer, The

See The Happy Marriage (File: HHH753)

Conundrum Song

DESCRIPTION: "Do ships have eyes when they go to sea? Are there springs on the ocean bed? Can a jolly tar spring from a tree? Can a river lose its head? Are fishes crazy when found in seine? Can an old hen sing her lay? Can you bring relief to a window pane?" etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (The Notre Dame Scholastic, Vol. 23, no. 35, according to mudcat.org thread "Origins: Do Ships Have Eyes?")
KEYWORDS: nonsense questions humorous campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #82, p. 25, "Conundrum Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 190, "Questions" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15410
NOTES [76 words]: Harbin-Parodology lists this as being sung to "The Wearing of the Green," but I doubt this is the original tune.
Dime-Song-Book #19, p. 54, has a different "Song of Conundrums," which begins
Why is a 'school-marm like unto an eye,
When she a naughty boy does thrash?
'Tis very simple, you can surely see,
The pupil is put under the lash."
The rest is in a similar vein. Clearly not the same song, although perhaps based on the same sort of conundrums. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Paro082

Conversation with Death (Oh Death)

DESCRIPTION: Death approaches the young person who is "unprepared for eternity." (S)he tries to buy Death off. It doesn't work. Death describes how it takes everyone and snuffs out their lives. The soon-to-be-dead person bids farewell
AUTHOR: almost certainly Lloyd Chandler
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: death bargaining dialog Hell
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 663, "Conversation with Death" (1 text)
DT, OHDEATH*
Roud #4933
RECORDINGS:
Rich Amerson, "Death Have Mercy" (on NFMAla4)
Dock Boggs, "Oh Death" (on Boggs1, BoggsCD1)
Al Craver [pseudonym for Vernon Dalhart], "Conversation with Death" (Columbia 15585-D, 1930; rec. 1928)
Rev. Anderson Johnson, "Death in the Morning" (Glory 4015, rec. 1953; on Babylon)
Charlie Monroe's Boys, "Oh Death" (Bluebird B-8092, 1939)
Charley] Patton & [Bertha] Lee, "Oh Death" (Vocalion 02904, 1935; rec. 1934)
Dock Reed & Vera Hall Ward, "Death is Awful" (on NFMAla5) (on ReedWard01)
Berzilla Wallin, "Conversation with Death" (on OldLove)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(885), "Dialogue between death and a sinner" ("Death. Now sinner come by heaven's decree ...") Ryle & Co (Seven Dials), n.d.; also "Dialogue between Death & a sinner," John Harkness (Preston), n.d.; Johnson Ballads 412, "Dialogue between Death and a sinner," W. S. Fortey (Monmouth), n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Death and the Lady" (theme)
cf. "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (tune of one version)
cf. "Oh Death (III)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Death Is Awful
NOTES [167 words]: It is possible that this is a Holy Roller version of "Death and the Lady," but there are enough differences that I decided I had to separate them. There may be a "missing link" out there somwhere, though. - RBW
I think Boggs' version may well be the missing link you seek. A very similar version was recorded by the blues singer Charley Patton. Or it could be Vernon Dalhart's recording, but certainly the Boggs and Patton versions are fairly close to "Death and the Lady." - PJS
John Garst has this to add:
Carl Lindahl seems to have wrapped up Lloyd Chandler's authorship of "Conversation with Death." See http://tinyurl.com/tbdx-LChandler and works cited there.
Chandler's piece has become mixed with "Oh, Death" ("Death Have Mercy," etc.) which seems to be, in some versions, entirely different from "Conversation."
It seems clear to me that "Oh, Death" derives from the,,, broadside [Bodleian, Harding B 11(885)].
Both "Conversation" and "Oh, Death" differ considerably from "Death and the Lady." - JG
Last updated in version 2.5
File: R663

Convert, The

See When I Set Out for Glory (File: Fus212)

Converted Indian Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: "My mother in her wigwam stays, A-weaving baskets all the day." The girl, her brother, her father, lived their lives. Then "The white man coming from the east He taught us heathens how to read"; now "My Savior's name I also know."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) religious
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 236-237, "The Converted Indian Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5262
NOTES [60 words]: In one sense, this is relatively kind to the Indians; it does not condemn their lifestyle. It just claims that being able to read is better (certainly true), as is being a Christian (less inherently obvious). In any case, it omits the usual means of conversion, which involve fewer books and a great many more bullets and disease-ridden blankets and the like. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: NeDe236

Convict and the Rose, The

DESCRIPTION: An innocent prisoner will be executed in the morning. He thinks about his sweetheart, who sent him a rose. "When I go at daylight's dawning Against my heart they'll find this rose"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recording, Blue Sky Boys); in tradition, 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: love execution prison punishment trial death flowers nonballad lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #16149
RECORDINGS:
Blue Sky Boys, "The Convict and the Rose" (Bluebird B-8522, 1940)
Joe Sutton, "The Prisoner of Newfoundland" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3CoatR

Convict Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: "You lads and lasses all attend to me While I relate my tale of misery; By hopeless love I was once betrayed, And now I am, alas, a convict maid." Her lover had her rob her master's store; now she is sentenced for seven years. She regrets her error
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (various Bodleian broadsides)
KEYWORDS: robbery transportation love punishment
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 58-60, "The Convict Maid" (1 text)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, p. 26, "The Convict Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, p. 25, "The Convict Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 19, "The Convict Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 126-127, "The London Convict Maid" (1 text)
DT, CONVCTMD*
Geoffrey C. Ingleton, _True Patriots All: or News from Early Australia as told in A Collection of Broadsides_ ("Garnered and Decorated" by Ingleton), Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1988, p. 165, "The London Convict Maid" (1 text, a reproduction of a Birt broadside)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 144, "The Convict Maid" (1 text, with a tune on p. 557)
Roud #5479
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.13(315), "The Convict Maid," ("Ye London maids attend to me"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(687), J. Harkness (Preston, 1840-1866; also Firth c.17(45), (no title), H. Such (London), 1863-1885;; also Firth c.17(43), "The Convict Maid" ("Ye Glasgow maids attend to me"), unknown, n.d.; also Firth b.34(164)=Johnson Ballads 667, C. Paul (London), n.d.; also Harding B 15(61a), C. Paul (London), n.d.; Harding B 40(19), J. F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin?), 1850-1899 (link broken)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Croppy Boy (I)" [Laws J14] (tune)
File: FaE026

Convict of Clonmel, The

DESCRIPTION: A convict, sentenced to be hanged, thinks of his past, playing at hurley and dancing. "No boy of the village Was ever yet milder." Now his horse is loose, his hurley at home, his ball is played with and the girls are dancing. He will be forgotten.
AUTHOR: English words by J.J. Callanan
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Duffy)
KEYWORDS: crime execution prison sports dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 342-343, "The Convict of Clonmell"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 193-194, "The Convict of Clonmel" (1 text)
Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, _The Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1958, 1979), pp. 41-42, "The Convict of Clonmel" (1 text)
Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 117-118, "TheConvict of Clonmell"
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 188-189, 496-497, "Convict of Clonmell"
Roud #6993
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Gaol of Clonmel" (on IRRCinnamond01) (fragment; only the first verse)
Liam Clancy, "The Convict of Clonmel" (on IRLClancy01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Thady Quill" (subject of hurling) and references there
NOTES [269 words]: Clonmel is in County Tipperary, Ireland.
Hayes, after saying simply that he does not know the hero of the song, has a long note explaining the popularity of hurling and defending the game from English detractors.
Hayes's note on this is an exact quote from Duffy, who may in turn be quoting Callanan.
Duffy makes Callanan the translator from the Irish. - BS
According to Granger's Index to Poetry (which cites this five times), the poem was not written by Callanan, but rather translated from an (unknown but modern) Irish source; this of course agrees with Duffy.
Hurling was said to be nearly extinct before being revived in 1870. Since it was played in only a few places before that, a good history of the sport might help us make a good guess as to the person referred to here. (Unless of course it's some petty criminal, but it doesn't sound that way.) The leaders of the 1848 rebellion were all spared the gallows, so it must refer to something earlier. Emmet's rebellion, maybe?
There is a certain amount of confusion about this author. Most sources list his name as James Joseph Callanan, but he is also sometimes listed under the name "Jeremiah" (and, yes, it is known that it is the same guy). Most sources agree that he was born in 1795, but his death date seemingly varies; Hoagland and MacDonagh/Robinson give 1829. He wrote some poetry of his own, but is probably best known for his translations from Gaelic. Works of his found in this index include "The Convict of Clonmel," "The Outlaw of Loch Lene," "Sweet Avondu," "The Virgin Mary's Bank," "Gougane Barra," and a translation of "Drimindown." - RBW
File: RcConvCl

Convict of Clonmell, The

See The Convict of Clonmel (File: RcConvCl)

Convict Song

See Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line (File: ADR98)

Convict Song, The

DESCRIPTION: A dying convict wonders if his family still thinks of him. He thinks of his brothers and sisters. He blames himself "for bad company have me done." He leaves a lock of his hair to be sent to his mother. Then he dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: prison death brother family mother sister prisoner
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #26266
RECORDINGS:
Michael Deveraux, "The Convict Song" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3TCoSo

Convict's Child, The

DESCRIPTION: "The convict ship lay near the beach, The morn was drear and dark." One of the convicts is cradling an infant, his only child. The guards tear the baby from him. His wife wants to die but vows to live for the sake of the child
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1844 (Broadside Bodleian Harding B 15(61b), etc.); Anderson estimates his broadside as c. 1790
KEYWORDS: transportation separation father children wife
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 65-66, "The Convict's Child"
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 73, "The Convict's Child" (1 text, with a tune on p. 544)
Roud #V351
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(61b), "Convict's Child," E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1844-1845; also Harding B 11(688)=Johnson Ballads 488, E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1844-1845; Firth b.26(265), H. Shuch (London); Firth c.17(61), G. Henson and J. Taylor (Northampton/Aylesbury), n.d.; Firth c.17(62) (unknown), n.d.; Harding B 22(385), ? Birt (London), 1831-1851; Harding B 11(689), J. Livsey (Manchester), n. d.; Harding B 11(690), Ryle and Paul (London), 1838-1859; Firth b.34(67), J. Paul and Co (London), 1838-1845; Firth b.26(9)=Harding B 11(924)=Johnson Ballads 647, C. Paul (London), n.d.; Harding B 11(1957)=Harding B 20(85), B. Stewart (Carlisle), n.d.; Firth b.26(402), B. Stewart (Carlisle), n.d.; Firth b.25(349)=Harding B 11(76)=Johnson Ballads 1973, G. Henson and J. Taylor (Northampton/Aylesbury), n.d.; Harding B 11(1426), W. F. Forty (London), 1858-1885; Harding B 11(712), Stone, Keys, Reed, Brown (Exeter, Devonport, Newport, Bristol), n.d.
File: AnFa065

Convict's Lamentation on the Death of Captain Logan, A

See Moreton Bay (I) (File: FaE038)

Convict's Lamentation, The

See Moreton Bay (I) (File: FaE038)

Convict's Return, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's just ten long years ago they dragged me from my wife...." Convicted of murder, the prisoner plans an escape, only to find his family and his strength gone. He is reprieved when his innocence is established; he happily goes home
AUTHOR: Leonard Nelson
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Jack Mahoney)
KEYWORDS: trial punishment reprieve freedom
FOUND IN: Australia US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 68-69, "The Convict's Return" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Jack Mahoney, "The Convict's Return" (Columbia 15712-D, 1932; rec. 1931)
File: MA068

Convict's Song, The

See Botany Bay (I) (File: R096)

Coo Coo Bird, The

See The Cuckoo (File: R049)

Coo-Coo (Peacock Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Coo-coo, coo-oo-oo, Coo-coo, coo-oo-oo. Coo-coo, coo-ah-li-ah."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 237, "Coo-Coo (Peacock Song)" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #29314
NOTES [27 words]: Said to be the acceptance song sung by the peacock after it was elected to be queen of the birds. (One might point out, however, that peacocks are male...). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: San237

Coochie Coo

DESCRIPTION: "I'll tell you about my love, She's my darling turtle dove, Mary Lize is her name, But she gets there just the same. Oh, coochie, coochie, coochie coo... Cheeks so red and eyes so blue." "I met her at a ten cent show"; they wed; he dislikes mother-in-law
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric), with one copy from a manuscript dated 1907
KEYWORDS: love courting humorous mother beauty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 87, "Coochie Coo" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #11321
NOTES [29 words]: Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric wonders if this is derived from Monroe H. Rosenfeld's "Kutchy, Kutchy, Coo!" The phrase might be, but it appears to me that the song is different. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Brne087

Cook and Shearer

DESCRIPTION: "By the wide Waimakariri, In the province of the plains... Lived the lady of this idyll," a very odd-looking station-cook. She has peculiar taste in food and a bad temper. "Murrumbidgee Bill" beats her in a shearing contest and so wins her hand
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (Sydney Bulletin, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: cook courting racing sheep fight humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 120-122, "Cook and Shearer" (1 text)
File: BaRo120

Cook and Teamster

See The Cook and the Teamster (File: EkSm109)

Cook and the Ladle, The

DESCRIPTION: "As I was a-walking up the stair Who did I meet but the cook and the ladle? ... Tadle eedle ah lil dum dadie Tadle eedle ah lil dum dee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: cook
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1781, "The Cook and the Ladle" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #12990
NOTES [55 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
I have a strange feeling that this is about George I and his mistress Ehrengard Melusine von der Schulenburg, known as "The Maypole" because she was so tall and skinny. "The Ladle" would also have been a good description. But this is most idle of speculations. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81781

Cook and the Teamster, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a jolly cook, His name was Telephone...." A teamster goes in to the cookroom and hits his knife on a nail (?). He accuses the cook. The teamster drives the cook away. Hearers are warned against "greasers" as cooks
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: cook fight revenge foreigner
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 109-110, "The Cook and the Teamster" (1 text)
Roud #4066
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Cook and Teamster
NOTES [62 words]: This song is item dC45 in Laws's Appendix II. Eckstorm and Smythe suggest it is not a Maine song because of the racist reference at the end; this forces them to explain a reference to Barn McHugh as an insertion. Possibly they are right, but all instances of the song seem to be from the eastern woods. So it's possible that it's the racist verse that is the insertion. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EkSm109

Cook I Went a-Courtin', A

See The Greasy Cook (Butter and Cheese and All, The Cook's Choice) (File: CoSB236)

Cook of the Mess

DESCRIPTION: "I'm cook of the mess [i.e. not the cook but the rating who takes food to his mess], I'm full of zest, And for the lads I do my best, Then up on deck I do the rest, I'm having a busy day" (because he cares for food and dishes on top of his other duties)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: cook food navy work
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 46, "Cook of the Mess" (1 short text)
File: Tawn029

Cook, The

DESCRIPTION: "Our cook is the king of the bully-beef Navy, He's cooked it with soup, he's cooked it with gravy... He's cooked it standing, he's cooked it lying, And if he had wings, he'd cook it flying... Our bloody cook is the king of all HM ships"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: cook navy food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 47, "The Cook" (1 text)
File: Tawn030

Cook's Choice, The

See The Greasy Cook (Butter and Cheese and All, The Cook's Choice) (File: CoSB236)

Cookery Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a young maiden to cooking school went, Even the cookery maid." Her plum puddings serve as rat poison, her griddle cakes are doormats. Finally she tries to make a pie. A burglar breaks in, tries to eat it, and is found dead the next day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
KEYWORDS: cook thief theft death humorous food
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 221-223, "The Cookery Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3771
NOTES [39 words]: This sounds like a novelty song from an early hillbilly recording, but I haven't located it. It might even be funny if it weren't so insulting.
Roud for some reason lumps this with "The Bachelor's Lament (II)," but I don't see it. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: List221

Cookie, Cookie

DESCRIPTION: "Cookie, Cookie, Listen while we sing to you. Cookie, Cookie, You're a part of camp life too. Anyone can make a bed and anyone can sew, But it takes our cookies (to make camp go). So Cookie, Cookie, Listen while we sing to you."
AUTHOR: Music: Bob Carleton
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 251, 263, 265, 319, 535, "Cookie, Cookie"/"Cookie" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ja-Da" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Waiter, Waiter ("Waiter, waiter, won't you wait on me") (Harbin-Parodology, #260, p. 65; Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 23)
Onions ("Onions, onions, O-U-N-I-O-N-S") (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p.8)
NOTES [45 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 265. says that this was sung to the tune of "Ja Da" (also called "Jada"), hence the music attribution; "Ja-Da" words and music by Bob Carleton, was published in 1918 and became a significant hit when recorded by Arthur Collins in 1919. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF251C

Cooking the Cock of the North

DESCRIPTION: "I went into into a raffle once And what do you think that I got? Well, a beautiful bird from off of McNat... But every minute he'd cry, Cock a doodle, cock a doodle, That's what he sang in the broth." Or "Cock a doodle... I'm the cock of the north"
AUTHOR: Harry Wincott and Harry Castling (source: folksongandmusichall web site)
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (source: folksongandmusichall web site)
KEYWORDS: bird food gambling
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, "Cock a doodle, cock a doodle" (1 fragment)
Roud #3554
NOTES [39 words]: Fowke thinks Alice Kane's version was from a pipe tune, "Cock of the North," which seems not unlikely given the late date of "Cooking the Cock of the North." But Roud lumps the pop song with Kane's fragment, so I'm doing the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC177A

Cooks of Torbay, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye young fellows wherever ye be I'll sing ye a verse on the cooks of Torbay." The sealing ship Ellen goes up the Gulf. The captain gives the cook grief for only cooking two meals for the day. The insulted cook has his son make the meal
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: hunting sea ship humorous cook
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 148, "The Cooks of Torbay" (1 text)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 113, "The Cooks of Torbay" (1 text)
ST GrMa148 (Partial)
Roud #7575
NOTES [227 words]: Torbay is about seven miles north of St John's. - BS
There aren't many dating hints in this song, but the ship's name Ellen is perhaps slightly indicative. There was no sealing steamer named Ellen (Chafe, pp. 98-105, has a comprehensive list). This implies a sailing ship, and almost certainly a date before 1900; indeed, a date before 1880 is likely.
On the other hand, the list of ships in the index of Ryan (see "ships, sailing" in the Index) doesn't include an Ellen either. That's not proof -- there were so many sailing sealers that the records surely aren't complete. It does seem odd that the song is about a little-known ship, though.
The one other thing that occurs to me is that "Ellen" could be a mis-hearing of "Bella," as in the Bellaventure, which went to the ice 1909-1915 (Chafe, p. 98). This would explain all the little hints in the song that it is late. We know that the Bellaventure was also known as the "Belle" (see "Captains and Ships"; also "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)"). I frankly think that more likely than that this is a song about a forgotten ship. If so, it might be possible to figure out the year this song refers to by examining the Bellaventure's crew lists and the years she went to "the Gulf" (the St. Lawrence, mentioned in the second stanza) as opposed to "the Front" (the area northeast of Newfoundland). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.5
File: GrMa148

Coolgardie Miner, The

See English Miner, The (The Coolgardie Miner, Castles in the Air) (File: MA115)

Coolie Is Nobody, A

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "Blow bully blow boy/blow bully boy blow." The shantyman sings "A coolie is nobody." "I never jumped your mommy ... They call me bully hangman ... I never hanged your mommy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy shanty
FOUND IN: West Indies(Nevis)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 52-53, "A Coolie Is Nobody" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [114 words]: In the West Indies a "coolie" is an East Indian. Abraham's comment -- "This song does not reflect a real social situation on Nevis, since there were only three East Indian families, none of whom were ever discussed in such stereotyped terms" -- suggests that the song comes from some other West Indian island. See, for example, references to "coolies" in "Fan Mi Solja Man" and "Nobody's Business" from Jamaica. Beckwith and Roberts have this in the Jamaican stone-passing game song, "Dicky Saloman": "Kill de Coolie man dead" [Martha Warren Beckwith and Helen Roberts, Folk-Games of Jamaica (Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1922 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #19.e , pp. 23-24]. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS052

Coolie's Run-I-O

See Canaday-I-O/Michigan-I-O/Colley's Run I-O [Laws C17] (File: LC17)

Coon Can

See The Coon-Can Game [Laws I4] (File: LI04)

Coon from Tennessee (Till I Die)

DESCRIPTION: "There's a coon from/in/down Tennessee, Just as cute as he can be; He never goes to church...." Told to reform, he replies, "I'm gonna live anyhow till I die." No matter what they do to him or say about him, he will enjoy life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: Black(s) party
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 150, "Till I Die" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #12397
NOTES [12 words]: The current description is based on the Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama text. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Arno150

Coon Song (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "As I walked out last Saturday night... I saw an old coon wag his tail. "Said I, Old coon, how're you today? Said he, Hurray for Henry Clay." "But since I heard of Henry Clay, the Tyler grippe has passed away. "I'll cast my vote for Henry Clay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee), but surely dating to the election of 1844
KEYWORDS: political animal nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1777 - Birth of Henry Clay in Hannover County, Virginia -- a region known as "The Slashes," hence the song title "The Mill-Boy [=miller-boy] of the Slashes"
1824 - Clay's first campaign for President (in the first election where popular votes are recorded, Andrew Jackson is the clear winner in the voting, but no one wins in the Electoral College. John Quincy Adams is elected president by the House of Representatives, due mostly to backing from Clay)
1832 - Clay's second campaign for President. He is defeated by Andrew Jackson
1840 - election of the Whig William Henry Harrison, who dies shortly after his inauguration and is succeeded by Vice President John Tyler
1844 - Clay's third campaign for President, producing both ""The Mill-Boy of the Slashes," with its erroneous reference to Van Buren (who failed to earn the Democratic nomination) and "Old Hal o' the West." Clay is defeated by James K. Polk.
1852 - Death of Henry Clay
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 49, pp. 85-86, "The Coon Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11021
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Clay Songs" (subject) and notes there
NOTES [683 words]: Wolfe, in editing Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee, was unable to locate a songster version of this, but it seems highly likely that it dates from the election of 1844. This is based on the reference to the "Tyler grippe." The Whigs in 1840 had decided not to nominate Henry Clay as their presidential candidate; although he had run as early as 1824 (DeGregorio, p. 97), he was, by 1840, a two-time loser. They instead chose William Henry Harrison, who had won fame (not entirely deserved) during the War of 1812 -- a result which infuriated Clay so much that he went on a drinking-and-cursing spree (Schlesinger, p. 290). In a typical ticket-balancing move, the Whigs chose John Tyler as Harrison's running mate.
Harrison ran against incumbent Martin Van Buren, Andrew Jackson's hand-picked successor who had easily won in 1836 (DeGregorio, pp. 128-129).
Harrison was "born a Virginia aristocrat, [but he] watched without protest his transmutation into a plain man of the people, while his spacious house in Ohio was reshaped into a humble log cabin" (Schlesinger, p. 292).
There followed the "log cabin and hard cider" or "Tippicanoe and Tyler Too" campaign of 1840 -- for many years regarded as the most irrelevant and most vapid of all time. (Jameson, p. 294, declares it was "without precedent or successor. This was, of course, before Willie Horton and the campaigns of the late twentieth century.) The country was still suffering the after-effects of the Panic of 1837 (DeGregorio, p. 143), and incumbent Martin van Buren was widely disliked (although the Panic, insofar as it could be blamed on anyone, was the fault of Andrew Jackson). Harrison won easily, taking 53% of the popular vote and 234 electoral votes to Martin van Buren's 60 (DeGregorio, p. 144).
But Harrison was an old man (born 1773, making him the oldest man elected president to that time; DeGregorio, p. 145). And he was a windbag. He gave a long inaugural address in a cold rain, came down with pneumonia, and died on April 4, 1841.
This left an interesting problem. Although the constitution provides for the Vice President to succeed if the President dies, it hadn't happened before. There were some attempts to shunt Tyler aside -- or at least have him declared "acting President" rather than the real thing (DeGregorio, p. 156). He finally became President -- but Vice Presidents had never been expected to succeed, and many of them were troublesome characters (Aaron Burr, anyone?). Tyler wasn't that bad -- but he had been a Democrat (Jameson, p. 667), and as President, he supported many Democratic causes. The furious Whigs regarded him as a traitor and never even considered re-nominating him. After leaving offive, he was "Quite literally a man without a party" (DeGregorio, p. 158). When he died in 1862, it was as a member of the Confederate House of Representatives (DeGregorio, p. 158).
So both sides had to pick a candidate for the election of 1844. There was significant support among Democrats for ex-president Van Buren, who also had an excellent "machine" -- but also many enemies. And an ambitious ex-governor of Tennessee was campaigning hard to be Vice President (Siegenthaler, p. 74). This was James K. Polk. On the first presidential convention ballot, Van Buren led, followed by Lewis Cass; Polk did not earn a single vote (Siegenthaler, p. 83). Indeed, he didn't earn a vote until the eighth ballot (Siegenthaler, p. 84). But he had prepared his groundwork carefully, and when the delegates saw that Van Buren and Cass were in a deadlock, the turned en masse to Polk on the ninth ballot. He became the first "dark horse" nominee in Presidential history (DeGregorio , p. 167; Schlesinger , pp. 436-437; Siegenthaler, p. 84)
The Whigs again nominated Clay (their pattern, one might sarcastically say, was to alternate between Clay and successful generals, and with Harrison dead and the Mexican War not yet fought, they didn't have any generals available). Despite this song, Polk won -- and started the Mexican War that produced the last successful Which candidate, Zachary Taylor. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.6
File: BoWo049

Coon-Can Game, The [Laws I4]

DESCRIPTION: The singer is so disturbed by his woman's unfaithfulness that he cannot even play cards. He takes a train, sees the woman, and shoots her. He is arrested, convicted, and left to lament his fate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: homicide train trial prison crime robbery prisoner
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws I4, "The Coon-Can Game"
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 87-89, "The Coon-Can Game" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, pp. 48-49, "The Game of Coon-Can" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 308-310, "As I Set Down to Play Tin-Can" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 310-311, "Coon Can (Poor Boy)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 61-66, "Poor Boy" (3 texts, 1 tune, but the "C" text is a different "Poor Boy" song)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 116-118, "The Penitentiary Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 179-181, "Po' Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 75-77, "The Coon-Can Game" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 237-238, "Poor Boy in Jail" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 70, "Poor Boy" (1 text, which appears to be mostly this song but with an ending partly derived from "The Maid Freed from the Gallows")
DT 688, POORBOY
Roud #3263
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "Poor Boy in Jail" (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boston Burglar" [Laws L16] (floating lyrics)
NOTES [91 words]: This song should not be confused with the blues "Poor Boy, or Poor Boy Long Ways from Home"; the two songs are unrelated. Also, although [the version in the Folksinger's Wordbook] has picked up a pair of verses from "The Maid Freed from the Gallows", it's otherwise a completely separate song, and one unique in my experience. - PJS
The Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks also has verses from "The Maid Freed...," so this is evidently a common mixture. The tune, according to Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, has been repeatedly borrowed. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: LI04

Coonjine (Coonshine)

DESCRIPTION: "Coonjine (or "coonshine"), ladies, coonjine, Coonjine on the floor. O, my papa don't 'low me to coonshine, And my me don't 'low me to try. Git up in the morning 'fore day, Coonjine on teh sly."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: mother father
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 738, "Coonshine" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #17469
NOTES [36 words]: The current description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment. The "coonjine" is a dance, whereas "coonshine" is nothing that I know of, so I have adopted the "coonjine" title. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5738

Cooper and Donnelly

See Donnelly and Cooper (File: K317)

Cooper Milton

DESCRIPTION: "It was on one Thursday morning, a while before noon, When John came in from work and said, 'You've met your doom.'" John kills his wife Flossie and her lover Cooper Milton. John is sentenced to 99 years in Nashville
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide infidelity husband wife children
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 44, "(Cooper Milton)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesse James (I)" [Laws E1] (lyrics)
NOTES [42 words]: This seems almost an anthology of killing songs, e.g. it refers to "Jesse James" in the line "Flossie leaves eight children to mourn for her life." But Burt-AmericanMurderBallads seems to think it's historical, though she cites no background facts. - RBW
File: Burt044

Cooper o' Dundee, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye coopers and hoopers attend to my ditty, I sing o' a coope wha dwelt in Dundee." "This young man was baith am'rous and witty"; all the women ask him to repair their barrells. His business is large. He "sprung" a woman's "end-hoopin" and is banished
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: humorous wordplay sex exile punishment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 29, "The Cooper o' Dundee" (1 text, tune referenced)
File: Gath029

Cooper of Fife, The

See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Coortin' in the Kitchen

See Courting in the Kitchen [Laws Q16] (File: LQ16)

Coortin' in the Stable

See Courtin' in the Stable (The Workin' Steer) (File: Ord227)

Coortin' to Begin, The

DESCRIPTION: One night, the singer met a girl "I wished she were my bride." She goes to bed with him in an inn. He describes her beauty. The next day he leaves "some way to win his bread." Lasses, court "some sturdy boy ... that'll learn you The courtin to begin"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: sex beauty separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 817, "The Coortin' to Begin" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #6212
NOTES [58 words]: The outcome (marriage?) is not clear (or am I just being obtuse). Bell Robertson, Greig's source, says that when she was a girl the Ross girls "could sing it all," though others knew only the verse to avoid old men in spite of love or money, and choose some beardless boy "that'll learn you The courtin to begin." Perhaps the outcome is irrelevant. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Gr4817

Cootamundra

See Taumarunui (File: Garl041)

Copper and Silver

DESCRIPTION: A mother advises her son: "save just a copper each week." "Your copper my grow unto silver Your silver will grow unto gold"; "Don't never be bashful in taking a wife"; "Keep your head above water" for "when you have money your friends will come 'round"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: money nonballad gold friend mother wife youth
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #23891
RECORDINGS:
Frank Knox, "Copper and Silver" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3CoASi

Copper River Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Once in old Seattle I went upon a stroll, I spied an advertisement upon an urban pole." The singer joins an Alaska company. It is the worst job he ever had. The labor is hard, the setting primitive, and the mosquitos dreadful
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Roseland, Alaska Sourdough Ballads and Folk Songs, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes travel bug
FOUND IN: US(NW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 677, "The Copper River Song" (1 text)
File: CAFS2677

Copper Strike of '17, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the twelfth of June we called a strike, Which filled the miners with delight." Several mines join in. The owners bring in 600 gunmen. But the workers will fight, declaring, "The rustling card [a sort of right to work] has gone to stay"
AUTHOR: Words: Joe Kennedy (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1918 (New Songs for the Butte Mining Camp, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes labor-movement strike
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 167, "The Copper Strike of '17" (1 text)
File: LDC167

Copshawholm Fair

DESCRIPTION: In April people come from mountain and glen to Copshawholm Fair. There are pedlars, jugglers, and exotic foods. Hiring negotiations are described. When hiring is over there's fiddling and dancing, drinking and fighting.
AUTHOR: David Anderson
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 5" - 25.8.02)
KEYWORDS: fight work dancing drink food music nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 97-99, "Coupshawholme Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 34-36, 149, "Copshawholm Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9139
RECORDINGS:
Bob Forrester, "Copshawholm Fair" (on Voice05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hiring Fairs of Ulster" (subject)
cf. "The Feeing Time (I)" (subject) and references there
cf. "The Wild Hills o' Wannie" (tune, according to Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 5" - 25.8.02)
NOTES [12 words]: Hall, notes to Voice05: "'Copshawholm Fair' ... was last held in 1912." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: RcCpswFr

Copy Boy, The

See The Croppy Boy (I) [Laws J14] (File: LJ14)

Copy of Verses Composed by Captain Henry Every

See Captain Every (File: BdCapEve)

Copy of Verses on Jefferys the Seaman, A

DESCRIPTION: "You captains and commanders both by land and sea, Oh do not be hard-hearted...." "Jefferys the seaman... Was left upon a dismal rock by his captain." He is stranded and miserable for eight days before being rescued. Now he is back in England
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Firth)
KEYWORDS: sailor abandonment rescue
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 84, "A Copy of Verses on Jefferys the Seaman" (1 text)
Roud #V8561
File: PaSe084

Corbitt's Barkentine

DESCRIPTION: On Aug. 30, 1883, the Corbitt begins her voyage. One of the crew moans about being assigned to such a vessel. The captain makes sure she sails with all possible speed. Passing many ships, she reaches the Indies, Boston, and Nova Scotia
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937
KEYWORDS: ship travel
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 1875-1890 - Career of the fast triangle-trader "George E. Corbitt"
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 189-191, "Corbitt's Barkentine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4086
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dD43 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Doe189

Cordial Advice to All Rash Young Men

DESCRIPTION: "You merchant men of Billingsgate, I wonder how you can thrive, You bargain with men for six months, and pay them but for five." Having suffered in many voyages, the singer declares, "I'll no more to Greenland sail, no, no, no."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1708 (Bodleian broadside Douce Ballads 1(37b))
KEYWORDS: ship travel hardtimes commerce
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 34, "Cordial Advice" (1 text)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads VIII, pp. 13-16, "Cordial Advice" (1 text)
Roud #V2112
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(37b), "Cordial advice: to all rash young men, who think to advance their decaying fortunes by navigation, " C. Brown and T. Norris, London, 1695-1707
NOTES [34 words]: The notes in Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads, by Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge, suggest that this refers to paying sailors by lunar months. Bridge suggests that this is a slight rewrite of a genuine sea song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: PaSe034

Cordwood Cutter, The

See The Backwoodsman (The Green Mountain Boys) [Laws C19] (File: LC19)

Corichie or The Hill of Fate

See The Battle of Corrichie (File: Grg140a)

Corinna, Corinna

DESCRIPTION: "Corinna, Corinna, where you been so long? (x2) Ain't had no lovin' since you've been gone." "Corinna, Corinna, where'd you stay last night? Your shoes ain't buttoned...." "I love Corinna, tell the world I do, And I hope someday babe, you'll love me too."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Blind Lemon Jefferson)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity loneliness
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 312, "Corinna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 76, "Corinna, Corinna" (1 text)
Roud #10030
RECORDINGS:
Alabama Washboard Stompers, "Corrine, Corrina" (Vocalion 1630, 1931)
Arthur (Brother-in-Law) Armstrong, "Corinna" (AAFS 3987 B1)
Ashley and Abernathy, "Corrina, Corrina" (Banner 32427/Oriole 8129/Romeo 5129/Perfect 12800, 1931; on GoingDown)
Blue Ridge Mountain Entertainers [Clarence Ashley, Gwen Foster, Clrence Greene, Walt Davis], "Corrina, Corrina" (rec. 1931; on Ashley04)
Tom Bell, "Corinna" (AAFS 4068 B2)
Milton Brown & his Musical Brownies, "Where You Been So Long, Corrine?" (Bluebird B-5808/Montgomery Ward M-4755, 1935; rec. 1934)
Cliff Bruner's Texas Wanderers, "Corrine Corrina" (Decca 5350, 1937)
Matt Caldwell, "Corinna" (AAFS 1421 B2)
Cab Calloway, "Corrine, Corrina" (Perfect 15551, 1932)
Bo Carter [pseud. for Bo Chatmon] [& Charlie McCoy], "Corinne, Corrina" (Brunswick 7080, 1929; Vocalion 02701, 1934)
Clint Howard et al, "Corrina, Corrina" (on Ashley03)
Mississippi John Hurt, "Corrina, Corrina" (on MJHurt04)
Frankie "Half Pint" Jaxon, "Corinne Blues" (Vocalion 1424, 1929)
Blind Lemon Jefferson, "Corrina Blues" (Paramount 12367, 1926; on Jefferson01, JeffersonCD01) [as is typical of blues, this is not "pure" Corinna, but the last verse clearly comes from this song]
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Corinna" (AAFS 1797 A2)
Jonesie & James Mack & Nick Robinson, "Corinna" (AAFS 1047 A3)
Wingy Manone & his orchestra, "Corinne Corrina (Where You Been So Long)" (Bluebird B-10289, 1939/Mongomery Ward M-8355, 1940)
Bob Nichols & Hugh Cross, "Corinne, Corrina" (Columbia 15480-D, 1929)
Leo Soileau and his Aces "Corrine, Corrina" (Decca 5101, 1935)
Lottie Stankey & Frank Starnes, "Corinna" (AAFS 3317 A1)
Tampa Red, "Corrine Blues" (RCA Victor 20-2432, 1947 -- presumably a reissue)
Taylor & Anderson, "Corrine, Corrine" (Supertone 9646, 1930)
Sonny Terry [pseud., Saunders Terrell], "Women's Blues (Corrina)" (on Terry01)
Saul Tippins, "Corinna" (AAFS 705 B)
Joe Turner, "Corrine Corrina" (Atlantic 1088, 1956)
Turner Brothers, "Connene, Corrina" [sic?] (Radio Artists 203, n.d.)
Mr. & Mrs. Crockett Ward, Fields & Frances Ward, "Corinna" (AAFS 4083 A3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alberta Blues" (derived song)
NOTES [65 words]: Lomax reports that this "also occurs as Alberta or Roberta." If so, they are not the songs usually found under these names [i.e. "Alberta, Let Your Hair Hang Low"]. - PJS, RBW
It should be noted that many do think them related, and Roud appears to lump them. But the form is simply too different in my book. The "Alberta Blues," however, is derived from this piece; see the notes there. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: LoF312

Cork Leg, The

DESCRIPTION: "A tale I will tell, without any flam -- In Holland dwelt Mynheer von Clam." Clam, wealthy and self-indulgent, kicks a begger and breaks his leg. A surgeon amputates. Clam has a replacement made -- which has a mind of its own and will not stop running
AUTHOR: Henry Glassford Bell
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3925))
KEYWORDS: humorous wordplay injury doctor technology
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 332-334, "The Cork Leg" (1 text)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 47-48, "The Cork Leg" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 144-145, "The Cork Leg" (1 text, 1 tune)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 59, "The Cork Leg" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CORKLEG*
Roud #4376
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3925), "The Cork Leg" ("A tale I tell now without any flam"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838 ; also Harding B 25(419), Firth c.26(295) [final lines illegible], Harding B 11(4289), Harding B 11(2604), Harding B 11(2605), "The Cork Leg"
Murray, Mu23-y4:039, "The Cork Leg," unknown, 19C
SAME TUNE:
Oil on the Brain ("A fellow came from the city of York," by B. C. L.) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 114)
The Greenback Yankee Medley ("From my home in the hub of the old Bay State, My trip to New York pray just hear me relate") (Foner, p. 136)
The Row at the Waikato ("A panic's been raging up in town, News from the Waikato has just come down, That Te Kooti, a warrior of renown, Is going to do the settlers brown") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 146; for Te Kooti, see "Te Kooti")
NOTES [26 words]: I'm not sure of the source of the attribution to Henry Glassford Bell. New-Comic-Songster credits it to "J. Blewitt," but this might be the arrangement. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: FVS332

Cork Men and New York Men, The

DESCRIPTION: "Of the gallant Cork men Mixed with New York men. I'm sure their equal can never be found." They "boldly enter" (Ireland?) with arms, and John Bull pursues them, but are not caught. Their deeds are to be celebrated
AUTHOR: T. D. Sullivan (1827-1914)
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Galvin)
KEYWORDS: Ireland ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 89-90, "The Cork Men and New York Men"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The British Man-of-War" (subject of certain texts)
NOTES [234 words]: It would appear (though the evidence is murky) that this refers to one of the less-disastrous exploits of the Fenians (who are most noted for their failed attempts to free Ireland by absurd methods such as invading Canada).
In 1867, at the time of the Fenian Rising in Ireland (for the context of which see, among other things, "James Stephens, the Gallant Fenian Boy" and "The Smashing of the Van (I)"), a call went out for ships to run guns from the United States to the rebels.
Eventually the ship the Jacknell Packet, a brig of 200 tons, was acquired for the purpose (see Robert Kee, The Bold Fenian Men, being Volume II of The Green Flag, p. 43). The Fenians managed to come up with about 5000 firearms, three cannon, and 38 officers with commissions from the "Irish Republic."
On April 21, 1867, the ship's name was changed to Erin's Hope. She eventually reached Sligo Bay -- where the Fenian officer Richard O'Sullivan Burke (for whom see "Burke's Dream" [Laws J16]) told them there was no one to accept the weapons.
The ship then blundered around Ireland looking for someone who wanted the guns. It never found such a place. A few of the men eventually went ashore, where many of them were arrested. The ship itself made it home -- but it accomplished nothing at all.
Sullivan is the author of a number of Irish patriotic poems, of which "God Save Ireland" is probably the best-known. - RBW
File: PGa089

Cork National Hunt, The

See Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!) (File: DTReynrd)

Cork's Good Humoured Faces

DESCRIPTION: "For good-humoured faces, Cork once beat all places" but politics has soured them. With Olden's shaving soap "lathering chops, ill-blood stops" Peter of Russia smoothed his subjects' manners by having them shave. Even the devil was improved by a shave.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: commerce humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 165-167, "Cork's Good Humoured Faces" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ballinafad" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
NOTES [114 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "A specimen of the ingenious manner in which a witty manufacturer in Cork of an excellent shaving soap, and other articles, that really require no puffing, contrives to attract attention to his inventions." - BS
There were three Tsars Peter of Russia: Peter I "the Great" (16772-1725; co-tsar from 1682; sole tsar from 1696); his grandson Peter II (1715-1730; tsar from 1727); and another grandson or Peter I, Peter III (1728-1762; tsar briefly in 1762 before being eposed and murdered by his wife Catherine II "the Great"). Given the poor records of Peter II and Peter III, we must assume Peter I is meant -- the more so since he was a westernizer. - RBW
File: CrPS165

Cork's Own Town (I)

DESCRIPTION: "They may rail at the city where first I was born, But it's there they've the whisky, and butter and pork.." Cork's localities and specialies are described: Fishamble's food, Blackpool's leather, groves of Blarney's groves, Glanmire's shops ....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1825 (_Cork Southern Reporter_, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: commerce drink food nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 158-164, "Cork's Own Town" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "They May Rail at This Life" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
cf. "Cork's Own Town (II)" (subject and some line fragments)
NOTES [211 words]: There's no question that "Cork's Own Town (I)" and "Cork's Own Town (II)" are related. They share a few slightly different lines. For example:
"Cork's Own Town (I)," "Och! Fishamble's the Eden for you, love, and me!" is the last line of the first verse and "Cork is the Eden...." for the other verses; "Cork's Own Town (II)," "Aarrh! Cork is the Eden for you love, and me!" is the last line of each verse.
"Cork's Own Town (I)," "If you want to behold the sublime and the beauteous, Put your toes in your brogues and see sweet Blarney Lane"; "Cork's Own Town (II)," "If you want to behold the sublime and the foolish Fix your toes in your brogues an[sic] walk down the Parade"
Nevertheless, while both catalog the Cork neighborhoods and attributes, they say different things about different neighborhhods. While neither is very serious "Cork's Own Town (II)" verges on parody.
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "The Editor has no doubt that the authorship may be correctly assigned to the writer of 'O! Blarney Castle, my Darling', and the subsequent song entitled 'Darling Neddeen.'" But, at "O! Blarney Castle, my Darling" he "has no doubt" that its author also wrote "Saint Patrick's Arrival." See that song if you are interested in Croker's speculations there." - BS
File: CrPS158

Cork's Own Town (II)

DESCRIPTION: Cork excels London, Paris, Milan, and Constantinople. Cork's localities and specialies are described: Victoria Park's trees, Fishamble-lane's food, Paradise for "the saint and the sinner," .... We have "the Polis to keep us from drinkin' and fightin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.8(8))
KEYWORDS: commerce drink food derivative nonballad
FOUND IN:
Roud #V26513
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.8(8), "A new and favourite song on 'Cork's own town'" ("They may talk about London, Paris and Milau[sic] ..."), Haly (Cork), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cork's Own Town (I)" (subject and some line fragments)
NOTES [61 words]: Broadside Bodleian 2806 c.8(8) is the basis for the description.
One line should be useful in dating the text: "May the names of our Council and Mayor shine resplendent, In the Portable Gas of the new company." "Portable Gas" companies condensed oil gas into liquid; for example, London Portable Gas Company was chartered in 1827 (source: Privy Council Office site) - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BdCoOwT2

Corn

See The Corn Song (Song of Peace) (File: ACSF233C)

Corn Cobs, or Yankee Notions

See (notes under) Yankee Doodle (File: LxA521)

Corn Grinds Well, The

See Tickle My Toe (File: RL545)

Corn Pone

DESCRIPTION: "Corn pone, fat meat, All I ever gets to eat. Better, better than I ever gets at home." The prisoner describes clothes, ben, shackles -- all described as better than what he has at home. He tells his girl, "Chain gang good enough for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953
KEYWORDS: chaingang prison work poverty hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 111-112, "Corn Pone" (1 text)
File: Grnw111

Corn Rigs (II)

See There Was a Piper Had a Cow (File: OO2416)

Corn Rigs (Rigs o' Barley)

DESCRIPTION: "It fell upon a Lammas night, When corn rigs are bonie, Beneath the moon's unclouded light I held awa to Annie." The singer declares he will never forget that night, and describes how the two embraced
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: before 1784 (cf. Kinsley, Burns, Complete Poems & Songs)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, CORNRIGS*
Roud #1024
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.1270(001), "Amang the Rigs o' Barley," unknown, c. 1845
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Barley Raking (Barley Rigs A-Raking)"
File: DTcornri

Corn Shucking Song

DESCRIPTION: "Cowboy on middle the island, ho, meleety, ho! (x2)" "Missus eat the green persimmon." "Mouth all drawed up in a pucker." "Stayed so till she went to supper."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Putnam's Monthly)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad food slave
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 325, "Corn Shucking Song" (1 text)
File: DarNS325

Corn Song, The (Song of Peace)

DESCRIPTION: "What did we do when we needed corn? we plowed and we sowed till the early morn (x2)." "What did we do when we needed a town? we hammered and we nailed...." "What will we do when there’s peace to be won? ... We’ll gather all our friends..."
AUTHOR: Lorre Wyatt? (course: various internet sites)
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: food work home nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 233, 548, "Corn" (notes only)
NOTES [99 words]: I am far from certain that this is the song Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs means when it refers to "Corn." But it's the only song with a title like "Corn" that seems to be associated with scouting, and that hints at a political program (which Averill says on p. 548 that it might have). Averill cannot be referring to "Jimmie Crack Corn" ("The Blue-Tail Fly," Laws I19); the number of references is wrong.
I found several sites that attributed this to Lorre Wyatt, but none strike me as reliable. They might simply mean that he recorded it. So I have listed the attribution with a question mark. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF233C

Corn-Shucking Song (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, de fus news ye know de day'll be a-breakin', Heydo! Ho O! Up 'n down de banjo, And de fire be a-burnin' an de ash cake a-bakin'." The hen (?) will crow, the boss will call everyone to work; the negro is advised to get to work
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: work food
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 202, "Corn-Shucking Song" (1 text)
File: Br3202

Corn-Shucking Song (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Come out here and shuck this corn, Oh! Oh! Oh!), Come out here and shuck this corn..." "Biggest Pile seen since I was born." "Massa's niggers am slick and fat, Shine just like a beaver had." "Jones's... am lean and poor...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes food
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (III), pp. 111-119, "Corn-Shuckin' Song" (1 text with variants, 1 tune with variants)
Roud #16464
File: CuBu111

Corn-Stalk Fiddle

DESCRIPTION: "Corn-stalk fiddle and (buckeye/pea-vine/shoe-string) bow, Did you ever see the Devil, Uncle Joe." Or "...I'll stick by her wherever I go." Or "...I'll come back and be your beau."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2)
KEYWORDS: music devil floatingverses courting
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 84, "Up Popped Joe" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 61, "(Corn-stalk fiddle and a buckeye bow)" (1 short text); also pp. 83-84, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune that are clearly "Little Brown Jug," with supplementary dance verses that appear to derive from "Cotton-Eyed Joe" or "Corn-Stalk Fiddle" or some other very unstable text)
Roud #12439
File: Aber061

Cornbread When I'm Hungry

See (references under) Moonshiner (File: San142)

Corncraik Amang the Whinny Knowes, The

See The Echo Mocks the Corncrake (File: HHH018b)

Cornfield Holler

DESCRIPTION: "Sometimes I think my woman, she too sweet to die. Den sometimes I think she ought to be buried alive."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 191, "Cornfield Holler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15579
File: LxA191

Cornish Christmas Carol, A

DESCRIPTION: "Come, let us go in a childish way WIth our voices praising Christ today. To him just born, in the manger lay, We will raise our thanks to him for aye. Priase and honor be to Thee, Thou God's child from heavn' above, Halleluia (x3) we sing of love."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus Christmas
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 66, "A Cornish Christmas Carol" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #15665
NOTES [123 words]: The version in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, which seems to be the only collection from tradition, gives no indication of why this is called a Cornish carol -- except for the word "Hallelujah," which is assimilated Hebrew, every word is in English, and there are no references to Cornwall. Informant John Persons apparently came from Cornwall, but there is nothing explicitly Cornish about his song. Since the song was collected in Wisconsin, I'm tempted to say that, in this case, "Cornish" should be understood at "place where they grow a lot of corn."
The reference to going "in a childish way" is probably an allusion to Matthew 18:3 and parallels, where listeners are told that they must become like little children to be saved. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet066

Cornish Girls

DESCRIPTION: "Come take a walk through Cornwall and there you will find The sweetest and the neatest girls, the best of womankind." They are pretty, decent, modest, slender-waisted. The singer wishes the Cornish girls success; none in England can match them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall)
KEYWORDS: beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 49, "Cornish Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3319
File: Gund049A

Cornish May Carol

See Padstow May Day Song (File: K086)

Cornish Midsummer Bonfire Song

DESCRIPTION: "The bonny month of June is crowned With the sweet scarlet rose." The singer sees "fair maids" playing on the green. He asks them to "freely yield your charms." "All on the pleasant dewy mead They shared each other's charms" by the light of the moon.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #13, pp. 189-190, "Cornish Midsummer Bonfire Song" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 389-390, "Cornish Midsummer Bonfire Song" (1 text)
ST BeCo389 (Partial)
Roud #13472
File: BeCo389

Corntime Pain

DESCRIPTION: Everyone knows, Corntime Pain is made to play scare crow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville)
KEYWORDS: punishment farming nonballad Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 59, "Corntime Pain" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [92 words]: Elder-Charlottville: "A Tobago banter song about Corntime Pain who was made to play the role of bwa-bwa (bois-bois) i.e. scarecrow. The song is very Tobagonian and has not been heard anywhere in Trinidad. There seem to be hidden meanings in the reference to cheering for the wagon." Elder's reference to the wagon is to the chorus, "Cheers for da wagon" (3x) "Say Corntime Pain are bwa bwa"; the chorus may just be another U.S. import: a modification of the chorus to "Wait for the Wagon." The tune of the chorus is not too different from that song. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElCh059

Cornwall Cripple, The

See The Cripple of Cornwall (File: JACB280)

Corporal Casey

DESCRIPTION: The singer was happy but uneasy at home until enlisted by Corporal Casey. He treated the singer roughly but was soon killed in battle. "Thinks I, you are quiet, and I shall be aisy, So eight years I fought without Corporal Casey."
AUTHOR: George Colman?
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(422))
KEYWORDS: army battle recruiting death humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 21, "Corporal Casey" (1 text)
DT, (IRISHWSH*)
Roud #44866
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(422), "Corporal Casey", Wm. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(3683), Harding B 15(62b), Harding B 15(63a), "Corporal Casey"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Washerwoman" (tune)
cf. "The Railroad Corral" (tune and references for the "Irish Washerwoman" tune)
SAME TUNE:
10th Regiment Song (Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 66-67)
File: OCon021

Corporal Schnapps

See Poor Schnapps (File: R218)

Corporal, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the General with his epaulets, A-leadin' the parade, The Colonel and the Adjutant... None of 'em look so fine As the newly-minted Corporal, A-comin' down the line." No dignitaries can compare with the corporal taking "The first rung on the ladder."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 35-36, "Louse Song" (1 short text, tune referenced)
Roud #27873
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier" (tune & meter) and references there
File: NiM036

Corpus Christi Carol, The

DESCRIPTION: We find ourselves looking into a bower in a high hall. In the bower lies a sorely wounded knight surrounded by odd symbols -- dogs licking the blood, a stone on which "Corpus Christi" is written, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Richard Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354, folio 165b)
KEYWORDS: injury religious carol knight MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North),Scotland) US(SW)
REFERENCES (26 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #322, pp. 221-322, "(no title)" (4 texts)j
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics XXXI, p. 148, "(no title)" (1 text)
Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols #24, "(Lully, lully, lully, lully)"; "(Down in yon forest)" (2 texts)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #12, "Down In Yon Forest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 193-195, "Lully, lulley, lully, lulley"; "All Bells in Paradise" (2 texts)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 691-692, "Over Yonder's a Park (Corpus Christi)" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 100, "The Falcon" (1 text)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 61, "Down in Yon Forest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 38, "Corpus Christi" (1 text)
Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics 99, "(Lully, Lullay, Lully, Lullay)" (1 text)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 41, "The Falcon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, p. 125, "The Corpus Christi Carol" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 42-43, "All Bells in Paradise (Corpus Chisti)" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 382, "Down In Yon Forest" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1132
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1820
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #86, p. 103, "Lully, lulley, lully, lulley, The fawcon hath born my mak away" (1 text)
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #67, pp. 128-130, "(Lully, lulley, lully, lulley)," "(Over yonder's a park, which is newly begun)," "Down in yon forest there stands a hall)," "(The heron flew east, the heron flew west)" (4 texts)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #247, p. 524, "Corpus Christi Carol" (1 text)
Douglas Gray, _The Oxford Book of Late Medieval Verse and Prose_, Oxford University Press, 1985, pp. 173-174, "The Corpus Christi Carol" (1 text)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, pp. 227-228, "(Corpus Christi Carol)" (1 text)
Karen Saupe, editor, _Middle English Marian Lyrics_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1998, #82, pp. 155-156, "(Lulley, lulley, lully, lulley)" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #480, "Lully, Lulley" (1 text)
Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, pp. 122-123, "Down In Yon Forest" (2 texts, although the formatting implies that it is only one)
David R. Parker, _The Commonplace Book in Tudor London: An Examination of BL MSS Egerton 1995, Harley 2252, Lansdowne 762, and Oxford Balliol College MS354_, , University Press of America, 1998, p. 63, "(The Corpus Christi Carol)" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 165
ST L691 (Full)
Roud #1523
NOTES [2461 words]: According to Greene, p. 230, "This carol has been subject to more discussion than any other in the whole canon." Stevens, p. 114, notes an odd similarity to the medieval romance of Yonec by Chretien de Troyes, observing "[The] heart... of Yonec [is that] which seems to survive in a well-loved folk-carol, the Corpus Christi carol. Among the shared images and motifs are the falcon, who 'bears away' someone else's 'make' (mate, sweetheart); the flight suggested by verse 1; the richly hung hall; the knight lying on his death-bed with bleeding wounds, the maiden weeping at his side....
"The words 'Corpus Christi' have given commentators rich matter for speculation. If the carol has anything directly to do with Yonec, they could be a garbled remembrance of the 'sacramental test' which the bird-lover has to take." Stevens does not argue for actual dependence; he simply offers the comparison to show the richness of the folkloric roots of this song.
I met the tale of Yonec in a different place, in one of Marie de France's Breton Lays, titled, appropriately enough, "Yonec." I too was struck by the motif of the falcon visiting its mate. Donovan, pp. 29-30, gives this summary:
"The elderly governor of Caerwent marries before it is too late to have an heir. His young wife he incloses in a tower, where she sees no one and for seven years watches her beauty fade. One day as she desires a fairy lover, a falcon flies in through the window and is transformed into a knight, who professes love. At once her color returns. When the old man grows suspicious, and his watchful sister confirms his suspicions, he sets some spikes around the window to impale the falcon. The trick works and the knight is wounded. Though in pain, he sees the lady again and tells her that a child will come from their love, who will avenge his death. Returning to his castle, he dies. Years later, Yonec, the promised avenger, now grown to manhood, stops over at an abbey with his mother and the old lord. There they happen on the grave of the slain knight. When the mother learns whose grave it is, she tells Yonec about his father. Yonec then avenges his father's death by killing the old lord."
Obviously there is a lot in there that isn't in the carol, and there is no mention of Corpus Christi, but there really is a lot that does resemble Richard Hill's version.
There is no extant translation of "Yonec" into English, but that is a weak objection; Marie de France wrote at a time when the English upper classes still spoke French, and we have extant translations of two of her lays into Middle English: "Lanval" (two versions, the relatively direct translation "Sir Landevale" and the derived "Sir Launfall," which has a Percy Folio analogy "Sir Lambewell) and "Lay le Friene" (the translation having the same title). So it is perfectly possible that the author of the Corpus Christi Carol would have heard motifs from "Yonec" even if he didn't know the actual romance.
"Corpus Christi" is Latin for "(the) body of Christ."
The feast of Corpus Christi (not necessarily connected with this ballad) occurs on Thursday of the week after Whitsuntide. According to Davies, p. 197, it is "The observance on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday of a commemoration of and thanksgiving for the eucharist. It was established by Rome in the thirteenth century, following the advocacy of Juliana of Liège, and became universal in the West in the fourteenth century, the service of the day being compiled by St. Thomas Aquinas who also wrote some of the hymns associated with the feast."
Davies adds, "The name of the feast, Corpus Christi, is perhaps too an unconscious reflection of the era in which it originated, for in the elevations of the eucharist and in the extra-liturgical cultus of the sacrament, it was always the bread (the body) that received much the greater emphasis, probably for the entirely practical reason that this is what could actually be held up for people to gaze upon [although I have also heard it explained on the basis of the cost of wine].... Its title in the modern Roman rite, Corpus et Sanguis, the body and blood, can probably be seen as a corrective to this."
Happe, p. 19, offers this history: "[Corpus Christi] was established at the Council of Vienne in 1311, and by 1318 it was widespread in Europe and Great Britain.... It occurred on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, and quickly attracted the attention of craft guilds, as well as stimulating the establishment of guilds of Corpus Christi. It is notable that the Feast had no specific reference to the calendar of the church, unlike other Feasts which which by tradition had their own liturgical offices with quotations from scripture, appropriate music, and dramatic episodes."
Happe adds, "The fact that the Feast occurred in June meant that the day was long and it no doubt gave opportunity for elaboration of the public ceremonies, and there seems to have been something very deliberate about the establishment of the Feast which may have led to the concentration of dramatic episodes on that day."
Benet, p. 244, offers a slightly different dating, referring to the creation rather than the church-wide adoption of the holiday: "It was instituted by Urban IV in 1264, and was the regular time for the performance of religious dramas by the trade guilds. In England many of the Corpus Christi plays of York, Coventry, and Chester are still extant."
This raises at least the possibility that the song derives from one of these pageants -- although it is hard to guess which one. It's not in any of the extant cycles, and I don't recall hearing of London cycles, even though Richard Hill, who preserved the oldest version, lived in London.
Most of the symbols in this song seem to come from pagan (or, at best, late Christian) myths, but in John 19:34 we read that, when Jesus's side was pierced, "immediately [there came out] water and blood." (Compare also 1 John 5:6-8.) I don't think there is any doubt but that the water and blood in the song derives from that.
Many other speculations about this song have been proposed. One source (cited anonymously on p. 425 of Trapp), apparently following Greene (p. 230), argues that it has to do with Henry VIII abandoning Catherine of Aragon for Anne Boleyn (Saupe, p. 267, quotes this interpretation although she does not stress it; Hirsch, p. 82, mentions it but considers it "unconvincing"). Parker, pp. 63-64, accepts and extends this idea, saying that the song is Catherine's lament and Anne Boleyn (who used a white falcon badge) the falcon, although he thinks the woman's "mak" is the eucharist (as opposed to it being Henry himself in Greene's interpretation) and the hall is the Church. Parker, p. 64, observes that Hill was a good Catholic, who in 1535 had condemned Henry's assumption of supreme power over the English church; Parker suggests that the song is a code for Hill's disapproval of the King. (But what good is secrecy here when Hill had already written his condemnation of Henry's act?)
That suggestion might explain the chorus, but the verses? It seems more than somewhat farfetched, given that the last dated entries in the Hill Manuscript are from 1536 and the songs thought to be much older. Henry VIII, after all, didn't get involved with Anne until the 1530s (Anne's daughter the future Elizabeth I was born in 1533, and Catherine of Aragon died 1536).
Another theory connects the song with the grail legend; this is particularly associated with the work of Annie Gilchrist (summrized by Fowler-Ballad, p. 59). This makes somewhat more sense; the wounded knight is then the Fisher King, whose wounds would not heal until a hunter for the grail came. That, perhaps, ties into Celtic legend. In this hypothesis, the hall is the Grail Castle, and the weeping woman is not Mary (as in some of the later texts) or one of the women at the foot of the cross but the servant of the grail, and the stone by the bed is to hold the Eucharist.
This would also explain the "purple and pall" reference in the song. Purple is of course the royal color; pall is a cover for objects in a church -- but specifically used of the velvet or damask which covers the coffin of a dead man (Davies, p. 423). Gilchrist's idea that the hound licking the blood is Joseph of Arimathea strikes me as less convincing.
Yet another theory connects it with the "body and blood" of Christ in the Eucharist; Stevens, p. 115, cites the liturgical words "Corpus domini aportot" -- "he brought our Lord's body."
Fowler-Ballad, pp. 60-61, thinks that instead the song is based on the common medieval image of Christ as a knight, and suggests the fine hall, the fine bed, and the hound come from the paraphernalia of knighthood; the "water and blood" is a reference to the crucifixion, and the "lullay" chorus with the birth of Jesus. In this, the maid by the bed is indeed the Virgin Mary (but Fowler claims the evidence of the later versions as support for this, even though it is not explicit in the earliest). He suggests on p. 62, "the Pietà in 'Corpus Christi' is envisioned propheticlly by the Virgin, and the [lullay] refrain reminds us that all this takes place while she is rocking the child." He also suggests a link with "The Three Ravens [Child #26]" that I frankly don't comprehend.
The weakness of Fowler's hypothesis is that the ornate images of chivalric knights that he cites... come from sources like Malory, which also gave us the grail legend; most actual knights didn't live lives anything like that! So I don't think we can really separate the legends Fowler consults from those Gilchrist cites -- to me, the knight really does seem like the Fisher King, but the rest could be hauled in from anywhere. Also, the Bible does not portray Mary as a prophetess, although she meets prophets in Luke's account.
Fowler-Bible, pp. 92-94, comes up with another hypothesis, partly alluded to in the preceding quotation: That it is a description of the pietà, the medieval image of the Virgin Mary embracing the body of Jesus after it is taken down from the cross (a scene not described in the Bible but not inherently unreasonable, since John 19:25 says that his mother was at the foot of the cross). But this again has the problem that the song, even the earliest versions, involves a lot of symbols that could not be part of the pietà.
What seems pretty clear is that most of those who preserved the song over the years didn't know what it was originally about. Fowler-Bible, p. 93, makes the reasonable suggestion that the more recent versions have become more strongly tied to the Nativity as the older symbols ceased to be understood by a non-medieval, mostly non-Catholic population. This seems likely.
Gilchrist (cf. Greene, p. 231) thought that the Hill MS. version, the oldest extant ("Lully, lulley, lully, lulley, The fawcon hath born my mak away. He bare hym up, he bare hym down...") originated in Glastonbury, although the Glastonbury thorn (see below) is not mentioned in that version. Greene adds a reference to "The Elfin Knight" [Child #2] and its mention of a thorn "that never bloomed blossom since [Adam/Christ/he] was born."
Unlike the Hill MS., many later versions speak of a thorn at the foot of the bed. This is presumably the Glastonbury Thorn, which has the peculiar property of blooming around Christmas; legend has it that it was descended from a sprout of Joseph of Arimathea's staff (for the folktale of its origin, which claims it is from the crown of thorns, see Briggs, p. 232. Hole, p. 52, summarizes the legend that Philip the Apostle had sent twelve missionaries under Joseph of Arimathea to Britain, and that they settled in Glastonbury; Lawton, pp. xxxix-xl, offers evidence that this legend was adopted some time between 1240 and the late fourteenth century). However, Lacy, p. 243, says that the first mention of the Glastonbury Thorn is from 1716. Thus it is likely that the omission of the thorn from the early texts is because the thorn was not then known.
Another alternative is that some of the material in this song has drifted in from other carols. Greene's #38, pp. 86-87, "Alleluya, alleluia, Deo Patrie sit gloria," is a song primarily about the coming of the Magi, but there are substantial similarities to this song. Three verses begin, "Ther ys a blossum sprong of a thorn, To save mankynd, that was forlorne"; "There sprong a well at Maris fote, That seemed this world to bote"; "From that well ther strake a streme, Owt of Egypt into Bedlam." Greene, p. 206, compares the blossom and thorn to the "Rod of Jesse" and "Root of Jesse."
This seems to be the hypothesis of Boklund-Lagopolou, pp. 230-231, regarding the Hill manuscript version: The original carol was secular but in general fit an allegorical religious pattern, so some anonymous writer added the "Corpus Christi" verse. The defect with this hypothesis is that it doesn't really explain the additional religious references in other texts.
The mention of the heron in the song is rather surprising. Biblical references to what is believed to be the heron call it an unclean bird (e.g. Leviticus 11:19). Folklore about herons seems to be limited (online sources say this is because it was often confused with cranes and pelicans), but what there is is not very positive. And in the Middle Ages in was considered a not very inspiring creature: "At a banquet [the exiled French noble] Robert [of Artois] goaded Edward [III] into rebellion [against the King of France] by presenting him publicly with a stuffed heron, a cowardly bird which, Robert sneered, 'always fled before hawks and, like the English, will not fight for its rights'" (Neillands, p. 75). On the other hand, Tresider, p. 92, mentions that it was associated with inquisitiveness, and a positive symbol in the Far East (hardly relevant to medieval England); the one thing that seems slightly relevant is that the heron was sometimes a symbol of "rising above the storms of life, as the heron surmounts rainclouds."
A facsimile of the Richard Hill manuscript is now available at the Balliol Library manuscripts resource at the Bodleian web site; go to http://tinyurl.com/tbdx-BalliolMSS and scroll down to MS. 354. This song is on folio 165.
According to Greene, p. 22, this is one of only three carols found in manuscript before 1550 to have been found in oral tradition in modern times, the three being "The Boar's Head Carol," "The Corpus Christi Carol," and the obscure song "Christ Is Born of Maiden Fair." Of these, "Christ Is Born..." is, by Greene's admission, a vulgarization, and "The Corpus Christi Carol" has also wandered far; "The Boar's Head Carol" is almost unchanged, probably because it was regularly referred back to earlier sources. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: L691

Corrido al Mineral de Bisbee

DESCRIPTION: Spanish: "Por cast un siglo aqui en Bisbee trabandose." After almost a century of operation, the mines of Bisbee close in June of 1975. The singer recalls the work done by fathers and grandfathers in Bisbee. The future of the residents is grim
AUTHOR: Victoria Garcia
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Bisbee Review, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes foreignlanguage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 540, "Corrido al Mineral de Bisbee" (1 text)
File: CAFS2540

Corrido de Joaquin Murieta

DESCRIPTION: Spanish. "Yo no soy americano pero comprendo el ingles." The singer tells of being orphaned. His brother and his wife were killed. He left home to search for wealth. Falsely accused, he fights back against oppressors. He admits to being Joaqin Murieta
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (recording, Sanchez and Linares, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage outlaw homicide family wife police travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 645-646, "Corrido de Joaquin Murrieta" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Song of Joaquin (Wakken)" (subject)
NOTES [31 words]: For background on Joaqin Murieta (the generally-accepted spelling; Cohen spells it "Murrieta" in his song title but not in the text), see the notes to "The Song of Joaqin (Wakken)." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: CAFS2645

Corrido de la Quemazon de Bisbee, El

DESCRIPTION: Spanish, but the original perhaps lost. In 1907, half the town of Bisbee catches fire. Most residents of the segregated town flee madly. The water fails, so there is no way to control the blaze. The singer sings the song over a glass of beer
AUTHOR: Francisco Chavez
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Miller, Arizona, the Grand Canyon State, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: fire mining disaster drink foreignlanguage
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1907 - the first Bisbee fire
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 536-527, ""El Corrido de la Quemazon de Bisbe" (1 translation of an excerpt of the Spanish text)
File: CAFS2536

Corrido de Nogales, El

DESCRIPTION: Spanish: "Valientes nogalenses Hicieron su deber." The people of Nogales stand up to the invading gringos and fight. The singer accuses the American Blacks of attacking them. The singer praises the heroes of Nogales
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1999 (Cohen)
KEYWORDS: battle Mexico
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 27, 1918 0 The Nogales border conflict
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 541-542 "El Corrido de Nogales!" (1 text)
File: CAFS2541

Corrina, Corrina

See Corrina, Corrina (File: LoF312)

Corrosion Has Set In

DESCRIPTION: "Corrosion has set in, Dahn below, The plates are getting thin, Dahn below, There's a leak in the fore peak, And how those bulkheads creak, I hope we'll last the week, Dahn below." About the ship's weary state and the carpenter's work to keep her afloat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy); probably in existence when HMS Cheviot was decommissioned in the early 1960s
KEYWORDS: ship sailor derivative work
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 35-36, "Dahn Below" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dahn Below" (tune)
NOTES [401 words]: Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy lists the tune of this as "Dahn Below," but I've never heard of such a thing. It is a good fit for "Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small)."
It apparently was known to the sailors of H.M.S. Cheviot on her last voyage. According to M. J. Whitley, Destroyers of World War II: An International Encyclopedia, Naval Institute Press, 1988, pp. 136-138, Cheviot was a member of the Ch/Co/Cr class of destroyers, most of them laid down in 1943. Cheviot herself was laid down April 27, 1943, launched May 2, 1944, commissioned December 11, 1945, and sent to the breakers October 22, 1961. She obviously did not serve in World War II, and based on online mentions, it appears she never engaged in combat after the war either.
The Ch class were slightly modified versions of the Z class (the main updates being a different but not necessarily better gun and the elimination of half their torpedo tubes to let them carry more electronics), themselves ultimately dating back to the "S" class. This was a not-especially-good design that had been produced en masse because Britain needed destroyers to fight the U-boats. Of course, by the time Cheviot was finished, there were no more U-boats, and the ships were clearly out of date.
The designs of that period were not especially good; according to Richard Worth, Fleets of World War II, Da Capo, 2001, p. 113, "Structural collapse precipitated 41% of the losses among Britain's smaller warships [in World War II], most of them sinking in less than 10 minutes" -- a harsh indictment of the design and construction of the destroyers Britain was cranking out. Plus mass-produced ships tended to be somewhat imperfect just because they were built so quickly. The "Ch" class wasn't finished quickly, because of parts shortages, but the actual construction was often hasty. So, although I do not know, I would not be at all surprised to learn that the Cheviot was somewhat problematic when young, and aged fast. And the British had far too many cranky old ships after the war, which made it harder to maintain them, even though many were paid off as soon as the war was over (even ships built in 1939 were being sold off before 1950). The problems this song describes are characteristic of all old ships, but surely especially true of a mass-produced outdated design that had little service role in the 1950s Royal Navy. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn019

Corsair's Bride, The

DESCRIPTION: "For thee I left a father's arms, and many a kindred smile, Gay scenes that had a thousand charms, for this lone sea-girt isle" because the singer is "a ruthless Corsair's bride." She didn't dream what she was getting into, and is left weeping
AUTHOR: Music: Leander Zerbini
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1832 (sheet music, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate marriage love home exile
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 36, "The Corsair's Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V13692
File: FrPi036A

Corsair's Farewell, The

DESCRIPTION: "Goodbye, my loe, goodbye! Our bark is in the bay, And we must gain Isle Idra, Before blush of day. Nay! Weep not though I go." The singer asks for one kiss before going. He promises, "My blood red flag ere long Shall meet thy gaze again."
AUTHOR: George Linley (1798-1865) (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1839 (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: love separation pirate
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 53, "The Corsair's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V13706
File: FrPi053

Corunna's Lone Shore (Wandering Nellie)

DESCRIPTION: "Do you weed for the woes of poor wandering Nellie? I love you for that, but I love now no more. All I had long ago lies entomb'd with my Billy, Whose grave rises green on Corunna's lone shore." She describes his battle death, wishing to see his ghost
AUTHOR: Andrew Sharpe (1780-1815) (source: Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: love death soldier battle burial ghost separation mourning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 16, 1809 - Battle of Corunna. Marshal Soult of France, who has pursued Sir John Moore's British force some 400 km. through the winter, at last attack the British force. The outnumbered English repel the French and are able to evacuate their army, but Moore and many others are slain
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 81-83, "Corunna's Lone Shore" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 320-321, "Corunna's Lone Shore" (1 text)
Roud #13114
RECORDINGS:
Denis McGrath, "Colonna's Lone Shore" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin Go Bragh" (tune, per Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
File: FVS081

Corydon and Caroline

See Pastoral Elegy (File: LPnd203)

Corydon and Phoebe

DESCRIPTION: Corydon (Colin) asks Phoebe (Phyllis) why she flees. She is afraid for her reputation. He says they're not alone; she says she will die a virgin. He replies that he'd come to ask for her hand in marriage, but will seek another. She accepts his hand
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1755 (_The New Ballads sung by Mr Lowe and Miss Stevenson at Vauxhall_, included by Kidson)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Corydon (Colin) asks Phoebe (Phyllis) why she makes haste ahead of his pursuit. She replies that she's scarcely sixteen and afraid for her reputation. He points out that they're not alone, so her reputation's safe; she replies that flattery or no, she will die a virgin. He replies that he'd come to ask for her hand in marriage, but since she has slighted him, he's giving up and will seek another. She bids him stay, accepts his hand, and promises "the girl you thought cruel will always prove kind"
KEYWORDS: age hardheartedness courting love marriage virginity dialog lover
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North,South)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 125, "Colin and Phoebe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 73-77, "Colin and Phoebe" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 510-511, "Bold Escallion and Phoebe" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, C&PHOEBE
Roud #512
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "Bold Escallion and Phoebe" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Harry Cox, "Colin and Phoebe" (on HCox01) (on FSBFTX13)
Pop Maynard, "Colin and Phoebe" (on Voice06)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(77), "Colin and Phoebe" ("Well met, dearest Phoebe, O why in such haste"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 16(56a), Firth c.18(208), Firth c.18(209), Harding B 11(1182), Firth b.26(168), 2806 c.17(74), Harding B 15(48b), Firth b.25(75), Harding B 11(1376), Harding B 11(640), Harding B 11(639), Johnson Ballads 15, "Colin and Phoebe"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pastoral Elegy" (theme)
cf. "Come Write Me Down (The Wedding Song)" (plot)
SAME TUNE:
Collinet & Phebe (Revolutionary War version) (Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, pp. 40-41)
NOTES [285 words]: She offers the "I will never marry" ploy; he counters with the "I'll marry someone else" gambit. Check and mate.
No question that this is a piece with its origin in minstrelsy and "rural romance" broadsides. But Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland cites over half-a-dozen collections from folk tradition, including the indexed version by Harry Cox, and I say that more than qualifies it as a folk song. - PJS
It should be noted that the mere presence of characters with these approximate names does not make a poem this song. Nicolas Breton, for instance, published "Phillida and Coridon" in 1591 in The Honourable Entertainment given to the Queen's Majesty in Progress at Elvetham); it's the same plot, but told in the third person: "In the merry month of May, In a morn by break of day, Forth I walked by the wood side Whenas May was in his pride. There I spied all alone Phillida and Coridon."
Similarly, John Chalkhill published a "Coridon's Song" ("Oh, the sweet contentment The countryman doth find. High trolollie Lolly loe, That quiet contemplation Possesseth all my mind: Then care away, And wend along with me") around 1600.
Again, Dyer published "Corydon to his Phyllis" ("Alas, my heart! mine eye hath wronged thee, Presumptuous eye, to gaze on Phyllis' face... Poor Corydon, the nymph, whose eye doth move thee , Doth love to draw, but is not drawn to love thee") in The Phoenix Nest (1593).
In England's Helicon (1600) we have "Phyllida's Love-Call to Her Corydon, and His Replying" (A dialog: Phyllida" Corydon, arise, my Corydon! Titan shineth clear." Corydon: "Who is it that calleth Corydon? Who is it that I hear?"); this piece has no author, but has a contemporary musical setting. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: K125

Cosher Bailey's Engine

DESCRIPTION: "Cosher Bailey had an engine, It was always wanting and mending." Tall tales of Bailey, the engine (bought second-hand, and capable of "four miles an hour"), his sister, brother, daughter, education, and death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Cambrian Minstrelsie, Volume 1)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Railroader Cosher Bailey's locomotive is described, along with his sister, brother, daughter, and escapades. At least half of the verses are double entendre, in a cleaned-up sort of way -- e.g. "Cosher Bailey had a daughter/Who did things she shouldn't oughta/She was quite beyond the pale/But over that we'll draw a veil." He dies (maybe) and is refused entrance into Hell
KEYWORDS: train humorous family funeral death sex railroading bawdy Devil
FOUND IN: Britain(Wales)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, pp. 17-18, "Cosher Bailey's engine" (1 text (edited), 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 31, "Cosher Bailey's Engine" (1 text)
DT, COSHERB*
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 53-54, "Cosher Bailey" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mochyn Du (The Black Pig)" (tune)
cf. "Was You Ever See?" (tune, structure)
cf. "Lili Lon" (tune)
NOTES [219 words]: I suspect there are verses out there considerably more bawdy than these. - PJS
As well as some of the "blatantly obviously cleaned up" variety -- witness this from the Digital Tradition:
Cosher Bailey's brother Matthew
Had a job at cleaning statues
But when he was cleaning Venus
He slipped and broke his elbow.
In fact, the notes in MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, derived from A. L. Lloyd, admit that there are many ribald verses.
According to those notes, Bailey was an ironmaster who in 1846 built the Taff Vale railroad. Legend has it that he drove the first train on the line and got stuck in a tunnel -- obviously something that invited some really dirty verses. Bailey is said to have died in 1872, by which time railroads had obviously been entirely vindicated.
It was John Patrick who pointed out to me the citation of this song in the 1893 volume of Cambrian Minstrelsie. Under the tune "Lili Lon" ("Bright Lily") there is a reference to a "comic song" sung to the same tune, which begins
Crawsay Bailey had an imjin,
It was puffin' and a-blowing',
And according to its power,
It was go five miles an hour.
Was you ever see, (x3)
Such a thing before!
It would appear that even this 1893 version had undergone some folk processing (or damage), so the song is presumably even older. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: FSWB031A

Cospatrick

See Gil Brenton [Child 5] (File: C005)

Costly Crosshaul, The

DESCRIPTION: "When a poet's fancy takes its flight Into naught but romance bold," loggers will pay tricks. Greenhorn Billy Dean is ordered into town to pick up a "crosshaul." He is kept in town for months seeking the fictitious equipment -- and billed for the time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: logger trick commerce money
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 42, "The Costly Crosshaul" (1 text)
Roud #18189
NOTES [22 words]: This was apparently intended to be funny, but I'd call it just plain mean. To be sure, I think practical jokes quite un-humorous. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: BeLo042

Cott'n-Dance Song

DESCRIPTION: "O Massa said from firs' to las', 'Way down in the cott'n-fiel', Eighteen inches an' a half, 'Way down in... Two stalks an' all de grass, 'Way down..." The work is hard. The singer gambles with Jim. There are possoms in the cotton pile
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries)
KEYWORDS: work food gambling slave hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (III), pp. 98-106, "Cott'n-Dance Song" (1 text with variants, 1 tune with variants)
Roud #17446
File: CuBu098

Cott'n-Packin' Song

See Screw This Cotton (Cotton-Packing Song) (File: CuBu107)

Cott'n-Pickin' Song

See Cotton Needs Pickin' (File: LoF281)

Cottage By the Sea, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer thinks about his "joyful days" as a child, gathering shells below the white waves. He recalls his mother's (unspecified) warning "as she took me on her knee." He hopes to return "when life's long day is closing"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (IROConway01); before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian, Bod21918 2806 c.16(212))
KEYWORDS: age homesickness warning home return separation travel sea nonballad youth
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 8 and #4/64, p. 8, "Cottage by the Sea" (1 text)
Roud #1743
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Conway, "The Cottage By the Sea" (on IROConway01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod21918 2806 c.16(212), "The Cottage by the Sea" ("Childhood's days now pass before me"), H.P. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Bod1096 Firth b.25(227), Bod6576 Firth b.25(228), Bod2800 Harding B 15(64a), Bod12826 Harding B 11(2897), Bod13908 Harding B11(707), Bod7338 Firth b.26(466), Bod8794 2806 c.13(75), Bod14675 Harding B 15(63b), Bod15066 Harding B 16(60c), "(The) Cottage by the Sea"
NOTES [43 words]: The Conway version on IROConway01, but not the broadsides, says of the singer, now "in some foreign land I roam." - BS
In the Dime-Song-Book version, he roams "fairer scenes," but they are not said to be foreign. Perhaps Conway, or his source, extrapolated. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RcCotSea

Cottage Door, The

See The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)

Cottage Girl, The

See The Little Cottage Girl (We Are Seven) (File: Brne188)

Cottage Hill

See The Backwoodsman (The Green Mountain Boys) [Laws C19] (File: LC19)

Cottage Maid, The

See The Lovely Cottage Maid (The Cottage Maid) (File: Guig251)

Cottage Thatched with Straw, The

See The Cottage Well-Thatched with Straw (File: WT154)

Cottage Well-Thatched with Straw, The

DESCRIPTION: An old farmer envies no one "while I have home-brewed, brown bread, and a cottage well-thatched with straw." His father built it with money he earned. The farmer turns no one away from his door before giving him brown bread and home-brewed beer.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: home drink food farming nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 154-155, "The Cottage Well-Thatched with Straw" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 203)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #34, "The Cottage Thatched with Straw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1270
File: WT154

Cottage With the Horseshoe o'er the Door

DESCRIPTION: The singer will soon return to his old home, "the cottage with the horse-shoe o'er the door." His father is dead and buried and his mother weeps there alone, but he thinks of the happy days of his youth.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: emigration return death Ireland nonballad father mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 18, "Cottage With the Horseshoe o'er the Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3075
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Horseshoe over the Door
File: McB1018

Cotton Eye Joe

See Cotton-Eyed Joe (File: LxA262)

Cotton Fiel's Back Home

See Cotton Fields Back Home (File: DTcottnf)

Cotton Field Song

See Mister Rabbit (File: LxU006)

Cotton Fields Back Home

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a little bitty baby My mama would rock me in the cradle In them cotton fields back home." "Oh when them cotton bolls get rotten, you can't pick very much cotton." Tales of cotton-picking
AUTHOR: Huddie Leadbetter (Lead Belly)
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recorded by Lead Belly)
KEYWORDS: worker nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 88-89, "Cotton Fiel's Back Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COTTNFLD
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 39, "Cotton Fields" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11662
RECORDINGS:
Pink Anderson and son (Little Pink), "Old Cotton Fields of Home" (on USChartersHeroes)
NOTES [96 words]: There isn't much evidence that this song became traditional, but Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, p. 185, says that Harry Mercer of Newfoundland knew it and sang it, and there is the NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal version, so I have very tentatively indexed it.
The NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal version is interesting. It was collected in 1963, so after the Lead Belly recording, and the wording appears identical. Would a black couple in North Carolina have been able to memorize the Lead Belly recording, or is it possible that the opening part of the song predates him? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: DTcottnf

Cotton Mill Blues (I)

See Hard Times in the Mill (File: SBoA274)

Cotton Mill Colic

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a-gonna starve, ev'rybody will, You can't make a livin' in a cotton mill." The singer talks of the poor wages and hard conditions. He tells how people offer merchandise on easy terms, then repossess it when he can't pay. He works without ever resting
AUTHOR: David McCann
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recorded by David McCann)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes poverty warning humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 292-292, "Cotton Mill Colic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 148, "Cotton Mill Colic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 731, "Cotton Mill Colic" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CTNCOLIC*
Roud #6688
RECORDINGS:
Lester (The Highway Man) [pseud. for Lester "Pete" Bivins], "Cotton Mill Blues" (Decca 5559, 1938)
David McCarn, "Cotton Mill Colic" (Victor V-40274, 1930)
Mike Seeger, "Cotton Mill Colic" (on MSeeger02)
Pete Seeger, "Cotton Mill Colic" (on PeteSeeger13, AmHist1)
Joe Sharp, "Cotton Mill Colic" (AFS 1629, 1939)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week" (theme)
NOTES [226 words]: A reading of the bitter lyrics of this song may make you wonder why I have tagged it "humorous." But Doug deNatale and Glenn Hinson, in their article, "The Southern Textile Song Tradition Reconsidered," published in Archie Green, editor, Songs about Work: Essays in Occupational Culture for Richard A. Reuss, Folklore Institute, Indiana University, 1993, p. 83, assure us that the song was satiric, and was funny to the cotton workers who were author David McCann's co-workers. The title came about because, in the worker's jargon, "to colic" was to complain about something.
Interestingly, there was apparently an attempt to suppress this song during the 1930-1931 Danville strike, according to deNatale and Hinson, p. 89. The recording had just come out. A store owner in the area stocked it, and apparently it sold briskly. Then the mill owners started talking to store owners and media, and it apparently became much harder to find and hear. DeNatale and Hinson, p. 90, also note that McCann, although not fired from his mill job, would later be barred from the building after he gave up the job.
Years later, a social history project tried to test the extent to which mill workers actually knew these mill songs. They found that only two were really part of the tradition: "Cotton Mill Colic" and "Weave Room Blues" (deNatale and Hinson, p. 95). - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: LoF148

Cotton Mill Song, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer takes his love for a walk. "She said she loved me dearly and to me she would prove true." "Well now we are to marry for she has named the day ... we'll bring the children up like us to work in the Cotton Mill" if her parents will have him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 11, "The Cotton Mill Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16945
NOTES [43 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: "The mill referred to in this song is probably the Springfield Cotton Mill built by Stevenson and Company in 1805, one of the earliest large-scale mills in Ulster and the last cotton spinning mill in Ireland when it closed in 1919." - BS
File: Leyd011

Cotton Needs A-Pickin'

See Cotton Needs Pickin' (File: LoF281)

Cotton Needs Pickin'

DESCRIPTION: "Cotton needs pickin' so bad (x3), I'm gonna pick all over this world." The field worker describes how he contracted with the boss to raise the cotton, but now the boss is finding excuses not to pay him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918
KEYWORDS: work slave poverty money trick
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 281, "Cotton Needs Pickin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (III), pp. 89-97, "Cott'n-Pickin' Song" (1 text with variants, 1 tune with variants)
SongsOfManyNations, "Cotton Needs A-Pickin'" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 10)
Roud #16391 and 17447
NOTES [105 words]: Since the first verse of this song refers to slaves being freed, it would appear to date to the period immediately after the Civil War. The Union forces had freed the slaves -- but the freedmen had no job they could do except work the fields. The landowners built up an elaborate system (Black Codes, Jim Crow laws) for keeping the Blacks working -- perhaps even at a lower cost, since they no longer had to pay for food and lodging.
Roud splits the Lomax song (#16391) from the Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries piece (#17447), but the differences are minor change in lyrics; they emphatically look the same to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LoF281

Cotton the Kid

DESCRIPTION: Cotton seems "a nice kid... Until he became a rolling stone at the age of seventeen." After a brief career as a thief, the sheriff "come got him and threw him in jail." Cotton escapes and vanishes; the singer advises against trying to catch him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: outlaw thief prison escape
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 171, "Cotton the Kid" (1 text)
Roud #4097
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dE37 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: R171

Cotton Wool Pie

DESCRIPTION: "It's about a pie social. It should take the cake." Jim sells the pies but Tom could find none for him. He assumed the last was for him from his beau but found it filled with wool. "No pie to devour, no sweetheart had he."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: courting trick food party humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 206-207, "Cotton Wool Pie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2722
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Cotton Wool Pie" (on NFOBlondahl04)
NOTES [99 words]: Blondahl04: "It should be explained in the following song that two girls loved the same man. Now, when a pie social was planned one of the girls baked a pie and filled it with cotton wool. She intended to shift the pies and so break up the rival affair." It appears she was successful.
Blondahl04 has no liner notes confirming that this song was collected in Newfoundland. Barring another report for Newfoundland I do not assume it has been found there. There is no entry for "Cotton Wool Pie" in Newfoundland Songs and Ballads in Print 1842-1974 A Title and First-Line Index by Paul Mercer. - BS
File: RcCoWoPi

Cotton-Eyed Joe

DESCRIPTION: "If it hadn't been for Cotton-eyed Joe, I'd have been married a long time ago." "Where did you come from, where did you go...." Stanzas describe country life, fiddle playing, and attempts to outshine Cotton-eyed Joe
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Dykes' Magic City Trio); seemingly quoted 1882 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: fiddle music nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 104, "Page's Train Run So Fast" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 104, "Page's Train Run So Fast" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 69-70, "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 82, pp. 132-133, "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, p. 45, "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 262-263, "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 99, "Cotton Eye Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 67, "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (1 text, 1 tune); also pp. 83-84, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune that are clearly "Little Brown Jug," with supplementary dance verses that appear to derive from "Cotton-Eyed Joe" or "Corn-Stalk Fiddle" or some other very unstable text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 35, "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (1 text)
DT, COTTNEYE*
Roud #942
RECORDINGS:
Arthur "Brother-in-Law" Armstrong, "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (AFS 3979 B2, 1940)
Granville Bowlen, "Cotton Eyed Joe" [instrumental] (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Cotton Eyed Joe" (OKeh 45122, 1927)
Carter Brothers and Son, "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (Vocalion 5349, 1929; on GoingDown; rec. 1928)
Tom Dumas, "Cotton Eyed Joe" (on USMississippi01)
Dykes' Magic City Trio, "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (Brunswick 120, 1927)
Spud Gravely & Glen Smith, "Cotton Eye Joe" (on HalfCen1)
"Big Sweet" Lewis Hairston, "Cotton Eyed Joe" (on ClassBanj)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Cotton-Eye Joe" (on NLCR10)
Elmo Newcomer, "Cotton Eyed Joe" (CroMart 101, n.d. but prob. late 1940s - early 1950s)
Pope's Arkansas Mountaineers, "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (Victor 21469, 1928)
Bookmiller Shannon, "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (on LomaxCD1707)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (Columbia 15283-D, 1928)
Art Thieme, "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (on Thieme03)
Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (Columbia 37212, c. 1947)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of the Arkansas" (lyrics)
NOTES [163 words]: Primarily a fiddle tune, with the sort of chaotic words one would expect of such a piece. I assume "Cotton-Eyed Joe" stands for something, but I've never heard an explanation. - RBW
It's been suggested that Cotton-Eyed Joe was a local character who was blind due to cataracts or another eye disease such as trachoma. - PJS
Talley, quoted by Wolfe, says that the original Joe was a slave musician whose hair went white because of his difficult life -- but this would presumably have caused him to be called "Cotton-Haired Joe." Of course, the shift from cotton-haired to cotton-eyed is phonetically easy. Abernethy-SinginTexas simply thinks Joe had light-colored eyes.
Jim Dixon points out to me that a few lines that appear to be from this song were found in the nineteenth century, in an article "Camping on the Lower Wabash" by M. H. Catherwood, in Lippincott's Magazine, Volume 30, (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, Oct., 1882), page 412 (available on Google Books). - [RBW]
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LxA262

Cotton's Patch (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, quite early in March, I remember the date, I left for the ice the seals to locate." Finally the pilots find "the main patch" of seals. They return and bargain with Mr. Bowring. At last the merchants strike a deal
AUTHOR: Johnny Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Burke's Ballads)
KEYWORDS: hunting technology commerce pilot flying
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 120, "Cotton's Patch (I)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 14, "Cotton's Patch" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #38, p. 61, "From the show Cotton's Patch: First Song" (1 text)
Roud #30316
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cotton's Patch (II)" (subject)
NOTES [1416 words]: According to Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, this is based on an incident of 1922, when Australian Sidney Cotton and Newfoundlander Sydney Bennett made a deal seek the "Main Patch" (main herd) of seals by air.
There is dispute over the spellings of the pilot's name; Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff give Cotton's first name as "Sydney," but I have followed O'Neill, DictNewfLabrador, and Candow, especially since Candow (p. 216) lists a book, Sidney Cotton, Aviator Extraordinary: The Sidney Cotton Story: As Told to Ralph Barker, Chatto and Windus, 1969.
"In 1920 an Australian airman, Major F. Sidney Cotton, arrived in Newfoundland with Sydney Bennett, a Newfoundlander whom he met when they served together in the Royal Flying Corps.... It was their purpose in life to establish the first air service in Newfoundland" (O'Neill, p. 358). They managed to gain the money they needed from Alan Butler, and their plane arrived in late 1920. DictNewfLabrador, p. 68, says that a third pilot, David Plaistowe, was also involved.
"In 1921 Cotton engaged the interest of the owners of the large sealing vessels in hiring his services as a seal spotter. It was his job to locate the patches. This led to some embarrassment when, on one occasion, he found what he thought to be the main patch [the most important whelping ground, where the largest group of seals congregated]. When the ships reached the spot there was not a seal anywhere in sight. Johnny Burke, the great ballad writer, turned the event into a successful stage comedy, 'Cotton's Patch,' in which the patch turned out to be the seat of Cotton's pants" (O'Neill, pp. 358-359).
Part of Cotton's problem was that it was hard to maintain a plane in Newfoundland conditions; eventually he managed to get government support to bring mechanics to Newfoundland. (The Newfoundland government had a history of funding technologies they could not sustain). He apparently managed to find the main patch the next year -- but the sealers (presumably leery after 1921, apart from being cheap) refused to pay up (Candow, p. 79). Candow has quite a bit of information about the deal that was eventually made; I will confess that I got lost reading it, but it's clear that the negotiations described in "Cotton's Patch (I)" were inspired by (although perhaps not very similar to) the actual negotiations.
Even if Cotton didn't help the seal hunt, his aerial photographs did help to map Newfoundland and its timber resources (DictNewfLabrador, p. 69).
For the ship Neptune, mentioned in "Cotton's Patch (II)," see "Neptune, Ruler of the Sea." Cotton, after his experience in 1922, had suggested that a ship be modified to carry a plane for the 1923 season, and the Neptune was the ship chosen -- but the plane never flew. Sealing rumor had it that the captain, George Barbour (for whom see "The Greenland Disaster (I)"), refused to have anything to do with the contraption, but Barbour's explanation, which is likely true, is that the weather in 1923 was simply too bad for the aircraft (Candow, p. 79).
The other ship mentioned in "Cotton's Patch (II)," the Thetis, wasn't as famous. Chafe, p. 104, implies that there were two sealers named Thetis, Ryan/Drake, p. 24, says that she was built in 1881. She was said to be the strongest of the whaling/sealing fleet (Guttridge, p. 246), so when the Greely Expedition (for which "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay") needed rescue, she was one of the ships purchased for the purpose (the Bear being the other). Her commander at this time was Winfield Scott Schley, later to be famous as an officer in the Spanish-American War (Guttridge, p. 245). After that, she was used as a patrol boat (Guttridge, p. 320). She finally went back to sealing in 1917, under William Winsor (for whom see "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912"); he was still in command in 1923 (Chafe, p. 104). She was damaged in the ice in 1936, and was beached and abandoned in that year (Ryan/Drake, p. 24; Guttridge, p. 320, gives the date as 1950, but I suspect he is confusing her with the Eagle, the very last of the sealing steamers, which was sunk in that year). Ryan/Drake have a picture of her as she was in 1920 on p. 24; Guttridge's photo section has several pictures of her as she appeared in 1884.
In "Cotton's Patch (II)," the singer speaks to "Wesley Kean." This is a common error (Chafe, p. 93, makes it also); the captain's name was "Westbury Kean," commonly known as "Wes." He was infamous for his part in the Newfoundland disaster of 1914 (see "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)") -- but after six years without a command, in 1921 he was again allowed to go to the ice, as commander of the Ranger (Chafe, p. 93). I have no idea why the song mentioned him here, although his father Abram Kean is known to have disliked the planes; he even engaged in a bit of mild book-cooking to try to demonstrate his point (see "Captain Abram Kean" for the data).
According to O'Neill, by 1923, Cotton's planes had been ruined and he gave up. Other aviators took up the business after that, however, with some success, although by 1928 they were back to flying from land rather than trying to fly off the ice . The service ended in 1930 when the plane involved crashed (Candow, p. 80). On the whole, Candow concludes, the spotting planes didn't do much good (p. 81); his reasons amount to saying that the technology wasn't quite ready yet. Planes returned to the ice fields in 1947, and continued until 1982, using newer planes and a different payment scheme (Candow, pp. 164-165), but of course that isn't mentioned in the "Cotton's Patch" pieces. In 1962, the first helicopters were used, both for spotting and for carrying pelts (Busch, p. 248), but of course that's not mentioned in the song either -- and was mostly organized by non-Newfoundlanders anyway.
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff treat the song about this incident as two pieces, and they do have different forms. For the pilots' own search for the Patch, see "Cotton's Patch (I)." For the actual hunt, see "Cotton's Patch (II)."
England, pp. 168-169, has what seems to be almost the only near-contemporary account of how the sealers felt about the 1922 hunt:
"Though as yet without much practical value, the fact is noteworthy that modern methods have at last definitely invaded the seal hunt.... The enterprise is daring, to say the least.
"The ships carry charts marked off in squares; the 'planes carry similar charts. On spying seals, they note the square, and undertake to notify the ships of the location [apparently by dropping a message cylinder near the ship]. To me it seems almost an impossibility to identify one's position in the air, over the icefields. It is also hard to 'spot' seals, especially whitecoats, from aloft. Some of the sealing captains have faith in the plan, others scoff at it.
"So far as I could see, we got no good of the service. Major Cotton claimed to have reported the 'Main Patch,' Mecca of all the sealers -- the patch that none of the captains in 1922 reached. This came to be known as 'The Cotton Patch,' and caused oceans of talk, considerable jesting, and not a little acrimony. The Cotton Patch may have been where Major Cotton claimed it was, right enough, but it happened to lie where ships could not reach it. Thus the principal herd escaped for at least one year."
A photo of Cotton's plane can be seen facing p. 104 of Chafe; Candow, p. 80, has a photo of Cotton and one of the plane, with later pages showing other sealing aircraft; Major, p. 323, has a photo of him and mentions his work carrying mail and taking aerial photographs but barely mentions sealing. On p. 324, Major mentions that the planned town of Gander, Newfoundland names its streets after famous aviators -- and, yes, there is a Cotton Street in Gander, short but clearly visible on Google Maps.
Johnny Burke seems to have been hung up on Cotton's aircraft. In addition to the two "Cotton's Patch" songs, he also wrote "A Wink and a Nod from a Yankee Cod," which opens "They struck the West Coast in the month of July, Two bold aviators from Boston did fly; Syd Cotton and Cadwel came down to explore, All over the Island and search Labrador." In the Irwin/White edition of Burke's works cited in the references, this is item #44, pp. 70-71. It also has a picture of an aircraft apparently resting on ice or snow, although it doesn't say that it's Cotton's.
For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm120

Cotton's Patch (II)

DESCRIPTION: "We got up steam the ninth of March" to seek Cotton's patch. "Oh, didn't we ramble, scramble, But the devil a sign of Cotton's patch we found." After many ships seek in vain, the singer says the only patch they saw "was the patch on Tapper's trousers"
AUTHOR: Johnny Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Burke's Ballads)
KEYWORDS: hunting technology commerce pilot ship humorous flying
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 121, "Cotton's Patch (II)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 15, "Cotton's Patch" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #39, p. 62, "From the show Cotton's Patch: Second Song" (1 text)
Roud #V44826
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cotton's Patch (I)" (subject)
cf. "Didn't He Ramble" (lyrics, form, probably tune)
NOTES [37 words]: For the story of Cotton's airplane and Cotton's patch, see the notes to "Cotton's Patch (I)." This isn't the same song as "Cotton's Patch (I)" (this has a "didn't he ramble" chorus), but it's about the same incident. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm121

Cou' the Nettle Early

See Cowe, Cowe (File: GrD81656)

Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray

See I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray (File: LoF246)

Couldn't Raise No Sugar Corn

See Whoa Back, Buck (File: LxU067)

Coulter's Candy

DESCRIPTION: "Ally, bally, ally bally bee, Sittin' on yer mammy's knee, Greetin' for anither bawbee, Tae buy mair Coulter's candy." The parents feed the slender boy on candy, say he will grow up to go to sea, or will later buy candy for them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Montgomerie)
KEYWORDS: mother father food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 154, "Colter's Candy" (1 short text)
DT, COULTR COULTR2
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 32, #4 (1987), pp, 84, "Coulter's Candy" (1 text, 1 tune, supplied by Sam Hinton and with some unusual verses)
NOTES [121 words]: Murray Shoolbraid's notes in the Digital Tradition cite Buchan to the effect that "Coulter" was in fact a Scottish candy-seller named Robert Coltart who was active around 1900. Ewan McVicar reported on the Ballad-L mailing list that "Coulter's Candy was made and sold by Robert Coltart, a weaver in Galashiels. He stamped his name on every piece and flavoured it with aniseed. He sold it all round the Borders fairs, attracting customers by playing his tune on his penny whistle and singing out his song. An early advertising jingle. He died in 1880 aged 48." This is the most substantial description I've seen of who Coulter/Colter was -- but I've heard performers cite other sources. So I suppose it's not quite proved. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: MSNR154

Councillor, The

See The Lawyer Outwitted [Laws N26] (File: LN26)

Councillor's Daughter, The

See The Lawyer Outwitted [Laws N26] (File: LN26)

Countdown to Christmas (Christmas Stockings)

DESCRIPTION: "Santa Claus is coming, children; He'll be here in (x) days, Hang up your stockings, Go to bed quickly, And your close your eyes tight as you can, For he peeps through the keyhole to see if you're sleeping, He's a jolly good-natured old man."
AUTHOR: Ethel H. Chesterfield (source: Primary Education Magazine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Primary Education Magazine)
KEYWORDS: christmas home clothes | sleep Santa Claus
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Primary Education (Magazine), Volume 30 (available on Google Books, under the title "Popular Educator"), December 1922 issue, p. 643, "Christmas Stocking" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Artricia Gordon, Katrina Esocoff, "Countdown to Christmas" (Piotr-Archive #370, recorded 11/26/2022)
NOTES [83 words]: This clearly originated as a school song -- but none of the handful of versions I've seen online matches the original. The Piotr archive version has the chorus but misses the verse; a blog called "Feathers and Faith" inserted part of the verse into the chorus; other Internet citations seemed to include fragments. I'm not sure it's traditional, but there is just enough variation that I decided to include it.
The trick in the Piotr archive, of counting down days, strikes me as quite clever. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio370

Countersigns, The

DESCRIPTION: Forecastle song. Verses quote John Paul Jones, Admiral Farragut, and Captain Lawrence (of the Chesapeake), citing their actions and bravery. Each verse concludes with "And that was the Navy of long, long ago." Sung to the tune of "Spanish Ladies."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (The Book of Navy Songs)
KEYWORDS: foc's'le navy sailor
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 135, "The Countersigns" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Col135 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Spanish Ladies" (tune) and references there
NOTES [546 words]: For John Paul Jones (1747-1792) and the declaration "I have not yet begun to fight," see the notes to "Paul Jones's Victory" [Laws A4]. For James Lawrence (1781-1813) and his folly in command of the Chesapeake, see "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (I)" [Laws J20]. There is some irony in the fact that this song mentions him being carried belowdecks (to the surgeon) when wounded -- but ignores the fact that this caused the midshipman who did it to be court-martialed and discharged.
David Glasgow Farragut (1801-1870) began the Civil War as a navy captain awaiting orders, living in Virginia and married to a Virginia wife (McPherson, pp. 281-282), but ended up (perhaps by luck as much as anything else) in charge of the fleet destined to attack New Orleans. Being, fortunately, a pretty good sailor, he captured the city -- the first really big Union success of the war (for which see, e.g., "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell (Mansfield Lovell)." His next few operations, against Vicksburg, were less successful (Vickburg was effectively impossible to attack by river), but he still was given command of the next major naval assault on a Gulf Coast city, the 1864 attack on Mobile Bay.
Despite being a lesser city than New Orleans, Mobile was a much tougher nut to crack; the defences of New Orleans had been badly and hastily built. Farragut had wanted to go after Mobile at once, but the Navy department disagreed. They felt Farragut would need ironclads, and all of those were tied up at Charleston and other places (Johnson/McLaughlin, p. 127).
By the time the Navy department changed its mind, their initial assessment had been made correct. Initially nearly defenseless, by August 5, 1864, when Farragut attacked, Mobile Bay was properly fortified, with only one sea channel, forts on each side, and a small fleet including the ironclad Tennessee waiting -- and the harbor entrance sown with mines. (In those days, when the self-propelled torpedo had not been invented, such mines were called "torpedoes"). Farragut's fleet tried to enter the bay -- and watched a monitor hit a mine and sink almost instantly. (The things were hardly seaworthy, after all.)
Most of the fleet stopped -- right under the guns of the harbor forts. Farragut, lashed to the mast, knew what he had to do: He had to get through the channel, even if the mines took more ships. So he ordered "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead." (McPherson, p. 761. The Union fleet made it into the harbor, and after a hard battle captured the city.
We note that hardly anyone seems to mention the signal "For God's sake" that Farragut wanted to send after one of his own ships did its best to ram and sink him (Johnson/McLaughlin, p. 134.)
At first, the North didn't think much of the victory; Farragut had lost over 300 men and a monitor (Catton, p. 371). But in fact it was a severe blow, since the Confederacy lost its last major Gulf Coast port; all that was left were a few heavily-blockaded East Coast ports and some minor harbors in Texas, too far from the rail net to do much good. The North eventually woke up; Farragut became first Vice Admiral and then Admiral -- the first such in American history (just as U. S. Grant was the first full General). And Farragut's words passed into folklore. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: Col135

Counties of Arkansas, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's Benton, Carroll, Marion, Boone in a line...." The song describes the various counties of Arkansas, with chorus exhorting the students to make Arkansas "The banner state for enterprise, good schools, and moral law" and praising Ouachita county
AUTHOR: Annie Coble Wilson?
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: nonballad derivative
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 876, "The Counties of Arkansas" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 364-365, "The Counties of Arkansas" (1 text)
Roud #7541
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES [32 words]: Reported to have been written by Annie Coble Wilson for use by her school in Camden (in Ouachita County). It will come as no surprise that it seems not to have been used outside the state. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: R876

Counting Apple-seeds

See One I Love, Two I Love (File: OOx382)

Counting Appleseeds

See One I Love, Two I Love (File: OOx382)

Counting Song, The

See One Man Shall Mow My Meadow (File: ShH100)

Countrey Lasse, The

See The Country Lass (File: JACB037)

Country Blade and His Scolding Wife

See The Dumb Wife (Dumb, Dumb, Dumb) [Laws Q5] (File: LQ05)

Country Blues

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses; singer is in jail, possibly dying, lamenting his fate and hard living.
AUTHOR: Unknown, possibly Homer Crawford; add'l verses by Dock Boggs
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Dock Boggs)
KEYWORDS: captivity crime prison death floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 90, "Country Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #428
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "Country Blues" (Brunswick 131A, 1927; on AAFM3, RoughWays1) (on Boggs1, BoggsCD1, ClassOT)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Country Blues" (on NLCR05) (on NLCR16)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Darling Corey" (words, tune)
cf. "Moonshiner" (words)
cf. "Sweet Heaven" (words)
cf. "Sweet Heaven (II)" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Give Me Corn Bread When I'm Hungry
Hustling Gamblers
NOTES [94 words]: This is ALMOST a nonballad, but not quite; there is a hint of narrative. And while most of the verses show up elsewhere, this song as a gestalt comes squarely from its performer, Dock Boggs. -PJS
Some people consider this a version of "Darling Corey," the tune is very close and they share a lot of lyrics. But I tentatively agree with Paul: There are several unrelated verses on the front, and *they* make this a separate song.
Roud lumps the piece with "I Wonder Where's the Gambler" [Laws H22]. It may perhaps have been inspired by fragments of that song. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: ADR90

Country Carrier, The

See My Rattlin' Oul' Grey Mare (File: HHH664)

Country Clown The

See The Great Booby (File: TPS087)

Country Courtship, The

DESCRIPTION: Dialog: "When shall we get married"? "As soon as time comes." "What shall I wear to the wedding?" "Thee wold print frock an' thee yepron." "How shall we go to the wedding?" "Thee's got two fine legs to walk wi' I." And so on for many verses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd according to Hecht-Herd MS I)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage wedding bargaining
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,North))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 127, "The Country Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 43, "When shall we be married" (2 texts)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 110, "When Shall We Get Married" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 168-169, "When Shall We Get Married" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 162)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 70, "When Shall We Get Married?" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #88, "When Shall We Get Married, John?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 41, "John and Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 30-31, "When Shall We Get Married, John?" (1 text plus some extra verses, 1 tune)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 60-61, "When Shall We Be Married?" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Hans Hecht, editor, Songs From David Herd's Manuscripts (Edinburgh, 1904), #47 pp. 159-160,301, "Nicol' o' Cod" (1 text) [Not yet indexed as Hecht-Herd 47]
Roud #313
RECORDINGS:
Edwin Cox and Harry Stephens, "The Country Courtship" (on FSBFTX13)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Buffalo Boy" (plot, structure, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
When Shall We Get Married?
My Old Sweet Nichol
NOTES [147 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland considers this to be the same song as "Buffalo Boy," and the forms, and even the verses, are similar. Roud lumps them. However, this version has a different punch line. - RBW
As far as I'm concerned, Kennedy's right -- "Buffalo Boy" is a version of this song, despite the different endings. (Doubly so, given the title of the Stonemans' recording, "The Mountaineer's Courtship.") However, as each is known independently, I'm inclined to split them anyway. Better check out both.
Meanwhile, Kennedy includes several citations that I would *not* class as versions of this song, and they've made me cautious; for "Earliest Date" I've taken the first one that seemed verifiably the same song. - PJS
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 671-672, has a tune "The Country Courtship," but Chappell had no words, so I don't know if it's the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K127

Country Cousin, The, or, I saw Esau Kissing Kate

See I Saw Esau (File: Stou088)

Country Dance, A

DESCRIPTION: "When lambkins skip, and apples are growing, Grass is green, and roses ablow.... Why should we be all the day toiling? ... Haste away to the greenwood tree." The work is done. All gather for the dance
AUTHOR: Words: Sabine Baring-Gould
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: farming dancing
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #79, "A Country Dance" (1 text, 1 tune, the text not being traditional)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mallard" (tune)
NOTES [40 words]: This isn't even a case where Sabine Baring-Gould objected to the words of the song he collected. He just thought the original song, "The Mallard," was stupid. Yes, it is stupid. So is messing up traditional songs with garbage new words. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGSW079

Country Farmer's Son, The (Sweet Nelly My Heart's Delight)

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet (Nelly/Nancy), my heart's delight, Be loving, and do not slight." The singer asks her to fancy him "Though I'm but a farmer's son." She rejects him. He reveals that he has wealth. She says he does not -- but still consents to court him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1729 (Vocal Miscellany, according to Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland)
KEYWORDS: love courting money lie rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #4, pp. 171-173,245, "The Farmer's Son" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 366-368, "The Farmer's Son" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 656-657, "Sweet Nelly, My Heart's Delight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 125-126, "Sweet Nelly, My Heart's Delight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #69, "The Country Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune, rewritten to take out most of the plot)
ST BeCo366 (Partial)
Roud #8506
File: BeCo366

Country Garden, The

See The Vicar of Bray (File: ChWII122)

Country Girl (II), The (The Blooming Goddess)

See The Factory Girl (I) (File: K221)

Country Girl, The (The Fair Maid of the West)

DESCRIPTION: The "country girl" goes to the fair, and asks the merchant for a bonnet. Having no other money, she pays with her maidenhead. She goes home and tells her mother, who tells her to get it back. The merchant lays her down again and gives it back
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: sex humorous bawdy mother trick virginity clothes
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 42, pp. 219-221, "The Country Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10099
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Widow of Westmoreland's Daughter" (theme of regaining maidenhead)
cf. "The Tailor" (theme of regaining maidenhead)
NOTES [102 words]: Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging thinks this a version of "The Fair Maid of the West Who Sold Her Maidenhead for a High-Crowned Hat." Obviously it has the same introduction. Yet the plot is the same as "The Widow of Westmoreland's Daughter." Personally, I suspect these are the same song (or, rather, that this and "The Fair Maid" are both worn-down forms of the "Widow"); the theme of having sex once to lose a maidenhead, and then having it again (perhaps with positions reversed) to regain seems unlikely to have been independently invented. But I'm splitting them tentatively until more versions turn up. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Logs042

Country Ham and Red Gravy

See I Know a Boarding-House (File: R479)

Country Hirings

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you bloomng country lads and listen unto me." They are told, "Servant men stand up for your wages When to the hirings you do go." The farmers and their families live well while the hired servants endure poor conditions. It is time for change
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Raven)
KEYWORDS: farming hardtimes money commerce clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #4, "Country Hirings" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 33-34, "Country Hirings" (1 text)
Roud #12510
File: JRUI033

Country I Was Born In, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer has left Donegal and is bound for America "where I'm told a man he's paid there for his labour." In Ireland he has seen people starving or "hurled by the landlord from their door." No matter where he goes he will always think of home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
KEYWORDS: emigration work hardtimes America nonballad political landlord
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 53, pp. 149-150,176, "The Country I Was Born In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2936
File: MoMa053

Country Lass (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Although I am a country lass, A lofty mind bear I." Although not from the city, she dresses well and looks beautiful. She does not have city vices. The women of the country do useful work together. She refuses to feel inferior to the women of the city
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Ashton)
KEYWORDS: nonballad farming beauty clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 375-376, "The Country Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 300, "(The Country Lass)" (1 tune, partial text)
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 37-41, "The Countrey Lasse" (1 text)
Roud #5520
ALTERNATE TITLES:
What tho' I am a Country Lass
File: JACB037

Country Lass (II), The

See The Brisk and Bonny Lass (The Brisk and Bonny Lad) (File: K244)

Country Life (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the joy of living and working in the country, reporting "I like to rise when the sun she rises, Early in the morning... And hurrah for the life of the country boy." He describes the work done on the farm in each season
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976
KEYWORDS: home farming nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, COUNTRYL*
RECORDINGS:
Guy Wolff, "Country Life" (Piotr-Archive #438, recorded 01/08/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Country Life (II)" (chorus lyrics)
cf. "A Sweet Country Life" (theme)
cf. "The Brisk and Bonny Lass (The Brisk and Bonny Lad)" (theme)
cf. "The Contented Countryman" (theme)
cf. "I Like to Be There" (form, lyrics)
NOTES [33 words]: Although Guy Wolff is American (a resident of Connecticut), there are a number of hints in the Piotr archive that he learned it from a British source. I doubt it is found in American tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DTcountr

Country Life (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Behold in me a farmer's son so jolly." The singer tells what he likes about farming: fields and flowers, birds singing, "milking the old dun cow," hearing the cock crow early, his Mary, ... "I do not like a city life." "A country life's the best"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #169, p. 2, "The Country Life" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #20, "The Old Cock Crows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6297
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Country Life (I)" (chorus lyrics)
cf. "A Sweet Country Life" (theme)
NOTES [43 words]: The chorus is close to "The Country Life" (I) but this song has no seasonal verses. Each verse of "The Country Life" (I) is a variation on "rambling in the new-mown hay," which appears here only in the chorus. Greig says it "seems to hail from the south." - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: Grg169b

Country Life for Me, A

DESCRIPTION: "Here I am as you may see, I'm Yorkshire to backbone." The singer feeds the animals, plows, and declares "A country life for me." The farmer will ignore the scorn of those who don't know the life -- or fight them. He enjoys Martinmas with his chosen girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Gardham-EastRidingSongster)
KEYWORDS: farming work animal food drink courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 9, p. 13, "A Country Life for Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1409
File: Gard009

Country Roads

DESCRIPTION: "Almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge mountains, Shenandoah River." The singer asks the "Country roads" to take him back to West Virginia. Wherever he is, it calls to him
AUTHOR: Bill Danoff, John Denver, Taffy Nivert Danoff (source: LyricFind)
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (recording, John Denver)
KEYWORDS: nonballad travel home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 550, "Country Roads" (notes only)
DT, CNTRYRD
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Take Me Home, Country Roads
NOTES [45 words]: It's ironic to note that, while Bill and Taffy Danoff had some connection to West Virginia, John Denver had none. But, based on Wikipedia, it was the Danoffs who were responsible for the original form of the song anyway, although Denver contributed to its final form. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF550C

Country Rockin', The

DESCRIPTION: "The best o' human life ... we only find when assembled at a country rockin' .... at sangs we'll hae a hearty yokin' and we'll chat the lays o' Robbie Burns." On the way home "we steal a wee bit kiss Her hert tae move and tell oor love"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: courting music party nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 635, "The Country Rockin'" (1 text)
Roud #6068
File: GrD3635

County Jail (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "As I was standing on a corner, Not doing any harm, Along came a policeman And took me by the arm." The singer ends in prison. He watches the bedbugs and cockroaches play ball. The food is terrible: "The coffee tastes like tobacco juice"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: prison police food hardtimes floatingverses bug
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 147, "The County Jail" (1 text)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 106, "They Locked Me Up in Bonavist' Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 108, "Ballad of Elbert County Jail" (1 text); p. 111, "Spiders and Fireflies" (1 text, which appears to be this with the ending lost)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #265, "I was standing on the corner" (1 text)
ST GC147 (Partial)
Roud #3673
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. most other prison songs, especially "Song of an Old Time Jailbird" (theme of hard times in prison and the dangers posed by bugs)
NOTES [67 words]: Nearly every part of this has parallels elsewhere, but the combination, particularly the bedbug/cockroach contest, seems to be unique. - RBW
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou's tune is close to the usual one and the cockroaches and bedbugs playing ball are replaced by "a hundred and fifty bedbugs playing a game of ball." It has "coffee like tobacco juice and bread so hard as steel." Close enough for me. - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: GC147

County Jail (II)

DESCRIPTION: "I used to live a glorious life [until]... they piped into a railroad mail And carried me off to County Jail." The singer recounts the rules, initiation, awful food, beds; Jonah was better off in the whale; "glorious times in County Jail"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1860 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.26(213))
KEYWORDS: violence food prisoner ordeal
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 148, "Kirtle Gaol" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 121-122, "County Jail" (1 text)
Roud #964
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(213), "County Gaol" ("Good people all give ear I pray"), A. Ryle and Co. (London) , 1845-1859; also Harding B 11(730), Harding B 11(729), "County Gaol"; Harding B 20(32), "County Jail"; Firth c.17(76), "Duke St. Gaol"; Firth c.26(19), Firth c.17(73), "Wakefield Gaol"; 2806 c.16(234), Harding B 13(292), "Preston Gaol"; Harding B 11(2000), "Kirkdale Goal [sic]"; 2806 c.16(63), "Kirkdale Gaol"; Harding B 11(233), "Bellevue Goal [sic]"; 2806 c.8(201), "The Humours of the County Jail "
LOCSinging, sb10045a, "County Jail," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also sb40474a, "X"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cryderville Jail" (theme)
NOTES [129 words]: Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia says his title of "Kirtle Gaol" "is a contraction, or corruption, of 'Kirkdale.'"
Mackenzie lists a number of broadside versions including O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland pp. 121-122. He lists American copies of "County Jail" which are not indexed yet. The versions of this that I've seen do not have the bedbug vs cockroach sporting event but do insist that Jonah was better off inside the whale and Lazarus in his shroud was better dressed.
The Bodleian broadsides agree in the details except for the location of the jail.
Broadside LOCSinging sb10045a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: Mack148

County Jail (III)

See Lonesome Road (File: San322)

County of Kerry, The

See In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)

County of Limerick Buck-Hunt, The

DESCRIPTION: Twenty huntsmen and their hounds hunt a buck. He is killed in the hills after a four hour chase. "Nothing was wanting That poor hungry huntsman could wish ... For every man was a dish." There was drinking and dancing; many of the ladies are named.
AUTHOR: Pierce Creagh (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: hunting dancing drink party moniker animal dog horse
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 238-242, "The County of Limerick Buck-Hunt" (1 text)
NOTES [21 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland seems to date the event and the writing of the song in the first half of the eighteenth century. - BS
File: CrPS238

County of Saline

DESCRIPTION: "Mid the valleys and the hills, Mid the woodlands and the rills, In the land that pleasure fills Is the County of Saline." "Grand old County of Saline, Fertile spot of Egypt's plain." "Broad and fertile are thy fields." "And her people brave and true."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 30, "County of Saline" (1 text)
Roud #14055
NOTES [40 words]: This refers to Saline County as part of "Egypt." "Egypt" was the name used for the area of southern Illinois in the general vicinity of Cairo, Illinois. Saline County is in southern Illinois, although somewhat north and east of Cairo. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: McIn030

County of the Innocent, The

See The Drowning of Young Robinson (File: HHH585)

County of Tyrone, The

DESCRIPTION: Desiring freedom from his parents, the singer sets out for (Newry/Dover). He meets a girl and, after assuring her of his character, convinces her to elope to Tyrone. They are pursued, but escape by ship. His parents welcome him home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: work home family love travel elopement
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 218-220, "The County of Tyrone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H153a/b, p. 480-481, "The County Tyrone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 15, "The County Tyrone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1991
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The County Tyrone" (on IRRCinnamond03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(305a), "Sweet Jane of Tyrone" ("My father oft told me he would not controul me"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(3947), Harding B 11(932), 2806 b.11(57), "Sweet Jane of Tyrone"; Firth b.25(475), Harding B 11(2563), Harding B 11(2563), 2806 c.15(252), Harding B 28(34), 2806 b.11(144), "County of Tyrone"; Harding B 28(34), "County Tyrone"
File: SWMS218

County Song (The Counties of Iowa)

DESCRIPTION: "Our home is in Iowa toward the setting sun, Just between two mighty rivers where the flowing waters run... It has 99 counties, will you join and sing their names?" Educational song listing Iowa's counties, adding information about a few of them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Stout-FolkloreFromIowa); reportedly learned 1880
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 474-475, "County Song" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 103, pp. 127-133, "Early Iowa School Songs" (11 texts, of which the "A" text is this song)
File: CAFS2474

County Tyrone, The

See The County of Tyrone (File: SWMS218)

Coupon Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "You get good things for nothing" for coupons now. Singer got his "good for nothing" wife, and is saving coupons for a divorce, a car, and a baby. His wife must have found out about his baby plan because she is making baby clothes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: marriage pregnancy commerce humorous nonballad wordplay baby wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Ghaney, "The Coupon Song" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys, "The Coupon Song" (1941, Bluebird B 8893, 2003, "Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys 1940-1946," JSP Records CD JSP7712C)
NOTES [38 words]: Coupons have been used since the late 19c as a marketing promotional tool offering a product at a discounted price. The singer's implicit question is whether there is anything that can't be bought with coupons at a discount. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: MunLCoup

Coupshawholme Fair

See Copshawholm Fair (File: RcCpswFr)

Courage, Brother, Do Not Stumble

DESCRIPTION: "Courage, brother! do not stumble, Though your path be dark as night; There's a star to guide the humble: Trust in God, and do the right." "Simple rule and safest guiding, Inward peace, and inward might... Trust in God, and do the right."
AUTHOR: Norman MacLeod (1812-1872) (source:Julian)
EARLIEST DATE: 1857 (source: Julian)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 110, "Trust no lovely forms of passion" (1 fragment)
Roud #25351
NOTES [228 words]: According to John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), volume I, p. 709, has this biography of Norman MacLeod:
"[S]on of Dr. Norman Macleod, was b[orn] at Campbelton, Argyleshire, June 3, 1812. He studied at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, then went to Germany, and subsequently completed his course at the University of Glasgow, from which, in 1858, he received the degree of D.D. In 1838 he was appointed parish minister of Loudoun; Ayrshire, in 1843 of Dalkeith, and in 1851 of the Barony, Glasgow. He became one of the Queen's Chaplains in 1841, and in 1860 the editor of Good Words, which he continued to edit till his death. He was one of the most influential ministers in the Established Church of Scotland, and was Moderator of the General Assembly in 1869. He died at Glasgow, June 16, and was buried at Campsie, June 20, 1872. His works are numerous and popular. He was appointed a member of the Assembly's Hymnal Committee in 1854 and 1855. His best known hymn, 'Trust in God, and do the right' (Right Doing), appeared in January 1857, in The Edinburgh Christian Magazine, of which he was for some years the editor."
Based on Hymnary.org, this appears to be his only hymn that is remembered, and has been translated into Welsh and perhaps other languages. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC110A

Courrier, Courrier, Qu'y a-t-il de Nouveau? (Courier, Courier, Say What News Hast There?)

DESCRIPTION: French. King of England asks courier why he is troubled. The courier tells of General Braddock's defeat. The king asks if he has lost his best men, and if the bombs and grenades were no help. All the mortars and cannon helped not a whit. The king laments.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (published by Hubert Larue in "Le Foyer canadien")
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage grief questions army battle war soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1754-1763 - French and Indian War ("Great War for Empire"; fought in Europe 1756-1763 as the Seven Years' War)
July 9, 1755 - Defeat and Death of Edward Braddock in the Battle of the Wilderness
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 82, "Courrier, Courrier, qu'y a-t-il de nouveau? (Courier, Courier, say what news hast there?)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Braddock's Defeat" (subject)
NOTES [54 words]: The notes in Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes say that the ballad, written shortly after the battle, was buried in the Hotel-Dieu in Quebec until it was published in 1865 by Hubert Larue. They note that the Vincennes version shares with the 1865 publication a shortened sixth verse.
See also Notes under "Braddock's Defeat". - PJS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BerV082

Court House

See Behind These Stone Walls (File: R165)

Court of Cahirass, The

DESCRIPTION: Katey, a nobleman's daughter in the Court of Cahirass, is sought by many Dublin lords. She is beautiful and charitable to the sick and needy but has only frowns and coldness for the singer, who loves her. "How fatal the day when we first met each other"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: love rejection beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 173-175, "The Court of Cahirass" (1 text)
NOTES [129 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "The chaplain [of the chapel belonging to the Carbery family] falling desperately in love with the daughter of Lord Carbery, and being disappointed, hanged himself in the chapel, which soon afterwards went to decay. This unfortunate lover had composed [this song] which is still recollected by the country people. Unluckily for the romance of this storey the name Katey occurs ... and five manuscript copies of the song, procured through various channels, though differing materially in many lines, all retain that name. It is therefore impossible to reconcile this with the facts, that the only daughter of the first Lord Carbery was named Anne; the only daughter of the second lord, Frances Anne; and the only daughter of the third, Juliana." - BS
File: CrPS173

Court of Conscience in Cork, The

DESCRIPTION: The Cork court is above a meat-market. Some find happiness below "to purchase a beefsteak," others above in justice. "Thus, 'twixt the market-scales and those of law, A strong similitude exists"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: commerce nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 167-168, "The Court of Conscience in Cork" (1 text)
File: CrPS167

Court of King Caractacus, The

See references under The Wild Man of Borneo (File: K311)

Courte Paille, La

DESCRIPTION: (Canadian) French: A sailing crew has been seven years at sea, and is starving. They draw straws to decide which one of them they will kill and eat. The Captain is chosen, but asks a cabin boy to take his place. At the last moment, the boy spies land
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Barbeau)
KEYWORDS: cannibalism sea sailor disaster reprieve foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que) US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 41-43, "La courte paille" (1 French text plus an English translation, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 180-182, "Sept Ans Sur Mer" (1 French text plus an English translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship in Distress" (plot) and references there
File: FMB041

Courteous Knight, The

See Proud Lady Margaret [Child 47] (File: C047)

Courtin' in the Stable (The Workin' Steer)

DESCRIPTION: Jock sets out to meet Kate by the gate of the farm where she works. She being late, and he being drunk, he mistakes a steer for his girl and sets out to kiss her. He thinks she has turned to a steer, but she arrives to correct him; eventually they wed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: courting drink animal marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #162, p. 1, "The Courtin' in the Stable" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 288, "Coortin' in the Stable" (7 texts, 3 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 227-228, "Courtin' in the Stable" (1 text)
Roud #3793
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Doran's Ass" [Laws Q19] (plot)
cf. "Jock Gheddes and the Soo" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Nicht Was Fine
File: Ord227

Courtin' Owre Slow

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves a girl in Buchan and she accepts his ring. While he is in Edinburgh on business a rich suitor wins her hand. The singer returns and asks her why she abandoned him. Her reason is that he never kissed her. He won't make that mistake again.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage ring infidelity money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #37, p. 1, "The Buchan Laddie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 896, "Courtin' Owre Slow" (8 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #5369
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "William and Nancy (II) (Courting Too Slow)" [Laws P5] (theme: lover lost by courting too slowly)
cf. "On Top of Old Smokey" (theme: lover lost by courting too slowly)
File: GrD4896

Courting Among the Kye

See Carries and Kye (Courting Among the Kye) (File: Ord037)

Courting Cage, The

See The Courting Case (File: R361)

Courting Case, The

DESCRIPTION: Man comes courting a woman. She reminds him that she told him never to return. He offers her his "very fine house," his "very fine farm," his "very fine horse," etc.; (she rejects them all because he is a gambler/drunkard/whatever).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: gambling courting dialog money rejection
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 104, "The Gambling Suitor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 361, "The Courting Cage" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 3, "The Courting Cage" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 3, "The Courting Cage" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 120, "The Drunkard's Courtship" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 52, pp. 167-169, "O Madam, I Have a Fine Little Horse" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, pp. 4-5, "Bachelor's Song" (1 text, 1 tune, a rather different version that might be one of the other courting songs such as "The Keys of Canterbury")
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 304-307, "Kind Sir" (2 texts, one, "The Courting Cage," coming from Randolph; 2 tunes on pp.436-437)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 177, "The Courting Case" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 98-99, "Courtin' Song" (1 text, 1 tune, with a peculiar final ending in which the two apparently grow old together despite rejecting each other; Roud files this with "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)," but the lyrics to me look more like this piece.)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 173, "The Wooing" (2 texts, the "A" text being this and "B" being probably "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)")
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 146-147, "The Gambling Suitor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 76-77, "The Girl Who Never Would Wed" (1 text, in which the girl never gives in, but the verses place it here)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 118-119, "The Drunkard's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COURTCAS COURTNG*
Roud #361
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "The Drunkard's Courtship" (on Barker01)
Loman D. Cansler, "The Lovers' Quarrel" (on Cansler1)
Texas Gladden, "Kind Sir, I See You've Come Again (Courting Case)" (AFS 5233 A3; on USTGladden01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Keys of Canterbury" (theme)
cf. "Sweet Nelly My Heart's Delight" (plot)
cf. "Geordie's Courtship (I Wad Rather a Garret)" (plot)
cf. "Bachelor's Hall (III)" (theme)
NOTES [124 words]: In most versions of this song, the man says he has, or is, a "courting cage," which (presumably because it sounds so strange) is sometimes changed to a "courting case." But I wonder if, by any chance, the original was a "courting cake," which, according to Arnold Kellett, The Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition, and Folklore, revised edition, Smith Settle, 2002, p. 39, is a "kind of sandwich cake traditionally made by girls for their boyfriends." This might explain much about the strange first line of the song -- if only we could explain how a Yorkshire term came to be used in an American song (the song seems to be almost entirely American; there is at least one Canadian version, but I know of none from the British Isles). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R361

Courting Coat, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer takes his girl to bed while still in his (pit boots/navvy boots/courting coat). She fears pregnancy ("the baby will come with his pit boots on"); he laughs it off -- but runs away, still wearing the boots. Women are warned to beware
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer (shaves and) dresses up, (by the light of the moon) arrives at his girl's window, and takes her to bed while still in his (pit boots/navvy boots/courting coat). She fears pregnancy ("the baby will come with his pit boots on"); he laughs it off -- but runs away, still wearing the boots. Women are warned to "beware of them colliers who are easy and free"
KEYWORDS: courting sex warning pregnancy mining worker clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South),Scotland(Aber,Hebr,High)) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 787, "The Courtin' Coat" (2 texts plus a single verse on p. 541)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 34, "The Courting Coat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 53, "The Kettle Smock" (1 text)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 61, "Navvy Boots" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 171, "The Bold English Navvy" (1 text, 1 tune plus a fragment in the appendix)
DT, NAVVYBTS* NAVVYBOT*
Roud #516
RECORDINGS:
Liam Clancy, "Navvy Boots On" (on IRLClancy01)
Mary Delaney, "Navvy Shoes" (on IRTravellers01)
A. L. Lloyd, "With Me Pit Boots On" (on Lloyd01) (on IronMuse1)
Jimmy McBeath, "The Bold English Navvy" (on Voice10)
James McDermott, "With the Old Navvy Boots On" (on IRHardySons)
Lal Smith, "The Bold English Navvy" (on FSB02 [misprinted as "The Bold English Navy"], FSB2CD)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rambleaway" (lyrics)
cf. "Oh, No, Not I" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Kettle Smock
The Moon Shining Brightly
Navvy Boots
NOTES [123 words]: Between plot and lyrics (the girl's greeting and warning; also the way the young man dresses up), this makes me think it might be a sailor's/miner's adaption of "Rambleaway." - RBW
It may well be related, but inasmuch as there are few lyrics in common, and "Pit Boots" and its relatives are always sung from the man's point of view whereas "Rambleaway" is usually from the woman's, I think they qualify as separate songs.
I don't see any connection with "Rambleaway" other than the fellow's character. I don't see any words that "Rambleaway" has in common with any versions of "The Courting Coat" I've seen. - PJS
In McDermott's version on IRHardySons the singer is, at the end, brought to court and forced to pay five bob a week support. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcWMPBO

Courting in the Kitchen [Laws Q16]

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns listeners against love, "The devil's own invention." He courts a serving girl in her master's kitchen. When her master returns unexpectedly, she claims that the singer was forcing himself upon her. He winds up in prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.18(275)), and used for a parody by Charles Thatcher by 1864
KEYWORDS: courting rape betrayal punishment prison
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws Q16, "Courting in the Kitchen"
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 147, "Courting in the Kitchen" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 32, "Coortin' in the Kitchen" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 527, COORTINK*
Roud #1007
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Courting in the Kitchen" (on IRClancyMakem01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.18(275), "Courting in the Kitchen," W.S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; also 2806 c.14(39), "Courting in the Kitchen"
SAME TUNE:
Obstruction (Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 154-156)
The Surrender of the Natives (by Charles Thatcher) (File: BaRo039)
File: LQ16

Courting is a Pleasure

See Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)

Courting Jessie

See Jessie, the Belle at the Bar (File: R051)

Courting My Father's Gray Mare

See The Gray Mare [Laws P8] (File: LP08)

Courting of Aramalee, The

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Courting Song

See Aunt Sal's Song (The Man Who Didn't Know How to Court) (File: LoF101)

Courting Song, The

See The Quaker's Courtship (File: R362)

Courting the Widow's Daughter (Hard Times) [Laws H25]

DESCRIPTION: The young swain creeps into his sweetheart's house, but the young couple cannot keep quiet. The girl's mother, a widow, creeps down -- and tries to get the young man for herself! He insults her, and she drives him off with a broom
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: courting fight mother
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws H25, "Courting the Widow's Daughter (Hard Times)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 248-249, "Courting the Widow's Daughter " (1 text)
Randolph 387, "The Widow's Old Broom" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 183, "Hard Times" (1 text, the first six verses being "Courting the Widow's Daughter" and the last seven being a reduced version, minus the chorus, of "The Rigs of the Times")
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 22-24, "Hard Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #127, "The Widows A-Courtin'" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 124-125, "Johnny McCardner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 156, "Last Saturday Night I Entered a House" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 236-237, 242-243, "Last Saturday Night I Entered a House" (1 text)
DT 720, WIDAUGH
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, pp. 236-237, "Last Saturday Night I Entered a House (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Mrs. M. G. Jacobs)
Roud #659
RECORDINGS:
Pearl Jacobs Borusky, "Last Saturday Night I Entered a House" (AFS 4174 B1, 1940)
Charles Ingenthron, "The Widow's Old Broom" (AFS; on LC12)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Seventeen Come Sunday" [Laws O17] (plot)
cf. "Aye She Likit The Ae Nicht" (plot)
File: LH25

Courting Too Slow (I)

See William and Nancy (II) (Courting Too Slow) [Laws P5] (File: LP05)

Courtown Fishermen, The

DESCRIPTION: On June 9 a crowd collects at Courtown Harbour: "I fear the Glenrose she is lost" with six on board, capsized on the fishing ground by a sudden squall. "How could you pass them by ... For pity they besought of you to snatch them from the waves."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck fishing
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 107-108, "The Courtown Fishermen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #20544
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pomona (I)" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Glenrose
NOTES [109 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: Tune is "The Pomona" on p. 62.
Ranson has [an] alternative verse that explains the condemnation
"To see those men condemned to death, it was a dismal sight,
While one poor man upon an oar for his life did boldly fight.
And you, hard-hearted Arklowmen, why did you pass them by?
Aloud to you for help they called; you heard their drowning cry"
Arklow is on the south east coast of County Wicklow; Courtown is on the north east coast of County Wexford. "Courtown is a small harbour situated on the south east coast of Ireland approx. 15 nautical miles south of Arklow" according to the Courtown Sailing Club Online site. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran107

Courtship of Billy Grimes, The

See Billy Grimes the Rover (File: MN2033)

Cousin Emmy's Blues

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Cousin Harry (Cousin Nellie)

DESCRIPTION: Cousin Harry and Cousin Nellie sit under a tree. Nellie whispers, "Cousin Harry, what is love?" He answers it is "a passion, a passion to be felt." He demonstrates. As he "reached home with a shove," she declares, "This must be love."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (collected by Larson)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy incest
FOUND IN: US(NE,Ro,SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 44, pp. 224-225, "Cousin Harry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, pp. 62-63, "Cousin Nellie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4722
File: Logs044

Cousin Jack

DESCRIPTION: "You ask me for a song, folks... Don't blame me if I do not suit, For nature has its call.... It's second nature to that class Of lads called 'Cousin Jacks.'" There are Jacks on the mountains and the plains and in mines. None can mine like the Cornish
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining | Cousin Jack Cornish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 156, "Cousin Jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4611
File: LDC156

Cousin Nellie

See Cousin Harry (Cousin Nellie) (File: Logs044)

Cove Cherry Fair

DESCRIPTION: "Many years ago our cherries Were the haws and huckleberries That were wild and free as air." The Indians are gone, replaced by cherry orchards. "We all extend a greeting To the people of this meeting For this is our holiday."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2002 (Supplement to the History of Union County)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 637, "Cove Cherry Fair" (1 text)
File: CAFS2637

Cove that Sings, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, hearing of "the luck of a 'cove wot writes," believes his own luck better as "a cove wot sings" the comic line. When performing he gets free drink. He gets free food from admirers, free rooms from landladies, and free port from landlords
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1852 (broadside "The Cove Wot Sings," Poet's Box (Glasgow), according to Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink food music wine nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 563, "The Cove that Sings" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6034
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.21(6), "The Luck of a Cove Wot Sings" ("No doubt a song you've heard"), unknown, no date
NOTES [73 words]: "cove" n -s [Romany kova thing, person] slang Brit: MAN, CHAP, FELLOW, BLOKE" (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged (1976))
Apparently broadside Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 143, "I'm One of the Chaps Wot Sings" ("No doubt a song you've heard"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844 is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
This really sounds like a music hall song to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3563

Covent Garden (II)

See The Apprentice Boy [Laws M12] (File: LM12)

Covent's Garden

See Cupid's Garden (I) (Covent Garden I; Lovely Nancy III) (File: SWMS090)

Coventry Carol, The

DESCRIPTION: A lullaby and a lament: the singer asks how to preserve her baby, for "Herod the king, in his raging, charged he hath this day His men of might in his own sight All children young to slay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1591 (colophon of original lost manuscript)
KEYWORDS: death children Bible carol royalty religious
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 76-77, "Lulay, Lullay, Thou Little Tiny Child" (1 tet)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 252, "Coventry Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 22, "Coventry Carol" (1 text, 2 tunes)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 31, "The Coventry Carol" (1 text, 1 tune, with the chorus repeated so that it can serve as a first verse rather than having its own tune)
DT, COVCAROL
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #2551.8
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #4049
ADDITIONAL: Hardin Craig, editor, _Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays_, second edition, Early English Text Society, 1902, 1957, 1967, p. 32, "Song II" (1 text)
Rossell Hope Robbins, editor, _Early English Christmas Carols_, Columbia University Press, 1961, #28, pp. 74-76, "Lully, Lulla, Thou Little Tiny Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #49, "Lully, Lulla, Thou Little Tiny Child" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPageantShearmen}, Coventry, Thomas Sharp MS. (burned 1879), folio ?
ST OBC022 (Full)
RECORDINGS:
John Jacob Niles, "Lulle Lullay (The Coventry Carol)" (Victor Red Seal 2017, 1940)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Innocents" (subject of the Massacre of the Innocents)
cf. "In Bethlehem, that Fair City" (subject of the Massacre of the Innocents)
cf. "Tyrle, Tyrlo (Tyrley, Tyrlow)" (from the same play)
NOTES [2268 words]: Not, properly speaking, a folk song, unless its modern popularity makes it so.
The Coventry Carol was originally found in the Coventry Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors, a mystery (miracle) play of the fourteenth or fifteenth century (Happe, p. 343, suggests first quarter of the fifteenth century; the Oxford Book of Carols says fifteenth century).
At the time the miracle plays were written, translation of the Bible into English was discouraged by the Catholic Church (the English version of Wycliffe was available for much of this period, but was officially heretical; Christie-Murray, p. 115. In any case, it was a very literal translation of the Latin, making it difficult to understand even when it accurately represented the Hebrew and Greek). The miracle plays, crude and biblically inaccurate (many of the cycles included the fall of Satan, the Harrowing of Hell, and other non-Biblical details) were therefore one of the chief sources of Biblical knowledge for many common people.
Many towns had cycles of miracle plays (as many as 48, in the case of York; Happe, p. 10), although not all would be performed in a particular year. The individual plays generally of a few hundred lines, usually performed on or around the festival of Corpus Christi. The craft guilds of each city would each take and perform a play.
On the evidence, most major towns had a unique cycle of miracle plays. The majority of these, however, are lost; we have only a handful (e.g. from York, Chester, and "N Town"; Happe, pp. 10-14) remaining. The Coventry cycle did not survive (the Coventry Plays should not be confused with the surviving "Ludus Coventria," which has "no connection" with the Coventry cycle, according to Wells, p. 565); we have only two Coventry pageants (that of the Shearmen and Tailors and that of the Weavers), from a manuscript by Robert Croo dated 1534 (the Oxford Book of Carols says 1591, which might be the time the songs were added to the text) -- and even the Croo manuscript was burned in the Birmingham Library Fire of 1879 (Wells, p. 566), leaving us dependent on bad transcriptions from 1817 and 1825 (Happe, p. 343).
What's more, the notes in Robbins point out that the melody in the three-part transcription has the melody in the top voice, not in the bottom (tenor) voice as was usual in the fifteenth century. So the arrangement may not be what was sung in the actual play but rather a sixteenth century rearrangement.
In a further irony, even though the Coventry Carol is the only part of the Mysteries to be known to the general public (unless they encountered the Second Shepherd's Play of the Wakefield cycle in a literature class), the Coventry Pageant itself is rarely published. Happe, e.g., prints the 900 lines of the Shearmen and Tailors pageant on pp. 344-380, but does not print the Coventry Weavers Play. The two plays, interestingly, are much longer than the usual Mystery Play; one suspects the Coventry Cycle had fewer plays than most others -- 900 lines for the Shearmen's play, 1192 lines for the Weaver's (Wells, p. 567). Craig strongly affirms this opinion, based in part on the number of pageants -- stages -- listed in Coventry records; he thinks there were ten plays in the cycle, and on p. xv lists what he thinks were their contents, although based on p. xl of the introduction it appears that he has at least mentally modified his list.
Wells, p. 566, on the other hand, explain the length of the Coventry pageants on the basis that the Shearmen and Tailor's pageant is actually two plays (which would explain why there are two guilds involved); the first play, of 331 lines, concerns the Annunciation, Nativity, and visit of the Shepherds. Then come 140+ lines by prophets to explain the situation, then (starting with line 475) we have the play of Herod and the Magi, to which the Coventry Carol belongs. I have not seen this view in any more recent works.
Characters in the play of the Shearmen and Tailors are Isaye (Isaiah), who speaks the prologue (Matthew's whole infancy tale of Jesus is built around Old Testament quotations, mostly from Isaiah); Gaberell (Gabriel, an import from Luke's infancy narrative, who announces the coming of Jesus); Mare (Mary); Josoff (Joseph); an Angell (Angel, to tell Joseph that Mary did not commit adultery); three Pastors (Shepherds, to whom the birth of Jesus is announced; they make anachronistic references to the Trinity); two Profeta (Prophets; non-Biblical; Gassner does not list them in the cast of characters); the Nonceose (the messenger, speaking at times in pseudo-French; Craig, p. 1, calls him "Nuncius," i.e. "Nuncio"), Erode (Herod), three Rex (kings -- the three Magi=Astrologers, sometimes called the "three kings" -- although the Bible neither says they were kings nor says there were three of them); (another?) Angellus (yes, it's spelled differently); 2 Myles (soldiers under Herod's orders, who are told to kill the children of Bethlehem; Gassner, 128 interprets the term "myles" as "knights"); and three Women (of Bethlehem, mothers of children to be killed).
How much of this is historical is a matter of conjecture. It probably isn't much. The Massacre of the Innocents, in which Herod the Great slaughtered all the children of Bethlehem in hopes of killing the Christ child, is described in Matthew 2:16. The other gospels do not hint at it. Beare, p. 74, tells us that the Emperor Nero was visited by a group of eastern "magians" in 66 C.E., and suggests that this might have put the idea in the mind of the author of Matthew (which gospel was probably written about 80 C.E.). Beare, p. 75, goes so far as to suggest that it is based in the legend of Osiris, Set, and Horus. But would a monotheistic Jew like Matthew go near such a tale? I doubt it. It is more likely that it is based on the Jewish Torah account of Pharaoh's murder of the children of Israel in Exodus 1-2; Matthew was probably creating a parallel between Jesus and Moses, something he was fond of doing.
We have no record of Herod committing this particular atrocity -- and Josephus probably would have told us if he had. It may be based on other instances of Herod's behavior, however; Josephus tells us that Herod ordered the killing of vast numbers of people at his death, so that the entire nation would have to mourn him (Josephus, Antiquities XVII.174-179; Josephus/Marcus/Wikgren, pp. 450-453), though his relatives prevented his wishes from being carried out (Josephus, Antiquities XVII.193-194; Josephus/Marcus/Wikgren, pp. 460-461). Whether that tale is true or not, it is a matter of historical fact that he killed his three oldest sons -- the eldest of them just days before his own death (Josephus, Antiquities XVII.186-187; Josephus/Marcus/Wikgren, pp. 456-459). Macrobius later told a grim jest attributed to none other than the Emperor Augustus -- that, since Herod was Jewish, it was safer to be Herod's pig (Greek υν, "hyn") than his son (υιν, "hyion").
The subject of the Massacre was fairly popular in sermons and stories, for obvious reasons (see, for instance, "The Innocents," a literary version of the tale); we see such sob stories to this day. It seems to have been used for political messages, as well -- e.g. Bradbury, p. 189, shows a king looking on as children are slaughtered, which is clearly a reminiscence of the Massacre. The drawing was made around 1140 C.E., according to Bradbury, during the reign of England's King Stephen -- and Bradbury thinks it a comment on the civil war of Stephen's reign, not just a scriptural allusion.
The "lully lullay" lullaby (note the similarity betweey "lullay" and "lullabye," though ironically the dictionaries do not see a connection) is quite common starting in the fourteenth century. There are several "lullay" carols in Robbins, and I know of at least five poems beginning with this phrase, three of them from the Commonplace Book of John (or Johan de) Grimestone (1372):
-- Brown/Robbins #2025. British Library MS. Harley 913, from the early fourteenth century, has a piece beginning "Lollai, lollai, litil child, whi whepistou so sore? Nedis mostou wepe, hit was iȝarkid þe ȝore..." ("Lully, lullay, little child, why weepest thou so sore? Needs must thou wepe, it was ordained for you of yore. Turville-Petre, who edited Harley 913, considers it a close relative of the Griestone lullabies (Turville-Petre, p. 56). The ancestry of this one is a curious problem, since Harley 913 (the "Kildare Lyrics") is from Ireland, yet is written in a dialect strongly identified with England -- plus the manuscript is Franciscan, and why do they need lullabies? For background on the manuscriipt, see the notes to "The Entrenchment of Ross."
Turville-Petre, pp. 56-58, with introduction, notes, and critical apparatus; this is currently the best edition. Davies, #35, pp. 106-107; BrownXIV #28, pp. 35-36 (although Brown transcribes the first line as "...whi wepistow so sore"); Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics XCI, pp. 166-168. A modernized version of this, under the title "A Bitter Lullaby," is on 127-128 of Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife.
BrownXIV, p. 255, labels this the oldest of the "lullay" songs and says it is "exceptional in being the song of a human mother," with the several other "Lullay" songs being dialogs between the Virgin and Child (but, obviously, the Coventry Carol is also a song of a human mother and child). Davies regards it as mostly a warning of the sorrows to come in the world, concluding with a mention of Adam and Eve's sin Chambers, pp. 79-80, implies that this is the earliest surviving lullaby in the English language -- although, since it is sung by Mary to the baby Jesus, it isn't exactly an ordinary lullaby.
-- Brown/Robbins #2024. National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 18.7.21. National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 18.7.21, the 1372 Commonplace Book of John Grimestone: "Lullay, lullay, litel child, why wepest thu so sore? Lullay, lullay, litel child, Thu that were so sterne and wild." Grimestone #8; Wilson, p. 2.
GreeneSelection #43, pp. 103-104; Luria/Hoffman #201, pp. 194-195.
-- Brown/Robbins #2023. National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 18.7.21. Again from National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 18.7.21, the Grimestone Commonplace Book: "Lullay, lullay, litel cjild, child reste thee a throwe, Fro heye hider art thu sent with us to wone lowe": "Lullay, lullay, little child, rest you a spell, From high hither are you sent with us to dwell [be]low." Grimestone #180; Wilson, p. 37.
Luria/Hoffman #202, pp. 195-196; Burrow/Turville-Petre, pp. 246-247; BrownXIV, #65, p. 83
-- Brown/Robbina #352. National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 18.7.21; Cambridge University MS. Add. 5943; Cambridge, St. John's College MS. 259; London, British Library, MS. Harley 2330. Again from Grimestone, plus three other copies, despite being sixteen or so verses long. "Lullay, lullay, la lullay, My dere moder, lullay, Als I lay vpon a nith, Alone in my longging": "Lullay, lullay, la lullay, My dear mother, lullay. As I lay upon a night, Alone in my longing." Grimestone #5; Wilson, p. 2; indexed as "Als I Lay Upon a Nith (As I Lay Upon a Night II)."
BrownXIV, #56, pp. 70-75; Davies, #38, pp. 112-114
-- Brown/Robbins #1264. Bodleian MS. 29003. Fifteenth century. "Lullay lullay my lityll chyld, slepe & be now still. If þu be a lytill chyld ȝitt may þu haue þi will." "Lullay, lullay, my little child, sleep and be now still. If thou be a little child, yet may thou have thy will."
BrownXV, #3, pp. 3-4.
In each case, the "lully, lullay, little child" phrase serves as a partial refrain.
Grimestone was himself a Franciscan monk from Norfolk (Bennett/Gray, p. 367), and recorded these poems for religious not secular reasons (Bennett/Gray, p. 367, report that he had a collection of almost 250 assorted lyrics which he apparently used when preaching; Burrow/Turville-Petre, p. 245, observe that they are arranged topically, under headings such as abstinence. They report that 239 of the items are in English, with others in Latin). But it is hard to imagine anyone composing lullabyes to the baby Jesus if there were no secular lullabyes.
The exceptionally feeble state of the tradition of the Coventry piece, incidentally, results in some variants, as does the problem of early spelling. There is no doubt, for instance, that the first line is to be pronounced "Oh sisters too," but we cannot be sure if this is to be interpreted as "Oh sisters, too," or as "Oh sisters two." We do note that there are three women of Bethlehem present when the song is sung.
The third verse gives an even greater problem. Is the third word of the second line "mourn" or "morn"? If the former, then the line should be read "and ever mourn and say" (perhaps to be emended to "mourn and pray"); if the latter, then "and ever morn and day." Gassner, p. 143, goes so far as to emend to "And ever mourn I may." Craig emends to "And ever morne and may" (attributing the reading to Kittredge). The former question, of what word is meant by "too," certainly cannot be resolved (since spelling in that era was so fluid); the latter can only be resolved if, by extremely unlikely chance, another manuscript turns up.
There are two other short songs in the play, with the others being sung by the shepherds. They have the same "terly terlow" refrain, so they may in fact be one song; cf. "Tyrle, Tyrlo (Tyrley, Tyrlow)."
Kerr, p.132, claims that this song was heard by the English kings Richard III and Henry VII. The Kerrs do not cite any authority for this claim. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: OBC022

Covered Cavalier, The

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Covering Blue, The

See The Keach i the Creel [Child 281] (File: C281)

Covington

See The Boston Burglar [LawsL16] (File: LL16)

Cow Ate the Piper, The

DESCRIPTION: In the troubles of '98, piper Denny Byrne cannot find work. Needing shoes, he tries to take boots from an executed soldier -- but pulls down legs as well. He sleeps that night in a cowshed; in the morning the farmer assumes the cow has eaten the piper
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Songs of Ireland and Other Lands)
KEYWORDS: humorous Ireland rebellion animal poverty homicide escape clothes corpse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion causes Britain to place Ireland under martial law
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H29, pp. 53-54, "Denny Byrne, the Piper" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 29, "The Cow That Ate the Piper" (1 text)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 37, "The Cow Ate the Piper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 60, "The Cow that Ate the Piper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 91, "The Cow Ate the Piper" (1 text)
DT, COWPIPER*
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _Songs of Ireland and Other Lands_, D. & J. Sadlier & Co., 1847 (available on Google Books), pp. 103-106
Roud #8147
RECORDINGS:
Aiden Sullivan, "Cow With the Piper" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2916), "The Cow Eat the Piper", unknown, n.d.
NOTES [103 words]: The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Terry Timmins, "The Cow Ate the Piper" (on "The Croppy's Complaint," Craft Recordings CRCD03 (1998); Terry Moylan notes).
The story is also reported as a folktale in Gaelic, collected in 1940, among forty versions; translated by Sean O'Sullivan, Folktales of Ireland (London, 1966), #51, "The Cow That Ate the Piper." The Hessian soldier of the song is just "a dead man on the road" in the folktale. - BS
Thanks to Jim Dixon for pointing out the Songs of Ireland and Other Lands reference. - (JD, RBW)
Last updated in version 4.2
File: PBB091

Cow Camp on the Range

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the prairie dogs are screaming, And the birst are on the wing, See the heel fly chase the heifer, boys! 'Tis the first class sign of spring." The singer appreciates the food and the end of winter, and says there is no home like the range camp
AUTHOR: Tom Mew? (source: Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: cowboy home work cook
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 30-31, "A Cow-Camp on the Range" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 217-218, "Cow Camp on the Range" (1 text)
Roud #8043
NOTES [25 words]: This doesn't look at all traditional to me; it appears to be one of those poems Lomax lifted from somewhere for Cowboy Songs. But I can't prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Saffe217

Cow Cow Yicky Yicky Yea

See When I Was a Cowboy (File: LoF197)

Cow Hooking Blues

DESCRIPTION: The singer wakes up to find the girl he loves has gone. He considers drowning himself in the river. He goes to the barn and a cow hooks him with its horn. "She hurt my heart, you might have heard me cry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt05)
KEYWORDS: grief courting love parting injury animal lover
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Cow Hooking Blues" (on MJHurt05)
File: RcCoHoBl

Cow Puncher's Lament, The

See When the Work's All Done This Fall (File: LB03)

Cow That Ate the Piper, The

See The Cow Ate the Piper (File: PBB091)

Cow that Drank the Poteen, The

DESCRIPTION: Paddy Shinahan makes poteen. His cow drinks some, becomes drunk, and fights Paddy. She wakes with a broken horn and advises "all good cows" to shun drink. When her milk was brown, Una, the milkmaid, thinks it was the cow's blood. Paddy does not betray her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recording, Paddy Tunney)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous animal food
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #5170
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "The Cow that Drank the Poteen" (on Voice13)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tom Kelly's Cow" (theme: cow hides drinking problem)
File: RcTCtDtP

Cow the Nettle Airlie

See Cowe, Cowe (File: GrD81656)

Cow With the Piper

See The Cow Ate the Piper (File: PBB091)

Cow-Camp on the Range, A

See Cow Camp on the Range (File: Saffe217)

Coward, Coward, Buttermilk Soured

DESCRIPTION: "Coward, coward, buttermilk soured, Ain't been churned in 24 hours."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: food
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 84, "Coward, Coward" (1 text)
File: ZiZa084D

Cowardy Cowardy Custard

DESCRIPTION: "Cowardy cowardy custard, You ate your father's mustard." Or "Cowry cowry custard, Your mother's made of mustard," or "Dip your head in mustard"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty father food
FOUND IN: New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 126, "(Cowardy cowardy custard)" (1 text); p. 132, "Cowry, cowry, custard") (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 15, "Cowardy, Cowardy, Custard" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 50, "Cowardy, Cowardy Custard" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #156, "(Cowardy, cowardy, custard)" (1 text)
Roud #19247
File: SuSm126E

Cowaye

DESCRIPTION: "Cowaye cowaye Cut a roadie throw aye A peck for a firlot [35 pounds] A firlot for a bowaye [bowl]"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 432, "Cowaye" (1 fragment)
Roud #5948
NOTES [25 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "The heading is 'Cry of one herd to another.' 'Cowaye' = come along."
The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3432

Cowboy (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "A man there lives on the Western plain With a ton of fight and an ounce of brains." The song tells of the wild exploits of the cowboy: "He feels unwell unless in strife" "He snuffs out candles with pistol balls" "He fills with terror all he meets"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (The Kansas Cowboy newspaper)
KEYWORDS: cowboy violence
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 28, "Idyl of the Plains" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 65, "The Cowboy #2" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, THECOWBY*
Roud #11078
File: FCW028

Cowboy (II), The

See The Cowboy's Soliloquy (File: FCW123)

Cowboy (III), The

See When the Work's All Done This Fall (File: LB03)

Cowboy (IV), The

See The Cowboy at Work (File: ThLo034)

Cowboy Again for a Day

DESCRIPTION: The singer urges time (or film) to "turn backward." He wishes to replace airplanes and automobiles with "my sombrero and flaps." He recalls the old days. His wish is that someone "Make me a cowboy again for a day."
AUTHOR: unknown (attributed to Minna Irving in Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly)
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Leslie's Illustrated Weekly)
KEYWORDS: cowboy technology derivative
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 116, "Cowboy Again for a Day" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "B" text, "Moving Picture Cowboy," is heavily adapted and should probably count as a separate piece, but surely never existed in oral tradition)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 56, "Make Me a Cowboy Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly, Volume 111, No. 2874, October 6, 1910, p. 347 (available on Internet Archive), "The Cowboy's Return" (1 text)
Roud #5092
RECORDINGS:
Peg Moreland, "Make Me a Cowboy Again" (Victor V-40272, 1930; on MakeMe)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rock Me to Sleep, Mother" (tune)
cf. "Backward, Turn Backward (I)" (tune, lyrics)
NOTES [136 words]: For background on the "Backward, turn backward" lyric, ultimately derived from "Rock Me to Sleep, Mother" by Elizabeth Akers Allen, see the notes to "Backward, Turn Backward (I)" as well as to "Rock Me to Sleep, Mother."
The page in Leslie's Illustrated Weekly containing this attributes it to "Rododore Theovelt," an obvious twist on "Theodore Roosevelt," but the table of contents (p. 339) credits it to "Minna Irving." This version of course does not mention all the technology found in the later texts. The cover illustration of the 28-page issue shows a soldier in uniform loading a rifle and smoking a cigarette but does not have a headline to explain it; the first story in the issue is an unattribued piece "Is the Automobile an National Menace?"
Thanks to Jim Dixon for finding the Leslie's citation. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FCW116

Cowboy at Church, The

See Cowboy in Church (File: Ohr007)

Cowboy at Work, The

DESCRIPTION: "You may call the cowboy horned and think him hard to tame.... But to know him is to like him, notwithstanding his hard name, For he will divide with you his beef and bread." He works hard in tough conditions "but his heart is warm and tender"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 34-35, "The Cowboy at Work" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 344, "The Cowboy, II" (1 text)
File: ThLo034

Cowboy Boasters

See The Fightin' Booze Fighter AND A Texas Idol AND Wild Buckaroo AND The Texas Cowboy (III) AND An Afternoon Like This (File: FCW035A)

Cowboy Boasting Chants

DESCRIPTION: Cowboy boasts of his exploits, talking about/to the horses he rides. Samples: "Born on the Colorado, Sired by an alligator, I'm a bold, bad man from Cripple Creek, Colorado." To the horse: "Git higher, git higher, The higher you git's too low for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse bragging nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 381-383, "Cowboy to Pitching Bronco;" "Other Cowboy Boasting Chants" (3 texts, 1 tune, but described as "declaimed, not sung")
Roud #15536
NOTES [19 words]: These pieces are not really songs, and can be assembled out of floating materials. As a result, I lump them here. - RBW
File: LxA381

Cowboy in Church

DESCRIPTION: The cowboy wanders into church in his work clothes, noting "on the plains we scarcely know a Sunday from a Monday." The crowd is upset, though the preacher too is dressed in "the trappings of his trade." He reflects on how people look down on cowboys
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910
KEYWORDS: clergy clothes cowboy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 31-34, "The Cowboy at Church" (1 text)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 7, "Cowboy in Church" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8020
RECORDINGS:
Glenn Ohrlin, "The Cowboy in Church" (on Ohrlin01)
Carl T. Sprague, "The Cowboy at Church" (Bluebird B-6258, 1936)
File: Ohr007

Cowboy Jack [Laws B24]

DESCRIPTION: Having quarreled with his sweetheart, Jack joins a band of cowboys. He decides to return home and ask forgiveness after singing about a faithful girl. He arrives too late; his sweetheart has died with his name on her lips
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sires, "Songs of the Open Range")
KEYWORDS: separation death cowboy
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SW)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws B24, "Cowboy Jack"
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 5, pp. 48-52, "Cowboy Jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 5, "Cowboy Jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 204-207, "Cowboy Jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #22, "Jack Was a Lonely Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #77, "Cowboy Jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 28-29, "Cow-boy Jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 788, COWBYJCK*
Roud #3244
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "Cowboy Jack" (Conqueror 7882, 1931; Melotone [Can.] 91539, 1933)
Homer & Walter Callahan, "Cowboy Jack" (ARC 6-09-53/OKeh 03171/Vocalion 03171, 1936; Columbia 27613/Columbia 20212, 1947)
Smiling Bill Carlisle, "Cowboy Jack" (Vocalion 02839. 1934)
Carter Family, "Cowboy Jack" (Montgomery Ward M-4545, c. 1935/Bluebird B-8167, 1939)
Girls of the Golden West, "Cowboy Jack" (Bluebird B-5719, 1934)
Harry Jackson, "Cowboy Jack" (on HJackson1)
Peg Moreland, "Cowboy Jack" (Victor 23593, 1929) (Bluebird B-4956, c. 1933)
Roy Shaffer, "Cowboy Jack" (Bluebird B-8303, 1939)
Marc Williams, "Cowboy Jack" (Brunswick 430, 1930; rec. 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blackbirds and Thrushes (I)" (plot)
File: LB24

Cowboy Joe from Mexico

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Cowboy Joe (or "Old Black Joe"), From Mexico, Hands up, stick 'em up, Cowboy Joe!" Or, "...stick 'em up, And out you go!", or "...stick 'em up, Don't forget to pick 'em up, Cowboy Joe."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Singabout, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | cowboy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord)) Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #87, "Cowboy Joe" (1 text); #399, "Old Black Joe from Mexico" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 23, "(Cowboy Joe)" (1 text)
Roud #19447
File: AJRR087

Cowboy Night Song

DESCRIPTION: "There's a blue sky way up yonder, There's a blue sky over my head. There's a blue sky way up yonder that's a cover for my head. And wherever I wander, and wherever I roam, There's a blue sky way up yonder that's a calling me home!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (YWCA songbook, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 334, "Cowboy Night Song" (notes only)
OneTuneMore, p. 32, "Cowboy Night Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
There's a Blue Sky Way Up Yonder
File: ACSF334C

Cowboy of Loreto, The

See The Streets of Laredo [Laws B1] (File: LB01)

Cowboy Reverie

DESCRIPTION: "Tonight as I rode 'round my cattle, I thought of my once-cozy home, So full of the little one's prattle, And wondered how I came to roam." The singer lists all the parts of cowboy life that he will not miss, such as cold, wet, and long hours
AUTHOR: Words: D. J. O'Malley (source: Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (source: Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
KEYWORDS: cowboy hardtimes home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 197, "Cowboy Reverie" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 414, "Cowboy Reverie" (1 text)
Roud #11285
File: GFGW197

Cowboy Song (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Though your backs they are weak An' your legs they ain't strong, Don't be skairt, little dogies, We'll get there 'fore long." The singer encourages the cattle; even though right now the trail is dry and ugly, there are better places ahead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work travel animal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 205, "Cowboy Song" (1 text)
Roud #5483
File: R205

Cowboy Song (II), The

See The Cowboy's Dream (File: R185)

Cowboy Song (III)

See My Home's in Montana (File: Ohr001)

Cowboy to Pitching Bronco

See Cowboy Boasting Chants (File: LxA381)

Cowboy Trail, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a cowboy, comes to an Indian village; they welcome him. He meets a girl; they ride the trail together, courting as they go. A war party overtakes them, taking the girl and leaving him wounded. She returns; he asks her to bury him by the trail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1931 (recording, Buell Kazee)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a cowboy, takes lonely trail to an Indian village, where they welcome him. He meets a girl; she waits for him out on the trail and they ride off together, courting as they go. As they approach a ranch, a war party overtakes them, taking the girl and leaving him wounded. She returns; he tells her he is dying, and asks her to bury him by the trail so that she may mourn for him
KEYWORDS: courting love fight war travel burial death dying mourning lover cowboy Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Buell Kazee, "The Cowboy Trail" (Brunswick 481, c. 1931; rec. 1929; on WhenIWas2, KMM)
File: RcTCowTr

Cowboy Wishes, The

DESCRIPTION: "I want to be a cowboy And with the cowboys stand, With leather chaps upon my legs...." He'll have a fine saddle and gun. He hopes to be tough and "so very bad." "At punching cows I know I'll shine; I'm sure I'll take the cake."
AUTHOR: Words: D. J. O'Malley (source: Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (source: Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
KEYWORDS: cowboy clothes horse bragging
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 196, "Cowboy Wishes" (1 text)
Roud #11286
File: GWGW196

Cowboy's Challenge

DESCRIPTION: "Down, down, hold me down, It takes more than one man to hold me down." Repeat with two men, three men, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: cowboy nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 399, "Cowboy's Challenge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7817
File: Beld399

Cowboy's Christmas Ball, The

See The Cowboys' Christmas Ball (File: TF16)

Cowboy's Dream, The

DESCRIPTION: "One night as I lay on the prairie... I wondered if ever a cowboy Could drift to that sweet by and by.... Roll on, roll on, roll on, little dogies, roll on, roll on...." A cowboy's reflections on the afterlife, with the images cast in herding terms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 ("Cow-Boy Life in Texas"); Will Barnes thought he learned the words in 1886 or 1887
KEYWORDS: cowboy religious dream
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So,SW) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Randolph 185, "One Night As I Lay on the Prairie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 516, "The Great Round-Up" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 95, p. 227, "Cowboy Meditations" (1 text)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 44, "Cowboy Meditations" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 14-17, "The Cowboy's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 146, "The Cowboys Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 105-108, "The Cowboy's Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys VI, pp. 66-86 (19), "Grand Round-Up" (9 texts, 3 tunes); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 40-41, "The Cowboy's Dream"; pp. 75-77, "The Great Round-Up" (2 texts)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 122, "The Grand Roundup" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 101-103, "The Cowboy's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp 155-157, "The Cowboy's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 61, "The Cowboy's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 410-411, "The Cowboy's Dream" (1 text, tune references; this appears to combine "The Cowboy's Dream" and "The Last Great Round-Up")
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 75, pp. 166-167, "Cowboy Song" (1 text)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 112-116, "The Cowboy's Sweet By-and-By" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 428-429, "The Cowboy's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 6-8, "The Cowboy's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 192-194, "Sweet By-and-by Revised" (2 texts)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 40, "The Cowboy's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 3309-331, "Roll On, Little Dogies" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 112, "The Cowboy's Dream" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, p. 182-183, "The Cowboy's Dream" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 54, 251, "The Cowboy's Sweet Bye and Bye" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 78, "The Cowboy's Sweet Bye and Bye" (1 text, tune referenced)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 41, "The Cowboy's Sweet Bye and Bye" (1 text, tune refrerenced)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 74-75, "The Cowboy's Sweet Bye and Bye" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT, COWDREAM*
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 62-72, "Will Barnes and 'The Cowboy's Sweet By and By'" (1 text plus various excerpts and a history of the song)
Roud #4453
RECORDINGS:
Jules [Verne] Allen, "The Cowboy's Dream" (Victor V-40178, 1929; on AuthCowboys)
Harry Jackson, "Roll On, Little Dogies" (on HJackson1)
Bradley Kincaid, "The Cowboy's Dream" (Decca 5048, 1934)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Cowboy's Dream" (Romeo 431. 1927)
McGinty's Oklahoma Cowboy Band, "Cowboy's Dream" (OKeh 45057, 1926)
Goebel Reeves, "The Cowboy's Dream" (Melotone 12214/Conqueror 7742, 1931)
George Riley (The Yodeling Rustler), "The Cowboy's Dream" (Romeo 5037, n.d. but probably c. 1930; Conqueror 7742, 1931)
Carl T. Sprague, "The Cowboy's Dream" (Victor 20122, 1926; Montgomery Ward M-4343, 1933)
Westerners [pseud. for Massey Family], "The Cowboy's Dream" (Perfect 13008, 1934)
Marc Williams, "The Cowboy's Dream" (Brunswick 244, 1928; Supertone S-2054, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (tune) and references there
cf. "THe Last Great Round-Up" (subject)
cf. "Sweet By and By"
NOTES [127 words]: An extended discussion of the authorship of this piece is found in Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys. What it seems to boil down to is that several people played a role, and none can claim the whole thing.
It was apparently built around "(In the) Sweet By and By" (so, e.g., Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, citing Ross Santee to the effect the words were by Will C. Barnes), but I've always heard it sung to "My Bonnie," and White reports that as the original tune. It's not the ArkansasWoodchopper tune, though.
As the Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs entry shows, the distinction between this and "The Last Great Round-Up" is very hard to draw; best to see both. Roud lumps them, and I don't blame him, but I think there was a deliberate rewrite along the way. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R185

Cowboy's Farewell, The

DESCRIPTION: "A cowboy lay out on the prairie... Oh, he had a quart of good liquor, And nearly a full quart of gin." He has been a cowboy all his life, avoiding farming and sheep ranches. He regretfully drinks to those who have taken over his cattle range
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Dobie, Publications of the Texas Folklore Society, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: cowboy drink travel home hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 408, "The Wyoming Nester" (1 text, 1 tune)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 34-35, "Good-Bye, You Old Dty Landers" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, pp. 22-23, "The Cowboy's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5095 and 12693
File: PRJ022

Cowboy's Flat River Girl, The

See Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl) [Laws C25] (File: LC25)

Cowboy's Heaven, The

See The Cowboy's Dream (File: R185)

Cowboy's Home Sweet Home, The

See The Wandering Cowboy [Laws B7] (File: LB07)

Cowboy's Lament, The

See The Streets of Laredo [Laws B1] (File: LB01)

Cowboy's Life

See The Horse Wrangler (The Tenderfoot) [Laws B27] (File: LB27)

Cowboy's Life (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "The bawl of a steer To a cowboy's ear Is music of sweetest strain; And the yelping notes Of the gray coyotes To him are a glad refrain." The cowboy recalls home and girl, and concludes, "Saddle up, boys, For the work is play."
AUTHOR: James Barton Adams?
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work home nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 44-45, "The Cowboy's Life" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, p. 219-220, "The Cowboy's Life" (1 text)
Roud #8062
NOTES [55 words]: Given the metre, the form, the contents, and the Lomaxness of this item, I'd bet a lot that it isn't traditional; John Lomax doubtless threw it into Cowboy Songs just to add bulk to the volume, and Thorp then picked it up in a sort of "you stole my songs, I'll steal yours" tit-for-tat. But we can't prove it, so here it is. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Saffe219

Cowboy's Life (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "The cowboy's life is a dreary old life, All out in the sleet and snow, When the winter comes, he begins to think Where his summer wages go." He heads out looking for fun. He loses his money in a poker game and heads back to the ranch to seek work again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Dobie, Publications of the Texas Folklore Society, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: cowboy hardtimes gambling cards work | poker snow
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 347, "The Cowboy's Life" (1 text)
Roud #838
NOTES [59 words]: Roud lumps this, and all songs that refer in the first line to a cowboy's dreary life, as #838, which is mostly the song filed in the Ballad Index as "A Cowboy's Life." I agree that that probably inspired this. But this is specifically about the cowboy losing his bankroll in a card game; it really looks like a deliberate rewrite. So I've split it off. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC347

Cowboy's Life, A

DESCRIPTION: "A cowboy's life is a weary, dreary life, Some say it's free from care." The singer complains of long hours, rising too early in the day, howling wild animals, bad weather, and wealthy bosses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908
KEYWORDS: cowboy work hardtimes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 53-57, "The Dreary Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 187, "A Cowboy's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XVII, pp. 228-239 (38-39), "The Pecos Stream" (6 texts, 2 tunes, though not all appear to be part of this piece); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 61-62, "The Dreary, Dreary Life" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 86, "The Cowboy's Life" (3 texts, 1 tune, although only the "A" text is demonstrably this piece)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 8-11, "The Dreary, Dreary Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 44-45, "The Dreary, Dreary Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 348-349, "The Dreary, Dreary Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #838
RECORDINGS:
Sloan Matthews, "The Cowboy's Life is a Very Dreary Life" (AFS, 1940s; on LC28)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shantyman's Life (I)" (tune & meter; lyrics)
NOTES [48 words]: Roud seems to lump all cowboy songs which contain the words "A cowboy's life is a (weary/dreary), dreary life" here. I'm not really convinced -- some of these songs share hardly any other lyrics. But, with none of them telling distinct stories, there isn't much basis for distinguishing. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LoF187

Cowboy's Lullaby

See Roundup Lullaby (File: ACSF418R)

Cowboy's Meditation

DESCRIPTION: "At midnight when cattle are sleeping," the cowboy looks at the stars and wonders. Are they inhabited worlds with cowboys and cattle ranges? Do cowboys there wonder about our sun? Will he meet mother in heaven? When dawn breaks, he gets back to work
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work family death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 46-47, "The Cowboy's Meditation" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 121, "Cowboy's Meditation" (1 text, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 26-27, "The Cow-boy's Meditation" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4453
RECORDINGS:
Lee Boswell, "The Cowboy's Meditation" (Decca 5057, 1934)
David Gauthier, " Cowboy's Meditation" (Broadway 8325, rec. 1931)
Kenneth Houchins, "Cowboy's Meditation" (Champion 45028, 1935)
Carl T. Sprague, "The Cowboy's Meditation" (Victor V-40197, 1930; Montgomery Ward M-4467, 1934; Montgomery Ward M-4783, c. 1935)
NOTES [32 words]: Yes, this is Cowboy Science Fiction.
Roud lumps this with "The Cowboy's Dream." There are similarities in theme, but this seems much more creative. Like Thorp, I wish I knew who wrote this. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: FCW121

Cowboy's Prayer (I), A

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Lord, I've never lived where churches grow"; the speaker prefers the wilderness as God created it. He is thankful that he is "no slave of whistle, clock, or bell." He apologises for his failings, and asks for guidance in the future
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Badger Clark
EARLIEST DATE: 1920
KEYWORDS: cowboy religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 128, "A Cowboy's Prayer" (1 text)
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 47-48, "A Cowboy's Prayer" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, p. 154, "A Cowboy's Prayer" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 126-136, "Badger Clark, Poet of Yesterday's West" (1 text plus discussion and a short biography of Clark)
Hal Cannon, editor, _Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering_, Giles M. Smith, 1985, pp. 69-70, "A Cowboy's Prayer" (1 text)
Roud #11201
NOTES [24 words]: There is no evidence that this song has ever circulated in tradition; the Fifes included it in their book for its content, not its pedigree. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: FCW128

Cowboy's Prayer (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Guard me, Lord, while I'm a-riding 'cross the dusty range out there From the dangers that are hiding on the trail so bleak and bare." The cowboy asks for guidance and protection, and concludes "At last to heaven lead me, up in the home corral."
AUTHOR: Earl Alonzo Brinistool
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 ("Trail Dust of a Maverick")
KEYWORDS: religious cowboy recitation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 77, "The Cowboy's Prayer" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, p. 81, "A Range Rider's Appeal" (1 text)
File: Ohr077

Cowboy's Return, The

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Cowboy's Ride, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, for a ride o'er the prairies free, On a fiery untamed steed...." The singer describes guiding the horse on its travels, concluding "You can have your ride in the crowded town! Give me the prairies free... Oh, that's the ride for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 109, "The Cowboy's Ride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11087
File: FCW109

Cowboy's Soliloquy (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "All day (long) on the prairies I ride, Not even a dog to run by my side." The solitary cowboy describes his life on the prairie -- where, e.g., "My books are the brooks, my sermons the stones" (the latter teaching him "not to despise" small things).
AUTHOR: Allen McCandless? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (Kansas "Cowboy")
KEYWORDS: cowboy work loneliness
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 4-6, "The Biblical Cowboy" (1 text)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 131-134, "The Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 123, "The Cowboy's Soliloquy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 64, "The Cowboy #1" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 342-343, "The Cowboy, I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 176-177, "The Cowboy" (1 text)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 2-7, "The Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Hal Cannon, editor, _Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering_, Giles M. Smith, 1985, p. 1, "The Cowboy's Soliloquy" (1 text)
Roud #5102
RECORDINGS:
Glenn Ohrlin, "The Cowboy" (on Ohrlin01, BackSaddle)
Carl T. Sprague, "The Cowboy" (Victor 21402, 1928; Montgomery Ward M-4783, c. 1935; on WhenIWas2)
NOTES [88 words]: Seemann, Ohrlin, and Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest all credit authorship to Allen McCandless. Seemann also lists first printing as being in the Trinidad, Colorado Daily Advertiser, 1885. [Cannon also attributes this to McCandless, and lists the 1885 printing, but says that it probably circulated before that, which makes you wonder about McCandless's authorship - RBW]
Carl T. Sprague's recording [credits] the words to John Lomax's "Cowboy Ballads" book. From oral tradition to print to aural tradition. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FCW123

Cowboy's Soliloquy (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a cowpuncher From off the north side... My life is a hard one." The singer tells of a cowboy's life "Out on the Little Dry." They bring the cattle to food and water. It's dull. Nights are cold. No one will help him if he dies; they'll bury him there
AUTHOR: D. J. O'Malley (source: Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
KEYWORDS: cowboy cattle hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 198-199, "Cowboy's Soliloquy" (1 text)
Roud #11287
File: GFGW198

Cowboy's Sweet By-and-By, The

See The Cowboy's Dream (File: R185)

Cowboy's Sweet Bye and-Bye, The

See The Cowboy's Dream (File: R185)

Cowboys Victimized

DESCRIPTION: "We all made the guess by the cut of his dress An' the tenderfoot style that he slung" that the visitor was some unacceptable alien. He says he can ride anything; they offer him the horse called "Satan." He rider tames Satan, for he is Bronco Bill Snyder
AUTHOR: James Barton Adams (source: Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse trick
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 49-52, "Cowboys Victimized" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Zebra Dun" (theme of the un-ridable horse)
File: ThLo049

Cowboys' Christmas Ball, The

DESCRIPTION: "Way out in western Texas where the Clear Forks waters flow... It was there that I attended the Cowboys' Christmas Ball." The location is described, as are all the people who show up. The singer expects to recall the excitement forever
AUTHOR: Larry Chittenden
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Chittenden's "Ranch Verses")
KEYWORDS: cowboy party dancing
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XVI, pp. 219-224 (33-36), "The Cowboys Christmas Ball" (2 texts, 1 tune); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 3539, "The Cowboys' Christmas Ball" (1 text)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 60, "The Cowboy's Christmas Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 350-352, "The Cowboys' Christmas Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 144-147, "The Cowboy's Christmas Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 38-43, "The Cowboy's Christmas Ball" (1 text, 1 tune, with elements of "Buffalo Gals" and "Skip to My Lou" as bridges)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 56-58, "The Cowboy's Christmas Ball" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hal Cannon, editor, _Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering_, Giles M. Smith, 1985, pp. 17-19, "The Cowboy's Christmas Ball" (1 text)
Roud #4634
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cowboys' New Years Dance"
NOTES [65 words]: Although often quoted, the difficult form of this piece (six twelve-line stanzas!) seems to have kept it from securing a firm place in oral tradition; Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys list seventeen printings but only one field recording, and Ohrlin admits that his version is shorter than the original. Cannon has a version chopped down to five stanzas, which he calls "folk song length." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: TF16

Cowboys' Gettin'-Up Holler

See Wake Up, Jacob (File: LoF184)

Cowboys' New Years Dance, The

DESCRIPTION: "We were sitting round the ranch house some twenty hands or more, Most of us Americans but a few from Arkansas...." "Twas with them I attended the Cowboys' New Years Ball." The extravagant dance is described in extravagant terms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Thorp)
KEYWORDS: cowboy party parody
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XXII, pp. 251-253 (44-48), "The Cowboys New Years Dance" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 552-554, "The Cowboys' New Years Dance" (1 text)
Roud #12501
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cowboys' Christmas Ball"
NOTES [51 words]: Thorp in his 1908 edition credits this to an unknown "Mark Chisholm." On the other hand, Thorp appears to have marked the song as one of his own in a copy given to a friend. Since the song does not seem to have appeared elsewhere, either in oral tradition or in print, it probably doesn't matter much. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: TF22

Cowcadden's Heroes

DESCRIPTION: The key members of Orange Lodge One-Six-Two are named. Then the singer puts himself at the Boyne. "When we ... had safely crossed I fell into a dream" of Joshua leading "us" across Jordan and around Jericho until "it came tumbling"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: dream Ireland Bible moniker political religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 24, "Cowcadden's Heroes" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [94 words]: For the Battle of the Boyne, regarded as a liberating event by Irish Protestants, see the notes to "The Battle of the Boyne (I)." Joshua's exploits are only marginally parallel to the events of 1688-1690: The crossing of the Jordan was unopposed, and the river bed was dry (see chapters 3-4 of the book of Joshua). And the Boyne was a straight battle, unlike the siege of Jericho, which was -- a siege (see Joshua chapters 5-6). It can't even be compared with the siege of (London)derry, because Jericho was captured by assault, while Derry withstood its siege. - RBW
File: OrLa024

Cowdenknowes, The

See The Broom of Cowdenknows [Child 217] (File: C217)

Cowe the Nettle Early

See Cowe, Cowe (File: GrD81656)

Cowe, Cowe

DESCRIPTION: If you like "lang kail" [see notes] cull the nettle early. Cull it low and soon, in June, before it blooms. Cull it by the wall, where the sun doesn't fall, at dawn. Cull it with an old toothless sickle and old leather-palmed gloves.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1656, "Cowe, Cowe" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 143, "Cow the Nettle Airlie" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 34, "Cou' the Nettle Early"
"Sketches in Natural History: The Nettle Order of Plants," William and Robert Chambers, editors, Chambers's Edinburgh Journal (London, 1844 ("Digitized by Google")), No. 28, July 13, 1844, p. 26, "Gin Ye Be For Long Kail" (1 text)
Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 34, "The Wee Wifie" (1 text)
Robert Ford, Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories (Paisley, 1904 (2nd edition, "Digitized by Google")), pp. 138-139, "Cowe the Nettle Early"
Roud #13047
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jenny Nettles" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
NOTES [179 words]: Chambers notes, "Broth is sometimes made from nettles by the Scottish poor." Since his note follows the line "Gin ye be for lang kail" -- that is cabbage boiled, strained, chopped and seasoned with butter -- I assume that that dish and the nettle broth go together. Ford says "Cowe the Nettle Early" is "another delectable song for children -- also of a subtly didactic character."
"An old Scotch rhyme says the Nettle must be pulled in June:
Ere it's in the blume
Pull it by the auld wa's,
Pull whar the sun n'er fa's,
Stoo it when the day daw's,
Pu' the nettle early."
(source: Mary Pamela Milne-Home, Stray Leaves from a Border Garden, (London, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 184). This rhyme is entirely distinct from "Cowe the Nettle Early."
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 p. xli: "Crawfurd supplied songs and rhymes for Robert Chambers ... it appears that the versions of 143 'Cow the Nettle Airlie' and 144 'The Wee Wyfie' ...." Chambers 1870 notes these to be from "recitations in Fife and Ayrshire." Crawfurd's versions are from Ayrshire (p. xxxix). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD81656

Cowman's Lament, The

See Going to Leave Old Texas (Old Texas, Texas Song, The Cowman's Lament) (File: FCW066E)

Cowman's Prayer, The

See The Cattleman's Prayer (File: FCW126)

Cowmaneery, Kilt Me Keery

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Cowry Cowry Custard

See Cowardy Cowardy Custard (File: SuSm126E)

Cows Are in the Meadow, The

DESCRIPTION: "The cows are in the meadow, Laying down to rest, Around the king, around the queen, We all jump up together."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: cattle royalty | game
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 33, "(The cows are in the meadow)" (1 text)
File: PKKB033D

Cows in the old field, don't you hear the bell?

See Sheep Shell Corn by the Rattle of His Horn (File: Br3196)

Crab Song, The

See The Sea Crab (File: EM001)

Crab-Fish, The

See The Sea Crab (File: EM001)

Crabe Dans Calalou

DESCRIPTION: Creole French lullabye: "Fais dodo, mon fls, Crabe dans lalalou." "Go to sleep, my son, Crabs are in the pot." Father has gone to the river; mother is catching crabs.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage lullaby father mother fishing
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 97-98, "Crabe Dans Calalou" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
File: LoSi097

Crabtree Still

DESCRIPTION: "I went up the hill, I found a still, So gather round, boys, we will all keep mum. It's bad, it's sad, it's a shame." "Ed" is killed in a shootout (?), and those with the moonshine are chased by the sheriff. They end up in court before a dishonest judge
AUTHOR: Clabe Kazee?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: drink police judge trial punishment
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 118-120, "Crabtree Still" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 126-128)
File: ThBa118

Crack Schooner Moonlight, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, we towed out the Moonlight, dropped the tug in the gale With the old Law before us and the Porter on our tail." "Hurrah for a race down the Lakes!" The sailor describes the wind and how they "leave the Law, the Damforth, and others by the score."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (collected by Walton from a group of Illinois sailors)
KEYWORDS: ship racing
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 231-234, "The Crack Schooner Moonlight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #19861
RECORDINGS:
Ivan Watson, "The Crack Schooner Moonlight" (fragment, 1938; on WaltonSailors, which curiously omits a line from the chorus shown in the Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors text)
NOTES [613 words]: Although this song praises the Moonlight's performance, the statement that she was a "crack schooner" requires a lot of footnotes. Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors describes her as having a clipper hull but a schooner rig -- a strange compromise, since clippers were designed mostly for speed (at the cost of cargo capacity), and schooners, though highly maneuverable, we not as fast as square-rigged ships. Keller, p. 77, reports that "She was a three-master, her rigging consisting of fore and aft sails on the mainsail and mainmast, and a squaresail on the foremast. But unlike the traditional barkentine rig, she carried a large, billowing triangular topsail above the squaresail, known as a raffee." The effect of this, clearly visible in the painting of the ship on p. 78 of Keller, is that most of her sail is on the foremast.
This apparently was a common compromise on the Great Lakes, where (due to the many shoals) manueverability was important. Keller, p. 79, says that "Only a few short years after she was built, the MOONLIGHT was generally acknowledged to be one of the finest -- and fastest -- cargo vessels on the Great Lakes."
Her reputation did little to keep her in business. After just 14 years, in 1888, Moonlight was sold, cut down, and made into a sailing barge. Nor did it have much luck in this configuration. Thompson, p. 90, shows a photo of the Moonlight after it ran aground near Marquette in 1895 after her tow the Charles J. Kershaw suffered a boiler problem. (a closeup of the photo is on p. 80 of Keller, who however dates the accident to 1896.)
According to Wolff, p. 74, the Moonlight and the Henry A. Kent (which had also run aground in the Kershaw incident) were not re-floated until the next year, and that at "enormous expense." The Kershaw itself was a total loss, and one of the tugs called in to rescue the barges sank on its way home.
At that time, Moonlight still had three masts. But apparently after that she was further cut down. Keller has a photograph on p. 81; the once-proud schooner ended up losing her mainmast, and while the foremast and mizzen are still there, they have no yards; I see no way to hang a sail. The once-beautiful ship has become extremely ugly and utilitarian.
According to Wolff, p. 100, the Moonlight's last voyage was in September 1903. Carrying a load of 1400 tons of iron ore, she began to take on water and quickly sank. The crew, fortunately, was rescued by her tow the Volunteer (Keller, p. 82); the Moonlight may have had a lot of accidents, but she seems to have had a good safety record.
According to Keller, p. 83, the Moonlight at the time of her loss "was valued at $12,000, less than half of what she was worth in her glory days."
This song, however, describes an earlier event in the boat's existence. Keller, p. 80, gives no date, but apparently the Moonlight and the Porter left Buffalo at about the same time, and both were heading for Milwaukee. They agreed to have a race. It was a very close contest as they passed the Straights of Mackinac. Then a storm blew up. Captain Sullivan of the Moonlight took shelter in Port Washington; the Porter pressed on. The Porter won the race -- sort of. Moonlight reached Milwaukee under her own power. The Porter had lost all her masts and rigging, and reached Milwaukee only because tugs had found her after the storm and hauled her into port (Keller, p. 81). According to Keller, the captains decided to call it a draw and headed to a bar together.
It would seem reasonable to assume that this song was written in the years between the race and the time the Moonlight was cut down. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM231

Crackers, Crackers, Penny a Cracker

DESCRIPTION: Rope-skipping game. "Cracker, cracker, Penny a cracker, When you pull them, They go bang."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 106, "(Crackers, crackers)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #88, "Crackers, crackers" (1 text)
File: SuSm106B

Cradle Lullaby

DESCRIPTION: "Baloo, loo baby, now baloo, my dear, now baloo, loo lammie, your mammie is here." The singer consoles her baby through all the wind and storm, while lamenting that its father is out on the sea. She hopes the child's "wauk'nin' be blyther than mine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: lullaby father sailor separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 167, "Cradle Lullaby" (1 text)
Roud #5562
File: Ord167

Cradle Song (I)

See Uncle Joe Cut Off His Toe (Rock the Cradle Joe) (File: Br3097)

Cradle Song (II)

See Sleep, Baby, Sleep (File: HeSo323)

Cradle Song, A (Hushaby My Little Crumb)

See Hushaby My Little Crumb (File: Gund044C)

Cradle's Empty, Baby's Gone, The

DESCRIPTION: "Little empty cradle, treasured now with care, Though thy precious burden it has fled, How we miss the locks of curly golden hair...." "Baby's left her cradle for the golden shore... Empty is the cradle, baby's gone." Baby sleeps in a grave in the valley
AUTHOR: Harry Kennedy? (Source: Sheet music by Oliver Ditson & Co.)
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: baby death burial
FOUND IN:
Roud #V4553
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Cradle's Empty" (Piotr-Archive #483, recorded 02/01/2023)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(5a/b), "The Empty Cradle, Baby's Gone," R. March and Co. (London) 1877-1884; also Firth b.28(4a/b) (ibid).
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(62b), "The Cradle's Empty, Baby's Gone," Poet's Box (Dundee), 1880-1900
NOTES [119 words]: The sheet music in the Levy collection, by Oliver Ditson & Co., is dedicated "To my esteemed friends Mr. & Mrs. E. M. Kayne." Harry Kennedy is listed as the author of "A Flower from Mother's Grave." Sounds like a guy with a morbid streak.
Morbid though it is, there is an 1881 arrangement for classical ensemble: "Cradle's empty baby's gone; Medley quadrille," with parts for two violins, viola, bass, two cornets, trombone, clarinet, and flute or piccolo, published by J. W. Pepper of Philadelphia; the arrangement seems to be credited to "Bowman."
Although the sheet music twice says it is by "Harry Kennedy," and I've seen that attribution in songsters, it is copyrighted in the name of "William H. Kennedy." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BdEICBG

Cradle's Ta'en the Stan' Again, The

DESCRIPTION: The cradle has stopped rocking and "'twould need a man wi' tartan hose" to make it rock again.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex childbirth nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1452, "The Cradle's Ta'en the Stan' Again" (1 text)
Roud #7279
File: GrD71452

Crafty Farmer, The [Child 283; Laws L1]

DESCRIPTION: A farmer carrying money from/for a transaction is met by a robber. The robber demands his money; the farmer throws it on the grass. While the robber gathers it, the farmer makes off with the robber's horse and all the wealth in his saddlebags
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769
KEYWORDS: robbery trick money outlaw escape
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber,Hebr)) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,NW,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (43 citations):
Child 283, "The Crafty Farmer" (1 text)
Bronson 283, The Crafty Farmer" (43 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 283, "The Crafty Farmer" ( 5versions: #1, #12, #18, #25, #38)
Laws L1, "The Yorkshire Bite" (Laws gives three broadside texts on pp. 73-77 of ABFBB)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 253-254, "The Yorkshire Bite" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 11)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #18, "The Silly Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #137, "Highwayman Outwitted" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #35, pp. 1-2, "The Yorkshire Farmer" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 266, "The Yorkshire Farmer" (9 texts, 7 tunes) {A=Bronson's #25, C=#28 [misattributed in Bronson], D=#27, E=#34, F=#23}
Greig/Duncan2 267, "The Farmer and the Robber" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #1, B=#3}
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #17, pp. 126-130,243-245, "Saddle to Rags" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 177-180, "Saddle to Rags" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 140-142, "Saddle to Rags" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 406-413, "The Yorkshire Bite" (3 texts, 1 tune); also pp. 477-478, "The Crafty Farmer" (notes plus many stanzas from Child) {Bronson's #31}
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 234-235, "The Yorkshire Bite" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #20}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 51-53, "The Yorkshire Boy" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #32}
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 97-102, "The Yorkshire Bite" (1 text, 1 tune, plus extended analysis including several excerpts) {Bronson's #29}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland4, pp. 139-175, "The Yorshire Bite" (9 texts plus 6 fragments, 9 tunes) {B=Bronson's #32, D=#29, K=#20}
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 46, "The Crafty Farmer" [incorrectly listed as Child #278] (1 text plus an excerpt)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 46, "The Crafty Farmer" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 55, "Johnny and the Highwayman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #141, "The Yorkshire Bite" (1 text); #142, "The Damsel from Cheshire" (1 text, with this plot but with the interesting twist that the person robbed is female)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 237-239, "Well Sold the Cow" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #26}
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 14, "Well Sold the Cow" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #19}
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 171-173, "Well Sold the Cow" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #26}
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 20, "The Little Yorkshire Boy" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #21}
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 60, "The Yorkshire Bite" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 33-38, "The Yorkshire Boy" (2 texts, 3 tunes)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 127-133, "The Crafty Farmer" and "The Yorkshire Bite" (2 texts)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 662-665, "The Crafty Farmer" (2 texts)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 117, "The Old Spotted Cow" (2 texts, 3 tunes) {Tune "B" is Bronson's #29}
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 163-164, "The Kennebec Bite" (1 text)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 6, "The Kennebec Bite" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 157, "John Sold the Cow Well" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 118-119, "Down, Down Derry Down" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #37}
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 89, pp. 130-132, "The Crafty Farmer" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H51, pp. 129-130, "The Crafty Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 180, "The Yorkshire Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 31, "The Crafty Farmer" (1 text)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 94-95, "The Wise Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #33, "Selling the Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 283, CRAFTBY CRFTFARM*
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 377-380, "The Boy Who Outwitted the Robber" (a prose version of the tale from Scotland)
Roud #2640 and 2637
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "The Yorkshire Farmer" (on IRECronin01)
Nick Davis, "The Yorkshire Boy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Warde Ford, "The Oxford Merchant (Hampshire Bite)" (AFS 4197 A, 1938; on LC58, in AMMEM/Cowell) {Bronson's #18}
Leonard Hulan, "The Yorkshire Boy" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(79), "The Robber Outdone" ("Come listen a while and a story I will tell"), W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867; also Firth c.17(20), "The Robber Outdone"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Highwayman Outwitted" [Laws L2]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jack the Plowboy
Jack the Cow Boy
Well Sold the Cow
Selling the Cow
The Boy and the Cow
The Highway Robber
The Scotch Herdie
NOTES [389 words]: Roud has #2637 for Laws L1 Bite, #2640 for Child 283 - BS
Laws, obviously, considers "The Yorkshire Bite" to be distinct from "The Crafty Farmer." He may be right, but Coffin does not find any essential differences, and Bronson seems to regard them as subgroups. Even the three texts Laws gives for comparison have strong similarities in detail; it looks to me as if they are simply (bad) rewrites of the same original.
Given the degree of variation in the particular verses, it is hard to tell which texts go with which song. Since the versions are so close; I decided not to distinguish them. (One of the few instances where I lumped rather than split, but splitting requires a distinguishing characteristic!)
It's just possible that this has a real-life origin, though I doubt it: Brandon, pp. 29-31, reports that one Isaac Atkinson held up a young woman, who -- apparently thinking he wanted something harder to recover than her money -- threw a bag of coins in the ditch. Atkinson, instead of either pursuing his seduction or doing anything to control the girl, simply jumped off his horse to pick up the coins.
The girl then flew away on her horse, and by chance his horse followed. She was able to report where she had left him, and he was taken and hanged.
Brandon, however, cites no sources; I almost wonder if his tale doesn't combine this one with something like "Lovely Joan." Or, even more likely, with "The Highwayman Outwitted."
McDonald, pp. 58-60, has a bit more on Atkinson, who supposedly was born c. 1614 and died in 1640; he was born in Berkshire to a good family and went to Oxford. But he did not finish; he quarreled with his father and went out to make his own way in the world. He supposedly robbed his own family very early in his career. He supposedly developed a taste for robbing lawyers, including most notably Charles I's attorney general William Noy.
McDonald reports that, when the crowd came to arrest him, he killed four before being taken.
The tale of a robber tricking a man off his horse and stealing it has many more analogies, such as the folk tale of "Jack Hannaford," found in Henderson's Folk-Lore of Northern Counties and accessible on pp. 40-43 of Jacobs.
Kellett, p. 208, tells that "Yorkshire bite [is an] old term applied to Yorkshire dealers, reputed to be sharp and cunning." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C283

Crafty Lover, The

See The Lawyer Outwitted [Laws N26] (File: LN26)

Crafty Ploughboy (I), The

See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

Crafty Ploughboy (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Three hearty young men in the country do dwell"; they go out poaching. "Sweet Lips and Reuben" go out to set up pheasant decoys to try to lure the poachers, but the poachers ignore them to take real game, leaving a few to breed more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs), with parts dating to 1906
KEYWORDS: poaching trick escape bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 56-57, "The Crafty Ploughboy" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
NOTES [75 words]: Roud lists this as #2637, which is "The Crafty Farmer"/"The Yorkshire Bite" type (Laws L1). This is a completely separate song, however, even taking into account the fact that it is composite; neither part belongs with #2637. The confusion is presumably based on the title "The Crafty Ploughboy," which is a standard title for Laws L1 -- but which has no connection with the song as printed. A better title would be "The Crafty Poachers" or similar. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: CoMo56

Crafty Wee Bony

DESCRIPTION: Bony escapes, Louis flees Paris and Sandy and Donald lead highlanders and Scots Greys to meet Bony at Waterloo. "A favourite eagle was ta'en by a Grey." The French run. Bonaparte is sent to St Helena. "We'll chant ower this story to auld Scotia's glory"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1817 (T Johnston chapbook, according to Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: battle France humorous Napoleon exile
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #94, p. 2, "Sandy and Donald" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 151, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Crafty Wee Bony" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2642
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.14(33), "Adventures of Sandy and Donald On the Plains of Waterloo" ("When crafty wee Buona' broke out of his prison"), The Poet's box (Glasgow), 1870
Murray, Mu23-y1:063, "The Adventures Of Sandy And Donald On The Plains Of Waterloo," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lass o' Glenshee" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Waterloo
NOTES [163 words]: In the aftermath of Napoleon's first abdication in 1814, Louis XVIII (1755-1824) hurried to France to claim the throne of his elder brother Louis XVI. (What happened to Louis XVII? He was the son of Louis XVI, and spent his entire reign in exile, dying while still a boy in 1795.) Hence the reference to Louis fleeing (though not very fast, since he was immensely fat and needed a cane to walk due to gout).
The reference to the Highlanders and Scots Greys at Waterloo is accurate; David Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon, (Macmillan, 1966), notes that the Scots Greys and 92nd Highlanders were in Wellington's army. They were among the forces who opposed the first French attack, launched by d'Erlon's corps. (The 92nd Highlanders, if I understand Chandler right, were in the front line; the Scots Greys came to reinforce them when the front line wavered.)
According to Chandler, Sergeant Charles Ewart of the Scots Greys captured the eagle of the French 45th Regiment. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1151

Craiganee

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on the muses to help him express his farewell. He must leave home, parting from friends and Craiganee and a girl he will not name. He describes how she watches him from the shore, and hopes they will meet again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (JIFSS)
KEYWORDS: emigration parting separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H749, pp. 189-190, "The Flower of Craiganee" (1 text, 1 tune); H730, p. 190, "The Hills of Tandragee" (1 text, 1 tune, said by some to be derived from "The Hills of Glenswilly," but agreeing in plot and in over half its lines with the Henry text of "Craiganee," though the tunes are somewhat different)
Roud #2743
NOTES [34 words]: The relationship between "Craiganee," "The Hills of Glenwilly/Glensuili," and "The Hills of Tandagree" appears to be very complicated; we will try to make it clearer in future versions of the Index. - RBW
File: HHH749

Craigbilly Fair

See Widdicombe Fair (II) (File: K289)

Craigie Hill

DESCRIPTION: Singer overhears two lovers. She asks that he take her with him from Ireland. He is leaving to buy a plantation in America where she will join him. She says, before he dies, he would wish one sight of the Bann River. He bids farewell to Craigie Hill.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1945 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: love emigration parting America Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 80, "Craigie Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CRAIGHIL
Roud #5165
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "Craigy Hills" (on IRPTunney01); "Craigie Hill" (on Voice04)
Roisin White, "Craigie Hill" (on IRRWhite01)
File: RcCraHil

Craigston's Growing

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

Cranberry Bogs, The (Cranberry Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Have you ever been down to the cranberry bogs? Some of the houses are hewn out of logs...." Asked to sing, the singer tells stories of the cranberry harvest. The fruit are gathered after most other crops are in, so all sorts of people happily take part
AUTHOR: Barney Reynolds?
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (recording, Frances Perry)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad moniker
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p.45, "The Cranberry Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 435, "The Cranberry Song" (1 text)
DT, CRANBRRY* CRANBRR2*
Roud #5412
RECORDINGS:
Frances Perry, "Cranberry Song" (AAFS, 1946; on LC55)
NOTES [232 words]: The only published version of this piece appears to be that recorded by Frances Perry for AAFS. But Perry herself (who thought the song to have been composed around 1900) admitted that "At each marsh every year, new verses are composed about the workers present at that season." (Hence my use of the "moniker" keyword).
Curiously, John Berquist claims to have a Minnesota version, which conforms closely to the outline of the Perry version but has dozens of minor verbal differences; the tune is also different from that printed in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin. It appears there has been some folk processing (but starting from the basic Reynolds/Perry text). The most substantial change alters the location: "Mather" in Perry becomes "Mercer" in Berquist.
This is a noteworthy change, because there doesn't seem to be a town called Mather (although Frances Perry said that author Barney Reyonds was from Mather). Mercer, however, is in northern Wisconsin, near the border with upper Michigan and about 20 miles south and slightly east of Ironwood. It's a wet region, there is, in fact, a Cranberry Lake not too far south of there.
The Digital Tradition claims that Dillon Buston wrote a tune for this in 1987, taking the text from Peters. However, Perry had a tune back in 1946, and Berquist recorded his tune in 1981 -- and it's a fine tune that doesn't need any newfangled replacements. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: RcTcrBo

Cranberry Song

See The Cranberry Bogs (Cranberry Song) (File: RcTcrBo)

Crantock Games

See Willy Coombe (Crantock Games) (File: Gund048)

Crash!

DESCRIPTION: "Off we go, into the wild blue yonder... Crash!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: technology disaster humorous derivative
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 112, "Crash!" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Off We Go, Into the Wild Blue Yonder" (tune)
File: ZiZa112E

Craven Churn-Supper Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "God rest you, merry gentlemen, Be not moved at my strain"; the singer hopes hearers will laugh. "The ale it is a gallant thing." "'Twill make the parson forget his men." All are urged to drink and forget their cares: "Be frolicsome, every one."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad clergy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #10, pp. 182-184, "Craven Churn-Supper Song" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 382-384, "The Craven Churn-Supper Song" (1 text)
ST BeCo382 (Partial)
Roud #13471
File: BeCo382

Craw Killed the Pussie O, The

See The Craw Killed the Pussy-O (File: MSBR103)

Craw Killed the Pussy-O, The

DESCRIPTION: "The craw killed the pussy-o (x2), The muckle cat Sat doon and grat Behind the wee bit housie, O!" "The craw killed the pussy-o (x2), And aye, aye, the kitten cried, 'Oh, who'll bring me mousie-o?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: animal bird death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #154, p. 2, ("The craw killed the pussie O"); #155, p. 2, "The Craw's Killed the Pussie O" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1678, "The Craw's Ta'en the Pussie" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 103, "(The crow killed the pussy, O!)" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 26, ("The craws hae killed the poussie, O")
Roud #9221
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grows the Rashes" (tune, per Greig #155)
File: MSBR103

Craw's Killed the Pussie O, The

See The Craw Killed the Pussy-O (File: MSBR103)

Craw's Ta'en the Pussie, The

See The Craw Killed the Pussy-O (File: MSBR103)

Crawdad

DESCRIPTION: "You get a line and I'll get a pole... And we'll go down to the crawdad hole, Honey, baby mine." "What you gonna do when the lake runs dry, honey...." Sundry verses about catching crawdads, rural life, and (presumably) sexual innuendo
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: animal fishing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 34, "Sweet Thing/Crawdad Song/Sugar Babe" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 298-299, "Sweet Thing" (2 texts, the second being titled "The Crawdad Song"; 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 27-28, "The Crawdad Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, p. 896, "Crawdad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 86, "Crawdad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 271, "Crawdad" (1 text)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 103, "Dweley" (1 text, a collection of floating verses including one from this song, one from "The Jawbone Song," and others)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 199, "The Crow-fish Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 62, "The Crow-Fish Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #127, "Crawdad Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 68-69, "The Crawdad Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 18, "Crawdad Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 23, "Crawdad" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 276, "Crawdad Song"/"Honey Babe" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 35, "The Crow-Fish Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 104-105, "Honey Bee" (1 fragment, 1 tune, which appears to be either "Crawdad" or "New River Train," although it has a "Honey Bee" for the "Honey Babe")
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Foster West, "Folklore of a Mountain Childhood," Vol. XVI, No. 3 (Nov 1968), p. 167, "(Wake up, old man)" (1 short text); article reprinted (with text reset) in Vol. LII, No. 3 (Nov 1968), p. 9
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Time Was: Its Lore and Language," Vol. XIX, No. 2 (Mar 1971), p. 43, "(Wake up old man)" (1 text)
DT, CRAWDAD
Roud #4853
RECORDINGS:
Jess Alexander, "Crawdad Song" (AAFS 617 B1)
Mrs. Vernon Allen, "Crawdad Song" (AAFS 4142 B1/2)
Mary Davis, "Crawdad Song" (AAFS 1488 A/B1)
Girls of the Golden West, "You Get a Line and I'll Get a Pole" (Bluebird B-5167, 1933; Montgomery Ward M-4455, 1934)
J. L. Gores, "Sugar Babe" (AAFS 2593 B3)
Sam Hinton, "The Crawdad Song" (Decca K-69, n.d.)
Honeyboy & Sassafras, "Crawdad Song" (Brunswick 417, rec. 1929)
Clint Howard et al, "Crawdad Song" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01)
Aunt Molly Jackson, "Sugar Babe" (AAFS 827 B3, 1935)
Vera Kilgore, "Crawdad" (AAFS 2939 B2)
Evelyn Knight & Red Foley, "Crawdad Song" (Decca 27599, 1951)
Leary Family & T. Henderson, "Crawdad Song" (AAFS 3574 B1)
Texas Jim Lewis' Lone Star Cowboys (Perfect 7-12-55, 1937)
Lone Star Cowboys, "Crawdad Song" (RCA Victor 20-2941, 1948)
[Asa] Martin & [James] Roberts, "Crawdad Song" (Perfect 13046 [as by Asa Martin]/Melotone 13148, 1934)
Leroy Martin & group of convicts, "Crawdad" (AAFS 2671 A2)
Alec Moore, "Sugar Babe" (on AAFS 55 B1)
Poplin Family, "Crawdad Hole" (on Poplin01)
Sims & Mandie Tartt & Bettie Atmore, "Sugar Babe" (AAFS 2704 A3)
Joe Turner, "Crawdad Hole" (Atlantic 1001, 1952)
Ray Wood, "Sugar Babe" (AAFS 1594 A1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Thing (I)" (tune, lyrics, and everything else)
cf. "Back to Jericho" (words, pattern)
cf. "New River Train"
cf. "Going Around the World (Banjo Pickin' Girl, Baby Mine)"
cf. "This Mornin', This Evenin', Right Now" (tune, pattern)
SAME TUNE:
How Many Biscuits Can You Eat? (File: RcHMBCYE)
Pittsburg (Pittsburg Town) (on PeteSeeger13, AmHist1; PeteSeeger39)
Bill Cox, "N.R.A. Blues" (Perfect 13090, 1935)
Log Cabin Boys, "New Crawdad Song" (Decca 5103, 1935)
Portland Town to Klamath Falls (by Woody Guthrie; tune conjectured by Pete Seeger) (Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 80-81, with Seeger's notes on p. 82)
NOTES [226 words]: Songs with this tune and metrical pattern turn up throughout North American tradition; like the limerick, this skeleton seems to have become a favorite framework for humorous material. - PJS
This song poses a conundrum (hinted at in Paul's comment), because it merges continuously with the "Sweet Thing" family; they use the same tune (at least sometimes) and ALL of the same verses. Roud lumps them.
Chances are that they are "the same" song (whatever that means). But the tenor of the song changes somewhat with the presence or absence of a crawdad; after initially lumping the song, the Ballad Index staff decided to split them, based solely on mention of a crawdad. But one should definitely check all versions of both to get the complete range of material. - RBW
Just to confuse things further, the version of "The Crow-fish Man" in Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians (which uses a "This morning so soon" refrain) mentions crawdads, whereas the one in Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs apparently doesn't. So the former is filed here, the latter under "Sweet Thing (I)." Sharp also notes that his informant learned the song from an African-American singer. [Since they're from the same informant, I've now put them together here.]
The versions called "Sugar Babe" should not be confused with "Sugar Baby", aka "Red Rocking Chair." - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R443

Crawdad Man

See Crawdad (File: R443)

Crawdad Song

See Crawdad (File: R443)

Crawford's Defeat

See The Death of Colonel Crafford (File: E115)

Crayfish, The

See The Sea Crab (File: EM001)

Crazy Dixie, The

See Crazy Song to the Air of "Dixie"; also A Horse Named Bill (File: San342)

Crazy Grey Mare, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer stops at a tavern for whiskey and hay for his mare. When the mare is startled by a train, he is thrown from the sleigh. The mare is gone: he thinks killed by the train. She is at the tavern. She says she left because he is nasty when drunk.
AUTHOR: Hugh Lauchlan MacDonald
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: accusation drink ordeal humorous horse
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 183-185, 243, "The Crazy Grey Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13987
File: IvDC183

Crazy Jane

DESCRIPTION: Henry deserts Jane, "and with him forever fled the wits of Crazy Jane." She tells the story to each frightened passerby and each "in pity cries: 'God help poor Crazy Jane!'" "When men flatter, sigh and languish, Think them false, I found them so"
AUTHOR: Words: Matthew Gregory Lewis/Music: John Davy ?
EARLIEST DATE: before 1808 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 12(141))
KEYWORDS: madness courting lie warning lament
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 436-437, "Crazy Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #405, p. 27, "Crazy Jane" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #2/72, p. 29 and #2/64, p. 29, "Crazy Jane" (1 text)
ST Pea436 (Partial)
Roud #6458
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 12(141), "The Favourite Song, of Crazy Jane," Burbage and Stretton (Nottingham), 1797-1807; also Harding B 11(3335), Johnson Ballads 781, Harding B 11(3647), Firth b.27(10), Firth b.26(46), Harding B 28(61), Harding B 11(740), Firth b.25(140), Harding B 11(741), Harding B 25(444), Harding B 17(66a), Harding B 17(65b), Firth b.25(340), 2806 c.18(74), "Crazy Jane"; 2806 b.11(216), Harding B 11(3066), Harding B 11(3067), Harding B 11(3068), Harding B 11(3069), "Poor Crazy Jane"
LOCSinging, sb10044a, "Crazy Jane," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as102530, "Crazy Jane"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ghost of Crazy Jane" (character of Crazy Jane)
NOTES [207 words]: Bodleian attributes authorship to Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775-1818), but attributes no other broadsides to him. According to the English Department University of Pennsylvania site Lewis is best known for his 1796 Gothic novel "The Monk."
The Public Domain Music site attributes the music to John Davy (1763-1824) and makes 1800 the date of the song.
Bodleian has one related broadside as "The Birth of Crazy Jane", London, 1800-1802, shelfmark Johnson Ballads 301.
Bodleian has one parody as "Crazy Paul" dated Feb 5, 1801 which asks "Can a moonstruck Russian sailor Draw the fleet of France from Brest?" shelfmark Curzon b.3(138).
Broadside LOCSinging sb10044a: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Yeats wrote a whole series of "Crazy Jane" poems (though they don't seem to have been particularly popular); Peacock suspects this piece of inspiring them, but cannot prove it.
Leslie Shepard, John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 101, prints a broadside, "The Ghost of Crazy Jane." I'd say it's about the same character but not the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Pea436

Crazy Old Man from China

See An Old Man Came Over the Moor (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Crazy Song to the Air of "Dixie"

DESCRIPTION: "Way down south in the land of cotton, I wrote this song and wrote it rotten, I did, I didn't -- you don't believe me. The reason why I cannot sing I have no chestnuts for to spring...." Other nonsense of similar calibre follows
AUTHOR: "Andy Lee" (W. W. Delaney) supplied Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag's text
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Ernest Stoneman)
KEYWORDS: nonsense nonballad parody derivative campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 342, "Crazy Song to the Air of 'Dixie'" (1 text)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 120-121, "The Crazy Dixie" (1 text, 1 tune, beginning with "The Horse Named Bill" and including "Crazy Song to the Air of Dixie" verses)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 61, "The Whale Song (1 text, tune referenced; a "Sarah the Whale" type)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 94, 490, 491, "Sarah the Whale" (notes only)
Roud #29315
RECORDINGS:
Ernest Stoneman, "Dixie Parody" (OKeh 40430, 1925)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dixie" (tune) and references there
cf. "The Woodpecker's Hole" (some lyrics)
NOTES [83 words]: The nature of this song is such that almost any nonsense can, and is, attracted to it. So any nonsense to the air of "Dixie" is listed here (with the exception of "A Horse Named Bill," which is coherent in a small way).
According to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 490, the "Sarah the Whale" subtext was published by Evelyn Hopson Wood in Camp and Picnic Warrior in 1929. If so, it may have begun its existence independently -- but it certainly either mixed with or was inspired by this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: San342

Crazyhead, Michael

DESCRIPTION: "Crazyhead, Michael, Crazyhead, Michael, If you go across the street, You ill be crying, crying, crying so hard."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
KEYWORDS: nonballad warning
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, p. 86, "Crazyhead, Michael" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #16817
File: List086A

Creamery Butter

See Apples, Peaches, Creamery Butter (File: McIn108B)

Creation

See Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again [Laws I18] (File: LI18)

Creation and the Fall, De

See Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again [Laws I18] (File: LI18)

Creation Song, The

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Cree-Mo-Cri-Mo-Dorro-Wah

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Creel, The

See The Keach i the Creel [Child 281] (File: C281)

Creeping and Crawling

DESCRIPTION: The young man, creeping and crawling, seduces the maid, taking a knife to cut the tie on her drawers. He leaves her to lament nine months later.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Sharp mss., a "Sally My Dear" version with the words bowdlerized)
KEYWORDS: bawdy childbirth sex seduction lament clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South)) US(So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 33-39, "Creeping and Crawling" (7 texts, 2 tunes)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 178, "The Knife in the Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #76, "The Knife in the Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 89, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CRPCRAWL* KNIFWIND
Roud #32572
RECORDINGS:
James "Iron Head" Baker, "Crawling and Creeping" (AFS 717 A1, 1936)
Harry Cox, "The Knife in the Window" (on FSB2CD)
A. L. Lloyd, "Pretty Polly" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2)
Asa Martin, "Crawling and Creeping" (Oriole 8452, 1935)
Amy Michels, "Creepin' and A-Crawlin'" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #170, recorded 05/10/2022, probably this although it is too short to be certain)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hares on the Mountain" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Pretty Polly
The Snoring Maid
Lay Your Leg over Me Do
Nancy and Johnny
The Young Doctor
NOTES [107 words]: In England, this song regularly mixes with "Hares on the Mountain," with which it shares a tune. But the plots are different; I happily keep them separate though Roud formerly lumped them and some versions still seem to be misclassified. - RBW
The Lloyd recording provocatively contains the chorus "Lay your leg over me, over me, do." And at least one recorded version of "Sally, My Dear" -- an American one -- contains the "cutting the trousers" motif. So if "Sally, My Dear" is truly part of the "Hares on the Mountain" family, then "Creeping and Crawling" (or the "Pretty Polly" variant of it) is another link to "Roll Your Leg Over." - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RL033

Creeping Jane [Laws Q23]

DESCRIPTION: Racehorse Creeping Jane is not well known, but wins a race despite a slow start -- and is still fresh, though the course exhausted the other animals. After Jane dies, plans are made to keep her body from the hounds
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1855 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.19(76))
KEYWORDS: horse racing burial
FOUND IN: US(MW) Britain(England(Lond,North,South))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws Q23, "Creeping Jane"
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 439, "Creeping Jane" (1 text)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 4, "Creeping Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 23, "Creeping Jane" (1 text)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 89, "Creeping Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 114, "Creeping Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #112, "Creeping Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #105, "Creeping Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 99, "Creeping Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 532, CREEPJAN*
Roud #1012
RECORDINGS:
Joseph Taylor, "Creeping Jane" (on Voice08)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.19(76)[first line illegible], "Creeping Jane" ("I'll sing you a song, and a very pretty one"), E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Firth c.19(73), Firth c.19(75), Harding B 11(174), "Creeping Jane"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bill Hopkin's Colt" (theme)
cf. "Down the Road" (II) (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Jockey's Song
File: LQ23

Creepy, Creepy, Little Mouse

DESCRIPTION: "Creepy, creepy, little mouse, All the way to X's house."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: animal home | mouse
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 19, "(Creepy, creepy, little mouse)" (1 short text)
Roud #22984
File: PKKB019A

Creggan White Hare, The

DESCRIPTION: Barney Conway hunts the famous Creggan White Hare. He finds the hare but she eludes his dogs. He calls in sportsmen "with pedigree greyhounds" who arrive "in a fine motor-car." She eludes the seven men and nine dogs. "Health to the Creggan White Hare"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1945 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: escape hunting animal dog
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 85, "The Creggan White Hare" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 54-56, "The Creggan White Hare"
Roud #9633
NOTES [101 words]: Creggan is in County Antrim, Ireland. - BS
I have a strange feeling this has something to do with the Irish revolution. In particular it makes me think of Michael Collins (for whom see "General Michael Collins") and the dramatic British attempts to catch him in the period around 1919-1920. Collins, to be sure, was from the south -- but he would in time be elected to the Irish parliament from Armagh.
i repeat, it's just speculation. - RBW
Also collected and sung by Kevin Mitchell, "The Creggan White Hare" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
File: TSF085

Creole Girl, The

See The Lake of Ponchartrain [Laws H9] (File: LH09)

Crepe On the Little Cabin Door

DESCRIPTION: The singer left his home, breaking his mother's heart. He wastes time "on women, wine and song." He gets a letter from his mother asking that he come home to see her. When he finally returns home he finds crepe on the door. His mother is dead.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: age sex warning home parting return separation death music wine mother rake
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30115
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Crepe on the Little Cabin Door" (Columbia 15107, 1927)
Cyril O'Brien, "Take Warning" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Doc & Chickie Williams, "Crepe On the Little Cabin Door" (Doxx DWLP-2001, 1974)
Marc Williams, "The Cowboy Crooner", "Crepe on the Little Cabin Door" (Decca 25636,1929) 1929)
NOTES [11 words]: The description follows the Doc & Chickie Williams recording. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ML3COLCD

Crew from Boston Bay, The

DESCRIPTION: The Gin, with a crew from Boston Bay, is lost in the fog off Jefferey's. They drift until "I can smell the beans, we are drifted home" says the captain. They drop anchor, "and were guided by the sinful smell as we walked ashore on the fog"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea ship shore ordeal humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 110-111, "The Crew from Boston Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9960
RECORDINGS:
Jim Smurridge, "The Crew from Boston Bay" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea110

Crew of the Clara Youell, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's of a stately vessel, a vessel of great fame, And if you want to know her, the Clara Youell's her name.... She's the pride of Goderich harbor, and she's in the lumber line." The singer describes the captain, cook, and crew
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from Norman MacIvor by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor moniker nonballad cook
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 149-150, "The Crew of the Clara Youell" (1 text)
Roud #19854
File: WGM149

Cribisse! Cribisse! (Crawfish! Crawfish!)

DESCRIPTION: "Cribisse! Cribisse! pas gain di tout "show" bebe!... Creyole trappe ye pou' fait gumbo bebe." Sung in English and in (Creole) French, this song mocks the propensity of the Creole to be found around crawfish and vice versa.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: nonballad humorous foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 580, "Cribisse! Cribisse! (Crawfish! Crawfish!)" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BMRF580

Cricket and Crab-louse, The (Down Derry Down)

DESCRIPTION: A girl picks a flower containing a cricket and a crab-louse. Both transfer to her body; the crab-louse takes up residence in her vagina. The next day, he escapes and tells the cricket of the horrors he experienced while she had sex
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: bug sex bawdy humorous
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 56, pp. 258-260, "Down, Derry Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4791
NOTES [122 words]: Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging notes mentions of an item about a crab-louse and cricket in Legman's The Horn Book. Legman (pp. 153, 183) refers to a single item names "The Cricket and Crab-Louse," which appears on page 69 of an 1825 edition of The Merry Muses of Caledonia (a book which reportedly survive in only one copy). I have adopted Legman's title, since Logsdon's is so meaningless, but it should be noted that I have not seen the Merry Muses text; I am equating the two based solely on Legman's description. It is possible that the texts of the Merry Muses and Riley Neal are entirely different songs derived from a common folktale (which Legman also considers to underlie Tristram Shandy and Scientology). - RBW
File: Logs056

Cricketty Wee

DESCRIPTION: Arty Art, Dandrum Dart, and Brother-in-Three ask, in turn, "Where are ye going?"; Cricketty Wee answers, "To the fair." He will buy a pony, he will marry, will drink, will eat, will put food away, a cat will guard it; his children will work for death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: commerce wedding humorous questions
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H744, pp. 12-13, "Cricketty Wee" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CRICKWEE*
Roud #236
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Billy Barlow" (form)
cf. "The Cutty Wren" (form)
cf. "Hunt the Wren" (form, subject)
NOTES [48 words]: Scholars almost without exception link this to "The Cutty Wren" and/or "Billy Barlow." The only similarity, however, is in form; neither the plot nor the characters are the same. I am clearly in the minority, but I don't think they're the same song. In any case, when in doubt, we split. - RBW
File: HHH744

Cricklade Wassailers' Song

See Gloucestershire Wassailers' Song (File: RcGlWasS)

Cricky, Cracky, Craney, Crow

See Chickee Chickee Ma Craney Crow (Hawks and Chickens) (File: R570)

Crime at Quiet Dell, The

DESCRIPTION: "A widow and her children three at Parkridge, Illinois, Was happy and contented with two daughters and her boy." But "she would be wealthy If she'd only change her name." The family moves to Quiet Dell, where they are murdered as they try to escape
AUTHOR: Words: Leighton D. Davies / Music: A. H. Grow
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: homicide death family husband trick technology
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 19, 1932 - Execution of Harry Powers for his various murders
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 227-228, "The Crime at Quiet Dell" (1 text)
File: CAFS!227

Crime of the D'Autremont Brothers, The

DESCRIPTION: "Way out west in Oregon in 1923, The D'Autremont brothers wrecked the train as brutal as could be." Four of the train crew are killed. The brothers flee, are caught almost four years later, and "noe they are in prison for the lives they led."
AUTHOR: probably the Johnson Brothers
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording by the Johnson Brothers)
KEYWORDS: train robbery homicide manhunt punishment prison
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 11, 1923 - Roy, Ray, and Hugh DeAutremont attack the San Francisco Express as it comes out of a tunnel in Oregon. The brothers were caught in 1927 and all were given life sentences
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 166-168, "The Crime of the D'Autremont Brothers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 642-643, "The Crime of the D'autremont Brothers" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Johnson Brothers, "Crime of the D'Autremont Brothers" (Victor 21646, 1928)
NOTES [75 words]: Pretty definitely not a folk song; the only early recording appears to be that by the Johnson Brothers (whose small repertoire included several other non-traditional songs); Cohen reports that it sold fewer than 6000 copies, and the song does not appear ever to have been found in the field.
Charles and Paul Johnson seem to have been rather mysterious themselves; Cohen also reports that their listed home town of Tuco, Kentucky, cannot be located. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: LSRai066

Crimean War, The [Laws J9]

DESCRIPTION: Johnny and his mother together tell of Johnny's part in the Crimean War. Having fought at Alma, Balaclava, and Sevastopol, he is now safely (and happily) home again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 20, 1854 - Battle of Alma
Oct 25, 1854 - Battle of Balaclava
Nov 5, 1854 - Battle of Inkerman clears the way for the siege of Sevastopol (the city fell in the fall of 1855)
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws J9, "The Crimean War"
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 91, "The Crimean War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 49-50, As I Rode Down Through Irishtown" (1 text)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 123-125, "The Crimean War" (1 text, 1 tune, with the text of this piece though the tune is described as being identical to that for "As I Went Down to Port Jervis")
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 30, "As I Roved Through an Irish Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 765, CRIMEAWR
Roud #1924
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "As I Went Down to Port Jervis" (tune, lyrics, plot)
NOTES [55 words]: For the relationship of this song to "As I Went Down to Port Jervis," see the notes to that song. That song is certainly derived from this, and could easily be listed as a version (so, e.g., Roud), but Cazden et al consider them separate. Some versions, such as that of Ives, may belong with the "Port Jervis" rather than here. - RBW.
Last updated in version 5.1
File: LJ09

Criole Candjo (Creole Candio)

DESCRIPTION: Creole French. Candio comes asking the young woman to "make merry" with him. He follows her everywhere and repeats his pestering. She repeats her refusal, and wishes the listeners had met him so they would know what pressure he put her under
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: courting foreignlanguage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 216-218, "Criole Candjo" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a translation from Creole French into Creole English)
File: LxA216

Cripple Creek (I)

DESCRIPTION: Often found as a fiddle tune with words: "I got a gal at the head of the creek, Goin' up to see her 'bout the middle of the week...." "Goin' up to Cripple Creek, Goin' at a run, Goin' up to Cripple Creek to have a little fun." Most verses involve courting
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1913 (JAFL28)
KEYWORDS: fiddle courting river nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 299, "Cripple Creek" (1 short text plus mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 299, "Cripple Creek" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 178, "Going Up Hippocreek" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, p. 53, "Cripple Creek" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 247, "Gone to Cripple Creek" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, p. 15, "Cripple Creek" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #81, "Cripple Creek" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 118, "Cripple Creek" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 898-899, "Cripple Creek" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 83, "Shootin' Creek" (1 text, with recitation and verses partly derived from "Ida Red (I)")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 37, "Cripple Creek" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 43, "Old Corn Licker" (a 2-line fragment, unclassifiable but with similarities to some texts of this song)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Allen Davidson, Jr., "The Songs of Caleb Mashburn," Vol. XX, No. 1 (Feb 1972), p. 56, "Goin' up Cripple Creek, goin' on a run" (1 fragment)
DT, CRIPLCRK
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, pp. 245-246, "Goin' Up Cripple Creek" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Mrs. M. G. Jabobs)
Roud #3434
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Going Down to Cripple Creek" (OKeh 45214, 1928)
Fruit Jar Guzzlers, "Cripple Creek" (Paramount 3116/Broadway 8108, 1928)
Charlie Higgins, Wade Ward & Dale Poe, "Cripple Creek" [instrumental] (on LomaxCD1701)
The Hillbillies, "Cripple Creek" (OKeh 40336, 1925) (Vocalion 15367, 1926/Vocalion 5115, c. 1927)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Cripple Creek" (on MMOKCD)
Doc Hopkins, "Cripple Creek" (Radio 1410B, n.d., prob. late 1940s - early 1950s); "Going to Little Creek" (unpublished? 1960s; this is a very different version)
Land Norris, "Red Creek" (OKeh 40433, 1925)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Shootin' Creek" (composite with "Ida Red (I)"; Columbia15286-D, 1928; on CPoole01, CPoole05)
Fiddlin' Doc Roberts, "Cripple Creek" (Gennett 6336, 1927)
Ernest Stoneman, "Going Up Cripple Creek" (Victor 20294, 1926)
Stove Pipe No. 1 [pseud. for Sam Jones], "Cripple Creek & Sourwood Mountain" (Columbia 201-D, 1924)
Frances Turbyfill (Campbell), "Cripple Creek" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #149, recorded 04/25/2022, so noisy that it is almost impossible to be sure whether it is this or just noise)
Tweedy Brothers, "Cripple Creek" (Silvertone 4008, c. 1925)
Guy Wolff, "Cripple Creek" (Piotr-Archive #442, recorded 01/08/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sally Goodin" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Ida Red (I)" (floating verses)
cf. "Ida Red (III)" (floating verses)
NOTES [35 words]: The notes in Brown say that there was a gold rush at Cripple Creek, producing this song. But it's worth noting that the sources can't agree on the state in which Cripple Creek is located (Colorado, Virginia). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: San320

Cripple Creek (II) (Buck Creek Girls)

DESCRIPTION: "Buck Creek girl, don't you want to go to Cripple Creek? Cripple Creek girl, don't you want to go to town?" (x2). Alternately, "Buck Creek girls, don't you want to go to Somerset? Somerset girl, don't you want to go to town?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians)
KEYWORDS: nonballad travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 241, "Cripple Creek, or Buck Creek Girl" (2 short texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 64, "Cripple Creek" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3434
RECORDINGS:
Banjo Bill Cornett, "Buck Creek Girls" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Buck Creek Gal
NOTES [18 words]: Not to be confused with the fiddle tune/old time dance of the same name ("Going up to Cripple Creek..."). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: SKE64

Cripple Kirsty

DESCRIPTION: A porter meets Cripple Kirsty and asks if she's thirsty. She offers to pay half and they stop at a tavern. When she asks for another round he refuses. She says the drink she had was good and tells him to call on her the next time he would share a round.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan3)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "It's wha amang ye hisna heard o' weel-kent Cripple Kirsty." When a porter asks her if she were thirsty she offers to add her two-pence to his and "we'll hae a wee drap whiskie." He agrees and they go to Shirra's for a pint. She deftly drinks hers. He praises her but when she says "'lat us hae some mair o't' 'Na! na!' quo he 'ye greedy jade I think ye've got yer share o't.'" Says she, "'I maun be contentit ... it's done me muckle gweed ....' An noo I hope ye'se gies a ca' some mornin' fin yer thirsty An as ye gae by Fiddler's Close cry in for Cripple Kirsty"
KEYWORDS: drink parody
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #170, p. 2, "Cripple Kirsty" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 556, "Cripple Kirsty" (1 text)
Roud #6030
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maggie Lauder" (tune, form and text basis for parody)
NOTES [206 words]: Greig: "'Cripple Kirsty' I owe to Mr Wm Walker, Aberdeen who says it used to be sung by a fiddling neighbour about the middle of last century. He never saw it in print. Being a parody, and an exceedingly happy one, of 'Maggie Lauder,' it is of course sung to the same tune." That's as may be but, if there are hints of sexual symbolism in the original they seem lost in the parody.
For comparison's sake here's a Maggie Lauder Long Description: "Wha wadna be in love Wi' bonny Maggie Lauder." When a piper asks her "what was't they ca'd her," she tells him but "right scornfully" and tells him to begone. He, Rob the ranter, won't leave and claims "the lasses loup as they were daft When I blaw upon my chanter." She has heard of him as have "the lasses far and near." She says, "I'll shake my foot wi' right good will Gif you'll blaw up your chanter." When he played "Meg up and wallop'd o'er the green." He praises her dancing and she his playing. Says she, "There's none in Scotland plays so weel ... I've lived at Fife baith maid and wife These ten years and a quarter Gin you shall come to Anster fair Spier [ask] you for Maggie Lauder."
Greig/Duncan3: "As sung by Hugh Gallanders, a fiddling neighbour of ours 1846-1850 ...." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3556

Cripple of Cornwall, The

DESCRIPTION: "Of a stout cripple that kept the highway, And begged for his living all time of the day." Besides begging, the cripple also leads a band of robbers who work the highway. He intends to retire, but attacks Lord Courtney and is eventually captured and hung
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Ashton); a song with this title was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690; a blllad by this title was published 1625
KEYWORDS: injury robbery execution crime punishment
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 280-283, "A New Ballad Intituled, The Stout Cripple of Cornwall" (1 text)
Leslie Shepard, _John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844_, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 112, "An Excellent New Ballad entitled The Cripple of Cornwall" (reprint of a Pitts broadside)
Roud #12763
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Cornwall Cripple
The Stout Cripple of Cornwall
NOTES [81 words]: In addition to the items references here, there is STC #5773 [STC: A. W. Pollard, G. R. Redgrave, et al, A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland & Ireland And of English Books Printed Abroad 1475-1640, The Bibliographical Society [of London], 1963] -- "A new ballad, intituled: The stout criple of Cornnewall." It is said to have been entered to "the ballad partners" December 14, 1624, and published the next year; there is a copy in the British Library. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: JACB280

Crockery Ware

DESCRIPTION: A merchant wants to lay with a girl one night. She puts dishes on a chair near her bed. In the dark he breaks the dishes and chair and wakes her mother. She calls the police and he has to pay for the crockery ware and broken chair.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (Long)
KEYWORDS: sex trick bawdy humorous mother rake nightvisit courting lover police
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) US(MW)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 679, "Pretty Polly and Her Crockery Ware" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #66, "The Crockery Ware" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 257-258, "Crockery Ware" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 119, "Old Woman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 129-130,243-244, "The Crockery Ware" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 11, "A Young Man Lived in Belfast Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 9, "A Young Man Lived in Belfast Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, pp. 138-139, "Crockery Ware" (1 text)
DT, CROCKWAR CROCKRY*
ADDITIONAL: William Henry Long, _A DIctionary of the Isle of WIght Dialiect, And of Provincialisms used in the Island_ (Reeves & Turner, London, 1886), pp. 163-164, "The Crockery Ware" (1 text)
Roud #1490
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "A Young Man Lived in Belfast Town" (on Abbott1)
Everett Bennett, "Crockery Ware" (on PeacockCDROM)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(37), "Crockery Ware," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Frolicksome Farmer" (theme: the hazards of sex in the dark)
NOTES [34 words]: At least one source claims that the Crockery Ware wasn't just random pottery but the chamber pot. Not sure I believe it; that sounds awfully messy.
Thanks to Jim Dixon for pointing out the Long copy.- RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Pea257

Crocodile (I), The

See The Wonderful Crocodile (File: MA134)

Crocodile (II)

See Lady and the Crocodile (File: ACSF110L)

Cromie's Orange Buck, The

DESCRIPTION: Coming from a Hibernian Ball Misses M'Nulty and O'Hare meet Cromie's ranting Buck. He says he had "full authority from all the Orange boys" to "rip you on the ground." They run for protection to Barney Greenan who saves them. Ladies: travel protected.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: warning rescue party political talltale animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 37, "The Cromie's Orange Buck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2889
NOTES [61 words]: Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster: "Initiation into the Orange Order involves various rituals the most important being 'the ride on the buck'. Whether this actually means that you ride on the back of a goat I just don't know, but the 'buck' has become a symbol of Orange power... '[T]he ranting season' is the time when a good strong healthy buck is looking for a wife." - BS
File: MorU037

Cronie is Dead

See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Cronie o' Mine, A

DESCRIPTION: "Ye'll mount yer bit naiggie an' ride your wa'sdoun... There wons an auld blacksmith, we'Janet his wife, And a queerer auld cock ye ne'er met in your life." The singer describes the smith's odd haunt, then starts to describe the people of the town
AUTHOR: Alexander Maclagan (1811-1879) (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: moniker nonballad friend
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 92-95, "A Cronie o' Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #119, p. 1, "A Cronie o' Mine" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 551, "The Cronies o' Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6027
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(33a), "A Cronie o' Mine," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
File: FVS092

Cronies o' Mine, The

See A Cronie o' Mine (File: FVS092)

Cronnen's Song

DESCRIPTION: "In Paradise I am again, There's objects here inspire my view, And if I your favor still retain, You'll find I'm still a sailor." The singer will not disgrace his sailor's clothing, and hopes the girls will like him. He will respect all, high and low
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Harris Manuscript)
KEYWORDS: nonballad sailor clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 158, "Cronnen's Song" (1 text)
File: HLMM158

Croodin Doo, The

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Croodlin Dow

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Crook and Plaid, The

DESCRIPTION: "O, I'll no hae the laddie That drives the cart or ploo... But I will hae the laddie That has my heart betrayed, He's my bonny shepherd laddie And he wears the crook and plaid." She praises his beauty, his kindness, and his faithfulness
AUTHOR: Rev. Henry S. Riddell
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong; from tradition in Ford, 1899)
KEYWORDS: love shepherd
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 58-61, "The Crook and Plaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #106, p. 2, "The Crook and Plaid" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 455, "The Crook and Plaid" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H617, pp. 45-46, "The Shepherd Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5960
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(111), "The Crook and Plaid" ("If lasses lo'e the laddies, they surely should confess"), unknown, n.d.
Murray, Mu23-y1:039, "The Crook and Plaid," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(45b), "Crook and Plaid," unknown, c.1890"
SAME TUNE:
The Main-spring of Love (per broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:039)
NOTES [25 words]: Greig: "There is another and older version of 'The Crook and Plaid,' but Riddell's song deserves to hold the field. Christie prints a mixed version." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: HHH617

Crooked Gun, The

See The Sally Buck (File: SKE70)

Crooked Man

See There Was a Crooked Man (File: BGMG224)

Crooked Rib, The

DESCRIPTION: Women were created from man's crooked rib which explains "the crooked nature some women are" Like Eve, most women betray their husband. Men claim they can control their wife, but they can't. "From great guns and bad women's tongues, O Lord deliver me!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1847 (Forget-Me-Not-Songster)
KEYWORDS: wife humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, p. 105, "The Crooked Rib" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 255-256, "The Crooked Rib" (1 text)
Roud #12455
NOTES [79 words]: The creation of a woman from a man's rib (note that, in Hebrew, "adam" means "man" as well as being a proper name) is told in Genesis 2:21. There is no hint, in the Bible, that this rib was any more crooked than the others.
Diblee/Diblee apparently attribute this to Dan Somers of St Georges, PEI. Possibly Somers rewrote it, since the Diblee text is somewhat unlike the others. But the existence of various songster versions show that Somers did not originate the piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Dib105

Crooked Trail to Holbrook, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you hunky punchers that follow the bronco steer, I'll sing to you a verse or two your spirits for to cheer." The singer grumbles about a trip from Globe City (?) to Holbrook, marked by windstorms and stampedes; he's glad to be back home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax, Cowboy Songs)
KEYWORDS: cowboy hardtimes travel storm
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 53-54, "The Crooked Trail to Holbrook" (1 text)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 10, pp. 70-73, "The Crooked Trail to Holbrook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 533, "The Crooked Trail to Holbrook" (1 text)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 54-59, "The Crooked Trail to Holbrook" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ARIZONIO*
Roud #4037
NOTES [52 words]: This is item dB30 in Laws's Appendix II.
The notes in the Digital Tradition list this as a descendent of Laws B10 (either 10a, The Buffalo Skinners, or 10b, Boggy Creek or The Hills of Mexico). The similarity in theme is obvious. But cowboys complained a lot; Laws, Roud, and I all regard them as separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Log010

Crooked-Foot John

See Long John (Long Gone) (File: LoF287)

Crookit Bawbee

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! whar awa' got ye that auld crookit (penny/plaidie)?" He offers one of gold and "a mantle o' satin" to go with him to Glen Shee. She will only accept "the laddie that gave me the penny." If he is that man "whar's your crookit bawbee?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: courting separation brokentoken
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 25, "The Crooked Bawbee" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB025 (Partial)
Roud #2281
NOTES [101 words]: Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick: "Said Mrs Leslie:'A bawbee is a halfpenny, and the term for it goes back to the days of Mary, Queen of Scots. They brought out a coin when she was a baby [Mary because Queen at eight days old - RBW] and the baby's head was on it; you know the Scottish drawl and the language, and by and by baby came to be bawbee.'" - BS
Jean Redpath claims that this song was popular in lowland Scotland, but I can find no field collections. Redpath also points out an item in the Scots Musical Museum (#99, "O whar did ye get that hauver-meal bannock") which may be related. - RBW
File: CrSNB025

Crooskeen Lawn

See Cruiskeen Lawn (File: OCon054A)

Croppies Lie Down (I)

DESCRIPTION: "We soldiers of Erin, so proud of the name, Will raise upon Rebels and Frenchmen our fame... and make all the traitors and croppies lie down." The rebels murder parsons and women but run from soldiers. If the French land they'll lie with the croppies.
AUTHOR: Captain Ryan (Source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (_Constitutional Songs_, according to Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: rebellion death France Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 94A, "Croppies Lie Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 76, "Croppies Lie Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V17442
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(448), "Croppies Lie Down" ("We soldiers of Erin, so proud of the name"), unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 22(56), Harding B 11(3852), "Croppies Lie Down"; Harding B 16(253c), "The Soldier's Delight" or "Croppies Lie Down"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tree of Liberty" (tune)
NOTES [222 words]: According to Robert Kee, The Most Distressful Country, being Volume I of The Green Flag, pp. 98-99, this was "popular among the Orange yeomanry," i.e. the militia forces (not all of them Protestant, we should note) raised by the British to control the 1798 rebellion.
The ascription to "Captain Ryan" is interesting at the least. Obviously there could be several "Captain Ryans" -- but the one mentioned in the histories is one of the two men who tried to arrest Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and mortally wounded him in the process (see the notes to "Edward (III) (Edward Fitzgerald)"). - RBW
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "It was for playing this tune on the pipes that the unfortunate William Johnson was murdered at Scullabogue along with over one hundred others."
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Sean Tyrrell, "Croppies Lie Down" (on "The Croppy's Complaint," Craft Recordings CRCD03 (1998); Terry Moylan notes) - BS
For background on Scullabogue, see the notes to "Father Murphy (II) (The Wexford Men of '98)." None of the sources I've seen attribute the massacre to someone playing a pipe tune, though -- it was based on false information heard about the Battle of New Ross (for which see, e.g., "Kelly, the Boy from Killane"). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Zimm094A

Croppies Lie Down (II)

DESCRIPTION: "In the County of Wexford these rebels did rise." The Orange-men made them retreat. The Vinegar Hill battle is recalled. Esmond, Kay, Harvey and Hay are turned over to General Moore and executed after courtmartial. "Derry down, down, Croppy lie down"
AUTHOR: "Charles Cain, Grenadier in His Majesty's 7th, or Antrim Militia" (Source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1798 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution trial Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 26, 1798 - Beginning of the Wexford rebellion
May 27, 1798 - The Wexford rebels under Father John Murphy defeat the North Cork militia
June 5, 1798 - The Wexford rebels attack the small garrison (about 1400 men, many militia) at New Ross, but are repelled
June 21, 1798 - The rebel stronghold a Vinegar Hill is taken, and the Wexford rebellion effectively ended
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 94B, "Croppies Lie Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Derry Down" (tune) and references there
cf. "The Tree of Liberty" (tune)
cf. "Bagenal Harvey's Farewell" (subject of Bagenal Harvey) and references there
NOTES [381 words]: Nine rebels were executed including eight courtmartialled. Esmond, Kay, Harvey and Hay were not among them. Dr John Esmonde, Bagenal B Harvey and Harvey Hay are among those "Patriots of 1798" named on the "1798-1898 Irish Memorial" in New South Wales, Australia. (source: "Memorials, Monuments and Miscellany" Vinegar Hill at the OptusNet site)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "'Down' might have been chosen as a reply to 'up', which was a pass-word of the United Irishmen." - BS
All of the names in this song do indeed belong to figures from the 1798 Rebellion.
Dr. John Esmond, a leader of the Kildare rebels, was a member of the yeomen, making him a deserter. He was indeed executed by hanging; see the notes to "The Song of Prosperous."
Bagenal Beauchamp Harvey (or Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey; I've seen both forms) was the inept and apparently reluctant United Irish commander at New Ross (for details, see "Kelly, the Boy from Killane"). After the battle, he fled, and was eventually tried and hanged on Wexford Bridge (July 1, according to Robert Kee, The Most Distressful Country, being Volume I of The Green Flag, p. 124). Also hanged there was Matthew Keogh, a former British officer who had governed Wexford for the rebels; I would guess he is the "Kay" of the song.
I don't know a Harvey Hay, but there were brothers, Edward Hay and John Hay. John was known to have commanded troops during the 1798 rebellion. Edward did not, and lived until 1826, but it's widely felt that he was involved in the rebellion.
Blaming the slaughter on General Sir John Moore is thoroughly unfair; the atrocities of the 1798 campaign were almost all the fault of his superior, General Gerard Lake (1744-1808). Moore in fact seems to have felt that the best approach to the rebellion was to improve conditions for all. - RBW
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Croppies Lie Down" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998))
Harte: "This is one of several Orange songs written in 1798, all of them ending with the inevitable chant that is still to be heard on the 12th July Orange marches.... 'Croppies Lie Down.'" - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Zimm094B

Croppy Boy (I), The [Laws J14]

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a young Irish patriot, is arrested. A girl (his sister?) gives evidence against him, and he is sentenced to die. As he is waiting to be hanged, his father denies him, naming him "The Croppy Boy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) Canada(Mar,Ont) Ireland Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Laws J14, "The Croppy Boy"
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 207, "Copy Boy"[sic] (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 24, "The Croppy Boy" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 283-284, "The Croppy Boy" (1 text)
Randolph 128, "The Croppy Boy" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 45-46,"The Croppy Boy" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 85, "Song of the Croppy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 163, "Early, Early in the Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 34, "The Croppy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 35, "As I Was Walkin' Down Wexford Street" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 203, "The Croppy Boy" (1 text)
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 23-24, "The Croppy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 155, "The Croppy Boy" (6 texts)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 40, "The Croppy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 19, "The Croppy Boy" (7 texts, 2 tunes)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 95, "The Croppy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 188-190, "The Croppy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 318, "The Croppy Boy" (1 text)
Behan-IrelandSings, #10, "The Boy from Wexford" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
DT 397, CROPPIE2* CROPPIE3*
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 46-47, 511, "The Croppy Boy"
Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 258-259, "The Croppy Boy" (1 text)
Roud #1030
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Croppy Boy" (on IRClancyMakem03)
Tom Lenihan, "Croppy Boy" (on IRClare01)
Delia Murphy, "The Croppy Boy" (HMV [Eire?] IM-820, n.d.)
Brigid Tunney, "Early, Early, All in the Spring" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(73a), "The Croppy Boy," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth b.25(338), 2806 c.9(9), Harding B 11(1423), Firth b.25(508), Harding B 25(449), 2806 b.10(50), Harding B 11(1486), Firth b.26(45), Harding B 11(4389), Harding B 11(746), 2806 b.10(6), "The Croppy Boy"; Harding B 25(447), "The Cropie Laddie's Complaint," unknown, n.d.
LOCSinging, as102550, "The Croppy Boy," H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1878; also as200580, "Croppy Boy"
VonWalthour, CDDrive>b>b(3),"The Croppy Boy" ("It was early, early in the spring"), T. Taylor (London), no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Convict Maid" (tune)
cf. "McCaffery (McCassery)" (tune)
cf. "The Sailor Boy (I)" [Laws K12] (tune, per Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 7)
cf. "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream)" [Laws K9] (tune)
cf. "Callino Casturame (Colleen Og a Store; Cailin O Chois tSiure; Happy 'Tis, Thou Blind, for Thee)" (tune?)
NOTES [519 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 39, fn. 18: "In the 1790's those who admired the Jacobin ideas began to crop their hair short on the back of the head, in what was said to be the new French fashion; in 1798 this was considered as an evidence of 'disaffection'."
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 19: "In the American versions, the Croppy Boy is betrayed by his sister Mary [see, for example, broadsides LOCSinging as102550 and LOCSinging as200580 and Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 85], or by some vindictive girl, and is sent to New Guinea [see Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 85]." "New Guinea" is an apparent corruption of "New Geneva": "used as a prison and torture house in 1798 [Zimmermann, p. 165]." Being sent to New Guinea does not save the Croppy Boy from being hanged.
Notes to IRClare01 regarding Zimmermann's explaination of the term "Croppy": poet and playwright Patrick Galvin put forward a number of other, equally convincing explanations, which included the practice of punishing convicted felons by cutting off the tops of their ears, and a form of torture applied to rebels known as 'pitch cap'. He suggested that a true explanation probably lay in a combination of these." [For pitchcapping, see e.g. the notes to "The Union." Slitting the ears is mentioned several times in Irish sources, though I don't recall cutting off the tops of the ears being mentioned much. - RBW]
Laws cites O'Conor as a source. O'Conor p. 11, "The Croppy Boy" is not this ballad.
Zimmermann 19, text B, includes the verse
And as I walked down James Street
A pair of painters I chanc'd to meet
'Twas Jemmy O'Brien and Tom O'Neill
For one guinea they swore my life away."
For more about the informer Jemmy O'Brien see "The Major," "Jemmy O'Brien" and "Jemmy O'Brien's Minuet."
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Croppy Boy" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998))
Broadside LOCSinging as102550: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
I can't help but notice some significant similarities between this song and the actual events of the trial of Henry Joy McCracken: Taken by militia, tried as his father and sister Mary (Ann) looked on, with his father denying all knowledge of his activities at the trial, and with McCracken eventually hanged. For details, see "Henry Joy McCracken (I)." - RBW
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin is close to Sparling but lacks the verse accusing the singer's cousin of betraying him, or any verse accusing anyone of the betrayal. - BS
As of this writing, I have no evidence that this song was known in Australia, John S. Manifold, Who Wrote the Ballads? Notes on Australian Folksong, Australasian Book Society, 1964, pp. 23-24, reports that the word "Croppy" came to mean "bushranger" in Australia, hinting that the song made it to the colonies there.
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LJ14

Croppy Boy (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The boy asks to speak to the priest. He will go to Wexford to fight as the last of his family. He asks the "priest" to bless him. The real priest had been captured; this "priest" is a yeoman captain in disguise. The boy hangs at Geneva Barracks
AUTHOR: Carroll Malone (source: O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland; Duffy; OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "said to be [a pseudonym of] Dr James McBurney of Belfast"; compare Hoagland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Duffy; also Duffy's magazine _The Nation_,: "first published in _The Nation_, 4th January, 1845", according to Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution disguise patriotic clergy trick
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 41, "The Croppy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 52, "The Croppy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 96, "The Croppy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p.11, "The Croppy Boy" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 212, "The Croppy Boy" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 156-157, "The Croppy Boy"
Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 247-248, "Croppy Boy"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 540-541, "The Croppy Boy" (1 text)
NOTES [230 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 52: "In The Sham Squire, pp. 179-180, W.J. Fitzpatrick [1866] tells the anecdote that inspired this ballad." As quoted by Zimmermann the ballad closely follows the anecdote.
Zimmermann p. 39, fn. 18: "In the 1790's those who admired the Jacobin ideas began to crop their hair short on the back of the head, in what was said to be the new French fashion; in 1798 this was considered as an evidence of 'disaffection'."
Hoagland's date range (c. 1855-d.1892?) for the auther has a problem; Duffy attributes the ballad to "Carroll Malone" but publishes the text in 1845. Hoagland's attribution to Carroll Malone has that as a pseudonym for William B. McBurney. The article "William B. McBurney aka Carroll Malone" at the "From Ireland" site (copyright Jane Lyons, Dublin, Ireland) agrees that McBurney is the author, that he published it in 1845 and that he died in 1892. - BS
Until Ben Schwartz submitted his note, I had doubted that this is based on any actual incident, but Thomas Pakenham, The Year of Liberty, p. 343, notes a case of a Wexford woman with 13 children at the start of the 1798 rebellion. Of her nine sons, five died in battle and three were hung, as was her husband; all four of her daughters were present in the camp at Vinegar Hill, and all came home sick with diseases contracted in the camp. Not the same story, but close. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OLcM041

Cross Mountain Explosion, The (Coal Creek Disaster) [Laws G9]

DESCRIPTION: The Coal Creek mine blows up, killing 150 miners. The families grieve and the usual prayers are prayed for the dead
AUTHOR: Thomas Evans (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Roberts-SangBranchSettlers)
KEYWORDS: mining death disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 9, 1911 - The Coal Creek explosion
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws G9, "The Cross Mountain Explosion (Coal Creek Disaster)"
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 84-85, "The Miner Boys" (1 text)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #27, "Mines of Coal Creek" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 828, CROSSMT
Roud #844
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shut Up in the Mines of Coal Creek" (subject)
File: LG09

Cross My Heart and Hope to Die

DESCRIPTION: A child's affirmation of truthfulness: "Cross my heart and hope to die, Stick a needle in my eye." Other assertions may follow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: promise nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 79, "Cross My Heart" (1 text)
File: ZiZa079G

Cross the Bridge

See Crossing the Bridge (File: SuSm101D)

Cross the Ocean, Cross the Sea

See Johnny on the Ocean (File: DoDW385)

Cross the River, Cross the Lake

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme for two jumpers: "Cross the river, cross the lake, I hope that (Sally) makes a bad mistake; Cross the river, cross the lake, I hope that (Mary) makes a bad mistake."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: river jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #41, "(Cross the river, cross the lake)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #91, "Cross the river, cross the lake" (1 text)
File: AJRV441

Cross Your Fingers

DESCRIPTION: "Keep in right with Lady Luck, my dear, Find a good luck charm, and keep it near; Love will surely come to you On some lucky day." "Cross your fingers and make a wish, And maybe your wish will come true." Don't break mirrors, keep a horseshoe
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Henry, from Glada Gully)
KEYWORDS: nonballad magic
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 228, "Cross Your Fingers" (1 text)
File: MHAp228

Crossed Old Jordan's Stream

DESCRIPTION: "Good old neighbor's gone along/Crossed old Jordan's stream"; successive verses substitute "mother", "Christian." Chorus: "Thank God I got religion and I do believe/Crossed old Jordan's stream."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 8, "Going Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 122, "Crossed Old Jordan's Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CRSJDNST
RECORDINGS:
Bird's Kentucky Corn Crackers, "Crossed Old Jordan's Stream" (Victor 23608, c. 1932)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Crossed Old Jordan's Stream" (on NLCR01)
File: CSW122

Crossing the Bridge

DESCRIPTION: jump-rope rhyme, reportedly done with two players skipping in opposite directions. "Cross the bridge (x3) To London." Or, "Crossing the bridge To London town, One jumps up, And the other down, If you jump, Win ten peppers And run right through"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: food travel jumprope | London bridge
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 101, "(Cross the bridge)" (1 text); pp. 105-106 "(Crossing the bridge)" (1 text, much longer)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #89, "Crossing the bridge" (1 text)
File: SuSm101D

Crossing the Divide

DESCRIPTION: "Parson, I'm a maverick, just runnin' loose and grazin'." The singer "had no raisin'"; he has no church affiliation, but asks the parson to pray for him "when I cross the Big Divide." He says he has tried to be honest and follow the rules
AUTHOR: J. W. Foley (source: Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy death clergy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 55-56, "Crossing the Divide" (1 text)
DT, CROSSDIV
File: ThLo055

Crossing the Plains (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you Californians, I pray ope wide your ears." The singer describes the overland passage to California. The travelers are told what to bring, and warned of troubles. The singer would have gone around the horn if he had known what he now knows
AUTHOR: probably John A. Stone ("Old Put")
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1854 ("Put's Original California Songster")
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 427-428, "Crossing the Plains" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 39-40, "Crossing the Plains" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15538
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "Crossing the Plains" (on LEnglish02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Caroline of Edinborough Town" [Laws P27] (tune)
File: LxA427

Crossing the Plains (II)

See The Sioux Indians [Laws B11] (File: LB11)

Crossing the Waters

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Crossing the waters, one by one. Crossing the waters, two by two." Presumably continues through higher numbers.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | counting waters
FOUND IN: Britain(England(London))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #90, "Crossing the Waters" (1 text)
Roud #22183
NOTES [32 words]: Douglas gives no description of how this rhyme was performed, but one suspects that it was intended to be used with "high waters" -- a rope twirled above the ground, requiring higher jumps. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR090

Crosspatrick, The

DESCRIPTION: Crosspatrick leaves "for New Zealand, with their families and their wives." Five days out the ship is wrecked by fire. The captain and his wife try to save others. "Out of four hundred passengers and forty of a crew, There were only four of them left."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 18, 1874 - "The most terrible catastrophe of the old year was the destruction by fire of the emigrant-ship Cospatrick, and the consequent loss of over 450 lives, in the early morning of Nov. 18." (source: Illustrated London News, January 2, 1875, as quoted on The Ships List site)
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #167, p. 2, "The Loss of the Kilpatrick" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 32, "The Loss of the Cospatrick" (1 text)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 99-100, "The Crosspatrick" (1 text)
Roud #3806
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Loss of the Scotch Patrick
NOTES [374 words]: There are Bodleian broadsides for at least two other ballads about this disaster. While neither is dated, both broadsides quote news dispatches making it seem that they should be dated 1874.
Bodleian, Firth c.12(104), "The Burning of the Emigrant Ship, 'Cospatrick'" ("To this most heartrending and sorrowful tale"), unknown, n.d.; the chorus begins "The 'Cospatrick' took fire when at sea."
Bodleian, Firth c.12(107), "The Burning of the Emigrant Ship, 'Cospatrick'" ("In '74 we've had some shocking disasters"), unknown, n.d.; the chorus begins "Far out on the ocean, in the darkness of midnight."
Another broadside seems to be a third different ballad but could not be downloaded and verified: Bodleian, Harding B 40(4), "The Burning of the 'Cospatrick'" ("You feeling-hearted Christians wherever that you be"), J.F. Nugent and Co.? (Dublin?), 1850-1899 ; also Harding B 19(115a), "The Burning of the 'Cospatrick'" - BS
David Ritchie, Shipwrecks: An Encyclopedia of the World's Worst Disasters at Sea, 1996 (I use the 1999 Checkmark paperback edition), pp. 52-53, devotes many hundreds of words to this disaster. Cospatrick was built in Burma and seems to have spend many years working mostly in the Indian Ocean. Eventually it was taken over by the Shaw Savill Line and used to take emigrants from Britain to New Zealand.
Ritchie reports 429 emigrants were aboard for the final voyage, plus the crew, including the captain's wife and son.
The ship was approaching Auckland, New Zealand, on November 17 or 18 ("accounts differ" on the date, according to Ritchie). Flammables in the forward part of the ship caught fire, the fire pumps could not be worked because they were in the midst of the blaze, and the passengers got in the way of the crew.
It was difficult even to abandon ship; some boats had burned, others overloaded. Only two boats apparently made it away, with 80 people on board. But they lacked food and water, and had no sails. One boat vanished. On the other, it seems, the people aboard were forced into cannibalism. When the boat was finally found by the British Sceptre on November 26, only three men -- the second officer, a quartermaster, and a seaman -- were still alive. Thus the casualty rate was over 98%. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ran099

Crow and Pie [Child 111]

DESCRIPTION: The singer woos a maid encountered in a forest. She spurns him, repeating with each refusal "the crowe shall byte yew". He takes her by force, then taunts "the pye hath peckyd yew." He refuses to marry, give money, or tell his name. All maids take warning
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 16th century (MS. Bodleian Rawlinson C.813)
KEYWORDS: courting virtue rape bird
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 111, "Crow and Pie" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, pp. 90-93 "(No title)" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson C.813, folio 27
Roud #3975
NOTES [547 words]: According to Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 90, the manuscript which contains this, Bodleian Rawlinson C.813, opens with an "amateur collection of lyrics from the sixteenth century. Love poetry predominated." This is item #44 in the manuscript, which does not give it a title. Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 92, compares it to the Holly-and-Ivy competition songs.
David C. Fowler, on p. 1773 of volume 6 of Severs/Hartung, describes the source as "A somewhat neglected manuscript containing pieces adapted from the works of Chaucer and various fifteenth-century poets, as well as a few courtly lyrics of the Tudor period. The manuscript itself is dated 1530-1540 [i.e. the reign of Henry VIII], and the entire corpus of 51 songs was printed by F. M. Padelford in Anglia 31.309 in 1908.... Several love lyrics show the influence of Chaucer, and one is taken practically verbatim from various passages in Troilus and Criseyde (Padelford. no. 30). Others represented in the collection are Stephen Hawes..., several poems by Lydgate and by Richard Rood, and anonymous pieces like The Adulterous Falmouth Squire, from which is reproduced the lament of a soul in torment... Two other texts in this manuscript (Pdelford, nos. 42 and 43) are composed in a similar spirit, and might well have been included by Child." However, no other items in the manuscript were cited by Child, or by anyone else known to me; "The Adulterous Falmouth Squire" is the only thing that seems to have had any chance of being traditional (it shows up, e.g., in the manuscripts containing "Robin Hood and the Monk" [Child 119] and "Robin Hood and the Potter" [Child 121]) -- but it's only excerpted in the Rawlinson MS., clearly from a written source.
Fpwler, on p. 1758 of Volume 6 of Severs/Hartung, sees a similarity between this ballad (and also, to a lesser extent, "The Carnal and the Crane" [Child 55] and "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]) and an early modern English piece, "The Fermorar and His Dochter" ("The Farmer and His Daughter"). Severs/Hartung, Volume III, pp. 734-735, describe the latter.
"The Fermorar is found in a manuscript at Wemyss Castle which also contains Wyntoun's Chronicle, and which is to be dated in the first half of the fifteenth century. Our poem, however, is written on a flay leaf, and is dated by one authority 'not later than c. 1542.' It is in eight stanzas ababbcc, with three lines missing from stanza six, and begins with the usual chanson d'aventure opening 'As I did walk onys be ane medo side' [As I did walk once by a meadow side]. A lively and spirited dialog between a rich farmer and his daughter on the subject of her marriage. He wishes her to marry one of the three sons of Symkin her neighbor, but she refuses to live a slave to farm wok like her mother, and wants a lusty gentleman, along with a silken gown, a French hood, shoes of velvet, fine hose, and the company of ladies. Her final determination is such that she may have got her own way. Though preceding married, the poem essentially recalls the chanson de mal mariée tradition."
It will be evident that the similarity, if any, is in form, not plot.
It's interesting (to me, at least) that the two birds referred to in the song, crow and magpie, are probably the two most intelligent types in Britain. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: C111

Crow and the Weasel, The

DESCRIPTION: "The crow he peeped at the weasel (x3) AND The weasel he peeped at the crow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: bird animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 157, "The Crow and the Weasel" (1 short text)
Roud #16856
File: Br3157

Crow Song

See The Three Ravens [Child 26] (File: C026)

Crow Song (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, said the blackbird to the crow, To yonder cornfield I must go, Picking up corn has been my trade, Ever since Adam and Eve was made." Regarding the life of the crow and other birds
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: bird floatingverses food
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 275, "The Crow Song" (5 texts, 1 tune, with the "A," "B," and "C" texts being this piece though "B" and "C" texts mix with "The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat)"; "D" is perhaps "Ain't Gonna Rain No More"; "E" is "One for the Blackbird")
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 119, "The Song of the Crow" (1 short text, 1 tune, in which the "blackbird" asks "What makes white folks hate us so," implying a racial subtext)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 31-33, "The Three Ravens" (the two fragments in the headnotes are this piece)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 156, "Said the Blackbird to the Crow" (5 texts, though "D" and "E" appear mixed, with "D" being this combined with "Bird's Courting Song, The (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat)")
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 215, "The Bird Song" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes, but the "B" fragment is "The Crow Song (I)"; the "A" text is "The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat)" but with some "Crow Song" lyrics)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 60, "Said the Blackbird" (1 short text, 1 tune, which combines the "Said the Blackbird" verse with an A B C D E F G alphabet)
DT, THRERAV6*
Roud #747?
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Crow Song" (Victor V-40149, 1929) Columbia 15449-D [as Al Craver]/Harmony 992-H [as Mack Allen], 1929) (Broadway 8144 [as Lone Star Ranger], c. 1930) [Note: the Broadway recording may be by John I. White rather than Dalhart, as he is also known to have used that pseudonym. - PJS]
Whitey Johns, "Crow Song" (Oriole 1810, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Three Ravens" [Child 26] (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Hidi Quili Lodi Quili" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat)" (lyrics)
cf. "Hilo, Boys, Hilo" (lyrics)
NOTES [126 words]: Some have thought this a relative of "The Three Ravens." While it's possible that the various by-blows of that austere ballad inspired this, it certainly qualifies now as a separate song. It's more likely to be derived from "The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat)"; the first verse in particular is often found with that song.
That first verse is the only one that survives in McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks's version, a playparty which also includes an alphabet song; it's not really possible to know what song it derives from.
Another possibility is that some of the lyrics derive from the sea song "Hilo, Boys, Hilo," which shares quite a few words, but my guess is that the dependence is the other way. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: R275

Crow Song (II), The

See One for the Blackbird (File: R275)

Crow Wing Drive

DESCRIPTION: "Says White Pine Tom to Arkansaw, 'There's one more drive I'd like to strike.' Says Arkansaw, 'What can it be?' "It's the Crow Wing River for the old Pine Tree." The loggers leave Bemidji for Brainerd, where they "make some noise."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: logger travel train moniker
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 24, "The Crow Wing Drive" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 24, "The Crow Wing Drive" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 465, "Crow Wing Drive" (1 text)
ST Rick099 (Partial)
Roud #8893
NOTES [106 words]: The relationship between this and the "Casey Jones"/"Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long)" [Laws I16] families will be obvious. Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy's informant said it was built out of those elements by White Pine Tom, the singer mentioned in the first line.
Whether White Pine Tom is the actual author or not, the piece clearly was composed by someone familiar with northern Minnesota. Given that the informant, Ed Springstad, was known as Arkansaw, it may have been a local joke.
I have this feeling that there may have been a few more verses than Rickaby printed. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Rick099

Crow-Fish Man (I), The

See Sweet Thing (I) (File: R443A)

Crow-Fish Man (II), The

See Crawdad (File: R443)

Crow, Black Chicken

DESCRIPTION: Dance tune with floating verses: "Chicken crowed for midnight, chicken crowed for day/Along came an owl, and toted that chicken away." Chorus: "Crow black chicken, crow for day/Crow black chicken, fly away/I love chicken pie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Leake County Revelers)
KEYWORDS: dancing humorous nonballad floatingverses chickens
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 207, "Crow, Black Chicken" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Leake County Revelers, "Crow Black Chicken" (Columbia 15318-D, 1928)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Crow Black Chicken" (on NLCR04, NLCR11, NLCR12, NLCRCD1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Chickens They Are Crowing" (words)
cf. "It's Almost Day" (words)
cf. "Letter from Down the Road" (words)
cf. "Jubilee" (words)
NOTES [119 words]: The authorship on this one is up in the air. The headnotes in Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook read: "Words - NLCR [New Lost City Ramblers], Vol. 4, tune and source text from the Leake County Revelers, Col. 15318." This may mean that the NLCR rewrote the original words, but without hearing the Leake County Revelers' version it's hard to tell. - PJS
I haven't heard the Leake County Revelers version, either, but I have heard Bob Bovee and Gail Heil sing that form, and it is shorter and more "chickenish" than the NLCR text. It would appear that the NLCR reshuffled the verses, then added a couple of floaters (e.g. "Went up on a mountain, Give my horn a blow...") to make a short piece longer. - RBW
File: CSW207

Crowd of Bold Sharemen, A

DESCRIPTION: "It was early in June, b'ys, When we sailed away" with a young skipper and crew, "And a crowd of bold sharemen." Skipper withholds oil until the sharemen threaten to destroy the catch. Skipper threatens to go home until the sharemen threaten to sue.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: bargaining fishing ship sea work ordeal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 121, "The Crowd of Bold Sharemen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 113-115, "A Crowd of Bold Sharemen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "A Crowd of Bold Sharemen" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 8 in the 3rd edition
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 58, "A Crowd of Bold Sharemen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6344
RECORDINGS:
Patrick Rossiter, "A Crowd of Bold Sharemen" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [50 words]: A shareman shares in expenses and profits.
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland discusses the codfishery that flourished along the Labrador coast during spring and summer. The "sharemen are usually young fellows trying to get enough money together to buy their own fishing outfits." - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doyl3008

Crowdy Crawn

See Mary Mack (I); alsoThe Oxen Ploughing, Snail, Snail (I), Hushaby My Little Crumb, the Pasty-Seller's Song, and The Cry of the Pilchard Man -- all filed by Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall under the title Crowdy Crawn (File: CNFM158B)

Crown For Us All, A

DESCRIPTION: "I had a pious (father/mother/brother/sister) that I once loved dear, He's been gone for many a year, He has lain in his grave for many a day Till the power of God shall call him away. There's a crown for you, and a crown for me, Glory be to God...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 211, "A Crown For Us All" (1 text)
ST Fus211 (Partial)
Roud #16372
File: Fus211

Crowned Him Lord of All

See A Soldier of the Cross (File: ChFRA086)

Crows in the Garden

DESCRIPTION: "Crown in the garden, pulling up corn (x2), Catch 'em, catch 'em, string 'em up and stretch 'em." The marauding crows are condemned; the gardeners who cannot stop them insulted. The world is said to be full of crows -- some of whom seek money, not corn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: gardening bird work lawyer money gold
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 137, pp. 283-284, "Crows in the Garden" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 314-316, "Crows in the Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CRWGARDN*
Roud #4505
File: LxA314

Crows Kept Flyin' Up, The

DESCRIPTION: "The crows kept flyin' up, boys, The crows kept flyin' up. The dog he seen and whimpered, boys, Though he was but a pup. The lost was found, we brought in round, And took him from the place. While ants was swarmin' on the grass...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (Henry Lawson, "A Hero in Dingo Scrubs," according to Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads)
KEYWORDS: bird dog bug
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, p. 52, "The Crows Kept Flyin' Up" (1 short text)
NOTES [30 words]: This fragment was enclosed in a longer work by Henry Lawson, who described it as being of unknown origin. Stewart/Keesing treat it as a folk song as a result. I am less convinced. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: StKF052

Crucified

DESCRIPTION: "They nailed the Savior to a cross and left him there to die, 'Forgive them, Father, O forgive,' That was the Savior's cry. Crucified, crucified, And nailed upon a tree, Crucified, crucified, He suffered there for me."
AUTHOR: see NOTES
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport); probably recorded 1974
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus injury
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, p. 200, "Crucified" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [70 words]: Almost every word of this song, as sung by Simon Crocker for Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, is found in the song "Crucified" by C. Austin Miles (1868-1946), who also wrote "Dwelling in Beulah Land" and "In the Garden." But Crocker's version is so reorganized and filed down and shortened that I'm frankly tempted to consider them different songs. It took me a LONG time to see the connection between the two. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: CoxN200

Cruel Barbara Allen

See Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)

Cruel Brother, The [Child 11]

DESCRIPTION: A man and woman agree to wed, but fail to ask her brother's permission. As the woman prepares for the wedding, her brother stabs her. She does not name her murderer, but reveals the facts in the terms of her will.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: homicide brother marriage jealousy revenge lastwill
FOUND IN: Britain(England (West),Scotland) Ireland US(Ap,NE,SE)
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Child 11, "The Cruel Brother" (14 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 11, "The Cruel Brother" (10 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 11, "The Cruel Brother" (4 versions: #1, #4, #6, #9)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 26-33, "THere Were Three Ladies/There Waur Three Ladies" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1, but with differences}
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 235-237, "Cruel Brother Or The Bride's Testament" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 54, "The Rose Smells Sae Sweetly" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 114, "The Rosie Smell'd Sae Sweetlie"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 135, "Fine Flowers in the Vale O" (2 texts)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #2, pp. 56-59,242, "The Three Knights" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 270-271, "The Three Knights" (1 text)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 7, "The Three Knights" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 6 "The Cruel Brother" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #3, #4}
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 13-15, "The Bride's Murder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #7, The Cruel Brother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 431-433, "The Cruel Brother" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 171-174, "The Cruel Brother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 5, "The Cruel Brother" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 5, "The Cruel Brothers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 78-81, "The Cruel Brother" (2 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 20-22, "The Cruel Brother" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 64, "The Cruel Brother" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 175, "The Cruel Brother" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 32, "The Cruel Brother" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 8, "The Cruel Brother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 185-187+344, "The Cruel Brother" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 8, pp. 21-23, "The Cruel Brother" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 106-107, "The Cruel Brother" (1 text)
SongsOfManyNations, "Flowers in the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 3, which appears to be a rewrite of Bronson's #10, which itself appears to have been bowdlerized by informant or collector)
DT 11, CRUELBRO*
Roud #26
RECORDINGS:
Rose McCartin, "The Keeper of the Game" (on IREarlyBallads)
Betty Smith, "The Cruel Brother" (Piotr-Archive #179, recorded 05/17/2022; not really from tradition)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Brother's Revenge
Oh Lily O
Lily O
Three Ladies Played at Ball
NOTES [292 words]: Flanders, in her notes in Ancient Ballads, observes that some scholars have seen the possibility of an incest motif in this song. Possible, of course, since the brother's extreme rage seems unreasonable. But the only real evidence is the last will scene, which has parallels in the incest ballad of "Lizzie Wan" [Child 51] -- but *not*, we note, in that other incest ballad, "Sheathe and Knife" [Child 16], nor is the last will scene in "Lord Randall" [Child 16], in which the singer condemns his murderer as in this ballad, in any way linked with incest. Thus there is only one other real instance of a combination of incest and murder and a last will. That's not enough evidence for me to be convinced that it's hidden somewhere in this ballad. - RBW
Compare the first verse lines of Child 10.H to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 479, "There were three sisters in a hall" (earliest date in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes is c.1630)
Child 10.H: "There were three sisters lived in a hall, ... And there came a lord to court them all...."
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 479 is a riddle beginning "There were three sisters in a hall, There came a knight amongst them all ...." - BS
This item is also found as Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #702, p. 275, but this appears to be simply a greeting rhyme unrelated to the various rather murderous ballads (notably Child 10 and 11) using these lines. Nonetheless the lyric may have been borrowed, since the Opies derive it from Sloane MS. 1489, which must date from the seventeenth century if not earlier (the Opies say 1630. Note that this MS. should not be confused with the famous Sloane MS. 2593, which contains many of the earliest English proto-ballad lyrics). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C011

Cruel Fate

DESCRIPTION: "Though cruel fate should us part, As far as pole an' line." her memory should stay in his heart; though mountains and deserts separate them, the singer would still love "Jean."
AUTHOR: unknown (new tune by Jeannie Robertson)
EARLIEST DATE: 1788 (Scots Musical Museum, according to Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice)
KEYWORDS: courting promise nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #45, pp. 196, "Cruel Fate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24309
File: RPG045

Cruel Gamekeeper, The

DESCRIPTION: A farmer's daughter, pregnant, asks the gamekeeper, her lover, to marry. He refuses, kills her and, after ripping her open, kills the baby. He is caught and condemned to be hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3637))
KEYWORDS: sex promise rejection execution homicide pregnancy gallows-confession lover
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 259-260, "The Gamekeeper" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 317)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 62-63, "The Gamekeeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 28, "The Cruel Gamekeeper" (1 text)
Roud #1313
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3637), "The Cruel Gamekeeper" ("In Buxton town in Staffordshire"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Firth c.17(204), "The Cruel Gamekeeper"; Harding B 22(273) [some words illegible], "The Staffordshire Tragedy"
NOTES [109 words]: This is one of the few Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames texts that varies significantly from an earlier broadside. In the Bodleian broadside Harding B 11(3637), the girl tells the gamekeeper "I am big with child by you" (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames: "I've lost my liberty by you"), "He ripp'd her up and there was by, A baby in her womb did cry" (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames: "He picked her up, and there lay by A fair young babe that moaned and cried") and "I promised her but did not wed, So the gallows proved my marriage bed" (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames: "And never do as I have done, For I might have been a farmer's son"). - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: WT259

Cruel Gardener, The

See The Bloody Gardener (File: Pea668)

Cruel Katie-O

See Twenty-One (File: HHH033)

Cruel Lowland Maid, The

See The Lovely Lowland Maid (File: Pea620)

Cruel Miller, The

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Cruel Mother, The (Or Three Children)

See The Wife of Usher's Well [Child 79] (File: C079)

Cruel Mother, The [Child 20]

DESCRIPTION: A woman is (preparing to be wed, but is) pregnant (by another man). When her child(ren) is/are born, she kills him/them. As she proceeds to the church to be wed, the child(ren) appear to her to condemn her for her act.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: homicide pregnancy adultery wedding childbirth burial children accusation supernatural ghost bastard | infanticide
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West),Scotland(High,Aber,Bord)) Ireland US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (62 citations):
Child 20, "The Cruel Mother" (17 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Bronson 20, "The Cruel Mother" (56 versions plus 1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 20, "The Cruel Mother" (12 versions: #1, #4, #5, #6, #15, #19.1, #20, #22, #24, #31, #45, #47)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 68-73, "The Rose o' Balindie/The Rose o' Malindie O" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Dixon-ScottishTraditionalVersionsOfAncientBallads VI, pp. 46-49, "The Cruel Mother"; VII, pp. 50-52, "The Minister's Dochter o' Newarke" (2 texts)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 295, "She Laid These Babes Across Her Lap" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 129, "Cruel Mother")
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 67-68, "The Cruel Mother" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #116, "The Cruel Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan2 193, "The Cruel Mother" (7 texts, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #12, B=#3, C=#15}
Greig/Duncan8 1910, "Doun by the Greenwood Sae Bonnie O" (1 fragment)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #20, p. 2, ("Doun by the greenwood and by the green") (1 fragment)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 12, "The Cruel Mother" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 131, "The Trajedie o Twa Bairns of Newark" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 80-93, "The Cruel Mother" (6 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 66-67, "The Cruel Mother" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #21}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 230-238, "The Cruel Mother" (3 texts (all missing parts of the plot) plus 3 fragments probably of this; 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #21, B=#34}
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 7, "The Cruel Mother" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #14}
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, pp. 69-70, "The Cruel Mother" (1 text)
Randolph 8, "Down by the Greenwood Side" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #54}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 9, "The Cruel Mother" (4 texts plus a fragment, 4 tunes) Bronson's #35, #48, #43, #44}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 12, pp. 81-83, "The Cruel Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #150, "The Cruel Mother" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #47}
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 167-169, "(The Cruel Mother)" (1 text, from Randolph; tune on p. 403) {Bronson's #54}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 11A, "Two Little Babes"; 11B, "The Cruel Mother" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 17-20, "The Cruel Mother" (2 texts plus 2 fragments and1 excerpt, 4 tunes) {Bronson's pp. #18, #45, #13, #20}
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 2, "Cruel Mother" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #37}
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 6, "Fair Flowers of Helio" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #28}
Peacock, pp. 804-805, "The Babes in the Greenwood" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 5, "The Cruel Mother" (5 texts, 7 tunes) {Bronson's #26}
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 3, "The Greenwood Siding" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #19}
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 56, "There Was a Girl Her Name Was Young (Down by the Greenwood Side-I-O) (The Cruel Mother)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 103-106, "The Cruel Mother" (3 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 44-45, "The Cruel Mother" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 22, "The Cruel Mother" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 181, "The Cruel Mother" (1 text+1 fragment)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 68, "Down by the Greenwood Shady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 447-448, "Dwon by the Greenwood Side" (1 text)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp.n121-123, "Lady of York" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 38-39, "There Was a Lady Lived in York" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #22}
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 27, "The Cruel Mother" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 10 "The Cruel Mother" (13 texts, 13 tunes){Bronson's #51, #55, #42, #44, #17, #32, #46, #40, #11, #10, #52, #30, #41}
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 13, "The Cruel Mother" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #31}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 17, "The Cruel Mother" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #31}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 150-151, "The Cruel Mother" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #51}
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 459-460, "Hey Wi' the Rose and the Lindsay, O" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 20, "The Cruel Mother" (2 texts, 2 tunes); also possibly 15, "The Maid and the Palmer" (1 text, which Niles identifies with Child 21, but the fragment is so short that it could equally be part of Child 20)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 9, "The Cruel Mother" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version) {Bronson's #42}
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 54, "All Round the Loney-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 28, "The Cruel Mother" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #16}
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 36, "The Cruel Mother" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 5, "The Cruel Mother" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 26-27, "Down by the Greenwood Sidee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 222, "The Cruel Mother" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 170-171, "Down by the River Sawl-ya" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 188-189, "The Cruel Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Behan-IrelandSings, #74, "The River Sila" (1 text, 1 tune, "adapted" by Wolfe Stephens and probably significantly rewritten but with some similarity to other Irish versions)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2495, "There was a Duke's Daughter Lived in York"
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (no author listed), "The Cruel Mother," Vol. V, No. 1 (Jul 1957), pp. 20-21, "The Lady Gay" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 20, CRUELMOT* CRUELMO2* CRUELMO3
ADDITIONAL: Emily Lyle, _Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition_, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, pp, 156-157, "[The Minister's Daughter of New York]" (1 text, from a letter from Peter Buchan to William Motherwell); pp. 170-172, [no title], (1 text, in a shorthand notation, again from Buchan to Motherwell)
MacEdward Leach and Henry Glassie, _A Guide for Collectiors of Oral Traditions and Folk Cultural Material in Pennsylvania_, Pennsylvania historical and Museum Commission, 1973, pp. 27-28, "There Was A Lady Lived In York" (1 text)
Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, p. 397, "The Cruel Mother" (1 text)
Roud #9
RECORDINGS:
Steve Gardham, "Lady of York (The Cruel Mother)" (Piotr-Archive #50, recorded 07/22/2021)
Lizzie Higgins, "The Cruel Mother" (on Voice03) (on LHiggins01)
John James, "The Green Woods of Bonnie-O" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Cruel Mother" (ESFB1, ESFB2)
Thomas Moran, "The Cruel Mother" (on FSB4)
Duncan Burke, Cecilia Costello, Thomas Moran [composite] "The Cruel Mother" (on FSBBAL1) {cf. Bronson's #19.1 in addenda}
Joshua Osborne, "The Babes in the Greenwood" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Bob Pegg, "There Was a Lady Lived in Leeds" (Piotr-Archive #367, recorded 11/25/2022)
Lucy Stewart, "Down by the Greenwood Sidie O" (on LStewart1)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fine Flowers in the Valley
Three Little Babies
The Lady of York
Greenwood Siding
The Minister of New York's Daughter
Hey My Rose
NOTES [914 words]: Although this has not been linked with any historical incident, there are a number of cases in history which are at least vaguely similar. One which struck me was the case of Will Darnell, reportedly from 1575 (as told in Underwood, pp. 123-124).
Darnell, having gotten one of his sundry mistresses pregnant, brought in a midwife (blindfolding her to conceal the place) to help the mother, then killed the child. The midwife left a deathbed testament, but Darnell was acquitted at trial. Later, when riding a horse, he saw the ghost of the dead baby; his horse bolted and he was killed.
You can believe as much of that as you like; I don't believe much. But it shows that stories like this were circulating. And it is good psychology. Comer, p. 241, reports that regret often follows a murder -- sufficient regret to result in suicide. It appears that five percent of those who commit murder attempt suicide soon after -- but that figure rises to 20% of those who have murdered a child.
The motif of a mother pretending to still be a virgin is also well known. Briggs, Volume A1, pp. 452-454, has a story called "The Princess with the White Petticoat" in which just about every girl in a court proves to be a secret mother.
Some versions, including Child's Q and Creighton's from Nova Scotia, have a secondary folklore motif: The unremovable stain (in this case, of blood on the knife). This is most famous for Shakespeare's application to Lady MacBeth (Macbeth V.i, a part of the play which is more Shakespeare than Holinshed), but it is common in folklore: Compare Asbjornson and Moe's "East of the Sun and West of the Moon," I seem to recall also a story of three drops of blood arranging for their own revenge, though I can't recall the source. We also see it in Child's D text of "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie" [Child 14].
Dixon's version (Child's F, taken from Buchan) ends with the mother's suicide, something rare in other versions. The form appears to have been influenced by "The Twa Sisters." I wonder a little if there has not been some rewriting involved.
Fowler, pp. 119-120, notes similarities between this song and "The Maid and the Palmer" [Child 21] -- specifically in their punishments for the two women's sins (which in this ballad always, and in that ballad sometimes, involve child-murder). The similarities are definitely there, and there has been debate about their direction. My personal belief is that "The Maid and the Palmer" combined the Biblical story of the Woman of Samaria in John 4 with an ending derived directly or indirectly from this song.
Fowler sees it differently on p. 120: "All of this evidence suggests to me that 'The Cruel Mother' owes its origin to an actual case of child murder in the latter half of the seventeenth century in York (as the original broadside specifies) and that the author modeled his ballad on a form of 'The Maid and the Palmer' having a flower refrain like that of the Scottish version of 'The Maid.' If so, this development represents the final rejection of that religious optimism so characteristic of the life of Mary Magdalene in popular tradition. [Actually, in the Golden Legend, which isn't the same thing.] In its place we find, despite the hint of divine grace in the flower refrain, an attitude of awesome severity...." On the other hand, although many versions of this ballad explicitly condemn the mother to hell, Child's "I," "J," "K," and "S" condemn her to 28 years of various punishments but offer at least a hope of heaven thereafter, and "L" seems to have a remnant of this; other versions have lost both parts of the ending. Although the majority of versions lack the purgatory theme, enough have it that I think it might be original. Might that imply Catholic, or pre-Reformation, origin? Hard to say, but I would hate to say categorically that this is more recent than "The Maid and the Palmer." - RBW
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "All Round the Loney-O" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)) The Hammond versions have the common form for this ballad of rhyming couplet interspersed with "All round the Loney-O" and "Down by the greenwood side-O." According to Sean O Boyle's notes to the album the version "has been localized by Belfast singers, who identify the Loney with a street called The Pound Loney. The Castle Pound in old Belfast stood here by a boundary river among the trees of the Falls (Hedge) Road; thus giving all features of the song a local habitation." The version survives stripped of all supernatural references as both the (suicidal?) mother and murdered baby "sleep" in the river.
Greig/Duncan8 is so fragmentary and broken(?) that it can go a number of places. There are two distinct parts of the text: "Down by the greenwood and by the green, Down by the greenwood sae bonnie O" [almost from Child 20 and "Lady Anne" as a chorus] and "Four-and-twenty bairnies playing at the ba'" [Child 155A and C, and "Still Growing" Greig/Duncan6 1222D]. The notes to Greig/Duncan8 refer to Child 20 and "Still Growing." Since I have to pick one, I'll take Child 20 because of its sometime "Down by the green wood sae bonnie" and "She spied twa [not twenty-four] boys playing at the ba" [Child 20D]. Since the Greig/Duncan8 fragment has lost the story of the boys it doesn't matter that the twenty-four players don't make sense in the context of Child 20. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C020

Cruel Ship's Carpenter, The (The Gosport Tragedy; Pretty Polly) [Laws P36A/B]

DESCRIPTION: The carpenter gets the girl pregnant. They meet, allegedly to plan their wedding. He announces he spent the night digging her grave, then murders her. He flees to sea; her ghost follows to demand justice. His crime is revealed, and the man dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1767 (Journal from the Vaughn)
KEYWORDS: homicide burial ghost pregnancy betrayal sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland) US(Ap,MA,NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Laws P36A, "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter A (The Gosport Tragedy)/The Cruel Ship's Carpenter B (Pretty Polly)"
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 318, "Johnny, the Ship's Carpenter" (1 text)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 84-85, "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #117, "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan2 201, "The Gosport Tragedy" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, pp. 59-61, "The Gospels of Libby" (1 text, with the title being a clear corruption of "Gosport City")
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 64, "The Gosport Tragedy" (3 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more; Laws lists the "A" text as P36A, and the rest as P36B, but "D" and probably "C" are "Pretty Polly (II)")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 64, "The Gosport Tragedy" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes; the "C" version is probably "Pretty Polly" and the others Laws P36B)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #183, "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" (1 text)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #17A-C, pp. 73-78, "Pretty Polly," "Come, Polly, Pretty Polly" (2 texts plus an excerpt, 2 tunes; the "A" text is the full "Cruel Ship's Carpenter" version; "B" is the short "Pretty Polly (II)"; the "C" fragment is too short to tell but has lyrics more typical of the latter)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 114-120, "The Ship's Carpenter" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 70, "The Ship's Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 404-406, "The Ship's Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 27, "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 29, "The Gaspard Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 698-700, "The Gosport Tragedy" (2 texts, but the second goes with "Pretty Polly (II)")
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 147-148, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune) on p. 203
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp.48-49, "The Ship's Carpenter"; pp. 148-149, "Willie & Molly" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 74-75, "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (Pretty Polly)" (1 text, with the moralizing ending in which the ship sinks but no ghost)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 128-134, collectively titled "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" but with individual titles "Pretty Polly," "Dying Polly," "Pretty Polly," "Pretty Polly," "Pretty Polly," "Oh, Polly!" (6 texts; 5 tunes on pp. 395-398; of these only the "C" text has a ghost; in "D" and "E" there is no ghost but Willie's ship sinks; the others by our criteria are versions of "Pretty Polly (II)")
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 49, "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" (21 texts, 21 tunes -- but many of them, being fragmentary, could as easily be classified under "Pretty Polly (II)")
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 36, "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 77, "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 129-131, "The Ship Carpenter" (1 text, long but broken off just before the murder, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 20, "Pretty Polly" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 92, "The Ship's Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #86 insert, "The Gosport Tragedy or The Perjured Ship-Carpenter" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 232-235, "The Gosport Tragedy" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1429, "In Gosport of late there a damsel did dwell"
DT 311, SHIPCARP* SGIOCRP2*
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 101-105, "The Gosport Tragedy, or The Perjured Ship Carpenter" (1 text)
Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 149, "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" (reproduction of a broadside page with "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" and "Death of Lord Nelson")
Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, p. 24, "Miss Brown" (1 text, 1 tune, short enough that it might be any of several murder ballads, but some of the material seems characteristic of this song)
Roud #15
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "In Worcester City" (on Voice17)
Din Dobbin, "Pretty Polly" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Sam Larner, "The Ghost Ship" (on SLarner02)
Joshua Osborne, "The Ship's Carpenter" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Mike Waterson, "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" (on ESFB2)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(267), "Love and Murder" ("In Worcester town, and in Worcestershire"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 25(1156), Harding B 28(285), Harding B 28(24), "Love and Murder"; Harding B 11(3053A), "Polly Love" or "The Cruel Ship-Carpenter"; Johnson Ballads 458, Harding B 11(3057), Harding B 11(3058), Harding B 11(3056), Harding B 11(49), Firth c.13(205), Harding B 25(1520), "Polly's Love" or "The Cruel Ship Carpenter[!]"; Harding B 15(74b), Firth c.13(290), "The Cruel Ship Carpenter"; Harding B 11(824), "The Cruel Ship-Carpenter"; Harding B 3(33), "The Gosport Tragedy" or "The Perjured Ship-Carpenter"; Harding B 3(34), "The Gosport Tragedy" or "The Perjured Ship Carpenter"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. esp. "Pretty Polly (II)" (a much-reduced form of this ballad which as now sung has a different plot)
cf. "The Sailor and the Ghost [Laws P34A/B]"
cf. "Pat O'Brien" [Laws P39]
cf. "Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B)" [Laws K22] and references there
cf. "Willie Was As Fine a Sailor"
cf. "The Fog-bound Vessel" (parody of this)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Willie and Nancy of Yarmouth
NOTES [167 words]: Although there is no clear dividing line between the full ballad "The Gosport Tragedy" and the drastically shortened form "Pretty Polly," the latter has now clearly taken on a life of its own. I tend to distinguish them by the presence or absence of the ghost.
Beth S. H. Brooks, "'Pretty Polly': A History of a Folk Song," article in Missouri Folklore Society Journal, Volume 27-28 (cover date 2005-2006, but published 2015), pp. 125-145, on p. 127 gives a sketch genealogy of the history of this song, starting with a 1720 broadside, "The Gosport Tragedy, or, The Perjur'd Ship-Carpenter," which was the direct source of "The Gosport Tragedy." This split into two lines of descent, the smaller family being Laws P36A, "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter," the larger being "Pretty Polly," including Laws P36B. Brooks then classified some fifty versions of "Pretty Polly" into a "Standard Version" (18 examples), those with an "Altered Tune" (14 examples), and those with "Altered Lyrics" (18 examples). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LP36

Cruel Sister, The

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Cruel Stepmother, The

See Lady Isabella's Tragedy (File: LyCr107)

Cruel War (I), The

See When This Cruel War is Over (Weeping Sad and Lonely) (File: SCW42)

Cruel War (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "In 1861, By then the cruel war had begun, And the boys all hastened away, away, And the boys all hastened away." "In 1862, We wished the cruel war was through." In 1863, Lincoln freed the slaves; in 1864, they heard the war was over
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3)
KEYWORDS: battle Civilwar separation
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, p. 39, "The Cruel War" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [23 words]: Bush calls this an adaptation of "Paddy on the Railway," and this is likely, but the form appears to have shifted a little along the way. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BWV3039

Cruel War is Raging

See The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging) [Laws O33] (File: LO33)

Cruel Was My Father

See The Fatal Snowstorm [Laws P20] (File: LP20)

Cruel Was the Press Gang

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! cruel was the press-gang That took my love from me; Oh! cruel was the little ship That took him out to sea; And cruel was the splinter-board That took away his leg; Now he is forced to fiddle-scrape And I am forced to beg."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose)
KEYWORDS: husband wife pressgang injury begging disability
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #196, p. 137, "(Oh! cruel was the press-gang)"
Roud #V1839
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(204), "The Answer to Oh! Cruel" ("Oh! cruel were my parents as tore my love from me "), unknown, n.d.
NOTES [23 words]: Although I haven't met this in any traditional collections, it sounds so traditional that I decided to risk including it in the Index. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BGMG196

Cruel Waves of Huron

DESCRIPTION: "On the nineteenth of May, ninety-four... Was the loss of the schooner Shupe, which I am going to tell." The Shupe is sinnking near Port Huron. A tug, the Thompson, tries to help. The Shupe's crew is saved, but four from the tug die; Dan Lynn survives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (assembled by several informants for Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck drowning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 19, 1894 - the _William Shupe_ breaks up near Port Huron, Michigan. Five men in a rescue boat are cast into the water. Only Daniel Lynn can be saved. He later is given a congressional medal for heroism (source: Walton)
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 205-208, "Cruel Waves of Huron" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #19874
File: WGM205

Cruel Were My Parents

See The Fatal Snowstorm [Laws P20] (File: LP20)

Cruel Wife, A

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Cruel Wife, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Crúiscín Lán, The

See Cruiskeen Lawn (File: OCon054A)

Cruise in the Lowlands Low, The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Cruise of the Bigler, The

See The Bigler's Crew [Laws D8] (File: LD08)

Cruise of the Bouncing Sally, The

DESCRIPTION: "The boat has slipped her moorings, The mules have whisked their tails." The Bouncing Sally sails on the Schuylkill. "Chief" Bangs works with the mules. They see a "phantom vessel" "With a phantom crew to man her." The ghost boat drifts away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: canal ship travel animal ghost
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 284-285, "The Cruise of the Bouncing Sally" (1 text)
Roud #7740
File: KPL284

Cruise of the Calabar, The

See The Calabar (File: HHH502)

Cruise of the Calibar, The

See The Calabar (File: HHH502)

Cruise of the Dove, The

DESCRIPTION: The whaling vessel fits out and sails. The singer names the owners and captain. They visit Peru and Japan. The sailors spot a whale and compete to catch it first. They return home. The singer prepares to make merry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Journal from the Minerva)
KEYWORDS: whaler sea sailor travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 13-15, "The Cruise of the Dove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tod-WhalingInSouthernWaters, p. 127, "The Cruise of the Dove" (1 text)
DT, CRUISDOV*
Roud #1999
File: SWMS013

Cruise of the Lapwing, The

DESCRIPTION: "The good schooner Lapwing from Jonesport bears away" to go winter fishing at Grand Manan. The singer describes the ship and the girls left behind. They see other ships. The Ocean Belle loses a race with the Mary O. Andrews
AUTHOR: Words: John Radley (sourrce: Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor fishing racing recitation
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 144-145, "The Cruise of the Lapwing" (1 text, 1 tune, with the text "edited for singing" and the tune non-traditional)
File: LaGo144

Cruise of the Nancy, Banker, The

DESCRIPTION: "Sailor mates, come here abaff, And listen to me a while, I'll sing to you of a fishing craft That hails from a sea-girt isle." The Nancy was a good boat. They meet storms. They arrive home with some damage. "And so, I-oh, it ended O."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: ship travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 319-323, "The Cruise of the Nancy, Banker" (1 text)
File: EcSm319

Cruising Round Yarmouth

DESCRIPTION: Sailor on leave in Yarmouth tells a girl he's a fast-going clipper; he takes her in tow to her house, where he puts his jib boom into her cabin. He drinks a health to the girl, and to the doctor who "squared his main yards -- he's a-cruising again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (recorded from Harry Cox)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a sailor taking shore leave in Yarmouth, meets a young woman. He tells her he's a fast-going clipper; she tells him her hold is free. She looks Dutch, "round at the quarters and bluff in the bow"; he takes her in tow through the town to her house, where she lowers her topsails and he puts his jib boom into her cabin. With his shot-locker empty and powder spent, "I can't fire a shot for it's choked at the vent." He drinks a health to the girl, and to the doctor who "squared his main yards -- he's a-cruising again"
KEYWORDS: disease sex beauty ship bawdy humorous sailor whore
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 77-82, "Blow th' Man Down" (2 texts, 1 tune, of which the second text may have a bit of "Cruising Round Yarmouth" in it, though that fragment may have been the inspiration for this song)
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 128, "The Whale Island Anthem" (1 fragment)
Roud #2432
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "Cruising Round Yarmouth" (on LastDays)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
While Cruising Round Yarmouth
NOTES [74 words]: It's worth noting that many Dutch prostitutes worked the streets of British ports. - PJS
What's more, there was an East Anglian rhyme with the lines,
Pakefield for poverty, Lowestoft for poor,
Gorleston for pretty girls, Yarmouth for whores.
(See Enid Porter, The Folklore of East Anglia, Batsford, 1974, p. 164.) Although, in Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy's version, she's a "Chatham" hag/whore. I'd still consider it the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcCRYar

Cruiskeen Lawn

DESCRIPTION: "Let the farmer praise his grounds, as the hunter does his hounds" and so on, but the singer prefers his full jug. He reviews the benefits and when death comes to take him he will have death wait while he has "another crooskeen lawn"
AUTHOR: Dion Boucicault (1820-1890)? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Lover)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Partly in Gaelic. Singer says farmers may praise their grounds, the huntsman his hounds, but he's happy with his cruiskeen lawn (little full jug). He toasts his companions, proposing not to go home although it's morning, and swears that when Death approaches, he will beg off to "have another cruiskeen lawn" Chorus: "Gramachree ma cruiskeen, slanthe gal mavourneen, Erin mavourneen lawn"
KEYWORDS: drink humorous nonballad death party foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 54, "Crooskeen Lawn" (1 text)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 2, "The Cruiskeen Lawn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 63, "The Crúiscín lán" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 127-128, "Cruiskeen Lawn" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 26, "Cruiskeen Lawn" (1 text)
DT, CRUSKEEN*
ADDITIONAL: Samuel Lover, The Lyrics of Ireland (London, 1858 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 131-132, "Cruiskin Lawn" (1 text)
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 259-260, "The Cruiskeen Lawn" (1 text)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 485-486, 511, "An Cruiscin Lan"
Roud #2309
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Cruiskeen Lawn" (on Abbott1)
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Cruiscin Lan" (on IRClancyMakem01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(73b), "Crooskeen Lawn," Henry Disley (London), 1860-1883
LOCSinging, as102580, "Cruiskeen Lawn," George S. Harris (Philadelphia), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Anderson, My Jo, John" (tune)
cf. "John Anderson, My Jo (I)" (tune)
NOTES [722 words]: "Cruiskeen lawn" is, in Irish, a "full jug." (source: radiohaha: the online encyclopaedia of contemporary british radio comedy. [Also Hoagland, who renders the title "My full little jug"; Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott say that the proper spelling is crúiscín lán - RBW]).
Lover: "The meaning of the chorus, in English, is something like the following -- 'My heart's love is my little jug, Bright health to my darling! My heart's love, her fair locks,' &c."
Sparling: "Originated among convivial circles of Dublin, but embodies fragments of a much older Celtic song. The tune is clearly not Irish; said to be of Danish origin, and a variant of that which has reached modern times as 'There was a little man and he had a little gun!'" It appears here that Sparling is referring to the melody of Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 325, "There was a little man, and he had a little gun." - BS
Although apparently the work of a known author, it has quickly been "anonymized"; the several popular books of poetry which include it (Stevenson's Home Book of Verse v. 2, Hoagland) list no author.
What's more, Finson, p. 275, writes that "Dublin-born immigrant [to America] Peter K. Moran relates the Irish love of whisky in his 'Croskeen Lawn' (ca. 1823) which speaks f the brew as it is distilled in the old country and features a refrain in Gaelic." Finson doesn't give any text of Moran's song, but presumably it played some role in the ancestry of this; Williams, p. 31, claims that Boucicault took it over for "The Colleen Bawn" (1860).
Dion Boucicault was born in Ireland but migrated to America in 1853 (Kahn, p. 66).
According to Morison, p. 780, "Of the 132 plays written my Dion Boucicault, only Rip Van Winkle (1865) in which Joseph Jefferson starred for over thirty years, and The Colleen Bawn, a romantic comedy of Ireland, are remembered." On the other hand, his daughter Nina Boucicault, when in her late thirties, would create the role of "Peter Pan" in the first theatrical production (Douglas-Fairhurst, p. 306). And Boucicault's "achievements in the United States included the first depiction [in a play] of Negroes as something other than buffoons, the founding of a school of Irish comedy, and the first use of carpets on stage (Kahn, p. 22). Less to his credit, perhaps, is his invention of the special effects extravaganza; in 1857, he had a play simulate a fire on stage (Kahn, p. 30). So even if his works are forgotten, the Boucicault family arguably still managed to leave a mark on the theater.
Williams, pp. 98-99, says, "Boucicault was born in Dublin around 1820. Destined to spend most of his life outside of Ireland, he nevertheless received the most indelible gift that city can bestow -- its accent. It remained with him all of his life, making it difficult for Boucicault, the actor, to play convincingly any but Irish roles.... Boucicault got his theatrical start in London as both actor and playwright (one of his first roles was that of [Samuel] Lover's Rory O'More). He came to America in 1853, but spent much of the sixties touring abroad with his Irish plays. In 1870 he returned more or less permanently to America, where he died in 1890." Williams says that he wrote largely with Irish-American audiences in mind, and also that he "provided a bridge that would lead from the stage Irishry of Lover to the sophisticated comic-dramas of John Millington Synge and George Bernard Shaw."
Boylan, p. 27, says that Dion Lardner Boucicault was born either Dec. 26, 1820 or Dec. 20, 1822, and was "probably the natural son of Dr. Dionysius Lardner, a boarder in his mother's house." Boylan lists his first successful play as being 1841's London Assurance. Boylan attributes much of the success of his dramas "to his wife's portrayal of the heroines." He also mentions the "sensation" caused by The Octaroon of 1859, "the first play to treat seriously of the American negro population." Late in his life, demand for his plays declined, leaving him to make a bare living as a teacher of actine. He died in New York on September 18, 1890."
Even so, Boucicault's plays presented only a "romanticized, sentimentalized, and largely falsified image of Ireland," according to Heinz Kosok (quoted by Williams, p. 100) -- and one that hoped for English and Irish reconciliation. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: OCon054A

Crummy Cow, The

DESCRIPTION: Pat O'Hurry tries to sell his old cow, but has no luck. She refuses to travel further; when he threatens to butcher her, she comes back to life. She costs him dearly in travel expenses. At last he manages to foist off the animal
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: animal commerce humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H501, pp. 25-26, "The 'Crummy' Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13348
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bigler's Crew" [Laws D8] (tune) and references there
File: HHH501

Cry Holy

DESCRIPTION: The reponse to each line is "Look at the people that is born of God." A chorus line is "Cry holy holy." Verse lines include "He [Satan] says there's no use to pray," "For Jesus is dead and God gone away," "I made him out a liar and I went my way"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 13, p. 206, "Cry Holy" (1 text)
File: HiCryHol

Cry Is "All Up," The

DESCRIPTION: "The cry is 'All up! Let us haste away!' And like hearty good fellows we'll row through the bay. Haul up, my young men, Pull away, my old blades, For the county gives bounty For the pilchard trades." Girls cause conflict between husbands and wives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Baring-Gould, A Book of Cornwall)
KEYWORDS: fishing husband wife courting fight
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Sabine Baring-Gould, _A Book of Cornwall_, 1906 (available on Google Books), p. 317, "(The cry is 'All up! Let us haste away!')" (1 text)
Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 79, "(The cry is 'All up! Let us haste away!')" (1 text)
File: DeSh079

Cry of the Pilchard Man, The

DESCRIPTION: Street cry. "'Charrd, pilcharrd, pilcharrd, pilcharrd!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 44, "(The Cry of the Pilchard Man)" (1 short text, 1 tune, filed with a group of songs under the general heading "Crowdy Crawn")
File: Gund044F

Cry, Baby, Cry

DESCRIPTION: "Cry, baby, cry, (Stick/put) your finger [or "a needle"] in your eye, And tell your mother It wasn't I/eye."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
KEYWORDS: playparty injury
FOUND IN: Britain US(MW,So) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 132, (Cry, baby cry)" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 50, "Cry, baby, cry" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 119, "(Cry, baby, cry)" (1 text)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 84-85, "Crybaby, Crybaby" (2 short texts, 2 tunes)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 83, "Cry, Baby, Cry" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #55, "(Cry, baby, cry)" (1 text)
Roud #16327
File: SuSm132A

Crybaby, Crybaby

See Cry, Baby, Cry (File: SuSm132A)

Cryderville Jail, The

DESCRIPTION: Complaints about prison life. Refrain: "It's hard times in (Cryderville) jail, It's hard times, poor boy." Sample stanzas: "Durant jail beats no jail at all; If you want to catch hell, got to Wichita Falls." "Lice and the bedbugs have threatened my life."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes trial punishment gambling
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 354, "Durham Jail" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 184, "Fond du Lac Jail" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 41-42, "Old Dad Morton" (1 text)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 20, "Cryderville Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 90, "The Durant Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 138-142, "The Cryderville Jail", pp. 142-143, "Po' Boy" (3 texts plus scattered addenda, 2 tunes)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 228, "Hard Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 127-128, "Mount Holly Jail" (1 text); p. 438, "Fond du Lac Jail" (1 short text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 887-888, "Hard Times in Mount Holly Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 141, "Hard Times at Little New River" (1 text, adapted to mill conditions, but too short to tell if it was a full adaption or just a spur-of-the-moment change)
DT, DRNTJAIL*
Roud #822
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "Wise County Jail" (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1)
Logan English, "Durant Jail" (on LEnglish01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "County Jail (II)" (theme)
cf. "Dawsonville Jail" (subject)
File: LxU090

Crying Family, The (Imaginary Trouble)

DESCRIPTION: Tom is courting Nancy; her parents worry. Old Kate fears that the lovers will have a child who will drown. She tells the young ones, and "They all went crying home, Tom, old man, wife and daughter. Each night the ghost doth come and cries upon the water"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Springfield, MA, _Sunday Union_ for Jan. 3, according to Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
KEYWORDS: ghost courting
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 62, "Imaginary Trouble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 14-17, "The Crying Family" (1 text)
DT, IMAGTRBL*
ADDITIONAL: Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden, _Wisconsin Lore: Antics and Anecdotes of Wisconsin People and Places_, Wisconsin House, 1962, pp. 104-107, "[no title; filed under the heading "Yodelings of Champin Raftsmen]" (1 text, source not listed)
ST Wa062 (Full)
Roud #4653
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "The Crying Family" (Piotr-Archive #318, recorded 10/26/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Nervous Family" (theme: much worry about nothing)
NOTES [311 words]: This is believed to be the only ballad in which the ghost of someone who never existed appears. One wonders whose achievement is greater -- the ghost's or the songwriter's.
Flanders compares this with item #34 in the Grimm collection, "Clever Else" ("Die kluge Else," from Dortchen Wild, 1819). This is sort of semi-true: In the folktale, Else and her family are paralyzed by fear of a future disaster to a child. But while the gimmick is the same (monomaniacal fears of an improbable and preventable death), the plot is quite different. "Clever Else" is Thompson motif J2063. The motif of "Bewailing a calamity that has not occurred" is J2198 (although Thompson's only instance is from India).
Also similar, but not a song, is the tale called "The Three Sillies" on pp. 9-14 of Jacobs: Joseph Jacobs, collector, English Fairy Tales, originally published 1890; revised edition 1898 (I use the 1967 Dover paperback reprint), from the Folk-Lore Journal, with versions traced back at least to 1852. It is also found on pp. 61-63 of Katherine Briggs, British Folktales (originally published in 1970 as A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales), revised 1977 (I use the 1977 Pantheon paperback edition). This tale tells of a family which panics about a mallet stuck in a beam; they worry that it might fall out and kill someone, but never consider taking it down themselves.
L. Frank Baum also used the same general gimmick in The Emerald City of Oz; according to Michael O. Riley, Oz and Beyond: The Fantasy World of L. Frank Baum, University of Kansas Press, 1997, p. 163, in "Flutterbudget Center... live all the people who worry excessively about improbable things that have not happened."
Gard/Sorden say that raftsmen sang this "awakening the echoes in Witch's Gulch at the Dells" [on the Wisconsin River]. Presumably the echoes sounded like a family crying. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Wa062

Crystal Spring, The

DESCRIPTION: Captain courts his true love; promises to maintain her, mentions his loaded ship just arrived from Spain. She says men are fickle; he promises to be true
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Sharp); the Butterworth version is undated but probably from 1910
KEYWORDS: courting ship promise
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 32, "The Crystal Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 13, "Crystal Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1391
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing)" [Laws P14] (theme)
NOTES [40 words]: This may well be a fragmentary version of "One Morning in May", but so many elements of the latter song are missing that it could just as easily be an independent song. It does, however, mention a nightingale briefly in the first line. -PJS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: ShH32

Crystam Stream

See The Crystal Spring (File: ShH32)

Cu-Cuc A Chuaichin

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "Cuckoo, where will we spend the summer? Cuckoo, we'll spend it in the glens"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad bird
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 42, "Cu-Cuc A Chuaichin" (2 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Cu-Cuc A Chuaichin" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC042

Cuatro Palomitas Blancas (Four White Doves)

DESCRIPTION: Spanish: "Cuatros palomitas blancas (x3), Sentadas en un alero (x2)." "Unas a las otras dicen, 'No hay amor como el primero.'" Four white doves perch and tell each other, "'There is no love like the first.'" They (or the singer) prefer kisses to food.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love bird
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 366-368, "Cuatro Palomitas Blancas" (1 text plus translation, 1 tune)
File: LxA366

Cuba (Go, Preachers, and Tell It to the World)

DESCRIPTION: "Go, preachers, and tell it to the world (x3), Poor mourners found a home at last. Through free grace and a dying lamb (x3), Poor mourners found a home at last." Similarly, "Go, fathers...."; "Go, mothers...." etc.
AUTHOR: Words: H. S. Reese / Music: J. H. Bolen and H. S. Reese (source: Original Sacred Harp 1971)
EARLIEST DATE: 1859, according to the Original Sacred Harp 1971
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad father mother clergy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 116, "Cuba" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of a shape note version)
NOTES [52 words]: This is said to be based on Matthew 28:19, in which Jesus instructs his hearers to "make disciples of all nations." The image of Jesus as the Lamb however comes from John 1:29 ("Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world"), reinforced by much imagery in the Apocalypse, staring in Rev. 5:6. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Aber116

Cucanandy

DESCRIPTION: "Cucanandy-nandy, cucanandy-o (x2), Throw him over, over, throw him over th sea, Throw him over, over, he'll be here today." "He didn't dance, dance, he didn't dance today... no, nor yesterday." "Throw him up... he'll be here by and by."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cray-AshGrove)
KEYWORDS: lullaby nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-AshGrove, p. 25, "Cucanandy" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dance To Your Daddy" (tune)
File: CrAGr25A

Cucaracha, La

DESCRIPTION: Recognized by the references in the chorus to "la cucaracha" (the cockroach). The verses may describe the girls in various towns, and the way to court them. The chorus translates, "The cockroach doesn't want to travel because she has no marijuana"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Canciones Mexicanas)
KEYWORDS: drugs bug nonballad courting Mexico foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Mexico
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 289-291, "La Cucaracha (Mexican Cockroach Song)" (1 text plus translation, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 545, "La Cucaracha (The Cockroach)" (1 text, with references to Pancho Villa, plus English translation)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 188, "La Cucaracha"
NOTES [22 words]: Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag suggests that La Cucaracha may mean "The Little Dancer," but its natural meaning is "The Cockroach." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: San289

Cuckanandy

DESCRIPTION: Macaronic. "He didn't dance today... he won't till after tea." "Throw him oversea... He'll be here for tea." "Throw him up high...he'll come down by-and-by"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: nonballad baby food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 41, "Cuckanandy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5301
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Cuckanandy" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [42 words]: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin translating a Seamus Ennis note about the song: "As the old women used to have when they were making sport for youngsters, dandling them on their knees or in their laps." Includes a final mouth music verse. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC041

Cuckold by Consent, A

DESCRIPTION: A miller intends to sleep with a customer and has his wife put her in the parlour bed for the night. The maid and wife trade places. In the morning the miller tells Jack to sleep with the woman in the parlour bed cuckolding himself "with my own consent"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1675 (broadside, Bodleian 4o Rawl. 566(172))
LONG DESCRIPTION: A maid takes her father's corn to the mill. The miller asks his wife to put her in the parlour bed for the night, intending to sleep with her. The maid tells the wife of the miller's intent and they change places. In the morning the miller tells Jack to sleep with the woman in the parlour bed. At the mill the maid reveals the trick and the miller accepts being cuckolded by his own consent.
KEYWORDS: adultery trick wife miller sex
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1458, "The Jolly Miller" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #7283
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 4o Rawl. 566(172), "A Cuckhold by Consent" or "The Frollick Miller that Inticed a Maid" ("Friends will it please you to hear me tell"), F. Coles (London), 1663-1674
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bed's Making" (tune, per broadside Bodleian 4o Rawl. 566(172))
NOTES [23 words]: A certain similarity to Chaucer's "Reeve's Tale" will probably be evident, although the characters and motivations are all different. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: GrD71458

Cuckoo (II), The (Camp Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I went to (St. Petersburg), where the water's so good, And I heard there a cuckoo bird As he sang in the wood. Oh-lee-ah, oh-lee-ah, Coo-ke-ya, Oh-lee-ah." The singer will marry his "maiden fair" when the winter ends
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (SongsOfManyNationss)
KEYWORDS: bird courting marriage campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 145, 152, 176, 177, 185-186, 239, 346, 348, 419, 432, 497, 500, "The Cuckoo" (notes with a sample verse on p. 176 and a composite text on pp. 185-186, treated as a Version C of "An Austrian Went Yodeling"; bibliography on pp. 660-663, included with "An Austrian Went Yodelling")
SongsOfManyNations, "Kuckuxk (Cuckoo)" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 27)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 9, "Cuckoo -Kuckuk" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "From Out the Battered Elm Tree" (lyrics)
NOTES [69 words]: Note that this is neither the folk song "The Cuckoo" nor the camp song "The Cuckoo" found in Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 101, though I suspect it was translated from a similar original to the latter. SongsOfManyNations says the original is Austrian although it gives no German words. The words in 48MuchLovedFolkSongs are slightly different; they may be a different translation (credited to "K.F.R."). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF145X

Cuckoo Bird

See The Cuckoo (File: R049)

Cuckoo Cherry Tree

DESCRIPTION: "Cuckoo [or "cook a ball," or "keppy ball"], cherry-tree, catch a bird and give it to me [or "Come down the long lonning and tell to me"]" the form of the singer's future spouse: "Once a maiden, two a wife, Three a maiden, four a wife"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting wife nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Marjorie Rowling, _The Folklore of the Lake District_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 100, "(Keppy ball, Keppy ball, Coban Tree") (1 short text)
Roud #19966
File: Rowl100

Cuckoo Is a Clever Bird, The

See D'r Guckgu (The Cuckoo) (File: KPL100)

Cuckoo Is A Merry Bird, The

See The Cuckoo (File: R049)

Cuckoo Is A Pretty Bird, The

See The Cuckoo (File: R049)

Cuckoo She's a Pretty Bird, The

See The Cuckoo (File: R049)

Cuckoo Waltz

DESCRIPTION: "Three times round the Cuckoo Waltz (x3), Lovely Susie Brown. Fare thee well, my charming girl, Fare thee well I'm gone, Fare the well, my charming girl, With golden slippers on." "Choose your pard as we go round, We'll all take Susie Brown...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 36=37=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 169-171, "Cuckoo Waltz" (1 text, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 64-65, "Susan Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 160, "Cuckoo Waltz" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 136, "Susie Brown" (1 text, a mixed text which has two verses typical of "Cuckoo Waltz" or something like it and two from "Go In and Out the Window")
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 101, "Four Hands Round in the Euchre Ring" (1 text, 1 tune, hard to identify but it looks more like this than anything else); pp. 184-185, "Susan Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)

ST San160 (Full)
Roud #7893
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Joe Clark" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [19 words]: There was a 1948 pop song called "Cuckoo Waltz." I suppose it may have been based on this, but it isn't this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: San160

Cuckoo, The

DESCRIPTION: "The cuckoo is a pretty bird, she sings as she flies; she brings us glad tidings, and she tells us no lies." Many versions are women's complaints about men's false hearts (usually similar to "The Wagoner's Lad/Old Smokey")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad lament lyric floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (46 citations):
Randolph 49, "The Cuckoo" (4 texts, of which "A" is about half "Inconstant Lover/Old Smokey" verses and "B" never mentions the cuckoo and appears to be mostly floating verses; 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 117-118, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 49A)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 45, "Lovely Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 473-476, "The Unconstant Lover" (3 texts, 1 tune, of which the first is "Old Smokey"; the second mixes that with "The Cuckoo," and the third is short enough that it might be something else)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 248, "The Inconstant Lover" (5 texts plus a fragment, admitted by the editors to be distinct songs but with many floating items; "A," "B," and "C" are more "On Top of Old Smokey" than anything else, though without that phrase; "D" is primarily "The Broken Engagement (II -- We Have Met and We Have Parted)," "E" is a mix of "Old Smokey" and "The Cuckoo," and the "F" fragment may also be "Old Smokey")
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #195, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, very mixed, containing fragments of at least three songs, "On Top of Old Smokey" being the largest element, plus "The Cuckoo" and something that begins "Johnny on the water")
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 95, pp. 147-149, "Sweet Willie" (1 text, 1 tune, with verses from "The Cuckoo" but also much material from "On Top of Old Smokey" or something similar plus one of "Farewell He" type)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 66-67, "Cuckoo Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 88, "The Cuckoo" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 313-314, "The Cuckoo" (1 short text, with local title "Too Wandering True Loves"; the piece, which begins "A-walking and a-talking and a-courting goes I," never mentions a cuckoo and consists mostly of floating material similar to Randolph's; it could well be an "Inconstant Lover" type but is too short to classify; placed here because Scarborough does)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 99-101, "The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, p. 13, "The Coo-Coo Bird (The Cuckoo Bird)" (1 text, 1 tune, the Tom Ashley version, mostly of floating verses)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 42, "Forsaken" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 34, "A-Walking and A-Talking" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 142-144, "The Cuckoo" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 85, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 140, "The Cuckoo" (13 texts, 13 tunes)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 35, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 38, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 42, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, p. 153, "Cuckoo" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, p.n25, "The Cuckoo She's a Pretty Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wells-TheBalladTree, p. 274, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, pp. 101-102, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, with at least two verses that are "On Top of Old Smokey," two that might be from any of several abandonment songs, and a final verse that is "The Cuckoo")
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 23A, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, a composite of two texts)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 25, "The Cuckoo" (4 texts)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 165, "The Cuckoo" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 396)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 127, "Cuckoo" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #78, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, 1 tune, of four verses, all of which can float; one might be "Oh, No, Not I"; the second is clearly "The Cuckoo"; the third is perhaps from "On Top of Old Smokey"; the fourth is uncertain)
Greig/Duncan6 1157, "The Cuckoo" (5 texts plus a fragment on p. 559, 3 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H479, pp. 347-348, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 148, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 57, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 110, "The Cuckoo"; 111, "The Fourth Day of July" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 255-256, "[The Cuckoo She's a Pretty Bird]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 121, "The cuckoo is a merry bird" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #475, p. 210, "(The cuckoo is a bonny bird)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 18, "(The cuckoo's a bonnie bird)" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, p. 163, "[Cuathiciag Ghorm]" (1 short text, purporting to be a translation of a Gaelic text of "The Cuckoo")
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, p. 69, (no title) (1 fragment, the single floating stanza "I'll build me a cabin On the mountain so high" that is perhaps most typical of this song)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 79 "The Coo Coo Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 164, "The Cuckoo" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 9, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT CUKOO2 CUCKBIRD* CUCKBIR2*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 193-194, "The Cuckoo"
Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 44, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #413
RECORDINGS:
Clarence "Tom" Ashley, "The Coo Coo Bird" (Columbia 15489-D, 1929; on AAFM3, Ashley04)
Clarence Ashley & Doc Watson, "The Coo-Coo Bird" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01)
Charlie Black, "The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird" (AAFS 1389 B1)
Anne Briggs, "The Cuckoo" (on Briggs2, Briggs3, Briggs4)
Mrs. Joseph Gaines, "The Cuckoo" (AAFS 832 A1)
Gant Family, "The Cuckoo" (AAFS 72 B1)
Maggie Gant, "The Cuckoo" (AAFS 66 A2)
Kelly Harrell, "The Cuckoo She's a Fine Bird" (Victor V-40047, 1926; on KHarrell02)
Aunt Molly Jackson, "The Cuckoo" (AAFS 823 B1/B2, 1935)
Mrs. C. S. MacClellan, "The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird" (AAFS 986 B2)
Jonathan Moses, "Cuckoo is a Fine Bird" (AAFS 3705 A2)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Coo Coo Bird" (on NLCR04, NLCR11)
Lize Pace, "The Cuckoo" (AAFS 1437 A1)
Charlie Phillips, "The Cuckoo" (on FSBFTX15)
Dink Roberts, "Coo Coo" (on ClassBanj)
Mr. & Mrs. John Sams, "The Coo-Coo" (on MMOKCD)
John Selleck, "The Cuckoo" (AAFS 4219 A2)
Vivian Skinner, "Cuckoo is a May Bird" (AAFS 2997 A2)
Pete Steele, "The Cuckoo" (on PSteele01)
John Williams, "Cuckoo Song" (AAFS 4182 A2/B)
Guy Wolff, "The Coo Coo" (Piotr-Archive #424, recorded 01/08/2023)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(211), "The Cuckoo" ("Come all you pretty fair maids, wherever you be"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Harding B 11(762), Harding B 15(77a), Harding B 11(1231), "The Cuckoo"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (lyrics)
cf. "Sumer Is I-cumen In"
cf. "If I Were a Fisher" (floating verses)
cf. "The Streams of Bunclody" (floating verses)
SAME TUNE:
The Dove (by Ewan MacColl; Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 260-261)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
To a Meeting One Evening, to a Meeting Went I
NOTES [475 words]: Legends about the cuckoo bringing in summer (and infidelity) are common and early.
The cuckoo loves warmth, and so arrives late during migration; it is thus held to signal summer (see Briggs, volume A.2, p. 51, the story of "The Cuckoo-Penners": "'cos when the cuckoo do come, they begins to think about putting in the 'arvest." (These days, it may seem silly to time these things by bird migration, but recall that the calendar was off before the Gregorian Calendar was adoped.)
According to Binney, p. 182, to hear one's first cuckoo on April 28 was a sign of money coming one's way.
Certain species of cuckoo also lay their eggs in other birds' nests (whence probably the word "cuckold"), hence their association with lustiness.
The legend is ancient; Alcuin (died c. 804) wrote a piece, "Opto meus veniat cuculus, carrisimus ales," in which spring begs for the cuckoo to come. And Alcuin was English. But he worked in Charlemagne's France, and wrote in Latin, so we cannot prove that the idea was that old in England. But we do have the very old English song "Sumer Is I-cumen In"; showing that the cuckoo legend had made it to England by then; see the entry on that piece for more details on the dating.
Outside England, we find a number of other songs on the theme: Maud Karpeles, Folk Songs of Europe, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 115, prints "L'inverno e passato," "Oh past and gone is winter, And March and April too, And May is here to greet us And songs of the cuckoo.... May's the month for lovers And songs of the cuckoo" (Italian, from Switzerland), as well as "Kukuvaca," "Cuckoo, cuckoo, sings the cuckoo," in which a girl asks a mower, "Have you cut the grass for me?" (p. 217, from Croatia).
The idea of the cuckoo being used as a calendar is found in areas as remote as China. Eberhard, p. 77, says that "The peasants in the province of Sichuan pay a lot of attention tothe cuckoo, which helps them to pick the right day for starting various jobs on the farm. The local dialect has several expressions for the bird, like 'reap the wheat,' 'forcing us to plough,' 'watching the silkworms' or 'watching the fire.'"
Briggs, volume A.2, p. 3, notes in addition that Britain has a large class of "noodle tales" in which some group of people try to "wall in the cuckoo" to keep it from laying its eggs in other nests. These naturally end in failure. A typical example is "The Borrowdale Cuckoo" (Briggs, volume A.2, pp. 25-26), in which the residents keep building a wall just higher than the highest point to which the cuckoo most recently flew, and the cuckoo simply flies a little higher the next time.
Simpson, p. 114, has a single stanza with line, "She picks up the dirt in the spring of the year." Simpson explains, "Since cuckoos arrive when the land is drying out after the winter rains, it was said that they cleared the mud away." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: R049

Cuckoo's Nest (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a girl and tells her his inclination lies in her cuckoo's nest. She's shocked at first, but his words are convincing; she consents. (He leaves her with the makings of a young cuckoo.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Early 1950s (recorded from Jeannie Robertson & John Strachan)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a girl and tells her his inclination lies in her cuckoo's nest. She's shocked at first, but as his intentions are good and his words are convincing, she consents. (He leaves her with the makings of a young cuckoo.) Chorus: "Some like the lassie's that's gay weel dressed/And some like the lassies that's lecht aboot the waist/But it's in amang the blankets that I like best/To get a jolly rattle at the cuckoo's nest" or words to that effect
KEYWORDS: courting sex pregnancy animal bird lover dancetune
FOUND IN: Britain US(SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Peacock, pp. 259-260, "Cuckoo's Nest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 48, pp. 232-233, "The Cuckoo's News" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #91, "The Cuckoo's Nest" (1 text, 1 tune, apparently composite, so it's not really clear where it should file)
DT, CUKONEST*
Roud #5407
RECORDINGS:
Sean McGuire, "The Cuckoo's Nest" [instrumental] (on FSB02, FSB2CD)
Mrs. Nellie Musseau, "The Cuckoo's Nest" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Jeannie Robertson "The Cuckoo's Nest" (on FSB2, FSB2CD)
John Strachan, "Twa and Twa" (on FSB2, FSB2CD)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cuckoo's Nest (II)" (tune, subject)
cf. "The Magpie's Nest" (tune)
NOTES [85 words]: Three songs (two erotic) share this tune, which is also a common fiddle tune. "Cuckoo's Nest (I)" and "Cuckoo's Nest (II)" overlap some, but as one is always a ballad while the other is really a lyric song, I've split them. (They're most easily distinguished by the chorus; in (I) the man expresses his preferences in women, in (II) he doesn't.) [Note, however, that Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging's version, from Riley Neal, has no chorus. - RBW] Better check out both, though -- and "The Magpie's Nest." - PJS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: RcTCN01

Cuckoo's Nest (II), The

DESCRIPTION: Lyric song in praise of the female "cuckoo's nest." Behind a thorn bush a man and woman are busy "hairing at the cuckoo's nest," which " isn't easy found"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (see NOTES)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Lyric song in praise of the female "cuckoo's nest." Behind a thorn bush a man and woman are busy "hairing at the cuckoo's nest." "It is thorned, it is sprinkled, it is compassed all around/It is thorned, it is sprinkled, and it isn't easy found"; Chorus: "Hi the cuckin', ho the cuckin', hi the cuckoo's nest...I'll gie onybody a a shilling and a bottle o' the best/If they'll ramble up the feathers o' the cuckoo's nest"
KEYWORDS: sex dancetune lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England, Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #49, pp. 203-204, "The Thorn Bush (The Cuckoo's Nest)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 202, "Some for the Girl" (1 short text, 1 tune)
DT, CUKOO3
Roud #1506
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cuckoo's Nest (I)" (subject, tune)
cf. "The Magpie's Nest" (tune)
NOTES [204 words]: Three songs (two erotic) share this tune, which is also a common fiddle tune. "Cuckoo's Nest (I)" and "Cuckoo's Nest (II)" overlap some, but as one is always a ballad while the other is really a lyric song, I've split them. (They're most easily distinguished by the chorus; in (I) the man expresses his preferences in women, in (II) he doesn't.) Better check out both, though -- and "The Magpie's Nest." - PJS
Kennedy cites the text in Ford, "The Bonnie Brier Bush," as an offshoot of this. Offshoot it may be, but it's not the same song, and Ford indicates no tune. Kennedy is overreaching. Again. - RBW
Porter and Gower note the hornpipe tune is quite popular. Also they cite the fact that Burns and others tried to rework the lyrics to lessen the erotic symbolism (p. 204). The earliest attempt they list is from 1796, so this song must be at least that old. - DGE
The Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong "Some for the Girl" text is sufficiently distinct from others of this type that I thought about splitting it off. But this Roud number has already been split many ways in the Ballad Index, and some of the differences may be the fact that Jennie Devlin perhaps cleaned things up, so I'm filing it here. With doubts. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcTCN02

Cuddy, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells Jock that idleness is the cause of poverty. Now well off, he began with only a cuddy [donkey] and a pack. Finally, he opened a shop, married and had children. "Freens tak my advice ... If a stout heart ye hae ye may climb a stiff brae"
AUTHOR: Thomas Denham (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (_The Aberdeenshire Lintie_, according to Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: virtue work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast 109, p. 2, "The Cuddy" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 661, "The Cuddy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6088
File: GrD3661

Cudelia Brown

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: Cudelia Brown, what makes your head so red? It's because you sit in the sunshine with nothing on your head. The singer meets Mister Ivan one night and he said he gave Neita "de drop, Jamaica flop an' de moonshine drop (hah! hah!)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: nonballad colors
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 27-28, "Cudelia Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time - Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), pp. 24-25, "Cudelia Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jim Morse, _Folk Songs of the Caribbean_ (New York: Bantam Books, 1958), pp. 92-94, "Cudelia Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Cudelia Brown" (on WIEConnor01)
Louise Bennett, "Cudelia Brown" (on WILBennett01)
NOTES [336 words]: Dexter and Taylor think the song is trying "to explain the colour of Cudelia's red hair."
I have no idea what is going on in the verse about Mr. Ivan.
The "what makes your head so red" line is familiar from "The Boll Weevil," with the retort being "it's a wonder I ain't dead" (Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs (1953), p. 113; Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 9; Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs (1963), p. 78).
The closest I've found to "Cudelia Brown" is another fragment from Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs (1963), p. 193: "Peckerwood, peckerwood,/ What makes your head so red?/ You peck out in the sun so long,/ It's a wonder you ain't dead." Lomax thought his red-headed boll weevil reference might originally have been to a woodpecker.
In Jamaica a red-headed bird reference could have been made to John Crow -- the turkey vulture -- a common character in Jamaican Song and Story. Jekyll has a Jamaican Annancy story that explains why John Crow has no feathers on his head (Walter Jekyll, Jamaican Song and Story (New York: Dover Publications, 1966 (reprint of 1907 edition)), #43 pp. 132-135). Also, see "Hol' Yuh Han'."
The name "Cudelia" could be based on Louis Jordan's 1945 hit "Caldonia (what makes your big head so hard?)." Louis Jordan's songs were popular in Jamaica (See Bruno Blum "English adaptation" by Martin Davies, liner notes on "Jamaica and U.S.A. Roots of Ska Rhythm and Blues Shuffle 1942-1962," Fremaux and Associes CD FA 5396, 2013, p. 19; David Katz, Solid Foundation -- An Oral History of Reggae (London: Jawbone Press, 2012 [second edition]), p. 16) [Louis Jordan and and his Tympany Five, "Caldonia" (1945, on Decca 78 rpm 8670A)]. This is certainly a reach -- the tunes of the two songs are not similar -- but we have examples of U.S. songs making it into the Jamaican tradition (see "Nobody's Business" and "Hello Ma Baby"). - BS
I will confess that I thought "Cudelia" was a dialect form of "Cordelia," but that doesn't explain why the name was chosen. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: JaMu027

Cuir A Chodladh

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. A lullaby. The baby's feet are being washed and the baby is given a drink.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage lullaby nonballad baby drink
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 43, "Cuir A Chodladh" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Cuir A Chodladh" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC043

Culling Fish

DESCRIPTION: In August the crew took its dried codfish to Monroe. There was no one at the plant to cull [grade] the fish. The new rules make grading more strict. "According to instructions and the outline in view, There's no 'number one' so [it] must go 'number two'"
AUTHOR: Chris Cobb
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: commerce fishing
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 118-119, "Culling Fish" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9961
NOTES [299 words]: Newfoundland's economy was almost entirely dependent on cod. It's why the island was settled, and it was the island's largest export for most of its history. The "cull" was the process by which the dried fish was sorted based on quality. In early days, this was a hand operation. But as described on pp. 151-152 of James Hiller and Peter Neary, editors, Newfoundland in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Essays in Interpretation, University of Toronto Press, 1980:
"During the last quarter of the 19th century, technological advances and the charging commercial patterns of the fishery seriously undercut the quality of Newfoundland's saltfish and helped to render its marketing system almost chaotic. As the productivity and profitability of the cod fishery declined in the latter half of the 19th century, specialist shore crews, whose job was to cure the fish, became uneconomic and disappeared. Their function was assumed by untrained women and children with a predictable drop in the quality of fish produced. The invention of the cod trap and increasing use of seines exacerbated the problem by producing large catches that left insufficient time for curing....
"Since the first fish to reach the foreign markets received a premium price, exporters on the Labrador coast began buying fish by the qual (that is, ungraded and at a flat price for later grading) in order to speed up the process by which it could be handled and raced to market. The fisherman was therefore deprived of the critical incentive to devote extra time producing superior quality, because he no longer received a price difference to reward his efforts. Quality and price dropped accordingly." The result was a decline in the codfish industry, and probably a worse decline in respect for Newfoundland fish. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea118

Culloden Field

DESCRIPTION: "The heather bell blooms o'er the dead ... They mark the warrior's gory grave ... Where mouldering in the dust is laid The hero of the plume and plaid"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: battle death nonballad Jacobites
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 16, 1746 - Battle of Culloden Muir ends the 1745 Jacobite rebellion (see the NOTES to "The Muir of Culloden" for details)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 129, "Culloden Field" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #5780
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Muir of Culloden" (subject) and notes and references there
cf. "Culloden Moor" (tune)
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan1 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1129

Culloden Moor

DESCRIPTION: "Culloden moor, Long wilt thou be remembered ... On thee the clans of Scotland bled for their dear royal Charlie...." "Traitor knaves with bribery base Made death's darts fly fu' rarely, Ah! Scotland lang will min' the place She lost her royal Charlie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: battle betrayal death patriotic Jacobites
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 16, 1746 - Battle of Culloden Muir ends the 1745 Jacobite rebellion (see the NOTES to "The Muir of Culloden" for details)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 128, "Culloden Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5779
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Muir of Culloden" (subject) and notes and references there
cf. "Culloden Field" (tune)
NOTES [20 words]: Greig/Duncan1: "Learnt from her brother, James Birnie, who probably had it from ... from fifty to sixty years ago." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1128

Cum Ouer the Borne Bessey

See Come Over the Burn, Bessie (File: MECOtBBe)

Cum Out De Weederness

See Go in the Wilderness (File: RcGITW)

Cum, Geordy, Haud the Bairn

DESCRIPTION: "Cum , Geordy, haud the bairn, Aw's sure aw'll not stop lang." The woman goes out briefly, leaving the child because she is "not strang." When the child becomes upset, Geordy is unable to calm it, and talks of the weary work his wife must do
AUTHOR: Joseph Wilson
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland); Wilson died 1875
KEYWORDS: mother father children humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 136-137, "Cum, Georfy, Haud the Bairn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3161
File: StoR136

Cumarachandhu

See Cumarashindu (File: GrD81902)

Cumarashindu

DESCRIPTION: The singer is "a dacent policeman, the pride o the Glesca Force." When he meets friends he says "Cumarachandhu." When he passes the boys "in ma bonnie coat o' blue" "they cry as I pass by, 'There goes Cumarachandhu'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: police
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1902, "Cumarashindu" (1 fragment plus a single verse on p. 417, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Chris Wright, "'Forgotten Broadsides and the Song Tradition of the Scots Travellers" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, p. 100, "Cumarachandhu" (copy of a Dundee Poet's Box broadside)
Roud #13562
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Cumarachandhu
The Russian Jew
NOTES [37 words]: Greig/Duncan8 text count includes one verse on p. 417. That verse is the basis for the description.
Greig/Duncan8: "'Cumarashindhu' is a representation of the Gaelic 'Ciamar a tha si(bh) 'n diugh?' (How are you today?)." - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: GrD81902

Cumberland and the Merrimac, The

See The Cumberland [Laws A26] (File: LA26)

Cumberland Crew, The [Laws A18]

DESCRIPTION: The crew of the Cumberland, attacked by the CSS Virginia/Merrimac, fight back as best they can, though their shot bounces off the Confederate's armored hull. The Cumberland fights until it is rammed and sunk
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, LOCSinging sb10061b)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 8, 1862 - U.S. frigates Congress and Cumberland sunk by the CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimack). The Minnesota runs aground; had not the Monitor arrived the next day, the Merrimac would have sunk that ship also
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Ont) Ireland Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Laws A18, "The Cumberland Crew"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 134-135, "The Cumberland's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 39, "The Cumberland's Crew" (1 tune, partial text)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 39, "The Cumberland's Crew" (1 tune, partial text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 36-37, "The Cumberland's Crew" (1 text)
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 162-165, "The Cumberland Crew" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 114-115, "The Cumberland's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 102-103, "The Cumberland's Crew" (1 text)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 106-107, "The Cumberland's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 87, "The Fate of the 'Cumberland' Crew" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 249-252, "The Fate of the 'Cumberland' Crew" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 97, "The Fate of the 'Cumberland' Crew" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 113, "Cumberland's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 194, "The Cumberland's Crew" (1 text)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 16-17,244, "The Cumberland's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 358-359, "The Cumberland's Crew" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 217-218, "The Cumberland Crew" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #60, "The Cumberland's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune, in which the ship becomes British!)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #410, p. 28, "The Cumberland's Crew" (4 references)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 258-260, "The Cumberland Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 24-25, "The Cumberland Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 366, CUMBCREW*
Roud #707
RECORDINGS:
Stanley Baby, "The 'Cumberland's Crew (1)'" (on GreatLakes1)
Orlo Brandon, "The 'Cumberland's Crew (2)'" (on GreatLakes1)
Warde Ford, "The Cumberland crew (The Cumberland's crew)" [fragment] (AFS 4202 B5, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(108), "Cumberland's Crew," Bell and Co. (San Francisco), c.1860; also Firth c.12(72), "The Cumberland's Crew"
LOCSinging, sb10061b, "The Cumberland's Crew," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cumberland" [Laws A26] (subject)
cf. "Iron Merrimac" (subject)
cf. "The Merrimac (I)" (subject)
cf. "Jack Gardner's Crew" (tune & meter)
SAME TUNE:
The Twin-Shaft Disaster (File: KMMP199)
NOTES [8104 words]: To tell this song from "The Cumberland," refer to this text from the broadside version of 1887:
Oh, shipmates, come gather and join in my ditty,
Of a terrible battle that happened of late;
Let each Union tar shed a sad tear of pity
When he thinks of the once-gallant Cumberland's fate.
The eighth day of March told a terrible story,
And many a brave tar to this world bid adieu,
Yet our flag it was wrapped in a mantle of glory
By the heroic deeds of the 'Cumberland' crew."
The first day of the Battle of Hampton Roads, March 8, 1862, has been called the worst day in the history of the United States Navy prior to Pearl Harbor (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 148).
The Monitor and the Virginia/Merrimack are often referred to as the "first ironclads," that is, the first ships with iron armor. This is absolutely false; Preston, p. 15, reports that France and Britain had fiddled with wrought iron ships as early as the 1840s, but temporarily abandoned the idea because the iron splintered too much when hit by solid shot.
Several things changed the equation. The Crimean War caused such terrific casualties that it became vital to build armored floating batteries, technological progress made metal less brittle -- and the introduction of shell-firing naval guns meant that the old wooden walls were just too vulnerable to fire; a way had to be found to make ships safe against burning. The French were the first out of the gate, producing in 1859 La Gloire, a wooden ship fitted with iron plating (Preston, pp. 16-17). She was ugly and slow, but at least one hot shot could not sink her.
Britain promptly went one better, with Warrior -- the first all-iron warship ever built (Paine, p. 566).
Nelson, p. 3,notes that the combatants at Hampton Roads were not even the first *American* ironclads. The Confederates at New Orleans had tried to build one, the Louisiana (though she was still incomplete when the city fell; McPherson, p. 420), and on the Tennessee front, the Union had built "Pook's Turtles," light ironclads designed for work in shallow waters. They had a lot of problems, but they fought at Forts Henry and Donelson in February 1862 (Nelson,p. 183, describes them as the first ironclads in Federal service, and praises their performance, though Woodworth, pp. 76-77, 90-91, in giving details of their activity notes that the light armor of these vessels could not always stop a heavy cannonball). Nelson, p. 144, argues that the very first ironclad in action was in fact the Confederate ram Manasses, which went into action at the mouth of the Mississipi in 1861 (though it wasn't much of an action).
But neither the British nor the French ironclads had ever fired a gun in anger in 1862, and while the American ships had, they had not engaged other ships of the same type. The Battle of Hampton Roads was the first *battle* of self-powered ironclad vessels. What's more, La Gloire and Warrior were basically conventional designs, designed to fight under steam but cross large distances under sail, and both fired standard broadsides. The American designs would be radically different. (In the Confederate case, largely by necessity; Nelson, p. 162, reports that the Confederate navy had concluded that "[t]here was no possibility of building such a ship in the Confederacy.")
From the moment the Civil War began, both sides tried for control of the sea and rivers. The Union, which controlled the American navy, striving to blockade the Confederacy so that it could not sell its cotton or gain raw materials from outside, while the southerners tried to break the blockade.
Given Union naval superiority, the Confederacy had no hope of winning a pitched battle on water. Rather, they had to try to nibble a little bit here and there -- or they had to come up with a superweapon. Holzer/Mulligan, p. 23, reports that the Confederates briefly tried to buy La Gloire or one of its sisters. The French, who still had only a handful of ironclads, weren't selling. The Confederates would have to do it on their own.
They had just the man to arrange it. Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory had not had a very distinguished career in the United States Senate (Hendrick, p. 365), and had had only one year of formal schooling (Hendrick, p. 366) -- but he was creative, and fascinated by ships. He served well enough that he ended up being the only member of the Confederate cabinet to serve the entire war (Hendrick, p. 364).
And where better to do it than in Chesapeake Bay? It controlled the sea approach to both Richmond and Washington. If the Confederates could somehow clear out the Union navy from the bay's outlet near Hampton Roads, it could change the course of the war.
And, in that quest, the Union had given the Confederacy a great gift: the Gosport naval yard in Norfolk, Virginia, its chief naval base. Not only were there naval facilities there, there were even some salvagable ships. When Virginia seceded, the commander of the yard, 67-year-old Charles Stewart McCauley (an alcoholic, according to Nelson, p. 37, and he certainly sounds senile), had feared the Confederates, and ordered a premature and disorderly abandonment of Norfolk (Holzer/Mulligan, pp. 23-24; even Wood-BL, a Confederate officer, says that Norfolk was "hurriedly abandoned by the Federals, why no one could tell"; Wood-BL, p. 98). The one vessel to escape the chaos was the U.S.S. Cumberland, the subject of this song, since she was properly manned and able to sail (Nelson, p. 53)
Not so fortunate was the USS Merrimack (correct spelling). She was one of the newest and strongest vessels in the U. S. navy, having been built in 1854 and commissioned in 1855 (Paine, pp. 557-558; Nelson, p.36, gives her year of commission as 1856). But her engines were incredibly balky; they had been overhauled in 1857 (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 25), and by 1861 were out of commission again -- the main reason she was rotting in port (Nelson, p. 37, says she was "all but disassembled," and adds on p. 141 that "the engine was so bad that the [United States] navy had decided to condemn it". H. Ashton Ramsey, who had been an engineer on Merrimac before the war and then went south to become the new vessel's chief engineer, called them "radically defective"; Nelson, p. 140). The navy tried to rescue the ship (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 60), but McCauley, confused and fearful of provoking the locals, interfered with the repair attempts.
Official Washington made several attempts to get the ship away (this is the primary subject of Nelson, pp. 36-50). But the government did not want to provoke the state of Virginia, which was teetering on the brink of secession. That, combined with McCauley's inept attempt to prevent trouble, eventually gave rise to a situation in which Merrimack was able to sail, but had no crew and no weapons. No one seemed able to figure out what to do from there. An expedition was finally sent to Norfolk, but it arrived just a few hours too late to save the ship or the naval yard (Nelson, p. 50). By then, the (mostly secessionist) workers at the yard had quit (Nelson, p. 51), so the few naval personnel could no longer accomplish any real repairs.
It is just possible that the naval yard could have been saved -- the Cumberland, after all, was in the waters of Hampton Roads, and had enough heavy guns to make any infantly attacker think twice (Nelson, p. 52), and another heavy ship, the Pawnee, was soon to arrive. But McCauley had already ordered the several ships in the yard, destroyed. (When Commodore Pauling of the Pawnee heard about that, he had McCauley relieved; Nelson, p. 55.) But the ships that were destroyed were of relatively little value. It was Merrimack that everyone wanted.
By then, the ship was settling in the water; she too had been scuttled. At this point, confusion in command took hold. Paulding, who had hoped to save the naval yard, concluded that McCauley had given too much away; the yard could not be defended (a debatable point, given the weakness of Confederate forces in the area; Nelson, pp. 63-64). So he ordered its destruction instead.
This was done rather ineptly. Quite a few buildings were damaged or destroyed, but there wasn't enough time to destroy most of the heavy guns (Nelson, p. 56). And, in a blatantly stupid move, Merrimack was one of the things set afire as she sank -- which meant that the rising waters put out the flames before they could reach the lower decks (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 62). Instead of being destroyed, the ship's hull and engines were largely intact (as balky as ever -- Wood-BL says "We could not depend on them for six hours at a time" -- but intact). The ship's rig was gone, and the engines suffered further damage from salt water -- but they could be used. In particular, the propeller shaft remained whole (Nelson, p. 95) -- one of the trickiest thing for the Confederates to fabricate.
"If the federals had simply burned Merrimack as she floated on her waterline, and not scuttled her first, there would have been nothing for the Confederates to salvage. But as it was, the water flooding the hull protected the lower part of the vessel from the flames, and left it virtually intact" (Nelson, p. 95). In a way, the damage actually helped the Confederacy: It was cheaper to rebuild the Merrimack without masts than with. And a ship without masts could mount a heavier broadside and was less vulnerable to damage.
A rebuild was easily undertaken because the attempts to render the yard unusable had been a complete failure. As the officer who occupied it noted, "Only an inconsiderable portion of the property, with the exception of the ships, was destroyed" (Nelson, p. 67). "The U. S. Navy left for the southerners 130 gun carriages and over a thousand guns, from 11-inch to 32-pounders. They left most of the machinery in repairable condition. They left two thousand barrels of gunpowder, thousands of cartridges, thousands and thousands of shot and shells" (Nelson, p. 68). The yard did end up somewhat debilitated, but that was mostly the fault of the Confederates themselves, engineers would complain that the yard had been stripped of both essential equipment and personnel (Nelson, p. 159).
It was quickly decided to rebuild Merrimack. After some discussion, the Confederates settled on a design that "reminded observers of a barn floating with only its roof above water" (McPherson, p. 373). In simplest terms, they cut off the top of the ship right about at the waterline, put a sheathe of iron over it as a deck, then built a small iron citadel, with sides sloped at 36 degrees, on top (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 24). The citadel wasn't the whole ship, but it was all that could be seen at a distance; hence the barn-like apearance.
Armoring the ship proved a major challenge. The major structural element of the armored citadel was in fact wood (several feet of it, running in different directions and of several different types), but this had to be plated with iron -- a difficult item to obtain, since the total amount of iron needed was very large -- nearly 800 tons, according to Holzer/Mulligan, p. 25, or even 1000 tons, accoring to Nelson, p. 109. I've often seen it stated that the Merrimack was plated with rail iron (e.g. Foote, p. 255) -- which gave me the impression that someone covered her sides with sections of track. Not quite -- but the Confederates took up a lot of railroad iron (Nelson, p. 109) and melted it down so the Tredegar Iron Works (the only place in the Confederacy capable of producing the plates) could make the plating. It was a desperate measure that would prove costly later on, as the Confederate rails wore out. And even so, it took months for all the armor to be rolled; the first deliveries were in October 1861, and the last did not arrive until February 1862 (Holzer/Mulligan, pp. 25-26).
The ship almost didn't make it into action; workmen put in long hours, seven days a week (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 69), but the Confederacy was not an industrial nation. (Just to give an illustration of how hard this was for them, there are no photographs at all of Virginia, and no authoritative plans; scholars aren't even sure how many pilothouses she had; Nelson, p. 142).
The problems with creating materials meant that frantic changes had to be made once tests showed that the 1-inch-thick iron plates originally specified were not strong enough; 2-inch plates had to be substituted. Even the Tredegar Iron Works -- the only place in the Confederacy that was up to dealing with all that metal -- had trouble with that; the plates were hard to roll, and the holes for bolts could not be punched; they had to be drilled (Nelson, pp. 112-113). Even transporting the stuff was almost impossible. But Tredegar rebuilt its facilities, and eventually they worked out the transport, too. The designers were constantly fiddling with the design, as well. They even created a new type of rifled gun (Nelson, pp. 109-110). But finally they managed to put her in the water.
She wasn't a healthy ship; her ventilation was terrible, and the citadel on top had no roof except a grating, so it was open to rain; her officers reported that dozens of crewmen were sick on most days (Nelson, p. 195. Her opponent the Monitor was also very bad in that regard; Greene-BL, p. 118, declares that "Probably no ship ever devised was so uncomfortable for her crew"). Still, she floated, and she could fight.
The result was renamed CSS Virginia, but is often (perversely) called the Merrimac (note the different spelling). The confusion is partly the Confederate fault; several of the new ship's officers (including even her commander Franklin Buchannan -- Nelson, p. 180 -- and her executive officer, Catesby ap Roger Jones, who commanded her on March 9) had served aboard her in the U. S. Navy and tended to keep the old name. And some of them misspelled it Merrimac (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 58). According to Nelson, p. 193, the name Virginia didn't take hold until about the time she was relaunched.
Whatever they called her, she had one major advantage. As Foote says, "What she lacked in looks, and she was totally lacking there, she made up for in her ability to give and take a pounding" (p. 255).
Had she taken much longer, Union general George B. McClellan's Peninsular Campaign might have stopped work on her before she even went to sea. Plus her design was wrong: Her displacement had been miscalculated, so that her hull rode too high, exposing the unarmored portions that were supposed to be below the waterline (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 69). Ballast was added, but as she burned shot and coal, she would rise and expose her underbelly. Plus her ram, which was her most deadly weapon, was not attached very securely. She also suffered from having a crew with inadequate sea experience (Holzer/Mulligan, pp. 69-70; Nelson, pp. 180-181, tells how Lt. Wood, of Wood-BL, had to scour army artillery units to find gunners).
It wasn't until March 4, 1862 that the new ship was ready for a shakedown cruise (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 71). Even her guns had hardly been proved -- they were a new design, but her officers has been alotted only 300 pounds of gunpowder to test it! (Nelson, p. 177; Wood-BL, p. 103, reports that at one point on her voyage, her guns would stop firing for fear of wasting powder. To put this powder-pinching in perspective, she would sail with some 18,000 pounds of powder; Nelson, p. 211). But her commander, Franklin Buchanan, decided to make that test run a trial by fire -- though he didn't even tell most of his crew until the trip was underway. This even though workmen had still been on the ship that very morning and much work still had to be done: Her weapons to prevent boarding had not been fitted,she needed shutters over most of her gunports (Nelson, p. 213), and the guns themselves were untested (Nelson, p. 7), her rudder was giving problems, and her internal arrangements were incomplete (Konstam, pp. 16-17).
(We might note incidentally that, technically speaking, Buchanan wasn't her captain; Virginia never had a captain. This is because Buchanan was junior to some other naval officers who had headed south, and who considered themselves more deserving of being ship's captains. The Navy department circumvented this by making Buchanan a commodore; Nelson, pp. 195-196. This made him technically a fleet commander, not a ship commander -- but in practice he commanded Virginia as well as the whole James River squadron. Buchanan's career was full of such contradictions -- he had resigned from the United States navy when he thought Maryland would secede, but it didn't leave the Union. He tried to rescind his resignation, but this understandably was not allowed, so he went to the Confederacy; Nelson, pp. 198-199.)
Bad weather on March 6 and 7 forced Buchanan to wait until March 8 (Holzer/Mulligan, p.72). But when he did, he came out with a bang.
It was quickly discovered that Virginia was hideously hard to handle. One of her officers reported that the best possible speed she could make was five knots (Wood-BL, p. 100), and that was with everything perfect: smokestacks intact and drawing well, the ship level, the crew at full strength. Other estimates vary; Nelson, p. 8, estimates her speed at seven knots before battle damage affected her smokestack -- though a comment on p. 108 implies that her propeller was too high in the water to be very efficient. No matter which calculation is right, she was not fast.
Plus it took her at least half an hour to turn about (Wood-BL, p. 100, says "it took from thirty to forty minutes to turn" -- and it also required a lot of room, because of Virginia's deep draught. Most of Hampton Roads was so shallow that she literally could not turn about. And she drew so much water (22 feet) that she couldn't really maneuver at all in the James River; it was too shallow for her rudder to have much effect (Holzer/Mulligan, pp. 72-73). Plus there were many places in Hampton Roads which were accessible to other ships where she simply could not sail -- to some extent Union ships could avoid her (or at least her ram) by putting a shoal between them.
By comparison, the Monitor, which could make eight knots, could turn in four minutes and fifteen seconds; Nelson, p. 227).
To be sure, the Confederates had other ships in the area -- Konstam, pp. 18-19, lists five other Confederate vessels based in Norfolk and on the James River, two of which, though armed, served mostly as tugs to get the Virginia to where she would fight (Nelson, p. 10); most of the rest would sortie with her. But the five combined mounted only about two dozen guns (the biggest, Patrick Henry, had ten, but was a sidewheel steamer, which made her very vulnerable; Nelson, p. 216); on their own, they were not even as strong as one of the Union blockading ships. They did fight, and take casualties (Nelson, p. 233) and in one case fairly severe damage (Nelson, p. 247); indeed, the Jamestown and Patrick Henry did most of the slight damage to the Minnesota (Nelson, p. 249).. But they were sort of like cavalry raiders hiding behind an infantry screen: more irritant than anything else; they could only fight because, if they had to, they could hide behind the big ironclad. It was essentially the Virginia against the entire Union fleet.
As long as Virginia couldn't be hurt, it hardly mattered. Maybe she couldn't catch the enemy ships, but they could not survive where she was.
When she came out on March 8, there were five major representatives of the Union navy in Hampton Roads: The Cumberland (26 guns, under Captain William Radford), the Congress (52 guns; under Lieutenant Joseph Smith), the Minnesota (47 guns; Captain Gershon Van Brunt), the Roanoke (42 guns; Captain John Marston, though her engines were temporarily disabled; Nelson, p. 234), and the St. Lawrence (50 guns; Captain H. Purveyance) (for the ship's armaments, see Holzer/Mulligan, p. 73; for their skippers, Konstam, p. 22). Roanoke and Minnesota were in fact sisters of the Merrimack (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 58. Nelson, p. 73, notes the irony that Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory was chair of the Senate committee which approved these ships, and had been one of the senators most responsible for their construction). Many of them had been on blockade duty for quite a while; Nelson, p. 11, says that Cumberland and Congress had been at Hampton Roads since at least November.
The ironclad's first shots went into Congress, which was closest (Nelson, p. 14), but Virginia fired on her only in passing. She was heading for the Cumberland, which had been laid down in 1826 and finally finished in 1842 as a 50-gun frigate; she was razeed (i.e. had her upper deck taken off) in 1856 and converted to a 24-gun sloop-of-war (though the guns were of heavier weight than those of the Congress, making her potentially more deadly to the Virginia; Nelson, p. 14). She was exclusively a sailing ship; without engines (Paine, p. 127) -- and there was no wind on the day of the Battle of Hampton Roads (Nelson, p. 236), so she was effectively unable to move. Indeed, both Cumberland and Congress were thought so vulnerable that tentative orders had been given to withdraw them from Hampton Roads (Nelson, p. 11).
When the Virginia came out, Cumberland was in bad shape to fight -- it was washing day (Hoehling, p. 65, Nelson, p. 12), and her captain William Radford was away on a court-martial board at the time, leaving the ship in the hands of Lieutenant George U. Morris (Hoehling, p. 66).
Hoehling, p. 67, says that 121 men died on the Cumberland -- roughly a third of the ship's crew of 376 (Nelson, p. 239).
Still, she did most of the damage to the Virginia. The ironclad's guns tore Cumberland to shreds, but then the Confederate ship decided to ram. The big blade tore a fatal hole in the Cumberlnd, causing her to sink quickly, with her flag famously still flying. She almost took the Virginia with her; the ship rocked so violently when the ram went in that it nearly suberged the ironclad's nose (Nelson, p. 18), and one Federal officer thought he could have sunk her simply by dropping an anchor onto her as Cumberland went down (Nelson, pp. 229-230). But Captain Buchanan had been clever; he had ordered the engines reversed before impact (Nelson, pp. 14, 18), and she was able to pull free.
Wood-BL, written by a man who served on the Virginia during the fight, describes her end on p. 101: "[T]he Cumberland continued to fight, though our ram had opened her side wide enough to drive in a horse and cart. soon she listed to port and filled rapidly. The crew were driven by the advancing water to the spar-deck, and there worked her pivot-guns until she went down with a roar, the colors still flying. No ship ever fought more gallantly."
Greene-BL, telling of arriving in Hampton Roads (without a pilot, so great was the hurry to get to the battle site) reports, "Near us, too, at the bottom of the river, lay the Cumberland, with her silent crew of brave men, who died while fighting their guns to the water's edge, and whose colors were still flying at the peak."
As it turned out, that heroic fight was not without its effect. Cumberland's earlier broadsides had done no damage (Nelson, p. 14, says that a hundred heavy guns were fired at Virginia without causing her any harm), but the collision tore off the Virginia's ram (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 87), and the shots fired by the crew after they were rammed caused much harm to the Virginia's upper works -- including her smokestack (Nelson, p. 229), further reducing the Confederate vessel's speed (since it reduced the draw through her furnaces; "after the loss of the smoke-stack, Mr.Ramsey, chief engineer, reported that the draft was so poor that it was with great difficulty he could keep up steam" -- WoodBL, p. 103).
Hoehling, p. 68, adds that her engineers noted structural problems as well, incluing loose plates and broken beams. Nelson, p. 230, reports that several of Virginia's guns were damaged by the three broadsides Cumberland fired after being mortally wounded. On p. 255, Nelson adds this catalog of damage which she had sustained by the end of the day: her surgeon would count 98 dents in her ironworks (though the yard would list the number as 97, according to Nelson, p. 301, with only six of her outer plates of iron broken and none of her inner plates); her flagstaff was down, her "less substantial gear ha been annihilated," and her bow timber was twisted and leaky as a result of the loss of the ram
The damage was significant but did not in any way threaten Virginia's buoyancy; there was no reason for her to give up the fight. She turned to destroy the USS Congress. The Federal ship was handled very badly -- apparently her captain ran her aground on purpose (Hoehling, p. 66) to save her from being rammed. But that made her almost useless offensively: Even without engines, she was more maneuverable than Virginia and might have been able to "cross the T" on the Confederate vessel (though Nelson, p.12, notes that most of her veteran sailors had been paid off; it might have been hard for her inexperienced crew to handle her in battle). Instead, she had made herself a big fat target, and was unable to fire her broadside at the Confederate ship (Paine, p. 119).
The Confederates happily took advantage. The "crossed the T" on Congress, pouring their fire into her stern (Nelson, p. 237). Eventually, after her captain had been killed, the Congress surrendered (Nelson, p. 238), but because she was aground in shallow water, Virginia could not take her in tow. Total casualties on the Congress were 136 killed, wounded, and missing out of 434 aboard (Nelson, p. 239).
Shore batteries continued to fire on Virginia after the Congress hauled down her flag (Nelson, p. 243, though he notes that the Federals actually caused as many casualties among their own surrendered sailors as the enemy), and Buchanan was injured while firing back at them; he would not be aboard for the next day's big fight (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 87). The Confederates would also claim that Congress fired after putting up the white flag (Nelson, p. 244, though he thinks the claim false). Buchanan then orderered hot shot to be fired into the Congress, setting her afire (Wood-BL,p. 102); she blew up in the night (Hoehling, p. 68, says he did this in response to being wounded; he decided to take revenge. But destroying the Congress was reasonable; if he did not destroy her, the Federals were better equipped to take her away than the Confederates. His only fault was in destroying her before the sailors got off).
Having dealt with the two weakest vessels in the blockade, Virginia then turned to deal with the Minnesota, which had also gone aground. But her extreme draught of 22 feet kept her from reaching the Minnesota, so Virginia headed back into port to prepare to fight the next day. Overnight, strenuous attempts were made to free the Minnesota, but she moved only a short distance before getting stuck again. There was every reason to think that the Virginia could destroy her the next day. There was panic in Hampton Roads, in Newport News, and in Washington once word arrived by cable -- Secretary of War Stanton, who was prone to fits of near-insanity, started sending telegraphing "the sky is falling" messages to cities all along the East Coast (Nelson, p. 264).
Except that, overnight, the Monitor arrived an changed everything. The Monitor arrived at Hampton Roads the night of March 8/9, and took position to protect the grounded Minnesota. Small as it was, it inspired little confidence in the Federal naval officers (Hoehling, p. 73). Events were to prove them wrong.
Early in the war, the Union was confident in the strength of its navy; it researched ironclads, but did very little about constructing seagoing iron ship. They started to have second thoughts, according to Holzer/Mulligan, pp. 126-127, when the Trent affair made it possible that there might be war with Britain. The Americans knew perfectly well that their wooden walls couldn't fight Warrior and her sisters.
When word came of the building of the Virginia, the urgency increased. There were, at that time, only two serious designs on the table, which would later become the New Ironsides and the Galena (McPherson, p. 374; Konstam, p. 20. For the latter disastrous design, see the notes to "Old Johnston Thought It Rather Hard"). New Ironsides (which in some ways resembled the Virginia, save that the armored citadel covered the entire hull) was a successful design, but could not be ready in time. Galena also probably would take too long. But Cornelius Bushnell, the shipbuilder on the Galena, had called in the brilliant but cantankerous Swedish inventor John Ericsson to look over his designs (the Navy board had not quite trusted the Galena's stability, and demanded more calculations, which Bushnell could not perform but Ericsson could; Nelson, p. 102-103), and it turned out that Ericsson had his own easy-to-build ironclad concept on the shelf -- he had designed it for the French in the Crimean War, but after that war ended, Napoleon III lost interest (Nelson, p. 104).
After complicated machinations, the navy department ordered the construction of the Monitor (Holzer/Mulligan, pp. 26-29; Nelson, p. 146, notes that, despite the wrangling, the urgency was such that the contract was signed only eight days after Bushnell talked to Ericsson. The flip side is, the contractors were on the hook if the ship failed; the navy would only pay if she proved a successful design; Nelson, pp. 150-151. The Navy's delays in paying the amounts it had promised caused some construction delays; Nelson,p 188).
The Monitor was in many ways the weakest of the three designs; it was to prove almost unseaworthy (with only 18 inches of freeboard -- that is, height above water -- waves could easily swamp it; Konstam, p. 21), and it involved so many new ideas that naturally some of them failed to work. The pilothouse would prove severe weakness; it was almost too small for the three sailors it needed to hold (captain, pilot, and helmsman), and yet it was large enough that the guns could not be fired near it; her internal communications systems easily broke down (Greene-BL, p. 115). Many changes would be made in future designs of this type.
But Ericsson claimed it could be built in ninety days. He was close to right; construction was started October 25, 1861, and she was launched 93 days later (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 30. Nelson, p. 146, states that claim was that she could be finished in a hundred days. Presumably one estimate counts the time needed to write the contract, the other does not. Nelson's count on p. 190 is that it took 118 days from contract signing to launch, or 105 working days. Clearly not what was promised -- but still pretty amazing.).
If the Virginia looked like a barn, the Monitor was the "tin can on a shingle" (Catton, p. 201): "A heavily armored turret carrying two 11-inch guns... on a long, armored hullthat had no more than a foot or two of freeboard; there was a little knob of a pilothouse forward and a smokestack aft, and nothing more."
There are a lot of what-ifs about the battle of the two ironclads. Neither ship was finished, and at the time they met, Virginia was both slower (due to the damage to her stacks) and less potent (due to the loss of her ram) than before the action against the Cumberland.
The situation on Monitor was similar. The ship itself was intact, but a lot of rough edges were left (literally -- e.g. the edges of the gunholes in the turrets had not been smoothed; Nelson, p. 188). In addition, the crew was inexperienced; it had been decided to take only volunteers, and few of the men aboard had enough service time to rate even the designation of Ordinary Seaman (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 32; Konstam, p. 22).
Plus the ship had run into a storm on the way to Hampton Roads (the same storm that had delayed the Virginia's sortie), which almost caused the Monitor to go under. The heavy seas had started to flood the ship, the smokestacks poured water into the engineering spaces, and the ventilators failed in the wet (Greene-BL, pp. 112-113. Ericsson, against the advice of experienced seamen, had insisted on vent tubes that didn't extend far enough above the water; Nelson, p. 23). As a result, the blowers failed as the belts got wet, water hit the fireboxes, the engine started leaking fumes, and the pumps went out. (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 41, say that the entire operation of the ship depended on the ventilation system, and it proved insufficient for the task. Improved designs would eventually largely cure these problems, but of course the Monitor was the first of its kind. In warmer weather, the bad ventilation would also cause the ship to become almost unendurably hot; Holzer/Mulligan, p. 49).
The crew, seasick and breathing bad air, ended up extremely unwell and barely kept the ship afloat, so they were exhausted going into the big battle (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 33). Finally, the armament of their ship was not what was wanted. This was not what Ericsson had wanted; his original proposal was for two short 15 inch guns, but these were not available and were considered too big for the turret anyway; Nelson, pp. 222-223. Ericsson's next proposal was for 12-inch guns; none were to be had. They settled for 11-inch guns -- and even those had not been tested; the ship was ordered to fire undersized powder charges (15 pounds instead of thiry), significantly reducing the penetrating power of her guns (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 31) -- the more so since her cannon were not rifled (Nelson, p. 223). This may have cost her her chance at outright victory; Wood-BL, p. 103, reports that shots at point-blank range from the Monitor "forced the side in bodily two or three inches." With a full charge of powder, it is possibly that some might have penetrated.
The flip side is, the Confederate cannon had no solid shot to fire (another consequence of the inadequate industrial facilities of the Confederacy; Nelson, pp. 177-178), and might have cracked the Monitor had she been able to fire shot rather than shell.
There were also command and control problems on Monitor. Except when the gun ports were opened, the turret crew of the Monitor had no way to view the outside world. They had to fire and then ask the crew in the pilothouse whether they had hit. (Ericsson's plan had been to leave the gun ports open and rotate the turret away during reloading; Nelson, p. 274. But the turret machinery proved sticky enough -- the seawater let in by the storm had damaged it; Nelson, pp. 274-275 --that the crew eventually gave up trying to start and stop it, and just left it rotating, firing when the Virginia was in sight. There was little though of really aiming the thing; they just relied on the fact that they were close enough to be almost sure to hit; Nelson, p. 279) And the speaking tube connecting the turret to the pilothouse either didn't work or was damaged, so the turret crew had to keep sending runners forward (Holzer/Mulligan, pp. 44-45; Nelson, p. 271).
Aiming was a problem for other reasons. Because the turret was closed off, they had no way of knowing where the guns were pointing relative to the axis of the ship; they had chalked markings on the floor, but these were soon rubbed off (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 45).
On March 9, the Virginia, now commanded by executive officer Catesby ap Roger Jones (the nephew of Thomas ap Catesby Jones, who had occupied California during the Mexican War, and an ordnance expert highly esteemed by both sides; Hoehling, p. 72), headed back for the Minnesota. At first the Virginia tried to attend to both Minnesota and Monitor, but finding the Monitor much harder to deal with, the Confederate ship quickly gave the Monitor her full attention.
It was quickly evident that neither ship had weapons capable of breaching the other's armor. At best, they might get a ball into a firing shutter, or maybe get a lucky hit below the waterline or at a vulnerable seam or the like. The Virginia tried to ram (though she no longer had her ram beak), but the Monitor was much faster and more maneuverable; the impact was trivial (Hoehling, p. 76). So the two ships did little except throw iron at each other for several hours.
In the case of the Virginia, she soon gave up on firing at the Monitor's turret and started firing on the pilothouse. That was too small a target, though, so she decided to go back to hitting at Minnesota -- only to run aground (Nelson, p. 281). It was a dangerous fix; if the Virginia couldn't move, Monitor could finally pick a spot to attack her. Fortunately for the Confederate ship, the Union officers did not choose wisely (Nelson, p. 282). The Confederates almost burst their boilers, but they finally worked the Virginia free (Nelson, p. 283). After that, the Virginia stopped worrying about Minnesota and went back to slugging at the Monitor. She made an attempt to ram, despite having lost her ram bow, but the only real effect of this was to make the leak in her bow worse (Nelson, p. 285).
Eventually a lucky shot from Virginia hit the Monitor's pilothouse, injuring commander John Worden though it luckily did not affect Monitor's steering (Nelson, pp. 288-289). (Incidentally, there was a sort of a "Brave Wolfe" moment in the battle; Worden was bruised and temporarily blinded by the debris, and had to ask, "Have I saved the Minnesota? Told he had, and that the Virginia was leaving, he declared, "Then I don't care what happens to me." See Greene-BL, p. 117. But he would live, though he carried metal in his face for the rest of his life, and he also recovered his sight -- at least in one eye; Nelson, p. 341).
Given her communications problems, it took some time for the exec to make his way from the turret to the front; as a result, the ship backed away from the fighting for half an hour. Confederates sometimes claim victory in the battle on this basis (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 88). But Monitor was still functional, and the retreat would probably have been temporary had Virginia tried to continue the fight.
But the battle was over. The Virginia made one more run at the Minnesota, but then Lieutenant Jones talked to his officers and decided to head for home (Nelson, pp. 290-291); safer, in her case, to spend the night in port -- and to refill her coal bunkers and shot lockers; the more she used up, the higher she rose, and her armor ended not much below the waterline even when she was full. After another day without refilling, she would be very vulnerable. This led Union newspapers, which claimed she was towed from the battle (which she was not), to assert victory (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 93).
You still see occasional claims that one ship or the other "won" -- e.g. Mabry Tyson's article in Holzer/Mulligan claims victory for the Virginia (p. 109). But Tyson is the great-grandson of Catesby ap Roger Jones; his is hardly an unbiased view!
From a pure tactical standpoint, it was a draw (unless you count the damage the Virginia did to the Minnesota during the engagement, which was fairly severe -- she had briefly been on fire, and her crew was exhausted and her ammunition nearly gone; Hoehling, p. 79). Neither ship could damage the other significantly (men were stunned if they touched the armor when it was hit -- Hoehling, p. 77 -- but eventually learned not to do that). The Monitor suffered no real damage, and the damage to the Virginia was almost all from the Cumberland, so they were well-matched. A case could be made that, had the Virginia met the Monitor on the first day, she might have won (Monitor's armor stopped cannonballs, but would not be enough to stop Virginia's ram if it hit home straight-on, and Monitor certainly didn't have the reserve buoyancy to survive such a blow!). Or you might claim the Virginia won "on points": although both ships withdrew, the Monitor withdrew first.
That, though, is like claiming Germany won the Battle of Jutland because they sank more ships: The latter part of the claim is true but doesn't mean anything. Strategically, the Battle of Hampton Roads was a clear Union victory; Virginia could not clear the Roads of Federal shipping, and while Monitor could not stop blockade runners, she could guard the faster frigates that could. And, over the following months, additional ironclads would support her. For Virginia, it was win in March or not at all -- and she didn't win in March. Due, in no small part, to the damage inflicted by the Cumberland .
Nelson, p. 295, cites Jones's report on damage to Virginia: "Our loss is 2 killed and 19 wounded. The stem is twisted and the ship leaks. We have lost the prow, starboard anchor, and all the boats. The armor is somewhat damages; the steam pipe and smokestack both riddled; the muzzles of two of the guns shot away. It was not wasy to keep a flag flying. The flagstaffs were repeately shot away." Nelson adds: "Virtually all of the damage and casualties occurred on the first day of fighting. Monitor had inflicted alost no injury at all."
Nelson's conclusion is that both Jones of Virginia and Greene of Monitor were right to break off the fight, even though it raised questions about their characters (Nelson, p. 297). Virginia really needed time in dry-dock to replenish and to make minor fixes; Monitor was in better shape, but the crew was bone-weary and there were hardly enough officers left even to stand watches -- a major concern with a scratch crew.
The Confederates probably thought Virginia would be back in service soon. Certainly it would have taken only a little while to patch up her leaks. But the Virginia spent most of a month in dry dock, where her damage was repaired, her ram replaced, and some of her more glaring problems remedied, including the fitting of some additional armor near the waterline (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 76; Nelson, p. 308) -- though this cost her another knot of speed (Wood-BL, p. 105), and left her engines even more overburdened than before; the engineer now said they could be relied on for only a few hours (Nelson, p. 308).
Now commanded by Josiah Tattnall, Virginia made one more brief sortie on April 10/11, with some officers contemplating a harebrained scheme to try to board the Monitor (Nelson, pp. 310-311), but by this time the Monitor had been joined by another ironclad, Naugatuck, and in essence the two Union ships stood guard while the rest of the Northern ships fled. The two sides didn't really engage, and the Virginia eventually headed back to base (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 78). According to Nelson, p. 313, Tattnall commanded Virginia for 45 days, and she spent 32 of them in dry-dock or under repair, though she made a total of five trips toward Hampton Roads (the others were even less eventful than the sortie of April 11). Mostly she just made her men miserable, since living conditions were terrible and steam had to be kept up at all times to allow her to respond quickly in the event of Union action.
In May, as Union general George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac approached Richmond during the Peninsular campaign, the Confederates decided (almost certainly correctly) that they had to scrape up every available man to defend the city. The division defending Norfolk was taken north of the James on May 3 (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 79). The Virginia for the time being stayed at Norfolk, but now she was vulnerable to being captured from land. At the very least, she had to be kept from Federal hands.
It was Abraham Lincoln himself who ordered federal troops to make a move on Norfolk on May 9 (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 90). When the last Confederate forces pulled out, no one even told the Virginia's commander (Wood-BL, p. 106; Nelson, pp. 317-318).
Foote, p. 415, notes that the Confederates made desperate attempts to take the Virginia up the James River (the only other alternative being a death-or-glory attack on the Federal blockade). They lightened her enough to expose several feet of unarmoured hull. But then came word that conditions on the James had changed; although the ship had been lightened enough that she drew "only" 18 feet, which was supposed to be sufficient to get her to within 40 miles of Richmond (Nelson, p. 318), conditions had changed and she would have to work her way up a channel only 15 feet deep. That was impossible (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 81; Wood-BL, p. 107), and there was no time for more lightening anyway.
Tattnall, understandably upset, thought that the pilots were cowards who had concocted their story to keep the ship from battle.(Nelson, p. 319). Lightening ship meant that she would be floating with her armor deck above water level. With her hull exposed, Virginia could no longer fight as an ironclad, ruling out the death-or-glory ride.
The only remaining alternative was to scuttle her. After only three months afloat, and two months of active serve, she was -- for the second time -- set on fire on May 11, 1862 (Wood-BL, p. 107, tells of being one of the last two men aboard, and of setting her afire). And the Confederates did what the Union navy had not done: They successfully destroyed the hull of the Merrimack. She would rise no more. Her second commander, Josiah Tattnall, was savaged in the press and a preliminary court of inquiry, and demanded a court-martial, which acquitted him (Wood-BL, pp. 107-108; Nelson, p. 344).
After Virginia was out of the way, Monitor was taken up the Potomac for various improvements (Nelson, p. 323). She then was ordered to Wilmington, North Carolina. Once again there was bad weather along the way (Nelson, p. 324). The Monitor sank in a storm at the end of December 1862 off Cape Hatteras (Holzer/Mulligan, p. 51). Her wreck has of course been discovered (e.g. Delgado, pp. 117-119), and portions are being brought to the surface to highlight a museum (Holzer/Mulligan in fact was inspired by the opening of the Mariner's Museum; pp. xiii, xviii).
Nelson, p. 339, makes an interesting point about this song and the whole fame of the Battle of Hampton Roads: It became a household name simply because of the timing. Had Monitor arrived on any day other than the day it did, there would have been no battle (had it arrived, say, a month earlier), or a likely draw with no Union ships sunk (had it arrived a day earlier), or a complete Union fiasco (had it arrived even one day later). Hanpton Roads became famous only because the Monitor arrived exactly when it did, like the cavalry coming to the rescue (to use Nelson's metaphor).
Despite Monitor's poor sea qualities, there was a rush to build monitors around the world. Jane's-WWI, pp. 63-64, lists ten named monitors (including two christened Erebus and Terror) and fifteen numbered monitors in service with the British navy in World War I, and p. 314 lists eight that were lost during the War or in the operations in Russia in 1919. Marshall-Encyclopedia, entry on the Florida, says that the U. S. Navy built its last class of monitors in 1901, with one of them not decomissioned until 1939. But they were hardly ships that John Ericsson would have recognized. The ones I've seen all had large upperworks, and in most of the British examples, the turret was raised high above the waterline, and the ships had masts. They were monitors only in the sense that they had very little freeboard.
And I never heard of any of those twentieth century monitors doing anything useful. Monitor included many ideas which would be very useful in future warships -- the turret being the most important -- but the ships themselves were just too problematic. And their low profiles, which made them harder to hit with cannon, would become nearly useless once self-propelled torpedoes were invented.
The Cumberland, like the Monitor, has been rediscovered. Delgado, p. 115, notes that she was found in 1980. Unfortunately, she is in shallow water, and souvenir hunters did a great deal of damage before serious efforts were made to protect the wreck. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb10061b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: LA18

Cumberland Gap

DESCRIPTION: Stories of the settlement of Cumberland Gap. Texts may have a variety of verses, about exploration or the Civil War. The chorus is diagnostic: "Lay down boys and take a little nap; (Fourteen miles to the) Cumberland Gap."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Uncle "Am" Stuart, followed in the same year by recordings by Land Norris, Gid Tanner & Riley Puckett)
KEYWORDS: exploration settler Civilwar dancing dancetune
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1750 - Thomas Walker explores and names Cumberland Gap
Jun 18, 1862 - Union troops under G.W. Morgan occupy the Gap after James Rains (who is outnumbered by two to one) evacuates the pass
Sep 17, 1862 - Morgan evacuates the Gap, his retreat having been cut off by Bragg's and Kirby Smith's campaigns in Kentucky
Oct 22, 1862 - Confederate troops from Braxton Bragg's army occupy the Gap
Sept 10, 1863 - Confederates forced from the Gap by troops under Burnside. The Gap will remain in Union hands thereafter
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Randolph 498, "Cumberland Gap" (1 fragment)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 329, "Cumberland Gap" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 329, "Cumberland Gap" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #51, "Cumberland Gap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 176-178, "Cumberland Gap" (1 text)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 136-137, "Cumberland Gap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 24, "Cumberland Gap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 227-228, "Cumberland Gap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 62-63, "Cumberland Gap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 274-276, "Cumberland Gap" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 80, "Cumberland Gap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 251, "Cumberlan Gap" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 31, "Cumberland Gap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 714, "Cumberland Gap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 67, "Cumberland Gap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 49, "Cumberland Gap" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Bill Thatcher, "The Roan Mountain Hilltoppers: Old-Time Music from East Tennessee," Vol. XXVIII, No. 2 (Nov 1980, pp. 75-76, "Cumberland Gap" (1 tune)
ST R498 (Partial)
Roud #3413
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "Cumberland Gap" (on Boggs3, BoggsCD1)
Jack Burchett, "Cumberland Gap" (on WatsonAshley01)
Rufus Crisp, "Cumberland Gap" (on Crisp01)
The Hillbillies, "Cumberland Gap" (Vocalion 5024, rec. 1926)
Frank Hutchison, "Cumberland Gap" (OKeh 45570, 1932; rec. 1929)
Brandon J. Johnson, "Cumberland Gap" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #313, recorded 10/18/2022, very short)
Buell Kazee, "Cumberland Gap" [fragment] (on Kazee01)
[Byrd] Moore, [Richard] Burnett & [Leonard] Rutherford, "Cumberland Gap" (Gennett 6706/Champion 15653 [as Norton, Bond & Williams]/Supertone 9310 [as Southern Kentucky Mountaineers], 1929 -- a primarily instrumental version; on BurnRuth01, KMM)
Land Norris, "Cumberland Gap" (OKeh 40212, 1924)
Fiddlin' Powers and Family, "Cumberland Gap" (Victor, unissued, 1924)
Don Reno & Red Smiley, "Cumberland Gap" (King 5002, c. 1956)
Fiddlin' Doc Roberts Trio, "Cumberland Gap" (Conqueror 8239, 1933)
Pete Seeger, "Cumberland Gap" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a)
Arthur Smith, "Cumberland Gap" (on McGeeSmith1)
Uncle "Am" Stuart, "Cumberland Gap" [instrumental] (Vocalion 5035/Vocalion 14839, 1924)Gid Tanner & Riley Puckett, "Cumberland Gap" (Columbia 245-D, 1924)
Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers, "Cumberland Gap" (Columbia 15303-D, 1928)
Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & Uncle John Patterson, "Medley: Cumberland Gap/Gid Tanner's Bucking Mule/Hen Cackle" (on DownYonder)
Wade Ward, "Cumberland Gap" [instrumental] (on Holcomb-Ward1)
Williamson Bros. & Curry "Cumberland Gap" (OKeh 45108, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonnie George Campbell" [Child 210] (tune)
cf. "Dogget's Gap"
cf. "Big Stone Gap" (form)
SAME TUNE:
End of My Line (Mile an' a Half from th' End of th' Line) (by Woody Guthrie) (Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 26-27)
NOTES [172 words]: This melody is played as a dance tune throughout the southeast. - PJS
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands's unusually long text has also been heavily localized: "September morn in Sixty-two... Morgan's 'Yankee' all withdrew." "They burned the hay, the meal, and meat... And left the rebels nothing to eat." "Braxton Bragg with his rebel band... He run George Morgan to the bluegrass land." (Compare Thomas's text, which has most of the same lyrics.)
Union general George W. Morgan (1820-1893) had occupied the Gap on June 18, 1862 with a division after the oversized Confederate brigade of James E. Rains withdrew. (Rains, incidentally, did his own burning of stores as he pulled out.)
In September 1862, though, two Confederate armies under Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith were moving into Kentucky (the Perryville campaign). Kirby Smith's force threatened Morgan's communications, and on September 17, he conducted an orderly evacuation. There was no battle, but it would be another year before the Union recaptured the Gap. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R498

Cumberland Mountain Bear Chase

See The Bear Chase (File: LoF081)

Cumberland Traveller, The

DESCRIPTION: "Dear wife I hope this you will find In health of body and of mind And my dear babes whom I adore I live in hopes to see once more." The singer, who has left home for Cumberland, advises his wife, asks guidance of God, and hopes for peace for Cumberland
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown), from a manuscript apparently dated 1839
KEYWORDS: travel home husband wife
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 515, "The Cumberland Traveller" (1 damaged text)
NOTES [16 words]: This may not be a song; it was found in a barely-legible nineteenth century manuscript book. - RBW
File: Br3515

Cumberland, The [Laws A26]

DESCRIPTION: The crew of the Cumberland, attacked by the CSS Virginia/Merrimac, fight back as best they can, though their shot bounces off the Confederate's armored hull. The Cumberland fights until it is rammed and sunk and goes down with all flags flying
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Good Old Time Songs #4; 19C (broadside, LOCSinging cw102120; cf. Edwin Wolf 2nd, _American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870_, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, pp. 52-53, "Good Ship Cumberland," listing seven broadside prints)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 8, 1862 - U.S. frigates Congress and Cumberland sunk by the CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimack). The Minnesota runs aground; had not the Monitor arrived the next day, the Merrimac would have sunk that ship also
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws A26, "The Cumberland"
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 16, "The 'Merrimac'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 11, "The Cumberland and the Merrimac" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 909-910, "The Cumberland and the Merrimac" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 225, "The Cumberland" (1 text plus extensive excerpts from a broadside version)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 131, "Maggie Mac" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #787, pp. 52-53, "Good Ship Cumberland" (7 references)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 256-257, "The Cumberland and the Merrimac" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 597, CUMBMERR*
Roud #630
RECORDINGS:
Orlo Brandon, "The 'Merrimac'" (on GreatLakes1)
Warde Ford, "The Sinking of the Cumberland" (on USWolfRiver)
"Yankee" John Galuha, "The Cumberland and the Merrimac" [excerpt] (on USWarnerColl01)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, cw102120, "The Good Ship Cumberland," A. W. Auner (Philadelphia), 19C; also cw102130, "Good Ship Cumberland"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cumberland Crew" [Laws A18] (subject)
cf. "Iron Merrimac" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
Raging Canal (per broadsides LOCSinging cw102120 and cw102130)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Good Ship Cumberland
Cumblom
NOTES [126 words]: For historical background on this song, see the notes to "The Cumberland Crew" [Laws A18].
To tell this song from "The Cumberland Crew," refer to this text:
Come all my jolly seamen, likewise you landsmen too.
It is a dreadful story I will unfold to you.
It's all about the Cumberland, the ship so true and brave,
And it's many the loyal seamen that met a wat'ry grave.
...
Was early in the morning, just at the break of day,
When our good ship the Cumberland lay anchored in the bay (cj.)
When a man from our masthead to those below did cry (cj.)
"There's something up to windward like a housetop I espy."
[In the above sample, (cj.) means "conjecture," i.e. it's my guess as to what the text originally read although the extant texts are damaged.] - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LA26

Cumberland's Crew, The

See The Cumberland Crew [Laws A18] (File: LA18)

Cunning Cobbler, The

See The Little Cobbler (File: CoSB224)

Cunnla

See Connla (File: DTcunnld)

Cup o Tay, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises the virtues of "a gintale (genteel) cup o' tay": "Och, prate about your wine, or poteen mighty fine, There's no such draught as mine." Whiskey makes the head sore, but tea brings good company. The singer thanks the Chinese for it
AUTHOR: Words: George Cooper (source: Dime-Song-Book #26)
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Dime-Song-Book #26)
KEYWORDS: nonballad drink
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H489, p. 48, "The Cup o' Tay" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 7, "A Cup O' Tay" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #26, p. 61, "The Cup o' Tay" (1 text)
Roud #13362
File: HHH489

Cup of Cold Poison, The

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Cupid Benighted

DESCRIPTION: On a rainy night, the singer is awakened by a knocking at the door. It proves to be a winged boy with a bow (obviously Cupid). Once dry, he departs, saying, "My bow is not damaged / Nor yet is my dart / but you will have trouble / In bearing the smart"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1815 (The Songster's Companion)
KEYWORDS: supernatural gods
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 180-183, "The White-Headed Boy" (1 traditional text plus the Songster's Companion version; also a copy of Derby's translation of Anacreon)
ST FO180 (Partial)
Roud #4688
NOTES [57 words]: Helen Flanders believes this piece to be based on the third Ode of Anacreon (floriut sixth century B.C.E.) The theme is obviously similar; presumably some broadside brought the song to popular consciousness.
Spaeth reports a piece by [Samuel?] Arnold called "Cupid Benighted," from 1795; I assume they are the same, but cannot prove it. - RBW
File: FO180

Cupid the Ploughboy

See Cupid the Plowboy [Laws O7] (File: LO07)

Cupid the Plowboy [Laws O7]

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a youth breaking up the soil. She calls him "Cupid the plowboy," imagines his farm tools to be Cupid's arrows, and confesses that seeing "Cupid" has driven her current love from her mind. The plowboy hears her lament and offers marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1844 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(773))
KEYWORDS: love marriage work
FOUND IN: US(So) Canada(Newf) Britain(England(Lond,North,South))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws O7, "Cupid the Plowboy"
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 26, "Cupid the Ploughboy" (2 texts)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #106, "Cupid the Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #22, "Cupid the Pretty Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 15, "Cupid the Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 79, "The Plowboy" (1 text)
Randolph 85, "Lone the Plow-Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 472, LONEPLOW
Roud #986
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(773), "Cupid, the Pretty Ploughboy" ("As I walk'd out one May morning"), J. Howe (Hull), 1835-1843; also Harding B 25(457), Firth c.18(231), "Cupid the Pretty Ploughboy"; Harding B 17(67a), "Cupid the Pretty Plough Boy"; Harding B 11(772), Firth c.18(169), "Cupid the Pretty Plough-boy"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rich Lady Gay" (plot)
File: LO07

Cupid the Pretty Ploughboy

See Cupid the Plowboy [Laws O7] (File: LO07)

Cupid's Garden (I) (Covent Garden I; Lovely Nancy III)

DESCRIPTION: The singer wanders down to (Cupid's/Covent) Garden and meets (lovely Nancy). He asks her if she will marry him. She says she will remain a virgin and/or she has another lover. He hopes to return and marry her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1767 (Journal from the Leopard)
KEYWORDS: sailor love courting rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #155, p. 2, "Covent's Garden"; #151, p. 3, "Covent's Garden"; #157, p. 2, "Covent Garden" (3 texts including 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan5 970, "Covent's Garden" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 90-92, "Covent Garden"; pp. 92-94, "Cupid's Garden" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 186-187, "'Twas Down in Cupid's Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 487, "Cupid's Garden" (1 text)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 252-253, "Cupid's Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #23, "Cupid's Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #68, "Cupid's Garden" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 727-729, "'Twas Down in Cupid's Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1914, p. 129, "The 'Prentice Boy" (2 references)
DT, CUPIDGRD*
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 91-91\2, "William and Dinah" (1 text, which seems to consist of the opening of "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah)" [Laws M31A/B" with the happy ending of "Cupid's Garden (I) (Covent Garden I; Lovely Nancy III)" or something similar grafted onto the end)
Roud #297
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(40), "Cupid's Garden" or "The 'Prentice Boy," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Firth c.12(291), 2806 c.17(85), Harding B 28(137), Harding B 15(77b), Johnson Ballads 491, "Cupid's Garden", Harding B 20(119) , "Cupid's Garden" or "The Laurel Wear" ("It was down in Covent Garden "), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866, Harding B 28(255), "Laurel Wear" ("Its down in Cupid's garpen [sic] for pleasure I did go")
LOCSinging, sb30414b, "The 'Prentice Boy," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as111300, as111310, "The 'Prentice Boy"
NOTES [126 words]: The versions of this text I have seen are, without exception, confused. The above plot summary is the best I can come up with.
Laws M12, "The Apprentice Boy," displays versions with this title, and both are about sailors and their loves. It's just possible that this is a badly damaged form of the Laws ballad. But I incline to think this is a separate song.
According to Roud/Bishop, p. 394, "Cuper's Garden was a formal pleasure garden opened by Abraham Boydell Cuper about 1691, and until the 1750s was a well-known entertainment venue for Londoners." - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb30414b: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: SWMS090

Cupid's Garden (II)

See The Apprentice Boy [Laws M12] (File: LM12)

Cupid's Trepan (Cupid's Trappan, The Bonny Bird)

DESCRIPTION: "Once did I love a bonny brave bird, And thought he had been all my own, But he lov'd another far better than me, And has taken his flight and is flown." The jilted lover in turn has turned to another, leaving the first lover lonely
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1675 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 1(50a)); a song "Cupid trappanned" was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 555-557, "Cupid's Trepan" (1 text, 1 tune, though the text seems to be from a different source)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 149-150, "Cupid's Trepan" (1 tune, partial text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 74, "The Blackbird" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 60B, "The Grey Hawk" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #106, "The Grey Hawk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 14, "The Grey Hawk" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1891 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. VII Part 2 [Part 21], pp. 359-360, "Cupids Trappan; Or, Up the green Forrest" Or "The Scorner Scorn'd" or "Willow turn'd into Carnation"; "Described in the Ranting Resolution of a Forsaken Maid" (1 text)
ST ChWII149 (Full)
Roud #293
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(50a), "Cupids Trappan; Or, Up the green Forrest" Or "The Scorner Sscorn'd" or "Willow turn'd into Carnation"; "Described in the Ranting Resolution of a Forsaken Maid" ("Once did I love and a bonny bonny bird"), F. Coles (London), 1663-1674
EngBdsdBA 21112, Pepys 3.107, "Cupids Trappan; Or, Up the green Forrest" Or "The Scorner Sscorn'd" or "Willow turn'd into Carnation"; "Described in the Ranting Resolution of a Forsaken Maid" ("Once did I love a bonny bonny Bird, thinking that he had been my own"), I. Wright (London?), no date, accessed 08 Dec 2013.
SAME TUNE:
The Bonny Young Irish Boy [Laws P26] (File: LP26)
Of late I did hear a young man domineer/The Milkmaid's Resolution (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2108)
I am a young man that do follow the plow/The Plowman's Art in Wooing (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1240)
Of late did I hear a young damsel complain/Young Man put to his shifts (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2107)
Once did I love and a very pretty Girl/The Batchellors Fore-cast..an Answer to Cupids Trappan (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2160)
NOTES [328 words]: This set of words clearly is of broadside origin (though likely inspired by a song of the "Dear Companion" type). But the evidence of the broadsides indicates that the tune, at least, entered oral tradition. I'm indexing it on that basis.
A "trepan" (trappan) is a trick or, by extension, a trickster. Thus Cupid's trepan is a trick played by Cupid on a lover.
Although it is also possible to take "Trepan" as "Trapan," which was the kidnapping of children and sending them as servants to the colonies. There is, e.g., a song (probably of broadside origin) of "The Trapann'd Maiden," quoted by Samuel Eliot Morison in The Oxford History of the American People, p. 83, about a girl taken and sent to Virginia. Thus this song may even have links to songs such as "Australia (Virginny)."
Roud lumps this with all sorts of songs, I assume on the basis of tune. - RBW
Regarding the history of the "Cupid's Trepan" tune and the tune itself see Claude M Simpson, The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music, 1966, Rutgers University Press, pp. 151-153.
I have indexed Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 60B here, rather than at "The Bonny Boy (I)" or "The Disappointed Lover (I)" [all of which are Roud #293] because it retains the bird theme, and at least three (and part of the fourth) of its five verses are close to the broadsides, and the verse structure is close to the broadside pattern in that the penultimate line adds "my brave boys" and is repeated without "my brave boys" (similar to "The Greenland Whale Fishery"). The fifth verse begins with an approximation of Ecclesiasticus [Sirach] 26.1, "Blessed is the man that hath a virtuous wife, for the number of his days shall be double": "How happy's the man that hath a good wife, Much better is he that's got none, But cursed is he that courteth another's When he has a good wife of his own...." - BS
I index the Reeves/Palmer/Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs version here for reasons similar to Ben's. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ChWII149

Cups and Saucers Set for Tea

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Cups and saucers set for tea, How many are there? You and me." (Or, perhaps, one, two, three....)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Bluebells My Cockle Shells, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | dishes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #92, "Cups and saucers set for tea" (1 text); cf. #94, "Cup, Saucer, Plate" (1 text, which perhaps combines "Cups and Saucers Set for Tea" or "Cups and Saucers, Plates and Dishes" with "High, Low, Slow, Dolly")
Roud #20480
File: AJRR093

Cups and Saucers, Plates and Dishes

DESCRIPTION: "Cups and saucers, plates and dishes [or "china dishes"], There goes Sally [or "my old man"] in calico britches."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope clothes | dishes
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 90, "(Cups and saucers, plates and dishes") (1 short text); p. 109, "(Cups and saucers, plates and dishes)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #92, "Cups and saucers" (1 text); cf. #94, "Cup, Saucer, Plate" (1 text, which perhaps combines "Cups and Saucers Set for Tea" or "Cups and Saucers, Plates and Dishes" with "High, Low, Slow, Dolly")
Roud #20353
File: SuSm090B

Curacao

DESCRIPTION: Dutch. Forbitter shanty. "Curacao, 'khebjouw zo menigmaal bekeken." The singer has been to Curacao many times; he dislikes the tricks they play, and the women and inns trying to take his money. He hopes to get back to the Netherlands and better women
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: shanty trick travel commerce whore
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 61, "Curacao" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HSoSe061

Curiosity Killed the Cat

DESCRIPTION: "Cur-i-osity killed the cat, Information made him fat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: animal death | cat fat
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 41, "(Cur-i-osity killed the cat)" (1 text)
Roud #22982
File: PKKB041G

Curly Head of Hair

DESCRIPTION: The singer at first rejoices in his head of hair, even though it has brought him unwanted attention from apes and bears. But now he has a scolding wife, who often twists his hair, and he resolves to go and have the hair cut
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: hair humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 39, "Curly Head of Hair" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa039 (Partial)
Roud #2804
File: Wa039

Curly Locks

DESCRIPTION: "Curly locks, curly locks, wilt thou be mine? Thou shalt not wash dishes nor yet feed the swine, But sit on a cushion and sew a fine seam, And feed upon strawberries, sugar, and cream."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Gammer Gurton's Garland)
KEYWORDS: hair food nonballad clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 122, "Curly Locks, Curly Locks" (1 text )
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 63, "Curly Locks" (1 text)
Roud #19787
NOTES [89 words]: The Opies mention a claim that this is about Charles II, while pointing out that there is no evidence for it. As with most attempts to link nursery rhymes to history, the idea appears to have originated with the excessively original Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 227. To give the hypothesis its due, Charles II did wear his hair long and curly, and he was invited back to England in 1660, so the link is possible -- but many other explanations fit just as well. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: OO2122

Curragh of Kildare, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the winter it has passed, And the summer's come at last, The small birds are singing in the trees." The birds are glad, but the singer is weary of being apart from his love and will set out for the Curragh of Kildare to learn of her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (_London Rake's Garland_, according to Garland)
KEYWORDS: love separation bird
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #2, p. 2, "The Winter It Is Past" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1104, "The Winter It Is Past" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 104, "Farewell, My Joy and Heart" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 59, "My Love Is Like the Sun" (1 text)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 29, "Farewell My Joy and Heart" (1 fragment, 1 tune, probably this)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 158, "The Love-Sick Maid" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 291-293, "The Braes of Yarrow" (1 short text plus a fragment, 1 tune; the "A" text is a composite lost love song with single stanzas from "The Braes o Yarrow," "The Curragh of Kildare," and others beyond identification; as a whole it cannot be considered a version of Child #214) {Bronson's #37}
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 54, "The Winter's Gone and Past" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 185, "The Winter It Is Past" (1 text)
DT, CURRKILD*
ADDITIONAL: Hans Hecht, editor, Songs From David Herd's Manuscripts (Edinburgh, 1904), #104, pp. 243-244,327, "The Winter it is Past" (1 text)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #200, p. 208, "The Winter it is Past" (1 text, 1 tune)
Samuel Lover, The Lyrics of Ireland (London, 1858 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 71-72, "The Love Sick Maid"; p. 72, "The Winter it is Past"
J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1888 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. VI Part 1 [Part 16], pp. 237,240, "The Love-Sick Maid" (1 text) [specifically Roxburghe III, 680; _London Rake's Garland_, 1765, "A New Song, Made on a Young Lady Who Fell in Love With a Horse-Rider"]
Roud #583
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(176), "Young Johnson" ("Cold winter's gone and past"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(635), Harding B 16(54c), Harding B 16(55a), Harding B 25(394), Harding B 11(636), "Cold Winter is Past"; Harding B 28(236), "Cold Winter"; Harding B 17(54a), "Cold Winter" or "Young Johnson"; Harding B 20(53), "Cold Winter's Gone and Past"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Forglen (Forglen You Know, Strichen's Plantins)" (lyrics, form)
cf. "Adieu, False Heart" (lyrics)
NOTES [673 words]: Roud lumps a great many "cold winter is passed" type pieces under his #583 -- an understandable decision, given the state of the pieces. We try to restrict this item to "The Curragh of Kildare" and "The Winter It Is Past," filing the others separately
Which form is actually earliest I don't know with certainty; I called the piece "The Curragh of Kildare" rather than "The Winter It Is Past," even though the latter form seems better-attested, to make it clear that the Burns version is *not* original. - RBW
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 16(55a), among others, refers to "the borough of Kildare" rather than "the curragh of Kildare."
Greig: "The original version takes us back to the middle of the 18th century, and, as given in Herd's MSS., has the following verse -- Oh my love is like the sun ...."
Lover's "The Love Sick Maid," which has the verse quoted by Greig, "is taken from the 'Roxburg Collection' (Vol. iii, No. 680) in the British Museum."
Lover: "The celebrated race-course the Curragh of Kildare and also the town of Lurgan being named in the ballad prove it to be Irish. It has appeared, however, in collections of Scotch Songs, the verses that prove its Irish origin being omitted." Lover prints "The Winter it is Past" as a Scottish example.
Herd's text does not have "verses that prove its Irish origin." Hecht notes that "another version in The London Rake's Garland, 1765, bears the title: A new Song, made on a young Lady who fell in love with a Horse-Rider."
Hecht-Herd: "The musick of the preceding song may be found in Oswald's Collection of Scots tunes, [book X, p. 9] and is very fine."
Ebsworth: "This ballad has been erroneously described as written by Robert Burns ...." He points out that Burns's text adds only one verse -- Lover's second of four, "The Rose upon the brier...." -- to the Roxburghe text of eight verses. Lover claims, of the Burns text, "there is not a single Scotticism in the composition."
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 59's three verses piece together parts of the Roxburghe text: Gl 59 v1.1-3 are from R v1.1-2; Gl 59 v1.4-6 are from R v4.3-4; Gl 59 v2.1-3 are from R v2.1-2; Gl 59 v2.4-6 are from R v3.3-4; Gl 59 v3 is from R v6. - BS
The "winter is past" lyric may have been suggested by Song of Solomon 2:11, but this is at best only a possibility; the parallel is slight. The King James version reads "For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone" ( (a scrap which has been set to music on occasion by classical composers).
Slightly closer is the parallel to one of John Gower's early French ballades (I'm not sure which one; I have only a translation, found in Garnett and Gosse's English Literature: An Illustrated Record, pp. 184-185 with no catalog indication), since it mentions not only the passing of winter but the rejoicing of birds, and it's a lost love piece. But while the one may have suggested the other, I doubt real dependence. - RBW
The Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs fragment is a puzzle. The source provided the tune and four of five lines: "Farewell, my joy and heart, Forever we must part. ... For I never do design, To alter my mind, So all of you know my decree." Maitland supplies the third line, "All happiness wait on thee!" from "'The Pair of Turtle Doves,' [sic] in Roxburghe Coll.,i.318"; actually from "The Paire of Northerne Turtles," which begins "'Farewell, farewell, my dearest deare, all happiness wait on thee! For now, alas! my turtle dove I am departing from thee" (source: William Chappell, The Roxburghe Ballads (Hertford, 1874 ("Digitized by Microsoft"), Vol. II, pp. 312-314, "The Paire of Northerne Turtles" (1 text)). It's not clear to me why Maitland picked that line from that text which has a different tune; the sense of the fragment may be the same as the sense of the broadside but they share no lines. Compare the fragment to Herd's ("But farewell my joy and heart, since you and I must part; Ye're the fairest of all I do see, I never do design to alter my mind, Altho' you're below my degree.") texts. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DTcurrki

Currant Island Wedding

DESCRIPTION: The party began with gin for the men and wine for the women. "The grub it did fly ... all [had] some cake." A "tipsy" man asks after the raffle but the bride said "There's nothing raffled here tonight". They all danced. Guests sailed off in the morning
AUTHOR: John Tom Keans (source: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: wedding dancing drink food music party wine
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 99-100, "Currant Island Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25319
File: Guig099

Currency Lasses, The

See Botany Bay Courtship (The Currency Lasses) (File: FaE068)

Curse of Doneraile, The

See The Doneraile Litany (File: CrPS176)

Cursed Dancers of Colbeck, The

DESCRIPTION: On a Christmas morning, a group of young people gather to carol and dance. A priest, who is saying mass, looks on in disapproval. The young people cannot stop dancing; they dance for a year, until many die or go mad or wander broken in body
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: (cannot be shown to have existed, but the underlying story was known by 1328)
KEYWORDS: dancing curse travel disease clergy religious MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
RELATED: Versions of the "Cursed Dancers" section of Handlyng Synne --
Kenneth Sisam, editor, _Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose_, Oxford, 1925, pp. 4-12, "The Dancers of Colbeck" (1 text, of 256 lines)
Robert D. Stevick, _Five Middle English Narratives_, Bobbs Merrill, 1967, pp. 27-36, "The Cursed Dancers of Colbeck" (1 text, a heavily standardized version of Sisam's text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Judas" [Child 23] (subject: The Earliest English Ballad) and references there
NOTES [698 words]: This, like "The Knight of Liddesdale" [Child 160], is a "ballad on speculation" -- and the speculation in this case is even weaker than that for the "Knight."
The tale of the Cursed Dancers, although probably not actually true, is certainly ancient. Gerould, p. 207, reports that the tale, set in Kölbigk, was in circulation by the eleventh century, shortly after the alleged date of the tragedy.
The story of the Cursed Dancers is Thompson #C94.1.1 (although that number specifies that they must dance until the Judgment Day). Most of Thompson's citations appear to be German (or, in one case, Swiss), but he has one English and one Finnish/Swedish.
Brown, p. xi, mentions a tale told by Gerald of Wales (late twelfth century) that sounds a bit like this: A party of young people spent the night singing a song with the refrain "Swete lamman dhin are" (meaning, I think, [My] sweet leman/lover you are"). The priest, having been kept awake by the song, the next morning opened a service by singing that refrain rather than "Dominus vobiscum," resulting in a scandal.
Another version of the tale, closer to the original, says that a cursed dancer named Theodoric showed up at Wilton Abbey and was cured at the shrine of St. Editha (Gerould, p. 208). This would have allowed the story to reach England. Gerould quotes a bit of Latin verse about the story.
A ballad? Not even Gerould claims that. But Friedman, p. 16, following others who link the story to the evolution of carols, hints that he (or Gerould, or someone, at least) considers the tale of the Cursed Dancers to be a ballad.
Similarly, Chambers, p. 178, interprets Gerould as finding "the earliest European record of a ballad in the combination of dance and song and story described in the eleventh- or twelfth-century legend of the Dancers of Kölbigk."
If they are right and this is a ballad, it follows that, since the story is eleventh century, it is a candidate for the Earliest English Ballad. So here it is in the Index, even though this is probably the worst of all the "earliest ballad" candidates I've examined. And most of the cases are quite feeble.
Although the tale apparently goes back to the eleventh century, in England, it cannot be documented before the early fourteenth. In 1303, Robert Mannying of Brunne, or Bourne (sometimes called simply "Robert of Brunne") began to write Handlyng Synne ("Handling Sin") ("Þe ȝeres of grace fyl þan to be / A þousynd and þre hundred and þre"; Sisam, p. 2). It was based on an apparently Anglo-Norman work (i.e. French, but written in England), William of Wad(d)ington's Manuel de (la) Pechiez or Manuel des Pechiez Mannyng's version is metrical and is more adaption than translation; William provided the framework, but Mannyng made the book his own. It is a collection of rules and commandments, often illustrated with exemplum, or tales illustrating the point. William deals with "the Commandments, the Sins, the Sacraments, the Requisites, and the Graces of Shrift. But such a bald summary gives no idea of the richness and variety of the content" (Sisam, pp. 2-3).
Most of Mannyng's content derives from William, but the story of the Cursed Dancers is an exception. This was taken from a Latin version; there is a related copy of this Latin source in MS. Rawlinson C 938 (Sisam, p. 3).
The story of the Cursed Dancers is lines 8987-9252 in Furnivall's standard edition of Mannyng, apparently based on MS. Harley 1701 of about 1375 (Sisam, p. 4); there is a second complete manuscript copy (Bodley 415) and another fragment; none of these is the original (Stevick, p. xix). This seems to be regarded as the most interesting part of Handlyng Synne; at least, it's the part reprinted by both Sisam and Stevick.
Emerson, p. 276, says that Mannying was born around 1260 and died around 1340. Emerson dates the Harley copy slightly earlier than Sisam, to c. 1360; since paleography generally cannot date a manuscript closer than the nearest fifty years, and sometimes not to the nearest hundred, this is a trivial difference. Either date would make the copy more than half a century more recent than Mannyng's translation, and a generation or so after his death.- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: NothCDCo

Curst Wife, The

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Curtains of Night

See When the Curtains of Night Are Pinned Back (File: San259)

Curtains of the Night, The

See When the Curtains of Night Are Pinned Back (File: San259)

Curtis House at Jennings

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Curtis House is still as a mouse, There is no other place for me. I look away across the lake" hoping to see a place with better food. The singer also thinks of the hard times after a blizzard, when loggers face "two-foot ice and five-foot snow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: logger travel food hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 40, "Curtis House at Jennings" (1 text)
Roud #18190
File: BeLo040

Cushie Butterfield

DESCRIPTION: "Aa's a brokem hairted keelman and as's ower heed in luv, Wiv a young lass in Gyetsid and Aa caall hor me duv... She's a big lass an' a bonnie lass an' she likes hor beor, An' they caall hor Cushie Butterfield...." He asks her to marry; she laughs him off
AUTHOR: Words: Geordie Ridley (source: Davidson, etc.) / Music: "Polly Perkins of Paddington Green" by Harry Clifton
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (source: Folk Song and Music Hall site)
KEYWORDS: love courting derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Peter Davison, _Songs of The British Music Hall_, Oak, 1971, pp. 30-33, "Cushie Butterfield" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3504
RECORDINGS:
Steve Gardham, "Cushie Butterfield" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #342, recorded 11/02/2022)
Beverly Wilson, "Cushie Butterfield" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #74, recorded 08/18/2021)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Polly Perkins of Paddington Green" (tune)
cf. "Cushie Butterfleld" (subject: Sandgate and Keelmen, as well as the line "Weel may the keel row that ma laddie's in")
NOTES [16 words]: Set to the tune of "Polly Perkins of Paddington Green," and reportedly a sort of answer to it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio074

Cushion Dance, The

See Joan Sanderson (The Cushion Dance) (File: Gund005)

Cushnie Winter Sports, The

DESCRIPTION: [After Jean Adam was hurt] Dauvid Ferries was "doctor till the doctor cam'." Effie Milne "swore she wad the laddie kill." If we affront Effie, "Willie Forbes'll gie's a dunt." Rachie would go no more "for fear o' getting her ... laid bare"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: sports humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 648, "The Cushnie Winter Sports" (1 fragment)
Roud #6071
NOTES [81 words]: Greig/Duncan3 quoting a 1906 letter to Duncan: "During the course of a very hard and long winter, men and women met near Mains of Cushnie to enjoy an hour's fun -- tobogganing -- more than a hundred years ago. A song was composed about it. I give fragments."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Cushnie (648) is at coordinate (h1,v5) on that map [near Alford, roughly 28 miles W of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3648

Custard Pie Blues

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going to tell you something baby, Ain't gonna tell you no lies, I want some of that custard pie. You got to give me some of it (x3) Before you give it all away." The singer informs the woman that she has the best pie in the world, and requests part
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: sex nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 129-130, "(Custard Pie Blues)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 514, "Custard Pie Blues" (1 text)
File: CNFM129

Custer's Last Charge (I)

DESCRIPTION: Custer leads his men into battle against the Sioux; a fierce scene is described, with bullets flying and dead falling on both sides. Three hundred US soldiers are killed and scalped by the Indians, who leave Custer with his dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930
KEYWORDS: army battle fight violence war death corpse soldier Indians(Am.)
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 25, 1876 - Battle of the Little Bighorn. Lt. Colonel George A. Custer (who had been a Major General during the Civil War) is killed, along with the entire force of cavalry (five companies with somewhat over 250 men) with him.
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 561, "Custer's Last Charge" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 274-275, "Custer's Last Charge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8598
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Custer's Last Charge" (AFS 4199 B1, 1938; tr.; on LC30, in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Last Fierce Charge" [Laws A17] (subject)
NOTES [93 words]: This is a separate song from "The Last Fierce Charge," although [some versions of] both describe the battle of the Little Bighorn. Confusingly, some versions of "The Last Fierce Charge" share this song's title. They can be distinguished by the description of two men and a letter, which is present in "The Last Fierce Charge" but not in "Custer's Last Charge."
Warde Ford states that the words to this song were copied from the Custer Monument by his friends Robert & Charles Walker, and that the tune is generic; I do not have information to confirm this. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RcCLC

Custer's Last Charge (II)

See The Last Fierce Charge [Laws A17] (File: LA17)

Custer's Last Fierce Charge

See The Last Fierce Charge [Laws A17] (File: LA17)

Custers... Charge

See The Last Fierce Charge [Laws A17] (File: LA17)

Cut Your Nails Monday

See Cut Your Nails on Monday (Finger-Nails) (File: Dolb047)

Cut Your Nails on Monday (Finger-Nails)

DESCRIPTION: "Cut them on Monday, you cut them for health, Cut them on Tuesday, you cut them for wealth, Cut them on Wednesday, you cut them for news... Cut them on Saturday, see your true love tomorrow, Cut them on Sunday, ill luck will be with you all the week."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #537, p. 219, "(Cut them on Monday, you cut them for health)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 47, "Cut Your Nails Monday" (1 text)
Roud #20970
File: Dolb047

Cutter Water Lily, The

DESCRIPTION: "Were I a 'ready writer,' I would sing the praises swell Of the cutter Water Lily, her mighty deeds to tell." The British (Canadians) and Americans fight over bait. They catch a Yankee at Campobello. They argue about whether the Americans are prisoners
AUTHOR: Captain Samuel P. Cousins (source: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: ship fight fishing
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 315-317, "The Cutter Water Lily" (1 text)
NOTES [71 words]: There is no evidence this is traditional, but it's certainly about a traditional problem. Until the advent of trawlers in the twentieth century, cod were caught with baited lines, and there were constant conflicts about who had the right to fish and cut bait where -- it's a constant issue of Newfoundland histories. I don't know if this arises out of a particular incident, but there were plenty of situations like this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm315

Cuttie's Wedding

DESCRIPTION: Big Cuttie will get "a little wifie." He goes to the town pasture [drunk?], "fell oer the midden" and lost his shoe. He says "Monie ane's be at our weddin'." "Busk and go to Cuttie's weddin' Wha wad be the lass or lad That wadna gang an they were bidden?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Peter Buchan, _Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland_, according to Whitelaw)
KEYWORDS: wedding clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 608, "Cuttie's Weddin'" (1 fragment, 2 tunes)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #53, pp. 211-212, "Cuttie's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 311, "Busk and Go, Busk and Go"
Roud #3357
File: GrD3608

Cutting Down the Pines

See The Lumber Camp Song (File: Doe210)

Cutty Wren, The

DESCRIPTION: Milder asks Malder questions ("Oh where are you going? says Milder to Malder"). Festle replies to Fose with a refusal to answer. John the Red Nose answers the questions. Most of the answers are extravagant ways of hunting the wren
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: wren hunting questions talltale
FOUND IN: Wales Britain(England,Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland (78), "Helg yn Dreean/Hunt the Wren" (1 text, located in the notes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 23, "Wise Willie" (1 text)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 110-111, "The Cutty Wren" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 91-92, "The Cutty Wren" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 347, "The Cutty Wren" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 26, "The Cutty Wren" (1 short text)
DT, CUTYWREN*
ADDITIONAL: Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, pp. 15-16, "The Cutty Wren" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #236
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wren (The King)" (subject)
cf. "Billy Barlow" (form)
cf. "Cricketty Wee" (form)
cf. "Hunt the Wren" (form, subject)
cf. "The Green Bushes" [Laws P2] (tune)
cf. "Ribbins O'Robbins" (probable variant)
NOTES [137 words]: Although widely popular in revival circles, "The Cutty Wren" has not been all that popular in tradition, being confined to places such as Wales, the Isle of Man, and northern England. The style (of distinct speakers carrying a conversation in order) is more common; see the cross-references.
Many have identified "Billy Barlow," "Cricketty Wee," or (especially) "Hunt the Wren" with "The Cutty Wren," but while the form is similar, and in the latter case even the subject is the same, the plot is distinct enough that the Index splits them.
For a little information, and a lot of speculation, on the history of wrenning, see the notes to "The Wren (The King)." - RBW
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 447, "We will go to the wood, says Robin to Bobbin" [also] gives background references about hunting the wren. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DTcutywr

Cya' duh' Key, Gone Home"

See Too Late Sinner (File: RcToLaSi)

Cyan' Help from Cryin' Sometime

See Can't Help Crying Sometimes (File: HPR268A)

Cyclone Blues

See Kansas Cyclone (File: RcKansCy)

Cyclone of Rye Cove, The

DESCRIPTION: A tornado strikes the town of Rye Cove, and the schoolhouse is destroyed. Parents search the rubble, finding the bodies of their children.
AUTHOR: A. P. Carter (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: grief death disaster storm
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1928 - the Rye Cove storm in Scott County, Virginia
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 11-12, "The Cyclone of Rye Cove" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 45, "The Cyclone of Rye Cove" (1 text, stated to be learned from the Carter Family recording)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 211-212, "Rye Cove (1 text)
DT, RYECOVE
Roud #7116
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "The Cyclone of Ryecove" (Victor V-40207, 1930; Montgomery Ward M-7023, 1936; Zonophone [Australia] 4322, n.d.; rec. 1929)
DeBusk-Weaver Family, "Cyclone of Rycove" (on DeBusk-Weaver1)
Asa Martin, "Ryecove Cyclone" (Oriole 8163/Conqueror 8068 [as Martin & Roberts], 1932)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Cyclone of Rye Cove" (on NLCR13, ClassOT)
NOTES [70 words]: Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirschberg, Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone: The Carter Family & Their Legacy in American Music, Simon & Schuster, 2002, p. 101, says this was the only attempt A. P. Carter ever made at creating a song about a topical event. It was not especially popular; unlike, say, Andrew Jenkins, Zwonitzer/Hirschberg conclude that "The Carters were never much good at channeling public tragedy." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: DTryecov

Cyprus Brig, The

DESCRIPTION: "Poor Tom Brown from Nottingham, Jack Williams and poor Joe," three poachers, are transported. From Van Dieman's Land they are transported again aboard the Cyprus. They mutiny, and William Swallow is chosen to lead them to freedom
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Sydney Bulletin, according to Anderson)
KEYWORDS: transportation prison crime mutiny escape freedom
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1829 - the Cyprus Mutiny
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 484, "The Cyprus Brig" (1 text, with a tune on p. 608)
Roud #24812
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Seizure of the Cyprus Brig in Recherche Bay" (subject)
NOTES [18 words]: For background on the Cyprus mutiny, see the notes to "Seizure of the Cyprus Brig in Recherche Bay." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FJJCyBr

D & H Canal, The

DESCRIPTION: (After an unrelated opening stanza), the song describes a flood which hit the canal in 1878. "The embankment broke" and "the damage was terrific"; the rest of the song details some of the damage done
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: canal flood
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1828 - Opening of the Delaware & Hudson Canal
1898 - The D & H Canal closes
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 172, "The D & H Canal" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC172 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pop Goes the Weasel" (tune) and references there
cf. "Sarah Jane" (tune, floating lyrics)
File: FSC172

D-2 Horse Wrangler

See The Horse Wrangler (The Tenderfoot) [Laws B27] (File: LB27)

D-Day Dodgers, The

DESCRIPTION: "We're the D-Day Dodgers, out in Italy, Always on the vino, Always on the spree." The soldiers describe their allegedly safe and luxurious life: "Salerno, a holiday with pay," etc. They point out the nonsense of Lady Astor's remarks
AUTHOR: Hamish Henderson?
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Eighth Army News, according to Jackson, "The Great Lili")
KEYWORDS: war battle death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 10, 1943 - British and American troops attack Sicily (Messina falls on August 17, but the Germans have evacuated)
Sept 9, 1943 - Allies invade the Italian mainland
June 4/5, 1944 - Allies enter Rome
June 6, 1944 - D-Day. Invasion of Normandy begins
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 110, "D-Day Dodgers" (1 text, tune referenced)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 358-359, "D-Day Dodgers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 282, "The D-Day Dodgers" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 24, "(D-Day Dodgers)" (1 mention, from user John5918, posted August 29, 2021)
DT, DDAY*
ADDITIONAL: Liel Leibovitz and Matthew Miller, _Lili Marlene: The Soldiers' Song of World War II_, W. W. Norton & Company, 2009, pp. 1556-156, "(The D-Day Dodgers)" (1 text)
Carlton Jackson, _The Great Lili_, Strawberry Hill Press, 1979, pp. 58-59, "(The D-Day Dodgers)" (1 text, with sundry additional verses on pp. 57-58)
Roud #10499
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "The D-Day Dodgers" (on PeteSeeger39)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lili Marlene" (tune, plus cross-references to songs of the Italian campaign)
cf. "O'er the Hills of Sicily" (subject: the Italian campaign)
NOTES [2060 words]: Lady Astor, an American-born member of the British parliament, was reported to have criticised the Allied armies in Italy as "D-Day Dodgers." In fact they were some of the hardest-suffering troops of the war; they fought well-entrenched Germans and never received enough equipment or reinforcements. The troops in Normandy were, comparatively, lucky; casualties were lighter and conditions were better.
As Stokesbury, p. 299, says, "Italy became the theater of fighting that most resembled the horrible static trench warfare of World War I. Few soldiers of World War II experienced the kind of deadening, soul-destroying fighting that had characterized the earlier war, but most of those who did experience it fought in Italy."
Keegan, p. 254, says, "The bloodiness of the Italian fighting was felt all the harder by the Allied Mediterranean force because, by a chance of assignments, so many of its divisions were drawn from narrowly localised recruiting areas. The US 36th and 45th Divisions were respectively Texas and mountain states formations of the National Guard, while the British 56th and 46th Divisions came from London and the North Midlands. The two Indian divisions, 4th and 8th, were raised from the 'martial race' minority of the Raj, while the 1st Canadian was formed of volunteers from a dominion which, after the tragedy of a failed raid on Dieppe in August 1942, harboured ill-concealed suspicions about the freedom with which British generals shed its soldiers' blood. Three other groups of soldiers under [theater commander Harold] Alexander's command, the 2nd New Zealand Division and the French Moroccan and Polish II Corps, were renowned for their hardihood.... However, in the prevailing circumstances, all three lacked any easy means to make good the losses they suffered at the front." So not only were the costs high, but the soldiers lost even more of their close comrades and squad-mates than in most of the other campaigns of the war.
This song is how the troops answered Lady Astor.
(This is not to imply that the troops who fought in Normandy and Belgium and Luxembourg had it easy. The front line troops had a terrible time. But they weren't at it as long, and a higher percentage were in safe behind-the-lines positions. And they had supply priority; the troops in Italy never had enough of anything.)
When the Allies had finished their conquest of Sicily (for which see "Banks of Sicily (The 51st Highland Division's Farewell to Sicily)"), there was the question of what to do next. The Sicily victory had been relatively easy (Botjer, p. 25), which if anything made the choices harder. They could go for Italy. They could go for Corsica or Sardinia. Or they could save troops for the invasion of France, which was of course the ultimate objective. But even if they put all their energies into France, they couldn't hope to invade before early 1944. So they would be out of contact with the Axis in the west for at least six or seven months, letting Germany throw everything it had into stopping Russia.
So the Allies made a last-minute decision to move on from Sicily into Italy. The fall of Sicily had caused the overthrow of Benito Mussolini, but for the time being, the Italians were still in the war -- at least nominally.
Salerno was one of the many instances of the Allies having a good idea and executing it miserably. The larger part of the Italian invasion force went across the straits of Messina to the very "toe" of Italy, but the Allied plan was to land additional troops closer to Rome so that they could cut off German troops in the south and reach the capital more easily. They would have liked to pick Naples, since they needed a good port, but Naples was too far away for their fighters to control the air. So they picked Salerno, which was about as far north as they could go and still retain air control. Parts of two corps, under the rather vain American general Mark Clark, landed on September 9, 1943 -- only to find the 16th Panzer right on the scene. (The 16th Panzer that had been rebuilt after Stalingrad, so it was pretty green, but the Americans were green, too; Botjer, p. 52, and the 16th Panzer was one of the few German units up to strength; Atkinson, p. 203.) The invaders were caught by a rapid German counterattack and stuck in their tiny beachhead. Clark -- who had committed his thin reserves far too early (Atkinson, p. 214) -- thought he would have to pull out, but the Allies managed to send in enough additional forces that he could survive until British forces came up from the south to break the German siege. (It helped that Hitler had withheld two divisions that German General Kesselring had wanted.) But the Allies were no nearer to Naples than when the affair started; Salerno surely more costly than it was worth (Wheal/Pope, pp. 415-416).
As witness the fact tat the Allies lost 8659 killed and injured and several thousand prisoners, plus damage to several ships; the Germans suffered total losses of 4102 (Botjer, p. 59).
The mess was so bad that the general in control of the American sector on the ground, Ernest J. Dawley, was not only relieved but demoted to colonel, although the judgment of history is that the fault is mostly Clark's, not Dawley's (Botjer, pp. 57-58; members of a Texas division that suffered badly actually tried, but failed, to get court-martialed to clear their records; Botjer, pp 71-72. Atkinson, p. 212, points out that General Clark was actually junior to Dawley in permanent rank, and younger as well; Clark had done all he could to sideline Dawley (who wasn't even supposed to go ashore in the first phase of the landing) -- then blamed the junior officer for his own and other officers' decisions). Dawley was apparently almost happy to be out of there, even though it cost him his ranking; he said later, "I can't work with Clark. He made decisions off the top of his head" (Atkinson, p. 235). And they were bad decisions; some subordinates, sick of his autocratic ways, apparently christened him "Marcus Aurelius Clarkus" (Atkinson, p. 237), because he was a tyrant trying to control Rome.
Although the Germans did not push the invaders into the sea, they were successful enough that the German high command made the decision to hold Italy rather than retreating to the Alps (Botjer, pp. 60-61), turning the Italian campaign into a long-drawn-out struggle. And the Germans continued to be far better planners than the Allies -- the Anglo-Americans didn't even realize that winters in Italy were cold and that the men would need to be equipped for that, and would have to deal with the almost un-navigable Italian mud (Atkinson, pp. 252-253).
There seem to have been a few in the Allied high command who thought Italy really was a picnic; at Christmas 1943, along with useful supplies for the holidays, the troops received such things as ping-pong balls, tennis nets, and masquerade costumes (Atkinson, p. 312). Needless to say, they went unused.
The next Allied attempt at using an amphibious assault as a shortcut, at Anzio, also produced tremendous casualties and relatively poor results (Botjer, p. 72ffff.)
The soldiers in Italy suffered terribly: "Men cycled out for rest in Naples after only ten or twelve days of living in ditches and tramping through brambles and thorn bushes on the mountainsides, much of the time soaked through from the chilly rain, were a sight to behold as they waited for trucks to bring them back to civilization. Their uniforms were tattered and filthy; often even their boots were torn. Behind several days' growth of beard were green-yellow complexions, decidedly unhealthy even by the standards of Patton. Bloodshot, bleary eyes showed their lack of sleep. Many shivered incessantly, for the damp cold had penetrated to their inner depths. Few could stand or sit still, unless they were very sick with heavy colds or pneumonia. These were men who had been pushed to the limit" (Botjer, p. 82).
As an example, the American third division, in the two months after it came to Italy, suffered 8600 casualties. The infantry portions of the division lost 70% of their men (Atkinson, p. 261). Apart from the sheer human tragedy, a unit hit that hard simply wasn't going to function well in any area. Plus, by November 1943, men were suffering thousands of cases of "cold ground trauma" and trench foot (Atkinson, p. 265). The term "Post-traumatic stress disorder" hadn't been coined yet (it wouldn't become an official diagnosis until the 1980s), but psychiatric casualties were very high after months spent in continuous combat, and there was no real way to treat them (Atkinson, pp. 506-509).
And with almost all available men and equipment being devoted to the Normandy invasion, there was little the local generals could do to speed up the campaign or improve the men's lot (Botjer, p. 103). It wasn't until June 4/5 that Rome finally fell to the allies. That the city was relatively undamaged was only because of an informal agreement between the Allies and the German commander Albert Kesselring not to demolish it (Botjer, pp. 107-108). The men even often found themselves using mules for transport, because motor transport couldn't move in the Italian mountains (Botjer, p. 122).
Even General Lukas, who replaced Dawley, recorded, I wish so many things were not done on a shoestring. This campaign was poorly planned in many respects. We should have at least twice as many troops" (Atkinson, p. 265).
The Italian campaign didn't finally end until the spring of 1945, even as the Russians were pounding Berlin; the last German troops were forced into retreat, and Mussolini was captured by partisans as he tried to flee to Switzerland and was killed without trial (Botjer, pp. 192-194). The Germans actually held on better in Italy than anywhere else -- on a tactical level, they exceeded what they hoped for in the Italian campaign. Botjer, p. 196, concludes, "Neither side lost in Italy [except, of course, all the bombed, brutalized, kidnapped, starving civilians]. But that only highlights the real tragedy of the Italian campaign. Nobody lost because, from a military standpoint, it wasn't all that important. It really didn't have to happen."
And the soldiers suffered for a long time. Think of it this way: The distance from Normandy to the Elbe is almost exactly the same as the distance from the toe of Italy to the plains of Milan. The soldiers in Normandy covered that distance in eleven months. For the soldiers in Italy, it took twenty.
According to Atkinson, p. 581, Allied casualties in the Italian campaign totaled 302,000. American casualties were about 120,000 (23,501 killed), or about one man in six -- which doesn't sound horrible, but that's one in six Americans in the theatre, not one in six men in the fighting units! The casualties were less than half those in the Normandy-to-Berlin campaign, but the forces involved were much smaller; as a percentage, American losses in Italy were far worse.
And the Italian campaign seemed to promote atrocities. The Allies brought gas, which got loose; they bombed civilian sites such as the Monte Cassino monastery; there were many rapes. It was an ugly, ugly part of the war, and the Americans had perhaps the dirtiest hands of all.
Some have argued that the Italian campaign caused D-Day to be delayed (though I can't imagine it being scheduled before May 1944, so if there was a delay, it wasn't much). So the "D-Day Dodgers" in fact spend some nine more months in combat than those who went to Normandy. Better, then, to speak of the troops in Normandy as the "Italy Avoiders," or some such.
The Folksinger's Wordbook credits this to Hamish Henderson, which is possible, as he wrote other "anonymous" songs of World War II (notably Banks of Sicily ("The 51st Highland Division's Farewell to Sicily)," though there was never doubt about his authorship of that). But I know of no actual proof, and many authors treat the song as anonymous. And Henderson, as I understand it, was not part of the army that had the worst of the Italian slog; the Highland Division was pulled out of the Mediterranean Theater to prepare for the invasion of France. Furthermore, Jackson's The Great Lili has some variant stanzas, and Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear implies he got it from Canadian troops, which at least implies oral tradition. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: SBoA358

D-I-S-H Choice

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "D-I-S-H choice. D-I-S-H choice, D-I-S-H choice. H-O-P hop. One, two, three."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Kentucky Folk Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: wordplay jumprope | spelling counting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #104, "D-I-S-H choice" (1 text)
File: AJRR104

D'où Viens-Tu, Bergere?

DESCRIPTION: French: "'Where did you come from, shepherd girl?' 'I came from the stable... I saw a little child... Fairer than the moon... There his mother Mary did her babe enfold... Ox and ass before him... Then came three bright angels.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865
KEYWORDS: Christmas Jesus religious foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que) US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 14, "D'où viens-tu, bergere? (Whence, O, Shepherd Maiden?)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 126-127, "D'où Viens-Tu, Bergere" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 42, "D'où Viens-Tu, Bergere?" (1 English and 1 French text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 92-93, "D'où Viens-Tu, Bergere? (Whence Come You, Shepherd Maiden?)" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [44 words]: This is one of those Christmas songs built mostly around legends. There was no evidence that Bethlehem was cold at the time Jesus was born (for that matter, there is no evidence that it was in December), nor even that there were animals in his immediate vicinity. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FJ126

D'r Guckgu (The Cuckoo)

DESCRIPTION: German. "Dr Guckgu i ein braver Mann, D'r vazzeh Weiwer annehre kann. Guckgu, Guckerdigu." The cuckoo is an able man Who maintains 14 wives." "The first wife carries wood into the house, the second builds a fire with it," and so forth through all 14.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: bird husband work drink home
FOUND IN: US(MA) Germany
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 100-101, "D'r Guckgu (The Cuckoo)" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 87-88, "The Cuckoo Is a Clever Bird" (1 text)
File: KPL100

D'ye Ken John Peel?

DESCRIPTION: "Do ye ken John Peel with his coat so gray? Do ye ken John Peel at the break of day?" The singer talks of Peel's frequent hunting expeditions, detailing even his hounds. The singer will "follow John Peel through fair and through foul"
AUTHOR: Words: John Woodcock Graves / Music: Traditional
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: hunting dog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 108-109, "D'ye Ken John Peel?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 56, "John Peel" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 118)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 11, p. 21, "John Peel" (1 fragment)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 92, "John Peel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 208, "John Peel" (1 text)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, pp. 28-30, "John Peel" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 40, "John Peel" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JOHNPEEL*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #143, "John Peel" (1 text)
Roud #1239
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Horn of the Hunter" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
John Peel (II) (File: RuSoJohP)
NOTES [424 words]: Written by John Woodcock Graves to celebrate his friend John Peel. The tune is said to be "Bonnie Annie" or "The Border Rant," and to have been set by William Metcalfe in 1868 (Rollinson, p. 51).
John Peel is not to be confused with the prime minister Sir Robert Peel (who created the "Peelers"). Born in 1776, John Peel lived until 1854, and "for over 40 years ran the famous pack of hounds that bore his name." Nettel, p. 149, "John Peel was a real character, riding in his grey coat after a mongrel pack to the neglect, apparently, of his farming; he was not therefore representative of the pink-coated, well-mounted huntsmen which have distinguished the hunting-field since the eighteenth century, but he was a man with the primitive urge to hunt strongly within him."
Indeed, he was so obsessive a hunter that, on the day his son Peter died, he spent the day out hunting to collect a foxtail to bury with his son (Rollinson, p. 120).
According to Stokoe, Graves (1795-1886) wrote the song while in the company of Peel. This would date the song before 1833, in which year Graves emigrated to Tasmania.
Incidentally, his move to Tasmania give him a link, of sorts, to another Great Folklore Saga, that of Sir John Franklin and the Northwest Passage. Before leading his famous lost expedition, Sir John was governor of Van Diemen's Land/Tasmania for more than half a decade. While there, his wife Jane briefly took over the education of an aboriginal child whom she called "Mathinna." Lady Jane -- who was anything but a people person -- seems to have been disappointed by the results and dumped Mathinna in the aboriginal refugee camp. What little we know of Mathinna after that (she died young) came from an article published by "Old Boomer" in 1869. It is believed that "Old Boomer" was Graves (Alexander, pp. 130-137).
Rollinson, p. 50, says that Graves predicted that this piece would become famous, telling Peel, "you'll be sung when we're both run to earth." Rollinson, pp. 50-51, also claims that this was originally written in dialect:
Did ye ken John Peel wid his cwote sae grey?
Did ye ken John Peel at the breck o' day?
Did ye ken John Peel gayin' far, far away --
Wie his hoons and his horn in a mwornin'? - RBW
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames claims his is "perhaps the original of 'D'ye ken John Peel." The texts are similar and the tune is probably the same. The first line is "D'ye mind John Peel in the days gone by" and the last line of the chorus and each verse is a variation on "the blast of his horn in the morning." - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB208

Da Bhfaghainn Mo Rogha Dhe Thriur Acu

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "A woman asks jocosely which suitor she should marry, a tailor, [a blacksmith, or a fisherman], and gives reasons why each in turn would be unsuitable."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage marriage work
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 44, "Da Bhfaghainn Mo Rogha Dhe Thriur Acu" (2 texts)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC044

Da Mbeadh Mac an Mhaoir Agam

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer wishes he had the shepherd's pet snowy lamb. He wishes he had a herd of cows "and Mollie from her mother." Chorus: he wishes he had his girl, her mother's pet.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage marriage work animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 46, "Da Mbeadh Mac an Mhaoir Agam" (2 texts)
NOTES [77 words]: The description is a summary of the translation at George Sigerson, Bards of the Gael and Gall (London: T Fisher-Unwin, 1897), pp. 337-338, "The Shepherd's Pet." OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin, which has no English summary for this song: "Sigerson's English text is eclectic"; on the other hand it is not far from the translation under the title "Peata Beag" at http://www.celticlyricscorner.net/dervish/peata.htm on the Celtic Lyrics Corner site. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC046

Da's All Right, Baby

DESCRIPTION: Patting chant. "Da's all righ', honey (x2), Way up yonder, darlin', 'Bove the sun, sugar, Girls all call me honey." Odds and ends about courting. The singer warns that yonder girl will "git you too." He is going away someday
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad betrayal
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 239-240, "Da's All Right, Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15037
File: LxA239

Daar Was Eens Een Meisje Loos

DESCRIPTION: Dutch. Ballast-stowing shanty. "Daar was eens ein meisje loos, Hoera, my boy (x2)." A girl goes to see for seven years. She makes a mistake and is to be punished when she says she is the captain's love. She bears a child and says he will marry her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty sailor cross-dressing pregnancy children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 88-89, "Daar Was Eens Een Meisje Loos" (2 texts, Dutch and English, 1 tune)
File: HSoSe088

Dabbling in the Dew

See Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid) (File: R079)

Dadd driwwe (Over There)

DESCRIPTION: German. "Dadd driwwe, sagt'r, Uff em Barrick, sagt'r, Schteht en Hasch, sagt'r." "Over there, he says, On the hill... is a house... it's scandalous" because it lacks one wall. Also on the hill is a hunter with no powder and other scandalous things
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage home hunting horse clothes music
FOUND IN: US(MA) Germany
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 104-107, "Dadd driwwe (Over There)" (1 German text plus non-poetic English translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL104

Daddy Shot a Bear

DESCRIPTION: "Daddy shot a bear, Daddy shot a bear, Shot him (in the stern/through the keyhole) And never touched a hair."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (collected from Annie Brewer)
KEYWORDS: animal death humorous lullaby
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 95, "Daddy Shot a Bear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15607
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Moke Pickin' on the Banjo (Song of the Pinewoods)" (lyrics)
NOTES [41 words]: Every word of this is found in "Old Moke Pickin' on the Banjo (Song of the Pinewoods)" -- but since that has a plot (at least sometimes), and this is listed by the Lomaxes as a lullaby, I decided, very tentatively, to follow Roud and split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LoSi095B

Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow-Wow

DESCRIPTION: The child regularly brings her cat to school because, she explains, "Daddy wouldn't buy me a bow-wow." She intends to do as she "'likes'" when she gets old, and have a parrot and children.
AUTHOR: Joseph Tabrar
EARLIEST DATE: 1927
KEYWORDS: animal dog children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 258-259, "Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow-Wow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13973
NOTES [23 words]: It's songs like this that make me wish we had a keyword "stupid." But the piece proved much more popular than it deserved, so here it is. - RBW
File: SWM258

Daddy, Daddy, Call the Doctor

See Oh Fudge, Tell the Judge (File: MHAp239C)

Daddy, I'm a Mormon

See The Merry Mormons (File: Hubb212)

Daddy's Gone to London Where the Streets Are Paved with Gold

DESCRIPTION: "Daddy's gone to London where The streets are paved with gold. Daddy's gone to London where The poor are never cold, Where there's lots of toys... And as for Baby Jack, He shall have a Gee-Gee WHen our Dad comes back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: travel gold money baby gift
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 90, "Daddy's gone to London where" (1 text)
Roud #25353
File: KSUC090C

Daemon Lover, The (The House Carpenter) [Child 243]

DESCRIPTION: A girl who once loved a sailor is greeted by her lost lover (, now rich and powerful). He bids her come with him; she points out that she is married and has a child. He convinces her to come with him. Their ship sinks not far from land
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1737 (a broadside version is thought to be from 1685)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity abandonment Devil death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(South)) US(All) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (93 citations):
Child 243, "James Harris (The Daemon Lover)" (8 texts)
Bronson 243, "James Harris (The Daemon Lover)" (146 versions+1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 243, "The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter)" (9 versions: #9, #53, #75, #78, #82, #88, #98, #111, #129)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 130-132, "Lady Jane" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #162, pp. 2-3, "James Harris" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan2 332, "James Harris" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #134}
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 19, "The Carpenter's Wife" (1 text) {Bronson's #143}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 310-313, "The House Carpenter" (1 text plus a fragment and a broadside version, 1 tune) {Bronson's #53}
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 198-199, "The House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 79-87, "James Harris (The Daemon Lover)" (4 texts plus mention of 5 others, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #106, #124}
Randolph 30, "The House Carpenter" (4 texts plus 7 excerpts and 5 fragments, 8 tunes) {A=Bronson's #117, B=#114, E=#99, I=#122, J=#90, M=#5, N=#101, P=#97}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 54-56, "The House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 30J) {Bronson's #90}
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 16-17, "House Carpenter Wife, A" (1 text)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 24-25, "House Carpenter's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 7-9, "The House Carpenter's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 23, "James Harris (The Daemon Lover)" (4 texts plus an excerpt, 4 tunes) {Bronson #121,#125,#55,#95}
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, pp. 82-83, "House Carpenter" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 10, "The House Carpenter" (2 texts plus an excerpt, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #131, #66, #128}
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 55-56, "The Faithless Wife" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 109-110, "Well Met, Well Met, My Old True Love' (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #103}; pp. 121-122, "The Ship Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 149-150, "The Demon Lover" (1 text, 1 tune, but this was from a library's copy of Motherwell)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 6, pp. 11-13, "James Harris" (2 texts)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 288-291, "The House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 27, "The Ship Carpenter" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 243-244, "The Young Turtle Dove" (1 text, with an introductory "Turtle Dove" verse)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 95-97, "The House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #92}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 287-321, "James Harris, or the Daemon Lover" (13 texts plus 3 fragments, some mixed with other songs (e.g. "G" has the "Turtle Dove" verse; "N" is very confused, with references to the Banks of Claudy), 11 tunes) {A=Bronson's #93, N=#141}
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 124-126, "The House Carpenter" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 40, "James Harris (The Daemon Lover)" (27 texts plus two versions in the appendix which are "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" with added "House Carpenter" verses; 7 tunes all entitled "The House Carpenter"; 23 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #139,#42,#86,#62,#137,#52,#89}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 36, pp. 270-289, "James Harris (The Daemon Lover)" (9 texts plus an excerpt, 10 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 40, "James Harris (The Daemon Lover)" (5 text plus 7 excerpts and mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 40, "James Harris (The Daemon Lover)" (1 text plus 7 excerpts and mention of 1 more; 9 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 18, "The Demon Lover" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #94}
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, #XII, pp. 151-155, "James Harris (The Daemon Lover)" (2 texts)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, pp. 31-32, "The House Carpenter" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #168, "James Harris, or, The Daemon Lover" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #104, #67}
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 21, pp. 119-122, "James Harris (The Daemon Lover)" (2 texts)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 59-61, "The House Carpenter" (1 text)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 172-173, "House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #51}
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 30-31, "The House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, pp. 51-52, "The House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 3, pp. 7-9, "The House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 5-6, "The House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 65-66, "The Old House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 3-6, "The House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 76-78, "The House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 105-107, "The House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 150-159, "James Harris (The Daemon Lover)" (6 texts, all of which are entitled "The House Carpenter"; 3 tunes on pp. 400-401) {Bronson's #64, #58, #25}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 46, "The House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 56-58, "The House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #102}
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 31-32, "The House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #13, "The House Carpenter" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #96}
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 21, "James Harris" (9 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #93, #127}
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, pp. 103-104, "The House Carpenter" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 740-741, "The Young Ship's Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 5, "The House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 598-606, "James Harris (The Daemon Lover)" (4 texts)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 122-131, "The House Carpenter's Wife"; "The House Carpenter"; "J'ai Marie un Ouvrier" (4 texts (1 Cajun French), 4 tunes)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 28, "The Daemon Lover" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 13, "James Harris (The Demon Lover; The House Carpenter)" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 54, "The Daemon Lover" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #91}
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 84-85, "The Little Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune) {compare Bronson's #44, from a recording, showing a slightly different tune but almost the same text except that it is a "House Carpenter" rather than a "Little Carpenter"}
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 77-79, "House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 74, "The Ship's Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 45, "The Ship Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 65, "James Harris (The Demon Lover)" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 55, "James Harris (The Daemon Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 35, "The Daemon Lover" (10 texts plus 12 fragments, 22 tunes){Bronson's #2, #10, #54, #77, #113, #135, #23, #7, #29, #14, #109a, #50, #9, #65, #6, #36, #21, #48, #80, #74, #81, #136}
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 25, "The House Carpenter (The Daemon Lover)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #18, "The Daemon Lover" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 66-67, "The House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #118}
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 88, "The House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 75, "James Harris (The Demon Lover)" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 25, "James Harris (The Daemon Lover)" (5 texts plus mention of 16 others, 1 tune) {Bronson's #120}
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #12A-D, pp. 48-56, "The House Carpenter," "The House Carpenter's Wife" (4 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #32, #83, #130}
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 80-81, "The House Carpenter's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #28, "House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 9-10, "The House Carpenter's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 81, "The House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 34, "The Daemon Lover" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 35-36, "The House Carpenter and the Ship Carpenter" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 25-27, "The House Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 17, pp. 43-45, "The House Carpenter" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 112-113, "The Demon-Lover"; pp. 222-224, "James Herries" (2 texts)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #908, p. 61, "The House Carpenter" (1 reference)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #74 insert, "The Distressed Ship Carpenter" (1 text)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #76, "Well Met! Well Met!" (1 text, 1 tune, with the plot written out of it although many of the original words remain)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 34-36, "The House Carpenter" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 10-13, "The Demon Lover" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 218, "The House Carpenter's Wife" (1 text)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads LXXXIX, pp. 178-180,"The Distressed Ship Carpenter" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 236, 244-246, "Well Met, Well Met, My Old True Love" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2466, "There dwelt a fair Maid in the West"
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W Amos Abrams, "Della Adams Bostic: Sweet Singer of Old Songs," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), p. 142-143, "The House Carpenter" (1 text)
DT 243, HOUSCARP* HOUSCRP2* HOUSCRP3*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 208, "The House Carpenter" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, pp. 244-245, "Well Met, Well Met, My Old True Love" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Mrs. M. G. Jabobs) {Bronson's #88}
Roud #14
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley, "The House Carpenter" (Columbia 15654-D, 1931; rec. Apr 14, 1930; on AAFM1, BefBlues3, Ashley04) {Bronson's #70}
Clarence Ashley & Tex Isley, "The House Carpenter" (on Ashley01)
Pearl Jacobs Borusky, "Well Met, My Old True Love" (AFS, 1940; on LC58) {Bronson's #103}
Frank Browne, "Banks of the Sweet Viledee" (on IREarlyBallads)
Carolina Tar Heels, "Can't You Remember When Your Heart Was Mine?" (Victor V-40219, 1930)
Sheila Clark, "House Carpenter" (on LegendTomDula)
Dillard Chandler, "Little Farmer Boy" (on Chandler01, DarkHoll)
Mrs. Mary Ann Galpin, "The Young Ship's Carpenter" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Judy Cook, "The House Carpenter" (Piotr-Archive #384, recorded 12/14/2022)
Rebecca King Jones, "The House Carpenter" [excerpt] (on USWarnerColl01)
Bradley Kincaid, "The House Carpenter" (Bluebird 5255/Sunrise 3338, 1933)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Demon Lover" (on Lloyd3, ESFB1, ESFB2)
Amy Michels, "The House Carpenter" (Piotr-Archive #158, recorded 05/10/2022)
Almeda Riddle, "The House Carpenter" (on LomaxCD1706) {Bronson's #71}
Jean Ritchie, "The House Carpenter" (on JRitchie01)
Jean Ritchie & Doc Watson, "The House Carpenter" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchiteWatsonCD1)
Hobart Smith & Texas Gladden, "The House Carpenter" (Disc 6079, 1940s; on USTGladden01) {Bronson's #47}
Lillie Steele, "The House Carpenter" (on PSteele01) {Bronson's #24}
Doug Wallin, "The House Carpenter" (on Wallins1)
Doug & Berzilla Wallin, "The Housecarpenter" (on FarMtns3)
Clay Walters, "The Ship Carpenter" (AFS, 1937; on LC58) {Bronson's #13 or #78}
Rick Ward, "The House Carpenter" (Piotr-Archive #130, recorded 04/18/2022)
Annie Watson & Gaither Carlton, "The House Carpenter" (on Watson01)
Guy Wolff, "The House Carpenter" (Piotr-Archive #426, recorded 01/08/2023; two verses only)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(255), "House Carpenter," J.H. Johnson (Philadelphia), n.d.
LOCSinging, sb40538b, "The House Carpenter," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also as105530, "The House Carpenter"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bateman's Tragedy (Young Baithman)" (theme)
NOTES [344 words]: Although Child calls this "The Daemon Lover," a survey of the 163 versions printed or cited in Bronson shows that 99 are named "The House Carpenter" or minor variants, and several others were probably retitled by the editors. This probably ought to be the family name -- but I adopted the one I did as a partial link to Child.
David Atkinson's essay "The Popular Ballad and the Book Trade: 'Bateman's Tragedy' versus 'The Demon Lover,'" chapter 10 of David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition, Ashgate, 2014, p. 206, discusses this song and suggests that the earliest version can be dated to 1657, when a piece entitled "A warning for marries women, by the example of Mrs Jane Renalls, a west countrey woman, &c," was entered into the Stationer's Register. For this item, see Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 247, #2868, "A warning for marris women, by the example of Mrs Jane Renalls, a west countrey woman, &c, registered February 17, 1657 by Francis Grove.
Rollins does not connect this with "The House Carpenter," but according to Atkinson, broadsides of this period show the Renalls (Renals, Reynolds) piece to be "The House Carpenter." One of these early broadsides credits the piece to "L.P." Dave Harker suggests that "L.P." was Laurence Price, an author of the period. Possible, of course, but not proof -- indeed, "L.P." might just stand for "Licensed to print" or the like. - RBW
From the liner notes for Franke Browne's recording: "Apparently not recorded elsewhere in Ireland, but common in America, where Frank was born and lived to an early age."
Broadside LOCSinging sb40538b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C243

Daffy-Down-Dilly

DESCRIPTION: Probably describing a daffodil: "Daffy-down-dilly is new come to town, With a yellow petticoat and a green gown."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (Songs for the Nursery, according to Dolby-OrangesAndLemons)
KEYWORDS: flowers nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 146, "Daffydowndilly" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 125, "Daffy-Down-Dilly" (1 text )
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #342, p. 183, "(Daffy-down-dilly is new come to town)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 64, "Daffy-Down-Dilly" (1 text)
Roud #19757
NOTES [60 words]: Although this is likely about a flower, and is first found more than a century and a half after the execution of King Charles I, the unique Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 216, combines this with "As I Was Going by Charing Cross," and claims that it was used to deride a status of Charles I. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OO2125

Daffydowndilly

See Daffy-Down-Dilly (File: OO2125)

Daily Growing

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

Dainty Davie

DESCRIPTION: "Being pursued by the dragoons," Davie is hidden in the bed of the daughter of Cherrytrees. He makes such efficient use of the time that the girl ends up pregnant; they eventually marry. She is happy with her Dainty Davie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776? (Herd MS.); c. 1800 (Merry Muses of Caledonia)
KEYWORDS: sex escape marriage bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, DNTDAVE2
ADDITIONAL: Hanish Henderson, "The Ballad, The Folk and The Oral Tradition," in Edward J. Cowan, editor, _The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History_ 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition), pp. 83-86, "(Dainty Davie)" (2 texts, one of them being Peter Buchan's, shall we say, extended version)
Roud #2387
NOTES [496 words]: The variations among the versions of this song are extreme -- and not just because Burns rewrote it; the versions from "The Merry Muses" and Buchan's "Secret Songs of Silence" have hardly a word in common except for parts of the chorus. It seems likely that Burns was not the only one to rewrite it. Nonetheless there seems to be agreement that the song is about one Reverend David Williamson (died 1706?), who was accused of preaching rebellion against Charles II (reigned 1660-1685).
Supposedly Williamson was hidden by a wife who dressed him as a woman and put him in bed with her daughter, who was about 18. The girl went along; the mother was less happy, but allowed them to marry to avoid scandal.
Whether any of this has been verified by historians I do not know. Mostly we find folklorists repeating the tales of other folklorists. Williamson himself seems to have been real; Lindsay, pp. 375-376, reports that Williamson was "A covenanting minister denounced as a rebel on 6th July 1674 for holding conventicles, and intercommuned on 6th August the following year. After a final indulgence granted to the church in 1687, he returned to Edinburgh where a meeting-house was erected for him in the village then known as Water of Leith. However, he was arrested again the following February, his name having been discovered in papers belonging to the Covenanting leader Renwick, though released in a fortnight, the date of the reference being found to be within the period covered by his indemnity. Some time afterward, he was arrested for refusing to pray for the Prince of Wales [i.e. James son of James II, the so-called Old Pretender], but again released." I suspect he would have continued to get into trouble had not the Glorious Revolution of 1689 brought religious toleration.
Schoolbraid, p. 6, seems to suggest that the story as we have it "is Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence Display'd, or The Folly of their Teaching Discover'd, in which 'Jacob Curate' presents anecdote after anecdote anent the amusingly inept or seemingly irreligious (not to say vulgar) rant of the Scottish covenanting clergy. Among other scurrilities, we are given the unedifying story of Mr David Williamson and the daughter of the house of Cherrytrees (giving rise to 'Dainty Davie')." Buchan's own thirteen-verse monstrosity (his #10) starts on page 70 of Schoolbraid, who on p. 198 admites "I suspect this is from the pen of Buchan himself."
According to Schoolbraid, p. 199, Williamson worked his way through seven wives before dying in 1706.
Lindsay says the events in this song are supposed to have taken place around 1690, when Williamson slept in the bed of Jean, daughter of the Kerrs of Cherrytrees. This date strikes me as unlikely, given that it was after the Glorious Revolution; 1688 seems more likely, or a date in the 1670s. The earlier the date, the better, from the standpoint of Williamson's ability to perform in bed; Lindsay's guess is that he was born c. 1630. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: DTdntda2

Dainty Doonby, The

DESCRIPTION: "A lassie was milkin' her faither's kye When a gentleman on horseback he cam' riding by... He was the laird o' the Dainty Doonby." The laird seduces then abandons the girl. Months later, he comes to ask of her health. She is pregnant; he marries her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction sex pregnancy nobility abandonment reunion marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1488, "The Dainty Downby" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #39, pp. 182-183, "The Laird o' the Denty Dounby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 121, "The Laird of Daintie Bye" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 179, "The Lady o' the Dainty Doon-by" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 21, "The Laird of the Denty Doon Bye" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DDOONBY*
Roud #864
RECORDINGS:
Lizzie Higgins, "The Laird O' the Dainty Doonby" (on Voice06)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broom of Cowdenknows" [Child 217] (plot)
cf. "The Wylie Wife of the Hie Toun Hie" [Child 290] (plot)
cf. "The Sleepy Merchant" (plot)
cf. "The Bonnie Parks o' Kilty" (plot)
cf. "The Parks o' Keltie" (theme of a laird raping a girl then marrying her)
NOTES [127 words]: Abby Sale suggests that this is a version of "The Broom of Cowdenknows" [Child 217]. The plots are the much the same (except for the role of the parents, who in "Cowdenknows" are hostile if they show up at all, but here are sympathetic), but the overall form suggests the songs are separate. - RBW
Porter and Gower note the similarities of the Robertson family's tunes to "Johnny Cope." Also, "the protagonist's taking the girl by the 'lily-white Hand' after sexual intercourse and the girl's subsequent pregnancy, not before, is notable since it reverses the usual sequence of signals" (Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice p. 183). Especially as such "taking by the lily-white hand" so often ends up with seduction and murder. - DGE
Last updated in version 5.3
File: K179

Dainty Downby, The

See The Dainty Doonby (File: K179)

Dainty Ducke, A

See The Rogue (File: RL187)

Dairy Farmer, The

See Watercresses (File: Peac320)

Daisy Deane

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls meeting Daisy Deane in a flowery meadow where the birds sang. He recalls that she outshone the flowers. But now both are faded; Daisy is dead
AUTHOR: Lt. T. F. Winthrop & James R. Murray
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (sheet music published by Root & Cady, Chicago)
KEYWORDS: death courting flowers
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 36, "Daisy Dean" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 162-165, "Daisy Deane" (2 texts, one the original print version and the other a field collection; 2 tunes)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #418, p. 28, "Daisy Deane" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #12, p. 30, "Daisy Dean" (1 text)
ST MN2162 (Partial)
Roud #4269
RECORDINGS:
Grandpa Jones, "Daisy Dean" (King 834, 1949)
NOTES [86 words]: There is a "Daisy Deane Songster" dated 1869, presumably named after the heroine of his song. This would seem to imply a high degree of popularity for the song, at least for a time. George F. Root, who knew James R. Murray and whose company published the song, reported it as "one of the marked successes of the day." Murray was a Union soldier when he wrote it; Root & Cady hired him as an editor after the Civil War (George F. Root, The Story of a Musical Life, 1891; I use the 1970(?) Da Capo reprint, p. 142). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MN2162

Daisy, Daisy, What Do You Think of That?

DESCRIPTION: "Daisy, Daisy, what do you think of that? I upset the (table/cradle) And nearly killed the cat. The cat began to bubble, So I hit it with the shovel. It went to bed With a broken head And a face like a kangaroo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: animal injury | cat
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 59, "(Daisy, Daisy)" (1 text)
Roud #39030
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bicycle Built for Two (Daisy Bell)" (tune) and references there
File: PKKB059C

Dakota Land

DESCRIPTION: "We've reached the land of desert sweet Where nothing grows for man to eat." "O Dakota land, sweet Dakota land, As on thy fiery soil I stand, I look across the plains And wonder why it never rains." Settlers stay only because "we are too poor to get away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (a "Nebraska Land" version in The Farmer and Labor Songster, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: pioneer hardtimes parody
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro,SW)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 280-281, "Dakota Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 23, "Dakota Land" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 9, "Dakota Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 86, p. 185, "Dakota Land" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 477-478, "Dakota Land" (1 text); p. 623, "Quincyland, My Quincyland" (1 text, a rewrite but still too close to "Dakota Land to bother splitting); pp. 491-492, "Nebraska Land" (1 text, patently the same as "Dakota Land" except for a change in the name of the stae)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 143-144, "Kansas Land" (1 text, which could either be a "Dakota Land" version rewritten for Kansas or a "Kansas Land" version with the references to the government removed)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 48-49, "Nebraska Land" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 460-461, "Nebraska Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 155, "Dakotaland" (1 text, tune referenced); pp. 248-249, "Sweet Dakotaland" (1 text, 1 tune, perhaps a parody of this parody!)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 119, "Dakota Land" (1 text)
DT, DAKOTLND* SWTDAKOT
Roud #4899
RECORDINGS:
Miriam "Mimi" Wright, "Dakota Land" (Piotr-Archive #297, recorded 10/10/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beulah Land" (tune, form) and references there
cf. "Prairie Land" (tune, theme, lyrics)
cf. "Saskatchewan" (tune, theme)
cf. "Webfoot Land" (tune, theme)
NOTES [156 words]: Although the "Dakota Land" form seems to be the most common in tradition, local versions have sprouted for much of the West. Thus the Fifes lists texts for "Dakota Land," "Nebraska Land," and "Missouri Land"; Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest has one "Nebraska Land" and two "Kansas Lands." "Saskatchewan" and "Kansas Land" also follows this form, but those have been adapted enough that I think it qualifies as a separate song. - RBW
The Pankakes report this to the tune of "O Tannenbaum." Based on the sheet music I've seen, this is common but not universal.
Rose Wilder Lane (daughter of Almanzo and Laura Ingalls Wilder) quotes a stanza of this on p. 6 of Laura Ingalls WIlder, On the Way Home: The Diary of a Trip from South Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri, in 1894, Harper & Row, 1962; she claims her mother and her aunt Grace sang it in the early 1890s -- but of course she was writing almost seventy years later. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: San280

Dalesman's Litany, The

DESCRIPTION: "It’s hard when fowks can’t finnd their wark Wheer they’ve bin bred an’ born"; the singer prays to be delivered "Frae Hull, an’ Halifax, an’ Hell." When he wants to marry Mary Ann, the squire doesn't hire married men; he must leave. Someday he'll return
AUTHOR: Words: Frederick William Moorman (1872-1919) / Music: Dave Keddie (source: mainlynorfolk.info)
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Moorman, Songs of the Ridings)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes courting marriage rejection unemployment
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: F. W. Moorman, _Songs of the Ridings_, Elkin Mathews (Cork Street, London), 1918 (available on Google Books), p. 23, "A Dalesman's Litany" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Brian Oxberry, "The Dalesman's Litany" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #53, recorded 07/27/2021)
File: RcTDalLi

Dallas County Jail, The

See Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail) [Laws E17] (File: LE17)

Dallas Gawn a Cuba (Dallas Has Gone to Cuba)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: Dallas has gone to Cuba and left Francella. Francella faints and her mother sends for the doctor to restore her with camphor. Johnny stays around.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: courting separation travel lover mother
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 53-54, "Dallas Gawn" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time - Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), p. 20, "Dallas Gawn A Cuba" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Dallas Gawn" (on WIEConnor01)
NOTES [24 words]: Dexter and Taylor: "Francella's distress over the departure of her lover Dallas to Cuba will not be for long as Johnny is planning to woo her." - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: JaMu053

Dally Roper's Song, The

See The Chisholm Trail (I) (File: R179)

Dalmuir Ploughing Match

DESCRIPTION: Will Aikenhead competes in a ploughing match "in the West Barns of Clyde" and is declared winner after a dispute about timing. The dispute continues after the decision. The old and young class winners are named.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (_Dalmuir Ploughing Match_ broadside from Poet's Box, Glasgow, according to Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: contest farming
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #65, p. 1, "The Dalmuir Ploughing Match" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 427, "Dalmuir Ploughing Match" (1 text)
Roud #5944
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah)" [Laws M31A/B]" (tune, per broadside cited by Greig/Duncan3)
File: GrD3427

Dalry

DESCRIPTION: "Noo, I'm a saft country chiel and my name's Geordie Weir, I suppose you'll a' wonder what I'm doin' here." Visiting Glasgow, he is robbed by a girl. If he can only get home, he will never return to Glasgow. He tells of the trouble he suffered while broke
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2006 (Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather)
KEYWORDS: travel drink courting hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, pp. 81-82, "Dalry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5205
File: StQue081

Dam on Baldwin Creek, The [Laws C21]

DESCRIPTION: Sawmill boss Bill Reed has set up a cofferdam which fails; the sawmill is saved by sandbags placed by Old George Shane. Reed tries to restart the mill too soon; his errors cause him to be replaced by Old George
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: logger flood boss lumbering
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws C21, "The Dam on Baldwin Creek"
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 30, "The Dam on Baldwin Creek" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 34, "The Dam on Baldwin Creek" (1 text)
DT 838, BALDCRK
Roud #1927
NOTES [34 words]: Beck notes that some versions of this song include a few obscenities. Not [his text], though. - PJS
One can only wish one knew the sources of Beck's information, as his is the only version known to Laws. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: LC21

Damage Control Song

DESCRIPTION: "Firemains are red, my love, Fresh water's blue, Salt water's green, my love, But not as green as you. As green as you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: colors sailor
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 38, "Damage Control Song" (1 short text)
File: Tawn021

Dame Bruin

DESCRIPTION: "One night as Dame Bruin she went to her bed, She had scarce retired to her pillow, When the masculine voice she heart close to her head Of Satan..." who has come to take her away. She asks for more time, then asks what she will do in Hell
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Ives-LarryGorman)
KEYWORDS: death Devil Hell
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 44-46, 192, "Dame Bruin" (1 text)
Roud #25119
File: LaGoDaBr

Dame Durden

DESCRIPTION: "Dame Durden kept five servant maids To carry the milking pail, She also kept five lab'ring men To use the spade and flail." The sundry workers are listed, as well as their (amorous) adventures on Valentine's Day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2724)) (tune and song name in use in America by 1834)
KEYWORDS: courting love work servant
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 129-130, "Dame Durden" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 511)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 293, "Dame Durden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 224-225, "Dame Durden" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DAMEDURD
Roud #1209
RECORDINGS:
Bob & Ron Copper, "Dame Durden" (on FSB01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2724), "Dame Durden" ("Dame Durden kept five serving girls"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also 2806 c.16(124), Harding B 11(4227), Firth b.25(225), Harding B 25(461), Harding B 11(779), Harding B 11(778), "Dame Durden"
LOCSinging, as102610, "Dame Durden" ("Dame Durden kept five serving girls"), Jackson & Son (Birmingham), no date; also as109790, "Dame Durden"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Under the Greenwood Tree" (form) and references there
SAME TUNE:
King Andrew (anti-Andrew Jackson song) (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 248)
King Alcohol (Hutchinson Family temperance song)
Harmonious Coons (anti-Whig song from 1848, "The coons they have five candidates, From which their chief to choose") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 322)
The Grinner's Lament ("The bosses here have many forms By which to oppress their men") (Foner, p. 65)
NOTES [27 words]: At least one of the women in this song has had a life outside Dame Durden's employ; for Dorothy Draggletail, see the notes to "Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding (III)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: K293

Dame Oliphant

See Willie o Douglas Dale [Child 101] (File: C101)

Dame Widdle Waddle

See The Fox (File: R103)

Dame, Get Up and Bake Your Pies (Christmas Day in the Morning)

DESCRIPTION: "Dame, get up and bake your pies, Bake your pies, bake your pies, Dame, get up... On Christmas day in the morning." "Dame, what makes your maidens lie?" "Dame, what makes your ducks to die?" "Their wings are cut, they cannot fly."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1778 (Gentleman's Magazine, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: cook food Christmas bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #420, pp. 195-196, "(Dame, get up and bake your pies)"
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 126, "Dame, get up and bake your pies" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: [Cuthbert Sharp], _The Bishopric Garland, A Collection of Legends, Songs, Ballads, &c Belonging to the County of Durham_, 1834 (references are to the 1969 reprint), p. 64, "Christmas Day in the Morning" (1 short text)
Roud #497
File: BGMG420

Damn Fine Kids in Harbour

DESCRIPTION: "From the Halls of Montezuma To the shores of Tripoli, There's a buzz going round the harbour That the Yanks are off to sea. With a gallon of Coca Cola And a bloody great tub of ice cream, Oh, they're damn fine kids in harbour, But oh my Christ at sea!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor derivative
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 42, "Damn Fine Kids in Harbour" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marines' Hymn (From the Halls of Montezuma)" (tune)
File: Tawn025

Damn the Filipinos

DESCRIPTION: "In that land of dopey dreams, happy peaceful Philippines," the singer complains of the hardships suffered by American soldiers and of the lack of social grace of the natives. He calls for "civiliz[ing] them with a Krag" and curses them repeatedly
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Harper's Weekly)
KEYWORDS: war rebellion army curse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1898 - Spanish-American War results in American occupation of the Philippines.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 547-548, "Damn the Filipinos" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DAMFILIP*
ADDITIONAL: Michael Blow, _A Ship to Remember: The Maine and the Spanish-American War_, William Morrow and Company, 1992, p. 407, "(no title)" (1 fragment)
Roud #15578
NOTES [82 words]: During the Spanish-American War, almost the entire population of the Philippines welcomed the Americans as liberators. The Americans didn't live up to their part of the bargain, though; independence was not granted for half a century.
As a result, a strong resistance movement arose under Emilio Aguinaldo (1870-1964). Aguinaldo originally fought against the Spanish (from 1896), then turned against the Americans. He was captured in 1901, but the resistance movement lasted much longer. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: LxA547

Damn, Damn, Damn the Filipinos

See Damn the Filipinos (File: LxA547)

Damper Song

See The Smoke Goes Up the Chimney Just the Same (File: RcSGUCJS)

Damsel from Cheshire, The

See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

Damsel Possessed of Great Beauty, A

See Gallant Hussar, The (A Damsel Possessed of Great Beauty) (File: E147)

Damsel's Tragedy, The

DESCRIPTION: When her son falls in love with a girl she finds unsuitable, his mother first blusters, then murders the girl. The girl's ghost walks to tell her lover. The son accuses his mother, then kills himself. The mother completes the circle by committing suicide
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: love courting homicide betrayal suicide ghost mother children
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 97-98, "The Damsel's Tragedy" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 152-156, "The Damsel's Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FlBr097 (Partial)
Roud #4663
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beautiful Susan" [Laws M29] (theme)
NOTES [27 words]: Although most of the themes in this song are commonplace, this strikes me as just a little too Antigone-ish to be real. Certainly it didn't become widespread. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: FlBr097

Dan (Dan, the Sanitary Man)

DESCRIPTION: "Dan, Dan, the sanitary man, Working underground all day, Sweeping out urinals, Picking out the finals, Whiling the happy hours away... Doing his little bit... And the only music that he hears Is poo-poo-poo-poo-poo all day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 65, "Dan" (1 text)
Roud #10542
File: BrPa065C

Dan Curley

DESCRIPTION: May 18, singer hears Dan Curley's wife crying. Curley is being executed for the Phoenix Park murders on the word of the informer, James Carey. She wishes Carey be evicted, his wife be a widow, and his children wander homeless. She will join Curley soon.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: betrayal homicide curse revenge nonballad wife death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Chronology of the Phoenix Park murders (source: primarily Zimmermann, pp. 62, 63, 281-286.)
May 6, 1882 - Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and the Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke are murdered by a group calling themselves "The Invincible Society."
January 1883 - twenty seven men are arrested.
James Carey, one of the leaders in the murders, turns Queen's evidence.
Six men are condemned to death, four are executed (Joseph Brady is hanged May 14, 1883; Daniel Curley is hanged on May 18, 1883), others are "sentenced to penal servitude," and Carey is freed and goes to South Africa.
July 29, 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell kills Carey on board the "Melrose Castle" sailing from Cape Town to Durban.
Dec 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell is convicted of the murder of James Carey and executed in London (per Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 19, "Dan Curley" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Phoenix Park Tragedy" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders) and references there
File: McB1019

Dan Curry

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a woman "dressed in deep mournin' With a babe on her bosom" on the banks of the Effie. She says "Felix Parks murdered my husband, Dan Curry.... May his short life be wrecked and his wife die a widow." She hopes to meet Curry in heaven.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: mourning homicide wife husband curse
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 64, "Dan Curry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 22-24,79, "Dan Curry" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi064 (Partial)
Roud #9210
NOTES [39 words]: Although the names in this song sound English, and the only known versions seem to be Canadian, it sounds very Irish to me. I checked both current and somewhat older atlases, and found no river Effie. An error for "Liffey," perhaps? - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: MaWi064

Dan Dan

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Oh my name is Dan Dan! Ho! Somebody drink me rum. Ho! Somebody wears me clothes, Ho!" Little more than a chant used for hauling, the pull coming on 'Ho!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 440, "Dan Dan" (1 short text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 331]
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 86-88, "Dan-Dan-oh" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Hugi440

Dan Doo

See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Dan Kelly

See Zeb Tourney's Girl [Laws E18] (File: LE18)

Dan McChree

DESCRIPTION: Tailor Dan McChree's mother had him take gruel to her maid, sick in bed with a headache. Dan told her to take it to "mak' your belly warm." "The lassie thocht her mistress Knew better than she" and took the "gruel." "She grew stoot aboot the waist"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: seduction medicine pregnancy mother rake servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1474, "Dan McChree" (1 text)
Roud #7182
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I'm a Tailor To My Trade
File: GrD71474

Dan McGinty

See Down Went McGinty (File: SRW134)

Dan Murphy's Convoy

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls what happened at the convoy. He lists the people who showed up. They start a dance, then interrupt it. There is a fine dinner, and much drink. Fights break out; there is much commotion; a fine time is had by all
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: party dancing drink humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H663, p. 72, "Dan Murphy's Convoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9050
File: HHH663

Dan Taylor

DESCRIPTION: "Dan Taylor is a rolllicking cuss, A frisky son of a gun, He loves to court the maidens" and used to be a cowboy. Now he runs a business and is looking for a wife. The author expects him to be a good husband and hopes he finds a good wife and friend
AUTHOR: Len Doran? (source: Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy courting wife home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 57-58, "Dan Taylor" (1 text)
Roud #8010
File: ThLo057

Dan-Dan-oh

See Dan Dan (File: Hugi440)

Dan-Doo

See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Dan, Dan, the Dirty Man

See Old Dan Tucker (File: R521)

Dan, Dan, the Funny Wee Man

See Sam, Sam, Dirty Old Man (File: PKKB047H)

Dana Dana

See Dona Dona (File: ACSF551D)

Danae, La

See Isabeau S'y Promene (Isabel) (File: SBoA297)

Danae, The

See Isabeau S'y Promene (Isabel) (File: SBoA297)

Dance All Night with a Bottle in Your Hand

DESCRIPTION: "Dance all night with a bottle in (your/my) hand, bottle in your hand, bottle in your hand, Dance all night... (Just for a day, give the fiddler a dram/As we go marching on)." "Old Aunt Petty, won't you fill 'em up again?" "We'll hang Jeff Davis...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians)
KEYWORDS: drink dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 20, "Dance All Night with a Bottle in Your Hand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 246, "Give the Fiddler a Dram" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #3657 and 10496
RECORDINGS:
Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers, "Dance All Night with a Bottle in Your Hand" (Columbia 15108, 1926?)
NOTES [27 words]: Roud files this under multiple numbers, but the "dance all night with a bottle" and "give the fiddler a dram" lines seem closely associated, so I've lumped them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Rose020

Dance at Clintonville, The

See The Backwoodsman (The Green Mountain Boys) [Laws C19] (File: LC19)

Dance at Daniel's Harbour, The

DESCRIPTION: The boys took their boat to the dance at Daniel's Harbour. The fiddler played; "we danced there that night till eleven o'clock And some of the couples went out for a walk." "We'll come back again if the weather prove fine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: dancing music party
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 102-103, "The Dance at Daniel's Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25320
NOTES [12 words]: Daniel's Harbour is on the coast of Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Guig102

Dance For Your Daddy-O

See Dance To Your Daddy (File: FSWB409)

Dance in Peter Street

See The Shirt and the Apron [Laws K42] (File: LK42)

Dance Josey

DESCRIPTION: "Chicken on the fence post, can't dance Josey (3x) Hello Susan Brown." "Choose your partner come dance Josey ... Chew my gum ... Shoestring's broke ... Hold my mule ... Crank my Ford ... Hair in the butter ... Brier in my heel ... Stumped my tope ..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 156-157, "Dance Josey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 98-99, "Saro Jane" (1 text, 1 tune, which despite the title is closer to this song than anything else)
Roud #735
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [45 words]: Most of the material in Abernethy-SinginTexas's version of this, at least, derives from "Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle)"; it appears to be an expansion of that game. Abernethy-SinginTexas says both are ring games played at a "Josey party." Roud appears to lump them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Ow2E156

Dance Me a Jig

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going up to that freedom land." The slave has fled his master, taking with him a pig and a hog which he has named "Jeff Davis" and "General Lee." The singer's sons are free. She enjoys thinking of his face when he finds that she and the pigs are gone
AUTHOR: Al Wood
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (copyright, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: slave freedom animal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 360-362, "Dance Me a Jig" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: SCWF360

Dance Song

See Jingle at the Window (Tideo) (File: R525)

Dance the Boatman

See De Boatman Dance (File: BMRF566)

Dance Ti' Thy Daddy

See Dance To Your Daddy (File: FSWB409)

Dance to Thee Daddy

See Dance To Your Daddy (File: FSWB409)

Dance to Your Daddy

DESCRIPTION: "Dance to your daddy, my little laddie, Dance to your daddy, my little man. You shall have a fish and you shall have a fin, You shall have a coddlin' when the boat comes in." The child is told that he will grow up, marry, and love the girl his whole life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: dancing family father nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South),Scotland(Aber,Bord)), Ireland US(Ap,MA)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 76-77, "Dance Ti' Thy Daddy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 127, "Dance to Thee Daddy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan8 1562, "Dance to Your Daddy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 187, "Dance to Your Daddy" (1 text)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 47, "Dance For Your Daddy-O" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 32, "Dance to your Daddy, my little babby" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 18, "(Dance to your daddy, my bonny laddy)" (1 short text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 123, "Dance to your daddy" (3 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #563, p. 229, "(Dance to your daddy)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 104, "(Dance to your daddy)" (1 text)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 83, "Dance to Your Daddy" (1 short text partly rewritten by Jean Ritchie, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 236, "Child's Song" (1 text, very unlike most versions; the child dances to Mammy, not Daddy, and is given school supplies)
Cray-AshGrove, p. 13, "Dance to Your Daddy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 409, "Dance To Your Daddy" (1 text)
DT, DANCEDAD* DANCDAD2*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 18, ("Dance to your daddie")
Roud #2439
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Dance to Your Daddy" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742); "Dance For Your Daddy-O" (on IRECronin01)
Steve Gardham, "Dance to Your Daddy" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #338, recorded 11/02/2022)
Ritchie Family, "Dance To Your Daddy" (on Ritchie03)
Beverly Wilson, "Dance to Your Daddy" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #75, recorded 08/18/2021. Very noisy)
Guy Wolff, "Dance to Your Daddy" (Piotr-Archive #436, recorded 01/08/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cucanandy" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Little Fishy
NOTES [218 words]: This appears, from the dialect and the unusually full form found in Stokoe, to have originated in Northumbria in England. But there are a lot of filed-down versions; I'm not entirely sure whether these are traditional or pop-folksingers' attempts to make the song more accessible to urban audiences - RBW
Jean Ritchie notes that she sings this song to her son; she doesn't say it's one she learned from her family, but she hints that she did, so I include, "FOUND IN US(Ap)". However, at this point in her life she'd done folklore research in Britain and may have picked it up there. - PJS
See Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, (Cardiff,2001), #160, p. 413, "Grib to your Naiskel" [Scotto-Romani/Tinklers' Cant fragment from MacColl and Seeger, Till Doomsday in the Afternoon (1986)]. - BS
J. M. Bulloch, in the lecture "The Delight of the Doric in the Diminutive," cites this as an example of extreme use of diminutives -- almost every noun is a diminutive; some are double diminutives: "little laddie," "little fishie," "little dishie" (CraigieEtAl, p. 140, etc.). I'm not sure what that tells us, but Bulloch thinks the Scots use diminutives to denigrate those they dislike (see, e.h., "The Wee Wee German Lairdie" -- a triple diminutive) and show affection for those they like (as here). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB409

Dance to Your Daddy, My Bonny Laddy

See Dance To Your Daddy (File: FSWB409)

Dance, Boatman, Dance

See De Boatman Dance (File: BMRF566)

Dance, Thumbkin, Dance

DESCRIPTION: A childrens's game for the fingers: "Dance, Thumbkin, dance, Dance, ye merry men, every one: But Thumbkin, he can dance alone, Thumbkin, he can dance alone." Similarly for the other four digits, Foreman, Longman, Ringman, Littleman
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (Mrs Child's Girls Own Book, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 500, "Dance, Thumbkin, dance" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #576, p. 233, "(Dance Thumbkin, Dance)"
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 14, "(Little one, Ring One)" (1 short text, possibly a variant on this)
Roud #12837
File: BGMG576

Danced with a Gal With a Hole in Her Stocking

See Buffalo Gals (and many other floating-verse songs); also Bell Tune (File: R535)

Dancers of Colbeck, The

See The Cursed Dancers of Colbeck (File: NothCDCo)

Dancing at Whitsun

DESCRIPTION: "It's fifty long springtime since she was a bride, But still you may see her at each Whitsuntide." With the men who did the local dances dead in World War I, the women are keeping the dances alive
AUTHOR: Words: Austin John Marshall (1937-2013)
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: dancing wife husband death soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 240-241, "The Whitsun Dance" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DNCWHIT*
NOTES [135 words]: Not a traditional song, but so well known in folk circles that I am including it based on its presence in Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs. Based on the notes there, it was originally a poem, but Shirley Collins (Marshall's then-wife) set it to the tune of "The False Bride," and it was taken up by the Country Dance Societies. It has now been a half a century since the song was written, and a century since the Great War; I wonder who will keep up the dances -- and the song -- now.
Apparently Marshall's original title was "The Whitsun Dance," but I've never met a recording under that name.
The song is popular enough that it seems to have encouraged its own folklore -- e.g. that the dance was the Morris Dance, and that the women entirely replaced the men. None of this seems to be true. Too bad. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: DalC240

Dancing Dolly Had No Sense

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Dancing Dolly has no sense, She bought some eggs/a fiddle for fourteen pence/59 cents, The eggs went bad, the dolly went mad, A, B, C, D, E...." Or, "The only tune that she could play, Was, Sally, get out of the donkey's way."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: playparty food money jumprope dancing music fiddle | doll
FOUND IN: New Zealand US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 108, "(Dancing Dolly)" (2 texts)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 64, "Dancing Dolly" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #95, "Dancing Dolly had no sense" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn. p. 51, "(When I was young)" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 64, "Dolly, Dolly had no sense" (1 text)
Roud #18997 and 19306
File: SuSm108D

Dancing in Glenroan (Rinnceoiri Ghleann Ruain)

DESCRIPTION: The singer, "growing old and weary," recalls the dancing of his youth in Glenroan; "my heart is filled with wonder Why we ever leave such pleasure for a world so cold and lone" He is comforted by the thought that youngsters are still dancing there.
AUTHOR: Felix Kearney (source: Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder)
EARLIEST DATE: 1991 (Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder)
KEYWORDS: age dancing music lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 71-72, "Dancing in Glenroan" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kerry Dance" (theme)
NOTES [22 words]: Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder: Translated into Gaelic as "Rinnceoiri Ghleann Ruain" by Arthur Kearney.
Glenroan is in County Tyrone. - BS
File: TST071

Dancing Up the Highway

DESCRIPTION: "Dancing up the highway, Dancing down the low way, There I met a pretty maid, Dancing gaily back again. Fair maid, pretty maid, Will you marry me? And I'll take you back To my own country."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: courting dancing travel
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 128-129, "Dancing Up the Highway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #38143
File: BAAI128B

Dandoo

See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Dandy Apprentice Boy, The

See The Bonny Sailor Boy [Laws M22] (File: LM22)

Dandy Chignon, The

See Oyster Shell Bonnets and Chignons (The Dandy Chignon) (File: HHH227)

Dandy Jim from Caroline

DESCRIPTION: "I've often heard it said of late Dat Souf Carolina was de state, Whar handsome Niggars bound to shine, Like 'Dandy Jim from Caroline.'" Jim is the best-looking black man in the county. He boasts of the successes his looks have brought
AUTHOR: S. S. Steel and J. Richard Myers ? (source: Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Bodleian broadside Harding B 11(789))
KEYWORDS: Black(s) beauty courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Q. Anderson, "Carolina Courtship and Marriage in the 1840's," Vol. X, No. 2 (Dec. 1962), p. 3, "(I’ve orfen heard it said ob late)" (1 short text, probably this)
Roud #13924
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(789), "Dandy Jim from Caroline," J. Howe (Hull), 1835-1843; also Harding B 11(1528), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth b.25(4)=Harding B 11(3503), W. Allerston (York), 1840s; also Harding B 15(82b), Harding B 11(190), E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also 2806 c.13(36), Johnson Ballads 2442, unknown, n.d.
SAME TUNE:
California Stage Company (File: RcCaStCo)
NOTES [73 words]: Hey, I don't write them. Yes, this is as racist as it sounds. The tune must have been very good for it to become so popular, even in nineteenth century America.
According to Spaeth: Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, Random House, 1948, pp. 71-72, this was popularized in large part by Thomas D. Rice, who also gave us "Jump Jim Crow." It is said to have been written for "Cool White" (real name: John Hodges). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: NCFJX203

Dandy Man, The

DESCRIPTION: A dandy man ["fop"] bought a magpie and an owl and boiled them, "feathers, guts and all," to eat. Women, don't wed a dandy man; in bed "he never takes his breeches off He sleeps in women's stays"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: cross-dressing nonballad wife husband
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 25, "The Dandy Man" (1 text)
Roud #15129
NOTES [33 words]: For all his fussing, the dandy man is not only effeminate, but slovenly (like the wife in "Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now," "... a hure of aw the sluts, She roasit a hen baith feathers and guts." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: ReSh025

Dandy Pat

DESCRIPTION: "I'm the boy called Dandy Pat, Dandy Pat, I was born in the town of Balinafat, Dandy Pat-I-O." He courts Kitty Malloy. He is handsome, funny, well-dressed, and very Irish. Girls seek to win him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(3237))
KEYWORDS: courting clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
New-Comic-Songster, p. 29, "Dandy Pat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 142, "Dandy Pat" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #24, p. 55, "Dandy Pat" (1 text)
Roud #18381
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3237), "Dandy Pat," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866
NOTES [15 words]: Probably not traditional, but this ended up in an amazing collection of songsters.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: NCS029

Dandyman Oh

DESCRIPTION: "Dandyman look oo day are break." "Cock are crow." "Neil are go home oh, What you do oh"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: parting ritual dancing nonballad religious ghost Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 26, "Dandyman Oh" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [95 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "The reel dance gives the living opportunity to enjoy briefly the company of loved ones long dead. But the ancestors must depart from the dance before daybreak and so the farewell ceremony is performed early in the morning before dawn. This is a very sad ritual taking farewell of the ancestor spirits until some future time." - BS
It is interesting to find the idea of a ghost having to depart before cock crows in Tobago, given that the idea is widespread in Europe; see the notes to "The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father [Child 248]." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo026

Daniel Cooper

DESCRIPTION: The drinking and sexual adventures of Daniel Cooper and others. When the Piper's wife lifts her smock he "claw'd her." He lies with a milk-maid who leaves happy but pregnant. Lady Cardle says he's a bonny loon. A widow dances naked for highland boys.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1683 (broadside, Douce Ballads 1(51a))
KEYWORDS: sex adultery pregnancy drink bawdy humorous nonballad rake
FOUND IN:
Roud #V13676
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(51a), "Daniel Cooper" or "The High-land Laddy," P. Brooksby (London)), 1683
NOTES [53 words]: One text of Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 523, "We're all dry with drinking on't" quotes the first verse of "Daniel Cooper"
Broadside Bodleian Douce Ballads 1(51a) includes the tune which, the broadside says, is "a Scotch tune, called Wally on't, Or, We'l welcome you to Yarrow. Up go we, Or, Jenny Gin.." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BdBDaCoo

Daniel in the Den of Lions

See Who Did Swallow Jonah? (File: FSWB386B)

Daniel in the Lion's Den

DESCRIPTION: "Among the Jewish captives one Daniel there was found." Daniel's piety is renowned. His enemies cause the King to demand that all people worship only the King for 30 days. Daniel does not, is thrown to the lions -- and survives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Brown); there are several older references to songs of this title, but they may not be the same
KEYWORDS: religious animal royalty Bible Jew
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 524, "Daniel in the Lion's Den" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 524, "Daniel in the Lion's Den" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 194, "Daniel in the Lion's Den" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3614
RECORDINGS:
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, "Daniel in the Lion's Den" (Decca 48116, c. 1948)
NOTES [46 words]: I'm tempted to declare this too accurate a retelling of the Biblical to be folk song. (Too bad there was no king called Darius the Mede, so the whole section in Daniel is demonstrably historically inaccurate.) This is a dull but correct retelling of the events in Daniel 6. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Br3524

Daniel In the Lion's Den (II)

DESCRIPTION: Leader lines out "Daniel in the lion's den." "He said, 'Lord have mercy on me.'" "He said, 'Now is the needed time.'" "Jesus locked the lion's jaw." "The God he sent an angel down." All repeat the line three times.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (LomaxCD1712)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious Jesus | lion
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Daniel In the Lion's Den" (on LomaxCD1712)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Where Was Peter" ("Jesus locked the lion's jaw")
NOTES [54 words]: The story of Daniel in the Lion's Den is told in Daniel 6. There is of course no reference to Jesus. - RBW
Daniel 6:22 has Daniel say, "My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me" (King James). I have seen the "angel" identified with Jesus so that may be the connection here. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcDiLD2

Daniel Monroe

See Donald Munroe [Laws J12] (File: LJ12)

Daniel O'Connell (I)

DESCRIPTION: Singer overhears an old woman and a tinker; he says Daniel O'Connell is now making children in Dublin by steam; those made the old way are too few. She berates O'Connell for removing the people's best diversion; he salutes her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.10(26))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer overhears an old woman and a tinker talking; he says Daniel O'Connell is now making children in Dublin by steam, because those made the old way are too small and too few. She berates O'Connell for removing the people's best diversion; he salutes her, saying that if all women in Ireland were as plucky as she, the nation would have babies aplenty (for the Queen's army)
KEYWORDS: age disability sex army pregnancy Ireland political baby children tinker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1775-1847 - Life of Daniel O'Connell
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 19, "Daniel O'Connell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 16, "Daniel O'Connell and His Steam Engine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 65-66, "The Bold Tinker (Daniel O'Connell)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 46, "Daniel O'Connell" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 22, #1 (1973), p, 18, "Daniel O'Connell" (1 text, 1 tune, apparently the O. J. Abbott version)
Roud #2313
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "Daniel O'Connell" (on Abbott1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(26), "Dan O'Connell or Morris O'Donnell. Hatching Chickens by Steam" ("Ye lovers of mirth, I pray give attention"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1871
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fergus O'Connor and Independence" (subject: Daniel O'Connell and the Tithe War)
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (II)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
cf. "Erin's Green Shore [Laws Q27]" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
cf. "By Memory Inspired" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
cf. "Charlie Jack's Dream" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
cf. "Annie Moore" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
cf. "An Irish Girl's Opinion" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
cf. "Old Ireland I Adore" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
cf. "Granuaile" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
cf. "Gra-mo-chroi. I'd Like to See Old Ireland Free Once More" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
cf. "Come to the Bower" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
cf. "The Shan Van Voght (1828)," (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
cf. "Glorious Repeal Meeting Held at Tara Hill" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
cf. "The Meeting of Tara" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
cf. "Erin's King (Daniel Is No More)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
cf. "Kerry Eagle" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
cf. "Grand Conversation on O'Connell Arose" (subject: Daniel O'Connell)
cf. "Not a Word of 'No Surrender'" (subject; Protestant opposition to Daniel O'Connell)
NOTES [296 words]: Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847) [was] leader of Catholic Association whose pressure led to the Catholic Emancipation Act, 1829.
"Tinker," in this context, means one of the travelling people, rather than a worker in tin. Fowke notes drily that this aspect of O'Connell's long career "seems to have been overlooked by his biographers." - PJS
I wonder if this might not be confused with the life of another Irish hero, Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891), whose career was blighted by sex scandals. Given that the only surviving version of this song seems to be O. J. Abbott's, such a thing is possible.
There is severe irony in O'Connell urging that Ireland breed up more people; his last major speech, in 1847, was on the disaster of the potato famine -- which of course was so deadly only because Ireland had more people than it could reasonably support.
There is another Canadian Daniel O'Connell song, a fragment collected by Creighton. It perhaps reveals how many Irish left Ireland after the famines that both songs are found only outside Ireland. - RBW
Broadside Bodleian 2806 b.10(26) refers to O'Connell only in the title, with Morris O'Donnell being the name in the text. - BS
This might explain why, as Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario comments on p. 171, "this particular phase of [O'Connell's] career seems to have been overlooked by his biographers": It was originally a tale of O'Donnell that was attracted to O'Connell by similarity of names. - RBW
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario: "It is still [1965] in oral circulation in Ireland for Liam Clancy learned it from an Irish countryman and taught it to Luke Kelly who has popularized it in London's folk clubs. Kenneth Peacock tells me that he heard a fragmentary version in Newfoundland." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcDanOco

Daniel O'Connell (II)

DESCRIPTION: "In the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and four There was great rejoicing round Erin's green shore, When Daniel O'Connell he made this appeal: 'All I want is fair justice to gain my repeal.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: Ireland political
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 95, "Daniel O'Connell" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #2771
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Carrickshock" (subject: The Tithe War) and references there
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
NOTES [317 words]: The current description is all of the Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick fragment.
See also Bodleian, 2806 c.15(195), "Erin's Green Linnet ("On a fair summer's morning as day was just dawning"); Harding B 19(39), "The Green Linnet"
Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847) tried to convince the British to reform administration of Ireland and was the leading figure on behalf of Catholic Emancipation. (For his history, see also "Erin's Green Shore" [Laws Q27]).
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick: "Our solitary stanza may refer to the Tithe War." That may be but does not tie in with 1804. O'Connell's Catholic Association was formed in 1823 to resist the requirement that Irish Catholics pay tithes to the Anglican Church of Ireland. The "war" was passive for most of the period 1823-1836, though there were violent incidents in 1831 (source: The Irish Tithe War 1831 at the OnWar.com site) - BS
I am more inclined to accept the date than Creighton's explanation. O'Connell first came to prominence at the time of the 1800 Union of Ireland and England: He opposed it. (Quite reasonably, since Ireland had had a real parliament and significant self-rule under the old constitution which Union replaced.)
The name of the anti-Union movement? "Repeal."
The notion of Repeal became more of a platform in 1832, when O'Connell formed a party in parliament for the purpose. But he had been talking about the notion for decades. The date 1804 makes some sense, because it was the last year in which his primary issue was avoiding Union; starting in 1805 and for many years after, his chief demand was Catholic "emancipation" (read, essentially, enfranchisement, though it's a lot more complicated than that).
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2 includes a very large section of O'Connell pieces (roughly p. 85-101, plus a few others). Few of these show any hints of being traditional. - RBW
File: CrSNB095

Daniel O'Connell and His Steam Engine

See Daniel O'Connell (I) (File: RcDanOco)

Daniel Prayed

DESCRIPTION: Daniel prays to God three times a day. Cast in the lions' den, the lions' jaws are locked. Listeners should follow his example. Chorus: "Old Daniel served the living God/While here upon this earth he trod...Daniel prayed every morning, noon and night"
AUTHOR: G. T. Speer
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (composed)
KEYWORDS: captivity Bible religious animal gods
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #7692
RECORDINGS:
Fred Price, Clint Howard & Doc Watson, "Daniel Prayed" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01)
Stanley Brothers "Daniel Prayed" (on StanBros01)
NOTES [106 words]: Ralph Rinzler notes that Price, Howard & Watson refreshed their memory of this song from the shape-note hymnal "The Best of All," from whence comes the attribution to G. T. Speer and the date. - PJS
In Daniel 6, the (non-existent) king Darius the Mede ordered that no one pray to anyone but him for thirty days (an inconceivable order from the historical Darius I of Persia, who was a Zoroastrian monotheist, and hardly more likely from Cyrus the Great of Persia, who conquered Babylon, since he was religiously tolerant). In 6:13, we read that Daniel nonetheless prayed three times a day. The rest of chapter 6 explains the result. - RBW
File: RcDanlPr

Daniel Saw That Little Stone

See Daniel Saw the Stone (File: CrAAF322)

Daniel Saw the Stone

DESCRIPTION: "Daniel saw the stone, hewn out of the mountain (x3), Tearing down the kingdom of this world." Verses: Daniel prays in the lion's den -- despite wicked men; he prays three times a day to defeat the devil. "Have you seen that stone?" "Jesus was the stone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 54, "Daniel Saw the Stone" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 157 in the 1909 edition)
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, pp. 153-154, "Ezekiel Saw That Little Stone" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, The Books of American Negro Spirituals (New York: Viking Press, 1969 (copyright 1925, 1926)), Book 2, pp. 162-163, "Daniel Saw de Stone" (1 text) (1 tune)
Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 322-323, "(no title)" (1 text plus an excerpt)
Roud #12210
RECORDINGS:
Brenton Jordan and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Daniel Saw That Little Stone" (on McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts)
NOTES [87 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "Cut out the mountain without hands."
The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree text and McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts track are "ring shout" songs.
Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dream that includes "a stone cut out without hands ... and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain" in Daniel 2:29-35 (King James). Daniel in the lion's den is Daniel 6; his praying three times a day is Daniel 6:10. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CrAAF322

Daniel Sullivan [Laws E22]

DESCRIPTION: Daniel Sullivan offers himself as a warning against passion. As an infant, his mother dreamed of him hanging. Having gone abroad, he murders a man. Lonely and penitent, he is scheduled to die. He bids farewell to family and meets his fate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Beck-FolkloreOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: dream homicide execution warning
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws E22, "Daniel Sullivan"
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 254-255, "Daniel Sullivan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 104-105, "Daniel Sullivan" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 833, DANSULL*
Roud #4728
NOTES [35 words]: "According to Horace P. Beck's informant, Mark Lodge of Danforth, Maine, Daniel Sullivan, a lumberjack from Liverpool, Nova Scotia, was hanged for murder about 1890." Laws, Native American Balladry, p. 187. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LE22

Danny Boy (The Londonderry Air)

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments that her Danny Boy is called away. She promises to be waiting when he returns to her. Even if she dies, she will await him
AUTHOR: Words: probably Frederic Edward Weatherly (1848-1929)
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Petrie Collection); words written 1913
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: Ireland US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 323, "Danny Boy" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 337, "Londonderry Air"
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H3, p. 286, "The Londonderry Air" (1 tune, plus a text known not to have been traditional)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 188, "Danny Boy" (notes only)
DT, DANNYBOY*
ADDITIONAL: McCourt: Malachy McCourt, _Danny Boy: The Legend of the Beloved Irish Ballad_, Running Press, 2002, pp. 12-13, "(Danny Boy)" (1 text)
Roud #23565
SAME TUNE:
O, Jeanie Dear (File: HHH545)
Campfire Prayer (File: ACSF188C)
Emmer's Farewell (words by Alfred Perceval Graves; in Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 200-203)
My Gentle Harp (Words by Thomas Moore) (File: Fire088)
NOTES [967 words]: Fuld reports that the name "Londonderry Air" came about because the tune "was collected by Miss J. Ross of the county of Londonderry." Little else seems to be known of its ancestry, though it has been used for many texts, few of them popular. Anne G. Gilchrist published an article, "A New Light upon the Londonderry Air" in JFSS (December 1934).
Malachy McCourt, Danny Boy: The Legend of the Beloved Irish Ballad, Running Press, 2002, p. 21, says that there is "some evidence" to suggest that the tune was composed by Rory Dall (O'Cahan) (otherwise Ruaidhrí Dall Ó Catháin), the "other" famous blind Irish harper (other than O'Carolan, of course). He does not say what this evidence is. The evidence can't be too strong! -- some doubt that Rory Dall even existed, and I've seen various sources that claim he was Irish or Scottish, and give dates for him that range over about 140 years. McCourt, pp. 21-31, lists many other stories about authorship, but none are at all convincing; it does not appear possible to trace the tune before Petrie's version, said to have been provided by Jane Ross.
Fuld attributes the words to Fred Weatherly (1848-1929) without supporting documentation, and many people seem unaware of it, but there appears to be no doubt. He was a British lawyer who was one of thirteen children of a country doctor (McCort, pp. 34-35).
As a poet, he was busy (he supposedly wrote about 3000 items; McCourt, p. 38) but only moderately successful. Weatherly has six poems attributed to him in Granger's Index to Poetry. "Danny Boy" is not one of then. Three of the pieces ("The Holy City," "The Angels to the Shepherds Sang," and "When the Christ Child Came") are religious; the others appear to be for children. None proved very popular in the long run.
Turning to Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (13th edition), we find three Weatherly pieces, none of them the same as the ones quoted in Granger's -- though one of them, "Nancy Lee," has had some slight traditional popularity (it is one of the other Weatherly pieces in the Ballad Index). But none have themes similar to this.
Weatherly does seem to have been popular in his time. Songs That Never Grow Old, copyrighted 1909 and 1913, has a long list: "Beauty's Eyes," with music by F. Paolo Tosti; "Mona," "Nancy Lee," and "The Midshipmite," all with music by Stephen Adams (who also supplied the melody for "They All Love Jack," which is in the third Weatherly item Index; according to McCourt, pp. 36-37, it is a pseudonym for Molloy and Michael Maybrick); "Darby and Joan," and "The Little Tin Soldier" with music by J. L. Molloy -- but most of the songs in that book I have not seen elsewhere.
In 1926, Weatherly published an autobiography, Piano and Gown (McCourt, p. 35), presumably referring to his two occupations as songwriter and lawyer.
Back in the days before all old sheet music seemed to be on the Internet, I managed to acquire the sheet music for two other Weatherly pieces, "Roses of Picardy" and "The Holy City."
My copy of "The Holy City" was published in 1942 with music by Stephen Adams; obviously it is older than that. It is a dream of Jerusalem before the destruction of the Temple and of a heavenly Jerusalem. It is not very original -- and feels both anachronistic and rather silly. I would not file it as great poetry. It did become popular enough to be included in Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, The Illustrated Victorian Songbook, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, (pp. 48-54); also, Alice Kane's "I Wore My Pappys' Pants" is reportedly based on it.
"Roses of Picardy," published in 1916 with music by Haydn Wood, is interesting, because Wood's name is printed in far larger type than Weatherly's. For more about it, see its entry in the Index.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, pp. 322, 344, estimates that "Picardy" was the fourteenth most popular song in America in 1918 (#1 for the year being J. Will Callahan and Lee G. Roberts's "Smiles") and also reached #7 in December 1923. But it didn't hold up after that.
Bottom line: "Danny Boy" seems to have been a unique item for Weatherly in style as in its lasting popularity.
Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 129, offers some additional details which do seem to confirm Fuld's report. Weatherly, an English lawyer (!), wrote the lyrics for this song in 1910, and also wrote a tune. It went nowhere. When his sister-in-law sent him the tune for the "Londonderry Air," he decided to use that tune instead, and a hit was born.
According to Reginald Nettel, Seven Centuries of Popular Song, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 220, Weatherly was an "eminent barrister," who reportedly wrote his poems while working through difficult legal problems.
Gogan adds a warning to barroom singers out there: "[This is] one of the most consistently murdered ballads I know, because amateur balladeers usually start singing it in too high a pitch for their voice[,] realizing (when it is too late) that they can't reach the high E note in the chorus. Keep that in mind; don't get caught out."
Given that the range of the song is an octave and a sixth (e.g. from the G below middle C to the E nine steps above middle C), little wonder that singers have trouble. I know of no traditional song requiring a wider range.
As of this writing, Weatherly has four songs in the Ballad Index, although none is very popular other than this one:
-- Danny Boy (The Londonderry Air)
-- Roses of Picardy (music by Hayden Wood)
-- The Bosun's Story (music by J. L. Malloy)
-- They All Love Jack (music by Stephen Adams)
-- Nancy Lee (music by Stephen Adams); this is probably the most popular of Weatherly's other songs in folk circles. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB323

Danny By My Side

DESCRIPTION: "The Brooklyn Bridge on Sunday is known as lover's lane, I steal there with my sweetheart, oh, time and time again." As she walks, she sees lovers, mothers with their babies, all sorts of people. "What joy to me such sights to see with Danny by my side."
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 ("The Last of the Hogans")
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. II, #162, pp. 275-278, "Danny By My Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: E. J. Kahn, Jr., _The Merry Partners: The Age and Stage of Harrigan and Hart_, Random House, 1955, p. 77, "(Danny by My Side)" (1 partial text)
RECORDINGS:
Mick Moloney, "Danny By My Side" (on HarriganBrahamMaloney)
NOTES [266 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
"The Last of the Hogans" was first staged on December 22, 1891 (Moody, p. 259), making it the last real collaboration between Ned Harrigan and David Braham, and the last real Harrigan play (Moody, p. 192). His company was active into 1893, and Harrigan occasionally wrote and frequently acted after that, but there were no new hits.
The plot of "The Last of the Hogans" was a typical Harrigan complexity-fest; the title comes from a legal case about a bricklayer named Hogan who is thought to be dead; his presumed decease results in a wild chase for his papers, hidden inside a bricked-up vault (Franceschina, p. 203). Braham's tune for "Danny By My Side" was compared to his earlier "Maggie Murphy's Home," which was one of Braham's biggest hits (Franceschina, pp. 203-204). But "Maggie Murphy's Home" managed to make it into tradition in a small way; it doesn't appear that "Danny By My Side" did.
The Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883; fifty years later, Al Smith (a lifelong Harrigan/Braham fan) sang "Danny By My Side" to celebrate the anniversary of its opening (Moody, p. 2; Kahn, p. 77, reports that Smith, when he was ten and the bridge was new, had been caught in a panic when someone reported it was in danger of falling, but that didn't stop him from celebrating both the bridge and the song!).
According to Williams, p. 207, "The [Tin Pan Alley] Irish-American girl began life as the tough 'chippie' characterized by Harrigan's Maggie Murphy and the somewhat gentler girl who sings 'Danny By My Side.'" -RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: HaBrDBMS

Danny Sim's Sow

DESCRIPTION: "There was a drunken collier, they ca'd him Danny Sim." Danny, sent to buy feed for the sow, instead spends it drinking. His wife complains. He grabs a pick (pike?) and beats her. He offers a sow to the butcher, and sells his bruised wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: drink animal abuse injury commerce
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 401-403, "Danny Sim's Sow" (1 text)
Roud #5616
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sale of a Wife" (theme: sale of a wife) and references there
cf. "The Scolding Wife (V)" (theme: sale of a wife)
cf. "In Praise of John Magee" (theme: sale of a wife)
NOTES [26 words]: Although clearly meant to be funny, this strikes me as being about as humorous as mud.
For background on wife-selling, see the notes to "Sale of a Wife." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Ord401

Danny Winters

DESCRIPTION: "Danny Winters went a-courtin', hi, hey an' ho, Choosed a sweetheart with a red head, bow, bow low, Wed a redhead, wished himself dead, Dan Danny-O. "Danny Winters lay a-moanin... Redhead was too wild a partner... Wife a flyin', Dan a-dyin'...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage playparty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 548, "Danny Winters" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 404-405, "Danny Winters" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 548)
Roud #7648
File: R548

Dans le berceau

See Entre le Boeuf et L'Ane Gris (Dans le Berceau, In the Manger) (File: BerV028)

Dans Les Chantiers (The Winter Camp)

DESCRIPTION: French: A complaint about life in a lumber camp -- Hard work in cold snowy weather, a bed on the icy ground, coupled with slow and insufficient pay. Finally the logger goes home to a happy reunion. He vows never to return to the lumber camp
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865
KEYWORDS: logger work separation reunion foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que) US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 70-71, "Dans Les Chantiers (The Winter Camp)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 23, "Dans Les Chantiers" (1 English and 1 French text,, 1 tune)
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 66, "Dans les chantiers nous hivernerons (Voyagers)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 418, "Dans lse Chantiers Nous Hivernerons (Voyageurs)" (1 text+ translation)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 12-13, "Dans les Chantiers (The Winter Camp" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (theme) and references there
NOTES [70 words]: The editors of Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes suggest that the Vincennes version is older than the Canadian; it mentions a trader and merchant, M. Dubois, lived on the banks of the Wabash at the end of the 1700s. - PJS
Interestingly, I find no mention of this Dubois in William E Wilson, The Wabash, Farrar & Rinehart, 1940 (a volume in the Rivers of America series edited by Stephen Vincent Benet and Carl Carmer). - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: FJ070

Dans les Chantiers Nous Hivernons

See Dans Les Chantiers (The Winter Camp) (File: FJ070)

Dans les prisons de Nantes (Within the Prisons of Nantes)

DESCRIPTION: French. A man is prisoner in Nantes. The jailer's daughter cries because he is to die next day. She unties him so he escapes. She is pregnant. On another shore he drinks and boasts of his escape.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage seduction warning escape rake prisoner
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, pp. 183-184, "Dans les Prisons de Nantes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 170, "Dans La Prison de Nantes" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Jean Ozon, "Dans les Prisons de Nantes" (on PeacockCDROM)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dans la Prison de Londres
NOTES [75 words]: In Peacock's version the prisoner is on London Bridge; the escaped prisoner promises that, if he ever is in France he will have a dress made for her with gold buttons and they will embrace. In another version, all the girls of Nantes are taken prisoner.
The CD After the Tempest by Figgy Duff includes a different London version than Peacock's called, more reasonably, Dans la Prison de Londres: "Dans la prison de Londres Un prisonnier il y a" - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea183

Dans Tous Les Cantons (Through All the Country 'Round)

DESCRIPTION: French: The song notes how boys and girls are often talking of marriage... then highlights all the troubles they will face. The woman must scrub, cook, sew, and obey her husband; the man will find that his wife nags and spends his money
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865
KEYWORDS: marriage humorous husband wife foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 113-115, "Dans Tous Les Cantons (Through All the Country 'Round)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 83-85, "Dans Tous les Cantons (Through All the Country 'Round)" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
File: FJ113

Danse de Mardi Gras, Le

DESCRIPTION: "Captain, captain, wave your flag, Let's get on the road." "The Mardy Gras riders get together once a year, To ask for charity." The singer describes Mardy Gras in Mamou. The riders politely ask for hens, lard, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1960 (recording, Savy Bee Deshotels)
KEYWORDS: party food travel
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 349-350, "La Danse de Mardi Gras" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 276-281, "Le Danse de Mardi Gras/La Chanson de Mardi Gras" (2 texts, 1 tune)
File: CAFS1349

Danse des Bois Brules, La (Lord Selkirk at Fort William)

DESCRIPTION: Canadian French: "Allons, vite accourez Rats musques, Bois Brules." A "herald" announces that the Lord (Selkirk) is givng a ball. The dignitaries are invited to join the fun. Lord Selkirk tells the men to stop joking; they tell him to relax
AUTHOR: unknown (perhaps Pierre Falcon; tune by Francs Macons)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage humorous moniker party
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 19, 1816 - Battle of Seven Oaks. Some 70 Metis horsemen under Cuthbert Grant encounter 28 Hudson's Bay Company men under Governor Semple on Frog Plain. Only six of Semple's men survive
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba, #2, pp. 10-15, "La dance des Bois Brules" (1 French text plus English translation "Lord Selkirk at Fort William," 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Chanson de la Grenouillere ("Song of Frog Plain," Falcon's Song)" (context)
NOTES [61 words]: After the Battle of Frog Plain/Seven Oaks, the British governor Lord Selkirk came down to try to bring things back under control. Pierre Falcon -- or someone -- wrote this song to lampoon his acts. It looks more like a play than a folk song, with pars assigned to a "Herald," the "Brule Boys" (i.e. the Metis who had won at Frog Plain), and "Milord," i.e. Selkirk. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Macl02

Dansekar the Dutchman

DESCRIPTION: "Sing we sea-men, now and then, Of Dansekar the Dutchman, Whose gallant mind hath won him great renown." His piracy has afflicted nations the world over. He and Captain Ward have caused much trouble. But they will be overthrown
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (broadside, according to Frank)
KEYWORDS: pirate fight commerce
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1611 - Hanging of Simon Danziker the pirate, according to Frank
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads LV, pp. 97-100, "The sea-mans song of Dansekar the Dutch-man" (1 text)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 10, "Dansekar the Dutchman" (1 text, #10 in the first edition)
Roud #V30470
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" [Child 287] (mention of Captain Ward)
File: Fran010

Danville Girl, The

See Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum) [Laws H2] (File: LH02)

Dapherd Grey, The

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Dar Gingo Tre Flickor

DESCRIPTION: Swedish shanty. Three girls discuss love; three sailors overhear and decide to pay a visit. The girls bar the door but the wind blows it open. They make a bed for the sailors who leave in the morning saying maidens will never regain their beauty.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Swedish shanty. Three girls are talking about love, three sailors overhear and decide to pay a visit. The girls bar the door but the wind blows it open. They make a bed for the sailors who leave in the morning saying maidens will never regain their beauty. There is a short chorus following each line of the verses "Fantali for Julia, fantali for Julia." and a longer chorus which translates, roughly, "For a little goblin was with them, It was so lion-like, They walked holding candles, and then took a pinch of snuff. Oh tjohalia, seamen are so amusing.
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty sailor seduction
FOUND IN: Sweden
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 393-395, "Dar Gingo Tre Flickor" (2 texts-English & Swedish, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ane Madam" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fantali for Julia
NOTES [14 words]: There is a German version given in Baltzer's Knurrhahn, "Es Gingen Drei Madchen." - SL
File: Hug393

Dar'll Be No Distinction Dar

See There'll Be No Distinction There (File: CSW232)

Darahill

DESCRIPTION: "When I engaged to Darrahill, 'Twas low down in Buchan fair." The singer describes going to work for (Dara/Darra), whose horses are very poor and ill-fed. The workers aren't much better off. The singer looks forward to working for someone else
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming horse hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #133, pp. 1-2, "Darrahill"; #135, p. 3, "Darrahill"; #143, p. 2, "Darrahill" (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan3 351, "Darrahill" (6 texts, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 276-277, "Darrahill" (1 text)
Roud #3941
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Barnyards o Delgaty" (tune) and references there
NOTES [51 words]: Greig/Duncan3, re version D: "Got from James Mackenzie of Ellon in Johannesburg in 1890."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Darahill (351) is at coordinate (h2,v9-0) on that map [roughly 11 miles N of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord276

Darby and Joan

See Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)

Darby Jig

DESCRIPTION: "Darby, darby, jig, jig, jig, I've been to bed with a big, big wig! I went to France to learn to dance -- Darby, darby, jig, jig, jig."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad dancing clothes travel
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #67, "Darby Jig" (1 short text)
File: Newe067

Darby Kelly

DESCRIPTION: Grandfather Darby Kelly "beat a drum so neat" for Marlboro at Blenheim and Ramilie. His father drummed "when great Wolf died." The singer was with Wellington in Portugal and when "He made Nap prance right out of France"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 12(19))
KEYWORDS: army war nonballad patriotic Napoleon soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1701-1714 - War of the Spanish Succession, in which Marlborough was the chief English general for most of the war, commanding at the battles of:
Aug 13, 1704 - Battle of Blenheim. British/Imperial victory which saves Vienna.
May 23, 1706 - Battle of Ramillies. British and Imperials foil a French campaign to reinforce the Spanish Netherlands
1756-1763 - Seven Years War, in which the British captured Canada from the French, largely as a result of:
Sep 13, 1759 - Battle of the Plains of Abraham. James Wolfe attacks Quebec City; he is mortally wounded, but Canada is taken
1803-1815 - Napoleonic Wars. Many British officers commanded on land; the last and greatest was Wellington, who directed:
1808-1814 - the Peninsular War, which began as a campaign to defend Portugal and eventually became a war to liberate Spain
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo. Final defeat of Napoleon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 155, "Darby Kelly" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 158, "Darby Kelly" (1 text)
Roud #21859
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 12(19), "Darby Kelly", J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Johnson Ballads fol. 109, Harding B 16(67a), Johnson Ballads 1557, 2806 c.18(80), Harding B 11(793), Harding B 11(794), "Darby Kelly"; Harding B 28(63), "Darby Kelly, O"; Harding B 25(469), Harding B 11(696), "Darby Kelly, O!"
NOTES [148 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(696) notes provide the following military references for the grandfather, father, and singer, respectively: "Marlborough, John Churchill, Duke of, 1650-1722; Wolfe, James, 1727-1759; Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of, 1769-1852" - BS
Given that the earliest possible date for this song is 1814 (when Napoleon abdicated for the first time), and a date after Waterloo (1815) is more likely, it seems clear that the broadsides cited are the original publication of the song in this form. Obviously, from the dates, Darby Kelly was a drummer boy, not an actual soldier, in the War of the Spanish Succession. Nonetheless, the range of dates would better suit four or five generations than three; one wonders if there wasn't an intermediate version, in which perhaps the grandson fought in the American Revolutionary War rather than the Napoleonic Wars. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon155

Darby O'Leary

DESCRIPTION: The singer is hired by Darby O'Leary to work at his Galbally mountains farm. The supper is sour milk, the barn "covered with rats," terrible sleeping conditions: "such woeful starvation I never yet seen ... May he or his offspring never live long"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: farming work ordeal
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 110, "The Silly Old Miser" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 57, "The Galbally Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB110 (Partial)
Roud #6978
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "The Cranbally Farmer" (on Voice05)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(619), "The Spalpeen's Complaint of Darby O'Leary ("One evening of late as I happened to stray"), unknown, n.d.
NOTES [22 words]: Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(619) is the basis for the description. - BS
File: CrSNB110

Darby Ram, The

See The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Darby's Ram

See The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Dardanelles Patrol Song

DESCRIPTION: "Rolling and patrolling Outside the Dardanelles, Waiting for the Goeben So that we can test our shells. We went up to Chanak, But we very soon came back, Ain't it lovely rolling and patrolling?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: ship travel navy derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1914 - the British navy fails to stop the German ships Goeben and Breslau from fleeing to the Ottoman Empire
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 76, "Dardanelles Patrol Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roaming in the Gloaming" (tune)
NOTES [2965 words]: The beginning of World War I saw a tricky situation for the Germans in the Mediterranean. They had no bases there, although their Austrian allies had some. But the Germans had two ships in the area, the battlecruiser Goeben and the light cruiser Breslau. Even with Austrian support, they had no hope against the British and French forces in the area -- but they could potentially do a lot of damage if they could avoid interception and could manage to keep supplied (especially with coal and shells).
Adding to the complexity of the situation was the fact that there were other Mediterranean powers that were still neutral -- Italy, Spain, the Ottoman Empire, and lesser states. Both sides wanted to lure Italy, but she would hold off until 1915. Spain never did get involved. But the Ottoman Empire was a much more complex case. She had long ties with Britain -- but Britain was allied with Russia, and Russia was the long-time enemy of the Ottomans. Plus, in recent years, the Germans had been courting the Ottomans.
And the British definitely started the war on the wrong foot with the Ottomans. The Turks had placed orders with the British for two battleships, with many Turks taking pay cuts and making contributions to enable the ships to be built (Kinross, p. 604). They were dear to Turkish hearts, and they were almost finished. But as the war began, with the Turks about to take possession, the British (who were worried that they did not have an adequate edge in battleships over the German fleet) requisitioned them as HMS Agincourt and HMS Erin (Farquharson-Roberts, pp. 43-44; Palmer, p. 223), causing the Ottomans to become very upset.
The Goeben was still fairly new; she was one of the second group of German battlecruisers, and had been finished in late 1912 (Jane's-WWI, p. 108). With ten 11" guns, an armor belt that was 11" thick, and a nominal speed of 27-28 knots, she was potentially the strongest ship in the Mediterranean. But she wasn't really a credit to German engineering. Sent to the Mediterranean as one of Kaiser Wilhelm's blustery gestures before she had finished her shakedown period, her boilers were a disaster (Marder, pp. 20-21; van der Vat, p. 32) and her hull fouled (Wragg, p. 42). Apart from the badly-made boilers, she also had some problems typical of large German ships, which weren't intended to go much beyond the North Sea: she had a very limited coal supply (according to van der Vat, p. 40, her usual load would only last for 19 hours, or 520 miles, at top speed; even with a full load and low speed, she could manage only about 4000 miles. This was very short for a nominal "cruiser"). Van der Vat, p. 40, adds that she was only marginally habitable; German ships of this era tended to have their crews sleep ashore. And, being designed for northern waters, I suspect she was incredibly hot in warmer climes.
As for her consort the Breslau, she was fast, but with no gun larger than 4.1", she wouldn't scare anything bigger than a destroyer. She was fast, but effectively unarmored and extremely uncomfortable (van der Vat, p. 40; although her tonnage made her a very, very light cruiser, for practical purposes she was a long-range destroyer).
The British could counter the German battlecruiser with three, Inflexible, Infatigable, and Indomitable, all armed with 12" guns, heavier than Goeben's -- but they were the very first generation of British battlecruisers, with a speed of just 25 knots. Plus they were coal-burners that found it hard to keep up their top speed for long (Marder, p. 21). The Battle of Jutland would show that they also had significant weaknesses; no one knew that in 1914, but despite their slightly larger guns it was pretty clear that, individually, they were not superior to Goeben.
If it came to a battle, the Germans also had the better commander in the area; Marder, p. 21, calls German admiral Wilhelm Souchon "alert, energetic, imaginative," while writing off British admiral Sir Archibald Berkeley Milne, known as "Arky Barky," as "utterly lacking in vigour and imagination"; he apparently owed his position to court connections. Similarly, van der Vat, p. 37, says that Souchon was "far and away the best naval commander in the Mediterranean, the most professional, decisive and resolute admiral afloat there, whose quality was accentuated by the unusual capacity for under-achievement of those lined up against him." Whereas "Milne was born with a veritable canteen of silver cutlery in his mouth, in his father's official apartments in the Admiralty building" where the father was Admiral of the Fleet (van der Vat, p. 44). His failings were well known -- Admiral Fisher railed against him -- but somehow no one with power to remove him did anything about it.
So the British, if they were to knock out the Goeben, really needed to catch her with at least two battlecruisers. Could their cranky older ships catch up with the newer, faster, but broken-down German? That was the situation in the early days of August 1914, as everyone started to try to figure out their strategy for the war they had stumbled on.
Making things even more complicated was the breakdown of who was at war with whom. The war had started when the Habsburg Empire of Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Russia had declared war on the Habsburgs to protect Serbia. The Germans, committed to protect Austria-Hungary, then declared war on Russia -- and then, when France refused to promise neutrality, declared war on and invaded France. The attack on France involved invading neutral Belgium. That caused Britain to issue an ultimatum to Germany to get out of Belgium (Kinross, pp. 602-603). But, in the early days of August, Britain wasn't at war with Austria-Hungary at all (Farquharson-Roberts, p. 43) -- and technically wasn't even at war with Germany; the British would not be at war until the ultimatum expired at the end of August 4, 1914.
The first major Mediterranean operation came as the French set out to move an army corps from North Africa to France (Farquharson-Roberts, p. 44). The Germans of course hoped to interfere, and the British wanted to prevent them from interfering. The Goeben reached the shore of Africa on August 4 -- some hours before the British joined the war -- and fired a few shots before turning away (Wragg, p. 44). The French very possibly might have dealt with the German force, but they showed a lack of initiative that put even the British to shame, and accomplished nothing (the map in the endpapers of van der Vat shows how they all ended up east of the Germans, and they didn't have speed to catch up.)
The Admiralty, under Winston Churchill, was determined to push Milne into action -- and issued him so many orders that it flatly overwhelmed and confused him (Farquharson-Roberts, p. 45; Marder, p.22, especially points to an order not to fight the Germans in the absence of the French). The British actually found Souchon briefly as he withdrew from Africa, but the British ultimatum hadn't quite expired yet, so they didn't open fire (Wragg, p. 44), and couldn't keep up as Souchon went to Messina on August 5 to coal up (Farquharson-Roberts, p. 46; Marder, p. 23).
Because coaling took time, the British could have caught Souchon coming out of the Straits of Messina, but Milne blew his chance; he concentrated on covering the French convoy rather than chasing the Goeben (Marder, p. 24), which was silly -- if he took out the Goeben, then there weren't any ships to attack the convoy! By so doing, Milne abandoned any hopes of confronting Goeben with the battlecruisers that were designed to do the job.
One small cruiser, the Gloucester, however managed to trail the Goeben for a great distance, until Milne ordered her to break off (Marder, p. 29), so the British knew where the enemy was for the two days from August 5 to August 7.
There was still a force in position to intercept Souchon, but it wasn't the British battlecruisers; it was four older "armoured" cruisers, Defence, Warrior, Black Prince, and Duke of Edinburgh, who were around the mouth of the Adriatic (Farquharson-Roberts, p. 46) under the command of Admiral Ernest Troubridge. Defence, the newest (laid down in 1905, which still meant she was almost obsolete) had four 9.2" guns and a bunch of 7.5"; the others, built in 1903 and 1904, had six 9.2" each plus lesser guns (Jane's-WWI, pp. 51-52). But many of the guns were badly sited, and the ships were all slower than Goeben.
The cruisers' guns were too light to pierce Goeben's armored belt, but with luck might do enough damage to other parts of her hull that the heavier British ships might catch her. Particularly since Goeben, which apparently did not have a full wartime complement aboard, had so many men stoking her cranky boilers that she was having trouble manning the guns and other equipment (van der Vat, p. 99).
There has been much debate ever since over whether the four cruisers would have had a chance against Goeben. In a straight-up line-ahead daylight fight against a Goeben with intact boilers and a full supply of coal and sheels, I think the consensus is that they probably wouldn't, but if they had split their forces and let their accompanying destroyers use their torpedoes, they might have been able to make a fight of it, especially if the battle took place at night (since they would be harder to hit in the dark, and their many light guns might give more of an advantage relative to the Goeben's few but heavy guns). Given that the British cruisers were close to obsolete, and wouldn't have been much of a loss if they were destroyed, it might have been worth a try; Farquharson-Roberts, p. 47, for instance, suggests that the British "might have had a significant chance of victory." The British court which examined the matter also felt Troubridge might have won (Marder, p. 33). And Marder, p. 29, points out that Souchon's ships had limited coal and ammunition. The former limited their ability to maneuver; the latter meant that they might well run out of shells before they could deal with all the British ships.
But Admiral Troubridge (a descendent of one of Nelson's captains, but certainly not a man possessed of the Nelson spirit) did not try; he withdrew in the face of what he considered superior force, arguing that the Goeben outranged him (Marder, p. 27) -- which was true, but ignored the fact that guns often miss, especially at long range (for that matter, it ignores that he could have tried to ram); Troubridge could certainly have gotten into range to fight had he wanted to. He didn't. He was court-martialed and acquitted, but his sea career was over (Farquharson-Roberts, p. 47. Van der Vat, p. 151, thinks that the Admiralty wanted to try him on a charge of cowardice, which could have resulted in his execution, but the prosecutor stood up to him and resisted. But the whole set-up was biased by the unfair preliminary examination described on pp. 132-150 of van der Vat. It is certain that Troubridge had asked Milne under what circumstances he should engage the Germans, and gotten no answer, and of course that the Admiralty had given many conflicting orders; clearly Troubridge was sinned against as well as sinning). The Navy continued to employ him, but Marder, p. 36, thinks that they didn't want to admit that they disagreed with his acquittal by the court; they would have dropped him if they could. The ultimate fault, Marder contends on pp. 39-41, was the Admiralty's confused, confusing, and ever-changing orders. The captain of Troubridge's flagship, Fawcet Wray, who had urged an agonized Troubridge to caution, also suffered for his lack of determination (van der Vat, pp. 86-88), though without facing a court (van der Vat, p. 172).
The British still had one more chance. Souchon hadn't managed to get a full load of coal in Messina; on August 9, he had to stop at the island of Denusa, not far from the southern Ottoman coast (Marder, p. 30). This gave Milne and his battlecruisers another chance to catch up. But a staff snarl-up caused an order to be sent to Milne telling him to go off and fight the Austrians (even though the British would not go to war with the Habsburg Empire for another four days; van der Vat, p. 91). The last chance was gone.
On August 10, the Goeben and the Breslau reached the Dardanelles and safety (Palmer, p. 224), since the Ottomans were still neutral. And the Germans had another trick in their bag: They promptly "sold" the ship to the Ottomans to replace the battleships the British had requisitioned. "Sold," as in, the ships took down their German flags and raised Turkish ones (Palmer, p. 225) and started to be known as Yavuz Sultan Selim (the Goeben) and Midilli (the Breslau) The Ottomans declared that they "were to take the place of the two ships of which perfidious Britain had robbed her" (Kinross, p. 604).
The ships had changed their names, but not their crews (although they started to wear fezes); they were still, for practical purposes, German warships. And the Germans got another benefit: the Turks had no naval tradition, so they had been in the habit of seconding foreign admirals as their own naval commander. And so Admiral Souchon became head of the Turkish navy, replacing British Admiral Limpus (Palmer, p. 225). Which meant that, as soon as the Ottomans joined the war, Souchon was able to do whatever he wanted with his ships, just as if he had been still serving Germany! And the mere fact that the Ottomans now had German ships in their command inevitably pushed them toward the German side -- indeed, Marder, p. 41, thinks it was the decisive factor in causing the Ottomans to join the Central Powers -- though the two nations had actually already formed an alliance (van der Vat, p. 28); it would probably be more correct to say that it forced the Ottomans to admit that they were on the German side.
The result in a way resembled a siege: Milne left the Mediterranean on August 18, but he left two of his battlecruisers to watch the straits (Marder, p. 31). The Goeben couldn't come out of the Dardanelles (at least on the Mediterranean side; she was free to go into the Black Sea, and did, attacking Sebastopol in October; van der Vat, p. 11), but the British couldn't stop blockading the strait, lest she come out. Hence this song, telling of the monotonous British blockade the German ship inspired. She had no real effect on the further course of the war, but in her role as a "fleet in being," she certainly influenced the planning of the Dardanelles campaign of 1915.
Milne expected to get a higher command on going home, but was disappointed; the Admiralty canceled his appointment -- in effect, relieving him. They retired him in 1921, without giving him another substantial command (Marder, p. 31-32) -- although, unlike Troubridge, he did not face a court.
Van der Vat devotes dozens of pages to the court cases and studies, and is surprisingly sympathetic to Troubridge -- he thinks the Admiralty's constant contradictions and Milne's slow and unhelpful orders left Troubridge to make decisions he should not have had to make. And he believes that Troubridge's conclusion -- that he had been ordered to avoid a fight with a superior force, and that the Goeben was probably a superior force -- was reasonable. His conclusion on p. 179, though, is "We may legitimately conclude that Milne was in fact as much to blame as Troubridge and the Admiralty. But when all is said and done there is no escape from the judgment that Rear-Admiral Ernest Troubridge should have had a go."
And if Troubridge had had a go, there might have been no reason for this song to be written.
The French also conducted an investigation, years later (discussed on pp. 123-131 of van der Vat); it was never even published, since both the French admiral and the French Minister of Marine were long since gone. Based on what we know of it, it seems to have been scathing, but it made no difference; the French navy had had its one real chance to do something useful in the war, and blown it; it would not have another.
The German ships didn't ever face the British or French again, but they did go out to face the Russians -- attacking the Russians while pretending to be attacked, based on an order that hadn't been approved by the Ottoman government. Since this involved the Russians with the Ottomans, it pushed the Ottomans to give up their neutrality and join the Central Powers (van der Vat, pp. 187-190). It's not often that two ships can change the course of a World War. Considering how severe were British losses in the Dardanelles and other battles with the Turks, it was a true coup for the Germans.
The British quest to catch the Goeben/Yavuz ultimately accomplished absolutely nothing. The German ships mostly stayed in the Dardanelles, not making any attempts to fight the British. In January 1918, they made a small sally, and fought a few British ships, sinking two monitors (van der Vat, pp. 220-224) -- but both German ships hit mines, and the Breslau sank as a result (van der Vat, pp. 225-226). The Yavuz, which wasn't as hard-hit, survived the war. When the Ottoman Empire fell, the new Turkish state was able to keep her -- indeed, when Kemal Atatürk, the founder of Turkey, died, she carried him to his last resting place (van der Vat, p. 232). She survived World War II, too, and was not finally scrapped until the 1970s (Worth, p. 271). I believe this made her the last battlecruiser -- certainly the last German battlecruiser, and the last World War I battlecruiser -- in service.
Marder, Map 2, shows the Goeben's peregrinations, and van der Vat's endpapers show the movements of the various ships chasing her. . - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Tawn058

Dare to Be a Daniel

DESCRIPTION: "Standing by a purpose true, Heeding God's command, Honor them, the faithful few! All hail to Daniel's Band!" "Dare to be a Daniel! Dare to stand alone! Dare to have a purpose firm! Dare to make it known!" Evil cannot stand against Daniel's Band
AUTHOR: Philip P. Bliss (1838-1876) (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (according to hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious | Daniel
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 109, "Dare to be a Daniel" (1 fragment)
Roud #25352
NOTES [58 words]: For more on Philip Paul Bliss, see the notes to "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning."
Daniel's Band, one suspects, is the three Hebrew Children saved from the fiery furnace in chapter 3 of the Book of Daniel; Daniel stood alone against the secular power in Daniel 6. The four are all tested together by a command to eat the royal rations in Daniel 1. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC109C

Dargason

See see under The Hawthorn Green (File: LyCr104)

Darger Lad, The

See I'm a Stranger in this Country (The Darger Lad) (File: RcIASITC)

Darius Cole and Mackinac, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the eighteenth of December, The weather it was far, The Darius Cole and Mackinac were crossing Lake St. Clair." The Darius Cole boats of being able to beat the Mackinac's time. They have a race
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from J. Sylvester Ray by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship racing
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 110-111, "The Darius Cole and Mackinac"(1 short text, composite but lacking any indication of which boat won the race)
Roud #19844
File: WGM110

Dark and a Rovin' Eye, A

See The Fire Ship (File: EM068)

Dark and Dreary Weather

DESCRIPTION: "It's dark and dreary weather, Almost inclined to rain, My heart is almost broken, My lover has gone on the train!" The singer wonders why she loves him so much, and he loves her not at all. "Some say that love is a pleasure; What pleasure do I see?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921
KEYWORDS: love courting separation train suicide floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 750, "Dark and Dreary Weather" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 168, "Dreary Weather" (1 text)
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 135-136, "Some Say That Love Is a Blessing (How Old Fashioned of Them After All" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 165-167, "I Don't Know Why I Love Him" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6527
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Dark and Stormy Weather" (Bluebird B-8868, 1941)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Dark and Stormy Weather" (NLCR14)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (stanza form, floating lyrics)
cf. "Goodnight Irene" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Boys Won't Do to Trust" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dark and Stormy Weather
NOTES [107 words]: Many of Randolph's versions consist of more floating lyrics than anything else (including even the "jump into the river and drown" stanza best known from "Goodnight Irene"). The net result reminds me strongly of "Farewell He" -- but there seems to be no actual dependence, though the form of the verses is the same. Roud apparently agrees, since he splits the songs.
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe give only a short text, claiming "There are more unprintable verses to this song than any other on record." It is not absolutely clear that it is the same song. But it has all the characteristics of this song, or at least of this type. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: R750

Dark and Stormy Night

See The Banks of Claudy [Laws N40] (File: LN40)

Dark and Thorny is the Desert

DESCRIPTION: "Dark and thorny is the desert, Through which pilgrims make their way; But beyond this vale of sorrows Lie the fields of endless day." Difficulties on the way to heaven are described, but the pleasures of arrival are emphasized
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (Lexington Collection, 2nd Edition, according to hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: nonballad travel religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 767, "Thorny Desert" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #110, "Dark is the Desert" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [100 words]: Apparently well-known in shape note hymnals, but less popular now, perhaps because it has a rather militant feel. Some versions take the tune "Regent Square," but this is apparently not universal -- hymnary.org shows it sung to "Bavaria," "Regent Square," "Hark, I Hear Hope Sweetly Singing," and a raft of tunes used in only one or two sources. It would seem that one of the earliest, if not the earliest, appearance was in the Southern Harmony, but I'm not sure which edition. It looks as if it was most popular around the 1830s. It appears in some shape note hymns under the title "Conquest." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BrS5767

Dark as a Dungeon

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you young fellows so young and so fine, And seek not your fortune in a dark dreary mine." The singer describes how a miner's life slowly kills a man, twisting his soul and turning his blood black. He hopes to turn to coal when he dies
AUTHOR: Merle Travis
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (recorded by author)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes poverty mining death warning
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 155, "Dark as a Dungeon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 729, "Dark as a Dungeon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 172, "Dark as a Dungeon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Green-OnlyAMiner-RecordedCoalMiningSongs, pp. 279-281, "Two by Travis": p. 284, "Dark as a Dungeon" (1 text, 1 tune); additional verse on p. 290
DT, DARKDUNG
Roud #6392
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Gore, "Dark as a Dungeon" (King 4879, c. 1957)
Grandpa Jones, "Dark as a Dungeon" (King 896, 1950)
Maddox Bros. & Rose, "Dark as a Dungeon" (4-Star 1540, 1956)
Pete Seeger w. Robert DeCormier, "Dark as a Dungeon" (on HootenannyTonight)
Merle Travis, "Dark as a Dungeon" (Capitol 48001, 1947; on 78 album "Folk Songs of the Hills", Capitol AD 50; rec. 1946)
Guy Wolff, "Dark as a Dungeon" (Piotr-Archive #439, recorded 01/08/2023)
File: LoF155

Dark Blue Eyes and Raven Hair

See The Broken Engagement (I -- She Was Standing By Her Window) (File: R771)

Dark British Foes, The

See Edwin and Mary (File: ChFRA065)

Dark Day

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Dark day, dark day, Sinner you're missing your way, Dark day." "Shout by and by when I get home." "'Round my Father, scattering thrones." "One of these days about twelve o'clock This old world gonna reel and rock."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (LomaxCD1708)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #17298
RECORDINGS:
Silver Leaf Quartet, "Dark Day" (on LomaxCD1708)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep" (floating lyrics)
File: RcDarkDa

Dark Girl Dressed in Blue, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a "dark girl dressed in blue" on a stagecoach. She fools him into paying her fare. They go to a bar. She hands him a banknote to pay their bill. She leaves; he is arrested for passing a bad bill. He is freed but forced to pay the bill
AUTHOR: Harry Clifton?
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: money courting trick clothes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 388, "The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue" (1 text plus a fragment)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 76-78, "The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp. 47-49, "The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #424, p. 28, "The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue" (1 reference)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 55, "The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R388 (Full)
Roud #7022
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(073), "The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue," unknown, c. 1860; also RB.m.168(133)
NOTES [108 words]: The authorship here is an interesting question. It is not unlikely that the American versions derive from Harry Clifton, who was apparently the source of the 1868 sheet music. This was sung by Tony Pastor.
But then there is the Scottish broadside, dated 1850-1870. It is undeniably the same song (same plot, same chorus, many of the same words). But it is set in Glasgow rather than New York, the vehicle is an omnibus rather than a stagecoach, etc. More significant, the woman is caught in the end, with a "reversible dress." Original or derivative? I could argue for either; each text has parts which appear to have been excised from the other. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: R388

Dark Girl of the Valley, The

DESCRIPTION: "Upon the mountain brow I herd a lowing cow," but as he works, he cries for the Dark Girl. He is poor. He might get a wife in Leinster or Munster. But the Dark Girl of the Valley exceeds them all; even the "moon does obeisance with love to her"
AUTHOR: Translated by Douglas Hyde?
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Hyde, Abhráin grádh chúige Connacht)
KEYWORDS: love poverty
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 284-285, "The Dark Girl of the Valley" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Douglas Hyde, _Abhráin grádh chúige Connacht, or, Love songs of Connacht_, T. F. Unwin, 1905 (available on Google Books), p. 115, "The Dark Girl of the Valley" (1 text, apparently with an Irish original)
Roud #15016
NOTES [53 words]: For the curious relationship between this and "My Own Dark Maiden," both printed by Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, see the notes to "My Own Dark Maiden." There is much reason to doubt that either one is traditional.
For background on the work of Douglas Hyde, again see the notes to "My Own Dark Maiden." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe284

Dark Hollow (II), The

See Little Birdie (File: R676)

Dark Hollow Blues

See East Virginia (Dark Hollow) (File: JRSF134)

Dark is the Desert

See Dark and Thorny Is the Desert (File: BrS5767)

Dark Island

See East Virginia (Dark Hollow) (File: JRSF134)

Dark Knight, The

DESCRIPTION: The knight courts "a lass all neat and fair" and takes her home, where she bears him six(?) sons and three daughters. He then kills the children. "She did not live another dawn," whereupon he seeks another bride
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: homicide family madness children knight husband wife
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 59, "The Dark Knight" (1 text)
ST BrII059 (Full)
Roud #6526
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lawson Murder (Charlie Lawson)" [Laws F35] (plot)
NOTES [67 words]: The notes in Brown show some signs of suspicion of this piece, found in the collection but with no indication of source; it also has some Scottish word forms they find unlikely. But it also shows clear signs of tradition.
There is also the question of source. The editors thought the story sounded familiar -- but couldn't locate it. I find the very lyrics familiar -- but I can't locate it either. - RBW
File: BrII059

Dark Moll of the Valley

DESCRIPTION: "My heart loves to dally With Dark Moll of the valley, No blame nor shame she had ever." Men from all over seek her. He would choose no other. He will call on her soon; "Far better than be here, Under grief, under fear, in Erin"
AUTHOR: Translated by Douglas Hyde
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Hyde, Abhráin grádh chúige Connacht)
KEYWORDS: love courting travel drink
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 287-288, "Dark Moll of the Valley" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Douglas Hyde, _Abhráin grádh chúige Connacht, or, Love songs of Connacht_, T. F. Unwin, 1893 (available on Google Books), p. 109, "Dark Moll of the Valley" (1 text, apparently with an Irish original)
NOTES [14 words]: For background on the work of Douglas Hyde, see the notes to "My Own Dark Maiden." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe287

Dark Scenes of Winter

See The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter [Laws H12] (File: LH12)

Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground

DESCRIPTION: "Dark was the night and cold was the ground On which the Lord was laid; The sweat like drops of blood run down; In agony he prayed." Jesus asks to be released from his burden, but submits to God's will; listeners are advised to learn from him
AUTHOR: Thomas Haweis (1732-1820) (Source: John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology)
EARLIEST DATE: 1792 (Carmina Christo) (Source: Julian)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus Bible death ordeal request
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 526, "Dark Was the Night" (3 texts, though the "C" text, which is rather short, might be another song)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 526, "Dark Was the Night" (notes only; recording missing)
Roud #11819
RECORDINGS:
John & Lovie Griffins, "Dark Was the Night, and Cold the Ground" (on MuSouth07)
Mahaliah Jackson, "Dark Was the Night Cold the Ground" (on "Moving On Up a Little Higher," Shanachie CD SHA-6066 (2016))
Blind Willie Johnson, "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was on the Ground" (on USChartersHeroes;on AAFM1; "Dark Was The Night - Cold Was The Ground" (Columbia 14303-D, 1927)
Lucy McKeever, "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" (on AFS 921 B, 1937)
Mary Price, "Dark Was the Night" (on MuSouth07)
Charlotte Rucell and Rev. Lewis Jackson, "Dark Was the Night" (on MuSouth07)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Frankie and Albert" [Laws I3] (lyrics)
cf. "My Soul Wants Something That's New" (first verse from Haweis)
cf. "I Won't Turn Back" (verse)
NOTES [600 words]: The song appears in the Baptist Standard Hymnal (but not the New National Baptist Hymnal) as "Dark Was the Night" with arrangers' names listed, but no author. The song passed into folk tradition, and the title seems to have caught the imagination as well; the phrase appears in Mississippi John Hurt's recording of "Frankie and Albert" (!) and it's also used as the title of an extraordinary recording of slide guitar and wordless moaning by Blind Willie Johnson. - PJS
Lining Out Black Hymns
By lining out is meant the style in which a precentor or deacon calls out the words of one or two lines of a hymn and the congregation sings those lines before the next line or two are called. The style is called "Dr Watts" because some of the hymns still sung in the style were written by Isaac Watts.
While the calling out is rapid-fire the congregational singing is slow with many notes to each syllable. At some point the precentor may initiate moaning by the congregation. For a good example of this "old" style--with lining out and moaning--contrasted to the "new" style of hymn singing listen to Rev. Willie Mae Eberhart, Sister Fleeta Mitchell and Eddie Ruth Pringle, "A Charge to Keep I Have" on "Dust-to-Digital" CD DTD-12, various artists, "Art of Field Recording, Vol. 2" (2008).
The recordings of "Dark Was the Night..." listed here illustrate the lined out and moaning styles of hymn singing. Even on the solo recordings of Mary Price and Mahalia Jackson, the soloist calls out the lines and then sings them as the congregation would (The first line of the first verse is often not lined out since -- the assumption is -- the first line(s) have already been announced as the hymn to be sung next). The wordless Blind Willie Johnson recording of moaning is in this style of hymn singing. (The Lucy McKeever recording, which I was not able to download from the Library of Congress site -- may be an exception to this hymn singing style.)
William T Dargan's Lining Out the Word -- subtitle "Dr Watts Hymn singing in the music of Black Americans" -- is the book to read if you want to know more about this style of hymn singing. For moaning in hymn singing see pages 36-39 and 60. - BS
The request that God remove the cup from Jesus is found in all four Gospels (Matt. 26:42, Mark 14:26, Luke 22:42, cf. John 12:27). The main source, however, is probably Luke, because only Luke includes the bloody sweat.
At least, the King James translation does.
The reference is to Luke 22:43-44 -- verses which, however, are likely not part of Luke's original Greek text; of the earliest seven Greek witnesses, six -- those known as P75 ℵ(1) A B T W -- omit, as do some later witnesses of great weight (the earliest witnesses to include it are those known as ℵ* and D; it is also found in most of the early Latin translations, and may well have originated in Latin rather than Greek). Also, Jesus's prayer before his arrest is said to have taken place in a garden in John 18:1, but Gethsemane is not called a garden in the other three gospels -- and in John, Jesus had prayed for release from his fate rather earlier.
Incidentally, although Jesus was arrested at night, there is no reason to think the night was unusually dark (it was Passover time, after all, and Passover is a full moon festival); we have reports of darkness as Jesus died, but not at the time of his arrest, and there are no reports of bad weather at the time (not that that inherently means anything, of course). It reportedly was chilly, though, since Peter would warm his hands during the night (Mark 14:67, John 18:18). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Br3526

Dark-Clothed Gypsy, The

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Dark-Eyed Canaller

See The Dark-Eyed Sailor (Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor) [Laws N35] (File: LN35)

Dark-Eyed Gypsy, The

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Dark-Eyed Molly

See Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)

Dark-Eyed Sailor, The (Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor) [Laws N35]

DESCRIPTION: The singer courts a girl, but she remains true to William, her sailor, gone these seven years. William at last identifies himself and produces his half of their broken ring. The two are married and settle down
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1809 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 2483)
KEYWORDS: love courting brokentoken marriage
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(Lond,South,West)) Ireland
REFERENCES (42 citations):
Laws N35, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor (Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor)"
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 57, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text plus 1 excerpt and mention of 2 more, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 218-219, "Dark-Eyed Canaller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 14, "The Dark Eyed Sailor" (1 text)
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 108-110, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text, very damaged, plus a reprint of a Forth broadside)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 236, "Fair Phoebe and Her Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 36-38, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman pp. 300-301, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H232, p. 318, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 93, "The Broken Ring" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 120-122, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #112, p. 2, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1037, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 323-324, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 409, "Phoebe and Her Dark Eyed Sailor"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 609, "Twas of a Comely Young Lady Fair" (2 texts)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 30-31, "Fair Phoebe And Her Dark-Ey'd Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 40-41, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, "The Dark-eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 69, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #44, "The Broken Token" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #68, "Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 95, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text (with mention of a variant collection) plus 1 excerpt)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 95, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 267-270, "Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor" (3 texts; the first, "Young Willie's Return, or The Token," with tune on pp. 426-427, is this song; the second, "The Sailor," with tune on p. 427, is "John (George) Riley (II)" Laws N37; the third, "Billy Ma Hone," with tune on p. 427, seems to be its own song)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 26, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 12, "The Dark Eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 144-146, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" ( 2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 29, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 36, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 513-514, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 55, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 107-110, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 27, "The Dark-eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 64, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 9, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 93-94,244, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 65, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 5, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #71, "Fair Phoeby and Her Dark Eyed Sailor" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 125-126, "The Dark Eyed Sailor" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 147, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (1 text)
DT 460, DARKEYED* DARKEYE2
Roud #265
RECORDINGS:
M. Curran, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Charlotte Decker, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Warde Ford, "Nightingales of Spring" (AFS 4198 A1, 1938; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Mrs. T. Ghaney, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Fred Jordan, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (on Voice02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 2483, "Fair Phoebe and her Dark-ey'd Sailor," unknown [Printer's Series:(39)], 1767-1808; also Harding B 11(498), "Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; Harding B 11(499), Johnson Ballads 452, Firth c.18(141), Harding B 15(99a), Harding B 11(1120), Firth c.12(261), Harding B 11(1119), Harding B 11(3030), Harding B 16(84b), "Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor"; Firth c.17(53), Harding B 11(2824), Firth b.27(475), "Fair Phoebe and her Dark-ey'd Sailor"; Harding B 16(326b), "Fair Phoebe and her Dark Eyed Sailor"; Firth b.25(142), Harding B 15(98b), "Fair Phoebe and her Dark Ey'd Sailor"; Harding B 11(3493), Johnson Ballads 1837, "Fair Phoebe, and the Dark-Eye'd Sailor"; Firth b.25(193), "Fair Phoebe and the Dark-Eyed sailor"; Harding B 15(99b), "Fair Phoeby and Her Dark Eyed Sailor"; Harding B 18(114), "Dark Ey'd Sailor" ("'Tis of a comely young lady, fair")
LOCSinging, as102640, "Dark Ey'd Sailor," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also sb10077b, "Dark Ey'd Sailor"
Murray, Mu23-y1:016, "The Dark-Eyed Sailor," R. M'Intosh (Calton), 19C; also Mu23-y1:102, "Fair Phoebe And Her Dark-Eyed Sailor," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
cf. "The Lovely Cottage Maid (The Cottage Maid)" (plot, themes)
cf. "Brave Wolfe" [Laws A1] and references there (tune)
cf. "The Female Smuggler" (tune, per broadsides Bodleian Johnson Ballads 2483, Bodleian Harding B 11(498), Bodleian Harding B 11(499))
NOTES [140 words]: Ford sings this to the tune usually associated with "The Blacksmith," which -- so far as I know -- hasn't been otherwise collected outside Britain except as "Brave Wolfe." - PJS
Lines shared with The Banks of Sweet Primroses: Young girl's be true while your love's at sea, For a dark cloudy morning Brings forth a pleasant day."
Broadside LOCSinging as102640: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario, p. 166, declares that, in North America, this was the most popular broken-token ballad other than "The Sailor's Return" (i.e. "Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token)" [Laws N42]) and adds that "in Britain it was an even greater favorite." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LN35

Dark-Haired Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer and a comrade go rambling on July 20, (18)39. They see a girl, whose beauty he praises extravagantly. He promises to be true to her. Though she is a servant and he is rich, "a pretty curl Will be all I want as dower from my dark-haired girl."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rambling beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H559, p. 237, "The Dark-Haired Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9471
File: HHH559

Dark-Haired Jimmy Owen

See Seimidh Eoghainin Duibh (Dark-Haired Jimmy Owen) (File: K046)

Dark-Skinned Davey

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Darkey Sunday School, The

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Darkie Sunday School

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Darky School Song

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Darky Sunday School, The

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Darlin' (I)

DESCRIPTION: "If I'd a-known my captain was blind, darlin', darlin'... Wouldna gone to work till half past nine." The captain and the worker quarrel; the captain won't tell the time, and will throw him in jail if he argues. The singer wishes he had listened to mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: prison work hardtimes chaingang floatingverses
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 68, "Darlin'" (1 text)
DT, DARLNCAP
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pay Me My Money Down" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [36 words]: Every word of this song floats -- so much so that I was tempted to list it as a variant of some other song. But the form is unique. It is probably someone's rework, but it's hard to tell what the "original" was. - RBW
File: FSWB068

Darlin' (II)

See New River Train (File: AF073)

Darlin' Cory

See Darling Corey (File: LxU087)

Darlin' Why You Treat Me So?

DESCRIPTION: "... oh hello darling I still love you just the same ... you left me for another guy." "Why do you treat me so?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (USMississippi01)
KEYWORDS: love rejection nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Leland musician, "Darlin' Why You Treat Me So?" (on USMississippi01)
NOTES [47 words]: The USMIssissippi01 track was apparently written by the singer. In the 1950s doo wop style the verse lines use a I-VI(m)-IV-V chord progression which the singer follows here; for a popular 1950s example listen to The Five Satins' "In the Still of the Night" (Ember E-1005, 1956). - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcDWYTMS

Darlin' You Can't Have One

See New River Train (File: AF073)

Darling Black Head

DESCRIPTION: "The women of this village are in madness and trouble, Pulling their hair and letting it go with the wind," unless they go to fight (for or against) the king. The singers asks "Black Head, darling, move over to me."
AUTHOR: Translated by Douglas Hyde
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Hyde, Abhráin grádh chúige Connacht)
KEYWORDS: love hair soldier
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 286-287, "Darling Black Head" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Douglas Hyde, _Abhráin grádh chúige Connacht, or, Love songs of Connacht_, T. F. Unwin, 1893 (available on Google Books), p. 63, "Darling Black Head" (1 text, apparently with an Irish original)
Roud #15018
NOTES [14 words]: For background on the work of Douglas Hyde, see the notes to "My Own Dark Maiden." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe286

Darling Black Mustache, The

See The Black Mustache (File: CW180A)

Darling Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "love is the occasion of my down fall ... I have lost my love fighting for sweet liberty." She denies he left her pregnant: "he loves me too well for to serve me so." She wishes she could fly to him and will welcome him home with kisses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.18(125))
KEYWORDS: love war separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 47, "I Wish I Had Never Known" (1 text)
Roud #1452
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.18(125), "The Darling Boy" ("I wish I had ne'er known no one at all"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 25(473), "The Darling Boy"; Johnson Ballads 1519 [or 1520][both almost entirely illegible unless read using one of "The Darling Boy" broadsides as an aid], "I Wish I Had Never Lov'd No One at All. A new song" ("I wish I had never lov'd no one at all"), S.B. Clouter (Bristol), no date, "Performer: Brown, R".
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Wish I Had Never Loved No One at All
I Wish I Had Never Seen No Man at All
NOTES [114 words]: Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople ends on a different note: "Well some do wear spencers and I don't wear none And they that don't let me can leave me alone He'll have me or leave me and so let me go For I don't care a straw if he have me or no." This may have floated to or from "Love Me or No." "Spencer" is "[after George John, 2d Earl Spencer 1834 Eng. politician] ... 2: a woman's fitted jacket of waist length or shorter" (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976). [I have one reference to "spencers" from 1813: J.P. Malcolm, An Historical Sketch of the Art of Caricaturing (London, 1813 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 146] - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: ReSh047

Darling Chloe

See Darling Cloe (File: Brne117)

Darling Cloe

DESCRIPTION: "In the old Carolina state, where the sweet magnolias bloom... There is one I long to see, She was ever true to me, And like mine I know her hair is turned to snow.... I'm going home to see my darling Clo/Cloe/Chloe."
AUTHOR: Words: Samuel N. Mitchell / Music: William A. Huntley (source: sheet mus9c(
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love separation age
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 117, "Darling Cloe" (2 texts, 1 tune, both from the same informant, one from manuscript and one from memory)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 266-267, "Darling Chloe" (1 short text)
Roud #11390
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "In the Old Carolina State" (Vocalion 5005)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I'm Going Home to Clo'
NOTES [43 words]: The various singers evidently tried to rationalize the name of this, but Jim Dixon located a copy of the sheet music which makes it clear that the title was "I'm Going Home to Clo'." Browne thought it of minstrel origin, and obviously it sounds like it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Brne117

Darling Cora

See Darling Corey (File: LxU087)

Darling Corey

DESCRIPTION: "Wake up, wake up, darling Corey, what makes you sleep so sound? The revenue officers are coming, Gonna tear your still-house down." The singer describes Corey's wild career as a moonshiner, and (dreams of) her death and burial
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: drink police death burial dream
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 134-135, "Little Cora" (1 text, an unusually full version though with several floating verses)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 152, "The Gambling Man" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes, but only the "B" text is this song; the "A" fragment is "I Wonder Where's the Gambler")
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 39, "Little Cory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #58, Darlin' Cory (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 93-95, "Darling Corie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 36-37, "Darlin' Cory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 19-21, "Darling Cora" (1 text, 1 tune, with a mix of verses about Cora and Lulu)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 87, "Darlin' Corey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 302-303, "Dariling Corey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 135, "Dig a Hole in the Meadow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 173, "Darlin' Corrie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 734, "Darling Cory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 73, "Darlin' Corey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 193, "Darlin' Corey" (1 text)
DT, DARLCORY
Roud #5723
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "Little Cory" (on LEnglish01)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Darlin Corey" (on Holcomb2, HolcombCD1)
Buell Kazee, "Darling Cora" (Brunswick 154, 1927); "Darling Corey" [fragment] (on Kazee01)
Pleaz Mobley, "Darling Cory" (AFS; on AAFS 69, LC14)
Monroe Brothers, "Darling Corey" (Bluebird B-6512, 1936; Victor 27493, 1941)
Pete Seeger, "Darling Corey" (on PeteSeeger02, PeteSeegerCD01)
B. F. Shelton, "Darling Cora" (Victor 35838, 1927; on ConstSor1)
Jack Wallin, "Darling Cora" (on Wallins1)
Doc Watson, Gaither Carlton & Arnold Watson, "Darling Corey" (on Watsons01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Maggie" (words)
cf. "Country Blues" (words)
cf. "Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind" (floating phrase)
File: LxU087

Darling Corie

See Darling Corey (File: LxU087)

Darling Cory

See Darling Corey (File: LxU087)

Darling Grace

DESCRIPTION: "Oh darling Grace, I love your face, I love you in your nightie" -- because he is impressed with her anatomy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad clothes beauty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 15, "Darling Grace" (1 text)
Roud #10309
File: RugS015A

Darling If You Must Leave

DESCRIPTION: Singer says that if his lover leaves she will hurt him. But he will keep traveling until he finds someone else. When she sees how cruel the world can be she'll be sorry she left. By then "I'll have someone else on my mind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (recording, Ted Taylor)
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection warning nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Walter Lee Hood, "Darling If You Must Leave" (on USMississippi01)
Ted Taylor, "Darling If You Must Leave" (Dade 45-5000, 1963)
NOTES [45 words]: Ted Taylor's "Darling If You Must Leave" is an R&B track. Walter Lee Hood's a cappella track swaps the unrhymed lines of Ted Taylor's verses without changing the meaning. Walter Lee Hood's tune is close to a chant and Ted Taylor's is not much more musical than that. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcDaIYML

Darling Johnny O (I)

DESCRIPTION: "My Johnny signed on board the Dragon, Bound for some place I don't know, But true it is I have had no letter." His color as been changed in a water grave. She will seek him. She steals away from home; her parents will never know if she finds him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: love sailor separation father mother travel
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 28, "Darling Johnny O" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 19 in the 1972 edition)
NOTES [110 words]: Colquhoun's notes connect this to "The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father" [Child 248]. If it is based on anything, it is rather "The Sailor Boy (I)" [Laws K12]; both are about a missing sailor, and it appears that one verse of this -- the "What colour is your Johny's hair" stanza -- floated in from Laws K12. But in this song, the girl steals away to seek Johnny, who is described as dead BEFORE she sets out. Possibly this is just a version of Laws K12 that is so badly scrambled that it has remade the plot; when I first indexed the song, I put it with Laws K12. But on reconsideration, I think it has drifted so far that I am listing it as a separate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Col2028

Darling Johnny O (II)

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Darling Little Joe

DESCRIPTION: The dying boy asks how life will be when he is dead, e.g. "Oh what will the birds do, mother, in the spring... Will they harp at the door... Asking why Joe wanders out no more?" The boy asks mother to care for his pets, and tells her he will be in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (sheet music, "The Death of Little Joe")
KEYWORDS: death children animal farewell
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 712, "Darling Little Joe" (3 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 460-461, "Darling Little Joe" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 712A)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 68, pp. 111-112, "Little Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, p. 290, "The Brown Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3545
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Darling Little Joe" (Victor [Canada] CNV-102, n.d.); "Little Joe" (Decca 5632/Montgomery Ward 8068, 1939; rec. 1938)
Bradley Kincaid, "Little Joe" (Montgomery Ward M-4457, 1934)
Monroe Brothers, "Little Joe" (Bluebird B-7598, 1938)
Charles Nabell, "Little Joe" (OKeh 40418, 1925)
BROADSIDES:
Levy 105.044, "The Death of Little Joe," G. Andre & Co., Philadelphia, 1866
LOCSheet, sm1876 10660, "Little Joe," Blackmar & Finney (New Orleans), 1876 (tune)
NOTES [133 words]: Cohen notes two sheet music printings, one (dated 1876) crediting it to Charles E. Addison, the other (1866) by V. E. Marsten. Draw your own conclusions. - RBW
The 1866 sheet music lists V. M. Marston as the composer, with no information as to the lyricist. It includes a chorus ("Little Joe will soon, will soon be sleeping, sleeping calmly...") which does not seem to have entered oral tradition. - PJS
Broadside LOCSheet sm1876 10660: "Composed and sung by Maj. Chas. E. Addison the noted Confederate Spy and Scout of Gen. John H. Morgan's Command." Attributed to the same author, and published the same year by the same publisher is
LOCSheet, sm1876 10661, "The Dying Message" ("Raise the window, Mother darling, Let the soft breeze fan me now," Blackmar & Finney (New Orleans), 1876 (tune) - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: R712

Darling Little Pink

See Little Pink (File: San166)

Darling Mabel

DESCRIPTION: "Joe was in love with sweet Mabel" and writes a letter: "Darling Mabel, now I'm able To buy the happy home. Since they're raised my screw, love, I've enough for two, love. Will you marry?" He waits for an answer -- he forgot to send the letter. They marry
AUTHOR: A. J. Mills & Bennett Scott (source: monologues.co.uk)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood); Fowke says it was known during the Boer War
LONG DESCRIPTION: "Joe was in love with sweet Mabel" but never manages to ask her to marry until he writes a letter: "Darling Mabel, now I'm able To buy the happy home. Since they're raised my screw, love, I've enough for two, love. Will you marry?" He waits many months for an answer, only to discover that he forgot to send the letter. When he sends it, she agrees and they marry
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage | forgetfulness letter
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 103, "Darling Mabel" (1 text)
Roud #23601
NOTES [23 words]: Fowke in Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood attributes this to Tom Costello, but I believe he was the performer, not the author. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC103B

Darling Neddeen

DESCRIPTION: O'Shaughnessy's song in praise of Neddeen: whales flap their tail to raise a breeze for birds; girls' eyes are so bright no gas lamps are needed in cabins; geese run around ready roasted; cows give whisky; ganders give milk; girls never grow old.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (_The Freeholder_, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: nonballad talltale animal bird whale
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 250-254, "Darling Neddeen" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sprig of Shillelah" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
cf. "Oleanna" (absurdist sorts of claims for the town)
NOTES [89 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "'Neddeen,' says Mr Weld,'is the principal place of trade on the Kenmare river ...' now generally known as Kenmare."
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "The Editor has no doubt that the authorship may be correctly assigned to the writer of 'O! Blarney Castle, my Darling', and the subsequent song entitled 'Darling Neddeen.'" But, at "O! Blarney Castle, my Darling" he "has no doubt" that its author also wrote "aint Patrick's Arrival." See that song if you are interested in Croker's speculations there." - BS
File: CrPS250

Darling Nellie Gray

See Darling Nelly Gray (File: RJ19053)

Darling Nelly Gray

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the time he spent with Nelly. But now "the white man has bound her with his chain;" he laments "Oh my darling Nelly Gray, they have taken you away And I'll never see my darling any more." He hopes they will be reunited after death
AUTHOR: B. R. Hanby
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1856 600230; sheet music published by Oliver Ditson of Boston)
KEYWORDS: love separation slave
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 73, "Darling Nelly Gray" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 139-140, "Nellie Gray" (1 text) (pp. 118-119 in the 1919 edition)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 303-304, "Darling Nellie Gray"(1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 53-56, "Darling Nelly Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #434, p. 29, "Darling Nelly Gray" (2 references)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 251, "Darling Nelly Gray" (1 text)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 83-84, "Darling Nelly Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 116-117, "Darling Nelly Gray" (1 text, 1 tune, without the slavery references)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #127, "Darling Nelly Gray" (1 text, without the slavery references)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 6 and #1/64 p. 6, "Nelly Gray" (1 text)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 37, "Darling Nelly Gray" (1 text, 1 tune, without the slavery references)
Harbin-Parodology, #308, p. 74, "Darling Nelly Gray" (1 short text, without the slavery references)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 21, "Darling Nellie Gray" (1 text, 1 tune, without the slavery references)
DT, NELLGRAY*
ST RJ19053 (Full)
Roud #4883
RECORDINGS:
American Quartet, "Darling Nellie Gray" (CYL: Lambert Indesctructible 630, 1902; on Protobilly)
Louis Armstrong & the Mills Brothers, "Darling Nelly Gray" (Decca 1245, 1937; on Protobilly)
The Carver Boys, "Darling Nellie Gray" (Paramount 3198, 1930/Broadway 8246 [as Carson Boys], n.d.; rec. 1929)
Roland Cauley & Lake Howard, "Medley: Darling Nellie Gray & Little Brown Jug" (ARC, 6-04-54, 1936, rec. 1934; on Protobilly)
Carroll Clark, "Darling Nellie Gray" (Columbia A-770, 1909)
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "Darling Nellie Gray" (Brunswick 185/Vocalion 5186 [as the Hill Billies], 1927)
W. W. MacBeth, "Darling Nellie Gray" (Brunswick 571, 1931; rec. 1929)
[Asa] Martin & [James] Roberts, "Darling Nellie Gray" (Perfect 12762/Banner 32306 [as by Asa Martin], 1931; Conqueror 7935, 1932)
McMichen's Melody Men, "Darling Nellie Gray" (Banner 32306, 1931; Conqueror 7965, 1932)
Metropolitan Quartet, "Darling Nellie Gray" (CYL: Edison [BA] 1860, n.d.)
Amy Michels, "Nellie Gray" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #165, recorded 05/10/2022)
Chubby Parker, "Darling Nellie Gray" (Supertone 9187, 1928)
Peerless Quartet, "Darling Nellie Gray" (Gennett 4532, 1919)
Roba Stanley [or Stanley Trio], "Nellie Gray" (OKeh 40271, 1925)
Henry Whitter's Virginia Breakdowners, "Nellie Gray" (OKeh 40211, 1924)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1856 600230, "Darling Nelly Gray," Oliver Ditson (Boston), 1856 (tune) [attributed to B. R. Hanby]
LOCSinging, as102660, "Darling Nelly Gray," Charles H. Anderson (Washington), 19C; also cw103950, "Nelly Gray"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Eumerella Shore" (tune)
cf. "Memphis Flu" (tune)
cf. "Rain on the Roof" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Dear Prairie Home (File: CAFS491A)
The Escaped Prisoner (by Charles Thatcher) (File: BaRo037)
Our Union Flag ("There's a starry banner floating o'er the home of liberty," by Walter Washington Warren) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 122)
NOTES [220 words]: This was the first popular success of Benjamin Russell Hanby (1833-1867), who eventually wrote some eighty songs. It is reported to be based on an actual event; a runaway slave named Joseph Shelby died at the Ohio home of Hanby's father. Shelby was hoping to raise money to win the freedom of another slave named Nelly Gray.
In one of the odd turns of history, Wharton's War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy , following one Mrs. A. T. Smythe, suggests Stephen Foster as the author; even if the sheet music did not disprove this, the anti-Slavery sentiment would surely do so. But, of course, many versions suppressed the clear reference to slavery.
In an even odder turn, Fitzhugh Lee, Robert E. Lee's nephew who was such an ardent Southerner that he refused to surrender with his uncle at Appomattox, gave his favorite horse the name "Nelly Gray"; see Jeffry D. Wert, From Winchester to Cedar Creek: The Shenandoah Campaign of 1864, 1987 (I use the 1989 Touchstone paperback), p. 79.
Usually when you encounter a de-slaveried version of this, it still calls the woman "Nelly Gray," but Dime-Song-Book #2, p. 16, has a song "Darling Nelly Moore" which almost looks like a deliberate pro-slavery rewrite of the song (e.g. it has lines, "If we be good, old massa says, We'll go there [heaven] when we die." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RJ19053

Darling Old Stick

DESCRIPTION: Bull Morgan McCarthy inherits his brother's shillelah and fights with those he'd heard of as "informer" and "canary." Partly as result, partly as cause, he meets Kate. "I bought this gold ring, sir, And Kate to the priest I shall bring, sir"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1853 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(798))
KEYWORDS: marriage fight trial humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 137, "Bull Morgan McCarthy" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 51, "Darling Old Stick" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #2/72, pp. 34-35 and #2/64, pp. 34-35, "Darling Old Stick" (1 text)
Roud #3276
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(798), "The Darlin' Old Stick," John Ross (Newcastle), 1847-1852; also 2806 c.15(258), 2806 b.11(11), "The Darlin' Old Stick"; Harding B 20(34), Harding B 11(799), Harding B 11(797), "The Darlin' Ould Stick"; Harding B 11(1370), "Darling Old Stick"; Firth b.25(73), "The Darling Ould Stick"
NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(300), "The Darlin' Old Stick," unknown, c.1870
SAME TUNE:
Teddy O'Toole (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 20(34))
Young America and Ould Ireland ("It's a soger I am, and I'm wearing the green") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 183)
File: Mack137

Darling Song

See My Mother's Last Goodbye (File: RcMMoLaG)

Darling You Can't Love but One

See New River Train (File: AF073)

Darling, I Have Come to Tell You (Farewell Nellie, Little Bunch of Roses, Many Miles Apart, Don't This Road Look Rough and Rocky)

DESCRIPTION: "Darling, I have come to tell you, Though this message breaks my heart, That, before the night is over, We'll be many miles apart." The singer may leave a bunch of roses, or request that the other remember him, or complain that she has broken his heart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal flowers separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 689, "Goodbye"; 700, "Little Bunch of Roses"; 705, "Many Miles Apart" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #16012
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "Farewell Nellie" (Decca 5677, 1937)
(Lester) Flatt & (Earl) Scruggs, "Don't This Road Look Rough and Rocky" (Columbia 21334)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Rocks and Hills Divide Us" (lyrics)
NOTES [100 words]: This song is very difficult; it shares lines with so many lost love songs that it could perhaps be argued that it is not even an independent song in its own right, although the first verse quoted in the description is fairly distinct. But the rest of the song varies greatly. I put it in the Index mostly to establish it as the source of the well-loved bluegrass song "Don't This Road Look Rough and Rocky," made famous by Flatt & Scruggs but first performed with that chorus by the Blue Sky Boys. I do not know if the Blue Sky Boys added the chorus or if they found the whole thing in tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: BrS5689

Darling, Soon I Will Be Sleeping

DESCRIPTION: "Darling, soon I will be sleeping, In the church yard over there, Where the grass and vines are creeping...." The singer asks (her?) love to place flowers on her grave. He should not mourn; the flowers "will speak of me."
AUTHOR: Delia Bates Burns (source: Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: death burial separation love flowers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 99, "Darling, I Will Soon Be Sleeping" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16294
File: Arno099

Darn Little Ford, The

DESCRIPTION: "Old Zeke (?) Perkins sold his hog the other day, And the gosh-darn fool throwed his money right away" on a Ford car. He tries to shut it off, "but the darn little Ford kept a chugging right ahead." Nothing he tries can make the car stop moving
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (High-OldOldFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: humorous technology
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 44, "The Darn Little Ford" (1 text)
File: High044

Darn the Man That I Can Get

DESCRIPTION: Singer wonders why she can't get a man. She likes all men in uniform, even "short or thin," "from the U.S.A or Canada." She is "six feet four ... just the proper size." "I have buried four more of them and I'm only sixty-two"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: age marriage drink humorous nonballad sailor soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18205
RECORDINGS:
Mike Kent, "Darn the Man That I Can Get" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Maid's Song (I)" and references there
File: RcDtMtIG

Darra

DESCRIPTION: "First when I engaged, it was to [corn-dealer] Darrahill, It was to be his foreman, and feed the thrashing mill." Instead, he is put in a bothy with grueling work. He will go back to see Darrahill's "servant girlie that I am often wi'," but not Darrahill
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: courting lie work hardtimes farming worker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 352, "Darra" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5901
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Darrahill
File: GrD3351

Darrahil

See Darahill (File: Ord276)

Dartmouth Tragedy, The

See The Footboy (File: FowM080)

Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron

See Driving Away at the Smoothing Iron (File: ShH82)

Dashing Young Lad from Buckingham, A

DESCRIPTION: The Buckingham lad bets he could go through London singing but not speaking. Though thrown in jail he does not speak. The Lord Mayor's daughter begs her father to release him. He does on condition he pays the officers' wage. He wins the bet.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
KEYWORDS: wager prison gambling
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 114-115, "A Dashing Young Lad from Buckingham" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1382
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jock Hamilton" (plot)
NOTES [15 words]: As closely as this song's plot agrees with "Jock Hamilton" the two songs share no text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BrMa114

Dat Lonesome Road

See Lonesome Road (File: San322)

Dat's All Right

DESCRIPTION: Floating-verse with chorus "Dat's all right (x2), Dat's all right, babe, dat's all right. I'll be with you right or wrong; When you see a good thing, shove it right along...." Verses about visiting honey and seeing her dead or working for the rich folks
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: love death separation money floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 234-235, "Dat's All Right" (1 text)
File: ScNF234B

Dat's de Way to Spell Chicken

See C-H-I-C-K-E-N (File: RcCHICKE)

Daughter Ellen

DESCRIPTION: "O rise, daughter Ellen, and stand on thy feet For to see thy dear mother lie dead in yon field." "Oh no..." Repeat for father, sister, brother. For true love: "Oh yes"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (E.M. Plunket, _Merrie Games in Rhyme_, according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: love death playparty family
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 59, "Daughter Ellen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13218
NOTES [36 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "The game has grown from part of an old ballad, 'The Maid Freed from the Gallows' (Child 95) ...." The form is similar but the plot is not. - BS
I'm frankly reminded more of "Green Gravel." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa059

Daughter in the Dungeon, The

See The Iron Door [Laws M15] (File: LM15)

Daughter of Peggy-O, The

DESCRIPTION: Husband marries a wife who won't work; he beats her and threatens to yoke her to the plow. She submits.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908
KEYWORDS: marriage abuse work humorous wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 29, "The Daughter of Peggy-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #117
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" [Child 277] (plot)
NOTES [67 words]: Although there are strong similarities to "Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin", the class distinction does not appear, and neither does the sheepskin. I call it a different song. -PJS
In the absence of intermediate versions, I tend to agree. Although both songs have nonsense refrains, they are not the SAME nonsense refrains, and the stanza forms and lyrics are distinct. Though Roud, of course, lumps them. - RBW
File: VWL029

Daughters, Will You Marry

See Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me) (File: R493)

Davenport

DESCRIPTION: "D-A-V-E-N-P-O-R-T spells davenport. That's the only decent kind of love seat, The man who made it must have been a heart beat.... It's a hug and a squeeze, And an 'Ooh, George, please!' Davenport for me!"
AUTHOR: Music ("Harrigan, That's Me") by George M. Cohan
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: wordplay nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 162-163, "Davenport" (1 text, tune referenced, consisting of the verses of "Davenport," "Castor Oil," and "Lollypop")
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 267, "Davenport" (notes, plus 6 texts labeled "Lollypop" on pp. 270-275; of these six, the "Lollypop" verse is found in A, C, D, E, F; "Castor Oil" is in A, D, E; "Davenport" is in D; and A, B, C, E, F have other material as well; bibliography on pp.671-673)
Roud #15716
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Harrigan" (tune) and references there
File: ACSF267D

David Dodd

DESCRIPTION: "Drums were beating, troops were marching." "Captured by the Federal minions, As a hated Rebel spy," Dodd is asked to name his informant. The boy answers that he is prepared to die. "In the grave in old Mount Holly Lie the bones of David Dodd."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Allsopp)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar execution burial
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 231-232, (no title) (1 text)
ST FORA231 (Partial)
NOTES [343 words]: Allsopp lists this under the section heading "The Nathan Hale of Arkansas," and says that a school was dedicated in 1927 to the memory of David Dodd.
The story Allsopp tells is a little confused. Dodd's age is given as 17 when he was executed in 1864 -- yet he is called "too young to enlist" in the Confederate army. This is simply false -- by the end of the war, the Confederates were taking 15-year-olds. Either his age is wrong or he had dodged regular military service.
If Allsopp's account is true, Dodd not only was serving as a courier but was spying on Union positions. It also sounds as if he could have told everything he knew without it doing the Confederates any harm; the Union army command was just too slow in its responses to news (the whole Red River campaign was marked by slow and inept Federal action). But the kid seems to have been a romantic.
Allsopp's account gives few substantial details except that Dodd was executed in Little Rock.
Allsopp's account is in error in at least one particular: The Federal general in charge of the Department of Arkansas in 1864 was not General "Steel" but Major General Frederick Steele, 1819-1868. The fact that Steele was opposed by General Fagan seems to date the the incident to the Arkansas campaign of 1864; the general involved is James Fleming Fagan (1828-1893), a cavalry division commander. Dodd must therefore have been active some time between March 23 (when Steele set out) and April 30 (when Steele was forced to retreat largely as a result of Fagan's actions). The likeliest date would appear to be around April 20-25; it was on the latter date that Fagan hit Steele's supply line.
Steele's campaign is of course mentioned in most major Civil War histories (though usually only in connection with the Red River expedition of Banks, which it was supposed to support). I haven't found any mentions of Dodd, though.
I don't know whether this poem is a traditional song or not. But Allsopp lists no author, and the tale is very folkloric, so I have very hesitantly indexed the piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FORA231

David Lowston

See Davy Lowston (File: DTdavylo)

David Ward

See Old David Ward (File: Be014)

David, David

See O David (File: LoF250A)

David, David, Yes, Yes

See O David (File: LoF250A)

David's Flowery Vale

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees the Armagh coach arrive; one of the passengers is a beautiful girl. He steps up to her, point out his family's wealth, and asks if she will come away with him. She says that she is not wealthy and is pledged to another
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (by John Hume, according to Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H212, p. 370, "Drummond's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 12, "Young McCance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2943
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "David's Flowery Vale" (on Voice01, IREButcher01)
Robert Cinnamond, "Young McCance" (on IRRCinnamond01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Young McCance
NOTES [153 words]: I have found no references to "David's Fountain" or "David's Flowery Vale" in maps of Ireland. There are, however, some clues. The lad and lass look at ships sailing to Chester (in western Britain). She comes from Hamiltonsbawn, and is riding the Armagh coach.
Hamiltonsbawn is almost due east of Armagh, half a dozen or so miles from the city center. It is not on any body of water. Armagh isn't on anything navigable, either. But the road from Armagh to Hamiltonsbawn heads on in the general direction of Belfast. Thus it seems likely that David's Flowery Vale is somewhere on the shores of the Belfast Lough. - RBW
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: "John McCance, the owner of this splendid mansion [near Belfast], was born in 1772 and lived until 1835.... The song is correct in mentioning McCance's dwelling at the foot of Divis Mountain: he lived at Roselands on the Upper Falls before moving to Suffolk House in 1811." - BS
File: HHH212

David's Lamentation

DESCRIPTION: "David the king was grieved and moved, He went to his chamber, his chamber and wept. And as he went, he wept and said, 'Oh my son! Oh my son, would to God I had died, would to God I had died for thee, Oh Absalom, my son, my son."
AUTHOR: William Billings
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (Missouri Harmony)
KEYWORDS: royalty death family Bible religious
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 412, "Oh, Absalom, My Son" (1 text)
DT, DAVLAMNT ABSALON*
Roud #15055
NOTES [139 words]: The original William Billing song (of slightly uncertain date, though obviously in existence by the early nineteenth century) is taken almost verbatim from 2 Samuel 18:33. A second verse, rarely sung and not found in the Sacred Harp or the Missouri Harmony, is almost as close to 2 Samuel 19:2:
Vict'ry that day was turned into mourning
When the people did see how the King grieved for his son.
He covered his face and in a loud voice cried,
"Oh my son...."
I cannot absolutely prove that the round "Absalom My Son" is descended from the Billings piece; the words are straight from the Bible, after all. There is, however, melodic similarity (though not identity), and the Billings tune was designed as a fugue, which would encourage its conversion to a round.
For more about composer William Billings, see the notes to "Chester." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: FSWB412B

Davie and His Kye

See Davie and His Kye Thegither (File: Ord120)

Davie and His Kye Thegither

DESCRIPTION: Davie comes to his mother, "some good news to lat her ken." She warns against hasty marriage, but the wedding goes ahead. He and his wife fight; she breaks a pot over his head. The parson arrives, the wife hits him too, and he concedes Davie's misfortune
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage clergy humorous injury
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #113, p. 2, "Davie and His Kye"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 20, ("Davie an' his kye together") (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan7 1281, "Davie's Wooin'" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 120-121, "Davie and His Kye Thegither" (1 text)
Roud #5545
NOTES [38 words]: Greig says his copy is from A Kininmouth Lassie which Greig/Duncan7 seems to correct to A Kininmonth Lassie.
Greig/Duncan7: "Bell Robertson [1841-1922] says she read 'Davie and his Kye' when she was a lassie of about eight." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord120

Davie Faa

See Davy Faa (Remember the Barley Straw) (File: K188)

Davie's Wooin'

See Davie and His Kye Thegither (File: Ord120)

Davy

DESCRIPTION: Dance tune; "Davy, Davy, where is Davy/Down in the henhouse eating up the gravy/Davy, Davy, where is Davy/Down in the chickenyard, sick on the gravy." (There may also be a "why can't a white man dance like a nigger" verse).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Weems String Band)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad food discrimination
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 68, "Davy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CSW068 (Full)
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "Davy, Davy" (on NLCR01)
Weems String Band, "Davy" (Columbia 15300-D, 1928)
NOTES [266 words]: This piece instantly makes me think of some of the versions of "Black-Eyed Susie (Green Corn)." I can't prove any connection, though. It also bears some slight similarities to "Davy Crockett" -- but, again, nothing concrete, just isolated words. - RBW
Only, I think, the name. - PJS
George Lineberry, the husband of the grand-niece of "Uncle Dick" Weems and "Uncle Frank" Weems, explains how the song actually came about:
"The Weems String Band (Perry County, TN) traveled to Memphis, TN in 1928 where Columbia was recording groups for the potential '1928 version American Idol.' (NOT).
"[Their] musical numbers were instrumental -- not vocal arrangements. However, Columbia wanted lyrics, i.e. no lyrics -- no record. So the Weems String Band went back to the hotel, created some lyrics (kind of) for their two songs: 'Greenback Dollar' and 'Davy' (sometimes referred to as 'Davy, Davy'). The lyrics met the minimum requirement, but both songs remained basically instrumentals.
"The next day they returned to Columbia's 'studio' and recorded both songs, resulting in their only record."
The New Lost City Ramblers proceeded to bowdlerize the song to within an inch of its life (Lineberry's transcription is in the Supplemental Tradition, and it will demonstrate why they did so). Had the Ramblers known its story, they probably would have just played it as an instrumental. Though the instrumental style also apparently puzzled them, based on the notes in Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook. Lineberry's comments may explain that, too: A third Weems, Jess, played bowed 'cello. - RBW
File: CSW068

Davy Crockett

DESCRIPTION: Davy and/or the singer engage in various improbable activities such as hunting coons without a gun. The singer and Davy have a fight and agree to a draw: "I was hard enough for him, and so was he for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety); "Pompey Smash" appeared 1847 in Lloyd's Ethiopian Song Book
KEYWORDS: nonsense humorous hunting fight
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1786-1836 - Life of David Crockett, one-time U.S. Congressman, both Limestone, Tennessee; died in the siege of the Alamo
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 339, "Davy Crockett" (1 stanza)
Randolph 423, "Davy Crockett" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 338-340, "Davy Crockett" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 423A)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 168, pp. 182-183, "Davy Crockett" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 177, "Davy Crockett" (1 text)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 243-246, "Pompey Smash and Davy Crockett" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 130-132, "Pompey Smash and Davy Crockett" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 251-253, "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DAVCROCK
Roud #3589
RECORDINGS:
Chubby Parker, "Dav[e]y Crockett" (Conqueror 7895, 1931; on StuffDreams1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Settin' on a Rail" (lyrics)
cf. "Davy Crockett (Pop Song Parody)" (subject of Davy Crockett)
NOTES [66 words]: Obviously not to be confused with the pop song "The Ballad of Davy Crockett."
Randolph says that this piece is derived from the minstrel piece "Pompey Squash," (called "Pompey Smash" by Cox). This is clearly true of Randolph's "B" text and less obviously so in the case of the Lomax text; I am not certain in the case of the other versions. I might theorize that Randolph's text is a hybrid. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: R423

Davy Crockett (Pop Song Parody)

DESCRIPTION: "Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee, The ugliest creature you ever did see," three nurses and a doctor die (apparently in the process of bringing him into the world); he is "Wanted in New Orlean"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1786-1836 - Life of David Crockett, one-time U.S. Congressman, both Limestone, Tennessee; died in the siege of the Alamo
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 116, "Davy Crockett" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Davy Crockett" (subject of Davy Crockett)
File: ZiZa116C

Davy Faa (II)

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Davy Faa (Remember the Barley Straw)

DESCRIPTION: (A man courts a neighbour's daughter by disguising himself as) a tinker. The tinker follows the girl into bed and sleeps with her. (He departs, leaving her with a rich fee, giving his name as Davy Faa/Shaw. Her father seeks a husband for her)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (Baring-Gould)
KEYWORDS: disguise seduction sex trick abandonment money father rape tinker bastard
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,Lond),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Bronson 279, "The Jolly Beggar" (37 versions, but #28 is "Davy Faa (Remember the Barley Straw)")
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #20, pp. 145-146, "Davie Faa" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's Child 279 #28!}
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #87, "The Barley Straw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 188, "Remember the Barley Straw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan7 1473, "The Tinker Loon" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT, DAVYFAA* BARLSTRW
Roud #118
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tramps and Hawkers" (tune) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Barley Straw
NOTES [207 words]: I've never really been sure whether this song involves rape or not. It's clear that the girl gets the worst of it, though.
It will be observed that the only parts of this song that are constant are the tinker and the seduction. No doubt various attempts at bowdlerization account for some of this, but there does seem to be some mixture involved as well. - RBW
I suggest renaming this main entry; as far as I know, only in one version of the song (Jeannie Robertson's) is the man (or the song) named Davy Faa, while "The Barley Straw" or variants thereon seem relatively common. More important, I'd rather avoid confusion with the more common "Davy Faa", aka "The Gypsy Laddie." Also, the tune given in Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland isn't that of "Tramps and Hawkers/Paddy West", and I'm not sure it's been collected from tradition with that tune (Jean Redpath doesn't count.) - PJS
All true, except that the Robertson/Redpath versions seems to be the ones everyone knows. Which is why I used the title I did. And while Robertson's tune is not "Tramps and Hawkers," it has similarities.
Roud lumps this with Child #279, "The Jolly Beggar." So do Porter/Gower. The similarity in plot is obvious. So is the dissimilarity in form. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: K188

Davy Lowston

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Davy Lowston, I did seal, I did seal." Lowston and crew are left to hunt seal; the ship which is to retrieve them is wrecked. After much privation, the survivors are rescued by the Governor Bligh. Lowston advises against sealing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ); reportedly collected by John Leebrick in the 1920s
KEYWORDS: hunting wreck disaster hardtimes rescue New Zealand ordeal
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, "David Lowston" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 14, "Davy Lowston" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 7 in the 1972 edition)
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 41-42, "David Lowston" (1 text, 1 tune)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 45, "(Davy Lowston)" (1 text)
DT, DAVYLOWS
ADDITIONAL: J. C. Reid, _A Book of New Zealand_ (Collins National Anthologies), Collins, 1964, pp. 282-283, "David Lowston" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Will Not Go to White Bay with Casey Any More" (plot)
NOTES [1803 words]: It is ironic to note that this most iconic of New Zealand folk songs was not found in that country but rather was found by John Leebrick in the United States. Bill Morris, who as of 2019 was working on a documentary about this song, told me that Neil Colquhoun talked to Leebrick in the 1950s. It appears that all known versions derive from this report of a reported version. And no one now alive seems to know much about Leebrick. There is obviously a possibility that Colquhoun had a hand in the text or (even more likely) setting the tune.
If it is legitimate, though, it is the earliest reference in an English-language song to an event in New Zealand (Harding, p. 4, who calls it "the earliest-known Pakeha folk song"). Harding, p. 5, considers it one of just fourteen legitimate New Zealand folk songs. (A low estimate, since it omits Sutton-Smith's children's games, but if anything that count may be high for songs sung by adults.)
NewZealandEncyclopedia p. 491, says that sealers came to New Zealand within a quarter of a century of Captain Cook's discovery of the country -- only to hunt the seals effectively to extinction within three decades. "In NZ only fur seals were of any commercial value, because the water was too warm for any build-up of blubber under the skin" (although there were blubber seals on the islands to the south that were worth taking for oil). "The first sealers concentrated on Fiordland where large numbers of seals were found on the rocks around the coastline and on small islands nearby. During the first 20 years, tens of thousands of skins were taken each season from the Dusky Sound area, and round Foveaux Strait and Stewart Island.... [T]he men themselves were often left on the shore for months at a time to be picked up later with their kills, having survived arduous and uncomfortable living conditions." (Although, as any Newfoundlander can tell you, conditions on a sealing ship also featured arduous and uncomfortable living conditions!)
Sealing didn't last long in New Zealand. According to Morton, p. 109, the first known instance of a ship leaving a party behind on a New Zealand island was in November 1792, when a dozen men from the Britannia went sealing, and there does not have been another instance of it until 1803 (Morton, p. 110). That expedition suffered the loss of one man, although to drowning, not privation. The Endeavor would lose six men and a boat in 1809, while collecting some 2200 skins. Morton, p. 100, tells of a sealing gang which included the Maori chief Ruatara which had three men die of hunger and thirst.
Morton, pp. 111-112: "During these early years marooning established itself as a real risk. Ships occasionally disappeared completely after setting down sealing gangs, and the gangs, without knowing, were at the mercy of chance. The next ship might not appear for months. Some of the sealing islands were little more than barren rocks. One group of men -- made up, for various reasons, of men from two different sealing gangs -- lived for over three years on Solander Island, eating seal meat and fish, dressed in and sleeping on and under seal skins." They had hoped to have a garden, but "nothing grew on Solander Island," which is a beautiful volcanic rock that is uninhabited to this day. "They were rescued by Perseverance in 1813."
Port Jackson (Sydney) had been established in 1788, and it was used as a sealing supply hub almost at once (so Busch, p. 28). By 1800 we find contracts made between the ships and the sealers, including rules for what to do if the ship did not return on time. Interestingly, the 1800 contract did not include a provision for what to do if the ship did not return at all, or how long to wait for it (Busch, pp. 12-13).
This song is a mostly-true story, though there has been a lot of confusion along the way. Versions of it are found in several histories of New Zealand.
Morton, p. 112, based on the Sydney Gazette and papers in the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, comes up with this summary:
"Captain Grono rescued ten men of a gang from the unlucky and ill-fated brig Active. Originally a French ship, she was captured by the British. As a British ship sailing from Hobart she was wrecked and severely damaged in Bass Strait, requiring salvage and then repairs in Port Jackson. On her first voyage after her reconditioning she set down a sealing gang in Jackson Bay on the west coast of New Zealand [the South Island; there are no towns nearby even today] and then simply disappeared. To this day no one knows what happened to her. Active's gang, not knowing that the ship had vanished permanently, spent three full years on the west coast of New Zealand, collecting over 11,800 sealskins and managing through all difficulties to preserve 8,700.
"They had given up hope of the Active's return and had laboriously carved eighty half in boards from eighty separate tree trunks in order to build a vessel when Captain Grono arrived in Governor Bligh on 27 November 1813. He took the survivors to his home and three of them married three of his seven daughters. The owners of the Governor Bligh were not as kind as Grono. They took 3,200 of the 8.700 skins as passage money."
(On p. 106 Morton tells us about the men's rescuer: "Captain John Grono, an English seaman, Australian land owner, and New Zealand sealer, build ships for the sealing trade on the Hawkesbury River near Windsor, New South Wales.")
Reed, although I would consider him less reliable, gives even more details. On p. 71 he quotes Robert McNab's suggestion that the place where the men were left was not Jackson Bay but Secretary Island, a few dozen miles down the South Island coast, separated from the mainland by a half mile waterway now called Thompson Strait. Secretary Island is also far, far from anywhere. They were left with a whaleboat, an axe, an adze, a cooper's drawing knife, a few other tools, and a small supply of provisions. They found fresh water, built themselves a hut, and started sealing.
Then the winter came on. Their provisions were gone, and southern New Zealand in winter is cold and stormy. The seals were gone, so they had little to eat but a sort of fern that had to be eaten raw; it made them sick if cooked (Reed, p. 72).
They decided to cross to the mainland, only to find that their boat had rotted; they barely made it across. Clearly they could not trust that boat again. They did find the ruins of another boat, but it wasn't seaworthy either. They built another hut, and worked to repair the boats -- only to have them both ruined by a storm. And the coast offered no more food than their island. They managed to build a sealskin boat and return to their island. There, using their few tools, they set out to build their own boat, without nails. And with no saw, they could only cut one board from each tree they felled (Reed, p. 73). It was sheer chance that the Governor Bly saw and rescued them.
Reed too considers the fate of the Active a mystery, "though in later days it was believed that portions of her wreckage had been found on the coast near Arahura River." Based on Ingram, p. 4, she was only the fourth or fifth European ship to go down in New Zealand waters, depending on just when she was lost.
It probably isn't cause and effect, but New Zealand sealing, which had begun in 1792, went into a decline the moment the Active was lost. Jackson/McRobie, p. 206, say that "After 1810 sealing declined [in New Zealand] but revived to some degree in New Zealand's sub-arctic islands during the 1820s and 1830s."
The one thing not found in these summaries is the names of the sealers. For this we can turn to "The Story of David Lowston, a pre-colonial NZ song," an article by Frank Fyfe published in the Journal of New Zealand Folklore in 1970 and now available online at the New Zealand folklore web site.
All dates in what follows are somewhat uncertain. I'm going to leave out all the "probablies" and just summarize.
It was in 1809 that the brig Active, Captain John Bader (corrupted to Bedar in the song, probably for metrical reasons) advertised for hands. The Active sailed from Sydney on December 11, 1809; on February 16, 1810, a party of ten sealers under David Lowrieston was left on an island off New Zealand. They had relatively few supplies; Bader promised to return soon with more, but the Active was never seen again.
The sealing crew had to survive by hunting seals and digging up roots; they seem to have been amazingly inept, watching two boats destroyed, but despite their privations (and the implication of the song), none of them actually died. They were rescued by the Governor Bligh, and arrived in Sydney on December 15, 1813.
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 46-47, quotes an article from the Dec. 23, 1813 Sydney Gazette telling what was known at the time. On p. 47 Garland quotes an account of the finding of the Active's wreck in 1847.
The rest of Fyfe's speculation must be taken with a grain of salt. He believes the song to be based on "Captain Kidd," and there are obvious resemblances of form. However, "Davy Lowston" as it was collected (from an American, of all things) is not sung to "Captain Kidd," and while several of the musical phrases are similar, others are strikingly different.
Indeed, "Davy Lowston" cannot be sung to the usual "Captain Kidd"/"Wondrous Love" by any amount of squeezing, as the following analysis will show; I print the common text of "Davy Lowston," and note the differing number of syllables in "Captain Kidd."
My name is Davy Lowston (1 extra syllable in DL; could perhaps be adapted -- though Fyfe argues that the original was "My name is David Lawrieston," which would never fit no matter what squeezing applied)
I did seal, I did seal (compatible)
My name is Davy Lowston, I did seal. (compatible)
Though my men and I were lost (1 extra syllable in DL; could be adapted)
Though our very lives it cost (1 fewer syllable in DL, hard to adapt)
We did seal (2 fewer syllable in DL, no adaption possible)
We did seal, we did seal. (compatible with some versions of Captain Kidd).
I allow the possibility that "Davy Lowston" is derived from Captain Kidd, or one of its folk relatives, but it's far from certain.
Cleveland lists the tune not as "Captain Kidd" but as "Sam Hall." The two are of course similar, but I think "Sam Hall" is a better fit. Although the way I've heard "Davy Lowston" is not quite the same as any version of "Sam Hall" that I've heard.
Fyfe also believed that the song was brought to the United States by the whaler Erie, which sailed the southern Pacific starting in 1832 and was lost in 1840. This is certainly possible, but I'd need stronger evidence than Fyfe offered.
Thanks to Bill Morris for sharing his research on this song. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: DTdavylo

Davy, Davy

See Davy (File: CSW068)

Dawning of the Day (I), The [Laws P16]

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a milk-maid at the dawn of day, seduces her despite her reluctance, and leaves her. Months later they meet again; she asks him to marry her, but he answers that he has married a rich girl. She warns against such rovers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.11(56))
KEYWORDS: seduction warning poverty betrayal
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Mar,Ont) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws P16, "The Dawning of the Day"
ThomsonNewYork, pp. 384-386, "The Dawning of the Day" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 163, "The Dawning of the Day" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1312, "The Dawning of the Day" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 56, "The Dawning of the Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 28, "The Dawning of the Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 21, "The Dawning of the Day" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 178-180, "The Dawning of the Day" (1 text)
DT 498, DAWNDAY
Roud #370
RECORDINGS:
Cathie Stewart, "The Dawning of the Day" (on SCStewartsBlair01) (a fragmentary version, ending with the girl's reluctance)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(56), "Dawning of the Day," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(2026), Harding B 6(4), Harding B 25(480), Johnson Ballads fol. 412 View 1 of 2, Harding B 11(806), 2806 c.8(283), 2806 c.16(25), 2806 b.11(197), Harding B 26(119) [badly faded], Harding B 11(804), Harding B 11(803), Harding B 16(69a), Harding B 17(73a), Firth c.13(301), Harding B 11(805), Harding B 20(23), Harding B 17(72b), Harding B 16(69b), "[The] Dawning of the Day"
LOCSinging, as102690, "Dawning of the Day," L. Deming (Boston), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(148), "The Dawning of the Day," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c.1853
File: LP16

Dawsonville Jail

DESCRIPTION: Singer is told by Sheriff Glen Wallace that he's "a little too full." He is taken to jail. His friend Shorty objects but is arrested too; they work on the sheriff's chicken farm, and the food is bad. They swear they'll drink no more.
AUTHOR: Words: L. D. Snipes & Shorty Lunsford; tune: traditional
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (recording, Ray Knight)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer gets up, but is told by Sheriff Glen Wallace that he's "a little too full." He heads for town; Wallace & his deputy, Toy, come to arrest him and take him to jail. His friend Shorty objects but is arrested too; they work on the sheriff's chicken farm, and the food is bad -- "the peas was green and the meat was fat." They fall on their knees and swear they'll drink no more. Released, they advise that "before we take a drink we'd better look twice." Refrain: "Comin' for to carry me home"
KEYWORDS: warning farming crime prison punishment drink friend police prisoner humorous
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 208-209, "Dawsonville Jail" (1 tet, 1 tune)
Roud #4960
RECORDINGS:
Ray Knight w. Ed Teague & Art Rosenbaum, "Dawsonville Jail" (on FolkVisions2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (tune, refrain)
cf. "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (lyrics)
cf. "Cryderville Jail" (subject)
NOTES [113 words]: Clearly not a traditional song, but I include it because (a) the form, structure and style are traditional, and (b) it uses tune, structure and refrain from a traditional song, and borrows a floating verse from another. It's *not* "Cryderville Jail"; in fact, according to the liner notes, the writers, who knew that song, deliberately chose a different structure. - PJS
According to the notes in Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, this is loosely based on something that actually happened to the authors; they were hauled in for drunkenness, but the authorities also had them play a concert in the prison! So apparently they weren't treated too harshly, and made a joke of it. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: RcDawsJa

Dawtie, The

DESCRIPTION: Jenny loves Johnny but "cannot, munnet marry yet! My peer auld mudder's unco bad." Johnny says he loves Jenny and would not wait. She would wait a year. Her mother says she'll die soon and sobs when Jenny is out of sight.
AUTHOR: Robert Anderson (source: Whistle-Binkie)
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Whistle-Binkie)
KEYWORDS: age courting travel dialog mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 899B, "I Canna, Mauna Marry Yet" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Rodger, editor, Whistle-Binkie, Fourth Series (Glasgow, 1842), pp. 109-110, "The Dawtie"
Roud #6255
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Haughs of Crumdale" (tune, per Whistle-Binkie)
File: GrD4899B

Day by Day the Little Daisy

DESCRIPTION: "Day by day the little daisy Looks up with its yellow eye. Never murmurs, never wishes It were hanging up on high." "God hath given each his station; Some have riches and high place, Some have lowly homes and labour; All may have God's precious grace."
AUTHOR: Cecil Frances (Humphreys) Alexander (1818-1895) (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Cecil Frances Alexander)
KEYWORDS: flowers religious | daisy humility
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 89, "God hath given each his station" (1 fragment)
Roud #25354
NOTES [118 words]: I can't help but wonder how big a bribe some oppressive landlord or nobleman gave to Cecil Frances Alexander to write this bit of garbage. Or was it a slave trader? Yes, Paul advises slaves (e.g.) to accept their fate (e.g. 1 Corinthans 7:21, Ephesians 6:5; see also 1 Peter 2:18), but these are not instructions to be mindlessly passive but rather to devote themselves to more important things.
Alice Kane seems to have been taught a lot of Alexander poems; she also cited her "We Are But Little Children Weak" and her famous "All Things Bright and Beautiful." She also wrote "Once In Royal David's City" and "There Is a Green Hill Far Away." For background on her, see "All Things Bright and Beautiful." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC089A

Day Columbus Landed Here, The

DESCRIPTION: "I never shall forget the day Columbus landed here. Myself and forty Indians were standing on the pier.... 'Twas I who built the Rockies up and placed them where they are; Sold whiskey to the Indians behind my little bar"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908
KEYWORDS: humorous talltale bragging
FOUND IN: Canada(West)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 178-179, "The Day Columbus Landed Here" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FJ178 (Partial)
Roud #4546
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song)"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Never Shall Forget
The Old Timer's Song
File: FJ178

Day Dah Light

See Banana Boat Song (Day-O) (File: RcBaBoSo)

Day I Lost My Job, The

DESCRIPTION: Higgins loses his job at Fitzpatrick's grocery for being drunk. When he cannot find work his family turns him out. He escapes from an officer who takes him for a tramp. Murphy invites him for a drink but they get into a fight. There's no comfort since
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: violence work drink unemployment hardtimes family wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30150
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Duggan, "The Day I Lost My Job" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3DILMJ

Day I Went to Rothesay O, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer and Maggie go to Rothesay and dance to a fiddle on the shore. Maggie changes into a blue gown to swim. She rides a donkey and breaks her dress hoops. That made her sad until "a kiss and a cuddle" made her feel better on their way home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: love travel clothes shore dancing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 289, "The Day I Went to Rothesay O" (1 text)
Roud #2142
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rothesay-O" (lyrics)
NOTES [35 words]: I have split this from "Rothesay-O" because the story is entirely different though the chorus is the same. One obviously provided the pattern for the other.
Rothesay is on the Island of Bute, west of Glasgow. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2289

Day Is Done (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Tell me why you are crying, my son, Are you frightened like most everyone?" The child has other fears and hopes, but "If you take my hand, my son, All will be well when the day is done"
AUTHOR: Peter Yarrow
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (recording, Peter, Paul and Mary)
KEYWORDS: children nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 541, "Day Is Done" (notes only)
DT, DAYISDON
File: ACSF541D

Day Is Done (II)

See Taps (Day Is Done) (File: ACSF292T)

Day is Dying in the West

DESCRIPTION: "Day is dying in the west, Heaven is touching earth with rest; Wait and worship while the night Sets her resting lamps alight...." "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts... O Lord most high." The stars and heavens pass away; let eternal morning come
AUTHOR: Mary Artemesia Lathbury (1841-1913) (source: BoyScoutSongbook1997); the tune "Chautaqua" is credited to William Fisk Sherwin by National-4HClubSongBook
EARLIEST DATE: 1997 (BoyScoutSongbook1997)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 466, "Day is Dying in the West" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 118, "Day is Dying in the West" (1 text, tune referenced)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 52, "Day is Dying in the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Chautaqua" (tune, according to BoyScoutSongbook1997)
cf. "All Night, All Day" (lyrics)
NOTES [73 words]: Although Averill cites thirteen references for this, I could not find it in any modern camp songbook, and only one songbook in my printed collection. It was so obscure that I initially conjectured it to be a variant form of "All Night, All Day," with which it shares the "Day is dying in the west" line. I rather doubt it's traditional despite Averill's citations -- I wonder if some of them might not in fact be "All Night, All Day." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: BScoDDy

Day is Past and Gone, The

DESCRIPTION: "The day is past and gone, The evening shades appear, Oh, may we all remember well The hour of death is near." The singer, preparing to sleep, things ahead to the sleep of death and asks to be taken to God when the time comes
AUTHOR: Words: John Leland (1754-1841) / Original Music: A. Chapin (source: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: death religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 45, "The Day is Past and Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 46, "The Day is Past and Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, pp. 158-161, "Watch That Star" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, "Evening Shade" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: F. E. Belden, Christ in Song (Washington: Review & Herald Publishing Assn, 1908 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #774, "The Day Is Past" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5718
RECORDINGS:
Lawrence McKiver and the McIntosh County Shouters, "Watch That Star" (on McIntosh1)
NOTES [17 words]: The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree/McIntoshShouters-RingShoutSongs text and track is a "ring shout" song. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RitS046

Day ob LIberty's Comin', De

DESCRIPTION: "Darkies don't you see de light, De day ob liberty's comin', comin'...." The "darkies" sing; the Lord says "Now let my people go." The slaves had worried that the Union troops would never arrive, but they will come soon and free the slaves
AUTHOR: George F. Root (writing as "Wurzel")
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (sheet music published by Root & Cady, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: slavery Civilwar freedom
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 322-324, "De Day ob Liberty's Comin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #14, pp. 56-57, "De day ob Liberty's comin'" (1 text)
NOTES [28 words]: George F. Root sometimes used the pseudonym "Wurzel" because "Wurzel" is German for "Root"; for background on this, see the notes to "Rosalie the Prairie Flower." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SCWF322

Day of Judgment, The

DESCRIPTION: "And the moon will turn to blood (x3), In that day. Oh you, my soul, And the moon will turn to blood in that day." "And you'll see the stars a-falling." "And you'll hear the saints a-singing." "And the Lord will say to the sheep ... go to him right hand."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 53, "The Day of Judgment" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12013
NOTES [208 words]: The verses of this song all come pretty directly from the various Biblical apocalypses:
The moon turning to blood is from Rev. 6:12; Acts 2:20 also says the moon will turn to blood, citing Joel 2:31. In addition, Mark13:24=Matt. 24:29 tells of the moon not giving light.
The very next sentence in Matthew and Mark (Matt. 24:29, Mark 13:25) tells of the stars falling, as does Rev. 6:13. In addition, Rev. 8:10-11 tells of the great star Wormwood falling from the sky to the earth bringing destruction, and another evil star falls in 9:1, and in 12:4 the dragon is sweeping stars from the sky.
We find saints singing around the throne of God in 15:3, where "those who had conquered the Beast" gather; in addition, the elders sing around the throne in Rev. 5:9, 11:17, and someone (it's not entirely clear who) is singing in Rev. 14:3. The creatures before the throne sing in Rev. 4:8. (As you can probably tell, there is a lot of singing in the Revelation to John.)
The last three verses, about the Lord talking to the sheep and the goats, refers specifically to the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25:32-45 (at the end of Matthew's apocalypse), which I've seen described as one of the most frightening parables in the New Testament. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG053

Day of Waterloo, The

DESCRIPTION: "Revolving time has brought the day That beams with glory's brightest ray In history's page or pet's lay -- The day of Waterloo." The singer urges the British to rejoice in the humbling of France, and praises Wellington and his soldiers
AUTHOR: "Lieutenant Skinner" ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads), from a notebook dated 1817
KEYWORDS: soldier battle nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 303, "The Day of Waterloo" (1 text)
Roud #2184
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scots Wha Hae (Bruce Before Bannockburn)" (tune)
File: Ord303

Day That I Played Baseball, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, my name it is O'Houlihan, I'm a man that's influential." He normally lives a quiet life, but one day is convinced to play baseball. He strikes out, he hits fouls but runs the bases anyway; he ends up drunk and on a cattle train
AUTHOR: Pat Rooney (Sr.)
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (sheet music, titled "The Day That I Played Base Ball")
KEYWORDS: humorous sports
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 58-59, "The Day That I Played Baseball" (1 text)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 17, "Baseball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp.189, "(no title)" (fragment, presented as a model for "The Horse Wrangler")
Roud #4961
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Horse Wrangler (The Tenderfoot)" [Laws B27]
SAME TUNE:
The Horse Wrangler (The Tenderfoot) [Laws B27] (File: LB27)
NOTES [98 words]: According to William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 122, "The two most famous clog dancers associated with Irish acts were both named Pat Rooney -- father and son, each very famous in his day (there was a third Pat Rooney, a grandson, who also danced). Patrick James Rooney, the patriarch, was born in Birmingham, England, in 1844 and emigrated to America. By the 1880s he was a top Irish song-and-dance man. A few of his own songs were successful, such as 'The Day I Played Base Ball,' 'Pretty Peggy,' and 'Is That Mr. Reilly.'" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Dean057

Day the Co'nel Leave and Gone

DESCRIPTION: The place mourned "the day the Co'nel leave and gone." The Colonel was born in Princess Town. The woodmen had to lower him down.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: burial death nonballad Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 8, "Day the Co'nel Leave and Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [34 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "This bongo song about 'The Colonel' is characteristic of a certain type of wake song in which the 'great deeds' of an outstanding man in the village are sung at his wake." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo008

Day the Pub Burned Down, The

DESCRIPTION: "Pull up a stump and lend and ear, A story I'll relate, About a sinful waste of beer I will elucidate." During a drought, the pub catches fire. There being no water, the fire brigade uses the beer to halt the fire. Residents seek revenge on the firemen
AUTHOR: Words: Bob Edwards (source: Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: humorous fire revenge drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 91, "The Day the Pub Burned Down" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 53 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 244-245, "(The Day the Pub Burned Down)" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Phil Garland, "The Day the Pub Burned Down" (on NZSongYngCntry)
NOTES [168 words]: Colquhoun's notes point out that there is no such town as "Wapakiwi," so this is obviously fiction, mostly a vehicle for the line, "Oh, firemen, firemen, save the beer, And let the (bloody) pub burn down!"
The song reports that, after the fire, "morporks haunt the old pub site" and "shickers... hunt the firemen down." NewZealandDictionary, p. 247, has three definitions for "shicker" as a noun (and one for it as an adjective), but all involve alcohol; definition (c) is "a drunk or drunkard."
Morris, p. 301, claims that the original form of "morpork" is "mopoke" is an aboriginal name for a bird whose call sounds like MO-poke." He goes on to explain that "The New Zealand Morepork is assuredly an owl" (NewZealandDictionary, p. 172, describes it as the koukou or ruru or New Zealand owl), but explains, "The bird is heard far more often than seen, hence confusion has arisen as to what is the bird that utters the note." Thus a morepork will only be found at a place that has bee thoroughly deserted. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Colq053

Day We Packed the Hamper for the Coast, The

DESCRIPTION: About the great difficulties a couple has "the day we packed the hamper for the coast." First the food is loaded in extravagant quantities. Then the wife tries to add cooking utensils; the husband proposes adding the cat. And so forth.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: travel husband wife humorous food fight
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H488, pp. 501-502, "The Day We Packed the Hamper for the Coast" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9466
NOTES [43 words]: The Sam Henry text (the only one known; I suspect Henry's informant was close to the author) seems to end in mid-song, with the hamper full but nothing much happening. I suspect an explosion -- either of the hamper or of the quarreling couple -- followed. - RBW
File: HHH488

Day We Went to Rothesay-O, The

See Rothesay-O (File: K282)

Day We Went to Rothesay, O, The

See Rothesay-O (File: K282)

Days Are Awa That I Hae Seen, The

DESCRIPTION: In words familiar from many songs, the girl says that she has been jilted through no real fault of her own. Her lover had bid her farewell. She will dress well and show no sorrow, and vows she will love him no more.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1818 (Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, but see notes); 1906 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting farewell abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 192-193, "Lord Ogilvie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1136, "Begone, Bonnie Laddie" (5 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 179, "The Days Are Awa That I Hae Seen" (1 text)
Roud #5530
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (subject) and references there
cf. "A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing)" [Laws O35] (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Went to Meet My True Love
I've Got Sweethearts
Come Back, Bonnie Laddie
NOTES [249 words]: This is one of those songs that seems to be assembled entirely out of floating materials. The first stanza in Ord-BothySongsAndBallads's version, "The flowers are bonnie and the trees are green, But the days are away that I hae seen," is of course reminiscent of "A-Growing." Both the first and second stanzas have parts reminiscent of "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight." The overall effect is more like "Farewell He." And a couple of lines remind me of "No, Never, No."
The combined effect seems to be unique, though.
The Glenbuchat text "Lord Ogilvie" makes the problem even worse. Unlike Ord's version, it is coherent, although the opening is vague. A girl asks what she has done wrong that the man (later said to be Lord Ogilvie) has abandoned her. He says she has done nothing wrong; he has simply chosen another girl. She despairs; he says he was testing her; she rejects him; he dies for love. Only a few words of this appear in Ord's version, and the Glenbuchat "Lord Ogilivie" text is the only version to mention the lord by name
Personally, I would consider this two songs (possibly more): the Glenbuchat "Lord Ogilvie" ballad and the Ord floating verse collection (which happens to have some lines from "Lord Ogilvie"). But until more "Lord Ogilvies" turn up, I will follow the Glenbuchat editors in filing the song here, simply to facilitate referencing the versions.- RBW
Greig/Duncan6 quoting Duncan: "From a young man called 'George' twenty-five years ago. Noted 29th June 1908." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord179

Days in Old Penobscot Stream, The

DESCRIPTION: "Out in Boston City In the middle of July," 25 lumberjacks leave for the camps. They arrive in Suhomuck by the Penobscot. The work goes well for a week -- until it starts raining. The food is mostly beans. The singer ironically praises boss and cook
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: logger work cook food
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 70-71, "The Days in Old Penobscot Stream" (1 text)
File: Gray070

Days of '49, The

See The Days of Forty-Nine (File: R198)

Days of Forty-Nine, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, "Old Tom Moore from the Bummer's Shore," a relic of the California gold rush of 1849, recalls the various characters that he encountered "in the days of old when we dug up the gold"
AUTHOR: Charles Bensell ("Charley Rhoades") ? (so, e.g., Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (The Great Emerson's New Popular Songster)
KEYWORDS: gold mining drink death moniker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1849 - Beginning of the California gold rush
FOUND IN: US(MA,Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Randolph 198, "The Days of Forty-Nine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 12, "The Days of Forty-Nine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #158, "The Days of Forty-Nine" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 91, "The Days of 'Forty-Nine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 54, "The Days of '49" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 654, "The Days of '49" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 327-329, "The Days of Forty-Nine" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 5588-559, "The Days of '49" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 285, "The Days of Forty-Nine" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 172-174, "The Days of '49" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Frank L. Warner [nephew of Frank M. Warner], "Songs My Uncle Taught Me" Vol. XI, No. 1 (Jul 1963), pp. 30-31, "The Days of '49" (1 text)
DT, DAYSOF49*
Roud #2803
RECORDINGS:
Jules Allen, "The Days of Forty-Nine" ((Victor 21627, 1928; Bluebird B-4959/Montgomery Ward M-4463, 1933)
Logan English, "The Days of '49" (on LEnglish02)
"Yankee" John Galusha, "Days of '49" (on USWarnerColl01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Good Old Days of '50, '1, and '2" (answer to this song)
File: R198

Days of Hard Luck Swagmen Seem So Long Ago, The

DESCRIPTION: "The days of hard luck (hard case) swagment/swaggies seem so long ago, When they roamed about the country, carrying their load. The places where they camped beneath the open sky, Are just forgotten places (or "hardly ever noticed"] by people passing by
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2009 (Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ)
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 282, "(The days of hard luck swagmen/The days of hard-case swaggies)" (2 short texts)
File: Garl282

Days of Seventy-Six, The

DESCRIPTION: "The days of '76, boys, We ever must revere, Our fathers took their muskets then To fight for freedom dear.... Oh 'tis a great delight to march and fight As a Yankee volunteer." Battles of the Revolutionary War are recalled, and potential enemies warned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: war freedom nonballad America rebellion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 18, 1775 - Battle of Lexington. A British force routs the American Minutemen. The colonials gain some revenge as the Redcoats advance on Concord
Dec 25, 1776 - Washington leads his troops across the Delaware to rout the British at Trenton
Oct 17, 1777 - Saratoga. British General John Burgoyne, advancing from Canada into New York, is forced to surrender when the British forces in the mid-Atlantic region do not undertake their planned advance
Oct 19, 1781 - Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown causes the British to give up hope of reconquering America
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 19, "In the Days of '76" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6666
File: LoF019

Days of the Past Are Gone, The

DESCRIPTION: "The harness hangs in the old log barn, The wagon rots in the shed...." "For we've caught up with the Joneses now, with a fine new car and a truck...." "Them were the days when We were young and able. We rode good broncs, and we had fast dogs...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: age cowboy recitation
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 91, "The Days of the Past Are Gone" (1 text)
File: Ohr091

Days of the Week (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I went to visit a friend one day ... she couldn't go out to play, Because it was her washing day, This is the way she washed away." Repeat with ironing, mending, baking, cleaning, until it is "her playing day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 67, "Days of the Week" (3 texts)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nuts in May" (tune, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
cf. "This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes" (theme)
cf. "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (tune) and references there
NOTES [33 words]: This shares both a plot idea and a tune with "This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes"; I suspect they are derived from the same stock. But the form is perhaps just different enough to split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: OpGa067

Days of the Week (II)

See A Week's Matrimony (A Week's Work) (File: Pea322)

Days We Went a Gipsying, The

See In Days When We Went Gypsying (File: SWMS220)

Daysman, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer quits as day labourer for bad wages, takes his only fiver and goes to a hiring fair, but receives no bid. He spends the five on a maid pretending to hire him. Now he's back at the same wages as before, but without his fiver.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (IREButcher01)
KEYWORDS: sex lie money work drink
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #2942
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "The Daysman" (on IREButcher01)
File: RcDaysm

De Ballet of de Boll Weevil

See The Boll Weevil [Laws I17] (File: LI17)

De Blues Ain't Nothin'

See Blues Ain' Nothin, De (File: San234)

De Boatman Dance

DESCRIPTION: A minstrel song about a boatman's life, observing that there is no one like a boatman. "O dance, de boatman, dance all night 'till broad daylight, And go home wid de gals in de morning. Hi, ho, de boatman row, Floating down de ribber on de Ohio"
AUTHOR: Daniel Decatur Emmett
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.22(54)), but reportedly copyrighted 1843
KEYWORDS: dancing river minstrel ship sailor
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 492-493, "Dance the Boatman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan3 484, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "The Boatman's Dance" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 223, "Hi You Boat Row" (1 fragment)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 13, "Dance, Boadman, Dance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 566, "De Boatman Dance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 78-79, "De Boatmen's Dance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 76-77, "De Boatmen's Dance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 39, "Boatman's Dance" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 175, 346, 347, 348, 432, 502-509, "Boatmen"/"Oh, the Boatmen Dance" (notes, with 3 texts on pp. 507-509, dramatically altered; bibliography on pp. 699-701)
OneTuneMore, p. 37, "Mississippi Boatman's Song" (1 text, 1 tune, altered)
DT, BOATDANC*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Dance the Boatman Dance" is in Part 1, 7/14/1917.
Roud #5898
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cotten, "Boatman Dance" (on Cotten02)
Byrd Moore & his Hot Shots, "Boatman's Dance" (Gennett, unissued, 1930)
Eleazar Tillet, "Come Love Come" (on USWarnerColl01) [a true mess; the first verse is "Nancy Till", the chorus is "Come, Love, Come, the Boat Lies Low," and it uses part of "De Boatman Dance" as a bridge.)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.22(54), "The Boatman of de Ohio" ("De boatman dance, de boatman sing"), G. Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Firth b.25(239), "Dance de Boatmen"; Harding B 15(81b), Harding B 11(352), Firth b.28(38) View 1 of 2 [almost entirely illegible], "[De] Boatman Dance"; Firth b.25(595/596) View 1 of 2, "The Boatmen Dance"; Harding B 11(1117), "Boatman's Dance"
LOCSheet, sm1844 390930, "De Boatman Dance, Ethiopian Ballad," C. G. Christman (New York), 1844 ["by Philip Ernst"]; also sm1848 441710, "De Boatmen's Dance" (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Seeing the Elephant (When I Left the States for Gold)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Seeing the Elephant (When I Left the States for Gold) (File: Beld347)
Cherry Creek Emigrant's Song (File: CAFS590A)
The Shaker Dance (Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 58)
Our Boatman ("Our Boatman is a Union man, Come, find a better if you can") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 3)
Oh! Boatman Haste (words by George Pope Morris, 1843; cf. Jon W. Finson, _The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song_, Oxford University Press, 1994, p.31)
NOTES [96 words]: Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 181, says that the melody of this piece may derive from a fiddle tune, "Ohio River," which was credited to George Knauff and supposedly composed 1839. This would precede the copyright of "De Boatman Dance" but follow what is said to be the oldest broadside, so there something of an historical tangle to be resolved in that case.
The version in Heart-Songs credits this to "Dan D. Smith," which is an interesting tangle of names all by itself. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BMRF566

De Fust Banjo

See De Fust Banjo (The Banjo Song; The Possum and the Banjo; Old Noah) (File: R253)

De Los Dorados de Pancho Villa (I Am a Soldier of Pancho Villa)

DESCRIPTION: Spanish. "I am a soldier of Pancho Villa, Of his dorados I am but one." The singer says it does not matter if he is killed, because there are other soldiers. He will fight to the end. All Villa's followers will gladly die for him
AUTHOR: unknown (English translation by Jenny Wells Vincent)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (SIng Out!, volume 2, #12, according to Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage soldier Mexico nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 117, "I Am a Soldier of Pancho Villa" (1 text)
File: Grim117

De Paris a Rochelle

See C'est L'Aviron (Pull on the Oars) (File: FJ058)

De Shucking ob de Corn

DESCRIPTION: Named for the chorus, "Ain't you goin' (x3) to de shuckin' ob de corn? Yes, I'se goin' (x3)... to de shuckin ob de corn." Verses are various: White children go to school to learn, negroes to fight; a beau offers his love gold; Satan tempts the singer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: work food courting floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 199, "De Shucking ob de Corn" (1 text plus a fragment of the chorus)
File: Br3199

De Valera

DESCRIPTION: The singer favors the republic rather than Redmond's Home Rule. "At Ringsend in Boland's De Valera took his stand." "We'll carry arms openly as in the days of yore The defence of the realm won't be heard of anymore When De Valera's president of Ireland"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: rebellion England Ireland nonballad patriotic political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 24, "De Valera" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pride of Petravore" (tune, according to Tunney-StoneFiddle)
NOTES [909 words]: de Valera -- Eamon de Valera (1882-1975) was born in America but became a leader of the 1916 rising, and barely avoided execution after its collapse. He became the President of Sinn Fein in 1917, then of the rebel Irish parliament; he opposed the treaty which led to the partition of Ireland, but formed the Fianna Fail party and won the 1932 election, then established the 1937 constitution. He remained Ireland's leading politician for fifty years, serving as President from 1959 to 1973. - RBW
John Redmond (1856-1918) led the Home Rule Party. The Home Rule issue, which might have caused an Irish Civil War, was made a side issue during the World War, and Redmond's political fate was sealed by the Easter Rising. After the war the Home Rule party lost lost power to Sinn Fein. (source: John Redmond at the History Learning Site)
During the Easter Rising, in April 1916, Eamon de Valera led the Irish Republican Brotherhood [IRB] Third Battalion attack at "Boland's Mills, with outposts from Westland Row Station to Ringsend and at Mount Street Bridge." (source: Dublin Flames Kindled A Nation's Spirit: Extract from Irish Independent 1916-66 Supplement at IrelandOn-Line site) - BS
(I have to disagree with the History Site's interpretation of Redmond pretty strongly. The strong majority of histories I have read say that the largest group in Ireland in the period 1880-1915 was in favor of Home Rule. The only threat of civil war was from the Ulster Protestants. General Irish opinion did not begin to shift until after the British botched the response to the 1916 Easter Rising. Ireland *did* have a Civil War in the 1920s, and it was the de Valera faction who started it, attacking the legitimate government. Poor John Redmond, who ended up picking up the pieces of the Parnellite fiasco, tried to find a solution which would satisfy both sides -- Home Rule. The British muffed *that*, too, and Redmond died too soon to find another answer, and of course it's easy, now that Ireland is independent, for people to say they were for it all along, meaning that many songs that were once the province of a militant -- even terrorist -- minority are now the general property of the Irish people.)
(For the background to this controversy, see the notes to "Home Rule for Ireland" and "Loyal Song Against Home Rule." For how it worked out, including the start of the Irish Civil War, see "General Michael Collins." For more on the relations between de Valera and the government he both helped found and fought against, see "Legion of the Rearguard.")
The reference to the "defence of the realm" could have two interpretations, depending on the exact dating of the song. If it is during World War I, it might refer to the British attempts to raise troops in Ireland. First they picked up volunteers -- with little success; according to Chandler/Beckett, p. 243, less than 11% of eligible Irish men volunteered, compared to about 25% of those in England, Scotland, and Ireland. Volunteerism having failed to supply enough corpses for Douglas Haig and his staff of butchers, the British then started trying to impose conscription -- yet another stupid move that helped to turn Ireland against them.
If, on the other hand, the song is in fact from the time it was collected, then the comment about defence presumably refers to the fact that the British, under the Free State treaty, kept control of a handful of ports for naval use. Ports which they eventually gave back to Ireland when de Valera and Neville Chamberlan were running Ireland and England (OxfordCompanion, p. 550). It was one of Chamberlain's less-noticed mistakes; it made the Battle of the Atlantic much more deadly for Britain. Had he just promised to turn them over, say, ten years later, it might well have shortened World War Two.)
Eamon de Valera is one of the great enigmas of history. Like Joan of Arc, or Richard III, or Julius Caesar, he inspires violently conflicting opinions. Coogan's monumental biography on, p. 2 describes how difficult it is to sum him up:
"'Dev.' was the greatest political mover and shaker of post-revolutionary Ireland. His towering figure continues to cast shadows that are both benign and baleful. Therefore, as a biographer, I have been conscious of the two linked and major problems in the course of trying to chart the career of this extraordinary man: First, to convey a sense of his importance to Ireland and her relationships with Great Britain, America and the members of the British Commonwealth; second, while doing so to steer between the Scylla of hagiography and the Charybdis of denigration. Practically everything of substance written about him falls into one category or the other. There is no via media where Eamon de Valera is concerned. The problem is compounded by the fact that not only did de Valera shape history, he attempted to write it too...."
The difficulty, I think, is that de Valera was a man who operated by assumptions -- that Ireland was somehow unique, that the Catholic Church was absolutely correct and great (except where he disagreed with it), that the British were the enemy and extremely untrustworthy, and that he was himself a moderate steering between the radical Cathal Brugha and the realist Michael Collins factions of the Irish independence movement. All of these are, of course, just assumptions, and how one interprets de Valera will depend entirely on how many of those assumptions one accepts. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: TSF024

De Valera Had a Canary

DESCRIPTION: "De Valera had a canary, Up the leg of his drawers; It fell down and fell on the ground And whistled 'The Protestant Boys.'" "De Valera had a canary... He was sleeping and it was peeping Up the leg of his drawers."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: bird clothes | Eamon de Valera
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 57, "(De Valera had a canary)" (1 text)
NOTES [59 words]: For background on Eamon de Valera (1882-1975), long-time head of state of Ireland, see the notes to "De Valera." Since this song is from Ulster, and de Valera was very much an Irish nationalist, I have to think that this is intended to put de Valera down, but I don't really see what the point is. Of course, I didn't and don't live in Northern Ireland. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PKKB057C

De'il and the Feathery Wife, The

DESCRIPTION: "By a' the plagues that's on the earth," hunger and a scolding wife are the worst. The devil comes to a farmer, offering to make him solvent. The devil will take his soul unless the farmer finds a beast he can't name. The farmer feathers his wife and wins
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 ("High-Kilted Muse" manuscript, #38)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "By a' the plagues that's on the earth," hunger and a scolding wife are the worst. The devil appears to a poor farmer, offering to make him solvent. In return, the devil will take his soul unless the farmer shows him a beast he can't name. The farmer disguises his wife in feathers, says there are more like her, and wins the bet
KEYWORDS: devil clothes disguise animal humorous hardtimes gambling
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
Roud #12551
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "The Devil and the Feathery Wife" (Piotr-Archive #300, recorded 10/11/2022)
NOTES [20 words]: This motif -- "Bringing the Devil an Unknown Animal" -- is sufficiently well-known that it is Thomsom motif K216.2. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio300

De'il Stick the Minister

DESCRIPTION: "Our wife she keeps baith beef and yell And tea to treat the Minister... While I the water-stand maun try, May the De'il stick the Minister." The minister can explain the Covenant and curse Papists, but he's otherwise grasping and useless
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: clergy curse humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 116-117, "De'il Stick the Minister" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR116 (Partial)
Roud #3153
NOTES [75 words]: Although reported seemingly only in Northumberland, the references to the Covenant seem to imply Scottish origin. As, for that matter, does the clear anti-clericalism. (Though we might note that the Covenanting army long was engaged around Newcastle and other parts of Northumberland.) I'm amazed it doesn't quote the passages in Matthew and James which condemn the clergy. Apparently The Minister didn't preach those passages to the congregation. - RBW
File: StoR116

Deacon's Calf

DESCRIPTION: The deacon goes out to feed his calf; it kicks over the bucket and the deacon too. He reviles it; were it not for Christian love, he'd tear the calf's miserable soul apart. Ch.: "Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha, what makes the monkey laugh/To see the deacon feed his calf"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Georgia Yellow Hammers)
KEYWORDS: curse farming humorous animal clergy
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Georgia Yellow Hammers, "The Deacon's Calf" (Victor V-40004, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Le Petit Moine (The Little Monk)" (subject)
cf. "Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady)" (floating lyrics)
File: RcDCalf

Deacon's Daughter, The

DESCRIPTION: A young man is engaged to a "treacherous" deacon's daughter. Just before the wedding, in the middle of the night, the lady runs off with her blacksmith lover. The final stanzas tell how those left behind piously wring their hands
AUTHOR: Wheeler Hakes?
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: betrayal elopement marriage
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 23-25, "The Deacon's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DEACDAUT*
Roud #4674
File: FO023

Dead and Gone

DESCRIPTION: "Dead and gone, Lord, dead and gone, All the friends I have, dead and gone. "My poor mother died a-shouting, All the friends I have...." "Dead and gone, dead and gone...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: religious death nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 34, "Dead and Gone" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #10973
File: Rose034

Dead Horse Chanty

See Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse) (File: Doe014)

Dead Horse, The

See Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse) (File: Doe014)

Dead Little Boys, The

See The Wife of Usher's Well [Child 79] (File: C079)

Dead Man's Chest

DESCRIPTION: "Fifteen men on a dead man's chest, Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum, Drink and the devil had done for the rest." A combination of rebellion and civil war in a (pirate?) crew results in the death of captain, bosun, cook, and most of the rest of the crew.
AUTHOR: Allison & Waller ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1915
KEYWORDS: death homicide rebellion pirate
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 512-514, "The Buccaneers (The Dead Man's Chest)" (1 text)
DT, YOHOHO*
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest
Yo Ho Ho
NOTES [119 words]: The origin of this piece is more than usually confused. The initial quatrain appears in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (1883), but he reports that he had it from another source. (According to David Cordingly, Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life among the Pirates, Harcourt Brace, 1997 [copyright 1995], p. 5, the Dead Man's Chest comes from Charles Kingsley's At Last.)
In 1901, the full form of the piece is said to have appeared in a musical by Allison & Waller. Did they write it? I don't know. The Lomaxes printed their version from Seven Seas, September 1915. Apparently no author was listed.
Chances are that this is not a folk song, but it may have folk roots somewhere. - RBW
File: LxA512

Dead Man's Journey, The

DESCRIPTION: It was in the spring of (?) Just a little before the war was o'er, That 'twas mine the mail bags to transport." The singer and Josh Murphy set out from Stevenson's Post; Murphy is killed by Indians. The path comes to be called Deadman's Journey
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: travel Indians(Am.) homicide
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 140-141, "(The Dead Man's Journey)" (1 excerpted text)
NOTES [106 words]: The dating on this piece is curious and difficult. Burt-AmericanMurderBallads's text dates it to (18)54, but the next line says "Just a little before the war was o'er," which implies 1864. And the destination was "Totten Fort," which -- if Burt-AmericanMurderBallads is correct in assuming this is Fort Totten -- was not established until 1867.
There is also the problem of the Indian tribes listed. The event took place in North Dakota (the supposed singer, Carlie Reynolds, was a historical person who died at the Little Bighorn), but the piece mentions Chippewa (Ojibwe) and Sioux (Dakota) -- and that territory was entirely Sioux. - RBW
File: Burt140

Dead Pig, The

See The Sow Took the Measles (File: LoF015)

Deadly Wars, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh the deadly wars are past and blawn And gentle peace returning." The singer laments all the good people killed in the war. In the Burns text, he comes home and begs for lodging -- and meets the girl he loved long ago. She still loves him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1793 (published by Burns as "When wild War's deadly Blast was blawn")
KEYWORDS: soldier separation return reunion
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #31, pp. 167-168, "The Deadly Wars" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 238-239, "The Deadly Wars" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 24, #3 (1975), p, 23, "The Deadly Wars" (1 text, 1 tune, the Jeannie Robertson version)
James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #406,, pp. 543-545, "When wild War's deadly Blast was blawn" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1793)
Roud #7284
NOTES [128 words]: The Robert Burns version of this is eight eight-line stanzas long, and is a fairly familiar story. The only traditional version appears to have been Jeannie Robertson's, which is only a quarter this long and has a somewhat simplified tune. Even Burns gets folk processed sometimes.
To this compare: (No editor listed), The British Musical Miscellany; Being a Collection of Scotch, English, & Irish Songs, T. Turnbull (Edinburgh, 1805 (available on Google Books), pp. 1-4, "The Soldier's Return":
When wild war's deadly blasts were blawn,
And gentle peace returning,
And eyes again wi' pleasure beam'd
That had been blear'd wi' mourning.
I left the lines and tented fields
Where lang I'd been a lodger,
A humble knapsack a' my wealth,
A poor but honest sodger.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: SOv23n3

Deaf Woman's Courtship, The

DESCRIPTION: An old man comes to an old woman and asks her is she will (mend his jacket). She says she cannot hear him. He asks about other mundane tasks. She still can't hear him. He asks her to marry. She says, "I hear you now quite clearly"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd MS.)
KEYWORDS: age courting humorous questions
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England,Scotland) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 265, "Hard of Hearing" (1 text)
Randolph 353, "Old Woman, Old Woman" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 136, "Old Woman, Old Woman" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 187, "Hard of Hearing" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 187, "Hard of Hearing" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 105, "The Deaf Woman's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 178, "The Deaf Woman's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 54, "Old Woman (The Deaf Woman's Courtship)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 78, pp. 128-129, "Old Woman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 243-244, "The Deaf Woman's Courtship" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 10-11, "The Deaf Woman's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 535, "Old woman, old woman, shall we go a-shearing?" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #94, p. 89, "(Old woman, old woman, shall we go a-shearing?)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 168, "(Old wife, old wife)" (1 short text)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 136-137, "The Deaf Woman's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 237, 417, "Deaf Woman's Courtship" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 119, "The Deaf Woman's Courtship (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 7, "The Deaf Woman's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 72, "Deaf Woman's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 19, "The Deaf Woman's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 8, "Speak Louder" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DEAFWOMN*
ADDITIONAL: Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, p.74, "Hard of Hearing" (1 text)
Roud #467
RECORDINGS:
Roxana Robinson, "Deaf Woman's Courtship" (Piotr-Archive #697, recorded 10/01/2023)
File: R353

Deanna Durbi

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Deanna Durbin she wore a turban, Until she was two, four, six, eight...." "Deanna Durbin lost her turban In a pool of water."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Opie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope clothes | counting water
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #97, "Deanna Durban she wore a turban"; #96, "Deanna Durban lost her turban" (2 texts)
Roud #20034
File: AJRR096

Dear Anne

DESCRIPTION: "Dear Anne, dear Anne, You're only sixteen, Your father's a farmer And you are the queen. Put your hand on your hips, And a haw, haw, haw, haw (x2), Dear Anne, dear Anne, come dancing with me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: royalty dancing father farming
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 123-124, "Dear Anne" (1 text)
Roud #38147
NOTES [41 words]: Britain did, of course, have a ruling Queen Anne (reigned 1702-1714), but her father was assuredly not a farmer (he was James II and VII). Plus Anne was not a queen at the age of sixteen, and at that age had no anticipation of ever being queen. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI123C

Dear Annie

DESCRIPTION: "My heart's most broken, And I have wondered why, I'm left without a token, Without one Annie's smile." "I know it was wrong to leave her, To leave against her will, But blame not me, dear Annie, I fondly love you still"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: separation love
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 321, "Dear Annie; I Left My Love in England" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W Amos Abrams, "Della Adams Bostic: Sweet Singer of Old Songs," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), pp. 144-145, "Dear Annie" (1 text)
Roud #6652
File: BrS4321

Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection)

DESCRIPTION: "I once did have a dear companion (or: "love with fond affection"); Indeed I thought his love my own Until a dark eyed girl betrayed me And now he cares no more for me." The girl, looking at her baby, recalls her unfaithful love and regrets her shame
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love infidelity pregnancy lyric floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,SE,So) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #169, pp. 1-2, "Go and Leave Me" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1145, "Go and Leave Me If You Wish It" (6 texts, 2 tunes)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 209-210, "Fond Affection" (1 text)
Randolph 755, "The Broken Heart" (7 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more, 2 tunes, though some, especially the fragments, may not go here; the "A" text contains material from "I Loved You Better Than You Knew" and several others, notably "H," are or are mixed with "The Broken Engagement (II -- We Have Met and We Have Parted)"' "F" is "Thou Hast Learned to Love Another")
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 493-495, "The Broken Heart" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 755A)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 111, "The Dear Companion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 43, "The Dear Companion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 10, "Dear Companion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 181-182, "Go And Leave Me If You Wish To" (1 text)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 58, "Once I Loved" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 153, "Fond Affection" (13 text, including several much longer than the usual versions; the "M" text in particular seems conflate; the first four verses may be a separate song beginning "Darling, do you know who loves you?")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 153, "Fond Affection" (5 excerpts, 5 tunes)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 142-143, "Fond Affection" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 90-91, "Fond Affection" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 50-51, "Fond Affection" (1 text, 1 tune, linked with "Little Darling Pal of Mine" and "Columbus Stockade Blues")
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, p. 166, "(Dear Companion") (1 text, tune referenced)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 32-33, "Now Go and Leave Me If You Wish" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 59, "Blue-Eyed Lover" (1 text, 1 tune, an incredibly composite version I file here for lack of any better idea; it has lyrics from many songs of this type and even "The Widow in the Cottage by the Sea")
Peacock, p. 453, "Go and Leave Me If You Wish, Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 323, "Fond Affection" (1 short text, with this title and some lyrics which belong here but with other elements reminiscent of "Carrickfergus")
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 173, "Once I Loved a Railroad Brakeman" (1 text, with the lyrics of "Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection)" although I suspect the tune and chorus floated in from "Columbus Stockade Blues")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 164, "Dear Companion" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 51, "The Dear Companion" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DEARCOMP* GOLEAVME ONCEILUV
Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), p. 93 "The Betrayed Girl" (1 text)
Roud #411 and 459
RECORDINGS:
[Clarence] Ashley & [Gwen] Foster, "Let Him Go, God Bless Him" (Vocalion 02666, 1934; rec. 1933]
Dock Boggs, "I Hope I Live a Few More Days" (on Boggs3, BoggsCD1 -- an incredibly complex composite of lost love/abandonment songs, jumbled together and confused, but seemingly with more lines from this song than any other)
Carter Family, "Fond Affection" (Victor 23585, 1931; Montgomery Ward M-4744/Bluebird B-6176, 1935)
Daisy Chapman, "Go and Leave Me" (on SCDChapman01)
Walter Coon, "Fond Affection" (Superior 2521, 1930)
Debra Cowan, "Dear Companion" (on HCargillFamily)
Crowder Brothers, "Leave Me Darling, I Don't Mind" (Melotone 7-04-70, 1937)
Clarence Green, "Fond Affection" (Columbia 15311-D, 1928)
Texas Gladden, "Once I Knew a Pretty Fair Miss" (on USTGladden01 -- a fragment too short to classify but with a feeling similar to this piece)
Sid Harkreader, "Many Days With You I Wandered" (Vocalion 15100, 1925)
Kelly Harrell, "Bye and Bye You Will Forget Me" (Victor 20535, 1926; on KHarrell02 -- clearly this song, though it borrows lyrics from "Bye and Bye You Will Forget Me")
Mainer's Mountaineers "Let Her Go God Bless Her" (Bluebird [Canada] B-6104, 1935)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Go and Leave Me If You Wish" (Brunswick 293, 1929; rec. 1928)
David Miller, "Many Times With You I've Wandered" (Champion 15429, 1928)
Mrs Way, "Go and Leave Me If You Wish, Love" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wayfaring Stranger" (approximate tune) and references there
cf. "The Bonny Boy (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "Columbus Stockade Blues" (lyrics)
cf. "Sweet Heaven (II)" (lyrics)
cf. "Saint James Infirmary" (the "let her go" lyrics)
cf. "Good Night, Bye-Bye, Forever" (theme, some lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Once I Loved with Fond Affection
If It's In Your Heart
I Once Did Love Your Fond Affection
Fond of Affection
Raven Dark Hair
Fond Devotion
Future Days
Separation
NOTES [144 words]: This piece would appear to break up into two subfamilies, "Dear Companion" ("I once did have a dear companion") and "A Fond Affection." I tried to separate the two -- but when I saw the incredible mixture in Randolph, I gave up. - RBW
It's also getting harder to distinguish "Columbus Stockade Blues" from this song. We use the "Columbus Stockade" line as a marker, but several versions of "Dear Companion" overlap heavily with that song in lyrics. - PJS
So true. Peacock's version, e.g., is "Columbus Stockade Blues" minus the first verse, though the tune is different.
Jean Ritchie, incidentally, rewrote this as "My Dear Companion," beginning "Oh have you seen my dear companion, For he was all the world to me." Her version can be found on pates 62-63 of Sing Out!, Volume 41, #3 (1996/1997). Apparently it has become mildly popular in country circles. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R755

Dear Cork City by the Lee

DESCRIPTION: The singer is far from Cork but recalls its hills, chimes, streets, restaurants in Coal-Quay, hurling and "Glen Rovers' Christy Ring"; "now for the finish we'll drink a pint... We can never forget ... the night we won the Free State Championship"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: pride sports drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 112-113, "Dear Cork City by the Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [119 words]: The first and second verses -- before the hurling verses -- remind me of "Cork's Own Town" (I) for the description of local streets and Fishamble or Coal-Quay restaurants.
OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "I suppose it is just possible that there are people looking at this song who might not be aware that Glen Rovers Hurling Club is situated in Blackpool, on the Northside of the city. Equally, it is possible that they might not know that Christy Ring, one of the most famous hurlers of all time, is the 'rock of Cloyne' referred to in the song, for Cloyne, in East Cork, is his native place though he now lives in the city. The 'eight counties in a row' refers to their many victories in the Cork County Championship." - BS
File: OCan112

Dear Emerald Isle

DESCRIPTION: "...an orphan will bless you If you'll help a poor boy from the dear emerald isle." His father died working the bad soil. The sheriff turned out the child and mother. Mother died and the boy left Ireland. He hopes to return when Ireland is free
AUTHOR: George W. York (source: Irish Song Book No. 1, 617 Irish Songs and Ballads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (617 Irish Songs and Ballads); in tradition, 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: poverty emigration burial death farming begging hardtimes starvation Ireland father mother
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Manus O'Conor, Irish Com-All-Ye's (New York, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 110, "The Dear Emerald Isle" ("Kind friends, will ye help a poor, weary stranger") (1 text)
Wehman Bros. Pocket-Size Irish Song Book [of 175 Songs] No. 1 (New York, 1909 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 9, "The Dear Emerald Isle" ("Kind friends, will ye help a poor weary stranger") (1 text)
Six Hundred and Seventeen Irish Songs and Ballads (New York: Wehman Bros., n.d. ("Digitized by Irish Traditional Music Archive")), p. 108, "The Dear Emerald Isle" ("Kind friends, will ye help a poor, weary stranger")
Wehman's Collection of 163 Songs No. 38 (New York, 1893 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 2, "The Dear Emerald Isle" ("Kind friends will ye help a poor, weary stranger") (1 text)
Roud #30111
RECORDINGS:
John Connors, "The Shamrock" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
SAME TUNE:
I Always Shall Speak of Old Ireland with Pride
NOTES [97 words]: The book versions, but not the MUNFLA-Leach text, end with what hints at an earlier version as an aisling. The orphan -- addressing a person we haven't known of before -- says, "Don't say no more, boy, for I too am a daughter; And to think of her wrongs, oh it makes my blood rile; And I pray that the time is not very far distant When the green shall wave proud o'er the dear em'rald isle." This lacks the aisling introduction where the boy would have had a vision of Ireland as a woman. See the discussion of the aisling form in the notes to "Eileen McMahon" and "Granuaille." - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3DeEmI

Dear Evalina

DESCRIPTION: The singer met Evalina "way down in the meadow." They courted for a time, but after three years he still has no money; though he cannot marry her, "Dear Evalina, Sweet Evalina, My love for thee shall never, never die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (sheet music published by E. A. Daggett of New York)
KEYWORDS: love courting poverty separation
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Randolph 823, "Sweet Evelina" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 686, "Sweet Evelina" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 101, pp. 211-212, "Evalina" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 87, "Sweet Evelena" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2267, p. 153, "Sweet Evelina" (1 reference)
Heart-Songs, pp. 417-418, "Dear Evelina, Sweet Evelina" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #13, p. 51, "Sweet Evelina" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 113, "(Sweet Evelina -- parody)" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 257 "Sweet Evelina" (1 text)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 95, "Dear Evelina" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 49, "Dear Evelina" (1 short text)
Roud #15352
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "Sweet Evalina" (Supertone 9643, 1930)
The Blue Sky Boys, "Sweet Evalina" (Bluebird 7348, c. 1938)
W. Lee O'Daniel & the Light Crust Doughboys, "Dear Evalina, Sweet Evalina" (Vocalion 04440, 1938)
Ola Belle & Bud Reed, "Sweet Evalina" (on Reeds01)
Phil Reeve & Ernest Moody, "Sweet Evalina" (Victor 21188, 1928)
SAME TUNE:
The Retreat of the Grand Army from Bull Run ("Way down in Virginia," by Ernest Cliftan) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 193)
NOTES [66 words]: The 1863 sheet music of this credits tohe words to "M" and the music to "T." I would assume this means that it was taken from tradition. It seems to have been picked up fairly quickly; according to Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 153, there was another Civil War-era broadside printed by Magnus. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R823

Dear Evelina, Sweet Evalina

See Dear Evalina (File: R823)

Dear Honey

DESCRIPTION: A man writes to "dear Honey." "To follow after you It is my whole intent." He dreams of being with her but "when I wake and find myself A-lying all alone," the night seems long. If he dies before they meet he would have her "keep these few lines"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed)
KEYWORDS: courting love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 168-169, "Dear Honey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6376
File: Ow1E168

Dear Irish Boy, The

See My Dear Irish Boy (File: HHH142)

Dear Irish Maid, The

See My Dear Irish Boy (File: HHH142)

Dear John

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

Dear Land

DESCRIPTION: "When comes the day all hearts to weigh if they be staunch or vile, Shall we forget the sacred debt we owe our mother isle?" The singer recalls the wrongs of Ireland, and his family's long devotion
AUTHOR: Sliach Cuilinn (John O'Hara, 1822-1890)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Sparling)
KEYWORDS: Ireland patriotic
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 54-55, "Dear Land" (1 text)
Roud #9558
NOTES [38 words]: John O'Hara was a writer associated with The Nation, though he is almost forgotten today; this is pretty definitely his best and most famous work. Supposedly Charles Gavin Duffy whispered the first few lines on his deaathbed. - RBW
File: Dean054

Dear Little Shamrock, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a dear little plant that grows on our isle" brought by St Patrick "and he called it the dear little shamrock of Ireland." The shamrock still grows. "When its three little leaves are extended" they denote that "we together should toil."
AUTHOR: Words: Andrew Cherry (1762-1812)
EARLIEST DATE: 1806 (sung by Mrs Mountain, Dublin Opera House, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 175, "The Dear Little Shamrock" (1 fragment, too short to be really certain whether it is this)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 112-113, "The Dear Little Shamrock" (1 text)
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 46-48, "The Green Little Shamrock of Ireland" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #94, "Dear Little Shamrock" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 105, "The Green Little Shamrock of Ireland" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 149-150, 497, "The Green Little Shamrock of Ireland"
Roud #13278
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(658), "The Dear Little Shamrock," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(823), Harding B 11(824), 2806 c.15(239), "The Dear Little Shamrock"
LOCSheet, sm1870 02376, "The Dear Little Shamrock," Whittemore Swan & Stephens (Detroit), 1870; also sm1875 00381, sm1878 07872, "[The] Dear Little Shamrock" (tune)
NOTES [102 words]: The shamrock has been associated with St. Patrick for centuries; the earliest legend has it that he used it to explain the concept of the Trinity. (The argument, however, is not found in his extant writings.) In the earliest accounts, though, there is no claim that Patrick actually imported the shamrock -- and, of course, good evidence that he didn't.
Either there are two tunes for this (not unlikely), or there have been multiple claims; Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland lists the tune as by "Shield," but [no author listed] A Library of Irish Music (published by Amsco) credits the tune to "W. Jackson." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OCon112

Dear Lord and Father of Mankind

DESCRIPTION: "Dear Lord and Father of mankind, forgive our foolish ways; reclothe us in our rightful mind, in purer lives thy service find, in deeper reverence, praise." The speaker requests quietness and calm
AUTHOR: Words: John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (source: hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 163, "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 108, "Dear Lord and Father" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 54, "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Dear Lord and Father" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 65) (12th edition, p. 94)
NOTES [179 words]: Extremely popular both as a poem and as a hymn (hymnary.org lists 463 hymnals that have it!), though I would not bet much on it having ever been passed from person to person outside a church. It is a subset of Whittier's poem "The Brewing of Soma." The last lines,
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm!
are an allusion to 1 Kings 19:11ff. The prophet Elijah has fled to Mount Horeb, and is concerned because he has had to flee Israel, and by implication God isn't doing anything. God tells Elijah to leave his cave, and a wind, an earthquake, and a fire pass by, but God is not in any of them. Then comes the "still small voice." Or whatever it was; the Hebrew phrase is difficult, with a rare word in it. The New Revised Standard Version of 19:12 has "a sound of sheer silence"; the Jewish Tanakh has "a soft murmuring sound"; the Revised English Bible has "a faint murmuring sound"; the Greek LXX had something like "the sound of a light breeze," which might be the best rendering. Not that Whittier is likely to have known that. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF163D

Dear Love, Regard My Grief

DESCRIPTION: "Dear love, regard my grief, Do not my suit disdain, O yield me some relief.... Do thou my joys restore; Fair lady, pity me." He will love her as long as he lives; he cannot think of another; he has loved her seven years
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #60, "Fair Lady, Pity Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6912
NOTES [31 words]: Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd thinks the tune of this goes back to the Tudor era. It certainly sounds like the sort of stilted thing that minstrels of that era produced. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGSW060

Dear Mallow, Adieu

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids adieu to Mallow, "where all may live just as they please," and recalls its pleasures. Now he is leaving "for the city's dull uniform scene." He will miss women, companions, and freedom. He hopes to return next spring.
AUTHOR: Samuel Whyte (1724-1811) (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1772 (Samuel Whyte,_The Shamrock, or Hibernian Cresses_, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: farewell nonballad home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 243-249, "Dear Mallow, Adieu" (1 text)
NOTES [42 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "In 1750, Dr Smith thus describes Mallow, which was then a very fashionable watering-place:'... Here is generally a resort of good company during the summer months, both for pleasure and the benefit of drinking the waters....'"
File: CrPS243

Dear Meal's Cheap Again, The

DESCRIPTION: "The dear meal's cheap again, The dear meal's cheap again, The dear meal on Donside's at ten pence the peck again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: commerce food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1728, "The Dear Meal's Cheap Again" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #13129
NOTES [38 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text.
See "A Pig and a Posset o' Whey" for a similar verse. Does this text, or name for the reel, date back to the period after the Napoleonic wars? See "The Ports are Open." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81728

Dear Mother

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going away to leave you... Don't weep for me, dear mother, For I'll be back someday." The singer's girl has abandoned him; he will cross the sea to find another, then return to mother. But she dies and tells him to trust in God before he can return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (JAFL 45, from Granville Gadsey)
KEYWORDS: separation mother death courting emigration
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 210-211, "Dear Mother" (1 text)
Roud #4214
NOTES [38 words]: I have a feeling this is a composite of an emigration song with a religious song, with perhaps one of those "Don't leave your mother when her hair turns gray" songs thrown in as well. But they've all been thoroughly mixed up. - RBW
File: MHAp210

Dear Nell

See The Two Letters (Charlie Brooks; Nellie Dare) (File: R735)

Dear Old Ages Boy

See Buffalo Boy (File: LoF162)

Dear Old Ireland

DESCRIPTION: "Deep in Canadian woods we've met, From one bright island flown, Great is the land we tread, but yet, Our hearts are with our own." Ireland is great despite her faults, but they will never see her again, so they cheer "Dear old Ireland, Good old Ireland!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: Ireland home exile nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 141-142, "Dear Old Ireland" (1 text)
Roud #30047
File: HMHS142

Dear Old New Zealand

DESCRIPTION: "Here's to New Zealand, so far away; That's where I'll ever be in memory each night and day, And now as I wander, my thoughts ever stray, Back to New Zealand...." He toasts his family, longs to return home; when he wakes, he can only think of home
AUTHOR: music: "South of the Border" by Jimmy Kennedy (words) and Michael Carr (music)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1942 (according to Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, but no source is cited; "South of the Border" is from 1939)
KEYWORDS: New Zealand home derivative
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 70-71, "Dear Old New Zealand" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "South of the Border" (tune)
cf. "East of the Border" (tune)
cf. "South of the Sangro" (tune)
cf. "South of Columbo" (tune)
cf. "The Battle of the River Plate" (tune)
File: Clev070

Dear Old Newfoundland

DESCRIPTION: When the singer arrived in Newfoundland a year ago, he was surrounded by other Irishmen. Wherever you go, "You'll always find a welcome, and you'll hear some Irish songs" When he returns to Ireland, "Newfoundland will soon be calling me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: emigration return farming fishing music Ireland nonballad friend
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30678
RECORDINGS:
Gerald Campbell, "Dear Old Newfoundland" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
NOTES [24 words]: According to the notes to this song at ITMA/CapeShoreNL the song was recorded by John Barr in 1967 under the title "Tribute to Newfoundland." - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: ITMADONe

Dear Prairie Home

DESCRIPTION: "There's a dear old homestead on Nebraska's fertile plain, Where I toiled my manhood's strength away, All that labor now is lost to me, but it is Shylock's gain." The unsuccessful farmer tells how bankers and lawyers combined to destroy his home
AUTHOR: Words: Luna E. (Mrs. J. T.) Kellie (1857-1940)
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Farmer's Alliance, September 27, 1890 edition, according to Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore)
KEYWORDS: farming hardtimes lawyer commerce
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 491, "Dear Prairie Home" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 65-66, "Dear Prairie Home" (1 text, tune referenced)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 478-479, "Dear Prairie Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Luna Kellie, _A Prairie Populist: The Memoirs of Luna Kellie_, edited by Jane Taylor Nelsen with a Foreword by Albert E. Stone, University of Iowa Press, 1992, pp. 172-173, "My Prairie Home" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Darling Nelly Gray" (tune)
NOTES [97 words]: For background on Luna Kellie, see the notes to "Marching for Freedom." Kellie for several years published a Farmers' Alliance newsletter called "The Prairie Home." but it appears this song is older. Luna Kellie, A Prairie Populist: The Memoirs of Lune Kellie, edited by Jane Taylor Nelsen with a Foreword by Albert E. Stone, University of Iowa Press, 1992, p. 172, seems to imply that the song also appeared in "The Prairie Home," and "later received wide distribution." But there seem to be no traditional collections; it shows up mostly in histories of Nebraska populism. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CAFS491A

Dear Son, Leave Thy Weeping

See A Babe Is Born To Bliss Us Bring (File: Gree042)

Dear-A-Wee Lass, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer first sees the girl on a May morning, and is drawn by her beauty and "killing glances." Men of all occupations court her; he thinks them doomed to be disdained, but he too loves her always. He wishes he could marry and bless her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H74, p. 236, "The Dear-A-Wee Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH074

Dearest Lassie O!

DESCRIPTION: "Your letter I received, my dearest lassie O! My heart is much relieved, my bonnie lassie O!" He will hurry to Sydney to marry her. Many slander him, but he rejects their charges. He expects to own land and have a happy life with her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland)
KEYWORDS: love courting home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 139-140, "Dearest Lassie O!" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shearin's Nae for You" (tune) and references there
File: AnSo139

Dearest Mae

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes his life as a slave and his love for Mae. When master gives him a holiday, he visits Mae and they court happily; he then returns home. Master dies; the singer is sold down the river; Mae dies of grief
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (The Ethiopian Glee Book)
KEYWORDS: slave death separation love courting
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 405, "Dearest Mae" (1 text plus an excerpt -- a verse which has floated in from "Massa Had a Yellow Gal" -- and mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 405, "Dearest Mae" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 118, "Old Carolina State" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 158-159, "Dearest Mae" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #6, p. 19, "Dearest Mae" (1 text)
Roud #9089
SAME TUNE:
Charming Emma Show ("Way down in Alabama") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 20)
The Dying Soldier ("Oh! bury me not 'neath foreign skies," by E. Walter Lowe) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 36)
The Menagerie ("Now folks, come listen to me, and as you stand around") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 96)
The Baltimore Girls ("Oh the Girls of dear old Baltimore") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 186)
Dix's Manifesto ("Once on a time in Baltimore") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 188)
Fort Sumpter. A Southern Song ("Come now and gather round me") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 189)
Jackson's Requiem ("That noted burglar Ellsworth") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p.190)
Linger Yet ("The golden glories of the sun, as in the west he falls") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 66)
Song of the Graduate ("It's I that is a bachelor, though married to the Muse") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 47)
Cornell ("The soldier loves his en'ral's fame, The willow loves the stream") (by G. R. Birge, [class of 18]72) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 109)
NOTES [170 words]: The notes in Brown list versions attributed to "A. F. Winnemore" and "Francis Lynch/L. V. H. Crosby." Heart-Songs also attributes it to Franes Lynch and L. H. V. Crosby. Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p 142, list a piece called "Dearest Mae" with words by Francis Lynch and music by James Power published by A. Fiot of Philadelphia in 1847. I've seen sheet music that credits the words to Lynch, the music to Power, and the piano arrangement to L. V. H. Crosby. That strikes me as the most likely, but I can't prove it. Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric lists these attributions and several others, found mostly in songsters (so even less reliable than the above)
It's worth noting that this is *not* a "happy slave" piece; the singer works hard, but is cruelly betrayed on his master's death, and Mae dies. In that sense, it rather resembled "Darling Nellie Gray" -- though seemingly without provoking the reactions the latter produced. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Br3405

Dearest Mary

DESCRIPTION: "Oh dearest Mary, take pity on me, I'm doing all I can to gain my liberty." Only slavery can part them. The hounds follow as he flees. "The queen, she standed on the shore... Saying, 'Leave that land of slavery and come across the line.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Helen Creighton collection)
KEYWORDS: slave escape freedom royalty
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 36-37, "Dearest Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #31157
NOTES [82 words]: Creighton's informant William Riley said that this was the song of a black slave who was to be sold away from his wife, and he and she escaped north to Canada. Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes therefore conjecture that "The Queen" who calls them was Queen Victoria. Obviously possible -- but Riley's text is so short that I think we must admit at least the possibility that this is a Catholic song, and that the crossing the singer makes is death, and the Queen is the Queen of Heaven. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: PoEll036

Death and Doctor Hornbook

DESCRIPTION: "Some books are lies frae end tae end, And some great lies were never penn'd, Ev'n ministers they hae been kenn'd In holy rapture." A satire: The poet meets Death, who reports that he is being shoved aside by the deadly Doctor Hornbook
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1785 (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: death Devil humorous clergy | doctor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 114-115, "Some books are lies frae end tae end" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #55, pp. 60-65, "Death and Doctor Hornbook. A True Story" (1 text)
Roud #25527
NOTES [171 words]: According to Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, p. 377, there was a real "Dr. Hornbook," a certain Dr. John Wilson (died 1839) who was at Glasgow University in 1760 and became a teacher. This was not a good living, so he also sold groceries and a few medicines. As a result, he was accused of neglecting his ordinary duties. By then, though, he had signed a "certificate of character" for Burns in 1784.
Wilson was also secretary of the Tarbolton Masonic Lodge from 1782-1787, and on at least one occasion gave a lecture on medicine. Burns's satire refers to this (while the title "Doctor Hornbook" refers to Wilson's teaching of elementary literacy, since children were often taught from hornbooks -- a piece of paper with little basic information about reading, mounted on wood and covered with a protective layer of horn). Despite Burns's lampoon, Wilson would live for another half a century and more, teaching for most of that time. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: KSUC114C

Death and the Lady

DESCRIPTION: Young woman meets Death; offers him rich gifts if he will grant her more time in this world. (In some versions, she wishes to mend her ways after a life of wickedness.) He refuses. She dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1736 ("A Guide to Heaven")
KEYWORDS: death bargaining dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Bord)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 22, "Death and the Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 129, "Death and the Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 30, "Death and the Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 28, "Death and the Lady" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 173, "Death and the Maid" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 351)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 554, "Death and the Lady" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 20, "Death and the Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 40-41, "Death and the Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #99, "Death and the Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 164-168, "Death and the Lady" (1 text, 1 tune, though the text is not really fit to the tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 170-171, "Death and the Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Poem #6, pp. 24-28, "The Messenger of Mortality" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 252-255, "The Messenger of Mortality, or Life and Death Contrasted in a Dialogue betwixt Death and a Lady" (1 tet)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN843, "Fair lady leave your costly Robes aside"; ZN1415, "In Cambridge lives a maiden fair/" (composite text also containing part of "Weaver to My Trade")
DT, DEATHLDY*
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844_, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 107, "Death and the Lady; Or, The Great Messenger of Mortality" (reprint of an Evans broadside)
Roud #1031
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(52), "Death and the Lady," unknown, c. 1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Conversation with Death (Oh Death)" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Oh Death
My Name is Death
NOTES [66 words]: Also see Ralph Stanley, "O Death" (on soundtrack for "O Brother, Where Art Thou," Mercury (Lost Highway) 088 170-069-2 (2000))
For more information on the Ralph Stanley version -- apparently first recorded by Dock Boggs -- and other U.S. recordings see Gary B Reid's booklet accompanying the 4-CD album, "The Stanley Brothers: The King Years 1961-1965", King Records KG-0950-2 (2003), p. 17. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ShH22

Death and the Maid

See Death and the Lady (File: ShH22)

Death and the Wolves

See The Lonesome Roving Wolves (File: ChMS046)

Death in Battle

See The Last Fierce Charge [Laws A17] (File: LA17)

Death is a Melancholy Call [Laws H5]

DESCRIPTION: The singer observes a young man dying as a result of a dissolute life. Both the youth and his friends are frightened by the prospect of hell. The singer concludes with a stock exhortation to repent
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: death farewell Hell youth
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws H5, "Death is a Melancholy Call"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 464-465, "Death is a Melancholy Call (3 texts)
Randolph 595, "The Dying Youth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 95, "The Lost Youth" (1 text)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 63, "Death, What A Solemn Call" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 718, DEATHMEL
Roud #655
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Boy" (theme)
cf. "Wicked Polly" [Laws H6] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Awful, Awful, Awful
NOTES [80 words]: Many versions of this piece have the tragicomic refrain "And it's awful, awful, awful...."
Not to be confused with "Death 'Tis a Melancholy Day."
Barry wrote a study of this piece and "Wicked Polly," treating them as variants (male and female, presumably) of the same piece. The moral is of course the same, and they use the same metrical form -- but I can't see any actual dependence in the lyrics. This is the sort of piece that humorless moralists could crank out endlessly. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LH05

Death is Awful

See Conversation with Death (Oh Death) (File: R663)

Death Letter Blues

DESCRIPTION: Singer gets a letter, telling him to come home, because the girl he loves is dead. He comes home, to find her on the "cooling board." He buries her, weeping, telling her he'll meet her on Judgement Day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (verses floated to recording by Papa Harvey Hull). As a discrete song, 1966 (recording, Eugene "Son" House)
KEYWORDS: grief love home return burial death mourning lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Eugene "Son" House, "Death Letter" (on SonHouse1)
Papa Harvey Hull, "France Blues" (Black Patti 8001/Gennett 6106/Champion 15264, 1927; on BefBlues1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "France Blues" (verses)
NOTES [25 words]: The Hull recording ["France Blues"] incorporates the core of "Death Letter" but adds floating non-narrative verses from "Mobile Line" and elsewhere. - PJS
File: RcDLetB

Death of a Maiden Fair

See A Fair Lady of the Plains (Death of a Maiden Fair) [Laws B8] (File: LB08)

Death of a Romish Lady, The

See The Romish Lady [Laws Q32] (File: LQ32)

Death of Admiral Benbow, The

See Admiral Benbow (i) and Admiral Benbow (II) (File: PBB076)

Death of Alec Robertson (I)

DESCRIPTION: "A good man has gone, he's drawn his last breath, Struck down in the midst of his pride. Poor Alec Robertson met his sad death On his favorite horse, Silvermine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959
KEYWORDS: death horse racing
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 150, "Death of Alec Robertson" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Donald Campbell" (theme)
cf. "Tom Corrigan (theme)
cf. ""The Jockey's Lament" (theme)
cf. "Alec Robertson (I)" (theme) and notes there
cf. "Alec Robertson (II)" (theme)
File: MA150

Death of Alec Robertson (II), The

See Alec Robertson (I) (File: MA065)

Death of Andrew Sheehan, The

See Bold Larkin (Bull Yorkens) (File: Pea907)

Death of Archbishop Scrope, The

DESCRIPTION: "The bishop Scrope that was so wise, Now he is dead and low he lies. To heaven's bliss yet may he rise. Through help of Mary that maid mild." He was mild and still for his execution. He forgave his killer, asking to be slain with five strokes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1600 (Cambridge, Trinity College MS. R.4.20)
KEYWORDS: death execution clergy MiddleEnglish
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 8, 1405 - Execution of Archbishop Richard Scrope
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #425, pp. 288-289, "(The Bysshop Scrope, that was so wyse)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3308
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #5212
ADDITIONAL: Frederick J. Furnival, _Hymns to the Virgin and Christ, The Parliament of Devils, and other Religious Poems, chiefly from The Archbishop of Canterbury's Lambeth MS. #853_, Early English Text Society, Tuebner & Co., 1867, p. 128, "The Death of Archbishop Scrope" (1 text)
Rossell Hope Robbins, _Historical Poems of the XIVth and XVth Century_, Columbia University Press, 1959, #31, p. 90, "The Death of Archbishop Scrope" (1 text)
P. J. P. Goldberg, editor, _Richard Scrope: Archbishop, Rebel, Martyr_, Shaun Tyas, 2007, pp. 114-115, "The Bishop Scrope that Was so Wise" (1 text, edited by Stephen K. Wright)
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, Trinity College, MS. R.4.20 (Trinity 652), folio 71
RELATED: "Hereford and Norfolk" --
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 238-245, "Herefford & Norfolke" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 265
ST MsDArScr (Partial)
NOTES [6075 words]: This has never been found in tradition, and the only manuscript containing it is of no particular importance although it was most carefully made. On that basis, it probably seems a poor candidate for indexing. Yet it is thought by most editors to be a carol (it certainly has a refrain), and it tells an historical story in an interesting form. Stephen K. Wright, on p. 122 of Goldberg, calls it "reminiscent of the popular English ballad" based on form and style as well as the lack of rhetorical ornament. It really seems to represent Yorkshire folk opinion. I'm indexing it on that basis.
The manuscript's primary contents are an interesting mix -- there are two major works, "The Travels of Sir John Mandeville" (folios 1-87r) and John Lydgate's "The Siege of Thebes" (folios 89r-169r) (Stephen K. Wright, on p. 120 of Goldberg). Mandeville's "Travels" is a wonder tale; parts of it describe real places but much is fictional; it is clearly a secular work. " Lydgate's work is on a secular subject, but Lydgate himself was a monk (for background on him, see the notes to "The London Lackpenny"). The manuscript is of good quality and probably was for a well-off patron; Wright believes it was made in the early 1400s; it was donated to Trinity College in 1663.
The two major works each start at the beginning of a quire, and "Mandeville's Travels" did not fill its last quire completely, leaving some room for additional writings. This left space for additional writings; this was one of several items on folio 88; one of the others is what Wright calls a "heart-breaking love letter" that was copied twice on the same page by other hands (Wright, on p. 121 of Goldberg).
Richard Scrope (c. 1346-1405), of the baronial family of the Scropes of Masham, became Bishop of Lichfield in 1386, then Archbishop of York in 1398 (Hicks, p. 205), just a year before the overthrow of King Richard II.
According to Hicks, p. 205, until his execution, "he was an 'obscure and colourless figure' with no distinguishable political affiliations and was indeed 'the very antithesis of the ambitious, worldly prelate.'" SImilarly Goldberg, p. 1, says his execution "served to transform a conscientious, devout, but apparently loyal ecclesiastic not previously noted either for his charisma or his interest in politics into a martyr and a saint. Richard Scope was transformed from an aristocratic younger son who had achieved high office as a reward from years spent in papal and royal service into York's own Becket, the focus of a regional cult and the object of pilgrimage."
He was a younger son of Henry, first Lord Scrope of Masham, and so was destined for the church rather than inheriting his father's barony (there is a genealogy on p. x of Goldberg). He apparently went to Oxford for a time, though the records of this are scant, then studied law at Cambrige from 1375-137. .He even became Chancellor of Cambridge 1378-1380. (R. K. Swanson, on p. 19 of Goldberg). He was ordained in 1377 -- and, unlike most members of noble families who joined the church, he seems, based on our limited records, to have taken his clerical duties entirely seriously (Hicks, p. 206).
Apparently it was also thought that he was not only celibate but a virgin, since this was part of his cult (P. H. Cullum, on pp. 94-97 of Goldberg). Although not rare at the time, it was far from universal among clerics who came from noble families.
After university he went to Rome and served in the papal court. In 1385, the canons of Chichester elected him Bishop -- only to have King Richard II turn him down. But he was allowed to become Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield in 1386 in a complicated arrangement that translated the incumbent bishop (Swanson, on p. 20 of Goldberg).
The exact details of the decision to make him Archbishop of York in 1398 are not clear. He was in Rome on a diplomatic mission when the old Archbishop died unexpectedly. Did the Pope appoint Scrope against Richard's will, or did Richard support it? We can't know; it doesn't sound as if Scrope expected it, since he had already set up a chantry for himself at Lichfield (Swanon, on pp. 22-23 of Goldberg).
Richard II had come to the throne in 1377 at the age of ten and had had constant troubles with others trying to run the country for him (Smith, p. 203, who points out e.g. that the Merciless Parliament of 1388 had not only taken over his government but also executed many of his friends and favorites). Despite this, by 1397 he had gained complete control of the government, executing several of his chief opponents -- including the Earl of Arundel and Richard's uncle Humphrey of Gloucester, who allegedly died prison while awaiting trial (yeah, sure; Saul, pp. 378-379). Others were plundered or exiled -- including Henry of Bolingbroke, heir to the Duchy of Lancaster and one of Richard's potential heirs (Saul, p. 373; the king was childless and his second wife still only a child, so Bolingbroke, a first cousin, was an obvious candidate to succeed). Also exiled was Thomas Arundel, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the brother of the executed Earl of Arundel (Bevan, p. 140).
The exile of Bolingbroke is the subject of "Hereford and Norfolk," discussed below.
After this, "[Richard's] vengeance was complete. The last of his enemies was punished. A parliament packed with Richard's supporters voted him a life income and set up a committee of eighteen submissive creatures of the king to exercise several Parliamentary powers. New treason laws expanded the definition of treason and wrapped it up in such ambiguous language that any opposition to the king might be called treason. Law after law was broken by the royal commands.... No man's life or property was safe. Richard was king indeed" (Smith, p. 203). Kirby, pp. 51-51, makes the situation even worse: Richard rewrote the rules for this committee of 18 after parliament dissolved, to make it a better instrument, and required "blank charters" of his nobles, apparently meaning that Richard could commit them to *anything* without actually asking their consent.
Richard even managed to worsen relations with France (Saul, p. 407), despite the fact that his child bride was the daughter of King Charles VI and he had tried to keep peace with France. Perhaps the French were willing to look the other way at plotting against him.
In 1399, Richard's uncle John of Gaunt, the father of Bolingbroke, died (Bevan, p. 138). Richard made Bolingbroke's exile permanent and moved to possess Gaunt's and Bolingbroke's lands. Richard was now acting like a pure tyrant. Richard decided that it was time to take an army to Ireland to control the constant raids and rebellions of the Irish (Kirby, p. 52) -- and, in another sign of tyranny, he levied forced loans to pay for it (Bevan, p. 136). Then he was off to Ireland, without leaving anyone really in charge (technically, Richard's last living uncle, Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, was supposed to govern, but he was too ineffective to run things if anything went wrong; Bevan, p. 142; Kirby, p. 53). So off Richard sailed to Waterford -- where the Irish led by Art MacMurrough avoided battle and caused Richard to chase them all over the place without accomplishing anything (Bevan, p, 145).
Meanwhile, there was trouble in England. Bolingbroke led a party of exiles, including Archbishop Arundel, to invade England. At first, he claimed he was just out to regain his dukedom; he also spread a series of lies about Richard (Bevan, pp. 145-146).
And he gained allies -- notably the Percies of Northumberland, Henry the First Earl of Northumberland and his son Harry "Hostspur," who had gotten in trouble with Richard for opposing the punishment of Bolingbroke (Bevan, p. 143). But they remained at liberty, and they joined Henry and other northern rebels at Pontefract (Bevan, pp. 145-146). It's not clear that all these supporters wanted Henry to overthrow Richard; they may only have supported Henry's claim on his land (Saul, p. 409). But they were enough to make the revolt a serious threat. Some time later, Henry met with the Duke of York, and somehow caused York to stop actively opposing Henry (Saul, p. 410; Kirby, p. 57, says he actually joined his army to Henry's).
Richard, in Ireland, seems not to have taken the rising seriously; it took many days before he decided to return to England, and was slow to take the field after he did return (Bevan, pp. 147-148). It wasted time that he didn't have; the troops that the Earl of Salisbury had raised for him abandoned the cause when Richard didn't show up (Bevan, p. 148). Many other supporters also gave up when Richard didn't appear (Saul, p. 411).
Details on what happened next are extremely sketchy, but Richard left his army and ended up at Conway Castle with relatively few supporters. Henry sent Northumberland with his forces to try to negotiate (Saul, pp. 412-413; Kirby, pp. 57-58; Archbishop Arundel may also have taken part). Northumberland supposedly promised to let Richard keep his throne in return for granting Bolingbroke his Lancaster dukedom and other rights (Bevan, p. 151). Possibly Northumberland even believed that Richard would keep his throne -- under suitable supervision, of course. But as Kirby comments, pp. 58-59, "The Earl may not have been aware that he was being used to deceive Richard... but his whole career suggests that he would not be over-scrupulous about betraying either his friends or his enemies."
Richard insisted that Northumberland swear to this. Northumberland swore -- and promptly turned Richard over to Bolingbroke (Bevan, p. 152). "In a little more than a month Henry had transformed himself from an exile into the master of both king and kingdom, a position from which he could not withdraw, but a position which posed several well-nigh insoluble problems" (Kirby, p. 59). Kirby, p. 61, thinks that Henry, Northumberland, and Archbishop Arundel ran the country for a time as "advisors" to Richard II.
Exactly what Henry's plans were at this point we cannot know -- but Henry clearly decided that the situation was intolerable. Eventually he and his allies set out to depose the king (Saul, p. 418). That was in 1399; in early 1400, Richard conveniently died (Saul, p. 425).
Richard probably had to be overthrown -- he was ruling utterly arbitrarily. (As Smith says on p. 204, Richard's great-grandfather "Edward II had been deposed [in 1326/1327] because he governed too little, Richard II because he tried to govern too much.") But he still had supporters. And the man who overthrew him, Henry of Lancaster, while he was Richard's heir in male line, was not the heir in female line; members of the Mortimer family were closer to the throne.
Henry, because he had usurped the throne, was in a particularly difficult position. He didn't want to rule too despotically, lest the mass of lords remember that he had a weak claim to the throne (even though Richard II was dead, there were those pesky Mortimers). But he had followers who wanted to be paid off. Starting with the Percies. After all, he might not have been king without them!
And he faced constant wars as well, especially with Owen Glyn Dŵr (Glendower), but relations with Scotland and France posed problems too. And supposedly his revenues were down about 20% from what Richard had enjoyed (Keen, p. 314). As a result, he was chronically short of money, and parliament was always pestering him about his accounts and what he had done with Richard II's accumulated treasure (Given-Wilson, p. 176). In a reign of less than fourteen years, he ran through ten treasurers (Kirby, p. 115), indicating just how hard the job was! Henry spent much of his reign seeking new ways to raise money (an early one was to try to raise money from his bishops. The northern bishoprics were poorer than the southern, but Archbishop Scrope's offering of 100 marks=£66 13s 4d -- Kirby, pp. 95-96 -- was particularly stingy; one wonders if Henry remembered...). The crown jewels often had to be used as security on loans (Kirby, p. 144).
The Percies came out of this very well; "No family apart from the king's had profited more from the deposition of Richard II. Before 1399 was out, Northumberland had been made constable of England for life and warden of the West March [with Scotland] for ten years, granted the Isle of Man, and put at the head of a consortium which farmed the Mortimer inheritance during the young earl's minority. His son Hotspur became warden of the East March, also for ten years, sheriff of Northumberland, justiciar of Chester and North Wales, and sheriff of Flintshire; he was granted the lordship of Anglesey and custody of the Mortimer lordship of Denbigh. Father and son thus secured a virtual monopoly of civil and military power on the Scottish marches and in North Wales. Meanwhile, Thomas Percy, the earl's brother... [retained the title Earl of Worcester which Richard had given him in 1397 and] became admiral of England..." (Given-Wilson, p. 190. On pp. 190-191, he suggests that Hotspur served mostly as a soldier, Worcester was mostly at court, and Northumberland involved in commissions of many types, often but not always in London).
In 1402, Hotspur won the Battle of Homildon Hill or Humbleton Hill against the Scots, breaking their invading army and capturing, among others, the earl of Douglas and three other earls, plus Murdoch Stewart of the Scots royal family (Givens-Wilson, p. 200). The Scots border was not entirely quiet, but it was basically safe, and it was not Henry but the Percies who had accomplished the feat. The problem with all this was that they had much of the military might of England under their control. If they proved unreliable, Henry was in a lot of trouble.
And they proved unreliable.
It was Wales that proved Henry's biggest problem. Hotspur was having to fight the war with the Welsh out of his own resources, because Henry was so broke. Hotspur didn't like that. Which probably reminded him that his wife was the sister of Edmund Mortimer, whose nephew (also named Edmund) was Richard II's heir in female line -- in other words, he had a claim to the throne arguably better than Henry's. And Glyn Dŵr had captured Mortimer the uncle, and Henry (who really did have a blind spot for Wales) refused to let Mortimer ransom himself. Mortimer therefore decided to join the Welsh cause (Given-Wilson, p. 190-194) -- and eventually the Percies came around, too.
"The reasons for their discontent remain as much of a mystery to us as they probably were to the King. No doubt there was some disagreement with the royal policy in Wales, the Percies both felt that they had received but a very small proportion of the money that was their due, and Hotspur regarded the prisoners of Homildon as his own property to be ransomed as and when he chose without royal interference [which is how things usually worked, but Henry had demanded the prisoners himself], but above all it seems to have been personal ambition which led the younger Percy to rebel" (Kirby, pp. 153-154).
Supposedly the Percies, Mortimer, and Glyn Dŵrmade an agreement to split the country: Glyn Dŵr would get an enlarged Wales, Northumberland the whole north of England, Mortimer would rule the west, as king or regent (Keen, p. 312). Hard to believe there were many others who would have signed on to *that.*
Still, the revolt would likely have succeeded if the rebels had coordinated better. But Northumberland's army had to come from the Scottish border. Glyn Dŵr was in western Wales. And Hotspur was in the northern Welsh marches. Henry moved fast and attacked Hotspur before the others could do anything -- it's not even absolutely sure that they were coordinating their movements. Hotspur was slain at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 (Given-Wilson, pp. 219-226). Despite the setback, Glyn Dŵr continued his rebellion (he didn't have much choice, since Henry had already refused to pardon him), but Northumberland pretended that he hadn't been involved and asked to be received back into the King's Peace. Henry, with no money to fight another battle, and prodded by parliament to not be too harsh, accepted Northumberland's submission (no doubt with a lot of mental reservations) -- for the moment. But he stripped him of many of his offices and awards (Given-Wilson, p. 231), which can't have made Northumberland any happier.
None of which has anything to do with Archbishop Scrope, except that he was a northern Archbishop from a northern family in the region the Percies dominated. Apolitical he might have been, but all this affected him, and the fact that Henry had won at Shrewsbury didn't make the crown any less grasping! Kirby, p. 186, thinks Scope not only took part in the next rebellion but that he instigated it.
"[I]n the city of York more serious trouble was brewing. Here the protesters were led by Richard Scrope, archbishop of York, and Thomas Mowbray, the earl marshal. Scrope was a man more associated with the previous than the current regime. Sent to Rome by RIchard II in 1397 to seek the canonization of Edward II, he was rewarded with his archiepiscopal see on his return, and although he acquiesced in Henry's usurpation there is no evidence of a personal rapport between him and the new king. Between 1399 and 1405 he kept his distance from the court, encouraging the northern convocation to prevaricate and negotiate over the king's demands for clerical taxation. It was a sermon he gave in York Minster which galvanized the citizens into action, probably on Sunday 17 May [1405]. He and Mowbray also drew up a list of grievances which they posted on the gates of the city..." (Given-Wilson, pp. 267-268).
Nuttgens, pp. 112-112, calls it the "most politically suicidal act in the entire history of York."
Raine, pp. 292-304, gives the Latin text of what is claimed to be Scrope's statement against Henry, with repeated statements that Henry should be excommunicated. It calls him "Henricum Derby," "Henry of Derby," rather than Henry IV, and charges him with treason (p. 294), with a brief summary of his quarrel with Norfolk, his invasion, his breaking of his promise to remit taxes (pp. 295-296), his seizure of property and murder of opponents, including having the old king, Richard II, imprisoned, deposed (pp. 296-297) and starved to death (p. 298), ignored the rights of the religious (p. 299), killed various lords such as Thomas Percy and Hotspur, whose body was quartered (p. 300). He also worked against the rights of Rome (p. 301). All this hurt the country. The document says it wants "no change in spiritual or lay persons" (p. 303 margin), but they want to put the right king on the throne, and make peace with the Welsh and Irish. They ask for help, and grant indulgence to those who participate (p. 304).
"Scrope seems to have taken it upon himself to act as a mediator between his public -- nobility, clergy and burgesses alike -- and the Crown. His reformist program, written in English and hung on church-doors and on the city-gates of York, voiced certain complaints and abuses, to which remedies were suggested. It called for a London parliament with free elections, in which the following reforms would be discussed: (1) Removal of the burden of taxation from the clergy (following the Commons' call for heavier taxation in the Unlearned Parliament of 1404); (2) A remedy for the subjection and annihilation suffered by lords when rightful claims to lands and titles were wrongfully denied to them (as the Earl Marshal, Thomas Mowbray, had reportedly complained to Scope); (3) Emendation of the excessive taxes imposed on all estates (especially in York, which found itself burdened by the fiscal demands of Henry IV); and (4) Punishment for those who had put the wealth of the Commons to their own use. The idiom of protest used by Scrope, highlighting the three orders of society -- fighters, prayers, and workers -- place this reformist agenda alongside other similar 'risings of the commons', such as that of 1381; the general dissent it expresses remains within a context of obedience, both to the ruler and to the social hierarchy" (Piroyansky, p. 49).
On this platform Scrope, Mowbray, and others raised a large crowd -- I'm not sure the word "army" is warranted. But Henry's response was clearly military.
Henry IV would later claim Scrope and Mowbray were taken in battle. "The truth, however, was not so straightforward. Negotiations were opened, during which [the Earl of] Westmorland assured the archbishop and earl marshal that he would do his best to persuade the king to remedy their grievances. Apparently satisfied with this, Scrope and Mowbray encouraged their supporters to disband, but were then arrested and taken to Pontefract castle" (Given-Wilson, p. 268). (Shakespeare blames this largely on John, the future Duke of Bedford, Henry IV's third son, but that's just Shakespeare being Shakespeare -- i.e. ignoring historical facts.)
Henry's decision to execute Scrope was surprising given that, when Henry had faced a major rebellion at the start of his reign, all the clerics involved had been allowed to live -- even Thomas Merks, the Bishop of Carlisle (who had spoken on Richard's behalf in the parliament where Richard was deposed; Kirby, p. 69), who had initially been given a death sentence (Given-Wilson, p. 163), though he was not restored to his see. Henry's general policy was to be lenient with clerics (Kirby, p. 89). And Henry's ally, Archbishop Arundel, desperately tried to get Henry to change his mind, and Chief Justice Gascoigne is said to have withdrawn from the trial (Hicks, pp. 206-207). But Henry was determined on punishment. Scrope, Mowbray, and one Sir William Plumpton were ordered executed.
"[A] hastily created court which included the Earl of Arundel [the archbishop's nephew], Sir Thomas Beaufort [the Beauforts were Henry's half-siblings] and a judge, Sir William Fulthorpe, condemned Scrope, the Earl Marshal [Mowbray], and Sir William Plumpton as traitors. They were immediately beheaded outside the city of York. Henry had his revenge, an also made one of the big mistakes of his life" (Kirby, p. 187).
Scrope is reported to have told Mowbray that they would meet in paradise. His last words, by one report, were "It is for the laws and good government of England that I die" (GIven-WIlson, p. 269).
Henry seems to have tried to humiliate Scrope on his way to his execution, causing him to ride a cheap nag without a saddle. He also caused Scrope to be dressed in a plain blue cloak rather than his episcopal robes This turned up in both the accounts of Scrope's martyrdom, by Clement Maidstone (who wrote c. 1414 and died 1456) and Thomas Gascoigne (died 1458; the similarities in the two accounts have led some to think they have an earlier common source; Piroyansky, p. 51), and Scrope showed his dignity by saying he had never liked a horse better than this one (Danna Piroyansky, on pp. 101-105 of Goldberg). He certainly gave the martyrologists good copy to work on.
It was the first time a king had directly executed any bishop -- and an archbishop at that! (Given-Wilson, p. 270). Little wonder that miracles were soon reported at Scrope's grave (Kirby, p. 187) -- Maidstone's account lists three supernatural events, although it's not clear if any would pass Catholic scrutiny: "a miraculous harvest in the field where the archbishop died... King Henry's sudden attack of leprosy... the Archbishop's posthumous appearance to John Sibson, an elderly would-be murderer who, in a guilt-stricken frenzy, then cleared huge tree trunks or beams from the martyr's tomb in York Minster" (Stepehn K Wright, on p. 117 of Goldberg; the original text is on pp. 308-309 of Raine). Also, in 1413, a bell-tower near York caught fire, and an invocation of Scrope was said to have miraculously put it out (Piroyansky, p. 61). He was also considered to have power over stormy waters (Piroyansky, p. 70), although no specific miracle seems to be involved there. "Scrope proved more effective dead than alive -- by creating the most spectacular devotional cult in the late medieval Minster" (Nuttgens, p. 113). Soon he was regarded in Yorkshire as a saint. (A crux in "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117] has the Abbot of Saint Mary's swear "By Saint Richard," which has troubled scholars who can't find such a saint. Surely Scrope is meant.)
Pilgrimages to his grave site apparently began almost immediately, and would induce the authorities to try to make it impossible -- Sibson's alleged miracle of moving large beams served to make the burial site once again open to visitors. Apparently there were other attempts to keep people away, and all failed (Christopher Norton, on p. 172 of Goldberg).
A later poem would speak of "Holy bisshope Scrope, the blyssed confessour" (Rollins #93, pp. 222-226, line 14, from the Society of Antiquaries MS. 101. Index of Middle English Verse #3756; DIMEV #5979. Rollins calls the piece "A Political Retrospective" and dates it to 1462; it is a Yorkist piece, so it would be inclined to cast Scrope in the best light and "henry of derby" in the worst. A "confessor" was a technical term which does not really apply to Scrope, however; it was applied to those who gave strong testimony to the faith but were not martyred -- hence "Edward the Confessor").
There is a Latin account, "Execution of Archbishop Scrope," which ends with the "Explicit processus martirii Ricardi Scroup Eboracensis archepiscopi" ("The end of the 'process' of the martyr Richard Scrope Archbishop of York"). Being called a martyr doesn't make you a saint, but it helps.... There are at least two copies, in Bodley MS. 851 and in British Library MS. Cotton Faustina B.ix (Brewer/Rigg, pp. 33-34).
There were definitely relics associated with Scrope (Goldberg, pp. 11-12). Among the most notable is the "Bolton Hours," from before 1445; it has a prayer to Scrope, once refers to him as "Sancte ricarde scrope" and once as "S. ricardus"; the second notation is in a picture which shows him as a saint (Danna Piroyansky, p. p. 110 of Goldberg; pictures of the images are in the photos section of Goldberg). In the 1460s, King Edward IV formally petitioned for his canonization (Goldberg, p. 12), and pushed the diocese of York to work for that end in 1462 (Christopher Norton, on pp. 198-199 of Goldberg) -- which is pretty ironic when you consider that Edward IV's grandfather Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland, had been the one to take Scrope and Mowbray into custody! But we know that he had been called a saint before that, and that there had been earlier support for canonization (Norton, on p. 199 of Goldberg). R. N. Swanson, p. 17 of Goldberg, says "His cult was certainly strong throughout the fifteenth century, and into the sixteenth." And his story was popular enough that four copies of Maidstone's account were preserved (Piroyansky, p. 51).
There were probably a number of reasons why there was no formal inquiry into Scrope's sanctity. One was that the church in York didn't want to pay the expense. The other is that, at the time Edward IV wanted to make it happen, the Archbishop of York was a political opponent of the Yorkist regime, which probably gummed things up. (The Yorkists apparently tried to portray some of Scrope's statements as being pro-Yorkist when in fact they were probably pro-Richard II; Piroyansky, p. 53.) Plus there was a peculiar confusion of dates: June 5, the date of Scrope's execution (and hence the date likely to become his feast day) was also the death-date and feast day of William FItzHerbert, an earlier Archbishop of York (died 1154) who had been canonized in 1226 (Norton, on pp. 203-204 of Goldberg). Thus York was over-supplied with saintly archbishops who died on June 8! Considering the track record of martyr bishops in this period, I suspect Scrope would have had a pretty good shot had it not been for the opposition of the 1462 Archbishop.
Though Scrope didn't make it to Saint, it was easy to see the finger of God in what followed: Henry would live eight more years, but he was ill for much of that time, and some reported the disease as leprosy. There was a belief that it began after he executed Scrope (Given-Wilson, p. 270. Certainly it did start in the years after that, but there is no proof that it happened soon enough after to imply cause and effect! On the other hand, OxfordCompanion, p. 466, suspects he had a stroke in 1406, which isn't long after Scrope's death and came at the surprisingly young age of 39 or 40, so just maybe there is a connection.... Kirby, p. 213, suggests that a long progress that Henry took after a difficult parliament in 1406 was a pilgrimage to atone for the murder, but it so, he didn't go to the more obvious pilgrimage spots such as Canterbury or Walsingham).
As reported in the last verse of the poem, Scrope apparently asked to be beheaded with five blows to commemorate the five wounds of Christ; a chronicle reported, "Than said tharchbishop to him that sholde smyte of his hed, 'For His loue that suffrid v woundes for alle mankynde, yeue me v strokes, and I foryeve the me dethe'" (Robbins, p. xxi) i.e. "Then said the archbishop to him that would smite off his head, 'For his love that suffered five wounds for all mankind, give me five strokes, and I forgive you my death.'" Maidstone's Latin account says the same (Raine, p 308). Robbins, p. 295, says that the executions was one Thomas Alman of Poppleton, a prisoner in York; one suspects that no local of any standing was willing to kill Scrope. The name Thomas Alman is also found in Maidstone (Raine, p. 307: "Thomæ Alman").
The fourth verse, in which Scrope says he will commend his executioner's soul, also parallels the chronicles; Maidstone says that Scrope forgave his executioner, using language reminiscent of the martyrdom of Stephen in chapter 7 of Acts (Christopher Norton, on p. 171 of Goldberg).
Whether Scrope was "so wise," i.e. learned, as the first line claims, is hard to know, since we have little of his library or writings. But there are three indications. One was his work for the Papacy, and his diplomatic work; if he hadn't been fairly knowledgeable, he wouldn't have gotten those tasks. Another is that he is reported to have taken a book with him to his execution, which he seems to have hoped would be buried with him (Christopher Norton, Goldberg, p. 199 n. 190). A third is his family's library. Henry, third Lord Scrope, the Archbishop's nephew, had an "impressive collection of books" (Christopher Norton, on p.190 of Goldberg). If the secular Scropes liked books, it is probable that the cleric in the family would also have been an avid scholar.
There is a window of Scrope in the York Minster, installed not too long after his death (the Minster was being substantially rebuilt at the time); there is a photo of it in the pictures section in Goldberg, showing what Christopher North says is a halo (Goldberg, p. 192) although it's hard to tell in the black-and-white photo. (And the caption, perhaps in an abundance of caution, calls him "Dominus," "Lord," not "Sanctus," "Saint.")
The Pope would impose a penalty on Henry for the murder in 1408; Henry never responded, but Henry V founded a monastery at Sheen, possibly to fulfill part of the penance (Allmand, p. 273).
Henry would eventually catch up with Northumberland; the Earl of Westmorland forced him to flee England in 1405, and in 1408 he lost the Battle of Bramham Moor in Yorkshire and was finally killed (Hicks, p. 208; Keen, p. 313).
Many said that the execution of Scrope was one of Henry's great crimes that resulted in his extremely difficult reign. Yet it should be recalled that Henry died in bed, although at the too-young age of about 46.
For those wishing to see more from the primary sources, in addition to Raine, Robbins, pp. 294-295, has an extensive quote from the English Chronicle, which gives some additional background.
Scrope never quite obtained sainthood -- I'm somewhat surprised that King Edward IV didn't try harder to get him canonized, since Scrope was martyred by the Lancastrians whom Edward had displaced. But maybe he was too much forgotten by then. Piroyansky's book focuses on three political martyrs who were treated as saints -- Scrope, Thomas of Lancaster, and Henry VI. France had a similar case in Jean Darc, who of course was sainted. But of the four, Lancaster was a puffed-up jerk who had no sense of morals and not much more brains; Jean was clearly schizophrenic, and Henry was mentally defective also although the surviving records don't show us how. I don't think any of the four actually meet the Catholic criteria for sainthood. But if any of them was a saint, I think it was Scrope, not Jean.
Scrope is a character in both of Shakespeare's Henry IV plays (he spelled the name "Scroop"), but of course the one thing guaranteed about a Shakespeare play is that the history will be entirely wrong; pay it no attention! The one interesting point is that the earliest printed text of 2 Henry IV, the quarto edition, drastically shortens the Scrope section of the play compared to the 1623 Folio. Every reference I have checked believes that this omission was deliberate censorship (it hurts the flow of the play), implying that, in some sense or other, Scrope's rebellion still roused alarm bells.
Is it possible to date this poem, other than saying that it must be older than the date in the manuscript? Piroyansky, p. 126, says that "Emphasis on Scrope's martyrological death characterized the cult in its early stages, and from the 1450s onward.... In-between these two periods, Scrope;s representation focused rather on his exemplary virtues as on his intercession and help." That hints that the poem is either very early or post-1450. But a post-1450 poem would probably have political or miraculous elements. Thus a very early date may be indicated. I'd hate to bet a lot on that, though.
APPENDIX: The ballad "Hereford and Norfolk"
Henry IV lived too soon for there to be much of a ballad tradition about him, but there is an item in the Percy Folio, cited above as the related piece "Hereford and Norfolk," which begins
Towe noble dukes of great renowne
That long had lived in fame
Throug(h) fatal envye were cast downe
And brought to sudden bane
It tells of how the Dukes of Hereford and Norfolk accuse each other of treason. Richard II orders a trial by combat to resolve the matter, and both lords agree. But just before they fight, Richard orders the combat halted -- and punishes both of them, banishing Hereford for ten years and Norfolk for life. But Hereford comes back and overthrows Richard. The rest of the story is covered above.
The piece is inaccurate, or at least deceptive, in any number of ways -- at least based on what we think happened. (As far as I know, no one has suggested using "Hereford and Norfolk" a source for histories.) An interesting one is calling Henry of Bolingbroke "Duke of Hereford." His first title was Earl of Derby. When he married his first wife Mary de Bohun, he gained her title of Earl of Hereford. (Wagner, p. 148) Some reports say that he was made Duke of Hereford, and Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolk, at the same time in 1397. When his father died, Bolingbroke became Duke of Lancaster -- but he could not claim the title of Duke of Lancaster until he claimed the kingship. Thus, although Bolingboke was for a long time known as "Hereford," he was only briefly known as "Duke of Hereford." Similarly Mowbray spent most of his time as Earl, not Duke, of Norfolk.
As Hales/Furnivall report, the song has the date of their proposed duel wrong.
From what little we know, it also appears to have the prelude wrong as well; the usual story is that Norfolk told Bolingbroke that Richard was after both of them, since they had been among the Lords Appellant earlier. Bolingbroke then accused Norfolk before the king (Kirby, pp. 46-48). The (non-)duel mostly went as described.
I suppose a case could make a case that, if I were going to index one Henry IV song, it should have been "Hereford and Norfolk," since it's in the Percy Folio. But it is very ornate, and looks like a professional job. "Archbishop Scrope" looks much more genuine. Goldberg, p. 8, declares "Archbishop Scrope" to be "a relic more of an active oral tradition of collective and cult remembrance than simply a literary curiosity." So I indexed the latter. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: MsDArScr

Death of Ben Hall (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Ben Hall's cowardly murder is recalled, as well as his nobility: "He never robbed a needy man, The records sure will show. How staunch and loyal to his mates, how manly to the foe." The singer bids him farewell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson, Old Bush Songs)
KEYWORDS: death homicide outlaw abuse Australia
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 5, 1865 - Ben Hall is ambushed and killed by police near Forbes, Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 98-99, "Bold Ben Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 90-91, "The Death of Ben Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, p. 6, "The Ballad of Ben Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 81-84, "The Death of Ben Hall" (1 text. Note that the song appears to begin with the unrelated stanza "My name is Ben Hall from Urunga I came," but this is in fact a separate poem which just ended up on the same page)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 73-74, "Brave Ben Hall" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 32-33, "Brave Ben Hall" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp 17-18, "The Ballad of Ben Hall" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), p. 267, "The Ballad of Ben Hall" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ben Hall" (plot, subject) and references there
NOTES [110 words]: Ben Hall is widely regarded as "the noblest of the bushrangers." The story is that he was hounded from his home by the police, and only then turned to crime. Even as a bushranger, he attacked only the rich and never shed blood. For background, see the notes to "Ben Hall."
To tell this song from the other Ben Hall songs, consider this first stanza:
Come all Australia's sons to me, a hero has been slain,
Cowardly butchered in his sleep upon the Lachlan plain.
Oh, do not stay your seemly grief but let a teardrop fall,
Oh, so many hearts will always mourn the fate of bold Ben Hall.
(note: with some settings of the tune, this is the first two stanzas) - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: MA098

Death of Ben Hall (II), The

See Ben Hall (File: MA164)

Death of Bendal, The

See The Murder of F. C. Benwell [Laws E26] (File: LE26)

Death of Bendall, The

See The Murder of F. C. Benwell [Laws E26] (File: LE26)

Death of Bernard Friley, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was down in the level land A murder came to light, The death of Bernard Friley 'Twas on a Monday night." A boy discovers the body as the man's dog sits by his side. The crime is blamed on drink; his murderer is imprisoned; listeners are warned
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: drink homicide dog corpse
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 135-136, "The Death of Bernard Friley" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 142-144)
File: ThBa135

Death of Birchie Potter

DESCRIPTION: "In the state of North Carolina, In a place called Pottertown, Two cousins took to drinking; One shot the other down." Birchie Potter, the victim, is praised; the singer hopes Glen Brown, the murderer, will face justice. He warns against drink
AUTHOR: Jim Brown? Uncle Bill Ellison?
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Wautagua Democrat)
KEYWORDS: homicide family warning drink
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1937 - Murder of Birchie Potter by Glen Brown (his cousin) in Wautaga County, North Carolina (Soure:Patterson)
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 295, "Death of Birchie Potter" (1 text)
Roud #6637
NOTES [58 words]: Daniel W. Patterson, A Tree Accursed: Bobby McMillon and Stories of Frankie Silver, University of North Carolina Press, 2000, p. 118, credits this to "Uncle Bill Ellison," who supposedly gave it to Jim Brown, who expanded it and gave his version to the Watauga Democrat. This seems likely, but as it is third-hand, I doubt it can be verified. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: BrII295

Death of Brugh, The

DESCRIPTION: In 1922, rebel leader Cathal Brugh(a) is trapped (in a Dublin hotel) along with his fighting comrades; attempting to escape through the back door, he is shot. The singer praises and laments him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recording, Johnny McDonagh)
KEYWORDS: grief rebellion death lament IRA
FOUND IN:
Roud #12941
RECORDINGS:
Johnny McDonagh, "The Death of Brugh" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All Around My Hat" (tune)
NOTES [832 words]: Cathal Brugha was an officer in the resistance forces during the rebellion of 1916, famed for how hard he fought. He was also a political leader, arguing strenuously for a Republican government. - PJS
Brugha (born Charles Burgess, but like many Irish revolutionaries, he changed his name to a Gaelic form) fought and was wounded in the Easter Rebellion, but survived and was the Defence Minister in the 1919 Dail (the Irish parliament, which at that time would have to be regarded as provisional).
By the time he died, the Irish Free State had been organized (admittedly as a dominion) by Britain. But when the Irish cabinet voted (1921) on the dominion Treaty with Britain, Brugha (along with de Valera and Stack) voted against it (it was a 4-3 vote, with Barton, Collins, Cosgrave, and Griffith voting for the treaty). The vote in the Dail was 64-57 in favor.
When, later, Archbishop Byrne arranged a conference between Griffith, Collins, Brugha, and de Valera, Brugha called Collins a British agent, and when the latter proposed a referendum on the treaty, declared that circumstances were such that the people should not be allowed to vote (Coogan, p. 320).
The result was civil war, with pro- and anti-Treaty forces bitterly contesting the nature of a future Ireland. The legitimate government was pro-Treaty; Brugha was against. Thus Brugha was actually fighting *against* the legitimate government of Ireland when he died, fleeing from a burned building, gun in hand -- the perfect foot soldier, except that that wasn't his role.
According to Kee, p. 166, "Out of one of the blazing buildings in which a group of anti-Treaty men had eventually surrendered there emerged... a small dark man carrying a Thompson sub-machine gun. He hadshaken off a St. John's Ambulance man who tried to make him surrender, and suddenly started firing... He was brought down in a hail of bullets, and died two days later. Altogether some sixty people were killed and three hundred wounded in eight days' fighting in Dublin."
To be fair, Brugha had allowed the remainder of his forces to surrender before setting out alone. Younger, pp. 341-342, speculates that Brugha wanted to die as a sacrifice. But he did flee the Granville Hotel, breaking away from the men who served under him -- then when he was cornered, he fought rather than surrendering, and forced the army to kill him.
Perhaps the fittest description of him came from Richard Mulcahy (1886-1971), chief of staff of the Irish Volunteers and one of the most important men in holding together the Free State government: he was "as brave and as brainless as a bull" (Coogan, p. 34). He was tough as a bull, too; during the Easter Rising, he had taken "frightful" grenade wounds and lay for hours in a room "with little or no plaster left on the walls and every piece of furniture wrecked" (Foy/Barton, p. 102). He had been spared a firing squad in 1916 because he was thought too wounded to survive. Obviously he proved the doctors wrong (Coogan, p. 71).
Even Collins had mild words for him: "Because of his sincerity, I would forgive him anything. at worst he was a fanatic though in what has been a noble cause" (Kee, p. 167).
Reading Coogan's description of Brugha (p. 70), which describes an inflexible, unimaginative, doctrinaire man -- so doctrinaire that he actually wanted to fight pitched battles against the English! (p. 142) -- I can't help but think how much he sounds like an *English* officer -- even though Brugha, were he alive, would doubtless beat me to a pulp for saying that.
The idiocy of this viewpoint is shown by a comment by Richard Mulcahy, the Irish Chief of Staff, who (after Collins) was probably the man most responsible for forcing the British to negotiate; he observed that, for all the deaths, the Irish rebels had never managed to drive the English out of anything more significant than "a fairly good-sized police barracks" (Kee, p. 145.)
Nor was Brugha particularly close to the "men in the trenches"; Coogan on p. 142 reports that he continued to work at his business through most of the Troubles.
He would have made a wonderful prison camp commandant, I think: Loyal, dependable, and completely lacking in imagination. As a senior government official, he was probably more trouble than he was worth.
Brugha was not the only famous casualty in this period; the Irish shed at least as much of their own blood in the Civil War as the English ever had, and many leaders on both sides were ambushed, executed, or otherwise eliminated. For an even stronger example, and a far greater loss, see "General Michael Collins."
It is sad to note that much of the violent squabbling may have been based on personality rather than policy: Sean Dowling state that "Cathal Brugha hated Collins like poison. It was pathological. ... Brugha was Minister for Defence but he never did anything.... Collins was so energetic that he had usurped many of Brugha's functions; he sure was hated by him." (Quoted by Coogan, p. 175.) - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: RcTDOB

Death of Captain Friend, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all kind friends and pray attend... Concerning Captain Elisha Friend, Whose voyage on earth did early end." His ship is wrecked. He and many crew are rescued, but his wife dies. He in turn dies eight months later
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck husband wife death
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 293-295, "The Death of Captain Friend" (1 text)
Roud #4076
NOTES [7 words]: This is item dD30 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm293

Death of Charlie Burger

See Hanging of Charlie Birger (File: DTcbirge)

Death of Cilley, The (The Duelist)

DESCRIPTION: "Hark! Didst though hear that startling shriek, That agonizing yell? Which bathed in tears the widow's cheek, When murdered Cilley fell?" "O tell it not in Askelon... What deeds are done in Washington." "The duellist... Must stand condemned...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 24, 1838 - Jonathan Cilley, a Maine congressman, killed in a duel with Kentucky Representative William Graves
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 256, "The Duellist, or The Death of Cilley" (1 excerpted text)
NOTES [3712 words]: There is a book about this event, Roger Ginn, New England Must Not Be Trampled On: The Tragic Death of Jonathan Cilley, 2016, here cited as Ginn. It is apparently the only full-length work ever written about Cilley; the only previous biography was a short, contemporary one by none other than Nathaniel Hawthorne. Seitz's book about duels is mostly about the duel itself (and even that often from poor sources).
Hawthorne described Cilley in his American Notebooks: ""He is a singular man, shrewd, crafty, insinuating, with wonderful tact, seizing on each man by his maneagable point, and using them for his own purposes, often without the man suspecting that he is being made a tool of; and yet... his conversation... was full of natural feeling" (quoted on p. 124 of Ginn). Perhaps that description should be kept in mind in assessing what follows.
Ginn, p. 1, opens his account with this introduction:
"On a damp cold Saturday afternoon, February 24, 1838, Jonathan Cilley, a thirty-five-year-old first term Maine Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, was killed in a duel on a field outside Washington, D.C., by a Whig congressman from Kentucky, thirty-two-year-old William Graves. While in the 1800s duels were not uncommon, particularly in the South, this duel grabbed national headlines. The political press talked of plots and conspiracies. It brought out, mostly in the Northern press, a cry for the abolishment of thase so-called 'affairs of honor.'"
It's a little ironic that Cilley, a supporter of that famous duelist Andrew Jackson, was killed in a duel with a Whig. But you could argue that that's what happens when you have a political duel. According to Ginn, p. 4, Cilley and Graves had no particular personal animus. It arose out of the relationships between their congressional colleagues and their political conflicts.
Cilley was born in Nottingham, New Hampshire on July 2, 1892; he was the sixth child and fourth son of Greenlead Cilley and Jane Nealley Cilley (Ginn, p. 7). His grandfather Joseph Cilley (1734-1799) had fought as an enlisted man in the French and Indian War (Ginn, p. 8), then as an officer in the American Revolution, eventually reaching the rank of colonel; he went on to be a major general of the New Hampshire militia (Ginn, p. 15' O'Brien, p. 106). But Joseph died before Jonathan was born. Jonathan's father Greenleaf died when Jonathan was only five or six (Ginn, p. 19), and by the time he reached his teens, two of his brothers were dead and the third crippled in the War of 1812 (Ginn, pp. 20-21) -- but, fortunately, an uncle helped pay his way to a college preparatory boarding school, where he studied what we would now probably call "classics" (Ginn, p. 24). Oddly, rather than go to Harvard or Dartmouth, he decided to go to Bowdoin College (Ginn, p. 25).
Bowdoin was then a very small place, but those who attended the school while Cilley was there were distinguished, including Calvin Stowe (the future husband of Harriet Beecher Stowe), future Senator William Pitt Fessenden who was Abraham Lincoln's second Treasury Secretary; future President Franklin Pierce, and Nathaniel Hawthorne (Holt, p. 7). Indeed, according to Ginn, p. 29, Cilley first arrived at Bowdoin in a carriage that he shared with Pierce and Hawthorne! In the time between his studies, Cilley taught school to raise money for his education (Ginn, p. 36). Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was also there for part of this time. Even in this distinguished company, Cilley managed to be phi beta kappa (Ginn, p. 38). He would eventually name his third child "Bowdoin" (Ginn, p. 87).
Curiously, for a future Jacksonian Democrat, two theses he wrote for commencement both betray a distrust of ordinary people, who have to be guided by fiction and ridicule rather than facts (Ginn, pp. 40-41).
After graduation, he decided to study law with a Maine law firm, under a man who would soon become Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives (Ginn, p. 48); this is how he came to move from New Hampshire to Thomaston, Maine (Ginn, pp. 42-44); it was on his trip there that he met the woman who became his wife (Ginn, p. 44).
I can't say that I think much of his opinions; he publicly supported the argument that "women's mental capacities were not equal to those of men" (Ginn, p. 50). He more or less dodged the question of slavery -- at a time when the South was demanding more Northern recognition of slavery, he went along with Maine's declaration that the issue was, in effect, not their problem (Ginn, p. 115). But, like Andrew Jackson (who was a slaveholder who won his fame murdering and deporting Indians), his opinions of Blacks and Indians were vile -- he called for a genocide of the Seminoles (Ginn, p. 138). On the other hand, he came to oppose the death penalty (Ginn, p. 112), which was a rare and unusually humanitarian opinion at the time.
One might question his morals, too -- he married his wife on April 4, 1829, on short notice, and their son Greenleaf was born on October 27 of that year (Ginn, p. 60). He went into legal practice himself around this time, fathered a daughter Jane in 1831, and was active on behalf of Jackson and the Democrats (Ginn, p. 61).
In 1831, his mentor John Ruggles left the Maine House of Representatives to become a judge, and Cilley was elected to his place (Ginn, p. 62). Curiously, Ruggles by 1832 was vigorously opposing Cilley's reelection (Ginn, p. 65); Maine's Democratic party was internally divided, and Ruggles didn't think Cilley sufficiently loyal. Cilley's re-election contest was disputed, and although Cilley had the plurality in several election re-runs (not re-counts; they actually held new elections), the legislature in Augusta eventually set him aside (Ginn, p. 78).
Reading Ginn's description of the political wranglings of the period (e.g. pp. 83-85), it sounds as if Cilley did not like contradiction and never ran away from a disagreement. He nonetheless managed to win another legislative term -- and the Democratic Caucus responded with a move to expel him, though they couldn't kick him out of the legislature this time (Ginn, p. 91).
Meanwhile, his son Bowdoin died at the age of nine months, and his wife started showing signs of depression and religious hysteria (Ginn, p. 100; it sounds as if Cilley, while trying to be supportive, in fact gave his wife terrible advice -- and he stayed in the legislative session rather than supporting her).
The 1835 legislative session was probably the turning point in Cilley's career. The man who was chosen Speaker for that session later resigned to take another job, and Cilley was chosen (Ginn, pp. 107-109); I would guess that the opposition of the Ruggles faction actually helped him in that regard.
Cilley's ambition shows in the fact that, after a relatively short time in the legislature and while still quite young, he turned his attention for a run for the U. S. House (Ginn, p. 115). He ran, moreover, shortly after his daughter Jane died (Ginn, p. 119) -- can't let little things like family life interfere with one's quest for power! The seat he ran for wasn't quite an open seat, but in the previous term, the Democratic incumbent had given it up, to be replaced by a Whig named Jeremiah Bailey (Ginn, p. 116), so the seat was probably quite vulnerable to being flipped.
In the 1836 election, Cilley earned 49.66% of the vote. Since Maine at that time required the winner earn at least 50% of the vote, he found himself in a runoff with Bailey. That forced a second round -- and again Cilley won the plurality but not a majority (Ginn, pp. 119-120). Finally, on February 7, 1837, he achieved an outright majority and became a congressman-elect (Ginn, p. 123).
Cilley did not move his family to Washington (at the time, when the congress met for relatively short periods, this was fairly normal); he lived in a boarding house along with Franklin Pierce and others (Ginn, p. 126). He was not to spend much time there; toward the end of the (special) session, he lad the seeds for his later troubles, talking on the floor of the House about an (unreliable) newspaper's charges of corruption against an unnamed Congressman, who later turned out to be his mentor/enemy Ruggles (Ginn, p. 143).
Cilley did not name the newspaper or its editor, but the paper was the New York Courier and Enquirer, one of the leading Whig papers, and the editor was J. Watson Webb (Seitz, p. 251. Cilley had a point about Webb's paper; it was a hyper-partisan Whig publication that sounds as if it would print anything as long as it was anti-Jacksonian Democrat; cf. Seitz, pp. 286-287). Webb wrote an inquiry to Cilley, asking if he were the editor meant and, if so, demanding "the explanation which the character of your remarks renders necessary" (quoted on p 148 of Ginn and p. 254 of Seitz).
Apparently Webb's words were not an actual demand for satisfaction, but it's obvious that they could be interpreted that way, particularly if a third party passed them on. And Webb had no way to get his letter to Cilley. He went to the Capital, and instead of finding Congressman Cilley, he met several others who refused to pass on his challenge (Seitz, p. 252). He then encountered Congressman Graves.
William J. Graves was also new to Washington, if not quite so new; the Kentuckian was born in 1805, became a lawyer, entered the Kentucky house in 1833, and was elected to congress in 1834 (Ginn, p. 116-117). Thus, like Cilley, he was a man intent on rising the political ladder quickly. (He wasn't entirely successful; he only served three terms, not running for re-election after the duel. He never held elective office again, dying of bladder cancer in 1844; Ginn, p. 223).
Graves didn't particularly want to deliver Webb's message, given its harshness, but Webb assured Graves that he wasn't challenging Cilley to a duel (Ginn, p. 148). So Graves, probably reluctantly, agreed to deliver it. He found Cilley and handed over the note.
Cilley, being the man he was, refused to accept the note (and went to Franklin Pierce for advice, which, given Pierce's lack of brains, strikes me as utterly idiotic). Suddenly, as well as Webb having been insulted, Graves was in an uncomfortable situation, since Cilley was refusing to respect Graves's willingness to help Webb (Ginn, pp. 147-148). Graves in turn went for advice to a man known for duels and brawling, Congressman Henry A. Wise (GInn, pp. 150-151), later Governor of Virginia and a Confederate general (Seitz, p. 282). Wise thought Graves had made a mistake in getting involved but that he couldn't back out now. Graves and Cilley met again, with Graves asking Cilley to put his position in writing (Ginn, p. 151). This turned into an exchange of notes, each cranking up the pressure somewhat (Seitz, pp. 255-256; Ginn, pp. 152-153). The last from Graves ended "A categorical answer is expected" (Ginn, p. 155).
Cllley felt that that showed a "lack of respect" (Ginn, p. 156). He also thought there were people behind Graves who were pushing the quarrel. So he wrote, "I regret that m[y note] of yesterday was not satisfactory to you, but I cannot admit the right on your part to propound the question to which you ask a categorical answer, and therefore decline any further response to it" (Ginn, p. 157). Those, obviously, were fighting words -- and Cilley knew it and was aware of the possibility of a challenge. Which is just what he got. Graves started working on it as soon as he received the note, although he talked to Wise before issuing it (Ginn, p. 158). Even before receiving the challenge, Cilley borrowed a rifle from his friend Senator Alexander Duncan and started practicing with it (Ginn, p. 159); apparently he had some trouble with it at first. (Cilley apparently said that his eyesight wasn't very good -- Ginn, p. 161 -- which makes you wonder why, since he would have the choice of weapons, he chose a long-range weapon.)
If I understand Ginn correctly, Cilley and Graves, or their allies, apparently both thought the other was engaged in a conspiracy to entrap him. But Cilley also thought that it was simply a show and would only last one round (Ginn, p. 162).
It took some hours for the challenge to reach Cilley, as other parties tried to keep both men safe. But eventually Graves decided on his wording and gave it to Wise to deliver to Cilley: "Washington City, February 23, 1838... [Graves reiterates his complaint], I am left with no alternative but to ask that satisfaction which is recognized among gentlemen. My friend, Honorable Henry A. Wise, is authorized by me to make the arrangements suitable for the occasion. Your obedient servant, W. J. Graves" (Ginn, pp. 162-163).
Cilley chose to face off with rifles at eighty yards, apparently because he had never before used a pistol (Ginn, p.166. Perhaps we should remind ourselves that these were 1830s rifles, with a very slow load time). Because Cilley was in a hurry to get it over with, he called for the duel to be the next day at noon, with the place to be determined by their negotiators (Ginn, pp. 166-167). Wise called the choice of rifles "unusual and objectionable" (Ginn, p. 168), but agreed, and he and other friends of Graves went off to find a weapon (Graves did not own a rifle; Seitz, p. 259) ; the one they found was old and cranky, but they got it working (Ginn, p. 169. Apparently Cilley's people had offered to find them a rifle, but the Graves group didn't trust them to supply a good one; Ginn, p. 173).
The Cilley/Graves duel was not the first between congressmen -- indeed, not the first in the 1830s; Whig Daniel Jenifer and Democrat Jesse D. Bynum had a duel in June 1836, although neither was injured (Ginn, p. 118). As early as 1819, Virginia Senator Armistead T. Mason had been killed in a duel, although his opponent was not a member of the federal legislature (Seitz, p. 281).
Graves had Wise as his second. Cilley's second was also called a General on p. 253 of Seitz, but this appears to be an error for "Surveyor-General"; he was George Wallace Jones of Wisconsin (a man who in later years was himself suspected of Confederate sympathies). Cilley apparently had had some trouble finding a second; he didn't want Pierce to do it, and Pierce had a hard time finding anyone else with appropriate experience; Jones consented only because no one else was at all qualified (Ginn, pp. 164-165).
There was quite a witness list (as there had to be at these things, to prevent murder charges) -- on Cilley's side, Senator Duncan, Congressman Bynum (the guy involved in that 1836 duel, note), and others; on Graves's, Congressmen Richard H. Menifee and John Calhoun (no, not that Calhoun -- this one was from Kentucky). Each side had its own doctor, although Graves's was one he didn't know well (Ginn, p. 175).
Neither man's wife was present. Cilley's wife was still in Maine, but Graves's wife was in Washington -- and he hadn't told her about it! When she realized what was going on, she got warrants to stop the fight, and went out to try to find the combatants -- but they had left the District of Columbia and managed to find a remote spot in Maryland to prevent interference (Ginn 176-177).
The duel went three rounds, with hectic negotiations between the combatants' parties between rounds. There is some disagreement about what was said (Seitz, pp. 262-263); it sounds as if everyone was seeking a face-saving way out, but the sort of tragic miscommunication which led to the duel in the first place seems to have persisted as the seconds tried to work things out.
The rules that had been set required the combatants to wait until the word "fire" was called, but they had to fire by the count of four after that, or not fire. Thus both were under pressure to aim and fire quickly. On the first round, Cilley fired quickly and into the ground; Graves missed (Ginn, p. 178). A half hour argument followed between the observers about whether Graves had had satisfaction. Ginn, p. 179, thinks that Wise could have agreed that he had, but being the prickly character that he was, he instead allowed the duel to continue. So they had a second round. Graves goofed up his shot (and thought he should have another chance); Cilley just missed (Ginn, p. 179). So the arguments began again; once again, there was no resolution, though everyone began to discuss the idea of having the two move closer if they did not have a hit on the third round.
Before the third round could take place, the owner of the place they had appropriated showed up and ordered the duelists off his land. This, of course, was his right -- but they told him to get out of the way and threatened to kill him (Ginn, p. 182). So the third round went ahead. Cilley missed again -- and Graves hit Cilley on the left side just below the rib cage. He cried out, "I am shot" and fell. It is believed the bullet had crushed one of the major blood vesels; Cilley was dead in a minute or two. To continue the illegalities, his body was not taken to a coroner but to his home and left on the floor of his room still in its blood! (Ginn, pp. 182-183).
The seconds, Jones and Wise, worked together to write an account of what had happened (Ginn, p. 185). Cilley's body was displayed in the Capitol rotunda; most of the ceremonies took place before his wife could even arrive in Washington (Ginn, p. 187).
The shock to Deborah Cilley was severe, of course -- so severe that the local minister's wife felt the need to write to Graves about it (Ginn, p. 193), though I can't imagine that accomplished anything even if Graves got the letter. Graves himself would later say that he didn't believe in dueling, clling it an "antisocial and unchristian practice" (Ginn, p. 200) -- which makes you wonder why he didn't try for a better answer!
Ginn, p. 212, declares that "Jonathan's untimely death was truly a tragedy," but I am not sure I agree. I can't see any sign that his presence in Washington accomplished much. He was a bigot, and excessively ambitious, and too proud for his own good; he almost forced Graves into a duel, and paid for it. But, obviously, it is rarely constructive for congressmen to go around shooting each other!
In the aftermath, the House passed a resolution calling for an investigation into ways to clamp down on dueling; that eminent Jacksonian, Speaker of the House James K. Polk (later the country's most expansionist president) named a committee of seven (Seitz, p. 274). Four of them eventually submitted a report asking that Graves be expelled from the house and that Wise and one other be censured (Seitz, pp.-274 275). This resolution failed (Seitz, p. 277). They did manage to pass a ban on dueling in the District of Columbia (Seitz, pp. 279-280), though it's hard to believe it made any difference. A few other states also passed laws; in New York, the only one to suffer, according to Seitz, p. 281, was none other than J. Watson Webb, whose paper published the item that started the whole Cilley/Graves affair. (Everyone in congress apparently agreed that Webb's behavior was reprehensible, but since he wasn't a member, they couldn't punish him; Ginn, p. 199.)
Cilley's widow Deborah Prince Cilley was left with three children, eight, two, and two months, and ended up having to teach school to survive; the government apparently did not give her any assistance. She died six years later of tuberculosis (Ginn, p.219).
The special election to fill Cilley's seat was a rebuke to his memory, or at least to Jacksonian Democrats; Cilley, as we saw, had barely won the seat, but in the election to replace him, the Whig, Edward Robinson, took 4113 votes, Democrat John D. McCrate took 3420, and a Whig splinter candidate took 497 (Seitz, p. 279). Thus where Democrat Cilley had barely won the district as a Democrat, in 1838, a Whig won a clear majority even with a second Whig candidate in the race! Of course, a lot of that was due to the Panic of 1837; the result was a portent of what would happen to the Democrats in the elections of 1838 and 1840, which saw the (obviously temporary) sweeping aside of the Democrats. Robinson would not retain the seat after the next election (Ginn, p. 195).
There is a monument to Cilley in Thomaston, a small town on the east coast. You can see it on Google Maps at Thomaston Village Cemetary, Thomaston, ME (24 Erin St, Thomaston, ME, seems to get you closest; it's on the far side of the road from the white house that they show you in Street View), but I had to get the text from findagrave.com:
----
HON. JONATHAN CILLEY
July 2, 1802-Feb. 24, 1838
Bowdoin 1825
Member of 25th Congress
"New England Must Not Be Trampled On"
DEBORAH PRINCE
July 6, 1808-Aug 14, 1844
WIFE OF JONATHAN
----
Their second surviving son Jonathan Prince Cilley is said by Seitz, p. 282, to have been a Civil War general, but this is not correct although it contains a germ of truth. Cilley was Lieutenant Colonel of the 1st Maine Cavalry regiment. He was *breveted* a brigadier general (Phisterer, p. 293, #1483). A brevet promotion to brigadier meant that Cilley was... a lieutenant colonel. The brevet didn't even make him senior to other lieutenant colonels. In the American army of the time, a brevet promotion was an honor, but a purely symbolic one (one source I read said that brevet promotions were what the army used before it came up with medals). What's more, the brevet was awarded on June 2, 1865, so the war was over anyway; Cilley would not have served in combat under his new (non-)rank.
Cavalry service was easier than infantry during the Civil War, but Cilley did at least fight: The 1st Maine, e.g., fought in J. I. Gregg's brigade of D. M. Gregg's division of the cavalry at Gettysburg; it was one of the units that kept "Jeb" Stuart's cavalry from attacking the Union rear on the third day. The Wikipedia article on the 1st Maine Cavalry (the longest Wikipedia article I've ever seen on a Civil War regiment) mentions Cilley only twice, but one of those mentions is to state that Cilley (then a captain and company commander) took a severe wound. According to Ginn, p. 219, he suffered three wounds in all. He would live until 1920.
The song's mention of Askelon and Gath is a reference to 2 Samuel 1:20, David's lament over Saul. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: Burt256

Death of Cock Robin, The

See Who Killed Cock Robin? (File: SKE74)

Death of Colonel Crafford, The

DESCRIPTION: Crafford leads a party out to slaughter the Indians outside Sandusky. Despite the valor of the white officers, they are forced back and Crafford is taken. The tribal council condemns him to be burnt. The survivors go home and cry for revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) execution war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 7, 1782 - American militia massacre 96 Delaware Indians (all Christians) at Gnadenhutten, Ohio. This was in retaliation for raids in which the Delaware took no part
May 25-June 6, 1782 - Colonel William Crawford's campaign against the Indians (and British loyalists) on the Sandusky River, culminating in his severe defeat and the massacre of his army.
June 11, 1782 - Execution by burning of Crawford. Crawford's defeat brought many Indians into the Revolutionary War on the British side, but this did little to change the balance of power; Cornwallis had already surrendered and American independence was assured
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 115, "A Song on the Death of Colonel Crafford" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 390-393, "A Song, Called Crawford's Defeat by the Indian on the Fourth Day of June, 1782" (1 text)
ST E115 (Full)
Roud #5341
File: E115

Death of Ella Speed, The

See Ella Speed (Bill Martin and Ella Speed) [Laws I6] (File: LI06)

Death of Ellenton, THe

DESCRIPTION: "Where the broad Savannah flows along to meet the mighty sea" was the former location of the town of Ellenton. The town has been taken over for a military test area and the inhabitants bought out. "Ellenton -- fair Ellenton -- is gone forevermore."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recording, Johnson Family Singers)
KEYWORDS: home exile technology war
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 301-302, "The Death of Ellenton" (1 text)
Roud #22286
File: CAFS301B

Death of Fan McCoy, The

DESCRIPTION: "On her death bed lay Fan McCoy, Her child standing near." She reminds her son, "The Hatfields got your pappy, Jed," and tells the history of the feud, bidding him carry it on. Judge and jury are urged not to treat him harshly because of his history
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: feud death mother children revenge
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 1880 - Beginning of the Hatfield/McCoy feud
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 12-13, "The Death of Fan McCoy" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 25-26)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 248, "(The Death of Fan McCoy)" (1 excerpt)
ST ThBdM012 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jim Hatfield's Boy" (subject)
NOTES [1833 words]: Something I once read -- I can't remember where it was -- claimed the Hatfields of West Virginia were a clan mostly of Democrats and Confederate sympathizers; the McCoys, from just across the Kentucky line, were Unionist Republicans. (Compare Williams, p. 98).Their feud began in 1880, and some have claimed that 200 people died in the eight years before Kentucky police suppressed the Hatfields and functionally ended the conflict. Very little of this seems to be true.
KentuckyEncyclopedia, pp. 417-418, has an article on the feud which mentions none of this (except that it placed the McCoys in Pike County, Kentucky and the Hatfields in Logan County, now Mingo County, West Virginia). Kleber points to a girl wronged in 1880, a murder in 1882, a handful of other murders after that, and some court cases which ended the whole thing in 1890. According to Williams, p. 100, the last murders took place in 1888.
"Taken out of its social context, the Hatfield-McCoy feud still makes a rousing good story -- there are violence and humor and sex enough -- but certain features of the conflict are harder to explain, such as when it started, why it stopped, and why it attracted so much attention. There were not only powerful emotions and personalities involved in the feuds; there were also powerful social forces. It is no coincidence that the feud broke out at the turning point from preindustrial to industrial society in this part of West Virginia. The wider ramifications of the feud reached back to the Civil War... Much later, memebrs of both families were involved in the industrial violence that drew national attention again to the Tug Fork Valley during the twentieth century" (Williams, pp. 97-98).
The Hatfields and McCoys were in many ways similar; both were large extended families, and both were your stereotypical backwoodsmen, even though Ephraim "Big Eaf" Hatfield married Nancy Vance, the sister of fancy lawyer and eventual North Carolina governor Zebulon Vance (Rice, p. 3). The leaders of the feuding families, William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield and Randolph McCoy, both had substantial properties and livestock, and lived by farming and hunting. They lived in rather primitive homes despite their relative wealth. Many of them were illiterate. And although their religious affiliations, insofar as they had any, were with the Primitive Baptists, they did not do much to practice their faith (Rice, pp. 5-7). Apparently both families counted moonshiners among their members; some of them were tried for making alcohol, though apparently few if any were convicted (Williams, p. 104).
There was no history of antipathy between the two clans; Rice, p. 9, mentions at least three marriages between the extended families, although not in the immediate kin of those involved in the feud. The claim that their feud was the result of Civil War politics seems to be false; according to Rice, p. 10, the Hatfields were all pro-Confederacy -- but most though not all the McCoys were, too. Several Hatfields served in the Confederate army, although they also had a bad tendency to desert, especially after it became clear that both Kentucky and what became West Virginia would remain Union territory. They also engaged as partisans, and Devil Anse Hatfield claimed that he actually had McCoys under his command in their partisan unit! (Rice, p. 11).
The Civil War did see a certain amount of stock-raiding between the two clans, some of which landed them in court, but this sounds like a symptom of the disturbed conditions in the are; there was no particular animosity between the two clans (Rice, p. 12). The one exception was the lynching, on January 7, 1865, of Harmon McCoy, the younger brother of Randolph McCoy. "Devil Anse" Harmon may well have been involved, but a lot of others were as well (Rice, p. 13).
Rice doesn't think the lynching soured the relationship between the clans; it was the hog-stealing that did. But even the theft didn't start the feud. The first event directly linked to the feud was in 1878, when Floyd Hatfield gathered up his free-range hogs -- and Randolph McCoy saw a hog in Hatfield's possession which he believed was his. Randolph McCoy went to a justice of the peace, the Rev. Anderson Hatfield, to try to get satisfaction. Justice Hatfield, rather than try to settle it himself, decided to use a jury -- but a jury of six Hatfields and six McCoys rather than a jury of neutrals. Apparently the decision went 7-5 in favor of Hatfield, with Selkirk McCoy considering the evidence insufficient to convict (Rice, pp. 13-14).
There still wasn't explicit clan fighting; the first person killed was actually an unrelated witness in the trial, Bill Staton, murdered by a couple of McCoys; Sam McCoy was tried for the murder but acquitted (Rice, pp. 16-17). It is noteworthy, however, that the Hatfields by this time were traveling in armed bands (Rice, p. 19); in effect, they had become their own militia.
The precipitating event of the feud came at a gathering for a West Virginia election. 18-year-old Johnson "Johnse" Hatfield, who seems to have been the fashion plate of the family, encountered 20-year-old Rose Anna McCoy, one of the great beauties of the region (Rice, p. 20). Details of what followed are sketchy, but it seems that, after they went off to some secluded place, Johnse brought Rose Anna to his father "Devil Anse's" house and said he would marry her. She stayed with the Hatfields for months -- but he made no moves to proceed with the marriage (Rice, p. 21). It is possible she got pregnant, but the records are not certain on this point. And Johnse kept visiting her even after she went back to the McCoys. On one of these visits, Jim McCoy told Johnse that he would be arrested. Rose Anna apparently thought her family meant to kill Johnse -- and rode off to tell the Hatfields (Rice, p. 22)..
(Rose Anna's reward for all this was to be abandoned by both houses; Johnse -- who apparently liked to sow his wild oats -- abandoned her, and the McCoys would not take her back; Rice, p. 23. Ironically, although Johnse gave up on Rose Anna, he married another McCoy, Nancy, who was said to have henpecked him; Rice, p. 32.)
This still didn't start a feud (Williams, p. 98, in fact argues that "the sexual angle seems to have been less important to the two families than the hog"), but obviously the tensions were sky-high. Rice, p. 24, dates the actual start to 1882, with a dispute over whether Elias Hatfield, brother of "Devil Anse," owed money (less than $2!) for a fiddle. At an election where many were somewhat the worse for liquor, Ellison Hatfield made remarks to Tolbert McCoy, and McCoy attacked him with a knife. Not everyone pitched into the fight -- in fact, several of the older ones tried to stop it. But Pharmer McCoy shot Ellison Hatfield in the back. The McCoys then fled. But Hatfield parties captured several, including those who had attacked Ellison McCoy. When Elllison died on August 9, 1882, the Hatfields executed the three McCoys who were implicated: Tolbert, Pharmer, and Randolph Jr., tying them to bushes and riddling them with shots (Rice, p. 27, says that some fifty shots were fired at the three).
There were some attempts by law enforcement to stop the vigilante justice, but nothing came of them (Rice, pp. 28-29; Williams, pp. 99-100, says that nothing serious was done until 1887). The feud was on -- although, ironically, the next person to die was neither a Hatfield nor a McCoy but a mail carried, Fred Wolford, killed at a dance by Jeff McCoy (Rice, p. 33). I can't help but think that the real feud was not between the Hatfields and the McCoys but between these mountain imbeciles and the civilized world. There is some reason to think that "Devil" Anse Hatfield, and some of the other older men, tried to keep things from spinning out of control (Rice, p. 37), but the young hotheads wouldn't listen. Rice, p. 38, thinks it was the situation in Kentucky at the time that kept everyone stirred up; it is noteworthy that this was a period of clan feuds.
There wasn't a specific event that one can point to to say that it was "the end" of the feud, but "the Hatfield and McCoy families by 1890 showed signs of becoming weary of the feud" (Rice, p. 113). In 1891, Cap Hatfield wrote to a letter wrote that "a general amnesty has been declared in the famous Hatfield and McCoy feud" (Rice, p. 115). And the whole area welcomed the end, since the feud made West Virginia seem like a bad place for business development (Rice, p. 117).
The Hatfield family, at least, does not seem to have suffered much reputational damage. Henry D. Hatfield, the second son of Elias the brother of "Devil Anse," became West Virginia's governor (a fairly liberal Republican, despite that claim that the Hatfields were Democrats) after the election of 1912. He was the one of the state's youngest governors, and the first to be born after West Virginia became a state during the Civil War (Williams, pp. 127-128). One of his first acts was to pack up his medical gear (he was a physicians by training) and head out to treat miners striking in the West Virginia coal fields (Williams, pp. 130-133; according to p. 133, one of those he treated was the famous "Mother" Jones). In 1928, he was elected Senator (Williams, p. 146).
Rice, p. 4, has only one mention of a person who might have been Fan McCoy: Fanny McCoy was one of the sixteen children of Randolph McCoy (born 1925) and his first cousin Sarah "Sally" McCoy, whom he married in 1849. But, of course, if her maiden name was McCoy, she wouldn't have had a child whose name was Jed McCoy!
Nor does Rice mention a "Jed McCoy"; the closest I find is Jeff McCoy, the brother of Nancy McCoy (Rice, p. 23), who did commit a murder, but it was of a mail carrier, Fred Wolford (Rice, p. 33). I am inclined to believe that this song is fiction, either direct (that is, the songwriter made up the story) or indirect (i.e. lifted from a fictionalized book or newspaper article).
Books about the Hatfields and McCoys are numerous but, I suspect, mostly unreliable. Rice, who wrote the first book on the subject from an academic press, says that as of 1982 there were no good books at all. Kleber, p. 418, mentions two, which I would presume are more valuable: Rice's, and Altina L. Waller, Feud: Hatfields, McCoys, and Social Change in Appalachia, 1860-1900, 1988.
The Hatfield/McCoy feud doesn't really seem to have left much mark on tradition; the only songs I know about it are this one, "Jim Hatfield's Boy," and the Red Brush Rowdies song "Hatflied-McCoy Feud," all somewhat dubious and none of them very well-known. Other feud songs, such as "J. B. Marcum" (A Kentucky Feud Song) [Laws E19], are far better known. But Hatfield/McCoy feud became so famous that it likely inspired songs like Carson Robison's "Zeb Tourney's Girl" [Laws E18], which almost sounds like a city slicker's attempt to portray the circumstances of a feud which he did not understand. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBdM012

Death of Floyd Collins, The

See Floyd Collins [Laws G22] (File: LG22)

Death of Frank Farrel

See Frank Farrow (File: KPL349)

Death of Fred Lowry, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all young men and gentle maids, Come listen to me now...." The singer tells how troopers surround Fred Lowry's home. He vows to fight while ammunition lasts, but is shot from ambush. He proclaims his honesty, bids farewell to his girl, and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: outlaw death police prison Australia love
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 58-60, "The Death of Fred Lowry" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
NOTES [93 words]: According to Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 180, "Fred Lowry (1836-1863), a bushranger of the Bathhurst [New South Wales] region, is the subject of numerous extant local traditions.... In common with most bushranger lore, Lowry is presented as a brave, defiant hero who goes down gamely in a shoot-out with the cowardly police. He also seems to have had a reputation as a smart dresser and ladies' man. Legend has it that Lowry was the bushranger whose last words were 'Tell 'em I died game.'" - RBW
File: MCB058

Death of Garfield

See Charles Guiteau [Laws E11] (File: LE11)

Death of General Wolfe, The

See Brave Wolfe [Laws A1] (File: LA01)

Death of Geordie, The

See Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)

Death of George Stoole, The

DESCRIPTION: George, loved by the ladies, and a scamp, is not helped at trial by fickle friends. Though "guiltlesse," he is condemned to be hanged for receiving stolen horses from a merchant. He would have preferred to have died fighting but dies well.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1610-1612: "date guessed" by Ebsworth
LONG DESCRIPTION: "When Georgie to his triall came ... A thousand Lasses wept." "Some did say he would escape, some at his fall did glory" but no friends came to his defense. He calmly went to his death, "tooke his leave of his Lards wife whom he lov'd best of any." He writes a letter to "his beloved Lady ... Wherein he did at large bewail the occasion of his folly"; he would not have her mourn for him. He curses those that turned him in for sheep stealing. He wished he were on the hill ... "my sword and buckler by my side, to fight till I be weary." He gives "his dearest love" gold for her babies. He says, "I never stole no Oxe nor Cow, nor never murdered any; but fifty horse I did receive of a Merchants man of Gory... For which I am condemn'd to dye, though guiltlesse I stand dying." "God! comfort" those that "died so well as Georgie!"
KEYWORDS: captivity love crime execution punishment theft trial horse thief
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 209 Appendix, "A lamentable new Ditty, made upon the death of a worthy Gentlemen, George Stoole, dwelling sometime on Gate-side Moore, and sometime at New-Castle, in Northumberland: with his penitent end" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Hindley, editor, The Roxburghe Ballads (London, 1874 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, pp. 212-218, "A lamentable new Ditty, made upon the death of a worthy Gentlemen, George Stoole, dwelling sometime on Gate-side Moore, and sometime at New-Castle, in Northumberland: with his penitent end" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Geordie" [Child 209] (theme)
cf. "George of Oxford" (theme and some lines) and source/stemmatic discussion there
NOTES [81 words]: Ebsworth conjectures the date 1610-1612 for this, but that is perhaps the composition date, not the printing date. A. W. Pollard, G. R. Redgrave, et al, A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland & Ireland And of English Books Printed Abroad 1475-1640, The Bibliographical Society [of London], 1963, on p. 542 (#23291) list "A lamentable new ditty made upon the death of G. Stoole," a ballad in two parts, as printed by J. H. Gosson and list the date as "1620?" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: C209DGS

Death of Harry Bradford, The [Laws C12]

DESCRIPTION: Harry Bradford, the foreman's son, cannot escape being crushed by falling logs. The father learns of his son's tragic death
AUTHOR: W. J. Taylor
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: death logger lumbering father children
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws C12, "The Death of Harry Bradford"
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 52, "The Death of Harry Bradford" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 130-135, "The Death of Harry Bradford" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 70, "The Death of Harry Bradford" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 413-414, "The Death of Harry Bradford" (1 text)
DT 836, HARBRADF
Roud #2218
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" [Laws C1] (plot, tune)
NOTES [51 words]: Beck describes this song as "frankly in imitation" of "The Jam on Gerry's Rock". - PJS
This seems pretty clear; there are many phrases in common. But more than half of Beck's text (the only version that seems to be known) is about the father than about the tragedy. It's expansion as much as imitation. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: LC12

Death of Harry Simms, The

DESCRIPTION: Harry Simms is nineteen and "the bravest union man That I have ever seen." The singer worked with Simms; one day in 1932, after they separate, Simms is killed for his union activities. The singer says "The thugs... cannot kill our spirit"
AUTHOR: Aunt Molly Jackson (Jim Garland listed as second author in some sources)
EARLIEST DATE: 1953
KEYWORDS: homicide labor-movement death mining
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 1932 - Killing of Harry Simms
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 271-273 (plus notes on p. 261), "The Death of Harry Simms" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HARRYSIM*
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "The Death of Harry Simms" (on PeteSeeger13, AmHist1) (on PeteSeeger39, possibly the same recording as on PeteSeeger13)
NOTES [121 words]: Richard Polenberg: Hear My Sad Story: The True Tales That Inspired Stagolee, John Henry, and Other Traditional American Folk Songs, Cornell University Press, 2015, p. 210, connects this to the long, sad story of coal mining, unionism, and labor strife. "As late as February 1932, a sheriff's deputy who also worked for the coal company shot Harry Hersch (who used the surname Simms), a twenty-one-year-old radical labor organizer from Massachusetts."
Greenway claims this song has gone into oral tradition and developed variants. I have no supporting evidence for this -- but without counter-evidence, it goes into the Index. - RBW
Seeger lists authorship as "Words: Jim Garland; Music: As sung by Aunt Molly Jackson." - PJS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Grnw271

Death of Herbert Rice, The [Laws D6]

DESCRIPTION: "A fine young man," Herbert Rice, "is lost at sea" off Block Island in a storm. The family mourns. Listeners are advised to turn to God.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: sea storm death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1868 - Herbert A. Rice, not yet nineteen, is lost at sea
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws D6, "The Death of Herbert Rice"
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, p. 164, "The Death of Herbert Rice" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 298-300, "The Death of Herbert Rice" (1 text)
DT 822, HERBRICE
Roud #2232
File: LD06

Death of Huey P. Long

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, they shot Huey Long in Louisiana As he walked in the Capitol stair." "Povery was his share back in childhood." The song describes Long's life in Louisiana, and how he rose to power; it laments his assassination
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (recording, Hank Warner)
KEYWORDS: political death homicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 10, 1935 - Assassination of Huey Long
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 354-355, "Death of Huey P. Long" (1 text)
Roud #22310
File: CAFS1354

Death of Jack Hinton, The

See The Wreck on the C & O [Laws G3] (File: LG03)

Death of Jerry Damron, The

DESCRIPTION: Jerry Damron and his crew are killed on the C & O railroad, apparently in a derailment. His friends mourn for him, and hope to meet him in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Early 1930s (given to Dock Boggs by Damron's sister)
KEYWORDS: grief train death mourning railroading wreck disaster lament worker
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 113-114, "The Death of Jerry Damron" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14022
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "The Death of Jerry Damron" (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1)
File: RctDoJD

Death of Jesse James, The

See Jesse James (II) [Laws E2] (File: LE02)

Death of Kathy Fiscus, The

See Kathy Fiscus (File: DarNS224)

Death of Les Darcy, The

See Les Darcy (File: FaE218)

Death of Major Andre

See Major Andre's Capture [Laws A2] (File: LA02)

Death of Mill o' Tiftie's Annie, The

DESCRIPTION: Tifty's Annie lies buried in a Fyvie churchyard. The singer recalls the details of the story of Child 233 "Andrew Lammie" in different words from that ballad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love death family poverty derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 1019, "The Death of Mill o' Tiftie's Annie" (1 text)
Roud #6723
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Andrew Lammie" [Child 233] (story) and references there
NOTES [15 words]: Greig/Duncan5 quoting Duncan: "The girl had learnt it from tradition, not from print." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1019

Death of Molly Bender

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Death of Morgan, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Morgan was the traveler's friend, the squatters all rejoice, That the outlaw's life is at an end, no more they'll hear his voice... But my curse attend a treacherous man who'd shed another man's blood." Outlaw Daniel Morgan is killed in an ambush.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: outlaw death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 1865 - death of Daniel "Mad Dog" Morgan
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 230, "The Death of Morgan" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 28-29, "The Death of Morgan" (1 text)
Roud #8240
NOTES [617 words]: According to Boxall, p. 258, "[Daniel Morgan] was credited with being the most bloodthirsty of the New South Wales bushrangers after Willmore." Similarly Richardson, p. 23, calls him the "vilest buhranger of his times," adding, Morgan's exploits were dashing and daring, but he wasn't one of those engagine bushrangers who inspire respect and public sympathy. He was mad, murderous, vicious and vindictive, and nobody much liked him."
Boxall says that it was in 1863 that the police realized that he was not associated with Ben Hall or his gang and set out pursuing Morgan. Eventually a price of one thousand pounds was placed on his head.
On the night of April 8, 1865, Morgan set out on a raid in Victoria on a dare from a newspaper. He came to the station of Macpherson and Rutherford, both mentioned in at least some versions of the song. (Asked why he had taken to a life of crime, he claimed he was convicted of a crime he hadn't committed and had escaped.) Morgan was tired enough after several nights without sleep that someone was able to sneak out and summoned help. One of the rescuers shot Morgan from behind a bush.
Davey/Seal, p. 192, says "Bushranger hero Daniel Morgan operated along the Victoria and New South Wales border between 1863 and 1865, stealing horses, robbing travellers, and occasionally occupying farms and stations. Evidence suggests that he may have been emotionally unbalanced, but he was not the pathological killer painted by the police and the press. In fact, Morgan had considerable support and sympathy, particularly in Victoria, where he was known as 'the traveller's friend.' The circumstances of Morgan's bushranging were brutal, ending in his death and disfigurement at Peechelba station (Vic[toria]) in April 1865.
Lindner, pp. 130-131, has an amazing back story. Born in 1830 in Appin, New South Wales, Jack Fuller (as he was originally known) was the illegitimate child of George Fuller and Mary Owen. Initially using the name John Smith, he was convicted in 1854 of highway robbery and served six years of a twelve year sentence, but once released, promptly violated his parole and vanished. He called himself "Bill the Native," but lasted only a few weeks as a legitimate station hand before stealing a horse and setting off. In the pursuit that followed, he had a finger shot off, but made his escape. They started calling him "Dan Morgan" around 1863.
A contemporary description, printed on p. 131 of Lindner, says that he was "5 feet 10 or 11 inches high, dark swarthy complexion, black hat worn down to his shoulders, black mustache, and black beard, the latter rusted about his mouth, cheeks covered up with hair to the eyes, straight nose, blue eyes, slouching gate, round shoulders, inter-lards his conversation with the words of course; insolent and overbearing in his manners."
He killed at least two men, one of them a policeman; there was a reward of £1000 on his head by the end of his career (Lindner, p. 132).
In a sense, Morgan's death contributed to the birth of another legend, that of "Waltzing Matilda." Magoffin, pp. 33-34, reports that Morgan's last robbery the one at the station of Macpherson and Rutherford, was at the home of the family of the baby Christina MacPherson, who would fit the tune of "Waltzing Matilda"; when the baby cried, Morgan allowed Christina's nurse to attend to her -- and the nurse snuck out and summoned the authorities, who proceeded to kill Morgan.
Magoffin, p. 36, has a photo of Morgan taken after his death. The body was much abused after that, with the body being decapitated and some of the skin being made into a purse (Magoffin, p. 35). Thus a man who lived an ugly life had an even uglier death. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Hodg230

Death of Mother Jones, The

DESCRIPTION: "The world is mourning today The death of Mother Jones; Grief and sorrow hover Around the miners' homes." The miners lament the death of the organizer who "was ready to help them; she never turned them down."
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Gene Autry)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement death mining
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 1837-1930 - life of Mary Harris "Mother" Jones
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 154-155, "Mother Jones" (1 text)
Green-OnlyAMiner-RecordedCoalMiningSongs, pp. 241-243, "Mother Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DETHJONE*
Roud #15157
RECORDINGS:
Gene Autry, "The Death of Mother Jones" (Banner 32133/Jewel 20033/Oriole 8033/Perfect 12696/Regal 10311/Romeo 5033/Conqueror 7702, 1931)
NOTES [558 words]: Greenway notes that his text differs from that in Korson's "Coal Dust on the Fiddle," implying oral transmission. I'm not sure this really follows -- but there is enough doubt that I have indexed the song. - RBW
Jim Nelson reports that the song was copyrighted by American Record Company A & R man William R. Callaway, but it's virtually certain that he did not compose it, but rather purchased the rights from an unknown composer. His widow told Archie Green that her husband never had composed anything, but would often purchase material from musicians he worked with or people he met on the road. - PJS
Details about the early life of Mary Harris "Mother" Jones are vague, in part because her autobiography -- which was published when she was at least in her late eighties and perhaps older -- is unreliable, especially for dates (DAB). Estimates of the date of her birth vary from 1830 (so DAB) to 1837 (which apparently was when she was baptized -- which to me argues that the dates in the early 1830s are simply too early) to as late s 1843 (Laughlin, p. 56). She was born in Cork, Ireland, daughter of Richard and Helen Harris (Weir/Hanlan). Her father went to the United States in 1835, then brought his family over; they also spent time in Canada. Her education came from both public and convent schools (Weir/Hanlan). A tiny woman -- she was less than five feet tall -- she had enough energy for a woman twice her size.
Her first known work was a a teacher in a convent school in Monroe, Michigan. She then opened a dressmaking business in Chicago, but moved to Memphis, Tennessee and returned to teaching (DAB). It was there that she married George Jones, a member of the Iron Molders' Union, in 1861. They had four children by 1867 -- but her husband and all four children died in the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1867 (Weir/Hanlan; Laughlin, p. 57). She went back to dressmaking in Chicago, but the Fire of 1871 destroyed everything she owned (DAB). With little else to do, she started attending Knights of Labor meetings -- and quickly became a dedicated organizer. As she grew older, she became known as "Mother" Jones, in part because of her gray hair and in part because of her tendency to call the workers "boys" (Weir/Hanlan).
She was often present at major events in labor history, such as the Pittsburg Labor Riots of 1877, the Haymarket violence of 1886, the A. R. U. strike of 1894 (DAB), and the Ludlow Massacre of 1913 (Weir/Hanlan). In 1903, she tried to convince Theodore Roosevelt of the evils of child labor. She was an early worker for the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), split with them for a time because they were too conservative, then rejoined (DAB), but later quit again (Weir/Hanlan). She died of old age in 1930, six months after a celebration of what was said to be her hundredth birthday (DAB).
Although associated with radical causes, with some hints of socialism, she was not a pure liberal -- e.g. she had a conservative view of women's issues and opposed suffrage. Nonetheless she was imprisoned many times, once even being charged with conspiracy to commit murder (Weir/Hanlan). But she died in peace, widely respected even by fairly conservative figures.
Her heritage was preserved, e.g., by the magazine Mother Jones, although I think it is more consistently liberal than Jones herself was. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Grnw154

Death of Mrs. Lydia Woodburn, The

DESCRIPTION: "What mournful sounds invade mine ear? What notes of anguish do I hear? ... Ah! yes sweet blooming Lydia dies...." Woodburn, young and beautiful, is mourned by her parents and siblings; her husband grieves. All hope she is in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads); probably composed c. 1814
KEYWORDS: death youth beauty nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb. 9, 1814 - Death of Lydia Woodburn
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 164-166, "The Death of Mrs. Lydia Woodburn" (1 text)
ST FlNG164 (Partial)
Roud #4664
File: FlNG164

Death of Nelson, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you gallant seamen and give me a meeting." The song tells how an enemy shot mortally wounds Nelson. The doctor can do nothing. He had fought many battles, and lost an arm and an eye. England is told to mourn Nelson and bless Collingwood
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1866 (broadside Bodleian Curzon b.24(100)=Harding B 11(2624))
KEYWORDS: sailor death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1758-1805 - Life of Horatio Nelson, victor at Aboukir (the Nile), Copenhagen, and Trafalgar
Oct 21, 1805 - Battle of Trafalgar
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #462, p. 31, "The Death of Nelson" (1 reference)
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 149, "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" (reproduction of a broadside page with "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" and "Death of Lord Nelson")
Roud #3549
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Curzon b.24(100)=Harding B 11(2624), "Death of Nelson!," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth c.12(446)=c.19(74), J, Forth (Pocklington), n.d.; Firth c.12(44), H. Such, London, 1863-1885; Harding B 11(833)=Johnson Ballads 3350, G. Henson (Northampton), n.d.; Harding B 11(836), unknown, n.d.; Harding B 11(834)=Johnson Ballads 410=Johnson Ballads 411, W. S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar (Brave Nelson)" [Laws J17] and references there (subject)
SAME TUNE:
Parody on "The Death of Nelson" (by Charles R. Thatcher, in "Thatcher's Colonial Songster") (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 94-95)
NOTES [88 words]: Roud lumps two types of song, both called "(The) Death of (Lord) Nelson," under one number. But they appear to me distinct. This one begines "Come all you galland seamean"; the other starts typically "O'er Nelson's tomb with silent grief oppress'd." The other version seems to have been the more popular, but neither seems to have had any real traditional life; they are known from masses of broadsides, not from field collections.
For more about Nelson, see e.g. "Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar (Brave Nelson)" [Laws J17]. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BdTDeoNe

Death of Parcy Reed, The [Child 193]

DESCRIPTION: Parcy Reed captures the raider Crosier. Crosier plans vengeance. When Reed goes hunting, the Halls find him asleep, disable his weapons, then awaken him but refuse to stand with him against the Crosiers. Reed is fatally injures. (He makes his farewells)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Richardson's Border's Table Book; Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: homicide revenge trick betrayal outlaw borderballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Child 193, "The Death of Parcy Reed" (2 texts)
Bronson 193, "The Death of Parcy Reed" (1 version)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 193, "The Death of Parcy Reed" (1 version)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #10, pp. 99-106,243, "The Death of Parcy Reed" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 161-167, "The Death of Pary Reed" (1 text)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 49-51, "The Death of Parcy Reed" (1 text, 1 tune) {theoretically Bronson's #1, but in fact the two have substantial differences}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 522-528, "The Death of Parcy Reed" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 146, "The Death of Parcy Reed" (1 text)
DT, PRCYREED*
ADDITIONAL: Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 103-105, "The Death of Parcy Reed" (1 text); pp. 258-263 (1 text)
Roud #335
NOTES [58 words]: For an extensive discussion of the origin of this battle (which does not appear to be about an actual person, athough sources such as Bell claim it is), see James Reed, "The Border Ballads," in Edward J. Cowan, editor, The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition), especially pp. 17-20. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: C193

Death of Parker, The

See Poor Parker (File: BrII117)

Death of Queen Jane, The [Child 170]

DESCRIPTION: Queen Jane has hard labor. She begs her attendants to remove her baby surgically. They call King Henry; he will not permit the operation. Queen Jane falls unconscious; the baby is delivered but she dies. King, baby, and court mourn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: royalty pregnancy death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1536 - Execution of Henry VIII's second wife Anne Boleyn. His marriage to Jane Seymour (one of Anne's women in waiting) follows swiftly
Oct 12, 1537 - Birth of the future Edward VI
Oct 24, 1537 - Death of Jane Seymour
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Child 170, "The Death of Queen Jane" (9 texts)
Bronson 170, "The Death of Queen Jane" (10 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 170, "The Death of Queen Jane" (2 versions: #3, #5)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 333-335, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine p. 466, "The Death of Queen Jane" (brief notes only)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 35, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 254-255, "Queen Jane" (1 text, the Lunsford version which has no true plot; tune on pp. 422-423) {Bronson's #7}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 478-480, "The Death of Queen Jane" (4 texts)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 285, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 32, "The Death of Queen Jane" (2 texts, 2 tunes){Bronson's #4, #5}
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 29, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 198, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 short text, 1 tune) {same source as Bronson's #7, but the transcription shows differences}
Wells-TheBalladTree, p. 47, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 50, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 21, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 21, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 31, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Greig/Duncan3 693, "Queen Jean" (2 texts)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 52, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 56-57, "Queen Jane" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 212, "Queen Jane" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Forbes (transcriber), "Songs Collected by Mr. Bascom,'" Vol. XXV, No. 1 (May 1977 -- special issue for Bascom Lamar Lunsford), p. 17, "The Death of Queen Jane" (1 short text, 1 tune)
DT 170, QUENJANE* QUENJAN2*
Roud #77
RECORDINGS:
Douglas Kennedy, "The Death of Queen Jane" (on FieldTrip1)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Death of Queen Jane" (LOC AAFS 104/AAFS L21) (on BLLunsford01; a lyric fragment in which everyone comes to Jane and says simply, "The red rose of England shall flourish no more.") (on BLLunsford02) {Bronson's #7}
Archie Sturgill, "Queen Sally" (on CloseHomeMS)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Six Dukes Went A-Fishing" (lyrics)
NOTES [2449 words]: [A. L. Lloyd reports,] "We do not know how old this ballad is, nor if it derives from a piece called "The Lamentation of Queen Jane", licensed for publication in 1560."
This ballad is also, as "Dronning Dagmar (Queen Dagmar)," found in Danish tradition. - PJS
The Stationer's Register item cited by Lloyd is described on p. 127, #1455, "The Lamentation of quene Jane," registered November 39, 1560 by Jno. Sampson. Howeer, Rollins says that this is the same as his #1457 (p. 128), "the lamentation of the ladye Jane made saying my fathers proclamation now I muste lose my head," printed by Jno. Tisdale, 1562/1563. This clearly refers to Lady Jane Grey, not Jane Seymour, although I am not personally convinced that they are the same item.
If actually the same song, the Danish version would appear to be much older than the English; the most famous Dagmar in Danish history was the daughter of Ottocar I of Bohemia and the wife of Valdemar II (c. 1170-1241; reigned 1202-1241; the name of the Danish king in "Dronning Dagmar" is in fact Valdemar). They were married in 1205; she died in 1212 (so Birch, p. 63; I've seen online sources which say 1215-1222), leaving a son who, in an interesting coincidence, predeceased his father (the victim of a shooting accident, according to Birch, p. 67), meaning that the Danish throne went to younger half-brothers, beginning with Eric, co-King with his father from 1232.
Mitchell, p. 32, observes that most Danish historical ballads seem to be very old and only very slightly altered by tradition, and adds that "The substance of the ballads about Queen Dagmar dates from about 1205." The reason may be that they aren't really folk songs; they are minstrel work, targeted to the upper class; "the common man, the peasant, was not commemorated in song." The other side of that is, a minstrel song would perhaps be more likely than a true folk song to be transmitted to another nation and language. - RBW
Re "Queen Dagmar's Death" translated in R.C. Alexander Prior Ancient Danish Ballads (1860), Vol. II, No. LXII, pp. 136-140: "Dagmar, the first wife of King Waldmar the second, died at Ribe in the year 1212, and is buried at Ringsted by the side of her husband." The plot is very close to "The Death of Queen Jane." However, the king reaches her side after she has died. The king asks that everyone pray that he be allowed to hear her wishes. The Queen wakes, asks that all prisoners be released, that Berngerd [Berengaria] not be taken as a wife, and that her youngest son Knud be heir to the crown. Finally, she explains the reason for her death and damnation: "Had I on a Sunday not laced my sleeves, Or border upon them sewn, No pangs had I felt by day or night, Or torture of hell-fire known." She returns to death. - BS
Note therefore the (minor) differences between the songs: Valdemar arrives at his wife's bedside only after she dies, and she attributes her death to dressing too gaily on a Sunday. She also speaks after death; I know of no supernatural versions of "Queen Jane." Still, it's noteworthy that "Queen Jane's" plot, where it differs from the facts, always differs in a way that brings it closer to "Dronning Dagmar." - (RBW, PJS, BS)
To bring up another source, Fowler, pp. 125-126, mentions a piece that was registered in 1560, "The Doleful Death of Queen Jane," although he lists no printings before 1612. It is flowery and doesn't look very good to me, but Fowler (following Nygard) thinks it helped promote the story that became this ballad.
Of all the strange events in the history of Henry VIII, his romance with Jane Seymour may be the strangest.
Henry had not initially expected to succeed his father Henry VII. There was an older brother, Arthur, who had been groomed for the throne and had married Catherine, princess of Aragon. But Henry VII's children seemed cursed -- four of eight died very young, and then, in 1502, Arthur died also (Ashley, pp. 630-631). The only surviving boy, Henry, became heir to his father -- and to Catherine of Aragon. Nor was Catherine the only legacy from his relatives: Henry also inherited, in different form, the suspicions and power-hungriness of his usurping father.
And he also inherited that bad genes that perhaps went back to the mad king Charles VI of France, whose daughter Catherine had been Henry VII's grandmother. There is no reason to think Catherine of Aragon was infertile -- her sisters generally had no problems with child-bearing. But Catherine's many pregnancies mostly ended in miscarriages or in the birth of children who died very young; only one girl, Mary, survived infancy. By 1526, Henry was sure that Catherine of Aragon (who was 40 years old, six years older than her husband) would not give him a son (Ashley, p. 632). And, in this period, he also became interested in Anne Boleyn -- who, however, refused his advances unless she could marry him.
You know the rest; Henry couldn't get a divorce from Rome, so he founded his own church, divorced Catherine, disinherited Mary (Scarisbrick pp. 351-352, notes how the poor girl was forced to give up her claim to the throne, her legitimacy, and even her religion; he suggests she might have been executed had she not given in), married Anne -- and found that the whole cycle started again. There was one healthy child, Elizabeth, born 1533. But there were also three miscarriages (Lofts-Anne, p. 124), and no son.
Soon after the birth of Elizabeth, Henry VIII's roving eye seems to have started roving again. Jane Seymour was not of a very exalted family, but sufficiently notable that Jane had been a lady in waiting first to Catherine of Aragon and then to Anne (Ives, p. 292). Scarisbrick, p. 348, thinks Henry noticed Jane Seymour in mid-1534, and stories began to circulate about them later in that year. Ives, pp. 292-293, however, thinks he only became serious about Jane in January 1536. But most sources I checked think he began courting her some time in 1535.
It was rather surprising -- no one then or now seems to have regarded Jane as particularly beautiful. Lofts-Anne, p. 136, says, "[u]nless her portrait maligns her vilely, she may have been the original Plain Jane"; Loach, p. 2, refers to a "pale and puffy" appearance. The imperial ambassador said "nobody thinks she has much beauty. Her complexion is so whitish that she may be called rather pale. She is a little over 25... not very intelligent, and is said to be rather haughty" (Ives, p. 302)
But Anne Boleyn hadn't been considered a great beauty, either (although certainly prettier than Jane); Henry VIII seems to have wanted something other than conventional good looks. The odd thing was Jane's age -- we don't know it exactly, but Lofts-Queens, p. 99, claims she was fully 33 at the time her son was born. This is almost certainly high, but Ashley, p. 630, gives her birth date as c. 1508, making her 29, OxfordCompanion, p. 539, says she was born c. 1509, making her 28. (One suspects her late marriage is additional evidence of her lack of looks.)
Ives, p. 302, hints that Henry was attracted by Jane as a sort of anti-Anne -- she was "fair, not dark... gentle rather than abrasive; of no great-wit, against a mistress of repartee; a model of self-effacement, against a self-made woman." Skidmore, pp. 14-15, seems to think it was her submissiveness that caught Henry's fancy: she was willing to be utterly subservient.
By then, Anne seems to have been living on sufferance. Henry -- who had been so ardent as long as she had refused to share his bed -- no longer loved her, and apparently was spending just enough time with her to try for another child. Anne did become pregnant in late 1535 -- but had another miscarriage in early 1536. (If Henry had been rational, this should have proved to him that Anne was being faithful, because he was the one with the genetic defects. But Henry was not rational.)
The miscarriage came shortly after Henry took a fall which caused great fears for his health (Scarisbrick, p. 348). More than ever, Henry wanted a son -- and that, in his warped mind, meant another wife (he actually considered his failure to beget a son to be evidence that God disapproved of his marriages). Conveniently, Catherine of Aragon had died in early 1536 (OxfordCompanion, p. 175), so if Anne could be set aside, the children of further marriages would be free of doubt about their legitimacy. And Anne could easily be eliminated, because -- unlike Catherine -- she was not popular; the people resented her replacement of the much-loved Catherine.
There was, in fact, a song written about this business, which cast Henry to scorn and caused Jane some pain. Henry vowed to "straitly punish" the author, but never managed to catch him (Ives, p. 305). That song does not appear to have gone into tradition.
Henry had Anne and a handful of others accused of adultery and other crimes -- some merely unlikely, some, such as of engaging in incest with her brother (Lofts-Anne, p. 158), absurd. Her brother's chief crime seems to have been saying aloud that Henry might be impotent (Lofts-Anne, pp. 159-160). Henry and Cromwell arranged a kangaroo trial (there were no witnesses, according to Lofts, p. 160, and no impartial judges, either), and executed her on May 19 (the execution had to be hasty, because, apparently, the false conviction earned her sympathy for the first time in her career. The only hint of mercy, according to Lofts-Anne, p. 168, was that she was beheaded rather than being drawn and quartered, the normal sentence for treason -- and adultery by the Queen was called treason. The crown did try to keep things relatively quiet -- Anne was executed on a low scaffold, and the execution was postponed from May 18 to May 19 in hopes of causing spectators to go home (Lofts-Anne, p. 171)
That day, Archbishop Cranmer issued a dispensation allowing Henry to marry Jane Seymour (who was distantly related). They became engaged the next day, and married on May 30 (Scarisbrick, p. 350). She became pregnant about half a year later -- a pregnancy which would result in her death.
There are surprisingly many stories about the death of Jane Seymour -- that she died in childbirth, or due to the after-effects of a Caesarean operation. Our information is sadly conflicting.
It does seem certain that Jane Seymour went into labor on October 11, 1537. The future Edward VI was born early on October 12. Jane died twelve days later.
The labor is said to have been hard and to have lasted thirty hours (Skidmore, p. 14). Henry was not present at the time and made no decisions about the birth; Skidmore, p. 15, says that he was at Esher when Edward was born.
The story that Henry was told at the time that "one of the two must die" is very early, apparently first found in 1538, with a variant, that the prince would be "as great a murderer as his father," apparently being known in 1539. Apparently some of this was used as Catholic propaganda. And Scarisbrick, p. 353, says that "At Hampton Court, on 12 October 1537, Queen Jane was delivered by Caesarean section of a son, christened Edward shortly afterward -- just ten years since Henry first set out on the task of getting rid of Catherine to save his dynasty.
But Loach, pp. 4-5, declares that, while the Caesarean operation was known at the time, it was a course of desperation and usually killed the mother. Jane did live twelve days, and at first was well enough to see her child and attend his christening (Skidmore, p. 16). Loach therefore thinks it unlikely that surgery was involved in Edward VI's birth.
Loach on p. 7 considers and rejects the suggestion of puerperal fever (caused presumably by the dirty hands of doctors), which Lofts-Anne, p. 156, considers the cause of death. On p. 6 Loach notes the activities Jane was able to engage in immediately after the birth. It was not until October 23 that she became ill. She died "during the night of Wednesday, 24 October." Even then, no fever was reported -- but heavy bleeding was. Loach's speculation is that the incompetent doctors did not fully remove the placenta, and it haemorrhaged.
Skidmore, p. 19, also accepts the diagnosis of incompetent removal of the placenta, and speculates that it was because Jane was treated by academic doctors rather than midwives with hands-on experience. Skidmore adds that rumors about caesarean operations or other surgeries arose very early -- and notes on p. 20 that, in an era when politics was dominated by religious propaganda, Catholics would be willing to swallow almost any story that fit their views of Henry the heretic.
Even Edward seems to have accepted this story in part; he was recorded as saying he slew his mother at his birth (Skidmore, p. 22).
Jane's funeral took place on November 12, and she was buried the next day (Loach, p. 7).
The statement about "fiddling and dancing" at the baby's birth are likely enough; Henry VIII was himself a good musician, and exceptionally fond of music and dance; Williams, p. 14, notes that Henry's father Henry VII had been indifferent to music and celebration (or almost anything in life except money and power), and had kept only a very small musical establishment, and observes on pp. 36-37 that when Henry VIII succeeded, he immediately enlarged his staff of minstrels and musicians.
The mention of Henry wearing mourning for Jane is true and quite interesting, because he had blatantly refused to wear mourning when Catherine of Aragon died; indeed, he forbade others from dressing in mourning (Lofts-Anne, p. 139). And, of course, he completely refused to mourn for Anne (hardly surprising, since to do so would be, in effect, to admit that she was innocent and that he had had her judicially murdered).
The description of the colors in the song is interesting. Black mourning was a new fashion at this time (Skidmore, p. 21). Jane was buried in cloth of gold; the banners in the procession were white.
When Henry died, he ordered that he be buried next to Jane (Skidmore, p. 1). Of course, of the other five wives, one was still alive, two he had divorced, and two he had executed; Jane was the only dead one with whom he had not had some sort of fight. The decision was probably by process of elimination in more senses than one.
Incidentally, Jane Seymour's ghost is alleged to still appear at Hampton Castle, one of Henry VIII's primary residences and the place where Jane died. The other side of the coin is, the place is alleged to have quite a few ghosts, very many of whom have been explicitly identified with one or another historical person. One can't help but wonder if the real explanation isn't someone (perhaps in a tourism office) with an overactive imagination.... - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: C170

Death of Robin Hood, The

See Robin Hood's Death [Child 120] (File: C120)

Death of Roy Rickey, The

DESCRIPTION: "Little Roy was missing, Where was he found? A-hangin' by the roadside ...." He was hangin' on a whiteoak.... Where he could have saved himself If he had not been dead." His parents are accused of killing the boy then hanging the dead body
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: death homicide father mother children crime
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 163-164, "The Death of Roy Rickey" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 168-169)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Phagan" [Laws F20] (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Mary Phagan [Laws F20] (File: LF20)
NOTES [75 words]: This is so feeble a piece that, after the first two verses, I thought it intended to be humorous. But it evidently wasn't so meant. The outcome of the case apparently was not known to the informants, but rumor had it that Roy had discovered his mother in a compromising position with Jim Andy Day (who later discovered Roy's body). The two disposed of Roy to make sure no word reached Roy's father.
Amazing no one made a movie out of that plot.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa163

Death of Samuel Adams

DESCRIPTION: "In the state of old Kentucky... A horrible crime was committed And later brought to light." "A man was cruelly murdered, Samuel Adams was his name." The buried body washes up in a flood, and Joe Schuster and gang sentenced to life imprisonment
AUTHOR: Grover Frazier?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: homicide trial prison work
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 242-243, "Death of Samuel Adams" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 242-244)
Roud #4131
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rowan County Crew (Trouble, or Tragedy)" [Laws E20] (lyrics)
NOTES [61 words]: Neither this song nor Thomas's notes are very clear as to what actually happened here. Reading a great deal into a small amount between the lines, I suspect that Samuel Adams, left without work in the Depression, arrived perhaps at Ashland during the labor troubles. He took a job as a guard and was killed as a result.
This is item dF62 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa242

Death of Sir Neil Stuart and Donald M'Vane, The

See Sir Neil and Glengyle [Laws M39] (File: LM39)

Death of Sly Grog, The

DESCRIPTION: "O'er 'Sly Grog's tomb' with drunken grief oppressed Grogsellers mourn their business now at rest." The singer tells how the police, after much effort, proved that there was illegal liquor sold. The seller is fined fifty pounds for not buying a license
AUTHOR: Words: "Coxon"
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: drink police punishment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 88-90, "The Death of Sly Grog" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: AnSo088

Death of the Beckwith Child (The Beckwith Tragedy)

DESCRIPTION: "My frends allow my febel toungue, If I may speak my mind, This plainly shoes to old and young The frailty of mankind." A family in Manchester had five children. Two wander off, and one is killed by a falling branch
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1773 (date of composition, according to Coffin/Cohen)
KEYWORDS: death children family burial
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 20, 1773 - Death of the Beckwith child
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Flanders-ChapBook Flanders-VermontChapBook, pp. 10-15, "Beckwith Tragedy" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, pp. 78-80, "The Death of the Beckwith Child" (1 text, with the original peculiar orthography preserved)
Roud #4672
File: CoCo078

Death of the Devil, The

See The Devil Came to My Door (File: R419)

Death of William Gilley, The [Laws D5]

DESCRIPTION: A widow tells of how, within weeks of her marriage, her husband went to sea. Neither ship nor sailor ever returned, leaving her trying to find strength in her faith
AUTHOR: Mary Lurvey Stanley (broadside)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: sea death religious
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 14, 1829 - Marriage of Clarissa Gott and William Gilley
Mar 1, 1829 - Gilley sets sail in the Minerva, never to return
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws D5, "The Death of William Gilley"
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 289-293, "The Death of William Gilley"; "Lines" (2 texts)
DT 821, WMGILLEY
Roud #2231
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Minerva" (subject: The Minerva loss)
File: LD05

Death of Willie Stone, The

DESCRIPTION: "In a graveyard at Toowong, where the river rolls along, Lies Willie Stone a trusted man and true." Well-beloved and handsome, he falls and is killed in a horserace. Listeners are told that "'Twas God's decree and he alone knows best."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975
KEYWORDS: horse racing death
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 224-225, "The Death of Willie Stone" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [114 words]: Stone came from a well-known family of horse trainers, but he was not killed in a race; rather, he was thrown in a practice run. The informant, M. Sullivan, thought this piece might be the work of "Cyclone" Jimmy Connors.
There is some disagreement about the spelling of his name; Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia calls him "Willie Stone," but Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 204, give the name as "Willy Stone." Davey/Seal say of him, "Historical jockey whose song celebrates his bravery and laments his death in a racing accident in Brisbane when his mount, Crusoe, fell on him and killed him in December 1892." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: FaE224

Death of Young Robert, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come gather, my friends, For a short tale of woe... Oh, nothing is worse than the death of a child." Robert was the son of Lord William and Lady Anne. One night the boy cries out and dies while his father is away. He will never grow old in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (HCargillFamily)
KEYWORDS: children death mother father
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Susan Brown and Acie Cargill, "The Death of Young Robert" (on HCargillFamily)
NOTES [33 words]: This sounds like several other songs that originated or were heavily rewritten in the Tyler family. It seems likely that Hattie Mae Tyler Cargill or someone else in the family wrote the piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: RcDOYR

Death or Robin Lyth, The

See Robyn and Gandeleyn [Child 115] (File: C115)

Death Song

See The Indian's Death Song (File: FCW040)

Death Song for the Huntly Miners

DESCRIPTION: "A dirge for the miners, the brave Huntly miners, O'erwhelmed in the drive, where they labour'd for bread." The song laments those who were killed. "Work on, then, O millions, in darkness and sorrow."
AUTHOR: Arthur Desmond
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (New Zealand Observer, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: mining disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 22, 1890 - Huntley Mine Disaster
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 89, "Death Song for the Huntly Miners" (1 text)
File: BaRo089

Death Was a Little Thing

DESCRIPTION: "Death was a little thing, It goes from door to door, You take him in the silent grave, It's never to rise no more" "Pray brother ... sing sister ... Praise ye the Lord ... I'm going to serve the Lord"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Spaulding)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 30, "Death Was a Little Thing" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H.G. Spaulding, "Under the Palmetto" in _The Continental Monthly_, Vol. 4, No. 11 (August 1863 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 198, ("O, Death he is a little man") (1 text)
NOTES [29 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. The first verse is also in "Lord, Remember Me" (I).
Spaulding is writing from Port Royal, South Carolina. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Edwa030

Death-Bed Song

See When Sorrows Encompass Me 'Round (File: Wa094)

Death, 'Tis a Melancholy Day

DESCRIPTION: "Death, 'tis a melancholy day For those who have no God, When the poor soul is forced away To seek her last abode." The girl is condemned to Hell; others are warned of it. The singer is glad to be rescued from it.
AUTHOR: Words: Isaac Watts
EARLIEST DATE: 1707 (Watts; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: religious Hell death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 645, "Death, 'Tis a Melancholy Day" (1 text)
Roud #655
NOTES [122 words]: In the Sacred Harp, where the text is credited to Isaac Watts (1707) and the tune to H. S. Reed, this is called "Melancholy Day." The Missouri Harmony sets the first verse to the tune "Tribulation."
John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 285, reports that this "Appeared in the 1st ed. of {Watts's] Hymns and S[acred] Songs, 1707 (2nd ed. 1709, Bk. ii. No 52) in 6 st[anzas] of 4 l[ines]. It is usually abbreviated as in Dr. Hatfield's Church H[ymn] B[oo]k, N.Y., 1872."
Roud lumps this with "Death Is a Melancholy Call" [Laws H5], which strikes me as more reasonable than many of his other lumps. But I keep them separate based on Laws. - RBW.
Last updated in version 3.7
File: R645

Death, Ain't You Got No Shame?

DESCRIPTION: "Death, ain't you got no shame, shame...." "Left his pappy to moan, moan...." "Left his widder alone, lone...." "Left his mammy to weep, weep...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: religious death nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 129, "Death, Ain't You Got No Shame?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 248-249, "Det' Ain't Yuh Got No Shame" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6682
File: LoF129

Death, What a Solemn Call

See Death is a Melancholy Call [Laws H5] (File: LH05)

Debt I Owe

DESCRIPTION: Leader lines alternate with the response "I ain't going to pay any debt I owe." The leader's lines say which debt won't be paid ("Debt I owe in Brunswick store") or authority defied ("Mister Watchman don't watch me")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: money work nonballad shanty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 51, pp. 209-210, "Debt I Owe" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [47 words]: The chorus of "Jesus Paid It All" may be a source: "Jesus paid it all, All the debt I owe, Jesus died and paid it all, Yes all the debt I owe" (Philip Phillips and William B Bradbury, The Silver Bells (Chicago: Alfred L. Sewell, 1867 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 4). - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr051

Deceitful Husband, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer says she was courted and married by a stranger. They had been married six weeks when a woman claims him as the father of her infant. The singer believes the story although her husband denies it. She drives him away to "where he ought to go"
AUTHOR: Hugh McWilliams (source: Moulden-McWilliams)
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (according to Moulden-McWilliams)
KEYWORDS: marriage accusation rejection baby husband lover wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: John Moulden, Songs of Hugh McWilliams, Schoolmaster, 1831 (Portrush,1993), p. 8, "The Deceitful Husband"
Roud #7002
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Young Girls Beware" (on IRRCinnamond02)
NOTES [6 words]: The description is based on Moulden. - BS
File: RcTDeHus

Deceived Girl, The

See The Fair Flower of Northumberland [Child 9] (File: C009)

December cam, the twenty-fift'

See December Cam' (File: GrD636)

December Cam'

DESCRIPTION: The day before Old Yule comes with wind and snow. The maiden cleaning the lum [chimney] slipps on her bum. She bakes bread and cleans the house. We get bread buttered and hot but cups and dishes "cam' rowin frae the pantry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: humorous religious
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast 59, p. 2, ("December cam, the twenty-fift'") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 636, "December Cam'" (1 text)
Roud #6096
NOTES [72 words]: Greig: ." .. a rhyme about Yule, which was written, my correspondent thinks, by an Inverkeithney man, an Episcopalian, as a kind of satire on the way Presbyterians held Christmas." In this regard, the first verse begins "December cam' the twenty fift Accordin' to the aul' time." For more background on the reaction to the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, and its effect on the Yule celebration, see the notes to "Auld Yule." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD636

Decision in the Gypsy's Warning

See The Gypsy's Warning (File: R743)

Deck of the Willow Green

DESCRIPTION: Edgar ships on the Willow Green. Being God-fearing, he refuses to join the crew and captain in drink. Edgar tells the captain that drink will lead him to Hell. In drunken gloom the captain kills himself. Edgar prays for the crew. They all swear off rum.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast, Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: virtue suicide sea ship drink religious sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 89, "Deck of the Willow Green" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 288-290, "On the Deck of the Willow Green (Faithful Edgar)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab089 (Partial)
Roud #9974
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Faithful Edgar
NOTES [2 words]: Yeah, sure. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LLab089

Deck the Halls (with Boughs of Holly)

DESCRIPTION: Listeners are urged to "Deck the halls with boughs of holly," wear "gay apparel," "troll the ancient yuletide carol," and welcome in the new year
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (tune published 1784 as "Nos Galan" in Musical and Poetical Relics of the Welsh Bards)
KEYWORDS: Christmas nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 50, "Nos Galan" (2 texts, of which the second is this piece, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 254, "Deck the Halls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 382, "Deck the Halls" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 193-194, "Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly"
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 165, "Deck the Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 55, "Deck the Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DECKHALL*
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #17, "Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly" (1 text)
SAME TUNE:
Deck the Halls with Lefse Slices (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 19)
Deck the Halls (with Gasoline) (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 99)
NOTES [125 words]: This seems certainly to have been originally a Welsh New Year's song, "Nôs Galan." According to Fuld, this was originally published, in Welsh, in 1784. Despite the appearance of the words in the Oxford Book of Carols, the commentators cited by Fuld consider the song to be exclusively American.
The English words bear no relationship to the Welsh, which is said to be a love song used as a circle dance. Bradley in the Penguin Book of Carols claims it could be used for a forfeit game: The singers danced around a harp, and each singer was called upon to sing a verse in turn, with the singer who failed to do so dropping out of the circle.
For some background on the mythological and historic significance of holly, see "The Holly and the Ivy." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB382A

Declaration d'Amour, La (Declaration of Love)

DESCRIPTION: French. Singer has waited by his love's door to speak with her, but she's refused. He pleads, "Why love not a lover who loves you more?" She says, "How could you wish that I love you / When I am forbidden my love to bestow?" In dreams she will love him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage hardheartedness courting love rejection lover
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 62, "La Declaration d'Amour (Declaration of Love)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
File: BerV062

Deep and Wide

DESCRIPTION: "Deep and wide, Deep and wide, There’s a fountain flowing deep and wide." To be sung through once, then the words "deep," "wide," "fountain," and "flowing" are gradually to be replaced by gestures
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 393, 516, "Deep and Wide" (notes only)
File: ACSF393D

Deep Blue Sea (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The girl's lover set off to sea, promising to write to her. She never hears from him. She seeks out his captain, who tells her "he is drowned in the deep blue sea." She bids "farewell to friends and relations" and decides to drown herself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Carter Family recording)
KEYWORDS: death suicide ship sea drowning
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph 794, "The Deep Blue Sea" (1 short text plus 2 excerpts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 518-520, "The Deep Blue Sea" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 794A)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 60, "Sailor on the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 26, "Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea" (1 text, 1 tune, perhaps rewritten by the Carter Family)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 181, "Sailor On The Deep Blue Sea" (1 text)
DT, SAILDEEP*
Roud #4291
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "I Have No One to Love Me" (Victor V-40036, 1929)
Lake Howard, "I Have No One to Love Me" (Perfect 13151, 1935)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea" (on NLCR01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailor Boy (I)" [Laws K12] (plot)
NOTES [118 words]: Paul Stamler suggests that this is a worn-down form of "The Sailor Boy" (Laws K12). I consider the characteristic of Laws K12 to be the request for a boat that the girl may seek her lover. Also, there are very few words in common between the two. So I have, with some hesitation, decided to split the two songs (though there are cases, such as Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, where I truly wasn't sure).
It is quite possible that the separation is recensional; Cohen notes that Randolph's texts appear to be a warn down version of the Carter Family version, and Randolph's is the only genuinely traditional source. So this may be the remnants of a Carter Family rewrite of "The Sailor Boy." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: R794

Deep Blue Sea (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Deep blue sea, baby, deep blue sea...It was Willie what got drownded in the deep blue sea"; "Dig his grave with a silver spade..."; "Lower him down with a golden chain..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: death burial drowning floatingverses lullaby
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 47, "Deep Blue Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 76, "Deep Blue Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 58, "Deep Blue Sea" (1 text)
DT, DEEPBLUE*
Roud #3119
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Deep Blue Sea" (on PeteSeeger04) (on PeteSeeger12) (on PeteSeeger15)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Blue" (floating verses)
cf. "The 'Cholly' Blues" (floating verses)
cf. "Stormalong" (floating verses)
cf. "Dig My Grave With a Silver Spade" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [38 words]: In this case, perhaps we should refer to "sinkingverses." This song should not be confused with "The Deep Blue Sea", aka "Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea," as recorded by the Carter Family. It may have been a shanty at some point. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: PSAFB076

Deep Deep Sea, The

DESCRIPTION: "A noble ship lay motionless Far on the deep blue sea; The winds were hushed, The waves were still in quiet harmony." But there is no laughter on the ship because one of the sailors is dead. He has been buried at sea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Journal of the Edward)
KEYWORDS: sailor death mourning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 126, "The Deep Deep Sea" (1 text, 1 tune -- the latter from the manuscript rather than a reconstruction or guess)
Roud #25989
File: HGam126

Deep Elem Blues

DESCRIPTION: The listener is advised to be prepared when going to (Deep Elem): "If you go down to Deep Elem just to have a little fun, You'd better have your fifteen dollars when the policeman comes." The singer details his experiences with the women there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Cofer Brothers)
KEYWORDS: whore money police theft trick sex warning crime humorous clergy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 501, "Went Down Town"; 502, "Standin' on de Street Doin' No Harm" (2 fragments, consisting of little more than a declaration of innocence and a statement "along came the police and grabbed me by the arm," also found in some versions of this song)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 502, "Went Down Town"; 503, "Standin' on de Street Doin' No Harm" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 529-530, "Deep Elem Blues" (1 text)
DT, DEEPELM BLCKBTTM
RECORDINGS:
The Cofer Brothers, "The Georgia Black Bottom (Black Bottom Blues)" (Okeh 45111, 1927)
Richard O. Hamilton, "Deep Elm Blues" [excerpt] (on USWarnerColl01)
Lone Star Cowboys, "Deep Elm Blues" (Victor 23846, 1933)
Prairie Ramblers, "Deep Elem Blues" (Perfect 5-11-51, 1935)
The Shelton Brothers, "Deep Elem Blues" (Decca 5099, 1935; Decca 46008, 1946)
SAME TUNE:
Shelton Brothers, "Deep Elem Blues - No. 2" (Decca 5198, 1936)
Shelton Brothers, "Deep Elem Blues - No. 3" (Decca 5422, 1937)
NOTES [59 words]: "Deep Elem," according to Michael Cooney, refers to Elm Street, the red light district in Dallas, Texas (for the reputation of this area, see also, e.g., "Take a Whiff On Me"). It's not clear whether the Cofer Brothers' "Black Bottom Blues" or the Shelton Brothers' "Deep Elem Blues" is the older form; the latter seems to have inspired more recordings. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: DTdeepel

Deep in Love

See Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) (File: K149)

Deep River

DESCRIPTION: "Deep River, "(My home is over Jordan), I want to cross over (to the campground)." The singer hopes to cross (the Jordan) to heaven , there to meet family, friends, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 ("The Story of the Jubilee Singers")
KEYWORDS: religious death river
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 167, "Deep River" (1 text) (1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 594-595, "Deep River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, p. 29-30, "Deep River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 370, "Deep River" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 195, "Deep River"
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, pp. 64-65, "Deep River" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DEEPRVR2
Roud #12332
RECORDINGS:
Marian Anderson, "Deep River" (Victor 19227, 1924) (Victor 22015, 1929; Victor 2032, 1940)
Carroll Clark w. Fletcher Henderson [Orch.?] "Deep River" (Columbia 128-D, 1924)
Commonwealth Quartet, "Deep River" (Conqueror 7079, 1928)
Hampton Institute Quartette, "Deep River" (RCA, unissued, 1941)
The King's Heralds, "Deep River" (Chapel CR 23, n.d.)
Lions Quartet, "Deep River" (Columbia 1167-D, 1927)
Oriole Male Quartette, "Deep River" (Oriole 893, 1927)
Randolph's Kentucky Jubilee Choir, "Deep River" (Brunswick 4063, 1928)
Paul Robeson, "Deep River" (Victor 20793, 1927)
NOTES [68 words]: Not to be confused with either of two songs called "Deep River Blues" (one traditional, with the opening "Let it rain, let it pour; Let it rain a whole lot more..."; the other coming from the W. C. Handy tradition and beginning "Deep river, deep river, Mississippi River, so deep and wide my heart is breaking").
Ironically, the Jordan in general is not very deep; there are many fords and crossing-points. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LxA594

Deep Sea Tug

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the trawler wharf in Aberdeen, It's a bonnie place to be When a force eight gale is blawin'..." "Aye it's cauld, bloody cauld On... The north-east Scottish coast." A man is killed before anyone can come to his aid. It's an awful life
AUTHOR: Harry Robertson (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (recorded by Harry Robertson, according to Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 151, "Deep Sea Tug" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [12 words]: Palmer offers absolutely no evidence that this song is traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: PsSea151

Deep Sheephaven Bay

DESCRIPTION: The singer is exiled from Ireland. He thinks about his old home, the fishing fleet, the fields, and "bonnie blue-eyed Mary in her shawl of Galway grey," Now he is old but hopes he can return and "sleep in that old churchyard" near his old home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: exile home separation Ireland nonballad return
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 21, "Deep Sheephaven Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [24 words]: McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen: "A favourite song of emigration in Donegal. Sheephaven Bay lies west of Inishowen...." - BS
File: McB1021

Deep Water

See Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise) [Laws F4] AND Naomi Wise [Laws F31] (File: LF04)

Deer Chase, The

See The Bear Chase (File: LoF081)

Deer Hunt, A

See The Sally Buck (File: SKE70)

Defeat of the Spanish Armada, The

See Sir Francis Drake, or Eighty-Eight (File: PaSe007)

Defence of Crossgar

DESCRIPTION: Thrashers prepare "not to leave a Protestant soul in Crossgar" on St Patrick's Day. A policeman encourages them and the peelers don't stop them. "Many a Thrasher that day was detained" by Orange shot. "We fought them and beat them an hundred to one"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland patriotic political police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 17, 1849 - "Ribbon parades at Castlewellan and Crossgar were attacked by Orangemen, and at Crossgar a policeman and a young woman were killed" (source: Neil Jarman and Dominic Bryan, _From Riots to Rights; Nationalist Parades in the North of Ireland_ (1997),
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 13, "Defence of Crossgar" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Seige of Carrick" (tune, according to Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
NOTES [93 words]: Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark: "The Irish Constabulary, like the R.I.C. which superseded it, was largely composed of Roman Catholics."
Sir Robert Peel established the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1812 and its success led, in 1829, to the Metropolitan Police Act for London. Originally the term "Peeler" applied to the London constabulary. (source: Sir Robert "Bobby" Peel (1788-1850) at Historic UK site.)
The Thrashers were one of the Catholic agrarian groups like the Defenders, Whiteboys and Ribbonmen (source: "Orange Institution" at the Wikipedia site). - BS
File: OrLa013

Defence of the Castle

See King of the Castle (File: Newe111)

Defender's Song (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, "a Defender and a member of the Church of Rome," is banished from his home by "Luthers black and Calvin crew." He flees to the mountains. He recalls Christ's travails. He considers the despair of Calvinists: "their compass needle it is broke"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: Ireland religious exile
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 134-135, "The Defender's Song" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banished Defender" (some text)
NOTES [252 words]: Tunney-StoneFiddle pp. 134-135 shares its first verse and theme with "The Banished Defender" but the remaining verses are entirely different.
Zimmermann p. 19: "In some parts of Ulster, Protestant and Catholic tenants were mingled and contended for the land; the peasantry was thus divided into two camps, each having its oath-bound association. This led to a sort of religious war. At the end of the eighteenth century the Catholic "Defenders" were opposed to the Protestant "Peep o'Day Boys" or "Orangemen." The "Defenders were succeeded by the "Ribbonmen" - BS
An irony of this song is that, while there were Calvinists in Ulster (the Presbyterian church is Calvinist), the main force of Protestantism in Ireland was the Anglican church, which is neither Lutheran (Protestant) nor Calvinist (Reformed); Anglicanism is third major branch to split off from the Church of Rome.
The Calvinist despair is, I assume, based on their extreme doctrine of predestination, which holds that no amount of effort to do right can save a person; it depends entirely on God's grace (or God's whim, as it appears to non-Calvinists). This position is summed up in the Reformed faith's "TULIP" acronym, affirmed at the Synod of Dort: Total depravity, Uncondition election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the Saints.
To show why all of this is relevant to Ireland: Cromwell, who did more than anyone (including even William III) to destroy Irish society, could well be called a Calvinist's Calvinist. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: TSF134

Defenders' Song (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Arise, ye sons of liberty, awake out of your slumber." United defenders must "plant the tree of liberty" in Ireland. Follow the examples of America and France. "The harp and shamrock will unite, when tyrants are no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: America France Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 44, "Defenders' Song" (1 text)
NOTES [42 words]: For more about the Defenders, who spread starting around 1790 in response to the Protestant Peep o' Day boys, see e.g. the notes to "Bold McDermott Roe," "The Banished Defender," and "The Noble Ribbon Boys," and of course "The Defender's Song (II)." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Moyl044

Dehorn Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "The dehorn's nose is deepest red, The one bright spot on his empty head, To get his booze he begs and steals." The "dehorn" is lazy and incapable of seeing what he should do -- which is to join the union and get his rights
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (collected from Louis Gracey, according to Coffin & Cohen)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement drink
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 99, "The Dehorn Song" (1 text)
File: CoCo099

Dehorn, The

DESCRIPTION: "The dehorn's nose is deepest red, The one bright spot on his empty head"; he''ll do anything for more booze. The song tells him to get sober and join the Union. But the dehorn goes on behind exploited until he dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement death drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 324-325, "The Dehorn" (1 text)
NOTES [46 words]: According to Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, a "dehorn" was someone dependent on alcohol or some other addictive chemical or behavior This was one of the handful of songs not in the Little Red Songbooks that John Neuhaus intended to add to his collection of Wobbly songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GFGW324

Deil's Wooing, The

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Deitcher's Dog, Der

See O Where O Where Has My Little Dog Gone (File: RJ19057)

Delaware Punch

See Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who) (File: McIn110C)

Delhi Jail, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is going down the road "with a tired feeling and a heavy load" when the Sheriff apprehends him. The food in Delhi Jail is abominable, and the singer, once freed, proclaims, "I hope to the Lord I go there no more." Tune: "Turkey in the Straw"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: prison parody
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 169, "The Delhi Jail" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a stanza of "Turkey in the Straw" from the same informant)
ST FSC169 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Turkey in the Straw" (tune) and references there
File: FSC169

Delia

See Delia's Gone [Laws I5] (File: LI05)

Delia Gone

See Delia's Gone [Laws I5] (File: LI05)

Delia Holmes

See Delia's Gone [Laws I5] (File: LI05)

Delia's Gone [Laws I5]

DESCRIPTION: Tony/Coonie shoots Delia (for breaking her promise to marry him). Delia's mother grieves. Coonie writes a letter from prison, where he has been sent for life, asking the governor for a pardon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927
KEYWORDS: homicide prison punishment
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws I5, "Delia (Holmes)"
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, pp. 59-61, "Delia Holmes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 309-312, "Delia Holmes (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 911-912, "Delia Holmes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 238-239, "Delia" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 177, "Delia's Gone" (1 text)
DT 657, DELIAGON* DELIAGO2 (DELIA2 -- heavily adapted)
ADDITIONAL: John Garst, _Delia_ (Occasional Papers in Folklore Number Two), Loomis House Press, 2012, prints all or parts of half a dozen texts (although no tunes) and gives extensive background notes including two newspaper articles on the murder trial of Moses Houston
Roud #3264
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Delia Gone" (on WIHIGGS01)
Blind Willie McTell, "Delia" (on USWMcTell01)
Pete Seeger, "Delia's Gone" (on PeteSeeger04)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mister McKinley (White House Blues)" (tune, some versions)
NOTES [522 words]: In oral tradition this ballad has split into two texts which are so distinct that they can hardly be recognized as one. (Indeed, I wasn't sure until I came across an unusually full Bahaman version.)
"Delia's Gone," from the Bahamas, tells only the bare facts of Delia's murder, which is committed by Tony.
"Delia" ("Delia Holmes") provides a motive for the shooting (Delia Holmes had broken her promise to marry Coonie), and gives details about the murderer's conviction.
One theory has it that this story is based on a murder committed in Georgia around 1900.
If this is true, then Tony/Coonie is Moses Houston (variously called "Mose" and "Cooney/Coony" in the newspapers). His age is uncertain; he gave it as fourteen, and the papers estimated it at fourteen to sixteen.
Delia Green was fourteen year old whom he had been dating. He claimed there was a sexual relationship; she denied it. He killed her in 1900, at a rowdy party in which they argued, apparently over whether their relationship was sexual. He was tried in 1901. Found guilty (in a trial which, in retrospect, does not sound very fair), he was sentenced to prison but parolled in 1913; a later request to overturn his sentence does not seem to have been acted upon. (Information compiled by John Garst.)
Almost all that was known about this song is summarized by Chapman J. Milling in Volume 1, Number 4 of Southern Folklore Quarterly (December 1937); Botkin excerpts several important paragraphs. This has now been superseded by the John Garst book cited in the references.
Garst has a number of interesting notes on the case; he observes (p. 15) that there must have been extensive perjury in the trial testimony, notes that Coonie escaped from a chain gang in 1904 but got in trouble with the law again, resulting in him being shipped back to Georgia (p. 13), and speculates (pp. 15-16) that the place where Delia died was a house of ill repute, leading him to wonder if Delia was a prostitute (I would have to say that that may be reading too much into the facts; even brothels can have girls who help clear up).
Garst, pp. 14-15, makes an interesting point: Moses Houston was eventually granted parole by Georgia governor Slaton. Slaton later would commute the sentence of Leo Frank, convicted of murdering Mary Phagan, from a death sentence to life imprisonment. It ended his political career. It tells you something about politics at the time that Slaton suffered no political consequences at all for paroling a man clearly guilty of murder in some degree, but saw his career end for merely canceling the execution of a man who was undeniably innocent of murder.
On pp. 21-22, Garst points out that the chorus line "Delia('s) gone, one more round" originated in the Bahaman versions, and was not found in the U. S. until American singers started copying those versions. The typical American version is "one more rounder gone." - RBW
McTell's version keeps one of the usual tag lines -- "She's all I've got is gone" -- but tells none of the story. Instead it combines floating verses from murder blues like Stagolee, Frankie and Albert, and Louis Collins. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LI05

Deliverance Will Come

See Palms of Victory (Deliverance Will Come) (File: R626)

Deluded Lover, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer greets his love; but she reproaches him for deluding her. He says he's free of obligation to her. She points out that he broke his vows to her. He says *he* was deluded, and that he still thinks of his true-love. He wishes all wars were over
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan6)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer meets his true love; he greets her, but she reproaches him for deluding her. He denies it, saying he's free of obligation to her, and so is she. He admits giving her diamond rings; she points out that he broke his vows to her, and married "the lassie with the land." He admits that too, but says *he* was deluded, and that he still thinks of his true-love. He wishes all wars were over (, that the soldiers may be called home from their war-brides,) and that they might meet again
KEYWORDS: love marriage accusation promise abandonment betrayal lover wife
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #175, pp. 2-3, "My He'rt It Is Sair"; #119, p. 3, ("The slower that the fire burns the sweeter is the maut"); #166, p. 2, ("Begone, young man, you deceived me") (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan6 1165, "My He'rt It Is Sair" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 150, "The Deluded Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 78-79, "As I Roved Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 1, "As I Roved Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3479 and 6289
RECORDINGS:
Michael Gallagher, "The Deluded Lover" (on IRTunneyFamily01, FSBFTX15)
Brian Oxberry, "As I Roved Out" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #57, recorded 07/27/2021, probably this although it is too short to be sure)
Paddy Tunney, "As I Roved Out" (on IRPTunney02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sarah Scott" (theme: girl deserted by man who marries for money or land)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Briar and the Rose
NOTES [618 words]: Schmuck. - PJS
The final verse of this song wishes that "the Queen would call home her armies From England, Ireland, from Amerikay and Spain." This strongly implies a date in the reign of Queen Anne (1702-1714) and the War of the Spanish Succession; Elizabeth I had no armies in America (though she did fight Spain), and Victoria, though she had armies in North America if you count Canada as British, was no longer involved in Spain.
The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1713) did keep British troops on the continent (mostly in the Low Countries) far longer than previous wars, and there were also troops stationed in Ireland for long periods for fear of Jacobite activities. So foreign marriages did become a possibility. - RBW
While Michael Gallagher's recording has the title "The Deluded Lover" he himself introduces the song as "As I Roved Out."
Tunney-StoneFiddle calls this "'As I Roved Out' or 'The False Bride'." This doesn't seem in any way related to "The False Bride." Tunney's melody is the one used by Planxty for "As I Roved Out" on Planxty -- The Well Below the Valley on LP Shanachie 79010 (1979). Perhaps "The False Bride" is a typo for a title mentioned on p. 137, viz., "The Forsaken Bride."
Peter Boyle's notes to IRPTunney02: "The song sung here has been equated, rightly or wrongly, with the English ballad 'The False Bride' (BBC Recorded Programmes Library), but to me it seems rather to be a mixture of two or three themes taken over from Provencal folk poetry, and one really Irish theme -- that of land hunger. Easily recognizable in the verses are (1) the love debate, (2) chanson de jeune fille, and (3) a folk-memory of amour courtois." In Tunney's own comment on IRPTunney02 considers land hunger one issue but speculates that the outcome might be blamed on a matchmaker making the best deal.
From "As I Roved Out on a Bright May Morning" for Scottish Songs--Lyrics and Melodies at Glasgow Guide site: "A copy of this song was recently found in Russia, by Dr. Urbanov, folded into the diary of a Captain Dougal Frazer who presumably died at Balaclava in the Crimean war around 1853, as a member of the 93rd Highland Regiment, under Sir Colin Campbell, one time Aide de Camp to the Duke of Wellington." [For Colin Campbell, commander of the Highland Brigade at Alma, see e.g. "The Kilties in the Crimea," "Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose (II)," and "The Heights of Alma (I)" [Laws J10] - RBW]
O Boyle writes .".. in part it is the voice of land-hungry Ireland -- but where does the word 'lassie' come from?" It seems to me that the Irish ballad may just be an abbreviated Scottish ballad. That would explain "lassie" and may mean that the land issue, which is central to the Irish versions, is preserved because of Irish land hunger of the 19th Century. The singer's complaint that his friends "conveyed me to yon church" and his "lips said Yes at their request" does not survive in the Irish versions we have because the land itself is sufficient motivation, well understood by all Irish listeners.
The last verse, so seemingly out of place in the Irish versions, is made clear by the Scottish versions:
But O gin the king wid gie command
Through Italy, through France, and Spain
To every married man to forsake his own wife
And return back to his own sweetheart again.
The singer is not asking for an end of war but for the king's command (to war again?) that every married man would have to leave his wife.
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland's view (p. 373) is that "the Queen will not only recall her soldiers but, in so doing, will also call them away from women they have married while abroad." I don't think that resolves the marriage for land issue. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K150

Dem Bones (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Dem bones, dem bones, dem jee-umpin' bones" (x3). "Bones, bones, won't you tell me the word of God?" "De toe bone connected to de foot bone," and so forth, until the entire body is connected
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 23-24, "Dem Bones" (1 text, 1 tune)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 70, "Dem Bones" (1 mention, from user Tess_W, posted September 1, 2021)
Roud #15641
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ezekiel in the Valley" (theme)
cf. "Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again" (theme)
cf. "I Saw the Light from Heaven" ("Dry Bones" (I)) (theme)
NOTES [14 words]: The mention of bones rising again comes from Ezekiel's vision in Ezek. 37:1-14 - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LxSi023

Dem Bones (II)

See Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again [Laws I18] (File: LI18)

Dem Golden Slippers

See Golden Slippers (File: RJ19144)

Demon Lover, The

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

Demon of the Seas, The

DESCRIPTION: On board the pirate ship Demon of the Seas Captain Moore outrun ships of war until "two men of war were fitted out By Edward, England's King" to bring him in. The pirates destroy those ships but are destroyed by a third.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: fight navy death pirate
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 151-153, "The Demon of the Seas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 78-79, "The Demon of the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 43, "The Demon of the Sea" (2 texts, 2 tunes; #36 in the first edition)
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844_, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 66, "The Demon of the Sea"/Oh No my Love Not I" (reprint of a Pitts broadside)
Roud #1962
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brave Old Oak" (tune)
NOTES [331 words]: Huntington states, without evidence, that the King Edward involved is Edward VI (reigned 1547-1553). The difficulty in this, of course, is that Edward VI died while he was still only a boy; he didn't fit out anything in his own right.
Nonetheless, if an English King Edward is meant, it almost has to be Edward VI. Edward VII (reigned 1901-1910) is obviously too late. The Edwards prior to Edward VI are largely eliminated by the mention of guns. Edward I (1272-1307) and Edward II (1307-1327) simply didn't have cannon. They began to be used in the reign of Edward III (1327-1377), but not on shipboard -- they were still too experimental.
By the time of Edward IV (1461-1470, 1471-1483) and Edward V (1483), cannon were well-established as weapons, but only on land; they had been mounted on ships, but hardly used. It's surprising to hear guns mentioned even in connection with Edward VI's navy, since this is before the Spanish Armada really caused naval gunnery to be tested -- but at least it's possible.
I know of no famous pirate named Moore (excluding the Captain of the Flying Cloud, which is obviously too late). Could it possibly be an error for "Moor" -- i.e. one of the corsairs from North Africa?
Leslie Shepard, John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 65, quotes an interview by Henry Mayhew with the alleged author of this piece (who is, however, not named). He complained about the pay:
"The first song I ever sold was to a concert-room manager. The next I sold had great success. It was called the 'Demon of the Sea', and was to the tune of 'The Brave Old Oak.' Do I remember how it began? Yes, sir, I remember every word of it.... That song was written for a concert-room, but it was soon in the streets, and ran a whole winter. I got only 1 [shilling] for that. Then I wrote the 'Pirate of the Isles,' and other ballads of that sort. The concert-rooms pay no better than the printers in the sheets...."
Last updated in version 5.0
File: IvNB151

Demon-Lover, The

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

Dempsey's Lumber Camp

See Dempsey's Lumber-Camp Song (File: Be070)

Dempsey's Lumber-Camp Song

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes the characters at Dempsey's lumber camp
AUTHOR: Frank Ward
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work nonballad moniker logger humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 70, "Dempsey's Lumber-Camp Song" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 111, "Dempsey's Lumber Camp" (1 text)
Roud #8840
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (theme) and references there
NOTES [33 words]: The "moniker song" consists mostly of listing the names of one's compatriots, and perhaps telling humorous vignettes about each; it's common among lumberjacks, hoboes, and probably other groups. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be070

Den o' Aldbar, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, out one May morning on the way to church (for a wedding?), admires the stream winding through the Den o' Aldbar, the trees, flowers, and birds. "Here's a health to the proprietor ... in wedlock, and to a family fine"
AUTHOR: John Archer (source: Reid, "with some slight emendations by Colin Sievewright")
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: marriage flowers lyric bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #28, p. 2, "The Den o' Aldbar" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 514, "The Den o' Auldbar" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Alan Reid, The Bards of Angus and the Mearns (Paisley, 1897 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 524, "The Den o' Aldbar"
Roud #5998
NOTES [10 words]: Reid (1897): "highly popular some fifty or sixty years ago." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3514

Den o' Auldbar, The

See The Den o' Aldbar (File: GrD3514)

Den You'll Remember Me

See Then You'll Remember Me (File: HMHS125A)

Denis O'Reilly

See True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man) (File: MA062)

Dennis McGonagle's Daughter Mary Ann

DESCRIPTION: "I am a decent Irishman, I've a daughter Mary Ann... and you bet she is so fresh, she will never spoil." The girl is always going to balls and courting young men. At one, she is arrested, but promptly freed when the police learn who she is
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: courting police humorous floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 80-81, "Dennis McGonagle's Daughter Mary Ann" (1 text)
Roud #9569
NOTES [110 words]: This song poses a bit of a conundrum. The chorus runs, "She's a darling, she's a daisy, and she nearly drives me crazy, With a hand and foot upon her like a man. And everywhere she goes you can tell by her turned-up nose That she's Dennis McGonagle's daughter Mary Ann." This obviously has the same source as the as the lyric "She's my darling, she's my daisy, She's humpbacked and she's crazy... She's my freckled-faced consumptive Mary Ann" found in "Hungry Hash House" and "Sara Jane."
And yet, the feeling of the two versions is so different that they can properly be considered separate songs. And which one (if either one) is original? I have no answer. - RBW
File: Dean080

Dennis O'Reilly

See True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man) (File: MA062)

Dennis Ryan

See Janie of the Moor [Laws N34] (File: LN34)

Dennis the Menace Had a Squirt Gun

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Dennis the Menace had a squirt gun. He took it out and had some fun. He shot a man in the boot. How many squirts did he shoot?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Kentucky Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | Dennis the Menace squirt gun
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #99, "Dennis the Menace" (1 text)
File: AJRR099

Denny Byrne, the Piper

See The Cow Ate the Piper (File: PBB091)

Dens of Ireland, The

DESCRIPTION: A young hunter accidentally kills a man. He is captured and faces the death penalty. A girl sets out to save him. She enters the courtroom and pleads on her knees for his life. The judge frees him; the man agrees to marry the girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: love death trial reprieve
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills, "The Dens of Ireland" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DNIRELND*
File: FSC060

Dens of Yarrow, The

See The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214] (File: C214)

Departed Loved Ones

DESCRIPTION: "Is it wrong to wish to meet them Who were dear to us in life?" "I've a mother up in heaven, And oh, tell me if you will, Will my mother know her children When to glory they will go?" The singer thinks of family and how they live in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (SFLQ)
KEYWORDS: religious death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 525, "Departed Loved Ones" (1 text)
Roud #11818
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Have Fathers Gone to Heaven" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Other Bright Shore" (theme)
NOTES [47 words]: This may be an elaboration "We Have Fathers Gone to Heaven," or that piece may be an expanded repetition of a single version of this. Dependence seems nearly certain -- but since "We Have Fathers" is just a set of stanzas repeated with variations, they must be listed separately. - RBW
File: Br3525

Department Store

See I Used to Work in Chicago (File: EM245)

Deportee

See Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee) (File: SBoA367)

Depot Camp, The

DESCRIPTION: A logger dreams St. Peter won't accept the depot camp loggers but buys them off by sending material to make next year's drive heavenly: gold axes to use and gold fish to eat. In his dream the next year he can't find the camp. He wakes to his old camp.
AUTHOR: James O'Hara? (possible, per Ives-FolksongsFromMaine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Ives-FolksongsFromMaine)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A logger dreams that he goes to Heaven. St. Peter sends him back to bring up the depot camp crew. When they return St. Peter decides he can't have them in Heaven but, since they have only five sins among them, he can't reject them. He tells them to return for next year's drive and he will send logs and other things to make the camp heavenly. They expect the next year "we'll have a jolly time, Our axes they'll be made of gold... we'll eat golden fishes there instead of rotten cod." In the dream a year passes and the loggers can't find the heavenly camp. The dreamer wakes when the cook cries "turn out"
KEYWORDS: gold lumbering dream food moniker supernatural logger
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 1, "The Depot Camp" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
NOTES [35 words]: Ives-FolksongsFromMaine: "The year was 1901 or 1902; the operation was run by James McNulty of Bangor.... The 'depot camp' was the central or base camp from which other camps in the operation were supplied." - BS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: IveMa01

Depression

DESCRIPTION: "The meal is cheap sellin their farms high rentit And sma is their profit when sellin their grain." Bad weather destroys the crops. Cattle cannot be sold. The "cursed gentry ... card not nor spin... The laird and the factor will get an overthrow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes work farming landlord nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #147, p. 1, "Depression" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 435, "Depression" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5950
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lass o' Glenshee" (tune, per Greig)
NOTES [201 words]: The line about "cursed gentry ... Walks out at their leisure, lies up at their pleasure" in Greig/Duncan3 is "Like Solomon's lilies they card not nor spin." The reference is to Matthew 6:28-29 [with a close parallel in Luke 12:27 - RBW]: "And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." While the reference does not work as intended by Matthew it does work in bringing to mind a picture of landlord as idler wallowing in unearned luxury.
[Indeed, it gets the point almost backward, since Jesus's message in this passage, as given by both Matthew and Luke, was not to worry about how to make a living. But the comparison to Solomon is apt: Of all the Davidide Kings, he was among the most useless, spending vast amounts he didn't have and doing nothing to promote the actual prosperity of his kingdom. - RBW]
Greig: "['Depression'] gives a picture of the agricultural situation as it would have been in the seventies of last century when the word 'Depression' came into vogue."
Greig/Duncan3: "'September 1907. Heard about 1850.'" - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3435

Der Deitcher's Dog

See O Where O Where Has My Little Dog Gone (File: RJ19057)

Derby Ram, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer travels to Derby and sees the amazing Derby Ram. Its size and power are described in expansive detail (with the details varying). Most versions end with the slaughter of the ram. "If you had been to Derby, you'd have seen it as well as I"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: animal talltale bawdy bragging humorous lie
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) US(All) Australia Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) West Indies(Bahamas,Jamaica)
REFERENCES (69 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 26, "The Derby Ram" (2 texts)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 31, "The Derby Ram" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 43-44, "The Ram" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 26)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 44-47, "The Derby Ram" (3 texts, 4 tunes)
OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire 6, "The Derby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #145, "The Derby Tup" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 1, p. 5, "The Derby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 21, "The Ramsey Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 51-52, "The Derby Tup [Derby version]"; pp. 70-71, "The Derby Tup [Lincolnshire version] (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #106, "The Derby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 48, "Derby Ram" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 224-225, "The Derby Ram" (1 text)
Randolph 106, "The Derby Ram" (2 texts plus a mixed fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 137-139, "The Derby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 106A)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 89-96, "The Darby Ram" (8 texts, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 230-231, "Derby's Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 81, "The Darby Ram" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 190, "The Darby Ram" (2 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 1 more, 2 tunes)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 208-214, "The Derby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 112-113, 120-121, "The Derby Ram"; p. 153, "Inky Dinky Derby Town" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 176, "The Derby Ram" (1 text plus a fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 176, "The Derby Ram" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 105, "Ram of Darby" (1 text)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 8-9, "Darby's Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 209, "Darby's Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 127, pp. 273-274, "The Ram of Derby" (1 text)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 58, "Darby's Sheep" (1 text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 75, "The Derby Ram" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 241-242, "Derby Ram" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 114-115, "The Derby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 136, "The Derby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune -- sailors' version; the ram goes to sea but still gets slaughtered)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 437-438, "The Derby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 328-329]
Peacock, pp. 10-11, "The Derby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 100-101, "The Derby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 141, "The Derby Ram" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 120, "The Derby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #204, "The Derby Ram" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 104-107, "The Ram of Darby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 441, "The Derby Ram" (1 text)
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 23-28, "The Derby Ram" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 152, "The Ram of Derbyshire" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 151, "The Darby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 153, "(The Derby Ram)" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 266, "The Darby Ram" (1 fragment)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 212-213, "The Albury Ram" (1 text, 1 tune, with a chorus borrowed from "Clear Away the Morning Dew")
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 270-272, "The Albury Ram" (1 text, with the same "Clear Away the Morning Dew" chorus as in Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #14, pp. 1-2, "The Ram of Derby" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 645, "The Ram o' Dirram" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 130, "Hech hiegh Durham" (1 fragment)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 304, "The Ram Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 38-40, "[The Darby Ram]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 53, "Darby Ram (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #10, "The Old Big Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 41, pp. 73-74, "The Derby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune, although the singer did not call it "The Derby Ram" and the song never mentions Derby)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 134-136, "The Darby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 577-578, "The Derby Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 97, "The Ram of Dalby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 139-140, "The Derby Shed Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinloch-TheBalladBook XXVI, pp. 80-81, "The Ram of Diram" (1 text)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 124-125, "The Ram o' Bervie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 129, "As I was going to Derby" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #805, p. 298-300, "(As I was going to Derby)"
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 404, "The Darby Ram" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Elsie Clews Parsons, "Spirituals and Other Folklore from the Bahamas," Vol. 41, No. 162 (Oct-Dec 1928), Toasts and other verses: Watlings p. 469, ("Dere's a ball in from London town") (1 fragment)
DT 312, DERBYRAM DERBYRM2 DRBYRAM3* (DERBYRM4) DRBYRAM5 DERBYRM7*
ADDITIONAL: Llewellynn Jewitt, The Ballads and Songs of Derbyshire (London, 1867 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 115-119, "The Derby Ram" (1 text)
Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Derby Ram" is in Part 1, 7/14/1917.
Martha W Beckwith, "The English Ballad in Jamaica: a Note Upon the Origin of the Ballad Form" in _Publications of the Modern Language Association_ [PMLA], Vol. XXXIXI, No. 2 (Jun 1924 (available online by JSTOR)), #8-#9 p. 478 "The Great Ram of Derby" (2 texts)
Frank J. Gillis, "The Metamorphosis of a Derbyshire Ballad into a New World Jazz Tune,'" article published 1978 in _Disourse in Ethnomusicology: Essays in Honor of George List_; republished on pp. 207-248 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009
Roud #126
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Bennett, "The Derby Ram" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Elizabeth Cronin, "Derby Ram" (on IRECronin01)
Warde Ford, "The Derby ram / The Darby ram" (AFS 4214 B1, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Steve Gardham, "The Derby Ram" (Piotr-Archive #305, recorded 10/11/2022)
Tom Hanford, "The Darby Ram" (Piotr-Archive #652, recorded 08/16/2023)
Charles Ingenthron, "The Derby Ram" (AFS; on LC12)
Grandpa Jones w. Delmore Brothers, "Darby's Ram" (King 708, 1948)
Arthur Lennox, "The Ram Song" (on FSB10)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Derby Ram" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd08, Lloyd12)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Darby's Ram" (Brunswick 228, 1928) (Brunswick 80080, Brunswick BL 59001; these are probably the same as the preceding) (Riverside RLP 12-645, 1956)
Cyril O'Brien, "The Derby Ram" (on NFMLeach); "The Ram" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Lawrence Older, "Derby Ram" (on LOlder01)
Abigail Hall Ritchie, "Darby Ram" (on Ritchie03)
Pete Seeger, "The Darby Ram" (on PeteSeeger09, PeteSeegerCD02)
Skyland Scotty, "Darby's Ram" (Conqueror 8309, 1934)
Sid Steer, "The Derby Ram" (on Voice07)
Cas Wallin, "Derby Ram" (on OldTrad1, FarMtns4 [as "The Derby Ram"])
Doug Wallin, "The Derby Ram" (on FarMtns3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Didn't He Ramble" (lyrics)
cf. "The Grey Goose" (theme)
cf. "The Red Herring" (theme)
cf. "The Sucking Pig" (theme)
cf. "T'Owd Yowe wi' One Horn" (theme)
cf. "Paul Bunyan's Big Ox" (theme)
cf. "The Loft Giant (Song of Marvels)"
cf. "The Wonderful Crocodile" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Frankfort Town (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 18)
I Came, an Emerald Freshman (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 37)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Beast of Derbytown
The Darby Tup
The Old Tup
The Ram of Derby (Darby)
The Ram Song
The Wattle Flat Ram
The Great Sheep
NOTES [469 words]: This is another of the ballads Child excluded from his ESPB, presumably because the "hero" is an animal. The contemporary bawdy song is descended from English mummer plays, and those, in turn, are perhaps relics of medieval mystery plays.
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms has extensive, if rambling and opinionated, notes on this ballad. - EC
And if it had been trimmed, we'd say "He rambled till that editor cut him down." (Sorry.) -PJS
It's times like these I'm REALLY glad I can blame these notes on somebody else.
Ford reports, without accepting it, that "a prisoner had been condemned to death, in the time of the feudal laws, and was promised free pardon should he succeed in composing a song without a grain of truth in it, and that this was the song he produced." Of course, he could just as well have produced the previous story.... - RBW
The chorus of Beckwith #8, from Jamaica, (collected 1919-1921) is: "He's a ramble, he's a ramble, Said de butcher to de ram, 'Cut it down.'" Is this the only version close to Handy's 1902 "Oh! didn't he ramble, ramble, He rambled 'till the butchers cut him down" [indexed here as "Didn't He Ramble"]? If so, which is the source and which the borrower? Of course, in this song, the ram is frequently slaughtered by a butcher (for example, "The butcher that killed this ram, sir, was up to his thighs in blood") and the "tup" [i.e., ram] was slaughtered by a butcher in the mummers' play (source: Ronald Hutton, The Stations of the Sun, 1996, Oxford University Press, p. 87), but I'm interested in the idea "he rambled till the butchers cut him down."
Beckwith's two texts of "The Great Ram of Darby" show how easily English songs are absorbed into the Jamaican Anansi cante fable form. [E.g. it has happened with Child 1, "Riddles Wisely Expounded," Child 68, "Young Hunting," and Child 95, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows"; see the notes on those songs. - RBW] Often the plot becomes the basis for the tale and speech from the song remains to be sung as part of the cante fable. Beckwith illustrates the extremes. Beckwith #8 is entirely sung. Beckwith #9 is entirely in prose, bracketed with an Anansi introduction and epilog: "There was a great ram; everybody heard about him but could not kill him. Anansi [the trickster] heard about him and took a ride to Darby town to look at the ram. The finest ram that ever is seen! ... The wool that grows on that ram's back seems tall enough to reach the sky. The John-Crow [turkey vulture] build their nest there. ... [The ram is killed] The flood carried away all the young men in Darby town, and all the young women were screaming out for the skin and bone to boil it down to oil to rub the old man's bones. Meanwhile, Anansi had the ram secure in his bag and started for home, leaving the mourning in Darby town." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R106

Derby Shed Ram, The

See references under The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Derby Tup, The

See The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Derby, Derby

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Derby, Derby, won't you marry me? Derby, Derby, won't you say yes? Derby, Derby, won't you marry me? Show your legs to the Cockney girls"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1974 (recording, Minty Smith)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad nonsense marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
RECORDINGS:
Minty Smith, "Derby, Derby" (on Voice14)
NOTES [9 words]: The current description is all of the Voice14 text. - BS
File: RcDerDer

Derby's Town

See The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Derbyshire Miller, THe

See Tickle My Toe (File: RL545)

Dere is many fine ladies

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Dere's a ball in from London town

See The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Dere's a Little Wheel a-Turnin' in My Heart

See There's a Little Wheel a-Turning (File: Br3641)

Dermody and Hines

DESCRIPTION: The police shoot the innocent without penalty. It's murder when a policeman's shot. The informer Noctor is persuaded to say Dermody and Hines shot M'Goldrick. Nevertheless, the jury finds them not guilty. Must we continue to play at being fools?
AUTHOR: Susan Mitchell (source: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1909 (_Bean na h-Eireann,_ according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide trial freedom patriotic police lie
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 62, "Dermody and Hines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9766
NOTES [23 words]: O Lochlainn recalls the lines "Cut yourself an ash plant, and never heed the fines, But strike a blow for Freedom, like Darmody and Hynes" - BS
File: OLcM062

Dermot Asthore

See Dermot Astore (File: OCon146)

Dermot Astore

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! Dermot Astore! between waking and sleeping I heard thy dear voice, and I wept to its lay" She asks whether this is their last meeting. "I know we must part, but oh! say not for ever."
AUTHOR: Anne Barry Crawford
EARLIEST DATE: before 1861 (broadside, LOCSinging sb10099a)
KEYWORDS: love separation parting exile
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 204-205, "Dermot Astore" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #472, p. 31, "Dermot Astore. Reply to Kathleen Mavourneen" (2 references)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 146, "Dermot Astore" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 65, "Dermot Asthore" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 35 and #5/64, p. 35, "Dermot Astore" (1 text)
Roud #4884
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(613), "Dermot Astore. Reply to Kathleen Mavourneen," H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860 [same as LOCSinging sb10099a]; also Harding B 11(878), "Dermot Astore. The Reply to Kathleen Mavourneen"
LOCSinging, sb10099a, "Dermot Astore," H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860 [same as Bodleian Harding B 18(613)]; also as102940, "Dermot Astore. Reply to Kathleen Mavourneen"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kathleen Mavourneen" (characters)
NOTES [95 words]: See the description for "Kathleen Mavourneen" for the background to this song. Mrs. Crawford is a co-author to that.
Broadsides LOCSinging sb10099a and Bodleian Harding B 18(613): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
According to William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 34, "astore" is a popular word in Irish song because it comes from Irish Gaelic "a stór," "my treasure." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OCon146

Derriere Chez Nous (Behind Our House)

DESCRIPTION: French. Behind our house is a tree. On the tree is a branch. On the branch is a nest. In the nest is an egg. In the egg is a small bird. In this bird you do not know what there is. The shanty version is sexual in nature
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad bird bawdy
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 169, "Derriere Chez Nous" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 107, "Derriere Chez Nous" (2 texts, French and English, 1 tune; although the story of this is not the same as the Canadian folksong, they clearly come from the same original)
SAME TUNE:
cf. "The Rattling Bog" (theme)
File: CrMa169

Derry Down

DESCRIPTION: Reference entry for the "Derry Down tune," known by its chorus, "Derry down, down, down derry down" (often repeated). It is not certain what the original lyrics were, but it has been used for many parodies and derivatives; see the "Same Tune" field
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chappell), but widely used in older songs
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 348-353,"Derry Down" (1 text, 2 tunes, the text being for "King John and the Bishop" [Child 45] but the tune is explicitly described as generic); p. 677, "Derry Down" (1 text, not traditional; 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. all the other Derry Down songs
SAME TUNE:
Benton County, Arkansas (File: R345)
The Bible Story (File: SWMS264)
Blue Mountain Lake (The Belle of Long Lake) [Laws C20] (File: Laws C20)
The Coal Owner and the Pitman's Wife (File: MacCS16)
Croppies Lie Down (II) (File: Zimm094B)
Hauling Logs on the Maniwaki (File: FowL20)
Joe Livermore (File: CrNS124)
King John and the Bishop [Child 45] (File: C045)
Moosehead Lake (File: LoF058)
Red Iron Ore [Laws D9] (File: LD09)
The Tree of Liberty (File: Zimm095)
Castle Island Song ("You simple Bostonians, I'd have you beware") (Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, pp. 14-15)
The Epilogue ("Our farce is now finish'd, your sport's at an end")
The Public Spirit of the Women ("Though age at my elbow has taken his stand") (Rabosn, pp. 17-18)
What a Court Hath Old England, of Folly and Sin / Fish and Tea (Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, p. 16, called "A New Song to an Old Tune") (Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 19-20, called "Fish and Tea")
NOTES [24 words]: Rather than try to determine what the "original" Derry Down text and tune was, I have created this entry to be a grand master cross-reference. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: DerryDow

Derry Down Fair

See Rambleaway (File: ShH31)

Derry Gaol

See Gallows [Laws L11] (File: LL11)

Derry Pipe, The

See The Wee Cutty Pipe (The Derry Pipe) (File: HHH465)

Derry Walls Away

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls when "Lord Antrim's men came down yon glen" While some opposed them "our 'Prentice Boys" closed the gates. The seige is recounted including Walker's and Murray's parts. "When we close our gates again We'll then all be True Blue"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.10(3))
KEYWORDS: battle rescue death starvation Ireland patriotic youth
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 7, 1688 - The "Apprentice Boys" close the Londonderry gates against Lord Antrim's "Redshanks" (source: Kilpatrick [see Notes])
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 6, "Shutting of the Gates of Derry by the Apprentice Boys of Derry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-TheOrangeSongster, p. 5, "Derry Walls Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V11050
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(3), "Derry Walls" ("Full many a long wild winter's night," The Poet's box (Glasgow), 1865; also 2806 b.10(2), "The Seige of Derry"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "No Surrender (I)" (subject)
cf. "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry" (subject) and references there
cf. "The Maiden City" (subject)
cf. "Derry's Walls" (subject)
NOTES [511 words]: The Protestant Plantation of Ulster was created after the 1607 "Flight of the Earls" -- heads of the Ulster clans -- to Rome allowed James I to declare their lands forfeit to the Crown. In the Plantation, the City of Londonderry was fortified and gated walls built around it. When James brought troops from Ireland Londonderry was left unguarded. On December 7, 1688, Lord Antrim's Catholic "Redshanks" camped outside the city. With the city government undecided as to how to handle the situation, thirteen young "Apprentice Boys" seized the gate keys, drew up the drawbridge and locked the four gates. Antrim's troops withdrew. Lord Mountjoy's Protestant regiment was allowed to garrison the city.
To escape the war, residents surrounding areas flooded into the city. Reinforcements sent by William to relieve Derry in April turned away. Then James's attempt at negotiating with Derry failed. Colonel Murray led Protestant troops to the gate, which was opened for them, and the Derry government, which had been willing to negotiate with James, was overturned. Reverend George Walker and Colonel Henry Baker were appointed joint Governors. The seige began "in earnest" on May 5, 1689. On July 28 three ships on the Foyle broke the seige bringing food; captain of the Mountjoy was Michael Browning, who was killed in the battle. The beseigers left on August 1, 1689. (source: Cecil Kilpatrick, "The Seige of Derry: A City of Refuge" at the Canada-Ulster Heritage site)
"True Blue": "A substantial number of the earliest Volunteers, the Belfast First Volunteer Company, also called the Green Company, and another the Blue Company, were identified as belonging to the Orange and True Blue Masonic Lodges. Indeed it seems likely that the Volunteer Companies were a Masonic initiative." (source: Dr Clive Gillis, "Days of Deliverance Part 13: The Providential rise of the Orange Order: What it was and what it was not," posted 5/26/2004, Ian Paisley's European Institute of Protestant Studies site) This seems a simple statement of fact. However, keep in mind this statement from the home page of the EIPS site: "The Institute's purpose is to expound the Bible, expose the Papacy, and to promote, defend and maintain Bible Protestantism in Europe and further afield."
Later, in the same article, Dr Gillis explains his antipathy to the Masons and the United Irishmen: "The evaporation of the Protestant Catholic divide from 1780 onwards, which so threatened Protestantism, can only be explained in terms of secret co-operation within Freemasonry."
The Belfast Volunteers were formed in 1778 because of the threat of war between France and Britain. Similar groups formed, became politicized, and supported "those in favour of legislative independence from the British parliament and the removal of impediments to Irish commerce." Henry Grattan and Harry Flood supported this program in the Irish House of Commons. (Source: Moylan) - BS
For a good deal more on the Siege of Derry, see "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry." For Grattan and Flood, see "Ireland's Glory." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: OrLa006

Derry's Walls

DESCRIPTION: 200 years ago "James and all his rebel band" were forced to retreat from Derry's Walls. "Blood did flow ... For many a winter's night." "At last, with one broadside Kind heaven sent them aid" and broke the seige. Now "we'll guard old Derry's Walls"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1895 (Graham-TheOrangeSongster)
KEYWORDS: battle rescue death starvation Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 7, 1688 - The "Apprentice Boys" close the Londonderry gates against Lord Antrim's "Redshanks"
Jul 28, 1689 - Browning's ships break the 105 day seige of Derry (source: Cecil Kilpatrick, "The Seige of Derry: A City of Refuge" at the Canada-Ulster Heritage site)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Graham-TheOrangeSongster, p. 4, "Derry's Walls" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry" (subject) and references there
cf. "No Surrender (I)" (subject)
cf. "Derry Walls Away" (subject)
File: Gra004

Derwentwater

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! Derwentwater's a bonny lord, And golden is his hair." He travels the land calling for people to support "good King James." The lord of the castle he visits will have nothing to do with him, but the lady sighs for the handsome young man.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Cromek)
KEYWORDS: Jacobites love
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1715 - the 1715 Jacobite rebellion
Sept. 1715 - Warrant issued for Derwentwater's arrest. He responds by openly going into revolt
Nov. 14, 1715 - Derwentwater and his comrades forced to surrender
Feb 24, 1716 - Execution of Derwentwater at the age of (probably) 26
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 10, "Derwentwater" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 128-129, "Derwentwater" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: R. H. Cromek, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, (London, 1810), pp. 127-131, "Derwentwater"
ST StoR128 (Partial)
Roud #3158
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Derwentwater" [Child 208] (subject)
cf. "Derwentwater's Farewell" (subject)
NOTES [228 words]: The text of this ballad is not really sufficient to establish that the Derwentwater mentioned is "the" Derwentwater; it's at least theoretically possible that "good King James" was someone other than the Old Pretender. But a young, handsome Derwentwater campaigning for King James certainly sounds like the hero of "Lord Derwentwater" [Child 208]. See that song for background. - RBW
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2: "James Radcliff, Earl of Derwentwater, was among those who met in Northumberland, and rose in arms for King James about the beginning of October.... The editor cannot find any tradition on which this ballad is founded; it is taken from the recitation of a young girl, in the parish of Kirkbean, in Galloway. He has searched for it carefully through all the collections he could meet with; but it is not to be found.... This song, and part of the above note, are copied from Cromek's Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway song. The air is exceedingly simple and beautiful, and very ancient."
"Cromek died [1812] shortly after the issue [1810] of Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, which was mostly written by Cunningham, though palmed upon Cromek as recovered antiques." (source: J. Ross, The Book of Scottish Poems: Ancient and Modern, (Edinburgh, Edinburgh Publishing Co, 1878), "Allan Cunningham 1784-1842," p. 738; other sources agree) - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: StoR128

Derwentwater's Farewell

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell to pleasant Dilston Hall, my father's ancient seat, A stranger now must call thee his." The singer bids farewell to his friends, to Tyne, to his steed. He must die in London, but asks to be buried in Northumberland
AUTHOR: Robert Surtees?
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2)
KEYWORDS: Jacobites execution burial farewell
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1715 - the 1715 Jacobite rebellion
Sept. 1715 - Warrant issued for Derwentwater's arrest. He responds by openly going into revolt
Nov. 14, 1715 - Derwentwater and his comrades forced to surrender
Feb 24, 1716 - Execution of Derwentwater at the age of (probably) 26
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 11, "Lord Derwentwater's Good-night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 4-5, "Derwentwater's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 208, DRWNTFRW*
Roud #2616
RECORDINGS:
Will Noble, "Derwentwater's Farewell" (Piotr-Archive #64, recorded 08/02/2021)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Derwentwater" [Child 208] (subject)
cf. "Derwentwater" (subject; tune according to Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2)
NOTES [151 words]: Stokoe reports that "there is more than a suspicion that it was the offspring of the facile pen of the late Robert Surtees of Mainsforth, although he presented it to his friend and correspondent, Sir Walter Scott, as a poem of the period to which it refers; and it was inserted, on Scott's recomendation, in James Hogg's Jacobite Relics of Scotland in 1819."
For all that it is a false folksong, it's fairly effective as a lament for one slain far from home.
There is a certain tendency, which is quite understandable, to confuse this with "Lord Derwentwater," but the forms of the two pieces are clearly distinct. For historical background on Derwentwater, see the Child ballad. - RBW
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2: "I had this song from my esteemed friend, Robert Surtees, esquire of Mainsforth. The copy was on an old half sheet of paper apparently in the hand-writing of a boarding-school miss." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Sto004

Description of St. Keyne's Well

DESCRIPTION: The well is named after "no over-holy saint." Between a married couple, the first that drinks from the well "thereby the mastry gains"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1602 (Carew's _Survey of Cornwall_ according to Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: marriage warning humorous nonballad recitation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Poem #12, p. 51, "Description of St. Keyne's Well" (1 text)
Roud #V22570
File: DixP012

Dese Bones Gwine Rise Ag'in

See Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again [Laws I18] (File: LI18)

Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again [Laws I18]

DESCRIPTION: A light retelling of the Biblical creation myth: God makes Adam, then Eve; Eve, tricked by the serpent, takes an "apron full" of fruit to Adam. God, spotting the peels, accuses Adam of stealing the fruit; Adam blames Eve; God throws them out of the garden
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: Bible humorous animal
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws I18, "Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again"
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 148-149, "Dese Bones Gwine Rise Ag'in" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 32, "These Bones Gwine Ter Rise Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 523, "Creation" (1 text plus a fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 523, "Creation" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 470-471, "Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 249, "Dese Bones Gwine Rise Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 597-600, "Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 88-89+91 (book is mis-paginated), "Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 230, 239, 288, 289, 307, 308, 318, 325, 398, 399, 498, "Dem Bones"/"De Creation and the Fall" (sic.) (notes only; Averill identifies the piece as Laws I18, but I wonder if it isn't "Dem Bones (I)" or another Ezekiel-Seeing-the-Dry-Bones song)
Harbin-Parodology, #397, "Dem Bones Gonna Rise Again" (1 short text)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 20, "Dese Bones Gwine Rise Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 12, "Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 106, "Dem Bone Are Gonna... Rise Again" (1 text, with verses typical of "Old Uncle Noah" but the chorus of "Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again" [Laws I18])
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Gloria Dickens, "Childhood Songs from North Carolina" Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), pp. 8-9, "(The Lord decided he'd make a man" (1 text)
DT 793, DESEBONE*
Roud #4184
RECORDINGS:
Frank & James McCravy "These Bones G'wina Rise Again" (Victor 20869, 1927) (Brunswick 3778, 1928 [as "De's Bones Gwine to Rise Again"])
Rutherford & Foster "These Bones G'wina Rise Again" (Conqueror 7276, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ezekiel in the Valley" (theme)
cf. "Dem Bones" (theme)
cf. "I Saw the Light from Heaven" ("Dry Bones" (I)) (theme)
SAME TUNE:
[T.C.] Johnson-[Tom "Bluecoat"] Nelson-Porkchop "G. Burns is Gonna Rise Again" (OKeh 8577, 1928; on GoodForWhatAilsYou). [It is not know who the vocalist "Porkchop" was, nor the significance of "G. Burns", if any. - PJS]
NOTES [35 words]: The details here generally come from what scholars call the "J" or "second" account of the creation, found in Genesis 2:4b-3:24. The mention of bones rising again comes from Ezekiel's vision in Ezek. 37:1-14 - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LI18

Deseret

DESCRIPTION: "Deseret, Deseret, 'tis the home of the free, And dearer than all other lands 'tis to me, Where the Saints are secure from oppression and strife." Deseret is the pride of the world, a pattern to all; the singer loves to be there among the Mormon leaders
AUTHOR: probably William Willes
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Willes, The Mountain Warbler)
KEYWORDS: religious home | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 186-188, "Deseret" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: William Willes, _The Mountain Warbler: Being a Collection of Original Songs and Recitations, by WIlliam Willes, with a Selection from Other writes, for the Use of Choirs, Sabbath Schools and Families_, Deseret News Book and Job Establishment, Salt Lake City, 1872 (available on Google Books), pp. 18-19, "Deseret" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "To the West" (tune)
NOTES [119 words]: One wonders what William Willes was (covertly) drinking when he wrote this. Deseret, free from oppression and strife? In 1859, the United States had almost gone to war with the Mormons, and in 1872 was still refusing to admit Utah as a state because of polygamy....
Not everything in the Willes book is by Willes (and, we might add, it's texts only; no tunes are printed; despite its title, it's not what I would call a book for choirs!). Willes generally attributes poems written by others, and this has no attribution. On the other hand, he put a "W. W." after some of his own poems, and it doesn't have that, either. It's almost certainly by Willes, but perhaps one could argue that it has not been proved. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC186

Desert Route, The

DESCRIPTION: "While here beneath the sultry sky Our famished mules and cattle die," leaving the men of the Mormon Battalion with few supplies. They are on short rations. But if they do not continue on, they will be left behind (to die)
AUTHOR: Levi Hancock (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Tyler)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes travel | Mormon Battalion
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 41-42, "The Desert Route" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 258, "The Desert Route" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 285, "The Desert Route" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Daniel Tyler, "A Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War," no publisher listed but copyrighted 1881 (available on Google Books), pp. 182-183, "The Desert Route" (1 text)
B. H. Roberts, _The Mormon Battalion: Its History and Achievements_, Deseret News, 1919 (I use the 2001 Maasai, Inc. reprint), p. 43, "(no title)" (1 excerpt)
Roud #10818
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mormon Battalion Song (I)" (subject) and notes and references there
NOTES [76 words]: For background on the Mormon Battalion, see "Mormon Battalion Song." This is a fairly accurate description of their troubles on their route to California -- although some of their problems were self-inflicted; the men refused to leave their wagons behind, and so had to bring the animals too, but there was nothing for the animals to eat.
There is no tune listed for this by Cheney or Tyler, but I suspect it was supposed to be sung to "Beulah Land." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS041

Deserted Husband, The

DESCRIPTION: On the day of their wedding, the singer's young wife went on a spree and flirted with the man next door. Three months later, his wife and the other man went off in the train. He is tired of life; he has land and stock, but no one to take care of them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer has married a young woman, but she has left him. On the day of their wedding, she went on a spree and flirted with the young man next door. Three months later, the singer took her to town, but while he was having a drink his wife and the other man went off in the train, to his distraction. Now he is tired of life; he has an acre of land, and various livestock, but no one to take care of them. He advises men to keep an eye on their wives
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness infidelity marriage warning abandonment drink humorous husband lover wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 198, "The Deserted Husband" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 50, "Did Your Wife Go Away" (1 text)
Roud #2130
RECORDINGS:
Seamus Ennis, "Deserted Husband" (on FSBFTX19)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tramp's Story" (plot)
cf. "The Lehigh Valley" (plot)
cf. "Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight?" (theme)
NOTES [66 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland also refers, cryptically, to a song called "The Deserted Wife," also collected from Ennis, but gives no further details. - PJS
Kennedy also claims that songs of wives deserting husbands are rare. I won't say they are common, but "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)," for instance, is very widespread; see also the songs in the cross-references. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: K198

Deserted Village, The

DESCRIPTION: "And still they gazed and still the wonder grew, How one small head could carry all he knew... Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage, And e'en the story ran that he could gauge." A story of how small farmers were being pushed aside by landlords
AUTHOR: Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1770 (various Internet sources)
KEYWORDS: farming home abandonment
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 58, "And still they gazed and still the wonder grew" (1 fragment)
Roud #25491
File: KSUC058A

Deserter (I), The

See Kelly's Lamentation (The Deserter) (File: HHH223)

Deserter (II), The

See When the Battle it was Won (Young Jimmy and the Officer) [Laws J23] (File: LJ23)

Deserter (III), The

See The Deserter's Lamentation (File: OLcM087A)

Deserter (IV), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, recruited while drunk, deserts. He is turned in in succession by a woman, a sergeant, and drummer. Each time but the last he is flogged and deserts, saying "the King's duty has been cruel to me." At last the king intervenes and releases him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1853 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(75a))
KEYWORDS: army recruiting punishment freedom royalty soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #90, p. 1, "The Deserter" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 83, "The Deserter" (7 texts, 3 tunes)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 555, "Deserter" (1 text)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 167-169, "The Deserter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 148, "Deserter" (1 text)
Roud #493
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(75a), "The Deserter" ("As I was walking down Ratcliffe highway"), John Ross (Newcastle), 1847-1852; also Harding B 15(220a), "The New Deserter"
LOCSinging, as109540, "The New Deserter," Ryle & Co. (Seven Dials), n.d.
NOTES [109 words]: Greig/Duncan1: Re version A "from father who learnt it in boyhood, say 1824." - BS
My guess is that the song is a few decades older than that, and that George III was the King. George's wars were extensive, so that the military was always looking for soldiers. Discipline was harsh. (Frankly, the singer was lucky not to be killed.)
George III was, however, personally merciful -- unlike his grandfather George II. If he somehow came to know about a case of a deserter about to be executed, he might well have intervened in this way. And then gone back to recruiting more drunks, because he couldn't seem to figure out that his actions had consequences. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: GrD1083

Deserter from Kent, The

DESCRIPTION: A deserter comes to join the harvesting. He talks too freely to a man in the tavern, who informs on him. He is arrested, taken to jail, then marched through the streets as he is returned to his regiment. The singer curses all informers.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907
KEYWORDS: army desertion betrayal soldier curse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) New Zealand
REFERENCES (5 citations):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 32-33, "The Deserter from Kent" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 87, "The Deserter from Kent" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 165-166, "The Deserter from Kent" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 62, "May the Devil Reward" (1 text, 1 tune, with significant changes to fit New Zealand) (p. 38 in the 1972 edition, where the title "The Gay Deserter" is used)
DT, DESERTR
Roud #2510
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rambling Royal"
File: VWL032

Deserter's Lamentation, The

DESCRIPTION: Thinking about the past won't help so "let us be merry before we go" "Now hope all ending, And death befriending, His last ending, my cares are done ... My griefs are over -- my glass runs low"
AUTHOR: John Philpot Curran (1750-1817)
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: desertion death drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 87A, "The Deserter's Meditation" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition, p. 27, "The Deserter's Meditation" (1 fragment)
ST OLcM087A (Full)
NOTES [121 words]: John Philpot Curran was famous mostly as a defender of the rebel leaders of 1798, including Napper Tandy and Wolfe Tone (though he did not like it at all when his daughter took up with Robert Emmet). He also served in parliament.
His poetry is now mostly obscure. Except for this. Granger's Index to Poetry lists four citations, under three different names ("The Deserter's Lamentation," "The Deserter," "Let Us Be Merry Before We Go"), and I observe that O Lochlainn has it under a fourth title. Clearly this particular poem was well-traveled.
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster does print one other Curran piece, "Dear Erin, How Sweetly," which it considers so important that it even includes the music (pp. 121-122). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OLcM087A

Deserter's Meditation, The

See The Deserter's Lamentation (File: OLcM087A)

Deserter's Song

DESCRIPTION: "I'd rather be on the Grandfather Mountain A-taking the snow and rain Than to be in Castle Thunder A-wearin' the ball and chain."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: prison prisoner Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 384, "Deserter's Song" (1 fragment)
Roud #11752
NOTES [46 words]: Castle Thunder was a Confederate prison, used to hold captured Northern civilians.
Given the fragmentary state of the Brown text, it's not clear if this is a song in its own right or if the mention of Castle Thunder is just a zipped in reference to the Civil War prison. - RBW
File: Br3384

Desolate Widow, The

See The Isle of Man Shore (The Quay of Dundocken; The Desolate Widow) [Laws K7] (File: LK07)

Desolation

DESCRIPTION: "I will sing a little rhyme as I have a little time About the meanest ship afloat in all creation... and they fitted her out to go to Desolation." The food is poor and there isn't enough; Americans are treated like dogs; you're lucky if you get paid
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Journal from the Ocean Rover)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor hardtimes food foreigner
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 7-8, "A Fitting Out" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Pamela A. Miller, _And the Whale Is Ours: Creative Writing of American Whalemen_, David R. Godine/Kendall Whaling Museum, 1979, pp. 137-138, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #2010
File: AWIO137

Desperado, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a desperado from the wild and woolly West, He came into Chicago just to give the West a rest." He visits Coney Island to see "the girls all dressed in tights"; he gets so excited that he shoots out the lights. He ends up in prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook)
KEYWORDS: outlaw cowboy humorous prison police crime punishment campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 28, "The Desperado" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 111, 235, 390, "Desperado" (notes only)
DT, DESPRAD2*
Roud #12716?
NOTES [13 words]: Cripple Creek, Colorado was a notoriously wide-open town in the late 1800s. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB028

Desperate Dan

DESCRIPTION: "Desperate Dan, think's he's grand, But he can't do upsie." "Desperate Dan, thinks he's grand, But he can't do dropsie." He can't do "dizzie" or "pipsie" or "bouncie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | ball game
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 31, ("Desperate Dan, thinks he's grand)" (1 text)
Roud #20701
File: PKBB031C

Dessur le Pont de Nantes (On Nantes Bridge)

DESCRIPTION: The police have the singer when we meet Marguerite. She dresses as a page boy and goes to jail to see her "master." They exchange clothes; he walks out. Sentenced to be hung, Margeurite reveals that she is a girl. Four other high class young ladies visit
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love escape cross-dressing disguise mistress outlaw prisoner
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 331-332, "Dessur le Pont de Nantes" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Mme Lucie Cormier, "Dessur le Pont de Nantes" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [21 words]: Should this be "Dessous le Pont de Nantes" (Under Nantes Bridge)? What happened here? What four young ladies? Does she hang? - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea331

Destroyer Life

DESCRIPTION: "The boys out in the trenches have got a lot to say Of the hardships and the sorrows... But we destroyer sailors would like their company On a couple of trips...." The sailors describe life on their small, uncomfortable ships that never cease rolling
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe; supposedly sung 1917-1919)
KEYWORDS: ship navy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 86-91, "Destroyer Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 514-517, "Destroyer Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DSTRYR
Roud #15542
NOTES [153 words]: This song, with its references to submarine warfare, clearly comes out of World War I. At that time, the destroyer was the smallest naval ship that could possibly be called ocean-going (a typical destroyer of the time was about 300 feet long and had a displacement on the order of a thousand tons. It has nothing in common, except the name, with the much heavier modern destroyers).
The worst thing about destroyers was their long, narrow, low hulls -- what the song calls "skinny ship." In bad seas, the waves could wash the entire deck, and waves could roll the ships through angles of 45 degrees or more. Crew quarters, moreover, were small and cramped. Only submarines had less space, and not even submarines were as subject to wind and wave. Hence the song's comment that "The God-damned ships were never meant for sea."
For another song about the difficulties of service on a destroyer, see "Showing the Flag." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LxA514

Det Hande Sig I Goteborg (It Happened in Gothenburg)

DESCRIPTION: Swedish/German shanty. A sailor is signed by a man named Peter. The ship is a good one, but conditions are bad. Peter sleeps all the time except when threatening the crew. Ch: Hey ho fallerallera (2x) Just for all soka hyra (just to find myself a ship)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty sailor work
FOUND IN: Sweden Germany
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 550-551, "Det Hande Sig I Goteborg" (2 texts, Swedish & English, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 147, "Det Hande SIg I Gotebort" (2 texts, Swedish & English, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ja das geschah in Gotenborg
NOTES [26 words]: Found both in Sternvall's Sang under Segel (1935) and Baltzer's Knurrhahn (1935). Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas said this was popular around 1870. - SL
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hugi550

Det' Ain't Yuh Got No Shame

See Death, Ain't You Got No Shame? (File: LoF129)

Deuks Dang Owr My Daddie, The

DESCRIPTION: The babies scream "the duck's knocked over daddie." His wife says, let him lie there; he's just a useless old man. He says there had been a day she'd butter his porridge, but not now. He threatens to beat her if she's not quiet. She creeps out of sight.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness violence drink humorous bird baby husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 194, "The Deuks Dang Owr My Daddie" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Whistle-Binkie [, First Series] (Glasgow, 1842 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), pp. 83-84, "The Deuks Dang O'er My Daddie" (1 text)
AJames C Dick, The Songs of Robert Burns (London, 1903 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), #216 pp. 193,427, "The Bairns Gat Out wi' an' Unco Shout" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8948
NOTES [118 words]: Whistle-Binkie: "The first two stanzas are, with a few verbal alterations, from Burns -- the additional verses are by a facetious contributor to whom this publication is indebted for the graphic humour of our brethren of the Green Isle."
The Burns verses exclude the threat, retreat, and clear statement that the old man is a drunkard. The Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 text makes the drunkenness clear ("the ninth pint" knocked the old man over and the duck just got in the way) and the wife would let the duck and old man stay down and toddle together; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2: "It appears to be a verse of the traditional song on which Burns based his peice with the same title." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2194

DeValera Election Song

DESCRIPTION: The coming election is between "a Castle servant" and DeValera. DeValera "fought in the Rebellion ... so don't forget to pay the debt." His opponent would send your sons "to fight the gallant German"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (IRClare01)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1917 - Eamon DeValera defeats Patrick Lynch in the East Clare MP bi-election (source: notes to IRClare01).
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #18470
RECORDINGS:
Nora Cleary, "DeValera Election Song" (on IRClare01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Flag of Erin" (subject)
NOTES [211 words]: Notes to IRClare01: "The East Clare by-election of 1917 played a vital part in the movement towards Irish independence.... Newly released from prison and having narrowly avoided execution for his part in the Rebellion, Eamon DeValera easily took the seat." - BS
Not only was De Valera elected to the British parliament on July 11, 1917, but he was even elected to a seat that had formerly been held by the brother of John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Nationalist party (i.e. the moderate Irish faction); see Terry Golway, For the Cause of Liberty, p. 251. This was the third in a series of by-elections in which pro-Republic candidates defeated "Nationalist" (moderate) candidates (see Peter and Fiona Somerset fry, A History of Ireland, pp. 296-296). It was one of the first major tokens of the shift in feeling in Ireland from a desire for Home Rule to a desire for something less dependent on the British government.
The "Castle" was Dublin Castle, which had long been the center of the Irish government and was still the symbolic center of Irish rule.
De Valera was one of the few high officers of the 1916 rebellion to survive; he lived mostly because he was born to an American family and the British didn't want an incident with the United States. - RBW
File: RcDevoES

Deveron Banks

DESCRIPTION: "To Deveron Banks we will go, Dainty Dandy, my dear jo, Sweet wi' you the time will flow, My dainty bloomin dandy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1316, "Deveron Banks" (1 fragment)
Roud #7208
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whistle O'er the Lave O't" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
NOTES [21 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan7 fragment.
Greig/Duncan7: "A Banff song, said not to be very delicate." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71316

Devil and Bailiff McGlynn, The

DESCRIPTION: A woman wishes the Devil take a piglet digging her potatoes and a boy stealing her piglet. He refuses because "it was only her lips that have said it." When she wishes the Devil take the bailiff , he does: "Twas straight from her heart that came surely"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (IRTunneyFamily01)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The Devil and Bailiff McGlynn discuss business. Nearby a woman wishes the Devil take a piglet digging among her potatos but the Devil won't take it because "it was only her lips that have said it, and that's not sufficient for me." Then a boy runs off with the piglet and she wishes the Devil might take him, but the Devil doesn't because "it was only her lips that have said it, and that's not sufficient for me." When she sees the bailiff and wishes the Devil take him, it's done: says the Devil, "Twas straight from her heart that came surely"
KEYWORDS: curse farming humorous animal youth Devil
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 95, "The Devil and Bailiff McGlynn" (1 text)
Roud #5294
RECORDINGS:
Michael Gallagher, "The Devil and Bailiff Maglyn" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
NOTES [1123 words]: Tunney-StoneFiddle: "Even his [Uncle Mick's] songs of the Land War [roughly 1879-1885] and landlordism, with all its attendant evils, had a spark of humour in them. For example, listen to this little ditty describing the love and affection in which bailiffs were held in those stirring days." - BS
For background on the Land War, see e.g. "The Bold Tenant Farmer." However, there is reason to doubt this link (even if the Land War caused the Irish to tell more tales about the evils of bailiffs).
Abby Sale points out to me the clear connection between this song and the tale of "The Devil and the Bailiff" found in Asbjornsen and Moe (which is short, so the comparison is quite apt; it is on pp. 168-169 of NorwegianFolk). There seems to an equivalent Irish tale, though all the printed versions of it seem to be modern -- which hints to me that it was derived from an English version; more on this below.
In outline, the story that the Devil comes to collect the Bailiff -- but stops to chat for a bit. They hit it off well -- presumably because they are so alike. The song hints at this:
Now, one of these boys was the devil
And the other was Bailiff McGlynn,
And the one was as foul as the other
And both were as ugly as sin.
They agree to a some sort of contest, the idea apparently being that they travel along together and listen to people cursing. If someone is cursed soon enough, then the Devil takes *that* soul rather than the Bailiff's. But the curse must be "from the heart."
They visit a cottage, and as they come by, the pet pig gets its snout in the cream, and the woman says, "The devil take the pig" -- but they do not take the pig, because the curse was not from the heart. Later, a mother curses her child for being mischievous. Again, the curse is not meant. But the two then meet a pair of farmers, who curse the bailiff. That curse, the Devil declares, is from the heart -- and the bailiff is taken.
The tale is much older in England (and older still on the continent) -- Murray Schoolbraid points that it is The Friar's Tale in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales -- although in Chaucer, it is a Summoner who meets the fiend (a point Chaucer uses to bring out the rivalry between Friar and Summoner), and the devil is in disguise and the two agree to share whatever they get (an idea similar to the hunting contest in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight).
The question then becomes, Where did Chaucer get the tale? Benet, p. 408, says that it is from the Latin Promptuarium Exemplorum, and others agree that it is an exemplum -- i.e. a story around which morality tales and sermons can be built.
Chaucer/Benson, p. 875, says that "The tale of the heart-felt curse is probably of folk origin, and numerous analogies found across northern Europe indicate that any avaricious type might be used for the role here played by a summoner." The notes mention in particular Cæsarius of Heisterbach's Libri VIII miraculorum, of the thirteenth century, in which the guilty party is an advocatus or administrator of church estates. But the Riverside editors note that there are two similar English folktales which resemble Chaucer's in that the man fails to realize he is under threat. One of these is from a sermon by Robert Rypon of Durham in which the man is actually a bailiff (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 45, add that the sermon was in Latin, and point to an additional work about it by Helen Cooper). As usual, of course, Chaucer amplified the tale.
Archer Taylor, well known as a folklorist, wrote the article on the Friar's Tale in Bryan/Dempster (pp. 269-274, one of the shortest articles on Chaucer's sources in the entire book). P. 264 says that "Three recensions of a story similar to Chaucer's Friar's Tale occur in medieval and Renaissance literature. All these recensions show many agreements in detail and are evidently closely akin to Chaucer's tale, we cannot derive Chaucer's tale directly from any of them." Taylor adds that the only one Chaucer could have known is one of the Latin exempla.
Bryan/Dempster, pp. 269-270 gives the Latin text of one exemplum, from British Library MS. Additional 15833, folio 156, which was of the fourteenth century and could thus, in theory at least, have been available to Chaucer. In this, it is a farmer who meets the Devil, who openly reveals himself. The farmer seeds a driver curse a sheep; the Devil says the driver doesn't mean it. A mother curses her child; again, she doesn't mean it. A poor woman curses the farmer; "that comes from the heart." Taylor, p. 270, mentions variations in which it is a sheep or calf rather than a pig, and agrees with Chaucer/Benson that it is from Cæsarius.
The version in the Promptuarium Exemplorum is a little different, in that it is a lawyer, not a farmer, who is the Devil's victim. The rest of the tale, given on pp. 270-271 of Bryan/Dempster, is basically the same: neither the pig nor the child is taken, but many people of the town curse the lawyer, and the Devil takes him.
Another British Library manuscript, BL Cotton Cleopatra D VIII, cannot have been known to Chaucer, since it is from the fifteenth century, but he might perhaps have heard the "Narratio de Quodam Senescallo Scleroso," the "Story of a Hard-(hearted) Seneschal." The seneschal meets another man, who asks him his job: "Grinding the poor, justly or unjustly." The other says his worth is to take all things which are cursed and given them to the Devil -- but does not admit to being the devil. A poor man curses his calf, and a mother her son, but they don't mean it. But the poor curse the seneschal and he is taken away.
On pp. 272-273 of Bryan/Dempster, Taylor gives a German version, written by "Der Stricker" in the thirteenth century, in which a judge comes to seize a woman's only cow; she curses him and he is taken, but there is no conversation with the Devil. On p. 273, Taylor mentions another German version, from Johannes Pauli's 1522 Schimpf und Ernst. Finally, on p. 274, Taylor mentions three modern versions. He does not mention this one, but clearly the roots of the story go very far back, and whoever wrote this must have known some version of the tale, whether Chaucer's or one of the folktale versions. I'd be inclined to suspect Chaucer's, not because of any particular feature of the story but because the recent versions of the folktale all seem to be non-English and unlikely to be accessible to someone in Ireland.
Walton credits the song to Cathal McGarvey (1866-1927), but Walton's attributions are said to be very suspect, and it is interesting that the only collections seem to be from Tunney and his uncle, Michael Gallagher. Still, it seems certain that someone rewrote the tale as a song; the only question is, Who? - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: TSF095

Devil and Little Mike, The

See The Devil Came to My Door (File: R419)

Devil and the Farmer, The

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Devil and the Farmer's Wife

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Devil and the Hackney Coachman, The

DESCRIPTION: Ben, a hackney coachman: "how he used to swear." One night the Devil hires him to drive to Hell: "he thought he'd taken poor Ben in." At the gates Ben backs in so he is outside. Ben escapes. "Now ... he never swears And so for the Devil he never cares"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (_The Melodist_)
KEYWORDS: curse escape trick Devil
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 264-265, "The Hackney Coachman" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 377)
ADDITIONAL: The Melodist and Mirthful Olie (London, 1828 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II (mislabelled Vol XX), pp. 348-350, "Tommarroo!" or "The Devil and the Hackney Coachman" ("Ben was a Hackney Coachman rare") (1 text)
Roud #1314
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(509), "The Devil and the Hackney Coachman" ("Ben was a hackney coachman rare") , T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 11(873), Johnson Ballads 180, Harding B 11(877), "[The] Devil and [the] Hackney Coachman"; Harding B 11(861), "Deivl[sic] and Hackney Coachman"
LOCSinging, as101590, "The Devil and Hackney Coachman" ("Ben was a hackney coachman, rare,"), L. Deming (Boston), no date
File: WT264

Devil and the Lawyer, The

DESCRIPTION: "The devil came up to the earth one day, And into a courthouse he wended is way" as a lawyer was making his case." When he is done, the other lawyer starts talking. The Devil concludes that he dares not allow lawyers in Hell; they would "ruin its morals"
AUTHOR: unknown (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah's informant James Jepson set the tune)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (text in "The International Bookbinder," vol. XVIII, available on Google Books); traditional version 1947 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: Devil Hell humorous lawyer
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #176, "The Devil and the Lawyer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10922
NOTES [39 words]: This reminds me very faintly of Chaucer's "Friar's Tale," although the ending is very different (in the Friar's Tale, it is a summoner who is corrupt, and he eventually is taken to Hell). I strongly doubt literary dependence, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: Hubb175

Devil and the Ploughman, The

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Devil and the Schoolchild, The

See The Fause Knight Upon the Road [Child 3] (File: C003)

Devil Came to My Door, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on one dusky evening When I was very poor, A story you may believe me, The Devil come to my door." The devil comes to claim "brother Mike," but sister Bets breaks his back with her wooden leg. Now the Devil is dead and the family can celebrate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: humorous Devil death family
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, pp. 30-31, "The Devil and Little Mike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 419, "The Devil Came to My Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 26, "The Death of the Devil" (1 text)
Roud #1696
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Farmer's Curst Wife" [Child 278] (plot)
File: R419

Devil Flew from North to South, The

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "The Devil flew from north to south, With Miss Hooker in his mouth, And when he found she was a fool, He dropped her on Cherrydale School."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Butler and Haley, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: devil jumprope | teacher fool school
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #100, "The Devil Flew from North to South" (1 text)
File: AJRR100

Devil in the Kist, The

See The Boatsman and the Chest [Laws Q8] (File: LQ08)

Devil Sends the Evil Winds, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Devil sends the evil winds To raise the skirts up high, But heaven's just and sends the dust That closes the bad man's eye."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: clothes Devil
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 126, "The Devil Sends the Evil Winds" (1 short text)
File: SaKo126A

Devil Winston [Laws I7]

DESCRIPTION: [George] "Devil" Winston (an unusually vile specimen even by murder ballad standards) sets out to confront his woman Vinie [Stubblefield]. He finds her, kills her after an argument, is taken, and is hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws I7, "Devil Winston"
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 105-109, "Devil" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 810, DEVWINST*
ST LI07 (Full)
Roud #4176
NOTES [128 words]: Wheeler does not give dates for the life of George "Devil" Winston, but notes that he "began life as a cabin boy on the Mississippi. He was later an Ohio River rouster... His career of reckless lawlessness culminated when he was thirty-two years old, in the vicious murder of Vinie Stubblefield, his sweetheart.
"The murdered Negress was said to have been half-witted and repulsive-looking. She have made several efforts to sever her relationship with Winston, and this was the indirect cause of her death: Devil was apparently a victim of helpless bondage where she was concerned.... When he was not on the river he was often serving time on the 'chain gang' for beating the woman, and the murder occurred just following his release from jail for this offense." - RBW
File: LI07

Devil's After Me, The

DESCRIPTION: "One, two, three, the Devil's after me. Four, five, six, he's always throwing sticks. Seven, eight, nine, he misses every time. Hallelujah, hallelujah, Amen!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: devil escape
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 70, "Amen!" (1 text)
Roud #32553
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There'll Be a Hot Time (In the Old Town Tonight)" (tune, according to Solomon-ZickaryZan)
File: ZiZa070D

Devil's Courtship, The

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Devil's in the Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: A man visits his true love at night and plays "The Devil's in the Girl" on his pipes. Her mother wakes and beats the man. He returns a year later to find his lover with a son. She asks him to marry but he refuses, leaving her to "pay the piper"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(4024))
KEYWORDS: sex rejection pregnancy music lover mother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 27, "The Devil's in the Girl" (1 text)
Roud #1480
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4024), "The Devil's in the Girl" ("It's of a lusty gentleman returning from the play"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(4076), 2806 c.16(266) , Harding B 11(4061) , Harding B 11(4025) , Harding B 11(4025), "The Devil's in the Girl[!]"
File: ReSh027

Devil's Mad and I Am Glad (II), The

See Free at Last (File: FSWB368A)

Devil's Nine Questions, The

See Riddles Wisely Expounded [Child 1] (File: C001)

Devil's Questions, The

See Riddles Wisely Expounded [Child 1] (File: C001)

Devil's Song, The

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Devilish Mary [Laws Q4]

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a "pretty little girl" named Mary; they get married within days. She then starts taking over his life, wearing his pants, and abuses and torments him. At last he leaves. He vows to court only tall/short girls who can't wear his breeches
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1897
KEYWORDS: courting marriage cross-dressing abuse shrewishness
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Laws Q4, "Devilish Mary"
Randolph 437, "Devilish Mary" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 331-333, "Devilish Mary" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 331)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 326, "Devilish Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #76, "Devilish Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 70, "Devilish Mary" (2 texts, 1 tune, plus mention of 1 more)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 17, pp. 31-32, "Devilish Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 68-69, "Devilish Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 121, "Devilish Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 136-138, "Devilish Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 93, "Devilish Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #13A-C, pp. 57-60, "The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin," "Dandoo" (3 texts, 1 tune, but the "B" text omits the beating typical of Child #277 and has the husband run away; it appears to have mixed with this song or something like it)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 149, "Devilish Mary" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 154-155, "Devilish Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 721, "Devilish Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 70, "Devilish Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 145-149, "Devilish Mary" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 191, "Devilish Mary" (1 text)
DT 518, DEVLMARY*
Roud #1017
RECORDINGS:
Bob Atcher, "Devilish Mary" (Columbia 20483, 1948)
Horton Barker, "Devilish Mary" (on Barker01)
Bill Boyd & his Cowboy Ramblers, "Devilish Mary" (Bluebird B-7299, 1937; Montgomery Ward M-8417, 1940)
Glenn Neaves & band, "Devilish Mary" (on GraysonCarroll1)
Lee O'Daniel Hillbilly Boys, "Devlish Mary" (Vocalion 04102, 1938; rec. 1937)
Paul Rogers, "Devilish Mary" (AFS; on LC14)
Pete Seeger, "Devilish Mary" (on PeteSeeger02, PeteSeegerCD01)
Roba Stanley, "Develish Mary" (OKeh 40213, 1924)
Arthur Tanner, "Devlish Mary" (Silvertone 3514, 1926)
Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers, "Develish Mary" (Columbia 15589-D [as "Devlish Mary"], 1930; Columbia 15709-D, c. 1932; rec. 1928; on CrowTold02, GTanner01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (tune)
cf. "The Wearing of the Britches" (subject, lyrics)
cf. "I Am an Old Bachelor (The Sorrow of Marriage)" (theme: wife dominating husband)
cf. "Old Carathee" (theme)
cf. "There's Bound to be a Row" (theme)
cf. "I'll Rise When the Rooster Crows" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [50 words]: Cohen notes that "Laws... lists this as a ballad, but just as often it is performed as a fiddle or banjo tune with occasional lyrics." Cohen also notes that Laws's claim of a British Isles origin is unsubstantiated. The collection data confirm this, and the style is, in my opinion, very un-British. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: LQ04

Devonshire Cream and Cider

DESCRIPTION: "I be nigh on ninety-seven, born and bred in dear old Devon." The singer mentions being alone, and suggests, "For if you be as lone as me, try Devonshire cream and cider."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad age
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 52, "Devonshire Cream and Cider" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #9083
NOTES [88 words]: There is much that is ironic about this song, or at least about the sole known collection, from Eryl Levers of Madison, Wisconsin: Despite being known only in the American midwest, it is about England, and despite the singer claiming to be in his nineties, Levers was in her mid-twenties when the song was collected. Levers was probably the only one of the informants in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin who was still alive when the book was compiled; it is to be regretted that no one tried to find out more about the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet052

Dew is on the Grass, The

See The Baffled Knight [Child 112] (File: C112)

Dewdrops Are Falling on Me

DESCRIPTION: "Dewdrops ar falling on me (x2), Dewdrops are falling on me at one, Say, darling, won't you love me once more." "I'll ask your papa for you... Say, darling, won't you love me once more?" "I'll buy the license for you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love courting father
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 19, "Dewdrops Are Falling on Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11339
File: Brne019

Dewey Song (Dewy Was the Grass)

DESCRIPTION: "Dewy was the grass at the early break of day, Dewey was the admiral at Manila Bay, Dewy were her eyes as she bid her love "adieu," Do we love each other? I should say we do! Do we love each other? I should say we do! We do!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: love humorous wordplay campsong
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 1, 1898 - Battle of Manila Bay, at which Commodore Dewey's fleet destroyed the Spanish forces in the bay
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 95, 444, 514, "(Dewey was the grass on the morn in May)"/"Dewey"/Dewey was the Grass" (notes only)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #101, "Dewey was a admiral at Manila Bay" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down at the Station" (tune)
cf. "Yankee Dewey" (mentions of Admiral Dewey) and references there
File: ACSF095A

Dewey Was an Admiral at Manila Bay

See Dewey Song (Dewy Was the Grass) (File: ACSF095A)

Dewy Dells Of Yarrow, The

See The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214]; also Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie [Child 215] (File: C214)

Dewy Dens of Darrow, The

See The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214] (File: C214)

Dewy Glens of Yarrow, The

See The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214] (File: C214)

Dewy was the grass on the morn in May

See Dewey Song (Dewy Was the Grass) (File: ACSF095A)

Dey All Got a Mate But Me

See Fox and Hare (They've All Got a Mate But Me) (File: FlBr121)

Di zwiterich Danzer (The Flashy Dancer)

DESCRIPTION: German. Cumulative. "Ei was hawwich so scheene Shicklicher a Mit so scheene Bendlicher dra." "Oh, I wear such pretty little shoes, With such pretty little strongs.... I am such a lusty boy, I can dance so flashily." "I wear such pretty little socks...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Korson-Legends)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage cumulative nonballad clothes dancing
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 77-80, "Di zwiterich Danzer (The Flashy Dancer)" (1 German text plus non-poetic translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL077

Dialogue Between an Exciseman and Death

DESCRIPTION: A tax-collector argues for his life against Death who has come for him. Afraid of final judgement, he concedes his past evil-doing and advises excisemen to shun the practice
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A tax-collector seeking "a booty 'mongst merchant's goods which had not paid the duty" confronts Death who has a writ to take him. Fearing the judgement seat, he wishes he had not taken gold. "Let all Excisemen hereby warning take, To shun their practice for their conscience sake"
KEYWORDS: virtue death money dialog religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Poem #5, pp. 19-23,241, "Dialogue between an Exciseman and Death" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 249-252, "A Dialogue Between an Exciseman and Death" (1 text)
Roud #V35056
File: DixP005

Dialogue between Jesus and the Blessed Virgin at the Cross

See O Mary Mother (File: Gree044)

Dialogue Between Orange and Croppy

DESCRIPTION: Orange proposes union. Orange is the source of all woe. The English do no more harm than the purple marksmen. Orange ask for union only after Billy Pitt's failure. The singer is neither Croppy nor Orange: "when your county's in danger, united be seen"
AUTHOR: William Sampson (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Madden's _Literary Remains of the United Irishmen of 1798_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad dialog patriotic political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 149, "Dialogue Between Orange and Croppy" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Purple Boy" (subject)
NOTES [433 words]: The last verse is by a third party asking for union in times of trouble. Throughout the rest of the dialogue Orange proposes union and croppie rejects it.
Zimmermann, p. 39, fn. 18, re "Croppy": In the 1790's those who admired the Jacobin ideas began to crop their hair short on the back of the head, in what was said to be the new French fashion; in 1798 this was considered as an evidence of 'disaffection'."
"The Loyal Orange Institution was founded after the Battle of the Diamond [at Diamond Crossroads] on September 21, 1795. The 'skirmish' was between the Roman Catholic Defenders and the Protestants of the area.... [For the Battle of the Diamond, see the notes to "The Battle of the Diamond," "Bold McDermott Roe," and "The Boys of Wexford"; also "The Grand Mystic Order." - RBW].At the beginning the membership was of the labouring and artisan classes.... In the Rebellion of 1798, the Orangemen were on the side of the Crown and had much to do with the defeat of the United Irishmen.... With the rebellion at an end the lodges were to be less fighting societies, and more political and fraternal clubs.... From 1815, the Institution had been seriously affected, by internal disputes. Many of them were about lodge ritual and the attempts to form higher orders." (source: The Orange Institution - The Early Years at Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland site.)
"Following an affray at Loughgall in Co. Armagh in 1795 the Orange Order was founded, while the Yeomen were also established in June 1796. These were made up mainly of men from the Orange Lodges." (source: The 1798 Rebellion on the Hogan Stand site)
The reference to "Purple Marksmen" is to one of the Master degree, above "Orange" and "Orange Marksman," of the Orange Institution (source: "The Formation of the Orange Order 21st September 1795" in the anti-Orange Evangelical Truth at NIreland.com site). See Zimmermann's song references to "The Purple Marksman" [p. 315] and "The Purple Stream" [p. 303, fn. 39].
For more on "Billy Pitt" and the Union Act of 1801, see "Billy Pitt and the Union" and "The Shan Van Voght (1848)" - BS
One should note that this song was clearly composed with the benefit of hindsight -- I suspect very much hindsight; if the date is 1887, then we're getting toward the period of Home Rule and Ulster's opposition to changes in the Union. Of course, there had been Protestant and Catholic conflicts before that, but Protestants historically had been *more* nationalist than Catholics; it wasn't until it became clear that the Protestant Ascendency had to end that they finally turned Unionist. - RBW
File: Moyl149

Dialogue Between the Husbandman and the Servingman, A

See The Husbandman and the Servingman (File: K226)

Dialogue entre Deux Metis: Le Cultivateur et la Chasseur (The Hunter and the Farmer)

DESCRIPTION: Canadian French, "Aujourd'hui pour chanter nous sommes reunis." The people meet to hear from a farmer and a hunter. The farmer asks how the hunter is doing. The hunter tells of all the dangers faced by those in his job. The farmer is happy to be safer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Le Metis, according to MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba)
KEYWORDS: dialog farming hunting injury home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba, #11, pp. 67-74, "Dialogue entre Deux Metis: Le Cultivateur et la Chasseur (The Hunter and the Farmer)" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me)" (theme: professional comparison) and references there
File: Macl11

Diamond Cook

DESCRIPTION: Tobago patois: A woman tells Diamond Cook that he has been paid for his work or goods (renta), and it's time go; you are a man but not the only one
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection commerce nonballad Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 51, "No You One Are Man"; Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 61, "Diamon Cook" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 4, "Diamond Cook" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [344 words]: The description follows the Elder-Charlottville note on p. 61. "This Tobago banter song is a very good illustration of the power of the female in Caribbean society. She can turn a man out of doors and dispense with his services in favour of another man who brings more yams." "Whatever this word may mean in another context 'banter' for the women in this village connotates ridicule and castigation of another person -- usually another female -- in an impersonal way. There is in banter songs no name calling, i.e. the object of derision is not named but by skillful choice of words and expressions, clues are given... suppressed hostilities projected through the banter song may be waged as seriously as any international 'cold war'" (p. 28).
Women's power over a man is also apparent in Trinidadian calypso where the "sweetman" calypsonian has to guard against the power of the woman supporting him. See, for example, Lord Executor's "My Trouble With Dorothy" ("Now Dorothy you made me tame / You want the Executor to lose his name" also liner notes on "West Indian Rhythm", #22 p. 59, Bear Family Records 10CD BCD 16623 JM, 2006), The Caresser's "Madame Khan" ("I could make me living in an easier way / Than to have a woman licking me every day" also liner notes on "West Indian Rhythm", #9 p. 44), The Tiger's "Gertrude" ("And when I talk about me food / She square up to fight/ She said she wouldn't cook if I kill her dead" also liner notes on "West Indian Rhythm", #108 p. 148), and Alfred Mendes's short story, "Sweetman" (Leah Rosenberg, "Man Sweet, Woman Stronger: Calypso's War with Yard Fiction" (Journal of West Indian Literature, Vol. 9, No. 2 (April 2002), pp. 18-50 (made available online by JSTOR))).
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "... Diamond Cook has put in a stock of yams [not stated in the texts] in order to pay for his keep. He has however overstayed his time. He has 'eaten his renta done' gotten sufficient service for the value of the yams. There are other men so he must give way. He must leave at once. The lady laughs in his face...." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElCh051A

Diamond Joe (I)

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of ranch-owner Diamond Joe, who mistreats his workers, talks too much, and lies. Singer has tried to quit three times, but Joe has talked him out of it. When he dies, "Give my blankets to my buddies And give the fleas to Diamond Joe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (radio program "The Chisholm Trail" on the BBC) (Source: Nicholas Hawes)
KEYWORDS: lie work boss cowboy worker
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, DIAMONJ2
RECORDINGS:
Cisco Houston, "Diamond Joe" (on CHouston01, CHoustonCD01, FMUSA)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II)" [Laws H1] (tune, lyrics)
NOTES [585 words]: This should not be confused with "Diamond Joe (II)", a river shanty with the distinctive chorus, "Diamond Joe, better come and get me, Diamond Joe." "Diamond Joe (I)" has no chorus, although most verses end with the name of Diamond Joe. Some have speculated that Cisco Houston and/or Lee Hays adapted the song from "The State of Arkansas," but there is no evidence. - PJS
Nicholas Hawes in 2014 wrote to me to clarify this history. I have slightly shortened the material he sent me. His report is below. [-RBW]
It was written in 1944 by my father, Baldwin "Butch" Hawes, in New York City on commission from the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Alan Lomax created two radio programs for a branch of the BBC that was located in New York to produce radio programs for broadcast in the UK. The programs, which he called "ballad operas," were based on traditional songs from the published Lomax collections, and the cast was a mix of traditional artists (like Huddie Leadbetter, Brownie McGhee, Sonny Terry), semi-traditional artists (like Woody Guthrie), as well as local actors and musicians (Burl Ives, Cisco Houston, Will Geer).
The second program, "The Chisholm Trail," was scripted by Alan's then wife Elizabeth. One of her major characters was the tough cattleman "Diamond Joe," whom she based on a song of the same name from the Lomax book Our Singing Country. ["Diamond Joe (III)" in the Ballad Index.] The words were a good match:
Old Diamond Joe was a rich old jay
With lots of cowboys in his pay
He rode the range with his cowboy band
And many a maverick got his brand
Once the script was finished, the music editor (Alan's sister Bess, my mother Bess Lomax Hawes) discovered that the song Elizabeth set in a rowdy barroom was actually a slow waltz which did not fit the scene. It was too late to restructure the script, so she asked my father to write a new "Diamond Joe" to suit. Since the song was to be performed on the show by Lee Hays, he wrote this new song to the tune of a major number in Lee's repertoire: "The State of Arkansas."
The program's opening announcement that "the songs you will hear are traditional" wasn't revised, and my father received no on-air credit for his work. It's likely that no cast members (other, possibly, than Lee Hays) knew my father had written the song. Cisco Houston was a member of the cast (his copy of the script is currently held by the Woody Guthrie archives), and the version he recorded in 1952 is identical to the version in his "The Chisholm Trail" script. All subsequent versions of the song are clearly based on Cisco's recording.
When the song appeared in Sing Out! magazine in 1954 as a song from Cisco's repertoire, my mother was upset that my father wasn't credited. She urged him to claim credit by writing to the editor, but unfortunately he had just quit the business of songwriting and was somewhat bitter about it. He said he preferred the honor of having been accepted into tradition. He probably expected nothing to come of the song. Ironically, it's turned out to be his biggest "hit," having been recorded by Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Bob Dylan, Ian Tyson, James Taylor, and (thanks to Joe Val) it seems to be on its way to becoming a bluegrass standard.
If you want to hear "The Chisholm Trail," it's streamable from the Lomax archives at culturalequity.org. You can see Cisco's copy of the script in the Woody Guthrie Archives. My father's original lyric sheet is included in the "Bess Lomax Hawes Collection" at the Library of Congress.
Last updated in version 3.5
File: RcDJoe1

Diamond Joe (II)

DESCRIPTION: Mostly floating verses with a hint of narrative; singer goes "up on the mountain, give my horn a blow...." "Ain't gonna work in the country, neither on (Parchman?) farm...." Chorus: "Diamond Joe, come-a get me, Diamond Joe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Georgia Crackers)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Mostly floating verses with a hint of narrative; singer goes "up on the mountain, give my horn a blow/Thought I heard Miss Maybelle say, yonder comes my beau." "Ain't gonna work in the country, neither on (Parchman?) farm/I'm gonna stay till my Maybelle come, she gon' call-a me Tom." Chorus: "Diamond Joe, come-a get me, Diamond Joe"
KEYWORDS: love work floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, (DIAMONJ3 -- though this may be at least partly a parody)
Roud #3585
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Butler, "Diamond Joe" (AFS, 1941; on LCTreas, LC04)
Georgia Crackers [Cofer Bros.], "Diamond Joe" (OKeh 45098, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yonder Comes My Love" (lyrics)
NOTES [168 words]: This should not be confused with the cowboy complaint song "Diamond Joe (I)," an entirely separate song.
Art Thieme has suggested that the Diamond Joe referred to in this song is a steamboat rather than a person. - PJS
Lyle Lofgren offers additional support for this view: "Joseph Reynolds (1819-1891) was a Chicago grain dealer who devised a logo ('JO' inside a diamond) to distinguish himself from another Joseph Reynolds. Dissatisfied with the shipping situation, he built a steamboat, the Diamond Jo, to haul freight on the upper Mississippi (St. Paul to St. Louis). He later expanded the business to become the Diamond Jo Line, with all the boats sporting his logo. After the railroads began to carry more of the grain, the steamboats became mostly passenger vessels. There are only two remnants of the operation: the Diamond Jo name is now used by an unrelated riverboat casino in Dubuque, Iowa, and Reynolds Hall, the University of Chicago student union, was built with an endowment from Reynolds." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcDiJoII

Diamond Joe (III)

DESCRIPTION: "Diamond Joe was a rich old jay, With lots of cowboys in his pay." Chorus: "Roll on, boys, don't you roll so slow." The singer complains about working for Diamond Joe, wishes he were rich, wishes he could see his girl, thinks about death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (collected from J. B. Dillingham)
KEYWORDS: cowboy home money hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 247-248, "Diamond Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DIAMONJO*
Roud #3585
NOTES [38 words]: Roud lumps this with the two other Diamond Joe songs in the Index, but this one -- which seems to have been collected only by the Lomaxes -- has mostly unique lyrics and not much of a plot; I think it deserves its own listing. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LoSi247

Diamond Lily

DESCRIPTION: "Oh her name is Diamond Lily, She's a whore in Piccadilly, And her brother has a brothel in the stand"; their work makes them the richest family in the land. Other sexual curiosities are described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex whore
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 49, "Diamond Lilly" (1 text)
Roud #10255
NOTES [47 words]: The text in Morgan/Green-RugbySongs is fairly heavily expurgated (seven words omitted in three verses), and I have to admit that there are three cases where I can't guess the omitted word. I'm pretty innocent in these things, but it still hints at an odd dialect or something. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RuSoDiaL

Diamond, The

See The Bonnie Ship the Diamond (File: FSWB094)

Diamonds in the Rough

DESCRIPTION: "While walking out one evening," the singer hears the "Bethlehem Mission Band" and gives "my heart to Jesus." He lists the perfectly reasonable things he's now too self-righteous to do, and hopes the other "diamonds in the rough'" will do the same
AUTHOR: C. W. Byron (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 22, "Diamonds in the Rough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13153
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "Diamonds in the Rough" (Victor V-40150)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Diamonds in the Rough" (Brunswick 113)
NOTES [54 words]: We need a keyword "excessive self-righteousness," or something. How anyone can believe this sort of thing would actually change someone's mind is beyond me. But obviously some did.
C. W. Byron was a minister and a minor hymn-writer; his most-reprinted song seems to have been "When lost in sin I came to Christ my Savior." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ABLT022

Diana

See Vilikens and His Dinah [LawsM31A/B] (File: LM31)

Diana and Her Sailor Bright

DESCRIPTION: Diana is a rich merchant's daughter. She falls in love with "a bright young sailor" on one of her father's ships. She sends for him to marry. "Twas in her father's garden they walked hand in hand." He said "Lovely Diana, take my heart in command"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting love beauty father sailor floatingverses
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, pp. 515-516, "Diana and Her Sailor Bright" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jim Smurridge, "Diana and Her Sailor Bright" (on PeacockCDROM)
ST Pea515 (Partial)
Roud #2301
NOTES [54 words]: The first verse of this, "It's of a rich merchant in London did dwell, He had one only daughter, a beautiful girl," is of course commonplace, found in songs such as "The Young Sailor Bold (I) (The Rich Merchant's Daughter) [Laws M19]." The happy ending is different. Possibly this is a rewrite of that with a happy ending? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea515

Diana Dors

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Diana Dors And I'm a movie star." She describes her "cute face," "monkey guitar," lips, hips, "sexy le-egs"; "Boys got the muscles, Teacher's got the brains, We've got the sexy legs, And we've won the game"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 119, "Diana Dors" (2 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES [21 words]: "Diana Dors (October 23, 1931-May 4,1984) was an English actress and sex symbol." (Source: Wikipedia article "Diana Dors"). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa119

Diana Kitty Annie Maria

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves the pride of Glasgow Green, Diana Kitty Annie Maria. She is pretty and rich and dances wonderfully. He plans to marry in three weeks. They will have a boy named for him and three girls: Diana Kitty Annie [that is, "and"] Maria.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.1269(172b))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage beauty money dancing humorous children wordplay
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 737, "'Twas in the Month of June" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Roud #13666
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(135), "Diana Kitty Anna Maria" ("Being in the bloyming [sic] spring when the black bird did sinn [sic]"), P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867
NLScotland, L.C.1269(172b), "Diana Kitty Annie Maria" ("T'was in the month of June, when the birds were in full tune"), Poet's Box (?), 1884
NOTES [88 words]: Greig/Duncan4 entries are fragments; broadside NLScotland L.C.1269(172b) is the basis for the description.
The broadside texts have five eight-line verses and a four-line chorus. That seems a long way to go to reach the last line play on "Annie" or "Anna" and "and a," especially for a non-dialect story. One of the Greig/Duncan4 fragments blows the "joke" by having -- as one of its two surviving lines -- the chorus end "She's my darling Dinah Katie and Maria"; the other fragment does not have the heroine's name at all. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: GrD4737

Diane Carson Is No Good

See Tommy Johnson Is No Good (File: SuSm131C)

Dibble-Dabble

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "Keep the pot a-boiling, Just for Margie, One, to, and dibble-dabble, Three."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: food
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 72, "Dibble-Dabble" (1 text)
File: ZiZa072B

Dicey Reilly

DESCRIPTION: "She walks along Fitzgibbon street with an independent air," but Dicey Riley is headed to the pawnshop to pay for her drinking: "Poor oul Dicey Reilly, she has taken to the sup, Poor oul Dicey Reilly, she will never give it up...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Behan-IrelandSings)
KEYWORDS: drink hardtimes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Behan-IrelandSings, #23, "Dicey Riley" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
DT, DICYREIL*
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 18-19, "Dicey Reilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [178 words]: I have encountered four independent versions of this. One has only two verses, and approximates the description above. The other three are longer, and agree only on the material given in the description, with the rest being entirely independent. It's possible that we have three fragments of a longer piece -- but my guess is that the only truly traditional material is the two verses, and the tune is so strong that people have been patching on additional material when they record it.
Example: Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 66, has a version in which Dicey is a shopowner. He explains that "Heart of the rowl," a phrase which occurs at the end of the chorus, refers to a coiled roll of tobacco, in which the "heart of the rowl" is the best tobacco, found at the center of the spiral. The problem with this is, of course, that the material common to all the verses makes Dicey a drunk who is selling her possessions to buy more booze. Unless the term is applied satirically, she is hardly the heart of the rowl. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Har018

Dicey Riley

See Dicey Reilly (File: Har018)

Dick Darbin, the Cobbler

See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Dick Darby the Cobbler

See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Dick Darlin' the Cobbler

See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Dick Derrick's Rear

DESCRIPTION: The song lists the men who ran logs for foreman Dick Derrick. One, a "mossback" (farmer), shoves his girlfriend through a window; another falls in the creek.
AUTHOR: Plumb Bob Jack and cohorts (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work moniker humorous nonballad logger drink
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 66, "Dick Derrick's Rear" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 115, "Dick Derrick's Rear" (1 text)
Roud #8844
NOTES [33 words]: The "moniker song" consists mostly of listing the names of one's compatriots, and perhaps telling humorous vignettes about each; it's common among lumberjacks, hoboes, and probably other groups. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be066

Dick Dorbin the Cobbler

See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Dick Fowler

See Captain Fowler (File: Moyl039)

Dick German the Cobbler

See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Dick Mooney's Daughter

DESCRIPTION: Dick Mooney is dying and he wants to get a husband for his daughter. He lists his assets. Except for the house and farm, they are all defective and you can easily find better than his daughter. But don't forget the farm.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
KEYWORDS: dowry death dying farming humorous nonballad father oldmaid
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 31, pp. 81-82,118,168-169, "Dick Mooney's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2902
RECORDINGS:
John Maguire, "Dick Mooney's Daughter" (on IRJMaguire01)
NOTES [64 words]: Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday: "After the famine the small-farmer class in Ireland became very conscious, for various reasons, about the value and importance of land, as this song says.... If the female did have the land then she became extraordinarily desirable; her dowry was great and could overcome almost all 'deficiencies' in her family background, or in herself." - BS
File: MoMa031

Dick o the Cow [Child 185]

DESCRIPTION: Johnnie Armstrong decides on a raid, but has little luck. He is advised to steal the three kye of Dick o the Cow, a "fool." Dick seeks redress; when denied, he makes off with horses in exchange for his cattle, and finally gets a reward from his master
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1775 (Percy papers)
KEYWORDS: horse revenge robbery family
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Child 185, "Dick o the Cow" (1 text)
Bronson 185, "Dick o the Cow" (1 version)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 185, "Dick o the Cow" (1 version)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 41-49, "Dick o' the Cow" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 374-378, "Dick o' the Cow" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 498-504, "Dick o the Cow" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 142, "Dick o' the Cow" (1 text)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp.86-95, "Dick o' the Cow" (1 text)
Roud #4012
NOTES [36 words]: This ballad may have some roots in history, but had clearly been magnified beyond recognition and become rather confused in the process. Child has various speculations; most are possible but none really convincing. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: C185

Dick of Taunton Den

See Richard (Irchard) of Taunton Dean (File: RcIOTD)

Dick the Dasher

See Dicky Dash (File: LLab064)

Dick the Joiner

DESCRIPTION: Dick, a joiner, falls in love with Nell, a country girl, but "could not gain her favour." He dresses as a woman, goes where Nell is a servant, and applies for a position. Being shy, he asks that they sleep together. In the morning he left her "mournin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 16(74a))
KEYWORDS: seduction cross-dressing rake servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 165, "Dick the Joiner" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5769
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(74a), "Dick the Joiner" ("There is a lad in our town"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 11(2217), "Dick the Joiner" ("In Liverpool town there lived a lad a joiner to his station")
NOTES [98 words]: The definition of "joiner" includes "a person whose occupation is to construct articles by joining pieces of wood ... [or] stitches together parts of garments ... [or] inserts sections of stained glass into leads ...." (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976) So, we are on notice, from the beginning, that Dick's interest may be in joining body parts.
Greig/Duncan1: "Learnt in Culsalmond sixty years ago. Noted December 1906." - BS
At least the joiner's name wasn't "Snug" -- who, what's more, hung around at least one Bottom. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1165

Dick Turpin

See Dick Turpin and the Lawyer [Laws L10] (File: LL10)

Dick Turpin and Black Bess

See My Bonnie Black Bess I [Laws L8] AND My Bonnie Black Bess II [Laws L9] (File: LL09)

Dick Turpin and the Lawyer [Laws L10]

DESCRIPTION: Dick Turpin, upon meeting a lawyer, claims to be so afraid of meeting Turpin that he has hidden his money in his boot. The equally nervous lawyer admits to having hidden his money in his coat. Turpin gaily relieves him of the cash
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1856 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(323a))
KEYWORDS: robbery lawyer humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1735 - Dick Turpin comes to the attention of the authorities as a robber
April 1739 - Hanging of Dick Turpin (by then retired from highway robbery; he was captured after getting drunk and shooting the landlord's cockerel)
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(England(Lond,North,South)) US(MA) Australia
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws L10, "Dick Turpin and the Lawyer"
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 115-121, "Turpin's Valour" (1 text, although Laws considers this as two pieces, "Turpin's Valour" and "The Dunghill-Cock")
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 99, "Dick Turpin" (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 368); Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 100, "Turpin and the Lawyer" (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 94) (2 texts)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 54, "Turpin Hero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 6-7, "Turpin Hero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 89, "Turpin Hero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #133, "Dick Turpin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 125, "Dick Turpin and the Lawyer" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 336, "Turpin Hero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #45, "Bold Turpin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 368, "Dick Turpin and the Lawyer" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 70, pp. 157-158, "Turpin and the Lawyer" (1 text)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 15, "Dick Turpin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 661-663, "O Rare Turpin, Hero" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 570, TURPNLAW
Roud #621
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(323a), "Turpin Hero" ("Turpin Hero is my name") , J. Cadman (Manchester), 1850-1855; also Harding B 22(304), "Turpin's Rant" ("On Hounslow heath as I rid o'er"); Firth c.26(260), "O, Rare Turpin!" ("As I was riding over Hounslow moor")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Black Bess I" [Laws L8] (subject)
cf. "My Bonnie Black Bess II" [Laws L9] (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
O Rare Turpin, Hero
NOTES [397 words]: Versions of this generally place the incident on Hounslow Heath. This is probably a bit folkloric. According to Pringle, p. 64, each of the four great roads out of London had its hot spots for highway robbers, with Hounslow Heath on the Great Western Road being the most notorious spot of all. Turpin, however, is associated mostly with Finchley Common on the Great North Road (Pringle, p. 66).
What's more, this approximate story is told of other highwaymen, rather than Turpin; Pringle, pp. 86-87, tells how Francis "Dixie" Jackson met a lawyer in a tavern and was shown how he hid his treasure in his saddle. Several of Jackson's confederates then met the lawyer on the road and took his gold.
On the other hand, Brandon, p. 84, tells the story -- in a form even more like the ballad -- of William Davis, "The Golden Farmer" (died c. 1689). Evidently it's a "zipper" highwayman legend.
This may be the oldest of all the Turpin ballads -- very possibly the only one to predate the Great Turpin Rewrite which associated him with the fictional Black Bess. According to Sharpe, pp. 197-198, "Roughly at the time of Turpin's execution, a broadside ballad was published entitled 'Turpin's Rant.' This told how Turpin, while riding over Hounslow Heath, met with a lawyer travelling alone...." Clearly it is this ballad.
It may not have originated with Turpin, though. A century earlier, another highwayman, Isaac Atkinson, had made a specialty of robbing lawyers; for background on him, see the notes to "The Crafty Farmer" [Child 283; Laws L1].
Sharpe, p. 198, adds that the "Turpin Hero" chorus suggested the "Stephen Hero" of Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
At least part of this story exists independently of the song. Porter, pp. 109-110, tells a story from Cambridgeshire of a tanner who was out traveling and met another rider. The other rider talked obsessively about Turpin's exploits, and the tanner became convinced that the other was Turpin himself. Armed with that knowledge, he was able to break away from Turpin at a place where he knew the path and Turpin didn't, and hence escape un-robbed.
For the rest of Turpin's history, see the notes to "My Bonny Black Bess (II) (Poor Black Bess; Dick Turpin's Ride)" [Laws L9]. - RBW
Broadside: Street Ballads of Victorian England [circa 1850-1870] site, Folder 150, "Turpin Hero," J. Cadman (Manchester), 19C - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LL10

Dick Turpin's Ride

See My Bonnie Black Bess I [Laws L8] AND My Bonnie Black Bess II [Laws L9] (File: LL09)

Dick Turpin's Ride (II) (My Bonny Black Bess (II))

DESCRIPTION: "Dick Turpin bold! Dick, hie away," say his pals as Turpin escapes from three officers. Black Bess carries him to York and dies: "her heart she had burst, her rider to save, For Dick Turpin she lived and died"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1846 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 670)
KEYWORDS: escape death horse outlaw thief
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 101, "Dick Turpin's Ride" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 315)
Roud #856
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 670, "My Bonny Black Bess" ("Dick Turpin bold! Dick, hie away"), J. Paul and Co. (London), 1838-1845; also 2806 c.13(200), Johnson Ballads 560, Harding B 11(2518), 2806 b.11(230), Firth c.17(213), Harding B 11(2517), Harding B 11(3910), Firth b.26(10), "My Bonny Black Bess"; Firth c.17(31), Harding B 11(829), "Death of Black Bess"; Firth c.17(32), "Dick Turpin's Ride to York"
LOCSinging, as101400, "Bonny Black Bess" ("Dick Turpin, bold Dick, hark away!"), W.S. Fortey (London), no date
File: WT101

Dickie Bird

DESCRIPTION: "Up in a tree a Dickie Bird, Dim sol bim bam ball sol do sol dim, Up in a tree a Dickie Bird... sat." "Below it crawled a furry black... cat." " He said for dinner I shall have... you," "Then all at once the Dickie Bird... flew"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2009 (mudcat.org thread "Upon a tree a cuckoo/Auf einem Baum ein Kuckuck")
KEYWORDS: bird animal hunting campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 150, "Dickie Bird" (notes only)
NOTES [135 words]: Apparently an English song derived from the German "Auf einem Baum ein Kuckuck" -- "In a tree a cuckoo." There are English versions which refer to a cuckoo rather than a dickie bird, but I don't know if they are different translations or revisions. Alternately, could this have been influenced by "Two Little Blackbirds," which also sometimes has "Dickie Birds" rather than blackbirds?
"Dickie bird" is a nickname for the dicksissel, a sparrow-sized bird with plumage rather like a meadowlark; they are abundant in the central United States in summer and along the southern and southeastern American coasts in winter. And they do tend to perch for a long time and sing, according to my bird books. But it is supposedly named from its song, "Dick dick dick ciss ciss ciss," which doesn't sound much like this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF150D

Dickie Milburn

See Little Dicky Wigburn (File: WT293)

Dickson Song, The

See Le General Dickson (The Dickson Song; Eulogy of Cuthbert Grant) (File: Macl04)

Dicky Dash

DESCRIPTION: Dicky Dash takes Miss (Beal/Peel) to a dance but has to sell his shirt to raise admission. During the dance a shawl is stolen. Everyone is searched. When they search Dickie and find he has no shirt Miss Beal has nothing further to do with him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: courting theft clothes dancing humorous money commerce
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 64, "Dicky Dash" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 18, "Dick the Dasher" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab064 (Partial)
Roud #5280
File: LLab064

Dicky in the Yeomen

DESCRIPTION: Yeoman cobbler Dick McClane and his Orange wife live "at the end of Dirty Lane." He was with Beresford, at Castlepollard and Weavers' Hall upon the Coombe. Finally, "he shot an ass ... going to mass." But now he has to beg "Like all black-hearted Yeomen"
AUTHOR: probably by "Zozimus" (Michael Moran) (c.1794-1846) (Source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
EARLIEST DATE: 1830s (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: violence death Ireland political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 47, "Dicky in the Yeomen" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Gulielmus Dubliniensis Humoriensis [Joseph Tully?], Memoir of the Great Original Zozimus (Michael Moran) (Dublin,1976 (reprint of the 1871 edition, which is available on Google Books)), p. 23, "Dickey and the Yeoman" [only the first verse]
NOTES [634 words]: "Following an affray at Loughgall in Co. Armagh in 1795 the Orange Order was founded, while the Yeomen were also established in June 1796. These were made up mainly of men from the Orange Lodges." (source: The 1798 Rebellion on the Hogan Stand site)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "John Beresford was one of those who organized the repression in 1798."
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: May 21, 1831 - "Seventeen people were killed by the police at Castlepollard ... in one of the bloodiest affrays of the Tithe War. An inquest followed but the policemen were finally acquitted of the charge of murder." See also "The Castlepollard Massacre."
The Charter of the Weaver's Guild, dedicated to "the Blessed Virgin Mary," was granted 1446. A weavers' hall was built by the Guild in the Lower Coombe, Dublin. Irish Catholics were excluded from guild membership and Catholic weavers operated illegally. The guilds no longer had a monopoly and the Municipal Corporations Act of 1840 ended the guild system in Ireland. The Weavers's Hall was demolished in 1965. (source: The Weavers' Guild, The Guild of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Dublin 1446 to 1840 by Veronica Rowe at The Irish Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers web site.
For all that, I haven't yet found anything about a battle at Weavers' Hall or any loss there of Croppy lives.
Donkey's have a cross-shaped patch of dark hair on their back. In political ballads this mark is taken as a sign that donkeys are Roman Catholic. [For more on this, see the notes to "The Ass's Complaint." - RBW] - BS
There are at least three John Beresfords who might be the subject of this song, though I suspect the reference is to the younger, John Claudius.
John Beresford (1738-1805) was the second son of the Earl of Tyrone, and the depiction of him as strongly opposed to Catholic rights is quite accurate -- Bartlett/Dawson/Keough, p. 23, tells us that "members of Parliament like John Foster, John Fitzgibbon, and John Beresford... served as an informal 'Irish cabinet'. This talented but deeply conservative trio became a vital element in the government of Ireland and shared London's opposition to parliamentary reform." MP for Waterford, Beresford also held a revenue commission post from 1780 (OxfordCompanion, p. 44), and gave vigorous support to the Act of Union.
According to Brumwell/Speck, p. 50, the Lord Lieutenant Lord Fitzwilliam declared that he was "virtually King of Ireland." And he used that power to oppose FitzWilliam's attempts at reforms.
His greatest influence on Irish history may well have come in 1795. In January of that year, the Second Earl of Fitzwilliam was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, which brought "prospects of Catholic Emancipation" (Smyth p.108). Beresford protested vigorously, and in the squabble that followed, it was Fitzwilliam, not Beresford, who fell.
I can't find any references to deaths at Weaver's Hall, either, but there were riots in Dublin in 1795. During the riots, John Beresford's son John Claudius Beresford fired on the crowd outside the Customs House (Smyth, p. 150). Beresford the younger was also a leader of the Dublin Orange Lodge (Pakenham, p. 352). So he is a likely target of the denunciation in this song.
The third John Beresford is Lord John George Beresford (1773-1862), who became the Church of Ireland (Anglican) Archbishop of Armagh in 1822. The nephew of John Beresford and the cousin of John Claudius, he was not as directly involved in battle as his cousin, but he vigorously opposed Catholic emancipation and contributed to the needs of clergy who had lost their incomes during the Tithe War (OxfordCompanion, p. 44).
Given that this song seems to describe events stretching over a period of more than thirty years, I wonder if there might not be some conflation of Beresfords. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.6
File: Zimm047

Dicky Johnston

See The Rambling Soldier (File: ShH43)

Dicky Melbourne

See Little Dicky Wigburn (File: WT293)

Dicky of Ballyman

See Richard (Irchard) of Taunton Dean (File: RcIOTD)

Dicky of Taunton Dean

See Richard (Irchard) of Taunton Dean (File: RcIOTD)

Dicky the Miller

DESCRIPTION: Dicky the Miller meets his sweetheart Joan dressed "in her holiday's clothes." Dazzled, he proposes, they have sex and she is overjoyed at "the pleasure of being a wife." At home her mother criticizes her for losing her virginity. Dickie marries her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage sex virginity clothes mother miller
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 33, "Dicky the Miller" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 21, "Dicky, The Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1033
File: ReCi033

Dicky, Dicky Dout

See GIddy Giddy Gout (File: SuSM125)

Did Christ o'er Sinners Weep? (The Weeping Savior)

DESCRIPTION: "Did Christ o'er sinners weep? And shall our cheeks be dry... He wept that we might weep... In heav'n alone no sin is found, and there's no weeping there"
AUTHOR: Benjamin Beddome (source: Rippon)
EARLIEST DATE: 1787 (#367 in the 1787 edition Rippon's _Selection of Hymns_, according to Julian)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: John Rippon, A Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors (Elizabethtown: Shepard Kollock, 1792 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #367 pp. 268-269, ("Did Christ o'er sinners weep") (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Testerina Primitive Baptist Church, "Did Christ o'er Sinners Weep? (The Weeping Savior)" (on USFlorida01)
NOTES [542 words]: "Some Baptists objected to missions and other alternatives to worship [that emerged from the evangelical theology of the Second Great Awakening], and withdrew [around 1830] to form separate anti-mission associations. While most Baptists followed the course of American Protestant modernization, these anti-mission associations, taking the name of Primitive Baptist, held fast to the ecclesiastical principles given directly in New Testament scripture [rejecting salvation through works]" (John Bealle, "Introduction" p. 2, and Beverly Bush Patterson, "Forging Religious Identity: An Exploration of Hymn Singing in Anglo-American Primitive Baptist Churches" p. 23, both in Joyce Cauthen, editor, Benjamin Lloyd's Hymn Book: A Primitive Baptist Song Tradition (Montgomery: Alabama Folklife Association, 1999)).
The USFlorida01 recording is lined out by the precentor Deacon Wilson, one line at a time, and sung very slowly; each syllable has whole or multiple notes. Dargan, describing another Primitive Baptist recording as typical of this class of performances, writes about "melody spun-out melismatically with no rhythm derived out of measure and beat" that "beckons the ear and the consciousness to savour the very moment of each syllable" (William T Dargan, "Texts from Lloyd's Hymn Book in the Quiltwork of African American Singing Styles" in Joyce Cauthen, editor, Benjamin Lloyd's Hymn Book: A Primitive Baptist Song Tradition (Montgomery: Alabama Folklife Association, 1999), pp. 33, 32).
The reference is to Luke 19.41: "And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it" (King James). - BS
Perhaps more likely, John 11:35, the shortest verse in the Bible, "Jesus wept" or "Jesus shed tears." This is the most famous reference to Jesus weeping, and I see no reference in the Beddome text to where or why Jesus was weeping.
John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 121, says of author Bedome, "This prolific hymn-writer was b[orn] at Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire, Jan. 23, 1717, where his father, the Rev. John Bedome was at that time Baptist Minister. He was apprenticed to a surgeon in Bristol, but removing to London, he joined, in 1739, the Baptist church in Prescott St. At the call of his church he devoted himself to the work of Christian ministry, and in 1740 began to preach at Bourton-on-the-Water, in Gloucestershire." He would stay there until his death on September 3, 1795. He wrote at least one theological tract in this time, and also apparently made it a habit to inflict a new hymn on his congregation every week.
Not all of these hymns were published, and Julian says that only a few are widely known in England although more are popular in America. Julian lists 69 of his hymns, not one of which is familiar to me (at least under the title given by Julian), and none of which are in the Index as of this writing (2017); several appear to be specifically linked to a particular Bible text (e.g. "Behold the Eunuch, When Baptized," also known as "The Holy Eunuch, When Baptized," which is based on chapter 8 of Acts). I have to say, based on the texts I've checked, that Beddome's works appear to be mercifully forgotten. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcDCoSW

Did My Savior Bleed

See Alas And Did My Savior Bleed (File: High004)

Did the Maine Go Down?

DESCRIPTION: "On fifteenth day of February, In the year of '98, That day records the Maine disaster, 'Twas the day that sealed her fate." Many will not return home. It's Spain's fault. Captain Sigsbee went where duty called; so did many of the sailors
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship death derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1895 - Cubans rebel against Spain
Feb 15, 1898 - Explosion of the battleship "Maine" in Havana harbour
April 25, 1898 - Congress declares war on Spain
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 329-336, "Did the Maine Go Down?" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship That Never Returned" [Laws D27] (tune) and references there
cf. "My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine" (theme) and references there
NOTES [88 words]: List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana says this is to the tune of "The Wreck of the Old 97," and it is true that it (as transcribed by List) it lack the chorus of "The Ship That Never Returned." Since, however, it has several stanzas that look like direct rewrites of "The Ship," and the third verse appears as if it should have been the chorus, and the song was presumably written in 1898, before the Old 97 was even wrecked, I think the song can be traced back to "The Ship" without having "Old 97" in its ancestry. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: List329

Did Ye Ever See the Divil?

See Oh, Mister Revel (Did You Ever See the Devil?) (File: Br3141)

Did Ye not Promise to Marry Me?

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that her lover, leaving her with her baby, had promised to marry her. Her mother, now dead, had warned her that "young men proved untrue." He takes her to London and they marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love marriage sex abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 978, "Did Ye not Promise to Marry Me?" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6731
NOTES [107 words]: Greig/Duncan5 versions seem incomplete but the very general outline reminds me of "The False Lover Won Back" [Child 218]. It also has floating lines "I will clim as high a tree, Bring doon as rich a nest ...," "pull the red roses fine ..." as an invitation to sex, "rock the cradle and spin," "the trees they're high ... the branches they're but small" and "he has turned his high horse roon' aboot"; in two cases the rhyme is lost.
Greig/Duncan5: "Mrs D. Lyall; from her mother. Noted 4th June, 1907. Mrs Lyall's mother learnt this from her own mother, who in turn learnt it from her mother. That goes back about a hundred and twenty years." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5978

Did Ye See My Lad?

DESCRIPTION: "Did ye see my lad lookin' for me? He wears a blue bonnet wi' tassels upon it, A hump on his back and a patch on his e'e"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (Sharpe, A Ballad Book)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1343, "Did Ye See My Lad?" (1 fragment)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 49, "Did You See My Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, A Ballad Book (Edinburgh, 1883, reprint of 1824 edition ("Digitized by Microsoft")) 27, Part II, p. 13, "The Bonny Lad" (1 fragment)
Roud #2105
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Did You See My Man" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan7 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD71343

Did You Ē-va, Ī-va, Ō-va

See Did You Ever, Ever, Ever (File: San329A)

Did You Ever Go A-Fishing on a Sunny Day?

See Did You Ever See a Fishie? (File: ACSF142D)

Did You Ever See (I)

See Horse Fly (File: ACSF277H)

Did You Ever See a Bear Walk a Tightrope in the Air?

DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever see a bear Walk a tightrope in the air? If you did, it was all a dream, So out you must go for saying so."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal humorous
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 99, "(Did you ever see a bear)" (1 text)
File: SuSm099D

Did You Ever See a Fishie?

DESCRIPTION: "Have you ever been a-fishin' on a bright sunny day? Have you ever seen a fish swimming in an' out the bay? with his hands in his pockets and his pockets in his pants? Have you ever seen a fishy do the hootchy-kootchy dance?" The hearer has never seen it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: animal dancing clothes humorous campsong
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 50, "Did You Ever?"; p. 104, "Did You Ever" (2 texts)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 142, 490, 496, "Did You Ever See a Fishie?"/"Fishie" (notes only)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #103, "Did you ever go a-fishing on a sunny day" (1 text)
Roud #19310
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hootchy-Kootchy Dance" (lyrics)
cf. "Turkey in the Straw" (tune, some versions)
File: ACSF142D

Did You Ever See a Horse Fly

See Horse Fly (File: ACSF277H)

Did You Ever See a Lassie?

DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever see a lassie, A lassie, a lassie, Did you ever see a lassie Go this way and that way? Did you ever see a lassie go this way and that?" Other verses, if any, equally silly; sustained by the tune "O Du Lieber Augustine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (Beebe)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 6-7, "Did You Ever See a Lassie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 101-102, "(Did you ever see a lassie)" (1 text, 1 tune, filed under "Follow the Leader")
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 69, "Did You Ever See a Lassie?"; Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, pp. 303,304-306, "(When I was a young gell, a young gell, a young gell)" (3 texts)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 399-400, "O Du Lieber Augustin -- (Polly Put the Kettle On -- Did You Ever See a Lassie)"
Harbin-Parodology, #58, p. 21, "Did You Ever See a Lassie?" (1 text, tune referenced)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Leah Rachel Clara Yoffie, "Three Generations of Children's Singing Games in St. Louis," Vol. LX, No. 235 (Jan 1947), #39 p. 34 ("Did you ever see a lassie, a lassie, a lassie") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Marion Bromley Newton, Graded Games and Rhythmic Exercises for Primary Schools (New York, 1907 ("Digitized by Google")), #6 pp. 3-4, "Did You Ever See A Lassie?" (1 text, 1 tune)
SAME TUNE:
Ach, Du Lieber Augusine (File: SBar017)
The More We Get Together (File: ACSF163M)
Calliope Song (File: ACSF315C)
When Mary Was a Baby (Harbin-Parodology, #27, p. 14)
Horse Fly (File: ACSF277H)
Ach, Du Lieber Austustine (Slot Machine Run By Steam) (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 163)
Love to Be in Copenhagen (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 197)
Have You Ever Seen (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 197)
If I Could Have a Windmill/If I Had a Windmill (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 163; recored by Sharon, Lois & Bram)
June, July, and Augustine (Harbin-Parodology, #35, p. 16)
Howdy ("Oh, when we are together, together, together") (Harbin-Parodology, #169, p. 47)
Here's To ("Oh, here's to Mr. ???, Mr. ???, Mr. ???) (Harbin-Parodology, #208, p. 53)
NOTES [90 words]: Obviously a silly little song -- but the tune is so widespread that it can hardly be omitted.
Linscott, who has only a single stanza, describes its use as a singing game. - RBW
"Another favorite in Eleanor Smith's song book No. 2 reads: 'Did you ever see a lassie Do this way and that?' This is a very old friend in a new dress, and it is deservedly a friend, for it gives scope for any amount of ingenuity and originality" (source: Katherine Beebe, Home Occupations for Little Children (Chicago, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 126). - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FuldODLA

Did You Ever See a Porch Swing

See Horse Fly (File: ACSF277H)

Did You Ever See the Devil, Uncle Joe?

See Hop High Ladies (Uncle Joe) (File: R252)

Did You Ever See the Divil?

DESCRIPTION: The Devil dug "pritties" in the garden, swatting flies with his tail until "they dragged him back to prison." The Devil, overjoyed when the spuds were blighted and famine killed the people, was put in his place by Saint Patrick.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1939 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: farming starvation Devil
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 69, "Did You Ever See the Divil?" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Stack of Barley" (tune, according to Tunney-StoneFiddle)
cf. "Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small)" (subject: the potato famines) and references there
cf. "Oh, Mister Revel (Did You Ever See the Devil?)" (lyrics)
NOTES [74 words]: For the potato blight, see "Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small)" and references there. The British policy was largely one of neglect (though this was more due to flawed economic opinions than actual cruelty), but it resulted in many deaths and even more people selling out and going to America. I have no idea why the song thinks the Devil was put in his place; the famines eventually ended, but the effects had been simply horrid. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: TSF069

Did You Ever See? (II)

See Was You Ever See? (File: K309)

Did You Ever Think

See The Worms Crawl In (File: San444)

Did You Ever, Ever, Ever

DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever, ever, ever In your leaf, life, loaf, See the deevil, divil, dovol, Kiss his weef, wife, woaf? No I never, never, never In my leaf, life, loaf, Saw the deevil, divil, dovol, Kiss his weef, wife, woaf."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (McCollum and Porter)
KEYWORDS: devil nonballad jumprope
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 329, "Did You Ever, Ever, Ever" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 139, "Have You Ever Ever Ever?" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #102, "Did you ẽ-va, ī-va, ō-va" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 67, "(Did you ever ever ever)" (1 fragment)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Catharine Ann McCollum and Kenneth Wiggins Porter, "Winter Evenings in Iowa, 1873-1880," Vol. LVI, No. 220 (Apr 1943), p. 103 ("Did you ever ever ever") (1 fragment)
Roud #4253 and 18989
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Mister Revel" (theme)
File: San329A

Did You Hear How Dey Crucified My Lord?

See Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? (File: FSWB367A)

Did You Hear My Jesus?

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Did you hear my Jesus when He called you (x3), For to try on your long white robe." Verses: "Heaven gates are open, come along, come along... hear my Jesus when He calls you." "My mother's in the kingdom...." "Going to meet her yonder...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 134-135, "Ef You Want to Get to Hebben (Did You Hear My Jesus?)" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 230-231 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #15248
NOTES [34 words]: Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute repeats the verse line -- including "come along, come along" -- three times, followed by "Hear my Jesus when he calls you." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett134

Did You Never Hear of Donald Blue?

DESCRIPTION: "In Union Street as I walked late I met a man I never knew When I askerd his name, said he "For shame Did you never hear of Donald Blue?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: travel
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1456, "Did You Never Hear of Donald Blue?" (1 fragment)
Roud #7149
NOTES [44 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan7 fragment.
Greig/Duncan7 refers to a 1797 chapbook including "Donald Blue" beginning "Thro' Deery town I rambled late."
For the association of "Donald Blue" with whiskey see "Whiskey Is My Name (Donald Blue)." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71456

Did Your Wife Go Away

See Τηε Deserted Husband (File: K198)

Diddie Wa Diddie

DESCRIPTION: Double entendre. Singer describes several awkward situations involving "Diddie Wa Diddie," lamenting "I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means." He gets thrown out of church "'Cause I talk about Diddie Wa Diddie too much."
AUTHOR: Label ledger says "Davis-Blake"; no hint who Davis might have been
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Blind Blake)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Double entendre. Singer describes several awkward situations involving "Diddie Wa Diddie," lamenting in the chorus "I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means." A girl who's four foot four asks him to give her some more Diddie Wah Diddie. In church, he puts his hand on a seat, and a woman sits on it, saying "You sure is sweet." He tells her he'll soon be gone, just "give me that thing you're sitting on." He gets thrown out of church "'Cause I talk about Diddie Wa Diddie too much."
KEYWORDS: sex questions bawdy
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE)
RECORDINGS:
Blind [Arthur] Blake, "Diddie Wa Diddie" (Paramount 12888, 1929)
Bill Cox, "Didi Wa Didi" (Vocalion 05191/Conqueror 9219, 1939) [Note: I have not heard this record, so cannot verify that it's the same song.]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Diddy Wa Diddy
Diddie Wah Diddy
NOTES [106 words]: The narrative is minimal, but it's there.
It's hard to know where to assign a FOUND IN for this song; Mr. Blake may have been born in Florida or Virginia; he lived in Chicago (at least for a time), and recorded in Wisconsin.
The similarly-titled "Diddy Wah Diddy" was composed by Willie Dixon and Elias "Bo Diddley" McDaniel, and recorded in 1955. It's a different song; in Dixon & McDaniel's piece "Diddy Wah Diddy" is a place of ease and contentment, similar to the Big Rock Candy Mountain, whereas in the Blake record it's a (sexual) thing.
In a sequel to this song, Blake sings "I just found out what Diddie Wa Diddie means." -PJS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: RcDiWaDi

Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling, My Son John

DESCRIPTION: "Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John, Went to bed with his trousers on, One shoe off, and one shoe on, Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (Songs for the Nursery, according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: food clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 275, "Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John" (1 text )
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #129, p. 106, "(Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 65, "Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling, My Son John" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 31, "Diddle diddle dumpling, my son John" (1 text)
Roud #19709
NOTES [27 words]: The first words, "DIddle, diddle, dumpling," are reputed to be the cry of street-sellers offering dumplings. Where the rest of the poem came from is not clear. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OO275

Didn't He Ramble

DESCRIPTION: "Mother raised three grown sons... Buster was the black sheep of our little family... And didn't he ramble, ramble... He rambled till the butchers cut him down." Buster's rambling ways and debts are described; at last he hits bottom and the song ends
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (broadside, LOCSheet rpbaasm 1155)
KEYWORDS: rambling hardtimes gambling family
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 174-175, "Didn't He Ramble?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 88, "He Rambled" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 231-232 (partial text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 203, "Didn't He Ramble" (1 text)
DT 312, DIDRAMBL*
ADDITIONAL: Frank J. Gillis, "The Metamorphosis of a Derbyshire Ballad into a New World Jazz Tune,'" article published 1978 in _Disourse in Ethnomusicology: Essays in Honor of George List_; republished on pp. 207-248 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009
Roud #126
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Didn't He Ramble" (OKeh 45569, 1932; rec. 1930)
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "Didn't He Ramble" (Brunswick, unissued, 1928)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Didn't He Ramble" (on NLCR02)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "He Rambled" (Columbia 15407-D, 1929; on CPoole01, CPoole05, ConstSor1)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, rpbaasm 1155, "Oh! Didn't He Ramble," J.W. Stern & Co. (New York), 1902 (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Darby Ram" (lyrics)
cf. "Traveling Man (Traveling Coon)" (lyrics)
cf. "Cotton's Patch (II)" (lyrics, form, probably tune)
NOTES [180 words]: Although an obvious pop rewriting of "The Derby Ram" (Roud lumps them), the actual history of this piece is uncertain. Credit (blame?) has been offered to Will Handy (a pseudonym for Bob Cole, sometimes working with John Rosamond Johnson and James Weldon Johnson; note that this is not W. C. Handy), who offered an extravagant seven verse version. (So, e.g., in Silber & Silber, and there is sheet music of this version.; cf. Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, p. 317.)
Charlie Poole sang a much more sedate three verse version. If anyone knows more, I'd welcome the information. - RBW
Broadside LOCSheet rpbaasm 1155: "words & music by Will Handy ... adaptation by Bob Cole." Poole's tune is closely related to Handy's. - BS
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 269, credits it the words to Bob Cole and the music to J. Rosamond Johnson, and, estimates that this was the eleventh-most popular song in America in in 1902, reaching #4 in September of that year. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: CSW174

Didn't It Rain

DESCRIPTION: "Now didn't it rain, children...." Various events related to the flood: "It rained 40 days and 40 nights...God sent a raven to carry the news...." "God sent Noah the rainbow sign...." "They knocked at the window and they knocked at the door...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Biddleville Quintette)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible flood
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 564, "Didn't It Rain" (3 fragments plus an excerpt; the "D" fragment does not use the "didn't it rain" line and might be something else)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 564, "Didn't It Rain" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 4, "Didn't It Rain, My Elder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 250, "Didn't It Rain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 111-113, "Didn't It Rain" (1 text, 1 tune, adapted and copyrighted by Roberta Martin, 1907-1969, plus an excerpt of the original spiritual on pp. 115-116)
Roud #6699
RECORDINGS:
Biddleville Quintette, "Didn't It Rain" (QRS 7073, 1929)
Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham, "Oh My Lord Didn't It Rain" (Paramount 13126, 1932; on VocalQ2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Noah" (subject, patter+chorus format) and references there
NOTES [79 words]: For the statement that the rain fell for forty days during Noah's flood, see Gen. 7:12 (the total duration of the flood is given in 7:17, 8:6? as 40 days and in 7:24, 8:3 as 150 days; the different numbers are believed to have come from different sources).
Nowhere does the Bible mention people asking Noah to take them aboard. Nor was the raven sent as a warning; rather, Noah sent it out to look for dry land (Gen. 8:7). The covenant of the rainbow is described in 9:13f. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LoF250

Didn't Lazarus shit on the commisary counter

See Poor Lazarus (Bad Man Lazarus) [Laws I12] (File: LI12)

Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel

DESCRIPTION: "Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel... Then why not every man? He delivered Daniel from the lion's den, Jonah from the belly of the whale." The singer forecasts the end of the world, expecting to be saved, and rejoices in salvation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 65, "My Lord Delibered Daniel" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 193 in the 1874 edition)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 370, "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel?" (1 text)
DT, DELVRDAN*
Roud #12348
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Preacher and the Bear" (theme)
NOTES [53 words]: The story of Daniel in the lion's den (for refusing to worship a false god) is in Daniel 6:16-24. Jonah's sojourn in the belly of a fish (NOT a whale; the Hebrew says "fish"; for more about this, see the notes to "God's Radiophone") is in Jonah 1:17-2:10. The story of the three in the fiery furnace is in Daniel 3. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: FSWB370A

Didn't Ol' John Cross the Water on His Knees

DESCRIPTION: "Didn't ol' John (huh!) cross the water on his knees? (huh!) (x2), Lut us all (huh!) bow down (huh!), good Lord, and face, face the rising sun (huh!)." Listeners are told to get on their knees and sing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad prison
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 384-385, "Didn't Ol' John Cross the Water on His Knees" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15587
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "See Four and Twenty Elders On Their Knees" (lyrics, form)
NOTES [40 words]: The songs "See Four and Twenty Elders On Their Knees" and "Didn't Ol' John Cross the Water on His Knees" are so close that we seriously considered lumping them, but Roud splits them, so we have kept them very tentatively separate. - BS, RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: LoSi384

Didn't You Hear

DESCRIPTION: "Didn't you hear my Lord when he called? Yes, I heard my Lord when he called.... My Lord callin' in my soul." Similarly, "Didn't you hear them turkle (sic) doves moan... ...hear the harp when it blowed ...hear that thunder roll ...hear the organ playin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Rich Amerson & Earthy Anne Coleman)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 68-69, "(Didn't You Hear)" (1 text); pp. 241-243, "Didn't You Hear" (1 tune, partial text)
Roud #10959
RECORDINGS:
Rich Amerson & Earthy Anne Coleman, "Didn't You Hear" (on NFMAla4, NFMAfAm)
File: CNFM068

Die an Old Maid

See Grandma's Advice (File: R101)

Die Moorsoldaten (Peat-Bog Soldiers)

See Moorsoldaten, Die (Peat-Bog Soldiers) (File: SBoA354)

Die-Lee-O

See Jingle at the Window (Tideo) (File: R525)

Die, Die, Little Dog Die

DESCRIPTION: "Die, die, little dog die, Die for the sake of Your grandmother's eye. With a high swing And a low swing And a swing To get you off of your Swing Swong Sway." Or "...eye, A penny to put in your purse, A penny to give to the nurse"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: dog death money | swing nurse
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 11, "(Die, die, little dog die)" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 81, "Die, die, little dog, die" (1 text)
Roud #25373
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Swinging on a Gate" (lyrics)
File: BAAI011A

Died for Love (I)

DESCRIPTION: A song of a woman in pain. The woman says that the man loved her when her apron was low, but now it's high. She may wish she were a maid again, recall the alehouse where she drinks, or wish her parents had never met
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: seduction pregnancy betrayal abandonment floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 5, "Died for Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 53, "I Wish, I Wish" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 55, "Died for Love" (2 texts, 2 tunes, the second having a wide variety of imported verses not usually associated with this family)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 273, "I wish I was a Child again" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 56, "I Wish I Was a Maid Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #495
RECORDINGS:
Isla Cameron, "Died For Love" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
Walter Pardon, "I Wish, I Wish" (on Voice15)
Pete Seeger, "Tarrytown" (on PeteSeeger46)
Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry, "In Tarrytown" (on SeegerTerry)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] and references there
cf. "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Must I Go Bound" (theme)
cf. "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" [Laws P25] (lyrics)
cf. "The Effects of Love" (theme)
NOTES [225 words]: This piece is almost "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] without the suicide. The mention of the apron riding high is a strong indicator; the girl is definitely pregnant and regrets her folly.
For further details on the family, see the notes to "The Butcher Boy." - RBW
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 15" - 13.9.02, cite as a possible source "song 'The Effects of Love - A New Song' which was issued by an anonymous broadside printer in the 18th century." The note quotes the text, which includes the "when my apron it hung low" and "I wish that my dear babe was born" verses. The reference seems to be to "The effects of love. A new song. [London]. [1780?]. 1 sheet; 1/80. British Library 11621.k.4(158). A slip song. "O! Love is hot, and Love is cold,." REFERENCE: ESTCT32452 x." (source: Eighteenth Century (1701-1790) Cheap Print: A Finding Aid produced by Richard C. Simmons, University of Birmingham, Dec 2000, on the University of Birmingham site); this is not at all the Bodleian broadside set "The Effects of Love [by a young lady who drowned herself]" ("Young lovers all I pray draw near").
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "I Wish I Was a Maid Again" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)) - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: McST055

Died for Love (II)

See The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: LP24)

Died for Love (III) (Early, Early)

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a girl sighing, "The lad I love is gone far away." "He's gone and left me now in grief and woe, And where to find him I do not know. I'll search these green fields and valleys low." She wishes she had wings to hunt Willie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation floatingverses
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H89, p. 287, "Early, Early" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3817
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Early, Early, by the Break of Day" (on IRRCinnamond03)
NOTES [41 words]: This is one of those songs where you simply cannot tell if it's the remnant of something else (it reminds me of Jean Redpath's "When I Look tae Yon High Hills") or a collection of floating lines or just a short piece on a commonplace theme. - RBW
File: HHH089

Died for Love (IV)

See Tavern in the Town (File: ShH94)

Died for Love (V)

DESCRIPTION: "A man returning home one night, He found his house without a light." He seeks his daughter; he finds her dead (perhaps of suicide, perhaps not). Her love was a sailor. She warned "Don't change the old love for the new." Clearly from "The Butcher Boy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Gardham-EastRidingSongster)
KEYWORDS: death suicide love abandonment sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 28, "The Maiden's Prayer (Died for Love)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 18-19, "A Sailor Came Home Late" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18828
RECORDINGS:
Steve Gardham, "A Man Returning Home One Night (Died for Love)" (Piotr-Archive #310, recorded 10/11/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] and references there
NOTES [48 words]: Basically "The Butcher Boy" with the love a sailor instead. I'd be tempted to lump them, but Roud and others split them. But you'd better see all the "Butcher Boy" references.
Gardham-EastRidingSongster states that this particular version became particularly popular in World War II. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Gard028

Died of Love

See Love Has Brought Me to Despair [Laws P25] (File: LP25)

Died on the Ice Fields

DESCRIPTION: "The white, rugged ice-flow came gliding along" as Richard Parsons and his sons return home. The younger goes ahead. The elder complains he can't go on. Parsons tries to keep him warm. The younger dies on the way; the others are barely alive when found
AUTHOR: P. J. Dyer
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Murphy, Songs Sung By Old Time Sealers of Many Years Ago)
KEYWORDS: father children death hunting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 39-40, "Died on the Ice Fields" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, editor, _Songs Sung by Old-TIme Sealers of Many Years Ago_, James Murphy Publishing, 1925 (PDF available from Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 18, "Died on the Ice Fields" (1 text)
Roud #V44601
NOTES [69 words]: Murphy reports that this was based on an incident of March 24, 1894. Such stories are depressingly common in Newfoundland, where fathers and sons often went to the ice together; in the Newfounland disaster (for which see "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)"), there were multiple instances of family members together trapped on the ice, including at least one case of three family members dying in each others' arms. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm039

Diego's Bold Shore

DESCRIPTION: "Has a love of adventure, a promise of gold, or an ardent desire to roam Ever tempted you far o'er the watery world?" The singer describes the whaling life by asking if the listener has ever experienced this or that. He advises those at home to enjoy life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1852 ("The Friend," November 2, 1852 edition)
KEYWORDS: whaler work questions
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 30-32, "Diego's Bold Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 20, "Diego's Bold Shores" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 196-197, "Diego's Bold Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 213-214, "Twas a Love of Adventure" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: _The Friend_, [Honolulu], November 1852 [Vol. I, No. 9] (available on Google Books), p. 69, "Original Whaleman's Song" (1 text)
Moritz Karl Adolf Lindeman, _Die arktische fischerei der deutschen seestadte 1620-1868_, 1869, p. 54, "Whaleman's Song" (1 text, in English even though almost all the immediate context is in German)
Roud #2006
NOTES [67 words]: Jim Dixon pointed out to me the version of this song, from "The Friend," a Honolulu temperance journal. It appears Jonathan Lighter first found it. None of the earliest copies seems to indicate a tune. Both that text and the Lindeman printing list it as a Whaleman's Song "by one of them." "The Friend" uses this tag on several other items about whaling, though this was the only song I noticed. . - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: SWMS030

Diesel and Shale

DESCRIPTION: "On the fifth of November in '53, The big man at Dolphin he sent for me... We've booked you a berth in the water below... We've booked you a berth with the diesel ad shale." The sailor describes the smelly life on submarines; he finally gets another berth
AUTHOR: Cyril Tawney (source: Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 153, "Diesel and Shale" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nobody Washes in a Submarine" (subject of odors on a submarine)
NOTES [66 words]: Submarines were always crowded, and even when on the surface, they had limited ventilation. The were famous for their odors, both human and machine. A well-designed boat wouldn't smell too much of diesel fuel and shale oil, but either Tawney was not on a good boat or he had a very good nose. As someone who finds all petroleum fumes hard to take, I have a great deal of sympathy for the latter. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: PaSe153

Dieu du Liberal, Le (The Idol of His Party)

DESCRIPTION: Canadian French. "Peuple, ecoutez devotement, Un recit bien interessant." Listeners are asked to hear the tale of "A famous Doctor friend of ours," who, although "a great blockhead," goes into politics. Despite their loathing, he becomes an M.P.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad Canada
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1840-1896 - Life of Sir John Christian Schultz, M.P 1871-1882, Senator 1882-1888, Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba 1888-1895. Although the "Doctor" of the song is unnamed, MacLeod is certain it refers to Schultz
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba, #10, pp. 60-66, "The Idol of His Party" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [182 words]: According to W. Stewart Wallace, Editor, The Macmillan Dictionary of Canadian Biography, fourth edition revised and enlarged by W. A. McKay, Macmillan of Canada, 1978, p. 751, Sir John Christian Schultz (1840-1896) was born at Amherstburg in what was then Upper Canada. He attended Oberlin College in Ohio, Queen's University at Kingston, and Victoria University, Cobourg, earning his MD there (although Wikipedia, when I checked some time in 2017, claimed that he never actually graduated medical school but called himself a doctor anyway).
Medical doctor or not, he practiced medicine at what was then Fort Garry and is now Winnipeg. A loyalist during the North West Rebellion of 1869-1870 (for which see "Riel's Song"), he was taken captive by Louis Riel and sentenced to death, but managed to escape. That gave him a big boost in politics, and as the Historical References show, he held some sort of office fro 1871 until 1895. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and in 1895 became K.C.M.G. So I doubt he was actually a blockhead, though no doubt he was highly opinionated. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Macl10

Dieu vous saue, Dame Emme

See notes to Sir Aldingar [Child 59] (File: C059)

Dig a Hole in the Meadow

See Darling Corey (File: LxU087)

Dig My Grave

See Go And Dig My Grave (File: FSWB350B)

Dig My Grave Long and Narrow

See Go And Dig My Grave (File: FSWB350B)

Dig My Grave with a Silver Spade

DESCRIPTION: "You can dig my grave with a silver spade (x3), 'Cause I ain't gonna stay here long." "There's a long white robe in heaven for me...." "There's a starry crown in heaven for me...." "There's a golden harp up in Heaven for me...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 351, "You Can Dig My Grave" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, p. 134, "Silver Spade" (1 short text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 383, "You Can Dig My Grave with a Silver Spade" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 19, "You Can Dig My Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 15, "You Can Dig My Grave" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 96-97, "You Can Dig My Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Deep Blue Sea (II)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Down by the Weeping Willow Tree" (lyrics)
File: FSWB351A

Digby's Farewell

See Packington's Pound (File: ChWI259)

Digger's Farewell, The

DESCRIPTION: "Just as you say, sire, I'm off once more, The Palmer River, that's my way." "Ten long years since I landed here... But who lacks hardship looking for gold." "'Success to the Palmer!' -- is that your toast? Mine's 'Here's to the land I leave behind!'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Greymouth Star, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes drink New Zealand
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 66, "The Digger's Farewell" (1 text, 1 modern tune, with an indication of an earlier tune)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 60, "Digger's Farewell" (1 text, 1 modern tune) (p. 36 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 89-90, "(The Digger's Farewell/Farewell to the Grey)" (1 text)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Farewell to the Grey
NOTES [46 words]: Apparently a song of a gold digger who arrived in New Zealand in 1864 and has found little in that time but now (1874) intends to go to Australia. Apparently both Neil Colquhoun and Phil Garland set tunes; the published tunes are both Colquhoun's, but Garland recorded his. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo066

Digger's London Leave, The

See Dinky Die (File: EM403)

Digger's Song, The

See Dinky Die (File: EM403)

Diggers, The

See True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man) (File: MA062)

Digging for Gould

DESCRIPTION: Boys know Darby Kelly only loves gold. Dan tells Darby he dreamt of a jar of gold. They dig and find a jar. He takes it home on his back; when they smash it, he is "like a black sugar stick on a hot summer-day," not smelling like gold. He is cured
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1879 (broadside, LOCSinging sb10104a)
KEYWORDS: greed lie trick dream humorous gold
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 43, "Digging for Gould" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #477, p. 32, "Digging for Gould" (1 reference)
Roud #V15467
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(129), "Digging for Gould", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878 [same as LOCSinging sb10104a]; also Firth c.20(133), "Digging for Gold"
LOCSinging, sb10104a, "Digging for Gould", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878 [same as Bodleian Harding B 18(129)]
NOTES [126 words]: Both O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland and the De Marsan broadside leave off the last verse: once the jar is broken we know from the smell that Darby Kelly is not covered with gold; the missing part, only in shelfmark Firth c.20(133), [runs] "when she [his wife] saw Darby good lord! what a sight, Doubled in two on the ground there he lay, Like a black sugar stick on a hot summer-day ... I know them gasoons have disbed me complete, Never more by you I'll be led or rulled, For I may dig my grave, when I next dig Gold."
Broadsides LOCSinging sb10104a and Bodleian Harding B 18(129): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Last updated in version 5.0
File: OCon043

Diggins-Oh, The

DESCRIPTION: "I've come back all skin and bone From the diggins-oh, And I wish I'd never gone, To the giggins-oh. Believe me, 'tis no fun...." He lost weight. The natives burned his home. His hut washed away. He finally comes home; he will not go digging again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Ashton, Modern Street Ballads, according to Edwards)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes mining Australia
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 25-26, "The Diggins-Oh" (1 text)
File: SKeF025

Diller, A Dollar, A

See A Diller, A Dollar (File: BGMG081)

Dilly Song, The

See Green Grow the Rushes-O (The Twelve Apostles, Come and I Will Sing You) (File: ShH97)

Dinah (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Dinah, Oh Dinah, if you were only mine, Set you in the corner, kiss you all the time, kiss you all the time, kiss you all the time." "It's raining and it's hailing... My true love goes back on me, I will surely die." "Durn her, let her go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, p. 7, "Dinah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7049
File: BWV5007

Dinah (II)

See Dinah, Dinah Show Us a Leg (File: OpGa479C)

Dinah, Dinah Show Us a Leg

DESCRIPTION: "Dinah, Dinah, show us your leg ... above the knee" Rich girl wears brassiere, poor girl rags, or a string, Dinah wears nothing and lets her bosoms sag, or swing.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: bawdy playparty clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 479, ("Dinah, Dinah, show us your leg") (1 text)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 48, "Dinah" (1 text)
Roud #7052
NOTES [88 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "The adult version at least makes more sense." See the Mudcat Cafe site forum for examples. One thread on Rugby songs includes a bawdy text for "Dinah" that includes -- sort of -- two of the Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame verses. Other threads have long versions with a lot of overlap. - BS
Roud includes this with "Coming Round the Mountain (II -- Charming Betsey)" and "She Gets There Just the Same (Jim Crow Car)." The form is similar, but I'd consider the concept different, and hence I split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: OpGa479C

Dinah's Lovers

See Vilikens and His Dinah [LawsM31A/B] (File: LM31)

Ding Dang Me

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Ding dang me one, Ding dang, Ding dang me two ... Ding dang me four, Ding dang." Includes floating Black or "minstrel" verses (see Notes)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 120, ("Once I went out huntin'") (1 text)
NOTES [195 words]: Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands has three verses, all floaters. Parrish's "Once I went out huntin' I heard a possum sneeze I holler back to Susan Put on de pot o' peas" is -- allowing for minor changes -- the same as "Black-Eyed Peas for Luck" in Thomas W. Talley, Negro Folk Rhymes (NewYork: Macmillan Company, 1922 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), p. 200. Parrish's "I went down to Missy house Missy was in bed I took de marrow bone An' beat her in de head" is close to the first verse of "Song of the Black Shakers" in 19th Century Songsheets, VonWalthour, CDDrive>s>s(74),"Song of the Black Shakers,", unknown publisher, no date [p. 2725]: "I went down to Sally's house, Sally wasn't home, So I sat in de corner dar An played on de jaw bone." Finally, Parrish's couplet, "Toad frog sittin' on the railroad track Train come along an' break his back" is at least reminiscent of "... railroad track ... back" couplets. For example, "[so-and-so] on the railroad track, hitched/pinned the engine to his back" (see Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 199, "Old Dan Tucker"; Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 457A, "Run, Nigger, Run"). - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parp120A

Ding, Ding, Ding, Here Comes My Wagon

DESCRIPTION: "Ding ding ding ding ding, Here comes my (wagon/trolley), my wagon, I hear the keeper calling me Ding ding ding ding ding, To take me back to the nutty factory, Like all the little nuts that fall, I'm just a little cracked, that's all...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2006 (mudcat.org thread "Origins: Ding Ding Ding here comes my trolley")
KEYWORDS: madness captivity campsong
FOUND IN: US Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 123, "Ding, Ding, Ding, Here Comes My Wagon" (notes only)
File: ACSF123D

Ding, Dong, Bell

DESCRIPTION: "Ding, dong, bell, Pussy's in the well." Johnny Green (or Tam Linn) put her in. Tommy Stout pulls her out. "What a naughty boy was that, To try to drown poor pussy cat, Who never did him any harm, And killed the mice in his father's barn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammar Gurton's Garland, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: rescue animal youth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 190, "The Cat's in the Well" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 134, "Ding, dong, bell" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #43, p. 56, "(Ding dong bell)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 29, "Ding, Dong, Bell" (1 short text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 97, "Ding, Dong, Bell, Pussy's in the Well" (1 text)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 100, "Jack, Boy, Ho, Boy" (1 short text, 1 tune, a round which looks like a short version of this)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #607, "Who's in the well?" (1 text)
Roud #12853
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dingle Dingle Doosey" ("cat's in the well" lyric)
NOTES [220 words]: The Baring-Goulds report that Katherine Elwes Thomas believed this to come from Bristol, where there was a tradition of ringing the city bells at any excuse. A plausible speculation, but no more.
The Opies, more reasonably, link this to an item in Ravenscroft's 1609 Pammelia, There are some similarities in the lyrics, but not enough to prove identity, I think. Similarly, the Opies note several uses of the phrase "Ding, dong, bell" in Shakespeare. There might be a link, but we can't prove it.
Cutts, p. 90, has another "ding dong bell" item, from British Library MS. Additional 29481, folio 16:
Downe, downe, affflicted soule and paie thy due
To death and misserie, weepe howle and rue
The crying sines posest the endles night...
[5 lines omitted]
And all thi bewtie into dust
Now ring thy knell,
Dyng dong bell
Dinge dong bell.
I'm also reminded of "Dingle Dingle Doosey" ("Dingle, dingle, doosey, The cat's in the well; The dog's away to Bellingen, To buy the bairn a bell"). Both have a bell, and a cat in the well, and the syllable "Ding." But whether the link means anything I don't know.
The Ravenscroft item reads
Iacke [Jackie] boy, ho boy, newes:
The cat is in the well,
Let vs ring now for her knell.
Ding dong, ding, dong, bell.
Source: Ravenscroft, No. 56/p. 9, "Iacke Boy, Ho Boy" (1 text, 1 tune) - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: OO2134

Ding, Dong, Bell, Pussy's in the Well

See Ding, Dong, Bell (File: OO2134)

Dingle Dingle Doosey

DESCRIPTION: "Dingle, dingle, doosey, The cat's in the well; The dog's away to Bellingen, To buy the bairn a bell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Ritson)
KEYWORDS: nonballad animal dog baby
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 175, "Round, Round Rosie" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 135, "Dingle dingle doosey" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Joseph Ritson, Gammer Gurton's Garland (Glasgow, 1866 (reprinted from London, 1810 edition)), p. 47, ("Dingle, dingle, doosey") (1 text)
Roud #15524
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ding, Dong, Bell" ("cat's in the well" lyric)
NOTES [109 words]: The current description is all of the Ritson text.
Ritson: "This is a Scottish ditty, on whirling round a piece of lighted paper to the child. The paper is called the dingle doosey." - BS
Despite this explanation, the incomparable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp. 184-185, thinks this is about Mary Queen of Scots and her actions to assure Catholic baptism for her son!
I'm reminded, for obvious reasons, of "Ding, Dong, Bell" ("Ding, Dong, Bell, Pussy's in the well"). Both have a bell, and a cat in the well, and the syllable "Ding." But whether the link means anything I don't know.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LyCr2175

Dingle Puck Goat, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer goes to Puck Fair in Dingle and buys a goat, jumps on its back, grabs its horns and has a fantastic ride. They cross the sea and are attacked by fish. They return through Kerry; "old Puck ... as far as I hear he's in New York or in Boston"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: humorous talltale animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 156, "The Dingle Puck Goat" (1 text)
Roud #8220
RECORDINGS:
Mikeen McCarthy, "Dingle Puck Goat" (on IRTravellers01)
NOTES [41 words]: Jim Carroll's notes to IRTravellers01: "Mikeen always associates this song with Puck Fair, which takes place annually in Kilorglin, Co Kerry on August 10th-12th. Each year a puck goat is caught, brought to town and proclaimed 'King of the Fair.'" - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: RcDiPuGo

Dingo Lay

DESCRIPTION: Singer mourns that his donkey is gone. The donkey bites off the hand of a Chinese man. Jealous people damn his donkey because he fights, but they want him for their own. "If you are not a good jockey you won't like to run"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Keskidee Trio recording; see Notes)
KEYWORDS: sex animal nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Keskidee Trio with Gerald Clark and his Carribean Serenaders, "Dingo Lay" (1935, on Decca 17250 A)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hold 'im Joe" (theme; some lines) and references there
NOTES [79 words]: The Keskidee Trio is Raymond Quevedo [Atilla], Egbert Moore [Lord Beginner], and Neville Marcano [The Tiger].
"Dingolay, to (tingalay, dingole): to have sexual intercourse; to engage in some obscure sexual act." Donald R Hill, Calypso Calaloo (Gainesville: University Press ofFlorida, 1993), p. 311 (Glossary). In this connection, at least, consider this verse from the Keskidee Trio: When he's on a journey he always goes straight/ You can bet your life he's a heavyweight - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcDIngLa

Dining Hall Song

DESCRIPTION: "See the crowd in the evening Outside the Dining Hall door, I wonder what they're doing there, And what they're waiting for." When they've gotten what they can, "They'll be the same as the started, Hungry for bread, Bloody near dead, Side by side."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: food navy derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 45-46, "Dining Hall Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Side by Side" (tune)
File: Tawn028

Dink's Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Some folks say dat de worry blues ain' bad, It's de wors' ol' feelin' I ever had." The singer details (her) life: "If trouble was money, I'd be a millionaire." "I used to love you, but oh, God damn you now." "Take a worried man to sing de worried song."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation work floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 193-194, "Dink's Blues" (1 text)
Roud #15573
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Worried Man Blues" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [153 words]: The Lomaxes claim they got this from a drunken woman imported to Texas to accompany the men working on a levee there. It's just a feeling, but the story rings utterly false to me; I think they made it up, using floating verses (e.g. from the song which also inspired "Worried Man Blues").
On the other hand, Elijah Wald tells me, "I have looked through John Lomax's papers, and they include the full lyric he got from Dink in Texas, showing his editing process: first a handwritten transcription of her version, then a typescript that is a bit more organized but substantially identical, then an expurgated, edited, and rearranged version that is substantially the one published in ABFS. The final version is thus to some extent his creation, but all its components were in the version he transcribed from her, along with verses he left out because they were too rudimentary (one line repeated three times) or bawdy." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LxA193

Dink's Song

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: Fare thee well/Oh, honey, fare thee well." Floating verses: "If I had wings like Noah's dove/I'd fly 'cross the river to the man I love"; "When I wore my apron low..." "One of these days... You'll look for me, and I'll be gone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (collected by John Lomax)
KEYWORDS: nonballad lyric pregnancy love separation floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 21, "Dink's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 195-196, "Dink's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 88, "Dink's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 186, "Dink's Song" (1 text)
DT, DINKSONG*
ADDITIONAL: _The Nation_, Volume 105, #2719, August 9, 1917 (available on Internet Archive), John A. Lomax, ppp. 141-145, "Self-Pity in Negro Folk-Songs" (no title, but the text is in there)
Francis L. Utley, "'The Genesis and Revival of 'Dink's Song,''" article published 1966 in _Studies in Language and Literature in Honor of Margaret Schlauch_; republished on pp. 122-137 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009
Roud #10057
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Dink's Song" (on PeteSeeger24)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Careless Love" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] (floating lyrics)
NOTES [110 words]: While this shares a great deal of material with the cross-referenced songs, the unique tune and chorus make me believe it deserves a separate entry. - PJS
It is, however, so close to "Careless Love" in its text that I may have classified some versions there. The reader is advised to check the entries for both songs. Given that it comes from the Lomaxes, I'm not sure I trust its origin, either. Supposedly it was collected from a prostitute who called herself "Dink."
Utley's article is less about Dink and the Lomaxes than about how the song was modified by performers in the folk revival -- an interesting commentary on what performers can do to a song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: PSAFB088

Dinky

See Juba (File: BSoF708)

Dinky Die

DESCRIPTION: A bloody soldier returned from France is berated by a lance corporal from headquarters for appearing in public in a disheveled uniform. The soldier is awarded a medal for kicking the corporal in the ass.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Lahey, "Australian Favorite Ballads," according to Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: army soldier abuse
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US New Zealand
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 403-404, "Dinky Die" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 112-113, "The Lousy Lance Corporal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 240-241, "The Digger's London Leave" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 107-108, "The Digger's Song" (1 text, tune [incorrectly] referenced)
Roud #10189
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dinki-Di
NOTES [102 words]: Davey/Seal, p. 88, say this song originated in World War I, and derived from another song, "Horseferry Road." In World War II, it acquired a chorus, "Dinki-di, Dinky-di, I am a digger and I won't tell a lie." How much of this history applies to the whole song, and how much is specific to the Australian version, is not clear to me.
NewZealandDictionary, p. 75, offers this for "dinky-di":
1. adverb. Also dinky-die, and elaborated to dinky die do. Truly, certainly. 1987 Norgrove Shoestring Sailors 'This is straight up, Blue?' 'Absolutely dinky-die!'
2. noun. The diamond in the game of 'Crown and Anchor'. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: EM403

Dinna Think, Bonny Lassie, I'm Gaun to Leave You

DESCRIPTION: He says he's going but will "come again and see thee." She asks him to "stay this night wi' your love" He says he'll only be gone "a night and hauf a day." She insists he stay. He does, "and never leave[s] my dearie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (_The Illustrated Book of Scottish Songs ..._)
KEYWORDS: love separation dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1519, "Dinna Think, Bonny Lassie, I'm Gaun to Leave You" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: The Illustrated Book of Scottish Songs from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century, (London, 1854 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 69-70, "Dinna Think, Bonnie Lassie"
Roud #12948
NOTES [27 words]: Concerning The Illustrated Book of Scottish Songs ...: "Anonymous, but attributed to Hector Macnell, though not included by him in the collection of his works." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81519

Dip Dem (Dip Them)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: The preacher Bedwud is implored to "dip dem [people who need healing] in the healing stream ... to cure bad feelin." Maladies and people cured are named.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (WILBennett01)
KEYWORDS: river healing ritual moniker nonballad clergy
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
RECORDINGS:
Louise Bennett, "Dip Dem" (on WILBennett01)
NOTES [65 words]: Bennett says: "'Bedwud' was a religious maniac who used to baptise his followers every Sunday morning in the Mona River."
The tune is close to "Ain't Gonna Rain No More." - BS
Although the obvious thought here is of baptism, I'm also reminded of the story of Naaman the Syrian leper in 2 Kings chapter 5. The prophet Elisha told him to wash himself seven times in the Jordan to be cured. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: RcDipDem

Dip Me in de Golden Sea

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I long for to reach dat hebenly shore, To dip in de golden sea; To meet old Peter a standing in de door, To dip in de golden sea." "Den dip me, bathe me, sisters, you and me, Come get in de boat, for we all gwine float," and meet only Baptists
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: Harrigan and/or David Braham (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1881
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad sea
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #68, pp. 251-252, "Dip Me in de Golden Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V40163 and 20892
RECORDINGS:
Frank and Jame McCravy (The McCravy Brothers), "Dip Me in the Golden Sea" (VIctor V-40026, 1928?)
NOTES [220 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
I would never have guessed that this would turn traditional -- Edward Harrigan was certainly not a Baptist, and may well have been an atheist, so he wasn't writing a heart-felt religious song! -- but the McCravy Brothers song looks as if it at least borrowed some of Harrigan and Braham's words. And it did well enough to have sheet music published in Canada as well as the United States.
The Braham/Harrigan song is Roud V40163; the McCravy song is Roud 20892,
John Franceschina, David Braham: The American Offenbach, Routledge, 2003, p. 154, calls this David Braham's "first pseudo-spiritual... a nonsense jubilee song and chorus set to words by Edward Harrigan and published in 1881." He adds that the Braham spirituals "Anticipat[ed] the twentieth-century variety of 'white' spirituals ('Blow, Gabriel, Blow,' 'Hallelujah,' "Great Day')."
Jon. W. Finson, editor, Edward Harrigan and David Braham: Collected Songs, 2 volumes (Volume I: 1873-1882; Volume II: 1883-1896), being Volumes 7.1 and 7.2 of the Music of America Series, A-R Editions, 1997, Volume I, p. xxix, seems to say that the call-and-response pattern of this song is derived from the style of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, although he lists an intermediate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: HaBrDMGS

Dirandel

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Dirante, My Son

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Dirty Black Miners, The

See The Blackleg Miners (File: CBThBlMi)

Dirty Danny's Digging Deeper Dug-outs

DESCRIPTION: Tongue-twister. "Dirty Danny's digging deeper dugouts, Much deeper dugouts Dirty Danny dug to make a fug. One day he dug a topper, Nut the general came a cropper In that damn deeper dugout Danny dug." "Heavy-handed Hans flys Halberstadters...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier wordplay derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 118, "Dirty Danny's Digging Deeper Dugouts" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sister Susie's Sewing Shirts for Soldiers" (tune, according to Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
NOTES [62 words]: The source song for this, "Sister Susie's Sewing Shirts for Soldiers," has a Wikipedia entry (checked July 27, 2023) which credits the words to the well-known songwriter R. P. Weston and the tune to Herman Darewski. It was published in 1914 and was recorded by Billy Murray and Al Jolson. The article has both the original words and many sequels -- but not these words. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW118

Dirty Days Hath September

DESCRIPTION: Parody of the calendar-counting rhyme: "Dirty days hath September, April, June, and November. All the rest have thirty-one, Without a bloomin' blink of sun." Were there a 32 day months, "They'd be just as wet and twice as dirty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: derivative humorous storm Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 135-136, "Dirty Days Hath September" (1 text)
Roud #20085
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "THirty Days Hath September" (source of parody)
File: KSUC135B

Dirty Dishrag

See see under Intery Mintery Cutery Corn (File: OO2252)

Dirty Mistreatin' Women

DESCRIPTION: "A dollar's roun' goes from han' to han', Jes' de way dese women goes from man to man." The singer complains about women's ways, describes how his woman throws him out, contemplates suicide, warns other men that he could pursue their women
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: love courting suicide warning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 192-193, "Dirty Mistreatin' Women" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15572
File: LxA192

DIrty Newfoundlanders

See Mussels in the Corner (File: YDN261)

Dirty Wife, The

DESCRIPTION: A wife keeps a dirty home, does not darn the holes in her husband's socks, leaves the "woollen duds and flannel" in the was tubs and does not clean the blankets until after eleven; "it's tryin' But I daurna say nae mair"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: nonballad husband wife clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1506, "The Dirty Wife" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #7167
File: GrD71506

Dis Mornin', Dis Evenin', So Soon

See Tell Old Bill (File: San018)

Dis Morning

DESCRIPTION: "Dis mornin' I get up and puts on my Sunday clothes, and down de street I goes. I meets old Brother Mose; He hits men on my nose, And dat's all I knows."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: fight clothes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 739, "Dis Morning" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #17901
NOTES [50 words]: The description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment. The informant said he heard it at a minstrel show, which I readily believe; this sounds like a part of a skit in which a member of the troupe is having to explain to a policeman how an altercation came about. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS4739

Dis Ol' Hammer

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

Dis Ole Rock Mine

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

Dis Time o' de Night

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks the "young gal" what she is doing out in the yard "dis time o' de night." The white (overseer) will lose his job. White men can't marry a black woman and their children are neither white nor black.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: marriage sex warning childbirth nonballad bastard Black(s)
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 32, "Dis Time o' de Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ElTo032

Disappointed Lover (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Once I courted a pretty little Miss, I courted her for my own... She's taken flight and she's gone." "I walked up and down, just like a man in a haze." When she sees him, she gives a kind smile but no more. He warns her new man to treat her well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection warning
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 157-158, "The Disappointed Lover" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 39, "The Disappointed Lover" (1 text, almost certainly from the same source as Henry's though he does not list an informant)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 209, "My Bonny Girl" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 176)
ST Camb039 (Partial)
Roud #293
NOTES [53 words]: Roud lumps this with "The Bonny Boy (I)" and related songs -- but I suspect this is desperation; his #293 is a catchall of unhappy-lover songs. this appears to be, at the very least, rewritten from "The Bonny Boy," so I've split it -- with full awareness that there are a lot of other items out there much like this. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Camb039

Disappointed Lover (II), The

See Early, Early in the Spring [Laws M1] (File: LM01)

Disappointed Sailor, The

See Early, Early in the Spring [Laws M1] (File: LM01)

Disappointment of Joe Bowers, The

See Joe Bowers [Laws B14] (File: LB14)

Disaster of the Great Titanic, The

See The Titanic (I) ("It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down") [Laws D24] (Titanic #1) (File: LD24)

Discharged Drummer, The

DESCRIPTION: A drummer proposes to a Bristol lady of sixteen that she enlist in the regiment to follow him. She proposes instead that she buy his discharge and that they marry. He agrees "and now he's knocked off playing Among his comrades all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: marriage soldier money
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 75, "The Discharged Drummer" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #2303
File: KaNew075

Disconsolate Judy's Lamentation for the Absence of Her True Love

DESCRIPTION: "Come pity me, young maidens all... My love was pressed away to sea, And is on bord the Victory." When he left, he told her it was a safe ship and "Brave Balchen is a gallant man." But her love has not come back; she is still waiting
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Firth)
KEYWORDS: sailor death separation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 3, 1744 - Loss of the _Victory_ and her entire crew, including Admiral John Balchen
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 41, "Disconsolate Judy' Lamentation" (1 text)
Roud #V10597
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Victory Man-of-War" (subject of the loss of the Victory)
File: PaSe041

Disconsolate Lover

See Our Captain Calls All Hands (Fighting for Strangers) (File: Pea416)

Disconsolate Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: "As near to Portsmouth dock I stray'd," the singer hears a woman lament that her love has been transported to Botany Bay. He had fought for the king, but it didn't matter. The singer tries to speak to her, but she declares that she will follow her love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1816 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland)
KEYWORDS: separation transportation soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 147-148, "Disconsolate Maid" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 223-224, "Disconsolate Maid" (1 text, with a tune on p. 573)
Roud #V22627
File: AnFa147

Discovery of Newfoundland

DESCRIPTION: "The shades of Eve were falling o'er Atlantic's silent breast Around the 'Cabot Landfall' the wavelets lay at rest." The singer describes the Irish who explored Newfoundland. "Pat O'Dady" complains that Cabot got the credit for an Irish discovery
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 1st edition)
KEYWORDS: Canada humorous home travel
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1497- John Cabot's voyage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Discovery of Newfoundland (1 text): p. 72 in the 4th edition
Roud #7293
File: Doyl4072

Discrimination Blues

See Black, Brown, and White (File: SBoA350)

Discussion Between Church and Chapel, A

DESCRIPTION: Singer overhears Cork chapel and Shandon Church arguing. Church blames chapel for convincing people to leave Ireland. Chapel blames Church for "tithes and taxes" and prophesizes "tithes and taxes will be defeated" and freedom will return after 500 years
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1830 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Ireland prophecy nonballad political religious money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 37, "A Discussion Between Church and Chapel" (2 texts)
Roud #V4224
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.26(159), "Church and Chapel," J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1855-1858; also 2806 b.10(162), 2806 b.10(46), Firth b.25(326), "A Discussion Between the Church and Chapel"; Harding B 26(136), "A Discussion Between a Church and a Chapel"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Carrickshock" (subject: The Tithe War) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Dialogue Between Church and Chapel
NOTES [162 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, quoting English As We Speak it in Ireland by Joyce: "All through Ireland it is customary to call a Protestant place of worship a 'church', and that belonging to Roman Catholics a 'chapel'." [This presumably because the Anglican faith was the official and legal Church of Ireland; Catholic services were often held in any place they could find. - RBW]
The context is "The Tithe War": O'Connell's Catholic Association was formed in 1823 to resist the requirement that Irish Catholics pay tithes to the Anglican Church of Ireland. The "war" was passive for most of the period 1823-1836, though there were violent incidents in 1831 (source: The Irish Tithe War 1831 at the OnWar.com site). [In the Index, see "The Battle of Carrickshock" for more on the Tithe War.]
Zimmermann prints a variant of the prophecy in which "base heresy" is defeated and freedom will return after 300 years. The Bodliean broadsides illustrate both prophecies. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Zimm037

Disdainful Lady, The

See No, John, No (File: R385)

Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser) [Laws N6]

DESCRIPTION: When a girl's father cannot talk her out of marrying a sailor, the father has the boy pressed. The girl follows in disguise; they wind up in the same bunk. At length she reveals herself. They return home. The girl's father has died; they are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1864 (broadside, LOCSinging as200940)
KEYWORDS: courting sailor pressgang father disguise marriage
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar, Newf) Britain(England,Scotland) Ireland US(MW) Australia
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws N6, "Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser)"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #114, p. 1, "In Fair London City" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 174, "Merchant's Daughter and Her Sailor" (4 texts, 1 tune); Greig/Duncan1 175, "In Fair London City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 50, "The Bonny Lighter Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 59, "The Bonny Lighter Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H108a, pp. 329-330, "The Rich Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 146-147, "Disguised Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune, considered "confused" by Laws)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 35, "The Lady and the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 47, "The Press Gang" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 62, "The Weaver is Handsome" (2 texts, 1 tune, both short and both starting with variants "I am a young girl and my fortune is sad"; both seem confused and neither contains the complete plot, but "A" at least has the father's feigned consent and the press gang; "B" has the dressing in men's clothes)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #55, "The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage" (1 text)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 33, "Colomba's Sweet Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 742, DISGSAIL*
Roud #601
RECORDINGS:
Gerald Aylward, "Lady and Sailor" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(40), "The Lady and Sailor" ("There was a rich merchant in London did dwell"), W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867 ; also 2806 c.15(59), Firth c.12(252), "The Lady and Sailor"
LOCSinging, as200940, "The Farmer's Daughter" ("It is of a rich farmer, I dare not tell his name"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There Was an Old Miser"
cf. "Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany)" [Laws N7]
cf. "The Jolly Plowboy (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy)" [Laws M24]
cf. "James and Flora (Flora and Jim, The United Lovers)"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
There Was a Rich Merchant
The Rich Merchant's Daughter
The Hills o' Traquair
NOTES [98 words]: [In Sharp's version,] the plot is fragmentary; the girl's father has the boy pressed, and he pledges his undying love. That's all. - PJS
Broadside LOCSinging as200940: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
The general plot in Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland, Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast and the Bodleian "The Lady and Sailor" broadsides agrees but the couple get married, go to "Columbia's [or England's] fair shore" and don't return home. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LN06

Disheartened Ranger, The

See Come List to a Ranger (The Disheartened Ranger) (File: R181)

Dishonest Miller, The

See The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)

Dismasting of the Cummings, The

DESCRIPTION: "In 1884, upon the first of May, The schooner M. J. Cummings from Oswego sailed away." A day later, a storm blows up. She is feared lost. It turms out she has lost her masts, but the crew survives. The singer wishes success to the rebuilt ship
AUTHOR: possibly Thomas Peckham
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from John S. Parsons by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck rescue
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 209-211, "The Dismasting of the Cummings" (1 text)
Roud #19873
File: WGM209

Disordered

See The Unfortunate Rake (File: VWL108)

Distant Land to Roam, A

DESCRIPTION: "I remember very well One dark and (dreary) day" when the singer set out for "A distant land to roam." He recalls mother bidding him goodbye and hoping to see him again in a year. But she dies before he returns; he says he will remember her words
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, The Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: mother separation death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II, p. 201 (1931), "(The Wanderer)" (1 text)
ST FORA201 (Partial)
Roud #17234
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "A Distant Land to Roam" (Victor 40255/Bluebird5433/Montgomery Ward 7020, 1929)
File: FORA201

Distressed Maid (I), The

See Our Captain Calls All Hands (Fighting for Strangers) (File: Pea416)

Distressed Maid (II), The

See Pretty Little Miss [Laws P18] (File: LP18)

Distressed Men of War

DESCRIPTION: "Says, Jack, 'There is very good news; there is peace both by land and sea" and the fleet will be disbanded. But the officers are unhappy. The purser is content with the money he has stolen. Others tell what they will do. Jack will turn highwayman
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1803 (broadside Bodleian Firth c.13(262))
KEYWORDS: sailor war money hardtimes work outlaw
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 79, "Distressed Men of War" (1 text)
Roud #V31259
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.13(262) "Distressed Men of War," J. Davenport (London) 1800-1802
File: PaSe079

Distressed Ship Carpenter, The

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

District Attorney Blues

DESCRIPTION: "District attorney sure is hard on a man. He will take a woman's man and leave her cold in hand." Verses all start by calling the D.A. "hard on a man." He exiles men to "some distant land." "He ain't no woman, but he sure will take a woman's man."
AUTHOR: Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recording, Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes separation prison lawyer nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, pp. 184-185, "District Attorney Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Bukka White, "District Attorney Blues" (OKeh 05683, 1940)
File: BTN184

Ditches Break Again No More

DESCRIPTION: "Oh how well do I remember, when thoughts of bygone days...." "'Tis the song and the prayer of the people, Ditches, ditches, break again no more. Many times we have mended places in which you broke before." He remembers long old dresses on his mother
AUTHOR: Moses E. Gifford (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes clothes mother father farming derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 153-154, "Ditches Break Again No More" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10867
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hard Times Come Again No More" (tune) and references there
File: ChMS153

Dites-moi donc mademoiselle

See Mademoiselle, dites-moi donc (File: PoEll034)

Diver Boy

See Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low [Laws M34] (File: LM34)

Diverting Show, The

DESCRIPTION: A weaver's apprentice falls in love with a girl he sees at a show. The next day he meets her employer. She takes him to her maid who refuses the weaver's advances because he is an apprentice. But she would marry him "when ye win free" He is delighted.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting love weaving apprentice servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #170, p. 1, "The Apprentice" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 886, "The Diverting Show" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6230
File: GrD4886

Diverus and Lazarus

See Dives and Lazarus [Child 56] (File: C056)

Dives and Laz'us

See Dives and Lazarus [Child 56] (File: C056)

Dives and Lazarus (II)

See Lazarus (I) (File: C056A)

Dives and Lazarus (III)

See The Rich Man and Lazarus (File: BrII055)

Dives and Lazarus [Child 56]

DESCRIPTION: Poor Lazarus comes to the rich man's door. The rich man (Dives/Diveres/Diverus) refuses to offer charity. Lazarus dies and is rewarded after death; the rich man suffers eternal punishment
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (Bramley & Stainer)
KEYWORDS: religious poverty punishment Hell
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,West)) US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Child 56, "Dives and Lazarus" (2 texts)
Bronson 56, "Dives and Lazarus" (13 versions, but #10-#12, given in an appendix, are "Lazarus (I)," and #9, a tune with no text, might also be something else)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 56, "Dives and Lazarus" (4 versions: #1, #3, #5, #13)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 102-103, "Lazarus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 190-191, "Dives and Lazarus" (1 text plus some excerpts, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 107, "Dives and Lazarus" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #42, "Dives and Lazarus" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 101-102, "Diverus and Lazarus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 177-179, "Dives and Lazarus" (1 text)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2, pp. 74-75, "Dives and Lazarus" (a few scrapts of text, which Flanders places with Child #56 though none of the lines is characteristic of that song and one -- "even the whelps can eat crumbs" -- is not even part of the tale of Lazarus)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 41-44, "Dives and Lazarus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 57, "Dives and Lazarus" (1 text, 2 tunes) {First Tune=Bronson's #3; Second Tune=Bronson's #1]
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 109, Dives and Lazarus"" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 24, "Dives and Lazarus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 153, "Dives and Lazarus" (1 text)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 33-34, "Diverus and Lazarus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 583-584, "Dives and Laz'us" (1 text)
DT 56, DIVRLAZ*
ADDITIONAL: William Henry Husk, editor, Songs of the Nativity (London, 1884? ("Digitized by Microsoft")), pp. 95-97, ("As It Fell Out Upon a Day") (1 text)
Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 166-167, "Dives and Lazarus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #477
RECORDINGS:
Aunt Molly Jackson, "Lazarus" (AFS; on LC57)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lazarus and the Rich Man" (subject)
cf. "Lazarus (I)" (subject)
cf. "Poor Old Lazarus (I've Got a Home; Don't You See)" (subject)
cf. "The Rich Man and Lazarus" (subject)
cf. "Tramp on the Street" (subject)
cf. "The Rich Man and the Poor Man" (theme)
cf. "The Star of the County Down" (tune) and references there
NOTES [346 words]: There are a number of short pieces listed in the Stationer's Register under the title "Dives and Lazarus" or something similar. The earliest seems to be one titles "Dyves and Lazerus" registered in 1570/1571 to William Pickering (see Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), #614, p. 58). But there is no way to know if this or any of the other pieces is this song.
Jesus's story of the rich man and Lazarus -- which, be it noted, was a warning, not a description of an actual event -- is found in Luke 16:19-31 (the Lazarus of John 11, 12 is unrelated). The name "Dives/Divers" from the Latin dives, rich/rich man (e.g. Luke 16:19 in the Latin Vulgate opens "Homo quidam erat dives" -- "there was a certain man who was rich"). Observe that his name was not Dives; it's a description. But English called the pair "Dives and Lazarus" from at least the time of Chaucer's "Summoner's Tale"; in the Riverside Chaucer (p. 131), Fragment III (D), line 1876 reads "Lazar and Dives lyveden diversely." (The spelling "Lazar" is found in all major manuscripts; a few have "dyuers" for "Dives." Note that we often hear the rich man's name given as "Divers," not "Dives." The notes to the Variorum Chaucer, p. 145, do not mention earlier examples of this usage.)
The Lomaxes seem to regard their text, "Dives and Laz'us," as a "Dives and Lazarus" variant. This seems rather a stretch -- the song is about Lazarus, but the form does not much resemble the Child ballad. But I have seen nothing similar elsewhere. Given the undeniable possibility of Lomax editorial work, I give in and list the song here.
In the folk revival, this song is most commonly sung to the tune of "The Star of the County Down." Most of the tunes in Bronson, however, are not of this type; indeed, the majority are in two, not three. - RBW
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs speculates that the tune given might belong with the text. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C056

Dividing Line, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a line that divides all the people on earth From a life of sin and a life of true worth...." Sinners are exhorted to turn to God and "cross that dividing line." They are warned that it will be too late if they wait for God's revelation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious sin
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 646, "The Dividing Line" (1 text)
Roud #7567
NOTES [21 words]: The story of Elijah's being carried into heaven occupies 2 Kings 2:1-12, with his actual departure taking place in 2:11. - RBW
File: R646

Dixey Bull

DESCRIPTION: "Dixey Bull was a pirate bold, He swept our coast in search of gold." Jamestown is afraid of him. Daniel Curtis, however, challenges Bull to a singe combat. The poem describes the combat in detail; eventually Curtis kills Bull and "saved the town"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: pirate fight death money
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 249-253, "Dixey Bull" (1 text)
Roud #4075
NOTES [74 words]: This is item dD29 in Laws's Appendix II, but I seriously doubt that it is a traditional song -- it looks much more like a poem. For one thing, all four lines of each stanza have four feet, not 4/3/4/3 as is typical in ballads, and the rhyme scheme is aabb, not xaxa. It may have been traditional -- although the Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine text seems awfully pristine in all its details of the fight -- but as a recitation, not a song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm249

Dixie

DESCRIPTION: "I wish I was in the land of cotton...." A blackface-dialect song praising southern life and the conditions the slaves endured. Such plot as it has revolves around Old Missus, who married Will the Weaver, a "gay deceiver"
AUTHOR: Daniel Decatur Emmett
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: courting patriotic nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 531-533, "Dixie" (1 text plus one extra verse, 1 tune)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 61-64, "Dixie's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 76-77, "Dixie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 713, "Dixie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 424-425, "Dixie" (2 texts, 1 tune -- text given has the standard Dixie chorus but bawdy & nonsensical lyrics)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 221, "Dixie" (1 text); also two adaptions: pp. 198-199, "Dixie" (1 text, by Albert Pike; for other versions see the Same Tune field); p. 222, "Dixie" (1 text, a Union version by John Savage)
Krythe-SamplerOfAmericanSongs 6, pp. 100-112, "Dixie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 59-61, "Dixie's Land" (1 text, 1 tune); also p. 62, "Dixie" (the Pike adaption) (1 text); p. 63 "The Officers of Dixie" (1 text); p. 64, "Union Dixie" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #487, p. 32, "Dixie's Land" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #7/72, p. 12 and #7/64, p. 12, "I wish I was in Dixie's Land" (1 text, followed by "I wish I was in Dixie, No. 2" by Walter Peters)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 45, "Dixie" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 13-16, "(Dixie)" (several fragmentary sets of later words plus a description of the dance)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 36-37, "I Wish I Was in Dixie's Land" (1 text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #157, "Dixie's Land" (1 text, adapted to be used as a children's game)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 192, "Dixie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 100-101, "Dixie" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 166-167, "Dixie" (1 text,1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #17, "Dixie" (1 tex)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 196-199+, "Dixie"
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 139-140, "Dixie's Land" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 491, "Dixie" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, pp. 14-15, "Dixie Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 101, "Dixie" (1 text)
National-4HClubSongBook, pp. 6-7, "Dixie Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 4, "Dixie" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DIXIELND*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 163-164, "(Dixie)" (1 text plus extensive notes on pp. 164-166); also the Pike adaption on pp. 225-226
Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, plate 26, shows the original sheet music cover
ST LxA531 (Full)
Roud #8231
RECORDINGS:
[Arthur] Harlan & [Frank] Stanley "Dixie" (Columbia A-696, 1909)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers, "Dixie" (OKeh 45129, 1927)
Kessinger Brothers, "Dixie" (Brunswick 518, c. 1931)
Peerless Quartet, "Dixie" (Superior [Pathe] 1, 1922)
Red Mountain Trio, "Dixie" (Columbia 15369-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
[Frank] Stanley & [Henry] Burr, "Dixie" (Columbia A696, 1909)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Dixie" (Columbia 15158-D, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Woodpecker's Hole" (tune)
cf. "A Horse Name Bill" (tune)
cf. "Crazy Song to the Air of 'Dixie'" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Crazy Song to the Air of "Dixie" (File: San342)
A Horse Named Bill (File: San340)
Albert Pike's "Dixie" ("Southrons, hear your country call you!") (Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 198-199, "Dixie"; [W. M. Wharton,] War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy, pp. 29-30; Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 225-226; Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 62; Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 353; Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 190)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Dixie Parody" (OKeh 40430, 1925)
The Officers of Dixie (Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 63)
Union Dixie (Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 64)
Dis-Union Dixie Land/The New Dixie ("I'm glad I'm not in de land ob cotton") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 32)
"Dixie" Union-ized ("O! I'm glad I live in a land of freedom") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 32)
Dixie's Land #4 ("I wish I was in Baltimore"); Dixie's Land #5 ("Come, Patriots all who hate oppression) (both listed on Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 33)
Our Yankee Generals ("We are all for the Constitution") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 122)
At Chicago they selected Lincoln, who will be elected (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 345)
I WIsh I Was in Dixie Corrected Edition! ("Come along, boys, come out in the fields") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 352)
Dixie for the Union ("Oh! ye patriots to the battle, Hear Fort Moultrie's cannon rattle") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 353)
Dixie's Land ("I wish I was in de land of cotton, 'Cimmon seed 'an sandy bottom") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 353)
Stars & Stripes ("Arise! ye brace and how your hand") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets pp. 151-152)
We'll Vote for Hayes and Wheeler ("In the land of corn and the land of cotton, Democrats are rife and rotten") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 460)
The Traitor's Land ("Away down south in the land of traitors") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 159)
Uncle Sam and Betsy ("Our country' cause is in a fix") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 161)
Union Song. Bell and Everett Campaign Song ("The wide-awakes they like to bluster") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 163)
We're Marching down to Dixie's Land ("Good news, good news, from Dixie's Land") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 172)
Wide-Awakes, The Irrepressible's Campaign Song ("We'll give you now oiur campaign song," by John W. Dawson) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 178)
Awake in Dixie ("Hear ye not the sound of battle," by H[enry] T[hompson] S[tanton] Winchester) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 186)
The Song of the Exile ("Oh, here I am in the land of cotton") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 194)
Hurrah for Hokitika ("The West Coast puts folks in a fright, It slews 'em when they first catch sight Of the sand") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 136)
Out for Prohibition ("Quit your ease, forget your sorrow, Give today and save tomorrow") (by Frances B. Damon) (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 12)
The U. S. A. Forever ("Come, all you who live in the U. S. A.") (Harbin-Parodology, #316, p. 76; Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 15)
NOTES [968 words]: Although forever to be associated with the Confederate states, "Dixie" was a favorite of President Lincoln, and was often played by Union bands during the war. It could literally be regarded as having been "stolen" by the south; the first certain publication of the piece was by a New Orleans firm in 1860, but Emmett was neither credited nor consulted -- nor, apparently, paid. (The piece was registered in 1859, but no copies of the relevant printing -- if there was one -- have survived. Gilbert-LostChords reports that Emmett's total lifetime payment for the song was the $300 he received for the copyright.)
The origin of the term "Dixie" is uncertain, but it is believed to be associated with the Mason-Dixon line. Not that there haven't been other proposals offered! Nettel, p. 176, gives two explanations for the name, both of which file under "absurd." In one, there was a slave-owner in New York who, thinking in 1860 that Abraham Lincoln would become president, sent his slaves south, and the slaves were wishing they were in New York (which, in this version, was Dixie), because they were treated better there. But, of course, slavery was illegal in New York in 1860. Nettel story #2 is that Emmet, feeling unwell in the north, saw a piece of currency from a southern bank which read "Dix," and so he wished he were in the land of Dix -- Dixieland. - RBW
It should also be noted that Dan Emmett was an abolitionist. -PJS
And, of course, a Northerner. He even produced a "northern" set of lyrics, though neither they nor any of the other "northern" texts took hold. Publication data for "Northern" editions can be found in Dichter/Shapiro, p. 107.
It is interesting to see the notes on the publication of this song in Dichter/Shapiro, pp. 105-106. There were at least three 1860 editions, two northern ones published by Firth, Pond & Co. of New York and a southern one by P. P. Werlein of New Orleans. The northern editions give the first line as "I wish I was in de land of cotton." The southern edition cleans up the dialect: "I wish I was in the land of cotton."
Dichter/Shapiro note on p. 106, "The front covers of the two pirated or unauthorized editions [i.e. those by Werlein] credit two different authors, and do not mention Dan Emmett.... The story is that Emmett sent the words and music down to New Orleans to Billy Newcomb, the minstrel, and somehow or other a copy of the manuscript fell into the hands of Werlein, who published it, believing that it was no-one's property." They suggest that the first publication of "Dixie" was a broadside, which we might suspect was printed in 1859.
There were also southern rewrites (Dichter/Shapiro, p. 108); the earliest of these, from 1860, begins "Oh Dixie am de paridise" (sic.).
Abel, devotes a whole chapter (chapter 2, pp. 27-51) to "Dixie" and data about its history. He affirms on p. 31 the report that Emmett sold all rights to Firth and Pond in 1860 for $300. There were many disputes about authorship thereafter (continuing well into the twentieth century), but Emmett's claim was upheld in all the cases that mattered. Few of the others who claimed authorship were in any way noteworthy, but one was that other great nineteenth century composer, Will S. Hays.
Finson, p. 195, says that DIxie "gathers many threads from the preceding three decades of blackface. In 1858 Emmett left White's Serenaders to join Bryant's Minstels. He wrote a good deal for this company established by three brothers, Dan, Jerry, and Neil, who also did immigrant impersonations, especially of Irishment. 'Old K. Y. Ky.,' "Dar's a Darkey in de Tent,' 'Billy Patterson,' 'Jack on the Green,' and 'Darrow-Arrow' all came from Emmett's last flowering as a songwriter, and issued during the 1860s from the presses of Firth, Pond and Company."
The idea for the song supposedly came to Emmett one day in 1859. He was supposed to write a song, but nothing came to him. On a gloomy day, he muttered to himself, "I wish I was in Dixie," and the whole song flowed from that (Abel, p. 30).
Some of it is pastiche. The second verse, about "Will the Wever," reportedly comes from the song "Gombo Chaff" (Finson, p. 196), which was from the repertoire of Thomas D. Rice, the original Jim Crow. The final verse, about "buckwheat cakes and 'Injun batter,"" is specifically tied to the steps of the walkaround.
According to Finson, p. 177, although there were blackface minstrels before Emmett (see, e.g., the notes on Thomas D. Rice under "Jump Jim Crow"), "The Virginia Minstrels generally received credit as the first coherent [blackface minstrel] troupe. It included four members who had been engaged in solo or duo blackface performances for some time: William Whitlock on bajo, Richard Pehlam on tambourine, Frank Brower on bones... and Daniel Emmett on fiddle." Emmett reported that the four came together, essentially by chance, at the North American Hotel in the Bowery in New York in 1843. They went to "Uncle" Nate Howes of the nearby Bowery Circus, and after some putzing around, sang "Old Dan Tucker." The rest is musical history.
Williams, p. 65, says that Emmett was "an Irish American from Mount Vernon, Ohio," and points out that he wrote Irish dialect songs as well as minstrel songs, although it doesn't seem as if any of the Irish songs took off. But there was probably some Irish influence even on the songs he did in blackface.
Emmett himself "hadn't been south of the Mason-Dixon line since 1847 and didn't return until the 1890s" (Abel, p. 45). By 1865, unable to find work in New York, he moved to Chicago, but lost his voice in 1867. He earned a little money as a fiddler, then late in life began, in effect, exhibiting himself as the composer of Dixie (Abel, pp. 45-46). Awarded a modest pension by the Actor's Fund of America, he died in 1904. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: LxA531

Dixie Brown [Laws D7]

DESCRIPTION: Arriving in (San Francisco), a sailor goes on a spree and ends up broke. He is taken in by [Dixie] Brown, who alleges he owes a score and uses that as a lever to force him back to sea. The sailor warns others to avoid the sea and this sort of trap
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923
KEYWORDS: sailor poverty robbery shanghaiing
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws D7, "Dixie Brown"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 107-109, "Off to Sea Once More" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 96, "Dixie Brown" (1 text)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 581-585, "We'll Go To Sea No More," "Go To Sea No More," "Go To Sea Once More," "Off To Sea Once More" (4 texts, 3 tunes - the last tune given the name "The Flying Cloud" and listed without a text) [AbEd, pp. 402-406]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 72, "Go to Sea No More" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 129, "I'll go to sea no more" (1 fragment, probably this)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 124, "Off to Sea Once More" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 494-496, "Jack Wrack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 522-523, "Go to Sea No More" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 140-141, "Off to Sea Once More" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 702, GOTOSEA
Roud #644
RECORDINGS:
A.L. Lloyd, "Off to Sea Once More" (on Lloyd9)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailor's Way" (tune)
cf. "Gold Watch" [Laws K41] (plot) and references there
cf. "Jolly Sailors Bold (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "Pretty Girls of Liverpool" (lyrics)
cf. "The River Lea" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ben Breezer
Go to Sea Once More
NOTES [647 words]: Boarding masters was a peculiar occupation which existed primarily in the late days of sail. At a time when casualties among sailors were high (due to injuries, bad diet, desertion, and incompetent skippers), a captain often needed to find new hands quickly. Hence the Boarding Master: He found sailors and gave them a place to stay in return for a fee, taken from the sailor's wages when he shipped out.
The idea wasn't inherently bad -- sailors, after all, did need some place to stay while on shore -- but the way it was implemented was pretty toxic. It was captains who hired the sailors from the boarding master, but the money was taken from the sailor's pay at a fixed rate. Thus there was every incentive for the boarding master to give the sailors the minimum amount of pay and shove them out the door as soon as they could be sobered up.
The practice was so common that rituals evolved around it, the most famous being that of "paying off the dead horse" -- the ceremony sailors performed when they had paid off the advance to the boarding master and finally were able to earn wages for themselves, usually after thirty days (for this, see "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)").
There were relatively honest boarding masters, but some of the tricks they pulled were pretty dreadful. "Paddy West" tells of a boarding master who operated by teaching landlubbers to pretend to be sailors. Other boarding masters operated in complicity with captains to kidnap sailors shortly before they were paid off (see for this practice Richard Woodman, A Brief History of Mutiny,Carroll & Graf, 2005, p. 9); the idea was to avoid paying their wages. And the whole system worked because sailors in port were so good at wasting their pay anyway; see, e.g., "Gold Watch" [Laws K41] and the numerous references there to songs such as "Maggie May."
Dixie "Shanghai" Brown was a particularly notorious San Francisco boarding master, noted for not only supplying sailors for the whalers (the least desirable sort of service for a sailor, since it was hard, cold, and dirty) but going so far as to lure, rob, or trick sailors into his hands. Even among San Francisco boarding masters (who in this period were little better than slavers), he stood out as a particularly bad seed.
It should be noted that many versions of this song do not mention San Francisco or Brown; they simply tell of how a sailor arrived in port (often Liverpool), got drunk, spent all his money, and had to return to sea. The line "(he must) go to sea once more," however, seems highly characteristic. - RBW
There was an equally notorious Liverpool boarding master called "Rapper" Brown, whose name is often found in British versions of this song. - PJS
Perhaps more about "crimps" -- "Boarding Masters" -- is in order. "The word 'crimp,' which came into the English language in the 1630s, denoted a person actively associated with military and naval recruitment.... By the middle of the nineteenth century crimping had become a civilian occupation. The crimp was now an agent who procured seamen for captains who needed crews. His rewards were numerous. He took the seaman's advance note, if the seaman was leaving port, and discounted it for him. Any debts the seaman had were paid (lodging, clothing, liquor, etc.) and the crimp demanded a fee for himself. Sometimes the ship's captain also paid a fee (known as 'blood money') in order to obtain a crew. The crimp was often the runner of a boarding house proprietor, if not the keeper of the boarding-house himself, or a publican. He usually made a profit whether seamen were embarking, discharging or spending time ashore....
Crimping took place in Australia as it did in most of the principal ports in the northern hemisphere." [G.R. Henning, "Fourpenny Dark and Sixpenny Red" in Labour History, No. 46 (May 1984 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 52, 54.] - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LD07

Dixie Land

See Dixie (File: LxA531)

Dixie's Green Shore

See Erin's Green Shore [Laws Q27] (File: LQ27)

Dixie's Isle

See The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II) [Laws N9] (File: LN09)

Dixie's Land

See Dixie (File: LxA531)

Dixon and Johnson

See The Three Butchers [Laws L4] (File: LL04)

Do 'Round My Lindy

DESCRIPTION: "Do 'round my Lindy, do 'round my Jane, Gonna run away with a pretty little girl....." "My Lindy, she's handsome..., Broke my new suspenders down and sat down on my ..." "Wish I was an alligator... Open up my mouth... and scoot little Lindy in."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices); recorded by Fiddlin' John Carson c. 1925
KEYWORDS: courting animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 212, "Do 'Round My Lindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16278
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Do Round My Lindy" (Okeh 45032, 1925?)
NOTES [146 words]: Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 212, notes that the second verse of this, as recorded, does not rhyme. The verse runs
My Lindy, she's handsome, my Lindy she's stout,
Broke my new suspenders down and sat down on my ??
Fiddlin' John Carson recorded the last word as "hat." Rosenbaum's informant Ray Knight sang "hand." Mark Wilson suggested "lap" (and emended "stout" in the first line to "fat"). My first guess was that there was a tradition that gave the last line as "mouth," with sexual implications, and that the various performers bowdlerized it. Ed Cray agrees with the suggestion of bowdlerization, but suggests that the word is "spout," and I personally think this almost certainly correct. I should note, however, that when I asked the Ballad-L list about this, Jonathan Lighter expressed reservations, while John Patrick suggested rhyming "Kerflat" with "lap." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Rose212

Do as They Do in France

DESCRIPTION: The singer's step-mother told him as a child, "do as they do in France." Even now, when he needs shoes, or bread, she says "do as they do in France." A friend explains that means "do without." So he joins the navy. "Boys, do as Britons do"
AUTHOR: William Ball (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: "shortly after 1798" (according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: France patriotic hardtimes poverty navy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 21, "Do as They Do in France" (1 text)
NOTES [218 words]: The inference is that we should ignore those who would overthrow the king "as they do in France."
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: Ball is a Dublin loyalist. "The tenor of all his songs is that of an ordinary Irish citizen, loyal to the established order." - BS
The comment that doing as they do in France meaning doing without is of course dead-on accurate: Marie-Antoinette's foolish "Let them eat cake" comment was in response to a report that the peasants had no bread (they had been taxed almost to death to pay for the American war), and the sans-culottes were not so called because they were rich!
In a sad irony, the Irish would eventually do as they did in France, in cutting their relations with the British monarch -- after which they followed the worst part of the French model: They killed their first real head of state, Michael Collins, and engaged in a civil war over who would rule the country and how.
William Ball was a writer of humorous verse about Irish history; in this index, see "Cockledemoy (The French Invasion)," "Do as They Do in France," "The Dying Rebel," "Faithless Boney (The Croppies' Complaint)" -- though he doesn't seem to have made much impression on the wider world of literature; I have been unable to find any of his writings in any of my literary references. - RBW
File: Moyl021

Do Come Back Again

See The Rejected Lover [Laws P10] (File: LP10)

Do Johnny Booger

See Run, Nigger, Run AND Johnny Booker (Mister Booger) (File: R264)

Do Let Me Go

See Yellow Gals (Doodle Let Me Go) (File: Hugi380)

Do Let Me Lone, Susan

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Choruses "Hoo-raw! me loo-loo boys, Do let me lone." Three line verses with the chorus following each. Verses run through different women's names (Susan, Flora, Rosy, etc)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Choruses "Hoo-raw! me loo-loo boys, Do let me lone." Three line verses with the chorus following each. Verses run through different women's names (Susan, Flora, Rosy, etc). Verses run as follows: "Do let me lone (Susan), do let me lone. Chorus. I put me arm around Jinny's waist, oh Jinny jumps about. Chorus. When I put me hand on Jinny's head, oh, Jinny jumps away. Chorus."
KEYWORDS: shanty bawdy
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 379-380, "Do Let Me Lone, Susan" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 287-288]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yellow Gals (Doodle Let Me Go)" (similar chorus)
NOTES [34 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas gives five verses, running through various parts of Jinny's anatomy. He says the rest of the song would eventually refer to ALL parts, and so was considered unprintable. - SL
File: Hugi379

Do Lord Remember Me

DESCRIPTION: "Do Lord, oh do Lord, oh do remember me, O Lord, Do Lord, oh do Lord, oh do remember me Do Lord, oh do Lord, oh do remember me, Look away beyond the blue." "I've got home in glory land, outshines the sun." "I took Jesus as my savior, you take him too"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Ernest Phipps)
KEYWORDS: religious home nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 311, 494, "Do Lord" (notes only)
Roud #11971
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Alligood, "Do Lord" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #263, recorded 09/26/2022)
Ernest Phipps, "Do Lord Remember Me" (Victor 20927, 1927)
File: ACSF311D

Do Me Ama

See Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor) [Laws K40] (File: LK40)

Do My Jolly Boy

See Johnny Boker (I) (File: Doe009a)

Do Not Heed Her Warning

See The Gypsy's Warning (File: R743)

Do Re Me Fa So La Ti Do

DESCRIPTION: "Do re me fa so la to do, What makes me fart? I do not know."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: scatological
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 52, "(Do re me fa so la ti do)" (1 text, using the spellings shown)
Roud #22979
File: PKKB052B

Do Re Mi (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Lots of folks back east, they say, Is leaving home every day Beating the hot old dusty way To the California line" -- but there are so many others they get no welcome unless they have the "Do Re Mi." If they don't, they should go home
AUTHOR: Woody Guthrie
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes dustbowl travel home money rejection
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 569-570, "Do Re Mi" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DOREMI
Roud #16376
NOTES [115 words]: This is, of course, a lived account of what it was like for Okies to head for California. Including the part about the "police at the port of entry" turning back the destitute. According to John Shaw, This Land That I Love: Irving Berlin, Woody Guthrie, and the Story of Two American Anthems, Public Affairs, 2013, p. 113, "In 1936, the Los Angeles Police Department set up what was dubbed the 'Bum Blockade' at the state border on the major roads and rails coming into [California] from Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon. There they turned away people who had 'no visible means of support' -- people who didn't have 'the Do Re Me.'" Unfortunately, the endnotes do not document this statement. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC569

Do Re Mi (II)

See Do-Re-Mi (File: ACSF417D)

Do Remember

DESCRIPTION: "Old broom sweeps my floor, New broom scratches my floor." Repeat many times "Do remember" and "Do remember me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 57, pp. 228-231, "Do Remember" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [47 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. Parrish writes, "The words themselves mean little except that their syllables lend themselves to the flat-footed hopping steps which are used to scuff the outer husks of the rice on the floor." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr057

Do They Miss Me at Home?

DESCRIPTION: "Do they miss me at home, do they miss me?" The singer asks for assurance that he is remembered. He recounts various ways people might show how they miss them.
AUTHOR: Words: Caroline Atherton Mason / Music: S. M. Grannis
EARLIEST DATE: 1852 (sheet music published by Oliver Ditson & Co.)
KEYWORDS: home separation loneliness nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 858, "Do They Miss Me at Home?" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 294-295, "Do They Miss Me At Home?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 131-133, "Do They Miss Me at Home?" (1 text, 1 tune); also p. 133, "Do They Miss Me in the Trenches" (1 text, a parody of the preceding)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, p. 18, "Do They Miss Me at Home?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #494, p. 33, "Do They Miss Me at Home" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 35 and #1/64 p. 35, "Do they miss me at Home" (1 text)
DT, DOMISSME*
Roud #4366
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Do They Think of Me at Home?" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
Do They Miss Me in the Trenches (Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 133)
NOTES [47 words]: This is the very first song in Spaeth's chapter "The School of Self-Pity." Which about sums it up.
This and "Do They Think of Me at Home?" are similar enough that Roud, although he gives them two separate numbers, seems to mix them. The verse forms are rather different, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R858

Do They Think of Me at Home?

DESCRIPTION: "Do they think of me at home, Do they ever think of me? I who shared their ev'ry grief...." The singer asks if they remember her songs and harp. The singer remembers her lover being rejected. Happy with him now, she still wishes those at home cared
AUTHOR: Words: J. E. Carpenter / Music: Charles W. Glover (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Dime-Song-Book #9)
KEYWORDS: love separation music
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Heart-Songs, p. 430, "Do They Think of Me at Home?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 9, "Do the think of Me at Home" (1 text)
Roud #13939
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Do They Miss Me at Home?" (subject)
NOTES [38 words]: This and "Do They Miss Me at Home?" are similar enough that Roud, although he gives them two separate numbers, seems to mix them. The verse forms are rather different, though. I'm not at all sure that this one is traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HeSo430

Do Thugas Gra Cleibh Duit

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "A young man asks a woman's hand in marriage, but she has heard her mother disparaging him. He denies the mother's charges of excessive drinking and music-making in pubs, and promises to change his ways and settle down, but she is not persuaded."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting marriage rejection drink music mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 53, "Do Thugas Gra Cleibh Duit" (2 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Do Thugas Gra Cleibh Duit" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [36 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin.
Oisin's tune for "The Cow Ate the Piper" is very close to Elizabeth Cronin's tune for "Do Thugas Gra Cleibh Duit" - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC053

Do Us a Sub

DESCRIPTION: "Do us a sub, Lend us a quid, Give us a rub Of your Burberry."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1999 (Phillipson)
KEYWORDS: money sailor clothes
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
David Phillipson, _Roll on the Rodney: Life on the Lower Decks of Royal Navy Warships After the Second World War_, Sutton Publishing, 1999, p. 64, "(no title)" (1 text, with explication)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blaze Away" (tune, according to Phillipson)
NOTES [109 words]: Although I have not found this in any song collection, Phillipson reports that this was a traditional piece used in the Royal Navy in the years after World War II by sailors who were broke. Sailors were paid every other week, but might have leave on multiple weekends, so there was a tendency to spend all their cash on the first weekend and then try to scrounge more money for the next weekend. As Phillipson comments, the request was not likely to be gratified. His glossed version is as follows:
Do us a sub [substitute for my duty on board this evening],
Lend us a quid [pound sterling],
Give us a rub [loan]
Of your Burberry [uniform raincoat]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: XYZDoUaS

Do war ich mol in Schtad Redding (Once I Was in the City of Reading)

DESCRIPTION: German. "Do war ich mol in Schtad Redding, Do war ich net bekannt." The singer, a stranger in the town, is approached by Bully Lyon in Reading. He asks what he has done. He is imprisoned for three years. His wife visits him, and Lyon calls her foolish.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage prison travel husband wife police
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 112-113, "Do war ich mol in Schtad Redding (Once I Was in the City of Reading)" (1 German text plus non-poetic translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL112

Do Weel My Sons

See The Clerk's Twa Sons o Owsenford [Child 72] (File: C072)

Do Ye Ken John Peel?

See D'ye Ken John Peel? (File: FSWB208)

Do Ye Mind Lang Syne

DESCRIPTION: "Do ye mind lang syne, When the simmer days were fine, When the sun it shone far brichter than it's ever done sin' syne?" The singer recalls the joys of the old days, and all the youths used to do. Now old, he hopes to awaken on an equally bright Sabbath
AUTHOR: George James Laurie?
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford); Laurie died in 1878
KEYWORDS: youth age nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #135, p. 1, "Lang, Lang Syne" (1 text)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 190-191, "Do Ye Mind Lang Syne" (1 text)
Roud #6322
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lang Lang Syne
File: FVS190

Do You Ever Think

See The Worms Crawl In (File: San444)

Do You Know the Muffin Man?

See The Muffin Man (File: OpGa104)

Do You Know Where the Darkies Live? (Zumba)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Do you now where the darkies live? zumba, zumba (x2), Yes I know where the darkies live, zumba, zumba (x2). The darkies live in Africa, zumba, zumba."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Bluebells, My Cockle Shells, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #122, "Do you know where the darkies live?" (1 text)
NOTES [15 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes makes no apology for this verse. Let me apologize for it, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR122

Do You Like Silver and Gold?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Do you like silver and gold, Do you like brass? Do you like looking through The looking glass? Yes, I like silver and gold, Yes, I like brass, Yes, I like looking through The looking glass."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope gold | looking glass brass
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #123, "Do you like silver and gold?" (1 text)
Roud #22182
File: AJRR123

Do You Live By Prayer?

DESCRIPTION: "Do you live by prayer?" "Yes I live by prayer." "Remember me?" "Have you passed here before?" "Yes I have passed here before." "When I can read my title clear To mansions in the skies," then I'll bid farewell, wipe my tears, and smile at Satan's rage.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Devil floatingverses
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 27, "Do You Live By Prayer?" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [12 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa027

Do You Love an Apple?

DESCRIPTION: The girl loves an uncaring man. She details her abuses ("When I was single, I wore a black shawl; now I'm married, it's overalls," etc.), always ending, "Still I love him, I'll forgive him (or "cannot deny him"), I'll go with him wherever he goes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recording, Phil Hammond)
KEYWORDS: love abuse poverty hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 203, "He Comes Down our Alley" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 50, "Still I Love Him" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 30, "Still I Love Him" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 29, p. 37, "Still I Love Him" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 186, "When I Was Single" (1 text)
DT, STILILOV* LOVAPPLE
Roud #654
RECORDINGS:
Steve Gardham, "Still I Love Him" (Piotr-Archive #308, recorded 10/11/2022; slightly modified by the singer)
Dan Gardella, "Do You Love an Apple?" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #522, recorded 03/09/2023)
Betty Redshaw, "He Comes Down Our Alley" (on FSBFTX19)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Was Young (II)" (theme, floating lyrics)
cf. "For Seven Long Years I've Been Married" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Margaret Barry & Michael Gorman, "Still I Love Him" (on Barry-Gorman1)
NOTES [153 words]: The version sung by Charlotte Higgins (in MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland) has, rather than overalls, "Now since I'm married I've sweet bugger-all," a rather more vivid description.
The Barry-Gorman recording is an autobiographical rewrite of the traditional song, telling of Barry's life as a singer of traditional songs, but it incorporates a few of the older verses. - PJS
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "When I Was Single" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)).
Sean O Boyle, notes to David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland": "A Northumbrian song probably imported into Ulster in the 19th century during the American Civil War when the English cotton industry found itself with no raw material and its textile workers came to Ulster to work at the linen." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K203

Do You See That There Bird On Yonder Tree?

See Lonesome Dove (File: Br3262)

Do You Want a Car, Your Honour

See The Irish Jaunting Car (File: Dean115B)

Do Your Balls Hang Low?

DESCRIPTION: Encouragement to sexual activity: The listener is encouraged to "find a woman if you can. If you can't find a woman, find a clean old man." The remainder of the song is devoted to the characteristics of the listener's scrotum
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: bawdy nonballad sex derivative
FOUND IN: US Britain(England)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 336-338, "Do Your Balls Hang Low?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 67, "Do Yours Hang Low" (1 short text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 89, "Do Your Balls Hang Low?" (1 text)
Roud #10259
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Do Your Ears Hang Low?" (form)
File: EM336

Do Your Ears Hang Low?

DESCRIPTION: "Do your ears hang low, do they wobble to and fro? Can you tie them in a knot, can you tie them is a bow? Can you throw them o're your shoulder like a continental soldier? Do your ears hang low?" Other verses may refer to other ear, or body, oddities
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 210-211, "Do Your Ears Hang Low?" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 104, 280, 285, 417, 424, 491, "Do Your Ears Hang Low?" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 21, "Do Your Ears Hang Low?" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT, EARSLOW
Roud #15472
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Turkey in the Straw" (partial tune) and references there
NOTES [30 words]: I seem to recall my mother referencing this song many years ago. It seems to almost always be done with gestures. I do not know whether this or "Do Your Balls Hang Low" is older. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF104E

Do Yours Hang Low?

See Do Your Balls Hang Low? (File: EM336)

Do-Re-Mi

DESCRIPTION: Song for learning the Ionian major scale, with lyrics for each note, do re mi fa sol la it do, e.g. "do(e), a deer, a female deer"
AUTHOR: Trude Rittman, Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers (Source: WIkipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 ("The Sound of Music") (source: Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 317, 555, "Do Re Mi" (notes only)
File: ACSF417D

Do, Do, Pity My Case

DESCRIPTION: "Do, do pity my case, In some lady's garden, My clothes to wash when I get home, In some lady's garden." Repeat with substitutions in the third line: "My clothes to iron when I get home," "My floors to scrub," "My bread to bake," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: work servant
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #24, "Do, Do, Pity my Case" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, p. 805, "Do, Do Pity My Case" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST BAF805 (Full)
Roud #11590
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ransum Scansum" (lyrics)
cf. "The Closet Key" (lyrics)
cf. "In Some Lady's Garden (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "In Some Lady's Garden (II)" (lyrics)
NOTES [51 words]: There is a whole complex of "In Some Lady's Garden" songs (see the cross-references), many if not most surely related. And many of them seem to be one-shots. Roud lumps some of them and ignores others. But they're different enough that I've split them. This one appears to be by far the most popular. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: BAF805

Dobbin's Flowery Vale

See Erin's Flowery Vale (The Irish Girl's Lament) [Laws O29] (File: LO29)

Dobe Bill

See Dobie Bill (Dobe Bill, The Killer) (File: LxA403)

Dobie Bill (Dobe Bill, The Killer)

DESCRIPTION: "Dobie Bill, he came a-riding from the canyon, in the glow." Arriving in Santa Fe, he enters a bar and finds "Blake, the killer." In the fight that follows, Bill kills Blake, reports he has "made the scoundrel pay," and goes his way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: cowboy fight death revenge
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 403-404, "The Killer" (1 text)
DT, THEKILLR
Roud #4046
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "Dobie Bill" (on Thieme03)
NOTES [206 words]: Cisco Houston had a tune for this (sung also by Art Thieme). And therein, apparently, hangs a tale. Thanks to Abby Sale for finding this; most of what follows is from him or from Guy Logsdon via Abby.
The poem was originally published in Wild West Weekly, although Abby was unable to determine the exact date. (Contrary to Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, this was published by Frank Tousey, not Street and Smith; the confusion in Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs may be because both Street & Smith and Frank Tousey were Dime Novel publishers and targeted much the same audience of adventure-craving boys.) The tune apparently was from Katie Lee, who set the Lomax words (as found in the 1938 edition of Cowboy Songs) to music. Cisco Houston learned the tune from her when they were dating. But they then broke up, and Houston modified it somewhat to prevent her from claiming copyright. The result is, I suppose, folk processed, although I'm not sure it's truly folk. (As Logsdon noted, it looks more like the work of a romance writer than a genuine cowboy; the vocabulary is wrong.)
For more on the origin story, see Lee's Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle.
As "The Killer," this is item dB43 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: LxA403

Dockyard Cavalry, The

See Bunch of Bastards (File: Hopk113)

Dockyard Gate, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you married seaman bold, a few lines to you I'll write, Just to let you know how the game do go when you are out of site." The "lads on shore go sporting with your wives." She and her "fancy man" collect his half-pay and spend it, and even more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor separation infidelity return reunion clothes money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North,South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 136, "The Dockyard Gate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1739
File: PaSe136

Dockyard Mateys' Sons

DESCRIPTION: "We are the dockyard mateys' sons Sitting on the dockyard wall, Watching our poor fathers Doing bugger all. When we grow older We'll be dockyard mateys too, Just like our fathers, With bugger all to do"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: work ship derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 69-70, "Dockyard Matey's Sons" (1 text)
Roud #29909
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Just LIke the Ivy on the Old Garden Wall" (tune)
File: Tawn052

Docta Bud (Doctor Bird)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: The cunning doctor bird is hard to kill: you beat him and he gets up; you shoot him and he flies away; when he wants a place to lie down he builds a nest on a low branch.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: magic nonballad bird
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 45-46, "Docta Bud" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time - Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), pp. 3-4, "Docta Bud" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Docta Bud" (on WIEConnor01)
NOTES [98 words]: According to the Jamaica Information Service site the doctor bird is the swallow tail humming bird (Trochilus Polytmus), which lives only in Jamaica. It may be called "Doctor Bird" because "the erect black crest and tails resemble the top hat and long coat tails the doctors used to wear in the old days.... According to Frederick Cassidy ... The Aracks spread the belief that the bird had magical powers. They called it the 'God bird,' believing it was the reincarnation of dead souls" (https://jis.gov.jm/information/symbols/jamaican-national-bird-the-doctor-bird/, accessed 7/15/2023). - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: JaMu045

Doctor Blair Was a Man of Skill

DESCRIPTION: Dr Blair was a man of skill, He built his castle on a hill; He set four statues in the front, And every morning went to hunt. From his castle you may see Up and down along the Lee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: doctor home hunting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, p. 161, "Dr Blair Was a Man of Skill" (1 fragment)
NOTES [37 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "So says an old song. This Dr Blair was a Scotch physician, who settled in Cork about the middle of the last century." The current description is all of the Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland text.- BS
File: CrPS161

Doctor Brown Fell in the Well

See There Was an Old Nigger, His Name Was Dr. Peck (File: ScaNF197)

Doctor Crippen

DESCRIPTION: In London, Doctor Crippen poisoned his wife, "cut up her body and buried it deep." He and his disguised mistress are arrested "on board the Montrose." He is tried, convicted, "and Crippen was condemned on the gallows to die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (IRClare01)
KEYWORDS: execution homicide trial disguise mistress wife
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1910 - "Doctor Hawley Harvey Crippen was hanged in London ... for the murder of his wife" (source: notes to IRClare01).
FOUND IN: US Ireland Canada(Newf)
Roud #18472
RECORDINGS:
Martin Howley, "Doctor Crippen" (on IRClare01)
File: RcDrCrip

Doctor Faustus Was a Good Man

See Mr. Low Is a Very Good Man (File: SuSm055)

Doctor Fletcher (Dr. Pritchard)

DESCRIPTION: Dr. Pritchard poisons his wife and mother-in-law (Mrs. Taylor). The jury finds him guilty and he is sentenced to be hanged in Glasgow. His children come to the jail and blame him for murdering their mother. He warns against bad company.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: warning crime execution homicide prison punishment trial death children wife
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 28, 1867 - "Dr. Edward William Pritchard ... was hanged ... in Glasgow, Scotland, for poisoning his wife with antimony and then his mother-in-law, Mrs. Taylor of Edinburgh, with opium. Pritchard was the last man to be publicly executed in Scotland." (source: Guigné).
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Hebr)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 111-113, "Doctor Fletcher (Dr. Pritchard)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Peter A. Hall, "Scottish Tinker Songs" in Folk Music Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1 Music of the Travelling People (1975 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 58-59 "Doctor Pritchard" ("Oh, come a' you people great and small, o' high and low degree") (1 text, 1 tune)
Maggie Stewart, "Doctor Pritchard". School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1954.091,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/68907?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023
Lucy Stewart, "Doctor Pritchard". School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1960.139,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/59340?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023
Ethel Findlater, "Doctor Pritchard". School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1967.115,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/61012?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023 (fragment of the verse in which Pritchard's children see him in jail)
Elizabeth Stewart, "Doctor Pritchard". School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1987.016,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/85673?l=en accessed July 17, 2023; commentary at https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/85673?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023
Roud #4805
RECORDINGS:
Nicolas Keough, "Doctor Fletcher" (on NFAGuigné01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tramps and Hawkers" (tune) and references there
NOTES [68 words]: Hall writes that Robin Hutchinson's tune is one usually used for "Tramps and Hawkers." The Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches versions use the same tune. Nicolas Keough's tune is one I don't recognize. - BS
There is at least one modern book about Pritchard: W. M. Rhodes, The Poisoning Adulterer, 2nd Edition, ‎Lah-Di-Dah Publishing, 2017. The description makes it sound as if it might be fictionalized. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Guig111

Doctor Foster Went to Gloucester

DESCRIPTION: "Doctor Foster went to Gloucester In a shower of rain, He stepped in a puddle, Right up to his middle, And never went there again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland New Zealand
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 136-137, "Dr. Foster went to Gloucester" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 112, "(Doctor Foster went to Gloucester)" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 170, "Doctor Foster went to Gloucester" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #93 note, pp. 88-89, "(Old Dr. Foster)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 31, "Doctor Foster" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 65, "Doctor Foster Went to Gloucester" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #106, "Doctor Foster Went to Gloucester" (1 text)
Roud #19712
NOTES [172 words]: The Opies and Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel both mention an hypothesis that this item refers to Edward I (reigned 1272-1307), who encountered difficulties on a visit to Gloucester and never returned there. This has several problems. First is the fact that the piece would have had to survive for half a millennium without anyone noticing it. Second, why call Edward I "Doctor Foster"? And third, there are plenty of reasons why Edward would not have needed to go back to Gloucester.
An alternate explanation, derived from a text in the Baring-Goulds, is that "Doctor Foster" is in fact "Doctor Faustus," which raises a different set of questions but still doesn't explain the rhyme.
The inimitable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 266, gives the name as "Doctor Fauster," which explains the "Faustus" form, but connected it to the battle of Newberry in the English Civil War. We should note, though, that Thomas could connect anything with anything, except reality.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OO2170

Doctor Jones

DESCRIPTION: "Dr. Jones is a good man, a good man, a good man, Dr. Jones is a good man, he'll help whoever he can." "Ladies and gentlemen, sail around... and kiss just who you please." "Spider in the dumpling... Roll around and roll."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad doctor
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 90, "Doctor Jones" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 90, "Doctor Jones" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 256, "Old Doc. Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 250, "Old Doc Jones" (1 fragment, probably this though it might be a distorted version of "Sail Away Ladies")
Roud #3646
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "Old Doc Jones" (on LEnglish01)
File: Br3090

Doctor Kildare Fell Down the Stair

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme: "Doctor Kildare fell down the stair, In the month of January, February, March....."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Those Dusty Bluebells, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | Doctor Kildare stair calendar
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #107, "Doctor Kildare fell down the stair" (1 text)
File: AJRR107

Doctor Long Is a Very Good Man

See Mr. Low Is a Very Good Man (File: SuSm055)

Doctor Monroe

DESCRIPTION: A man asks Monroe to use any method ("bleed me to death," "grant me some poison") to cure him: "my lass has forsaken me." Monroe says the cure will cost 100, but a free lecture may be effective. The patient chooses the lecture and is cured immediately
AUTHOR: James Hogg (1770-1835)
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Hogg)
KEYWORDS: love rejection money healing humorous doctor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1197, "Doctor Munro" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Hogg, The Works of the Ettrick Shepherd (London, 1866, revision by Rev Thomas Thomson), Poems and Life vol, p. 274, "Doctor Monroe"
Roud #6804
File: GrD61197

Doctor Munro

See Doctor Monroe (File: GrD61197)

Doctor Stafford and the Weaver's Daughter

DESCRIPTION: A weaver's daughter loves Dr Stafford. He is called to her death bed and says they will marry if she survives. He stays with her eight weeks, but she dies. The neighbors say her ghost haunts him. He ends in Bedlam. Her spirit comes to save him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1); before 1828 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(185))
KEYWORDS: love death healing doctor ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #78, pp. 2-3, "The Weaver's Daughter" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1234, "The Weaver's Daughter" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 78, "The Weaver's Dochter" (1 fragment)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 97, "The Weaver's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3868
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(185), "Dr. Stafford," W. Wright (Birmingham), 1820-1827; also Johnson Ballads 1929, Harding B 25(2015), "Weaver's Daughter" ("As I walk'd out one evening...")[see Notes for first lines]; Harding B 25(529), Johnson Ballads 2457, "Doctor Stafford"; Harding B 25(531), Firth c.18(55), Firth b.34(90), "Doctor Stafford, and the Weaver's Daughter"; Harding B 11(4357), "Young Doctor Stafford and the Weaver's Daughter"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sheffield Apprentice" (tune, per Greig/Duncan6)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Weaver's Dochter
The Rocks o' Penn
NOTES [231 words]: The first line varies, yielding titles based upon where the weaver's daughter walks. For example, just from the Bodleian broadsides:
"One evening as I walk'd by the rocks of Mile End"
"One day was I was walking down by the banks of Clyde"
"One ev'ning as I walked down by the rock of Mache"
"One evening as I walked, by the rocks of Mile"
"One evening as I walked down by the rocks of Myle"
Lyle has "One day as I was walking To view my father's land."
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi has "As I walked out one evening Down by the rocky mull"
Manny Wilson's text is confused so the description is based on broadside Bodleian Harding B 28(185).
There seems an assumption by the neighbors that the inexperienced Dr Stafford -- he is Dr Richardson's apprentice -- is responsible for her death. [Indeed, in glancing at one version, I thought they were hinting he poisoned her. - RBW] This seems not to be the case. The last that the weaver's daughter says is "All goodness be my darling's guide, he's the boy I lov'd so dear."
After her death he claims that, of all his women "the weaver's daughter lov'd me best, she died in love for me." When the neighbors claim she haunts him he says they were all liars "for she laid no blame on me." Confined in Bedlam "quite bereft of his senses," "Her spirit came unto him saying young man revive, For I never was ordained to be your wedded wife." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: MaWi097

Doctor-Man, The

DESCRIPTION: Daniel Morris is the local doctor for 40 years. His house visits are described, including his work in the 1918 flu pandemic. He is still remembered after his death.
AUTHOR: Mrs. Dan Morris
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: memorial doctor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 21-22, "The Doctor-Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12479
NOTES [41 words]: Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland: "Dr Morris ... was born in Donaldston, P.E.I. in 1865 and died in 1937. He is still [1973] well-known on the Eastern end of Prince Edward Island and there are many people who were named after him." - BS
File: Dib021

Doctor, Doctor, Can You Tell

See Oh Dear Doctor (File: OpGa032)

Doctor, Doctor, Tell Me Quick

See Run Here, Doctor, Run Here Quick (File: Br3246)

Doctor's Prescription, The

See Oh Dear Doctor (File: OpGa032)

Dodger Song, The

See The Dodger (File: R462)

Dodger, The

DESCRIPTION: Comments on the less-than-honest nature of various professionals: "Oh the (candidate's) a dodger, yes, a well-known dodger, Yes, the (candidate's) a dodger and I'm a dodger too. For we're all dodging... Our way through the world"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: political trick
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 462, "We're All Dodging" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 333, "The Dodgers" (1 text, less political than some; candidates are not mentioned)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 28-29, "Dodgers" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 289-290, "The Dodger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 875-876, "The Dodger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, pp. 24-25, "The Dodger Song" (1 text)
DT, DODGRSNG*
Roud #3758
RECORDINGS:
Almanac Singers, "The Dodger Song" (General 5019B, 1941; on Almanac01, Almanac03, AlmanacCD1)
Neil Morris, "Corn Dodgers" (on LomaxCD1706)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We're All A-Singing" (lyrics, form)
cf. "We're A' Noddin'" (chorus tune)
cf. "We're A' Cuttin'" (form)
File: R462

Dodgers

See The Dodger (File: R462)

Does He Love Me?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Does he love me? Yes, no, yes, no, yes. Where will we get married? Church, synagogue, house, barn. How many children will we have? One, two, three, four...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes); Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes claims it goes back to 1909, but that might be "Raspberry, Strawberry"
KEYWORDS: jumprope love marriage | fortune-telling
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #109, "Does he love me?" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Raspberry, Strawberry" (fortune-telling lines)
File: AJRR109

Does the Driver Want a Wee Wee

DESCRIPTION: To the tune of "John Brown's Body": "Does the driver want a wee wee (x3), 'Cause we want a wee wee too" (or "If he doesn't, we do"). Other verses might be "Stop the bus, I want a wee wee... A wee wee cup of tea" or refer to other bodily functions
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2021 (LibraryThingCampSongsThread)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad travel
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 27, "(Early in the morning While I'm still asleep)" (1 short text, from user John5918, posted August 29, 2021)
NOTES [38 words]: This does not seem to have made it into any printed collection, but there is a mudcat thread about it, and so many people mentioned it that it seems clear that it is traditional at least among children taking long field trips. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LTCSDTDW

Does Your Heart Beat True to Me?

DESCRIPTION: The singer is about to travel "far upon the seas" and asks, "now we're going to part ... Have I thy loving heart"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1546, "Does Your Heart Beat True to Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12961
File: GrD81546

Does Your Mother Know You're Out? (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Does your mother know you're out? (x2), How are you, Horace Greeley? Does your mother know you're out?" "Mother, is the battle over? What are the men about? How are you, Horace Greeley? Does your mother know you're out?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: political battle derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1872 - Horace Greeley's presidential campaign
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 398, "Does Your Mother Know You're Out?" (1 text)
Roud #11756
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Does Your Mother Know You're Out? (II)" (possible stage song basis for political derivative)
cf. "Mother, Is the Battle Over?" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [1376 words]: The taunt, "Does your mother know you're out" was well-known, e.g. Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 16, has "Er -- does your mother know you're out? Missus, it's all in your hat" and Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 58, has "Does your pa drink stout, Does your mammy know you're out...."
The editors of Brown speculate that this is from Horace Greeley's 1872 presidential run. Greeley lost decisively to Ulysses S. Grant, then died, and his electoral votes went to the four winds.
DeGregorio,p. 267, quotes Eugene H. Rosebloom as saying "Never in American history have two more unfit men been offered to the country for the highest office." Greeley's biggest single issue was probably the corruption that had occurred under Grant (who had no political background at all and was unable to control his underlings; indeed, the Republicans booted his 1868 vice president off the 1872 ticket because he was associated with corruption). But Greeley had no background in politics either.
Randall/Donald, p. 15, described Greeley this way: "Animated by enthusiasms that tended toward fanaticism, and marred by personal eccentricities that laid him open to ridicule, this Yankee printer had risen from stark poverty to influence and power; and, as a supporter of the Whig and later the Republican party, had demonstrated in areas widely distant from his sanctum the tremendous force of political journalism. With defects of character that were to grow with the years, he showed the finer idealism of his ardent nature in efforts to improve the workingman's lot, in generous support of movements for popular education, and in championship of progressive social movements generally."
Gillette/Schlesinger, pp. 1313-1314, reports, "'Uncle' Horace was a gawky man with a big round face and bald head, neck whiskers, drooped eyeglasses, crumpled clothes, and a slouched figure. his white hat, squeaky voice, and illegible handwriting reinforced an impression of eccentricity. And his views were often no less peculiar.... At various times, he was a utopian socialist, a spiritualist, a vegetarian, and a prohibitionist. He even campaigned against women's corsets.... His opinions were often excenntric, his partisanship intense, his language intemperate, and all who disagreed with him weew denounced vehemently. Charles A. Dana of the Sun called him 'a visionary without faith, a radical without root, an extremist without persistency, a strifemake without courage....' Greeley, as fierce crusader, noisy crackpot, and unconventional personality, both appealed to and was joked about by nineteenth-century Americans, who read and relished his newspaper for all those reasons."
Morison, p. 730, says of his 1872 run for the Presidency, "As a 'headliner,' Horace Greeley could not have been bettered. In his thirty years' editorship of the New York Tribune he had built it up to be the country's leading newspaper, whose articles and editorials were quoted nationwide. His personal integrity and moral earnestness were unquestioned. But he was also something of a crackpot... and at one time or another he had espoused unpopular causes such as socialism, temperance, spiritism, and women's rights."
He was, of course, the editor of the New York Tribune, which he founded in 1841, and, yes, he did write, "Go west, young man" (DAB, volume IV, p. ).
Bunting, p. 127, says he was "founder and editor of the New York Tribune, had argued with characteristic brio in behalf of both sides of most major issues for the Civil War and its aftermath. He was known as a strong supporter of high tarriffs; he was on record, many times, as having been violently critical of the Democratic party, with whom the liberal Republicans proposed to ally themselves for the election. He seemed, further, to lack gravitas. In appearance he was a character out of illustrations in Dicken's novels: plump, with a bald red head like a pumpkin, frequently dressed in bizarre dusters, given to strange fads and nostrums -- like arguing for the particular agricultural efficacy of human manure."
Gillette/Schlesinger, p. 1315, "[H]is journalistic assets were political liabilities. His zeal as an editor seemed scatterbrained demagoguery on the stump. His openmindedness on the editorial page appeared emtpy-mindedness in politics. His enthusiasm generated familiarity with readers, but his lack of reserve failed to command their respect at the polls. Indeed, Greeley lacked both sense and nerve, lacked the politician's intution, when to speak and when to remain silent...."
"The Greeley choice came as a shock to many people. Greeley, for all his intelligence, sincerity, idealism, and journalistic aplomb, was erratic, crotchety, unpredictable, and thoroughly incompetent in the art of politic. About all one could say of him as a candidate was that he was a national celebrity. With his cherubic face, big blue eyes, pilgarlic pate, steel-rimmed glasses, and shuffling gait, he looked more like a character out of a Dickens novel than a presidential hopeful" (Boller, p. 128).
According to Gillette/Schlesinger, p. 1317, many Democrats found Greeley's nomination shocking; he largely refused to work with the party and was by no means a regular Democrat. (Of course, his opponent U. S. Grant was not a regular Republican, and admitted to having voted for Buchanan in 1856.) But no one else came forward to deny Greeley the nomination; the 1872 Democratic convention lasted only six hours (Gillette/Schlesinger, p. 1318). Gillette/Schlesinger, p. 1323, quotes a contemporary observer as saying, "Never was a good cause so badly handled."
It was a truly absurd situation. In early 1872, a group of disaffected Republicans, who called themselves "Liberal Republicans," held a convention and, for five ballots, deadlocked between several respectable candidates including Charles Francis Adams. On the sixth ballot, the convention made a surprise turn to Greeley. So he was initially nominated as a Republican protest candidate. But the Democrats, who would take anyone over Grant, decided to back Greeley rather than split the opposition (Boller, pp. 127-129).
"Given the two candidates -- a 'man of no ideas,' as someone put it, versus a 'man of too may' -- the campaign was predictable" (Boller, p. 129). "Greeley made a strong speaking campaign, but the Republicans had the money and the organization, and the average citizen, having to choose between an old soldier whose very name stood for patriotism, and a journalist who had been as often wrong as right, voted for Grant. The President carried all but six states with a popular vote of 3.6 million as against 2.8 million for his opponent" (Morison, p. 730).
Indirectly, the effect on the political situation was dramatic. Liberal Republicans, having despaired of Grant and the spoils system, had turned to Greeley -- and, as an organization, were destroyed by his defeat (Gillette/Schlesinger, p. 1329). Liberalism as a political force in America was ruined for a quarter century -- until revived in the crackpot populism of William Jennings Bryan. Greeley probably would have been a terrible President -- but his defeat led to a period of stagnation probably worse than any except that from 1836 to 1860 which led to the Civil War.
It's likely enough that this song comes from the 1872 campaign -- described as exceptionally bitter, and also quite strange, given that Greeley was endorsed by both ends of the spectrum: the independent (generally radical) Republicans *and* by the reactionary Democrats. The pressure of the campaign was so extreme that Greeley, after his defeat, his wife's death (just before election day; Gillette/Schlesinger, p. 1329), and his discovery of a sort of palace coup at the Tribune, went insane after the election, and died soon thereafter.
And Greeley during the Civil War was quite strident and also rather unstable; one can easily imagine someone at the time taunting him, "Does your mother know you're out?"
Or it could be two mixed-up songs. It rather looks that way to me.
According to Partridge's entry on "Mother know you're out," that question itself was used at least as early as 1838, in Bentley's Miscellany. It was "addressed to a person showing extreme simplicity or youthful presumption." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Br3398

Does Your Mother Know You're Out? (II)

DESCRIPTION: Singer does not understand why everyone takes him for a naive fool. So, "My station is respectable There's nothing about me In the slightest way detectable Of the apeing wain cockney ... I dresses vell ... The cry is Ho my precious svell Does ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Bod9666 Harding B 11(919)
KEYWORDS: clothes fishing dancing humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
Roud #30119
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod9666 Harding B 11(919), "Does Your Mother Know You're Out" ("I am the laughing stock of all"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Bod16335 Harding B 20(246), "Does Your Mother Know You're Out"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Does Your Mother Know You're Out? (I and III)" (derivatives)
NOTES [99 words]: The broadside begins, "I am the laughing stock of all." Each verse ends with the line "Does your mother know you're out?" The keywords reflect some activities the singer tries. At the end he decides to leave town and settle "in some silent glen" where no one will ridicule him. The broadside text is "in dialect." Specifically, some "w" and "v" are swapped. I assume this song goes with a stage act (note the comment for Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 398 p. 473, "Does Your Mother Know You're Out?": "... 1872, adapted obviously from a vaudeville song of the time."). - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BdDYMKYO

Does Your Mother Know You're Out? (III)

DESCRIPTION: Naive singer comes to Liverpool, stops at a pub, is beaten by "three roaring fellows" and has his purse stolen by a girl. In the street a girl stops him; he beats her, assuming she is the one that stole his money, and is thrown in jail for six months.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: fight violence travel crime prison punishment robbery theft drink England humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
RECORDINGS:
Les Martin, "Does Your Mother Know You're Out?" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Does Your Mother Know You're Out? (II)" (possible stage song basis for this ballad)
NOTES [72 words]: The last line of most verses has someone asking, "Does your mother know you're out?" Apparently, travellers from Manchester in Liverpool were considered "country bumpkins."
The Roud Broadside Index database has this as Roud #V8718, but assigns the same number to "Does Your Mother Know You're Out? (II)." See "Does Your Mother Know You're Out" ("From Liverpool to Manchester as I have lately strayed"); I haven't seen the broadside. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: MunLDYMK

Does Your Pa Drink Stout?

DESCRIPTION: "Does your pa drink stout? Does your mammy know you're out? Does your granny wheel the mangle Round the yard?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: drink mother father
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 58, "(Does yer pa drink stout?)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Does Your Mother Know You're Out (I)" (lyrics) and notes there
File: PKKB058C

Doffin' Mistress, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh do you know here or do you not, This new doffin' mistress we hae got, [Something-or-other] is her name, And she helps her doffers at every frame." The weavers tell of her exploits. They contemptuously tell the boss they will work hard for her, not him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904
KEYWORDS: work weaving
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 220, "The Doffin' Mistress" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 14, "The Doffing Mistress" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 27, "The Doffing Mistress" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DOFFNMIS*
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, p. 139, "The Doffing Mistress" (1 text)
Roud #2133
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs, "The Doffing Mistress" (on IronMuse1, IronMuse2, Briggs3, Briggs4)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sea Apprentice" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Sea Apprentice (File: HHH739)
NOTES [268 words]: The "Doffing Mistress" was responsible for a gang of mill-workers (doffers). These women inspired surprising loyalty (presumably because they protected the workers, who were often children, from the senior management -- which, of course was rapacious enough to hire young children). As a result, they were often honored with processions and celebrations when they retired, married, or went to work for another establishment.
In Yorkshire at least, the "doffer" had a very specific job, according to Arnold Kellett, The Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition, and Folklore, revised edition, Smith Settle, 2002, p. 49: "doffer[:] textile worker taking filled bobbins from the spinning machine." Those who put new bobbins in the place of the full ones were "bobbin-liggers," according to p. 15.
A version of this song in Sing Out!, Volume 28, #3 (1980), p. 26, notes for instance that the mistress "hangs her coat on the highest pin." This might be interpreted as some sort of dominance game -- but the children could not easily reach the highest pin, so she was leaving the lower pins available for the workers.
The same article says that this has been called "the national anthem of the textile mills in Belfast," even though the doffers were replaced by machines in the 1930. (And, of course, the textile mills were not a nation and could not have a NATIONAL anthem. But I'm nitpicking.) - RBW
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "The Doffin' Mistress" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)) - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: K220

Doffing Mistress, The

See The Doffin' Mistress (File: K220)

Dog and Gun

See The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20] (File: LN20)

Dog and His Gun, The

See The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20] (File: LN20)

Dog and the Gun (I), The

See The Drowning of Young Robinson (File: HHH585)

Dog and the Gun (II), The

See The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20] (File: LN20)

Dog and the Gun, The

See The Drowning of Young Robinson (File: HHH585)

Dog in the Closet, The (The Old Dyer) [Laws Q11]

DESCRIPTION: The hatter has to hide in the closet when the woman's husband comes home unexpectedly. The husband locks the closet and goes for witnesses. The wife releases the hatter and puts a dog in his place. The husband finds the dog and is embarrassed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
KEYWORDS: infidelity trick escape dog hiding age
FOUND IN: US(NE,SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws Q11, "The Old Dyer (The Dog in the Closet)"
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 123-125, "The Dog in the Closet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 279, "The Old Dyer" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 179, "The Old Dyer" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN151, "All you that to merriment now are inclined" (probably this piece)
DT 523, DOGCLOS
Roud #1006
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boatsman and the Chest" [Laws Q8] (plot) and references there
NOTES [43 words]: This and similar songs are sometimes traced back to a story in Boccaccio (seventh day, second story: Gianella, Peronella, and her husband). But the story is really one of the basic themes of folktale, and doubtless predates Boccaccio as well as these songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: LQ11

Dog in the Midden, The

DESCRIPTION: The dog lay in the dunghill, saw the moon, "cockit his tail" and ran away. The cock crowed on the dunghill, ..., "flappit his wings" and flew away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad chickens dog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1663, "The Dog in the Midden" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #40, p.32, ("The dog in the midden")
Roud #13042
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jock Robb" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
File: GrD81663

Dog in the Wood

DESCRIPTION: "Dog in the wood, Barking at the squirrel; My true love Is as good as the worl'." "Mr. Banks, he loves sugar and tea, Mr. Banks, he loves candy...." "Dog in the wood, Barking at the squirrel."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal playparty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 133-134, (no title) (1 text)
ST ScNF133A (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sugar and Tea" (lyrics)
NOTES [47 words]: This shares a chorus with the song I've indexed as "Sugar and Tea," but the verses are so distinct (this is a hunting song, that a courting song) that I've tentatively split them. It appears (due to an abrupt change in stanza form) that Scarborough's text may be a mixture anyway. - RBW
File: ScNF133A

Dog Meat Man, The

See The Dog's-Meat Man (File: Boet028)

Dog on the Tucker Box, The

See Nine Miles from Gundagai (The Dog Sat in the Tuckerbox) (File: MA095)

Dog on the Tuckerbox

See Nine Miles from Gundagai (The Dog Sat in the Tuckerbox) (File: MA095)

Dog Shark

DESCRIPTION: "Daddy eat dog shark Ma Lingay." "Take them one by one Ma Lingay. Take them two by two. Take them three by three Ma Lingay. Take them four by four."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville)
KEYWORDS: fishing food
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 62, "Dog Shark" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [59 words]: This seems to me to be a counting game song, not far different from Jamaican "Go Down Emmanuel Road." Elder says nothing about this song, or about counting game songs in Tobago, so this is just my guess.
If these dog shark are anything like the Coney Island dogfish of the 1940's they are small and harmless, and more a nuisance than a prized catch. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElCh062A

Dog Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "There is something so thrilling and gay As the team into harness we strop." The song is about driving a dog team. "The good man too performs his part; The hungry dogs are fed; And blizzards now may whirl and roar, The traveller has a bed."
AUTHOR: J.T. Richards
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: work storm nonballad dog
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 147, "The Dog Song" (1 text)
Roud #6350
File: GrMa147

Dog-Catcher's Child, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh the moon shines tnight on the river, But not on the dog-catcher's child, FOr he fed her some raw liver, And raw meat makes dog-people wild. Now he sits all alone in his mansion, The soup dribbles over his vest... she sleeps in the alley by request."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: death father food dog
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 176-177, "The Dog-Catcher's Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9604
NOTES [13 words]: I feel as if this is based on "The Banks of the Wabash." Proof I have none. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: SBar176

Dog's Convention, The

DESCRIPTION: At a convention of dogs from far and near, the animals' anuses are mixed up, and the canines go home with orifices not their own. This explains why dogs will drop a bone to smell the anus of a passing dog; they are looking for their own.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1928, when it was published in an under-the-counter book, Poems, Ballads, and Parodies.
KEYWORDS: bawdy scatological dog talltale
FOUND IN: US(So) Australia Britain(England)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 490-491, "The Dog's Convention" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 160-161, "The Dogs' Meeting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 50, "The Doggie's Meeting" (1 text)
DT, DOGMEETG*
Roud #5474
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Dogs' Party
NOTES [19 words]: Australian folklore attributes this to Henry Lawson. Its early currency in the U.S. makes this perhaps doubtful. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RL491

Dog's-Meat Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "In (Grays-Inn Lane) not long ago, An old maid lived a life of woe." She falls in love with a handsome Dog's-Meat Man. He says he will marry her if she gives him money for a shop. He vanishes; she finds him with a wife and "seven little dog's-meat men"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (Bodleian Harding B 11 (4053))
KEYWORDS: humorous courting oldmaid money marriage trick
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 28-29, "The Dog-Meat Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7515
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4053), "The Dog's Meat Man, ", J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also 2806 c.18(92), "The Dogs-meat man," Walker (Norwith), n.d.
File: Boet028

Dogger Bank, The

DESCRIPTION: Grimsby fishermen spend all their money in Grimsby taverns and must go to work the fishing grounds. The disreputable looking crew is described. They "battle through every gale" and head home again for Mrs. Surgeon's beer.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1904 (OShaughnessy-Yellowbelly1)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea ship shore drink humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 21, "The Grimsby Fishermen's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 131, "The Grimsby Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18836
RECORDINGS:
Sam Larner, "The Dogger Bank" (on SLarner02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bigler's Crew" (tune, chorus, meter) and references there
NOTES [460 words]: Palmer: "The Grimsby variant [of "Bigler" and "Knickerbocker Line" derivatives], sometimes entitled 'The Dogger Bank', seems to have been confined to the eastern seaboard, save for 'Littlehampton Collier Lads,' an adaptation dealing with the sailing colliers of the south coast."
See the entry for "The Knickerbocker Line," which refers to a New York City pre-Civil War horse-drawn stagecoach.
Larner adds a second chorus: "So watch her, twig her, the piperay she goes, / High heels, painted toes, Jinnie is all the go; / She is one of the flash girls, can't she cut a shine? / She can do the double shuffle on the Knickerbocker line." This chorus, not in either of the two US texts (Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 146A or 146B), is very close to the Australian chorus reported for "The Knickerbocker Line": "Twig her, pipe her, watch her how she goes, / Her high-heeled boots and patent leather, my Jinny she's on the go; / She is one of the fast girls, her beauty is bound to shine, / With her high-heeled boots to rattle on the knickerbocker line" (Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 195). The New York State texts for "The Knickerbocker Line" are more about women -- including prostitutes -- than about the line itself but do not include this specific verse. Peggy Seeger's notes to Larner's album may refer to an independent life for this chorus: "Another song, which has for its refrain the final chorus of the song printed here, was collected by Cecil Sharp in 1911 at Shipton, Somerset." (Sharp MS 2620, possibly the Sharp 1911 MS from Gloucestershire cited by Kennedy p. 728. However, the two lines quoted by Kennedy are the same lines that begin Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 195).
The two Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches entries at "The Knickerbocker Line" are close relatives. Here is the chorus of Lucy Stewart's text of "Jeannie's Aa the Go": "Watch her, twig her, pipe her as she goes / High heels, paintit boots, an paintin on the toes / Jeannie's aa the go, boys, Jeannie's aa the go, / And yet she wis a dabber if she only had the nose." Here is the whole text of John MacShannon's "Knickerbocker Line": "Watch her, twig her, pipe her, how she goes, / High top heels and her patent leather toes, She is one of the prettiest that ever wore the shine, She could do the double shuttle on the Knickerbocker Line."
The Kennedy text of "The Knickerbocker Line" is close to Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 146A, except for its chorus, which fits here: "Watch her, trail her, pipe her as she goes / With her high-heeled boots and her patent leather toes / That she was one of those flash girls I soon found out in time / When her high heeled boots went clattering down the Knickerbocker Line" - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: OSY1021

Dogget Gap

See Dogget's Gap (File: BSoF739)

Dogget's Gap

DESCRIPTION: Descriptions of various doings in Dogget's Gap. "Chestnut tree full of chestnut sap, Snow knee deep in Dogget's Gap."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929
KEYWORDS: nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 739, "Dogget's Gap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 22, "Doggett Gap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, p. 52, "Dogget Gap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11584
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cumberland Gap"
File: BSoF739

Doggett Gap

See Dogget's Gap (File: BSoF739)

Doggie Woggie Woo Woo

DESCRIPTION: "Doggie woggie woo woo (x2)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
KEYWORDS: nonballad dog
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, p. 87, "Doggie Woggie Woo Woo" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [55 words]: I have to suspect there is another part to this, something along the lines of "Doggie woggie woo woo, Here is what I'm going to do." If I were really going to conjecture, the final lines might be, "We are going to the zoo, Do you want to come too?" That's WILD speculation, though; I just think part of the rhyme is missing. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: List087B

Doggies' Meeting, The

See The Dog's Convention (File: RL491)

Dogie Song

DESCRIPTION: "The cow-bosses are good-hearted chunks," very diverse, but "Still they sing the same old song": "Sift along, don't ride so slow, Haven't got much time but a long round to go." After gathering the herd, the crew is to "hit the shortest trail"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work boss travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, p. 187, "Dogie Song" (1 text)
Roud #8028
File: Saffe187

Dogie Song, The

See Get Along, Little Dogies (File: R178)

Dogs and Ferrets

See Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping (File: K249)

Dogs in the Alley, The

See A Farmer's Life For Me; also I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: Brne072)

Dogs Meat Man, The

See The Dog's-Meat Man (File: Boet028)

Dogs-Meat Man, The

See The Dog's-Meat Man (File: Boet028)

Dogs' Meeting, The

See The Dog's Convention (File: RL491)

Dogs' Party, The

See The Dog's Convention (File: RL491)

Doherty's Wake

DESCRIPTION: Michael Doherty lives in Kerry and has "a taste for the grog" He is "killed" in a fight. When the whiskey is passed at the wake Doherty lifts the coffin lid. He advises, at the next wake, "don't pass with the whiskey so close to his nose"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: injury drink fight party humorous mourning
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 69, "Doherty's Wake" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB069 (Partial)
Roud #2761
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Finnegan's Wake" [Laws Q17] (subject)
NOTES [43 words]: There are several Irish songs about dead men rising at the scent of alcohol; this is so close to "Finnegan's Wake" that I'm tempted to list it as a rewrite. But there are minor differences in form, and the lyrics are different in detail if not in outline. - RBW
File: CrSNB069

Dol-li-a

DESCRIPTION: "Fresh I cum frae Sandgate Steet, Dol-li, dol-li, Maw best freends here to meet, Dol-li-a, Dol-li the dillen dol...." "The Black Cuffs is gawn away, An' that'll be a crying day." "Dolly Coxon's pawned her shirt...." "The Green Cuffs is cummin' in...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (Bell, _Rhymes of the Northern Bards_)
KEYWORDS: clothes soldier nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 86-87, "Dol-li-a" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DOLLIA
Roud #2611
NOTES [89 words]: This apparently refers to a situation where one British regiment left town and another replaced it, with the Black Cuffs and Green Cuffs being references to their uniforms. Without further details, though, I can't determine the historical situation.
The text in Bell's Rhymes of the Northern Bards bears the description "A song famous in Newcastle about the Years 1792-3-4" which implies that this might have something to do with the Glorious Revolution -- but since there are no Orange cuffs, the information is not much help. - RBW
File: StoR086

Dole Song (I), The

DESCRIPTION: When you go on the dole they take your report: name and "what you've got." Scratch through the seasons and do anything to stay off the dole. When the man with money dies and is buried "he'll have no better chance than the poor man on the dole"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes nonballad unemployment
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 30, "The Dole Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #30698
File: LeBe030

Dole Song (II), The

DESCRIPTION: We Labrador fishermen work hard "noon and night" while "those that profit" are warm and well fed. "Long coat chaps" do not help. Merchants rob us. Taxes take what we have. "The ruler in Newfoundland" does not allow us on the dole.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: poverty fishing hardtimes nonballad political money
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
RECORDINGS:
George Hatfield, "The Dole Song" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dole Song (I)" (theme)
File: MunLDoS2

Dollar a Day Without Board, A

DESCRIPTION: "I've traveled this wide world o'er and o'er And have lived in many a clime, But poverty seems to have hold of me now"; he must work for "a dollar a day without board." It is not enough for a man with a family. They should follow their Leader Mr. Kearney
AUTHOR: Words: Harry Norcross (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (The Blue and Gray Songster, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes family
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 515-516, "A Dollar a Day Without Board" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jim FIsk" [Laws F18] (tune)
NOTES [42 words]: This is listed to the tune of "Jim Fisk." Given that this song goes back at least to 1877, that is pretty quick work -- Fisk was killed in 1872, and the song "Jim Fisk" was in existence by 1874. So this is a parody of what was then a brand-new song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC515

Dollar a Day, A

DESCRIPTION: "A dollar a day is a fisherman pay, Way you lazy Liza, A dollar a day for that I can't stay, Roll out your sails my Liza"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville)
KEYWORDS: fishing work shanty
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 47, "A Dollar a Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lowlands (My Lowlands Away)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Elder-Charlottville text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: EldC047B

Dollar and a Half a Day, A

See Lowlands (My Lowlands Away) (File: PBB100)

Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes all the things his friend has bought on credit, including clothes, car, marriage, and a child; finally the man's wife, saying "these weekly payments are killing me," divorces him, and the alimony is a dollar down, a dollar a week.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Arkansas Woodchopper)
KEYWORDS: marriage money humorous commerce
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 79, "Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18540
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "A Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week" (Conqueror 7887, 1931)
Woody Guthrie & Cisco Houston, "A Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week" (on Struggle2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cotton Mill Colic" (theme)
NOTES [90 words]: And this was before Visa cards even existed....
Apparently the Singer Sewing Machine company, although they certainly did not invent installment plans, was most responsible for the "Dollar down and a dollar a week" refrain; they were pushing this sales scheme by the 1890s.
It appears that all versions of this go back to the 1931 Arkansas Woodchopper recording; although he did not claim credit for it, one suspects Luther Ossenbrink wrote the text. Lyle Lofgren suggests that the tune comes from the verse part of "Golden Slippers." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: CSW079

Dollar, Dollar

See The Wandering Dollar (File: Newe099)

Dolly Bairdie hid a coo

See Katie Bairdie (File: MSNR092)

Dolly Dear, Dolly Dear

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Dolly dear, Dolly dear, your sweetheart is dead.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope death love | Dolly
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #110, "Dolly dear, Dolly dear" (1 text)
File: AJRR110

Dolly Dimple Can't Do This

See Spanish Dancer (File: ZiZa051A)

Dolly Grey

DESCRIPTION: "I have come to say goodbye, Dolly Grey; It's no use to ask me why, Dolly Grey; There's a murmur in the air... So it's time to do and dare, Dolly Grey." The singer bids Dolly a sad farewell and goes off to join the "boys in blue"
AUTHOR: Words: Will D. Cobb / Music: Paul Barnes
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (composed, according to Waites & Hunter)
KEYWORDS: soldier separation
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 35-36, "Dolly Grey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 2-3, "Goodbye Dolly Gray" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 194-197, "Good-Bye Dolly Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Big Four Quartet, "Goodbye Dolly Gray" (CYL: Edison 7728, 1901)
SAME TUNE:
Good-Bye Dollars, I Must Leave You (IWW song by Richard Brazier)
Parody on Dolly Gray ("When the boots are on the last, Dolly Gray, And I have to mend them fast") (by Johnny Burke) (Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), Burke's Ballads , no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 61) (Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #35, pp. 55-56)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Goodbye Dolly Gray
NOTES [178 words]: Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2 report this to have been popular during the first world war, though written some decades earlier.
According to Eversley Belfield, The Boer War, p. 13, Britain entered the Boer War "bursting with enthusiasm and self-confidence, many people thinking that it would be ended by Christmas [the ultimatum came October 9 and expired October 11]; the song 'Goodbye Dolly Gray' echoed popular feeling." Waites & Hunter call it "the theme song of the Boer War" -- although it was written in the context of the Spanish-American War.
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver says it was sung by the British Expeditionary Force as they headed for France in 1914.
Spaeth's A History of Popular Music in America, p. 312, seems to imply it became a hit in 1900. Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 255, estimates that this was the most popular song in America in the year 1901, first topping his unofficial charts in March of that year. - RBW-
Last updated in version 6.5
File: MCB035

Dolly Varden Hats, The

DESCRIPTION: Girls: "Lovers you'll have plenty ... If you wear the Dolly Varden hat, and do the Grecian bend." The comical adventures of women and their hats are related. Soldiers could wear them when drilling: "they'll do for umbrellas to save them from the rain"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 13(73))
KEYWORDS: clothes humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 652, "Come, Dear, Don't Fear" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6081
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 13(73), "The Dolly Varden Hats" ("Come, dear, don't fear, try and cut a shine"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth c.21(132), 2806 b.10(41), Firth c.26(213), "The Dolly Varden Hats"
NOTES [542 words]: Greig/Duncan3 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Harding B 13(73 is the basis for the description.
"dolly varden ... n. cap D&V [after Dolly Varden, gaily dressed coquette in Barnaby Rudge (1841), novel by Charles Dickens 1870 Eng. novelist] 1 : a 19th century clothing style for women consisting of a print dress with a white fichu, tight bodice, and skirt with panniers, and a beflowered hat with a wide drooping brim 2 : a large and beflowered hat with a wide drooping brim 3 ...." (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976)
The heroine of "The Garden Where the Praties Grow" "was just the sort of creature sir that nature did intend To walk throughout the world, my boys, without a Grecian bend." In this context, as in "The Dolly Varden Hats," the Grecian bend seems a posture encouraged or forced by the fashionable corsettes and bustles of the 1870's (see "From the Crinoline, to the Crinolette, to the Bustle: 1860-1880" in The Secret History of the Corset and Crinoline at Fathom Archive of Columbia University site). - BS
Dolly Varden proved surprisingly popular as a subject of song. W. C. Handy wrote a "Sail Away, Ladies" piece with chorus, "Sail away, ladies, sail away; Sail away, ladies, sail away. Never mind what de sisters say, Just shake your Dolly Varden and sail away." There was a 1901 song "Dolly Varden" as well, attributed to Le Mar. Dime-Song-Book #31 is the "Dolly Varden Songster"; its first song is "Dressed in a Dolly Varden." And apparently there is a modern performer calling herself "Dolly Varden."
Kellett, p. 50, says that the phrase "all dressed up like Dolly Varden" became a commonplace in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Benet, pp. 1165-1166, notes that there were three Vardens in Barnaby Rudge: Gabriel, the father of Dolly, a locksmith; Martha, his wife; and Dolly, "The locksmith's daughter; a pretty, laughing girl, with a roguish face, lit up by a lovelly pair of sparkling eyes, the very impersonation of good humor and blooming beauty. She marries Joe Willet, and conducts with him the Maypole Inn, as never a country inn was conducted before. They prosper and have a large and happy family. Dolly dresses in the Watteau style, and Watteau gowns and hats were for a time, about 1875, called 'Dolly Vardens." The name was frequently in use in fashions of a later period also."
EncycLiterature, p. 1157, says that "Dolly's memorable costumes led to the naming for her of a style of 19th-century women's ensemble consisting of a wide-skirted, tight-bodiced print dress worn with a white fichu (light triangular scarf) and a flowered hat with a wide, drooping brim. she was also commemorated in the brightly colored Dolly Varden trout."
Napolitano, p. 2, writes of the works of Dickens, "countless waltzes and ballads [were] based on the characters of Little Nell and Dolly Varden."
In addition, the supplement to Partridge notes that "Dolly Varden" was sometimes used as rhyming slang for a garden. And, in Newfoundland, the name "Dolly Varden" was used for large cups fishermen used for tea (StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 145). None of these is relevance to the song, of course, but they show just how common references to "Dolly Varden" were. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: GrD3652

Dolly-Play Song, The

See This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes (File: Br3096)

Dolly, Dolly Had No Sense

See Dancing Dolly Had No Sense (File: SuSm108D)

Dolly, My Crumpled-Horn Cow

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, what a joy I have in the grazing field, When the sun goes own all aglow, For I love my Doll and the milk she yields WIth her croon ochone so low." The cow likes him, and is beautiful, and he always enjoys being with her
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 ("The Lorgaire")
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. II, #150, pp. 232-234, "Dolly, My Crumpled-Horn Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [464 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
This song really has no place in the Index; is certainly has no place in tradition, and it hasn't even been printed very often. But more than a dozen Harrigan/Braham songs did manage to become traditional, making them a very important source -- and this is the song that David Braham said was his favorite melody of all. I've put it in the Index on that admittedly somewhat peculiar basis.
It comes from the play "The Lorgaire," which "gave Braham the opportunity to produce seven new songs, including his personal favorite, 'Dolly, My Crumpled-Horn Cow," an old-style folk ballad of Mozartian simplicity and grace about a farmer's devotion to his cow" (Franceschina, p. 190).
"The Lorgaire" was one of Edward Harrigan's few dramatic flops (date seemingly uncertain; Moody, p. 82, dates it to February 18, 1878, but Francheschina, p. 234, to 1889, which is also the date on the sheet music in the Levy Collection at Johns Hopkins; Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, p. 366, says December 10, 1888. Presumably the 1879 date is of the first production, with the play re-introduced in the 1880s, but it's not clear when this song went into it).
Moody, p. 82, explains the play, which sounds interesting despite its failure; it "was an extraordinarily long play, three acts and multiple scenes, laid in and around a fishing village in County Galway on the west coast of Ireland. In Gaelic a lorgaire is a searcher or pursuer. Harrigan's lorgaire was a detective from Scotland Yard....
"Harrigan's detective, Cornelius Dempsey, appears alternately as a peddler, a blind piper, and a schoolmaster. His disguises never fool the audience but utterly confound the other characters. Many friends slipped into the theatre regularly just to observe him thrashing about in the academic world: 'I am Dyonesius Kavanaugh, Professor of the Learned Languages, also a Homo Factus Ad Ungeum, and teacher of bookkeeping, geometry, trogonometry, stereometry, mensuration, navigation, galvanism, ventilation, explosion, and cholera morphus. Quas Enumerare Longum Est.
"Harrigan often remarked that The Lorgaire was one of the best plays he ever wrote, a claim that rested on his pride in having matched, some say beat, [Dion] Boucicault at his own game."
Moody, p. 155: "In 1891 a reported asked Braham how many songs he'd composed and which were his favorites. Probably around one hundred eighty had been published, another twenty were still in manuscript, and he had the most recent ones in his pocket. The public seemed to favor 'Babies on Our Block,' "Widow Dunn,' 'The Mulligan Guard,' and 'Charleston Blues.' He would never dispute them, although he was proudest of 'Mollie [sic.] My Crumpled Horn Cow.'" - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: HaBrDMCC

Dolly's Brae (I)

DESCRIPTION: July 12, 1849. "Ten hundreds of our Orangemen together did combine" to celebrate the Battle of the Boyne at Dolly's Brae. Two priests can't turn the march to fight the gathered Catholics. "And the Orange cry, as we passed by, was 'Dolly's Brae no more'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 12, 1848 - Catholics occupy Dolly's Brae, County Down, and divert an Orangemen's march.
July 12, 1849 - Catholics occupy Dolly's Brae but the Orangemen would not be diverted. At least thirty Catholics are killed in the fight. No Orangemen are hit. (source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 96, "Dolly's Brae" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Graham-TheOrangeSongster, p. 15, "Dolly's Brae" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dolly's Brae (II)" (subject)
cf. "Dolly's Brae (III)" (subject)
cf. "Dolly's Brae (IV)" (subject)
cf. "A Dream of Dolly's Brae" (subject)
NOTES [376 words]: July 12 is the Gregorian Calendar (adopted in England in 1752) date for celebrating the victory of William III of Orange in the Battle of the Boyne, July 1, 1690.
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "There are at least six other ballads on the same subject, most of them with some stanzas in common."
For another ballad with many illegible words see
Bodleian, Harding B 26(143), "Doly's [sic] Brae's No More" ("Come all you loyal Orangemen, I pray listen unto me"), unknown, n.d. - BS
According to Jonathan Bardon, A History of Ulster, Blackstaff Press, 1992, pp. 302-304, the Orange Order in 1849 announced a long march, avoiding the main roads in order to march through mostly Catholic districs. "Clearlly the intention was to provoke the Catholic Ribbonmen, but as the Party Processions Act had lapsed, the authorities hoped that if enough troops and police were sent, a clash could be prevented." Reportedly there were at least 1200 heavily armed marchers.
Perhaps a thousand Ribbonmen came out in response, but the two factions for long merely maneuvered without violence.
Major Wilkinson, who led troops on Dolly's Brae between the two mobs, reported that "there went bang a shot in front, but I don't know where it came from no more than the man in the moon." Another officer thought it sounded "more like a squib," but felt it came from the Orange side. But whatever the initial sound was, it soon had both sides shooting.
"At the top of the hill the police found eighteen pitchforks, seven pikes and ten muskets, and half a dozen bodies. Not a single Orangeman was wounded. The forces of law and order were also unscathed, except for a constable accidentally bayoneted in the arm.... The Catholics took away most of their dead and wounded, but the Newry Telegraph... reckoned that no fewer than fifty of the Ribbonmen were either killed or wounded'. The government inquiry estimated that at least thirty Catholics had been killed."
The result was a new Party Processions Act, but of course the damage to inter-religious relations had been done.
For other ballads of Party Fights -- of which Dolly's Brae was the most famous and probably the most severe -- see "The Battle That Was Fought in the North" and "The Lamentation of James O'Sullivan." - RBW
File: Zimm096

Dolly's Brae (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Ribbon-knaves" attacked a July 12 Orange parade with "murderous volleys." The Orangemen "quenched the Popish brand which death-fires would have lighted." Afterwards Orangemen are attacked but "ten hundred Paypishes [are knocked] right over Dolly's Brae"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry)
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 12, 1848 - Catholics occupy Dolly's Brae, County Down, and divert an Orangemen's march.
July 12, 1849 - Catholics occupy Dolly's Brae but the Orangemen would not be diverted. At least thirty Catholics are killed in the fight. No Orangemen are hit. (source: Zimmermann)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 120-121, "Dolly's Brae" (1 text)
Roud #6544
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dolly's Brae (I)" (subject) and references there
NOTES [18 words]: For background on Dolly's Brae, and other songs on party fights, see the notes to "Dolly's Brae (I)." - (RBW, BS)
File: HayU120

Dolly's Brae (III)

DESCRIPTION: July 12, 1849: Lord Roden invites the Rathfriland Orangemen to march. Priests Mooney and Murphy encourage the "rebels." "The Ribbonmen advantage took and fired upon our rear" but no Orangemen were hit in the battle. The Orangemen claim "glorious victory"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1895 (Graham-TheOrangeSongster)
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 12, 1848 - Catholics occupy Dolly's Brae, County Down, and divert an Orangemen's march.
July 12, 1849 - Catholics occupy Dolly's Brae but the Orangemen would not be diverted. At least thirty Catholics are killed in the fight. No Orangemen are hit. (source: Zimmerman)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Graham-TheOrangeSongster, p. 14, "Dolly's Brae" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 96, "Dolly's Brae" (1 fragment)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dolly's Brae (I)" (subject) and references there
NOTES [148 words]: July 12 is the Gregorian Calendar (adopted in England in 1752) date for celebrating the victory of William III of Orange in the Battle of the Boyne, July 1, 1690.
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "There are at least six other ballads on the same subject, most of them with some stanzas in common."
In "A Dream of Dolly's Brae" one priest, named Morgan, is mentioned as leading the ambush.
This song establishes that "Lord Roden was Grand Master of the Orangemen." - BS
The Rodens were strongly linked to the Protestant cause. According to Jonathan Bardon, A History of Ulster, Blackstaff Press, 1992, p. 238, they were among the Ulster landowners who had voted for Union in 1800. The Dolly's Brae march, acording to Bardon, p. 303, was to terminate on Lord Roden's land, and p. 341 reports that the Earl of Roden was one of the organizers of a great Protestant revival in that year. - RBW
File: Grah014

Dolly's Brae (IV)

DESCRIPTION: July 12, [18]49 an Orange march is intercepted by Catholic Ribbonmen but "we did them greatly scar." The Orange "were the conquerors of Crossgar." For loyalty to the Pope the "false misguided heretics ... will be rewarded in the regions down below"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond01)
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland political religious
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 12, 1848 - Catholics occupy Dolly's Brae, County Down, and divert an Orangemen's march.
July 12, 1849 - Catholics occupy Dolly's Brae but the Orangemen would not be diverted. At least thirty Catholics are killed in the fight. No Orangemen are hit. (source: Zimmerman)
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #6544
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Dolly's Brae" (on IRRCinnamond01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dolly's Brae (I)" (subject) and references there
NOTES [86 words]: As in "A Dream of Dolly's Brae," the Catholic priest among the Ribbonmen is named Morgan; "Dolly's Brae (I)" mentions two priests and "Dolly's Brae (III) names them Mooney and Murphy.
For a reference to Crossgar see "Defence of Crossgar." For a sense of the times and the antagonism caused by sectarian parades note that "Crossgar" is the St Patrick's Day between the "Dolly's Brae" July 12 events. - BS
For background on Dolly's Brae, and other songs on party fights, see the notes to "Dolly's Brae (I)." - (RBW, BS)
File: RcDolBr4

Dolphin, The

DESCRIPTION: "All on one summer's morning, The fourteenth day of May, our Dolphin slipped her cable...." The song describes the ship's triumphant voyage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: sailor battle
FOUND IN: US(SE) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 66, "The Dolphin" (1 text, probably a confused version of "The Dolphin" and "The Banks of the Nile" [Laws N9] or similar)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #125, p. 2, "The Saucy Dolphin" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 41, "The Saucy Dolphin" (1 text)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #4, "The Dolphin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #690
RECORDINGS:
Sam Larner, "The Dolphin" (on SLarner02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Warlike Seamen (The Irish Captain)" (plot, lyrics) and references there
NOTES [82 words]: Any number of Royal Navy ships were named Dolphin; one laid down in 1751 was reportedly the ninth of that name (that one was famous as an exploring vessel, and for its early use of a copper-coated bottom). Whether this song is actually based on the exploits of a particular Dolphin is unclear.
Roud lumps this with "The French Privateer" and "Warlike Seamen (The Irish Captain)," and there are common lyrics and thematic similarities, but I would consider them separate but related songs.- RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: ChFRS066

Dolphin's Return, The

DESCRIPTION: ""Ye bold British tars, who to glory are free, Who dare venture your lives for your fortune at sea," will hear of the trip of the Dolphin and the Swallow to explore the Pacific. They are separated in Magellan's Straits. The Dolphin finally arrives home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Firth)
KEYWORDS: ship travel storm separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 51, "The Dolphin's Return" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V10497
File: PaSe051

Dom Pedro, The [Laws D12]

DESCRIPTION: The Dom Pedro sails from Boston to Shanghai. The crew reaches their destination, unload the ship, and rejoice at the thought of coming home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen)
KEYWORDS: ship return
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws D12, "The Dom Pedro"
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 179-180, "The Dom Pedro" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 678, DOMPEDRO
Roud #2236
File: LD12

Don Buck

DESCRIPTION: "There is a man that gives a hand To all that riff-raff band. At night you'll see Don pleasantly" travel through the city to gather up those who are drunk. He takes the men to a mining camp where rules are strictly enforced. In the end, they benefit
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: prisoner drink punishment help
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 12, "Don Buck" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [70 words]: Based on the description in Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, it would appear that Francicso Rodriques FIguero, known as "Don Buk" (sic.), ran a gumdigging camp near Swanson, New Zealand, that in effect served as a halfway house for those released from Mt Eden prison. He was successful enough at rehabilitating the felons that he became a minor New Zealand legend, with various landmarks named after him. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Col2067

Don Kelly's Girl

See Zeb Tourney's Girl [Laws E18] (File: LE18)

Don' Cher Look at Me, Ca'line

DESCRIPTION: "Don' cher look at me, Ca'line, Don' cher look at me! You done busted up many a po' niggah's hat, But you ain't a-goin' to bust up mine! Oh, it's hahd to love, An' it's mighty hahd to leave, But it's hahder to make up yo' mind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 273, "Don' Cher Look at Me, Ca'line" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: ScaNF273

Don't Be a Coward, Don't Be Afraid

DESCRIPTION: "Don't be a coward, Don't be afraid, And for Heaven's sake, Don't die an old maid."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 134, "(Don't be a coward)" (1 short text, from an autograph book)
File: SaKo134D

Don't Be Weary Traveller

DESCRIPTION: "Don't be weary, traveler, come along home to Jesus (x2)." "My head got wet with the morning dew, Come along home... Angels bear me witness too." "Where to do I did not know, Ever since he freed my soul." "I look at the world and the world look new."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 75, "Don't Be Weary Traveller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 113, "Don't Be Weary, Traveller" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 127 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #12036
File: AWG075

Don't Call de Roll

See Don't Call the Roll (File: Dett119)

Don't Call the Roll

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Don't call the roll (x4), "Till I get there." Verse: "Jacob's ladder slim and tall, Ain't got the faith surely you must fall." "Two white angels walking down, Long white robe and starry crown."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 119, "Don't Call de Roll" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 150 in the 1901 edition)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 174, "Don't Call the Roll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 300-301, "Tell John Don' Call duh Roll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 25, "Tell John Don' Call Duh Roll" (1 text, 1 tune -- an unusual instance of a song in this book but not reprinted in Tobitt-TheDittyBag)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Anna Kranz Odum, "Some Negro Folk-Songs from Tennessee," Vol. 27, No. 105 (Jul-Sep 1914), #12 p. 261, "O Sinner Man, You So Hard to Lead" (1 text)
Roud #15254
NOTES [55 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "Don't call the roll till I get there."
The last line of the verse in Odum is "O sinner man, you so hard to lead," and in Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang it is "Oh, sinnuh man, yuh would not belebe." - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Dett119

Don't Care Was Made to Care

DESCRIPTION: "Don't care was made to care, Don't care was hung, Don't care was put in a pot, And boiled till he was done." Reportedly used as a response when one child told another "Don't care."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty execution
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 136, "(Don't care was made to care)" (1 text)
File: SuSm136A

Don't Come to Michigan

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells listeners all the reasons not to come to the Michigan lumber woods: snakes, bugs, dangerous sawmills, corduroy roads, quack doctors, and thieving merchants.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks); Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan reports a claim that it was written in 1848
KEYWORDS: warning lumbering work nonballad logger
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 3, "Don't Come to Michigan" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 116-119, "Don't Come to Michigan" (2 texts)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 9, "Don't Come to Michigan" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 407-408, "Don't Come to Michigan" (1 text)
Roud #6524
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rigs of the Times" (lyrics)
cf. "On Meesh-e-gan" (theme)
File: Be003

Don't Count Your Chickens

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns against counting one's chickens before they are hatched. He cites as examples the banker who expected to be rich but had his house attached, the boy who expected to marry but had his girl stolen away, etc.
AUTHOR: Probably Rudy Sooter
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: warning money courting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 482, "Don't Count Your Chickens" (1 text)
Roud #7584
RECORDINGS:
Rudy Sooter, "Don't Count Your Chickens" (Black & White 10023, n.d.)
File: R482

Don't Cry

See When He Comes, He'll Come in Green (File: Br3070)

Don't Despite a Man Because He Wears a Ragged Coat

See The Ragged Coat (File: FSC102)

Don't Dilly Dally on the Way

DESCRIPTION: "My old man said follow the van, and don't dilly dally on the way. Off went the van wiv me 'ome packed in it... But I dillied, I dallied, I dallied and I dillied, lost me way and don't know where to roam....."
AUTHOR: Fred W. Leigh and Charles Collins (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (sheet music, according to Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: travel home police
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 78, "(My Old Man Said Follow the Van)" (1 short text, from user John5918, posted September 19, 2021)
ST LTCSDDDW (Partial)
Roud #32460
RECORDINGS:
Marie Lloyd, "Don't Dilly Dally on the Way" (Regal G7076, 1919?)
File: LTCSDDDW

Don't Eat Kennedy's Bread

DESCRIPTION: "Don't eat Kennedy's bread, I'll fill your belly full of lead. You'll fart like thinder, Your mother wouldn't wonder, Don't eat Kennedy's bread."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: food disease mother warning
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 67, "(Don't eat Kennedy's bread)" (1 text)
Roud #38117
File: BAAI067B

Don't Ever Trust a Sailor

See When I Was Young; also Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: EM075)

Don't Forget Me, Little Darling (I)

DESCRIPTION: Lost love song recognized mostly by the title line. As one lover departs, the other notes that "you may meet with many changes... But remember, little darling, you are ever in my dreams." The singer says (she) will be true
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love separation floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 733, "Don't Forget Me, Little Darling" (4 texts, 2 tunes, with the "D" text belonging here; "A" and "B" are "Greenback Dollar" and "C" probably composite)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 47, "Don't Forget Me, Little Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 163, "Don't Forget Me, Little Darling" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 163, "Don't Forget Me, Little Darling" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "Don't Forget Me Little Darling" (ARC 60-01-59/Conqueror 8636/Vocalion 04390/OKeh 04390/Columbia 20235, Columbia 37636, 1935)
Tom Darby & Jimmie Tarlton, "Little Bessie" (Columbia 15492-D, 1929) [this song, despite the title)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Greenback Dollar" (plot, floating lyrics)
cf. "Maple on the Hill" (floating lyrics)
File: BrII163

Don't Forget Me, Little Darling (II)

See Greenback Dollar (File: R733)

Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of troubles with ex-sweetheart. She says he is the "meanest boy that ever lived or died." Later, she throws her arms around him "like grapevines round a gum." At his last visit, she had "Johnny's arms around her, and the baby on the floor."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Fields and/or Crockett Ward)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of troubles with ex-sweetheart; he goes to see her but she says he is the "meanest boy that ever lived or died." He goes again; she throws her arms around him "like grapevines round a gum." He tells listeners to tell her "if she goes to make her bread, to wash her nasty hands" and that "if she don't like my way of doin', to get some other fella." The last time he's seen her, she had "Johnny's arms around her, and the baby on the floor."
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness loneliness courting floatingverses dancetune baby lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 20, #5 (1971), p, 10, "Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind" (1 text, 1 tune, the J. E. Mainer version)
Roud #14067
RECORDINGS:
Allen Bros., "Ain't That Skippin' and Flyin'" (Columbia 15270-D, 1928) [see Notes]; "Skipping and Flying" (Victor V-40266, 1930/Bluebird B-5772, 1935; rec. 1928); "Skippin' and Flyin'", Vocalion 02939, 1935/ARC 6-12-57, 1936; rec. 1934) [see Notes]
Frank Blevins & his Tar Heel Rattlers, "Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind" (Columbia 15280-D, 1928; on Lost Prov1, GoinUpTown)
Sam Connor & Dent Wimmer, "Don't Get Trouble in Mind" (instrumental) (on OldTrad1, FarMtns1)
Grayson County RailSplitters, "Ain't That Trouble in Mind" (on StuffDreams1)
Mainer's Mountaineers, "Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind" (Bluebird B-7289, 1937)
Fields [and/or Crockett] Ward [& the Grayson County Railsplitters] "Ain't That Trouble in Mind" (OKeh 45304, 1929; rec. 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pig at Home in the Pen" (floating verse)
cf. "Shady Grove", "Darling Corey" (floating phrase)
cf. "Liza Jane" (floating verses)
cf. ""Willy, Poor Boy" (floating verses)
NOTES [216 words]: While one verse and a phrase float, most of the rest of the song is original; the verses sound like floaters but aren't. If, as I suspect, Frank Blevins wrote the piece, it was a remarkable achievement; it's a brilliant song, his fiddling was superb, and he was all of fifteen years old when he recorded. - PJS
It appears to me that this song is actually closest to "Liza Jane"; a Stanley Brothers version has several stanzas in common with this piece. But it does appear to be at least an adaption of that framework. - RBW
I don't think so; Liza Jane is much more a collection of floaters, whereas this has a unifying theme of the singer's rejection by the girl. If the Stanley Brothers' version of "Liza Jane" -- recorded decades later -- includes overlapping verses, my guess is they were taken from this song, rather than the other way around.
Well, here's a conundrum; the Allen Bros. "Ain't That Skippin' and Flyin'" uses an identical tune with "Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind," but the verses are floaters, without the implicit plot of this song. Frank Blevins's recording of, "Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind" was made first -- by three days, and for the same record company. But then, the Ward recording predates both, and its title splits the difference. Its words are floaters as well. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcDGTIYM

Don't Get Weary

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Don't get weary, Angels brought the tidings down, Don't get weary, I'm hunting for a home." Verses are about judgment day: "world on fire" "elements melting" "moon bleeding" "stars falling"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 114, "Don't Get Weary (My Brethren, Don't Get Weary)" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 180 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #12051
NOTES [35 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "I do love the Lord." While the verse themes are common I don't recognize any floating verses. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett114

Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal)

DESCRIPTION: "Massa had a yellow gal, He brought her from the south, Her hair it curled so very tight She couldn't shut her mouth." "He took her to a tailor" to repair her defect; "She swallowed up the tailor." Now he uses her nose "to hang his hat and coat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1860 (broadside, LOCSinging sb10148a)
KEYWORDS: slave humorous floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 903-904, "Massa Had a Yellow Gal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 406, "Massa Had a Yaller Gal" (1 text plus 2 fragments; the one full text consists mostly of floating verses); also 405, "Dearest Mae" (the "C" excerpt contains the first verse of this song)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 406, "Massa Had a Yaller Gal" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 66-68, "Ole Mars'r Had a Yaller Gal," "Ol' Mars'r Had a Pretty Yaller Gal," "Massa Had a Yaller Gal" (2 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune); also p. 110, "Dar Was a Gal in our Town" (1 short text, with the "don't get weary" chorus though Scarborough links it with "Old Virginny Never Tire")
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #80, "Shoo Fly" (1 short text, 1 tune, lumped with "Shoo Fly" by Roud because it has the single chorus line "Shoo fly, don't you bother me" but which is otherwise "Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal)")
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #129, "Shoo Fly (Cindy)" (1 text, 1 tune, which Roberts considers to be "Cindy" but which starts with the "Mass had a yeller gal" verses of "Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal)" and has other floating verses)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 112, "Coloured Girl from the South" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 27 and #4/64, p. 27, "Gal from the South" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 355, [no title] (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 481, "Massa Had a Yaller Gal" (source notes only)
ST BAF904 (Full)
Roud #11744
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon [w. McGee Bros.], "Don't Get Weary Children" (Decca 5369, 1937; Montgomery Ward 8029, 1939; Champion 45048; rec. 1934)
Kirk & Sam McGee, "Coming from the Ball" (on McGeeSmith1)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, sb10148a, "Gal From the South," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb" (floating verses)
cf. "Letter from Down the Road" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Ain't Got Time to Tarry
NOTES [147 words]: The version printed in Botkin has almost a ballad flavor; it is the exaggerated story of how a master dealt with a physically unusual slave. Dave Macon has a fuller version, "Don't Get Weary Children." The latter has a much larger set of verses, and might be a separate song -- but who knows how much of it comes from Uncle Dave's imagination?
The texts in Brown don't help much, either; two are fragments and the third a collection of floating verses. Scarborough's several versions also show much diversity. Probably the likeliest explanation is that the original is the printed "Gal from the South," which was modified in oral tradition and then was further "Uncle Dave-ified." - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb10148a: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BAF904

Don't Get Weary, We'll Get Home By and By

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Don't get weary (3x), We'll get home by and by." Verses: "O we'll break this bread (shout and talk, sing and shout) together (x2), On the other side of Jordan, We'll get home by and by"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 40, "We'll Git Home By and By" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [304 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text.
The song indexed as "Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal)" includes some texts with a chorus that has the form -- with a different tag line -- of the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text for this hymn and the Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates text for "O Brothers, Don't Get Weary." The tunes do not match the one sung for "Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal)" by Uncle Dave Macon or Kirk & Sam McGee, but there is likely a connection between those songs and a hymn like these via the music hall or minstrel show. "Don't Get Weary, Children," "as sung by Johnny Roach" is a minstrel-show type of song with a half verse "When de sun rise in de mornin', Down by de yellow corn, Dat's de time de larks take warnin', When Dinah blows de horn!" and chorus "Oh, don't get weary, don't get weary children, Don't get weary, because I'm gwine home" ( Wehman's Collection of 95 Songs No. 2 (New York, n.d., "digitized by Internet Archive"), p. 39). Neither Wehman nor Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs "Dar Was a Gal in our Town" -- the other "Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal)" text in this form -- include tunes.
Incidentally, the tune played by Macon and the McGees is also played by Fiddlin' John Carson as "The Old Grey Horse Ain't What He Used To Be" (OK 45471, 1930) but -- since that recording is partly a spoken comedy routine about an old horse -- I don't know if Carson changed the name of his tune to fit the routine; we have another well known "Out of the Wilderness" tune for "Old Grey Mare" (I) (where you'll find Carson's recording indexed). I'm speculating that one of these hymns was minstrelized: its chorus taken, pseudo-Black verses added, and all put to a lively two-part fiddle tune. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa040

Don't Give Us a Make and Mend, Sir

DESCRIPTION: "Don't give us a Make and Mend, sir, We might come over faint. There's not many 'Jimmies" like you, sir, It's a bloody good job there ain't."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor request
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 116, "Don't Give Us a Make and Mend, Sir" (1 short text)
File: Tawn116

Don't Go Down in the Mine, Dad

See (notes to) The Dream of the Miner's Child (File: R859)

Don't Go in Them Lion's Cage Tonight Mother

DESCRIPTION: "A lady once had a lovely daughter, The lady was an actress on the stage" who performed with lions. One day the daughter warns her mother not to perform, but the mother is attacked by a lion. A young man rescues the mother; he marries the daughter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: animal warning mother children marriage humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 32-33, "The Lion's Cage" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 100-101, "Don't Go in them Lion's Cage Tonight, Mother" (1 text)
Roud #9629
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Don't Go in Them Lion's Cage Tonight Mother
NOTES [61 words]: Sort of a combination of "The Dream of the Miner's Child" and "The Lady of Carlisle" [Laws O25]. I suspect it's derived from one or the other, but I don't know which.
SIgmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America p. 351, calls this a turn of the century "burlesque... which John Gilroy and E. Ray Goetz interpolated in the Blue Moon of Paul Rubens." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: WarE022

Don't Go Out Tonight, My Darling

DESCRIPTION: The wife pleads: "Don't go out tonight, my darling, Do not leave me here alone... Though the wine-cup may be tempting And your friends are full of glee... Darling, won't you stay with me?" But he goes out, and is carried home (dead?)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Grayson & Whitter; manuscript version from 1889?)
KEYWORDS: drink husband wife separation
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 339, "Don't Go Out Tonight, My Darling" (1 text)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 103-104, "Don't Go Out Tonight, My Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 26, "Don't Go Out Tonight, My Darling" (3 texts)
Roud #3521
RECORDINGS:
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Don't Go Out Tonight, My Darling" (Victor 21139, 1927)
Uncle Henry's Original Kentucky Mountaineers, "Don't Go Out Tonight My Darling" (Capitol 48036, 1949)
File: R339

Don't Go Ridin' Down That Old Texas Trail

DESCRIPTION: "Don't do ridin' down that old Texas trail (x2), Oh my darling, stay at home, don't go out alone." "Oh the nights are gettin mighty long... And I'm singin' you this song." "Oh, my darling, you done me wrong... Don't do riding down that old Texas trail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 15, "Don't Go Ridin' Down That Old Texas Trail."
Roud #4955
File: Rose015

Don't Go, Tommy

DESCRIPTION: "You'll miss it, my boy, now mind what I say, Don't spend all your money and time in that way." The aged parents beg Tommy not to go out carousing. They tell him to work, and remind him that they cared for him. Refrain" Don't go there, Tommy, don't go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Randolph); 19C (Wolf)
KEYWORDS: age family work nonballad gambling drink
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 857, "Don't Go, Tommy" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 163-164, "Don't You Go, Tommy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #511, p. 34, "Don't You Go, Tommy" (1 reference)
Roud #7531
File: R857

Don't Knock

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "You don't knock, you just walk in, The door to heaven's inn"; love joy and old friends are waiting; "don't knock ring push or hold." Verses are about the singer's certainty that, with Jesus as "my guide, ever by my side," entry to heaven is sure.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (recording, Staple Singers)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Reverend Ott and Family, "You Don't Knock, You Just Walk On In" (on USMississippi01)
Staple Singers, "Don't Knock" (Vee Jay 902, 1961)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
You Don't Knock
File: RcYDoKno

Don't Leave Me, Lord

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Don't leave me Lord (2x), Lord, don't leave me behind (2x)." Verses: "Jesus is my friend ... He will go with me to the end." "I don't want to stumble and I don't want to stop ... I don't want to be a stumbling block."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 31, "Don't Leave Me, Lord" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 117 in the 1901 edition)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Please Lord, Don't Leave Me" (chorus)
NOTES [24 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "Lord, don't leave me behind." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Dett031

Don't Leave Your Mother When Her Hair Turns Gray

DESCRIPTION: "Stick to your mother, Tom, And don't you leave her worry, lad." The singer, who lost his father at a young age, reminds Tom of how his mother cared for him. So Tom is advised to care for mother, even when her hair turns gray
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Osborne/Music: Ernest J. Symons (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: age mother sailor orphan
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 717, "Stick to Your Mother, Tom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7380
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm a Decent Boy from Ireland" (theme)
NOTES [19 words]: Apparently originally titled "Stick to Your Mother, Tom," but I've used the only title I found in tradition. - RBW
File: R717

Don't Let the Deal Go Down

See Don't Let Your Deal Go Down (File: CSW182)

Don't Let Your Deal Go Down

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses: "Been all around this whole round world... Anyplace I hang my hat/Feels like home to me"; "Left my little girl a'crying"; "Where did you get your high-top shoes" Chorus: "Don't let your deal go down/Till your last (g)old dollar is gone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Charlie Poole)
KEYWORDS: gambling nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 301, "High-Topped Shoes" (2 texts, both mixed; "A" is mostly "Pretty Little Foot" with verses from "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" while "B" is a hash of "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down," "More Pretty Girls Than One," "In the Pines," and others)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 301, "High-Topped Shoes" (2 tunes plus text excerpts, both of which have verses of this song)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 182-183, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 70, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues" (1 text)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #131, "Don't Let the Deal Go Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 285, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 144, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (1 text)
DT, DEALDOWN*
Roud #4854
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (OKeh 45096, 1927)
Lake Howard, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (Perfect 13151, 1935)
Dick Justice, "Old Black Dog" (Brunswick 395, c. 1929)
Kessinger Brothers, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (Brunswick 411, 1930)
Sam & Kirk McGee, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (on ClassOT)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (on NLCR01, NLCRCD1) (NLCR12)
W. Lee O'Daniel & the Light Crust Doughboys, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (Vocalion 03471, 1937)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues" (Columbia 15038-D, 1925; on CPoole01, CPoole05); (Columbia 15184-D, 1927)
Riley Puckett, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (Columbia 15448-D, 1929) (Bluebird B-6067, 1935)
Mike Seeger, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (on MSeeger01)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (OKeh 45054, 1926)
Stoneman Family, "The Black Dog Blues" (on Stonemans01)
Fields Ward, Glen Smith & Wade Ward, "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (on HalfCen1)
Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, "Don't Let the Deal Go Down" (Vocalion 05282, 1939; Columbia 37739, 1947)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In the Pines" (words)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Last Gold Dollar
High Top Shoes
NOTES [82 words]: The phrase "let your deal go down" refers to the Georgia Skin Game, a card game popular among gamblers in the first half of the 20th century. - PJS
There is a 1900 popular song, "Any Old Place I Can Hang My Hat Is Home Sweet Home to Me," words by William Jerome, music by Jean Schwartz. They are definitely not the same, but it looks as if one of them influenced the other. Perhaps someone heard one song (I don't know which), remembered only a few words, and built a new song out of it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CSW182

Don't Let Your Watch Run Down

DESCRIPTION: "Don' let yo' watch run down, Cap'n, Don' let yo' watch run down. Workin' on de levee, dollar an' half a day, Workin' for my Lulu, gettin' mo' dan pay." "...Workin on' de railroad, mud up to my knees, Workin' for my Lulu, she's a hard ole gal to please."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: railroading work hardtimes floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 370, "Don' Let Yo' Watch Run Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 247, "Don't Let Your Watch Run Down, Cap'n" (1 short text)
Roud #11641
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Working on the New Railroad" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Been All Around This World)" (floating verses)
File: San370

Don't Let Your Watch Run Down, Cap'n

See Don't Let Your Watch Run Down (File: San370)

Don't Lie, Buddy

DESCRIPTION: "Mammy Logan, she had a daughter And she run a cookshop down in Florida. How I know? God knows I been there, An I bought four pork chops -- for a quarter. A-don't lie, buddy, don't lie." A collection of semi-tall tales with a bluesy, bawdy feel
AUTHOR: (published versions adapted by Josh White?)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1945 (recording, Lead Belly & Josh White)
KEYWORDS: food lie courting animal talltale
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 295, "Don't Lie, Buddy" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Leadbelly & Josh White, "Don't Lie, Buddy" (Asch 432, rec. c. 1945)
File: LoF295

Don't Like a Rich White Man Nohow

See I Don't Like No Railroad Man (File: San326)

Don't Like Your Family

DESCRIPTION: "I don't like your family, They don't make a hit with me, I don't like to bother Lending money to your father, While your mother would live on me. I don't think your Uncle Joe Ever had a collar on." She is a lady, but the singer wants to marry an orphan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love family rejection orphan humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 52, "Don't Like Your Family" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11329
File: Brne052

Don't Marry the Mormon Boys

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Don't Never Marry a Drunkard

DESCRIPTION: "Seven long year I've done been married, I wish to God I was an old maid...." The woman marries a man who made fine promises, but now he won't work or care for the children; he spends his nights in a bar. The woman warns girls against marrying drunkards
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: drink marriage warning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 337, "Don't Never Marry a Drunkard" (1 text)
Roud #724
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Seven Long Years
File: R337

Don't Never Trust a Sailor (I)

See When I Was Young; also Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: EM075)

Don't Put Me Off At Buffalo Anymore

DESCRIPTION: "To see the Pan American I went to Buffalo." "I'd sooner visit some department store." "I'd see more sights on a Sunday night on the beach at Coney Isle." And besides that he is cheated and over-charged at every turn.
AUTHOR: William Jerome (see Notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: travel abuse ordeal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1901 - The Pan American Exposition held in Buffalo (where, although it is not mentioned in this song, William McKinley was shot)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #26319
RECORDINGS:
unknown singer, "Don't Put Me Off At Buffalo Anymore" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [205 words]: Article The Pan-American Exposition Selected Sources in the Grosvenor Room is a PDF accessed 11 Aug 2018 at the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library site https://www.buffalolib.org/sites/default/files/pdf/genealogy/subject-guides/Pan-Am.pdf. On page 15 it has two relevant sheet music references:
"Put Me Off at Buffalo. Comic Song and Refrain. Lyrics by Harry Dillon. New York: M. Witmar & Sons, 1895. On cover: 'The souvenir song of the Exposition' and 'The one and only Buffalo song'"
"Don't Put Me Off At Buffalo Anymore. lyrics by William Jerome. New York: Shapiro, Bernstein & Von Tilzer, 1901."
"Don't Put Me Off At Bufalo" is not a parody or continuation of the older song, but is an "answer" song. In "Put Me Off..." the singer takes a sleeper at Albany and asks the porter to wake him at Buffalo, where his wife is waiting with a rig. The porter gets drunk, tries to wake the wrong man, and the singer finally wakes when the train pulls into Cleveland. In "Don't Put Me Off..." the singer can think of no good reason to get off at Buffalo while the Exposition is there. For the text of "Put Me Off At Buffalo" see The Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection at http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/collection/058/147 . - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3DPOBA

Don't Run Down the Irish (My Father Was Born in Killlarney)

DESCRIPTION: "My father was born in Killarney, My mother was born in Cork; I've been taught to love old Ireland Ever since I could walk. So don't run down the Irish; If you do, you'll make me cry. For an Irishman I've always been, And an Irishman I'll die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: nonballad Ireland
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 224, "My Father was Born in Killarney" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MCB224

Don't Say No

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, my darling, don't say no, Onto the sofa you must go, Up with your petticoat, Down with your drawers, You tickle mine, And I'll tickle yours."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: bawdy clothes nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 67, "Don't Say No" (1 short text)
File: RuSoDoSN

Don't Sell Daddy Anymore Whiskey

DESCRIPTION: " Don't sell Daddy anymore whiskey, for I know it will take him away, We all are hungry and Mama is weeping, don't sell him no whiskey today." The child says father is kind when sober, but cruel when drunk, and begs the bartender to cut him off
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (recording, Betty Garland)
KEYWORDS: drink commerce abuse family
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Betty Garland, "Don't Sell Daddy Anymore Whiskey" (on BGarland01)
Judy Arrowwood, "Don't Sell Daddy Anymore Whiskey" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #210, recorded 08/04/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't Sell Him Any More Rum" (subject)
NOTES [33 words]: When Paul Stamler sent me this, he asked if it is the same as "Don't Sell Him Any More Rum." Obviously the plots are the same. The forms are different enough, though, that I decided to split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcDSDAMW

Don't Sell Him Any More Rum

DESCRIPTION: The girl appeals to the liquor-seller, "Don't sell him any more rum; He's reeling already, you see. I know when he comes home tonight He'll beat poor mama and me." The girl asks why the seller can't sell something "that won't make people so sad."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Giddens Sisters)
KEYWORDS: drink commerce abuse family
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 322, "Don't Sell Him Any More Rum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 273-275, "Don't Sell Him Any More Rum" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 322)
DT, DONTSELL*
Roud #7796
RECORDINGS:
James & Martha Carson, "Don't Sell Him Another Drink" (Capitol 57-40175, 1949)
Giddens Sisters, "Don't Sell Pa Anymore Rum" (OKeh 45143, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't Sell Daddy Any More Whiskey" (subject)
File: R322

Don't Send Me Home

DESCRIPTION: "Give me time, lots of time, in the COF Command, Don't send me home. Let me stay, far away, from the country that I love, Don't send me home. Let me stay in this land, on a long vacation... No, MacKenzie, don't send me home. (Just kidding.)"
AUTHOR: unknown (tune "Don't Fence Me In by Cole Porter, 1944)
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: home derivative soldier homesickness hardtimes exile
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 78, "Don't Send Me Home" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #29410
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't Fence Me In" (tune)
cf. "Alliford Bay" (tune)
File: Hopk078A

Don't Sing Love Songs

See The Silver Dagger (I) [Laws G21] (File: LG21)

Don't Speak To Me

DESCRIPTION: "Boys and girls take my advice Quit playing cards and shooting dice." "Don't drink no booze." "Don't be no thief, don't be no rogue." "Bad company you must shun." "Just keep right on and don't speak to me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: virtue crime theft gambling drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Lottie Kimbrough, "Don't Speak To Me" (on StuffDreams1)
File: RcDSptMe

Don't Stay After Ten

DESCRIPTION: "There is one thing I hate to say If ever you come again, To see me in my evening hours, You don't stay after ten." Last time he stayed late, and now her parents are on watch for the young man. Another mistake and it's over....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting family
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 375, "Don't Stay After Ten" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 16, "Don't Stay After Ten" (2 texts)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 83, "Don't Stay After Ten" (2 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Roud #4969
File: R375

Don't Stay Away, People

See Room Enough (File: JDM094)

Don't Strike Out the Top Line

DESCRIPTION: "Don't strike out the top line, Rub out the other two, Don't be ruled by fanatics, To liberty be true. Don't let silly weaklings rule Who can't themselves control, Don't let go your precious rights." "Hold fast by liberty, The watchword of our race."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (Ad in the Timaru Herald, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: drink political nonballad New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 95, "Don't Strike Out the Top Line" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Strike Out the Top Line" (subject of prohibition in New Zealand)
NOTES [360 words]: As Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ describe it, New Zealand voters had the option, every three years starting in 1894, to vote on prohibition, and they had three choices, from top to bottom:
CONTINUATION (maintaining the current number of liquor licenses)
REDUCTION (giving authorities the right to shut down up to a quarter of licenses)
NO LICENSE (complete elimination of alcohol)
Voting consisted of what is now called "approval voting" -- saying which choices were acceptable. This song tries to take advantage of that situation. If the vote for NO LICENSE failed to reach the three-fifths majority needed for approval, then those ballots which listed both NO LICENSE and REDUCTION would count toward REDUCTION. If, as was possible, some who were pro-liquor voted for CONTINUATION and REDUCTION (on the grounds that REDUCTION was better than shutting things down entirely) and some voted only for REDUCTION (on the grounds that they didn't object to drink but thought there were too many pubs), then by only "striking out the top line" the prohibitionists could at least earn a reduction, which (by their standards) was better than nothing.
It doesn't seem to have worked; in the 1896 poll, at least, CONTINUATION won easily, with NO LICENSE slightly ahead of REDUCTION.
Even when New Zealand fixed (?) the voting system, their relationship with liquor remained complicated. According to Gordon Ell, Kiwiosities: An A-Z of New Zealand traditions & Folklore, New Holland Publishers, 2008, p. 136, a phenomenon called "Booze Barns" eventually came about: "During the 1960s the perverse logic of the Licensing Control Commission re-allocated liquor licenses from many ageing corner pubs to new hotels in the suburbs, surrounded by car parking. To enjoy a drink you had to drive. Huge public bars, detached from motel-like accommodation, provided the venue for mass drinking... The idea of a quiet, sociable drink was stifled by rock bands and the milling throng. Such 'booze barns' have deservedly lost custom" as liquor laws made it easier for local pubs and restaurants to serve alcohol.
According to Ell, p. 74, the last "dry towns" gave up in 1999. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BaRo096

Don't Swat Your Mother, Boys

DESCRIPTION: Two brothers come home to find that dinner is not ready. One is about to hit his mother because she is slow. The youngest child tells them, "Don't swat you mother, boys, just because she is old." They beg forgiveness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988
KEYWORDS: family mother children violence food
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 128, "Don't Swat Your Mother, Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15690
NOTES [35 words]: When I first saw this song, I couldn't believe it was a folk song. But here it is again. I'm pretty sure it appears in some other book(s) we have indexed, because I saw it there -- but I can't locate it now. - RBW
File: PHCFS128

Don't Take Everybody to Be Your Friend

DESCRIPTION: Singer is traveling for Jesus. His dying mother told him, If you see your brother in the fault, don't gossip; take it to God. People who owe you money will turn away. Refrain: "Don't mind what the people say/Lord, don't take everybody to be your friend"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (recording, Frederick McQueen & group)
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness virtue warning dying religious mother Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
Frederick McQueen & group, "Jesus Will Be Your Friend" (on MuBahamas2)
NOTES [74 words]: I assign Joseph Spence's title, "Don't Take Everybody to Be Your Friend" rather than Frederick McQueen's earlier title, as the 1965 Spence recording is the one that was most widely heard and picked up within the folk revival. - PJS
The thrust of this is almost all out of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), with perhaps a slight detour into the story of the Good Samaritan, but the references are allusions rather than real citations. - RBW
File: RcDTEBYF

Don't Take the Shilling, Lad

DESCRIPTION: "Don't take the shilling, lad, Don't, for heaven's sake! Don't take the shilling or Your mother's heart will break. You're the only son that's left to me, Don't let us part... You'll break your mother's heart."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: love mother soldier separation money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 19, "(Don't take the shilling, lad)" (1 text)
Roud #37295
File: KSUC019A

Don't Talk About It

DESCRIPTION: "July the redbird (hah!), redbird, August the fly (hah!)...." "Now don't talk about it (huh!), Bout it, if you do I'll cry." The singer wakes up with shovel and hammer by his side. The food is cabbage, beans, corn bread.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: prison work food
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 382-383, "Don't Talk About It" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15588
RECORDINGS:
John Williams and Group, "On a Monday" (on VaWork)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Almost Done" (verse)
File: LoSi382

Don't Tell a Lie

See Oh, How He Lied (File: FSWB031B)

Don't Tell Little Lulu

DESCRIPTION: "Don't you tell little Lulu what road you left me on, Though she be ridin' ridin', I'll be gone on home.... Look over here and wonder wonder, Lulu see me, fall fall from my shoulder from me knees on down, I am on a new cut road, Don't write me li'l Lulu"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: separation reunion
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 96-97, "Don't Tell Little Lulu" (1 text, 1 tune, which looks like a blues variation on a theme rather than a coherent song)
File: NCF162G

Don't This Road Look Rough and Rocky

See (notes under) Darling, I Have Come to Tell You (Farewell Nellie, Little Bunch of Roses, Many Miles Apart, Don't This Road Look Rough and Rocky) (File: BrS5689)

Don't Throw Your Dust

See One Bottle of Pop (File: DTpopbot)

Don't Throw Your Junk

See One Bottle of Pop (File: DTpopbot)

Don't Turn Around

See Keep On a-Walking (Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round) (File: SBoA374)

Don't Wed an Old Man

See Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man (File: K207)

Don't Whistle So Loud

See Micky O'Dowd (File: KSUC106B)

Don't Ya Heah Jerusalem Moan?

See Don't You Hear Jerusalem Mourn? (File: RcDYHJM)

Don't You Feel the Fire A-Burning

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Don't you feel the fire a-burning, Yyou feel the fire a-burning (x2, So precious to your soul. Rise and give to glory, Shout Hallelujah, So precious to your soul") Verse replaces the leading "don't" with "My brother (sister,...)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 20, "Don't You Feel the Fire A-Burnin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [12 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa020

Don't You Go, Tommy

See Don't Go, Tommy (File: R857)

Don't You Grieve After Me (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes various adventures: Being found by the police with a wallet not his own, sleeping in a hotel and being declared a deadbeat. Chorus: When I'm gone, Don't you, don't you grieve (x3), An' I told him not to grieve after me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915
KEYWORDS: rambling crime travel floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 257, "Don't You Grieve After Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 220-222, "Don't You Grieve After Me" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 257)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 556, "Bye and Bye" (1 fragment, possibly not this but too short to classify as anything else)
Roud #6698
RECORDINGS:
Loman D. Cansler, "I Told 'em Not to Grieve After Me" (on Cansler1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't You Weep After Me" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Told Him Not to Grieve After Me
NOTES [21 words]: Alan Lomax claims -- on the basis of a few words in the chorus -- that this is the same as "When I'm Gone." I don't buy it. - RBW
File: R257

Don't You Grieve After Me (II)

See Don't You Weep After Me (File: R262)

Don't You Grieve for Me

DESCRIPTION: "My sister's took her flight, And gone home, And the angel's waiting at the door." "Tell all-a-my Father's children, don't you grieve for me." "She has taken up her crown." Presumably can be repeated for other relatives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: religious death nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 58, "Don't You Grieve for Me" (1 text)
Roud #12089
File: FSAN058A

Don't You Hear Jerusalem Moan?

See Don't You Hear Jerusalem Mourn? (File: RcDYHJM)

Don't You Hear Jerusalem Mourn?

DESCRIPTION: Describes the foibles of various denominations of preachers; a Baptist has a bottle in his pocket, etc. Chorus: "Don't you hear Jerusalem Mourn?...Thank God for the heaven bells a-ringin' and my soul starts singin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Bill Chitwood & Bud Landress)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Describes the foibles of various denominations of preachers; a Baptist has a bottle in his pocket, a Hardshell "never chews his own tobacco nor drinks his own booze," a Presbyterian is stiff-necked, a Holy Roller "gets them all a-rolling then he kicks the lights out." Chorus: "Don't you hear Jerusalem Mourn?...Thank God for the heaven bells a-ringin' and my soul starts singin'"
KEYWORDS: sex drink humorous nonballad clergy
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 64-65, "Don't Ya Heah Jerusalem Moan?" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JERUSLEM*
Roud #4945
RECORDINGS:
Warren Caplinger's Cumberland Mountain Entertainers, "Jerusalem Mourn" (Vocalion 5240, 1928)
Bill Chitwood & Bud Landress, "Jerusalem Mourn" (Brunswick 2809, 1925)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Can't You Hear Jerusalem Moan" (Columbia 15104-D, 1926)
Cas Wallin, "Jerusalem Mourn" (on OldTrad1, FarMtns3)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Don't You Hear Jerusalem Moan?
NOTES [20 words]: This seems to be a distant parody of a spiritual, "Jerusalem Mourning", recorded in 1910. I suspect a minstrel origin. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcDYHJM

Don't You Hear My Hammer Ringing

DESCRIPTION: Chain-gang work song, with chorus line, "Oh don't you hear my hammer ringing?" The song complains about present work conditions, describes the career of Noah, and talks about his hammer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: work worksong chaingang Bible floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 99-101, (no title) (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 406-407, "Don't You Hear My Hammer Ringing" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Take This Hammer" (lyrics)
cf. "Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep" (lyrics)
cf. "Oh, Lord, How Long" (lyrics)
cf. "Hammer Ring"
NOTES [43 words]: Courlander gives this as a single song, but it appears to me to be a combination of other songs. Very likely the gang leader just assembled the text from other songs (with a little glue of his own); it probably does not exist in tradition as an entity. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: CNFM099

Don't You Hear That Jaybird Call

DESCRIPTION: "Don't you hear that jaybird call -- Don't you hear them dead sticks fall? He's a throwin' down firewood for we-all, All on a Friday morning."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Raleigh Times, June 20, 1969, according to NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: bird
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Joseph D. Clark, "North Carolina Popular Beliefs and Superstitions," Vol. XVIII, No. 1 (Jan 1970 Special Issue), p. 66, "Don't you hear that jaybird call" (1 text)
NOTES [69 words]: NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal identifies this as a fragment of a folk song, so it's indexed even though there is very little genuine source information.
The same article connects it with a legend that jays were servants of the devil and reported to their master on Fridays. Possibly sticks were connected with this legend. The connection seems reasonable but, without more of the song, I think this beyond proof. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: NCF181DH

Don't You Hurry Worry with Me

DESCRIPTION: "Don't you hurry worry with me (x3), I'm gonna pack your eyes with sand." "If you tell me that again...." "Mr. Munson he get broke...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 87, "Don't You Hurry Worry with Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15649
File: LxSi087

Don't You Know (Way Over in Williamson)

DESCRIPTION: "Don't you know Billy Bryan will never get there? Don't you know? (x2) Billy McKinley will fill the chair.... Way over in Williamson, away over in the county where we grow...." "Don't you know Henry Jones will be our next clerk...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (Bryan/McKinley election); field collection 1934 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad money gold
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1896 - Republican William McKinley wins the presidential election over William Jennings Bryan
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 19-20, "Way Over in Williamson)
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 408-410, "Don't You Know" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15137
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Free Silver" (subject of William Jennings Bryan and the 1896 election) and references there
NOTES [62 words]: The song is correct. William Jennings Bryan ran for President three times but was never elected. For some background on Bryan, and the Cross of Gold, and his three presidential runs, see "Free Silver." The silver issue is alluded to in this song, in the statement, "Sixteen to one makes the gold bug shiver." For that, too, see "Free Silver"; also, "Bye, Old Grover." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: RDBW408

Don't You Leave Me Here

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses: "Don't you leave me here...If you must go...leave me a dime for beer." "I've never had one woman... I've always had six, seven, eight or nine." "The rooster crowed... Saying, 'If you want to taste my fricassee you got to run me down."
AUTHOR: Possibly Jelly Roll Morton
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: loneliness sex bragging abandonment parting separation money drink floatingverses nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 239, (no title) (1 short text)
RECORDINGS:
Charles Johnson's Original Paradise Ten, "Don't You Leave Me Here" (Victor 20653, 1927; on Protobilly)
Yas Yas Girl [pseud. for Merline Johnson], "Don't You Leave Me Here" (Conqueror 9079, 1938)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alabama Bound (II)" (floating verses)
NOTES [87 words]: Norm Cohen tells Paul Stamler that "Don't You Leave Me Here," a song sung by Jelly Roll Morton, not only shares lyrics with but is a version of "Alabama Bound (II)". We leave the question open. - (PJS, RBW)
Scarborough's text certainly has references to being Alabama Bound, but the form is rather different:
Don't you leave me here,
Don't you leave me here!
I'm Alabama bound,
I'm Alabama bound.
Don't you leave me here!
Ef you do de train don't run.
I got a mule to ride,
I got a mule to ride,
Don't you leave me here. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcDYLMH

Don't You Like It

DESCRIPTION: "Don't you like it (x2), Here my collar, come and shake it, You think you's big because you been on the boat, You passed me by like a she nanny goat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (collected from Annie Brewer)
KEYWORDS: nonballad clothes animal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 76, "Don't You Like It?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #15646
File: LxSi076

Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Don't You Mind What The Devil Does

DESCRIPTION: "(Don't you mind what the (devil/Reverend/lawyer/deacon/hypocrit) does, Don't you mind) (x2) Don't you mind what the (...) does, He can't get to Heaven and he won't let you, Don't you mind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Devil
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 320-321, "Don't Yuh Min' W'at duh Debble Do" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR320D

Don't You Remember

See Charming Beauty Bright [Laws M3] (File: LM03)

Don't you remember sweet Alice? (Ben Bolt)

See Ben Bolt (File: RJ19030)

Don't You Want To Go

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: ("Let's go down to Jordan"(3x) "Hallellujah") (2x) Verse: "Brother (sister, sinner), don't you want to go"(3x) "Come let's go down to Jordan, Hallelujah"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 31, "Don't You Want To Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Bart031A

Don't You Weep After Me

DESCRIPTION: "When I'm dead and buried don't you weep after me (x3).... I don't want you to weep after me." Unrelated verses about death: "On the good ship of Zion"; "King Peter is my Captain"; "Bright angels are the sailors"; "When I do cross over"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad Bible funeral
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph 262, "Jacob's Ladder" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment so short that it can only tentatively be classified with this piece; see also "Jacob's Ladder")
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 527, "Don't You Grieve After Me" (2 texts plus a fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 527, "Don't You Grieve After Me" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 35, "Don't You Weep After Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 9, (no title) (1 fragment)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 350, "Don't You Weep After Me" (1 text)
ST R262 (Full)
Roud #2286
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Don't You Weep after Me" (on PeteSeeger26)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jacob's Ladder" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Don't You Grieve After Me (I)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Oh, They Put John on the Island" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Gospel Ship (III)" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
On My Journey
Don't You Grieve After Me
When I'm Dead and Buried
NOTES [27 words]: Both the Randolph fragment and Brown's "A" text and "B" fragment are linked to "Jacob's Ladder." It is not clear whether this link is original or coincidental. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R262

Don't Yuh Min' W'at duh Debble Do

See Don't You Mind What The Devil Does (File: HPR320D)

Dona Dona

DESCRIPTION: "On a wagon bound for market There's a calf with a mournful eye. High above him there's a swallow Winging swiftly through the sky." The farmer tells the calf that, if it wants to fly, it should be a swallow. But those who treasure freedom has/must fly
AUTHOR: Yiddish Words: Aaron Zeitlin / Music: Sholom Secunda / usual English translation: Arthur Kevess and Teddi Schwartz
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Yiddish drama "Esterke," according to Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: cattle bird nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 551, 554, "Donna Donna" (notes only)
DT, DONADONA
RECORDINGS:
The Crofut Family, "Dona, Dona" (Piotr-Archive #675, recorded 09/17/2023)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dana Dana
Dos Kelbi
דאנא דאנא
דאס קעלבל
NOTES [114 words]: I can't vouch for its authority, but the Wikipedia article on this song ("Dona, Dona") is well worth reading. It is particularly poignant that such a song was written in Yiddish at the height of Nazi success.
I don't know what it says that most "folk" versions call this by the name "Dona Dona" (which seems to have been the original English title) and most "pop" versions call it "Donna Donna."
The last line seems to have developed an oral variant. Should it be "But whoever treasure freedom Like the swallow HAS learned to fly" (the way I learned it, probably from the Chad Mitchell Trio) or "...must learn to fly"? It matters a great deal to whether one is "blaming the victim." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ACSF551D

Dona Nobis Pacem

DESCRIPTION: Latin round: "Dona nobis pacem, pacem, Dona nobis pa...cem."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Sanders-SingHighSingLow)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad | peace
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 446, "Dona Nobis Pacem" (notes only)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, p. 12, "Dona Nobis Pacem" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 34, "Dona Nobis Pacem" (1 text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 7, "Dona Nobis Pacem" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, pp. 45-46, "Dona Nobis Pacem" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 22, "Dona Nobis Pacem" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Dona Nobis Pacem" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, on inside back cover) (12th edition, p. 93)
RECORDINGS:
The Crofut Family, "Dona Nobis Pacem" (Piotr-Archive #678, recorded 09/17/2023)
NOTES [77 words]: There is a lot of folklore about this song, e.g. that the tune is by Mozart; although it is believed to go back for many centuries, there is no evidence for that claim. It is not really Biblical (although you'll often see hymnals link it with one or another Biblical verse that uses the word "peace"); the phrase "Dona nobis pacem," "GIve us peace," is used in the Latin Agnes Dei mass. It is unusual in that the Latin has been translated back into Hebrew! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ACSF446D

Donagh Hill

DESCRIPTION: "On the eighth of November In the year of '68" there was a hare hunt on Donagh Hill "on Colonel Madden's estate." "Tally Ho, Hark away." The route is described, the dogs named. The hare tires. The hunters plan to let it go but Gaynor makes the kill.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (IRHardySons)
KEYWORDS: death hunting animal dog moniker Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #17893
RECORDINGS:
Red Mick McDermott, "Donagh Hill" (on IRHardySons)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)" (form, hunting theme)
cf. "The Hare's Dream" (form, hunting theme)
NOTES [24 words]: The Notes for "Killafole Boasters" discuss the practice of letting the hare, or fox, that has led a good chase, live to be hunted another day. - BS
File: RcDonHil

Donahue's Spree

DESCRIPTION: "Now come all you young men that wish for to travel Through hedges, through mud, and through dirt and much gravel"; the singer will tell you about the wild party, Donahue's Spree. The singer tells the story of "a lad in the corner" and the work he's done
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ives-LarryGorman)
KEYWORDS: party travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 72-74, "Donahue's Spree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25121
File: LaGoDoSp

Donal Og

See Donall Og (Young Donald) (File: K031)

Donal Ogue

See Donall Og (Young Donald) (File: K031)

Donal' Blue

See Whiskey Is My Name (Donald Blue) (File: HHH835)

Donal' Don

DESCRIPTION: "Wha hasna heard o' Donal' Don, Wi' all his tanterwallops on; I trow, he was a lazy drone, And smuggled Hieland whisky, O." Donal, abandoned long ago by his love, lives a poor and isolated life, without a change of shirt, but all appreciate his whiskey
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: drink loneliness humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 180-181, "Donal' Don" (1 text)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 52, "Donal Don" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13125
File: FVS180

Donald and Glencoe

See MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe) [Laws N39] (File: LN39)

Donald and His Mither

DESCRIPTION: Donald invites a lass to marry and "sit beside young Donald's mither." If she deny him he'd sulk and "cuddle wi' my mither." She agrees "and I'll lie between you and your mither." Donald kicks his mother out of bed "and has fairly noo forgot his mither"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan4); 19C (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.26(382))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage sex humorous mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 849, "Come Awa' Wi' Me, Lassie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6250
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(382), "Donald and His Mither" ("Come, my lass, and be nae blate"), J. Scott (Pittenweem), 19C; also 2806 c.15(282), 2806 c.14(112), Harding B 25(537), "Donald and His Mither"
Murray, Mu23-y1:013, "Donald and His Mither," J. Bristow (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(088), "Donald and His Mither" ("Come my lass and be nae blate"), unknown, c.1875
NOTES [46 words]: Greig/Duncan4 is only the chorus; broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(088) is the basis for the description. For another example of a not-so-innocent ballad reduced to an innocent ditty see "Ye Ken Pretty Well What I Mean, O" as Greig/Duncan1 50, "Green Leaves So Green." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4849

Donald Blue

See Whiskey Is My Name (Donald Blue) (File: HHH835)

Donald Campbell

DESCRIPTION: "Once I loved a fair young jockey; Donald Campbell was his name, Until it pleased God for to take him, Then a mourner I became." While racing the horse "Luna," Campbell is thrown and killed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957
KEYWORDS: death racing horse
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 93, "Donald Campbell" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wayfaring Stranger" (tune & meter)
cf. "Tom Corrigan (theme)
cf. "The Death of Alec Robertson" (theme)
cf. "Alec Robertson (I)" (theme)
cf. "Alec Robertson (II)" (theme)
File: MA093

Donald Duck

DESCRIPTION: "Donald Duck is a one-legged, one-legged, one-legged duck" (sung while hopping on one foot). Then "...is a two.legged duck" (while hopping on two feet), then "three-legged" (add a hand), then four, concluding "Donald Duck is a duck"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad bird jumprope | Donald Duck leg foot counting
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 104, "(Donald Duck is a one-legged, one-legged, one-legged duck") (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 56, "Donald Duck" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #49, "(Donald Duck is a one-legged, one-legged, one-legged duck)"; #74, "(Donald Duck is a one-legged, one-legged, one-legged duck)"; #149, "(Little Orphan Annie goes one foot, one foot)" (3 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #111, "Donald Duck is a one-legged, one-legged, one-legged duck"; #317, "Little Orphan Annie (teddy bear) goes one foot, one foot"; #329, "Little white rabbit, hop on one foot, one foot" (3 tests)
Roud #19311 and 19283
NOTES [44 words]: Roud splits the "Donald Duck" and "Little Orphan Annie" versions of this (the former is #19311, the latter #19283), but the form is so close that I think they have to be regarded as one. Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes has entries for both but cross-references them.. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: McIn104A

Donald Monroe [Laws J12]

DESCRIPTION: Monroe leaves Ireland for America, leaving his boys in Scotland because he cannot pay their fare. Years later the boys join the British army and sail to America. There the boys are killed by rebels, one of them their father; there is a sorrowful parting
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1778 (chapbook)
KEYWORDS: emigration family soldier reunion death battle parting
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws J12, "Donald Monroe"
Logan-APedlarsPack pp. 413-415, "Munro's Tragedy" (1 text)
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 51, "Daniel Monroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 51, "Daniel Monroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, pp. 113-114, "Two Sons of North Britain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 157, "Donald Monroe" (1 fragment)
Peacock, pp. 812-816, "Donald Munro" (2 texts, 3 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 37, "Daniel Monroe" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 61, "Donald Munro" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 131, "Donald Munro" (1 text)
DT 395, DANMONRO*
Roud #521
RECORDINGS:
Francis O'Brien, "Daniel Monroe" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Edward Primroy, "Daniel Monroe" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Albert Roche, "Donald Monroe" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Monica Rossiter, "Daniel Monroe" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mrs Thomas Walters, "Donald Munro" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(538), "Donald Munro's Tragedy," Stephenson (Gateshead), 1821-1850; also Harding B 11(2599), "Donald Monro"; 2806 c.14(71), "Donald Munro"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sons of Lord Bateman
You Sons of North Britain
File: LJ12

Donald Munro

See Donald Munroe [Laws J12] (File: LJ12)

Donald o' Dundee

DESCRIPTION: "Young Donald is the blythest lad That e'er made love to me; Whene'er he's by, my heart is glad; He seems so gay and free. Then on his pipes he plays so sweet...." She has been courted by Sandy, but loves only Donald, who has now offered to wed her
AUTHOR: David Vedder (1789-1854) (source: Greig/Duncan5)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(184))
KEYWORDS: love courting ring marriage beauty music
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 306-307, "Donald o' Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan5 995, "Donald o' Dundee" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 60, "Donald o' Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6716
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(184), "Donald of Dundee" ("Young Donald is the blithest lad"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Johnson Ballads 48, Johnson Ballads 49, Harding B 11(931), Johnson Ballads fol. 26[some words illegible], Harding B 25(539), "Donald of Dundee"; Firth c.26(33), Firth b.26(106), "Young Donald of Dundee"
NLScotland, RB.m.168(147), "Donald of Dundee" ("Young Donald is the blithest lad"), J. Pitts, London, 1820-1844; also L.C.Fol.70(31b), "Donald o' Dundee," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1870
NOTES [14 words]: Broadsides NLScotland RB.m.168(147) and Bodleian Harding B 25(539) are duplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: FVS306

Donald of Glencoe

See MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe) [Laws N39] (File: LN39)

Donald Og

See Donall Og (Young Donald) (File: K031)

Donald's Adventure

DESCRIPTION: Donald, behind in his rent, organizes a cattle drive to an English fair where prices are good. He sells the cattle but is met on his way home by a robber who takes the money. By a trick Donald captures the robber, wins a reward, and pays off his lease.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan2)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Donald was a poor man, behind in his rent. He organized a drive, with his own and his neighbors' cattle, to an English fair where the price would be good. He armed himself with a sword, completed the drive, sold the cattle and started for home. On the way he met a robber who held Donald up at sword-point. Donald gave him the money but complained that he would not be able to explain the loss to his friends. The robber said he would give his usual proof by cutting off one of his victim's hands. Donald asked that his hand be cut off against a tree root rather than on the ground. Donald bared his wrist and as the robber struck moved his hand so that the sword stuck on the tree. Donald beat the disarmed robber, tied him up and took him to town. In town the robber was recognized "for lang his deeds o' horror Had kept the countryside in terror." Donald collected a twenty guinea reward while the robber "wis tried, condemned and hung." He paid off the laird and "wis soon a man o' means himsel'."
KEYWORDS: poverty violence travel execution robbery trial trick injury money commerce England Scotland animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 269, "Donald's Adventure" (1 text)
Roud #5832
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Highland Tale
File: GrD2269

Donald's Return to Glencoe

See MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe) [Laws N39] (File: LN39)

Donald's Safe Come Back Again

DESCRIPTION: Donald returns to Meg from war with Abercrombie after losing a leg. He says "If her I can protect again, Claymore in hand I'll leave the north Though legless I come back again"
AUTHOR: Adam Cameron
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: love war return injury Scotland
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 94, "Donald's Safe Come Back Again" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 258-259, "Back Again" (1 tune)
Roud #5791
NOTES [236 words]: Greig/Duncan1 quoting Christie, Traditional Ballad Airs: "'The Ballad, "Back again," is said to have been composed by a Lamp-maker in Aberdeen of the name of Watson, and was a great favourite in Scotland, after the death of General Sir Ralph Abercromby at Aboukir Bay.' He died on 28 March 1801."
Christie's four eight-line verses include, with minor changes, all the text of the Greig/Duncan1 four four-line verses. - BS
So strong is the British historical bent toward the navy that, in checking four histories of the Napoleonic Wars and two encyclopedic histories, I found only one that mentions Abercrombie, though all of them mention the Naval victory at Aboukir Bay in 1798. (That, after all, involved Nelson.)
But it was the land expedition under Abercrombie which finally drove the French from Egypt. According to Michael Glover, The Napoleonic Wars: An Illustrated History 1792-1815Hippocreme, 1978. 1979, p. 82. Abercrombie's forces had been based in Gibraltar. He took roughly 15,000 men to Turkey so that the Ottomans could cooperate in the expedition. Abercrombie and his subordinate John Moore managed to cooperate well with the navy, and they succeeded in making a landing in Aboukir Bay on March 7, 1801. Abercrombie suffered his mortal wound two weeks later, on March 21, at the Battle of Alexandria. His successor General Hutchinson would take Cairo in June and receive the French surrender. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1094

Donald's Visit to Glasgow

DESCRIPTION: Donald and his wife go to Glasgow and see things they cannot understand: a poor man and horse unmoving in the street, a devil counting the hours, strange women's clothing, two men carrying a woman in a barrow...
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: travel humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 292, "Donald's Visit to Glasgow" (1 text)
Roud #5858
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paddy's Ramble to London" (theme: country folk in town)
cf. "Paddy's Voyage to Glasgow" (theme: country folk in town)
NOTES [121 words]: Greig/Duncan2, quoting MacGregor, "John Highlandman's Remarks on Glasgow" in The Collected Writings of Dougal Graham (1883), explains most of the sights that puzzle Donald and his wife. For example, the poor man on a horse is "the equestrian statue of King William III.... The classical style of dress, including primitive sandals ['The brogues be worn aff's feet and me see a his taes.'] ... gave rise to the idea ... that His Majesty was a 'poor man.'"; "the deil chap the hoors" refers to "a clock [on record] on which a figure of the 'Deil' was shown as 'chapping' the hours."; the strange women's clothing refer to the styles of the time and the men carrying a woman is "a long drawn out description of a sedan chair." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2292

Donall Og (Young Donald)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic or English: Singer tells her lover Donal to take her with him, that he'll be well taken care of. She reproaches him for breaking his promise; he says she has ignored him. She says that he is always in her mind, and has taken her past and her future
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hoagland)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Gaelic or English: Singer tells her lover, Donall Og (young Donald) to take her with him on his travels, that he'll be well taken care of (and sleep with the Greek king's daughter). She reproaches him for breaking his promise; he replies that she has rejected and ignored him. She says that he is always in her mind, even in the church where she should be thinking of Christ's passion. She says he has taken her past and her future, and perhaps will even take away God himself
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness love request rejection farewell parting travel abandonment lover foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 31, "Donall Og [Young Donald]" (1 text in Irish Gaelic + translation, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 238-240, "Donall Oge: Grief of a Girl's Heart" (1 text, translated by Lady Gregory)
Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, _The Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1958, 1979), pp. 106-108, "Donal Oge: Grief of a Girl's Heart" (1 text, translated by Lady Gregory)
Roud #3379
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Donald Og
Donal Og
Donal Ogue
NOTES [397 words]: A personal note: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland calls this "one of the most intense love songs in the Irish language." Or in English; I can testify that if you are carrying a serious torch for someone, this song can bring you to tears every time. - PJS
It's pretty strong even if you *aren't* carrying a torch. The English version is reported by Norman Buchan (notes to the recording "The Fisher Family") to have been translated by Frank O'Connor. (The translation by Lady Gregory quoted by Hoagland and MacDonogh/Robinson is very different, and hardly even poetry; I doubt anyone will ever sing it.)
The text sung by Joyce Fisher omits the references to promise-breaking, making the song a lost love song rather than a betrayal song. The Fishers reportedly had it from Bob Clancey.
The reference to the "Greek King's daughter" caused a discussion without much resolution on the Ballad-L mailing list. No conclusion was reached about the symbolism involved, but John Moulden gave what I think can be regarded as the last word (I've fiddled with the orthography to match Ballad Index conventions):
"Donal Óg was originally in Irish Gaelic and couched within the poetic conventions of that language. Songs in Irish are seldom narrative, rather are they a consideration, mostly in emotional terms, of an event or circumstance. The text being discussed here is a translation -- the original regarding the Greek King's daughter is 'Is inion ri Gréige mar chéile leapa agat' but their is no doubt about Greek rather than great or about his having the Greek King's daughter for his bed companion.
"Having cleared that up, consider the circumstance: a young woman about to be abandoned, addressing a young man in the most passionate terms, indicating the depths of her despair and the extent to which her life will be ruined if he leaves. It dwells also on his broken promises, including that of a fleet of boats. The most striking images however are those of a woman who says, in the utmost self-abasement, 'Take me with you, I'll look after you, you can sleep with other women' like the Greek King's daughter, and who ends by saying that he had robbed her of all direction (You've taken east and west) and (God himself), her faith."
Seosamh O Duibhginn devoted a monograph to the variant texts of this song; according to Kennedy, it contains nearly every version ever collected. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: K031

Donderbeck's Machine

See Dunderbeck (File: R488)

Done Been Sanctified

DESCRIPTION: Second and fourth lines of each verse are "The Lord done sanctified me" and "He sanctified my soul." Typical verse: "Before I learned to pray... I'd trouble all the day... Brother behold the Lamb of God... He sanctified me, he'll sanctify you...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 31, "Done Been Sanctified" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Bart031

Done Carry de Key an' Gone Home

See Too Late Sinner (File: RcToLaSi)

Done Took the Children out of Pharaoh's Hands

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "(You've got to take the children out of Pharaoh's hand)(4x)." Verses' second and fourth line is "You've got to take ..." and the first and third are floating rhyming couplets like "Tallest tree in Paradise ... Christians call the tree of life"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 290-291, "Gottuh Tek duh Chillun Outuh Pharaoh Han'" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Marshall W. Taylor, _A Collection of Revival Hymns and Plantation Melodies_, (Cincinnati: Cranston and Stowe, 1890 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #147 pp. 243-244, "Done Took the Children Out of Pharaoh's Hand" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [51 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect.
Taylor's version has a different chorus -- "(O Lord suffering Lamb)(3x) Done took the children out of Pharoah's hands" -- but the verse shares the Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang formt. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR290A

Doneraile Litany, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer's Dublin watch is pilfered in Doneraile. He wishes fire and brimstone, the fate of Pompey, the death of its industry, and many other disasters on the town. "May Charon's boat triumphant sail, Completely manned, from Doneraile"
AUTHOR: Patrick O'Kelly (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1808 (Patrick O'Kelly, _Poems on the Giant's Causeway and Killarney, with other Miscellanies_, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: curse theft humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 176-182, "The Doneraile Litany" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 354-357, "The Curse of Doneraile"
NOTES [387 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "The popularity of this jingle in the south of Ireland is remarkable.... The Doneraile Litany consists of a series of anathemas upon that town, strung together, it appears, in consequence of the author having there lost his watch."
Hoagland: "Widely circulated through Ireland, this poem caused a great deal of amusement. To appease O'Kelly Lady Doneraile presented him with a 'watch and seal,' in place of the one he 'lost,' upon receipt of which he wrote 'Blessings on Doneraile.'" (See Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 357-359, "Blessings on Doneraile") - BS
Charon was of course the boatman who sailed the dead across the River Styx. Pompey is Gnaius Pompeius Magnus, known as Pompey the Great (106-48 B.C.E.), whose life was not exactly pure tragedy: Although he lost his farher in the time of Sulla's dictatorship, he managed to remain in that dictator's favor, picked up a good deal of land in the period after that, was given a series of extraordinary military commands (among other things conquering a big part of Spain, and of Asia Minor, plus Jerusalem; he also cleaned the pirates off the Mediterranean). Eventually he was appointed consul without colleague to deal with the threat posed by Julius Caesar. That's when things finally went bad for Pompey. Caesar, the conqueror of Gaul, forced Pompey and his Senatorial supporters out of Italy, then beat them at Pharsalus in Greece (48 B.C.E.; called "Pharsale" in the song). Pompey fled to Egypt and was killed by the government there, who wanted no quarrel with Caesar, now the clear ruler of Rome.
(Caesaar, to be sure, came to Egypt anyway, met the young queen Cleopatra VII, and fiddled around in the civil war going on at the time, but the murder of Pompey probably did save the country from being sacked.)
Egypt's plagues of course refers to the Exodus story of the Ten (or so) Plagues (Exodus 7-13).
For "Granuale" and her sons, see e.g. the notes to "Granuaile."
Pluto (Greek Hades) was king of the dead.
The destruction of Sodom is told in Genesis 18-19.
I have to say -- if this guy had spent half the energy working that he spent coming up with all these goofball curses (all of which rhyme with "Doneraile"), he could surely have easily made back what he lost. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CrPS176

Doney Gal

DESCRIPTION: "A cowboy's life is a weary thing, Rope and brand and ride and sing.... Rain or shine, sleet or snow, Me and my Doney gal are bound to go." The cowboy describes the hard work he and his horse do as they herd the cattle
AUTHOR: claimed by Louise Williams Henson
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Lomax, Cowboy Songs, revised edition)
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse work
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 250-251, "Doney Gal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica194, "Doney Gal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 85, "Doney Gal" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 118-121, "Doney Gal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 106, "Doney Gal" (1 text)
DT, DONEYGAL*
Roud #3587
NOTES [42 words]: "Doney" is a variant of "dona", from the Italian word "donna," meaning "woman." - PJS
(I believe the cowboy derivation is actually from Spanish "dona," which also means "woman" or "wife"; presumably the American cowboys got it from the Mexicans. - RBW)
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LoF194

Donkey Riding

See Hieland Laddie (File: Doe050)

Donkey Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "I used to own a donkey, a bob-tailed stubborn mule" -- so stubborn that it could have been a congressman. He could kick you to "where Bob Ingersoll belonged." But now "Empty is the stable, Dave is gone.' The singer fondly recalls the havoc Dave caused.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: animal death political
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 55-56, "The Donkey Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9081
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "The Donkey Song" (Piotr-Archive #484, recorded 02/01/2023)
NOTES [148 words]: I have the feeling that this was inspired by Foster's "Uncle Ned," though Derek Piotr's notes say it's a parody of "Cradle's Empty."
The way the song reference to Robert Ingersoll is phrased, I thought it was a reference to him in congress. But this is deceptive. Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899) was known mostly as a professional agnostic. Since the general attitude has always been that non-Christians, especially vocal non-Christians, were damnable, the assumption is that the place "where Bob Ingersoll belonged" is hell.
In other words, the donkey could kick you to hell and gone.
Since the mule is said to have been born in 1849, a likely date for this song is circa 1870.
Bob Ingersoll's non-Christianity was so infamous that he apparently is mentioned in three different songs: "Bob Ingersoll and the Devil," "The Donkey Song," and some versions of "When This Old Hat Was New." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Pet055

Donkey-Skin

See Catskin (File: BeCo335)

Donkey, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer's donkey is smart but, best of all, he is fast. The singer races him in the Derby. "The signal it was given me boys and off the horses flew." His donkey is "the last one out but the first one in"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (for USBallinsloeFair, according to site irishtune.info, Irish Traditional Music Tune Index: Alan Ng's Tunography, ref. Ng #2616)
KEYWORDS: pride racing animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond)) US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, p. 123, "Jerusalem Cuckoo" (1 text)
Roud #1147
RECORDINGS:
Murty Rabbett and Dan Sullivan, "The Donkey" (on USBallinsloeFair)\
Harry Upton, "I Am a Donkey Driver" (on Voice14)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.26(204), "Jerusalem Cuckoo" ("I am a donkey driver, I'm the best that's in the line"), unknown, n.d.; also Firth c.26(296), "Jerusalem Cuckoo"
NOTES [92 words]: Why do I get the feeling this isn't really about a donkey? - RBW
Rabbett's version on USBallinsloeFair, as well as Upton's on Voice14, and the Bodleian broadsides, name the donkey "Jerusalem Cuckoo." Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 14" - 8.9.02 notes that "Jerusalem" is cockney rhyming slang for "donkey": Jerusalem artichoke = moke = donkey. - BS
"Jerusalem Cuckoo" or a variant in fact seem to be the most common title for the piece, but it wasn't the first to go in the index, so the title wasn't used. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: RcThDonk

Donkey's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Thomas Benton is his name, Yong huh, yong huh, That is well known to railroad fame.... Lease traitor to the railroads turned... We had our way When Tommy was on the board." The railroads recall the good times when they could cheat and steal grain
AUTHOR: Words: Luna E. (Mrs. J. T.) Kellie (1857-1940)
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Farmer's Alliance, September 6, 1890 edition, according to Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore)
KEYWORDS: farming poverty hardtimes derivative political train railroading commerce
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 61-62, "The Donkey's Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: Nebraska Folklore, Pamphlet Eighteen, "Farmers' Alliance Songs of the 1890's," Federal Writers' Project, 1938, p. 6, "The Donkey's Song" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (tune)
NOTES [12 words]: For background on Luna Kellie, see the notes to "Marching for Freedom." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: Wels061

Donkeyskin

See Catskin (File: BeCo335)

Donna Donna

See Dona Dona (File: ACSF551D)

Donnelly

DESCRIPTION: A tinker meets a woman: coming from the ball and he soldering against the wall; in the wood and his budget stood; in the bar to "have it again"; in the bed and says "We should be wed"; at the door and trips her on the floor. She should go with him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (IRClare01)
KEYWORDS: drink bawdy tinker sex wordplay
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #863
RECORDINGS:
Mary Delaney, "Donnelly" (on IRTravellers01)
Martin Howley, "Donnelly" (on IRClare01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Duchess and the Tinker
The Highland Tinker
Tim the Tinker
NOTES [96 words]: Notes to IRClare01: "This has been around since at least 1675 when a fourteen-verse version was entered in the Stationers Register but since then it has been slimmed down somewhat, while still retaining its celebration of bawdry." - BS
This apparently is lumped by Roud with his #863, which includes several Tinker-who-can't-keep-his-mind (or other body parts)-on-the-job songs. But Ben Schwartz and I would separate this from both "The Tinker" and "The Jolly Tinker" by the nature of the wordplay and the fact that the tinker is interested quite specifically in one woman. - RBW
File: RcDonnel

Donnelly and Cooper

DESCRIPTION: Boxers Donnelly (Irish) and Cooper (English) meet. Odds are on Cooper. First Donnelly is knocked down, then Cooper, then Donnelly again; (referee) Kelly's pretty daughter exhorts Donnelly to get up and win. He does,and Miss Kelly congratulates him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(77b)); c.1845 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.1270(017))
KEYWORDS: pride fight sports
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1815 - Donnelly (1788-1820) and Cooper fight in Kildare
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MA,MW) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 317, "Donnelly and Cooper" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 27, "Donnelly and Cooper" (1 text)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 26, "Donnelly and Cooper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 44, "Donnelly and Cooper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 21-22, "Donnely and Cooper" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 278, "THe Donnelly and Cooper Fight" (1 text)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 39, "Cooper and Donnelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2147
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(77b), "Donnelly and Cooper," The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1854; also 2806 c.15(226), 2806 c.8(245), Firth c.19(16), Harding B 11(934), Harding B 11(935), Harding B 19(45), Johnson Ballads 2271B[some illegible words], "Donnelly and Cooper"
LOCSinging, as200750, "Donnelly and Cooper That Fought on Kildare," Johnson (Philadelphia), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.1270(017), "Donnelly and Cooper," James Kay (Glasgow), c.1845
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Donnelly & Oliver" (broadside Murray, Mu23-y3:015, "Donnelly & Oliver" ("You muses I beg you will lend me your aid, I'll sing of brave Donnelly a true Irish blade"), James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C; also Murray Mu23-y3:037, "Donnelly And Oliver," unknown, 19C) (subject)
cf. "Morrissey and the Black" (theme)
cf. "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (tune, theme)
cf. "Heenan and Sayers" (tune, theme)
SAME TUNE:
I'm the Boy Can Do It (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 17(77b))
Relief for Ireland ("Arise, my Irish heroes! It's painful to relate") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 134)
St. Patrick's Day in New York, A New Song ("Come, all you true bred Irishmen, wherever you may be") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 149)
NOTES [477 words]: Michael Padden and Robert Sullivan's May the Road Rise to Meet You, p. 211, devotes much space to Dan Donnelly, "a carpenter by day and a pub brawler by night," who was very popular with his people: on "September 14, 1814, he drew forty thousand fans to a fight -- a seventeen-round win over an Englishman" (note that, under the boxing rules of the time, rounds were not timed but ended with one fighter or the other knocked to the ground. The fight ended when he stayed down for half a minute).
They add that Donnelly was "as prodigious a drinker as he was a fighter," which apparently contributed to his demise at age 32.
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster has a brief history of Dan Donnelly, "knighted by the Prince Regent" [i.e. by the future George IV, son of George III who became regent during the periods of George III's madness - RBW], brought down by "good living and bad company," dead in 1820 at 32 years of age; "thousands lined the street to Glasnevin cemetery." - BS
O hOgain, pp. 182-183, notes that Donnelly became a figure of folklore, with reports of him settling a bar brawl with one punch to each of the brawlers. There was also an account of his mother winning a race against a horse before his birth; although probably based on the tale of Macha, the mother did little to downplay it.
Supposedly a Captain William Kelly discovered Donnelly, a carpenter, in 1814; his career lasted until 1819. His first major fight was against the champion of Dublin, and lasted 16 rounds. There was a parade in Dublin, led by Donnelly's mother, to celebrate the victory over George Cooper.
O hOgain admits that there is "scant evidence" that George IV actually knighted Donnelly.
Boylan, pp. 97-98, has a capsule biography of Donnely, who died in 1820: "Born in Dublin, son of a carpenter, and followed the same trade. Fond of drink and company, he led a wild and extravagant life. Lived in Ringsend, and became noted for his strength in encounters with sailors." His first major fight was against an Englishman named Hall (which forced him to actually train -- and leave his drinking companions). The fight took place on September 14, 1814, with Donnelly winning after 17 rounds. He needed just two weeks to waste his 100 guinea prize. "His next march was against the English champion, Cooper, in 1815. He defeated him in eleven rounds at 'Donnelly's Hollow' in the Curragh, now marked by a small obelisk."
After that, a merchant gave him the money to get started as a publican; that let him get married. But he didn't take care of the business and went broke. So he went to England to give sparring exhibitions. In 1819, he beat one Oliver in 32 rounds on July 21, 1819. He went back to Dublin, and this time, his fame let him succeed as a publican. But he didn't take care of himself; "He died in his house, of a sudden chill, on 17 February 1820." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: K317

Donnelly and Cooper Fight, The

See Donnelly and Cooper (File: K317)

Donnely and Cooper

See Donnelly and Cooper (File: K317)

Donnie Willie

DESCRIPTION: Girls from all over Tobago are calling Donnie Willie. The singer says "member the pronise, Boy, you promise to married to me" and, later, "remember you a married man"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage01)
KEYWORDS: infidelity marriage nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Martha Saunders, "Donnie Willie" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
File: RcMSDoWi

Donny Dims of the Arrow

See The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214] (File: C214)

Donnybrook Fair

See Widdicombe Fair (II) (File: K289)

Donside

DESCRIPTION: Jamie leaves Nellie to fight in Egypt and Spain with Wellington. He returns to find her gone. He searches and finds her about to be married. She chooses to marry Jamie. Her fiancee challenges Jamie to duel but yields when Jamie draws his broadsword.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1851 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.18(91))
KEYWORDS: courting war return reunion separation Scotland Spain soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #22, p. 1, "Donside" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 93, "Donside" (19 texts, 16 tunes)
Roud #5759
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.18(91), "The Don-side Lovers" ("I once had a true-love on Don-side did well [sic]"), C. Croshaw (York), 1814-1850
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Donside Lassie
The Donside Soldier
I Once Had a Sweetheart
File: GrD1093

Donside Wedding, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on the fifth of June, my boys, The truth I will make known, There stood a merry Marriage Upon the banks of Don"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: wedding river
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 610, "The Donside Wedding" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6054
NOTES [32 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 fragment. - BS
The form of this makes me think of "Warlike Seamen (The Irish Captain)," but without more text, we will probably never know. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3610

Donzella and the Ceylon, The

DESCRIPTION: The Donzella and the Ceylon set out from Lunenburg on February 1. After fourteen days, the Ceylon arrives in Puerto Rico, followed ten hours later by the Donzella. On the way back, the Ceylon runs into a storm and sinks
AUTHOR: Daniel Smith
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: ship racing storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1890 - The Donzella and the Ceylon race from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia to Ponce, Puerto Rico. Captain Charles Swain of the Ceylon outraced his brother, Captain Nathan Swain of the Donzella, by ten hours in a fourteen-day race. The Ceylon sank on the way home
1896 - The loss of the Donzella
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 192-194, "The Donzella and the Ceylon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4087
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dD44 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Doe192

Doo Dah

See The Du Dah Mormon Song (File: Hubb236)

Doo Me Ama

See Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor) [Laws K40] (File: LK40)

Doodle Dandy

DESCRIPTION: "Doodle, doodle, doodle dandy, Cornstalks, rum, and homemade brandy, Indian pudding and pumpkin pie, And that'll make the Yankees fly! Ev'ry Yankee shall have on his back A great big pumpkin in a sack, A little molasses and a piece of pork...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl); the first stanza can be documented from 1840 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: food soldier
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 192, "Doodle Dandy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 68-69, "Doodle Dandy" (1 text)
ST Wa192 (Full)
Roud #16407
NOTES [358 words]: Said by Roy Walworth (the Warners' informant) to have been sung by Washington's troops as they marched for New York in 1783 after the British left the town following the American Revolution. - RBW
Although the song has only the most tenuous hold in tradition (the Warner version is the only traditional version known; it can be heard on Frank Warner's "Songs and Ballads of America's Wars"), Jonathan Lighter has shown that the first stanza at least was quite popular at one time. The following is a slightly condensed version of his notes to the Ballad-L list:
* Stanza one appears in the one-act farce, Yankee Notes for English Circulation, written by Edward Stirling for Thomas D. Rice's minstrel troupe in 1842:
Yankee doodle doodle dandy,
Corn stalks rum and Gin Sling brandy,
An Indine pudden and a green peach pie,
Golly, how we make de British fly.
[Quoted. in W. T. Lhamon, Jr., Jump Jim Crow (Harvard U.P., 2003), p. 327.]
* From Burton's Gentleman's Magazine And American Monthly Review (Feb., 1840), p. 70:
"Doodle doodle doodle dandy,
Corn-stalk rum, right slick and handy,
Indgian pudding and green peach pie,
And it takes me to make the fried clams fly! "
* Maine Farmer, July 13, 1848, p. 2:
"We couldn't help whistling a stave or two of the old song which the old Continentallers used to sing to the Britishers whenever they had given them a good thrashing, and which ran in this wise:
"Yankee doodle, doodle dandy,
Cornstalk molasses and home-made brandy,
An Indian pudding and a punkin pie
Is the stuff to make the red-coats fly."
* Annals of Iowa (1943), p. 40:
Yankee doodle dandy
Cornstalk rum and cider brandy,
Stinking gin that's made of rye
So we'll make the Yankees fly.
* Mary Philotheta Root, ed., Patron Saints (New Haven: Conn. Daughters of the American Revolution, 1895), p. 475:
"One of his favorite war songs began thus:
"We'll take our knapsacks on our backs,
With a piece o' pork and pumpkin pie,
And gang down to New-York,
To make the red-coats fly!"
Lighter also notes that the second stanza of the Warner version is sung to "a worn down 2/4 version of 'The Campbells are Coming.'"
- JL (RBW)
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Wa192

Doodle Doo

See Waddaly atcha (File: ACSF146W)

Doodlebug, Doodlebug, Get a Cup of Coffee

See Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home (File: MSNR15)

Doom of Campbell, Kelly and Doyle, The

DESCRIPTION: "Kind-hearted Christians, I pray you give attention, It's of a young man, down in jail he doth lie, For the shooting of the boss, John P. Jones." Doyle and Kelly committed the murder. Kerrigan also took part. The lawyers slandered them; bad luck to them
AUTHOR: purportedly Mike Reddy
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining punishment prison homicide lawyer
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 263-264, "The Doom of Campbell, Kelly and Doyle" (1 text)
Roud #4090
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32] (subject: the Long Strike and the Molly Maguires) and references there
cf. "Michael J. Doyle" (character of Michael J. Doyle)
NOTES [1616 words]: This song is item dE29 in Laws's Appendix II.
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch has three poems or songs about the accused in the John P. Jones murder case, this one and two allegedly by Michael J. Doyle: "Doyle's Pastime on St. Patrick's Day" and "Michael J. Doyle." None of them seem to have been collected outside of Korson; I doubt any of them became traditional. For this reason, I have not indexed "Doyle's Pastime." But "Michael J. Doyle" and "The Doom of Campbell, Kelly and Doyle" are both cited by Laws, albeit as of dubious traditionality, so I have indexed them.
For the background to the whole issue of the Long Strike and the Molly Maguires, see the notes to "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32]. Briefly, in the 1870s, the owners of the mines in the Pennsylvania anthracite region put the squeeze on their workers. The workers responded by striking -- an event known as "The Long Strike." It failed, and the miners had to go back to work for reduced pay. In the aftermath, there were a series of murders in the anthracite region, blamed on the "Molly Maguires." The mine owners infiltrated the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) to try to find those responsible. They eventually arrested many, and tried and executed twenty men. One of them was Michael J. Doyle; he, along with Alexander Campbell and Edward Kelly (the three heroes of "The Doom of Campbell, Kelly and Doyle") were hung for the murder of John P. Jones. (For more about Jones, see the notes to "Jimmy Kerrigan's Confession.")
Kenny, pp. 290-291, gives this short biography of Campbell: "AOH treasurer, Storm Hill, Lansford, Carbon County. Born in Dungloe, County Donegal, in 1833. Came to the United States in 1868. Worked in the [Pennsylvania coal] mines for a year and a half, then opened a hotel, the Columbia House, in Tamaqua. Moved to Summit Hill, where he opened another tavern. Hanged at Mauch Chunk on June 21, 1877, for the murders of Morgan Powell and John P. Jones."
P. 291 has a bio of Doyle: "AOH member, Mount Laffee, Schuylkill County. Born in Mount Laffee of Irish parents. Worked at the No. 5 Colliery in the Panther Creek Valley, for the Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company. Hanged at Mauch Chunk on June 21, 1877, for the murder of John P. Jones."
It appears little is known of Edward Kelly; the bio on p. 292 says only "AOH member, Mount Laffee, Schuylkill County. Born in Mount Laffee, Schuylkill County, of Irish parents. Hanged at Mauch Chunk on June 21, 1877, for the murder of Benjamin Yost." [The latter is probably an error; p. 270 says he was hanged for killing John P. Jones, which is the case for which he was tried.]
Riffenburgh, pp. 98, tells us that there had already been a plan to murder Jones, which failed, before Doyle et al became involved. Riffenburgh, pp. 98-99, gives this description of the second, successful, attempt on Jones's life. "September 1, two men from the Mount Laffee lodge, Edward Kelly and Michael J. Doyle... had arrived at [James] Carroll's saloon, where they had been sent to carry out the job. Carroll told [future informer James] Kerrigan [for whom see "Jimmy Kerrigan's Confession"] to lead them to Lansford to commit the murder, after which he could guide them back to safety."
"That evening, the three made their way first to Campbell's liquor store and then to Summit Hill, the western terminus of the switchback railroad, where [Hugh] McGehan's new tavern was located. [McGe(e)han is the subject of another Korson piece, "Hugh McGeehan," which see.] After McGehan cleaned and oiled two pistols, Campbell, realizing that none of the three had ever seen Jones and needed to be certain of his identity, 'gave them a description of Jones.'
"The next day, Kerrigan, Doyle, and Kelly wandered over to Jones's neighborhood... Jones took the train from the Lansford depot, thereby eluding his killers. They hunted him that day.
"Coincidentally, that night, having decided that the danger had been overestimated, Jones stayed in his own house with his wife and seven children for the first time in weeks. Around 7:00 A.M., he headed down the pipeway for the Lansford depot, half a mile away. Carelessly alone and unprotected... he was within one hundred yards of the depot when Kelly and Doyle approached him on the path, and he moved aside to let them pass. Instead, the two men drew their pistols and shot him, Doyle twice. Jones tried to reach the bushes to escape but was pursued, and when the wounded man fell, Doyle... riddled his body with bullets. Kerrigan and the two killers then fled toward the high woods to the west."
Witnesses had seen enough to recognize the "highly disreputable" (and extremely short) Kerrigan, so a search quickly began. A posse found Kerrigan, and then Doye and Kelly "who were quickly captured while drinking whiskey near a mountain spring" (Riffenburgh, pp. 99-100).
There were many trials of accused Molly Maguires; the Jones case came first, with Doyle, Kelly, and Kerrigan asking for separate trials. Doyle's was first (Kenny, p. 214; Riffenburgh, p. 113 says that this was thought to be because Kelly looked young and innocent, so he would be harder to convict); it began January 26, 1876 and concluded on February 1 with Doyle convicted of first degree murder (Kenny, p. 215). It was one of the rare Molly trials where neither James McParlan nor Kerrigan testified -- though the trial did induce Kerrigan to turn informant. (As in so many such cases, the worst of the criminals, Kerrigan, survived by turning informant, while the slightly more reputable defendants were punished.) Kerrigan's confession led police to arrest Carroll, James Roarity, Thomas Duffy (for whom see "Thomas Duffy"), McGehan, James Boyle, and Alexander Campbell (Kenny, p. 216). Campbell, Doyle, Kelly, Boyle, Carroll, Duffy, McGehan, and Roarity would all hang (in different towns) on July 21, 1877, Doyle and Kelly for the murder of Jones; Campbell for his parts in the deaths of Jones and Morgan Powell; Boyle, Carroll, Duffy, McGehan, and Roarity for the murder of Benjamin Yost (Kenny, p. 270). Most of them were probably guilty, although the evidence was far from perfect; it is quite possible that Duffy was innocent.
Doyle's trial came before Kerrigan confessed (in fact, the confession was the result of the way the Doyle case was going), so the state had little evidence of motive, but they had much testimony that Doyle had been there, with a gun, at the time of Jones's death (Riffenburgh, p. 114).
Curiously, the defense made no attempt to state a case (Riffenburgh, p. 115). I seem to recall that Kenny thought the defense lawyers were just going through the motions; alternately, perhaps they were trying to give the jury the impression that the state had no case. Whatever their thinking, it didn't help. It took the jury less than a day to return a guilty verdict.
Many of the details in this song are accurate:
- Campbell, Doyle, and Kelly, as we have seen, were condemned for the killing of Jones.
- Doyle and Kelly were the ones convicted of actually doing the deed, with Campbell an accomplice.
- Kerrigan was along with the murderers, and he did turn informant.
- "Hughes and Albright" are Charles Albright and Francis W. Hughes. They were not the lead lawyers in all Molly Maguire cases, but where Franklin Gowen did not participate, they often took the lead (Riffenburgh, p. 139), as they would in the Doyle case.
-- Charles Albright 1830-1880) was a Civil War veteran who wore his uniform in court (Kenny, p. 82; on p. 95 he calls him a mine owner and general. This is not really correct; Albright was a brigadier general only by brevet; Phisterer, p. 302 #1893. Based on HuntMidAtlantic, pp. 9. 19, 23, it appears his highest substantive rank was colonel, and he spent almost two years at that rank without being promoted; he was bounced around between three different regiments, which to me translates as "political officer, brave but not very effective"). A graduate of Dickinson College, he was admitted to the bar in 1852 and practiced in Mauch Chunk (PennsylvaniaBD, p. 3). As early as 1863, he had been writing to Abraham Lincoln about the rebelliousness of the miners (Kenny, p. 95). He had served a term in congress 1873-1875 (PennsylvaniaBD, p. 4). He was lawyer for Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company (meaning he worked for Doyle's boss) and worked with District Attorney E. W. Siewers (Kenny, pp. 214-215, who elsewhere says that Albright led the prosecution. According to Riffenburgh, p. 113, the Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre was the coal firm most ardent about going after the Mollies).
-- Francis W. Hughes had a long legal history in the area; apparently he had been a District Attorney as early as the 1840s! (Kenny, p. 67). He had been an antiwar Democrat (Kenny, p. 83) who had a tendency to violent rhetoric (e.g. he approved of at least one local murder; Kenny, pp. 98-99); he had actually defended the head of the old W.B.A. union (Kenny, p. 178 n. 62). But he supported the Reading Railroad against the Mollies (Kenny, p. 215). He would insist that the Mollies had "no place in the United States" (Kenny, p. 242).
- Kalbfus is Daniel Kalbfus, a local attorney who was part of the defense team (Kenny, p. 215). He would argue that James McParlan helped instigate the Molly killings (Kenny, p. 232), which I think is at least partly true. He also went to Governor Hantranft personally to appeal for clemency for Campbell (Kenny, p. 247), but it obviously didn't work. He was one of five defense lawyers in the Doyle case (Riffenburgh, p. 114). He was on the defense team for most of the Molly trials (Riffenburgh, p. 124).
I have no information about Mike Reddy, the purported author of the poem. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP263

Doom of Floyd Collins, The

See Floyd Collins [Laws G22] (File: LG22)

Doon by yon Clear Rinnin' Burnie

DESCRIPTION: The singer often meets Mary. Although "her proud parents began to upbraid her" she says she'll go with him in spite of their threats
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 1006, "Doon by yon Clear Rinnin' Burnie" (1 text)
Roud #6727
File: GrD1006

Doon the Moor

See Heather Down the Moor (Among the Heather; Down the Moor) (File: HHH177)

Doors of Ivory

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Doos o' Dunbennan, The

DESCRIPTION: Doves of Dunbennan, crows of Cairnie, rooks of Rathven, .... The list continues but the alliteration is dropped: "The creeshy shankers [Greig/Duncan8: stocking-knitters] o' Fyvie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad bird worker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1645, "The Doos o' Dunbennan" (1 text)
Roud #13056
NOTES [24 words]: The places named are Aberdeenshire parishes (Cairnie, Forgue, Drumblade, Auchterless and Fyvie) or towns (Dunbennan, Rathven and Inverkeithny). - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81645

Doran's Ass [Laws Q19]

DESCRIPTION: Drunken Pat lies down to rest on his way to Biddy's. A jackass lies down next to him. In his stupor, Pat caresses the beast -- only to be awakened by a horrid braying. He flees to Biddy's, to be told that it was only Doran's Ass
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1859 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(946))
KEYWORDS: drink humorous animal
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws Q19, "Doran's Ass"
Peacock, pp. 50-52, "Doran's Ass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 75, "Doran's Ass" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 43, "Doran's Ass" (1 text)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 84, "Doran's Ass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 138, "Paddy Doyle" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 38-39, "Doran's Ass" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 293, "Paddy Doyle and Biddy O'Toole" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 141-142, "Doran's Ass" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #514, p. 34, "Doran's Ass" (1 reference)
DT 530, DORANASS
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 260-262, "Doran's Ass" (1 text)
Roud #1010
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "Paddy Doyle" (on Barker01)
Bert Fitzgerald, "Paddy Doyle" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mr. Fitzgerald, "Paddy Doyle" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(946), "Doran's Ass" ("One Paddy Doyle lived near Killarney"), J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1855-1858; also 2806 c.15(157), 2806 c.15(235), 2806 c.15(237), Harding B 19(93), Firth c.26(40), Harding B 11(947), Harding B 11(3492), Firth b.27(457/458) View 3 of 4, 2806 c.15(236), Harding B 19(15), "Doran's Ass"; 2806 b.11(255), Harding B 11(151), "Doran's Ass" or "[The] Straw Hat"; Harding B 11(2961), 2806 b.11(251), "Pat Doran's Ass"
Murray, Mu23-y1:135, "Dorran's Ass," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(070), "Dorrn's Ass" (sic.) unknown, c.1860 [despite the title, the animal is called "Doran's Ass" in the text]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Courtin' in the Stable (The Workin' Steer)" (plot)
cf. "Jock Gheddes and the Soo" (plot)
File: LQ19

Dorothy Dean

DESCRIPTION: "For years I've been courting a lady, beautiful Dorothy Dean, But ... Since Mister Alberto McSpringer brought out his new flying machine, At Lover's Lane vainly I linger... Oh, Dorothy, Dorothy Dean!... She's suddenly flown to regions unknown...."
AUTHOR: Harry Dacre (source: traditionalmusic.co.uk)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood); sheet music reportedly published by T. B. Harms & Co. in 1894
KEYWORDS: love abandonment technology | flying machine
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 104, "O Dorothy, Dorothy Dean" (1 fragment)
Roud #24526
NOTES [28 words]: Harry Dacre, who apparently wrote this song, is best known for "Bicycle Built for Two (Daisy Bell)," which as of this writing is his only other song in the Index. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC104C

Dors Le Petit Bibi (Sleep Little Baby)

DESCRIPTION: French. "Dors dors le p'tit bibi." Sleep little baby. Mama's beautiful little baby. If tomorrow is nice we will go to grandfather's.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (NovaScotia1)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage lullaby nonballad baby
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 22-23, "Acadian Lullaby" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Mrs Laure Irene McNeil, "Lullaby" (on NovaScotia1)
File: RcDlPBi

Dottered Auld Carle, A

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Dottered Auld Carle, The

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Double Dutch

DESCRIPTION: Jump rope rhyme. "Double Dutch, Double Dutch, Who can jump rope so much? Faster, now, take a bow, Double Dutch, Double Dutch."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: nonballad jumprope
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 106, "(Double Dutch, Double Dutch)" (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dutch, Dutch, Double Dutch" (similar rhyme)
NOTES [29 words]: I would not be surprised if "Double Dutch" and "Dutch, Dutch, Double Dutch" are the same rhyme, but since the metrical patterns are different, I've tentatively split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: McIn106B

Double Tragedy, The

DESCRIPTION: "Bright lights were in the hall, Everyone seemed happy and gay" at a dance when a drunk and angry Tom Roach strides in. His friend McCord tries to calm him; Roach shoots him. Frank Adams tries to shoot him, but kills Mrs. Walton instead
AUTHOR: Otho Murphy (source: Burt)
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide party dancing death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 24, 1891 - the Pioneer Day tragedy at Monticello, Utah
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 245-247, "(Double Tragedy)" (1 text)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 197-200, "The Double Tragedy" (1 text)
Roud #10883
File: Burt245

Double-Breasted Mansion on the Square, The

DESCRIPTION: "I once was young and gallant and drove a span of grays...." The young man was rich, with property and servants. But he "lost a lot at Keno" and now he has nothing left; he spends most of his life thinking about what he has lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (Lane County Herald)
KEYWORDS: gambling poverty hardtimes cards
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 25, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (7 texts, 2 tunes, with the "H" text going here)
Roud #11209
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
File: FCW025H

Double-bunking

DESCRIPTION: "I heard this sad song O In the Orongorongo, 'No more double-bunking, double-bunking for me.'" The singer has slept with tramps, and has ended up sick and anxious and "washed-out like a dish-rag." He'll sleep anywhere, "But I'm going to sleep single."
AUTHOR: Words: Harold William Greton
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: disease home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 144, "Double-bunking" (1 text, tune referenced)
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 84, "Double-bunking" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The More We Are Together" (tune)
File: BaRo144

Dougherty's Boarding House

DESCRIPTION: "There's a story I could tell you, so listen unto me, 'Bout a big deck boarding house on Twelfth street number three." The singer complains about Irishman Doughery's crowded house and the poor food he offers, while listing the people and insects there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Beck-FolkloreOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad hardtimes food moniker
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 263-264, "Dougherty's Boarding House" (1 text)
Roud #4729
File: BeMe263

Doughnut Song

DESCRIPTION: "Well I walked around the corner and I walked around the block And I walked right into a doughnut shop. And I picked up a doughnut And I handed the lady a five cent piece." The nickel has a hole and is worthless. “There’s a hole in my donut, too."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs)
KEYWORDS: food trick money campsong
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 110, "The Hole" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 125, "Doughnut Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 96, 489, 491, "Doughnut"/"Doughnut Song" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Turkey in the Straw" (tune)
NOTES [41 words]: This often occurs as part of "Turkey in the Straw," with which it shares a tune, so there is no sharp dividing line. You'll have to decide which song goes where; this entry is intended specifically for the verse(s) about the doughnut/donut. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ACSF096D

Doughnut, The

See Doughnut Song (File: ACSF096D)

Douglas Tragedy, The

See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Douglas! Tender and True

DESCRIPTION: "Could you come back to me, Douglas! Douglas! In the old likeness that I knew, I would be so faithful." The singer promises no harsh words. "I was not half worthy of you." "Stretch out your hand to me... I lay my heart on your dead heart, Douglas!"
AUTHOR: Words: Dinah M. Mulock (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood) / Music: Lady John Scott, source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart-Songs)
KEYWORDS: love death separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 160-161, "I was not half worthy of you" (1 fragment)
Heart-Songs, p. 84, "Douglas! Tender and True" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25550
NOTES [28 words]: If I were to pick one word to describe this, it would be "nauseating." But Alice Kane apparently learned it from tradition, so into the Index it goes. My apologies. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: HeSo084

Doun the Middle an' Up Again

DESCRIPTION: "Doun the middle and up again, A-teedle um, a-teedle um, Doun the back and back again, A-teedle um a tum" "Set to Belly Christie An' syne to Jinsie Martin"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1731, "Doun the Middle an' Up Again" (1 fragment)
Roud #13131
NOTES [23 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
Greig/Duncan8: .".. instructions for Country Reel, 'The auld road to Towie" - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Gr81731

Dove, The

See Lonesome Dove (I - The Minister's Lamentation) (File: R607)

Dowie Dens o Yarrow, The [Child 214]

DESCRIPTION: Many men feel that a woman (their sister?) should be separated from her lover/husband. They set out in a band to kill the lover. He manages to kill or wound most of them, but one of them kills him from behind. In many texts the lady dies of sorrow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1768 (Percy collection)
KEYWORDS: courting fight death family
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber,Bord,High)) US(Ap,MA,NE,SE) Canada(Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (37 citations):
Child 214, "The Braes o Yarrow" (18 texts)
Bronson 214, "The Braes o Yarrow" (42 versions+2 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 214, "The Baes o Yarrow" (5 versions: #2, #28, #34, #36, #40.1)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XLIII, p. 86, "The Braes of Yarrow" (1 partial text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #39}
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 145-148, "The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 210-212, "Yarrow" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #57, pp. 1-2, "The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 215, "The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow" (20 texts, 25 tunes) {A=Bronson's #16; to B compare #1; D=#25?; E=#23; F=#9; G=#10 or #31?; H=#4; I=#5; J=#13; K=#8; L=#11; M=#12; N=#7; O is probably #18; P=#3; Q=#6; S=#14; T=#20; U=#17; W=#15; X=#22}
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 42-42, 149, "The Dowie Dens o Yarrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dixon-ScottishTraditionalVersionsOfAncientBallads XIII, pp. 68-70, "The Braes o' Yarrow" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 21-24, "The Dowie Dens of Yarrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 291-293, "The Braes of Yarrow" (1 short text plus a fragment, 1 tune; the "A" text is a composite lost love song with single stanzas from "The Braes o Yarrow," "The Curragh of Kildare," and others beyond identification; as a whole it cannot be considered a version of Child #214) {Bronson's #37}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 235-237, "The Dewy Dens of Darrow" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #42}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 255-259, "The Braes of Yarrow" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #42}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 568-571, "The Braes o Yarrow" (1 text, with a Scandinavian text for comparison)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 99, "The Braes o' Yarrow" (1 text which incorporates most verses of "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow")
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 150, "The Dowie Houms of Yarrow" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 45, "The Dens of Yarrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, pp. 105-107, "Donny Dims of the Arrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 24, "The Braes o Yarrow" (1 text, which Cox lists here though it is so worn down that it might as well be considered a lyric piece; the plot is entirely gone, compare the Hamilton text in Percy)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 77, "The Banks of Yorrow" (1 text, 1 tune, which like the Cox West Virginia text is very short and lyric and might be something else)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 426-429, "The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 17, "The Braes o' Yarrow" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 4-5, "The dowie dens of Yarrow" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #33}
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 19, "The Dowie Dens of Yarrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 77, "The Dewy Dells of Yarrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 23, "The Braes of Yarrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 10, "The Braes O' Yarrow" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 52-54, "The Dowie Dens of Yarrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 54, "The Braes o Yarrow" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 54-55, "The Dewy Dens of Yarrow" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 115-116, "The Dowie Houms o Yarrow" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 179, "The Dowie Dens of Yarrow" (1 text)
cf. Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 362-367, "The Braes of Yarrow" (1 text, said to be William Hamilton's adaption of this song)
DT 214, YARROW1*
ADDITIONAL: William & Susan Platt, _Folktales of the Scottish Border_, published 1919 as _Stories of the Scottish Border_, republished by Senate Press, 1999, pp. 208-210, "The Dowie Dens of Yarrow" (1 text)
Willie Scott, "The Dowie Dens o Yarrow," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1962.069,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 14 September 2013 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/17866/1
Roud #13
RECORDINGS:
Liam Clancy, "Dowie Dens of Yarrow" (on IRLClancy01)
John Joe English, "The Dewy Dells Of Yarrow" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Ewan MacColl, "The Dowie Dens of Yarrow" (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743) {Bronson's #33}
John MacDonald, "The Dewie Dens of Yarrow" (on Voice03)
Brigid Murphy, "The Dewy Glens of Yarrow" (on IREarlyBallads)
Willie Scott, "The Dowie Dens O' Yarrow" (on Voice17)
Davie [Davy] Stewart, "The Dowie Dens of Yarrow" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #24}
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(120), "The Dowie Dens of Yarrow," unknown, c. 1890 [scan largely illegible but probably this piece]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow" [Child 215]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lady and the Shepherd
The Dreary Dream
In the Lonely Glens of Yarrow
NOTES [379 words]: Several scholars, among them Norman Cazden, have claimed that this song is the same as Child 215, "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow." Certainly there has been exchange of verses. However, I (following Leach), would maintain that there is a difference: "The Dowie Dens" is about opposition to a marriage; "Willie Drowned" is about the loss of a love.
A brief summary of the whole discussion is found in Coffin's notes in Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3. It's not clear what he believes, except that the two songs are a mess and quite mixed. Which can hardly be denied.
Lynn Wollstadt, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find: Positive Masculinity in the Ballads Sung by Scottish Women" (printed in Thomas A. McKean, editor, The Flowering Thorn: International Ballad Studies, Utah State University Press, 2003) declares (p. 71) that "the tragic 'Dowie Dens o' Yarrow' is the ballad most often recorded by singers of both sexes" in the collections cataloged in the third quarter of the twentieth century. An interesting point, although the methodology of the study is questionable.
Yarrow is a particular strong herbal symbol in this song. According to Anthony S. Mercantante, (The Facts on File Encyclopedia of) World Mythology and Legends, Second Edition revised by James R. Dow, two volumes, Facts on File, 2004, p. 917, "In English folklore, yarrow was used by lovesick maidens to determine who their future lovers would be.... [I]f one dreamed of yarrow, it meant losing the object of one's affection. If one was married and dreamed of the plant, it signified death in the family. Yarrow is often found on gravesites and thus is often associated with death."
Incidentally, there is at least one historical instance of a man fighting off six enemies but then being wounded from behind: William the Marshal, famous for his service with Kings Richard I and John, and infamous for the role he allegedly played in "Queen Eleanor's Confession" [Child 156], was part of a party that was attacked in 1168. His horse was killed under him before he had donned all his armor, but he killed the horses of six attackers before one came from behind and disabled him by spearing him in the thigh (see Frank McLynn, Richard & John: Kings at War, Da Capo, 2007, pp. 62-63). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C214

Dowie Houms o Yarrow, The

See The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214] (File: C214)

Dowie Houms of Yarrow, The

See The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214] (File: C214)

Down a Country Road I Know

DESCRIPTION: "The city roar is in my ears, the glare is in my eyes, Yet in my heart I long to see those sunny Central skies" where the singer was a shearer and "raced to hold the ringer's place." But that's all behind him now, back "down a country road I know"
AUTHOR: Words: Ross McMillan / Music: Phil Garland
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (recorded by Phil Garland on Kiwi LP SLC 87, "Down a Country Road I Know")
KEYWORDS: sheep travel hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 42, 158-159, "(Down a Country Road I Know)" (various fragments which between them contain five of the six verses of the song)
NOTES [147 words]: This is not, to my knowledge, traditional in New Zealand. But it arguably is traditional "worldwide" -- because I learned it in Richfield, Minnesota, from another Minnesotan who had learned it while visiting New Zealand. Only later did I find it on record, and I'm not sure my source ever heard a recording of it, either. A weak foothold in tradition, to be sure. But it's a decent lyric with a terrific melody by Phil Garland, so maybe it will survive.
I have heard that Ross McMillan didn't particularly like having his songs set to music. Ironic, then, that (according to Mike Harding, When the Pakeha Sings of Home: A Source Guide to the Folk & Popular Songs of New Zealand, Godwit Press, 1992, p. 67), it was apparently set to music twice, once by Garland, once by "Dusty Spittle." I wonder if perhaps the latter didn't have the range to sing Garland's wide-ranging tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Garl042

Down Among the Budded Roses

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells his sweetheart that she should not forget the promise she made to him among the roses. "Down among the budded roses/I am nothing but a stem." He asks her to be his in heaven, where their hearts will be united forever. Or something like that
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Charlie Poole)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer tells his sweetheart that, though they have parted, she should not forget the promise she made to him among the roses in the lane. "Down among the budded roses/I am nothing but a stem." He says they will never meet again on earth, but asks her to be his in heaven, where their hearts will be united forever. Or something like that
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness love promise farewell parting separation death nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 72, "Budded Rose" (1 text)
Roud #6577
RECORDINGS:
[Clarence] Ashley & [Gwen] Foster, "Faded Roses" (Vocalion 02666, 1934)
[Walter "Kid" Smith & the] Carolina Buddies, "Down among the Budding Roses" (Jewel 20004/Oriole 8004/Perfect 144/Romeo 5004. 1930)
Happy Valley Family, "Down Among the Budding Roses" (Perfect 6-08-53, 1936)
Roy Harvey & the North Carolina Ramblers, "Budded Roses" (Brunswick 268, 1928)
Daddy John Love, "Budded Roses" (Bluebird B-6675, 1936)
Asa Martin, "Budded Roses" (Perfect 13089, 1935)
Charlie Poole & the North Carolina Ramblers, "Budded Rose" (Columbia 15138-D, 1927)
Red Fox Chasers, "Budded Roses" (Supertone 9492, 1929)
Shelton Bros., "Budded Roses" (Decca 5180, 1936)
Kid Willliams & Bill Morgan, "Down Among the Budded Roses" (Homestead 16116, c. 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again" (a line or two)
cf. "Bye and Bye You Will Forget Me (I)" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Whitey & Hogan, "Answer to Budded Roses" (Decca 5817, 1940; rec. Nov. 8. 1939)
NOTES [197 words]: This sounds like nothing so much as a stripped-down version of "I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again", minus the soldier bit. But except for that line, the lyrics seem to be independent, so I split them. I index this one mostly to keep the two straight. It's unclear, incidentally, whether the singer is dying or lighting out for the territories. - PJS
Dr. Thomas L. McAbee of Livermore, California writes of the "Answer to Budded Roses":
This song, as noted, borrows the tune from "Down Among The Budded Roses." The "Answer" was written by my father, Leonard Bratton McAbee, Sr., for my mother Maggie Goble McAbee. They were dear friends of the Briarhoppers and Whitey and Hogan in particular. My father served as MC for Whitey and Hogan occasionally. My parents introduced me to them in the late 1970s in Charlotte, NC, and they confirmed that my dad had written the song (and that Decca paid them nothing for the recording!).
My parents both passed away in 2010 and my brother holds our only family copy of the 78 RPM on which the song was cut. I have no legal method of proving authorship, just memories from my childhood and conversations with the recording artists. - (RBW)
Last updated in version 3.2
File: RcDATBR

Down Among the Coals

DESCRIPTION: "My Jemima was in service once, At a house in Hoxton square, She never got out and so I used To go and court her there..." where "Jemima often had to hide me In amongst the coals." Once, thinking it is Jemimah, he kisses the mistress in the dark
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: love courting oldmaid humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, p. 288, "(no title)" (1 fragment, assumed to be this because it has the chorus "Down Among the Coals" and mentions Jemima)
Roud #24459
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.14(313)=Harding B 11(954), "Down among the coals," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth b.27(213), "Down among the coal," unknown (n.d.) [mostly illegible]; also 2806 b.10(222), "Down among the coal," unknown (n.d.)
NOTES [17 words]: This sounds like a music hall song to me, but I can't prove it, and it seems a little early for that. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP288B

Down Among the Dead Men

DESCRIPTION: "Here's a health to the king and a lasting peace, To faction an end, to wealth increase; Come, let's drink it while we have breath, For there's no drinking after death." The singer has no interest in those who will not enjoy themselves
AUTHOR: Words: John Dyer (1700-1758)? (source: Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1728 (The Dancing Master)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 643-644, "Down Among the Dead Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 173-174, "Down Among the Dead Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 55, "Down Among the Deat Men" (1 text)
DT, DEADMEN*
Roud #9623
SAME TUNE:
Come, Comrades, Come ("Come, comrades, come, your glasses clink; Up with your hands a health to drink -- The health of all that workers be") (Foner, p. 322)
File: SBar055

Down at the Station

DESCRIPTION: "Down at the station, early in the morning, See the little pufferbellies all in a row. See the stationmaster pull the little handle. Puff, puff, toot, toot, off we go!"
AUTHOR: (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (but see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: train nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 198, "Down at the Station" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 112, 123, 232, 300, 417, 437, 447, 514, "Puffer Billies" (notes only, with a "parody" stanza on p. 300)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 51, "Puffer Billies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 2, "Puffer Billies" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 31, "Down by the Station" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #112, "Down at the station early in the morn" (1 text)
Roud #10746
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Pufferbillies" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #335, recorded 11/02/2022)
SAME TUNE:
Dewey Song (Dewy Was the Grass) (File: ACSF095A)
NOTES [182 words]: Amazing what you learn to think of as a folk song once you start compiling a ballad index! This is one of perhaps only two songs from my mother's tradition (the other being "White Coral Bells"). I had not thought of it as a folk song (in fact, for decades I hadn't thought of it at all) till it showed up in Pankake. Interestingly, Judy Cook's tune, at least, is not the one I learned, although it's pretty clearly related.
In 1948 Lee Ricks and Slim Galliard copyrighted "Down by the Station"; Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 497, estimates that this was the fifteenth most popular song in America in February 1949; it was recorded by Tommy Dorsey, Guy Lombardo, and the Slim Galliard Trio. That song is clearly related to this -- but it appears that Ricks and Galliard took the traditional chorus cited above, added the verse, changed the sound effects, and copyrighted the whole thing. So the chorus (which I read somewhere was known in the 1930s) is probably legitimately "folk." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: PHCFS196

Down at the Wangan

DESCRIPTION: "Down at the Wangan across the street From Gifford's Corner the fact'ry boys meet, Waiting for Johnny come down and pay, Down comes old Matthew, 'No pay today.' Stick to the fact'ry boys ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: factory work nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 11, "Down at the Wangan" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #9200
NOTES [78 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "This is a fragment of a song made up in Newcastle in the 1880's or early 1890's. A wangan is a storage house ... where supplies are stored for the use of a lumber camp. By extension, used of any storage place. The song told of Matthew Russell, who ran a spool factory.... Workmen often had to wait a long time for their pay in the 1880's, though it wasn't so much of a hardship in those days, since business was done mostly on credit." - BS
File: MaWi011

Down at the Water Tank

See Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum) [Laws H2] (File: LH02)

Down at WIdow Johnson's

DESCRIPTION: "Down at Widow Johnson's the other night, Did a little courtin' out of sight. Down on my knees my love I was telling, My old girl on the outside yelling, 'You can't fool me Charlie (x2), You've tried ev'ry manner for to fool your little Hannah...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: courting fight
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 740, "Down at Widow Johnson's" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #17902
NOTES [15 words]: The description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5740

Down Bed, The

See Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)

Down by a River Side (I)

See Down By Blackwaterside (File: K151)

Down By a RIver Side (II)

See The First of May (Down By a River Side) (File: BGSW084)

Down By Blackwaterside

DESCRIPTION: Girl lies with a man, who dresses and prepares to leave her. She reproaches him, saying "That's not the promise you gave to me." She tells him she's the most loyal girl in the world, but now she'll marry him only "when fishes fly and the seas run dry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Johnson)
KEYWORDS: sex promise abandonment
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(MA,SE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1188, "Down by Yon Riverside" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 151, "Down By Blackwaterside" (1 text, 1 tune plus another text in the notes)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 28, "Down by a River Side" (2 texts)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 1, "Abroad As I Was Walking" (1 text); 124, "The Squire and the Fair Maid" (1 text)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 108-109, "Blackwater Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 65, "Down by a Riverside" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 57, "As I Strolled Out One Evening" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 468, BLKWTRSD*
Roud #564
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs, "Blackwater Side" (on Briggs2, Briggs3, Briggs4)
Liam Clancy, "Blackwater Side" (on IRLClancy01)
Winnie Ryan, "Down By Blackwaterside" (on FSBFTX15)
Paddy Tunney, "Blackwaterside" (on Voice10)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(122), "Distress'd Maid" ("As I walk'd out one May morning"), W. Wright (Birmingham), 1831-1837; also Harding B 11(904), Harding B 28(123), "Distress'd Maid"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Camden Town" (plot)
cf. "The Lovely Irish Maid" (plot, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Blackwaterside
Black Water Side
I Am Too Young
The Squire and the Fair Maid
The Distress'd Maid
NOTES [219 words]: The voice keeps changing, from a bystander to the woman to (possibly) the man. This song should not be confused with "The Black Water Side" (Laws O1). - PJS
Roud in fact lumps this with Laws P18, "Pretty Little Miss." But that entry is one of his mass lumps, of many songs about untrue lovers. While there is much sharing between songs of this type, it seems better to split them.
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland lumps this with "The Lovely Irish Maid," and I have to admit that there are strong points of contact, both lyric and in plot. This song, however, appears to take a slightly different direction, so I have, with much hesitation, split them. - RBW
The Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople fragment fits "Down By Blackwaterside" but its primary text combines "Down By Blackwaterside" with "The Shannon Side": instead of taking the maid to his room, "The grass was wet and slippery And both her feet did slide They both fell down together Down by the riverside"; she asks his name so she will know it for her baby's baptism and he says "My name is Captain Thunderbolt"; his reason for not marrying her is that he is committed to "the glazier's daughter."
While Ryan's text is cited by Kennedy as the basis for his Kennedy 151 text only a few verses are shared by the recording and the text in his book. - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: K151

Down by de Ribberside

See Down By the Riverside (Study War No More) (File: San480)

Down by El Alamein

DESCRIPTION: "That night on the desert was dark and serene, Our troops moving up in an endless stream, The barrage all set for ten p.m. Down by El Alamein." "The Afrika Corps will no longer dwell Down by El Alamein" and the "Kiwis" played a great part
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1943 (Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: battle New Zealand
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1942 - Battle of El Alamein. Montgomery's Eighth Army defeats Rommel's Germans and Italians, finally turning the course of the North African war
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 55, "Down by El Alamein" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Somewhere in France with You" (tune)
File: Clev055

Down by Gruyer's Groves

See Greer's Grove (File: RcGrrGrv)

Down by Jim Long's Stage

DESCRIPTION: "As I roved out one day in June 'twas down by Jim Long's stage, I met my true love's father" who has other plans for Eliza; singer threatens to take her away "to be me darlin' wife." Father reveals singer has passed the test and can "wed her in the fall"
AUTHOR: unknown (but see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 3rd edition)
KEYWORDS: love marriage dialog father
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland "Down by Jim Long's Stage" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 22 in the 3rd edition, p. 21 in the 4th, p. 19 in the 5th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 111, "Down By Jim Long's Stage" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7294
NOTES [83 words]: A stage is "An elevated platform on the shore ... where fish are landed and processed for salting and drying ...." [per Dictionary of Newfoundland English, University of Toronto Press, 1999].
According to GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site the author is "unknown, but probably Mark Walker." - BS
Anna Kearney Guigné, in her article on the Doyle songsters, "Kenneth Peacock's Contribution to Gerald S. Doyle's Old-TIme Songs of Newfoundland (1955)," also attributes the piece to Walker. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doyl3022

Down by Sally's Garden

See You Rambling Boys of Pleasure (Down by Sally's Garden) (File: FowM059)

Down by the Brazos

See The Rivers of Texas (The Brazos River) (File: R201)

Down by the Brook

See The Swapping Boy (File: E093)

Down By the Derwent Side

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl going to tend her father's sheep "down by the Derwent side." She refuses to go with him. "In time my suit I fondly pressed to win her for my bride." She finally agrees
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 151-152, "Down By the Derwent Side" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Anne Geddes Gilchrist, EFDSS Archives AGG/7/35, "Down By the Derwent Side," https://www.vwml.org/search?q=AGG/7/35&is=1 accessed 7/25/2023..
Anne Geddes Gilchrist, EFDSS Archives AGG/7/37, "Down By the Derwent Side," ahttps://www.vwml.org/search?q=AGG/7/37&is=1 accessed 7/25/2023.
Anne Geddes Gilchrist, EFDSS Archives AGG/7/38, "Down By the Derwent Side" https://www.vwml.org/search?q=%20AGG/7/38&is=1 accessed 7/24/2023. [one verse, almost entirely illegible]
Roud #1114
NOTES [54 words]: From his fragment Kidson considered this a local variant of "The Shannon Side" which "may be another instance of the alteration of the locality to suit local singers." The Kidson-TraditionalTunes verses are very close to the beginning of "Shannon Side" but the resolution added by Gilchrist's texts are entirely different. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: KiTu151

Down by the Fair River

See Gra Geal Mo Chroi (II -- Down By the Fair River) (File: CrMa069)

Down By the Glenside (The Bold Fenian Men)

DESCRIPTION: An old woman sings about the "bold Fenian men" she had seen "marching and drilling" 50 years earlier. They died in the glens and amid strangers. "Wise men have said that their cause was a failure, But they stood by old Ireland and never feared danger"
AUTHOR: Peadar Kearney (source: Hall, notes to Voice08)
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (recording, Margaret Barry)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion death nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, GLNSFEN*
Roud #9266
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "The Bold Fenian Men" (on Voice08)
NOTES [214 words]: The Fenians were an Irish Independence organization -- but they were also among the most absurdly inept plotters in history. The depth of their feelings are illustrated by the fact that they kept on after an endless litany of failures. (For examples, see "A Fenian Song," "The British Man-of-War," and "The Smashing of the Van (I).") - RBW
Hall, notes to Voice08, re "The Bold Fenian Men": "Peadar Kearney wrote [it] ... around the time of the 1916 Easter Rising."
Regarding "Some died by the glenside; some died amid strangers" this comment at Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 8" - 1.3.03: "The Fenian Irish independence movement began in the 1860s with attempted risings in the USA, Canada and Ireland."
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 8" - 1.3.03: "In the song, the 'old woman' represents the Spirit of Ireland." In this connection see notes to "Eileen McMahon" and references there. - BS
This seems to be known in tradition mostly under the title "The Bold Fenian Men," but Kearney's original title apparently was "Down by the Glenside." Kearney was also the author of the Irish national anthem "The Soldier's Song"; for more on him, see the notes to "Whack Fol the Diddle (God Bless England)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcDbtGle

Down by the Green Bushes

See Green Bushes [Laws P2] (File: LP02)

Down by the Greenwood Side

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

Down by the Greenwood Sidee

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

Down By the Groves of Tullig

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a beautiful "ruined" and "ailing" woman who plans to leave Ireland for California. He flatters her and makes a play but she turns her back saying "tis vanity we're not leading one course."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection emigration beauty America Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 54, "Down By the Groves of Tullig" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9288
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Down By the Groves of Tullig" (on IRECronin01)
File: OCC054

Down by the Liffey Side

See Fish and Chips (Down by the Liffey Side) (File: OLcM249)

Down By the Magdalen Green

DESCRIPTION: A sailor, whose ship anchored at Dundee, convinces a girl to walk "along by the Magdalen/Maudlin/Mellon Green." He returns to sea and dreams of the girl weeping with his baby son. He warns sailors against seducing and abandoning girls.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: seduction abandonment childbirth dream sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 16, "Down By the Mellon Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 35, "The Magdalen Green" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #2893
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Harbour of Dundee
NOTES [38 words]: Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster: "A couple of variants of this song have been collected in Scotland itself, notably from Jimmy McBeath, but it is by no means widely known. There is a Magdalen Green in Dundee (pronounced Madlin)." - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: MorU016

Down by the Meadow, down by the Sea

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Down by the meadow, down by the sea, I kissed Johnny and he kissed me. One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope sea | kiss counting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #114, "Down by the meadow, down by the sea" (1 text)
File: AJRR114

Down By the Mellon Green

See Down By the Magdalen Green (File: MorU016)

Down by the Ocean

See Johnny on the Ocean (File: DoDW385)

Down by the Old Mill Stream

DESCRIPTION: "My darling I am dreaming of the days gone by, When you and I were sweethearts beneath the summer sky... Down by the old mill stream where I first met you." Forty years later, the mill is gone, but he still loves her as he did when she was 16
AUTHOR: Tell Taylor (1876-1937) (source: Fuld; Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America)
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Spaeth)
KEYWORDS: love river campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #407, pp. 100-101, "Down by the Old Mill Stream" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 423, 514, "Down by the Old Mill Stream"/"Old Mill Stream" (notes only)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 200-201, "Down by the Old Mill Stream"
Roud #18684
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Down by the Old Mill Stream" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #332, recorded 11/02/2022)
Jill MacLaughlin, John MacLaughlin, "Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie/You Are My Sunshine/Down by the Old Mill Stream" (Piotr-Archive #315, recorded 10/22/2022; the first two are chorus only)
SAME TUNE:
Down by the Old Garbage Slough (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 110-111)
NOTES [106 words]: I always thought of this as a barbershop quartet piece, but Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, Random House, 1948, p. 372, says "modern audiences have been taught to sing [this] with detailed burlesque gestures," some of which he describes. So it evidently became a "motion song" at a very early date.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 293, estimates that this was the third most popular song in America in 1911, peaking at #3 in July 1911 (#1 for the year being Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ACSF423D

Down by the River Lived a Maiden

See Clementine (File: RJ19148)

Down by the River Sawl-ya

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

Down by the River Where the Green Grass Grows

See Down in the Meadow (Down in the Valley II) (File: SNR059)

Down by the River, Down by the Sea

See Johnny on the Ocean (File: DoDW385)

Down By the Riverside (I) (Study War No More)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm gonna lay down my sword and shield Down by the riverside... And study war no more." The singer describes coming to heaven, and living in peace with Jesus.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: war religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 55, "Down by the River" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 167 in the 1909 edition);, pp. 74-75, "I Ain't Going t' Study War No More" (1 text) (1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 624, "Old Satan's Mad" (5 text, of which the short "A" text is probably "Free at Last"; "B" is a variation on "Down By the Riverside (Study War No More)"; "C" has the "Old Satan's Mad" stanza but a "climbing Zion's walls" chorus; D" is an unidentifiable fragment perhaps related to "I Belong to that Band; and "E" is also a fragment, perhaps of "Free At Last")
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 566, "Down by de Ribberside" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 566, "Down by de Ribberside" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 480-481, "Ain' Go'n to Study War No Mo'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 90, "Going to Pull My War-Clothes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 13, "Down By the River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 50, "Study War No More" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 281, "Study War No More" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #342, p. 86, "I Ain't Gwine Study War No More" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 383, "Down by the Riverside" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 53, "Down By the Riverside" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 13, "Gwine to Lay Down My Burden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 9, "AIn't Gwine Study War No More" (1 text)
SongsOfManyNations, "Study War No More" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 60)
DT, WARNOMOR
Roud #11886
RECORDINGS:
Dixie Jubilee Singers, "I Ain't Gonna Study War No More" (Banner 7237/Domino 4206/Challenge 937 [as Jewel Male Quartet], 1928)
Elkins Payne Jubilee Singers, "Down By the Riverside" (Paramount 12071, 1923)
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "I Ain't Goin' to Study War No More" (Columbia A3596, 1922; rec. 1920)
Jimmie Lunceford & his Orch. "I Ain't Gonna Study War No More" (Columbia 26938, n.d.; Columbia 35567, 1940)
[Lester] McFarland & [Robert] Gardner, "Down By the Riverside" (Brunswick 108/Vocalion 5127, 1927; rec. 1926?)
Golden Echo Quartet, "Study War No More" (Deluxe 1005, 1945)
Memphis Minnie [Lizzie Douglas], "Down by the Riverside" (Conqueror 9936, 1941)
Missouri Pacific Diamond Jubilee Quartette, "Study War No More" (OKeh 8472, 1927)
Morehouse Quartet, "Down by the Riverside" (OKeh 4887, 1923)
C. Mae Frierson Moore, "Going to Study War No More" (Paramount 12323, 1925)
Norfolk Jubilee Quartet, "Down by the Riverside" (Paramount 12445, 1927)
Oak Ridge Quartet, "Ain't Gwine to Study War No More" (Capitol 40057, 1947)
Pete Seeger, "Study War No More" (on PeteSeeger14) (on PeteSeeger15) (on PeteSeeger44) (on PeteSeeger48)
Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry, "Study War No More" (on SeegerTerry)
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, "Down By the Riverside" (Decca 48106, n.d. but probably 1950s)
Louise Foreacre, "Shout Little Lulu" (on CloseHomeMS)
SAME TUNE:
Three Little Maids, "Ain't Gonna Study War No Mo'" (Bluebird B-5860, 1935; rec. 1933)
NOTES [376 words]: Holger Terp has written an article for the Danish Peace Academy, "Ain't gonna study war no more." He notes several sources who think the song goes back to the Civil War era -- but he observes that there is no evidence of the song in the nineteenth century. He finds a number of uses of the line "down by the river" or "down by the riverside" in that era, but they quite clearly are not this song although they may have inspired it.
It is his belief that the text of this song originated after 1917, using a tune published by John J. Nolan in 1902. Not having heard Nolan's piece "Down By The River Side," I cannot directly verify this, but it seems likely. It also seems likely that the first "Study War No More" text was compiled in 1918, although we cannot absolutely verify this. Holger thinks the text was first published in the 1918 Rodeheaver volume "Plantation Melodies"; again. I have not verified this.
Holger also believes that the song was inspired by the famous verse in Isaiah (2:4) and Micah (4:5), the former of which reads in the (American printings of) the King James Version,
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruninghooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.
These verses have inspired many songs (too bad they haven't inspired more politicians!), although in this case I would consider the song an allusion, not an actual quote.
Incidentally, although the King James translation is so influential that many more accurate translations are afraid to change it, the New English Bible renders it differently at several points:
They will beat their swords into mattocks
and their spears into pruning-knives;
nation will not lift sword against nation
nor ever again be trained for war.
Similarly, the New Jerusalem Bible has "sickles" for KJV "pruninghooks." The "pruning-knives" rendering goes back to the brilliant George Adam Smith. James Moffatt's translation gives the last line as
no longer shall men learn to fight.
Smith omits "any more" from the last line on the basis of the LXX Greek. - RBW
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute is a variant of Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 624B. - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: San480

Down By the Riverside (II)

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves Annie, but his parents have him marry another girl for gold. "What is the use of gold to me when I haven't the girl I love." He murders his wife. "Tomorrow morning you must hang down by the riverside." Don't slight your first true love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: greed love marriage warning execution homicide punishment trial father mother wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #25802
RECORDINGS:
John James, "Down By the Riverside" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Minnie Murphy, "Down By The Riverside" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
NOTES [39 words]: According to the ITMA/CapeShoreNL notes for this song, "After Minnie Murphy finished her performance, one of the men present in the room comments [sic] that he sometimes heard this song in the lumber camps of western Newfoundland." - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: ML3DBtRi

Down by the Sally Gardens

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets his sweetheart by the Sally Gardens; she bid him to "take love easy," but he is foolish and does not. He is now filled with remorse
AUTHOR: Words: William Butler Yeats / Music: Traditional
EARLIEST DATE: 1889
KEYWORDS: grief courting youth lover
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 164, "Down by the Sally Gardens" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 182, "Down By The Sally Gardens" (1 text)
DT, SALLYGRD*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 598, "Down by the Salley Gardens" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, _The Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1958, 1979), p. 132, "Down by the Salley Gardens" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
The Crofut Family, "Down by the Salley Gardens" (Piotr-Archive #674, recorded 09/17/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "You Rambling Boys of Pleasure (Down by Sally's Garden)"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Down By the Salley Gardens
NOTES [40 words]: This is barely a ballad, but there is the skeleton of a narrative, and it seems to have entered the repertoire. - PJS
It seems to have had roots in tradition, though. See "Down In my Sally's Garden" and "You Rambling Boys of Pleasure." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB182

Down by the Sea

DESCRIPTION: Call and answer: "Down by the sea (Down by the sea) Where the watermelons grow (Where the...), Back to my house... I dare not go... For if I go... My wife will say... Have you ever seen a cow with a green eye-brow Down where the watermelons grow?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: sea husband wife nonsense food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 38, "Down by the Sea" (1 text)
Roud #10561
File: BrPa038A

Down by the Sea Shore

See I Never Will Marry [Laws K17] (File: LK17)

Down by the Seaside

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets young woman and asks her to walk with him. She declines; she's searching for her true love. Looking through an opera glass, she spies his ship; hearing that he has been shot, she despairs; if he died for honor, she will die for love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (recorded from George Maynard)
KEYWORDS: grief virtue love separation death ship lover sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
Roud #1712
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "Down By the Seaside" (on Maynard1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" (part of plot, lyrics) and cross-references there
cf. "Susan Strayed on the Briny Beach [Laws K19]" (plot)
NOTES [48 words]: This is a conundrum; it starts out as a classic John-Riley-lover-in-disguise ballad, but halfway through does not take the usual sharp turn of revealing the stranger to be the lover returned. Instead, it proceeds in a straight line to the young man's death and the woman's bereavement. - PJS
File: RcDBTSS

Down by the Station

See Down at the Station (File: PHCFS196)

Down By the Tan-Yard Side

See The Tan-Yard Side [Laws M28] (File: LM28)

Down By the Tanyard Side

See The Tan-Yard Side [Laws M28] (File: LM28)

Down by the Weeping Willow Tree

DESCRIPTION: "Dig my grave and let me lie, love (x3), Down by the weeping willow tree." "Make it long and deep and wide, love." "Dig my grave with a golden spade, love." "Let me down with a golden chain, love." "Cover me over with the sod, love."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: burial death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 268, "Down by the Weeping Willow Tree" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dig My Grave with a Silver Spade" (lyrics)
NOTES [47 words]: The lyrics of this are largely identical with "Dig My Grave with a Silver Spade," and I thought seriously about lumping them. But I hesitantly separate them (pending discovery of additional versions) on the basis of the refrains and the much more spiritual feel of "Silver Spade." - RBW
File: Br3268

Down by the Wild Mustard River

See The Wild Mustard River (Johnny Stile) [Laws C5] (File: LC05)

Down by the Yeaman Shore

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye swains of Scotland, I pray you lend an ear." The singer met his love in Dundee; they walked by the Yeaman Shore. Later, she will not walk with him because of her parents. He wishes he had money, but having none, he will travel far away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 36, "Down by the Yeaman Shore" (1 text, tune referenced)
File: Gath036

Down By Yon Shady Harbor

DESCRIPTION: "You tender-hearted lover, come listen to my grief, My darling's going to leave me in hopes of no relief." He is bound for America; she begs him to stay, but he is sent off. She sets out for America also, and finds him; they marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Fowke collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation emigration reunion
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 12, "Down By Yon Shady Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3830
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Acklin (The Squire's Young Daughter)" [Laws M16] (plot)
NOTES [125 words]: The mention of a "shady harbor" also occurs in versions of "Mary Acklin (The Squire's Young Daughter)" [Laws M16], which also features two lovers separated. But, in that song, it is because of her father, and Mary is a squire's daughter. In this song, the father does not enter in, and the girl (still named Mary) is a servant. The ring which motivates the plot is also missing from this song.
On the other hand, the text of this song as collected from O. J. Abbott is a bit confused: Did Willy go to America voluntarily, or was he forced away? Different lines give different answers. On the whole, I think this song a derivative of "Mary Acklin," but just different enough that I have agreed with Roud in splitting them. But best to see both songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: AbFo012

Down Came an Angel

See Christ Was Born in Bethlehem (File: MA189)

Down Een duh Walley On My Prayin' Knees

See Down In The Valley On My Praying Knees (File: HPR318D)

Down Erin's Lovely Lee

See Down Erin's Lovely Lee (File: RcErLoLe)

Down Fell the Old Nag

DESCRIPTION: "Down fell the old nag, dead between the shafts." The crew, rather than haul the cart home themselves, declare, "We'll harness up the old woman, and put her in the shafts, and make her pull the whole lot home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: husband wife horse death hardheartedness
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 144, "Down Fell the Old Nag" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA144

Down Hampshire Way

DESCRIPTION: "I'm Hampshire bred and Hampshire born, And proud of it am I, No softer, purer air I know, Beneath God's boundless sky." Hampshire is beautiful, and welcomes visitors. No matter where you travel, you will not find better cities than Southampton, etc.
AUTHOR: Words: Hugh Scott / Music: Seathcote Statham (source: Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Hampshire Advertiser and Southampton Times, according to Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire)
KEYWORDS: patriotic home nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 40-42, "Down Hampshire Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [32 words]: Pretty definitely not a folk song -- and probably not true, even in 1927; all the coal-burning ships traveling in and out of Portsmouth and Southampton would hardly have produced pure air! - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BrHa040

Down in a Boston Restaurant

DESCRIPTION: A moneyless hobo steals a crock of beans from a Boston restaurant and escapes from a cop who chases him. He marries a girl with false teeth and hair and a wooden leg. She has a baby girl; he wants boys. He hopes to fool a blind man with a fake quarter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: marriage theft hair money food humorous children wife police hobo
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18206
RECORDINGS:
Mike Kent, "Down in a Boston Restaurant" (on MUNFLA/Leach) (2 versions)
File: RcDinBRe

Down in a Coal Mine

See Down in the Coal Mine (File: Wa026)

Down in a Licensed Saloon

DESCRIPTION: "Where is my wandering boy tonight? Down in a licensed saloon. Down in a room all cozy and bright, Filled with the glare of many a light, Ruined and wrecked by the drink appetite..." The mother recalls the boy's youthful charms and regrets his downfall
AUTHOR: W.A. Williams
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: drink mother children
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 335, "Down in a Licensed Saloon" (1 text)
Roud #7807
NOTES [14 words]: Published under the caption "An answer to, 'Where is My Wandering Boy To-night?'" - RBW
File: R335

Down in Alabama

See The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)

Down in Arkansas

See Down in the Arkansas (File: R349)

Down in Covent Garden

See The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)

Down in Dear Old Greenwich Village

DESCRIPTION: "Way down south in Greenwich Village, that's the field for cultural tillage; there they have artistic ravings, tea and awful cravings." In Greenwich women bob their hair and look for men and look for "distillage" and otherwise act in shocking ways
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home travel courting drink
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 128-130, "Down in Dear Old Greenwich Village" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9537
File: SBar128

Down in Dixie's Isle

See The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II) [Laws N9] (File: LN09)

Down in Jay Bird Town

See Bluebird (File: OpGa097)

Down in My Garden

See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

Down in My Sally's Garden

DESCRIPTION: The thrush sings sweetly in Sally's garden. The singer recalls meeting her in the garden, and the time they fondly shared. In the end, "My heart became love-weary When I at last must go." "I left my Sally weeping Down by an ivied dell."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H828, p. 286-287, "Down in My Sally's Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 124-125, (no title) (1 text, with at least the first verse being related to this)
DT, SALGARD2*
Roud #3819
NOTES [31 words]: This may have influenced the Yeats poem, "Down by the Sally Garden," though that poem may also have been inspired by "You Rambling Boys of Pleasure." Or both may have played a part. - RBW
File: HHH828

Down in Nelson's Pillar Where the Boat Goes Push

See Down the Mississippi Where the Boats Go Push (File: AJRV099)

Down In Old Franklin County

DESCRIPTION: "It was down in Franklin County, Where they never have the blues, Where the Captain kills the colonel, And the colonel kills the booze." Horses and women there are attractive, but it is a violent place. A daily walk can leave "buckshot in your pants."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: violence home drink homicide
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 29, "Down in Old Franklin County" (1 short text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 443, "Down in Old Franklin County" (1 short text)
Roud #14054
NOTES [23 words]: I can't prove it from the extant fragments, but I suspect that this is about moonshine, with a moonshiner killing a revenue officer. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: CAFS443A

Down in Our Village

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets Fan dancing in the village after work. His parents and friends "laugh and joke and jeer me." When they've saved enough money they will marry and "Fan will dance and I will sing"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1822 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 15)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage dancing father friend mother shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 149-150, "Down in Our Village" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1113
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 15, "Our Village" ("When first I was a shepherd's boy"), J. Catnach (London), 1822; also Harding B 36(29), "Our Village"; Firth b.27(47), Firth b.26(343), 2806 c.16(145), Harding B 20(44), 2806 c.17(105), Firth b.25(518), Firth b.25(518), Harding B 25(546), "Down in Our Village"; Johnson Ballads 804, Firth b.26(343), Firth b.25(222), Harding B 11(958), Harding B 11(697), Harding B 25(543), "Down Down in Our Village"; 2806 c.17(389)[left margin clipped], Johnson Ballads 3071 View 2 of 3, [The] Shepherd's Boy"
SAME TUNE:
The Sun That Lights the Roses (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 15)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Little Fan
File: KiTu149

Down in Southern Illinois

DESCRIPTION: "You may sing of old Kentucky Or your Indiana home, You may boast of Missouri Or the many lands you roam," but the singer prefers Southern Illinois, even though it is called "Darkest Egypt." The singer dreams of hogs and cattle and plans to stay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad farming
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 28-29, "Down in Southern Illinois" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 442-443, "Down in Southern Illinois" (1 text)
Roud #14053
File: CAFS2442

Down in Texas Blues

DESCRIPTION: Don't be a stick-up man or call a man a liar in Texas because every "pocket has a pistol"; "they never hang a man." "They put us in jail every night and every morning they turn us loose." Texas is the best state after all: "I can get my ashes hauled"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: sex violence crime home bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Jesse "Babyface" Thomas, "Down in Texas Blues" (on StuffDreams1)
NOTES [18 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcDITexB

Down in the Alley-O

See Relieve-Ee-O (File: BAAI146)

Down in the Arkansas

DESCRIPTION: Odd snippets with the refrain "Down in the Arkan (x2) Down in the Arkansas. The sweetest girl I ever saw Was down in the Arkansas." Example: "I had a cow that slobbered bad... Asked (the doctor) what to do for it. He said to teach that cow to spit."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (recording, Myers & Hanford)
KEYWORDS: humorous animal courting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 349, "Down in Arkansas" (2 texts)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 16-17, "Down in the Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 355-356, "Down In Arkansas" (1 text)
Roud #7626
RECORDINGS:
Bill Cox, "Down in Arkansas" (Champion 16075 [as Luke Baldwin]/Supertone 9714 [as Charley Blake]/Superior 2558 [as Clyde Ashley], 1930)
Crystal Springs Ramblers, "Down in Arkansas" (Vocalion 03856, 1937)
Dave Edwards & his Alabama Boys, "Down in Arkansas" (Decca 5536, 1938; rec. 1937)
Golden Melody Boys, "Way Down in Arkansas" (Paramount 3087, 1928; Broadway 8134, n.d.)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Down in Arkansas" (Vocalion 15034, 1925)
[Pee Wee] Myers and [Ford] Hanford, "Down in Arkansaw" (Victor 18767, 1921)
Pickard Family, "Down in Arkansas" (Brunswick 348/Conqueror 7251, 1929; Banner S-6283/Challeng 993/QRS 9002, c. 1929; rec. 1928)
Riley Puckett, "Down in Arkansas" (Columbia 15139-D, 1927; rec. 1926)
Reaves White County Ramblers, "Down in Arkansas" (Vocalion 5224, 1928)
Almeda Riddle, "Down in Arkansas" (on LomaxCD1707)
Art Thieme, "Down in the Arkansas" (on Thieme04)
File: R349

Down in the Brunner Mine

DESCRIPTION: "They work in the heat, and the coal-black dust Sticks to the skin... We curse each day that the miner must Go down in the Brunner Mine." Even the air is dangerous. A cave-in brings "a hundred feet of rubble and coal," giving a day off; no one rejoices
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (recording, Phil Garland, according to Mike Harding, _When the Pakeha Sings of Home: A Source Guide to the Folk & Popular Songs of New Zealand_)
KEYWORDS: mining death New Zealand
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 26, 1896 - The Brunner Mine in Westland, New Zealand, collapses, killing 67 miners
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 78, "Down in the Brunner Mine" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 58 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 38-39, "(Down in the Brunner Mine" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Barbie and Neil Colquhoun, "Down in the Brunner Mine" (on NZSongYngCntry)
NOTES [111 words]: According to Gordon McLauchlan, editor-in-chief, New Zealand Encyclopedia, David Bateman Limited, 1984, pp. 72-73, Brunner was "a locality 13 km east of Greymouth, formerly known as Brunnerton and declared a borough in 1887[. It] is near where Thomas Brunner ["one of the most intrepid explorers in the early days of NZ settlement"] discovered a coal seam in January 1848. The Brunner coalmine was the scene of the worst mine disaster in NZ hietory. On 26 March 1896, 67 men were killed by an explosion and release of gas, following the negligent and unauthorized firing of a shot in a disused section of the mine where no work should have been in progress." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Colq058

Down in the Coal Mine

DESCRIPTION: The miner sings, "I am a jovial collier lad, as blythe as blythe can be / And let the times be good or bad, it's all the same to me...." He describes his dark and dirty life and his lack of culture, but points out how all are dependent on him.
AUTHOR: J. B. Geoghegan (or "Geehagen")
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (date of composition, according to Sullivan; also Dime-Song-Book #X, p. 31)
KEYWORDS: mining nonballad work
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,Ro) Britain
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 26, "Down in the Coal Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 277-278, "Down in a Coal Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 373-374, "Down in a Coal Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 176-177, Down In a Coal Mine" (1 text) (pp. 154-155 in the 1919 edition)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 74, p. 97, "Down in the Coal Mines" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #187, "Down in the Coal Mine" (1 text)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 199, "Down in a Coal Mine" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 128-129, "Down in the Coalmine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 171-172, "Down in a Coal Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #31, pp. 22-23, "Down in a Coal Mine" (1 text)
DT, DOWNCOAL
Roud #3502
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go)" (part of tune)
NOTES [59 words]: According to James Sullivan, Which Side Are You On?: 20th Century History in 100 Protest Songs, with a foreword by The Reverend Lennox Yearwood and Bill McKibben, Oxford University Press, 2019, p. 35, author J. B. Geoghehan was "a music hall manager and promoter" who intended this "as a celebration of the men toiling in an unheralded occuption." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Wa026

Down in the Desert

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Down in the desert Where the purple grass dies There sat a witch with Yellowish-green eyes. Nobody comes to see her Because she always ate them. One by one, two by two...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food derivative | witch desert
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #116, "Down in the desert" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down in the Meadow (Down in the Valley II)" (source of parody)
File: AJRR116

Down in the Diving Bell (The Mermaid (II))

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a sailor, sees amazing sights while down in the diving bell (including the Atlantic Cable used as a clothesline). He courts and marries a mermaid and they live happily, if wetly, ever after
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(965))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage wedding sea humorous sailor mermaid/man
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #27, "Down in the Diving Bells" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 223-224, "Down in a Diving Bell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5013
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "The Mermaid (Down in the Diving Bell)" (AFS 4199 A2, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(965), "Down in the Diving Bell," J. Harkness (Preston) , 1840-1866
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mermaid" (subject matter)
cf. "The Merman (Pretty Fair Maid with a Tail)" [Laws K24] (plot)
cf. "Married to a Mermaid" (theme of marrying a mermaid)
NOTES [85 words]: I call this "Down in the Diving Bell" to differentiate it from "The Mermaid", and because it seems to have entered tradition under that title. The origin is almost certainly music-hall or vaudeville. - PJS
Bodleian Harding B 11(965) has no reference to the Atlantic cable (which would have set an early date of 1865; an article on the diving bell was printed in 1771 in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (source: The History of the Diving Bell by Arthur J Bachrach, Ph.D. on the Historical Diving Society site.)) - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcDitDB

Down in the Diving Bells

See Down in the Diving Bell (The Mermaid (II)) (File: RcDitDB)

Down in the Duckpond

DESCRIPTION: "Down in the duckpond, Learning how to swim, First he does the overarm, Then he does the side, Now he's underwater, Swimming against the tide"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 60, "(Down in the duckpond)" (1 text)
File: SuSm060

Down in the Dungeons Seven Feet Deep

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Down in the dungeons seven feed deep, Where old Hitler lies asleep, German boys they tickle his feet, Down in the dungeons seven feet deep."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Opie collection, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope prison burial derivative | Hitler
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #117, "Down in the dungeon seven feet deep" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree" (tune)
File: AJRR117

Down in the Harbor of Havana

DESCRIPTION: "Down in the harbor of Havana, Have you heard the news, know what?" "Our battleship, the Maine, Was visiting the Spain." "Our crew was fast asleep." "About ten o'clock, There came an awful shock." "The Spaniards nevermore Shall ravish Cuba's shore."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: disaster ship death war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1895 - Cubans rebel against Spain
Feb 15, 1898 - Explosion of the battleship "Maine" in Havana harbor
April 25, 1898 - Congress declares war on Spain
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #10, "Down in the Harbor of Havanna" (1 text)
Roud #5018
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine" (subject) and references there
File: Morr010

Down in the Holler

DESCRIPTION: "Down in the holler Where the pigs used to waller, Oh there's somebody wailing for me, Take the one, leave the other, Take the one, leave the other, Take the one, leave the other for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting animal
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 215-216, "Down in the Holler" (1 text,1 tune)
File: SaKo215

Down in the Jungle

DESCRIPTION: "Down in the jungle Where nobody goes, Lives a big fat mama Who washes her clothes." Some rubbing and dubbing and "That's how she washes her clothes"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: clothes derivative playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 125, "Down in the Jungle" (1 text)
Roud #18993
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down in the Valley Washing Her Clothes" (the apparent source)
cf. "The First Time I Met Her (Down in the Valley, Down in the Dark Alley)" (form)
NOTES [68 words]: Google for "where nobody goes" and "clothes" and you'll find references to variations of this song (as well as to "Down in the Valley Washing Her Clothes"). There are "children's" versions where "big fat mama" becomes a gorilla, or crocodile, or an elephant, or "wishy washy washer woman" or "Boogie Woogie Washer Woman." You can also go "down in the cellar" where "the bugs and beetles get in your clothes." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa155

Down in the Lehigh Valley

See The Lehigh Valley (File: EM198)

Down in the Lehigh Valley (II)

See The Tramp's Story (File: R844)

Down in the lowlands a poor girl did wander

See The Fisherman's Girl (File: E066)

Down in the Lowlands There Grew a Tree

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

Down in the Meadow (Down in the Valley II)

DESCRIPTION: Singing game/skipping rhyme "Down in the (meadow/valley) where the green grass grows," a girl shines like a rose (or hangs out her clothes). She and a young man court (and marry)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting jumprope | grass meadow counting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1575, "Down in Yon Meadow" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 91-92, "Down by the River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 20, "Down by the Riverside" (6 texts, 1 tune)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 59, "Skipping (Down in the Valley)" (1 text)
Behan-IrelandSings, #25, "Down in Yonder Meadow" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #126, "Down in the Valley Where the Green Grass Grows" (1 text)
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, p. 78, "(no title)" (1 text)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 116, "(no title, filed under "Rope Jumping")" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 55, "Down in the Meadow" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #8, "(Down in the meadow)"; #21, "(Down in the meadow)"; #52, "(Down in the meadow)"; #67, "(Down in the valley Where the green grass grows)"; #73, "(Down in the valley where the green grass grows)"; #82, "(Down in them meadow where the green grass grows)"; #104, "(Down by the river Where the green grass grows)"; #145, "(Down by the meadow where the green grass grows)" (8 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 127, "Down in the meadow where the green grass grows"; "Down in the valley where the green grass grows" (2 texts, the latter probably a deliberate parody)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #115, "Down by the river (in the meadow, valley)" (1 text); #119, "DOwn in the valley where the geen grass grows" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Joan McCaskill, collector), "Rope-Skipping Games", Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 12, "(Down in the Meadow)" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Teri John, "A Collection of Jump Rope Rhymes," Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), p. 16, "(Down by the river where the green grass grows" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, p. 386, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 189, "A Political Jump Rope Rhyme" (1 text, with references to Kennedy and Nixon rather than courting, collected 1960)
Roud #12967
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down in the Desert" (parody of this)
NOTES [130 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "Although the precise source ... may never be known, the words probably stem from an Arcadian song such as 'The Wars are all O'er', which appears on a slip sheet in our possession printed in the 1770's." See "I Wish the Wars Were All Over." - BS
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes prints two versions of this. His #115 is an entirely typical version of this extremely common rhyme (surely one of the ten most popular jump rope rhymes). #119 is, shall we say, for an older group of participants:
Down in the valley where the green grass grows,
There sat little (girl's name) without any clothes.
A boy wanders by "and out it came"; she ends up pregnant. Abrahams calls this "a common bawdy rhyme" -- but he cites only one Texas version which he himself collected. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SNR059

Down in the Meadow Not Far Off

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Down in the meadow not far off, The blue jay (sat/died) with the whooping cough. He whooped so hard with the whooping cough, He whooped his head and his tail right off"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: bird disease jumprope floatingverses | blue jay whooping cough
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #118, "Down in the meadow not far off" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Up in a Loft A Long Way Off" (lyrics)
NOTES [80 words]: Every word of this is found in other songs -- often several other songs. But I haven't seen the combination elsewhere. I wouldn't trust the citations in Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, though; I suspect he's lumping some of the floating-verse songs. It possibly should be lumped with "Up in a Loft a Long Way Off," which includes a lot of the same floating material.
For more on whooping cough, and its (non)-occurrence in animals, see the notes to "Old Cow Died of Whooping Cough." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR118

Down in the Place Where I Come From

DESCRIPTION: "Down in de place where I come from, Dey feed dose coons on hard-parched cawn, Dey swell up an' dey get so far Day dey couldn't get deir heads in a Number Ten hat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal food clothes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 284, (no title) (1 fragment)
NOTES [43 words]: Anyone who has had to deal with an urban raccoon will know how true this is; trash is so abundant and convenient that the critters tend to take over yards and even houses. It's also reported that many of them are ending up with severe dental problems.... - RBW
File: ScNF284A

Down in the River Where the Green Grass Grows

See Down in the Meadow (Down in the Valley II) (File: SNR059)

Down in the Taro Patch

See The Paw-Paw Patch (File: R553)

Down in the Town of Old Bantry (The Black and Tan Gun)

DESCRIPTION: An Irish soldier is dying in Bantry "shot by a Black-and-Tan gun" He asks his comrades to bury him "out on the mountain Where I can see where the battle was won" They bury him, return to Dublin "with our victories over and won."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recording, Tommy McGrath)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion Civilwar IRA dying soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1920-1921 - The Black and Tan War
FOUND IN: Ireland
ST RcBlTaGu (Full)
Roud #12938
RECORDINGS:
Tommy McGrath, "Down in the Town of Old Bantry" (on Voice08)
NOTES [185 words]: The "Black and Tans" were British reinforcements to regular British soldiers sent to Ireland in 1920. (source: Michael Collins: A Man Against an Empire copyright by and available on the History Net site) For more information see RBW note for "The Bold Black and Tan" - BS
Although details in the song are lacking, its setting in Bantry is quite reasonable; the south of Ireland was noteworthy for the fury of the contest with the English, with Cork being probably the single most active IRA center. Robert Kee, in Ourselves Alone, being volume III of The Green Flag, devotes pp. 102-103 to the atrocities committed by both side in Bantry.
The sad irony is that, once the Irish fought off the British, and achieved the Free State (see the notes to "The Irish Free State"), they proceeded to have a civil war (see "General Michael Collins"). That by implication dates this song to 1921 or 1922, before it became clear that the "victory" of the Black and Tan war just led to more violence. Of course, many Irish songwriters have tended to write about their successes and ignore the subsequent failures. - RBW
File: RcBlTaGu

Down in the Tules

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, down in the tules, a-wranglin' around, I'd give a month's pay just to be in town." A cowboy complains about his hard work. He goes into town and parties, concluding "Saturday night's over, it's back to the hills;" partied out, he wants to go home
AUTHOR: Jim McElroy
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: cowboy work home party
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 73, "Down in the Tules" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [24 words]: "Tules," Ohrlin explains, are the reed grasses that grow by bodies of water. This gives rise to the secondary meaning "boondocks, outskirts." - RBW
File: Ohr073

Down in the Valley

DESCRIPTION: "Down in the valley, valley so low, Hang your head over, hear the wind blow." The singer tells of his deep, unrequited love for (his/her) sweetheart. (He) bids farewell: "If you don't love me, love whom you please." (He says to write to Birmingham Jail.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation prison lyric
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (31 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 488, "Down in the Valley"; pp. 488-489, "Bird in a Cage" (2 texts)
Randolph 772, "Down in the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 281, "Down in the Valley (Birmingham Jail)" (1 text plus a fragment); also probably 282, "I Sent My Love a Letter" (3 texts, of which "A" is likely to be this piece and "C" is a mess with some "Down in the Valley" verses and others about Lulu, though it's not clear which Lulu; "B" is "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 281, "Down in the Valley (Birmingham Jail)" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #31, "Birmingham Jail" 2 texts, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 142, "Bird in the Cage" (1 text)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, pp. 6-7, "Down in the Valley" (1 text plus some additional verses, 3 tunes)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 179, "Down in the Valley" (1 text)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, p. 28, "Down in the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 148, "Down in the Valley"; 213, "Bird in a Cage" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 19, "Down in the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 147-149, "Down in the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 150, "Down in the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 310-311, "Little Willie's My Darling" (1 text, 1 tune, with a plot of "Twenty-One Years" [Laws E16] but which has swallowed "Down in the Valley" almost entire)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 332, "Birmingham Jail" (1 text)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 149-151, "The Birmingham Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 92-93, "The Birmingham Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 85, "Birmingham Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 58, "Down in the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 902-903, "Down in the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 33, "Down In The Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 290, "Down in the Valley" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 99, "Down in the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 150, "Down In The Valley" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 201-202, "Down in the Valley"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 27, 54, 58, 114, 230, 311, "Down in the Valley" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 104, "Down in the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 17, "Down in the Valley" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 99, "Down in the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DOWNVALY*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 212, (no title) (1 fragment)
Roud #943
RECORDINGS:
[Tom] Darby & [Jimmie] Tarlton, "Birmingham Jail" (Columbia 15212-D, 1927)
Ezra Hill & Henry Johnson, "Birmingham Jail" (Challenge 15750, 1929)
Abby Mason, "Down in the Valley" (Piotr-Archive #82, recorded 09/17/2021)
Frank Proffitt, "Down in the Valley" (on Proffitt03)
Riley Puckett, "Down in the Valley" (Regal Zonophone [Australia] G22464, n.d.)
Pete Seeger, "Down in the Valley" (on LonesomeValley) (on PeteSeeger17)
Unidentified group of singers, "Down in the Valley" (on JThomas01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot (III)" (tune)
cf. "Bull Connor's Jail" (tune)
cf. "The Stolen Bride" (tune)
cf. "Billy My Darling" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Hang Your Head Over (Suck Your Big Toe) (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 110)
Tom Darby & Jimmie Tarlton, "Birmingham Jail - No. 2" (Columbia 15375-D, 1929; rec. 1928); "New Birmingham Jail" (Columbia 15629-D, 1930 -- note that two different takes were issued under this record number)
NOTES [99 words]: "Birmingham Jail" (sometimes credited to E.V. Body) is considered by some a separate song, but it can hardly be distinguished from "Down in the Valley." The same can be said of Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag's and Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's "Bird in a Cage" texts; it lacks the "Down in the Valley" stanza, but the other verses are common. - RBW
This song is often called "Birmingham Jail," particularly on early recordings; there is also, however, another song called "Birmingham Jail", which is part of the "Sweet Thing/Crawdad Hole" family, and no relation to this. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R772

Down in the Valley (III)

See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

Down in the Valley (IV)

See Jesus Set Poor Sinners Free (File: HiOtDyL)

Down In The Valley On My Praying Knees

DESCRIPTION: "(Down in the valley on my praying knees) (x3) O Lord O Lord what shall I do." Other first lines: "Where were you when the evening sun went down," "Where were you when death came creeping in the room" to "take mother" and "steal father"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 318-319, "Down Een duh Walley On My Prayin' Knees" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR318D

Down in the Valley to Pray

DESCRIPTION: "As I went down in the valley to pray, Studying about the good old way (or: My soul got happy and I stayed all day)." "Oh, (sinners/mothers/fathers/brothers/sisters, etc.), let's go down, you better go down, Down in the valley to pray."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 4, "Down in the Valley to Pray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 553, "As I Went Down in the Valley to Pray" (3 short texts with significant variations)
DT, DOWNVALL
Roud #4928
RECORDINGS:
Delta Big Four, "Moaner Let's Go Down in the Valley" (Paramount 13009, 1930; on VocalQ2)
Price Family Sacred Singers, "I Went Down Into the Valley to Pray" (OKeh 40796, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Can't Cross Jordan"
cf. "The Good Old Way (II)" (lyrics)
NOTES [70 words]: This song shares many lines with "The Good Old Way (II)," and given how short some of Brown's fragments are, they may file there. Indeed, some might argue for lumping them -- but the forms appear distinct to me. - RBW
The creators of the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? changed the lyric to "Down to the River to Pray", and there are signs that this variant is entering into aural tradition among revival singers. -PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Br3553

Down in the Valley Washing Her Clothes

DESCRIPTION: "Down in the valley/river/woods/on Old Smoky where nobody goes, There was a maiden/girl/Annie Oakley without any clothes." A cowboy/Freddy/Gene/Roy Rogers comes by and opens his zipper/takes off his trousers or everything. Sometimes, she has a baby.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950s (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: sex clothes bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord)) US(SW) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, pp. 427-428, ("Down in the Valley Where Nobody Goes") (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 53, "(Down in the valley)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Nancy Leventhal and Ed Cray, "Depth Collecting from a Sixth-Grade Class" in Western Folklore, Vol. XXII, No. 4 (Oct 1963 (available online by JSTOR)), #56a p. 243 ("On top of Old Smoky") (1 text)
Bruce Jackson, Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me (Florence, 2004 (copyrighted material limited preview "Digitized by Google")) #89 p. 227, "Forty-Nine Ford" (1 text)
Onwuchekwa Jemie, editor, Yo' Mama: New Raps, Toasts, Dozens, Jokes, and Children's Rhymes from Urban Black America (Philadelphia, 2003 (copyrighted material limited preview "Digitized by Google")) p. 143, "Down By The River" (1 text)
Roud #18993
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down in the Jungle" (a playparty version)
cf. "The First Time I Met Her (Down in the Valley, Down in the Dark Alley)" (form)
File: OpGap427

Down in the Valley Where the Green Grass Grows

See Down in the Meadow (Down in the Valley II) (File: SNR059)

Down in the Willow Garden

See Rose Connoley [Laws F6] (File: LF06)

Down in Union County

DESCRIPTION: "Down in Union County (x3), For to see my Susie/Suzie Ann." "I know that she'll be waiting (x3), To see her loving man." "I know I'll get some loving (x3), When I see my Susie Ann." "I know that we'll get married." ""Cornbread in the oven."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage food
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, p. 67, "Union County" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7057
File: BWV5067

Down in Utah

DESCRIPTION: "While the workmen stopped in Denver one fellow came to me, Said he, Are you from Utah, and why are you so free?" The two get into a fight. The singer gets in trouble with the law. Mormons always get questioned because of their faith
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: fight questions
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 130-132, "Down in Utah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 604-605, "Down in Utah" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 532-533, "Down in Utah" (1 text)
ST CAFS2604 (Partial)
Roud #10858
File: CAFS2604

Down in Yon Forest

See The Corpus Christi Carol (File: L691)

Down in Yon Valley

See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

Down in Yonder Meadow

See Down in the Meadow (Down in the Valley II) (File: SNR059)

Down In Yonder Valley

See Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)

Down On Me

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses: "Down on me, down on me..." "I wonder what Satan is growling about..." "Mind my mother how you walk on the cross..." "Satan's mad and I'm so glad..." Refrain: "...Seems like everybody in this whole wide world is down on me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recording, Dock Reed)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious Devil
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 137, "Down On Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12256
RECORDINGS:
Mary Pinckney, "Down on Me" (on BeenStorm1)
Dock Reed, "Down on Me" (AFS 4058 A1, 1940; on LC10)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "That's All Right" (floating verses)
File: RcDoOnMe

Down on my Luck

DESCRIPTION: "Wand'ring above a sea of glass, In the soft April weather," the singer neither knows nor cares where he will sleep tonight; he has lost his job to a machine, and is broke. His woman has left him; he is "close to the end of my tether"
AUTHOR: A. R. D. Fairburn (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (New Zealand Poetry Yearbook, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes technology abandonment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 158-159, "Down on my Luck" (1 text, 1 modern tune)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 71, "Down on my Luck" (1 text, 1 modern tune)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 164-165, "(Down On My Luck)" (1 text)
File: BaRo158

Down on Penney's Farm

See Down on Penny's Farm (File: LoF147)

Down on Penny's Farm

DESCRIPTION: "Hard times in the country, Down on Penny's farm." The renters are subjected to dreadful conditions: Bad land, houses with "no windows but the cracks in the wall," low income, high expenses -- and a threat of going on the chain gang for debt
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Bently Boys)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes work farming poverty landlord nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 287-288, "Hard Times in the Country" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 147, "Down on Penney's Farm" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 362, "Down on Penny's Farm" (1 text)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 66 "Down on Penny's Farm" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 216-217, "Down on Roberts' Farm" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 119, "Robert's Farm" (1 text)
Roud #6687
RECORDINGS:
Bently Boys, "Down on Penny's Farm" (Columbia 15565-D, 1930; rec. 1929; on AAFM1, HardTimes1)
Pete Seeger, "Penny's Farm" (on PeteSeeger02, PeteSeegerCD01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
On Tanner's Farm
NOTES [59 words]: Bascom Lamar Lunsford has the "Roberts' Farm" version from a Claude Reeves of North Carolina, who claimed to have written it around 1935. It would seem, however, that this was only a local adaption. - RBW
Bob Dylan wrote a parody/pastiche of this song entitled "New York Town". -PJS
And, of course, Gid Tanner produced a version about his own farm! - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LoF147

Down on Roberts' Farm

See Down on Penny's Farm (File: LoF147)

Down on Tanner' Farm

See Down on Penny's Farm (File: LoF147)

Down on the Banks of the Hanky Tank

DESCRIPTION: Round. "Down by the banks of the Pasquotank/Hanky Tank/Hanky-Pank(y), Where the bullfrogs jump from bank to bank(y), With an eep- ap- op- up, He leaps off a lily with a kerplunk"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 146-147, 436, 447, "Down on the Banks of the Hanky Tank"/"Hanky Tank" (notes only)
Roud #15891
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "May Irwin's Frog Song (The Foolish Frog, Way Down Yonder)"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hanky Pank
Hanky Panky
NOTES [48 words]: Pretty clearly a cut down version of "May Irwin's Frog Song (The Foolish Frog, Way Down Yonder)" -- but since it's a round, with no plot and not many lyrics, I'm filing it separately. Obviously it is not possible to draw a sharp line; I'm assuming they file under the same Roud number. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF146H

Down on the Banks of the Ohio

See Banks of the Ohio [Laws F5]
 (File: LF05)

Down on the Carpet We Shall Kneel

See This Pretty Girl of Mine (File: GrD81572)

Down on the Corner of Dock and Holly

DESCRIPTION: "Down on the corner of Dock and Holly, A woman comes and says to me, 'Will you come and work of Jesus?'" The singer asks how much Jesus pays. Since Jesus pays nothing, he prefers to work for Charley Lind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (Allen, Washington Songs and Lore)
KEYWORDS: work humorous derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 627-628, "Down on the Corner (of Dock and Holly)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Swede from North Dakota" (theme of not working for Jesus)
File: CAFS2628

Down on the Corner, Chewing Bubble Gum

See Chewing Gum (III) (File: ZiZa104E)

Down on the Farm (I)

DESCRIPTION: Susie Slick and Tommy lay on the grass, where she wiggles her ---, as in all such teasing songs.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 216-221, "Down on the Farm" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Teasing Songs" (specifically "Suzanne Was a Lady," "The Ship's in the Harbor," "There Once Was a Farmer," "Two Irishmen, Two Irishmen")
cf. "Butcher Town"
File: RL216

Down on the Farm (II)

DESCRIPTION: "When a boy I used to dwell in a home I loved so well, Far away among the clover and the bees." The singer describes the happy life on the farm, the family among whom he worked -- and the changes since his "boyhood's happy days down on the farm."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: farming family father mother home death separation return
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 210, "Down on the Farm" (1 text plus mention of 3 more; also a text of "Down on the Farm (III)")
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 148, "Down on the Farm" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Roud #4375
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee" (theme)
cf. "Down on the Farm (IV -- Parody)" (parody of this song)
File: Br3210

Down on the Farm (III)

DESCRIPTION: "Down on the farm 'bout half past four, I slip on my pants and sneak out the door" to start the long, hard rounds of farm life. He notes that, despite great labors, he has "less cash now than I had last spring." Farm life proves the existence of hell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: farming work hardtimes poverty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 210, "Down on the Farm" (The "E" text is this, appended to "Down on the Farm (II)")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Farmer Is the Man" (theme)
cf. "The Humble Farmer" (theme)
NOTES [37 words]: The notes in Brown imply that this is a parody of "Down on the Farm (II)." It may perhaps be an answer to that song, but it does not appear to be direct parody; the lyrics are not related and the stanza form different. - RBW
File: Br3210A

Down on the Farm (IV -- Parody)

DESCRIPTION: "I remember when a boy how my heart would leap with joy When someone would speak of home and farms so dear." The singer is not impressed with the hard life there; "I'd rather go to jail and no one to go my bail Than to go and spend one hour on the farm"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1900 (Harper Bros. European Circus Songster, according to Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: derivative farming hardtimes humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 149, "Parody of 'Down on the Farm'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11348
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down on the Farm (II)" (the original of this parody)
File: Brne149

Down on the Ol' Bar-G

DESCRIPTION: "The boss he took a trip to France, Down on the ol' Bar-G, He left his gal to run the ranch, Down on... She wouldn't let us chew nor cuss....." She takes over for the cook. The cowboys quit and go "What apron-strings the couldn't rope us"
AUTHOR: Phil LeNoir (source: Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy humorous boss wife cook
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 60-61, "Down on the Ol' Bar-G" (1 text)
File: ThLo060

Down on the Pichelo Farm

DESCRIPTION: "I got a gal named Dinah, The people cain't out-shine her, And I'll take a kiss if I find her
Down on the Pichelo farm." "Her father's name was Moses, Her shoes was out at the toeses... Down on the Pichelo farm." "An a rig jag jig jag jig jag (x3)..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty farming
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 572, "Down on the Pichelo Farm" (1 text)
Roud #7662
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small)" (floating lyrics)
File: R572

Down on Your Knees

DESCRIPTION: Thomas Fitzgerald enters hell. He is accused: "While on earth your shortlived reign All your delights were torture's dreadful pain." Lucifer prepares him for sentence: "Down on your knees." He is sentenced to eternal pain
AUTHOR: Bernard Wright (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (O hOgain's _Duanaire Thiobraid Arainn_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: punishment death Devil judge
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 98, "Down on Your Knees" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [215 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: Thomas Judkin Fitzgerald was High Sheriff for County Tipperary in 1798. "He would have people seized on the street, and, ignoring all and any protestations or proof of innocence, would have them savagely flogged.... Bernard Wright of Clonmel, commemorated his experiences in this acrostic piece of verse upon reading of Fitzgerald's death. Fitzgerald's words to Wright -- 'Down on your knees, rebellious scoundrel, and receive your sentence' -- are the reason for the title." - BS
Thomas Pakenham gives a generally pro-British history of 1798 in The Year of Liberty, but on p. 283, he gives this description of Fitzgerald, a later-day Judge Jeffries: "At his trial in 1799 [for his brutality] Fitzgerald was to claim that only by 'cutting off their heads' could some people be made to talk. There was laughter in the court. The terrible thing was that Fitzgerald was not joking. His judicial policy, as summed up by the judge in his own case, reads like a speech of the Red Queen's: sentence first, then execution, then trial." (Pakenham's refence is actually to the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, the chapter "Alice's Evidence": "Sentence first -- verdict afterward." Not that it matters who said it. What matters is who practiced it.) - RBW
File: Moyl098

Down the Green Fields

DESCRIPTION: "Down the green fields we'll jig it... when you go mowing you'll get a young lass... under the stairs you'll get her."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: sex nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 55, "Down the Green Fields" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #11627
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Down the Green Fields" (on IRECronin01)
File: OCC055

Down the Green Groves

See Maria and William (File: ReCi088)

Down the Hall on Saturday Night

DESCRIPTION: "I got a new brown sports coat, I got a new pair of grey strides, I got a real Kiwi haircut," and the singer (as soon as he finishes his work) will get on his tractor and ride it to the Hall, to drink and dance and have a good time
AUTHOR: Peter Cape (1926-1979) (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: party drink dancing
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 148, "Down the Hall on Saturday Night" (1 text)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 225, 244, "Down the Hall on Saturday Night" (1 text plus an excerpt)
ADDITIONAL: Roger Steele, editor, _An Ordinary Joker: The Life and Songs of Peter Cape_ (book with accompanying CD), Steele Roberts, Aotearoa, New Zealand, 2001, pp. 52-54, "Down the Hall on Saturday Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
J. C. Reid, _A Book of New Zealand_ (Collins National Anthologies), Collins, 1964, pp.n258-259, "Down the Hall on Saturday Night" (1 text)
NOTES [38 words]: Recorded by author Peter Cape on the compilation EP "New Zealand in Song/Scene/Story." Good luck finding a copy. Apparently it also appeared on the LP "Taumata...." There is a CD version in the "I'm an Ordinary Joker" book. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo148

Down the Line

See Plumb the Line (File: JDM218)

Down the Mississippi Where the Boats Go Push

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope game, used to "push" one jumper out and another in. "Down the Mississippi Where the boats go push." Also a ball-bouncing rhyme
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: jumprope ship | push Mississippi
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 83, "(Down in Nelson's Pillar Where the boat goes push)" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #99, "(Down the Mississippi)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #120, "Down the Mississippi" (1 text)
Roud #19314
File: AJRV099

Down the Moor

See Heather Down the Moor (Among the Heather; Down the Moor) (File: HHH177)

Down the River

DESCRIPTION: Recognized by the chorus, "Down the river, down the river, Down the (river to the) Ohio." The full version tells of the river ("Oh the river is up and the channel is deep") and the crew of the boat working on it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana)
KEYWORDS: river playparty work
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 40-41=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 193-194, "Down the River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 592, "Down the River" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 564, "Down the River" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 17 and #1/64 p. 17, "Down the River" (1 text)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 94, "Down the River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 38, "Down the Rivuh, Down, Boys" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment which might or might not go with this song)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 22, "Down the River" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p 21, "Down the River" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DOWNRIVR* DOWNRIV2*
Roud #7677
NOTES [66 words]: The playparty version of this piece simplifies the story immensely. Randolph, for instance, has a text which runs simply
Bridges all out and the water mighty deep,
Down the river we all got to go,
Bridges all out and the water mighty deep,
Down the river to the Ohio.
Down the river, down the river,
Down the river we all got to go
Down the river, down the river,
Down the river to the Ohio. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R592

Down the Road (I)

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses, usually not terribly cohesive. Various choruses: "Down the road, down the road/I've got a sugar baby down the road"; "Bound to go, bound to go/Over the road I'm bound to go"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: love humorous nonballad nonsense floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE,Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 208-209, "Over the Road I'm Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, "Down the Road" (Mercury 6211, 1949)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Down the Road" (AAFS 1802 A1, 1935)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Over the Road I'm Bound to Go" (Brunswick 329, 1929)
Sonny Osborne, "Down the Road" (Kentucky 564, n.d.)
Marion Rees, "Down the Road" (AAFS 837 B3, 1936)
Doc Watson & Gaither Carlton, "Down the Road" (on Watson01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Letter from Down the Road"
cf. "On the Road Again"
cf. "Kassie Jones" (Furry Lewis's version)
cf. "Ida Red" (tune)
NOTES [16 words]: Even for Uncle Dave, these words are incoherent. And -- hot dog! -- that's saying something. -PJS
File: CSW208

Down the Road (II)

DESCRIPTION: Singer races his pony Polly for 60 pounds and beats Jones's cob. Jones proposes a rematch and Polly wins again. Soon after this Polly dies and is buried after a sad funeral procession.
AUTHOR: Fred Gilbert (source: Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 7" - 1.3.03)
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Recorded by Gus Elen, according to Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 7" - 1.3.03)
KEYWORDS: burial death funeral racing horse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
Roud #15128
RECORDINGS:
Fred Jordan, "Down the Road" (on Voice07)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Creeping Jane" [Laws Q23] (theme)
File: RcDowRd2

Down the Road (III)

DESCRIPTION: "Way down yonder as far as I have been, All them women love rowdy men, Down the road, down the road, Can't get a letter from down the road." "Way down yonder far as I can see, Everybody looks like me." "The first I knowed, the sheriff had me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains)
KEYWORDS: courting police
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #69, "Down the Road" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, p. 51, "Down the Road" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #3426 and 11585
NOTES [69 words]: Roud lists this as a version of "Black-Eyed Susie (Green Corn)." The brevity of the text makes this barely possible, but I doubt it.
Lunsford's version mentions Ida Red in the first chorus, which clearly floated in from one of the songs by that name, but the rest goes here. Lunsford's version is also short. A tricky problem. Roud puts Roberts-SangBranchSettlers's version with #3246, Lunsford's with #11585. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Robe069

Down the Road (IV)

See Ida Red (I) (File: R442)

Down the Streets in London

See Oh What Has Changed You (File: ML3OWHCY)

Down to de Mire

See Down to the Mire (File: Parr010)

Down to New Orleans (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I went down to New Orleans, But I didn't go there to stay. I stuck my head in a feather bed, And couldn't get away. Fare ye well, my dearest dear, Fare ye well, my darling, Fare ye well, my dearest dear, With the golden slippers on."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana)
KEYWORDS: playparty travel separation clothes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, p. 41=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 233-234, "Down to New Orleans" (1 text(
Roud #7900
File: Wolf041

Down to New Orleans (II)

See The Southern Soldier (File: SCWF217)

Down to the Baker's Shop

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Down to the baker's/butcher's shop, Hop, hop, hop! For my mother said, Buy a loaf of bread, Down to the baker's shop, Hop, hop, hop!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food | baker bread hop
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #121, "Down to the baker shop" (1 text)
Roud #12854
File: AJRR121

Down to the Mire

DESCRIPTION: Each of the ring-shouters in turn is addressed by name and told "you must come down to the mire." "Jesus been down to the mire." "Lower, lower, to the mire"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 10, pp. 71-73, "Down To de Mire" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [70 words]: Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands: "In the center of the ring, one member gets down on his knees and, with head touching the floor, rotates with the group as it moves around the circle. The different shouters, as they pass, push the head 'down to the mire.'" Parish recognizes that "shout" in this context is "a semi-religious survival of African dancing - not a vocal performance as the name implies" (p. 13). - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr010

Down Went Dan McGinty

See Down Went McGinty (File: SRW134)

Down Went McGinty

DESCRIPTION: McGinty bet that McCann could not carry him up a wall. McGinty was right, and "Down went McGinty to the bottom of the wall And though he won the five, He was more dead than alive." McGinty's adventures lead to more falls, prison, death, etc.
AUTHOR: Joseph Flynn
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (sheet music copyrighted)
KEYWORDS: gambling humorous injury prison children party death ghost
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 306-307, "Dan McGinty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 81, pp. 102-103, "Down Went Dan McGinty" (2 texts)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 134-136, "Down Went McGinty" (1 text, partial tune)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 120-123, "Down Went McGnty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 154-156, "Down Went McGinty" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 235-237, "Down Went McGinty" (1 text)
DT, DWNMGNTY*
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 74-77, "Down Went McGinty" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the published sheet music)
Roud #4870
NOTES [155 words]: According to William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 135, during the late nineteenth century, in American pop music, "In effect the Gaelic surnames became a sort of advertisement for comedy. Songs with titles such as 'Mike McCarthy's Wake,' 'McGonigle's Led Astray,' 'Reagan's Evening Out,' 'Let Her Go Gallagher, 'Murphy's Boarding House,' and any song featuring the name 'McGinty' carried the promise of comedy."
This is clearly a prime example of the type, and probably the one that went most strongly into tradition.
Williams, p. 146, says that the song was introduced in a program "McGinty in Town" by the Carncross minstrel troop.
The song was popular to produce numerous parodies, including the author's answer "McGinty's Wake." Indeed, there were so many of them that by 1890 someone had written a song "I'll Paralyze the Man That Says McGinty" (Williams, p. 147). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: SRW134

Down Where the Coolibahs Grow

See The Stockman's Last Bed (File: MA046)

Down Where the Watermelon Grows

DESCRIPTION: "I've got a girl in Caroline, Down where the watermelons grow, Someday she will be mine... down where..., How I love her God only knows." But he finds her in the arms of another guy.
AUTHOR: Words: Ren Shields / Music: George Evans (source: SecondHandSongs.com)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (performed by Eddie Foy and by John King, according to SecondHandSongs.com)
KEYWORDS: love food rejection marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 22, "Down Where the Watermelons Grow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 10, "Down Where the Watermelons Grow" (1 text)
Roud #27821
RECORDINGS:
Phil Reeve & Ernest Moody, "Down Where the Watermelons Grow" (Victor 20540, 1927?)
NOTES [67 words]: There seems to be confusion over whether this is "Down Where the Watermelons Grow" or "Down Where the Watermelon Grows." The Volo Bogtrotters, from whom I learned it and who had it from Reeve and Moody, sing "Watermelon Grow," but several books seem to reverse that. Possibly this is because there were several early versions; Ren Shields apparently wrote local verses for performances in some areas. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ZanK022

Down Where the Watermelons Grow

See Down Where the Watermelon Grows (File: ZanK022)

Down With the Old Canoe

See The Titanic (X) ("Down With the Old Canoe") (Titanic #10) (File: RcTDWtOC)

Down-Trodden Maryland

DESCRIPTION: "Down-trodden, despised see brave Maryland lie, The noblest of all states, Up and to ransom her let each one try." "From her, her Old Line has departed." The singer hopes Maryland will be able to join the Confederacy and be free of oppression
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1761 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: patriotic nonballad Civilwar
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 174-175, "Down-Trodden Maryland" (1 text)
File: CAFS1174

Down, Derry Down

See The Cricket and Crab-louse (Down Derry Down) (File: Logs056)

Down, Down Derry Down

See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

Down, Down, Down

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the conditions at the Oak Hill mine "that goes down, down, down." He was warned against the mine, but took a job anyway; now he complains of the wet, and the work, and the poor pay
AUTHOR: William Keating? (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining work hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 48-53, "Down, Down, Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 364-366, "Down, Down, Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 56, "Down, Down, Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 273-274. "Down, Down, Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 867-873, "Down, Down, Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DOWNDOWN*
Roud #4758
File: LxU056

Downeast Maid, The

See Bright Phoebe (File: FSC070)

Downey's Our Member

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Now Downey's our member you all understand, So beware of the boar, the bull and the ram." The government does nothing. The worthless and crooked politicians are named.
AUTHOR: Leonard Hulan
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: moniker political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 1922 - The Reid company temporarily shuts down the Newfoundland Railroad
1923 - Joseph W. Downey rejoins the Newfoundland legislature
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 779-780, "Downey's Our Member" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9812
RECORDINGS:
Leonard Hulan, "Downey's Our Member" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [1033 words]: Peacock gives no date for this song except to say that "the events described in this political ballad have long since ceased to be controversial." The animal symbolism, if that what it is, escapes me; one verse is "The next thing we heard of out here on the coast Some kind of a bull with a ring through its nose, And then a boar pig and a certified ram, And a spring fitted harrow to tear up your land." - BS
We can work out a few things. DictNewfLabrador, p. 87, has an entry of Joseph F. Downey (1852-1933), who was a member of the House of Assembly 1908-1919, 1923-1924, 1928-1932, and was Minister of Agriculture and Mines 1923-1924 and 1928-1932. He represented St. George's.
St. George is on the west coast of of Newfoundland, about half way between Port aux Basques and Corner Brook. It had a stop on the Newfoundland Railway (Kearley, back cover) -- indeed, other than by boat, that was just about its only connection to the outside world.
Reid, mentioned in the first verse, is Robert Gillespie Reid or one of his relatives (my guess would be one of Robert's sons, William Duff Reid, 1867-1924; Robert Gillespie Reid Jr., 1875-1947; or Harry Duff Reid, 1869-1929) whose company (mostly) built and ran the Newfoundland Railway (for the incredibly improbable deal that resulted in this situation, see "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie"). The railroad never paid for itself, and after World War I, the machinery itself was in bad shape and the company too stretched to be willing to repair it. And snow was a terrible problem inland, especially in the Gaff Topsail area (Penney, p. 101) -- a route that was chosen because it was shorter, even though there were better alternatives to going over the high, wind-swept hills (Lingard, pp. 1-2; when the Trans-Canada Route was built in Newfoundland, it mostly followed the rail path -- but Harding, p. 67, says that the Gaff Topsail area was one of the few places where the rerouted the road). According to Harding, p. 11, "the Newfoundland line had the curviest roadbed of any railroad in North America. Of its seven hundred miles of track, almost six hundred were expended in curves.... Moreover, the builders could not afford frills like tunnels and signals. There was a bridge every four miles on average and for a time there was but one signal on the whole line. On the entire length of the Bullet's track there was not a single tunnel, though steep hills were common."
And Harding adds that, given the difficulty of building and the lack of revenue source, "it is not surprising that R. G. Reid ended up building a most rudimentary sort of railway. It was a genuine accomplishment to be building anything at all. Reid had little alternative but to build the railroad piecemeal, out of the cheapest scraps available" (Harding, p. 71). Even the engines were second-hand.
All this meant that snow often shut down the line -- occasionally for the whole winter (Lingard, p. 2). Hardly surprising, when the plows usually created walls of snow twelve to fifteen feet high (Harding, p. 71). The result was to leave places like St. George cut off from St. John's. The unfortunate decision to build a narrow gauge line, which made it harder to trans-ship freight, also made the problem worse; it had been a very bad decision made in the 1880 (Kearly, p. 56). Given how little rail was built in that first venture, Newfoundland probably should have re-laid the whole narrow gauge section -- but they didn't. Hence the second verse, "For one month last winter we got no mail, The news was reported: 'A very bad rail.' But Reid showed the truth, just what he intend, Was to starve the west coast, every darn one of them." Given, however, that there had been a time in 1903 when a passenger train was stuck for seventeen straight days (Harding, p. 12), it's hard to blame Reid & Co. for being cautious.
It probably didn't help that, starting in 1919, the eastern and western halves of the line were separately administered! (Penney/Kennedy, p. 32, which says that it was almost like two separate railways).
1922 was a particularly bad year; the rail was out for the whole winter (Lingard, p. 5; according to Harding, p. 98, "during the winter of 1922, operations over the Gaff Topsails Plateau ceased altogether), and the Reid company also deliberately shut down the rail for a week in May 1922 to try to get more financial support (Kearley, p. 60; Lingard, p. 5; Harding, p. 98, says that there was no money left to meet payroll). The Reid company, which had been trying to get out of operating the rail since 1920 (Harding, p. 97) gave up the franchise in 1923 (Lingard, p. 5). Given that Downey, after some time out of the Assembly, was re-elected shortly after the shutdown, 1922/1923 may be the most likely time for the song to have been written.
It is interesting to note that a re-routing around the Topsails areas was planned in the 1920s, and begun in 1928 -- but dropped immediately after an election in that year (CuffEtAl, p. 6)
It sort of worked, too, since the Newfoundland government bought the railroad from Reid as of Juy 1, 1923 (Penney/Kennedy, p. 1), and laid heavier, better rails starting in 1924 (Penney/Kennedy, p. 2).
So, somehow or other, this has to do with the people on the west coast of Newfoundland electing Downey to deal with the shut down railroad. This might indirectly have something to do with the line, "And a spring fitted harrow to tear up your land"; since Downey was Minister of Agriculture and Mines, he had a lot to do with digging and farming.
Why this would cause hearers to need to "beware of the boar, the bull, and the ram" I cannot explain. Unless -- could "boar" actually be "bore," as in "boring machine," and "ram" be the engine ramming through the snow (the rotary plow Reid used required a crew of three and two engines to push it; Lingard, p. 3), and the "bull" perhaps the engine driving it? I doubt it, but I've heard stranger song explanations.
For more on Leonard Hulan, see the notes to "The Ferryland Sealer." For more on the Newfoundland Railroad in general, see the notes to "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie," "The Bonavist Line," "The Loss of the Bruce," and "Drill, Ye Heroes, Drill!" - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea779

Downfall of Heresy, The

DESCRIPTION: Gladstone, supported by the Queen, has undone Cromwell's proclaimed Church. Salvation comes only through the true Church and not "where every man could preach" following Luther. "The Parson now must emigrate And leave his handsome dwelling place"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.9(128))
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 26, 1869 - Irish Church Disestablishment Act
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, p. 99, "A New Song on the Downfall of Heresy" (1 fragment)
Roud #V8272
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(128), "A New Song on The Downfall of Heresy" ("Good people all attention pay"), P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Let Recreant Rulers Pause" (subject)
NOTES [1565 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 99: "We find many allusions to the 'Wheel of Fortune', an image of the precariousness of things in life..... It provided the Irish ballad-writers with a refrain suggesting the idea of revolutionary changes" and Zimmermann quotes part of a chorus slightly different from the one found here. The Bodleian version is
The lofty wheel is moving round
The side that's up is getting down
A rotten Creed can not be sound
When lost is the foundation
Zimmermann p. 99 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian 2806 b.9(128) is the basis for the description.
Gladstone drafted the Irish Church Disestablishment Act and Queen Victoria intervened in its behalf. The act "ends the legal link between Church and state in Ireland, abolishes the tithe and ecclesiastical courts.... It confiscates the Church's property...." (Source: "26 July 1869 Irish Church Disestablishment Act" on the Channel4.com site) - BS
The Wheel of Fortune, "Rota Fortunae" in Latin, Thompson motif N111.3, truly was famous in the Middle Ages; it was almost an article of faith that fortune could "turn her wheel" and knock down the wealthy and powerful while raising those who were poor and weak. King Arthur was often held up as an example of fortune turning her wheel. For example, take "The Awntyrs off Arthur at the Tarne Wathelan" ("The Adventures of Arthur at the Wathelan/Wadling"), lines 264-272 (this is the numbering of Mills, p.169) or lines 265-273 (so Hahn, p. 186). Guinevere's mother, with the knowledge of those imprisoned in Hell, is speaking to Guinevere and Gawain. The text (in Mill's edition; Hahn's has several substantive differences) reads,
'Yaure king is to covetus an his kene knyghtus;
Ther may no strength him stir quen the quele stondus,
Quen he is in his magesté most in his myghtus,
Then schall he light full lau bi the see sondus.
Thus your chiualreis kynge chefe schall a chaunse;
[Felle] Fortune in fyghte,
That wonderfull quele-wryghte,
That lau will lordis gere light:
Take witteness be Fraunce!
i.e.
Your king is too covetous, and his keen knights [Hahn: ...covetous, I warn you Sir Knight]
No strength may upset him while the wheel [of fortune] stands [still]. [Hahn's line very different]
When he is in his majesty, at the peak of his might,
He shall fall full low on the sea sands.
And this chivalrous king shall receive his change [=fate].
Fell [Hahn "Falsely"] Fortune in fight,
That wonderful wheel-wright
That law will make lords become light [Hahn "Shall make lords to light"=fall]
Take witness by France!
Chaucer made much use of the image, e.g. in "The Book of the Duchess," "The House of Fame," and "Boece," the latter being Chaucer's translation of Boethius (Rossignol, p. 139; Boethius was one of the major sources of the concept in the Middle Ages). The fickleness of fortune is the entire theme of "The Monk's Tale": "The Monk's tragedies center on the workings of the ancient Roman goddess Fortuna, whose capricious turnings of a great wheel were thought to govern the fates of men" (Chaucer/Benson, p. 930). The tale includes so many instances of fortune turning that the Knight eventually asked the Monk to leave off; it is by no means clear that Chaucer agreed with the Monk, but clearly many people of that era did.
In the very first of the Canterbury Tales, "The Knight's Tale," Cappaneus's wife, in speaking to Theseus, refers to "Fortune and hire false wheel" ("fortune and her false/treacherous wheel"; line 925; Chaucer/Benson, p. 38).
In the opening stanza of book IV of "Troilus and Criseyde," Chaucer's narrator attributes Criseyde's inconstancy to the turning of fortune's wheel:
But al to litel, weylaway the whyle,
Lasateth swich joie, ythonked be Fortune,
That semeth trewest whan she wol bygyle...
And whan a wight is from hire whiel ythrowne,
Than laugheth she, and maketh hym the mowe
(book IV, lines 1-3, 6-7; Chaucer/Benson, p. 538), i.e.
But all too little, (wellaway the while)
Lasts such joy, thanks to Fortune,
Who seems most true when she would beguile...
And when a person is thrown from her wheel,
Then she laughs, and he makes the moue [grimace].
Cambridge University MS. OO.7.32 also has a verse on fortune's wheel (Brown, #42, p. 56):
Þe leuedi fortune is boþe frend and fo,
Of pore che makit riche, of riche pore also,
She turneȝ wo al into wele, and wele al into wo,
No triste no man to þis wele, þe whel it turnet so.
i.e.
The lady Fortune is both friend and foe;
Of poor she makes rich, of rich poor also.
She turns woe all into weal, and weal all into woe,
No man should trust to this weal, the wheel it turns so.
There is a version of this in both French and English from around the year 1325, according to Brown, p. 260, and it occurs in many manuscripts.
John Lydgate, who began his career while Chaucer was alive and became one of the most-quoted (and best-forgotten!) poets of the Middle Ages, made the changing of fortune so much a part of his philosophy that "For other poets, the system of opposites is a mode of thought, a way of organizing their thinking; for Lydgate it is a substitute for thinking" (Pearsall, p. 112). Lydgate's "The Fall of Princes" was a tale of people overturned by fortune, based on a book of Boccaccio (Pearsall, pp. 230-231) -- a book encouraged by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (Pearsall, pp. 244-246). (For more on Lydgate, see the notes to "The London Lackpenny.")
Shakespeare, too, wrote at times about the caprice of fortune (consider "King Lear"!), and at least once refers to the Wheel directly: in Henry V, Fluellen says, "Fortune is painted blind, with a muffler afore his eyes, to signify to you that Fortune is blind; and she is painted also with a wheel, to signify to you, which is the moral of it, that she is turning, and inconstant, and mutability..." (Act III, scene iv, lines 30fff.; p. 952 in ShakespeareEvans).
By 1869, Catholics no longer suffered significant legal discrimination in Ireland (they could own property, join parliament, etc.) -- except in one regard. They still paid tithes to the Anglican church. Not directly -- the Tithe War had taken care of that (see, e.g., "The Battle of Carrickshock"). But landlords were still required to come up with the money. This particular rule was still around mostly because the tithes had supported many otherwise-useless clergy members. The Disestablishment Act did its best to phase them out.
This sounds minor today. It was not minor at the time. Even if you ignore the predictable sectarian complaints, the Protestant Ascendency was written into the Act of Union. British law has a great deal of respect for precedent; this was more like Americans amending the constitution than simply passing a law.
The irony, of course, is that the Act, as it gave greater rights to the majority of the Irish, created grievances among the Protestants. Which would cause trouble later on, since the Protestants no more wanted to be ruled by Catholics than the Catholics wanted to be ruled by Protestants.
We should note incidentally that Queen Victoria was not particularly fond of disestablishing the Church -- though that may be because the proposal came from Gladstone, whom she disliked and strongly disagreed with.
She of course was not the only one. For an example of the Irish Protestant reaction, see "Let Recreant Rulers Pause."
The crack about "rotten Creeds" strikes me as ironic coming from Catholics. The two most important creeds of the Western church are the Nicene Creed (which was actually finalized at the Council of Chalcedon) and the Apostles' Creed (which is not apostolic). The Nicene Creed is of course the most important of all, since it defines the relationship between the persons of the Trinity, and is thus the key to excluding the myriad heresies of Arianism, Docetism, and Monophysitism.
And the Catholics have altered the Nicene Creed. As originally adopted, it read that the Holy Spirit "proceeded" (in Latin, procedit) from the Father (Bettenson, pp. 25-26). Period. End of story.
In the Catholic church, the Latin word "filoque," "and the Son," has been added, so that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father AND THE SON (Clifton, p. 103). This "filoque clause" is generally said to have been inserted in the creed by a council at Toledo in 589 (Christie-Murray, p. 97).
Since no one really claims to know what it means for the Holy Spirit to "proceed" from the Father, or from the Father and the Son (none of this has any basis in the Bible, and the Council of Nicaea was trying to find a formula which would be somewhat vague and so avoid causing fights; Christie-Murray, p. 48), it is obviously possible to argue for either position. But the version without "filoque" was agreed by the entire church, Catholic and Orthodox both. It was the Catholics, and they alone, who changed it -- one of the myriad reasons why the Catholic and Orthodox churches cannot heal their schism, now almost a millennium old. And, of course, Catholic theology gives the Vatican the right to change the result of a church council at any time. But any external observer would have to say that it is the Catholics who had corrupted the Nicene Creed.
What's more, the Anglican church adopted much Catholic credal language.
On the other hand, the reference might, I suppose, be to the Book of Common Prayer, which might be considered a very long creed, which the Catholic church would not accept. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: BrdDownH

Downfall of Piracy, The

See Teach the Rover (File: PBB078)

Downfall of Trade, The

DESCRIPTION: In 1793 "weaving went well." When war broke out, "our Trade it grew low." Weavers and spinners "their loyalty show" by joining the marines. "If weaving and spinning should totally stop" banks and trades will fail and "the whole Nation will instantly drop"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Elbourne); c.1805 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(2016))
KEYWORDS: marines war commerce weaving hardtimes nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Roger Elbourne, Music and Tradition in Early Industrial Lancashire 1780-1840 (Totowa, 1980), pp. 78, 139-140, "The Weavers' Garland" or "The Downfal of Trade"
Roud #V8922
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(2016), "The Weavers' Garland" or "The Downfal of Trade" ("You weavers of England I pray now attend"), R. and W. Dean and Co. (Manchester), c.1805
NOTES [54 words]: The broadside tells "tradesmen of Bolton you need not to fear, The strength of Tom Paine, nor great [French general] Dumourier." But Dumourier deserted the French Republican Army in April 1793 [see, for example, Thomas Clio Rickman, Life of Thomas Paine (1819) at Positive Atheism site], the opening year of the broadside. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Elb139

Downhill of Life, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer hopes for for a cottage by the sea, with a porch, a pony, cow, dog and barn, food to eat and friends to share "the downhill of life." He hopes not to linger "as this worn-out stuff ... may become everlasting to-morrow."
AUTHOR: John Collins (source: notes to Bodleian Harding B 28(211))
EARLIEST DATE: "c.1805" (broadside, Harding B 11(3183)); before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(211))
KEYWORDS: sea food nonballad animal horse friend
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 249-250, "The Downhill of Life" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 122)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 96, "Downhill of Life" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: The Quaver; or Songster's Pocket Companion (London, 1844 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 112-113, "In the Downhill of Life" (1 text)
Roud #1308
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(211), "To-morrow" ("In the down-hill of life, when I find I'm declining"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Firth b.25(182), Harding B 25(1928), "To-morrow"; Firth b.26(358), Harding B 25(545), Harding B 11(4276), Harding B 11(964), Johnson Ballads 181, Douce Ballads 4(63/64), Harding B 11(963), "[The] Downhill of Life"; Harding B 11(3183), Harding B 25(1577) [some words illegible], "The Prospect of Hope"
File: WT249

Downward Road Is Crowded, The

See The Downward Road (File: LoF256)

Downward Road, The

DESCRIPTION: "Well, brother, the downward road is crowded... with unbelieving souls." The song lists various endangered sinners and their fated condemnation. "When I was a sinner, I loved my distance well, But when I come to find myself I was hangin' over Hell."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious Hell warning nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 14, "Oh, de Downward Road Is Crowded (The Downward Road Is Crowded)" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 119 in the 1901 edition)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 256, "The Downward Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11945
File: LoF256

Doxology, The

See (discussion under) Old Hundred (File: SBoA028)

Dr. Brown

See Bluebells, Cockleshells (File: SuSm104B)

Dr. Foster Was a Good Man

See Mr. Low Is a Very Good Man (File: SuSm055)

Dr. Knickerbocker

DESCRIPTION: "Dr. Knickerbocker" "Got rhythm of the" hands, feet, shoulder, eyes, ooo-ooo.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (JohnsIsland1)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Mabel Hillery, Janie Hunter and her grandchildren, "Dr. Knickerbocker" (on JohnsIsland1)
File: RcDrKnic

Dr. Peck

See There Was an Old Nigger, His Name Was Dr. Peck (File: ScaNF197)

Dr. Till of Somerset

DESCRIPTION: "We took a trip to Somerset not very long ago.... Our health it was so poorly, We thought that we would try That doctor there at Somerset For he was all the cry." Doctor Till can cure cancer without a knife; his treatments are worth a "California mine."
AUTHOR: Words: D. Adams / Music: W. Broughton
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Wyman); reportedly written 1907
KEYWORDS: doctor disease
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Walker D. Wyman, _Wisconsin Folklore_, University of Wisconsin Extension (?), 1979, pp. 35-36, "Dr. Till" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [180 words]: I know of no real evidence that this song was traditional, but it was written by folk for folk, and managed to be remembered after some seventy years, so I've included it.
John Till, according to Wyman, was born in Austria and came to Wisconsin as a lumberjack. He apparently had only two remedies, an ointment and a plaster, which he used for everything. He did not call himself a doctor, and did not charge directly for his remedies (though he accepted donations). But enough people swore by his cures that this song was written -- and enough people called him a quack that a newspaper wrote an expose and he ended up in prison, going back to Austria in 1922 (though he came back to the United States late in life, dying in Kiel, Wisconsin in 1922).
Frankly, his cures sound more frightening that death to me. But what do I know about truth -- I actually believe that facts actually mean something.
Somerset, Wisconsin is a small town not far from the Minnesota border. It's about 15 miles northeast of Stillwater, the town in which the anti-Till article was published in 1907. - RBW
File: WyWF046

Draftee's Blues

See I Got My Questionnairy (File: CNFM137)

Draggle-tailed Gipsies, The

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Dragoon and the Lady, The

See The Bold Soldier [Laws M27] (File: LM27)

Dragoon and the Maid, The

See Trooper and Maid [Child 299] (File: C299)

Draherin O Machree

See Drihaureen O Mo Chree (Little Brother of My Heart) (File: RcDOMCLB)

Dramdrinker, The

DESCRIPTION: "Good morning, Mr. Dramdrinker. How do you do? How have you been since I parted from you? How did you come by the bruise on your head...?" The singer had fanily, fortune, friends; all are now lost to drink
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: drink death family poverty abandonment
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 470-471, "The Dramdrinker" (1 text)
Roud #7831
File: Beld470

Drap o' Cappie O, The

DESCRIPTION: Tammie Lammie's wife likes ale. She asks him to share a dram. When she reproves him for his drink he packs her in a sack and dunks her by the turning mill wheel. She fears for her life. She lives happily afterwards but never asks for another drink.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1894 (Murison collection, according to Lyle, _Fairies and Folk_)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous husband wife drowning river abuse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #177, p. 1, "The Drap o' Cappie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 582, "The Drap o' Cappie O" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #5893
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Tammie Lammie
File: GrD3582

Draw a Bucket of Water

DESCRIPTION: "Draw a (bucket/pail) of water For my lady's daughter; My father's a king and my mother's a queen, My two little sisters are dress'd in green... Pray thee, fine lady, come under my bush."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: playparty royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE) New Zealand
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1610, "Buckets of Water" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #652, p. 259, "(Draw a pail of water)"
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 109, "Draw a Bucket of Water" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #28, "Draw a Bucket of Water" (2 short texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, pp. 533-534, 'Draw a Bucket of Water" (2 short texts, 2 tunes)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 9, "Draw a Bucket of Water" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 296-297, "Draw a Bucket of Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 114, "(Draw a bucket of water)" (2 texts)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Jean Olive Heck, "Folk Poetry and Folk Criticism, as Illustrated by Cincinnati Children in Their Singing Games and Their Thoughts about These Games," Vol. XL, No. 155 (Jan 1927), #17 pp. 15-16 ("Draw buckets of water"), ("Pump, pump the water"), ("Draw a bucket of water") (3 texts)
ADDITIONAL: James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1842 ("Digitized by Google")), #205 pp. 116-117, ("Draw a pail of water") (1 text)
Roud #11635
File: BGMG652

Draw a Snake (Tip the Finger)

DESCRIPTION: Guessing game in which one player holds a hand behind his back, and another player touches it; the first player must guess who it was. "Draw a snake down your back, This is the way it went, North, south, east, west, Who tipped your finger?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal
FOUND IN: Britain New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 93, "(Draw a snake down your back)" (1 text)
Roud #20456
File: SuSm093B

Draw Lebel

See Draw Level (File: HPR258A)

Draw Level

DESCRIPTION: "Draw level, the angel is (coming down)(3x), Draw level, the angel is coming down To the ground." "Draw (members/deacon/preacher/sister/...), Draw around the altar, Draw (members/deacon/preacher/sister/...) Draw till the break of day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 258-259, "Draw Lebel" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR258A

Draw me nere, draw me nere

See Here Beside Dwells a Rich Baron's Daughter (The Juggler) (File: MSHBDRBD)

Dreadful Ghost, The

See The Sailor and the Ghost [Laws P34A/B] (File: LP34)

Dreadful Massacre of Sixmilebridge, The

DESCRIPTION: "Upon the 21st day of July, Those fine young youths were compell'd to die, In Sixmilebridge, in the County Clare, To see the elections was what brought them there." An Orange troop attacked the crowd with musket and bayonet.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1852 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: violence homicide Ireland lament political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 21, 1852 - "Seven people were killed in an election riot at Sixmilebridge" (source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 62, "A Lament Written on the Dreadful Massacre of Sixmilebridge" (1 text)
NOTES [15 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "Several soldiers were found guilty of wilful murder." - BS
File: Zimm062

Dreadful Shipwreck of the Flora Transport (Jane Cardonell)

DESCRIPTION: "Henry Welsh, a banker's foreman Courted Jane Cardonnell fair." Henry gambles, commits forgery, and is sentenced to transportation. She goes with him. He is washed away in a storm. She goes mad, murders a seaman, ends in Bedlam
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1832 (Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong)
KEYWORDS: gambling transportation wreck disaster death homicide madness
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 161-164, "Dreadful Shipwreck" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 114-117, "Dreadful Shipwreck of the Flora Transport" (1 text)
Roud #V48877
File: AnFa161

Dreadnaught, The

See The Dreadnought [Laws D13] (File: LD13)

Dreadnought, The [Laws D13]

DESCRIPTION: A song describing a run on the "Dreadnaught" from Liverpool to New York. Other than a concluding wish for captain and crew, most of the song is a catalog of places the ship visits
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909
KEYWORDS: sea travel ship shanty sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1853- Launch of the Dreadnought, the most famous of the transatlantic packets
1869 - Wreck of the Dreadnought
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Laws D13, "The Dreadnaught"
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 42, "The Clipper Ship Dreadnaught" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 42, "The Clipper Ship Dreadnaught" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 58-59, "The Clipper Ship Dreadnaught" (1 text)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 97-98, "The Dreadnaught" (1 text, 1 tune, followed by several derived songs)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 27-28, "The Dreadnaught" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 104, "The Dreadnaught" (1 tet, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 126-128, "The Dreadnought" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 170-171, "The Dreadnaught" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 101-103, "Cruise of the Dreadnaught" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 122-123, "Goodbye, Fare-Ye-Well" (1 text, version D of "Homeward Bound") [AbEd, p. 106]; pp. 464-469, "The Flash Frigate," "The Dreadnaught," "The Liverpool Packet" (5 texts, 4 tunes and several fragments) [AbEd, pp. 344-348]; p. 124, "Goodbye, Fare-Ye-Well" (the "d" text is "The Dreadnought" with a "Homeward Bound" chorus) [AbEd, p. 106]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 150-151, "The Dreadnaught" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 102-104, "The Dreadnought" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 63-65, "The Liverpool Packet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H194, pp. 99-100, "The Zared" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 227-229, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 140-141, "Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 122-123, "The Dreadnaught" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 19, "Liverpool Packet" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 114, "The Dreadnought" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 614, DREDNGHT*
ADDITIONAL: Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, p.77, "The Dreadnought" (1 text)
Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 51, "The Liverpool Packet" (1 excerpt)
Roud #924
RECORDINGS:
Stanley Baby, "The 'Dreadnaught'" (on GreatLakes1)
Bill Barber & Cadgwith fishermen, "The Liverpool Packet" (on LastDays)
Guy Wolff, "The Dreadnought" (Piotr-Archive #468, recorded 01/26/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Londonderry Love Song" (the ship Zared is mentioned in that song and some versions of this)
cf. "The Flash Frigate (La Pique)" (tune)
cf. "Yankee Tars" (tune)
cf. "The Schooner John Bentely" (form)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bound Away
NOTES [548 words]: The Dreadnought, one of the best-known of the packets, was launched in 1853 and wrecked off Cape Horn in 1869. It should not be confused with the later battleship (launched in 1905) which started the "Dreadnought Revolution" and a pre-World-War-I arms race.
Huntington, in the notes to this song in Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople, writes, "Perhaps Laws is correct in including 'The Dreadnaught' as American; however, it derives from a broadside ballad about a British naval vessel, 'La Pique.'"
That "The Dreadnought" and "The Flash Frigate (La Pique)" share a tune is undeniable, and La Pique was the earlier ship. I'm not sure that absolutely proves that "The Flash Frigate" is older, though.
There is some confusion about the spelling of the ship's name. Laws called it the Dreadnaught, and earlier editions of the Index followed him because, well, I didn't notice. Every reference I have checked, however, gives the title of the ship involved (as well as the later battleship) as Dreadnought (with an o rather than an a).
Incidentally, Dreadnought had about as interesting a career as a ship on the Liverpool/New York run could have. Howe/Matthews, between pp. 160 and 161, reproduces two paintings of the ship. It calls her a "medium clipper" (i.e. designed with capacity as well as speed in mind), built by the Massachusetts firm of Currier & Townsend (Howe/Matthews, p. 139). She originally sailed for the Red Cross line (Howe/Matthews, p. 140).
Her first captain was Samuel Samuels, who declared, "She was built for hard usage and to make a reputation for herself and me and I intended that she should do her duty, or that we both should sink" (Howe/Matthews, p. 140). Paine, p. 150, reports that his attitude caused her to be called "The Flying Dutchman" and "The Wild Boat of the Atlantic." Samuels stayed with her for nine years, despite the fact that she broke her rudder on two voyages and he himself suffered a compound leg fracture and was nearly swept away on one voyage.
She was a very profitable ship; Brinnin, p. 10, reports that she is said to have cleared $40,000. But, after a decade on the North Atlantic route, she was shifted to the San Francisco run; in 1869, she was wrecked off Tiera del Fuego (Paine, p. 40).
She was not especially fast; it generally took her nearly two weeks to cross the Atlantic eastbound, and three weeks to cross westbound, despite Captain Samuels and his tendency to keep a lot of sails up even in heavy weather. (Dugan, p. 96, claims that "Captain Samuels advertised an 'experienced' surgeon and music aboard, but did not mention how he beat the British smokeboxes. He locked the passengers belowdecks, raised every thread of canvas, and deliberately hunted hurricanes to blow him rapidly across. Samuels'[s] crews were often as seasick as the passengers.")
Nonetheless, Captain Samuels once challenged the famous Great Eastern to a race (Hoehling, pp. 41-42. The Great Eastern won the race -- but the Dreadnought had the last laugh; she made money, and carried plenty of passengers, whereas the Great Eastern was a white elephant that bankrupted various owners and only once managed to fill even 65% of her passenger space (for background on that, see the notes to "The Atlantic Cable"). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LD13

Dream Lover, Where Are You?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Dream lover, where are you? Upstairs upon the toilet school. Whatcha doing up there? Washing out my underwear. How do you get them so clean? With a bottle of Listerine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Keystone Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: love jumprope clothes derivative | toilet Listerine
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #124, "Dream lover, where are you?" (1 text)
Roud #19948
NOTES [44 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes says this is a "parody of a rock-and-roll hit of 1958." I presume this is Bobby Darin's "Dream Lover." But Darin did not write "Dream Lover" until 1959, recording it in that same year. There are details on the song's history on Wikipedia. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR124

Dream of a Miner's Child

See The Dream of the Miner's Child (File: R859)

Dream of Dolly's Brae, A

DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams of a July 12, 1849 ambush led by Priest Morgan against "all those heretics who dare to cross the Brae." Orangemen assemble, led by William Beers, and cheer the Queen and their leaders. On meeting gunfire, the Catholics retreat.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry)
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland political dream clergy
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 12, 1848 - Catholics occupy Dolly's Brae, County Down, and divert an Orangemen's march.
July 12, 1849 - Catholics occupy Dolly's Brae but the Orangemen would not be diverted. At least thirty Catholics are killed in the fight. No Orangemen are hit. (source: Zimmermann)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 124-126, "A Dream of Dolly's Brae" (1 text)
Roud #6545
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dolly's Brae (I)" (subject) and references there
NOTES [18 words]: For background on Dolly's Brae, and other songs on party fights, see the notes to "Dolly's Brae (I)." - (RBW, BS)
File: HayU124

Dream of General T. F. Burke, A

See Burke's Dream [Laws J16] (File: LJ16)

Dream of Napoleon, A

See One Night Sad and Languid (Dream of Napoleon) (File: SWMS215)

Dream of the Miner's Child, The

DESCRIPTION: "A miner was leaving his home for his work When he heard his little child scream." She had dreamt of his death in the mines, and begs him not to go to work that day. But he must go to work. (In some versions the song ends with a mining disaster)
AUTHOR: Andrew Jenkins?; also attributed as "Words: Robert Donnelly, music: Will Geddes" (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Randolph); for "Don't Go Down in the Mine, Dad" the earliest date is 1910 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: father work mining children dream disaster death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So) Australia
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Green-OnlyAMiner-RecordedCoalMiningSongs, p. 113-115, "Dream of the Miner's Child" (2 texts, 1 tune, plus a text of "Don't Go Down in the Mine, Dad")
Randolph 859, "The Dream of the Miner's Child" (1 text)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 64-65, "The Miner Child's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 40-41, "The Dream of the Miner's Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 21-22, "The Miner's Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 141-142, "The Dream of the Miner's Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 131-134, "The Miner" (1 text, collected as a conflation of "The Miner" and "The Dream of the Miner's Child")
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 220-221 "The Explosion in the Fairmount Mines" (1 text, slightly reworked by Blind Alfred Reed but still so close that it can be considered a version of this song)
DT, MINERCHD*
Roud #2334
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Dream of the Miner's Child" (OKeh 40498, 1925) (Columbia 15046-D [as Al Craver], 1925) (Victor 19821, 1925) (Cameo 812/Lincoln 2429, 1925; Romeo 332, 1927) (Pathe 32150/Pathe 032150/Perfect 12229, 1925) (Edison 51649 [as Vernon Dalhart & Co.], 1925) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5085 [as Vernon Dalhart & Co.], 1925) (Gennett 3197, 1926; Challenge 505, 1927; Herwin 75502, n.d.; rec. 1925) (Banner 1672/Domino 3642/Oriole 545/Paramount 33176/Regal 9978, 1926; rec. 1925) (Vocalion 5086/Vocalion 15217, 1926)
Stanley Kirkby, "Don't Go Down in the Mine, Dad" (Regal [UK] G-6460. 1910; on Protobilly)
Morris Brothers, "The Dream of the Miner's Child" (Bluebird B-8841, 1941)
Arnold Keith Storm, "The Dream of the Miner's Child" (on AKStorm01)
Keith Whitley, "Dream of a Miner's Child" (Rebel SLP-1504, 1971; on Protobilly)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Les Reeder" (theme)
cf. "Blockader Mama" (theme)
NOTES [195 words]: How solid is the 1922 date from Randolph? The Vernon Dalhart recording, which became near-canonical, credited Andrew Jenkins as author, and it certainly has his style. Could he have taken bits from, "Don't Go Down in the Mine, Dad" and perhaps elsewhere, then built a new song from them? - PJS
I would add that I have a copy of the original sheet music, published in 1926 by Shapiro, Bernstein & Co and copyrighted by P. C. Brockman (who also owned the copyright, e.g., of "The Death of Floyd Collins," which is surely by Jenkins). This sheet music credits the song to Jenkins (interestingly, it does not list an arranger for the piano accompaniment).
So I grant that this is a very interesting question. Randolph's text is certainly much like the standard version. The book assuredly prints a date of 1922. What's more, Randolph had two other pieces from the same informant, and both were dated 1922 also. So I cannot resolve the question.
Cohen, in discussing Reed's rewrite of Jenkins's version, says that the Jenkins text was loosely based on a 1910 song "Don't Go Down in the Mines, Dear Dad," by Robert Donnelly and Will Geddes. Maybe that explains part of it. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: R859

Dream, The

See The Labour Boroo (File: MorU025)

Dreaming of a Little Cabin

DESCRIPTION: "In dreams of yesterday I wandered Back to my little cabin door." The singer sees familiar faces and places and hears familiar music. He is a homeless orphan "Since Mother left the old homestead."
AUTHOR: Albert E. Brumley (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 ("Pearly Gates," according to Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
KEYWORDS: home mother
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 36, "Dreaming of a Little Cabin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V46935
RECORDINGS:
Wade Mainer, "Dreaming of a Little Cabin" (King 1035)
Mac Wiseman, "Dreaming of a Little Cabin" (Dot 1092)
NOTES [20 words]: Albert E. Brumley seems to have had several closely-linked obsessions: mother, a cabin, and nauseating sentimentality. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ABLT036

Dreamland Opens Here

See Louisiana Lullabye (File: ACSF342L)

Dreams (May All of Your Dreams Be Like Daisies in the FIeld)

DESCRIPTION: "May all your dreams bloom like daisies in the sun. May you always have stars in your eyes.... May you always have blue skies." Your dreams belong to you; no one can steal them -- but you can share them
AUTHOR: Caroline Moore? (source: mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: May all your dreams bloom like daisies")
EARLIEST DATE: 1969? (source: mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: May all your dreams bloom like daisies")
KEYWORDS: dream nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 550, 552, "May All of Your Dream"/"May All of Your Dreams Be Like Daisies in the Field" (notes only)
File: ACSF550D

Dreary Black Hills, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer arrives in the Black Hills to find "loafers and bummers" filling the streets of Cheyenne -- but there is no gold to be found. He misses his home, and warns others against going there; all they are doing is making the railroad speculators rich
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1876 (broadaide); c.1885 (see the comment on the ADDITIONAL Wehman reference); 1909 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: gold hardtimes railroading
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1875 - Announcement that gold has been found in the Black Hills
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 249-350, "The Dreary Black Hills" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 116-117, "The Dreary Black Hills" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 108-109, "The Dreary Black Hills" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 179-180, "The Black Hills" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 264-265, "The Dreary Black Hills" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 176, "The Dreary Black Hills" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 438-440, "The Dreary Black Hills" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 24, "The Dreary Black Hills" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 87, pp. 185-186, "The Dreary Black Hills" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 9-10, "The Dreary Black Hills" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #161, "The Dreary Black Hills" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 95-97, "Dreary Black Hills" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 122-123, "The Dreary Black Hills" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 480-481 "The Dreary Black Hills" (1 text plus a broadside print)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 59, "The Dreary Black Hills" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 478, "The Dreary Black Hills" (source notes only)
DT, DREARBLK*
ADDITIONAL: Wehman's [Universal Songster] Collection of 96 Songs No. 6 (New York, n.d., digitized by Internet Archive), p. 26, "The Black Hills" [see notes re source]
Roud #3604
RECORDINGS:
Bill Bender (The Happy Cowboy), "Dreary Black Hills" (Varsity 5150, n.d.; rec. 1939)
Harry Stephens, "The Dreary Black Hills" (AFS, 1940s; on LC28)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Old Blue" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Captain Old Blue (File: PrivCOBl)
NOTES [155 words]: What seems to be the earliest printing of this, a broadside published by Bell & Co. of San Francisco and dated c. 1876 by Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, is entitled "The Dreary Black Hills As Sung by Dick Brown" (who seems to have performed as "Deadwood Dick"). On this basis Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, and some others, attribute it to Brown. Which is possible, but no more.
Regarding Wehman's Collection Norm Cohen writes, "Songbook #6 was undated, but most likely 1884-5." Each page except the first is headed Wehman's Universal Songster. The first page is undated but states, "Published Quarterly -- January, April, July and October. Norm Cohen's Finding List... has WE29, Universal Songster as "monthly serial ... [beginning] 1881 (Norm Cohen, A Finding List of American Secular Songsters Published Between 1860 and 1899 (Middle Tennessee State University,Murfreesboro,2002), p. 150). - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: San264

Dreary Dream, The

See The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214] (File: C214)

Dreary Gallows, The

See Gallows [Laws L11] (File: LL11)

Dreary Life, The

See A Cowboy's Life (File: LoF187)

Dreary Weather

See Dark and Dreary Weather (File: R750)

Dreary, Dreary Life, The

See A Cowboy's Life (File: LoF187)

Dredge from Presque Isle, The

DESCRIPTION: "The night was fair, the sky was clear, No ripple on the sea, When King came into the shop...." The sailor is told that the [Alanson] Sumner will sail for Presque Isle. The singer describes the cook and the trip and says he won't sail that trip again
AUTHOR: supposedly Thomas Peckham
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from Ben Peckham by Walton)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship travel cook
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 107-109, "The Dredge from Presque Isle" (1 text)
Roud #19875
NOTES [19 words]: Although no tune is indicated for this, it looks to me as if it was meant to be sung to "The Rose of Allandale." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM107

Drei Reiter Am Thor

DESCRIPTION: "Es ritten drei Reitter zum Tore hinaus, Ade! Fein's liebchen schaute zum Fenster heras, Ade!" Tune in 6/8. Translates roughly as "three riders from Tore" and seems to be an all purpose love song.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Baltzer's _Knurrhahn_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love horse
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 96, "Drei Reiter Am Thor" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Saltpeter Shanty (Slav Ho)" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Es ritten drei Reiter zum Tor hinaus
NOTES [60 words]: Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen says this is a German folksong dating from the 16th century. It was included in "Songs of American Sailormen" as an example of how its tune ended up being used for an entirely different English shanty, "Slav Ho!" I found another source which listed the title as "Es ritten drei Reiter zum Tor hinaus" and gave a date of 1777. - SL
File: Colc096

Drei Wochen vor Oschrdren (Three Weeks before Easter)

DESCRIPTION: German. Quatrain ballad, with most verses about love. "Drei Wochen vor Oschrdren Do geht d'r Schnee weck." "Three weeks after Easter, the snow starts to melt." The singer has been jilted by his beloved. He has property but no girl. He likes to dance.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage dancing love abandonment
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 98-100, "Drei Wochen vor Oschrdren (Three Weeks before Easter)" (1 German text plus non-poetic English translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass)" (lyrics, general feeling)
File: KPL098

Dressed in Black

See Cinderella Dressed in Yellow (File: CarMM079)

Dressed In Brown

See Cinderella Dressed in Yellow (File: CarMM079)

Dressed in Green

See Cinderella Dressed in Yellow (File: CarMM079)

Drifting and Drifting

DESCRIPTION: "Well I'm drifting and drifting just like a ship out to sea (x2), Well I ain't got nobody in this whole world who cares for me." "Nobody wants me, nobody seems to care." "Gonna pack my suitcase, gonna move on down the line."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: loneliness nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 132, (no title) (1 text); p. 165, (no title) (partial text)
File: CNFM132

Drihaureen O Mo Chree (Little Brother of My Heart)

DESCRIPTION: The singer's brother "is gone to the wars now proud England united with France" and is killed on the battlefield. "The dark narrow grave is the only sad refuge for me Since I lost my heart's darling, my driharin o mo croi"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1856 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(985))
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness war death brother
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 28, "Drihaureen O Mo Chree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 148-149, "Mo Drathereen O Mo Chroi" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 170, "Draheron O Machree" (1 text)
Roud #2360
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best, "Driharin O Mo Croi" (on NFABest01)
Brigid Tunney, "Dritherearin-o-Mo-Chroidhe" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
Paddy Tunney, "Drahaareen-O Mochree" (on IRPTunney02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(985), "Drecharian O'Machree," Wm. Wright (Birmingham), 1842-1855; also Firth b.25(126), Harding B 11(1963), "Drecharian O'Machree"; 2806 b.11(269), "Dechrarian O'Machree"; 2806 b.11(190), Firth c.26(199), "Dreearian O'Macree[!]"; 2806 b.9(264), 2806 c.15(199), Harding B 19(106), "Drah Harion O Machree"; Harding B 26(150), Harding B 26(149), 2806 c.8(120), "Drahareen O Ma Chree"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jimmy Mo Veela Stor" (tune according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads, p. 207)
cf. "The Barrack Hill Cavan" (song with a name riddle) and references there
NOTES [695 words]: NFABest01: Best says "As far as I can make out Driharin O Mo Chroi means 'little brother of my heart' in the Irish language. Tom [Antle] pronounced it 'Dreery o Machree.'" The broadside version's differences from Best's version are best illustrated by a LONG DESCRIPTION of the broadside:
"I am a young fellow that always lov'd rural sport" in Erin's towns and cities "until I was deprived of my Dreearian O'Machree." My brother was pressed and taken or killed in battle. We used to ramble and work together. Our father and mother are dead. I wish to be sent where my brother is and "like a true loyal brother I'd fight for him manfully Or die in the arms of my sweet Dreearian O'Machree."
The broadside ends with a riddle:
The name of a nymph that Jupiter did admire
The head and tail of a fowl you must inquire
The name of a beast exchang'd in a letter or three
Will tell you the name of my Drecharin O'Machree.
John Moulden -- researcher at the "Centre for the Study of Human Settlement and Historical Change" at National University of Ireland, Galway
whose subject is "the printed ballad in Ireland" -- offers the following comment on riddles like this:
A riddling verse, indicating the name of the praiseworthy (usually female) person at the end of a love song, is a standard device in Irish sheet ballads. There is a fair number of such -- all are characteristically difficult of interpretation. However -- Jupiter's favoured nymphs can be discovered and it seems likely that this will provide a first name. The name of an animal with some letters shifted around will presumably give the surname.
Dr. Simon Furey (PhD in Folk music research, but not Irish -- from Sheffield University) illustrates an approach to solving the riddle [with my liberties taken in piecing together a number of messages and a contribution by Dr. Furey's wife]:
How about "John" for the first name? Io for the nymph and hen (h+n) for the fowl.
The only thing [for John's surname] I can think of is "Cow":
In the old children's game of cows and bulls (guessing letters or numbers, a bull is a letter/number correctly guessed in the correct position and a cow is a letter/number correctly guessed but in the wrong position); a cow was marked with an o and a bull with an x. At least it was when I played it at school in the 1950s in England, if memory serves.
So we have cow as a beast with one letter or three, and "Cow" is one spelling of an old Kilkenny name. The "beast exchanged" is a reference to Jack and the Beanstalk, where the cow was exchanged for beans. Which of course gives another possible link because of John=Jack.
So perhaps our mystery person is John Cow, aka Sean Cough.
John Moulden and Dr Furey are quoted [or their ideas mangled] with permission.
This may bear on dating the song: while Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder in 1991 has "He went to the war where proud England united with France," on IRPTunney02 in 1963 he has "He went to the wars to fight against England for France"; Brigid Tunney's version on IRTunneyFamily01 omits the verse altogether.
Considering the "England united with France" line in Best's version and the possible late date of 1855 for the broadside it is at least possible that this refers to the Crimean War. [Effectively certain, I would say; it's too early for World War I, and the Crimean War is the only other significant occasion on which they were allied. Unless Best's version was a Canadian World War I adaption; after all, the Canadians were fighting in France with the French and British. The text from IRPTunney02 sounds more like one of the Wild Geese, though, with the occasion perhaps being the War of the Spanish Succession. - RBW]
The spelling I am following for the NAME is from OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 28. That version, it is worth noting, follows the broadside but without the riddle.
For another name riddle see "The Belfast Beauty."
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Dearthairin O Mo Chroi" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) -BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: RcDOMCLB

Drill Ye Heroes, Drill!

DESCRIPTION: Working on the northern railroad the, crew proceeds from Gambo in the east, westward to the Hall's Bay Line, to Codroy on the west coast of Newfoundland. The crew are named.
AUTHOR: John Devine ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: railroading work moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 781-782, "Drill Ye Heroes, Drill!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4436
RECORDINGS:
Ken Peacock, "Drill Ye Heroes, Drill!" (on NFKPeacock)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" (theme, tune and references there)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Drill ye Tarriers
NOTES [207 words]: The song follows the workers along about 400 miles of the 550 mile length of the defunct Newfoundland railroad. The passage today would be closely approximated by driving Trans-Canada 1.
Certainly derivative of "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" both as to theme and tune though only a few lines are carried over. Ironically, one of the common lines is the "you're docked for the time you were in the sky" though the point is lost since the preceding explosion has been dropped. Further, the senses of hard times and of a tall tale have also been lost. - BS
Because the song says the rail to the west coast was actually built, this must refer to the second stage in the history of the Newfoundland Railway. The line through Gambo was built in the 1890s by the Reid Newfoundland Company. The earlier attempt, in the 1880s, had featured similar working conditions but never made it much beyond the Avalon Peninsula. For more on the Newfoundland Railroad in general, see the notes to "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie," "The Bonavist Line," "Downey's Our Member," and "The Loss of the Bruce." I wonder if John Devine, said to be the author of this piece although the claim is not reported by Peacock, might not also have written "The Bonavist Line." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea781

Drill, Ye Miners, Drill

DESCRIPTION: "Every morning after the Con's whistle blows, There are thousands of miners working underground," with the shifters ordering, "Drill, ye miners, drill." Life is hard. The bosses are hard. They lie and cheat. "So fight, ye workers, fight."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (September [Butte] Miner's Voice, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining derivative hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 158-159, "Drill, Ye Miners, Drill" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" (tune)
File: LDC158

Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill

DESCRIPTION: Describing, in extravagant terms, the hard life of the (Irish) railroad workers -- subjected to long hours, blast, short pay (and that docked for any or no reason). And always the order comes again, "Drill, ye tarriers, drill!"
AUTHOR: words: Thomas Casey/music: Charles Connolly
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (play, "A Brass Monkey"; sheet music published by Frank Harding of New York, seemingly without attribution)
KEYWORDS: work railroading hardtimes talltale
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #101, "Drill, Ye Terriers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, p. 120, "Drill Ye Terriers" (1 short text, apparently localized)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 553-559, "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 14-18, "Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 217, "Drill, Ye Tarriers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 78, "The Tarrier's Song" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 112-113, "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 442, "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 43-44, "The Tarriers' Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 329, "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #165, "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 138, "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 130, "Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill" (1 text)
OneTuneMore, p. 12, "Drill, Ye Tarrers" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DRILLTAR*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 30, #3 (1984), pp, 50-51, "Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill" (1 text, 1 tune, a Canadian version reportedly collected by Tim Rogers though no informant is listed)
Roud #4401 and 4436
RECORDINGS:
George J. Gaskin, "Drill Ye Tarriers Drill" (Berliner 064-1/Berliner [Canada] 4, 1899)
Chubby Parker, "Drill Ye Tarriers Drill" (Conqueror 7893, 1931)
Dan W. Quinn, "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" (Victor 3155, c. 1901)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drill Ye Heroes, Drill!" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Drill, Ye Miners, Drill (File: LDC158)
River Drivers' Song (File: RcRiDriS)
NOTES [278 words]: This is believed to have originated with an Irish comedy team, (Thomas F.) Casey and (Charles) Connelly, in the 1880s. It has gone almost verbatim into oral tradition; with the exception of a few rewrites such as Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan's, variations in the text are very few.
Very nearly the only exception to this uniformity is the Chubby Parker recording, which is longer than the popular version, and a genuine song about railroad life rather than a humorous item. Cohen, based on this and a few hints in nineteenth century writings, wonders if there may not have been some ancestral text in existence before 1888. If so, that version has been almost completely displaced by the Casey version.
The gimmick about being "docked for the time you were up in the sky" apparently was used outside this song. According to Susan Scott Parrish, The Flood Year 1927: A Cultural History, Princeton University Press, 2017, pp. 162-164, the comedy duo of (Flournoy E.) Miller and (Aubrey L.) Lyles (who performed in blackface even though they were Black, such were the times!) did a comedy routine about Sam and Steve. In one sketch, Sam takes a job in a dynamite factory. On one occasion, a blast "Rased me 'bout a thousand feet." Since no one caught him, Steve suggests seeking damage. Sam replies, "I didn't collect for damages, but I collected many damages." Steve answered, "Well then, how much money did you get?" "Didn't get none." "None?" "No. My boss even docked me for time out in the air I wasn't workin'."
I seem to recall, in my youth, a bunch of us understanding "tarriers" as "terriers," i.e. dogs, with resulting very odd notions of what the song was about. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LoF217

Drill, Ye Terriers

See Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (File: LoF217)

Drimindown

DESCRIPTION: "Bad luck to ye Drimon and why did you die?" I'd sooner have lost my son and hut. When I found her "I rolled and I bawled and my neighbors I called." "I thought my poor Drimindoon never would fail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Macaronic w. Gaelic. An old man loses a cow but can't tell how; he laments that as he went to mass, he saw his cow, drimindown, sunk into (water, mire). He cries and raises the neighbors; after the cow sinks, she rises again "like a bunch of black wild berries". Ch.: "Ego so ro Drimindown ho ro ha/So ro Drimindown nealy you gra...."
KEYWORDS: death lament nonballad animal grief corpse drowning farming foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 176, "Drimindown" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, p. 78, "Drimindown" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 19, "Drimmin Dubh Dheelish" (1 text)
Roud #2712
RECORDINGS:
Ernest Sellick, "Drimindown" (on MRHCreighton)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maid on the Shore, The (The Fair Maid by the Sea Shore; The Sea Captain)" [Laws K27] (tune)
cf. "If It Wasn't For Dicky" (lyrics)
cf. "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" (lyrics)
cf. "The Barrymore Tithe Victory" (subject: cows, tithes, and the name Drimon).
NOTES [699 words]: The description is based on Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs with help from the notes for Creighton/MacLeod 88(3) in Gaelic Songs in Nova Scotia. Creighton/MacLeod has three versions in English (two with chorus in Irish Gaelic).
Is this an allegory or really about a country-man's lament for the death of his cow? There are Jacobite songs in which a cow is named Drimin and denotes Ireland allegorically. H Halliday Sparling, in Irish Minstrelsy (1888), gives three examples of this in other songs:
"O Say, My Brown Drimin" by James Joseph Callanan, p. 309 [Also in Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry, pp. 183-184 -RBW];
"Drimin Dubh"--from Druim-fionn dubh dilis "dear black white-backed (cow)" by Samuel Ferguson, p. 148.
"Drimin Donn Dilis" by John Walsh, p. 203.
ibiblio site The Fiddler's Companion: DEAR BLACK COW [1] (Druimin Dubh). AKA and see "The Black Cow." Irish, Air (3/4 time). G Dorian. Standard. AAB. The words lament the loss of a cow, comparing it to the celebrated mythological Irish cow which could never be fully milked. In Bunting's 1840 collection he gives a few verses of a political song in which "the black cow" serves as a "very whimsical metaphor, the cause of the exiled monarch." [I must admit, in reading Creighton's first version, I thought of Bonnie Prince Charlie. The more so as many residents of Nova Scotia fled there after the Jacobite rebellions. - RBW]
Other writers, notably George Petrie, Patrick Walsh, Margaret Hannegan, Seamus Clandillon and Redfern Mason, believe "Drimin/Druimin Dubh" (or "Dhriman Dhoun Deelish" "Drimin donn Dilis" etc.) also note the title's symbolizm (sic.) with Ireland. Cazden (et al, 1982) finds that, "with sufficiently imaginative adjustment," the melody resembles the "Drimindown" tune family, which includes O'Neill's "The Sorrowful Maiden" and Cazden's own Catskill Mountain (New York) collected ballad "The Maid on the Shore."
For an exhaustive discussion of text and tune history see "Drumion Dubh(Drimindown,Irish)" on Bruce Olsen's web site. The earliest complete text he finds "is from The Universal Songster, III, p. 45, London: Jones and Co., 1828."
For another copy of "O Say, My Brown Drimin" by James Joseph Callanan (Sparling p. 309) see Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 183-184, "O Say, My Brown Drimin". This is an example of Drimin as Ireland.
Zimmermann p. 56: "the strangest allegorical name for Ireland in Irish songs of the eighteenth century is 'Druimfhionn Donn Dilis': 'dear brown cow'. Petrie gave for this rather incongruous name the explanation which has been proposed for some of the women's names applied to Ireland, namely that it might have been suggested by the title or refrain of an older popular song which furnished the tune. In political broadside ballads of the Tithe War, the cow was still accepted as the symbol of Ireland. (See song 41["The Barrymore Tithe Victory"])."
Edward Bunting, The Ancient Music of Ireland (Mineola, 2000 (reprint of 1840 Dublin edition)), p. 93, has a translation of a Jacobite text of "Druimindubh" with "the 'black-backed cow' representing ... the cause of the exiled monarch....
Ah drimindhu' deelish, my darling black cow,
Say where are your folk, be they living or no?
They are down in the ground 'neath the sod lying low,
Expecting King James with the crown on his brow.
But if I could get sight of the crown on his brow,
By night and day travelling to London I'd go.... - BS
[To this compare Ruth Dudley Edwards, The Seven: The Lives and Legacies of the Founding Fathers of the Irish Republic, Oneworld Books, 2016, p. 156 n., who glosses "Druimfhionn donn dilis" as "The dear brown white-backed cow -- one of the allegorical names for Irelend." - RBW]
I believe this was the song, originally Irish, which Lead Belly adapted into "If It Wasn't For Dicky," which the Weavers in turn made into, "Kisses Sweeter than Wine." Really. - PJS
Yes, really. Pete Seeger says as much on p. 63 of Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Musical Autobiography (Sing Out Publications, 1993, 1997). Lead Belly reportedly got it from an Irish singer in Greenwich Village, Sam Kennedy. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: CrMa176

Drinane Dhun

See The Drinaun Dun (An Draighnean Donn, The Blackthorn Tree) (File: HHH206)

Drinaun Dun, The (An Draighnean Donn, The Blackthorn Tree)

DESCRIPTION: Irish Gaelic. The singer complains of being "captivated" by a young man, whose disappearance has caused her to wander. She shelters under the blackthorn. She tells of her love, wishes she had a boat to follow him, and warns girls to marry when they can
AUTHOR: D F McCarthy (per O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland); probably by 1855 (Petrie Collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H206, p. 289, "The Drinaun D[h]un" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 63, "Drinane Dhun" (1 text)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads, pp. 263-264, "The Drynaun Dun" (1 text)
cf. Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 32, "An Draighnean Donn" (1 Irish Gaelic text plus translation, 1 tune; it is not clear that the English version of Henry has any relation to Kennedy's Irish text)
Roud #2363
RECORDINGS:
Sean Dirrane, "An Droighnean Donn (The Blackthorn)" (on Aran1)
NOTES [87 words]: Not to be confused with "Draigheanan donn" by Robert Dwyer Joyce, a love song about a man who dreams of being home again with "her sweet loving kisses, 'neath the Drinan Donn." (source: Irish Minstrelsy by H Halliday Sparling (1888), p. 301).
Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 143-144, "The Drinan Dhun" seems like a different translation of the same song. There are lines that are close but if translation were not a complicating factor I would consider these to be separate songs. - BS
File: HHH206

Drink 'Er Down

See Drink It Down (File: SCWF189)

Drink in the Morn, A

DESCRIPTION: Dan O'Reilly explains to the judge the benefits of drinking "twenty or thirty" poteen between morning, when it "is good for the sight," and night. "In winter or summer, in June or July, I'll be punching all day till I die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (for USBallinsloeFair, according to site irishtune.info, Irish Traditional Music Tune Index: Alan Ng's Tunography, ref. Ng #2615)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Packy Dolan and The Melody Boys, "A Drink in the Morn" (on USBallinsloeFair)
File: RcADItM

Drink It Down

DESCRIPTION: "Here's success to Port, drink it down, drink it down (x2)... For it warms the heart for sport." "Here's success to sherry... makes the heart beat merry." And so forth, for whisky, cider, brandy, ale, punch, porter, water
AUTHOR: Julien Carle? (source: McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (The Campfire Songster, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar); 1853 (according to McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad wordplay
FOUND IN: Australia US(So) Canada
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 189-190, "Drink It Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 154-157, "Drink 'er Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 20, page headed "Drinking Song:"], "(no title)" (1 short text, a racy verse that opens "Here's to the good old brandy")
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, pp. 41-42, "Here's to the Good Old Beer" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 87, "Here's to the Good Old Beer" (1 text)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 20, "Here's to Good Old Beer" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 272, "Here's to --- and --- (Drink It Down, Drink It Down)"
Roud #17004
SAME TUNE:
Boys In Blue, Fall In Line ("Wake up, gallant boys in blue, Fall in line! Fall in line!) (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p.23)
File: SCWF189

Drink Old England Dry

DESCRIPTION: Singer calls on his companions to drink, for the English are at war with the French (Germans, Russians). The singer vows to show the enemy "British play": "We'll fight until we die/Before that they shall come and drink old England dry."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Rev. J. Broadwood, "Sussex Songs")
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer calls on his companions to drink, for the English are at war with the French (Germans, Russians). The singer vows to show the enemy "British play"; "With our swords and with our cutlasses, We'll fight until we die/Before that they shall come and drink old England dry." A national hero (Lord Raglan, Lord Roberts, Churchill) swears he shall be true to his country and crown, and that cannons will rattle and bullets fly before they drink old England dry
KEYWORDS: promise fight violence war drink France Germany Russia nonballad patriotic ritual
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,North))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 270, "Drink Old England Dry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 43-45, "Drink Old England Dry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 148-149, "Drink Old England Dry" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DRNKENGL*
Roud #882
RECORDINGS:
Rowland Whitehead & chorus, "Drink Old England Dry" (on FSB8)
NOTES [278 words]: Anne Gilchrist dates the original of this song to the time of the Napoleonic Wars. It was sung by a group known as The Boggens who would go around the village of Haxey (Lincolnshire) during the week preceding the day of the Hood Game, a combat ritual game. - PJS
The Napoleonic date is of course possible, but I personally think it's older. The British have, of course, fought the French for as long as both nations existed. But the reference in Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland's text to fighting the *Germans* "with our swords and our cutlasses" argues against such a date -- and postponing to the World Wars hardly helps.
Personally, I'd guess (very tentatively) that this dates to one of the "Succession Wars" of the eighteenth century. During the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), for instance, Britain was allied with Austria against France (e.g. Battle of Dettingen, 1743), and sometimes Prussia (which started the war, then backed out, then went back in). It therefore fits the situation better than the Napoleonic era.
The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1713) doesn't fit quite as well, since the German states were mostly on the same side as England in opposing France -- but it has the advantage of bringing in a Churchill before Winston (and note that the Kennedy text does not refer to *Winston* Churchill, merely "Churchill"): The Duke of Marlborough's name was John Churchill.
This, of course, is not to deny that the song could be adapted to later wars, as in the version collected by Cecil Sharp, which was adapted to the Crimean War by the insertion of Lord Raglan (the British commander on the Black Sea front) into the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: K270

Drink Round, Brave Boys

See Lumberman's Drinking Song (File: Gray015)

Drink That Rot Gut

DESCRIPTION: "Drink that rot gut (x2), Drink that red eye, boys, It don't make a damn wherever we land, We hit her up for joy." A call for drink and a celebration of its effects. The cowboys have "lived in the saddle and ridden trail"; now they will enjoy themselves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916
KEYWORDS: drink cowboy nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 169, "Drink That Rot Gut" (1 tune)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, p. 196, "Drinking Song" (1 text)
Roud #8030
File: LxA169

Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes

DESCRIPTION: "Drink to me only with thine eyes And I will pledge with mine, Or leave a kiss within the cup And I'll not ask for wine." The singer prefers his lady's love to "Jove's nectar," and says that her breath makes even a dead wreathe grow
AUTHOR: Words: Ben Jonson
EARLIEST DATE: 1616 (as part of "To Celia," in "The Workes of Benjamin Jonson"); tune in print by 1780
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 90, "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 84, "Drink To Me Only" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 260, "Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p, 707, "Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 105 "Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #70, "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" (1 text)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 116-117, "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 29, "Drink to Me Only WIth Thine Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 53, "Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 202-203, "Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes"
DT, DRNKTOME*
ADDITIONAL: Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 204-205, "Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V3830
RECORDINGS:
Massanutten Military Quartet, "Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes" (Columbia 15751-D, 1932)
SAME TUNE:
Rest ("When the sun is sinking to rest, The evening shadows fall") (Harbin-Parodology, #256, p. 63)
NOTES [14 words]: According to Waites & Hunter, Jonson's text is based on a passage by Philostratus. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB260A

Drink Your Whiskey

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Drink your whiskey, Drink your cider, How many legs Is on a spider? One, two, three...." Or, Sugar, salt, pepper, cider, How many legs on a bow-legged spider"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Midwest Folklore, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: drink jumprope bug food | spider legs
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #125, "Drink your whiskey"; #552, "Sugar, salt, pepper, cider" (2 texts)
NOTES [27 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes obviously splits his two rhymes. But I consider the words, "...cider, How many legs on a spider" to be diagnostic, so I've lumped them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR125

Drinkin' Bad Bad Whiskey

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Bad bad whiskey (3x) Made me lose my happy home." Whiskey and drinking women made him lose home, friends and money. "Never been to church... school... I was a booze drinking fool"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (USFlorida01)
KEYWORDS: home money drink hardtimes friend
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Emmett Murray, "Drinkin' Bad Bad Whiskey" (on USFlorida01)
File: RdDrBaWh

Drinkin' That Wine

See Drinking of the Wine (File: Br3048)

Drinking and Gambling Gonna Be My Ruin

DESCRIPTION: "Drinking and gambling gonna be my ruin (x3), Gonna be my ruin, gonna be my ruin. Drinking and gambing gonna be my ruin."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: drink gambling hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Charles W. Joyner, "The Repertory of Nancy Jones as a Mirror of Culture in Scotland County," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), p. 95, "(Drinking and gambling gonna be my ruin" (1 fragment)
Roud #32511
File: NCF213DG

Drinking Gin

DESCRIPTION: "A-drinking gin through all the day And then at night attend the play Will on a man infer a curse And find the bottom of his purse." Drinking leads to starving children and poor clothing; the singer is urged to set sail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (DCHS archives)
KEYWORDS: warning drink sailor poverty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 343-344, "Drinking Gin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25999
NOTES [50 words]: The final verse of this alludes to 1 Timothy 5:23, where Paul advises Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach's sake rather than drinking just water -- decent advice in places where the water is bad, less good where there is clean water. The whole song seems rather confused in that regard. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HGam343

Drinking Gourd, The

See Follow the Drinking Gourd (File: Arn062)

Drinking of the Wine

DESCRIPTION: "Drinking (of the) wine, wine, wine, Ought to been there for a thousand years, drinking wine." In its full form, apparently a spiritual on the Eucharist. A prison version ends with "If my (brother/sister/etc.) comes for me, Tell her I've gone to Galilee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Odum)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad religious wine Jesus worksong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 48, "Drinking Wine" (1 fragment)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 220, "Drinking of the Wine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, pp. 250-251, "Drinkin' Of the Wine" (1 text)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 246-248, "Drinkin' That Wine" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Howard W. Odum, Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes, (reprint from American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, July 1909, Vol.3 pp. 265-365 "Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 91, "(If my mother ask you for me, tell her I gone to Gallerleed") (1 text)
Roud #7851
RECORDINGS:
Menhaden Fishermen, "Drinking of the Wine" (on USMenhaden01)
Walter Kegler and Crew of the Barnegat, "Drinking of the Wine" (on VaWork)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Drinking of the Wine" (on BLLunsford01) (Rounder LP 0065, 1957)
Northern Neck Chantey Singers, "Drinking of the Wine" (on USMenhaden02)
NOTES [148 words]: The editors of Brown, having only the chorus (and that without the reference to "holy wine" found in Lunsford's version) classified this as a drinking song. Lunsford's version makes it a spiritual of sorts. But it's the same chorus, from the same area; same song in my book.
The final verses in Jackson's prison version, about the singer going to Galilee, are probably aa allusion tp Matthew 28:7, "He [Jesus] has been raised from the dead, and indeed is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him." - RBW
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands writes, because of the swinging rhythm this was "a favorite with the chain gang for cutting weeds along the highway."
Odum has "Christ was there four thousand years ago," and has "four thousand" where Parrish has "ten thousand."
Menhaden01 shares the "on my way to Galilee" verse with the same group's "My Way Seems So Hard." - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Br3048

Drinking Rum and Raspberry

DESCRIPTION: "Some like gin and some like brandy, Some are keen on beer or shandy, I'll drink any drink that's handy" as long as it's strong. Drinking rum and raspberry grows hair on the chest, makes you want to sing and fight, and results in fights
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Ruth Park, "One a Pecker, Two a Pecker")
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 44 in the 1972 edition, "Drinking Rum and Raspberry" (1 text, 1 tune); dropped from the 2010 edition
File: Colq044

Drinking Song (I)

See Drink That Rot Gut (File: LxA169)

Drinking Song (II)

See Lumberman's Drinking Song (File: Gray015)

Drinking Song (III)

See The Social Fellow (File: WT089)

Drinking Strong Whiskey

DESCRIPTION: Singer "being tipsy from drinking strong whiskey ... straight to the raygions of dead men did go." He finds the souls in Hell weary and wonders "if souls who go up to heaven" ever stray among mortals; those in Hell would surely not be permitted that.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (IRTunneyFamily01)
KEYWORDS: dream drink Hell
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 125, "Drinking Strong Whiskey" (1 text)
Roud #5293
RECORDINGS:
Brigid Tunney and Paddy Tunney, "Drinking Good Whiskey" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
File: TSF125

Drip Drop, the Robin's in the Sea

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope verse. "Drip drop, the robin's/sailor's in the sea, Please take the rope from me. Will you come, come to unto the fair? No, no, the fair's not there, With you, I must not miss a loop." Drip drop... Ask (X) to buy Lyons tea"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Those Dusty Bluebells, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope bird sailor food travel | robin rope fair
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #126, "Drip, drop, the robin's in the sea" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 72, "Drip, Drop" (2 texts, 1 tune); p. 77, "(Drip, drop, the sailors on the sea)" (2 texts)
File: AJRR126

Drip, Drop, The Sailors on the Sea

See Drip Drop, the Robin's in the Sea (File: AJRR126)

Drive Dull Care Away

DESCRIPTION: "Oh why should we at our lot complain or grieve at our distress? ... while we're here with our friends so dear we'll drive dull care away." Be satisfied with your state, "have a contented mind," and "make the best of life"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: nonballad friend
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 81-82, 244, "Drive Dull Care Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 46-48,79, "Drive Dull Care Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DULLCARE*
Roud #13988
RECORDINGS:
Charles Gorman, "Drive Dull Care Away" (on MREIves01)
NOTES [40 words]: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland reproduces a note seeming to push the earliest date at least to 1775.
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland and Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland are the same August 18, 1958 performance. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: IvDC081

Drive It On (I)

DESCRIPTION: A formula song in which the singer gives the lady inches one, two, three, etc., until she is content.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy shanty humorous sex
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US(MW,So,SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 323-325, "Drive It On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 268-271, "Drive It On" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #10223
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain" (tune) and references there
cf. "Yo Ho, Yo Ho"
cf. "Roll Me Over"
cf. "Put Your Shoulder Next to Mine and Pump Away"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Gave Her Kisses One
Drive It Home
I Gave Her Inches One
The Inches Song
NOTES [15 words]: Descended from a pumping chanty, this formula song survives largely on college campuses. - EC
File: EM323

Drive It On (II)

See Jumpin' Judy (File: LoF289)

Drive Ol' Joe

DESCRIPTION: Calls: "Drive ol' Joe." "Drive 'im from the windows." "Drive 'im from the do'." "Don't want him round us." Response: "Drive 'im"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1994 (Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree)
KEYWORDS: nonballad betrayal slavery
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, pp. 124-125, "Drive Ol' Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Venus McIver, Brenton Jordan and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Drive Ol' Joe" (on McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts)
NOTES [57 words]: The description is from the Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree text. Rosenbaum says the song is about Joe, "a slave who was a traitor to his fellow slaves."
The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree text and McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts track are "ring shout" songs in which the leader sings a call and the basers respond "Drive 'im. Ol' Joe. Drive 'im." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RSBF124

Drive on Cooper Brook, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in the month of April, the truth I'll let you know, I hired out in Greenville the drive all for to go." He hires with Joe Sheehan to go to Cooper Brook. He describes the cooks and the winds. Despite everything, he would go to Cooper Brook again
AUTHOR: Mike Gorman, nephew of Larry Gorman (source: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: logger river cook
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 150-151, "The Drive on Copper Brook" (1 excerpt)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 156-159, "The Drive on Copper Brook" (1 text)
Roud #25251
File: EcSm156

Drive the Cold Winter Away (In Praise of Christmas)

DESCRIPTION: "All hail to the days that merit more praise Than all of the rest of the year...." The singer bids rejoicing come in for the Chritmas season. Various Christmas activities are detailed, each intended to "drive the cold winter away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1719 (Pills to Purge Melancholy)
KEYWORDS: Christmas party nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 293-297, "Drive the Cold Winter Away" (1 text)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 5, "The Praise of Christmas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN67, "All hayle to the dayes"
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 193-195, "Drive the Cold Winter Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 173, (no title, but called "Drive the cold winter away" in the notes) (1 tune)
DT, DRIVCOLD ALLHAIL*
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 341-344, 'A pleasant Countrey new Ditty: merrily shewing how To Drive the Cold Winter Away" (1 text)
ST Log293 (Full)
Roud #V9375
SAME TUNE:
O fain would I marry/[Title missing] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2003)
I often have known/The father hath beguil'd the sonne (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1311)
All you which lay clame/Hang Pinching (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN154)
Come, come my brave gold/Gathergood the Father and Scattergood the son [missing title from Stat. Reg. Entry, Apr. 9, 1638] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN569)
Be merry, my hearts, and call for your quarts/A Health to all Good=Fellows (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN383)
To all my good Friends these presents I send/A New Song, called Jacke Dove's Resolution (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2630)
When Phoebus did Rest (tune listed in the copy in Ashton)
NOTES [44 words]: The Oxford Book of Carols credits the first two verses to D'Urfey. Though D'Urfey was the first to print these stanzas, the existence of the song in the Pepysian collection casts the usual doubts on these authorship claims. Playford also published the tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Log293

Drive, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes a log drive and jam, and praises the "river rats" and "jack" who break up logjams with their peaveys.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 33, "The Drive" (1 text)
Roud #8854
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Badger Drive" (theme)
File: Be033

Driven into Spaniard's Bay

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on the very first day of March, To the ice, boys, we were bound." A storm blows up, bringing them very close to the ice while they are blinded by snow; they finally anchor in Spaniard's Bay and head out on Match 17
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Murphy, The Seal Fishery)
KEYWORDS: storm ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 26, "Driven into Spaniard's Bay" (1 text)
Roud #V44630
File: RySm026A

Driver Boy, The [Laws G12]

DESCRIPTION: A teenage boy is too sick to drive his mule in the mines. His drunken father, thinking him lazy, beats him repeatedly. The boy dies of pneumonia; the father repents too late
AUTHOR: John A. Murphy (1900) (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: father mining disease death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws G12, "The Driver Boy"
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, p.124, "The Driver Boy" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT 787, DRIVRBOY
Roud #3253
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Shoeblack" (tune, according to Korson)
NOTES [42 words]: The author of this song claims to have been an eyewitness and to have stepped in to keep the father from beating his son. It was, however, too late to save the boy from his pneumonia.
John A. Murphy is also credited with "The Twin-Shaft Disaster." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LG12

Driver, The

DESCRIPTION: The response is "O gwine away!" Leader's lines include "Fust ting my mammy tell me," "Tell me 'bout de nigger-driver," "Nigger-driver second devil," "Best ting for do he driver," "Knock he down and spoil he labor"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad shanty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 36, p. 219, "The Driver" (1 text)
NOTES [38 words]: The description is from Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment. In Higginson, an oarsman -- not a soldier -- tells how he made this song when the workers "went for to tote some rice and de nigger-driver he keep a-callin' on us." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Hi036219

Drivers' Lunch

DESCRIPTION: "I've seen a sight I'll ne'er forget While memory holds its sway; 'Twas the drivers' camp on Crystal Brook." The singer watches dozens of drivers eat the lunches. The cook hands out the (typical) fare. Then the drivers go back to work
AUTHOR: Mrs. S. M. Crommett (source: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine); reportedly written c. 1885
KEYWORDS: food cook logger boss nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 165-166, "Drivers' Lunch" (1 text)
Roud #23380
File: EcSm165

Drivin' Steel

DESCRIPTION: "If I could drive steel like John Henry, I'd go home, baby, I'd go home." Of the troubles of a steel driver: "This old hammer killed John Henry/Bill Dooley, Can't kill me...." "I'm goin' home and tell Little Annie, No mo' trials, baby, no mo' trials."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: work railroading
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 150, "Drivin' Steel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #790
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Swannanoah Tunnel" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "Take This Hammer" (theme, lyrics)
NOTES [41 words]: I suspect this piece is a variant of "Swannanoah Tunnel," but the tunes are slightly different and I have yet to find common verses, except for the floater about the hammer that killed John Henry, so for the moment I am keeping them separate. - RBW
File: San150

Driving Away at the Smoothing Iron

DESCRIPTION: The speaker admires his darling as, on successive days of the week, she does various laundry-related tasks, all the while she is ironing, which action he apparently adores.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909
KEYWORDS: love clothes work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(SW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 82, "Driving Away at the Smoothing Iron" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 117, "Hanging Out the Linen Clothes" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 18, "Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 205, "The Linen Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SMTHIRON*
Roud #869
RECORDINGS:
Fred Perrier, "The Linen Song" (on FSBFTX19)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Smoothing Iron
File: ShH82

Driving Logs on Rainbow

DESCRIPTION: "O, April on the first day brought From farther down a helluva lot Of lousy ill-begotten men For driving logs on rainbow." Old Woodman, the boss, pays only a dollar a day. The Rainbow is a terrible stream for loggers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine); supposedly learned 1894
KEYWORDS: logger river hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 62, "Driving Logs on Rainbow" (1 text)
NOTES [35 words]: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine think this only a fragment of a longer song, and I strongly suspect they are right. I rather suspect the original was a moniker song, but there are no names left in it now. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EkSm062

Driving Logs on Schoodic

DESCRIPTION: "John Ross from off the drive has fled, He has left the molasses and the bread, He's eaten bean-swagan till he's nearly dead, All on the banks of Schoodic." There is a bad storm; the Schoodic is a hard river to travel
AUTHOR: (credited to Frank Staples by informant William L. Powers)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine); reportedly learned 1875
KEYWORDS: logger river hardtimes food escape
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 63, "Driving Logs on Schoodic" (1 text)
File: EkSm063

Driving Logs on the Cass [Laws C22]

DESCRIPTION: A crew of loggers led by Miller have hard times, caused especially by the incompetent cook, "Old Black Joe." Despite logjams, the drive is successful until the river's water falls too low. The loggers head home gratefully
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: logger cook river lumbering
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws C22, "Driving Logs on the Cass"
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 28, "Driving Logs on the Cass" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 38-41, "Driving Logs on the Cass" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 16, "Driving Logs on the Cass" (1 text)
DT 839, LOGCASS
Roud #1928
File: LC22

Driving Saw-Logs on the Plover

DESCRIPTION: A mother bids farewell to her shanty-boy son on the banks of the Plover. She blesses him, but warns him that "Driving saw-logs on the Plover, You'll never get your pay." Eventually Johnny returns, having been driven from the camp without his pay
AUTHOR: William N. Allen ("Shan T. Boy")
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy); reportedly composed 1873
KEYWORDS: work logger mother separation money
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 20, "Driving Saw-Logs on the Plover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 20, "Drawing Saw-Logs on the Plover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #60, "Driving Saw-Logs on the Plover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, pp. 123-124, "Driving Saw-Logs on the Plover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 396-397, "Driving Saw-Logs on the Plover" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SAWLOGPL*
Roud #2797
RECORDINGS:
Pierre La Dieu, "Driving Saw-Logs On The Plover" (Columbia 15278-D, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Falling of the Pine" (tune)
NOTES [19 words]: Sung to a variant of the tune "Tramps and Hawkers/Paddy West."
This song is item dC29 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW- RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: San396

Drool Song

See Put a Watermelon Rind Upon My Grave (File: NCF162PW)

Drooping Souls, No Longer Grieve

See Boundless Mercy (Drooping Souls, No Longer Grieve) (File: Br3528)

Droosy Chiel, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer has a sleeping problem. His wife -- "continually she's singing" -- tries vainly to wake him at "half past five" every morning. He wakes half an hour early but can never be ready before half past nine. Then he falls asleep standing at his work.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 659, "The Droosy Chiel" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6086
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rise, Jock Rise!
NOTES [17 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "Sung by James Davidson, farmservant, Burnside, Carnousie, about 1870. Noted 1906." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3659

Drop 'Em Down

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Maybelle, drop 'em down" (x2). "I call you, drop 'em down" (x2). "With my diamond, drop...." "I got a lifetime to drop 'em." "I'm gettin' worried." "Where's the sergeant?" "Won't you help me?" An axe song which shares many words with hammer songs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recorded from Matt Williams by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: work prison
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 248-253, "Drop 'Em Down" (3 texts, 2 tunes, very diverse; Jackson notes that the various informants' versions were each closer to their versions of "Hammer Ring" than to each other!)
File: JDM248

Drop 'Em Down Together

DESCRIPTION: An axe song: "Drop 'em down together (x3), Whoa Lord, Make 'em sound much better (x3) When you drop 'em down together." The singer calls to his girl(s), asks for water, and talks about the act of cutting the trees
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recorded from J. B. Smith by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: nonballad separation work
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 254-255, "Drop 'Em Down Together" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [52 words]: Jackson notes that this is one of the few songs he collected from J. B. Smith that did not appear to have any of Smith's own work in it; most of the material is found in other songs. It is ironic to note that there seem to be no other versions known (though, as with many prison songs, it can be hard to tell). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM254

Drop of Good Beer, A

See I Likes a Drop of Good Beer (File: JRUI241)

Drop-the-Handkerchief

See Atisket, Atasket (I Sent a Letter to My Love) (File: BAF806A)

Drought, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the troubles of Australia during drought, and observes, "You curse this bloomin' country for she's only fit for black." The singer notes that, if you survive until it rains, then the flies and mosquitoes will torture you instead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: hardtimes Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 158-159, "The Drought" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Green (I)" (tune)
File: MCB158

Drouthy Souters, The

DESCRIPTION: Two drunken shoemakers lived by the Clyde. "No man could them divide." "For wives and bairns they didna care." They only cared for drink.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad friend river
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 592, "The Drouthy Souters" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6044
NOTES [19 words]: Greig #42: "In rustic song the Shoemaker becomes the Souter, and as such, is usually treated in humorous style." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3592

Drover's Dream, The

DESCRIPTION: The drover is on watch when he dozes off. He sees "a very strange procession" -- a clothed kangaroo and a dingo, dancing birds, a bandicoot playing the flute. He is awakened by a crash as the boss asks, "Where the !!! are all the sheep?"
AUTHOR: unknown (sometimes credited to W. Tully)
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (collected by David Campbell and Douglas Stewart)
KEYWORDS: dream animal Australia boss sheep
FOUND IN: Australia New Zealand
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 202-203, "The Drover's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads, pp. 26-28, "The Drover's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 160-161, "The Mustering Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 28-29, "The Drover's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 219-221, "The Drover's Dream" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 265-267, "The Drover's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 79-80, "The Drover's Dream" (1 text)
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 75-76, "The Drover's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune, somewhat localized to New Zealand but with the same plot)
Roud #5473
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Drover's Dream" (on Lloyd2, Lloyd4)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. Rock'd in the Cradle of the Deep" (this song quotes that)
File: MA202

Drover's Song, The

See Brisbane Ladies (File: FaE162)

Droving Song, The

DESCRIPTION: At the end of St Patrick's day a young man fails to return home from a day with his friends. A search gang finds him frozen to death in a crack in the ice. They take him home and bury him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: burial death
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 70, "The Droving Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab070 (Partial)
Roud #9984
NOTES [21 words]: Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast believes the accident took place in the nineteenth century near Forteau, Labrador. - BS
File: LLab070

Drownded Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas early in the springtime, all in the month of May, A young man in deep sorrow from his home he went away." In his sorrow he jumps in the river and drowned. His body is found at evening. He awaits the Judgment Day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs)
KEYWORDS: suicide drowning death river
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 129-130, "The Drownded Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3524
NOTES [22 words]: According to Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, this was written by Reverend George Poole about the suicide of Rugus Parrott. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Abrr129

Drownded Miner, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come gentle muse assist my song, My feeble mind inspire." "This miner in his blooming years Was drowned in the deep." He has no "sartain grave"; his body is in the sea. His parents are left behind, but "He beats the air with eagle's wings" in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1790 (Journal of the Dolphin)
KEYWORDS: death sailor mining
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 128-130, "The Drowned Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25987
NOTES [28 words]: The author of this asked for the muse's help, but I don't think he got it; the result is pretty feeble even if you ignore the terrible orthography in the logbook. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HGam128

Drowned Lover (I), The

See Scarboro Sand (The Drowned Sailor) [Laws K18] (File: LK18)

Drowned Lover (II), The

See I Never Will Marry [Laws K17] (File: LK17)

Drowned Lovers, The

See The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water [Child 216] (File: C216)

Drowned Sailor, The

See Scarboro Sand (The Drowned Sailor) [Laws K18] (File: LK18)

Drowning in Tears

DESCRIPTION: "My heart stopped beating and my eyes were drowning in tears, I didn't look at nobody, I wished that you were here"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (USChartersHeroes)
KEYWORDS: grief love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Henry Townsend, "Drowning in Tears" (on USChartersHeroes)
NOTES [28 words]: The description follows the Townsend recording. One verse, three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcDroITe

Drowning Lady, The (The Witch Song)

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] AND Johnny Sands [Laws Q3] (File: LQ02)

Drowning of John Roberts, 1852, The

See The Drowning of John Roberts [Laws C3] (File: LC03)

Drowning of John Roberts, The [Laws C3]

DESCRIPTION: John Roberts tries to break up a logjam and is swept into the river. He comes to the surface three times, then disappears; his body is found three days later
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine_
KEYWORDS: logger death drowning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1852 - John Roberts drowns on the West Branch of the Union River
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws C3, "The Drowning of John Roberts"
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 45-47, "The Drowning of John Roberts, 1852" (1 text)
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 7, "John Roberts" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
DT 717, JONROBTS
Roud #2222
File: LC03

Drowning of Patrick Martin, The

DESCRIPTION: Apprentice blacksmith Patrick Martin, out swimming with a friend, drowns in Orwell Bay. His body is retrieved with difficulty and his family mourns.
AUTHOR: Brian Doherty
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: drowning memorial
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 69-70, "The Drowning of Patrick Martin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12464
NOTES [29 words]: Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland: "Patrick Martin was drowned circa 1907 at the age of 24 years."
Orwell is on the south coast of Queens, Prince Edward Island. - BS
File: Dib069

Drowning of Young Robinson, The

DESCRIPTION: Robinson and (Wesley) go hunting by the Bann in winter. The ice is thin, and they fall through. Wesley can swim, and escapes; Robinson vanishes. Wesley summons help, but Robinson is drowned. Family and friends mourn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1869 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(705))
KEYWORDS: death river drowning mourning
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H585, p. 147, "Sloan Wellesley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 9, "The Drowning of Young Robinson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 15, "The Drowning of Young Robinson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 104, "In the County of Innocent"; p. 105, "The Dog and the Gun" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #3600
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Sloan Wellesley" (on IRRCinnamond01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(705), "Young Robinson" ("In the parish of Seagoe, in the county Armagh"), J. Moore (Belfast) , 1852-1868; also 2806 b.10(103), "Young Robinson"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Dog and the Gun
NOTES [221 words]: Morton regards this as an adaption of Laws Q33, "The Lake of Cool Finn (Willie Leonard)." There are similarities, especially in the scenes of mourning at the end, but calling the one an adaption of the other seems more than is called for. - RBW
In trying to date this ballad later than c.1830 -- suggested by one of his references -- Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster notes that, in his text, the drowning follows "the steamboat passed down a few days ago, The ice it was broken these boys did not know." Morton points out that steam tugs were not used regularly on the river Bann in Seagor, County Armagh, until after 1880. That part of his argument for late dating does not apply to the broadside version in which "a small boat passed over a few days ago." (In one of the Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs texts no boats are mentioned; the other has "two boats had passed over.")
The Bodleian broadside and Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster texts end with an Orange funeral ceremony ("Eight hundred Orangemen all stood in a ring, Where the Orange and Purple from their left breasts did hang...."). The Creighton texts have lost the Orange references altogether though the funerals are described with the colors worn ("green and purple" in one case and "red, white and green" in the other) and the music played ("God Save the King/Queen"). - BS
File: HHH585

Drowsy Sleeper, The [Laws M4]

DESCRIPTION: A young man comes to his love's window and bids her ask her parents' permission to marry him. They will refuse it; her father is prepared to kill him. Depending on the version, he leaves, or one or the other lover (or both) commits suicide or die of grief
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(183a))
KEYWORDS: courting father mother death suicide
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(West),Scotland)
REFERENCES (49 citations):
Laws M4, "The Drowsy Sleeper"
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #49, "The Drowsy Sleeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sturgis/Hughes-SongsFromTheHillsOfVermont, pp. 38-39, "The Shining Dagger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 118-123, "Bedroom Window (The Drowsy Sleeper)" (6 texts plus two fragments which might float, 1 tune)
Randolph 52, "The Drowsy Sleeper" (6 texts, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 83-85, "The Drowsy Sleeper" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 52D)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 31, "The Drowsy Sleeper" (3 texts plus a fragment, 4 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 22, "Who Is Tapping at My Bedroom Window?" (1 text plus an excerpt and mention of 3 more, 2 tunes; some of the unprinted texts may have "Silver Dagger" elements)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 214, "Wo Is That Under My Bedroom Window?" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 159-160, "Awake, Arise, You Drowsy Sleeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 28, "The Drowsy Sleeper" (2 texts plus a fragment and mention of 3 more, 2 tunes)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 18, "Awake Ye Drousy Sleeper" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 71, "The Drowsy Sleeper" (2 texts plus 3 excerpts; the "B" text is a "Silver Dagger" mix; the "D" excerpt contains "Fair and Tender Ladies" verses)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 71, "The Drowsy Sleeper" (4 excerpts, 4 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 45, "Wake Up" (2 texts)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 210, "Awake, O Awake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, pp. 53-54, "The Drowsy Sleeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #193, "The Drowsy Sleeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 46, pp. 161-162, "Willie and Mary" (1 text); also 37, pp. 151-152, "Annie Girl" (1 text, which conflates 2 verses of "The Drowsy Sleeper" [Laws M4], 2 or 3 of "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)" or "No, John, No: or similar, and 3 verses probably of "Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token)" [Laws N42])
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 88, "Wake Up You Drowsy Sleepers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 139-142, collectively titled "Awake! Awake!" but with inidividual titles "Katy Dear, or Willie Darling," ""Mollie Dear, Go Ask Your Mother," "Drowsy Sleepers," Little Willie" (4 texts; 2 tunes on p. 399)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 17, "Raft-man's Song" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 314, "Who's That at My Bedroom Window? (The Drowsy Sleeper)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 24, "Drowsy Sleeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 733-734, "Who Is At My Window Weeping?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 30, "Who Is At My Bedroom Window?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 727-730, "The Drowsy Sleeper" (2 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 183-184, "The Drowsy Sleeper" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 51, "Awake, Awake, Ye Drowsy Sleepers" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 390-391, "Drowsy Sleeper" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 188, "Wake, O Wake, You Drowsy Sleeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 72-73, "The Drowsy Sleeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 57, "Awake! Awake!" (10 texts, 10 tunes)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 47, "Arise, Arise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 46, "Arise! Arise!" (1 text, 1 tune, from different informants)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 57, "Arise, Arise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 144, "Kind Miss" (1 short text, 1 tune, primarily "Wheel of Fortune" but with one verse of "The Drowsy Sleeper")
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 200-201, "[Drowsy Sleeper]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 63-65, "Drowsy Sleepers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #35, "O Molly Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 91-92, "Katie Dear, or, Awake, Awake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H722, pp. 343-344, "The Sweet Bann Water" (1 text, 1 tune, erroneously listed in the text as Laws M34)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 73, "The Sweet Bann Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 549-550, "The Shining Dagger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 21, pp. 51-52, "The Drowsy Sleeper" (1 text; the second text is perhaps influenced by "The Silver Dagger")
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 348, "The Drowsy Sleeper" (2 texts)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 114-115, "Awake, Awake, My Old True Lover" (1 text); also pp. 115-116, "Oh, Molly Dear" (1 text, very mixed, with verses from this song, from "East Virginia, and some floaters); also pp. 116-117, "Who's That Knocking" (1 text, even more mixed and with a "Little Sparrow" verse)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 193, "Don't Sing Love Songs" (1 text)
DT 327, SHIPORDR* SHIPORD2* SILVDAG3* SILVDAG4*
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, p. 239, "O, Mary Dear, Go Ask Your Mother" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Pearl Jacobs Borusky)
Roud #22620 and 22621
RECORDINGS:
Dillard Chandler, "Awake, Awake" (on OldLove, DarkHoll)
Lester A. Coffee, "Awake, Arise, You Drowsy Sleeper" (AFS, 1946; on LC55)
Kelly Harrell, "O! Molly Dear Go Ask Your Mother" (Victor 20280, 1926; on KHarrell01 -- with several verses from "East Virginia" inserted in the song)
Frank Knox, "Silver Dagger" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Little Satchel" (on NLCR17, NLCRCD2)
Oaks Family, "Wake Up You Drowsy Sleeper" Victor 23795, 1933; on TimesAint01, KMM)
Ken Peacock, "Who Is At My Window Weeping?" (on NFKPeacock)
B. F. Shelton, "Oh Molly Dear" (Victor V-40107, 1929; on ConstSor1, StuffDreams2)
Betty Smith, "Awake, Awake, You Drowsy Sleeper" (Piotr-Archive #180, recorded 05/17/2022; combined with a bit of "Johnson Boys")
Wilmer Watts & the Lonely Eagles, "Sleepy Desert" (Paramount 3282, 1931; on TimesAint03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(183a), "The Maidens Complaint," T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Firth c.17(25), "Awake, Drowsy Sleeper"; Harding B 28(233), "The Drowsy Sleeper"; Harding B 25(452), "Cruel Father" or "The Maiden's Complaint"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Silver Dagger (I)" [Laws G21]
cf. "I Will Put My Ship In Order" (plot)
cf. "Greenback Dollar" (plot)
cf. "Go From My Window (I)"
cf. "One Night As I Lay on My Bed"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Silver Dagger
Awake, Awake
NOTES [220 words]: I put [the Silber "Don't Sing Love Songs" text] under "Drowsy Sleeper" rather than "Silver Dagger" because, although a dagger is mentioned, no one uses it. - PJS
In the absence of any other basis, this is a good criterion. The two songs have cross-fertilized heavily; drawing the line can be extremely difficult, especially for fragmentary forms. - RBW
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 28(233): she refuses bread and water; "single I will go to my grave." Broadside Bodleian Firth c.17(25): she says she will go to Botany Bay to be with Jim and asks for her portion of 500 pounds; father gives in and says "you and your true love shall be married, And that will ease you of all your pain." - BS
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin is the English "Drowsy Sleeper" (I) (not Laws M4 "Drowsy Sleeper" (II), nor the Scottish "I Will Put My Ship In Order"). I plan to break all this out. - BS
Steve Gardham points out that what clearly appears to be an ancestor of this appears in Ramsey's Tea-Table Miscellany, at least in the 1763 edition, where it is song XCVII. Gardham and Steve Roud both consider this to be two separate but related songs, Roud's 22620 and 22621. I see their point -- the whole family is a mess -- but for the time being am keeping them together to match with Laws references in other works. - (RBW)
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LM04

Drowsy Sleepers

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Droylsden Wakes

DESCRIPTION: Man and woman alternately brag and insult each other over their prowess at spinning.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865
KEYWORDS: bragging weaving ritual dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 36, "Droylsden Wakes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3290
NOTES [52 words]: "This Lancashire dialogue song was once associated with a folk ceremonial attached to the local 'wakes' or annual holiday." - A. L. Lloyd. The role of the woman was played by a man in woman's clothing; the two participants sat on a cart with a spinning-wheel spinning flax and collecting money from onlookers. - PJS
File: VWL036

Drum Major, The (The Female Drummer)

DESCRIPTION: A girl enlists "voluntarily in a regiment of foot" to follow her lover. A soldier sees her bathing; she is called before the officers. They call her lover and request that he pay the postage on a letter from his love. He pays the postage. They are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (Baring-Gould and Sheppard, _Garland of Country Song_, according to Palmer)
KEYWORDS: love separation disguise soldier cross-dressing trick
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 184, "The Drum Major" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H797, p. 327, "The Drum Major" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1678
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(78), "The Female Drum Major" ("Come all you true lovers and batchelor's sweet"), unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.17(131), 2806 c.17(130)[almost entirely illegible], "The Female Drum Major"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
cf. "The Soldier Maid" (subject)
NOTES [186 words]: The story in the Bodleian broadsides is somewhat different from Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople but there is enough similarity in lines to convince me that these are the same. Here is a description for the broadsides: A girl enlists "who carries the drum, In search of her true love to Flanders is gone." Besides being a drummer who "excelled them all," she distinguished herself in battle ("she fought with such courage, I mean by the sword, Until that her fame it came up to the board"). A soldier sees her bathing; she is called before the officers. They hear her story and the captain dresses her "in silks so fine, in woman's apparel." They call Jacklare, her lover. They kiss. The captain gives her "fifty pound, In reward for her service as we do hear. The King settled on her three hundred a year." They marry.
"Baring-Gould says that it dates back to the time of Marlborough" (source: Roy Palmer, ed., The Rambling Soldier (Gloucester, 1985) p. 283.) - BS
For notes on legitimate historical examples of women serving in the military in disguise, see the notes to "The Soldier Maid." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: HHH797

Drumallachie

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on a chill November night... I overheard a fair maid... 'My love is far frae Sinnahard And fair Drumallachie." The singer asks her of her trouble, tries to convince her to marry him, then reveals he is her long-lost lover
AUTHOR: James Hepburn (source: Greig/Duncan5)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation marriage disguise reunion
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #22, pp. 1-2, "Drumallachie"; #23, pp. 2-3, "Drumallachie"; #25, p. 2, "Drumallachie" (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan5 1043, "Drumallachie" (9 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 34-37, "Drummallochie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2481
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
cf. "Fair Gallowa'" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
cf. "High Germany (I)" (theme and likely source)
NOTES [169 words]: Of the myriad Broken Token songs, this seems among the most literary, yet it seems fairly widespread in Scottish tradition. Most of the references are clearly Biblical:
"King David had a faithful friend": This is of course Saul's son Jonathan, and their love for each other is repeatedly mentioned in 1 Samuel (e.g. 18:1, 20:41).
"When Jacob saw his long-lost son": Refers to the reunion of Jacob and Joseph (Genesis 46:19f.)
Various versions also refer to a fair Queen of Scotland. In the case of Mary Stewart, this makes some sense, since she was known for her looks. One version, however, refers to Victoria. Whether this dates the song, or is just a funny error, I do not know. - RBW
Greig/Duncan5 quoting Duncan: "Another statement of Robert Chree was that the song was understood to have been an older song adapted. The reference is probably to 'The Banks of Claudy' [Greig/Duncan5 1036], from which the idea was very likely taken. There are also reminiscences in it of [Greig/Duncan1 96] 'High Germany'." - BS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Ord034

Drumboe Castle

DESCRIPTION: "Twas the Eve of St. Patrick's by the dawn of the day, The hills of Tirconnel looked sombre and grey When... Four Irish soldiers were led forth to die." They had come "to fight for the Gael," but were captured, imprisoned, and shot at Drumboe
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: Ireland prison execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 14, 1923 - Execution of Tim O'Sullivan, Charles Daly, John Larkin, and Dan Enright at Drumboe in Donegal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 100-101, "Drumboe Castle" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 80, "The Woods of Drumbo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13466
NOTES [63 words]: Galvin lists this as an Irish song of rebellion, but this is rather an exaggeration; the British had no part in it.
The four men were Irishmen condemned (without trial) by Irishmen. The worst of it is, they were innocent of the crime of which they stood accused (which had been ordered by Liam Lynch while they were imprisoned), but were killed because they were convenient. - RBW
File: PGa100

Drumdelgie

DESCRIPTION: Bothy work is described: rising early, working hard in bad weather (but with praiseworthy horses). At the end, the singer bids farewell to Drumdelgie: "Fare ye weel, Drumdelgie, I bid you all adieu, I leave ye as I got ye, A damned unceevil crew."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #4, p. 2, "Drumdelgie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 384, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Drumdelgie" (15 texts, 14 tunes)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 66, "Drumdelgie" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 209-211, "Drumdelgie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2180
RECORDINGS:
Norman Kennedy, "Drumdelgie" (on ESFB2)
Davie Stewart, "Drumdelgie" (on FSB3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gentleman Soldier" (tune)
cf. "Harrowing Time" (tune)
cf. "The Miller of Straloch" (tune, per Greig)
cf. "The Guise o' Tough" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Big Toon in Carnie
O Fare Ye Well, Drumdelgie
NOTES [36 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Drumdelgie (384) is at coordinate (h4,v5) on that map [roughly 38 miles NW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: DBuch66

Drumglassa Hill

DESCRIPTION: A confusing song, in which Johnston, and probably Mrs. Johnston, sail for America, and the singer (Johnston? someone else?) hopes to return to Ireland, and there live a life of hunting and enjoying the beautiful scenery
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: Ireland emigration hunting homesickness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H703, pp. 210-211, "Drumglassa Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [39 words]: The best explanation I can think of for this song is that the singer is leaving his hound, Bellman, in the hands of another as he goes over the sea, and is describing how he hopes to return. But even that leaves some loose ends. - RBW
File: HHH703

Drummallochie

See Drumallachie (File: Ord034)

Drummer and His Wife

See Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)

Drummer and the Cook, The

DESCRIPTION: A drummer is in love with a cook. He sneaks in to see her one night, she gives him a meal and he chokes on a bone. She tries to knock it out of him and wakes the house. The master comes down, chases them, the drummer falls into his drum, both get fired.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1856 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 1885)
KEYWORDS: cook shanty nightvisit humorous courting disability escape food soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 314, "The Drummer and the Cook" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 460, "The Drummer and the Cook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 56-58, "The Drummer and the Cook" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DRUMCOOK, DRUMCOO2*
Roud #3136
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1885, "Walking Tub of Butter" ("There was a little drummer"), J. Cadman (Manchester), 1850-1855; also 2806 b.10(163), Harding B 16(299a), "The Walking Tub of Butter"; Harding B 15(132a), "Hump-back'd Drummer, and the Cross-eyed Cook"; Firth c.14(306), "The Little Drummer"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sailor's Consolation" (similar chorus)
cf. "The Way to Swig It" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Firth c.14(306))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Drummer
The Little Drummer
NOTES [131 words]: [Regarding Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas's 1926 date:] Hugill says this is from one of Richard Runciman Terry's books, unfortunately he didn't specify which one [It appears to be Shanty Book 2 - RBW]. Terry supposed that this was a music hall song which was taken wholesale into the shanty repertoire. He says he learned it from Cap'n John Runciman, who in turn had it from the cook of the Blyth brig Northumberland. Harry Belafonte recorded this in the 1950s. - SL
If not a music hall song, it certainly came from the popular press, as the broadsides show. - RBW
The cook "had a squinting look" ["cross-eyed" in Bodleian Harding B 15(132a)] that plays little part in the story but leads to the best known line of the song: "She had one eye in the pot, and another up the chimney." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Hugi460

Drummer Boy Edwin of Waterloo, The

See The Drummer Boy of Waterloo [Laws J1] (File: LJ01)

Drummer Boy of Shiloh, The [Laws A15]

DESCRIPTION: "On Shiloh's dark and bloody ground The dead and wounded lay. Amid them was a drummer boy Who beat the drum that day." One of the many Federal casualties at Shiloh was a young drummer boy. He is mourned and buried by older survivors.
AUTHOR: Will S. Hays
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (sheet music published by D. P. Faulds)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar death youth
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 6-7, 1862 - Battle of Shiloh. The army of U.S. Grant is forced back but, reinforced by Buell, beats off the army of A.S. Johnston. Johnston is killed. Both sides suffer heavy casualties (Shiloh was the first battle to show how bloody the Civil War would be)
FOUND IN: US(Ap,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws A15, "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh"
Randolph 239, "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 230, "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" (1 text plus two excerpts, one of which approximates the whole song)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 58, pp. 96-97, "The Drummer Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #150, "The Drummer Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 140-142, "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 270, "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" (1 text)
DT 364, DRUMRBOY*
Roud #773
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Vicksburg" (lyrics)
cf. "World War I Song" (derived from this song)
cf. "The Battle of Shiloh" [Laws A10] and references there (subject of the Battle of Shiloh)
NOTES [246 words]: There being no canned music in Civil War times, the musicians had to stay fairly close to the front lines, and drummer boys were periodically killed. Chances are that several were killed at Shiloh. Steven E. Woodworth's Nothing But Victory: The Army of the Tennessee 1861-1865 (Vintage Civil War Library, 2005), p. 162, reports one instance: "Young drummer Jese Nelson was in the act of firing a rifle when he was shot through the head and killed." No doubt a similar report helped inspire this song.
According to E. Lawrence Abel, Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861-1865, Stackpole, 2000, pp. 201-202, "The song's cover page was as evocative as the song. The scene is the aftermath of the battle. The dying drummer boy is on his knees, hands clasped together in prayer, supported by a kneeling soldier. To his left, a distraught soldier has covered his face with his right hand. Three other soldiers are to his right. One is dead. Another, wounded, is looking mournfully at the dying boy. A third has his head buried in his hand in grief...." Abel shows a copy of this cover, although too small to see the details. On p. 203 Abel shows the southern version of the sheet music, with a much less effective drawing; it also deliberately omits the name of composer Will S. Hays and dedicates the piece to Harry Macarthy (author of "The Bonnie Blue Flag").
This is somewhat ironic, given that Hays was "a Southerner by upbringing" (Abel, p. 202). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LA15

Drummer Boy of Waterloo, The [Laws J1]

DESCRIPTION: Young (Edwin) is leaving home to serve as a drummer boy at Waterloo. Though his mother is terrified for him, the lad knows no fear. But at Waterloo he is fatally wounded; he sends a dying message to his mother and is buried by moonlight on the battlefield
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(995))
KEYWORDS: war death burial mother youth
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar) Britain Ireland
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Laws J1, "The Drummer Boy of Waterloo"
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 58, "The Drummer Boy of Waterloo" (1 text plus 2 short fragments perhaps of this song, 3 tunes)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 12, "The Drummer Boy" (1 text)
Randolph 82, "Young Edward" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 62, "The Drummer Boy of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 77-78, "The Drummer Boy of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 65-66, "The Drummer Boy of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 10, "The Drummer Boy of Waterloo" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 31, "The Drummer Boy of Waterloo" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, p. 202, "Drummer Boy of Waterloo" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 82, "The Drummer Boy of Waterloo" ( text)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 155-156, "The Drummer Boy of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H728, p. 88, "The Drummer Boy of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 123, "The Drummer Boy of Waterloo" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #151, "The Drummer Boy Edwin of Waterloo" (1 fragment, probably this although it's too short to be certain)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 70, "Drummer Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #530, p. 35, "Drummer Boy of Waterloo" (6 references)
DT 389, YOUNGED*
Roud #1804
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(995), "Drummer Boy of Waterloo," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.14(303), Firth c.14(304), Firth b.25(540), Firth b.25(431), Johnson Ballads 1170, "Drummer Boy of Waterloo"; Harding B 15(89b), "Drummerboy of Waterloo"
LOCSinging, sb10084a, "Drummer Boy of Waterloo," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also as103200, as103210, "Drummer Boy of Waterloo"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Woodland Mary" (tune, per Forget-Me-Not-Songster)
SAME TUNE:
Woodland Mary (per broadsides LOCSinging sb10084a, LOCSinging as103200, Bodleian Harding B 11(995))
NOTES [33 words]: Broadside LOCSinging sb10019b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: LJ01

Drummer Maid, The

See The Soldier Maid (File: DTsoldma)

Drummer, The

See Kind Fortune (File: KaNew074)

Drummond's Land

See David's Flowery Vale (File: HHH212)

Drums Beat to Order, The

DESCRIPTION: "The drums beat to order and the Queen she wants men And I'll go to the war, should I never return." Farewell Rhynie [Aberdeenshire]. The singer will think of the girl he left behind. When the war is over he'll return to her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: love war separation return Scotland soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 100, "The Drums Beat to Order" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5788
NOTES [44 words]: It is interesting to ask whether the Queen in this song is Anne, in which case the wars are probably in the Low Countries, or Victoria, in which case the Wars are probably in the Crimea or Asia. But Grieg's seems to be the only version, so evidence is lacking - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1100

Drunk Husband, The

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Drunk Last Night

DESCRIPTION: "Drunk last night, drunk the night before, Gonna get drunk tonight like I've never been drunk before. For when I'm drunk I'm as happy as can be, For I am a member of the Souse family." The singer calls for beer and is glad that there are few to drink it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Silber)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 235, "Drunk Last Night" (1 text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 25, "One More Drink for the Four of Us" (1 text)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 18, "Drunk Last Night" (1 text, 1 tune, adapted to World War II use)
Roud #10531
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Was Drunk Last Night" (initial line)
cf. "Bombed Last Night" (tune, according to Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
File: FSWB235

Drunk Last Night

See I Was Drunk Last Night (File: R407)

Drunk Man Blues

See Good Mornin', Blues (File: LoF311)

Drunk Mason, The

DESCRIPTION: A mason decides to see a drunk mason safely home at night. They see the light of a man stealing grain; the sober mason says it is Old Nick coming for the drunk who runs for safety to a tavern. He is refused, causes a commotion, and everyone else laughs.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous thief Devil food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 574, "The Drunk Mason" (1 text)
Roud #6040
File: GrD3574

Drunk on the Way

See Rantin', Roarin', Drunk on the Way (File: Be065)

Drunkard (I), The

See Drunkard's Doom (I), The (File: R306)

Drunkard and His Daughter, or Please Mr. Barkeeper

DESCRIPTION: "Please, Mr. Barkeeper, has father been here?" The bartender tells the girl her father is in jail. At the jail,she begs for his release. They tell her to go home. She refuses. Because she is so cold, they release her father. He stops drinking
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Cambiaire)
KEYWORDS: prison father children drink promise
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 123-124, "The Drunkard and His Daughter, or Please Mr. Barkeeper" (1 text)
NOTES [59 words]: Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads claims this is a true story about a mountaineer whose pretty 13-year-old daughter begged for his release. He also claims the song remained popular for fifty years in East Tennessee. I rather wonder if Cambiaire didn't write the poem himself, no doubt thinking of the pretty young girl all the while. - RBW.
File: Camb123

Drunkard Blues

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Drunkard Father, The

See Father, Dear Father, Come Home with Me Now (File: R308)

Drunkard Is No More, The

See Drunkard's Doom (I), The (File: R306)

Drunkard John

DESCRIPTION: "You might have lit a lamp upon The fiery nose of Drunkard John." He stays out so late that the fire goes out at home. His wife says she will lock him out if he does not reform. She fulfills her threat; he pretends to drown in the well; she relents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: drink husband wife trick fight
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, ppp. 170-172, "Drunkard John" (1 text)
Roud #9551
File: SBar170

Drunkard Song

DESCRIPTION: "When I was young I had a fortune... And spent it al in gambling One night when I was drunk." The singer goes to India, and gets drunk. He marries and loses a wife and gets drunk. He becomes ill; the doctor blames it on drink. He warns against drink
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Henry, from Mabel Hall)
KEYWORDS: drink gambling wife warning doctor
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 114-115, "Drunkard Song" (1 text)
File: MHAp113

Drunkard's Child (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, father, do not ask me why the tears roll down my cheek... It breaks my heart to think that I must be a drunkard's child." The child recalls how much better things were when mother was alive and father was sober. (S)he asks father to turn to God
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Henry Whitter)
KEYWORDS: drink orphan mother father death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 331, "The Drunkard's Child" (1 text)
Roud #7803
RECORDINGS:
Frank J. Smith, "The Drunkard's Child" (Columbia 15137-D, 1927; rec. 1926)
Henry Whitter's Virginia Breakdowners, "The Drunkard's Child" (OKeh 40169, 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drunkard's Lone Child" (plot)
File: R331

Drunkard's Child (II), The

See The Drunkard's Lone Child (File: R309)

Drunkard's Child (III), The

DESCRIPTION: "In an old dusty attic of a tenement house" the singer finds "a drunkard's poor little boy" hiding among the rafters and the wood shavings. Father beat him The singer promises to return, but before he does, the boy is dead, leaving a note about Jesus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Roberts/Agey-InThePine)
KEYWORDS: drink orphan mother father death abuse Jesus | attic picture letter
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #76, "The Drunkard's Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [60 words]: This would probably be more effective if it hadn't tried so dang hard to be pathetic. The picture of mother and the letter to Jesus at the end are a bit much. And... why was the singer prowling around in someone else's attic, anyway? The idea of a child fleeing an abusive drunken father is far too real, as we know, but this just doesn't make much sense. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RAInPi76

Drunkard's Confession, The

See The Drunkard's Hell (File: R313)

Drunkard's Courtship, The

See The Courting Case (File: R361)

Drunkard's Doom (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a man at a bar or "grog shop door". His son begs him to come home; his wife is ill and his children starving. The drunkard instead takes another drink. A year later, the singer learns the drunkard is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: drink death funeral
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 468-469, "The Drunkard's Doom" (1 text)
Randolph 306, "The Drunkard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 58, "Drunkard's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 142, "Temperance Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 21, "The Drunkard's Doom" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 21, "The Drunkard's Doom" (1 tune plus an excerpt of text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 82, "Drunkard's Doom"; 83, "A Drunkard's Warning" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 104-105, "The Drunkard's Doom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #109, "The Drunkard Is No More" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 174-175, "The Drunkard's Doom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 131, "Temperance Song" (1 text)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #31A-B, pp. 203-206, "Temperance Song," "The Drunkard" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 122, "The Drunkard's Doom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 84, "The Grog Shop Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 357-358, "The Drunkard's Doom" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 265, "The Drunkard's Doom" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 478, "The Drunkard's Doom" (source notes only)
ST R306 (Partial)
Roud #3113
RECORDINGS:
Ted Chestnut, "The Drunkard's Doom" (Gennett 6638 [as Ted Chesnut]/Challenge 422 [as Oliver Moore], 1928)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "I Saw a Man at the Close of Day" (Victor V-40324, 1929; on GraysonWhitter01)
Doc Watson & Fred Price, "I Saw a Man at the Close of Day" (on WatsonAshley01)
NOTES [60 words]: The Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl texts are rather complicated, not fitting exactly with any of the various drunkard songs, and not matching each other either. It may be that the second has become mixed. I file them here because they fit best and they probably aren't worth separate entries; there is too much cross-influence. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: R306

Drunkard's Doom (II)

See The Drunkard's Dream (I) (File: R307)

Drunkard's Dream (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets (Dermot) and expresses surprise at how healthy and prosperous he looks. Dermot explains that he had had a dream which showed him the consequences of his actions. Awakening in relief, Dermot has reformed his ways
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1842 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(31))
KEYWORDS: dream drink love promise wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Newf,Ont) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 469-470, "The Drunkard's Dream" (1 text)
Randolph 307, "The Drunkard's Dream" (2 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 254-256, "The Drunkard's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 307A)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 101, "The Drunkard's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 242-247, "The Drunkard's Dream" (2 texts, 2 tunes, plus a sheet music reprint)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 129, "The Drunkard's Dream" (2 texts)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #120, "Drunkard's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 22, "The Drunkar's Dream (I)" (1 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 22, "The Drunkard's Dream (I)" (2 tunes plus textual excerpts)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 41, "The Drunkard's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 71, pp, 118-118, "The Drunkard's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 366-372, "The Drunkard's Dream" (4 texts; 3 tunes on pp. 455-456)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #107, "The Drunkard's Dream" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 73, "The Drunkard's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 42, "The Drunkard's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, p. 193, "The Drunkard's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 67, "The Husband's Dream" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 595, "Husband's Dream" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 202-203, "(Samuel, You Look Healthy Now)" (1 text, based on this but modified by informant "Blind Sam" Taylor to describe his own circumstances)
DT, DRUNKDRM*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 210-211, "The Drunkard's Dream" (1 text)
Roud #722
RECORDINGS:
Morgan Denmon, "Drunkard's Dream" (OKeh 45327, 1929)
Betty Garland, "Drunkards Dream" (on BGarland01)
Frank McFarland, "Drunkard's Dream" (Brunswick 203, 1928; Supertone S-2027 [as Kentucky Mountain Boys], 1930; rec. 1927)
Charlie Oaks, "The Drunkard's Dream" (Vocalion 15195, 1926)
Riley Puckett, "The Drunkard's Dream" (Columbia 15035-D, 1925)
Jim Rice, "The Drunkard's Dream" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(31), "The Husband's Dream", Birt (London), 1833-1841; also Harding B 11(3168), Firth c.22(81), Harding B 18(264), Harding B 18(265), Johnson Ballads 552, Harding B 11(1609), Harding B 11(1608), "The Husband's Dream"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drunkard's Wife's Dream" (sequel of sorts)
NOTES [246 words]: This song seems to have followed different paths on different sides of the Atlantic: In the U. S., it is "The Drunkard's Dream"; in Europe, "The Husband's Dream." But both versions are about drunken Dermot and his dream; while odds are that one version or the other was reworked in broadsides, I say they're the same song. - RBW
Is this a sequel to "The Wife's Dream" or is that, if it exists, just a prequel to "The Husband's Dream?"
In "The Wife's Dream" Mary explains her happy disposition though married to a drunkard by a dream she had: having wished her husband dead, she dreamed that he were and was happy at waking to find him alive but unreformed. She hopes "by patience I can change, my husband's wandering life" and then she'd "bless the hour that dream was sent to his neglected wife."
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3669), "The Wife's Dream", Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Firth b.27(135), Harding B 15(375a), Firth c.26(53), Harding B 11(4203), Harding B 11(4207), Harding B 11(4208), Harding B 11(4205), Harding B 18(745), Firth b.26(253), "The Wife's Dream"; Harding B 11(4206), "Wife's Dream!"
There is another "Answer to the 'Wife's Dream'": "The Drunkard Reformed" in which Dermot was about to murder Kathleen in a jealous drunken rage, but is saved in time by her prayer:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3249), "The Reformed Rake", E. Hodge's (London), 1846-1854; also Firth b.26(205), Harding B 11(996), Harding B 11(997), Harding B 17(79a), "The Drunkard Reformed" - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R307

Drunkard's Dream (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "The drunkard dreamed of his old retreat, Of his cozy spot in the taproom seat." As he carouses, "Like a crash there came to the drunkard's side His angel child who that night had died." The drunkard sets down the glass; the host asks why he hesitates.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink death father children
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 23, "The Drunkard's Dream (II)" (1 text)
Roud #7856
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Father, Dear Father, Come Home with Me Now" (theme) and references there
File: Br3023

Drunkard's Dream (III)

See Meet Me Over There (File: BrS5756)

Drunkard's Hell, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a drunkard, has a vision of the part of hell to which drinkers are sent. The vision is enough to scare him away from drink. He goes home to find his wife crying over their child's body. He says the child is in heaven, and that he will sober up
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: drink children death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 20, "The Drunkard's Hell" (2 text plus an excerpt and a fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 20, "The Drunkard's Hell" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Randolph 313, "The Drunkard's Hell" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 265-266, "The Drunkard's Hell" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 313A)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 19, "The Drunkerds Hell" (sic.) (1 text)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 110, "The Drunkard's Hell" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 2-3, "The Drunkard's Confession" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 104-105, "The Drunkard's Hell" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 16-17, "(The Drunkard's Hell)" (1 text)
DT, DRNKHELL*
Roud #721
RECORDINGS:
Wade Mainer, "The Poor Drunkard's Dream" (Bluebird B-8273, 1940)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dark and Stormy Night
File: R313

Drunkard's Hiccoughs (Drunken Hiccups)

DESCRIPTION: Fiddle tune, with words often assembled from other drinking songs. The singer describes his quest for a drink, a woman, a home, directions, or perhaps the ability to stand up straight. Typical chorus: "Hiccup! O Lordy, how queasy I feel (x2)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (W. R. Thomas)
KEYWORDS: drink fiddle nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 404, "The Drunkard's Hiccoughs" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 343-344, "The Drunkard's Hiccoughs" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 404A)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 54-55, "Drunken Hiccoughs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7682
File: R404

Drunkard's Hiccups

See Rye Whisky (File: R405)

Drunkard's Home, The

DESCRIPTION: "No sun shines bright, no smiling face, No loving words to cheer and bless, But only woe and deep distress, No peace, no joy or songs of love, To [???] above, But is there and woe and gloom, Within the wretched drunkard's home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: drink home
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 663, "The Drunkard's Home" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
NOTES [42 words]: I wouldn't be surprised if this is a fragment of another drunkard song (perhaps a "Drunkard's Doom," not a "Drunkard's Home") -- but with less than a complete stanza in the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 text, I can't identify it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5663

Drunkard's Horse, The

DESCRIPTION: Conversation between a man and his horse. The man beats the horse; the horse tells the man to leave him alone, as the beast is just doing its job. (They continue on their round of taverns)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: animal horse drink
FOUND IN: US(Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 160, "The Horse's Complaint" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 318, "The Drunkard's Horse" (2 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 269-270, "The Drunkard's Horse" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 318A)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #192, "The Old Gray" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 161, "The Old Gray Horse" (1 text)
Roud #2799
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Barefooted in front and no shoes on behind" (AFS 4209 B3, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
NOTES [35 words]: I can't help but think that this story was influenced by the Biblical account of Baalam's Ass (Numbers 22:22-35), which also has a beast of burden talking back to its owner after the owner beat the beast. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: R318

Drunkard's Lament, The

See The Drunkard's Wife (II) (File: Fus137)

Drunkard's Legacy, The

DESCRIPTION: A dying father has his drinking son make a deathbed promise that involves a trick: when the son has lost everything and is desperate enough to commit suicide, it will provide him the means to win back his land and convince him to stay sober.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1765 (according to Percy); 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A father builds a cottage on "a waste plot" as part of a plan to save his drinking son from ruin. On his deathbed he makes his son promise that -- when he has lost all his friends, money and other land -- he will go to that cottage "to find something thy grief to end." The son loses everything, pawns his land for little price to a tavern-owner, and spends that money as well. "Then [he] thought it was high time for he his father's legacy to see." He goes to the cottage hoping to find money but finds "a gibbet and a rope" instead. He decides his father was showing him his only way out, prays God for forgiveness, puts the rope around his neck and jumps. The gibbet breaks and one thousand pounds in gold falls around him. He blesses his father and swears never to drink again. He returns to the tavern, challenges the owner who would kick him out but says, in jest, that he would return the drunkard's land for 100 pounds the next day. The drunkard insists the tavern owner put his offer in writing. The next day he returns, with a witness, pays the fee and claims his land. The tavern owner, fearing his customers will laugh at his foolishness, commits suicide. The ex-drunkard "lives sober and [does] his lands possess, and warns others against drunkenness."
KEYWORDS: money gambling drink poverty bargaining promise trick death suicide gold father
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 267 Appendix, "The Drunkard's Legacy (1 text)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #21, pp. 151-159, "The Drunkard's Legacy" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 320-326, "The Drunkard's Legacy" (1 text)
Roud #V3745
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Heir of Linne" (II) (derived from this song)
NOTES [213 words]: The only reason I have for including this song in the Index is that Percy used it as a source for completing his version of "The Heir of Linne" [see "The Heir of Linne" (II)]. Percy described it as "a modern" ballad when he was writing in 1765. We have Dixon's text "taken from an old chap-book, without date or printer's name," and Child's slightly different text "from a Broadside among Percy's Papers" with the imprint "Printed and sold in Bow-Church-Yard, London."
Also see John Ashton, Chap-Books of the Eighteenth Century (Chatto and Windus: Picadilly, 1882 ("Digitized by Lyrasis")) pp. 455-457 for the heading and woodcuts from "The Drunkard's Legacy" chapbook "Printed by Dicey and Co. in Aldermary Church Yard." Unfortunately Ashton does not print the text: "As the title is so voluminous and exhaustive, it is unnecessary to reproduce any of the text." Nevertheless, it is clear from the title, that this is our song. "St Mary Aldermary is an Anglican church in Bow Lane in the City of London" [Wikipedia, "St Mary Aldermary," accessed 15 Dec 2013] and "Bow Church is the parish church of St Mary and Holy Trinity, Stratford, Bow.[1] It is located on an island site in Bow Road" [Wikipedia, "Bow Church"]; both imprints were used by the Diceys after 1736. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: C267App

Drunkard's Lone Child, The

DESCRIPTION: "Out in the gloomy night sadly I roam, No one to love me, no friends and no home, Nobody cares for me, no one would cry Even if poor little Bessie should die." Bessie is alone: "Father's a drunkard and mother is dead." She hopes father will sober up
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink orphan children mother father death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Randolph 309, "The Drunkard's Lone Child" (4 texts plus an excerpt, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 257-259, "The Drunkard's Lone Child" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 309A)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 27, "It's Spring Time on Earth" (1 text, with many key lines and the name of the child lost)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 25, "The Drunkard's Lone Child" (1 text plus a fragment and mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 25, "The Drunkard's Lone Child" (1 tune plus an excerpt of text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 97, pp. 122-123, "The Drunkard's Lone Child" (1 text plus a fragment); 98, pp. 123-124, "The Drunkard's Lone Child" (2 texts)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 259-260, "The Drunkard's Lone Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #105, "The Drunkard's Child" (1 text, 1 tune); #106, "The Drunkard's Lone Child" (1 text, which is clearly not this song but which does not have enough sufficient information to identify, so we file it here based on the title until it can be identified)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 191-192, "The Drunkard's Lone Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #534, p. 36, "The Drunkard's Lone Child" (1 references
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 477, "Bessie, the Drunkard's Lone Child" (source notes only)
DT, DRNKCHLD* DRNKCHL2*
Roud #723
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "Drunkard's Lone Child" (on Boggs1, BoggsCD1)
Walter Coon, "Father's a Drunkard and Mother is Dead" (Conqueror 7271, 1929)
Arthur Fields, "The Drunkard's Lone Child" (Grey Gull 4200/Radiex 4200, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Beggar Boy" (lyrics)
cf. "The Drunkard's Child (I)" (plot)
cf. "Father, Dear Father, Come Home with Me Now" (theme) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Song Ballet of a Drunkard's Child
NOTES [100 words]: Cohen, in his edition of Randolph, has extensive notes on thie origin of this song; they boil down to, "Something is fishy here."
Although the earliest firm date I can give for this is Brown's, Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 36, lists a broadside of this by De Marsan, which dates it firmly in the nineteenth century.
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa lists his four texts as belonging to two different songs, and he may well be right, but the plots are identical; it would be very hard to disentangle them. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: R309

Drunkard's Ragged Wean, The

DESCRIPTION: "A wee bit ragged laddie gaes wandering through the street, Wading mong the snow Wi' his wee bit hacket feet... he's the drunkard's ragged wee ane. The poor child is poor, ill-clothed, ill-fed, and unable to play with other children. The singer urges pity
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: drink children poverty hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #32, pp. 207-208, "The Drunkard's Ragged Wee Ane" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CoxIIB32 (Partial)
Roud #3112
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(212), "The Drunkard's Raggit Wean," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890; same broadside as LC.Fol.70(97a); also RB.n.168(150), "The Drunkard's Raggit Wean," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 1847-1907
NOTES [70 words]: Although collected in California (apparently the only American collection), Cox's text is of Scottish origin (as the dialect shows). My guess, looking at it, was that it began life as a Scottish broadside, and the NLScotland texts seem to confirm this.
NLScotland also has a broadside sequel, NLScotland, LC.Fol.178.A.2(018), "The Reformed Drunkard, An Answer to the Raggit Wean," Robert McIntosh (Glasgow), 1849(?). - RBW
File: CoxIIB32

Drunkard's Ragged Wee Ane, The

See The Drunkard's Ragged Wean (File: CoxIIB32)

Drunkard's Song (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I have traveled over these foreign countries, Into a broad and distant range, I give advice to you thoughtless husbands." A drunkard works, spends his wages on drink, beats his children; his wife and children flee into the cold and die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: drink children river drowning suicide death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 123, "Drunkard's Song" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 130-131)
NOTES [21 words]: Thomas's notes seem to state that this song was by Jimmie Mutters, the singer. It however appears to be a more generic song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa123

Drunkard's Song (II)

See Drunkard's Doom (I), The (File: R306)

Drunkard's Special

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Drunkard's Story, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer started out a successful businessman, happily married. But then, despite his wife's pleadings, he took to drinking. In time this used up all his money, and his family wound up in the street. Now even saloon keepers scorn the man who cannot pay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: drink poverty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randoph 324, "The Drunkard's Story" (1 text)
Roud #7798
File: R324

Drunkard's Warning, A

See The Drunkard's Doom (I) (File: R306)

Drunkard's Wife (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The drunkard's widow warns young girls against marrying a drunk. Her marriage has turned her old. She describes the symptoms of a drunk, and tells how her husband killed their children, then himself, and left a drunkard son
AUTHOR: Words: M. W. Knapp/Music: L. L. Pickett
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (songbook known to Randolph)
KEYWORDS: drink marriage husband wife children homicide
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 332, "The Drunkard's Wife" (1 text)
Roud #7804
File: R332

Drunkard's Wife (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Don't go out tonight, my darling, Do not leave me here alone, Stay at home with me, my darling, For I'm lonely while you're gone." The wife's pleas fail; he sets out for the bar; later, "They have brought me back my darlin, Dead he lies upon the floor!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: drink husband wife death
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 137, "The Drunkard's Wife" (1 text)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 261-262, "The Drunkard's Wife" (1 text)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 242-243, "The Drunkard's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Fus137 (Partial)
Roud #4286
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Don't Go Out Tonight
File: Fus137

Drunkard's Wife's Dream, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Mary, tell me how it is you always look so gay" despite having a drunkard for a husband. Mary reports that she wished her husband dead, then had a dream of him dying. This is so frightening that it causes her to act happy wharever her husband does
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: dream drink family
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #108, "The Drunkard's Wife's Dream" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10918
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drunkard's Dream (I)" (inspiration for this song)
NOTES [15 words]: One wonders who created the propaganda department for drunks that produced this song.... - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: Hubb108

Drunkards of Bonanza, The

DESCRIPTION: "In ancient days there came to pass Two men who drove a horse and ass, They came to mine, but alas, alas, The spread about Bonanza." Thereafter, the bummers and the topers come and have strange adventures
AUTHOR: Hyrum Leany (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: drink moniker
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 120-122, "The Drunkards of Bonanza" (1 text)
Roud #10853
File: ChMS120

Drunken Captain (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "A fierce stporm raged and black winds blew, The captain said, 'I'll change the crew.'" The new "sailors" "had some booklore, But never had left their home shore." Veterans warn him to seek harbor. People jump overboard; the Captain says all are safe
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Cambiaire)
KEYWORDS: drink ship storm
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 106, "The Drunken Captain" (1 text)
Roud #12639
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Canso Straight" (subject)
NOTES [82 words]: I thought very seriously about filing this with "Canso Straight," which is also about a drunken captain who tries to fight through a gale against the crew's advice. Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads's text (which seems to be unique) can be sung to the "Canso Straight" tune. I would not be surprised if they were in fact the same. But this has details not typically found in "Canso Straight," and it lacks the crew's rebellion. So I, like Roud, very tentatively split them. - RBW
File: Camb106

Drunken Captain (II), The

See Canso Strait (File: Doe183)

Drunken Driver

DESCRIPTION: Two little children are struck and killed by a drunken driver; he turns out to be their absent father. Listeners are warned not to drink and drive.
AUTHOR: "Banjo Bill" Cornett
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (recording, Molly O'Day)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer warns drunken drivers that they'll never know when their time will come, says s/he has seen an accident that would teach offenders never to "drink a drop/while the steering wheel's in your hand." The accident, on 20 May, killed two "loving children." Their mother has died; their father has run away. They are talking when a car driven by a drunk man comes around the curve; the driver honks his horn, saying, "Get out of the road, you two little fools." The driver staggers from the car and recognizes the dying little boy as his son. He prays for forgiveness; the boy opens his eyes, saying, "Daddy, you've come once more." Listeners are warned not to drink and drive.
KEYWORDS: grief warning abandonment crime death drink crash injury father mother children
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #6982
RECORDINGS:
Dillard Chandler, "Drunken Driver" (on Chandler01, DarkHoll)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Drunken Driver" (on NLCR8)
Molly O'Day, "The Drunken Driver" (Columbia 37938, 1947)
File: RcDruDri

Drunken Fool, The

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Drunken Hiccoughs

See Drunkard's Hiccoughs (Drunken Hiccups) (File: R404)

Drunken Hiccups

See Rye Whisky (File: R405)

Drunken Maidens

DESCRIPTION: (Three/four drunken maidens) come to a tavern and go on a spree. After eating and drinking for hours/days, they run up a tally of (40 pounds). They are forced to give up clothes and riches (and maidenheads?)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1750 (Charming Phyllis's Garland); 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: drink party poverty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 240-242, "The Four Drunken Maidens" (1 text)
Kinloch-TheBalladBook VIII, p. 30, (no title) (1 text, a 3-stanza fragment but almost certainly this piece)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 108-110, "Three Drunken Maidens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #94, "The Drunken Maidens" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DRNKMAID* FRDNKMD*
ADDITIONAL: Charming Phyllis's Garland, (British Library), p. 8, "The Four Drunken Maidens" (1 text)
John McColl MSS. (National Library of Ireland), 255, "The Three English Fair Maids" (1 text)
ST Log240 (Full)
Roud #252
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Four Drunken Maidens" (on Lloyd2, Lloyd5), "The Drunken Maidens" (on Lloyd12)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Three Drunken Maidens
Four Drunken Maidens
The Three English Fair Maids
NOTES [107 words]: I believe that there is another version to be discovered in print between the 1750 garland and Logan-APedlarsPack's version.
None of the earlier versions mention maidenheads. This is an "improvement" by Bert Lloyd. The "original" version in Charming Phyllis's Garland contains a fourth verse that would be unprintable even today, but they paid for the drink with their clothes, since it seems that they were not strangers to the sexual act.
There are many more recordings than [are] listed -- most, like Bert Lloyd's, based on Baring-Gould's collected version. Only one other tune has been discovered, by Francis Collinson in the 1850s. - MG
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Log240

Drunken Sailor, The (Early in the Morning)

DESCRIPTION: Walkaway (stamp and go) shanty. The sailors ask, "What shall we do with the drunken sailor (x3), Early in the morning. Way, hey, and up she rises (x3), Early in the morning." Various suggestions are offered, few of them pleasant.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1841
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor drink punishment
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,SE) Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (26 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, p. 85=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, p. 233, "Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 48, "The Drunken Sailor, or Early in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 70-71, "The Drunken Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 241, "The Drunken Sailor" (1 text)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 61-62, "Early in the Morning" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 783, "What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 36, "What You Going To Do With a Drunken Sailor" (1 text)
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 40-41, "Early in th' Morning" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 78, "The Drunken Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 25-26, "The Drunken Sailor (Up She Rises)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 134-135, "Drunken Sailor" (2 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 109-110]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 170, "Drunken Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 76-77, "What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, VII, p. 8, "Drunken Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 257, "Up She Rises" (1 short text, 1 tune, a playparty which retains only the chorus and a variant of the tune with "Drunken Sailor")
Greig/Duncan1 4, "The Drunken Sailor" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #14, "What shall we do with the drunken sailor?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 129, "Drunken Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 176, "The Drunken Sailor"(1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 92, "What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 28-29, "The Drunken Sailor (What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor?)" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 205-206, "Drunken Sailor (Monkey's Wedding -- John Brown Had a Little Injun -- Ten Little Injuns)"
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Edwin F. Piper, "Some Play-Party Games of the Middle West," Vol. XXVIII, No. 109 (Jul 1915), #19 p. 277 "Sailor" ("What shall we do with the drunken sailor?") (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 107, 249, "What Do We Do With a Drunken Sailor"/"Drunken Sailor" (notes only)
DT, DRNKSILR
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, p. 121, "The Drunken Sailor, or, Up She Rises" (1 text)
Roud #322
RECORDINGS:
Cadgwith Fishermen, "What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor?" (on LastDays)
Richard Maitland, "The Drunken Sailor" (AFS, 1936; on LC26)
Pete Seeger, "What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor?" (on PeteSeeger31)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maria"
cf. "Ten Little Indians (John Brown Had a Little Indian)" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "The Mustering Song" (tune & meter)
cf. "I Had a Wife" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Raleigh Song (File: Tawn037)
What Shall We Do for the Striking Seamen? (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 233-234)
What Do You Do with a Dirty Family? (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 231)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hooray an' Up She Rises"
Up She Rises
NOTES [138 words]: A modern verse: "Put him in charge of an Exxon tanker..." - PJS
Bone-CapstanBars says of this that it "must be of fairly recent date, for only in a comparatively large ship could there be room on deck for 'walking' a light sail aloft, the operation at which [this] was generally used. It was not a chanty often sung. I remember it chiefly as a showy accompaniment when all hands were employed on deck and there was an atmosphere of good humour with us." - RBW
Emrich has "What're ya gonna do with a drunken miner," (3x) "Early in the morning?" "Put him in a long hole till he's cooler" (3x) "Early in the morning" from Utah. (source: Duncan Emrich, "Songs of the Western Miners" in California Folklore Quarterly, Vol. I, No. 3 (Jul 1942 (available online by JSTOR)), pp.230-231, "What're Ye Gonna Do with a Drunken Miner?"). - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Doe048

Drunken Spree

See Late Last Night When Willie Came Home (Way Downtown) (File: CSW166)

Drunken Tarlan' Crew, The

DESCRIPTION: "O the drunken Tarlan' crew First they drink and then they spew"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1889, "The Drunken Tarlan' Crew" (1 fragment)
Roud #13566
NOTES [110 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
The Greig/Duncan8 note confuses me enough that I'll repeat most of it in hope it may help someone track down a more complete text or date what we have: .".. [Black Jock, apparently a tailor rather than the 1715 Jacobite, John Forbes, Baillie for the Earl of Mar [see. p. 417]] landed at Tarland and in some way the inhabitants took offence and gathered with threats round the inn. Black Jock took the double barrels from his gun went out and faced them and sang 'The Drunken Tarlan' Crew' till they danced with rage but feared to touch him." Tarland is about 30 miles west of Aberdeen, Scotland. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81889

Drunkerds Hell, The

See The Drunkard's Hell (File: R313)

Dry Bones (I)

See I Saw the Light from Heaven (Dry Bones (I)) (File: RcISTLFH)

Dry Landers, The

See The Cowboy's Farewell (File: PRJ022)

Dry Weather Houses

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: "Dry weather houses are not worth a cent and yet we have to pay so much for rent." When it rains the roof is like a sieve. The rooms are infested by scorpions and cockroaches and are so small you have to go outside to turn around.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (WILBennett01)
KEYWORDS: accusation commerce hardtimes humorous nonballad landlord bug
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
RECORDINGS:
Louise Bennett, "Dry Weather Houses" (on WILBennett01)
Hubert Porter with George Moxey and his Calypso Quintert, "Dry Weather House" (2004, on "Mento Madness, Motta's Jamaican Mento: 1951-56," V2 Music Ltd CD 63881-27201-2)
File: RcDryWeH

Drygate Brig, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes to an inn and passes snuff around; "ilk ane quite forget himsel'" He leaves high without his hat. Passing Drygate Brig his wig is lost in the wind and his snuff is spilt. Now he prefers drink which has the same high but crashes quickly
AUTHOR: Alexander Rodger (1784-1846)
EARLIEST DATE: 1838 (Alexander Rodger, _Poems and Songs_)
KEYWORDS: drink drugs humorous clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #162, p. 2, "The Drygate Brig" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 575, "The Drygate Brig" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 173-174, "The Drygate Brig" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Rodger, Poems and Songs (Glasgow, 1838), pp. 279-282, "The Drygate Brig"
Whistle-Binkie, (Glasgow, 1878), Vol II, pp. 246-248, "The Drygate Brig"
Roud #6039
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Sheriffmuir" (tune, per Greig)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mirren Gibb's
File: GrD3575

Drynaun Dun, The

See The Drinaun Dun (An Draighnean Donn, The Blackthorn Tree) (File: HHH206)

Du Dah Day

DESCRIPTION: "Our bishop's name is Chauncey West, Du dah! Du dah day! He goes ahead and does his best, Du day! du day day! I our Lord will serve today, And our prophet Brigham will be... We'll mind what Brigham say." "If you want to ride the Mormon car...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: clergy servant
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah,#237, "Du Dah Day" (1 short text)
Roud #10838
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Camptown Races" (tune) and references there
cf. "Du Dah Mormon Song" (another Mormon song with this tune)
NOTES [40 words]: This is minor enough that Roud lumps it with "The Du Dah Mormon Song." This strikes me as possible -- they use the same tune and are about Mormon history -- but they are not really about the same event, and the Ballad Index splits.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hubb237

Du Dah Mormon Song, The

DESCRIPTION: Clearly to the tune of "Camptown Races": "Seven hundred wagons are on the way, Du dah! Their cattle are many, so they say, Du dah! Du dah day!" Uncle Same is sending a "Missouri ass" to govern Utah. The Mormons will defeat the invader Harney
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Stenhouse, The Rocky Mountain Saints, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: derivative war | Mormon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1857 - Mounting of the Mormon Expedition/Mormon War/Utah War
1880-1889 - Life of William S. Harney, who was the original commander of the Mormon Expedition but was later replaced by Albert Sidney Johnston
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah,#236, "The Du Dah Mormon Song" (1 text)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 84-86, "Doo Dah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 261-262, "(There's seven hundred wagons on the way)" (1 text, tune referenced)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 230-231, "The Mormon Du Dah Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10838
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Camptown Races" (tune) and references there
cf. "Du Dah Day" (another Mormon song with this tune)
NOTES [84 words]: The reference to General Harney as a "squaw-killer" is a reference to his victory over the Dakota Indians at the battle of Sand Hill. His mention in this song is surprising; his involvement in the Utah expedition was so brief that his Dictionary of American Bioigraphy entry doesn't even mention it.
Roud lumps this with "Du Dah Day." This strikes me as possible -- they use the same tune and are about Mormon history -- but they are not really about the same event, and the Ballad Index splits.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hubb236

Du denkscht es dut mich reien (You Think That I Regret)

DESCRIPTION: German. "Du denkscht es dut mich reien Das du mei Schetzel warscht." "You think that I regret That you aren't my sweetheart any more." But the singer does not regret it. There are equally pretty girls everywhere
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: love separation beauty
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 117-118, "Du denkscht es dut mich reien (You Think That I Regret)" (1 German text plus non-poetic English translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL117

Dubbieneuk

DESCRIPTION: "In the cauld month o' December" there is a dance at Dubbienuck. The dancers included "gardners up frae Florth," "lads frae Catchiebrae" and "lassis frae Pitblae." Ploughman Jaumie Mackie "could scarcely dance a reel" with Betty Forbes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: dancing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 622, "Dubbieneuk" (1 text)
Roud #6060
File: GrD3622

Dublin After the Union

DESCRIPTION: Pitt "the conjurer" is bringing the country to Dublin: turnips growing in the Royal Exchange, vermin in the Parliament House, .... "Give Pitt, and Dundas, and Jenky, a glass, Who'd ride on John Bull, and make Paddy an ass"
AUTHOR: Edward Lysaght (1763-1810) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1811 (according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: Ireland humorous nonballad political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1801 - Act of Union of Ireland and Great Britain
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 150, "Dublin After the Union" (1 text)
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 182-184, "Dublin After the Union" (1 text)
NOTES [613 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland quoting from Sir John Carr's Stranger in Ireland: "It was a great favourite with the anti-Unionists, and I give it with more pleasure because its poetical predictions have not been verified...." - BS
The 1801 Act of Union abolished the Dublin parliament. Follow-up reforms that Pitt hoped for were not forthcoming. [The most notable of these non-reforms being the extension of the franchise to Catholics; not only did the Act of Union deprive Ireland of her parliament, but meant that her representatives in the British parliament would be Protestant. - RBW] The song sees Dublin -- its business as capital shut down -- literally going to seed.
Henry Dundas (1742-1811) - Friend and subordinate of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger (see "Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville" at the Wikipedia site). I don't know what part he played in Union.
Jenky is, apparently, Robert Banks Jenkinson (1770-1828) (see, for example, part 12 fn 19 of Byron's Poetical Works, Vol 1 by Byron at fullbooks.com site), foreign secretary (1801) and home secretary (1804-6, 1807-9) (source: Liverpool, Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2d earl of at encyclopedia.com site). I don't know what part he played in Union.
Pitt, Dundas and Jenky appear together in other songs (see for example: About the Hastings Diamond and Its Ballad at the JJKent site; "A Gentleman's Wig" in The Pearl No. 18, Dec 1880 at the immortalia.com site)
The ass as symbol of Ireland is illustrated by "The Ass's Complaint" and explained in the notes for "The Ass and the Orangeman's Daughter." - BS
We should note that the prediction here was far from true. Union didn't do much for Ireland economically, but that didn't harm Dublin much; as the major city and shipping point to Britain, it attracted most of the people who had nothing else to do with their lives.
It is true that the people of Dublin lived in utter poverty; Kee, p. 195, writes, "The poverty and squalor of much of Dublin in the early years of the twentieth century appalled all who encountered it. A government report issued in 1914 assessed that of a Dublin population of 304,000, some 194,000, or about sixty-three percent, could be recokined 'working classes'. The majority of these working classes lived in tenement houses, almost half of them with no more than one room to each family. Thirty-seven per cent of the entire working class of Dublin lived at a density of more than six persons per roon; fourteen per cent in houses declared 'unfit for human habitation.'"
Nonetheless it was the most productive place in Ireland. And it was the only part of the country where the population grew; :Lyons, p. 101, discussing migration, says that it was "movement toward Dublin or Belfast, for apart from those two giants only a few other places (notably Londonderry) showed any remarkable or sustained growth; most of the smaller towns actually declined in numbers.". This was most clear during the famine years, though it continued until (and even after) the First World War. The population chart in Edwards, p. 233, makes this clear. It shows the percentage change in the populations of Ireland's counties between the 1841 and 1851 census tallies. The declines are often dramatic. Roscommon lost 31% of its population; Mayo, Longford, and Monaghan, 29%. Most were over 20%; the lowest figures were for Antrim, Down, and Wexford, at 11%. Except for Dublin. Ireland as a whole lost 20% of its population in this period -- but the population of the county of Dublin *rose* 9%.
The result was that the urban population of Ireland rose from one-eighth of the total population in 1851 to one-third in 1911 (Lyons, p. 101). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: Moyl150

Dublin Bay (Roy Neal)

DESCRIPTION: "They sailed away on that gallant ship, Roy Neal and his fair young bride." Despite this happy situation, Roy spends most of his time kissing his wife's tears away. Finally the ship strikes a rock, and Roy and his wife are lost in Dublin Bay.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1860 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1015))
KEYWORDS: love death ship sea marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Randolph 691, "Dublin Bay" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 324, "Dublin Bay" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 109, "Dublin Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #113, "Dublin Bay" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 128, "Dublin Bay" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 44, "Dublin Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 156, "Dublin Bay" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 561, "Dublin Bay" (1 text)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 95, "Roy Neil and His Fair Young Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 29, "Dublin Bay" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #537, p. 36, "Dublin Bay, or Roy Neill" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #7/72, p. 54 and #7/64, p. 54, "Roy Neill" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 478, "Dublin Bay" (source notes only)
DT, SWTDUBLN
Roud #785
RECORDINGS:
The McNulty Family, "They Sailed Away From Dublin Bay" (on IRMcNulty-Night1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1015), "Dublin Bay," A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1845-1859; also Firth c.12(369), Harding B 11(1014), "Dublin Bay"; Harding B 11(3363), "Roy Neil" or "Dublin Bay"
LOCSinging, sb10097b, "Dublin Bay," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
SAME TUNE:
Bublin Bay (NLScotland, L.C.1269(173b), "Bublin Bay" ("They sailed away in a gallant barque"), unknown, 1857 -- listed as to the tune of "John Grumlie" but with so many lyrics from "Dublin Bay (Roy Neal)" that it coud almost be considered the same song still -- plus the long introduction asks for the pianist to play "Dublin Bay")
NOTES [93 words]: A pop Irish songbook called The Library of Irish Music (no author listed; published by Amsco) lists this with words by Annie Barry Crawford and music by George Barker. Given the nature of the song, and the relatively fixed form of the lyrics, it seems likely that it is composed. But I need somewhat stronger evidence than that book to credit the song. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb10097b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R691

Dublin City

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) (File: E098)

Dublin Heiress, The

See The London Heiress (The Brisk and Lively Lad) (File: MoMa033)

Dublin Jack of All Trades

DESCRIPTION: Roving Jack arrives in Dublin and becomes a porter, pastry cook, baker, coffin maker, preacher .... listing the Dublin sites for each of his many occupations. He can't keep a job but places his "chief delight in courting pretty maids"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.9(255))
KEYWORDS: worker rake cook clergy
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 40, "Dublin Jack of all Trades" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 58-59, "The Dublin Jack of All Trades" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3017
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(255), "Dublin Jack of All Trades"("I am a roving sporting black, they call me Jack of all trades"), J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899; also 2806 c.15(234), 2806 c.15(36), 2806 c.7(15), "Dublin Jack of all Trades"
NOTES [113 words]: OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads begins "I am a roving sporting blade" which improves an internal rhyme with "trades" but loses a play on "black Jack" and "Jack of Spades" - BS
There is an old-time country item, "Jack of All Trades," recorded by the Prairie Ramblers and by "Weary Willie" (Frank Luther) and Carson J. Robison, as well as more recently by Bob Bovee and Gail Heil. That has been credited to "Howard Johnson," though I wouldn't be surprised if Robison is largely responsible. That follows the same "gimmick" of a guy who can't keep a job, though the part about chasing girls is absent. I suspect but can't prove influence. It's definitely not the same song, though. - RBW
File: OLoc040

Dublin on the Liffey

DESCRIPTION: "Dublin in the Liffey, Yorkshire on the ooze (Ouse), Belfast on the Lagan, and (McMordie) on the booze." Presumably any other name could be substituted for "McMordie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: river drink
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 41, "(Dublin on the Liffey)" (1 text)
Roud #22983
File: PKKB041E

Dublin Weaver, The

See Nancy Whisky (File: K279)

Duck and a Drake, A

DESCRIPTION: "A duck and a drake, and a (nice barley cake/halfpenny cake/double pancake), And a penny to pay the old baker. A hop and a scotch (in/is) another notch, Slitherum, saltherum, take her."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad bird food cook
FOUND IN: Britain(England) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ron Young, _Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador_, Downhome Publishing Inc., 2006, p. 213, "Ducks and Drakes" (2 texts)
Roud #19635
File: Yng213

Duck and the Drake, The

See There Was a Little Man (File: BGMG025)

Duck from Drummuck, The

See The Wee Duck (The Duck from Drummuck) (File: HHH228a)

Duck in the Pond, A

DESCRIPTION: "A duck in the pond, A fish in the pool, Whoever reads this Is a big April Fool."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty bird
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 63, "(A duck in the pond)" (1 short text)
File: SuSm063A

Duck-Foot Sue

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going to sing to you About a girl I love so true, She's chief engineer with the White Star Line, And her name is Duck-foot Sue." He details her odd looks ("teeth like bits of pipe"), her proposal "if you don't marry me I'll bust," and her appetite.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage humorous
FOUND IN: Australia US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 227, "Duck-Foot Sue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 129-130, "Duckfoot Sue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 155, "Duckfoot Sue" (1 short text)
Roud #9553
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sluefoot Sue
Slufoot Sue
NOTES [113 words]: John Collins of Lansdale, Pennsylvania, sends me a version which he learned around 1935. Reportedly "a friend's father sang [this] to his dogs. It drove them batty and they 'san'" along with him."
There once was a girl I knew
Her name was Slufoot Sue
She was chief engineer at a shirttail factory
Down by the riverside zoo
Her face was all she had
She had a shape like a softshell crab
Every night she had a tussle
With a patent leather bustle
GEE but she was BAAAD
I begin to think there must be a music hall origin to the song, although I haven't yet found it.
There are a number of old-time country recordings; almost all seem to be by Bob Miller under different names. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MA227

Duckfoot Sue

See Duck-Foot Sue (File: MA227)

Ducks and Drakes

See A Duck and a Drake (File: Yng213)

Ducks Fly

DESCRIPTION: Singing game, in which the leader calls out "Ducks fly!" "Geese fly." "Eagles fly." "Robins fly." The others are supposed to imitate a flying motion. When the leader says "Cats fly," the children must stop flying or lose the game
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: bird playparty animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #52, "Ducks Fly" (description with limited text)
File: Newe052

Ducks in the Millpond

DESCRIPTION: "Ducks in the millpond, A-geese in the ocean, A-hug them pretty girls If I take a notion." Chorus: "Lord, Lord, gonna get on a rinktum" (x2). More verses about ducks in the millpond and other animals, many of which float
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (recording, Fields Ward)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad courting floatingverses animal horse
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 59-60, "Ducks in the Millpond" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11307
NOTES [37 words]: The notes to Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry says that this is related to Old Dan Tucker. The verses also float into "Take a Whiff On Me," "Bile Them Cabbage Down," "Lynchburg Town," "Old Joe Clark," and probably others. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LoSi059

Ducky Ducky Do

DESCRIPTION: "Ducky Ducky do, It's half past two, Swimming on the water, With a wee black shoe."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: clothes | shoe water swimming
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 22, "(Ducky Ducky do)" (1 text)
Roud #23012
File: PKKB022F

Dudley Boys, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the days of good Queen Bess... Coventry outdone the rest, Ya ha boys, O boys, the brave Dudley Boys." But now the boys of Dudley and Tipton have claimed their own. Soldiers had to interfere with a riot. Lord Dudley Ward arranged peace
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Palmer, Songs of the Midlands)
KEYWORDS: battle nobility work hardtimes labor-movement
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 88, "The Dudley Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 80-81, "The Brave Dudley Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 49-51, "The Brave Dudley Boys," "The Brave Doodley" (2 texts)
Jon Raven, _The Folklore and Songs of the Black Country Colliers_, Broadside, 1990, pp. 19-20, "The Brave Dudley Boys," "The Brave Doodley" (2 texts)
Roud #1131
NOTES [98 words]: A reference to "Dudley" in the reign of "Good Queen Bess"=Elizabeth I obviously makes us think of Robert Dudley (1532-1588), the fifth son of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who in time was made Earl of Leicester. He was important only because Elizabeth was strongly attracted to him -- according to John A. Wagner, Historical Dictionary of the Elizabethan World, Britain, Ireland, Europe, and America, Onyx Press, 1999, pp. 91-92, Dudley was the only man Elizabeth seriously considered marrying. But I can't see any connection between that Dudley and Coventry, or with this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: JRVI080

Duermete, Nino Lindo

DESCRIPTION: Spanish. "Duermete, nino lindo, En los brazos del amor. Mien tres que duerme y des cansa, La pena de mi dolor." The holy baby is urged to sleep while his mother grives. But the baby need not fear King Herod; his mother will guard him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cray-AshGrove)
KEYWORDS: lullaby foreignlanguage Jesus homicide
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray-AshGrove, p. 23, "Duermete Nino Lindo" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 383, "Duermete, Nino Lindo" (1 text plus a singable translation)
File: CrAGr23B

Duffy's Blunder

See Old Judge Duffy (File: MN2051)

Duffy's Hotel

DESCRIPTION: The singer advises those who want enjoyment to visit the hotel in Boiestown. He describes the wild parties, the fights, the mad rush to collar a diseased chicken, and the peculiar visitors. He concludes by setting out for home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman)
KEYWORDS: party fight
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 268-269, "Duffy's Hotel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 38, "Duffy's Hotel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 144-148, "Duffy's Hotel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 12, "Duffy's Hotel" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doe268 (Partial)
Roud #1961
File: Doe268

Dug-Out in the True

DESCRIPTION: "I am just a poor old shearer, I am stationed on the board... But I'm happy as a clam, in this land of ewes and lams, In my tick-bound, bug-bound dugout in the true." There is wool everywhere. The dugout is ill-made and windy. He wishes he had a girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: worker sheep home loneliness
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p, 88, Dug-Out in the True" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 50 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 155, "(Dug-out in the True" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Bill Taylor, "Dug-Out in the True" (on NZSongYngCntry)
File: Colq050

Dugall Quin [Child 294]

DESCRIPTION: Dugall Quin comes to court Lissie. He asks her if she would love him if he were poor (she would). She asks if he would like her if she were rich (he would). Despite her parents' opposition (since they think him poor), she goes with him and is well-off.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1890 (Buchan, Child)
KEYWORDS: courting poverty money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 294, "Dugall Quin" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1267, "Lizzie Menzies" (2 texts)
Roud #3928
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lizie Lindsay" [Child 226]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lizzie Lindsay
File: C294

Duggan's Dancing School

DESCRIPTION: Paddy Duggan, once a cattle slaughterer, opens a dancing school that exceeds the dancing halls of London and Paris. "When in this hall there is a ball they come from far and near.... in summertime it is a pretty sight" The singer wishes Duggan luck.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: dancing party nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 22, "Duggan's Dancing School" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: McB1022

Duke a-Riding, A

See Three Dukes (File: R551)

Duke in York, A

See The Noble Duke of York (File: FSWB390B)

Duke o' Gordon's Three Daughters, The

See The Duke of Gordon's Daughter [Child 237] (File: C237)

Duke of Argyle, The [Laws N1]

DESCRIPTION: A woman follows her lover Alexander to battle. He is slain on the banks of the Nile, but she continues to fight. Even though she remains in soldier's clothing, the Duke (of Argyle) comes to court her. She remains true to her slain Alexander
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: battle death love courting cross-dressing
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws N1, "The Duke of Argyle"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 39, "The Duke of Argyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 811, DUKARGYL
Roud #1915
RECORDINGS:
F. Sutton, "Alexander" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [22 words]: In the MUNFLA/Leach version Alexander is sent to "Holland and Flanders" and the lady is courted, in vain, by "Duke Wellington." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LN01

Duke of Argyle's Courtship, The

DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever hear of a loyal Scot...." He courts a girl, begging her to marry. She refuses; she has no proof he can care for her. He persists; so does she. He reveals he is Duke of Argyle, and rejects her after she changes her mind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection nobility
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 197-198, "The Duke of Argyle's Courtship" (1 text)
Roud #3797
NOTES [80 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads suggests "The hero of this ballad was probably John, Duke of Argyle and Greenwich, who commanded the Royal army at the Battle of Sheriffmuir." The reference is to John Campbell, Second Duke of Argyll (1678-1743), a proponent of the Act of Union in 1707, British commander in Spain from 1711, and an opponent of Jacobitism who, as Ord says, commanded the Royalist forces in Scotland. I see no real reason to consider him the hero of this song, though. - RBW
File: Ord197

Duke of Athol, The

See When Will Ye Gang Awa'? (Huntingtower) [Laws O23] (File: LO23)

Duke of Athole's Nurse, The [Child 212]

DESCRIPTION: The Duke's (?) new leman bids his nurse (and former leman) bring her love a message. The nurse gathers her (seven) brothers to kill him instead. He asks the tavern's landlady to hide him; she disguises him as a baking maid. The brothers fail to kill him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Skene ms.)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment brother disguise cross-dressing escape
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(North))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 212, "The Duke of Athole's Nurse" (6 texts)
Bronson 212, "The Duke of Athole's Nurse" (9 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 212, "The Duke of Athole's Nurse" (2 versions: #4, #9)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 158-160, "The Lord at the Bakin" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #84, pp. 1-2, "The Duke of Athole's Nurse"; #86, p. 2, "Duke o' Athole's Nurse" (2 texts plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan1 160, "The Duke of Athole's Nurse" (10 texts, 6 tunes) {A=Bronson's #9, B=#4, C=#6, E=#7, F=#2}
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 105-106, "Duke of Athol's Nurse" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 566-568, "The Duke of Athole's Nurse" (1 text)
DT 212, DUKATHOL*
Roud #3393
NOTES [31 words]: The opening of this song is a bit confused. Whose love is the new leman? The Duke's? The nurse's former love? Someone else's? It hardly affects the plot, but the pronouns are confusing. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: C212

Duke of Bedford, The

See Six Dukes Went A-Fishing (File: FO078)

Duke of Berwick's March

See How Stands the Glass Around (General Wolfe's Song) (File: DalC146)

Duke of Buckingham, The

See The Duke of Buckingham's Hounds (File: Br3218)

Duke of Buckingham's Hounds, The

DESCRIPTION: The (Duke of Buckingham) goes out to hunt fox with his good hounds. The names of the hounds are given. The fox cleverly crosses the water. One old hound at last catches the fox. All rejoice at its fate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Chappell; there is an undated broadside in the Roxburghe collection)
KEYWORDS: hunting death nobility animal dog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 218, "The Duke of Buckingham" (1 fragment)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 102, "The Bardy Train" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 352-353, "A Fox Chase" (1 text)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 70-71, "The Noble Foxhunting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #81, "The Duke's Hunt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN75, "The Fox-Chace... Duke of Buckingham's Hounds"
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 251-254, "The Fox Chace or The Huntman's Harmony by the Noble Duke of Buckingham's Hounds" (1 text)
ST Br3218 (Partial)
Roud #584
NOTES [84 words]: I have no idea why Chappell's texts are titled "The Bardy Train"; that phrase does not appear in either text.
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd associates this with George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, the beloved favorite of George VI and I, for whom see the notes to "A Horse Named Bill." Villiers is certainly the most famous Duke of Buckingham, but there is nothing in the song that I can see to truly link it to him -- and not many people other than King James had much fondness for him. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Br3218

Duke of Gordon's Daughter, The [Child 237]

DESCRIPTION: Jean, the Duke's daughter, loves Captain Ogilvie. Gordon, to stop the match, convinces the King to demote Ogilvie. Jean marries Ogilvie. They go to Gordon in poverty; he is turned away. Ogilvie inherits Northumberland; he brings home his wife and children
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (Ritson)
KEYWORDS: nobility rejection love courting soldier elopement children
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 237, "The Duke of Gordon's Daughter" (1 text)
Bronson 237, "The Duke of Gordon's Daughter" (14 versions+1 in addenda)
Greig/Duncan6 1099, "The Duke o' Gordon's Three Daughters" (10 texts, 9 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 565-567, "The Duke of Gordon's Three Daughters" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 94, "The Duke of Gordon's Daughter" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 56, "The Duke of Gordon's Daughter" (1 text)
DT 237, DUKGORD*
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, The Scots Musical Museum (Edinburgh: Johnson & Co, 1796 ("Digitized by Internet Archive for NLS")), Vol. V, #419 pp. 431-432, "The Duke of Gordon Has Three Daughters") (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Joseph Ritson, Scotish Songs (London: J. Johnson, 1794 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, 5th class #7, pp. 169-175, "The Duke of Gordon's Daughter" ("The Duke of Gordon has three daughters") (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #1}
Roud #342
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Tents o' Foundlan'
NOTES [107 words]: As history, this ballad has its problems. Although it was not rare for the children of the nobility to join the military (after all, the offices of knights and earls were originally largely military positions), there are no Ogilvie earls or dukes of Northumberland. The Northumberland title has been in the Percy family almost continuously since the reign of Richard II (deposed 1399), apart from a brief period in the Wars of the Roses and a temporary elevation of the Dudley family to the dukedom. Nor can I find any members of the House of Percy with first name "Ogilvie." Not that any of that really affects the story in the ballad. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: C237

Duke of Gordon's Three Daughters, The

See The Duke of Gordon's Daughter [Child 237] (File: C237)

Duke of Grafton, The

See Six Dukes Went A-Fishing (File: FO078)

Duke of Marlborough, The

DESCRIPTION: Marlborough calls "generals and champions bold" to his deathbed. He fought in Flanders for Queen Anne and in France for Charles II. He recalls his last battle. He admonishes officers: "take no bribes, stand true to your men, and fight with courage bold"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1826 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1141))
KEYWORDS: war death France nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1650-1722 - Life of John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough
1701-1714 - War of the Spanish Succession, pitting France and Spain against Britain, Austria, and many smaller nations. Marlborough made a reputation by winning the battles of Blenheim (1704), Ramillies (1706), and Oudenarde (1708) (he fought a draw at Malplaquet in 1709)
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 161-162, "The Duke of Marlborough" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 442)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 25-26, "The Duke of Marlborough" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 22-25, "The Duke of Marlborough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 89, "Lord Marlborough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 118-119, "The Duke of Marlborough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #233
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1141), "Lord Marlborough" ("You generals all and champions bold who take delight in fields"), Angus (Newcastle), 1774-1825; also Harding B 11(2207), Harding B 28(263), Firth c.14(7), Harding B 28(180), Harding B 11(2206), Harding B 11(1169), 2806 c.18(191), Harding B 28(243), "Lord Marlborough"; 2806 c.17(261), "Marlborough"; Harding B 28(263), Harding B 11(3411), "The Duke of Marlbro'"; Harding B 11(1021), Harding B 11(1272), "Duke of Marlbrough"; Firth c.14(9), Harding B 11(1020), Harding B 11(796), Harding B 11(803), Johnson Ballads 606[some words illegible], Harding B 11(830), Harding B 15(90b), Harding B 15(91a), "The Duke of Marlborough"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. Malbrouck (subject: The Duke of Marlborough)
NOTES [186 words]: Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames: "The Duke of Marlborough died in 1722. The age of the song may easily be conjectured."
"Some of Burns's songs, and many songs commemorating the wars of England, were great favourites with them. Passing by a [Lancashire] country alehouse, one would often hear a rude ditty like the following, sounding loud and clear from the inside:-- 'You generals all, and champions bold, Who take delight I'th field; Who knock down palaces and castle walls, And never like to yield; I am an Englishman by birth, And Marlbro' is my name, In Devonshire I first drew breath; That place of noble fame'" (source: Edwin Waugh, Sketches of Lancashire Life and Localities, (London, 1857 (second edition, "Digitized by Google"), p. 100).
The following verse is not included in some broadside texts: "It's good queen Anne did send us abroad, to Flanders we must go, To leave the banks of Newfoundland to face our daring foe; We climb'd those lofty hills so high and Grunstone Brook likewise, Till all the famous towns we took, to all the world's surprise" Does this fit with the rest of the ballad? - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: WT161

Duke of York, The

See The Noble Duke of York (File: FSWB390B)

Duke William

DESCRIPTION: Duke William goes disguised to "know what usage have poor sailors." A press gang takes him at an inn. On board, he tears his trousers and asks for a tailor. Stripping for flogging his disguise is blown. He promises reforms and leaves gold for the crew.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 16(77c))
KEYWORDS: navy disguise humorous royalty sailor pressgang clothes gold
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 7, "Duke William" (1 fragment)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #111, "Duke William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #37, "Duke William's Frolic" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 67, "Duke William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1544
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(77c), "Duke William's Frolic" ("Duke William and a nobleman, heroes of England's nation"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 28(82), Harding B 25(561), Harding B 16(78b), "Duke William's Frolic"; Harding B 11(3665), "Duke William"; Harding B 11(1024), "Duke William the Jolly Sailor"; Harding B 25(556), "The Duke of Cumberland's Frolick"
NOTES [506 words]: The description follows broadsides Bodleian Harding B 11(3665) and Harding B 11(1024).
The subject is William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, 1721-1765, according to Bodleian notes to its broadsides.
Ashton, Modern Street Ballads (1888), p. 228: "This is supposed to refer to some frolic of William IV.'s when he was Duke of Clarence, and properly belongs to last century." - BS
I'm with Ashton on this one; the Bodleian suggestion is extremely unlikely. Not that this happened in this exact way to either of the Dukes William (I grant that Cumberland and Clarence are the only candidates, since we need a Duke William during the press gang era) -- press gangs sought sailors, not royalty in disguise. But William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, the Butcher of Culloden, was about as unlikely a victim of a press gang as one can imagine. Immensely fat, he couldn't possibly do any useful work on shipboard. Nor is there anything "naval" in his record. Nor would he have hesitated to scream bloody murder were he taken. And, last but not least, he would not show any sense of comradery with sailors.
The future William IV (1765-1837; reigned 1830-1837), who was Duke of Clarence, is a much better candidate. The third son of George III, no one expected him to become King, so he was made a midshipman at the age of 13. His talents were limited, but at least he knew his way around a ship. And he had rough manners suitable to a sailor, and he didn't go *quite* as bad, physically, as Cumberland. He would go on to become an admiral (though without a command), and even admiral of the fleet in 1811.
There is even an instance of him being sent to sea against his will, although not actually pressed. Philip Ziegler, King William IV, 1971 (I use the 1989 Cassell Biographies edition), pp. 65-66, tells of him taking a mistress (not his first) named Sally Winne in 1788. His father George III, who disapproved strongly of his sons' license even though he was the one who wouldn't let them marry anyone except Protestant German princesses and so made it impossible for them to have decent relationships, ordered William sent to America. "The result was that the unfortunate Prince was shanghaied as he came in sight of the Lizard after a three-week cruise and brusquely ordered to set sail for the New World. With chagrin, he obeyed, complaining to his father, 'the men are in a peculiar hard situation'.... And so, sulkily, Prince William set forth on what was to be his final posting as an active sailor."
William, however, was not yet Duke of Clarence. When his father went mad, William was called home, and eventually, in 1789, given the dukedom (Ziegler, p. 70).
To give the Duke his due, William, shortly before becoming king, actually spent a brief period in true command of the fleet. It was rather a disaster -- he gave up the post after 15 months -- but he did get the navy to buy its first steam vessel, and he tried to reform the promotion system. Also, he tried to limit flogging -- an interesting point in light of this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GrD1007

Duke William's Frolic

See Duke William (File: GrD1007)

Duke Willie

DESCRIPTION: "Mony a day hae I followed Duke Willie ... [and] followed the drum ... Frae Cullen o' Buchan to Cullen Aboyne." The singer wishes his Kattie were in his arms and thinks of his wine toasts to her and the fine gown, cloak, and cap he bought her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Hogg and Motherwell)
KEYWORDS: courting battle clothes drink Scotland soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1763, "Duke Willie" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: James Hogg and William Motherwell, editors, The Works of Robert Burns (Glasgow, 1839 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III, pp. 81-82, ("Mony a day hae I followed Duke Willie")
Roud #13011
NOTES [115 words]: Hogg and Motherwell: "[This is] a Jacobite ditty, for which we are indebted to Mr Buchan"; "Duke Willie" is the "Duke of Cumberland."
For some background on the Duke of Cumberland see "The Muir of Culloden." I would trust Motherwell -- it's his note -- to know "a Jacobite ditty." I expect Cumberland to be a villain in any Jacobite song. I don't see the connection here.
Buchan and Aboyne are in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. - BS
My first thought was that the Duke was not Cumberland but the Jacobite Duke of Perth, one of Bonnie Prince Charlie's Lieutenant Generals. But his name was James Drummond. James III did hand out some other empty titles of nobility; perhaps it was one of those? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81763

Duke's Daughter, The

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Duke's Hunt, The

See The Duke of Buckingham's Hounds (File: Br3218)

Duke's Late Glorious Success over the Dutch, The

DESCRIPTION: "One day as I was sitting still Upon the side of Dunwich Hill... By chance I saw de Ruyter's fleet" meet the fleet of Duke James [of York]. The British win even though the French fail to do their part. The singer curses Cromwell and praises the Stuarts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (Halliwell, Early Naval Ballads of England, according to Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: sea battle royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 28, 1672 (Old Style) - Battle of Solebay between the British force under James, Duke of York (the future James VII and II) and the Dutch fleet of de Ruyter
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 20, "A Song on the Duke's Late Glorious Success over the Dutch" (1 text)
File: PaSe020

Dukes and Earls

See The Famous Flower of Serving-Men [Child 106] (File: C106)

Dulcie Jones

DESCRIPTION: "Sluma [slumber], slumba, sleep by de rattle of de bones. Slumba till de mornin', I love my Dulcie Jones." "Go tell de parson, I got no time to pray, Got to make de money, To court mah gal today."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: love courting money clergy
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 146, "Dulcie Jones" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #16286
File: Arno146

Dulcina

DESCRIPTION: "As at noone Dulcina rested In a sweete and shady bower, Came a shepherd and requested In her lap to sleep an hour." The song obliquely describes what might have happened, but the singer admits ignorance of what actually happened
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1707 (Pills to Purge Melancholy; registered 1615); a song "As at noon Dulcina Rested" was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 153-155, "Dulcina" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques LIX, p. 103, "Dulcina" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 142-143, "Dulcina" (1 text, 1 tune plus an excerpt)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 160-161, "Dulcina" (1 tune, partial text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN195, "As at noon Dulcina rested"
ADDITIONAL: Frederick J. Furnivall, _Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript: Loose and Humorous Songs_, printed by and for the Editor, London, 1868, pp. 32-34, "Dulcina" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 78
ST Perc3153 (Full)
Roud #9916
SAME TUNE:
In the month of February/The true Lovers Good-morrow... brace of Valentines (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1481)
Thou who art so sweet a creature/A delicate new ditty... Posie of a Ring (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2595)
What doth aile my loue, so sadly/A pleasant new Song, betwixt a Saylor and his Loue (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2793; Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads LXXVII, pp. 152-156)
From Oberon in Fairy Land/The mad-merry prankes of Robbin Good-fellow (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN933)
Of late it was my chance to walke/A penny-worth of Good Counsell (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2114)
In the gallant month of June/The desperate Damsell's Tragedy (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1478)
All you Young-men who would Marry/A Prouerb old, yet nere forgot, Tis good to strike while the Irons hott (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN160)
Jewry came to Jerusalem/Two pleasant Ditties, one of the Birth, the other of the Passion of Christ (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1551)
The golden god Hyperion/An excellent new ditty.. Dulcina complaineth for the absence of.. Coridon (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN988)
NOTES [132 words]: Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 209, #2419, "The shepards wooing," registered March 13, 1656, is said by Rollins to be this piece, but I can't prove it.
This is probably not an actual traditional song (widespread attributions to Walter Raleigh are said to be false). It is so often cited, however, that I thought it best to include it (there are eight or nine broadsides in the Broadside Ballad Index using this tune).
Izaak Walton's Compeat Angler also refers to this tune (Chapter II). He makes it sound like a folk song -- but he lists "Phyllida Flouts Me" and other arty songs in the same context. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Perc3153

Dumb Maid, The

See The Dumb Wife (Dumb, Dumb, Dumb) [Laws Q5] (File: LQ05)

Dumb Wife, The (Dumb, Dumb, Dumb) [Laws Q5]

DESCRIPTION: A husband's new wife is a perfect housekeeper but is mute. The man takes her to a doctor, who is able to cure her impediment -- only to have her talk all the time. The husband again appeals for help; the doctor says that nothing can silence her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1698 (Pills to Purge Melancholy)
KEYWORDS: doctor husband wife disability humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Laws Q5, "The Dumb Wife (Dumb, Dumb, Dumb)"
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 32-34, "Dumb, Dumb, Dumb" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #13, pp. 1-2, "Dumb, Dumb, Dumb" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan7 1289, "The Dumb, Dumb Maid" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 194, "Country Blade and His Scolding Wife" (1 text)
Randolph 394, "The Dumb Wife Cured" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 92, "The Scolding Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 135, "The Wife Who Was Dumb" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, p. 56, "Dumb, Dumb, Dumb" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 199, "The Dumb Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #96, "The Dumb Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 183, "The Dumb Wife" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 183, "The Dumb Wife" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #204, "The Dumb Wife" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 106, "The Dumb Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #128, "The Dumb Wife" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #538, p. 36, "The Dumb Scold" (1 reference)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN143, "All you that pass along"
DT 519, DUMBDUMB*
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 319-321, 'The Dumb Maid: or The Young Galland Trapann'd" (1 text)
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 262-263, "Dumb, Dumb, Dumb" (1 text)
Roud #434
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 39(145), "The Dumb Maid" or "The Young Gallant Trappan'd" ("All you that press along"), W. Onley (London), 1689-1709; also Harding B 28(80), "The Dumb Wife's Tongue Let Loose"; Harding B 11(2258), Harding B 16(325a), "[The] Dumb Wife"; Harding B 18(146), "The Dumb Scold"
LOCSinging, as103240, "The Dumb Scold", J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also sb10090b, "The Dumb Scold"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie Lass of Fyvie" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
SAME TUNE:
Cruiskeen Lawn (tune [cited as "Cowskeen Lawn"] per broadsides Bodleian Harding B 18(146), LOCSinging as103240 and LOCSinging sb10090b and Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #538, p. 36)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bonnie Blade
NOTES [154 words]: There is a folktale version of this, "The Dumb Wife," printed on pp. 65-66 of volume A.2 of Katherine Briggs, A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2). The plot is effectively identical, except that it is a demon, not a doctor, who loses the woman's tongue. This allows another punchline, if it can be called that: A minor demon can allow a woman to speak, but not all the devils of hell can make her shut up.
According to Palmer, another folktale version appeared in A Hundred Merry Tales in 1526. - RBW
Broadsides LOCSinging as103240, LOCSinging sb10090b and Bodleian Harding B 18(146) are triplicates.
Broadside LOCSinging as103240: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 3.8
File: LQ05

Dumb, Dumb Maid, The

See The Dumb Wife (Dumb, Dumb, Dumb) [Laws Q5] (File: LQ05)

Dumbarton's Bell

See Dumbarton's Bonnie Dell (File: GrD71323)

Dumbarton's Bonnie Dell

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "a winsome lassock lives hard by Dumbarton's bonnie dell." He'll never be happy until Dumbarton's belle is his wife.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1844 400120)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1323, "Dumbarton's Bell" (1 fragment)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 30 and #5/64, p. 30, "Dumbarton's Bonnie Dell" (1 text)
Roud #7145
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1844 400120, "Dumbarton's Bonnie Dell," George Willig (Philadelphia), 1844 (tune)
Murray, Mu23-y3:013, "Dumbarton's Bonnie Dell," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.1270(001), "Dumbarton's Bonnie Dell" ("There's ne'er a nook in a' the land"), unknown, c.1845; also L.C.Fol.178.A.2(038), "Dumbarton's Bonnie Dell"
NOTES [98 words]: Broadside LOCSheet sm1844 400120 claims authorship for Francis Weiland but it is never clear whether "author" may not just be arranger. Greig/Duncan7 cites a Poet's Box 1857 broadside that claims authorship for Mr C M Westmacott. Since Poet's Box broadsides have no arrangement that claim may be the better one. A clue as to when it was written is the reference to "the land That William rules sae well."
Broadsides NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(038) and Murray Mu23-y3:013 are duplicates.
Greig/Duncan7 is a fragment; broadside NLScotland L.C.1270(001) is the basis for the description. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GrD71323

Dumbarton's Drums

DESCRIPTION: "Dumbarton's drums, they sound so bonny When they remind me of my Johnny." The singer tells of how Johnnie, "Dumbarton's caddie," courts her. She expects that someday he will be a captain and she his lady.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1724 (Ramsay)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 45, "Dumbarton's Drums" (1 text)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 38-41 "Dumbarton's Drums" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune; also a copy of Ramsay's text in the notes on p. 49)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 281, "Dumbarton's Drums" (1 text)
DT, DUMBDRUM* DMBDRUM2*
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany (Edinburgh: Thomas Ruddiman, 1724 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 95-96, "Dumbarton's Drums" ("Dumbarton's Drums beat bonny O") (1 text)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #161, p. 169, "Dumbarton's Drums" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSWB281A (Full)
Roud #8669
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O! Why Should Old Age So Much Wound Us?" (tune)
NOTES [142 words]: First appearing seemingly in the Orpheus Caledoneus (for the text, see the Digital Tradition DMBDRUM2), this was originally a rather flowery piece. Somehow it entered the Beers family tradition, which endowed it with a magnificent tune (not the same as that in the Scots Musical Museum) and much simpler if not particularly inspired words. It is the Beers version which has become extremely popular in pop-folk circles.
According to John Baynes with John Laffin, Soldiers of Scotland, Brassey's, 1988 (I use the 1997 Barnes & Noble edition), p. 103, this piece is used as a pipe tune for parade by the Royal Scots Regiment as a parade piece (I assume they use the Orpheus Caledoneus tune), though this has never been officially approved by the British army. - RBW
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong is the same text as Ramsay and Orpheus Caledoneus. - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: FSWB281A

Dumble Dum Deary

See Richard (Irchard) of Taunton Dean (File: RcIOTD)

Dumma Locy Locy

DESCRIPTION: Mostly nonsense: "Dummy rumma locy, dume doe doe, Dumma rumma locy, doe doe, Dumma rumma locy, doe doe doe, Never saw a new sweet 'though I sang a love song." The singer cannot see a babe/pretty girl without loving her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: nonsense courting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 67, "Dumma Locy Locy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11374
File: Brne067

Dummer Sheener's Gang, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing you a song of a sheener's gang, I've got 'em all taped up to a man, There's long and short and thin and fat, But every man knows just what he's at." Each man's work is listed, from Jimmy Bailey "who runs the concern" to the lowest corn-fetcher
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Copper-ASongForEverySeason)
KEYWORDS: drink work moniker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 274-275, "The Dummer Sheener's Gang" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 278-279, "Old Threshing Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 46-49, "The Dummer Sheener's Gang" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #874
NOTES [73 words]: The first version I met was in Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, which is pretty clearly a moonshining song, which was my original comment on it. But, interestingly, the Copper-ASongForEverySeasons text appears to be more of a true harvest song. Presumably the moonshining version is a modification of a song about machinery at harvest. Browne explains "sheener" as short for "machiner," in other words, manager of a threshing machine. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CoSB274

Dummy Line (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Concerning possibly the worst, slowest train in history, which comes "Across the prairie on a streak of rust." Passengers who complain are instructed to get out and walk, but point out that they are not expected until the train arrives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: humorous railroading train
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 254-255, "The Rummy Dummy Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 485-490, "On the Dummy Line" (the main text and tune are "The Dummy Line (II)," but there are selections from and discussion of this song)
Harbin-Parodology, #105, p. 31; #399, p. 97 "The Dummy Line" (2 texts; one is "The Dummy Line (I)," the other "The Dummy Line (II)"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 107-108, "(Three little girls all dressed in brown, Got on the train at Hillsdale town)" (1 fragment, said by Averill to be from "On the Dummy Line"; it looks as if it was played as a game); pp. 283, 284, 289, 322,"The Dummy Line" (notes only)
DT, DUMYLINE
Roud #15359
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On the Dummy Line (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [147 words]: There is a song called "Riding on the Dummy," by Sam Booth & Frederick Carnes, published in 1855. It's not this song. See Norm Cohen's Long Steel Rail for a full discussion. [There is also another "Dummy Line" song; see "On the Dummy Line (II)" for discussion. - RBW]
Uncle Dave Macon's "On the Dixie Bee Line," about a Ford car, is a parody of this song. - PJS
This song may have had some historical influence. The Newfoundland Railway, which was an extremely slow line (18 miles an hour at the best of times, according to Les Harding, The Newfoundland Railway 1898-1969: A History, McFarland & Company, 2008, p. 13), was known as "the streak of rust"; also the "Bullet." Presumably a spent bullet.
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 284, points out that a "dummy line" was a urban spur line with a small, quiet (perhaps muffled) engine; it was kept quiet to avoid scaring horses.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: DTdumyli

Dummy Line (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Some folks say that the dummy won't run, Now, let me tell you what the dummy done, Left Saint Louis 'bout half past one, Rolled into Memphis at the seein' of the sun." Stories of riding on the Dummy Line, possibly without a fare
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: train travel
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 485-490, "On the Dummy Line" (1 text plus fragments of several other "Dummy Line" songs, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 244-245, "De Dummy Line" (1 short text, 1 tune); p. 239, "Railroad Song" (1 fragment)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 435, "The Dummy Line" (2 short texts; "B" is a mixed text that seems to be mostly a "May Irwin's Frog Song (The Foolish Frog, Way Down Yonder)" type, with a "Some Folks Say a Nigger Won't Steal" verse)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 70-71, "The Dummy Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harbin-Parodology, #105, p. 31; #399, p. 97 "The Dummy Line" (2 texts; one is "The Dummy Line (I)," the other "The Dummy Line (II)"
Roud #11776
RECORDINGS:
Robert N. Page, "Ride and Shine on the Dummy Line" (Victor 21067, 1927)
Pickard Family, "On the Dummy Line" ((Perfect 12625/Banner 0744/Conqueror 7574/Oriole 1995/Challenge 882/Jewel 5995/Pathe 32546/Regal 10049/Cameo 0344/Domino 4585/Romeo 1357/Paramount 3218, 1930; Broadway 8150 [as Pleasant Family], n.d.)
NOTES [235 words]: This is rather a conundrum, because the texts of "The Dummy Line (I)" and "The Dummy Line (II)" have similar choruses, and most are fragments, and they've mixed a lot, as well as gathering a lot of floating verses; see Cohen for a discussion. In general, though, "The Dummy Line (I) involves an extremely slow train, while this one involves a faster, but perhaps strangely-managed one.
It appears, in the original version, that the trip was from Saint Louis to Memphis -- a distance of nearly 300 miles, implying (depending on the time of the year and hence the time of sunset) a speed between 40 and 75 miles an hour, quite good for a train at the turn of the twentieth century.
Scarborough's "Railroad Song" text (p. 239) is even stranger, because it has the train go from Saint Louis to Tampa in an afternoon. That's a distance of 900 miles, meaning that the train had to move at a speed of at least 125 miles per hour even at the summer solstice!
It may be that the Scarborough text confused "Saint Louis" (Saint Louie?) in the song with Saint Lucie, Florida, on the Atlantic coast almost due east of Tampa. That's a distance of about 125 miles, give or take a few river detours, implying a speed of 25-30 miles per hour. Hardly high-speed -- but not really Dummy Line numbers, either. Alternately, Saint Louis might be a variation on "St. Pete/Petersburg." In which case the speed is ridiculously slow. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ScNS139A

Dun Cow, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis certain, that the Dun cow's milk, Clothes the prebend's wives all in silk; But this indeed is plain to me, The Dun cow herself is a shame to see.... O'er northern mountain, marsh and moor... Seven years St. Cuthbert's corpse they bore."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1834 (Sharp)
KEYWORDS: nonballad animal religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: [Cuthbert Sharp], _The Bishopric Garland, A Collection of Legends, Songs, Ballads, &c Belonging to the County of Durham_, 1834 (references are to the 1969 reprint), p. 30, "The Dun Cow" (1 short text)
NOTES [79 words]: I have no real evidence that this is a traditional song, but it it probably a traditional rhyme -- the reference to St. Cuthbert, who died in 687, makes that highly likely; he was the de facto patron saint of Northumbria. The mention of the Dun Cow is also interesting; there is a famous codex "The Book of the Dun Cow," but it is Irish and not related to St. Cuthbert. Looking at the form of the verse, I suspect that this is a by-blow of "Ewie Wi' the Crookit Horn." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: BiGa030

Dunbar the Murderer

DESCRIPTION: "Awake, sad muse, awake and sing, And softly touch the mournful string...." "Oh brutal man... Two blooming children you have slain, A little paltry gold to gain." "The mother dear the lads did send To Dunbar's home some months to spend."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Supplement to the Ulster County Almanac)
KEYWORDS: homicide children money
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 91-92, (no title) (1 excerpted text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34] (plot)
NOTES [39 words]: Burt-AmericanMurderBallads notes an obvious similarity to "Babes in the Woods." Since her (printed) source evidently does not link the song to any actual historical event, it may well be a song composed in imitation of that piece. - RBW
File: Burt092

Duncan and Brady [Laws I9]

DESCRIPTION: Policeman Brady walks into Duncan's bar and attempts to arrest the latter. Duncan, unwilling to have his business ruined, shoots Brady. Neither Brady's family nor those around Duncan seem to care much; Brady's wife looks forward to getting his pension
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: homicide family
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws I9, "Brady (Duncan and Brady)"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 248, "Brady" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 248, "Brady" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 85-87, "Duncan and Brady" (3 texts; the second is incomplete and may well be a version of "Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long)" [Laws I16] with some Brady lyrics mixed in; both the second an third start with lines from "Twinkle Twinke Little Star")
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 198-199, "Brady" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 46, pp. 80-81, "Brady, Why Didn't You Run? (Duncan and Brady)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 333-335, "Duncan and Brady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 375-376, "Been on the Job Too Long" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 596, "Duncan and Brady" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 660, DUNCBRAD
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 74, "Duncan and Brady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4177
RECORDINGS:
Arthur "Brother-in-Law" Armstrong, "Brady" (AFS 3978 B3, 1940)
Wilmer Watts & the Lonely Eagles, "Been on the Job Too Long" (Paramount 3210, 1930; on TimesAint01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Casey Jones (I)" [Laws G1] (lyrics)
cf. "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (lyrics)
cf. "Otto Wood the Bandit" (lyrics)
NOTES [409 words]: The notes in Brown describe a history of this ballad which bears little resemblance to the song itself: Brady is not a policeman but the criminal in the piece, shot by deputy Albert Bounds around 1900. Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee repeats this, but it is noteworthy that Laws quotes none of this.
Richard Polenberg: Hear My Sad Story: The True Tales That Inspired Stagolee, John Henry, and Other Traditional American Folk Songs, Cornell University Press, 2015, pp. 18-27, has a completely different story. On October 6, 1890, two Black men, Luther Duncan and Bob Henderson, had a fight. A policeman, John J. Gaffney, interfered. From that point on, the witnesses disagreed completely. But Gaffney managed to get himself hurt (perhaps struck by Luther Duncan's brother Henry) and fired his pistol to summon more policemen. At least three other officers, including James Brady, responded.
The policemen followed Henry Duncan into the saloon kept by Charles Stark. In the fighting that followed, Brady was shot to death. Henry Duncan was arrested for the crime. Charged with first degree murder (even though the crime clearly was not premeditated), Duncan was tried in November, 1892, with the policemen being the the only real witnesses against him. Duncan was convicted. Appeals to the Missouri Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court failed. Duncan was executed on July 27 (1894?).
The verdict was pretty definitely not just. Apart from the fact that Duncan was convicted on a too-serious charge, there was significant reason to think that Charles Stark, not Duncan, fired the fatal shot, and the murder weapon was not recovered; it really sounds as if there was not enough evidence for conviction. There was also significant dispute about the actions of the police. But it was a case of a Black man and a White officer (the 31-year-old Brady was married with four young children); if he hadn't been convicted, Duncan might well have been lynched. Whether he was actually guilty... Polenberg doesn't offer enough evidence to form a good opinion, and I surely don't know.
Although the circumstantial detail of the Polenberg article inclines me to think it the most likely source, the difference are also substantial -- Brady was not the first officer on the scene, and the altercation did not start in Duncan's bar; Duncan didn't even own a bar! I think we must hold the question open as to what, if anything, inspired this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: LI09

Duncan and Janet M'Cleary

See Duncan MacCleary (File: FVS302)

Duncan Campbell (Erin-Go-Bragh) [Laws Q20]

DESCRIPTION: Duncan Campbell, although he comes from Argyle in Scotland, is known as Erin-Go-Bragh. A policeman mistakes him for an Irishman and abuses him. Campbell returns the favor, then flees before anyone can stop him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1850 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3725))
KEYWORDS: abuse police
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW) Canada(Mar,Ont) Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws Q20, "Duncan Campbell (Erin-Go-Bragh)"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #127, p. 1, "Erin-go-Bragh"; #131, pp. 2-3, "Erin-go-Bragh" (1 texts plus 3 fragments)
Greig/Duncan2 236, "Erin-go-Bragh" (11 texts, 9 tunes)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 49-51, "Erin-Go-Bragh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 319, "Erin-go-Bragh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 17, "Erin Go Bragh" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 4, "Erin Go Bragh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 387, "Erin-Go-Bragh" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 134, "Duncan Campbell" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 112, "Erin-Go-Bragh (Ireland Forever)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 197, "Clay Morgan" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 50, "The Wild Irishman" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 531, ERNGOBRA*
Roud #1627
RECORDINGS:
John Strachan, "Erin-Go-Bragh" (on FSB7)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3725), "Duncan Campbell," M. Stephenson (Gateshead), 1838-1850; also Firth b.25(539), 2806 c.14(79), Firth b.26(199), Harding B 11(1026), 2806 b.10(198), Harding B 20(83), "Duncan Campbell"; Firth c.26(15), "Erin Go Bragh" ("My name's Duncan Cambell, from the shire of Argyle")
Murray, Murray, Mu23-y1:068, "Duncan Cambell," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C; also Mu23-y1:025, "Duncan Campbell," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.1270(003), "My Name Is Duncan Campbell," unknown, c. 1845; also L.C.Fol.70(57b), "Duncan Campbell," unknown, c. 1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Villikens and his Dinah" (tune) and references there
cf. "The Blaeberry Courtship" (tune, according to Greig)
cf. "Billy O'Rourke" (theme of Irishman being abused and fighting back)
cf. "The Wild Irishman in London"(theme of Irishman being abused and fighting back)
cf. "The Coat That Was Buttoned Behind (An Irishman's Coat It Is Buttoned Before)"(theme of Irishman being abused and fighting back)
SAME TUNE:
The Ballad of Jack Power (Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 18-19. Originally from the August 19, 1950 _Melbourne Argus_)
NOTES [235 words]: From the commentary to broadside NLScotland, L.C.1270(003): "This song was written in the nineteenth century, and the mention of the police puts it post-1829, when the 'Peelers' were first established." - BS
A clever but not quite certain bit of logic, since the song generally refers to "policemen," not "Peelers," and that word is older. (Also, the first Peelers served in Ireland in 1817; the concept of a unified police force then came to Britain in 1829). - RBW
From the Greig #131 fragment: "I will tell you a guise, and I'm sure ye will smile, That Erin-go-bragh was the Duke of Argyle." Greig #127 quotes Ford's last verse: "I come from Argyle in the Highlands so braw But I ne'er take it ill when called Erin-go-bragh."
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 17 differs from the common version in two ways. First, instead of being Duncan Campbell from Scotland, the hero is Paddy from Ireland (Athy), which changes it from a ballad of common cause between the Scotsman and Irishman. Second, the hero is taken by the crowd as a "bold rascal that has killed our police"; usually, he escapes. - BS
The version in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin also involves a genuine Irishman. Possibly the song family should be split into two parts -- except that there is no evidence that anyone made a deliberate change, and the versions blur together enough that it would be hard to draw a clear line. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: LQ20

Duncan M'Callipin (The Tranent Wedding)

DESCRIPTION: "It was at a wedding near Tranent, When scores an' scores on fun were bent... 'Shame tak' the hindmost,' quo' Duncan M'Callipin." A typical story of a wild wedding, the associated broose race, and the behavior of the various guests
AUTHOR: Peter Forbes?
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: wedding humorous talltale
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 42-45, "Duncan M'Callipin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5982
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Duncan MacKallikin" (subject and form)
File: FVS042

Duncan MacCleary

DESCRIPTION: "Duncan MacCleary, an' Janet his wife, Duncan MacCleary, he played on the fife: Janet she danced until she cried wearie." They live a life of quiet happiness, though he is blind and hears little. When he dies, she soon follows after
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love death dancing home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, p. 302, "Duncan and Janet M'Cleary" (1 text)
Roud #12586
File: FVS302

Duncan MacIntosh

DESCRIPTION: Duncan Macintosh was a Highlander who played bagpipes for the king at Aberdeen, danced the Highland fling, and sang "It's a braw bricht meenlicht nicht ...." His whiskers were like heather. He ate potatoes, scones and pottage and enjoyed "a drap"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: dancing drink food music Scotland nonballad royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 529, "Duncan MacIntosh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6008
File: GrD3529

Duncan MacKallikin

DESCRIPTION: "Twas for a peck o' meal ... Duncan bet on his grey mare To rin 'gainst nine or ten." One horse falls. The other horses are named as they challenge and fall back. "Duncan aye kept gallopin'" and wins the bet
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (broadside, Murray Mu23-y2:010)
KEYWORDS: wager racing derivative horse gambling
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 495, "Duncan MacKallikin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5983
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(80b), "Duncan M'Callachan" ("It was for a peck o' meal or mair"), Sanderson (Edinburgh), 1830-1910
Murray, Mu23-y2:010, "Duncan M'Callochan," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 1856
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There Cam a Young Man to My Daddie's Door" (tune, broadside Murray Mu23-y2:010)
cf. "Duncan M'Callipin" (subject and form)
NOTES [91 words]: Ford, re "Duncan M'Callipin" refers to this song as "a perverted version of the song ... but its coarseness damages its chance of popularity. Forbees's song ["Duncan M'Callipin"] deservedly has held the field."
Reluctantly I am following Ford, Roud, and Greig/Duncan3 in considering the songs "related" rather than the same. The structure, and many lines are shared. Since Ford dates a book of Forbes's poems to 1812 it seems likely that his version is the earlier. Since the songs cannot be independent I consider this version to be derivative. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3495

Duncan Macleerie

See Duncan MacCleary (File: FVS302)

Dundee Jail

DESCRIPTION: "'Oh, have you seen my Mary Ann?' was one time all the go, But now 'tis neither pot nor pan -- 'tis 'Dundee Jail You Know.'" The singer describes the hard times in Dundee Jail -- bad food, poor drink, etc. -- and hopes he never goes there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes warning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 71, "Dundee Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Anderson, My Jo, John" (tune)
NOTES [30 words]: All of this but the first verse seem to be a standard prison song; I suspect that the broadside publisher wrote a (not very coherent) first verse to make it look "different." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Gath071

Dundee Lassie (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a Dundee lassie you can see, And ye'll a'ways find me cheerfu' nae matter whaur I be... I'm spinner intae Baxter's Mill." Her father was killed in France; her mother died young, so she cannot be a teacher. Her friend lost her ove in Spain
AUTHOR: Mary Brooksbank (source: Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: worker hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 37, "The Dundee Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21588
File: Gath037

Dundee Lassie (II), The

See Jamie frae Dundee (File: Gath059)

Dundee Once More

DESCRIPTION: "In Dundee once more, It's the place that I adore, When we're in Lochee we're aye longin' tae be Back in Dundee once more." Similarly, "In the berryfields once more... When we're in Blairgowrie we're longing...." "On the whalers once more...."
AUTHOR: Mary Brooksbank (source: Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: home travel nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 21, "Dundee Once More" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21589
File: Gath021

Dundee Weaver, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I'm a Dundee weaver and I come frae bonne Dundee, I met a Glesca feller and he came courtin' me... And there the dirty wee rascal stole my thingumyjig awa'." She will tie up her corsets and wear fine clothes; no one will know her thingumyjig is gone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: humorous sex clothes seduction
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 30, The Dundee Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8108
NOTES [52 words]: Matt McGinn wrote a sort of parody/continuation of this, in which the Glasgow man receives a complaint from the weaver's husband about his activities. This is apparently popular enough to have been passed around in folk club tradition. If I read this correctly, the original is Roud #8108, the parody #7286. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Gath030

Dundee Whaler, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye brisk young whalers and listen tae me, You think that the life is saw bonnie and free," but the singer vows that, if he makes it back to Dundee, he'll never whale again. The singer describes his miserable voyage
AUTHOR: Nigel Gatherer (source: Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: whaler sailor hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 23, "The Dundee Whaler" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [78 words]: There is no evidence that Nigel Gatherer's song is traditional, but to set a song about whaling in Dundee is certainly fitting. In the days when whalers used only sail, they set out from everywhere, but as sail gave way to steam, Dundee gradually acquired a monopoly on the industry (for this, see the notes to "The Old Polina"), and the routine, as described in the song, was to set out from Dundee, resupply in Newfoundland, and then head north to take the whales. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Gath023

Dundee Whalers

See The Old Polina (File: FMB165)

Dundee, It's a Pretty Place

DESCRIPTION: "Dundee, it is a pretty place, Surrounded by a wall, Where brave Argyll did won the field With sword and cannon ball."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1634 (Hunt's Psalter)
KEYWORDS: battle
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H10c, p. 2, "Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Earl of Errol" [Child 231] (floating lyrics)
NOTES [205 words]: This seems to be known only as a "choir rhyme" in the Sam Henry collection, from 1924, used to teach choirs a tune when, as Presbyterians, they were not supposed to sing the actual words. Normally, this would not be reason to consider the piece traditional.
This text, however, or at least the first three lines, are known from Hunt's 1634 psalter, and they are also similar to lyrics in "The Earl of Errol." That says to me that this stanza, in some form or other, kicked around in tradition.
I'm not sure which battle is described in this song. Logically, one would guess that it's Archibald, eighth Earl and first Marquis of Argyll (1598-1661) -- but his military feats as a Covenanter came *after* 1634.
Archibald's father Archibald, the seventh Earl (d. 1638) was also a soldier, though his success was mixed, but he did his campaigning in the Highlands.
The other Earls of Argyll, insofar as I can follow their careers, are no better candidates (e.g. the fifth Earl was Mary Stuart's field commander at Langside, but that was a lost battle nowhere near Dundee).
Two battles are listed as taking place in Dundee, but they are dated 1645 and 1651 -- again, after the date of the psalter describing Argyll fighting at Dundee. - RBW
File: HHH10c

Dunderbeck

DESCRIPTION: The German Dunderbeck invents a steam-powered machine to turn any sort of meat into sausages. Thus vanish all the rats and cats of the town. When Dunderbeck's machine breaks down, he tries to fix it; his wife accidentally starts it with him inside.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: technology disaster animal humorous food campsong
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Randolph 488, "Donderbeck's Machine" (2 texts)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 107, pp. 135-136, "Dunderbeck" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, p. 80, "Dunderbeck" (1 text, tune referenced)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 239, "Dunderbeck" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 139-140, "The Sausage Meat Machine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 515-516, "Son of a Gun -- (Son of a Gambolier; Dunderbeck; and Rambling Wreck from Georgia Tech)"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 99, 114, 129, 232, 289, 291, "Johnny Verbeck" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 18-19, "Johnny Verbeck" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DUNDER*
Roud #4461
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier" (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "O Where O Where Has My Little Dog Gone" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Johnny Rebeck
Johnny Rebec
Johnny Robeck
NOTES [53 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 291, based on something in Fuld, seems to attribute this to Edward Harrigan. He may well have put it in one or more of his songbooks, but it isn't in the Harrigan and Braham songbook. And Harrigan didn't play Germans as much as Irish. I suspect the ultimate source is something else. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R488

Dungannon Convention, The

DESCRIPTION: "The church of Dungannon is full to the door" with Volunteer warriors. In spite of "English oppression" the volunteers stood ready to protect England from a foreign fleet. At Dungannon the delegates swore "We've suffered too long, we'll suffer no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: England Ireland patriotic political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
September 8, 1783 - Irish Volunteer Society Convention in Dungannon, Co. Tyrone (Source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815) (but see the NOTES)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 5, "The Dungannon Convention" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [474 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 p. 1: "On St Patrick's Day, 1778, the first company of Belfast Volunteers was formed in response to the danger of a possible war between Britain and France. The movement spread like wildfire and soon there were companies in all parts of Ireland. At their height they numbered 100,000 members. By the following year they had become politicized and swung their weight behind the so-called Patriot Party, those in favour of legislative independence from the British parliament and the removal of impediments to Irish commerce." - BS
According to Fry/Fry, p. 187, "In February 1782 [Henry] Grattan arranged a convention of some 250 delegates from the Volunteers, who met in the parish church of Dungannon." The result was, in effect, a declaration of parliamentary independence.
Kee, p. 32, relates that "In 1780 Grattan for the first time tried to get the Irish House of Commons to vote an Irish Declaration of Independence. He was then unsuccessful, owing to the Crown's effective control of the majority in Parliament, through the system of patronage. By the end of the following year, however, the Volunteers outside Parliament had become much stronger. They were now said to number eighty thousand men, and in 1782 a convention of democratically elected Volunteer delegates was held at Dungannon, a sort of parliament outside Parliament, backed by potential physical force for the first but by no means the last time in Irish history."
Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, p. 208, describes it this way: "How did the United Irishmen hope to secure reform? Apparently at first they still trusted to persuasion, to the pressure of public opinion. Volunteer corps and political clubs passed resolutions in favour of reform, and early in 1793 Ulster reformers held a representative convention at Dungannon, the delegates pledging their support to parliamentary reform. It was hoped that later a national convention could be held at Athlone. To radicals parliamentary reform was the first step toward a just and efficient administration of Ireland. They looked forward to the abolition of tithes, a reduction in government expenditure, lower taxation, the encouragement of trade[,] and help for parliamentary education."
The pressure was enough that, later that year, the Irish parliament gave in and voted independence unanimously (Kee, p. 33). Under that pressure, the British granted the parliament most of what it asked -- repealing even the infamous Poyning's Law that said the British parliament could override the Irish. (For further details, see the notes to "Ireland's Glory.") There would be more Dungannon Conventions in 1783 and 1793, and eventually in 1905 Bulmer Bobson and Denis McCullough founded the nationalist "Dungannon clubs" (OxfordCompanion, p. 165), but the 1782 edition was the Really Big Deal. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: Moyl005

Dungarvon Whooper (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The cook in a Dungarvon River lumber camp dies. The crew suspect the skipper murdered him. That night "fearful whoops and yells the forest fill" and are heard around "the Whooper's grave" until "God's good man" prays that they stop.
AUTHOR: Michael Whelan
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: homicide burial lumbering ghost ritual clergy
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 13, "The Dungarvon Whooper -- I" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi013 (Partial)
Roud #9198
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Where the Silvery Colorado Sweeps Along" (tune)
NOTES [128 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "Rev Edward Murdoch, the Roman Catholic parish priest at Renous, felt seriously enough about the matter to come up to Dungarvon and read the church service of exorcism. It is said that after this the evil spirit which was responsible for the horrible sounds was heard no more. But people still say they sometimes hear the Whooper, and they fear to visit the grave by the Whooper Spring. The Dungarvon River is a branch of the Main Renous River, which it joins above Quarryville....
"The train on the Canada Eastern Railway, between Fredericton and Newcastle, named for the Whooper, made its last run in 1936." - BS
For a less mysterious explanation of the origin of the name "Whooper," see the notes to "The Dungarvon Whooper (II)." - RBW
File: MaWi013

Dungarvon Whooper (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The night a group of fishermen "reached Dungarvon ... the Dungarvon Whooper was the terror of the night." All the beasts fled and the fishermen "felt very sure We could beat any Whooper ... And when he saw that he was beat He was forced to run away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: fight fishing humorous ghost
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 14, "The Dungarvon Whooper (II)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi014 (Partial)
Roud #9199
NOTES [212 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "Rev Edward Murdoch, the Roman Catholic parish priest at Renous, felt seriously enough about the matter to come up to Dungarvon and read the church service of exorcism. It is said that after this the evil spirit which was responsible for the horrible sounds was heard no more. But people still say they sometimes hear the Whooper, and they fear to visit the grave by the Whooper Spring. The Dungarvon River is a branch of the Main Renous River, which it joins above Quarryville....
"The train on the Canada Eastern Railway, between Fredericton and Newcastle, named for the Whooper, made its last run in 1936."
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi note on authorship: Someone "says this satiric song was made up by Everett Price, Billy's brother, but Billy [the singer] himself says it was written by his grandfather, Abraham Munn." - BS
Manny and Wilson offer two explanations for the origin of the name "Whooper." One, found in their notes to "The Dungarvon Whooper (I)," link it to a mysterious death and later exorcism in the area, described above and in the notes to the other "Whooper" song.
In their notes on this version, they mention the name being associated with the train on the occasion of a run with a lot of rowdy woodsmen aboard. - RBW
File: MaWi014

Dungiven Cricket Match

DESCRIPTION: The boys of Dungiven challenge the team from Derry to a cricket match. Both teams turn out, and bring crowds of supporters. The contest, naturally, is hard-fought, but Dungiven wins. The singer lists the team members
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: sports moniker
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H669, p. 179-180, "Dungiven Cricket Match" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13539
File: HHH669

Dungiveny Priory Church

DESCRIPTION: The singer wanders out, enjoying nature, when he comes to "the old church not far from Dungiven." He praises the artistic quality of the site, and bids nature to love him. He notes that life is fleeting, and bids farewell to the spot
AUTHOR: James Maxwell ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: rambling burial
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H187, pp. 162-163, "Dungiven Priory Church" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13463
NOTES [30 words]: Dungiven Priory is one of the most famous religious sites in Ireland, and is famous as the graveyard of the O'Cahan family. For details, see the notes to "The Banks of the Roe." - RBW
File: HHH187

Dunlap Creek

DESCRIPTION: "A friend and I went walking Along the public way. But things had changed so strangely From that of former days." The singer compares present with past. The fish are gone from Dunlap Creek, and the mill torn down. The main sight is a railroad tunnel
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Korson)
KEYWORDS: technology railroading fishing
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 26-27, "Dunlap Creek" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: KPL026

Dunlap's Creek

DESCRIPTION: "Sing to the Lord, ye heavenly hosts, And thou, O lord, adore, Let death and hell through all their coasts Stand trembling at his power." God's chariots are described, and his punishments; sinners are asked what they will do at judgment
AUTHOR: Words: Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
EARLIEST DATE: 1816 (The Pittsburg Selection of Psalm Tunes, according to Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad warning death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 453-454, "Dunlap's Creek" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18615
File: KPL453

Dunlavin Green

DESCRIPTION: At the time of the 1798 Rebellion, Captain Saunders betrays some of his own men to execution at Dunlavin Green. Some of the martyrs are named and mourned, and Saunders is cursed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion); 1820 (according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution lie army Ireland betrayal death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 24, 1798 - "Nineteen members of the Saundersgrove corps of yeomen, and nine of the Narraghmores, imprisoned in Dunlavin as United Irish sympathisers, were led out and summarily executed." (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 202, "Dunlavin Green" (1 text)
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 94-95, "Dunlavin Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 53, "Dunlavin Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 9, "Dunlavin Green" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 55, "Dunlavin Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3010
NOTES [203 words]: The 1798 rebellion collapsed even before it properly began, and many of the leaders were betrayed (the United Irish leaders were taken in March, and the rebellion did not take place for many months after that).
Captain Saunders led a Yeoman (Irish militia) company, and on May 22, shortly before the actual rebellion, he assembled his men and urged those who were rebels to come forward.
About twenty of the rebels, leaderless and hoping for mercy, revealed themselves. They were arrested and sent to Dunlavin.
Two days later, with rebels threatening the town, a total of 28 rebels (19 of them from Saunders's company) were summarily executed. (This seems to have been both in fear of and as an example to the rebels outside.) Such behavior was against British rules, and was condemned by many even on the English side, but as always, the atrocities were remembered longer than the regrets of the more civilized faction of the Loyalists. - RBW
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Dunlavin Green" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998)) - BS
File: Hodg202

Dunn, Gilbert, and Ben Hall

See The Ballad of Ben Hall (File: FaE088)

Dunphy's Bear

DESCRIPTION: "There was four jolly anglers together did agree To fish for trout and salmon on the southwest Miramachi." Dunphy tries to get at a bear up a tree. Eventually the bear catches him; Dunphy tries wildly to escape; the others drink his health
AUTHOR: supposedly Abraham Munn (source: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: fishing
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 168-169, "Dunphy's Bear" (1 text)
Roud #23382
NOTES [21 words]: Abraham Munn is also credited by Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine with composing the equally obscure "Bold Abraham Munn." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm168

Dunya

DESCRIPTION: Israeli." Ba bachur meh hadadeh, Be bachur ledunyale. Dunya Dunya Dunya nechmada. Dunya Dunya chaviva." The "adventures of a very forward young lady with romantic tendencies." She courts various men.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cray-AshGrove)
KEYWORDS: courting foreignlanguage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-AshGrove, p. 21, "Dunya" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [47 words]: Cray-AshGrove implies that this is a popular song in Israel brought to the United States by Sol Gold, who added two verses. But if it is popular in Israel, I can find no hint of it on the web, at least as transcribed in Cray-AshGrove (in the Roman rather than the Hebrew alphabet). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: CraAG21

Dupre Blues

See Dupree [Laws I11] (File: LI11)

Dupree [Laws I11]

DESCRIPTION: Betty asks Dupree for a diamond ring; he promises her one. He sets out for the jewelry store and steals a ring, but shoots a policeman as he escapes. Unwilling to leave Betty and/or unable to flee, he is captured, convicted, and hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Willie Walker)
KEYWORDS: homicide robbery execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 1903 - Birth of Frank DuPre
Dec 15, 1921 - Frank DuPre robs an Atlanta jewelry store
Sept. 1, 1922 - DuPre hanged
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws I11, "Dupree"
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 328-330, "Dupree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 396, "Dupree" (2 texts, but only the second is I11; Laws considers the first to be E24)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 315, "Dupree Blues" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 752, "Dupree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 239-240, "Dupree" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 73, "Betty And Dupree" (1 text, possibly modified by Brownie McGhee)
DT, BTTYDPRE
ADDITIONAL: Tom Hughes, _Hanging the Peachtree Bandit: The True Tale of Atlanta's Infamous Frank DuPre_, History Press, 2014, pp. 112-113, "(Betty Tol' DuPree)"; p. 114, "(no title)" (2 texts)
Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 398-400, "Betty and Dupree" (1 text)
Roud #4179
RECORDINGS:
Teddy Grace, "Betty and Dupree" (Decca 2602, 1939)
Art Thieme, "Betty & Dupree Blues" (on Thieme06)
Kingfish Bill Tomlin, "Dupree Blues" (Paramount 13057, 1931; rec. 1930)
Brownie McGhee, "Betty and Dupree" (on AschRec2)
Willie Walker, "Dupree Blues" (Columbia 14578-D, 1931; rec. 1930; on BefBlues1, RoughWays1, StuffDreams2)
Georgia White, "Dupree Blues" (Decca 7100, 1935)
Josh White, "Betty and Dupree" (on ClassAfrAm)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Frank Dupree" [Laws E24] (plot)
SAME TUNE:
Georgia White, "New Dupree Blues" (Decca 7209, 1936)
NOTES [4815 words]: Not to be confused with "Frank Dupree" [Laws E24]. This one is in blues form and opens with Betty asking for a ring.
Polenberg, pp. 272-273, lists no books about the story of Betty Andrews/Anderson and Frank DuPre/Dupre; there are a few web articles, plus the files of the Atlanta Constitution. However, Hughes's book came out at about the same time as Polenberg's, telling of DuPre's adventures although it doesn't have much about the romance. (Given that it lasted less than a week, there isn't all that much to know!)
I can't help but think how star-crossed the two were: They were teenagers, they hardly knew each other, and they were nitwits. Fortunately, there was no William Shakespeare to write their story, although there was Andrew Jenkins to cough up "Frank Dupree" and perhaps indirectly inspire this song.
A few noteworthy facts from Polenberg: Frank DuPre was just 18 years old at the time of his escapade (born August 1903), and barely 19 when he was hung. The spelling "Dupree" seems to be a clear error; Hughes, p. 101, has a photo of his tombstone, which clearly says "DUPRE."
DuPre's family background was unpromising. Frank (Jr.) was of two children born to Frank A. DuPre and Nannie Pearl Schroeder DuPre, the other being an older brother, Joe. The family came from Abbeville, South Carolina, but wandered around a lot because Frank Sr., a blacksmith, had trouble finding work (Hughes, pp. 18-19; there seems to be no reason to doubt that Frank Sr. was a hard worker, but it was a tough period).
DuPre's mother seems to have been emotionally disturbed; she made at least two suicide attempts, in 1916 and 1917, using laudanum the first time and disinfectant the second (Hugues, p. 19). She died in November 1918. Hughes, p. 19, hints that it was the result of the 1918 flu; Polenberg, p. 137, says it was pellegra (niacin deficiency). To develop that particular deficiency implies a truly horrendous diet (perhaps the result of the poverty caused by Frank Sr. not being able to keep a job); one wonders if Frank DuPre had suffered malnutrition as well (perhaps prenatal), which could affect his mental processes.
DuPre's education apparently ended with the eighth grade (Hughes, p. 20). He apparently was a decent worker in his first jobs after leaving school, but none of them paid well and none lasted long (Hughes, pp. 20-21). He joined the Navy in late 1920, didn't like it, and was discharged in March 1921 as the Navy downsized. By the summer of 1921, he was based in Atlanta -- and still unemployed (Hughes, p. 21). It was a tough time in Georgia; the boll weevil had reached the state in 1915, and between 1919 and 1923, the cotton crop fell by two-thirds. Banks, farms, and merchants went out of business (Martin, p. 159). It was better in Atlanta than in rural areas, but still, there was little work for young men with little useful training or experience.
DuPre apparently committed his first crime in the fall of 1921, robbing a cousin's husband of $140 and a watch (Hughes, pp. 21-22). On December 3, 1921, he robbed a jewelry store for the first time, walking off with a couple of rings with a combined value of about $2000, which he fenced for $425 (Hughes, pp. 22-23). $17 of that went to buy his first gun, a .32 Colt automatic (Hughes, p. 24; note that this contradicts the songs that, for poetic reasons, tend to call the pistol a .44). Clearly he was now committed to a life of crime.
Despite this, he apparently didn't drink, didn't swear, was shy and didn't talk much (Hughes, p. 25). He looked like, and was, a skinny teenager who, if unarmed, probably wouldn't scare anyone.
He was staying at this time at a cheap lodging, the Childs Hotel. It was in the mezzanine of this hotel that he first met the woman usually called Betty Andrews (Hughes, p. 24), properly "Betty Anderson."
If we know a fair amount about DuPre, our knowledge of Betty is limited and confusing. She was barely 18 when she met DuPre (Polenberg, p. 138), and very pretty -- although, contrary to some newspaper reports, she was not a blue-eyed blonde; Hughes, p. 42, says that she was "a brunette with large sad eyes and heavy painted pouty lips of the flapper style." This seems accurate to me based on the photos of her on p. 140 of Polenberg and p. 43 of Hughes. The photos of her make her look biracial -- which is correct; her mother was the granddaughter of Cherokee Indians (Hughes, p. 50).
There was a report that she had suffered a severe fever at a child and never recovered her mental abilities; her father allegedly said her mind "is blank at times" (Pohlenberg, p. 138). Her father denied the tale (Hughes, p. 50) -- but at her trial, the judge was told she had spent four years in the first grade; the school said she had a "positively dull mind." She certainly seems to have been emotionally unstable; in interviews before DuPre's trial she alternated between calling him insane and said she would marry him if he weren't sentenced to death (Hughes, p. 49). The stories she told were always changing. Whether she had suffered a fever or not, there really seems to have been something wrong with her -- although the descriptions don't sound like ordinary intellectual disability to me; I think there was something else going on.
She was said to have worked as a chorus girl in the touring musical "Chu Chin Chow," a loose adaption of the tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves which featured a scantily-clad dancing harem (Hughes, p. 24; Pohlenberg, p. 138), which was believable given her looks. The show was a big success (there would eventually be a movie and a big revival), but Betty claimed to have decided to stay in Atlanta after it toured there (Hughes, pp. 24-25); she would later attribute this to a weak heart (Hughes, p. 42). But no one associated with the show had ever heard of her (Hughes, p. 50). She seems to have dressed beyond the means her minor income would have allowed, but she reported having "an allowance from my father," who lived in the north (Hughes, pp. 44, 50). This too was false; she came from Gainesville, Georgia, and her father was not wealthy.
Her father's name was Joseph Guest; she had gained the name "Anderson" when, at age fifteen in 1918, she had married a man almost twice her age, a barber named Joseph Anderson. That didn't last long; Anderson claimed "she has wrecked my life" and that she didn't know what love is (Hughes, p. 50) -- although he didn't actually file for divorce until the DuPre case came along (Pohlenberg, p. 140).
She also played piano, and it was as she played the piano that DuPre first saw her. He came up to her her to tell her how much he liked her playing (Polenberg, p. 137). They went on a few dates, and he bought her some clothes. But she wanted more: "Betty was clear: if Frank wished to court her, she would have to have nice things. Frank said all she would ever have to do was ask. Betty then made the immortal admission. Betty told DuPre, 'Baby, I'd love a diamond ring'" (Hughes, p. 25).
Their affair was so torrid that it apparently took them only four days to reach this stage (Polenberg, p. 138). What would have happened had Betty asked a half a year earlier, before he turned to crime, we cannot know. By December 1921, robbing a jewelry store was not new to him.
Having fortified himself with alcohol, DuPre went to Nat Kaiser's jewelry and asked about wedding rings. The store staff apparently didn't trust him -- he was a handsome young man, but there must have been alcohol on his breath! Plus his clothes were somewhat mismatched; he wore a proper suit, but a "newsboy" cap (Hughes, p. 10). They showed him relatively inexpensive jewelry, but he demanded the $2500 ring in the window (3.25 carats on green gold).
That was an important enough item that the manager on duty, Nat Ullman came out -- and signaled their security guard, a Pinkerton named Irby C. Walker. When DuPre grabbed a $2500 ring, Walker moved to stop him -- and DuPre pulled out his gun and fatally shot him (Hughes, pp. 10, 12).
DuPre fled, shooting another man, Graham West, along the way (Hughes, p. 12), this time non-fatally.
Now DuPre had a problem. He had the ring -- but he also had the whole city of Atlanta after him. And that meant that he couldn't use the ring as a gift; he needed to pawn it to gain the money to cover his tracks. (If the Atlanta police department weren't so utterly inept, he probably would have been taken into custody already; for another example of the Atlanta authorities bungling their work, see the Mary Phagan/Leo Frank case as described in the notes to "Mary Phagan" [Laws F20]. The Atlanta police chief, James L. Beavers, had been appointed in 1911 and gone on a crusade against brothels, but was incompetent enough that he was deposed and resigned in 1915, then reappointed in 1917, ran for mayor in 1922 and didn't even make it to the second round, and was deposed again in 1923, only to be restored yet again 1925-1932; Garrett, pp. 574, 657, 699, 787, 794-795).
Apparently DuPre showed Betty the ring but didn't give it to her. Instead, he went looking for his fence. (Hughes, p. 26). And the fence... couldn't take it. Apart from the fact that it was very expensive, no pawnbroker in Atlanta could acquire such a hot item. If DuPre wanted to hock it, it had to be somewhere else.
DuPre couldn't even take a train; they were watched. Finally he and the fence, Jack Worth, found a taxi driver to who would take DuPre to Chattanooga, with the driver to be paid once DuPre had sold the ring (they had a particular pawnbroker in mind). They made plans for Betty to join him, telling her to meet him at the Cecil Hotel. She didn't show up; she wouldn't leave without her sister, and the sister was not available. By phone, they agreed that he would leave without her (Hughes, p. 27).
In Chattanooga, DuPre was once again disappointed by the pawnbroker. He wanted $700; the pawnbrokers, father and son Max and Abby Silverman, offered $495. Eventually they worked out a deal under which DuPre got $400 cash and a pawn ticket; if he gave up his claim to the ring, he'd get $200 more. Out of that $400 cash (which the Silvermans needed time to scrounge), he had to pay $90 for the taxi ride (Hughes, p. 30).
DuPre then went to Chattanooga Station to catch a train north. The driver, Clifford Buckley, headed back to Atlanta -- where he and his car had been missed; he was fired as soon as he got home. The police found his car -- with a gun that had been recently fired .32 Colt automatic; DuPre had left his gun. Buckley was promptly arrested as an accessory to murder (Hughes, pp. 30-31).
He proved a key source of information. Atlanta investigators went to the Silverman pawnshop in Chattanooga and verified that the ring they had taken was the one stolen from the Kaiser jewelers. That proved they were on the right track. Then... a Western Union message and a money order at the taxi company, asking Buckley to give a message and money to Betty Andrews; the message asked Betty to come to Norfolk to meet him. The taxi company collected the message -- and the police went for Betty (Hughes, p. 32).
Talking to the desk clerk at the Childs Hotel, the police learned that Betty had been with a man named Frank DuPre. A photo in Betty's room was positively identified by a witness who had been by the jewelry store. So the police now had a name to go with their description. Betty confirmed she had been dating DuPre. She called him a nice young man, claimed to be surprised at what he had done, and declared that she would not have gone with him (Hughes, p. 33).
They came close to catching DuPre at the Western Union office as he awaited an answer from Betty. But he escaped and sent her a letter about it. It was signed "Your lover, Frank." Betty rather than responding, took the letter to the police (Hughes, pp. 33-34). Although she did cry heavily when she saw him after his arrest (Hughes, p. 48).
DuPre really did have rocks in his head. Having made his way out of Georgia to (eventually) Detroit, he actually sent a letter to an Atlanta newspaper describing his side of things (text on pp. 37-38 of Hughes). He also wrote to Max Silverman, the pawnbroker, to try to get his $200 -- as if the pawnbroker would pay up on a stolen ring! DuPre asked that the wire transfer be sent to the Detroit post office. Silverman turned the message over, and the Detroit police started watching for him (Hughes, p. 39). He was promptly arrested -- and promptly confessed. He sent back to Georgia (Polenberg, p. 139).
Betty was no longer having anything to do with him; she denied having encouraged him, releasing a statement that read, in part, "He fell in love with me, but it was not my fault and I did nothing to encourage him to do so. God knows I am sorry for the boy, but I cannot make myself feel that I am in any way responsible for his crimes.... I did not love him, and knowing him only four days, I was scarcely in a position to aid him or influence him in the commission of a crime. I was with him on the streets only one time, and then we went to the theater" (Hughes, p. 42. He suggests a lawyer had a hand in that statement, but I suspect it accurately reflects how Betty felt.)
From the time he was taken into custody, it was just a matter of things working through the courts -- and that didn't take long. According to Hughes, p. 46, "The grand jury indicted DuPre on Friday. The trial would start on Tuesday. [DuPre's lawyer Henry A.] Allen had not even met his client." Allen managed to obtain only a two day delay.
The prosecutor, John Boyken, was one of those who had prosecuted Leo Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan, although he later admitted that that had been a mistake (Hughes, p. 49). He was very much a throw-the-book-at-them law-and-order type. Throw in a megachurch leader preaching a sermon about DuPre as an example of depravity (Hughes, p, p. 53), and it was clear that the prosecution would go for the death penalty.
Given the talk of insanity, the prosecutor had him examined, and the doctor declared DuPre sane (Hughes, pp. 51-52, has his report). The doctor involved spent only two hours with DuPre, and his history makes it clear that he could not judge sanity anyway based on the standards we would apply a century later, but it meant that the prosecution was ready for an insanity defense.
In the end, the defense didn't use an insanity argument; they just claimed that DuPre was young and innocent and not really responsible for what he did (Hughes, p. 52), plus they tried to suggest that he thought he was defending himself when the security guard stopped him at the door. The insanity defense might have prolonged the trial, but I'm sure it would have failed; DuPre was a knucklehead, and probably had a diminished moral capacity. Plus he smoked like a chimney, which is a trait associated with several psychological disorders. It really sounds as if he had an impulse control disorder. Still, he certainly understood that murder was wrong.
There was no change of venue (Hughes, p. 57) despite what was clearly a heavily corrupted jury pool -- the case had been all over the newspapers and preached from the pulpits; it was the talk of the town.
The prosecution offered witnesses to show that DuPre had committed the crime; the defense didn't even really try to contest this (Hughes, pp. 57-61). Witnesses said that DuPre smiled during much of the trial -- evidence I think of his foolishness or mental disorder, but it didn't help his case.
After the prosecution finished, the defense declined to call any witnesses, since they didn't have many they could call and by omitting witnesses, they would get the last word with the jury (Hughes, p. 61). That left one more stage before the final arguments: Under Georgia law, the defendant, without going on oath, was permitted to make a statement about the case. This could be of any length -- but it had to be the defendant speaking to the judge and jury, without help from his lawyer (the Supreme Court would eventually rule this unconstitutional, but not until 1961; Hughes, p. 62). DuPre's lawyers either failed to brief him for this or he forgot his instructions; given unlimited time, he spoke for only about a quarter of an hour; the newspaper transcript of the statement takes just barely more than two pages on pp. 63-65 of Hughes. DuPre briefly told the story of his life, then basically re-confessed (while saying he didn't remember the murder), and denied that Betty was involved -- meaning the defense couldn't even blame her (although they still hinted it was her fault; Pohlenberg, p. 141).
Crucially, he never apologized or said he was sorry for what he had happened (Hughes, p. 62). After that, there really wasn't much Allen and DuPre's other lawyers could do except plead for mercy. The whole thing had taken just two days (Pohlenberg, p. 142).
Under Georgia law at this time, there were only two verdicts involving someone dying: voluntary manslaughter (when there was some degree of provocation) and murder. If the verdict was murder, then the jury could recommend mercy (meaning a life sentence) or not recommend mercy (meaning the death penalty). Allen wasn't trying to get DuPre off; they were just trying to save him the death penalty (Hughes, p. 67).
The jury took an evening and part of a morning to reach a verdict; it was later reported that they needed twelve ballots. DuPre was convicted of murder, with no recommendation for mercy (Hughes, p. 68). The judge (who had no option) sentenced him to be hanged, although he allowed the defense a preliminary hearing for an attempt at a new trial.
Personally, I think the new trial was deserved; justice had been so swift that the defense had had no time to figure out what to do. The jury had clearly been tainted; several jurors were allowed to affirm that they had no prejudices, but had been heard saying that DuPre should swing (Hughes, pp. 74-75; under Georgia law, a sworn statement that one was unbiased had precedence over evidence of bias)). And, although Atlanta had seemed to be roaring for his blood before the trial, things started to change after that. The famous evangelist Billy Sunday thought DuPre should live. Other clergymen also called for clemency. And so did voices from the Ku Klux Klan -- if DuPre died, he would be the first white man executed in Georgia since 1912; it was declared that "Georgia did not hang white folk" (Hughes, pp. 70-71).
The Georgia Supreme Court took the case, and considered four issues -- but it rejected two of them, including the jury bias claim, outright; it was split 3-3 on the other two, meaning that the result would stand (Hughes, pp. 76-77). They admitted some problems with the charge to the jury, and with juror bias, but not enough to overturn the result. Based on Polenberg's comments on p. 142, it sounds as if the crucial matter for at least some of the judges was that they didn't want to give the impression to other criminals that *they* could get off; Georgia was having a crime wave which needed to be stopped. (The crime wave part was true, but study after study has shown that retributive justice doesn't work. Given what the Georgia courts were like at that time, though, appeals to facts were unlikely to succeed!)
That left only appeals to the the governor and the Georgia Prison Commission for clemency. There were public appeals for funds for this; Frank didn't have the money to pay his lawyers. Hughes declares: "Let it be clearly understood: the campaign to save Frank DuPre from a rope was driven by the reality that Georgia was about to hang a white boy" (p. 79). Nonetheless the lawyers did the work that they hadn't been able to do before, including bringing in a psychologist who reports that Frank was a "high-grade moron" (Hughes, p. 79). Had this been known before Frank's first trial, the lawyers might well have tried to get an easier verdict on the grounds of "diminished capacity." However, Hall, p. 195, says "Most states do not allow this defense." In any case, it probably needed to be brought up at trial, not on appeal -- and, of course, there was no time for that.
(I would add, as an aside, that I don't believe that Frank DuPre had intellectual disability pure and simple, at least not as we would define it today. A later psychologist gave him a standard IQ test, on which he scored 80.7. That's low, of course -- but by itself does not qualify one for an intellectual disability diagnosis, for which the approximate cutoff is 70. And besides, the IQ tests of the time were biased against many groups, including uneducated Southerners. Examiners back then were flatly incompetent, and their diagnosis means nothing, but it sounds to me as if Frank's condition was more complex -- my gut feeling, based mostly on the amount he smoked, is that he had incipient schizophrenia. But that's a wild guess. I definitely suspect that Frank and Betty hit it off so fast because of their mental disorders -- people with similar disorders are often attracted to each other.)
The campaign drew a lot of support -- more than 12,000 people signed petitions on DuPre's behalf, which is more than for any case in Georgia history except the Leo Frank case (Hughes, pp. 79-80) -- in which, of course, Frank was innocent, whereas DuPre was unquestionably guilty. Meanwhile, DuPre was joining the Episcopal Church (Hughes, pp. 80-81), although it's not clear whether this was from genuine belief of an attempt to clean up his image. It didn't help. The Prison Commission was unanimous in recommending against clemency (Hughes, p. 81), and the request went to Governor Hardwick with that (lack of) recommendation. Little wonder, then, that DuPre's request was rejected (Polenberg, p. 143). The process had gained DuPre a few more months of life, but after that, a new execution date was set. Polenberg, p. 144 shows him in prison in the month before his execution, dressed in a suit and tie and looking handsome.
Betty, even though she was in the same prison, was not allowed a final visit. The sheriff did finally allow her to send a note, in which she promised to "be good" and "lead a Christian life." It was signed, "Lovingly, Betty" (Hughes, pp. 97-98). Because the elevator went by the women's floor, he briefly saw her as he rode up to the execution chamber. He waved and told her he would see her in heaven; she sobbed and shrieked that she would be good (Hughes, p. 98; I can't help but think how much her behavior sounds like an abused child trying to save herself further punishment even though she does not know what she has done wrong).
DuPre was hung in September 1922, less than a month after his nineteenth birthday. Several reporters thought he was smiling before the drop (Hughes, p. 100).
Like just about everyone involved in law enforcement in Atlanta, the hangman was incompetent; DuPre's neck was not broken, and it took him fourteen minutes to die of strangulation (Polenberg, p. 144).
Various others associated with DuPre -- Worth, the fence; Buckley, the driver; others -- went on trial while DuPre's appeal were going forward (there had been hope that DuPre would testifty, but Worth's attorney found a legal argument that a man condemned to death could not testify). So it was Buckley who was the state's lead witness. Worth got three years (but served only one); Buckley got one year; others got minor punishments (Hughes, pp. 72-73). Silverman, the pawnbroker who bought the big diamond ring, actually got a cut of the roughly $2000 reward money for DuPre, although he probably lost money on the deal overall (Hughes, p. 106)
Which left Betty. She was under suspicion as an accessory for a long time (Boykin declared that he would certainly prove Betty's involvement; Hughes, p. 50; and had her arrested on January 19, 1922; Pohlenberg, p. 140). Buckley didn't go through with it, though. On March 4, Buckley suggested that she would plead guilty to a "statuatory offense" -- which I suspect is the charge often brought against prostitutes. Betty, when asked how she wanted to plead, refused to plead guilty. But her lawyer calmed her down and told the judge, in effect, that she was feeble-minded. She was given a one year suspended sentence and placed in the custody of her father (Hughes, p. 73).
She apparently did make another attempt to visit DuPre. The judge considered this a violation of her parole, and told her he would never let her see her, but he decided not to arrest her because she was so ignorant -- although he warned her that another visit to Atlanta would put her in prison (Hughes, p. 75). But her father couldn't control her and she was ordered to prison. As it happened, she spent the period leading up to DuPre's execution on a different floor of the prison in Atlanta, but as we saw, they weren't permitted to see each other (Hughes, p. 77).
Polenberg isn't aware of what happened to Betty after that (Polenberg, p. 145). But she was paroled in October 1922, got in trouble again for making noise, staying out late, and walking in "unconventional attire." Taken back into custody, she was released three days later to Reverend Gasque, one of the observers of DuPre's execution. He tried to find a quiet place for her, and apparently succeeded, because little is heard of her for the next decade, until Peggy Guest (her maiden name) married Maurice Blaustein on August 2, 1932 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, a military supply officer (who was disowned by his family for marrying a non-Jew). The two apparently had no children, but took care of a boy, Robert, who was known by the name Blaustein although apparently never formally adopted (it sounds as if Betty and Robert never got along). She died on June 27, 1972, at the age of 68, being an accepted member of a Lutheran Church. Her husband survived her (Hughes, p. 108; it appears all this information came from a talk with Robert Blaustein in 2013 and her obituary in an Amarillo paper, where the Blausteins had gone on retirement).
Given that she was not yet twenty at the time of the DuPre affair, meaning that there was every reason to think she might still be around in the 1960s when songs about "Dupree" (as it came to be spelled) became popular again. I'm surprised no one tried to find her. To be sure, the idea of an *old* Betty is hard to fathom....
Cohen repeats a common claim that DuPre was the last man legally hanged in Georgia. Another common statement is that it was the last public hanging -- but it wasn't public; public hangings had ended in 1893. It took place on the prison grounds (Hughes, p. 97). And there would be more (DuPre's, in fact, was the second on the prison grounds on that very day). DuPre's execution did increase the pressure to abolish the death penalty -- but not by much. It is true that Georgia decided to get an electric chair soon after; it was constructed in 1924. But there were hangings in Georgia as late as 1931 (Hughes, p. 105). Hughes even has a chapter entitled "The Last Man to Hang in Georgia (Not)."
It will tell you something about the Pinkerton Agency that they tried to deny survivor's benefits to the widow of Irby Walker, the slain Pinkerton security guard at the jeweler's (Hughes, p. 106), although it is estimated that they spent about $5000 of their own money to find his killer.
This story seems to have been largely written out of Atlanta history. I checked four histories of Atlanta, including Garrett's, which is comprehensive, and Williford, which is explicitly about Peachtree Street -- and not one of them mentioned the DuPre case. Every one of them, by contrast, mentioned the Leo Frank case. I suppose the fact that, in this case, they had the right man made it less noteworthy. But it's still odd that it seems to have been so thoroughly forgotten.
Anyone wishing to visit the sites behind this song will probably be disappointed. Sawyer/Matthews has no listing for the Peters Building on Peachtree Street, where Kaiser's Jewelry was located. Williford, p. 82, gives the site of the Peters Building as 1 Peachtree Street (the very center of the shopping district), says it was seven stories high, and says it was "built beside the railroad tracks upon property which had long been owned by the railroad and by [Richard] Peters' father-in-law, Dr. Joseph Thompson." Somewhat later, a viaduct was built over the tracks, which was in place by DuPre's time. Google Maps seems to confirm that there is indeed little old architecture left in the area; similarly, there is no longer a hotel on South Broad Street that might once have been the Childs Hotel where Frank and Betty first met, though there are a few buildings that look as if they might have been hotels. The Georgia State University Library site says that the old Fulton County Jail, where Frank was imprisoned and executed, and its landmark "The Tower," were demolished in 1962. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: LI11

Dupree Tol' Betty

See Dupree [Laws I11] (File: LI11)

Durant Jail, The

See The Cryderville Jail (File: LxU090)

Durch Gnad so will ich singen (Through Grace Will I Sing)

DESCRIPTION: Amish hymn in German.. "Durch Gnad so will ich singen, in Gottes Furcht heben an." "Through Grace I will sing, And raise my song in the fear of God. Love God above all things, and also your neighbor; that is the Law and the Prophets."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1742 (Amish Ausbund, #56, according to Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad foreignlanguage travel
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 155-156, "Durch Gnad so will ich singen (Through Grace Will I Sing)" (1 short German text plus not-very-literal translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [91 words]: Derived from one of the accounts of Jesus's description of the Greatest Commandment and the way to eternal life, e.g. Luke 10;27, but especially the Greatest Commandment, Matt. 22-36-40: "Teacher, which of the Law's commandments is the greatest? [Jesus] answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: KPL155B

Durex Is a Girl's Best Friend

DESCRIPTION: "A poke with a bloke may be quite incidental, Durex is a girl's best friend." A brief summary of all the advantages to a girl of having sex while protected
AUTHOR: unknown (lyrics to "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend by Leo Robin,music by Jule Styne, 1949)
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: sex derivative humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 67, "Durex Is a Girl's Best Friend" (1 text)
Roud #10261
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" (tune)
NOTES [23 words]: Morgan/Green-RugbySongs doesn't say this is sung to the tune of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," but it is self-evident that it is. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RuSoDGBF

Durham ffeilde

See Durham Field [Child 159] (File: C159)

Durham Field [Child 159]

DESCRIPTION: Edward III is at war in France, so the king of Scotland invades England. In battle, he fares badly and is taken prisoner to London. Edward has returned. The Scottish king admits an English yeoman is worth a Scottish knight.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: fight war prisoner
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1327-1377 - Reign of King Edward III of England
1346 - Battle of Neville's Cross (Durham). King David of Scotland defeated and taken prisoner by the English, even though their main army was fighting in France
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 159, "Durham Field" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 190-200, "Durham ffeile" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 126, "Durham Field" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 147-154, "Durham Field" (1 text)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 22-31, "Durham FIeld" (1 text)
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3249
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 245
Roud #3998
NOTES [2735 words]: According to Fowler, p. 158 n. 25, this is one of eighteen ballads in the Child collection found only in the Percy Folio.
I strongly doubt that this was traditional, although it may have been intended for a "popular" rather than a courtly audience. For one thing, the event it describes is too old. And it's too nationalistic; it lacks the impartiality of most ballads.
Incidentally, although you often see the name of this listed as "Durham Ffield," that is genuinely not correct; in the Middle Ages, "F" at the start of a word was written (more or less) "Ff." So when the Percy Folio wrote "Ffield," that should be transcribed as "Field."
The Battle of Neville's Cross (almost never called Durham, although it took place near that city) was partly the result of the ongoing wars between England and Scotland and partly the result of the wars between England and France. It started with Edward II's loss at Bannockburn. He never did manage to negotiate a peace, so the Scots continued to raid the north of England, and Edward II never managed to stop it. Then Edward II was deposed in 1326 and killed in 1327 by his wife Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer, replacing him with his son Edward III. But Edward was, at first, a figurehead; it was Isabella and Mortimer running things. And they needed to put the country in order after the chaos of Edward II's incompetent reign. Among other things, they needed peace with the Scots. They made a peace in 1328 -- the crowning achievement of the reign of Robert the Bruce, who died the next year (Magnuson, pp. 190-196).
But Edward III did not like the peace made in his name, and when he overthrew Isabella and Mortimer in 1330, the peace went out the window. And Edward had a peculiar card to play: Although his grandfather Edward I had deposed the legitimate king John Balliol (for background, see the notes to "Gude Wallace" [Child 157]), Edward III took up the cause of John Balliol's son Edward Balliol (c. 1283-1364). Without formally abrogating the peace, Edward III encouraged Balliol to try to retake his inheritance from Robert Bruce's son David II, who had been born in 1324 and was still unable to rule in his own right. Balliol took 88 ships from the Humber to Fife and, with English help won a battle over the Scottish regent at Dupplin Moor in July 1332 (Keay/Keay, pp. 57, 275). Balliol then went to Scone to be crowned King of Scotland -- and promptly pledged fealty to Edward III and ceded large territories (Magnusson, p. 197. The deal is a good illustration of Edward's tendency to overreach; if he had tried for less, he might actually have gotten i).
But Balliol dodn't know how to run a country, and was (correctly) perceived as an English puppet anyway, and a December 1332 raid on Annan, where he was staying, sent him scurrying (supposedly only partially clothed) for shelter in England (Magnusson, p. 198). Edward III came to his aid, and the two sides prepared to battle it out for the throne. Edward III took an army to conquer Berwick, and it met the army of the new regent, Archibald Douglas, at Halidon Hill on July 19, 1333. Edward at this battle showed the tactic that served him so well in the French wars, the combined use of archers and men-at-arms, and the Scots were utterly defeated -- Douglas and three other Scots earls fell; the English supposedly lost only 14 men! (Magnusson, pp. 198-199). The English felt that Bannockburn had been avenged. England, on its face, ruled Scotland, and David Bruce had to flee to France. For some years, the English tried to support Balliol on the throne, but the people simply didn't accept it, and Edward could not or would not commit the resources to keep his supporters safe (Reid, p. 129). The regent Sir Andrew Moray managed to slowly turn things around, fighting a guerilla war that the English just didn't know how to combat; in 1342 Balliol again had to flee to England (Reid, p. 130). It didn't take long for Edward III to decide that he was more interested in fighting France than Scotland (Magnusson, pp. 199-202).
In 1337, Edward claimed the throne of France and launched the Hundred Years' War. At first, he couldn't get the French to fight, and drove himself to bankruptcy trying to raise armies (Wagner, p. 121) -- but on August 26, 1346 he won the Battle of Crecy and settled down to the siege of Calais. Suddenly it was the French who were in trouble, and they called upon David Bruce (who had returned to Scotland in 1341, by which time almost all of Scotland was back in Scots hands; Magnusson, p. 202; Oram, p. 134). The Scots had been raiding England anyway; David was happy to escalate the conflict. The time seemed opportune, since Edward and many of his high nobles were in France; England seemed stripped of defenders.
The Scottish army entered England near the peel tower of Liddell (map on p. 551 of Sumption), which was on the border almost due north of Carlisle in Cumbria. They sacked Liddell and killed its commander (Sumption, p. 551). Then they sacked Lanercost Priory (Webb, pp. 20-21. The former was considered a legitimate act of war; the latter wasn't, but that rarely stopped raiders). They passed through Cumbria to County Durham via Hexham. looting all the way and facing little opposition once Liddell had fallen.
That success perhaps maid the raiders overconfident. They didn't even hurry to occupy Durham before the battle. (The town apparently had offered a ransom -- Wagner, p. 228 -- and the Scots probably thought they had it at their mercy anyway. Webb, p. 36, suggests on the basis of Andrew Wyntoun's Chronicle that David may have been drinking when told there were English forces in the area) The Scots were overconfident. Archbishop William de la Zouche of York, Lord Ralph Neville, Lord Henry Percy, and others gathered an army at Durham to meet the Scots (Magnusson, p. 203). The stage was set for battle at Neville's Cross, just west of Durham (it is now inside the Durham suburban area).
(For the record, Lord Neville had nothing to do with the "Neville's Cross" of the song title; there were apparently several stone crosses in the vicinity of Durham, and one near the battlefield was called Neville's Cross. One suspects it seemed like a good omen to Ralph Neville, though.)
Knowing what happened in a medieval battle is usually almost impossible (e.g. the Lanercost Chronicle claimed that the Scots had 22,000 men while Andrew of Wyntoun would only credit them with 2,000; Froissart gives the impossible figure of 50,000; Webb, pp. 66, 82,99), but it is thought that the Scottish army was a little bigger than the English; Wagner, p. 228, suggests it was the largest Scottish army assembled in the fourteenth century. (Sumption, p. 550, thinks the Scots might have had 12,000, whereas on p. 552 he credits the English into no more than 4000.) King David's army organized in three schiltrons, the phalanxes they had used to win at Bannockburn 32 years earlier. David commanded the center schiltron, his nephew Robert Stewart was on his left, and Sir William Douglas on the right. The Scots did not expect to encounter an English army so soon; it was Douglas who first encountered the English forces and was driven back in a preliminary skirmish (Sumption, p .552).
The English were also in three divisions, the Archbishop of York (assisted by Sir Thomas Rokeby) on the left, Lord Neville in the center (making him at least de facto the army commander), and Percy on the right. They also had a cavalry reserve under Edward Balliol. (Magnusson, pp. 203-204).
But the English army had more than just footmen and cavalry; they also had longbowmen. Magnuson, p. 204, thinks that the Scots attacked, and were pushing the English back before Balliol wrecked their advance with flank attack, but Reid, pp. 131-132, thinks the Scots tried to wait out the English, not wanting to fight another Halidon -- particularly since they would have to fight uphill. After seven hours of that, the English pushed their archers forward and started firing into the Scots ranks, and that was what was forced the Scots -- disorganized by their casualties -- to advance and be overwhelmed. Reid doesn't even mention Balliol. Webb, pp. 38-39, thinks that Douglas advanced his division and was attacked by the English bowman, who also stopped a Scottish cavalry charge before the rest of the Scots army moved up and were attacked by Balliol.
Whatever the course of the battle, three things stood out: dozens of Scottish nobles were dead; King David was wounded among his troops (twice hit by arrows, according to Wagner, p. 229), overpowered, and captured -- and Robert Stewart, David's heir until and unless the unmarried king could have a child, retreated after the battle with his schiltrom. There was disagreement, which lasts to this day, over whether he cut and ran to save his own skin or did his best to save the wreck of the army. What is certain is that, as the senior living member of the royal family (the only one, really), he became regent.
David was eventually freed, after 11 years, but never had a legitimate child; the descendants of Robert Stewart became the Stewart/Stuart/Steward dynasty. In the short term, Robert avoided English adventures -- and probably did his best to see to it that David was not released (Magnuson, pp. 204-205).
It will I assume be evident that "Durham Field" completely misrepresents what was going on, with its claim that David intended to take over all England and distribute it among his nobles rather than just run a big raid for fame, plunder, and maybe a little territorial advantage. If that claim is based is based on anything -- and it probably isn't -- it is perhaps David's claim, reported in one of the chronicles, that he would soon see London (Webb, p. 22). That prophecy proved true, but David didn't make it there at the head of his troops!
Another blatant mistake is the claim that the Bishop of Durham -- the chief officer of the county and in charge of its military -- was present; he was almost certainly away, probably in France (Webb, p. 35; the proof of this is that the prior of Durham had to write a letter to the bishop to explain what had happened (another account describes the prior having a vision about invoking the aid of St. Cuthbert -- Webb, p. 75 -- so the whole thing was very mystical). Froissart said the bishop was there, according to Webb, p. 60, but Froissart was notoriously unreliable; he also said that England's Queen Philippa and the Archbishop of Canterbury were there -- Webb, p. 97 -- and that we would know about from other sources if true! Froissart didn't even locate the battle correctly; he placed it at Newcastle -- Webb, p.100). The song is so far from the truth that I find it hard to even comment on the details in the song; often I can't figure out even what the mistakes are based on. Child's notes will do as a starting point for the various inaccuracies. Earls whom Sumption, p. 553, says were present were Moray (killed), Douglas (captured), Fife (captured and prosecuted as a traitor, since he had previously sworn fealty to England), and Menteith (captured and executed as a traitor). Ranald, Lord of the Isles, had supposedly been killed even before the battle in a fight with the Earl of Ross (Webb, p. 69, quoting Andrew of Wyntoun -- who in addition to the earls named by Sumption also listed Strathearn as killed and Wigtown and Sunderland as captured; Webb, p. 73)
The song is at least right in saying that David was said to have been captured by an English esquire, or perhaps a yeoman, John de Coupland or Copeland (Oram, p. 135). David may have hidden under a bridge or some such place; apparently Coupland found him while hunting ransomable prisoners (Webb, pp. 42-43, who says that Copeland was wanted as a border reiver, but catching David got him a pardon and, of course, a big payment. Although David apparently knocked out out a couple of Coupland's teeth before being forced to yield; Sumption, p. 553.)
Webb, p. 44, reports a claim that, in addition to David, four earls, two barons, a bishop, and an archbishop were captured. However, at this time, there would have been no archbishop for the English to capture -- unless they captured their own Archbishop Zouche!). The English may not have captured such high clergy, but the loss of lords was bad enough: Scotland "lost in a single day almost all of its leaders" (Sumption, p. 553).
The DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse and Robbins, p. 263, cross-reference this with their DIMEV #4861=Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3117, which is Laurence Minot's poem "The Battle of Neville's Cross," beginning "Sir David the Bruse was at distance When Edward the Baliolfe [sic.] rade with his lance." That also exists in only one copy (London, British Library, MS. Cotton Galba E.ix), although that copy is much closer to the time of the event.
The easiest way to find Minot's verse is now Osberg's edition; this is also one of four Minot poems printed by Robbins (pp. 31-34). Osberg modernizes the orthography; Robbins gives the original, which still uses both Þ and ȝ. Both include helpful commentaries.
I don't know if Child ignored "The Battle of Neville's Cross" or if he was unaware of it, but it is probably the former. He should have had access to it; it had been published by Ritson in 1825 (Poems written anno MCCCLII. By Laurence Minot) and in Thomas Wright's 1859 Political Poems and Songs Relating to English History, Volume I.
"Laurence Minot, who gives his name twice ([poem] 5 l[ine]1; [poem] 7 l[ine] 20), wrote eleven poems on the wars of Edward III, preserved in MS. Galba E IX. f[olio] 49 r[ecto] ff. (early 15th century). The poems were written between 1333 and 1352, each apparently soon after the event that it commemorates. Later the author revised them, and united them by placing at their heads metrical titles that link the neighboring pieces together" (Wells, p. 215). Wells considers the dialect to be Northern with some midland forms. Emerson, who on pp. 157-165 prints three Minot poems (but not "Neville's Cross") under the improbable chapter title "The Songs of Lawrence Minot," also considers his dialect to be northern. Emerson, p. 291, says that there were people named Minot in Yorkshire and Norfolk in the fourteenth century; he thinks the midland forms might have been adjustments made by a copyist rather than the result of Minot living in a region which used a mixed dialect.
The first two poems in Minot's collection are about the battle of Halidon Hill (July 19. 1333); "Neville's Cross," which is #IX, is about an event from 1346; poem XI refers to Edward III's attack on Guînes/Guisnes in 1352 (Osberg, p. 110).
Nothing is known about Minot except his name; although he probably wrote his poems in hope of courting favor, there is no hint that Edward III ever paid him any attention.
I certainly don't see much link between the Minot and Percy Folio poems. "Durham Field," except for an odd first stanza which I suspect is grafted in, is in standard ballad meter (4343, rhymed xaxa). The Minot poem (Osberg, pp. 59-60) is in irregular stanzas, six lines or eight lines, with the first four or six lines rhyming aaaa(aa) and the last two bb (although Minot several times uses the same rhyme for all the lines of the stanza). The meter is... interesting. Osberg prints it in four-stress lines with a caesura, but Robbins, p. 31, says it was written in short lines. Wells, p. 216, says that Minot's "Poems 2, 5, 9, 10, 11 are in alliterative long lines aaaabb with prevailing trochaic or dactylic effect." That's a little strong; although the rhymes are pretty consistent, both alliteration and meter are frequently violated. I would be inclined to say that Minot strove for alliteration, but did not insist on it, and as far as meter goes, he probably tried but he was more interested in saying what he wanted to say than in making it scan. RItson called him a good versifier, but if anyone since thinks he was a great poet, I've not heard about it. (E.g. Sisam, p. 151, says "Minot was a better patriot than poet, and his boisterous contempt for the Scota and the French reflects the spirit of England in the early days of Edward III's greatness.")
Collette, according to Osbert, p. 102, observed a strong link between Minot's poem about this battle and a Latin poem that opened "Si valeas paleas, Vaolyes, dimitte timorem." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: C159

Durham Gaol

DESCRIPTION: "Ye'll all hev heard of Durham Gaol," but you probably can't imagine what it's like, strongly guarded as it is, "There's ne good luck in Durham Gaol"; just humiliation and deprivation, work and poor food, bad clothes of corderoy, and hard work
AUTHOR: Tommy Armstrong (1848-1919) (source: Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Lloyd, Come All Ye Bold Miners)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes clothes food work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 247-250, "Durham Gaol" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There Is No Luck" (tune)
NOTES [18 words]: For (a little) background on author Tommy Armstrong, see the notes to "Durham Strike (Durham Lockout)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: SCWKC247

Durham Jail

See The Cryderville Jail (File: LxU090)

Durham Strike (Durham Lockout)

DESCRIPTION: "In our Durham County I am sorry for to say, That hunger and starvation is increasing every day." The mine is shut down; "the masters have behaved unkind." The miners face great hardship but hope to prevail if others will support them.
AUTHOR: probably Tommy Armstrong (1848-1919)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Lloyd, "Come All Ye Bold Miners")
KEYWORDS: mining strike hardtimes
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1892 - the Durham Strike
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, p. 14, "The Durham Strike" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DURHLOCK*
NOTES [187 words]: This song refers to the great Durham Coal Strike of 1892. The company wanted to impose a pay cut of 10%. The miners -- who, naturally, were already living on next to nothing -- went on strike. But coal is easy to come by; after two months, the miners were forced to return to work -- and to take an even larger pay cut.
Tommy Armstrong seems to have devoted his energy to mining and labour poetry; the three songs by him listed in Granger's Index to Poetry are "The Oakey Street Evictions," "The Row Between the Cages," and "The Trimdon Grange Explosion."
Armstrong was a miner who used songwriting and entertaining to supplement his meager earnings. He needed this especially because he had a large family (supposedly fourteen children) and a taste for drink. I've seen his death date listed as 1920 rather than 1919.
His songs in the Index are "The Collier's Rant," "Durham Strike (Durham Lockout)," "The Oakey Strike Evictions," and "Durham Gaol."
The Digital Tradition lists this to the tune of "Tramps and Hawkers/Paddy West," but the tune in MacColl/Shuttle is not that though it looks like it might be related. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: MacCS014

Durie Down

See A Comical Ditty (File: Abrr085)

Dus Ha My A Gan Dhys (Come and I Will Sing You)

See Green Grow the Rushes-O (The Twelve Apostles, Come and I Will Sing You) (File: ShH97)

Dusky Night Rides Down the Sky, The

DESCRIPTION: "The dusky night rides down the sky, And ushers in the morn; The hounds all rise in joyous cry" as they set out to hunt the fox. The wife begs her husband to stay, but "Away he goes," until the fox is exhausted. The hunters go home to celebrate
AUTHOR: Words: Henry Fielding (source: Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
KEYWORDS: hunting death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 651-652, "The Dusky Night Rides Down the Sky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24420
File: CPMDNRDS

Dust an' Ashes

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "The Lord shall bear my spirit home (x2)."Verses: "Dust and ashes fly over my grave." Jesus is crucified. Joseph takes his body and lays it in the tomb. An angel rolls the stone away. The grave can not hold him and he rises from the dead.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 213-218, "Dust an' Ashes" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 251-255 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #15291
NOTES [21 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses each line is repeated three times. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett213

Dust My Broom

DESCRIPTION: Singer will leave ("dust my broom") in the morning; a friend can have his room. He won't have a woman who "wants every downtown man she meets." He'll write a letter, telephone every town, to find his "good girl."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (recording, Robert Johnson)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity parting rejection nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Elmo (Elmore) James, "Dust My Broom" (Trumpet 146, 1952)
Robert Johnson, I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" (Vocalion 03475, 1936)
James "Son Ford" Thomas, "Dust My Broom" (on USMississippi01)
Howlin' Wolf, "Dust My Broom" (2008, on "Rockin' the Blues - Live in Germany 1964," Acrobat AC-5122-2)(1991, on "The Chess Box," MCA CHD3-9332)
NOTES [192 words]: The description covers commonly sung verses. One additional verse begins "I believe, I believe": Johnson sings "... I'll go back home, You can mistreat me here but you can't when I go home"; James and Howlin' Wolf sing ... my time ain't long, I got a letter ... they're breaking up my happy home."
From David Evans's liner notes to USMississippi01: "Son Thomas's 'Dust My Broom' stems from a version by Elmore James first recorded in 1951, but James himself got the song from a recording by Robert Johnson made in 1936." The trail leading to Thomas's version is not clear. The accompaniment, like most covers of the song I have heard, follows the Elmore James arrangement (Of the recordings I've heard, only Howlin' Wolf's follow Robert Johnson's arrangement; listen to the slide or piano under the first line of each verse). On the other hand, of the four verses Thomas sings, one is sung by Johnson and not by James: "I'm going to call China see if my baby is over there ..." Another feature of Thomas's version is that it softens an insult that both Johnson and James sing: instead of "she's a no good dooney," Thomas sings "she's a no good woman." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcDuMyBr

Dusty Bluebells

See I am the Master (Dusty Bluebells) (File: HHH048a)

Dusty Miller (II)

See The Miller Boy (Jolly is the Miller I) (File: R518)

Dusty Miller, The

DESCRIPTION: "Hey the dusty miller [(x2)], Dusty was his coat, dusty was his colour, dusty was the kiss That I got frae the miller." "Hey the dusty miller, With his dusty coast, He will spend a shilling Ere he win a groat."
AUTHOR: adapted by Robert Burns, but the extent of his changes is not clear
EARLIEST DATE: 1788 (Burns)
KEYWORDS: miller courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 454, "The Dusty Miller" (2 texts, 3 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 178-179, "The Dusty Miller" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 351, "O the little rusty dusty miller" (2 texts)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 107, "(O the dusty miller)" (1 text)
DT, DSTYMILR*
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #201, pp. 311, "Dusty Miller" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1788)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #144, p. 155, "Dusty Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5959
File: MSNR107

Dutch Courtship

DESCRIPTION: "Thar ware a time, a good old time, I ware in Dutchland far away." Hans wishes he could go back. Hailey refuses. He decides to drown himself. She calls him back. They will buy a farm and scare people away with the smell of "limbergar" cheese
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (McIntosh)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous death separation marriage food farming river
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 411-413, "Dutch Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15139
File: RDBW411

Dutch Lullaby, The

See Slaap, Kindje, Slaap (The Dutch Lullaby) (File: CAFS1085)

Dutch Volunteer, The

DESCRIPTION: "It vas in Ni Orleans city, I first heard der drimes und fif, Und I vas so full mit lager, Dot I care nix for my life," so the German volunteers for the Southern army. Part of Hood's army, he flees from battle and gives advice on how to survive
AUTHOR: Harry McCarthy (1834-1888)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1870 (source: Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra; but see note)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 58, "The Deutscher Volunteer" (1 fragmented text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: W. L. Fagan, editor, _Southern War Songs: Camp-fire, Patriotic, and Sentimental_, M. T. Richardson & Co, New York, 1890 (available on Project Gutenberg), p. 10, "The Dutch Volunteer" (1 text)
NOTES [200 words]: Harry McCarthy was best known (exclusively known, really) for writing the words to "The Bonnie Blue Flag." As an entertainer, he was perfectly willing (like many comics of the time) to make fun of German immigrants.
The text in Southern War Songs says that Harry McCarthy (spelled "Macarthy" in the book) sang this "in his Personation Concerts, 1862" -- but the song says, "My name is Yacob Schneider, Und I yust come here to-night From Hood's Army up in Georgia." John Bell Hood commanded the army that lost Atlanta to General Sherman -- but that was in 1864. To be sure, Hood had been a general since 1862, but he began his career in the Army of Northern Virginia; he didn't get transferred to the west until the Chickamauga campaign in last 1863 -- and promptly lost a leg and was out of service for a long time. There was no "Hood's army up in Georgia" until Hood succeeded Joseph E. Johnston in 1864! So either McCarthy changed his song over the years (not unlikely), or the date in Southern War Songs is wrong.
It is further curious to find a German in the Southern ranks; although I have no statistics, most Germans who fought in the war are believed to have fought on the Northern side. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RDL058

Dutch Warbler

See O Where O Where Has My Little Dog Gone (File: RJ19057)

Dutch, Dutch, Double Dutch

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Dutch, dutch, double Dutch, How much do you know? I know this much: Ten, twenty, thirty...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Bley, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | counting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #128, "Dutch, dutch, double dutch" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Double Dutch" (similar rhyme)
NOTES [29 words]: I would not be surprised if "Double Dutch" and "Dutch, Dutch, Double Dutch" are the same rhyme, but since the metrical patterns are different, I've tentatively split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR128

Dutchman Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, shentlemens and ladies, chust in time, Swiddy widdy winky tum fum, Come listen now unto my rhyme" of an old "Dutchman" who drinks so much that the doctor warns he'll burst. He dies and is fit only for use as rat poison. The singer warns against drink
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: humorous drink death poison doctor husband wife marriage
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 147, "The Dutchman Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11347
File: Brne147

Dutchman, Dutchman, Won't You Marry Me?

See Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me (File: R065)

Dutchman's Song

DESCRIPTION: "Amongst the pines and hemlocks ... we gathered round the table" in the Dutchmens' bunk house to play poker.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: lumbering cards
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 114, "Dutchman's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1820
NOTES [15 words]: The description is based on a "fragment of a lumberman's song" in Creighton-NovaScotia. - BS
File: CrNS114

Dweley

See The Jawbone Song AND Crawdad, etc. (File: R259)

Dwelling in Beulah Land

DESCRIPTION: "Far away the noise of strife upon my ear is falling, Then I know the sins of earth beset on every hand... None these shall move me from Beulah Land." The singer cites variations on the theme of God protecting the sinner from earthly troubles
AUTHOR: C. Austin Miles (1868-1946)
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Source: Morgan)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 262-263, "Dweeling in Beulah Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V46048
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Is This Not the Land of Beulah?" (lyrics)
NOTES [205 words]: As far as I know, this song has never been collected in tradition, and probably was written to recently to have much chance of becoming traditional. I include it because Helen Schneyer was fond of recording it, and many folkies will have heard it as a result, but it should not be considered a folk song.
The name "Beulah Land" derives from Isaiah 62:4, where the author draws a contrast between happy and unhappy nations. The word is not used elsewhere in the Bible; it derives from the root for "married." I suppose there might be some sort of subtext of the church as Bride of Christ in the song's usage, but the Isaiah reference appears to me to be the only Biblical allusion in the song. For more background on the usage of the name, see the notes to "Beulah Land (I)."
This shares a number of lines with "Is This Not the Land of Beulah," e.g. "I am dwelling on a mountain" and "I am drinking at the fountain." There are too many such lines for coincidence to be likely, yet the overall similarity is rather slight; it doesn't appear either song was a copy of the other. Rather, "Is This Not the Land of Beulah?" -- which appears to be the older of the two -- was probably a minor inspiration for "Dwelling in Beulah Land." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Mr20262

Dwewy-Berry Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Way out on the plains of Kansas, Where the winds blow hot and dry" is the building "Where the Berry boys were shot." Dewey was the murderer of the two men and their father. There should be justice; "Is this the glorious country Our fathers died to save?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: homicide home escape
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 144-145, "The Dewey-Berry Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [25 words]: The notes in Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore say that Dewey, although many thought him guilty of murdering the three Berrys, was acquitted at trial. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: SaKo144

Dying Aviator, The

DESCRIPTION: The aviator has crashed and is surrounded by the refuse of the wreck. He advises his comrades to gather the sundry pieces which have pierced him; "there's a lot of good parts in this wreck." He is granted admission to heaven, since the Air Force is Hell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: parody technology pilot flying derivative
FOUND IN: Australia US Canada Britain(England)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp.142-143, "The Dying Aviator" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 228-229, "The Dying Aviator" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 119, "The Bold Aviator" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 110-111, "The Dying Aviator" (1 text, tune referenced)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 436-437, "Wrap Me Up in My Tarpaulin Jacket and The Handsome Young Airman" (2 text, 1 tune, with the "B" text going here and the "A" text being "Wrap Me Up...")
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 191-193, "A Poor Aviator Lay Dying" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 135-136, "An AA Gunner Lay Dying" (1 text, tune referenced)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 234, "Stand to Your Glasses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 280, "(The Dying Aviator)" (1 excerpt plus excerpts of many other dying-worker songs, all involving the worker's being admitted to heaven because, in their jobs, they've had their share of hell)
DT, TARPJKT2*
Roud #3454
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wrap Me Up in My Tarpaulin Jacket" (tune & meter)
NOTES [71 words]: Although clearly a parody of "Wrap Me Up in My Tarpaulin Jacket," Meredith and Anderson claim there is a British version sung to "My Bonnie." Lomax's version was collected among U.S. troops in Korea.
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy's version makes the dead man an "AA gunner" rather than an aviator, but otherwise most of the words fit, e.g. the line about "there's lots of good parts in this wreck," so I've lumped them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MA142

Dying Bagman, The

See Wrap Me Up in my Tarpaulin Jacket (File: FR439)

Dying Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: "On a summer day as the sun was setting... A young boy lay on a bed of fever.... I am dying, mother, I am surely dying, And Hell is my awful doom...." The young man heard God's voice, but chose to go sporting with his friends. Now he pays the price
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: death farewell Hell youth mother
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 597, "The Dying Boy" (1 text)
Roud #7552
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Death is a Melancholy Call" [Laws H5] (theme)
cf. "Wicked Polly" [Laws H6] (plot)
File: R597

Dying British Sergeant, The

DESCRIPTION: The British soldier recalls sailing to America to suppress the rebels. Told to expect easy duty and a swift victory, the soldiers instead find an implacable enemy; "Freedom or death! was all their cry." The singer is mortally wounded and bids farewell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931
KEYWORDS: war death patriotic
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 118-120, "The Dying Sergeant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 10, "The British Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 64-65, "The Dying British Sergeant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 195, "Our Fleet," "Our British Troops," "American Boys" (3 fragments, first three of seven "Quatrains on the War"; the date in "Our Fleet" should of course be 1776, not 1770)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 69-71, "The Dying Redcoat" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DYSARGE* DYSARGE2*
Roud #2801
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The British Soldier (I)" (subject)
NOTES [12 words]: As "The Dying Sergeant," his song is item dA29 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Wa010

Dying Bushman, The

DESCRIPTION: "I've knocked around the logging camps since early boyhood days." "Now my chopping days are over." "For my slasher is all rusty and my axe handle's broke." He was once a great cutter, but that is over. He hopes to be buried suitably
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (recorded by Phil Garland on "Colonial Yesterdays")
KEYWORDS: lumbering New Zealand death
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 30, "(The Dying Bushman)" (1 text, a shortened compilation of at least four traditional versions)
File: PGar030

Dying Calfornia

See The Dying Californian (I) (File: R183)

Dying Californian (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells a comrade he is dying. He confesses to a firm belief in God. He sends messages to his father and mother. He wishes his wife to know that he thought of her while dying, and bids her care for his children
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850
KEYWORDS: dying farewell religious
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1790, "Lay Up Brother Near Brother" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 350-351, "The Dying Californian" (1 text)
Randolph 183, "The Dying Californian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 179-182, "The Dying Californian" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 183)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 154, "The Dying Californian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 126, "The Dying Californian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 39, "The Dying Californian" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 92, pp. 221-222, "The Dying Californian" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 177, "Californian Brothers" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 86, "The Dying Californian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 187-189, "The Dying Californian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 15, "The California Brothers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 90, pp. 191-193, "The Dying Californian" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #117, "Dying California" (sic.) (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 49, "The Dying Californian" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 647-650, "The Dying Californian" (1 text plus a broadside print)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 34-35, "The Dying Californian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #541, p. 36, "The Dying Californian" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 51, "The Dying Californian" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 478, "The Dying Californian" (source notes only)
DT, DYINGCAL
Roud #2283
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1855 580660, "Dying Californian" or "The Brother's Request" ("Lie up nearer, brother, nearer"), Oliver Ditson (Boston), 1855 (tune)
LOCSinging, sb10096b, "The Dying Californian" ("Lay up nearer, brother, nearer, for my limbs are growing cold"), J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as103250, as10325a, "The Dying Californian"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Mine Brakeman (The True and Trembling Brakeman)" [Laws G11] (lyrics)
cf. "The Dying Californian (II)" (theme)
cf. "The Soldier's Farewell (VII)" (form, lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
The Dying Fifer (File: BrII227) (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 31(29))
NOTES [111 words]: This appears, under its own name, in the 1860 Sacred Harp, credited to "Ball and Drinkard 1859." - RBW
Broadside LOCSheet sm1855 580660 has the cover sheet attribution "Poetry from the New England Diadem Music by A.L. Lee"
Broadside LOCSinging sb10096b: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadside LOCSheet, sm1857 620570, "Prayer of the Dying Californian," Oliver Ditson (Boston), 1857 (tune) shares lines with "The Dying Californian." The cover sheet attribution is "Arranged from the Spanish of Marechio by E. Williams Denison." - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R183

Dying Californian (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Comrades come gather round me for I am dying now." He has messages for father and mother. He sends his ring back to Mary but keeps "a token, she gave it me, from which I cannot part ... I must slumber here alone on San Francisco shore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: dying request father mother wife separation
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US(MA,Ro)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 58, "The Dying Californian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 58, "The Dying Californian" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #118, "The Dying Californian" (1 text)
Roud #2283
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Californian (I)" (theme)
NOTES [43 words]: Roud does not distinguish seem to distinguish this song from the much more popular "Dying Californian (I)"; as of this check (2015), he does not index the Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah text, and Thompson's and Creighton's are filed with the other songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: CrSNB058

Dying Christian, The

See My Soul's Full of Glory (The Dying Christian) (File: Pet065)

Dying Cowboy (II), The

See Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie [Laws B2] (File: LB02)

Dying Cowboy (III), The

See The Dying Ranger [Laws A14] (File: LA14)

Dying Cowboy (IV), The

DESCRIPTION: "Lying on a saddle blanket a dying cowboy lay." He says, "Cowboys don't forget your mothers, write a letter home." Tell her you'll wait to see her in Heaven. He dies and is buried.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: burial death dying religious mother cowboy
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
RECORDINGS:
William O'Driscoll, "Dying Cowboy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RdDyCoIV

Dying Cowboy I, The

See The Streets of Laredo [Laws B1] (File: LB01)

Dying Cowboy of Rim Rock Ranch

DESCRIPTION: The dying cowboy is "Riding away... Where the sun is sinking low." He bids goodbye to all parts of the cowboy's life -- the sounds, the sunrises, the girl he loves. He bids his comrades to remember him "when you're far from the rimrock."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: cowboy death farewell
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 120, "The Dying Cowboy of Rim Rock Ranch" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 776, "Goodbye to the Cracking of the Pistols" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11098
File: FCW120

Dying Cowgirl, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes west as a youth. Once there, he turns to a life of cattle rustling (perhaps chasing strays?). One night, in a storm, he finds a cowgirl helpless on the ground. She says she will meet the singer in heaven, and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recording, Gene Autry)
KEYWORDS: cowboy death parting love
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 146-147, "The Dying Cowgirl" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DYCOWGRL*
Roud #4775
RECORDINGS:
Gene Autry, "The Dying Cowgirl" (Conqueror 8193, 1933)
NOTES [48 words]: McNeil believes -- with justice -- that the Florida text cited here (collected from Louise Sanders of Perry, Florida) is incomplete, but can find no other texts. One may speculate that the girl was fatally wounded while trying to protect her herd from the singer's band of rustlers. - RBW
File: MN1146

Dying Crap Shooter's Blues

See Saint James Infirmary (File: San228)

Dying Crapshooter's Blues

DESCRIPTION: Police shoot crapshooter Jessie. Friends gather at his bedside to hear his last words. He wants eight crapshooters for pall bearers and all the usual elaborate trappings. Place "a crooked card" on his hearse. Dig his grave with "the ace of spades"
AUTHOR: Blind Willie McTell
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (USWMcTell01)
KEYWORDS: burial death drowning dying funeral gambling police
FOUND IN:
Roud #17561
RECORDINGS:
Blind Willie McTell, "Dying Crapshooter's Blues" (on USWMcTell01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Unfortunate Rake" (theme, floating verses) and references there
cf. "Saint James Infirmary" (theme, floating verses)
NOTES [23 words]: McTell says he made this song, which is far from a lament. Otherwise, it fits the pattern of "The Unfortunate Rake" and all its offspring. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcDyCrBl

Dying Daughter, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Mother, dear, go make my bed, And let me lie in darkness, Please rub my head when you have done." The mother asks what ails the girl. Her heart is broken. Mother says there are other men. The girl calls her mother "dearest" but wants to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (HCargillFamily)
KEYWORDS: love death mother
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Acie Cargill, Debra Cowan, Kristina Olsen, "The Dying Daughter" (on HCargillFamily)
File: RcDyDaug

Dying Drunkard, The

DESCRIPTION: "What a terrible doom I have met. My teeth are now chattering, my eyes almost dead." "Oh, terrible, terrible doom of despair, My soul, you are landing I do not know where." At first, drinking was fun. Now the singer is dying; he warns others of drink
AUTHOR: John Daniel Vass
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (collected by Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains from John Daniel Vass)
KEYWORDS: drink warning death nonballad family
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 56-57, "The Dying Drunkard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7321
File: Shel056

Dying Engineer, The

DESCRIPTION: "An engineer one morning Had kissed his wife goodbye, The sunlight was adorning A bright and cloudless sky." He picks a flower before learning his train is late. The train derails; as he dies, the engineer asks that his wife to remember his last kiss
AUTHOR: Bernice "Si" Coleman (1898-?) with Kyle Roop
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (Lyle); probably written c. 1935
KEYWORDS: train wreck death flowers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, p. 171, "The Dying Engineer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14018
File: LySc171

Dying Fifer, The

DESCRIPTION: "When the battle was hot and raging Shot and shell around did fly... When I heard a piercing cry." The ship's fifer is mortally wounded. He sends dying messages to his mother and the rest of his family
AUTHOR: C. G. Wright?
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 31(29))
KEYWORDS: death battle sailor
FOUND IN: US(SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 227, "The Dying Fifer" (1 text)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 94-95, "Our Fifer Boy" (1 text)
Roud #1977
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 31(29), "Our Fifer-Boy," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "James Bird" [Laws A5] (tune)
cf. "The Dying Californian (I)" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Harding B 31(29))
NOTES [86 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 31(29) seems to be exactly the source for Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, word-for-word, including parenthesis and headnote "Composed by C.G. Wright, on board the U.S. Steam-ship Mississippi, (New Orleans.) Air: James Bird; or Dying Californian."
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 31(29): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: BrII227

Dying Fisherman's Song, The

See The Barefoot Boy with Boots On (File: FSC154)

Dying From Home and Lost (Companions, Draw Nigh)

DESCRIPTION: "Companions draw nigh, They say I must die... Only a sigh, only a tear, Only if sister or mother was here Only a hope to comfort and cheer, Only a word from the Book so dear." The dying singer seeks some sort of Christian comfort before the end
AUTHOR: S. M. Brown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Songs of Zion)
KEYWORDS: death Bible religious
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 609, "Companions, Draw Nigh" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 429-431, "Companions, Draw Nigh" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 609A)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 61, "Dying From Home and Lost" (1 text)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 7, "Dying From Home, and Lost" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7547
NOTES [104 words]: Randolph reprints a clipping that allegedly explains this song. A young man was fatally wounded in a construction accident. He asked for a hymn, or for the reading of some Bible verses; neither could be supplied (the other workers knew no relevant songs, and no Bible was at hand). The young man lamented his death away from home, family, and the comforts of church.
It should be noted that neither the date nor the name of the young man is supplied.
Curiously, Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley says it prints the song "by permission," even though it must have been out of copyright by the time the book was published. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: R609

Dying Girl, The

See The Dying Girl's Message (File: R707)

Dying Girl's Appeal, The

See Stay, Father, Stay (File: R329)

Dying Girl's Message, The

DESCRIPTION: "Raise the window, mother darling, For no air can harm me now." The dying girl remembers the man who falsely courted her. She bids her mother return the ring he gave her with her blessing. She sees Jesus, bids farewell (and dies)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: death love betrayal ring
FOUND IN: US(Ro,SE,So) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 217-218, "The Dying Girl's Message" (2 texts)
Randolph 707, "The Dying Girl's Message" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 178, "The Dying Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 318, "The Dying Girl's Message" (2 short texts, 2 tunes)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 176-177, "Dying Girl's Message" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #34, "The Dying Message" (1 text)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 35, "The Dying Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3530
RECORDINGS:
Homer & Walter Callahan, "The Dying Girl's Farewell" (Vocalion 04483/Conqueror 9134, 1936) [I place this here tentatively; I haven't heard the record - PJS]
Mabel Cawthorne, "The Dying Girl" (on FolkVisions2)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Dying Girl's Message" (Columbia 15051-D, 1926; rec. 1925.) (Brunswick 2927, 1925/Supertone S-2010, 1930)
Sid Harkreader, "The Dying Girl's Message" (Vocalion 15075, 1925)
Asa Martin, "The Dying Girl's Message" (Supertone 9179, 1928)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "The Dying Girl's Farewell" (OKeh 40384, 1925) (Victor 21129, 1927)

CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Nun" (tune, meter, floating lyrics)
NOTES [66 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety suggests a connection between this and Tennyson's "The May Queen" -- based seemingly on the meter. This strikes me as an extreme stretch. "The May Queen" has a few incidental lyric similarities, and mentions a lover dying for love -- but the speaker is not the one dying; she is unrepentantly exultant that she is to be the Queen o' the May. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: R707

Dying Harlot, The

See Charlotte the Harlot Lay Dying (The Dying Harlot) (File: RuSoChHD)

Dying Hobo, The [Laws H3]

DESCRIPTION: An old hobo lies dying as winter approaches. He speaks of the "better land... where handouts grow on bushes" that he is destined for, sends a message to his girlfriend, and dies. His partner "swiped his (coat and hat) and caught an eastbound train"
AUTHOR: unknown (attributed to John Kern in the 1912 Railroad Trainman)
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (The Railroad Trainman)
KEYWORDS: railroading train death friend robbery
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Laws H3, "The Dying Hobo"
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 102-103, "The Dying Hobo" (1 text)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 367-372, "The Dying Hobo" (1 text plus a large collection of alternate verses, 1 tune)
Randolph 837, "The Dying Hobo" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 360, "The Dying Hobo" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 360, "The Dying Hobo" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 112, pp. 251-252, "The Dying Hobo"; 113, p. 252, "The Hobo's Death" (2 texts)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #163, "The Dying Hobo" (1 text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 106-107, "The Dying Hobo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 219, "Around a Western Water Tank" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 539, "The Dying Hobo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, p. 131, "The Dying Hobo" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 56, "The Dying Hobo" (1 text)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #22, "George Collins," "The Dying Hobo," "George Collins" (2 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune; the first text is clearly "Lady Alice" [Child 85], the second seems to mix that with "The Dying Hobo" [Laws H3], the final fragment is too short to know)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 30, "The Dying Hobo" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 478, "The Dying Hobo" (source notes only)
DT 644, DYINHOBO LTTLSTRM
ADDITIONAL: The Railroad Trainman, Vol. 29, No. 5, (Cleveland: Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, May, 1912, available on Google Books), page 411, "The Hobo's Lament" (1 text)
Roud #1937
RECORDINGS:
[Richard] Burnett & [Leonard] Rutherford, "Little Stream of Whiskey" (Columbia 15133-D, 1927; rec. 1926; on BurnRuth01, on KMM)
Travis B. Hale & E. J. Derry, Jr., "The Dying Hobo" (Victor 20796, 1927)
Kelly Harrell, "The Dying Hobo" (Victor 20527, 1926; on KHarrell01 -- a rather strange version combining the first verse of "The Dying Hobo" with a story, taken from "George Collins," of a girl mourning her dead lover)
Dick Justice, "One Cold December Day" (Brunswick 367, 1929 -- like the Harrell recording, this starts with a "Dying Hobo" verse, then parallels "George Collins")
George Lay, "The Dying Hobo" (AFS 12,050 A19, 1959; on LC61)
McMichen's Melody Makers, "The Dying Hobo" (Columbia 15464-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" (lyrics)
cf. "The Hobo's Last Ride" (plot)
cf. "Beside the Brewery at St. Mihiel" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [40 words]: Several sources list this as a parody of "Bingen on the Rhine." Laws, however, does not mention the connection; perhaps he knew versions with different tunes?
Thanks to Jim Dixon for pointing out the version in The Railroad Trainman. - JD, RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LH03

Dying Hogger, The

DESCRIPTION: "A hogger on his deathbed lay, His life was oozing fast away...." He does not want a tombstone, merely memorials of his career. He asks to be buried in the shade of the watertank, "And put within my cold, still hand, A monkey-wrench and the old oil can."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: railroading train death burial lastwill
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 186-187, "The Dying Hogger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13615
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beside the Brewery at St. Mihiel" (form)
File: San186

Dying Hoopmaker, The

DESCRIPTION: "A hooper lay dying 'Neath a sultry summer sky; In the green depths of a black ash swamp He had laid him down to die." A tree has fallen on him; the others cannot move it. He sends a message to his mother and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan)
KEYWORDS: death lumbering mother
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 176-179, "The Dying Hoopmaker" (1 text)
Roud #4072
NOTES [7 words]: This is item dC51 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BBun176

Dying Irish Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: Burt is wounded in battle at Santiago Bay, Cuba, "while Victoria shall reign." He tells his friend, Bill O'Shea, to break the news of his death to his mother and to tell O'Shea's sister Mary that he still loves her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: army battle death Ireland friend mother soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 15, 1898 - destruction of the U. S. S. Maine
Apr 19, 1898 - Although the Spanish have agreed to all American demands, including peace with the Cuban rebels, the U. S. issues a sort of preliminary declaration of war, listing U. S. goals
Apr 24, 1898 - Spain declares war on the U. S.; the U. S. will next day do the same, backdating it to April 21
May 19, 1898 - The Spanish fleet enters Santiago Bay
July 2, 1898 - The Spanish fleet at Santiago, acting under orders from Madrid, sails out into the teeth of the American fleet and is destroyed
July 10, 1898 - U. S. troops attack Santiago
July 17, 1898 - U. S. troops capture Santiago
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 44, "The Dying Irish Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab044 (Partial)
Roud #9988
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell to Slieve Gallen" (plot, themes, setting)
NOTES [55 words]: The ballad must have originally referred to "Columbia" rather than "Victoria." - BS
Or, just possibly, "Victoria" is correct and "Santiago Bay" is wrong, meaning the song might date to some other battle in British history during the reign of Victoria; other than the first verse, there are no real time or place references. - RBW
File: LLab044

Dying Knight's Farewell

DESCRIPTION: "I'm dying, brother, dying in this dungeon dark and cold," and wishes to leave a dying message. He blesses his family. He "blesses the haughty lady who sent me to my doom." He wishes he had not been born. Warriors should take warning from his death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (collected from "Jiilson Setters"=James W. Day by Thomas)
KEYWORDS: death mother father love rejection prison warning
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, pp. 22-23, "The Dying Knight's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8089
NOTES [115 words]: Thomas claims that "Queen Elizabeth [I] forbade the singing of this ballad as it is claimed to have been written about her." The language makes it self-evident that this is not an Elizabethan song. Nor does Thomas indicate a song it might be descended from, and neither I nor Steve Roud recognize any relative.
If this is supposed to be about Elizabeth and someone, the obvious candidate is Robert Devereux, Second Earl of Essex (1566-1601), who was (more or less) Elizabeth's last romantic interest, who rebelled against her and was eventually executed. I don't buy it, though. I think Thomas got taken in by folklore, perhaps made up by James W. Day ("Jilson Setters") to trick her. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: TSG022

Dying Message, The

See The Dying Girl's Message (File: R707)

Dying Miller, The

See The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)

Dying Mine Brakeman, The (The True and Trembling Brakeman) [Laws G11]

DESCRIPTION: The young mine train motorman is horrified to discover that, because he could not stop in time, he has run over his brakeman. The dying brakeman speaks to his sister and sends messages to his parents
AUTHOR: Orville J. Jenks (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Aulton Ray)
KEYWORDS: mining death farewell family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1915 - Death of the brakeman
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws G11, "The Dying Mine Brakeman (The True and Trembling Brakeman)"
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 257-260, "The True and Trembling Brakeman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 695, "The True and Trembling Brakeman" (1 text)
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, "The True and Trembling Brakeman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 92, "True and Trembling Brakeman" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 783, TREMBRAK*
Roud #8599
RECORDINGS:
Ralph & Arthur Addington, "The Trembling Motorman" (AFS 2762, 1939)
Alice Begley, "Just a Wild Reckless Motorman" (AFS 1457, 1937)
Cliff Carlisle, "True and Trembling Brakeman" (Superior 2669/Champion 16295 [as the Lullaby Larkers], 1931; Champion 45029/Melotone [Canada] 45029, 1935; Montgomery Ward M-8036, 1939)
Jess Johnson, "The Dying Brakeman" (Champion 16255, 1931)
Carter Family, "The Reckless Motorman" (Decca 5722, 1938)
Bradley Kincaid, "True and Trembling Brakeman" (Melotone 12184, 1931; Conqueror 8091, 1933; Vocalion 02683, 1934; Panachord [UK] 25901, 1937; Polk 9064/Panachord [Australia] P-12184, both n.d.)
Paul Mason, "True and Trembling Brakeman" (OKeh 45479, 1930)
New Lost City Ramblers, "True and Trembling Brakeman" (on NLCR05)
Aulton Ray, "True and Trembling Brakeman" (Gennett 6129/Herwin 75552/Champion 15277/Challenge 269/Bell 1186 [as Carl Bunch]/Superior 385, all 1927)
Mike Seeger, "The Reckless Motorman" (on MSeeger01)
Mary Trusty, "The Wild and Reckless Motorman" (AFS 1395, 1937)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Californian (I)" (words)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Reckless Motorman
NOTES [66 words]: Reportedly written by Jenks in the three months following the accident in 1915. Jenks was one of those involved in taking the brakeman's body from the wreckage. Cohen observes that this may be a case where a singer took traditional materials and reworked them, but there is no clear evidence of a version of this song (as opposed to "The Dying Californian" and its relatives) predating Jenks. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LG11

Dying Minister, The

See The Dying Preacher (Hick's Farewell) (File: R617)

Dying Newsboy, The

See Poor Little Joe (The Dying Newsboy) (File: R716)

Dying Nun, The

DESCRIPTION: The dying nun asks that the window be opened so that she can feel the cool air and see the sky. She remarks that it is hard to die. She thanks Sister Martha for her care. She cherishes the ring she received from Douglas, and says she will join him soon
AUTHOR: E. Mack (source: List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (source: List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
KEYWORDS: death clergy reunion separation love ring
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 218-219, "The Dying Nun" (1 text plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Randolph 706, "The Dying Nun" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 455-457, "The Dying Nun" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 706A)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 124-125, "The Dying Nun" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 260-262, "The Dying Nun" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 478, "The Dying Nun" (source notes only)
cf. Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 317, "The Dying Nun" (1 tune; the singer did not offer a text)
Roud #3532
RECORDINGS:
Foreman Family, "The Dying Nun" (Victor V-40165, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Girl's Message" (tune, meter, floating lyrics)
File: R706

Dying Outlaw, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come gather around me, my comrades and friends, The sun it is setting on life's short day.... Oh bury me on the lone prairie Where the hooves of the horses shall fall." The singer, killed by a "red-coated foeman," asks that his pony be buried with him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958
KEYWORDS: death burial outlaw police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1873 - Establishment of the North West Mounted Police, who wore red jackets (hence the "red-coated foeman" of the song)
FOUND IN: Canada(West)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 139-141, "The Dying Outlaw (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 118, "The Dying Outlaw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10957
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] and references there
NOTES [30 words]: A Canadian member of the "Dying Cowboy/Unofrtunate Rake" family. Despite the line in the refrain, it does not seem to have been influenced by "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie." - RBW
File: FMB139

Dying Ploughboy, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a ploughboy, feels a blood vessel burst in his chest; although his doctor tells him he'll be all right, he senses death is near. He bids farewell to his friends, his team of horses, and his plough
AUTHOR: Rev. R. H. Calder?
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: disease farewell death dying farming horse friend worker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast 26, p. 2, "The Term" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 700, "The Term" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 108, "The Dying Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 235, "The Dying Ploughboy" (1 text)
Roud #2514
NOTES [60 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads lists this as by the Reverend Calder of Glenlivet, who granted permission to print it. The curiosity, in that case, is how MacColl and Seeger found a tune for the thing, and how it came to be so widespread. Also, what are the odds of Greig picking up anonymous versions of a song written by a man still living when Ord published? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: McCST108

Dying Preacher, The (Hick's Farewell)

DESCRIPTION: "The time is swiftly rolling on When I must faint and die, My body to the dust returned And there forgotten lie." The dying preacher bids farewell to his wife and remembers his family fondly. He bids his fellow preachers to do their work well
AUTHOR: probably Rev. Berryman Hicks 1778-1839)
EARLIEST DATE: 1835 (Southern Harmony)
KEYWORDS: religious clergy death farewell
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Randolph 617, "The Dying Preacher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 7, "Hicks' Farewell" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 530, "Hicks' Farewell" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 530, "Hicks' Farewell" (1 tune plua text excerpt)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 78, "Hicks' Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 176, "Hicks Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 73-74, "Hick's Farewell" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 122, "Hicks's Farewell" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Ed Cray), "Three Folksongs from North Carolina" Vol. XI, No. 1 (Jul 1963), pp. 2-3, "Hicks' Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DYPREACH* HCKSFRWL*
ADDITIONAL: Original Sacred Harp, 1971 Denson Revision, p. 83, "The Dying Minister" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2869
RECORDINGS:
Dillard Chandler, "Hick's Farewell" (on OldLove)
Texas Gladden, "Hicks' Farewell" (on LomaxCD1702)
Rick Ward, "Hicks' Farewell" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #129, recorded 04/18/2022)
Doc Watson & Gaither Carlton, "Hick's Farewell" (on FOTM, WatsonAshley01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Preacher's Legacy" (theme)
cf. "The Iron Mountain Baby" (tune)
cf. "Little Hillside" (first verse lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Minister's Last Goodbye
NOTES [267 words]: In the Sacred Harp (which has a much-shortened text), this is called "The Dying Minister" and the tune is said to have been written by E. Dumas in 1854. (Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina credits it to William Walker, but Walker was almost certainly the arranger of the Southern Harmony version, not the composer.)
The attribution of this song to someone named Hicks seems strong, given the number of versions with his name in the title, but of course there were a lot of, um, hick preachers out there. The most famous Hicks in American religious history is surely Elias Hicks (1748-1830), a Quaker who eventually caused a split within that denomination. But this *really* doesn't sound like the work of a Quaker.
That leaves Berryman Hicks, whose career was researched by Jackson (White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands, pp. 203-205). He was a "noted revivalist," and a poet and violinist. Though this attribution too has its problems; he became "financially embarrassed for a large amount," and was apparently dropped from his (Baptist-affiated) church. On the other hand, that might explain the cranky tone of the piece.
The mid-nineteenth century seems to have witnessed a number of these "Preacher's Confession" sorts of pieces. No doubt it was the usual situation of the elderly frowning on the degenerate morals of the young. - RBW
Properly speaking, this should be "Hicks's Farewell." - PJS the nitpicker
And I thought I was the only one who remembered such things! Of course, this particular error is more that of the transcriber than the singer.... - RBW
"More sung against than singing?" - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R617

Dying Prisoner, The

DESCRIPTION: A Union soldier is a prisoner in a Confederate prison and dying. He wishes for bread or water, and to be exchanged, or to see his mother or have a letter from home. Finally he knows death is near. He is going home where there's "no rebel sentry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar prison dying death patriotic soldier mother
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 28, "The Dying Prisoner" (1 text)
Roud #4266
File: MuLa028

Dying Prophet, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Joseph, Joseph, Joseph, Joseph,' softly murmured Zion's chief, As life's pulses weakened, ebbing, in the midst of loving grief." The song recalls Brigham Young's career and death. Listeners should emulate him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: death | Brigham Young
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 99-101, "The Dying Prophet" (1 text)
Roud #10845
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brigham Young (I)" (character of Brigham Young) and references there
File: ChMS100

Dying Queen, The

See Queen Eleanor's Confession [Child 156] (File: C156)

Dying Ranger, The [Laws A14]

DESCRIPTION: A cowboy/soldier tells of his sister left alone at home. His comrades promise to treat her as their sister. The wounded man dies happy. (Other details occur in localized versions; the verses -- and the dying hero -- vary widely)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax, Cowboy Songs)
KEYWORDS: death family farewell
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,So,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Laws A14, "The Dying Ranger"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 397-398, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text)
Randolph 188, "The Dying Cowboy" (2 texts, 2 tunes) AND 216, "The Dying Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 21, "Texas Ranger" (1 text, clearly this despite the title)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 31-33, "The Dying Ranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 274-276, "The Dying Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 19, "The Shades of the Palmetto" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 50, "Ranger's Prayer" (1 text, not recognized as a version of this song, but with the same plot, metrical pattern, and some lyrics); 52, "The Dying Ranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #19, "The Dying Ranger" (1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 64, "The Dying Ranger" (1 text)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #10, p. 144, "The Dying Ranger" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 170-173, "The Dying Ranger" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 243-245, "The Dying Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 53, "The Dying Soldier" (1 text)
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, pp. 43-47, "The Dying Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 17-20, "The Dying Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 88, "The Soldier's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 270-271, "The Dying Ranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 202-205, "The Dying Ranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 689, DYRANGR DYNGCWBY
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, p. 42, "The Dying Ranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #628
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink] "The Dying Ranger" (Supertone 9665/Champion 16095 [as West Virginia Rail Splitter], 1930)
Dock Boggs, "Dying Ranger" (on Boggs3, BoggsCD1)
Cartwright Brothers, "The Dying Ranger" (Victor V-40198, 1930; Bluebird B-5355/Montgomery Ward M-4460/Sunrise S-3436, 1934; rec. 1929; on WhenIWas2)
Buell Kazee, "The Dying Soldier" (Brunswick 214, 1928)
Will O'Brien, "The Dying Ranger" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Glenn Ohrlin, "The Dying Ranger" (on Ohrlin01)
Johnny Prude, "The Dying Ranger" (AFS, 1940s; on LC28)
Marc Williams, "The Dying Ranger" (Brunswick 497, c. 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Wisconsin Soldier" (lyrics)
File: LA14

Dying Rebel, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer finds a wounded man dying. He asks to be given last rites. He has been deceived by the French and betrayed by a friend. His wife and brother are dead, his children alone. Unwittingly, he caused his landlord's death at pikemen's hands. He dies
AUTHOR: William Ball (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: "shortly after 1798" (according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: betrayal rebellion death France Ireland injury family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 138, "The Dying Rebel" (1 text)
NOTES [75 words]: William Ball was a writer of humorous verse about Irish history; in this index, see "Cockledemoy (The French Invasion)," "Do as They Do in France," "The Dying Rebel," "Faithless Boney (The Croppies' Complaint)" -- though he doesn't seem to have made much impression on the wider world of literature; I have been unable to find any of his writings in any of my literary references.
I wonder if this isn't an answer to something like "Betsy Gray." - RBW
File: Moyl138

Dying Redcoat, The

See The Dying British Sergeant (File: Wa010)

Dying Seal-Hunter, The

DESCRIPTION: "I can hear their sirens blowing As they steam to hunt the foe Where the young whitecoats are growing...." The dying man asks to watch as his ship sails away. He recalls the work of sealing, and bids farewell to the people and life he is leaving
AUTHOR: Otto P. Kelland (1904-2004)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Kelland, Anchor Watch, Newfoundland Stories in Verse)
KEYWORDS: death hunting ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 149, "The Dying Seal-Hunter" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Otto P. Kelland, _Anchor Watch: Newfoundland Stories in Verse_ (privately printed, 1960), pp. 90-91, "THe Dying Seal-Hunter" (1 text)
Roud #V44797
NOTES [21 words]: For information about Otto Kelland, the author of this piece, see the notes to "Western Boat (Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's)."
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm149

Dying Sergeant, The

See The Dying British Sergeant (File: Wa010)

Dying Soldier (I), The (Erin Far Away II) [Laws J7]

DESCRIPTION: A dying soldier asks a comrade to send a lock of his hair from India to his mother in Ireland. He sends his sister and brothers word of his death in the fight against the Sepoys. He dies and is buried.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: war soldier death family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1857-1858 - Sepoy Mutiny in India. The inhabitants of Northern India revolt against the East India Company on behalf of their ancestral customs (many of which, such as the murder of widows, were abhorrent to Western opinion)
FOUND IN: US(MW) Ireland Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws J7, "The Dying Soldier (Erin Far Away II)"
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 50, "The Dying Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 50, "The Dying Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 166, "Old Erin Far Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H816, p. 92, "Old Ireland Far Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp.. 5-6, "The Dying Soldier" (1 text)
DT 827, DYSOLDR*
Roud #893
RECORDINGS:
Jerry Carey, "Old Erin Far Away" (on ONEFowke01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin Far Away (I)" [Laws J6] (plot, theme) and references there
NOTES [43 words]: This song is frankly so close to Laws J6 that I find it impossible to tell them apart. Even the first lines in Laws's sample versions are similar. Laws does not give reasons for the distinction. One should therefore examine the references for both songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: LJ07

Dying Soldier (II), The

See The Dying Ranger [Laws A14] (File: LA14)

Dying Soldier (IV), The

See Brother Green (File: R211)

Dying Soldier Boy, The

See Erin Far Away (I) [Laws J6] (File: LJ06)

Dying Soldier to His Mother, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the field of battle, mother, All the night alone I lay; Angels watching o'er me, mother, Till the breaking of the day." The soldier thinks of his mother, sends farewells to family, wishes he could repay mother, and bids farewell
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas MacKellar/Music: William U. Butcher
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Dime Songster #11)
KEYWORDS: battle death soldier mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 228, "The Dying Soldier to His Mother" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 208, "The Dying Soldier to His Mother" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 108-109, "The Dying Soldier" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #551, pp. 36-37, "The Dying Soldier to His Mother" (6 references)
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 227 (no title) (1 short text)
Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 159, "The Dying Soldier to His Mother" (reproduction of a broadside page)
ST BrII228 (Partial)
Roud #6568
ALTERNATE TITLES:
On the Field of Battle, Mother
File: BrII228

Dying Soldier, (III) The

DESCRIPTION: "A youth lay on the battlefield of France's blood-stained soil ... The Red Cross nurse beside him ..." Nurse promises to send a letter, book and bible to his mother and his love to his sweetheart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports; MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: promise war death France lament soldier love separation
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 114-116, "The Dying Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Dying Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 65-66 in the 3rd edition
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 86, "Blood-Stained Soil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4428
RECORDINGS:
Monica Rossiter, "The Dying Soldier" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Valley of Kilbride" (subject of Newfoundlanders dying in World War I)
cf. "Soldier's Last Letter" (subject of Newfoundlanders dying in World War I)
cf. "The July Drive" (subject of Newfoundlanders dying in World War I)
NOTES [83 words]: Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast says "This is a World War I song, made in Newfoundland according to the singer" - BS
As you see, Bennett Schwartz, who indexed this song, dates it to World War I, and this seems almost certainly correct. The red cross nurse dates it after the Crimean War, which leaves only the World Wars as possibilities; the dates of the collection argue for the first war.
For Newfoundland's heavy casualties in World War I, see the notes to "The Valley of Kilbride." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doyl3065

Dying Stockman, The

See Wrap Me Up in my Tarpaulin Jacket (File: FR439)

Dying Tramper, The

DESCRIPTION: "A starving young tramper lay dying, His rucksack supporting his head." He asks that his mates "Wrap me up in my sleeping bag cover, And bury me deep down below." He asks that they carve big boots and ice axe on his grave "to show there's a tramper below"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1950 (Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: death derivative clothes rambling burial
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 82, "The Dying Tramper" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wrap Me Up in My Tarpaulin Jacket" (tune)
NOTES [22 words]: This appears to be a gag parody of "The Dying Stockman" variant of "Wrap Me Up in My Tarpaulin Jacket" adapted to a modern hiker. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Clev082

Dying Wisconsin Soldier, The

DESCRIPTION: The sun sets on "a forest Where a dying soldier lay... Far away from his dear Wisconsin home." He recalls his life, and his beloved sister, and how he answered when his country called. He dies and is buried by the Potomac
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin), with an earlier version from c. 1925
KEYWORDS: death soldier family farewell Civilwar derivative
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 225-226, "The Dying Wisconsin Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 152, "The Wisconsin Soldier Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #628
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Ranger" [Laws A14] (lyrics)
NOTES [465 words]: Roud, understandably, lumps this with "The Dying Ranger" [Laws A14]. There is no question but that this is derived from that; many lines, and even whole verses, are identical. But there are enough alterations to make it clear that this is a deliberate rewrite -- although not a very specific one; there are really no references to particular places or people in Wisconsin.
Still, the soldier died by enemy fire near the Potomac. Most Wisconsin regiments in the Civil War served in the west; only a handful were sent east to join the Army of the Potomac. And only a handful of those were in service early in the war, when the front was close to the Potomac. The three major exceptions were the 2nd Wisconsin, which served as early as Bull Run, and the 6th and 7th Wisconsin, which were later combined in the famous Iron Brigade (first brigade, first division, first corps, which made an amazing stand at Gettysburg and was slaughtered).
If we wanted to suggest an actual regiment, all three are good candidates, with the 2nd Wisconsin perhaps the best: According to William F. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War 1861-1865, 1881; fourth edition 1888 (I use a photoreproduction of the 1898 Albany Press edition which does not list a publisher!), p. 8, the 2nd Wisconsin had the highest percentage of soldiers killed in the entire Union army (238 out of 1203 total enrolled, or 19.7%). Another good reason for it to be the regiment is that it (unlike the other Wisconsin regiments I'll list below) was at First Bull Run (where it lost 25 killed, according to Fox, p. 393), so it was the obvious Wisconsin regiment to mention if this song was written early in the war, and a man mortally wounded there would likely have been buried near the Potomac. It was also engaged at Gainesville (part of the Second Bull Run campaign), where it lost 86 men, and the battle of Antietam near the Potomac, where it lost 30 men. Thus somewhat more than half of its killed were killed close enough to the Potomac to possibly be buried there.
The 2nd wasn't the only Wisconsin regiment to fight in the east and have heavy casualties. The 26th Wisconsin was fifth on the list on p. 8 of Fox, with 188/1089 killed (17.2%),-- but it was in the XI Corps, which had no reputation at all and was German (Fox, p. 399), so it is not a strong candidate for this song. The 7th Wisconsin was a better candidate, effectively tied for fifth on the list (281/1630 killed; 17.2%), though it didn't lose as man men near the Potomac; the 36th Wisconsin of Gibbon's division of the II Corps was #17 (157/1014, 15.4%, but it had few casualties by the Potomac, based on Fox, p. 400); the 6th Wisconsin lost 244 of 1940 (12.6%l Fox, p. 396). So Wisconsin certainly left many good men on the battlefields of the east. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Pet225

Dying Youth, The

See Death is a Melancholy Call [Laws H5] (File: LH05)

E-choin' Horn, The

See The Echoing Horn (File: K246)

E-ri-e, The

DESCRIPTION: About a "terrible storm" on the Erie Canal. "Oh, the E-ri-e was a-rising And the gin was a-getting low, And I scarcely think we'll get a little drink Till we get to Buffalo." Humorous anecdotes of a highly hazardous voyage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: canal humorous cook animal wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1825 - Erie Canal opens (construction began in 1817)
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 144, "It's Let Go Your Bowline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 245-246, "(no title)" (assorted excerpts; see also "Black Rock Pork" on pp. 243-244, which includes much of this song although without a chorus); pp. 250-251, "The E-ri-e" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 180, "The E-ri-e" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 45, "The E-ri-e" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 470-471, "The E-ri-e" (1 text, 1 tune); see also pp. 455-457, "Ballad of the Erie Canal" (1 text, composite and probably containing stanzaswhich belong here); pp. 459-463, "The Erie Canal Ballad" (8 texts, some fragmentary, the fourth of which appears to belong here)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 103-104, "The E-ri-e" (1 text)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 36-36, "The E-ri-e" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 333-335, "The Erie Canal" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 56, "The Erie Canal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 87, "Erie Canal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 43, "E-ri-e" (1 text)
DT, ERICANL1 ERIECNL3*
Roud #6599
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Erie Canal" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Raging Canal (I)" (plot)
cf. "A Trip on the Erie (Haul in Your Bowline)" (plot)
cf. "A Nautical Yarn" (theme)
cf. "The Erie Canal"
cf. "Black Rock Pork" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "Canalman's Farewel (Lay Me on the Horse-Bridge)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Calabar" (theme)
cf. "Stormy Weather Boys" (subject)
cf. "The Farmington Canal Song" (theme)
cf. ""The Wreck of the Mary Jane"" (theme)
cf. "The Wreck of the Varty" (theme)
cf. "On Board the Bugaboo" (theme)
cf. "Changing Berth" (theme)
cf. "The Wreck of the Gwendoline" (theme)
cf. "The Fish and Chip Ship" (theme)
cf. "The Shipwreck on the Lagan Canal" (theme)
NOTES [222 words]: The Erie Canal, as originally constructed, was a completely flat, shallow waterway. The barges were drawn along by mules. Thus, apart from getting wet, storms posed little danger, and the only way one could run aground was to run into trash that had fallen into the canal.
As for needing a distress signal ("We h'isted (the cook) upon the pole
As a signal of distress"), one could always step off onto dry land....
The Lomaxes, in American Ballad and Folk Songs, thoroughly mingled many texts of the Erie Canal songs (in fairness, some of this may have been the work of their informants -- but in any case the Lomaxes did not help the problem). One should check all the Erie Canal songs for related stanzas.
Dan Milner, in the essay "Collecting Occupational Songs" in Scott B. Spencer, editor, The Ballad Collectors of North America, Scarecrow Press, 2012, pp. 198-199, observes that it is not known whether this song derives from the Harrigan and Hart piece "Buffalo" (printed 1878) or vice versa.
The song he refers to is "Oh! Dat Low Bridge!" (Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. II, #122, pp. 139-141) that begins "It's many miles to Buffalo, Oh, dat low bridge, Balky mule he travel slow, Oh, dat low bridge...." It also talks about the cook. How much inspiration flowed between that song and this I do not know. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: LxU045

E-ri-o Canal, The

See A Trip on the Erie (Haul in Your Bowline) (File: Wa035)

E. A. Horton, The [Laws D28]

DESCRIPTION: The E. A. Horton is taken by Canadian authorities and her crew imprisoned. The captain leads his men on a daring escape; they recapture their ship and sail home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: sea prison escape
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 8, 1871 - Canada seizes the E. A. Horton (then in Halifax harbor) on a charge of fishing inside Canadian territorial waters
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws D28, "The E. A. Horton"
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 11, "The E. A. Horton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 239-241, "The Schooner E. A. Horton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 314-315, "The E. A. Horton" (1 text, filed as item III under "The Horton's In!")
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 226-227, "The E. A. Horton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 144, "Seizure of the E J Horton" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 753, EAHORTON*
Roud #1840
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Horton's In" (subjet: the escape of the Edward A. Horton)
cf. "The Escape of the Horton!" (subject: the escape of the Edward A Horton)
NOTES [112 words]: Although this event was celebrated enough to inspire at least three songs, reading the description of what happened on p. 212 of Beck-FolkloreOfMaine makes it sound as if the Americans were more in the wrong than the Canadians. Possibly the Edward A. Horton was innocent of the charge against her, but that should have been settled by diplomacy, not international piracy. Which is what this was, although the songs don't ever use the word.
For extensive background on what happened, see pp. 303-310 of Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, an essay entitled "The Story of the Return of the E. A. Horton." Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors also have fairly extensive notes.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LD28

E. C. Roberts, The

See Red Iron Ore [Laws D9] (File: LD09)

E. P. Walker

DESCRIPTION: E. P. Walker's thresher gets caught and fails to work. Someone drops in a wrench; the engineer can't be found. Another farmer buys a different threshing machine. Cho: "E.P. Walker mounted to the separator/E.P. Walker, with his oilcan in his hand...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (composed)
LONG DESCRIPTION: E. P. Walker, a thresher, gets caught in the machinery, then the machine repeatedly fails to work. Someone accidentally drops in a monkey wrench; they try to stop the machine, but the engineer can't be found. Finally another farmer, not wanting to take a chance, goes and buys a different brand of threshing machine. Cho: "E.P. Walker mounted to the separator/E.P. Walker, with his oilcan in his hand...Took his farewell trip to the thresher's land"
KEYWORDS: farming harvest technology work worker
FOUND IN: Canada(West)
RECORDINGS:
Frank Hanson, "E. P. Walker" (on Saskatch01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Casey Jones (I)" [Laws G1] (tune, structure, a few lyrics) and references there
NOTES [96 words]: According to Barbara Cass-Beggs, "This song was composed in the fall of 1912, during the delays in threshing, by the young homesteaders who made up the threshing crew. E. P. Walker's threshing machine was the first to be brought into the newly settled district of Malvern Link.... All the names are authentic and so are the incidents.... The song was very popular and is still remembered."
A very local traditional song, but traditional nonetheless. The song was collected from Winnifred Turner of Swift Current, Sask., whose late husband was one of the farmers mentioned. - PJS
File: RcEPWalk

Each a Peach a Pear a Plum

See Each Peach Pear Plum (File: AJRR129)

Each Camp Fire Lights Anew

See Each Campfire Lights Anew (File: ACSF337E)

Each Campfire Lights Anew

DESCRIPTION: "Each campfire lights anew The flame of friendship true. The joy we've had in knowing you Will last (our/the) whole (life/year) through. And as the embers die away, We wish that we might ever stay, But since we cannot... We'll meet again some other day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings)
KEYWORDS: fire nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 335, 416, "Each Camp Fire Lights Anew" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 96, "Each Campfire Lights Anew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 50, "Each Campfire Lights Anew"" (1 text)
SongsOfManyNations, "Each Campfire Lights Anew" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 45)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "May Madrigal" (tune, according to Zander & Klusman)
File: ACSF337E

Each Peach Pear Plum

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Each, peach, pear, plum, Out goes my chum, My chum is no' very well, So I must go out mysel'." Or, "...plum, Who is your very best chum?" after which the child's name is spelled
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Gardner collection, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food disease | fruit
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes,#129, "Eachie Peachie Pearie Plum" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 49, "Each a peach, a pear, a plum" (2 texts)
Roud #19217
File: AJRR129

Eachie Peachie Pearie Plum

See Each Peach Pear Plum (File: AJRR129)

Eadie

DESCRIPTION: "Go way, Eadie, you dirty dog, wo, Eadie, go away" (x2). "Go away, Eadie, quit worryin' me." "Told you once and I told you twice." "Next time I tell you goin' to take yur life."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from Lightning and Dave Tippen)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 363-364, "Eadie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15593
File: LoSi363

Eagle Rock

DESCRIPTION: "Millionaires grow in Chicago, in mansions of marble and price, Homes grow in Eagle Rock, and friendships, true and tried." "Plutocracy thrives in proud New York... Real brotherhood grows in Eagle Rock." "Give me that dear Idaho town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Idaho Lore, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p 588, "Eagle Rock" (1 text)
File: CAFS2588

Eagle With Her Gallant Crew, The

DESCRIPTION: In May the Eagle sails to Greenland to "chase the bear and walrus and for capturing of the whales." "I hope in health with wealth and prosperity they will return once more To their parents, wives, and loved ones on the Terra Nova shore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: home parting return commerce hunting sea ship work nonballad animal whale sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30149
RECORDINGS:
Mr. Powers, "The Eagle With Her Gallant Crew" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [86 words]: This is probably not about the Eagle (II) that was the very last of Newfoundland's sealing steamers, which is discussed in "The Ice-Floes" and "The Last of the Wooden Walls"; that ship was built too late to do much whaling service in the north. I suspect that it was instead the first Eagle, which was also a sealing steamer; she joined the Newfoundland fleet in 1871 (Ryan, p. 150) and lasted until 1893 (Chafe, p. 99). I don't know how successful she was as a whaler, but at least she had a chance to try. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3EwHGC

Eamon An Chnuic (Ned of the Hill)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Ned of the Hill sings at Eileen's bower asking that they marry though he has no wealth. Although her castle is guarded she escapes from the tower and goes with him. He spends his life wandering Ireland seeking shelter from his outlawry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster); see NOTES
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage poverty elopement love exile outlaw
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition, p. 33, "Eamon an Chnoic" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 82, "Ned of the Hill" (1 text)
DT, NEDHILL* NEDHILL2* (NEDHILL3)
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Eamon An Chnuic" (on IRClancyMakem03)
NOTES [798 words]: Sleeve notes to IRClancyMakem03: "Edmond O'Ryan, the hero of this Gaelic song, was born in Kilnamanagh, County Tipperary, before the wars of 1690. After the defeat of James II, whom he supported, he was outlawed and had his estates confiscated.... The song, in describing the outlaw driven by pain and beating on the closed door of his beloved, symbolized the lonely cause of Ireland." - BS
There seems to be confusion about (O')Ryan; the Digital Tradition notes to NEDHILL2 say he was displaced after the Boyne, but by *Cromwell*, who of course had been in his grave for more than thirty years at the time of the Boyne.
There is another O'Ryan item, in Kathleen Hoagland, 1000 Years of Irish Poetry (1947), p. 171, "Ah! What Woes Are Mine"; it's just possible that this is another translation of "Eamon An Chnuic," but if so, it's a very different one. Hoagland also dates O'Ryan to the period after the Boyne.
A search of six different books of Irish history covering this period revealed no references to (O')Ryan. Internet searches were no more revealing; one site which discussed this song said that there was no positive evidence of his existence. This despite a large assortment of tales about him -- one version has it that he was eventually betrayed for the reward money, only to have his murderer learn that his proscription had been lifted. The form of this song varies, too; in some texts, O'Ryan is seeking his love; in others, merely shelter from the English.
A summary of the various legends is given in Daithi O hOgain, The Lore of Ireland, Boydell Press, 2006, pp. 398-399. It gives his full name as Eamonn an Chnoic O Maollriain, which easily shortened to O Riain, and hence to Ryan. Legend gave his birthplace as Knockmeoll Castle near Ashanboe in Tipperary.
O hOgain says that he was proclaimed outlaw in 1702 (about the time of William III's death and long after Cromwell was gone); a reward of 200 pounds was offered for his capture. His girlfriend was said to be named Mary Leahy.
O hOgain speculates that the song "Eamonn an Chnuic" actually predates the person, and gave him his name.
The rest, according to O hOgain, is legend; many of the stories are told of other heroes as well as of Eamon An Chnuic. Clearly, whatever the historical truth, the tale has grown in the telling. My guess is that research on the topic has been limited because historians think Eamon a figure of folklore, while folklorists think him historical.
Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 272, says that "Ah Who Is That, or Emunh a Cnuic, or Ned of the Hill" was published by James Hewitt in "The Music of Erin" (1807). That obviously sounds like the same song, but the text that Finson quotes cannot be sung to this tune, and doesn't really fit either of the plots I've seen in other versions (the exile from Erin or the minstrel courting above his station), so I have not listed that as the earliest date.
Note that the widely heard "Ned of the Hill" by The Pogues is not, properly, a version of this song, but rather an attack on the memory of Oliver Cromwell based loosely on the story that lies behind the song; Terry Wood was largely responsible for that one.
With all that said, I'll tell you what I think is the history of this song, based solely on the directions in which it has evolved:
1. Someone wrote an instrumental piece, for fiddle or harp (the range is large for a vocal song), called either "Eamon An Chnuic" or "Ned of the Hill," probably the former. I've heard it said that Neil Gow played this tune, but can't verify it, so I don't want to strongly suggest he was the composer.
2. This was twice given words, in either Gaelic or English:
Text 1: refers to the harper winning a woman above his station ("Dark is the evening and silent the hour, Who is the minstrel by yonder lone tower? His harp all so tenderly toughing with skill, Oh ho could it be but young Ned of the Hill")
Text 2: refers to a rebel fleeing his home ("Oh who is without that in anger they should Keep beating my bolted door? I am Ned of the Hill, long weary and chill, from long trudging over marsh and moor").
Whatever language each version was created in, it was translated into the other, possibly with some cross-fertilization.
3. The various legends arose from interpretations of this text. Thus, rather than a hypothetical Eamon O'Ryan inspiring the song, the song created an Eamon O'Ryan. Or several of them.
Of the texts cited here, Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, DT NEDHILL, are a "Dark is the evening and silent the hour" types. DT NEDHILL2 is a Gaelic text with a translation attributed to Donal O'Sullivan which is a "Oh who is without " type. DT NEDHILL3 is the Pogues rework. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: RcEaAnCh

Eaper, Weaper, Chimbley-Sweeper

See Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater (File: GrD81896)

Earl Bothwell [Child 174]

DESCRIPTION: A tale of the woes of Scotland. David [Riccio], the Queen's servant, is murdered with twelve daggers. King and Queen quarrel over this. Bothwell takes the king and hangs him. This produces such anger that the Queen flees to England
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: royalty nobility homicide death exile betrayal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1542 - Mary Stewart, at the age of eight days, becomes Queen of Scotland. She later becomes Queen of France by virtue of her marriage to the French King Francis III.
1560 - Death of Francis III. Mary eventually returns to Scotland to rule it directly for the first time
1566 - Murder of David Riccio (falsely called "Lord David"), secretary to Mary Stewart (rumour had it that he was her lover, but there is no evidence of this)
1567 - Murder of Henry, Lord Darnley, Mary's husband (he was in a house which blew up, but from the state of his body it appears that he was dead before the explosion). Mary Stewart soon after (forcibly?) married to James Hepburn, the fourth Earl of Bothwell (here called "Bodwell"). She was deposed not long after
1568 - Mary escapes to England
1578 - Death of Bothwell
1587 - Execution of Mary Stewart by Elizabeth I of England
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 174, "Earl Bothwell" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 260-264, "Earl Bodwell" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 213-218, "The Murder of the King of Scots" (1 text)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 95-97, "Earl Bothwell" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 272
Roud #4004
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Hamilton [Child 173]" (subject of Mary Stewart)
NOTES [666 words]: According to Fowler p. 158 n. 25, this is one of eighteen ballads in the Child collection found only in the Percy Folio. Rollins, p. 161, speculates that his item #1843, entitled "concerning the murder of the late kinge of Scottes," registered March 24, 1579 by Thomas Gosson, is this piece. The date makes this possible, but it seems not unlikely that there were multiple items about the murder of Henry Lord Darnley, so there is no real reason to think them the same. In any case, several of the Stuart kings were murdered prior to Darnley, and were probably the subject of songs, although there would obviously be less reason to print such an item in 1579.
A much fuller account of the events here is given in the notes to "Mary Hamilton" (Child #173), which is worth reading in this context, but I'll summarize here, describing only the more likely versions of the history; many more of the uncertainties are discussed in "Mary Hamilton."
Henry Lord Darnley was Mary Stuart's cousin (and heir to the English throne if she remained childless), and after their marriage he was addressed as King (although never formally granted the crown matrimonial -- that is, if Mary died before Darnley, he would not become king in his own right; the crown would pass to her children; Lyon, pp. 190-191). Darnley is thus the "king" of this ballad and Mary Stuart the Queen. The Queen of England is, of course, Elizabeth I (reigned 1558-1603). Mary Stuart was Elizabeth's heir under strict primogeniture, although Henry VIII had barred her branch of the family in his will (Lyon, p. 177).
Darnley was Mary's second husband -- she had earlier been married to Francis II of France, who however died young (Magnusson, pp. 332-333). Mary's and Darnley's relationship seems to have started with passion -- Mary was a very passionate woman -- but cooled extremely quickly. The murder of Riccio at the hands of Darnley and his allies is believed to have been perpetrated by the toy king, among others, to increase his own power (Oram, pp. 255-256).
Darnley's turn came not long after. He had been ill -- it has been suggested that the cause was syphilis (Magnusson, p. 356) and had been recovering at a house called Kirk o the Field. Mary visited him there, but after she left, the house exploded (Magnusson, p. 357). Darnley's dead body was found in the wreckage.
An investigation determined that Darnley had been killed before the explosion -- there were no marks on his body (Oram, p. 256). Contrary to the song, however, it was believed he was suffocated, not hanged.
The person directly responsible has never been determined (Oram, p. 257); some have blamed Mary herself. Suspicion at hte time, however, pointed directly at Earl Bothwell (Magnusson, p. 358). He was actually tried -- but controlled the proceedings and was easily able to secure acquittal (Magnusson, p. 358). It was Mary's response that brought her down: For some inexplicable reason, she voluntarily married Bothwell (Magnusson, p. 359; Oram, p. 257). Things fell apart rapidly after than, and Mary, her government in tatters, soon had to flee to England, leaving her baby son James VI as king (Magnusson, pp. 360-363). She would end up in the hands of Elizabeth I, eventually to be executed for conspiring against that monarch.
It is a tragic and regrettable story -- the more so since almost all of it was the result of Mary's own mistakes.
There is at least one biography of Bothwell, Humphrey Drummond, The Queen's Man: Mary Queen of Scots and the Fourth Earl of Bothwell -- Lovers or Villians?, Leslie Frewin of London, 1975. Yes, that's the actual title! -- it seems to have been conformed to the Luna Lovegood style book. It has no footnotes or index, and an extremely high number of small errors; I finally decided it was so unreliable that I would not cite it here.
(A spelling note: The Scottish spelling of Mary's name was "Stewart." Since, however, she spent much of her youth in France, she used the French spelling "Stuart.") - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C174

Earl Bran

See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Earl Brand [Child 7]

DESCRIPTION: (Earl Brand) falls in love with a high lady against her father's will. They flee together, but are overtaken. Earl Brand slays almost all the pursuers, but is himself sorely wounded. They flee on, but at last Earl Brand must stop and dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy Folio)
KEYWORDS: courting death fight
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (56 citations):
Child 7, "Earl Brand" (9 texts)
Bronson 7, "Earl Brand" (42 versions plus 2 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 7, "Earl Brand" (6 tunes: #1b, #3, #11, #23, #25, #37)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 131-139, "The Child of Elle" (2 texts, one being that of the Percy Folio and the other the result of Percy's reconstruction of the text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp 132-134, "The Child of Ell" (1 fragment)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 98-100, "The Douglas Tragedy" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 119-123, "The Douglas Tragedy"; pp. 342-344, "The Brave Earl Brand and the King of England's Daughter" (2 texts)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #57, p. 1, "The Douglas Tragedy" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 220, "Lord Douglas" (13 texts, 8 tunes) {A=Bronson's #7, E=#8, F=#9, H-#25}
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 87, "Lord Thomas and Ladie Margaret" (1 text)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 6-7, "The Brave Earl Brand" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #1b}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 35-40, "The Seven Brothers" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #6, #28}
Randolph 3, "Rise Ye Up" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #27}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 228-230, "Lord William and Lady Margaret" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #38}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 128-130, "Earl Brand" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #38}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 4, "Earl Brand" (4 texts plus 1 of "The Bold Soldier," 2 tunes entitled "The Seven Brothers, or The Seven Sleepers";"The Seven Brothers, or Lord William"; 1 more version mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #24, #40}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 5, pp. 26-34, "Earl Brand" (4 texts, 4 tunes; the "CC" text looks mixed)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 3, "Earl Brand" (2 texts plus 2 excerpts and mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 3, "Earl Brand" (7 excerpts, 7 tunes)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #146, "Earl Brand" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 5A, "Seven Sleepers"; 5B, "Lord William and Lord Douglas" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 154-156, "Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 2, pp. 66-68, "Earl Brand" (1 text)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 22, "Sweet William (Earl Brand)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #17}
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 79, "Sweet Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 8-9, "Sweet Willie" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 45-46, "Sweet Willie (Earl Brand)" (1 text)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 115-116, "Earl Brand" (1 text, properly titled "Sweet William," plus an untitled excerpt)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 4, "Earl Brand" (1 text plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune) {Bronson's #35}
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 38, "Lady Margaret" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 2, "Lord Robert" (1 text)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 2, "Earl Brand" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #10)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 66-71, "Earl Brand" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 38, "Earl Brand"; 39, "The Douglas Tragedy" (2 texts)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 68, "Earl Brand (The Douglas Tragedy)" (1 text+1 fragment)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 404-406, "The Douglas Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 33, "Earl Brand"; 49, "The Douglas Tragedy" (2 texts)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 5, "Earl Brand" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 206-208+349-350, "Earl Brand" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 4 "Earl Brand" (12 texts, 12 tunes) {Bronson's #13, #15, #14, #12, #11, #19, #20, #39, #26, #16, #36, #18}
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 3, "The Seven Sleepers" (1 text, 1 tune -- a single traditional verse filled out from other printed sources by the editor) {Bronson's #20, but Bronson has a different text}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 147-148, "Sweet William and Fair Ellen" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #37}
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 2, "The Seven Brethren" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 29, "Earl Brand (the Douglas Tragedy)" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 13, "The Douglas Tragedy (Earl Brand)" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 2, "Earl Brand" (1 text)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 8-9, "The Seven Sons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 17-18, "The Seven Sons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #5, "The Douglas Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 51-54, "The Douglas Tragedy" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 7-8, "Earl Brand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 37-39; pp. 40-42, "Earl Bran" (2 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 216, "Earl Brand" (1 text)
cf. Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2487, "There was a bold seaman, a ship he could steer"
DT 7, DOUGTRAD* DOUGTRD2
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 57 ("The Child of Ell")
Roud #23
RECORDINGS:
I. G. Greer & Mrs. I. G. Greer, "Sweet William (Earl Brand)" (AFS; on LC12) {Bronson's #34a/b}; Professor & Mrs. Greer, "Sweet William & Fair Ellen - Pts. 1 & 2" (Paramount 3236, 1930)
Henry McGregor, "The Douglas Tragedy (Earl Brand)" (on FSBBAL1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erlinton" [Child 8] (plot)
cf. "The Bold Soldier [Laws M27]" (plot)
cf. "The Child of Elle (II)" (some plot elements: elopement, chase by father)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sweet Willie
Jolly Soldier
Lord William's Death
William and Ellen
Brandywine
The Child of Ell
Fair Ellender
Sweer William and Fair Ellen
As He Rode Up to the Old Man's Gate
Lady Margaret
NOTES [559 words]: Child admits that he has "only with much hesitation" separated this from "Erlinton" [Child 8], and many others have inclined to join them. Scott viewed "A Child of Elle" (the Percy text of this piece) as a forerunner of "Erlinton." But it should be kept in mind that Percy's text was more than 80% Percy -- and, as Hales and Furnivall comment on p. 133, "A wax-doll-maker might as well try to restore Milo's Venus." No conclusions can be drawn based on the Percy text.
Steve Gardham thinks that "Earl Brand" and "The Douglas Tragedy" are in fact separate songs, perhaps two independent translations from Danish (and "Erlinton" is the same song; the versions of the latter are all somewhat suspect).
Two of Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles's versions seem to be mixed texts; both relate a conversation between the knight and his horse, and end with the intertwined rose-and-briar. (This is not uncommon in American versions; Robert Shiflett, of Brown's Cove, Virginia, had a similar mixed version.) The second, "William and Ellen," consists primarily of these elements; little is left of the plot of "Earl Brand."
Quite a few people (e.g. Eddy) list "The Bold Soldier" [Laws M27] as a version of this balled, and some few of these may have slipped into the above list.
Reed, p. 139, remarks that "Various versions of the story exist in Danish [a connection of course known and cited by Child], as in English; Hildebrand and Hilde is much the same as Ribolt [und Guldborg], and involves the 'naming to death' incident which is almost entirely obscured in the Border accounts. The superstition that speaking of a person's name will ensure his death is widespread, and perhaps remains in a vestigial form in Erlinton:
'See ye dinna change your cheer
Until ye see my body bleed'.
and in The Hunting of the Cheviot...."
Reed goes on to repeat a point raised by Wimberly, that the refusal to give one's name is "a commonplace in romances where knights encounter without knowing the names of their antagonists." This is perhaps most common in the Arthurian romances, especially around the time of Malory (where it makes some sense, because by that time armor was so elaborate that one knight might not recognize another; it is anachronistic in the time of the pseudo-historical Arthur; Saxons and Roman Britons did not have such heavy armor). This failure to know another knight reached its apex in the "Tale of Balan and Balin," the second major section of Malory's Morte Darthur, based on the French Roman de Balain (Loomis, p. 392). In that, the two brothers meet, fight, mortally wound each other, and only recognize each other when they are dying. However, that really was mostly a medieval problem; by the time this ballad was being sung, firearms had resulted in the abandonment of heavy armor.
Incidentally, there is at least one historical instance of a man fighting off six enemies but then being wounded from behind: William the Marshal, famous for his service with Kings Richard I and John, and infamous for the role he allegedly played in "Queen Eleanor's Confession" [Child 156], was part of a party that was attacked in 1168. His horse was killed under him before he had donned all his armor, but he killed the horses of six attackers before one came from behind and disabled him by spearing him in the thigh (McLynn, pp. 62-63). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C007

Earl Colvin

See Lady Alice [Child 85] (File: C085)

Earl Crawford [Child 229]

DESCRIPTION: Lady Crawford marries the Earl at a young age, and soon bears a son. She thinks Crawford loves the child more than he loves her. They quarrel and separate. Both wish to reconcile, both think the other has refused to do so, both die for love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan, Ballads of the North, according to Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads {Child 229B})
KEYWORDS: love separation children jealousy death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 229, "Earl Crawford" (2 texts)
Bronson 229, "Earl Crawford" (2 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 229, "Earl Crawford" (2 versions: #1, #2)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 589-592, "Earl Crawford" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 147-149, "Earl Crawford" (1 text)
DT, CRAWFRD*
Roud #3880
NOTES [714 words]: It has been suggested that this ballad is about David Lindsay (1547?-1607), 11th Earl of Crawford, and his first wife Lilias Drummond.
There is a short biography of Crawford in Hamilton, pp. 208-209. This appears to derive largely, if not entirely, from DNB.
The Crawfords had a bad reputation at this time; the 8th Earl had been known as "The wicked Master of Crawford." Willson, p. 98, calls the 11th Earl "luxurious and lawless."
"David, eleventh earl, inherited the prodigality of his father and grandfather and was, if anything, even more lawless than they." (Hamilton, p. 208). He succeeded to the Earldom in 1574. He feuded with, and very likely murdered, the 8th Lord Glamis, though he was formally acquitted of the crime. He spent 1578-1581 in France along with the Earl of Huntly (the man who slaughtered the Bonnie Earl of Murray), then returned to Scotland and became an important supporter of James VI. Somewhere in there, he turned Catholic; he and Huntly briefly rebelled in 1589, plotting to bring in a Spanish army to enforce Catholicism (Willson, pp. 81, 101-102). was convicted of treason, went to France again, returned to Scotland, and apparently stayed out of trouble after that; he served on the governing council from then until his death in 1607.
"The earl married twice: first to Lilias, daughter of David, Lord Drummond, and secondly to Grizel, daughter of John fourth Earl of Atholl. His marriage to his first wife, which was brief, inspired a ballad" (Hamilton, p. 209). Hamilton does not list any children by this marriage. By his second, he had three sons and a daughter. Two of the sons died young; the third, another David, "surpassed even his predecessors in wickedness"; his relatives had him confined to keep him from forfeiture, and the earldom then passed to an uncle. His daughter eloped with a man of lower status. All in all, not a savory bunch.
The DNB article says of his first marriage, "He was married first to Lilias, one of 'seven bonnie sisters,' daughters of David, lord Drummond, and secondly to Griselda, daughter of John, fourth earl of Atholl. A manuscript genealogy states that he had by his first wife a son who died young, and according to the old ballad of 'Earl Crawford,' he separated from her on account of a light jest of hers in reference to the paternity of the child. The ballad goes on to recount that she died of grief at the separation, and that the earl died the same night from grief at her loss, but the earl's second marriage disposes of the latter statement."
But is the 11th Earl really the subject of the song? The name "Crawford" fits, and so does that of his wife, and the fact that she was one of seven sisters, and so does the fact that they quarreled, but few of the other details are appropriate to their situation.
Of course, the earliest text of the ballad is from two centuries after the events it supposedly describes. And that text (Child's B) is from Peter Buchan, and has a suspicious number of ballad commonplaces. Child's A is much shorter, if not much more accurate, but later. It sounds more like an actual traditional ballad, rather than a hack job, but it's from Christie, who has his own problems with adjusting his sources (though Child's version A is described as a conflation of two sources). Bronson has two tunes; one, from the Blaikie manuscript, has no text; the other is from "the nurse of Christie's children."
Steve Gardham has suggested (private communication, after I complained about the ballad) that the Buchan text is Buchan's own creation (and the probability that he at least modified it seems extraordinarily high), and that Christie abetted the process with his own modifications. Certainly the whole thing seems suspicious -- and very Buchan-like in its emphasis on the young wife and the peculiar died-for-love ending when the two did not in fact die for love. Yet it can hardly be about anyone other than this particular Earl of Crawford and his wife, since Buchan's text uses the name "Lillie." I might be tempted to think that Buchan had a scrap about Crawford and Lillie which he expanded into a complete (but bogus) ballad; I am inclined to agree with Gardham that most of what we have here contains a lot more Buchan (and maybe Christie) than actual tradition. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C229

Earl o' Aboyne, The

See The Earl of Aboyne [Child 235] (File: C235)

Earl of Aboyne, The [Child 235]

DESCRIPTION: The Earl goes to London, leaving his wife behind. She hears that he has been courting others. When he returns, she makes a fine show but disdains him. He prepares once again to depart, and says she may not go with him. She dies for love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Skene ms.)
KEYWORDS: love separation death accusation infidelity rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Child 235, "The Earl of Aboyne" (12 texts, 1 tune)
Bronson 235, "The Earl of Aboyne" (9 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 235, "The Earl of Aboyne" (2 versions: #2, #7)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 137-138, "Earl of Aboyne" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 164-168, "The Earl of Aboyne" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #121, p. 1, "The Laird o' Aboyne"; #123, p. 2, "The Earl o' Aboyne" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1159, "The Earl o' Aboyne" (8 texts plus a single verse on p. 559, 5 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 464-465, "The Lord o' Aboyne" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 593-595, "The Earl of Aboyne" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter Buchan, Gleanings of Scarce Old Ballads (Norwood, 1974 (reprint of 1891 Aberdeen reissue of 1825 Peterhead edition)), pp. 71-73, "The Earl of Aboyne"
Roud #99
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonny Peggy Irvine
NOTES [19 words]: This rather confused story seems to have no historical basis (at least not based on the names in the ballad). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: C235

Earl of Douglas and Dame Oliphant

See Willie o Douglas Dale [Child 101] (File: C101)

Earl of Errol, The [Child 231]

DESCRIPTION: The Earl of Errol weds Kate Carnegie, perhaps for the sake of her large dowry. Kate complains that "Errol is no' a man." Errol disproves the charge by having an illegitimate child. Kate wishes to abandon him; he will not give up her dowry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Edinburgh Magazine)
KEYWORDS: marriage pregnancy infidelity
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1658 - Wedding of Gilbert Hay, tenth earl of Errol, to Catherine Carnegie. The marriage was childless, and apparently unhappy (there was some sort of hearing in 1659), but lasted, at least officially, until Errol's death in 1674
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 231, "The Earl of Errol" (6 texts)
Bronson 231, "The Earl of Errol" (6 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 231, "The Earl of Errol" (3 tunes: #1, #4, #6)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 106-108, "Lord Errol" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1366, "Errol on the Green" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 38, "The Earl of Errol" (1 text)
Kinloch-TheBalladBook IX, pp. 31-36,"Earl of Errol" (1 text)
Roud #96
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dundee, It's a Pretty Place" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lady Errol
NOTES [71 words]: Child said of this piece, "Errol is an unpleasant ballad but decidedly of the popular kind. It could not be left out. The collection is not meant for family reading. I shall strain the case against certain indecent ballads and exclude them if I can give a reason besides indecency." (See Mary Ellen Brown, Child's Unfinished Masterpiece: The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, University of Illinois Press, 2011, p. 137.)
Last updated in version 4.1
File: C231

Earl of Mar's Daughter, The [Child 270]

DESCRIPTION: The earl's daughter brings home a dove, who at night turns into a man and begets seven sons by her. When a man woos the earl's daughter, the earl decides to kill the bird and have her marry. The bird returns with an avian army and reclaims his love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: love courting bird childbirth father marriage rescue
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 270, "The Earl of Mar's Daughter" (1 text)
Bronson 270, "The Earl of Mar's Daughter" (1 version)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 641-645, "The Earl of Mar's Daughter" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 186-188, "The Earl of Mar's Daughter" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 25, "Earl Mar's Daughter" (1 text)
DT, MARDAUGH
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #324, "The Earl of Mar's Daughter" (1 text)
Roud #3879
NOTES [94 words]: Joseph Jacobs, collector, English Fairy Tales, originally published 1890; revised edition 1898 (I use the 1967 Dover paperback reprint), comments that this is "clearly a fairy tale and not a ballad proper. The name Florentine is sufficient to prove that the tale does not belong to the Celtic area." He points out the analogy of a lover coming in the disguise of a bird is very old -- Leda and the Swan being an obvious example, but Jacobs says that the earliest "post-classic form" is the Irish "Tugall Brudne da Derga," "The Destruction of Derga's Fort." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: C270

Earl of Murray

See The Bonny Earl of Murray [Child 181] (File: C181)

Earl of Westmoreland, The [Child 177]

DESCRIPTION: Following the failure of his revolt, Neville of Westmoreland flees to Scotland and is taken to Hume Castle. Neville at last sails for Seville, and is given office by the queen. He fights the heathen and is victorious, and receives various rewards
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: rebellion exile nobility royalty battle fight
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 177, "The Earl of Westmoreland" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 292-312, "Earle of Westmorlande" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 112
Roud #4007
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rising in the North" [Child 175] (subject)
cf. "Northumberland Betrayed by Douglas" [Child 176] (subject)
NOTES [291 words]: According to David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 158 n. 25, this is one of eighteen ballads in the Child collection found only in the Percy Folio.
For the background to this song, see the notes on "The Rising in the North" [Child 175]; also "Northumberland Betrayed by Douglas" [Child 176].
The song itself is almost pure fiction; the only truth is in the introduction, in which Neville flees to Scotland, goes to Hume, and sails to the Continent. (In reality, he spend the rest of his life in exile in Flanders.)
One suspects that this story somehow got mixed up with a romance. (This would be no surprise for a piece in the Percy Folio, which contained romances as well as ballads, and in some cases cut romances down to ballad size.) I have this odd feeling the legend of Guy of Warwick is involved (though the only clear similarity between the two is that both fought pagans); Guy was not a Neville (and wasn't an Earl or Warwick, either), but the most famous Earl of Warwick in English history was of the Neville family (though a cadet branch); the main Neville line was, in fact, the Nevilles of Westmoreland.
There seem to be no actual ballads about Guy of Warwick , but he did gain a place in popular mythology, as this verse about a local beverage attests:
Of Guy Earl of Warwick our country can boast,
Who in fighting and thuming ruled lord of the roast;
He with courage relentless his foes did assail,
For he strengthened his sinews with Birmingham ale.
(Quoted in Roy Palmer, The Folklore of Warwickshire, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 133).
There is a broadside about Guy, though, indexed (logically enough) as "Guy of Warwick"; see that entry for further background. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: C177

Earl Patrick

See Burd Isabel and Earl Patrick [Child 257] (File: C257)

Earl Richard (I)

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Earl Richard (II)

See references under "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" [Child 110] (File: C110)

Earl Richard's Daughter

See The Kitchie-Boy [Child 252] (File: C252)

Earl Robert

See Prince Robert [Child 87] (File: C087)

Earl Rothes [Child 297]

DESCRIPTION: Lady Ann is enamored of Earl Rothes, though he is married. Her (parents?) promise to care for her well if she will forget him. She says she will stay with Earl Rothes until her child is born. Her young brother vows revenge. But she stays with the Earl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: love courting infidelity nobility family
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 297, "Earl Rothes" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 682-683, "Earl Rothes" (1 text)
Roud #4025
File: C297

Earle Bodwell

See Earl Bothwell [Child 174] (File: C174)

Earle of Westmorlande

See The Earl of Westmoreland [Child 177] (File: C177)

Earliest Sea Song

See Pilgrim's Sea-Voyage and Sea-Sickness, The (Pilgrim's Song; Pilgrims to St. James) (File: MSPSVASS)

Early Early in the Spring (III)

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Early in the Morning (I)

See The Drunken Sailor (Early in the Morning) (File: Doe048)

Early in the Morning (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Early in the morning, just about the break of day, You ought to see me grab my pillow Where my good gal used to lay." The singer is going up river; he complains about his girl, his life, his failure to listen to mother, the need to travel to escape jail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: travel separation mother prison
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 104-105, "Early in the Mornin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10038
File: MWhee104

Early in the Morning (III)

DESCRIPTION: "I meet (little Rosa/my mother/brother Robert/etc.) earty in the morning, and I ask her, 'How you do my (daughter)? Oh, Jerusalem, early in the morning."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment); 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: nonballad dancing
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 44, "Early in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 15, p. 207, "Walk 'em Easy"; Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 23, p. 211, "Early In the Morning" (2 texts)
Roud #12000
NOTES [31 words]: The chorus ties Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates and Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment together: ("Walk 'em easy round de heaben"(3x) "Till all living may join dat band") - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG044

Early in the Morning (IV -- prison song)

DESCRIPTION: An axe song with unfixed lyrics. "Well, it's early in the morning, hear the dingdong ring." "Well, I'm don in the bottom, on a live oak log." "Partner can't hold me, hold me no longer." "Murder on Darrington, Godamighty my lord, Who was the rider?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (collected from Willie Craig by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: prison work homicide separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 267-274, "Early in the Morning" (2 texts, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Midnight Special" (lyrics)
NOTES [35 words]: Like many of the songs collected by Jackson -- especially the axe songs -- this is more a framework than an actual song, and could easily have been classified with something else, or split into several songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM267

Early in the Morning at Half-Past Eight

See Early in the Morning, About Eight O'Clock (The Postman's Knock) (File: SuSm109A)

Early in the Morning when the Cock Begins to Crow

DESCRIPTION: "Early in the morning when the cock begins to crow, Off you work you know your father has to go, With his little nosebag a-plodding through the rain, We shout 'Good morning, father," and we go to sleep again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (collected from Mrs. E. M. Turner by John Fletcher, according to Raven)
KEYWORDS: work father bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 93, "Early in the Morning" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, p. 186, "Early in the Morning" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #1135
File: JRUI186

Early in the Morning, About Eight O'Clock (The Postman's Knock)

DESCRIPTION: Skipping game and counting rhyme. "Early in the morning, about eight o'clock, Thought I heard the postman's knock. Up jumps Mary to open the door, See how many letters on the floor. One, two...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty wordplay
FOUND IN: Britain New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 109, ("Early one morning, about eight o'clock)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #131, "Early in the morning at half-past eight" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 96, "(Early in the morning)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13177
File: SuSm109A

Early in the Morning, While I'm Still Asleep

See The Little Birdy with the Silly Name (File: LTCSLBSN)

Early in the Spring

See Early, Early in the Spring [Laws M1] (File: LM01)

Early in the Spring When I Was Young

See The Sailor and His Bride [Laws K10] (File: LK10)

Early Life in Dixie

DESCRIPTION: "As I was loafing on Main Street one day A comrade came to me and thus he did say," that the singer has been chosen to go to [Utah] Dixie to raise cotton and wine. Failed crops, poverty, and a wishto die await him, but they manage to make things better
AUTHOR: Samuel "Doc" Kenner, according to Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah's informant William R. Palmer
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes farming poverty home
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #231, "Early Life in Dixie" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp.n250-251, "Early Life in Dixie" (1 text)
Roud #10907
File: Hubb231

Early Monday Morning

DESCRIPTION: "Early Monday morning the maid came at the door With her shoes and stockings in her hand and I don't know what before. I tied up her garter so neatly and so trim She threw her arms apart and I hugged her quietly in"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 32-33, "Early Monday Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2275
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cindy (I)" (floating verses there and many other songs)
NOTES [170 words]: Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs: "[The singer] probably knew more verses but, being questionable, he refrained from singing them."
From Jefferson Democrat,Hillsboro, Jefferson county, Missouri, FRIDAY, 23 DECEMBER 1870 "JEFFERSON COUNTY SIXTY YEARS AGO - .... If, by chance, a young lady fell heir to a pair of shoes -- as times improved -- when she went abroad she always carried her shoes and stockings in her hand until near her journey's end, when she would stop and put them on, smooth back her hair, and all was right." (Source: rootsweb pub site) See a similar note in Early Settlers of Sangamon County -- 1876 by John Carroll Power at rootsweb site.
Note also the following from "The Maid of Ballymore": Markie Bawn's sweetheart has just told him she will marry if he gets her parents consent. "Markie Bawn he was overjoyed at hearing the good news, And to make him go the quicker, he tied on his shoes. He went straight to my mama ...." Markie may as well been trying to make a good impression, which he does. - BS
File: CrMa032

Early One Foggy Morning

DESCRIPTION: "Early one foggy morning when I knocked on your door, You had the nerve to tell poor me you didn't need me no more." Singer blames himself. "I'm getting darn tired of sleeping by myself." She's gone "and she sure won't write me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (USFlorida01)
KEYWORDS: love rejection parting floatingverses nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Robert Dennis, "Early One Foggy Morning" (on USFlorida01)
NOTES [128 words]: The blues form of the USFlorida track is aab.
The first verse is a modification of a verse from Tampa Red "Mean Mistreater Blues" (Bluebird B5546, 1934) and Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell "Mean Mistreater Mama" (Columbia C30496, 1934): "Can't you remember baby when I knocked upon your door You had the nerve to tell me that you didn't want me no more." While both Tampa Red and Carr & Blackwell have this verse as abab, Robert Dennis maintains his aab form.
The second verse shared with Blind Lemon Jefferson "Match Box Blues" ("Standing here wondering would a matchbox hold my clothes I ain't got so many matches but I got so far to go," OKeh 8455, 1927), a blues about a man leaving a woman, rather than the story of Dennis's blues where the man is leaving. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcEOFoMo

Early One Morning

DESCRIPTION: "Early one morning, just as the sun was rising, I heard a maid sing in the valley below, Oh don't deceive me, Oh never leave me; How could you use a poor maiden so?" She laments the young made who made promises and then betrayed her for a new girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
KEYWORDS: love courting abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Lond,South,West)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 735-736, "Early One Morning" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 185, "Early One Morning" (1 text)
DT, EARLY1AM*
Roud #12682
NOTES [40 words]: Chappell says that, in his experience, that this was one of the three most common songs among serving-women of his era; he is responsible for most of the early field collections (although he does not offer texts or tunes of most of them). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: FSWB185

Early One Morning in the Month of July

DESCRIPTION: "Early one morning in the month of July We finished our crops and laid them all by." The singers depart from their girls. They exhort their patriots to fight hard: "We're bound to whip the Yankees, we'll do it or die." They praise Lee and insult Butler.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar farming separation
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 377, "Early One Morning in the Month of July" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 377, "Early One Morning in the Month of July" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11749
NOTES [164 words]: This is, perhaps, a reference to recruiting some (Civil War) regiment or company: Companies usually formed when an eminent person (usually a man who hoped to be an officer) signed up all the willing men in an area to form a unit.
What unit, though, cannot be told from Brown's fragment. The natural assumption is that the mention of July refers to July 1861, but this renders the reference to Lee and Butler mysterious; Lee did not assume command of the Army of Northern Virginia until 1862, and by that time Benjamin Butler was in New Orleans.
The closest Lee and Butler came to crossing swords was in the 1864 campaign, when Butler commanded the Army of the James which miserably failed to capture Petersburg by surprise. But by that time, the Confederacy had every man it could find under arms -- by means of a draft. No summer soldiering!
All that being the case, I rather suspect that this was a home front song, not one sung by soldiers in one of the major Confederate armies. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Br3377

Early One Spring

See Early, Early in the Spring [Laws M1] (File: LM01)

Early Pearly

DESCRIPTION: "Early pearly snow on the ground, the wind was bitter and cold; A poor little beggar boy out in the snow, came knocking at the lady’s door." The woman takes him in. He asks a blessing for his dead mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2009 (recording, Margaret Gardham)
KEYWORDS: begging mother death rescue lullaby | snow
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
Roud #258
RECORDINGS:
Steve Gardham, "Early Pearly" (Piotr-Archive #304, recorded 10/11/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Soldier's Poor Little Boy" [Laws Q28] (source of this song)
NOTES [104 words]: This is a bit of a conundrum, because by origin it is not a separate song. It is simply a floating fragment of "The Soldier's Poor Little Boy" [Laws Q28] with an unusual chorus. However, Steve Gardham's family used it as a lullaby, which is obviously not how it is normally treated, and recently it has been rewritten as a song of a sailor who comes home and begs from his old love, who does not recognize him. The latter should probably count as a distinct song, but it is not traditional. So this entry is here to, in effect, say that this title and its first few lines are used as part of two distinct but related songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio304

Early Spring

See The Sailor and His Bride [Laws K10] (File: LK10)

Early Sunday Morning

See This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes (File: Br3096)

Early This Spring We'll Leave Nauvoo

DESCRIPTION: "Early this spring we'll leave Nauvoo, And on our journey we'll pursue, We'll go and bid the mob farewell, And let them go to heaven or hell." They will head to California and avoid persecution from the likes of Sharp, Williams, and Governor Ford
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle)
KEYWORDS: travel escape | Mormon
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, pp. 317-318, "Early This Spring We'll Leave Nauvoo" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 202-203, "Early This Spring We'll Leave Nauvoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11012
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Dan Tucker" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
NOTES [256 words]: Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle says that this was found among papers which seemed to date from 1836. The song itself cannot be that early, though, since it refers to the Mormon migration west from Nauvoo. Thus it must date from between 1844, when Joseph Smith was killed and Brigham Young succeeded him, and 1847, when Brigham Young chooses the Great Salt Lake, not any version of "California," as the new home of the Mormons. A logical date would be some time between September 1845, when the Mormons agreed to leave the area, and February 1846, when the Mormons began to leave Nauvoo (Reeve/Parshall, p. 400).
Governor Ford is presumably Illinois governor Thomas Ford, who had promised protection to Joseph and Hyrum Smith when they turned themselves over to him in June 1847, five days before they were lynched (Reeve/Parshall, p. 400).
Sharp I imagine is Thomas Sharp, the anti-Mormon editor of the newspaper of Warsaw. Hancock County, Illinois (Brodie, p. 288).
Williams is surely Colonel Levi Williams of the Illinois militia, who ordered his men to shoot Joseph Smith (Brodie, p. 394).
Presumably the other persecutors could be identified, but I haven't tried; based on casual checking, I can't figure out "Backenstos" any better than the Fifes could, and I don't find anyone named "Warren" in the quick checks I made.
The "Second Refrain" of this makes me think it was sung to "Old Dan Tucker," but some of the other parts don't fit as well. Nonetheless that is the tune listed by Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSSS317

Early, Early All in the Spring

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Early, Early in the Spring (II)

See The Croppy Boy (I) [Laws J14] (File: LJ14)

Early, Early in the Spring [Laws M1]

DESCRIPTION: The singer is (pressed and) sent to sea. (He writes to his true love, but her father withholds the letters.) When he returns, her father tells him she has wed another. He accuses her of unfaithfulness and swears to spend the rest of his life at sea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Logan-APedlarsPack; broadside version appears to date to the seventeenth century)
KEYWORDS: separation courting love poverty sailor pressgang
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,SE,So) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada (Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (34 citations):
Laws M1, "Early, Early in the Spring"
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 28-30, "The Disappointed Sailor" (1 text)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 6, "Early One Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #99, "Early, Early in the Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 6, "Single Sailor" (1 short text, 1 tune, probably this although it's hard to be sure with just three verses)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #128, p. 1, "Early in the Spring" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 51, "The Sailor Deceived" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 163-164, "Early, Early in the Spring" (2 texts)
Randolph 81, "Early, Early in the Spring" (4 texts plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 77-80, "Early, Early in the Spring" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 81D)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 144-145, "The Disappointed Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 85, ";Twas Early, Early in the Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 38, pp. 67-69"Early, Early in the Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 87, "Early, Early in the Spring" (2 texts plus 1 excerpt)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 87, "Early, Early in the Spring" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 41, pp. 155-156, "Early in the Spring" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 94, "Early In One Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 144-146, "Early, Early in the Spring" (1 text)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 328-331, "Early, Early in the Spring" (3 texts, the third very short; 2 texts on p. 444)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 125, "Early, Early in the Spring" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #38, "Early, Early in the Spring" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 154-155, "Early Early in the Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 98, "Early Early in the Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 549-550, "The Letters of Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 63, "Early, Early in the Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 66, "The Trail to Mexico" (5 texts, 1 tune, of which only the "C" and "D" texts go here; "A" and "B" are "The Trail to Mexico" and "E" is "Going to Leave Old Texas")
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 111, "Early in the Spring" (3 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #18, pp. 79-80, "'Twas Early in the Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 55-56, "Early, Early in the Spring (The Girl I Left Behind)" (1 text)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #56 insert, "The Sailor Deceived" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 39, "The Disappointed Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2863, "When I went early in the Spring"; cf. ZN1423, "In e'ery street I hear 'em sing"
DT 429, EARLYSPR*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 22, #5 (1973), p, 19, "Early in the Spring" (1 text, 1 tune, ending with a suicide; the version was collected in Pennsylvania by Sam Bayard though the informant's name was not recorded)
Roud #152
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Early, Early, All In the Spring" (on Voice15, IRRCinnamond03)
Nicholas Davis, "The Colour of Amber" (on MUNFLA/Leach) (see NOTES)
Margaret Dirrane, "'Twas Early, Early in the Spring" (on Aran1)
Sam Hazel, "Early, Early in the Spring" (AFS 3095 A2, 3095 B1, 1939)
Leonard Hulan, "The Letters of Love" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Roisin White, "It Was Early Early All In the Spring" (on IRRWhite01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Trail to Mexico" [Laws B13] (plot)
NOTES [140 words]: Several texts of this song, including Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's "B" and one found by Lomax, convert the sailor to a cowboy. It is quite likely that this is a deliberate recension, and so perhaps worthy of separate listing. But Laws does not distinguish the versions, so we don't either. But cf. "The Trail to Mexico" [Laws B13].
Wolfe notes a suggestion by Sharp and Karpeles that this is based on Vernon's 1793 West Indies expedition. This is obviously possible but not compelling, and has vanished from many versions. - RBW
The MUNFLA/Leach text begins with floater "Colour of Amber" verse, in which the singer -- usually female for the verse -- is male. The text also omits the usual "Early, Early in the Spring" verse. Although some of the remaining lines are broken the rest of the text is surely Laws M1. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LM01

Early, Early, by the Break of Day

See Died for Love (III) (Early, Early) (File: HHH089)

Earsdon Sword-Dancer's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Good people, give ear to my story, I've called in to see you by chance; Five lads I have brought blythe and merry." The company welcomes in the new year. The gentlemen are introduced: The sons of Nelson, Elliot, etc. They prepare for the sword dance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 154-155, "The Earsdon Sword-Dancer's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: [Cuthbert Sharp], _The Bishopric Garland, A Collection of Legends, Songs, Ballads, &c Belonging to the County of Durham_, 1834 (references are to the 1969 reprint), p. 58, "(Sword Dancers)" (1 text, which appears more like this than any other sword dancing song but might be independet; 1 tune on p. 85)
ST StoR154 (Partial)
Roud #610
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wharfdale Sword Dance Song" (theme)
cf. "Ripon Sword-Dance" (theme)
NOTES [277 words]: There are a number of songs of this type, which Roud generally lumps under his #610. But they are at the very least different recensions of the same source.
The first character mentioned in this song, Elliot, is George Augustus Elliot, Lord Heathfield (1717-1790), who was governor of Gibraltar from 1776 until his death; from 1779-1783, he defended The Rock during the so-called "Great Siege."
Adam Duncan (1731-1804) was the British admiral at the Battle of Camperdown (1797). The British fleet was still feeling the after-effects of the Spithead and Nore mutinies (for which see "Poor Parker"), and was desperately trying to hold back the Dutch fleet which hoped to support a French invasion of England.
Dutch commander Johann William de Winter (1750-1812) knew his fleet was weak (of the eleven ships lost by the Dutch, the British declined to take any into their navy), but he did at one point try to break out; the British managed to concentrate against him and win a bloody strategic victory, forcing the remnant of the Dutch fleet back into the Texel harbors.
If you've read this far, you doubtless know who Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) was, so I won't delay you with his story.
So too for Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), victor at Waterloo and designer of the Lines of Torres Vedras, the defensive positions guarding Portugal from French attack.
The final character mentioned is "the son of the Great Buonaparte" (the original Corsican spelling of Napoleon's surname). Napoleon (1769-1821) had only one legitimate son, the Duke of Reichstadt (1811-1832), though there were illegitimate offspring. Not in England, of course. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: StoR154

Earth from Mother's Grave

See A Handful of Earth from Mother's Grave (File: HMHS095B)

Earth out of Earth

See Erthe upon Erthe (Earth upon Earth, Earth out of Earth) (File: MSErUpEr)

Earth upon Earth

See Erthe upon Erthe (Earth upon Earth, Earth out of Earth) (File: MSErUpEr)

Ease that Trouble in the Mind

See Went to the River (I) (File: R258)

East Bound Train, The

See Going for a Pardon (File: R721)

East Coast Blues

See Chilly Winds (File: MWhee029)

East Coast Line

DESCRIPTION: "Way down yonder On the East Coast Line", folks eat "syrup by the gallon ... meat by the pound ... bread by the ?" Pretty girl is described. "Then shake east, west, to one you love best."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (LomaxCD1713)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #7876
RECORDINGS:
Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "East Coast Line" (on LomaxCD1713)
NOTES [219 words]: Alan Lomax and Anna L. Chairetakis, liner notes for LomaxCD1713 have this as a "ring game," but we don't know more than that.
The introduction, "... yonder" is a floater, and not just for games, where the destination is more about rhyming than location. For example, "Over yonder steep hills, Where my father dwells" (William Wells Newell, Games and Songs of American Children (New York: 1903 ("Digitized by Internet Archive"), 87 "Intery Mintery," p. 142 [indexed as "Intery Mintery Cutery Corn"); "Down in yonder meadow where the green grass grows Where xxx she bleaches her clothes" ( Alice Bertha Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland (London: David Nutt, 1898 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), vol. 2:, pp. 416-417); "Way down yonder in de holler o' de fiel' Angels workin' on de chariot wheel" (Lomax ABFS p. 16, "Tie-Shuffling Chant") see Let Me Fly; "Way down yonder in Pasquotank, Where the bullfrogs jump from bank to bank" (Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 189 "May Irwin's Frog Song").
The game floater, "Look to the east, look to the west, choose the one you love the best"; "Way down yonder on Cedar Street where all dem niggers grow eleben feet" (Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 #469, indexed here as "Roll, Jordan, Roll (II)"). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcEaCoLi

East Colorado Blues

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

East Jordan Line, The

See Fox River Line, The (The Rock Island Line) [Laws C28] (File: LC28)

East Neuk o' Fife, The

DESCRIPTION: "Hey, the east neuk o' Fife! A weel-faur'd lass, and a canty wife." I'll look where there are plenty of girls: in Fife. It's long until Saturday night, and longer until Monday morning. If she doesn't fancy me I won't care, but I wont ask a Fife lass again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland [second series] (Paisley, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 125, "The East Neuk o' Fife"
Roud #13097
NOTES [85 words]: "Neuk": piece of land; "weel-faur'd": good looking; "canty": cheerful.
Ford: "Who is not familiar with the fiddle-tune, 'The East Neuk o' Fife,' which has put life and mettle in the heels of many generations of our dance-loving Scottish people. Who? one may very reasonably ask, for I trow there are not many. Well, the above are the words which were wont to be sung to it, and I give them because, though once well known, they have seldom been printed, and never before, I think, in any collection of songs." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: RF2p125

East of the Border

DESCRIPTION: "East of the border, over Canterbury way, there on a neighboring block To boost my tally I did stray. Nearby rifle shots told me That I must not stay, East of the border, over Canterbury way."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2009 (Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ)
KEYWORDS: hunting New Zealand humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 291, "(East of the Border)" (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "South of the Border" (tune)
cf. "South of the Sangro" (tune)
cf. "South of Columbo" (tune)
cf. "Dear Old New Zealand" (tune)
cf. "The Battle of the River Plate" (tune)
File: Garl291A

East Virginia (Dark Hollow)

DESCRIPTION: "I was born in (east Virginia); North Carolina I did go. There I met a pretty woman, And her name I did not know." The singer grieves that her parents would marry her to another. "I'd rather be in some dark hollow... than see you be another man's darling"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation grief
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,SW)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 279, "Must I Go to Old Virginia" (1 text, with a distorted first line and many floating bits; Roud lumps it with "Porto Rico")
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 40, "East Virginia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 167, "In Old Virginny" (4 texts, 4 tunes, but "C" is "Man of Constant Sorrow" and "D" is a collection of floaters)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 63-64, "I Was Born in East Virginia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 92-93, "Virginia Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 80 "East Virginia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 134-135, "[Old Virginny]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 65, "Old Virginny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #105, "Dark Hollow Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #29, "When I Left the Blue Ridge Mountains" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 144-145, "East Virginia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, p. 53, "East Virginia Blues" (1 text, 1 tne)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 27 "East Virginia Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, p. 12 "East VIrginia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 115-116, "Oh, Molly Dear" (1 text, very mixed, with verses from this song, from "The Drowsy Sleeper" [Laws M4], and some floaters); pp. 275-276, "East Virginia (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 44, "East Virginia" (1 text)
DT, EASTVIRG*
Roud #3396
RECORDINGS:
Clarence "Tom" Ashley, "Dark Holler Blues" (Columbia 15489-D, 1929; on Ashley04)
[Clarence] Ashley & [Gwen] Foster, "East Virginia Blues" (Vocalion 02576, 1933)
Carter Family, "The East Virginia Blues" (Bluebird B-5650/Montgomery Ward 4550, 1934; Victor 27494, 1941)
Logan English, "East Virginia" (on LEnglish01)
Betty Garland, "I Was Born in East Virginia" (on BGarland01)
Texas Gladden, "Dark Island" (on USTGladden01)
Charlie Glenn, Shirley Glenn, "East Virginia Blues" (Piotr-Archive #185, recorded 06/06/2022)
Kelly Harrell, "O! Molly Dear Go Ask Your Mother" (Victor 20280, 1926; on KHarrell01 -- primarily a version of "The Drowsy Sleeper" but with several verses belonging here)
Roscoe Holcomb, "East Virginia" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Buell Kazee, "East Virginia" (Brunswick 154B, 1927; on AAFM3); "East Virginia" (on Kazee01)
Uncle Dave Macon, "East Virginia Blues" (Victor 27494, 1941; rec. 1935)
New Lost City Ramblers, "East Virginia" (on NLCR01); "Dark Holler Blues" (on NLCR16)
Pete Seeger, "East Virginia Blues" (on PeteSeeger02, PeteSeegerCD01)
Pete Steele, "East Virginia" (on PSteele01)
Dan Tate, "Once I Lived in Old Virginia" (on OldTrad1, FarMtns2)
Doc Watson, "East Virginia" (on RitchieWatsonCD1)
Doc Watson & Clarence (Tom) Ashley, "Dark Holler Blues" (on FOTM)
Walter Williams, "East Virginia" (AFS, 1937; on KMM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Left the State of Georgia" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister" (tune)
cf. "Greenback Dollar" (words, tune)
cf. "Little Birdie" (floating lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Carter Family, "East Virginia Blues, No. 2" (Banner 33463/Melotone 13430/Romeo 5482/Conqueror 8535, 1935)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dark Holler Blues
File: JRSF134

East Virginia Girls

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Eastbound Train, The

See Going for a Pardon (File: R721)

Eastend Rocking, The

DESCRIPTION: An Eastend party: "sic caperan and dancing ... was never seen" The partiers are named. Lots of dancing and laughing. Old Hugh's wife packed him off to bed. At parting time they all had a scone and soup and "skailit aw for hame"
AUTHOR: Neil Walker (source: Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: dancing fiddle food music party moniker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 147, "The Eastend Rocking" (1 text)
Roud #15106
NOTES [16 words]: Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 glossary: "rocking, n, convivial gathering of neighbours" - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2147

Easter Snow

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a beautiful girl and asks her to come home with him to "Easter Snow." He says she will see foxhunters and other exciting things. She tells him that she is pledged to another who lives far from Easter Snow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection hunting
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 128, "Easter Snow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H66, pp. 369-370, "Wester Snow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 43, "The Easter Snow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 29-30, "Easter Snow" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 10, "Estersnowe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2122
RECORDINGS:
James Connors, "The Plains Of Easter Snow" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Paddy Tunney, "Easter Snow" (on IRPTunney03)
Brigid Tunney, "Easter Snow" (on IRTunneyFamily01, FSBFTX13)
NOTES [164 words]: There is a lot going on behind the scenes of this commonplace (even banal) text. "Easter Snow" or its variants is conceded to be a folk variant of "Estersnoew," a region in Roscommon. This in turn is a wearing-down of a Gaelic name -- but Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland (based on Petrie Coll) gives the Gaelic as "Iseart Nuadhain," while Henry/Huntington/Herrmann list the title in Petrie/Stanford as "Diseart Nuadhain, nó Sneachta Cásga." In any event, it appears that there is a Gaelic tune and a Gaelic name behind the song. - RBW
Paddy Tunney and O'Boyle have a different ending. The singer says, "I'll roll you in my morning cloak and I'll bring you home to Easter Snow." The fair maid replies, "Go home, acquaint your parents and indeed kind sir, I'll do the same And if both our parents give consent neither you nor I will bear the blame." In The Stone Fiddle, Paddy Tunney says he learned the song from his mother but her recording does not include that last verse. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: HHH066

Eastern Light, The [Laws D11]

DESCRIPTION: A sailor, having spent his money on a drunken spree, ships on board the "Eastern Light," fishing on the Grand Banks. The captain drives the crew hard until they are forced to return to Gloucester
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: sea work fishing ship
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws D11, "The Eastern Light"
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 326-327, "The Eastern Light" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 164-175, "The Eastern Light" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 63-64 in the 3rd edition
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 117, "Song about the Fishing Banks" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 105-106, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 63, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 214-215, "The Eastern Light" (1 text)
DT 820, EASTRNLT
Roud #2235
RECORDINGS:
Jim Rice, "The Banks of Newfoundland" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]; "Eastern Light" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [45 words]: [According to the Digital Tradition,] the year is 1873 -- 1863 [according to] Doyle3 -- and Eastern Light was built in 1866. - BS
Peacock also says 1863, which makes me wonder a bit if there might not be an earlier version of the song not about the Eastern Light. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LD11

Eastern Train, The

See The Harvard Student (The Pullman Train) (File: R391)

Easy Rider

DESCRIPTION: "Easy rider, see what you have done... Made me love you, now your man done come." The singer expresses regret about the relationship between men and women, but hopes to do better in the future
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Ma Rainey)
KEYWORDS: love courting husband infidelity floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 246-247, "C. C. Rider" (2 short texts, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 22, "Easy Rider" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 19, "(See See Rider)" (1 tune, partial text); cf. pp. 152-153 (apparently a combination of this song with "Satisfied") (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, pp. 136-137, "Easy Rider" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 75, "Easy Rider" (1 text)
DT, EASYRIDR*
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 89, "Easy Rider" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10056
RECORDINGS:
Texas Alexander, "Easy Rider Blues" (Vocalion 02856, 1934)
Bea Booze [pseud. for Muriel Nichols], "See See Rider Blues" (Decca 8633, 1942; Decca 48055, n.d.)
Jimmie Davis, "Easy Rider Blues" (Bluebird B-5570, 1934; rec. 1933)
Scott Dunbar, Celeste Dunbar & Rosie Dunbar, "Easy Rider" (on MuSouth05)
Mississippi John Hurt, "See See Rider" (on MJHurt05)
Blind Lemon Jefferson, "Easy Rider Blues" (Paramount 12474, 1927)
Tom Johnson & John Copeland, "See See Mama" (on MuSouth05)
Sam McGee, "Easy Rider" (Vocalion 5254, c. 1929; rec. July 25 1928)
Ma Rainey, "See See Rider Blues" (Paramount 12252, 1925)
Leo Soileau, "Easy Rider Blues" (Paramount 12808, 1929)
Chuck Willis, "C. C. Rider" (Classic Wax CW-0004, rec. 1957)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Birdie" (theme)
cf. "Chilly Winds" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Vesta and Mattie's Blues" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [40 words]: The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang's "b" definition [of "easy rider"], "a woman who is sexually promiscuous or easily seduced", is the one that applies here. (Another definition, interestingly enough, is "guitar.") - PJS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: LxU022

Easy Rider, Don't You Know My Name

DESCRIPTION: ag line for foating verses is "Easy rider don't you know my name." Verses include "Come here mama look at sis Standing on the corner trying to do the twist," "Ain't but one thing on my mind All of these women ain't none of them mine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (recording, Scott Dunbar and Celeste Dubnbar)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses sex nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Scott Dunbar, "Easy Rider" (on USDunbarS01)
Scott Dunbar and Celeste Dunbar, "Easy Rider" (on MuSouth05)
NOTES [67 words]: The chord progression of the Dunbars' recordings follows one of the "Salty Dog" chord progression versions: VI-II-V-I. The verses are all floaters; one more is "Here comes a man with his hat in his hand Looking for a woman ain't got no man." In that regard, see Notes to "Vesta and Mattie's Blues." (Incidentally, the recording year being 1954, sis's "twist" is not the popular dance of the 1960s) - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcERDYKN

Eat Some and Leave Some

DESCRIPTION: "New rice and okra... Eat some and leave some Beat rice to bum-bum Eat some and leave some"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: work food nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 226, ("Nice rice an' okra - Nana - Nana") (1 text)
NOTES [55 words]: Perhaps inspired by Leviticus 23:22 or similar? "And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God" (King James). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parp226

'Eathen, The

DESCRIPTION: "The 'eathen in 'is blindness bows down to wood an' stone... An' then comes up the Regiment an' pokes the 'eathen out." "All along o' dirtiness, all along o' mess, All along o' doin' things rather-more-or-less," the recruit learns to be a soldier
AUTHOR: Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (McClure's Magazine, according to the Kipling Society page for the poem)
KEYWORDS: soldier foreigner
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 169, "All along of dirtiness, all along of mess" (1 fragment)
Roud #25406
NOTES [129 words]: The first lines of this are derived from two lines in the hymn, "From Greenland's Icy Mountains": "The heathen in his blindness Bows down to wood and stone" (last two lines in the second verse of the version I found online). The Kipling Society page explains that Kipling is comparing the process of turning a recruit into a soldier to that of converting a "heathen" into a Christian -- more specifically, probably, an Anglican. The Kipling Society thinks (and I also think) that Kipling was not as insistent upon this conversion as were many of the mindless, bumbling junior officers who often served in British colonies -- men who were often the excess sons of useless noble and gentry families. (And I say that as one who generally approves of the British aristocracy.) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC169A

Eb'rybody Who Is Libin' Got Tuh Die

See Everybody Who Is Living Has To Die (File: HPR279A)

Ebenezer, The

DESCRIPTION: The sailor recalls a dreadful voyage: "Ev'ry day was scrub and grease her." The first mate was "the dirtiest man you ever seen"; the second had left his former line when it "got too hot." The food was bread "as tough as any brass" and over-salted meat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: ship sailor abuse hardtimes food
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 200-201, "The Ebenezer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 476-477, "The Ebenezer" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 354-355]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 161, "The Ebenezer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 126-127, "The Ebenezer" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, EBENZER*
Roud #8237
File: Doe200

Echo Canyon

DESCRIPTION: Describes the building of a railroad through Echo Canyon; Mormons work hard and cheerfully. In the fall they will meet their women; in the future the locomotive will gather Saints from afar, bringing them to Zion (Utah) while the wicked are swept away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: pride virtue train railroading technology dancing party moniker worker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1868 - Brigham Young contracts with Union Pacific to furnish Mormon labor for the building of the transcontinental railroad
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #244, "Up Echo Canyon" (1 text plus a fragment)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 94-96, "Echo Canyon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 270-271, "Echo Canyon" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 74-75, "Echo Canyon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 599, "Echo Canyon (Mormon Railroad Song)" (1 text)
DT, ECHOCNYN*
Roud #4749
RECORDINGS:
L. M. Hilton, "Echo Canyon Song" (on Hilton01)
NOTES [19 words]: This almost got the "nonballad" keyword, but there's a thin thread of narrative, albeit in the present tense. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RecEchCa

Echo Canyon Song

See Echo Canyon (File: RecEchCa)

Echo Mocks the Corncrake, The

DESCRIPTION: "The lass that I loved first of all was handsome, young, and fair." He recalls their happy life. He contrasts the complex, expensive demands of city life with the joys of rural citizenship. He waits for the corncrake to bring back the summer weather
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love courting bird home
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 325-327, "The Corncraik Amang the Whinny Knowes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #175, p. 1, "The Corncrake Amang the Whinny Knowes" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 945, "The Corncraik" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, p. 145, "The Whinny Knowes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H18b, p. 272, "The Whinny Knowes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, p. 182, "The Corncrake Among the Whinny Knowes" (1 text)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 14, "The Corncrake Among the Whinny Knowes" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CORNCRK*
Roud #2736
NOTES [31 words]: Broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(39), "The Corncraik Amang the Whinny Knowes" ("Oh, the lass that I had first of a'"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1868 could not be downloaded and verified. - BS
Last updated in version 3.8
File: HHH018b

Echoing Horn, The

DESCRIPTION: At the dawn of day the echoing horn calls to the foxhunt; the fox breaks, the dogs chase, the horses leap fences and stiles. When the fox is killed, the hunters take his brush, then go home and drink while their wives give great delight
AUTHOR: unknown, possibly Thomas Arne
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (The American Musical Miscellany) (Source; Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents)
KEYWORDS: sex death hunting sports nonballad animal dog wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 60, "When Morning Stands on Tiptoe" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 67)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 246, "The E-choin' Horn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 55, "The Echoing Horn" (a copy of the 1798 American Musical Miscellany text)
Roud #878
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Reynard ('A Good Many Gentlemen')" (theme)
cf. "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)" (theme)
cf. "Joe Bowman" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Glittering Dewdrops
When Morning Stands on Tiptoe
NOTES [150 words]: In some versions, including "Glittering Dewdrops," the animal being hunted is a hare. Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland notes a song "with the same title" being sung in Thomas Arne's operetta "Thomas and Sally," 1761, but without seeing the text I'm not willing to cite this as earliest date, although this song certainly has a composed air about it. - PJS
Kennedy, p. 579, says the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text of "The Morning Was Charming" is the same song as his "The E-choin' Horn." I don't see any similarity. The other text that Kennedy groups here is "The Glittering Dewdrops." Judging by the CD George Townshend, "Come Hand to Me the Glass" Musical Traditions MT CD 304 text for "The Echoing Horn"("The Glittering Dewdrops"), that could be considered the same song as Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames. The texts share lines and both seem to be about hare rather than fox. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: K246

Ecka, Decka, Donie, Crecka

See Ickie Bickie Soda Cracker (File: ZiZa072C)

Eclipse

DESCRIPTION: In June of the jubilee year the Eclipse kills a whale beginning a poor season. For the Erik and Hope the season was worse. At season end, the haul was meager and the bonus was low. The crew will not sail again for "one and three"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: sea ship whaler money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #86, p. 1, "The Eclipse" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 14, "Eclipse" (7 texts, 8 tunes)
Roud #5650
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Eclipse" (on Lloyd9)
NOTES [72 words]: Notes to Lloyd9: "In the year of Queen Victoria's jubilee, 1887, the steamer Eclipse of Stonehaven went fishing in the Arctic with her sister ships the Erik and the Hope.... [E]ven the Eclipse, that luckiest of whalers, came home light, and with a bonus of only one-and-threepence a ton for oil. Her crew felt the trip had hardly been worth the hardship, and they marched through the streets of Peterhead to tell the owners so." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1014

Ed Hawkins

DESCRIPTION: "Come stand around me young and old And see me welcome death so bold." The singer warns others of his misdeeds, says that he is arraigned for murder and sentenced to die; he prepares for the afterlife and declares, "I do not fear to meet the grave."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: prisoner death homicide punishment
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 165-167, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune; also a fragment on p. 164 allegedly about the same event and by the same author) (OakEd, pp. 169-172)
NOTES [53 words]: According to Thomas's informant, "Ed [Hawkins] was promised to seven women, married four, killed seven men, and was scarce twenty-one when he died on the scaffold." Both the songs recorded by Thomas show the singer as penitent -- but neither mentions Hawkins by name; they are not the standard goodnight by any means. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa165

Ed's Thoughts

DESCRIPTION: Recitation; the speaker and comrades try to break a logjam. The jam breaks but Ed McCoy is pinned under a small log. A big log knocks it loose. Asked what he was thinking, Ed answers, "My best girl I never thought of/I was afraid my lice would drown."
AUTHOR: Probably Marion Ellsworth
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Recitation; the speaker and his comrades Ed McCoy and Bob Joy, are loggers attempting to break a logjam on the Au Sable river; the jam breaks and all head for the shore, but Ed is pinned under a small log. A big log comes along, but instead of crushing Ed, it knocks the small one away, freeing him. Asked if he thought of home, mother and his girlfriend, he answers, "My best girl I never thought of/I was afraid my lice would drown."
KEYWORDS: lumbering humorous logger work recitation escape
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 101, "Ed's Thoughts" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 87, "Ed's Thoughts" (1 text)
Roud #8881
NOTES [18 words]: This, like the other pieces probably written by Ellsworth, does not seem to have entered oral tradition. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be101

Eddie Brown

See Sama Kama Wacky Brown (File: ACSF152K)

Eddystone Light

See The Keeper of the Eddystone Light (File: PBB120)

Edelweiss

DESCRIPTION: "Edelweiss, edelweiss, Every morning you greet me." The singer describes and praises the flower, and asks it to "bless my homeland forever."
AUTHOR: Words: Oscar Hammerstein II / Music: Richard Rodgers
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (musical, "The Sound of Music")
KEYWORDS: flowers nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 555, "Eidelweiss" (sic.) (notes only)
NOTES [167 words]: This song has become so popular (deservedly for the melody, less so for the words) that folklore has arisen that it is the national anthem of Austria. It is not -- the authors didn't even have a German version! -- and Austrians supposedly hate it.
Although Averill lists five songs from "The Sound of Music" as having been sung in camps, this one is three times as popular as any other. It is the only one I suspect might actually have become a true folk song.
It is the last song sung in "The Sound of Music," and supposedly the last one to be created; Wikipedia claims it was the last song written by Oscar Hammerstein before his death. The song was written when "The Sound of Music" was in stage tryouts, with Theodore Bikel in mind as Captain von Trapp (meaning that he could play guitar and sing -- unlike much of the material in the musical, the song is relatively easy for a guitarist); apparently a lot of work went into making it look like Christopher Plummer was singing it in the movie. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF555E

Edgartown Whaling Song

See Hearts of Gold (File: SWMS068)

Edinburgh Castle, Town, and Tower (The Black Dinner)

DESCRIPTION: "Edinburgh castle, toun and tour [i.e. Edinburgh castle, town, and, tower], God grant that you sink for sin, And that even for the Black Dinner Earl Douglas got therein."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Scott, Tales of a Grandfather, but quoted from a fifteenth century source)
KEYWORDS: sin nobility accusation political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 21, 1437 - Assassination of Scotland's King James I
Nov 24, 1440 - The "Black Dinner," at which William Douglas, the new Earl of Douglas, and his brother David are tricked into attending a banquet and then murdered
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Sir Walter Scott, _Tales of a Grandfather_, R. Cadell, 1849 (available on Google Books), p. 140, "(no title)" (1 short text)
NOTES [1784 words]: This does not seem to have survived in oral tradition long enough to have been collected by modern collectors, but it is said to have been widely known at the time of the events. I'm including it on that basis -- and on the basis that I seem to have heard some modern singer (Jean Redpath?) singing a song that I thought was based on it.
I do find myself with questions about its origins; it is said to be old, but no one seems to cite an early source, and neither the Index of Middle English Verse nor the Digital Index of Middle English Verse seems to include it.
The verse arose out of the "Black Dinner" of 1440, one of those numerous instances of ugly Scottish politics that took place during the seemingly endless minorities of the Stuart princes. It all began when James I was murdered in 1337 while visiting Blackfriars Friary near Perth (Magnusson, pp. 243-244; on pp. 247-248, Magnusson quotes several authors disputing whether James was a strong king who brought law and order or a despot who exerted too much control. The assassins seem to have thought he was a despot). A group of conspirators -- who seem to have belonged to the parties of several earls and even members of the royal family -- broke into the royal apartment, giving the king sixteen wounds and injuring Queen Joan Beaufort, though she managed to escape as the conspirators made their getaway (Magnusson, p. 245).
The Queen fled to Edinburgh, gathered up her son, and denounced the conspirators (Oram, p. 211).
That made the king's son James, not yet seven years old, King James II.
The result, as usual in Scotland in circumstances like this, was a quarrel over who would govern the country until James II reached adulthood. The situation was particularly fraught because chance and James I's vigorous acts to control his nobles meant that only three earldoms were active and were held by men who were in the country (Magnusson, p. 251); there was no one to provide continuity of government. The situation was so bad that his guardians didn't even dare take him to the traditional site at Scone to be crowned; he was crowned at Holyrood (Oram, p. 212).
It started as a conflict between Queen Joan and Walter, Earl of Atholl, the king's uncle who was also one of the conspirators. At first, Queen Joan had the upper hand; the conspirators had made a mistake when they had not finished her off. Atholl and his grandson Sir Robert Stewart were among those placed on trial and executed. Atholl was given a clean death, but Stewart was subjected to extreme torture (Magnusson, p. 246).
In May, a great council met at Stirling, but it did not make Queen Joan the regent. Instead, Archibald Douglas, the fifth Earl of Douglas, who till then hadn't played much role in the conflict, was made lieutenant-general of the realm (Brown, p. 246), though Magusson, p. 251, considers him a figurehead who didn't do much. (On the other hand, Brown, pp. 247-248, thinks he helped increase the power of several lords, who became major factors in the kingdom as a result.)
Queen Joan, to try to preserve her position, married again, to James Steward of Lorn, a man of relatively low standing but strong connections (Brown, p. 257). They would have three sons, but she died in 1445 -- after a great deal of trouble including a period of imprisonment -- without really regaining power (Oram, p. 213). Her husband and their sons would end up fleeing to England (Magnusson, p. 254) -- Joan was, after all, English, and then-King Henry VI was fond of his other Beaufort relatives, who were arguably his heirs if their dubious legitimacy was ignored.
And Douglas himself died unexpectedly, of "a fever," on June 26, 1439 (Brown, p. 250; according to Oram, p. 213, 1439 was a plague year). Suddenly Scotland had an even bigger problem.... With the queen out of power and Douglas dead, lesser nobles such as William Crichton and Sir Alexander Livingston managed to seize power, based largely on violence and having control of the king (Oram, p. 213; Brown, pp. 255-258; Magnusson, p. 251, notes that they have been consistently regarded by historians as bandits and ruffians). They did not often work together... but one of the times when they did was to pull down the new Earl of Douglas.
Douglas's heir was a son William; he had a second son, David (Brown, p. 255). They were too young to assume their father's duties; William was still a teenager (thirteen, according to Oram, p. 213, though others make him a few years older) and I've seen estimates that make David as young as ten. William soon was showing signs of ambition (perhaps even haughtiness; Magnusson, p. 252; Brown, p. 259, mentions "youthful pride.") Plus the very strength of the Douglas affinity made them important political players. Or at least important pawns. Magnusson, p. 253, has the most graphic description of what followed:
"Chrichton and Livingston invited the young earl to dine with them and the king at Edinburgh Castle on 24 November 1440. Douglas and his younger brother David went there trustingly with only one attendant, and were received with every mark of friendship. At table they 'banquetted royally with all delicacies which could be got.' At the end of the dinner, however, a black bull's head was served on a great dish -- traditionally a symbol of doom. The youths were seized, despite the king's entreaties, and subjected to a mock trial for treason; after that the brothers and their friend were hustled from the hall into the courtyard, where an execution block had already been set up. Douglas apparently begged for their lives, but his please were futile; he then requested that his young brother be executed first, so that the boy might not suffer the added agony of watching him die. The helpless ten-year-old king wept as his friends were beheaded. The grim occasion has been known as the 'Black Dinner' ever since."
Brown, p. 260, quotes the contemporary Auchinleck Chronicle which is a little more restrained: "Erll William of Douglas, Archibaldis son... and his brother David Douglas was put to died at Edinburgh and Malcolm Fleming [the third member of the party] was put to deid in that samyn place within thre days." He thinks the symbol of the bull's head was a later elaboration of the story, but the truth was bad enough!
In the aftermath of the death of the Sixth Earl, his great-uncle James, known as "James the Gross," became the seventh Earl of Douglas (the Douglas earldom and most of its possessions were entailed so that they could only pass in male line; Brown, p. 261). Oram, p. 214, tells the tale in a very sinister way, seeming to imply that James the Gross encouraged the death of his predecessor in addition to profiting from it, and Magnusson, p. 253, also thinks "he may well have been party to the conspiracy, for he took no revenge for their murders." Brown, p. 261, states explicitly that the murder was intended to benefit Avondale (James the Gross's title before he became the Earl of Douglas) and Crichton, and declares that he was "at least guilty by association with in the violent deaths of his great nephews." Eventually James Douglas (who was around seventy, and was given his nickname because of his obesity) married his son to Margaret, the sister of the Sixth Earl, so arguably the lines re-converged (although at the cost of a marriage within the prohibited degrees; they finally got a dispensation in 1444; Brown, p. 273).
James the Gross became Scotland's greatest landowner, but died (of natural causes) in 1443 (Magnusson, p. 253). His son William became the eighth earl, and at once started to interfere in national politics, exploiting disagreements between the Crichton and Livingston factions at court. William moved against the Crichtons, eventually forcing Crichton out of the government (Brown, pp. 272-273).
James II grew up to be a reasonably competent king, but he was prone to fits of anger. Anger is a common sign of depression, and of trauma disorders (PTSD and others). One wonders if James's childhood experiences played a role here. James moved against the Douglas affinity almost from the moment he assumed personal control of the government in 1449. His first move, in that year, was against the Livingstons, the Douglas allies who had been in charge of James's upbringing; the leading members were deprived of their offices or, in some cases, executed (Brown, pp. 285-286). Earl Douglas, oddly, went on a European and pilgrimage the next year Brown, p. 287). In his absence, the king started to put pressure on his allies (Brown, pp. 288-289).
In 1452, James promised William Douglas a safe-conduct to come to Stirling Castle. The king tried to talk Douglas out of his loyalty to other lords; when Douglas refused, James drew a dagger and personally stabbed him (Magnusson, p. 254; according to Brown, p. 293, when James demanded that Douglas give up his allies, "The earl replied that 'he mycht nocht or wald nocht, than the king said, false traitour sen you will nocht I sall' [i.e. the earl said 'he might not nor would not, then the king said, False traitor, if you will not, I shall.'] James drew his knew and stabbed his guest in the neck" -- after which James's adherents stabbed and axed him repeatedly.)
William's brother James then became earl, and he began to actively attack the king's servants and lands (Brown, p. 295); eventually the king gathered an army to attack the Douglases -- and faced so much backlash that he had to offer a settlement (Brown, p. 298). The murder of the Sixth Earl had not destroyed the Douglases, but with the death of the Eighth Earl, the Douglases were finally broken. In 1455, the king's forces inflicted a great defeat on Douglas's allies at Erkinholme, leaving Earl Douglas's position in ruins. The last of the Black Douglases was forced to flee; he became an 'Ingls man'" (Brown, pp. 307-308).
He didn't stop trying to get back, of course, but this was the period of the Wars of the Roses; the English government was too distracted to do anything for his cause in the immediate aftermath, and by the time Edward IV was ready to take action, it was probably too late.
This wasn't the end of the Douglases in Scotland, to be sure -- only of the Black Douglases. The Red Douglases by then had gained the Earldom of Angus, and Angus remained in favor (Brown, pp. 318-320). Eventually James Douglas and another exile, the Duke of Albany, brother of James III, were given support for an attack on Scotland, but were defeated (Brown, p. 320). After 1491 (to vastly oversimplify), James Douglas, who was childless, and his nephew and heir turned their inheritances over to Angus, and the Black Douglas dynasty was done and soon to be extinct. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: nECTTou

Edinburgh Lord and the Country Maid, The

See Katharine Jaffray [Child 221] (File: C221)

Edinburgh Town

See Caroline of Edinborough Town [Laws P27] (File: LP27)

Edinburgh, Leith, Portobello, Musselburg

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme: "Edinburgh, Leith, Portobello, Musselburg, And Dalkeith; Cock-a-leekie, Hennie-deekie, One, two three!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | Edinburgh counting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #132, "Edinburgh, Leith" (1 text)
NOTES [45 words]: Despite its Spanish-sounding name, Portobello is a neighbourhood in Edinburgh, as is Leith; the other three towns are nearby. Cock-a-leekie soup is also Scottish. I am unable to explain "Hennie-deekie," but the whole thing sounds like a tour of the area of Edinburgh. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR132

Edison Machine, The

DESCRIPTION: "Mike Murphy owned a fine saloon, He never knew grief nor care," and has an Edison phonograph. An Irish crew calls for "The Wearing of the Green"; he accidentally plays "God Save the Queen." The Irishmen riot; Murphy ends up dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: technology fight drink humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 234-235, "The Edison Machine" (1 text)
Roud #6615
File: TNY234

Edna's Song

See Christ Was Born in Bethlehem (File: MA189)

Edom o' Gordon

See Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon [Child 178] (File: C178)

Educated Feller

See The Zebra Dun [Laws B16] (File: LB16)

Edward (II)

See Jealous Lover, The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C] (File: LF01)

Edward (III)

See Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low [Laws M34] (File: LM34)

Edward (III) (Edward Fitzgerald)

DESCRIPTION: Surrounded by "ruthless villains" as he slept, Edward wakes and stabs Swan but is seriously wounded by Ryan and Sirr. "Proclaim that Edward's blood is spill'd! By traitor's hand, by coward Sirr, Revenge! Revenge! for Edward's kill'd."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: rebellion fight betrayal death Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 4 1798 - Lord Edward Fitzgerald, head of the military committee of the United Irishmen dies in Newgate, Dublin after being wounded and arrested by Major Henry Charles Sirr on May 19; Wexford Rebellion begins May 26, 1798 (source: The Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco) site entry for [Lord] Edward Fitzgerald)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 8, "Edward" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 52, "Edward" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Bidden to the Wake of Fair" (from William Shields' opera _Rosina_, published in 1782, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815) (tune)
cf. "Henry Downs" (character of Major Sirr) and references there
NOTES [593 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 8: Fitzgerald, hiding in Dublin, is betrayed [by Francis Magan who received a reward] and wounded and captured by a raiding party. Members of the raiding party named in the ballad are Major Sirr, Major Swan and Captain Ryan. One of his captors [Ryan] is killed. Fitgerald was taken to Newgate jail where he died.
For a brief biography of Lord Edward Fitzgerald(1763-1798) see The Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco) site entry for [Lord] Edward Fitzgerald.
For more about Major Sirr see "Henry Downs," "The Major" and "The Man from God-Knows-Where." - BS
Edward Fitzgerald (1763-1798) was a younger son of the Duke of Leinster. He spent time in the British army (BartlettEtAl, p. 12), but the French Revolution turned him against monarchy. If Pakenham (pp. 38fff.) is to be believed, he was not really very bright -- but the United Irishmen still found him useful, because he was handsome and gallant, a good Man on Horseback to inspire recruiting (BartlettEtAl, p. 91, call him the "talismanic personality among the United Irishmen"). Fry/Fry, p. 202, declare, "He was not particularly clever, but young, handsome, aristocratic and brave; he had the qualities Irishmen looked for in a leader." The brains of the movement -- Thomas Addis Emmet and the like -- knew a good thing when they saw one.
Of course, they had to do something with him to keep him attached to the movement. And he was a hothead. By mid-1798, the moderates were trying to calm things down -- but all of the leaders, except Fitzgerald, were in custody by May (BartlettEtAl, p. 94). Soldiers had come to Fitzgerald's home in March and found his wife shoving incriminating papers into the fire (Golway, p. 80). Fitzgerald was still at large but unable to show himself. He and the few other free leaders decided to rebel even without the French (on whom the wiser leaders had intended to rely). On May 12, the English place a reward of a thousand pounds on Fitzgerald's head.
On May 18, Fitzgerald barely avoided capture. The next day, as he suffered from a severe cold, Major Swann and Captain Ryan arrived at his door and tried to arrest him. Fitzgerald stabbed Swann three times, then Ryan 12 or more times, but Swann was able to run for help, and Ryan grabbed Fitzgerald's legs even while dying. Major Sirr, who was commanding a guard outside, arrived and shot Fitzgerald in the shoulder. He was taken into custody, and died of his wounds and blood poisoning on June 4 (Pakenham, pp. 92fff, 235ffff. Golway, pp. 81-84; BartlettEtAl, p. 96). Still, "When he died a hero's death, the United Irishmen were suffused, for a brief moment, with a romantic glow" (Fry/Fry, pp. 202-203).
There were several spies involved. In addition to Francis Magan, a member of the United Irish executive, Thomas Reynolds was to betray the organization's plans (Pakenham, pp. 43-44; BartlettEtAl, p. 94).
For the general context of the aftermath of Fitzgerald's arrest and the 1798, see the notes to "Boulavogue." Fitzgerald is also mentioned in "The Green above the Red" and "The Shan Van Voght."
There is a recent biography of Fitzgerald, Stella Tillyard, Citizen Lord: The Life of Edward Fitzgerald, Irish Revolutionary (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1997). It seems to have been fairly popular, but it has no footnotes, an extremely thin list of sources, and -- as I discovered upon trying to read it -- it casually assumes things it cannot possibly know. It appears to me to be more a historical novel than an genuine biography. I gave up on it after about a chapter. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: Zimm008

Edward [Child 13]

DESCRIPTION: A mother questions her son about his recent deeds and the blood on his weapon. After many evasions, he reveals that he has killed his brother. He may then leave home, perhaps in a bottomless boat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: homicide brother questions
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(West)) US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Ireland
REFERENCES (56 citations):
Child 133, "Edward" (2 texts)
Bronson 13, "Edward" (25 versions -- of which, however, #10 is actually "Lizie Wan" -- plus 2 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 13, "Edward" (5 versions: #2, #3.2, #8, #11, #22)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #80, p. 265-267, "Son Davit (Edward, Child 13)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3.1}
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 66, "Edward" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine p. 433, "Edward" (notes only)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 82-84, "Edward, Edward" (1 text)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 290-291, "Edward, Edward" (1 text)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 111-112, "Edward" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 25, "What Brought the Blood?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 6, "What Blood on the Point of Your Knife" (3 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes) {A= Bronson's#9, B=#6a, D=#23}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 21-23, "What Blood on the Point of Your Knife" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 6A) {Bronson's #9}
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 6, "Edward" (1 fragmentary text that might be this or "Lizie Wan")
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 100-101, "Edward" [listed in error as Child 12] (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}; see also "Edward Ballad" on pp. 96-100, which is closer to "The Twa Brothers"
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 208-212, "Edward" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 7, "Edward" (4 texts plus a fragment; two tunes entitled "What Is That On the End of Your Sword," "Edward"; 1 more version mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #19, #22}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 8, pp. 60-67, "Edward" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 7, "Edward" (3 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 7, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, pp. 33-34, "Edward" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #149, "Edward" (2 texts)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 5, pp. 70-72, "Edward" (2 texts)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 6, "Eward" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 180-184, "Edward" (3 texts, with local titles "Edward," (no title), "The Murdered Brother"; 3 tunes on pp. 404-406) {Bronson's #5, [b], #3}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 8, "My Son Come Tell It To Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 59-63, "How Come That Blood on Your Shirt Sleeve" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #21}
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 11-14, "How Come That Blood on Your Shirt Sleeve" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #4, pp. 16-18, "Edward" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 18-19, "The Father's Murder" (1 short text, 1 tune, probably this -- it has typical "Edward" lyrics -- but it might be "Lizzie Wan" or something else, since it ends with the singer saying he murdered his father, not his brother)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #9, "How Come That Blood on Your Shirt Sleeve?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 40-41, "How Come This Blood on Your Shirt Sleeve?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 85-88, "Edward" (3 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 7-11, "Son Davie," "Edward" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 65, "Edward, Edward" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 156, "Edward" (2 texts)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 63, "Edward" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 10, "Edward" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 9, "Edward" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 169-170+342, "Edward" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 8 "Edward" (10 texts, some of them fragmentary, 10 tunes; the "B" and "F" fragments might be "Lizie Wan") {Bronson's #13, #20, #11, #1, #7, #16, #14, #15, #12, #8}
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 8, "Edward" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #3, "Edward" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #13}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 103-104, "Edward" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 119, "Edward" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 5, "Edward" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 7, "Edward" (2 texts)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 9, pp. 23-24, "Edward" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 179-181, "My Son Davie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 59-60, "How Come That Blood?" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 13-15, "Edward, Edward" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 56-58, "Edward" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 223, "Edward" (1 text)
DT 13, EDWARD1* EDWARD2*
ADDITIONAL: Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, pp. 31-32, "Edward" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #421, "Edward" (1 text)
Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 4, prints the Danish version, "Svend I Rosensgaard," with a loose English translation; the first few verses are quite close to the English, then turns to a list of impossible wonders
ST C013 (Full)
Roud #200
RECORDINGS:
Acie Cargill and Debra Cowan, "My Brother Edward" (on HCargillFamily)
Mary Ellen Connors, Jeannie Robertson, Thomas Moran, Angela Brasil [composite] "Edward" (on FSBBAL1) {cf. Bronson's #3.1 in addenda}
Mary Delaney, "What Put the Blood?" (on Voice17)
Charles Ingenthron, "Edward" [singer calls it, "The Little Yellow Dog," but the LC folklorists retitle it "Edward"] (AFS; on LC12) {Bronson's #6(b)}
Jean Ritchie, "Edward" (on JRitchie02)
Jeannie Robertson, Paddy Tunney, Angela Brasil [composite] "Edward" (on FSB4) {cf. Bronson's #3.1 in addenda}
Paddy Tunney, "Son, Come Tell It To Me" (on IRPTunney01); "What Put the Blood?" (on Voice03); "What Put the Blood on Your Right Shoulder, Son" (on IRPTunney02)
Mrs. Crockett Ward, "Edward" (AFS; on LC57)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lizie Wan" [Child 65] (plot, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Son Davie, Son Davie
What's That Blood On Your Sword?
The Murdered Brother
Dear Son
NOTES [899 words]: In a longer article concerning Jeannie Robertson's renditions of "My Son Davit", Porter evolved a "conceptual performance model" to document tune and text coupled with the performance situation (and its greater context), and coupled as well with her changes over time. Porter delves into Jeannie Robertson's concept of the "story" (which concept goes far beyond the received song text), modeling how that concept changed Jeannie's delivery over time, as well as how her status as singer evolved from Traveller to "folk singer." Along with the Model is a wealth of detail about Jennie's renditions. (see: Porter, James. "Jeannie Robertson's 'My Son David': A Conceptual Performance Model." JournalOfAmericanFolklore 89 (1976), 7-26.) - DGE
This song and "Lizie Wan" have cross-fertilized so heavily (especially in the ending, where the murderous son is cross-examined) that it is often not possible to tell fragmentary versions apart. Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio's text, for instance, has only the questions and answers, and might be either song.
Bertrand Bronson, in his essay "Edward, Edward, A Scottish Ballad" (reprinted in BronsonBAS, pp. 1-17) makes the point that this song is often included in literary anthologies as one of the best examples of the ballad art. But, he observes, it is always the Percy version which gets printed -- and this has several problems. First is a point raised by Motherwell: how does a ballad of probably-Scottish origin come to have a hero named "Edward" (as in "Edward I, the Hammer of the Scots")? (p. 3 in the essay as printed in BronsonBAS). Second, the ending in which Edward concludes by accusing his mother of plotting the whole thing occurs only in the Percy version, and that this produces the absurd situation of the mother and son both knowing what is going on and hiding it -- it's Hamlet and Claudius hunting each other, not a genuine murder mystery (this is in the "footnote" on pp. 15-17). And none of the other versions show this feature. And the Percy version cannot be traced back beyond Percy's source Lord Hailes. Bronson concludes, as Archer Taylor also concluded, that the Percy text, in addition to Percy's usual practice of archaizing and fouling up the spelling, has been rewritten to be more dramatic. Bronson's argument strikes me as very compelling, particularly since we know that Percy was often guilty of such things.
The idea of a guilty person going to sea in a bottomless boat is old and widespread; "Embarkation in leaky boat" is Thompson motif Q466. See e.g. the Grimm tale of "The Three Snake-Leaves," which ends with a guilty princess and her lover being sent to sea in a box full of holes.
Stewart makes a great deal of the fact that, in his text, the brothers were fighting about "a little hazel bush," observing that the hazel was the "sacred tree of Irish wisdom." Of course, this ignores the fact that, in many versions of the song, it is a holly bush, or in one instance a juniper bush, or just a bush, or sprout, of unspecified type. And most of the versions aren't Irish anyway. We could, of course, find a magic explanation for each kind of tree, but the evidence is that the species doesn't matter. The key is probably not the type of tree but the fact that it is *little* -- so, perhaps, a young girl over whom the brothers quarrel.
Stewart also sees this as a sort of sequel to "The Twa Brothers" [Child 49]. Thematically, certainly, "Edward" is a logical follow-on to the versions of "The Twa Brothers" which involve a fight over a girl (a small subset of the whole of the latter ballad). But, of course, that does not mean that they are related. It is interesting to see that none other than Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) seems to have connected them, however. One of his earliest poems, written while he was still a schoolboy, is called "The Two Brothers," and the opening is quite similar to "The Twa Brothers" [Child 49]; it begins
There were two brothers at Twyford school,
And when they had left the place,
It was, "Will ye learn Greek and Latin?
Or will ye run me a race?
Or will ye go up to yonder bridge,
And there will we angle for dace?"
Later verses are more reminiscent of "Edward" [Child 13] or "Lizzie Wan" [Child 51]:
"Oh what bait's that upon your hook,
Dear brother, tell to me?"
"It is my younger brother," he cried,
"Oh woe and dole is me?"
[ ... ]
"And when will you come back again,
My brother, tell to me?"
"When chub is good for human food,
And that will never be!"
(for a photo of these verses, see Douglas-Fairhurst, p. 75)
Dodgson's final verse might be from "It Was A' For Our Rightful' King" or similar:
She turned herself right round about,
And her heart brake into three,
Said, "One of the two will be wet through and through,
And 'tother'll be late for his tea."
It has also been claimed that Dodgson based "Jabberwocky" on this song (so John Mackay Shaw; see Williams/Maden/Green/Crutch, p. 312), but the connection, if any, is feeble.
Dodgson wasn't the only one to rework the piece. Algernon Charles Swinburne rewrote and expanded this as "The Bloody Son." I can't see that it is an improvement in form, and the dialect is forced. Natascha Wurtzbach (in Harris, p. 187) notes a similarity to A. E. Housman's "Farewell to barn and stack and tree," which involves a murder and a man leaving home. I grant the similarity of themes, but I really doubt actual dependence. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C013

Edward Ballad

See The Twa Brothers [Child 49] (listed in Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland as Child 13) (File: C049)

Edward Boyle

DESCRIPTION: Edward Boyle, helped by friends, leaves his lover, parents and Ireland for America. The singer recalls his flute playing. She curses Columbus: many lovers mourn his follower's return. If she had gold she would give it up for one glimpse of Edward Boyle.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: love emigration separation America Ireland nonballad music
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 139-140, "Edward Boyle" (1 text)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 28, "My Charming Edward Boyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 43, pp. 133-134,172, "My Charming Edward Boyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2906
File: TST139

Edward Hickman (Marian Parker IV)

DESCRIPTION: Hickman kidnaps Marian Parker, hoping to gain a ransom. After briefly treating her well, he kills her and flees. At last captured, he is tried and sentenced to be hanged. His mother laments his fate
AUTHOR: Andrew Jenkins
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Andrew Jenkins)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution trial abduction mother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 14, 1927 - Kidnapping and murder of twelve (eleven?)-year-old Marian Parker
Dec 17, 1927 - Discovery by her father of the girl's mutilated body
Oct 19, 1928 - Execution of William Edward Hickman for the murder
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 257, "Edward Hickman" (1 text)
Roud #4106
RECORDINGS:
Blind Andy [pseud. for Andrew Jenkins], "The Fate of Edward Hickman" (OKeh 45197, 1928) [The flip side is also a Marian Parker ballad]
Edd Rice, "Fate of Edward Hickman" (Vocalion 5216, c. 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marian Parker (I)" [Laws F33] (subject)
cf. "Marian Parker (II)" (subject)
cf. "Marian Parker (III)" (subject)
NOTES [56 words]: This is item dE49 in Laws's Appendix II. Laws lists a total of four Marian Parker ballads (the others are F33, dF56, and dF57). This, one of two by Andrew Jenkins and appearing in the Brown collection, has the opening stanza, "Oh, come all ye good people And listen while I tell The fate of Edward Hickman, A boy we all know well." - RBW
File: LdE49

Edward Jorgen (Edward Gayen)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Edward Jorgen/Gayen is my name, and lately I to England came." Visiting friends in Manchester, he fights the police and is captured. Tried and apparently convicted, he asks his love if she will stand by him. She wishes she were his wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Vaughan Williams collection)
KEYWORDS: trial police gallows-confession love prison
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #58, Edward Jorgen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1537
File: VWP058

Edward Lewis

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, we heard a different signal All up and down the Clinchfield Line Since the hand of Edward Lewis Pulls no more old 99." The singer says that those along the line will miss Lewis, an engineer, and says that he has gone on to better things.
AUTHOR: Words: Jack Hartley?
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: railroading death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 291, "Edward Lewis" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 291, "Edward Lewis" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Roud #6635
RECORDINGS:
RECORDINGS: Mike Seeger, "Edward Lewis" (on MSeeger02)
File: BrII291

Edward Mathews

DESCRIPTION: "Poor Edward Mathews, where is he? Sent headlong to eternity." "O! V. P. Coolidge, how could you So black a deed of murder do?" "The hay for cattle which he drove You swore within your heart to have." Coolidge murders Mathews and hopes for forgiveness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide food
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 83-87, "(Edward Mathews") (1 excerpted text)
NOTES [54 words]: According to Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, this happened near Waterville, Maine, where V. P. Coolidge tried to steal a load of hay from Edward Mathews, failed, tricked the fellow into giving him a mortgage (!), and then killed him. But she is unable to provide a date. My histories of Maine don't mention the name of Mathews. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Burt083

Edward Sinclair Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "When first I saw Edward Sinclair He was a grown up boy." Sinclair's life is recounted as he starts his lumber mill: "when he was defeated He would always try again." His sons carry on the firm and some key employees are named.
AUTHOR: Patrick Hurley of Cassilis "probably about 1902" (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: commerce lumbering ship moniker family boss
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 15, "The Edward Sinclair Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi015 (Partial)
Roud #9197
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of Mullen Stream" (regarding Sinclair's lumber operation)
NOTES [35 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "Edward Sinclair ... was a prominent Miramichi lumber operator in the 1880's and 1890's.... The locality was known as Bridgetown after the Intercolonial Railway bridge was built." - BS
File: MaWi015

Edward the Martyr

DESCRIPTION: Song(?) in Old English. In 978, King Edward is killed at Corfe. He is buried without honors. "Men murdered him, but God exalted him." He is now a saint, and people pray to him. The counsels of those who murdered him failed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 979 (Peterborough Manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle)
KEYWORDS: homicide royalty burial MiddleEnglish
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 978 - Assassination of Edward "the Martyr"
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Michael Swanton, translator and editor,: _The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, 1996 (I use the 1998 Routledge edition), p. 123, (no title) (a translation into prose)
G.N. Garmonsworthy, translator and editor, _The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, 1953; new edition, Everyman, 1972, p. 123, (no title) (a translation into verse)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Judas" [Child 23] (subject: The Earliest English Ballad) and references there
NOTES [3424 words]: Many attempts have been made over the years to locate the "earliest English ballad." F. J. Child's candidate was "Judas" (Child 23), which at least had the virtues of being in roughly the right form and of having a plot and of being only slightly older than other examples of the type. Gummere came up with another candidate, "Merie Sungen the Muneches Bennen Ely (Merry Sang the Monks of Ely)." Others have sort of hinted at the song of Bannockburn, "Maidens of England, Sair May Ye Mourn."
I think, though, that this instance takes the prize. CHEL1, pp. 138-139, says of a poem found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "The murder of Edward son of Edgar, at Corfesgeat, is related in a peculiarly distinctive poem, which is quite clearly in sung verse, and shows traces of strophic arrangement. Some lines, possibly, show the earliest English seven-beat verse [i.e. ballad couplets].... Probably the chronicler took a popular ballad or ballads, broke it up, and attempted to destroy its sing-song character by the addition of end verses."
CHEL1 does not identify the source of this alleged ballad-like piece, but discusses it in the context of poems transcribed into the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Most of these appear to be in alliterative lines, but this one is described in ballad terms. The description of the content makes it seem certain that, despite CHEL1's lack of a citation, the item referred to is the elegy on Edward the Martyr found under the year 979 [error for 978] in the Peterborough ("E") copy of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
To understand the context, it is important to know what the Chronicle is. In the late ninth century, King Alfred the Great had assembled some records of English history and had them written out (in Old English rather than Latin so that ordinary people could understand it). He then caused various abbeys and monasteries to record copies, and thereafter to maintain the chronicle year by year. Thus there were independent copies at various places, typically referred to by letter, e.g. the A copy from Winchester, the B and C copies from Abingdon, the D copy from Worcester, the E copy from Peterborough. These were sometimes copied, and occasionally compared, so one might fight the same material in multiple copies for a few years, then each copy would go its way. None of the manuscripts was really a continuous history -- most monasteries wrote just a line or two about each year, and sometimes they just stopped writing altogether -- but collectively they are our main source for the history of the period, and often they would pull in material from other sources.
It is not unlikely that this is one of those pulled-in pieces. This particular one is from the E manuscript of the Chronicle, from Peterborough. Garmonsway, p. 123, gives the opening part of the "poem" as follows:
No worse deed for the English ever was done
Than this was,
Since first they came to the land of Britain.
Men murdered him, but God exalted him;
In life he was an earthly king,
But after death he is now a heavenly saint.
His earthly kinsmen would not avenge him,
Yet his Heavenly Father has amply avenged him.
The ending makes Edward's holy status clear:
They now humbly bend the knee to his dead bones.
Now can we perceive the wisdom of men,
Their deliberations and their plots,
Are as nought against God's purpose.
(As Dorothy Whitelock once commented, the quality of the poetry in the Chronicle made one 'glad that the chroniclers mainly used prose'"; Lavelle, p. 27).
I would note that this can hardly be contemporary with the events in the song, since it would take at least some time for Edward's cult to arise. Slight additional evidence that it is not contemporary is supplied, indirectly, by the fact that other versions of the Chronicle omit it; the fact that this poem didn't make it into the other versions hints that it was added after any comparisons among the surviving copies. Note also that it had the year wrong!
Also, although printed as poetry, this hardly looks like a ballad to me! To which I would add that Swanton, p. 123, prints the account of Edward in prose. By contrast, on p. 118 he prints an elegy on Edward the Martyr's father Edgar in poetry. Similarly, Anderson, pp. 177-178, looks at poems of history in the Chronicle and other sources, and lists the Edgar poems and others -- but not the story of Edward the Martyr. My several books of Anglo-Saxon poetry all omit it, although none of them is intended to be comprehensive. Bottom line: This not only doesn't appear to be a ballad, but odds are that it isn't a song!
And while CHEL1 sees rhyming in this piece, which is apparently why it labels it a ballad, there are several other pieces in one or another version of the Chronicle which are thought to have been songs, and many of them predate the reign of Edward. Perhaps the earliest example,, "The Battle of Brunanburh," comes from the year 937; Kennedy's translation (p.159) opens
Æthelstan King, lord of eorls [earls],
Ring-bestower, and also his brother,
Edmund Ætheling [royal prince], won with the sword-edge
Lifelong glory in battle at Brunanburh....
This is alliterative rather than in couplets, but it is found in most copies of the Chronicle, not just one. Garmonsway's version starts on p. 106, as does Swanton's (the two, because they are organized based on the same parallel edition of the Old English text, have a mostly-parallel pagination). As far as I know, everyone agrees that "Brunanburh" is a poem, and it's about an actual historical event. Based on Garmonsway, at least, it is the earliest poetic work in the Chronicle. If anything from the Old English period deserves to be called "The Earliest English Ballad," it would seem to have a stronger claim.
Additional poems follow in various editions of the Chronicle, although Garmonsway prints more items as poetry than does Swanton. Garmonsway, p. 110, has this item for the year 942, from -A- and D:
In this year king Edmund, lord of the English [the half-brother of Æthelstan)
Guardian of kinsmen, loved doer of deeds, conquered Mercia....
(Swanton, p. 110, also prints this as poetry, but with different line breaks).
For 959, the E text of the Chronicle has this about the beginning of the reign of Edgar the father of Edward the Martyr (Garmonsway, p. 114; Swanton, p. 114, again prints as prose -- and translates a bit differently):
His [i.e. Edgar's] reign was prosperous, and God granted him
To live his days in piece: he did his duty....
The -A- version of the Chronicle has a different Edgar poem printed under the year 973, which both Garmonsway, p. 118, and Swanton, p. 118, print as poetry; I'll give the opening lines of Swanton's version this time:
Here, Edgar, ruler of the English,
was consecrated as king in a great assembly
in the ancient town of Ache-man's city....
Two years later (i.e. 975), -A- has a poem about Edgar's death (which makes me wonder if the Chronicle didn't have its own poet writing pieces about Edgar); text on p. 118 of Garmonsway. This is another instance where Swanton, p. 118, also prints as poetry, so here is the opening according to Swanton:
Here Edgar, king of the English,
ended earthty pleasures; he chose another light....
Interestingly, the E version of the Chronicle also has a report on Edgar's death; Garmonsway, p. 119, prints it as poetry but Swanton, p. 119, prints as prose although he says it include "poetic rhetoric." It looks a bit like a less-well-done version of the text in -A-. (The D version, on p. 121 of Garmonsway and Swantpn, is the same as E's). Given that the accounts are similar but not identical, might there have been oral tradition involved, which damaged the poetry?
Even though Edward the Martyr reigned only three to five years, Garmonsway, p. 121, has an earlier Edward the Martyr poem, for the year 975, on p.121 (which Swanton, p. 121, again prints as prose):
In his days, on account of his youth,
God's adversaries broke God's laws.
After this and the poem on the Martyr's murder, there is a long pause before the next poetic entry. In the year 1011, there is an entry on the Danes martyring archbishop Ælfheah; the E Chronicle has a description which Garmonsway, p. 142, regards as poetry but Swanton does not:
Then was he a captive, he who had been
The head of England and of Christendom....
On p. 158, for the year 1034, Garmonsway prints part of the C chronicle, about the murder of the royal prince Alfred, as poetry, and Swanton, p. 158, also treats it as poetry:
But then Godwine stopped him, and set him in captivity,
and drove off his companions, and some variously killed....
Ronay, pp. 47, 137, has this one about the return of "Edward the Exile" to England in 1057, from D:
Here came Edward Aetheling [i.e. member of the royal family]
To Engla-land;
He was King Edwards's
Brother's son [that is, the nephew of the reigning king, Edward the Confessor, although in fact he was son of Edward's half-brother:]
Edmund King
Who Ironside was called....
Garmonsway has it on pp. 187-188 and also prints it as verse (though with longer lines than Ronay); Swanton, who also prints it on pp. 187-188, says the first part is marked by "poetic rhetoric" but prints it as prose.
Ronay gives the ending on p. 138, which says, mysteriously, that Edward's life "ended" upon arrival in England. There is no information about what happened to him, and he was forty or so, an age at which many in his family had died, but Ronay seems to think he was murdered. If so, the item might be another very early murder ballad. However, Barlow, p. 217, says however that the chronicler "does not hint at four play." Others are less certain either way OxfordCompanion, p. 337, calls the text "laconic and possibly sinister," StentonEtAl, p. 571, believes that there were "intrigues" about Edward's return to England but does not call it murder.
In 1065, both C and D had an item on the death of Edward the Confessor (which actually took place in 1066 by modern reckoning, but it was before Old New Year, March 25). Both Garmonsway, pp. 192-103, and Swanton, pp. 192-193, regard it as alliterative poetry:
Now did King Edward, Lord of the English,
Send his righteous soul to Christ....
That brings us to the Norman Conquest, after which everything was different (since the Normans brought, among other things, a new language and rhymed verse), but we might perhaps add one more item, from 1067 in the D Chronicle, about the marriage of Margaret sister of Edgar the Atheling to that dirty old man Malcolm III of Scotland. Garmonsway, p. 201, considers it poetry; Swanton does not -- but it sounds a bit like certain much more recent songs:
She swore she would be no man's bride,
Nor his, should the Celestial Mercy so ordain....
Thus CHEL1's contention that the tale of Edward is poetry is dubious, and it is even more doubtful that it is the earliest example of whatever-it-is. And it is, of course, in Old English; almost other song claimed as a ballad is in either Middle English or Modern English. Even if "Edward the Martyr" is indeed regarded as poetry, I doubt it can be considered the earliest ballad. But better to put it in with warning notices than leave it out....
As for the historical situation in the song (?), it is complex. The Viking invasions of England of the late ninth century had been fought off by Alfred the Great (Brooke, pp. 107-111), and in the half-century after his death, Alfred's sons and grandsons had expanded the kingdom of Wessex -- the only Anglo-Saxon kingdom to survive the raids -- to cover most of what we now call England (Brooke, pp. 117-118).
Unfortunately, the descendants of Alfred proved rather short-lived -- Alfred himself had died at age fifty (Brooke, p. 116), and five kings reigned between Alfred's death in about 900 and the accession of King Edgar in 959 (see the genealogy on p. 211 of Brooke). Edgar himself reigned only from 959 to 975 -- and was only about 32 when he died suddenly (indeed, Brooke, p. 128, believes he was not yet thirty).
And he had had at least two wives, and probably three. By the first, Æthelflæd he had had a son, Edward, who was probably born in the period 959-962 (Roach, pp. 53-54), so he was probably around twelve when is father died, although this is uncertain (some would make him perhaps two years older than that). "What became of [Æthelflæd] is unclear; it is conceivable that Edgar dissolved the marriage in favour of a more advantageous match... however, it is equally possible that she passed away in the early 960s (Roach, pp. 43-44).
Wife #2, Wulfthryth, didn't last long in Edgar's life; he put her away quickly, if indeed he ever formally married her (Roach, p. 44). They had no sons, and Edgar put her in a convent at Wilton (making it sound good by making her abbess) but their daughter, Eadgyth/Edith, became a famous saint. (Hindley, p. 277).
In 964 (StentonEtAl, p. 372) or 965 (Swanton, p. 119), Edgar had married as his third (?) wife Aelfthryth (called "Elfrida" by Fetherling, p. 136), whose "family was amongst the most powerful in southern England" (Roach, p. 45). (The Chronicle says the year was 965, but a charter says they were already married in 964; Roach, p. 48.) Interestingly, she had had a previous husband herself -- very rare for royal spouses. All this re-marrying probably produced some doubt on the legitimacy of their children (Hindley, pp. 276-277), but Aelfthryth clearly didn't consider herself in any way inferior. From the start, she seems to have been a more important figure than Edgar's previous wives, owning land and witnessing documents; she seems to have regarded herself as a true queen, not just the wife of the king (Roach, p. 49), which was the title borne by many consorts at the time. Indeed, Lavelle, p. 30, argues that she was actually *crowned* queen, which was rare, perhaps without precedent in England; certainly it would seem to make her more important than previous wives.
She apparently bore Edgar two sons, Edmund, who died in 970 (Swanton, p. 119) and Æthelred/Ethelred -- the future Ethelred II Unraed (whose nickname should be rendered something like "redeless," i.e., unadvised, un-counseled, but has been cleverly if unfairly rendered "the Unready"). Roach, p. 42, thinks Ethelred was born in 966 (meaning that Edmund must have been slightly older still). Ethelred cannot have been more than ten and may well have been only six or seven when his father Edgar died (StentonEtAl, p. 372); Roach's birth date would make him eight or nine in 975.
The designations used for the sons is interesting. On one charter, Edmund (the full brother of Ethelred who died young) signs before his older half-brother Edward, and Edmund is designated "legitimate son" of Edgar, while Edward is simply said to be "begotten by" Edgar (Roach, p. 54; Lavelle, pp. 35-36). Was Edgar trying to fiddle with the succession by making his sons by Aelfthryth the legitimate heirs? Lavelle, p. 335, seems to think so.
Edward -- the second English king of that name, following Edward the Elder -- succeeded Edgar smoothly enough (in 973 or 975, depending on the source consulted; Roach, 61, dates it to 975 without even mentioning other dates, but Lavelle, p. 149, dates it 973). Probably, though, there was some discussion among the nobles before this was decided; it is evident that Ethelred had many supporters who felt that he ought to be King. Or at least who wanted a King who was more under their thumb (StentonEtAl, p. 372). Some had apparently argued, when Edgar died, that Ethelred had the quieter temper and should be preferred on that basis (Roach, pp. 61-62) -- though how they could know what a nine-year-old's temper would be like as an adult is beyond me. Lavelle, p. 141 n. 31, says that what is claimed to be the skeleton of Edward has an elongated head, which might be attributable to a hyperactive thyroid, which might cause irritability and excitability. Hyperthyroidism can indeed cause irritability, but all of this must be considered speculative given that we can't even prove that the body is Edward's!)
According to Hindley, p. 289, Archbishop Dunstan of Canterbury supported Edward, but the earls were divided. One might suspect that, whatever the princes' official titles at the time Edgar died, the Witan (the group of nobles who made the final decision about who would be king) chose Edward because he was old enough to perform some kingly functions and Ethelred certainly was not.
Lavelle, p. 39, suggests that a compromise was made under which Edward was made king but that Ethelred was declared his heir *even should Edward have sons of his own*. Such an arrangement of course would never have worked -- Edward would surely have found a way to change it if he had sons -- but it might be indicative of the politics of the succession.
The early years of Edward's reign seem to have been unsettled, with famines and civil strife and several monasteries sacked (Swanton, p. 121), plus there was a comet that was viewed as a portent (Roach, p. 61, or note the song quoted above).
On March 18, 978 (a few scholars think the year was actually 979; Roach, p. 73), King Edward came to visit his half-brother and stepmother at Corfe (StentonEtAl, p. 373; Roach, p. 73). Exactly what happened next is unclear. Some sources say he was killed while hunting, but the earliest sources say he was mobbed in the castle and murdered (Lavelle, p. 41). It is hard to believe that Ethelred had anything to do with it -- after all, he was still only twelve or so, possibly younger. Possibly his mother was in on the planning; possibly not (Fetherling, p. 136, blames it entirely on her, but he seems to be the only one who is certain). According to Hole, p. 150, the first chronicler to connect her with the murder lived some seven decades later, in the reign of William the Conqueror. Similarly, Roach, p. 74, says that all the early histories leave the conspirators anonymous; "The first to implicate the queen is the Latin Passion of Edward, written in the late eleventh century by the prolific Goscelin of St-Bertin, and this set the tone for later narratives." Roach, p. 82, points out that she had an important part in the regency over Ethelred, which he argues means that her reputation can't have been too bad at the time. What is certain is that, while at Corfe, King Edward was attacked and killed, then buried in unconsecrated ground (Brooke, p. 129).
What was alleged to be his body was later discovered because miracles were taking place there (Hole, p. 151).
Because Edward had no son, his half-brother Ethelred became the new King -- but a king under a cloud (StentonEtAl, p. 373), whose reign would see a disastrous resumption of the Danish invasions; Ethelred would be overthrown in 1013, restored in 1014, and might have been overthrown again in 1016 had he not himself died. It was later reported that St. Dunstan, who crowned Ethelred, spoke words of ill omen at the time (Hole, p. 151, although Roach, p. 6, points out that this was from a significantly later account intended to glorify Dunstan and diminish Ethered).
Edward's murderers were never punished and seem not to have been publicly identified. But Roach, p. 173, thinks Ethelred helped promote his half-brother's cult -- perhaps under pressure; Edward's translation to a new grave, and the foundation of associated orders, took place around 1000, when the Viking raids were becoming extreme. Many saints were getting upgrades at the time, probably because people wanted them to intercede, and by supporting Edward's cult, Ethelred could try to deflect the blame that he faced from Edward's partisans plus he might hope for a little extra intercession. Roach, p. 244, says that the first official reference to the cult was in 1001, in one of Ethelred's charters.
There seem to have been questions about King Edward's character before he took the throne (StentonEtAl, p. 372) -- but not after (Roach, p. 169, compares him to the Holy Innocents slaughtered by Herod: they hadn't done anything to justify sainthood, but their deaths sanctified them). Especially not when King Ethelred proved such a disaster. Soon Edward became Edward the Martyr. Miracles were reported at his tomb -- the first being reported around 990, according to Byrthferth of Ramsey (Roach, p. 169). He came to be regarded as a saint; his feast day is March 18 (DictSaints, p. 75), and the great Plantagenet kings, Edward I and his successors, were named for him. Hence, presumably the work of praise in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: ASCEp123

Edward, On Lough Erne Shore

DESCRIPTION: Edward has been transported for seven years. His lover, left alone on Lough Erne's shore, remembers their days together. Now she weeps all night: "my rose is fading and my hopes decay." She wishes she could go to him "like a moon o'er the ocean"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1991 (Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder)
KEYWORDS: love transportation separation Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 141-142, "Edward, On Lough Erne Shore" (1 text)
File: TST141

Edward's Abdication

DESCRIPTION: "Come hearken good friends to this story so true... Concerning the love of this bonny young prince, The King of his own countree." Although his family is opposed, he insists on marrying the woman he loves. Finally, in disgust, he "cast off his crown."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: royalty love marriage
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1936 - Abdication of Edward VIII and his marriage to Wallis Simpson
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 262, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 261-262)
ST ThBa262A (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "King Edwards" (theme of Edward VIII)
NOTES [184 words]: Thomas does not indicate a tune for this, other than saying that it is to an English ballad; I strongly suspect it uses "The House Carpenter."
It's worth noting that Edward VIII was *not* a "young prince" when he met the (then-still-married) Mrs. Simpson. Edward's dates were 1894-1972, meaning that he married at 42.
Edward, an easygoing man brought up by strict parents, had by then displayed a strong attraction to married women. In that context, it's perhaps no surprise that Bessie Wallace Warfield Simpson (1896-1986), who was on her second marriage when he met her, gained his attention above all.
When George VI died early in 1936, it became increasingly important that the middle-aged prince marry, but he wanted no one except Mrs. Simpson (who was not divorced until late in that year). This posed many problems: She was not young (meaning that producing an heir might be problematic), she was divorced, she was a commoner, she was American. Edward finally abdicated at the end of 1936, married Mrs. Simpson a few days later, and assumed a career of quiet bitterness against the monarchy. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa262A

Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low [Laws M34]

DESCRIPTION: Edwin, now rich, returns to his sweetheart after years at sea. At her advice, he goes to her father's inn in disguise. Her father murders him for his money. The girl learns the truth and turns in her father, who is executed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2031))
KEYWORDS: homicide father money execution love punishment separation
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (41 citations):
Laws M34, "Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 127-128, "Edwin in the Lowlands Low" (1 text)
Randolph 140, "Young Edmond Dell" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 46-47, "Young Edward the Driver Boy" (1 text)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 10, "Diver Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 79, "Young Edwin in the Lowlands Low" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 79, "Young Edwin in the Lowlands Low" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 36, "Amy and Edward" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 211, "Edward (Edwin in the Lowlands Low)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #185, "Edwin in the Lowlands Low" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 69, "Young Edmondale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 35, "Young Edwin in the Lowlands Low" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 12, "He Ploweed the Lowlands Low" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 194, "My Father Keeps a Public House" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 56, "Edwin in the Lowlands Low" (11 texts, 11 tunes)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #25, "Edwin (Edward) i the Lowlands Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 220-222, "Young Edmund of the Lowlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 641-642, "Young Edmond of the Lowlands Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 32, "Edwin in the Lowlands Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 106-108, "Young Edmon Bold" (1 text, 1 tune; the text, from manuscript, is slightly damaged as well as very curiously written)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 146-147, "Lowlands Low" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #22, "Come All Young Men and Maidens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 27, "Young Edmund" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 703-705, "Young Edwin in the Lowlands Low" (2 texts)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 42, "Young Edward" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 49, The Lowlands Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 392-393, "Lowlands Low" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 57, "The Ploughboy of the Lowlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #123, p. 1, "Young Emma" (1 text, a composite)
Greig/Duncan2 189, "Young Emma" (11 texts, 10 tunes)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #67, p. 234-236, "Young Emslie (Edwin in the Lowlands Low (Laws M34)" (1 text, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 106-107, "Young Edwin in the Lowlands Low (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 441, "Down in the Lowlands Low" (1 text)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #118, "Edwin in the Lowlands Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H113, p. 434, "Young Edward Bold/The Lowlands Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 32, "Young Edwin in the Lowlands Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 106, "Young Edwin in the Lowlands Low" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 120-121, "Young Emily" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Adrienne Hollifield, "Family Tradition, Orality, and Cultural Intervention in Sodom Laurel Ballad Tradition," Vol. XLII, No. 1 (Winter-Spring 1995), pp. 1-34, "Young Emily" (4 texts, from Dellie Norton, Doug Wallin, Evelyn Ramsey, Sheila Adams, plus extensive comparison of texts)
DT 330, EDWRDLOW*
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, p. 238, "My Father Keeps a Public House" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Maud Jacobs and Pearl Jacobs Borusky)
Roud #182
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "Young Edmund" (on Voice17)
Ollie Gilbert, "The Diver Boy (Edwin in the Lowlands Low)" (on LomaxCD1701)
Geordie Hanna, "Young Edmund in the Lowlands Low" (on Voice03)
Mike Kent, "Young Edmund in the Lowlands" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Louis Killen, "Young Edwin in the Lowlands" (on ESFB2)
Maggie Murphy, "Young Edmund" (on IRHardySons)
Dellie Norton, "Young Emily" (on DarkHoll)
Doug Wallin, "Young Emily" (on Wallins1) (on Chandler01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2031), "Young Edwin in the Lowlands Low," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.12(289), Johnson Ballads 214, Harding B 15(394a), Harding B 11(1459), Firth c.12(301), Harding B 11(4363), Harding B 11(4361), "Young Edwin in the Lowlands Low"; Harding B 11(1433), "Young Edmund in the Lowlands Low"; Harding B 11(4362)[some lines illegible], "Young Edwin in the Low-Lands Low"; Harding B 25(2133), Harding B 16(315b), "Young Edwin of the Lowlands Low"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lovely Willie" [Laws M35] (plot)
cf. "Come All You Worthy Christians" (tune)
cf. "Dives and Lazarus" (tune)
cf. "The Lover's Curse (Kellswater)" (themes)
SAME TUNE:
Bushes and Briars (per broadsides Bodleian Harding B 11(2031), Bodleian Johnson Ballads 214, Bodleian Harding B 11(1459))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Young Emma
Young Amy
Ploughman Boy
NOTES [225 words]: In Harry Cox's version on Voice17, Emma -- after singing the "shells in the ocean" verse found in "I Never Will Marry" -- then "sick and broken-hearted to Bedlam had to go, And her shrieks were of young Edmund who ploughed the lowland low." In that, and most of the rest of its text, it follows the Bodleian broadsides. Newfoundland versions -- all from the northern Avalon Peninsula -- seem based on the broadsides, keep or modify the "shells in the ocean" verse, and drop the Bedlam verse (which, I suppose, has no local meaning); see Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 32, Peacock, pp. 641-642 [the verse is almost unrecognizable] and "Young Edmund in the Lowlands" in Songs of Newfoundland at the "MacEdward Leach and Songs of Atlantic Canada" site. A good, but not infallible, clue that the broadside version is being followed is the opening: "Come all you feeling lovers and listen to my song, While I unfold concerning gold, that guides so many wrong." Greig also has a broadside-based version that modifies "shells in the ocean" and drops the Bedlam verse (Greig 123 p. 1, "Young Emma," Folk-Song of the North-East). BS
The version in the Warner collection is unusual in that Edmund is murdered by a robber rather than by the father, and the truth does not come out for seven years. This version also makes no mention of Edmund's money. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LM34

Edwin and Mary

DESCRIPTION: "When the proud British foe was invading the soil, Oppressing the young men of freedom and toil, Edwin bid his fair Mary adieu." He sets out "to fight over the waves." After long absence, Mary laments him; he "rushed from his ambush" to comfort her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: love separation war reunion
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 65, "Edwin and Mary" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp.142-143, "The Dark British Foes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 55, "The Dark British Foes" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DARKBRIT*
Roud #9070
NOTES [57 words]: Although this starts with a mention of British invaders, it continues with an account of the young man fighting on or across the ocean. Given how small the American navy was in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, I have to suspect that this is a slightly patched up British song (very likely, given its ornateness, a broadside). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: ChFRA065

Ee-ver, Eye-ver

See Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater (File: GrD81896)

Eelie Bob

DESCRIPTION: The 1851 whaling ships and their captains and bad characteristics are described ("By all decent people their company is shun") "Wake up Eelie [Oily] Rob, or you're sure to be [out]done, The Mazanthien's home with her two hundred tons"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: commerce moniker nonballad whaler
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #86, p. 1 ("Come all ye blubber-hunters and rejoice wi' me") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 13, "Eelie Bob" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5802
File: GrD1013

Eely Ily Oh, The

See A Big Ship Sailing (File: FSWB386A)

Een Dat' Low Lan'

See This May Be Your Last Time (File: CNFM070B)

Een, Teen, Tether, Fether, Fip

See Indian Counting (File: WEMM020A)

Eena, meena, mina, mo

See Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme) (File: Lins005)

Eence Upon a Time (Had I the Wyte)

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks "Had I the wyte?" [Was I to blame?] "She was cook aboot the hoose, And I was kitchie laddie, And aye she gae me bread and cheese To kiss 'er fan she bade me" [Hecht-Herd: "And when I could na do't again: Silly loon she ca'd me."]
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1803 (Hans Hecht, editor, _Songs from David Herd's Manuscripts_ (Edinburgh, 1904) 20, pp. 117, 288-289)
KEYWORDS: courting cook pregnancy food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1399, "Had I the Wyte" (2 fragments)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #56, pp. 217-218, "Ainst Upon a Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7253 and 3361
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come Kiss Wi' Me, Come Clap Wi' Me" (tune, per Hecht-Herd)
NOTES [198 words]: The current description is almost all of the Greig/Duncan7 text. The Robert Burns text (Robert Burns, The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (New Lanark,2005), pp. 429-430, "Had I the Wyte? She Bade Me") may give a better line on earlier texts: She invites him in and when he refuses and she calls him a coward he follows her; with her husband gone he kisses, hugs and bruises her ("Could I for shame refuse her?") - BS
On the other hand, Ray Fisher on the recording "The Fisher Family" sang a song, "Aince Upon a Time," which was based on a version by Jeanie Robertson ("Eence Upon a TIme" or "Eenst Upon a Time") to which Ray added some words. I don't know which words, but in that version the key chorus is, "When I was cook aboot the hoose and he was but a laddie, I gied him a' my bried and ale to by my bairnie's daddy," which gives a pretty strong hint as to what is going on. This item is listed by Roud as #3361. I am lumping them until we can find a more substantial text of "Had I the Wyte." - RBW
Jeannie Robertson ends her version with "don't think I'm mad about you; I could do with a man, but I can do without you" which adds a whole other dimension to the text. - DGE
Last updated in version 5.3
File: GrD71399

Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme)

DESCRIPTION: "Eenie meenie minie mo, Catch a (nigger/tiger/robber) by the toe, If he hollers, let him go, Eenie meenie minie mo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren); Simpson and Roud report an 1885 collection in Canada, and Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes claims that Bolton had a version in 1888
KEYWORDS: nonballad | counting-out
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,So) Britain(England(West)) Australia New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 149, "Eena, meena, mina, mo" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, p. 5, [no title] (1 text, the second of three "counting out" rhymes)
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 128-129, "Counting-out rhymes" (sundry short texts, not quite the same as the American versions but too close to separate)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 238, (no title) (2 variants of a short text); p. 240, (no title) (amother variant, quite distinct, with all nonsense words); p. 242 (no title) (another very strange variant, but too short to classify elsewhere)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #149, "Counting Rhymes" (8 texts of the "One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann" type, 4 of "Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme)", 1 of "Intery Mintery Cutery Corn", 1 of "Alphabet Songs", 1 of "Monday's Child", and 20 miscellaneous rhymes)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 87, "(Eenah Deenah Dinah Doe/Eenie Meenie Minie Moh") (5 texts); also p 95, "Each peach pear plum" (1 text, which he claims is a "relic of "Eenah Deenah"), p. 77, "(Eeny meeny miny mo" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 117-118, "(Eenie, meenie, miny, mo)" (2 texts)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 20, "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 65, "(Eeny, meeny, miny, mo)"; p. 71, "Ene, Mene, Miny, Mo" (2 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 115, "Eenie, Meenie, minie, mo"; p. 116, "Eenie, meenie, dixie, deenie"; p. 118, "Eenie, meenie, tpsie, teenie" (3 texts)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 5, "(Eenie, meenie, minie, mo)"; "(Eenie, meenie, tipsy, teeny)" (2 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #134, "Eeny, meeny, miney, mo" (1 text); also #133, "Eeny, meeny miney, mo, Catch Castro by the toe" (1 text); also #135, "Eeny meeny, tipsy teeny, Applejack and Johnny Sweeny" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 49-50, "Eena, meena, Tipsy, teena"; "Eena, meena, Tippy, teena" (2 texts)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 52, "(Eenie, meenie, minney, mo)" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Iona and Peter Opie, _Children's Games in Street and Playground_, Oxford, 1969, 1984, p. 36, "(Eeny, meeny, miney, mo)"
Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, _A Guide to Australian Folklore_, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 76, "(Eenee meenee macka racka)" (1 text, with the nonsense words much changed, but still a counting rhyme)
Roud #13610
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Bit" (lyrics)
cf. "Ena, mena, more, mi" (lyrics)
cf. "Aina Mania Mana Mike" (lyrics, sort of)
NOTES [481 words]: A child's counting-out rhyme, used e.g. for choosing who is "it" in a game of tag. The Opies declare it the most popular rhyme of this sort in both the United States and England, and certainly it is the only one I ever personally encountered. I remember, at about age ten, trying to convince other children that this was *not* random and that the counter could always pick who was "it" using this scheme. I suppose I was fortunate that they didn't listen, or I'd have been "it" every time.
More interesting is the fact that we (middle-class kids in Minnesota in about 1970) gave the second line as "Catch a tiger by the toe," compared to the seemingly-older version involving catching a "nigger." Did we modify it to "tiger" because none of us knew the meaning of the racial slur, or did our parents firmly straighten us (or our older classmates, who taught us the rhyme) out? I've no clue.
Paul Stamler, who learned the rhyme some years before I did, also learned it with "tiger" -- and says that the children he played it with liked the alliteration.
Simpson and Roud's Dictionary of English Folklore (article on Counting Rymes) suggests that the British original was "chicken" or "tinker," with "beggar" also used. This seems reasonable in context, but I've yet to encounter any of these forms in real life. Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes has a version with a monkey.
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Leonidas Betts, "Folk Speech from Kipling [North Carolina]," Vol. XIV, No. 2 (Nov. 1966), p. 40, has an interesting form beginning "Eeny, meeny, tipsy, teeny, Apple jack, John Sweeney" and proceeding for six more lines, then ending "O-U-T spells out, And out goes you"; this appears to be an unusual composite of several counting rhymes. For the "O-U-T spells out" lyric, see the references under "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door." The version on pp. 49-50 of Brady-AllInAllIn also has part of this form, as does the second version in Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo.
It may seem odd to include this in a Ballad Index; it certainly isn't a ballad -- but it is a song, and clearly of the folk variety.
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons claims the form goes back to "ancient Celtic numerals"!
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland lists this among three Counting Out Rymes, with the other two being related to each other but not evidently related to this. I have not seen the others elsewhere.
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren says that "Eenah Deenah Dinah Doe" was the most common form (at least in New Zealand) before 1900, with "Eenie Meenie Minie Moh" taking over after that.
There was a Johnny Mercer/Matty Malneck song of 1935, "Eeny Meeny Miney Mo," used in the movie "To Beat the Band." It was clearly based on this song, since it starts "Eeny meeny miney mo, Catch your troubles by the toe," but it's an encouragement to let go of one's troubles. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Lins005

Eenie, Meenie, Dixie, Deenie

See Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme) (File: Lins005)

Eenie, Meenie, Minney, Mo

See Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme) (File: Lins005)

Eenie, Meenie, Miny, Mo

See Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme) (File: Lins005)

Eenie, Meenie, Tipsie, Teenie

See Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme) (File: Lins005)

Eensy Weensy Spider, The

DESCRIPTION: "The eensy weensy spider went up the water spout, Along came the rain and washed the spider out. Along came the sun and dried up all the rain So the eensy weensy spider climbed up the spout again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: bug campsong | spider
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #579, p. 234, "(Incey wincey spider, climbed the water spout)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 103, "Incy Wincy Spider" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology #110, p. 33, "The Spider and the Spout" (1 text,1 tune)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 6, "Eensy Weensy Spider" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 145, 174, 231, 232, 239, 257, 513, 514, "Itsy Bitsy Spider"/"Ensy Wensy Spider" (notes only)
Roud #11586
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Eency Weency Spider
NOTES [94 words]: The Baring-Goulds say that one is to enact the spider's adventures with fingers, and Harbin-Parodology briefly summarizes them. That would, at least, explain why no two authors seem to spell the words the same way.
The Harbin-Parodology version, which probably inspired some later versions, has "The blasted, bloomin' spider ran up the bloomin' spout."
It certainly inspired parodies. There are two, both fairly silly, in the Digital Tradition.
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 231, claims that this originated in a broadside, "The Rambling Soldier." I don't buy it.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: BGMG579

Eentie Teentie Figgery Fell

DESCRIPTION: "Eentie teentie figgery fell, Ell dell dromonell... You are out!" Or "Zeentie teentie halligolun, The cat went oot tae hae some fun, Hae some fun on Toddie's grun, Zeentie teentie halligolun." Or "A seentie teentie halligolum." Or something
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: nonsense wordplay animal | cat
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 37, "(Zeentie, teentie, figgerie fell)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #72, "(As Eenty Feenty Halligolun)" (1 text)
Roud #19276
NOTES [159 words]: No two versions of this are entirely alike, and as I was trying to decide on a title, I looked for the "middle" version that would best explain the others, which looked to me like "Zeentie Teenty Halligo Lum." But then I discovered what seems like the likely explanation: the words in this song are not (by origin at least) nonsense; rather, they are Scottish sheep-counting numbers, with "eenty teenty" being the usual form. But. Mairi Robinson, editor-in-chief, The Concise Scots Dictionary, Aberdeen University Press, 1985, entry on "zeendi &c" gives this:
zeendi &c ['zindι, 'zendι, 'zintι, &c] numeral, sheep-countinc and children's rhymes one e20 [usu(ally) ascribed to Welsh infl(uence) in SW Scotland; cf Welsh un [in] one, and EENDY, TEENTY, TETHERY, MUNDHERI, TICKERIE, BAOMBE, HECTURI, LECTURI, SEATER, OVER, DAOVER, DEK].
So is it "Eenty" or "Zeendi"? At that point, I gave up and decided that someone needs to find more versions.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PKKB037G

Eeny Meeny, Tipsy Teeny

See Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme) (File: Lins005)

Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo

See Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme) (File: Lins005)

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo

See Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme) (File: Lins005)

Eerie Orie, Virgin Mary

DESCRIPTION: "Eerie orie, Virgin Marie, A' the keetles in a tearie." I've been full seven weeks and shall be seven more until Marie and St John's weeks. Tailors have big feet but short toes. Put his tail to the plow; my tail's long enough.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #22, p. 2, ("Eerie, orie, Virgin Mary") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1642, "Eerie Orie, Virgin Mary" (1 text)
Roud #13060
NOTES [122 words]: Is the reference to "the weeks of Marie -- Marie an' St John" a reference to name days (June 24 for John the Baptist[?] and June 29 for Mary[?])? Is the reference to 14 weeks a pointer to March 15 or the equinox? Is it reasonable to try to make anything out of this rhyme? Tailors and tails? Is it just disconnected phrases or disconnected nonsense?
"Virgin Mary" appears in a number of Bolton's counting out rhymes, but none of them are close to the Greig/Duncan8 text. See, for exampple, Henry Carrington Bolton, Counting-Out Rhymes of Children (New York, 1888 ("Digitized by Google")), #527 p. 100, ("One-ery, two-ery, zickery zan"); #532 p. 100 ("One's all, two's all, zig's all zan") and similar rhymes #540 and #544 p. 101. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81642

Eerie, Oarie, Acktie, Ann

See One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann (File: GrD81641)

Eevy, ivy, eevy, ivy, eevy, ivy, over

See Bluebells, Cockleshells (File: SuSm104B)

Eevy, Ivy, Over

See Bluebells, Cockleshells (File: SuSm104B)

Eevy, Ivy, Turn the Rope Over

See Wavy, Wavy, Turn the Rope Over (File: AJRR588)

Effects of Love, The

DESCRIPTION: William [W.E.] courted and promised to marry Betsy Watson [B.W.], the singer. He deserted her and her baby. She sends him a letter saying "false man adieu I drown myself for love of you." She asks that eight maidens in white escort her to her grave.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1047))
KEYWORDS: grief seduction suicide nonballad baby
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1160, "The Effects of Love" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 1, "Betsy Walton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 85-86, "Sarah Wilson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1493
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1047), "The Effects of Love, by a young lady who drowned herself" ("Young lovers all I pray draw near"), W. Stephenson (Gateshead), 1821-1838; also Firth c.18(155), Firth c.18(156), Johnson Ballads 183, Harding B 25(572), Harding B 6(18), Harding B 11(1046), Harding B 11(1049), Harding B 11(1048), Firth b.28(25a) View 2 of 2[some illegible lines], 2806 b.11(268), "The Effects of Love"
Murray, Mu23-y4:016, "Effects Of Love," John Ross (Newcastle), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] (theme) and references there
cf. "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (theme)
cf. "Must I Go Bound" (theme)
cf. "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" [Laws P25] (theme)
cf. "Died for Love" (I) (theme) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Miss B.W.
Miss Watson
Betsy Watson.
NOTES [40 words]: Although there are a few traditional collections, it probably will not surprise anyone to observe that this is known mostly from broadsides. I can't think of any widespread traditional song which refers to lovers by their initials.... - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: GrD61160

Eggleston Hall

See Epsom Races (File: K318)

Eggs and Marrowbones

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Eggs In Her Basket

See The Basket of Eggs (File: VWL018)

Eggs, Butter, Cheese, Bread

See Ena, Mena, More, Mi (File: DeSh052B)

Egloshayle Ringers, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you ringers, good and grave, Come listen to my peal, I'll tell you of five ringers brave That lived in Egloshayle." They are successful bell-ringers, Craddock, Ellery, Pollard, Cleave, and Goodfellow. The singer drinks to them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 22, "The Egloshayle Ringers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1163
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Ringers of Egloshayle
File: Gund022

Ego Sum Pauper

DESCRIPTION: Latin round. "Ego sum pauper, nihil habeo, cor meum dabo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (GirlScout-PocketSongbook)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage hardtimes nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 446, "Ego Sum Pauper" (notes only)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 33, "Ego Sum Pauper" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 47, "Ego Sum Pauper" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [23 words]: The Latin means, "I am poor/deprived. Nothing have I. (The) heart of me I give," i.e. "I am a pauper. I have nothing. I give my heart." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF446E

Eh, Lor! Miss Molly

DESCRIPTION: "Eh, lor, Miss Molly, Take a walk with me, Down in yonder valley where those pretty lilies be, Sweet pretty, pretty roses, Strawberries on the vine, So rise up, go choose the one That's suitable to your mind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers)
KEYWORDS: courting flowers
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #65, "Eh, Lor! Miss Molly" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #14009
File: Gent065

Eia Jesus hodie

See Blessed Be That Maid Mary (File: MSBlBMM)

Eidelweiss

See Edelweiss (File: ACSF555E)

Eight Bells

DESCRIPTION: Forebitter shanty. "Oh me husband's a saucy foretopman, Oh a chum of the cook, don't ye know!" "Eight bells, eight bells, Rouse out the watch from below." The husband was a successful sailor; now at home, he is happy but still recalls the whales in dreams
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: whaler shanty home wife dream
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 129, "Eight Bells" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, p. 12, "Eight Bells" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13268
File: HSoSe129

Eight Famous Fishermen, The

DESCRIPTION: Eight famous fishermen are "descendents of Adam and offsprings of Cain." The eight are named and described. Then Helen Creighton is described "a-looking for tales And all that she found was six fish without scales"
AUTHOR: Edward Deal
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: fishing humorous moniker nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 192-193, "The Eight Famous Fishermen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2718
NOTES [62 words]: After murdering his brother Abel (Genesis 4:8), God "put a mark" upon Cain (4:15), the nature of which is not described (though it didn't keep him from having children -- see 4:17-24).
If one takes the Bible literally, these descendants should have been wiped out in the flood, but there are quite a few later references to Cain's offspring -- e.g. Grendel in Beowulf. - RBW
File: CrMa192

Eight Hearts

DESCRIPTION: The singer has sent the text: "Eight hearts in one you here behold And they unto each other fold ... And nothing from it you could take Unless that you a heart do break ... If you have any love at all Show it to me though it be small"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #97, p. 1, "Eight Hearts"; #101, p. 2, "Eight Hearts" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan4 920, "Eight Hearts" (2 texts)
Roud #6145
NOTES [106 words]: Greig: "Mr Milne encloses a very elegant illustration of the 'Eight Hearts' design cut out in paper. When this is spread out all the separate hearts are displayed; but the design and arrangement are such that all the hearts can be folded into one. Mr Milne says: - 'Each verse should be written on one of the paper hearts. I have been told that in the days of Auld Lang Syne they were sometimes so sent by would-be wooers to a prospective sweetheart in a half serious half jocular way, in order to try and ascertain if they would move the receiver to a favourable response, and so pave the way to a more serious and loving intimacy.'" - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD4920

Eight Little Cylinders

DESCRIPTION: "Eight little cylinders sitting facing heaven, One blew its head off, then there were seven. Seven little cylinders used to playing tricks, One warped its inlet valve...." And so on, till the last cylinder "gave its efforts up And ascended up to heaven"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: technology
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 226-227, "Eight Little Cylinders" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, p. 10, "Eight Little Cylinders" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer" (counting)
cf. "Ten Little Injuns" (counting)
File: FaE226

Eight Mile Bridge (Roger O'Hehir)

DESCRIPTION: Roger reports being brought up by honest parents. He runs off with Jane Sharkey, abandons her, and is pursued by her father. He is captured several times, escapes several times, flees to England, is taken again, and will be hanged shortly
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: elopement thief prison escape punishment execution
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H486, pp. 120-121, "Eight Mile Bridge" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RGROHEHR
Roud #13371
File: HHH486

Eight Shillings a Week

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you bold Britons where'er you may be, I play give attention and listen to me. There once was good times but they're gone by complete. For a poor man lives now on eight shillings a week." Inflation makes the poor poorer. They ask twelve shillings
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Ashton, Modern Street Ballads, according to Palmer)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes money work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #10, "Present Times, or Eight Shillings a Week" (1 text, 1 tune, with the tune apparently not related to the text)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 112, "Present Times or eight shillings a week" (1 text)
Roud #27942
File: PaPa010

Eight Years in Cherry Hill

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye Philadelphy citizens, And listen...." ohnny McDermott got drunk, broke into a house, and is sentenced to eight years at Cherry Hill. He thinks it's too harsh a sentence. Hearers should bring up their children well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong)
KEYWORDS: crime drink prison punishment warning
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 188-189, "Eight Years in Cherry Hill" (1 composite text)
Roud #5244
File: NeDe188

Eight-Pound Bass, The

DESCRIPTION: Ice-fishing for bass on the Nor'West Miramichi river. "For I did fish in vain, I tried and tried again, I walked around the hole till I was lame, Away up on Whitney's Flats, Amongst the Nor'West brats, But that eight-pound bass I longed for never came"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: fishing river humorous moniker derivative
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 16, "The Eight-Pound Bass" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi016 (Partial)
Roud #9196
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Letter That Never Came" (tune and structure)
NOTES [69 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "This song was made up in the 1890's or early 1900's.... The eight-pound bass ... was the most salable size.... Sandy Ives says the Bass is a parody of The Letter That Never Came, to be found in Sigmund Spaeth's Weep Some More, My Lady, and the Bass has essentially the same tune. From another source I am told the origin of our song was The Beefsteak that I Ordered Never Came." - BS
File: MaWi016

Eighteen Hundred and Ninety One

See Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady) (File: San011)

Eighty-Eight

See Sir Francis Drake, or Eighty-Eight (File: PaSe007)

Eileen

DESCRIPTION: "In a town by the sea by the Castle Duneen" Eileen loves "a young fisher laddie" lost in a storm the day before they were to be wed. She dies of a broken heart and is buried by the shore where they used to meet. Now his ghost is heard calling her there.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (NFOBlondahl03)
KEYWORDS: love death mourning fishing sea storm ghost
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Eileen" (on NFOBlondahl03)
NOTES [85 words]: Blondahl03 has no liner notes confirming that this song was collected in Newfoundland. Barring another report for Newfoundland I do not assume it has been found there. There is no entry for "Eileen" in Newfoundland Songs and Ballads in Print 1842-1974 A Title and First-Line Index by Paul Mercer. - BS
The legend doesn't seem to be known in Britain either; at least, I can't find a relevant reference in Peter Underwood's Gazeteer of British, Scottish & Irish Ghosts. An argument from silence, I concede. - RBW
File: RcEileen

Eileen Aroon

DESCRIPTION: The singer compares Eileen to a gem and a flower but "dearest her constancy." If she were not true her lover would never love again. But while all else changes she, like truth alone, "is a fixed star"
AUTHOR: English translation by Gerald Griffin (1803-1840) (source: Sparling)
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Sparling)
KEYWORDS: love lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #23, p. 2, "Aileen A-Roon" (2 references)
DT, EILAROON* (cf. EILAROO.NOT)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 117-118, "Eileen Aroon" (a translation from the Irish very unlike the usual English version); pp. 415-417, "Aileen Aroon" (the Griffin version) (2 texts)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 341-343, 501, "Eileen Aroon"
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 64, prints the Irish Gaelic version, "Eibhlin a Ruin," with a loose English translation, "Eileen Aroon" (2 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Eileen Aroon" (on IRClancyMakem02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Robin Adair" (tune)
cf. "Sadly to Mine Heart Appealing" (portions of Stephen Foster's tune)
NOTES [190 words]: There seem to be three independent English versions of this:
1. the Gerald Griffin version beginning "When, like the dawing day, Eileen Aroon, Love sends his early ray..."
2. George Sigerson's rendering, "Fain would I ride with thee, Eivlin a ruin" (this is the version on pp. 117-118 of Hoagland)
3. One which begins, "Oh! welcome my Aileen, the moment is blest, That brings thee to soothe ev'ry care of my breast."
The third, oddly, shows up fairly early in the United States; Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 2, lists two broadsides of this version.
Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 276, reports that John Monro published a song "Ellen Aureen" around 1825. I do not know its relationship to this song, but I suspect dependence.
According to William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 34, "Aroon" is a popular word in Irish song because it comes from Irish Gaelic "a rún" "my darling." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcEilAro

Eileen McMahon

DESCRIPTION: "One night as I lay on my pillow, A vision came into my view, Of a ship sailin' out on the ocean." On deck is a beautiful girl "banished from Erin's green shore." She talks of her life as an exile. The singer wakes from his dream to see his mother's face
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (recording, Margaret Barry)
KEYWORDS: love exile emigration beauty courting marriage dream mother Ireland patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #9282
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "Eileen McMahon/Green Grow the Rushes" (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
Margaret Barry and Michael Gorman, "Eileen McMahon" (on Voice04)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Granuaile" (theme; also the aisling format) and references there
cf. "Caitilin Ni Uallachain (Cathaleen Ni Houlihan)" see references there and note re aislings, below.
cf. "Fergus O'Connor and Independence" see note re aislings, below, re Sheela na Guira.
cf. "Poor Old Granuaile" see references there and note re aislings, below, re Grace O'Malley.
cf. "The Cailin Deas" (theme; also the aisling format)
cf. "Erin's Green Shore" (theme)
cf. "Granuwale" (theme)
cf. "The Blackbird of Avondale" or "The Arrest of Parnell" (theme)
NOTES [332 words]: Frank Harte, in his notes to "Granuaile" [from Grace O'Malley] (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) writes: "The older Gaelic poets when they wished to write on the wrongs that Ireland has suffered at the hands of the English since the invasion of Ireland in 1169, they often adopted the type of poem called 'The Aisling'. In the 'aisling', the poet is found reflecting on Ireland's woes .... He sometimes falls asleep, and in his sleep the vision of a most beautiful woman ... appears to him. The vision tells him that she is 'Ireland' ...."
Zimmermann, pp. 54-55, notes that "in allegorical songs, written according to the aisling form or otherwise, the personification of Ireland is often individualized and humanized enough to be called by a proper name; this helps to identify her as a real woman.... In the eighteenth century there were many other names, but it is often difficult to decide whether a song was written originally about some particular person and acquired only later an allegorical meaning, or directly to the country known as Sile Ni Ghadhra [Sheela na Guira], Caitilin Trial [Kathleen Thrail], Caitlin Ni Uallachain [Kathleen Ni Hoolihan]..." Eileen McMahon seems to fit the pattern.
Fred McCormick comments on the "strange offering from Margaret Barry, Eileen McMahon, which turns out to be a recasting of the aisling, 'Erin's Green Shore'." (Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Reviews - Volume 4" by Fred McCormick - 29.1.99) The only connection I see is that both are in the aisling pattern. - BS
The pattern, plus the mentions of "Erin's green shore." When listening to the song, I was instantly reminded of "Erin's Green Shore" [Laws Q27]. The tune, however, feels closer to the "Botany Bay" family.
I note that this song appears to be known only from the repertoire of Margaret Barry, though most of the themes are common.
For more on aislings, see the notes to "Granuaile." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: RcEilMcM

Eileen, The Flower of Kilkenny

DESCRIPTION: "I once loved a girl in Kilkenny and a beautiful creature was she, I loved her far better than any and I know this young damsel loved me. She's the beautiful flower of Kilkenny...." He left her, "sailed over seas," but still thinks of their sad parting.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: love emigration parting beauty lament
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 76, "I Once Loved a Girl in Kilkenny" (1 text)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 159, "The Flower of Kilkenny" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BOYSKILK
Roud #6369
File: GrMa76

Einsmals spatziert ich (Once, As I Went Walking)

DESCRIPTION: Amish hymn in German.. "Einsmals spatziert ich hin und her, In meinen alten Tangen." "Once, as I went walking, In my old days I saw how close Death was to me... I thought... How not a day was left... And how many sins I had committed...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1742 (Amish Ausbund, #48, according to Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad foreignlanguage sin
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 159-160, "Einsmals spatziert ich (Once, As I Went Walking)" (1 short German text plus not-very-literal translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL159

Eire

See Erin (File: OCon059)

Ej Bor Vi Sorja, Ej Bor Vi Klaga (Oh We Must Not Grieve, We Must Not Grouse)

DESCRIPTION: Swedish shanty. "We must not grieve"... either because the various tasks they have to do have been made easier somehow, or because complaining will get them into trouble. Last line of each verse is repeated for chorus.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty sailor work
FOUND IN: Sweden
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 549-550, "Ej Bor Vi Sorja, Ej Bor Vi Klagag" (2 texts-Swedish & English, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 49, "Ej Bor Vi Sorja, Ej Bor Vi Klaga" (2 short texts, Swedish & English, 1 tune)
File: Hugi549

Eki Dumah!

DESCRIPTION: Short verses in pidgin English, i.e. "Sailorman no likee bosun's mate." Chorus: "Kay, kay, kay, kay! Eki Dumah!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 488-489, "Eki Dumah!" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 361-362]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Kay, Kay, Kay
NOTES [39 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas says that while he picked this up in the West Indies, he suspects that it originated aboard ships where the crews were predominately Lascaris from India. The words are a mix of pidgin English and Hindi. - SL
File: Hugi488

Ekkeri, akkery, u-kery an

See One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann (File: GrD81641)

El Abandonado

See Abandonado, El (File: San295)

El Amor Que Te Tenia (The Love That I Had)

DESCRIPTION: Spanish. "El amore que te tenia, me bien, En uno ramo quedo." "The love that I had for you, my dear, hanging from a branch remained." The singer's great love was blown away by a wind. He is going to San Diego. He advises that she not look for him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: love separation foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 362-364, "El Amor Que Te Tenia" (1 text plus translation, 1 tune)
File: LxA362

El-A-Noy

See The Plains of Illinois (File: FSC089)

Elanoy

See The Plains of Illinois (File: FSC089)

Elder Bardee

See Henry Martyn [Child 250] AND Sir Andrew Barton [Child 167] (File: C250)

Elder Bordee

See Sir Andrew Barton [Child 167] AND Henry Martin [Child 250] (File: C167)

Elderman's Lady, The

See The Alderman's Lady (File: Pea783)

Eldorado Mining Disaster, The

DESCRIPTION: "With sorrow we remember, the middle of July, When those six noble miners were all destined to die." The song describes the slow death of the trapped miners, and describes the pathetic farewell message "Poor Dawkins" wrote
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: mining death disaster Australia
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July, 1895 - Collapse of the Eldorado Mine near Chiltern, Victoria, Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 206-207, "The Eldorado Mining Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Poor Dawkins
File: FaE206

Election Campaign Song

DESCRIPTION: "The people are coming, Van Buren is down, Let a loud shout of triumph be heard in our town.... Let's resolve to be ruled by Van Buren no more." "The people are coming, Oh, Matty, beware." Other Van Buren allies are warned; "Old Honesty" is coming
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (Poughkeepsie Journal, according to Nestler)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad warning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 2, 1840 - William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren
Mar 4, 1841 - Harrison (the first Whig to be elected President) is inaugurated. He gives a rambling inaugural address in a rainstorm and catches cold
April 4, 1841 - Harrison dies of pneumonia, making him the first president to fail to complete his term. After some hesitation, Vice President John Tyler is allowed to succeed as President
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 107-108, "Election Campaign Song" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Tippecanoe (I)" (subject of the Harrison/van Buren election) and references there
NOTES [105 words]: It is ironic that the William Henry Harrison campaign, surely the least honest in history (at least prior to Donald Trump) proclaims the coming of "Old Honesty."
Interestingly, this does not seem to appear in the most comprehensive collection of Harrison campaign songs known to me, A. B. Norton, Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books). Indeed, I don't even find the words "Old Honesty" in the book.
I have seen an internet reference claiming this was sung to "The Star-Spangled Banner." The fit appears so bad that I have not cross-referenced the two. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Nest107

Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog

DESCRIPTION: "In Ixlington there was a man Of whom the world might say That still he was a godly man...." The man befriends a stray dog. The dog goes mad and bites the man. All expect the man to die, but he recovers
AUTHOR: Oliver Goldsmith?
EARLIEST DATE: 1819 (Journal from the Diana)
KEYWORDS: dog death disease
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 295-296, "Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2088
NOTES [32 words]: On its face, this looks about as likely to be traditional as a the flip side of an Elvis Presley single. But Huntington found a printing in addition to his manuscript copy, so here it is. - RBW
File: SWMS295

Elephant Song, The

See One Little Elephant (File: OpGa099)

Elevator (Fudge, Fudge, Call the Judge)

See Oh Fudge, Tell the Judge (File: MHAp239C)

Eleven Cent Cotton -- Forty Cent Meat

See Seven Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat (File: BAF877)

Eleven More Months and Ten More Days

DESCRIPTION: Singer is in jail; he went on a spree after seeming to find his wife unfaithful. In jail he plays baseball, meets a man who is to be hung, and has other mildly humorous adventures
AUTHOR: Arthur Fields & Fred Hall
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recordings, Vernon Dalhart & Lem Greene)
KEYWORDS: captivity jealousy infidelity accusation execution prison sports humorous prisoner
FOUND IN: US Britain(England(South))
Roud #13327
RECORDINGS:
Jim Baird [pseud. for Bill Elliott] "Eleven More Months and Ten More Days" (Victor 23658, 1932; Montgomery Ward M-4328, 1933)
Colt Bros. [pseud. for Arthur Fields & Fred Hall], "Eleven More Months and Ten More Days" (Melotone M12314/Panachord 25166, 1932)
Billy Cotton & his band, "Eleven More Months and Ten More Days" (Harmony 1416-H/Velvet Tone 2522-V, 1932)
Vernon Dalhart, "Eleven More Months and Ten More Days" (Columbia 15512-D [as Al Craver]/Harmony 1095-H [as Mack Allen]/Velvet Tone 2095-V [pseudonym unknown], 1930)
Lem Greene [possibly a pseud. for Arthur Fields] "Eleven More Months and Ten More Days" (OKeh 45418, 1930)
Lone Star Ranger [pseud. for John I. White] "Eleven More Months and Ten More Days" (Banner 0649/Conqueror 7509/Jewel 5904/Romeo 1268, 1930; Conqueror 7727, 1931; Broadway 8150/Challenge 877/Perfect 12598, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Four Nights Drunk" [Child 274] (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Jim Baird [pseud. for Bill Elliott] "Eleven More Months and Ten More Days, pt. 2" (Victor 23670, 1932)
Billy Cotton & his band "Eleven More Months and Ten More Days, pt. 2" (Harmony 1416-H/Velvet Tone 2522-V, 1932)
Frank Dudgeon, "Eleven More Months and Ten More Days #2" (Champion 16580, 1933)
NOTES [88 words]: This essentially non-traditional song is included here for one reason only: the verse describing the prisoner's wife's possible infidelity is straight out of "Four Nights Drunk." Folk process in action. - PJS
There have in fact been a couple of seemingly-traditional collections, far from the song's source, so I think it's become "folk" in a small way -- not unusual for a Dalhart song. It appears the song was first published in 1930, shortly before the first recordings, but I haven't seen a copy of the actual sheet music. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcEMMTMD

Eleven Slash Slash Eleven

DESCRIPTION: A song of the cowboy's life: Finding himself in jail, but released by the sheriff (a former cowboy), going to town and "mak[ing] the tenderfoot dance"; playing cards with a crooked gambler. The conclusion: "You'll find every dirty cuss exactly the same."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928
KEYWORDS: cowboy work gambling rambling cards prison
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 78, "The Old Chisholm Trail" (2 texts, 1 tune; this is the "B" text)
Roud #3438
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Chisholm Trail (I)" (tune & meter)
NOTES [57 words]: Since, as it has been remarked, the song "The Old Chisholm Trail" is longer than the trail itself, it is possible that this is simply a version of that piece (Roud lumps them). However, except for its tune and the cowboy theme, it lacks the distinctive features of the earlier song. I have therefore (tentatively) listed them separately. - RBW
File: FCW078

Eleven to Heaven

DESCRIPTION: "I will sing you 11." 11:gate of heaven, 10:Big Ben, 9:sunshine, 8:day-break, 7:key of heaven, 6:crucifix, 5:narrow eye, 4:narrow door, 3:eternity, 2:broad heresy, 1:upon the right eye, enter over t'other eye, who can sing and dance as well as me?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: cumulative nonballad religious
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 785, "Eleven to Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #133
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Children Go Where I Send Thee" (theme and structure)
cf. "Green Grow the Rushes-O (The Twelve Apostles, Come and I Will Sing You)" (theme and structure)
NOTES [48 words]: Roud lumps this with the great "Green Grow the Rushes-O" family -- but the similarity is only in format.
The references here are even less Biblical than is usual in songs like this, though the "narrow door" is doubtless suggested by the "narrow ('straight') gate" of Matt. 7:13, etc. - RBW
File: Pea785

Eleventh Street Whores, The

DESCRIPTION: A sailor (?) rows his boat up to the Eleventh Street whores, has sex, laments contracting gonorrhea, and curses the Eleventh Street whores.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy disease whore sailor curse
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II, pp. 600-601, "The Eleventh Street Whores" (1 partial text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fire Ship" (plot) and references there
File: RL600

Elfin Knight, The [Child 2]

DESCRIPTION: A man (sometimes an "Elfin" knight) and a woman exchange tasks. He offers to marry her if she performs his (impossible) tasks; she shows how she feels by making equally unperformable requests
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1673 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: courting magic bargaining dialog paradox tasks
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Newf,West) Ireland
REFERENCES (69 citations):
Child 2, "The Elfin Knight" (13 texts)
Bronson 2, "The Elfin Knight" (56 versions plus 6 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 2, "The Elfin Knight" (9 versions: #1, #3, #6, #15, #22, #23, #31, #36, #53)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 12-13, "Scarborough Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #18, "The Cambric Shirt" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 42-44,172, "Scarborough Fair" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 7, 8, pp. 11-12, 44-45, "An Acre of Land" (5 texts, 2 tunes; the first four texts are "My Father Hand an Acre of Land" but the fifth text, on p. 45, is "The Elfin Knight" [Child 2])
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #48, "The Lover's Tasks" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #33}
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #100, pp. 1-2, "The Elfin Knight"; #103, p. 2, "The Elfin Knight" (3 texts plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan2 329, "The Elfin Knight" (7 texts, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #1, B=#50}
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 84, "The Deil's Wooing" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 3-11, "The Elfin Knight" (4 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #3, #23}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 171-172, "Scarborough Fair" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 172-173, "The Cambric Shirt" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #44, #3}
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 78-79, "Strawberry Lane" (1 text, from JournalOfAmericanFolkloreL XXX, 1917)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 51-78, "The Elfin Knight" (12 texts plus 3 fragments, not all from New England; 8 tunes; the "N" text appears to be "My Father Had an Acre of Land") {A=Bronson's #47C=Bronson's #6; F=Bronson's #45}
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 20, "The Cambric Shirt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 1-3, "The Elfin Kinght" (3 texts)
Randolph 1, "The Cambric Shirt" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #40}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 13-15, "The Cambric Shirt" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 1A) {Bronson's #40}
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 1, "The Elfin Knight" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #39, #43}
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 47, "A True Lover of Mine" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #38}
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 176-179, "The Two Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 2, pp. 8-13, "The Elfin Knight" (3 texts, all short, one reconstructed)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 1, "The Elfin Knight" (1 text plus an edited excerpt and a fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 1, "The Elfin Knight" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 1, "The Cambric Shirt" (1 fragment)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #144, "The Elfin Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #42}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 2A-C, "The Cambric Shirt"; 2D, "Rosemary and Thyme" (3 texts plus 1 fragment, 4 tunes)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 4-6, "Rosemary One Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 1, "The Elfin Knight" (4 texts plus a fragment, though the "D" text is not a conversation but a series of requests from the singer to his mother; it may be a related song)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 8-10, "The Cambric Shirt" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #47}
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 194-196, "Scarborough Fair" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 169-171, "Blow, Ye Winds, Blow or The Elfin Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 93, "Cambric Shirt" (1 short text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 51-53, ""The Elfin Knight" (2 texts)
Peacock, pp. 6-7, "The Cambric Shirt" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 7, "The Elfin Knight" (2 texts)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 138-139, "A True Lover of Mine" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #32}
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 154-155, "WIttingham Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 40, "Petticoat Lane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 422-423, "The Cambric Shirt" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 134-135, "The Labors off True Lovers" (1 text) (pp. 113-114 in the 1919 edition)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 15, "The Elfin Knight" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 1 "The Elfin Knight" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #30, #48}
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 74, "Scarborough Fair" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #21}
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs1, "The Lovers' Tasks (The Elfin Knight)" (1 slightly edited text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #30}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 12, "The Lover's Tasks, or Scarborough Fair" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #21}
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 4-5, "O Where Are You Going? I'm Going to Linn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #2, "The Elf In Knight" (sic.) (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 2, "The Elfin Knight" (3 texts, 3 tunes, all rather degenerate)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 7, "Strawberry Lane" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #23, with some modifications}
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 112-113, "The Cambric Shirt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 26 ,"The Elfin Knight" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 41, "The Elfin Knight" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 1, "The Elfin Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 54-55, "Whittingham Fair" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #22, with key changed}
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 99, "Rosemary Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 86, "Can you make me a cambric shirt" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #70, p. 79-80, "(Can you make me a cambric shirt)"
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 463-464, "The Elfin Knight"; pp. 464-465, "The Fairy Knight" (2 texts)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 19-23, "The Elfin Knight," "The Elfin Knight," "Every Rose Grows Merry in Time," "Flim-A-Lim-A-Lee" (4 texts)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 26, "Scarborough Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 151, "Scarborough Fair" (1 text); p. 152, "Cambric Shirt" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN821, "The elfin knight sits on yon hill"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 150, 238, "Scarborough Fair" (notes only)
DT 2, SCARFAIR*
ADDITIONAL: J. Barre Toelken, "'Riddles Wisely Expouded,''" article published 1966 in _Western Folklore_ (which, despite the title, is mostly about the riddling challengers in this song); republished on pp. 141-156 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009
Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 59, "(Can you plow me an acre of land)" (1 excerpt)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #312, "My Plaid Away" (1 excerpt)
Roud #12
RECORDINGS:
Sara Cleveland, "Every Rose Grows Merry in Time" (on SCleveland01) {Bronson's #34.1 in addenda}
Bob & Ron Copper, "An Acre of Land" (on FSB4)
George Decker, "The Cambric Shirt" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Liz Jefferies, "Rosemary Lane" (on Voice15, IREarlyBallads (as Elizabeth Jeffries))
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Elfin Knight" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
Thomas Moran, "Strawberry Lane (The Elfin Knight)" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
Lawrence Older, "Flim-A-Lim-A-Lee" (on LOlder01)
Mrs. Clara Stevens, "The Cambric Shirt" (on PeacockCDROM)
Anna Underhill, "The Elfin Knight" (on FineTimes)
Margaret Winters, "Cambric Shirt" (on JThomas01)
Guy Wolff, "Scarborough Fair" (Piotr-Archive #431, recorded 01/08/2023)
BROADSIDES:
EngBdsdBA 32070, Pepys Misc 358, "The Wind Hath Blown my Plaid Away" or "A Discourse Between a Young Man and the Elphin-Knight" ("The Elphin Knight sits on yon hill He blows his horn both loud and shrill"), unknown, no date, accessed 09 Dec 2013. [cf. Child 2A]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Father Had an Acre of Land" (theme)
cf. "O'er the Hills and Far Away (I)" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Devil's Courtship
Rosemary and Thyme
The Wind Hath Blown My Plaid Away
My Father Gave Me an Acre of Ground
The Parsley Vine
The Shirt of Lace
Redio-Tedio
The Laird o' Elfin
NOTES [485 words]: The song "My Father Had an Acre of Land" is sometimes listed as a variant of this, but falsely. The basic point of Child #2 is the dialog making impossible demands; in "My Father Had an Acre of Land," the song simply boasts of impossible deeds.
The famous Scarborough Fair surely predates the song; according to Kellett, p. 159, the event was first given a charter by King Henry II in 1161.
The now well-known refrain "Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme" does not appear original to the song, but has been associated with it at least since 1784, when a version appeared in Gammer Gurton's Garland.
The Opies think the song derives ultimately from a plot also found in the Gesta Romanorum, in which a king seeks a wife and wants to make sure of her competence. This is of course possible, but that version ends with the king wedding a clever but low-born girl, whereas this ballad tends to end with mutual rejection.
Although I had always assumed that the refrain of parsley (associated with women's genitalia and passions, although it also has ominous associations with death), sage (wisdom), rosemary (remembrance), and thyme (virginity or possibly frugality) was based on flower symbolism, sage, rosemary, and thyme are actually used in a recipe for spiced ale from the first half of the fifteenth century, found in the Paston papers (Castor, pp. 22-23). I have no idea if this is significant. The exact text is found in Paston/Davis-I, item #7, p. 14. It is a note scribbled on a legal document (British Library MS. Additional 27443, folio 87 verso) in the hand of Judge William Paston, probably in 1430:
"Pur faire holsom drynk of ale, Recipe sauge, auence, rose maryn, tyme, chopped right small, and put þis and a newe leyd hennes ey in a bage and hange it in þe barell," i.e. Pour fair holsom drink of ale. Recipe: sage, avens (??), rosemary, and thyme, chopped very sall, and put this and a new laid hen's egg in a bag and hang it in the barrel." (Avens, or geum, has roots with a clove-like aroma and is said to be mildly sedative, but it's not absolutely clear that this is the plant meant; the word "auence" is rare.)
Porter, p. 20, also lists an East Anglian claim that parsley, sage, and rosemary tended to grow best in the yards of wives who would bear girl children, so that the garden was used in an attempt at sex determination.
If the four are based on flower symbolism, they have interesting implications. Parsley and sage are both associated with women's power, according to Binney, p. 181: "A woman will dominate the house if... Parsley grows profusely, because 'Where parsley grows faster, the mistress is master.' [Or if] Rosemary flourishes in the garden, because this means 'the grey mare is the better horse.'" This is similar to the explanation given in the East Anglian folklore. Throw in sage and thyme and there is surely a message about wise virgins and dominating wives.... - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C002

Eli Ah Can't Stan'

See John on the Island, I Hear Him Groan (File: Parr074)

Eli, You Can't Stand

See John on the Island, I Hear Him Groan (File: Parr074)

Elisha Thomas

DESCRIPTION: "Unhappy man! I understand You are condemned to die. In a few days you must away To vast eternity." The murderer is lectured about the need to turn to God
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide religious
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 237, (no title) (1 excerpted text)
NOTES [50 words]: Burt-AmericanMurderBallads claims this relates to the death of one Elisha Thomas, executed on June 5, 1788 for the murder of Peter Downe. There is no evidence of this in the verses she cites, which are standard moralizing relieved only slightly by the idea that God might have mercy on the sinner. - RBW
File: Burt237

Eliza (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer must cross the ocean and is afraid he won't see Eliza again. He is sure "the last throb that leaves my heart" will be a sigh for her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany)
KEYWORDS: love emigration separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 38, "Eliza" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany: Containing a Selection of the Most Fashionable Songs, with Many Originals, Not Inserted in Ashburner's Vocal and Poetic Repository, G. Ashburner, Ulverston, 1812 (available on Google Books), p. 181, "Eliza" (1 text)
Roud #2818
File: TPS038

Eliza (II)

See The Young Maid's Love (File: HHH058)

Eliza Jane (I)

See Li'l Liza Jane (File: FSWB037)

Eliza Jane (II)

See Liza Jane (File: San132)

Ella Dare

See The Two Letters (Charlie Brooks; Nellie Dare) (File: R735)

Ella Lea

DESCRIPTION: "If you will listen to me I will sing you the song Of the unfortunate Ella Lea." The singer recalls loving Ella. He wishes she would be return to him; "life without thee is lonely." But "thou hast learned to love another."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 211-212, "Ella Lea" (1 text)
Roud #7949
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Thou Hast Learned to Love Another" (lyrics)
cf. "Anna Lee (The Finished Letter)"
cf. "Thou Hast Learned to Love Another" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [99 words]: This song, at least as recorded by Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, seems badly confused. The first two lines, and the second verse, imply Ella Lea is the singer. But in the third line of the first verse, we read, "The girl that I love is handsome and fair, and I called her my sweet Ella Lea."
What's more, the verse are of the form 4 long lines, 6 long lines, 4 short lines, 4 short lines. It seems clear that it's a composite -- perhaps of "Thou Hast Learned to Love Another" and "Anna Lea." But it adds other material, too. The result is a mess I can't disentangle. RBW
File: Beld211B

Ella M Rudolph, The

DESCRIPTION: Ella M Rudolph sails with a crew of eight, including Mary Jane Abbott. When the ship strikes a rock in a storm the only survivor "was hurled into the cliff." He reaches Levi Dalton's door. A rescue party finds Mary Jane's body washed ashore
AUTHOR: Hugh Sexton and others (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Trinity Bay Trinitarian)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 6, 1926 - Ella M. Rudolph with Captain Blackwood en route from St John's to Port Nelson with a cargo of fish was stranded in a storm at Brook Cove in Trinity Bay (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, pp. 62-66, "The Ella M. Rudolph" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 32, "The Ella M Rudolph" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Feltham, _Northeast from Baccalieu_, Harry Cuff Publications, 1990, pp. 35-36, "The Ella M. Rudolph" (1 text)
Bruce Stagg, _The Blackwood Schooner_, Flanker Press, 2009, pp. 183-188, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #2491
RECORDINGS:
Patrick Pennell, "The Ellen M. Rudolph" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [1239 words]: The Ella M. Rudolph wreck was famous enough to inspire a book, Stagg's The Blackwood Schooner, as well as sundry shorter articles. I find Stagg's book hard to read; he seems to think it's non-fiction, but much of it consists of conversations between people who did not live to record what they said. It has many photos of those involved in the tragedy, but a number of them appear to have been incompetently doctored (after much examination, I think they were Photoshopped out of group photos by someone who understood neither Photoshop nor human physiology).
The title of Stagg's book doesn't refer to the material of the boat; it refers to the family which owned and operated her. According to Feltham, p. 33, the Rudolph was a 54 ton fishing schooner, commanded by Eleazar Blackwood, with seven crew and a woman as cook.
The Blackwood family hadn't owned her long. She had been built in 1912 in Nova Scotia (Stagg, p. 14), and went through five owners in the course of thirteen years before the Blackwoods bought her in 1925 (Stagg, pp. 14-15). This was a pretty typical story by this time; Abram Kean (for whom see "Captain Abram Kean") notes that the depressed state of cod prices was ruining the Newfoundland fishing economy; the number of ships was falling, and the building industry doing even worse: "Many of the vessels were not built in this country but bought from Nova Scotia at about one-eighth of their original cost. Why? Because at the low price of fish it would never have paid to have new schooners built" (Kean, p. 108).
The "crew" was less a crew than a family -- Captain Eleazar Blackwood and his three sons, plus four others, one of whom had married Blackood's sister as his first wife and another of whom was Eleazar Blackwood's wife's nephew. The cook, Mary Jane Abbott, became engaged to one of Blackwood's sons while on the trip; a second son also was engaged. There was apparently a story that the 18-year-old Abbott was pregnant (Stagg, p. 58). It strikes me as possibly significant that First Mate Bert Blackwood, Eleazar Blackwood's oldest son, was already a widower; his wife had died in 1923 (Stagg, pp. 20-21), so he may have been depressed. The family dynamics must have been complicated. (All of this is gleaned from Stagg, but often it's hard to cite a page because he's so vague and so full of fiction.)
Supposedly the crew, on their way to St. John's, saw an apparition of their boat coming the other way (Stagg, p. 62). Right. (Stagg tells of another ship-as-death-portent on p. 133. And he pretends his book is non-fiction. Oy.)
The tragedy could surely have been avoided. Most ships the size of the Rudolph would not have been sailing in December; the waters off Newfoundland were too dangerous. But apparently Eleazar Blackwood had been late in getting his fish dried due to bad weather (Stagg, p. 58), and then ended up staying in St. John's too long trying to get a good price (Stagg, p. 67). Despite the late season, he wanted to take the schooner home for winter. But the weather kept getting in the way. (In a small mercy, Eleazar Blackwood's wife and young daughter who were to sail with them decided to go home by train, and so survived; Stagg, p. 72. Another man, Jim Wicks, was left behind in their haste and also survived; Stagg, p. 75.)
When they finally set out, the wind reached gale force as they sailed. Stagg believes they waited too long to reduce their sail; by the time Captain Blackwood was finally willing to take it in, the wind was so high that they could not manage the sails (Stagg, pp. 88-91). The schooner went off course and crashed near Little Catalina. Marmaduke "Duke" Blackwood, the son of Captain Eleazar Blackwood, jumped off and survived (Feltham, p. 34); all the others died.
Duke Blackwood apparently jumped off the boat to the cliff just moments after the boat crashed (Stagg, p. 95), so we have little real information about the sinking except the location where she went down. Blackwood wandered for much of the night before finding his way to a settlement (Stagg, pp. 96-111). He was so frozen that he couldn't really explain what had happened, but eventually men set out to seek the Rudolph. They had to hunt for some time to follow Blackwood's trail before the eventually spotted debris at Brook Cove Beach (Stagg, p. 121). The boat had clearly gone to pieces on the rocks. There is a photo of those rocks on p. 112 of Stagg (and, unlike many of the photos, the incompetent photoshopper does not seem to have worked on it), and more starting on p. 130.
The rescuers managed to retrieve the cook's body soon after (Stagg, pp. 124-126); but it was two weeks before the second body, that of Eleazar Blackwood, was found (Stagg, pp. 146-147). Three more corpses were found a few days later; by that time, the bodies were so disfigured as to be difficult to recognize (Stagg, p. 149). There were more discoveries after that, but two bodies were never found (Stagg, p. 152).
Marmaduke Blackwood apparently only once gave a full account of what happened, almost fifty years later (Stagg, p. 173), which of course proves that all Stagg's dialog is fictional despite being presented in a non-fiction contest. Stagg's accounts of what happened to relatives of the victims, which occupy about the last third of the book, are presumably better (no fake dialogs), but have little to do with the story of the Rudolph. He does tell us (p. 171) that Marmaduke Blackwood, after his mother died, left his home, eventually ending up in Toronto. (But this, of course, was common for Newfoundlanders, given how poor the island was.)
Stagg, p. 174, reports that "Captain Kean" helped organize a relief fund for the survivors; Stagg does not identify which "Captain Kean" is meant (there were quite a few!), but the fact that he doesn't see a need to identify which one makes it likely that it is the aforementioned Abram Kean.
There seems to be uncertainty about just where the Rudolph sailed. Feltham, p. 33, says she was leaving St. John's to go to her homeport of Port Nelson, but the map on p. xiv of Stagg shows her leaving Port Nelson (I'm not sure what happened in the map, since Stagg's text says she went from St. John's to head home). They at least agree that she crashed near Little Catalina.
There is also dispute about the author(s) of the song. Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou, p. 56, and Stagg, p. 182, agree that Hugh Sexton/Hughie Gilbert Sexton was the lead author, but Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou claims that "Dukey" Blackwood, i.e. Marmaduke Blackwood, the sole survivor, was co-author; Stagg says the co-author was Captain Edward Blackwood (although he is unclear about whether this is Eleazar Blackwood's father or brother; I would guess, in the absence of a death date for the father, that it's the brother). Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou says that the piece appeared in the Trinity Trinitarian, December 26, 1926, which seems awfully early; Stagg mentions a 1927 printing by P. J. Brady. Given Stagg's report that Marmaduke Blackwood hated to talk about the event, I think the one thing that's sure is that he was not a primary author; either Sexton wrote the whole thing or Edward Blackwood was the secondary author.
No one seems to have recorded the source of the tune, but perhaps it wasn't always inspiring; Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport reports his informant getting booed off the stage for singing such a long song. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.4
File: LeBe032

Ella Rea

See Ellie Rhee (Ella Rhee, Ella Ree) (File: R860)

Ella Ree

See Ellie Rhee (Ella Rhee, Ella Ree) (File: R860)

Ella Speed (Bill Martin and Ella Speed) [Laws I6]

DESCRIPTION: Ella Speed goes out to "have a li'l fun." Her man, Bill Martin, finds out and shoots her because she has been unfaithful to him. He is sentenced to (hanging/life imprisonment).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: homicide punishment death trial
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws I6, "Ella Speed (Bill Martin and Ella Speed)"
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 28-29, "Alice B." (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 117-118, "Bill Martin and Ella Speed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 348-349, "Ella Speed" (1 text)
DT 658, ELLASPED*
Roud #4175
RECORDINGS:
Huddie Ledbetter [Lead Belly], "Ella Speed" (AFS 120 B5, 1933)
File: LI06

Ella's Grave

DESCRIPTION: "Gentle zephyrs, blow ye lightly o'er the place where sleeps the dead, Where the moonbeams shining brightly Hover 'round the narrow bed. And while love its vigil keeps, In the grave sweet Ella sleeps
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown collection)
KEYWORDS: love death burial
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 319, "Ella's Grave" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, pp. 27-28, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #6651
File: BrS4319

Ellen Brown

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets Ellen Brown down by Dublin. With her red cheeks, curly brown hair, and gown, "there's not a lady in the city could be compared with Ellen Brown." The singer is going to Donnybrook and he invites her to go with him in a cab. She agrees.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: courting beauty clothes
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #5370
RECORDINGS:
Jim Molloy, "Ellen Brown" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [17 words]: The MUNFLA-Leach singer, Jim Molloy, believes there are a few more verses but he can't remember them. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3ElBro

Ellen M. Rudolph, The

See The Ella M. Rudolph (File: LeBe032)

Ellen McGiggin

DESCRIPTION: Ellen McGiggin was put to the jiggin" for lifting her leg and a pudding came flying. The second verse is about "the kilties ... Comin' through the Broomielaw"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: dancing playparty soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 113, "Ellen McGiggin" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [87 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "'... A saw the kilties comin', Comin' through the Broomielaw' ... part of the old song calculated by those who sang it at a safe distance, to rouse the fighting spirit of the 42nds." (cf., "Wha Saw the Forty-Second": "Wha saw the Forty-Second, Wha saw them gang awa? Wha saw the Forty-Second, Marchin doon the Broomielaw?" [Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #102, p.63, "The Forty-Second"].) - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa113

Ellen More

DESCRIPTION: "Young Henry was fair Ellen's love And Emma to her heart was dear." When Henry turns from Ellen to Emma, Ellen "o'ercome with grief she sought the steep Where Yarrow falls with sullen roar" and commits suicide.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: grief courting infidelity suicide
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1162, "Ellen More" (1 text)
Roud #6816
File: GrD61162

Ellen O'Connor

DESCRIPTION: Ellen O'Connor is leaving Ireland because the famine and eviction have reached Mayo. The singer hopes she will remember their good times and will return soon. He says "Him that sent the famine will make the cornfields smile." Better times are coming.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: love emigration separation hardtimes starvation Ireland dialog nonballad political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 26, "Ellen O'Connor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2887
NOTES [37 words]: Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster: "I don't think it is too tenuous to see Ellen O'Connor as yet another allegory for Ireland." To understand Morton's point, see the discussion of "aisling" in the notes to "Eileen McMahon." - BS
File: MorU026

Ellen of Aberdeen

DESCRIPTION: "My earthly pleasures now are fled, My joyful days are done, Since Ellen in her grave was laid...." Orphaned at 11, the girl grew sick at 17 before she could marry the singer. He sees to her burial, and now waits to join her in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love orphan death burial
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #62, p. 2, "Ellen of Aberdeen" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1235, "Ellen of Aberdeen" (15 texts, 9 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 400-401, "Ellen of Aberdeen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2179
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Greenland" (tune, per Greig/Duncan6)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Pride o' Aiberdeen
Nellie o' Aiberdeen
File: Ord400

Ellen Smith (II)

See Poor Ellen Smith (I) (File: CSW143)

Ellen Smith [Laws F11]

DESCRIPTION: Peter Degraph claims that he has been falsely accused of murdering his sweetheart Ellen Smith. He describes his apprehension and sentence. He will be hanged, but says "My soul will be free when I stand at the bar"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1893 - Peter Degraph (sometimes spelled De Graff) is sentenced to die for the murder of Ellen Smith
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Laws F11, "Ellen Smith"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 305, (No title; in a section headed "Ellen Smith and Peter De Graff" (1 text plus mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 305, "Ellen Smith" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 67, pp. 193-194, "The Ellen Smith Ballet" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 65, pp. 188-189, "Ellen Smith" (1 text)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 32-33, "Ellen Smith" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 132, "Poor Ellen Smyth" (1 defective text, too short to classify with certainty; Laws places it here though I would incline to classify it with "Poor Ellen Smith (I)")
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 6-7, "Poor Ellen Smith" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 52, "Poor Ellen Smith" (1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p.112, "Ellen Smith" (1 text)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #26, "Ellen Smith" (1 text, 1 tune, which begins with a few verses of an Ellen Smith ballad -- probably "Ellen Smith" [Laws F11] based on the tune -- and follows it with a scrap of a sweetheart-going-to-war-with her lover ballad, which I think is "Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany)" [Laws N7])
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 237, "The Fate of Ellen Smith" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 204-206, "Poor Ellen Smith" (2 text, of which the "B" text goes here and the "A" text with "Poor Ellen Smith (I)")
DT, ELLNSMT2*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 21, #2 (1772), p, 21, "Poor Ellen Smith" (1 text, 1 tune, the Mollie O'Day version. The notes make the curious observation that, soon after recording this song with a hymn tune, O'Day gave up singing secular songs and turned to singing just gospel music)
Roud #448
RECORDINGS:
Henry Whitter, "Ellen Smith" (OKeh 40237, 1924)
Mollie O'Day and the Cumberland Mountain Folks:, "Poor Ellen Smith" (Columbia 20629, 1949)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Ellen Smith (I)"
cf. "How Firm a Foundation" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Poor Ellen Smith
NOTES [1166 words]: To distinguish this from the other Ellen Smith ballad (which begins "Poor Ellen Smith, How was she found, Shot through the heart, Lying cold on the ground"), refer to these stanzas:
Come all kind people, my story to hear,
What happen'd to me in June of last year.
It's of poor Ellen Smith and how she was found,
A ball in her heart, lyin' cold on the ground.
...
I choked back my tears, for the people all said
That Peter Degraph had shot Ellen Smith dead!
My love is in her grave with her hand on her breast
The bloodhound and sheriff won't give me no rest.
The crime took place near Mount Airy, North Carolina. Folklore has it that DeGraph sang this song as he awaited execution. Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs reports that "So great was the feeling, for and against Degraph, that it had to be declared a misdemeanor for the song to be sung in a gathering of any size for the reason that it always fomented a riot."
Paul Stamler notes that various versions of this song end with Degraph sentenced to prison rather than execution. This may be derived from the other ballad, "Poor Ellen Smith," which often ends before sentence is passed. The two often exchange verses.
Unlike a lot of murder ballads about actual events, this song and this murder don't seem to have generated any books or much real research. There are small sections in Casstevens (pp. 43-52) and Polenberg (pp. 75-81, and partly dependent on Casstevens), plus a few web articles. Polenberg got most of his information from trial summaries and census records; presumably Casstevens did the same.
A column by Dan Barry in the February 1, 2009 New York Times describes meetings with Peter DeGraff's grand-niece and other relatives, one of whom has a Bible DeGraff apparently took with him to the gallows. The story also gives a few details of the crime. Ellen Smith was a "poor, simple" woman, a teenager, who apparently was impregnated by Peter DeGraff (the spelling prefered by Barry and now used by the family). The child died at birth, but Smith continued to pester DeGraff even though he rejected her. At last, he sent her a note, full of orthographic errors, telling him to meet him. She came; he shot her. He fled, but later returned to town. He disclaimed responsibility for the murder, but the note in his hand was on Smith's body. He was sentenced to be hanged, and finally admitted shooting her. Her last words, according to DeGraff, were "Lord, have mercy on me." Supposedly DeGraff's execution was the last public hanging in the county.
Records about Smith herself seem to be few, but an 1880 census record lists a six-year-old girl named Ellen Smith in Yadkin County (Casstevens, p, 43). She and her two younger siblings were listed as "mulattos" and hence regarded as socially inferior. It appears that the Smith children were a quarter Black; their father was white, their mother mulatto, their maternal grandmother white, so presumably the maternal grandfather was Black (Polenberg, p. 75). An 1894 newspaper drawing of Smith, reprinted on Casstevens, p. 44, does not reveal her skin color but seems to show very curly hair. Polenberg, p. 75, says she was 17 or 18 at the time of her murder, and quotes an unnamed source as saying that she was "not bad looking... Her short dark hair tended to curl and she had blue eyes and straight white teeth."
DeGraff, according to Casstevens, p. 45, was born in 1870; Polenberg, however, says he was 24 in 1892, meaning that he would have been born in 1868, The newspaper drawing of him son p. 45 of Casstevens hows a man with an extremely long, narrow, bullet-shaped head that has a sort of a backward tilt at the top; Casstevens calls it a "cartoon" view, and it is clearly a caricature, but I wonder if it isn't an indication of something unusual about his face, perhaps very narrow eyes (a phenomenon linked by some rather complex and imperfect scientific evidence to antisocial personality).
DeGraff apparently was known as a ladies' man; he perhaps met Smith at the Zinzendorf hotel where they both worked (Casstevens, p. 46). There was a rumor that she had already had a child by him, although the baby died (Polenberg, p. 77, says that the autopsy confirmed this).
The body was found near the Zinzendorf hotel (Casstevens, p. 47; Polenberg, p. 76). From there, things get hazy. Apparently there is conflicting testimony about who found the body. Smith was reportedly carrying a note from DeGraff, but if it survived, the chain of custody was hazy (Polenberg, p. 77). She had been shot in the chest at close range -- one bullet, fired from a short enough distance that there was powder on her clothing. It is claimed that the murder took place at 3:00 p.m. on July 20, 1892, with the body being discovered the next morning.
Although a grand jury soon issued a warrant for DeGraff (who had not been seen since the murder), the sheriff was apparently slow to pursue him. Eventually, when a new sheriff took over, DeGraff was taken into custody (Casstevens, p. 47; Polenberg, p. 77).
The charge against him, naturally, was first degree murder; the trial began August 11, 1893. According to Casstevens, p. 49, "DeGraff took the stand but did not help his case. He said that he returned to the scene of the crime because he had heard an old saying that if a person who committed a murder went back to the crime scene and spoke the right words, the victim would appear. That one statement sealed DeGraff's fate because he had been observed doing that very thing" (Polenberg, p. 79, recounts the same events). The trial took four days (Polenberg, p. 79).
On August 15, 1893, after deliberating for twelve hours, the jury found DeGraff guilty. An appeal to the North Carolina Supreme Court was rejected, as was an appeal for clemency. DeGraff was sentenced to die on February 8, 1894 (Casstevens, p. 50). He continued to maintain his innocence -- so much so that some questioned his sanity.
On his gallows, DeGraff reportedly finally admitted his guilt, and perhaps said he killed Ellen while drunk (Casstevens, p. 51; Polenberg, p. 80). But the reports of his last words seem confused to me; too many of the words sound like they came from a broadside confession.
The usual tune for this song is very closely related to a common melody for the hymn "How Firm a Foundation, Ye Saints of the Lord." The hymn is older than this song; according to Julian, p. 537, the text first appeared in John Rippon's Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors of 1787, signed only "K"; Julian's investigation leads him to believe this is short for "Keen," but who "Keen" is he does not know. But that's just the text. The date of the tune is not given. There are two widely-used melodies for the hymn; one, which is *not* this melody, is dated to 1751; the other, which *is* this melody, is listed in several hymnals simply as "Early American Melody," with no date. So the origin of the tune remains unclear. These two tunes are sometimes known as "Kirkham" and "Bellevue." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LF11

Ellen Smith Ballet, The

See Ellen Smith [Laws F11] (File: LF11)

Ellen Taylor

DESCRIPTION: The singer waltzed with Ellen Taylor one night. She's gone to Margate for the summer. He fantasizes that, once he finishes his apprenticeship in three years, they will marry, open a shop, and they'll drive out with the children on Sundays.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (Hindley; note that Hindley prints the text in a section of broadsides apparently printed c.1836)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage dancing humorous apprentice
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 204, "Ellen Taylor" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 380)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Hindley, The Life and Times of James Catnach, Ballad Monger (London, 1878 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 274-275, "All Round the Room" (1 text)
Roud #1282
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(80a), "Ellen Taylor" or "All Round the Room" ("All round the room I've danced with Ellen Taylor"), unknown, no date
NOTES [78 words]: The Hindley and Bodleian text are not identical but are close enough to show that this is a stage piece mixing prose and song in dialect ("She was an hangel!"; "But if Ellen should refuse me, oh, crikey! what a pity!"). Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames only has the four verses -- no prose -- so that the details of shop ownership, riding out on Sunday, and description of Ellen are lost, but the idea of the fantasy based on three hours of dancing is preserved. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT204

Ellen the Fair (Helen the Fair) [Laws O5]

DESCRIPTION: The narrator, a nobleman, sees and falls in love with Ellen, who is very beautiful although she is only a flower seller. He woos and wins her. The noble ladies all envy her beauty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 17)
KEYWORDS: nobility courting poverty beauty
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws O5, "Ellen the Fair (Helen the Fair)"
Thompson-APioneerSongster 13, "Ellen the Fair" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 41, "Ellen the Fair" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 218-219, "Ellen the Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, p. 141, "Ellen the Fair" (1 text)
DT 470, ELLNFAIR
Roud #359
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 17, "Helen the Fair," J. Catnach (London), 1823 ; also Harding B 11(1060), Harding B 16(80b), Harding B 11(1682), Firth c.26(18), Harding B 11(48), Harding B 11(3327), Harding B 16(79d), "Ellen the Fair"; Harding B 11(1519), Firth b.27(332), Johnson Ballads 858, Harding B 11(237A), Harding B 22(390), Johnson Ballads fol. 33, Harding B 11(2549), "Helen the Fair"
LOCSinging, as113270, "Sweet Helen the Fair," L. Deming (Boston), n.d.
File: LO05

Ellie Rhee (Ella Rhee, Ella Ree)

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls Ella Rhee, beautiful and kind, with whom he used to live (before the war). (He wonders why he ran away; he is free but is no longer with Ella.) He wishes he were by her (grave). He laments, "Carry me back to Tennessee...."
AUTHOR: Septimus Winner ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #6); the Winner song was copyrighted 1865)
KEYWORDS: love separation death burial home slave freedom
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 412, "Ella Rhee" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 412, "Ella Rhee" (notes only)
Randolph 860, "Ella Rhee" (1 fragment)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 96, "Ella Ree" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 119-120, "Ella Rea" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 302, "Ella Rhee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 266, "Sweet Allalee" (1 text plus a sheet music cover on p. 268)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #558, p. 37, "Ella Ree" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #17, p. 31, "Ellie Rhee" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #6, p. 24, "Ella Ree" (1 text)
ST R860 (Full)
Roud #7428
RECORDINGS:
Blue Sky Boys, "Sweet Allalee" (Bluebird 6854)

NOTES [219 words]: Randolph's informant, who knew only the chorus, says this is about an Indian girl. The other texts I've seen, Brown's, Dean-FlyingCloud's, Huntington's, and that in Wharton's War Songs and Poems of the Confederacy, allow but do not require this. The version in Brown looks like more propaganda: "Don't run away; see what you'll lose?" The fragment in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin is too short to tell us anything, although it is noteworthy for having a tune.
Septimus Winter's 1865 song "Ellie Rhee" ("Carry Me Back to Tennessee") is said by Spaeth (A History of Popular Music in America, p. 128) to be based on Ella Ree, by C. E. Steuart and James W. Porter, published 1853.
Similarly Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 141, "There was an earlier song entitled 'Ella Ree (Carry Me Back to Tennessee)," Words by C. E. Steuart, Music by James W. Porter. Copyright 1852 by J. E. Gould & Co. Philadelphia. Both are evidently derived from the same source, but Winner's seems to be the accepted version."
Cohen amplifies: Charles E. Stewart (his spelling) and James W. Porter wrote "Ella Ree" in 1853, and Winner adapted it to a Civil War setting.
For more on Septimus Winner, see the notes to "Listen to the Mockingbird." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R860

Ellon Fair

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in the merry month of May... To Ellon Fair I bent my way... With hopes to find amusement." The singer hires out to a "skrankie chiel," who seems to promise good conditions but demands much work without offering good food or pay.
AUTHOR: John Ker (Carr?) (source: Greig/Duncan3 p. 626)
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #26, pp. 1-2, "Ellon Fair"; #34, p. 2, "Ellon Fair" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 353, "Ellon Fair" (2 texts)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 262, "Ellon Fair" (1 text)
Roud #2166
NOTES [36 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Ellon (353,354) is at coordinate (h3,v9-0) on that map [roughly 16 miles N of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord262

Ellon Market

DESCRIPTION: e singer recalls how good the work was "when I was young." "But noo the warld's turned upside doon ... Some toons hae got a thrashin' mill ... the steam mill beats them a'." "When work gets less and money scarce, We winna gang sae braw."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming worker technology unemployment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 354, "Ellon Market" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5902
NOTES [36 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Ellon (353,354) is at coordinate (h3,v9-0) on that map [roughly 16 miles N of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3354

Ellsworth's Avengers

DESCRIPTION: "Down where our patriotic army, near Potomac's side, Guards the glorious cause of freedom, gallant Ellsworth died." The hearers are urged to "strike" and "speed on" to destroy the traitors who killed Ellsworth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: death soldier punishment homicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1861 - Death of E. Elmer Ellsworth
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 353, "(Ellsworth's Avengers)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. 'Colonel Ellsworth" (subject of Elmer Ellsworth)
cf. "The Soldier's Funeral" (subject of Elmer Ellsworth)
NOTES [79 words]: Elmer Elsworth was not the first Union soldier to die in the Civil War, but he was the first to get much newspaper attention. Invading the property of a Confederate sympathizer, he tore down a Confederate emblem -- probably an illegal act. The property owner killed Ellsworth -- and was promptly killed by one of Ellsworth's men. I'd say the "uncivilized" honors were pretty well balanced in this case.
For more about Ellsworth, see the notes to "The Soldier's Funeral." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: TNY353

Ellsworths Funeral

See The Soldier's Funeral (File: MuLa005)

Elphinston

See Fair Mary of Wallington [Child 91] (File: C091)

Elsie M Hart, The

DESCRIPTION: Elsie M Hart heads "for a port down in White Bay." Caught in a storm of sleet and snow they hope to spend the night near Plate Cove. With foresail split they run aground. The captain and another man go to Plate Cove and the people there help the crew.
AUTHOR: Mike Keough
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: rescue sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 18, 1935 - Elsie M. Hart wrecked near Plate Cove, Bonavista Bay. (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 33, "The Elsie M Hart" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27093
NOTES [43 words]: Frank Galgay and Michael McCarthy, Shipwrecks of Newfoundland and Labrador, Volume II, Creative Publishers, 1990, p. 108, confirms the report of Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou: "Elsie M. O. Hart, schooner, went ashore at Plate Cove, November 18, 1935." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe035

Elsie Marley

DESCRIPTION: "Elsie Marley's grown so fine, She won't get up to serve the swine, But lies in bed till eight or nine." "Di' ye ken Elsie Marley, honey, The wife that sells the barley, honey?" Stanzas tell of how Elsie leads an elaborate lifestyle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Chambers); reportedly collected by Ritson in 1784
KEYWORDS: work clothes drink death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Scotland))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 70-71, "Elsie Marley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 152, "Elsie Marley is grown so fine" (4 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #246, p. 155, "(Elsie Marley has grown so fine)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 111, "(Saw you Eppie Marley, Honey)" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 32, "Elsie Marley" (1 text)
DT, ELSMARLY*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 385, ("Saw ye Eppie Marly, honey")
[Cuthbert Sharp], _The Bishopric Garland, A Collection of Legends, Songs, Ballads, &c Belonging to the County of Durham_, 1834 (references are to the 1969 reprint), p. 48, "Elsie Marley" (1 text, 1 tune on p. 85)
Roud #3065
RECORDINGS:
Guy Wolff, "Elsie Marley" (Piotr-Archive #435, recorded 01/08/2023)
NOTES [167 words]: According to Stokoe, Alice "Elsie" Marley was an innkeeper's wife in Pictree who, afflicted by fever, wandered from her bed and drowned in a flooded coalpit. Stokoe gives no other particulars (such as a date; the Baring-Goulds say 1768, and claim Elsie was born c. 1715), but this would explain what is otherwise a very strange song, with no real plot and an odd mix of praise and censure: Elsie is dead and being prepared for burial.
A partial argument against the Baring-Goulds' date is the claim by the Opies that the song was first printed around 1756. However, Ritson, who collected the song in 1784, also claimed that Elsie was from Pic(k)tree, and the Opies also give Alice Marley's dates as 1715-1768; they merely claim the song existed before her death. - RBW
Chambers includes two verses among "anti-Jacobite rhymes." - BS
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel also has a version which refers to "Jacobite Charlie," in which the heroine is Eppie Marley. But there is no clear proof which version is earlier. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: StoR070

Elsie Marley Is Grown So Fine

See Elsie Marley (File: StoR070)

Elwina of Waterloo

DESCRIPTION: "The trumpet had sounded the signal for battle"; the soldiers say farewell to Bristol. As the soldier lies wounded, he is found by "Lovely Elwina of famed Waterloo." He brings "that sweet flower" home from Waterloo
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (Harding B 12(24))
KEYWORDS: soldier battle injury love home
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #28, Elwina of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1566
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 12(24), "Elwina of Waterloo," J. Pitts (7 Dials), 1802-1809; also Harding B 28(86), "Elwina of Waterloo," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 16(80c), "Elwina of Waterloo," J. Catnach (7 Dials), 1813-1838; also Firth c.13(88); 2806 c.16(309); Harding B 11(2880); Harding B 12(25); Johnson Ballads 810; Harding B 15(94b); Harding B 11(2881); Harding B 17(83a); also Firth c.14(39)=Harding B 25(577), J. Evans (London), listed as 1780-1812, but this is before the Battle of Waterloo! (I suspect it's the wrong Evans)
File: VWP028

Em Pom Pee

DESCRIPTION: "Em pom pee para me Para moscas,..., Acca dairy, so fairy ... Poof poof!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: nonsense playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 142, "Em Pom Pee" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #12944
NOTES [160 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, quoting a Liss woman: "They say they learnt it at school, and they say it's French -- but it's complete nonsense." - BS
When I looked at it, I thought of a Latin phrase beginning "In Pompeii," but that works for only a few words.
John Patrick tells me, "I have found versions of this song from the US, UK, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Germany, Sweden and Portugal.  The 'Gin Gan Goolie' version was a minor hit for the group "The Scaffold" in 1969 which may account for the spread of the song world wide."
"Gin Gang Goolie" is in the Index, but I'm not convinced that it's the same song.
He also notes versions "I Paula Taska," "Qui Qua Quo" (Latin again...), "Oh, Nicodemo," "A Ram Sam Sam," "Ging Gang Goolie, and "Kin Kahn Koolie," with a different being used for "Sarasponda" (the only one of these I've ever heard personally). Most of these I cannot verify, but obviously a counting-out rhyme with nonsense words can easily evolve. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: OpGa142

Embryo Cockatoo, The (The New Chum II)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm what you call a new chum, and you will understand, Through assisted immigration I'm here in Maoriland." He complains about the wages and conditions. But he will try to become a Cockey himself -- and then he'll do to his workers as was done to him
AUTHOR: "The Wanderer" (Mick Laracy?) (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Temuka Leader, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: worker hardtimes New Zealand boss
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 135, "The Embryo Cockatoo" (1 text)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 156, "The Embryo Cockatoo/The New Chum" (1 excerpt)
File: BaRo135

Emerald Isle, The

DESCRIPTION: "Of all nations under the sun, Dear Erin does truly excel." The boys are hearty and the girls beautiful. St Patrick drove out the vermin and blessed the shamrock. We have had heroes since with Brian Boroimhe "leathered the Danes black and blue"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1821 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.17(116))
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 23, 1014 - Battle of Clontarf. Brian Boru defeats a combined force of Vikings and rebels from Leinster, but dies in the battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 153, "The Emerald Isle" (1 text)
Roud #13396
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(116), "The Emerald Isle" or "St. Patrick's Will", G. Thompson (Liverpool), 1789-1820
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave" (character of Brian Boru)
NOTES [51 words]: The reference is to Brian Boru (c.940-1014) king of Munster (976), High King of Ireland (1002), died on Good Friday April 23, 1014 during the Battle of Clontarf against the Vikings (source: NationMaster Encyclopedia site). - BS
For more details, see the notes to "Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave." - RBW
File: OCon153

Emigrant (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "At dawn of the morning the ship shall be sailing That takes me away from the land of my birth ... It's nought but oppression that tears us asunder." He bids farewell to the dances, colleens, and stories.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell sea ship nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 16-17, "The Emigrant" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #7353
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Emigrant's Lament" (plot)
NOTES [39 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: "This song is popular all over the county." - BS
(Given how few the reports of it are, I rather suspect Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast is confusing this with one of the oh-so-many-other emigrant songs. - RBW
File: Ran016

Emigrant (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "A young aspiring Irishman ... leaving Queenstown quay in Cork" for the Yankee shore on the Teutonic in 1894; "we all gave many a wail, As we took ... one parting glimpse of lovely Inisfail." The ship safely passes icebergs and lands on Ellis Island.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell sea ship America
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 52-53, "The Emigrant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7350
NOTES [138 words]: The liner Teutonic was put into service at Belfast in 1889, sailing from Queenstown to Sandy Hook from that year until 1907, when Queenstown was dropped in favor of service to Cherbourg. In 1911, the ship began to sail to Montreal. She was converted to a troopship during the First World War, and scrapped in 1921. (Source: Lincoln P. Paine, Ships of the World).
According to John Malcolm Brinnin, The Sway of the Grand Saloon: A Social History of the North Atlantic, p. 305, the ship had one other distinction: She was armored. The ship, which sailed for the White Star line, was the first liner designed to be capable of conversion into an auxiliary cruiser. She also was among the first to truly dispense with sail-carrying masts (Brinnin, p. 306). I doubt any of this affected her performance as a liner, though. - RBW
File: Ran052

Emigrant from Newfoundland, The

DESCRIPTION: "Dear Newfoundland have I got to leave you To seek employment in a foreign land? Forced by our nation by cruel taxation...." He thinks back to good times around St John's but now must emigrate to work. He hopes the younger generation may stay at home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: grief emigration farewell unemployment hardtimes lament poverty
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 360-361, "The Emigrant from Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea360 (Partial)
RECORDINGS:
Michael Murphy, "The Emigrant's Farewell" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Andrew Nash, "The Emigrant from Newfoundland" (on PeacockCDROM)
NOTES [66 words]: The lyrics of this song remind me very much of "Farewell, Charming Nancy" [Laws K14], though only a few words are actually the same; the Dorian tune also seems related.
Michael P. Murphy, Pathways through Yesterday, edited by Gerald S. Moore, Town Crier Publishing, 1976, pp. 147-148, quotes a verse of this, attributes it to J. T. Kinsella, and says that the tune is "The Bells of Shandon." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Pea360

Emigrant from Pike

DESCRIPTION: "I've just arrived across the plains, Oh didn't I have awful times, It makes the blood run greasy through my veins." He's been hungry. He's had many diseases. No one will give him anything. He wishes he were back in Pike
AUTHOR: John A. Stone ("Old Put")
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1854 (Put's Golden Songster)
KEYWORDS: travel gold hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 44-45, "Emigrant from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7775
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Emigrant from Pike" ("I've just got in across the plains" lyric)
NOTES [81 words]: Roud assigns the same number to "I've Just Got In Across the Plains" (originally titled "Arrival of the Greenhorn") and "Emigrant from Pike," which is understandable since they start with almost the same words and refer to the same sort of situation, but they are in fact separate songs.
This is unusual for an Old Put piece in that it uses multiple tunes: The first verse is "Nelly Was a Lady," the first chorus is "[Old] Dan Tucker," and the remainder "King of the Cannibal Islands." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC044

Emigrant's Farewell (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to Ireland; he will admire his home even though he will never return. He bids his sweetheart come with him. He notes how all the best folk of Ireland are going away. He mentions the gold and alcohol available in the New World
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell poverty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H743, pp. 200-201, "The Emigrant's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GRNFLDAM*
Roud #15034
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Green Fields of America (I)" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Green Fields of America
File: HHH743

Emigrant's Farewell (II), The

See The Emigrant from Newfoundland (File: Pea360)

Emigrant's Farewell (III), The

See William and Mary's Farewell to Ireland (File: MoMa019)

Emigrant's Farewell to Donegal, The

DESCRIPTION: It is 1846 and the singer is leaving Donegal. His father's five acres cannot support the family. He proposes to his sweetheart, she agrees, they marry and leave for America where "no rents or taxes we pay at all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1846 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: marriage emigration farewell hardtimes America Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1845-1847 - The Irish potato famines
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 57, "A New Song Called the Emigrant's Farewell to Donegal" (1 text)
Roud #V40069
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(81), "A New Song Call'd the Emegrants Farewell to Donegall," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small)" (subject: The Potato Famines) and references there
NOTES [27 words]: The ballad takes place during the famine years in Ireland. - BS
For background on the famines, see the notes to "Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Zimm057

Emigrant's Farewell to Donside, The

See A Health to the Company (Come All My Old Comrades) (File: CrSe222)

Emigrants Return, The

DESCRIPTION: "When the wind blows from the East, it brings sweet voices, 'Tis the Siren call, you hear as plain as day That says 'come home" to every Newfoundlander." Those who left Newfoundland hear the call all over Canada.. Newfoundland life and places are recalled
AUTHOR: Words: J. W. McDrath
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 4th edition)
KEYWORDS: homesickness Canada nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland "The Emigrants Return" (1 text, tune referenced): pp. 13-14 in the 4th edition, pp. 10-11 in the 5th
Roud #7295
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Galway Bay" (tune)
File: Doyl4013

Emigration

DESCRIPTION: "All you whose minds are bent on straying, Listen now... whilst I... relate the joys of emigration." Those who come to Australia must clear the land, fight off kangaroos, live in poverty, have little success, and "curse the place and leave disgusted"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland); Anderson estimates his broadside c. 1845
KEYWORDS: emigration hardtimes return
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 171-173, "Emigration"" (1 text)
Roud #V33061
File: AnFa171

Emma Been Say

DESCRIPTION: "Emma been say she go wear crippon dress." "She go make up she mind To go weed the young canes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: vanity marriage clothes farming nonballad wife
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 3, "Emma Been Say" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [43 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "... To a young female from the town the custom of women working on the land is often disdainful. To 'weed the young canes' is what she is just not prepared to do. Instead she decides to keep house wearing her 'crippon dress.'" - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTO003

Emma Hartsell [Laws F34]

DESCRIPTION: Emma Hartsell is found with her throat cut. Two blacks, Tom [Johnson] and Joe [Kiser], are accused of the crime and hanged from a dogwood tree. Even Joe's last request for a drink of water is refused
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 11, 1885 - Birth of Emma Hartsell to S. J. and E. G. Hartsell (source: her tombstone as reported by NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, p. 86)
May 29, 1898 - Rape and murder of Emma Hartsell. (So her tombstone; other sources imply a date of May 30). Joe Kiser and Tom Johnson are arrested, but -- despite protestations of innocence -- are lynched before they can be tried
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws F34, "Emma Hartsell"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 296, "Emma Hartsell" (1 text plus 1 excerpt and mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 94, "Emma Hartsel" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 237-238, "Song of Emma Hartsell" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Jan A. Herlocker, "The Tragic Ballad of Miss Emma Hartsell," Vol. XXIII, No. 31 (Aug 1975), p. , "The Ballad of Emma Hartsell" (1 text, 1 tune; the article starts on p. 82)
DT 728, HARTSELL
ADDITIONAL: Bruce E. Baker, "North Carolina Lynching Ballads," essay in W. Fitzhugh Brundage, _Under Sentence of Death: Lynching in the South_, University of North Carolina Press, 1997, pp. 222-223, "Emma Hartsell" (1 text)
Roud #2272
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. J. V. Johnson (tune)
NOTES [628 words]: Based on the notes in Brown, it appears that the facts in this particular case can never be known. The notes comment that racial hatred was at a high pitch due to attempts to give Blacks the vote in North Carolina.
The known facts are that Hartsell was killed by having her throat cut, and the doctor believed she had been raped first. Kiser came to town to report finding the body, and was arrested. Johnson was arrested soon after, on what basis it is not clear -- possibly Kiser implicated them. It seems likely that Kiser was found by the mob that had been called up when Emma's parents came home and found her dead body. It is possible that he was found with blood on his clothes, which explains why he was accused of the crime.
That night, a mob attacked the jail, seized the prisoners, and lynched them. The cynic in me suspects that the actual murderer was probably a leader of the lynch mob.
Bruce E. Baker, "North Carolina Lynching Ballads," essay in W. Fitzhugh Brundage, Under Sentence of Death: Lynching in the South, University of North Carolina Press, 1997, pp. 219-245. gives details that make it an even uglier story, because Emma Hartsell was only a child -- a twelve-year-old girl (p. 221).
"On May 29, 1898, the Hartsell family went to church, leaving an infant daughter at home in Emma's care. When they returned around five o'clock, they found Emma dead on the kitchen floor, 'her head nearly severed from her body.' A local doctor examined the corpse and declared that she had been raped. A search party formed to hunt down the killed, and suspicion came to rest on two black men, Tom Johnson and Joe Kizer. When the sheriff placed them in the Concord jail around seven o'clock, the searc party followed him to the jail and demanded that he turn the prisoners over. The sheriff refused, and the mob assaulted the jail, knocking in the front door and seizing Johnson and Kizer. The mob took the pair down the Mt. Pleasant oad about a mile and a half out of town before finding a dogwood tree suitable for the hanging. A minister who had tried to convince the mob of two thousand people not to lynch Johnson and Kizer spoke to the prisoners, and then they were hanged. After the hanging, the mob fired several hundred rounds into the corpses. Spectators took souvenirs, including the rope, parts of the tree limbs, and various articles of clothing (but not body parts)" (pp. 221-222)
The piece is unusual in several regards. First, the meter has four feet in each line, rather than being in standard 4-3-4-3 meter. It has several specifics, but not eyewitness specifics; Baker thinks -- and I suspect he's right -- that it is probably based on newspaper accounts, possibly one not from the local paper (pp. 225-226). And the mention of the alleged rapists' race is mentioned only at the end. It's as if the writer adapted an existing piece, then asked himself at the end, "Gee, what did I forget to mention?"
The NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal article collects various local recollections of the event, including one from a younger member of the Hartsell family, but almost everything claimed by one source is contradicted by another, and some of the recollections may have been influenced by the song. The only things the accounts add that I haven't seen elsewhere are a copy of the text on her tombstone and the fact that Emma was beautiful and well-liked -- but, of course, that might be the typical glorification of a murdered person. In the end, the records of the case seem utterly inadequate. Didn't anyone even try to find out the truth?
Joyce C. Preslar, a cousin of the Hartsell family, tells me that Hartsell "is buried at Poplar Tent Road Cemetery off of Highway 601 through Concord, relatively near the Charlotte Motor Speedway." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LF34

Emma Jane

See The H'Emmer Jane (File: FowM050)

Emma You My Darlin'

DESCRIPTION: The instructions to "Emma" are followed by the players -- "You turn around dig a hole in the ground" -- mixed with commentary "you're my darling," "you're the bad girl," "you're from the country." Alternate lines: "Oh Emma Oh"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 16, pp. 95-96, "Emma You My Darlin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [23 words]: Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands illustrates the "ring-play" formation with a photograph -- illustration 30 -- opposite p. 192. - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr016

Emmet's Death

DESCRIPTION: "He dies to-day." The judge smiles because "a demon dwelt where his heart should be." The jailer has a tear in his eye because Emmet had "spoke in so kind a way." A girl "lacked the life to speak ... despair had drank up her last wild tear."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I)
KEYWORDS: execution patriotic judge prisoner Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 20, 1803 - Robert Emmet (1778-1803) is hanged
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 69, "Emmet's Death" (1 text)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 73-74, "Emmet's Death" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, p. 248, "Emmet's Death"
ST OCon069 (Partial)
Roud #V26601
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(17), "Emmet's Death", unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Robert Emmet" (subject) and references there
NOTES [23 words]: Hayes's text is attributed to "S.F.C." - BS
For the sad background of this typically Irish story, see the notes to "Bold Robert Emmet." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: OCon069

Emmet's Farewell to His Love

See Emmet's Farewell to His Sweetheart (File: OCon109)

Emmet's Farewell to His Sweetheart

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell, love, farewell, love, I now must leave you." Emmet declares he has never deceived her. "Oh, never in the moonlight we'll roam, love." He asks her to promise to "come to my grave when all others forsake me." He hears "the death token."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 40(3))
KEYWORDS: love farewell execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 20, 1803 - Robert Emmet (1778-1803) is hanged
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 109, "Emmet's Farewell to His Sweetheart" (1 text)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 160, "Emmet's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 22, "Emmet's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 102, "Emmet's Farewell to His Love" (1 text)
Roud #5224
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 40(3), "Emmet's Farewell To His Love", J.F. Nugent and Co.? (Dublin?), 1850-1899
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Robert Emmet" (subject) and references there
cf. "She Is Far from the Land" (subject of Robert Emmet and Sarah Curran)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Robert Emmet's Farewell to Sarah Curran
NOTES [93 words]: For the sad background of this typically Irish story, see the notes to "Bold Robert Emmet."
Robert Kee, in The Most Distressful Country (being volume I of The Green Flag), p. 169, reports that Emmet's girlfriend was Sarah Curran, daughter of the lawyer John Philpot Curran (1750-1817). Curran had defended the 1798 conspirators at their trials, and opposed the Act of Union -- but his daughter had gone farther, writing letters to Emmet which supported rebellion. Her father disowned her.
For more on Curran, see the notes to "She is Far From the Land." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon109

Empire Club, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams of the election disaster to come for "Old 'Pultepee" [Scott] as the Whigs self-destruct as Greeley's two-faced efforts fail. The singer favors Pierce and King
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: slavery nonballad political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1850 - Horace Greeley leads a breakaway group from the Whig national convention in Syracuse, New York, following the Compromise of 1850.
1852 - Presidential campaign. Franklin Pierce and William Rufus Devane King Democratic candidates for president and vice-president. The Whig candidates were Winfield Scott and William Alexander Graham. Pierce wins with 51% of the popular vote (to 44% for Scott and 5% for the Free Soil candidate) and 254 electoral votes to 42 for Scott.
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 63, "The Empire Club" (1 text)
Roud #2834
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Susannah" (tune)
NOTES [56 words]: "Empire Club" is a reference to New York State [see the historical reference to Syracuse, above]. The pro-Pierce/King campaign song has Greeley selling Scott down the river, or, in the words of the chorus, "O poor Greeley Don't you spit on me, I'm going up salt river, With the platform on my knee" [spelling and punctuation changed] - BS
Last updated in version 2.8
File: TPS063

Employment Song

DESCRIPTION: The singer has trouble finding work after writing the 'Five Boss Highway' song. He finds the manager digging in the mud. The manager says "I didn't think a poet would work in such a place." "Twas the bosses in the ditches that really made me smile."
AUTHOR: Micky Jim MacNeil (according to Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: work political
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 12, pp. 100-102, "Employment Song" (1 text
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 168-169, "Highway Song (Employment Song)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24296
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "Employment Song" (on NFJDowney01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Five Boss Highway" (subject)
File: BeDo100

En Revenant de la Jolie Rochelle

See C'est L'Aviron (Pull on the Oars) (File: FJ058)

En Roulant Ma Boule

DESCRIPTION: French: "En roulant ma boule roulant...." Typical plot: Three ducks are paddling. A prince comes to hunt. Though he aims for a black duck, he hits the white one with its diamond eyes and its golden feathers. The owner is upset
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865
KEYWORDS: bird hunting nonsense foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que) US(MA)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 56-57, "En Roulant Ma Boule" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 26-28, "En roulant ma boule" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 41, "En Roulant Ma Boule" (1 English and 1 French text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 49, "As I Roll My Rolling Ball" (1 English text, 1 tune, translated by Tobitt)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 64-65, "En Roulant Ma Boule" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
Grace Lee Nute, _The Voyageur_, Appleton, 1931 (reprinted 1987 Minnesota Historical Society), pp. 129-133, "En Roulant Ma Boule" (1 text plus English translation, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Lawrence Older, "En Roulante" (on LOlder01)
NOTES [70 words]: Said to have originated in the fifteenth century. Bastardized versions are common, probably due to the song's popularity. Fowke reports, "[This] is probably the most popular of French-Canadian songs. Marius Barbeau has listed ninety-two different Canadian versions which all tell much the same story but differ widely in melody and refrain." Its popularity with the voyageurs may help explain its wide distribution. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FJ056

En Roulante

See En Roulant Ma Boule (File: FJ056)

En Sjoman Alskar Havets Vag

DESCRIPTION: Swedish. Capstan shanty. "En sjoman lskar havets veg, ja va gornas brus." The sailor loves the sound of the wave. He must leave his sweetheart. They embrace. She watches as he sets out to sea.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: sailor travel shanty foreignlanguage separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 108, "En Sjoman Alskar Havets Vag" (2 texts, Swedish and English, 1 tune)
File: HSoSe108

Ena, Mena, More, Mi

DESCRIPTION: "Ena, mena, more, mi, Pisca, lara, bora, bi, Eggs, butter, cheese, bread, Stick, stack, stone, dead. O-U-T spells out!" Perhaps a counting-out rhyme
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Deane/Shaw)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 18, "(Eggs, butter, cheese, bread)" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 95, "(Call lummy koo") (several of the texts on this page look as if they might be remnants of this)
ADDITIONAL: Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 52, "(Hewery, hiery, hackery, heaven)" (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric) and references there
NOTES [62 words]: NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Leonidas Betts, "Folk Speech from Kipling [North Carolina]," Vol. XIV, No. 2 (Nov. 1966), p. 40, has an interesting form beginning "Eeny, meeny, tipsy, teeny, Apple jack, John Sweeney" and proceeding for six more lines, then ending "O-U-T spells out, And out goes you"; this appears to be an unusual composite of several counting rhymes. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: DeSh052B

Enchanted Isle, The

DESCRIPTION: The singers recalls traveling to Rathlin, where he hears the tale of the Enchanted Isle, which rises from the seas when a mermaid sings. Home to a beautiful city, many have tried to make it stay above the waves, but it always escapes
AUTHOR: Luke Aylmer Conolly ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: magic sea
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H550, pp. 176-177, "The Enchanted Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13537
NOTES [46 words]: Sam Henry lists several other instances of folklore of islands rising from the waves. Variations on the theme are common, and go back to antiquity; this seems to be one of the few cases of moving lands with no hostile intent (other than aggravating the spectators, anyway). - RBW
File: HHH550

End of Patty Haig, The

See Johnny Sands (File: LQ03)

End of the Earth

DESCRIPTION: "The end of the earth isn't far from here, And it's getting much darker year by year." Gum is getting harder to find, and the digger will never again see a town, or women, or his homeland -- and if he did, he'd get in trouble for punching the foreman
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: worker New Zealand hardtimes homesickness
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 42, "End of the Earth" (1 text, 1 "reconstructed" tune) (p. 25 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 38, 190-191, "(The End of the Earth" (1 text plus an excerpt)
NOTES [16 words]: For background on the digging of kauri gum, see the notes to "The Old-Time Kauri Bushmen." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Colq025

End of the Yaqui Trail, The

DESCRIPTION: "Living long lives in Sonora, nested 'mongst mountains high... Living by hunting and fishing, raising their Indian corn... 'twas there the Yaquis were born." But now the Europeans have come. The author hopes their God will someday come to care for them
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys); reportedly written 1914
KEYWORDS: nonballad Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 63-65, "The End of the Yaqui Trail" (1 text)
NOTES [33 words]: This is not, I think, an entirely accurate portrayal of indigenous American life, but it is amazingly sympathetic for a piece written in 1914! There is of course no hint that it is traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: ThLo063

Ene, Mene, Miny, Mo

See Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme) (File: Lins005)

Enfant Gâté

DESCRIPTION: French dialog between mother and spoiled child. "Enfant gâté veux-tu du pâté? Non ma mère il est trop salé! Veux-tu du rôti? Non ma mère il est drop cuit!" The mother asks if the child wants pie or meat; the child refuses; it tastes bad/is badly cooked
AUTHOR: (credited to Ernest Lavisse by non-scholarly Internet sources)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: mother children food rejection foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 118-119, "Enfant gâté" (1 short text)
File: KSUC118E

Engine 143

See The Wreck on the C & O [Laws G3] (File: LG03)

Engine Bells

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on the evening of the twelfth; The hour was half past seven...." "The New York Express came up the track." A husband and wife "unconscious drove their steed." The horse and buggy are destroyed despite the engineer's efforts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois)
KEYWORDS: death railroading husband wife
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 171-172, "Engine Bells" (1 text)
File: Neel171

Engine No. 9

See The Wreck of Number Nine [Laws G26] (File: LG26)

Engine, Engine, Number Nine

DESCRIPTION: "Engine, Engine, Number Nine, Going down Chicago line, If the train goes off the track, Do you want your money back? O-U-T spells OUT." Or, "Engine, engine, one the line, Wasting water all the time. How many gallons does it waste...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: playparty train money
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) New Zealand
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 96, "(Engine, engine, on the line)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 49, "Engine, Engine"; p. 68, "Chicago Line" (2 texts)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 29, "(Engine, engine, number nine)" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 118, "Engine, engine, number nine"; p. 139, "Engine, engine, number nine" (2 texst)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #136, "Engine, engine number nine" (1 text)
Roud #19220
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Chicago Line
NOTES [27 words]: This seems to be relatively rare, but I learned it, or at least the first two lines of it, in my youth in Minnesota, presumably in the late 1960s or early 1970s. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SuSm096C

Engine, Engine, On the Line

See Engine, Engine, Number Nine (File: SuSm096C)

Engineer, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer, an old engineer, tells his friend (and fireman?) Joe about the wreck on the Elgin branch, where two locomotives collided in a storm and his daughter was killed. He looks forward to the day when his own death will reunite him with his child
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (recording, Lester Coffee -- but he says he learned it c. 1893)
KEYWORDS: age grief train death railroading work crash disaster storm wreck children
FOUND IN: US(MW)
Roud #8586
RECORDINGS:
Lester A. Coffee, "The Engineer" (AFS 8419 A, 1946; on LC61)
NOTES [16 words]: The local references place the story in northern Illinois, which was Lester Coffee's home. - PJS
File: RcThEngi

Engineer's Child, The

See The Child of the Railroad Engineer (The Two Lanterns) (File: R685)

Engineer's Dream, The

See The Fucking Machine (File: EM392)

England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales

DESCRIPTION: "England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, All tied up with donkeys' tails."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: nonballad animal | donkey countries
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 41, "(England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales)" (1 short text)
Roud #19385
File: PKKB041F

England's Great Loss by a Storm of Wind

See Ye Gentlemen of England (I) [Laws K2] (File: LK02)

English Chanty

See Cheer'ly Man (File: ShayS032)

English Courage Displayed, or, Brave News from Admiral Vernon

DESCRIPTION: "Come loyal Britons all rejoice with joyful acclamations... To Admiral Vernon drink a health, likewise to each brave fellow Who... was at the taking of Porto Bello." The song details all the struggles involved in taking the port
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Firth)
KEYWORDS: battle war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1740 - Admiral Edward Vernon's capture of Porto Bello in what is now Panama
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 38, "English Courage Displayed, or, Brave News from Admiral Vernon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V21147
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(450), "English courage display'd or Brave news from admiral Vernon," unknown, n.d.
File: PaSe038

English Lady Gay, The

See A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.) [Laws P9]; also "The Brown Girl" [Child 295] (File: LP09)

English Miner, The (The Coolgardie Miner, Castles in the Air)

DESCRIPTION: A newly-arrived prospector sits and dreams of his home and his family left behind. "He was thinking of home, sweet home, far away o'er the restless foam...." (While he is so distracted, a native comes up and kills him)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: homesickness loneliness mining death
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 115-116, "Castles in the Air"; pp. 180-181, "The Coolgardie Miner" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
File: MA115

English Orphan, The

DESCRIPTION: "My home is in England, my home is not here, But why should I murmur when trials appear? The woman that took me, God has taken away." The child, left alone and friendless, still trusts in Jesus and asks for help to get to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: orphan religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 565, "An English Orphan" (1 text)
Roud #11887
NOTES [23 words]: No author for this seems to be known, but it's clearly composed; oral tradition doesn't tend to preserve such hideously stupid items. - RBW
File: Br3565

English Round, An

See Boys and Girls Come Out to Play (File: FlBr187)

English Soldier and the Irish Lady, The

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

English, Irish, German, French

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "English, Irish, German, French, Little Annie Rooney with a ruffle in her pants."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Journal of American Folklore, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | languages Annie Rooney
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #137, "English, Irish, German, French" (1 text)
NOTES [117 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes believes that the Little Annie Rooney referred to here is not the character from the song of the same name but the comic strip that used the name to compete with Little Orphan Annie, which (according to Wikipedia) was published from 1927 to 1966. If that's so, it didn't take long for her to be co-opted into a jump rope verse! But there was also a 1925 movie, "Little Annie Rooney," with Mary Pickford.
Curiously, the movie stills I've seen show Pickford in skirts, and the early comic strips also seemed to show her in skirts (or, somewhat later, shorts), so the "ruffle in her pants" doesn't seem very accurate. Of course, there are thousands of panels I have not seen. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR137

Englishman, Irishman And Scotsman, The

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

Enniscorthy Fair

DESCRIPTION: A Galtee farmer sells a mare at Enniscorthy fair. The buyer clips and trims it like a racehorse. Fooled, the farmer buys it back for double his price. His wife recognizes the mare and calls him a fool for trimming it because it will get sick.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: farming humorous horse trick hair
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #5312
RECORDINGS:
Bill Cassidy, "Enniscorthy Fair" (on IRTravellers01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Galtee Farmer
The Galtee Mare
The Rusty Mare
File: RcEnniF

Enniskillen Dragoon, The

See Fare Ye Well, Enniskillen (The Inniskillen Dragoon) (File: E150)

Enniskilling Dragoon, The

See Fare Ye Well, Enniskillen (The Inniskillen Dragoon) (File: E150)

Enoch Arden

DESCRIPTION: Enoch leaves his wife Annie to go to sea, but is shipwrecked for ten years. He returns home to find that Annie, who thinks him dead, has remarried happily. He does not reveal himself, but leaves them to live happily; he dies of loneliness and grief
AUTHOR: Original poem "Enoch Arden" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 Dime-Song-Book #17; the Tennyson poem was published 1864)
KEYWORDS: sailor husband wife separation reunion grief
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 684, "Enoch Arden" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p, 84, "Goodbye, Annie Darling" (1 fragment, 1 tune, expanded with words from Tennyson's text; it it not really clear that the single verse comes from this song)
Dime-Song-Book #17, p. 26, "Farewell Song of Enoch Arden" (1 text)
Roud #17846
NOTES [52 words]: Although the handful of traditional versions of this seem to be based on the plot of the Tennyson poem, it appears to me that the song is not actually Tennyson's but a separate piece based on it; none of the versions start where Tennyson starts, and the lyrice I've checked are not part of the Tennyson poem. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BrS5684

Ensign and the Lady Gay, The

See Clerk Saunders [Child 69] (File: C069)

Ensilver Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Now here's a good health to the bride of yon house, Grant her a solid good cheer." The singers raise a series of toasts to the bride, then the groom, and then to the happy couple. Chorus: "That/and may we be married next year."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Palmer, from Smith's Music of the Yorkshire Dales)
KEYWORDS: marriage drink husband wife clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #85, "The Ensilver Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1492
File: PECS085

Ensy Wensy Spider

See The Eensy Weensy Spider (File: BGMG579)

Entendez-Vous

DESCRIPTION: Voyageur round. "Endendez vous sur l'or-meau, Chanter le petit ousea." "Did you hear the little bird Singing on the elm sapling?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs, p. 16, "Entendez-Vous" (1 short French text, 1 tune)
File: LewMi016

Enterprise and Boxer

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye sons of Freedom, Come, listen unto me." American Enterprise and British Boxer fight. "Though the Enterprise is but small, soon made the Boxer tame." The Americans, upon boarding, see much British blood. The singer cheers for liberty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1818 (The Book of Birds, according to Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: ship battle death nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 5, 1813 - Battle between the _Enterprise_ and the _Boxer_
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 148-150, "Enterprise and Boxer" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 244-245, "The Enterprise and the Boxer" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [495 words]: There appear to be two songs titled "Enterprise and Boxer," this and another found in the Forget-Me-Not Songster; neither appears to have gone into tradition (the Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors text is from print). There is also a poem by Longfellow which of course exists only as a poem.
As is almost standard in poetic accounts of battles from the War of 1812, this one ignores much of the story. Jameson, p. 221, has this to say of the Enterprise:
[A]n American brig of fourteen guns, Captain Burrows. September 5, 1813, the brig, while sailing off the Maine coast, met the British brig "Boxer," also of fourteen guns. Both vessels opened fire at the same time. The wind was light and the cannonading very destructive. The "Enterprise," crossing the bows of the "Boxer," gave such a raking that the latter surrendered. The battle lasted forty minutes. Both commanders were killed. Two days later the prize was taken into Portland harbor.
Even before this battle, Enterprise (the third navy ship of that name) had had a complex history, Paine, p. 167, notes that she was built as a schooner during the Quasi-War with France, and captured several French privateers at that time. In 1812, after being laid up for some years, she was refitted as a brig and given the armament of 14 18-pound carronades and two 9-pound long guns which she carried during the War of 1812. Paine says Boxer had only 12 guns during their engagement.
On her next major voyage, Enterprise was forced to flee a British ship, and jettisoned most of her cannon to escape. Like most of the American navy, she spent the latter part of the war stuck in harbor. Just as with the victories of the U. S. S. Constitution, Enterprise had won her battle but done nothing of significance to win the war. She was wrecked in 1823 (Paine, p. 168).
The Enterprise class does not seem to have been much of a success; Heidler/Heidler, p. 169, report that two sisters, Nautilus and Vixen "had both been captured by the British and later wrecked." They add that Lt. William Burrows of the Enterprise and Capt. Samuel Blyth of the Boxer, both of whom died in the battle, were buried side by side in Portland.
The Boxer probably should have avoided battle; although the two ships were the same length, Enterprise had a larger mast (hence more sail, so she was probably faster), and heavier guns, and a much larger crew (102 men, to 66 on Boxer; Mahon, p. 127) ButBoxer had been convoying a Swedish merchantman when she ran into Enterprise (Mahon, pp. 126-127). In any case, Captain Blyth, who was the sort to nail his colors to the mast (Heidler/Heidler, p. 169), wanted to fight -- and paid for it. The Americans managed to "cross the T" and rake the British ship, and the officer who succeeded Blyth surrendered without waiting to be boarded (Mahon, p. 127). Just as well, given that the British had suffered 21 casualties to 12 for the Americans (Heidler/Heidler, p. 169). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: Gray148

Enterprise and the Boxer, The

See Enterprise and Boxer (File: Gray148)

Entre le Boeuf et L'Ane Gris (Dans le Berceau, In the Manger)

DESCRIPTION: French. Christmas carol, lullaby. "Entre le boeuf et l'ane gris / dort, dort, dort le petit fils." Between the ox and the gentle ass the little son sleeps. A thousand cherubim, a thousand seraphim hover above
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
KEYWORDS: Christmas Jesus nonballad lullaby religious
FOUND IN: US(MW) France
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 28 "Dans le berceau (In the Manger)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [81 words]: I give the title as it's generally known. The tune given in Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes is quite different from the way it's usually sung. - PJS
Although the cherubim and seraphim above Jesus's bed are mentioned elsewhere (e.g. "In the Bleak Midwinter") and we are often told of the animals there, there is no evidence of this in the New Testament. Indeed, the word "seraph/seraphim" isn't even found in the New Testament. "Cherubim" is (in Hebrews 9:4), but not in the Gospels. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BerV028

Entre Paris et Saint Dennie (Between Paris and Saint Dennie)

DESCRIPTION: French. The king's son asks a shepherdess to sing. She would sing if not for her sorrow at losing her brother and husband in the war. He asks which she regrets more. She says she will find another husband but will never have a brother.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage grief war death music husband brother royalty
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 155, "Entre Paris et Saint Dennie" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [25 words]: The shepherdess's answer is reminiscent of Lady Margaret's plea in Child 7: "True lovers I can get many a ane, But a father I can never get mair." - BS
File: CrMa155

Entrenchment of Ross, The

DESCRIPTION: French. Sir Maurice and Sir Walter feud. New Ross council decides to build a wall. Each day, beginning Candlemas, a different group of merchants, priests,... work on the ditch. Sunday ladies lay up stones for the wall. The defence plans are described.
AUTHOR: sometimes attributed to Frir Michael Kyldare (1308) (translated by Mrs George Maclean, 1831) (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland) -- but see NOTES
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (_Archaeologia_ vol xxii, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage feud music
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1265 - the town of New Ross, Ireland, fortifies itself for protection from the various armed factions in Ireland
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 262-287, "The Entrenchment of Ross" (French and English texts plus extensive notes)
ADDITIONAL: Thorlac Turville-Petre, _Poems from BL MS Harley 913: 'The Kildare Manuscript'_, Early English Text Society/Oxford University Press, 2015, pp. 76-83, "The Walling of New Ross" (1 French text with notes and apparatus of variants)
Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 102-106, "The Fortification of New Ross" (1 text, excerpted from Croker)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Harley 913, folios 64, 61, 55, 56 (disordered)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Lansdowne 418 (transcript of Harley 913 made by Sir James Ware in 1608, no independent value)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Walling of New Ross
NOTES [2108 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "The [Anglo-Norman] ballad on the entrenchment of New Ross, in 1265 ... is here given as a specimen of ancient local song.... " Madden writes about an Harleian MS [913, Art 43] in the British Museum containing a "collection of pieces in verse and prose, apparently the production of an Irish ecclesiastic, ...."
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "It appears evident from [the ballad] that the inhabitants [of New Ross] feared that, in the war between two powerful barons, they should be exposed to insult and reprisal from the Irish who were engaged in the quarrel.... The corporate towns ... walled themselves, in order to be able to preserve their neutrality in the wars of the district which surrounded them.... The whole tenor of this very remarkable song shows that it was written when the fosse [ditch] was nearly finished, but before the walls were begun.... It is ... to be presumed that the fosse was not quite completed when the song now given was composed by some merry minstrel of the place on the day noted at the conclusion, and it was perhaps sung at the corporation dinner after their work." - BS
Although the event is Irish, it really sounds to me as if the song was influenced by the story of Nehemiah's rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem in the book of Nehemiah (especially chapter three). Although the Book of Nehemiah doesn't spend nearly as much time on descriptions of those who worked.
Croker is right that the walling of the city came about in self-defense, though; according to Turville-Petre, p. xxx, in the 1260s, the rulers of England, Henry III and his son the future Edward I, not having the troops to truly control Ireland, promoted factional fighting among the barons to keep any single leader from becoming strong enough to oppose them. It may be that the rebellion in England, which pitted Simon de Montfort against Henry, was reflected in the Irish conflict between the FitzGeralds and Walter de Burgh, the new Earl of Ulster (Turville-Petre, pp. xxx-xxxi). In any case, the Geraldine and Ulster factions began fighting in 1264. New Ross fortified itself in response.
Line 13 of the poem explicitly names those who caused the trouble, "Sire Morice" and "Sire Wauter," that is, Maurice Fitzgerald and Walter de Burgh (so Turville-Petre, p. 130). De Burgh, who had received his earldom in 1264, attacked the FitzGerald castles in Connacht in that same year, producing the situation that led the town of Ross to entrench.
New Ross remained a crossroads and fortified market town as late as the time of the 1798 rebellion. I gather some of the fortifications still stood, though they were in pretty bad shape by then; according to Pakenham p. 195, portions of the wall had been demolished by Cromwell, and the gates widened to improve commerce.
The manuscript which contains this is fairly important. Croker's catalog number cited by Ben is no longer relevant; it is now British Library MS. Harley 913. It has been digitized and scans are available on the British Library site. It is sometimes known as the "Kildare Manuscript" -- a rather misleading name, since its first known location was Waterford, and it may well have originated there. The name "Kildare Manuscript" arises because one of the pieces in it attributes itself to "Frere Michel Kyldare" (Turville-Petre, p. xiii).
It is obviously on this basis that Croker (following Madden, from whom Croker derived the work) attributed this piece to "Michael Kildare." But Kyldare claimed only the "Song of Michael Kildare," which (according to Turville-Petre, p. xlv) is much more competent than most pieces in the book -- and is in "tail-rhyme stanzas of ten lines, rhyming aaa4b3a4b3a4b3a4b3, in which the seventh and ninth lines of every stanza have internal rhyme.... At the end of his poem Michael claims his authorship with justified pride." Woolf, p. 378, thinks that "most" of the poems in Harley 913 are from Friar Michael, but that is not grounds for attributing any particular piece to him. Thus there is no basis for the attribution of this piece to Kildare, and no similarity in format either. And Kildare's "Song" is in English, not French. Croker is almost certainly wrong about the authorship.)
(Incidentally, the description of the "Song of Michael Kildare" as being in tail-rhyme is deceptive, since a normal tail-rhyme stanza is twelve lines, not ten, and there is a short tail rhyme stanza of six; a better description would be "modified tail-rhyme" or some such.)
My own assessment in looking at the photos of the manuscript is that the amount of red ink and pen work, and the handful of uses of blue, implies that the manuscript was probably intended for a fairly significant library or owner, although not one of extraordinary wealth. Much of the red ink has now flaked away (this is not unusual; red inks did not bind as well to parchment as the best black and brown inks, which had more acid), but the black has stood up well.
It is a small book, just 140 x 95 millimeters (Turville-Petre, p. xiii). The writing area varies from page to page, as does the number of lines per page and the color of the ink. All of these hint that the book was compiled over time, not all at once. Turville-Petre is certain it is of Irish origin (based mostly on the several pieces about Irish history, of which this is one), and that it was produced by the Franciscans; this is evidenced not only by the large amount of Latin but by references to Franciscan sites and practices (Turville-Petre, p. xix).
The variable number of pages in the quires implies that the pages have been rearranged and some lost (Turville-Petre, p. xvi). We don't know how much was lost, but the other manuscript cited in the References, British Library Lansdowne 418, contains 11 pieces copied from the Kildare manuscript. Five of these no longer exist in Kildare. This implies that the losses have been heavy (Turville-Petre, p. xviii). Fortunately the "Entrenchment" is one of the pieces in Lansdowne, and Turville-Petre used it to check his transcription; on p. 93 he notes that the Lansdowne copy is in two different hands.
Kildare is a trilingual manuscript, with texts that are in Latin (about half the contents), Middle English (17 items), and Anglo-Norman French (3 items, including this piece). Most of the Latin items are found elsewhere, but only a handful of the ones in the vernacular are (Turville-Petre, p. xix) -- the most important of the latter being in the Index as "Erthe upon Erthe (Earth upon Earth, Earth out of Earth)."
Turville-Petre, p. xx, seems to say that most of the 17 Middle English pieces -- the ones not attested elsewhere -- are in a dialect that differs from the five that were imported from England. Turville-Petre, p. xxviii, identifies the dialect as coming from the southwest or southwest Midlands of England rather than from Ireland -- which to me implies that these pieces were at least worked over by a single author or scribe who was from England, not Ireland. Several other of the Harley poems are like this one in that they describe the unstable Irish political situation of the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries (Turville-Petre, p.xxxii); Turville-Petrie, p. xxxv, suggests that they are mostly pro-Fitzgerald. He adds on p. xli that it is the only substantial collection of English verse from Ireland in this period, making it an important reference for what Anglo-Irish literature was like at the time. (Though the largest category of items in the book, as one would expect from a monastery production, are religious, and often tedious -- one, indeed, so tedious that the scribe gave up in mid-line and never came back! -- Turville-Petre, p. xlii. Many of these items are probably preaching notes (so Woolf, p. 373); one is in fact labelled a "Sarmon"=sermon.) The meters vary quite a bit, although "Entrenchment" uses the fairly-standard four-stress couplets (Turville-Petrie, p. xlv).
Wells, p. 228, says that the manuscript was copied no later than 1325 (based, I suspect, on references to King Edward II still being on the throne), but Turville-Petre, p. xxi, believes the book includes references to events up to the year 1334, so it must be more recent than that. There is no consensus about the exact date, but we probably wouldn't be far wrong to say that it was started around 1340 and continued over several years or even decades.
Five scribes have been identified, plus various annotators, but one scribe, who wrote in a textura hand, did most of the work. This scribe, referred to as "A," produced pages that are "very variable in size and aspect" (Turville-Petre, pp. xiii-xiv). This is the scribe responsible for this poem.
There are occasional attractive pages, but on the whole, it's a grubby, cramped-looking little book.
Despite their relative obscurity, and the unattractive presentation, some of the pieces in Harley 913 are considered to be high quality -- particularly the first English item, "The Land of Cokayne"; Furnivall (the co-editor of the Percy Folio) said it was "The airiest and cleverest piece of satire in the whole range of Early English, if not of English, poetry"; Morton showed that it contained several folkloric elements and a relatively universal perspective, where there is abundance without serfdom (Robbins, p. 317).
As the references list says, there are two manuscripts of this, Harley 913 and Lansdowne 418. However, Lansdowne 418 is a transcript of Harley 913 made by Sir James Ware in 1608. It thus has no independent value, although it is useful in that it contains several poems which have been lost from Harley 913, plus it is still legible at a few points where Harley is not -- Turville-Petre adopts its reading in this poem at four places where Harley cannot be read. It appears the damage is primarily to folio 61 of Harley, which looks as if it has been stained by some sort of liquid (I would consider even some of the places where Turville-Petre says he read it to be dubious; the staining is quite severe). I would guess that this happened after the manuscript was disarranged, since there is no staining of the other folios of the poem, although a few letters have been lost at the start of folio 55 due to damage to the parchment.
Turning to the poem itself, Turville-Petre, p. 77, says that the text has been heavily disarranged with the shuffling of the pages of Harley 913 -- the poem as reconstructed being from folios 64, 61, 55, 56, in that order. Thus not only is it out of order, there is other material in the middle of it! "The account is written in rough octosyllabic couplets with rhymes that are sometimes only approximate." The title, in red ink, is so faded that I could not read all of it in the photographs, but Turville-Petre reas it as "Rithmus facture vile de Rosse." As is common in poetry texts of the time, the rhyme words in the couplets are linked by red curved lines, but whoever wrote them seems to have gotten very sloppy very quickly. There are also paraph marks (⊄), presumably to show sections; these seem quite irregular.
The first line is the same as those in another French piece, "The Outlaw's Song of Trailbaston" (Turville-Petre, p. xlvii), which discusses how one can be outlawed without intent to commit a crime, and discusses the difficult life of an outlaw. "Trailbaston" is often cited in connection with the Robin Hood legend.
Line 211 -- not quite the last line, but almost -- ends "amen pur charité." This is a faint link to the text of "Cockayne"; it is also a link to many Middle English texts, e.g. "The Seven Virgins (The Leaves of Life)," which often ends with something like "Amen, good Lord, your charity Is the ending of my song." No one seems to have suggested that line 211 of "Ross" was intended as an ending, but I wonder....
The actual final line, or more correctly the subscription, is the date: "Ce fu fet l'an de l'incarnacion Nostre Seignur M.CC.LXV" -- i.e. the Year of Our Savior 1265.
I have not seen them, but the following articles are apparently fairly important for those who really want to know about this poem:
Angela M. and Peter J. Lucas, "Reconstructing a Disarranged Manuscript: The Case of MS Harley 913, A Medieval Hiberno-English Miscellany," Scriptorium, #14 (1990)
Hugh Shields, "The Walling of New Ross,: A Thirteenth Century Poem in French," Long Room, #12-13 (1975-1976)
Keith V. Sinclair, "On the Text of the Anglo-Norman Poem The Walling of New Ross," Romanische Forschungen, #106 (1994)
Keith V. Sinclair, "The Walling of New Ross: An Anglo-Norman Satirical Dit," Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur, #105 (1995)
- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: CrPS262

Ephram, Ephram

DESCRIPTION: "Ephram, Epgram, whar you been? I ain't been dar in a long time. Oh, oh, Ephram, you know you goin' to die, Oh, oh, Ephram, don't tell me no lie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 122, "Ephram, Ephram" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #16296
File: Arno122A

Epigram on Rough Roads

DESCRIPTION: "I'm now arrived -- thanks to the gods! Thro' pathways rough and muddy, A certain sign that makin roads Is no this people's study... I'm not wi' Scripture cram'd, I'm sure the Bible says That heedless sinners shall be damn'd, Unless they mend their ways"
AUTHOR: Robert Burns? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (BBC web site dates to 1786, without documentation)
KEYWORDS: humorous travel | roads
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 173, "We've now arrived, thanks be to God" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #629, p. 725, "Epigram on Rough Roads" (1 text)
Roud #25471
NOTES [41 words]: Although several online sources attribute this to Robert Burns without hesitation, and may date it to 1786, Kinsley files it under "Undated Poems and Dubia." As a result, I have put a question mark on the authorship and used a later, safer date. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC173A

Epitaph on Peter Wilkie

DESCRIPTION: "Here lies Peter Wilkie, a peer an harmless body He wouldna tramp upon a snail, nor yet a carle-doddie [Greig/Duncan8: stalk of ribwort]"
AUTHOR: John Tough (source: Greig/Duncan8)
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: death memorial nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1885, "Epitaph on Peter Wilkie" (1 short text)
NOTES [20 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text.
Greig/Duncan8 gives no indication that this was ever sung. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81885

Epitaph on Wattie Cobban

DESCRIPTION: "Aneth this stane lies Wattie Cobban Wha sta' the horse fae Johnnie Lobban In Perth Penitentiary jyle He learned to gird in style"
AUTHOR: John Tough (source: Greig/Duncan8)
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: death memorial nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1886, "Epitaph on Wattie Cobban" (1 short text)
NOTES [20 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text.
Greig/Duncan8 gives no indication that this was ever sung. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81886

Epo i tai tai e

DESCRIPTION: Badly distorted Maori text. "Epo i tai tai e, oh! Epo i tai tai e, Epo i tai tai, Epo i tuki tuki, Epo i tuki tuki e!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, but see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting sex campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 144, 444, "Eppo, ee tye-tye-ai"/"O Yepo" (notes only)
NOTES [259 words]: This song has a truly curious history. In Scouting circles, it is often said to be Native American. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs says it is Filippino. But the web site www.folksong.org.nz has what I assume is the true story. I summarize:
Kingi Tahiwi was a New Zealander competing for the favor of a young Maori woman. So he wrote her a song, "He Puru Taitama." (This probably should be the song's official title, but English speakers won't know it!) The lyrics were
He pūru taitama e
He pūru taitama hoki!
He pūru taitama
He pūru tukituki
He pūru taitama e.
Ka haere tāua e
Ki runga Otaki hoki.
Kei reira tāua
whaka-rite-rite ai
whaka-oti-oti ai e.
Having seemingly a less than brilliant understanding of exactly what women want, he wrote that he was a strong young man -- a bull. He invited her to leave their home of Otaki to see what they could do from there.
No word on whether he got the girl, but his family remembered the song (he wrote quite a few, playing them on banjo), and recorded it in 1930 in a jazzy style. This did well enough that it was learned by Maori soldiers in World War II. Soldiers being soldiers, they made it bawdy:
E pō i taitai e!
E pō i taitai e!
E pō i taitai,
E pō i tukituki!
E pō i taitai e!
Which apparently translates as "at night up high," "at night, thrusting."
The tune was strong enough that it was taken over by Girl Scouts. And since no one knew Maori, they didn't know what they were singling. In English, after all, it's nonsense. But I wonder what happens when one tells a camp counselor the real meaning.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF144E

Eppie Morrie [Child 223]

DESCRIPTION: Willie and his gang steal away Eppie Morrie to make her his bride. The minister refuses to marry them without her consent. Willie forces her to bed and attempts to rape her; she fends off his attempts. In the morning she demands the right to return home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: abduction rape rejection escape sex
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Child 223, "Eppie Morrie" (1 text)
Bronson 223, "Eppie Morrie" (1 version)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 223, "Eppie Morrie" (1 versioin)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 9-11, "Eppie Morrie" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's (#1)}
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 51, "Eppie Morrie" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 37, "Eppie Morrie" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 207-211, "Eppie Morrie" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 223, EPPMORR*
Roud #2583
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy McBeath, "Eppie Morrie" [fragment] (on FSBBAL2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lady of Arngosk [Child 224]" (plot)
cf. "Walter Lesly" [Child 296] (plot)
NOTES [1210 words]: Like Willie Macintosh [Child 183; see comment there], the only known tune for this song is that given by Ewan MacColl. - (AS)
Though we note the fragment collected from Jimmy McBeath, which was not known to Bronson. MacColl, p. 67, claims to have learned the song from his father, who was dead by the time anyone was interested in documenting MacColl's repertoire. In MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 68, MacColl claimed to have it from his father William Miller and from Samuel Wylie.
To give MacColl credit, if he did shape this tune, it's a great one. But he may have speeded it up. MacColl, p. 270, says that this was one of the first four songs he ever recorded, in 1950, for release on 78s. All four songs he wanted to sing were too long for a 78, to the disgust of the recording technicians, and MacColl started singing the songs breathlessly fast.
The idea of rape as a method to secure a marriage is well-documented. Prestwich, pp. 156-157, tells of one Alice de Lacy who may actually have experienced this *twice* in the early fourteenth century:
"In 1317 she was abducted from her husband, the Earl of Lancaster, by one of [Earl] Warenne's knights, Richard de St Martin. He claimed to be her real husband, as he had slept with her before her marriage; a statement which Alice supported. In 1324 she married Eblo Lestrange in an undoubted love match and on his death took vows of chastity. Then in a dramatic scene in Bolingbroke Castle in 1336 she was again abducted, this time by Hugh de Frenes.... When she came down she was placed firmly on horseback. Only then did she realize the gravity of her situation, and she promptly fell off in an attempt to escape. She was put back, with a groom mounted behind her to hold her on, and led off to Somerton Castle. There, according to the record, Hugh raped her in breach of the king's peace. Since she was by then in her mid-fifties, it is likely that Hugh was attracted more by her vast estates than by her physical charms. As frequently happened in medieval cases of rape, the couple soon married."
Prestwich adds that de Lacy chose to be buried by Lestrange. Although this may say less about Lestrange than about the fact that Thomas of Lancaster was a complete and utter jerk (Hicks, pp. 48-49).
(The aftermath of all this, incidentally, was the extinction of the Earldom of Lincoln, which had been the reason everyone sought to marry her: "The last man to bear this title had been Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, who had borne the title by right of his wife, Alice, the last surviving child of Henry, Earl of Lincoln. The Earl of Suffolk had seized the countess and taken her away from Lancaster, to her great delight, and so Henry of Lancaster was unable to inherit the Lincoln title.... She was forty-eight years old, and knew she would not bear an heir herself, although she was married to Sir Ebulo Lestrange, a Shropshire baron. Thus the title was bound to become extinct with her death" -- Mortmer, p. 223)
Abductions not ending in actual rape were doubtless even more frequent (consider, e.g., the ballads close to this one in Child's order, "Bonny Baby Livingston" [Child 222], "The Lady of Arngosk' [Child 224] and "Rob Roy" [Child 225]). One such abduction involved a future Queen of England. Eleanor of Aquitaine, from the moment her father died and she became Duchess, was subject to kidnapping attempts to secure her inheritance (Owen, pp. 14, 31). For background on this, see the notes to "Queen Eleanor's Confession [Child 156]'"
There was also a curious inverse case, in which the a monarch was supposedly willing to rape a woman, but when she fought back, married her instead. Dockray, p. 45, gives Mancini's account of the marriage of King Edward IV and Queen Elizabeth Woodville, which tells of Edward holding a knife to her throat and her refusing to sleep with him even then, with the result that he secretly married her. The incident with the knife probably didn't happen, but it shows the sorts of rumors that surrounded their surprise marriage (which assuredly *did* happen).
There is also a fairly significant case of a woman resisting the advances of her legal husband in order to have the marriage annulled. Frances Howard was married at age 13, clearly against her will, to the Earl of Essex; the year was 1606. Willson, p. 339, has little good to say of her after this time: "The Earl went abroad and Lady Frances grew up at court, where she received but an evil education. She became proud, headstrong and violent, capable of implacable hatred and of shameless immodesty."
Eventually it came time for the Earl to consummate the marriage. She fought him off with various excuses, and by physical means, for most of the three years required to obtain an annulment (Emsley, pp. 76-78).
Thus far we parallel "Eppie Morrie." The case gets stranger after that (read on only if you care about odd politics; the rest of this entry has nothing to do with "Eppie Morrie"), since Howard apparently claimed that her husband was possessed by demons (Kishlansky, p. 94). Eventually King James VI and I convened a church court to decide whether the marriage should be dissolved (Willson, p. 340), with the King himself actively supporting Howard's cause. Unfortunately, the case was intensely political, because Howard wanted to marry a high court official (Ashton, p. 222) -- according to Kishlansky, p. 94, "The love affair between Somerset and Lady Frances Howard was the scandal of the age. Under the tutelage of her septuagenarian uncle Northampton, Lady Frances thrust her ample charms upon the favorite [i.e. Somerset]."
Although almost everyone seems convinced that the relationship was consummated, we can at least say that Howard did not become pregnant. And that she was examined by a group of midwives, who pronounced her a virgin. But there was much doubt about the validity of the examination (Emsley, pp. 82-83)
Davies declares that "James was so infatuated with Rochester [Somerset] that he must be held responsible for the success of the suit of nullity which the countess brought." When the first commission deadlocked 5-5, James added two more members, enough that the marriage was ended by a vote of 7-5 (Willson, p. 341. Scholars do not agree on whether to call the result a "divorce" or an "annulment.")
This should have been a happy ending, but it wasn't. The Byzantine politics of the age meant that a former co-worker of Somerset's, Thomas Overbury, could perhaps damage Somerset's relationship with the (bisexual) King James. A plot was hatched by Howard and others to kill Overbury with realgar, an arsenic compound (Emsley, p. 81). When those failed, they tried a mercury compound. "After a number of failures, Overbury was successfully poisoned" (Davies, p. 19; Emsley, pp. 81-84, counts four attempts in total). A few years later, the truth came out. A number of the conspirators were hanged. Frances Howard admitted guilt and was sentenced to death; Someset denied involvement but was convicted and sentenced to hang also. King James commuted their death sentences, but they remained in the Tower until 1621 and were under a sort of house arrest for the rest of their lives (Emsley, p. 88); it sounds as if, by this time, Howard had grown tired of Somerset. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C223

Eppo, ee tye-tye-ai

See Epo i tai tai e (File: ACSF144E)

Epsom Races

DESCRIPTION: A fine young man dresses and rides off to the Epsom Races. There he gambles away (ten thousand pounds). After a bad harvest, the landlord confiscates his property and his family mourns when he is confined to debtor's prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (OShaughnessy-Yellowbelly1)
KEYWORDS: racing gambling poverty prison family hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North,South))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 318, "Epsom Races" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 208-209, "Epsom Races" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 87-88, "The Broken-down Gentleman" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 2)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 9, "The Broken Down Gentlemen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #78, "Eggleston Hall" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #383
File: K318

Equinoxial

See Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)

Ere Around the Huge Oak

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells his landlord that his grandfather tilled the farm "I now hold on your honor's estate." That grandfather left his son a good name "which unsullied descended to me" and he intends it for his child, "unblemished with shame" [see notes]
AUTHOR: John O'Keeffe (source: O'Keeffe) ["music by Mr Shield"]
EARLIEST DATE: 1787 ("_The Farmer_ ...performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden," according to O'Keeffe)
KEYWORDS: pride virtue nonballad landlord farming children family father
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 83, "Ere Around the Huge Oak" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 42)
ADDITIONAL: John O'Keefe, "The Farmer" in The Dramatic Works of John O'Keefe (London, 1798 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. IV, p. 274, ("Ere around the huge oak, that o'ershadows yon mill") (1 text)
Roud #1251
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 36(9) View 1 of 2, "Ere Around the Huge Oak" ("Ere around the huge oak that o'ershadows yon mill"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838 [includes tune]; also Harding B 15(378b), Harding B 11(3695), Harding B 36(20)[includes tune], "Ere Around the Huge Oak"
NOTES [127 words]: Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames: "I do not think [this text] is quite complete." Actually, his text has only minor differences from O'Keefe's original. The text, of course, does not include the information that the play has before the text is sung. Specifically, in the play, Valentine offers Farmer Blackberry "any settlement" for his daughter Betty. "You know the world, and I dare say understand me." Farmer Blackberry threatens to cudgel Valentine and says, before singing this song, that "you may yet be a parent, then you'll be capable of a father's feelings, at the cruel offer to make him a party in the prostitution of his child." Taking that context into consideration at least the following keywords would be added: sex bargaining request rejection - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT083

Ere You Ask a Girl to Leave Her Happy Home

DESCRIPTION: "By a dear old mother's side Stood her eldest boy, her pride... As the lad began to tell Of the girl he loved so well... The dear old mother said, My boy, ere you are wed... You must have employment... Ere you ask a girl to leave her happy home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love marriage work unemployment mother
FOUND IN: US(So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 861, "Ere You Ask a Girl to Leave Her Happy Home" (1 text)
Roud #7532
RECORDINGS:
Mr. and Mrs. M. Devereaux, "When You Asked a Girl to Leave Her Happy Home" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Da Costa Woltz's Southern Broadcasters, "When You Ask a Girl To Leave Her Happy Home" (Gennett 6176, 2917; "Gennett Old Time Music - Classic Country Recordings 1927-1929"; JSP Records CD JSP77130D, 2010)
NOTES [53 words]: Missing from Randolph but included in MUNFLA/Leach and DaCosta Woltz is the boy's answer to mother's question, "How would you support a wife and dress her well?": "Why we could live, on the money you would give And in one of father's houses we could dwell." Mother answers, "To depend on us for home will never do." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: R861

Erewanna

DESCRIPTION: Barney, "from Killarney's Isle," courts "an Indian maid queen of fairies." She won't marry him until "some great race might crown you big chief." "That's easy," says he; "all my family were great runners and first in every race"
AUTHOR: Words: Jack Drislane Music: Theodore F. Morse (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (sheet music published under the title Arrah Wanna: An Irish Indian Matrimonial Venture by F. B. Haviland Inc.)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection Ireland humorous wordplay Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 191, "Arawana on me honour I'll take care of you" (1 text)
Roud #18207
RECORDINGS:
Vince Ledwell, "Erewanna" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [90 words]: The sheet music cover of this has a photo of James H. Sadler (as well as of authors Drislane and Morse), so I would assume Sadler sang it -- but it doesn't actually say so. The cover says merely "Arrah Wanna"; the subtitle "An Irish Indian Matrimonial Adventure" is found in the interior. The main illustration is of an Irish-looking man playing a pipe to a woman with a feather in her hair at the entrance of a tipi who looks as if she was born on a stretch rack -- not very attractive. But then, the whole thing is fairly prejudiced. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcErewan

Erie Canal (II), The

See The E-ri-e (File: LxU045)

Erie Canal, The

DESCRIPTION: "I've got a mule, her name is Sal, Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal." "Low bridge, everybody down, Low bridge, for we're going through a town...." About the long, slow trip along the Erie Canal -- and the mule the singer works with
AUTHOR: Thomas S. Allen?
EARLIEST DATE: 1905
KEYWORDS: canal animal nonballad work
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1825 - Erie Canal opens (construction began in 1817)
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 249-250, "Low Bridge, Everybody Down/I've Got a Mule, Her Name Is Sal" (2 short texts)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 171-173, "The Erie Canal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 457-458, "The Erie Canal" (1 text plus a separate verse which may or may not be part of the same song); p. 464, "Erie Canal" (2 texts, the first going here while the second is "The Raging Canal (I)"); p. 466, "(A Trip on the Erie)" (the second song files under the title "A Trip on the Erie," but is actually this piece); pp. 467-469, "Low Bridge, Everybody Down or Fifteen Years on the Erie Canal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 102-103, "The Erie Canal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 37, "The Erie Canal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 126, "The Erie Canal" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 230, "Erie Canal" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, pp. 74-75, "The Erie Canal" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, pp. 34-35, "The Erie Canal" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 17, "Erie Canal" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ERIECANL*
Roud #6598
RECORDINGS:
Mack Allen (pseud. for Vernon Dalhart), "Low Bridge, Everybody Down" (Harmony 931-H/Velvet Tone 1831-V/Diva 2831-G, 1929 (Note: this is a different recording from the one issued on Columbia under Dalhart's own name; that was electrically recorded, whereas this was acoustically recorded.)
Anni Crofut, Susie Crofut, "Low Bridge" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #619, recorded 07/31/2023)
Vernon Dalhart, "Low Bridge Everybody Down" (Columbia 15378-D, 1929)
Edward Meeker, "Low Bridge! Everybody Down" (CYL: Edison [BA] 1761, 1913)
Billy Murray, "Low Bridge! Everybody Down!" (Victor 17250, 1913; rec. 1912)
Peerless Quartette, "Low Bridge, Everybody Down" (Columbia A1296, 1913; rec. 1912)
Pete Seeger, "Erie Canal, " (PeteSeeger31) (on PeteSeeger46)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Trip on the Erie (Haul in Your Bowline)"
cf. "The E-ri-e" (plot)
cf. "The Raging Canal (I)"
cf. "Bullhead Boat" (subject)
NOTES [285 words]: The Erie Canal, as originally constructed, was a small, shallow channel which could only take barges. These vessels -- if such they could be called -- were normally hauled along by mules.
The "low bridge" call is not a joke. Bruce Catton, Michigan, A History, 1972, 1976 (I use the 1984 Norton edition), pp. 76-77, tells of the troubles passengers who went west in the boats on the Erie (which was largely responsible for opening the way to Michigan, e.g.) could expect:
"The main cabin was narrow, low-ceilinged, fuggy as the black hole of Calcutta, both sides lined with bunks, tables in the center for meals, bar and galley at the rear, tiny cabin for women passengers forward, means of ventilation grossly inadequate and shut off entirely in rainy weather. To stay alive most passengers remained on deck as much as they could, although someone had to stay alert and give the warning cry, 'Low bridge!' so that everyone could lie flat when the boat passed under a highway bridge the overhead clearance being almost nonexistent."
The Lomaxes, in American Ballad and Folk Songs, thoroughly mingled many texts of the Erie Canal songs (in fairness, some of this may have been the work of their informants -- but in any case the Lomaxes did not help the problem). One should check all the Erie Canal songs for related stanzas.
It is interesting to note that Edward Harrigan and David Braham wrote a song "Oh! Dat Low Bridge!" (Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. II, #122, pp. 139-141) that begins "It's many miles to Buffalo, Oh, dat low bridge, Balky mule he travel slow, Oh, dat low bridge...." It also talks about the cook. How much inspiration flowed between that song and this I do not know. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: San171

Erin

DESCRIPTION: "... Sons of green Erin, lament o'er the time, When religion was war, and our country a crime ...Drive the Demon of Bigotry home to his den, And where Britain made brutes now let Erin make men. Let my sons like the leaves of the shamrock unite"
AUTHOR: William Drennan (1754-1820)
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 19(24))
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 59-60, "Erin" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 361-362, "Eire" (1 text)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 39-40, 499, "Eire" ("When Eire first rose from the dark-swelling flood")
Roud #V30407
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(24), "Erin", unknown (Dublin), 1798
NOTES [146 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 19(24) imprint states "Dublin, June, 1798." - BS
Which date was, in fact, the height of the Irish rebellion. In mid-May, the English had tried to disarm the Irish at various points. The last ten days of May saw risings in Kildare. Wexford rose starting May 26.
But the collapse came almost as fast as the rising: On May 28, Kildare was relieved and General Dundas took thousands of surrenders at Knockallen. On June 5, the rebels were beaten at New Ross. Henry Joy McCracken was defeated at Antrim on June 7. (see the notes to "Henry Joy McCracken (I)). June 13 saw Munro's rebellion crushed at Ballynahinch. Vinegar Hill was stormed on June 21. There were further sporadic attempts at revolt, but odds are that the rebellion was already failing by the time this item was in circulation.
William Drennan also wrote "The Wake of William Orr." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: OCon059

Erin A'Green

DESCRIPTION: The singer is forced by Peggy's father and brothers to leave Armathy for Canada on the day they were to be married. "It's for loving this fair one, and that was a small crime, That I am transported away for a time" but he will return to Erin a'green.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: love transportation separation Canada Ireland brother father
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 11, "Erin A'Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB011 (Partial)
Roud #2789
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Lovely Home" [Laws M6] (theme) and references there
File: CrSNB011

Erin Far Away (I) [Laws J6]

DESCRIPTION: An Irish soldier lies fatally wounded in India. He asks his brother to tell his parents that he died nobly. He asks his brother to mark has grave so that his love can plant a shamrock on it. He dies and is buried; the other soldiers return to Erin
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: war death dying farewell soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1857-1858 - Sepoy Mutiny in India. The inhabitants of Northern India revolt against the East India Company on behalf of their ancestral customs (many of which, such as the murder of widows, were abhorrent to Western opinion)
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws J6, "Erin Far Away I"
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 71, "Erin Far Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 84-85, "Old Erin Far Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 548, ERINWAY1
Roud #1805
RECORDINGS:
Alphonse Sutton, "The Dying Soldier Boy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Soldier (I) (Erin Far Away II)" [Laws J7] (plot, theme)
cf. "The Soldier's Letter" (plot)
cf. "The Last Fierce Charge" [Laws A17] (plot)
cf. "I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again" (plot)
cf. "The Blessed Zulu War" (plot)
NOTES [59 words]: This song is frankly so close to Laws J7 that I find it impossible to tell them apart. Even the first lines in Laws's sample versions are similar. Laws does not give reasons for the distinction. One should therefore examine the references for both songs. - RBW
MUNFLA/Leach moves the war to Europe: "a German soldier shot me down and left me in my gore." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LJ06

Erin Go Braugh! (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I'll tell you a story of a row in the town, When the green flag went up and the Crown rag went down." The Irish, though inexperienced, rebel against the English, and cause a captain to die of "lead poisoning." The leaders are hailed.
AUTHOR: Peadar Kearney (1883-1942) ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: rebellion death Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1916 - Easter Uprising
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 321, "Erin Go Braugh!" (1 text)
DT, ERNGBRA2
NOTES [143 words]: For background on the Easter Rising, its hopelessness, and its quick fizzle, see the notes, e.g., on "The Boys from County Cork"; also "James Connolly" and "Lovely Banna Strand." It seems almost typical that this song focuses on the bravery of the rebels -- and not their complete ineptness, poor organization, bad communications, and ignominous surrender after only a week.
The fact that most Irish songs of rebellion present pictures idealized to the point of falsehood may not be coincidence; it may show why the English and Irish never understood each other.
Peadar Kearney wrote Ireland's national anthem, "The Soldier's Song," plus "Whack Fol the Diddle (God Bless England)"; it would be no surprise if he wrote this song, but I need better documentation than I have. For more on Kearney, see the notes to "Whack Fol the Diddle (God Bless England)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: FSWB321A

Erin Go Bray

DESCRIPTION: In "Jacobin" dialect the singer loves Irish whiskey and girls and meat "while Pat may go starve in his hovel."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: France Ireland humorous nonballad political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 26, "Erin Go Bray" (1 text)
NOTES [40 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "'Erin go Bray' expresses the loyalist view of the benefits likely to accrue to Ireland from an alliance with revolutionary France. The title and burden lampoons the United Irish slogan Erin go Bragh." - BS
File: Moyl026

Erin Is My Home

See Oh! Steer My Bark to Erin's Isle (File: OCon155A)

Erin Is My Home (The Sea Girt Isle)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I have roamed in many lands And many friends I've met... But I'll confess I am content; No more I wish to roam; I'll steer my bark for the sea-girt isle, The sea-girt isle's my home." The singer recalls the happy times at home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (journal of the Clarkson)
KEYWORDS: home return
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 75-76, "The Sea-Girt Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 31 and #4/64, p. 31, "Erin is my Home" (1 text)
Roud #10364
NOTES [30 words]: The description is based on Huntington's text, which appears to have been modified for use by Americans, but the usual version of this seems to make Ireland the "sea-girt isle." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HGam075

Erin the Green (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams that Napoleon has landed in Ireland, saying, "Rise up my friend." "He was the hero we longed for to see. The bells of the chapel resounded a ditty To welcome Napoleon to Erin the Green"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: dream Ireland nonballad patriotic Napoleon
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 130, "Erin the Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 39-40, "Erin the Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [63 words]: The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Welcome Napoleon to Erin the Green" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
For the likely background to this song, see the notes to "The Shan Van Voght." - RBW
File: Moyl130

Erin the Green (II)

DESCRIPTION: Counterfeiter William Hill has been sentenced for life to Van Dieman's. He hopes for pardon. "I ardently loved all mankind." With notes forged on the Bank of Scotland "the naked I clothed." "My heart shall be true [to Erin] as the needle to the pole"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (broadside, Murray Mu23-y1:113)
KEYWORDS: farewell crime transportation money Australia Ireland
FOUND IN: ireland
Roud #6992
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Erin the Green" (on IRRCinnamond01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.15(292), "Erin the Green" ("Adieu, lovely Erin, I'm going to leave you"), unknown, n.d.
Murray, Mu23-y1:113, "Erin the Green," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C; also Mu23-y3:038, "Erin the Green"
NOTES [11 words]: Broadside Murray Mu23-y1:113 is the basis for the description. - BS
File: BdErGre3

Erin the Green (III)

See The Flower of Sweet Erin the Green (File: TST144)

Erin-Go-Bragh (II)

See Duncan Campbell (Erin-Go-Bragh) [Laws Q20] (File: LQ20)

Erin, My Country (The Harp of Erin)

DESCRIPTION: "Erin, my country, although thy harp slumbers," the singer loves her still. The singer describes the beauties of Ireland. "Cold, cold must the heart be and void of emotion That loves not the music of Erin-go-bragh"
AUTHOR: William McComb ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Kennedy); 19C (Wolf)
KEYWORDS: Ireland music nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H478, p. 176, "Erin, My Country" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 42, "Erin, My Country"; pp. 93-94, "Erin, My Country" (2 texts)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 711, "Sons of Fingal" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 202, "Erin, My Country" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1635, p. 111, "O Erin, My Country!" (1 reference)
Roud #2683
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2747), "O Erin! My Country," J. Harkness (Preston), n.d.; also 2806 b.10(191), 2806 c.15(290), "The Harp of Erin"
Murray, Mu23-y1:063, "The Harp of Erin," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Hall" (theme)
cf. "Old Erin" (lyrics)
NOTES [66 words]: The thematic connection with Moore's "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Hall" is so obvious that it need not be elaborated. I'm sure there is cross-influence. But the songs are distinct.
O. J. Abbott's "Old Erin" shares some words with this, as well as the concept, but it's only a fragment; without more text, it's hard to tell if they are the same. I have with some hesitation split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: HHH478

Erin, the Tear and the Smile in Thine Eyes

DESCRIPTION: "Erin! the tear and smile in thine eyes, Blend like the rainbow that hangs in thy skies! Shining through sorrow's stream. Saddening through pleasure's beam." The singer says her tears will never case "Till... thy various tints unite"
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Moore-IrishMelodies-1846)
KEYWORDS: Ireland political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, pp. 5-6, "(Erin, the tear and the smile in thine eyes)" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 31, "Erin! The Tear and the Smile In Thine Eyes" (1 text); p. 149, "Erin! The Tear and the Smile in Thine Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #23967
NOTES [30 words]: The text of this never explains what it means for its "various tints" to "unite," but I assume it means an end to the conflict between Orange (Protestant) and Green (Catholic). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: HMHS031A

Erin's Flowery Vale (The Irish Girl's Lament) [Laws O29]

DESCRIPTION: The singer chances to see a young couple talking. He is about to take ship for America. She repeatedly expresses her fear that he will forget her. He promises to be true. They kiss; he departs; the singer leaves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: separation emigration promise parting
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws O29, "Erin's Flowery Vale (The Irish Girl's Lament)"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 318-319, "The Irish Girl's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H85, pp. 300-301, "Dobbin's Flowery Vale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 33, "Dobbins Flowery Vale" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 82, "Dobbin's Flowery Vale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 85-87, "Dobbin's Flowery Vale" (1 text)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 9, "Dobbin's Flowery Vale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 13, "Overn's Flowery Vale" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 484, ERINVALE
Roud #999
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(585), "Erin's Flow'ry Vale," unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.15(56), "Dobbin's Flowery Vale"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mullinabrone" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "Caledonia (III -- Jean and Caledonia)" (plot)
cf. "Maid of Dunysheil" (plot)
cf. "Killyclare (Carrowclare; The Maid of Carrowclare)" (plot)
cf. "The Blooming Star of Eglintown" (plot)
cf. "Faithful Rambler, The (Jamie and Mary, Love's Parting)" (plot)
NOTES [91 words]: For the relationship of this song to "The Irish Girl," see the notes on that song. - RBW
The location of this song is sometimes taken to be in "Dobbins Flowery Vale." Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster explains: "Dobbins Flowery Vale is part of what was the estate of Colonel Dobbin, on the edge of the City of Armagh. Colonel Dobbin was M.P. for the area in the late eighteenth century."
Also collected and sung Kevin Mitchell, "Dobbin's Flowery Vale" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
File: LO29

Erin's Green Linnet

DESCRIPTION: Singer asks why a maid weeps. "I once had a Linnet, the pride of this nation, By the fowler he was taken." The Linnet sung throughout Ireland and "upon Tara's old hill" and "famed Mullingar," championed Emancipation in 1829. Now he is lying in Glasnevin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: death Ireland memorial patriotic political bird
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 56, "Erin's Green Linnet" (1 text)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 92-94, "Erin's Green Linnet" (1 text)
Roud #12903
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(23), "O'Connell's Green Linnet," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 19(40), 2806 c.8(41), Harding B 26(173)[some words illegible with heading "Linnet" as "Linne;"], "Erin's Green Linnet"; Firth c.16(83), "The O'Connell, Erin-go-bragh"; Harding B 19(39), "The Green Linnet"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's King (Daniel Is No More)" (subject: O'Connell's death)
cf. "Kerry Eagle" (subject: O'Connell's death)
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
NOTES [196 words]: "1829 saw Catholic 'emancipation,' allowing them every political right open to Protestants of equivalent position" (- RBW). O'Connell led the movement of 1840-1843 to repeal the act that joined Ireland and Great Britain as the United Kingdom with "monster meetings" at Tara and Mullingar and other places (cf. "Glorious Repeal Meeting Held at Tara Hill" and "The Meeting of Tara"). Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "O'Connell died at Genoa, on his way to Rome, 15th May, 1847." (p. 233) "In accordance with his wish his heart was brought to Rome and his body to Ireland. His funeral was of enormous dimensions, and since his death a splendid statue has been erected to his memory in Dublin and a round tower placed over his remains in Glasnevin" (source: "Daniel O'Connell" by E.A. D'Alton in The Catholic Encyclopedia on the New Advent site. - BS
The green linnet as a symbol for Irish nationalism occurs in "The Green Linnet" (where it may refer to Napoleon, or perhaps his son) and "Erin's Green Linnet" (where Daniel O'Connell seems to be the subject). The reason for this is not obvious, unless it has something to do with the linnet's reputation as a fine singer. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Zimm059

Erin's Green Shore [Laws Q27]

DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams of meeting a beautiful girl in a green mantle. She tells him she (is a relative of Daniel O'Connell and) has come to awaken her countrymen who sleep on Erin's shore. The singer awakens and hopes the girl finds success
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1085))
KEYWORDS: Ireland dream patriotic clothes
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,So) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (32 citations):
Laws Q27, "Erin's Green Shore"
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 38, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads, pp. 262-263, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text, tune referenced: see OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 6)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 27, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text, 2 tunes)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 56, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 27, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 19, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 104, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 282-283, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text)
Randolph 75, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 87, "Dixie's Green Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #65, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 73, "Erin's Green Shores" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 45-46, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 151, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 126-127, "On Erin's Green Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 158, "On Erin's Green Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 151, "Erin's Green Shore" (3 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 40-42, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 176-178, "The Bed of Primroses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 69, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 362-365, "Erin's Green Shore" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 79, "The Mantle of Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 164-165, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 35, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 140-141,245, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 98-99, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 152-153, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 479, "Erin's Green Shore" (source notes only)
DT 351, ERINGREN* ERINSHOR*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 25, #4 (1977), p, 2, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text, 1 tune, Hedy West's version, learned from her grandmother)
[no author listed], Scenes & Songs of the Ohio-Erie Canal, Ohio Historical Society, 1971, "Erin's Green Shore" (1 text, 1 tune, from Pearl R. Nye)
Roud #280
RECORDINGS:
Tom Brandon, "Erin's Green Shore" (on ONEFowke01)
Robert Cinnamond, "Erin's Green Shore" (on IRRCinnamond01)
Packie Dolan, "Erin's Green Shore" (Montgomery Ward M-8619, c. 1941)
Frank Knox, "Erin's Lovely Shore" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Tom Lenihan, "Erin's Green Shore" (on IRTLenihan01)
The McNulty Family, "Erin's Green Shore" (on IRMcNulty-Night1)
Joshua Osborne, "Erin's Green Shore" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Doug & Berzilla Wallin, "A Bed of Primroses" (on FarMtns3)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1085), "Erin's Green Shore," G. Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also 2806 b.10(182), Firth b.25(216), Johnson Ballads 1397, 2806 b.11(109), 2806 c.15(247)[title and beginning lines illegible], Harding B 11(1951), "Erin's Green Shore"
LOCSheet, sm1855 590170, "A Dream" or "Erin's Green Shore," Stayman and Brothers (Philadelphia), 1855 (tune)
LOCSinging, as200830, "Erin's Green Shore," Johnson's Cheap Printing Office (Philadelphia), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Eileen McMahon" (aisling format)
cf. "Granuaile" (aisling format) and references there
cf. "The Cailin Deas" (theme; also the aisling format)
cf. "Poor Old Granuaile" (theme)
cf. "Granuwale" (theme)
cf. "Kate of Glenkeen" (tune)
cf. "The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine" [Laws C2] (tune)
cf. "Harry Dunn (The Hanging Limb)" [Laws C14] (tune)
cf. "The Maid with the Bonny Brown Hair" (tune)
cf. "The Patriot Queen" (theme: beautiful woman to rally Erin)
cf. "The Blackbird of Avondale" or "The Arrest of Parnell" (theme)
cf. "The Patriot Queen" (theme: beautiful woman to rally Erin)
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
NOTES [136 words]: Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847) was an Irish patriot who worked vigorously for Catholic freedom. He did not take part in the 1798 rebellion, but promoted Irish and Catholic rights for many years, and in 1829 saw Britain lift the ban on Catholics in parliament. One of the greatest of the peaceful Irish leaders, his tragedy is that eventually neither side trusted him.
Creighton's version, "The Mantle of Green," should not be confused with Laws N38, "The Mantle So Green."
For a discussion of this type of song as a example of the genre known as the "aisling," see the notes to "Granuaile." - RBW
Broadside LOCSheet sm1855 590170: "words by James Sanford, music by A. Fletcher Stayman"; the date "created and published by Stayman and Brothers" of 1855 is later than the Bodleian Harding B 11(1085) broadside date. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LQ27

Erin's Isle (The Boat That Brought Me Over)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a boy from Erin's Isle just landed here today... Sure they told me England was the place Where everything was gay. Bedad, says I, if that's the case, Sure that's the spot for me." He gets seasick and swears if he gets home not to go again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: parting travel sea ship England Ireland family disease
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 68, "Erin's Isle" (1 text)
Roud #3097
File: GrMa068

Erin's King (Daniel Is No More)

DESCRIPTION: A maid sings "Erin's King, brave Dan's no more." Daniel O'Connell's career is reviewed: elected for Clare but did not take the oath, brought Emancipation, defended Father Maguire, defended accused conspirators at Doneraile, led us at Tara and Mullaghmast.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: death Ireland memorial patriotic political lament
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 15, 1847 - Daniel O'Connell dies on the way to Rome (source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 54, "Erin's King" or "Daniel Is No More" (1 text)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 94-96, "Brave Dan's No More" (1 text)
Roud #9278
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(35), "Erin's Lament for O'Connell," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also 2806 c.15(211), 2806 b.10(39), Harding B 19(101), "Erin's King" or "Daniel is No More"; 2806 b.10(41), 2806 b.10(33), "Erin's King" or "Brave Dan's No More"; Harding B 13(345), "Lines to the Memory of Daniel O'Connell"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's King (Daniel Is No More)" (subject: O'Connell's death)
cf. "Kerry Eagle" (subject: O'Connell's death)
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
SAME TUNE:
The Riots in Belfast (Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 102-104)
NOTES [301 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "When O'Connell was elected first Catholic M.P., he refused to take the old oath against transubstantiation" (cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (1828)); "In 1827, he defended successfully Rev Thomas Maguire, a popular Catholic priest scandalously accused by a Miss Annie McGarrahan."; "In 1829, he obtained the acquittal of several peasants from Doneraile, County Cork, accused of a murder-attempt on an unpopular magistrate"; "Mullaghmast and Tara were the seats of two 'monster meetings' in 1843" (cf. "Glorious Repeal Meeting Held at Tara Hill" and "The Meeting of Tara"). - BS
The exact site of O'Connell's death is variously listed; Zimmermann says Genoa; Robert Kee in The Most Distressful Country (being Volume I of The Green Flag), p. 258, says Lyon. All agree that he was on pilgrimage to Rome; he had given his last appeal to the House of Commons shortly before, saying "Ireland is in your hands" (Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, A History of Ireland, p. 327; Terry Golway, For the Cause of Liberty, p. 117; Kee, p. 258 note his belief that a quarter of the population of Ireland would die if not given aid. This is a slight but understandable exaggeration: Of eight million Irish, about a million died and a million left the country.)
Hearers of the speech noted how far he had fallen, his voice was gone and most of his mental and physical force spent. Disraeli described him as a "feeble old man muttering from a table" (Golway, p. 117). The doctors said he needed rest. He ended up getting the longest rest of all. He was 71.
O'Connell's heart was taken to Rome; the rest of his body was returned to Ireland.
The love the people felt for him is shown by the many songs about him, and the several about his death -- though relatively few went into tradition. - RBW
File: Zimm054

Erin's Lament for her Davitt Asthore

DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams of Richmond prison and Erin as a woman weeps for the loss "of her Green Linnet Davitt ashtore." She sings that he was trapped by the fowler, refused bail, and was caged nine years. The singer wakes to find the dream true.
AUTHOR: Broadside signed P. Hanley (Source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion and broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(229))
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: dream prisoner Ireland patriotic bird
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 83, "The Green Linnet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V34516
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(229), "The Green Linnet" or "Erin's Lament for her Davitt Asthore," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Michael Davitt" (subject of Michael Davitt) and references there
cf. "Erin's Green Shore" [Laws Q27] (theme)
cf. "Poor Old Granuaile" (theme)
cf. "Eileen McMahon" (aisling format)
cf. "Granuaile" (aisling format) and references there
cf. "Granuwale" (theme)
cf. "The Blackbird of Avondale" or "The Arrest of Parnell" (theme)
NOTES [108 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: In Irish "a stoir" = my treasure. - BS
Although Michael Davitt (1846-1906) did spend many years in involuntary servitude, he never spent nine consecutive years in prison. A Fenian from 1865, he was convicted in 1870 of gun-running and sentenced to fifteen years. In 1877, he was given a ticket-of-leave, and went on to found the Land League (for which see, e.g. "The Bold Tenant Farmer"). He ended up imprisoned again for just over a year in 1881-1882.
For a discussion of this type of song as a example of the genre known as the "aisling," see the notes to "Granuaile." For more on Davitt, see "Michael Davitt." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Zimm083

Erin's Lovely Home (I) [Laws M6]

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a gentleman's servant, falls in love with his employer's daughter. They plan to flee abroad. But the girl's father stops them as they board the ship; he has the young man transported for seven years. The girl promises to wait for him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Journal from the Catalpa; Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: love elopement transportation separation
FOUND IN: US(MA,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Laws M6, "Erin's Lovely Home"
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 25, "Erin's Lovely Home" (1 text)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 24, "Erin's Lovely Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 20, "Erin's Lovely Home (A)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 33, "Erin's Lovely Home" (1 text)
Randolph 89, "Erin's Lovely Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 54, "Erin's Lovely Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H46, pp. 438-439, "Erin's Lovely Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 102, "Erin's Lovely Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 199-201, "Aran's Lovely Home" ( text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #47, p. 1, "Erin's Lovely Home" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1098, "Erin's Lovely Home" (12 texts, 8 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 106-107, "Erin's Lovely Home" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 77, "Erin's Lovely Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 349, "Aaron's Lovely Home" (1 text)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 20-21, "Erin's Lovely Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #70, "Erin's Lovely Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 10, "Erin's Lovely Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 64-65, "Erin's Lovely Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 38, "Erin's Lovely Home" (1 text)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 117-119, "Erin's Lovely Home (Seven Links Upon My Chain)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 14, 15, "Erin's Lovely Home (I)"; "Erin's Lovely Home (II)" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 146-146, "Erin's Lovely Home" (1 text)
DT 431, ARANHOME*
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 460, "Erin's Lovely Home" (1 text, with a tune on p. 605)
Roud #1427
RECORDINGS:
Michael "Straighty" Flanagan, "Erin's Lovely Home" (on IRClare01)
Mary Anne Haynes, "Erin's Lovely Home" (on Voice04)
Frank Knox, "Erin's Lovely Home" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1087), "Erin's Lovely Home," A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1845-1859; also 2806 b.11(123), Harding B 11(1086), Harding B 11(1088), 2806 b.11(20), 2806 c.15(248)[some illegible lines], 2806 c.8(297), Harding B 11(1089), "Erin's Lovely Home"
Murray, Mu23-y1:111, "Erin's Lovely Home," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Connors" [Laws M5] (plot)
cf. "Erin's Lovely Home" [Laws M6] (plot)
cf. "William Riley's Courtship [Laws M9]" (plot)
cf. "Jock Scott" (plot)
cf. "Matt Hyland" (plot)
cf. "Richard and I" (plot)
cf. "Erin A'Green" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Old Erin's Lovely Vale
Seven Links on My Chain
File: LM06

Erin's Lovely Home (II)

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns residents of Ireland of the dangers of emigration. His father's land are too little for the whole family, so some have to leave home. Disease strikes their ship. His sister dies on the trip and is buried at sea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman)
KEYWORDS: emigration home exile ship disease death sister separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 21, "Erin's Lovely Home (B)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5175
File: GrHo021

Erin's Lovely Lee

DESCRIPTION: Singer leaves Queenstown for New York with the Fenian boys March 6, 1863. They are met by Yankees who ask about the Manchester three, Wolfe Tone's body, Captain Mackey and O'Dwyer. He thinks of going home "to float a Fenian boat down Erin's lovely Lee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (recording, Willy Clancy)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar America Ireland patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 38-39, "Down Erin's Lovely Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ERINSLEE*
Roud #5327
RECORDINGS:
Willy Clancy, "Erin's Lovely Lee" (on Voice04)
NOTES [461 words]: Many Irishmen fought on both sides of the American Civil War. Eventually the Fenian Brotherhood supported Civil War participation as "a training ground for the coming battle in Ireland." (source: A Brief History of the Fenian Brotherhood at the Mike Ruddy site). See the notes to "Kelley's Irish Brigade," "Pat Murphy of the Irish Brigade" and "What Irish Boys Can Do" for more information.
Some of the references are anachronistic.
See "The Smashing of the Van (I)" regarding the Manchester three. The event [would take] place in 1867.
See "The Grave of Wolfe Tone" regarding his burial. Tone died in 1798.
Zimmermann p.67: "William Mackey commanded the Fenians at Ballyknockane, County Cork, in an attack upon the police barracks during the rising of 1867."
See "Michael Dwyer" and "Michael Dwyer (II)" regarding "bold O'Dwyer, the Wicklow Mountain lion." Dwyer's mountain men fought in the early years of the nineteenth century.
Robert Emmet, who was hanged in 1803 is also mentioned. - BS
Since the song is badly anachronistic (implying composition well after the fact), we might mention the one ship commissioned specifically for the Fenian movement, the submarine Fenian Ram. According to Paine, p. 183, this was planned in 1876, started in 1878, and finished in 1881. The goal was to use it against British warships. Like most Fenian gadgets, nothing came of it -- though it did go on exhibit during World War I to raise money for the survivors of the Easter Rising. And, according to Preston, p. 36, she was designed by John Holland, who became disenchanted with the Fenians (Delgado, p. 136; Holland seems to have been a very prickly character) and went on to design another submarine which he sold to the United States Navy -- the first successful naval submarine.
For a bit more on Captain Mackey (whose 1867 exploits were too minor even to earn mention in most of the histories I checked), see the notes to "Bold Jack Donahoe."
The other historical figure mentioned in the song is "Crowley." This appears to be another anachronism, because Crowley was associated with the 1867 Fenian Uprising. Acording to Kee, p. 42, "The last dramatic action [in the aftermath of Ballyhurst, for which see 'Burke's Dream' [Laws J16]] was fought on the last day of March, when three leaders of the successful raid on Knockadoon coastguard station, Peter O'Neill Crowley, McLure and Kelly were surprised in Kilclooney Wood in County Tipperary. After a running action among the trees Crowley was killed and the other two arrested -- one with a small green flag and a manual of military tactics in his pocket."
There is a song about him, "Peter Crowley," which I've heard pop-Irish bands sing as if it's traditional, but I have yet to discover any field collections. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: RcErLoLe

Erin's Lovely Shore

DESCRIPTION: The singer is "an Irish exile girl." She thinks about the past at home. She dreams she returns to Ireland on an ocean liner and meets her grown sister; she cannot understand the talk because it is Gaelic. She wakes. She warns others to stay in Ireland.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: homesickness exile dream Ireland ship
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 25, "Erin's Lovely Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [79 words]: Presumably from the late nineteenth century, since the first real ocean liner was the Great Eastern of 1858 (for background, see the notes to "The Atlantic Cable" or, e.g., Lincoln P. Paine, Ships of the World, Houghton Mifflin, 1997), and the first successful ocean liner was the Oceanic of 1870. So we must presume the song in its current form is post-1870. But Irish was already in decline by then; the sooner after that the song appeared, the more it makes sense. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: McB1025

Erin's Whisky

DESCRIPTION: Others praise wine. "For ever shall the theme be mine To chant old whisky's praise ... And let us sing The joys of Erin's whisky"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1825 (_Captain Rock in London, No. 42_, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 77-78, "Erin's Whisky" (1 text)
File: CrPS077

Eriskay Love Lilt, An

See Bheir Me O (File: DTnheirm)

Erlinton [Child 8]

DESCRIPTION: (Erlinton) has a daughter, whom he confines to protect her virtue. A young man nonetheless spirits the daughter away. The lady's guards pursue; the young man slays all but one, and they escape.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: courting death fight escape
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 8, "Erlinton" (3 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 37, "Erlinton" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 198-199, "Erlinton" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 42-44, "Erlinton" (1 text)
DT, ERLINTON
Roud #24
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Earl Brand" [Child 7] (plot)
cf. "The Bold Soldier [Laws M27]" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Robin Hood and the Tanner's Daughter
NOTES [87 words]: Child himself admits that it is "only with much hesitation" that he has separated "Erlinton" from "Earl Brand," and if they are in fact distinct, there has clearly been cross-fertilization. The distinction may not matter much; "Earl Brand" has a lively traditional history, but "Erlinton" was pretty much a dead end.
Steve Gardham points out that all versions of "Erlinton" are from collectors who tended to modify their texts, so perhaps the separation is not between the songs but between what the editors did with it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C008

Errol on the Green

See The Earl of Errol [Child 231] (File: C231)

Erthe took of erthe, erthe wyth wogh

See Erthe upon Erthe (Earth upon Earth, Earth out of Earth) (File: MSErUpEr)

Erthe upon Erthe (Earth upon Earth, Earth out of Earth)

DESCRIPTION: "Earth out of earth is worldlly/wondrously wrought, Earth has gotten on earth a dignity from nought...." Earth out of earth would be a king: Alexander, Hector, Arthur are examples. But at the end it returns to earth, leaving only a foul stench
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Richard Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354); several scholars date the earliest form c. 1325
KEYWORDS: warning death MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (32 citations):
Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics 26, "(Erthe took of erthe, erthe wyth wogh)" (1 fragment) [A version]
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics XCIV, p. 171, "(no title)" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, p. 13, "(no title)" (1 fragment, filed under the Death of Simon de Montfort) [A version]
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #704 [B version], #705 [C version], #6292 [A version]
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1170 [B version], #1171 [C version], #3939 [A version], #6369 [more B versions]
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #80b, pp. 90-92 "[Earth Upon Earth]" (1 text) [B version]
Hilda M. R. Murray, _The Middle English Poem Erthe upon Erthe, printed from 24 manuscripts_, Early English Text Society, 1911 (22 manuscript versions plus French and Latin and some cemetery texts on pp. xxxvi-xxxviii, including both "A" texts, the one "C" text, and 19 "B" texts, plus a photograph of the Harleian 2253 text; the DIMEV seems to distribute the versions in a way that differs from Murray)
Frederick J. Furnival, _Hymns to the Virgin and Christ, The Parliament of Devils, and other Religious Poems, chiefly from The Archbishop of Canterbury's Lambeth MS. #853_, Early English Text Society, Tuebner & Co., 1867, pp 88-90, "Earth" (1 text) [B version]
R. T. Davies, editor, _Medieval English Lyrics: A Critical Anthology_, 1963, #87, p. 180, "Earth out of earth" (1 text) [B version]
Carleton Brown, editor, _English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1932, #73, p. 132, "From Earth to Earth" (1 fragment) [A version]
Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, _Middle English Lyrics_, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974 p. 230, #242 (no title) (1 fragment) [A version]
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #284, p. 554, "(no title)" (1 fragment) [A version]
G. L. Brook, _The Harley Lyrics: The Middle English Lyrics of MS Harley 2253_, Manchester University Press, 1948, 1956 (I use the 1964 third edition with updated bibliography), #1, p. 29, "(no title)" (1 fragment) [A version]
Thorlac Turville-Petre, _Poems from BL MS Harley 913: 'The Kildare Manuscript'_, Early English Text Society/Oxford University Press, 2015, pp. 76-83, "Earth" (1 text) [A version]
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Harley 2253, folio 59 [A version; although it's only four lines long, the Harley MS. is famous and is the source of most of the printed A texts]
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Harley 913, folio 62 [A version, in a fuller form]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, p. 434 [B version]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSLincolnThornton}, Lincoln, Lincoln Cathedral Library MS. 91 [Robert Thornton MS. 1; Lincoln Thornton MS.], folio 279 [B version]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPorkington10}, Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS. Porkington 10, folio 79 [B version]
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. 220 (Bodleian 2103), folio 106 [B version]
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson C.307 (Bodleian 12164), folio 2 [B version]
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Selden Supra 53 (Bodleian 3441), folio 159 [B version, in a manuscript that consists mostly of texts from Thomas Hoccleve]
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS. 237, folio 240 [B version, in another manuscript with a lot of Hoccleve and several items on death]
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, Magdalene College, MS. Pepys 2553, p. 338 (the Maitland Folio Manuscript, of Scottish poets such as Henryson and Dunbar, especially the latter; parent of the Reidpeth manuscript below) [B version]
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, University Library, MS. Ll.5.10, folio 43 [the Reidpeth manuscript , 1623; a copy of the Maitland Folio Manuscript above) [B version]
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, Trinity College, MS. R.3.21 [Trinity 601), foilo 33 [B version, in a text mostly of religious verse and Lydgate]
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS Cotton Titus A.XXVI, folio 153 [B version]
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Harley 984, folio 72 [B version, fragment]
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Egerton 1995, folio 55 [B version]
MANUSCRIPT: Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Codex 721 [B version]
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.4.9, folio 67 [C version]
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Museum, MS. Royal 17 A.XVI, folio 30 [C version]
NOTES [1312 words]: I have no absolute proof that this song was sung, let along sung traditionally; Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 43, believes it was not. But it was extraordinarily popular in the Middle Ages; there are at least twenty manuscript copies of the so-called "B" version, and there are also "A" and "C" versions. And some of these manuscripts are important, notably the Richard Hill manuscript, Balliol College 354, but also the Lincoln Thornton Manuscript, Porkington 10, and Harley 913 (for the latter, see the notes to "The Entrenchment of Ross"); most of the others are less significant (at least for folk song and romance scholars). But they include at least one commonplace book other than Hill's (British Library Egerton 1995, which Murray, p. xii, called "William Gregory's Commonplace Book"), and Murray, p. xxxv, says that copies are often added on flyleaves at the beginning and end of the books, which implies that private individuals knew and cared for the poem enough to copy it into an already-written volume/
As additional evidence of oral tradition, there are substantial variations between these versions. And, unlike a lot of medieval poetry, the earliest version is in a form that would at least permit singing -- four-line stanzas, typically with all four lines rhyming; my guess is that the lines are supposed to have four dactylic feet, although there is a lot of variation. (Wells, p. 387, suggests instead that the base form is "four irregular five-stress verses[=lines] on one rime," but while the syllable count is possible, the stresses don't fit).
Furthermore, although there are Latin and French versions, it seems certain that the English is the original, because the concept (playing with the meanings of earth=ground and earth=the human body) only makes sense in English; Latin and French don't have this equivalence (Murray, p. ix). There is an established genre of "Soul and Body" poems, to which Murray thinks this belongs, but most do not use this sort of wordplay.
So while I can't prove the song has been in oral tradition, I think it at least deserves to be in the Index.
Brown considers his four line fragment, known as the "A" type, to be the original. It is not, however, the common version. Murray, who did the most detailed analysis, also considered the "A" version to be the oldest, although she considers the whole version, not just the four-line text, to be the original (Murray, p, ix-x). The four-line form, probably the earliest copy of them all, is from manuscript Harley 2253 (the famous "Harley Lyrics" manuscript), which is usually dated to the early fourteenth century (several authorities follow Böddeker in placing it c. 1310, since it mentions the execution of Sir Simon Fraser in 1306 and the death of Edward I in 1307, but Brook, p. 3, notes also a seeming mention of Bannockburn, which took place in 1314. Brook therefore argues for 1314-1325; I would simply say that it's from before 1350). Murray, p. xiv, suggests that this short form may have been intended as a riddle -- but on p. xxxvi suggests that it was intended for an epitaph, given that it it was based "on the very words of the burial service"; short forms in fact occur on several extant tombstones, one of them for a man who died as late as 1761.
The rhyme scheme of the longer "A" version, in Harley 913, is six-line stanzas rhymed aaaabb, so the four-line version looks like it was used as the first four lines of a longer stanza. The other manuscript of the "A" version, Harley 913, is discussed under "The Entrenchment of Ross."
Based on the table on p. xvii of Murray, although the large majority of the "B" versions start with the same four verses ("Earth our of earth is wondrously wrought," "Earth upon earth yet would be a king, "Earth wins upon earth both castles and towers," "Earth builds upon earth as mold(e) upon mold(e)," there are at least a dozen other verses that show up in the various texts in various combinations.
Wells, p. 387, says that manuscripts of the piece range "from the early fourteenth to the seventeenth century. On tombstones and in mural inscriptions portions of it have been employed almost up to the present time." (The DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse gives references for several of these inscriptions. Murray's main text has the two "A" versions, eighteen manuscript versions of the "B" text in the main body and two more in a late appendix (or, in one case, a version copied onto a wall), one version of "C"; the tombstone versions are listed separately. Murray also prints a Latin and a French text, almost certainly translated from the English, on pp. 41-46.
Wells also says "the texts of the two later versions are in metre quite different from the earliest version, and range in length between 20 and 82 verses[=lines, i.e. 5 to 16+ verses]. The second version [i.e. "B"] is in 18 MSS ranging from 1400 to 1623.... The third version ["C"], in MS. [Cambridge University Library] Ii IV 9 f[olio] 67 t (15th century), has 82 lines, combining parts of both the other versions." This is based on Murray's classification on pp. ix-x.
The "earth out of earth" tag is, I think, a reference to Genesis 3:19, "you are dust, and to dust you shall return," although obviously that doesn't use the word "earth." And while the two words might be confused in some languages, the Latin Vulgate -- which was *the* Bible of Western Christendom at the time -- uses the word "pulvis" in Genesis 3, and "pulvis" definitely means "dust," not "earth." (The Greek, however, uses "earth" -- γη, ge -- rather than "dust"; perhaps the song was written with reference to some Greek author who wrote about Genesis 3:19). Woolf, p. 84, also attributes the poem to Genesis, but via the Missal, "Memento homo quod cinis es et in cinterem revertis" (an idea probably derived from Murray, p. ix), which in the Sarum Missal becomes "Remember man that you are dust and to dust you shall return," although Latin "cinis" is primarily "ashes," not "dust." Woolf considers the form to be a deliberate pun -- adding that, in the Middle Ages, puns were not a form of humor but of linguistic synthesis.
Turville-Petre, p. 87, confirms the link to Genesis 3:19 but believes the immediate source was the liturgy for Ash Wednesday.
The list of names offered in some of the long versions as examples of those who have gone to dust are interesting. The Hill manuscript, for instance, lists the Nine Worthies: Josue (Joshua), Dauyd (David), Judas Machabe (Maccabaeus), Alisander (Alexander the Great), Ector (Hector of Troy), Julius Cesar, Arthyr, king Charlis (Charlemaigne), Godfrey of Bolown (Godfrey of Boullion, leader of the First Crusade). The list then adds William the Conqueror and King Harry the First "þat was of knyghthode flowr" (Henry I, the third son of William the Conqueror, whose two greatest accomplishments were to set aside his older brother Robert Curthose and to have about three dozen illegitimate children; he also perhaps arranged the assassination of his middle brother William II). "Seynt Powlis" I assume is Saint Paul.
In the Lincoln Thornton Manuscript (one of the versions with the "foul stench" ending, which is not universal), it appears that it was at one time Robert Thornton's intention to end the manuscript with this piece; it is not the last piece in the volume as bound, but it is the last save one in its particular quire, and the quires after it are a medical book and an herbal (Fein/Johnston, pp. 47-48) that seem to have been written before the rest of the book (Fein/Johnston, pp. 241-246). So it appears that Thornton closed his book with "Erthe," then decided to add the books of practical medicine after he had concluded the book, and so tacked on the short item which occurs after "Erthe" (which is just a two line herbal remedy for sciatica) at the bottom of the page to transition into the medical material. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: MSErUpEr

Es sind zween Weg (Two Paths There Are)

DESCRIPTION: Amish hymn in German.. "Es sind zween Weg in diset Zeit, Der ein ist schmall, der ander weitt." "There are two ways in these times. One [way] is narrow, the other wide. The one who follows the narrow road is despised by everyone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1742 (Amish Ausbund, #125, according to Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad foreignlanguage travel
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, p. 155, "Es sind zween Weg (Two Paths There Are)" (1 short German text plus not-very-literal translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [50 words]: A clear allusion to Matthew 7:13 (or the parallel in Luke 13:24), "Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: KPL155A

Es wolte ein Jaejerlein jaje (A Young Hunter Went A-Hunting)

DESCRIPTION: German. "Es wolte ein Jaejerlein jaje, Drei Vaddel Schtund vor Daje...." "A young hunter went hunting...." Seeking a deer, he sees a pretty girl and asks if she will hunt with him. She will not, and delays him until day, when she says she remains a virgin
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: hunting courting foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 92-94, "Es wolte ein Jaejerlein jaje (A Young Hunter Went A-Hunting)" (1 German text plus non-poetic English translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Baffled Knight" [Child 112] (plot) and references there
File: KPL092

ESB in Coolea, The

DESCRIPTION: "ESB with 'lectricity is landed in Coolea For to give us light by day or night with bulbs that do not blow." Cullinane "climbs the poles ... watch the sputniks glow." There are jobs digging holes, pegging lines, driving trucks." Not like fifty years ago.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: technology work nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 36-37, "Fifty Years Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [110 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "It's less than twenty years since Coolea got its electricity supply (1959) so this is a fairly modern composition." - BS
A point reinforced by the mention of "Sputniks"; Sputnik 1 of course was launched in 1957 (October 4), and it was not until some time later that satellites were large enough to be visible to most people's naked eye.
Gripes about twenty/thirty/fifty years ago, on the other hand, go back about as far as we have records.
ESB is the Electricity Supply Board, founded in 1927 largely to administer the electricity yielded by the Shannon Scheme (for which see "The Shannon Scheme" and "The Straightened Banks of Erne"). - RBW
File: OCan036

Escape of James Stephens, The

DESCRIPTION: Stephens escapes from Richmond. Foolish statements are attributed to the Queen, the Marquis, and Lord Wodehouse. The attempt to recapture him is ridiculed: "But one thing you'll not do, That is get from 'Parley-voo', The bird that thither flew"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1879 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 18(151)); OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 3 refers to a newspaper story in 1868 in _The Irishman_
KEYWORDS: prison escape France Ireland humorous patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 15, 1865 - _The Irish People_ newspaper raided and leaders arrested; Stephens in hiding
Nov 11, 1865 - Stephens arrested; scheduled for trial Nov 27, 1865.
Nov 24, 1865 - Escapes Richmond prison (source: Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco) site)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 3A, "The Escape of James Stephens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #576, p. 39, "The Escape of Stephens, the Feninan Chief. New Version of Shan Van Vocht" (1 reference)
Roud #V8284
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(151), "The Escape of Stephens, the Fenian Chief," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "James Stephens, the Gallant Fenian Boy" (subject) and references there
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (tune)
NOTES [124 words]: The Fenians were an organization devoted to freeing Ireland. The organization was founded in 1858 by James Stephens, and quickly spread; the British government felt the need to suppress the group in 1865. Stephens and others were taken prisoner; although he escaped, it turned him cautious; he no longer had the nerve to take aggressive action. That pretty well killed the group as an active set of rebels; their attempt at an Irish rebellion failed in 1867.
For more on Stephens, see the notes to "James Stephens, the Gallant Fenian Boy." - RBW
Broadside Harding B 18(151): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: OLcM003A

Escape of Meagher, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the year '48 he was taken, you know, Next on board a ship he had for to go." Meagher escapes in Van Dieman's Land. The police chief refuses to track him "for you know we are Irishmen" He lands safe in New York, greeted by 16,000.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1852 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: transportation trial escape America Australia Ireland police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 1852 - Thomas Francis Meagher escapes from Tasmania to America. "[S]entenced to death after the attempted insurrection in 1848, [he] had been reprieved and transported to Tasmania." (source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 61, "The Escape of Meagher" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 403-404, "The Escape of Meagher" (1 text, with a tune on p. 598)
Roud #V41192
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 340[some words are illegible], "The Escape of Meagher," unknown, n.d.
LOCSinging,sb30363a, "A new song, on the Escape of Thomas Francis Meagher, the Irish Exile," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
NOTES [1177 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "He [Meagher] had given notice of his intention to leave the penal colony, but it seems that the police officers were afraid to arrest him. The news of his escape and of his triumphal reception in America reached Ireland several months later and was hailed with delight." - BS
Thomas Francis Meagher (1823-1867) was one of the more amazing characters in Irish history. As a young man, he thought Daniel O'Connell's campaigns for reform too peaceful, declaring that he did not believe that "the God of Heaven withholds his sanction from the use of arms.... I look upon the sword as a sacred weapon" (Kee, p. 254; Fry/Fry, p. 225). "Abhor the sword? Stigmatize the sword? No, my lord, for at its blow, and in the quivering of its crimson light a great nation sorang up from the waters of the Atlantic, and by its redeeming magic the fettered colony became a daring, free Republic" (Craughwell, p. 27). As a result, he came to be called "Meagher of the Sword" (Laxton, p. 83).
Ironically, he put forth this view in an English (Stonyhurst) accent (Kee, p. 247).
Along with John Mitchel (for whom see "John Mitchel") and William Smith O'Brien (for whom see "The Shan Van Voght (1848)"), he in 1847 split from Young Ireland to found the Irish Confederation (Golway, p. 116). Kee, p. 255, is of the opinion that no one intended the split to be permanent, but notes that, as far as the campaign for Irish rights was concerned, "[t]he damage proved irrevocable."
Meagher and friends went on to try to organize a rising. The British arrested them in March 1848 on charges of sedition (Laxton, p. 82). The juries deadlocked in the cases of Meagher and Smith O'Brien, who therefore went free (Kee, pp. 267-268). They responded by going back to their old tricks. This time they tried outright rebellion, and it was a complete disaster (for this too see the notes to "The Shan Van Voght (1848)" ). Smith O'Brien and Meagher were found and arrested again; this time, with the treason laws having been strengthened (Laxton, p. 83), they were transported (Fry/Fry, pp. 237-238; Kee, p. 287); sentenced to death, they were reprieved (supposedly by Queen Victoria; Laxton, p. 86; in Meagher's case, his youth was stressed; Beller, p. 14) and sent to Tasmania. This song of course chronicles Meagher's escape, in which he reportedly had help from another Young Irelander (Kee, p. 287); if the Irish had been as good at organizing protests and revolts as they were at organizing escapes, they might have gained independence much sooner.
Craughwell, pp. 35-37, outlines what happened. Meagher was lucky: upon arriving in Tasmania, he took an oath not to try to escape (a vow he would break, note, just in case you were thinking he was a moral person) and was granted his ticket-of-leave (permission to move about freely). His fiancee dumped him while he was in Tasmania, which prompted his decision to escape (although he never went back to the girl; when he married, it was apparently to a Tasmanian girl, Catherine Bennett; Bilby, p. 135. When she died, he married Elizabeth Townsend, a wealthy American Protestant; Bilby, p. 135. Frankly, it all seems a little tawdry). His wealthy father agreed to put up the money he needed; for 600 pounds, a captain named Betts would take him to Brazil, from where he could reach the United States. This took time to arrange, but in January 1852, Meagher left the place he had been staying and was carried to Waterhouse Island by two fishermen. Betts was late, but eventually arrived; Meagher reached Pernambuco in March, then boarded the Acorn for New York, where he was a celebrity.
It will tell you a little about Meagher's flamboyance that, once his plans were worked out, he turned in his ticket of leave. Had the local officialdom done his job, he would have been back in prison. But they didn't crack down (Beller, p. 16).
Meagher arrived in America in 1852 (Jameson, p. 408), where he made a living by lecturing and writing. In the next decade, Meagher gradually turned less radical; when James Stephens approached him in the United States, he said it would be "unworthy" of him to support a revolution (Golway, p. 132). He didn't exactly develop a strong sense of reality, though -- when he visited the American South, he wrote, "I could see none of the horrors I had been taught to believe existed among [Southerners]... I found a people sober, intelligent, high-minded, patriotic, and kind-hearted.... I saw no poverty" (Beller, p. 20). In other words, he managed to not see slavery or the extremely large number of Southerners who lived in absolute squalor. No doubt his handlers knew just where to lead him by the nose.
For his career in the American Civil War, see the notes to "By the Hush."
After the war, he was appointed territorial governor of Montana -- he had stumped on behalf of new President Andrew Johnson (Bilby, p. 140), who gave him a post for which he probably was not suited -- the previous governor had had to spend his own money to run the place, and here was Meagher. a Republican governor of a state that was largely Democratic; many of the residents were southern (Craughwell, p. 217). The governor, faced by a hostile legislature, apparently suffered death threats.
Meagher didn't face the threats for long -- he fell into the Missouri River after only a short time in office, dying at the age of just 44. Some have suggested suicide, but he was a Catholic, so this seems unlikely. His body was not found, but it is likely that he was drunk at the time; there were many reports at the time that he had taken to drink, and his military record was not unspotted -- quite a few people who knew him said he was often drunk (Bilby, p. 137). Although this might be anti-Irish prejudice, there is secondary evidence. At the Battle of Antietam, for instance, he fell from his horse and hurt himself, and there were rumors he was drunk, though they were not proved; Murfin, p. 255; Sears, pp. 243-244. It may be that he was just a lousy horseman; he had also fallen and gotten hurt at the First Battle of Bull Run (Bilby, p. 17), where he had shown conspicuous courage (Dutch courage?). What is certain is that his fall at Antietam left him In the hospital (Craughwell, p. 100). Interestingly, he does not always seem to have been so courageous; at Fredericksburg, he managed to sit out his men's disastrous charge (Bilby, p. 66).
In 1892, Michael Cavanagh published Memoirs of Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher (Messenger Press, Worcester, according to Colum, p. 326). Colum publishes an excerpt on pp. 326-331. If this is indicative of his later writing, he seems to have lost the vitality of expression of his youth. He is still given to strong metaphors, but he is really, really wordy. (And he had been pretty bombastic even in his early days, as the "Sword Speech" showed.) - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb30363a: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Zimm061

Escape of Old John Webb, The

See Billy Broke Locks (The Escape of Old John Webb) (File: LoF004)

Escape of the Horton, The

DESCRIPTION: "Under the canopy of blue, Under the starlit sky, They crept... to cut her out or die." The "daring, manly crew" manages to take the Horton from "Scotia's Shore" to "Cape Ann's port." "No Dominion cliques Shall bar the Yankee's way."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: sea escape patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 8, 1871 - Canada seizes the E. A. Horton (then in Halifax harbor) on a charge of fishing inside Canadian territorial waters
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 311-313, "The Horton's In! [I]" (1 text, tiled as item [II] under "The Horton's In")
Roud #4725 and 6563
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The E. A. Horton [Laws D28]" (subject: the escape of the Edward A. Horton)
cf. "The Horton's In!" (subject: the escape of the Edward A Horton)
NOTES [101 words]: Although this event was celebrated enough to inspire at least three songs, reading the description of what happened on p. 212 of Beck-FolkloreOfMaine makes it sound as if the Americans were more in the wrong than the Canadians. Possibly the Edward A. Horton was innocent of the charge against her, but that should have been settled by diplomacy, not international piracy. Which is what this was, although the songs don't ever use the word.
For extensive background on what happened, see pp. 303-310 of Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, an essay entitled "The Story of the Return of the E. A. Horton." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm313

Escaped Prisoners, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the battered hulk that's anchored off the Waitemata shore, The Maoris used to while the time away." After escaping, they sing, "Kakino Georgy Grey, You have let us get away." They had enjoyed being fed and not working. Friendly natives helped them.
AUTHOR: Words: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Wellington New Zealand Advertiser, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: ship prisoner escape New Zealand
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
20 Nov 1863 - Battle of Rangiriri between Maoris and Europeans. 183 Maori surrender after their ammunition runs out
11 Sep 1864 - The surviving Maori escape from the prison hulk where they are kept (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 37-38, "The Escaped Prisoners" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. Darling Nelly Gray" (tune) and references there
cf. "Fall of Rangiriri" (fate of the Rangiriri prisoners)
NOTES [172 words]: "Kekino Georgy Grey" is George Grey (1812-1898), who has been Governor of New Zealand at various times starting in 1845, and was Premier in 1877-1879. He was out of power at the time of the Maori escape, but presumably his name was used in this song because he was so famous. Plus, most unusually among early New Zealand governors, he cared enough about the Maori to learn their language and study their folklore (see Gordon Ell, Kiwiosities: An A-Z of New Zealand traditions & Folklore, New Holland Publishers, 2008, p. 105); Keith Jackson and Alan McRobie, Historical Dictionary of New Zealand (Oceanian Historical Dictionaries #5), The Scarecrow Press, 1996, p. 122, report that "He has been described as 'one of the most remarkable nineteenth century British colonial governors.'"
For background on the Battle of Rangiriri, see "Fall of Rangiriri."
For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo037

Escuminac Disaster (I), The

DESCRIPTION: June 19, 1959 "around Escuminac A sudden storm did appear. Oh, wicked waves! Oh, wailing wind!" The men that went out with their nets in the afternoon were in the wrecked fishing fleet in Miramichi Bay. Though 35 were lost, heroics saved some.
AUTHOR: Bernadette Keating of Chatham (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: rescue drowning fishing sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 19, 1959 - 22 salmon boats and 35 crewmen from Escuminac lost in a storm (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 17, "The Escuminac Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi017o (Partial)
Roud #9195
NOTES [102 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: A source for information about the disaster is The Ecuminac Disaster by Roy Saunders. - BS
The Escuminac tragedy was one of those defining moments for its community. Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi report that performers sang no fewer than five songs about it at the 1959 Miramichi Folk Festival, and another in 1960 -- one, in fact, a tribute to the area by one of the drowned men. Of these six, they reported three, including this one, written by a 13-year-old schoolgirl.
It's interesting to note that Keating is probably still alive. One wonders what has become of her since. - RBW
File: MaWi017o

Escuminac Disaster (II), The

DESCRIPTION: This is the story of the Escuminac Bay disaster. Thirty-five were lost salmon-fishing in the storm but some were saved. "A drive for funds for the widows And for those who lost souls at sea Was organized in New Brunswick To help raise their families"
AUTHOR: Alex Milson of Chatham (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: rescue drowning fishing sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 19, 1959 - 22 salmon boats and 35 crewmen from Escuminac lost in a storm (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 17a, "The Escuminac Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi017a (Partial)
Roud #9194
NOTES [79 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: A source for information about the disaster is The Ecuminac Disaster by Roy Saunders. - BS
The Escuminac tragedy was one of those defining moments for its community. Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi report that performers sang no fewer than five songs about it at the 1959 Miramichi Folk Festival, and another in 1960 -- one, in fact, a tribute to the area by one of the drowned men. Of these six, they reported three, including this one. - RBW
File: MaWi017a

Eskimo Hunt

DESCRIPTION: Text so distorted by English speakers that the original probably cannot be determined. Supposedly about an "Eskimo" hunt for a polar bear. Insofar as it has a defining characteristic, it is the melody
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Max V. Exner, Tent and Trail Songs, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage hunting campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 154-161, 175, 239, 318, 346, 431, 501, 510, "Eskimo Hunt" (notes plus 3 versions, all composite, on pp. 157-161; bibliography on pp. 657-658)
NOTES [117 words]: Of all the "case study" songs from Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, this is perhaps the one least likely to be traditional. She herself admitted that many had heard it but few liked to sing it -- the words were just too hard to remember. This apart from the fact that "Eskimo" isn't even the name of a people; it's an imposed name. If it had been properly field collected, the collector would presumably have gotten the right tribe name! And Averill's texts are all composites made from multiple sources to give the feel of a version rather than being an actual text that was sung somewhere. Note also that 1962 date; many of her case studies are of recent songs, but "Eskimo Hunt" is one of the newest. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF157E

Eskimo Lullaby

DESCRIPTION: The text literally translates as, "Hello, my little girl, my little girl. / [We have received] a gift of a little lady. / She doesn't really know anything yet."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954
KEYWORDS: Eskimo lullaby
FOUND IN: Canada(Nor)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, p. 20, "An Eskimo Lullaby" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "An Eskimo Lullaby" (on NFOBlondahl04)
File: FJ020

Eskimo Nell

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls his hearers to listen as he tells of "Dead-eye Dick and Mexican Pete," who encounter "a harlot called Eskimo Nell." The two go shooting up the place as they hunt sex, and hire forty whores -- but it is Nell who can, er., handle Dick
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy whore death
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 57-66, "Eskimo Nell" (1 text)
Roud #10124
File: RuSoEskN

Eskimo Weather Chant, An

DESCRIPTION: "Cha-yun-ga a-cin U-wan-ga a-cin Cha-yun-ga a-cin U-wan-ga na-lu-vit, Cha-yun-ga a-cin U-wan-ga a-cin." "Here I come again, Here I come again, Here I come again, Dost thou not know me...."
AUTHOR: unknown (English words by Alan Mills)
EARLIEST DATE: 1915
KEYWORDS: nonballad Indians(Am.) Eskimo
FOUND IN: Canada(North)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 8-9, "An Eskimo Weather Chant" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: FMB008

Essequibo River

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Essequibo River is the king o' rivers all. Buddy tan-na wa we are somebody O! (2x) Ch: Somebody O, John, somebody O! Buddy tan-na wa we are somebody O!" Verses are similar: Essequibo captain/boson/maidens is/are the king/queen of all.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong sailor river
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 416-417, "Essequibo River" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd,pp. 317-318]
NOTES [87 words]: The Essequibo River is in Guyana, and is the largest river between the Orinoco and the Amazon. - SL
It is, in fact, the most significant geographic feature of Guyana. Not too far from the Atlantic coast, at the confluence of the Essequibo, Mazaruni, and Cuyuni rivers is the Bartica, one of the few significant towns in this poor, strongly rural nation. Webster's Geographic Dictionary says that it was the point of departure to the local gold and diamond fields, which I suspect explains why it has a shanty about it. - RBW
File: Hugi416

Essie Dear

DESCRIPTION: "I am waiting in the wildwood, Essie, dear, Beside the streams that murmur sweet and low, In a nook we've known from childhood, Essie, dear, Where we often roamed in, many days ago." The singer recalls the beauty of the spot
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: love beauty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 685, "Essie Dear" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
File: BrS5685

Estersnowe

See Easter Snow (File: HHH066)

Et Nous Irons à Valapariso

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Consists of four verses and four different choruses. Verses have general sailing themes. Choruses borrow from "Homeward Bound" and "Blow the Man Down." Mostly in French, some choruses in English.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty
FOUND IN: England France
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 129-130, "Et Nous Irons à Valapariso" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blow the Man Down" (partial tune)
cf. "Homeward Bound (I)" (partial tune and chorus)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Goodbye, Farewell (French)
NOTES [75 words]: Note on French shanties with English choruses - Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas supposes the beginnings of this practice date to the American Revolution when due to blockades in New England, many of the whaling families of that region transported themselves to Milford Haven and Dunkirk, reforming the sperm whaling industry there. This influx of New England whalers into Dunkirk would also have influenced the shanties in that part of the world. - SL
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hugi129

Et Nous Irons a Valparaiso

DESCRIPTION: French. Capstan shanty. "Hardi! les gars virie au guindeau." The men are called to the capstan. It won't be so hot when they reach Cape Horm (on their way to Valparaiso). Not all will return, but those who do will have flags flying high. Farewell drudgery
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: shanty foreignlanguage work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 127, "Et Nous Irons a Valparaiso" (2 texts, French & English, 1 tune)
File: HSoSe127

Eternal Father, Strong to Save

See Navy Hymn (Eternal Father, Strong to Save) (File: DTnavyhy)

Euabalong Ball

DESCRIPTION: "Oh who hasn't heard of Euabalong Ball, Where the lads of the Lachlan... Come bent on diversion from far and from near." Description of rowdy annual party among shearers and other sheep-station workers, all get drunk and have a grand time
AUTHOR: possibly rewritten by A. L. Lloyd
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (recorded by A. L. Lloyd)
KEYWORDS: dancing drink party worker
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 98-99, "Euabalong Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 240-242, "Euabalong Ball" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Euabalong Ball" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd10)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wooyeo Ball)
NOTES [98 words]: According to Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, A.L.Lloyd reworked this from "The Wooyeo Ball" to make it more singable. "The Wooyeo Ball" apparently dates back to 1888, but is rare in tradition, so this song seems to justify a separate listing.
According to Davey/Seal, pp. 100-101, "The Wooyeo Ball" was written by someone who called himself "Vox SIlvis." They do not list the person who rewrote the song, implying that it may not have been Lloyd. Manifold, pp. 90-91, also says that the song is a rewrite of "Wooyeo Ball," but again does not mention the name of Lloyd. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcEBALL

Eumarella Shore, The

See The Eumerella Shore (File: MA155)

Eumerella Shore, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a happy little valley by the Eumerella Shore Where I've lingered many happy hours away...." The singer rejoices to be free of the squatters, or even to be able to steal their cattle. He encourages his animals to enjoy their freedom
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_); Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads claim that there was an earlier version in the Launceston Examier of March 7, 1861
KEYWORDS: Australia farming freedom outlaw
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1861 - Sir John Robertson (called Jack Robertson in the song) passes the New South Wales Free Selection Act, allowing the poorer members of the population freer access to land
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 155-156, "The Eumerella Shore"; p. 238, "The Noomanally Shore" ; pp. 278-279, "The Neumerella Shore" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 211-213, " The Eumarella Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 106-107, "Eumerella Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 272-273, "The Umeralla Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 162-165, "The Numerella Shore" (1 text)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 13, "The Numeralla Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, p. 88, "The Euerella Shore" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 62-63, "The Numerella Shore" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 71-72, "The Eumerella Shore" (1 text)
A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 150, "The Eumerella Shore" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 272-273, "The Eumerella Shore" (1 text)
Roud #679
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Darling Nelly Gray" (tune)
NOTES [312 words]: Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook notes that Australia boasts a Eumerella River in Victoria, while New South Wales has a Umerella (Numerella) River; versions of the song use both names. The reference to John Robertson implies a New South Wales setting -- but of course the song could have spread.
Manifold thinks this is a satire of the free selection movement, and I think he is right. (For a more positive view of the situation, see "The Old Bullock Dray.")
Davey/Seal, p. 107, declare, "This 1860s ballad of free selection and cattle duffing (stealing) is set in the Monaro (N[ew] S[outh] W[ales]) region, rather than the Eumerella River in Victoria.
On the other hand, Manifold-Ballads, p. 99, says that "In either district there were plenty of cattle, jealous owners and potential thieves"; he suspects Eumerella is the original.
Beatty in a subhead calls this "A Cattle Duffer's Song." "Duffing" was the process of rebranding cattle and hiding them until they could be passed off as part of the duffer's own herd; Morris, p. 128, defines it as "to steal cattle by altering the brands" and gives a citation from 1869. A duffer is, of course, one who duffs cattle, although Morris, p. 129, cannot cite an instance from before 1890, which is probably after this song was written.
"Selection," or "Free-selection," is "The process of selecting or choosing land under the Land Laws, or the right to choose"; Morris, p. 153, first cites the word from 1865. Since free selection did not begin until the 1860s, the free selectors were in competition with the squatters, who had taken their lands without legal license, but who had been there first (Morris's first Australian use of the word is from 1835; Morris, p. 431).
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads attribute this to "Cockatoo Jack." which obviously could be anyone. They think the river is the Eumerella.- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: MA155

Eureka!

See We're Coming, Arkansas (We're Coming, Idaho) (File: R343)

Eurunderee Green (Commemmoration of the Death of Lawson)

DESCRIPTION: "Above the dark shadow of old Bukaroo, On the crest of the hill with the sun smiling through.... A dark veil of shadow has covered the hill, And the she-oaks lament...." The singer recalls old friends and mates; Saint Peter will lower the top-rails
AUTHOR: E. R. (Ted) Burns? (cf. Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback)
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Singabout, according to Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback)
KEYWORDS: friend death
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, p. 81, "Eurunderee Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: TrMe081

Ev'ry Day Be Sunday

See The Funeral Hymn (File: Fus207)

Ev'ry Time I Feel the Spirit

See Every Time I Feel the Spirit (File: FSWB360B)

Ev'rybody Calls Me Honey

DESCRIPTION: "Met a little pickaninny, Wand'ring down the street one day... Someone asked him what is name was...." "Ev'rybody calls me honey, Don't know why they do, Maybe it's because my Mammy calls me honey too." No one knows his name, but he's like a rose
AUTHOR: Words: Joe Lyons / Music: Charley Straight (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (sheet music published by Forster Music Publisher Inc., Chicafi)
KEYWORDS: children | name
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
RECORDINGS:
Nora Bayes, "Ev'rybody Calls Me Honey" (Columbia A2816, 1919)
Nicola "Aunt Nicky" Pritchard (Turbyfill), "Ev'rybody Calls Me Honey" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #22, recorded 10/28/2020)
NOTES [37 words]: This is truly a curiosity: it refers to a "pickaninny," but without disapprove -- indeed, the cover shows an elegant White woman smiling at the Black boy. Other than the offensive language, I see no sign of prejudice. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcEBCMH

Ev'rybody Wants to Know

See Everybody Wants to Know How I Died (File: Edw015)

Evalina (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Evalina has a money accumulator between her legs." "I can get it any time I want it": "three times a day." She "shakes like jelly from her hips on down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Hurston; see notes)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy nonballad shanty worksong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Frye-TheMenAllSinging, p. 185, ("My little woman shakes like jelly all over") (1 text)
GarrityBlake-FishFactory, p. 91, ("Evalina, she's got a money 'cumulator") (1 text)
Roud #17299
RECORDINGS:
Bright Light Quartet, "Evalina" (on LomaxCD1708)
Crew of the Charles J. Colonna, ("Evalina, she's got a money 'cumulator") (on VaWork)
NOTES [81 words]: The LomaxCD1708 song is part of the "Menhaden Chanteys" track.
The VaWork song is part of the "Evalina" track.
"Evalina" is a menhaden chanty. See the notes to "Help Me to Raise Them" for information about menhaden chanteys.
Hurston has one verse in her "Mule on de Mount" that belongs here: "I got a woman, she's got money 'cumulated, In de bank" (Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men (New York: Harper Perennial, 1990 (paperback edition of J.B. Lippincott, 1935 original)), p. 269. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: FrGB185

Evalina (II)

See Dear Evalina (File: R823)

Evalina, she's got a money 'cumulator

See Evalina (I) (File: FrGB185)

Evalina, the Female Sailor

DESCRIPTION: "Evaline sat on the verandah, Looking out on the sea so cold," and sees her sailor love. She says she will cut her hair and go to sea with him. She returns to her father and mother with ten thousand pounds in gold
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong)
KEYWORDS: love sailor cross-dressing money
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 137-138, "Evaline, the Female Sailor" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5241
NOTES [46 words]: As sung by Jennie Devlin, the girl returns home with money -- but seemingly not the lover she set out with. It's clear that something interesting happened, but Devlin's text is too short to know what it is, and there doesn't seem to be another known version of the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: NeDe137

Evangelist's Song, The

See The Pioneer Preacher (File: Hud082)

Evans and Sontag (A Story)

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you bold detectives, a story I'll relate." Smith and Witty set out to capture Sontag and Evans. Witty is wounded and Smith flees. The outlaws flee. Many others are shot during the pursuit. Reporters are told to interview Mrs. Evans
AUTHOR: Eva Evans?
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Newspaper column by Ambrose Bierce)
KEYWORDS: outlaw police battle injury death prison
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 661-662, "A Story [Evans and Sontag]" (1 text)
File: CAFS2661

Eve

DESCRIPTION: "Eve was not put on earth to help the railroads, now on that point I know we'll all agree. She was not put on earth to help Wells Fargo, but just for Adam's express company." Her life was simple. She and Adam fought "In the shade of the old apple tree"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle)
KEYWORDS: humorous wife husband commerce railroading | Adam Eve
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, p. 333, "Eve" (1 text)
Roud #11015
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [81 words]: I wonder if this isn't a composite. The chorus appears to be derived from "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree (I)," and was probably sung to that tune; Eve and Adam fight, arousing a swarm of bees which sting "in the shade of the old apple tree." The verse, though, is a complaint about fancy living and big businesses which looks to me as if it uses a different tune. But that's only a guess; without either a tune or additional verses (or parallel texts), it's very hard to know. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSSS333

Evelina

DESCRIPTION: "O, Evelina, O Evelina, Poor gal, I ain't seen her. O, Evelina, O, Evelina. She am a debil in dis town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 233-234, "Evelina" (1 short text)
Roud #18166
File: KiWa233E

Evelyn

DESCRIPTION: "She lived at home up on the mountain side... For many miles and miles all people knew Fair Evelyn...." A mountaineer and a rich man court her. She chooses the rich man; she and her parents sneak to his home to avoid the mountaineer's vengeance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Cambiaire)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection money home family
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 41-42, "Evelyn" (1 text)
Roud #12638
NOTES [88 words]: This is thoroughly un-folk-like. Even if you ignore the fact that the rich city man, and not the poor handsome mountaineer, gets the girl, there is the fact that the girl and her parents agree, and the city man cares for the parents. And the poetry is lousy, and Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads's seems to be the only version known. I rather suspect that this was concocted to convince some love-sick girl that not *all* "old stories" end with the girl marrying the poor fellow and living happily ever after. - RBW
File: Camb-41

Evening Prayer, The

See Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (I) (File: FO033)

Evening Shade

See The Day is Past and Gone (File: RitS046)

Evening Star

See Beautiful Star (Star of the Evening) (File: nnBeaSta)

Evening Star (Lær Mig Nattens Stjerne)

DESCRIPTION: Danish. "Evening star up yonder, Teach me like you to wader Willing and obediently The path that God ordained for me." The singer asks the "gentle flowers," "mighty oceans," "shady lanes," and "evening sun" to teach as well
AUTHOR: Danish version: Christian Richardt and Carl Mortensen / Engiish translation: Søren Damsgaard Rodholn (sourceL Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, confirmed by Songs of Many Nations)
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs); English version in existence by 1962 (Songs of Many Nations)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad travel campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 384, "Evening Star" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "Evening Star" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 12)
File: ACSF384E

Evening Sun Goes Down the West, The

DESCRIPTION: "The evening sun goes down the west, The birds sit nodding on the tree; All nature now prepares to rest, But there's no rest prepared for me" ... "Guid nicht and joy be wi' ye a' For this is my departing nicht"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: emigration parting floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1532, "The Evening Sun Goes Down the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12955
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Guid-Nicht
NOTES [66 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 verse and part of the chorus.
The chorus is the same as that of "Ye Lan's and Banks o' Bonny Montrose," which, as noted there, is close to the usual first verse of "The Parting Glass" with lines transposed. - BS
In addition, the first verse is similar to "Farewell to Nova Scotia." I wonder if this isn't an assembly of floating materials. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81532

Evening Train, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears laughter at the train depot, but he himself is crying as they put the casket in the baggage coach. He and his child mourn the death of the child's mother
AUTHOR: Hank and Audrey Williams
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: death mother wife train
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 341-342, "The Evening Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [32 words]: Even Cohen admits that this is not a traditional song; he included it mostly as a demonstration of how old styles of song still came to be even after the hillbilly country boom was over. - RBW
File: LSRai341

Ever After On

See Late Last Night When Willie Came Home (Way Downtown) (File: CSW166)

Ever Constant

DESCRIPTION: Words from a Mormon wife to her husband in prison (for polygamy?): "The dear ones now have all been scattered From the homes where once we dwelled." "Oh yes, my love, still ever constant To my vows and thee I'll be." Her heart will stay true
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: love separation prison | Mormon
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, p. 83, "Ever Constant" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10837
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" (tune, according to Cheney-MormonSongs)
File: ChMS083

Ever of Thee

DESCRIPTION: "Ever of thee I'm fondly dreaming, Thy gentle voice my spirit can cheer." "Still in thy heart thy form I cherish." "Ah, never till life and mem'ry perish, Can I forget how dear thou art to me, Morn, noon, and night... Fondly I'm dreaming ever of thee."
AUTHOR: George Linley and Foley Hall (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1860 (sundry broadsides)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Heart-Songs, pp. 222-223, "Ever of Thee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 30, "Ever of Thee" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 35 and #5/64, p. 35, "Ever of Thee" (1 text)
ST HeSo222 (Partial)
Roud #13774
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(400), "Ever of Thee I am fondly dreaming" (H. De Marsan, New York, c. 1860); also Firth b.25(316)=Harding B 11(1096)=Johnson Ballads 1974A, "Ever of thee I'm fondly reaming," G. Henson, (Northampton), n.d; also Firth b.28(5a/b), "Ever of Thee," R. March and Co. (London), 1877-1884; also Harding B 11(1097), 2806 c.13(217)=Firth b.27(476), "Ever of thee I'm fondly dreaming!" J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(1098)=Harding B 11(1099), "Ever of thee I'm fondly dreaming," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; Harding B 11(2318), "Ever of thee I'm fondly dreaming," W. S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; Harding B 11(2311), Johnson Ballads 1102, "Ever of Thee," A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1845-1859; also Firth b.26(60), "Ever of Thee," L. Povey (Berkely), n.d.; Firth c.17(1), "Ever of Thee," J. Forth (Pockiington), n.d.' also 2806 c.13(147), "Ever of Thee," unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.16(332)=Harding B 11(1095), "Ever of Thee," unknown, n.d.
File: HeSo222

Ever Since I Been a Man Full Grown

DESCRIPTION: "Ever since I been a man... a man full grown, I been skippin' and a-dodgin' for old Farmer Jones." The singer complains of the mules, the work, the lack of justice. He misses his woman, and tells the captain to count his men
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recorded from J. B. Smith by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: prison work hardtimes nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 157-159, "Ever Since I Been a Man Full Grown" (1 text)
NOTES [42 words]: Jackson does not describe this as a recitation (he doesn't describe it at all), so I assume that it has a tune, though none is indicated. It seems to be a typical J. B. Smith production, with many floating verses combined with laments of his own. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM157

Ever Since Uncle John Henry Been Dead

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

Everett County Jail, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the prison cell we sit, Are we broken-hearted? Nyet. We're as happy and cheerful as can be." The singer tells workers to join togther until "some day you'll make the laws." The singer calls upon the 65% of the population that is working class to unite
AUTHOR: Words: William Whalen
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (IWW Songbook)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement prison
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 5, 1916 - beginning of the armed conflict between authorities and the IWW in Everett, Washington. At least five IWW members and two deputies were killed; twenty or more were injured on each side; IWW casualties may have been higher
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 625-626, "The Everett County Jail" (1 text)
File: CAFS2625

Evergreen Shore, The

DESCRIPTION: "We are joyously voyaging over the main, Bound for the evergreen shore, Whose inhabitants... never see death any more."" Then let the hurricane roar, It will the sooner be o'er...." There is no need to fear with Jesus in comman
AUTHOR: Words: William Hunter (source: hymnary.org) / Music: William Bradbury
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors); reportedly written 1840
KEYWORDS: religious storm ship nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 138, "The Evergreen Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [281 words]: Jean Ritchie sang a song she called "Evergreen Shore." It is not this.
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors says that Laura Ingalls Wilder "featured" this song in Little House on the Prairie. This is not correct; I suspect they are confusing the television series with the books. It's true that Wilder quoted the song -- but in The Long WInter. In chapter 13, "We'll Weather the Blast," she quotes the chorus.
It is interesting to note that Laura's daughter Rose Wilder Lane titled one of her novels, based on her mother's family, Let the Hurricane Roar.
For background on William B. Bradbury, see the notes to "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us." John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes) gives this capsule biography of William Hunter:
"D.D., s[on] of John Hunter, was b[orn] near Ballymoney, County Antrim, Ireland, May 26, 1811. He removed to American in 1817, and entered Madison College in 1830. For some time he edited the Conference Journal, and the Christian Advocate. In 1855 he was appointed Professor of Hebrew in Alleghany College; and subsequently Minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at Alliance, Stark Country (sic.), Ohio. He d[ied] in 1877 He edited Minstrel of Zion, 1845; Select Melodies, 1851, and Songs of Devotion, 1859. His hymns, over 125 in all, appeared in these works. Some of these have been translated into various Indian languages."
Julian lists five of Hunter's most famous hymns; none is familiar to me personally, although apparently "Joyfully, Joyfully Onward I Move" is very well known. His other song in the Index is "There's a Rest for the Weary." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LaGo138

Evergreen, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer finds an evergreen in Inishowen. "They are few and far between in dear old Donegal." The thrush and blackbird sing there, near the river; "nothing can be seen, Like the charming little valley that grows the evergreen"
AUTHOR: Charlie Harkin (source: McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: lyric bird Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 23, "The Evergreen" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [123 words]: This song is accurate about Donegal's trees, for good climatological reasons. Ireland is fairly far north, but with a climate that is both wet and temperate due to the Gulf Stream -- and also rather cloudy. Evergreens are largely an adaption to dry, cold climates where there are relatively few clouds: Their design is intended to gather maximum sun while losing relatively little water. In a wet but cloudy climate, they are at a severe competitive disadvantage. A check of any atlas with decent climate maps (I used Goode's World Atlas) will show that the southern and eastern parts of the country are covered with deciduous forests. But Donegal, in the far northwest, is dominated by heaths and moors; trees of any kind are rare. - RBW
File: McB1023

Everlasting Circle, The

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

Every Day of the Week

DESCRIPTION: "I have to leave you Mama God knows I sure hate to go (x2), Had the blues so long it made my poor heart so'." "The blues jumped the devil run the devil a solid mile (x2), Well the devil set down and he cried like a new-born chile."
AUTHOR: Pink Anderson?
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Pink Anderson)
KEYWORDS: separation Devil
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 101, "Every Day of the Week" (1 text)
Roud #21325
RECORDINGS:
Pink Anderson, "Every Day of the Week" (on RIverside RLP 12-611, 1950)
File: Joyn101

Every Good Ship

DESCRIPTION: "Every good ship has a" x, every x has y, "every young girl likes a young man"; the fourth line hides a rhyme with y. For example: x is "poop deck", y is "bits" and the fourth line is "to play with her"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor sex bawdy nonballad wordplay
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 62, "Every Good Ship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #23536
File: BrE2062

Every Hour in the Day

DESCRIPTION: "One cold freezing morning I lay this body down; I will pick up my cross and follow the Lord All round my Father's throne. Every hour in the day cry holy, Cry holy, my Lord! ... Oh show me the crime I've done." "Every hour in the night...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, pp. 58, "Every Hour in the Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12018
File: AWG057C

Every Lady In This Land

DESCRIPTION: "Every lady in this land, Has twenty nails upon each hand Five and twenty on hands and feet, And all this is true without deceit." De-riddled, this can be "Lady, lady in the land, Bear a tickle in your hand, If you laugh or if you smile...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1789 (Puzzling-cap, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: riddle baby
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 31, "Lady, lady in the land" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 291, "Every Lady In This Land" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #693, p. 273, "(Every lady in this land)"
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #90, "(Every Lady in the Land" (1 text)
Roud #20571
NOTES [145 words]: The solution to this riddle is, of course, to re-punctuate. Instead of
Every lady in this land,
Has twenty nails upon each hand
Five and twenty on hands and feet,
And all this is true without deceit.
This should instead be read as follows:
Every lady in this land has twenty nails: upon each hand five, and twenty on hands and feet, and all this is true without deceit."
The other well-known example of this sort of thing is the famous "King Charles the First He walked and he talked Half an hour after His head was cut off" -- Roud #20748; Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 52; Opie, I Saw Esau, #89. That item too should perhaps be indexed, but it isn't a song but a pure trick verse.
Helen Kane's version has no hint of the riddle; I might have split it off if Roud hadn't lumped them. But it's likely that Kane's is a deliberately de-mystified version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC031B

Every Mail Day

DESCRIPTION: "Every mail day (x2) I gets a letter... O Son, come home, Lord, Lord, Son come home." "I couldn't read it... to keep from crying... to save my soul." "Oh Evaline, She got money 'cumulatin', Lord, Lord, I love that girl."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recording, Adie Corbin)
KEYWORDS: prison nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 173, "Mail Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: "Menhaddon Fishery Sea Songs," article by "Townlwy" in Sea Heritage News, Issue 14, Sea Heritage Foundation, 1983, p. 32, "Every Mail Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa173 (Partial)
Roud #7490
RECORDINGS:
Adie Corbin, "Every Mail Day" (AFS 178 B1, 1933)
(Elder) Sykes Jones, "Every Mail Day" (AFS 364 B, 1935)
J. B. Sutton, "Mail Day Blues" [excerp?t] (on USWarnerColl01)
Unidentified convict, Parchman Farm, Mississippi, "Every Mail Day" (AFS 1862 B, 1937)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Goin' Home" (some verses)
cf. "Help Me to Raise Them" (some verses)
File: Wa173

Every Man 'Neath His Vine and Fig Tree

DESCRIPTION: "And every man 'neath his vine and fig tree Shall live in peace and (unafraid/none afraid). And into plowshares turn their swords, Nations shall learn war no more."
AUTHOR: Words paraphrased by Shalom Altman (1911-1986) (source: hymnary.org; Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook)
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (copyright, according to hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 413, "Vine and Fig Tree" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 446, 552, "Every Man 'Neath His Vine and Fig Tree" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "Vine and Fig Tree" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. B)
DT, (ANDEVERY* -- converted to inclusive language)
NOTES [246 words]: The second part of this is a paraphrase of Isaiah 2:4=Micah 4:3, which in the King James Version reads "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (Isaiah) or "And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Micah).
The first part is found only in Micah 4:4, " But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it."
The King James translation is fairly accurate. There is no agreement about whether Isaiah or Micah had the words first, or whether it was inserted into both books from some other source.
It seems to have gone into camp tradition very quickly, probably due to the excellent minor melody; I learned it, from young people, probably around 1990. Interestingly, my version cannot be sung to the Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook chords, which uses minor chords throughout; the version I learned is in minor for the lines "And every man 'neath his vine and fig tree Shall live in peace and unafraid," but shifts into major for "And into plowshares turn their swords." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: DTandeve

Every Night When the Sun Goes In

DESCRIPTION: "Every night when the sun goes in (x3), I hang down my head and mournful cry." The singer says she is leaving, and wishes the train would come to take her home. When her apron was low, he would follow her everywhere; now it is high, he ignores her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: seduction suicide pregnancy betrayal
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 189, "Every Night when the Sun Goes In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 149-150, "Every Night When the Sun Goes In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 120, "Every Night When the Sun Goes In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 180, "Every Night When The Sun Goes In" (1 text)
DT, EVRYNITE*
Roud #3611
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] (lyrics, plot)
cf. "Careless Love" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [27 words]: This is so close to "The Butcher Boy" that I was almost tempted to list them as one. The introductory theme of returning home, however, separates the songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: LxA149

Every Rose Grows Merry in TIme

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Every Time I Feel de Spirit

See Every Time I Feel the Spirit (File: FSWB360B)

Every Time I Feel the Spirit

DESCRIPTION: "Every time I feel the Spirit Moving in my heart, I will pray." The singer sees God speaking with fire and smoke, asks to be part of it, and is confident in God's care
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 169, "Ev'ry Time I Feel the Spirit" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 169 in the 1909 edition)
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (II), pp. 64, "O Ev're Time I Feel de Sprit" (1 text with variants, 1 tune with variants)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 257, "Every Time I Feel the Spirit" (1 text)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, p. 32, "Ev'ry TIme I Feel the Spirit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 360, "Every Time I Feel the Spirit" (1 text)
SongsOfManyNations, "Every Time I Feel the Spirit" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 53) (12th edition, p. 50, has only the text)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 20, "Every Time I Feel de Spirit" (1 text, 1 tune)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 17, Every Time I Feel de Spirit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12358
RECORDINGS:
Marian Anderson, "Ev'ry Time I Feel de Spirit" [medley with "No Hiding Place"] (Victor 2032, 1940)
Birmingham Jubilee Quartet, "Every Time I Feel the Spirit" (Columbia 14176-D, 1926)
Famous Garland Jubilee Singers, "Everytime I Feel the Spirit" (Banner 32433/Romeo 5135, 1932; Conqueror 8358 [as Bryant's Jubilee Singers]; rec. 1931)
Fisk University Jubilee Singers, "Every Time I Feel the Spirit" (Columbia 562-D, 1926)
Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet, "Everytime That I Feel the Spirit" (Bluebird B-8328/Montgomery Ward M-8776, 1940; rec. 1939)
Golden Leaf Quartet, "Every Time I Feel the Spirit" (Brunswick 7050, 1929, rec. 1928)
Rev. H. B. Jackson, "Every Time I Feel the Spirit" (OKeh 8804, 1930; rec. 1929)
C. Mae Frierson Moore, "Every Time I Feel the Spirit" (Paramount 12323, 1925)
Morehouse Quartet, "Every Time I Feel the Spirit" (OKeh 40268, 1925; rec. 1923)
Norfolk Jubilee Quartette, "Every Time I Feel the Spirit" (Paramount 12268, 1925)
Pace Jubilee Singers, "Everytime I Feel the Spirit" (Victor V-38019, 1929)
Plantation Jubilee Singers, "Everytime I Feel the Spirit" (Supertone 9300, 1929)
Richmond's Harmonizing Four, "Every Time I Feel the Spirit" (Decca 48108, rec. 1943)
James Garfield Smalls, "Singing is Good/Ebrytime I Feel de Sperit" (on USSeaIsland03)
Stalsby Family, "Every Time I Feel the Spirit" (Decca 5866, 1940)
File: FSWB360B

Every Time that the Wicked has Tried to Overthrow

See Brighter Days in Store (File: ChMS091)

Everybody Calls Me Honey

See Ev'rybody Calls Me Honey (File: RcEBCMH)

Everybody Loves Saturday Night

DESCRIPTION: "Everybody Loves Saturday Night," repeated in various foreign languages
AUTHOR: (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (recording, Percy Faith and his orchestra)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 334, "Ecerybody Loves Saturday Night" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 489, "Everybody Loves Saturday Night" (notes only)
DT, SATNIGHT
NOTES [77 words]: Folklore has it that this song originated in Nigeria when the Nigerian government of the time, for whatever reason, tried force people to stay at home on Saturday. This song was the result, and then people started adding translations in other languages. Pete Seeger apparently gathered a lot of these. But I've also seen a claim that it was written by Art Podell and first recorded by Percy Faith and his orchestra in 1953 with a bunch of non-folk singers. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF489E

Everybody Ought To Make a Change

DESCRIPTION: Every verse ends "Everybody, they ought to change sometime, because it's soon or late, we have to go down in that lonesome ground" See the notes for verses.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Sleepy John Estes)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Eric Clapton, "Everybody Oughta Make A Change" (Warner Bros 92.9770-7, 1983)
Sleepy John Estes, "Everybody Oughta Make a Change" (Decca 7371,1938); "Lonesome Ground" (on USChartersHeroes)
Son Lewis, "Everybody Ought To Make A Change" (on "Too Hot," Silk City CD LPD2035 (2014))
Dave Moore, "Everybody Ought To Make A Change" (on "Jukejoints & Cantinas," Red House RHR CD 06 (1992))
NOTES [102 words]: Verses on Estes's 1938 and 1962 recordings include "Change in the ocean, change in the deep blue sea, Take me back baby, find a change in me." "I changed my money, I changed my honey, I changed, babies, just to keep from being funny." and "I changed walk, I changed talk, I changed baby just to keep from being bought." The 1938 recording has "I changed home, I changed town, I changed baby, all way around" The 1962 recording ends "I changed my ways, I changed my days, I changed days just to sanctify all my ways." The late recordings I've heard made after Clapton's cover Clapton's words but not his style. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcEOTMAC

Everybody Talking About Heaven

See All God's Children Got Shoes (File: CNFM067A)

Everybody Wants to Know How I Died

DESCRIPTION: "Everybody wants to know, my Lord, How I died (3x), "Everybody wants to know how I died (x2)." "Carry my body (brother, ...) to the, graveyard (x3), Carry my body (brother, ...) to the graveyard. Everybody wants to know how I died"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious burial
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 15, "Ev'rybody Wants to Know" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [12 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edw015

Everybody Who Is Living Has To Die

DESCRIPTION: Verse format: "(Every (body/liar/deacon) who is living's got to die, got to die)(x2)." ("The rich and the poor, the great and the small" or "The young and the old, the short and the tall") "Everybody who is living's got to die, got to die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 278-281, "Eb'rybody Who Is Libin' Got Tuh Die" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR279A

Everybody Works but Father

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes his father's indolence and the rest of the family's industry. Eventually his father takes a job while everyone else relaxes. Chorus: "Everybody works but Father, he hangs around all day... Everyone works around our house but my old man."
AUTHOR: (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (sheet music published by Helf & Hager)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer describes his father's indolence and the rest of the family's industry. Eventually his father takes a job to clean up Decatur St.; now he works while everyone else vacations. Chorus: "Everybody works but Father, he hangs around all day/Feet stretched out by the fire, smoking his pipe of clay/Mother takes in washing and so does sister Ann/Everyone works around our house but my old man"
KEYWORDS: work father family worker humorous
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 78.81, "Everybody works but Father" (1 text,1 tune, a copy of the published sheet music)
Peter Davison, _Songs of The British Music Hall_, Oak, 1971, pp. 208-210, "We All Go to Work But Father" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4782
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Everybody Works but Father" (OKeh 45056, 1926)
Billy Murray, "Everybody Works But Father" (Victor 4519, 1905)
Riley Puckett, "Everybody Works but Father" (Columbia 15078-D, 1926)
Bob Roberts, "Everybody Works But Father" (CYL: Edison 9100, 1905)
Unknown baritone, "Everybody Works But Father" (Busy Bee 1219, c. 1906)
Frank Wilson, "Everybody Works But Father" (Victor 4727, 1906)
SAME TUNE:
Everybody Works but Adam ("Everybody works but Adam, He sits 'round all day, Tearing up rebate checks") (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, B. E. Washburn, "College Folklore at Chapel Hill in the Early 1900's," Vol. 3, No. 2 (Dec 1955), p. 29)
NOTES [114 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 269, estimates that this was the ninth most popular song in America in 1905, peaking at #3 in October 1905 (#1 for the year being Harry H Williams and Egbert Van Alstyne's "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree").
Early versions of this entry credited this song to Jean Havez, based presumably on the sheet music. This is also the attribution in Gardner. Davidson, however, credits words to J. C. Heffron and music to Leslie Reed. Given the song's clear music hall connections, I incline to accept the latter attribution, but I can't prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcEBWBF

Everybody, Everybody

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme, presumably to let a rope-turner pass the rope: "Everybody, everybody Come on in. The first one misses Gonna take my end."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Evans, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #138, "Everybody, everybody" (1 text)
File: AJRR138

Everybody's Gal is My Gal

DESCRIPTION: "Everybody's gal is my gal. My partner's gal is my gal too. If you ain't might keerful, I'll take 'er right away from you." "If you got a good gal, You better pin 'er to your side, 'Cause if she flags my train, I'm gonna let 'er ride."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 438, "Everybody's Gal is My Gal" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 438, "Everybody's Gal is My Gal" (1 tune plus text and extensive notes)
Roud #11778
File: Br3438

Everybody's Got a Finger in the Pie

See Kissing Song (I) (File: R374)

Everybody's Got to Be Tried

DESCRIPTION: "Now, it's everybody's got to be tried (x3), You got to go to judgment, you got to be tried." "Every sinner's got to be tried." "Now you take, every drunkard's got to be tried." "Every liar's got to be tried...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: religious trial nonballad punishment
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #5738
RECORDINGS:
Frank Proffitt, "Everybody's Got to Be Tried" (on FProffitt01)
File: RcEBGTBT

Everyday Dirt

See Will the Weaver [Laws Q9] (File: LQ09)

Everything Is Beautiful in Its Own Way

DESCRIPTION: "Jesus loves the little children" whatever their skin color, because "Everything is beautiful in its own way." Do not judge by appearances. The world will find a way to a solution
AUTHOR: Ray Stevens and H. R. Ragsdale (source: Musixmatch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 547, "Everything Is Beautiful" (notes only)
File: CSF547E

Everywhere I Go My Lord

DESCRIPTION: "Everywhere I go, Everywhere I go my Lord... Somebody's talkin' 'bout Jesus. Well my knees been acquainted with the hillside clay... And my head's been wet with the midnight dew"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Dock Reed & Vera Hall Ward)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 61, "(Somebody's Talking About Jesus)" (partial text); p. 247, "Everywhere I Go My Lord" (1 tune, partial text)
RECORDINGS:
Dock Reed & Vera Hall Ward, "Somebody's Talking About Jesus" (on NFMAla5) (on ReedWard01)
File: CNFM061A

Everywhere We Go

DESCRIPTION: Call-and-repeat song: "Everywhere we go oh (repeat), People always ask us (repeat), Who we are... Any where we come from... So we tell them... We're from (somewhere), The mighty mighty (somewhere), And if they can't hear us, We speak a little louder."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2021 (LibraryThingCampSongsThread)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 27, "(Everywhere we go oh)" (1 text, from user bilblio, posted August 29, 2021)
Roud #26354
NOTES [23 words]: Although rarely published, Internet searches reveal that this is very popular as a camp song or house cheer, so I'm including it here. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LTCSEvWG

Evie and Ivy

See My Father Had an Acre of Land (File: K300)

Evil Little David

See O David (File: LoF250A)

Evil Woman, The

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Evil-Hearted Man

DESCRIPTION: "Well, I woke up this morning, I was feeling mighty bad, My baby said 'Good morning," Hell, it made me so mad, Because I'm evil, well, evil-hearted me." He abuses the woman, not caring if she leaves, "'Cause I got forty-leven others If it comes to that."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: abuse abandonment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 77, "Evil-Hearted Man" (1 text)
DT, EVILMAN*
File: FSWB077B

Ewe Buchts

See The Broom of Cowdenknows [Child 217] (File: C217)

Ewie Wi' the Crookit Horn

DESCRIPTION: In praise of the ewie -- "a' wha kent her could hae sworn Sic a ewie ne'er was born, Hereabouts or far awa'." All who knew the ewie (i.e. a still) loved her products -- but now she is missing or dead, (taken by revenuers)
AUTHOR: revised by John Skinner (1721-1807)
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (_Scots Musical Museum_, #293)
KEYWORDS: drink animal separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 88, "The Ewie" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 271, "The Ewie Wi' the Crookit Horn" (1 text+1 in appendix, 1 tune)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #19, pp. 143-144, "Yowie Wi' the Crookit Horn"" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CROKHORN*
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #293, p. 302, "The Ewie wi' the Crooked Horn"(1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2140
RECORDINGS:
Lucy Stewart, "The Ewie wi' the Crookit Horn" (on FSB10)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blockader's Trail" (subject)
cf. "The Moonshine Can" (subject)
cf. "The Black Stripper" (subject, theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Yowie Wi' the Crookit Horn
NOTES [117 words]: This humorous song seems innocent enough, but the Rev. John Skinner found its subtle meanings sufficiently problematic that he produced a "clean" version about an actual sheep! This found its way into print before most of the versions about the illicit still, but there can be little doubt about which is older. - RBW
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice report that "Lucy Stewart ... was quite definite about the ewie's being a pot still" (p. 144), the ewe being a nickname for a still. - DGE
See John Skinner, Songs and Poems (Peterhead, 1859), pp. 67-70, "The Ewie Wi' the Crookit Horn." - BS
For background on revisor John Skinner, see the notes to "Tullochgorum." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K271

Ewing Brooks (Maxwell's Doom) [Laws E12]

DESCRIPTION: The singer, Ewing Brooks, departs England and assumes the name [Walter] Maxwell in America. He murders a man out of petty jealousy, then flees west, ending in New Zealand. Extradited to the U.S., he is condemned to die despite his family's plea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: exile homicide execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1885 - Hugh M. Brooks, who used the name Walter Lennox Maxwell, murders Charles Arthur Preller
Aug 10, 1888 - Execution of Brooks (apprehended after fleeing to New Zealand)
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws E12, "Ewing Brooks (Maxwell's Doom)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 413-415, "Maxwell's Doom" (2 texts)
Randolph 156, "Ewing Brooks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 148-151, "Ewing Brooks" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 156)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 374, "Maxwell's DOom" (1 text)
DT 690, EWNGBROK
Roud #890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charles Guiteau" [Laws E11] (tune & meter) and references there
File: LE12

Ex-Ranger's Song, The

See The Texas Rangers [Laws A8] (File: LA08)

Excel, The

DESCRIPTION: "Being on a Sunday morning when the wind did roar and rage There was twenty-two of the Excel crew met with a watery grave; There was men, women and children stood on her quarter deck, When a heavy sea broke over her and swept them from the wreck"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 11, 1885 - Excel is wrecked at Black Island, Labrador, "with a loss of about twenty-two men, women and children" (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou, Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 34, "The Excel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #26121
NOTES [78 words]: Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou quotes a news story describing the loss - BS
According to Shannon Ryan, The Ice Hunters: A History of Newfoundland Sealing to 1914, Breakwater Books, 1994, p. 318, the gale of October 10-12, 1885, was ""Probably the greatest recorded disaster" in the Newfoundland fisheries; it "wrecked between 70 and 80 vessels on the Labrador coast, taking the lives of about 70 men, women and children and leaving 1,500 to 2,000 people destitute." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe034

Exciseman in a Coal Pit, The

DESCRIPTION: An exciseman gets drunk on smugglers' liquor. He falls into a coal pit and colliers lower him underground. He wakes and meets a collier he thinks is the Devil. He promises to reform if returned from Hell, and for a guinea is returned above-ground.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: disguise mining drink Hell humorous Devil
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 282, "The Exciseman in a Coal Pit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5854
NOTES [49 words]: For the theme of gauger/exciseman as fool see "The Private Still." - BS
The other theme, of impersonating the Devil to set someone straight, occurs in "Kate and Her Horns" [Laws N22]. - RBW
An exciseman is one who collects alcohol taxes and enforces the law on people who don't pay those taxes. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2282

Execution of Five Pirates for Murder

DESCRIPTION: A broadside with both text about the execution and a poem: "Is there not one spark of pity, For five poor unhappy men, Doomed, alas! in London City...." They showed no pity. Now they pay the price for their piracy on the "Flowery Land"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (broadside, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate execution burial
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 22, 1864 - Execution of the five pirates at Old Bailey
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 83, "The Execution of Five Pirates" (1 text, including the broadside preface; un-numbered but on p. 107 in the first edition)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 121, "Execution of Five Pirates for Murder" (1 text)
Roud #V30206
File: FrPi083

Execution of Frederick Baker, The

DESCRIPTION: "You tender mothers pray give attention To these few lines I will now relate, From a dreary cell to you I mention" how Frederick Baker met his fate. He lured Fanny Adams away and killed her. He is condemned to die; the writer wonders what he was thinking
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution children
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 27, 1867 -- Murder and dismemberment of eight-year-old Fanny Adams by Frederick Baker. Baker was hanged later in the year.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 50-53, "The Execution of Frederick Baker" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Fanny Adams" (subject)
File: BrHa050

Execution of Michael Fagan, The

DESCRIPTION: Joe Brady and Dan Curley have been executed. Michael Fagan is to be executed at Kilmainham Jail. "That vile informer Carey ... In high renown in some foreign town" will be followed by the widow's curse. Fagan bids friends adieu and prays God for mercy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: execution homicide betrayal Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
The Phoenix Park murders (source: primarily Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, pp. 62, 63, 281-286.)
May 6, 1882 - Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and the Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke are murdered by a group calling themselves "The Invincible Society."
January 1883 - twenty seven men are arrested.
James Carey, one of the leaders in the murders, turns Queen's evidence.
Six men are condemned to death, four are executed (Joseph Brady is hanged May 14, 1883; Daniel Curley is hanged on May 18, 1883), others are "sentenced to penal servitude," and Carey is freed and goes to South Africa.
July 29, 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell kills Carey on board the "Melrose Castle" sailing from Cape Town to Durban.
Dec 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell is convicted of the murder of James Carey and executed in London (per Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, p. 28, "Lines Written on the Execution of Michael Fagan" (1 fragment)
Roud #V16940
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(366), "Lines Written on the Execution of Michl. Fagan" ("Thrice has the English hangman sailed thro' Dublin bay"), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Phoenix Park Tragedy" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders) and references there
NOTES [68 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 62: "The Phoenix Park murders and their judicial sequels struck the popular imagination and were a gold-mine for ballad-writers: some thirty songs were issued on this subject, which was the last great cause to be so extensively commented upon in broadside ballads."
Zimmermann p. 28 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(366) is the basis for the description. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BrdExMiF

Execution of Robert Schramle, The

DESCRIPTION: "Not a bark was heard, not a warning note, As we o'er to the calaboose hurried." The vigilantes break into the prison, take the prisoner, hang him, and "left him alone with the devil"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide prison execution
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 169, (no title) (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 592, "Lay of the Vigilantes" (1 text)
NOTES [62 words]: Burt-AmericanMurderBallads connects this with the execution in Colorado of Robert Schramle, accused of killing Henry Thiede on October 11, 1877, but there is no supporting evidence in the song that I can see. (To be fair, there is no counter-evidence, either.) If Burt-AmericanMurderBallads's connection is correct, the vigilante execution took place on December 9, 1877. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Burt169

Exile of Erin (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "There came to the beach a poor exile of Erin." He looks across the ocean toward Erin, mourns for his lost country and remembers "friends who can meet me no more." He thinks of his family. "Erin, an exile, bequeaths thee his blessing"
AUTHOR: probably Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) (but see the note re broadside shelfmark L.C.Fol.70(118a))
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: homesickness exile Ireland patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 41, "The Exile of Erin" (1 text)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 126, "The Exile of Erin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 22, "The Exile of Erin" (1 fragment, 1 tune); p. 275 (a reprint of the Alex Mayne broadside)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 53-54, "Exile of Erin" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 115, "The Exile of Erin" (1 text)
Roud #4355
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(38), "The Exile of Erin", W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also 2806 b.11(216), 2806 b.10(90), 2806 c.15(300), Harding B 25(593), Harding B 28(209), Harding B 11(3066), Harding B 11(1655), Harding B 16(325b), Harding B 11(3069), Harding B 11(3067), Harding B 11(2496), 2806 b.10(72), Harding B 11(3068), Harding B 17(86a), Harding B 11(740), Harding B 11(378), Harding B 11(4398), Harding B 11(1105), Harding B 11(3748), 2806 c.15(299), "[The] Exile of Erin"; Harding B 26(178), "The Exile o' Erin "
LOCSinging, as103590, "Exile of Erin", George S. Harris (Philadelphia), 19C; also as100640, "The Exile of Erin"
Murray, Mu23-y2:048, "The Exile of Erin" unknown (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(118a), "The Exile of Erin", unknown, c.1885
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Plains of Emu (The Exile of Erin II)" (theme)
NOTES [148 words]: Note that there is an early parody: Bodleian, Harding B 16(61c), "The Cottage Maid", J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819.
Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(118a): The commentary states "There appears to be some doubt over the authorship of 'The Exile of Erin'. Many believe it to be the work of the Scottish-born poet, Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), who is said to have been inspired by an encounter with an Irish exile named McCann. It has also been suggested, however, that it was the work of the Irish ballad writer George Nugent Reynolds (1770-1802)." - BS
Possibly the confusion was inspired by the several other songs with the same or similar titles? There seems to be no doubt that Campbell wrote *a* piece called "The Exile of Erin" (and, if Stevenson's Home Book of Verse 2 is to be credited, it's this poem).
For background on author Campbell, see the notes to "Lord Ullin's Daughter." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon041

Exile of Erin (II), The

See The Plains of Emu (The Exile of Erin II) (File: FaE036)

Exile's Farewell, The

DESCRIPTION: "Adieu! my own dear Erin, Receive my fond, my last adieu!" The singer recalls the "fields where heroes bounded," but "the Minstrels mournful story... Now drops a tear at Erin's name." The singer sends his blessing and hopes for better times
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland); Anderson estimates his broadsides as c. 1800
KEYWORDS: transportation Ireland
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 105-106, "The Exile's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: AnFa105

Exile's Lament, The

See The Soldier's Lament (File: Peas163)

Exile's Return, The

See Sweet Inishcara (File: RcSweIni)

Exiled Crofter's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "We're awa, we're awa frae the auld country, To a far awa land, far o'er the sea." "In the wee crofter's garden... nae crofters' families appear on the scene... They are chased ower the ocean that sportsmen may reign." The singer wishes he were home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads), reportedly from a Canadian book published 1812
KEYWORDS: home separation emigration
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 366, "The Exiled Crofter's Lament" (1 text)
Roud #4597
NOTES [20 words]: Obviously a composed item about the Highland Clearances, and probably not traditional -- but surprisingly effective. - RBW
File: Ord366

Exiled Irishman's Lament, The (The Exiles of Erin)

DESCRIPTION: "Green were the fields where my forefathers dwelt," but the lease expires and the singer is forced to leave. His home burns though he obeys the law. "I supported old Ireland... We have numbers, and numbers do constitute pow'r -- Let us will to be free"
AUTHOR: George Nugent Reynolds (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1804 (_Paddy's Resource_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: exile Ireland patriotic home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 100, "The Exiles of Erin" (1 text)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 25, "The Exiled Irishman's Lamentation" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13387
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(150), "Erin Go Bragh!" ("Green was the fields where my forefathers dwelt"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878 [same as LOCSinging sb10111b]
LOCSinging, sb10111b, "Erin Go Bragh!" ("Green was the fields where my forefathers dwelt"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878 [same as Bodleian Harding B 18(150)]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Slieve Gallen Braes" (theme)
cf. "Song of the Nantucket Mariner" ("dear native isle" motif)
NOTES [38 words]: Broadside LOCSinging sb10111b and Bodleian Harding B 18(150): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: OCon100

Exiles of Erin, The

See The Exiled Irishman's Lament (The Exiles of Erin) (File: OCon100)

Exiles of New Zealand, The

DESCRIPTION: "We're off to bright Australia, Far o'er the singing waves. Why should men live in Maoriland, To be forever Slaves?" New Zealand is beautiful, but why live in a land of gold "if there is naught for me?" Pirates rule the nation, so the singer is leaving
AUTHOR: "A. D." (possibly Arthur Desmond?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Auckland "New Zealand Observer," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: emigration New Zealand Australia gold hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 80-81, "The Exiles of New Zealand" (1 text)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 278-279, "(Exiles of New Zealand)" (1 text)
File: BaRo080

Experience (I Learned About...)

DESCRIPTION: "I've taken my jolts as I got 'em, I've strong-armed and prowled in my time," eventually earning hard labor, "And I learned about likker from that." He "met an old con from Chicago... And I learned about shootin' from him." And so on through other lessons
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Irwin, American Tramp and Underworld Slang, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: fight drink prison love derivative | learning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 324, "Experience" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Learned about Horses from HIm" (theme)
cf. "I Learned about Horses from Her" (theme)
NOTES [24 words]: This, and all the items in the cross-references, are clearly modelled after Kipling's poem "The Ladies" ("I Learned about Women from Her"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC324

Explosion in the Fairmount Mines, The

See The Dream of the Miner's Child (File: R859)

Express Office, The (He Is Coming to Us Dead)

DESCRIPTION: An old man enters the express office and enquires after his boy. Told that this is not the train depot, the man points out "He's coming in a casket, sir, He's coming to us dead." His mother had expected just that result "when he joined the boys in blue."
AUTHOR: Gussie L. Davis (1863-1899)
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: soldier death burial corpse train family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 300-303, "He's Coming to Us Dead" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 696, "The Express Office" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 458-460, "The Express Office" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 696A)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 18-20, "The Boys in Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 275-277, "The Boys in Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #123, "Boys in Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COMEDEAD* CMNGDEAD
Roud #3513
RECORDINGS:
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "He Is Coming To Us Dead" (Victor 21139, 1927; on GraysonWhitter01); (Gennett, unissued, 1927)
Wade Mainer, "He Is Coming To Us Dead" (King 585)
New Lost City Ramblers, "He Is Coming To Us Dead" (on NLCR14, ClassRR)
Francis O'Brien, "The Boys in Blue" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Molly O'Day, "A Hero's Death" (Columbia 20441, 1948)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Boy in Blue
The Boys in Blue
NOTES [70 words]: Cohen notes that the tune sung by G. B. Grayson (which is now more or less the standard) is not the same as the original Davis tune, with a 32-bar verse and a 16-bar chorus, compared to Grayson's 8-bar tune with no chorus. He speculates that Davis may simply have been rewriting an existing piece, perhaps from the Civil War.
For brief background on composer Gussie L. Davis, see the notes to "The Baggage Coach Ahead." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R696

Eye Winker

See Brow Bender (File: SeSh049A)

Eye-ball, Eeball

DESCRIPTION: Rhyme for counting time or selecting a person: "Eye-ball, eeball, Baldheaded, skeeball, All hid--?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: playparty food
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Rachel Cranford, collector), "Games and Game Rhymes", Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 13, "(Eye-ball, Eeball)" (1 text)
Roud #21857
File: NCF1013B

Eyes of Texas, The

DESCRIPTION: "The eyes of Texas are upon you All the live-long day. The eyes of Texas are upon you, You cannot get away. Do not think you can escape them From night till early in the morn. The eyes of Texas are upon you Till Gabriel blows his horn."
AUTHOR: Words: John Lang Sinclair
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (University of Texas Community Songbook)
KEYWORDS: parody nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 42, "The Eyes of Texas" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 309, "I've Been Working on the Railroad -- (The Eyes of Texas)"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Nose of Oklahoma Smells You (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 248)
NOTES [30 words]: Fuld reports that this text was written by Sinclair in 1903 for use in a minstrel show. The text was inspired by a remark by University of Texas President William L. Prather. - RBW
File: FSWB042B

Eyesight to the Blind

DESCRIPTION: Singer says his lover is so pretty and fine, and the way she walks ... When she "starts loving" she "brings eyesight to the blind," "the deaf and dumb begin to talk," "man in the next room dying, stopped dying and held up his head"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recording, Sonny Boy Williamson II)
KEYWORDS: love sex beauty nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Sam Myers, "Eyesight to the Blind" (on USMississippi01)
Sonny Boy Williamson (II), "Eyesight to the Blind" (Trumpet 129, 1951)
File: RcEyettB

Eynsham Poaching Song (Southrop Poaching Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Three Eynsham/Southrop chaps went out one day" to hunt hare and pheasant. They meet other poachers and their "spaniel put up a hare." They are chased by a keeper and escape swimming over Cassington/Hathrerop Brook.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: poaching escape hunting animal bird dog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 150, "Southrop Poaching Song" (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 347); Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 151, "Eynsham Poaching Song" (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 256) (2 texts)
Roud #1268
File: WT150

Ezekiel in the Valley

DESCRIPTION: Each verse has (the leader sing a line "Ezekiel in the valley/Ezekiel, Ezekiel/Ezekiel, won't you answer/These bones going to rise again;" a chorus moans in reply) (3x), and all sing "Time draws near"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (USSeaIsland01)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Moving Star Hall Singers, "Ezekiel in the Valley" (on USSeaIsland01) [two versions]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dem Bones" (theme)
cf. "Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again" (theme)
cf. "I Saw the Light from Heaven" ("Dry Bones" (I)) (theme)
NOTES [215 words]: The two versions use similar tunes. The "moan" in one case is a hum, and in the other "Oh." Both, either in the text or comment by the singers, refer to "head's on the neck bone." The Biblical reference is to Ezekiel 37.1-14 in which God asks Ezekiel, "can these bones live?" and Ezekiel answers "Lord God, thou knowest," and Ezekiel is told to prophesy that the bones will rise and that the Lord will "have opened your graves ... and I shall place you in your own land" [King James]. The hymn replays God's call on Ezekiel, Ezekiel's [reluctant] response and prophesy: "time draws near."
Like so many of the hymns recorded by the Carawans in the Sea Islands, "Ezekiel in the Valley" is sung in the part of the service that, among Spiritual Baptists, would be occupied by hymns like those in Sankey and Moody. "Sankeys" are missing in the book, Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, and the Folkways Recordings, BeenStorm1 and USSeaIsland01. However, in USSeaIsland02, recording part of an actual watch, Sankeys and songs from other hymn books dominate.
The USSeaIsland01 tracks are call-response. The Herskovits Trinidadian Spiritual Baptist account of "Jesus Lover of My Soul" fits this track as well. Although this is not a Sankey hymn, the performance style matches "Sankey into Shout." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcEzeIVa

Ezekiel Saw a Wheel

See Ezekiel Saw the Wheel (File: CNFM052)

Ezekiel Saw That Little Stone

See Daniel Saw the Stone (File: CrAAF322)

Ezekiel Saw the Wheel

DESCRIPTION: "Ezekiel saw the wheel, Way up in the middle of the air... And the big wheel (run/turn) by faith, and the little wheel (run/turn) by the grace of God. (There's) a wheel in a wheel, Way in the middle of the air."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 60-61, "Ezekiel Saw de Wheel" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 164-165 in the 1909 edition)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 52, (no title) (1 text, probably partial)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 488-492, "Ezekiel, You and Me" (1 heavily composite text, 1 composite tune; the first verse is "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel," the second is from "Keep A-Inchin' Along," the third is "Standing in the Need of Prayer," the fourth is "Chilly Water" [Roud #15312], the last probably derived from "Sowing on the Mountain")
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 34-35, "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel" (1 text. 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 30, "Ezekiel Wheel" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 357, "Ezekiel Saw The Wheel" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 98-100, "Well, Don't You Want to Take a Ride" (1 text, 1 tune, clearly inspired by this although it may have taken on parts of another song)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 415, 444, "Ezekiel Saw a Wheel" (notes only)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 31`5, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #12241
RECORDINGS:
Biddle University Quartet, "Ezekiel Saw de Wheel" (Pathe 22400, 1920/Perfect 11225, 1925)
Elkins-Payne Jubilee Singers, "Ezekiel Saw de Wheel" (OKeh 40250, 1925; rec. 1924)
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "Ezekiel Saw de Wheel" (Columbia A3370, 1921; Silvertone 3283 [as Border Male Quartet], n.d.; rec. 1920)
Hall Johnson Negro Choir, "Ezekiel Saw de Wheel" (Victor 36020, 1930)
Hampton Institute Quartette, "Exekiel Saw de Wheel" (Musicraft 232, prob. 1939)
Norfolk Jubilee Quartette, "Ezekiel Saw de Wheel" (Paramount 12217, 1924)
Pace Jubilee Singers w. Hattie Parker, "Ezekiel Saw De Wheel" (Victor 21582, 1928)
Paul Robeson & Lawrence Brown, "Ezekiel Saw de Wheel" (Victor 20604, 1927)
West Virginia Collegiate Institute Glee Club, "Ezekial Saw de Wheel" (Brunswick 3498, 1927; Supertone S-2126 [as Harmony Glee Club], 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rock, Chariot, I Told You to Rock"
cf. "John Done Saw That Number"
cf. "A Wheel in a Wheel" (theme)
cf. "I Wouldn't Mind Dying" (Ezekiel's wheel theme)
NOTES [138 words]: This is based on Ezekiel's vision in Ezekiel 1. The "wheel" is first mentioned in 1:15, and the "wheel in a wheel" in 1:16. As far as I know, there is no disagreement about the interpretation of the word "wheel" -- although interpreters disagree whether the wheels looked like "beryl" or "topaz."
The text of verse 16 is somewhat uncertain; NRSV reads the verse as "As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl; and the four had the same form, their construction being somewhat like a wheel within a wheel." But the original Septuagint (LXX) Greek translation omits "and their construction." Many textual critics think the Greek is original here, and the Hebrew text underlying the King James Bible wrong, but the writer of this song surely did not know that. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: CNFM052

Ezekiel, You and Me

See Ezekiel Saw the Wheel (File: CNFM052)

Ezekiel's Wheel

See Ezekiel Saw the Wheel (File: CNFM052)

F for Finis

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme? "F for Finis, I for Inis, N for Nocklebone, I for Isaac, S for Silas -- Silverspoon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: wordplay nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 44, "(F for finis)" (1 text)
File: WEMM044C

F. F. and V. V.

See The Wreck on the C & O [Laws G3] (File: LG03)

F. F. V., The

See The Wreck on the C & O [Laws G3] (File: LG03)

Fa's are ye? I'm Tam Tat's

See Tom Taits (File: GrD81634)

Fa'se Footrage

See Fause Foodrage [Child 89] (File: C089)

Face duh Risin' Sun

See See Four and Twenty Elders On Their Knees (File: Dett071)

Face on the Barroom Floor, The

DESCRIPTION: A drunk enters a bar; he tells his story in exchange for drink. He was a painter, but his girlfriend saw a portrait he was painting, and took up with the fellow, then died. The singer turned to drink; he offers to draw her face on the floor, and dies
AUTHOR: Hugh Antoine D'Arcy (1843?-1925)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (New York Dispatch, according to Gardner)
KEYWORDS: drink abandonment death love
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp. 21-24, "The Face on the Barroom Floor" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 126-127, "The Face on the Bar Room Floor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 82-84, "The Face on the Bar-room Floor" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 271-273, "The Face on the Barroom Floor" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Martin Gardner, editor, _Famous Poems from Bygone Days_, Dover, 1995, pp.46-50, "The Face on the Barroom Floor" (1 text)
Michael R. Turner, _Victorian Parlour Poetry: An Annotated Anthology_, 1967, 1969 (page references are to the 1992 Dover edition), pp. 231-232, "The Face Upon the Floor" (1 text)
ST JHJ021 (Partial)
Roud #9123
RECORDINGS:
Harold Selman, "The Face on the Bar Room Floor, pts. 1 & 2" (OKeh 45249, 1928)
NOTES [104 words]: Originally titled "The Face Upon the Floor," this qualifies as a folk song only in the sense that certain sorts of people are very fond of quoting it. It has been widely published; Granger's Index to Poetry lists nine citations. Those with strong enough stomach to want to see other works by D'Arcy may consult his collection The Face Upon the Floor and Other Ballads, William G. Hewitt, 1912.
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 273-274, reprints an obituary of author D'Arcy. Don't ask me why, The one interesting thing it tells us is that D'Arcy did not earn royalties on the poem. It doesn't say why. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: JHJ021

Face Upon the Floor, The

See The Face on the Barroom Floor (File: JHJ021)

Factor's Garland, The [Laws Q37]

DESCRIPTION: The factor shows his kindness by paying for a dead man's burial and paying the fee of a girl who would otherwise be hanged. It is eventually revealed that the girl is a king's daughter. After many complex adventures, he marries the girl; they have a son
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1725 (A Collection of Old Ballads Vol III)
KEYWORDS: rescue marriage money royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws Q37, "The Factor's Garland"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #120, pp. 1-2, "The Factor's Garland" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1062, "The Factor's Garland" (2 texts)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 154-162, "The Factor's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 81-82, "The Factor's Garland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 60, "The Turkish Factor" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 268-271, "The Turkey Factor in Foreign Parts" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 479, "The Factor's Garland" (source notes only)
DT 545, FACTRSNG
ADDITIONAL: [Ambrose Phillips?,] A Collection of Old Ballads Vol III, (London, 1725), #41, pp. 221-228, "The Factor's Garland"
Roud #572
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 1(61), "The Turkey Factor" ("Behold here is a ditty, 'tis true and no jest"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Harding B 1(62), "The Turkey Factor"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wand'ring Lady" (tune, per _A Collection of Old Ballads Vol III_)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Factor
NOTES [73 words]: There may be a slight hint in here of the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical book of Tobit, which is also motivated by the generosity of the hero in burying the dead. But, if so, it's come a long way. - RBW
re A Collection of Old Ballads Vol III: Ambrose Philips, whose name does not appear in the text is the editor, according to Google Books. The New York Public Library catalog says "Compilation usually attributed to Ambrose Philips." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: LQ37

Factor's Song, The

See The Factor's Garland [Laws Q37] (File: LQ37)

Factory Girl (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a beautiful girl, an orphan who works in a factory (linen mill). He courts her, but she must leave to go to work. He offers to marry her. She again rejects him. She eventually marries well -- perhaps to the singer, perhaps to a squire
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Gardiner); before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Bod11415 Harding B 11(1109))
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty marriage money orphan factory technology
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(South)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 221, "The Factory Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 563, "Factory Girl" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 29, "The Factory GIrl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H127, p. 368, "The Factory Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 19, "The Factory Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 41, pp. 129-130,171-172, "The Factory Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 157, "The Factory Girl" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 23, "The Factory Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FACTGIRL* FACTGRL2
ADDITIONAL: Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), p. 7, "The Factory Girl" (text, music and reference to Decca F-3125 recorded Aug 12, 1932)
Roud #1659 and 30120
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "The Factory Girl" (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
Bill Cassidy, "The Factory Girl" (on IRTravellers01)
Mrs. Ghaney, "The Country Girl" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Sarah Makem, "The Factory Girl" (on Voice10)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod11415 Harding B 11(1109), "The Factory Girl" ("The sun was just rising one May-day morning"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Bod6958 Harding B 20(96), Bod11475 Harding B 11(1110), Bod11485 Harding B 11(1120), Bod8446 Harding B 11(191), Bod9820 Firth c.18(222), "The Factory Girl"; Bod9819 Firth c.18(221), Bod16377 Harding B 20(206), "The Fortunate Factory Girl"
NOTES [270 words]: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin does not end so well for the suitor. The factory girl tells him to "go marry a lady" and leaves him to wander "in some deep valley, where no one shall no me, I'll mourn for the sake of my factory-maid."
The date and master id (GB-4733-1) for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography.
Steve Roud splits the MUNFLA-Leach "The Country Girl" text from "The Factory Girl." There is a Bodleian broadside -- Bod17337 Harding B 19(119b) "The Blooming Goddess. Or Country Girl" ("The sun was just rising on fine Monday morning") -- that may be the source for the MUNFLA-Leach text. Unfortunately, the text of that broadside is not available online. The question is whether or not that text would have been different enough from "The Factory Girl" broadsides to warrant being split from them. The "blooming goddess" phrase of its title is also in "The Factory Girl": "This blooming young goddess the factory girl."
Putting the broadside versions aside, the significant differences between MUNFLA-Leach and "The Fortunate Factory Girl" broadside, dropped lines aside, are the line:
MUNFLA/Leach: In yonder green valleys their works to begin
Bodleian Bod9819 Firth c.18(221): To yonder large village their work to begin
and the substitution of "counteree girl" for "Factory Girl," as in
MUNFLA/Leach-TheBalladBook: That bloomin' young goddess that counteree girl.
Bodleain Bod9819 Firth c.18(221): This blooming young goddess, the Factory Girl
I find the relationship closer than just that one song is derived from the other. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: K221

Factory Girl (II), The

See No More Shall I Work in the Factory (File: Grnw122)

Faded Coat of Blue

DESCRIPTION: "My brave boy sleeps in his faded coat of blue, In a lonely grave unknown lies that heart that beat so true." Dying, he bids farewell to mother. The singer is confident they will meet in heaven "Where a robe of white is given for a faded coat of blue."
AUTHOR: J. H. McNaughton
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (sheet music published by Penn & Remington, Buffalo, NY)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar death farewell
FOUND IN: US(Ro,So) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 126, pp. 266-267, "The Faded Coat of Blue" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #152, "In His Faded Coat of Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 104, "The Faded Coat of Blue" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 161-163, "The Faded Coat of Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 227-228, "The Faded Coat of Blue" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 26-27, "The Faded Coat of Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #587, p. 39, "The Faded Coat of Blue" (1 reference)
DT, FADECOAT*
ST HCW227 (Full)
Roud #4293
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Faded Coat of Blue" (Bluebird B-5974/Montgomery Ward M-4543, 1935; Regal Zonophone [Australia] G22656, n.d.; rec. 1934)
Buell Kazee, "Faded Coat of Blue" (Brunswick 206/Brunswick 3802, 1928; Supertone S-2045, 1930)
John Thomas, "Faded Coat of Blue" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
SAME TUNE:
Thirty Cents a Day ("In a dim-lighted chamber a dying maiden lay, The tide of her pulses was ebbing fast away") (Foner, p. 162)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Coat of Blue
NOTES [89 words]: Written during the Civil War (or so I've heard, though I've also seen claims that it's a Spanish-American war song), this was apparently collected by A. P. Carter and recorded by the Carter Family in 1934. I know of no other collection in tradition. - RBW
[A]s far as the Carters' being the only collection in tradition -- doesn't Buell Kazee count? His record was issued made and issued in 1928, or six years before the Carter Family's. - PJS
And, of course, we can now add Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi's and Grieg's versions. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: HCW227

Faded Flowers

DESCRIPTION: "I've been gathering wild flowers on the hillside To wreathe upon your brow. But so long you've kept me waiting They ate dead and faded now." When he loved her, she turned him loose; now she wants him back, but he loves another. She will remain true
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment return loneliness flowers
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 216-217, "Faded Flowers" (1 text)
Roud #6983
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Parting Words" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [71 words]: According to Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 39, there are at least two Civil War era broadsides with this title, with first line "The flowers I saw in the wild wood"; they do not list an author or date. This is also found on Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 23. It may be related to this song, but it doesn't look quite the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Beld216

Faded Roses

See Bye and Bye You Will Forget Me (I) (File: BrII161)

Fadgel Hizzy, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees young men busy courting: putting hair powder on their hair to court the "fadgel hizzy." Stir her up, keep her busy, hold her gown "for she's a fine fadgel hizzie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 151, "The Fadgel Hizzy" (1 fragment)
Roud #15108
NOTES [301 words]: Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 glossary translates "fadgel hizzy" as "fat hussy."
This appears to be what's left of a bawdy song. If so, it has been cleaned up once by Ramsay and recast by Burns as "O, Steer Her Up, and Haud Her Gaun." "In Ramsay's Miscellany, 1725, is a garbled and disconnected song of the title, which Herd copied into Scots Songs, 1769, 181. Stenhouse says 'Ramsay very properly suppressed the old song, enough of which is still known' (Illustrations, p. 441)" (source: James C Dick, The Songs of Robert Burns (London, 1903 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), p. 417).
For Ramsay's text you can see any of the following: Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Choice Songs, Scots and English (London, 1833 (ninth edition) ("Digitized by Google")), p. 103, ("O steer her up, and had her gawn") (1 text); David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (facsimile of (Edinburgh,1776) with an "Appendix ... containing the pieces substituted in the 1791 reprint for those omitted of the 1776 edition, &c.") ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, pp. 97-98, "Steer her up and had her gawin" (1 text); broadside Bodleian, Firth b.25(569/570/571/572) Views 3-4 of 5, "Steer Her Up and Ha'd Her Gaw'n ("O steer her up and ha'd her gaw'n"), W Macnie. (Stirling), 1825.
The idea of this song is "gin she winna tak a man ... Cast thy cares of love away; Let's our sorrows drown in drinking.... Spite of Venus and her mumpers, Drinking better is than love." Burns rewrote Ramsay's song (Scots Musical Museum, 1803, No. 504): "... That gin the lassie winna do't, Ye'll fin' anither will, jo" (source: James C Dick, The Songs of Robert Burns (London, 1903 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), #196 p. 175, "O, Steer Her Up" (1 text, 1 tune)). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2151

Fagan the Cobbler

See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Faggot Cutter, The

DESCRIPTION: The faggot cutter works but "quits whene'er he please." He prefers the single life: no debts, troubles or babies, and no man to court his wife when he is away. Marrying leads to trouble whether the girl is good-looking, homely, big or small.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario)
KEYWORDS: marriage work nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont) US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 45, "The Faggot Cutter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, "A Hobo's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2321
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Mean to Lead a Single Life
NOTES [34 words]: Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario, p. 187, calls this a "lively old English drinking song," but cites only a handful of parallels. Much of her text feels quite similar to "A-Begging I Will Go." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: FowOn045

Faiche Bhrea Aerach An Cheoil

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Praise of Kinneigh in Cork and its scenic marvels. "In the local church the infirm are healed and the lame miraculously cured."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage pride healing nonballad religious
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 57, "Faiche Bhrea Aerach An Cheoil" (3 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Faiche Bhrea Aerach An Cheoil" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC057

Fain Waterloo

See The Plains of Waterloo (I) [Laws N32] (File: LN32)

Fain Waterloo, The

See The Mantle So Green [Laws N38] (File: LN38)

Fair and Free Elections

DESCRIPTION: "While some on rights and some on wrongs Prefer their own reflections The people's rights demand our song The right of free elections." In praise of democracy and its good effects. Listeners are urged to "stand by the ballot box"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (recording, Oscar Brand)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 284, "Fair and Free Elections" (1 text)
DT, FAIRFREE*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (tune) and references there
NOTES [18 words]: Wonder what the author would have thought of politics, 1990s style. - RBW
Not to mention Florida, 2000? - PJS
File: FSWB284

Fair and Handsome Girls

See Come All You Fair and Tender Girls (File: WB2080)

Fair and Tender Ladies

DESCRIPTION: Lyric song, in which the narrator, a woman, laments the falseness of men. She sadly remarks, "Oh if I were some little sparrow / And had I wings so I could fly / I'd fly away to my own true lover / And when he courted, I'd deny."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: courting love betrayal nonballad bird lyric
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (39 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1156, "Consider All Ye Fair Maids" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 477-478, "Little Sparrow" (2 texts)
Randolph 73, "You Fair and Pretty Ladies" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 121-122, "You Fair and Pretty Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 73A)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 71, "The Drowsy Sleeper" (2 texts plus 3 excerpts; the "D" excerpt contains "Fair and Tender Ladies" verses)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 254, "Little Sparrow" (4 texts plus 1 excerpt and 1 fragment; the "F" text, however, is primarily "The Butcher Boy" or an "I Wish I Wish" piece of some sort)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 254, "Little Sparrow" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 257, "Come All You Fair and Pretty Ladies" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #196, "Little Sparrow" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 51, p. 167, "Young Ladies" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 95, "Come All You Fair Maidens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 136-137, "The Little Sparrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 52-53, "The Little Sparrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 45-46, "Little Sparrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 312-313, "Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies" (1 text, with local title "Come All Ye Maids and Pretty Fair Maidens"; tune on p. 440)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 80, "Little Sparrow" (1 text)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 55 "Little Sparrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 26-27, "Constant Sorrow" (1 text, 1 tune, beginning with "Man of Constant Sorrow" but with most of "Fair and Tender Ladies" grafted on at the end)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 37, pp. 66-67, "Fair and Tender Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 17, "Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 99, "Fair and Tender Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune); see also 70, "Love is Pleasin'" (1 text, 1 tune, of four verses, one of which goes here, one belongs with "Waly Waly," and the fourth could be from several sources)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 118, "Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies" (18 texts, 18 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 45, "Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #46, "If I Had a'Known (Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies)" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 61, "O, Waly, Waly" (1 text, clearly mis-titled by Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads [and misfiled by Roud on that basis], since neither the phrase "O Waly Waly" nor "The Water is Wide" are used; the lyrics are entirely consistent with this piece); p. 98, "I Wish I Was A Little Sparrow" (1 single-verse fragment)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 185-186, "[Come All Ye Fair]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 18, "Fair and Tender Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 82-83, "Little Sparrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 88-89, "Little Sparrow" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 145, (no title) (1 tune, partial text)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 74-77, "Little Sparrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 140, "Young Ladies (Little Sparrow)" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 142-143, "Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 48, "Young Ladies (False Lover)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #102, "Fair and Tender Maidens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, p. 160, "The Little Swallow" (1 text)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 24 "Come All You Fair And Tender Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 164, "Come All You Fair And Tender Ladies" (1 text)
DT, FAIR&TEN*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 33, #2 (1988), pp, 44-45, "Come All You Maidens" (1 text, 1 tune, the Sara Cleveland version, which doesn't mention fair and tender ladies and makes the sparrow a swallow)
Roud #451
RECORDINGS:
Sheila Clark, "Come All Ye Fair Ladies" (on LegendTomDula)
Sara Cleveland, "Come All You Maidens" (on SCleveland01)
Debra Cowan, "Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies" (on HCargillFamily)
Martha Hall, "Young and Tender Ladies" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Sarah Hawkes, "Little Sparrow" (on Persis1)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Willow Tree" (on Holcomb1, HolcombCD1)
Stella Kimble & Pearl Richardson, "Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies" (on FarMtns2)
Dellie Norton, "Little Sparrow" (on OldTrad2, FarMtns4)
Pete Seeger, "Come All Fair Maids" (on PeteSeeger02, PeteSeegerCD01); "Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies" (on PeteSeeger05)
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:105, "The Wheel of Fortune," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C [extremely mixed, with the "Wheel of Fortune" verse, a thyme stanza, a bit of "Fair and Tender Ladies," a "Queen of Heart" verse, and more]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Peggy Gordon" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Oh, Johnny, Johnny" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Rambleaway" (theme)
cf. "Lora Williams" (tune)
NOTES [174 words]: Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi for some reason lists this as a British import, without offering supporting evidence. Paddy Tunney's Irish version is about all I can find in support of his claim. The evidence would seem to indicate that this is one of those songs that went the other way. - RBW
Steve Roud splits Greig/Duncan6 1156 as #6820, noting that -- if they are the same as #450 -- these two texts are the only two British versions found to date. Of the longer Greig/Duncan6 text only three of the six verses are very close to the US texts ("star in a summer mornin'," "they'll tell you stories," "little swallow"); the other three verses match in spirit but not in words. The one verse fragment is the "star in a summer's morning" verse.
Edward Bunting, The Ancient Music of Ireland (Mineola, 2000 (reprint of 1840 Dublin edition)), p. 96, quotes "The Little Swallow" "words which have been handed down by tradition ... commencing: 'I would I were a little swallow, I would rise into the air and fly, Away to that inconstant rover'." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R073

Fair and Tender Maidens

See Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)

Fair Annet

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Fair Annie [Child 62]

DESCRIPTION: (Annie's) lover is going off to fetch a bride. On his return, he orders Annie to serve his new bride. She does, but that night weeps for her lost lover. The new bride hears and visits her; they find they are sisters. The bride leaves her husband to Annie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: love marriage abandonment adultery sister
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(Ap,NE,Ro,SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Child 62, "Fair Annie" (10 texts)
Bronson 62, "Fair Annie" (7 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 62, "Fair Annie" (2 versions: #1, #3)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 166-172, "Fair Annie" (1 text)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 136-140, "Lady Jane" (1 text, printed parallel to blank pages)
Greig/Duncan6 1161, "Fair Annie" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 110, "Fair Annie" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 16 "Fair Annie" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #7, "Fair Annie" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 446-448, "Fair Annie" (1 text)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 15, "Fair Annie" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #6, "Rosanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 196-201, "Fair Annie" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 42, "Fair Annie" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 114, "Fair Annie" (2 texts+2 fragments)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 50, "Fair Annie" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 16, pp. 114-118, "Fair Annie" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 247-251+355, "Fair Annie" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 44, "Fair Annie" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 9, "Fair Annie" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 188-189, "Lady Jane" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 3, "Fair Annie" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H126, p. 510, "Fair Annie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 15-18, "Fair Annie" (1 text)
DT 62, FAIRANNI* FAIRANN2*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #423, "Fair Annie" (1 text)
RELATED: versions of the romance "Lay le Friene"
Anne Laskaya and Eve Salisbury, _The Middle English Breton Lays_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2001. Much of the material in this book is also available online), pp. 61-78 "Lay le Friene" (1 text)
Thomas C. Rumble, editor, _The Breton Lays in Middle English_, 1964 (I use the 1967 Wayne State University paperback edition which corrects a few errors in the original printing), pp. 80-94, "Lay Le Friene" (1 text plus an image of the first page in the manuscript)
Donald B. Sands, editor, _Middle English Verse Romances_, Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1966, pp. 233-245 "Lay Le Friene" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3869
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #6173
MANUSCRIPT: {MSAuchinleck}, The Auchinleck Manuscript, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 19.2.1, folios 261r-262a, "Lay le freine"
Roud #42
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Thomas o Yonderdale" [Child 253] (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sister's Husband
Rosanna
NOTES [378 words]: Child makes much of the relationship between this song and the "Lai le Freisne," a "Breton Lai" (metrical romance on a Celtic theme) of Marie de France. This has been translated into the Middle English romance "Lay le Freiene." That there are similarities cannot be denied; in the lai, a woman bears twins, and leaves one at a convent to preserve her reputation (there was a belief that twins meant that a woman had slept with two men), and eventually the separated reunite. And this story was translated into English, as the "Lai le Fresne"; there is a single copy, damaged, in the famous Auchinleck manuscript (National Library of Scotland, Advocates 19.2.1), from the early fourteenth century. Copies of this can be found in Rumble, p. 81 (without notes but extensive glosses) and Sands, p. 233 (with more notes but slightly fewer glosses); the third version cited above, Anne Laskaya and Eve Salisbury, The Middle English Breton Lays, is available online as well as in book form.
Marie's original version receives a translation into modern English in Marie/Burgess/Busby, p. 62, and Marie/Hanning/Ferrante, p. 73.
But the lai is much concerned with the mechanisms of separation and reunion, which are of no consequence at all in the ballad. And the English romance survived so weakly that it is hard to imagine it as the main source. It is possible that the two pieces are independent, or at best, entirely separate redactions of a very brief fragment of plot.
There are also some similarities to Chaucer's "Clerk's Tale," although often the similarities consist of paired opposites. That almost seems like a technicality, though: The scene in Peggy Seeger's version where the husband tells his new bride that the old love is just a "housekeeper" instantly makes me think of Chaucer's tale. Again, in Chaucer, the old and new bride are mother and daughter, not sisters, but still separated relatives. In the ballad, the old love wants her children dead; in Chaucer, it was the husband who took away the children. It's sort of a case of the same plot done with different actors. One major similarity: In both this ballad and Chaucer, the old love brought no wealth, nor does she have a distinguished ancestry, and the new wife is supposed to bring great honor. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: C062

Fair Annie of the Lochroyan

See The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76] (File: C076)

Fair Anny

See The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76] (File: C076)

Fair As a Lily, Joyous and Free

See Rosalie the Prairie Flower (File: Wo2E2032)

Fair at Batesland, The

DESCRIPTION: The poet wanders into town on the day of the Batestown Fair. He signs up for the bronc-riding contest, drinking a bit while he waits. The poet drawn "an old brown mule," and gets thrown. Abused by the crown, gets "a job a-herdin' sheep"
AUTHOR: Raymond Runnels
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 76, "The Fair at Batesland" (1 text)
File: Ohr076

Fair at Turloughmore, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come tell me, dearest mother, What makes my father stay, Or what can be the reason he's been so long away?" She tells how the father went to Turloughmore and was killed in an attack by the Peelers. She hopes "their souls are happy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Duffy)
KEYWORDS: Ireland death police trial
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1843? - Police fire after an attack and kill Callaghan, Greally, and Mullen (see notes)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 93-94, "The Fair at Turloughmore" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 31, "The Sorrowful Lament for Callaghan, Greally and Mullen" (1 text, 1 tune, apparenly derived from Duffy)
DT, FAIRTURL*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 196-197, "The Sorrowful Lament for Callaghan, Greally and Mullen"
Roud #3042
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charles Guiteau" [Laws E11] (floating lyrics)
NOTES [136 words]: Duffy: "The circumstance on which it is founded took place two years ago, at the fair of Darrynacloughery, held at Turloughmore. A faction fight having occurred at the fair, the arrest of some of the parties led to an attack on the police -- after the attack had abated or ceased, the police fired on the people, wounded several, and killed three men whose names stand at the head of the ballad. They were indicted for murder and pleaded the order of Mr Brew, the stipendary magistrate, which was admitted as a justification. Brew died the day before the day appointed for his trial." - BS
The second stanza of this song, in the Galvin text, begins "Come all you tender Christians, I hope you will draw near," as in "Charles Guiteau" and its relatives. The tunes and the rest of the song, however, appear unrelated. - RBW
File: PGa093

Fair Beauty Bride, A

See Charming Beauty Bright [Laws M3] (File: LM03)

Fair Betsy

See Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid) [Laws M20] (File: LM20)

Fair Brown

DESCRIPTION: Bluesy verses about a poor man's life: "Fair brown, O fair brown, What makes you hold your head so high?" The "Norfolk women" are planning to get money from the "poor workin' man"; they play sick; they drink. The singer says he will not marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting poverty betrayal hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 486, "Fair Brown" (1 text)
Roud #11760
File: Br3486

Fair Captive, The

DESCRIPTION: An infant white girl is abducted and raised by Indians. She considers herself fully Indian, albeit with skin paled by moonlight. When the Indians and whites make peace, she's returned to her parents; betrothed to a white, she runs off on her wedding day.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Warde Ford)
LONG DESCRIPTION: An infant white girl is abducted and raised lovingly by Indians, taken as daughter by the chief. She considers herself fully Indian, albeit with skin paled by moonlight. When the Indians and whites make peace, she's returned to her parents; betrothed to a white man, she runs off on her wedding day. (She dies of grief in the woods, mourned by the chief's son)
KEYWORDS: captivity wedding return separation abduction escape baby family Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: US(MW)
Roud #15491
RECORDINGS:
Pat Ford, "The Fair Captive" (tr. only; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Warde Ford, "The Fair Captive" (AFS A4201 B1, 1938, tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Robert Walker, "The Fair Captive" [fragment] (tr. only; in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Aged Indian" (plot elements)
cf. "Olban (Alban) or The White Captive" [Laws H15]
cf. "The Aged Indian (Uncle Tohido)" (plot elements)
NOTES [77 words]: Ford mentions that his source, Charles E. Walker, learned it about 1900 from another singer. It's quite literary-sounding. It's not, however, the same song as, "Olban/The White Captive -- not even close.
Ford also recorded a fragment, AFS A4205 A2, which is misidentified on the on AMMEM website as "The Fair Captive." It's not -- it's "The Lady Leroy." - PJS
It's interesting to see what is almost certainly a "white" song with such sympathy for Indians. - RBW
File: RcTFC

Fair Caroline

See Caroline of Edinborough Town [Laws P27] (File: LP27)

Fair Charlotte

See Young Charlotte (Fair Charlotte) [Laws G17] (File: LG17)

Fair Damsel from London, The

See The Undaunted Female (The Box Upon Her Head; The Staffordshire Maid; The Maid and the Robber) [Laws L3] (File: LL03)

Fair Damsel in a Garden, A

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Fair Damsel, The

DESCRIPTION: A man courts a poor girl and "gained her heart." He marries a rich old widow but goes back to his old love. "All though I am marryed I will visit you still." She tells him to "go home to your old wife" and "he cursed the hour that he marry for gold"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin)
KEYWORDS: age greed adultery courting infidelity love marriage sex rejection gold money lover mistress wife
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 25, "The Fair Damsel" (1 text)
Roud #4265
File: MuLa025

Fair Do, The

DESCRIPTION: Rosslare's Fair Do's crew leave her at Pier Head where the competition "moulded her model and measured her mast, And said, 'tween themselves, 'Let us build one as fast.'" Nevertheless, Fair Do beats Pier's Spitfire by four minutes and takes the cup.
AUTHOR: John Walsh of The Burrow, Rosslare
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: ship racing sports moniker
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 39-40, "The Fair Do" (1 text)
Roud #20523
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cod Liver Oil" (tune) and references there
NOTES [22 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast notes that "The Fair Do" is "a song of the Rosslare Regata, 1940." Rosslare is on the Wexford coast. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran039

Fair Eleanor (I)

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Fair Eleanor (II)

DESCRIPTION: Johnny meets Eleanor "in the middle of the night" to go "and married we will be." In the woods he tells her to strip and he "will be your butcher." She begs for mercy but he stabs her to death. He is imprisoned "in Castlebury jail" until he dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting betrayal homicide prison burial
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 608-609, "Fair Eleanor" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea608 (Partial)
Roud #9796
RECORDINGS:
Charlotte Decker, "Fair Eleanor" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4]" (plot)
cf. "Pretty Polly (II)"
File: Pea608

Fair Eleanor and the Brown Girl

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Fair Eleanor and the Brown Maid

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Fair Ellen (I)

See Jealous Lover, The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C] (File: LF01)

Fair Ellen (II)

See Child Waters [Child 63] (File: C063)

Fair Ellender

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Fair Fannie More

See Fair Fanny Moore [Laws O38] (File: LO38)

Fair Fanny Moore [Laws O38]

DESCRIPTION: Fanny marries poor Henry rather than wealthy (Randall). When Henry is away, Randall appears and demands her life (or her love). (When she refuses,) he stabs her. Randall is hanged; Henry wanders distracted until he dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution marriage jealousy
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Laws O38, "Fair Fanny Moore"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 139-141, "Fair Fannie Moore" (2 texts)
Randolph 141, "Fair Fanny Moore" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 71, "Fair Fannie Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 64, "Fair Fanny Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 71-72, "Fair Fannie Moore" (1 text, 1 tune) (pp. 59-60 in the 1919 edition)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 77, "Fair Fanny Moore" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #63, "Fair Fanny Moore" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 72, "Fair Fannie Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 74-75, "Fair Fanny Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 75-77, "Fair Fanny Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 720, "Fair Fanny Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 97, pp. 206-207, "Fair Fanny Moor" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 150, "Fair Fanny Moore" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 58-59, "Fanny More" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp.233-234, "Fair Fannie More" (2 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 610-611, "Fair Fanny Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 120-122, "Fair Fanny Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 85-86, "Fair Fanny Moore" (1 text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 164-165, "Fair Fanny Moore" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 479, "Fair Fanny Moore" (source notes only)
DT 337, FANMOORE FANMOOR2
Roud #1001
RECORDINGS:
Patsy Judge, "The Fair Fanny Moore" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Ken Maynard, "Fannie Moore" (Columbia, 1930; on TimesAint01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod9728 Firth c.18(192), "Fanny Moore" ("Do you see yon green cot so deserted and lone"), unknown, no date
File: LO38

Fair Flo-ella, The

See Jealous Lover, The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C] (File: LF01)

Fair Flora

See Pretty Little Miss [Laws P18] (File: LP18)

Fair Florella

See Jealous Lover, The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C] (File: LF01)

Fair Flower of Northumberland, The [Child 9]

DESCRIPTION: A Scots soldier is captured and imprisoned. He captivates the gaoler's daughter, promising to marry her if she will free him. As soon as he is over the Scots border, he abandons her, saying he is already married. Her mother comforts her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1597 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: courting prison escape trick lie abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(North))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Child 9, "The Fair Flower of Northumberland" (7 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 9, "The Fair Flower of Northumberland" (7 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 9, "The Fair Flower of Northumberland" (4 versions: #1, #4, #5, #6)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 212-217, "The Ungrateful Knight and Fair Flower of Northumberland" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #111, pp. 1-2, "The Flower of Northumberland" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1149, "The Fair Flower o' Northumberland" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 94-96, "The Fair Flower of Northumberland" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 192, "The Flower o' Northumberland" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 71-74, "The Fair Flower of Northumberland" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 71, "The Fair Flower of Northumberland" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 6, "The Fair Flower of Northumberland" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
DT 9, FAIRFLWR* FAIRFLR2*
Roud #25
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Young Andrew" [Child 48] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Deceived Girl
The Sinful Maiden
Sin's Reward
NOTES [219 words]: Chambers, p. 141, declares that Thomas Deloney (1543?-1600?) "in his Pleasant History of John Winchcomb (c. 1597) introduced a ballad of The Fair Flower of Northumberland, of which he says, 'the maidens in dulcet manner chanted out this song, two of them singing the ditty, and all the rest bearing the burden.'" [Fowler, p. 13, who prints two verses of Deloney's text but calls the book Jack of Newbury. The text is clearly this; Fowler, p. 14, declares it the first ballad with an internal refrain.] This is the basis for Child's "A," which is similar to Ritson's 1790 text. On this basis, Boklund-Lagopolou, pp. 96-97, claims that Deloney wrote the piece -- but she admits that it was in a "popular tradition of old songs and carols," and says that the refrain sounds more traditional. It would be very interesting to know what was Deloney's source. I would say he is a possible author, but it is also very possible that he found or rewrote the song.
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles claims that all three of his informants used this song to draw a moral; in two instances they gave it a religious tone. This, obviously, is absent from all the Scottish versions. This is another instance where one questions the veracity of Niles's collections; there are no other American versions of this ballad known. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: C009

Fair Flowers of Helio

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

Fair Gallowa'

See The Boy That Found a Bride (Fair Gallowa') (File: HHH665)

Fair Helen

See Helen of Kirconnell (File: OBB152)

Fair Indian Lass

See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Fair Janet [Child 64]

DESCRIPTION: (Janet/Annet/Maisry) loves Sweet Willie, but is told by her father she must marry a French lord. She bears Willie's child and has him take it to his mother. At her wedding she hasn't strength to dance, but dances with Willie and dies. (Willie dies.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: love pregnancy marriage childbirth dancing death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Child 64, "Fair Janet" (7 texts)
Bronson 64, "Fair Janet" (2 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 64, "Fair Janet" (1 version: #1)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 219-224, "Fair Janet" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 205-208, "Fair Janet" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1100, "Love Willie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 92, "Sweit Willie" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 52, "Fair Janet" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 213-217+351-352, "Fair Janet" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 14, "Fair Janet" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 44-47, "Fair Janet" (1 text)
DT 64, FAIRJAN
Roud #44
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Muckin' o' Geordie's Byre" (tune, per Greig/Duncan6)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Liv'd Ance Twa Luvers In Yon Dale
File: C064

Fair Jenny on the Moor

See Janie of the Moor [Laws N34] (File: LN34)

Fair John and the Seven Foresters

See Johnie Cock [Child 114] (File: C114)

Fair Julian Bond

See William Riley's Courtship [Laws M9] (File: LM09)

Fair Lady Bright

See Charming Beauty Bright [Laws M3] (File: LM03)

Fair Lady Leroy

See The Lady Leroy [Laws N5] (File: LN05)

Fair Lady of London

See A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.) [Laws P9] (File: LP09)

Fair Lady of the Plains, A (Death of a Maiden Fair) [Laws B8]

DESCRIPTION: A 'fair maiden" is notable for herding cattle, drinking liquor, and using a six shooter. She is killed by Indians while working with her husband. The cowboys ride to seek revenge.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927
KEYWORDS: death cowboy revenge
FOUND IN: US(So,SE)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws B8, "Fair Lady of the Plains (Death of a Maiden Fair)"
Randolph 189, "A Fair Lady of the Plains" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 182-184, "A Fair Lady of the Plains" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 189A)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 159, "The Fair Lady of the Plains" (1 text, 1 tune)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 24, "The Maiden Who Lived on the Plains" (1 text)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 148-150, "Fair Lady of the Plains" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 42, "Fair Lady of the Plains" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 272-273, "A Fair Lady of the Plains" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 375, LDYPLAIN
Roud #3130
RECORDINGS:
Woody Guthrie, "Ranger's Command" (on "Buffalo Skinners," Smithsonian Folkways SFW CD 40112 (1999))
File: LB08

Fair Lady, Pity Me

See Dear Love, Regard My Grief (File: BGSW060)

Fair Little Girl Sat Under a Tree, A

See Good Night and Good Morning (File: KSUC057B)

Fair Lucy

See Lizie Wan [Child 51] (File: C051)

Fair Maid by the Seashore, The

See The Maid on the Shore (The Fair Maid by the Sea Shore; The Sea Captain) [Laws K27] (File: LK27)

Fair Maid in Bedlam, The

DESCRIPTION: In Moorfields a maid in Bedlam laments the absence of her lover. Her father's apprentice was sent to sea by her parents. He returns, wealthy, and hears her as he passes Bedlam. He bribes the porter and frees her. They are married in spite of her parents.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1832 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(602))
KEYWORDS: madness love marriage prison rescue father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 6-9, "Through Moorfields" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #113, "Through Moorfields" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #605
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Through Moorfields" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(602), "The Fair Maid in Bedlam" ("It was down in Moorfields, as I walked one day"), J. Marshall (Newcastle), 1810-1831; also Harding B 22(65), "The Distracted Maiden"; Firth b.26(457), Harding B 11(1116), "The Fair Maid in Bedlam"; Harding B 22(66), "The Distracted Maden's [sic] Lamentation"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nancy's Complaint in Bedlam" (theme of a maid in Bedlam) and references there
File: LEB113

Fair Maid in the Garden, The

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Fair Maid of Ballyagan

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a beautiful girl in a village in Aghadowey. He courts her, but she eventually rejects him for a wealthy suitor. He departs, "Intending never to meet again," but he cannot forget her. He curses wealth and the one who has it
AUTHOR: Andrew Orr
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H67, p. 365, "Fair Maid of Ballyagan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6883
File: HHH067

Fair Maid of Glasgow Town

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a pretty girl and asks if she will marry him. She points out that he is a stranger, and adds that she has a fiancee. He starts to leave. She calls him back and says she will marry him. He says he's not interested.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H579, p. 345, "Fair Maid of Glasgow Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5546
NOTES [33 words]: Too bad they didn't marry; they deserved each other. I doubt there has ever been a song where two people both rejected the other in the space of sixty seconds. Except on a soap opera, of course. - RBW
File: HHH579

Fair Maid of Passage, The

DESCRIPTION: The maid Dermuid loves is "plump as a sassage" and "mild as a kitten" He describes other attributes (red lips, black eyes and hair, sweet breath, moves "like a goddess") Because of her cruelty he "must die, Like a pig in a sty, Or the snuff of a candle"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 260-262, "The Fair Maid of Passage" (1 text)
NOTES [134 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "In a note (1838) he [Mr Edward Quin] adds, 'I assure you, from my own recollection, the song is known in my family upwards of thirty-five years. I have no doubt that it originated in Cork, though I do not know its author.'"
Two Bodleian broadsides (Firth c.11(32) View 3 of 4, "Labour in vain. A song, an hundred years old" ("Ye patriots, who twenty long years"), W Webb. (London), 1742; G.A. Warw. b.1(149), "The draper dup'd. A new song" ("Says Tom Dowlas, I pray now discover"), unknown, 1768?) are both to the tune of "Molly Mogg." Quin's version of "The Fair Maid of Passage" is essentially the same as Croker's, but begins "My dear Molly Mogg, You're soft as a bog."
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "The town of Passage ... is situated between Cork and its Cove...." - BS
File: CrPS260

Fair Maid Walking All in Her Garden, A

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Fair Maid Walking in Her Garden

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Fair Maid's Choice, The, or The Seaman's Renown

See Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me) (File: R493)

Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74]

DESCRIPTION: Margaret learns that her lover is to be wed. After the wedding, she (or her ghost) visits the wedding chamber and asks the husband if he is happy with his wife. He says that he would prefer her. But when he calls at Margaret's home, she is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy); c.1720 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 1(72a))
KEYWORDS: marriage questions death ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (57 citations):
Child 74, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (3 texts)
Bronson 74, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (79 versions, 4 of which are in one or another appendix, presumably because of the commonplace title and lack of text)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 74, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (5 versions: #1, #11, #47, #64, #68)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 228-231, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 93, "Lord Thomas and Ladie Margaret" (1 text)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 246-249, "Fair Margaret and Sweit William" (sic.) (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 134-139, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #31}
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 124-127, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (1 text); cf. pp. 308-312, "Margaret's Ghost" (a rewritten version, possibly by the eighteenth century poet David Mallet)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques LXXII, pp. 117-118, "Margaret's Ghost" (2 partial texts, 2 tunes)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 48-52, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William (4 texts)
Randolph 16, "Lady Margaret" (2 texts plus 2 fragments, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #43, C=#20, but very possibly not this song, D=#44}
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 138-141, "Lady Margaret and Lord William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 19A, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William"; 19B, "Sweet William and Lady Marget" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 12, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #25}
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 5, "Sweet William and Lady Margaret" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #58}
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 141-142, "William and Margaret" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 162-165, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune, the latter varying greatly from verse to verse)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 213-214, "Lady Margaret and Sweet William" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 80-85, "Prince William and Lady Margaret"/"Lady Margaret and King William" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2, pp. 122-147, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (7 texts plys 2 fragments, 5 tunes)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 19, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (12 texts plus 3 fragments, of which the "I" and "O" fragments might not be this song; 8 tunes entitled "Sweet William and Lady Margaret," "Lady Marget," "Fair Margaret and Sweet William," Lady Margaret," "Lady Margaret and Sweet William"; 13 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #30, #51, #50, #59, #14, with alterations, #55, #23, #39}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 19, pp. 138-145, "Fair Margaret and Sweet Williams" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 20, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (4 texts plus 2 excerpts and mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 20, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (5 excerpts, 5 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 10, "False William" (1 text)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 2-3, "Little Marget (Sweet William)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp. 194-195, "Little Marget (Sweet William and Lady Margaret)" (1 text, 1 tune) {same source as Bronson's #69, but the transcriptions are quite different; this version even has an extra verse}
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 11, pp. 87-90, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (2 texts)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 103-105, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (1 text, properly titled "Lady Margaret," plus a quotation; tune on p. 390)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 11, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (4 texts plus a fragment, the latter short enough that it might be from something else; 1 tune) {Bronson's #13}
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 12-13, "Sweet William and Lady Margaret" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 20 "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (8 texts plus 9 fragments, 17 tunes){Bronson's #33, #73, #24, #35, #34, #14, #59, #15, #62, #52, #12, #67, #42, #41, #70, #47, #74}
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 16, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune, composite and abridged) {Bronson's #67}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 23, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #49}
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 8, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (1 text, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #68}
Peacock, pp. 383-384, "Fair Marjorie's Ghost" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 7, "William and Margaret" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 247-250, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (2 texts)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 94, "Sweet William and Lady Margery" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 139-142, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 62, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 52, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William (1 text+1 fragment)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 29, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 200-202+348, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 382-384, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #78}
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 131-132, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (1 text, perhaps abridged, 1 tune) {Bronson's #78}
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, p. 180, "(Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (1 tune, with no source listed; partial text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 16, pp. 40-43, "Sweet William" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 11, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (7 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #10, #26}
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 82-85, "Sweet William and Lady Margaret" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 42-44, "Fair Margaret and Sweet Williams (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #16, "Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 77-78, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 47-50, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 220, "Lady Margaret" (1 text)
DT 74, LADYMARG LADYMAR2*
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 345-347, "Fair Margaret's Misfortunes or Sweet William's Dream on his Wedding Night" (1 text)
Roud #253
RECORDINGS:
Acie Cargill, Debra Cowan, and Kristina Olsen, "Sweet William and Lady Margaret" (on HCargillFamily)
Daw Henson, "Lady Margaret and Sweet William" (AFS, 1937; on KMM)
Martin Howley, "The Old Armchair" (on IRClare01); "Knight William" (on IREarlyBallads)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Little Marget" (on BLLunsford02) {cf. Bronson's #69}
Jean Ritchie, "Sweet William and Lady Margaret" (on JRitchie02)
Pete Seeger, "Little Margaret" (on BroonzySeeger1); Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (on PeteSeeger16)
Mrs Clara Stevens, "Fair Marjorie's Ghost" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Art Thieme, "Fair Margaret & Sweet William" (on Thieme06)
Miriam "Mimi" Wright, "Lady Margaret" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #353, recorded 11/09/2022)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(72a), "Fair Margaret's Misfortune" or "Sweet William's Frightful Dreams on His Wedding Night: With the Sudden Death and Burial of Those Noble Lovers," S. Bates (London), c.1720; also Douce Ballads 3(27a), "Fair Margaret's Misfortunes" or "Sweet William's Dream on his Wedding Night, With the Sudden Death and Burial of Those Noble Lovers"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "William and Margaret" (one verse and theme: jilted lover's ghost visits ex-lover) and references there
cf. "Colin and Lucy" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lady Margot and Sweet Willie
Lady Maggie
Lyddy Margot
'Twas at the Silent Midnight Hour
NOTES [544 words]: A fragment of this ballad is found in Francis Beaumont's 1611 play (sometimes listed as by Beaumont and Fletcher) "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," Act II, sung by Old Merrythought, who sings most of the traditional tunes:
When it was grown to dark midnight
And all were fast asleep,
In came Margaret's grimly ghost
And stood at William's feet.
(KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, Act II, lines 431-434, p. 53; KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, Act II, lines 438-441, p. 99, with possible tune on pp. 176-177; Wine, Act II, scene vii, lines 1-4, p. 333).
Some have suggested that two other lines from the play should also be associated with this song:
You are no love for me, Marg'ret,
I am no love for you.
(KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, Act III, lines 563-564, p. 82; KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, Act III, lines 569-570, p. 126; Wine, Act III, scene v, lines 96-97, p. 354. For more on "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," see the notes to "Three Merry Men"). I would note, however, that Old Merrythought rarely repeats a song. The connection is possible but tenuous.
Child and Bronson both have cutting remarks about the history of this song, which was rewritten "in what used to be called an elegant style" by David Malloch/Mallet, while "a print of c. 1711 was probably occasioned by someone's invention of a fresh tune, not the least folkish in character." (This is the basis of Bronson's "A" group of tunes.)
Grieg/Keith see this as much the same ballad as Child #73, and Bronson sees similarities in the tunes, but concludes that the melodies, like the texts, justify separating them. (Note that "Fair Margaret" is *not* a murder ballad!) - RBW
See a parody attributed to David Mallet: broadside Bodleian, Firth b.22(f. 79), "William and Margaret" ("'Twas at the silent solemn hour"), S. Watts (London), 1785; also Harding B 5(58), "A Lamentable Ballad" or "The Tragical End of William and Margaret" ("When all was wrap'd in dark midnight"); Harding B 5(57), "William and Margaret." [This is Roud's #8225, and is found in Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 249-251 and elsewhere. - RBW]
Bodleian 1785 broadside Firth b.22(f. 79) which claims to be "Mallet's William and Margaret, in Dr Piercy's Collection of old Ballads" is a joke. It is in fact a line for line parody of the poem attributed to Mallet as printed by Percy (see Thomas Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (London, 1765 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III, Ancient Songs and Ballads, Series 3 Book 3 # 15, pp. 310-313, "Margaret's Ghost" (1 text)).
Mallet's "William and Margaret" itself was not considered a "parody" of Child 74 in any sense. Percy calls "William and Margaret" or "Margaret's Ghost", "one of the most beautiful ballads in our own or any language" and "the elegant production of David Mallet" (source: Thomas Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (London, 1765 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III, pp. 121, 310-313). Wheatley quotes Ritson: "It may be questioned whether any English writer has produced so fine a ballad as 'William and Margaret.'" (source: Thomas Percy, Henry B. Wheatley, editor, , Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (London, 1877 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III, p. 309). See the ballad indexed here as "William and Margaret" for more information. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C074

Fair Margaret and Sweit William

See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Fair Margaret O' Craignaritie

DESCRIPTION: A woman dreams she has a deaf, blind daughter stolen by a raven. A wise woman warns that the raven signifies a false man. She has a daughter, Margaret, who runs off to sea with an outlaw. In a storm she regrets her choice too late. The boat sinks.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (Sharpe)
KEYWORDS: courting death dream prophecy storm wreck mother outlaw bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #62, p. 1, "Fair Margaret of Craignaratie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 21, "Fair Margaret O' Craignaritie" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Maidment, Scotish Ballads and Songs (Edinburgh, 1868 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 188-195, "Fair Margaret of Craignargat"
Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, A Ballad Book (Edinburgh, 1891, reprint of 1824 edition), Vol II, #28 pp. 13-19, "Fair Margaret of Craignargat" (1 text)
Roud #5628
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lost Babe" (theme)
cf. "The Vulture (of the Alps)" (theme)
NOTES [46 words]: Maidment quotes and adds to Sharpe's speculation "that the story is founded on fact is probable." Sharpe places Craignargat as a "promontory in the Bay of Luce.... it was long in the Gallovidian race of Macdowal; and the fair Margaret was probably a daughter of that family." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD1021

Fair Margaret's Misfortunes

See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Fair Marjorie's Ghost

See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Fair Mary of Livingston

See Fair Mary of Wallington [Child 91] (File: C091)

Fair Mary of Wallington [Child 91]

DESCRIPTION: Of seven sisters, five have died in childbirth. The sixth would prefer not to marry, but is made to wed. She expects to die in childbirth, and does, with the child cut out of her after three days labor. The seventh sister can expect the same fate.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: family marriage childbirth death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Child 91, "Fair Mary of Wallington" (7 texts)
Bronson 91, comments only
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 227-228, "The bonny Earl of Livingson" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 116, "Mild Marie" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 90-94, "The Lady o' Livingstone"; pp. 140-143, "Elphinston" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 81, "Fair Mary of Wallington" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 236-240+354, "Fair Mary of Livingston" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 15, "Fair Mary of Wallington" (1 text)
Roud #59
File: C091

Fair Maudlin

See The Merchant's Daughter of Bristol (File: BeCo216)

Fair Nancy from London

See Pretty Nancy of London (Jolly Sailors Bold) (File: R078)

Fair Nottamun Town

See Nottamun Town (File: WB2006)

Fair o' Balnafannon

See The Fair o' Balnaminna (The Lass Among the Heather) (File: UNFoBal)

Fair o' Balnaminna, The (The Lass Among the Heather)

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a shepherdess and offers to marry her. She is happy at home with her parents. He asks for a parting kiss. They "kissed and kissed again" She approves and he will ask her father (or "she's his lassie" or they marry with "bairnies").
AUTHOR: Hugh McWilliams (source: Moulden-McWilliams)
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (Moulden-McWilliams)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage dialog sheep
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #44, p. 1, "The Fair o' Balnaminna" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 873, "The Fair o' Balnaminna" (12 texts plus a single verse on p. 567, 7 tunes)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #35, pp. 175-176, "Fair o' Balnafannon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 4, "The Lass Among the Heather Oh!" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 158, "The Fair of Ballyally-O" (1 text, 1 tune); 169, "The Lass Among the Heather-O" (3 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Moulden, Songs of Hugh McWilliams, Schoolmaster, 1831 (Portrush,1993), p. 15, "The Lass among the Heather"
Roud #2894
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(331), "The Blooming Heather" ("As I was coming home"), unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.14(60), "Blooming Heather"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonnie Lass Among the Heather" (theme) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Fair o' Balquhither
NOTES [22 words]: For the relationship between this song and Paddy Tunney's "Bonnie Lass Among the Heather," see the notes to the latter piece. - (BS, RBW)
Last updated in version 5.3
File: UNFoBal

Fair of Ballyally-O, The

See The Fair o' Balnaminna (The Lass Among the Heather) (File: UNFoBal)

Fair of Rosslea, The

DESCRIPTION: Monday, November 8 Frank Hynes meets Dolan at the fair of Rosslea. They agreed to match their dogs in a hunt the next Friday at Annerlaw. The hunt is described as some number of hare are killed, and the dogs are named.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (recording, Philip McDermott)
KEYWORDS: death hunting animal dog moniker Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #12935
RECORDINGS:
Philip McDermott, "The Fair of Rosslea" (on Voice18)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Huntsman's Horn" (subject: competitive hare hunt from the huntsman's point of view)
cf. "Killafole Boasters" (subject: competitive hare hunt from the huntsman's point of view) and references there
NOTES [9 words]: Rosslea is in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. - BS
File: RcFaRoss

Fair One Let Me In, The

See The Night Her Blackest Sables Wore (File: CPMNHBSW)

Fair Phoeby and Her Dark Eyed Sailor

See The Dark-Eyed Sailor (Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor) [Laws N35] (File: LN35)

Fair Princess Royal, The

See The Bold Princess Royal [Laws K29] (File: LK29)

Fair Richmond on the James

See Richmond on the James (File: Wa064)

Fair Rosa

See Sleeping Beauty (Thorn Rose, Briar Rose) (File: HHH599)

Fair Rosamond (I)

DESCRIPTION: ""'I have a sister,' young Clifford said, 'A sister no man knows...." "...I would not for ten thousand worlds Have King Henery know her name." But Henry overhears, and writes a letter to her. The ending appears confused
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: love royalty disguise
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1154-1189 - Reign of Henry II
c. 1176 - Death of Rosamund Clifford
FOUND IN: US(NE) Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 18, "Fair Rosanne"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1, pp. 234-235, "Fair Rosamond" (2 texts)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 193-195, "Fair Rosamond, or Rosamond's Downfall" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ROSACLIF
Roud #3729
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Queen Eleanor's Confession" [Child 156] (subject)
cf. "Rosamund Clifford" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
"When as Queen Anne of Great Renown" (Edward Gregg, _Queen Anne_, 1980 (I use the 2001 Yale English Monarchs paperback edition with a new introduction by the author), p. 275)
NOTES [839 words]: Roud lumps "Fair Rosamond (I)" and "Rosamund Clifford." They are obviously about the same story, but I consider them distinct; the story was famous enough to attract many writers!
Rollins, p. 159, points out two Rosamund ballads mentioned in the Stationer's Register: #1824, "A mournfull ditty of the Lady Rosamond," registered March 13, 1656, and #1825, "A mournfull ditty of the Lady Rosamond," March 1, 1675, but it's not absolutely clear which song is meant.
For the confusing history of Rosamund Clifford and King Henry II, see the notes to Queen Eleanor's Confession" [Child 156]; there is also a small amount of material in "Rosamund Clifford."
It's interesting to note the extreme lustiness attributed to King Henry II here. This seems to be an exaggeration. Henry obviously was not a dutiful husband to Eleanor of Acquitaine, but neither did he set a record for extra-curricular activities. We do have records of illegitimate children as early as the 1150s, and he was charged with having affairs with many women -- including even Alice/Alys, the daughter of the King of France who was betrothed to Henry's son Richard. But the number of illegitimate children he acknowledged seems to have been fairly small.
According to Warren, p. 601, "the great love of his life, Rosamund Clifford, with whom he had lived openly since the great war [of 1173], died about 1176, and although Henry undoubtedly took mistresses after her death there was no one to match her in his affections or threaten to depose Eleanor as his wife." But as Tyerman, p. 218, points out, "Discernable political influence she had none, as Henry recognized by not divorcing Eleanor in 1175."
That Rosamund was the great love of Henry's life is certainly disputed, but the mere fact that it is disputed shows that Henry can't have had too many other affairs. Similarly, the affair with Alice of France was only a rumor (Gillingham, p. 105), substantiated mostly by Richard's later claim that she had slept with his father -- a claim which Richard used to get rid of her, so it is clearly suspect. (Making it even less likely is the fact that poor Alice was said to be unattractive; Barber, p. 227.)
I'm going to suggest that the lust of King Henry arises by confusion with his grandfather Henry I, who had on the order of fifty illegitimate children by nearly the same number of mothers.
Sadly, after Rosamund died, her body was not allowed to rest in peace. Originally buried in Godstow nunnery, once Henry was dead, Bishop Hugh of Lincoln moved from before the alter to an ordinary cemetery on the grounds that "she was a harlot" (Tyerman, p. 218). Boyd, p. 173, reports that he had it inscribed with a verse which he translates
The rose of the world lies here
But not too clean, I fear
Not perfume, but stenches
She now dispenses.
That last line may be related to "Erthe upon Erthe (Earth upon Earth, Earth out of Earth)."
Barber, pp. 66-67,has a good summary of the Rosamund story:
"With Eleanor [of Aquitaine]'s imprisonment in 1173, Henry almost certainly grew unfaithful. Before this, he is reputed to have been passionately in love with the sister of the earl of Clare and with Avice de Stafford, but it is in this year that the most famous of his mistresses makes her appearance: the 'fair Rosamund' of so much literature and legend. One of six children of Walter de Clifford, a knight with lands in Shropshire, she was openly acknowledged as the king's paramour only a little while before her death as a nun at Godstow in 1176, where she is buried. So much is within the bounds of history; but the stories of the maze at Woodstock which Eleanor penetrated in Henry's absence to offer her the choice between poison and the dagger, and of the wondrous casket kept there, are so much embroidery on a slender groundwork of reality. Although she may have lived at Everswell, Henry's pavilion near Woodstock, the chamber at Winchester named after her eighty year later is unlikely to have existed in her day. By them 'camera Rosamunda' had become the euphemism for the royal mistress's quarters. Even the grim epitaph [quoted above]... was borrowed; it really belonged to s sixth century Lombard queen of the same name....
"Yet it was this of all Henry's exploits that caught the imagination of the ballad writers of a later age; Becket was almost forgotten, and a whole series of poems and plays from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth century were centered on this passion....
"Thus a later age cast Henry in the part of romantic lover, at as far a remove from reality as could be imagined."
Owen, p. 121, attributes the song of Rosamund Clifford/Fair Rosamund to Thomas Deloney, a sixteenth century weaver and poet, but because there probably were multiple Rosamund songs, I have not listed him as the author. Owen then goes on to devote two dozen pages (pp. 124-148) to various poems, plays, and other non-traditional works about Rosamund. She probably qualifies as the most famous mistress in English history prior to at least the Stuart dynasty. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: Lins193

Fair Rosamond (II)

See Rosamund Clifford (File: Perc2154)

Fair Rosamund

See Rosamund Clifford (File: Perc2154)

Fair Rosamund Clifford

See Fair Rosamund (File: Lins193)

Fair Rosanne

See Fair Rosamond (File: Lins193)

Fair Rosie

See Sleeping Beauty (Thorn Rose, Briar Rose) (File: HHH599)

Fair Rosie Ann

See The King's Dochter Lady Jean [Child 52] (File: C052)

Fair Sally

See A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.) [Laws P9]; also "The Brown Girl" [Child 295] (File: LP09)

Fair Scotland

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Fair Susan Slumbered

DESCRIPTION: "Fair Susan slumbered in shady bower, Safe hid, she thought, from every eye." Her true love passes by and steals a kiss. She awakens and orders him away. He asks, if the love be ended, that she return the kiss
AUTHOR: Words: H. Fleetwood Sheppard
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: love rejection | kiss sleep
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #96, "Fair Susan" (1 text, 1 tune, the words not being traditional)
NOTES [38 words]: It appears, based on the notes, that the original of this was "No, John, No" or a song of that type. Needless to say, the words Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd inflicted upon the tune are both inferior and banal. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGSW096

Fair Town of Greenock, The

DESCRIPTION: John lives in Greenock and is called with the "Eighteenth Royal" to fight in India. Jane asks him not to leave. He is killed by a French sword. His last words are "Greenock and sweet Bannockburn," as are hers when she heard the news of his death.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: courting army battle separation death lover soldier India
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 27, "The Fair Town of Greenock" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lad in the Scotch Brigade (The Banks of the Clyde)" (theme)
cf. "The Paisley Officer (India's Burning Sands)" [Laws N2] (theme)
NOTES [713 words]: This song reminds McBride of "The Paisley Officer." It's a similar theme but "The Lad in the Scotch Brigade" is even closer: the war is different -- Egypt [in that song as opposed to] India [in this one] -- but it does share a line ("She threw her arms around him and cried, 'Do not leave me,'") and the girl's home "on the Banks of the Clyde." The British fought the French in India in the eighteenth century (source: "Rivalries in India: AD 1748-1760" in History of the British Empire, p. 4, at http://tinyurl.com/tbdx-IndiaRivalr). - BS
This song is rather a curiosity. Greenock of course is in Scotland, and the girl lives by the Clyde, and who but a Scot would toast Bannockburn?
And yet, it's found in Ireland. And then there is the reference to the Eighteenth Royal.
It happens that the Eighteenth Foot was the Royal Irish Regiment , according to Hallows, p. 319; it was disbanded in 1922 (when the Irish Free State was formed). (This unit should not be confused with the present Royal Irish Regiment, which is an Ulster unit. This is not to deny the distinction of the latter regiment; it's just not the same as the Eighteenth Foot.)
The site http://tinyurl.com/tbdx-Irish18 lists two occasions on which the Eighteenth served in India. The list of battle honours for the Eighteenth (which I found at www.regiments.org, but the link no longer works) does not appear to include any Indian campaigns, but it did fight in Afghanistan, which is surely close enough. This unit did not fight the French at this time, of course, but it did serve in Madras, which had been the site of Anglo-French quarrels a century earlier.
So how did a seemingly-Irish regiment end up in a seemingly-Scots song? Don't ask me....
I rather suspect the battle referred to is Wandiwash, in 1760. This was one of the few direct conflicts between the English and French in India. The battle took place on January 22, 1760, as Sir Eyre Coote beat the French under Count de Lally. This opened the door for Coote to capture Pondicherry (OxfordCompanion, p. 966).
Anderson, p. 418, says, "In saving his fleet, [Admiral Anne antoine comte] d'Ache doomed Lally and the French trading stations on the Coromandel Coast. The turning point actually came at the beginning of 1760 when the British military commander in the region, Lieutenant colonel Eyre Coote of the 84th Regiment, lured Lally out to do battle at Wandiwash, some forty miles northwest of Pondicherry. On January 22, Coote defeated his opponenet in an open-field engagement; thereafter, Lally broke down psychologically and proved incapable of defending the outposts that protected Pondicherry. By the middle of April only the city and its immediate surroundings remained in French control. Meanwhile, a powerful British naval squadron had beseiged it, allowing coote to besiege the city in August. On January 16, 1761, he would accept the sword of Pondicherry's neurasthenic commandant."
According to Spear, p. 79, "The third and final phase [of the conflict between Britain and France in India] was again an open struggle brought on by the Seven Years War. The English were first in the field but their force was diverted to Bengal. When the French forces arriced in 1758 they were crippled by jealousy and bad leadership. They failed to take Madras and were decisively defeated at Wandiwash.... Brave to the last the wayward Lally endured an agonizing siege in Pondicherry for eight months until its fall. This was the real end of the French bid for Indian power. Their reappearance in 1782 was a passing phase only made notable by the genius of their admiral de Suffren."
It was a nice follow-up to the so-called "Year of Victories" of 1759, in which the British won Canada (Haswell, p. 52), which perhaps explains why Coote and Wandiwash get relatively little attention in the histories -- there was so much else going on....
Keegan/Wheatcroft, p. 179, note that the French commander Thomas Arthur comte de Lally (1702-1766), who was of Irish ancestry, was charged for treason on his return to France, and eventually executed -- unfairly, they think; his record was one of bad luck, not treason. Anderson, p. 418, seems to agree, for he blames most of the French problems on their fleet's failure to reinforce and supply their army. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: McB1027

Fair Tyrone

DESCRIPTION: The singer's thoughts turn back to Tyrone. He describes the various places in the area, and recalls the flowers' beauty and the birds' songs. His fondest memories are of Tyrone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H189, pp. 173-174, "Fair Tyrone" (1 text with many variants, 1 tune)
Roud #13533
File: HHH189

Fair Well Green Hills & Soft Meadows

See Prisoner for Life, A (I - Farewell to Green Fields and Meadows) (File: R164)

Fair Young Miss, The

See Charming Beauty Bright [Laws M3] (File: LM03)

Fairest Lord Jesus (Schonster Herr Jesu)

DESCRIPTION: "Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all (nature/nations), O thou of God and man the son, Thee will I cheris." "Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands.... Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer, Who makes the woeful heart to sing."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1677 (German text in Munster Gesang-Buch, according to Julian)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 289, "Fairest Lord Jesus (Crusader's Hymn)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 330-331, "Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of All Nature" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 99, "Fairest Lord Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Fairest Lord Jesus" (1 text) (CC edition, p. 69) (12th edition, p. 91)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 171, "Fairest Lord Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [319 words]: I include this song not because it is traditional (as best I can tell, it isn't, at least in English) but because folklore would try to claim it as traditional. Its alternate name is "The Crusader's Hymn" because "In Heart Melodies, No. 51., Lond, Morgan & Chase, [no date], this is marked as 'Crusader's Hymn of the 12th cent. This air and hymn used to be sung by the German pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem" (Julian, p. 1016).
But, Julian continues, "For these statements there does not seem to be the shadow of a foundation, for the air referred to has not been traced earlier than 1842, nor the words than 1677. In the Munster [Gesang-Buch], 1677, p. 576, it appears as the first of 'Three beautiful selected new Hymns' in 5 st[anzas].... In the Schlesische Volksleider, Leipzig, 1842, p. 339, it is given with greatly altered forms of st[anzas] i, iii, ii, v, with a second st[anza] ("Schon sind die Walder") practically new. The text and the melody... are both marked as taken down from oral recitation in the district (Grafschaft) of Glaz." In 1852 there appears an edition consisting of stanzas i, iii, and this "new" stanza ii, which is the version translated into English by an unknown hand: "Mr. Richard Storrs Willis, of Detroit (U. S. A.) informs me that this tr[anslation] appears in his Church Chorals, 1850, but that he does not know the name of the translator." There are at least two other translations, but they seem to have largely vanished.
Reynolds, p. 142, notes that the same tune was used for Isaac Watts's "How Pleased and Blest Was I," and was adapted by Franz Liszt for a "Crusader's March" in the oratorio "The Legend of Saint Elizabeth." Thus is folklore maintained.... Even today, the tune is listed in some hymnals as "Crusaders' Hymn" (McKim, p. 218).
Reynolds, p. 464, adds that Willis was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1819 and died in Detroit, Michigan in 1900. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: XxFaLoJe

Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of All Nature

See Fairest Lord Jesus (Schonster Herr Jesu) (File: XxFaLoJe)

Fairie Sang (I), The

See Tam Lin [Child 39] (File: C039)

Fairie Sang (II), The

See The Wee Wee Man [Child 38] (File: C038)

Fairies, The (Up the Airy Mountain)

DESCRIPTION: "Up the airy mountain, Down the rushy glen, We daren’t go a-hunting For fear of little men; Wee folk, good folk, Trooping all together...." "They stole little Bridget For seven long years, When she came back, Her friends were all gone...."
AUTHOR: Willam Allingham (1824-1889)
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (publication of the book "The Fairies")
KEYWORDS: magic abduction hunting royalty | fairies
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 178, "They stole little Bridget" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 509-510, "The Fairies"
Roud #12969
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Is My Darling" (lyrics, form)
NOTES [30 words]: Roud for some reason lumps this with "All the Men in Our Town." I don't see it. The link to "Charlie Is My Darling" is more obvious; it is reported to have inspired Allingham.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC178B

Fairlop Fair

DESCRIPTION: Queen Anne saw Fairlop's famous oak and moved her court there. The oak "spreads an acre of ground." The fair was started by Daniel Day who made his friends merry with drink. We dance around the tree and booze care away on the first Friday in July
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.19(171))
KEYWORDS: dancing drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 82-83, "Fairlop Fair" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 298)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 411-412, "The Fairlop Fair Song" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Bell, editor, Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England (London, 1857 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 191-192, "Fairlop Fair Song" (1 text)
Fairlop and its Founder; or Facts and Fun for the Forest Frolickers by a Famed First Friday Fairgoer (Totham, 1847 ("Digitized by Google")), not paginated, "Fair-lop Fair" (1 text)
Roud #1250
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.19(171), "The origin of Fairlop fai[r]" ("Come, come, my boys, with a hearty glee") , T. Birt (London), 1828-1829
NOTES [296 words]: The source for the following note is Fairlop and its Founder, cited above.
Daniel Day (1683-1767) had a small estate near the Fairlop Oak and every year in mid August he collected his rents there. He invited his neighbors on the occasion and served a meal of beans and bacon under the oak. "His friends were so well pleased with the rural novelty, that they one and all pledged themselves to accompany him on the same occasion every year, on the first Friday in July, during their lives. In the course of a few years, this amicable meeting greatly increased, and became known to the neighboring gentry, farmers, and yeomanry; and a vast number of them annually, on the day of Mr Day's jubilee, visited the place." By 1725 it "began to present every resemblance of a regular fair" and it became Day's "principal hobby-horse." The custom was still practiced in 1847, when Fairlop and its Founder was printed.
The tree stood in Hainault Forest, about ten miles from London. Around 1790 at noon its shadow covered almost an acre and its circumference measured about 36 feet. Around 1800 the tree was fenced around and wounds were plastered to preserve them from decay. Each text I have listed mentions the plastering -- "They plastered it round to keep the tree sound" -- so that puts an earliest possible date on the song. Miscreants set the tree on fire in 1805 and high winds finished the destruction in 1820. The pulpits of St Pancras Church were made from the remaining wood. Earlier, Day's coffin had been built from wood of that oak.
Aside from the history, and Daniel Day's will, Fairlop and its Founder includes the text of five poems about the fair besides the text of "Fair-lop Fair." I don't know if any of these other five poems were ever in the oral tradition. - BS
Last updated in version 2.8
File: WT082

Fairlop Fair Song

See Fairlop Fair (File: WT082)

Fairy Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: "A mother came when stars were paling," crying, calling on the fairy king to return her son. She has no answer and concedes that "In this world I have lost my joy; But in the next we ne'er shall sever, There will I find my fairy boy"
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1840 371930)
KEYWORDS: grief death baby supernatural separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 150, "The Fairy Boy" (1 partial text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 66-67, "The Fairy Boy" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #594, p. 40, "The Fairy Boy" (1 reference)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol II, pp. 145-146, "The Fairy Boy"
Roud #9293
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(101a), "The Fairy Boy", D. Batchelar (London), 1836-1842; Harding B 18(156), Firth c.18(191), Harding B 15(101b), "[The] Fairy Boy"
LOCSheet, sm1840 371930, "The Fairy Boy", George Willig (Philadelphia), 1840 (tune)
LOCSinging, sb10130a, "The Fairy Boy", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also as103670, "The Fairy Boy"
NOTES [128 words]: O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland: "When a beautiful child pines and dies, the Irish peasant believes the healthy infant has been stolen by the fairies, and a sickly elf left in its place." This is a note taken without attribution from The Ballad Poetry of Ireland by Charles Gavin Duffy (Dublin, 1845), p. 79. [Of course, the notion of the changeling is common in British folklore. - RBW]
O'Conor sometimes omits the end of a song when it won't fit on the page and there is no space available on another page. This is one example. "Digging for Gould" is another.
Broadside LOCSinging sb10130a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon150

Fairy Calling Song (Come in the Stillness)

DESCRIPTION: "Come in the stillness, Come in the night; Come soon, And bring delight. Beckoning, beckoning, Left-handed and right; Come now, Ah, come tonight!" A song said to call fairies, in moonlight at a certain time of year
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Simpson)
KEYWORDS: nonballad magic
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, p. 59, "(Come in the stillness") (1 short text)
File: JSi059

Fairy King's Courtship, The

See John MacAnanty's Courtship (The Fairy King) (File: HHH056)

Fairy Knight, The

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Fairy Lullaby, The

DESCRIPTION: Irish Gaelic: Singer laments: it's a year since she was taken from her husband and brought to the fairy hill. She gives instructions for spells to release her; if she is not rescued in time, she will become queen of the fairies. She croons to her baby
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage homesickness abduction rescue death magic ritual lullaby supernatural husband
FOUND IN: Ireland
RECORDINGS:
Maire O'Sullivan, "The Fairy Lullaby" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
NOTES [34 words]: In Lomax's interpretation, the woman has died shortly after marriage, and is in the last day of her year with the fairies, rocking a fairy child. If she is not rescued, she can never reassume mortal form - PJS
File: RcTFL

Fairy Palace

DESCRIPTION: "We're going south tomorrow, dear, But oh, what times and fun, We'll have en route to Portsmouth, 'Tis a grand and glorious run." The boat is "A little fairy palace." The song lists all the spots along the canal boat route they will visit
AUTHOR: Pearl R. Nye (source: Salt)
EARLIEST DATE: 1992 (Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory)
KEYWORDS: river travel home canal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 59-61, "Fairy Palace" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On the Banks of Salee" (tune, according to Salt)
NOTES [65 words]: Based on the locations in the text, it appears this was a south-bound trip, perhaps starting at Clevelend, passing through Akron, and then south and west to the Ohio River at Portsmouth (which is due south of Columbus, Ohio, and east and a little south of Cincinnati).
My assumption would be that this is the canal system which Pearl R. Nye also followed in "The Old Canal" (which see). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Salt059

Fais Do Do, Colas

DESCRIPTION: Creole French: "Faies do do, Colas, mon petit frere, Fais do do, t'auras du gateau, Papa e aura, Et moi j'un aurai, Tout un plein panier." The little brother is urged to go to sleep, perhaps with the promise of a reward.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: lullaby family
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 155, "Fais Do Do, Colas" (1 short text)
File: ScaNF155

Fais Do Do, Minette

DESCRIPTION: Creole French: "Faies do do, Minette, Chere pitit cochon du laite. Fais do do, mo chere pitit, Jusqu' a trappe l'age quinze ans." Minette is urged to go to sleep for fifteen years, when she will have "the martine" for a husband
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: lullaby nonballad marriage
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 154-155, "Fais Do Do, Minette" (1 short text plus translation, 1 tune)
File: ScaN154b

Faith of Our Fathers, Living Still

DESCRIPTION: "Faith of our fathers, living still, in spite of dungeon, fire, and sword. Oh, how our hearts beat high with joy, whene'er we hear that glorious word. Faith of our fathers, holy faith, we will be true to you till death." Martyrs and believers are recalled
AUTHOR: Words: Frederick W. Faber (1814-1863) / (usual) Music: Henri F. Hemy (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 130, "Faith of Our Fathers" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 81, "Faith of Our Fathers" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 114, "Faith of Our Fathers" (1 text)
SongsOfManyNations, "Faith of Our Fathers" (1 text) (CC edition, p. 70) (12th edition, p. 83)
DT, FAIFATHR
Roud #V11132
SAME TUNE:
Faith of Our Mothers (Harbin-Parodology, #419, pp. 102-103)
NOTES [167 words]: John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 363, says this "appeared as the first of two hymns, one 'Faith of our Fathers,' for England; and the second the same for Ireland, in [Faber's] Jesus and Mary; or, Catholic Hys. for Singing and Reading, 1849, in 4 st[anzas] of 6 l[ines]. It was repeated in his Oratory Hymns, and several Roman Catholic collections for missions and schools." By 1853 there was a Unitarian revision (which eliminated a reference to Mary), and after that it spread among Protestants.
Julian, p. 361, says that Faber was ordained in the Anglican church in 1837 but turned Catholic in 1846. All his hymns were written after his conversion, though he had written prose works before that. He supposedly wrote some 150 hymns, mostly because there were so few Catholic hymns in English. On p. 362 Julian lists 24 of Faber's hymns that are fairly well-known, but I didn't recognize any of them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF130F

Faithfu' Sea Captain, The

See A Gentleman of Exeter (The Perjured Maid) [Laws P32] (File: LP32)

Faithful Friend

See You've Been a Friend To Me (File: BrS5687)

Faithful Lover, or The Hero Rewarded, The

See The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)

Faithful Nancy, or One Fine Summer's Morning

See Lovely Nancy (I) [Laws N33] (File: LN33)

Faithful Plough, The

See The Painful Plough (File: Ord222)

Faithful Rambler, The (Jamie and Mary, Love's Parting)

DESCRIPTION: "I am a young man delights in sport; To a strange country I mean to steer, And leave my home... Also the girl that I love dear." The girl promises to be true, but says that he will forget her. He says he will be faithful, and wishes her good fortune
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H825, pp. 299-300, "The Faithful Rambler" (1 text, 1 tune); H788, p. 300, "Love's Parting (Jamie and Mary)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6896 and 6897
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Flowery Vale (The Irish Girl's Lament)" [Laws O29] (plot) and references there
NOTES [66 words]: Neither Sam Henry nor the notes in Henry/Huntington/Herrmann hint that these two are the same song. But they have identical plots, and there are extreme lyric similarities in both the first verse (about the young man who must ramble) and the scenes where the lovers promise faithfulness. If they aren't originally one song, they have cross-fertilized to the point where they might as well be. - RBW
File: HHH825

Faithful Sailor Boy, The [Laws K13]

DESCRIPTION: A sailor and his true love bid a tearful farewell on the deck of the ship as it is about to sail. He dies on the voyage; his shipmates deliver the girl a letter in which he says they will meet in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859
KEYWORDS: sailor separation death
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE,SE) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Laws K13, "The Faithful Sailor Boy"
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #5, "The Faithful Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 14, "The Faithful Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 164, "The Sailor Boy" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #64, pp. 1-2, "The Sailor Boy's Farewell" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 66, "The Faithful Sailor Boy" (8 texts, 3 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H543, p. 103, "The Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 32-33, "The Faithful Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 60, "The Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 94, "Stormy Winter's Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 68, "The Faithful Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 123-125, "The Faithful Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 111, "The Faithful Sailor Boy" (1 text plus mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 111, "The Faithful Sailor Boy" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 33, "Sailor Boy" (1 text)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 61-62, "The Soldier Boy" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors. pp. 208-209, "The Faithful Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tue)
DT 559, FTHFULSL
Roud #376
RECORDINGS:
Daisy Chapman, "Your Faithful Sailor Boy" (on SCDChapman01)
Mrs. T. Ghaney, "Faithful Sailor Boy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Ernest Poole, "Faithful Sailor Boy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Thomas Williams, "Faithful Sailor Boy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(64a), "The Sailor Boy," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Soldier Boy" (plot)
NOTES [84 words]: George W. Persley has been listed as the author of this piece, but the song appears older. Steve Roud and Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors mention an attribution of the words to Thomas P. Westendorf and the music to Persley, but has been unable to verify this.
The Sam Henry text "The Irish Soldier Boy" has so many elements in common with Laws K13 that I initially listed here. If it isn't Laws K13, it's swallowed several verses whole. But it seems to be a distinct form, so we've now split it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LK13

Faithful Sailor, The

See The Topsail Shivers in the Wind (File: SWMS059)

Faithless Boney (The Croppies' Complaint)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh dear! what can the matter be Bony's so long coming here. He promised to bring us a budget of freedom" but he did not come from Calais to Dover, he deserted us "just as the crisis drew near." The loyalists laugh while he "minds his own interest"
AUTHOR: William Ball (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: "shortly after 1798" (according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Ireland humorous nonballad Napoleon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 38, "Faithless Bony" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?" (tune)
NOTES [262 words]: For another broadside on "Boney" coming to England, to the same tune, see Bodleian, Harding B 25(1115), "Little Boney A-Cockhorse ("Oh dear! little Boney's a coming"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Barry Gleeson acc. Mick Willis, "Faithless Bony" (on "The Croppy's Complaint," Craft Recordings CRCD03 (1998); Terry Moylan notes) - BS
Like so many of the Irish complaints about France, this is rather unfair (for the context, see the notes to "The Shan Van Vogt"); France had failed utterly at Bantry Bay, but that wasn't Napoleon's fault. And he didn't promise anything to Wolfe Tone or anyone; he knew all along that an Irish invasion wouldn't pay. Had the rebellion of 1798 in fact gone off properly (meaning that the whole country had risen at one time, rather than a handful of uncoordinated local rebellions), the forces Napoleon sent (with General Humbert, Napper Tandy, and Tone; a total of about 4000 men and arms for many more) might well have allowed the Irish to win a pitched battle. But the 1798 rebellion had failed completely before the French arrived.
William Ball was a writer of humorous verse about Irish history; in this index, see "Cockledemoy (The French Invasion)," "Do as They Do in France," "The Dying Rebel," "Faithless Boney (The Croppies' Complaint)" -- though he doesn't seem to have made much impression on the wider world of literature; I have been unable to find any of his writings in any of my literary references. - RBW
File: Moyl038

Faithless Husband

DESCRIPTION: "One day a faithless husband Unto a maiden said, You know, Bess, though I'm married, I hate the one I've wed." He begs the girl to marry him; she replies "If you love me, leave me But don't be untrue." She says she will wait; he should not leave his wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Darby & Tarlton)
KEYWORDS: love courting infidelity virtue
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 807, "Faithless Husband" (1 text)
Roud #7424
RECORDINGS:
Tom Darby & Jim Tarlton, "Faithless Husband" (Columbia 15552-D, 1930)
File: R807

Faithless Widow (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Ben's wife promises that, if he dies, she will not marry a man or entertain one in his house. Ben dies. A courter comes to the house. The widow gives him Ben's drawers. Ben's ghost complains -- in song -- and the visitor leaves to "never come back"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Parsons)
KEYWORDS: courting promise death ghost husband wife
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Elsie Clews Parsons, Folk-Tales of Andros Island Bahamas (Lancaster: American Folk-Lore Society, 1918 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #114(I), pp. 163-164, "Faithless Widow, The (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ElCPFaW1

Faithless Widow (II), The

DESCRIPTION: A dog loyal to her dead husband keeps a widow's courters away. She throws the dog in the river but it swims back. She burns the dog to ashes but the ashes attack the men. Finally she throws the ashes in the river and marries the next man at her door.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Parsons)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage death dog husband wife
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Elsie Clews Parsons, Folk-Tales of Andros Island Bahamas (Lancaster: American Folk-Lore Society, 1918 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #114(II), pp. 165-166, "The Faithless Widow (II)" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [46 words]: The verse sung by each man coming to court the widow is "Miss Angeo, Miss Angeo, Please to hol' de dawg, Jim Tarro" (the dog is named Jim Tarro). Compare this with the lines from the Jamaican song, "If I Went Up To the Hill-Top": "Den madame, madame, come an' hol' dat dog." - BS
Last updated in version 3.8
File: ElCPFaW2

Faithless Wife, The

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

Fal-De-Lal-Day, A

See The Girl In Portland Street (File: Hugi054)

Falcon (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The Falcon sets out with 35 passengers. The ship is near home when the wind blows up. The engine fails and the ship runs aground. The singer recalls the dead and pities the widows and orphans
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: death wreck ship storm
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 5, 1868 - Reported date of the Falcon wreck
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H95, p. 107, "The Falcon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9042
File: HHH095

Falcon's Song

See Chanson de la Grenouillere ("Song of Frog Plain," Falcon's Song) (File: FMB121)

Falcon(II), The

See The Corpus Christi Carol (File: L691)

Fall In for Pay (Pay Parade) (Bugle Call Lyric)

DESCRIPTION: "Fall in for pay, boys, Fall in for pay. You've blood well earned, boys, Your shilling a day." Or, "Swinging the lead, boys, swinging the lead. Always remember To work your head."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, pp. 234-235, "(no title)" (2 short texts)
File: BrPa234E

Fall in the Sea, Fall from the Deck

DESCRIPTION: "Fall in the sea, fall from the deck, Fall downstairs and break your neck, Fall from the starry heavens above, But never never fall in love."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (autograph album of George Washington Franklin, according to Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: love warning injury
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 123, "(Fall in the sea, fall from the deck)" (1 text)
NOTES [55 words]: This is one of many items Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore extracted from the autograph album of George Washington Franklin, which he maintained 1882 to 1895 or after. Most appear to be conventional verse for this sort of book, but this one looks folky to me, so I included it -- though I can find no other reference to such a piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: SaKo123B

Fall of Charleston, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh have you heard the glorious news, Is the cry from every mouth, Charleston is taken and the rebels put to rout." "The South Carolina chivalry" and General Beauregard are routed. The Union flag is brought back to Fort Sumter
AUTHOR: Words: Eugene T. Johnson
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar); original undated broadside thought to have been published 1865
KEYWORDS: Civilwar nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 12, 1861 - Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter (in Charleston Harbor), opening the Civil War
Feb 17-18, 1865 - Confederate forces evacuate Charleston; Union forces recover the city (and, with it, Fort Sumter)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 264-266, "The Fall of Charleston" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: SCWF264

Fall of Man, The

See When Adam Was Created (Wedlock) (File: SKE55)

Fall of Rangiriri

DESCRIPTION: "What will they say in England When the story it is told When the story it is told Of Rangiriri's bloody fight And the deeds of the brave and the bold?" The Maoris fight hard against the British before two hundred are forced to give in
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (The Auckland New Zealander, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: battle soldier death New Zealand
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
20 Nov 1863 - Battle of Rangiriri between Maoris and Europeans. 183 Maori surrender after their ammunition runs out
11 Sep 1864 - The surviving Maori escape from the prison hulk where they are kept (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 35-36, "The Fall of Rangiriri" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Escaped Prisoners" (fate of the Rangiriri prisoners)
NOTES [242 words]: Gordon McLauchlan, editor-in-chief, New Zealand Encyclopedia, David Bateman Limited, 1984, p. 442: "RANGIRIRI, a farming area about 20 km. southeast of Mercer, in Waikato County, was the scene of a battle between General Duncan Cameron and his British and colonial troops on the one side, and the forces of the Maori King Movement on the other side, in November 1863.
"The Maoris had fallen back from Meremere and built formidable fortifications on an isthmus between the Waikato River and Lake Waikare. Cameron decided to send some of his troops by boat to the other side of the redoubt and attack from both sies at once. The Maoris were forced to surrender. They lost 36 killed and 183 prisoners, and the British losses were 38 killed and 92 wounded."
I'm not sure what this says about race relations in New Zealand, but none of the other five histories I checked even mentions the battle. Keith Jackson and Alan McRobie, Historical Dictionary of New Zealand (Oceanian Historical Dictionaries #5), The Scarecrow Press, 1996, p. 76, did have a biography of Cameron: "Cameron, Duncan Alexander [1808-1888]. Soldier. Cameron was sent to New Zealand in 1861. Despite his reputation, his military campaigns against Maori met with mixed fortunes because he was faced by clever, innovative opponents. Maori referred to Cameron as 'The Lame Seagull' for his reputed slowness and timidity. Despite this, he was recognized as a very competent general." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo035

Fall Tree

DESCRIPTION: A convict's tree-cutting song. "You better watch it, better watch it, Better watch-a my timber.... Warn you, don told you, If I hit you, don't you holler.... Timber gettin' limber. Watch-a my timber. Fall, tree.... Won't you fall, tree."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (collected from J. B. Smith by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: prison work
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 227-228, "Fall Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [38 words]: Jackson considers most of J. B. Smith's songs to be at least partly his own composition. This one, though, is so close to other convict timber songs that I wouldn't be surprised if other versions are to be found -- somewhere. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM228A

Fallen Believers

DESCRIPTION: "Fallen believers light your light Upon Mount Calvary." "See how me Savior bleed and die Upon Mount Calvary."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Henry Williams, Allan Lovelace, George Robert, "O Fallen Believers" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [94 words]: The current description is based on the WITrinidadVillage02 recording. - BS
The name "Calvary" does not occur in the Greek Bible; it is a Latin translation of Greek τοπον τον καλουμενον κρανιον, topon ton kaloumenon kranion, "Place th[at is] called 'of [a] skull.'" The King James Bible uses the name in Luke 23:33, based presumably on the Latin Vulgate's "locum qui vocatur Calvariea," "place which is called Calvariea/skull," although modern translations almost universally avoid the name; of the ancient translations, only the Georgian has the Latin name. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcFalBel

Fallen Boney

DESCRIPTION: "The crown has Boney abdicated ... And Louis is again reinstated." When he was Consul he was successful but, crowned, became a "lawless tyrant." He replaced Josephine with Louisa. "He might been happy still in France Had he but rul'd with moderation"
AUTHOR: Hugh McWilliam (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1816 (McWilliam's _Poems and Songs on Various Subjects_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: Napoleon wife royalty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 202, "Fallen Boney" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [136 words]: Louis is, of course, Louis XVIII (1855-1824), the younger brother of the pre-revolutionary king Louis XVI, who was brought back to the throne when Napoleon fell.
Napoleon's decision to replace his wife Josephine Beauharnais (1763-1814) was entirely practical; he did not withdraw his favor from her children (or even with her, really, since he died with her name on his lips). But he needed an heir, and she had not given him one. So he went for another woman.
The bit about ruling with moderation is generally right; Napoleon did a fine job of creating a civil code for France; most of the Code Napoleon was retained by the restored monarchy, and much survives to this day. But Napoleon couldn't bring himself to sit still making laws for long. And, frankly, he developed that problem while he was still Consul. - RBW
File: Moyl202

Fallin' Down

DESCRIPTION: A convict's tree-cutting song: "A-well my hammer keep a-hangin', cause it's falling down (x2). "A-well, my timber getting limber, cause it's falling down." "I done a-warned you...." "My diamond striking fire...." "So soon in the morning...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (collected from Johnny Jackson and David Tippett by Bruce Jackson)
KEYWORDS: work lumbering prison nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 222-226, "Fallin' Down" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
File: JDM222

Falling (You Can Fall From a Steeple)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme and autograph album verse: "You can fall from a steeple, You can fall from above, But for heaven's sake, Don't fall in love."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: jumprope love humorous | falling
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #614, "You can fall from a steeple" (1 text)
Roud #20194
File: AJRR614

Falling Leaf

DESCRIPTION: Falling Leaf (so named because she was born in autumn) is the beautiful daughter of a chief. One day she meets a "worn and weary" hunter, and falls in love with him. But he vanishes; "his fate was never known" and she spends her life alone and mourning
AUTHOR: F. A. M. Stuart and W. Eben Miles
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: love courting Indians(Am.) separation grief mourning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 765, "Falling Leaf" (3 texts, 3 tunes; Cohen considers the "C" text separate)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 516-518, "Falling Leaf" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 765A)
Roud #7409
RECORDINGS:
Paul Hamblin, "Fallen Leaf" (Victor V-40280, 1930)
L. K. Reeder, "Falling Leaf" (OKeh 45026, c. 1926; rec. 1925; on MakeMe)
Sue & Rawhide, "Falling Leaf" (OKeh 45577, 1934)
File: R765

Falling of the Pine

DESCRIPTION: Speaker tells of working in lumber camps: "When daylight is a-breakin'/From our slumbers we awaken/When our breakfast we have taken/Our axes we will grind...And the woods we'll make to ring/By the falling of the pine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy; Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: recitation lumbering work logger nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 17, "The Falling of the Pine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 17, "The Falling of the Pine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 10, "Falling of the Pine" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 37, "Falling of the Pine" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 17-20, "The Falling of the Pine" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 73-74, "The Falling of the Pine (Square Timber Logging)" (1 text)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #3, "The Falling of the Pine" (1 fragment, tune referenced)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 202-204, "The Falling of the Pine" (1 text)
ST Be010 (Partial)
Roud #4560
RECORDINGS:
Martin McManus, "The Falling of the Pine" (on Lumber01)
Lester Wells, "The Falling of the Pine" (AFS, 1938; on LC56)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (theme) and references there
cf. "Driving Saw-Logs on the Plover" (tune)
NOTES [61 words]: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine caim this as the second-oldest woods song known. They offer no justification for this claim. Some of their songs they date based on internal dates, or the date of the event referred to, which is of course very dubious. Neither applies in this case. But the song does appear to be fairly old, since the lumbermen use axes, not saws. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Be010

False Bride, The (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass)

DESCRIPTION: The singer reports that the woman he once loved is going to be wed to another. He mopes around in various ways -- e.g. looking for flowers out of season. His friends fail to lift his spirits. He declares his intent to die in hopes of forgetting her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1675 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 1(83a)); also printed in the reign of James II (1685-1688)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer reports that the woman he once loved is going to be wed to another. He mopes around in various ways -- e.g. looking for flowers out of season, but goes to the wedding. His friends fail to lift his spirits. (In a toast or an aside to the groom, the singer lets the groom know that he has often lain with the bride, so that for the groom she is a pair of "old shoes.") The singer declares his intent to die in hopes of forgetting her.
KEYWORDS: love infidelity courting marriage death wedding lyric
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(South,Lond)) Ireland Canada(Newf,Ont) Australia
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 187-188, "I Think by This Time He's Forgot Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 152, "The False Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #24, p. 1, "The False Bride" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1198, "The False Bride" (20 texts plus a single verse on p. 568, 17 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 175, "It Wasna My Fortune to Get Her" (1 text)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #72, p. 244-245, "She's Only My Auld Shoes (The False Bride)" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 86, "The Lambs on the Green Hills" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 441-442, "The False Maiden" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 31, "The False Bride" (2 texts, 3 tunes)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 44, "I Once Loved a Lass" (1 text, 1 tune, from LaRena (Mrs. Gordon) Clark, which begins with verses probably from "The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass," continues with stanzas from "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)," then has a "My love is like a dewdrop" stanza often found in "Farewell He," and includes several other lyrics that might have floated in)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 37, "The False Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #89, "Three Weeks Before Easter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 47, "The False Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 400, "I Courted a Bonny Lass" (1 text)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 14, "The False Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 236-237, "A Week Before Easter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #97, "The False Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #56, "A Week Before Easter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2765, "A week before Easter"; ZN2766, "The week before Easter"
DT 848, FLSEBRDE FLSEBRD2* FLSEBRD3* FLSEBRD4 FLSEBRD5* FLSEBRD6* FLSEBRD7* FLSEBRD8
Roud #154
RECORDINGS:
Harry Burgess, "A Week Before Easter" (on Voice15)
Ollie Conway, "The Lambs In the Green Hills" (on IROConway01)
Bob Copper, "The False Bride" (on FSB01)
Patsy Judge, "The Forest Was Covered In Bushes" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "I Loved a Lass" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
Sarah Makem, "I Courted a Wee Girl" (on Voice01)
Patrick Rossiter, "The False Maiden" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Lucy Stewart, "The False Bride" (on FSBFTX15)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(83a), "The Forlorn Lover" ("A week before Easter, the dayes long and clear"), F. Coles (London), 1663-1674; also Douce Ballads 3(32a), "The Forlorn Lover"
NLScotland, R.B.m.143(128), "It Was Not My Fortune To Get Her," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonny Brown Jane"
cf. "If I Were a Fisher" (floating verses)
cf. "Drei Wochen vor Oschrdren (Three Weeks before Easter)" (lyrics, general feeling)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Forlorn Lover
I Ainse Loved a Lass
I Loved a Lass
The Week Before Easter
Three Weeks Before Easter
Six Weeks Before Easter
The Forsaken Bridegroom
My Bonnie Bride
The Forsaken Lover
NOTES [319 words]: Some versions (for example, "I Loved A Lass" on SCMacCollSeeger01) include a verse close to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 318, "A man in the wilderness asked me": "A man in the wilderness asked me, How many strawberries grow in the sea? I answered him, as I thought good, As many as red herrings grow in the wood" (earliest date in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes is 1716). [Also in Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #142, p. 114. - RBW]
Is it significant that this verse is not in any of the printed versions that I consulted: Peacock, Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland, Bodleian broadsides or Greig Folk-Song of the North-East 24? - BS
Verses of this type do show up in folktales, however. The "strawberries/blackberries in the sea" stanza, for instance, occurs in the tale of "The Man in the Wilderness," which is found on pp. 404-405 of volume A.1 of Katherine Briggs, A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2). There are two other verses of the sort in that narrative.
The Bodleian Douce broadside appears to be the one listed in the Stationer's Register for March 1, 1675. Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), #907, p. 83. has this entry: "forlorne lover, The (Mch. 1, 1675, ii, 499) [Beg. 'A Week before Easter the day's long and clear,' R[oxburghe] B[allads] VI, 233."
Beatrix Potter used what sounds a lot like a verse of this -- "The man in the wilderness said to me / 'How many strawberries grow in the sea?' I answered him as I thought good, 's many red herrings as grow in the wood'" -- in "The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin," a story with several traditional verses in it. - RBW- RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K152

False Hearted William

See In Camden Town (File: CrSNB053)

False Henry

DESCRIPTION: When the singer "met Henry Twas the saddest night of all." "Take my baby dearest mother And you'll train it up in life." She warns "they'll leave you broken hearted A poor mother, but no wife." She is leaving or, more likely, committing suicide.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: grief seduction suicide nonballad baby
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1163, "False Henry" (1 text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 139, "False Henry" (1 text)
Roud #6817
RECORDINGS:
Daisy Chapman, "False Henry" (on SCDChapman01)
File: GrD61163

False Knight in the Road, The

See The Fause Knight Upon the Road [Child 3] (File: C003)

False Knight on the Road, The

See The Fause Knight Upon the Road [Child 3] (File: C003)

False Knight, The

See The Fause Knight Upon the Road [Child 3] (File: C003)

False Lamkin

See Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)

False Lanky

See Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)

False Lover (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "When I was young, I was well beloved By all young men... When I was blooming... This false young man he decieved me." The girl tells how the false lover abandoned her, hopes for better fortune, and wants God to bring him to trial for his falsehood
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1173, "When I Was Young I Was Well Beloved" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 496, "Love It Is Easing" (1 text)
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 45, "When I Was Young" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H790, p. 383, "The False Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1075
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.18(132), "Wheel of Fortune" ("When I was young I was much beloved"), unknown, no date
NOTES [93 words]: The notes in Henry/Huntington/Herrmann list this as a variant of "Wheel of Fortune" and "Love is Pleasing." Similarly Roud. The theme, of course, is the same as the latter (but that's commonplace). It has only a half stanza in common with "Wheel of Fortune," and less than that in common with "Love is Pleasing." It's at least as close to "Dear Companion." I firmly believe it's a separate song. - RBW
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO includes floating verses: "love is teasing", "I left my father ... all for the sake of you" and "like a star on a winter's morning." - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: HHH790

False Lover (II), The

See William Taylor [Laws N11] (File: LN11)

False Lover (III), The

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

False Lover John

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

False Lover Won Back, The [Child 218]

DESCRIPTION: A man saddles his horse to leave his lover (and her unborn child). She follows him from place to place, begging him to return. At each stop he buys her a gift and tells her to go home. At last he repents and buys her a wedding ring
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: abandonment hardheartedness marriage love
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Child 218, "The False Lover Won Back" (2 texts)
Bronson 218, "The False Lover Won Back" (5 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 218, "The False Lover Won Back" (4 versions: #1, #2, #3, #5)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #93, pp. 1-3, "The False Lover Won Back" (5 texts)
Greig/Duncan5 974, "The False Lover Won Back" (8 texts plus two verses on p. 603, 4 tunes)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 78, "The False Lover Won Back" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 575-576, "The False Lover Won Back" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, p. 221, "The Fause Lover" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 72, "Young John" (1 text)
DT 218, BONLOVE*
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 144-145, "The Place Where My Love Johnny Dwells" [Child 218B]
Peter Buchan, Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1875 (reprint of 1828 edition ("Digitized by Google"))), Vol I, pp. 261, 313, "The Fause Lover"
Roud #201
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The False Lover Won Back" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Foot Is in the Stirrup"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
It's Hard That I Like You Sae Weel
The Sun Shines High
Oh, When Will Ye Come Back, Bonny Love?
NOTES [27 words]: Greig's texts include one from Christie, Traditional Ballad Airs (1876-1881), and one from Buchan, Ancient Songs and Ballads of the North of Scotland (1828). - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: C218

False Maiden

See The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass) (File: K152)

False Mallie

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, did ye hear how Mall was courted... By a young sailor brisk and bold?" Jamie goes to war, and Mallie breaks her vow and marries another. When he returns and finds her false, he goes mad, and ends up in Bedlam cursing her name and her deeds
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation betrayal sailor madness
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #88, pp. 1-2, "False Mallie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1202, "False Mallie" (7 texts, 3 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 183-184, "False Mallie" (1 text)
Roud #5529
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lovely Annie" (theme: a man driven "mad" by a woman's infidelity)
cf. "The Green Bushes" [Laws P2]," particularly the "Nut Bushes" version (theme: a man driven "mad" by a woman's infidelity)
File: Ord183

False Nancy

See Nancy (II) (The Rambling Beauty) [Laws P12] (File: LP12)

False Old Mawkin, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

False Sir John, (The)

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

False True Love

See The False Young Man (The False True Lover) (File: SKE42)

False True Lover

See Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove) (File: Wa097)

False True Lover (II), The

See The False Young Man (The False True Lover) (File: SKE42)

False Young Man, The (The False True Lover)

DESCRIPTION: The lover invites (her) old true love in; it has been most of a year since she saw him. He will not come; he has another love. She recalls how he could make her believe "the sun rose up in the west." She stays at home (with the cradle) (and curses him)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918
KEYWORDS: love courting separation betrayal pregnancy curse
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 42, "The False Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 58, "The False Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 164, "False True Love" (1 text)
DT, FALSTRUE
Roud #419
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Young Hunting" [Child 68] (lyrics)
cf. "A False-Hearted Love" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [34 words]: This is clearly a conflate song; the first verses are from American texts of "Loving Henry"; the end is from some sort of betrayal song. - RBW
And one verse seems to be lifted from "House Carpenter." - PJS
File: SKE42

False Young Man, The (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out)

DESCRIPTION: The young man greets the girl after a long separation and asks her to sit down with him. She will not; "You've given your heart to another one...." She remembers his strange oaths, and says young men will prove true when fish fly like birds.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (collected by Olive Dame Campbell; in Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians); +1876 (Christie, _Traditional Ballad Airs I_)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation infidelity lie rejection lyric
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont) Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland) Ireland US(Ap,MA,SE,So)
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 83, "As I Stepped Out Last Sunday Morning" (2 texts); 162, "The One Forsaken" (1 text, entirely of floating lyrics, but some of them, and the theme, are this song)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, p. 29, "The Cottage Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 51, "T Stands for Thomas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 174, "The Fause Young Man" (1 text)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 8, "The Verdant Braes of Skreen" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 2, "As I Roved Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 68-69, "The False Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune, which starts with verses typical of "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" and ends with the "Rocky Mountain Top/White Oak Mountain" verses of "The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out)"
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #18, "Who Will Shoe Your Foot?" (1 text, primarily this but with the "Pretty Little Foot" stanzas)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 94, "The False Young Man" (10 texts, 10 tunes)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, p. 41, "Come Along, My Own True Love" (1 text, with a first verse that might have floated in from "Young Hunting" or the like); pp. 270-272, "The False Young Man" (3 short texts plus an excerpt, with local titles "Come Along, My Own True Love," "Set You Down, My Own True Love," "As I Walked Out One May Morning"; 1 tune on p. 428 )
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 15, "The False Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 7, "The False Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 166-168, "The False Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 50, "As I Walked Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 58-59, "As I Walked Out on a Fair May Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 342, "T Stands for Thomas" (1 text)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 143, "T Stands for Thomas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 153, "The False Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #20, "The Old Garden Gate" (1 short text, 1 tune, probably this)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H593, pp. 389-390, "My Love John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 41-42, "The Verdant Braes o' Skreen" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 198-199, "The Fause Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FJ166 (Partial)
Roud #419
RECORDINGS:
Frank & Francis McPeake, "The False Young Man" (on FSB01)
Mary Murphy, "The False Young Man" (on FSBFTX15)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "False, False Hae Ye Been To Me, My Love" (theme)
cf. "Rocky Mountain Top" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Johnny's The Lad I Love
Rocky Mountain Side
NOTES [134 words]: In America, this has become almost purely lyric (consider "White Oak Mountain":
"I will never believe a young man any more
Let his eyes be blue, black, or brown
Save he were on the top of a high gallows tree
A-swearing he wished to come down!") -- so much so that I originally classified the versions separately. Then the common lyrics convinced me to lump them. But Steve Roud put Sharp's "Rocky Mountain Top" a separate song (#3608), so I have done the same. Nonetheless there are enough intermediate forms to prove identity.
The song also mixes somewhat with "Foggy Mountain Top," itself a largely mixed and incoherent piece. Short lyric texts might perhaps go with either. - RBW
Also see Planxty, "'P' Stands for Paddy, I Suppose" (on Planxty, "Cold Blow on the Rainy Night," Shanachie 79011 (1979)) - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FJ166

False-Hearted Knight and the Pretty Carol Lynn

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

False-Hearted Knight, The

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

False-Hearted Lover, A

DESCRIPTION: A complaint toward a false love: "There is more than one, there is more than two, There is more pretty boys than you." ""You slighted me for another girl." "The loss of one is the gain of two [sweethearts]" "I wish to the Lord you had never been born."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 141, "A False-Hearted Love" (1 text)
Roud #6574
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The False Young Man (The False True Lover)" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [33 words]: This is one of those lost-love items, mostly lyric, largely composed of floating elements -- the sort of song that largely defies classification. I know of no other versions of this precise mix. - RBW
File: BrII141

False-Hearted Lover, The

See The Yellow Handkerchief (Flash Company) (File: K360)

False, False Hae Ye Been To Me, My Love

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments that her love is false, ans says "I'm afraid that you're ne'er mair mine." She compares her fate to climbing a tree too high, or rowing against a stream. She says she will yet climb a still taller tree and come down to a true love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (collected from Christina MacAllister)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 60, "False, False Hae Ye Been To Me, My Love" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
DT, FALSTOME*
Roud #8276
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out)"
NOTES [85 words]: MacColl and Seeger note that this is a member of the large class of betrayal songs combined with a demand for, or a curse of, the impossible; "The False Young Man" is another song with this sort of thing. They note that the final stanza, about climbing a higher tree, floats (though it doesn't always show up in the songs they list). But they also regard this as a separate song.
I incline to agree. While it is a typical item of this type, the lyrics are unusual enough to warrant separate classification. - RBW
File: McCST060

Fame

DESCRIPTION: "I do not growl as others do or wish that I was younger," for the singer had a hard childhood in a family with too many children. Sent out to make his own way, he joins the army, being offered "fun." He ends up losing a leg and warns against "glory"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle)
KEYWORDS: father home soldier injury money warning
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 30-31, "Fame" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7516
NOTES [8 words]: Sort of a "Forfar Soldier" minus the pension. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Boet030

Famed Killabane

DESCRIPTION: The singer, now in the United States, recalls his youth in Killabane. He "roamed the wild mountain crest," danced "from midnight till dawn" and hunted "the wild hare." He hopes for the vindication of "long-vanquished Erin."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: emigration hunting dancing America Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 58, "Famed Killabane" (1 text)
Roud #16236
File: OCC058

Famed Waterloo

See The Mantle So Green [Laws N38] (File: LN38)

Family's Things, The

See Here Are the Lady's Knives and Forks (File: OO2295)

Famine Song

See Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small) (File: SBoA148)

Famous Duke of York, The

DESCRIPTION: The famous Duke of York "marched his men to war." They didn't reach the battlefield "because it was too far"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Frank Kidson and Alfred Moffat, _Eighty Singing Games_, according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: army humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 215, ("Oh! the famous Duke of York") (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Noble Duke of York" (probable subject)
File: OpGap215

Famous Farmer, A

See The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)

Famous Fight at Malago, The

DESCRIPTION: Five English frigates anchor at Malaga, destroy churches and other buildings, and destroy shipping, intending to leave "many a widow." The Spanish Armada had done no harm but five English frigates made the Spaniards taste Englishmen's valor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1684 (Ebsworth); a song "Fight at Malago" was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: battle navy death England Spain
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 1656 - five English frigates bombard Malaga, Spain (source: Firth [see Notes)
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire 5, "Come All You Bold Britons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 15, "The Famous Fight at Malago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads LII, pp. 87-89, "The Famous Fight at Malago: Or, The Englishman's Victory over the Spaniards" (1 text)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #2, "The Famous Fight at Malago. Or, the Englishmen's VIctory over the Spaniards" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1889 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. VI Part 2 [Part 17], pp. 411-1413, "The Famous Fight at Malago; or The Englishman’s Victory over the Spaniards" (“Come all you brave sailors, that sails on the main” (1 text) [specifically Roxburghe II, 146; printer W O[nley], c.1684]
C.H. Firth, editor, Naval Songs and Ballads (London?:Navy Records Society, 1908 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 47-48, "The Fight at Malago" (1 text)
Roud #296
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(72b), “The famous fight at Malago: or, the Englishmens victory over the Spaniards” ("Come all you brave sillors[sic] that sails on the main"), W. Onley (London), 1689-1709
EngBdsdBA 21866, Pepys 4.204, "The Famous Fight at Malago, Or, The Englishmen's Victory over the Spaniards" ("Come all you brave sailors that sails on the main"), I Clarke, 1684-1686, accessed 08 Dec 2013.
NOTES [134 words]: Ebsworth thinks the July 1600 registry of a ballad about "the report of a fight at sea in the straights of Gibraltar between certen merchantes shippes of England and fyve Spanish shippes of war, the 25 of Maie, 1600" refers to this ballad. Firth, however, writes that "the only ballad directly relating an incident in the wars of this period [the suppression of unlicensed books and pamphlets in 1649 and the act in 1657 against fiddlers and minstrels] is one which describes the bombardment of Malaga by five of Blake's frigates in July 1656, which is reprinted on p. 47 (p. xxvii).
O'Shaughnessy's text is a composite of a collected text that was "garbled and the narrative incomplete," a fragment in JFSS, and three stanzas from Roxburghe. The description above follows Ebsworth's Roxburghe text. - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: OSLin005

Famous Flower of Serving-Men, The [Child 106]

DESCRIPTION: Fair (Elise) has lost father, then husband. She disguises herself as a man and seeks service at the king's court, becoming chamberlain. When only an old man is about, she reveals herself in song. The old man tells the king she is female; he marries her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch, from tradition); 1654-1663? (broadside, Euing 111); title found in the Stationer's Register in 1656; "Lady TUrned Serving-man" was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: death family royalty servant disguise cross-dressing marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(MA,NE,So) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (34 citations):
Child 106, "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 106, "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" (7 versions+5 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 106, "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" (6 versions: #1, #2, #3, #3.2, #4, #4.1)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 86-90, "The Lady Turned Serving-Man" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques L, p. 95, "The Lady Turned Serving-Man" (1 partial text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 274-277, "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men: or, The Lady Turned Serving-Man" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 90-95, "Sweet William" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bonson's #1}
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #118, pp. 1-2, "The Cruel Stepmother" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 163, "The Famous Flower of Serving Men" (4 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, pp. 95-96, "Dukes and Earls" (1 fragment, 1 tune, possibly this although it is too short to be sure)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 34-35, "The Flower Of Serving Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 227-232, "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" (1 traditional text plus assorted variants and a songster version)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 127-129, "Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 77-88, "The Famous Flower of Servingmen" (4 texts plus a fragment, the "A" text being from "The Charms of Melody" rather than tradition; 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 30, "Lament of a Border Widow" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 13, "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 62-63, "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 192-193, "The Lament of the Border Widow" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, p. 409, "Lament of the Border Widow"(1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 92-98, "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 153, "The Lament of the Border Widow"; 166, "The Lady Turned Serving-Man" (2 texts)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 29, "The Lament of the Border Widow" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2994, "You beauteous Ladies great and small"
DT 106, FLRSERV1* FLRSERV2* BRDRWDO*
ADDITIONAL: John S. Roberts, The Legendary Ballads of England and Scotland (n.d.), pp. 248-249, "The Border Widow's Lament"
Thomas Percy,Reliques of English Poetry (London: J Dodsley, 1765 ("Digitized by Google")) Vol. III, #1.18 pp. 87-92, "The Lady Turned Serving-Man"
Ambrose Phillips, A Collection of Old Ballads (London: J. Roberts, 1723 ("Digitized by Google")), #29 pp. 216-220, "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men: or, The Lady turn'd Serving-man"
Joseph Ritson, A Select Collection of English Songs (London: J Johnson, 1783), Vol 2, Ballad #12 pp. 244-249, "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men; or, The Lady Turn'd Serving-Man"
G.R. Kinloch, Ancient Scottish Ballads (London: Longman Rees Orme Brown and Green, 1827 ("Digitized by Google"), pp. 95-99, "Sweet Willie"
Jeannie Robertson, "The Famous Flower of Servingmen," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1954.103,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/38037/?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023
Belle Stewart, "Dukes and Earls". School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1978.170,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/38037/?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023
Andrew Stewart, "The Dukes and Earls," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1956.117,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/30501?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023
William & Susan Platt, _Folktales of the Scottish Border_, published 1919 as _Stories of the Scottish Border_, republished by Senate Press, 1999, pp. 147-148, "The Lament of the Border Widow" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #425, "The Bonnie Bower (The Lament of the Border Widow)" (1 text)
Roud #199
RECORDINGS:
Mary Delaney, "My Brother Built Me a Bancy Bower" (on IRTravellers01)
Caroline Hughes, "The Famous Flower of Servantmen" (on FSBBAL1) {Bronson's #3.3 in addenda}
Jasper Smith, "The Small Birds Whistle" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(83b), "The Famous Flower of Serving Men, or The Lady Turn'd serving " ("You beauteous ladies great and small"), Elizabeth Andrews (London), 1664-1666; also Wood E 25(75), "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men, or The Lady Turn'd Serving-Man; Harding B 5(112), Harding B 5(111), "The Famous Flower of Serving Men, or The Lady Turn'd Serving Man"; Harding B 5(110), "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men, or The Lady Turned Serving Man"; Douce Ballads 3(30b), "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men, or The Lady Turned to be a Serving Man"; Douce Ballads 4(26), "The Famous Flower, or The Lady Turned Serving Man"; Douce Ballads 1(83b), "The Famous Flower of Serving Men, or The Lady Turn'd serving "
EngBdsdBA 21154, Pepys 3.142, "The Famous Flower of Serving Men, or, The Lady Turn'd Serving-Man" ("You beauteous ladies great and small I'll write unto you one and all"), W. Thackeray and T Passinger (London) , 1686-1688, accessed 13 Apr 2014.
EngBdsdBA 31501, BritLib Roxburghe 3.762-763, "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men, or, The Lady Turn'd Serving-Man" ("You beauteous ladies great and small, I write until you one and all"), unknown (London), 1763-1775?, accessed 24 Apr 2014.
EngBdsdBA 33899, NLS Crawford 1384, "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men, or, The Lady Turn'd Serving-Man" ("You beauteous ladies great and small"), unknown , n.d., accessed 24 Apr 2014.
EngBdsdBA 31819, UniversityGlasgow Euing 111, "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men, or, The Lady Turn'd Serving-Man" ("You beauteous ladies great and small, I write unto you one and all"), Lawrence Price (London) , 1654-1663?, accessed 24 Apr 2014.
EngBdsdBA 32530, HuntingtonLib Misc 289788, "The Famous Flower of Serving Men, or, The Lady Turned to Be a Serving-Man" ("You beauteous ladies great and small, I write to you one and all"), unknown, 1775?, accessed 24 Apr 2014.
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sweet William
My Father Built Me
The Stepmother
NOTES [492 words]: "The Border Widow's Lament" is given in Child's introduction to "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men," and has been described as "a self-sufficient fragment" of the longer ballad. - KK, RBW
What appears to be the earliest reference to this piece is in the Stationer's Register for 1656. Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), #855, p. 78, gives this description of the entry:
"famous flower of servingmen, or the lady turn'd servingman, The (July 14, 1656, ii, 73, Jno. Andrews). [Beg. 'You beauteous Ladies great and small,' by Laurence Price, R[oxburghe] B[allads] VI.567....]"
Bronson has extensive notes about the complicated history of this ballad, where both text and tune seem to have suffered from editorial activity. James Reed, e.g., suggests (in "The Border Ballad," p. 26, printed in Edward J. Cowan, editor, The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History 1980; I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition) that Walter Scott rewrote "The Border Widow's Lament." and I incline to agree; it's a little too orderly and neat to be the pure result of tradition.
On p. 1780 of volume 6 of J. Burke Severs and Albert Hartung, editors, A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1500, in ten volumes with continuous page numbering; Volume 6 (edited by Hartung), Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1980, David C. Fowler suggests that this was "signed" by Lawrence Price, whose initials also accompany "Robin Hood's Golden Prize" [Child 147] and a couple of non-Child ballads in the Index. - RBW
The title of Jasper Smith's version on Voice11 is from a verse lifted from "The Croppy Boy." The notes for the ballad make it a version of "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" [Child 106]. At best it is an abridgement and corruption of the first verse of the Percy fragment in Child's headnote to "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" added to the lily-bower verse of Child/Border Widow [shamrock-bower here to go with "Old Ireland free"]; here is Percy: "My mother showed me a deadly spight; She sent three thieves at darksome night; They put my servants all to flight, They robbed my bower, and they slew my knight." Here is a description of Jasper Smith's "The Small Birds Whistle": A girl runs away with a man who leaves her with a baby; her father builds her a bower but "Then my father he owed me a dreadful spite. He sent nine robbers all in one night To take my baby and to do me harm" and that ends the story.
Also collected and sung by Ellen Mitchell, "Border Widow's Lament" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001))
Bodleian broadsides Douce Ballads 4(26) and Harding B5(111) are identical except for the title and imprint. Note also that Evans has a different version printed about the same period. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C106

Famous Light Brigade, The

DESCRIPTION: "Six hundred stalwart warriors, of England's pride the best" fight the Russians at Balaclava. "It was a famous story, proclaim it far and wide... When old Cardigan, the fearless, his name immortal made" -- and lost four hundred of his troops
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: battle disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 25, 1854 - Battle of Balaclava
FOUND IN: US(MA) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 276-277, "The Famous Light Brigade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H829, p. 91, "Balaclava" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 33, "'Tis a famous story, proclaim it far and wide" (1 fragment)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 218-219, "Balaclava" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 151, "Balaclava" (1 text)
Roud #1443 and 9419
NOTES [2819 words]: It would be an exaggeration to say that the final century of the existence of the Russian and Ottoman Empires was devoted to a contest between the two of them for control of the Dardanelles. But the exaggeration would be mild. The Russians made many attempts in the nineteenth century to gain control of the straights. The Crimean War came about because one of their attempts was so blatant that the British and French felt it simply had to be stopped.
The war was a disaster for both sides; both suffered heavy losses -- due to both bad logistics and bad generalship -- while reaping only minimal gains. Even in that utterly incompetent war, few results were as bad as the fate of the Light Brigade.
The charge of the Light Brigade is, of course, one of the most famous disasters in military history. It took some work to bring about the debacle, though. The first stage of the combined British/French invasion, which resulted in the Battle of Alma, went well enough if you ignore the severe casualties caused by disease (for background, see the notes to "The Heights of Alma (I)" [Laws J10]). After Alma, the allies could perhaps have tried a direct run for Sebastopol. With the defenses weak and the Russian army defeated and scattered, it might have worked (Royle, pp. 261-262, Warner, pp. 46-57).
The allies didn't try it. British commander Lord Raglan discussed it with the French, but they refused (Palmer, p. 103). So the allied army moved slowly to be prepared for a possible siege -- and thus made the siege inevitable. The allies moved to the south of the city, set up new supply bases, and generally dawdled.
The dawdling gave the Russians time to properly fortify Sebastopol (as well as to get their troops reorganized). And, with the city more defensible, it also gave the Russians troops with which to attempt offensive moves of their own (Royle, pp. 263-264). On October 25, five weeks after the Battle of Alma, with the British, French, and Turkish allies slowly tightening the encirclement of Sebastopol, the Russians counterattacked at Balaclava. With a force reported to total 25,000 men, they struck at the weak British east flank (Royle, p. 265).
This was potentially a war-winner for the Russians (Royle, p. 267); if they could take Balaclava Harbor, which was the sole British supply port (Woodham-Smith, p. 197), the British would be entirely cut off from supplies and the French potentially flanked. And the British had suffered so many losses (primarily to disease rather than battle) that they didn't have enough reserves to garrison Balaclava and maintain their other operations (Woodham-Smith, p. 207). But, of course, the Russians muffed it.
The first Russian charge was a partial success, routing part of the Turkish force (Palmer, p. 125, says that the Turks lost half their numbers; the allies still blamed them for fleeing). The attack failed only in that it had not reached Balaclava.
Still, the Russians were atop the only real road from Balaclava to the British camp -- meaning that they controlled the British supply line unless they were driven back (Woodham-Smith, p. 213). This finally convinced Raglan that he had to do something. He ordered up two divisions of infantry -- and sent Lord Lucan an order which moved the cavalry out of the way (Woodham-Smith, pp. 214-215).
Tthe British were lucky. They had only a handful of infantry guarding the path to Balaclava itself, but that handful consisted of Highlanders under the command of Colin Campbell -- the one really top-flight officer of the war. (For more on Sir Colin, see the notes to "The Kilties in the Crimea.") Plus they were armed with rifle muskets, rather than the old smoothbores, giving them enough firepower to stop, or at least frighten off, the Russian cavalry (Royle, pp. 266-267; Woodham-Smith, p. 216).
Meanwhile, Lord Raglan, thinking that Campbell would be overwhelmed (as, by rights, he should have been) ordered the Heavy Brigade of cavalry to counterattack. Because he was far away, the Russian attack had faltered by the time the message reached the cavalry (Woodham-Smith, p. 218). Fortunately, the Heavy Brigade had a commander who, if he had little experience, had a brain and a willingness to listen to his more knowledgeable staff officers. General Scarlett, against immense odds and on terrain which favored the Russians, waited until the enemy had halted, and sent out an amazing counter-charge (Woodham-Smith, pp. 219-223).
The charge of the Heavy Brigade disorganized the Russians but was not in sufficient force to push them back completely (the heavies were outnumbered by at least two to one; Woodham-Smith seems to think the ratio was eight to one). The Russians halted their charge and pulled back to a more secure position (Royle, p. 270) -- but they still threatened the British supply line. Any additional force the British could scrape up might tilt the balance. And there was the Light Brigade -- the other half of the cavalry division -- unengaged.
It was at this point that the deficiencies of the British command arrangements really came out. There were officers in the British army with combat experience, but most of them -- e.g. the officers of the Indian army -- were kept out of the Crimea due to snobbishness; Farwell, p. 69. The handful of other experienced officers were all very old -- e.g. commander-in-chief Lord Raglan had fought at Waterloo (where he had lost his right arm; (Woodham-Smith, p. 156), and he was 65 years old at the start of the Crimean campaign (Woodham-Smith, p. 131).
The cavalry division was commanded by Lord Lucan, who had purchased his commission. The commander of the Light Brigade, Lord Cardigan, was also an officer by purchase; James, p. 337, says that prior to the Crimea his "only previous experience of hostile fire had been when he had fought a duel fourteen years before." (Commission by purchase would not be abolished until 1871; Chandler/Beckett, p. 188).
Cardigan, in fact, had once been dismissed from regimental command for incompetence (Woodham-Smith, pp. 43-44, with the pages before that abundantly documenting why he had to go). Indeed, Cardigan in this period had shown obvious signs of mental illness; Woodham-Smith, pp. 7-8, says that in early life he had had no notion of fear, and had suffered a fall which left him subject to almost uncontrollable fits of rage (a not uncommon side effect of certain types of traumatic brain injury). But he managed, by assiduous nagging, to secure a new appointment (Woodham-Smith, p. 47). This caused such outrage that Parliament investigated -- but Parliament finally gave in when the military in effect drew a line in the sand and said, "Don't Interfere" (Woodham-Smith, p. 49).
Nor was Cardigan in position to learn on the job (even assuming he was capable of it); in the period after the Crimean landing, the horses were too broken down for him to do any scouting (Woodham-Smith, pp. 170-171). To top it all off, by the time of Balaclava, he was sleeping in his yacht in Balaclava harbor rather than among his men (Woodham-Smith, p. 201). Basically, he showed up in mid-morning, gave nonsense orders, ran down his men and horses, and left for the night to enjoy himself.
Lord Lucan was a little more concerned for his soldiers (among other things, he insisted on sharing their camp), and he at least had some field experience, unlike Cardigan, but it was slight and many decades old (Woodham-Smith, p. 132); he couldn't even learn the new manual of command (Woodham-Smith, p. 146). The entire army knew that Cardigan was an impetuous fool, and Lucan they called "Lord Look-On" for his caution (Woodham-Smith, pp. 177-178).
It might not have mattered quite so much had Lucan and Cardigan not been sworn enemies; Lucan had married (Woodham-Smith, pp. 15, 28) and abandoned (Woodham-Smith, pp. 127-128) Cardigan's sister. They should not have been in the same army, let alone in the same division. Lord Raglan tried to keep them separate (Woodham-Smith, pp. 132, 144, 148, etc.), but that just made things worse; Cardigan treated Raglan's concession as a right, and complained whenever Lucan came near him. And Lucan felt, correctly, that he had repeatedly been bypassed. Determined not to give Lord Raglan further grounds for undercutting him, Lucan responded by turning into the sort of cardboard officer who obeys every command with literal precision, regardless of whether it made sense (Woodham-Smith, p. 205).
When the Heavy Brigade counterattacked to regain the lost positions in the heights by Balaclava, the Light Brigade probably should have joined their charge (Palmer, p. 127; Royle, p. 270), but brigade commander Cardigan had been too often accused of impetuosity and decided to sit tight until orders arrived (Woodham-Smith, p. 224).
If the Russians were allowed time to rebuild their position, the whole fruit of the Heavy Brigade's work might be lost. And the infantry that was supposed to show up to take part in the battle was late (Royle, p. 272; Woodham-Smith, p. 226). When Lord Raglan -- who really should have tried to move closer to the scene of the action -- saw the Russians regrouping and preparing to haul off captured guns, he determined that something must be done. He sent an order to the Light Brigade to attack. But the order was imperfectly clear (Raglan seemed almost unable to give explicit orders; Hibbert, p. 50; Woodham-Smith, p. 177) -- and it appears that the copy received by Lucan differed from what Raglan had dictated (Woodham-Smith, p. 226). Lucan decided that the order meant he should wait until the infantry arrived.
An exasperated Raglan then sent an order for the Light Brigade to attack an overrun battery. Unfortunately, even among his roll of unclear orders, this one was singularly bad; it doesn't even give a direction or a destination (Chandler/Beckett, p. 181). Woodham-Smith has a photo of the message slip (facing p. 101); it is nearly illegible and gives no precise directions as to what he wants done; as written, it seems to say little more than "Charge!" So everything depended on the officer who carried the message.
And the messenger chosen was a bad one; Captain Edward Nolan seems to have been chosen not for his military sense but because he was an excellent horseman (Royle, p. 273). And a good horseman was needed, because Raglan was positioned so far from the front and there was much broken ground to be covered.
When Nolan reached Lord Lucan, Cardigan's division commander, he delivered the order to charge the battery. Unfortunately, from Lucan's position, the battery Raglan had been looking at was invisible (Woodham-Smith, p. 230). When Lucan angrily asked for clarification, Nolan cavalierly pointed at a visible enemy battery and said that the enemy was there (Palmer, p. 129; Royle, p. 273; Woodham-Smith, p. 231). Lucan saw no choice but to order Cardigan to charge. Apparently Lucan and Cardigan both thought the order as given was nonsense -- but they obeyed it (Royle, p. 274).
Maybe, if they had been more willing to talk to each other, the disaster might not have happened. But they weren't willing to talk. Lucan relayed Raglan's order as he understood it, and the charge was made. It was, in a way, the perfect role for Cardigan (Woodham-Smith, p. 235); it required no brains, and his spit-and-polish drill at least meant that the men made the charge as if on the parade ground. But they were still attacking in the wrong place.
It was not, properly speaking, a charge (Warner, p. 66); a charge is a full gallop very close to the enemy. It was in fact something worse: a ride over a mile and a half, under fire the whole way. And cavalry is particularly vulnerable to artillery and rifle fire.
Little surprise, then, that the assault was crushed. Nolan -- who improperly joined the attack (Palmer, p. 127; Royle, p. 274) -- was killed at the first rush (Warner, p. 66, repeats a suggestion that he had realized his error in the moments before his death, and Chandler/Beckett, p. 183, claims he was trying to redirect the charge, but even if true, that was far too late -- and Nolan had no right to give such an order anyway).
At least 107 men were killed with him (Chandler/Beckett, p. 182; Royle, p. 274; Palmer, p. 132; and Warner, pp. 66-67, say that 113 were killed and 134 wounded). Casualties among horses were even higher; Warner, p. 67, gives the number destroyed as "nearly all"; Chandler/Beckett, p. 182, say "most"; Royle, p. 274, says that 397 were destroyed; Palmer, p. 133, gives the number as 475; Woodham-Smith, p. 249, gives the round number of 500. (My guess is that the latter two figures are derived by taking 195, the number of men still mounted at the end of the charge, from the number of men in the brigade.)
The loss of the horses was very difficult loss to make up; many horses had died on their way to the Crimea, and the British still hadn't learned how to ship them (Woodham-Smith, p. 139).
Between loss of horses and loss of men, only 195 cavalrymen were fit for battle at the end of the day, out of 673 soldiers who made the charge (Palmer, p. 132; Woodham-Smith, p. 249, says that only 195 cavalrymen came back, but this appears to be a misreading of the reports).
Lord Cardigan, amazingly, survived, and even broke through the line of guns. He almost ran into a force of enemy cavalry (and Woodham-Smith, pp. 244-245, notes that they made no attempt to kill him -- apparently their commander recognized him and tried to have him captured. A silly notion; an army operating with Lord Cardigan as a general was surely a worse army than one where he was safely out of the way.) And since none of Cardigan's juniors knew where he was (he eventually made it back to where the Heavy Brigade was resting), it meant that the obviously-necessary retreat was delayed. (Of course, being who he was, he might not have let them retreat just because they were being slaughtered to no effect.)
A French officer said it best: It was "magnificent, but not war." ("C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre" -- Haswell, p. 98)
It was, however, the end of the battle of Balaclava -- really little more than a skirmish: The Russians were stopped less by actual fighting than by the showy charge of the Heavy Brigade, and the Light Brigade rode into oblivion and immortality, which Tennyson would commemorate three weeks later (Royle, p. 276). Perhaps Lord Raglan had might have done more had his cavalry survived. With it ruined, there was no chance (Palmer, p. 133).
The battle did leave the Russians in position to dominate the road to Balaclava, but the British managed to get supplies around the bottleneck. As a result, the whole thing is generally regarded as a draw, though the British came away with heavy casualties and the loss of ground. The only real significance of the battle was that it set the stage for the Battle of Inkerman which followed.
Lucan and Cardigan were both sent home before the end of the war, mildly disgraced -- but even though Lucan was given most of the blame (Royle, pp. 275, 277), neither was forced out of the army, and both would eventually be promoted to higher posts (Royle, p. 278). I would have to say that Lucan was scapegoated -- yes, he was incompetent, and should not have held the command he did. But the real blame lay elsewhere -- with Cardigan, for refusing to admit his incompetence. With Raglan, for not dealing with the Lucan/Cardigan situation. With Raglan again, for sending an incomprehensible order by an irresponsible messenger. And with Captain Nolan, for giving a false interpretation to that incomprehensible order. Of them all, it is probably Raglan who bears the greatest blame.
Tennyson was telling nothing less than the truth when he said of the battle that "someone had blundered." In fact, several someones. But, somehow, in a portion of the population, the steadiness under fire came to be seen as more important than the useless waste, and Balaclava commemorated accordingly (Royle, p. 265. Warner, p. 67, seems to be an example of this form of folly, arguing that an army has to be disciplined enough to be that stupid). James, p. 388, reports a popular ballad, which appears to be this, praising the battle, and says that it seemed to inspire a World War I parody (p. 443).
Tennyson's account, according to Chandler/Beckett, p. 182, was inspired by W. H. Russell's report in the Times. The poem is said to have been based on the format of Michael Drayton's "Agincourt" -- an ironic pairing if ever there was one. Chandler/Beckett, p. 183, argues that the simple, steady rhythm that made the poem memorable is the reason Balaclava -- in truth a minor battle -- is so well remembered when so many other examples of military stupidity are largely forgotten. I suspect their conclusion is right -- and that the fame of Tennyson's poem helped both to inspire this song and keep it in tradition. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Doe276

Famous Sea-Fight Between Captain Ward and the Rainbow, A

See Captain Ward and the Rainbow [Child 287] (File: C287)

Famous Wedding, The

See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

Fan Left on Shore

DESCRIPTION: "The ship was rocking in the offing, Jack could with Fan no longer stay," but he thinks of her as he sails the Bay of Biscay. When drunk, Jack almost falls prey to temptation, but is reminded of Fan. He is happy when they are reunited
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton-RealSailorSongs)
KEYWORDS: love separation sailor drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #64, "Fan Left on Shore" (1 text)
ST AshS064 (Partial)
Roud #23209
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(203)=Harding B 16(87a)=2806 c.18(103), "Fan left on shore," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth c.12(201)=Harding B 12(28)=Johnson Ballads 821, J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
File: AshS064

Fan me soldierman, fan me

See Fan Mi Solja Man (Fan Me, Soldierman) (File: JaMu051)

Fan Mi Solja Man (Fan Me, Soldierman)

DESCRIPTION: She says "fan mi" soldier. She takes gifts from soldiers and coolies. The singer asks what's the use of fancy shawls and lace. He asks why she is so fast and sassy? Her baby's father has gone to the army and everybody says her character is gone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory)
KEYWORDS: courting sex childbirth pregnancy clothes soldier
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 51-52, "Fan Me Solja Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 125, ("Fan me soldierman, fan me") (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time: Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007),p. 29, "Fan Mi Solja Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Fan Me Solja Man" (on WIEConnor01)
Lord Fly and Dan Williams Orchestra, "Medley of Jamaican Mento-Calypsos(Fan Me Solja Man Fan Me;One Solja Man;Yuh No Yeary Weh De Ole Man Say; Slide Mongoose)" (1951, on Motta MRS 01A, 2004, "Lords of Mento " Marleybone Records MP3, 2004, "Mento Madness, Motta's Jamaican Mento: 1951-56," V2 Music Ltd CD 63881-27201-2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fan Me Saga Boys" (tune and text of two lines of the chorus; see NOTES)
NOTES [200 words]: Dexter and Taylor: "A young girl loses her good reputation, although she continues to be well dressed, because she is carousing with and accepting the gifts of (ill reputed) soldiers." "Coolies" are East Indian workers.
Around 1945 Lion (Hubert Charles) wrote and recorded "Fan Me, Saga Boys." A "saga boy" was "a lower-class male whose garb and behavior were copied from American zoot-suitrers of the 1940s.... The song utilizes images of World War II to metaphorically describe sexual intercourse.... 'Fan Me Soldier Man, Fan Me' is probably based upon the same lavway as this song" (Donald R. Hill, "Calypso Calaloo" (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993), p. 264; The Lion with Gerald Clark and His Original Calypsos, "Fan Me Saga Boy", Guild 125A, 1945?)). It seems unlikely that the source for "Fan Mi Solja Man" is a Trinidad lavway (calypso road march). Lion's chorus is "Fan me, saga boys, fan me / I said, Oh! fan me, saga boys, fan me / Long live our gracious king / But I kiss me saga boy Christmas morning." The chorus from Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory is "Fan me, soldier man, fan me / Fan me, soldier man, fan me/ Fan me, soldier man, fan me oh! / Gal, you character gone.' - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: JaMu051

Fan the Lads o' Tough They Ging to Fish

DESCRIPTION: "At Baldyvin far they began for to ca' up the Don man Wi their provisions they brought back an' brunt wi' Gordon John. Fan the lads o' Tough they ging to fish they sidna ging to Don They may begin at Nether Mill, ca' up to Buchan John"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: fishing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1890, "Fan the Lads o' Tough They Ging to Fish" (1 fragment)
Roud #13567
NOTES [75 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
Tough is about 30 miles west of Aberdeen.
"The burn [stream] of the Tore, or Nether mill, (the name of the place at its entrance into the sea,) ... separates the [Gamrif] parish from that of Aberdour ... and is also the boundary between the counties of Banff and Aberdeen" (source: The New Statistical Account of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1845 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XIII, p. 275). - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81890

Fan-a-winnow

DESCRIPTION: "Fan-a-winnow daisy, Fan-a-winnow e-i-oh She's away with Barney the band tier." "A for apple, P for pear, D for dolling on the stairs All the world will never know The love I had for my lady-O" "B for Barney, C for Cross, O but I love Barney Ross"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (sung by David Hammond on "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland")
KEYWORDS: love nonballad wordplay
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 26, "Fan-a-winnow" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "'B' for Barney" (text [see Sean O Boyle notes below))
NOTES [154 words]: Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "Fan-A-Winnow" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)) Sean O Boyle, notes to David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland": "This is an amalgam of verses from two songs (one of them ''B' for Barney') The words are set to a hymn tune common in the 19th century. The title refers to the turning of the big fan that kept the moist air circulating through the mill to save the linen yarn from becoming too dry and brittle."
Also see, "'B' for Barney" [which is also on Hammond's recording]. Sean O Boyle, notes to David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland": "This is a song among Belfast weavers and spinners at the beginning of the century.... A Band-tier was the man who bundled the lengths of thread as they came from the spinning frames." - BS
File: Hamm026

Fancy Frigate, The

See The Flash Frigate (La Pique) (File: ShaSS178)

Fanny Bay

DESCRIPTION: "If you ever go across the sea to Darwin, Then maybe at the closing of the day, You will see the local harlots at their business." The singer advises, "what will cost you twenty quid in Lower Crown Steet Will cost you half a zac in Fanny Bay"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: whore money
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 68, "Fanny Bay" (1 text)
Roud #10200
File: RuSoFanB

Fanny Blair

DESCRIPTION: Eleven-year old Fanny Blair falsely accuses a young man of molesting her. He is tried and sentenced to death, although the community doubts his guilt. He begs to be buried at home rather than in the prison yard, and hopes God will pardon the child.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1830 (Lover)
KEYWORDS: accusation lie abuse rape punishment trial execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1785 - Execution of Dennis Hagan for rape (see NOTES)
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(Ap) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 103, "Fanny Blair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 43, "Thomas Hegan and Sally Blair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 46, "Fanny Blair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 229-231, "Fanny Blair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 102-103, "Fanny Blair" (1 text)
DT, FANBLAIR* FANBLAI2*
ADDITIONAL: John Moulden, "Ballads and Ballad Singers: Samuel Lover's Tour of Dublin in 1830," -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, pp. 141-145, "(Fanny Blair)" (sundry excerpts plus discussion of the song's history)
Roud #1393
NOTES [183 words]: In Sharp's version the crime is robbery, and Fanny Blair is not the victim but an accomplice who is turning king's evidence. - PJS
As Paul's note shows, details of the crime and punishment in this ballad vary, and the girl's age varies from eleven to eighteen. I suspect, however, that Sharp's version is cleaned up, by him or his informant. As John Moulden notes, it is a very touchy subject! Moulden believes the song actually originated in Ireland, and Lover's does appear to be the earliest version, with the next-earliest possibly also having been learned in Ireland.
Moulden's belief is that the accused in the song was Dennis Hagan, and that one of the people to whom he appealed was was John, First Viscoutnt O'Neill (1740-1798). Hagan, who was nineteen years old, was charged with raping a nine-year-old, with the charges formally brought by one Frances Blair. Hagan was sentenced to hang in October 1785.
The collective evidence is very strong; I think Hagan was the person executed for the crime. I have no idea if he was actually guilty; Moulden has little evidence on that point. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: WB2103

Fanny More

See Fair Fanny Moore [Laws O38] (File: LO38)

Fanny's Harbour Bawn

DESCRIPTION: The singer spies his love in the arms of another and loses the ensuing fight. He claims that "baymen," like his opponent, look harmless enough but they are good fighters. The singer refrains from courting and encourages others to do the same.
AUTHOR: Mark Walker (see notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Murphy, Old Songs of Newfoundland)
KEYWORDS: love courting fight
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Fanny's Harbour Bawn" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 34-35 in the 2nd edition
Peacock, pp. 185-188, "Fanny's Harbour Bawn" (1 texts, 3 tunes)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 36, "Fanny's Harbour Bawn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 112-113, "Fanny's Harbour Bawn" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, editor, _Old Songs of Newfoundland_, James Murphy Publishing, 1912 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 3, "Fanny's Harbor Bawn" (1 text)
James Murphy, _Songs Their Fathers Sung: For Fishermen: Old Time Ditties_, James Murphy Publishing, 1923 (PDF available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 2, "Fanny's Harbour Bawn" (1 text)
Roud #4418
RECORDINGS:
George Decker, "Fanny's Harbour Bawn" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [278 words]: Doyle claims that the song is an account of a real fight that happened "over half a century ago" (from 1940) in Labrador. He also explains that a "bawn" is a beach for drying fish and that the girl was said to have been from Conception Bay where, apparently, the singer is also from (Carbonear). The singer's cursing of the northern "bayman" from Bonavista is perhaps typical of the social status conflicts on the island. - SH
Attribution to Mark Walker is from Taking Apart "Tickle Cove Pond" in Canadian Journal for Traditional Music, vol. 29, 2002 by Philip Hiscock, p. 35. The other songs attributed to Walker in that article are "The Antis of Plate Cove," "Lovely Kitty/Katie-Oh," "The Race on Tickle Cove Pond," "Labrador Squalls," "Down By Jim Long's Stage," "The Girls from Sweet Bay," "Nellie Neil, Me Little Kettie," "Tickle Cove Pond II," "Gains I Owe in Many Lands" and "a single-stanza fragment about a local merchant hiring a Tickle Cove crew to go fishing in the north of Newfoundland."
[Hiscock repeats the attribution] in Ten things to consider about "The Star of Logy Bay" in Canadian Folk Music Bulletin, Summer 2003, Vol 37.2, p. 7. - BS
I note, however, that what seems to be the first publication, by James Murphy, dates the event "about forty years ago" (from 1912, implying a date about two decades before Doyle's) and does not list an author.
Mark Walker is listed as the author of several popular Newfoundland songs, "Tickle Cove Pond," "Fanny's Harbour Bawn," "The 'Antis' of Plate Cove," and "Lovely Katie-O"; a family tradition also says that he wrote "The Star of Logy Bay." See the notes to that song for discussion of the matter. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy34

Far Above Cayuga's Waters

DESCRIPTION: "Far above Cayuga's waters, with its waves of blue, Stands out noble Alma Mater, glorious to view." In praise of Cornell University: "Hail to thee our Alma Mater, Hail! all hail! Cornell!"
AUTHOR: Music: ("Annie Lisle" by) H. S. Thompson. Words: Archibald C. Weeks amd Wilmot M. Smith
EARLIEST DATE: 1876
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 49, "Far Above Cayuga's Waters" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 102, "Annie Lisle -- (Far Above Cayuga's Waters)"
DT, CRNLALMA
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Far Above Cayuga's Waters (Parodies)"
SAME TUNE:
Far Above Cayuga's Waters (Parodies) [File: EM348]
Annie Lisle
NOTES [137 words]: For some reason, this seems to be the most popular of all official college songs. Of course, it is also the most parodied (see the cross-references).
The tune, "Annie Lisle," is dated by Fuld to 1858; the source of the words is uncertain, but Fuld credits them to the authors listed here. They were probably written in 1872, but first published in 1876. According to Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 90, "'Annie Lisle' occupied a central place in the nineteenth-century repertory, and its melody is still so popular that it appears retexted in various school songs, most notably including 'Far Above Cauyga's Waters' or 'Hark! The Sound of Tarheel Voices.'" For such a popular song, traditional collections are extremely few. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: FSWB049

Far Above Cayuga's Waters (Parodies)

DESCRIPTION: To the theme of the Cornell anthem ("Far Above Cayuga's Waters/Alma Mater"), any of a series of parodies: "High Above a Theta's Garter," "Far above Cayuga's waters Rises such a smell," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: bawdy nonballad parody virginity derivative
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 348-350, "High Above a Theta's Garter" (2 texts, 1 tune)
cf. Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 102, "Annie Lisle -- (Far Above Cayuga's Waters)"
Roud #10284
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Far Above Cayuga's Waters"
NOTES [49 words]: The Cornell Song is perhaps the most-parodied of all college songs. One version is among the very few folk songs my father learned by genuine oral tradition (at the University of Michigan): "Far above Cayuga's waters Rises such a smell, Some say it's Cayuga's waters, We say it's Cornell." - RBW
File: EM348

Far at Sea

DESCRIPTION: "Star of peace to wanderers weary! Bright the beams that smile on me! Cheer the pilot's vision dreary, Far, far at sea." The singer calls on the "star of hope," the "star of faith," and the "star divine" to guard the sailor from danger and temptation
AUTHOR: Jane Cross Simpson (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1830 (source: hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad sailor | star
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 122, "Star of Peace to wanderers weary" (1 fragment)
Roud #25529
NOTES [55 words]: Alice Kane's version of this repeats the last two lines of the verse, which does not seem to be standard practice. But the song is sung to multiple tunes, according to hymnary.org, and none of them so common as to be considered the "standard" tune, so this might be simply the way her family learned it, not folk processing. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC122A

Far Awa

DESCRIPTION: The singer thinks of "the lad that I like best o' a' Is oure the sea and far awa." Before he left he gave her a pair of gloves that she wears "for his sake." She hopes he will return and they'll be married.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #129, p. 2, "Far Awa'" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1112, "Far Awa" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #6324
ALTERNATE TITLES:
He's Owre the Seas
File: GrD61112

Far Away

See Far Away, Far Away (File: R866)

Far Away, Far Away

DESCRIPTION: "Where now is that merry party I remember long ago... They have all dispersed and wandered, Far away, far away." Many are married, moved, wandering, dead. The singer points out that "nothing in this world can last... What is coming, who can say?"
AUTHOR: Words: Miss M. Lindsay / Music: Mrs. J. W. Bliss
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart Songs)
KEYWORDS: separation friend
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 866, "Far Away, Far Away" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 130-131, "Far Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24927
RECORDINGS:
Loman D. Cansler, "Far Away" (on Cansler1)
File: R866

Far Northland, The (The Border Trail)

DESCRIPTION: "It's the far northland that's a callin' me away, as take I with my packsack to the road. It's the call on me of the forest in the north, as step I with the sunlight for my load." The singer will canoe in the north. The song may list places to visit
AUTHOR: Carol Preston (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition)
KEYWORDS: travel derivative campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 282, 333, 500, "The Border Trail" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 61, "The Border Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 18, "The Far Northland" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 91-92, "The Far Northland" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, pp. 38-39, "The Far Northland" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "The Border Trail" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 6)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 3, "The Border Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RDISLES3*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Road to the Isles" (tune)
File: ACSF282F

Far Over the Forth

DESCRIPTION: “Far over the Forth, I look to the North," then the singer looks to the West where her lover is. His parents were against them, but they wedded on the cairn of the mountain. Now the singer dreams happily of her love, that's dear to both her and her child.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Jeannie Robertson)
LONG DESCRIPTION: “Far over the Forth, I look to the North," then the singer looks to the West where her lover lives in foreign lands or sails foreign seas. His parents were against them, but all summer long they loved each other and wedded on the cairn of the mountain. Now the singer dreams happily of her love, that's dear to both her and her child.
KEYWORDS: courting elopement love wedding separation lover mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland (Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #71, p. 242-243, "Far Over the Forth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3360
File: RPG071

Far, Far at Sea

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas night, when the bell had struck twelve, And poor Susan was laid on her pillow, In her ear whispered... 'Your love now lies toss'd on a billo, Far, far at sea." Awakening in a fright, she finds no reason to believe, but still she fears it true
AUTHOR: Music: C. H. Florio
EARLIEST DATE: 1837 (The Vocal Companion), but reportedly some decades older
KEYWORDS: dream sailor death separation
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, p. 115, "Far, Far at Sea" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 162, "Far, Far at Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), "The Vocal Companion_, second edition, D'Almaine and Co., 1937 (available from Google Books), pp. 68-69, "Far, Far at Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V387
NOTES [133 words]: This is a bit of a conundrum. We have testimony that a piece "Far, Far at Sea" was sung by Charles Incledon (1763-1826), and the evidence is that it is this song. There are many broadsides (some cited by Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, others found in the Roud broadside catalog), although as of 2009 I could not find a copy in any of the major online broadside catalogs.
But is it a folk song? It sounds a bit like a worn-down version of "Mary o' the Dee (Mary's Dream)" [Laws K20], perhaps with an echo of "Susan Strayed on the Briny Beach" [Laws K19] being responsible for the name of the girl. It seems to have been very popular for a time, then faded completely. Until the Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors version showed up, I was by no means sure it belonged in the Index. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Gray115

Far, Far from Ypres

DESCRIPTION: "Far, far from Ypres I long to be, Where German snipers can't snipe at me. Damp is my dugout, Cold are my feet, Waiting for whizz-bangs To send me to sleep."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 58, "Far, Far from Ypres" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 70, "Far, Far from Ypres I Long to Be" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10523
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sing Me to Sleep" (tune)
File: BrPa058B

Far, Far from Ypres I Long to Be

See Far, Far from Ypres (File: BrPa058B)

Fare Thee Well

See Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove) (File: Wa097)

Fare Thee Well Cold Winter

See Farewell He (File: FSC41)

Fare Thee Well, Babe

DESCRIPTION: "Fare thee well, O Babe, fare thee well (x2), I done all I could do try'n to git along with you." The singer declares he loves the woman, but "Fo' I'll be mistreated I'll kill myself an' you." He maintains he treated her well but she didn't want him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: love separation abandonment
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 204-205, "Fare Thee Well, Babe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15576
NOTES [68 words]: This is one of those songs that illustrates Laws's comments about the instability of Black balladry. This may well be a version of something else -- but between the floating lines, the repetitions, the common plot, and the fact that the Lomaxes are always fiddling with texts, I can't be sure of the original song.
It reminds me a bit of "Going Down This Road Feeling Bad," but the motivation is different. - RBW
File: LxA204

Fare Thee Well, Cold Winter

DESCRIPTION: Billy's leaves his fiancee for months or years for Nancy, but changes his mind and returns. She agrees again to marry, and they are married at last.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Billy's sweetheart complains that he has been away though he had promised to marry two months or three years before. He says "I was prevented and could not come till now," but now he prefers her company to gold or silver. She complains that when he was courting Nancy and he had said he'd not return. Billy concedes he had courted Nancy, "but now I've come to you" "These words they revived" his slighted sweetheart, they marry and the wedding "long looked for's come at last"
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity wedding reunion accusation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 38, "Fare Thee Well, Cold Winter" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 79, "Billy and Nancy" (1 text)
Roud #1643
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Long Looked for Come at Last
File: ReCi038

Fare Thee Well, Father

DESCRIPTION: "I've seen those London lights a-burning ... but I'll go home to those that love me." The singer and her baby has been deserted by her lover and hopes to return to her family: "Altho' you've turned me from your bosom, Do not turn me from your door"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting return nonballad baby family home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1174, "Fare Thee Well, Father" (1 text)
Roud #6814
File: GrD51174

Fare Thee Well, My Dearest Dear

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to his love, telling her he must go to sea to obtain riches. She replies that life without him is miserable, so she dresses as a man and accompanies him. A day out of London the ship sinks. She is drowned; he survives to mourn.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904
KEYWORDS: love separation cross-dressing death ship wreck dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 38, "Fare Thee Well, My Dearest Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1035
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell, Charming Nancy"
cf. "Farewell, Sweet Mary"
cf. "The Paisley Officer (India's Burning Sands)" [Laws N2]
File: VWL038

Fare Thee Well, My Own True Love

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells his true love he's "going over the mountain." She cries; "people said she should die If I went over the mountain." Apparently he stays with her. Now he is "poverty struck," "down upon my luck," and asks for help to get over the mountain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting farewell hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 39, "Fare Thee Well, My Own True Love" (1 text)
Roud #1035
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Over the Mountain

File: ReCi039

Fare Thee Well, Titanic

See The Titanic (VIII) ("Fare Thee Well, Titanic, Fare Thee Well") (Titanic #8) (File: CNFM077)

Fare U-Well-Lizza

See The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)

Fare Ye Well (I'm Going Home)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, fare you well, my brother, Fare you well by the grace of God, For I'm gwinen home; I'm gwinen home, my Lord, I'm gwinen home. Massa Jesus give me a little broom, For to sweep my heart clean; Sweep 'em clean by de grace of God, An' glory in my soul."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment); 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious home
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, pp. 47-48, "Fare Ye Well" (1 text. 1 tune)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 27, pp. 213-214, "Fare Ye Well" (1 text)
Roud #12005
File: AWG047B

Fare Ye Well, Enniskillen (The Inniskillen Dragoon)

DESCRIPTION: The soldier is leaving his beautiful Enniskillen. He grieves to leave home and his fair darling, but when war arises, he has no choice. (He rejoices following his safe arrival home, and hopes never to leave again)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1760))
KEYWORDS: war parting soldier return grief courting separation father
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Ireland Britain(England(South),Scotland) Canada
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 150, "Fare Ye Well, Inniskillen" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H631, p. 294, "Fare Ye Well, Enniskillen"; H98b, pp. 472-473, "The Inniskilling Dragoon" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 306, "The Enniskillen Dragoon" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 603, "Inniskillin Dragoons" (1 text)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 74, "The Enniskillen Dragoon" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 78, "The Enniskellen Dragoon" (1 text)
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 63-64, "The Enniskilling Dragoon" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 237, "The Enniskilling Dragoon" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #571, p. 38, "Enniskillen Dragoon" (1 reference)
DT, (ENNISDRG*?) ENNISDR2*
ADDITIONAL: Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), pp. 12-13, "The Inniskilling Dragoon" (text, music and reference to Decca F-3374 recorded Dec 31, 1932)
Roud #2185
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "The Inniskilling Dragoon" (on IREButcher02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1760), "Inniskillen Dragoon", J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also 2806 c.15(251), Harding B 11(1293), Harding B 11(4221), "Inniskillen Dragoon"; Harding B 19(103), Harding B 26(169), 2806 c.15(124), Firth c.14(179), Firth c.14(181), Firth b.26(199), Harding B 18(617), "Enniskillen Dragoon"
Murray, Mu23-y1:074, "Inniskillen Dragoon," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
LOCSinging, sb10110a, "Enniskillen Dragoon", H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860
NLScotland, L.C.1270(005), "Inniskillen Dragoon", James Kay (Glasgow), c.1845
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Damsel Possessed of Great Beauty"
cf. "Wyandotte's Farewell Song"
NOTES [237 words]: Not to be confused with the pop folk song "Fare Thee Well, Enniskillen" by Tommy Makem.
The reference to the soldier setting out for Spain probably implies a date during the war of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) or the Peninsular phase of the Napoleonic Wars.
Roud lists Sam Henry #631 as a separate song (#6890), but since he has only the one item by that number, it seems better to lump.
Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 76, lists this as by George Sigerson, who also wrote "The Mountains of Pomeroy" and worked on some Irish Gaelic poetry. But note that the earliest broadsides were published when Sigerson was still a babe in arms, if indeed he had been born at all. "The Mountains of Pomeroy" is a variant on "Rinordine"; I suspect Sigerson might also have penned an alternate form of this song. - RBW
Broadsides NLScotland L.C.1270(005)[c.1845], Bodleian Firth c.14(179)[n.d.], Bodleian Firth c.26(211)[1855-1858] and Bodleian Firth b.26(199)[1847-1852]: a final verse is added in which they marry when the war is over.
Broadside LOCSinging sb10110a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
The date and master id (GB-5416-1/2) for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: E150

Fare Ye Well, Inniskillen

See Fare Ye Well, Enniskillen (The Inniskillen Dragoon) (File: E150)

Fare ye well, Lovely Nancy

See Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)

Fare Ye Well, My Darlin'

See Fare You Well, My Darling (File: R736)

Fare You Well, Maggie Darling, Across the Blue Sea

DESCRIPTION: Willie tells Maggie he is going to sea and they agree to be true. In some seaport he writes "a girl named Flora bore down on me Fare you well, Maggie darling, across the blue sea.... on me don't depend." She writes "Fare you well, Willie darling...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: grief infidelity parting sea sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 443-444, "Fare You Well, Maggie Darling, Across the Blue Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea443 (Partial)
Roud #6458
RECORDINGS:
John James, "Maggie Darling" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Heave Away" (some words and theme)
NOTES [9 words]: See Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 49, "Heave Away!" - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Pea443

Fare You Well, My Darling

DESCRIPTION: Fare you well, my darling, Oh fare you well my dear, Don't grieve for my long absence While I'm a volunteer." The singer urges the girl not to grieve, though he is traveling far away (to Pensacola). She says she will wait for his return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: love soldier separation
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 380-381, "Fare You Well, My Darling" (1 text)
Randolph 736, "Fare You Well, My Darling" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 376, "The Soldier's Farewell" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 376, "The Soldier's Farewell" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 142-143, "Fare Ye Well, My Darlin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3582
NOTES [49 words]: The Ozark (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, Randolph) and North Carolina (Brown) versions of this song aren't absolutely parallel; it's possible that they are separate songs with a lot of parallel words. But given the thematic similarity, it seems reasonable to lump them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: R736

Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)

DESCRIPTION: The true lover bids farewell, promising to be true. He asks, "Who will shoe your pretty little foot?" Various floating verses follow, in which the traveller may or may not return and the young woman may or may not grieve at her fate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin)
KEYWORDS: love separation lyric floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MW,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (50 citations):
Bronson 76, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (23 versions, of which at least #17, and possibly others, e.g. #12, #13, and #19, perhaps even #8 and #23, should be placed here)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 97, "Red Rosy Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 44, "Fare You Well, My Own True Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 31, "O Fare Thee Well" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 480-482, "The False True-Lover" (2 texts)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 21, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (of the various texts in the appendices, at least some, e.g. "D," "H," and "I," belong here, as does the fourth tune, "Cold Winter's Night"); 40, "James Harris (The Daemon Lover)" (the 2 texts in the appendix seem to belong here with some "House Carpenter" verses mixed in) {#21AppA=Bronson's #8}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 26, pp. 199-206, "Lady Alice" (3 texts plus a fragment, 4 tunes -- but the fourth, fragmentary, text and tune could as well be this)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 78, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (3 texts, 1 tune, with the "C" text apparently being this ballad)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 131-132, "A Lover's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 67, "The Turtle Dove" (1 text, 1 tune, so full of floating material that it could go almost anywhere)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 68-69, "The False Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune, which starts with verses typical of "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" and ends with the "Rocky Mountain Top/White Oak Mountain" verses of "The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out)"
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #97, "Lonesome Dove" (1 text, 1 tune, with several floating elements including a "Look down, look down that lonesone road" verse, but most of it fits here)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #101, "The Turtle Dove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 114, "The True Lover's Farewell" (9 texts, 9 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 37, "The True Lover's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 55, "The True Lover's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 67, "The True Lover's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, pp. 26-27, "Lonesome Dove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 105, "The Turtle Dove" (4 texts)
Randolph 18, "Oh Who Will Shoe My Foot?" (8 texts, 5 tunes, with the "A," "D," and "E" texts probably belonging here) {A=Bronson's #12, D=#19}
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 54-55, "Fare Thee Well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 22, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 texts, which are clearly true versions of "The Lass of Roch Royal", but both have the "Storms are on the ocean" verse -- in the "B" texts, it's the chorus. Either the two songs combined to produce the North Carolina versions, or that song is the source for the Carter versions)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 109, "Fare You Well, My Own True Love" (1 text, probably combined with another song); 258, "The False True-Lover" (5 texts); also perhaps 249, "The Turtle-Dove" (1 text, a complex mix of floating verses, some of which may belong here; compare the Lunsford recording of the same name); 264, "Storms Are on the Ocean" (2 texts, with the "Storms" chorus though both have the "Sometimes I live in the country, sometimes I live in town" verse and the "A" text also has a "Blow Gently, the Winds on the Ocean" type verse)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 109, "Fare You Well, My Own True Love" (1 tune plus a text excerpt); 249, "The Turtle-Dove" (1 tune plus a text excerpt); 258, "The False True Lover" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 14-15, "Little Turtle Dove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 243,"Little Turtle Dove" (1 text, 1 tune, a composite of floating verses, some of which perhaps belong here)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 96-98, "Little Turtle Dove" (1 text, 1 tune, another transcription of the Lunsford version)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #159, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text, with the local title "The Lonesome Turtle-Dove"); #187, "The True Lover's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 21A, "Oh Who Will Shoe Your Bonney Feet?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 50.III, "Lonesome Dove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 140-141, "My Old True Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 72, "Who Will Shoe Your Feet?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 53, p. 53, "The True Lover's Farewell" (1 text plus mention of 3 more; the printed text, amazingly, lacks the "pretty little foot")
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 72-73, "Cold Winter Night" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 175-176, "The True Lover's Farewell" (1 text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 13, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text plus 8 fragments; the "A" text is this; "B"-"I" are "Pretty Little Foot" versions)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 9, "A Lover's Farewell" (1 fragment, with the first verse ["Oh see that pure and lonesome dove"] probably this and the second being "go dig my grave, go dig it deep....")
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 3-7, "He's Gone Away" (1 text, 1 tune); 98-99, "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (3 texts, 1 tune; of the three texts here, "B" is definitely this piece, "C" is a short fragment of Child 76; the "A" is a one-stanza "pretty little foot" text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 108, "Winter's Night"; 109, "Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 44, "The Storms Are on the Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 137, "The True Lover's Farewell" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1542, "O Fare Thee Well, My Dearest Dear" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 268, "Red Rosy Bush" (1 text); p. 270, "The True Lover's Farewell" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 142, "The Storms Are On The Ocean" (1 text) p. 151, "He's Gone Away" (1 text); p. 153, "Turtle Dove" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, p, 52, "The Blackest Crow" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Charles W. Joyner, "The Repertory of Nancy Jones as a Mirror of Culture in Scotland County," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), p. 92-93, "Farewell, my dear true love, I'll bid you adieu" (1 text, two verses that might be "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" or "Rye Whiskey" or "The Wagoner's Lad" or, frankly, almost anything; there is a mention of emigration)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 164-165, "You'll Never Mind Me More, Dear Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
HED Hammond, untitled, Journal of the Folk Song Society, Vol. III, No. 11 (1907 (Digitized by Internet Archive)), #13, "The Turtle Dove" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Cecil J Sharp and Charles I Marson, _Folk Songs from Somerset_ (Second Series), (London,Simpkin & Co Ltd,1911), #39 pp. 26-27, “The True Lover's Farewell"
DT, REDRSOY* REJCTLVR* STRMOCAN* (TUTRLDOV) (TURTDOV2) FRWLMRNN TENTHMIL* (TURTDOV2*) (HESGONE* ?)
Roud #49
RECORDINGS:
Appalachia Vagabond (Hayes Shepherd), "Hard For to Love" (on StuffDreams2)
The Carter Family, "The Storms Are On the Ocean" (Victor 20937, 1927; Bluebird B-6176, 1935; Montgomery Ward M-7021, c. 1936); (OKeh 03160/Vocalion 03160, 1936; ARC 7-12-63/Conqueror 8806, 1937; Columbia 37756/Columbia 20333, 1947; rec. 1935)
A. P. Carter Family, "Storms are on the Ocean" (Acme 993, c. 1949)
Delmore Brothers, "The Storms Are On the Ocean" (Bluebird B-8613/Montgomery Ward M-8689, 1940)
Aunt Molly Jackson, "Ten Thousand Miles" (AFS, 1939; on LC02)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Little Turtle Dove" (Brunswick 229, 1928; on BLLunsford01; a composite of all sorts of floating verses, a few of which may be from this song)
Lewis McDaniel & Gid Smith, "It's Hard to Leave You, Sweet Love" (Victor 40287, c. 1929)
Neil Morris, "The Lass of Loch Royale" (on LomaxCD1701)
New Lost City Ramblers, "It's Hard to Leave You, Sweet Love" (on NLCR16)
Jean Ritchie & Doc Watson, "Storms Are On the Ocean" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchiteWatsonCD1)
William Ritter, "The Lass of Loch Royal" (Piotr-Archive #197, recorded 06/20/2022, which as sung is clearly "The Lass of Roch Royal," but has been fortified from print; the source may have been "The Storms Are on the Ocean" or one of the other "Pretty Little Foot" versions)
[Leonard] Rutherford & [John] Foster, "Storms May Rule the Ocean" (Gennett, rec. 1929; on KMM)
Ruby Vass "10,000 Miles" (on Persis1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.18(101), "The True Lover's Farewel[sic]", unknown, no date; also Harding B 25(1952), "The True-Lovers, Farewell"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (floating lyrics) and references there
cf. "The Lass of Roch Royal" [Child 76] (floating lyrics)
cf. "Mary Anne"
cf. "Sugar Baby (Red Rocking Chair; Red Apple Juice)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I Truly Understand You Love Another Man"
cf. "Way Down the Old Plank Road"
NOTES [433 words]: This song is officially a catch-all. The problem is, what to do with all the lost love pieces *with* some hint of a plot plus the floating element "Who will shoe your pretty little foot." After some hesitation, we decided on a four-part primary division (with some exceptions):
* "The Lass of Roch Royal" for the ballad of that title
* "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" for fragments too short to classify at all
* "Mary Anne" for the versions specifically about that girl
* This, for everything else.
There probably are recensional variants within this song family; it's just too big and too complex. But the particular items are such a mess that we finally gave up trying to sort them.
The Carter Family version "The Storms Are on the Ocean," which is almost certainly a version remade by A. P. Carter, was one of the six songs recorded by The Carter Family at the original "Bristol Session" in 1927; see Michael Orgill, Anchored in Love: The Carter Family Story, Fleming H. Revell, 1975, p. 102.
Barry Mazor, Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Roots Music, Chicago Review Press, 2015, pp. 105-106, prints texts of both "The Storms Are on the Ocean" and a local version of "The True Lover's Farewell" and suggests that Ralph Peer, who ran the Bristol Sessions, told the Carters that songs with choruses tended to do better, and thus was "The Storms" born. We can't prove it now, but it makes sense; the chorus doesn't seem to exist anywhere else. And there is the interesting inconsistency that, in a song that is otherwise entirely in recent English, the chorus ends "if I prove false to thee." It reads like something hastily cooked up. - RBW
Greig/Duncan8: "Song, written by Lieutenant Hinches, as a farewell to his sweetheart." "Assembled" may be more accurate than "written" since Greig/Duncan8 is the familiar assemblage of floating verses.
For the Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople "Suppose my friends will never be pleased and look with an angry eye ....": cf., "Fare You Well, My Own True Love": Greig/Duncan8 1542 "Your friends and mine, my only love, Look with an angry eye".
Regarding sources for Burns's "A Red, Red Rose," Hammond writes, "The editor [of Popular Songs and Melodies of Scotland], Farquhar Graham, there mentions a garland, supposed to have been printed about 1770, called 'The Horn Fair Garland, containing six excellent new songs,' one amongst them being a version of 'The Turtledove, or True love's farewell.' This is believed to have been in the possession of Burns, as his name, in a boyish hand, is scrawled on the margin of the last page" (p. 89). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Wa097

Fare You Well, Sister Phoebe

DESCRIPTION: "Fare you well, sister Phoebe, fare you well, For I hate to leave you, I love you so well. Oak grows tall, pine grows slim, Buy you a true love, true love... and bring it home to him." "Fare you well, brother longnose, fare you well...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love separation farewell
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 71, "Fare You Well, Sister Phoebe" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #11372
File: Brne071

Fareweel tae the Borders

DESCRIPTION: "Home of our love -- oor father's home... The sail is flapping on the foam That bears us far from thee." The singer is crossing the western ocean "to return no more." The singer recounts the beauties of Teviotdale and declares he will not forget them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell home parting separation Scotland nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 127-128, 155, "Fareweel tae the Borders" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21756
File: McSc127

Farewell Address (To Their Countrymen and Friends... at the Summer Assizes for the year 1842)

DESCRIPTION: "The assizes they are over now, the judge is gone away, But many aching hearts are left within the town today." Many who are condemned to transportation turned criminal only to survive. The singer says crime would dwindle if only workers had work
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland)
KEYWORDS: trial punishment transportation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 58-59, "Farewell Address" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Geoffrey C. Ingleton, _True Patriots All: or News from Early Australia as told in A Collection of Broadsides_ ("Garnered and Decorated" by Ingleton), Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1988, p. 221, "Farewell Address To their Countrymen and Freinds, Of all those unfortunate Men who received their several sentences, of Transportation, at the Summer Assizes for the year 1842, by the Judges on the Northern Circuit" (1 text)
Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 422, "Farewell Address" (1 text)
Roud #V26602
File: AnFa058

Farewell Address To their Countrymen and Friends

See Farewell Address (To Their Countrymen and Friends... at the Summer Assizes for the year 1842) (File: AnFa058)

Farewell and Adieu to You Spanish Ladies

See Spanish Ladies (File: ShH89)

Farewell and Adieu to You, Brisbane Ladies

See Brisbane Ladies (File: FaE162)

Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, meeting is a pleasure between my love and I; I'll go down to yon low valley to meet her by and by...." The young (man) watches his love turn away from him. He laments her infidelity. (He departs from the town and goes to America)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin)
KEYWORDS: courting separation emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland Australia US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Randolph 749, "Black-Eyed Mary" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 82, "The Lover's Lament" (4 texts plus a fragment, "E," that is probably "Handsome Molly")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 82, "The Lover's Lament" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes; the "B" excerpt is probably "Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly)" while "E" is probably "Handsome Molly")
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 111-112, "Down In Yonder Valley" (1 text)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 22, "On One Monday Morning" (1 text)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 172, "Lovely Molly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 44, "The Irish Girl" (1 text, 1 tune, a confused and conflate mix of this song and "The Irish Girl")
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #50, "You Well Remember (I Went to Church Last Sunday)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 38, "Sweet Willie" (1 text, six verses derived from at least two and probably three or four songs; the largest portion is "On Top of Old Smokey" but there is a bit of "Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly)" and something from one of amorphous the "courting is a pleasure" group)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 95-96, "Loving Hannah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H625, pp. 342-343, "Dark-Eyed Molly"; H615, p. 343, "Farewell Ballymoney" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 465-466, "In Courtship There Lies Pleasure" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 71, "Courting Is a Pleasure" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan6 1192, "I'll Gang Doon Tae Yonder Valley" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 155, "Going to Mass Last Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 37, "Going to Mass Last Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 24, "Farewell Ballymoney" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 63, "I Went to Mass on Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 103, "Loving Hannah" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LOVHANNA
Roud #454
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "Going to Mass on Sunday" (fragment) (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
Mrs. Freeman Bennett, "In Courtship There Lies Pleasure" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Gerald Campbell, "The Girl Who Slighted Me" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Robert Cinnamond, "Going to Church Last Sunday" (on IRRCinnamond02) (fragment; two verses)
Jean Ritche, "Lovin' Hannah" (fragment) (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
Winnie Ryan, "Going To Mass Last Sunday" (on FSBFTX15)
Roisin White, "Courting Is a Pleasure" (on IRRWhite01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In Eighteen-Forty-Nine" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Dark and Dreary Weather" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Handsome Molly"
cf. "The Irish Girl" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Blazing Star of Drum (Drim, Drung)" (theme)
cf. "I've Travelled This Country (Last Friday Evening)" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Courting is a Pleasure
NOTES [396 words]: The setting of this song varies widely. One stanza, however, is fairly characteristic:
I went to church last Sunday, (this line may vary)
My true love passed me by;
I could see her mind was a-changing
By the rolling of her eye.
Unfortunately, this stanza also shows up in some versions of "The Irish Girl"; these two songs seem to have mixed badly,
I believe the old-time country song "Handsome Molly" to be a form of this piece (and most experts agree), but it has achieved such a degree of independent circulation that it is listed in the Index as a separate song. - RBW
I think I should make clear that although I think "Handsome Molly" is indeed derived, vaguely, from "Farewell Ballymoney," it has acquired so many extraneous verses that *don't* duplicate "Farewell B." verses that they've crowded all the originals out except "Went to Church Last Sunday," which I think constitutes speciation, although only just.
Oh, and I've had a communication from Sandy Paton about a talk he had with Jeannie Robertson. Virtually all the versions of the song that are called "Loving Hannah," including the excellent recent one by revival singer Bill Jones, are derived from Robertson's version, and hers came from... Jean Ritchie, when she was over in Britain on a Fulbright, collecting songs that were related to her family's songs. So if it's from Britain, and called "Loving Hannah," it's "really" from Kentucky.
No wonder folklorists drink. - PJS
And just in case that isn't bad enough, it took off in another direction in Ireland. Donagh MacDonagh took the first two lines ("Going to Mass last Sunday my true love passed me by, I knew her mind was altered by the rolling of her eye") and the Lowlands of Holland tune and produced a poem about what the singer actually felt during the mass as he hoped he changed her mind; this adaption can be found in Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, The Oxford Book of Irish Verse (Oxford, 1958, 1979), pp. 261, under the title "Going to Mass Last Sunday." - RBW
The version on IRRCinnamond02 is the first two verses of Greig/Duncan6 1192, "I'll Gang Doon Tae Yonder Valley," though Cinnamond's soldier is false-hearted rather than faint-hearted.
While [Winnie] Ryan's text is cited by Kennedy as the basis for his Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 155 text only a few lines are shared by the recording and the text in his book. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: R749

Farewell False-Hearted Young Man

DESCRIPTION: A letter from a deserted girl to her lover accuses him of going back on his promise "to mak me yer ain." If she is married he will be invited to the wedding. If she dies first she thinks he will come to the burial. Now, "I've got another to think upon"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad baby
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #140, p. 2, "Farewell" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1177, "Farewell False-Hearted Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6320
File: GrD51177

Farewell He

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids "Fare thee well, cold winter, and fare thee well cold frost. Nothing have I gained, but a lover I have lost...." After seeing him with another girl, she swears off of him, "He's no lad for windy weather; let him go then; farewell he"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: courting farewell abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South)) US(Ap,MA,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 40, "Farewell He" (2 texts)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 32, "Farewell He" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #80, "Fare Thee Well, Cold Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 16, "Farewell He" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 491-492, "Adieu to Cold Weather" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 41, "My Love Is Like a Dewdrop" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 751, "Adieu to Dark Weather" (6 texts plus an excerpt, 5 tunes, all more or less related to this piece, though some are rather mixed; some of the texts reverse the male and female roles and some have a chorus)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 491-493, "Adieu to Dark Weather" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 751A)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 42, "Farewell He" (1 text); 43, "My Love Is on the Ocean" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 179, pp. 146-147, "To Cheer the Heart" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #58, "They Say He Courts Another" (1 short text, too brief to really classify, but some of the words go here)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 98, "My Love Is on the Ocean" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H504, p. 347, "Farewell He" (1 text, 1 tune); compare also H241, p. 346, "The Blackbird and Thrush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 53, "My Love Is on the Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 44, "I Once Loved a Lass" (1 text, 1 tune, from LaRena (Mrs. Gordon) Clark, which begins with verses probably from "The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass," continues with stanzas from "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)," then has a "My love is like a dewdrop" stanza often found in "Farewell He," and includes several other lyrics that might have floated in)
DT, FAREWELH* (RONDHAT5* -- a mixed version also incorporating "All Around My Hat")
Roud #803 plus 3729, 1034
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dark and Dreary Weather" (stanza form, floating lyrics)
cf. "I've Two or Three Strings To My Bow" (subject)
cf. "Love Me or No" (subject)
cf. "The Blackbird and Thrush" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Wounded Spirit" (subject)
cf. "Parting Words" (subject)
cf. "There Comes a Fellow with a Derby Hat" (subject)
cf. "Oh, Where Is My Sweetheart?" (subject)
cf. "Like an Owl in the Desert" (subject)
cf. "I'll Cheer Up My Heart" (subject)
cf. "The Days Are Awa That I Hae Seen" (subject)
cf. "It is Not the Cold Wind" (theme)
cf. "My Heart Is As Licht As a Feather" (theme)
cf. "The Bonnie Boy I Loved" (theme)
cf. "Sweethearts I've Got Plenty" (theme)
cf. "Now My Love's Forsaken Me" (theme)
cf. "Adieu, False Heart" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fare Thee Well Cold Winter
NOTES [236 words]: Cohen seems to think that the Ozark versions of this piece, known from Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety and Randolph, are a separate song, and it is possible that he's right and that it simply swallowed elements of "Farewell He." But since the swallowing was nearly complete, it seems better to lump them. In this, unusually, I agree with Roud.
The situation is similar with Gardner and Chickering: Their "My Love Is on the Ocean" has distinct first and last stanzas:
My love is on the ocean, O let him sink or swim,
For in how own mind he thinks he's better than I am.
He think that he can slide me as he slided two or three,
But I'll give him back the mitten since he's gone back on me.
Final verse:
Go tell it to his mother; I set her heart at ease.
I hear she is a lady that's very hard to please.
I hear that she speaks of me that's hardly ever done.
Go tell it to her, I do not want her son!
It will be evident, however, that this text fits the tune of "Farewell He," and the material in between, including the chorus, is "Farewell He." Indeed, of Gardner and Chickering's texts, the one they call "Farewell He" actually looks less like the song of that title, except that it uses that key phrase!
So, once again, I lump (this time disagreeing with Roud).
The whole family cold probably use a thorough study, including both these songs, the Ozark versions, and "Dark and Dreary Weather." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: FSC41

Farewell Logie

DESCRIPTION: "Oh fare thee well Logie, I bid you adieu, And sorry am I at the pairtin' wi' you; At the pairtin' wi' you, and it gives me great pain, For I may and may never return back again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell Scotland
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1527, "Farewell Logie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12953
NOTES [27 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text. - BS
I am strongly reminded of "A Health to the Company"and its relatives, but it's just a feeling. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81527

Farewell My Dear Brethren

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell my dear brethren, the time is now at hand That we must be parted from this social band. Our sev'ral engagements now call us away. Our parting is needed and we must obey." The singer bids farewell to the "soldiers" going away
AUTHOR: (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle); it appears in several hymnals from the nineteenth century
KEYWORDS: religious separation soldier
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 78-79, "Farewell My Dear Brothern" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16539
NOTES [90 words]: The Hymnary.org site lists this as by Thomas Cleland, seemingly based on the Sacred Harp, but none of the other old hymnals it cites appear to credit Cleland. Those that list an author generally list Josiah Hopkins (although that might be an arranger credit). My 1871 Sacred Harp, which calls the tune "Imandra," lists no composer and says that no source lists the author of the words. Several hymnals link the song to James 5:16, or at least the words "pray for one another" in that verse. A pretty feeble connection, if you ask me. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Boet078

Farewell My Dear Brothern

See Farewell My Dear Brethren (File: Boet078)

Farewell My Friends (Parting Friends; I'm Bound for Canaan)

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell, my friends, I'm bound for Canaan, I'm trav'ling through the wilderness. Your company has been delightful... I go away behind to leave you, Perhaps never to meet again, But if we (n)ever have the pleasure, I hope we'll meet on Canaan's (shore)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Jackson)
KEYWORDS: religious separation nonballad friend
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 564-565, "Parting Friends" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 170, "Farewell to Carter County" (1 short text, possibly this piece though with only three stanzas it is hard to tell) (OakEd, p. 175)
Roud #15559
NOTES [36 words]: The Sacred Harp contains a piece called "Parting Friend," and two entitled "Parting Friends." None is the same as this piece. One of them is the same as the piece indexed as "Our Cheerful Voices (Separation).". - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LxA564

Farewell My Joy and Heart

See The Curragh of Kildare (File: DTcurrki)

Farewell Nellie

See Darling, I Have Come to Tell You (Farewell Nellie, Little Bunch of Roses, Many Miles Apart, Don't This Road Look Rough and Rocky) (File: BrS5689)

Farewell Song of Enoch Arden

See Enoch Arden (File: BrS5684)

Farewell Sweet Molie

See Rye Whiskey (File: R405)

Farewell Tamintoul

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell, Tamintoul! for the hour's come at last When I can only think of thy joys in the past. For destiny bears me away from the glen." The singer departs, and hopes someday to return to the place where he found hospitality and friendship
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads), with a seeming collection date of 1881
KEYWORDS: home separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 365, "Farewell, Tamintoul" (1 text)
Roud #4594
File: Ord365

Farewell to Alvah's Woods and Braes

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to Alvah, "The place of my nativity." He recalls the happy times on Deveron's banks. But 'My ship it lies in readiness, My loving friends I'll bid goodbye." He will be buried where there is none to shed a tear -- but leaves anyway
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: home emigration
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1526, "Farewell to Alvah's Woods and Braes" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 349, "Farewell to Alvah's Woods and Braes" (1 text)
Roud #4590
NOTES [74 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads was told that people in Banff called this "The Poacher's Farewell," but the song contains no hint of transportation that I can see. What it does have is echoes of many other songs -- e.g. "The Earl of Errol" or the like ("Oh, Alvah it's a bonnie place"), "Trooper and Maid" ("He turned him right and round about"), etc. They aren't really cross-referenceable; it's just that this is built from many common phrases. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord349

Farewell to Auld Scotland

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to Scotland and Limerick, Kinghorn and his parents. He is being sent to Van Diemen's Land "but the time will be coming when I will get free, To get back to old Scotland my Nancy to see"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: transportation parting Scotland family
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1536, "Farewell to Auld Scotland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12957
NOTES [46 words]: "Kinghorn is a coastal parish, which lies in Fife Council Area, some 3 miles (4 km) southwest of Kirkcaldy and 8 miles (12 km) south of Glenrothes in Fife and includes a small offshore island." (Source: Gazetteer for Scotland site).
Limerick, on the other hand, is in Ireland. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81536

Farewell to Bonny Galaway

DESCRIPTION: "Ae night as I lay on my bed, The thought of love came into my head." He travels "To see the bonnie lassie lived in Galaway." Her father objects; her mother said she will "have her married to a lord's son." The girl makes him welcome; they flee Galaway
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: love courting father mother elopement
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 76, "Farewell to Bonny Galaway" (1 text)
ST GC076 (Partial)
Roud #3694
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Night As I Lay On My Bed" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [38 words]: This is so close to "One Night As I Lay On My Bed" (with which it shares both lyrics and theme) that I thought about lumping them. But that seems to be mostly a nightvisiting song; this is a song of elopement. So I split them. - RBW
File: GC076

Farewell to Caledonia (I)

See Jamie Raeburn (Caledonia) (File: MA085)

Farewell to Caledonia (II)

See Caledonia (III -- Jean and Caledonia) (File: FVS237)

Farewell to Charming Sally

See The Lucky Escape (File: Arn020)

Farewell to Fintray

DESCRIPTION: "Pox upon poverty and all for want of cash Causes me and mony a bonny lad gang wintin his lass." The singer will leave tomorrow. He bids farewell to his sweetheart, family, friends, and Fintray's "beauties rare." His sweetheart chooses not to go with him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: poverty emigration parting Scotland separation abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1533, "Farewell to Fintray" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #12956
NOTES [24 words]: Greig/Duncan8: "Learnt in Fintray fifty-five years ago. Noted December 1906."
Google maps places Fintray about 15 miles northwest of Aberdeen. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81533

Farewell to Fiunary

DESCRIPTION: "The wind is fair, the day is fine, And swiftly, swiftly runs the time... That wafts me off from (Fiunary). Eirich agus tiugainn, O!" The singer recalls all the ancient places he has visited, and bids farewell to friends and family
AUTHOR: Norman McLeod ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: home travel family
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 208-211, "Farewell to Fiunary" (1 text)
DT, FAREFUNE
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth Norman MacDonald, "The Gesto Collection of Highland Music," 1895 (reprinted 1997 by Llanerch Publishers), p. 48, "Soraidh Slan Le Fionn-Airish" (2 texts, 1 Gaelic, 1 English, 1 tune)
Roud #2317
NOTES [23 words]: The Gaelic chorus translates as something like "Arise and come away" -- similar to the English chorus in the Digital Tradition text. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: FVS208

Farewell to Girls

DESCRIPTION: "Oh I can love Sally, and I can love long, I can love an old sweetheart till a new one comes along." "Sometimes I drink whiskey, sometimes I drink rum.' The singer courted a girl who rejects him "because I got tight." (He thinks about further adventures)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: love courting drink rejection floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #92, "Farewell to Girls" (2 short texts, 1 tune)
Roud #10917
NOTES [59 words]: Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah's two texts both have three verses, only one of which they have in common. I don't know if they constitute a single song, and I don't know if it can properly be separated from other songs, e.g., of the "Rye Whiskey" type. In the absence of anything better, I file the piece separately, but don't take that as guaranteed. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: Hubb092

Farewell to Greta

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell, my home in Greta, my sister Kate farewell...." Ned Kelly, with a price on his head, plans an attack on his foes. His sister points out the number of his foes, and urges him instead to take to the woods with his gang
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: outlaw Australia family sister farewell
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1855 - Birth of Ned Kelly
1880 - Execution of Kelly. His last words are reported to have been "Such is life."
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 114-115, "Farewell to Greta" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 66-67, "Ned Kelly's Farewell to Greta" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 47-48, "Farewell to My Home in Greta" (1 text)
DT, NEDKELLY
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kelly Was Their Captain" (subject) and notes and references there
NOTES [41 words]: Edward "Ned" Kelly and his gang are perhaps the most famous of all Australian bushrangers, and Greta was the family home starting in 1868. For some anecdotes of his life, plus other songs about him, see the notes to "Kelly Was Their Captain." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: FaE114

Farewell to Grog

DESCRIPTION: "Come, messmates, pass the bottle 'round, Our time is short, remember, For our grog must stop, our spirits drop." On September 1, drink will not longer be available on shipboard. The singer splices the main brace (drinks) and bids alcohol farewell
AUTHOR: Words: Caspar Schenk, USN (source: Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: drink navy Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 1, 1862 - the U. S. Navy eliminates the grog ration (although it does not actually ban alcohol)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 191-192, "Farewell to Grog" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl" (tune, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
File: SCWF191

Farewell to Judges and Juries

See Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries (File: FaE034)

Farewell to Kingsbridge

DESCRIPTION: Troops land in New York in November "to meet our foes at King's Bridge." "Like lambs... they cruelly slaughtered were." Soldier's wives and babies cry for their dead husbands and fathers. "God bless our gracious King... [and] our British soldiers"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: army war separation America children wife
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 16, 1776 -- Battle of Fort Washington? (see notes)
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 41, "Farewell to Kingsbridge" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Frank Kidson, Lucy E. Broadwood, Cecil J. Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams, "The Ballad Sheet and Garland" in Journal of the Folk-Lore Society, Vol. II, No. 7 (December 1905 (available online by JSTOR)), #11 pp. 90-91, "The Battle of King's Bridge" or "The North Amerikay" ("Dear Molly, read those verses that I have written here") (1 text, 1 tune)
S Baring Gould and H Fleetwood Sheppard, Songs and Ballads of the West (London, 1891? ("Digitized by Google")), #55 p. 119, xxix, "Farewell to Kingsbridge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #596
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "North American Rebels" (shared lines and general theme)
NOTES [647 words]: There are six lines shared between the Bodleian broadsides of "North American Rebels" and the "Ballad Sheet and Garland" text of "Farewell to Kingsbridge": wives "lamenting for their husbands" and children crying "mommy"; God bless the King, soldiers on land and sea, and our army in North America.
Joyce has a tune, "The North of Amerikay", which he learned in his childhood. He has an apparently Irish verse which was set to that tune, that is similar to the first verse of Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle, but may be another song about soldiers sent to "fight the Boston rebels in the north of Amerikay." Joyce refers to "The Ballad and the Garland" for another version (source: P.W. Joyce, Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (Dublin, 1909 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), #15 pp. 10-11, "The North of Amerikay" (1 text fragment, 1 tune)).
Songs of the West has a minor rewrite of the Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle text. I have included it for the tune. Baring-Gould's source for both Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle and Songs of the West says he learned the song in 1868. He writes in 1891, "There are old men in Kingsbridge who can recall when soldiers were stationed there [presumably after the war]. The song belongs to the year 1778-80. It exists as a broadside by Such, but without naming Kingsbridge, so that probably it was a song of the time adaptable to other places as well. A form of the same ballad, beginning 'Honour calls to arms, boys,' refers to fighting the French in North America, circ. 1759, publoished on broadside by Hodges." I haven't found either of these broadsides.
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle: "This [Baring-Gould's statement] is confirmed by the Irish version in ["The Ballad Sheet and Garland"] which refers to the battle fought against the American rebels at Kingsbridge near New York in 1776."
Broadwood, in "The Ballad Sheet and the Garland" writes "The above was learned and noted in her youth by Miss Mary Oulton, who was 73 years old in the year 1892, when she sent me the tune and words here printed. She took them down from the singing of a very old Irish soldier. The ballad reflects some of the strong feeling which prevailed in Ireland against her people being drawn into England's war with America."
Broadwood in "The Ballad Sheet and Garland" has it that on September 15, 1776, British forces under General Howe captured and destroyed the fort at King's Bridge, north of New York [actually, east of the northern tip of Manhattan, across the Spuyten Duyvil Creek, in what is now the Bronx, and named for the bridge that carried the Boston Post Road across that creek], under George Washington; actually, she seems to be describing the Battle of Kip's Bay, on the East River around 34th Street in Manhattan. On the next day the American troops won the Battle of Harlem Heights, on the west side of Manhattan. Kings Bridge is much further north and east. Tieing in with the November date, common to the ballads, the battle in question is likely the November 16, 1776 Battle of Fort Washington, across the river from King's Bridge. Part of the attack was a Hessian landing from across the Harlem River [from near King's Bridge, which would explain the title "Farewell to Kingsbridge" ]. See Wikipedia articles "Landing at Kip's Bay" [Sep 15, 1776], "Battle of Harlem Heights" [Sep 16, 1776], "Battle of White Plains" [Oct 28, 1776], "Battle of Fort Washington" [Nov 16, 1776] and "Kingsbridge, Bronx." The battle around Fort Washington was "often called the battle of King's Bridge" (source: Danske Dandridge, Historic Shepherdstown (The Michie Company, Charlottestown, 1910 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 316).
There was a non-battle "action" at King's Bridge on July 3, 1781 (source: "Date in History: 1781" at the National Park Service "The American Revolution," "The Revolution Day By Day" site; at that site also see the relevant dates in 1776). - BS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: ReCi041

Farewell to Mackenzie

DESCRIPTION: "Now Willie's awa frae the field o' contention, Frae the land o' misrule and the friends o' dissension: He's gane owre the wave as an agent befittin' Our claims to support in the councils o' Britain." The people send their leader off with good hopes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Lindsey, "Life and Times of Wm. Lyon Mackenzie")
KEYWORDS: Canada political nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1828 - William Lyon Mackenzie first elected to represent Canada in the British parliament
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 72-74, "Farewell to Mackenzie" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "An Anti-Rebel Song" (subject)
cf. "Un Canadien Errant" (subject)
cf. "Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena)"
NOTES [270 words]: Fowke and Mills say that "No tune was suggested for the verses at the time [of writing], but the lines follow the pattern of "The Bonnets of Bonnie Dundee." All I can say is, if this wasn't based on "Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena)," it wasn't based on anything.
Following the expulsion of the American invaders in the War of 1812, the government of Canada fell increasingly into the hands of oligarchs. Mackenzie founded a paper in Upper Canada, the Colonial Advocate, dedicated to reforming the system. Thugs destroyed his press, but in 1828 Mackenzie was elected to parliament -- only to be expelled for allegedly libelling the government.
The Canadians responded by re-electing him in 1832 (only to have him expelled again) and gathering 25,000 signatures on a petition to King William IV (reigned 1830-1837; the "King Willie" of the song) for redress of grievances. This was the situation at the time the poem was written, if its inscription ("Markham, April 10, 1832") is to be believed.
Kenneth McNaught, in The Pelican History of Canada (enlarged edition, Pelican, 1982), pp. 85-86, write that "There is no doubt that [Mackenzie] was driven to this extreme, with its inevitable connotation of independence, by the intransigent defence of privilege in Toronto and London."
Sadly, the attempts at reform failed, leading the radicals to rebel in 1837. A thousand pound bounty was placed on Mackenzie's head -- but no one was willing to claim it. Still, Mackenzie and thousands of others were forced to flee to America when the rebellion failed.
For the sequel, see "The Battle of the Windmill." - RBW
File: FMB072

Farewell to Miltown Malbay

DESCRIPTION: Singer recalls his "bright and pleasant youth ... in Clare" He names the places he walked and danced and people he met. Church bells ring and men pray. "If e'er I find this act devout beyond the ocean foam" he'll be reminded of his last day home.
AUTHOR: Tomas O hAodha (Tom Hayes)(1866-1935) of Miltown Malbay (source: Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1922 (O hAodha, _The Hills of Clare and Other Verses_, according to Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: emigration parting nonballad moniker
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 5, "Farewell to Miltown Malbay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5228
RECORDINGS:
Kitty Hayes, "Farewell to Miltown Malby" (on IRClare01)
Tom Lenihan, "Farewell to Miltown Malbay" (on IRTLenihan01)
File: RcFtMiMa

Farewell to My Home in Greta

See Farewell to Greta (File: FaE114)

Farewell to Nova Scotia

DESCRIPTION: Even on a calm and beautiful night, the singer cannot rest. The wars force him to return to sea. He bids "Farewell to Nova Scotia, the sea-bound coast... When I am far away on the briny ocean tossed, will you ever heave a sigh and a wish for me?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: sea farewell Canada
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 44-45, "Nova Scotia Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 19, "Farewell to Nova Scotia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 264-265, "Nova Scotia Song" (1 text (compilation), 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 134-135, "Nova Scotia Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FARWELNS*
Roud #384
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Adieu Ye Banks and Braes of Clyde" (lyrics, tune)
NOTES [51 words]: According to I. Sheldon Posen, in an essay in Scott B. Spencer, editor, The Ballad Collectors of North America, Scarecrow Press, 2012, p. 139, this is the "unofficial anthem" of Nova Scotia -- which is a rather impressive measure of popularity for a song first published in the mid-twentieth century. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: FJ044

Farewell to Old Bedford

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell to old Bedford, I'm bound for to leave you. Likewise those pretty girls I nevermore shall see." The singer has been forced away by his parents, and intends to "drown away sorrows in a bottle of wine" and ignore his troubles
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: family drink exile travel rambling
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 99, "Farewell to Old Bedford" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDBDFRD*
ST Wa099 (Full)
Roud #16399
RECORDINGS:
Lee Monroe Presnell, "Farewell to Old Bedford" (on USWarnerColl01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell Lovely Nancy" (meter)
cf. "Adieu to Bon County" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [53 words]: I have to suspect that this is a worn-down, possibly reworked, version of something else (e.g. "Farewell, Charming Nancy") -- but I can't identify with any real probability what the original song was. It may well go back to the same ancestor as "Adieu to Bon County," but there has been a lot of drift in between. - RBW
File: Wa099

Farewell to Old England

See Botany Bay (I) (File: R096)

Farewell to Pulteney-banks

See Mormond Braes (I) (File: FVS171)

Farewell to Rhynie, Keith, and Glass

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell to Rhynie, Keith, and Glass, Where sheep and oxen stray, For leavin' you my heart is loath, But oh, I cannot stay"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell Scotland animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1524, "Farewell to Rhynie, Keith, and Glass" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #12952
NOTES [84 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text.
"Keith is a parish, which lies in Moray Council Area, some 10 miles (15 km) northwest of Huntly in Aberdeenshire and 9 miles (15 km) south of Buckie in Moray." (Source: Gazetteer for Scotland site).
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3": Mains of Rhynie is at coordinate (h2-3,v5) on that map [roughly 31 miles WNW of Aberdeen]; Haugh of Glass is at coordinate (h4,v4) [roughly 40 miles NW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81524

Farewell to Slieve Gallen

DESCRIPTION: The singer writes to warn Irishmen against emigrating to America. He arrived in the U.S. strong and ready to work, but no work was to be had. Forced into the army, he was disabled and wishes he were back in Ireland
AUTHOR: John Canavan
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: poverty emigration soldier injury war disability
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 15, 1898 - destruction of the U. S. S. Maine
Apr 19, 1898 - Although the Spanish have agreed to all American demands, including peace with the Cuban rebels, the U. S. issues a sort of preliminary declaration of war, listing U. S. goals
Apr 24, 1898 - Spain declares war on the U. S.; the U. S. will next day do the same, backdating it to April 21
May 19, 1898 - The Spanish fleet enters Santiago Bay
July 2, 1898 - The Spanish fleet at Santiago, acting under orders from Madrid, sails out into the teeth of the American fleet and is destroyed
July 10, 1898 - U. S. troops attack Santiago
July 17, 1898 - U. S. troops capture Santiago
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H795, p. 198, "Farewell to Slieve Gallen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 27, "Wild Slieve Gallion Braes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2888
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "By the Hush" (plot)
cf. "The Dying Irish Boy" (plot, themes, setting)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Wild Slieve Gallon Braes
NOTES [162 words]: The singer is ashamed "to think I'd backed the Stars and Stripes against the sons of Spain." I assume this is because the Spanish periodically tried to help the Irish against the English (for their own purposes, of course).
The reference to service, and being wounded, on a battleship "when the Spanish fleet was captured and sent to Ego Bay" (so Henry's version; Morton's has more reasonable "When the Spanish fleet was captured near to Santiago Bay") makes little sense; the Spanish fleet was completely destroyed at Santiago, and the Americans suffered one killed and one injured. Nor can this be referred to the Battle of Manila Bay; there were no soldiers along, and, again, the Spanish fleet was destroyed; the Americans suffered eight casualties, all injuries.
Presumably the author conflated an amphibious landing with one of the many land battles, where American losses were much higher, due mostly to the complete ineptitude of the American generals and staff. - RBW
File: HHH795

Farewell to Stirling

See My Last Farewell to Stirling (File: PASB023)

Farewell to Sweet Glenravel

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to the beauties of his childhood home in Glenravel. He admits childhood cannot linger; now "I cross the deep blue ocean to toil with busy men." He hopes to be able to return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration homesickness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H727, pp. 193-194, "Farewell to Sweet Glenravel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13551
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH727

Farewell to Tarwathie

DESCRIPTION: Sailor bids farewell to Tarwathie, his girl and his friends as he sets off for the Greenland whaling grounds. He describes the harsh conditions in Greenland, saying they'll not tarry there, but head for home as soon as possible
AUTHOR: George Scroggie ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: love farewell separation whaler
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #85, p. 1, "Farewell to Tarwathie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 15, "Farewell to Tarwathie" (1 text)
DT, TARWATHI*
Roud #2562
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Farewell to Tarwathie" (on Lloyd3, Lloyd9)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Bushes" (tune)
cf. "The Grand Hotel" (tune)
File: DTtarwat

Farewell to the Banks of the Roe

DESCRIPTION: The singer, dying, recalls the "land where the shamrock grows green" and "Mary with snowy white bosom." He lists all the things he enjoyed in Ireland which he cannot do in his new home. He bids farewell to all these lost joys
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homesickness death emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H791, p. 218, "Farewell to the Banks of the Roe" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH791

Farewell to the Grey

See The Digger's Farewell (File: BaRo066)

Farewell to the Land (Land of Lags and Kangaroos, Land of Rocks)

DESCRIPTION: "Land of rocks and rabbits too, Rotten squatter, cockatoo, Squatter heaven, swagger hell, Land of rabbits, fare the well." Or other descriptions of bad land which the singer will leave, e.g. "Land of lags and kangaroos," "Land of rocks and rivers deep"
AUTHOR: unknown (portions perhaps by "Frank the Poet" Macnamara)
EARLIEST DATE: 2009 (Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes travel farewell river dog shepherd animal bird
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 275-278, "(no title)" (5 or more short texts)
NOTES [21 words]: For the (uncertain) identity of "Frank the Poet," given credit for part of this song, see the notes to "Moreton Bay (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Garl275

Farewell to the Warriors

DESCRIPTION: Ojibwe (Cheppewa): "Um be, A ni ma djag. Wa su gi di ja min, Ya wi a." "Come, It is time for you to depart. We are going on a long journey. Ya wi a." Reportedly sung as a war party started out.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1992 (Salr-BuckeyeHeritage)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage travel war
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, p. 14, "Farewell to the Warriors" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Salt014

Farewell to Whisky (Johnny My Man)

DESCRIPTION: The wife goes to the ale-house her husband so often frequents. She reminds him of his poor home and the children starving and lonely. He comes out of his stupor, recognizes his wife, and declares he will never return to the ale-house
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: drink hardtimes virtue family
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 327-328, "Johnnie, My Man" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 33, ("O Johnnie, my dear, do ye no think o' risin?"); #5, p. 2, ("O Johnnie, my dear, do you no think o' risin'?") (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan3 587, "Johnnie, My Man" (12 texts, 7 tunes)
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, pp. 131-132, "Johnny My Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 272, "Farewell to Whisky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H807, p. 514, "Johnny M' Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 367-368, "Oh Johnnie, My Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FARWHIS JONMYMAN FRWLWHSK
Roud #845
RECORDINGS:
Jessie Murray, "Farewell to Whisky" (on FSB3, but credited to Lucy Stewart in Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland)
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:064, "Johnie My Man," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C; also Murray, Mu23-y4:030, "Johnnie My Man," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come Hame to Yer Lingles" (theme)
cf. "When Ye Gang Awa Johnnie" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Oh Johnnie, My Dear
Johnnie, My Lad
File: K272

Farewell to You, Ye Fine Spanish Ladies

See Spanish Ladies (File: ShH89)

Farewell ye Mormond Braes

See Mormond Braes (I) (File: FVS171)

Farewell, Ballycastle

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to Ballycastle; "From friends... I go to the land of a stranger." He promises to think of Ireland in his exile, and admits, "How often I'll sigh for the dear ones behind me, To whom, with my loves one, I now bid farewell."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation farewell
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H210, p. 188, "Farewell, Ballycastle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13544
File: HHH210

Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14]

DESCRIPTION: The sailor bids his sweetheart farewell. She does not wish to part, and offers to go with him. He tells her that she simply is not strong enough for life at sea. They part sadly. Some texts warn girls against trusting sailors
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1855 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: sailor parting
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) Britain(England(South,North)) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Laws K14, "Farewell, Charming Nancy"
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 30, "Farewell, Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 75, "Farewel, my Dearest Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H755, p. 297, "Johnnie and Molly" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 22, "Farewell, Dearest Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 98-99, "Adieu Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 36, "Johnny and Molly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #33, "Fare ye well, Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 101, "Charming Nancy" (2 texts plus mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 101, "Charming Nancy" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 373-373, "Lovely Nancy" (1 short text; tune on p. 456)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, p. 87, "Lovely Nancy" (1 text)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, pp. 8-9, "Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 38, "Charming Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 51, "Farewell Nancy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 40, "Lovely Molly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 44, "Jimmy and Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 93, "Fare ye well, lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 404, FRWLNANC*
Roud #527
RECORDINGS:
Nora Cleary, "Farewell, Lovely Mary" (on Voice12)
Frank Knox, "Molly and Johnny" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
A. L. Lloyd, "Farewell, Nancy" (on Lloyd2, Lloyd3)
Mr. Molloy, "Jimmy and Nancy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1704), "The Sailor's Farewell" ("Fare you well dearest Nancy, since now I must leave you"), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pleasant and Delightful" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "Farewell to Old Bedford" (meter)
cf. "Fare Thee Well, My Dearest Dear"
cf. "Adieu to Bon County" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Farewell, Lovely Nancy
The Sailor and His True Love
NOTES [190 words]: This should not be confused with "Adieu, Sweet Lovely Nancy", which does not include most of the elements of this song. - PJS
The editors of Sam Henry do not list their version,"Johnnie and Molly," here. This is understandable, as the text lacks the characteristic first line, "Farewell, lovely Nancy, for now I must leave you." But the plots of the two songs are the same, they scan the same way, and they have many lyrics in common. Same song, sez I. - RBW
The Bodleian broadside and one of the Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland texts lacks the ending warning to girls against trusting sailors.
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick, as much as there is of it, fits the pattern and some of the lines. Roud puts the fragment here but the note in Henry p. 304 notes that Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 44 is "a fragment that may be a very different version." It seems close enough for me. - BS
Entirely agreed; it lacks the first two lines "Farewell, Lovely Nancy" -- but informant Angelo Dornan remembered only half of the first stanza; one suspects they were part of the version he learned. And the rest is the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LK14

Farewell, Darling

See O'Reilly from the County Leitrim (File: HHH580)

Farewell, Dear Rosanna [Laws M30]

DESCRIPTION: Rosanna's parents send her lover away and cause her to marry a squire. Her lover is lost at sea with all his shipmates save one, who tells Rosanna the sad news. She kills herself with a silver dagger.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: death suicide love marriage separation
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws M30, "Farewell, Dear Rosanna"
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 172, "Farewell Dear Rosanna" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 96, pp. 168-169, "Rosanna" (1 text)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 120-122, "[Farewell, Dear Roseannie]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2063, "O where's my Rosinda? shall I never more"
DT 586, FRWLROSN
Roud #788
File: LM30

Farewell, Dear Roseannie

See Farewell, Dear Rosanna [Laws M30] (File: LM30)

Farewell, Dearest Nancy

See Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)

Farewell, Farewell, My Own True Love (Soldier's Farewell)

DESCRIPTION: "How can I bear to leave thee, One parting kiss I givee thee, And then whate'er befalls me, I go where honor calls me. Farewell, farewell, my own true love (x2)." He may never again see her, but he will whisper her name if he dies
AUTHOR: Johanna Kinkel (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart-Songs)
KEYWORDS: soldier death separation love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Heart-Songs, p. 221, "Soldier's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #143, "Soldier's Farewell" (1 text)
Roud #23810
File: HeSo221

Farewell, Last Day Going

See Farewell, Last Going (File: RcFaLaGo)

Farewell, Last Going

DESCRIPTION: The leader sings "Goodbye members," "This is the last," "We had a good time," "I hate to leave you," "I hope to see you," "This is the last," "Goodbye members." The response to each line is "Farewell, Last going, farewell."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (McIntosh1)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, pp. 162-163, "Farewell, Last Day Goin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Lawrence McKiver and the McIntosh County Shouters, "Farewell, Last Goin'" (on McIntosh1); "Farewell, Last Goin'" (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutOnsiteVideo)
Freddie Palmer and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Farewell, Last Goin'" (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation)
NOTES [62 words]: Art Rosenbaum's liner notes to McIntosh1: "... the song sung at the dawn of a new year after Watch Night ... often this was the last song of the shout" (p. 8).
The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree/McIntoshShouters-RingShoutSongs text and track is a "ring shout" song. The McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation and McIntoshShouters-RingShoutOnsiteVideo videos show the shout. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcFaLaGo

Farewell, Lovely Nancy

See Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)

Farewell, Mother

DESCRIPTION: The soldier intends to survive: "Just before the battle, mother... when I saw the rebels marching, To the rear I quickly flew." "Farewell, mother! for you'll never See my name among the slain. For if I only can skedaddle... I'll come home again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Davidson, Cullings from the Confederacy, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar parody humorous battle mother cowardice
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 153, "Farewell, Mother" (1 text, tune referenced)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, p. 14, "Farewell, Mother" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT, JSTBATT2*
Roud #4263
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (tune)
File: SCW14

Farewell, My Dear Mother

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell, my dear mother (x3), Mother, mother, mother, mother." "For now I must leave you... Leave you, leave you, leave you, leave you." "I'll meet you in heaven.... Heaven, heaven, heaven, heaven"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: mother death religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, pp. 52-53, "Farewell, My Dear Mother" (1 text)
Roud #12069
File: FSAN052

Farewell, my dear true love, I'll bid you adieu

See Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove) and the internal cross-references there (File: Wa097)

Farewell, my Dearest Nancy

See Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)

Farewell, Nancy

See Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)

Farewell, Sweet Jane

See Sweet Jane [Laws B22] (File: LB22)

Farewell, Sweet Mary

DESCRIPTION: The singer points out to Mary that her parents disapprove of him and that he is "ruined forever / By the loving of you." He enters the army; when he returns, his love is lost. He drowns his sorrows in drink
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: courting drink separation
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 487, "Poor Stranger a Thousand Miles from Home" (1 text, a short item which seems to combine "The Poor Stranger," "Farewell, Sweet Mary," and perhaps some floating items)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 82, "Farewell, Sweet Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 146, "Farewell, Sweet Mary" (1 text)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 5, "Pretty Mollie" (1 short text, 1 tune, much of which floats but which has the "I am ruined forever by the loving of you" refrain, so I file it here; Roud makes it its own piece, #16313)
DT, (YONDRMTN* -- a version which is mostly "Pretty Saro" but has points of contact with this also)
Roud #414
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh Lily, Dear Lily" (floating lyrics)
cf. "In Eighteen-Forty-Nine" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Fare Thee Well, My Dearest Dear"
cf. "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (floating lyrics)
File: E082

Farewell, Sweetheart (The Parting Lovers, The Slighted Sweetheart)

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell, sweetheart, so fare you well, You've slighted me, but I wish you well... I wouldn't serve you as you've serve well." The singer claims "You are my love till I am dead," and says "I still love you, God knows I do." He prepares to die for love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal nonballad death separation burial floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 756, "Farewell, Sweetheart" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 75-76, "The Parting Lovers" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 167, "My Little Dear, So Fare You Well" (3 texts plus mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 167, "My Little Dear. So Fare You Well" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 261, "The Slighted Sweetheart" (1 text)
ST R756 (Partial)
Roud #11422 and 464
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] (lyrics)
NOTES [91 words]: The Brown versions of this instantly made me think of "The Butcher Boy." They aren't really the same song; none of the Brown versions mention suicide or pregnancy. But several of the texts have picked up lyrics from that ballad -- or, perhaps, were adapted from it in an attempt to clean up the song. The whole thing is quite commonplace, even cliched.
I'm not sure why the editors of Brown split the "Slighted Sweetheart" text from the others; they have the same plot and the same first lines. Perhaps just a failure to notice their identity? - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: R756

Farewell, The

See It Was A' For Our Rightful' King (File: SMM5IWAF)

Farewell. Lovely Polly

See The Sheffield Apprentice [Laws O39] (File: LO39)

Farfar Soldier, The

See The Forfar Soldier (File: FVS163)

Farm in the West, The

See Shanghai Rooster (Shanghai Chicken) (File: ScaNF195)

Farm Life Song

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Farm Servant, The (Rap-Tap-Tap)

DESCRIPTION: The farm servant, is told to mind the business "as servants always do." He minds the business of his master's wife, who says he manages his equipment far better than the master. The master rewards the servant for minding the business so well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Gardiner manuscript)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer, a farm servant, is told by his master to mind the business "as servants always do." He does, including the business of his master's wife, who says the servant manages his equipment far better than the master. When the master returns, he rewards the servant for minding the business so well; the servant remarks that had the master known what he was up to, he would not have been rewarded
KEYWORDS: farming wife adultery marriage infidelity sex bawdy humorous servant
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 211, "Rap-tap-tap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #39, "Rap-a-tap" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RAPTPTAP*
Roud #792
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "Rap-Tap-Tap" (on FSBFTX19)
Bob Hart, "The Farmer's Servant" (on Voice05)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Farm Servant" (on Lloyd01); "The Farmer's Servant" (on Lloyd12)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cluster of Nuts" (theme: servant describes sex with the master's wife in hidden terms)
cf. "The Chandler's Wife" (theme)
cf. "The Coachman's Whip" (theme)
cf. "The Jolly Barber Lad" (theme)
NOTES [72 words]: Lloyd notes that this song had not shown up in print as of the date of recording. - PJS
This was more a matter of suppression than rarity, however; Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland noted versions found in the Gardiner MS from 1905 and the Hammond MS in 1906.
This is so close to "The Chandler's Wife" that I am sorely tempted to call them one song, but others split them, and we are splitters. Still, it's best to see both. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: DTraptap

Farm Yard, The

See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

Farmer (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears a girl singing the praise of her farmer boy. A farmer needs no clock to awake him. He brings home money to his wife. Kings have cares, but farmers are free. Nobles are dependent on farmers, who are always generous to strangers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H676, pp. 41-42, "The Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13356
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Farmer and the Shanty Boy" (theme)
File: HHH676

Farmer (II), The

See The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20] (File: LN20)

Farmer (III), The

See Oats and Beans (File: DToatsbe)

Farmer and His Bride, The

See The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20] (File: LN20)

Farmer and the Damsel, The

See The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20] (File: LN20)

Farmer and the Devil, The

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Farmer and the Shanty Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: Two girls compare their fiancees. The farmer's sweetheart praises her love because he is always at home. The other girl points out that the shanty boy always comes home with his pay, while bad crops can ruin a farmer. The farmer's girl concedes the point
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: love work dialog logger farming lumbering
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,So) Canada(Mar,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 10, "The Shanty-boy and the Farmer's Son" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 10, "The Shanty-boy and the Farmer's Son" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 88-89, "The Shanty Boy and the Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 106, "The Mossback" (1 text plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 51-52, "Shanty Boy" (1 texxt)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 33, "Shanty Boy, Farmer Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 27-28, "The Shany Boy and the Farmer's Son" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 258, "Shanty-Girl" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 221-223, "The Shanty Boy" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 443-445, "The Farmer and the Shanty Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H676, p. 45, "Shanty Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #52, "The Farmer's Son and the Shantyboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 23, "The Farmer's Son and the Shantyboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 20-23, "The Farmer's Son and the Shantyboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 446-447, "The Shanty-Boy and the Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 53, "The Farmer and the Shanty Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 42, "Trenton Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 193-197, "The Shanty Boy and the Mossback" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 57, "The Shanty Boy Wins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 166-169, "The Farmer and the Shanty Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SHANTYBO*
Roud #670
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "The Shanty boy" (AFS 4202 B2, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Peter Amberley" [Laws C27] (tune)
cf. "Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me)" (theme: professional comparison) and references there
cf. "The Farmer" (theme)
cf. "I Love My Sailor Boy" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Shanty Boy Wins
The Mossback
File: Wa033

Farmer Candidate, The

DESCRIPTION: "Your cow she's calved in the byre her lane, And your mare she's taen the mortichin', And it's time that ye were thro' Aberdeen, And awa' frae the poll in the mornin'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: nonballad political
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 241, "The Farmer Candidate" (1 fragment)
Roud #5845
NOTES [21 words]: Greig/Duncan2: "Farmer candidate for East Aberdeenshire. ?Hope."
The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan2 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2241

Farmer Comes to Town, The

See The Farmer Is the Man (File: San282)

Farmer Feeds Us All, The

See The Farmer Is the Man (File: San282)

Farmer Had a Daughter, The

See The Banks of Dundee (Undaunted Mary) [Laws M25] (File: LM25)

Farmer Have You Any Good Wine?

See Mademoiselle from Armentieres (File: RL513)

Farmer In His Den, The

See The Farmer in the Dell (File: DTfrmrde)

Farmer In the Dale, The

See The Farmer in the Dell (File: DTfrmrde)

Farmer in the Dell, The

DESCRIPTION: "The farmer in the dell (x2), Hi ho the merry-o, the farmer in the dell." "The farmer takes a wife...." And so forth through a variety of creatures and things, typically ending with "The cheese stands alone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: animal family nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1589, "The Farmer in the Dale" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #152, pp. 1-2, "The Farmer in his Den" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 7-9, "The Farmer in the Dell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 101, "Farmer in the Dell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 42-43=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 209-210, "Farmer in the Well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 38, "The Farmer's in His Den" (1 text, 1 tune)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, pp. 17-18, "The Farmer in the Dell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 83, "(The Farmer in his den)" (1 text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #64, "The Farmer in the Dell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, pp. 535-536, "Farmer in the Dell" (2 short texts, 2 tune)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 284-285, "The Farmer in the Dell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 101-102, "The Farmer Wants a Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 33, "(The Farmer Wants a Wife") (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 70, "The child wants a nurse" (1 fragment)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 224, "The Farmer in the Dell"
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, A.F. Chamberlain, "Folk-Lore of Canadian Children," Vol. VIII, No. 30 (Jul 1895), pp. 254-255 "Highery O Valerio" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Leah Rachel Clara Yoffie, "Three Generations of Children's Singing Games in St. Louis," Vol. LX, No. 235 (Jan 1947), #15 p. 23 ("The farmer in the dell, the farmer in the dell") (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 175, 533-535, "The Farmer in the Dell" (notes only)
DT, FRMRDELL*
Roud #6306
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "The Farmer in the Dell" (Piotr-Archive #281, recorded 10/03/2022)
Tony Wales, "Four Children's Singing Games (The Farmer in his Den)" (on TWales1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A-Hunting We Will Go" (tune of some versions)
SAME TUNE:
The Pumpkin on the Vine (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 153)
A Horrible Death ("It's a horrible death to die") (Harbin-Parodology, #24, p. 13)
We're Glad to See You Here (Harbin-Parodology, #179, p. 49)
There's Nothing More to Say (Harbin-Parodology, #279, p. 68)
NOTES [274 words]: Although the earliest date I can offer for this song is Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren's 1883 version, I suspect it can be dated several decades earlier. William Ross Hartpence, History of the Fifty-first Indiana Veteran Volunteer Infantry: A Narrative (1894), pp. 94-95, has a song with the chorus
Old Rosy is the man, old Rosy is the man,
We'll show our deed where'er he leads,
Old Rosy is the man.
This, according to Hartpence, was sung by a fellow named William E. Lock, a Confederate spy, in 1862, after William S. Rosecrans took command of the Union's Army of the Cumberland. Supposedly "thousands of men" would sing out the chorus. They might change their tunes later, but at the time, everyone was thrilled to get rid of general Don Carlos Buell, who had sent the army chasing all over Kentucky, leaving them starving and sore, while leading them to a drawn battle at Perryville despite having about a two to one edge in forces engaged. Everyone, it appears, was glad to be rid of Buell; see James Lee McDonough, War in Kentucky: From Shiloh to Perryville, 1994 (I use the 1996 University of Tennessee paperback), pp. 316-318; he quotes "Old Rosy" on p. 318.
There are many more words in Hartpence's text, which do not fit the "Farmer in the Dell" tune, but I can't help but feel that the chorus was sung to this melody. If so, that would date the tune, at least, to 1862.
"Old Rosy" itself seems not to have gone into tradition; the Hartpence book seems to be the only extant source.
The version in Brady-AllInAllIn is quite different from the standard American version, but the tune and general form say it is this song.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DTfrmrde

Farmer in the Well

See The Farmer in the Dell (File: DTfrmrde)

Farmer Is the Man, The

DESCRIPTION: A description of the life of the farmer, "the man who feeds them all." He comes to town "with his wagon broken down" and "lives on credit till the fall." At last he comes to town with his crop -- and loses the profit to the bank
AUTHOR: Knowles Shaw
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (recording, Fiddlin' John Carson)
KEYWORDS: farming work poverty commerce money
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Randolph 492, "The Farmer, He Must Feed Them All" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 282-283, "The Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 267-269, "The Farmer is the Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 66, "The Farmer is the Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 879-880, "The Farmer Comes to Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 485, "The Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 120-121, "The Farmer Is the Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 360-361, "The Farmer Is the Man" (1 text)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 57, "The Farmer Is The Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 213, "The Farmer Is the Man" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 118, "The Farmer Is The Man" (1 text)
DT, FARMERIS*
Roud #5062
RECORDINGS:
Acie Cargill and Kristina Olsen, "The Farmer Feeds Us All" (on HCargillFamily)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Farmer is the Man Who Feeds Them All" (Okeh 40071, 1924; rec. 1923)
Frank Wheeler & Monroe Lamb, "The Farmer Feeds Them All" (Victor 23537, 1931; Montgomery Ward M-4334, 1933)
Pete Seeger, "The Farmer is the Man" (on PeteSeeger13) (on PeteSeeger23)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down on the Farm (III)" (theme)
cf. "The Humble Farmer" (theme)
cf. "The Laddie That Handles the Ploo" (theme)
cf. "The Praise of Ploughmen" (theme)
cf. "The Farmer's Alliance" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Taxes on the Farmer Feeds Us All" (Bluebird B-5742, 1934/Montgomery Ward M-4849, c. 1935)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Taxes on the Farmer Feeds Us All" (on NLCR09)
NOTES [75 words]: Although there is no firm authorship information, this song is thought to date from the populist movement of the 1890s. - (PJS)
Sounds logical to me. Greenway, however, dates it to the period after the Civil War. The most authoritative information I have is that it is by one Knowles Shaw. - RBW
"Taxes on the Farmer Feeds Us All" is a variant form of "Farmer is the Man"; the message and words are close enough that I have lumped them as one song. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: San282

Farmer John

DESCRIPTION: "Farmer John was a happy man A happy man was he He rose each morning with the lark And he sang right merrily. Tra la-lal la, tra la-la Tra la lal la la."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad music
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1767, "Farmer John" (1 short text)
Roud #13015
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81767

Farmer Jones's Wife

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Farmer McGee

DESCRIPTION: "I'm old Farmer McGee, and I'm seeing the town, And I'm spending my money so free." He buys "the old lady a sparkling new gown." He has two pretty daughters. He buys a donkey. His family makes products to sell; do you want them?
AUTHOR: possibly Ben/Jack Turple
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recorded from Turple by Helen Creighton)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad commerce wife clothes children
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 30-31, "Farmer McGee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #31159
NOTES [100 words]: Helen Creighton collected this in 1952, and Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes print her version, but the sources don't agree on the informant's name! The Nova Scotia Creighton archive (which lists this recording as Rec no. 2084 , Loc. no. AR 5529, AC 2313, MF no. 289.439) says that the singer was Jack Turple, but Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, who have it from the Creighton archive, list him as Ben Turple. They also imply that he wrote the song, but don't quite say so. Given that Creighton got several dozen songs from Jack Turple, I strongly suspect that that is the correct name. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: PoEll030

Farmer Michael Hayes

See The General Fox Chase (File: Zimm068A)

Farmer Wants a Wife, The

See The Farmer in the Dell (File: DTfrmrde)

Farmer Went Trotting, A

DESCRIPTION: "A farmer went trotting upon his grey mare, Bumpety, bumpety, bump, With his daughter behind him so rosy and fair, Lumpety, lumpety, lump." A raven croaks, causing them to fall. The raven intends to do it again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1833 (Mother Goose's Melody)
KEYWORDS: horse father children injury bird
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 142, "A farmer went trotting upon his grey mare" (1 text)
Roud #25356
File: KSUC142B

Farmer, He Must Feed Them All, The

See The Farmer Is the Man (File: San282)

Farmer's Alliance, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye honest farmers And help to right the wrong, Come join the Farmers Union And push the cause along." The singer accuses politicians and trusts with forming a monopoly. Fifteen million farmers must unite to fight back
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: farming labor-movement hardtimes commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 251-252, "The Farmer's Alliance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7742
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Farmer is the Man" (lyrics)
File: KPL251

Farmer's Boy, The

See The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: LP24)

Farmer's Boy, The [Laws Q30]

DESCRIPTION: A lost boy comes seeking a home, or at least shelter for a night, saying that he can perform all farm tasks. The farmer's wife and daughter convince the farmer to take him in. He serves so well that he marries the farmer's daughter and becomes his heir
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Journal from the Elizabeth); a possibly-related broadside is said to date from before 1689
KEYWORDS: farming work marriage
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(All))
REFERENCES (31 citations):
Laws Q30, "The Farmer's Boy"
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 368-369, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 134-135, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 565, "Farmer's Boy" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 63-66,174, "The Farmer's Boy" (3 texts, 4 tunes)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #18, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 12, p. 16, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #94, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 272-273, "A Farmer's Boy" (1 text)
Randolph 118, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 111-113, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 118)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 88, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text plus mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 88, "The Farmer's Boy" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 110, "To Be a Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 37, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 118-119, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 960, "The Farmer's Boy" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 247, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 120-121, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 19, pp. 27-28, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text plus a fragment)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 28, pp. 69-71, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #104, "The Farmer's Boy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, p. 158, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 127-129, "The Farmer's Boy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 54, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 216-218, "A Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 36 and #4/64, p. 36, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 479, "The Farmer's Boy" (source notes only)
DT 538, FARMRBOY FARMRBO2
ADDITIONAL: Robert Bell, editor, Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England (London, 1857 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 148-149, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text)
Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), p. 90 "The Farmer's Boy" (1 short text)
Roud #408
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Farmer's Boy" (on Abbott1)
Warde Ford, "The Farmer's Boy" (AFS 4215 A2, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Howard Morry, "The Farmer's Boy" (on NFAGuigné01)
Tony Wales, "To Be a Farmer's Boy" (on TWales1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1152), "Farmer's Boy" ("The sun went down beyond yon hills"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 26(186), Firth b.26(333), Harding B 11(3663), Firth c.26(199), Harding B 36(27), Harding B 18(164), 2806 c.8(292), Firth b.26(370), Harding B 11(551), "[The] Farmer's Boy"
LOCSheet, sm1847 420620, "The Farmer's Boy," Oliver Ditson (Boston), 1847 (tune)
LOCSinging, as200930, "The Farmer's Boy," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also as103730, as103740, "The Farmer's Boy"
Murray, Mu23-y1:045, "The Farmer's Boy," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Soldier's Poor Little Boy" [Laws Q28] (plot)
cf. "The Fisherman's Boy" [Laws Q29] (plot)
cf. "The Fisherman's Girl" (plot)
cf. "The Poor Smuggler's Boy" (plot)
cf. "The Hobo from the T & P Line" (plot)
cf. "Peter Amberley" [Laws C27] (tune)
cf. "The Preacher in the Dockyard Church" (tune)
NOTES [33 words]: Broadside LOCSinging as200930: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LQ30

Farmer's Curst Wife, The [Child 278]

DESCRIPTION: The Devil comes to claim a farmer's wife. She causes great trouble in Hell, attacking the imps with all the vigor she had once used on her family. For safety's sake, the Devil is forced to return her to her family (not necessarily to their joy)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: family Devil humorous Hell wife feminist
FOUND IN: US(All) Britain(England(Lond,North,South),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (85 citations):
Child 278, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #41}
Bronson 278, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (71 versions+2 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 278, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (10 versions: #2, #7, #18, #26, #33, #42, #52, #67, #68, #69)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #24, pp. 210-211, "The Farmer's Old Wife" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 424-425, "The Farmer's Old Wife" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 320, "Kellyburn Braes" (2 texts, 1 tune); also p. 575 (1 fragment) {Bronson's #48}
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 40, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (6 texts plus 1 fragment, 7 tunes) {Bronson's #31, #54, #53, #35, #56, #66, #50}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 326-333, "The Farmer's Cursed Wife" (4 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #61}
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 94-97, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (2 texts)
Randolph 36, "The Old Man under the Hill" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #63}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 63-66, "The Old Man Under the Hill" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 36A) {Bronson's #63}
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 152-154, "Tee Roo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 226-228, "The Scolding Wife" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #13}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 49-51, "Farmer's Curst Wife" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #60}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland4, pp. 99-135, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (15 texts plus 5 fragments, 13 tunes) {L=Bronson's #60, M=#13}
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 188-191, "The Devil and the Farmer's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 46, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (13 texts, 7 tunes; 2 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #37, #54, #11, #46, #24, #36, #25}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 40, pp. 316-327, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (7 texts plus a fragment, 5 tunes) {BB=Bronson's #33; EE=#10}
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 45, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 45, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (2 texts plus 2 excerpts, 4 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 20, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (1 fragment)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 193, "The Old Man Lived under a Hill (The Farmer's Curst Wife)" (1 text, 1 tune) {same source as Bronson's #29, but the transcriptions are somewhat different}
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #173, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 24, pp. 124-125, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (2 texts)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 53, "Farmer Jones's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 54-56, "The Devil's Song" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 36-38, "The Devil's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 22, pp. 42-43, "The Old Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 36-37, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 72-73, "The Old Devil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 18-19, "The Evil Woman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wells-TheBalladTree, p. 122, "The Devil and the Farmer's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune) {from the same informant, although not the same session, as Bronson's #67}
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 24, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #65}
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 54, "The Curst Wife" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 154, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (4 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #27, #23}
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 94, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (1 text)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 105, "There Was an Old Man Lived Under the Hill" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 95-99, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (5 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #4, #38}
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 9, "Farmer's Curst Wife" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 158-160, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Peacock, pp. 265-268, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 15, "The Devil's Song" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 660-662, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (2 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, p. 124, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 452, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 172-173, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 75, "The Farmer and the Devil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 89, "The Devil and the Farmer's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 137, "The Devil and the Farmer's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 39-42, "Old Jokey Song" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #64}
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 60, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 27, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #54}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 14, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #18}
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 211, "There Was an Old Farmer in Sussex Did Dwell" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 471)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 34-35, "The Devil and the Ploughman" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #79, "The Devil and the Farmer's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 54, "The Women Are Worse Than the Men" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 105-106, "There was an old farmer in Yorkshire did dwell" (1 text)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 33-35, "The Ould Man of Killyburn Brae" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 152-154, "The Farmer's Curst Wife (The Devil and the Farmer)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 92, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 131-132, "[Little Devils]" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #52}
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 25, "The Little Devils" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #52}
Roberts, #8, "The Devil and the Farmer's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #32, "The Devil's Song" (1 text)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 3, "Farmer's Curst Wife"; "Old Scolding Kate" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #17, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #44}
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 26 "Old Lady and the Devil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 39, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (1 text)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 43, "The Curst Wife" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 191-192, "The Curst Wife" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 164, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 82-85, "The Devil and the Farmer's Wife" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 92-93, "The Farmer's Wife and the Devil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 5-7, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 58, "The Devil And The Farmer's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 99-101, "The Devil and the Farmer's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 81-83, "The Farmer's Curst Wife"; "Randy Riley" (2 texts)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 22, "The Devil and The Farmer's Wife" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 55, "Little Devils" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN960, "Give eare, my loving countrey-men"
DT 278, DEVLWIFE DEVLWIF2* DEVLWIF3* DEVLWIF4*
ADDITIONAL: MacEdward Leach and Henry Glassie, _A Guide for Collectiors of Oral Traditions and Folk Cultural Material in Pennsylvania_, Pennsylvania historical and Museum Commission, 1973, pp. 28-29, "(Old Jokey Song)" (1 text)
Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 179, "The Women are worse than the Men" (reproduction of a broadside print of a short version)
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 274-275, "Killyburn Brae" (1 text)
Roud #160
RECORDINGS:
James "Iron Head" Baker, "The Rich Old Lady" (AFS 201 B1, 204 A1, 206 A1, all 1934); "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (AFS 617 A4, 1936)
Horton Barker, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (on Barker01) {Bronson's #33}
Ollie Conway, "Lord Gregory" (on IROConway01, IREarlyBallads)
Judy Cook, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (Piotr-Archive #278, recorded 10/03/2022)
Billy Cox & Cliff Hobbs, "The Battle Axe and the Devil (Vocalion 04811/Conqueror 9220, 1939)
George Davis, "Buggerman in the Bushes" (on GeorgeDavis01)
Margaret Dunne, "There Was an Old Woman from Conner in Hell" (on IREarlyBallads)
Texas Gladden, "The Devil and the Farmer" (Disc 6082, 1940s; on USTGladden01) (AFS 9833 B, 1938; on USTGladden01)
Carrie Grover, "The Devil and the Farmer's Wife" (AFS, 1941; on LC58) {Bronson's #67}
Carmen McCord Hicks, "Devil and the Farmer's Wife" (Piotr-Archive #472, recorded 01/29/2023)
Amy Michels, "The Old Devil" (Piotr-Archive #159, recorded 05/10/2022)
Thomas Moran, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2)
Howard Morry, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (on PeacockCDROM)
Maggie Murphy, "Killyburn Brae" (on IRHardySons)
Lawrence Older, "Randy Riley" (on LOlder01)
Bill & Belle Reed, "Old Lady and the Devil" (Columbia 15336-D, 1928; on AAFM1) {Bronson's #32}
Jean Ritchie, "Little Devils" (on JRitchie02) {cf. Bronson's #52}
Pete Seeger, "The Farmer's Curst Wife" (on PeteSeeger16) (on PeteSeeger24); "Old Woman and the Devil" (on AschRec2)
Pete Steele, "Lack Fol Diddle I Day" [fragmentary version] (AFS, 1938; on KMM)
Erica Warnock, "The Devil and the Farmer" (Piotr-Archive #451, recorded 01/26/2023)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1855), "The Sussex Farmer", J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Devil Came to My Door" (plot)
cf. "The Massacre of Glencoe" (tune,according to Greig/Duncan2)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Old Woman and the Devil
The Farmer and the Devil
The Carle o' Killyburn Braes [Burns]
The Battle Axe and the Devil
The Farmer's Wife
NOTES [222 words]: Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland lists this as being sung to "Liliburlero," but Bronson (who was aware of though he did not print Linscott's version; it's his "g") says it is "not so close to our pattern here." - RBW
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, like Linscott, writes "[t]he tune is 'Lilli burlero.'"
Compare, for example, Bill & Belle Reed, "Old Lady and the Devil" verse 1 ("There was an old man lived the foot of the hill If he ain't moved away he's a-living there still") with Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 541, "There was an old woman" ("There was an old woman Lived Under a hill, And if she's not gone She lives there still"). [Also in Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #4, p. 28. - RBW] Neither of Child's versions use this verse (earliest date in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes is 1714). - BS
The idea of a conflict between a man's wife and the Devil goes back at least to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales; in the Prologue to the Merchant's Tale (lines 1218-1220 in the Riverside edition), the Merchant says bitterly of his wife: "I have a wyf, the worste that may be, For thogh the feend to hire ycoupled were, She wolde hym overmacche, I dar wel swere" -- "I have the worst that may be, For though the fiend to her coupled were, She would him overmatch, I dare well swear." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C278

Farmer's Daughter (I), The

See Treat My Daughter Kindly (The Little Farm) (File: R668)

Farmer's Daughter (II), The

See Bonnie Jean O' Aberdeen, She Lang'd for a Baby (File: OOx2183)

Farmer's Daughter (III), The

See The Banks of Dundee (Undaunted Mary) [Laws M25] (File: LM25)

Farmer's Daughter (IV), The

See The Suffolk Miracle [Child 272] (File: C272)

Farmer's Daughter (V), The

See Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid) (File: R079)

Farmer's Daughter and Her Servant Man

See The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)

Farmer's Daughter and the Gay Ploughboy, The

DESCRIPTION: Rosetta and her father's ploughboy fall in love. Her father confines her on bread and water in the cellar for fifteen months. Her father dies. Rosetta is the only heir. William and Rosetta marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1154))
KEYWORDS: love marriage death farming father
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople, pp. 236-238, "Rosetta and Her Gay Ploughboy" (1 text)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 18-19, "Rosetta and Her Gay Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 83-84, "Rosetta and Her Gay Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1060
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1154), "The Farmer's Daughter and the Gay Ploughboy" ("You constant lovers give attention"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(1155), "The Farmer's Daughter and the Gay Ploughboy"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Locks and Bolts" [Laws M13] (theme: girl locked away by father) and references there
File: ReSh236B

Farmer's Daughter, A

See The Constant Lovers [Laws O41] (File: LO41)

Farmer's Dog Lay on the Mat, A

See Bingo (File: FSWB390D)

Farmer's in His Den, The

See The Farmer in the Dell (File: DTfrmrde)

Farmer's Ingle, The

DESCRIPTION: "Let Turks triumph and the poets live single But my delight's at the farmer's ingle [fireplace]." Merchants have trade, seamen have ships, the miser has money "but my delight's in the farmer's ingle." "Here's a bumper to the farmer's ingle"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: home farming drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 543, "The Farmer's Ingle" (2 texts)
Roud #6019
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.27(469), "The Farmer's Ingle" ("Let fools rejoice and monarchs reign"), unknown, no date
NOTES [235 words]: Greig/Duncan3 quotes a version from National Choir beginning "Let Whigs triumph, let tyrants rage."
Bumper: [noun] "a cup or glass filled to the brim or till the liquor runs over esp. in drinking a toast"; [verb] "to fill to the brim (as a wineglass) and empty by drinking," "to toast with a bumper," "to drink bumpers of wine or other alcoholic beverages" (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976). - BS
The reference to the Turks triumphing is a curious one, since it seems to imply an almost impossibly early date. The Ottoman Turks did, of course, have amazing successes starting in the thirteenth century; in 1453 they captured Constantinople and in 1526 they won the Battle of Mohács, almost destroying the Kingdom of Hungary and opening doors for the attacks on Vienna. But the reign of Suleiman I "the Magnificent" (1520-1566), which included the Battle of Mohács and the sieges of Vienna, was the Ottoman high point. It would be some time before the Ottoman Empire became so weak that Napoleon would call it "the sick man of Europe," but by 1750 it was certainly no great threat to the west. The reference to the Whig triumph would also seem to imply a date either in the period 1688-1702 or 1714-1745. What are the odds of a song about the days of Turkish and Whiggish strength still being around to be printed in relatively recent time? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3543

Farmer's Life For Me, A

DESCRIPTION: "A farmer's, a farmer's, a farmer's life for me. If ever I get married, a farmer's girl I'll/'twill be. The cows in the meadow, they go moo, moo, moo, The dogs in the backyard, they go bow, bow, woo... He won the heart of his sweet Mary Jane As he played"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love courting animal music marriage courting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 127, "The Dogs in the Alley" (1 fragment)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 72, "A Farmer's Life for Me" (1 short text)
Roud #4968
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me)" (lyrics)
cf. "I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song)" (theme of animal noises)
NOTES [93 words]: Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric suggests that his version is a combination of two or more songs. I think he is right, with Brown's "The Dogs in the Alley" being one of them (although that in its turn is little more than a variant on "I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song)" and a second being a farming version of the chorus of "Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me)." The whole mess might benefit from further study -- but the fragments I know don't give us much to work with; I was sorely tempted to just file Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric's piece as a conflation. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne072

Farmer's Old Wife, The

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Farmer's Son (I), The

See The London Heiress (The Brisk and Lively Lad) (File: MoMa033)

Farmer's Son (II), The

See The Country Farmer's Son (Sweet Nelly My Heart's Delight) (File: BeCo366)

Farmer's Son and the Shantyboy, The

See The Farmer and the Shanty Boy (File: Wa033)

Farmer's Three Sons, The

See In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)

Farmer's Wife and the Devil, The

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Farmer's Wife I'll Be, A

DESCRIPTION: The singer has just turned sixteen and declares she'll not have a city man. She loves farming and the sound of the farmer's boy whistling at the plough. If she marries it will be to a farmer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: marriage farming nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 17I, "Farmer's Wife I'll Be" (1 fragment)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 2, "A Farmer's Wife I'll Be" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Cecil Sharp MSS Folk Tunes p. 2651, William Porter, "The Farmer's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16233
RECORDINGS:
Jean Ritchie,"A Farmer's Wife" (on "Shivaree! A Folk Wedding Party," Essential Media Group LP , 2008, reissue of "Shivaree" Esoteric LP ES-538, 1955)
NOTES [62 words]: Among the songs collected by Donagh MacDonagh http://songbook1.tripod.com/] is a three verse text of this song ("A Farmer's Wife I'll Be" ("I am a young and laughing girl just turned sixteen")). The description combines MacDonagh's version with OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin.
The Cecil Sharp verse and chorus is close to MacDonagh; Roud has it as #13226. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC002

Farmers Done Over, The

See Swaggering Farmers (Times Are Altered) (File: PPai002)

Farmers in the Seventeenth Century

DESCRIPTION: "The farmers saw denty, sae weel brag o' plenty, Their weel packiet purses they're grown unco sma'." The singer contrasts their former wealth with their current poverty, brought about by declines in farm prices
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (sent by James Hunter to Furnival, according to Lyle)
KEYWORDS: farming hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Emily Lyle, _Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition_, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, pp, 221-222, "[Farmers in the 17th Century]]" (1 short text)
File: AdF17C

Farmers, The

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

Farmers' Union Song

DESCRIPTION: "We're the farmers of Montana and we heard the call one day, Banding us together in the F.E.C.U. way." "It's a grand word, Cooperation, it's a lode star for us all... For the Union is sure to triumph if we all stay true." The singer urges united action
AUTHOR: Words: Ruth Bowman
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (Cohen)
KEYWORDS: farming labor-movement nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p 567, "Farmers' Union Song" (1 text)
File: CAFS2567

Farmington Canal Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! Captain Dick's a gay old bird, Yes he is, upon my word! But that ain't no excuse For his whiskers to be filled with terbacker juice!" The crew of the ship and their voyage are described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: canal ship moniker
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 195-196, "The Farmington Canal Song" (1 text, 1 tune fitted by Linscott)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 87, "Farmington Canal Song" (1 text)
DT, FRMCANAL*
Roud #3730
RECORDINGS:
Tom Hanford, "Farmington Canal Song" (Piotr-Archive #648, recorded 08/16/2023)
NOTES [45 words]: In the aftermath of the great success of the Erie Canal, a large number of canals were opened in the American Northeast. Few succeeded. The Farmington Canal connected New Haven, Connecticut with Northampton, Massachusetts, and was one of these short-lived connections. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Lins195

Farmyard (I), The

See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

Farmyard (II), The

See The Farmyard Song (File: Gard013)

Farmyard Song (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a farmer, a farmer's boy, I looked after my master's farm." The song cumulatively covers the animals: "A gee-back here and a whoa-back there. "Here's a baa, there's a baa baa baa baa.. baying everywhere," and so on
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Gardham-EastRidingSongster)
KEYWORDS: cumulative animal farming
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 310, "When I Was a Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 13, pp. 17, 47, "The Farmyard Song" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 92, "The Farmyard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #887
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old McDonald Had a Farm" (theme)
NOTES [66 words]: Are the pieces listed here really distinct from "Old MacDonald Had a Farm"? It's not immediately obvious. The British and American versions are often very distinct, but there are intermediate versions, e.g. in Randolph. There may well be mixture with "Old MacDonald" and maybe "The Swapping Boy" as well; indeed, early versions of the Index lumped this with "Old MacDonald." Best to check both. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Gard013

Farmyard Song (II), The

See Old MacDonald Had a Farm (File: R457)

Farther Along

DESCRIPTION: "Tempted and tried, we're oft made to wonder Why it should be thus all the day long." "Farther along we'll know all about it; Farther along we'll understand why." The singer wonders about the troubles of life, but is sure it will make sense in the end
AUTHOR: credited to W. B. Stephens & J. R. Baxter (1887-1960)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (recording, Stamps Quartet)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 123, "Farther Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 289, "Farther Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, pp. 40-41, "Farther Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 356, "Farther Along" (1 text)
DT, FARALONG
Roud #18084
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff, "Farther Along" (OKeh 05766/Conqueror 9433, 1940; Conqueror 9667, 1941; Columbia 20480, c. 1948; rec. 1940)
Charlie Glenn, Dianne Ward-Hicks, "Farther Along" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #186, recorded 06/06/2022)
Harmonizing Four, "Farther Along" (Vee Jay 845, rec. 1957)
Rev. R. A. Harris, "Farther Along" (AFS 5438 B3, 5441 B 3, 1941)
Mississippi John Hurt, "Farther Along" (on MJHurt04)
Johnson Family Singers, "Farther Along" (Columbia 20867, 1951)
Wade Mainer, "Farther Along" (Bluebird B-8023 [as Mainer's Mountaineers]/Montgomery Ward M-7560, 1938)
Charlie Monroe's Boys, "Farther Along" (Bluebird B-7922/Montgomery Ward M-7574, 1938)
Pineridge Boys, "Farther Along" (Bluebird B-8263/Montgomery Ward M-8473, 1939)
Pete Seeger, "Farther Along" (on PeteSeeger32)
Stamps Quartet, "Farther Along" (Okeh 04236/Vocalion 04236, 1938; Columbia 20337, c. 1948; Columbia 37760, 1947)
J. B. Whitmire's Blue Sky Trio, "Farther Along" (Bluebird B-8512/Montgomery Ward M-8508, 1940)
File: FSWB356B

Farval, Farval, Fortjusande Mo (Farewell, Farewell Fascinating Maid)

DESCRIPTION: Scandinavian shanty. Sailor saying farewell to his sweetheart. Several sentimental verses about pressing her hand, tender whispers and kisses, etc. Translation of chorus: "Farewell, farewell, fascinating maid, we shall soon return again."
AUTHOR: Ossian Limborg (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1888
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty foc's'le farewell sailor
FOUND IN: Scandinavia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 495-497, "Farval, Farval, Fortjusande Mo" (2 texts-Swedish & English, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
En Sjoman Alskar Havets Vag
Aland Song
NOTES [140 words]: A note from Sang under Segel says this was written down aboard the barque Chili from Gavle in 1888 by Harold Sundholm, and according to a correspondent in Svenska Dagbladent (5/20/1934) it was written by a captain named Ossian Limborg around 1870. Hugill's source told him it was a very popular song in Finnish ships, but was a forebitter, not sung for work. - SL
This is a rather curious statement, since Finnish is not a Scandinavian or even an Indo-European language. Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish are separate languages in name only; they remain largely mutually intelligible and would almost certainly be called dialects if they weren't the languages of different countries. But Finnish is a separate thing. This song could come from Norwegian, Swedish, or Danish -- perhaps even Icelandic. But it's demonstrably not Finnish. - RBW
File: Hugi495

Fast Pair of Skis, A

DESCRIPTION: "I like to go tramping around Dawson Falls, The climate's superb and the scenery enthrals... When it's cold and you freeze, You can always keep warm with a fast pair of skis." King David, Lot, a dead man newly given wings -- all do better with skis
AUTHOR: Words: Harold William Gretton (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: sports humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 145, "A Fast Pair of Skis" (1 text, tune referenced)
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 83, "A Fast Pair of Skis" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
File: BaRo145

Fat Folk's Made o

See What's Little Babies Made Of? (File: SKE79)

Fat Tuesday

See Shrove Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday (File: BAAI074C)

Fat'll I Dee an My Dearie Dee

DESCRIPTION: "Fat'll I dee [do] an my dearie dee [dies]?" "I'll put on the kettle and mak' a sup tea, And comfort my hert an my dearie dee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: love death nonballad food mourning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 694, "Fat'll I Dee an My Dearie Dee" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6115
File: GrD3694

Fat'll Mak a Bonnie Lassie Blythe an' Glad?

DESCRIPTION: What makes a bonnie lassie "blythe ang glad? A lang winter's nicht an' her ain dearest lad." What makes her pale and wan? "A weel made bed and a braw young man." What makes her weary soon? A long winter night and an ill spinning wheel.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting pregnancy nonballad questions
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 932, "Fat'll Mak a Bonnie Lassie Blythe an' Glad?" (2 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #6748
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The White Cockade" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
cf. "Sandy's the Lad That I'm Gaun Wi'" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
cf. "I'll Kiss Ye Yet, and I'll Clap Ye Yet" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
cf. "Yon Town, Bonnie Lassie" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
File: GrD5932

Fatal Acquantance, The

See Pearl Bryan (III) [Laws F3] AND Pearl Bryan (IV) (File: LF03)

Fatal Flower Garden

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Fatal Glass of Beer, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a young man and he came to New York To find himself a lucrative position befitting his talents." He finds a job, but breaks his promise to his mother to abstain from drink. He breaks a Salvation Army tambourine and dies when its owner kicks him
AUTHOR: Charlie Case (source: Spaeth)
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: humorous work music death drink
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 223-224 "The Charlie Case Songs" (1 text plus a parody, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 174-175, "Ballad of a Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GLASBEER
Roud #9546
NOTES [92 words]: What I presume is the original of this, in Spaeth, has a strange "tune" in which large portions are chanted to a single note. Shay's text still has recitation, but in different places, and it eliminates an accidental from the tune. It is also much more elaborate -- it looks like some other material (e.g. a slam on college graduates) has floated in. It's an amazing amount of folk processing for a piece that apparently was only once collected in the field.
The title I used here is from a short movie made by W. C. Fields in 1933 based on this plot. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: SBar174

Fatal Oak, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis a mournful story I relate, Of three young men who met their fate." The logging team takes their raft downriver and stops for the night. The captain says the site is bad. Come morning, an oak crashes and kills the three loggers.
AUTHOR: (Mrs.) Abigail Jane Ingraham Harness "Abbie" Payne? (1833-1921)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: logger death river
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 29, "The Fatal Oak" (1 text)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 29, "The Fatal Oak" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 206-207, "The Fatal Oak" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden, _Wisconsin Lore: Antics and Anecdotes of Wisconsin People and Places_, Wisconsin House, 1962, pp. 99-101, "The Fatal Oak" (1 text, from W. M. Ward of Soldiers Grove)
Roud #9060
NOTES [194 words]: Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy's source stated that this piece was "written by Mrs. Abbie Payne." Based on Rickaby's text, I suspected that Payne was simply the transcriber -- as the song stands it reads as though the Captain deliberately condemned his men to death by not moving the campsite.
It appears, however, that Rickaby's text had suffered some damage in transmission. The Gard/Sorden text is more coherent, although it still appears the captain could have done more.
Gard and Sorden attibute the poem to Abbie J. Payne, so it appears that she (?) was in fact the author.
Gard/Sodern call it a ballad, but neither they nor Rickaby nor Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin have a tune, and Gard/Sorden print it without stanza divisions; I suspect it was never more than a poem.
According to Gard/Sorden, p. 101, the "raft was sunk September 14, 1870." Peters (who has the song from a clipping in the Rickaby collection, taken from the La Farge Enterprise) say is was "apparently based on an incident that occurred on the Kickapoo River near its confluence with the Wisconsin River east of Prairie du Chien."
This is item dC39 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Rick116

Fatal Ramillies, The

DESCRIPTION: The 90-gun Ramilies, with a crew of 720, is "dashed against a rock" in a storm. "Jews, Turks & Christians would sadly lament" to hear the cries of the crew. Do a good deed "in relieving the widow and the children fatherless. O the fatal Ramilies"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.13(60))
KEYWORDS: sea ship death storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 15, 1760 - Wreck of the Ramillies off the coast of Devonshire. Only 26 men survive
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 144, "The Fate of the Ramillies" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 9)
Roud #1266
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.13(60), "The Fatal Ramilies" ("You soldiers and sailors give ear & attend") , J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(1172), Harding B 11(2772), Firth c.12(80), Harding B 11(3907), "The Fatal Ramilies"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Ramillies [Laws K1]" (subject)
File: WT144

Fatal Ride, The

See The Harry Hayward Song (File: Burt096)

Fatal Rose of Red

DESCRIPTION: A girl bids her uncle to wear a red rose. He will not; a red rose once shattered his life. He had a fight with his sweetheart. He bid her to wear a white rose if she forgave him; otherwise a red. A rival switched notes; he learned the truth years later
AUTHOR: J. Fred Helf & Ed Gardiner
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Leo Boswell)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A girl bids her aged uncle to wear a red rose. He will not; a red rose once shattered his life. He had a fight with his sweetheart, and bid her to wear a white rose if she forgave him; otherwise a red. But a rival switched the note, and she wore a red rose. He saw it, and fled. It was not until years later that he learned the truth, after he came home and she was dead.
KEYWORDS: love courting separation trick rejection
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 808, "The Fatal Rose of Red" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, p. 141, "The Fatal Rose of Red" (1 text)
Roud #7425 and 13940
RECORDINGS:
Leo Boswell, "The Fatal Rose of Red" (Columbia 15290-D, 1928)
Joe Natus, "The Fatal Rose of Red" (CYL: Edison 7601, 1900)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tragic Romance" (theme)
cf. "After the Ball" (theme)
NOTES [59 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 251, estimates that this was the most popular song in America in September 1900, and the seventh-most popular song of the year as a whole (#1 for the year being James Thornton's "When You Were Sweet Sixteen"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: R808

Fatal Run, The

DESCRIPTION: "Frankie's mother came to him, with his dinner under her arm." She warns her boy of all the crews killed making up for lost time. The lad says he has to take his dead father's place as an engineer. He dies on Dead Man's Curve, and the mother mourns again
AUTHOR: Cliff Carlisle
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Cliff Carlisle)
KEYWORDS: train death mother warning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 181-182, "The Fatal Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 48-49, "The Fatal Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14012
RECORDINGS:
Cliff Carlisle, "The Fatal Run" (Champion 45162=Decca 5398, 1931)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck on the C & O" [Laws G3] (lyrics)
NOTES [51 words]: Another composed song with no evidence that it has gone into tradition. Cohen notes that some lines (notably "There's many a poor man has lost his life, making up for lost time, If you will run your engine right, you'll never be behind time") are directly derived from "The Wreck on the C & O" [Laws G3]. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: LSRai181

Fatal Snowstorm, The [Laws P20]

DESCRIPTION: The singer, out in a severe snowstorm, sees a woman with a baby. She laments the cruelty of her parents and of the child's father, who left her for money. She warns against such deceivers, kisses the frozen child's lips, and dies herself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(342a))
KEYWORDS: storm family baby death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Canada(Ont) US(Ro)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws P20, "The Fatal Snowstorm"
Greig/Duncan6 1176, "Cruel Were My Parents" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 71, "The Fatal Snowstorm" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 154, "The Forsaken Mother and Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 33, "The Fatal Snowstorm" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 16, "A Wint'ry Evening" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 447-448, "The Forsaken Mother and Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 62, "The Fatal Snowstorm" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #115, "Cruel Was My Father" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FATALSNW*
Roud #175
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Freeman Bennett, "The Forsaken Mother and Child" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Mrs Jack [Vera] Keating, "The Wintry Winds" (on Ontario1)
Tom Lenihan, "A Wint'ry Evening" (on IRTLenihan01)
Sarah Makem, "The Forsaken Mother and Child" (on FSBFTX15)
Paddy Tunney, "The Month of January" (on Voice06)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(342a), "Winter's Evening" or "The Deploring Damsel" ("'Twas one winter's evening when fast came down the snow"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Harding B 25(2088), "The Winter's Evening" or "Deploring Damsel"; Harding B 11(1824), "It Was One Winter's Evening"; or "Deploring Damsel"; Harding B 15(388a), Harding B 25(2087), Harding B 11(3152), Harding B 28(102), "Winter's Evening"; 2806 c.17(315) , 2806 c.17(316), "Oh Cruel" or "Winter's Evening"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary of the Wild Moor" [Laws P21] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
It Was On a Cold and Winter's Night
Twas a Cold and Frosty Evening
File: LP20

Fatal Wedding (II), The

See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

Fatal Wedding Morn, The

DESCRIPTION: The girl receives a letter from her fiancee, saying he will be back the next day (after a year's absence) to be married. All is made ready, but he never comes; instead, a message announces he is dead. The bride dies of grief
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love death separation grief marriage
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 767, "The Fatal Wedding Morn" (1 text)
Roud #7410
NOTES [12 words]: Obviously not to be confused with the better-known "The Fatal Wedding." - RBW
File: R767

Fatal Wedding, The

DESCRIPTION: A woman comes to the church doors as a wedding begins. She is refused admittance, but at last she is granted entrance to save her freezing child. She objects to the wedding; her baby's father is the bridegroom. The baby dies; the father kills himself
AUTHOR: Words: William Windom / Music: Gussie L. Davis (1863-1899)
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (copyright notice)
KEYWORDS: wedding infidelity baby abandonment suicide death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Randolph 766, "The Fatal Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 141-143, "The Fatal Wedding" (1 text plus 1 excerpt and a reference to 1 more, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 110-112, "The Fatal Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 272, "The Fatal Wedding" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 272, "The Fatal Wedding" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 69, pp. 195-197, "The Fatal Wedding" (1 text)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 163-164, "The Fatal Wedding" (1 text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 81, "The Fatal Wedding" (1 text plus mention of 3 more)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 249-254, "The Fatal Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a copy of part of the original sheet music)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 63, pp. 140-142, "The Fatal Wedding" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #110, "The Fatal Wedding" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 22-24, "The Fatal Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #83, "Fatal Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 153-155, "The Fatal Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 479, "The Fatal Wedding" (source notes only)
DT, FATALWED
ADDITIONAL: Julie Henigan, "Ozark Ballads as Song and Story," article in _Missouri Folklore Society Journal_, Volume 27-28 (cover date 2005-2006, but published 2015), pp. 159-185; pp. 164-165, "The Fatal Wedding Night" (1 text, as sung by Lillian Short, plus a tiny copy of the sheet music cover)
Roud #3273
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Fatal Wedding" (Columbia 15051-D, 1926; rec. 1925)
Arthur Fields, "The Fatal Wedding" (Grey Gull 4208/Radiex 4208, 1928)
Bradley Kincaid, "The Fatal Wedding" (Gennett 6363/Supertone 9211, 1928) (Regal Zonophone [Australia] G22215, n.d.) (Vocalion 02684, 1934)
Charlie Oaks, "The Fatal Wedding" (Vocalion 15144, 1925; Vocalion 5076, c. 1927)
Steely+Graham Redhead Fiddlers, "The Fatal Wedding" (Brunswick 460, 1930; rec. 1929)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "The Fatal Wedding" (Edison 52026, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5355, 1927) (Cameo 8220/Romeo 600/Lincoln 2825, 1927) (Pathe 32278/Perfect 12357/Challenge 666/Banner2158/Domino 3984/Oriole 946 [as Sim Harris]/Regal 8347, 1927; Homestead 16498 [as Sim Harris], c. 1929) (Okeh 45084, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Those Wedding Bells Shall Not Ring Out" (theme)
cf. "The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing" (tune)
cf. "The Harry Hayward Song" (tune)
NOTES [16 words]: For brief background on composer Gussie L. Davis, see the notes to "The Baggage Coach Ahead." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R766

Fate of Ellen Smith, THe

See Ellen Smith [Laws F11] (File: LF11)

Fate of Floyd Collins, The

See Floyd Collins [Laws G22] (File: LG22)

Fate of Franklin, The

See Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9] (File: LK09)

Fate of Harry Young, The

DESCRIPTION: Harry Young murders the city marshal of Randolph, Missouri and escapes. Cornered, he kills six policemen and flees to Texas. Taken at last, he is returned to Springfield, Missouri for trial
AUTHOR: Eugene Hilton
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Springfield Leader and Press)
KEYWORDS: police homicide escape prison trial
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 2, 1932 - Harry and Jennings Young kill six policemen who are on Harry's trail
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 172, "The Fate of Harry Young" (1 fragment)
Roud #5488
NOTES [56 words]: The final days of Harry Young were eventful. Having killed the six policemen in a shootout at the family farmhouse, Harry and his brother Jennings fled to Texas (the home state of Harry's new bride). Captured in Houston, the brothers killed themselves (apparently on the advice of their mother, who was herself in prison in Missouri). - RBW
File: R172

Fate of John Burgoyne, The

DESCRIPTION: "When Jack, the King's commander bold, Was going to his duty, He smiled and bowed... At every blooming beauty." He led his forces from Canada toward Ticonderoga and western New York, but was cut off and forced to surrender
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (Curiosities of American Literature, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: war rebellion battle humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 17, 1777 - Surrender of John Burgoyne at Saratoga
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 75-76, "The Fate of John Burgoyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, pp. 24-49, "The Fate of John Burgoyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 98-99, "The Fate of John Burgoyne" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: William L. Stone, _Ballads and Poems Relating to the Burgoyne Campaign_, 1893 (I use the 1970 Kennikat Press reissue), pp. 32-35, "The Fate of John Burgoyne" (1 text)
Roud #V49765
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The White Cockade" (Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution's suggested tune, although there is no reason to think it authentic) and references there
cf. "Jane McCrea" (subject: the Saratoga campaign)
cf. "The North Campaign (Gates's Song, A Song of Saratoga)" (subject: the Saratoga campaign)
cf. "Rifleman's Song at Bennington" (subject: the Saratoga campaign)
NOTES [1961 words]: In the British parliament in the early 1770s, there was much debate over how to handle the recalcitrant American colonies. Liberals generally favored concessions, conservatives the lash. (Somehow, the idea of electing Americans to parliament didn't seem to appeal to anyone.)
There wasn't much doubt about how John Burgoyne (c. 1722-1792) felt. "Gentleman Johnny" was said to be the illegitimate song of a lord, had run off with the daughter of the Early of Derby, and had purchased a commission in the army surprisingly late, in 1756. As MP for Preston (Lancashire) in 1774, he declared that America was "our spoilt child, which we have already spoiled by too much indulgence"; he declared all conciliation "a waste of time" (Weintraub, p. 6).
After the American colonies rose in rebellion, Burgoyne would have his chance to see how his ideas worked. On the whole, the first two years of the war went the British way -- at least in the sense that they won such set piece battles as were fought -- but they couldn't seem to finish off George Washington's army. And Washington's victory at Trenton, though trivial in the grand scheme of things, encouraged rebel spirits; it seemed unlikely they would given in.
Burgoyne had had a frustrating two years as a subordinate, but returned to England in late 1776 to deal with affairs following his wife's death (Ketchum, pp. 65-66). While there, he argued for an independent command -- and came up with a plan that would justify it. The complex campaign he dreamed up for 1777 involved three converging columns. Howe, the British Commander in Chief, would lead an army north from New York. Barry St. Leger would strike from Lake Ontario into western New York with a force of about 2000 regulars supported by Indians (Marrin, p. 134; Ferguson, p. 183, claims St. Leger would lead 9000 men, but that is a ridiculously large force for a colonel and there is no way the British could have supplied them. This appears to be an error for the 9000 men commanded by Burgoyne and St. Leger combined). And Burgoyne -- rather than Guy Carleton, the respected and competent commander in Canada -- would head south from Montreal through the Champlain and Ticonderoga. The three would rendezvous near Albany.
Had it worked, it would have divided the colonies into two parts, unable to reach and reinforce each other, which could be defeated in detail (cf. Weintraub, p. 75). The problem, of course, was that the columns would have to operate completely independently, with the main continental army between them, certainly running the risk that the columns would fail to cooperate and allowing at least the possibility that the colonists would defeat them in detail. Presumably the British thought the ragtag Americans too disorganized to defeat a force of British regulars.
Burgoyne felt great confidence in his own ability; he registered a fifty guinea bet with opposition M.P. Charles Fox that he would win an overwhelming victory by the end of 1777 (Weintraub, p. 86). The mere fact that he made such a bet probably proves that he should not have been given his command, but the British upper class didn't think that way.
The planning for the Grand Operation was not of the best. Burgoyne's preparations consisted mostly of gathering commissions to sell (Weintraub, p. 51). When the forces assembled for the push, too much space was probably devoted to cavalry and too little to supplies (and supply officers -- the British, since they still used commission by purchase, had little use for this vital but unglamorous job).
That lack, plus the inevitable defects in coordination, led to complete failure. Howe -- who had a history of passive behavior, e.g. he had refused to pursue Washington's army after routing it in New York (Weintraub, pp. 73-73) -- eventually headed off to Philadelphia (the closest thing the colonies had to a capital city -- but, as events proved, inessential to their fighting ability); Weintraub attributes this in part to lack of detailed instructions from England (p. 104). In any case, Howe did nothing to support the other two columns. Howe was hoping for a decisive battle against Washington (Weintraub, p. 108). Washington refused to be lured; after suffering a tactical defeat at Brandywine (Ferguson, p. 184), he let Howe go wherever he wanted.
Howe's move involved two-thirds of the garrison of New York (i.e. about 14,000 men) -- and he took them by sea (Weintraub, p. 107), removing them entirely from the game for six weeks (Weintraub, pp. 113-114) and leaving them in a poor position when they finally did get back on land. That left only about 7000 troops in New York under General Henry Clinton, who judged the force too small to undertake major operations (in this he was probably right). Clinton eventually set off to help Burgoyne -- but started too late and in too small a force, and in the end turned back (Marrin, p. 140). The fiasco was sufficient that Howe would resign his command soon afterward (Weintraub, p. 124), though he claimed it was due to "lack of support."
St. Leger fought a stinging but indecisive battle at Oriskany (Ferguson, p. 184. In tactical terms, the British had the victory; they killed more Americans and mortally wounded the American commander Nicolas Herkimer; Marrin, p. 136). The Indians, though, were reportedly spooked by omens, and then Benedict Arnold managed to further trick them into thinking a major American force was coming (Marrin, p. 137). They refused to go on, and St. Leger could not continue the campaign without his allies.
But it was the isolated Burgoyne who suffered the worst defeat by far. It didn't help that he had managed to provoke a quarrel with Sir Guy Carleton, who had brilliantly saved Quebec from the Americans but who now found himself bypassed by Burgoyne and criticized by London (Ketchum, p. 86; Lancaster, p. 200, says that Carleton had been "shamelessly passed over," though Stokesbury, p. 142, says that Carleton cooperated with Burgoyne despite the snub).
Initially things went well; Burgoyne had an easy time moving through the Champlain, and easily forced the rebels out of Ticonderoga by placing artillery on a crest the Americans had neglected to defend (Lancaster, p. 204); somehow, it seemed as if no one could build a decent fortification at that strategic point.
Then things got complicated. As long has he had been in the Champlain, Burgoyne had been supplied by water. But now Burgoyne's supply train, which was immense (Ketchum, p. 138), had to travel overland, giving the British a very tenuous supply line. (It didn't help that they had to transport such fripperies as Burgoyne's champaigne; Kraus, p. 228.) American Tories, who had been expected to turn out to support the campaign, mostly sat on their hands (Lancaster, p. 201, says only about a hundred colonials joined the colors, and the handful of Indians were too few to be effective scouts). The Americans occupied themselves building obstacles to slow the British advance, and at this they were very effective (Lancaster, p. 207).
Burgoyne's troubles mounted quickly. A raid on Bennington, which was intended to bring in supplies, instead resulted in the loss of many of his best German troops (see "Rifleman's Song at Bennington"; also Weintraub, p. 119). Neither side performed well there, but as Stokesbury remarks on pp. 155-156, "It was an absolutely stunning victory, in which all the German mistakes worked against them, and all the American mistakes worked for them." Burgoyne grumbled about how the Americans kept fighting from the woods and potshotting British officers (Kraus, p. 229), but that's how insurrections work! Between the supply troubles and the skirmishes, his progress slowed to a crawl.
Burgoyne ended up at Saratoga, with limited supplies and his men getting sick. He probably should have retreated at once, but Weintraub, p. 120, considers him "too proud." Americans were arriving on all sides, leaving him effectively surrounded. He finally tried to fight his way through the American army of Horatio Gates. It didn't work. He fought two battles at Freeman's Farm (September 19 and October 7); the British came close to victory at the latter, but Benedict Arnold rallied the Americans and saved the day (Marrin, pp. 138-141). Burgoyne was stuck at Saratoga, and on October 18, 1777, he was forced to surrender. (For background, see e.g. Cook, pp. 275-280). To the end, Burgoyne seemed unwilling to take responsibility. As he handed over his sword, he declared that his defeat was "my fortune, sir, and not my fault" (Weintraub, p. 122).
Little wonder that Horace Walpole called Burgoyne "Pomposo" (Stokesbury, p. 145); he was bombastic and incapable of accepting blame. Henry Carey, composer of "Sally in Our Alley," dubbed him "Sir Jack Brag" and "Chrononnotonthologos"; Stone, p. 3.
The British still held Ticonderoga and points north, but the loss of Burgoyne's army left Guy Carleton with too few troops to defend his positions in the north and occupy the Champlain, so Carleton was forced to evacuate the entire area, leaving Britain with no gains at all for its efforts (Ketchum, pp. 438-439).
This was the first great Colonial victory of the war. Some five thousand British troops were taken -- a fact which other nations were quick to notice. Howe's refusal to support Burgoyne (plus, of course, Burgoyne's own short-sightedness) had led to a disaster.
Burgoyne would come out of the matter surprisingly well (Cook, pp. 300-301). The Americans would not parole the soldiers captured at Saratoga (Ketchum, pp. 435-436, notes that they finally were marched all the way to Charlottsville, Virginia; Weintraub, p. 127 says that they surrendered on conditions but the British government in effect refused to recognize an agreement with rebels), but they did parole Burgoyne and send him home. The crown refused to receive him (Weintraub, p. 149), and the government refused to give him the court-martial he desired -- but Burgoyne was still a Member of Parliament (Weintraub, p. 6, attributes his election to the influence of his late father-in-law, the Earl of Derby), and took his case there, arguing that his orders had been too rigid (debateable) and that the cabinet had not forced Howe to properly support him (undeniable).
A large segment of the press took his part (Weintraub, pp. 152-153). In popular opinion, he was considered to be vindicated, though an honest assessment would surely show that he brought many of his troubles on himself.
The government responded to his parliamentary tactics by ordering him to rejoin his troops in their American prison camps (Weintraub, p. 163). He ignored the order, claiming illness (Weintraub, p. 164), and was rehabilitated when the Whigs gained power; he served for a time in Ireland, and wrote plays nearly to the end of his comfortable life. His comedy The Heiress (1786) was supposedly compared favorably with The School for Scandal, although it has not stood the test of time as well (Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 67).
Burgoyne remained a source of scandal to the end; when his wife died, he took up with a singer, Susan Caulfield, and left it for his ex-father-in-law Lord Derby to raise the children (Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 67).
Still, he had changed history, and not for British advantage: Saratoga changed the whole course of the American revolution, and caused France to come to the aid of the colonies (Ferguson, p. 180). It would be years before this aid would be effective -- but, when it came, it would be decisive.
It will tell you something about the British government of the time that when the news of Saratoga arrived, the Prime Minister, Lord North, tried to resign (not for the last time), but George III would not allow it (Weintraub, p. 129). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: SBoA075

Fate of Lee Bible, The

DESCRIPTION: "I have traveled through life and I have seen many sights That filled me with sorrow and pain, But the saddest of all is a good man to fall...." Lee Bible races at Daytona Beach, with his wife looking on. Bible crashes as a cameraman photographed the race
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: death racing technology
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 13, 1929 - Death of Lee Bible in a racing accident
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #51, "Lee Bible" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 324-325, "The Death of Lee Bible" (1 text)
Roud #4144
NOTES [7 words]: This is item dG46 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: CAFS1324

Fate of Old Strawberry Roan, The

See (references under) "The Strawberry Roan" [Laws B18] (File: LB18)

Fate of Talmadge Osborne, The

DESCRIPTION: Talmadge Osborn does not get out of the way of a backing train in time, has his hands cut off, and dies. The company is not liable according to the "Johnson Law." Singer warns listeners to walk carefully, lest they be killed by a train
AUTHOR: unknown, but probably Ernest Stoneman
EARLIEST DATE: Late 1920s (recording, Ernest Stoneman & Kahle Brewer)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Talmadge Osborn, a man who behaves oddly, does not get out of the way of a backing train in time, has his hands cut off, and dies. The company is not liable according to the "Johnson Law." He is taken home; people say "Many a man's been murdered by the railroad/And laid in his cold, lonesome grave." Singer warns listeners to walk carefully, lest they be killed by a train, and that their high-living ways may put them on the county road for six months
KEYWORDS: disability warning train death railroading drink injury hobo floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 200-201, "The Fate of Talmadge Osborne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 371, "There's Many a Man Killed on the Railroad" (1 fragment, 1 tune, with only the "There's man been killed on the railroad" stanza, which could be from this, or "The C. & O.," or others)
Roud #12188
RECORDINGS:
[Ernest Stoneman and] The Dixie Mountaineers, "The Fate of Talmadge Osborne" (Edison 52026, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5369, 1927); Ernest V. Stoneman, "The Fate of Talmadge Osborne" (OKeh 45084, 1927)(Victor 20672, 1927) (one of these is on RoughWays1, misspelled "Talmedge")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck on the C & O" [Laws G3] (floating verses)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Death of Talmadge Osborn
NOTES [62 words]: Stoneman, who knew Osborn(e), remembers that he used to hop freights while drunk, probably the cause of his fatal accident.
The "Many a man killed on the railroad" verse seems to have been spliced into this song as a bridge, having been collected from tradition earlier.
The "Johnson Law" absolved a railroad from liability for accidents occurring on its right-of-way. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: RcTFOTO

Fate of the Beef Steer, The

DESCRIPTION: "Hush-a-bye, Long Horn, your pards are all sleepin'; Stop your durn millin' and tossin' your head." Maybe it knows it is going to slaughter. It's a strange path it takes. All will be "made into goods but the holler," although some are used in strange ways
AUTHOR: J. W. Foley (source: Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: animal death travel cowboy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 65-66, "The Fate of the Beef Steer" (1 text)
File: ThLo065

Fate of the Cumberland Crew, The

See The Cumberland Crew [Laws A18] (File: LA18)

Fate of the Nancy Bell, The

DESCRIPTION: An old sailor recounts the aftermath of a shipwreck. 10 survivors wash up on an island and after a month, proceed to draw lots as to who will be eaten by the rest. At the end the narrator is rescued as he is finishing off the last of the others.
AUTHOR: William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911)
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (_Fun_ magazine)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship wreck cannibalism humorous
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 194-196, "The Fate of the Nancy Bell" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 105, "The Yarn of the Nancy Bell" (1 text)
ST Harl194 (Partial)
Roud #V18364
NOTES [107 words]: Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips's version leaves out the first seven verses of the original. - SL
This seems to be typical; the longest version I've seen has 23 verses, but most of the printed texts I've found have fewer than 20.
Grigson claims that this piece was early set to music and gives the impression that it became traditional. That it was set to music is clear; that it was highly popular is also clear (Granger's Index to Poetry lists no fewer than 20 anthologies containing it, which is a higher total than I can recall for any folk piece). But I've seen no evidence, apart from Harlow, that it was actually traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Harl194

Fate of the Ramillies, The

See The Fatal Ramillies (File: WT144)

Fate of the Rena Lee, The

See The Loss of the Ramillies [Laws K1]
 (File: LK01)

Fate of Will Rogers and Wiley Post, The

DESCRIPTION: "Here's the story of two brave Americans, Will Rogers and Wiley Post, They were both loved by their countrymen." They leave Fairbanks by plane. But the craft develops technical problems. After a first landing, they take off again, crash, and die
AUTHOR: probably Bob Miller
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (recording, Bill Cox)
KEYWORDS: technology death travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 684-685, "The Fate of Will Rogers and Wiley Post" (1 text)
Roud #21706
RECORDINGS:
Bill Cox, "The Fate of Will Rogers and Wiley Post" (Melotome 5-11-54, 1935)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Will and Wiley's Last Flight" (subject; this was the flip side of the Cox recording above)
File: CAFS2684

Fateful Blow, The

DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "My partners they come after me/To go on a night's spree/Ten times I did refuse them/They wouldn't let me be/Ten times I did refuse them/To the sorrow of my heart/This caused a loving husband and darling wife to part"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: marriage violence drink husband wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 174, "The Fateful Blow" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #3641
File: ShAp2174

Fath Mo Mhulaid a Bhith Ann

See An Iounndrain-Mhara (Sea-Longing) (File: K011)

Father Abraham

DESCRIPTION: Motion song. "Father Abraham had (many) sons, And many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them, and so are you, So let's all praise the Lord! Right am!" Repeat, adding motions for left arm, right foot, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: father children nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 517, "Father Abraham Had Seven Sons" (notes only)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Father Abraham Had Many Sons
NOTES [122 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs gives this the title "Father Abraham Had Seven Sons." It seems more common to say that he had "many sons," but we do have a list of Abraham's sons:
- Ishmael, by his slave Hagar (Genesis 16, etc.)
- Isaac, by first wife Sarah/Sarai (Genesis 21, etc.), who was Abraham's primary heir
- Six sons by his second wife Keturah: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, Shuah (Genesis 25:1-6), who were secondary heirs.
Thus Abraham had *eight* sons. This leads me to suspect that the original did indeed read "seven sons," and then someone counted and changed it.
A German recording, "Adam Hatte Sieben Schne," obviously transfers the song from Abraham to Adam -- but the number of Adam's children is unknown. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF517A

Father Abraham Had Many Sons

See Father Abraham (File: ACSF517A)

Father Abraham Had Seven Sons

See Father Abraham (File: ACSF517A)

Father Duffy's Well

DESCRIPTION: "When lured by dreams of salmon streams, And sylvan beauties rare, The tackle stowed you take the road That leads to Salmonier." The travelers all stop to drink at Father Duffy's well. The poet tells how Duffy found the well. It should be kept pristine
AUTHOR: P. K. Devine (1859-1950 (source: Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 4th edition)
KEYWORDS: clergy travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Father Duffy's Well" (1 text): p. 88 in the 4th edition
Roud #7296
File: Doyl4088

Father Get Ready When He Calls You

DESCRIPTION: "Father get ready when he calls you (x3) To sit on the throne with Jesus. Away up in Heaven (x2), Father get ready... To sit on the throne...." "Mother get ready when he calls you" "This world is a trouble and sorrow" "We'll all be happy in the morning"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 142-144, "[Father Get Ready When He Calls You]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 44-45, "Father Get Ready" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7406
File: JRSF142

Father Grumble [Laws Q1]

DESCRIPTION: Grumble says he can do more work in a day than his wife can do in three. She offers to exchange tasks for a day; he agrees. She gives him a long list of household chores and sets out to plow. He fails in most of his tasks and admits his wife's superiority
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1825
KEYWORDS: contest husband wife work humorous feminist
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland,England(Lond,North,South)) Ireland US(Ap,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (43 citations):
Laws Q1, "Father Grumble"
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 464, "John Grumlie" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 101, "Old Dorrington" (1 text)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 54-55, "The Capable Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 225-228, "Father Grumble" (5 texts)
Randolph 74, "Father Grumble" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 124-126, "Father Grumble" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 74A)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 43, "Father Grumble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 101, "Father Grumble" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 172, "Old Grumble" (1 text)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 43-45, "Old Grumbler" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 231-237, "Mr. Grumble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 191-193, "The Wife of Auchtermuchty" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 104-105, "John Grumlie" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 248-250, "The Old Man Who Lived in the Wood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 180, "Father Grumble" (2 text -- one of them "Darby and Joan" -- plus mention of 2 more)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 59, pp. 175-176, "Father Grumble" (1 text)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 42, "The Old Man Who Lived in the Wood (Father Grumble)" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 118, "Old Crumbly Crust" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 228-229, "The Grumbler's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 119-120, "There Was an Old Man That Lived on a Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 243-244, "Father Grumble" (1 text, with local title "There Was an Old Man"; tune on p. 420)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 40, "Father Grumble" (3 texts)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 188, "The Drummer and His Wife" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #39, "The Drummer and His Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #126, "The Ancient Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp747-748, "Father Grumble" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 443, "Father Grumble" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 41-43, "The Old Man Who Lived in the Woods" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 10, "Father Grumble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 579-580, "The Old Man Who Lived in the Wood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H702, pp. 504-505, "The Wealthy Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 36, pp. 82-84, "Father Grumble" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 156, "Father Grumble" (7 texts)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 86-87, "Father Grumble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, pp. 19-20, "Phoebe" (1 text, 1 tune, a "comic stage rewrite")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 188, "Little Phoebe"; p. 189, "Old Man In The Wood" (2 texts)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 93, "Old Cromwell" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, pp. 64-65, "Father Grumble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 39-47, "John Grumlie" (2 texts plus several excerpts)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1410, "In Auchtermuchty lived a man" (?)
DT 343, WIFEWORK WIFEWRK2* WIFEWRK3*
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 208-210, "The Old Man in a Wood," "The Old Man Who Lived in a Wood" (2 texts)
Roud #281
RECORDINGS:
Margaret MacArthur, "Old Mr. Grumble" (on MMacArthur01)
Jean Ritchie, "Father Grumble" (AFS; on LC14)
Pete Seeger, "Equinoxial" (on PeteSeeger12)
SAME TUNE:
Bublin Bay (NLScotland, L.C.1269(173b), "Bublin Bay" ("They sailed away in a gallant barque"), unknown, 1857 -- listed as to the tune of "John Grumlie" but with so many lyrics from "Dublin Bay (Roy Neal)" that it coud almost be considered the same song still -- plus the long introduction asks for the pianist to play "Dublin Bay")
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John Grumlie
Equinoxial
Old Daddy Grumble
NOTES [269 words]: According to the notes in Brown, "St. John Honeywood of Massachusetts [around 1800] dressed [this] up as 'Darby and Joan," and his version has achieved something like traditional currency; at least, a text clearly enough derived from it is one of the items in our North Carolina collection."
The names "Darby and Joan" are an interesting pairing because, according to Arnold Kellett, The Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition, and Folklore, revised edition, Smith Settle, 2002, p. 44, "Darby and Joan" is a "popular term for a devoted old couple... said to have originated in the early eighteenth century a a reference to a blacksmith and his wife at Healaugh, Tadcaster." This seems to be the basis for Fred E. Weatherly's song "Darby and Joan" (found, e.g., in Heart-Songs, pp. 124-125), which is *not* this song.
Another song on the theme of men's versus women's work is Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, pp. 85-86, "The Labouring Woman." Based on the lyrics, I would say it is not the same song, and the man never actually does the women's work, but it might have been inspired by this song.
Ford-SongHistories lists quite a few analogs of this song, most of which Laws would probably include as versions rather than separate songs; Ford considers the earliest of these to be "The Wife of Auchtermuchty," from the Bannadtne Manuscript of c. 1600. It is attributed to a Sir John Moffat. In some of these early versions, the wife "rigs" the contest by making sure that various tasks are made harder or left undone. This very much changes the tenor of the song, and makes it less interesting in my view. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LQ01

Father in Ambush, The

See Lovely Willie [Laws M35] (File: LM35)

Father Is a Butcher

DESCRIPTION: "Father is a butcher, Mother cuts the meat, (Baby's in the) cradle, Fast asleep. How many hours does she sleep?" Or, "...cuts the meat, I'm a little hot dog running down the street. How many hot dogs did I sell?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty father mother baby
FOUND IN: New Zealand US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 108, "(Father is a butcher)" (2 texts)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 64, "Hot Dog" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 126, "My mother owns a butcher shop" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #368, "My father is a butcher" (1 text)
Roud #19421
File: SuSm108C

Father is Drinking Again

DESCRIPTION: "I've been wandering all day in the cold and the rain To see my poor father again. He's been gone since last night.... She sent me to find him and bring him to her... God... help the poor child Whose father is drinking again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: drink family children
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 325, "Father is Drinking Again" (1 text)
Roud #7799
File: R325

Father McFadden

See Come All You Roman Catholics (File: TSF013)

Father Murphy (I)

DESCRIPTION: Father Murphy defeats the Camolin cavalry and the Cork militia. At Tubberneering he turns the army back to Dublin "but our ranks were tattered and sorely scattered." Outnumbered by English, Scots, and Hessians, he would have won with French reinforcement.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion Ireland clergy patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 26, 1798 - Beginning of the Wexford rebellion
May 27, 1798 - The Wexford rebels under Father John Murphy defeat the North Cork militia at Oulart
May 28, 1798 - Murphy's rebels capture Enniscorthy
May 30, 1798 - Battle of Three Rocks, which led the loyalists to abandon Wexford to the rebels
June 4, 1798 - after a dangerous wait, the United army occupies Gorey
June 5, 1798 - The Wexford rebels attack the small garrison (about 1400 men, many militia) at New Ross, but are repelled
June 21, 1798 - The rebel stronghold a Vinegar Hill is taken, and the Wexford rebellion effectively ended
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 27, "Father Murphy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 64, "Father Murphy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 66-67, "Father Murphy (2)" (1 text)
ST OLoc027 (Partial)
Roud #3020
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Boulavogue" (subject: The Wexford Rebellion and related topics)
cf. "Sweet County Wexford" (subject: The Wexford Rebellion and related topics)
cf. "Come All You Warriors" (subject of Father Murphy and the Wexford rebellion)
cf. "Some Treat of David" (subject of Father Murphy and the Wexford rebellion)
cf. "Father Murphy (II) (The Wexford Men of '98)"
cf. "Come All You Warriors" (subject of Father Murphy and the Wexford Rebellion)
cf. "The Battle of Kilcumney" (subject of Father Murphy after Vinegar Hill)
NOTES [1398 words]: This song is thought to be the original upon which P.J. McCall based his 'Boolavogue'. While the latter piece was written one hundred years after the event, this song was in circulation within a couple of years of 1798." On the other hand, see the notes to "Sweet County Wexford." The ballad is recorded on two of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Jerry O'Reilly, "Father Murphy" (on "The Croppy's Complaint," Craft Recordings CRCD03 (1998); Terry Moylan notes)
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Father Murphy" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998))
Harte's notes that: Father Murphy was among the Catholic clergy allied with the United Irishmen; "the Catholic church was fiercly opposed to the United Irishmen"; "the 1798 rebellion had its roots with the Presbyterians in the North, and it was they who put forward the basic objectives of 'Parliamentary Reform' and 'Catholic Emancipation'; even in Wexford itself, many of those who were initially involved with the united Irishmen and took part in the planning of the rebellion were Protestants."
For a different ballad on the same subject see broadside
Bodleian, Harding B 19(101), "Father Murphy" or "The Wexford Men of '98" ("You Roman catholics throughout this nation"), W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 c.8(51), 2806 b.10(11), Harding B 26(188), "Father Murphy" or "The Wexford Men of '98" - BS
This other broadside is also found in Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 64-66, "Father Murphy (1) or the Wexford Men of '98."
For historical background to this piece, see the notes to "Boulavogue."
Murphy's own history is interesting. Born around 1753, in Tincurry, Ferns, in County Wexford (Boylan, p. 259), the son of a farmer, he had the sort of early education a Catholic could expect (i.e. very little) and had to go to Spain to be ordained. By 1798, he was curate of Boulavogue in Wexford. As far as is known, he was not a member of the United Irishmen.
His actions seem to have been somewhat equivocal. According to Golway, pp. 77-78, when the government in 1798 was pressuring people to sign an oath promising not to join the United Irishmen. Murphy and his parishioners signed only under pressure.
But according to Pakenham, pp. 147-148, it appears he initially opposed violent resistance -- he helped draw up a petition of loyalty to George III, and Pakenham and Golway both note that he encouraged his parishioners to lay down their arms.
Kee, p. 109, more neutral than either, accepts that Murphy's desire for peace was real, basing his conclusion on the reasonable grounds that, if anyone had been planning a Wexford rising, it would have been better organized.
Whatever Murphy's true feelings, he didn't hesitate after word came of the massacre at Dunlavin (for which see "Dunlavin Green") and other atrocities. There were also stories -- partly true -- of the success of rebellions in Kildare and elsewhere. On May 26, Father Murphy agreed to lead the Wexford rebels -- who, however, were by now largely disarmed.
That night, though, the "Camolin cavalry" -- a small patrol led by local gentleman John Donovan and a Lt. Bookey -- came upon Murphy's rabble, called upon the Irish to disperse, and -- being outnumbered and in the dark where their firearms weren't that helpful -- were routed with some loss, including their two officers.
This skirmish wasn't really a battle -- the forces involved numbered in the dozens, and neither side was planning a fight -- but it heartened the rebels. And started everybody shooting at everybody else. (Father Murphy's home and chapel were burned in the following days.) The rebels proceeded to raid the empty house of Lord Mountnorris, who was supposed to command in the district. They rounded up some other arms as well, often killing the residents of the homes holding the weapons.
The battle with the North Cork militia at Oulart was equally improbable. Accounts of the conflict from various sources differ so much that I can't even recognize them as the same battle -- Pakenham, e.g., makes it a case of British military ineptitude; Golway and others stress Irish discipline. Pakenham's account, which at least relies upon verifiable military records, seems the least unreliable:
The militia, under Colonel Foote, were almost untrained, and numbered only about 125 men; many had already deserted, and some had even joined the rebels. They were outnumbered roughly ten to one by Murphy's rebels, though Murphy's troops had even less cohesion than the militia.
Foote of course refused to attack uphill against those odds, and the rebels refused to come down. But when Foote's back was literally turned, his second in command Major Lombard ordered a charge. The attacking force was killed to the last man, even after the troops started to surrender and proclaimed themselves Catholic; Bartlett/Dawson/Keough, p. 111. (Not all atrocities in Ireland were committed by the British!) Foote brought one sergeant and two privates back alive from an engagement he hadn't even commanded (Bartlett/Dawson/Keough, p. 109).
On May 28, the rebels launched a surprisingly disciplined attack on Enniscorthy. The garrison retired to Wexford, but abandoned that town two days later.
Then things started to go bad. The Irish started to dawdle. As Kee notes (p. 114), "The lack of almost any coherent strategic plan, or indeed of any true leadership, was to be the rebels' undoing. Their determination and bravery in the field... was to prove remarkable.... But their discipline even in battle was poor. The Reverend James Gordon wrote, 'As they were not, like regular troops, under any real command of officers, but acted spontaneously... they were watched in battle one of another, each fearing to be left behind in case of retreat, which was generally swift and sudden.'"
They finally arrived at New Ross -- a key stop on the road to Waterford -- on June 5. Their leader, Bagenal Harvey, devised a sort of plan of attack, but gave no detailed instructions then or later, exerted no control over the battle, and had no reserve to exploit success. The rebels broke into the town, and seemingly had the battle won -- and promptly collapsed (Bartlett/Dawson/Keough, pp. 119-120).
The next attack, on Arklow on June 9, was led by Father Murphy himself, and it too was repulsed, with heavy casualties (Bartlett/Dawson/Keough, p. 123).
After that, it was a matter of survival, and even that didn't take long. The English commander in the region, General Lake, assembled his forces and slaughtered most of the remaining rebels at Vinegar Hill on June 21.
Murphy's initial opposition to rebellion did not help him; "His fate is uncertain, but it appears that he was later captured by the yeomen and hanged" (Boylan, p. 259).. According to Golway, p. 87, Murphy was tortured before his death, and refused to talk. This sounds suspiciously like the death of Jesus, though, and Golway's strange footnote system does not appear to cite a source for this. For a discussion of the matter, see the entry on "Some Treat of David," which details Murphy's death.
The statement that Murphy could have won with French help is sort of true; when small French forces did come to Ireland, they were able to fight the British garrisons on even terms, which the United Irishmen never did. The French might also have helped by supplying the rebels with a hint of tactical reality. But experience seems to indicate that the Irish would have ignored them.
In any case, while Napoleon talked about invading Ireland, and even started to try to assemble the ships, he never really seemed ready to make the push. Ireland had no resources to pay his army and navy, and in 1798, with the world seemingly at his feet, Napoleon's big need was cash.
In the end, the French fleet and army assembling at Toulon did not go to Ireland; it went to Egypt. Perhaps just as well for the French; by 1798, the Nore mutiny was over, and the Battle of Camperdown had shown that the English did have naval superiority. The French made it to Egypt, mostly by confusing Nelson's scouts. They could never have gotten to Ireland that way. A few ships came, too late, but Wexford was never their destination; it was considered peaceful. In any case, a success in Wexford alone would not have freed Ireland. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: OLoc027

Father Murphy (II) (The Wexford Men of '98)

DESCRIPTION: Remember '98 when we lost Father Murphy. The victories are listed until Kilkenny. "Father Murphy was taken ... The blessed priest they burned him sore." The time is coming. "We'll be commanded by some pious teacher Like Father Murphy and his Shelmaliers."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: battle execution rebellion Ireland clergy patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 26, 1798 - Beginning of the Wexford rebellion
May 27, 1798 - The Wexford rebels under Father John Murphy defeat the North Cork militia
June 5, 1798 - The Wexford rebels attack the small garrison (about 1400 men, many militia) at New Ross, but are repelled
June 21, 1798 - The rebel stronghold a Vinegar Hill is taken, and the Wexford rebellion effectively ended
July 2, 1798 - Father Murphy (1753-1798) captured, executed and cremated.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 11B, "Father Murphy" or "The Wexford Men of '98" (1 text, 1 tune)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 64-66, "Father Murphy (1) or The Wexford Men of '98" (1 text)
Roud #3020
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(238), "Father Murphy" or "The Wexford men of '98," W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867; also Harding B 26(188), 2806 b.10(11), 2806 c.8(51), "Father Murphy" or "The Wexford men of '98"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Father Murphy (I)" (subject of Father Murphy) and references there
NOTES [590 words]: One line of Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 11B and the Bodleian broadsides seems unusual to me: "On our retreatment burned Scullabogue"; Zimmermann explains: "After the battle of Ross, about one hundred Protestant prisoners, including women and children, were burnt alive in the barn of Scullabogue used as a temporary jail by the insurgents, (5th June, 1798)." In the texts, there are no bad consequences attributed to, or justification ascribed to, this act. For example, this act is not why "we" lost;
If we had conduct to march on forward
And not returned back to Gorey town,
We would have saved the lives of ten thousand heroes
That died in Arklow God rest their souls.
It was by their means Father Murphy was taken ...
I expect there must be other examples of acknowledged terrible acts by the singer's "side" that have no acknowledged terrible consequences, but I don't know them. My point is not that I am surprised at an "atrocity" on the singer's "side" but that it is acknowledged. There were atrocities as well on the British side but are they recorded in songs from that side? Perhaps my quote is out of context; the preceding part of the verse is
When reinforcement came down upon us,
Just in the evening, with fire and smoke,
We were forced to leave them, the town then blazing,
On our retreatment burned Scullabogue."
For more information see "The Scullabogue Massacre 1798" by Daniel Gahan, History Ireland, Autumn 1996, republished on the Republican Sinn Fein site.
For one of innumerable Biblical examples with weak justification and acknowledged bad consequences for the singer's "side" see Genesis 34 (Dinah and Shechem). Even Psalms 137, "Fair Babylon, you predator, a blessing on him who repays you in kind what you have inflicted on us; a blessing on him who seizes your babies and dashes them against the rocks!" is not recounting an actual event and wishes it conditional upon God's blessing after claiming justification. - BS
This is one of those instances where feelings are so strong that genuine historical perspective is hard to come by. Pakenham, pp. 198-199, describes Scullabogue: "a ghastly scene...which was to leave a still more indelible mark on Irish history [than the Battle of New Ross]."
At least a hundred Loyalist prisoners, and perhaps as many as two hundred, were penned in a barn, jammed so tightly that they could not all sit down. The majority of those imprisoned were male Protestants, but there were some women, children, and Catholics.
Somehow a rumor started that British forces were executing captured soldiers. The officer in charge of guarding prisoners refused to engage in retaliations. But after three alleged orders came to kill the prisoners, one allegedly endorsed by a priest, the guards shot some three dozen prisoners and burned the rest in the barn where they were confined. It was pretty definitely the worst atrocity of the 1798 rebellion.
Interestingly, the pro-British Pakenham does not list any consequences either.
Kee, p. 118, devotes only a couple of sentences to Scullabogue, and in effect justifies it by the condition of the Irish peasantry. Smyth, p. 179, mentions it only in passing as a "sectarian atrocity." My other pro-Irish histories do not seem to mention the massacre at all.
Similar uncertainty seems to surround the fate of Father Murphy himself. For this, see the notes to "Some Treat of David"; also "Father Murphy (I)" and "Boulavogue." For the general situation at New Ross, leading to Scullabogue, see "Kelly, the Boy from Killane." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: Zimm011B

Father Murphy of the County Wexford

See Boulavogue (File: PGa028)

Father O'Flynn

DESCRIPTION: Of all the priests, "Father O'Flynn [is] the flower of them all ... Powerfulest preacher, and Tinderest teacher, and Kindliest creature in ould Donegal." When the Bishop "looked grave" at a joke he answered "Cannot the clergy be Irishmen too?"
AUTHOR: Alfred Percival Graves (1846-1931) (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland); c.1890 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(101b))
KEYWORDS: nonballad clergy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 29-30, "Father O'Flynn" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #92, "Father O'Flynn" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 168-169, "Of priests we can offer a charming variety" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 555-556, "Father O'Flynn"
Roud #3829
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(101b), "Father O'Flynn" ("Of praists we can offer a charmin' variety"), Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890
File: OCon029

Father of Heaven, Blessed Thou Be (Make Ye Merry for Him That Is Come)

DESCRIPTION: "Salvator mundi, Domine, Father of heaven, blessed be thee, Thou greetest a maid with one Ave, Alleluya, Alleluya." The Lord sent the Son, Jesus, who became man. Great and small, all should be merry. They give blessings.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1600 (three MSS. of that era; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #86, pp. 54-55, "(no title)" (3 texts)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3070
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #4774
ADDITIONAL: Carleton Brown, editor, _English Lyrics of the XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1939, #79, p. 117, "Make Ye Merry for Him that is Come" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 20
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 9
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 189 (Bodleian 6777), folio 107
NOTES [186 words]: The opening words, "Salvator mundi, Domine," mean "Savior of the world, Lord."
Although no longer found in tradition, this seems to have been popular in the sixteenth century. It is found in three manuscripts from around the fifteenth century:
- Sloane MS. 2593, an important collection which contains many folk songs
- Bodleian MS. Eng. poet. e.1 (folios 17v-18v), a collection containing many carols
- Ashmole 189 (Bodleian 6777), which according to Carleton Brown, editor, English Lyrics of the XVth Century, Oxford University Press, 1939, pp. 294-295, is a composite manuscript, with English poems only in the second section, folios 70-115, with several mentions of owners who lived in Somerset early in the sixteenth century; the likelihood is that the manuscript is from Somerset, perhaps c. 1500. It contains about a dozen other poems, but none of them look particularly "folky."
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115].
For more about the famous anthology Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MsFoHBTB

Father Sent Me Here A-Courting

See The Quaker's Courtship (File: R362)

Father Tom O'Neill

See Tom O'Neill [Laws Q25] (File: LQ25)

Father Took a Light

DESCRIPTION: "Our father took a light and gone to heaven, Father took a light and gone to heaven (x2), Bright angels waiting at the door." "Some bright day we shall go and see him." "The let us all try to meet and rejoice with him." Similarly mother, brother, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Roberts-SangBranchSettlers)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death reunion
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #40, "Father Took a Light" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3403
File: Robe040

Father Was Killed by the Pinkerton Men

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in a Pennsylvania town not very long ago, Men struck against reduction of their pay." The mill owner intends to starve the union into submission; in the process, "Father was killed by the Pinkerton men." The singer appeals to politicians to help
AUTHOR: William W. Delaney (Willy Wildwave)
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement strike hardtimes political orphan
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1892 - Homestead Strike
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 235-236, "Father Was Killed by the Pinkerton Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 157, "Father Was Killed by the Pinkerton Men" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 200, "Father Was Killed by the Pinkerton Men" (1 text)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 185, "(Father was Killed by the Pinkerton Men)" (1 text)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 244, "Father Was Killed by the Pinkerton Men" (1 text)
DT, PINKMEN*
Roud #22303
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Homestead Strike" (subject)
NOTES [313 words]: For the details of the Homestead Strike, the apparent subject of this song, see "The Homestead Strike." Although there are also similarities to the 1876 Long Strike that ended with the destruction of the Molly Maguires and the Union movement by the Pinkertons; for that, see the notes to "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E25].
We think of the Pinkerton Agency as a detective organization, and that was certainly how they initially presented themselves, but as the company expanded, it became more and more what we would now call a contract security firm -- and an armed one, which existed to do the bidding of corporate managers, the "Pinkerton Protective Patrol" (Lukas, pp. 81-83); they sound very much like the sort of private security firms the United States has used in the twentieth century in places like Iraq to substitute for the U. S. military.
Incidentally, the Pinkertons were not above murder if it met their ends. A famous example was the case of Frank and Jesse James and their mother and stepfather, Dr. Reuben Samuel and Zerelda Cole James Samuel. On January 28, 1875, a gang of Pinkertons firebombed their home in hopes of catching the James brothers. They didn't capture either brother -- but they did kill Archie Peyton Samuel and do such damage to Mrs. Samuel's hand that it had to be amputated (Yeatman, pp. 134-137).
The Pinkertons were eventually charged with murder (Yeatman, p. 143), but the case never came to trial (p. 147).
Later on, the Pinkertons were regarded as whitewashers -- that is, they were called upon by the guilty to try to protect their guilt (Oney, p. 62). To be sure, both the Homestead Strike and their reputation for whitewashing came after Allan Pinkerton died in 1884. But the Samuels case was before he died.
For other songs with strong Pinkerton connections, see "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E25]." and "Harry Orchard." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: SWM235

Father We Thank Thee for the Night

See Morning Prayer (Father We Thank Thee for the Night) (File: ACSF446P)

Father, Dear Father, Come Home

See Father, Dear Father, Come Home with Me Now (File: R308)

Father, Dear Father, Come Home with Me Now

DESCRIPTION: Each hour the child comes into the tavern, saying, "Father, dear father, come home with me now." Each hour brings worse news: Brother Benny is sick, Benny is calling for you, Benny is dead.
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: drink death father brother family disease
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work, pp. 53-56, "Come Home, Father" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Randolph 308, "Father, Dear Father, Come Home with Me Now" (1 text, 1 tune, with the chorus lost and "brother Benny" turned into "little Jenny"!)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 24, "Father, Dear Father, Come Home with Me Now" (2 texts)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 260-261, "Father, Dear Father, Come Home With Me Now" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 144, "The Drunkard Father" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #97, "Father, Come Home" (1 text, 1 tune, which matches the original text almost verbatim except that "Benny" is sometime "baby")
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 275, "Father, Dear Father, Come Home" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 56-58, "Come Home, Father" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #353, p. 24, "Come Home, Father" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #15, p. 34, "Come Home, Father" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 356-357, "Father, Dear Father, Come Home With Me Now" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 78-79, "Come Home, Father" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 230-232, "Come Home, Father" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 263, "Father, Dear Father, Come Home With Me Now" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 478, "Come Home, Father" (source notes only)
DT, COMEHOME*
ADDITIONAL: Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 34-36, "Come Home, Father" (1 text, 1 tune)
Michael R. Turner, _Victorian Parlour Poetry: An Annotated Anthology_, 1967, 1969 (page references are to the 1992 Dover edition), pp. 14-16, "Come Home, Father" (1 text)
Margaret Bradford Boni, editor, _Songs of the Gilded Age_, with piano arrangements by Norman Lloyd and illustrations by Lucille Corcos, Golden Press, 1960, pp. 131-132, "Come Home, Father" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #839
RECORDINGS:
The Blue Sky Boys, "Father, Dear Father, Come Home" (Bluebird B-8522/Montgomery Ward M-8415, 1940)
James Scott & Claude Boone, "Father Dear Father Come Home" (Decca 5566, 1938)
Peerless Quartet, "Father, Dear Father, Come Home With Me Now" (Victor 19716, 1925)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2156), "Come Home Father," unknown, n.d.; same broadside as 2806 c.16(156)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drunkard's Dream (II)" (theme)
cf. "The Drunkard's Lone Child" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Vote For Me (File: LDC486)
Father's Come Home ("Yes, Mary, my Mary, your father's come home") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 41; Dime-Song-Book #17, p. 54)
Dear Father, Come Down with the Stamps ("Oh, father, dear father, Come down with the stamps, My dressmaker's bill is unpaid") (Dime-Song-Book #19, p. 16)
NOTES [187 words]: Work's title for this piece was "Come Home, Father." Said title seems to be dead in tradition.
According to Waites and Hunter, this was first performed in 1858 as part of "Ten Nights In A Bar Room," which they call a "temperance melodrama." The first sheet music, however, seems to bave been published by Root & Cady in 1864. Interestingly, the version by S. Brainerd's Sons in Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work does not give an exact date; it's dated "A. D. 186 " -- with a blank space after the 6 to fill in the exact year. (To be sure, the copyright is said on the sheet to be held by Root & Cady, not Brainard's Sons).
According to Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. 56-57, the Women's Christian Temperance Union would eventually adopt this song as its anthem. Finson on p. 59 quotes one George Birdseye as writing in 1879 that this became the forerunner of many temperance song, some of them blatant imitations. - RBW
In the words of W. C. Fields, "Father, dear father, come home with me now...and bring a jug with you." - PJS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R308

Father, Father, I Am Married

See Will the Weaver [Laws Q9] (File: LQ09)

Father, Father, May I Go

See The Bonny Bunch of Roses (II) (File: GrD81614)

Father's Advice

DESCRIPTION: "My old feyther used to seh ta me, Here's a piece o' good advice I'd like to give to thee." The foolish child will be in trouble when the father dies, unless he takes the advice to "tak all" and "gie nowt" and "look after number one"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Hamer-GreenGroves)
KEYWORDS: father warning greed
FOUND IN: Britain(Engand(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 66-67, "Father's Advice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1152
NOTES [23 words]: Not quite as extreme an example of selfishness as "The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons)" [Laws Q21], but tending that way.... - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: HaGr066

Father's Murder, The

See Edward [Child 13] (File: C013)

Father's Whiskers

DESCRIPTION: "We have a dear old daddy For whom we daily pray, He's got a set of whiskers, They're always in the way." The whiskers are so extensive that they are put to a variety of absurd uses: Straining gas, feeding cattle, serving as camouflage in war
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: father family humorous nonballad hair
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, $119, p. 37, "My Father's Whiskers" (1 text, tune referenced)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 262-263, "My Pappy's Whiskers" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 241, "Father's Whiskers" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 257, 283, "Grandfather's Whiskers" (notes only)
DT, FATHWISK
Roud #13619
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Grandpa's Whiskers
File: FSWB241A

Fathers, Now Our Meeting Is Over

See Now Our Meeting Is Over (File: Wa084)

Fathom the Bowl

DESCRIPTION: In praise of drink, perhaps linked with a complaint about one's wife or a reminiscence of one's dead father. Each verse ends with the cry, "Bring (me/in) the punch ladle, (and) (I'll/we'll) fathom the bowl."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (Baring Gould)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,Lond))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 88, "Fathom the Bowl" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 335)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 268, "Bring in the Punch Ladle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #119, "The Punch Ladle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #95, "Fathom the Bold" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FATHOMBL*
Roud #880
File: K268

Fatty, Fatty, Two by Four

DESCRIPTION: "Fatty, fatty, two by four, Can't get through the kitchen/bathroom door. When the door began to shake, Fatty had a tummy ache." "Poor Fatty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: disease
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 84, "Fatty, Fatty," "Two by Four" (2 texts)
File: ZiZa084A

Faughan Side, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the beauty of the streams and plants of Faughan. "But still I had the notion Of going to Amerikay." He bids farewell to friends, admits he will miss home -- and miss his girl ten times more. He hopes to return and wed her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H621, pp. 191-192, "The Faughan Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2292
File: HHH621

Faughanvale (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer thinks of Faughanvale as he rambles. He asks the listener to show him a spot equal to it. He praises the people and fields and festivals. He tells where he has rambled, claiming none can compare. He wishes he were a poet to praise it better
AUTHOR: Thomas Young (Killwill)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home rambling
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H796, pp. 163-164, "Faughanvale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13461
File: HHH796

Faughanvale (II)

See The Maid of Faughan Vale (File: HHH167)

Faughhill Shearing, The

DESCRIPTION: When harvest time approaces the farmer must find "shearers" from among tailors, barnmen, and ploughmen. They complain of the hard and painful work. When the corn is in "they drink and rant" happily and return to their usual work until next harvest
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #98, p. 2, "The Harvest Song" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 405, "The Harvest Song" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 51, "The Faughhill Shearing" (1 text)
Roud #3873
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow" (tune, per Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2, p. ix)
File: GrD3405

Fault Een Me

See Fault Is in Me (File: HPR294F)

Fault Is in Me

DESCRIPTION: In every verse "Jonah cried out, "O Lord, The fault's in me." Jonah is sent because "The people in the church They didn't do right." Jonah went to sea, was cast overboard, and swallowed by a whale that spewed him out on Ninevah shore.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: travel sea ship shore religious whale
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 294-295, "Fault Een Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [156 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
For Jonah and the fish that was emphatically not a whale, see the notes to "God's Radiophone." That's hardly the biggest error in this piece, though; Jonah is sent to Nineveh (Jonah 1:2), not Jews or Christians, and the people of Nineveh would not be in churches. And while Jonah admits to his shipmates that the storm that threatens them is because of him (Jonah 1:12), he does not admit it to God -- he spends most of the book arguing with God that he (Jonah) is right and God is doing the wrong thing (see, e.g., Jonah 4:9, where Jonah has a hissy fit because God was making a point about how cranky Jonah was). The word "fault" never even occurs in the King James Version text of Jonah. It seems pretty clear that the author of this song had heard about the story of Jonah but did not have access to the Biblical text. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR294F

Faultless Bride, The

See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

Fause Foodrage [Child 89]

DESCRIPTION: A lady courted by three kings weds one who is then slain (by one of the rivals/a rebel). Her not-yet-born child will be spared if female. She bears a boy, switches him with a baby girl. When grown the boy is told his heritage and avenges his father.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: royalty death homicide children trick revenge
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Child 89, "Fause Foodrage" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Bronson 89, "Fause Foodrage" (3 versions)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 132-133, "East Muir King" (2 fragments, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 220-223, "Fa'se Footrage" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1930, "Tak Ye My Lad" (1 fragment)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 70, "Fause Foodrage" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 14, "Fause Foodrage" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 46-49, "Fause Foodrage" (1 text)
DT 89, KINGLUVE
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 172-173, "Fause Foodrage" (1 tune)
Roud #57
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jellon Grame" [Child 90] (theme)
NOTES [315 words]: Some texts of this ballad share a verse with Elizabeth Halket Wardlaw's "Hardeknute" (for which see Volume II of Percy's Reliques; at that time, the authorship of Wardlaw (1677-1727) had not been established). This caused Scott to wonder about the authenticity of the piece, but Child thought the informant might have taken the verse from the "tiresome and affected Hardyknute, so much esteemed in her day." David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, pp. 322-323, thought this ballad was made up by Anna Gordon Brown under the influence of "Hardeknute."
I personally doubt it; I doubt someone as skilled as Anna Brown could have roped in so many traditional motifs and made such a hash of the result. The son who avenges his father goes back at least to the story of Agamemnon, Clytaemnestra, and Orestes; the hidden king living as a commoner is found in Herodotus's folktale of Cyrus the Great's overthrow of his grandfather Astyges; slaying the boy-children but leaving the girls goes to the story of the Exodus and the Birth of Moses; the queen courted by many has parallels in both history and folklore; the list could easily be extended- RBW
Greig/Duncan8 quotes a Greig letter to the effect that his informant, Bell Robertson, did not know "False Foodrage" but told her mother's story "which Bell thinks must have been the same. She gives an outline of it bringing in a couple of ballad lines when the lady says to the gardener's wife 'Tak ye my lad, gie me your lass, Or else they'll gar 'im dee.'" Only Child 89A, and others that follow Scott's text (for example, Christie), have corresponding lines, 'To change your lass for this lad-bairn King Honor left me wi." Both Greig/Duncan8 and Roud consider the fragment at least "closely associated" with Child 89 and I cannot justify making a separate entry of this two-line fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: C089

Fause Knicht on the Road, The

See The Fause Knight Upon the Road [Child 3] (File: C003)

Fause Knicht, The

See The Fause Knight Upon the Road [Child 3] (File: C003)

Fause Knight Upon the Road, The [Child 3]

DESCRIPTION: A grown man (knight, churl, demon) meets a schoolboy on the road. The schoolboy matches wits with the man, finding a defense or matching insult for each thrust, and so survives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Motherwell, _Minstrelsy: Ancient and Modern_)
KEYWORDS: contest Devil virtue questions
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(Ap,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (32 citations):
Child 3, "The Fause Knight Upon the Road" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Bronson 3, "The Fause Knight Upon the Road" (10 versions plus 2 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 3, "The Fause Knight upon the Road" (4 versions: #1, #5, #7, #8)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 31, "The Fause Knicht" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 11-14, "The False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 4, "The False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 46-47, "The False Knight on the Road" (1 text) {Bronson's #10}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 79-81, "The False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #10}
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 119-121, "The False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 2, "The Fause Knight Upon the Road" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 3, pp. 14-15, "The Fause Knight Upon the Road" (1 fragmentary text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 2, "The False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, p. 1, "The False Knight upon the Road" (1 text plus 1 excerpt, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 1, "False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 137-139, "False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 51, "The False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 13, "Harpkin"; 14, "The False Knight Upon the Road" (2 texts)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 3 "The False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #1, "The Devil and the School Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #3, "The Devil and the School Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 2 "The False Knight Upon the Road" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #5, #6}
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 2, "The False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #1, "The False Knight in the Road" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 3, "The Fause Knicht on the Road" (1 text)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 174-175, "The False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 13, "The Knight On the Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 197, "(O, where are you going?)" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 31, "The False Knight upon the Road" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 20, p. 48, "The False Knight" (1 text)
DT 3, FALSKNGT* FALSKNT2*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 62-64, "The Fause Knight and the Wee Boy"; p. 66, "Harpkin"
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #344, "The False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text);cf. the notes to #343, with "Meet-on-the-Road," evidently a literary rewrite
Roud #20
RECORDINGS:
Edmund Henneberry [and Kenneth Faulkner], "The False Knight Upon the Road" (on NovaScotia1) {Bronson's #9}
Duncan McPhee, "The False Knight Upon the Road (on FSBBAL1)
Frank Quinn, "The False Knight [Up]on the Road" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Devil and the Schoolchild
The False Knight
The Smart Schoolboy
The Knight on the Road
NOTES [221 words]: One of Child's three texts is "Harpkin," which he places in an appendix. The two sypes are distinct in plot ("Harpkin" is apparently a contest between two rivals; "The Fause Knight" involves an innocent youth), but the form of the two is so similar that they cannot be reliably distinguished.
Bertrand Bronson discusses the original form of this ballad in "The Interdependence of Ballad Tunes and Texts" (first printed in the California Folklore Quarterly, II, 1944; see now MacEdward Leach and Tristram P. Coffin, eds, The Critics and the Ballad or Bertrand Harris The Ballad as Song (essays on ballads), University of California Press, 1969. The relevant discussion is on pages 80-82 of Leach/Coffin).
American versions of this piece can be quite degenerate. Pound's text, for instance, sounds very much like a schoolyard quarrel, except that one of the disputants is "false knight Munro." But he sounds just like a bully: "Give your lunch to my dog or I'll throw you down the well." The boy responds by throwing Munro down the well first.
In the "strange footnotes" department, this has to be one of the few ballads to have been turned into a comic book by a famous Hollywood writer. Sing Out!, volume 40, #4 (1996) contains an illustrated version "The False Knight on the Road" by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C003

Fause Lover, The

See The False Lover Won Back [Child 218] (File: C218)

Fause Young Man, The

See The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)

Fayette Brown, The

DESCRIPTION: When sailors go on strike, the owner of the lake schooner Fayette Brown hires a crew of non-union Blacks; their failings are described. The singer drinks a health to owners and captains, but "bad luck attend any dirty scut that sails the Fayette Brown"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1952 (Walton collection)
LONG DESCRIPTION: When sailors go on strike, the owner of the lake schooner Fayette Brown hires a crew of non-union Blacks; their failings are described, and it's said they'd wish themselves elsewhere when the snowflakes began flying. The singer drinks a health to ship-owners and captains, and "every lofty schooner that carries a union crew", but "bad luck attend any dirty scut that sails the Fayette Brown"
KEYWORDS: curse strike labor-movement ship work sailor scab worker Black(s)
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1868 - Fayette Brown built at Cleveland
late 1870s - Sailors strike for union recognition
1891 - Fayette Brown sinks after collision
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont) US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 112-114, "The Fayette Brown" (1 composite text)
Roud #4623
RECORDINGS:
Stanley Baby, "The 'Fayette Brown'" [fragment] (GreatLakes1)
NOTES [97 words]: According to Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, the Chicago Seamen's Benevolent Union was formed in 1878 and the lockout which inspired this song took place in 1879. The notes in Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors call it "one of the nastiest songs to survive the schooner era."
It seems to have been very well-known, though: the Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors text includes material from eight informants, and Stanley Baby makes nine people who knew the song. This makes it one of the best-know of all Great Lakes songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: RcFayBro

Faythe Fishing Craft, The

DESCRIPTION: In a sudden night-time storm "each coast-boat to shore quickly flew. Not so with us Wexfordmen," One of two skiffs was sunk "by a huge mountain wave" killing five men. The other skiff was driven on shore near Curracloe. The five lost are named.
AUTHOR: Mr. Twomey
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck fishing
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 12, 1833: the Faythe fishing craft was capsized by a gale (source: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast; Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 52)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 12-14, "The Faythe Fishing Craft" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7345
NOTES [9 words]: Curracloe and Blackwater are on the Wexford coast - BS
File: Ran012

Fear a Bhata

See Fhear a Bhata (Fhir a Bhata: I Climb the Mountains) (File: HHH834)

Fear of the Buggerboo

See The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo) [Laws O3] (File: LO03)

Feathered Warblers

See In a Little Village Churchyard (File: Gain130)

Featherin' Oot and In

DESCRIPTION: Singer has a "fine gyang featherin' out and out and ae/Featinerin' oot and addie." Men buy her fine things because of it, and they want her to go to bed for it. Her mother is an 'auld bitch'; so is her granny, but both do well because they also have it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (collected from Maggie McPhee)
KEYWORDS: sex clothes bawdy humorous whore
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 39, "Featherin' Oot and In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2519
File: McCST039

Feckless Lover, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears Johnny knock on the door. Her mother overhears and drives Johnny away. Now Johnny turns away in fear every time he sees the singer. She refuses to lament; a young man "scared of an auld woman's tongue" does not deserve her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (San Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: courting mother abandonment humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H216, p. 265, "The Feckless Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6920
File: HHH216

Fee and Flannigan

DESCRIPTION: Joseph Fee's gallows-confession from Armagh County Jail. He murdered John Flanagan "for the greed of money." After nine months the murder was discovered, Fee was arrested, tried and condemned. "The bolt was drew, and Fee soon flew on to Eternity"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
KEYWORDS: execution homicide trial gallows-confession
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 22, 1904 - Joseph Fee is executed for the April 16, 1903 murder of John Flanigan (source: Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 16, pp. 38-40,108,163, "Fee and Flannigan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2919
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Clones Murder" (subject)
File: MoMa016

Feeing Time (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "A frien' and I struck frae Mulguy" for Glasgow; they meet a girl on her way to feeing day. The singer lures her into a pub, and they drink the day away. She says she has lost her fee; he promises to wed her, and she is "glad she lost the feeing time."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love courting drink work marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 323-325, "The Feeing Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 82-83, "The Feeing Time" (1 text)
Roud #2516
RECORDINGS:
Michael Gallagher, "The Hiring Time" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:036, "The Feeing Time," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C; also Murray, Mu23-y1:037, "The Feeing Time," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C [not the same as the preceding], Murray, Mu23-y3:023, "The Feeing Time," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C [also distinct]
NLScotland, L.C.1270(018), "The Feeing Time," unknown, c. 1845; also L.C.Fol.178.A.2(067), "The Feeing Time," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c. 1870, L.C.Fol.70(35b), "The Feeing Time," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hiring Fair" (plot)
SAME TUNE:
Craigmaddie Muir (per broadsides Murray, Mu23-y1:036, Mu23=y3:023, NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(067))
NOTES [67 words]: Not to be confused with "The Feein' Time (II)," which is a complaint about work similar to "The Barnyards o' Delgaty." The song is also very similar to the Irish song "The Hiring Fair," with which it even shares some lyrics. I have split them only very tentatively; it's possible that some versions may be mixed or misfiled.
To earn one's fee was to go to a hiring fair and be taken on for a position. - RBW
File: Ord082

Feeing Time (II), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer goes to Glasgow seeking a job, and is hired by a farmer. He describes the bad working conditions: the servant-maids give food to the dog instead of to the workers; the horses won't work. He'll bundle up his "auld bit rags and gang the road I cam"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (collected from John MacDonald)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad horse worker rambling travel
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #26, p. 1, "The Feeing Time" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 883, "Milguy," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Milguy" (13 texts, 12 tunes)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 104, "The Feein' Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FEETIME*
Roud #2516
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Walk the Road Again" (lyrics)
cf. "The Barnyards o' Delgaty" (theme)
cf. "Copshawholm Fair" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Baker o' Milngavie
The Glasgow Feein' Time
The Glasgow Fair
Feeing Day
The Baker Lad
NOTES [120 words]: Somehow, the last verse of "I Walk the Road Again" seems to have made it across the Atlantic and gotten translated into Scots. - PJS
Not to be confused with "The Feeing Time (I)," which is a song about a courtship.
To earn one's fee was to go to a hiring fair and be taken on for a position. - RBW
Greig/Duncan4: "'Milguy' is a pronunciation spelling of 'Milngavie."
Greig/Duncan4 quoting Duncan: "Mrs Gillespie says it is widely known that the persons referred to in [this song] were Alexander Carse who lived in Glasgow, and flourished as a baker, [and his wife]."
Also collected and sung by Ellen Mitchell, "Feein Day" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: McCST104

Feel Like a Motherless Child

See Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child (File: LxU107)

Felix the Soldier

DESCRIPTION: Felix reports, "They took away my brogues... And a soldier of me made...." "But the Injuns they were sly, and the Frenchies they were coy, so they shot off the left leg of this poor Irish boy." Back home, his family grieves but Felix is glad to be safe
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: soldier war injury
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1754-1763 - French and Indian War (the hottest phase of the colonial conflict between France and England)
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 50, "Felix the Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 61-62, "Felix the Soldier" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 18, "Felix the Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FELXSOLD*
Roud #2805
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kerry Recruit" [Laws J8] (theme)
cf. "Mrs. McGrath" (theme)
File: Wa050

Fellar That Looks Like Me, The

See The Fellow that Looks Like Me [Laws H21] (File: LH21)

Feller from Fortune

See Lots of Fish in Bonavist' Harbour (Feller from Fortune) (File: FJ122)

Feller That Looks Like Me, The

See The Fellow that Looks Like Me [Laws H21] (File: LH21)

Fellow that Looks Like Me, The [Laws H21]

DESCRIPTION: The singer is stopped and made to pay a bill he never incurred, then beaten up for wronging a girl he does not know, and finally arrested and convicted for a crime he didn't commit. Only when the police find "the fellow that looks like me" is he freed
AUTHOR: J. F. Poole
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: humorous reprieve courting infidelity accusation trial police prisoner
FOUND IN: US(Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws H21, "The Fellow that Looks Like Me"
Randolph 463, "The Fellow that Looks Like Me" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #175, "The Fellow that Looks Like Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 145, "The Fellow That Looks Like Me" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #623, p. 41, "The Fellow That Looks LIke Me" (1 reference)
New-Comic-Songster, pp. 38-39, "The Fellow That Looks Like Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #23, pp. 40-41, "The Fellar that Looks Like Me" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 479, "The Fellow That Looks Like Me" (source notes only)
DT 707, LOOKSME
Roud #2187
RECORDINGS:
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "The Feller That Looks Like Me" (Brunswick 184, 1927)
Asa Martin, "The Fellow That Looks Like Me" (Supertone 9642, 1930)
Charlie Newman, "The Fellow That's Just Like Me" (OKeh 45116, 1927)
Cyril O'Brien, "The Fellow That Looked Like Me" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Looking Like My Brother" [Laws H21] (theme of a man who gets in trouble for his double's acts)
NOTES [59 words]: This was apparently popular enough that Walter Kittredge, the author of "Tenting Tonight," wrote a song "So Much Resembles Me" about two men who were always being mistaken for each other. Kittredge published it in his "Original Song Book" in 1882. The title fits the song; the plots of the two are about the same. Originality was not Kittredge's forte. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LH21

Felon Sewe of Rokeby and the Feeres of Richmond, The

DESCRIPTION: Ralph of Rokeby is unable to contend with the "Felon Sewe" (sow) and turns it over to Richmond ABbey. A priest fails to exorcise it; it ignores his Latin. Other priests try to deal with the animal, but it has much the better of the contest
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1654 (transcript by Sir Thomas Rokeby)
KEYWORDS: animal fight humorous clergy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 347-357, "The Felon Sewe of Rokeby and the Freeres of Richmond" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #4252
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #6828
ST BeCo347 (Partial)
NOTES [217 words]: Bell admits that this is not truly a ballad but a "very curious" metrical romance. It does give signs of being traditional, however, being preserved in multiple transcripts although all are derived from one source. Certainly the sow itself is traditional; Arnold Kellett, The Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition, and Folklore, revised edition, Smith Settle, 2002, p. 59, reports that "The Felon Sow of Rokeby, [known in the] N[orth] R[iding of Yorkshire], was notorious in the sixteenth century for killing swineherds, until it was eventually destroyed on the order of the Greyfriars of Richmond." On this basis, I am, very hesitantly, including this piece.
The effect, it should be noted, is one of parody and satire -- parody of the hunting-the-great-boar sort of romances, and satire of the clergy (e.g. Friar Middleton is unable to subdue it because it "wolde not Latyne heare"). Bell on this basis thought it a Lollard piece, but this seems to be a lot of weight to hang on a single line....
The DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse reports that the only manuscript copy of this has been lost or destroyed; our knowledge of it derives entirely from the 1654 transcript by Rokeby and other, later, transcripts; most of these have also been lost. It's almost as if it *wants* to be forgotten. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: BeCo347

Felton Lonnin (Pelton Lonnin') (I, II, III)

DESCRIPTION: Pipe tune, with assorted incidental lyrics: "The kye's come hame but aw see not ma hinny, The key's come hame but aw see not ma bairn." Or "There's three fames horses frae Felton Lonnin.'" Or "The swine cam jumpin' down Pelton Lonnin'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland), who attribute one set of words to 1793
KEYWORDS: music animal love separation beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 150-151, "Felton Lonnin'" (3 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: [Cuthbert Sharp], _The Bishopric Garland, A Collection of Legends, Songs, Ballads, &c Belonging to the County of Durham_, 1834 (references are to the 1969 reprint), p. 41, "Pelton Lonin" (1 short text, perhaps the same as the above; 1 tune on p. 86)
Roud #3166
NOTES [95 words]: This piece presents a genuine puzzle to the collector: Three songs, or one? Stokoe's first version, a fragment, certainly looks traditional. The third probably is, too, it looks a bit like a singing game. The second looks more like a broadside.
None of the versions seems very well known. And they all use the same tune, described as a pipe tune. I finally decided to lump them. Roud does the same.
The first text was expanded by Johnny Handle into a full-grown missing-love song and recorded by Ray Fisher, but only the first two verses and the tune are traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: StoR150

Female Cabin Boy, The

See The Handsome Cabin Boy [Laws N13] (File: LN13)

Female Convict, The

See The Female Transport (File: JRUI131)

Female Drummer (I), The

See The Soldier Maid (File: DTsoldma)

Female Drummer (II), The

See The Drum Major (The Female Drummer) (File: HHH797)

Female Highwayman, The [Laws N21]

DESCRIPTION: (Sylvie) decides to test her love's faithfulness. Dressed as a (male) robber, she stops him on the road. He gives her his watch and gold, but refuses to hand over his diamond ring. She lets him go, satisfied of his faithfulness, and later reveals herself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1877))
KEYWORDS: outlaw cross-dressing disguise love
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE,Ro) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Britain(England(South)) Australia Ireland
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws N21, "The Female Highwayman"
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 58, "Pretty Sylvia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 180-181, "Silvy Gay" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 133-134, "The Female Highwayman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #40, "Silvia Rode Out One Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 27, "Wexford City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 25, "Silvy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 342-343, "Gold Watch and Chain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 129, "Zillah" (1 text), "The Diamond Ring" (1 text)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 52, "The Female Highwayman (Nelly Ray)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 334, "Sylvia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 305, "Buxom Blade" (1 text)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #134, "The Female Highwayman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H35, pp. 327-328, "The Female Highwayman" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 451, FEMHWAY* SOVAY*
Roud #7
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "Gold Watch and Chain" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
A. L. Lloyd, "Sovay, the Female Highwayman" (on Lloyd2, Lloyd3)
Mrs. Bride Power, "The Broken Token" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Tim Walsh, "Sylvia" (on FSB7)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1877), "Sylvia's Request, and William's Denial" ("Fair Sylvia on a certain day, Drest herself in man's array"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also 2806 c.16(131), Harding B 11(4362), Firth c.17(26), Harding B 11(3723), Harding B 15(326b), Harding B 15(327a), "Sylvia's Request, and William's Denial"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sovay, Sovay
Sophie
Sylvia's Request and William's Denial
Cecilia
NOTES [398 words]: According to Pringle, chapter 7, "Wicked Ladies," there were a few known instances of female highwaymen during their great era in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
He mentions specifically Mary Frith ("Molly Cutpurse"), though she was first and foremost a fence rather than a highway(wo)man (to be a highwayman, one had to have a horse, and a pistol generally helped, too). She supposedly was the subject of Dekker and Middleton's 1611 play "The Roaring Girls" but her death is dated 1659 (McDonald, p. 145, says 1663). So one suspects the play suggested the nickname -- though McDonald, p. 145, says Frith was born in 1589, so it's just ossible. (McDonald dates "The Roaring Girls" to 1663, but Dekker ied in 1632 and Middleton in 1627, so that's obviously wrong!)
Pringle does not mention a case similar to that in this song. McDonald, p. 145, does say that Frith "always dressed in men's clothing and smoked a pipe" -- but adds on p. 146 that she didn't want children and apparently wasn't interested in men, though she did contract a marriage of convenience with one Lewknor Markham (McDonald, p. 147).
If all we want is a highwaywoman who dressed as a man, McDonald, pp. 136-141, also mentions one Katherine Ferrers (1634-1660?), who was born of a good family but lost her estate in the English Civil War. She supposedly turned highwaywoman to make a living. But there is no account of her courting a man (though a marriage had been contracted for her in her youth). Of course, since we don't even know how she died, that isn't really evidence one way or another. But the song tells such a romantic story that I don't think it really needs a direct inspiration.
Jerome S. Epstein, who transcribed the Warner version of Lena Bourne Fish, noted the peculiar tonal peregrination of the tune -- it appears to be in the key of C, but uses all of the following tones (ascending the scale): B C D E F F# G A Bb C. He comments that this sort of modal modulation is very rare in folk song -- but in fact the result, except for that one stray Bb and the ending on C, is pretty close to the Dorian version of "Sovay" I have heard. It sounds to me as if it's a Dorian tune partly and imperfectly moved to Ionian.
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia's peculiar name for the girl, Zillah, recalls Lamech's wife in Genesis 4:19-23, but I don't know if that is significant. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: LN21

Female Rambling Sailor

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you people far and near And listen to my ditty" of a girl who disguises herself and goes to sea after her impressed lover is drowned. She proves a brave sailor, but at last is killed and her sex discovered. The singer wishes her well in death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1900 (Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(147))
KEYWORDS: love separation pressgang death sailor cross-dressing
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 176-178, "The Female Sailor" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 228. "The Rambling Female Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RMBSAIL3
Roud #17784
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y4:042, "Female Rambling Sailor," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(147), "Female Rambling Sailor," unknown, c. 1870
NOTES [199 words]: For notes on legitimate historical examples of women serving in the military in disguise, see the notes to "The Soldier Maid."
Although there are many instances of women serving in the military before the twentieth century, it was generally illegal, and the songs about them fictional. This one is not.
According to David Cordingly, Women Sailors and Sailors' Women, Random House, 2001 (I use the undated, but later, paperback edition), p. 63, "The sex of a female sailor named Rebecca Young was revealed in a tragic accident that arose because she was too confident of her ability to go aloft." She spent two years working on a boat in the Thames, using the name Billy Bridle. In June 1833, she apparently challenged a male sailor to a race up the rigging. Both made it to the top, but when she came down, she hurried, tried to slide down a halyard, burned her hands, let go -- and fell to the deck and died. The inquest at Gravesend declared it an accident.
Cordingly quotes Bell's Weekly Messenger, #1941, June 16, 1833 as the source of this information; Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors cite the same source.
Ironic that this song, although true, is very rare outside of broadsides. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DTrmbsl3

Female Robber, The

DESCRIPTION: A young woman dresses as a man and goes "upon the pad." Her exploits as a highwayman are listed. Finally she holds up one or more padders. He/each draws a rapier, chase and catch her, discover she is a woman, rape her but let her keep her money.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1690 (according to Ebsworth)
KEYWORDS: rape robbery cross-dressing outlaw
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack pp. 123-126, "The Female Robber" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 267-268, "The Female Robber" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 382)
ADDITIONAL: J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VIII Part 2 [Part 24], pp. viii-x, "The Female Highway Hector" (1 text)
ST WT267 (Partial)
Roud #1315
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.17(10), "The Female Robber" ("You females of every station, give ear to my frollicksome song") unknown, no date
EngBdsdBA 21260, Pepys 3.246, "The Female Frollick" ("You gallants of every station, give ear to a frollicksome song"), C. Bates (West Smithfield), no date, accessed 08 Dec 2013.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rant" (tune, per Ebsworth and broadside EngBdsdBA Pepys 3.246)
NOTES [165 words]: Ebsworth: "'Padder' was the usual name for a highway plunderer, supposed to be on horseback, in contradistinction to a foot-pad. There was also the phrase 'to pad the hoof,' to make one's self scarce ...."
The English Broadside Ballad Archive text, with one exception -- "pockets" or "breeches" being searched -- and a few punctuation differences, is the same as Ebsworth's transcription though the title is different.
Broadside Bodleian Firth c.17(10) is very close to Ebsworth but has the final encounter with several, rather than one, highwaymen who "with her did what they pleased And gave her the money again"; in this regard, Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames is like this broadside, meeting three highwaymen, but the resolution is cleaned up: "For they gave her back her money and freedom, And sent her a-robbing again." Logan-APedlarsPack is similar to Ebsworth but has some different encounters and ends with a confrontation with four robbers who rape her before releasing her. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: WT267

Female Sailor (I), The

See Female Rambling Sailor (File: DTrmbsl3)

Female Sailor (II), The

See Female Sailor Bold [Laws N3] (File: LN03)

Female Sailor Bold [Laws N3]

DESCRIPTION: (Jane Thornton) dresses as a sailor to seek her lover, a captain. When she reaches New York, she learns that he is dead. She serves at sea for several years before returning to London. There her sex, and eventually her story, are revealed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: cross-dressing sea love
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws N3, "Female Sailor Bold"
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 34, "Female Sailor Bold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 26-28, "A Female Sailor Bold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 104-106, "Gallant Female Sailor" (1 text); pp. 161-163, "The Female Sailor" (1 text)
DT 591, FSAILBLD
Roud #1699
NOTES [44 words]: Roud files the second Forget-Me-Not-Songster text, "The Female Sailor," with his #1061, which in the Ballad Index is "The Wealthy Farmer's Son." I can see why, since the first lines are similar and some of the themes are shared, but I think the text goes here. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: LN03

Female Smuggler, The

DESCRIPTION: The smuggler's daughter dresses in men's clothes to serve her father. She fights off a raider, but eventually is taken by "the blockade." During her trial, she reveals her sex. Her bravery commends her to a gentleman, who gains her pardon and marries her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton-RealSailorSongs)
KEYWORDS: cross-dressing ship sailor trial punishment reprieve marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada(Newf) US(NE)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 234-235, "The Female Smuggler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 333-334, "The Female Smuggler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 190-194, "The Female Smuggler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 132-133, "The Female Smuggler" (1 text)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #96, "The Female Smuggler" (1 text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 18-20, "The Female Smuggler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 30, "The Female Smuggler" (1 text, 1 tune, slightly corrected; #26 in the first edition)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 122-123, "The Female Smuggler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 206-207, "The Female Smuggler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 63, "The Female Smuggler" (1 short text, distinct enough that it might be a different song)
DT, FEMLSMUG
ADDITIONAL: George Allan England, _Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt_ (also published as _The Greatest Hunt in the World_), Doubleday, 1924, pp. 129-130, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #1200
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Mary Ann Galpin, "The Female Smuggler" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y4:034, "The Female Sailor," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dark-Eyed Sailor (Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor)" [Laws N35] (tune, per broadsides Bodleian Johnson Ballads 2483, Bodleian Harding B 11(498), Bodleian Harding B 11(499))
cf. "The Smuggler's Bride" (theme, lyrics)
NOTES [64 words]: Frank suggests that this song may not be traditional, at least among sailors, pointing out that Whall never quite says that he heard it sung. But the distribution of versions seems to imply that somebody was carrying it around the oceans!
The Dime-Song-Book #9 version dates to 1862 or earlier, but I haven't used that as the earliest date because I'm not sure it's the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CoSB234

Female Soldier, The

See The Soldier Maid (File: DTsoldma)

Female Transport, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all young girls, both far and near." Sarah Collins tells her sad story. She lost her mother when she was young. She is transported to Van Dieman's Land for fourteen years. She tells of her hard labors, and of being chained and beaten
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. XIX, Jan-Jun, 1839)
KEYWORDS: orphan transportation hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 54-55, "The Female Transport" (1 text); pp. 142-143, "The Female Convict" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads,pp. 5-6, "The Female Transport" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 131-132, "Female Transport" (1 text)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, pp. 36-37, "Female Transport" (1 text)
Geoffrey C. Ingleton, _True Patriots All: or News from Early Australia as told in A Collection of Broadsides_ ("Garnered and Decorated" by Ingleton), Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1988, p. 94, "The Female Transport" (1 text, a reproduction of one of the Such broadsides)
Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 216-217, "The Female Transport" (1 text, with a tune on p. 573)
Roud #V1284
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2238), "The Female Transport," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(1265), "Female Transport," E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Firth c.17(42), "The Female Transport"; Harding B 11(1193); Johnson Ballads 506, 3 different issues by H. Such (London) 1863-1885; also Harding B 16(94b), unknown, n.d.
NOTES [56 words]: Many of the songs in Raven's collection are not traditional, and this is from a broadside rather than a field collection, but it sounds so true that I decided to include it despite the lack of a pedigree. It's interesting to see Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland print it twice, once with the woman named Sarah Collins, once Sarah O'Brien. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: JRUI131

Female Warrior, The (Pretty Polly) [Laws N4]

DESCRIPTION: A girl boards ship to learn the sailor's craft. After some years in service, her ship encounters a pirate/raider. The captain is quickly slain, and the girl assumes command. She overcomes the enemy. In some texts she goes to London to be rewarded
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1830
KEYWORDS: cross-dressing battle pirate death ship drink
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Britain(England(Lond),Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws N4, "The Female Warrior (Pretty Polly)"
Greig/Duncan1 180, "Sweet William" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 261, "Aboard the Resolution" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 433)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 99-100, "As We Were A-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 39, "The Rainbow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #109, "The Gallant Rainbow" (1 text, 1 tune, probably with some floating verses)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #4, "The Rainbow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 47, "The Female Warrior" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 85, "Pretty Polly" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 84, "As We Were A-Sailing" (1 text)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 143-144, "The Female Warrior" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 124-125, "The Beauty of Baltimore" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 83, "The Rainbow" (1 text, 1 tune, perhaps this piece; see note)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 32, "The Female Warrior (I)" (1 text; #28 in the first edition); 33, "As We Were A-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune, #29 in the first edition); 34, "The Female Warrior (II)" (1 text, 1 tune, from Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman; #30 in the first edition)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1749, "Margaret my sweetest, Margaret I must go" (listed as Laws N4 though the description sounds more like N8)
Roud #492
RECORDINGS:
Bob Hart, "A Broadside" (on Voice08)
Cyril Poacher, "A Broadside" (on Voice02)
unidentified, "The Straight Foreign Shore" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(93a), "Female Captain," unknown, n.d.; Bodleian, Firth c.13(255), "Down by the Spanish Shore", W. Harris (Birmingham), n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Ambree" (plot: lover becomes officer)
cf. "On the First of November" (plot: lover becomes officer)
NOTES [318 words]: The song "The Rainbow" collected by MacColl and Seeger from Nelson Ridley in 1974 has lyrics from this song, and their notes makes it clear they identify it with this piece. Ridley's text is hopelessly confused, with no plot and some repetition of lyrics; Paul Stamler notes that it "almost [sounds] like the 'maid' being referred to is actually the ship." - PJS, RBW
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 2" - 11.9.02: "Frank Kidson noted a Yorkshire set of this song and comments that as it concerns a sea battle between the English and the Spanish, it must be of some considerable age. (Traditional Tunes 1891, pp. 99-100).... Kidson also notes the connection between the ship 'The Rainbow' and one of the same name that is to be found in the ballad of 'Captain Ward'...." [ Kidson's text ends "Good health unto this damsel who fought all on the main, And here's to the royal gallant ship called Rainbow by name."; Cyril Poacher's text for that on Voice02 is slightly different; Bob Hart's text on Voice08 names the ship "The Royal."] - BS
Apart from the pirate, incidentally, this song bears some resemblance to an actual happening -- though the song was first recorded before the event. In 1856, the clipper Neptune's Car was to sail from New York to San Francisco under Captain Joshua Adams Patten -- but which endded up being navigated by his wife; for background, see the notes to "Bound Down to Newfoundland" [Laws D22].
The ending isn't very happy; Joshua Patten, who was barely 30, died in mid-1857, and Mary Ann Patten, not yet 25, had contracted his tuberculosis and died in 1861. But she *had* successfully brought the Neptune's Car around Cape Horn. Possibly the story -- which was widely reported, and which brought Mary Ann Patten a thousand dollar reward from the company insuring the Neptune's Car -- could have helped make this song popular. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: LN04

Fency King and the English King, The

See King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164] (File: C164)

Fenian Man-of-War, The

See The British Man-of-War (File: FSC013)

Fenian Song (I), A

DESCRIPTION: "The Queen's Own Regiment was their name, From fair Toronto town they came, To put thie Irish all to shame, The Queen and Colonel Booker." But the loyalist forces are routed: "See how they run from their Irish foe, The Queen's and Colonel Booker!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958
KEYWORDS: Canada battle political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 31, 1866 - Some 1200 Fenians under General O'Neill invade the Niagara area
June 2, 1866 - The Fenian's victory at Lime Ridge near Ridgeway
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 100-101, ""A Fenian Song (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 1, "A Fenian Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FENIANSG*
Roud #4531
RECORDINGS:
Stanley Baby, "A Fenian Song" (on ONEFowke01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "An Anti-Fenian Song" (subject)
cf. "The Fenian Song (II)" (theme)
NOTES [810 words]: Many Irish immigrants in America retained their hatred for Britain. The Fenians were an organization devoted to freeing Ireland. The organization was founded in 1858 by James Stephens (who had been active in the revolution of 1848 and survived partly because he was reported dead; for his story, see "James Stephens, the Gallant Fenian Boy"), and quickly spread; the British government felt the need to suppress the group in 1865. Stephens and others were taken prisoner; although he escaped, it turned him cautious; he no longer had the nerve to take aggressive action. That pretty well killed the group as an active set of rebels; their attempt at an Irish rebellion would fail in 1867.
But the Fenian movement did not die; individuals kept trying things, though none of their tricks amounted to much. This song chronicles an early example. In the United States, John O'Mahoney became the "moving spirit" (Jameson, p. 232). Mahoney (1816-1877) had come to America in 1854, and founded the American Fenians in 1860 (Jameson, p. 471).
In the aftermath of the Civil War, when the U.S. and Britain were not on the best of terms over the Alabama Claims and the like, American Fenians conceived the idea of invading Canada and holding it hostage for Ireland's freedom. They thought that the American government would go along.
Unfortunately, they were not united; according Golway, pp. 143, by 1866 the American Fenians were split into two groups, one led by O'Mahony, the other by the more radical Thomas Sweeney (1820-1892) -- a man with military experience in the Mexican and Civil Wars, but little political sense.
Mahony, the more rational and established leader, nonetheless let himself be goaded into action, staging a sort of demonstration against Canada: "Members of his decimated Fenian Brotherhood began converging on the town of Eastport in Maine.... The small army went into action on April 15, invading Indian Island, a small chunk of Canada... Washington sent troops and warships to Eastport, and O'Mahony's Fenians immediately withdrew" (Golway, pp. 143-144).
That didn't deter the Sweeney faction.
On May 31, 1866, the Fenian General John O'Neill led 1200 men from Buffalo into the Niagara area. Bourrie quotes their manifesto on pp. 128-130, it states, among other things, that "We are here as the Irish army of liberation, the friends of liberty against aristocracy, of people against their oppressors.... Our war is with the armed powers of England, not with the people, not with these provinces." Funny that it never occured to the Fenians to think that people would resent being held hostage for other's crimes.
The proclamation was signed by Sweeney, but, interestingly, he failed to make the crossing.
The Canadian government mustered various forces to deal with them. One of these was the Queen's Own Rifles, at that time hardly better than a militia regiment; Bourrie, p. 130, says it was made up of residents of Toronto, many of them University students. "In all, about 880 very inexperienced Canadian part-time soldiers , under the command of inept officers... arrived... in the early hours of June 2." Rather than wait for the rest of the Loyalist forces, the detachment under Lt. Colonel Alfred Booker attacked the Fenians.
The result was a complete rout of the Loyalists, though with relatively slight losses (listed by Bourrie, p. 131, as ten Canadians dead). It did the Fenians no good, however. Within days the Canadian forces had assembled, and they were much larger, better equipped, and better trained than the Fenians. And the Americans moved to block any Fenian reinforcements from crossing the Niagara river. O'Neill retreated back to the United States (where his men were set free), and the Fenians never amounted to much thereafter. Eventually the U.S. government put a stop to their border raids.
For the aftermath of this story, see "An Anti-Fenian Song."
The Fenians, of course, eventually evolved into other independence organizations. A member of one of those organizations perhaps summed up why they failed so often: They just weren't single-minded enough. Coogan, p. 116, reports a quote from Vinnie Byrne, a member of one of those later organizations: "Collins was a marvel. If he hadn't done the work he did, we'd still be under Britain. Informers and drink would have taken care of us."
That is perhaps too strong; there were other determined leaders in the 1916-1920 period. But the Fenians didn't have a one of those other leaders, let alone a Collins. So they wasted their energy on schemes like this.
For information on the founding of the Fenians, see "James Stephens, the Gallant Fenian Boy." For their one major success in one of their gimmicks, see "The Fenian's Escape (The Catalpa)." For other examples of the Fenians' ineffectiveness, see "The British Man-of-War" and "The Smashing of the Van (I)." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.6
File: FMB100

Fenian Song (II), The

DESCRIPTION: If you happen to walk out Someone in your ears are humming, And they'll ask if you know When the Fenians are a coming.... They dare not 'vade our soil, Nor try to work us wrongful"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: violence nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 31, 1866 - Some 1200 Fenians under General O'Neill invade the Niagara area
June 2, 1866 - The Fenian's victory at Lime Ridge near Ridgeway
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 149, "The Fenian Song" (1 text)
Roud #3285
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "An Anti-Fenian Song" (theme)
cf. "A Fenian Song (I)" (subject)
NOTES [111 words]: Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia: "The so-called Fenian Brotherhood was formed in New York in 1857. Its main purpose, apparently, was to 'set Ireland free,' but among its subsidiary projects was an invasion of Canada from the United States. In Canada there was for a time a good deal of excitement accompanied by the drafting and training of young men for the purpose of sweeping back the threatening tide." Mackenzie thinks this fragment was "probably a Canadian recruiting song." - BS
For additional background to the Fenian invasion of Canada, see "A Fenian Song (I)." For the organization's founding, see "James Stephens, the Gallant Fenian Boy." - RBW
File: Mack149

Fenian's Escape, The (The Catalpa)

DESCRIPTION: The Catalpa, an American whaler, wanders by Perth on regatta day. (Six) Fenians, having spent years in chains, flee for the ship. Although the Georgette tries to interfere with the escape, the Irishmen get aboard and are taken to America
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Paterson/Stewart/Keeting, Old Bush Songs)
KEYWORDS: rebellion prisoner escape ship whaler
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1876 - The Catalpa Rescue
FOUND IN: Australia Ireland
REFERENCES (11 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 55, "The Fenian's Escape" (1 text)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 48, "The Fenians' Escape" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 56-57, "The Catalpa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 50-51, "The Catalpa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 20-21, "The Catalpa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 64-66, "The Catalpa" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads,pp9-10, "The Catalpa" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 341-342, "The Noble Ship Catalpa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 101, "The Fenian's Escape" (1 text)
DT, FENESCAP*
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 409, "The Fenian Escape" (1 text, with a tune on p. 599)
Roud #5480
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries" (tune)
NOTES [318 words]: This is one of the more successful of the various crazy Fenian exploits.
To start with the prisoners: Thomas Darragh, Martin Hogan, Michael Harrington, Thomas Hassett, Robert Cranston, and James Wilson had been transported for life in 1866 for their role in the United Irish Brotherhood's planned uprising -- not really a fair sentence, given that nothing much actually happened, but the British didn't want any more interference in Ireland.
The Catalpa (a three-masted bark built 1844) alternated between merchant service and whaling until 1874, when she was purchased by John T. Richardson. In that year, under the command of George S. Anthony (Richardson's son-in-law), the ship set out on what was ostensibly a whaling trip.
By this time, the six Fenians had earned their tickets-of-leave (i.e. the right to work on their own), and had been contacted by four rescuers. On April 17, 1876, the ten boarded a rowboat sent out (and commanded) by Anthony. It took them 28 hours to reach the Catalpa, pursued by the mail steamer Georgette, but they made it.
The Georgette later overhauled the Catalpa, and threatened to stop her, but Anthony claimed the protection of the American flag, and actually got away with it. The ship made it to New York on August 19, 1876, and was given a hero's welcome at New Bedford a few days later.
Ironically, Anthony ended up in a certain amount of trouble because he hadn't done enough whaling on the trip to cover expenses.
According to Ruth Dudley Edwards, The Seven: The Lives and Legacies of the Founding Fathers of the Irish Republic, Oneworld Books, 2016, p. 47, the Catalpa incident had an interesting side effect: "The propaganda value in Ireland and America ensued that Clan na Gael rather than the Fenian Brotherhood was henceforward seen as the voice of Irish America, although "Fenian" remained the catch-all term to describe militant separatists. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FaE056

Fenny Brown

See Sally Brown (File: Doe074)

Ferd Harold Blues

See Alabama Bound (Waterbound II) (File: BMRF598)

Fergus O'Connor and Independence

DESCRIPTION: Remember O'Connell's victory over Vesey in '29. Don't vote now for "those tithe-eating gentry." "Be advised by the clergy our Lord sent to guide you, And vote for brave Fergus and Sheela na Guira." Send Fergus to London. Repeal the Union.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1832 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1794-1855 - life of Fergus (Feargus) O'Connor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 43, "A New Song in Praise of Fergus O'Connor and Independence" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V39070
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Carrickshock" (subject: The Tithe War) and references there
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (II)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
cf. "Saint Patrick's Day" (subject of Fergus O'Connor"
NOTES [680 words]: The context is "The Tithe War": O'Connell's Catholic Association was formed in 1823 to resist the requirement that Irish Catholics pay tithes to the Anglican Church of Ireland. The "war" was passive for most of the period 1823-1836, though there were violent incidents in 1831 (source: The Irish Tithe War 1831 at the OnWar.com site)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "Fergus O'Connor, before becoming the most prominent spokesman of the Chartist movement in England, was elected M.P. for Cork in 1832 and 1835."
The reference to 1829 and Vesey has to do with the July 1828 election in which Daniel O'Connell defeated Vessey Fitzgerald as Westminster MP from County Clare (see "The Shan Van Voght (1828)").
The last line of each verse is a variation of "Vote for brave Fergus and Sheela na Guira" or "Repeal the Union for Sheela na Guira." Zimmermann's tune is "Sighile Ni Ghadra." The following note is from Andrew Kuntz's "The Fiddler's Companion" site: "'Sheela Nee Guira' was one of the numerous allegorical names of Ireland; and this song['Sighile Ni Ghadhra'] was a patriotic one, though it could be sung with safety in the time of the Penal Laws, as it was in the guise of a love song." - BS
When England pushed Ireland into the Parliamentary Union after the 1798 rebellion, William Pitt had wanted to make a great concession: He wanted to permit Catholics to vote. Parliament rejected this out of hand, meaning that the Members for Ireland ended up being all Protestant. Even had a Catholic been elected, he could not in good conscience take the membership oath, which reviled Catholicism (Golway, p. 100).
But there was nothing in the law which prevented Catholics from running.
In 1828, at the height of his popularity, O'Connell decided to do just that. William Vesey Fitzgerald, a Member for Clare, had taken a government position, and so had to contest a by-election for his seat.
The irony is, Vesey Fitzgerald was "an emancipationist [i.e. he stood for giving Catholics voting rights], a kind and popular landlord... and the son of a Patriot in Grattan's parliament." Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, pp. 219-220, say that "He had been a sitting member for the last ten years. He was a resident landlord, with, apparently, a good reputation among his tenants. He was himself friendly to Catholic emancipation."
In other words, the sort of man Ireland needed. But his was the seat that was available. Attempts to find a Protestant to run against him failed (Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, p. 220). Eventually O'Connell decided to run against him -- he couldn't take the seat, but he could campaign for it -- and won by 2057 votes to 982. (Fry/Fry, pp. 220-221; Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, p. 221). In 1829, the British Parliament gave in and passed the Catholic Emancipation Act, opening all but the very highest offices to Catholics (though another act raised the property requirement for voting, meaning that most Catholics were still excluded).
Fergus (or Feargus) O'Connor (1794-1855) was one of the first to take advantage of the new conditions. Ellis, pp. 41-42, says that he was a 'Chartist leader [who] was every Englishman's idea of an Irishman. He liked to claim descent from the Kings of Connaught, and he looked the part, with his brawny figure and his red locks hanging over the tail of his coat. He had the gift of the gab, and more than a touch of the blarney." He also had excellent timing.
In 1832, he was elected to Parliament from County Cork on the Repeal platform (calling for the repeal of the Union of Ireland and Great Britain). He was expelled in 1835 for being too poor, leading him to found a newspaper, the Northern Star, in 1837 (Ellis, p. 42). He is said to have gone insane around 1850 (Ellis, p. 43).
Incidentally, O'Connell would later say that the zeal of men like O'Connor actually hurt the cause of Repeal; they pushed him to bring it up in the British parliament too soon, causing the measure to go down in flames in 1834 (Kee, pp. 190-191).
For a song more obliquely talking about the events of this period, see "The Ass's Complaint." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: Zimm043

Ferry Hinskey Town

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Ferry, The

See A Boat, A Boat, Across the Ferry (File: Br3225)

Ferryland Sealer, The (The Sealers) [Laws D10]

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, our schooner and our sloop in (Ferryland/the Pool) they do lie, They are already rigged to be bound for the ice...." The singer describes the provisioning of the ship, the path she follows, the work of sealing. He rejoices as they return home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship travel work
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) US(NE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws D10, "The Sealers"
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 324-326, "The Sealers" (1 text)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 16, "The Ferryland Sealer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 120-121, "Ferryland Sealer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 22-23, "Ferryland Sealer" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 613, SEALERS FERRSEAL
Roud #4533
RECORDINGS:
Leonard Hulan, "Ferryland Sealer" (on PeacockCDROM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Noble Fleet of Sealers"
NOTES [2223 words]: Laws, who knew only the Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine version of this, used their title "The Sealers." I have filed it under "The Ferryland Sealer," because that version is much better known today. It's not clear that this was always so. Although "The Ferryland Sealer" version has been published in several books, it appears that the source of all the printed versions was Leonard Hulan.
[Peacock also has his version from Leonard Hulan. However, he claims a similar "variant" of "this fine old sealing song... was noted from George Decker in Rocky Harbour." Of course, Decker may have learned his version from Hulan who lives about 85 miles as the crow flies up the west coast from Decker. - BS]
The song has some slight similarities to "A Noble Fleet of Sealers," but that seems to be to a separate piece.
The likeliest explanation is that "The Ferryland Sealer" is a localized version of the somewhat more generic "The Sealers" [Laws D10], which has the same four middle verses but is not as strongly localized and refers to a different ship. Someone -- perhaps Hulan, though I doubt it -- took "The Sealers" and customized it for Ferryland. Decker might well have learned "The Sealers" and perhaps picked up a few of the "Ferryland" words.
Hulan was locally known as a songwriter as well as a singer, although the only song credited to him in the Index is "Downey's Our Member." Kearley, p. 16, says that he was still remembered near his home some thirty years after his death: "Leonard Hulan is a legend on this part o the Island. The Hulans, of Jersey descent, were one of the first resident families on the West Coast. Leonard lived in Jeffreys and was renowned for his ability to strike up songs, a capella, about local people, places and events. Like many, he farmed and fished. Unlike many, he kept oxen. Ruby Gillam remembers him as a good-humoured man.... He made frequent household visits on both sides of Crabbes and was always ready to sing."
Although Hulan was known as a songwriter, there is no reason to think he was responsible for this song. For starters, it's about a town on the east coast of Newfoundland, not the west, so Hulan had no connection with the town of Ferryland. Plus, although it was not collected until 1960, there is good reason to believe that this song is at least a century older than that, making it one of the oldest surviving sealing songs. There are several reasons for thinking this.
For starters, Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, who picked up the song in the 1920s, understood it to be sixty or so years old, which would put it in the 1860s, or a century or so before Hulan.
Another reason for thinking it early is the fact that the sealer (at least in the Hulan version) comes from Ferryland. Not Fairyland, we should note -- Ferryland is a small town on the eastern coast of Newfoundland, about halfway down the Avalon Peninsula. By the late nineteenth century, there would have been no sealers sailing from there, because there was no way for the small towns to finance the expeditions: "Marine-resource depletion was especially evident in the seal hunt.... By the 1860s, the old schooner hunt of the outports had given way to larger... steam-driven vessels which could penetrate deep into the ice packs in pursuit of the remaining herds. Such steamers required capital beyond the means of most outport employers, and the ownership of the industry transferred from the outports to St. John's" (Cadigan, pp. 137-138). "The two major sealing firms in the colony -- Ridleys and Munns -- had invested so heavily in sailing craft that they could not shift to steam very easily. In St. John's, on the other hand, merchants were not so hampered" (Ryan, p. 202), so the small towns lost their fleets. The change didn't happen instantly -- for a while, a few steamers sailed from ports like Harbor Grace, but they soon gave it up. "By 1896, the entire steam fleet [of sealers] was based in St. John's" (Candow, p. 43). Even before that, Ferryland and the outports on the Avalon Peninsula were out of the business.
This change also reduced the number of ships. In the early days, there were hundreds of small craft sealing -- peaking in 1857 at about 400 (Busch, p. 48). By 1900, only about twenty ships, all large steamers, would go out each year. (There were still people who would go out and take seals on the ice near their homes -- the "land-based" hunt -- but this clearly is not what is being described in this song.)
The fact that the sealing ships in the songs are a schooner and a sloop affirms the early-to-mid-nineteenth-century dating -- the ships were sailing vessels, and so preceded the steam sealers. Indeed, they probably preceded the sailing brigs that had taken over the bulk of the trade by about 1860 (Busch, p. 52). As early as 1820, schooners were being replaced by square-rigged ships that, although less maneuverable, were faster and so could do a better job of pushing through the ice (Ryan, p. 125).
Ferryland certainly could not have supplied enough sealers to crew a steamer. Even a brig might have been difficult, given that by 1900 the town had a population of just 535 (O'Flaherty, p. 211).
Additionally, no steamer named either William or Nancy ever went to the ice (Chafe, p. 105). There were lots of sailing ships with those names in the early nineteenth century, although I've yet to find one from Ferryland. There was a ship named Nancy lost in 1829 (Ryan, p. 285), but she was out of St. John's. In 1834, Thomas Ryan commanded a 56 ton Nancey (note spelling) with a complement of 14 out of St. John's (Ryan, p. 472). A Nancy under Captain Cole sailed from somewhere in Conception Bay in 1835 (84 tons, 21 men; Ryan, p. 476); so did one under under Captain Kelly (75 tons, 20 men; Ryan, p. 473). I assume this is the same Nancy as that which sailed from Harbour Grace in 1836 under Patrick Kelly, since she was also 75 tons (although she had 23 men in that year; Ryan, p. 480). Harbour Grace also sent out a 94 ton Nancy under Matthew Hudson in that year; she carried 24 men (Ryan, p. 480). In 1838, St. John's hosted a Nancy under G. Hudson (56 tons, 16 men; Ryan, p. 482). In 1853, there was a sealer Nancy supplied by L. O'Brien & Co.; her captain was named Moore, and she had 30 men; she was a small ship of 74 tons (Ryan, p. 459).
On April 13, 1847, a sealer William was caught in ice, but she too appears to have been out of St. Johns (Ryan, p. 140). Perhaps the same William (?) took in 5000 seals in 1852 in the "Spring of the Wadhams" (FelthamNortheast, p. 53); it appears this ship, under Captain Withicomb, was 116 tons and had a crew of 43 (Ryan, p. 459). A William of 133 tons, with 68 men, sailed from Brigus under S. Whelan in 1869 (Ryan, p. 490), and one of 105 tons under Captain Stone sailed from Catalina in that year with 60 men (Ryan, p. 490).
Conception Bay had several sealers named William in 1833; Captain Power commanded one of 57 tons with 18 men and Captain Green one of 123 tons with 27 aboard (Ryan, p. 474). Harbour Grace had a sealer named William in 1853, with 91 tons and 36 men, commanded by someone named Bransfield, and a second William, of 85 tons and 33 men commanded by Murphy. Conception Bay in 1835 had a 73 ton William, with 21 men, under Captain Snow. Presumably the same William (73 tons, 26 men, under Edward Snow) sailed from Brigus in 1838.
This ignores several listings of a ship Willaim (sic.) in Ryan (e.g. one such sailed from Carbonear in 1869; Ryan, p. 489, although perhaps they should count too. And I've omitted ships with names like William the King.
Also, one of the last sailing brigs to go to the seal fishery was named William; Ryan, pp. 163-164, prints a newspaper report from 1883 which read, "The brig William, Capt. Stephen Whelan arrived at this port from the Northern icefield about noon yesterday with between six and seven hundred old seals.... The steamers took the lead and kept it all spring, and as they passed through the different patches of hoods and harps everything in the shape of a seal was picked up. Verily, the days of our sailing fleet are numbered." I'm guessing this refers to the Brigantine William acquired by Bowring's in the 1870s (Keir, p. 133), but she wasn't a schooner or sloop.
To be sure, the ship in the Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine version is the Tiger, and there was in fact a sealing steamer by that name. Chafe, p. 104, reports that the Tiger sailed from 1878 to 1884, being lost in the latter year, but in those seven years she took just 18,702 seals -- a pretty miserable total for a steamer, not likely to be commemorated in song. In any case, the Tigernever took a number close to 900 seals.
There was also a Tigress, but she sailed only from 1873-1875, with only slightly better luck (13,746 total seals) and never had a year with a total close to 900. The Tigress was memorable for her part in rescuing the Polaris expedition (briefly mentioned in the notes to "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay", but she never went sealing again.
As early as 1832, the sealers of Ferryland were selling their seals in St. John's (Ryan, p. 127), although that certainly isn't proof that the song dates from pre-1832.
The mentions of Cape Spear (outside St. John's) and Cape Broyle (just north of Ferryland) affirm that the voyage was from Ferryland, not St. John's.
Steering a course "east northeast" from Ferryland is a bit odd, since the "Front" (the main sealing patch) was north of Newfound and the secondary "Gulf" patch was west, but probably the ship was heading out to sea and would then turn north.
The line "some more they were firing and a-missing of their loads" also would make more sense at an early date. Gunners initially were paid more than other sealers (Chafe, p. 25), but there were fewer of them as time passed. Shooting seals in the water didn't work; they sank. Even if shot on ice, they might try to escape into the water -- and sink (Busch, p. 47). It was easier to go after the young -- but it took some time for the sealers to make that standard policy. Use of guns was generally a fall-back, used only if the hunt for young seals failed to bring in enough pelts (Candow, pp. 35-36). And the fact that the shooters in the song were missing their targets implies the early date when they used long muzzle-loaders to hunt (Busch, p. 47); better weapons became available starting around the 1850s.
Finally, the boast of "nine hundred fine scalps in the hold" (properly "sculps"; a "sculp" was the standard name for skin plus fat) clearly indicates a small-scale hunt. By the 1880s, a haul of less than a thousand seal was a pure and simple disaster. Even a brig with a crew of less than fifty could take in five thousand sculps (Busch, p. 54), and the steamers needed more than that to make the trip worthwhile. Taking some samples from FelthamSteamers: The Commodore averaged 15,486 seals per year from 1871 to 1883 (p. 31); the Diana, despite a disastrous year in which she managed just 476 seals, averaged 10,904 per year from 1892-1921 (p. 41); the Eagle averaged 15,816 per year from 1905-1949 (p. 47); the Imogene fully 35,643 in 1929-1940 (p. 70); the Neptune, over an astounding career from 1873-1941, pulled in an average of 18,647 per year; even the Ranger, one of the earliest and smallest, averaged 12,932 seals per year from 1872-1941 (pp. 115-116). This song is a tale of retail rather than wholesale sealing.
If the William was the one commanded by Murphy, it may have inspired more than just this song. Chafe, p. 35, tells this story:
"A celebrated old character was John Murphy an Irishman who not only couldn't read or write but couldn't speak English except a few words. Still by hard work and perseverance he was successful and commanded his own vessel the 'William,' about one hundred tons, at the seal fishery. He couldn't remember the names of the ropes, so he had rags tied on them -- 'Pull the Red Rag', 'Let go the Rag' was his orders to his men.
"It was the custom as many of us remember to have every flag flying and the crew firing 'feue de joy' as the ship came up the Harbor.
"As she came into Harbor Grace -- He called to the gunners -- 'Shoot the (R. C.) Chapel.' Then as he passed the Point of Beach -- 'Shoot Ridley,' his suppliers, and his next order as they were passing his own house -- 'Shoot my Wife.'" (According to Keir, pp. 124-125, "shoot" was Murphy's mispronunciation of "salute.")
Believe as much of that as you want.
The word "Southern" in the first verse is often italicized, as if it were a ship name. I can find no reference to a sealer by that name, although there were so many small sealing schooners in the 1840s and 1850s that that means very little. But I suspect it should not be italicized. Rather, "Southern" is, I think, short for "Southern Shore" -- i.e. the east coast of the Avalon Peninsula. Ferryland is right in the middle of that region.
A few specialized terms:
"A rally" is "a run after seals on the ice by a group of sealers" (Young, p. 142).
"The jam" is the ice-pack, where the young seals rested, so-called (I believe) because the ships could find the ice jamming against their sides.
A "bat" is "a club with an iron hook and spike used to kill and take seals" (Young, p. 30). Compare a "gaff." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: LD10

Feste Burg ist Unser Gott, Ein

See A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (Ein Feste Burg) (File: xAMiFIOG)

Festive Lumber-jack

DESCRIPTION: "I've been around the world a bit, an' seen beasts great an' small... He leaves the woods with his bristles raised... He's known by men of science as the festive lumberjack." The lumberjack's exploits end when his drink money runs out
AUTHOR: Ed Springstad and "a negro called Bill" ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: logger humorous drink money bragging
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 23, "The Festive Lumber-jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 23, "The Festive Lumber-jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Rick095 (Partial)
Roud #8894
NOTES [46 words]: According to Rickaby's informant, Ed Springstad, this song was composed in Crystal, North Dakota around 1900. From the sound of it, most of the real work of composition was by "Bill." Rickaby also says the song was well-known in Minnesota. I know of no supporting evidence. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Rick095

Fethard Life-Boat Crew (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The Mexico, from America to Liverpool, is "dashed to pieces along the beach of Burrow's lonely shore." The Fethard Lifeboat crew "launched their boat at Fethard Quay ... to save the shipwrecked sailors." The lifeboat itself is wrecked.
AUTHOR: James Mahony of Bride St, Wexford
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor rescue
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 20-21, 1914 - The Mexico wreck
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 44, "The Fethard Life-Boat Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #20557
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mexico" (subject) and references there
cf. "The Hantoon" (tune)
NOTES [97 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: Tune is "The Hantoon" on p. 46.
February 20, 1914: "Nine members of the Fethard lifeboat were drowned when going to the assistance of the Norwegian steamer Mexico.... Eight of the Mexico's crew were saved by the five lifeboat survivors. All but one of the stranded survivors were saved with great difficulty the next day." (source: Bourke in Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast v1, pp. 52-53) - BS
We note that at least four poems were written about this disaster (see the cross-references); one suspects a campaign to raise money for someone's family. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran044

Fethard Life-Boat Crew (II), The

DESCRIPTION: Schooner Mexico strikes Keeragh Rock. Nine of the life-boat crew are lost but Kelly reaches Mexico and gets a line to those that reach the rocks. Mexico crew is hauled to shore. One dies "from cold and exposure" before they are rescued three days later.
AUTHOR: Matthew Barden
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor rescue
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 20-21, 1914 - The Mexico wreck
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 58-59, "The Fethard Life-Boat Crew" (1 text)
Roud #20556
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mexico" (subject) and references there
NOTES [87 words]: February 20, 1914: "Nine members of the Fethard lifeboat were drowned when going to the assistance of the Norwegian steamer Mexico.... Eight of the Mexico's crew were saved by the five lifeboat survivors. All but one of the stranded survivors were saved with great difficulty the next day." (source: Bourke in Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast v1, pp. 52-53) - BS
We note that at least four poems were written about this disaster (see the cross-references); one suspects a campaign to raise money for someone's family. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran058

Fethard Life-Boat Crew (III), The

DESCRIPTION: Mexico and its rescuers in the Fethard life-boat are wrecked in a storm on Keeragh Rock on the Wexford coast. "The crew of the gallant Mexico, though terror-stricken, too, They rendered all assistance to the drowning life-boat crew"; 9 rescuers drown
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: wreck rescue disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 20-21, 1914 - The Mexico wreck
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 122, "The Fethard Life-Boat Crew" (1 text)
Roud #20558
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mexico" (subject) and references there
NOTES [87 words]: February 20, 1914: "Nine members of the Fethard lifeboat were drowned when going to the assistance of the Norwegian steamer Mexico.... Eight of the Mexico's crew were saved by the five lifeboat survivors. All but one of the stranded survivors were saved with great difficulty the next day." (source: Bourke in Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast v1, pp. 52-53) - BS
We note that at least four poems were written about this disaster (see the cross-references); one suspects a campaign to raise money for someone's family. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran122

Few Days

DESCRIPTION: "Well, I pitched my tent on this campground, Few days, few days, And I give old Satan another round, And I am going home. I can't stay in these diggings, few days, few days, I can't stay in these diggings And I am going home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (sheet music published by Miller & Beacham of Baltimore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad mining
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 644, "Tree in Paradise" (3 short texts; the "A" version combines "Few Days" with a "Tree in Paradise" text; "B" is too short to classify easily; "C" seems to be mostly "All My Trials"; there may also be influence from "Is Your Lamps Gone Out" or the like)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 566, "Few Days" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 72, "There Was an Ole Fish" (1 text, 1 tune, probably a conflation -- Roud files it with #7786, "Hide Away (Jonah and the Whale)," but the form is "Few Days")
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 41 and #3/62, p. 41, "Few Days" (1 text, which looks like it is at least partly a parody)
DT, (FEWDAYS -- the mining parody)
Roud #15561
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Zaccheus Climbed the Sycamore Tree" (lyrics)
cf. "Indian Camp-Meeting Song"
SAME TUNE:
Come, Brothers, Drive Dull Care Away (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, pp. 98-99)
Ode ton Neoteron (="Song/Ode of the Young Men") (by H. R. Waite, [class of 18]68) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 18. The text and the song name is in Greek)
My College Course Must Have an End (by F. Browning, [class of 18]61) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, pp. 46-47)
Rally, Boys, for Greenbacks ("The workingmen are growing strong, For greenbacks, for greenbacks") (Foner, p. 139)
NOTES [104 words]: This originated as a hymn, and later was adapted by miners to describe their lives. Since, however, the miners' version took over the hymn in its entirety, simply tacking new verses on the end, we really can't separate the pieces.
According to Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, the 1854 sheet music laimed "Music arranged and adapted by Albert Holland," but they note that "Henry McCaffrey also issued an edition by J. H. Hewitt, but the Miller & Beacham version is found in so many volumes that it must have been the accepted version." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LxA566

Few More Days, A

See A Few More Marchings Weary (File: RcAFMMWe)

Few More Marchings Weary, A

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "O'er time's rapid river, Soon we'll rest forever, No more marchings weary, when we gather home." Verses: In a short while "with Christ we'll wear a crown ... And then away to Canaan's land"
AUTHOR: Words: Frances Jane (Fanny) Crosby (Van Alstyne) (1820?-1915) / Music: William Howard Doane (1832-1915) (source: Townsend)
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (according to Townsend)
KEYWORDS: ritual nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Ira D. Sankey, Sacred Songs and Solos Twelve Hundred Hymns (London: Collins, n.d.), #512, ("A few more marchings weary") (1 text)
Mrs A. M. Townsend, The Baptist Standard Hymnal with Responsive Readings (Nashville: Sunday School Publishing Board National Baptist Convention, 1924), #578 p. 497, "A Few More Marchings Weary" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Rosa and Joseph Murray, "A Few More Days" (on USSeaIsland03)
NOTES [659 words]: Alternate lines in the verses are "Then we'll gather home."
The description follows Townsend. The Murrays have this song as a hymn sung at a funeral service in the graveyard; they sing only one verse, not in Townsend's text: It's a few more days setting of the sun And then we'll soon gather home, A few more days rising of the sun And then we'll soon gather home. - BS
According to Julian, pp. 1203-1204, and Reynolds, p. 291, Fanny Crosby, born 1823 in New York (EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 91, says 1820), lost her sight when she was less than two months old when a doctor overheated her inflamed eyes; she attended a school for the blind, and then taught there (starting in 1847, according to EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 91). In 1858, she married a blind musician, Alexander van Alstyne (her spelling; EncycAmericanGospelMusic says he spelled in "van Alsyteine"). They had one child, which died young, and according to EncycAmericanGospelMusic lived separate lives after that. (Which probably explains why she preferred to be known as Crosby, not van Alstyne.)
Julian says she had her first poem published in 1831, and her first book of poetry in 1844. JA number of her verses were set to music by George F. Root (who also taught at her school at this time), although (as of this writing) the only one of these to be in the Index is "Rosalie the Prairie Flower," and that only because it was the basis for a widespread parody.
As early as 1851, George F. Root had asked her to write the libretto for his first cantata, "The Flower Queen" -- the story of a gathering of flowers to choose a queen (Root, p. 12) This followed a conversion experience, which EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 91, dates to 1850.
In 1864, she published her first hymn, "We are going, we are going." Her big hit is probably "Near the Cross" ("Jesus, keep me near the cross"); also "Blessed Assurance." Her most popular secular piece (at least based on the list of her works cited in Granger's Index to Poetry) is probably "There's Music in the Air." Another once-popular piece is "Safe in the Arms of Jesus," which she wrote at the request of William Howard Doane, who set both that song and this. William J. Kirkpatrick also set a number of her pieces, according to EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 92.
EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 92, says that she considered herself a social worker, not an author, and lived a life of poverty, giving away the money she did not need. She became something of a hack writer, at one time banging out three texts per week, and using, according to Reynolds, more than two hundred pseudonyms.
Root, p. 12, says that "After the Civil War she became nationally famous for her books of poetry and her hymns; she is reputed to have written about 6,000 hymn texts, including the well-known 'Safe in the Arms of Jesus.'" (Julian gives the smaller but still amazing estimate of 2000 poems.)
Julian comments of her output that, despite their wide circulation, "they are, with few exceptions, very weak and poor, their simplicity and earnestness being their redeeming features. Their popularity is largely due to the melodies to which they are wedded." Certainly I don't find much in her work that is inspiring. But the Baptist Hymnal includes a dozen of her texts. I don't know if that says more about her or about Baptists. Despite Julian's and my opinions, EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 92, says that, "With the possible exceptions of Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley, Crosby has generally been represented by the largest number of hymns of any writer during the twentieth century in nonliturgical hymals.
For composer William Howard Doane, see the notes to "Precious Name (Take the Name of Jesus With You)." Of his two thousand-odd hymn tunes, EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 103, more than a thousand were composed for Fanny Crosby alone. I can't help but think that no other composing team has had so many songs be completely and utterly forgotten.... - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcAFMMWe

Few More Months, A

DESCRIPTION: "A few more months, a few more years, A few more prayers, a few more tears. It won't be long; a few more years will hush my song... When they shall lay me in the valley." "A little pain, a little joy... Some mingling yet with earth's alloy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills)
KEYWORDS: death burial nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 108, "A Few More Months" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 153, "A Few More Months" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5421
File: Gain108

Few More Years Shall Roll, A (Oh My Lord Prepare)

DESCRIPTION: "A few more years shall roll" and we shall rest with those gone before us. "Lord prepare my soul for that great day." "'Tis but a little while and he shall come again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Ira D. Sankey, Sacred Songs and Solos: Twelve Hundred Hymns_ (London: Marshall Morgan & Scott Ltd, 1921? ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #1052, ("A few more years shall roll") (1 text)
(no author listed), _Hymns Ancient and Modern_ (London: William Clowes and Sons, 1913), #288 p. 80, ("A few more years shall roll") (1 text)
Roud #29556
RECORDINGS:
Henry Williams, Henry Thomas, Margaret Wright, Edna Wright, "A Few More Years Shall Roll (Oh My Lord Prepare)" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [20 words]: WITrinidadVillage02 follows the "Sankey into shout" hymn singing described in the notes to "Jesus Lover of My Soul" - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcAFMYSR

Fflodden Ffeilde

See Flodden Field [Child 168] (File: C168)

Ffryar and Boy

See notes under Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (II) (File: OO2507)

Fhear a Bhata (Fhir a Bhata: I Climb the Mountains)

DESCRIPTION: Song of longing with a Gaelic chorus. The singer asks where is her lover, the boatman. When will she see him? Her friends/other boatmen say he is unfaithful. She waits long, and looks far for word of her lover, fearing she has been forgotten
AUTHOR: Jane Finlayson (late 18th century)
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Mclean, Literature of the Highlands, pp. 235-236)
KEYWORDS: love separation sailor foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H834, pp. 289-290, "The Boatman/Fear a Bhata" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 786-787, "Fhir a Bhata" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FBHATA* THEBOATM*
ADDITIONAL: Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 26-28, "Fear an Bhata" ("The Boatman") [Gaelic and English]
Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson, _A Celtic Miscellany: A Selection of Classic Celtic Literature_, 1951, revised edition 1971 (I use the 1995 Barnes & Noble edition), #68, pp. 118-118, "Fhir a Bhata" (1 text, a non-poetic English translation from Scots Gaelic)
Kenneth Norman MacDonald, "The Gesto Collection of Highland Music," 1895 (reprinted 1997 by Llanerch Publishers), p. 13, "Fhear A Bhata" (1 Gaelic text, 1 tune)
Roud #4356
NOTES [354 words]: The Lesley Nelson-Burns site Folk Music of England Scotland Ireland, Wales & America collection is the source for the translation -- by Lachlan MacBean -- used as the basis for the DESCRIPTION, as well as for the attribution. That site's entry for the song credits Craig Cockburn with the data and includes other important information. However, MacBean's translation, apparently copied from The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Highlands edited by Alfred Moffat (Bayley & Ferguson, Glasgow), pp. 18-19 in the soft-cover edition printed ca 1960, pp. 26-27 in the hard-cover edition printed ca 1908, is written to be sung to the original music and so may not exactly carry the sense of the Gaelic. The translation of the chorus is from a note sent by George Seto whose site includes, among other subjects, Cape Breton Music and -- more to the point here -- an index of published Gaelic songs.
The chorus
"Fhir a bhata, na horo-eile, Gu ma slan dut,
's gach ait an teid thu"
meaning
"O my boatman, na horo eile, Wishing health to you,
And [at] each place, will you come (return) [to me]?"
includes untranslated phrases such as "na horo eile." Creighton and MacLeod, Gaelic Songs in Nova Scotia (National Museums of Canada 1979) refers to these phrases as "Gaelic vocables" (e.g., p 181). My take on this is that they are untranslatable in the same sense that the yodel of a Jimmy Rodgers blue yodel is transcribable into French but not translatable. [Indeed, Jackson, p. 339, declares the phrase "a meaningless refrain" - RBW.]
Peacock notes that this "is called a milling song ... used to accompany the work of shrinking wool homespun. The wet cloth is alternately kneaded and pounded on a large table by several people either seated or standing. A leader sings the verses, and everyone comes in on the chorus." "Milling wool" and "waulking tweed" is the same process. For a note on the process and the songs see "Waulking" by Craig Cockburn at the Silicon Glen site- BS
In a way, this isn't really a single song, because the translated version has circulated on its own. But it seemed better to lump to prevent confusion. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: HHH834

Fhideag Airgid, An

See The Silver Whistle (File: K009)

Fiddelfranz of Germania Settlement

DESCRIPTION: "There was once a fiddler, he played for the dance The most wonderful melodies, The village called him Fiddelfranz." All the locals loved him. When he dies, they bury him with his fiddle in his arms and surrounded by flowers
AUTHOR: Words: Willian Benignus / Music: Edward Herrmann (source: Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: music death flowers fiddle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p 45, "Fiddlefranz of Germania Settlement, Potter County, Pa." (1 text)
Roud #38089
NOTES [25 words]: Patently not traditional, so I haven't listed a "found in" location. t truly have no idea why Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania included this.
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe045

Fiddle-Dee-Dee

See The Fly and the Bumblebee (Fiddle-Dee-Dee) (File: Lins196)

Fiddle-I-Fee

See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

Fiddler's Bitch, The

DESCRIPTION: In this cante-fable, a captain wagers his ship against a fiddler's violin, betting that he can bed the fiddler's virtuous wife. The captain wins.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy fiddle wife seduction humorous infidelity wager
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 346-347, "The Fiddler's Bitch" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1521, "It was a Rich Merchant man"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Polly Wolly Doodle" (tune)
cf. "Redesdale and Wise William" [Child 246] (plot)
cf. "The Twa Knights" (plot)
NOTES [90 words]: The unidentified melody in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I is the blackface minstrel song "Polly-Wolly-Doodle." - EC
This plot, of course, occurs repeatedly in folklore and mythology (some versions of the account of the love affair of Aphrodite and Ares, first narrated in the Odyssey VIII.266ff., are similar) -- but one may doubt whether this bawdy version has any classical roots. - RBW
WBO reports, on the basis of the British broadside "The Merchant and the Fidlers wife," that "Legman's cante-fable designation is nonsense." - WBO,R BW
File: RL346

Fiddler's Green

DESCRIPTION: "As I roved by the dockside one evening so rare... I heard an old fisherman singing this song, Oh, take me away, boys, my time is not long... And I'll see you someday in Fiddler's Green." The singer describes the joys the sailor will find there
AUTHOR: John Connolly
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (source: Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor death home
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 157, "Fiddler's Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FIDGREEN*
Roud #26370
File: PaSe157

Fiddling Soldier

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

Field Calls

DESCRIPTION: "Field Call" is a term for a musical segment sung by field workers. Many had lyrics, and some sort of communicative purpose. Others were wordless laments, and are listed here
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: (undatable)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 83-84, (no title) (3 texts, 3 tunes)
NOTES [12 words]: It should be evident that this list of field calls is very incomplete. - RBW
File: CNFM083

Field of Monterey, The

DESCRIPTION: "A bugle horn is chanting now, A chorus far and free, And ev'rything rejoices For the glorious victory." The Americans have won a signal victory, but the singer grieves because her love has been slain in the bloody battle
AUTHOR: Marion Dix Sullivan ? (Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart-Songs; a ballad with this title, by Sullivan, was published 1846)
KEYWORDS: battle war Mexico death separation grief
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 20-24, 1846 - Battle of Monterrey (part of the Mexican War). General Zachary Taylor captures the city, but the fight is bloody
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 665, "The Field of Monterey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 318-319, "The Field of Monterey" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 81, describes the sheet music of the Sullivan song
Roud #7366
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maid of Monterrey" (subject)
NOTES [1310 words]: The sadness of this song is appropriate. The battle of Monterrey was one of the more important contests of the Mexican War -- but also one of the bloodier.
One of the chief goals of President James K. Polk was to annex Texas to the United States -- it was the issue that had won him the presidency (Siegenthaler, pp. 8-9), although the actual annexation was completed a few days before Polk assumed office. But Polk wanted more -- he wanted California as well (Siegenthaler, p. 104).
Mexico wasn't willing to sell. Mexico didn't even agree with the borders of Texas claimed by the Americans, and although the country was in perpetual chaos (there was a coup even as Polk was trying to negotiate with them; Siegenthaler, p. 126), they certainly weren't interested in giving up half their country. And Polk "possessed many attributes, but patience was not one of them" (Wheelan, p. 6). Polk had promised to serve only one term as president, and if he wanted California, he had to get it fast. The only practical means, as he saw it, was war.
And so he sent Zachary Taylor, known as "Old Rough and Ready" because of his dislike for uniforms and his readiness to do battle (Eisenhower, p. 28), to the Nueces River in Texas, with a goal of provoking a fight.
Without going into too much detail, a fight is what Taylor eventually got, and he ended up invading Mexico. His force was small and far from American bases, but the Mexican troops were even worse -- unpaid, ill-disciplined, and poorly led. Taylor was almost certainly out-gunned at the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, but he won. He then crossed the Rio Grande and occupied Matamoros (meaning that, no matter whose definition of the Texas boundary one accepted, he was now in Mexican territory) without resistance from the troops of General Mariano Arista (Eisenhower, p. 53-54). Pausing only briefly, he picked out six thousand men (the most he thought he could supply; Eisenhower, pp. 56-57) and kept heading south.
Then he got to Monterrey. This was the first strong position to block his way, and Mexicans under Pedro de Ampudia intended to bar his way (Eisenhower, p. 58). The local commander, General Francisco Meija, had been working to fortify the place (Wheelan, p. 184).
At first glance, the engineers had done well. The town was well-suited to defence, and to the west was a ridge known as Independence Hill and a supporting height, Federation Hill, which covered Ampudia's supply line and also guarded the flank of the town. Taylor had to somehow deal with the defenders of the hill (Eisenhower, p. 59. There was also a defensive work known as the "Black Fort" which appeared formidable. And the defenders were thought to have ten thousand men, or nearly twice Taylor's force (Grant, p. 108).
Taylor did have one advantage: The hill, the fort, and the town were not mutually supporting. Collectively strong, they could be individually attacked, and Ampudia didn't consider his forces to be strong enough to man the gaps (Wheelan, p. 184). Taylor, assuming that General Ampudia would not take the offensive, decided to attack the separate positions. Taylor would demonstrate against the town and send a large force on a long outflanking drive to attack the hill from the rear (Eisenhower, pp. 59-60).
The combatants faced each other for five days (September 20-24), with the fighting occupying September 21-23 (Eisenhower, p. 60). And, as often happens when executing such a complicated set of orders, things went rather wrong. The generals who were supposed to demonstrate against the town instead became heavily engaged and suffered severe casualties on the first day (Eisenhower, p. 60). Taylor himself had been in the thick of things (DeVoto, p. 284), but this merely meant that he had no direct control of the action.
Fortunately, his flanking column under William J. Worth, which consisted mostly of regular army troops, had done its job and had taken the key positions on the hills (Eisenhower, p. 80), starting with Federation Hill (Wheelan, p. 188). Taylor was ready to make another push into the town itself.
He wouldn't have to, as it turned out. Wheelan, p. 185, declares that General Ampudia was "powerfully built and mustachioed, with an erect martial bearing," adding that he "appeared to be the perfect parade-ground general. In actuality, he was a political opportunist and a cruel bully who was feared and disliked by his men. But, worst of all in the present situation, Ampudia was indecisive." Wheelan also considered Ampudia a coward; reportedly the general spent the whole battle holed up at his headquarters in Monterrey's Cathedral -- and was in a hurry to give up because the Cathedral was an ammunition dump which might be exploded by American artillery! (Wheelan, p. 200).
On September 24, Ampudia ran up a flag of truce. One of Taylor's commissioners in the negotiations which followed was Colonel Jefferson Davis (Wheelan, p. 198), who had commanded troops attacking the town. Ampudia agreed to give up the town if Taylor would let him leave unmolested and grant an eight week truce. Taylor agreed -- perhaps fortunately, because, according to Eisenhower, p. 61, "The brawny Mexican troops looked neither exhausted nor beaten. Ampudia may have been defeated, but these tough soldiers had not."
Still, it was "the first serious battle of the Mexican War" (Bennett, p. 24, citing Brooks Simpson). Taylor's earlier triumphs had been more the result of the maneuver than of fighting. This time, he came to grips with the enemy. He did not win a decisive victory -- indeed, the Mexicans said that they had won! (Wheelan, p. 199), but he had gained a useful position and helped establish the reputation of the American troops.
As this song implies, the cost had been high. Mexican casualties reportedly included 700 killed (Wheelan, p. 201). American losses were proportially high as well; overall, about a fifth of the soldiers had been killed or wounded (DeVoto, p. 286). One regiment, the Fourth Infantry, lost a third of its men in one charge (Bunting, p. 24), in which a young lieutenant named Ulysses S. Grant first tested his horsemanship under enemy fire, carrying a request for additional ammunition for the troops. Grant came to consider it an unjust war (Bunting, p. 39), and early on regretted enlisting (Grant, p. 91), but when the battle came, he went to the front to fight even though his duties should have kept him behind the lines (Grant, pp. 110-112).
Polk was furious with Taylor (whom he disliked anyway as a Whig), and wanted Taylor's truce ended -- but by the time the order arrived, it was expiring anyway (Eisenhower, p. 61). Taylor headed off to his next battle -- at Buena Vista, which is also found a place in traditional song (see "On Buena Vista's Battlefield"). After further consideration, however, Polk decided to hold Taylor in place; he did not want the general to improve his reputation and perhaps strengthen his resume for the 1848 elections (Wheelan, pp. 202-203). The irony, of course, is that Taylor won the Presidency anyway.
Polk, meanwhile, finally unleashed General Winfield Scott, the overall commander of the U. S. Army, whom he had until then kept in Washington because he didn't trust the general's Whig opinions. Scott commanded the Veracruz campaign which eventually captured Mexico City and won the war (Bunting, p. 25).
In Monterrey, the Americans brought in a circus to entertain the locals (Wheelan, p. 201), but out-of-control soldiers also caused much damage, as well as murdering, raping, and robbing the locals (Wheelan, pp. 201-202). Despite the victory, Americans had perhaps little cause to be proud.
Note that the name of the battle was "Monterrery," but the song seems to get titled "Monterey." There was also a skirmish of sorts at Monterey, California (one "r" this time), but that was minor. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: R665

Fielding

See Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson [Laws D19] (File: LD19)

Fields of Labor

See Your Mission (File: Shoe117)

Fierce Alpena Blow, The

DESCRIPTION: "In eighteen hundred eighty, in October, the sixteenth day, The Alpena met her doom." The great ship is lost while crossing Lake Michigan in an unexpected storm. The lifeboats cannot be lowered because of the weather; all are lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (collected from Manus J. Bonner by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 16, 1880 - Sinking of the Alpena and other ships in a Lake Michigan storm
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 211-213, "The Fierce Alpena Blow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #19872
NOTES [524 words]: Ratigan on pp. 68-69 gives a list of the 13 worst Great Lakes shipping disasters. The loss of the Alpena is #11 on his list. (As a data point, only three of the thirteen seem to be commemorated in traditional song: #2 the Lady Elgin, #8 the Asia, and the Alpena. And none of these songs have a strong hold on tradition.) Ratigan lists the losses as "60 to 101 lives."
Although Ritchie, p. 3, also states that 101 lives were lost, that estimate may be high; if there was a passenger list, it was lost in the wreck. Shelak , p. 124, says that there were between 80 and 101 passengers. Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors list about 120 lost in the "Alpena Blow," but only "about half" (i.e. about sixty) from the Alpena herself. Berman, p. 233, says that when the Alpena sank, "all lives (60) [were] lost." Thompson, p. 23, says that 22 crew and 35 passengers were aboard. Ratigan, p. 70, apparently thinks the other casualties were people who signed up as passengers at the last minute.
Presumably they were attracted by the fine weather on October 15, 1880. Thompson,p. 23, reports that the weather that day was "gorgeous."
Certainly the Captain, Nelson Napier (mentioned in the song), seems to have been affected by it: The wind was changing (Ratigan, p. 70), and the barometer falling (Shelak, p. 124), but his course was straight across Lake Michigan, 108 miles from Grand Haven (and/or Muskegon, according to Ritchie, p. 3) to Chicago. Napier decided to risk it.
The Alpena itself was 13 years old, so it had faced much bad weather, although it had been rebuilt after just one year in service (being lengthened by five feet; Shelak, p. 127).
Around midnight, the great storm began. The Alpena must have gone down either on October 16 or 17, because the first wreckage was found on October 18 (Thompson, p. 23). The first bodies were found a few days later.
It appears the ship must have sunk at night (either the 15/16 or the 16/17), because "most of the bodies were wearing nightclothes" (Thompson, p. 24). The ship probably broke apart (Ritchie says it must have been "virtually shredded"), because there was a lot of debris, mostly small pieces. The immediate cause of the wreck may have been the shifting of the boat's cargo (Shelak, p. 126).
A note was eventually found saying that "the steamer is breaking up fast" (Ratigan, p. 71; Thompson, p. 23). It does not name the Alpena, but says the ship was going from Grand Haven to Chicago. The signature was so water-soaked as to be minimally legible; it began "George Conn...." It is the only record (if such it can be called) of the wreck, though debris was eventually found along 70 miles of beach (Ratigan, p. 71).
The Alpena was not the only casualty of the storm, though it was apparently the worst loss. . Thompson, p. 24, says that no fewer than ninety vessels were damaged. Shelak, p. 37, says that the storm also sank the Perry Hannah, Josephine Lawrence, Ebenezer, Reciprocity, and Two Friends, but on p. 126 says that ninety boats were wrecked (presumably this is a misunderstanding of the statement that ninety were damaged. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM211

Fiery Clock Fyece, The

DESCRIPTION: "O Dick, what's kept ye a' this time?... O hinny, Dolly, sit thee doon.... The Newcassel folks hes catch'd a moon An' myed it a bonny clock-fyece." The singer tells of the lighted clock a St. Nicolas's church, and how people were amazed
AUTHOR: Robert Nunn
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland); Nunn died 1853
KEYWORDS: nonballad technology
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 82-83, "The Fiery Clock Fyece" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3144
File: StoR082

Fifteen Men Lost on George's Banks

See The Roving Newfoundlanders (II) (File: GrMa150)

Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest

See Dead Man's Chest (File: LxA512)

Fifteen Ships on Georges' Banks [Laws D3]

DESCRIPTION: A great storm strikes Georges' Banks in February, 1862. Fifteen ships from Gloucester are caught in the storm; all ships are lost and most if not all of the crews. The sad fate of the families of the lost is mentioned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 ("Ballads and Songs of the Sea compiled by Procter Brothers," according to Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
KEYWORDS: storm disaster ship sea death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 24, 1862 - The great storm of George's Banks. Fifteen ships are lost; thirteen of them go down with all hands
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws D3, "Fifteen Ships on Georges' Banks"
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 281-286, "Fifteen Ships on George's Banks" (3 texts)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 210-212, "Fifteen Ships on George's Bank" (1 text)
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 10, "Fifteen Ships on Georges' Banks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 62-63, "Fifteen Ships on Georges Banks" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 129, "George's Bank" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 781-783, "Fifteen Ships on George's Banks" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 159-161, "Fifteen Ships on George's Banks" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 182-183, "Fifteen Ships of Georges' Banks" (1 text)
DT 610, GEORGES
Roud #2229
File: LD03

Fifteen Years Ago

DESCRIPTION: I'm thinking of the place Tom, where oft we used to roam, The little cot beneath the trees we called our forest home." The schoolhouse is gone, the mill wheel quiet. The people we knew are in the graveyard, and we will follow soon.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: age grief home courting death derivative
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 130-132, "Fifteen Years Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24938
NOTES [162 words]: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's text is a rewrite, possibly localized, of the song indexed here as "Twenty Years Ago (Forty Years Ago)"; while the theme and structure are the same only the first and last lines are really close. "Courting" is one of the keywords for "Twenty Years Ago (Forty Years Ago)": "Down by the spring, upon an elm, you know I cut your name; Your sweetheart is just beneath it, Tom -- and you did mine the same; Some heartless wretch has peel'd the bark .... I thought of her I loved so well ... I visited the old churchyard ....." There is no reference to courting in "Fifteen Years Ago." Otherwise the kinds of change are the same but the changes themselves are different: in one case "the old school-house is altered some" while in the other "the schoolhouse was not on the hill." Death of old friends is an important theme in both songs but dominates "Fifteen Years Ago," while the other song has more to do with other changes. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Guig130

Fifteenth Psalm

DESCRIPTION: "Within Thy tabernacle, Lord, Who shall abide with thee? And in Thy high and holy hill, Who shall a dweller be?" Each verse is slightly modified in order to rhyme.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 687, "Fifteenth Psalm" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Brown, The Psalms of David (?, 1812 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 43-44, "Psalm XV" [The title page is missing]
John Brown, The Psalms of David (Berwick, 1825 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 30-31, "Psalm XV"
Roud #6110
NOTES [149 words]: Greig/Duncan3 is a slight expansion of Psalms 15.1 ["Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?]. The rest of that psalm [15.2-15.5] answers the questions., viz., "he that walketh upright...."
The John Brown texts restate all five verses of the Psalm. - BS
This is fairly typical. Metrical paraphrases of the psalms -- indeed, of the whole Bible -- go back to at least the early Christian era, and I seem to recall reading that there was a poetic Scottish paraphrase as early as the fourteenth century. Isaac Watts got away with writing hymns by claiming they were Psalm paraphrases.
(A numbering note for those who use the Greek Bible: What is called Psalm 15 in the Hebrew and English Bibles is Psalm 14 in the LXX Greek. It is ironic to note that, although it is among the most popular of the Psalms, there is little agreement on its origin or purpose. - RBW)
Last updated in version 5.0
File: GrD3687

Fifth of November, The (Guy Fawkes Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Please to remember The fifth of November, Gunpowder treason and plot. I know no reason Why gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: royalty technology homicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1605 - The botched "Gunpowder Plot"
FOUND IN: Britain New Zealand
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 61-62, "(Please to remember the fifth of November)" (1 text, plus another fragment that might be from another Guy Fawkes game and a partial reqire of "Chrismas Is Coming, The Goose Is Getting Fat")
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #409, p. 194, "(Please to remember)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 172, "Remember, Remember the Fifth of November" (1 text, with more verses than the usual)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 48, "Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #151, "(Please to remember)" (1 text, which has a tag which appears related to "Christmas Is Coming")
Enid Porter, _The Folklore of East Anglia_, Batsford, 1974, p. 71, "(no title)" (1 text plus a Guy Fawkes begging song)
ADDITIONAL: Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, pp. 136-137, "(Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November)" (1 text, mostly about punishing Fawkes)
Roud #16916
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Guy Fawkes" (subject)
NOTES [12 words]: For background on the Gunpowder Plot, see the notes to "Guy Fawkes." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: OpEs119

Fifty Cents

See I Had But Fifty Cents (File: R485)

Fifty Ninth Street Bridge Song

DESCRIPTION: "Slow down, you move too fast, You got to make the morning last... Looking for fun and feeling groovy." The singer quietly travels, with no plans, just "feeling groovy"
AUTHOR: Paul Simon
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (recording, Simon and Garfunkel)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 550, "Fifth Ninth Street Bridge Song"/"Feeling Groovy" (notes only)
DT, GROOVFEL*
NOTES [36 words]: Averill claims to have eleven collections of this, making it the most popular Paul Simon song among campers. I have to suspect they were all from a very limited period -- who even uses the word "groovy" any more? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF5505

Fifty Thousand Lumberjacks (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Fifty thousand lumberjacks, Fifty thousand packs, Fifty thousand dirty rolls of blankets on their backs" are determined to win their rights as workers. They want better conditions. Their families stand with them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (IWW Songs, 14th Edition, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement logger family hardtimes strike
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 505-506, "Fifty Thousand Lumberjacks, I" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Portland County Jail" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
File: LDC505

Fifty Thousand Lumberjacks (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Fifty thousand lumberjacks, Goin' out to work, Fifty thousand men That never loaf or shirk... Get nothin' but a cussin' From the pushes and the brains." The singer complains of the food and smells and sounds of the camps and vows not to accept it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (California Foklore Quarterly); reportedly collected 1917
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes strike
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp 586-587, "Fifty Thousand Lumberjacks" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 507, "Fifty Thousand Lumberjacks, II" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier (I)" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
File: CAFS2586

Figgerty Gutter

DESCRIPTION: "Figgerty Gutter, come home to supper, Some lean, some fat, Some comes under the butcher's hat" (or) "That's fat, that's lean, That's yellow, that's lean, That's good for the butcher's end."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Porter); reportedly sung in the 1880s
KEYWORDS: food nonballad home playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Enid Porter, _The Folklore of East Anglia_, Batsford, 1974, p. 58, "(no title)" (2 short texts)
File: EniPo058

Fight and Scratch and Tarry

DESCRIPTION: "I'm on my way and I ain't got long to tarry, Old folks love to fight and scratch, Young folks love to tarry."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: travel
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 106, "Fight and Scratch and Tarry" (1 text)
NOTES [52 words]: I strongly suspect that the last line of the Solomon-ZickaryZan text should be "Young folks love to MARRY," not "tarry" -- but, without other versions to compare, I can't prove it. I also feel as if this is probably a "Weevily Wheat" verse (or one of the related songs), but I have no evidence for that either. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ZiZa106A

Fight for Home and Honor, A

See The Homestead Strike (File: Gil198)

Fightin' Booze Fighter, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer reports, "I'm a howler from the prairies of the west; If you want to die with terror, look at me..." and goes on to describe how terrible he is. The chorus replies "He's a killer and a hater! He's the great annihilator!" and so forth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933
KEYWORDS: cowboy fight
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 35, "Cowboy Boasters" (5 texts, 2 tunes; this is the "A" text)
Roud #11214
NOTES [22 words]: The Fifes seem to think this is a traditional example of cowboy boasting. I can't bring myself to believe it; it's too contrived. - RBW
File: FCW035A

Fightin' Mad

DESCRIPTION: "I've swum the Colorado where she runs down close to hell" and otherwise been involved in dangerous, ugly situations "But I never lost my temper till right now." "I never was... really downright fightin' mad Till you ups and hands me that damn ginger ale"
AUTHOR: Jean Beumondy? (hinted at by Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys); reportedly received 1911
KEYWORDS: drink humorous cowboy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 66-67, "Fightin' Mad" (1 text)
File: ThLo066

Fighting 43rd, The

DESCRIPTION: "Have you heard, have yo heard, Of the fighting 43rd? As our limbers go rolling along." "Hi-yi-ye, the Field Artillery, Shout out your number loud and clear, 43rd!" "Over hill, over dale, Till we hit that dusty trail, As our limbers go rolling along."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: war derivative
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 40, "The Fighting 43rd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #29396
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Caissons Go Rolling Along (Caisson Song, Field Artillery Song)" (tune)
File: Hopk040

Fighting For Strangers

See Our Captain Calls All Hands (Fighting for Strangers) (File: Pea416)

Fighting On

See We Are Almost Down to the Shore (File: Dett084)

Filer, The

DESCRIPTION: Recitation. On a spree, Jim McCloud tells his foreman to cut off his leg, as it's loose. The foreman offers to cut Jim's head (his "weakest part") off instead. Jim answers that a foreman doesn't need to use his head, but a filer does, so he'll keep it
AUTHOR: Probably Marion Ellsworth
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Recitation; Jim McCloud is a filer of saws in a lumber-camp; a drinker, he's sometime gone for a week at a time. After one of these sprees, he tells his foreman to cut off his leg, as it's loose. The foreman says that's too hard a job for him, and offers to cut Jim's head off instead, "as that is your weakest part." Jim replies that while a foreman doesn't need to use his head, a filer does, so he'll keep it.
KEYWORDS: lumbering work drink humorous recitation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 99, "The Filer" (1 text)
Roud #8878
NOTES [18 words]: This, like the other pieces probably written by Ellsworth, does not seem to have entered oral tradition. - PJS
File: Be099

Filipino Hombre, A

DESCRIPTION: "There was once a Filipino hombre Who ate rice pescado y legumbre. His trousers were wide, and his shirt hung outside, And this, I may say, was costumbre." In mixed English and pidgin Spanish, the singer demeaningly describes the Filipino's family
AUTHOR: Captain Lyman A. Cotten
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: political family death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1898 - The U.S. captures the Philippines from Spain. The Americans were unwilling to grant the islands independence, so many soldiers had to be sent to garrison the islands. Neither side had much regard for the other
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 434-435, "A Filipino Hombre" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: San434

Fill a Glass of Sherry

DESCRIPTION: "Follow me, my jovial boys, let us now be merry, Run a pace and do not stay until that thou be weary, And cry, "Ho, boys! fill a glass of sherry."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 306, "Fill a Glass of Sherry" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 570)
Roud #1344
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl" (theme: drink and good fellowship)) and references there
NOTES [13 words]: The current description is all of the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT306C

Fill a Pot, Fill a Pan

DESCRIPTION: Fill a pot, fill a pan, fill a blind man's han'; them that hinna canna gie; stane blin' may they be" [or "will hae a cripple family"]
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Maclagan)
KEYWORDS: poverty begging nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1630, "Fill a Reesil, Fill a Pan" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Craig Maclagan, The Games and Diversions of Argyleshire (London, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 43-44, ("Fill a pot, fill a pan")
Roud #13070
NOTES [62 words]: The current description is all of the Maclagan text. The bracketed alternative reading is from Greig/Duncan8.
Maglagan, in his section on "Blindfold Games": "This amusement consists in one of the company shutting his or her eyes and stretching out the hand, palm upwards, half open, saying [text].... The whole fun consisted in the absurdity of the articles given...." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81630

Fill, Bowl, Fill

DESCRIPTION: A servant outwits a king, beds the queen, and marries the princess in this cante-fable. When the king orders the servant to fill a bowl with song, the servant cleverly retells the story of his triumph, until the king relents.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous seduction servant royalty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 348-350, "Fill, Bowl, Fill" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
NOTES [36 words]: For folktale references, see Vance Randolph, Who Blowed Up the Churchhouse (NY: Columbia University Press, 1952), pp. 185-186; and his Pissing in the Snow (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1976), pp. 47-50. - EC
File: RL348

Fille de la Garnison, La (The Garrison Girl)

DESCRIPTION: French. A soldier's mistress dresses as a boy to follow him without losing her honor. At an inn, the hostess said "I can tell... that you are a camp follower." When she claims to be a boy the hostess challenges "him" to make love with her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting love army cross-dressing mistress soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 335-336, "La Fille de la Garnison" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Mme. Gale, "La Fille de la Garnison" (on PeacockCDROM)
File: Pea335

Fille Soldat de Montcontour, La (The Girl Soldier of Montcontour)

DESCRIPTION: French. A girl dresses as a boy and joins her lover's regiment. She asks him why he is crying. He has a letter from his mom that his mistress left home seven years ago. She reveals that she is his mistress. They marry with great regimental ceremony.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting marriage army war cross-dressing mistress soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 338-339, "La Fille Soldat de Montcontour" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [22 words]: For notes on legitimate historical examples of women serving in the military in disguise, see the notes to "The Soldier Maid." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Pea338

Filles de La Rochelle, Les

DESCRIPTION: French. Forebitter shanty. "Sont les filles de la Rochelle." The ships are "the daughters of La Rochelle." They are made of ivory, diamond, lace, gold, silver, redwood. The crew is 15-year-old girls. A girl aloft cries because she has lost her white rose
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: ship shanty flowers separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 156, "Les Filles de la Rochelle" (2 texts, French & English, 1 tune)
File: HSoSe156

Fillimeeooreay

See Paddy Works on the Railway (File: LxU076)

Fillin' o' the Punchbowl Wearies Me, The

DESCRIPTION: "The fillan o' the punch bowl, That wearies me; The fillan o't up, an' the drinkan' o't doon, An' the kissan o' a bonnie lass, That cheeries me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: courting drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 599, "The Fillin' o' the Punchbowl Wearies Me" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6049
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "He's a Bonnie, Bonnie Laddie That I'm Gaun Wi'" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
NOTES [12 words]: The current description is from Gomme 2.84 re the "Punch Bowl" game. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3599

Fin We Gang Up tae London

DESCRIPTION: "London city it is fine ... winna that be fine, When we gang up to London?" "The ladies in London say, How do you do? Quite well I thank you; how are you?" "And when dinner it is o'er The carriage is drawn to the door ... to drive us on thro' London"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 501, "Fin We Gang Up tae London" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5986
File: GrD3501

Fin Ye Gang Awa Johnnie

See When Ye Gang Awa Johnnie (File: GrD3589)

Final Trawl, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's three long years since we made her pay"; with fishing poor and subsidies low, the fishermen can't make a living. The ship is making her last trawl. The owner will beach her on a skerry rather than let her be broken up.
AUTHOR: Archie Fisher
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (date of composition, according to Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs, and recordings began to appear very soon after)
KEYWORDS: fishing hardtimes wreck ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 159, "The Final Trawl" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FINTRAWL*
File: PaSe159

Finch Horse Trade, A

DESCRIPTION: "Of sturdy pioneers one hears so much," but not all are honest. A farmer one morning finds his best horse missing. He goes to Black Earth to find another. He sees a very similar horse, but without a stripe. He buys it, then finds the stripe growing back
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Gard/Sorden)
KEYWORDS: horse trick disguise thief
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden, _Wisconsin Lore: Antics and Anecdotes of Wisconsin People and Places_, Wisconsin House, 1962, p. 162, "A Finch Horse Trade" (1 text, presumably from Wisconsin although no source is listed)
NOTES [127 words]: According to Gard/Sorden, the Finch family came to Wisconsin during the Black Hawk War. They were active in the vicinity of Jefferson and Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin (imagine a line between Madison and Milwaukee. It's somewhat south of the halfway point on that line). They often staged "Indian" raids, and hid in swamps. One of their tricks was to steal horses and disguise them with paint. Black Earth, where this event supposedly occurred, is a bit out of their range; it is west of Madison. The song does not mention the Finches, but they were apparently regarded as being responsible.
Gard/Sorden's text appears to be unique, and they give no evidence of a tune, so this may be a poem rather than a song, but I thought it better to include it just in case. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GaSor162

Finding of Moses, The

DESCRIPTION: "In Agypt's land, contaygious to the Nile, Old Pharo's daughter ... saw a smiling babby in a wad of straw ...'Tare-an-ages, girls, which o' yees owns the child?'"
AUTHOR: probably Michael J. Moran (Zozimus)
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (Gulielmus Dubliniensis Humoriensis)
KEYWORDS: Bible humorous baby
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads, p. 230, "The Finding of Moses" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Gulielmus Dubliniensis Humoriensis [Joseph Tully?], Memoir of the Great Original Zozimus (Michael Moran) (Dublin,1976 (reprint of the 1871 edition, which is available on Google Books)), pp. 20-22, "The Finding of Moses" or "Finding of Moses in the Nile" (1 text)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 514, in a note to "Night Before Larry Was Stretched"
Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 26-27, "The Finding of Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Moses" (plot)
cf. "Johhny Wetbread" (another piece by Zozimus)
cf. "The Imperial Throne When Theodorus Held" (another piece by Zozimus)
NOTES [1015 words]: OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads: "...Zozimus, who was in life Michael Moran, born ... Dublin, about the year 1794 ... composed a notable ballad on The Finding of Moses in the Bulrushes, which begins On Egypt's plains where flows the ancient Nile, Where Ibix stalks and swims the Crockadile.... It underwent many changes ... and a number of versions are extant. A fragment of one [is presented here]."
Sparling's text, exactly as complete or incomplete as OLochlainn, is in not quite as broad a slang. Sparling also attributes it to "the celebrated blind 'Zozimus' who sang his own songs." A more complete version is Frank Harte's Songs of Dublin: Moses' mother is picked up, by coincidence, to be his nurse.
"Memoir of the Great Original Zozimus (Michael Moran)" has two versions; the first "would appear to be all his own composition" and the second "appears to have been an early effort [by Moran]." In the first, which has two verses, King Pharoah's daughter "tuk it [Moses] to Pharo', who madly wild, Said, 'You foolish girl have you got with child?"; in spite of the efforts of one of the daughter's entourage to dissuade Pharoah he says he'll "search every hole and nook" for the father "and likely I'll find him at Donnybrook." The second, rescued "from the uncertainty of tradition," is much longer (26 rhymed couplets), has no statements at all by Pharoah, and ends with a moral drawn from the life of the boy "which rescued from their bondage the Israel of God": "A conquered nation, though down-trod, it still is never crushed, A Liberator always comes when Freedom's voice is hushed; And so our own dear land, in time we all shall see The Saxon rulers gone - Old Ireland shall be free!" - BS
Humoriensis, p. 4, says this of Zozimus: "Any resident of Dublin, over thirty-five years of age [in 1871], may recall the memory of a tall, attenuated, blind man, dressed in a heavy, coarse, long-tailed coat, and a very much worn hat, which, with strong shoes, constituted the entire visible costume of ZOZIMUS, save indeed his indispensable talisman, guide, and protector, a stout blackthorn stick, secured to his wrist by a leather thong, and finished by an iron ferrule. His face upturned displayed his sightless eyes; his peculiarly formed mouth, and strongly marked facial muscles, gave decision to his aspect. His voice was so remarkable as to draw the attention of mimics, being deeply guttural, accompanied by a peculiar list on certain words."
According to Frank Harte (cf. Humoriensis, p. 5), Moran/Zozimus went blind at the age of two weeks, forcing him into a career in entertainment. He took his stage name from an abbot Zozimus who lived in Egypt. This Zozimus (note the variant spelling) was rather obscure, but there was also a Pope Zozimus, who was involved in the Pelagian Controversy (Chadwick, pp. 230-231. Zozimus was pontiff from 417 to the end of 418 or the beginning of 419, and seems to have been a Greek, possibly of Jewish origin; Kelly, p. 38).
Others around that period also had the name Zozimus. There was a pagan historian Zosimus (Johnson, pp. 97, 112) around 500 C.E. who is "Tentatively identified with a sophist from Ascaon or Gaza. Pagan. Wrote New History, from Augustus to 410" (Grant, p. 351). There was a fairly well-known alchemist or mystic or something named Zosimus who may have lived around 300 C.E. -- Emsley (p. 4) calls him an alchemist, but Crosland (p. 13) declares that "It is hard to believe... that the visions related by Zosimos (c. 300 A.D.) have any direct relevance to practical chemistry. Accounts of such visions may be more practically studied by a psychologist than a chemist." But Zosimus was also one of the first to mention the Philosopher's Stone, which he called the "stone which is not a stone" (Crosland, p. 22). Charlesworth, pp. 223-228, discusses the history of the work of Zosimus, reaching few firm conclusions -- its origin may be Jewish in the first centuries of the Common Era, but it has been much elaborated. The best guess is that the version known in the Middle Ages was probably from about the sixth century. The tale came to be known in Greek, Syriac (late Aramaic), Ethiopic, and probably other languages. The book was probably rewritten at least once and probably several times, and the parts almost certainly were not all written at the same time. Although the original may have been Jewish, the redactions were probably Christian.
One or the other of these Zosimi was mentioned in the Irish nursery rhyme, "The Imperial Throne when Theodosius held." I wonder if that might somehow have influenced Moran's choice of name -- indeed, Eilís says it did; see the notes to that piece,
Boylan, p. 255, gives a brief biography of Moran, probably based on Humoriensis, which gives his birth date as 1794, and agrees with OLochlain that it was in Dublin and that he lost his sight in his first month of life. "More of a reciter than a singer, he had no ear for music and depended on his eccentricity to make his name." He derived the name "Zozimus" from a story he recited about Zozimus, who found St. Mary of Egypt in the desert; it was written by one Dr. Coyle. Moran died in 1846; in 1988, they put up a monument to him by his grave in Dublin.
Humoriensis, pp. 30-31, says that he died at his lodgings at 15 Patrick Street on April 3, 1846; he had been unwell and had speech problems since late 1845.
Other pieces by Zosimus, or at least associated with him, in the Index are the aforementioned "The Imperial Throne...." "Dicky in the Yeomen," "Billy's Downfall," and "Johnny Wetbread," plus the dubious cases of "Saint Patrick Was a Gentleman" and "The Twangman."
The story of Moses being abandoned by his parents (who had to hide him to prevent him from being killed) is told in Exodus 2:1-10. The choosing of his mother to be his nurse, in the Bible, is no coincidence. His sister (presumably Miriam, but the girl is not named at this time) has followed the baby along the Nile, and when the time comes, offers to find a nurse for the baby. Naturally she chose Moses's own mother (Exodus 2:7-8). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: OLOc230

Fine Big Woman

See Twelve Stone Two (File: OCon079)

Fine Broom Besoms (When I Was wi' Barney)

DESCRIPTION: After singing the besom-selling chorus, the singer recalls wandering far from the home where "my mother's spinnin', Barney at the loom." She dreams of her youth when she danced with Barney. "Now the summer's over... I am tired at last."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: work home separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H17a, p. 60, "Fine Broom Besoms" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1623
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Besom Maker" (chorus)
cf. "Buy Broom Besoms (I Maun Hae a Wife)" (chorus)
NOTES [121 words]: The besom-seller's cry, "Buy broom besoms, wha will buy them noo? (Fine heather ringers), better never grew" is obviously very old, and inspired Burns in 1796 to write "Wha will buy my troggin."
The street call isn't really a song, though, and it evidently invited completion, as I am aware of at least three texts with this burden:
* I Maun Hae a Wife, probably Scottish, in which the old besom-maker desperately seeks a companion.
* The Sam Henry text "Fine Broom Besoms," in which the singer misses Barney. This looks to me to be a composite of two pieces; I wish we could isolate the Barney text. It looks very beautiful in the nostalgic Irish sort of way.
* The Besom Maker, a song of seduction, printed as a broadside. - RBW
File: HHH017a

Fine Fat Saucy Chinaman, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing a little ditty, which I trust you'll not think flat, Of a fine fat saucy Chinaman Who lives on Ballarat." He digs in ground others say has no gold, and finds enough to live. Others complain. He must pay a tax for being Chinese. He needs a wife
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters)
KEYWORDS: China worker Australia marriage gold
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 79-80, "The Fine Fat Saucy Chinaman" (1 text, from "Thatcher's Colonial Songster")
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 99-101, "The Fine Fat Saucy Chinaman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-GoldrushSongster, pp. 90-91, "The Fine Fat Saucy Chinaman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, pp. 144-145, "The Fine Fat Saucy Chinaman" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old English Gentleman" (tune) and references there
NOTES [29 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: AnSt099

Fine Flowers in the Vale O

See The Cruel Brother [Child 11] (File: C011)

Fine Flowers in the Valley (I)

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

Fine Flowers in the Valley (II)

See Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14] (File: C014)

Fine Lady Gay, The

See The Wife of Usher's Well [Child 79] (File: C079)

Fine Old English Gentleman, The

See The Old English Gentleman (File: HenV114)

Fine Old English Labourer, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come, lads, and listen to my song, a song of honest toil, It's of the English labourer, the tiller of the soil." Having long been abused, the worker is standing up for his rights and better pay. The Union makes him immune to threats of being fired
AUTHOR: Howard Evans (source: Palmer)
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Palmer); the tune is from 1905 and the text apparently from the nineteenth century
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes labor-movement
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #16, "The fine old English labourer" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old English Gentleman" (tune, according to Palmer) and references there
File: PaPa016

Fine Old Irish Gentleman, The

See The Fine Ould Irish Gentleman (File: NCSFOIGe)

Fine Ould Irish Gentleman, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing you a fine ould song made by a fine old Paddy's pate." He lives in a "mighty curious," not especially fancy home. He goes on a spree, and gets so drunk that they think he is dead. But he smells the whiskey at the wake and comes to life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (New-Comic-Songster)
KEYWORDS: derivative drink death humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 89-90, "I'll sing you a good old song made by a good old pate" (1 fragment, short enough that it might be either "The Old English Gentleman" or this, but I've filed it here because the gentleman is called Irish)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 60, "The Fine Ould Irish Gentleman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, pp. 18-19 and #3/62, pp. 18-19, "The Fine Old Irish Gentleman" (1 text)
Roud #23518
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old English Gentleman" (lyrics, theme) and references there
cf. "Finegan's Wake" [Laws Q17] (theme of a man who seems dead until the wake)
NOTES [36 words]: The song "The Old English Gentleman" is clearly intimately related to this one (Roud lumps them), but since one is clearly a rewrite of the other (the Irish song probably being the parody), I keep them separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: NCSFOIGe

Fine Sally

See A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.) [Laws P9]; also "The Brown Girl" [Child 295] (File: LP09)

Fine Times in Camp Number Three

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls his listener to hear two verses about lumberjacks (and then sings ten verses!). He levels some snide comments at dishonest workers, then lists all the workers on the crew (without naming names)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes logger work lumbering
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #23, "Fine Times in Camp Number Three" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4361
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rigs of the Times" (lyrics)
NOTES [64 words]: I have to suspect that this is a composite song. The first verse says it's only two verses -- but the version sung by LaRena Clark has ten stanzas. The third is straight out of a Canadian version of "Rigs of the Times." My feeling is that Clark's version of "Fine Times in Camp Number Three" contaminates that with parts of "Rigs of the Times," with which it probably shared a tune. - RBW
File: FowL23

Fine Waiting Boy

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Fineen the Rover

DESCRIPTION: "An old castle tower o'er the billow That thunders by Cleena's green land, And there dwelt as gallant a rover As ever grasped hilt by the hand. "Then, ho! for Fineen the Rover!" The English harried him, but he never gives in until he is killed
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Dwyer Joyce (1830-1883) (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (Universal Irish Songster)
KEYWORDS: sailor battle ship freedom death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 61, "Fineen the Rover" (1 text, 2 tunes, neither tune being the original)
Roud #V30652
File: FrPi061

Finest Fucking Family

See Please, Don't Burn Our Shithouse Down (File: EM109)

Finest Waitress, The

DESCRIPTION: "The finest waitress I ever did see Is the handsome girl that waits on me... Polite she is to young and old, I'm sure she has a heart of gold." He praises her work, and concludes "May unseen angels ever be Near the fair blonde girl who waits on me."
AUTHOR: Edgar Hamm?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: nonballad food servant
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 250-251, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 250-251)
NOTES [29 words]: Thomas comments on this piece, "Many a mountain lad thinks only in verse." On the evidence, this particular mountain lad didn't think at all -- at least with his brain. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa250

Fingers and Thumbs

DESCRIPTION: Motion song. "One finger, one thumb keep moving (3x), We’ll all be merry and bright." An introduction may have "characters" stand or sit together. "Two thumbs keep moving" "Two thumbs, four fingers keep moving" "Two thumbs, four fingers, one head ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Smith)
KEYWORDS: cumulative nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 79, "Three Jolly Bachelors" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 506)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 516, "One Finger, One Thumb" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 39, "One Finger, One Thumb" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 5, "One Finger, One Thumb" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 17, "One Finger, One Thumb" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Caroline Smith ("Aunt Carrie"), Popular Pastimes for Field and Fireside (Springfield, 1867 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 236-237, "Fingers and Thumbs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1249
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Jolly Miller
Keep Moving
Spastic Song
NOTES [95 words]: Smith writes that the cumulative line part in this game "must be sung on one note, as in chants [one breath?]..."
The person selected to commence this game must arrange all the players in a cicle .... Each must follow the motions of the leader, and join him in singing." - BS
This sounds as if it has been dramatically simplified in the camp song version, where everyone just does the play together.
The last line seems to vary a lot:
We'll all be merry and bright, or
We'll all be happy and gay, or
We'll all be jolly and bright,
And we'll all have a jolly good time.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: WT079

Fingers on the Table

See Intery Mintery Cutery Corn (File: OO2252)

Finikin Lass (Finnigan Lasses)

DESCRIPTION: The singer marries a boarding school bred lady who does nothing but read novels. One day he catches her in the cellar "paying the rent." "I'd rather marry the devil than wed with a boarding school lass." "So beware of the Finnegan lasses"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1205))
KEYWORDS: shrewishness infidelity marriage beauty clothes humorous scatological wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 269-271, "Finnigan Lasses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2382
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "The Finnigan Lasses" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1205), "The Finical Lass," W. Stephenson (Gateshead), 1821-1838; also Harding B 25(652), "The Finical Lass"; Firth c.20(5), "Finikin Lasses"; Johnson Ballads 827, "The Finiken Lass"
NOTES [41 words]: For a definition of "finikin," specifically "precise in trifles, idly busy," see TheFreeDictionary site. The word is like current "finicky."
There is also a parody at Bodleian, Harding B 11(1206), "The Finiken Man," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844 - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea269

Finished Letter, The

See Anna Lee (The Finished Letter) (File: R775)

Finn Waterside

DESCRIPTION: The singer wanders out and hears his true love call him to Finn waterside. Her(?) parents are sending/exiling her(?) to America. She says she loves only him. He (or she) bids farewell to the local beauties
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H240, p. 192, "Finn Waterside" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13548
NOTES [56 words]: This song, at least in the Henry version, is very confusing; with no indication of speakers, it is not clear whether the girl or the boy is being exiled (let alone for what reason), nor whether the final scene is a parting by the one being exiled or a promise by the other to come along, accompanied by a farewell to the old home. - RBW
File: HHH240

Finnegan Beginigin

See Michael Finnegan (File: FSWB242B)

Finnegan's Wake (II)

See Molly McGlocklin (File: RcMolMcG)

Finnegan's Wake [Laws Q17]

DESCRIPTION: Tim Finnegan, never entirely sober, falls from a ladder and cracks his head. Taken home unconscious, his wife holds a wake that soon gets out of control. Splashed with whiskey, Tim awakens and resents being thought dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1861 (broadside, LOCSinging sb40523b)
KEYWORDS: injury drink fight party
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro) Canada(Mar,New,Ontf) Ireland
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws Q17, "Tim Finnegan's Wake" [Laws Q17]
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 146, "Tim Finnegan's Wake" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 169, "Finnigan's Wake" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #167, "Tim Finnegan's Wake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 86, "Tim Finnigan's Wake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 65, "Finnigan's Wake" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 136, "Tim Finigan's Wake" (1 text)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 91, "Finnegan's Wake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 219, "Finnegan's Wake" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2335, p. 157, "Tim Finigan's Wake" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #13, pp. 6-7, "Finigan's Wake" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 120, "Finnegan's Wake" (1 partial text)
Behan-IrelandSings, #30, "Finnegan's Wake" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 232, "Finnegan's Wake" (1 text)
DT 528, FINNWAKE*
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 28-29, "Finnegan's Wake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1009
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Finnigan's Wake" (on IRClancyMakem01)
Warde Ford, "Finnegan's Wake" [incomplete] (AFS 4212 A3, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Jack Swain, "Finnigan's Wake I" (on NFMLeach); "Finnegan's Wake (Version 1)" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
John Terrell, "Tim Finnegan's Wake" (Berliner 1869, 1898)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(254), "Finnigan's Wake," W.S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; also Harding B 11(3620), Harding B 11(3619), Firth c.26(209), Harding B 11(1207), "Finnigan's Wake"
LOCSinging, sb40523b, "Tim Finigan's wake," H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Wake" [Laws Q18]
cf. "The Bullockies' Ball" (theme)
cf. "Doherty's Wake" (subject)
cf. "Finnegan's Wake" [Laws Q17]
cf. "The Fine Ould Irish Gentleman" (theme of a man who seems dead until the wake)
SAME TUNE:
The French Musician (per broadside LOCSinging sb40523b)
Rafferty's Party (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 131)
NOTES [103 words]: William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 74, proposes that the popular song "The Fine Ould Irish Gentlemen," popularized and possibly written by John Brougham, is the precursor of this song. Given that the "Gentleman" appeared in 1845 (Williams, p. 72), this is barely possible, but we would have to allow the possibility that the dependence is the other way. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb40523b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LQ17

Finnigan Lasses

See Finikin Lass (Finnigan Lasses) (File: Pea269)

Finnigan's Wake

See Finnegan's Wake [Laws Q17] (File: LQ17)

Finvola, the Gem of the Roe

DESCRIPTION: "In the land of O'Cahan... Deep sunk in a valley a wild flower did grow, And her name was Finvola, the gem of the Roe." A young man in tartan comes and falls in love with her. Now she is dead (?); the locals grieve
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: death love
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H786, pp. 139-140, "Finvola, the Gem of the Roe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2291
NOTES [31 words]: Yes, this song (or at least the Henry text) is as confusing as the description implies. It's not clear what the young man is introduced for, nor even if Finvola dies or is stolen away. - RBW
File: HHH786

Fire Alarm

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Fire, fire, false/fire alarm, John fell into Mary's arms. First comes love, then comes marriage, Then John with a baby carriage."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Western Folklore, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: love jumprope marriage baby | fire
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #139, "Fire, fire, fire alarm" (1 text)
Roud #19431
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sitting in a Tree (K-I-S-S-I-N-G, First Comes Love, Dick and Jane)" ("first comes love" lines)
NOTES [23 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes suggests this is an autograph album verse. It strikes me as a little too strong to be often used in that form! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR139

Fire Down Below

DESCRIPTION: "There is fire in the lower hold, There's fire down below, Fire in the main well, The captain didn't know." All places where fire has arisen (or might arise), from mast to keel, are listed. It perhaps started in the galley, and "The cook he didn't know"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Bolton)
KEYWORDS: fire ship
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) West Indies(Nevis) Bermuda
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 117, "Fire Down Below" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 123-125 "Fire Down Below" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 519-522, "Fire Down Below" (5 texts, 5 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 378-381]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXIV, p. 27, "Fire! Fire!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 112-113, "Fire Down Below" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 39, "Fire in the Foretop" (1 text)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 148-149, "Fire in the Foretop" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 47-49, "Fire Down Below" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 83, "Fire Down Below" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, H. Carrington Bolton, "Gombay, a Festal Rite of Bermudian Negroes", Vol. 3, No. 10 (Jul-Sep 1890), p. 226, "Fire Down Below" (1 text)
DT, FIREBELO
Roud #813
File: FSWB083A

Fire in the Foretop

See Fire Down Below (File: FSWB083A)

Fire of Frendracht, The

See The Fire of Frendraught [Child 196] (File: C196)

Fire of Frendraught, The [Child 196]

DESCRIPTION: Brothers Lord John and Rothiemay are enticed by Lady Frendraught to stay at Castle Frendraught to end their feud. Their room is set afire by night. Lord John's servant offers to catch him out the window, but it is too late. Lord John's wife is heartbroken
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (Ritson)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The brothers Lord John and Rothiemay are enticed by Lady Frendraught to stay at Castle Frendraught to seal a compact between their feuding families. Their room is set afire by night. Lady Frendraught expresses mild regret for killing Lord John, but none for Rothiemay. Lord John's servant offers to catch him (but not poor Rothiemay) out the window, but it is too late. When Lord John's wife hears the news, her heart is broken.
KEYWORDS: fire feud betrayal brother family trick
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
October 8/9, 1630 - The Frendraught Fire
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Child 196, "The Fire of Frendraught" (6 texts)
Bronson 196, "The Fire of Frendraught" (4 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 196, "The Fire of Frendraught" (3 versions: #1, #2, #3)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 75-80, "The Burning of Frendraught"; pp. 80-82, "Frennet Hall" (2 texts)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 11-18, "Lord John and Rothiemay" (1 text plus a copy of a history of the event)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #142, pp. 1-2, "The Fire of Frendraught"; #145, p. 2, "The Fire of Frendraught" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan2 232, "The Fire o' Frendraught" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #2}
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 119-122, "The Fire of Frendracht" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 267, "Fire of Frendraught" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 269-272, "The Fire of Frendraught" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 145, "The Fire of Frendraught" (1 text)
DT 196, FRNDRGT*
Roud #336
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" [Child 73] (tune, according to Greig/Duncan2)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fause Frendraught
NOTES [319 words]: In terms of feud, this wasn't notably worse than much of what passed in Scotland; the survival of the song may be due to its religious associations (this was the reign of Charles I, when Puritanism was on the rise but the king appeared to be so High Church as to be soft on Catholicism).
C. V. Wedgwood writes in The King's Peace, p. 120,
"In 1630 a principal member of Huntly's family [Huntly was one of the leading Catholics] had perished with several companions in a fire at Frendraught, a house belonging to the Crichtons. The Crichtons, though apparently reconciled, were hereditary enemies of the Gordons, and foul play was suspected. If the horrible business had indeed been a murder and not an accident, it was probably the result of personal enmity and nothing more, but a religious motive was suspected. The Catholics told a tragic tale of the heroism of the young victim who has expounded the true faith to his companions as the flames crept up the tower in which he was trapped."
Rosalind Mitchison, in A History of Scotland, second edition, pp. 169-170, says this of the affair:
"[A] famous dispute... lay across Aberdeenshire in the 1630s, the affair of the burning of the tower of Frendraught, part of the Crichton homestead which went up in flames one night in October 1630 with a son of Huntly and Gordon of Rothiemay, and their attendants, inside. It was never established that this was more than a ghastly accident, but the Gordons were passionately resentful. Huntly [the chief of the Gordons] took the quarrel to the Privy Council. The Council investigated repeatedly, tortured a servant or two for information, executed a hanger-on of no great social status, but failed to gain evidence against Crichton of Frendraught. Dissatisfied, Huntley let in broken men from the Highlands to ravage Crichton land, and for years the north-east was troubled by burnings, looting, and kidnappings."- RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C196

Fire on the Mountain, Run, Run, Run

DESCRIPTION: Singing game (or fiddle tune), with text "Fire on the mountain, run, run, run." Occasional local verses: "Two little Indians sittin' on a log, Looking at a hog in Arkansas." "Oh my little Indian, don't drink whiskey"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1825 (_Mother Goose's Quarto_, according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad floatingverses Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) Canada(Mar) New Zealand
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 260, "Fire on the Mountain, Run, Run, Run" (1 extremely short text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 77, "Fire on the Mountains" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 64, "Fire on the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 41, "Fire on the Mountains" (1 short text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Carl Van Doren, "Some Play-Party Songs from Eastern Illinois," Vol. XXXII, No. 126 (Oct 1919), #16 p. 493 "Fire On the Mountain" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Joan Moser, "Instrumental Music of the Southern Appalachians: Traditional Fiddle Tunes," Vol. XII, No. 2 (Dec. 1964), p. 5, "Old Daddy Bowback (Fire on the Mountain)" (1 tune with variants)
Roud #4618
NOTES [168 words]: Piper has a two-line fragment, "Cat in the creamer, run, boys, run, Fire on the mountains, fun, boys, fun," with the chorus of "Jim Along Josie" (source: Edwin F. Piper, "Some Play-Party Games of the Middle West" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXVIII, No. 109 (Jul 1915 (available online by JSTOR)), #6.B p. 268 "Hi, Come Along!"). Van Doren's first verse is "Fire on the mountain, run, boys, run!" (3x) "Hey, jim along, jim along Josie!"
Ford's text to "King Henry" is "King Henry, King Henry, Run, boys, run; You with the red coat, Follow with the drum." (source: Robert Ford, Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories (Paisley, 1904 (2nd edition, "Digitized by Google")), p. 77, "King Henry"; see also, Robert Craig Maclagan, The Games and Diversions of Argyleshire (London, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 216-217, "King Henry"). - BS
Roud in fact lumps this with "Jim Along Josie." I suspect, however, that this should be considered a floating verse. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: CrSe260

Fire Ship, The

DESCRIPTION: In naval euphemisms, a sailor meets a whore, takes her in tow, and empties his shot locker. She steals his money and clothes, and he discovers she has given him "fire down below."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1612 (London broadside, "Watten's Town End")
KEYWORDS: bawdy sailor sex warning whore disease
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(NW,So,SW)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 171-172, "The Fire Ship" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 138-139]
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 68-71, "The Fire Ship" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 237-239, "The Fire Ship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 205-206, "The Fire Ship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 152-155, "Fireship (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 101, "The Fire Ship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 128, "The Fire Ship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, p. 61, "The Fire Ship" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 26, "The Fireship" (1 text)
DT, FIRSHIP
Roud #4841
RECORDINGS:
Guy Mitchell, "The Fire Ship" (Columbia 78-39067, 1950 -- a cleaned-up version, needless to say)
The Weavers, "The Roving Kind" (Decca 27332, 1950; on WeaversCD1 -- another cleaned-up version)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Firelock Stile" (plot)
cf. "The Sewing Machine" (plot)
cf. "The Wayward Boy" (plot)
cf. "While Hanging Around Town" (plot)
cf. "A-Rovin'" (plot)
cf. "Ball of Yarn" (plot)
cf. "Boring for Oil" (plot)
cf. "Eleventh Street Whores" (plot)
cf. "Footprints on the Dashboard" (plot)
cf. "The Gay Caballero" (plot)
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die (VI -- Cowboy Bawdy variant)" (theme)
cf. "Hot Engagement Between a French Privateer and an English Fireship, (An Excellent New Song Entitled A...)" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
She Had a Dark and a Rovin' Eye
A Dark and a Rolling Eye
NOTES [65 words]: Legman has extensive notes on this ballad in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I. - EC
A "fireship," as the term was usually used, was a small craft set on fire and floated into a larger vessel (or fleet) to set it afire or at least force it off-course. Hence the analogy to a prostitute who spreads disease.
Most printed and recorded versions of this have been cleaned up to some extent. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: EM068

Fire Song

See My Lovin' Father (When the World's On Fire) (File: R637)

Fire Tragedy

See The House-Burning in Carter County (File: ThBa108)

Fire, Fire, Fire Alarm

See Fire Alarm (File: AJRR139)

Fire, Fire, Says Mr. McGuire

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "'Fire, fire,' says Mr. McGuire. 'Where, where?' Says Mr. O'Dare. 'At the barn," said Mr. O'Darn (or 'At the fair,' said Mr./Mrs. Blair) And it burns hotter, hotter, hotter...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folk Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | fire
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #140, "'Fire, fire,' says Mr. McGuire" (1 text)
File: AJRR140

Fire, Maringo

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Lift him up and carry him along, Fire maringo, fire away. Put him down where he belongs, Fire maringo, fire away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Erskine-TwentyYearsBeforeTheMast)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 16. "Fire, Maringo" (1 text, quoting Nordhoff's _The Merchant Vessel_)
Erskine-TwentyYearsBeforeTheMast, pp. 297-298, "(Lift him up and carry him along)" (1 text)
DT, FIRMRING
ADDITIONAL: Charles Nordhoff, _The Merchant Vessel: A Sailor Boy's Voyages To See the World_ (Cincinnati: Moore, Wilstach, Keys & Co., 1856 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 42, "(Lift him up and carry him along)" (1 text)
Philip Henry Gosse, _Letters From Alabama_ (London: Morgan and Chase, 1859 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 305-306, "(I think I hear the black cook say)" (1 text)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fire, Marengo
NOTES [743 words]: Some dispute on the origin; Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas says that Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman mentions this as being of Negro origin (but I couldn't find any mention of it in Shantymen and Shantyboys [nor could I - RBW]); however, Hugill himself thinks it is Irish, citing the use of the word "maringo" which he says is found is many Irish folk-songs. - SL
Both Nordhoff and Erskine heard this chantey in the 1840s from sailors acting as winter stevedores using cotton jack-screws to stow bales into waiting holds in New Orleans and Mobile.
Joe Stead writes that the "him" of the song probably refers to the bale of cotton being stored in the hold. Here are some of Erskine's verses, in addition to those in the description, that make Stead's case: "Ease him down and let him lay... Screw him, and there he'll stay," "Stow him in his hold below... Stay he must and then he'll go."
It's not clear when Gosse heard his version in Mobile since he hides the year of his letters, but the time was early winter. Gosse's response lines are "Fire the ringo, fire away!" which, if Gosse heard correctly, evades Hugill's need to find an Irish source for "maringo." Gosse's text also removes the bale as the subject and makes a Black -- or a stage "minstrel" -- source reasonable. His verses are "I think I hear the black cook say... They shot so hard, I could not stay," "So I spread my wings and flew away... All the way to Canaday."
Another theme shared by the Gosse and Erskine texts is the Battle of New Orleans: "In New Orleans they say... That General Jackson's gained the day."
For both of Gosse's themes, "Fire..." in the chorus would have to do with shooting.
While we haven't found the Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman speculation on a Black origin for this chantey there is an argument that cotton-screwing chanteys originated with Black stevedores on the New Orleans and Mobile Bay docks.
One of Hugill's "Roll the Cotton Down" texts has "Was ye ever in Mobile Bay, Screwin' cotton by the day," "Oh, a black man's pay is rather low, To stow the cotton we must go" and "Oh, a white man's pay is rather high, Rock an' shake 'er is the cry" (Hugill, p. 124) is a witness to that.
However, the references by Erskine, Nordhoff, and Gosse, as well as by Whidden and Barra, are all about white screw-gangs in the 1840s and 1850s. Whidden writes, "In the winter months, all along the levees at New Orleans lay tiers of shipping of all nationalities, loading cotton for the northern ports of the United States, as well as the various ports of Europe.... The songs or 'Chanties' from hundreds of these gangs of cotton-screwers could be heard all along the river front, day after day, making the levees of New Orleans a lively spot. As the business of cotton-screwing was dull during the summer months, the majority of the gangs, all being good sailors, shipped on some vessel that was bound to some port in Europe to pass the heated term and escape the 'yellow Jack,' which was prevalent at that season. When they returned in the fall they could command high wages at cotton-screwing on shipboard. Some would go to northern ports, but generally the autumn found them all back, ready for their winter's work" (Whidden, pp. 96-98).
Nordhoff's crews are "mostly English and Irish sailors" (Nordhoff, p. 43), and Erskine's were "a good set of sailors, and nearly all Bostonians" (Erskine, p. 296). Barra has the "most of the sailors that sailed in the Liverpool packets during the summer months" preferring to winter on the New Orleans and Mobile cotton screw gangs (Barra p. 54). Blacks had been stevedores on American docks at least since about 1800 (Southern, p. 148); however, by the 1840s The Negro Seaman Acts in various Southern states made it illegal for free Blacks to work on the docks, and man-stealing made it dangerous where it was legal (Bolster, pp. 199-201, 206, 209). So, while the call-and-response form of cotton-screwing chanteys make a good argument for Black origin, Black stevedores and sailors are no longer on the job when the chanteys are recorded.
Finally, cotton screw gangs have been given credit for the first use of terms "chantey" and "chantey-man" (Schreffler-Reenvisioning, p. 9; Nordhoff, p. 40). See Schreffler's work for an argument for recognizing -- again now as in the 19th century -- the Black origin of the chantey form on the docks and deep-water (Schreffler-Choices, Schreffler-Reenvisioning). - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.1
File: Hugi016

Fire! Fire!

See Fire Down Below (File: FSWB083A)

Fire's Burning

See London's Burning (File: Dolb136)

Fireball MacNamara's Address to his Pistols

DESCRIPTION: MacNamara talks to his pistols on the morning of a battle. He tells how he will kill foes. He fought at Vinegar Hill. Steel, not words, will "drive foreign foes from the land" "One eloquent blow ... Would gain you more glory than ages of speech"
AUTHOR: Michael Hogan (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (Hogan's _Lays and Legends of Thomond_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 128, "Fireball MacNamara's Address to his Pistols" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [61 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "John 'Fireball' MacNamara ... was a noted duellist and adventurer. He was reputed to have taken part, incognito, in the battle of Vinegar Hill [June 21, 1798; see, for example, the references for 'Boulavogue'], and he seconded Daniel O'Connell during the latter's duel with D'Esterre in 1815 [see references for 'Kerry Eagle']." - BS
File: Moyl128

Firelock Stile

DESCRIPTION: A woman is crossing Firelock Stile, she catches her clothes on a nail. A man is dazzled by the sight; she says if he'd like to play, the price is 20 guineas. Six weeks later "she gave him some fire to keep him from cold." He curses her and warns others.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (recorded by Harry Cox)
LONG DESCRIPTION: As a woman is crossing Firelock Stile, a nail catches hold of her clothes, and various private parts are exposed. A young man is dazzled at the sight; she tells him she's amazed at his gaze, but if he'd like to play, the price is 20 guineas. He would, he pays, they do, and six weeks later "she gave him some fire to keep him from cold." The young man curses her and warns others. Chorus: "On her rump-a-tump tooral tooral laddie-dy/Rump-a-tump tooral tooral day"
KEYWORDS: disease sex warning commerce bawdy whore
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 173, "Firelock Stile" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FIRELOK
Roud #1780
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "Firelock Stile" (on FSB2CD)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fire Ship" (plot) and references there
NOTES [49 words]: A stile was a wooden "stepping-over" place used for crossing fences; per Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland, it afforded prostitutes a chance to display their charms without being arrested for indecent exposure. "Firelock," of course, refers to the effect of the clap the young man catches. - PJS
File: K173

Fireman Bill (Fireman's Song)

DESCRIPTION: "My brother Bill is a fireman bold, because he puts our tires." Bill goes to a fire which lights some dynamite "Which blew poor Bill right out of sight, But where he's going he'll be all right, Bcause he puts out fires"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (JournalOfAmericanFolklore)
KEYWORDS: fire brother death humorous campsong
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Jay Mechling, "Magic of the Boy Scout Campfire," Volume 93, Number 367 (Jan-Mar 1980), p. 39, "Fireman Bill" (1 text)
File: JAFFirBi

Fireman Save My Child

See No More Booze (Fireman Save My Child) (File: San208)

Fireman, Fireman, Number Eight

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Engine, engine, number eight, Struck his head against a gate, The gate flew in, the gate flew out, And that's the way the fire went out."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folk Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope technology | fire fireman
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 28, "(Fireman, fireman)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #142, "Fireman, fireman, number eight" (1 text)
NOTES [15 words]: This really sounds like a parody of "Engine, Engine Number Nine." But I can't prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AJRR142

Fireman's Song

See Fireman Bill (Fireman's Song) (File: JAFFirBi)

Fireship, The

See The Fire Ship (File: EM068)

First Arrival -- "Aurora" and "Walrus" Full

DESCRIPTION: "The first arrival from the ice Has just come in today; The good old ship Aurora And her colors waving gay." The ship arrives full of seals on Saint Patrick's Day. Captain Kean is celebrated. The Walrus is the next to arrive
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Old Home Week Songster)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 72, "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus" Full" (1 text)
Roud #V44602
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Arrival of the 'Grand Banks' and 'Virginia Lake' With Bumper Trips" (theme, ships)
cf. "Arrival of 'Aurora,' Diana,' 'Virginia Lake' and 'Vanguard,' Loaded" (theme, ships)
cf. "The Sealer's Song (II)" (ships)
NOTES [1886 words]: The Walrus was a very old steamer, going back to the 1860s, which had begun her service running between St. John's and the outports (O'Neill, p. 508). She belonged to the small firm of Stewart's, which closed down in 1893 (Feltham, p. 77 n. 47. It appears she was rebuild in that year -- Evans, p. 45 -- presumably because of the transfer of ownership). She went to the ice a total of 38 times (Chafe, p. 105); the only year she missed between 1870 and her loss in 1908 was 1892 (Ryan/Drake, p. 14). Badly damaged in 1880, she had to sail home early in that season, but strange weather brought the ice so close to Newfoundland that, barely patched up, she was able to go out and secure a big crop (Greene, p. 12). She came even closer to destruction in 1897, and the crew wanted to abandon her, but Captain Alpheus Barbour refused; she took no seals, but was saved and repaired. There is a photo of her on p. 14 of Ryan/Drake.
For the family of her "Captain Winsor" see "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912." It's not immediately evident which "Captain Winsor" is meant here; William Winsor Sr. commanded the Walrus in 1898, and S. R. Winsor 1904-1906; Jacob Winsor took charge in 1907, and lost her the next year (Chafe, p. 96).
The sealer Aurora had a long and complex history. She was built in Dundee in 1874, and was a sealer (and whaler) from the start (Ryan/Drake, p. 27) -- but, until 1894, she was based in Britain (Feltham, p. 22). According to Lubbock, p. 406, "In 1876, Messrs. Alexander Stephen & Sons [of Dundee] launched another fine auxiliary, the Aurora, of 580 tons gross, 376 tons net, with 98 h.p. engines, for their own use. Her dimensions were: Length 165 feet 2 inches, breadth 30 feet 6 inches, depth 18 feet 9 inches. She had a raised quarter-deck of 32 inches." Lubbock notes that this made her much shorter than her near-contemporary the Arctic.
Rycroft, p. 53, quotes a Dundee newspaper from December 30, 1876: "On Saturday an addition was made to the Dundee seal and whale fishing fleet by the launch of a fine vessel from the shipbuilding yard of Messrs Alexander Stephen & Son. The builders are the owners, and the new whaler has been built as a sister ship to the Arctic, which was launched by the same firm on 8th March 1875.... The ship which was named the Aurora, is barque-rigged, and is 530 tons gross register. Her dimensions are:- Length 195 feet; breadth of beam, 30 feet; and depth of hold 18 feet 9 inches.... Her propeller, brackets, &c., have been made of malleable cast iron, and can be taken on deck when there is the slightest danger to be apprehended from coming in contact with the ice. The engines are to be surface condensing, on the compound principle, and can be wrought at a high rate of speed with small consumption of coal. They are 98-horse power nominal, or 500 indicated. The Aurora is to be commanded by Captain Bannerman."
Watson, pp. 7-8, gives an amazing catalog of her adventures: her "action-packed calling saw her icebound in 1882, rescue American explorers in 1884, be twice given up for lost in 1886, feature in a 'scurvy' court case, lose seven whaleboats in a storm and search for lost Swedish explorers, all in 1893, spend a month in pack ice in 1895, collide with another Dundee whaler in 1908 and be reported sunk with the loss of 187 men after hitting an iceberg in 1910. Yet the Aurora turned up again and again. In 1911 she steamed 30,000 miles in southern oceans on Douglas Mawson's expedition and was then battered in a long imprisonment by ice during Shackleton's heroic Antarctic adventure in 1914-1916. She was last seen in 1917 somewhere between Australia and Chile...."
She would briefly gain fame in the 1880s when she was one of the ships involved in rescuing the Greely expedition to Ellesmere Island (Guttridge, p. 270), for which see the notes to "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay."
Rycroft, p. 75, summarizes the events of 1886 (while adding that Captain Fairweather recalled them as happening in 1885): "They left Dundee in February in the face of a south-east wind.... [T]he helmsman got thrown over the wheel and was laid up for the rest of the passage with a broken rib. Shortly after, three men were hurt when a heavy sea was shipped, one sustaining a broken leg. Water got down below resulting in the stoke-hole plates being washed up and the loose coal choked the pumps....
"They had to fight ever mile of the passage to St. John's against westerly winds.... They had to work hard to be ready to sail with the sealing fleet the following day [March 10]; that same night the engine broke down and the ship was helpless amongst the pack ice.... In a crippled state they managed to secure just over 3000 seals [a pitiful number] but were then beset. They then struck an iceberg and all hands were ordered on the ice. When the Captain realised that the berg was aground... and therefore stationary, the ship was safe for the moment but the pack ice had broken most of the starboard bulwark. he crew was ordered on board again." Many, however, could not get back to the ship, which was floating away fasted than they could move on the ice. Sixty men were missing when the roll was called, although all but one apparently survived. The ship's propeller was also bent; she had to give up for the year (Rycroft, p. 76).
She had rather mixed results during her years sailing from Britain. She had a few good years, but wasn't noteworthy for her successes when sailing from the British Isles (Feltham, p. 24). In 1894, she was taken over by Bowring's, the Newfoundland shipping company, and started using local crews -- which much improved her results. Her first commander after that was Arthur Jackman (not to be confused with another famous captain, William Jackman; for Arthur Jackman, see also "Sealer's Song (I)," and for his work in the Aurora, see also "The Old Polina"). After she was hit by a severe illness in 1897 (four killed and more than a hundred sick; Winsor, p. 31), the famous Abram Kean (for whom see "Captain Abram Kean") commanded from 1898 to 1904 (Feltham, p. 24), and averaged about twice as many seals per year as during her Dundee period. In 1904, he brought in an amazing 34,000 seals.
Which is not to say that she always had good luck sailing from Newfoundland. In 1886, a run-in with an iceberg caused her crew to abandon her for a few hours, and some never came back (they reported her missing, and a rescue mission was being mounted when she showed up, leaking and barely seaworthy; Archibald, p. 126). In 1893, Captain Harry McKay was fined for not issuing the proper lemon juice ration, resulting in one of his sailors suffering from scurvy (Archibald, p. 127). On November 15, 1895, when she was carrying a load of gunpowder and ammunition, she caught fire, and only prompt action by the firemen of St. John's prevented an explosion (O'Neill, p. 637). She also suffered ice damage in 1905 and 1908 (Archibald, p. 127).
From 1906 to 1911, Aurora was commanded by Captain D. Green, and although she didn't succeed as well as under Kean, she did average about 11,000 seals per year (Feltham, p. 28).
1908 (after this piece was written) was a bad year for the Aurora, which was damaged during the seal hunt, but (as we saw above) a worse one for the Walrus, which was sunk when her bow was stove in (Ryan, p. 191), although with light casualties (O'Neill, p. 972). Most of her crew was taken off by the Neptune, although many later transferred to other ships (Winsor, p. 69).
After 1911, the Aurora was converted to an Antarctic exploring vessel (apparently because she was considered one of the inferior ships in the fleet; Ryan, p. 195; according to Watson, p. 178, they looked at the Terra Nova, for which see "The Terra Nova," but she was too expensive), at first under Sir Douglas Mawson (Keir, p. 204); Mawson took her because she was available for a mere £6000 (Fitzsimons, p. 295). He had her re-rigged as a barkentine (FitzSimons, p. 203), which probably improved her sailing but perhaps lessened her speed. She spent almost a year stuck in the ice starting in 1915 (Feltham, p. 29), suffering much damage but surviving the weather that doomed Shackleton's Endurance (Watson, pp. 177-178). This trip is reportedly described in Richard McElrea and David Harrowfield's book Polar Castaways, which I have not seen. After that, Shackleton bought her from Mawson for just £3200 (Rycroft, p. 89); after working with Mawson, she was sold to an American company.
On June 26, 1917, she left Newcastle, Australia, for a commercial voyage carrying coal -- and vanished (Tarver, p. 15; Archibald, p. 127, says the only trace of her was a buoy with her name on it that washed ashore in Australia; Feltham, p. 29, says it was another trip to Antarctica; Rycroft, p. 89, says she was bound for Chile and had about 22 sailors aboard). At least some thought the Germans responsible (Tarver, p. 16), but she wasn't big enough to be a noteworthy target and she was in the South Pacific anyway; there weren't any Germans there after 1914!
Douglas Mawson named a rise in Antarctica "Aurora Peak" after the ship (FitzSimons, p. 532), although it's small enough that my National Geographic Atlas doesn't show it, and while you can look it up on Google Maps, the actual map display shows a blank there.
In addition to this piece, the Aurora is mentioned in "Arrival of 'Aurora,' 'Diana,' 'Virginia Lake,' and 'Vanguard,' Loaded," "The Old Polina," and "The Sealer's Song (II)." The Walrus is also mentioned in the latter. The Aurora is also the subject of "The Spring of '97" although she is not named in the song.
Another book about her is David Moore Lindsay's A Voyage to the Arctic in the Whaler 'Aurora' (1911); I haven't seen that, but it is now available in cheap reprints. It's about her whaling work, though, not her sealing work, so it's only marginally relevant to this song.
There is a picture of the Aurora unloading in St. John's on p. 172 of Feltham and a different photo on p. 27 of Ryan/Drake; there is also one facing p. 1 of Kean. WInsor, p. 31, has a very poor photo which appears to show her in the ice. Fitzsimons has one of her in Antarctica in his photos section. Rycroft, p. 54, has a painting of her from 1884 and a photo on p. 55.
To date this song, we must seek a year in which Abram Kean commanded Aurora and a Captain Winsor commanded Walrus. That gives only two possibilities: 1898 and 1904, with William Winsor Sr. commanding Walrus in 1898 and S. R. Winsor in 1904. Both years were good; Aurora took 25633 seals in 1898, and 34849 in 1904 (Chafe, p. 92); Walrus had 14702 in 1898 and 16720 in 1904. But the Aurora's 1904 total matches the "four and thirty thousand seals" mentioned in the song, and the Walrus's matches the "sixteen thousand prime young harps." Checking first returns, Aurora and Walrus were first in 1904 (Chafe, p. 71); they were relatively late in 1898. Thus 1904 appears to be the year. There is one minor complication: In 1904, the Aurora sailed from Wesleyville, but the Walrus from St. John's (Chafe, p. 71), reversing what is implied in the song, but this is likely just a minor reversal. Every other indication fits the year 1904, which was also the year the song was published. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: RySm072

First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912

DESCRIPTION: "The first arrival from the front Is just come in today; The little ship Fogota WIth her colors waving gay." The Fogota had set out early and taken a fine load of seal. Now they return to cheers. The singer wishes captain and crew well
AUTHOR: apparently Johnny Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Burke's Ballads)
KEYWORDS: ship travel hunting return
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 82, "First Arrival from Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912" (1 text)
Roud #V44581
NOTES [2139 words]: Although Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff got this from "Burke's Ballads," it is not in the collection of Burke's poems published in 1981 by William J. Kirwin. For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree."
The Fogota was not one of the better-known sealers; this song is the only one to mention her. Probably this is because she made only four trips to the ice, in 1912, 1914, 1918, and 1919 (Chafe, p. 98). She was owned by Crosbie & Co., who had only a relatively small fleet (the list is in Chafe, p. 26); she was one of their first purchases (Ryan-Ice, p. 195).
The song is right to call her a "little ship"; Ryan-Ice lists her at 238 tons, which made her one of the smallest ships in the fleet; Crosbie's other ship, Sagona, was almost twice as large. (For more on the Sagona, see the notes to "Greedy Harbour.")
For some reason, the Fogota had a very low number of sealers aboard in 1912 -- just 85, compared to the usual crew of 200 or more. Ryan-Ice, p. 195, speculates that this was because she couldn't find all the men she needed at an iced-in port, but her small size is another likely factor, and the fact that she was new played might have played a role as well. Also, based on the photo on p. 43 of Winsor, in addition to being small, she looked small, and was clearly a steamer only, with no masts on which to set sails; she looks like a nice steam yacht, but maybe the men didn't trust a ship that couldn't move without her engine. She didn't take a lot of seals, but with such a small crew, the men aboard her came in second in the fleet in per-capita pay. But the small total perhaps explains why she wasn't sent out in 1913 (she instead had been contracted to run mail); WInsor, p. 43, says that it took only about 9000 seals to fill her, which is a surprisingly low total for a serious sealer.
I have never seen an explanation for the name Fogota, but her owners Crosbie & Co. used her "in the Fogo mail service" (Penney/Kennedy, p. 96), so I would guess she was named for the island she served.
The Fogota, according to Greene, p. 279, was later sold to a Greek owner as the Ellenes, then came back to the North Atlantic as the Chedabucto, but sailed from Halifax, not Newfoundland.
The Fogota's skipper "Captain Winsor" (i.e. Jesse Winsor; Winsor, p. 43; there is a photo of him on p. 75 of Winsor) is more familiar than his ship; many of the most famous sealing captains were parts of dynasties, such as the Keans (for which see "Captain Abram Kean"), the Barbours, the Knees, and the Winsors. Busch, p. 77, says there were seven sealing Winsors; if anything, that number is low.
Several of these Winsors mentioned in sealing songs are mysterious. The full list of Winsors, as found on Chafe, p. 96, is James (commanded 1867-1868), William Sr. (1881-1906), Jacob (1893), John (1896), William Jr. (1893-1949), S. R. (1904-1920; born 1872), Jesse (1906-1914), and Jacob (1907-1911). I would guess that "Sam Winsor" is S. R. Winsor, and "Gate" might be a mis-hearing of "Jake," i.e. "Jacob," but I cannot guess as to "Bob" -- except that, based on the ship he commanded, it's probably another name for S. R. Winsor, who was apparently known as "Sam-Bob" (see "The Sealer's Song (II)").
The patriarch of the clan was William Winsor (Sr.) (c. 1846-1907), but I find no clear mentions of him in the songs in Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff. It appears it is his son William (Jr.), or William C. Winsor (1876-1964), who is mentioned in "Capt. Frederick Harris and the Grates Cove Seal Killers of 1915" (since William Sr., whose first command was the Vanguard in 1881, ended his service in 1906). Similarly, William Jr. must be the captain in "Arrival of the 'Grand Lake' and 'Virginia Lake' With Bumper Trips"; William Jr. commanded the Virginia Lake 1903-1904. William Winsor Jr. is also mentioned as "Bill Windsor" (note the incorrect "d") in "The Sealer's Song (II)."
There is a small picture of William C. Winsor, and a larger photo of his Wesleyville home, on p. 78 of Ryan/Drake; Winsor has a photo of him on p. 76. "The Sealer's Song (II)" correctly identifies the family home as Wesleyville. Ryan/Drake add that he continued to work the seal fishery until 1949, and joined the Newfoundland legislature in 1908-1909 before being defeated by William Coaker, the labour organizer (for whom see "Coaker's Dream"). Winsor was elected again 1924, became Minister of Fisheries and Marine, was voted out in 1928, then voted in again in 1932, shortly before Newfoundland lost its legislature (DictNewfLabrador, p. 364). Apparently he missed one year on the ice because the government wouldn't let him both serve in government and be a sealing skipper.
In the final Newfoundland government before the dominion went bankrupt and was taken over by the Commission of Government, Winsor was appointed Minister of Posts and Telegraphs (Letto, p. 23). It doesn't sound as if this was based on any particular experience he had in managing the mail; what they wanted most was his drive and desire for discipline (Letto, p. 240.
This doesn't mean everyone liked him. In 1913, William Winsor's Beothic had collided with the Bonaventure and missed the sealing season (O'Neill, p. 984), making him very cautious in leaving port in 1914 (and causing him to be lampooned by James Murphy in a verse printed on p. 198 of Ryan-Ice), and later that season, after the Newfoundland disaster and when loss of the Southern Cross was starting to be suspected, he hurried the Beothic home to gain the honor of being the "first arrival" of 1914; "his insensitivity was remarked by all" (Ryan-Ice, p. 199).
One of the men who sailed under him, Roland Batten, declared "Billy Winsor was a rough man who swore a lot. Now, Billy Winsor was also a great captain, a darn good captain" (Ryan-Last, p. 136). There seems to be the general consensus that he was great at finding seals but not always easy to serve under; Jacob Best said, "Billy Winsor would cuss on you, 'Oh you bloods of bitches!' And he would swear all the time" (Ryan-Last, p. 139). One man, Thomas Best, even describes him as giving order to shoot strikers (Ryan-Last, p. 143). Arthur Maddox declared "I'd say he was the worst that was out there," and Arthur Maddox said, "As long as he got the seals, he didn't care what the men did" (Ryan-Last, p. 421). Recollections of him occupy pp. 419-423 of Ryan-Last, with others scattered throughout the book; other than Abram Kean, no other sealing captain had anything close to the number of mentions of Winsor.
Nine different Winsors have entries in DictNewfLabrador, including also Naboth Winsor, the author of the book cited as Winsor who became one of the top officers of Newfoundland's United Church, and Robert George Winsor (1876-1929), the son of William Winsor, who would become famous as the first sealing captain to join William Coaker's Fisherman's Protective Union (see "Coaker's Dream"), and eventually became manager of a store in the Wesleyville area (DictNewfLabrador, p. 363).
"The Sealer's Song (II)" also mentions Bob Winsor and Jessie Winsor (sic.) -- Jesse being the son of William Winsor Sr. (Chafe, p. 32), and, as we saw, the Captain Winsor of this song. Jesse Winsor (1874-1933) commanded the Panther 1906-1908 (losing the ship in the latter year), the Newfoundland in 1909, the Fogota in 1912, and the Bloodhound in 1913-1914. Given that he never took more than 9097 seals in a year, and averaged less than 6000 in his seven years as a captain, it's perhaps not surprising that that was the end of his career. He had more success, or at least more notoriety, as a fisherman, going on to be a big deal in the United Fishermen's Union in 1923-1924 (DictNewfLabrador, p. 363). He became "the leader or at least main spokesman" of the United Fishermen when it tried to hold out for better prices for dried cod (O'Flaherty, pp. 312-313) -- but that was a decade after the events in this song. And the attempt failed (O'Flaherty, p. 313). Jesse later quit because he felt the union was too political (DictNewfLabrador, p. 363).
We find two other Winsors, "Sam Windsor" and "Gate Windsor," in "Captains and Ships." "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full" mentions another captain Winsor, exact identity not listed in the song (but probably S. R. Winsor).
The third verse of the song should not be read as saying that Fogota killed 30,000 prime harps (which was how I first read it) when they hit the main patch; observe that the words are "thirty hundred." The Fogota took only 9097 seals in 1912, and averaged less than 7000 per year in her four years. Which might explain why she was dropped from the fleet.... Does "thirty hundred" harps mean three thousand? Or perhaps thirty hundredweight? (A standard measure of seal fat; a hundredweight, or quintal, was 112 pounds). If you combine either of those figures with the three thousand or so she's listed as taken on other days, it adds up to less than 9000, but not too far off in the former case, so that's perhaps the intent.
There is another possibility, and it comes from all those confusing Winsors. The ship that took the most seals in 1912 was not the Fogota; it was the Beothic (Ryan-Ice, p. 195), which took home 34561 seals -- and was commanded by William C. Winsor (Chafe, p. 96) -- and "Billy" Winsor was the most famous Winsor of all. In other words, if we confuse the 9,000 seals taken by Jesse Winsor in the Fogota with the 30,000 taken by Billy Winsor in the Beothic, we could get the third verse.
The other ship mentioned in the song, the Ranger, is much better known than the Fogota, although more for longevity than anything else. Built in Dundee in 1871, she was rather underpowered even by the standards of the day (a joke went that her skipper should not blow her steam-powered foghorn; she had so little power that "if you blow the foghorn... you'll take two knots off her speed"; Ryan-Last, p. 56). "The SS Ranger was undoubtedly the Methuselah of the sailing fleet. She made her first voyage to the ice fields in 1872 and her last in 1942, from which she failed to return" (Feltham, p. 115). She went out every year in that time except 1915 (Feltham, pp. 115-116; WInsor, p. 59) -- seventy trips in all. That long service meant that she had the second-highest career total of seals taken (Ryan/Drake, p. 25), even though she rarely turned in a truly outstanding year.
The men didn't like her much, either, because she was old and very tired and didn't take enough seals to pay off much. Thomas Bragg, for instance, said that "the worst [sealer] was the old Ranger" (Ryan-Last, p.366). Indeed, by the end, she was literally lousy; there are several accounts, including one on p. 129 of Ryan-Last, of the men having to fight the lice which infested her.
In connection with the name Ranger it is interesting to note that, in Newfoundland, "ranger" could mean "the common seal... esp[ecially] in its third year" (StoryKirwinWiddowson, pp. 405-406).
The Ranger had many problems over the years; her engine broke down and she was "nipped" in 1908; she lost a propeller in 1932 (Winsor, p. 59), and she came very close to sinking in a storm in 1939, but with the help of the Imogene and others, she survived (Feltham, pp. 123-124). On April 11, 1942, her engine was damaged and her crew left her shortly before she went aground (Feltham, pp. 124-125) off Baccalieu (Ryan-Last, pp 351-352); many of the men went to the Terra Nova (for which see "The Terra Nova"), another of the very last of the old sealers. According to Feltham, only four ships went to the ice in the year the Ranger was lost (the Ranger, the Terra Nova, the Neptune, and the Eagle, the latter three of which are discussed in "The Terra Nova," "Neptune, Ruler of the Sea," and "The Ice-Floes"), and obviously only three returned.
The "Captain Knee" listed as commanding the Ranger, according to Chafe, p. 93, 103, was Kenneth Knee, who was new to command; he skippered the Ranger 1912-1914, then never held another command despite coming from a famous sealing family. Perhaps not surprising; he had a decent year in 1912, but had disastrously poor harvests the next two years (2729 and 1585 seals, respectively; a good sealer could take 15,000 or more). There is a photo of him on p. 75 of Winsor.
There is a 1935 photo of the Ranger (in a form very unlike her early appearance) on p. 25 of Ryan/Drake; Andrieux has a photo on p. 118; Winsor shows her on p. 59.
"Sheelah's Day," mentioned in the third verse, is March 18, the day after St. Patrick's Day; Sheelah/Sheila/Sheelagh was regarded as Patrick's wife or housekeeper or other associate, and Sheelah's brush was a major storm which occurred on or about her day (StoryKirwinWiddowson, pp. 469-470). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: RySm082

First Banjo, The

See De Fust Banjo (The Banjo Song; The Possum and the Banjo; Old Noah) (File: R253)

First Carol

DESCRIPTION: "Rejoice, the promised Savior's come, And shall the blind behold; The deaf shall hear and the dumb his wondrous works be told. His wondrous works be told, His wondrous works be told."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Hill, Wiltshire Folk Songs and Carols)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, p. 14 [continued on p. 23], "First Carol" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #1159
NOTES [58 words]: Presumably a reference to Matthew 11:4-5 or Luke 7:22-23. Jesus is asked by John's disciples if his the one "who is to come," or not. Jesus responds, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preached to them." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: CoMo014

First Come in it was a Rat, The

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

First Day Of Christmas, The

See The Twelve Days of Christmas (File: FO213)

First Day of Yule, The

DESCRIPTION: "Make we mirth For Christ's birth." "The first day of Yule have we in mind How God was man, born of our kind." "The second day we sing of Stephen." "The third day (be)longeth to Saint John." And so on through the church year.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1430 (British Museum -- Sloane MS. 2593)
KEYWORDS: Christmas cumulative MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #8, pp. 7-8, "(The fyrst day of Yole haue we in mynd)" (1 text with variants)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 223-224,"Make we merry for Christ's birth" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3343
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #5271
ADDITIONAL: Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #3, pp. 56-57, "(Make we myrth)" (1 text)
Edward Bliss Reed, editor, _Christmas Carols Printed in the Sixteenth Century: Including Kele's Cristmas carolles newely Inprynted_, Harvard University Press, 1932, pp. xxx-xxxi, "(no title)" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 33
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 22
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (form)
NOTES [150 words]: Although no longer found in tradition, it is found in two important manuscripts from around the fifteenth century:
- Sloane MS. 2593, an important collection which contains many folk songs
- Bodleian MS. Eng. poet. e.1, a collection containing many carols
This is not exactly like the Twelve Days of Christmas in its style; although the first few stanzas count the first, second, third day, it eventually starts leaping through the year to various church holidays. Greene, p. 187, suggests that the trick "was probably educational as well as rhetorical in intention"; it was intended to remind singers of the catalog of church holy days. This makes a lot of sense to me.
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115].
For more about the famous anthology Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)."- RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSBR3343

First Families of Fall River

DESCRIPTION: "Old Roger Corey, old Doctor Turner, old Frank Brayton, old Hannah Leighton, old Mary Carter, old Squire Brightman, Buck Ben Durfee, and old Oliver Read! ... Long Gesh, short Gesh, corner Gesh, and Gesham's Gesh...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: nonballad moniker
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 198-199, "First Families of Fall River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3732
NOTES [28 words]: The ultimate moniker song (i.e. list of people associated with a particular place or occupation): This doesn't even really say who they are; it just lists their names. - RBW
File: Lins198

First Good Joy That Mary Had, The

See The Seven Joys of Mary (File: FO211)

First Lieutenant He Was So Neat, The

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme? "The first lieutenant was so neat, He stopped the battle to wash his feet."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: soldier | washing feet
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 44, "(The first lieutenant he was so neat)" (1 text)
NOTES [92 words]: The drawing in Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo presents this as a rhyme about an infantry lieutenant, but I wonder. First lieutenant was an army rank, but a pretty lowly one; he couldn't give orders to anything much larger than a platoon. By contrast, the navy did not have a rank "first lieutenant," but used it as a title for an officer who was typically the second-in-command of a ship -- senior enough that he could give orders to the whole ship. So I suspect that, if this is actually military at all (dubious), it is a naval not an infantry rhyme. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: WEMM044A

First Night's Courtship, The

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a big boy, wi' the thoughts o' the joy," the youth meets Maggie at the fair. After some persuasion, they return to her barn. Her father comes out raging, but they have locked the barn. They flee when he seeks another entrance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: courting sex father children home
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 167, "The First Night's Courting" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST GC168 (Partial)
Roud #3706
NOTES [28 words]: Though seemingly known only from the Michigan collection, this song originated in Scotland and still retains its Scots feeling. I'm surprised it isn't more widespread. - RBW
File: GC168

First Noel, The

DESCRIPTION: "The first Noel the angels did say Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay." The shepherds and the Wise Men see signs and come to see and pay homage to the King (Jesus)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (Gilbert, "Some Ancient Christmas Carols")
KEYWORDS: Jesus Christmas religious
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 101, "Nowell, Nowell" (1 text, 1 tune, which never uses the words "First Noel" but which is otherwise this)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 72, "Oh Well, Oh Well" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 55-57 (1 text, which the editor regards as old but which she took from Sandys)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #217, "The First Nowell" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 256, "The First Nowell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 27, "The First Nowell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 756-757, "The First Nowell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 376, "The First Noel" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 226-227, "The First Noel"
Heart-Songs, p. 292, "The First Noel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 104, "The First Noel" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 43, "The First Noel" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FRSTNOEL*
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #77, "The First Nowell" (1 text)
Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 60-61, "The First Noel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #682
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "The First Noel" (on PeteSeeger37, PeteSeeger42)
SAME TUNE:
No L (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 203)
NOTES [301 words]: Allegedly based on a Cornish carol found in manuscript in 1817, and perhaps printed in eighteenth century broadsides.
Marilyn Kay Stulken, Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship, Fortress Press, 1981, p. 159, observes that "some feel [this song] is no older than the seventeenth century; others believe that the fanciful treatment of the Star motif suggests an earlier date."
The tune reportedly occurs in Sandys (1833). Stulken reports some hypotheses about its origin, including hypotheses that it originated as a harmonization or descant to another tune. According to William Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal, Broadman Press, 1976, p. 212, this tune was Jeremiah Clark's "An Hymn for Christmas Day."
The word "nowell" or "noel" is known in English carols at least from the fifteenth century; Richard Greene, editor, A Selection of English Carols, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, p. 64, prints a carol from Bodleian Library MS. Selden B.26 (which also contains the famous Agincourt Carol; scans currently available at https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/11d9f36c-2e48-47d3-b7a3-a9decd76fd28/, accessed July 15. 2023) which begins "Owt of your slepe aryse and wake" and has a "Nowel, nowel, nowel" chorus (The text is on folio 14 verso, with music, and the nowels are at the very top, with red and blue illuminations). The word itself is of course French, and ultimately from Latin.
Cornish tradition seems to have a rather peculiar version of this song, in which the "Noel" of the chorus is replaced by "O Well!" This usage is reported in Dunstan's 1929 Cornish Song Book, and apparently was preserved by informant John Persons, who was responsible for several carols derived from Cornwall which appear in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB376A

First Nowell, The

See The First Noel (File: FSWB376A)

First of May, The (Down By a River Side)

DESCRIPTION: "Down by a river side A fair maid I espied, Lamenting for her own true love, Lamenting, crying, sighing, dying, Dying for her own true love." She declares that he had promised to marry. He says he is faithful, and they marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage betrayal river
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #84, "Down By a River Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1438
File: BGSW084

First of May, The (Garland Day)

DESCRIPTION: "The first of May is Garland Day, so please remember the Garland, We only come but once a year, So please remember the garland." "May garlands we have brought to your, Before your door we stand."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | may garland maypole
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 8, "May Garlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Enid Porter, _The Folklore of East Anglia_, Batsford, 1974, p. 62, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #305
NOTES [47 words]: Roud lumps this with the May Day Carol. The only thing they have in common is being sung on the first of May. Not enough reason for me. Nonetheless the various May Garlands are very diverse; they may well represent different songs, but it's hard to tell with such short texts! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: EP1stMay

First of the Emigrants, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is leaving England for Australia. He describes how the voyage began, and the difficult passage itself. Now settled in Australia, and prosperous, he prepares to go back to England in far better style than he left
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman)
KEYWORDS: emigration travel ship money return
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 149-151, "The First of the Emigrants" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 523-525, "Bound to Australia" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 383-384]
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 110, "The First of the Emigrants" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FRSTEMIG*
Roud #9434
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jock Stewart (The Man You Don't Meet Every Day)" (tune, meter, chorus)
File: Doe149

First Old Gent (Square Dance Calls; Lady Round the Lady; Round Up Eight)

DESCRIPTION: Square dance text. "Circle eight till you all get straight, Ladies in the lead and gents follow up.... Swing the complete circe, Meet your partner and promenade, Take her out to an easy chair, Where you take her I don't care."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 80, "First Old Gent" (1 text)
File: McIn080

First Thing I Owned Was a Pistol, The

See Short Life of Trouble (File: RcSLOT)

First Thing They Asked For, The

DESCRIPTION: "The first thing they asked for, they asked for some beer, Gallons and gallons of beautiful beer, And if we have one beer, may we also have ten? ... said the airmen, 'Amen.'" They ask for girls, pay, planes, and curse officers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: soldier drink war money hardtimes
FOUND IN: Canada Britain(England)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 94-95, "The First Thing They Asked For" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 125-126, "A Matelot and a Pongo" (1 text, with tune on p. 152)
cf. Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 239, "The Soldier and the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #350
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Soldier and the Sailor" (lyrics, some versions)
cf. "Girls of the King's Navy" (lyrics, form)
NOTES [89 words]: Roud lumps this with "The Soldier and the Sailor," and it is true that some versions of that, such as Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland's, are so close that they could go with either song (and, in fact, I've filed it in both places). But the Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear version of this is so distinct from the standard "The Soldier and the Sailor" that I think they should be kept separate. This consists solely of requests for a good time plus (in Hopkins's version) a curse on officers "stealing the beer from the old AC2." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Hopk094

First Time I Met Her, The (Down in the Valley, Down in the Dark Alley)

DESCRIPTION: "The first time I met her, she was all dressed in white, All in white (x2), She gave me such a fright, Down in the (valley/dark alley) where nobody goes." Each time we see her, she is in a different color, telling stages of her baby's birth and death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Palmer)
KEYWORDS: colors clothes baby death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, pp. 151-153, "The First TIme I Met her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10123
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down in the Jungle" (lyrics)
cf. "Down in the Valley Washing Her Clothes" (lyrics)
NOTES [85 words]: Palmer's version of this is rather explicit (interesting for a song sung by a group of 13-year-old girls), and the two versions cited by Roud are also from sources likely to produce rough versions -- and yet I seem to recall, somewhere in the past, running across a clean version. So I suspect this is a parody, even though I don't know what it is a parody of. It's clearly related to "Down in the Jungle" and "Down in the Valley Washing Her Clothes," but I rather suspect those aren'tt the original either. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: RPFW153A

First Time I Saw My Love, The

See My Generous Lover (File: RcMGL)

First Time that I Saw My Love, The

DESCRIPTION: The first time the singer saw his love was in a storm. The next time she smiled and passed him by. They marry but despite her efforts they have no sex. She prepares to leave. They have sex. She says, "I've seen a misty morning Turn out a bonnie day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: marriage sex husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1369, "The First Time that I Saw My Love" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #7241
NOTES [48 words]: The last line is very close to the usual last line of "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (specifically, "For a cloudy morning brings forth a shining day).
Is this the musical inspiration for Ewan MacColl's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"? The tune of Greig/Duncan7 1369a is not like MacColl's. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71369

First to California, Oh, Fondly I Went

See The Liverpool Judies (Row, Bullies, Row; Roll, Julia, Roll) (File: Doe106)

Fischerlied

DESCRIPTION: German (Pomeranian). Forebitter shanty. "Ein armer Fischer bin ich zwar." The singer is a poor fisherman living a dangerous life, but he is encouraged to work because of his love for his sweetheart. When May comes and the fishing is over, he will see her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty fishing work love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 119, "Fischerlied" (2 texts, German & English, 1 tune)
File: HSoSe119

Fish and Brewis

DESCRIPTION: In summer we fish and jig squid. In spring we log and "make just enough to have fish and brewis. If the cutting is bad then we'll go in the hole, there's no other redemption but live on the dole"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: fishing lumbering hardtimes nonballad food
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 123-124, "Fish and Brewis" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9962
RECORDINGS:
Gordon Rice, "Fish and Brewis" (on PeacockCDROM)
NOTES [136 words]: Peacock: "Brewis (pronounced 'brews' in Newfoundland) is hard-tack soaked overnight in water, boiled up with cod-fish the following morning, and garnished with 'scruncheons' (bits of fried pork fat). Fish and brewis is supposed to be the traditional Sunday breakfast in some parts of Newfoundland. I [Peacock] personally find it virtually indigestible at any time of the day. It is one of those national dishes like the Scotch haggis which mercifully has passed from popular usage so that its peculiar attributes may be more fully appreciated at infrequent ceremonial meals." - BS
Of course, un-soaked hardtack was also nearly inedible (especially to those with poor teeth); its only virtue was that it didn't decay. Something had to be done to make it swallowable, even if the result tasted like, well, wet flour. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea122

Fish and Chip Ship, The

DESCRIPTION: A fresh-water crew sets out "on a four-wheeled craft ... with a cargo of fried fish" The ship hits a Christmas tree. The wind blows off the skipper's wooden leg. The crew gets drunk on engine oil. The ship sinks but the crew escapes and saves the cargo.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (recording, Bob Roberts)
KEYWORDS: commerce ship wreck humorous talltale sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
Roud #1854
RECORDINGS:
Bob Roberts, "The Fish and Chip Ship" (on Voice02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The E-ri-e" (theme) and references there
File: RcTFaCSh

Fish and Chips

See One Bottle of Pop (File: DTpopbot)

Fish and Chips (Down by the Liffey Side)

DESCRIPTION: John and Mary stop at Rabiotti's for fish and chips. They walk down George's Street. Mary plays Rule Britannia on her melodeon, then "The Soldier's Song." Sunday they plan to marry "with the whole afternoon for our honeymoon Down by the Liffey's side"
AUTHOR: Peadar Kearney (1883-1942)
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: courting wedding river food music Ireland humorous river
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads, pp. 249-250, "Fish and Chips" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT, LIFFSIDE*
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, p. 13, "Down by the Liffey Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tan-Yard Side" (tune) [OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 41]
NOTES [135 words]: The Liffey River runs about 80 miles from County Wicklow through Dublin to Dublin Bay. - BS
Peadar Kearny wrote, among other things, the Irish national anthem "The Soldier's Song" and "Whack Fol the Diddle (God Bless England)." For more on him, see the notes to "Whack Fol the Diddle (God Bless England)."
There is an interesting note in Harte, saying that most people "have a verse or two" of this, but not the whole song. And, indeed, Ben's description of the song (which I augmented) misses much of the text as given by Harte, including Mary's shift from playing "Rule Britannia" to playing "The Soldier's Song." Kearney's original text (with its not-so-subtle reference to his own most famous piece) is thus rather political, but it appears that the song as it has gone into tradition is much less so. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: OLcM249

Fish It Never Cackles Bout, The

See Advertise (It Pays to Advertise) (File: DTadverf)

Fish of the Sea (I), The

See Song of the Fishes (Blow Ye Winds Westerly) (File: LxA496)

Fish of the Sea (II)

See Windy Old Weather (File: CoSB204)

Fishaman Peter

See Fisherman Peter (File: RcFisPet)

Fisher Lad of Whitby, The

DESCRIPTION: "My love he was a fisher lad and when he came on shore," he always comes to see her. He proposed to her while in his boat. The pressgang took him that day. Her family tries to console her, but she fears he'll never return and wishes she were dead with him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Forshaw)
KEYWORDS: love courting ship separation pressgang death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 68, "The Fisher Lad of Whitby" (1 text, which never mentions Whitby)
Roud #V35024
File: PaSe068

Fisher Song

See The Pittenweem Fisher-Wife's Song (File: GrD81760)

Fisher Who Died in His Bed, The

DESCRIPTION: "Old Jim Jones the fisher, the trapper, the trawler, ... the fish-killin' banker ... died in his bed." Song tells about his trawling, trapping, catching cod, salting, tobacco chewing, sailing, "his fishing days ended...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: death fishing sea ship memorial nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 127-128, "The Fisher Who Died in His Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4551
RECORDINGS:
Patrick Rossiter, "The Fisher Who Died in His Bed" (on PeacockCDROM)
File: Pea127

Fisherman at Glen Cove, The

DESCRIPTION: A fishing boat leaves Renews for Cape Allerd Banks and is caught in an October "violent gale." They head for safety at Glen Cove. Foreshipman Tom Dorsey would guide them through breakers but they are wrecked. "Glen Cove saved our lives"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: rescue fishing sea ship shore work ordeal wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18208
RECORDINGS:
Pat Murphy, "The Fisherman at Glen Cove" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [24 words]: Renews was a fishing village on the southeast coast of the Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland. I do not know where Cape Allerd is, nor Glen Cove. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcFaGlCo

Fisherman Hanged the Monkey, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a ship came on the coast, And a' the crew o' her was lost, Except the monkey climbed the mast, She ran ashore sae funky O ... The fishermen hanged the monkey O."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: death wreck animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 26, "The Fisherman Hanged the Monkey" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Roud #5806
File: GrD1026

Fisherman of Wexford, The

DESCRIPTION: The rule that none fish Wexford Bay St Martin's Eve was broken once: "upon that holy day Came a wondrous shoal of herring." Against women's cries the men went out to "sweep the Bay"; only two boats are saved when "a human shape" waves them back to shore.
AUTHOR: John Boyle O'Reilly
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck fishing supernatural recitation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 10, 1762: 70 are lost in Wexford Bay fishing disasters (source: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast; Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 52)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 21-23, "The Fisherman of Wexford" (1 text)
Roud #20527
NOTES [62 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: The ballad states that "Upon St Martin's Eve no net shall be let down ... within the scope of Wexford Bay." No one knows when or how the rule was established. "Down to recent years no fisherman would dare put to sea on St Martin's Eve. This ballad is very popular on the Wexford coast. I have never heard it sung, but it is often recited." - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran021

Fisherman Peter

DESCRIPTION: "Fisherman Peter on the sea, Peter cache your net boy and follow me." "Some come crippled some come lame some come calling on in Jesus name, Peter cache your net boy and follow me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (USSeaIsland03)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
James Garfield Smalls, "Fishaman Peter" (on USSeaIsland03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Are Almost Down to the Shore" ("Peter on the sea" theme) and notes there
cf. "Who Did Swallow Jonah?" ("Peter on the sea" theme)
NOTES [49 words]: In Mark 1:16-17 Jesus sees Peter and his brother Andrew fishing on the Sea of Galilee and calls them to come "fish for people"; similarly in Matthew 4:17-20. The account in Luke 5:1-10 is rather different, and involves James and John the sons of Zebedee as well, but the effect is the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: RcFisPet

Fisherman Yankee Brown, The

DESCRIPTION: "My boys, if you will listen, I'll sing you a little song... He is a well-known fisherman... He's a very noted lawyer, and his name is Yankee Brown." From New York, he came to Beaver Island in [18]79. His exploits catchin huge fish and being a preacher
AUTHOR: possibly Frank McCauley
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (collected from Pat and Dan Bonner by Walton)
KEYWORDS: talltale fishing
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 187-189, "The Fisherman Yankee Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #19859
RECORDINGS:
Dan Bonner, "The Fisherman Yankee Brown" (1938; on WaltonSailors; the text is different in many particulars from the text in Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors even though it is from the same informant)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (tune)
NOTES [39 words]: The notes in Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors say this is sung to the tune of "The Shanty Boys in the Pine," which is indexed as "The Lumber Camp Song," though they don't say whose version of that widespread song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM187

Fisherman, Fisherman, You Got Me Crazy

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Fisherman, fisherman, you got me crazy, Up the river, down the river, One, two, three, You're the bigger fool than me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Seeger, Folkways 7029, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: river fishing jumprope | fisherman fool
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #143, "Fisherman, fisherman, you got me crazy" (1 text)
File: AJRR143

Fisherman, The

See The Bold Fisherman [Laws O24] (File: LO24)

Fisherman's Alphabet, The

DESCRIPTION: "'A' for abundance, this we all need ..." boats, caplin, dawn... zephyr. Chorus: "So merry... are we No mortals on earth are like fishers at sea; Blow high or blow low we're jogging along. Give us a fair cull and there's nothing goes wrong."
AUTHOR: Words: Chris Cobb
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: nonballad fishing wordplay | alphabet
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 125-126, "The Fisherman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21108
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (Theme and structure)
NOTES [5 words]: To "cull" is to grade fish. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Pea125

Fisherman's Boy, The [Laws Q29]

DESCRIPTION: A poor boy, cast adrift, wanders alone, crying that his mother died and his father was lost at sea. At last a kind woman takes him in and has her father find him work. The boy serves well until he grows up
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1856 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1211))
KEYWORDS: orphan family servant
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) Canada(Newf) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws Q29, "The Fisherman's Boy"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #52, p. 2, "The Fisherman Boy" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 961, "The Fisherman Boy" (7 texts, 10 tunes)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 672, "Poor Fisherboy" (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 67, "The Fisherman's Boy" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 99, "The Poor Fisherman's Boy" (1 text)
DT 537, FISHBOY
Roud #912
RECORDINGS:
Micho Russell, "Poor Little Fisherboy" (on Voice02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1211), "Fisherman's Boy," W. Jackson and Son (Birmingham), 1842-1855
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Soldier's Poor Little Boy" [Laws Q28] (plot)
cf. "The Farmer's Boy" [Laws Q30] (plot)
cf. "The Fisherman's Girl" (plot)
cf. "The Poor Smuggler's Boy" (plot)
File: LQ29

Fisherman's Daughter (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "I've been caught in a net by a dear little pet... She's a fisherman's daughter, lives over the water, She's going to be married next Sunday to me." He describes her beauty, her cheeriness, her singing. He looks forward to the wedding
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage fishing
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 786, "The Fisherman's Daughter" (1 text)
Roud #7417
NOTES [9 words]: I somehow doubt this song originated in the Ozarks. - RBW
File: R786

Fisherman's Daughter (II), The

See Sweet William of Plymouth (File: Grd1078)

Fisherman's Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: A poor girl is crying out in the street. She has lost parents and friends, and is left alone. As she passes a fine house, the owner calls her in. It proves to be her brother, and she is allowed to live happily there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 119); 1847 (Journal of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: brother mercy orphan poverty
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro,So) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 66, "The Fisherman's Girl" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 144, "The Fisherman's Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #100, "The Fisherman's Girl" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 108, "The Fisherman's Girl" (1 text, 1 tune, with the first verse being from "All Around My Hat (I)" and the rest being "The Fisherman's Girl")
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #54, p. 2, ("Down in the lowlands a poor girl did wander") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1077, "The Fisherman's Girl" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 241-242, "A Fisherman's Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1900, p. 128, "The Poor Little Fisherman's Girl" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 61 and #5/64, p. 41, "The Poor Little Fisherman's Girl" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 479, "The Fisherman's Girl" (source notes only)
ST E066 (Full)
Roud #2809
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 119, "The Poor Little Fisherman's Girl" ("It was down in the country a poor girl was weeping"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 16(208c), Firth c.12(328), Firth c.12(328), "The Poor Little Fisherman's Girl"; Firth c.12(447), "The Fisherman's Girl"
NLScotland, APS.4.86.5, "The Fisherman's Girl" ("Down in the Country A poor girl did wander"), unknown, c.1830
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Soldier's Poor Little Boy" [Laws Q28] (plot)
cf. "The Fisherman's Boy" [Laws Q29] (plot and some lines)
cf. "The Farmer's Boy" [Laws Q30] (plot)
cf. "The Poor Smuggler's Boy" (plot)
cf. "The Orphan" (theme)
File: E066

Fisherman's Luck

See The Frog (Fisherman's Luck) (File: MCB279)

Fisherman's Son to the Ice Has Gone, The

DESCRIPTION: "The fisherman's son to the ice has gone, On the quarter deck you'll find him; His belt and sheathe he has girded on...." The singer tells of finding and taking the seals, then returning to "Fair Terra Nova's daughters"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Murphy, Songs Sung by Old Time Sealers of Many Years Ago)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship reunion derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 134, "The Fisherman's Son to the Ice Has Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V44603
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Minstrel Boy" (form)
NOTES [22 words]: No tune is indicated for this, but -- as the lines quoted show -- it is patently a seal-hunting version of "The Minstrel Boy." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm134

Fisherman's Son to the Ice is Gone, The

See The Sealer Lad (The Fisherman's Son to the Ice is Gone) (File: RySm069)

Fishermen of Newfoundland, The

See The Flemings of Torbay [Laws D23] (File: LD23)

Fishermen's Song (We'll Go to Sea No More)

DESCRIPTION: "O blithely shines the bonnie sun Upon the Isle of May, And blithely rolls the morning tide Into St. Andrew's Bay." "When haddocks leave the Firth of Forth, And mussels leave the shore, When oysters climb up Berwick Law, We'll go to sea no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: fishing food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XXiV, pp. 36-37, "We'll go to Sea no more" (1 text)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 184, "(O blithely shines the bonnie sun)" (1 short text)
Roud #20335
NOTES [124 words]: This occurs in several anthologies of fishing poems, and I'm pretty sure I met is somewhere in the dim and misty past. I can't find any folk collections, other than the perhaps dubious one in Montgomery, but on the other hand, no one seems to know who wrote this. So I am, very hesitantly, indexing it.
It is ironic to note that this is largely coming true: Pollution and overfishing have nearly destroyed the fish stocks around the British Isles, and the small fishing vessels are nearly as extinct as the fish.
The Isle of May is a speck of land just about halfway between the north and south shores of the Firth of Forth, right at the spot where the Firth opens into the North Sea. It is thus the gateway from the Firth into the open ocean. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: MSNR184

Fishes, Fishes in the Brook

See Fishy, Fishy in the Brook (File: MGMG876)

Fishes, The

See Song of the Fishes (Blow Ye Winds Westerly) (File: LxA496)

Fishes' Lamentation, The

See Windy Old Weather (File: CoSB204)

FIshie

See Did You Ever See a Fishie? (File: ACSF142D)

Fishing Blues

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes pleasures of fishing, boasting, "I'm going fishing, you're going fishing. You can bet your life, your (lovely/ugly/loving) wife I'll catch more fish than you...."
AUTHOR: Probably Henry Thomas, but based on a 1911 song by Chris Smith.
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas)
KEYWORDS: fishing
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 106, "Fishing Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Henry Thomas, "Fishing Blues" (Vocalion 1249, 1928; on AAFM3)
NOTES [174 words]: The song is not in blues form; Henry Thomas was more of an African-American "songster" than a blues singer, tracing his musical style back to pre-blues traditions, including playing a rack of quills.
Elijah Wald traces this to "Fishing," which he describes as a "feminist ragtime cheating song from 1911" composed by Chris Smith and popular on the African-American vaudeville circuit. The theme of "Fishing" is that the singer is playing around, but his wife is too, with more success. When Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas recorded the song in 1928, he (or someone else) stripped away the layers of metaphor, taking the literal words about fishing as the essence of the song. Wald makes a convincing case for "Fishing" as the progenitor of "Fishing Blues", but Thomas's bowdlerized version is so different in theme that I think it's become a separate song, so our EARLIEST DATE of 1928 stands - it's Thomas's version that became hugely popular among revival singers, due to its presence on the Harry Smith "Anthology of American Folk Music". -PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: ADR106

Fishing on the Labrador

DESCRIPTION: The A&J Humby lands two fishermen at Goose Cove and heads for Labrador to hunt seals and trap cod. The crew are all named. They had a good summer. "We're a crowd of bold sharemen."
AUTHOR: Moses Harris
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: fishing hunting sea ship moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 37, "Fishing on the Labrador" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #30712
NOTES [28 words]: The one line refrain is shared with "A Crowd of Bold Sharemen," an entirely different ballad about a summer of conflict. A shareman shares in expenses and profits. - BS
File: LeBe037

Fishy Crab, The

See The Sea Crab (File: EM001)

Fishy, Fishy in the Brook

DESCRIPTION: "Fishy, fishy in the brook, Daddy catch him on a hook, Mommy fry him in a pan, Johnny eat him like a man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: fishing food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 42, "(Fishes, fishes in the brook)" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #876, p. 326, "(Fishy, fishy in the brook)"
Roud #16338
File: MGMG876

Fit Comes On Me Now, The

See I Must And Will Get Married (The Fit) (File: SKE53)

Fit, The

See I Must And Will Get Married (The Fit) (File: SKE53)

Fit's Come on Me Now, The

See I Must And Will Get Married (The Fit) (File: SKE53)

Fit's Come Owre Me Noo, The

DESCRIPTION: Daughter and mother discuss the pros and cons of marriage and spinsterhood. Daughter has been courted by many and finally Willie comes and marries her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Daughter: "The miller and the mautman And Jack that holds the ploo'" are after me. Mother: You don't know the trouble of marriage and children. Daughter: I am tired of working for you. Mother: You have not worked hard yet; when you marry you will have to do whatever your husband says. Daughter: He can't ask more than I can do; "I mean to have a man"; don't you remember our old aunt who lived in a garret with just a cat and parrot. Willie takes her to church and they marry.
KEYWORDS: courting marriage wedding dialog mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #176, p. 2, "The Fits"; #179, p. 2, "The Fits" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan7 1336, "The Fit's Come Owre Me Noo" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #441
NOTES [29 words]: It's tempting to lump Greig/Duncan7 with "I Must And Will Get Married (The Fit)" based on its theme and structure. However, it shares no non-chorus lines with that song. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71336

Fitba' crazy

See Football Crazy (File: McPCFiCr)

Fitch-Austin Feud, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, come and listen to my story Concerning that fierce, bloody fight Between the Fitch and Austin families." The Austins set out, armed, to repair a telephone pole; the Fitches, unarmed, resist. Several are killed. The singer warns against feuding.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: feud death technology
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 23-24, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 36-37)
NOTES [35 words]: It seems most unlikely that this piece had any circulation in tradition; it's not good poetry, and quite confusing (at least if you don't know the participants). But with no source indicated, here it files. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa023

Fitting Out, A

DESCRIPTION: "A chest which is neither too large nor too small Is the first thing to which your attention I'll call." The sailor is told what to take to sea: blanket, clothes, tarpaulins, writing materials, items to repair clothes/shoes, Bible, razor, medical supplies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Journal from the Ocean Rover)
KEYWORDS: sailor travel clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 7-8, "A Fitting Out" (1 text)
Tod-WhalingInSouthernWaters, p. 130, "A FItting Out" (1 text)
Roud #1998
File: TWSS130B

Five and a Zack

DESCRIPTION: "I've been a few miles, I've crossed a few stiles, I've been round the world, there and back." He recalls is the place where the sanctimonious timekeeper "stung me for five and a zack." He expects to go to hell, with his complaint written on his tombstone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: money boss death Hell burial
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 96, "Five and a Zack" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [4 words]: A "zack" is a sixpence. - RBW
File: PASB096

Five Bob to Four

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains of MacRose, "a little podgy," who lowered the daily rate for threshers from five bob to four. The singer curses him: "I hope his cows the measles take, his hens refuse to lay...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: money work curse
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 59-60, "Five Bob to Four" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [30 words]: Measles is not a cattle disease, but rinderpest, which is closely related to measles, is, and is likely what is meant here; see the notes to "Old Cow Died of Whooping Cough." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: MA059

Five Boss Highway

DESCRIPTION: Hard times in the fall making local roads. The job is run by five incompetent bosses who considered themselves gentlemen, above involvement in the job, even when workers are injured. "No bloomin' wonder our government's broke"
AUTHOR: Micky Jim MacNeil (according to Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: work injury political
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 11, pp. 94-99, "Five Boss Highway" (1 text)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 133-135, "Five-Boss Highway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24292
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "Five Boss Highway" (on NFJDowney01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Employment Song" (subject)
NOTES [19 words]: Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong: "...the road-making that occasioned Micky's song dates to the mid-20s...." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: BeDo094

Five Constipated Men (in the Bible)

DESCRIPTION: "There were five, five, constipated men, In the Bible, in the Bible, There were five... in the five books of Moses": "Cain... who wasn't Abel"; Balaam, who couldn't "move his ass," Moses, who took two tablets, Samson, who brought the house down, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Sing Out! Volume 26)
KEYWORDS: humorous scatological Bible
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, FIVECMEN
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Power in the Blood" (tune)
NOTES [405 words]: Although this does not seem to have been printed anywhere, and I know no field collections, it seems to be fairly well known in, shall we say, certain circles. Rather surprising, given that it's relatively clean.
What it is not is accurate. Of the five (or six) men mentioned, only three are in fact characters in the Five Books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy):
* Cain and Abel are described in the first part of Genesis 4.
* Balaam is the primary subject of Numbers 22-24; his journey with his donkey (the word used in most modern translations), in which the donkey stopped moving to avoid an angel invisible to Balaam, causing that prophet much (temporary) anger, is in 22:21-35
* Moses is of course mentioned throughout the Bible; the cutting of the two tablets of stone is first mentioned in Exodus 24:12 (although the King James Bible uses the word "tables" there, not "tablets"; the KJV never calls the carved stones of the commandments "tablets")
* Samson's story is in Judges, not the Five Books of Moses; he is the subject of Judges 13-16, with his destruction of the Philistine banqueting hall being told at the end of chapter 16
* Solomon again is not mentioned in the Books of Moses; his story occupies much of 1 Kings (almost all of chapters 3-11, and a big chunk of chapters 1 and 2 as well). It is retold in the early chapters of 2 Chronicles. The reference to him "sitting" for forty years is unclear -- he reigned for forty years (1 Kings 11:42), but that's not sitting. Although it should be admitted that he didn't do much except raise taxes and chase women.
* Some versions apparently add a sixth constipated man, Titus. This isn't even Old Testament, let alone from the Books of Moses. Titus is mentioned by Paul about nine times in 2 Corinthians (in chapters 2, 7, 8, and 12), and twice in Galatians 2; also in 2 Timothy 4:10, and he is the supposed recipient of the letter to Titus (although mentioned only in 1:4). Acts 18:7 also refers to a "Titius Justus," but the manuscripts disagree here (the two best read "Titius," several others read "Titus"; most late manuscripts omit the name; the King James Bible follows those which omit it).
Thanks to Jack Horntip for pointing out the mention of this in Sing Out! from 1977. It does not supply a text (the snippet on Google Books appears to be of a Song Finder column), but there is no question but that it refers to this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: DT5cmen

Five Cripples

DESCRIPTION: Five London men with various disabilities, so well fitted that it appears their limbs are perfect, stop at a rural inn. They run up a huge tab. They remove their prostheses, are taken to be devils and persuaded to leave without paying the tab.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3544))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Five London men with various disabilities -- glass eye, false teeth, club feet, wooden leg -- so well fitted that it appears their limbs are perfect, stop at a rural inn. They run up a huge tab and retire to a bedroom where they have the waiter help them remove their prostheses. He had never seen such before -- "they're pulling off legs and arms like fun" -- and takes them to be devils. A parson is called to pray them away, without effect. Finally a soldier, not affected by the display, offers to get rid of the devils if the innkeeper will give him a sovereign and forgive the guests their tab. "They laugh'd to think they'd nought to pay So they scre'd on their limbs & limped away"
KEYWORDS: trick ritual clergy injury
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 101, "The Three Cripples" (1 text)
Roud #2422
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3544), "The Five Cripples" ("Five cripples in London for a spree"), H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Johnson Ballads 2501, "The Five Cripples"
File: ReSh101

Five Fingers In the Boll

DESCRIPTION: A recurring line is "Won't get my hundred [pounds] all day." "Way down in the bottom the cotton boll's rotten," "before I get beaten or cheated I'll leave five fingers in the boll," "black man beat me -- white man cheat me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 60, pp. 247-248, "Five Fingers In the Boll" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [47 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. Parrish writes that "'fingers' are the compartments [at the bottom of a cotton boll] holding the white fiber. The song has reference to the [cotton] variety that contains five in a boll...." - BS"
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr060

Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue (Has Anybody Seen My Gal)

DESCRIPTION: "Five foot two, eyes of blue, Oh, what those five feet could do, Has anybody seen my gal? Turned up nose, turned down hose, Never had no other clothes, Has anybody... If you run into a five foot two covered with fur... Bet your life it isn't her...."
AUTHOR: Words: Sam Lewis and Joe Young / Music: Ray Henderson (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (sheet music published by Leo Feist)
KEYWORDS: love courting clothes ring
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Gene Austin, "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue (Has Anybody Seen My Gal)" (Victor 19899-B, 1926)
Fran Hendrickson, "Five Foot Two" (instrumental with references to the words; Piotr-Archive #291, recorded 10/07/2022)
NOTES [141 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 357, estimates that this was the eleventh most popular song in America in 1926, peaking at #3 in February of the year (the #1 song that year being Irving Berlin's "Always"). It had another peak in 1949.
A movie by this title was released in 1952, but the song was perhaps incidental; it was based on a different source.
There have been many, many parodies, along the lines of "Six foot five... has anybody seen my guy." Perhaps it's just too easy to imitate....
Incidentally, the average height of American women in the 1920s was a bit less than five foot four. So the girl was short but not really short. An equivalent girl would probably be five foot four, or perhaps a little more than that, in 2023. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Rc5ft2E

Five Hundred Miles

See Nine Hundred Miles (File: LxU073)

Five in the Bed

DESCRIPTION: "Two at the foot, Two at the head, And one in the middle Makes five in the bed."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 158, "Five in the Bed" (sixth of 12 single-stanza jigs) (1 text, probably just a floating verse)
Roud #16413
File: Fus158B

Five Long Years

DESCRIPTION: Singer says if you've been mistreated you understand his story. For five years he worked in a steel mill, gave his pay to his wife, and "she had the nerve to turn me out" Next woman he marries, "she's got to work and bring me the dough"
AUTHOR: Eddie Boyd
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recording, Eddie Boyd)
KEYWORDS: marriage rejection money work wife worker
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Boyd, "Five Long Years" (J.O.B. 1007, 1952; on "Eddie Boyd: The Blues Is Here To Stay -- 1947-1959," Jasmine Records CD JASMCD 3039 (2013, recorded 1952))
Joe Hunter, "Have You Ever Been Mistreated" (on JohnsIsland1)
NOTES [36 words]: [Joe] Hunter seems more likely to be covering someone like Lightning Hopkins than Eddie Boyd because of his title and words -- "Have you ever been mistreated" -- rather than Boyd's "If you've ever been mistreated." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Rc5LonYe

Five Miles from Gundagai (II)

See Nine Miles from Gundagai (The Dog Sat in the Tuckerbox) (File: MA095)

Five O'Clock is Striking

See My Boyfriend Gave Me An Apple (File: Hamm011)

Five pears hanging high

See Twelve Pears Hanging High (File: NCF1028B)

Five Times Five Is Twenty-Five

See Multiplication Table Song (File: Stou103H)

Five Tinkers

See Hog Drovers (File: LoF207)

Five to My Five

DESCRIPTION: "Five to my five is twenty-five, Six to my five is thirty, Seven to my five's thirty-five, Eight to m' five is forty." "Nine to my five is forty-five, Ten to my five is fifty, Eleven to my five is fifty-five, Twelve to my five is sixty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 230, "Five to my five" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #16811
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Multiplication Table Song" (subject of multiplication)
NOTES [109 words]: The notes in Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices describe this as a playparty, but I wonder if it didn't begin life as a teaching song covering the multiples of five. Although Rosenbaum's version (from Howard Finster) has only two verses, covering the numbers from five times five to twelve times five, one has to suspect there was originally a verse telling us something like "One to my five is still just five, Two to my five makes ten. Three to my five it is fifteen, Four to my five is twenty."
Roud lumps this with the various songs I've lumped as "Multiplication Table Song," but the purpose is (just barely) different enough that I've split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Rose230

Five-and-Twenty Masons

DESCRIPTION: "Five-and-twenty masons went to build a house." They built windows but no door. When they reached the ceiling they stopped [no roof?]
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: work humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1697, "Five-and-Twenty Masons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13038
File: GrD81697

Five-Boss Highway

See Five Boss Highway (File: BeDo094)

Five-Gallon Jar, The

See The Big Five-Gallon Jar (File: Doe111)

Five, Ten, Fifteen, Twenty, Nobody Leaves the Rope Empty

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme/game. "Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, Nobody leaves the rope empty, If they do, they shall suffer, Take and end and be a duffer."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | rope counting
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 105, "(Five, ten, fifteen, twenty)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #144, "Five, ten, fifteen, twenty" (1 text)
File: SuSm105D

Fix Me Jesus

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "Fix me so I can stand." The hymn leader sings "Fix me Jesus fix me right." "Fix me so I can stand." "My tongue tired and I can't speak plain." "Fix my feet on solid rock." "Fix my family... right." "Fix my neighbor... right"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 81, "Fix Me Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17638
NOTES [75 words]: The current description is based on the Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight text.
The line "fix me Jesus, fix me right" is also in the hymn "I'm Goin' T' Wear that Starry Crown Over There" [parodied in the Index as "Chased Old Satan Through The Door"] (Newman I. White, American Negro Folk-Songs (Hatboro: Folklore Associates, 1965), #20 pp. 79-80). - BS
It should perhaps be noted that "fix" in this context means not "repair" but "affix, firmly fix." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: CarCa081

Fixin' to Die

DESCRIPTION: "I'm looking funny in my eyes, and I b'lieve I'm fixin' to die, b'lieve I'm fixin' to die." The singer is "born to die, but I hate to leave m children crying." He bids goodbye to the children's mother and looks to "the buryin' ground."
AUTHOR: Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recording, Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White)
KEYWORDS: death burial mother farewell
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, pp. 183-184, "Fixin' to Die" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Bukka White, "Fixin' to Die Blues" (Vocalion 05588, 1940)
File: BTN183

Fizzy Gow's Tea Party

DESCRIPTION: "Kind freens I'm here again, I've just come out afore ye... THe sang I'm gaun to sing to you is Fizzy Gow's Tea Party." At the drunken party, "Fizzy's cuddy" is killed; several wind up in prison as a result of the altercation.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Martin, Dundee Worthies, according to Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: party drink animal death prison
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 49, "Fizzy Gow's Tea Party" (1 text(
File: Gath049

Flag of Newfoundland, The

DESCRIPTION: "The pink rose of England shows, The green St. Patrick's emblem bright, While in between the spotless sheen of Andrew's cross displays the white." The singer hopes the pink, green, and white flag will long wave over Newfoundland
AUTHOR: Words: "Archbishop Howley" / Music: "Sister Josephine" (Source: Doyle4)
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 4th edition)
KEYWORDS: patriotic nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Flag of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 10 in the 4th edition, p. 8 in the 5th
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, compiler, _Songs & Ballads of Terra Nova_, Evening Telegram publishing, 1903 (available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 5, "The Flag of Newfoundland" (1 text)
Roud #26392
NOTES [258 words]: Archbishop Michael Howley (1843-1914) was an important figure in Newfoundland history, although I'm not sure I'd call him a positive one; he was conservative and parochial and touchy about Catholic rights. (Robert H. Cuff, managing editor), Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador Biography, Harry Cuff Publications, 1990, pp. 165-166, says that he was "ordained Roman Catholic priest 1868; prefect Apostolic of St George's 1886-1892; titular Bishop of Amastris and first Vicar Apostolic of St. George's 1892-1894; Bishop of St John's 1894-1904; Archbishop of St John's 1904-1914...."
"Howley was born into a prosperous st. John's merchant family. After a course of studies in Rome he became secretary for Scotland" and held various other Church offices, including secretary to Michael F. Power, Bishop of St. John's. When he became titular Bishop of Amastris he was the first Newfoundlander to hold the office of Bishop (Power was an Irishman, and other Newfoundland bishops were also from elsewhere). Power died in 1893, with Howley appointed to the see in the following year. In the bank crash of 1894, he opposed organized relief, though he did donate his family's summer residence for an orphan home. He became Archbishop when Newfoundland was promoted to an Archepiscopal province. Despite being a Catholic, he was very loyal to both Britain and Newfoundland.
"A prolific writer on historical topics, especially in the Newfoundland Quarterly, Howley also wrote a volume of poems, which included an operetta." I suspect it was deadly. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doyl4010

Flag of the Free

DESCRIPTION: "Could we desert you now, Flag of the free, When we a solemn vow, Flag of the free, You from all harm to save, Made when we crossed the wave, And you a welcome gave...." The Irish immigrants promise to support the American flag against tyrants
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar freedom patriotic nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 224-225, "Flag of the Free" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Eileen Aroon" (tune)
cf. "Robin Adair" (tune)
NOTES [43 words]: Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 11, has another song called "Flag of the Free," with an air by Wagner and anonymous lyrics; it begins "Flag of the free, fairest to see, Borne through the strife and thunder of war." I doubt there is any relation at all. - RBW
File: SBoA224

Flag with the Thirty-Four Stars, The

See The Northern Bonnie Blue Flag (File: SBoA218)

Flambeau d'Amour (Torch of Love)

DESCRIPTION: French. A father puts his daughter in a tower to keep her from her lover. She lights a torch to signal him to come to her. He tries but drowns in a storm. She finds his body. She cuts her vein to mix their blood and bring him back to life. She dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting drowning suicide sea storm father lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 671-672, "Flambeau d'Amour" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [83 words]: The belief that blood not only sustains but *is* life is ancient; the Bible, e.g., says so in Leviticus 17:11, 14. And, of course, in Christian belief, the shedding of Jesus's blood brought life to those otherwise doomed.
There is also the interesting point that to mingle blood is often to make a covenant -- the girl's sacrifice might also be a pledge of fidelity.
Other folk beliefs might also be involved, e.g. the belief that the blood of virgins could cure various diseases, such as leprosy. - RBW
File: Pea671

Flanders Shore, The

DESCRIPTION: A plowman loves his employer's daughter. He tells the farmer who "lock'd her up in a room so high." The plowman sails to Flanders, always thinking of her. He returns. Her father says, "My daughter is dead ... all for sake of loving thee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1683-1696 (Pepys 4.72 dating estimated by Malcolm Douglas; see note below)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A plowman works for a farmer seven years. All that time he loved his employer's daughter. He tells the farmer who "lock'd her up in a room so high" The plowman went "to my love's chamber door where oft-times I had been before" and tells her he is sailing away. The plowman "sailed for fair Flander's shore" [to war?] always thinking of her. Eventually he returns to England. He meets her father who tells him, "My daughter is dead ... all for sake of loving thee." An incomplete(?) warning follows to "all young men who a courting go who never made the bells to ring, Go no more into shady groves for to hear the sweet nightingale sing."
KEYWORDS: love parting return separation travel death father
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1688-1697 - War of the League of Augsburg (source: "Nine Years' War" in Wikipedia); for a Flanders reference see 1693 "Battle of Landen" (source: "Battle of Landen" in Wikipedia)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 90, "The Flanders Shore"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2, pp. 187-189, "The Ploughman's Love to the Farmer's Daughter" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Lucy E. Broadwood, Frank Kidson, A.G. Gilchrist, H.E.D. Hammond and Ralph Vaughan Williams, "Miscellaneous Songs" in Journal of the Folk Song Society, Vol. III, No. 4 (1907), #38 pp. 130-131, "The Flandyke (?) Shore" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #2636
BROADSIDES:
EngBdsdBA 21738, Pepys 4.72, "The Unnatural Mother" or "The Two Loyal Lovers' Fatal Overthrow" [many words illegible but see note below] ("When first of all I began for to Wooe I loved a Bonny Lass as my Life"), Philip Brooksby (London), no date, accessed 08 Dec 2013. [see note below]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Locks and Bolts" [Laws M13] (theme: girl locked away by father) and references there
NOTES [1563 words]: The description follows Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 pp. 187-189, "The Ploughman's Love to the Farmer's Daughter," from an undated[?] chapbook. In Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 the ending is no warning but a graveside statement by the girl's ghost that "ye'r nocht to answer for my death My faither did me slay."
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2, p. xxiii: "'The Flanders Shore' ... is a modernization of an earlier song. The related story which appears on a blackletter broadside in the Pepys Collection with the title 'The Unnatural Mother: or, The two Loyal Lovers Fatal Overthrow' apparently dates from the time of the war with Flanders in 1693."
In the other "girl locked away by father" ballads noted above -- excluding Andrew Lammie -- the ending is happy. In Andrew Lammie, where "her father locked the door at nicht, Laid up the keys fu canny" -- it's not clear that Annie is a prisoner.
For other unclear examples, in "Bonnie Glasgow Green" [Greig/Duncan6 1130B], the girl's "mammy ... [ineffectively] locks the door and keeps the key"; in "The Shepherd Lad o' Rhynie" the girl's father "kept her under guard" or "under ground."
The "girl locked away by father" theme in Laws M10 is often missing and doesn't effect the plot. If included at all it is usually one line (broadside Bodleian 2806 b.11(51) and Greig/Duncan6 1097A): "The lady was taken and in her chamber bound."
Note the Jacob-Rachel-Laban (Genesis 29.16-20) theme at the beginning of the ballad [(H317.1, "Seven years of service imposed on suitor"), Motif-Index of Folk-Literature revised and enlarged by Stith Thompson, (Bloomington, 1955)]. Thompson points out that the theme may occur in "Hind Horn," Child 17.D and 17.F, and "The Whummil Bore," Child 27. In those cases, just as in "The Flanders Shore," all we know is that the suitor was in service to the father for seven years and the daughter was his objective; there is no explicit contract, as in Jacob-Rachel-Leah. Child points out that the "Hind Horn" connection may have resulted from the importation of "The Whummil Bore" lines, which otherwise seem out of place.
[There are explicit references to the Jacob-Rachel-Leah-Laban situation in "The Beggar-Laddie" [Child 280], "Foolish and Young," and "The Maid of Croaghmore," See also "The Hireman Chiel." - RBW]
Also see the example of Greig-Duncan2 197A: the page-boy version of "The White Fisher" [Child 264].
Another Thompson H317.1 connection with English literature is to the 15th century romance of "The Squyr of Lowe Degre" in which the lady sets the term of seven years but the father gives another suitor permission to capture the squire if he tries to enter the lady's chamber [though speaking outside her chamber is allowed]. The squire sails off to foreign wars and returns. This story has some points of agreement with "The Flanders Shore," but ends happily [see John Edwin Wells, A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1400 (New Haven, 1926), #104 pp. 149-150; Walter Hoyt French and Charles Brockway Hale, editors, Middle English Metrical Romances (New York, 1930), pp. 719-755, "The Squire of Low Degree," especially ll. 5-6, 11-22, 91-266, 413-454].
[The standard text of the "Squire" remains William Edward Mead, The Squyr of Lowe Degre: A Middle English Metrical Romance, Ginn & Company, 1904, which prints both the full version of the romance and the short Percy Folio version. However, it is a complicated tale, in which, e.g., the girl keeps the head of the lover she thinks dead. I would think any kinship merely thematic rather than genetic. - RBW]
[The following] comparison looks at five texts I have seen for "The Flanders Shore." The texts are in rough chronological order and, as it happens, each text has more lines than the text that follows. I don't take that at all to mean that a shorter, "later," text is necessarily derived from an older one of these five texts, though "Unnatural Mother" -- dating so closely to the time of William III in Flanders -- seems a good starting point for all the other texts.
-- "Unnatural Mother" (c.1690): (Pepys 4.72) which Malcolm Douglas estimates was printed 1683-1696 by Brooksby. We have another broadside printed by Brooksby dated 1671-1704 (see "The Farmer's Son of Devonshire" for another [War of the League of Augsburg] reference)
-- "Ploughman's Love" (1802): Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2, pp. 187-189, "The Ploughman's Love to the Farmer's Daughter" printed 1802.
-- Lyle (1827): Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 90, "The Flanders Shore" collected 1827.
-- Sharp (1906): JFSS above as additional, collected 1906 by Cecil Sharp. (For a close version which adds Hammond's verse 1 as verse 3, see Bob Bray, "The Flanders Shore" on "Songs from the Golden Fleece: A Song Tradition Today," Musical Traditions MTCD335-6.)
-- Hammond (1906): JFSS above as additional, collected 1906 by H.E.D. Hammond. (For a very close version see Nic Jones, "The Flandyke Shore" on Nic Jones, "Penguin Eggs," Shanachie SHA-CD-79090 (1994 reissue of 1980 LP).)
-- The Hammond (1906) text is from Dorset and the Sharp (1906) text is from Somerton, both in the South.
-- "Unnatural Mother" (c.1690) has 72 lines. It shares 17 lines with "Ploughman's Love" (1802), [40 lines] 12 with Lyle (1827) [32 lines] and Sharp (1906) [22 lines, not counting 11 repetions] and 5 with Hammond (1906) [15 lines, not counting 5 repetions]. The description is close enough to the long description above, taken from "Ploughman's Love" (1802) but includes sections not found at all in the other texts: before her parents discover their love the singer says "she gave me her hand, with her heart and all"; after the mother locks her up he serenades his sweetheart at her window; then mother, "Her innocent Daughter she took straightway and bound her with Chains in a Dungeon deep"; after the singer arrives in Flanders he sees "youthful young lasses" who remind him of the girl he left behind; he returns to England [after the battle] "in order to see my true Love again"; after hearing of his sweetheart's death he "beat my Breast and tore my Hair," questions why her "unnatural Parents ... have Murder'd your Darling," and bids "Farewel to the World ... I'll lye down in the Grave with thee." "Unnatural Mother" differs from later texts in that the active parent is the mother. It has one set of lines carried into all other versions that seems to have caught listeners' fancy without explanation: in Flanders the singer shoots a bullet toward England and his true love.
-- "Ploughman's Love" (1802) has 23 of 40 lines not shared with "Unnatural Mother" (c.1690). Of those 23 lines 4 are shared with Lyle (1827) and 8 each with Sharp (1906) and Hammond (1906). In the lines carried forward, but not in "Unnatural Mother" (c.1690): the singer goes to his imprisoned sweetheart's door and tells her he is going to Flanders; after her death [but see Sharp (1906) and Hammond (1906)] he goes to her door where "sprung a light from my love's clothes just like the morning sun when rose." A warning, unique to "Ploughman's Love," is that young men who court but have not yet married, should avoid going to shady groves "to hear the sweet nightingale sing."
-- Lyle (1827) replaces the England of the other texts with Scotland. It has 16 unique lines, half of which are scattered throughout the text and don't change the story; in the remaining eight the singer goes to his sweetheart's grave and thinks he hears her absolve him of any guilt: "My father did me slay."
-- Hammond (1906) has a line not found in the other texts: the singer tells his sweetheart he will go to Flanders "never to return more" [and, as far as this story goes, never does return]. Sharp notes that "my version consists of four verses, the last two of which are more of less the same as the [Hammond (1906)] Dorset verses." The line about telling the sweetheart that he is going to Flanders is the main plot difference between the two texts.
-- Hammond (1906) and Sharp (1906) share one line not found in the other three texts: he meets the father "as I was walking on Flanders' shore." The description of Sharp (1906): the singer courts his sweetheart but her father discovers the courtship and locks his daughter "in a room so high"; he goes to her door and sees a light springing from her clothes; in Flanders he meets her father who tells that his daughter "has broke her heart all for the love of thee" and died; the singer shoots a bullet towards England "just where I thought my own true lover lay."
Hammond (1906) and Sharp (1906) are titled "The Flandyke (?) Shore," and Hammond says of his text, "The title Flandyke Shore which Mrs Notley gave, is doubtless a corruption of 'Flanders Shore,' and both Hammond's and Sharp's transcriptions use "Flanders" rather than "Flandyke"; Jones, copying Hammond (1906), restores "Flandyke" and Bray following Sharp (1906) uses "Flanders."
There is a superficial resemblance between ballads with the "girl locked away" theme and international tale type ATU 310, "The Maiden in the Tower" (e.g., Rapunzel) [see Hans-Jorg Uther, The Types of International Folktales, Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 2004]. In the tale the maiden is magically born and secluded to prevent discovery by any potential lover. In the ballads there is no magic and the lovers meet before the girl is secluded. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: LyCr2090

Flash Colonial Barman, The

DESCRIPTION: "Since I've been in this colony I've written many a song" about the characters who inhabit it. Now it's time to sing of the barman. He is a Yankee who dresses up and thinks highly of himself. The "shine" has come off him, but he hopes to regain it
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)? (source: AndersonStory)
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: drink emigration Australia
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 49-51, "The Flash Colonial Barman" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [29 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: AnSto049

Flash Company

See The Yellow Handkerchief (Flash Company) (File: K360)

Flash Cows of the City

DESCRIPTION: "One night, very late, through the Dockyard I wandered, When I met me a messmate all staggering and drunk." He dies the next day; they bury the "matelot cut down in his primw"; on his grave he states "Flash cows of the city brought me to my grave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: death navy sailor derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 131, "Flash Cows of the City" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #2
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bad Girl's Lament (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime)" [Laws Q26] (tune, theme) and references there
NOTES [50 words]: Roud lumps this with "The Bad Girl's Lament (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime)" [Laws Q26] and all the other by-blows of its type, but I would say that this is a deliberate rewrite, with a different purpose, so I've split it. But obviously you should see that song also. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn098

Flash Frigate, The (La Pique)

DESCRIPTION: "I sing of a frigate, (a frigate of fame/La Pique was her name/do not mention her name), And in the West Indies she bore a great name," but she is a horrible place to serve; the crew is worked hard and punished severely. Listeners are urged to avoid her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton-RealSailorSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes ship punishment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 153, "La Pique" (1 text, w tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 178-180, "The Flash Frigate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #78 insert, "The Fancy Frigate" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 98, "The Fancy Frigate" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 316,"The Fancy Frigate"
ST ShaSS178 (Partial)
Roud #2563
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dreadnought" [Laws D13] (tune)
cf. "The Blanche" (possible subject)
NOTES [292 words]: Many versions of this song, including Shay's and Ashton's, do not give the ship's name -- some, indeed, explicitly say the name is secret. But Shay says, without hesitation, that the song describes H. M. S. La Pique, described as a "blood ship" for its hard discipline. Palmer agrees with this assessment, and cites (without naming them) Hugill's versions that name the ship the La Pique (and the name is indeed used in the first line of Hugill-SongsOfTheSea).
The ship had a long career in the West Indies. According to Terrence Grocott's Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Wars, in 1798 she was captained by David Milne and helped capture La Seine but ran aground in the process. Milne would later undergo a court-martial for losing La Seine (which ship he had been given after the loss of his own), but was acquitted.
Milne's discipline may nonetheless have had some effect; he was in the vicinity of Portsmouth at the time of the Spithead mutiny, and in fact became a hostage of the delegates, but La Pique is not listed as one of the mutinous ships in Appendix III of James Dugan's The Great Mutiny (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1965), though on p. 190 Dugan quotes a letter saying there was a mutiny aboard.
For a seemingly fictional account of another "blood ship," plus information about the horrid case of the Hermione, see the notes to "Captain James (The Captain's Apprentice)."
A new British Pique, a 40-gun frigate captured by Charles Ross, was in service by 1805.
The final complaint, that working the ship leaves sailors invalids, is quite true; sailors' work was hard at the best of times, and often left men crippled; on a ship which ignored the human needs of the men, such injuries were naturally more common. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: ShaSS178

Flash Gals of the Town

See Jack Tar (I) [Laws K39] (File: LK39)

Flash Jack from Gundagai

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes all the places he has sheared -- and some of the problems he's faced. He declares, "They know me round the country as Flash Jack from Gundagai." When possible, he prefers "Shearing for old Tom Patterson on the One Tree Plain."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: sheep work rambling Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 146, "Flash Jack from Gundagai" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 134-135, "Flash Jack from Gundagai" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 243-245, "Flash Jack from Gundagai" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 59-60, "Flash Jack from Gundagai" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 255-256, "Flash Jack from Gundagai" (1 text)
Roud #24704
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Flash Jack from Gundagai" (on Lloyd3, Lloyd10) (Lloyd4, Lloyd08)
NOTES [56 words]: According to Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 112, "The 'One-Tree Plain' referred to in the song was part of Tom Patterson's Ulong station on the Riverina" -- the Riverina being, very roughly, the watershed of the Murray and Murrumbidgee in New South Wales and Victoria. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: FaE146

Flash Packet Worts, The

DESCRIPTION: Apparently derived from "The Dreadnought," and describing a Great Lakes ship. "We're in a flash packet, a packet of fame, She hails from Oswego, and the Worts is her name." Apparently the voyage is up-Lakes, since they pass through the Welland Canal
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2002 (Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 100-101, "The Flash Packet Worts" (1 fragment)
Roud #19876
File: WGM100

Flash Stockman, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a stockman by me trade, And me name is Ugly Dave, I'm old and grey and I've only got one eye...." The stockman boasts of his amazing skill at his trade -- so great that "You can cut me fair in two, For I'm much too bloody good to be in one."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933
KEYWORDS: bragging horse work Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 166-167, "The Flash Stockman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 224-225, "The Flash Stockman" (1 text)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 14, "The Flash Stockman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 129-130, "The Flash Stockman" (1 text)
Roud #22616
File: FaE166

Flash Sydney Shearers, The

DESCRIPTION: "You've heard of the flash Sydney shearers, They're the flashest of men out of town." The singer tells of how they boast and fail to perfom: "He'll whip anything in creation, And ends up whipping the cat." Returning to town, they go on the dole
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1996 (Patterson/Fahey/Seal)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes sheep
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 183-185, "The Flash Sydney Shearers" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Springtime It Brings on the Shearing, The (On the Wallaby Track)" (form)
File: PFS183

Flat Bill Beaver Cap

See The Beaver Cap (File: R355)

Flat River Girl, The

See Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl) [Laws C25] (File: LC25)

Flat River Raftsman, The

See Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl) [Laws C25] (File: LC25)

Flatrock Hills

DESCRIPTION: Singer recalls his youth in (Bowrings) and around St. John's (Flat Rock, Windgap, Big River). Newfoundland sons and daughters leave but their hearts are left behind. He regrets leaving and hopes to return.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration return nonballad logger
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18209
RECORDINGS:
Bernard Houlihan, "Flatrock Hills" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Newfoundland" (theme: Home sickness for the hills around St John's, Newfoundland)
cf. "Towering Heights of Newfoundland" (theme: Home sickness for the hills around St John's, Newfoundland)
File: RcFlatHi

Flaunting Flag of Liberty, The

DESCRIPTION: May the French flag never be seen in Britain. "The only flag that freedom rears Her emblem on the sea [is the British flag] that's braved a thousand years The battle and the breeze"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: war England France nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 32, "The Flaunting Flag of Liberty" (1 text)
Roud #2815
File: TPS032

Flea

See Flee Fly Flo (File: OpGa115)

Flea Fly

See Flee Fly Flo (File: OpGa115)

Flee Fly Flo

DESCRIPTION: ""Flee/Flea," then Flee fly," is chanted and echoed. "Flee fly flo" is chanted and echoed. "Vesta"/"Vista' is chanted and echoed. Then the process seems to fall into random gibberish. The "Flea/Flee" part may be omitted so it starts with "Kumala Vista"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: nonsense playparty campsong
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,West)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 115, "Flee Fly Flo" (2 texts, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 101-104, "Flea" (1 text, 1 tune)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 68, "(Kumala Vista)" (1 text, from user 2wonderY, posted September 1, 2021; it lacks the "Flea Fly" part but has the "Kumala Vista" part)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 151, 153, 308, 441, 495, "Flea" (notes only)
ST OpGa115 (Partial)
Roud #16804
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Flea Fly
Vee Vye
NOTES [90 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "The song was recorded at Kristiansund, Norway, in 1973, but the recorder did not attempt a translation because, she said, 'In Norwegian the words have little sense.'"
There are a number of YouTube videos. The one I find most useful -- because the "words" are not drowned out by instruments -- is "Hurrah Players: Flee Fly Floo," a 46 second performance by an acting class of thirteen children and two leaders, apparently from Virginia (as far as I can tell) [Google: "Hurrah Players" "Flee Fly Floo" YouTube]. - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: OpGa115

Fleecy Care, The

See As Shepherds Watched Their Fleecy Care (File: PECS142)

Fleeing Servant, The

See The Miller's Daughter (The Fleeing Servant) (File: KinBB06)

Fleischmann's Yeast

See Uncle Joe and Aunty Mabel (File: EM374)

Flemings of Torbay, The [Laws D23]

DESCRIPTION: Two "fine young men" of Torbay are cast adrift for six days. They are unconscious by the time they are rescued by the coal ship "Jessie Maurice." Cared for by the captain, they are taken to Quebec
AUTHOR: Johnny Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: sea rescue fishing
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May, 1888 - Rescue of the two Torbay sailors
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws D23, "The Flemings of Torbay"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 141, "The Fishermen of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 912-915, "The Flemings of Torbay" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 76, "Flemings of Torbay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 115, "The Flemmings of Torbay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 202-203, "The Flemings of Torbay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Fishermen of Newfoundland; or, the Good Ship Jubilee" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 50-31 in the 2nd edition
DT 322, FLMTORBY
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, _Songs Their Fathers Sung: For Fishermen: Old Time Ditties_, James Murphy Publishing, 1923 (PDF available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 4, "The Flemings of Torbay" (1 text)
Roud #1821
RECORDINGS:
Charles Dawe, "The Flemings of Torbay" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Cyril O'Brien, "The Flemings of Torbay" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [173 words]: Schooners left manned dories in different strategic places to fish. Getting lost from the schooner was almost a constant hazard. - SH
According to the notes in Creighton-Nova Scotia, the end of this story was not quite as happy as the song might imply; the two brothers both had their legs amputated. This was also reported by Murphy. Creighton's informant said that Queen Victoria herself paid for artificial legs, but Creighton could not verify this; the Flemming brothers were dead and Johnny Burke no longer remembered the details.
This sort of thing happened on a much larger scale on occasion; see especially the notes on "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)."
Although most sources attribute this to Burke, it is not in his most extensive collection, Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981. Nor did James Murphy, who worked with Burke, credit the song to him. For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: LD23

Flemmings of Torbay, The

See The Flemings of Torbay [Laws D23] (File: LD23)

Flicker

DESCRIPTION: "The flicker of the campfire, the wind in the pines, The stars in the heavens, the moon that shines, A place where people gather to meet friends... So give me the light of a campfire... Just you and me and the campfire and songs we love to hear"
AUTHOR: Judith Czerwinski (1939-1999) (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: friend nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 200, 346, 347, 431, 500, 501, 543, 558-562, "Flicker" (notes plus three texts on pp. 560-562; bibliography on pp. 708-709)
DT, FLICKRCP
File: ACSF200F

Flies Are On the Tummits, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer has been farming all his life but "the only thing that flourishes is the damnation weeds." Flies are on his turnips... his live stock "eat me up and never turn out right." "No matters what I sell is cheap, but what I buy is dear"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (recording, Ted Laurence)
KEYWORDS: farming hardtimes nonballad animal bug chickens horse sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 39, "(no title)" (1 fragment, with lyrics typical of this song although it might be from any of the related songs)
Roud #1376
RECORDINGS:
Ted Laurence, "The Flies Are On the Tummits" (on Voice20)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Seven Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat" (theme of poor living for farmers)
cf. "The Turnip-Hoer" (them of a turnip farmer's life)
NOTES [69 words]: Roud lumps this with "The Turnip-Hoer," with which it shares some lyrics, but Ben Schwartz and I both consider the general plots distinict enough to split them. "The Turnip-Hoer" is about the singer's employment history; "The Flies Are On the Tummits" about the hard life of a farmer.
Widespread growing of turnips, incidentally, was a relatively recent practice; for details, see the notes to "The Turnip-Hoer." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: RcFAOtT

Flight of Doodles

See Root, Hog, or Die (Confederate Version) (File: R248)

Flim-A-Lim-A-Lee

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Flirring Away

DESCRIPTION: "I am longing so sadly... For the flowers that have blossomed and fled, For the hopes that about me were thronging, That at last area all withered and dead.... Flitting, flitting away, All that we cherish most dear." Everything is rapidly passing away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad flowers mourning
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 688, "Flitting Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BrS5688

Flirtation

See She Said She Was Only Flirting (File: R764)

Flirting

See She Said She Was Only Flirting (File: R764)

Flirty Love

DESCRIPTION: "Two young girls are going around... in this town" flirting. When the fellas they re going with are gone they "go flirt with some other that comes their way." Miss Flossie Whittle and Miss Aggie Penney are flirts, and other girls as well.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30126
RECORDINGS:
Jack C. Molloy, "Flirty Love" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3FliLo

Floating Home, A

DESCRIPTION: "Huzza huzza for a floating home, A good ship tight and free, There is naught like being waterborne On this the home for me." "There's music in the freshening gale." "Land, land, in sight my native land... Home of the brave and free."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Journal of the Uncus)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor return home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 146-147, "A Floating Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HGam146

Flodden Field [Child 168]

DESCRIPTION: King James vows to fight his way to London. Queen Margaret tries to prevent him, and Lord Thomas Howard supports her. James vows to punish them when he returns -- but he never returns; the English slay him and twelve thousand men at Flodden
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1597 (see NOTES); the text in Child's Appendix is from the Percy Folio and elsewhere
KEYWORDS: war royalty family promise death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 9, 1513 - Battle of Flodden. James IV and the pride of Scotland's chivalry die in battle with the Earl of Surrey's English army
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Child 168, "Flodden Field" (1 text plus long appendix)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 313-340, "Fflodden Ffeilde" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 208-212, "Floddon Field" (1 text)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 70-71, "Flodden Field" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 67-68, "Flodden Field" (1 text)
APPENDIX: "Now Let Us Talk of Mount of Flodden"
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3779
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 117
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Harley 293, folio 55
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, Ms. Harley 367, folio 120
Roud #2862
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Flowers o' the Forest" (subject)
NOTES [1275 words]: Child's only text of this is from Thomas Deloney's Pleasant History of John Winchcomb (the other versions, including the Percy Folio version, are of the appendix text). Ritson credits the piece to Deloney (1543?-1600?). Chambers observes that Deloney may well have printed the text with some "improvements." It would be very interesting to know what was Deloney's source -- it might well have been nearly contemporary with the actual battle of Flodden.
The probable earliest copy of this, Harley 367, was assembled mostly from papers which had been in the possession of John Stow (died 1605). Stow is most notable for an edition of Chaucer of singularly low value -- he seems to have reprinted his text without deliberate change from the earlier edition of Thynne. Parts of Harley 367 are in Stow's own hand, whatever that tells you. It also contains a copy of "The Song of the Lady Bessy," for more about which (and about the manuscript) see the notes to "The Battle of Bosworth Field."
King James IV was unusually long-lived for a Stewart king; he lived all the way to forty (1473-1513). But it wasn't for lack of trying; he repeatedly went to war with England. The first attempt, in support of Perkin Warbeck, was in the 1490s, and accomplished nothing. A 1502 attempt also went nowhere.
To cement the post-1502 peace, James IV married Margaret Tudor, the elder daughter of England's King Henry VII. (This was the marriage that eventually brought the Stewarts to the throne of England.) But that didn't prevent his warmongering. In 1513, the new English king Henry VIII was away in a sort of a mock campaign against France. James (strongly encouraged by the French, who wanted to distract Henry) decided to go to war.
Unfortunately for James, the defense of the border was in the hands of Thomas Howard, then Earl of Surrey (1443-1524). Surrey was the son of John Howard, Richard III's Duke of Norfolk, and had fought for Richard III at Bosworth. But with Richard dead, Howard was given a partial pardon (being given the Surrey earldom though not the Norfolk dukedom). This may have been because, with Richard and the elder Howard dead, Surrey was the best soldier in England.
Surrey wanted to go to France with Henry in 1513 (according to Mattingly, p. 155, he was "choking with rage and grief" at not being allowed to join the invasion). But he ended up getting his chance to fight.... It was Surrey who led the army which intercepted the invading Scots. James IV, meanwhile, had decided that the French alliance was more important than peace with England. So he invaded.
The Scottish attack started with a minor raid led by Lord Home. This burned seven villages and took a lot of plunder, but Sir William Bulmer, Sheriff of Durham, intercepted and routed it. Home and some of his men made it home, but the plunder was lost. It came to be known as the "Ill Raid" (Phillips, p. 113).
James's own invasion was more than a raid; it was intended to take advantage of the fact that the main English army was away. James's army was large -- Phillips, p. 114, thinks 40,000 a reasonable estimate. (I think that absurd; Scotland didn't have the men or the logistics. But it was very possibly the largest army Scotland ever raised.) Phillips estimates that it was down to about 34,000 by the time of the battle.
Surrey's army Phillips, p. 116, puts at 26,000 a few days before the battle, with some small reinforcements coming in after that, so while it may have been slightly smaller than the Scots army, the difference was small. Both armies had artillery, and the English also had longbowmen (which however did little damage, according to Phillips, p. 127. He thinks it was because the Scots were armored; I suspect that it was the weather; a wet bow is a bow that loses power). The Scots in addition had long pikes, with which they fought in phalanxes. The English answered with halberdmen (a shorter pike/axe).
Surrey actually issued, and James made a formal acceptance of, a challenge to battle (Phillips, pp. 118-119) -- but they didn't actually rush into combat.
Initially the English were to the south of the Scots, but Surrey, to force battle, decided to move around to the north and cut James off from home (an interesting choice, since Surrey's army was apparently out of provisions, and Surrey was cutting himself off from supplies as well as cutting James off; Phillips, p. 120). The weather was miserably wet, and James did not interfere with Surrey's maneuver. Perhaps uncertain about the English intentions, he let them take up their new position, then went ahead with his attack.
The actual battle started around 4:00 p.m. and lasted until nightfall, according to Philips, p. 129 -- so, given the time of year, roughly three hours.
The mud made it hard for James to attack; I suspect that this was also why the artillery and longbowmen played little role. But James's long pikes could not deal with the halberdmen -- who cut off the heads of the pikes and then went in for the kill (MacDougall, pp. 272-276). Nor did James exercise much control over the battle; he was too close to the front (the Spanish ambassador had written in 1497, "He is not a good captain, because he begins to fight before he has given his orders"; Philipps, p. 125). The armies apparently first engaged on the west end of the field, with forces to the east gradually becoming involved. The Scots at first had some success in shaking the English line, but their advantage disappeared as more English troops joined the action.
Once the English right had fought off the initial Scottish attack, it circled around to take the Scottish center in the rear (Phillips, p. 128).
The English and Scottish forces are believed to have been about equal in size, but Surrey outmaneuvered the Scots and inflicted a crushing defeat, killing James, the cream of his army, and about a third of his troops (everyone agrees that at least 5,000 were dead, and Phillips, p. 129, thinks 10,000 more likely) -- a defeat which came to be commemorated in the popular lament "The Flowers o' the Forest." Surrey lost perhaps 5%-10% of his own men.
There was no pursuit, because of the darkness (Phillips, p. 129), but there was hardly need of one!
King James's body was found on the field, wounded by arrows and bills, supposedly by Thomas Lord Dacre (Phillips, p. 130). The English had no doubt it was him, though there was no sign of an iron belt James wore as a penance, so some Scots had doubts, and there were rumors James had escaped and gone abroad. He never resurfaced, though, so even if the English had the wrong body, there seems to be no doubt that James died.
According to MacDougall, p. 309, it is likely that twelve Scottish earls were present (Phillips, p. 131 suggests there was eleven present, out of 21 earls in Scotland at this time), and nine of them were killed: Argyll, Bothwell, Cassillis, Crawford, Caithness, Erroll, Lennox, Montrose, and Rothes. Huntly survived but lost a brother; Marischal lost a son (Marischal seems to be the earl that Phillips thiks was not present). Angus, who was in his sixties and did not fight, lost two sons. About thirteen (Phillips) or fourteen (MacDougall) barons were killed as well. The Scots even lost an archbishop, a bishop, and a bunch of lesser clergy.
Scotland -- as always when a new monarch came to the throne -- was plunged into chaos. The loss of so much of the nobility made it even worse; most of the earls had heirs, but they were in their twenties or younger, often much younger. The border was safe for many years. Surrey received the Norfolk dukedom, which has remained in the Howard family ever since. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C168

Flood Come uh-Creepin'

See Flood Comes Creeping (File: HPR314F)

Flood Comes Creeping

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "(Do my Lord)(3x) (Don't she rain) (x3)." When the flood comes to Noah's door God tells Noah to take the children and go. The children came tapping on the telegraph wire. Singer has a sister in the Promised Land.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: flood nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 314-315, "Flood Come uh-Creepin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR314F

Floor to Let

See House to Let, Apply WIthin (File: SuSm100)

Flora

See The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter [Laws H12] (File: LH12)

Flora MacDonald and the King

See Skye Boat Song (Over the Sea to Skye) (File: Brew79)

Flora MacDonald's Lament

DESCRIPTION: "Over hill and lofty mountains Where the valleys were covered with snow... There poor Flora sat lamenting... Crying, 'Charlie, constant Charlie, My kind, constant Charlie, dear.'" She hopes to meet him again, and repeats her refrain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1779 (_The True Loyalist; or, Chevalier's Favourite_, according to Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: Jacobites love separation beauty royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1720-1788 - Life of Charles Edward Stuart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie"
1722-1790 - Life of Flora MacDonald
1745-1746 - '45 Jacobite rebellion led by Bonnie Prince Charlie
Apr 16, 1746 - Battle of Culloden. The Jacobite rebellion is crushed, most of the Highlanders slain, and Charlie forced to flee for his life.
Jun 28-29, 1746 - Aided by Flora MacDonald, and dressed as her maidservant, Charles flees from North Uist to Skye in the Hebrides.
1774-1779 - period of Flora MacDonald's residence in North America
FOUND IN: US(SE) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 132, "Flora MacDonald" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 368, "Flora MacDonald's Lament" (1 text)
Roud #5776
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 29, "Lovely Charly," J. Catnach (London), 1821
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Twa Bonnie Maidens" (subject)
cf. "Skye Boat Song (Over the Sea to Skye)" (subject)
cf. "Flora's Lament for her Charlie" (theme)
cf. "So Dear Is My Charlie to Me (Prince Charlie)" (theme)
NOTES [921 words]: This is one of those ironic little songs because it's so false-to-life. It is apparently not the same as James Hogg's poem of the same title, and the editors of Brown seem to think it was inspired by Flora MacDonald's brief and unhappy visit to what was in the process of becoming the United States.
The problems with this song include the fact that Bonnie Prince Charlie never showed any actual evidence of involvement with Flora MacDonald (1722-1790). The love of his life, if he had one, was Clementina Walkinshaw, who bore him his only child, Charlotte the shadow Duchess of Albany. Charles and Clementina had met in early 1746, before Charles met Flora (Wilkinson, p. 157) His later marriage (in 1772) was a political match, and produced no children -- indeed, Charles apparently beat his wife as much as he slept with her. Charles also ended up having a brutal quarrel with Clementina, so Flora was probably lucky that there was no relationship. "The charges against both Jenny [Cameron] and Flora were so preposterous that they could not have been believed by the most gullible enemy, but nonetheless the country was polluted by them during the '45 and after" (Douglas, p. 4).
By the time Charles and Flora met, the Battle of Culloden had been lost and the Forty-Five was over. (For background on the whole Forty-Five, see the notes to "Culloden Moor.") Culloden had taken place on April 16. It was on June 21, while on the island of South Uist, that Charles and a handful of companions arrived at the home of 24-year-old Flora MacDonald.
According to Kybett, p. 227, she was unusually accomplished for a herdsgirl, having studied Latin and French as well as Gaelic and English. (But then, she was the stepdaughter of Clanranald; Brumwell/Speck, p. 233.) Her residence in South Uist was temporary, and she wished to return to Skye.
McLynn, p. 280, reports that "Miss MacDonald was at first taken aback by the audacity of the scheme and declined to be involved. The prince won her around. Though the best efforts of romantic novelists have not been able to work up anything remotely sexual between Charles and Flora, it is clear that [Charles's] famous magnetism once again did its work.... Flora already had a passport to go to Skye and she was known to be returning within days. The authorities would certainly become suspicious if she asked for a passport for a manservant to accompany her, but would not jib at a female attendant."
Charles, for a brief time would become "Betty Burke," and with the help of Flora -- and a lot of luck, for the first patrol to stop them was headed by Flora's stepfather (McLynn, p. 280) -- he managed to stay out of British hands. Charles and Flora were together for ten days "although she had barely spent that many hours in his company" (Kybett, p. 236).
"Flora MacDonald was arrested ten days later.... Flora was transported by ship to London and imprisoned.... As it happened, her fortitude and calm demeanor under questioning in London won her much respect and admiration, so that by the time she was released under the general amnesty a year later, Flora MacDonald had become a heroine" (Kybett, p. 237). Nonetheless she had spent six months in custody (Magnusson, p. 626)
When they parted, "[Charles] bade a courtly farewell to his savior Flora, 'For all that has happened, I hope, Madam, we shall meet in St James's yet.' But they were not destined to meet again, in London or any other place" (McLynn, p. 287).
Flora certainly did not spend her whole life mourning; in 1750 married another MacDonald (the son of MacDonald of Kingsburgh; Magnusson, p. 626); they went to America in 1774. During the Revolutionary War, her husband was (ahem) a British loyalist, and was commissioned a brigadier. He was captured by the rebels in 1776. Flora, reduced to poverty and reportedly with two of her children dead (although Powell, pp. 439-440, says that this is false and the bodies cannot be those of her children), sold most of her valuables and returned to England in 1779, where she died in 1790; her husband was released and followed in 1781. Her son Hugh died in North Carolina in 1780 (Kybett, p. 137).
The song also reports that "Flora's beauty is surprising, like bright Venus in the morning"; this too seems to be a bit of romanticism. There is a portrait in Jacobite costume by Allan Ramsay (the son of the author of the Tea Table Miscellany) which is now in the Bodleian Library (reproduced, e.g., facing page 216 of Wilkinson, in the photo insert in Kybett, and on p. 180 of MacLean -- though that copy is too small and dark to be useful), and another by Richard Wilson (Brumwell/Speck, p. 233) -- which, not being in Jacobite attire, seems never to get reproduced. While she was not ugly, I doubt she would win a beauty contest. I do have to note the irony of Ramsay, who became King's Painter in 1760 (Brumwell/Speck, p. 320), having painted the Jacobite heroine.
Nonetheless Flora's memory came to be venerated. Magnusson, p. 626, reports that every bit of her burial stone in Skye was taken off by pilgrims; a new stone had to be put up in 1955.
More surprisingly, she is well remembered in North Carolina. From 1915 to 1958, there was a Flora MacDonald College at Red Springs, North Carolina (Powell, p. 439). There was also a major historical controversy about where she lived in North Carolina, and some dubious artifacts, including the bodies of the two children that were said to be hers, associated with her presence in America (Powell, pp. 439-440). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: Br3368

Flora, the Lily of the West

See The Lily of the West [Laws P29] (File: LP29)

Flora's Lament for her Charlie

DESCRIPTION: Flora and Charlie go "out for to gaze, On the bonny, bonny banks of Benlomond." Both are leaving and they will never meet again. She describes him. "My true love was taken by the arrows of death, And now Flora does lament for her Charlie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1849 (broadside, NLScotland RB.m.168(178))
KEYWORDS: love separation Scotland nonballad Jacobites
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #V12024
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y3:013, "Flora's Lament For Her Charlie," R. McIntosh (Glasgow), 19C.
NLScotland, RB.m.168(178), "Flora's Lament for her Charlie," R. McIntosh (Glasgow), c.1849
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "So Dear Is My Charlie to Me (Prince Charlie)" (subject)
cf. "Loch Lomond" (verses) and references there
cf. "Flora MacDonald's Lament" (theme)
NOTES [149 words]: Broadside NLScotland RB.m.168(178) is the basis for the description.
The first two verses are very close to "Loch Lomond," as described in the notes to that song.
The commentary to broadside NLScotland, RB.m.168(178) notes that, after her involvement in Charles's escape, Flora "was tracked and was imprisoned by the Hanoverians and she spent a year in the tower of London. She was eventually released in 1747 and died in 1790." Charlie is Charles Edward (1720-1788), grandson of James II. - BS
There are several of these "Flora's Lament" type songs, some of which may in fact be the same. (This looks rather like "Flora MacDonald's Lament with a "Loch Lomond" preface tacked on.) This one gets one thing mostly right: Charles Stuart and Flora MacDonald never did meet again. But it was hardly along-sundered love; Flora married as early as 1750. For details, see "Flora MacDonald's Lament,"- RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BdFLfhC

Florence C. McGee, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls hearers to learn of the Florence C. McGee. The ship sets out from Tampa in 1894, heading up the Atlantic coast, when a storm strikes. She runs aground and is wrecked. The owners come to observe their loss
AUTHOR: Llewelyn Murphy?
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: ship storm wreck
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 286, "The Florence C. McGee" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 286, "The Florence C McGee" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Roud #6639
File: BrII286

Florida Storm

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "The people cried mercy in the storm (x2), The colored and the white stay'd awake all night, Crying Lord have mercy in the storm." September 18, 1926 "crying was in vain," "they lost all they had," "many buildings down," Doctors and Red Cross come
AUTHOR: Judge Jackson (source: Dyen, Boyd; see notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Jackson, _The Colored Sacred Harp_ according to Dyen; see notes)
KEYWORDS: disaster storm religious
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 18, 1926 - The "Great Miami Hurricane" (Source: Wikipedia article _1926 Miami Hurricane_, accessed Dec 18, 2016)
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Southeast Alabama and Florida Union Sacred Harp Singing Convention, "Florida Storm" (on USFlorida01)
Wiregrass Sacred Harp Singers, "Florida Storm" (on "The Colored Sacred Harp," New World Records 80433-2 CD (1993))
NOTES [298 words]: Hampton writes that "After the Civil War the Sacred Harp became a significant feature of African-American music culture" (Barbara L. Hampton, "The Colored Sacred Harp: A Songbook by Nineteenth Century African-Americans," liner notes for "The Colored Sacred Harp," New World Records 80433-2 CD (1993), unnum. p. 5).
We have other disaster ballads sung as church music (see, for example, Bessie Jones et al, "The Titanic" (Indexed as "Titanic (III), The ('God Moves on the Water') (Titanic #3)") but I don't know of other Sacred Harp disaster ballads.
Dyen: "This song was written by Judge Jackson, the black composer and compiler of the 1934 tunebook, The Colored Sacred Harp. According to folklorist Joe Dan Boyd, Jackson used a preexisting broadside text describing the first of two major hurricanes that hit Florida in the mid-1920s" (Doris J. Dyen, "Looking Back/Looking Forward: Sacred Group-Singing Traditions," USFlorida01 liner notes, p. 186).
Boyd: "...[W]hen Jackson's survivors and I rummaged through his memorabilia in 1969, we found an old but undated broadside sheet headlined 'subject: The Florida Storm' that carried the additional notation 'Composed by Frank Spencer, Ph.D." Spencer's long broadside contained no music, though one section was designated as the 'chorus,' and it carried a ten-cent price tag. Examination indicates that Jackson selected five stanzas that appealed to him and rewrote them slightly to conform to his tune's metrical requirements" (Joe dan Boyd, "Judge Jackson: Black Giant of White Spirituals" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 83, No. 330 (Oct-Dec 1970 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 448).
The Wiregrass Sacred Harp Singers drops the last of Jackson's verses. Boyd apparently counted the chorus as one of Jackson's five verses. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcFlorSt

Florizel, The

See The Wreck of the Steamship Florizel (File: Doy31)

Floro

See Sheepcrook and Black Dog (File: HHH030a)

Flour of England

DESCRIPTION: "Flour of England, fruit of Spain, Met together in a shower of rain, Put in a bag and tied with a string, If you tell me this riddle, I'll give you a ring."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: food riddle ring nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 43, "Flour of England, fruit of Spain" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 153, "Flour of England, fruit of Spain" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #691, p. 273, "(Flour of England, fruit of Spain)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 34, "Flour of England" (1 text)
Roud #20572
NOTES [158 words]: All sources on this seem to agree that the "standard" answer is plum pudding but that there could be a political undercurrent. If we spell the first line "Flower of England, fruit of Spain," then it might refer to a Spanish marriage. Usually the marriage suggested is that between Mary Tudor and Philip II (since Mary did once publicly give Philip a ring), but it might make more sense to point to Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Nonetheless the incomparable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp. 110-112, fills in what she believes are the details of the Mary-and-Philip courship.
Jacks proposes yet another possibility, having to do with the defeat of the Spanish Armada. That one seems pretty strange to me.
Beatrix Potter used this riddle -- verbatim, except that she added a prefatory line -- in "The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin," a story with several traditional verses in it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: OO2153

Flow Gently Sweet Afton

DESCRIPTION: "Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes, Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise. My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream." The singer praises the river, and bids it not to disturb Mary's sleep
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1793 (The Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: river love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 106, "Flow Gently, Sweet Afron" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 15, "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #101, "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 253, "Flow Gently Sweet Afton" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 228, "Flow Gently Sweet Afton"
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #661, p. 44, "Flow Gently Sweet Afton" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 23, "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 17, "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 61, "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-SongHistories, pp 252-258, "Afton Water" (1 text)
DT, FLOWAFTN*
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #257, pp. 366-367, "Afton Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24637
RECORDINGS:
Patricia Campbell, "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #229, recorded 09/05/2022, of only a part of the verse)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Away in a Manger" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Camp Fire Law (File: ACSF167C)
NOTES [253 words]: Although Burns's formal title for this was "Afton Water," most sources -- as you can see by the References -- call it "Flow Gently Sweet Afton."
Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, p. 3 says that "Currie stated that it was written in praise of Afton Water, and as a compliment to Mrs Stewart of Stair, who certainly received a copy from the poet in 1791. Gilbert Burns claimed that Mary Campbell was the heroine. Scott-Douglas agree with Gilbert. Henley and Henderson, however, also stated that the song was written as a compliment to the River Afton, which flows into the Nith near New Cumnock. From a letter to Mrs Dumlop accompanying the verses, and dated 5th February 1789, it is clear that their interpretation is the correct one, since in this letter Burns speaks of the Afton as having 'some charming, wild, romantic scenery on its banks.... I attempted a compliment of that kind to Afton as follows," then quotes the song.
Burns obviously had a tune for this, which Lindsay says "matches the lyric exquisitely," but the common melody was copyrighted in 1838 by Jonathan Edwards Spilman. Lindsay refers to not one but *two* Victorian tunes, "which would certainly have woken up the poet's Mary in some alarm."
All the above proves that the song was in existence by 1789, but Mary Campbell died in 1786, so the available records do not really indicate whether Burns wrote this song before or after the death of his beloved Mary. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB253A

Flower Carol, The (Spring Has Now Unwrapped the Flowers)

DESCRIPTION: "Spring has now unwrapped the flowers, Day is fast reviving, Light in all her growing powers Towards the light is striving." Hearers are urged to praise God, who brings flowers to life in the spring -- and also resurrects humanity
AUTHOR: (translation claimed by the authors of the Oxford Book of Carols)
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols; tune from Piae Cantiones, 1582)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad flowers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 99, "Flower Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 59, "The Flower Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Good King Wenceslas" (tune)
NOTES [292 words]: Properly this does not belong in the Index at all, since it is not folk song. Its inclusion is based on a curious mistake by Jean Ritchie. She and her family grew up singing "Good King Wenceslas," presumably for its tune. She wanted to include it in her songbook. But she had read the critique of J. M. Neale's "Wenceslas" text (see the notes to that song; I for one would consider them dead-on). So, instead of including "Wenceslas" in her book, which at least had the virtue of being traditional in her family, she included this text from the Oxford Book of Carols.
The irony is that the "Spring Has Now Unwrapped the Flowers" is no more original than "Good King Wenceslas" (since it's a translation), and it's also quite feeble -- and, apparently, it is even more recent than Wenceslas!
Just like "Good King Wenceslas," however, the tune (one of many great tunes from the Piae Cantiones) has carried "The Flower Carol" far: checking my collection of pre-1960 hymnals (which covers most although not all major denominations), none contain it, but it seems to be, um, popping up in many newer hymnals.
The text of this has very little of the Bible in it; flowers are not a common subject in either the Old or New Testament -- the word "flower" is used only 32 times in the King James Bible, very many of them in descriptions of cultic furnishings (in Exodus, chapters 25, 37, where in every case the New Revised Standard version renders "petals" rather than "flowers"; 1 Kings chapter 6). The only passage which reminds me even vaguely of this is Song of Songs 2:12, where "the flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come." But the Song of Songs is a love poem (or, rather, probably an anthology of them), not a song of praise. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: RitS059

Flower o' Northumberland, The

See The Fair Flower of Northumberland [Child 9] (File: C009)

Flower of Benbrada, The

DESCRIPTION: "One evening fair, to take the air, By Curraghlane I chanced to stray." He sees a beautiful woman, comparing her to goddesses. "This lovely fair beyond compare, She now intends to go away." He will not tell her name, but hopes he has praised her truly
AUTHOR: Francey Heaney
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: beauty emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H537, p. 239-240, "The Flower of Benbrada" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9476
NOTES [111 words]: Although the author refuses to give the name of the emigrating beauty, Sam Henry says she was one Lizzie Donarghy, who went to America at an uncertain date.
The references to the classic goddesses in this song are unusual. The reference to Flora, who makes things blossom, is not rare, but I don't recall ever seeing a song referring to Hebe, the daughter of Zeus and Hera who symbolized youth and was a cup-bearer to the Olympians. I can't remember mention of Proserpine, either.
The mix of names is itself interesting -- Flora was a Roman goddess with no Greek counterpart; Hebe is a Greek name (Latin Juventas); Proserpina is the Latin name of Greek Persephone. - RBW
File: HHH537

Flower of Breakshill, The

DESCRIPTION: "Some sing o' the maidens sa blythsom and free" but the singer praises "the flower of Breakshill." He praises her modesty and virtue, "her sweet smiling face Where roses and lilies are rivalled in grace"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: virtue beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 721, "The Flower of Breakshill" (1 text)
Roud #6158
NOTES [19 words]: Greig/Duncan4 seems to be a fragment.
Greig/Duncan4: "Brakeshill is a farm to the north of Mintlaw near Old Deer." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4721

Flower of Corby Mill, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sets out to praise the Flower of Corby Mill. He describes meeting her on his was to Butler's Fair. At the fair, he and his friends drink deep and toast the girl. He refuses to name her lest her parents be angry, but she is a mill worker.
AUTHOR: William Brownlee (source: Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder)
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: beauty drink
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H612, pp. 242-243, "The Flower of Corby Mill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 176-178, "The Flower of Corby Mill" (1 text)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 30, "The Flower of Corby's Mill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 26, pp. 67-68,114,167, "The Maid of Colehill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2928
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Charming Sweet Girl That I Love" (theme: hidden name)
NOTES [118 words]: Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder: "Corby Mill was almost certainly situated on the Clough River and was built in 1789 by Ben Shaw."
While the place names are changed Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday notes "this song is obviously a close relation to that given the title of 'The Flower of Corby Mill." In the last verse of Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday "she says herself she'll marry me."
Other hidden name songs include "The Flower of Benbrada," "The Lovely Banks of Mourne," "The Santa Fe Trail," "Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce hi (For Ireland I Will Not Tell Whom She Is)," "The Pride of Kilkee," "Drihaureen O Mo Chree (Little Brother of My Heart)," [and] "The Charming Sweet Girl That I Love." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: HHH612

Flower of Corby's Mill, The

See The Flower of Corby Mill (File: HHH612)

Flower of Craiganee, The

See Craiganee (File: HHH749)

Flower of Dunaff Hill, The

See The Flower of Sweet Dunmull (File: HHH001)

Flower of Dunblane, The

See Jessie the Flower of Dunblane (File: HGam266)

Flower of Finae, The

DESCRIPTION: "Bright red is the sun on the waves of Lough Sheelin, A cool gentle breeze from the mountain is stealing," but the Flower of Finae is fairer than any of them. Ferfus O'Farrell, who courts her, is fleeter than deer. He dies at Ramilles; she becomes a nun
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: love soldier death beauty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1706 - Battle of Ramillies. Forces of the Grand Alliance under Marlborough heavily defeat the French
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 163-164, "The Flower of Finae" (1 text)
Roud #25067
File: HMHS163B

Flower of France and England, O, The

DESCRIPTION: "As I was on my rambles, I came from Dover to Carlisle..." The singer goes to "The Grapes" to lodge. One of the serving girls is very pretty -- "the flower of France and England,O"; they are much attracted to each other and before long are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: beauty courting marriage travel
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #134, p. 1, "The Flower of France and England O" (1 text plus 1 fragment, the complete text being from Christie)
Greig/Duncan4 719, "The Flower of France and England" (2 texts)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 188-190, "The Flower of France and England, O" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 42-43, "The Flower of France and England, O" (1 tune)
Roud #5532
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Corbshill" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
cf. "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
One Night in My Parading
NOTES [138 words]: Most scholars believe that the reference in the third line of the song to the town being "full of rebels" refers to the Jacobite Rising of 1745 (and Prince Charles's army did indeed spend time in Carlisle). But there is no other hint of this, and indeed, there were earlier conflicts (going back to the Wars of the Roses and even before) which might cause the singer to find "rebels" (i.e. people who disagreed with his politics) in Carlisle. And when Bonnie Prince Charlie's army captured Carlisle, they occupied every bed and requisitioned just about everything movable. I strongly doubt that the reference is actually to 1745, because no random rambler would have been able to find a place. - RBW
Greig/Greig/Duncan4 have the "rebels" line as "The place being full of revels"; Christie, with the usual caveats, has "rebels." - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Ord188

Flower of Glenleary, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Crossgar's sunny hills are bespangled with flowers," but the singer yearns for Mary, the flower of Glenleary. He describes her beauty, and asks, "Fair maid of my dreams, did we meet here to sever?" He prays that she will be his
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H22a, pp. 232-233, "The Flower of Glenleary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7986
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Braes of Balquhidder" (tune)
File: HHH022a

Flower of Gortade, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls upon the muses to describe the Flower of Gortade. He compares her to many classical queens and beauties. The girl, Margaret O'Kane, must leave for America, and hopes Ireland will someday welcome her back
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: beauty emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H178, pp. 233-234, "The Flower of Gortade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 120-121, "The Flower of Gortade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2740
NOTES [306 words]: This is a strange piece in many ways. Sam Henry credits it to "[the] local blind poet Kane, in honor of his sister," but his text seems composite: four eight-line stanzas of classical allusions (to Orpheus, Homer, Penelope, Venus, Diana, Flora, Helen, Lucretia, Aurora, Hector) in praise of the woman, and then two first-person stanzas in which she prepares to depart.
In addition, the classical allusions are rather a mess. Homer is called a great poet, but one who "sang of Athenians and Spartans so bold." Spartans are certainly mentioned in the Iliad -- Helen of Troy was properly Helen of Sparta, and Menelaus became King of Sparta was her husband. Mentions of the Athenians and Athens are few, however. Menestheus (Μενεσθευς) King of Athens brought fifty ships to Troy (Iliad ii.546-556 in the Lattimore translation and in the Greek text of Munro and Allen), but was so obscure a figure that the Greeks couldn't even agree if he died there (according to Grant/Hazen, p. 227, one account says he died at Troy; another said he survived but lost control of Athens). Traditionally the family of Theseus was accounted kings of Athens, but not in the Catalog of Ships (Willcock, p. 27).
There is also the line "Queen Dido, who reigned with her sovereign in glory" -- which is sort of true (there was a time when she was supposed to reign with her brother; Grimal, p. 126) -- but it obviously omits the story of Aeneas, which is what everyone knows about Dido!
In the next few lines, the writer of this song commits the common abomination of referring to Greek goddesses by their Latin names.
Hector is described as having "consorts" (plural), but he had only one wife, Andromache.
After all the classical allusions, the poem shifts to the story of Susanna, which is Biblical/Apocryhal (one of the Additions to Daniel). And so it goes. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: HHH178

Flower of Kilkenny, The

See Eileen, The Flower of Kilkenny (File: GrMa76)

Flower of Magherally, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on a summer's morning, The flowers were a-blooming-0, Nature all adoning... I met my love near Banbridge town, My charming blue-eyed Sally-o." The singer describes her beauty, wishes he could offer her wealth, and hopes to marry her even without it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H220, pp. 243-244, "The Flower of Magherally, O!" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 59, "The Flowers of Magherally" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 11, "The Flower of Magherally" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3009
NOTES [31 words]: This instantly made me think of "Sally in Our Alley." The metrical form is quite close, and there are a few similar phrases in the tune, but there really doesn't appear to be kinship. - RBW
File: HHH220

Flower of Northumberland, The

See The Fair Flower of Northumberland [Child 9] (File: C009)

Flower of Serving Men, The

See The Famous Flower of Serving-Men [Child 106] (File: C106)

Flower of Sweet Dunmull, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer says he dwells in Ireland, and describes the beautiful scenes from the hill of Dunmull. From there he can see the ship to take him away. He could survive leaving it all, but how can he part from Nancy? He hopes someday to return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation farewell home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H1, p. 191, "The Flower of Sweet Dunmull" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 31, "The Flower of Dunaff Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2744
File: HHH001

Flower of Sweet Erin the Green, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer supposes her true love is "far from sweet Erin the green." He "vowed to be constant and true." She denied him and now blames herself for their separation. She warns maids "never your true love despise." She sees no peace but "yon dark silent grave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: love sex separation Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 144-145, "The Flower of Sweet Erin the Green" (1 text)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 22, "Erin the Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 42, pp. 131-132,172, "Erin the Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2790
File: TST144

Flower of Sweet Strabane, The

DESCRIPTION: (The singer recalls meeting "Martha, the Flower of Sweet Strabane.") If he were King of Ireland, he would wish nothing better than her hand; she is the fairest girl he has seen. But she rejects him; he sails to America to start a new life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Grieg); the notes in IRMBarry-Fairs says it was published in a Derry newspaper in 1909
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection emigration beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #87, pp. 1-2, "Sweet Straeban" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 722, "The Flower of Sweet Straeban" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H224a, pp. 390-391, "The Flower of Sweet Strabane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 58-59, "Martha, the Flower of Sweet Strabane" (1 text)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 32, "The Flower of Street Strabane" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FLWRSTRB*
ADDITIONAL: Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), p. 9, "The Flower of Sweet Strabane" (text, music and reference to Decca F-3374 recorded Dec 31, 1932)
Roud #2745
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "The Flower of Sweet Strabane" (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
The McNulty Family, "The Flower of Sweet Strabane" (private tape collection, likely on Copley Records after 1943)
Mrs. Stamp, "Flower of Sweet Stravan" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Paddy Tunney, "The Flower of Sweet Strabane" (on IRPTunney03)
NOTES [116 words]: According to Sam Henry, this was composed in the 1840s -- it could hardly be much earlier given its current contents. Henry was of the opinion that it fell into two families, the first including the introductory verse about meeting Martha, the second beginning with the stanza about being King of Ireland. - RBW
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen: "[John] McGettigan would have been responsible for its popularity as he recorded it on a record and was therefore taken back from America by returned emigrants in the 1930's and 40's."
The date and master id (GB-5416-1/2) for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: HHH224a

Flower Oracles

See Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief (File: Newe042)

Flowering Trade, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I hear that the flowering has become a good trade, The girls in this country their fortune is made, When they rise in the morning their spirits are low, And the very first race to the tay-pot they go." Fortified by Tay, they look forward to marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman; the broadside is dated c. 1850)
KEYWORDS: work drink clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 26, "The Flowering Trade" (1 short text, 1 tune); p. 276, "A New Song Called The Flowering Trade" (a reprint of the Alex Mayne broadside)
Roud #22781
NOTES [44 words]: Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman explains that "flowering" is embroidery. I find myself wondering if this song might not be composite; it's mostly about drink and marriage, with "flowering" mentioned only in the first verse of the broadside. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: GrHo026

Flowers and Weeds

See In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme (File: R090)

Flowers in the Wildwood

DESCRIPTION: "Flowers bloomin' in the wildwood Bring back memories of childhood, And the happy, happy days of yore. Roses often remind me Of the ones I left behind me." Someday the singer will go to where a voice is calling him home
AUTHOR: Albert E. Brumley (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
KEYWORDS: home flowers travel nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 23, "Flowers in the Wildwood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #29674
File: ABLT023

Flowers o' the Forest, The

DESCRIPTION: Based on a pipe tune lamenting the battle of Flodden: "I've heard them lilting, At the yowes milking, Lasses a-lilting... Noo they are moanin On ilka green loaning. The flowers o' the forest are a' wede away." The song grieves for the men lost
AUTHOR: Words: Jane [Jean] Elliot (1727-1805) / Music: Traditional
EARLIEST DATE: Words supposedly written 1756 (tune probably dates to the sixteenth century)
KEYWORDS: battle death mourning separation Scotland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 9, 1513 - Battle of Flodden. James IV and the pride of Scotland's chivalry die in battle with the Earl of Surrey's English army
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 87-95, "The Flowers of the Forest" (1 text plus the Cockburn lyrics)
DT, FLWRSFOR*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 22, #3 (1973), p, 1, "The Flowers of the Forest" (1 text, 1 tune, the Norman Kennedy version, supplied with extremely inaccurate notes)
William & Susan Platt, _Folktales of the Scottish Border_, published 1919 as _Stories of the Scottish Border_, republished by Senate Press, 1999, pp.119-120, "The Flowers of the Forest" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #197, "The Flowers of the Forest" (1 text)
Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 70-71, "The Flowers of the Forest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackie Cosh, _The King with the Iron Belt: The Life of King James IV of Scotland_, JC Publications, 2018, pp. 87-88, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #3812
RECORDINGS:
Helen Blain, "Flowers o' the Forest" (Pathe 20017, 1916)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Flodden Field [Child 168]" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lament for Flodden
NOTES [132 words]: According to Isobel E. Williams, Scottish Folklore, W. & R. Chambers, 1991, p. 52, there is a legend that playing this song always results in a death, so some performers will play it only at funerals.
This is said to have been Jean Elliot's only song, and it was published anonymously. Robert Burns, according to Ford-SongHistories, p. 88, was one of those who correctly recognized that, although the theme was old, the song was contemporary.
There is another set of words, by Alison Cockburn, beginning "I've seen the smiling Of fortune beguiling." This art-song setting is also included by Steve Roud under the number 3812, but I would consider it a separate song, particularly since it gives no evidence of having gone into tradition (or of being worth the paper used to print it). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BdFlOTF

Flowers of Edinburgh (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer mourns the loss of her bonny lad, driven away by her parents and "rival foes." She will board a ship "to that distant shore, To meet my lovely darling swain." "The bells shall ring and sweet birds sing, To grace and crown our nuptial day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1804 (Scots Musical Museum, according to Greig/Duncan4 830)
KEYWORDS: love separation sea ship nonballad father mother
FOUND IN:
Roud #8480
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(7), "The Flowers of Edinburgh" ("My love was once a bonny lad"), unknown, no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Bonnie Laddie, But Far Awa (theme: parents drive lover away)
NOTES [67 words]: As in the case of "The Flowers of Edinburgh" (II), reported by Greig, "The song appears to have been written as words for the well known dance tune 'The Flowers of Edinburgh'; the name of the song is not in the text."
Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(195), "Flowers of Edinburgh" ("My love was once a bonny boy"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885 is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BrdTFlEd

Flowers of Edinburgh (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "In by Clatt" Colin meets Felex singing "Flowers o' Edinburgh." He falls in love, takes her in his arms, but is rejected. She says "it's liberty I crave." He says "nought but her favour can yield my heart delight" She relents. They marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love marriage rejection music
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #73, p. 1, "The Flowers of Edinrurgh"[sic] (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 830, "The Flowers of Edinburgh" (4 texts)
Roud #6248
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Flowers of Edinburgh" (I) (tune, per Greig)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
As I Cam in by Clett
NOTES [31 words]: Greig: "The song appears to have been written as words for the well known dance tune 'The Flowers of Edinburgh'."
Greig/Duncan4: Clatt is northwest of Alford on the road to Huntly." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4830

Flowers of Edinrurgh, The

See The Flowers of Edinburgh (II) (File: GrD4830)

Flowers of Fochabers, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was on the bonnie banks o' Spey To muse I sat me down." The singer sees a beautiful girl, the flower of Fochabers. He asks her to take pity on him. She turns him down. He declares that, when he dies, it will be for Petty Clapperton
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: beauty love rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 204, "The Flower of Fochabers" (1 text)
Roud #5538
File: Ord204A

Flowers of Magherally, The

See The Flower of Magherally (File: HHH220)

Flowers of the Valley

DESCRIPTION: Fragment. A widow's daughter has nine brave boy children. "Three of them were seamen so brave... Three of them were soldiers so bold...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: childbirth death sailor soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle, p. 285, "Flowers of the Valley" (1 fragment)
NOTES [34 words]: Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle chorus is "O the red, the green and the yellow, The harp, the lute, the fife, the flute and the cymbal, Sweet goes the treble violin, The flowers that were in the valley." - BS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: ReCi285

Flowery Garden

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Flowery Nolan

DESCRIPTION: At seventy one, Flowery Nolan, "a terror to all men," decides to marry. He marries the only acceptable candidate. When he tells his wife they would not sleep together -- "you are only but my serving maid" -- she goes home to her father's house.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: age marriage sex rejection husband wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #16693
RECORDINGS:
Mikeen McCarthy, "Flowery Nolan" (on IRTravellers01)
NOTES [115 words]: Jim Carroll's notes to IRTravellers01: "Arranged or 'made' marriages were very much an accepted part of rural life in Ireland up to comparatively recent times... Women from poor house-holds which were unable to support the whole family would readily marry older farmers looking for a housekeeper, or maybe widowers with young children to care for."
IRTravellers01: Mikeen McCarthy tells, on the record, that Flowery Nolan was an old bachelor who only talked about getting married until he was 71. Then he advertised for a wife and the song tells how it went. The moral: "Never marry an old man Till you're fed up of your life, Or then you'll be coming home again Like Flowery Nolan's wife." - BS
File: RcFlowNo

Floyd Collins [Laws G22]

DESCRIPTION: Floyd Collins is trapped in a cave from which a rescue party cannot free him. He tells his parents that he had dreamt this would happen. At last, still trapped, he dies
AUTHOR: Words: Andrew Jenkins
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: disaster dream death family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 30, 1925 - Floyd Collins is trapped in a "sandhole" cave near Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, where he is caught by a landslide. He is discovered by his brother the next day, but attempts to rescue him fail
Feb 16, 1925 - Collins is found to be dead
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,SE)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws G22, "Floyd Collins"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 212, "Floyd Collins" (1 text plus 2 excerpts)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 125, "Floyd Collins" (2 texts)
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, pp. 55-56, "Floyd Collins" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 82-83, "Floyd Collins" (1 text)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 110-111, "The Doom of Floyd Collins" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 118-119)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 8-9, "The Fate of Floyd Collins" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 76-78, "The Death of Floyd Collins" (1 text)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #63, "Floyd Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 261-262, "Floyd Collins" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 223-224, "Floyd Collins" (1 text)
DT 769, FLOYDCOL
ADDITIONAL: Robert K. Murray and Roger W. Brucker, _Trapped! The Story of Floyd Collins_, 1979; (revised edition?), University of Kentucky Press, 1982, pp. 248-251, "The Death of Floyd Collins" (1 text)
William R. Halliday, _Floyd Collins of Sand Cave: A Photographic Memorial_, 1989; New Revised Edition, Byron's Printing Inc., 2004, p. 2, "The Death of Floyd Collins" (reproduction of the main page of the sheet music)
Roud #1940
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Death of Floyd Collins" (Okeh 40363, 1925)
Vernon Dalhart, "Death of Floyd Collins" (Victor 19821, 1925) (Columbia 15031-D [as Al Craver or Dalhart Texas Panhandlers], 1925) (Banner 1613, 1925; Conqueror 7068, 1928) (Edison 51609 [as Vernon Dalhart & Co.], 1925) (Gennett 3197Champion 15048, 1926; Challenge 160/Challenge 315, 1927; rec. 1925) (Bell 364, 1925) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5049 [as Vernon Dalhart & Co.], prob. 1925) (Regal 9916, 1925)
Vernon Dalhart, "Floyd Collins Waltz" (Victor 19997, 1926) [a bizarre recasting of 'Death of Floyd Collins' in waltz time, with truncated verses]
Charlie Oaks, "The Death of Floyd Collins" (Vocalion 15099, 1925; Vocalion 5069, c. 1927)
Harry Smith, "The Death of Floyd Collins" (OKeh 45260, 1928)
SAME TUNE:
Chief Aderholt (File: Burt186)
NOTES [5135 words]: As the dates of the recordings show, this is by origin a popular song -- Murray/Brucker, p. 248, report that the Dalhart recordin sold three million copies, exceeding even the "Wreck of the Old 97/Prisoner's Song" disc (which I doubt). There were also substantial player piano sales. But the number of versions collected show that it did become a folk song.
There are various claims about the authorship of this song. (This might be because there were a lot of other Floyd Collins poems, mostly deadly; Murray/Brucker print an example on p. 251). Brown quotes Thomas to the effect that it was written by one Adam Crisp. The attribution to Jenkins seems certain, however. Paul Stamler cites the statement of OKeh records A&R man Polk Brockman, who commissioned the song from Jenkins. Laws, following Wilgus, also accepts the attribution to Andrew Jenkins, who wrote other songs which became traditional.
The 1925 sheet music (published by Shapiro Bernstein & Co and copyrighted by P. C. Brockman) credits the words to Rev. Andrew Jenkins and the music to Mrs. Irene Spain. Irene Spain was Jenkins's daughter. I would suspect that Jenkins fit the tune himself but put her name on it so the copyright could be held longer.
KentuckyEncyclopedia pp. 215-216, gives a brief biography of William Floyd Collins, who was born April 20, 1887, to Leonidas Collins and Martha Burnett Collins. He grew up working on the family farm, apparently exploring caves for fun. He named one of his discoveries "Crystal Cave," and the family promoted it as a tourist attraction. But there was no good way for tourists to reach the entrance he had found, so he tried to find another. (Collins lived in the Mammoth Cave area of Kentucky, which had a bedrock of limestone -- the "Central Kentucky Karst." The whole area is riddled with limestone tunnels and caves; Murray/Brucker, pp. 26-27. The caves had been the basis for tourism since the late 1830s; Murray/Brucker, pp. 28-29. Indeed, the competition between caves was so fierce that on one occasion a gang of thugs beat up Collins to try to get him to agree to something; Collins/Lehrberger, pp. 102-103).
Floyd was the third of eight children of his parents, and the second-oldest of those who lived to adulthood. The family farm (200 acres) was not especially fertile and the home a cramped single-story dwelling. The large family cooperated to run the farm, which meant that they were able to produce more than they needed (Murray/Brucker, pp. 40-41), but it was a tough life; little wonder that the Collinses sought other sources of income. But only Floyd became a caving fanatic.
Caving was not a safe job; explorers found several bodies of Indians in the Mammoth Cave complex, and the first European to die in the local caves was one Pike Chapman, in 1897; he had been well-known to the Collins family (Collins/Lehrberger, p. 18). Collins reportedly also once found a recently-dead man in one of his underground observations -- and did nothing about it, never returning to that cave (Collins/Lehrberger, pp 40-41). But Chapman, and that unknown dead man, didn't have an Andrew Jenkins to tell his story. Despite the risks, there was a wild rush in the early 1900s to try to find more caves and latch on to a share of the caving tourism business (Murray/Brucker, pp. 30-36). Floyd Collins was just one of those who tried to cash in, largely abandoning farming to hunt for attractive caves.
He seems to have been a rather strange man -- and we know there was mental illness in the family. His little sister had just come back from a long stay in an institution at the time Collins died (Murray/Brucker, p. 54). His father was also a very odd character (Murray/Brucker, p. 157, and repeatedly elsewhere) although that may just have been age).
Halliday, p. 5, calls Floyd "barely literate and wildly superstitious" (in one of his underground inscriptions, he spelled his name "Floid"; Halliday has a photo on p. 31 although I find it illegible.) He took excessive risks, had peculiar emotions, and engaged in magical thinking -- he thought he could read magnetic directions with his body, although a test showed he was wrong (Halliday, p. 10). And he had difficult relations with his father, even though he was still living among his family when he reached his thirties (Murray/Brucker, pp. 42-43; p. 49 explains how he and his father got into a major business dispute, which caused them to plan to break their partnership even though Floyd was still living at home even after most of his younger siblings had moved out). He seems to have had a secondary obsession with Native American artifacts (Collins/Lehrberger, pp. 22-25), and did much of his caving to search for them (Collins/Lehrberger, pp. 30-33), often walking off with them in ways that would not be allowed today. He seems to have liked playing with dynamite, too (see, e.g. Collins/Lehrberger, pp. 41-43). He was sloppy about his preparations, sometimes going exploring without properly maintaining his light (Collins/Lehrberger, pp. 86-87). He "was not much interested in women" (Collins/Lehrberger, pp. 46-48) and his father said he "was simply not interested in the fairer sex (Murray/Brucker, p. 159). (There is no sign that he was interested in men; lack of interest in sex occurs in some people with autism and personality disorders.) He was "a loner" (Collins/Lehrberger, p. 57) who was "thought curious by the neighbors" (Collins/Lehrberger, p. 115) and considered "shiftless"; except among his few friends, he seemed "taciturn and slow-witted" (Halliday, p. 10). When learning to drive, he insisted on taking the wheel alone before he was competent -- and proceeded to crash the car (Collins/Lehrberger, p. 89). It seems pretty clear that if he lived today, he would qualify for a psychological diagnosis (my wild guess is schizotypal personality disorder, but obviously I'm getting my information at many degrees of removal!).
But above all, and from a very young age, he was obsessed with caves. He was allegedly called "The Cave Hound" and "The Human Groundhog" (Halliday, p. 6).
It wasn't really a bad idea to try to find new caves; that part of Kentucky was already known as cave country, and there were many "cave tourists." Operators even hired "cappers" -- people in pseudo-police uniforms to direct traffic to their caes (Halliday, p. 9, with a photo of one on page 8).
In 1917, he had made his first big discovery, known as "Crystal Cave" because of the beautiful crystals in one of the galleries. (After his death, it became "Floyd Collins Crystal Cave; Collins/Lehrberger, p. 81). With beautiful rock formations and a large chamber that came to be known as "The Grand Canyon" (photo on p. 12 of Halliday), it might well have been a good commercial attraction; In 1917, he had made his first big discovery, known as "Crystal Cave" because of the beautiful crystals in one of the galleries. (After his death, it became "Floyd Collins Crystal Cave; Collins/Lehrberger, p. 81). With beautiful rock formations and a large chamber that came to be known as "The Grand Canyon" (photo on p. 12 of Halliday), it might well have been a good commercial attraction, p. 13, calls it a "world's wonder." Problem was, the Crystal Cave site was undeveloped and too far away from the main cave sites. There was no usable road, only a wagon trail. The family set out to build a gravel road; this proved to be very difficult, and Floyd wasn't the only one whose car came to grief on the road (Collins/Lehrberger, p. 88). Allegedly people from other caving outfits kept blocking the road, too (Collins/Lehrberger, p. 101). His fight with his father came in part because of their disagreement over how to manage Crystal Cave (the fact that two counties were trying to tax the land didn't help). Floyd really wanted to find a new opening that would get him better road access to one of the caves under his control.
It's hard to believe that the final opening he explored -- which came to be known as "Sand Cave" -- was worth the effort. But it was at a spot that would easily draw traffic, so Collins worked out an arrangement with three local landowners to split the profits (Murray/Brucker, p. 49). The cave Collins found -- the entrance of which was on the land of Beesley "Bee" Doyle -- was narrow but very deep; behind a forty foot entry ledge, there was a passage which went down 55 feet over the course of a 115 foot run (Murray/Brucker, p. 23) -- very steep, and with five major curves if the drawing on p. 18 of Murray/Brucker is to be believed (according to Collins/Lehrberger, p. 132, it took twenty minutes to reach the blockage where Collins was working). There wasn't much of interest in that first part of the run, but the passage continued beyond; it's just that it was too narrow for Collins. So he blasted and cleared it (KentuckyEncyclopedia). In January, during an extraordinarily long work spell, he told Bee Doyle (the owner of the property where Collins had been working) that the next day should let him enter the next part of the tunnel (Collins/Lehrberger, pp. 130-131). On January 30, 1925, he went down to see just what he had found.
Exactly what happened next is uncertain -- Collins himself may not have known, since his lamp had gone out (Collins/Lehrberger, pp. 134-135) -- but there was some sort of rock fall. Collins ended up being pinned and trapped underground. Bee Doyle discovered the next day that Collins had not made it home, checked with the other locals to find that he hadn't gone there, and went to the cave, where the found Floyd's coat hanging on a rock (Murray/Brucker, pp. 52-53). Clearly Collins was still down there, leaving the searchers to try to find him.
They didn't have Collins's skills as a caver. Only one of them, Jewell Estes, a slender 17-year-old, made it close enough even to hear Collins calling. He couldn't get close enough to reach Collins, but he did learn he was stuck (Murray/Brucker, p. 53).
Floyd's younger brother Homer, more at home in caves and with more motivation, eventually went in and got close to Floyd -- and discovered what proved to be the real problem for any rescue: the tunnel was so narrow that there was no way to turn around. If a man went down head-first, he could dig at the rubble that held Floyd, but could not return upward; if he went down feet-first, he could reach Floyd but had no way to get his hands in position to dig Floyd out (Murray/Brucker, p. 57). Homer pulled out a lot of stones, but more fell to replace them. Unless another way could be found to get at the rocks that held Floyd, there was no way to free him.
Apart from being trapped and without supplies, Collins was poorly dressed for the low temperatures in a cave -- and water was running down on him because of rain and melting snow from above (Murray/Brucker, pp. 58-59). Floyd was threatened with more than just hunger and thirst; if the water kept flowing, he was likely to die of hypothermia. After two and a half days, Floyd's mind seemed to be failing -- clearly a sign of his failing physical condition (Murray/Brucker, p. 67).
Well before that, a large crowd had gathering outside the cave -- although they weren't doing anything to help with the rescue; they were just gawkers who got in the way (and brought the police, who promptly confiscated the liquor that Floyd had requested and Home had managed to find; Murray/Brucker, p. 62). Homer went down with one companion; they managed to free Floyd's hands, but they were badly hurt; Floyd still couldn't do much (Murray/Brucker, pp. 62-63).
It sounds as if Homer at this point had largely given up hope and was simply trying to comfort the delirious Floyd as he died. But then the newspapers got their hands on the story, plus a Louisville fireman, Lieutenant Robert Burdon, came to Sand Cave looking for a cheap chance for promotion -- and became obsessed with rescuing Floyd (Murray/Brucker, pp. 75-77). Eventually, dozens of reporters showed up; the case even earned coverage in England. There was so much demand for telephone capacity that eventually several temporary radio stations and a Western Union branch were established (Murray/Brucker, p. 154). There was even a film crew trying to make a movie about it (Murray/Brucker, p. 156)
The first attempt to rescue Collins involved harnessing up his upper body and trying to pull him loose. This caused Collins so much pain that it had to be abandoned without moving him at all (Collins/Lehrberger, p. 160; Murray/Brucker, pp. 79-80. There was talk of amputating Collin's foot, but there was no way to perform the operation in the tight conditions, and no way to carry him out if Collins could not move himself, so that idea went nowhere; Collins/Lehrberger, p. 169).
An experienced caver named Johnnie Gerald, whom Collins had requested from the first, eventually showed up, and made much better progress at clearing Floyd out than anyone before him. (Note: Murray/Brucker and Halliday call him "Gerald," But Collins/Lehrberger, p. 121, etc. give his last name as "Geralds." Murray/Brucker, p. 233, explains that different members of the family used different spellings; Johnnie Gerald's uncle J. T. Geralds would eventually be the undertaker who handled Floyd Collins's corpse).
Gerald was probably the best caver available, but it was slow and exhausting work in the limited space, and eventually Gerald had to go up and take a break (Murray/Brucker, pp. 85-87). Had there been several Geralds to do the work, Floyd might have been rescued fairly quickly. But Gerald was having to do all the work, and he was exhausted and could not work fast enough (Murray/Brucker, pp. 92-93).
The newspapers were increasingly interested, although the stories were often garbled (Murray/Brucker, pp. 89-91; p. 91 says that the story was on the cover of the New York Times for two straight weeks starting on February 3). Rescuing Collins became a sensation -- one of the reporters, "Skeets" Miller, who himself helped in the rescue and talked to Floyd Collins underground, would get a Pulitzer for his coverage (Collins/Lehrberger, p. 9; there is a photo of him on p. 16 of Halliday). Murray/Brucker, p. 85, claims that some 150 people hung around the cave entrance at times, mostly getting drunk rather than helping, and that someone actually set up a concession stand! (A photo of a five cent hamburger stand at the site occurs on p. 167 of Collins/Lehrberger and p. 19 of Halliday.) Toward the end of the saga, it is estimated that there were more than ten thousand gawkers in the area (Murray/Brucker, p. 170). All they were doing was getting in the way -- and their movements might cause more collapses.
To make things worse everyone had a different idea for what to do -- most of them being ideas that Gerald, the expert on the scene, thought hopeless. One of the largest projects -- and one of the few genuinely organized attempts at a rescue -- was planned by the Kentucky Rock Asphault Company (Kyroc), whose manager, Henry T. Carmichael, planned to dig a shaft down to Collins.
It might have worked had they started at once. But Homer Collins, at least, thought the shaft absurd (Murray/Brucker. pp. 94-95). So the Kyroc people instead worked on the existing opening. They were, at least, the hardest workers to take part in the project to this time, taking on the task in shifts.
While that was going on, someone managed to rig a generator and get some lights down into the cave (Murray/Brucker, pp. 98-99) -- until then, people had had constant problems with lamps and flashlights. Human chains of up to eleven men started working to clear the tunnels at this time; the newspaper reporter Skeets Miller was one of these, and got his award-winning interviews while down in the tunnel (Murray/Brucker, pp. 100-101). They were making progress, but Collins's foot was still trapped. Crews kept bringing down tools and trying new tricks to level the stone off his foot, but none of the people who went down the tunnel was a toolmaker, and nothing ever seemed to work (Murray/Brucker, pp. 104-106). And Johnnie Gerald observed that all the work that was being done was wearing at the tunnel, and raising the humidity and temperature. The tunnel might turn unstable; already cracks were developing and debris falling (Murray/Brucker, p. 115). This surely shouldn't have surprised anyone; after all, the reason Collins was trapped was that there had already been a rock fall! Gerald was right. Four and a half days after the initial collapse, while people were actually working in the tunnel, there was a further collapse; only Gerald's prompt warning prevented more men from being trapped. But Collins was now more thoroughly buried than before (Murray/Brucker, pp. 116-117).
Only then did anyone have the bright idea of running a field telephone and a feeding tube down the tunnel. But they couldn't get to Collins, of course (Murray/Brucker, p. 120). It would have been comic if it hadn't been so stupid and tragic. At this point, some potential rescuers quit (Murray/Brucker, p. 121)
The whole thing was turning into a competition (Murray/Brucker, pp. 108-109), with no one in charge. Odds are, had there been one person (perhaps Gerald) to manage the whole thing, Collins would have been rescued. But there hadn't been any such person. After the second collapse, Gerald finally took charge, with a small crew digging and the Kyroc people shoring up what they could (Murray/Brucker, pp. 122-123). It was too late. After some attempts to re-open the tunnel, late on Wednesday, February 4, Gerald found rocks falling on him, some of them hurting him badly. The whole thing was collapsing. At 11:45 p.m., Gerald came out and said he would not -- could not, really -- go back (Murray/Brucker, p. 126). A few others tried to go down the tunnel; they too gave up (Murray/Brucker, p. 127).
The government had been keeping track of this since February 1, but only on February 4 did a tiny contingent of the National Guard arrive -- too small to really control the crowds. Governor Fields then ordered a larger force to come in from Bowling Green (Murray/Brucker, p. 129). The governor put Lieutenant Governor Henry H. Denhardt, who was also a National Guard brigadier, in charge -- not necessarily a smart move, since Denhart, although decisive, was not very thoughtful or perhaps even very bright (Murray/Brucker, p. 130; Halliday, p. 22, calls him "bombastic" and says "Truly he as not the person for quick, delicate intercultural actions [between locals and outside engineers] that still might have saved Floyd Collins" -- later in life, he allegedly murdered his fiancee and was murdered in turn by her relatives). Among other things, he barred Gerald from the area (Collins/Lehrberger, p. 177). But at least his presence meant that, by February 5, there was someone in charge. A number of other engineering experts arrived at around the same time. They quickly learned that no one had done an engineering survey of the Collins cave during the five previous days of the rescue effort (Murray/Brucker, p. 131). They gathered what data they had and calculated where Collins must be stuck.
Then the question was what to do. The suggestion that Denhardt adopted was to have the Kyroc people dig a shaft down to where Collins lay. So everyone had to figure out where to drive the shaft. This took some hours, then the site had to be cleared, and then they had to figure out how to dig it! (Murray/Brucker, pp. 132-133). A big crew and a lot of machinery then set to work -- but Murray/Brucker, p. 134, calculate that Collins had been underground for 144 hours by the time they started, and without food or water for more than 36. They needed to dig at several feet per hour if they were to have any chance of saving him. It was a pace they could not manage, especially as the weather turned and mud got into everything (Murray/Brucker, pp. 140-141), meaning they also had to shore everything up. Carmichael, the man in charge, said it was "like digging in a sack of peanuts" (Halliday, p. 21) -- the more rock they pulled out, the more fell in. Nor was the planning very good; on more than one occasion they had to go in and rebuild the shaft (Murray/Brucker, pp. 200-201). It flooded whenever it rained, too (Murray/Brucker, p. 202). It might have been better had it been wider, too -- "Skeets" Miller, the newsman who had been down in Sand Cave to talk to Floyd, said going down the sfaft was five times more scary than going down the cave! (Murray/Brucker, p. 202).
It sounds like a bad engineering job, even allowing for the fact that it was backwoods Kentucky in 1925. And, despite all the machinery, most of the digging was by men with picks and shovels (Murray/Brucker, p. 167). And the locals, who didn't like this interference, we mostly non-cooperative (Murray/Brucker, p. 141) -- indeed, it got to the point where Denhardt had his troops holding them back by force (Murray/Brucker, pp. 146-147).
All of this was of course beyond the means of the Collins family. (Eventually it was estimated that the whole business -- National Guard, engineering work, news coverage -- was about $200,000; Murray/Brucker, p. 223.) A fund was started to help them, then the local Red Cross stepped in to feed all the hangers-on around his cave. This proved so expensive that they went broke and the national Red Cross stepped in (Murray/Brucker, p. 139).
The whole thing brought Cave City, the local town, a lot of tourism revenue -- and a lot of wear and tear and crime, plus the locals ran out of almost everything (Collins/Lehrberger,, p. 167; Murray/Brucker, p. 153). And eventually crazy rumors started -- that the whole thing was a hoax, that Collins had been murdered, that Collins was alive and coming out a back entrance at night then going back to his tunnel, and so forth (Collins/Lehrberger, p. 182, Murray/Brucker, pp. 175-179). It got so bad that a military commission was appointed to get to the bottom of it all even before they had finished digging the pit (Murray/Brucker, p. 184, who also point out that martial law had not been declared, so the military probably should not have been involved). If nothing else, this quickly established that Collins existed and was clearly in the cave -- not that that should have been surprised; no hoaxer could have forecast how much attention the case would get! And the testimony of Floyd Collins's father Lee cleared Gerald of any wrongdoing (Murray/Brucker, p. 189). But the commission didn't accomplish much else except to demonstrate how many crazies there were with ideas for a rescue plan.
Meanwhile, digging continued. On February 16, 1925, the pit had gone down far enough that they were digging sideways, and at 1:30, the miners finally broke through into the passage holding Collins (Collins/Lehrberger, p. 194, which gives the time as 1:30 a.m.; Murray/Brucker, p. 209, says it was p.m.). The first man down found that Collins's body was cold. This was announced to the media at 2:42 (Murray/Brucker, p. 210). It was not possible for a physician to get through the tunnel, but another man went down and, following a physician's guidance, made it certain that Collins was dead (Collins/Lehrberger, p. 196; Murray/Brucker, p. 211).
Doctors eventually managed to make an examination of sorts, and reported to the coroner's jury (which included among others Johnny Gerald, since he could identify Floyd). The best guess was that Collins had died on Friday, February 13, 1925 (Murray/Brucker, p. 213). There were attempts to take photos of him in the tunnel, but at least one fake photo circulated (shown on p. 24 of Halliday).
The digging of the shaft had been slow, but it led directly to the tunnel Collins had been in -- a good bit of calculation. Not so good was the fact that the shaft hit Collins's tunnel above his body, so they still didn't have access to the rock that had pinned his leg (Collins/Lehrberger, pp. 196-197; Murray/Brucker, p. 211; Halliday, p. 25, says that this was done deliberately because everyone knew he was dead and they wanted to get to the body sooner). So he was dead, and additional digging would have been needed to recover his body. Instead, the initial decision was made to seal up the shaft and let Sand Cave be Collins's burial site (Collins/Lehrberger, p. 197).
The family apparently wasn't thrilled with that outcome (Halliday, p. 25). Homer Collins received an offer to tour the country to talk about the rescue attempt. He claimed he didn't want to do it, but decided to take part when it was pointed out that he could use the money to rescue and properly bury Floyd's body. So he raised the money, and the proceeds let him hire people to dig the rescue shaft twelve feet lower down, below Floyd's body, which they were then able to bring out in April 1925 (Collins/Lehrberger, pp. 199-201).
Collins's body was buried in the family plot. Lee Collins then sold his property of Crystal Cave (Collins/Lehrberger, pp. 201-202; Halliday, p. 26) -- a decision which caused a rift within the family, and caused the children to think their father was losing his marbles (Murray/Brucker, pp. 230-231; to be honest, I think they were right); they took over the estate while Floyd's body was brought up. Lee's wishes hardly mattered; with tourists suddenly worried about the safety of caves, Lee found the property almost impossible to sell (Murray/Brucker, p. 233). But he finally found a buyer, Harry B. Thomas, who set up a grave for Floyd with a headstone that said, falsely, "Greatest cave explorer ever known" (Murray/Brucker, pp. 234-235; Collins/Lehrberger, p. 204, has a photo, and Halliday has photos on p. 28 and on the back cover).
Against the family's wishes -- three of Floyd's brothers would sue Thomas about it (Murray/Brucker, p. 235; Halliday, p. 26) -- Floyd's body was reburied in Crystal Cave, in a casket that allowed his face to be seen (it had required a lot of work from the undertaker to repair!), along with that exaggerated gravestone. There it stayed except for a brief interlude when the body was stolen and the leg cut off (! -- Collins/Lehrberger, pp. 202-203; Murray/Brucker, p. 235, says they never did recover the leg. No one ever figured out who did it -- there was speculation that Homer Collins himself was behind it; Murray/Brucker, p. 236).
Even before the Collins incident, there had been talk of making the Kentucky Caves a national park. The Collins tragedy gave that a further impetus; in 1926, Mammoth Cave National Park was authorized -- although with little money allocated for it; the understanding was that the land was to be donated. A park association managed this, helped by a Kentucky law that gave it the power to use eminent domain to acquire land. That became a lot easier to condemn the land in the 1930s, when it could be bought at Depression prices (a cause of real resentment to the owners who weren't given any choice!). The park became official just before World War II, and opened just after. It was also understood that Mammoth Cave would bring in money from guided tours -- which meant that the park didn't want competition from other caves. So it set out to buy up other cave sites and shut them down (Murray/Brucker, pp. 238-239).
Crystal Cave was not one of the original acquisitions. It was commercially exploited for many years; Bee Doyle also tried to make money showing off Sand Cave (there is a photo of Doyle, beneath his sign advertising the cave, on p. 203 of Collins/Lehrberger and one of the sign on p. 28 of Halliday), although he didn't make much. Floyd's coffin stayed in Crystal Cave until 1989, even though the National Park Service had purchased and closed the cave in 1961 (KentuckyEncyclopedia; Murray/Brucker, p. 243, says that Great Onyx Cave, the other remaining holdout, was also acquired and closed at this time). Meanwhile, explorers were gradually finding links between all these caves.
You can see maps and photos of the area by looking up "Sand Cave, KY" in Google Maps. There is a trail close to the cave, but the cave itself is closed, and based on the comments of visitors, it appears very little is said about Collins and the rescue attempt. Collin's other discovery can be found at "Crystal Cave, KY." That cave is open, and there are photos of it available.
There are at least five books and a pamphlet about the event:
-- Murray/Brucker, cited here
-- Homer Collins (Floyd's brother), Floyd Collins in Sand Cave: America's Greatest Rescue Story (1958; this and Murray/Brucker are the only sources KentuckyEncyclopedia thinks worth citing; it appears to have been republished as The Life and Death of Floyd Collins by Homer Collins and John Lehrberger, also cited here; according to Murray/Brucker, there were three manuscripts of Homer's tale, which don't all agree -- probably the two editions worked from different manuscripts)
-- the pamphlet is "Floyd Collins of Sand Cave; A Photographic Memorial" by William R. Halliday, cited here; scattered among its 33 pages (in large type) are 35 photos, drawings, and illustrations
-- Arcadia Press also has two items called "The Floyd Collins Tragedy at Sand Cave," but one is a postcard collection
-- the three other books are roughly contemporary with the events, but they were loosely based on the inaccurate newspaper accounts of the time, with no additional material of their own; they have no value except as examples of the Collins hysteria. In that they resemble this song, really; a lot of it is generic "Young people take warning" material, and the rest is also more fluff than fact -- e.g. the song mentions Floyd's father and mother but never uses their names (and Floyd's mother was dead!).
There were also later dramatic presentations. Murray/Brucker, pp. 253-254, says that the 1950 movie "Ace in the Hole" or "The Big Carnival" took some inspiration from the Floyd case, although it wasn't actually based on it. In 1951, the "Philco Television Playhouse" produced "Rescue," which was a Collins retelling, although televisionized.... They brought in Skeets Miller and Homer Collins to consult, and had them talk briefly at the end (Murray/Brucker, p. 254). Later in the 1950s, several magazine articles appeared. In 1957 came another television show, "Robert Montgomery Presents" offering the "Tragedy at Sand Cave." This was much less accurate, and Homer wasn't involved -- and so he finally decided to tell his story, resulting ultimately in Collins/Lehrberger (Murray/Brucker, p. 255). But it seems as if his memory had slipped a bit by then; Murray/Brucker, p. 256, note several errors in Homer's story. Robert Penn Warren's 1959 book The Cave was also inspired by Collins, although with many changes in emphasis as well as names. And on and on the dramatizations went. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LG22

Floyd Frazier (Ellen Flannery) [Laws F19]

DESCRIPTION: Floyd Frazier kills Ellen Flannery and hides her body. A search is started after her orphaned children are found crying. Her body is discovered, and Floyd is arrested. He confesses to the crime; the singer hopes he will be hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (catalogued by Alan and Elizabeth Lomax)
KEYWORDS: homicide children orphan
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 21, 1907 - Reported death date of Ellen Flanary
May 19, 1910 - Scheduled date of the execution for Floyd Frazier for the murder of Ellen Flanary (ee NOTES)
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws F19, "Floyd Frazier (Ellen Flannery)"
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 68, pp. 155-157, "Floyd Frazier" (1 text)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #31, Floyd Frazier" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 735, FLOYFRAZ
Roud #695
NOTES [197 words]: Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, pp. 333-334, was given a lead by one of his informants which led him to discover details of the case. Ellen Flanary was "a widder with five or six children," according to a local official. Frazier, it is believed, tried to rape her, then murdered her and partly covered her body with rocks. He was tried twice and sentenced to death both times. The account in Roberts does not reveal any of the evidence against him.
Although the excerpt printed by Roberts says Frazier was supposed to die on July 9, 1909, I found an online copy of a Whitesburg, Kentucky newspaper (May 26, 1910), which says that he was hung on May 19, 1910. He was still in his early twenties, reportedly having been born in 1886.
Roberts reports that, contrary to the song, he never confessed. Supposedly three thousand people witnessed the execution.
Earlier editions of this Index reported a date for the song of 1909, but did not reveal where I found that date. My guess is that it was someone's error for the date of Frazier's trial. The date is barely possible, since the longest versions (Combs's and Roberts's) don't actually refer to the execution, but I very much doubt it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LF19

Flunky Jim (Gopher Tails)

DESCRIPTION: Jim, the son and "flunky" of the farm, has shabby clothes, but intends to get a new ones with money from gopher tails. His father says his clothes are too small, but he has almost enough tails to buy new clothes, after which he will hand down his old ones
AUTHOR: Words: Dan Ferguson
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (recording, Mel Bowker)
KEYWORDS: poverty clothes farming hunting hardtimes family father animal
FOUND IN: Canada
Roud #4555
RECORDINGS:
Mel Bowker, "Flunky Jim", also listed as "I Am the Flunky of the Yard (Gopher Tails)" (on Saskatch01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Green (I)" (tune) and references there
NOTES [32 words]: During the Depression of the 1930s, the Canadian government offered a bounty on gopher tails to encourage trapping them. Mel Bowker, who recorded this song, was the grandson of Dan Ferguson. - PJS
File: RcFluJim

Flute Song

DESCRIPTION: "Flummerly la lup, flu flu, Flu lup, flu lup, flu lup, Flummery la lup, flu flu, Flu lup, flu"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: nonsense nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, pp. 545-546, "Flute Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [41 words]: Obviously I have no idea what this is about, or why it is called "Flute Song." Probably it's just words to an instrumental tune and should be excluded from the Index. But, when in doubt, we write pointless entries like this and include them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5545

Fly Across the Ocean Birdie

See Birdie Darling (File: Beld210)

Fly and the Bumblebee, The (Fiddle-Dee-Dee)

DESCRIPTION: "Fiddle-dee-dee, fiddle-dee-dee, The fly has married the bumblebee, Says the fly, says he, 'Will you marry me, and live with me, sweet Bumblebee?'" The fly promises not to sting the larger insect. Parson Beetle marries the two. All ends happily
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1740 (Wiltshire MS, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: bug marriage clergy courting
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 196-198, "Fiddle Dee Dee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 88, "A cat came fiddling out of a barn" (2 texts); 168, "Fiddle-de-dee, fiddle-de-dee" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #179, pp. 128-129, "(A cat came fiddling out of a barn)"; #276, p. 164, "(Fiddle-dee-dee, fiddle-dee-dee)"
Roud #3731
RECORDINGS:
Tom Hanford, "Fiddle-dee-dee" (Piotr-Archive #650, recorded 08/16/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Frog Went A-Courting" (theme)
NOTES [56 words]: In the Mother Goose "cat came fiddling" texts, it is not a fly but a mouse that marries the bumblebee. It's not clear which combination is more original -- the wedding of two insects is less utterly illogical, so it might be an improvement, but the mouse might also come in by way of confusion with "Frog Went A-Courting" or the like. - RBW
File: Lins196

Fly Around My Blue-Eyed Gal

See Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss (File: CSW066)

Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss

DESCRIPTION: Dance tune: "Fly around my pretty little miss/Fly around my daisy/Fly around my pretty little miss/You almost drive me crazy." Floating verses: "The higher up the cherry tree/The riper grow the cherries..." "Going to get some weevily wheat..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (collected by Cecil Sharp, but some of the floating verses also show up in Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 88, "Betty Anne," which he collected in 1916)
KEYWORDS: love dancing nonballad floatingverses dancetune
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 66, "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 286, "Fly Around, My Blue-Eyed Girl" (4 texts, but the "D" text is mostly "Shady Grove"); also 78, "Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees" (7 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more, but almost all mixed -- all except "H" have the "Coffee grows" stanza, but "A" also has verses from "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss"; "and "C" through "H" are mostly "Little Pink"; "B" is mixed with "Raccoon" or some such)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 286, "Fly Around, My Blue-Eyed Girl" (4 tunes plus text excerpts)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 145, p. 293, [no title] (1 fragment, the single stanza "The higher up the cherry tree")
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 268, "The Higher Up the Cherry Tree" (1 short text, 1 tune); also 88, "Betty Anne" (1 text, 1 tune, with lyrics from "Shady Grove," "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss" and "Going Across the Sea")
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #63, "The Higher Up the Cherry Tree" (1 fragment, 1 tune, possibly this)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #72, "Blue-Eyed Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 197-198, "My Pretty Little Pink" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore,p. 227, "Higher Up the Cherry Tree" (1 fragment, probably this)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 254, "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 39, "Fly Around My Blue-Eyed Gal" (1 text)
DT, BLUEYEGL*
Roud #5720 and 3648
RECORDINGS:
Frank Blevins & his Tar Heel Rattlers, "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss" (Columbia 15210-D, 1927; on TimesAint01, LostProv1)
Frank Bode, "Susanna Gal" (on FBode1)
Samantha Bumgarner, "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss" (Columbia 146-D, 1924; Harmony 5094 [as Luella Gardner], n.d.)
The Hillbillies, "Blue Eyed Girl" (Vocalion 5017, c. 1926)
Clint Howard et al, "Pretty Little Pink" (on Ashley02, WatsonAshley01)
Buell Kazee, "Dance Around My Pretty Little Miss" [fragment] (on Kazee01)
Bradley Kincaid, "Pretty Little Pink" (Brunswick 464, 1930) ((Supertone 9666, 1930; rec. 1929) (one of these is on CrowTold01, but we don't know which)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss" (on NLCR03, NLCR11, NLCRCD1)
Lee Sexton, "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss" (on MMOKCD)
Hobart Smith, "Fly Around, My Blue-Eyed Girl" (on LomaxCD1702)
Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers, "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss" (Columbia 15709-D, c. 1931; rec. 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Weevily Wheat" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Up and Down the Railroad Track" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I Want to Go Back to Georgia" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Missus in the Big House" (meter)
cf. "Seventeen Come Sunday" [Laws O17] (floating lyrics, some tunes)
cf. "Yonder Comes a Georgia Girl" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Watermelon Spoilin' On The Vine" (floating verses)
cf. "Pretty Little Miss (II)" (lyrics, theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Blue-Eyed Girl
NOTES [78 words]: My guess is that this is a modified version of "Weevily Wheat." But Paul Stamler thinks it's separate, and certainly it's picked up a lot of floating material. So we classify the two separately.
This should not be confused with Laws P18, "Pretty Little Miss."
Roud seems to split this into two, #5720 being true "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss" versions and #3648 being "Higher Up the Cherry Tree" texts. I see his point, but this makes fragments hard to classify! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: CSW066

Fly Away You Bumble Bee (Sambo)

DESCRIPTION: "Sambo was a lazy coon Who used to sleep in the afternoon." He becomes angry when a bumblebee lands on his nose and warns it that it will get no bum from him. This even though backsides/arseholes rule the navy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: bawdy animal navy
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 141, "Fly Away You Bumble Bee" (1 text)
Roud #10236 and 29946
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Backsides Rule the Navy" (lyrics)
NOTES [43 words]: The Morgan/Green-RugbySongs text appears to me to be a conflation, starting with a Sambo song that looks like a bad minstrel piece, then concluding with a version of "Backsides Rule the Navy." Both parts may be traditional; I wonder about the combination. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RuSoFABB

Fly Is on the Turnip, The

See Flies Are On the Tummits (File: RcFAOtT)

Fly Little Bluebird

See Bluebird (File: OpGa097)

Fly Not Yet

DESCRIPTION: "Fly not yet, 'tis just the hour, When pleasure, like the midnight flow'r, That scorns the eye of vulgar light, Begins to bloom for sons of night." The singer begs the night to stay, wondering why he must "find such beaming eyes awake"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Moore-IrishMelodies-1846)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, pp. 11-12, "Fly not yet" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 194, "Fly Not Yet" (1 text)
Roud #31439
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4274), "Fly Not Yet," J. PItts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 16(96d) (Pitts, but barely legible); also Harding B 36(24), "Fly Not Yet," H. Wardman (Bradford), n.d. (link broken); also Harding B 36(21), "Fly Not Yet," T. Wilkinson (Manchester), n.d. (link broken)
File: HMHS194A

Flyin' U Twister, The

See Bad Brahma Bull (The Bull Rider Song) (File: FCW68B)

Flying Cloud, The [Laws K28]

DESCRIPTION: Singer Edward (Hollohan) abandons the cooper's trade to be a sailor. At length he falls in with Captain Moore, a brutal slaver. Moore later turns pirate. When his ship is finally taken, the remaining sailors are sentenced to death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Wehman)
KEYWORDS: sailor slavery pirate execution gallows-confession
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (41 citations):
Laws K28, "The Flying Cloud"
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 116-123, "The Flying Cloud" (2 texts)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 35-37, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 6-8, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #118, p. 1, "William Hollander" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 44, "William Hollander" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 128-131, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 135-139, "The Flying Cloud" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 173, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 223-225, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 62, "Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 842-845, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 58, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 111, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 223-226,245, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 247-251, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 214-216, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 145-147, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 586, "The Flying Cloud" (1 tune, included in Hugill's entry on "Dixie Brown"; he states that it has been used for several forebitters, "Arthur Hollander" [i.e. "The Flying Cloud"], "Girls of Cape Horn" ["Rounding the Horn"], "The Sailor's Way," and "Go To Sea Once More" ["Dixie Brown"])
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 158, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 129-130, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 41, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 41, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 1-2, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 778-781, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 154-158, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 411, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 2, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 115, "The 'Flying Cloud'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 39-41, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 9, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 183-186, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp 210-211, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 84-87, "The 'Flying Cloud'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 504-507, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 86, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 19, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune; composite; #19 in the first edition)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 101-105, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 845-847, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 98-100, "The Flying Cloud" (1 text)
DT 409, FLYCLOUD*
Roud #1802
RECORDINGS:
Gerald Aylward, "Flying Cloud" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Judy Cook, "The Flying Cloud" (Piotr-Archive #412, recorded 01/04/2023)
Warde Ford, "The Flying cloud" [fragment] (AFS 4202 B1, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Mrs. Mary Ann Galpin, "The Flying Cloud" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Alexander March, "The Flying Cloud" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
John Molloy, "Flying Cloud" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Robert Walker, "The Flying Cloud" (on USWolfRiver)
Clifford Wedge, "The Flying Cloud" (on MREIves01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charles Gibbs" (plot and piracy theme)
NOTES [705 words]: Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman notes that there is no pirate ship known to have carried the name "The Flying Cloud." He suggests that the story is based on the book The Dying Declaration of Nicholas Fernandez, based loosely on the life of one of Benito de Soto's pirate crew (Fernandez was executed in 1829). Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman shows the title page of the book on p. 336.
Laws and others, though, note that most of these elements are commonplace.
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety lists various other ships called by the name, but they were all legitimate vessels, including the clipper mentioned below that set the record, anchor to anchor, sailing from New York to San Francisco.
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, who thinks the song might be a combination of a song about piracy with one about slavery, notes on pp. 246-247 that guild records from Waterford do no reveal a cooper with the name William Brown in the years after 1812 (the only years for which records survive).
I wonder if the pirate's name "Moore" might have been inspired by the Moors, since the Barbary pirates were sometimes called (not very correctly) Moors.
The song feels fairly old, but the impression may be false. Most of the earliest references seem to be from about 1890, as if the song were composed in the 1880s or so.
Jonathan Lighter speculated, "My impression is that the song very possibly originated in the 1880s or a bit earlier, perhaps in a dime novel as no early broadside has ever been discovered. The evocative name 'Flying Cloud' may have been chosen because the fame of the real ship had long been forgotten by the general public."
If so, then the ship name was inspired by the clipper Flying Cloud, built 1851 (Howe/Matthews, p. 190), which twice set records for the New York-to-San Francisco run in the 1850s (Howe/Matthews, p. 192, notes that the record set on her fourth voyage still stood [as of 1926], and she also had a record on the Hong Kong crossing). Though to call a slaver by that name hardly seems a fitting tribute.
(Horace Beck explains this by positing that the slaving verses are not integral to the piece; he speculates that the whole thing is a composite of two songs. I agree that many versions include some verses, such as the description of the ship, which are somewhat odd and interfere with the thrust of the song. But this doesn't help much, because we're still left wit the Flying Cloud as a pirate.)
There is another possibility, though. Chapellen devotes a long chapter to slavers and privateers (combining the two because they had similar characteristics). He notes on p. 130, "The great American deity, 'Speed,' had no more devout worshipers than the designers and builders of privateers and of the small slaving craft that followed them.... [T]he ability to sail fast was the prime requirement of both privateers and slavers." In this context, it's interesting to note that the ship of this song was both a slaver and a pirate -- and pirates, of course, were essentially privateers minus a letter of marque.
The reason slavers needed speed was that they were illegal in both the United States and Britain. Britain of course bad banned slavery by the early nineteenth century, and while the United States did not, it did ban importing slaves from Africa. On page 154, Chapelle explains, "In the development nof fast-sailing craft, the slave-trade did not have any effect until after the War of 1812... The period of the specially designed slaver can be placed as between 1820 and 1855." Again, on page 161, "The necessity of speed in a slaver was obvious, once the cruisers [appointed to stop the trade] became active. There was also the very high mortality among the slaves from over-crowding during a long voyage, and so speed and profits went hand in hand."
Thus, if the song does date from the post-Civil War period, a likely reason for using the name Flying Cloud for the ship is that it would invoke the speed of the famous clipper.
If the song is slightly later still, and was first written only shortly before the Wehman broadside, I would note that a famous Great Lakes ship called the Flying Cloud had been wrecked in 1890 (Shelak, p. 118). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LK28

Flying Colonel, The

DESCRIPTION: "With a shit-eating grin on his face," the terrified pilot of a stricken bomber brings his plane home while other crew members bail out.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Probably World War II vintage
KEYWORDS: bawdy war desertion technology flying pilot
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 404-406, "The Flying Colonel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10401
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship that Never Returned" [Laws D27] (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "The Wreck of Old 97" [Laws G2] (tune)
NOTES [36 words]: Internal references would date this to the WW II saturation bombing campaign upon Germany. This seems to be one of the few air force songs to have achieved oral currency apart from mimeographed or Xeroxed songbooks. - EC
File: EM404

Flying Dutchman, The (Vanderdecken) [Laws K23]

DESCRIPTION: The crew has just escaped a harsh wind on a dark night when the Flying Dutchman appears. The fearful captain orders the crew to take in the sail. The Dutchman fails, as always, in its attempt to enter Table Bay. The sailors pity doomed Vanderdecken
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881
KEYWORDS: storm ghost ship supernatural
FOUND IN: US(MA) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws K23, "The Flying Dutchman (Vanderdecken)"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 148-149, "The Flying Dutchman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 45, "The Flying Dutchman" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 180-181, "The Flying Dutchman" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 183, "The Flying Dutchman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 106, "The Flying Dutchman" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 406, FLYDUTCH*
Roud #1897
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.13(92), "The Flying Dutchman", H. Such (London), 1863-1885; Harding B 11(963) [last verse illegible], "The Flying Dutchman"; Firth c.26(130), "The Flying Dutchman!"
File: LK23

Flying Fortresses

DESCRIPTION: "The Yanks were flying Fortresses at 20,000 feet, (x3) With bags of ammunition and a tweensy-weensy bomb." "The RAF were flying Lancasters at zero-zero feet, With fuck-all ammunition and a bloody great bomb."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (collected by Dr. Kevin Bucknall; see the SuppTrad text)
KEYWORDS: war technology derivative flying
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 61, "Flying Fortresses" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Hopk061 (Full)
Roud #29394
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
One Little Teensy-Weensy Bomb
The B-17
NOTES [1724 words]: This British version of this is a comparison of two heavy (4-engine) bombers used in the European Theater of World War II, the British Avro Lancaster and the American B-17 "Flying Fortress." (The American version drops the reference to the Lancaster and says "The B-17 will climb to 20,000 feet (x3), But it'll only carry one little teensy, weensy bomb." I strongly suspect it is secondary.)
In essence, the argument of the song is that the Flying Fortresses, because they had so many defensive guns, couldn't carry a very large bomb load. The Lancaster, with less defensive weaponry, had a much larger bomb capacity. What's more, it suggests that the Americans flew very high (meaning they couldn't aim their bombs very well) and the Lancasters very close to the ground (so they had better aim).
The second claim is pretty marginal. The Lancasters occasionally flew low -- they had to, on some occasions such as the great Dambusters raid in which they took out several important Germany hydro power plants (Tubbs, pp. 83-95). And when they dropped mine into the sea, they had to drop them from a height that would not destroy the mines (Dunmore/Carter, p. 250). They also started flying low during the work-up to the Normandy invasion, when they were used to knock out precise targets like transport hubs (Dunmore/Carter, pp. 236-238, etc.). But mostly the Lancasters, like the B-17s, flew high -- they were engaged in nighttime bombing, which meant that they had to fly high lest they crash into something! Plus it took longer for a fighter that started on the ground to reach interception height if they were flying high. Only at the end of the war, when the Germans had almost run out of fighters and the Allies had developed the P-51 Mustang fighter which had enough range to fly to Berlin, did the Lancasters start flying over Germany primarily in daylight (Tubbs, p. 128) and so were in position to fly low. (The advent of the P-51 was so shocking that Marshall Göring bawled out the subordinate who first reported fighters over Berlin; Dunmore/Carter, p. 271.)
It is true, though, that the British and the Americans had different philosophies, despite all the incentives to cooperate; Ira Eaker, commander of the American 8th United States Army Air Force, preferred daylight bombing and Arthur Harris, the British officer in charge of RAF bombers, had them fly at night. The disagreement was papered over with the description "round-the-clock bombing" (Dunmore/Carter, pp. 83-85), but it doesn't change the fact that it reduced bombing effectiveness. And it didn't always reduce casualties; if a plane was attacked by a fighter during the day, the crew usually had warning and was likely to be able to bail out and survive as prisoners; planes shot down at night tended to crash quickly and kill their airmen (Bercuson, p. 89).
The first claim, though, is basically true. The Lancaster carried a lot more weight of bombs. The Lancaster from very early was able to carry 14,000 pounds of bombs (Munson, p. 28); it eventually was modified to carry bombs up to 22,000 pounds. The Flying Fortress was generally limited to a bomb load of about 6000 pounds. Some of this is just because the B-17 was the slightly older plane. More of it is philosophy. At the time both aircraft were designed, there was no possibility whatsoever that a fighter could accompany a bomber from England all the way to Germany. If bombers were to hold off enemy fighters, it had to be with their own defensive armament. Most bombers had at least some defensive weaponry. But the Fortress had more than any other bomber of it time -- and so it weighed more, and had to carry more crew, and that limited its bomb load.
Tubbs, p. 8, summarizes the Lancaster thus: "The Avro 683 Lancaster was the last of the RAF's four-engined bombers to enter war service, and the best. Air Marshall Sir Arthur Harris, Commander in Chief, Bomber Command, called it greatest single factor in winning the Second World War. Hyperbole, perhaps, but the big Avro bred hyperbole as lesser designs breed criticism...." Harris would later write, "The Lancaster far surpassed all other types of heavy bombers. Not only were there fewer accidents with this than with other types [i.e. it was easier to fly]; throughout the war the casualty rate of Lancasters was consistently below that of other types."
The basic Lancaster frame had begun as a two-engine bomber, the Manchester, which was a flop; the engines were just too unreliable (Munson, p. 172). So someone decided to turn a two-engine bomber into a four-engine machine, with reliable Merlin engines replacing the cranky Rolls Royce Vultures (Munson, p. 26). This required the wings to be lengthened, but the resulting plane, the first version of which flew on January 9, 1941, was so successful that it went into production almost at once; the first production versions were reaching combat units at the beginning of 1942. And once in service, every squadron wanted them; I can't cite all the pages, but there were constant complaints that this unit or that unit wasn't getting its due share Lancasters (e.g. Dunmore/Carter, p. 144). Hard to blame them; the Lancaster had a much higher service ceiling than the other contemporary bombers, and so could fly too high to be hit by anti-aircraft guns (Dunmore/Carter pp. 179-180). By 1943, it had essentially forced one British heavy bomber, the Short Stirling, out of the bombing role (Gunston, p. 465) and caused the British to cut back production of their other heavy bomber, the Handley-Page Halifax, except at facilities which could not produce other planes (Dunmore/Carter, p. 144).
Not that the B-17 lacks for fans -- at least nowadays. There seem to be more books about the B-17 than any type of World War II aircraft I've checked except maybe the Spitfire. Birdsall/Freeman, p. 7, call it "the most famous United States military aircraft of all time."
The original 1934 specification for which the B-17 was designed called for a top speed of 200 miles per hour, a range of 1020 miles, and a bomb load of 2000 pounds (Patterson/Perkins, p. 10) -- figures which would have been ridiculously inadequate had such a bomber been used in World War II. Boeing decided to go above and beyond, producing a four-engine design rather than the two-engine models offered by competitors. The name "Flying Fortress" may have come from newspaper coverage (Patterson/Perkins, p. 11). The initial model could carry 8000 pounds of bombs but had only five guns. By the time the first real production model, the B-17C, came out, there were more guns -- but the bomb load had been reduced to just 4000 pounds (Patterson/Perkins, p. 12). And the final versions required a large crew of ten (pilot, co-pilot, radio operator, engineer, bombardier, navigator, and four gunners; Patterson/Perkins, pp. 15-19). Fortunately, the bomb load would increase a little in the later versions.
Ironically, it was the British who first flew the B-17 in combat -- not entirely voluntarily. In 1940, the British (who had not yet developed the Lancaster and were finding many of their aircraft quite inferior) came to the Americans to see what they could buy. American engineers reportedly didn't think the plane was ready yet, and the British generals didn't think any plane could serve in the role the American cheerleaders envisioned for the plane -- but Churchill wanted to get an American plane (almost any plane, really) because it would imply American support for Britain, and Roosevelt wanted to justify producing more planes, so the politicians forced the planes on the RAF (Birdsall/Freeman, p. 11). As it turned out, it wouldn't take long to show that the American engineers had been right -- the plane wasn't ready. It was unstable and vulnerable to attack from the rear. It wasn't until the B-17E model came out that it gained a tail turret and was given a modified tail design to fix the stability problems; this was the first true mass-produced model and the first one to really fight in the European theater (Patterson/Perkins, pp. 12-13; the B-17D had been used in defense of the Philippines from the Japanese, with little success). The last two models, the B-17F and the B-17G, improved the defensive armament and the range (Patterson/Perkins, p. 13), but the result still had limited lift ability and was still vulnerable to fighters,
It should be noted that the B-17 wasn't even the most important American heavy bomber; that was the later B-24 Liberator, which had similar speed and a not-too-different weapons load (8000 pounds of bombs, 10 defensive guns of a heavier caliber than the B-17), and was harder to fly, but had greater range (Gunston, pp. 362-363), and so became the most common American heavy bomber. (The Lancaster also had good range, although not as good as the Liberator; Carter/Dunmore, p. 306, observes that, with a standard load, a Lancaster could make a flight of 1850 miles; its main British competitor, the Halifax III, could only carry the same load 1300 miles.)
Even Birdsall/Freeman, p. 7, ultimately admit that the B-17 "became legendary despite the fact that other contemporary warplanes contributed more to victory." Among which, as the song says, was the Lancaster.
To summarize the basic abilities of the two planes, the primary models would have had these characteristics:
TOP SPEED: Both were in the 275-290 mile per hour range.
BOMB LOAD: B-17: 6000 lbs. Lancaster: 14000 lbs.
DEFENSIVE GUNS: B-17: 13. Lancaster: 8.
SERVICE CEILING: B-17: 35,000 feet. Lancaster: 24,500 feet. (Thus the B-17 could fly higher, but not to the 50,000 feet claimed in some versions of the song.)
CREW SIZE: B-17: 10. Lancaster: 7.
Thus to deliver, in round numbers, 12000 lbs of bombs took one Lancaster and seven men; it took 2 B-17s and 20 men -- in other words, to deliver the same bomb load took twice as many B-17s as Lancasters, and three times as many highly trained men. Yes, the B-17s had "bags of ammunition" -- but all her defensive guns didn't actually shoot down all that many more enemy fighters than the Lancaster's; the truth is, the defensive guns on both planes (and every other heavy bomber) were too light and too hard to aim.
For another song about the Lancaster, see Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear's "Bless 'Em All -- Lancasters" verse under "Bless 'Em All." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Hopk061

Flying Squirrel

DESCRIPTION: "Sixteen years a-courting and twenty more to come; I am o nearer married than when I first begun. Goodbye, little one, flying squirrel (x3), Almost fly away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad courting animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #133, "Flying Squirrel" (1 short text)
Roud #5042
File: Morr133

Flying Trapeze, The

DESCRIPTION: "Once I was happy, but now I'm forlorn, Like an old coat that is tatter'd and torn." The singer's young girlfriend has left him for a trapeze artist. This man, who "flies through the air with the greatest of ease," induced her to run away and join his act
AUTHOR: George Leybourne and/or Alfred Lee
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (sheet music published by Compton & Doan, St. Louis, and O. H. Ditson & Co, New York)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment sports betrayal
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,So)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 69-72, "The Flying Trapeze" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 748, "Once I Was Happy" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 137-138, "The Flying Trapeze" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 63-65, "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 338-340, "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 271-272, "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" (1 text, consisting solely of verses to be sung at the end of the "regular" verse)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 270, "The Man On The Flying Trapeze" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 230, "The Flying Trapeze"
New-Comic-Songster, p. 6, "Flying Trapeze" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #21, pp. 48-49, "The Flying Trapeze" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 286, "Man on the Flying Trapeze" (notes only)
DT, FLYTRAP2* (FLYTRAPZ*)
ADDITIONAL: Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 124-127, "The Flying Trapeze!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5286
RECORDINGS:
Aaron Campbell's Mountaineers, "Man on the Flying Trapeze" (Chamption 45038, 91935)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" (Victor 21567, 1928)
Walter O'Keefe, "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" (Victor 24172, 1932)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(124a), "Flying Trapeze," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1874
SAME TUNE:
The Velocipede Beau (Dime-Song-Book #23, p. 18)
NOTES [126 words]: Credited to George Leybourne (for whom see the notes on "Champagne Charlie"), but this song, like that one, may be mostly the work of the "arranger," Alfred Lee. Or the tune may be borrowed; at least, Johann Strauss used it as an "English Folk Melody" in 1869.
Waites & Hunter note that it was a performer called "Leotard" (for whom leotards are named) who brought the trapeze to England. His performances inspired this song.
Although written in the nineteenth century, Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 408, estimates that this was the eighth most popular song in America in July 1934, (#1 for the year being Billy Hill's "The Old Spinning Wheel"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RJ19069

Fod

DESCRIPTION: "As I went down to the mowin' field Hu-ri tu-ri fod-a-link-a-di-do, As I went down... Fod! As I went down... A big black snake got me by the heel." The injured singer sits down and watches a woodchuck fight a skunk (and complains about the smell)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (recording, Henry King & family)
KEYWORDS: animal nonsense humorous injury dancing fight
FOUND IN: US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 44-45, "Fod" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 213, "Fod" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 222, "Fod" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 159, "A Mighty Maulin'" (twelfth of 12 single-stanza jigs) (1 text, perhaps from this though it's just a loose verse)
ST LoF213 (Full)
Roud #431
RECORDINGS:
Henry King, "Fod!" (AAFS 8)
Henry King & family, "Fod" (AFS 5141 B2, 1941; on LC02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "(I Can't Be) Satisfied" (words)
cf. "Springfield Mountain" (words)
NOTES [96 words]: Roud catalogs this as a version of Springfield Mountain. Oy. (Admittedly Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard thinks it's a lost ending of "Springfield Mountain.")
I stuck Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands's single stanza ("As I went down to my old field, I heard a mighty maulin'; The seed-ticks was a-splittin' rails, The chiggers was a-haulin'") here because it sounds like it might be a loose verse of something similar, and because there is nothing else much like it. Roud gives it its own number, 16395, but it's probably a floating verse from something. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LoF213

Fog-bound Vessel, The

DESCRIPTION: On payday Molly meets her boyfriend Villiam. He leads her away, kills her, and sails away. Her ghost wakes him and brings a fog that stopps his ship. The captain thinks Vill is the cause. Avenged, Molly disappears. Moral: girls, leave your money home
AUTHOR: W.H.C. West (source: Greig/Duncan2 citing Fowler)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2474))
KEYWORDS: courting homicide money burial sea ship humorous ghost sailor derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 202, "Vill, the Ship's Carpenter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15.3
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2474), "Molly the Betray'd" or "The Fog-bound Vessel" ("In a kitchen in Portsmouth, a fair maid did dwell," W.S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; also Firth b.27(226), "Molly the Betrayed" or "The Fog Bound Vessel"; Firth c.13(207), "Molly the Betrayed"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (The Gosport Tragedy; Pretty Polly)" [Laws P36A/B] (subject of parody) and references there
NOTES [265 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(2474) is the basis for the description.
Greig/Duncan2: "This is a parody of [The Gosport Tragedy] which appeared on broadsides."
As expected in a parody this ballad almost shares some lines with the original. For example, "...he led her o'er hills and down walleys so deep, At length this fair damsel began for to veep" and "...ve've no time to stand, And he took a sharp knife into his right hand; He pierced her best gown, till the blood it did flow, And into the grave her fair body did throw."
The "Young Villiam valked vith her" "dialect" is found in other "comical" parodies. See, for example, "All Around My Hat" - which refers to a pre-1834 broadside with the line "All around my hat, I vears a green villow" (the singer, selling vegetables from his cart, tells how his "hangel" was sent over for seven years for thievery) - and "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (Dinah's suicide follows a threat by her father to marry or lose her inheritance). What dialect is this taken to be? In some cases, at least, it is Jewish: see, for example, broadside Bodleian Firth b.28(10a/b) View 5 of 8, "The Vindow Man" ("You'll guess my line of pizness by the things upon my back"), R. March and Co. (London), 1877-1884, which includes the line "I couldn't speak a plessed vord of anything but Yiddish." [Note that Yiddish, being a German dialect, shares the German trait of pronouncing "w" as "v" - RBW] Maybe the dialect should generally be taken to indicate any Germanic-speaker, but money plays a central part in each of these songs. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: FrD2202

Fogan MacAleer

DESCRIPTION: "There lived in bonny Scotland a man named MacAleer ... he had the queerest notions ... don't you know what I mean?" He asks the blacksmith's help to buy Lauchlan Ban's mare. The blacksmith tricks MacAleer so that he marries Ban's daughter Mary instead.
AUTHOR: Lawrence Doyle
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: marriage bargaining trick humorous horse father derivative
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 156-159, 245, "Fogan MacAleer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13989
RECORDINGS:
Joseph Walsh, "Fogan MacAleer" (on MREIves01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jolly Barber Lad" (see Notes)
NOTES [65 words]: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland refers to "the Scottish custom of having a go-between approach the prospective bride's father to arrange for a marriage." Ives finds a manuscript of "a song called 'The Jolly Barber' which was clearly Doyle's model for this song." The key fragment here is "don't you know what I mean?"; the song is apparently indexed here as "The Jolly Barber Lad."- BS
File: IvDC156

Foggy Dew (I), The (The Bugaboo) [Laws O3]

DESCRIPTION: The singer courts the girl and takes her to bed "to keep her from the foggy dew." In the morning they go their separate ways. In due time the girl bears a son. The further course of the song varies; in some texts he marries her, in some she dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1689 (broadside, EngBdsdBA Pepys 5.250)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction weaving pregnancy bastard
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,SE,So,SW) Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf,Ont) Australia
REFERENCES (34 citations):
Laws O3, "The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo)"
Greig/Duncan7 1495, "The Foggy Dew" (7 texts, 7 tunes; excludes 1495d)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 33, "The Foggy Dew" (8 texts)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 61, "The Foggy Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, p. 167, "The Foggy Dew" (1 fragment)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #93, "The Foggy Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #44, "The Foggy Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 105, "The Foggy Dew" (4 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 99-101, "The Foggy Dew" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 105A)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 257-263, "The Foggy Foggy Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 61-64, "The Foggy Foggy Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 38, pp. 203-206, "The Boogaboo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 137, "The Foggy Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #84, "The Bugaboo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 57-58, "A Gentleman's Meeting (Down by Yon Riverside" (1 text, which starts out as "Pretty Little Miss" [Laws P18] but ends with 'The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo)" [Laws O3]; Roud lists it as a version of Laws P18, but it appears that the larger part of the text is O3 -- though the material in the middle could be from either)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 14-15, "Foggy, Foggy Dew"; 460-461, "The Weaver" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 107, pp. 183-184, "The Bugaboo" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #53, "Fear of the Buggerboo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 174, "The Foggy Foggy Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 43, "The Foggy Dew-I"; 44, "The Foggy Dew-II" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 421-422, "The Buggery Boo" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 123-125, "The Foggy Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 518-519, "Foggy Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 43, "The Foggy Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 60, "The Foggy Drew" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 26, "The Foggy, Foggy Dew" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 37-38, "Foggy, Foggy Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 83, "The Foggy Dew" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 126-137, "The Foggy Dew" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 32, "The Foggy, Foggy Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 159, "The Foggy, Foggy Dew" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 16, "The Foggy Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2840, "When first I began to court" (?)
DT 333, FOGGYDEW* FOGGDEW2 FOGGDEW5 BOGLEBO*
Roud #558
RECORDINGS:
Bob Atcher, "Foggy, Foggy Dew" (Columbia 20538, 1949)
Mrs Freeman Bennett and Mr Everett Bennett, "Foggy Dew" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Phil Hammond, "The Foggy Dew" (on FSB02, FSB2CD)
Bradley Kincaid, "The Foggy Dew" (Decca 12024, n.d.)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Foggy Dew" (on Lloyd3, Lloyd5, Lloyd12)
Pete Seeger, "Foggy Dew" (on PeteSeeger32)
Don Tate, "Bugerboo" (on OldTrad1, FarMtns1)
Doug Wallin, "The Foggy Dew" (on Wallins1)
BROADSIDES:
EngBdsdBA 22085, Pepys 5.250, "The Fright'ned York-shire Damosel" or "Fears Dispers'd by Pleasure" ("When first I began to court"), I. Millet (Little-Brittain), 1689, accessed 08 Dec 2013.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sligo Town" (theme, floating lyrics)
cf. "Boodie Bo" (theme and many lines)
NOTES [416 words]: This ballad should be [called] "The Foggy, Foggy Dew" to distinguish it from the Irish lyric love song "The Foggy Dew."
The original of this ballad is traced to a broadside ballad dating to 1815 in the collection of the antiquarian bookseller John Bell of Newcastle now in the King's College Library. See A.L. Lloyd, Folk Song in England (London, 1967). - EC
It will be observed, however, that the item ZN2840 in the Broadside Index dates to 1689. I have not been able to verify whether this is actually "The Foggy, Foggy Dew" itself or something similar. - RBW
In the very closely related "Boodie Bo" the singer has Boodie Bo dress in white (like a ghost) to frighten the girl he had courted unsuccessfully. When they go to bed and she starts to leave Boodie Bo returns and frightens the girl again. The story continues from there.
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople #33 is a composite of four texts; the remaining six texts are in the discussion of the ballad on pp. 45-57. Page 45 has a text from Folk Songs from Somerset for which Sharp and Marson note, "Mr Marson has re-written the words, retaining as many lines of Mrs Hooper's song as were desirable." Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople: "In fact no more than six of the twenty-seven lines are more or less as dictated by the two sisters ...." and prints the original.
The Pepys [broadside] entry resolves item ZN2840 in the Broadside Index. This is "The Foggy Dew." The girl is afraid because "on the stairs she saw a spright it was the Bogulmaroo." The usual sexual encounter follows -- "we lay abed next day till ten" -- but they marry the next day "and did her pleasures renew ... ev'ry time she smiles on me I think of Bogulmaroo." The "Boodie Boo" is closer to Pepys than is Laws O3. One feature that both Pepys and "Boodoe Bo" lack is the common "Foggy Dew" verse "All through the first part of the night We did sport and play And through the latter part of that night She in my arms did lay." - BS
Ruth Binney, Nature's Way: lore, legend, fact and fiction, David and Charles, 2006, pp. 244-245, briefly sums up the legends about boggarts and bugaboos: "The bug-a-boo, also called the bodach or bugbear, will, it's said, kidnap naughty children. It comes down the chimney with no warning. Like the boggart, it probably gets its name from the Middle English word bogge, meaning 'terror.'" Yet boggarts are also reported at times to be helpful. That perhaps applies here: The bugaboo got the girl in trouble but the ending is happy. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LO03

Foggy Dew (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes out one morning and spies a beautiful girl. He asks her to marry. At first she hints of another lover, but when he approaches her again, she agrees to marry "if I know that you'll be true."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 76, "The Foggy Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 520-521, "Foggy Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 147, "The Foggy Dew" (1 text)
ST FSC76 (Partial)
Roud #973
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf."The Foggy Dew (III)" (tune)
NOTES [24 words]: Although there are occasional similarities of both text and tune, this piece is not to be confused with Laws O3, "The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo)." - RBW
File: FSC76

Foggy Dew (III), The

DESCRIPTION: "As down the glen one Easter morn" the singer is passed by a silent army who raise the green flag over Dublin. The Irishmen who died fighting for others had better died fighting for Ireland. "But the bravest fell ... who died at Eastertide"
AUTHOR: Canon Charles O'Neill (1919) (source: "The Foggy Dew" in _Wars & Conflict 1916 Easter Rising Rebel Songs_ by Franke Harte on the BBC site)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (IRClancyMakem03)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion Easter Ireland patriotic derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 24, 1916 (Easter Monday) - beginning of the Easter Rebellion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, FOGGDEW4*
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 70-71, "The Foggy Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #973
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Foggy Dew" (on IRClancyMakem03)
Liam Clancy, "The Foggy Dew" (on IRLClancy01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Foggy Dew" (II) (tune)
cf. "The Boys from County Cork" (subject)
NOTES [812 words]: By the time of World War I, most of the people of Ireland were basically loyal to the British crown; they wanted Home Rule, but as part of the British Empire (see, e.g., "Home Rule for Ireland"). Very many of them volunteered for the British army, and very many of them died in the trenches of Flanders.
A relative handful of the Irish wanted complete independence; naturally none of them volunteered. A handful of that handful, led by Padraig Pearse, planned rebellion (see the notes, e.g., to "The Boys from County Cork").
On Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, a small force (probably between a thousand and 1500 men) attacked Dublin. The center of the rebellion was the General Post Office, where Pearse read the proclamation of independence (which, since he read it in Irish, was mostly ignored by the Anglophone population). Over the building rose two flags: One, the harp on a green background, the traditional Irish flag; the other was the new tricolor whose orange and green bands stood ironically for a united Ireland.
The whole thing was a fiasco. The rebels surrendered April 29. At first, the people cursed and spat at them -- after all, they had ruined Dublin and killed about 250 civilians. Had the British left bad enough alone, imprisoning the rebels but no more, all might have been well. But they started court-martialling the commanders on the spot; three leaders including Pearce were executed May 3, and twelve more in the next nine days. Gradually public opinion began to change: the fool rebels became martyrs for Ireland, and when the next rising came, after the war, Britain could not brush it aside.
It says something about Irish politics that this song is allowed to be a slur on the memory of the Irishmen who fought for Britain in World War I. Unlike the Dublin rebels, the loyalist Irish killed no civilians -- certainly no Irish civilians! Their casualty rates during the war were higher (the Easter Rebellion saw 64 rebels killed and 12 executed, meaning the casualties were somewhere between 4% and 8%; roughly 11% of the soldiers in the British Army died during World Was I), and the wounds more frightful. And the loyalists spent years in trenches and mud, and died of gas and shrapnel and hanging on barbed wire rather than clean deaths by bullet. The British loyalists did not intrigue with the authoritarian regime of Wilhelm II. This is clearly the song of a man who had not been a soldier and had never been to Flanders.
Which just shows how hard it is to be objective. As an American, I can't see that it would have mattered whether Ireland was independent or the Irish still part of Great Britain, as long as they enjoyed the same rights as British citizens. (Which, admittedly, they never had.) They would probably have been better off economically, too.
The Irish however *do* see a difference. But Harte writes, "At this present time one hears the revisionists of Irish history express doubts as to whether the Easter Rising was really necessary or whether the men who fought and died might not have done so for the highest motives[;] this song tolerates no ambivalence but gives the full praise due to those men who gave their lives for our freedom." This of course does not change the fact that the song is unfair -- but it shows how important the Rising and related events are to Ireland.
(To give Harte his due, in the notes to the next song in his book, the un-traditional "When Margaret Was Eleven," he says, "There was a certain sadness about the soldiers of the 1914-1918 war[;] they never quite got the glory they felt they deserved for their exploits on behalf of the crown. Their glory was overshadowed by the action of the men who stayed at home and fought for the freedom of their own country.")
The two men mentioned in the song are, of course, Padraig Pearse, the organizer of the rebellion, and Eamon de Valera, a lesser leader who survived because he was an American citizen; he would eventually become the primary leader of the hard-line anti-English faction, helping lead Ireland to its Civil War but also guiding its destiny for many decades thereafter. For the stories of both men, see again the notes to "The Boys from County Cork."
Some versions also mention Cathal Brugha, who was one of the most extreme nationalists. Since the song was written in 1919, Canon O'Neill could hardly know that Brugha would eventually die in rebellion against Ireland's freely elected government -- but he did; see the notes to "The Death of Brugh."
According to Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 46, Canon O'Neill wrote this after attending the meeting of the first Irish Dail (parliament) and noting how many members were in British custody. Though it should be noted that this was a Sinn Fein assembly, with Unionist MPs instead going to London. It was a difficult time. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: RcTFDIII

Foggy Dew (IV), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a shepherd, asks Jenny if he can carry her milking pail. She says he should not pity her. He proposes, she agrees, "and straight to church we went" and are happily married.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(415))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1495d, "The Foggy Dew" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 165-166, "The Foggy Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1118
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(415), "The Foggy Dew" ("What shepherd was like me so blest"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth b.34(212)[only the first verse and 3 lines of second verse], "The Foggy Dew"
File: KiTu165

Foggy Foggy Banks, The

DESCRIPTION: "Out on the foggy foggy banks, We pitch and toss about, And blow our frozen fingers When we hear our skipper shout." The singer ran away from home and school to find work on a trawler. He declares there is no "plain sailing"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: sailor work hardtimes travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 86, "The Foggy Foggy Banks" (1 text, 1 reconstructed tune) (p. 48 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 296, "(no title)" (1 text)
NOTES [29 words]: Garland says that one version of this has a tune related to a 1950s pop song "The Blackboard of My Heart." recorded by Hank Thomas. But this isn't the tune Colquhoun used. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Colq048

Foggy Mountain Top

DESCRIPTION: Floating fragments: "If I was on some foggy mountain top/I'd sail away to the west...." "If I'd listened to what my mama said/I would not have been here today/Lying around this old jail cell/Just a-weeping my poor life away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: love prison floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
[Randolph 799, "If I Was On Some Foggy Mountain Top" -- deleted in the second printing]
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 365, "The Foggy Mountain Top" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 112, "The Rocky Mountain Top" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 42-43, "Foggy Mountain Top" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 66, "Foggy Mountain Top" (1 text)
DT, FGGYMTTP
Roud #11735
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "The Foggy Mountain Top" (Victor V-40058, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-4743, c. 1935)
Carter Sisters & Mother Maybelle, "Foggy Mountain Top" (Columbia 20920, 1952)
Monroe Bros., "On Some Foggy Mountain Top" (Montgomery Ward M-4749/Bluebird B-6607, 1936)
New Lost City Ramblers, "On Some Foggy Mountain Top" (on NLCREP1, NLCRCD1) (NLCR16)
Ola Belle & Bud Reed, "Foggy Mountain Top" (on Reeds01, ClassBanj [as Ola Belle Reed])
NOTES [43 words]: Some versions of this never-entirely-coherent song seem to have mixed with "The False Young Man, (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out)" to yield mixed forms such as "White Oak Mountain." It can be hard to tell, with shorter versions, which is which. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: CSW042

Foggy, Foggy Dew

See The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo) [Laws O3] (File: LO03)

Folk o' the Muckle Toon o' Rora, The

See Potterton (File: GdD3392)

Folkestone Murder, The

DESCRIPTION: (Switzerland John) asks Caroline to walk with him. Her mother tells her she should take her sister Maria along. He stabs both girls and cuts their names into the turf. The murderer is taken and sentenced to death; in the last verse he bids farewell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Gardiner ms.)
LONG DESCRIPTION: (Switzerland John) asks Caroline of Dover to walk with him to Shorncliffe Camp; she agrees, but her mother tells her it's not fit for them to walk alone, and that she should take her sister Maria along. They go, but before they reach Folkestone he stabs both girls to death despite their entreaties for mercy and cuts their names into the turf. Their parents grieve; the murderer is taken and sentenced to death; in the last verse he bids farewell, tells others to take warning, and hopes to meet Caroline in heaven
KEYWORDS: grief courting violence warning crime execution homicide punishment death gallows-confession family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
August 3, 1856 - Caroline and Maria Beck murdered in Folkestone
January 1, 1857 - Tedea (Dedea?) Redanies hanged for the crime
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 320, "The Folkestone Murder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 61, "Maria and Caroline" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 11, "Mary and Sweet Caroline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #897
NOTES [29 words]: Although the song is not properly a gallows-confession, the last verse is (it seems tacked on, and is similar to the warnings found at the end of many songs of this type). - PJS
File: K320

Folks on t'Other Side the Wave, The

DESCRIPTION: "The folks on t'other side the wave Have beef as well as you, sirs." The listener (clearly England) is reminded that the Americans are much like them, but will resist attacks on them -- and can hold off the English simply by running away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776
KEYWORDS: political warning rebellion
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 62-63, "The Folks on t'Other Side the Wave" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [111 words]: Published as a broadside in 1777, this piece was a highly accurate portrayal of the situation in the American Revolutionary War. Most of the colonists were actually loyal to Britain, but would fight if their rights were threatened. What is more, the colonists could win the war simply by not giving up.
This latter assessment was a good prediction of the way the war was fought. The British won the majority of the battles of the war -- but the fact that they were fighting thousands of miles from their bases meant that the Americans needed to win only ONE decisive battle. It took the colonials six years, but they finally did win such a battle -- at Yorktown. - RBW
File: SBoA063

Foller de Drinkin' Gou'd

See Follow the Drinking Gourd (File: Arn062)

Follom Brown-Red, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh it's of a noted brown-red cock in Follom he did walk." Tom Kelly takes his cock to Lurgan to fight. It wins. The owners and trainers are named.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
KEYWORDS: fight gambling moniker chickens
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 11, pp. 25-26,104,159-160, "The Follom Brown-Red" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2922
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cock-Fight" (theme)
cf. "The Kildallan Brown Red" (theme)
File: MoMa011

Follow Me (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Come, follow, follow, follow, follow, Follow, follow me. Whither shall I follow, follow, Follow, follow thee? To the greenwood, greenwood, greenwood; To the greenwood tree."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 298, "Follow Me" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 128; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 573)
Roud #1324
NOTES [142 words]: Wildridge notes that the two Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO texts are identical.
The current description is all of the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text. I have seen two texts that seem related:
-- Gomme 1.306 lists the following with a tune for the game "Kiss in the Ring": "Down by the greenwood, Down by the greenwood, Down by the greenwood tree, One can follow, one can follow, One can follow me. Where must I follow? where must I follow? Follow, follow me. Where must I follow? where must I follow? Follow, follow me."
-- There is a canon, for three voices, attributed to Dr. Hayes, and for which he "gained a prize medal" in 1765. It begins, "Come, follow me To the greenwood tree, and goes on to describe a stag hunt (source: Thomas Ludford Bellamy, Lyric Poetry of Glees, Madrigals, Catches, Rounds, Canons and Duets (London, 1840), p. 71). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT298

Follow Me (II)

DESCRIPTION: "It's by far the hardest thing I've ever done, To be so in love with you and so alone," so the singer asks the lover to "Follow me where I go." If they share their lives they can follow each other
AUTHOR: John Denver
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (recording, John Denver)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 550, "Follow Me" (notes only)
File: ACSF550F

Follow Me Down, to the Waters I'm Bound (Baptizing Hymn)

DESCRIPTION: ""Oh follow me down, to the waters I'm bound, Believing in Jesus, what I friend I have found. Singing haalelujah (x4)." "Christ Jesus by name from Galilee came, Be baptizd in Jordan and he was not ashamed." "Then John grew a man, baptizing began"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1950 (Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus river
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 18-19, "Baptizing Hymn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #31261
File: PoEll018

Follow Me Up to Carlow

DESCRIPTION: "Lift, Mac Cahir Oge, your face... Curse and swear, Lord Kildare! Feagh will do what Feagh will dare -- Now, FitzWilliam, have a care...." The singer hails the Irish rebels and their victory over FitzWilliam
AUTHOR: Words: P. J. McCall (1861-1919)
EARLIEST DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion battle bragging
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1569-1573 - First "Desmond Rebellion"
1579-1583 - Second "Desmond Rebellion"
1580 - Feagh MacHugh defeats Lord Grey of Wilton at Glen Malure
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 90-91, "Follow Me up to Carlow" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FLLWCRLO
NOTES [323 words]: The rebellions of the sixteenth century occurred at a time when English rule in Ireland was still very weak and incomplete, and began not as battles between Irish and English but as civil wars between Irish chieftains. The English, to preserve their power, often interfered with these quarrels.
An example was the conflict between the Earl of Ormond and the Earl of Desmond. Both were summoned to London, but Ormond was soon freed, while Desmond (Gerald Fitzgerald) and his cousin, James FitzMaurice Fitzgerald, spent time in English prisons.
The flashpoint came in 1569, when the Englishman Sir Peter Carew claimed certain of the holdings of Fitzgeralds and the Butlers in Carlow. The problem was made worse when, in 1570, the Pope excommunicated Elizabeth of England. FitzMaurice started a rebellion (quashed in 1573), though Desmond himself, crippled and irresolute, took no part.
Desmond spent some time in a sort of protective custody, but eventually escaped and was briefly frightened from his lethargy. He tried to create a strong position, and Elizabeth's new deputy, William FitzWilliam, did not at that time have the strength to oppose him.
FitzMaurice fled Ireland in 1575, having been set aside by his cousin Desmond. But he returned in 1579 with foreign aid (though only about 300 soldiers reached Ireland; the remaining 3000 men he had been promised had been frittered away before FitzMaurice set sail). FitzMaurice was soon killed, but the Europeans continued to meddle, and new forces landed. Desmond was finally forced into rebellion, and the English forced to send reinforcements, but the rebellion was put down by 1583.
The battle of Glen Malure was an extremely minor by-blow of the second rebellion, and led to nothing. It was, however, one of the few Irish triumphs of the campaign. The story is that the tune was composed on the spot; whether true or not, P. J. McCall added the words to commemorate the event. - RBW
File: PGa090

Follow the Drinking Gourd

DESCRIPTION: A guide to slaves fleeing to freedom. Various landmarks are described, and the listeners are reminded, "For the old man is a-waiting for to carry you to freedom." Above all, they are reminded to "follow the drinking gourd."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Texas Folklore Society)
KEYWORDS: slave freedom
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 227-228, "Foller de Drinkin' Gou'd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 55-56, "The Drinking Gourd" (1 text)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 278-280, "Follow the Drinking Gourd" (1 text, 1 tune, being essentially The Weavers version)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 62, "Follow the Drinkin' Gourd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 99-100, "The Drinking Gourd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 80-81, "Follow the Drinking Gourd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 310, "Follow the Drinking Gourd" (notes only)
DT, FOLGOURD
Roud #15532
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Follow the Drinking Gourd" (on PeteSeeger46)
NOTES [20 words]: The "Drinking Gourd" is, of course, the Big Dipper, pointing north to the Ohio River, New England, Canada, and freedom. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Arn062

Follow the Gleam

DESCRIPTION: "To the knights in the days of old, Keeping watch on the mountain height. Came a vision of Holy Grail, And a voice through... singing Follow, follow the gleam, banners unfurled o’er all the world." We should also follow the gleam of The King
AUTHOR: Helen Hill Miller and/or Sallie Hume Douglas (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (copyright, according to Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs; music copyright 1915)
KEYWORDS: religious campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 365, 457, "Follow the Gleam" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 74, "Follow the Gleam" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 107, "Follow the Gleam" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 55, "Follow the Gleam" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [1055 words]: Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs lists this as as having music by Sallie Hume Douglas, with no source for the words, but it is listed as copyright by the YWCA of the U. S. A., and it is called a "Silver Bay Prize Song/Bryn Mawr College." National-4HClubSongBook also lists only Sallie Hume Douglas as author -- but has a note that the "music [is] adapted from the Song, Garden of Paradise," copyrighted 1915. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs says it's by Helen Hill Miller. Presumably Miller wrote the words and Douglas the tune, but no one says that explicitly.
There are a number of problems with this song (even if you ignore the fact that the Holy Grail is a surely-false legend). First off, there was no reason to hunt the Grail outside Britain -- "There are no old folk traditions about the Holy Grail, though it is prominent in the French Arthurian literature from the late 12th century onwards, where it is usually, but not invariably, linked to the Last Supper and Crucifixion, the Eucharist, and Joseph of Arimathea. In English Arthurian romances it lies hidden in a mysterious castle somewhere in Britain.... Although the story suited medieval piety, Church writers never adopted it" (Simpson/Roud, p. 151).
"Mythologically [the Grail] is said to be the vessel from which Christ drank at the Last Supper and, occasionally, the cup used by the centurion Longinus to catch the blood of Christ on the cross" (Moorman/Moorman, p .62. This event is non-Biblical; so is Longinus, though of course there would have been Roman guards by the cross. John 19:34 says that one of these guards drove a spear into Jesus's side to be sure he was dead, but "The name of the soldier is not given in the text and arises only in the late sixth century (ca. 586) when it appears in a miniature or illumination in a Syriac manuscript." He was said in the "Gospel of Nicodemus" to be blind, and the blood of Christ cured his blindness, a story which also occurs in several mystery plays; the lance itself came to be part of the grail legend; Jeffrey, p. 461). Moorman/Moorman, pp. 62-63, says that the Grail was first mentioned in the Perceval of Chrétien de Troyes.
Chrétien claimed to have a source, a book given to him by Count Philip of Flanders (probably Philip I, Count of Flanders, 1143-1191), but nothing like this book has ever been found (Loomis, p. 60). To be sure, Chrétien might have used this source for only part of his story, and we can't guess which part -- the clumsy young Percival becoming a knight, the grail story, and a mostly-unrelated section about Gawain. The first or the last might be the parts Chrétien found elsewhere; they have closer analogs outside the French Arthurian tradition.
Interestingly, according to Loomis, p. 67, in the genuine part of Chétien's work (as opposed to the continuators) there was no stated connection between the Grail procession and the Passion; there is no indication, e.g., that the Grail was used to catch Jesus's blood.
According to Chrétien, the Grail procession looked like this: first came a youth carrying a lance by the middle, the lance dripping blood. Then two handsome young men carrying gold candelabras with many lighted candlesticks. "A damsel, who came with the youths and was fair and attractive and beautifully adorned, held in both hands a grail. Once that she had entered with this grail that she held, so great a radiance appeared that the candles lost their brilliance just as the stars do at the rising of the sun or moon." Another young woman followed with a carving dish. "The grail, which preceded ahead, was of pure refined gold. [One wonders how Jesus or Longinus could afford such a thing!] And this grail was set with many precious stones, the richest and most costly in sea or earth; those stones in the grail certainly surpassed all others" (Chrétien/Owen, pp. 416-417; the description starts with line 3190 of the French text).
In Malory's Le Morte Darthur, the final major Arthurian source and the best known to English speakers, the Grail story is in Book XIII, The Sangreal; a knight comes to Arthur's court and tells that, 32 years after the Passion, Joseph of Arimathea left Jerusalem and started the Grail on its adventures (for the text, see e.g. Malory/Shepherd, pp. 507-509).
The Welsh version of this, in the romance of "Peredur son of Efrawg/Efrawg/Evrawg," is dramatically different. Mabinogion/Gantz, p. 217, believes that the name "Peredur" is more primitive than Chrétien's "Percival," but the romance itself appears to be derivative, and not particularly close to Chrétien's version. The Grail itself does not exist -- the Grail procession is shockingly different:
"Suddenly [Peredur] could see two lads entering the hall, and from the hall they proceeded to a chamber, carrying a spear of huge proportions, with three streams of blood running from its socket to the floor. When everyone saw the lads coming in this way, they all began weeping and wailing so that it was not easy for anyone to endure it.... After a short silence, suddenly two maidens entered with a large salver between them, and a man's head on the salver, and much blood around the head" (Mabinogion/Davies, p. 73). The spear may be the Holy Lance, but the head on a salver replaces the Grail itself. This might be an instance of a mis-hearing (the Welsh word for "salver" is "dysgl"), but Loomis suggested (p. 63) that the severed head comes from the legend of Brän the Blessed (who, in another part of the Mabinogion, was wounded in a battle in Ireland and told the survivors of the raid to cut off his head and carry it back to Britain). In a strange way, then, this makes the grail into the head of the Fisher King! Confused as this may be, it is evidence that Wales did not know the Grail legend at this time, even though the earliest Arthurian tales are Welsh and even though there is every reason to think Chrétien preceded "Peredur."
Thus the grail is a source of light in the earliest tradition, but it is seen in a procession, not by itself, and the light does not reach tremendous distances (Lupack, p. 215); it's a cup, not a lighthouse! If the "gleam" had been so obvious, the Grail Quest would not have had knights searching all over Britain. In fact only a few knights ever saw it. So following the gleam was not likely to be an effective tactic. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: ACSF365F

Follow the Trail to the Open Air

DESCRIPTION: "Follow he trail to the open air, Alone with the hills and sky; A pack on your back but never a care, Letting the days slip by." The singer smells the pines, sees the fire's glow and the starlight, and should be "one with the hills and sky"
AUTHOR: Words: Agathe Deming (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 333, 463, "Follow the Trail" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 98, "Follow the Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 46, "Follow the Trail" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Carl E. Zander and Wes H. Klusman, _Camp Songs_ ("Popular Edition"), Songs 'N' Things, 1938, p. 46, "Follow the Trail" (1 text)
File: ACSF333F

Folly of Finery, The

DESCRIPTION: "Clean hands and clean faces and neatly combed hair ,And garments made decent and plain, Are better than all the fine things they/we (can) wear, That make us look vulgar and vain"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (A Selection of Hymns and Poetry for the Use of Infant Schools and Nurseries, Second Edition, Part II, #113)
KEYWORDS: clothes hair
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 108, "Clean hands and clean faces and neatly combed hair" (1 fragment)
Roud #25518
File: KSUC108E

Fond Affection, A

See Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection) (File: R755)

Fond du Lac Jail

See The Cryderville Jail (File: LxU090)

Fond of Chewing Gum

DESCRIPTION: The singer "fell in love with a pretty little girl" who was "fond of chewing gum." He describes their courting, always recalling the gum. When they are to be wed, she cannot say "I do" because her mouth was full of gum. Now he avoids gum-chewers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Pound)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage separation food humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph 368, "Fond of Chewing Gum" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 297-299, "Fond of Chewing Gum" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 368A)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 670, "Chewing Gum Song" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 87, pp. 138-139, "Chewing Gum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 158, "Chewing Gum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 239, "Chewing Gum" (1 text)
Roud #3714
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Chewing Gum" (Victor 21517, 1928; Montgomery Ward M-7019, 1936)
Richard Cox, "Chewing Chawin' Gum" (Champion S-166931933; Champion 45040, 1935; rec. 1932)
Lake Howard, "Chewing Chewing Gum" (Perfect 13128/Melotone M-13355/Oriole 8449, 1935; on CrowTold02)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Chewing Gum" (on NLCR10) (on NLCR12)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Railroader for Me (Soldier Boy for Me)" (floating verses)
NOTES [63 words]: The Carter Family version of this song includes a number of floating verses ("I wouldn't have a lawyer/Now here's the reason why/Every time he opens his mouth/He tells a great big lie"; "Mama don't 'low me to whistle/Papa don't 'low me to sing/They don't want me to marry/I'll marry just the same"). Their absence in the Randolph text implies that they are intrusions. - RBW, (PJS)
Last updated in version 4.3
File: R368

Fooba-Wooba John

See Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

Fool's Name, A

See Fools' Names (File: ZiZa078E)

Foolish and Young

DESCRIPTION: Foolish and young, the singer "courted for sport and married for fun." His wife nags and beats him. He won't cry if she dies and won't marry again. Women made fools of Samson, Solomon, Adam and Jacob. Beat her before you marry and she may be a good wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1832 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(670))
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage warning violence Bible humorous nonballad wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #77, p. 2, "Foolish and Young" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1299, "Foolish and Young" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #7197
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(670), "Foolish and Young" ("Ye sons of Mars, that fought at the wars"), J. Marshall (Newcastle), 1810-1831
NOTES [373 words]: As the song states, women repeatedly made a fool of Samson; first there was the Philistine girl from Timnah, whom he sought in marriage; he ended up killing off most of her clan (Judges 14:1-15:7). Then he hooked up with a prostitute in Gaza, and would have been trapped in the city if he hadn't broken down the gates (Judges 16:1-3). And then there was Delilah, who learned the secret of his strength and betrayed him (Judges 16:4-23).
Solomon "loved many foreign women" (1 Kings 11:1). He clearly married them for diplomatic reasons (after all, his harem was larger than any reasonable man would want or need -- 1 Kings 11:3 says 700 wives and 300 concubines!). But, naturally, the foreign wives were allowed to maintain their own religions, and according to 1 Kings 11:4, these wives "turned [Solomon's] heart after other gods." The author of Kings blames the breakup of the Davidic Empire on this idolatry (1 Kings 11:11) -- although Solomon's excessive taxes, useless building projects, and bloated but inefficient military, plus the King's own inattention to the needs of good government surely played a greater part.
Adam of course was induced by Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:1-13).
It's less clear how women made a fool of Jacob. He did end up with two wives, Leah and Rachel, and two concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah -- and those complicated domestic arrangements did produce some family rivalries (see especially Genesis 30). But Jacob didn't really bring that on himself; he wanted only Rachel, and the rest followed from trickery by his father-in-law Laban and rivalry between the sisters Leah and Rachel (see Genesis 29). From what we can tell, people just kept shoving girls into his bed -- and he didn't argue too hard.
It is ironic to note that one of the most extreme Biblical cases of making a mistake over a girl isn't mentioned: David's adultery with Bathsheba. This is told in 2 Samuel 11-12, but most of the rest of that book is devoted to working out the disastrous consequences -- and the whole problem of Solomon is a direct result, since Solomon (who was clearly a worse king than the Bible wants to admit) was the son of David and Bathsheba. Like father, like son.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD71299

Foolish Boy, The

See The Swapping Boy (File: E093)

Foolish Frog, The

See May Irwin's Frog Song (The Foolish Frog, Way Down Yonder) (File: Br3189)

Foolish Shepherd, The

See The Baffled Knight [Child 112] (File: C112)

Foolish Young Girl, The

See I Love You, Jamie (File: GrD51168)

Fools of '49, The

See The Fools of Forty-Nine (File: San107A)

Fools of Forty-Nine, The

DESCRIPTION: Crowds head for California and the gold fields. En route they suffer poverty, hunger, and disaster -- and few find gold. "Then they thought of what they had been told, When they started after gold: That they never, in this world, would make their pile."
AUTHOR: Words: John A. Stone (Old Put)
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Put's Original California Songster)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes gold mining
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 107, "(The Fools of '49)" (1 text found under "Sweet Betsy from Pike")
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 25, "The Fools of '49" (1 text, tune referenced)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 184-185, "The Fools of Forty-Nine" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FOOLS49
Roud #8058
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "That Is Even So" (plot)
cf. "Commence, You Darkies All" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
File: San107A

Fools' Names

DESCRIPTION: "A fool's name, A monkey, s face, Always seen in public places." Or, "Fool's names, like their faces, Always seen in public places."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: animal
FOUND IN: US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 78, "A Fool's Name" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 50, "Fools' Names" (1 text)
Roud #25358
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fool's Name
File: ZiZa078E

Foondry Lane

DESCRIPTION: ""There's a Juter and a Battener Sailing up the Tay, And a' the wives in Foondry Lane Are singing blithe the ay, There'll be pennies for the bairnies, A pint for Jock and Tam." The singer tells how they will celebrate
AUTHOR: Mary Brooksbank
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: ship money home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 19, "Foondry Lane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21590
File: Gath019

Foot and Mouth Disease, The

DESCRIPTION: An Englishman plunders a girl's father's land, leaving only the sheep he thinks have "foot and mouth" disease. If the singer marries her they can "save the herds and my father's life." The diseases "from England Were the cloven hoof and the dirty tongue"
AUTHOR: Joseph Plunkett (1887-1916) (per OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: marriage farming hardtimes England Ireland patriotic sheep father disease
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 8A, "The Foot and Mouth Disease" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3069
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Youghal Harbour" (tune)
NOTES [88 words]: O Lochlainn does not explicitly identify the Joseph Plunkett who wrote this, but it appears that it was the Irish revolutionary who was one of the leaders of the 1916 Rising. According to Ruth Dudley Edwards, The Seven: The Lives and Legacies of the Founding Fathers of the Irish Republic, Oneworld Books, 2016, p. 173, he was a poet, if not a very successful one, and obviously he had a very low opinion of English rule! And p. 186 says he was a fiddler, so it would be no surprise to find him setting his poems to music. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: OLoc008A

Foot of the Mountain Bow, The

See The Foot of the Mountain Brow (The Maid of the Mountain Brow) [Laws P7] (File: LP07)

Foot of the Mountain Brow, The (The Maid of the Mountain Brow) [Laws P7]

DESCRIPTION: Jimmy woos Polly with a promise to work hard. He offers her crops, horses, and servants. She says he spends too much time and money at the inn. He observes that the money is his and he will do with it as he will. He leaves her; she regrets her words
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.9(179))
KEYWORDS: courting money rejection
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws P7, "The Foot of the Mountain Brow (The Maid of the Mountain Brow)"
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 83-84, "The Maid of the Logan Bough" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 39, "The Foot of the Mountain Bow" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 27, "The Maid on the Mountain Brow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 74, "At the Foot of the Mountain Brow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 45, "Maid of the Mountain Brow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 256-259, "The Maid of the Mountain Brow (At the Foot of the Mountain Brow)" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 42, "The Maid of the Mountain Brow" (1 text)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 70-72,81, "The Maid of the Mountain Brow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 36, "The Maid of the Mountain Brow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H84+H688, p. 364, "The Maid of the Sweet Brown Knowe" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 19, "The Maid of the Sweet Brown Knowe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 85-86, "The Maid of the Sweet Brown Knowe" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 52, "The Maid of the Sweet Brown Knowe" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 494, BRNKNOWE
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 282-283, "The Maid of the Sweet Brown Knowe" (1 text)
Roud #562
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Maid of the Sweet Brown Knowe" (on IRClancyMakem01)
Ned Martin, "Maid of the Mountain Brow" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(179), "The Maid of the Sweet Brown Howe," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 c.8(236), 2806 c.8(294), "The Maid of Sweet Brown Howe"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Largy Line" (tune)
cf. "Roll Me From the Wall" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Largy Line (File: HHH781)
NOTES [19 words]: One of Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's texts is the final verse from Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 83-84.- BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LP07

Foot of Yonders Mountain, The

See Pretty Saro (File: R744)

Foot Traveler

DESCRIPTION: "On foot I gaily take my way, Tra la la la la la, O’er mountain bare and meadow gay, Tra... And he who is not of my mind Another traveling mate must find, He cannot walk with me, he cannot walk with me." The singer wants a partner who is happy to walk
AUTHOR: Music: Franz Abt (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 ("School Bells," according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 332, 497, "Foot Traveler" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 45, "The Foot Traveler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 22, "The Foot Traveler" (1 text)
File: ACSF332F

Football Crazy

DESCRIPTION: The singer has a (brother), (Paul), who is "Football crazy, he's football mad, The football it has taken away The little bit of sense he had." Cleaning his clothing is almost impossible. The teams have almost no equipment -- but they still play
AUTHOR: James Curran? (source: Mudcat.org thread)
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (MacColl-PersonalChoice)
KEYWORDS: sports clothes humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 60, "Fitba' crazy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6858
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Gaelic Football
File: McPCFiCr

Football Match, The

DESCRIPTION: Six "rippling lads" in hats and ribbons play football on Salisbury Plain. William sticks Jackson in the thigh with a penknife. William misses kicking the ball "and right through the goal he went." They win the prize.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: game sports
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 223, "The Football Match" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 104)
Roud #1291
NOTES [15 words]: It is not clear that only six were playing, or whether or not they were on the same team. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Wt223

Footboy, The

DESCRIPTION: A father learns his daughter loves a servant. He dismisses the servant, plants a ring on him, and has him arrested for robbery and hanged. The daughter climbs onto the gallows with him, stabs herself, and asks that they be buried in the same grave.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: love ring robbery execution death betrayal trick suicide servant
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 80, "The Footboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3580
RECORDINGS:
Nicholas Davis, "The Dartmouth Tragedy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Tom Findlay, "The Coach Boy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Acklin (The Squire's Young Daughter) [Laws M16]" (ring plot)
cf. "William Riley's Courtship" [Laws M9] (plot)
cf. "Henry Connors" [Laws M5] (plot)
cf. "Jock Scott" (plot)
NOTES [102 words]: [A] similar story line to "William Riley," "Henry Connors," and "Mary Acklin" except that in none of those songs is the young man executed or does the girl kill herself.
According to Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs, [this] song uses a metre and type of repetition more often found in older ballads. The fact that the servant is hanged suggests that it dates from an earlier periods than those in which the man is transported. The term "footboy" for a young manservant has a medieval flavour: it was in common use at the time of Shakespeare but had largely disappeared by the nineteenth century. - SL
Last updated in version 4.2
File: FowM080

Footprints in the Snow

DESCRIPTION: Singer goes to visit his girlfriend, but she's gone out for a walk. He follows her footprints in the snow, finds her, and proposes. She accepts, and he says he'll never "forget the day/When Mary (Lily) lost her way/I found her footprints in the snow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (sheet music -- probably not the original)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 251, "I Traced Her Little Footprints in the Snow" (1 text)
DT, FTPRINTS
Roud #2660
RECORDINGS:
Big Slim Aliff, "Footprints in the Snow" (Decca 5316, 1937; rec. 1936)
Buckley & Skidmore "Footprints in the Snow" (Continental 8030, n.d.)
Cliff Carlisle, "Footprints in the Snow" (Decca 5720, n.d.; Decca 46105, 1947; rec. 1939)
Dusty Ellison & his Saddle Dusters, "Footprints in the Snow" (4-Star 1155, n.d. but post-World War II)
Rambling Red Foley, "I Traced Her Little Footprints in the Snow" (Conqueror 8304, 1934)
Bogue Ford, "Footprints in the snow" (AFS 4209 B1, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Clint Howard et al, "Footprints in the Snow" (on Ashley02, WatsonAshley01)
Bradley Kincaid, "Footprints in the Snow" (Varsity 8038, 1939) (Majestic 6011, 1947)
Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys, "Footprints in the Snow" (Columbia 37151 1946; Columbia 20080, n.d.,; rec. 1945) (Decca 28416, 1952)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 2837, "Footprints in the Snow" ("Some lovers like the summer time, when they can stroll about"), unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 11(1660), Harding B 11(1661), "I Traced Her Little Footmarks in the Snow"
NOTES [346 words]: This has become a bluegrass standard, and I suspect it was composed by one of the "brother acts" of the 1930s, possibly the Monroe Bros.? - PJS
Touched up, perhaps. But it's older, as the sundry recordings show (and that's not a complete list -- Vernon Dalhart also recorded the piece). - RBW
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(1660) states "This song is the sole Copyright of Mr. Geo. Lewis....,29,Quay Street, Manchester.
Country Music Sources by Guthrie T Meade Jr with Dick Spottswood and Douglas S. Meade (Chapel Hill, 2002), p. 214 states "Harry Wright, w&m[words and music],1880s/Geo. Russell Jackson, wds, C.W.Bennett,m,1886; Ref: (1)WCS[Wehman's Collection of Songs(NYC:Henry J. Wehman,1884-94),42 issues](July, 1891);....."
Steve Roud, in a BALLAD-L note: "A copy of the sheet music obviously came up on Amazon at some point in the past.... in fact it's there twice, as 1876 and 1878 [for Harry Wright]." In fact it's there [link no longer active] three times: as "I traced her little footmarks in the snow. [Song, begins: 'Some lovers like'.]" in 1876, and as "Footmarks in the Snow ... for the Pianoforte" and as "I traced her little footmarks in the snow. [Song.]" in 1878.
Incidentally, the 1931 record by Bernice (Si) Coleman and the West Virginia Ramblers ("Footprints in the Snow" on West Virginia Hills Old Homestead OHCS-141) uses words much closer to the broadsides than those on the later records I have heard by Bill Monroe (and, consequently, by Flatt and Scruggs).- BS
As noted above, the sheet music link is dead, and I have not found another. Searching the American Memory site failed to turn up another copy of the sheet music. It did, however, give a link to an item in the Duke University collection called "Footprints ON the Snow" (currently found at http://tinyurl.com/tbdx-FootOnSnow). The words are by J. B. Murphy, music and piano arrangement by J. Henry Whittemore (who also published the piece), from 1866. It clearly is not the same song, but there are occasional similarities. I wonder if it didn't inspire Wright to produce his song. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: DTftprin

Footprints on the Dashboard

DESCRIPTION: A father asks if the singer was the one who did the pushin', and left footprints on the dashboard upside down. The singer replies it was he, and now he has trouble passing water, "so I guess we're even all around."
AUTHOR: unknown (music by Antonin Dvorak)
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (music published 1894)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous disease sex
FOUND IN: Australia US(MA,So,SW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 239-240, "Footprints on the Dashboard" (1 text, tune cited)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II, pp. 702-703, "Footprints on the Dashboard" (4 texts)
DT, HUMORESQ*
Roud #27847
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fire Ship" (plot) and references there
cf. "Humoresque" (tune)
NOTES [18 words]: This is sometimes incorporated bodily into "Humoresque." - EC (As see, e.g., the Digital Tradition version - RBW)
Last updated in version 5.0
File: EM239

For A' That and A' That (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Be gude to me as lang's I'm here, I'll maybe win away' yet, He's bonnie coming o'er the hills That will tak' me frae ye a' yet, For a' that and a' that, And thrice as muckle's a' that...." She describes her love, and hopes he will make her well-to-do
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 196, "For A' That and A' That" (1 text)
Roud #5536
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Man's A Man For A' That" (lyrics, stanza form)
NOTES [91 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads thinks this Burns's model for "A Man's a Man for A' That." Certainly the form of the verses, and the "For a' that and a' that" chorus in line five of each verse reveal kinship. In addition, the Burns song is reported to be based on an item "The Jolly Beggars." Plus, this is a rare piece; so it's possible that the relationship goes the other way -- i.e. this might be a rewrite of the Burns song designed to be less political. Or, rather, less *overtly* political, perhaps reminding listeners of the other version.... - RBW
File: Ord196

For A' That And A' That (II)

See A Man's A Man For A' That (File: FSWB297A)

For Baby (For Bobbie)

DESCRIPTION: "I'll walk in the rain by your side, I'll cling to the warmth of your (tiny) hand. I'll do anything to help you understand, I'll love you more than anybody can." The singer details all he will do to care for her, and how she changes (his) world
AUTHOR: John Denver (Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr.) (1943-1997)
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 ("The Peter, Paul and Mary Album")
KEYWORDS: love nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 234, 551, "For Baby (For Bobbie)" (notes only)
NOTES [70 words]: This was one of John Denver's earliest songs, written before he had adopted the name "John Denver." It was apparently written for one of his first girlfriends; after the split up, he repurposed it (e.g. changing the second line from "I'll cling to the warmth of your hand" to "I'll cling to the warmth of your tiny hand"). It's hard for me to believe this would make a good camp song, but there it is in Averill... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF234F

For Bales

See Johnny Fill Up the Bowl (In Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-One) (File: R227)

For Gawd's Sake Don't Send Me

See Send Out the Army and the Navy (File: BrPa057C)

For He'll Plough the Furrows Deep

DESCRIPTION: "For he'll plough the furrows deep And he'll ramble up and doon Wi' his tearin' scythin' order For to mow yer meadows down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1087, "For He'll Plough the Furrows Deep" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6775
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan6 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61087

For He's a Jolly Good Fellow

DESCRIPTION: "For he's a jolly good fellow (x3), Which nobody can deny." (Other verses, if any, come from the other versions of this song)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (tune dates to 1783 or earlier)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad floatingverses campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 250, "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" (1 text, with verses from all parts of the "Malbrouck" family)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 231-233, "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow -- (Malbrouk -- We Won't Go Home till Morning! -- The Bear Went over the Mountain)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 162, "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 122, 'For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 25, "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 146-151, "We'll All Go Down to Rowsers" (1 text, 1 tune, plus sheet music reprints of "Malbrouck" and "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow")
DT, JOLLGOOD*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Won't Go Home Until Morning" (tune) and references there
NOTES [14 words]: For the history of this tune, see the entry on "We Won't Go Home Until Morning." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB250

For Health and Strength

DESCRIPTION: A table grace. "For health and strength and daily bread We praise your/thy name, O Lord."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (GirlScouts-SingTogether)
KEYWORDS: religious food nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 442, "For Health and Strength" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether p. 30, "For Health and Strength" (1 text, 1 tune, plus French and Spanish translations)
SongsOfManyNations, "Round of Thanks" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 66) (12th edition, p. 57)
NOTES [22 words]: I doubt any ever sung this outside of a camp, but Averill cites it so many times (87) that I suppose its existence has to be noted. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF442F

For I Ain't Goin' T' Die No Mo'

See I Ain't Going To Die No More (File: Parp190)

For I Am a Maid that's Deep in Love

See The Maid in Sorrow (Short Jacket) [Laws N12] (File: LN12)

For I'm a Good Old Rebel

See The Good Old Rebel (The Song of the Rebel Soldier) (File: Wa193)

For I'm Nae Awa' to Bide Awa'

DESCRIPTION: The singer says he's not going to stay away. "Your laddie with the tartan plaid He'll come again to see you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting parting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #51, p. 2, ("For I'm nae awa' to bide awa'") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1853, "For I'm Nae Awa' to Bide Awa'" (1 fragment)
Roud #13959
NOTES [78 words]: Greig/Duncan8: "Cf. the similar verse given, perhaps mistakenly, as version E of [Greig/Duncan2] 257 'My Ain Kate'." Maybe so, but that verse has nothing of the lines quoted in the description.
Greig's informant: "My mother says she often heard the verse sung at the end of 'Mormond Braes,' but does not know whether it had any connection with that song or not." I think the verse does not fit as an ending -- even as a surprise happy ending -- to "Mormond Braes." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81853

For Me and My Gal

DESCRIPTION: "Ding dong... Do you hear the bells go ding dong... The bells are ringing For me and my gal, The birds are singing For me and my gal... The parson's waiting for me and my gal... And someday we'll build a little house For two or three or four or more"
AUTHOR: Words: Edgar Leslie and E. Ray Goetz / Music: George W. Meyer (source: Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: love marriage music home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, pp. 220-221, "(no title)" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 193, "The Bells Are Ringing for Me and My Gal" (notes only)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 233, "For Me and My Gal"
Roud #25594
NOTES [99 words]: This was the theme song of a 1942 movie starring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly; their recording was apparently a big hit. But it had already been a hit with multiple artists in 1917. Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 315, estimates that this was the third most popular song in America in 1917, peaking at #1 in May 1917 (#1 for the year being George M. Cohan's "Over There"); p. 465 says that it made it back to #6 in March 1943, presumably on the strength of the Garland/Kelly recording. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BrPa220C

For My Lawd

See For My Lord (File: RcFoMyLo)

For My Lord

DESCRIPTION: "I'm working on a building (x3), I'm working for my Lord, Just as soon as I finish up working on this building, Going home to Jesus, Get my reward." "I'm praying on a building ..., Just as soon as I finish up working on this building ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (USSeaIsland03)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Minnie Gracie Gadson, "For My Lawd" (on USSeaIsland03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Working On a Building" (some words and "working on a building" theme)
File: RcFoMyLo

For Our Lang Biding Here (A South Sea Song)

DESCRIPTION: "First when we came to London town, We dream'd of gowd in gowpings here," but as the South Sea Bubble burst, the singers grow increasingly desperate. Now "The lave will fare the war in truth, For our lang biding here."
AUTHOR: Allan Ramsay
EARLIEST DATE: 1724 (Tea Table Miscellany)
KEYWORDS: money hardtimes Scotland
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsey, _The Tea-Table Miscellany_, 11th edition, A. Millar (?), 1724 (available on Google Books), p. 31, "A South Sea Song" (1 text)
Allan Ramsay, George Chalmers, Lord Alexander Fraser Tytler Woodhouselee, _The poems of Allan Ramsay, Volume 2_, Alexander Gardner, 1877 (available on Google Books), pp. 192-193, "A South Sea Song" (1 text)
NOTES [4985 words]: The South Sea Bubble probably qualifies as the first great financial (as opposed to economic) meltdown.
The bubble was the direct fault of the government, and arose out of the extreme demands of the War of the Spanish Succession (which occupied almost the entire reign of Queen Anne, who ruled 1702-1714) -- plus, probably, fact that the budget machinery was still new; it was only during the reign of Charles I that Parliament had started modernizing the fiscal apparatus, and the process was by no means complete in the 1700s. In the Middle Ages, the monarch's response to debt was often to go broke, and take his bankers with him. Starting in the 1600s, there was an actual government department responsible for tracking debt and paying it when due, as opposed to it being paid when the monarch decided to pay it. But that still didn't mean that the government knew what war would cost, and it was only starting to learn what to expect to collect from various taxes (Miller, pp. 49-54).
According to Hatton, p. 248, in 1714 the British government had debts totaling 54 million pounds, as compared to 1 million pounds in 1688 when William III had taken the throne. What's more, the interest on most of the debt was 7% or higher. This meant that simply servicing the debt required some 3 million pounds per year -- at a time when the government's ordinary revenue totaled only 10 million pounds per year!
It was in 1711 that Robert Harley, first earl of Oxford, took charge of the Exchequer. He at once raised several million in loans to meet immediate needs (Biddle, p. 188). But his greater need was to find a long-term way of managing the debt. Biddle, p. 189, describes his expedient:
"In May of 1711 he proposed that a newly incorporated joint-stock company, invested with a monopoly of the South American trade, take over the unsecured £9,000,000. The government's creditors would become shareholders in the South Sea Company; in return the government would pay the Company annual interest and management fees until 1716, thus allowing a small dividend to be returned to the stockholders. Beyond this the Company's profits would come from its trading monopoly."
Similarly Marshall, pp. 122-123:
"When George I became king [in 1714] there were three great financial corporations in the City -- the Bank of England, the East India Company, and the South Sea Company.... Of these companies the youngest was the South Sea Company which had only received its charter in 1711.... In 1711, Harley needed allies if he was to carry through his peace negotiations with France, and the foundation of the South Sea Company was his answer to the support the Bank of England had given to his political opponents. By it, the holders of £9,000,000 of unfunded government debts were forced to exchange their securities for stock at par in the new company. Its commercial basis was to be monopoly rights of trade in the South Seas, to be wrung from Spain on the conclusion of peace. Though the offer was made more attractive by this provision its promoters were never genuinely interested in its commercial activities. The transaction of 1711 was essentially a conversion loan and the South Sea Company a financial corporation."
The government had arrangements to pay for some of its debt, but that nine million pounds of unsecured debt was just that: unsecured -- the term used was "floating" -- with no real payment mechanism (Balen, p. 30). This was the debt that was originally handed off to the South Sea Company. This was particularly sharp dealing, because the only way there could be South Sea trade was if the Spanish lifted their monopoly -- and, in 1711, the War of the Spanish Succession was still going on and there was no guarantee that it would be lifted. Indeed, when the peace treaty finally came, the monopoly was eased but not eliminated entirely (Balen, p. 34).
We can thus cite historical parallels to the creation of the South Sea Company; it was essentially a way for the government to write down its debts without admitting bankruptcy. The problem was not the idea, it was the enthusiastic way the shares were received. The general public did not realize that this "trading company" was essentially intended as a bank -- Harley, a Tory, couldn't get money from the Whig-dominated Bank of England or East India Company, so he created a Tory financial institution.
But the population saw it as a genuine corporation: "The newly created South Sea Company -- Harley's Tory rival to the Whig Bank of England -- was given what amounted to a license to print money, for the barbarous [South American] slave trade was believed to be immensely profitable" (Kishlansky, p. 334; Balen, p. 35, notes that the trade in fact was unprofitable due to high fees charged by the Spanish). Even so, to set up the scheme, Harley had to arrange for the creation of a half-dozen new peers to get it through the House of Lords (Balen, p. 33).
Joint stock companies were not new. The East India Company was itself an example of one. What was relatively new was stock trading. At this early stage, there wasn't even a stock exchange as such. Stock traders -- or "stock jobbers," as they were known at the time -- met in the coffeehouses of Exchange Alley in London, near the meeting of Cornhill and Lombard Streets (Balen, p. 4). And, for some reason, everyone wanted to get into the stock-trading game.
So strong was this urge that everyone felt the Company could raise additional capital on the open market -- and, with it, hand the government an additional three million pounds, as well as offering the government a low interest on the nine million debt (Marshall, p. 123). The stock sale proceeded accordingly.
The South Sea Company came into existence on September 10, 1711. Balen, p. 32, notes the ominous fact that nine of the thirty directors were political appointees -- and none of them had any experience in South Seas trading. Nor would they do much better in European trading (Balen, p. 35); it seems as if none of the directors had the slightest business sense. In fact, Balen, p. 40, notes that a number of them had experience in a corporation called the Sword Blade company, which despite its name engaged mostly in financial manipulation.
Adam Smith, in section V.i.e of The Wealth of Nations (Smith, pp. 744-745), has a fair amount to say about the South Sea Company: it "never had any forts or garrison to maintain, and therefore was entirely exempted from one great expense, to which other joint stock companies for foreign trade are subject. But they had an immense capital divided among an immense number of proprietors. It was naturally to be expected, therefore, that folly, negligence, and profusion should prevail in the whole management of their affairs. The knavery and extravagance of their stock-jobbing projects are sufficiently known.... Their mercantile projects were not much better conducted."
Harley had his investment gimmick, but it did very little to sustain his ministry. He was fired shortly before the death of Anne -- Balen, pp. 35-36, blames drink; Biddle, p. 273 (with much discussion on the preceding pages) thinks that he had wanted to go for some years but had not been granted release until his enemy Bolingbroke allowed it.
In 1715, the company did the government another favor, declining the interest due to it in return for the right to sell more shares on the open market. It did this again in 1719, converting government debt into stock shares (Balen, p. 40). This meant that it had many more shareholders than the Bank of England or the East India Company, but it had fewer assets, and many of those non-negotiable. It was already something of a hollow shell even before it began its real trade ventures!
When the War of the Spanish Succession ended, the Spanish did indeed give the British trade concessions starting in 1715 (and with promises at least through 1743), although not quite so generous as what had been hoped; "The gains of the slave trade, even when taking into account the semi-legal smuggling trade in British manufactured goods which sheltered under the umbrella of the 'annual ship' [that the British were allowed to send to Spanish lands], had not come up to highly pitched expectations. Yet hope sprang eternal where the South Seas were concerned" (Hatton, p. 249).
The key portions of the agreement are printed on pp. 288-298 of Symcox, who notes (p. 288) that Britain "could not supply enough slaves to meet its quota, and the privilege of limited trade with the Spanish colonies proved of small value." And there was a large duty on the slaves -- 32 and a third pieces of eight on each able-bodied man, according to Symcox, which Marshall, p. 177, calculates as £34,000 on the first 4,000 slaves.
The company had bigger problems than its obligations to its shareholders. A great deal of stock had been used, in effect, for bribes and to enrich the nobility, in no small part to get them to approve the deal (Balen, p. 76). Members of the cabinet received in excess of a hundred thousand pounds worth of stock, and the mistresses of George I got a cut measured in the tens of thousands (Hatton, p. 251). George I eventually became a director of the company, not because he was suited to the role but because it gave him another excuse to snub the son he so despised (Balen, p. 43). But this, of course, meant that the crown had its reputation on the line when disaster struck.
Still, the idea of a combination bank and trading company seemed to be a great success; France's Mississippi Company appeared to be playing a major role in pulling that country, economically ruined by the wars of Louis XIV, out of its depression (Balen, pp. 53-54). The price of scarce commodities fell dramatically (Balen, p. 60). Stock-jobbing was all the rage (Balen, p. 61); the Mississippi Company was letting investors make fortunes overnight.
It also produced a mess that the British could have learned from, because France definitely found itself in the grip of a bubble -- people wanted Mississippi Company stock not because the company produced anything but because it was a speculative investment. John Law, the British exile who had dreamed all this up, was forced into more and more extreme expedients to keep things going. Having already created paper money, he was now herding prisoners off to Louisiana after pushing them into on-the-spot marriages.
The Earl of Stair, one of George I's most important ministers, commented nastily of Law, who had converted to the Roman faith in order to pull off his scheme, "There can be no doubt of Law's catholicity since he has established the Inquisition after having first proved transubstantiation by changing paper into money" (Balen, p. 66).
This even as Britain was drowning in debt. George I in 1719 was desperately asking parliament for help, even though taxes were so high that it was clearly damaging the economy (Balen, p. 69).
Balen, p. 41, notes that by 1719 the South Sea company had a capital in excess of twelve million pounds, which he calls "financially absurd." Yet it was able to move into a fine building on Threadneedle Street, which came to be called "South Sea House." It was just down the street from the Bank of England.
Then things started to go bad. Lyon, p. 282, describes its situation, "The South Sea company was founded by Harley in 1711, ostensibly to exploit the trading rights which his government expected to gain from the Spanish Empire, but in reality to profit from the National Debt and to counter-balance the Whig-dominated Bank of England and East India Company. Initially, it was highly successful, and in the period 1717-1720, it negotiated with the government to take over £31 million of the National Debt, then in the hand of private investors who were being repaid by the government via high interest annuities."
Balen, pp. 72-73, notes that the 31 million pound figure is only an estimate; the government's finances were such a tangle that the debt could not even be calculated. But the agreement was to reckon it at 31 million pounds, and sell it off on that basis. Which meant that the South Seas Company had a theoretical capital larger than the Bank of England! (Balen, p. 74).
The result was strong opposition from the Bank -- and hence from its supporters in parliament. According to Balen, p. 79, "so sharp was the division between them that the central question -- whether it was actually a good idea to sell off the national debt in this way -- went unanswered."
The result was an absurd bidding war to see whether the Bank or the South Sea Company could take on more debt (Balen, pp. 80-81). This started a stock roller coaster all by itself (Balen, p. 82). But the South Sea Company had fewer restrictions on the stock it could sell, so it "won."
As Balen says on p. 74, "Logically, it was absurd to sell shares in a concern whose sole business consisted of servicing the national debt, but by making the debt the responsibility of the South Seas Company [Director John] Blunt was wiping the Treasury slate clean -- which was irresistible to the ruling classes -- while investors, lured by the rising share prices that he came to engineer, were drawn, moth-like, to the flames."
Marshall, p. 124, declares, "From this point the story of the Bubble becomes fantastic. The directors could only hope to make a profit and cover the large bribes which, in the form of fictitious holdings, had been given to prominent politicians and courtiers... by driving up the price of the shares. To do this Sir John Blunt, the most influential of the directors, contrived a series of pump priming operations." In other words, he created a Ponzi scheme -- according to Balen, p. 105, his whole plan was to ensure that the share price went up forever. A stock sale drove the price of the old shares to 325 pounds.
The directors didn't stop there. Stocks were sold in what amounted to installments. A commission was appointed to look into fraudulent stock sales. Balen, p. 106, thinks the leader was bribed -- he had a history of corrupt dealings. No matter; this fellow John Hungerford was given the appointment to investigate -- and announced that there were problems with stock-jobbing, but that the South Sea Company was clean. Legislation was passed limiting the ability to create new companies, but Blunt was allowed to continue his dealings.
Meanwhile, rumors were everywhere claiming significant prospects for the Company. There was no actual evidence for any of this -- but the stock kept rising anyway (Balen, p. 88). And Blunt produced leveraging trick after leveraging trick to put more shares on the market and earn money despite having no actual income (Balen, p. 89). This also let the company pay the kickbacks it had promised.
By mid-summer 1720, the bubble was exploding. In one week in June, the price went from 508 to 830! (Balen, pp. 106-107). Blunt had, in effect, created an alternate currency, and kept pumping out more by allowing people to buy on credit; naturally the price went through the roof. It became so over-inflated that the stock, originally valued at £100 a share, was selling for £1050 a share by mid-summer (Marshall, p. 125; Lyon, p. 282).
So well did this all seem to be working that Blunt was knighted (Balen, p. 107).
To be sure, the South Sea Company wasn't the only source of speculation. With stock jobbing seeming to offer endless profit, new companies were formed at the drop of a hat -- less to meet the demands of society than to put shares on the market; many of the companies were insurance firms (Balen, pp. 89-90), and many of these were surely under-capitalized badly. There were also quite a few companies founded to promote various inventions -- some of them good ideas, most of them silly (Balen, p. 97).
This was great news for Blunt -- the more the market rose, the fewer shares he would have to give to allocate to the debt and the more he could use to line his pockets (Balen, p. 99). As fiscal policy, it was ludicrous; as a Ponzi scheme, it was working very well indeed. When the South Sea company finally bought the national debt, it used a share price of £375 per share (Balen, p. 102). This of course meant that they had to use only a fraction of the number of shares investors might originally have anticipated -- something parliament could have prevented but didn't (Balen, p. 103).
By this time, some investors were starting to cash out -- including the members of the government. One of those doing so was the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Balen, p. 108). Some people -- Isaac Newton was one -- had made money. But Newton had gotten out early, having commented that he could predict the motions of the heavens but not the madness of people (Balen, pp. 86-87).
The King, unfortunately, was not one who cashed out (Hatton, pp. 251-252); in April 1720 he had made a show of depositing a hundred thousand pounds (although it appears that not all the money was actually deposited; Balen, p. 83), and when advised to take his money and run, he insisted on reinvesting most of his profits (Balen, pp. 109,112).
The South Sea Company by this time was a hollow shell, existing solely on the income from its stocks. Once again it offered up stock on easy terms, and induced many to subscribe (Balen, p. 111), including about half the members of parliament (Balen, p. 113). But the income from that was all being taken from Peter to pay Paul -- or, in many cases, to pay Peter. When the stock price reached £1100 a share, the theoretical value of the company was 300 million pounds -- or roughly ten times its one "asset," the national debt (Balen, p. 114). The shareholders owed the company some 60 million pounds to pay off their loans -- which may have been more than the entire amount of actual specie in the country (Balen, p. 116).
The problem actually started with other firms, in the aftermath of the government crackdown on joint stock companies. Share prices in insurance companies fell by more than three-quarters (Balen, p. 116). Suddenly, paper assets were just that: Paper. And the French boom had already collapsed, showing what could happen (Balen, pp. 119-131). Soon, it would be the South Sea Company's turn. Indeed, Blunt was pulling out his own money even as he prepared for a fourth round of stock offerings (Balen, p. 134).
In an attempt to postpone the inevitable, Blunt declared a particularly large dividend -- a clear attempt to bring in more investors to prop up his scheme (Balen, p. 135). He seems to have gone too far. Investors, realizing that such a high payout could not be sustainable, began to sell out.
By September 1, the stock was down to £770 (Balen, p. 135). At that point, the bubble burst. Dramatically. Lyon, p. 282, calls it a "freefall." By the third week of September, the stock was down to £300 (Hatton, p. 252). Indeed, Balen, p. 136, cites the Weekly Journal for the week of September 10 as quoting the price on Saturday as £370 -- and the price on the following Thursday as £180!
On September 19, the Company had to admit defeat and open talks with its rival the Bank of England (Balen, p. 138), which it had so outrageously flouted in the previous year. The Bank briefly agreed to take up shares at £400 each (Balen, p. 140) -- four times the initial price, but a third of the peak value. It was too late. The Sword Bank, which had been responsible for the initial venture, failed, and the market continued to fall. In any case, the Bank would back out after making only partial payments (Balen, pp. 161-162).
On September 29, the South Sea Company agreed to adjust the terms with shareholders, so that those who had purchased, on credit, at a thousand pounds a share would now owe only 400 pounds per share -- but, since this was still far more than the shares were worth, that helped very little (Balen, p. 154).
There was, predictably, a rush for gold and precious metals -- Britain and France had both, in effect, tried paper money and abandoned it -- and the result was an evaporation of credit and a severe economic downturn (Balen, p. 156). The Bank of England itself was for a time threatened (Balen, p. 161), partly because the South Seas shares it was supposed to redeem continued to fall and partly because of a run on its own assets.
The losses were immense. Justus Beck -- who, ironically, was a director of the Bank of England -- was said to have lost 374,000 pounds. The Duke of Chandos lost 300,000. The Duke of Portland also lost hundreds of thousands, and the Duke of Montrose was among the Scottish peers badly hurt (Balen, pp. 142-143). A number of banks failed, which of course worsened the downturn as people were laid off and building projects had to be halted (Balen, p. 143). Many treasures went up for sale as formerly-rich men tried to clear their debts; the bottom fell out of the market for luxuries such as jewelry and coaches (Balen, p. 144).
The situation was so bad that there weren't even enough executives to manage all the paper that was flying around as people tried to reckon things up; a number of the newly-poor seem to have tried to escape their troubles simply by hiding their various certificates (Balen, p. 145). A number of victims committed suicide -- including even Blunt's own nephew (Balen, p. 146).
In the aftermath, the government fell and Robert Walpole, who had warned against the business from the start, took control of the situation -- a control he would not relinquish for a generation.
There is dispute over whether Walpole made money out of the bubble. Marshall, p. 126, says he lost heavily (he had put money in when the Company offered especially good terms; Balen, p. 112). Balen, p. 134, says that he had wanted to buy more stock, but his banker wisely delayed the purchase. In any case, he managed to stay afloat, and his warnings gave him a good reputation (even though he had earlier made money off another royal influence-selling trick, of granting charters in return for cash; Balen, p. 70).
Walpole was not overly scrupulous; according to Balen, p. 163, he waited longer than he had to to start working on a rescue scheme in order to assure that he would gain and keep the power he wanted. Also, he wanted revenge for an earlier imprisonment (Balen, p. 165).
The Bank of England had by then backed off its earlier deal (Balen, p. 164). Walpole "persuaded the Bank of England and the East India Company each to take over £9 million of South Sea stock, bringing the freefall to an end, and worked out a scheme for compensating investors" (Lyon, p. 282). The South Seas investors did not receive cash, but they did get shares in stronger companies to go with their South Seas shares (Balen, pp. 164-165).
Parliament had not been summoned during the early part of the crisis; George I was out of the country -- and the government was teetering anyway (Balen, p. 165). When they finally came back, even though Walpole tried to keep things quiet (Balen, p. 168). Parliament got busy investigating -- a significant step toward Parliament becoming independent of the monarchy (Balen, p. 170).
Parliament refused even to pass the ordinary agenda items, such as the mutiny bill, until the matter was resolved. The arguments were so bitter that at one point there came a demand for a duel (Balen, p. 174). The Commons inquiry was so diligent that they worked fourteen hours a day, six days a week! (Balen, p. 176). The Lords also staged an inquiry, although this accomplished little except to muddy the waters of the Commons investigation.
According to Balen, p. 171, Robert Knight, the company cashier, was already rewriting the books to cover up how much corruption had been involved. But when Parliament came calling, he answered a few questions (Balen, p. 178) -- then fled the country rather than face more (Marshall, p. 128). He clearly had planned this, since he had moved money overseas and transferred other assets to family members, making it impossible to seize them (Balen, p. 179). And, while the British government officially wanted him back, George I made it unofficially clear that he was not to be extradited (Hatton, p. 255). This was also Walpole's desire (Balen, p. 189), and Knight in effect cooperated by avoiding countries with extradition treaties with Britain.
In the aftermath of Knight's flight, a number of company officials were placed under guard, not always fairly, and government officials began to be pushed out. Not too surprisingly, John Aislabie, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was the first to go (Balen, p. 181). Sir Charles Joye, the Deputy Governor of the company, decided to talk freely (Balen, p. 182). And Sir John Blunt, whose ideas were largely responsible for the Bubble, decided to put his cards on the table, first showing reluctance then offering to cut a deal. He ended up talking freely (Balen, p. 183).
The parliamentary audit showed more than a half a million pounds' worth of stock was missing and unaccounted for (Balen, p. 203). Presumably this had been used mostly for bribes. There were even places in the company books where stock assignments had simply been left blank -- and directors had signed off on them anyway (Balen, p. 206).
Balen, p. 171, claims that Walpole authorized a major cover-up to hide the corruption. It didn't work; Blunt named too many names, and pointed out that there had been about a million pounds of bribes paid (Balen, p. 183). This had the ironic effect of helping to protect Blunt, because he had given his testimony mostly secretly, allowing him to protest against what amounted to double jeopardy rather than offer open testimony before the Lords (Balen, p. 184).
Knight was eventually captured, by a low-level diplomat who didn't understand what the government wanted (Balen, p. 190). But Austria, which had him in custody, moved slowly (Balen, pp. 192-193). Supposedly they even moved the prisoner and kept up a subterfuge that he was still in his old cell! (Balen, p. 196). The government had to covertly but explicitly beg Austria to set him free (Balen, p. 197), and he was eventually dropped in Luxembourg, with the soldiers who had "allowed" him to "escape" being quietly reassigned and promoted (Balen, p. 198).
Knight was forced to stay in exile for decades, until Walpole fell, then finally was allowed to purchase a pardon (for £10,000!) from George II (Balen, p. 224). Blunt spent the last dozen years of his life trying to regain favor, but when he died in 1733, he was still regarded with contempt (Balen, p. 225).
The chaos was so great that there was fear of a new Jacobite invasion (Balen, p. 201). And, of course, the national debt, which the Company was supposed to have taken over, was back (Balen, p. 202), now estimated at 14 million pounds.
Several high officials were put on trial by parliament in proceedings so poisonous that they amounted to attempts to attaint rather than convict them. But, somehow, Walpole managed to work things out so that Treasury Secretary Stanhope was acquitted 180-177 (Balen, pp. 207-209). Because *someone* had to be sacrificed, John Aislabie, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was unanimously found guilty of corruption and expelled from the House of Commons (Balen, p. 209, who however notes that the evidence against Aislabie was relatively weak).
Several officials of the bank also were punished (Balen, p. 210). More interesting was the case of the Earl of Sunderland, who was Walpole's rival for power. Balen suggests that Walpole needed his support for the government but wanted him knocked down a notch so that he could not be a rival. Sunderland had to give up his ministry but stayed in parliament (Balen, p. 212).
When attention turned to postmaster general Craggs, he committed suicide rather than face the heat (Balen, p. 212; Marshall, p. 128). Walpole, as the only man still standing, naturally ended up in charge of the government -- which he promptly filled with his friends and cronies.
The senior officials of the company were put under the microscope; their properties were examined in detail and most were forced into heavy losses to pay back defrauded investors (Balen, p. 217). The extent to which they were punished varied; most were left with something. But the losses could be great; Blunt was left with only £5,000 out of the £185,000 he had before (Balen, pp. 219-220).
Walpole took relatively mild revenge on those who had invested in the bubble, trying to assure that everyone had at least some property left (Balen, p. 220); his goal seems to have been to maintain the strength and stability of the government (Marshall, p. 129). The government gave up its claim to 7.5 million pounds from the South Seas Company (Balen, p. 221), and the company was made to write off about 11 million pounds owed to it by subscribers. He also let a number of investors cap their payments in return for giving up their shares. Balen estimates that, as a result of these moves, the average investor lost half of his investment.
Walpole also suppressed the public report of the parliamentary committees (Balen, p. 223), which would doubtless have reopened the wounds and led to more conflict.
Walpole eventually managed to stabilize South Sea stock, which in August 1721 rose back to £400 per share (Hatton, p. 256). It is ironic to note that the company went into whaling in the Arctic (Balen, p. 225). This let it survive for more than a century, although it never again would shine so brightly.
Balen, p. 142, reports that the Bubble helped inspire Swift's Gulliver's Travels; note that one of the destinations in that book is the South Seas.
According to Balen, p. 232, the Scots were minimally involved in the South Sea Bubble. It is perhaps rather a surprise to see a Scottish song about it. Perhaps it is being conflated with the Darien Scheme, which had happened a few years earlier and had been an even worse disaster. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: RcFrOurL

For Seven Long Years I've Been Married

DESCRIPTION: "For seven long years I've been married, I wish I had lived an old maid... My husband won't work at his trade." She complains about how hard her life is; her husband has broken his promises and wasted her wealth on drink
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: husband wife drink poverty hardtimes marriage warning technology
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 44, "Seven Long Years" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 29, "Seven Long Years I've Been Married" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 29, "Seven Long Years I've Been Married" (3 tunes plus excerpts of text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 100, pp. 153-154, "Seven Long Years I've Been Married" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 53, "Twenty Long Years Since I Married" (1 short text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 37-38, "Beautiful Light O'er the Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 190-191, "Seven Long Years" (1 text, mostly "For Seven Long Years I've Been Married" but with two verses of "The Prisoner's Song (I)" or one of its various relatives)
ST RcFSLYBM (Full)
Roud #724
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "For Seven Long Years I've Been Married" (Victor 21069, 1927; on KHarrell02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Single Girl, Married Girl"
cf. "Sorry the Day I Was Married"
cf. "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again" (theme)
cf. "I Wish I Were Single Again (II - Female)" (theme)
cf. "Do You Love an Apple?" (theme, floating lyrics)
cf. "When I Was Young (II)" (theme)
NOTES [117 words]: Kelly Harrell's version of this song appears to be modernized (it mentions automobiles and their failings), and the whole thing may be an update of one or another of the songs in the cross-references -- but it doesn't follow the standard pattern of any that I recognize, so I am forced to file it separately.
The notes in Brown say that this piece is found in Randolph's Ozark Folksongs, II 417. It's not in the second edition, however. It is true that a song on that page has been deleted -- but the deleted song is "Beautiful Brown Eyes."
Some versions of this (Gardner and Chickering's, Bush's) appear to have picked up a bit of the hymn "Beautiful Light O'er the Sea," but this is not universal. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: RcFSLYBM

For Six Days Do All That Thou Art Able

See Six Days Shalt Thou Labor (File: Br3228)

For Sixteen Months I Courted Her

See My Gentle Colleen Bawn (File: OLcM024)

For the Beauty of the Earth

DESCRIPTION: "For the beauty of the earth ...of each hour ... the joy of ear and eye ... of human love ... thy church ... thy self ... Lord of all to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise"
AUTHOR: Words: Folliott S. Pierpont (1835-1917), Music: Conrad Kocher, "abridged" by William Henry Monk (source: McKim; it has also been sung to a Bach chorale)
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Orby Shipley, _Lyra Eucharistica_, second edition, according to McKim)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious beauty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
GarrityBlake-FishFactory, p. 68, ("For the joy of ear and eye") (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 331, "For the Beauty of the Earth" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, pp. 150-151, "For the Beauty of the Earth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, pp. 41-42, "For the Beauty of the Earth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 105, "For the Beauty of the Earth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 55, "For the Beauty of the Earth" (1 text)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 50, "For the Beauty of the Earth" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "God Who Touches Earth with Beauty" (theme)
NOTES [150 words]: GarrityBlake-FishFactory, p. 68: "hymn sung at Reedville's 'Blessing of the [menhaden] Fleet'". - BS
According to McKim, Folliott S. Pierpont was born at Bath, England and earned a degree from Queen's College, Cambridge. He taught for a few years, then inherited enough money to travel and write. This is his best-known piece, written as a communion hymn. When it was published in 1864, it was called "The Sacrifice of Praise," which was the text used in the final line: "Christ, our God, to thee we raise This our sacrifice of praise." Pierpont wrote it to enliven otherwise joyless worship services.
Rudin, p. 58, says t was written for "Flower Services" as well as communion.
Rudin, p. 59, says the common tune for this, "Dix," predates the text; it gained its name because it was used for William Dix's "As With Gladness Men of Old," but had been written in 1838 by Conrad Kocher (1786-1872) - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: GaBl068

For the Day Is A-Breakin' In My Soul

See Bright Morning Stars (For the Day Is A-Breakin' In My Soul) (File: Shel089)

For the Dear Old Flag I Die!

DESCRIPTION: "For the dear old flag I die, said the wounded drummer boy, Mother, press your lips to mine, O, they bring me peace and joy, 'Tis the last time on earth." After that maudlin opening, the boy tells his mother not to grieve because he died in a good cause.
AUTHOR: Words; George Cooper / Music: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar mother death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 1-3, 1863 - Battle of Gettysburg
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Saunders/Root-MusicOfStephenCFoster-Vol2, pp. 321-324+449, "For the Dear Old Flag I Die!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 27-29, "For the Dear Old Flag I Die" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [375 words]: The subtitle on this piece is "The last words of a brave little drummer boy who was fatally wounded at the battle of Gettysburg." This (like a lot of the Cooper/Foster collaborations, which consisted of Cooper scribbling out some words and Foster writing out a tune without even playing it on piano or guitar) was very fast work; the Battle of Gettysburg took place in early July 1863, and although we don't know just when the sheet music was published, Saunders/Root report that the song was advertised on October 5, 1863.
There is no sign that this ever went into tradition, and thankfully so. If you want a decent drummer boy song, try Will S. Hays's "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh." Frankly, I suspect that that song, not a report from Gettysburg, inspired Cooper to write this lyric.
Although it's interesting to note that Cooper himself just missed the Battle of Gettysburg; according to Milligan, p. 105, he was a member of the 22nd New York regiment, a unit raised in 1861 (although Cooper, according to Milligan, did not join until 1862) and mustered out upon expiration of its two year term of service on June 19, 1863 (NYReport, volume 2, p. 317) -- just two weeks before Gettysburg. Cooper was very lucky to get out when he did; the 22nd New York had been part of the union First Corps, which was slaughtered on the first day at Gettysburg, being hit so hard that the corps was organized out of existence the next year.
Cooper certainly saw men killed in battle, though; in the course of its career, the 22nd had 102 men die -- 73 in combat and 29 of illness (Fox, p. 477). According to Fox, p. 31, at Second Bull Run, the 22nd lost 46 men killed out of 379 engaged; that included nine of 24 officers present plus ten others wounded (Fox, p. 39), which was the highest rate of officer losses for a single regiment in the entire war. (It perhaps didn't help that the regiment's surgeon was dismissed from the army on November 24, 1862, the only officer of the regiment to suffer that fate; NYReport, volume 2, pp. 317-319). The regiment had a good reputation, and was known as part of Hatch's "Iron Brigade" until John Gibbon's command, through its extraordinary conduct, earned the name "Iron Brigade" for the rest of the war (Fox, p. 117). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: SCWF027

For the Fish We Must Prepare

DESCRIPTION: Summer is near. "For the fish we must prepare." Fix traps, trawls, lines, clothes, yoke goats and fix fences so goats don't eat the catch, spay hens, catch and freeze bait, get government seed for the garden.
AUTHOR: Chris Cobb
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: fishing nonballad work gardening animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 130-131, "For the Fish We Must Prepare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9963
File: Pea130

For the Fourth of July

See The Good Old Yankee Doodle (For the Fourth of July) (File: ChMS185)

For the Orange and Blue

DESCRIPTION: "I was into a cat with laquer And I didna min on you Or I never wad forsake you For the orange and blue ... She's changed the green and yellow For the orange and blue"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #72, p. 2, ("For the orange and blue") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1838, "For the Orange and Blue" (1 fragment)
Roud #13607
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Stone and Lime" ("change the green and yellow for the orange and blue") and references there
File: GrD81838

For the Victory at Agincourt

See The Agincourt Carol (File: MEL51)

For the Walk So Neat, and the Dress So Gay

See The Gallant Soldier (Mary/Peggy and the Soldier) (File: HHH782)

For Want of a Nail

DESCRIPTION: "For want of a nail the shoe was lost, For want of a shoe the horse was lost, For want of a horse the rider was lost, For want of a rider the battle was lost, For want of a battle the kingdom was lost, And all for the want of a horseshoe nail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1640 (first three lines in Herbert's Outlandish Proverbs, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: clothes horse battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 370, "For Want of a Nail" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #786, p. 291, "(For want of a nail the shoe was lost)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 36, "For Want of a Nail" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 169, "For Want of a Nail" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 157, "For Want of a Nail" (1 text)
Roud #19527
NOTES [105 words]: The improbable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp. 79-82, claims this is about Henry VIII, Wolsey, and the Reformation. Of course, she also claims Henry VIII was "daringly capable," rather than a bloody-minded narcissist, so that will tell you how seriously to take that idea.
With tongue more firmly in cheek, but also with more grounding in reality, Leonard Smith, Chaos: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 2, points to this as one of the earliest examples of chaos theory: a small cause having large but highly unpredictable effects. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: OO2370

For We Know the Lord of Glory

See Lord, a Little Band, and Lowly (File: KSUC108C)

For What We Are About to Eat

DESCRIPTION: "For what we are about to eat, We bless and thank the British fleet."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (letter from Stan Hugill cited in Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: food navy
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 87, "For what we are about to eat" (1 text)
Roud #25379
File: KSUC087A

For Your Diversion I'll Sing a Sang

DESCRIPTION: "For your diversion I'll sing a sang, For my diversion it'll no be lang For your diversion my song's begun And for my diversion my song is done"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1651, "For Your Diversion I'll Sing a Sang" (1 text)
Roud #13055
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81651

Forbidden Wedding, The

See Those Wedding Bells Shall Not Ring Out! (File: R822)

Ford

DESCRIPTION: "I have a F-O-R-D-, Ford, Made out of C-A-R-D-board. And I will T-A-K-E-, take you For a R-I-D-E, ride, Into the P-A-R-K, park...." Eventually they will "K-I-S-S-, kiss... All the T-I-M-E, time."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
KEYWORDS: playparty wordplay courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 104-105, "Ford" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16806
File: List104

Foreign Children

DESCRIPTION: "Little Indian, Sioux, or Crow, Little frosty Eskimo, Little Turk or Japanee, Oh! don't you wish that you were me?" The singer describes "normal" life and thinks those others would be happier to live his life
AUTHOR: Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (A Child's Garden of Verses)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) food home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 176, "Little Indian, Sioux, or Crow" (1 fragment)
Roud #25467
NOTES [56 words]: It probably goes without saying, but the premise of this song is wrong; those foreign children were just as used to their ways as we are to ours. E.g. the Inuit, when exposed to British food, preferred to continue eating the blubber that the English so despised. And those foreigners didn't call themselves Sioux or Eskimo, either. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC176A

Foreign Lander

DESCRIPTION: "I've been a foreign lander full seven long years and more...." The singer has "conquered all my enemies," but is defeated by his love's beauty. He offers illustrations of how faithful he is, and would give anything to marry her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation travel soldier
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 64-66, "[I've Been a Foreign Lander]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5711
RECORDINGS:
Martha Hall, "Foreign Lander" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
NOTES [54 words]: The Ritchie versions of this song mention a "Queen Ellen." England never had a "Queen Ellen"; in fact, I know of no Queen Ellen of any nation.
England did, however, have three Queens Eleanor: Eleanor of Aquitaine (wife of Henry II), Eleanor of Provence (wife of Henry III), and Eleanor of Castile (first wife of Edward I). - RBW
File: JRSF064

Foreman, Well Known Jerry Ryan, The

See Jerry Ryan (File: Doyl3068)

Forest Was Covered In Bushes, The

See The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass) (File: K152)

Forester Song, The

DESCRIPTION: Newfoundland lumbermen are called "to cross the briny ocean to crush the German foe." They come from all over the Avalon Peninsula "on a liner bound for England" with "a sharp lookout for German ships." Their six month tour is to cut firs in Scotland
AUTHOR: "composed by James and Pat Carew," according to the song
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: request war return travel lumbering sea ship
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18210
RECORDINGS:
Madonna Walsh, "The Forester Song" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcTForSo

Forester, The

See The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter [Child 112] (File: C110)

Forfar Sodger, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer grows up in Forfar, where he is rather a cut-up. After many adventures, he joins the army. He loses a leg in the Peninsular War, but it does not bother him; "Snug in Forfar now I sit, And thrive upon a pension."
AUTHOR: David Shaw
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (Reid); author Shaw died 1856
KEYWORDS: soldier injury money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 163-166, "The Farfar Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune); cf. pp. 166-168, "The Perthshire Pensioner" (1 text, a Crimean War item adapted from the above and probably not a folk song in its own right)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #74, pp. 1-2, "The Forfar Sodger" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan1 69, "The Forfar Sodger" (15 texts, 13 tunes)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 162-164, "The Forfar Sodger" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FORFARSL*
ADDITIONAL: Alan Reid, _The Bards of Angus and the Mearns: An Anthology of the Counties_, J. and R. Parlaine, 1897, p. 407, "The Forfar Pensioner" (1 text)
Roud #2857
SAME TUNE:
The Perthshire Pensioner (Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 166-168)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Forfar Soldier
The Forfarshire Sodger
The Sodger
In Forfar I Was Born and Bred
NOTES [171 words]: It will be obvious that the author of this song did not in fact have to live off the sort of pension paid by the British government in the early nineteenth century....
Reid gives a few brief reminiscences of Shaw, who was a weaver who had almost no edication. Among other things, the book reports that he was born c. 1786, died in 1856, and published two collections of songs. He is said to have had at least two daughters; no sons are mentioned. (Thanks to Jim Dixon for pointing this out to me.)
At least some versions of the song mention the singer being taught the "rule of three." This is a statement about proportions -- in effect, "if a is to b as c is to d, what is d?" (an equation in three known and one unknown term, hence the name). In modern fractional notation, we would say that a/b=c/d, and that the rule tells us that d=bc/a. A trivial calculation today, but it let minimally educated people calculate such things as the price of a fraction of a pound of an item when the price for a whole pound was known. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: FVS163

Forget the East

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, ome en ride the Western range along with blue en me, Forget your cares and worries -- jest play you're young en free." Those who come see many beautiful places and historic sites. "Forget set rules and schedules with a good horse between your knees"
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 67-68, "Forget the East" (1 text)
File: ThLo067

Forget Thee No!

DESCRIPTION: "Forget thee -- no! how could I ever? Forget the one my heart admires? No by my soul I'll swear I'll never Forget thee until life expires"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1835, "Forget Thee No!" (1 short text)
Roud #13602
NOTES [20 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text.
Greig/Duncan8: apparently a verse for a valentine or album. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1835

Forget You I Never May

DESCRIPTION: "Fare thee well, for once I loved you Even more than tongue can tell, Little did I think you'd leave me, Now I bid you all farewell." The singer tells how (s)he loved him, asks why he is unkind, and ends, "I'll forgive you, But forget you I never may."
AUTHOR: Ned Straight? (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (so Burnett's Pacific Pearl Songster, according to Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal farewell
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 737, "Forget You I Never May" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 154, "You Are False, But I'll Forgive You" (3 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 154, "You Are False, But I'll Forgive You" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 51, "You Are False But I Forgive You" (1 text plus an excerpt from a songster version, 1 tune)
Roud #460
RECORDINGS:
Buell Kazee, "You Are False But I'll Forgive you" (Brunswick 217, 1928/Supertone S-2047, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Can Forgive But Not Forget (Sweetheart, Farewell)"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
You Were False
Fare Thee Well
NOTES [43 words]: Roud links this with a large number of other lost-but-not-forgotten love songs. In most cases, however, the link seems more thematic than textual. - RBW
To me this reeks of a Victorian parlor-song origin. I expect the sheet music to turn up any day now. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: R737

Forglen (Forglen You Know, Strichen's Plantins)

DESCRIPTION: The singer comes across young lovers who are preparing to part. The man wishes he did not have to go, but he has no choice. He praises her in many lyric ways, some not obviously complimentary: "Your love is like the moon That wanders up and down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: love separation parting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #158, p. 1, "Brigtown's Plantins"; #2, pp. 1-2, "Strichen's Plantins"; #4, p. 3, "Strichen's Plantins"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 64-66, "In Strichen You Know" (3 texts plus 2 fragments, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan8 1547, "Strichen's Plantins" (30 texts, 19 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 79-80, "Forglen You Know" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 228-229, "As One Day I Chanc'd to Rove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6286
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Curragh of Kildare" (lyrics, form)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Forglen's Plantins
Forglen's Woods
In Strichen You Know
In Brigtown You Know
NOTES [113 words]: Versions of this take whole stanzas from the "Curragh of Kildare/Winter It Is Past" family; whether there is dependence I don't know.
The reference to David and his family being banished probably refers to 1 Samuel 22:3-4; although David himself had fled Saul three chapters earlier, this is the first reference to his family going into exile (in Moab).
The reference to Lazarus appears to be the Lazarus of Luke (16:19-31), not the Lazarus of John, even though Luke's Lazarus is simply the subject of a parable, not a real person; this is not the only instance in traditional song of this Lazarus being treated as real. - RBW
The second text in Greig #158 is Christie's text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord079

Forgotten Wife, The (The Black Bull of Norroway; The Red Bull of Norroway; The Brown Bear of Norway)

DESCRIPTION: A woman tries to wake the lover who has forgotten her. She sings about her ordeals (following him, acting as servant, washing bloody shirts, climbing a glassy hill) or that they were married and had three babies. She names him and says "turn to me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (Campbell); mentioned in 1801 (J. Leyden, see notes)
KEYWORDS: love marriage request parting reunion travel shape-changing magic ordeal animal lover wife royalty
FOUND IN: US(SE) Ireland Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber,Bord,West)) West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Ada Wilson Trowbridge, "Negro Customs and Folk-Stories of Jamaica" Vol. 9, No. 35 (Oct-Dec 1896), pp. 284-285, "The Forgotten Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Isabel Gordon Carter, "Mountain White Folk-Lore: Tales from the Southern Blue Ridge," Vol. XXXVIII, No. 149 (Jul-Sep 1925), #9 pp. 357-359 "Whiteberry Whittington" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Martha W Beckwith, "The English Ballad in Jamaica: a Note Upon the Origin of the Ballad Form" in _Publications of the Modern Language Association_ [PMLA], Vol. XXXIXI, No. 2 (Jun 1924 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 464, "Bull-of-All-the-Land" (1 fragment)
Martha Warren Beckwith and Helen Roberts, Jamaica Anansi Stories (New York: American Folklore Society, 1924 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #101, pp. 130-131, 280-281, "Bull-of-all-the-Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Patrick Kennedy, Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts (London: Macmillan and Co, 1866 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 57-66, "The Brown Bear of Norway" (1 text)
Andrew Lang, The Blue Fairy Book (London: Longmans Green and Co, 1889 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 380-384, "The Black Bull of Norroway" (1 text) [From Chambers]
Andrew Lang, The Lilac Fairy Book (London: Longmans Green and Co, 1910 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 118-131, "The Brown Bear of Norway" (1 text) [according to Lang, from "West Highland Tales"; actually from Kennedy with changes for punctuation and grammar]
Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales (London: David Nutt, 1894 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 20-25,222, "The Black Bull of Norroway" (1 text) [From Chambers, "much Anglisized in language, but otherwise unaltered"]
J.F. Campbell, Popular Tales of the West Highlands (Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1862), Vol. 4, pp. 292-296, "An t urisgeal aig na righre, Righ na thuirabhinn agus righ nan Ailp" (1 text)
Robert Chambers, Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers, 1847) 3rd edition, pp. 244-247, "The Black Bull of Norroway"; pp. 248-250, "The Red Bull of Norroway" (2 texts)
Leland L Duncan, "Folk-Lore Gleanings from County Leitrim" in Folklore, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Jun 1893 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 190-194, "The Glass Mountain" (1 text)
Mabel Peacock, "The Glass Mountain: A Note on Folk-Lore Gleanings from County Leitrim" in Folklore, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Sep 1893 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 322-327 (1 text)
Stanley Robertson, "The Black Magic Bull," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1982.079,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/58047?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023
Stanley Robertson, "The Red Bull o Norway". School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1982.079,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/58051?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023
Capt. John Campbell Duder Harvey Webb Macpherson, "A girl finds her fortune with a man enchanted as a black bull." School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1962.034,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/22799?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023; "Fragment of rhyme from the story of the black bull. School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1962.033,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/17045?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023
Norah & Wiliam Montgomerie, _The Well at the World's End: Folk Tales of Scotland_, 1956 (references are to the 1985 Canongate edition), "The Black Bull of Norroway" (1 text, said simply to be from the "Lowlands" but clearly anglicized; probably derived from one of the above sources)
NOTES [1801 words]: Re, earliest date: Jacobs writes, "A reference to the "Black Bull o' Norroway" occurs in Sidney's Arcadia, as also in the Complaynt of Scotland, 1548." For Arcadia I searched for "Norroway" and "Norway," with no hits, and "Orange," "bear," "bull," "greyhound," and "dog," with no relevant references (Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (London: George Rutledge and Sons, 1907 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")). The reference to the Complaynt of Scotland is to the lost story of the "Three-footed Dog of Norroway"; J. Leyden, the editor of the 1801 edition, writes of this romance, "I have never heard of the Three-footed Dog of Norway mentioned in a popular tale; but suspect the story to be similar to that of 'the Black Bull of Norway,' which is common in Scotland..." (pp. 235-236; also p. 270). (The Complaynt of Scotland, written in 1548 (Edinburgh: Archibald Constable, 1801 (Digitized by Internet Archive))). Chambers -- in introducing the Black Bull -- quotes Leyden's poem, "The Cout of Keeldar," which mentions "The Black Bull of Norroway" (Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (Edinburgh: Longman and Rees, 1803 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), vol. 2, second edition, p. 399). Since I can't support either of Jacobs's references I am staying with Leyden's as the earliest.
Why include texts from Jacobs and Lang, since they are just covers of Chambers and Kennedy? The Jacobs and Lang books were very popular so it is worth while keeping their publication dates in mind since the texts in the books may have made their way back into the oral tradition; even though Stanley Robertson's retellings were learned after the Second World War from "old grannies" among the Travellers, the old grannies themselves may have been influenced by printed versions. Jacobs's notes also included leads to the Duncan and Peacock versions, as well as his speculations on early printed texts.
This song has most often been collected when sung or recounted at the end of one of the set of stories named for some bull or bear of Norway (usually classified as international tale type ATU 425A, "The Animal as Bridegroom" [see Hans-Jorg Uther, The Types of International Folktales, Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 2004, Part 1, pp. 248-250]). However, the oldest version listed above, from Campbell, is in a different story of a closely related type (Campbell, writing before the ATU classification was established, says his story is close to "Cupid and Psyche," which is ATU 425B, "Son of the Witch", Uther pp. 250-252.)
[Thompson classifies "Venus jealous of Cupid and Psyche's love as W181.6; "Animal husband" as C36ff.; "Bear abducts girl, makes her his wife" as B610.1.1, R13.1.6; "Bear in human form" as B651.7; "Bear keeps human wife captive in care" as R45.3.1; "Bull transformed to person" as D333.1; no doubt there are other relevant entries. And we shouldn't forget the "tasks" motif that occurs not only in "Cupid and Psyche" but also "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" and many other tales. - RBW]
Although Campbell translates his song from Gaelic, the English fits exactly -- line for line -- with the English-language versions of the song. I only have tunes for the Jamaican songs but in the only texts I have heard, Macpherson and Robertson recite or describe the song. The situation in the tale when the song is sung is that the singer has finally come to her husband or lover, who -- because some taboo has been broken -- does not recognize her. He only hears her song after avoiding a sleeping potion, foisted upon him by a witch, and his hearing the song leads to the spell being broken. All but the witch live happily ever after.
Setting Campbell's story aside, there are three main story lines.
"The Black Bull of Norroway," from Scotland, as told by Chambers: A princess is destined to marry, and falls in love with, a prince enchanted so that he is a bull by day and a man by night. The bull defeats the shape-changing spell without her help, but she breaks a taboo so that, though he remembers her, he can't find her. She suffers ordeals to find him -- acts as a servant, climbs a glass hill, washes the blood out of a shirt -- only to find him about to marry someone else. She uses magic gifts she has acquired along the way to be with him at night, but he has been given a sleeping potion so that he doesn't hear her song. When he finally avoids the sleeping potion, he hears the song, and recognizes or remembers her.
"The Red Bull of Norroway," from England [but Robertson has it in Scotland], as told by Chambers: A princess says she would marry the fearsome Red Bull of Norway. The bull comes to claim her, and does, after her father tries substituting others for his favorite daughter. The bull takes her to his castle but disappears before the wedding. She goes out in the world to find him. On the way she acquires three magic gifts to be used only in dire circumstances. When she reaches him, she finds him in thrall to the witch that first enchanted him. The princess uses the magic gifts she has acquired along the way to be with him at night, but he has been given a sleeping potion so that he doesn't hear her song. When he finally avoids the sleeping potion and hears the song in which she names him as the Red Bull, he accepts her and they are married.
"The Brown Bear of Norway," from Ireland, as told by Kennedy: A princess says she would marry the fabulous Brown Bear of Norway. Nightly, she is transported to his hall. They marry and he explains that his shape changing is caused by a witch who is avenging his desertion of her daughter; the spell can be broken if the princess stays married to him for five years, in spite of fearful trials. They live together four years and have three babies, each of which is stolen magically. She is convinced -- by the witch in the guise of an old wise woman -- that the cure for her troubles is to burn his bear clothing. When she does that he leaves her and, by spell, forgets her after giving her half of his wedding ring as a token. She follows him, finding her babies and, when she reaches him, finds him in thrall to the witch and her daughter. The princess uses magic gifts she has acquired along the way to be with him at night, but he has been given a sleeping potion so that he doesn't hear her song. When he finally avoids the sleeping potion and hears the song, he does not recall her or that he was the Brown Bear until the halves of his wedding ring are united.
There are elements that cross from one story line to the other. For example, in Chambers's English "Red Bull," the princess says she would marry the fearsome Red Bull of Norroway. As in the Brown Bear version, simply calling him by name is the first step in breaking his spell and joining the couple. The main story line that does *not* have the creature called by name to marry is the Black Bull. That is reflected in the songs: all but the Black Bull songs call to the sleeper by name or creature.
The Duncan and Peacock versions refer to the bull as "the bonny bull of oranges" and "the bare bull of Orange"; Duncan is from County Leitrim (near the Protestant "Orange" north), and Peacock suspects that her text comes originally from Ireland. Kennedy has the other Irish text, and that is the Brown Bear. Duncan and Peacock are closer to Kennedy than to either of the Chambers tales, and Peacock's "bare bull" seems to try to include Kennedy's "bear". The most significant difference in song and tale is that, in these three stories, the couple are married and have three children. (Only Kennedy has the broken ring motif.)
Of the Jamaica versions, Trowbridge is the closer to the Kennedy and Campbell stories; the most significant points are that the couple have three children and the singer names the sleeper in the song. There are other elements that point the other way; for example, burning the creature's clothes is a feature of Beckwith-Roberts and Kennedy. Trowbridge's story lacks shape-changing altogether.
Isabel Gordon Carter's story has no metamorphosis at all, though the witch and song remains. Whittington, loved by a king's daughter, loves one of the king's hired girls. He sets a contest between them to see who can wash out a bloody shirt ["Black Bull"]. The hired girl succeeds, they are married and have three children ["Brown Bear"]. The king's daughter then tells Whittington that she herself washed out the bloody shirt and, honor bound, he leaves his wife and children to go off with her. The hired girl sets out to find him, trading each child for a gift that will help her gain back her husband ["Red Bull"].
The end is the standard for all three versions: the king's daughter trades a night with Whittington for one of the gifts, but drugs him before he goes so that nothing happens and he doesn't even hear his wife's song. On the third night he avoids the drug and his wife tells how he has been deceived and how she had struggled to reach him. The song is typical: "I've clumb the glassy hills and waded the bloody seas, My three little babes I've give for thee, Turn over to me, Whitberry Whittington." "So he went back to the king's daughter and says, 'You jest lied me and I'm goin' back with my wife, kill the old witches and git my children.'"
I have omitted the following from the discussion because they do not mention the song:
Jeremiah Curtin, Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1890 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 50-63, "The Three Daughters of King O'Hara." The creature is a white dog, called by name ("the best white dog in the world"), and the couple have three babies. So far this fits the other Irish story patterns. However, instead of singing the sleeper a song she leaves him a letter on the third night.
Mary Hallock Foote, The Last Assembly Ball and The Fate of a Voice (Boston: Houghton Miflin and Co, 1889 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 75-79, tells part of an Irish story about the "Roan Bull of Orange." Once again, the bull is invoked by name by the princess. Foote's interest in telling the story is to show how the king tried to avoid having his favorite daughter married to the bull, and how the daughter defeated her father's plan: "she took the Bull by the horns, as it were, and off she went." She carries the story no further, but it seems likely to have followed the Brown Bear Irish pattern.
Betsy Whyte, "A girl finds her fortune with a prince enchanted as a bull". School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1981.062,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 15 August 2015 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/fullrecord/80600/1. The story is the Black Bull, but the teller cannot recall how the princess wins the prince in the end, and so, never mentions the song. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SSForWif

Form Fours to the Right, Said the Sergeant

See Old King Cole (IV -- Marching Cadence) (File: KSUC183A)

Forsaken (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer's lover went away and is now "blest with a partner whom you love" but cannot love him more than the singer. "May she prosper in your arms." "I hope my dear you'll try and shun The road that leads to hell" but God's judgement is coming soon.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: infidelity love parting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1178, "Forsaken" (1 text)
Roud #6812
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Forsaken Lover" (II) (theme and one verse)
NOTES [41 words]: The verse shared by "Forsaken" and "A Forsaken Lover" (II) seems an unlikely floater: "I little thought when we did part That you would prove unkind But distance does [indifference know/a difference make] [That/Since] you have changed your mind" - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61178

Forsaken (II)

See The Cuckoo (File: R049)

Forsaken Folk Maun Live

DESCRIPTION: In the chorus the singer says "forsaken folk" may live in woe and pain and she is "one of them." She refuses the gardner's choice of flowers. But the future may be better.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love flowers gardening nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1182, "Forsaken Folk Maun Live" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6806
NOTES [77 words]: Greig/Duncan6 has two verses splintered from floating verses of "Seeds of Love" ("The gardner o this garden He gae me choices three The violet, garland, the primrose But I refused the three"), "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" ("Perhaps a misty morning Will grow a bonnie day") and, with a stretch, "The Cuckoo" (admittedly, "If I am forsaken, I'll not be forsworn" is not "Although I be cast down Yet they cast me not away"); the chorus does not seem to have floated here. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61182

Forsaken Lover (II), A

DESCRIPTION: A letter to a lover who proved untrue after going away: "Another maid has filled your arms The place that once was mine." "But I'll not try to buy your love... Since all is false you've said to me It is best for us to part."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: infidelity love parting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1179, "A Forsaken Lover" (1 text)
Roud #6813
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Forsaken" (theme and one verse)
NOTES [41 words]: The verse shared by "Forsaken" and "A Forsaken Lover" (II) seems an unlikely floater: "I little thought when we did part That you would prove unkind But distance does [indifference know/a difference make] [That/Since] you have changed your mind" - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61179

Forsaken Lover, A

See On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)

Forsaken Maiden, The

See As Sylvie Was Walking (File: VWL014)

Forsaken Mother and Child, The

See The Fatal Snowstorm [Laws P20] (File: LP20)

Fort Thomas Murder, The

See Pearl Bryan (III) [Laws F3] AND Pearl Bryan (IV) (File: LF03)

Fortification of New Ross, The

See The Entrenchment of Ross (File: CrPS262)

Fortune My Foe (Aim Not Too High)

DESCRIPTION: "Fortune my foe, why dost thou frown on me? And will thy favour never better be?" The singer laments the sad fortune that has stolen his love away, and hopes for ease. Notable primarily for the tune, often cited under the title "Aim Not Too High"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1610 (W. Corkine's Instruction Book for the Lute)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 162-163, "Fortune My Foe" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 76-79, "Fortune" (1 tune, with partial texts of "Fortune My Foe" and "Aim Not Too High")
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, pp. 48-49, "Fortune, My Foe" (1 short text, 1 tune, which was surely revived from print)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN912, "Fortune my foe, why dost thou frown on me"
DT, FORTFOE*
ST ChWI076 (Full)
SAME TUNE:
A Caveat for Young-men/Give ear to me you young men whilst I write (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN963)
The Great Assize../Here is presented to the eye (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1135)
The Disturbed Ghost/Good Christain people all pray lend an ear (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN992)
A Looking- Glass for Traytors [executed Dec. 3, 1678]/Let all bold Traytors here come take a view (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1614)
The true manner of the Kings Tryal/King Charles was once a Prince of great state (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1578)
A Pill against Popery/Kind countrymen give ear unto these lines (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1565)
A Godly Guide of Directions/Good people all I pray you understand (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1034)
Newes from Hereford..Earthquake [Oct. 1, 1661]/Old England of thy sins in time repent (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2135)
The Godly Mans Instruction/Good people all I pray hear what I read (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1031)
Sad News from Salisbury. Dreadful Frost and Snow.. 23d. of December, 1684/Good Christians all that live both far & near (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN999)
Dying Tears [death of Henry, son of K. Chas. I, 13 Sept., 1660]/Great are the wonders that our God has done (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1072)
The Bloody-minded Husband... John Chamber/Good people all I pray attend, and mind (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1025)
The Bloody Murtherer..James Selbee/All you that come to see my fatal end (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN115)
The Gunpowder Plot/True Protestants I pray you to draw near (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2674) [cf. in this Index "Guy Fawkes"]
The Downfall of Pride/In London liv'd a wealthy merchants wife (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1439)
The Distressed Gentlewoman/Good people all, I pray you now draw near (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1032)
The Royal Court in Mourning.. Death.. King William/England, thy Sun have shined many years (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN828)
The Young-Mans A. B. C./Accept dear Love, these shadows of my grief (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN6)
..Strange and Wonderful Storm of Hail.. 18th of May 1680../Good Christians all attend unto my ditty (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN997)
Criminals Cruelty.. Tho. Wise.. murdered Elizabeth Fairbank.. executed.. Oct. 1684/Oh! this would make a stout heart lament (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2048)
Englands Miseries..preserving ..Royal Brother.. last horrid Plot/Old England now rise up with one accord (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2134)
Looking-glass for a Christian Family/All you that fear the Lord that rules the sky (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN133)
Looking-Glass for all true Christians/O hark, O hark, methinks I hear a voice (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2012)
The Despairing Lover/Break heart and dye, I can no longer live (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN449)
The Young Man's Counsellor/All you that to begin the world intend (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN149)
[Title lost. Naval Warfare of 1692]/To God alone, let us all Glory give (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2641); C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 114
The Kentish Wonder/You faithful Christians, whereso'er you be (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3008)
The Young- Mans Repentance/You that have spent your time in wickedness (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3127)
Dying Christians friendly Advice/You mortal men who vainly spend your youth (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3073)
Truth brought to Light/Amongst those wonders which on earth are shown (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN178)
A Lamentable List.. Prodigious signs.. 1618.. 1638/You who would be inform'd of forraine news (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3147)
A Warning for Swearers/All you that do desire to hear and know (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN124)
A True Relation of the Great Floods/Oh, England, England! 'tis high time to repent (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2002)
[missing title, Fire on London bridge]/It grieves my heart to write such heavy news (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1510)
The Hartford-shires Murder/All melting hearts come here and.. (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN93)
A wonderfull wonder/Look downe, O Lord, upon this sinful land (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1715)
Death's loud Allarum/Lament your sinnes, good people all, lament (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1599)
You that the Lord have blessed with riches (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3134)
Now to discourse of man I take in hand/A discourse of Man's life (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1982)
What woeful times we have now in our land/A Looking- Glass for all true Protestants (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2812)
Behold, O Lord, a Sinner in distresse/A Godly Song, entitled, A Farewell to the world (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN400)
Give thanks, rejoyce all, you that are secure/A Sad and True Relation of a great fire or two (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN972)
Brave Windham late/Iohn Flodder and his Wife,... burning Town of Windham. .xi day of June 1615 (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN448)
Who please to heare such news as are most true/The lamentable burning..Corke..1621 (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2912)
All Christian men give ear a while to me/The Judgement of God..John Faustus (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN59)
Aim not to high in things above thy reach/An excellent song..consolation for a troubled mind (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN37)
As I lay slumbering in my bed one night/St. Bernard's Vision (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN224)
Ay me, vile wretch, that ever I was born/complaint and lamentation of Mistresse Arden of Feuversham in Kent (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN369; John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 291-297)
Listen a while dear friends I do you pray/sad judgement..Dorothy Mattley.. 1660 (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1698)
You disobedient children mark my fall/Save a Thief from the Gallows (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3006)
Kind countreymen, and our acquaintances all/The lamentation of Edward Bruton [Mar. 18, 1633] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1563)
Now, like the swan, before my death I sing/.. lamentation of..John Stevens..[executed Mar. 7, 1632 (old style)] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1933)
England, give prayse unto the Lord thy God/A joyfull new ballad..Victory obtained by my Lord Mount-joy.. 2 of December last [1601] to [Jan. 9, 1602] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN825)
I pray give ear unto my tale of woe/..cruel murder.. upon..Abraham Gearsy (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1320; John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 298-301)
Great God that sees all things that here are don/Anne Wallens Lamentation,. murthering ..husband...22 June 1616 (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1077)
Vnhappy she whom fortune hath forlorne/Lamentation ..Master Pages Wife of Plymouth [1609?] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2697)
Titus Andronicus's Complaint/You noble minds, and famous martial wights (Percy/Wheately I, pp. 224-229; Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3085; Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XII, p. 54)
The Midnight Messenger, or A Sudden Call from an Earthly Glory to the Cold Grave (File: DixP004)
NOTES [229 words]: As a song, this is of no particular note, but the tune was immensely popular, and sustained numbers of broadsides (see the Same Tune list; these more often list the tune as "Aim Not Too High," but many give both titles; in any case, it's the same melody). This popularity, rather than the not-demonstrably-traditional and quite banal text, explain the song's inclusion here.
Chappell claims that Shakespeare alludes to this song in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II, Scene iii. I can't find anything that strikes *me* as an allusion to the song, though. He also says that the song "Titus Andronicus," upon which Shakespeare based his play, used this melody. I don't trust the latter, since everything claimed to use this tune....
We do know that the song was used in Jacobean drama, though, because it is cited in Francis Beaumont's "The Knight of the Burning Pestle." (For that play, see the notes to "Three Merry Men"). Usually, when the "Knight" quotes a song, the printed copy includes the text, but in this case, the song was seemingly so familiar that all Beaumont had to do was put in an instruction to sing "Fortune, my foe, etc." This is Act V, scene iii, line 87 on p. 377 of Wine; KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, which does not mark scenes, makes it Act V, line 242, p. 112. In KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, it's Act V, line 246 on p. 157, with tune on p. 183. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: ChWI076

Forty Bottles of Beer on the Wall

See Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer (File: R456)

Forty Dukes A Riding

See Three Dukes (File: R551)

Forty Fishermen

See The August Gale (II) (File: LeBe005B)

Forty Miles

See Love Let Me In (Forty Long Miles; It Rains, It Hails) (File: LLab048)

Forty Years Ago

See Twenty Years Ago (Forty Years Ago) (File: R869)

Forty Years Ago (II)

DESCRIPTION: Singer strolls down to Bowrings wharf in St. John's harbour and thinks about John, whom he has known these forty years past. He recalls their sailing adventures and stormy times on Florizel, Marguerite, and Rainbow. But, "we can't always be young"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: age commerce fishing sea ship ordeal nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
RECORDINGS:
Jack Houlihan, "Forty Years Ago" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: Rc40YrAg

Forty-Four Blues (I)

DESCRIPTION: My baby heard the 44 whistle blow like it won't blow no more. I walked all night with my 44 and found my baby with another man. I wore my 44 so long my shoulder was sore. My cabin address is 44 and the wolf is at my door every day.
AUTHOR: Roosevelt Sykes? (see Notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Roosevelt Sykes)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity love rejection sex violence train nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jeff Todd Titon, _Early Downhome Blues_, 2nd edition (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994), pp. 114-115, "44 Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Scott Dunbar, "Forty-Four" (on MuSouth05)(on USDunbarS01)
Memphis Slim, "Forty-Four Blues" (1961, on "Memphis Slim's Tribute to Big Bill Broonzy, Leroy Carr, Cow Cow Davenport, Curis Jones, Jazz Gillum," Candid CJM 8023)
Roosevelt Sykes, "44 Blues" (OKeh 8702, 1929)
Sonny Terry, "44 Whistle Blues" (OKeh 05684, 1940)
James "Son Ford" Thomas, "44 Blues" (on USMississippi01)
James Wiggins (with Blind Leroy GArnett-IHearAmericaSinging, piano), "Forty-Four Blues" (Paramount 12860, 1929)
NOTES [217 words]: From David Evans's liner notes to USMississippi01: "'44 Blues' [is] a song widely known on both sides of the Mississippi River ... popularized in a 1929 recording by blues pianist Roosevelt Sykes of Helena, Arkansas, and by other recording artists."
What is 44? Roosevelt Sykes's piano evocation of a steam locomotive goes with his verse in which the "forty-four" whistle blows. James "Son Ford" Thomas brings Syskes's train to his guitar accompaniment. The rest of their version is about the singer's 44 caliber gun, but the railroad accompaniment continues. Sykes, Thomas, Wiggins and Memphis Slim sing about 44 as the address of their cabin/shanty.
From Paul Oliver (pp. 10-5-106} "'I wrote the words myself, it was my own words, so this is how I done it. This is the way they played the blues in nineteen and twenty-six and twenty-nine,' exlained Sykes. His 1929 recording had ... verses ... which played on the differing interpretations of the phrase 'forty-fours' - the train number 44, the '44 caliber revolver and the 'little cabin' on which was the number 44, presumably a prison cell."
The Paul Oliver refence is to his "The Forty-Fours" in Paul Oliver,Screening the Blues (New York: De Capo Press, 1968). For more of his comments on the "Forty-Fours" see the notes to "Vicksburg Blues." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Rc44Bl1

Forty-Four Blues (II)

DESCRIPTION: My baby heard the 44 whistle blow like it won't blow no more. Don't think you're better than the lover I had before. Before long you'll look for me and I'll be gone. I'm going to get my lover to drive my blues away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Lee Green)
KEYWORDS: parting train nonballad lover
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Mae Glover, "Forty-Four Blues" (Champion 16351, 1931) (also released as: Mae Muff, "Big Gun Blues" (Varsity, 1931))
Lee Green, "Number Forty-Four Blues" (1993, on "Leothus Lee Green Vol. 1 1929-1930," Documnent DOCD-5187)
NOTES [250 words]: Ironically, Mae Glover's "Forty Four Blues" was also issued as "Big Gun Blues" but her 44 is only a train. The gun is only in "Forty-Four Blues (I)."
Paul Oliver (p. 100), noting that the early players and singers of the "Forty-Fours" complex of blues were from the Vicksburg area, writes that "Train Number 44 was running on the Illinois Central line whose old Yazoo and Mississippi Valley track from Memphis and Clarksdale ran by the levee at Vicksburg south to Louisiana. In common with many blues the instrumental may have been named after the train although, unlike so many others, it does not imitate the train rhythms to any markrd degree."
Mae Glover sings, "I got blues will last me nine months from today, I'm going to get my sweet man to drive my blues away." Lee Green's version is, "I got blues will last me nine months from today, I'm going to get my sweet woman to drive my blues away." Oliver (p. 108) comments, "Why has she nine-months' blues? Presumably because she is pregnant as her man leaves her. The blues has no particular impact as sung by Lee Green but has immediate significance when sung by a woman. It suggests that this is in fact, a woman's blues and that Mae Glover's was the blues in its original form, transposed with no special regard for the sense by Green"
The Paul Oliver refences are to his "The Forty-Fours" in Paul Oliver, Screening the Blues (New York: De Capo Press, 1968). For more of his comments on the "Forty-Fours" see the notes to "Vicksburg Blues." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Rc44Bl2

Forty-Nine Bottles

See Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer (File: R456)

Forward Joe Soap's Army

DESCRIPTION: "Forward Joe Soap's army, Marching without fear, With our old commander Safely in the rear. He boasts and skites from morn till night And thinks he's very brave, But the men who really did the job Are dead and in their grave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: derivative soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 127, "Forward Joe Soap's army" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Onward Christian Soldiers" (tune)
NOTES [121 words]: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver explains "Joe Soap" as "The American equivalent of 'Tommy Atkins'" -- but this is not correct. Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (combined fifth edition with dictionary and supplement), Macmillan, 1961, p. 1152, defines the name as "An unintelligent fellow that is 'over-willing' and therefore made a 'willing-horse': Services (esp. R.A.F.): since ca. 1930." It is believed to be rhyming slang for "dope" (as in "stupid person," not "drugs"). Thus Joe Soap might be anyone from the absentee colonel to General Sir Douglas Haig himself. Certainly Haig did more than his share to leave good and honest soldiers, most of them better men than he, in their graves. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTB127A

Forward, Boys, Hurrah!

See These Temperance Folks (File: R323)

Fossicker Michael O'Flynn

DESCRIPTION: "The system of fossicker Michael O'Flynn Got very much out of repair," so he travels to town to see a doctor. The doctor tells him to stop drinking and eat "nothing but animal food." When O'Flynn returns, he has lost even more weight; he cannot eat grass
AUTHOR: Words: Cornelius O'Regan (source: Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (Christie, Poems of Cornelius O'Regan, according to Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: New Zealand humorous doctor food disease
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 74, "Fossicker Michael O'Flynn" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I)" (tune) and references there
NOTES [159 words]: According to Elizabeth and Harry Orsman, The New Zealand Dictionary, 1994; second edition 1995 (I use the 2003 New House Publishers paperback), p. 101, the primary meaning of the verb "fossick" comes from gold mining: "Also fossick about. To search unsystematically for small amounts of alluvial gold. b. Also fossick about, fossick around. To search about, to rummage for something other than alluvial gold; to potter about."
Similarly Bruce Moore, Gold! Gold! Gold! A Dictionary of the Nineteenth-century Australian Gold Rushes, Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 53, "fossick 1 To search for gold on the surface, sometimes in a desultory or unsystematic way, and sometimes on an abandoned claim or washing place; to prise out bits of gold with a knife etc.... 2 To steal gold from other diggers, especially from an unattended claim."
Thus a fossicker is generally one who searches for gold without really wanting to do the work of digging. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Clev074

Fossicking Fool, The

DESCRIPTION: "I used to think if I sought for gold I'd have a life of fun." "The life in fact appeared to be a never-ending grind." After much hard work, he finds only three ounces of gold, which barely paid his expenses. It's only fun AFTER you strike it rich
AUTHOR: Words: J. R. Sinclair
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: mining gold hardtimes food
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 48-49, "The Fossicking Fool" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [159 words]: According to Elizabeth and Harry Orsman, The New Zealand Dictionary, 1994; second edition 1995 (I use the 2003 New House Publishers paperback), p. 101, the primary meaning of the verb "fossick" comes from gold mining: "Also fossick about. To search unsystematically for small amounts of alluvial gold. b. Also fossick about, fossick around. To search about, to rummage for something other than alluvial gold; to potter about."
Similarly Bruce Moore, Gold! Gold! Gold! A Dictionary of the Nineteenth-century Australian Gold Rushes, Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 53, "fossick 1 To search for gold on the surface, sometimes in a desultory or unsystematic way, and sometimes on an abandoned claim or washing place; to prise out bits of gold with a knife etc.... 2 To steal gold from other diggers, especially from an unattended claim."
Thus a fossicker is generally one who searches for gold without really wanting to do the work of digging. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Clev048

Found a Peanut

DESCRIPTION: "Found a peanut, found a peanut, found a peanut on the ground" (x2). "Cracked it open, cracked it open, cracked it open, just now." "It was rotten." "Ate it anyway." The singer may then call the doctor, die, go to heaven, get thrown out, start over....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: food death humorous derivative campsong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 28-29, "Found a Peanut" (1 text, tune referenced)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Gloria Dickens, "Childhood Songs from North Carolina" Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), p. 6, "(Found a peanut, found a peanut)" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 163, 390, 395, "Found a Peanut" (notes only)
Roud #12779
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Clementine" (tune) and references there
File: NCF211FP

Found on a Sheep Herder's Mess Box

DESCRIPTION: "You stranger, who comes to my tent, I hope you'll ride away content, Eat all you want; my only wishes Are, when you're through, you'll wash the dishes." The cook has done his work; now he asks that those who eat his food clean up their messes
AUTHOR: D. J. O'Malley (source: Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
KEYWORDS: cowboy cook food hardtimes | sheepherder dishes cleaning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 202, "Found on a Sheep Herder's Mess Box" (1 text)
Roud #11289
File: GFGW202

Foundering of the Asia, The

See The Wreck of the Asia (File: RcWreAsi)

Founding of the Famous C. P. R., The

DESCRIPTION: "In the valley of Ontario you started, With heroic purpose crossing ranges far, You pioneers of Canada... You founders of the famous C. P. R." "Oh, remember... What the C. P. R. had done for you." The singer tells of history and landmarks by the railroad
AUTHOR: Powder River Jack Lee
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Powder River Jack Lee Songbook)
KEYWORDS: train Canada
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, pp. 48-49, "The Founding of the Famous C. P. R." (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [35 words]: Clearly not a traditional song; indeed, I suspect it was a commissioned item. But I indexed everything else Powder River Jack Lee put in his songbook, so I thought I might as well index the whole thing.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: PRJL048

Foundling Baby, The

See The Basket of Eggs (File: VWL018)

Foundling Child, The

See The Basket of Eggs (File: VWL018)

Fountain of Blood

See There Is a Fountain (File: Leath197)

Fountain of Christ's Blood

See There Is a Fountain (File: Leath197)

Fountains Flowing

See Our Captain Calls All Hands (Fighting for Strangers) (File: Pea416)

Four and Four are Twenty-Four

DESCRIPTION: "Four and four are twenty-four, Kick the teacher out the door, If she squeals, bring her in, Hang her on a safety pin"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 63-64, "(Four and four are twenty-four)" (1 short text)
NOTES [35 words]: My very strong suspicion is that the original text of this began "Four and four are FORTY-four," but I can't prove it, so I'm using the number in Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: SuSm063F

Four and Twenty Fiddlers

DESCRIPTION: "Four and twenty fiddlers all in a row ... [nonsense]. It is my lady's holiday therefore let us be merry." Four and twenty drummers, trumpeters, coblers, ... Quakers: "Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob ... [nonsense] It is my lady's holiday ...."
AUTHOR: Thomas D'Urfey (1653-1723) (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1719 (_Wit and Mirth ..._ or _Songs Compleat ..._)
KEYWORDS: work music cumulative nonballad nonsense Bible
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 45, "Four and Twenty Fiddlers" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: [Thomas d'Urfey,] Wit and Mirth, or, Pills to Purge Melancholy (London, 1719), Vol III, pp. 61-62, A Song ("Four and twenty Fidlers all in a Row") (1 text, 1 tune); also as d'Urfey, Songs Compleat, Pleasant and Divertive Set to Musick (London, 1719), Vol III, pp. 61-62, A Song ("Four and twenty Fidlers all in a Row") (1 text, 1 tune)
The Vocal Library: Being the Largest Collection of English, Scottish and Irish Songs Ever Printed in a Single Volume, (London, 1822 [according to Google] ("Digitized by Google")), p. 399, "Four and Twenty Fiddlers" (1 text)
Roud #20211
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(679) [some words illegible; for a clearer copy see _The Vocal Library_], "Four and Twenty Fidlers" ("Four and twenty fidlers all of a row"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819
NOTES [996 words]: In France the ballet was popular at the courts of Henri IV, Louis XIII, and Louis XIV. That popularity led, under Louis XIII, to the formation of the "band of 24 violins of the King's chamber." "Their functions were to play for the dancing at all the court-balls, as well as to perform airs, minuets, and rigadoons, in the King's antechamber, during his lever and public dinner, on New Year's Day, May 1, the King's fete-day, and on his return from the war, or from Fontainebleau. [The band] continued to exist till 1761, when Louis XV dissolved it" (Crouquet, p. 279).
Charles II, in exile at the court of France, "became enamoured of French manners and French music." When he returned to England, in imitation of Louis XIV, he established his own band of violins (Hawkins, p. 703). This is supposedly the innovation that inspired D'Urfey's "Four and twenty fiddlers all in a row" (Walcott, p. 46). Before that time "the fiddle was not allowed to be a concert instrument" in England (P.T.W., p. 210).
D'Urfey's song "used to be performed between the acts or between the play and farce, by some man of humour at benefits" (P.T.W., p. 210). The idea that D'Urfey intended to satirize the King's band persisted long afterwards (e.g., van der Straeten, p. 845). Walcott writes (p. 46) that the effect of D'Urfey's song was that the king withdrew his new music."
Rimbault (p. 282) has a different view: "Mr Walcott tells the reader that Tom D'Urfey made his song, beginning 'Four-and-twenty fiddlers,' on the occasion of the introduction of this instrumental band into the Chapel Royal! Now, I venture to say that the writer never read the song in question. He could not have done so, or he would not have made so rash a statement. D'Urfey's song had nothing whatever to do with the royal band except in name. It is a mere tissue of absurd nonsense, without the slightest wit or fun. It contains no sting of any kind: the opening lines alone mentions fiddlers, the rest of the song relates to cobblers, tailors, tinkers, and a variety of trades. He tells us that the royal band was withdrawn from the chapel in consequence of this song! Never was a statement more unfortunate. We have evidence to show that Purcell and Blow continued to write their anthems with instrumental accompaniments, and that they were performed in the Chapel Royal down to the end of the king's reign, and even far on into that of his successor."
In 1660, when Charles's reign began, Charles was 30 and d'Urfey was 7 years old.
We have d'Urfey's text printed in 1719, 34 years after Charles's reign ended. Was the "sting", if there ever was one, removed from that text? Someone may find something meaningful in what I consider "nonsense" in the description by examining the final cumulative verse. Each [occupation to be found in a row] is followed by the description attributed to that occupation. Since I have texts from d'Urfey in 1719, The Vocal Library in 1822, and Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle in 1906 it may also be useful to see how the text changed.
-- d'Urfey (1719):
[Dutchmen] a list of Dutch names: "Alter Malter Van tor Dyken Skapen Kopen de Hogue, Van Rottyck, ...
[Parliament men] Loyalty and Reason without a word of Treason
[ventners] Claret and white, I ne'er drunk worse in mky life, and excellent good Canary drawn off the lees of sherry if you do not like it
[lawyers] Omne quod exit in um damno sed plus damno decorum ...
[Fencing masters] this and that, and down to the legs clap, sir, [singing men] fa la la la ...
[women] tittle tattle, and twice prattle prattle
[tabors and pipers] whif and dub
[drummers] and there was tan tarra rama, tan, tan, tan tarra rama
[Four and twenty Fidlers all in a Row] fiddle fiddle, and twice fiddle fiddle, ‘Cause ‘twas my Lady's Birthday, Therefore we kept Holiday And all went to be merry").
-- The Vocal Library (1822):
"Four and twenty Quakers all on a row, there was Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob peopled the twelve tribes of Israel
[barbers] with bag wigs, short bobs, toupees, long queues, shave for a penny; O curs'd hard times, two ruffles and never a shirt
[tailors] one caught a louse, another let it loose, and another cried knock him down with a goose
[parsons] Lord have mercy upon us
[captains] O curse him kick him down stairs
[fencing masters] push carte, and tierce down at heel, cut him across
[coblers] stab awl and cobler, and cobler stab awl
[trumpeters] tantara rara tantara rara
[drummers] hey rub a dub, ho rub a dub
[fiddlers] fiddle faddle fiddle, and my damme semi quibble down below. It is my lady's holiday, there fore be merry"
-- Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle (1906):
"Four and twenty apostles all of a row, Abram begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot the twelve tribes of Israel
[barbers] devilish hard time, shave twice for one penny
[priesties] two ruffles to every shirt
[pensioners] push dirk cut a-cross
[tailors] one caught a louse, t'other let him loose, t'other cried 'knock him down with a goose'
[cobblers] cobbler, cobbler, stab awl, tantarero, tantarero
[tinkers] hoo rub-a-dub! hey rub-a-dub!
[fiddlers] fiddle fiddle faddle, semi semi quaver, down below, it is my lady's holiday so let us be merry."
Only the fiddlers are in all three lists, while fencing masters, drummers, barbers, cobblers and tailors are on two of the lists.
Incidentally, as in "A Bundle of Truths" "A tailor's goose will never fly": a "tailor's goose" is a flat iron with a twisted wrought iron grip. And, as for the relation between tailor and louse see the notes to "Tailor and Louse."
Roud lists D'Urfey and Kinloch twice, as Roud #20211 and Roud #1036, and seems to have somehow confounded "Four and Twenty Tailors" with this song. Other than "Four and Twenty [something]," I don't see a connection. - BS
The story of Abraham begetting Isaac is in Genesis 20-21, the tale of Isaac begetting Jacob and Esau is in Genesis 25, and the children of Jacob are born in Genesis 29 and following. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.7
File: ReCi045

Four and Twenty Lawyers

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Four and twenty lawyers All in a line (x2)." The leader calls dance instructions such as "turn that lady," "turn her loose," "up and down"; the response to each line is "lawyer's suit."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad lawyer
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, pp. 104-105, "Four and Twenty Lawyers" (1 text)
NOTES [96 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. The chorus is derived from "Four and Twenty Fiddlers"; here's a verse: "Four and twenty Lawyers all in a row, And there was Omne quod exit in um damno sed Plus Damno Decorum, and there was this and that, 'Cause 'twas my Lady's Birth-day, Therefore we kept Holiday, And all went to be merry" (Thomas D'Urfey, Songs Compleat, Pleasant and Divertive; Set to Musick (London: J. Tonson, 1719 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), Vol. 3, pp. 61-62, "(Four and twenty Fidlers all in a Row)"). - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parrp105

Four and Twenty Tailors

DESCRIPTION: Four-and-twenty tailors chase a snail (ending in defeat); depending on the version, four-and-twenty others (blind men, young maids, auld wives) have equally unlikely adventures
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammar Gurton's Garland, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: humorous talltale fight animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook XIII, pp. 48-49, (no title) (1 text)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 271-272, "Neerie Norrie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1699, "Quo the Man to the Jo" (8 texts, 5 tunes)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #14, p. 2, "The Man to the Green Joe" (2 texts); "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 23, "The Man to the Green Joe";
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #11, "I'll Sing to Ye a Story" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 495, "Four and twenty tailors" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #90, p. 86, "(Four and twenty tailors)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 143, "(Four-and-twenty Highlandmen)" (1 text)
DT, TAILOR4
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 192-193, "The Man to the Green Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1036
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hey the Mantle!" (style)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Back o' Benachie
Quo' the Man to the Green Jo
NOTES [188 words]: This is a very amorphous piece; the Digital Tradition version has very little in common with Kinloch's except the initial reference to the Hunting of the Snail, and the meters are different. There seems to be a whole genre of Improbable Scots Songs, many of which are not traditional. But there are so many references in the DT text that I imagine the piece belongs in the Index.
It is perhaps significant that the "heroes" of this alleged "adventure" are tailors, since tailors were regarded as the most feeble of all workers; see, e.g., the notes to "Benjamin Bowmaneer"; also the notes in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes trying to explain why it took nine, or four-and-twenty, or some other number of tailors to make a man.
The mention of humans fighting snails is interesting because, according to an article in The Conversation in 2023, there was a tendency in illuminated manuscripts, mostly in the thirteenth century but sometimes later, to show humans, often in full armor, fighting giant snails. No explanation for this phenomenon has been found. The article cites this rhyme without having an explanation. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: KinBB13

Four Brave Commanders

DESCRIPTION: "Four brave commanders, Brave as Alexander, Lost all the battles that they fought last year, So rise upon your feet, And greet the first you meet, For there are many roaming 'round your chair."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (JournalOfAmericanFolklore, volume 33, according to Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: battle playparty
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs, p, 35, "Four Brave Commanders" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8067
File: LeMi035

Four Brothers, The

See I Gave My Love a Cherry
 (File: R123)

Four Diddle-diddle-danders (Riddle)

DESCRIPTION: "Four diddle-diddle-danders, Two stiff-stiff-standers, Two lookers, and a switch-about, An old cow and you're It!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: cattle | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 27, "RIddle" (1 text)
NOTES [27 words]: Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo calls this a riddle, but gives no answer; I can't see anything to distinguish it from many other semi-nonsense counting-out rhymes. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: WEMM027B

Four Drunken Maidens

See Drunken Maidens (File: Log240)

Four Girls of Plymouth Town

See The Sailors' Wives (File: PaSe147)

Four Hands Round in the Euchre Ring

See Cuckoo Waltz (File: San160)

Four Horses

DESCRIPTION: "There was a young fellow who first drove a team" of four horses, which he kept well. He drove them to a fair, paid his bills. He and his team had a good reputation. He drove them home and left them to rest, thinking "Straight way is the best"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (recording, Hockey Feltwell)
KEYWORDS: work virtue horse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
Roud #12929
RECORDINGS:
Hockey Feltwell, "Four Horses" (on Voice05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah)" [Laws M31A/B] (tune) and references there
File: Rc4Horse

Four Hundred Sail of Shipping FIne

See Sealing Fifty Years Ago (File: RySm063)

Four in a Boat

See Sailing in the Boat (File: LoF013)

Four in the Middle

See Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle) (File: R524)

Four Jolly Fellows

See When Jones's Ale Was New (File: Doe168)

Four Leaf Clover

DESCRIPTION: "I know a place where the sun is like gold, And the cherry blooms burst with snow, And down underneath is the loveliest nook, Where the four-leaf clovers grow." The leaves are for faith, love, hope -- plus a leaf for luck, which you can find if you look
AUTHOR: Words: Ella Higginson / Music: Leila M. Brownell (source: Sanders-SingHighSingLow)
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 462, "Four Leaf Clover" (notes only)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, p. 20, "Four-Leaf Clover" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [60 words]: Obviously not to be confused with "I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover."
The trinity of Faith, Hope, and Love is from 1 Corinthians 13, but there is no mention of luck there. The word "luck," in fact, never even occurs in the King James Bible. Nor is it in the New Revised Standard Version, so it's not a translational quirk. Luck just isn't a Biblical idea. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF4624

Four Little Angels

See Three Little Angels (File: ACSF129T)

Four Little Chickens All in White

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope verse. "Four little chickens all in white, Saw some bread and began to fight."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope chickens fight food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #146, "Four little chickens all in white" (1 text)
Roud #22194
File: AJRR146

Four Little Johnny Cakes

DESCRIPTION: "Hurrah for the Lachlan, come join me in my cheer, For that's the place to make a cheque At the end of every year." When not working as a shearer, the singer enjoys "Camping in the bend" with the cakes he has cooked and the books and such he has "shook"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: sheep food work
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 276-279, "Four Little Johnny Cakes" (1 text)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 58-59, "Four Little Johnny Cakes" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FOURJOHN*
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 73-74, "My Four Little Johnny-Cakes" (1 text)
A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 307, "My Four Little Johnny Cakes" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), p. 287, "My Four Little Johnny Cakes" (1 text)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Camping in the Bend
The Shearer's Song
NOTES [102 words]: Edward E. Morris, A Dictionary of Austral English, 1898 (I use the 1972 Sydney University Press with a new foreword but no new content), p. 223, gives this definition: "Johnny-cake. n. The name is of American origin, originally given by the negroes to a cake made of Indian corn (maize). In Australia it is a cake baked on the ashes or cooked in a frying-pan.... The name is used in the United States for a slightly different cake, viz. made with Indian mean and toasted before a fire." The earliest citation of the Australian usage is 1861 and reads "The dough-cakes fried in fat, called 'Johnny-cakes.'" - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: PFS276

Four Loom Weaver, The

See The Four-Loom Weaver (File: DTfourlo)

Four Maries (Marys), The

See Mary Hamilton [Child 173] (File: C173)

Four Nights Drunk [Child 274]

DESCRIPTION: Our goodman comes home drunk for several nights. Each night he observes an oddity -- another man's horse, boots, sword, etc. Each time his wife says it is something else. Finally he sees a man's head; she explains that, too -- but the head has a beard
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 [Herd]
KEYWORDS: humorous trick adultery drink bawdy dialog disguise husband wife
FOUND IN: Australia Canada(Ont,Mar) Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Ireland US(All) West Indies(Bahamas,Nevis)
REFERENCES (83 citations):
Child 274, "Our Goodman" (3 texts)
Bronson 274, "Our Goodman" (58 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 274, "Our Goodman" (6 versions: #3, #14, #20, #35, #41, #54)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 46-47, "Our Gudeman Cam' Hame" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1460, "Our Gudeman" (5 texts, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #3, B=#20)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 193, "Hame Came Our Gudeman" (1 text)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #25, pp. 211-214, "Old Wichet and his Wife" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 426-428, "Old Wichet and His Wife" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 188-190, "The Old Farmer and His Young Wife" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 461)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 324, "Milking Pail" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #103, "Coming Home Late" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #30, "Old Wichet" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #48}
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #85, "Our Goodman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 315-317, "Our Goodman" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 259-262, "Our Goodman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland4, pp. 63-71, "Our Goodman" (5 texts plus 2 fragments)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 89-91, "Our Goodman" (2 texts)
Randolph 33, "I Went Home One Night" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #19, #46}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 60-63, "i Went Home One Night" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 33B) {Bronson's #46}
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 53-57, "Four Nights Drunk" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 68-69, "The Cabbage Head Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 25, "Our Goodman" (1 text)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 74, "Our Goodman" (1 short text, from Bob Gibson rather than tradition)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 22, "Our Goodman" (1 fragment)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 202-207, "John Came Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 7, pp. 13-14, "Our Goodman" (1 fragment)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 168, "The Old Man Came Home Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 43, "Our Goodman" (6 text, one of which is in an appendix because of dialect; 5 tunes entitled "Hobble and Bobble," "The Old Man," "Home Comes the Old Man," "Down Came the Old Man") {Bronson's #8, #39, #6, #7, #56}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 38, pp. 299-304, "Our Goodman" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 42, "Our Goodman" (2 texts plus mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 42, "Our Goodman" (10 excerpts, 10 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 19, "Our Goodman" (1 text)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, #XIV, pp. 159-161, "Our Goodman" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #45}
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 50, "An Old Man Came Tumbling Home" (1 short text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #170, "Our Goodman" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #28}
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 14-16, "Four Nights (Our Goodman)" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 11-12, "This Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 65-66, "Six Nights Drunk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 22, pp. 122-123, "Our Goodman" (1 short text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 50, "The Drunken Fool" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 65-66, "The Drunkard's Song" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #17}
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 33-34, "The Drunkard's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #15, "Our Goodman" (3 texts plus a mention of one with "unprintable" lyrics, 1 tune) {Bronson's #24}
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 69, "Our Goodman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 98, "Three Nights' Experience" (1 text, 1 tune, mislabelled "Child 247")
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 231-236, "Our Goodman" (4 texts, with local titles "Three Nights of Experience," Three Nights of Experience," "I Called To My Loving Wife," "Parson Jones"; 3 tunes on pp. 417-418) {Bronson's #29, #54, #50}
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 109, "Our Goodman" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 300-301, "Three Nights Drunk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 91-92, "Our Goodman" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #44}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 653-657, "Our Goodman" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 28-32, "Our Goodman" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 35-39, "Four Night Drunk or The Cabbage Head Song" ; "Ole Lady" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 445, "Our Goodman" (2 texts)
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 11-23, "Four Nights Drunk" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 57, "Our Goodman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 72, "Our Goodman" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 38, "Our Goodman" (4 texts plus 1 fragment, 5 tunes) {Bronson's #55, #53, #15, #58, #30}
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 26, "Our Goodman" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version) {Bronson's #30}
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #20, "Old WIchet (Our Goodman)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #55}
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 24, "As I Came Home So Late Last Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #7, Drunkard Blues" (1 text. 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #30, "Three Nights' Experience" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 118-119, "Home Came the Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 61, "Our Goodman" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 28, "Our Goodman" (3 texts)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 91-96, "Four Nights Drunk" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 86-87, "The Drunk Husband" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 14, "Our Goodman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 195-197, "The Drunken Fool (Our Goodman)" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H21ab, p. 508, "The Blin' Auld Man/The Covered Cavalier" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 115, "Our Good Man" (1 text)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 255-258, "Shickered As he Could Be" (1 text, told in the third person ("This bloke I know") rather than first person)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 161-162, "Our Goodman" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 38, "Our Goodman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 108-110, "Our Goodman" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #36}
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 124-127, "Our Gude-Man"; p. 178, "The Sailor's Return" (2 texts)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 18-21, "The Traveller" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 78-80, "Three Nights Drunk"; "Our Goodman" (2 texts)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 22, "Four Nights Drunk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 233, "Four Nights Drunk" (1 text)
DT 274, DRUNK5NT GOODMAN2* GOODMAN3
ADDITIONAL: Elsie Clews Parsons, Folk-Tales of Andros Island Bahamas (Lancaster: American Folk-Lore Society, 1918 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #113, pp. 162-163, "Man of Travel" (2 texts, 1 tune) [the second text is all narrative]
Roger D Abrahams, "Child Ballads in the West Indies: Familiar Fabulations, Creole Performances" in _Journal of Folklore Research_, Vol. XXIV, No. 2 (May-Aug 1987 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 116-118, "Here Comes the Old Man" (1 text)
Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 102,103 "(no title)" (1 text, the garbled remains of this song, no longer a song but rather the fragments of a tale, but still with some recognizable lyrics)
Roud #114
RECORDINGS:
Jo Jo Adams, "Cabbage Head, Parts 1 & 2" (Aristocrat 803, rec. 1948)
Anonymous singer, "The Merry Cuckold" (on Unexp1)
Thomas C[larence] Ashley, "Four Night's Experience" (Gennett 6404, 1928; Challenge 405 [as Tom Hutchinson], c. 1928)
Emmett Bankston & Red Henderson, "Six Nights Drunk, pt. 1/pt. 2" (OKeh 45292, 1929; rec. 1928) {Bronson's #32}
Blue Ridge Buddies w. E. C. & Orna Ball, "Three Nights Drunk (Our Goodman)" (on CloseHomeMS)
Harry Cox, Mary Connors, Colin Keane [composite] "The Cuckold's Song (Our Goodman)" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2)
Jack Elliott, "The Blind Fool" (on Elliotts01)
John B. Evans, "Three Nights Experience" (Brunswick 237, 1928)
Shirley Glenn, "Seven Nights Drunk" (Piotr-Archive #196, recorded 06/06/2022)
Jackie Browning Hedstrom, "Three Nights Experience" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #19, recorded 10/13/2020); "Four Nights Drunk" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #122, recorded 04/11/2022)
Orville Hicks, "Four Nights Drunk" (Piotr-Archive #198, recorded 06/27/2022)
Blind Lemon Jefferson, "Laboring Man Away from Home" (Paramount, unissued, rec. 1927)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers, "Three Nights Experience" (OKeh 45092, 1927)
Coley Jones, "Drunkard's Special" (Columbia 14489, 1929; on AAFM1, BefBlues3) {Bronson's #33}
Colon Keel, "The Three Nights Experience" (AFS 2709 B1, 1939)
Lena & Sylvester Kimbrough, "Cabbage Head Blues" (Meritt 2201, 1926)
A. L. Lloyd, "Shickered As He Could Be" (on Lloyd2)
J. E. Mainer & Band, "Three Nights Drunk" (on LomaxCD1701) {Bronson's #38}
Wade Mainer, "Three Nights in a Barroom" (Blue Ridge 109, n.d.)
Mustard and Gravy, "Five Nights' Experience" (Bluebird B-7905, 1938)
Brian Oxberry, "Seven Drunken Nights" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #54, recorded 07/27/2021)
Chris Powell & the Five Blue Flames, "Last Saturday Night" (Columbia 30162, 1949)
Nicola "Aunt Nicky" Pritchard (Turbyfill), "Three Nights Experience" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #20, recorded 10/21/2020)
Orrin Rice, "Our Goodman" (AFS; on LC12) {Bronson's #31}
Pete Seeger, "My Good Man" (on PeteSeeger24)
George Spicer, "Coming Home Late" (on Voice13)
Will Starks, "Our Good Man" (AFS 6652 A1, 1942)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Three Nights Drunk" (Bluebird B-5748, 1934)
Gordon Tanner & Smokey Joe Miller, "Four Nights' Experience" (on DownYonder)
Tony Wales, "Our Goodman" (on TWales1)
Sonny Boy Williamson [pseud. for Rice Miller] "Wake Up Baby" (Checker 894, 1958)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Eleven More Months and Ten More Day" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Mrs Mitchell (by Kate Skates) (Les Cleveland, The Great New Zealand Songbook, p. 79)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Five Nights Drunk
Seven Nights Drunk
Home (Hame) Drunk Came I
The Jealous Hearted Husband
The Old Man Came Home One Night
When I Came Home Last Saturday Night
The Good Old Man
Arrow Goodman
Kind Wife
Parson Jones
NOTES [380 words]: According to Joseph Hickerson, archivist at the Archive of American Folk Culture, Library of Congress, who has studied the ballad, this is the most commonly recovered Child ballad, surpassing even "Barbara Allen" (Child 84). - EC
I have to note that alcohol consumption inhibits sexual performance (even while making men think they are capable of more than they are). Maybe, if Our Goodman came home sober more often, he wouldn't have to worry so much about what his wife was doing while he was in his cups. - RBW
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames is very close to Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland. The farmer finds three horses in the stable, three hats, coats, and whips hanging in the kitchen, three pair of boots beneath the table, and three strange men in bed with his wife, these last being "three dairymaids my granny sent to me" [of course, "dairymaids with beards on! the like was never seen"]. - BS
There are at least a few versions, including but not limited to the Australian versions, in which the man comes home not "drunk as I could be" but "shickered as I could be" -- a fascinating reading, because "shiker or "shikker"" is the Hebrew word for a drunk (see Gene Bluestein, Anglish/Yinglish, Yiddish in American Life and Literature, second edition, University of Nebraska Press, 1989, 1998, p. 88) so "shikkered" is an English verb from a Yiddish noun. According to Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (combined fifth edition with dictionary and supplement), Macmillan, 1961, p. 765, the word probably came into the use in the late 1890s, and is most common in Australia, but isn't considered particularly respectable even there. One wonders how it got into the song. - RBW
As Child notes (V, 89), "Our Goodman" was translated into German and distributed on broadsheets throughout German speaking regions around 1790; from there (or directly from the English) the translated song spread across Europe. That translation did not include the motif of being drunk, but some German versions, at least, added the motif of the husband beating his wife, although "such loving kisses" (as he had put it) she never saw before. Was this shift because his sobriety made her deception less convincing to the audience? - DGE
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C274

Four O'Clock

DESCRIPTION: "Baby, I can't sleep, and neither can I eat; Round your bedside I'm gwine to creep. Four o'clock, baby, four o'clock, I'll make it in about four o'clock."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: courting nightvisit
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 274, "Four O'Clock" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [17 words]: A "creeper" song -- that, according to Scarborough, being the southern name for a night visitor. - RBW
File: ScNF274A

Four O'Clock Blues

DESCRIPTION: It's four o'clock in the morning, just before day, and the singer is going to go upstairs and lie in bed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt05)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Four O'Clock Blues" (on MJHurt05)
NOTES [23 words]: This is not the same as any of the songs recorded under the same title by Skip James, Son House, Sonny Terry, or Jimmy and Mama Yancey. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Rc4OCBl

Four Old Whores

DESCRIPTION: Two, three, or four whores, sometimes from Baltimore, Winnipeg, or Mexico, compare the size of their vaginas with extravagant boasts.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: bawdy bragging contest humorous lie nonballad whore
FOUND IN: Australia Canada Britain(England,Scotland) US(MA,MW,NE,NW,So,SE,SW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 6-11, "Four Old Whores" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 121-123, "Four Old Whores" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 28, pp. 167-168, "All Night Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 182, "You're a Liar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brand-BawdySeaSong 1, "You're a Liar" (1 text)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 16, "Three Old Whores from Winnipeg" (1 text)
DT, OLDWHORE OLDWHOR2*
Roud #5666
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailors' Wives" (theme of comparison of body parts)
cf. "The Winnipeg Whore" (subject of Winnipeg Whores)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Three Old Whores
Three Old Whores from Mexico
Three Old Whores from Winnepeg
NOTES [83 words]: Technically, this is not a ballad in that it tells no story. The women merely top each other's boast. - EC
Legman, in The Horn Book (pp. 414-415) connects this with "A Talk of Ten Wives on their Husbands' Ware," which occurs in the Porkington manuscript of about 1460 and was published by Furnivall in 1871. On this basis he regards this as "the oldest surviving erotic folksong in English." But the only verse Legman quotes is clearly modern, so the identification must be considered unproved. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM006

Four Pence a Day

DESCRIPTION: "The ore is waiting in the tubs, the snow's upon the fell." The washer lads must be at work early in the day. The singer's poor parents could not send him to school, so he must work for four pence a day. He hopes his boss will develop a conscience
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recording, Ewan MacColl)
KEYWORDS: work worker poverty boss hardtimes mining
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, p. 6, "Fourpence a Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 130, "Four Pence a Day" (1 text)
DT, FOURPENC*
DT, JUTEMIL*
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 148-149, "Four Pence a Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2586
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl, "Four Pence a Day" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
Pete Seeger, "The Washer Lad" (on PeteSeeger23, AmHist1)
NOTES [36 words]: Although printed in at least five different collections, it appears that the only source for this is John Gowland of Yorkshire. And it appears no other songs were collected from him. Could he possibly be the author? - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: FSWB130A

Four Seasons of the Year, The

DESCRIPTION: "The spring is the quarter, the first that I'll mention, The fields and the meadows are covered with green." The singer catalogs the seasons: Spring (and Valentine's day), the busy summer, the hunting season of autumn, the chill winter, and repeat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1253))
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 125-126, "The Four Seasons" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 73)
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 207-208, "Four Seasons of the Year" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #128, "The Seasons" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Leath207 (Partial)
Roud #1180
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1253), "Four Seasons of the Year" ("Come all you lads and lasses awhile give attention"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 16(98c), Firth b.34(113), "The Four Seasons"
NOTES [531 words]: Several versions of this, including Palmer's, say that the birds pair off on Valentine's Day. This motif goes back at least to Chaucer's "The Parliament of Fowls." According to Chaucer/Benson, p. 383, "No one knows how 14 February became one of love's 'halyydayes,' for which Chaucer wrote 'many an ympne' (Pro[logue to the Legend of Good Women] 422). There is no basis for the old theory that he drew on some folk tradition, no association of love with Saint Valentine's Day in previous literature, and little in the saint's legend to suggest such an association."
Chaucer/Lynch, p. 105 note 8 (on line 309 of "The Parliament of Fowls") says, "Chaucer is often credited with having created Valentine's Day (the Oxford English Dictionary lists this line in the Parliament as the first reference. Various saints have been proposed as the honoree of this holiday, and it has been associated with both February 14, when it is currently celebrated, or alternatively with early May due to another reference to Valentine's Day in the Prologue to Chaucer's [unfinished] Legend of Good Women (145-146). The tradition that birds choose their mates on Valentine's Day is shared with the Legend of Good Women and a poem by Chaucer's contemporary Oton de Graunson...."
Chaucer/Brewer, p. 131, describes Oton de Grandson's [his spelling] Le Songe Saint Valentin, which also involves birds courting on Saint Valentine's Day, but it cannot be shown which poem came first, although Chaucer would eventually borrow from de Grandson for The Complaynt of Venus. Even if de Grandson is Chaucer's source, that doesn't push the idea appreciably earlier.
If Chaucer was the source, the idea spread fairly quickly. Fowler, p. 131, notes a 1477 comment in the Paston Letters: "And, cousin, upon Friday is St. Valentine's Day, and every bird chooseth him a mate." The actual text which Fowler modernized is "And, cousyn, vppon Fryday is Sent Volentynes Day, and euery brydde chesyth hym a make" (Paston/Davis-II, pp. 436; letter #791, Dame Elizabeth Brews to John Paston III, i.e. the mother of John Paston III's future wife to her future son-in-law). Note that "brydde" might mean "bird" -- but might just as well mean "bride."
The caution with making too much of this is that the Pastons might have gotten the idea from Chaucer. Paston/Davis-I, pp. 517-581, letter #316, is an inventory of books owned by John Paston II; it is defective, but item #3 is a black[-bound] book containing "The Legende off Lad..." (almost certainly Chaucer's "The Legend of Good Women"), "...saunce Mercye" (probably a lost piece which we would title "Bele Dame saunce Mercye," already a catchphrase even though no poem of that era survives, but perhaps "Merciless Beauty," a poem widely but not universally thought to be Chaucer's, which has no title in the manuscript copies), "Þe Parlement off Byr..." (clearly "The Parliament of Birds," i.e. "The Parliament of Fowls"), plus some other pieces by Lydgate and others. Item 5 is another book which also contained "Þe Parlement off Byrdys." Thus the Pastons had direct access to Chaucer's own story of Valentine's Day -- and probably liked it, if they had two copies! - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Leath207

Four Seasons, The

See The Four Seasons of the Year (File: Leath207)

Four Stiff-Standers

DESCRIPTION: Riddle: "Four stiff-standers, Four dilly-danders, Two lookers/look-abouts, Two crookers/crook-abouts, (One switch-about, Four down-hangres), (And a wig-wag)." Answer: a cow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1820 (Royal Riddle Book, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: riddle nonballad animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 488, "Four Stiff-Standers" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #735, p. 280, "(Four Stiff-Standers)"
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Peggy Cole and Sally Poole, informants), "Riddles," Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 28, "(Two Look-Abouts)" (1 text)
Roud #20212
File: NCF1028C

Four Strong Winds

DESCRIPTION: "Four strong winds that blow lonely, Seven seas that run high." The singer's "good times are all gone." He will go to Alberta. Perhaps she could join him. But it probably will not help, and it would be winter
AUTHOR: Ian Tyson (1933-2022)
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (recording, Ian and Sylvia)
KEYWORDS: love separation travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 538, 539, "Four Strong Winds" (notes only)
DT, FOURSTRN
Roud #36099
File: ACSF5384

Four Thousand Years Ago

See I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song) (File: R410)

Four to Go!

See One for the Money (File: SaKo118A)

Four-Leaved Shamrock, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'll seek a four-leaved shamrock In all the fairy dells" and use its magic to cure the world of tears and aching hearts, mend estrangement between friends and see that "vanished dreams of love" return.
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover
EARLIEST DATE: before 1846 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.16(203))
KEYWORDS: magic healing nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 137-138, "The Four-Leaved Shamrock" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 127-128, "The Four-Leaved Shamrock" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #670, p. 45, "The Four Leaved Shamrock" (2 references)
Roud #V5560
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.16(203), "The Four Leaved Shamrock", J. Paul and Co (London), 1838-1845; also Harding B 11(3888), Johnson Ballads 562, Harding B 11(1250), Firth b.25(599), Johnson Ballads 417, Harding B 11(1249), "The Four Leaved Shamrock"
LOCSinging, sb10120b, "The Four-Leaved Shamrock", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also as104540, as104080, as201070, "[The] Four-Leaved Shamrock"
NLScotland, RB.m.143(139), "The Four-Leaved Shamrock", Poet's Box (Glasgow), c.1880
NOTES [94 words]: Broadside NLScotland RB.m.143(139): The text includes the statement that "This is supposed to be one of Sheilds' productions." The commentary states "It is not clear who Shields is, but this piece was in fact written by the Irish songwriter, painter and novelist, Samuel Lover (1797-1868)." That agrees with the O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland attribution.
Broadside LOCSinging sb10130a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon137

Four-Loom Weaver, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a weaver, laments hard times -- his clothes are worn out, his furniture repossessed, his family starved and keeping alive by eating boiled nettles. His wife states that if she had clothes to wear she would go to London and confront the wealthy
AUTHOR: Joseph Lees (source: Elbourne)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.27(270))
KEYWORDS: poverty unemployment weaving hardtimes starvation wife worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, pp. 4-5, "The Four Loom Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FOURLOOM*
ADDITIONAL: Roger Elbourne, Music and Tradition in Early Industrial Lancashire 1780-1840 (Totowa, 1980), pp. 79-83, 141-142, "Jone o' Grinfield"
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp.128-131, "The Four Loom Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #937
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Poor Cotton Wayver" (on IronMuse1)
Ewan MacColl, "The Four Loom Weaver" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1700, LomaxCD1741) (on IronMuse2)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.27(270), "Joan o' Grinfield!" ("I'm a poor cotton weaver, as many a one knows"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(1878), Harding B 20(80), "Joan O'Grinfield[!]"; Firth c.26(2), Firth c.26(177)[some words illegible], "Jone o' Grinfield"; 2806 c.17(197), "Joan o' Greenfield and Bailiffs"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tammy Traddlefeet" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John o' Grinfelt
NOTES [413 words]: The period 1819-1820, following the Napoleonic Wars, brought unemployment and starvation to much of the English working class. - PJS
"Some years were better than others, but contemporaries unanimously agreed that weavers were worse off than any other group of workers. The years 1807-8, 1811-12, and 1816-21 were particularly severe, and in 1826 there were reports of near famine." (source: Roger Elbourne, Music and Tradition in Early Industrial Lancashire 1780-1840 (Totowa, 1980), p. 7.) - BS
According to MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, this is attributed to "John o' Greenfield." - RBW
Elbourne quotes Bamford, writing about "Jone o' Grinfield" in 1849. Elbourne discusses the candidates for author ("apparently Jone never existed") but it's never clear to me which broadside he is discussing since he also mentions another broadside (see Bodleian, 2806 c.16(70), "Jone o' Grinfilt" ("Says Jone to his wife on a wot summer's day"), J. Wheeler (Manchester), 1827-1847; also Harding B 25(1008), "Jone o'Greenfield's Ramble"; 2806 c.17(201), "Jone's Ramble"; Harding B 25(1007), "Jone's Ramble From Grenfelt to Owdham").
Bamford's informant, Joseph Coupe, a neighbor and possible co-creator of the "Joan O'Grinfilt" and his wife Margaret characters, said there were thirteen songs, the first of which was written early in the 19th century. See, for example, broadsides:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(198), "Joan a' Gre'nfield's Journey to See the King" ("Says Joan o' Gre'nfield I'll tell you what, sirs"), G. Thompson (Liverpool), 1789-1820);
Bodleian, Harding B 16(118b), "Joan o' Grinfilt's Visit to Lunnun, to See What the State Doctor Intends to do for the Nation" ("Sed Joan eawt o' Grinfilt I've news for to tell "), unknown, no date;
Bodleian, Harding B 16(118c), "Joan o' Grinfilt's Visit to Mr. Fielden, with a Petition to the Queen to Fill Every Hungry Belly" ("Ses Joan o' Grinfilt I'll tell yo what Nan"), unknown, no date [but reference to "euwr young queen" makes the date no earlier than 1837];
Bodleian, Harding B 16(118c), "Jon o' Grinfield Turned Tee-totaler ("Says Joan out of Grinfield I feel very loam"), unknown, no date [but reference to Queen Victoria makes the date no earlier than 1837];
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(200), "Jone o' Greenfield Turned Stone Craker" ("Sez Jone eawt o' Grinfilt au tell thee whot Nan"), Swindells (Manchester), 1796-1853; also 2806 c.17(199), "Jone o' Greenfield's Lamentation" or "The Unfortunate Poverty Knockers"
- BS
Last updated in version 3.1
File: DTfourlo

Fourpence a Day

See Four Pence a Day (File: FSWB130A)

Fourteenth of February, The

See The Bold Princess Royal [Laws K29] (File: LK29)

Fourth Day of July, The

See The Cuckoo (File: R049)

Fourth of July at a Country Fair (Home Sweet Home to Me)

DESCRIPTION: "On the Fourth of July at a coutry fair, A man went up in a balloon." The balloon leaks; as he comes down hard, he says, "Any old place that I hang my hat Will be home sweet home to me." A condemned man declares that any limb they hang him on is home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Georgia Yellow Hammers)
KEYWORDS: humorous home technology execution escape
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 144, "Home Sweet Home to Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11346
RECORDINGS:
Bill Chitwood & His Georgia Mountaineers, "Fourth of July at the County Fair" (Okeh 45100, 1927?)
Georgia Yellow Hammers, "Fourth of July at a County Fair" (Victor 20549, 1927)
File: Brne144

Fourth of July at a County Fair

See Fourth of July at a Country Fair (Home Sweet Home to Me) (File: Brne144)

Fowles in the Frith

DESCRIPTION: "Foweles in þe frith þe fisses in te flod, And I mon ware wod Mulch sorwe I walke with for beste of bon and blod." "Fowl in the forest, The fish in the flood, And I must wax mad (or "on tree"?). Much sorrow I walk with For the best of bone and blood"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Late XIII (Bodleian Library MS. Douce 139)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad bird animal MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics 17, "(Foweles in the frith)" (1 text)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics III, p. 5 (no title) (1 text)
Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols #21, "(Foweles in the frith) (1 text, with a much-reduced photograph of the manuscript on page 78)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #864
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1442
ADDITIONAL: Bruce Dickins & R. M. Wilson, editors, _Early Middle English Texts_, 1951; revised edition 1952, #XXVI, p. 119, "Sorrow" (1 text)
R. T. Davies, editor, _Medieval English Lyrics: A Critical Anthology_, 1963, #4, p. 52, "I Live in Great Sorrow" (1 text)
Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, _Middle English Lyrics_, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974, p. 7, #6 (no title) (1 text); p. 8 has a photograph of the music and a modernized transcription
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #266, p. 549, "(no title)"
Carleton Brown, editor, _English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1932, p. 14, "I Walk With Sorrow" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce MS 139 (Bodleian 21713), folio 5 (with music)
NOTES [225 words]: The only surviving copy of this has music, so it is certainly a song, but there is no evidence that it is a folk song. Indeed, D. W. Robertson declared that "the melody is not popular in character" (although he was a literature expert, not a music expert).
On the other hand, it has provoked so much scholarly discussion of it that it perhaps belongs here.
For starters, is it a secular or a religious song? If it is secular, then "wud" in line three presumably means simply "madness," and "the best" in the last line is the singer's best-beloved. But if it is religious (a perspective most strongly advocated by Edmund Reiss, according to David C. Fowler, The Bible in Middle English Literature, University of Washington Press, 1984, p. 83), then "wud" means "wood," i.e. the cross of Jesus, and "the best" is Jesus, the best of all humans. Another possibility is that "beste" does not mean "best" but "beast," which probably should be read as something like "creature." (Thus certainly including creatures but possibly humans as well.) I see no way to resolve any of these questions.
The manuscript of this was assembled from several shorter manuscripts, all of about the same period. Most authorities date the manuscripts to the late thirteenth century; some go so far as to specify c. 1270 as the date for the portion containing this piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: MSFowFri

Fox and Goose, The

See The Fox (File: R103)

Fox and Hare (They've All Got a Mate But Me)

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments, "Six wives I've had and they're all dead," noting "Oh, the fox and the hare, the badger and the bear And the birds in the greenwood tree And the pretty little rabbits engaging in their habits Have all got a mate but me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: animal love wife shrewishness marriage fight
FOUND IN: US(NE,SE) Australia Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 10-11, "The Fox and the Hare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, p. 121, "Fox and Hare" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 205, "Dey All Got a Mate But Me" (1 fragment, 1 tune, probably this though it consists of little more than the "they've all got a mate but me" lines)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 172, "The Weasel and the Rat" (1 fragment, so similar in form that I file it here though it omits the mention of a mate: "Weasel and the rat, Mosquito and the cat, Chicken and the bumble-bee; The old baboon, the fuzzy little coon; They all went wild but me.")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 172, "The Weasel and the Rat" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 239, "The Tottenham Toad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, p. 87, "They've All Got a Mate But Me" (1 short text, heavily adapted for Australia)
ST FlBr121 (Full)
Roud #1140 and 3624
NOTES [65 words]: Flanders and Brown claim this is from the romance of Reynard the Fox. If so, it's evolved a bit in the course of half a millennium.
The versions in fact are very diverse, and probably include material inherited from multiple sources. The key line is the one about "They all have a wife/mate but me." Mentions of six wives or six weeks of quarrelling with a single wife are also common. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FlBr121

Fox and His Wife, The

See The Fox (File: R103)

Fox and the Goose, The

See The Fox (File: R103)

Fox and the Grapes, The

DESCRIPTION: "A hungry fox one day did spy Some rich ripe grapes that hung so high And to him they seemed to say, 'If you can get us down, you may.'" After an hour of trying, the fox admits failure, "Then he went away, and he swore that the grapes were sour."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: food animal
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Ont,West)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, p. 247, "The Fox and the Grapes" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 479, "The Fox and the Grapes" (source notes only)
ST GC479a (Full)
Roud #3713
RECORDINGS:
Wellington Thompson, "A Hungry Fox" (on Saskatch01)
NOTES [57 words]: This is, of course, a retelling of Aesop's fable, "The Fox and the Grapes"; Cass-Beggs also refers to Maria Edgeworth's 1833 book of instructive stories for children, although she isn't clear about whether this story is there. She notes that [Welllington] Thompson reported learning the song as a small boy in Ontario (he was born in 1866). - PJS
File: GC479a

Fox and the Grey Goose, The

See The Fox (File: R103)

Fox and the Hare, The

See Fox and Hare (They've All Got a Mate But Me) (File: FlBr121)

Fox and the Lawyer, The

DESCRIPTION: "The fox and the lawyer was different in kind... The lawyer loved done meat because it was easy to chaw, The fox... would take his blood raw." The fox goes out to take a hen. Pursued to his den, he says the fight is not fair; the hunter doesn't care
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal lawyer hunting
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 70, (no title) (1 text)
ST ScaNF070 (Partial)
NOTES [39 words]: Scarborough's informant claimed this was sung by slaves. This strikes me as unlikely; while they often told stories about foxes and chickens, the first verse about lawyers strikes me as a graft -- and why would slaves preserve it? - RBW
File: ScaNF070

Fox Chace, The, or The Huntman's Harmony by the Noble Duke of Buckingham's Hounds

See The Duke of Buckingham's Hounds (File: Br3218)

Fox Chase (I), The

DESCRIPTION: ""I hollered, 'Whooo, Take me to his hole, lightning hound.'" A fox comes to take chickens. They chase it with dogs. The song describes the hunt and the dogs' antics. The fox escapes to its hole and taunts the dogs. Partly sung, partly recited
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Roberts-SangBranchSettlers)
KEYWORDS: animal chickens dog hunting escape
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #96, "The Fox Chase" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3443
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bear Chase" (theme, form)
NOTES [50 words]: This is so similar to "The Bear Chase" (a hunt told as a recitation with instrumental interludes, with the dogs being the major characters) that I seriously thought about lumping them. The details are just different enough that I hesitated, and when I'm not sure, I split. But I'm still not sure. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Robe096

Fox Chase (II), A

See The Duke of Buckingham's Hounds (File: Br3218)

Fox Hunt, The

See Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!) (File: DTReynrd)

Fox Hunting, A

See Bold Ranger, The (File: R076)

Fox Is About, The

DESCRIPTION: "The fox is about, come, shut the door, My darling little geese." But one goose declares, "I'm sure there's nothing to fear," so when all the others are asleep, it wanders out; the fox "hunted and gobbled the dear little goose, Who never came home to die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook)
KEYWORDS: animal bird warning food death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook 3, "The Fox Is About" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22140
File: BrGr003

Fox Is on the Town

See The Fox (File: R103)

Fox Loves the Valley, The

DESCRIPTION: "The fox loves the valley, the deer loves the hill, The boys love the girls And I guess they always will."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: animal love
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 136, "(The fox loves the valley)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Herring Loves the Moonlight (The Dreg Song)" (lyrics)
NOTES [72 words]: The Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore version of this is from an autograph book kept by Elsie Conway, probably (based on the other items in that part of Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore) from the 1890s. I can find no other trace of this exact version. But the first part is so similar to "The Herring Loves the Moonlight (The Dreg Song)," and the second half so commonplace, that I suspect it is traditional. I am indexing it on that basis. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: SaKo136

Fox River Line, The (The Rock Island Line) [Laws C28]

DESCRIPTION: The singer (and men of many nations) work in George Allan's camp without earning any money. He decides to get another job
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: logger poverty boss work
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Mar,Ont,Que)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws C28, "The Fox River Line (The Rock Island Line)"
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 93, "The Rock Island Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 116, "Fox River Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #11, "The Rock Island Line" (2 texts, tune referenced)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 119-123, "The Scantling Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 41, "The Scantaling Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, "The East Jordan Line" (1 text)
DT 655, ROCKISL
Roud #643
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The New Limit Line" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Margineau Line
The Keith and Hiles Line
NOTES [114 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "Mr Brown [the singer] credits this song to Larry Gorman, but Sandy Ives, who should know, says he does not believe Larry wrote it. Still it seems to have some Gorman touches. Similar songs are sung in all parts of the Northeast, with names altered to suit." - BS
Gorman could, of course, have localized the song, or someone might have added some Gorman lyrics to an existing song. Some versions, such as Beck's, are so heavily adapted that it's hard to know whether they are truly versions or merely reminiscences; Roud lumps them, but Laws makes no reference to Beck's version.
Not to be confused with "The Rock Island Line" as sung by Lead Belly. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LC28

Fox Traveled Out, The

See The Fox (File: R103)

Fox Walked Out, The

See The Fox (File: R103)

Fox Went Out on a Starry Night, A

See The Fox (File: R103)

Fox Went Through the Town, Oh!, The

See The Fox (File: R103)

Fox, The

DESCRIPTION: Fox goes hunting on a (chilly) night. It goes to the farmer's yard and takes a goose. The farmer and wife are aroused; the farmer sets out after the fox. Fox escapes home with its kill; the fox family celebrates with a fine dinner
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Gammer Gurton's Garland); the version in British Library MS. Royal 19.B.v is thought to cage from c. 1500
KEYWORDS: animal food hunting
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,NW,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf) West Indies(St Vincent)
REFERENCES (60 citations):
Randolph 103, "The Fox Walked Out" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 135-137, "The Fox Walked Out" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 103A)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 91, "The Fox" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, pp. 137-138, "The Fox" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 192, "The Fox and the Goose" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 28, pp. 42-44, "The Black Duck" (1 text plus a fragment)
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, pp. 62-63, "Lucky Old Town O" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 129, "The Fox and the Goose" (4 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 129, "The Fox and the Goose" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 127, "The Fox Walked Out" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #202, "The Fox Traveled Out" (1 text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 77, "The Fox" (1 fragment)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 248-250, "The Fox" (2 texts plus 1 fragment, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 110-111, "The Fox" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 12-13, "The Fox and the Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 119-120, "Fox and Goose" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 202-204, "A Fox Went Out on a Starry Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 181-182, "Old Man Fox" (1 text)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #95, "The Fox and the Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 226, "The Old Black Duck" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 263-265, "The Brown Duck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 146-147, "The Brown Duck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 23-24, "The Fox Is on the Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 291-293, "The Fox" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 247-248, "The Fox and the Grey Goose" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 354)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 43, "Rush Fox" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 59, "The Fox" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #55, "The Fox" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 75, "Old Daddy Fox" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #110, "The Hungry Fox" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 151-152, "Tod Lowrie" (1 text, 1 tune, short but almost certainly this)
Greig/Duncan3 499, "Father Fox" (3 text fragments, 2 tunes)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 301, "Old Daddy Fox" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 160, "The Fox Went Out" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, p. 749, "The Fox" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 184-185, "The Fox" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H38, p. 29, "The Fox and His Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 12-13, "The Fox Went Through the Town, Oh!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 163, "The Fox" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #21, pp. 172-173, "The Fox" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 103-104, "Gray Goose Gone Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 68, "(The old woman ran up to the top of the hill)" (1 fragment)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 171, "A fox jumped up one winter's night" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #116, p. 96, "(Old Mother Widdle Waddle jumpt out of bed)"
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 80, "The Fox" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 400, "The Fox" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 233, "The Fox" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 41, "A Fox Went Out on a Starry Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, pp. 66-67, "The Black Duck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Erica Warnock, "The Fox Went out on a Chilly Night" (Piotr-Archive #449, but in this case it is a photograph of a written text, not a recording)
DT, FOXOUT
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1622, 3328
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2715, 5253
ADDITIONAL: Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #240, p. 511, "The Fox and the Goose" (1 text, from British Library MS. Royal 19 B. iv, folio 97b, column ii, beginning, "Pax vobis, quod the fox, For I am comen to towne.")
Douglas Gray, _The Oxford Book of Late Medieval Verse and Prose_, Oxford University Press, 1985, pp. 164-165, "The Fox and the Goose" (1 text)
Rossell Hope Robbins, Secular Lyrics of the XIVth and XVth Century , Oxford University Press, 1952, p. 43, "The Fox and the Goode (1 text, the same as Sisam's but with a different transrcription); compare pp. 44-45, "The False Fox," which appears to be an expanded rewriting of the text
Joseph Ritson, Gammer Gurton's Garland (London: Harding and Wright, 1810 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 41, "Dame Widdle Waddle" (1 text)
Tom Nash and Twilo Scofield, _The Well-Travelled Casket: Oregon Folklore_, Meadowlark Press, 1999, pp. 89-90, "Old Mr. Fox" (1 text, 1 tune)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British LIbrary, MS. Royal 19.B.iv, folio 97 ("It fell ageyns the next nyght, The fox yede"; IMEV #1622)
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, University Library MS. Ee.1.12 [The James Ryman manuscript, 1492], folio 80 ("The fals fox came vnto oure croft"; IMEV #3328)
ST R103 (Full)
Roud #131
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ridge Highballers, "Darneo" (Columbia 15132-D, 1927)
Harry Burgess, "The Hungry Fox" (on Voice18)
Cyril Biddick with chorus, "Old Daddy Fox" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
Pete Seeger, "The Fox" (on PeteSeeger09, PeteSeegerCD02) (on PeteSeeger18)
Mrs. Clara Stevens, "The Fox and the Goose" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Daddy Fox
Old Mother Hippletoe
The Fox and the Grey Goose
Up, John, Get Up, John
NOTES [360 words]: The earliest version of this piece appears to have been a Middle English poem found in British Museum MS. Royal 19.B.iv, and is thought to date from the fifteenth century; this is the version cited, e.g., by Sisam and Robbins. About as old is a strange version in Cambridge MS. Ee.1.12 (the James Ryman manuscript) with an extended prologue about the fox's raids but with lyrics closer to most modern versions; this is the second Robbins version. It is reasonable to assume that this, and perhaps even the British Museum text, are rewritings of documents still older.
Robbins, p. 242, says that in the second version, the fox hears confession from the hens and grants them absolution. But this is only a small part of the expansion.
Wells, pp. 184-185, says this of "The False Fox," "it was evidently intended to be sung. It is in MS. C[ambrige] Univ. Libr. Ee I 12 (15th century), associated with a version of the Psalms... said in the MS. to be of 1342. The poem consists of 18 five-stress couplets each with a couplet refrain, the first line of which has six, the second seven, stresses. In crude song, it tells with much humor of the visits of the fox to croft, sty, yard, hall, and coop, stealing 'our geese'; of the good wife stoning him, and the good man beating him; of the fox's escape; of his merry feast; and of his purposed visit next week to carry off hen and chick."
This specific piece is Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3328, "The fals fox came vnto oure croft."
It should perhaps be noted that foxes are asocial animals; the males do not take part in raising the young. So the "fox and his wife" would not meet to care for their children.
Ravenscroft had a piece, "Tomorrow the Fox Will Come to Town," reprinted e.g. in Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 83-84. I wouldn't be surprised if it were inspired by this piece, but since it doesn't really have a plot, I wouldn't consider it the same song.
According to Rafeliff, pp. 57-58, this was the tune J. R. R. Tolkien intended to be used with his poem "The Stone Troll," which is found in The Lord of the Rings and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. Cf. "Tolkien Songs." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: R103

Foxes, The

See Bold Ranger, The (File: R076)

Foxy Davy

DESCRIPTION: Apparent dialog: Davy: I first met Kitty McHugh going for water. Kitty: Foxy Davy won't you marry me? Davy: I won't. She fixes a meal of milk and cold potatoes. Kitty: "Won't you marry me and carry me home?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection farming food dialog nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 60, "Foxy Davy" (3 texts)
Roud #16237
File: OCC060

Frae the Martimas Term

DESCRIPTION: "Frae the Martimas term in the year ...twa Till Whitsunday's wind blew a half year awa."
AUTHOR: John Ker (Carr?) (source: Greig/Duncan3)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 365, "Frae the Martimas Term" (1 fragment)
Roud #5908
NOTES [68 words]: Candlemas [February 2], Whitsunday [May 15], Lammas [August 1] and Martinmas [November 11] were the four "Old Scottish term days" "on which servants were hired, and rents and rates were due." (Source: Wikipedia article Quarter days). [With, of course, the non-trivial footnote that Whitsun was a movable holiday that rarely fell May 15. - RBW]
The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3365

Frances Silvers

See Frankie Silvers [Laws E13] (File: LE13)

Frank and Ruby

DESCRIPTION: "Frank and Ruby bide in Banff And Kelbie is their name"; the Stewarts stay with them when traveling. They buy a car; Sheila drives it (without having a license). They drink and have fun. They will return on Hogmanay
AUTHOR: Belle Stewart (1906-1997)
EARLIEST DATE: 2006 (Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather)
KEYWORDS: travel home technology drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, pp. 52-53, "Frank and Ruby" (1 text)
Roud #16565
File: StQue052

Frank Dupree [Laws E24]

DESCRIPTION: Frank Dupree, the singer, gets in trouble when he steals a diamond from an Atlanta jewelry store. As he leaves, he shoots a policeman and drives off. He is arrested and sentenced to death when he returns to his sweetheart Betty
AUTHOR: Probably Andrew Jenkins
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Blind Andy [Jenkins], Rosa Lee Carson)
KEYWORDS: robbery homicide love prison execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 15, 1921 - Frank DuPre robs an Atlanta jewelry store, killing two people in the process
Sept. 1, 1922 - DuPre hanged
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws E24, "Frank Dupree"
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #68, "Frankie Dupree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 247, "Frank Dupree" (1 text)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 259-260, "Frank Dupree" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #39, "Frank Dupree" (2 texts)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 396, "Dupree" (2 texts, but only the first is E24; Laws considers the second to be I11)
DT 794, DUPREE1 DUPREE2
ADDITIONAL: Tom Hughes, _Hanging the Peachtree Bandit: The True Tale of Atlanta's Infamous Frank DuPre_, History Press, 2014, pp. 111-112, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #2253
RECORDINGS:
Blind Andy [Jenkins], "Frank Dupree" (OKeh 40446, 1925)
Rosa Lee Carson, "Frank Du Pree" (OKeh 40446, 1925)
Vernon Dalhart, "Frank Dupree" (Columbia 15042-D, 1925)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dupree" [Laws I11] (plot)
NOTES [14 words]: For background on the story of Frank DuPre, see the notes to "Dupree" [Laws I11]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LE24

Frank Farrow

DESCRIPTION: "I am a lad that's seen trouble and sorrow, Many accidents occurred; I will sing you the latest." Frank Farrow leaves his home in May and goes to a lumber camp. He and his brother are cutting a tree when it falls on Frank. He is buried near the camp
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson)
KEYWORDS: lumbering death brother burial
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 348-349, "Death of Frank Farrel" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 275, "(Frank Farrow)" (1 text)
Roud #4059
NOTES [10 words]: As "Frank Farrow," this is item dC38 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: KPL349

Frank Fidd

DESCRIPTION: Frank Fidd was as gallant a tar As ever took reef in a sail ... One night off the Cape of Good Hope" a rope catches Frank by the heels and his head is bashed. His dying words are "Safe moored in Felicity Bay I'll ride by the Cape of Delight"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: death sailor injury
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 94, "Frank Fidd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3281
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tom Bowling" (theme)
NOTES [73 words]: Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia: "The same phraseological method that is employed [in the song of Tom Bowling] is used in narrating 'The Life and Death of Frank Fidd.'" Mackenzie includes Frank Fidd among "that brave group of sailors" including Tom Bowling. You can see and hear "Tom Bowling" by Charles Dibdin (1745-1814) at the Lesley Nelson-Burns site Folk Music of England Scotland Ireland, Wales & America collection site. - BS
File: Mack094

Frank Gardiner

DESCRIPTION: "Frank Gardiner he is caught at last; he lies in Sydney jail...." The song details the deeds of this daring bushranger, then tells how he was taken after the death of fellow bushrangers Ben Hall and Gilbert
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (collected by Meredith from Ina Popplewell); fragments are reportedly found in Bradhsaw's _The Only True Account of Frank Gardiner, Ben Hall and Gang_ from before 1900
KEYWORDS: outlaw prison
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1830 - Birth of Francis Christie in New South Wales. He later took the name Frank Gardiner, and was known as "the Darkie" for his part-Aborigine ancestry
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 30, "Frank Gardiner" (1 text, 1 tune, with a confused ending)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 126-127, "Frank Gardiner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 86-87, "Frank Gardiner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 58-59, "Frank Gardiner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 84-86, "Frank Gardiner He Is Caught at Last" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 27-28, "Frank Gardiner He Is Caught at Last" (1 text)
DT,FRNKGARD*
Roud #9117
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Morning of the Fray" (subject of Frank Gardiner)
NOTES [778 words]: According to Nunn, p.113, Frankie Gardiner was "the illegitimate son of a Scottish free settler and an Irish-Aboriginal servant girl, Born Frank Christie at Goulburn in 1830, he was befriended by an old man from whom he took the name Gardiner." He turned to crime in his teens, was caught, was sentenced to five year in Pentridge in 1850, escaped, was caught again, and was sentenced to seven years of hard labor. According to Boxall, p. 193, he served half the sentence, was given a ticket-of-leave, and once again fled.
Manifold, pp. 47-48: "Frank Clark or Frank Christie, known as Frank Gardiner [was] also known as The Darkie and as The King of the Roads. Bradshaw, who claims to have known him personally, says, 'As for Frank Gardiner, I have not much to say in his favour. He was a dirty terror to poor travellers, and the King Gee villain who led astray all the other good Australian lads who might have been a credit to their country if Gardiner was never born.'" On p. 48, he mentions Gardiner's "double handicap, socially, of illegitimacy and aboriginal blood." Supposedly he went to the bush at the age of ten! It took him a few years to drift into crime, but eventually joined a gang of horse-stealers, was caught and sentenced to five years, escaped, was caught again and sentenced to seven years. Eventually released, he started robbing gold miners. He was joined by "John Gilbert, a handsome Canadian-born scallywag," plus one John Piesley, whose name doesn't seem to have appealed to the makes of folk songs.
In 1861, a price was put on his head (and Piesley's; Manifold, p. 49). He apparently became involved with a married woman, Kitty (Walsh) Brown. He also impersonated a clergyman in Adelaide.
Davey/Seal, p. 134, say that in 1862 "at Eugowra Rocks he masterminded Australia's most spectacular robbery of the ineteenth century. With eleven others (one of whom was probably Ben Hall), Gardner robbed the Forbes Gold Escort of [4000 pounds] in cash, over 200 ounces of gold and the royal mail. Most of the loot was recovered fairly soon after the robbery and in 1864 Gardiner was captured in Queensland, where he was living under an assumed identity.
According to Fahey, he also claimed higher morals than most bushrangers; an 1862 newspaper published a letter in which he claimed never to have taken the last of a poor man's money, and to have discharged those from his gang who did such things! The letter was signed,
Fearing nothing, I remain, Prince of Tobymen,
Francis Gardner, The Highwayman.
(Boxall, p. 201, prints the whole letter and notes the misspelling of Gardiner's name but believes it an error made by the paper.)
Manifold, p 50, dates the Eugowra Rocks robbery to June 15, 1862, describes the inadequate protection of the coach (no outriders; the guards were inside), and says that the total value taken, in gold and notes, was £14,000, although some of this was later recaptured. The incompetent Sir Frederick Pottinger (for whom see also "Ben Hall") "then made arrests far and wide of every man known ever to have spoken to Gardiner." He also tried to ambush Gardiner at Kitty Brown's home, but Gardiner evaded capture until they gave up, then took Kitty off to Queensland, where he lived with her as his wife (although apparently they did not actually marry) and resumed the name of "Christie." He apparently went straight, being a partner in a grocery store for two years (Manifold, p. 51).
Somehow, Gardiner was betrayed (Manifold, pp. 51-52), and ended up being sentenced to 32 years (Manifold, p. 52).
Ben Hall (d. 1865; for whom see "The Death of Ben Hall" and "Ben Hall"), who also disdained violence, was associated with the Gardiner gang. Other members included Johnny Dunn (d. 1866), Johnny O'Meally (d. 1863), and John Gilbert (d. 1866). These were among the leaders of the gang that the Eugowra Rocks robbery. Another reported associate who was less famous in Australia, but destined for infamy in New Zealand, was Thomas Kelly (Martin, p. 51), for whom see "Murderer's Rock."
Despite the implication in some versions of the song that Gardiner would be executed, he was condemned to prison. (The confusion may arise from the fact that many versions are reconstructed from fragments.) Having served 10 years of a 32 year sentence, he was released in 1874 (known as the "year of clemency"; Nunn, p. 117; Manifold, p. 52, credits pressure from his family and others for inducing the judge to give in). He went into voluntary exile in America (he is said to have opened a saloon in San Francisco).
Gardiner himself was much longer-lived than most of his gang; legend says that he died in a poker game in Colorado in 1903. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: MA030

Frank Gardiner He Is Caught at Last

See Frank Gardiner (File: MA030)

Frank James, the Burglar

See The Boston Burglar [LawsL16] (File: LL16)

Frank, Frank Turned the Crank

See Winnie the Witch AND Jean, Jean Had a Machine (File: BAAI065C)

Frankie

See Frankie and Albert [Laws I3] (File: LI03)

Frankie and Albert [Laws I3]

DESCRIPTION: Frankie discovers her husband (Albert/Johnnie) involved with another woman. She shoots him. Depending on the version, she may be imprisoned or allowed to go free
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Copyright as "He Done Me Wrong" by Hughie Cannon)
KEYWORDS: infidelity homicide bawdy betrayal execution jealousy judge prison trial
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So,SW) Australia
REFERENCES (43 citations):
Laws I3, "Frankie and Albert"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 330-333, "Frankie and Albert" (1 text, composite)
Randolph 159, "Frankie and Johnny" (6 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 166-170, "Frankie and Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 159A)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 477-484, "Frankie and Johnny" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 108, "Maggie Was a Lady" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #61, "Frankie and Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 251, "Frankie and Albert" (3 texts plus 2 excerpts and mention of 4 more; 4 of these were called "Frankie Baker" by the informants, but none of the texts appear to use that name in the body of the song)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 251, "Frankie and Albert" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 111, "Frankie and Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 65, pp. 189-191, "Frankie" (1 text)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 80-84, "Frankie and Albert" (4 texts plus 2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 5-8, "Frankie Baker" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 33-34, "Frankie and Albert" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 761-765, "Frankie and Albert (Johnnie)" (2 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 150-153, "Frankie and Johnny" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 211, "Frankie and Albert (Frankie and Johnny)" (2 texts)
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 137-149, "Frankie and Johnnie" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 113, "Frankie and Albert" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 76-77, "Frankie and Albert"; 77-81, "Frankie and Johnny"; 82-82, "Frankie Blues"; 84-85, "Josie"; 86, "Sadie" (5 texts, 6 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 88, "Frankie and Albert" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 305, "Frankie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 103-110, "Frankie and Albert" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 58 "Frankie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 378-379 "Frankie" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 148-149, "Frankie and Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 31-36, "Frankie and Johnnie" (1 text with variant stanzas, 2 tunes)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp. 33-38, "Frankie and Johnnie" (1 text)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 182-184, "(Frankie and Albert)" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 46, "Maggie Was a Lady" (2 texts)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #20, "Frankie and Albert" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 38-39, "Frankie Baker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 31-36, "The Lamentable History of Frankie and Johnnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 64, "Frankie And Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 177, "Frankie And Johnny" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 233-235, "Frankie and Johnny"
DT 316, FRANJOHN* FRANJON2
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 394-396, "Frankie and Albert" (1 text)
~~~~~
Versions of "Leaving Home," the Charlie Poole song:
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 144-145, "Leaving Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 72, "Leaving Home" (1 text)
DT 316, FRANJON3*
Roud #254
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "Frankie and Johnnie" (Gennett 7036/Supertone 9569/Champion 15852 [as West Virginia Rail Splitter], 1930; Superior 2590 [as James Burke], 1931; Champion 45038. C. 1935; Champion 33064, n.d.) (Conqueror 7879, 1931)
Gene Autry, "Frankie and Johnny" (Velvet Tone 7063-V/Diva 6037-G/OKeh 45417 [as Johnny Dodds]/Clarion 5026-C, 1930; Parlophone [Australia] A3061 [as Johnny Dodds], n.d.; rec. 1929))
Emry Arthur, "Frankie Baker, pts. 1 & 2" (Vocalion 5340, 1929)
Al Bernard, "Frankie and Johnny" (Brunswick 2107, 1921)
Big Bill Broonzy, "Frankie and Johnny" (on ClassAfrAm)
James Burke, "Frankie and Johnnie" (Superior 2590, 1931)
Frank Crumit, "Frankie and Johnnie" (Victor 20715, 1927)
[Tom] Darby & [Jimmy] Tarlton, "Frankie Dean" (Columbia 15701-D, c. 1931; rec. 1930)
Slim Dusty, "Frankie and Johnny" (Regal Zonophone [Australia] G25403, n.d.)
Dykes' Magic City Trio, "Frankie" (Brunswick 127/Vocalion 5143, 1927; on RoughWays1)
Louise Foreacre, "Frankie was a Good Girl" (on Stonemans01)
Brian Hawkins, "Frankie and Johnny" (Piotr-Archive #708, recorded 10/11/2023; text seems somewhat updated)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Frankie and Johnny" (on Holcomb2)
Mississippi John Hurt, "Frankie" (OKeh 8560, 1928; on AAFM1, RoughWays2); "Frankie and Albert" (on MJHurt04); "Frankie No. 2" on MJHurt05)
Billy Jones, "Frankie and Johnny" (Edison 52284, 1928)
Frankie Marvin, "Frankie and Johnny" (Brunswick 400/Crown 3076, 1930)
McMichen's Melody Men, "Frankie and Johnny" (Decca 5418, 1937)
Nick Nichols, "Frankie and Johnny (The Shooting Scene) Part 1"/"Frankie and Johnny (The Courtroom Scene) Part 2" (Columbia 2071-D, 1929)
Charley Patton, "Frankie and Albert" (Paramount 13110, 1931; rec. 1929)
Nicola "Aunt Nicky" Pritchard (Turbyfill), "Frankie and Johnny" (Piotr-Archive #29, recorded 02/08/2021)
Riley Puckett, "Frankie and Johnny" (Columbia 15505-D, 1930; rec. 1929) (Bluebird B-8277, 1939)
Carson Robison, "Frankie and Johnny" (QRS 1014, c. 1929)
Jimmie Rodgers, "Frankie and Johnny" (Victor 22143, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-4309/Bluebird B-5223, 1933; Montgomery Ward M-4721, c. 1935)
Mike Seeger, "Frankie" (on MSeeger01)
Pete Seeger, "Frankie and Johnny" (on PeteSeeger17)
Bessie Smith, "Frankie Blues" (Columbia 14023-D, 1924)
Mamie Smith & her Jazz Hounds, "Frankie Blues" (OKeh 4856, 1923)
Leo Soileau & his Aces "Frankie and Johnny" (Decca 5133, 1935)
Leonard Stokes, "Frankie and Johnny" (Montgomery Ward M-4309, 1933)
Ernest Thompson, "Frankie Baker" (Columbia 168-D, 1924)
Welby Toomey, "Frankie's Gamblin' Man" (Gennett 3195, 1926/Challenge 232, 1927)
Frances Turbyfill (Campbell), "Frankie and Johnny" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #150, recorded 04/25/2022; extremely defective and with much background noise)
Edith Wilson w. Johnny Dunn's Original Jazz Hounds, "Frankie" (Columbia A3506, 1921)
~~~~~
Versions of "Leaving Home," the Charlie Poole song:
New Lost City Ramblers, "Leaving Home" (on NLCR02, NLCRCD1)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Leaving Home" (Columbia 15116-D, 1926; on CPoole01, CPoole05)
Swing Billies, "Leavin' Home" (Bluebird B-7121, 1937)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boll Weevil" [Laws I17] (tune)
cf. "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" (lyrics)
cf. "Frankie and Johnny (II - Army Version)" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Frankie and Johnny (III - Day Bomber's Lament)"
SAME TUNE:
Stripey and Blondie (File: Tawn049)
Billy Vest, "Frankie & Johnny - No. 2" (Banner 32762, 1933); "Frankie and Johnny No. 2" (Melotone M-12691, 1933)
NOTES [539 words]: Various theories have been proposed to explain the origin of this ballad. One theory connects it with the story of Frankie Silvers [Laws E13]. Another links it to the murder of Allen Britt ("Al Britt"= "Albert") by Frankie Baker in St. Louis, MO, on Oct. 15, 1899 (she was jealous of his relationship with Alice Pryor). (This murder was documented in the October 19, 1899 edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.) Versions have shown a tendency to take on local color and even be connected with local events. - RBW, EC
Legman offers extensive documentation for the ballad in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I. - EC
Researcher Rusty David, of St. Louis, suggests that while the details of the current ballad support the Frankie Baker/Allen Britt story, in fact the ballad predates this murder, and describes a killing that took place in the same red-light district of St. Louis sometime around 1865-70. When the Baker/Britt killing took place, according to David, the earlier ballad was modified to fit the new events. He bases this suggestion on having found traces of the ballad before 1899. -PJS
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety catalogs scholars who date the origins of the song before 1899, listing:
* Thomas Beer (who offers a date before 1863, and cites a date in the 1840s for the original murder). Belden finds no authority for these claims
* Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag (claims widespread currency by 1888)
* Niles (claims it predates 1830, but without evidence)
* Orrick Johns (early 1890s)
* Tyrrel Williams (pre-Civil War), but Cohen says his evidence for this is "very weak"
* George Milburn ("long before 1899," using names other than Frankie and Albert)
Fuld, however, lists the first occurrence of the tune as 1904 (with documentation), and notes that the "Frankie and Johnny were lovers" version first appears in 1925.
The song "Leaving Home," recorded by Charlie Poole and others (and properly called "Frankie and Johnny"), is not actually a "Frankie and Johnny" text; it was written by the Leighton Brothers and Ren Shields and copyrighted in 1912. If it entered oral tradition, it is as a result of the Poole recording or some such similar source. It is, however, included under this entry because it is based on "Frankie and Johnnie" and often treated as a variant of that song.
Adding all this up, the verifiable facts appear to be as follows:
Whatever the earlier history, it seems certain that a canonical "Frankie and Albert" emerged from the Frankie Baker (1876-1952) and Al Britt (1882/3-1899) affair. The Leighton/Shields song supplied the names "Frankie and Johnny," which are now well-established. It is possible that "The Boll Weevil," or one of its musical relatives, contributed a tune at some point; not all "Frankie and Albert" texts are to this melody, but the usual "Frankie" tune sung today is close to "Boll Weevil." (Thanks to Paul J. Stamler for pointing this out.)
Frankie Baker, in her trial, claimed that Al Britt threatened her with a knife, and she shot him in self-defense. She was acquitted, but later left the area to try to find peace, and worked odd jobs for the rest of her life. She eventually sued Hollywood because of their treatments of the Frankie legend. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LI03

Frankie and Johnnie

See Frankie and Albert [Laws I3] (File: LI03)

Frankie and Johnny

See Frankie and Albert [Laws I3] (File: LI03)

Frankie and Johnny (II - Army Version)

DESCRIPTION: "Frankie and Johnnie were lovers, They were both making the way." He is an aviator, he works for the Red Cross, and they don't trust each other. A Colonel proposes to Frankie; Johnnie shoots the Colonel. He is imprisoned; she finds another pilot
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: love courting army war infidelity homicide prison derivative pilot
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 169-173, "Frankie and Johnnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Frankie and Albert [Laws I3] (lyrics, theme)
File: NiMo169

Frankie and Johnny (III - Day Bomber's Lament)

DESCRIPTION: "Frankie and Johnnie were bombers, Oh, my God, how they could bomb"; both had won medals. But they flew a bad plane. The Heines attack; first a bullet kills Johnnie, then Frankie dies. Frankie and Johnnie are in "the boneyard And they ain't comin' back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: technology war death derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 173-174, "(Frankie and Johnnie)" (1 text, tune referenced)
File: NiMo173

Frankie Baker

See Frankie and Albert [Laws I3] (File: LI03)

Frankie Blues

See Frankie and Albert [Laws I3] (File: LI03)

Frankie Dupree

See Frank Dupree [Laws E24] (File: LE24)

Frankie Silvers [Laws E13]

DESCRIPTION: The singer, Frankie Silvers, has been condemned to die for murdering her husband. She describes the deed and its consequences with horror: "This dreadful, dark, and dismal day Has swept all my glories away." "But oh! that dreadful judge I fear...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (Lenoir Topic, quoting the "Morganton paper"); Patterson, p. 101, claims a manuscript copy from 1865
KEYWORDS: homicide husband wife punishment execution | Charles Frankie Silver
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 22, 1831 (probable date) - Frances "Frankie" Silver(s) kills her husband Charles Silver in North Carolina
Jan 9, 1832 - Frankie Silver arrested
March 30, 1832 - Frankie Silver convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Appeals and complications mean that the execution will be postponed for more than a year
May 18, 1832 - Frankie Silver escapes prison, but is recaptured on May 26
July 12, 1833 - Frankie Silver is hanged without making a gallows confession although apparently there was some sort of testament (source: Young)
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws E13, "Frankie Silvers"
Randolph 158, "Frankie Silver" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 301, "Frankie Silver" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 301, "Frankie Silver" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 48-50, "Frances Silvers" (1 text)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 17-18, (no title) (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 234, "Frankie Silvers" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Elaine Penninger, "Frankie Silver" Vol. X, No. 2 (Dec. 1962), p. 28, (notes only)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, various authors/Special issue devoted to the film, "The Ballad of Frankie Silver: Reflections on a Murder," Vol. XLVII, No. 1 (Winter/Spring 2000), pp. 5-7, "Frankie Silver -- A Full Text of the Ballad" (1 text, from Bobby McMillon)
DT 776, FRANSILV
ADDITIONAL: Perry Deane Young, _The Untold Story of Frankie Silver: Was She Unjustly Hanged_, Down Home Press, 1998, pp. 108-110, "Francis [sic.] Silvers's Confession" (1 text, from the Morganton Star); there are excerpts of other versions on the following pages
Daniel W. Patterson, _A Tree Accursed: Bobby McMillon and Stories of Frankie Silver_, University of North Carolina Press, 2000, pp. 30-32, "Frankie Silver" (1 text, 1 tune, from Bobby McMillon; I do not trust the tune transcription); pp. 101-103, "(no title)" (1 text, the Lenoir Topic/Morganton Star version); pp. 109-110, "(no title)" (variant lyrics plus a tune); pp. 119-120 (scattered verses with comments)
Roud #783
RECORDINGS:
[Clarence] Ashley & [Gwen] Foster, "Frankie Silvers" ((Vocalion 02647, 1934; rec. 1933)
Clarence Ashley & Tex Isley, "Frankie Silvers" (on Ashley01)
Byrd Moore & his Hot Shots, "Frankie Silvers" (Columbia 15536-D, 1930; rec. Oct 23, 1929; on Ashley04); "Frankie Silver's Confession" (Gennett, unissued, 1930)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Frankie Silver" (on NLCR04)
NOTES [3678 words]: This incident has frequently been reported as the inspiration for "Frankie and Albert" also; see the notes to that song.
On the other hand, the song has very few actual details about the case (most versions don't even mention Frankie Silver's name or that of her husband); one might suspect that it is an earlier song about another crime with a few (very few!) localizing details dropped in. Indeed, a resident of the area where the murder took place, said that it was a rewrite by one Thomas W Scott of a piece about the Kentucky case of a murder committed by one "Beacham" (Patterson, p. 103). Patterson, p. 104, is able to link this to an acctual 1824 murder of Solomon P. Sharp by Jerome Beauchamp. In addition to "Beauchamp's Confession," which does not seem to have gone into tradition, it inspired the traditional "Colonel Sharp" (which see for more details).
The versions we tend to hear of this song today derive from early country recordings, which had to fit on a 78 rpm record and so could be only a few verses long. But Patterson believes (p, 110) that most of these performers had known longer versions which they had to cut down. I suspect he is right; the earliest versions are often a dozen or so verses long. (Though much of what is dropped is no real loss, since it's similar to many, many other gallows-confession songs).
Patterson, pp. 108-109, reports that there are four tunes for this song, one related to "Barbara Allen," one to "Lord Bateman" (he doesn't report which versions of those songs he means), one independent, and one related to the shape note tune "Devotion." This disparity of tunes exists despite the fact that most known texts are closely related. Patterson thinks that this means that several singers initially learned the song from print and used a tune that worked for them; I suspect he is right, even though the original printed copy has not been located.
Brown has extensive background notes on this murder, without clear conclusions as to why Frankie Silvers (the name the book uses) murdered her husband, noting that the jury apparently believed the motive was jealousy. Note that the young woman's surname seems to have been "Silver," not "Silvers." We might note, though, that most members of the Silver and Stewart families were illiterate, and records about them are few; it is quite possible that some of them used the name "Silver" and others called themselves "Silvers."
In Brown's and Randolph's texts, the judge who convicted Frankie Silver is called "Judge Daniels," but Randolph reports that he was actually named John R. Donnell.
Young's more recent book puts the whole thing in a rather different light. Lyle Lofgren brought the book to my attention and gave me my original summary.
Frances Stewart married Charles Silver in 1829, when (by one account at least) both were 17; they lived near Toe River, North Carolina (in an area now known as Kona -- a name derived from the chemical constituents of feldspar, K/potassium, O/oxygen, and Na/Sodium). They had a daughter Nancy in 1830.
Charlie apparently was fond of drink and other women. On December 22, 1831, they quarreled. Possibly Charlie went for a gun and Frankie killed him with an ax. Had Frankie simply notified the authorities at that point, all might have been well. But she burned his body and hid the remains, claiming that he had gone hunting and never come back. When the physical evidence was found, she was charged with murder. Having denied the crime, she couldn't plead self-defense, and her request for clemency were denied. She was executed on the date listed.
Powell, p. 1036, quotes a contemporary account that says she was a "bright-eyed very pretty little woman," and says she is believed to have been the first white woman executed in North Carolina. (Young, p. 19, however says that at least one white woman had been hung before her just in Morganton. But that one woman was hung with her husband. So I suppose you could argue that Frankie was the first white woman hung in Morganton for her own solo crime. Which isn't much of a distinction, to be sure.)
Popular accounts of the events, according to Patterson, p. 66, derive almost entirely from two sources, Alfred Silver (1816-1905) and Lucinda Silver Norman (1826-1927). But Silver was 86 or 87 at the time he was interviewed, and his memory surely imperfect. Norman was even older (90, according to 84) when she told her story, plus would have been too young to really have understood what was happening at the hanging; furthermore, the story went from her through two other bearers before it was published. (For what it's worth, Patterson, in his Appendix A, pp. 165-177, reprints their evidence and that of a couple of others.) So we suffer from a severe lack of reliable witnesses. The result is that there is much we cannot know. But I will offer what facts I can, mostly from Young supplemented by Patterson.
Charles Silver, the murdered man, was one of thirteen children of Jacob Silver (born 1793), but the only child Jacob had by his first wife, whose name is uncertain and who likely died in childbirth. The family moved from Maryland into the Toe River area of North Carolina some time after 1802 -- family tradition said 1806 (Young, p. 28). Jacob Silver is said to have been a Baptist preacher, but he is also described as illiterate (Young, p. 29).
One of Charles's half-brothers described him as "strong and healthy, good looking and agreeable. He had lots of friends. Everybody liked him. He was a favorite at all the parties for he could make merry by talking, laughing, and playing musical instruments. I think he was the best fifer I ever heard" (Young, p. 30).
Frances Stewart/Stuart's parents were Isaiah and Barbara Stewart. Both were apparently illiterate. It appears she was one of seven children (born c. 1810), and the only girl. The family came from Anson County, North Carolina to the Toe River area in the mid 1820s (Young, p. 31). The same brother who gave the description of Charles said that Frankie Stewart was "a mighty likely little woman. She had fair hair, bright eyes, and was counted very pretty. She had charms. I never saw a smarter little woman. She could card and spin her three yards of cotton a day on a big wheel" (Young, p. 30).
There is no formal record of the marriage of Charles Silver and Frankie Stewart, but it appears to have taken place in 1829 or 1830, when they were both 17 or 18 years old. They settled on land given to them by his father; apparently Charles built a one-room cabin on the site (Young, p. 33). It was not good farm land; it is likely that much of their living was made from hunting and harvesting wild products. Based on the sketch map on pp. 74-75 of Patterson, it looks as if the closest spot you can find on Google Maps (as of August 2022) is "High Cove," 1215 Rebels Creek Rd, Bakersville, NC 28705. What the map calls the Silver Cemetery is an unlabeled park about 300 yards/meters south of there. The cabin Frankie lived in is gone. However, what I believe (from the map and the photo on p. 76 of Patterson) is the home where Charles Silver grew up still stands; I believe it is at 52 Gordon Silvers Rd, Bakersville, NC 28705, though Google does not have Street View photos of that area to verify it.
Their only child, Nancy Silver, was born on November 3, 1830, so she was just a toddler when she lost her parents (Young, p. 33). Given her date of birth, and the date of her parents' (undocumented) wedding, one wonders a bit about a shotgun marriage.
We don't know the reason for what follows, although there were news reports that Charles was "a man of rather vagrant and intemperate habits" and was said to have been a bad provider (Patterson, p. 133). One source claimed that Charles was actually preparing to shoot Frankie when she hit him with an ax -- and hurt him so badly that she finished him off to put him out of his misery (Young, p. 38). Patterson's transcription of Bobby McMillon's version of the story has it that Frankie's father was actually there at the time of the murder and encouraged her; Patterson, p. 33. (One wonders if that detail -- possible but unverifiable -- derived from Isaiah's statements at her execution; see below.) But McMillon has another story: That the Stewart family wanted to head west, and they wanted to take Charles and Frankie with them, and when Charles refused, the family pressured her to kill him (Patterson, p. 41).
For the first few days after the murder, she apparently went to the household of her in-laws each day, asking about Charles. Soon, the Silver family started looking for the missing man (Young, p. 42). Eventually they found burnt bone in Frankie's fireplace, and blood spots under the floor; Young suggests they also found a skull, since there was a report on the wound to his head (Young, p. 43; Patterson, pp. 36-37, has a tale that the head was hid in a tree and eventually found). It all added up to an attempt to dispose of a body, and pretty clear evidence of homicide. Frankie, her father, her mother, and her brother were all taken into custody -- although the charge against the father was quickly dropped. Isaiah Stewart was apparently able
Apparently portions of the body of Charles Silver was found burned in the fireplace, so we don't really know how he died. Young, pp. 34-35, supplies some of the stories people told, but they are beyond verification. There doesn't seem to be any genuine documentation of the murder, e.g. a coroner's report. Young, pp. 131-136 reprints court documents; those from the county court (which are the ones which contain evidence) are scanty, uninformative, and illiterate. Nor was there a newspaper that served the Morganton area where the Silvers lived, and the records of papers from outside the immediate region are few (Young, p. 127).
It's important to keep in mind that, at that time and in that place, women were basically the property of their husbands. Spousal abuse was expected (there was even a court ruling authorizing it, and the guy who wrote it would be on the North Caroline Supreme Court to hear Frankie's appeal; Patterson, p. 57). If a wife killed her husband in self-defense, she could be expected to be convicted of murder (Young, pp. 36-37, gives examples). Even today, reports Hall, p. 223, "There is no 'battered women's defense,'" but at least abuse is taken into account. Not in the 1830s! There were several witnesses who testified that Frankie killed Charles in self-defense, but that arguably was not a defense. Similarly, there were several people who reported a confession by Frankie which supposedly related facts which (if accepted) would have resulted in a different outcome to the case. However, if this confession existed, and if someone transcribed it, it has not survived (Patterson, pp. 54-57).
The best evidence for the confession comes from various appeals for clemency. According to Patterson, p. 121, two different governors of North Carolina received six different requests for clemency. The early petitions argued that the case had not been proved. (True, I think, but the governor ignored that). The later ones said that Frankie committed the murder but there were extenuating circumstances. Is that sufficient to say there was a confession? I rather doubt it, else the confession would have been included. But it is noteworthy that among those signing petitions were two members of the grand jury that indicted her and fully four members of the jury that convicted her! (Patterson, p. 123).
Whatever Frankie's reasons, once Charles was dead, she could expect extreme punishment if she were accused of his murder. So she apparently thought her only option was to conceal the crime. She apparently tried to do this by cutting up the body and burning the pieces, possibly with her family's help (Young, p. 41). She had some time; Charles was reportedly murdered on December 22, 1831, and the warrant for Frankie's arrest was not issued until January 9, 1832 (Young, p. 131, has the record of this warrant, which was apparently copied into a small corner of a judicial document and is so poorly written that I doubt a court would accept it today).
Frankie, her father, her mother, and her brother were all taken into custody on January 10 -- although the charge against the father was quickly dropped. Isaiah Stewart was apparently able to get his wife and son out of jail by posting bond, but Frankie was not allowed to go free. (Young, p. 44; Patterson, p. 44, makes it sound as if Barbara and Blackstone Stewart were released without bond. ).
When the grand jury met in 1832, Frankie was formally charged with killing Charles; charges of aiding and abetting were considered against her mother and brother Blackstone, but no true bill was returned on the latter charges (Young, pp. 47-48; Patterson, p. 44). When the charge was read to Frankie, she immediately pled not guilty, and the trial quickly followed (Young, p. 48).
Young, pp. 49-51, says that the judge in the case was John Robert Donnell (1789-1864; often distorted to "Daniel" in folklore); the prosecutor was William Julius Alexander (1797-1857); Frankie was defended by Thomas Worth Wilson (1792-1863, who was a close relative by marriage of Alexander). Patterson, p. 45, has a portrait of Donnell (which is, however, physiologically impossible; no one has a neck that long. I suspect the artist painted the face from life and then faked the rest); p. 46 has a portrait of Alexander.
Patterson, p. 59, observes that Wilson apparently did not ask for a change of venue, despite the case being infamous in the area (making it hard to find an unbiased jury) -- and on the same page offers other hints that Wilson was not a very good lawyer. He suggests on p. 64 that Wilson wasn't very smart. On pp. 60-61, he offers evidence (very indirect) that he never ever heard her side of the story until long after she was sentenced -- and concluded that she was guilty of manslaughter, and his whole defense had been wrong.
We have only fragmentary records of the trial (which started on March 29, 1862; Patterson, p. 44), plus a report from one Henry Spainhour who was there but did not write about it until half a century later (Patterson, pp. 48-49) -- but there are good reasons to think it would be considered problematic today. Under the laws of the time, which said that the accused could not testify in their own defense, Frankie never got to state her side (Young, pp. 52-55).
Based on Spainhour's report, the physical evidence consisted of some blood in the Silver cabin, a few body parts alleged to be Charles's, and some metal from what were alleged to be Charles's burned shoes (Patterson, p. 49). It sounds like enough evidence to prove that someone was murdered, but not enough to prove that it was Charles, let alone who murdered him.
The trial lasted only two days. The case itself took only one to go to the jury. It seems that Frankie's lawyer, rather than argue self-defense, argued for her absolute innocence (her father may have been behind this. Powell, p. 1036, mentions the claim about her being unable to plead self-defense, although he sounds dubious about it). The jury was apparently nine to three in favor of innocence, but wanted additional evidence from the witnesses. Based on Patterson, p. 50, they were actually allowed to question the witnesses themselves -- an absolute violation of the rules of American trials, although permissible in British law in some circumstances. With no good way for the defense to respond, the jury went back and rendered a unanimous guilty verdict (Young, pp. 52-55).
That was on Friday, March 30, 1832. The following Monday, the judge ordered Frankie be hanged on July 27.
It is perhaps of note that it was not until 1932 that the Supreme Court "ruled that defendants in state capital cases were entitled to legal assistance." (Hall, p. 171.) Frankie had counsel, but it was what she could afford. Perhaps it's no surprise that she didn't have a great lawyer.
The defense of course wanted an appeal. But under the laws of the time, it was the judge, not Frankie's lawyer, who decided the issues for the appeal (Young, p. 55). And appeals at that time were limited in scope -- having a lousy lawyer wasn't a defense, because the defendants hired the lawyers! (It wasn't until 1984 that the Supreme Court finally established that a defendant could appeal for relief due to bad counsel; Hall, p. 172). So, basically, Frankie was stuck unless the judge decided to accept her side's grounds for appeal. He didn't. The appeal went to the North Carolina Supreme Court, which basically said that there was no failure in procedure, so the verdict would stand (Young, pp. 56-57). It went back to the lower courts so Frankie could be re-sentenced to death. Because the judges were rotating in and out at the time, this took a while (Young, p. 57), but the result was inevitable. In March 1833, she was sentenced to die on June 28, 1833 (Young, p. 69).
Interestingly, after the first result came down, people seemed to realize that Frankie had suffered spousal abuse, and a lot of people started to sympathize with her. There was a campaign to get her a pardon from two different governors (Young, pp. 58-59, 66-67, and elsewhere). Many prominent women directly referred to abuse in their appeal for clemency (Patterson, p. 125). The pardon campaign worked up quite a head of steam, helped no doubt by the delays in her execution, but nothing came of it.
With little else to hope for, on May 18, 1832, Frankie cut her hair, dressed as a man -- and escaped from jail (Young, p. 69). One wonders if the jailer helped her out -- he was one of those who had signed petitions for her pardon (Young, p. 70. Bobby McMillon's folktale version has Frankie's father bribing the jailer; Patterson, p.3 8). Alternately, might it have been her relatives who got her out, which would explain why they were afraid that she might confess? (Young, p. 71). In 1833, her father, his brother-in-law Jesse Barnett, and a third man would be charged as accessories in her escape, but that might just mean that they helped her once she got out. Stewart turned state's evidence against Barnett, who was convicted in September 1834 (Patterson, p. 47, 150-151), but the whole thing sounds too pat to me. In any case, the governor pardoned Barnett in early 1835 (Patterson, p. 48).
The escape did Frankie no good; she was recaptured before the end of the month. It was at this time that she supposedly made her confession (Young, p. 72), but, to repeat, it has not survived and it is not known who heard it, although it apparently figured in discussions about her fate.
As with everything else in the case, records about Frankie's execution are few (Young, p. 78), but there seems no doubt that it happened.
Supposedly ten thousand people came to see her hung. There were hopes that she would confess, but it is claimed that her father, Isaiah Stewart, called to her, "Die with it in you, Frankle" -- and she did (Powell, p. 1036; Patterson, p. 39; Bobby McMillon's preferred version was that her mother shouted this; Patterson, pp. 88-89). One really wonders what secret they wanted her to keep. Ironic that this song claims to be a gallows confession from someone who didn't confess on the gallows!
McMillon claimed that they dug multiple graves for her to keep the real one from being robbed (Patterson, p. 39).
Frankie's daughter Nancy Silver was apparently taken in by Frankie's relatives under an indenture (Young, p. 86), and the 1860 census shows her married to one David Parker, with four children; they eventually had two more (Young, p. 87). Her husband was a soldier in the Civil War, suffering three wounds and dying of the third in 1865 (Young, p. 87). Nancy remarried and had one more child in the 1870s (Young, p. 88). Thus Frankie probably has many descendants today (Young, pp. 171-190, traces some of them all the way to the end of the twentieth century), though apparently there was a legend that the family was "cursed" (Young, pp. 92-95; Patterson, p. 40, also mentions this though he points out that some of the Stewarts lived a long time). Indeed, Bobby McMillon, who inspired Patterson's book and is source of most of the details described in the early pages of Patterson, was himself descended from an uncle of Charles Silver and also was tied to the family by marriage (Patterson, p. 5).
Looking it all over, I can't help but think that we will never really know the story of Frankie Silver, but it certainly sounds as if she was more sinned against than sinning. Do I think she killed her husband? It is the easiest and hence the most likely hypothesis, but it's hard for me to believe that the evidence was compelling enough to constitute proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Certainly not enough to prove premeditated homicide!
There was apparently a documentary video called "The Ballad of Frankie Silver." The special North Carolina Folklore issue (XLVII.1) is devoted to this documentary. It has some material about the song and the history, but most of it has to do with the documentary instead. The Young book is probably a better source. And Sharyn McCrumb, who seems to make a habit of writing worthless historical novels about folk songs, contributed The Ballad of Frankie Silver in 1998. (To be fair, this does seem to have been a serious attempt to find an explanation for what happened -- but why not make it non-fiction.) Nonetheless, this achieved enough notoriety to be referred to in another mystery, Molly MacRae, Last Wool and Testament, Obsidian, 2012, p. 158 (chapter 158). There is no sign that I can see that MacRae realized that this was a true story inspired by a folk song.
There was also a ballet (not a song ballet, the dance kind of ballet!), "The Ballad of Frankie Silver"! (Patterson, p. 4; on pp. 181-182, Patterson lists other writings and performances based on the Silver story). And Patterson, pp. 26-27, says there is a Silver Family museum, though I couldn't locate it when I searched. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: LE13

Franklin

See Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9] (File: LK09)

Franklin and His Bold Crew

See Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9] (File: LK09)

Franklin D. Roosevelt

DESCRIPTION: "Franklin Roosevelt took his seat About one year ago; He cannot please the world, That we all well know." "I esteem our worthy President." "He has given work to laboring men." "We're on the verge of better times." The singer encourages unions, religion
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1929-1933 - Presidency of Herbert Hoover
1933-1945 - Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 245-246, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 245-246)
NOTES [19 words]: This is presumably the song recorded by Setters on Library of Congress recording 1010B1, but I haven't heard it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa245

Franklin D. Roosevelt's Back Again

DESCRIPTION: "Just hand me my old Martin, for soon I will be startin... Since Roosevelt's been re-elected, we'll not be neglected." Singer praises Roosevelt's re-election, celebrates legal liquor and the end of moonshine, and returning prosperity.
AUTHOR: Bill Cox
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (recording, Bill Cox and Cliff Hobbs)
KEYWORDS: drink hardtimes nonballad political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1933-1945 - Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 230-231, "Franklin D. Roosevelt's Back Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 287, "Franklin D. Roosevelt's Back Again" (1 text)
DT, FDRBACK*
RECORDINGS:
Bill Cox, "Franklin D. Roosevelt's Back Again" (Conqueror 8771, c. 1936; ARC 07-02-61, 1937; OKeh 05896 [as Bill Cox & Cliff Hobbs], 1940; rec. 1936)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Franklin Roosevelt's Back Again" (on NCLR09, AmHist2, NLCRCD1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Democratic Donkey is Back In His Stall" (subject matter)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
We've Got Franklin Delano Roosevelt Back Again
NOTES [72 words]: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an anti-Prohibition Democrat, was elected to his second of four terms in 1936, carrying all but two states. - PJS
As poetry, this is about as bad as a song can get. But as a reflection of the attitude of its time, it is obviously highly accurate. - RBW
"As poetry, this is about as bad as a song can get." Oh yeah? Ever listen to "MacArthur Park"? - PJS
No, I haven't. Sounds like I should be glad.... - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: CSW230

Franklin Expedition, The

See Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9] (File: LK09)

Franklin In Search of the North-West Passage

See Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9] (File: LK09)

Franklin Slaughter Ranch

See The Wandering Cowboy [Laws B7] (File: LB07)

Franklin the Brave

See Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9] (File: LK09)

Franklin's Crew

See Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9] (File: LK09)

Fraserburgh Meal Riot, The

DESCRIPTION: Charlie is warned to run because the fisher wives are shouting. It will be a bloody morning. Charlie runs away from town across the dyke. We have to fight so "the meal will be doon in the mornin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: violence commerce food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #147, p. 1, ("Charlie, Charlie, rise and rin"); #149, p. 2, "Meal Riots" (2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan2 240, "The Fraserburgh Meal Riot" (2 fragments)
Roud #5844
NOTES [92 words]: Greig/Duncan2: "The song probably relates to the riot that took place on 6 March 1813. A mob, in which a fisherwoman played a prominent part, turned back a cart carrying grain belonging to Charles and George Simpson, grain dealers in Fraserburgh, which was being taken to the harbour to be shipped on board the sloop Resolution at a time when popular feeling demanded that it should be kept for the local market. When Charles Simpson made a move to continue the attempt to ship the grain, he was pelted with mud and stones and pursued by the mob." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2240

Fray Marie

See The Tattoed Lady (File: FaE230)

Fray of Suport, The

DESCRIPTION: "Sleep'ry Sim of the Lamb-hill, And snoring Jock of Suport-mill, Ye are baith right het and fou'." They led a raid on this singer, whose gear's a' gane" because they came when the house was nearly empty. The song lists those who might raid in return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1806 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: borderballad animal feud
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: James Reed, _The Border Ballads_, University of London/The Athlone Press, 1975, pp. 95-98, "(The Fray of Suport)" (1 text)
Roud #8190
NOTES [35 words]: The only known text of this is Walter Scott's, which might tempt us to think he composed it, but I very much doubt it; Scott's text is too irregular. I doubt he even indulged in many of his "improvements." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Reed095

Fred Karno's Army

DESCRIPTION: "We are Fred Karno's army [or air force, etc.], Fred Karno's infantry, We cannot fight, we cannot shoot, So what damn good re we? But what damn good are we?" But it will all work out when they get to Berlin. The song has many stories of army inefficiency
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Nettel); reportedly first published 1917
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 33, "Fred Karno's Army" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 60-61, "Fred Karno's Army" (1 text plus variants, tune referenced)
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 92, "Fred Karno's Army" (2 short texts, 1 tune; in the New Zealand version, Fred Karno is replaced by Bill Massey)
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 137, "10th MTB Flotilla Song" (1 text, tune referenced; a Navy version particularized to the 10th MTB squadron)
ADDITIONAL: Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 222, "(Fred Karno's Army)" (1 partial text)
Roud #10533
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Church's One Foundation" (tune)
NOTES [34 words]: Fred Karno (1866-1941) was a comedian of the First World War era -- according to Wikipedia, he popularized the pie-in-the-face gag -- whose performances sometimes burlesqued army life. Hence this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: NeFrKaAr

Fred Sargent's Shanty Song

DESCRIPTION: "In eighteen hundred and seventy-one, To swamp for a go-devil I begun, 'Twas on the banks of the Eau Claire, We landed there when the ground was bare. Tra-la-la-la...." The loggers get up, get dressed, go to work; the singer toasts the boss
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: logger work drink
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 21, "Fred Sargent's Shanty Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Rick092 (Partial)
Roud #8895
NOTES [49 words]: This is probably a particularization of some other shanty song. But with only three verses (the introductory formula, the verse about getting up in the morning, and the conclusion toasting Fred Sargent), what remains is almost all the particularized parts, and so cannot really be identified. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Rick092

Freddy Watson

DESCRIPTION: Freddy Watson, on the dole, leaves St Mary's for St John's. There he meets "Billy Walsh the member," gets some clothing and underwear for himself, a blanket for a sail for Pete, and a dress for Stell. He gets a ride home from Ryan. He plans to go again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: poverty travel clothes hardtimes political
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #26417
RECORDINGS:
John Molloy, "The Watson Song" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [173 words]: The MUNFLA-Leach first line and tune of, at least, the first verse, agrees with "Big Rock Candy Mountain": "One evening as the sun went down, the jungle fires were burning." The resemblance ends there, except for whatever connection was made between an honest hobo and someone on the dole. - BS
William J. Walsh (1880-1948) was a member of the Newfoundland legislature 1913-1934 (i.e. until the legislature was discontinued in the latter year), and was Minister of Agriculture and Mines (a job with significant patronage opportunities) 1919, 1924-1928, 1932-1934. What's more, he represented St. Mary's 1913-1928 (he represented Placentia West thereafter). (Source: (Robert H. Cuff, managing editor), Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador Biography, Harry Cuff Publications, 1990, p. 351). Thus this would appear to be a topical song about an actual Member of the House of Assembly helping out one of his constituents.
St. Mary's is on the southwest side of the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland, on the shores of St. Mary's Bay. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3FreWa

Free a Little Bird

See Free Little Bird (File: FSWB391A)

Free America

DESCRIPTION: "The seat of science, Athens, And earth's proud mistress Rome, Where now are all their glories?" The writer advises Americans to "guard their rights" and fight back against European tyranny.
AUTHOR: words: Joseph Warren? (source: Eggleston)
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: political patriotic freedom derivative
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 14-15, "Free America" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 14-16, "Free America" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 537-538, "Free America" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 45, "Free America" (1 text, tune referenced)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 337-338, "Free America(y)" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 284, "Free America" (1 text)
DT, FREEAMER*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The British Grenadiers" (tune) and references there
File: Arn014

Free Americay

See Free America (File: Arn014)

Free and Easy (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer, "a simple country clown," is unconcerned by what others think of him, whether kings, puppies, or fools, or whether the ladies are civil or saucy. "Still I'd be free and easy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1855 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1307))
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 15, "Free and Easy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 111, "Free & Easy" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Sam Fone, EFDSS Archives SBG/1/3/14, "Free and Easy [A]" accessed 3 January 2013 from http://library.efdss.org/archives/cgi-bin/search.cgi.
Roud #1084
RECORDINGS:
Broadside, "Free and Easy" (on "The Moon Shone Bright," Topic Records 12TS228 LP (1973))
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1307), "Free and easy" ("I'm the lad that's free and easy"), E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Johnson Ballads 2592, "Free and easy"
File: OSY1015

Free and Easy (II)

DESCRIPTION: The singer thinks that "troubles are but bubbles." He doesn't yearn for wealth or greatness: "the great have cares... merit's seldom made a show of." "Why waste your time in fretting?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1860 (broadsides, LOCSinging as104110 and NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(053))
KEYWORDS: nonballad money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #679, p. 45, "Free & Easy Still" (1 reference)
ADDITIONAL: S. Baring-Gould, EFDSS Archives SBG/1/3/15, "Free and Easy [B]" accessed 3 January 2013 from http://library.efdss.org/archives/cgi-bin/search.cgi.
Roud #1084
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.16(212), "Free and Easy" ("I'm the lad that's free and easy"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 11(820), Harding B 25(686), Firth b.25(321), "Free and Easy
LOCSinging, as104110, "Free and Easy Still" ("I'm the lad that's free and easy"), J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as20108, "Free and Easy Still"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(053), "Free and Easy" ("I'm the lad that's free and easy"), James Lindsay (Glasgow), 1852-1859
NOTES [26 words]: Baring-Gould writes that his text is from a Such broadside. It is close to Bodleian 2806 c.16(212), changing a few words, and lacking Such's last stanza. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: ASBG1315

Free and Easy To Jog Along

DESCRIPTION: The singer rambles in Ireland and Scotland, always "free and easy to jog along." He meets a girl and takes her to an inn, where she asks if he would "pledge heart and hand." He says no because a married man is no longer "free and easy to jog along"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Hutchison)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection rambling drink
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jimmy Hutchison, "Free and Easy," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1971.030,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/100505?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023
Roud #1084
RECORDINGS:
Roisin White, "Free and Easy To Jog Along" (on IRRWhite01)
File: RcFaEtJA

Free At Last

DESCRIPTION: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God a'mighty, I'm free at last!" "One of these mornings bright and fair, I'm gonna put on my wings and try the air." "Old Satan's mad because we're glad...." "I wonder what old Satan's grumblin' bout...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious freedom nonballad floatingverses Devil
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 624, "Old Satan's Mad" (5 text, of which the short "A" text is probably "Free at Last"; "B" is a variation on "Down By the Riverside (Study War No More)"; "C" has the "Old Satan's Mad" stanza but a "climbing Zion's walls" chorus; D" is an unidentifiable fragment perhaps related to "I Belong to that Band; and "E" is also a fragment, perhaps of "Free At Last")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 624, "Old Satan's Mad" (3 tunes plus text excerpts, with the "A" tune being this and the others uncertain)
Randolph 302, "The Devil's Mad and I Am Glad" (1 fragment, possibly this one)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 46, "Free at Last" (1 short text)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 297-298, "Free at Last" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 368, "Free At Last" (1 text)
Roud #10974
RECORDINGS:
Dock Reed & Vera Hall Ward, "Free At Last" (on NFMAla2) (on Babylon)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All My Sins Been Taken Away" (lyrics)
cf. "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (lyrics)
NOTES [36 words]: The versions of this all seem rather fragmentary, and some may be floating bits of other songs. The line "Satan is mad and I am glad" seems to be about as characteristic of this song as anyrhing, but it also floats. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: FSWB368A

Free Gardener, The

DESCRIPTION: "Old Adam was the gardener ... A fig-leaved apron he sewed and put on ... who would na wish a free gardener to be?" Eve asked to be a gardener. He said "no woman on earth my secrets should gain." "She made him leave the garden a ploughboy to be"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: Bible wordplay worker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 473, "The Free Gardener" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5972
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Old Adam Was a Gairner
NOTES [94 words]: If it's not clear from my description, Adam's secrets ("I early obtained them by Heaven's decree"), those of the free "gardener" are really those of the Free Mason: "We're noble fellows and our aprons are blue, We toil in our garden, we plant and we sow, Kings are our companions, how noble are we! Then who would na wish a free gardener to be?" Women cannot know those secrets. After all, Eve "made him eat the apple, She made him go bound when he might have gone free...."
Greig/Duncan3: "'From her [Mrs Beaton] early note-book, this being dated April, 1867.'" - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Gr3473

Free Go Lily (Three Gold Lilies)

DESCRIPTION: "Free, go lily, sometime, Come skippin' through the window, sometime, Gonna h'ist my window, sometime, Come skippin' through the window, sometime."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: flowers nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 54, "Free, Go Lily" (1 short text)
Roud #16095
NOTES [26 words]: The "Three Gold Lilies" text makes me wonder if this song has some sort of tie with the French monarchy. But if it has, it has wandered a *long* way.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Rose054

Free Little Bird

DESCRIPTION: "I'm as free little bird as I can be (x2), I'm as free at my age as a bird in a cage, I'm as free little bird...." "Take me home, little birdie, take me home...." "Oh, I won't build my nest on the ground...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Dykes' Magic City Trio)
KEYWORDS: nonballad courting bird home
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 130, "Free Little Bird" (1 text)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, p. 24, "Pretty Little Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 238, "Free Little Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 268-269, "Free a Little Bird" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 391, "Free Little Bird" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 81-86, "Free Little Bird" (2 texts, 1 tune plus a text and tune of I Wish I Was a Little Bird (Nobody Cares for Me))
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Allen Davidson, Jr., "The Songs of Caleb Mashburn," Vol. XX, No. 1 (Feb 1972), pp. 60-61, "(I'm as free a little bird as I can be" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7690
RECORDINGS:
Allen Brothers, "Free a Little Bird" (Victor V-40266, 1930; Bluebird B-5668, 1934; rec. 1928)
Clarence Ashley, Clint Howard et al: "Free Little Bird" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01)
Cousin Emmy [Cynthia May Carver], "Free Little Bird" (Decca 24216, 1947)
Dykes' Magic City Trio, "Free Little Bird" (Brunswick 129, 1927; on CrowTold01)
John Hammond, "Free A Little Bird As I Can Be" (Challenge 332 [as William Price], 1927)
Austin Harmon, "Free Little Bird" (AAFS 2887 A1)
Roscoe Holcomb, "I'm a Free Little Bird" (on Holcomb1, HolcombCD1)
Kentucky Ramblers, "I'm a Free Little Bird" (Paramount 3300, 1932; rec. 1930)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Free Little Bird" (AAFS 1778 B2) (AAFS 3244 A2) (Rounder LP 0065, 1957)
Clayton McMichen's Wildcats, "I'm Free a Little Bird as I Can Be" (Decca 5574, 1938)
Ridgel's Fountain Citians, "Free Little Bird" (Vocalion 5389, 1930; rec. 1929)
[Leonard] Rutherford & [John] Foster, "I'm As Free a Little Birdie As Can Be" (Gennett 6746/Supertone 9352, 1929; on KMM)
Guy Wolff, "As Free A Little Bird As I Can Be" (Piotr-Archive #466, recorded 01/26/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Alone, All Alone (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms" (approximate tune)
SAME TUNE:
Clayton McMichen's Georgia Wildcats, "Free a Little Bird As I Can Be No. 2" (Decca 5701, 1939)
Roane County Ramblers, "Free a Little Bird - 1930 Model" (Columbia 15498-D, 1930; rec. 1929)
File: FSWB391A

Free Mason Song

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye free masons ... And wear a badge of innocence." Noah's ark, the binding of Isaac, Moses on Mt Zion are recounted. St Peter keeps heaven's door "and there's no one to enter in exceptin' they are pure"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(29))
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Poem #9, pp. 39-42, "The Masonic Hymn" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 262-263, "The Masonic Hymn" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 63, "Free Mason Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab063 (Partial)
Roud #1179
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(29), "Freemason's Song" ("Come all you Freemasons that dwell around the globe"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(1116), Harding B 25(1232), "A Mason's Song"; Harding B 28(270), Firth b.26(469), "[The] Masonic Hymn"; Harding B 28(139), Harding B 28(10), "A Celebrated Masonic Hymn"; Harding B 11(1638), Harding B 11(563), "The Celebrated Masonic Hymn"; Harding B 25(689), "The Freemason's Hymn"; Harding B 28(240), "The Free Masons Song"; Firth b.25(81), "Free-Mason's Anthem"; Harding B 17(99a), "Freemasons"; Harding B 11(3590), Firth c.21(35)[some illegible words], 2806 c.16(253), Johnson Ballads 2512, Johnson Ballads 2022, 2806 c.17(137), Harding B 15(113b), "Freemason's Song"; Firth b.27(495), "Freemasons' Song"; Harding B 25(1038)[mostly illegible], "Knights Templars of Malta"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bible Story" (themes, lyrics)
cf. "Freemason's Song (II)" (subject, themes)
NOTES [51 words]: The story of Noah's flood is found in Genesis 6-8; Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac is in Genesis 22:1-14. Moses never climbed Mount Zion, which is of course *inside* Israel; the reference is to Deuteronomy 34:1-5, where Moses went up Mount Nebo, saw the which the Israelites would possess, and died. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: LLab063

Free Salvation (The Resurrection)

DESCRIPTION: The expulsion from Eden is briefly told: "Man at his first creation / In Eden God did place... But by the subtle serpent / Beguiled he was and fell / And by his disobedience / Was doomed to death and Hell." The rest of the song tells of Jesus's passion
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Wesleyan Psalmist)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Jesus death
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 79, "The Resurrection" (1 text plus an excerpt from the Wesleyan Psalmist version, 1 tune)
ST FSC079 (Partial)
Roud #4608
NOTES [108 words]: Most of this song is paraphrased directly from the Bible:
* The "subtle serpent": Gen. 3:1
* "by his disobedience was doomed": Rom. 5:19
* "was doomed to death": cf. Gen. 2:17, 3:2
* "rugged thorns": Mark 15:17, etc., John 19:1
* "sepulchre, as being near at hand": John 19:41-42
* "to Mary he appeared": John 20:11f. (the other gospels are less explicit)
* "go tell them I am risen... I'm going to my Father's": John 20:17 (in Mark 16:6-7 it is an angel that announces Jesus's resurrection; Jesus never appears on stage)
* "Go preach to all the nations": Matt. 28:19
* "Begin this in Jerusalem": Luke 24:47
* "I will be with you...": Matt. 28:20 - RBW
File: FSC079

Free Selector, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye sons of industry, to you I belong, And to you I would dedicate a verse or a song, Rejoicing over the victory John Robertson has won, Now the Land Bill has passed...." The singer rejoices that he will be able to settle down and work rather than travel
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Wannan)
KEYWORDS: home Australia farming
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1861 - Sir John Robertson passes the New South Wales Free Selection Act, allowing the poorer members of the population freer access to land
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, p. 87, "The Free Selector's Song - 1861" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), p. 178, "The Free Selector" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), p. 281, "The Free Selector" (1 text)
NOTES [45 words]: Wannan calls this "A song of 1861," which it clearly is, but gives no reference to the source except "traditional." Yet Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads's version is significantly different, so there does seem to have been some change by tradition (or something). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Wanna178

Free Selector's Song, The

See The Free Selector (File: Wanna178)

Free Silver

DESCRIPTION: "Laboring men please all attend While I relate my history, Money it is very scarce...." "The farmer is the cornerstone, though he is cruelly treated. Bryan is the poor man's friend...." "We'll arise, defend free silver's cause...."
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters") ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: money political nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 7, 1896 - William Jennings Bryan gives his "Cross of Gold" speech calling for a silver currency
1896, 1900, 1908 - Bryan's three runs for the presidency
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 191-192, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 194-195)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 283, "Free Silver" (1 text, plus a 1939 WPA transcription on p. 284)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wait for the Wagon (Free Silver version)" (subject of Free Silver and the 1896 election)
cf. "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight (Bryan Version)" (subject of the 1896 election)
cf. "Bryan Campaign Song" (subject of the 1896 election)
cf. "Don't You Know (Way Over in Williamson)" (subject of the 1896 election)
cf. "We Want None of Thee" (subject of the 1896 election)
cf. "The Patchs on My Pants" (subject of the 1896 election)
cf. "Bye, Old Grover" (subject of the 1896 election?)
NOTES [4016 words]: William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925) was a curious mix of genius and fool. A genuine peacemaker and friend of the poor, and a brilliant speaker, he had neither economic nor scientific sense (as he demonstrated by serving as prosecutor in the Scopes trial as well as by his support of "free silver").
It should be noted that silver had been legal tender from 1792 (Jameson, p. 600). But the original goal had not been to fix a price ratio; the coinage act of 1837 had intended the ratio to float. The imbalance, at times, was substantial. Phillips, p. 50, demonstrates how fast the "exchange rate" fluctuated in the 1870s after western silver mines made the metal much more abundant: In 1873, the amount of silver in a silver dollar was worth one dollar in gold, but only 99 cents in 1874, 96 cents in 1875, and 89 cents in 1876! Thus there was more than a 10% premium on gold over silver.
But the ratio at the time of the 1837 Act was 16:1 (Jones, p. 6), so that was what was remembered. However, in 1873, with little silver actually being used by the treasury, the coinage act of 1873 had demonetized silver -- though it did so so quietly that many people at the time did not realize it! (Jones, pp. 10-11. It was claimed that even President Grant was unaware of it).
The 16:1 ratio had not been maintained over time. By the 1890s, "Those opposed to the free coinage of silver protested that since 1837 the market value of silver had declined by almost half and that in reality the market value between the two metals was about 32 to 1" (Jones, p. 12). But the 16:1 ratio was remembered -- and remembered in particular by those who found themselves in a credit squeeze. Farmers had seen commodity prices fall below break-even levels (for a typical discussion of the heartbreak of western farmers, see the notes to "Marching for Freedom"), while they still had to pay off their loans. It was this which resulted in the rise of the Populist party in the midwest in the 1890s. Like most populists, they were radical in their desire for change, their reforms were such as to strike genuine liberals as reactionary (Jones, p. 75); certainly they were economically naive.
By the 1890s, farmers oppressed by debt were begging for a loosening of the money supply. Several proposals were floated in populist circles, such as a plan to bring back "greenbacks" (paper money not backed by gold) or a plan for specialized local banks called "sub-treasuries" (Jones, p. 79; the latter, if they had lent appropriately, sounds like it might have worked). But the most common proposed solution was free coinage of silver.
That debtors needed relief is beyond question; the deflation problem was genuine. That free silver was the answer is unlikely. Even Jameson, p. 480, writing *during* the Panic of 1893, recorded that "The crisis of 1893 seems to have been rather due to financial legislation than to an unsound condition of the business of the country." More recent experts have generally agreed: The imbalance caused by silver and gold being arbitrarily linked at an unnatural exchange rate led to an unstable monetary supply and led to disaster. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 had called for purchase of a limited amount of silver for use as currency -- at a 16:1 ratio to gold by weight (Graff, pp. 101, 103).
The problem with free silver was not silver-as-currency, it was with the notion of an irrational, non-floating exchange rate between silver and gold. But that was the situation in 1890-1893. Little wonder that the economy suffered -- in effect, people used silver to buy gold, and then hoarded the gold. Capital dried up -- and so, separately, did government finances, resulting not only in the Panic of 1893 but also in a near-government bankruptcy in that year that forced President Cleveland to borrow gold at high rates of interest (Graff, pp. 114-115). So the government attempted to free itself of the silver requirement.
Entry Bryan. A lawyer by training, he had never been particularly good at law (Jones, p. 65; Glad, p. 26, notes that the cow college that he went to "did not mold him into a scholar nor greatly challenge his intellect"; it merely gave him the chance to figure out what to do with his life). But he was a brilliant campaigner (not *politician*, note; campaigner). "His major asset undoubtedly was an unusually beautiful voice, which he could project with ease to the furthest corner of a large and crowded public hall" (Jones, p. 64). With his wife's help, he wrote brilliant speeches (Mary Baird Bryan eventually managed to join the bar in her own right -- Glad, p. 28 -- and must have been truly brilliant to manage to overcome the prejudices of the time). He was also good at speaking off the cuff. It earned him a Nebraska congressional seat in 1892 -- as a Democrat in a year when Populists were sweeping the Farm Belt. He did not seek a third term in 1894 (Glad, p. 30, thinks he gave up in the face of conservative opposition), probably hoping to gain a senate seat that year (he had already been passed over in 1892/1893), but the Nebraska legislature was not in Democratic hands (Jones, p. 69), so he wrote newspaper editorials and gave speeches. Were he alive today, he would doubtless have made a very successful Baptist televangelist.
It was his suggestion that the Populist Party hold its convention after the two regular parties so that it could "take advantage of the errors of the old parties" (Jones, p. 71). In hindsight, this proposal was probably good for Bryan -- but certainly not for the Populists; had they taken up a silver plank first, they might have brought a lot of Democrats to their side, and perhaps even have caused the Democrats to nominate a "gold bug" and let the Populists win with a plurality, but with Bryan already the Democratic nominee, there was no place for them.
Had he had brains to go with his gifts, Bryan might have accomplished great things. But he had all the worst traits of a populist: He might see a real problem, but he would go for the simplest possible answer and never think about it again. We often think of him being the Surprise of the 1896 Democratic Convention. But experts knew about his views for years before that. Bryan had adopted the cause of free silver, and backed it with all his intensity -- people were calling him the "Nebraska Cyclone," the "Knight of the West," and, of course, "Silver-tongued" (Jones, p. 67). Writers such as Willa Cather, Hamlin Garland, and Vachel Lindsay were deeply drawn to him (Jones, pp. 65-66), and Edgar Lee Masters would say of him, "The period of American political history between 1896 and 1900 belonged distinctively to Mr. Bryan" (Jones, p. 66).
So he already had an audience before the 1896 Democratic convention. Probably few thought of him as presidential material. But he had been quietly campaigning -- very quietly; his campaign consisted of himself, his wife, and some clerks; he was deliberately setting himself up as an underdog (Jones, p. 185). Most campaigns on that scale go nowhere. But 1896 was different: The Free Silver forces dominated the Democratic convention -- but they didn't have a candidate: "At this point the silver Democrats themselves lacked a hero, a Democratic leader with sufficient personal magnetism and stature, to be accepted by everyone as a symbolic representative of the cause for which they were battling. Above all now they needed a positive leader" (Jones, p. 217).
They didn't even really have a plan, except to control the convention (several states had sent two delegations, pro- and anti-silver. The convention seated the silver delegates -- including a Nebraska delegation that was in Bryan's pocket. One wonders what would have happened had they seated the other delegation. Silver would still have dominated the convention -- but Bryan wouldn't have had any position. He still didn't have any campaign staff. The first days of the convention passed in paralysis and utter boredom as committees dominated by Silver supporters tried to figure things out (Jones, pp. 219-224). All the other delegates could do was listen to boring speeches.
Then it was Bryan's turn. His speech wasn't even entirely about silver. A lot of it was about labor and the relationship between labor and business: "The man who is employed for wages is just as much a business man as his employer." "There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that, if you will only legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea, however, has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up through every class which rests upon them" (Jones, p. 228).
But it got to silver in the end: "We will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."
That wasn't Bryan's only grand rhetorical flourish. There were plenty of others, e.g. the pro-farmer line, "Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country" (Glad, p. 138 -- a quote which shows just how enamored of the Jeffersonian nation of farmers Bryan was). Or "If they ask us why it is that we say more on the money question than we say upon the tariff question, I reply that, if protection has slain its thousands, the gold standard has slain its tens of thousands" (Glad, p. 137. an invocation of 1 Samuel 18:7=21:11, "Saul has slain his thousands And David his tens of thousands." Ironically, Bryan, like King Saul, misinterpreted the phrase -- like most Hebrew poetry, it is a parallelism, with both Saul and David inflicting many deaths, praising both in the same way. But Bryan treated it as if it were an antithesis.). But it was the Cross of Gold that really got people's attention; it was a truly powerful line.
Ironically, the "Cross of Gold" speech wasn't even a campaign speech. It was a speech to support the Platform Committee's draft of a pro-silver platform (Jones, p. 229). But it swept the convention. The platform passed -- and then it was time for the nominations. The silver forces, which had come united in ideas but with no standard-bearer, had found their voice.
The silver platform caused at least one major candidate to withhold his name from nomination, but there were still many names placed before the convention. Bryan did not lead after the first ballot -- but he was second, and he gained steadily, and with the anti-silver forces mostly abstaining, he was nominated on the fifth ballot (Jones, pp. 233-236). Bryan became the youngest serious presidential candidate in history.
Glad, p. 130, says, "With the advantage of historical perspective it is easy to see that of all possible choices in or out of the Democratic party William Jennings Bryan had the best chance for the nomination. No one had been more active in the silver movement; yet no one had more deftly avoided tying himself to any particular organization." I'm not sure I agree. It's true that Bryan had no enemies -- but he had no particular constituency, either. His problem was to get the foot in the door. Once he had done that, then yes, he was an obvious consensus choice.
Which still didn't solve all the silverites' problems: They no more had an obvious vice presidential candidate than they had had a presidential, and Bryan didn't care who was chosen. So it took them another five ballots to nominate Arthur Sewall (Jones, pp. 237-238).
A few conservative Democrats were so upset that they scheduled another convention and nominated a pair of Civil War generals, Unionist John M. Palmer and Confederate Simon Bolivar Buckner, for President and Vice President (Jones, pp. 269-272). They received the informal endorsement of President Clevelend (Jones, p. 274), but they never got organized and don't seem to have affected the outcome in any way.
Much more significant was the fact that a genuine third party had been coalescing over the previous decade -- the Populists had had good success in several areas, and in 1892, their candidate James B. Weaver had won 22 electoral votes and four states plus one vote each in two others. (It helped that the Democrats had not had an official candidate in a few states! -- Jones, p. 342.) And they were genuinely the party with the most ideas (not all good ideas, but at least new ideas). With both parties fracturing over Free Silver, they had a real chance to clean up if they could unite those defectors. But that meant they had to be a Free Silver party (Jones, pp. 206-207) -- and so, when the Democrats nominated Bryan, they had to either support him or split the Silver vote. It put them in a dilemma, and they knew it; many Populists said that they had to find a way to set themselves apart (Jones, p. 255). So they sort of split the difference, nominating Thomas E. Watson (for whom see "Thomas E. Watson") as their vice presidential candidate but making Bryan their presidential choice (Jones, pp. 258-259), meaning that Bryan was in the unique situation of running with two vice presidential nominees. So they had roped their wagon to a horse that someone else was controlling. Despite their attempts to distinguish themselves from the Democrats, it would destroy the party. Indeed, it resulted in an internal party war (Jones, pp. 260-262); one wonders how the election would have turned out had the Populists held together.
To be fair, if the Democrats were a one-issue party at this time, so was William McKinley. He "had devoted his career to tariff protection with a singular concentration. It was literally true that he knew nothing else, that the issues of money and banking, foreign policy, and so on, were largely mysteries to him" (Jones, pp. 105-106). Philipps, p. 42, is less harsh but calls the tariff "McKinley's focal point" and allows that "McKinley's enthusiasm for protection was part of what led foes to call him a front man for corporations, trusts, and plutocrats" and on p. 48 points to a link between the tariffs McKinley supported and high rates of inequality and the formation of monopolies.
Glad, p. 16, notes a peculiar irony: McKinley, "whose financial affairs revealed no great business insight," nonetheless supported the policies that were thought to be pro-business and "accepted completely the outlook of the captain of industry." Bryan, whose business dealings were more successful, supported the perspective and hopes of the farmer and laborer. McKinley did at least have more experience of government: Like Bryan a lawyer, he had spent enough time in congress to have vied for Speaker of the House (and was made chair of the Ways and Means Committee when he failed to achieve that) as well as governor of Ohio (Glad, pp. 19-20). Glad, p. 21, concludes, "Endowed with modest talents, he made his way with diligent application and hard work" -- plus, I would say, the unusual combination of patience with soaring ambition.
High tariffs weren't the direct economic suicide that free silver was, but America by this time was a fairly advanced economy; the high tariffs probably did more harm than good. It says something about the choices in 1896 that both parties were devoted to bad economic policies. Glad, p. 50: "Both McKinley and Bryan were men of good will.... Yet neither was prepared to look squarely at the realities of American economic development; neither could resist ordering facts to fit a mythological frame of reference."
Glad, p. 31, reminds us, "Perhaps the fundamental point to be emphasized in any comparison of Bryan and McKinley is that both men were essentially conservative. In every personal quality the two reflected their respective portions of the American experience. In every expression of opinion, in every decision, and in every commitment, one could appeal to a tradition as characteristically American as could the other. It is true that in the dramatic campaign of 1896 Bryan became associated with agrarian radicalism. But that radicalism was by no means Marxist.... He idealized the sturdy yeoman farmer of the Jeffersonian heritage." Which wasn't exactly a good starting point for assembling a top-down political movement! P. 48 reminds us, "Although he knew he could not restore the Jeffersonian world, he yearned for the ethical purity which he associated with that world. And he was prepared to act in the interest of economic justice as agrarians conceived it." Whereas McKinley believed in the competitive power of business, and considered the farmers economic failures (Glad, p. 49). Which they were, in a sense, except that they were necessary failures -- and there are only so many spots at the top of the economic ladder! Making it further ironic was McKinley's fondness for tariffs -- he believed in competition, but only between Americans, which is not the path to economic efficiency!
"Advocates of both gold and silver believed that free coinage of silver would have an inflationary effect" (Glad, p. 76) -- which is certainly true. It's just that the free silver people welcomed it -- without realizing that free coinage of silver would cause unsustainable inflation; this was a period when prices generally went down (due to mechanization and increased agricultural production), not up.
The one thing that McKinley was really, really good at was manipulating the nominating process; Jones devoted pp. 114-157 to his mind-numbingly dull process of nailing down convention delegates, which was so effective and inexorable -- and so lacking in actual campaigning -- that some suspected he was setting up the Democrats to nominate an unelectable candidate; Jones, p. 155. I don't think McKinley was smart enough to actually plan that, but the Democrats really did produce an unelectable candidate. Even apart from the man they nominated, the Democratic process seemed pure chaos next to the Republicans. Many attributed the GOP organization to McKinley's ally Mark Hanna, which Jones, pp. 176-177, believes dramatically overstates Hanna's abilities, but there is no question but that the McKinley campaign was as calculating as any in history, and the Republican convention the most rigidly stage-managed until well into the twentieth century. McKinley stayed away, as was the custom -- but Mark Hanna was there, and McKinley and the campaign had connections by both telegraph and telephone (Glad, p. 108), so McKinley had all the advantages of staying away and most of those of being present. Bryan, by contrast, was on the spot, and his campaign had little money and little organization -- in many states, even the Democratic establishment wouldn't support him (Jones, p. 297).
(Ironically, many Republicans were also pro-silver to some degree, and while the Republican platform explicitly called for retaining the gold standard, it also wanted to "promote" an "international agreement" about making silver currency; Jones, p.168).
The Cross of Gold speech was great oratory. As a fiscal policy, it was nonsense. As was much else Bryan spouted. As journalist Oswald Garrison Vilard said, "Of all the men I have seen at close range in thirty-one years of newspaper service, Mr. Bryan seemed to me the most ignorant" (Chace, p. 85).
Bryan did everything he could, holding rally after rally with adoring crowds while the stiff-spoken McKinley followed the traditional practice of not campaigning much (Jones, pp. 276-277). Jones, p. 309, thinks that the early period of this Tour was Bryan's peak -- if the election had been held right then, he might have had a chance.
Indeed, McKinley's own campaign computations implied Bryan could win. There were 447 electoral votes to be decided (HammondAtlas, p. U-60). Glad, p. 168, reports that the McKinley camp felt confident of New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania -- 117 electoral votes. They held the advantage in the Old Northwest states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin (88 electoral votes). So that was 205, short of the 224 needed. Bryan, they knew, would hold the Solid South (about 125 votes), and they expected him to take the agricultural west (58 votes excluding the states on the West Coast, for a total of 183 or so. Leaving about sixty electoral votes up in the air. So Bryan could win if he held all the open states or made a move on the Old Northwest. But then McKinley's relentless campaign organization began its slow, steady counter-attack -- backed by a huge war-chest; Glad, p. 169, estimates that a quarter of the contributions to the McKinley campaign were in the amount of $1,000 or more (on the order of $35,000 2023 dollars), and the total haul at more than three and a half million dollars (substantially more than a hundred million 2023 dollars). Whereas Bryan's contributions were mostly in small amounts, and not that may of those; bankrupt farmers didn't have much to give!
While Bryan inspired fervent devotion in certain circles, the country was basically conservative, and the Republicans exploited that, hosting big flag-waving rallies shortly before the election to mobilize mindless patriotism (Jones, pp. 291-292. Reading some of McKinley's statements frankly makes me feel diseased, it's such idolatrous flag-worship). Nor did they do anything to help quell the whispers that Bryan was a revolutionary (Jones, p. 293). Surprisingly many ministers preached against free silver on the grounds that inflation robbed those who had lent money (Jones, p. 337; this of course ignores the fact that deflation robbed those that borrowed and the Bible argued against usury anyway). Most of the newspapers also supported McKinley -- and, in many cases, just reprinted McKinley press releases as news: "Three and a half columns of specially prepared matter were sent out every week" (Glad, p. 170), and many of them were translated into the native languages of immigrants -- even such relatively obscure languages as Finnish and Hebrew.
The result was an extremely heavy turnout -- the largest vote total in history to that time, and not to be exceeded for another twelve years (Jones, p. 340). There was talk of vote manipulation, but no real evidence was ever suggested. But Bryan lost. (He would lose by wider margins in 1900 and 1908.) McKinley, as expected, won the Northeast and the Old Northwest; also West Virginia and most of Maryland's votes, plus most of California and Oregon. And he even picked up some of the agricultural west: Iowa, Minnesota, and North Dakota. McKinley, according to HammondAtlas, p. U-60, picked up only 51% of the popular vote, to 47% for Bryan and 2% minor -- but he won 271 electoral votes (61%); it was a clear if not overwhelming victory.
Bryan did change the course of the Democratic party, which for the first time became open to liberal ideas. And, because his positions caused the Populist party to join the Democrats in nominating him, he helped destroy the Populists (Jones, p. 83).
In another irony, Bryan's Free Silver campaign failed, but his secondary theme, that the Democratic Party was the party of working people, took hold: It would be a few more years before it became established, but for many decades the Democrats were the pro-workers party, and generally had their support. Until the Republican Party got taken over by Populists in the 2010s, just as Silver Populists had taken over the Democrats the century before. (The change in the Republican party was similar: Although progressivism had a brief vogue under Theodore Roosevelt, McKinley was largely responsible for turning the Republicans, until then the more liberal party, into the party of conservatism.)
Several other songs in the Index also refer to the election of 1896, although there is little evidence that any of them truly went into tradition; see "Don't You Know," "The Patches on My Pants," "That Prosperity Wave," and "We Want None of Thee." For the second Bryan/McKinley election, in 1900, see "Bryan Campaign Song." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa191

Free Slave, The

DESCRIPTION: "I stand as a free man beside the northern banks Of old Erie, the freshwater sea, And it cheers my very soul to behold the billows roll And to think, like the waves, I am free." The slave recalls the abuse he suffered, but he is safe under British laws
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, E. R. Nance Singers)
KEYWORDS: slavery freedom
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1793 - Sale of slaves outlawed in Canada
1833 - Slavery abolished in the British Empire
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 96-98, "The Free Slave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4520
RECORDINGS:
E. R. Nance Singers [or Traphill Twins], "Sweet Freedom" (Brunswick 565/Supertone S-2813, 1931)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O Freedom"
NOTES [34 words]: This may be a version of "O Freedom"; at least, Ed Trickett sings a version of "O Freedom" with many of the same words. But this text is highly detailed, whereas "O Freedom" is usually rather vague. - RBW
File: FMB096

Free Thinkers Reasons for Refusing to Preach

DESCRIPTION: "I am plagued with my friends and neighbors to boot, To know what religion my conscience would fit... I'll love mankind better and take a good drink." The singer lists the religions suggested for him. He studies all, wishes all well... and keeps drinking
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (Journal of the Polly)
KEYWORDS: humorous drink religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 317-318, "Free Thinkers Reasons for Refusing to Preach" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27501
File: HGam317

Free, Free My Lord (I)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Free, free my Lord (3x), To march the heaven's highway." The singer cries for pardon; "the Lord did give me ease." His mother turned his soul from hell, "King Jesus set me free." The Father redeemed his soul, the Son set him free.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Odum)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL} Howard W. Odum, Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes, (reprint from American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, July 1909, Vol.3 pp. 265-365 "Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 43-44, "Free, Free My Lord" (1 text)
NOTES [37 words]: Odum writes that this is the song as it was current around 1909. He had earlier collected a verse, indexed here as "King Jesus Will Be Mine," which was sung as part of this song but apparently had a separate existence. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: NoRFrFML

Free, Free My Lord (II)

See King Jesus Will Be Mine (File: Edwa011)

Freebooter, The

DESCRIPTION: "How merry is the life of the Freebooter bold, His pouch is filled with the glittering gold; His hear gay and light is devoted to love and his own lady bright, His drink is red wine.... With... their gla(i)ves and their gold, How merry is the life of...."
AUTHOR: Music: John Jolly (1794-1838) (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (sheet music, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate love drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 55, "The Freebooter" (1 text)
Roud #V25192
File: FrPi055

Freeda Bolt

See Young Freda Bolt (File: CAFS1209)

Freedom Are Come Oh

DESCRIPTION: The singer says freedom has come. He gives his "bill ... hoe" to King George and says he is going. He asks "who been are say dat freedom no are come"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: parting farming freedom slavery nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 19, "Freedom Are Come Oh" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ElTo019

Freedom Is a Constant Struggle

DESCRIPTION: "They say that freedom is a constant struggle (x3) Oh Lord, we've struggled so long, We must be free, we must be free." Similarly, "They say that freedom is a constant crying..." "constant sorrow..." "constant moaning..." "constant dying..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: freedom nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 298, "Freedom Is a Constant Struggle" (1 text)
File: FSWB298

Freedom on the Wallaby

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees freedom in the Australian outback, and recalls how Australia was settled by freedom-loving British citizens. Having built homes, they find the government trying to control them. He calls on citizens to rebel
AUTHOR: Words: Henry Lawson (1867-1922)
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Magoffin)
KEYWORDS: Australia political freedom
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 166-167, "Freedom on the Wallaby" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WALLABBY*
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 206-207, "Freedom on the Wallaby" (1 text)
Richard Magoffin, _Waltzing Matilda: The Story Behind the Legend_, 1983; revised and illustrated edition, ABC Enterprises, 1987, pp. 47-48, "Freedom on the Wallaby" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Australia's on the Wallaby"
NOTES [230 words]: Magoffin, pp. 44-46, describes this as coming out of the shearers' strike of 1891, which turned violent when the government treated it as outright insurrection, Magoffin says on p. 46 that it made Lawson notorious. O'Keeffe, p. 126, says it was debated in the Queensland parliament, with Lawson branded a "dangerous subversive." O'Keeffe goes on to claim that the lines "She's goin' to light another fire and boil another billy" helped inspire the swagman's billy of "Waltzing Matilda."
While this piece is assuredly by Henry Lawson, it is not clear whether it is an adaption or a forerunner of "Australia's on the Wallaby." Davey/Seal, p. 129, say that there are multiple versions of the text, which is sung to several tunes, but the "Australia's on the Wallaby" tune is widely used.
Manifold, p. 137, says, "'Freedom on the Wallaby' is another Lawson poem that has got itself sung. The first tune I met was reported to have come from Townsville. Another, perhaps a long-range ariant of the former, was tape-recorded by the Folklore Society in Victoria. The words have an affinity to those of an anonymous bush poe printed by 'Bill Bowyang' [i.e. presumably 'Australia's on the Wallaby'], and the tune or tunes may have been transferred directly from one set of words to the other."
According to MacDougall, p. 343, the poem made "blood on the wattle" an Australian byword. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: PASB167

Freedom Triumphant

DESCRIPTION: When the Bastille fell French soldiers joined in the battle for freedom. "From France now see LIBERTY's TREE Its branches wide extending" and the "swine ... unite, and swear they'll bite Their unrelenting drivers"
AUTHOR: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "Madden ascribed this song to a United Irishman named Thomas Storey"
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion's text is from _Paddy's Resource_, Belfast, 1796, published by United Irishmen)
KEYWORDS: rebellion France political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 4, "Freedom Triumphant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 14, "Freedom Triumphant" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [312 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "The word 'swine' is used affectionately ... perhaps an allusion to the 'swinish multitude' denounced by Edmund Burke (Reflections on the French Revolution) and vindicated by Tom Paine (The Rights of Man)." A United Irishmen song, "The Swinish Multitude," was "sung by them as they marched to the Battle of Antrim Killen." (source: a review of The Decade of the United Irishmen--Contemporary Accounts 1791-1801 by John Killen; the review is by John Russell on the Irish Republican News site for December 18, 1997). See broadside Bodleian, Harding B 5(97), "Edmund Burke, to the Swinish Multitude" ("Ye base swinish herd, in the stye of taxation"), unknown, n.d.
Zimmermann points out that lines, including the first four, "were borrowed from the famous Orange ballad "The Battle of the Boyne"
"The Battle of the Boyne" begins
July the first, in Oldbridge town,
There was a grievous battle,
Where many a man lay on the ground,
By cannons that did rattle
"Freedom Triumphant" begins
The fourteenth of July, in Paris town,
There was a glorious battle,
Where many a tyrant lay on the ground
By cannons that did rattle
Zimmermann's tune is "Boyne Water." - BS
The sad irony is, of course, that this song was obsolete by the time it was published. By 1796, France had been through the Reign of Terror (1793-1794) and the Directory of 1795 was already losing public support; in 1796, a young fellow by the name of Napoleon was named to his first major command in Italy.
Ireland in that year would see the first of the fiascos that clustered around the 1798 rebellion; this was the year of the Bantry Bay invasion (for which see especially the notes to "The Shan Van Voght").
A song called "Greedom Triumphant" was published in the United States in 1796, to the tune of "To Anacreon in Heaven." I do not know its relationship to this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Zimm004

Freehold on the Plain, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer reports that he is now a "broken-down old squatter, my cash it is all gone." He once had a fine holding, a mansion, and a good wife -- but he turned to speculation, and now "I've lost that little freehold on the plain."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: commerce poverty rambling Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 145-146, "The Freehold on the Plain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 174-175, "The Freehold on the Plain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 166-167, "Freehold on the Plain" (1 text)
Roud #27776
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Joe the Wrangler" [Laws B5] (tune) and references there
File: FaE174

Freemason King, The

See The Building of Solomon's Temple [Laws Q39] (File: LQ39)

Freemason's Song (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "In the year of eighteen hundred and three I took a notion a Freemason to be." For his initiation he has to ride a goat, sit on a chair and "they threw me a sign from the nose to the chin saying This is our sign since Freemasons begin."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: ritual humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 114, "The Freemason's Song" (1 text)
Roud #17746
NOTES [42 words]: Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland notes that "When a man was initiated into the Freemasons he was supposed to ride a goat for five hundred miles, they said"; "This is a variant of 'The Freemason' popular on stage in the sixties." - BS
File: GrMa114

Freemason's Song (II)

DESCRIPTION: Freemasonry began in the garden where Adam's fig leaf was his mason's apron. King David and Noah were freemasons. "Now come over the mountain you maidens all, bring a square and rule along" because a freemason "will secure you on a cold winter's night"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 175, "Freemason's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1179
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Free Mason Song" (subject, themes)
NOTES [34 words]: This and the "Free Mason Song" are very similar, recounting Biblical events and connecting them to masonry. Roud lumps them. As there are no exact parallels, we split them -- but it's a close thing. - RBW
File: CrMa175

Freemasons' Song

DESCRIPTION: Freemasons meet in a Lodge. "Our secrets to none but ourselves shall be known." The singer praises buildings: they "will always proclaim What honour is due to a Freemason's name." Others deride us; "let every true brother these vermin despise"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad ritual
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #156, p. 1, "Freemasons' Song" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 466, "Freemasons' Song" (1 text)
Roud #5964
NOTES [83 words]: It is technically true that the Masons had secrets -- rituals, handshakes, and even a so-called secret code of a very simple sort, based on a tic-tac-toe grid and an x, so that, e.g., the letter "o" was "|-|"; the letter "i" was "|-."; and the letter "w" was "\/" (for details, and clearer drawings -- the above are not quite right -- see Fred B. Wrixon, Codes, Ciphers, & Other Cryptic & Clandestine Communications, Barnes & Noble, 1998). But few of these "secrets" were really very secret. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3466

Freight Train

DESCRIPTION: "Freight train, freight train, run so fast/Please don't tell what train I'm on/So they won't know where I've gone." Rest of song gives singer's wishes for her burial "at the foot of old Chestnut Street."
AUTHOR: Elizabeth Cotten
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (composed c. 1905?)
KEYWORDS: train burial death nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 521-523, "Freight Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 120, "Freight Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 63, "Freight Train" (1 text)
DT, FRGHTRN
RECORDINGS:
Marianne Corbino, "Freight Train" (Piotr-Archive #633, recorded 08/10/2023, much changed and very fragmentary)
Elizabeth Cotten, "Freight Train" (on Cotten01, ClassRR) (on Cotten03)
Pete Seeger, "Freight Train" (on PeteSeeger34)
NOTES [107 words]: Though not folk in origin, it was so widely recorded in the Sixties that it did seem briefly to go into oral tradition, though I suspect it's nearly dead as a folk song by now.
The popularity of the song seems to have been due partly to its use as a fingerpicking exercise. It is ironic to note that Elizabeth Cotten herself was left-handed, but instead of playing a left-handed guitar, she played a right-handed guitar flipped 180 degrees (i.e. she had her left hand on the fretboard, but with the bass strings on top and the treble on the bottom). So effectively none of the people imitating her style are actually imitating her technique. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CSW120

Freight Train Blues (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I hate to hear that engine blow, boo-hoo (x2), Every time I hear it blowin' I feel like ridin' too." The singer wants to travel to forget her man. She asks to ride the blinds; the brakeman says no. She compares how men and women get the blues
AUTHOR: Thomas Dorsey (1899-1993) and Everett Murphy
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (copyright); also recordings by Trixie Smith and Clara Smith
KEYWORDS: train separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 446-449, "Freight Train Blues (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LSRai446

Freight Train Blues (II)

DESCRIPTION: "I was born in Dixie in a boomer's shack, Just a little shanty by the railroad track...." "I got the freight train blues... When the whistle blows, I got to go...." The singer tells of how the rails have always ruled his life; he cannot outgrow them
AUTHOR: John Lair
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Billy Brooks)
KEYWORDS: railroading rambling love
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 524-527, "Freight Train Blues (II)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 22, #2 (1973), p, 19, "Freight Train Blues" (1 text, 1 tune, apparently learned from tradition by Derroll Adams)
Roud #16393
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff, "Freight Train Blues" (Vocalion 04466/OKeh 04466/Conqueror 9121 [as Roy Acuff & his Smoky Mountain Boys], 1938; Columbia 37008, 1946 [vocal may be by Sam Hatcher]; Columbia 20034/Columbia 37598, c. 1947 [vocal apparently by Acuff, but may be Hatcher]; rec. 1936) [It appears that some releases of this song, including Columbia 20034 and 37008, used the same record number for the Hatcher and Acuff masters]
Billy Brooks, "Freight Train Blues" (Columbia 15614-D, c. 1931; rec. 1930) [Note I'm guessing this is the same song; I have not heard it. - PJS]
Pete Cassell, "Freight Train Blues" (Decca 5954,1941; Decca 46084/Decca 46103, 1947)
Homer & Walter Callahan, "Freight Train Blues" (ARC 6-09-53/Conqueror 6831/Okeh 03171/Vocalion 03171, 1936; Columbia 37613/Columbia 20200, 1947)
Richard O. Hamilton, "Freight Train Blues" (on USWarnerColl01)
File: LSRai524

Freight Wreck at Altoona, The

See The Wreck of the 1262 (The Freight Wreck at Altoona) (File: DTwrck12)

Freighting from Wilcox to Globe

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you jolly freighters who travel upon the rooad That ever hauled a load of coke from Wilcox to Globe!" A tale of a bad trip, with everything overpriced, and having a mule stolen. The singer hopes to go into business and treat them as they did him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (recorded from Abrabam John Busby, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: work travel hardtimes commerce
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 20, "Freighting from Wilcox to Globe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 62-64, "Freighting from Wilcox to Globe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 532, "Freighting from Wilcox to Globe" (1 text)
Roud #8016
NOTES [49 words]: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest lists the tune of this as "Home, Dearie, Home," and that is obviously the source of the chorus of their version (the Abraham John Busby version). The verse doesn't fit it especially well, though; I wonder if it was actually written to that tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FCW020

French Cathedrals (Orleans, Beaugency)

DESCRIPTION: Three part Round. "Orleans, Beaugency, Notre Dame de Cléry, Vendôme, Vendôme."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (GirlScouts-SingTogether)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 437, 442, "French Cathedrals"/"Orleans, Beaugency" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 101, "French Cathedrals" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 33, "French Cathedrals" (1 short text, 1 tune)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 5, "French Cathedrals (1 short text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Helen Barnes-Rielly, ""Chapels of France" (Le Carillon de Vendôme)" (Piotr-Archive #208, recorded 07/27/2022. Sound quality very poor)
Judy Cook, ""French Cathedrals" (Le Carillon de Vendôme)" (Piotr-Archive #254, recorded 09/13/2022)
File: ACSF437F

French Privateer, The

DESCRIPTION: The Irish ship goes to sea, and after four days overtakes a Spanish ship, which they defeat. They prepare to pursue the defeated ship, but a French privateer come in sight. They sink the French ship, but the Spaniard escapes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: ship sea battle escape pirate
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H560, pp. 112-113, "The French Privateer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 33-34, "The Spanish Privateer" (1 text)
Roud #690
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The American and Irish Privateer" (on IRRCinnamond03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Warlike Seamen (The Irish Captain)" (plot, lyrics) and references there
cf. "The Terrible Privateer" (plot)
cf. "Captain Coulston" (plot)
cf. "The Dolphin" (plot)
NOTES [399 words]: On the face of it, the fact that Sam Henry's version of this song involves battles with both French and Spanish would seem to date the piece. It doesn't; the English were at war with both on several occasions. Even if one ignores the Spanish Armada era (when France wasn't formally at war), the British faced a Franco-Spanish coalition during parts of the War of the Spanish Succession, the War of the Austrian Succession, and the early stages of the Napoleonic Wars (the fleet which fought Nelson at Trafalgar had both French and Spanish ships, e.g.).
Huntington notes several similar songs which may be related. He seems to have missed the most famous, the Copper Family song "Warlike Seamen," which Roud lumps with this (and with others such as "The Dolphin"). Much of that piece is identical to the second half of this song, though this appears to be some sort of cross-fertilization, since they have distinct openings. It would appear that this sort of patriotic song was common, and they mixed heavily. - RBW
The Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast ballad is only slightly different from Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H560. An American, rather than French, ship interferes. Eventually the American ship flees but the Spanish prize is lost.
In Cinnamond's version "our ship the Amazon") is defeated but "then bespoke our captain boys, 'We'll make them mind the time Neither Yankee, French nor Spaniard could fight our Irish boys.'" Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople ("neither French nor Spanish can fight our Irish boys") and Ranson ("neither Yankee, Dutch nor Spaniard can match our Irish play"), each with a different result for our privateer, end with the same tag line.
Cinnamond's version makes the name of the ship Amazon and, as I hear it, the captain's name "Colvin." Maybe there is a real-life connection to this report of a Co Antrim wreck near Bangor by Bourke in Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast v2, p. 8: "The privateer Amazon was wrecked in Ballyholme bay near Bangor on 25-2-1780. Some of her cannon were recovered and one stands at Bangor where Captain Colvill is buried. The 14 gun Amazon had fought a battle with a Spanish brig off Bangor." In this connection you can read Captain George Colvill's headstone at Bangor Abbey, Co Down, or by referring to Memorial M1231 at the National Maritime Museum (UK) site; it refers to the wreck. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: HHH560

Frenchman's Ball, The

See The Wars of America (File: LoF017)

Frenchman's Description of a West Branch Cook of the Period 1875-1900, A

DESCRIPTION: "Ole John LaRoche was a boss woods cook, n' she mix up de dough on mos' every brook." She was six feet tall and weight 200 pounds. She finds unusual ways to cook for large groups, with odd results such as a bullfrog in the pea soup
AUTHOR: Burton W. Hows (died 1922) (source: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: cook humorous logger
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 154-155, "A Frenchman's Description of a West Branch Cook of the Period 1875-1900" (1 text)
File: EcSm154

Frenchmen, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer says the French and General Humbert were "too late again" at Killala Bay. He fights at Castlebar, where 700 Frenchmen help chase Lord Roden's cavalry, and when Cornwallis drives the French out, leaving Tone and Teeling to be martyred.
AUTHOR: Pete St John (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: army battle rebellion France Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
December 1796 - The French fleet is driven from Bantry Bay by "near-hurricane weather"
August 22, 1798 - A French force of 1070 French troops, under General Jean-Joseph-Amable Humbert lands at Killala Bay and defeats a garrison at Kilalla, County Mayo.
August 27, 1798 - The French and rebels route the British, "notably the Fraser Fencibles and Roden's Dragoons," at Castlebar, County Mayo.
September 8, 1798 - With Cornwallis guarding Dublin and under attack by General Lake at Ballinamuck, County Longford, the greatly outnumbered Humbert surrenders. The French prisoners were sent to Dublin and then repatriated. The Irish officers, including Teeling [and Matthew Tone], were hanged as traitors.
(source: "In the Footsteps of General Humbert: The French Invasion of Ireland, 1798" by Bill Peterson in _The Napoleonic Wargaming Club Newsletter_, Sep 2001, at the Wargames Club site)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 116, "The Frenchmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Men of the West" (subject: The landing of General Humbert) and references there
cf. "Henry Munroe" (character of Bartholomew Teeling)
NOTES [38 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: The song was written in the 1980s. - BS
For the story of General Humbert's invasion, see the notes to "The Men of the West." For the overall strategic situation, see "The Shan Van Voght." - RBW
File: Moyl116

Frennelly

See Vreneli (File: ACFS175V)

Frennet Hall

See The Fire of Frendraught [Child 196] (File: C196)

Frere and the Boy, The

See notes under Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (II) (File: OO2507)

Frere Jacques (Are You Sleeping; Brother John)

DESCRIPTION: French: "Frere Jacques (x2), Dormez-vous (x2), Sonnez les matines (x2), Din din don (x2)." English: "Are you sleeping (x2), Brother John? (x2), Morning bells are ringing (x2), Ding ding dong (x2)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1811 (melody in "Le Clw du Caveau...")
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US France
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 412, "Frere Jacques (Brother John)" (1 English and 1 French text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 268, "Brother John" (1 text, tune referenced)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 38, "Frere Jacques" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 237-238
Harbin-Parodology #330, p. 81, "Are You Sleeping" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 121, "Are You Sleeping?" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 31, "Are You Sleeping?" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 31, "Are You Sleeping" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Are You Sleeping" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 33)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 435, 436, 437, 441, 442, 447, "Are You Sleeping"/"Frère Jacques" (notes only; observe that Averill counts the French and English versions as separate songs)
DT, FRERJACQ*
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, p. 11, "Frere Jacques (Brother John)" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
SAME TUNE:
Rheumatism (File: ACSF255R)
Perfect Posture (File: Paro339)
Turkey Dinner (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 21)
Next Thanksgiving (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 21)
Cheer Up (Cheer up, ???, cheer up, ???, Smile awhile, smile awhile") (Harbin-Parodology #327, p. 81)
Black-Eyed Susan ("Black-eyed Susan! Black-eyed Susan! How are you? How are you?") (Harbin-Parodology #338, p. 84)
Uncle Jacob ("Uncle Jacob, Uncle Jacob, Smoked his pipe, smoked his pipe") (Harbin-Parodology, #340, p. 84)
Shall We Tell You? (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 436)
Scrape Your Dishes (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 436)
We Are Hungry (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 436)
You Were Primping (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 436)
NOTES [82 words]: Fuld reports that a manuscript copy of this tune was made c. 1780 (under another title); the melody was published in 1811. Words and music were first published together in 1860.
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel lists several monks or friars who might be the subject of this song, including notably Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar (for whose death see the notes to "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" [Child 164]) -- but even he concedes that none of these is likely. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB412F

Fresh Peanuts!

DESCRIPTION: Extended street cry: "Fresh peanuts! Is the best of all, They's raised in the summer and dug in the fall. I got fresh peanuts! The singer boasts of their quality, his work in preparing them, and his prices.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: commerce food nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 184, "Fresh Peanuts" (1 text)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 14-15, "Fresh Peanuts" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16405
NOTES [55 words]: Perhaps this is a token of how times have changed since the Warners collected this in 1940. The singer doesn't have sales, nor bulk discounts; he declares
I'll sell a whole five cents worth for just one nickel,
I'll sell a whole ten cents worth for one little dime.
A whole twenty-five cents worth for a quarter of a dollar. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Wa184

Friar and the Boy, The

See notes under Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (II) (File: OO2507)

Friar and the Nun, The

See One Misty, Moisty Morning (File: OO2359)

Friar in the Well, The [Child 276]

DESCRIPTION: A friar solicits a girl; she is afraid of hell. The friar points out that he can pray her out. That promise, plus cash in advance, wins her consent, but she -- claiming her father is coming -- causes him to fall into a well, dampening his ardor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1719 (Pills; tune in "The Dancing Master," 1651); a song "Fryer in the Well" was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: humorous trick
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Child 276, "The Friar in the Well" (2 texts)
Bronson 276, "The Friar in the Well" (3 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 276, "The Friar in the Well" (2 versions: #1, #2)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 273-275, "The Friar in the Well" (1 text, slightly expurgated, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 296-297, "The Maid Peeped out at the Window, or, The Friar in the Well" (1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Kinloch-TheBalladBook VII, pp. 24-29, "The Friar" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN219, "As I lay musing all alone"
DT 276, FRIARWEL* FRIARWL2*
Roud #116
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Parson and the Maid" (on Lloyd12)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Harry the Tailor" (plot)
File: C276

Fried Ham

DESCRIPTION: "Fried ham, fried ham, cheese and baloney, After macaroni, you add mustard, pickles and ketchup, Then you add some more fried ham, fried ham, fried ham.
Next verse, same as the first, (name of an accent or such), whole lot worse."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1993 (Girl Guides of Canada "Campfire Activities," according to mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: Fried Ham, Fried Ham, Cheese and Baloney")
KEYWORDS: food floatingverses nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 420, "Fried Ham" (notes only)
File: ACSF420H

Frieda Bolt

See Young Freda Bolt (File: CAFS1209)

Friendless Soldier Boy, The

See The Soldier's Poor Little Boy [Laws Q28] (File: LQ28)

Friendly Road (A Meeting; He Came from Maoriland)

DESCRIPTION: "He wasn't very clever, and he wasn't very good... But I hailed him as a brother, for -- he came from Maoriland." The speaker didn't really like other fellow,a shearer sailing away. But he drinks the other's health "for the sake of... dear old Maoriland"
AUTHOR: "Taiwai" (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Auckland "Weekly Standard," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: separation New Zealand emigration
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 126, "A Meeting" (1 text)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 73, "Friendly Road" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 46 in the 1972 edition)
File: BaRo126

Friends and Companions

See A Health to the Company (Come All My Old Comrades) (File: CrSe222)

Friends and Neighbors (Virginia's Alders)

DESCRIPTION: The singer reports, "Friends and neighbors, I am now going to leave you..." He says that, despite what people think, it is not for any wrongdoing. He simply wants to go home to "the handsome young girl I left behind" among Virginia's alders
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (Cazden, Haufrecht, Studer)
KEYWORDS: love separation rambling farewell
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 35, "Friends and Neighbors" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC035 (Partial)
Roud #4603
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Virginia's Alders
NOTES [248 words]: This song is sung to the shape note hymn "Nettleton" (one of several settings for "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing"). Cazden et al report that it has only been collected twice: From their informant George Edwards, and from a recording of another Catskills singer, Frank Edwards, who may have been related to George.
It certainly makes sense that the song is a local New York song. The main branch of the Susquehanna River rises in New York in the Catskills area and flows through Pennsylvania and a little bit of Maryland into Chesapeake Bay. Only from New York or Pennsylvania could the Susquehanna be considered a path to Virginia.
Cazden et al were unable to locate a "Kill's Ferry," and Internet searches reveal no more, but there were many ferries on the Susquehanna. Susan Q. Stranahan, Susquehanna: River of Dreams, John Hopkins University Press, 1993, p. 44, says that "A handful of ferries offered passage, including one that began ferrying passengers in 1695 at the mouth of the river at Havre de Grace, and another, to the north, started by John Harris in 1712." Probably one of these ferries near the mouth of the river is meant, because from there it is a relatively short distance to Virginia.
Alternately, perhaps, "Kill's Ferry" might be an error for "Hill's Ferry." There is a Hill Island in the Susquehanna near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (and even closer to Three Mile Island). Was there ever a ferry there? I don't know, but it looks like it might be a good spot. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: FSC035

Friends of Temperance

DESCRIPTION: "Friends of temperance, lift your banners, Wave them in the air, Sing ye now your glad hosannahs, Sing them loud and clear. Lo, the hour of victory cometh, See the dawning day. Rouse ye, drunkards, break your bondage, Dash your cups away!"
AUTHOR: Arthur Bittenger?
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (printing known to Randolph)
KEYWORDS: drink
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 326, "Friends of Temperance" (1 text)
Roud #7800
File: R326

Friendship Is a Shining Thing

DESCRIPTION: "Friendship is a shining thing, A steady beam of light, A lantern on a lonely street, A song far in the night... And oh, the happy little child, Bringing home a daffodil." ""Friendship is a binding tie." "Friendship feels so warm inside."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: friend flowers nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 543, "Friendship Is a Shiny Thing" (notes only)
File: ACSF543F

Friendship Is a Shiny Thing

See Friendship Is a Shining Thing (File: ACSF543F)

Friendship on Indian Run

DESCRIPTION: "Just seeing you, Bill, in the bar-room, hedged in by companions, tonight, All dressed in persnickety fashion." The singer actually wondered if it was the same Bill he knew in the logging camp on Indian Run. He recalls the men they worked with
AUTHOR: John D. Wells? (source: Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: lumbering friend moniker
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 50-51, "Friendship on Indian Run" (1 text) (pp. 40-41 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #14080
File: Shoe050

Friendship With a Hog

See The Pig Got Up and Slowly Walked Away (File: RcPGUSWA)

Frigging Fusileers, The

DESCRIPTION: A mock boast in which the singer(s), "the heroes of the night," brag they are ever eager for beer and women.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex drink
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 518-522, "The Frigging Fusileers" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Foreskin Fusileers
The Fucking [Foreskin] Fusileers
File: RL518

Frigging in the Rigging

See The Good Ship Venus (File: EM315)

Frijole Beans

DESCRIPTION: "I've cooked you in he strongest gypsum water, I've boiled you up in water made of sow"; the singer owes his life to frijole beans. Yes, they cause digestive problems, but people eat them anyway. He will finish his portion and hit the pike
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: food travel cowboy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 68-69, "Frijole Beans" (1 text)
File: ThLo068

Frisch Auf Mit Alle Mann an Deck

See Frisch Auf, Alle Mann an Deck (Lively There, All Hands on Deck) (File: Hug535)

Frisch Auf, Alle Mann an Deck (Lively There, All Hands on Deck)

DESCRIPTION: German shanty. Sentimental song about a ship facing a storm. Describes efforts to make the ship fast, sounds and images of the storm, thoughts of loved ones, and how hard the sailor's lot is compared to those on shore. Ch: "Holla-hi, holla-he, holla-ho!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Baltzer's _Knurrhahn_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty ship storm
FOUND IN: Germany
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 535-537, "Frisch Auf, Alle Mann an Deck" (2 texts, German & English, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 140-141, "Firsch Auf Mit Alle Mann an Deck" (2 texts, German & English, 1 tune)
File: Hug535

Frisky

See Poor Pussy (File: Grd81673)

Frisky Jim

See Happy, Frisky Jim (File: R431)

Fritz Truan, a Great Cowboy

DESCRIPTION: "Over the divide a great cowboy did go, To ride broncs in heaven at the big rodeo. I've watched him ride since I was fifteen, Up till the day he became a marine." Truan's skill is remembered; the poet "bet[s] Fritz got a hundred before they got him."
AUTHOR: Larry Finley
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse soldier death recitation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1945 - Death of Fritz Truan during the battle for Iwo Jima
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 35, "Fritz Truan, a Great Cowboy" (1 text)
NOTES [24 words]: According to Ohrlin, Truan won sundry world championship events in 1939 and 1940, but joined the Marines during World War II and perished. - RBW
File: Ohr035

Frog A-Courting, A

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Frog and Crow

See The Frog and the Crow (File: Boet095)

Frog and the Crow of Ennow

See The Frog and the Crow (File: Boet095)

Frog and the Crow, The

DESCRIPTION: "A (funny/jolly) fat frog lived in the river," and a crow suggests it come ashore. The frog says it will bite him. The crow replies that there is sweet music and a dance. The frog leaves the river and, just before it is eaten, asks where the dance is.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (Notes & Querries, as "The Frog and the Crow of Ennow")
KEYWORDS: animal bird food trick
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 95, "Frog and Crow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7520
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Frog and the Crow of Ennow
NOTES [26 words]: Chaunticleer, meet Fox. This is very much like Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale, except without the happy ending. As written, it sounds like a beast fable. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Boet095

Frog and the Mouse (I), The

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Frog and the Mouse (II), The

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Frog and the Mouse, The

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Frog at the Bottom of the Lake

See There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea (File: Br3135)

Frog He Went A-Courting, A

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Frog He Would A-Wooing Go, (A)

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Frog in the Meadow

See Frog in the Middle (File: ScaNF130)

Frog in the Middle

DESCRIPTION: Children's game: "Frog in the middle And can't get out. Take a stick And punch him out." (Or "Frog in the meadow/millpond, Can't get him out; Take a little stick And stir him about.")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1921 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5); 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 130, (no title) (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 535, "Frog in the Middle" (1 short text, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 81-82, "Froggie's in the Meadow" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 8, "Froggie's in the Meadow" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 25, "Froggie-in-the-Millpond"; p. 78, "Froggie in the Millpond" (2 texts)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Rachel Cranford, collector), "Games and Game Rhymes", Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 13, "(Frog in the Mill Pond)" (1 text)
Roud #14047 and 21632
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Frog in the Meadow
NOTES [122 words]: I suspect that there is a good deal more to this game than Scarborough describes. But until we find another version, we're left guessing, e.g., as to how one becomes the "frog" (whom she describes as a child in the middle of a circle, and poked out into the ring). The Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 version is no help; it's just a few words and a tune, with no description. McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks is only a little better; he had a short description, and an informant claimed the game had a moral: "You will be punished if you steal."
Roud seems to split this in two based on whether the frog is in the MIDDLE or in the MILL POND. But the rest is the same, so I regard them as the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ScaNF130

Frog in the Mill Pond

See Frog in the Middle (File: ScaNF130)

Frog in the Spring, The

See Frog Went A-Courting AND Kemo Kimo (File: R108)

Frog in the Well (I)

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Frog in the Well (II), The

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Frog Round

See Hear the Lively Sound of the Frogs (File: ACSF436F)

Frog Song, The

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Frog Went A-Courting

DESCRIPTION: Frog rides to ask Miss Mouse to marry him. She is willing but must ask permission of Uncle Rat. Rat's permission received, the two work out details of the wedding. (Some versions end with a cat or other creature devouring the participants)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: perhaps 1549 (Wedderburn's "Complaynt of Scotland"); there is a reference in the Stationer's Register of 1580 to "A Moste Strange Weddinge of the Frogge and the Mouse"; Ravenscroft's 1611 _Melismata_ has "The Marriage of the Frogge and the Movse" which is certainly this
KEYWORDS: animal courting love marriage request
FOUND IN: US(All) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (96 citations):
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 209-210, "The Frog and the Mouse" (2 texts)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 133-134, "Froggy Would a-Wooing Go" (2 texts) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 310) [These texts are very close to the Bodleian broadside "Frog in a Cock'd Hat" texts]
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 46, "The Frog and Mouse" (1 text)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 16, "Froggy Would a-Wooing Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 47, "The Frog and the Mouse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #108, "The Frog and the Mouse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 54-55, "A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 175, "Hech, Hey, Lowrie lay" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 190, "Uncle Rat" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 494-499, "The Frog's Courtship" (7 texts in 3 groups, 2 tunes; several of the texts are short, and IB at least appears to be "Kemo Kimo")
Randolph 108, "The Frog's Courtship" (5 texts plus 5 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 139-141, "The Frog's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 108A)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 44-47, "Froggie Went A-Courting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 12-13, "Frog Went A-Courtin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 120, "The Frog's Courtship" (7 texts plus 13 excerpts, 2 fragments, and mention of 5 more; "Kemo Kimo" in appendix)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 120, "The Frog's Courtship" (11 tunes, 3 of them from the "Kemo Kimo" appendices, plus text excerpts)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #216, "The Frog's Courtship" (7 texts, 3 tunes)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 136, pp. 282-283, "The Frog's Courting" (1 text plus mention of 9 more)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 120, "Froggy Went a-Courting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 255-256, "Frog Went A-Courting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 136-139, "Frog Went A-Courting" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 19, "Froggie Went A-Courtin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 19, pp. 34-37. "Mister Frog Went A-Courtin'" (1 very long text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 244-248, "The Frog He Went A-Courting" (3 texts, the first two, with local titles "Frog Went A-Courting" and "Frog Went Courting" and tune on p. 420, are this song; the third item, "The Gentleman Frog," is separate, probably part of the "Kemo Kimo"/"Frog in the Well" family)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 46-48, "Frog Went A-Courtin'"; p. 48, (no title); pp. 48-50, "Mister Frog) (3 texts, 1 tune)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 14, "Froggie Went A-courtin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 42, "The Frog Went A-Courting" (5 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 4 more, 3 tunes -- one of them of the "Kitty Alone" type)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 215-216, "The Frog Went A-Courting" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a reprint from "Melismata")
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 44, "The Frog and the Mouse" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 22, pp. 30-31, "The Frog and the Mouse" (1 text plus a fragment, the text being a "Frog Went A-Courting" version with a "kemo kimo" chorus, the fragment being simply a "Kemo Kimo" chorus that might be anything including this song)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 99, "Froggie Went A'Courting" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 189, "The Frog's Courtship" (2 texts plus an exceprt and mention of 5 more, 3 tunes)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 272-273, "Froggie Went to Take a Ride," "Froggie Would A-Wooing Go" (2 texts, 2 tunes, collectively filed as "The Frog Song")
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 49-51, "Frog Went A-Courting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 113, "Froggie Went A-Courting" (1 text)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 165-166, "The Frog's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #203, "The Frog in the Well" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 40, "The First Come in it was a Rat" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 250-254, "The Frog and the Mouse" (3 texts plus 4 fragments, 2 tunes)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 89, "It Was a Mouse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 83, "The Frog and the Mouse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 155, "A Frog He Would a Wooing Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 11-13, "Gentleman Froggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 199-202, "A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 294, "The Frog and the Mouse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan8 1669, "Ki-Ma-Dearie" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 41-43, "Frog Went A-Courtin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 25, "Frog Went A-Courting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 86, "The Toad's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 78-79 "Frog Went A-Courtin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 170-171, "A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 11-12, "(There was a frog lived in a well)" (1 text, with a complete 'Frog Went A-Courting" text but a "Kemo Kimo" chorus)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 142, "Missie Mouse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 161-162, "The Frog and the Mouse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 461-462, "The Mouse's Courting Song" (1 text, 1 tune, in which the main characters are Mickey and Minnie Mouse, but still clearly this song)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 268-269, "The Frog's Courting" (1 text, short enough that it could almost be "Kemo Kimo" rather than this)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #97, Froggy Went A-Courtin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #46, "Froggie Went A-Courtin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 154-155, "Frog Went A-Courtin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 220, "A Frog He Went A-courting" (6 texts plus 5 fragments or exerpts, 11 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 75, "The Frog and the Mouse" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #62, "The Frog He Would A-Wooing Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 143, "Mister Frog Went A-Courting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 47, "A Frog Went A-Courting" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 339-341, "The Mouse's Courting Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 32 "King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 310-313, "Frog Went A-Courtin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 571-572, "The Frog in the Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 722, "Frog Went A-Courting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 56, "Froggie Went A-Courtin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 48-49, "Froggie Went A-Courting" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 162, "The Frog and the Mouse" (3 texts plus mention of two more including some excerpts, 1 tune)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #22A-E, pp. 174-182, "Mr. Mouse Went A-Courting," "The Frog and the Mouse," "Frog Went A-Courting," "A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go" (3 texts plus 2 fragments, 5 tunes)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 74-75, "Froggie"; pp. 76-77, "Froggy Went a-Courtin'" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the third text, p. 78, "There Was a Toad," is more "Kemo Kimo" than "Frog Went A-Courting")
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 162-163, "Mr. Frog Went A-Courtin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 91-93, "A Frog A-Courting"; "Frog He Would A-Wooing Go" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 20-22, "The Frog and the Mouse" (1 text, 1 tune, apparently from Cox)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 179-180, "Mr. Frog Went A-Courting" (1 text, 1 tune on p. 207)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 175, "A frog he would a-wooing go" (3 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #69, pp. 77-79, "(There was a frog liv'd in a well)" (a complex composite with a short version of "Frog Went A-Courting" plus enough auxiliary verses to make an almost complete "Kemo Kimo" text)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 193, "(There dwelt a puddy in a well)" (1 text, very long, containing a full "Frog Went A-Courting" version plus sundry "Kemo Kimo" type verses)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 88, "The Marriage of the Frog and the Mouse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 142-143, "The Wedding of the Frog and Mouse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 40, "A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 403, "Frog Went A-Courtin'" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN3249, "It was a frog in a well"
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Julia Arrants, "In Search of the Frog's Raccoon," Vol. XLVIII, No. 1-2 (2001), pp. 69-70, 75-"(no collective title)" (1 core text plus 11 fragments and excerpts, the main text beginning "A frog went a-courtin', he did ride A coon, a coon")
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 150, 231, "Frog Went a-Courtin'" (notes only)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 76, "Frog Went A-courting" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 306, FRGCORT2* PUDDYWL2
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _Selections from the Works of Thomas Ravenscroft; A Musical Composer of the Time of King James the First_, Roxburgh Club, 1822, (available on Google Books) No. XVII/p. 16, "The Marriage of the Frog and the Mouse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II, p. 194 (1931), "A Frog Went Courting" (1 text)
Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 55-57, "The Frog and Mouse" (2 texts)
Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #237, pp. 138-142, "Puddy He'd a-Wooin Ride"
Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 174, "The Frog and Mouse" (reproduction of a broadside (?) page with a tune)
Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 556-557, "Puddock, Mousie, and Ratton" (1 text)
ST R108 (Full)
Roud #16
RECORDINGS:
Betty Bare, Dianne Ward-Hicks, "Froggie Went A-Courting" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #145, recorded 04/22/2022)
Albert Beale, "A Frog He Would a-Wooing Go" (on FSB10)
Anne, Judy, & Zeke Canova, "Frog Went A-Courtin'" (Brunswick 264, 1928; on CrowTold02)
Elizabeth Cronin, "Uncle Rat Went Out to Ride" (on FSB10); "Uncle Rat" (on IRECronin01)
Lorna Morris Cyr, "Froggie Went A-Courting" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #91, recorded 01/23/2022); (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #92, recorded 02/20/2022)
Drusilla Davis, "Frog Went A-Courting" (AFS 347 B, 1935)
Otis High & Flarrie Griffin, "Froggie Went A-Courtin'" (on HandMeDown1)
Bradley Kincaid, "Froggie Went A Courting" (Champion 15466 [as Dan Hughey]/Silvertone 5188/Silvertone 8219/Supertone 9209, 1928)
Adolphus Le Ruez ,"The Frog and the Mouse" (on FSB10)
Pleaz Mobley, "Froggie Went A-Courting" (AFS; on LC12)
Chubby Parker, "King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O" (Columbia 15296D, 1928; on AAFM1, CrowTold01) (Supertone 9731, 1930) (Conqueror 7889, 1931)
Annie Paterson, "The Frog and the Mouse" (on FSB10)
Uncle Don, "Frog Went A'Courting" (Conqueror 9013, 1938)
Unknown artist(s), "A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go" (Harper-Columbia 1162, c. 1919)
Susan Waters, "Frog Went A'Courting" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #778, recorded 01/22/2024)
Warner Williams, "Mouse on the Hill" (on ClassAfrAm)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(3) [some words illegible], "The Frog in the Cock'd Hat" ("A frog he would a wooing go"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 11(991), "The Frog in the Cock'd Hat"; Johnson Ballads 506 [last line cut], Harding B 11(1265), "Frog in a Cock'd Hat"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kemo Kimo" (occasional floating lyrics)
cf. "I Ask That Gal" (tune)
cf. "The Bear in the Hill" (plot)
cf. "The Fly and the Bumblebee (Fiddle-Dee-Dee)" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
There Was a Puggie in a Well
There Lived a Puddie in the Well
The Frog's Wooing
Kaimee, Dearie
Y Broga Bach (Welsh)
NOTES [477 words]: The Complaynt of Scotland refers to a song "The frog cam to the myl door" (James A. H. Murray, editor, The Complaynt of Scotland, volume I (Introduction plus Chapters I-XIII), Early English Text Society, 1872 (I use the 1906 reprint; the Complaynt was published in 1549), p. lxxxiii; also E. K. Chambers, English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages, Oxford, 1945, 1947, p. 181); this is widely thought to be this song, but of course this cannot be proved.
The notes on this song in Cazden et al (pp. 524-532) constitute probably the best succinct summary available on variants of this piece.
Spaeth has a note that the original version of this was supposed to refer to the Duke of Anjou's wooing of Elizabeth I of England. (I assume this is a reference to the incomparable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, who gives a text of this and claims on p. 148 that "Here, step by step, is amusingly satirized the dramatic wooing of the elderly Elizabeth by the youthful Duke of Anjou, the queen at that time being forty-nine years of age, with the French prince telling off his youthful age at twenty-three." Elizabeth was 49 in 1582, so she still had more than twenty years to reign-- middle-aged, yes, but hardly elderly.) If the second known version (1611, in Melismata, reprinted in Chappell) were the oldest, this might be possible -- there are seeming political references to "Gib, our cat" and "Dick, our Drake." But the Wedderburn Complaynt of Scotland text, which at least anticipates the song, predates the reign of Queen Elizabeth by nine years, and Queen Mary Tudor by four. If it refers to any queen at all, it would have to be Mary Stuart.
Those who want a version of this piece which does not involve inter-species hanky-panky are advised to try J. A. Scott's version (or other American texts); in this, both creatures are mice. Of course, it does end with the cat interfering with the festivities.
In addition to "pure" texts of this song, some there exist versions which have gotten mixed with "Martin Said to His Man." The versions I've seen are often titled "Kitty Alone" ; the first such text seems to have been in Gammer Gurton's Garland (1784), which has clearly a "Frog" plot but the form (and some of the exaggerations) of "Martin." - RBW
The second of Chambers's (1870) texts is a from a 1630 copy of the 1580 text of "a ballad of a most strange wedding of the frogge and the mouse." - BS
According to Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 158, entry #1815, that 1580 item is "A moste Strenge weddinge of the ffrogge and the mowse," registered November 21, 1580 by Edward White. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R108

Frog Went Courting, A

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Frog-Pond

DESCRIPTION: Singing game in which a duck chases all the frogs (other children). "Come, neighbors, the moon is up, It's pleasant here out on the bank.... And let us, before we sup, go kough, kough, kough." "Hush, yonder is the waddling duck... I don't mean to stay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty hunting bird animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #49, "Frog-Pond" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Newe049

Frog, The (Fisherman's Luck)

DESCRIPTION: Swagman Paddy, out of food, decides to catch a fish. The only possible bait is a frog -- but a snake swallows the frog before Paddy can catch it. Paddy gets the snake drunk and retrieves the frog. The snake, wanting another drink, brings another frog
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1938 (recording, Dixon Brothers)
KEYWORDS: food animal humorous hardtimes recitation
FOUND IN: Australia US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 279-281, "The Frog" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Dixon Brothers "Fisherman's Luck" (on Montgomery Ward M-7855, c. 1938)
Mike Seeger, "Fisherman's Luck" (on MSeeger01)
File: MCB279

Frog's Courtship, The

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Frog's Wedding, The

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Froggie

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Froggie Went A-Courting

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Froggie Went to Take a Ride

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Froggie Would a-Wooing Go

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Froggie-in-the-Millpond

See Frog in the Middle (File: ScaNF130)

Froggie's in the Meadow

See Frog in the Middle (File: ScaNF130)

Froggy He Am a Queer Bird, The

DESCRIPTION: "The froggy he am a queer/wonderful bird, He ain't got no tail almost hardly, He run and he jump, And he land on his rump/stump Where he ain't got no tail almost hardly." The form of the verse varies greatly
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Willmar Tribune, according to Wikipedia -- but this is the "What a queer bird the frog are" version)
KEYWORDS: bird animal humorous | frog jump
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 50, "Froggie He Am a Queer Bird" (1 text, tune referenced)
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "The Froggy He Am a Queer Bird (with Variants)" (Piotr-Archive #363, recorded 11/23/2022; for the other songs Cook sang with this, see the SAME TUNE notes under "Blest Be the Tie that Binds")
Debra Tyler, "The Froggy He Am a Queer Bird" (Piotr-Archive #349, recorded 11/05/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blest Be the Tie that Binds" (tune)
NOTES [101 words]: The Wikipedia entry "What a queer bird" lists a number of versions of this from the 1920s, with no real attribution. (Several of them claim it was by a young Scandinavian, which would presumably justify the odd grammar, but this sounds much more like contrived than actual Scandinavian word order.) These early forms seem to have been quite distinct from the sung version (beginning "What a queer bird the frog are, When he sit he stand (almost)," but since Judy Cook and Debra Tyler had nearly identical versions, I think we can take the text quoted here as being fairly canonical for the sung version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio349

Froggy Went A-Courtin'

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Froggy Went a-Courting

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Froggy Would a-Wooing Go

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Frolicksome Farmer, The

DESCRIPTION: The farmer pays his dairy maid to wait up for him on market days. One night his wife sends Betsey to her room and waits in the dark kitchen for her husband. The husband gives her money for sex. The wife dismisses Betsey and kicks her husband out.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The farmer has Betsey the dairy maid wait up for him when he comes home late on market days, and pays her half-a-crown for sex. One night his wife sends Betsey to her room and waits in the dark kitchen for her husband. Her husband does all the talking -- promising to buy a new gown -- and gives her the half-crown for sex. The next morning the wife gives Betsey the half-crown, tells her she has a gown coming from her husband, dismisses her, and kicks her husband out. Moral: "So all you cunning husbands that stay out late at night, Be always sure when you come home to choose candle light"
KEYWORDS: adultery sex farming money warning
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 55, "Lancashire Lass" (1 text)
DT, LANCLASS
Roud #4738
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 189, "The Frolicksome Farmer" ("'Tis of a brisk young farmer, in ---shire did dwel[l]"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(4384), Harding B 17(101a), "The Frolicksome Farmer"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Crockery Ware" (theme: the hazards of sex in the dark)
cf. "The Butcher's Daughter" (theme: the hazards of sex in the dark)
cf. "Kiss Me in the Dark" (theme: the hazards of sex in the dark)
NOTES [107 words]: Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople would separate his "Lancashire Lass" text from "The Frolicksome Farmer" broadsides: "I have discovered no [other] text of this song, so that the obviously defective lines cannot be supplied. 'The Frolicksome Farmer,' a broadside ..., relates the same story in a fuller and rather more refined form." The "obvious defective lines" comment about "Lancashire Lass" refers to irregular rhyming and verses with missing lines. While almost no lines are shared between "Lancashire Lass" and the broadsides the story lines are so close that the former seems to me to be a badly remembered version of the broadsides. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: ReSh055

Frolicsome Sea Captain, The

See The Sailor's Frolic (Tit for Tat) (File: PaSe055)

From Hillsborough Town the First of May

DESCRIPTION: "From Hillsborough town the first of May Marched those murdering traitors. They went to oppose the honest men That were called Regulators." Hamilton leads the regulators to raid the town
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: political rescue
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 30, or May 1, 1768 - Arrest of Regulator leaders Harmon Husband and William Butler
May 3, 1768 - Rescue of the arrested leaders
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 278, "From Hillsborough Town the First of May" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Annie Sutton Cameron, _Hillsborough and the Regulators_, Orange County Historical Museum, 1964, p. 18, "From Hillsborough Town the First of May" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Fanning First to Orange Came" (subject)
cf. "Said Frohock to Fanning" (subject)
cf. "Who Would Have Tho't Harmon" (subject)
NOTES [805 words]: One of four "regulator" songs in Brown. The Regulators were a group of protesters against high taxes and fees, found mostly in North Carolina though some also were active in South Carolina. For more on the Regulators, see the notes to "When Fanning First to Orange Came."
It is interesting that the name Hillsborough is used. According to Cameron, p. 8, the town had been "Childsburg" until 1766; one would expect conservatives like the Regulators to use the old name. It was a small town that gained its significance because several major roads crossed there. So although it wasn't large, it was the most important town of the "back country" and was the courthouse town for the area.
The notes in Brown relate this song to the 1768 raid on Hillsborough: The authorities seized assorted items for back taxes, Regulators went to retake the items, Husband and Harmon were arrested, and Ninian Bell Hamilton led a raid to rescue the leaders. This is almost certainly the true setting -- but we note that Husband and Harmon aren't mentioned in the extent text of the song; the only people named are Hamilton and Edmund Fanning. Fanning was the sticky-fingered official who seems to have been most hated by the Regulators, as described in "When Fanning First to Orange Came."
Haywood, pp. 88-89, describes the situation in this song: "On the 8th of April [1768] rioters, to the number of about one hundred, came into Hillsborough to take from the Sheriff a horse which had been levied on for the non-payment of taxes; not content with this, they bound the Sheriff with ropes, maltreated other inhabitants, and amused themselves by firing shots through the house of Edmund Fanning, who was then absent from town. Immediately after this disorder, Lieutenant-Colonel John Gray, of the Orange county militia, perpared to raise troops to protect the town from future attacks." (One of those he called, according to Haywood, p. 89, was Francis Nash, who seems to be mentioned in "Who Would Have Tho't Harmon").
Cameron, p. 18, gives us background on Hamilton and the raid: "The Regulators, however, returned to Hillsborough in force, some 700 strong, led by the old Scotsman, Ninian Bell Hamiton, and Fanning was forced to let his prisoners go free on bail."
Edmund Fanning, the arch-enemy of the Regulators, promptly returned to town and prepared to arrest the ringleaders at night (Haywood, pp. 89-90). Major Thomas Lloyd issued a warrant for the arrest of Hermon Husband, and Captain Thomas Hart set out to arrest him (Haywood, pp. 91-92, who date the arrest to May 1). Another, less significant figure, William Butler, was also arrested at this time; he and two others would eventually be convicted of riot for their treatment of the Sheriff, though they were later pardoned (Haywood, p. 97).
In September, North Carolina Governor Tryon would lead an army to Hillsborough to attempt to deal with the Regulators (Haywood, p. 95). This quieted things for a while, but in 1771, Tryon and the Regulators fought an actual battle at Alamances, resulting in the dispersal of the Regulators; for this, see again "When Fanning First to Orange Came."
Hermon Husband was elected to the colonial assembly for Orange County in 1770, when Governor Tryon dissolved the old Assembly in part in an attempt to avoid negotiating with the Regulators (Haywood, pp. 106-107; Cameron, p. 20). But the Assembly promptly expelled him on December 20 (Haywood, pp. 107-108, reprints the resolution against him). He then was charged with libel so that he could again be arrested (Haywood, p. 108). He was released on February 8, 1771 when the Grand Jury failed to find a True Bill. But the whole affair made the Regulators even more angry and helped create the conditions that led to the Battle of Alamances.
Powell-War, p. 8, says that "Hermon Husband came nearer to providing this spark of leadership [that is, being a figure about whom the Regulators could organize] than any other man though his role seems to have been less as a leader than as a driver or agitator. He was a native of Maryland, originally a member of the Church of England but afterwards a Quaker, and a disciple of Benjamin Franklin from whom he received pamphlets of a patriotic character which he reprinted and circulated among the people.... By means of public sentiment he sought to effect reform. When it became evident that the Regulator movement was running into violence he held aloof from it, only exerting himself to restrain excesses and to make peace."
Haywood, pp. 137-138, says that after leaving the Regulators behind, he fled to Pennsylvania, and afterward was implicated in the Whiskey Rebellion; he was sentenced to death but reprieved.
For Husband and "Harmon," and another fight in Hillsborough (in September 1770 rather than May), see also "Who Would Have Tho't Harmon." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: BrII278

From Liverpool 'cross the Atlantic

See The Stowaway (File: GrMa051)

From Ogemaw

DESCRIPTION: The song, in its entirety: "I'm a ramblin' wreck of poverty/From Ogemaw I came/My poverty compels me/To split wood in the rain/But in all kinds of weather/Be it wet or dry/I'm bound to gain an honest living/Or lay me down and die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: poverty lumbering work logger nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 24, "From Ogemaw" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 18, "From Ogemaw" (1 short text)
Roud #8860
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Walk the Road Again"
NOTES [47 words]: This fragment may be part of another song, but it's impossible to tell. - PJS
Looks to me more like an agglomeration of common lines, e.g. from "Son of a Gambolier" or one of its offspring and "I Walk the Road Again" (though it might be a much-worn-down version of the latter) - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be024

From Out the Battered Elm Tree

DESCRIPTION: Round, adapted from a Dutch original. "From out the battered elm tree The owl cries out I’m here, And from the distant forest The cuckoo answers clear,
Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (SongsOfManyNations)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad derivative campsong floatingverses
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 443, "From Out the Battered Elm Tree" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "De uil in de olmen / The Owl in the Elms" (1 England and 1 Dutch text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 40)
NOTES [58 words]: Averill describes this as a translated Dutch song adapted as a round. The verse also show in some versions of two other rounds: " The Cuckoo (II) (Camp Song)" and a variant form of "Mister Moon (Kindly Come Out and Shine)."
Averill's text is not particularly close to that in SongsOfManyNations; it looks to me as if the song was translated twice. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF443

From Rocks and Sands and Barren Lands

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks to be saved "from rocks and sands and barren lands" and "big guns and women's tongues"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1653, "From Rocks and Sands and Barren Lands" (1 text)
Roud #13049
NOTES [20 words]: Presumably a a fragment of a soldier's song. A colonial war seems the most likely setting -- perhaps the Boer War? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81653

From Sourabaya to Pasuruan

See From Surabaya to Pasoeroean (File: Harl114)

From Surabaya to Pasoeroean

DESCRIPTION: Javanese sea shanty. "Sum go coolie ah-e-ah ang, sor Sourabaya, Hoo-e la-e-la-e-la." Used as a capstan shanty, Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips says he took it down from the coolies singing and can't vouch for the correctness of the words.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips)
KEYWORDS: shanty foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Indonesia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, p. 114, "From Surabaya to Pasoeroean" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, p. 334, "From Sourabaya to Pasuruan" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Harl114

From Sweet Dundee

See Boston Harbor (File: BAF831)

From the Brow of the Hill

DESCRIPTION: The singer returns to the old, now deserted, house he grew up in. He recalls the gate he "could run to, returning from school", the casement that "marks the spot where I slumbered in infancy's rest." "But silent forever the lips that blessed me!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: home return death nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 233, "From the Brow of the Hill" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 257)
Roud #1298
File: WT233

From Ver Mount

DESCRIPTION: "I'm fresh from the mountains, just from Ver Mount, My visit to Boston I new recount, Some notions of trade were my intention," so he goes to "the great convention" -- only to find everyone staring "Just because I was from Ver Mount"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Nestler)
KEYWORDS: home travel commerce humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), p. 111, "From Ver Mount" (1 text)
File: Nest111

Front Door, Back Door

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope verse. "Front door, back door, Sally, Jim, and Joe, On the count of sixteen, Jump in slow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | door
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #147, "Front door, back door" (1 text)
File: AJRR147

Frostit Corn, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh I am a young farmer hard set by the frost ... like to ruin us a'." Maybe that hardship was intended "for to humble oor pride" If the singer marries he won't be able to pay the laird but "If I should hae naething else I will aye hae a wife"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: poverty marriage ordeal work farming landlord
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 436, "The Frostit Corn" (1 text)
Roud #5951
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnnie Cope" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
NOTES [9 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "'September 1907. Heard about 1850.'" - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3436

Frowns That She Gave Me, The

DESCRIPTION: "When first to this country a stranger I came, I placed my affection on a beautiful dame." ""Oh Susan... Won't you leave your old parents?" "Oh William, that never would do." "Take warning by me, Never place your affections on a green growing tree"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting family floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 752, "The Frowns That She Gave Me" (1 text)
Roud #4296
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When First To This Country (I)" ("When First Unto This Country" lyrics) and references there
cf. "Oh No, Not I" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [58 words]: This is another of those all-floating-verse pieces -- the first lines are from "The Banks of the Bann," then material that reminds us of "Green Grow the Lilacs" and others; then verses asking the girl to leave home that could be from anywhere, then the remark "Since it is no better I'm glad it is no worse," and finally a bit from "Oh No, Not I." - RBW
File: R752

Frozen Charlotte

See Young Charlotte (Fair Charlotte) [Laws G17] (File: LG17)

Frozen Girl (II), The

See The Orphan Girl (The Orphan Child) (File: R725)

Frozen Girl, The

See Young Charlotte (Fair Charlotte) [Laws G17] (File: LG17)

Frozen Limb, The

DESCRIPTION: "One cold frosty morning As her father lay sleeping I tapped at the window Where Mary did lay." He begs her to let him in; "My limbs are all frozen." She says she finds him quite warm. He must leave, but she hopes he will return so she can thaw him again
AUTHOR: George Howland and Frederick H. Russell (source: Miller)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1880 (voyage of the _Pioneer_, on which Howland and Russell served)
KEYWORDS: love courting | cold freezing warmth thaw
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Pamela A. Miller, _And the Whale Is Ours: Creative Writing of American Whalemen_, David R. Godine/Kendall Whaling Museum, 1979, pp. 77-79, "Frozen Limb" (1 text)
Roud #31324
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mowing the Barley (Cold and Raw)" (plot elements)
File: WhCre077

Frozen Logger, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a waitress. She recognizes him as a logger, and tells him the sad tale of her amazing logger lover. One night he forgot his Mackinaw, and at last, "at a thousand degrees below zero, it froze my logger love."
AUTHOR: James Stevens (1892-1971)
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: love logger death talltale
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 61, "The Frozen Logger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 508-509, "The Frozen Logger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 30, "The Frozen Logger" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 234, "The Frozen Logger" (notes only)
DT, FROZLOGR*
ADDITIONAL: Walker D. Wyman, _Wisconsin Folklore_, University of Wisconsin Extension (?), 1979, pp. 35-36, has a version, quite different from the Weavers text, which he apparently thinks is traditional folklore
Tom Nash and Twilo Scofield, _The Well-Travelled Casket: Oregon Folklore_, Meadowlark Press, 1999, pp. 65-66, "The Frozen Logger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5470
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Grizzly Hogan" (theme of the logger breaking his girlfriend's jaw when kissing her)
cf. "The Logger's Sweetheart" (tune, ideas)
NOTES [564 words]: There is a good deal of uncertainty about the author of this. Not that there is any question that the author's name was pronounced "James Stevens"; all seem to agree on this. But different sources have spelled it "Stevens" or "Stephens."
Research by Abby Sale and others supports the theory that the author was the James Stevens whose dates are cited above; he also wrote the classic book Paul Bunyan in 1925. The "Stephens" spelling may possibly be by confusion with the Irish author James Stephens.
Also, Nash/Scofield, p. 65, report that Stevens was not the sole author. Supposedly Steward Holbrook, H. L. Davis, and Stevens met at a writers' conference at Corvallis, Oregon, and "decided there were no Northwest loggers' songs that could be sung in mixed company." This was the result.
According to Sing Out!, Volume 37, #3 (1993), p. 72, Stevens based this on an actual lumberjack tall tale. But, of course, Stevens also claimed his Paul Bunyan stories come from that source -- and many of them clearly came out of his head. On the other hand, the following verse occurs in the song "Grizzly Hogan":
Once I had a sweetheart,
But I don't have her now.
I kissed her when I left her,
And it broke her lower jaw.
On the other hand, we can't prove that "Grizzly Hogan" predates "The Frozen Logger."
It may be questioned whether this is a folk song. I would not so count it, despite its inclusion in Lomax. Nonetheless, the versions have been folk processed to a certain extent -- notably in the first verse, where the original version read "A six foot seven waitress." Somebody (the Weavers?) converted this to the unremarkable "A forty year old waitress," and of course this has been common since, even though the line is banal and does nothing to enhance the tall tale aspects of the song.
The song at least became well enough known to inspire a widespread parody, "The Logger's Sweetheart," printed by Nash/Scofield from the singing on Bob Beers.
There is some interesting science (or, perhaps, lack of science) here. There is, of course, no such temperature as a thousand degrees below zero, in either the Fahrenheit or Celsius scales; Absolute zero is at -459.7 degrees Fahrenheit -- and anything not made of helium (which is everything more complex than a single atom) will have frozen rock-solid far warmer than that.
But it is in fact not unlikely that the logger was hard to freeze. Assume the logger's girl was, in fact, 79 inches tall. This would make her at least 15 inches taller than the average woman of Stevens's time. That's 23% taller. Presumably her lover is also about 23% taller than average. (For the time, that makes him an inch or two above seven feet.).
And that brings in what is called the "square-cube law" or "the law of squares and cubes": That the surface area of an shape increases as the square of its linear dimension, but the volume increases as the cube of its linear dimension. In simpler terms, as something gets bigger, its surface area gets smaller relative to its volume. By a lot.
Which is significant, because the heat generated by a body is roughly proportional to its volume, but heat loss is roughly proportional to surface area. The fact that the logger was very big did make him significantly less vulnerable to cold (though more vulnerable to heat). So while this is a tall tale, it's a little less tall than it might have been.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LoF061

Frugal Maid, The

See I've Two or Three Strings To My Bow (File: HHH070)

Fryar and Boy

See notes under Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (II) (File: OO2507)

Fuck 'Em All

See Bless 'Em All (File: EM386)

Fucking Machine, The

DESCRIPTION: A sailor/airman/engineer marries a sexually insatiable woman, and builds a machine to service her. He cannot stop the machine, which continues to function until the woman is killed and the machine destroys itself.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex wife husband death technology
FOUND IN: Australia Canada Britain(England) US(MW,SW) New Zealand
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 392-394, "The Fucking Machine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, "The Great Wheel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 143, "The Engineer's Dream" (1 text)
DT, GRTWHEEL*
Roud #10237
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bloody Wheel
The Bloody Great Wheel
The Great Bloody Wheel
NOTES [10 words]: Most often set to the familiar hymn tune "Old Hundred." - EC
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM392

Fudge, Fudge, Here Comes the Judge

See Oh Fudge, Tell the Judge (File: MHAp239C)

Fudge, Fudge, Tell the Judge

See Oh Fudge, Tell the Judge (File: MHAp239C)

Fugitive's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer longs for home, sweetheart, family. He is a fugitive because he committed a murder. Distinguished by the chorus: "I'm riding along out on the lone prairie/The rangers are searching for me/I'm riding away from my home in Texas/A fugitive ever to be"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1935 (recording, Delmore Bros.)
KEYWORDS: homesickness loneliness violence rambling separation travel crime homicide manhunt death police cowboy
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Delmore Brothers, "The Fugitive's Lament" (on Montgomery Ward 4752, c. 1935; on WhenIWas2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wandering Cowboy (I)" [Laws B7] (plot)
File: RcTFugLa

Full Loads to the Sealers

DESCRIPTION: "And here's grand success to the sealers, The pride of our city and town, Who face the doghood on the ocean, And with bat like heroes knock down." The singer bids success to the sealers and hopes they have happy reunions at home
AUTHOR: Johnny Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Burke's Ballads)
KEYWORDS: hunting reunion
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 122, "Full Loads to the Sealers" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 28, "Full Loads to the Sealers" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #68, p. 107, "FUll Loads to the Sealers" (1 text)
Roud #V44582
NOTES [193 words]: Most of Johnny Burke's songs are intended to be sung to a traditional tune. This particular text fits many melodies, and doesn't have the hints of parody found in many Burke pieces. It fits "Rosin the Beau," for instance. But I have this feeling it's sung to "The Badger Drive" (which, admittedly, is close to "Rosin").
The piece refers to "you sons of bold Neptune." Is this Neptune the god of the sea, or the sealing ship Neptune? I would have guessed the former, but the Burke/Kirwin text italicizes the name, which implies the ship. If so, you can find more about the ship in the entry on "Neptune, Ruler of the Sea."
For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree."
The "doghood" (dog hood) is the male hooded seal, one of the two Newfoundland seal species. "Hoods," unlike the harp seal, were hard to hunt; they were much heavier than men, and they defended themselves and their young, whereas the harp seals were smaller, more timid, and did not protect their pups. Generally speaking, sealers only hunted "hoods" when they had failed to catch enough "harps" and their "whitecoat" pups to make a trip profitable. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm122

Full Many a Gem of Purest Razorene

DESCRIPTION: Parody on Gray's famous "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard": "Full many a gem of purest Razorene The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: derivative hair commerce
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 95, "Full many a gem of purest Razorene" (1 text)
Roud #25512
File: KSUC095B

Full Merrily Sings the Cuckoo

DESCRIPTION: "Full merrily sings the cuckoo, Upon the beechen tree, Your wives you well should look to, If you take advice of me." Nine of ten men can expect to be cuckolded. The singer lists times and places where it might happen. He tells men to hide their horns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland); Bell claims it can be traced back to 1566
KEYWORDS: love courting husband wife infidelity humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 464-465, "Full Merrily Sings the Cuckoo" (1 text)
ST BeCo464 (Partial)
File: BeCo464

Fuller and Warren [Laws F16]

DESCRIPTION: [Amasa] Fuller has become engaged to a woman, who however chooses to abandon him for [Paul] Warren. Fuller accuses Warren of saying that he (Fuller) was already married, and shoots him. He is sentenced to hang
AUTHOR: sometimes attributed to Moses Whitecotton
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin)
KEYWORDS: homicide trial execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 10, 1820 - Amasa Fuller shoots Paul (Palmer?) Warren in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Fuller was later hanged.
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,Ro,So,SW) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Laws F16, "Fuller and Warren"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 302-307, "Fuller and Warren" (3 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph 143, "Fuller and Warren" (1 text plus 2 excerpts, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 66, pp. 191-193, "Fuller and Warren" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 175, "Ye Sons of Columbia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 24, "Fuller and Warren" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 17, "Fullers Confession" (1 text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 100, "Fuller and Warren" (2 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 4 more)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 336-343, "The Indiana Hero," "Fuller and Warren" (2 texts, 2 tune)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 127-130, "Fuller and Warren" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 174-175, "Fuller and Warren" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 51-52, "(no title)" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #32, "Fuller and Warren" (1 text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 168-170, "Fuller and Warren" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 205, "Fuller and Warren" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 49, pp. 116-118, "Fuller and Warren" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 45, "Ye Sons of Columbia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 148-151, "Fuller and Warren" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 419-420, "Fuller and Warren" (1 text)
DT 704, FULLWARR
Roud #694
RECORDINGS:
Dick Stamp, "Fuller and Warren" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Anna Underhill, "The Indiana Hero" (on FineTimes)
NOTES [119 words]: Although this song is sometimes attributed to Moses Whitecotton, Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety has information that Whitecotton wrote a *different* poem about this particular event.
The reference to the hanging of Haman on the gallows so high is an allusion to the Biblical book of Esther (especially 7:10). The story of Samson and Delilah is told in Judges 16:4-22. The references to Eve causing Adam's fall are obviously to Genesis 3.
The reference to "Genesis, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Job" seems confused; the texts in Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety apply it to various doctrines, and I can't see how the books listed combine to teach any of the doctrines cited. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: LF16

Fullers Confession

See Fuller and Warren [Laws F16] (File: LF16)

Funeral Hymn ("Our Brother's Gone")

See Shaker Funeral Hymn (File: LoF038)

Funeral Hymn, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, carry me away to the graveyard After a long time suffering, Where every day will be Sunday, by and by, By and by, by and by, Where every day will be Sunday, by and by." "So fare you well, dear (father/mother/brothers/etc.), I am going home to glory."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: religious death nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap) West Indies(Bahamas,Trinidad)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 207, "A Funeral Hymn" (1 text)
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 16, "Ev'ry Day Be Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Fus207 (Partial)
Roud #16370
RECORDINGS:
Victoria Philip, Dixon Philip, Ma Philip, "Carry Me Away" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
File: Fus207

Funeral Train, The

DESCRIPTION: "The funeral train is coming, I know it's going to slack, For the passengers are all crying and the train is creped in black." "You belong on that funeral train... Oh, sinner, why don't you pray." The singer looks forward to taking the train to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious death train nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 262, "The Funeral Train" (1 text)
File: ScaNF262

Funiculi Funicula

See Funiculì, Funiculà (File: ACSF166F)

Funiculì, Funiculà

DESCRIPTION: Italian: "Jammo, jammo 'ncoppa jammo jà (x2), Funiculì, funiculà (x2), 'Ncoppa jammo jà, Funiculì, funiculà." English versions say, "Let's go, let's go, To the top we'll go" using the "funicular up, funicular down." Other English versions exist
AUTHOR: Original Italian words by Peppino Turco / Music: Liugi Denza
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (original publication, according to Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic and Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: nonballad travel technology foreignlanguage campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 166, 467, "Funiculì" (notes only)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 240, "Funiculì -- Funiculá"
DT, (FUNICUL)
SAME TUNE:
My High Silk Hat (File: ACSF166Y)
Summer Camp ("Summer camp, summer camp, echo it afar") (Harbin-Parodology, #252, p. 62)
A Big, Red Rose ("The other day I called upon my girl and took her") (Harbin-Parodology, #387, p. 94)
NOTES [25 words]: Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic reports that this was written in 1880 in honor of the funicular built to take people to the summit of Mount Vesuvius. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF166F

Funky Butt (Buddy Bolden's Blues)

DESCRIPTION: "I thought I heard somebody say, funky butt, funky butt, take it away, I don't like it no how." Girls in red and blue dresses "got the funky butt ... I don't like it no how."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: sex nonballad scatological
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Funky Butt" (on MJHurt04)
Jelly Roll Morton, "Buddy Bolden's Blues" (on "Buddy Bolden's blues - Single," Bacci Bros Records MP3 (2011))
NOTES [101 words]: In his version on the MP3 album "Complete Recordings of Mississippi John Hurt" (John Hurt, 2012) Hurt quotes "Buddy Bolden's Blues": "I ... Buddy Bolden shout, Open the window let the funk go out" (compare Jelly Roll Morton). So, is this the same song? Hurt's tune is not Morton's but it's not so far off that it's not recognizable. For most cases that are this close I consider the songs to be the same.
According to at the Doctor Jazz site http://www.doctorjazz.co.uk/page15.html "Jelly Roll Morton Recordings and Discography," Jelly Roll Morton recorded "Buddy Bolden's Blues" in 1939 on General 4003-A. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: RcFunkBu

Funniest is the Frog

DESCRIPTION: "Funniest is the frog (x2), Funniest thing that goes about, Funniest is the frog." "Sitting on a log... before he gets half way down, Then he goes ka-chug." "Funniest is... Sploshin' through the rain and mud, But he loves the sun the best."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Dime-Song-Book #13)
KEYWORDS: animal floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #98, "Funniest is the Frog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #13, p. 49, "The Scientific Frog" (1 text)
Roud #3444 and 17268
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lynchburg Town" (lyrics, tune)
NOTES [95 words]: The version of this in Roberts-SangBranchSettlers uses the tune of "Lynchburg Town," and ends with two verses about "Goin' down to Linburg town." On this basis, Roberts and Roud lump them. But I would suggest that "Funniest is the Frog" is a separate piece (although possibly written to be sung to the tune of "Lynchburg Town"), and have split them. I suspect that the use of the tune by "Funniest Is the Frog" attracted the "Lynchburg Town" verses.
Roud makes "Funniest is the Frog" his #3444 and "The Scientific Frog" #17268, but they look like the same thing to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Robe098

Furze Bloom

DESCRIPTION: "There's not a could sailing by That does not hold a shower; There's not a furze-bush on the moor, That does not put forth flower," and when it is "out of flower, then love is out of tune." All the lads love pretty lasses, in all seasons
AUTHOR: Words: Sabine Baring-Gould)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: love flowers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #56, "Furze Bloom" (1 text, 1 tune, the words being non-traditional)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gosport Beach (The Undutiful Daughter)" (tune)
NOTES [39 words]: The tune Baring-Gould used for this is "Gosport Beach (The Undutiful Daughter)," Roud #1038, which Baring-Gould thought unsuitable for print but at least has the advantage of not being yet another instance of Baring-Gould garbage. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGSW056

Furze Field, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer advises her lover how to hunt pheasant in her furze field (loaded gun), fish in her fishpond (rod, hooks, and angles "down to the bottom") and rabbits in her warren (ferret ... down to the bottom).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: sex hunting bawdy nonballad animal dog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 47, "The Furze Field" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, p. 68, "The Furze Field" (1 text)
Roud #1037
NOTES [29 words]: Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle: "This comprehensive invitation to a sexual encounter, expressed in sporting metaphor, must originally have been intended to be sung by a woman." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: ReCi047

Fust Banjo, De (The Banjo Song; The Possum and the Banjo; Old Noah)

DESCRIPTION: Noah sets out to build the ark, despite the scorn of his neighbors. "Ham... couldn't stand the racket... soon he had a banjo made, the first that was invented." He took the hair of the possum's tail to string it; the possum remains bare-tailed to this day
AUTHOR: Irwin Russell? (as part of Russell's dialect poem "Christmas Night in the Quarters," according to Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (Christmas Night in the Quarters)
KEYWORDS: flood ship animal music Bible
FOUND IN: US(Ap, Ro, So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 253, "The Banjo Song" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 181, "Old Noah" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #182, "The First Banjo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, pp. 43-44, "De Fust Banjo"; "Old Noah" (2 texts)
ST R253 (Partial)
Roud #5467
NOTES [92 words]: The versions of this display extreme variation, and may even be separate songs. Reports are few enough, however, that I decided to lump the things just because there wasn't enough evidence to split them cleanly.
The attribution to Irwin Russell is from Felleman's The Best Loved Poems of the American People, which sometimes has some very strange attributions (although Randolph also mentions it). Her version seems to come straight out of a minstrel show; the question then is whether it is the original or if Russell worked from an earlier song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: R253

Future Mrs. 'Awkins, The

DESCRIPTION: "I know a little doner, I'm about to own 'er, She's a-goin' to marry me." "Be Missis 'Awkins, Missis 'En'ry 'Awkins." "If you die an old maid you'll 'ave only yerself to blame." The singer recalls first meeting Liza, and tells how she agreed to marry
AUTHOR: Albert Chevalier
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (source: Gammond); Chevalier started his music hall career in 1877, according to Davison
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 176, "Liza" (1 fragment, 1 tune -- a de-cocknified version of the chorus)
ADDITIONAL: Peter Davison, _Songs of The British Music Hall_, Oak, 1971, pp. 182-183, "The Future Mrs. 'Awkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peter Gammond, _Best Music Hall and Variety Songs_, Wolfe Publications Ltd., 1972, pp. 18-19, "The Future Mrs. 'Awkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15686
File: Pet176A

Future Plans (The G-Man)

DESCRIPTION: "When I grow up, I think I'll be A G-Man brave and bold, Or maybe a fearful pirate, And bury lots of gold." The singer lists other job possibilities: sailor, diver, jockey, doctor, apple-cart-pusher. Finally he says, "I just think I'll wait and see."
AUTHOR: Billie Menshouse?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad youth
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 256, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, p. 256)
File: ThBa256B

Fuzzy Wuzzy Was a Bear

DESCRIPTION: "Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair. Fuzzy wuzzy wasn't fuzzy, was he?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Keystone Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: animal hair wordplay
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #149, "Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear" (1 text)
Roud #25473
NOTES [93 words]: This is well enough known that even I remember it from childhood, but it is rarely collected. Possibly this is because Fuzzy Wuzzy was a slur used for Blacks; Kipling infamously used it in the Barrack Room Ballads -- although with more respect than the typical colonial soldier used. I can only say that no one freighted "Fuzzy Wuzzy Was a Bear" with any such meaning when I was young; "Fuzzy Wuzzy" seemed a perfectly logical name for a stuffed animal bear that had had the fur worn off. The whole point was the wordplay. And yet the words remain offensive....
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR149

Fy, Fy, Margaret (The Threatened Invasion)

DESCRIPTION: "Fy, fy, Margaret, Woman, are ye in? I nae sooner heard it, than fast did I rin, Doon the gte to tell ye (x3) We'll no be left our skin." The French and Spanish are coming. The singer must tell others. Margaret replies that they will deal with it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (Chambers-ScottishBallads)
KEYWORDS: battle dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 86-88, "The Threatened Invasion" (1 text)
Roud #8172
File: ChaBa086

Fy, Let's A to the Bridal

See The Blythesome Bridal (File: PBB082)

Fyah Bun (Fire Burn)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: Singer says Nancy built her house on sand and the wind blew it down, built her house out of wood and the fire burnt it down.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: fire ordeal home
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, p. 57, "Fyah Bun" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Fyah Bun" (on WIEConnor01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hosannah! Mi Bui' Mi House (Hosannah! I Built My House)" (theme of destroyed house)
NOTES [9 words]: Compare this song to "Hosannah! Mi Bui' Mi House." - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: JaMu057

Fye, Stick the Minister

DESCRIPTION: The singer saw "a bonny lass coortin' wi' the minister." The minister, says the singer, will kiss any lass he meets as fine as any man. But when the singer's married he can ignore the minister and "kiss an' coort as lang's we like"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad clergy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1350, "Fye, Stick the Minister" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7230
File: GrD71350

Fylemore

DESCRIPTION: "Fylemore you're the place for merry sport and singing and the chief amongst them all is the charming beagle hunting" The singer describes the draghunt route and its "swift horses and fine riders." The riders are named. At hunt end all retire to the pubs.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: sports drink moniker dog horse hunting
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 102-103, "Fylemore" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [153 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork p.16, quoting his friend Olan Dwyer on draghunting: "They drag a piece of meat with stuff put on it to give it a good scent. There were two fellows -- whips or huntsmen -- fellows who were used to running -- and they had a special course laid out. Usually the start would be about two miles up on the hill and these two fellows would start with the meat about four miles away -- one could come back this way towards the start and the other would go on to the finish. When the fellow going to the start would finish they'd leave off the hounds and the first dog in the gap would be the winner. There'd be a raffle for the spectators -- they'd buy a ticket and draw a dog and they'd get the money if they won. There would be a bookie there as well."
OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "Fylemore is near Cahirciveen in Co Kerry. It was famous for its draghunt and dogs went to it from all over Cork and Kerry." - BS
File: OCan102

Fylingdale Fox Hunt, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells about a fox-hunt on February 14 1811 in Fylingdale parish.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 137-138, "The Fylingdale Fox Hunt" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #1109
File: KiTu137

Fyrst day of Yole haue we in mynd, The

See First Day of Yule. The (File: MSBR3343)

Fyvie Ploughmen, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, not a ploughman, sings the ploughmen's praise. They whistle and sing in all weather. They should not cheat "the bonnie lassie." They are poor but if farmers don't pay them well enough "there is emigration to tak' them o'er the sea"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: infidelity emigration farming money nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #16, p. 2, ("Come listen, all ye ploughman lads") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 420, "The Fyvie Ploughmen" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #5939
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Plains of Waterloo" (tune, per Greig)
cf. "Harrowing Time" (subject: ploughing match)
cf. "The Plooin' Match" (subject: ploughing match)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Ploughman Lad
The Ploughmen o' Fyvie
File: GrD3420

G for Generosity (Girl Scout Pep Song)

DESCRIPTION: "She wears a G for generosity. She wears an I for interest, too. She wears an R for real sportsmanship. She wears and L for loyalty. She wears an S for her sincereity.... She wears an O-U-T for outdoor life, outdoor life. And that Girl Scout is Me!"
AUTHOR: Melinda Carroll? (source: various web sites, but others dispute this)
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: wordplay nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 482, "Girl Scout Pep Song" (notes only)
NOTES [147 words]: This is another of Averill's cononundrum. She does not clearly identify this song, and does not list it in her online index. It is not "Pep (The Peppiest Camp)," because she has 39 instances of that song, and just 7 of this. Searching for "Girl Scout Pep Song" consistently turns up "G for Generosity" under some title or other, but often with some other lyrics added to make it more of an actual pep song, e.g.,
Hooray for Girl Scouts!
Hooray for Girl Scouts!
Someone's in the stands cheering,
Hooray for Girl Scouts!
1 2 3 4, who we gonna cheer for?
Girl Scouts, that's us!
So it's not entirely clear to me what Averill means.
The earnestness of the song did at least inspire parodies:
She wears a G for chewing bubble gum,
She wears an I for ickiness,
She wears an R for real loud sportsmanship....
That third line seems to be a particularly good fit for this sort of pep song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF482P

Gabby Fabbly

DESCRIPTION: "Gabby blaby [blabby?] fabbly, Gabby blaby fabbly."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, p. 87, "Gabby Fabbly" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: List087C

Gaberlunyie Man, A

See The Gaberlunzie Man [Child 279A] (File: C279A)

Gaberlunzie Laddie, The

See The Beggar-Laddie [Child 280] (File: C280)

Gaberlunzie Man, The [Child 279A]

DESCRIPTION: A beggar comes to a lady's door and begs lodging. That night, he lures her daughter away with him. Later he returns to the lady's door and again begs lodging. The lady says she will never lodge a beggar again. He reveals her daughter, rich and happy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1724 (Tea-Table Miscellany)
KEYWORDS: begging courting escape money elopement mother children disguise
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland) Ireland Canada(Mar) US(NE)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Child 279 Appendix, "The Gaberlunyie-Man" (sic) (1 text)
Bronson (279 Appendix), "(The Jolly Beggar/The Gaberlunzie Man)" (49 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads (279 Appendix), "The Gaberlunyie-Man" ( versions: #1, #13,#15, #36, #24; #36 is also accidentally copied under Child 251, "Lang Johnny More")
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 96, "The Gaberlunzie Man" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #30, pp. 1-2, "The Gaberlunzie Man"; #38, pp. 2-3, "The Gaberlunzie Man" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan2 275, "The Beggar Man" (22 texts, 20 tunes) {A=Bronson's #24, C=#9, D=#17, E=#19, F=#16?, G=#23, H=#25, I=#14, J=#13, K=#22, L=#10, M=#15, P=#8, R=#18, S=#12, T=#7; several other tunes cannot be identified with their sources}
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #22, pp. 149-150, "The Beggar Man" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #41}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 333-336, "The Gaberlunyie Man" (1 text plus an extensive quotation from Petrie, 1 tune) {Bronson's 32}
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 67-71, "The Gaberlunyie Man" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XXI, pp. 62-63, "The Gaberlunzie Man" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H810, p. 269, "A Beggarman Cam' ower the Lea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 5, "The Beggarman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp.375-377, "The Beggar Man" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #33}
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 19, "The Gaberlunzie Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 42, pp. 333-338, "The Gaberlunyie-Man" (1 text, which though collected in Virginia comes from a man born in Scotland and is in Braid Scots)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 54, "The Jolly Beggar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 99-101, "The Gaberlunyie Man" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11}
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2346, "The silly poor man came over the lee" (?)
ADDITIONAL: [Ambrose Phillips?,] A Collection of Old Ballads Vol III, (London, 1725), #55, pp. 259-261, "The Gaberlunzie-Man"
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #226, pp. 234-235, "The Gaberlunzie-man" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Roud #119
RECORDINGS:
Maggie & Sarah Chambers, "The Beggarman (The Gaberlunzie Man)" (on FSB5 [as "The Auld Beggarman"], FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #46}
Liam Clancy, "Hi For the Beggarman" (on IRLClancy01)
Togo Crawford, "The Beggarman (The Gaberlunzie Man)" (on FSBBAL2)
Lizzie Higgins, "A Beggar Man" (on Voice17)
Ewan MacColl, "The Beggar Man" (ESFB1, ESFB2)
Maggie Murphy, "Clinking O'er the Lea" (on Voice07)
John Strachan, "The Beggarman (The Gaberlunzie Man)" (on FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #38}
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(126), "The Beggar Man" ("There was an old man cam' o'er the lea"), Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jolly Beggar" [Child 279] and references there
cf. "The Beggar-Laddie" [Child 280]
cf. "A Great Big Sea Hove in Long Beach" (tune & meter)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Beggar's Bride
The Auld Gaberlunzie
NOTES [573 words]: Although this ballad is associated in tradition with James V of Scotland, there is no evidence that he ever sought a woman in this fashion. James V in fact married a noble foreign lady, Mary of Guise-Lorraine. It was in fact James V's father James IV who seems to have spent time incognito among the common people (Jackie Cosh, The King with the Iron Belt: The Life of King James IV of Scotland, JC Publications, 2018, p. 53).
There actually is a sort-of-similar situation in British history; when the future King George II, in seeking a wife, "raised the possibility of marrying Caroline [of Ansbach], his father insisted his son should meet her first, and suggested that he do o in disguise, so that he could make an honest assessment of her person and character. In 1705, George obediently travelled to Ansbach, where he was presented to an unsuspecting Caroline as a Hanoverian nobleman. He was smitten at their very first meeting. As intemperate in passion as in so much else, George insisted for the rest of his life that he had fallen in love with Caroline the moment he was her" (Janice Hadlow, A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III, Henry Holt, 2014 (published in Britain by William Collins as The Strangest Family), p. 30). However, the ending is somewhat different: "Without declaring himself, [George] hurried back to Hanover, and urged his father to open negotiations for her hand." The two soon married and had eight children.
However, it is hard to believe that that was the inspiration for this song, since the earliest versions of "The Gaberlunzie Man" date from no later than 1724, before George II even came to the throne.
Wheatley explains "Gaberlunyie" as a compound of "gaber," a wallet, and "lunyie," the loins, i.e. a Gaberlunyie man is one who carries a wallet by his side. The fact that the title vacillates between "Gaberlunyie" and "Gaberlunzie" implies that most singers were less aware of this than the average scholar....
For the relationship between this song and "The Jolly Beggar," see the notes to that song. Due to the degree of cross-fertilization of these ballads, one should be sure to check both songs to find all versions.- RBW
Greig #38 is only the "return of" Gaberlunzie as a standalone text. Since Greig #30 ends when the daughter leaves, Greig sees the texts as distinct ballads with Greig #38 as the sequel.
The following broadsides almost certainly belong here but I could not download them: Bodleian, 2806 c.18(171), "The Beggar Man" ("There was an old man cam o'er the lea"), unknown, n.d.; also Firth c.26(57), "The Beggar Man."
re A Collection of Old Ballads Vol III: Ambrose Philips, whose name does not appear in the Google Books copy is, according to Google Books, the editor. The New York Public Library catalog says "Compilation usually attributed to Ambrose Philips." - BS
William Bernard McCarthy, in the article "'Barbara Allen' and 'The Gypsy Laddie': Single-Rhyme Ballads in the Child Corpus," printed on pp. 143-154 of Thomas A. McKean, editor, The Flowering Thorn: International Ballad Studies, Utah State University Press, 2003, makes the interesting observation that there are only two ballads in the Child collection -- "The Jolly Beggar" [Child 279]/"The Gaberlunzie Man" [Child 279A] and "The Beggar-Laddie" [Child 280], which are known to cross-fertilize, which normally use the rhyme scheme aaab, with the same b rhyme in all the verses. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C279A

Gabriel of High Degree

DESCRIPTION: "Gabriel of high degree, He came down from the Trinity, From Nazareth to Galilee, ut nova." "He met a maiden in a place"; "he said, 'Hail, Mary, full of grace.'" She will bear a child. In six months, her cousin Elizabeth will bear.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Richard Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354, folio 165b)
KEYWORDS: religious childbirth MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #238, pp. 170-171, "(Gabriell of hygh degre)" (2 texts)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 30-33, "Nova, nova: Ave fit ex Eva" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #889
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1485
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #9, pp. 5-6, "Nova, nova: Aue fitt ex Eva" (1 text)
Rossell Hope Robbins, editor, _Early English Christmas Carols_, Columbia University Press, 1961, #22, pp. 64-65, "Nova, Nova" (1 text, 1 tune)
Noah Greenberg, ed., An Anthology of English Medieval and Renaissance Vocal Music, pp. 66-67, "Nova, Nova" (1 text, 1 tune with harmonization)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 222
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 60
MANUSCRIPT: Glasgow, University Library MS Hunterian 83 (T.3.21), folio iv
ST Ricke030 (Partial)
Roud #815
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Angel Gabriel" (subject)
cf. "Now we shuld syng & say newell, Quia missus est angelus Gabriell" (lyric on Gabriel and the annunciation, from Richard Hill's manuscript); see Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, #8, pp. 4-5 (subject)
cf. "Newell, newell, newell, newell, This ys the salutacion of Gabryell" (lyric on Gabriel and the annunciation, from Richard Hill's manuscript); see Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, #49, pp. 39-40, with a text from Wrigt on p. 177 (subject)
cf. "Gabriell that angelll bryght, Bryghtter than the son lyght"" (lyric on Gabriel and the annunciation, from Richard Hill's manuscript); see Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, #17, p. 10; also in Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734),
NOTES [174 words]: This is based on the account in Luke 1:26-2:20 -- although the line "Hail, Mary, full of grace" is not actually in the Biblical text (Gabriel greets Mary in Luke 1:28, but without mentioning her name).
There is no proof that this piece is traditional, but there is good evidence that it was at least somewhat popular. The first point is its inclusion in the Hill manuscript, which includes some folk pieces., and in Bodleian MS. Eng. poet e.1, which is thought to date from the fifteenth century and includes many popular pieces. And there is a third copy, in Hunterian 83. These differ in length; the Hill MS. has eight stanza, Bodleian has seven, Hunterian six. So that's at least a hint of oral tradition.
E. K. Chambers, English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages, Oxford, 1945, 1947, p. 87, suggests that the "Nova, Nova" is a derivative of "Nowell/Noël" (as opposed to Latin "nova," "new").
For more about the famous anthology Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Ricke030

Gabriel That Angel Bright

DESCRIPTION: "Gabriel, that angel bright, Brighter than the sun is light," comes to Mary in Nazareth and tells her to rejoice. Mary is afraid. She is told to rejoice ("Regina celi, letare"). The Holy Ghost will come upon her to save those who were lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354)
KEYWORDS: religious children mother MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #237, pp. 169-170, "(no title)" (2 texts)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 35-36 "Regina celi, letare" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse , #890
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1486
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #17, p. 10, "[Now syng we, syng we: Regina celi, letare!]" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 26
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, page 464
NOTES [144 words]: Although not found in modern tradition, this piece is found in two of the most important medieval carol manuscripts Richard Hill's manuscript and Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet e. 1. And the forms in those two manuscripts are very different.
There are also a couple of rather folkish touches. In the Eng. Poet e. 1 text, Mary is said to be afraid -- as she surely would have been if an angel brighter than the sun had shown up, but that's not the way she tends to be treated in Mariolatric texts. That text also calls Nazareth a "great city," which it was not and which no one with any scriptural knowledge would have expected it to be.
Given the sources and the nature of the texts, I am very tentatively including it in the Index.
For more about the famous anthology Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSGaTABr

Gabriel's Trumpet (Baptist Numbered in God)

DESCRIPTION: "Baptist, Baptist is my name, I hope to live and die the same, Oh Baptist numbered in God." "Gabriel's trumpet is the voice of God, to wake up the members in the old Church Yard." The singer regrets his (sister's) death and looks forward to the afterlife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 71-72, "Gabriel's Trumpet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 555, "Baptist, Baptist Is My Name" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 555, "Baptist, Baptist Is My Name" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11881 and 10022
File: MWhee071

Gabriell of hygh degre

See Gabriel of High Degree (File: Ricke030)

Gack Goon Went the Little Green Frog

See Little Green Frog (File: ACSF122L)

Gae Flit the Coo

DESCRIPTION: A wife comes in after moving the cow. Her husband insists she move it. She says "it is already done." He tells her again and "obedience is the woman's part." She complains that he is sour and sulky. He insists "obedience by nicht and day": move the cow!
AUTHOR: Alexander Smart (1798-1866) (source: Whistle-Binkie) but see Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast's note
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Whistle-Binkie)
KEYWORDS: dialog nonballad animal husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #71, p. 2, "Gae Flit the Coo" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1306, "Gae Flit the Coo" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 376, "The Flittin' o' the Cow" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Rodger, editor, Whistle-Binkie, Second Series (Glasgow, 1842), pp. 42-43, "The Flittin' o' the Cow"
Roud #6274
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tak' Your Auld Cloak About Ye" (tune, per Whistle-Binkie)
NOTES [54 words]: Greig, April 13, 1909: "We referred to this song a week or two ago as composed by Alexander Smart (1798-1866) and appearing originally in Whistle-Binkie, but as being now pretty much a traditional ditty." Greig's copy differs from Smart's in Whistle-Binkie only in some spelling ("coo" instead of "cow," for example). - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD71306

Gaelic Football

See Football Crazy (File: McPCFiCr)

Gaffer Gray

DESCRIPTION: "Ho! Why dost thou shiver and shake, Gaffer Gray? And why does thy nose look so blue?" Gray's clothes are old, he is old, and the weather is bad. The priest, the lawyer, the squire will not help. But other poor men will share what little they have
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Dime-Song-Book #10)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes poverty clothes drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #10, pp. 32-33, "Gaffer Grey" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 5, "Gaffer Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16599
File: NCSGafGr

Gaffer Grey

See Gaffer Gray (File: NCSGafGr)

Gaie-Annee, La

See Guillannee, La (La Gui-Annee) (File: BMRF584)

Gairdner and the Plooman, The

DESCRIPTION: A gardner has long courted the girl, "But the blythe blink o the plooman lad Has stown my hairt frae me, me, Has stown my hairt frae me." The singer first saw her love singing "under a bush o' rue." She finally turns to the plooman
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Grieg)
KEYWORDS: love courting farming
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bronson 219, "The Gardener" (9 versions+3 in addenda, but #1 at least is "The Gairdner and the Plooman")
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 94, "The Gairdner and the Ploughman" (1 text)
Roud #339
NOTES [101 words]: This song sometimes is listed as a version of "The Gardener" [Child #219], including by Bronson, who counts one of Grieg's versions there. This is understandable, as the song is very diverse (Bronson himself says that "The Gardener" "rests uneasily in Child's collection. It is both too little of a ballad... and too sophisticated").
Nonetheless, I think they should be separated. "The Gardener" seems to have at its root a dialog involving flowers and courting. This piece mentions a gardener, but he isn't wandering around waving flowers in the girl's face, really, and she has a separate love interest. - RBW
File: Ord094

Gairdner and the Ploughman, The

See The Gairdner and the Plooman (File: Ord094)

Gal from the South

See Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal) (File: BAF904)

Gal I Left Behind Me, The

See The Girl I Left Behind Me (lyric) (File: R546)

Gal, You Wan' Fe' Come Kill Me? (Tek Akee, Mek Soup) (Woman, Do You Want to Kill Me?) (Take Akee, Make Soup)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: The singer marries a nice girl, but she can't cook. Send her back to her mother. Instructions on making soup: boil akee, add anotta. It's easy to poison someone. He asks, sometimes laughing, do you want to kill me?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory)
KEYWORDS: marriage cook food mother separation rejection poison Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 126, ("Manny Clark a you da man!") (1 fragment, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Helen H. Roberts, "A Study of Folk Song Variants Based on Field Work in Jamaica," Vol. XXXVIII, No. 148 (Apr-Jun 1925), #57-62 pp. 184-190 "Akee Song No. 2" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Wright and Edna Wright, "Oh, Send She Back" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
NOTES [83 words]: See "Linstead Market" for a discussion of the poisonous potential of akee.
Helen Roberts's local titles are "Janan Chamberlain," "Akee Song," "Tek Akee, Mek Soup," "Akee" (2), and "Gal, You Wan' Fe Come Kill Me?" Roberts points out that "anotta [I assume this is actually the natural colorant known as annatto, which is orange-yellow - RBW] is used to color the soup yellow, but would not be if it were green, is also significant.... The seeds are frequently used in soups by native cooks ...." - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Jek126

Galbally Farmer, The

See Darby O'Leary (File: CrSNB110)

Gale of August '27, The

DESCRIPTION: 87 fishermen set out in April for the Sable Island fishing grounds. When a storm blows up, their vessels sink and all are lost. A memorial service in Lunenburg draws 5000. The singer hopes they will meet again in Heaven
AUTHOR: George Swinamer
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: sailor sea fishing storm wreck funeral death religious
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 25, 1927 - The _Joyce M. Smith_, _Uda F. Corkum_, _Mahala_, and _Clayton W. Walters_, all of Lunenburg, are lost with all hands off the Sable Island shoal
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 184-185, "The Gale of August '27" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9431
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The August Gale (I)" (subject) (describes the consequences of this storm in Newfoundland)
cf. "The August Gale (II)" (subject?)
NOTES [728 words]: Lunenburg is a town (and county) in Nova Scotia; the town is on the coast about 60 kilometers south and west of Halifax. Sable Island, the "graveyard of the Atlantic," is a long, low island about 250 km. due south of the eastern tip of Nova Scotia. C. H. J. Snider wrote in The Canadian Magazine in 1928 that "until an earthquake sinks Sable Island a thousand fathoms deep, the price of Atlantic fish will be the lives of men" (quoted in Gerald Hallowell, The August Gales: The Tragic Loss of Fishing Schooners in the North Atlantic, 1926 and 1927, Nimbus Publishing, 2013, p. 91). At least one author published a poem at the time describing the "evil" island; Hallowell quotes a large part of it on pp. 105-106.
The gale was very likely a hurricane; there had been reports of severe storms moving up the North American coast for several days before it hit the Maritimes (Hallowell, pp. 91-94). The forecast issued in Nova Scotia was for windy weather. But none of the fishing schooners had radios, so they had no way to know this (Hallowell, pp. 94-95).
On land, nine people were killed, and damage was estimated to exceed a million dollars (Hallowell, pp. 95-96). Ships were destroyed all around Nova Scotia; supposedly sixteen sank just in Louisbourg harbour (Hallowell, p. 97). And roads, rails, and phone and telegraph lines were down throughout the province. More than fifty people were thought to have died in Newfoundland when the storm hit there the next day (Hallowell, p. 98).
Hallowell says that there was concern about dozens of ships when the storm hit, but most eventually came back to port. The ships described in this song of course did not come back.
The Uda R. Corkum (Hallowell's name) had been built in 1918 by Captain Freeman Corkum, and named for his daughter (Hallowell, p. 4); she was listed as 90.7 tonnes (Hallowell, p. 116). She had left Burin, Newfoundland about a week before the storm (Hallowell, p. 102), and wreckage was finally found on September 27 by the Arras and identified by Freeman Corkum (Hallowell, p. 103). Uda Corkum herself would eventually drop a wreathe in the sea to commemorate her family's ship (Hallowell, p. 4). Hallowell, p. 118, has a list of the 19 men lost on the Corkum, including her captain Wilfred A. Andrews and two of his brothers.
The Joyce M. Smith had been built in 1920; her captain, Henry Maxner, was 55 years old and one of the owners of the 102.5 tonne ship (Hallowell, p. 109). She sailed from Lunenberg, but most of her crew was from Newfoundland (Hallowell, pp. 153-154). Hallowell, p. 157, lists the 23 men who were lost with her; pp. 154-155 have photos of Maxner and a few of the others.
The Clayton W. Walters had been built in 1916 for Captain Stannage Walters. She was a bit smaller -- 72.5 tonnes (Hallowell, p. 110). Marsden "Mars" Selig had taken charge of her in 1926. He was 33 when he sailed in 1927, and his wife was pregnant with his second child, whom he had never seen. Two other members of the Selig family, plus his wife's brother, would also die with the Walters; Hallowell, pp. 110-111, has photos of Mars Selig and several of the others. Hallowell, p. 112, lists the 22 sailors lost on the Walters.
The Mahala was almost new at the time of her loss, having been launched in 1925. She was listed at 88.9 tonnes (Hallowell, pp. 114-115). Her captain, Warren Knickle, was just 28 years old. The crew of 21 included two of the captain's brothers, his brother-in-law, and (it appears) five cousins; among the other crew was a set of three brothers and a father and son; it would appear that several families were all but wiped out by her loss (the list of those lose is on p. 116 of Hallowell; pp. 114-117 give photos of several of the dead).
In addition to the men lost with their ships, some ships which survived suffered casualties, e.g. Manus Hemeon was swept out to sea from the Julie Opp II (Hallowell, p. 113).
It's interesting to see that this song has been collected primarily in Newfoundland even though the ships are from Nova Scotia. To be sure, the storm also hit Newfoundland. As early as August 27, the Halifax Herald reported three dead and much damage in the island (Hallowell, p. 125).
The August 27 gale is very likely the subject of "The August Gale (II)" as well, although Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou assign it to a 1935 storm.- RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Doe185

Gallagher Boys, The

See Lost on Lake Michigan (File: WGM172)

Gallant 69th, The

See The Gallant Sixty-Ninth (File: HaBrG69)

Gallant Brigantine, The [Laws D25]

DESCRIPTION: A sailor and a girl meet. She gives him her address, saying her husband would be glad to meet them. He mentions his wife and newborn son. They go off to her farm hand in hand; sailor, woman, and husband spend dinner and a pleasant afternoon together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
KEYWORDS: courting husband wife
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws D25, "The Gallant Brigantine"
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 127, "The Islands of Jamaica" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 218-223, "My Gallant Brigantine" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 88, "Jamaica Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 39, "The Gallant Brigantine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 36, "Gallant Brigantine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 142-143, "The Gallant Brigantine" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 27-29, "Henry Orrison" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 50-51, "The Gallant Brigantine" (1 text, 1 tune, consisting of two short texts imperfectly combined)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 46-49, "The Gallant Brigantine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 69, "The Gallant Brigantine" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 670, GALLBRIG
Roud #648
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Edward Gallagher, "My Gallant Brigantine" (on MRHCreighton)
Frank Knox, "Captain Howley" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Patrick Rossiter, "My Gallant Brigantine" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Henry Orrison
NOTES [111 words]: For this they wrote a ballad? - PJS
Even more amazing, the thing seems to have been fairly popular. Laws remarks, "This tongue-in-cheek narrative achieves its effect by repeatedly disappointing the listener's anticipation of stock situations of broadside balladry." - RBW
In Mrs. Gallagher's version, the last line is a teaser, leading you to expect that the sailor discovers his wife has run off with another man, but in fact she has had a baby son. - PJS
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick: The final verse changes the tone entirely: "... the girl I loved so dear was the wife of another man, And I really thought my heart would break as I sailed for a foreign land." - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LD25

Gallant Farmer's Farewell to Ireland, The

DESCRIPTION: Michael Hayes claims he shot the land agent when he went to pay his rent and he has been running since. He describes the manhunt across Ireland and on ships at port. They go to America: "The paper said they had him caught" but he was not.
AUTHOR: T. Walsh (according to broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(201))
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: homicide manhunt escape farming Ireland
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 68B, "The Gallant Farmer's Farewell to Ireland" (1 fragment)
Roud #V4359
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(201), "The Gallant Farmers' Farewell to Ireland" ("Farewell to old Irelaud [sic] the land of my fathers")," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "M'Kenna's Dream" (tune, broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(201))
cf. "The Great Elopement to America" (see Notes)
cf. "The General Fox Chase" (character of Michael Hayes)
cf. "Rory of the Hill" (character of Michael Hayes)
NOTES [328 words]: Compare "The Gallant Farmers' Farewell to Ireland" to broadside
Bodleian, 2806 c.8(158), "The Great Elopement to America" ("Farewell to old Ireland the land of my fathers"), Haly (Cork), 19C.
One of these is clearly derived from the other.
Here is the first verse of "The Gallant Farmers' Farewell to Ireland" [broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(201)] with Brereton's spelling:
Farewell to old Ireland the land of my Fathers,
From house home and farm I sharp had to flee,
I went to pay my rent on a fine summers morning
Myself and the agent we there did disgree
I had the money in my hand he told me I should quit the land
The truth to tel you know right well his words did me displease
He fel a victim to a shot his agency he soon forgot
And since that day theyre searching for the farmer Michael Hayes.
Here is the first verse of "The Great Elopement to America" [broadside Bodleian 2806 c.8(158)]:
Farewell to old Ireland the land of my fathers,
From house, home and farm, quite sharp I had to flee,
I once fell a courting a rich farmer's daughter
Myself and her father we could not agree;
500 pounds she had in hand, she asked me would I leave the land
I said I would, and to I did, and thought it no disgrace
To America we sailed off, we went as quick caused many to laugh
And since that day he is searching for his daughter Nancy Keays.
The description is based on broadside Bodleian, Harding B 26(201).
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "This ballad shows how a probably hateful character could become a gallant hero in the eyes of the oppressed peasants. Michael Hayes had been for many years the ruthless bailiff of a land agent, for whom he was said to have evicted more than one thousand people in one parish alone.... When he grew too old for this job he was allowed to stay on the land as a farmer, but a notice to quit was finally served on him too. He shot the agent in a hotel in Tipperary, (30th July, 1862)." In spite of a manhunt he was never caught. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Zimm068B

Gallant Female Sailor

See Female Sailor Bold [Laws N3] (File: LN03)

Gallant Forty-Twa (II), The

See Here's to the Black Watch (File: GrD1071)

Gallant Forty-Twa, The

DESCRIPTION: Weaver Willie Brown enlists. The first sergeant fears he'll "make an awfu' mess o' the gallant forty-twa." Willie is always "first man at the table." When he goes home on furlough he'll teach his comrades to handle a gun and show them he's a corporal.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan1); 19C (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(25a))
KEYWORDS: army Scotland humorous nonballad soldier
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 70, "The Gallant Forty-Twa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, pp. 36-37, "The Gallant Forty-Twa" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GALNT42*
Roud #1877
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(25a), "The Gallant Forty-Twa," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnets o' Blue" (subject: 42nd Highlanders or Black Watch)
cf. "McCaffery (McCassery)" (subject: 42nd Highlanders or Black Watch)
cf. "Wha Saw the Forty-Second" (subject: 42nd Highlanders or Black Watch)
cf. "Here's to the Black Watch" (subject: 42nd Highlanders or Black Watch)
cf. "Old Recruiting Soldier (Twa Recruiting Sergeants)" (subject: 42nd Highlanders or Black Watch)
cf. "The Bonnets o' Blue" (subject: 42nd Highlanders or Black Watch)
cf. "Young Munro" (subject: 42nd Highlanders or Black Watch)
NOTES [228 words]: NLScotland commentary to L.C.Fol.70(25a): "The 'forty-twa' is the 42nd Highland Regiment, more commonly known as the Black Watch." [For the record of this regiment, see "Wha Saw the Forty-Second." - RBW]
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast attributes one verse and chorus to Oiny Boak and other verses to Hugh Quinn (1884-1956). Oiny Boak's verse ("You may talk about your Lancers or your Irish Fusiliers, Your Aberdeen Militia or the Dublin Volunteers; Or any other regiment that's lying far awa', But give to me the tartan of the gallant forty twa") is the chorus of the broadside. His chorus ("Strolling through the green fields on a summer's day, Watching all the country girls forking up the hay, I really was delighted till he stole my heart awa', Then left me for the tartan of the gallant forty-twa") and Quinn's verses (the female singer recalls the day her lover marched away to war, and then when he returned) have no broadside counterpart. If the Hammond-SongsOfBelfast version is sung in Ireland, the broadside version is sung in Scotland (see Greig/Duncan 1 70, which omits the chorus).
The source for the description is broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(25a).
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "The Gallant Forty-Twa" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)) - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Hamm036

Gallant Grahams, The

DESCRIPTION: "As I was crossing ower Boyne Water... For the killin' o' an English lord My gude braid sword they've ta'en frae me." The singer complains of being abandoned by the Grahams. He escapes and flees from his home in Carrickfergus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: homicide home exile prison escape
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 441-442, "The Galland Grahams" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 245, "The Gallant Grahams" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 312, "The Gallant Grahams"
Roud #5618
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hughie Grame [Child 191]" (lyrics)
NOTES [179 words]: This is clearly related to "Hughie Grame"; about half the material in Ord-BothySongsAndBallads's text, for instance, is standard in "Hughie." The perspective is different, though: The setting seems to be Ulster (where many Scots emigrated, both before and after Culloden). Only one girl would laments the hero's fate, and she makes no attempt to save him. The hero lives. And it is told in first person throughout.
Clearly the relation between the two songs needs more study (though that may be difficult unless additional texts turn up). In the absence of that, I follow standard Ballad Index policy and split the two. But my initial inclination was to lump; they have that much in common. - RBW
Chambers's fragment is the chorus quoted by Ord. Chambers cites as his source Finlay's "Old Ballads." - BS
There is another song called "The Gallant Grahams," about the Marquis of Montrose, which begins "Now fare thee well, sweet Ennerdale/Endrickdale." This appears in Scott's "Minstrelsy," and in Maidment and Whitelaw, but does not appear to have been found in tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Ord441

Gallant Husars, The

See Gallant Hussar, The (A Damsel Possessed of Great Beauty) (File: E147)

Gallant Hussar, The (A Damsel Possessed of Great Beauty)

DESCRIPTION: The beautiful damsel waits at her father's gate for the hussars to pass by. At last she sees her lover. She reports that her parents kept her confined for a whole year, but she is all the more determined to follow and marry him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1866 (see Note)
KEYWORDS: elopement love separation soldier
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro) Ireland Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 254-256, "The Gallant Hussar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #150, p. 1, "The Gallant Hussar" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 982, "The Gallant Hussar" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 135, "Gallant Hussar" (1 text)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 42-43, "The Galland Hussar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H243a, pp. 473-474, "Young Edward the Gallant Hussar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 27, "The Gallant Hussar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 16, "The Gallant Husars" [sic] (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 147, "A Damsel Possessed of Great Beauty" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #70, "The Gallant Hussars" (1 text)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 89-91, "Young Edward the Gallant Hussar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #703, p. 46, "The Gallant Hussar" (2 references)
ST E147 (Full)
Roud #1146
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(100b), "Gallant hussar" ("A damsel, possess'd of great beauty "), Swindells (Manchester), 1706-1853; also Harding B 18(633), "The galland hussar,' De Marsan (New York), c. 1750; 2806 c.13(257) (unknown, n.d.)
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(84b), "The Gallant Hussar," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gallant Soldier (Mary/Peggy and the Soldier)" (plot)
cf. "Fare Ye Well, Enniskillen (The Inniskillen Dragoon)"
cf. "Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
SAME TUNE:
Answer to the Galland Hussar (Bodleian, Harding B 11(4391), "It is of a nobleman's daughter")
NOTES [185 words]: Regarding the date: Kun Davis writes, "I came across your website when I was transcribing a diary written by my great great grandfather. He kept a journal during his civil war service, mostly a collection of songs that he wrote and some that he probably didn't. One of those songs is called "The Gallant Huzzar" in his journal, and I found the lyrics on your website, which match almost identically.... The reason I am writing is because in the notes at the beginning you indicate that the earliest date for the song is 1904. The journal was written between 1863 and 1865 based on the dates in the journal itself. It does not look like it was jotted down later, and in any case my gg grandfather died in 1903. I believe that it must have been a song contemporaneous to the civil war, and wanted to pass that information along." - RBW
Broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:031, "Answer to Young Jane and her Gallant Hussar," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C obviously claims to be an "answer" to this, but it's more of a sideline and continuation, in which Jane rejects another suitor and eventually goes off with the hussar. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: E147

Gallant Hussars, The

See Gallant Hussar, The (A Damsel Possessed of Great Beauty) (File: E147)

Gallant Murray, The

See The Athol Gathering (File: HoJR2059)

Gallant Ninety-Twa, The

DESCRIPTION: "Brave Ninety-Twa, I've read your story, A valour tale of fadeless glory." "Reared 'mong these glens 'mid which I stand, The brave, heroic Gordons grand." The singer lists places visited by the Ninety-Second, and hopes it will retain its fame
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: soldier war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
Feb 26, 1881 - Battle of Majuba Hill
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 289-291, "The Gallant Ninety-Twa" (1 text)
Roud #3776
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Aberdonians Fare Ye Weel" (subject: 92nd Highlanders or Gordon's Highlanders)
cf. "The Battle of Barossa" (subject: 92nd Highlanders or Gordon's Highlanders) and notes there
cf. "The Muir of Culloden" (subject: 92nd Highlanders or Gordon's Highlanders) and notes there
NOTES [287 words]: Raised in 1794 as the 100th Foot, this regiment (the Gordon Highlanders) was renumbered the 92nd in 1798; under that number, it served in and was granted battle honours for the Peninsular War, the Hundred Days, and the Second Afghan War; it managed to miss the Crimea.
In 1881, the 92nd was consolidated with the 75th Highland Regiment as the Gordon Highlanders. The consolidated unit fought in the Sudan, in the Boer War, and on into the World Wars.
The 92nd does deserve a good deal of credit for Waterloo, incidentally. The first phase of the main battle consisted of the attack by d'Erlon's French corps on Wellington's center. This broke the British line, but Picton's division and others counterattacked and restored the situation. The 92nd was in the forefront of this fight, which was arguably the key to the battle -- had d'Erlon broken through, Napoleon would have won Waterloo; once the assault failed, Napoleon had almost no chance of beating Wellington completely before Blucher arrived with reinforcements.
The dating of the song is a bit of a conundrum. The last event mentioned seems to be Majuba Hill, part of the first (1880-1881) Boer war, in which a scratch force led by Major General Pomeroy-Colley attacked a larger and entrenched Boer force, with predictable results: The British lost about 20% of their force, including Pomeroy-Colley, killed in the field without achieving anything.
The 92nd was not engaged as a whole in this battle (and was given no battle honours), but portions were engaged, so it is fair to mention it. And yet, later that year, the 92nd lost its independent identity. Could the song, perhaps, have been written in response to the consolidation, or the threat of the same? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord289

Gallant Peter Clarke

See Peter Clarke (File: MA100)

Gallant Poacher, The

See The Poacher's Fate [Laws L14] (File: LL14)

Gallant Poachers (I), The

See Van Dieman's Land (I) [Laws L18] (File: LL18)

Gallant Poachers (II), The

See The Poacher's Fate [Laws L14] (File: LL14)

Gallant Rainbow, The

See The Female Warrior (Pretty Polly) [Laws N4] (File: LN04)

Gallant Shearers, The

DESCRIPTION: As autumn brings on the shearing, the singer asks, "Bonnie lassie, will ye gang... To join yon band of shearers?" He promises to work hard for her -- e.g. if it is dry, he will still love her; if it is hot, he will still work, and she will remain his
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: love courting work sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 267, "The Gallant Shearers" (1 text)
Roud #5593
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Band o' Shearers" (chorus)
NOTES [42 words]: This song and "The Band o Shearers" share a chorus and a theme, and are undoubtedly connected, though it's not clear which is older. But the feel of the verses is different enough that I follow Ord-BothySongsAndBallads in splitting them, as does Roud. - RBW
File: Ord267

Gallant Shoemaker, The

DESCRIPTION: A girl is courted by a wealthy farmer, but loves a shoemaker. Her father confines her to make her change her mind. She sends a letter to her love. He rides by and carries her away. They live happily, "For she had gotten her shoemaker."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love courting escape
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 102-103, "The Gallant Shoemaker" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #42, p. 1, "The Gallant Shoemaker" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 480, "My Lovie Was a Shoemaker" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan5 993, "The Gallant Shoemaker" (8 texts plus a single verse on p. 608, 4 tunes)
Roud #3950
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Locks and Bolts" [Laws M13] (theme: girl locked away by father) and references there
NOTES [71 words]: Greig/Duncan5 notes that Greig's version is a composite. - BS
The Greig/Duncan3 fragment reads "A shoemaker neat and fine, My lovie was a shoemaker, Shoemaker neat and fine, My love's a gallant shoemaker." In the notes, Greig declares, "The words are stated to be a chorus, but the music for the verses is the same." Roud lists this fragment as #5974, but I'm guessing it's the same as Ord-BothySongsAndBallads's song. - RBW, (BS)
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord102

Gallant Sixty-Ninth, The

DESCRIPTION: "We are privates in the Sixty-Ninth, We follow the fife and drum; We can't forget our comrades, And their glory at Bull Run... Our boys helped gain the day." "We march behind the band, true sons of Paddy's land." They remember Ireland, fight for the Union
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 ("Down Broadway, or, From Central Park to the Battery")
KEYWORDS: soldier war patriotic Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 21, 1861 - First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas. Confederates under Beauregard and Johnston rout an inexperienced Federal force under McDowell.
Aug 29-30, 1862 - Second Battle of Bull Run/Manassas. Lee's army takes Pope's force in flank and rolls it up.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #5, pp. 20-22, "The Gallant '69th'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 175-176, "The Gallant 69th" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Richard Moody, Ned Harrigan: From Corlear's Hook to Herald Square , Nelson Hall, 1980, photo inset following p. 54 has a copy of the sheet music (interestingly, the outer cover calls it "The Gallant Sixty-Ninth," the interior "The Gallant '69th.')
Roud #V41521
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Bull Run" [Laws A9] (subject: the battle of Bull Run) and notes and referenes there
NOTES [854 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
The humor of this song may be lost on modern audiences, because the song claims that "our boys helped gain the day" at Bull Run. But the Union did not gain the day at either First Bull Run or Second Bull Run; the Union forces were swept from the field in both cases. (For background, see the notes to "The Battle of Bull Run" [Laws A9]).
There were actually two "Irish Sixty-Ninth" regiments, the Pennsylvania 69th and the New York 69th. "The Irish Sixty-Ninth" is about the former; this is about the latter. In a sense, even the New York 69th was two regiments; there was the militia regiment, which fought at Bull Run under Colonel Michael Corcoran (who was wounded and captured; the 69th militia suffered 28 kiilled, 59 wounded, and 95 missing; McDonald, p. 192). The survivors were then mostly re-enrolled in the "true" 69 NY (a three-year regiment rather than 90 day militia) and the other units of the Irish Brigade (Bilby, p. 50), a unit which suffered very heavily in the war; see the notes to "By the Hush."
We can be confident that the song's reference is to the militia Irish 69th because the unit fought at First Bull Run -- the three-year unit was not involved in Second Bull Run (Bilby, p. 50; Boatner, p. 594).
For all the humor of the claim to have won the day, the Irish Brigade was certainly "Gallant," as the horrendous casualties testified (again, see the notes to "By the Hush"). "The gallantry of the real 'fighting 69th' at Gettysburg, at the Second Battle of Bull Run, at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville was well know" (Moody, p. 61 -- although, as we saw, the reference should be to First Bull Run or not at all). "It was, many said, the best brigade in the Army of the Potomac. Some said it was the best befiage in the whole Union army and perhaps the best brigade on either side in the American Civil War" (Bilby, p. ix). Few objective observers would go so far as to call it the best brigade of the war (if they named a Top Brigade, it would be either the Iron Brigade of the West or Hood's Texas Brigade, depending perhaps on whether they were northern or southern, e.g. Gottfried, p. 39 calls the Iron Brigade "Arguably the finest fighting unit in the Army of the Potomac" and on p. 436 says that the Texans were "the best in Lee' army") -- but there is no question but that the Irishmen were famous, and they earned their fame with blood: "The II Corps' First Division lost more men killed in action than any other Federal division, and the Irish Brigade lost more men than any other brigade in that division" (Bilby, p. ix).
Franceschina, pp. 86-87, says that this is not from a full Harrigan and Braham drama but from an 1875 sketch, "Down Broadway, or, From Central Park to the Battery." "Featuring an exact replication of the 69th Regiment uniforms [which can be seen in the sheet music cover reproduced by Franceschina], the routine starred Kitty O'Neil as the colonel of the regiment and Edward Harrigan as a rube who is dumfounded by the sight of the statue of George Washington in Union Square. The marching song designed for the boys impersonating the 69th Regiment was titled 'The Gallant "69th"' and composed in imitation of 'The Mulligan Guard, complete with introductory military cadence, and the extended parade music after the chorus."
Moody, p. 52, shows just how much of a rube Harrigan played: his character is "overwhelmed by Washington's statue in Union Square: 'That's the man -- when he was a boy said to his father, "Take back the meat ax I can't tell a lie I broke the window with a brick."'"
Kahn, pp. 184-185, describes the original sketch and the tour in which it was presented: "[Tour manage Martin] Hanley was shepherd of a company of thirty-seven, which included a chorus of fifteen teen-age boys known as 'Harrigan and Hart's Original Miniature Sixty-ninth Regiment.' This was made up of fourteen white boys and a colored target carrier. They did one number, 'The Gallant Sixty-ninth,' in which Hart played the regimental commander and Harrigan a doddering old man who kept trying to enlist in its youthful ranks. The diminutive soldiers had been well drilled for the stage.... Offstage, however, they constituted something of a disciplinary problem as they moved from town to town. 'The regiment got me down and rolled and washed me with snow,' Harrigan wrote to New York from one wintry stop. Two of them were so unmanageable that they had to be shipped home soon after the jaunt got under way. The survivors proved to be of great promotional value. They would participate nimbly in any parade that any community they passed through was putting on, and every Sunday Hanley would march them en masse, and in uniform, to church, where they caused quite a stir."
The sheet music of this song was dedicated to "Col. Cavanah and the Officers and Men of the 69th Regt. N.G.S.N.T." (Spaeth, p. 183; Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, reads this as "N.C.S.N.T.," which is nonsense) -- which means the post-war militia/National Guard regiment, not the Civil War unit. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: HaBrG69

Gallant Soldier (I), The

DESCRIPTION: A soldier, passing through Ayr, asks a girl to leave home and he'd give her towers, castles and gold. She agrees. In Dundee he buys her a gown. At Inverness he meets a prettier girl. The first asks for her towers, etc. He has none and gives her no gold.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: seduction infidelity gold promise soldier beauty clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 88, "The Gallant Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5792
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Plains of Waterloo" (tune)
File: GrD088

Gallant Soldier (II), The

See Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me (File: R065)

Gallant Soldier, The (Mary/Peggy and the Soldier)

DESCRIPTION: (Peggy) comes out and sees the soldiers marching by. She falls in love with one and offers to marry him. He warns her of the problems of travel and separation. She offers to come with him; she has money to care for herself. He agrees to marry her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1846 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1627))
KEYWORDS: love courting soldier travel marriage money
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #154, p. 2, ("Mary she went out one day"); #152, p. 3, ("For the walk so neat, and the dress so gay") (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan1 91, "Highland Soldier" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H782, p. 473, "The Gallant Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MARYSOLD
Roud #2496
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1627), "The Highland Soldier" ("On the Highland mountains so far away"), J. Paul and Co. (London), 1838-1845; also Harding B 11(1548), Firth c.14(141), Harding B 11(1628), "[The] Highland Soldier"; Harding B 26(202), "The Gallant Soldier"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(19a), "The Highland Soldier," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gallant Hussar (A Damsel Possessed of Great Beauty)" (plot)
cf. "Rambling Sailor" (tune, per broadsides Bodleian Harding B 11(1627), Harding B 11(1628) and Harding B 11(1548))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lovely Maiden
NOTES [88 words]: All three versions of this song known to me (the Sam Henry version and the Paul Brady version in the Digital Tradition, plus a version sung by Connie Dover on"If Ever I Return") contain the line, "But O how cruel my parents (can/must) be, To banish my darling so far from me." But at that stage in the song, the man is *already* a soldier, and the parents probably don't know what Mary/Peggy is up to anyway. The conclusion would seem to be that this song picked up elements of some song involving banishment of a true love. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: HHH782

Gallant Tommy Boyle, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you Beaver Island boys, I hope you will draw near To hear my lamentation." The singer tells of Tommy Boyle, drowned in Lake Michigan.His father mourns him. The priest praises him. He was proper and tall. All wish him rest in "that blessed land"
AUTHOR: Dan Malloy
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (collected from Mike O'Donnel by Walton)
KEYWORDS: sailor death father
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 175-176, 'The Gallant Tommy Boyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #19832
RECORDINGS:
Pat MacDonough, "The Gallant Tommy Boyle" (1938; on WaltonSailors; the text is different in many particulars from the text in Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors even though it is from the same primary informant)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lost on Lake Michigan" (subject)
File: WGM175

Gallant Victory, The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Gallis Pole, The

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Galloping Major, The

DESCRIPTION: "When I was in the army I was a cavalryman you know, And whenever I went on parade A magnificent picture I made." "Bumpety, bumpety... All the girls declare that I'm a gay old stager Hey, hey, clear the way here comes the galloping major."
AUTHOR: Fred W. Leigh and George Bastow (source: monoologues.co.uk; Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood credits to Leigh and George Formby Sr.)
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (recorded by "Walter Miller," i.e. Stanley Kirkby, according to monologues.co.uk)
KEYWORDS: soldier horse travel courting
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 34, "All the girls declare he's a gay old stager" (1 text)
Roud #25342
File: KSUC034C

Galloping Randy Dandy O!

See Randy Dandy O (File: Hugi167)

Gallowa Hills

DESCRIPTION: "I will tak my plaidie, contented to be, A wee bit kiltie abune my knee...." "For the Gallowa Hills are covered wi' broom... And we'll gang oot ower ths hills tae Gallowa." The girl will leave/sell all (distaff, reel, spinning wheel) to join her lad
AUTHOR: loosely derived from "The Braes of Galloway" by William Nicholson (source: Chris Wright)
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (recording, Jeannie Robertson)
KEYWORDS: love travel nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #33, pp. 171-172, "The Gallowa' Hills" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GALLWA
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 37, #2 (1992), p, 49, "Gallowa Hills" (1 text, 1 tune, Ray Fisher's version based on the singing of Jeannie Robertson)
Chris Wright, "'Forgotten Broadsides and the Song Tradition of the Scots Travellers" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, pp. 91-92, "The Braes of Galloway" (full text of the original poem); "The Gallowa Hills" (1 text, from Jeannie Robertson, with three verses to Nicholson's seven); "(Gallowa Hills)" (1 text, from a broadside, which Wright suggests is the intermediate form)
Roud #3358
NOTES [54 words]: "Rock and reel": a rock is a distaff or spindle for gathering unspunn wool or flax for spinning; "reel" is a larger, turning frame device for winding spun thread. The standard combination of "rock and reel" means roughly "everything." The implication here is that she'd do anything for him in order to share his adventures. - DGE
Last updated in version 5.3
File: DTGallwa

Gallows [Laws L11]

DESCRIPTION: A young man is to be hanged. His family and a clergyman contrive a few minutes delay by each asking for a last word. Just before the boy is to be hanged, his true love arrives with a royal pardon and he is saved
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Barry, Ecksotm, Smyth)
KEYWORDS: execution reprieve
FOUND IN: US(NE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws L11, "Gallows"
Bronson 95, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (68 versions, but the last four, given in an appendix, are this song)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 389-393, 483, "The Gallows Tree" (2 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes); p. 483 (1 tune) {Bronson's #67, #68; the tune in the addenda is Bronson's #66}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 79, "Lover Freed from the Gallows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 15-41, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (8 texts plus a fragment, 8 tunes, but of the texts, only "A," "B1," and "B2" are 'The Maid Freed" [Child 95]; the remaining six are "Gallows") {G=Bronson's #65}
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 117-118, "The Gallows Tree" (1 fragment, 1 tune, which might be this or Child 95 or Laws L11 but feels slightly more like the latter) {Bronson's #65}
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 316, "Derry Gaol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H705, p. 132, "The Dreary Gallows" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 109-112, "Gallows" (3 texts plus 1 fragment, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 27, "Sweet Ann O'Neill" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 571, HANGMAN4
ADDITIONAL: Eleanor R. Long, "'Derry Gaol,''" article published 1966 in _Jahrbuch fur Volksleidfordchung_; republished (with translations of the non-English analogs) on pp. 175-203 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009
Roud #896
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (Child 95)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Streets of Derry
NOTES [163 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland, following Barry, speculates that this was based on an incident during the 1798 Irish rebellion. The only real supporting evidence is a reference to King George (which, for all it directly proves, could date it to the 1916 rebellion; in any case, Britain had a King named George every year from 1714 to 1839), and in any case the reference to King George in not found in many versions, where it is the Queen who offers the pardon.
Barry et all state unequivocally that the song is Irish. This is likely enough, but there are only a handful of Irish collections (Sam Henry's, and Sarah Makem sang it); the rest are all North American. It's just possible that the song originated in North America and crossed back.
All agree that this was inspired by "The Maid Freed from the Gallows," but the form clearly makes it a separate ballad.
Peter Kennedy lists the Sam Henry version of this piece as from 1924, but it was not published until 1937. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: LL11

Gallows Tree (I), The

See Gallows [Laws L11] (File: LL11)

Gallows Tree (II), The

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Gals Around Cape Horn, The

See Rounding the Horn (File: VWL090)

Gals o' Chile, The

See Bangidero (File: Hug053)

Gals O' Dublin Town, The

DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty (also listed as a forebitter) Chorus: "Hurrah, hurrah, for the gals o' Dublintown. Hurrah for the bonnie green flag and the harp without the crown."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty (also listed as a forebitter) Chorus: "Hurrah, hurrah, for the gals o' Dublintown. Hurrah for the bonnie green flag and the harp without the crown." There are two versions of this, one describes the ship, flags and captain; the other is more along general sailing themes, i.e. weather and complaints.
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor ship
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 175, "The Shenandoah" (1 text)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 140-142, "The Gals o' Dublin Town" (2 texts & a fragment, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 112-113]
ST Hugi140 (Partial)
Roud #7989
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Harp without the Crown
Heave Her and Bust Her
NOTES [116 words]: The "Shenandoah" was an American clipper which sailed out of New York under the command of Captain Jim Murphy. The references to the "harp without the crown" refer to Murphy's custom of flying the Irish flag under the American one. - SL
This seems likely enough (though Ireland of course did not have an official flag at this time; the golden harp on a green field went back to Hugh O'Neill, but the orange, green, and white tricolor was also in use by the middle of the nineteenth century). But I sort of suspect that the song may be a modification of a piece about the C.S.S. raider Shenandoah. This is because both texts and tune look as if they were influenced by "The Bonnie Blue Flag." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Hugi140

Galveston Rose, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer left his Galveston Rose out of misplaced jealousy. Years later, now lonely, he writes to her. His letter is answered with a letter saying she has died; enclosed is her curl and note that she is waiting for him in heaven.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (recording, Hank Snow); in tradition, 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: jealousy loneliness courting love parting death
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
RECORDINGS:
Cyril O'Brien, "The Galveston Rose" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Hank Snow, "The Galveston Rose" (Bluebird B-4733, 1942)
File: ML3GalRo

Galveston Storm, The

DESCRIPTION: "The sun was brightly shining down In good old Texas state... The children played upon the streets Without a single care" when the skies grow dark. The storm hits, and many are left grieving. "In Galveston alone, 6000 felt the hand of death"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1994 (Abernethy)
KEYWORDS: death disaster flood
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 8, 1900 - Galveston hurricane and flood. Some 6000 die
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 170-171, "The Galveston Storm" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wasn't That a Mighty Time (Galveston Flood)" (subject, floating lyrics)
cf. "Mighty Day (Wasn't That a Mighty Storm)" (subject)
File: Aber171

Galway Bay

DESCRIPTION: "If you ever go across the sea to Ireland," then perhaps you can see Galway Bay. It's a land of beautiful women and children in the fields. They still speak a language the English don't know. The singer hopes to return there after death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1958 (Margaret Barry parody)
KEYWORDS: home Ireland travel
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, GLWAYBAY*
Roud #9306
SAME TUNE:
Galway Bay Parody (sung by Margaret Barry on Voice14)
Galway Bay (2) (DT, GLWYBAY2)
The Emigrants Return (File: Doyl4013)
NOTES [128 words]: The Digital Tradition lists this as by Arthur Colahan.
Its popularity is probably demonstrated by the supply of parodies. Ben Schwartz gave this description of Margaret Barry's (Roud #12926):
"Singer considers going back to Ireland; 'it may be when I hear she's passed away/' She had a mouth as big as Galway Bay and she'd live, swim and die in it if it were Guinness. The rest of the song is a complaint about everyone singing Galway Bay."
Ben adds, "Among the references in the song are Topic Records and 'The Bedford Arms,' where the performance was recorded."
The other parody, in the Digital Tradition, is apparently from Tommy Makem. It could perhaps be considered the same parody -- it also talks about Galway Bay full of drink. But the ending is different. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: RcGalBay

Galway Piper, The

DESCRIPTION: "Every person in the nation Or of great or humble station Holds in highest estimation Piping Tim of Galway." He plays for all occasions. Even the birds are impressed by his playing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (48MuchLovedFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad bird
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 2, "The Galway Piper" (1 text, 1 tune)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 10, "The Galway Piper" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PIPNGTOM*
NOTES [58 words]: Every citation of this song that I've found calls it a "popular Irish folk song" or the like -- but I can find no hint of field collections. I suspect it is a fake song spread by campers or some such. But since it's listed as a "folk song," with no author, here it files.
The tune, at least, is genuinely traditional; it's "The Rakes of Mallow."- RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: CSGalPip

Galway Races, The

DESCRIPTION: On August 17 "half a million" gather at Galway for the horse races.The multitudes and occupations are described in great variety. "There was yet no animosity, no matter what persuasion"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads); 19C (broadside, LOCSinging as113080)
KEYWORDS: racing dancing food music Ireland political horse
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 10, "The Sporting Races of Galway" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, [abbreviation unknown, but it's in there]
Roud #3031
RECORDINGS:
Liam Clancy, "Galway Races" (on IRLClancy01)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as113080, "The Sporting Races of Galway," unknown [Brereton (Dublin)?], 19C
NOTES [149 words]: I could not see the following broadside in detail though it almost certainly refers to the same ballad:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(621), "The Sporting Races of Galway" ("As I roved out through Galway town to n ek for recreation"), P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867. There are the usual Brereton spelling errors -- in this case in the first line -- as well as the imprint (so far as could be made out) that make me believe this is the same broadside as LOCSinging as113080. - BS
Although the "proper" title of this seems to be "The Sporting Races of Galway," I called it "The Galway Races" because that title (from the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem) seems to be what most people know these days.
Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 44, notes that the Races were such a Big Deal that many people went there without ever seeing, or wishing to see, a horse! - RBW
File: OLoc010

Galway Shawl, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer walks out in May and sees a beautiful girl in a Galway shawl. He comes to her home and meets her parents. She sings beautifully to his musical accompaniment. He leaves the next morning, but cannot stop thinking of her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: courting beauty father mother music separation
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H652, p. 269, "The Galway Shawl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 14, pp. 108-110, "The Galway Shawl" (1 text)
DT, GLWYSHWL*
Roud #2737
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "The Galway Shawl" (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
Lou O'Driscoll, "Galway Shawl" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [43 words]: Also see a text and hear an excerpt of "Galway Shawl" among Newfoundland songs as sung by Lou O'Driscoll on the "MacEdward Leach and the Songs of Atlantic Canada" site at http://www.mun.ca/folklore/leach/songs/NFLD1/1-06.htm, accessed February 17, 2015. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HHH652

Galway Town

See William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial) [Laws M10] (File: LM10)

Gambler (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "My moments are lonesome, no pleasure I find, My true love is a gambler, It troubles my mind." Her love is gone. Gambling has put him in prison; it made him threaten to shoot her. She warns other girls of those who love cards more than wives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908?
KEYWORDS: gambling abuse hardtimes poverty separation
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 184, p. 190, "The Gambler" (1 text)
Roud #4302
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man)" [Laws H4] (theme, floating lyrics)
cf. "The Gambler's Sweetheart" (plot)
NOTES [38 words]: From its structure and certain floating lyrics, as well as the subject matter, this seems likely to be a derivative or relative of "The Roving Gambler." However, it has enough detail of its own to deserve a separate listing. - RBW
File: CW190

Gambler (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Good morning, Mister Railroad Man, What time do your trains roll by? At nine-sixteen and two-forty-four And twenty-five minutes till five." The gambler watches trains, wanders, and thinks about the woman who left him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953
KEYWORDS: train gambling hobo separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 459, "The Gambler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 62, "The Gambler" (1 text)
DT, GAMBLR
RECORDINGS:
Dixon Brothers, "Rambling Gambler" (Bluebird 6809, 1937; on TimesAint04)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Good Morning Mister Railroadman
NOTES [31 words]: I place the Dixon Brothers' recording here rather than in "Roving Gambler" mostly because of the tune; verses float freely between the two songs, so distinguishing them is difficult. - PJS
File: BRaF459

Gambler (III), The

See (tentatively) The Roving Gambler [Laws H4] (File: LH04)

Gambler, The (My Father was a Gambler; Hang Me)

See Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Been All Around This World) (File: R146)

Gambler's Blues

See Saint James Infirmary (File: San228)

Gambler's Dying Words, The

See I Wonder Where's the Gambler [Laws H22] (File: LH22)

Gambler's Sweetheart, The

DESCRIPTION: "Forever remember your dark-eyed girl Whose love was ever true, Who has waited for your coming...." She accuses him of gambling while leaving her alone at home. She warns him that some day he'll find her dead.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love gambling betrayal death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 809, "The Gambler's Sweetheart" (2 texts)
Roud #7426
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gambler" (plot)
NOTES [36 words]: There are, obviously, many songs on this theme, and I suspect this may be a derivative of one of the others. But the lyrics have no obvious connection with any of the others, so I classify this piece separately. - RBW
File: R809

Gambling on the Sabbath Day [Laws E14]

DESCRIPTION: A young man murders his comrade and is condemned to die. His family's pleas for him are in vain; despite repenting, he is hanged. His downfall is blamed on his habit of gambling on the sabbath day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, George Reneau)
KEYWORDS: gambling homicide execution
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws E14, "Gambling on the Sabbath Day"
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 105-106, "Gambling on the Sabbath Day" (1 text)
Randolph 137, "Gambling on the Sabbath Day" (3 texts plus 2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 170-173, "Gambling on the Sabbath Day" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 137A)
DT 624, CMBLSBTH (?! -- if this doesn't work, try GMBLSBTH)
Roud #3544
RECORDINGS:
William Hanson, "Gambling on the Sabbath Day" (OKeh 45529, 1931; rec. 1930)
George Reneau, "Gambling on the Sabbath Day" (Vocalion 15149, 1925)
NOTES [29 words]: Ozark lore attributes this song to one Bill Walker, executed May 10, 1889. Since some people believe they learned the song before this time, the attribution is doubtful. - RBW
File: LE14

Gambling Suitor, The

See The Courting Case (File: R361)

Gamboling Man, The

See The Roving Gambler [Laws H4] (File: LH04)

Game of Cards (I), The

DESCRIPTION: A young man meets a girl by the highway. They walk together; she would play a game. He wants her to learn "the game of all fours." When the "cards" are "dealt," she takes his "jack." If he will return, she offers to "play the game over and over again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(540))
KEYWORDS: cards sex bawdy seduction game
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,Lond))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 175, "The Game of Cards" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 36, "All Fours" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 2, "All Fours" (1 text)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 57-58, "All Fours" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #24, "The Game of Gards" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GAMECARD
Roud #232
RECORDINGS:
Sam Larner, "All Fours" (on SLarner02)
Levi Smith, "The Game of Cards" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(540), "The Cards" ("As I walked out one midsummer morning"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 11(1855), Firth b.27(418), "The Cards"; Firth b.34(281), "Game of All Fours"; Firth b.34(120), "Game of All Fours," unknown, n.d.
ALTERNATE TITLES:
One-Two-and-Three
The Game of All Fours
As I Walked Out
NOTES [144 words]: The actual card-game of "All Fours" is also known, in the USA, as "Seven-Up," "Old Sledge," "High-Low-Jack," and "Pitch" -- but the use of the game as a sexual metaphor did not make it across the ocean. - PJS
W. C. Hazlitt A Dictionary of Faiths & Folklore, entry on "All Fours," notes that the common amusement of having an adult get down on arms and knees and have a child ride on his back is also known as "all fours," which obviously has high potential for sexual undercurrents.
There are other songs entitled "The Game of Cards" -- e.g. Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 81-83. Some may have distant dependence on this, but most are probably distinct. - RBW
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 11" - 11.9.02: "it should be stressed that this song has nothing, whatsoever, to do with the card game." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K175

Game of Cards (II), The

DESCRIPTION: Cahill, Napoleon, D'Esterre and O'Connell, Castlereagh and Pitt are presented as players of all-fours or twenty-five representing Erin, France and John Bull. In 1798, "'Twas easy to beat drunken men." Now we're sober. "Nearly ready to finish the game"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: game cards England France Ireland nonballad patriotic political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 127, "The Game of Cards" (1 text)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 81-83, "The Game of Cards" (1 text)
Roud #V4231
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(35), "The Game of Cards" ("You true sons of Erin draw near me"), P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 c.8(87), 2806 b.9(231), 2806 b.11(12), Johnson Ballads 3062, "The Game of Cards"; Harding B 26(283), "The Irish Volunteers of 1860"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shan Van Voght (1848)" for references to the "stealing" of Grattan's Parliament
cf. "The Wheels of the World" for references to the "stealing" of Grattan's Parliament
NOTES [385 words]: There is no "overall game" nor even a "game" in this broadside, just a set of disconnected plays in what seem to be two different card games.
Dr Daniel William Cahill [1796-1864] deals "the five fingers to France, The stout Knave of Clubs to America." Cahill argued against the government and the Established Church of Ireland (source: "Daniel William Cahill" in The Catholic Encyclopedia at the New Advent site).
Napoleon deals all-fours next.
"D'Esterre went to play O'Connell ... with a trigger the cards he did shuffle." Daniel O'Connell killed challenger D'Esterre in an 1815 duel over a disparaging speech by O'Connell about the Dublin Corporation (source: "Daniel O'Connell" in The Catholic Encyclopedia at the New Advent site).
The 1798 defeat at Tara is referred to as all-fours but seems to mix in the twenty-five rules.
"Castlereagh and old Pitt were gamesters ... Our Parliament they stole away." Castlereagh and William Pitt championed the Act of Union of Ireland and England in 1800, but both resigned with Cornwallis in 1801 when George III refused to allow Irish Emancipation (source: "Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh" in The Age of George III at the site of A Web of English History).
For another attribution of the 1798 loss to Irish drunkenness see "The Boys of Wexford."
For discussions of the card games of "All Fours" (Old Sledge, Auction Pitch, High-Low-Jack) and "Twenty-Five" (Spoil Five, Five Fingers) see the Card Games site and The United States Playing Card Company site. - BS
It would be hard to claim that alcohol ruined the 1798 rebellion; that was wrecked by lack of planning and the fact that the United Irish leadership was informant-riddled. But the Fenians of the nineteenth century did often fall prey to drink. A still later rebel, Vinnie Byrne, claims it nearly cost them even after the 1916 rebellion: "[Michael] Collins was a marvel. If he hadn't done the work he did, we'd still be under Britain. Informers and drink would have taken care of us." (See Tim Pat Coogan, Michael Collins, p. 116.)
The references to the stealing of Parliament remind me very much of "The Wheels of the World," though which came first is not clear. There is a similar reference in "The Shan Van Voght (1848)." For additional background, see the notes to those two songs.- RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BrdTGoC2

Game of Coon-Can, The

See The Coon-Can Game [Laws I4] (File: LI04)

Game of Howsers, The

See We Won't Go Home Until Morning (File: RJ19226)

Game Warden Song

DESCRIPTION: The game warden catches the singers netting salmon. He takes the nets but agrees, for a ride, not to turn them in. But he sends a letter to the magistrate. They are met by the judge with a summons. The warden gets half the $10 fine.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: trial trick fishing judge punishment
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 82, "Game Warden Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab082 (Partial)
Roud #9978
NOTES [119 words]: Newfoundland and Labrador had (and have) only one major town, St. John's; no other settlement had even 10,000 people in the period when folk songs were being written and collected. Very many people lived in mere villages of a few houses. The result was that the "townies" of St. John's had a low opinion of other Newfoundlanders, and vice versa. But, because St. John's had a very large fraction of the population and was where the legislature met and government operated, the country was governed by what one might call "St. John's Rules." It's not just Newfoundlanders who mistrust their own elected governments, of course, but it was unusually common there. I have a feeling this song is a reflection of that. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: LLab082

Game-Cock, The

See The Trooper and the Tailor (File: FSC139)

Game, Game, Ba', Ba'

See Stot, Stot, Ba', Ba' (File: PKKB031F)

Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping

DESCRIPTION: "I keep my dogs and my ferrets too, O I have them in my keepin' To catch good hares all in the night While the gamekeeper lies sleeping." The singer goes out one night and poaches a female rabbit. Her cries bring the keepers, but he escapes and sells her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes)
KEYWORDS: poaching hunting dog animal commerce
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North,South))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 249, "Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 266-267, "Dogs and Ferrets" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, p. 288, "Dogs and Ferrets" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 110, "I Keep My Dogs and Ferrets, Too" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 23)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 133-135, "Hares in the Old Plantation" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #53, "Hares in the Old Plantation" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 111-113, "Whilst the Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, (Cardiff,2001), pp. 444-445, ("My master turned me out of doors") [English text from singing of New Forest Gypsies reported by Gillington, _Songs of the Open Road_ (1911)] [see addiitional references in NOTES]
Roud #363
RECORDINGS:
Wiggy Smith, "Hares in the Old Plantation" (on Voice18)
Tom Willett, "While Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping" (on TWillett01, HiddenE)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "While Gamekeepers Were Sleeping" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Keep My Dogs
Hares in the Old Plantations
The Sleeping Gamekeeper
I Keep My Dogs and Ferrets Too
While Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping
NOTES [101 words]: See Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, (Cardiff,2001), for five texts:
Coughlan #167, pp. 442-446, "I Have a Juk" [Romani-English text reported by Yates].
Coughlan #168, p. 446, "I Have a Dog" [Romani-English text from BBC Radio (1987)].
Coughlan #169, p. 446, "Mandy Had a Juk" [Romani-English fragment reported by Kennedy (1975)].
Coughlan #170, p. 446, "I Have a Juk" [Romani-English fragment reported by Richardson (1976-1977)].
Coughlan #171, p. 447, "Mandi Has a Jukkel" [Romani-English text reported by Stanley and Burke (1986)].
Jasper Smith is the source for #167, #168 and #171. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: K249

Gammal Brigg, En

DESCRIPTION: Norwegian. Pumping shanty. "Udi Parmerenti Hollan, der laa en gammal brigg." There is an old, ill-equipped brig in Parmerent, Holland. She goes to sea anyway. Her keel is bent. Fortunately the crew realizes it soon enough to make it back to land
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: ship disaster return shanty foreignlanguage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 160, "En Gammal Brigg" (2 texts, Norwegian & English, 1 tune)
File: HSoSe160

Gan to the Kye Wi' Me

DESCRIPTION: "Gan to the kye wi' me, my love, Gan to the kye wi' me; Over the moor and thro' the grove, I'll sing ditties to thee." The girl's cattle were stolen after he was killed in battle, but the singer hopes the kine are enough to support them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: father death courting animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Scotland))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 138-139, "Gan to the Kye Wi' Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR138 (Full)
Roud #3162
File: StoR138

Ganging Through the Howe, Geordie

DESCRIPTION: Geordie goes to be with the girls spinning. He's no longer welcome there. He once "had Susan at your will" but thinks he has lost her also. The singer advises him to call on her again before his term ends "an ye'll get a kiss And maybe something mair"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1864, "Ganging Through the Howe, Geordie" (1 text)
Roud #13585
NOTES [27 words]: Seasonal hiring of servants and farm workers usually was for six months, beginning May and November, and the term day marked the end of the employment period. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81864

Gangspilliedje

DESCRIPTION: Dutch. Capstan shanty. "Ons stuurmanheeft er een vrounttje getrouwd.... Fal-de-ral-de-ri, Fal-de-ral-de-ra, Houra, houra, houra!" The mate has taken a wife, and regrets it; she can't sew or cook. The men ask him to give them a drink from his bottle.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor wife drink hardtimes foreignlanguage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 85, "Gangspilliedge (Gangway Song)" (2 texts, Dutch and English, 1 tune)
File: HSoSe085

Gaol Song (II)

See The Prisoner's Song (I) (File: FSC100)

Gaol Song, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the hard life in prison, abused by the guards, granted only the poorest food, and forced to work the treadmill and engage in other backbreaking labour. The singer, once free, vows to leave all such things behind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906
KEYWORDS: work prison punishment captivity worksong
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 22-23, "The Gaol Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 39, "Gaol Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 11, "Gaol Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 239-241, "The Treadmill Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GAOLSONG*
Roud #1077
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. ""The County Gaol"
cf. "Durham Gaol"
NOTES [77 words]: The treadmill was a rotating cylinder that drove machinery such as a mill or a pump. It was a set of steps on a circular gear, which meant that, once started, the convict had no way to stop it; he had to keep walking the treads until relieved. Prisoners often collapsed in agony on such machines, first installed in Sydney in 1823. - RBW
While Lloyd does not mention [this] as a work song, it certainly has the cadence of one, so I have assigned that keyword. -PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FaE022

Garb of Old Gaul, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the garb of old Gaul, with the fire of old Rome, From the heath-covered mountains of Scotia we come." The people of the HIghland have always been fiercely independent; and now they will defy the French wherever they are
AUTHOR: probably Harry Erskine (died 1765) (source: Ford-SongHistories)
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 ("The Lark," according to Ford-SongHistories)
KEYWORDS: patriotic nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1756-1763 - Seven Years' War
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 242-247, "The Garb of Old Gaul" (2 texts)
Roud #V12814
NOTES [156 words]: Although Ford decided to devote an article to this, it is clearly not traditional; there are no traditional collections, and if someone did decide to sing it, it's so flowery that it would clearly degenerate pretty quickly. Nor is it as popular as the other non-traditional songs Ford looks at; at least, there are no listings of it in Granger's Index to Poetry. It does have a Wikipedia entry. Ford suggests that his two texts may be independent translations of a Gaelic original but does not offer one.
Ford's summary article is flatly not reliable. For starters, he tries to estimate the time an officer needs to get promoted from one rank to another -- at a time when promotion by purchase was still possible, so the estimates mean nothing. For another, he believes major generals are senior to lieutenant generals when the reverse is true. Yes, majors are senior to lieutenants, but not major generals to lieutenant generals. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: NothGoOG

Garbey's Rock

See The Jam on Gerry's Rock [Laws C1] (File: LC01)

Garden Gate, The

DESCRIPTION: Mary and William have planned a secret meeting. She arrives at the garden gate at eight; William is not there. Nine comes; she searches, then vows to forsake him. He finally arrives at ten; he had been shopping for a ring. She forgives him
AUTHOR: W. Upton and W T. Parke (source: Sabine Baring-Gould, English Minstrelsy, according to Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland); before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(709))
KEYWORDS: courting nightvisit separation marriage ring
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Aber)) US(MW) Ireland
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #32, pp. 226-227, "The Garden Gate" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 441-443, "The Garden-Gate" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #124, p. 2, "The Garden Gate" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 981, "The Garden Gate" (9 texts, 4 tunes)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 72-73, "The Garden Gate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 577, "Garden Gate" (1 text)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #25, "The Garden Gate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H770, p. 485, "The Garden Gate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 78, "The Garden Gate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 319, "The Garden Gate" (1 fragment, in which the girl tells her mother she is going to the garden gate; it may be a separate song, but with only four lines, we cannot tell )
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 319, "The Garden Gate" (1 tune plus the short text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, p. 139, "Garden Gate" (1 text), plus the "Answer to Garden Gate" on p. 140
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #715, p. 47, "The Garden Gate" (1 reference)
ST E078 (Partial)
Roud #418
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(709), "The Garden Gate" ("The day was spent, the moon shone bright"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 17(105b), Harding B 11(87), Harding B 18(190), Firth c.14(180), Firth b.26(368), Firth b.25(187), Harding B 11(1292), Harding B 11(3454), Firth b.25(272), "The Garden Gate"
LOCSheet, sm1885 01480, "The Garden Gate," Geo. D Newhall (Cincinnati), 1885 (tune) ["composed by Jerome Hill"]
LOCSinging, sb20158b, "The Garden Gate" ("The day was clos'd, the moon shone bright"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1878; also as104220, "The Garden Gate" ("The day was spent, the moon shone bright")
NOTES [117 words]: See also Bodleian, Harding B 11(87), "Answer to The Garden Gate" ("One wintry eve the moon it shone"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 25(71)[some words illegible], Firth b.26(368), Harding B 11(1292), "Answer to The Garden Gate." [In the "Answer," Mary hides when William arrives, to test whether he is true. It's not really an answer; rather, the two pieces tell the story from different perspectives. - RBW]
Broadside LOCSinging sb20158b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadsides LOCSinging sb20158b and Bodleian Harding B 18(190) are duplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: E078

Garden Hymn, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Lord into his garden comes, the flowers yield a rich perfume." The hymn describes how God's presence brings life to the garden. Jesus will "conquer all his foes And make his people one."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (published by Jeremiah Ingalls)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 158-159, "The Garden Hymn" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 39, "Garden Hymn" (1 text, 1 tune)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 21, "Garden Hymn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11502
RECORDINGS:
Singers from Stewart's Chapel, Houston, MS, "Nashville" (on Fasola1)
NOTES [282 words]: The authorship of this piece is somewhat dubious. It's usually credited to Jeremiah Ingalls, but sometimes to William Campbell. In the 1971 Sacred Harp Campbell is given credit as "Translator," whatever that means in the context of an English-language hymn. Sacred Harp gives Alexander Johnson as composer of the tune, but Amelia Ramsey, in her notes to the Stewart's Chapel recording, credits Ingalls for the tune as well. - PJS
Which mostly proves how confused the data in the Sacred Harp can be. John Martin writes to note that many of the Sacred Harp editions lack this piece, and others give different attributions.
Martin adds that he has searched the works of Ingalls, and finds the poem there, in a form rather different from the Sacred Harp version (e.g. it lacks the part about Jesus conquering his foes). Ingalls, Martin writes, "describes the words as 'att. John Stocker, 1777.'"
John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 1712, adds that it "Appeared anonymously in J. Leavitt's Christian Lyre, 1839, Pt. i., No. 22, and subsequently in several collections, including the American Baptist Hymnal, 1903."
This, howeever, is after the death of Ingalls, who lived from 1764 to 1828, according to W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 193. Ingalls, based on the information there, seems to have been much more a tunewriter than a writer of song texts; perhaps he collected the piece, or set it to music.
I finally gave up and decided to eliminate all author references for the piece. In any case, chances are that any version you hear is composite. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Cha158

Garden Where the Praties Grow

DESCRIPTION: ""Have you ever been in love, me boys, Oh! have you felt the pain? I'd rather be in jail, I would, than be in love again.... I'd have you all to know That I met her in the garden where the praties grow." The two marry and live happily ever after
AUTHOR: Johnny Patterson
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage
FOUND IN: US(MW) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 463, "I Met Her in the Garden Where the Praties Grow" (1 short text, 1 tune, with an additional verse on p. xiv)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 97, "Oh have you been in love, me boys, and have you felt the pain?" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 97, "Garden Where the Praties Grow" (1 text)
DT, PRATIGRO*
Roud #4803
RECORDINGS:
Dr. Smith & his Champion Hoss Hair Pullers, "In the Garden Where the Irish Potatoes Grow" (Victor 21711, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Why Paddy's Not at Work Today" (tune)
cf. "The Time o Year for Dippin Sheep" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Time o Year for Dippin Sheep (File: McSc090)
File: San463

Garden-Gate, The

See The Garden Gate (File: E078)

Gardener Lad, The

See The Gardener [Child 219] (File: C219)

Gardener, The [Child 219]

DESCRIPTION: A "gardener" comes to a lady, offering many flowers if she will marry him. She is not interested.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1766 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: courting flowers rejection gardening
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Child 219, "The Gardener' (3 texts)
Bronson 219, "The Gardener" (9 versions+3 in addenda, but #1 at least is "The Gairdner and the Plooman")
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 219, "The Gardener" (2 versions: #3, #5)
Greig/Duncan4 840, "The Gardener" (5 texts, 4 tunes)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #42, pp. 1-2, "The Gardener Lad" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, p. 577, "The Gardener" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 159, "The Gardener" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 55, "The Gardener" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 116 note, "The Gardener" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, p. 68, "The Gardener" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 50-51, "The Gardener" (1 text)
DT 219, GRDNRCHD*
Roud #339
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Gairdener Chyld" (on SCMacCollSeeger01) {cf. Bronson's #6}
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Gairdener Chylde
The Gardener's Wooing
NOTES [155 words]: One can only suspect that this piece was made up to get in as many flower symbols as possible; at least, there seems little point to most of the imagery. For a catalog of some of the sundry flower symbols, see the notes to "The Broken-Hearted Gardener."
Child prints a text (additions and corrections to "The Gardener", p. 258 in Volume V of the Dover edition) which conflates this with "In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme" or something similar.
The song is also sometimes confused with "The Gairdener and the Plooman" (which see).
Although most mentions of flower symbolism in the ballads seem to go back to the Elizabethan-era symbols, it is perhaps worth noting that in the Victorian era there arose a form of flower arrangement known as Tussy Mussy, which was intended to convey meaning. The Chinese and Japanese also had art forms in which flower arrangements had meaning, but these surely did not affect British ballads! - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: C219

Gardener's Delight, The

DESCRIPTION: "The gardener delights in his jolly flowers ... But my delight's in a bonny young lass." Adam, "lord and king o' the nation," needed "a young lass to lie near him" to complete his bliss. The singer is poor but "the rich and grand" have no more than he.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex Bible nonballad wife gardening flowers
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1270, "The Gardener's Delight" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #7186
NOTES [85 words]: The tale of the creation of the woman from the rib of the man is told in Genesis 2:21-22 (with the description of her as his partner continuing until 2:24, and the statement that none of the animals was a partner fit for him in 3:20). The other account of the creation, in Genesis 1:27, strongly implies that men and women were created at the same time (implying, obviously, a different sort of partnership).
We might add that Genesis 2:15 has God putting Adam in the Garden of Eden "to till and keep it." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71270

Gardner and the Ploughman, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is courted by a gardner, tailor, and sailor but prefers her ploughman [his breath is sweetest] but he has "misshapen" her gown He overhears her, proposes and says she can fix the gown. She accepts. They marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage sex worker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #126, p. 1, "The Gairdener and the Plooman"; #128, pp. 1-2, "The Gairdener and the Plooman" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan6 1125, "The Gardner and the Ploughman" (8 texts, 5 tunes)
Roud #6845
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Gairner Lad, a Frien' o' Mine
The Plooman Lad
NOTES [84 words]: Greig notes that his text in #128 is a composite: the last two verses are from another version from Bell Robertson. Greig/Duncan6 separates the texts as 1125F and 1125H. If that's the case the Greig text is rearranged a bit and omits two lines in 1125F.
This is not really like the songs is which a woman rejects lovers because of their occupations (see "Yon Bonnie Lad" and its references). Here the tailor's occupation is compared unfavourably to the sailor's, but the sailor himself is second best. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61125

Garfield

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Garfield, Killed a man, killed a man, killed a man, Little Garfield." "Big Garfield" smoked a $200 cigar, "Little Garfield" a $50 smoke, Little Garfield shoots Big Garfield. One says, "Don't let my loving wife know."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: homicide drugs grief death wife
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 80-81, "Garfield" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9138
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mister Garfield" (form)
NOTES [49 words]: Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices believes this to be the same song as "Mister Garfield," and admittedly both are story-songs, both involve a murder, and both involve "Garfield" -- but Rosenbaum's version has *two* Garfields, and no obvious Presidents. Roud lumps them, but I have split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Rose081

Garfield (II)

See Mister Garfield (File: RcMrGarf)

Gargal Machree

See Gay Girl Marie [Laws M23] (File: LM23)

Garian's Rock

See The Jam on Gerry's Rock [Laws C1] (File: LC01)

Garland of Love, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer says she'll weave her love a garland of lilies and roses, though they're not as sweet as he. She recalls his charms and easing his sighs. She hopes to marry him but "if he proves false ... For me to seek pleasure it would be in vain"
AUTHOR: Theodore Edward Hook (source: notes to Bodleian Harding B 17(107a))
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(107a))
KEYWORDS: love sex flowers nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 72, "I'll Weave Him a Garland" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 306)
ADDITIONAL: The Pocket Encyclopedia of Scottish, English, and Irish Songs (Glasgow, 1816 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, p. 88, "The Lad That I Love" (1 text)
Roud #1247
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(107a), "The Garland of Love" ("How sweet are the flow'rs that grow by yon mountain") , J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Harding B 25(710), Johnson Ballads 619[almost entirely illegible], Harding B 11(783), "The Garland of Love"; Harding B 25(712), "The Gay Garland"; Johnson Ballads fol. 11, Johnson Ballads fol. 18 View 2 of 2, "The Lad that I Love"
NOTES [80 words]: Be careful trying to establish a locale for this song. The Pocket Encyclopedia has, "It was down in the vale, where the sweet Torza gliding"; Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(783) has, "It was down in yon vale where the Tecsa is gliding"; Harding B 25(710) has, "It was down in a vale, where the sweet stars a gilding'; Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames has, "It was down in the vale where my sweetheart was walking." I can find no Torza or Tecsa river in the United Kingdom. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT072

Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme)

DESCRIPTION: Of a girl who has lost her thyme and her love. She uses other symbols to describe her sad state: With her thyme gone, her life is "spread all over with rue"; a woman is a "branching tree"; a man, a wind blowing through the branches and taking what he can
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes)
KEYWORDS: loneliness seduction virginity
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All)) US(Ap)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 163, "Rue" (1 text)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 80-81, "The Willow Tree, or, Rue and Thyme" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 58-59, "The Sprig of Thyme" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 116A, "Sprig of Thyme" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, p. 69, "The Sprig of Thyme" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 21, "The Sprig of Thyme" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 34-35, "The Sprig of Thyme" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 4-5, "Come All You Garners Gay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #53, "The Sprig of Thyme" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 101-103, "Sprig of Thyme" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 56, "Keep Your Garden Clean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 102-103, "Keep Your Garden Clean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, p. 21, "Come All Ye Pretty Maids" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, THYMSPRG* THYMTHY
Roud #3
RECORDINGS:
Sara Cleveland, "The Maiden's Lament" (on SCleveland01)
Debra Cowan, "Keep Your Garden Clean" (on HCargillFamily)
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:104, "The Wheel of Fortune," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C [an incredible mixture, with the "Wheel of Fortune" verse, though the rest seems an amalgam of thyme songs -- here spelled "time"; I file it here in desperation]; also Mu23-y1:105, "The Wheel of Fortune," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C [even more mixed, with the "Wheel of Fortune" verse, a thyme stanza, a bit of "Fair and Tender Ladies," a "Queen of Heart" verse, and more]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rue and the Thyme (The Rose and the Thyme)" (theme, symbols, lyrics)
NOTES [307 words]: In flower symbolism, thyme stood for virginity. For a catalog of some of the sundry flower symbols, see the notes to "The Broken-Hearted Gardener."
Thyme songs are almost impossible to tell apart, because of course the plot (someone seduces the girl) and the burden (let no man steal your thyme) are always identical. For the same reasons, verses float freely between them. So fragmentary versions are almost impossible to classify. Steve Roud seems to lump all of them.
The Digital Tradition has a version, "Rue and Thyme" (not to be confused with the Ballad Index entry with that title) which seems to have almost all the common elements. Whether it is the ancestor of the various thyme songs, or a gathering together of separate pieces, is not clear to me.
This is one of the more lyric versions of the piece, usually with almost no information about the actual seduction. The mention of multiple herbs, especially rue, seems characteristic.
To show how difficult all this is, Randolph and Ritchie have texts of this called "Keep Your Garden Clean" which are pretty much the same except for the first verse. On the basis of that distinction, I filed Randolph' with "In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme" and Ritchie's with "Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme)."
Jean Ritchie calls this a version of "The Seeds of Love," and Randolph calls his a "Seeds of Love" variant also, and Roud's classification seems to agree. I don't, though I rather wish I could, given the difficulty of distinguishing.
The Hattie Mae Tyler Cargill version uses this first verse, and a few other odds and ends, but the middle seems to have been created out of whole cloth. It's much more explicit than most versions (and I'd call it less effective as a result), but while it is arguably a distinct song, I'm filing it here until and unless I find other versions. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB163

Garnish

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls "the days of my youth [when] I roamed down to the seashore, With my golden-haired Kathleen to Garnish white strand" In all his travels since none can compare with her. He wishes he might return. He knows she is waiting.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: homesickness love emigration separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, p. 57, "Garnish" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [9 words]: Garnish is an island in Bantry Bay in County Cork. - BS
File: OCan057

Garrawilla (The Shearer's Life)

DESCRIPTION: "I sing of Garrawilla, a station of the glen...." Though the singer says, "A shearer's life is jolly," he also complains of the bad conditions and the demands for fast and accurate work. But he concludes, "Heaven's sheep are shorn by Garrawilla men"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: Australia sheep work
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 128-129, "Garawilla" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [60 words]: Meredith and Anderson's informant, Jack Wright, claims that this was made up by a co-worker of his father's at Garrawilla. I find it interesting that only the first and last verses refer to this station. I wonder if the middle is not a generic song about shearing (which should perhaps be titled "The Shearer's Life"), onto which these two verses were tacked. - RBW
File: MA128

Garryowen (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Garryowen's gone to rack, We'll win her olden glories back." Sarsfield "tramp'd the English banner down ... And we will take our father's place And scowl into the Saxon face" "Draw your swords for Garryowen and swear upon the Treaty stone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1867? (broadside, Johnson Ballads 2111a)
KEYWORDS: rebellion nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, p. 237, "Garryowen" (1 fragment seemingly appended to a text of "Garryowen (II)")
Roud #V17540
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 2111a, "Garryowen" ("Oh Garr[y]owen's gone to rack"), P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867
LOCSinging, as104230, "Garryowen," unknown[?], n.d.
NOTES [121 words]: Broadsides LOCSinging as104230 and Bodleian Johnson Ballads 2111a are duplicates.
Broadside Bodleian Johnson Ballads 2111a is the basis for the description.
The Treaty of Limerick was signed on October 3, 1691 by Sarsfield for the Irish and Ginkel for the English. Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland, Vol I, p. 215 re "The Treaty Stone of Limerick": "The large stone which served Sarsfield for a chair and writing desk, when signing the articles of the treaty of Limerick, is still [1855] shown as an object of historic interest to the stranger visiting that city."
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "Garryowen, in English, 'Owen's Garden,' is a suburb of Limerick." - BS
For more on Sarsfield, see "After Aughrim's Great Disaster." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: CrPS237a

Garryowen (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Let Bacchus's sons be not dismayed"; "booze and sing" ;"take delight in smashing the Limerick lamps" and fighting in the streets. Doctors can fix our bruises. Break windows and doors. Beat bailiffs. "Where'er we go they dread the name Of Garryowen"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: bragging violence drink nonballad doctor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 230-237, "Garryowen" (1 text)
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 103-105, "Garryowen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 144, "Garryowen" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 264, "Garryowen"
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 478-479, 511, "Garryowen"
Thomas J. Craughwell, _The Greatest Brigade: How the Irish Brigade Cleared the Way to Victory in the American Civil War_, 2011(I use the 2013 Crestline illustrated paperback), p. 85, "(Garryowen)"
NOTES [297 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "Garryowen, in English, 'Owen's Garden,' is a suburb of Limerick."
Digital Tradition: "Official marching tune of Custer's Seventh Cavalry."
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland quoting a letter of 1833: Two of the characters in the song [Johnny Connell and Darby O'Brien] "were two squireens in Limerick, and about the time the song was written, between the years 1770 and 1780, devil-may-care sort of fellows, who defied all authority." The Digital Tradition version omits four of the seven verses from Croker, and adds none, and the verses mentioning Connell and O'Brien are among the missing: Connell went to Cork and O'Brien leapt over the dock, apparently at sentencing.
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "Speaking of the enjoyments of the people of Limerick at fair time or on festival days, Fitzgerald and MacGregor notice in their history, a fondness for music of the fiddle or bagpipe. 'Amongst the airs selected upon these occasions, 'Patrick's Day,' and 'Garryowen,' always hold a distinguished place.'"
The only obvious connection between "Garryowen (I)" and "Garryowen (II)" is the last line of the chorus: "From Garryowen in glory!"/"For Garryowen na glora" - BS
Regarding the Seventh Cavalry, Thomas J. Craughwell, The Greatest Brigade: How the Irish Brigade Cleared the Way to Victory in the American Civil War, 2011(I use the 2013 Crestline illustrated paperback), p. 85, reports that Colonel Custer heard an Irish soldier sing "Garryowen" and adopted it for the Seventh Cavalry, and that it was said to have played at the battle of the Little Bighorn -- but I don't trust the sources on that. More definite is the statement on p. 84 of Craughwell that it was the marching song of the Irish Brigade of the Army of the Potomac in the Civil War. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: CrPS230

Garryowen, The

DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "She was accompanied by two vessels more, When to her misfortune on the Patch she bore. There was calico, check and some velveteen ...The likes of this vessel you never had known: The American trader called the Garryowen"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: sea ship wreck commerce
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 126, "The Garryowen" (1 fragment)
Roud #20538
NOTES [33 words]: no date: "The 'Garryowen' was wrecked on the Patch, a sandbank off Balinoulart" (source: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast may be the source for Bourke in Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast v1, p. 52) - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran126

Garvagh Town

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets the "star of Garvagh town." She refuses his advances because he is a Roman Catholic. She remarks favorably on the "twenty-two religions held up in Garvagh town." They share a drink, discuss their differences further, shake hands and part
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: courting religious rejection drink beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 34, "Garvagh Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Protestant Maid" (subject: religious conversion) and references there
NOTES [60 words]: See "The Banks of Dunmore" for a song in which a Protestant suitor meets and is converted by a Roman Catholic farmer's daughter; after his conversion they marry. - BS
Garvagh is in County Derry, and in 1813 was the site of an incident of religious violence (see the notes to "March of the Men of Garvagh"), so it is a logical site for a meeting of religions. - RBW
File: McB1034

Gas Lights

DESCRIPTION: "Belfast and the new fashioned gas ... can from all darkness deliver." Business men, "jolly commanders," are named. People "from Scotland and England from Holland and Flanders" meet. Tradesmen are busy. Saturday nights are lively, well lit and safe.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (according to Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: commerce technology nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 6, "Gas Lights" (1 text)
File: Leyd006

Gasker Song, The

See The Party at Jack Williams's (File: ML3PJWi)

Gaspard Tragedy, The

See The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (The Gosport Tragedy; Pretty Polly) [Laws P36A/B] (File: LP36)

Gates of Ivory, The

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Gates of Londonderry, The

DESCRIPTION: King James and all his Host" attack Derry "but vain were all their Popish arts, The Gates were shut by gallant hearts ...The 'Prentice Boys" "Red war, with fiery breath Cast pestilence and death" until "the gallant ship Mountjoy" broke the seige.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1895 (Graham-TheOrangeSongster)
KEYWORDS: battle rescue death starvation Ireland patriotic youth
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 7, 1688 - The "Apprentice Boys" close the Londonderry gates against Lord Antrim's "Redshanks"
July 28, 1689 - Browning's ships break the 105 day seige of Derry (source: Cecil Kilpatrick, "The Seige of Derry: A City of Refuge" at the Canada-Ulster Heritage site)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Graham-TheOrangeSongster, pp. 16-18, "The Gates of Londonderry" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry" (subject) and references and notes there
cf. "The Death of Nelson" (tune)
File: Grah016

Gatesville Cannonball, The

DESCRIPTION: A boastful youth meets a girl at a dance, takes her to her mother's bedside and seduces her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy seduction sex
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 79-81, "The Gatesville Cannonball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10407
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosemary Lane" [Laws K43]
cf. "When I Was Young (Don't Never Trust a Sailor)"
cf. "The Wabash Cannonball" (tune)
File: EM079

Gather In, Gather In

DESCRIPTION: "Gather in, gather in, For a big, big ring. If you don't come quick, You won't get in."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: nonballad ring | gathering
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 26, "(Gather in, gather in)" (1 text)
Roud #23009
File: PKKB026D

Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May (To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time)

DESCRIPTION: "Gather ye Rose-buds while ye may Old Time is still a-flying: And this same flower that smiles to day, To morrow will be dying." Women are told to marry before it is too late
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Herrick / one tune by William Lawes
EARLIEST DATE: 1648 (publication date, according to Wikipedia); Chappell dates the tune to 1659
KEYWORDS: marriage age warning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 362, "Gather Your Rosebuds While You May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24424
NOTES [60 words]: Traditional? I very much doubt it. But it was so often printed in "popular" sources that Steve Roud indexed it, and I am imitating that. And, of course, the first line has become proverbial.
I've made no attempt whatsoever to list all the poetry anthologies which include it; it's in almost every volume which includes seventeenth century English poetry. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: BGYRWYM

Gather Your Rosebuds While You May

See Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May (To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time) (File: BGYRWYM)

Gathering Mushrooms

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a maid in the fields and asked what she is doing out so early. She is gathering mushrooms to make her mommy catsup. "Her panting breast on mine she pressed ... And her lips on mine did gently join And we both sat down together"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond02)
KEYWORDS: courting food
FOUND IN: Ireland
ST RcTGMus (Full)
Roud #7001
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Maid Gathering Mushrooms" (on IRRCinnamond02)
NOTES [78 words]: I thought "catsup" - however it's spelled - was always made from tomatoes. However, it is "a seasoned sauce of puree consistency the principal ingredient of which is usu. tomatoes but sometimes another foodstuff (as mushrooms or walnuts)" (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976)
The description is based on John Moulden's transcription from IRRCinnamond02 included in the Traditional Ballad Index Supplement. - BS
File: RcTGMus

Gathering Nuts in May

DESCRIPTION: "Here we go gathering nuts in May, nuts in May, nuts in May, Here we go gathering... On a bright and pretty day." "Who will you have for your nuts in May?" "We'll have (a boy) for the nuts in May." A girl will "pull him across." Repeat for each player
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Carrington)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting harvest nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MW,NE,So) Canada(Ont) West Indies(Jamaica) New Zealand
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1599, "Here We Come Gathering Nuts in May" (3 texts)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #152, p. 1, "Nuts in May" (1 text)
Randolph 561, "Gathering Nuts in May" (2 texts, 1 tune, although the second, fragmentary, text may be unrelated)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, pp. 520-521, "Nuts in May" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 16-18, "Here We Go Gathering Nuts in May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 64, "Nuts in May" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, p. 25, "Grapes in May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #26, "Here We Come Gathering Nuts in May" (1 text); #166, "Knots of May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 36-37, "(Here we go gathering nuts and may, nuts and may, nuts and may)" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p 125, "Here We Go Gathering Nuts in May" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, W. J. Wintemberg, "Folk-Lore Collected in Toronto and Vicinity," Vol. XXXI, No. 120 (Apr 1918), #66 p. 132 "Nuts in May" (1 text)
DT, NUTSMAY
ADDITIONAL: Evelyn Carrington, "Singing Games" in [Relics of Popular Antiquities, &c.] The Folk-Lore Record (London, 1881 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III Part II, #3 p. 170, "Nuts in May" ["Bocking, in Essex"] (1 text)
Sarah Hewett, The Peasant Speech of Devon (London, 1892 (2nd edition, "Digitized by Google")), p. 41, "Nuts in May" (1 text)
Martha Warren Beckwith and Helen Roberts, _Folk-Games of Jamaica_ (Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1922 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #39 pp. 49-50, "Nuts in May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6308
RECORDINGS:
Tony Wales, "Four Children's Singing Games (Nuts in May)" (on TWales1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (tune) and references there
NOTES [46 words]: Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland explains, "This is certainly a dance survival from the May Day destivals of olden days.... The words are a corruption from 'knots of may,' the game is of English origin, and the tune a variant of the country dance melody 'Nancy Dawson.'" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R561

Gathering Rushes

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a maid with rushes she'd been gathering. She goes with him to a shady grove. See asks him not to tease her nor break her rushes. They have sex. She says her mother will chide her and, if she has a baby, the world will "scoff and frown"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(42a))
KEYWORDS: courting sex promise betrayal foreignlanguage seduction mother baby
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 64, "The Bonny Bunch of Rushes Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 59, "The Bonny Bunch of Rushes Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 22, "Bonny Bunch of Rushes Green" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 48, "Gathering Rushes" (1 text)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 28, "Bunch of Rushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 65-66, "The Bunch of Rushes" (1 text)
ST RcABLtlb (Full)
Roud #831 and 3380
RECORDINGS:
Philip McDermott, "The Reaping of the Rushes Green" (on Voice18, IRHardySons)
Maire O'Sullivan, "An Binnsin Luchra (The Little Bench [or Bunch] of Rushes)" [fragment] (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(42a), "Bunch of Rushes, O!" ("As I walk'd out one morning"), J. Evans (London)), 1780-1812; also Harding B 11(393), "Rushes Green," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(3369), 2806 c.17(371), "Rushes Green"; also Harding B 11(485), Harding B 11(486), "[The] Bunch of Rushes"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gathering Rushes in the Month of May (Underneath Her Apron)" (theme of rushing and seduction)
NOTES [281 words]: Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle: "'Rushing' is in the lingua franca of folk song frequently a metaphor for female sexual adventure, as ploughing, sowing and reaping are for male." - BS
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs notes to 64: "This is an English version of the widely known Irish Gaelic song ... In JFSS III 17 Lucy Broadwood gives a version from Waterford, Ireland, with alternate English and Gaelic stanzas." Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs includes the "Arabian Queen" reference that ties it to Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick.
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(393), which is in English, is -- like Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs -- just about seduction; it refers to "any queen" rather than "Arabian queen" and shares the reference to hunting dogs and singing birds with Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs. -BS
Roud has a rather different split of this song than we do, making two Irish versions titled "The Reaping of the Rushes Green," from Paddy Tunney and Philip McDermott, #3380 and all other texts #831. It appears to me that these may be the versions closest to the Irish Gaelic. After some puzzling, I've decided to put both types here, to let you figure it out for yourself. The description above is for the English versions. Ben Schwartz wrote the following descriptions for the Irish Gaelic texts:
Irish Gaelic: Singer, going to the water-meadow, meets a girl who has cut rushes. He bids her join him in the forest. She reproaches him; he'd promised a home and fine clothing, "all in payment for the bench of roses and the trouble I had over it."
The whole thing probably needs another look. - RBW, (BS)
Last updated in version 6.0
File: RcABLtlb

Gathering Rushes in the Month of May (Underneath Her Apron)

DESCRIPTION: Girl gathers rushes and bears a child, wrapping it in her apron. The baby cries; her father asks who the father was and where it was conceived, vowing to burn the place. The father was a sailor; she conceived "by yonder spring, where the small birds sing"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1860 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(401))
KEYWORDS: pride sex accusation questions childbirth pregnancy baby father lover sailor clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 103, "Three Maids a Rushing" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 132, "Three Maids a Rushing" (1 text)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 23, pp. 30-31, "Underneath Her Apron" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, UNDRAPRN*
Roud #899
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs, "Gathering Rushes in the Month of May" (on BirdBush1, Birdbush2, Briggs3, Briggs4)
Jack Elliott, "Was It In the Kitchen?" (on Elliotts01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(401), "The Bonny Boy from Underneath My Apron" ("As a pretty fair maid was going up the stairs"), A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1845-1859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gathering Rushes" (theme of rushing and seduction)
NOTES [67 words]: The Elliott version has the young man as a miner, not a sailor; it is mixed with "Never Let a Sailor Get an Inch Above Your Knee"; see "Rosemary Lane" for discussion of *that* mess. - PJS
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle (in the notes for "Gathering Rushes"): "'Rushing' is in the lingua franca of folk song frequently a metaphor for female sexual adventure, as ploughing, sowing and reaping are for male." - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: DTundrap

Gatineau Girls, The

See The Jolly Shanty Boy (File: Be021)

Gatton Tragedy, The

DESCRIPTION: "The night was dark and the moon in clouds; the stars they studded the sky, And gazing down on this fatal earth to see three innocents die" near Gatton. A mother waits for her children. At last word comes that they are dead; she faints
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs)
KEYWORDS: death mother children homicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec. 31, 1898 - Norah, Ellen, and Mchael Murphy are murdered near Gatton, Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 10, "The Gatton Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22592
NOTES [75 words]: As poetry, this strikes me as incredibly bad, and as a narrative, it is very unclear. Who died? Why? Who did it? If it was a mystery (which Scott's notes say it was), why doesn't the song say so? Collector Alan Scott says that many of the pieces he collected were fragmentary, and he filled them out. Usually he used other versions, but this piece seems to be unique. Possibly the defects are because there is just a little too much Scott in it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: ScCol010

Gauger, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a captain of the fleet, A bonnie lassie he did entreat (x2) For to wed wi' him a sailor." She says her mother will not approve, and advises him to dress as a gauger. He fails to find any gin in the house, and says he will take the lass instead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1894 (Murison collection, according to Lyle, _Fairies and Folk_)
KEYWORDS: courting trick disguise drink marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #89, pp. 2-3, "The Gauger" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1015, "The Gauger" (7 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 126-127, "The Gauger" (1 text)
DT, NWCGAUG*
Roud #2343
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Newcombe Gauger
The Rovin' Sailor
NOTES [28 words]: It appears, in this case, that "gauger" is used in its sense of "revenue officer," though the secondary sense of one who is very aware of his own interests also fits. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord126

Gauger's Song, The

See The Private Still (The Gauger's Song) (File: HHH103)

Gawkie, The

See Bess the Gawkie (File: GrD81840)

Gay Caballero, The

DESCRIPTION: The gay caballero meets a gay senorita who gives him "exceedingly painful clapito" that results in a doctor cutting off the end of his "latraballee" and one of his "latraballeros." (In another version, her husband arrives, with predictable results)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous disease
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 231-235, "The Gay Caballero" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 492-493, "The Gay Caballero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 29, pp. 169-172, "The Gay Caballero" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT, GAYCAB
Roud #10095
RECORDINGS:
Frank Crumit, "The Gay Caballero" (Victor 21735, 1928) [a cleaned-up version, needless to say]
Lazy Larry, "The Gay Caballero" (Cameo 9019, 1929) [presumably a cleaned-up version]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fire Ship" (plot) and references there
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die (VI -- Cowboy Bawdy variant)" (theme of disease destroying sexual organs)
cf. "Cielito Lindo" (tune) and references there
NOTES [90 words]: Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging's two texts, both from Riley Neal, have no words in common except "gay caballero"; one is a song about acquiring a veneral disease; in the other, the woman's husband shows up. Based solely on the texts, they are different songs. But Neal used the same tune, and both are in limerick form. I thought seriously about splitting them. But the "B" text, about the husband, is relatively clean. I suspect it might be a version for semi-polite company. So I'm lumping them, tentatively, until more data appears. - RBW
File: EM231

Gay Deserter, The

See The Deserter from Kent (File: VWL032)

Gay Girl Marie [Laws M23]

DESCRIPTION: The singer sends a love letter to his "gay girl Marie." The courier, however, delivers it to her father, who is outraged, and sends her into exile. The singer searches at great length, and is almost in despair when he hears a girl weeping and it is Marie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1841 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(768))
KEYWORDS: courting exile father reunion
FOUND IN: US(NE,So) Australia Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws M23, "Gay Girl Marie"
Randolph 124, "Gay Girl Marie" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 34-36, "Sweet Gramachree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 194, "Gargal Machree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 135, "Grogal McCree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 45, "Gra Geal Mo Chroi" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 583, GAYGIRLM
Roud #1020
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(768)[illegible lines], "Gragerel Macgre" ("I am a fond lover that sorely opprest"), J. Jennings (London), 1790-1840; also Harding B 17(117a), "Grageral Macgree"
NOTES [167 words]: Samuel P. Bayard conjectures that "Gay Girl Marie" is a corruption of Gaelic "mo gradh geal mo chroidhe," "bright heart's love." Meredith and Anderson make the same conjecture about their title, "Gargal Machree."
Sam Henry's has a title "Gragalmachree" which makes this certain, but it's not certain that it's the same song. Both obviously are built around the same Gaelic phrase, but they may be independent. That other song is indexed as "Gra Geal Mo Chroi (II -- Down by the Fair River)"; see the notes there. But note also that that song has many floating verses, one could easily confuse short versions. The editors of the Sam Henry collection, e.g., lumped a version of that song with this, and I followed that in early versions of the Index. Credit goes to Ben Schwartz for spotting the distinction.
Two other songs built on the phrase are in Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster: p. 77, "My Gra Gal Machree" and p. 83, "Gra Gal Machree," but I have no evidence that either is traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LM23

Gay gos hawk, The

See The Gay Goshawk [Child 96] (File: C096)

Gay Goshawk, The [Child 96]

DESCRIPTION: An English lass is forbidden to marry the Scot she loves. He sends a message by his goshawk. She asks to be buried in Scotland should she die. This granted, she feigns death. Her coffin is taken to where her lover waits; they are reunited
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783/1799 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: love separation death burial trick reunion
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Child 96, "The Gay Goshawk" (8 texts)
Bronson 96, "The Gay Goshawk" (2 versions, though the second, from Christie, is described by Bronson as "padded out with a second strain.")
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 180-186, "The Gay Goss Hawk" (1 text)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 120-127, "The gay gos hawk" (2 parallel texts plus a photo of the badly-transcribed tune; also a reconstructed tune on p. 268)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 212-217, "The Goss Hawk" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 300-303, "The Gay Goshawk" (1 text)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 43-44, "The Gay Goshawk" (1 fragment, with lyrics typical of this piece but too short identify with certainty)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 60, "The Gay Goshawk" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 43, "The Gay Goshawk" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 265-269+358, "The Gay Goshawk" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 17, "The Gay Goshawk" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's #1}
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 5-7, "The Gay Goss-Hawk"; pp. 7-9, "The Jolly Goss-Hawk" (2 texts)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 69-73, "The Gay Goss-hawk" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: William & Susan Platt, _Folktales of the Scottish Border_, published 1919 as _Stories of the Scottish Border_, republished by Senate Press, 1999, pp. 63-69, "The Gay Goss-Hawk" (1 text)
Roud #61
NOTES [560 words]: Child comments briefly on the fact that this song employs a goshawk to carry a message rather than a nightingale (the bird usually used for love messages), or a dove (used as a messenger), or a parrot (which can talk -- although a few versions do refer to parrots). Indeed, in what is believed to be the oldest surviving Greek animal tale, "The Hawk and the Nightingale," the hawk is the nightingale's enemy and catches and eats it (Jones, p. 221). It is lines 202-212 in the Loeb edition of Works and Days (Hesiod/Evelyn-White, pp.18-19). This wouldn't be known in medieval England, but the tale ended up in collections of Aesop's Fables (giving us the tag "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"), and that of course was widely known! I don't think I can really explain why this song features a goshawk, but possibly I can offer some information that you can use to speculate.
There was an English scholar, Bartholomaeus Anglicus (Bartholomew of England), who wrote a Latin piece De Propriietatibus Rerum ("On the Properties of Things") which was translated into English in the fourteenth century (Fowler, p. 150). Bartholomew discerned four classes (not species) of eagles and hawks: the true eagle, aquila, "the queen of fowls"; the goshawk, aucipiter, "a royal fowl" (the group name for goshawks in modern nomenclature is "accipiters," though there are accipiters which are not called goshawks); the falcon, alietus, "bold and hardy" but with seemingly no personal significance; and the "royal falcon, herodius (Fowler, p. 158).
Chaucer, in the Parliament of Fowls, has a multi-tiered organization of birds. It starts with four great classes or types (a distinction going back to Aristotle; Chaucer/Benson, p. 1000, note on lines 323-329): birds of prey or plunder (which includes the eagles), the small birds that hunt worms (worm-fowl), the seed-eaters, and the waterfowl.
Within the plunderers -- which most scholars agree Chaucer is equating with the knightly class -- Chaucer distinguished five, arguably six, types. (Chaucer/Brewer, p. 80; Parliament of Fowls, lines 330-340. Pliny's Natural History had had six types; Chaucer/Benson, p. 1000, notes on lines 332-333):
-- The "ryle egle" [royal eagle] (line 330)
-- The "othere eglis" [other eagles] (line 332)
-- The "goshauk" (line 335)
-- The "gentyl facoun" [gentle falcon] (line 337)
-- The "hardy sperhauk" [hardy sparrowhawk] (line 338)
-- The "merlioun" [merlin] (line 339; merlins are hawks, but Chaucer lists them after quail, so he may not have meant them to be among the plunderers)
Elsewhere Chaucer will distinguish the Tercel and Formel eagles, but not here.
Chaucer says more of the goshawk than any of the other raptors:
Ther was the tiraunt with his federys dunne
And grey, I mene the goshauk, that doth pyne
To bryddis for his outrageous ravyne (lines 334-336), i.e.
There was the tyrant with his feathers dun [greyish-brown]
And grey, I mean the goshawk that does hurt/harm/seek
For birds (brides?) for his outragous rapine/greed/voracity.
Chaucer/Brewer, p. 115, note on lines 335-336, says, "Bartholomew quotes the opinion that the goshawk is cruel to its young, taking food from them when they are fledged, and driving them out of the nest."
Thus it is rather peculiar to see the goshawk, of all hawks, being treated as a good servant and helper. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: C096

Gay Goss Hawk, The

See The Gay Goshawk [Child 96] (File: C096)

Gay Goss-hawk, The

See The Gay Goshawk [Child 96] (File: C096)

Gay Jemmie, the Miller

See The Gray Mare [Laws P8] (File: LP08)

Gay Maid of Australia, The

See Oxeborough Banks (Maids of Australia) (File: FaE044)

Gay Muttonbirder, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a gay muttonbirder, Come from old Colac and further, I went o'er the sea in the S. S. Wetere...." "We catch all our birds in the torching," then they slaughter in the night. When the season end, they drink and feast until they're broke
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (collected from Haldy Ryan, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: hunting work hardtimes drink food
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 136, "The Gay Muttonbirder" (1 text)
NOTES [68 words]: According to Elizabeth and Harry Orsman, The New Zealand Dictionary, 1994; second edition 1995 (I use the 2003 New House Publishers paperback), p. 176, a muttonbirder is "One who takes the young of muttonbirds for food or sale." A muttonbird is not a particular species; rather, it is any bird whose young is harvested for food. The birds most often molested in this way were shearwaters and petrels. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: BaRo136

Gay Oul' Hag, The

DESCRIPTION: At a house on our street "the red-haired one is mine ... she's a gay old hag." We sat on the bed and with the last kiss I drove her crazy. I have money "from the Newross girl" but I'll not forsake my my "darlin' little wife ... she's a gay old hag"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: nonballad rake whore wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 107-108, "The Gay Oul' Hag" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5167
File: TSF107

Gay Ploughboy, The

DESCRIPTION: A rich farmer's daughter meets and falls in love with her father's ploughboy. He warns that her father will oppose them. She gives him twelve hundred pounds and they elope from Belfast for North America.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
KEYWORDS: courting elopement emigration farming father
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 38, pp. 126-127,171, "The Gay Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2938
File: MoMa038

Gay Spanish Maid, A [Laws K16]

DESCRIPTION: The girl bids her lover farewell as he prepares to sail. A storm sinks the ship soon after it starts on its way; the entire crew is killed except her lover, who clings to a plank. She hears that the ship is lost and dies before her lover reaches her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: ship storm death separation love drowning
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,So) Canada(Mar, Newf)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws K16, "A Gay Spanish Maid"
Randolph 125, "Gay Spanish Mary" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 40, "A Spanish Maid" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 84-86, "A Gay Spanish Maid" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 78-79, "The Gay Spanish Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 87, pp. 134-135, "The Spanish Maid" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 115, "A Gay Spanish Maid" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 17, "Gay Spanish Maid" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 139-141, "The Gay Spanish Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 35, "The Gay Spanish Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 33, "The Gay Spanish Maid" (1 text)
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, p. 79, "Gay Spanish Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 560, GAYSPAN
Roud #708
RECORDINGS:
Edmund & Sadie Henneberry, "The Gay Spanish Maid" (on NovaScotia1)
Ernest Poole, "Gay Spanish Maid" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: LK16

Gay Spanish Mary

See A Gay Spanish Maid [Laws K16] (File: LK16)

Gay Wedding

See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

Gay Wedding, The

See Irish Song (The Gay Wedding) (File: Gray107)

Geaftai Bhaile Atha Bui (The Gates of Ballaghbuoy)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Singer leads Mary astray but falls asleep, leaving her a virgin. His heart "is coal-black ... And for nine days I've wrestled with very death itself." Advice: "women are all guile; ... sleep the more soundly without them"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1991 (Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage seduction sex virginity rejection
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 35-37, "Geaftai Bhaile Atha Bui" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 73-74, "Geaftai Bhaile Ath Bui" ("The Gates of Athboy") [Gaelic and English]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broomfield Hill" [Child 43] (plot) and references there
NOTES [21 words]: The translations in Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder and Bell/O Conchubhair are very close and are the basis for the description. - BS
File: TST035

Gee Ho, Dobbin (The Jolly Waggoner)

DESCRIPTION: "As I was a-driving my watton one day, I met a young damsel, tight, buxom, and gay"; the wagoner greets her and bows to her; chorus: "Gee ho, dobbin, hi ho, dobbin, Gee ho, dobbin, gee up and gee ho."
AUTHOR: Music: Thomas Arne ? (Arne wrote the tunes in "Love in a Village")
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime); tune supposedly from "Love in a Village," 1762
KEYWORDS: courting horse
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 690-691, "Gee Ho, Dobbin" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Roud #32784
File: CPMGeHoD

Gee, Ain't It Great to Be Crazy?

See Ain't It Great to Be Crazy? (File: DTgrtcra)

Gee, But I Want to Go Home

DESCRIPTION: A soldier complains about the coffee ("It's good for cuts and bruises And it tastes like iodine), food, clothes, work, and girls at the service club. Chorus: "I don't want no more of army life. Gee, but I want to go home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947
KEYWORDS: soldier army hardtimes home
FOUND IN: US(So) Canada
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 39, "Gee, But I Want to Go Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 117, "I Don't Like Navy Life" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 276, "Gee, But I Want To Go Home" (1 text)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 76-77, "I Don't Want No More of Navy Life" (1 text with additional verses for other services, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 249, "Gee, But I Want To Go Home" (notes only)
DT, GOHOME*
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 181, "Army Life" (reproduction of a broadside page)
Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 66, "Army Life" (1 text)
Roud #10053 and 11686
RECORDINGS:
Deborah Paulukaitis, "They Say That in the Army (Gee Mom, I Wanna Go Home)" (Piotr-Archive #722, recorded 10/28/2023)
Pete Seeger, "Gee, But I Want to Go Home" (on PeteSeeger31)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wanta Go Home" (theme, some lyrics)
NOTES [442 words]: Why do I suspect that Oscar Brand had a hand in this song? - PJS
The song is older than that, although I wouldn't be surprised if Brand did some rewriting. The major question is the date. Jerry Silverman files it among songs of World War I. He offers no proof. Since at least some versions of the song refer to dollars, we can operate on the assumption that it is American -- but it's not clear that the original is American; it has definitely travelled.
The song must be post-Civil War, since it says, "They give you fifty dollars [in pay] and take back 49." But Civil War privates were paid only $13 per month for most of the war; it was raised to $16 in 1864, but never to $50 (Boatner, p. 624). Indeed, this argues for a post-World-War-I date, since privates in that war were paid a dollar a day.
There had been an income tax as early as the Civil War, but it was very small, and one in which the tax was paid after it was earned -- there was no withholding. Withholding did not begin until 1943 (Schlesinger, p. 493). Of course, soldiers had certain amounts withheld for expenses. But extreme form of withholding sounds twentieth century -- probably late twentieth century.
Perhaps the extreme numbers come from the British version in Shepard, which makes the version read "They give you thirty shillings and take back 29." That number might indeed fit the World War I era.
Emsley, p. 197, says that iodine was discovered in 1811; on p. 196, says that it first came to be used as a disinfectant (to use a modern term) in the mid-nineteenth century. But HTIECivilWar, p. 484, does not list it among the contents of a Civil War doctor's medicine kit -- and the high rate of infected wounds, often resulting in death, offers strong evidence that iodine was not used as a disinfectant. Nor is it likely that ordinary soldiers would have known its taste in the 1860s.
The song also refers to "service clubs." I've never heard of such a thing in the Civil War era, when even the nurses were mostly male. There were a few more in World War I, but even then, they mostly stayed at home. In World War II, however, women were everywhere -- and the fighting was often at or near the home front. Soldiers saw more women -- but, it is true, they rarely saw the young and healthy women, who very often worked the civilian jobs the young men had given up.
Thus, it seems nearly impossible that this song originated in the Civil War, or any other nineteenth century war. Much of it seems specific to World War II. But, given that it seems to have been known as early as 1940, the best bet may be that it originated in World War I and was heavily elaborated. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LxU039

Gee, Hallo, Hallo, Blackie Cap(Bird Scarer's Cry)

DESCRIPTION: "Gee, hallo, hallo, blackie cap, Let us lie down and take a nap. Suppose our master chance to come? You must fly and I must run. Gee hallo, hallo hallo! Gee hallo, hallo, hallo!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Dacombe, according to Palmer)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #1, Song II, "(no title)" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: PPai01IV

Geely Don Mac Kling Go

See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Geese in the Millpond

DESCRIPTION: "Geese in the millpond, Pickin' out moss, Devil on the hillside, Runnin' like a hoss."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: bird devil
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Foster West, "Folklore of a Mountain Childhood," Vol. XVI, No. 3 (Nov 1968), p. 166, "(Geese in the Millpond)" (1 text); article reprinted (with text reset) in Vol. LII, No. 3 (Nov 1968), p. 8
File: NCG163GI

Gelobet Sei

DESCRIPTION: German. "Gelobet sei, Gelobet sei Der Herr mein Gott. Gelobet sei Der Herr mein Gott. Gelobet, gelobet, Gelobet sei Der Herr mein Gott. "Praised be the Lord my God."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (ChansonsDeNotreChalet)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 141, 446, "Gelobet Sei" (notes only)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 6, "Gelobet" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 46, "Gelobet" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gelobt sey Gott im hochsten Thron (Praised Be God in the Highest Throne)" (lyrics)
File: ACSF141G

Gelobt sey Gott im hochsten Thron (Praised Be God in the Highest Throne)

DESCRIPTION: Amish hymn in German.. "Gelobt sey Gott in hochsten Thron, Der uns hat auserkohrsen, Hat uns enin schonen Rock anthon, Dass wir wey neu gebohren." "Praes be God in the highest throne, He who has chosen us... So that we are born again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1742 (Amish Ausbund, #122, according to Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 160-161, "Gelobt sey Gott im hochsten Thron (Praised Be God in the Highest Throne)" (1 short German text plus not-very-literal translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gelobet Sei" (lyrics)
NOTES [83 words]: The reference to being "born again" is an allusion to Jesus's conversation with Nicodemus in John 3, although the translation "born again/born anew" is almost certainly wrong; it should be "born from above." The Greek word Jesus uses in John 3:3, 7, ανωθεν, "anothen,: means both "again" and "from above," with the latter being the primary meaning according to Liddell and Scott's lexicon, and John's style in using irony makes it extremely likely that the meaning he intended was "from above." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: KPL160

Gelvin Burn

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to his old home, detailing all the historic and beautiful places nearby, "For I must go far from the Roe, my fortune to pursue." He promises to remember, and hopes that he will meet old friends again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1385 - Death of "Cooey-na-Gal" O'Cahan
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H667, pp. 192-193, "Gelvin Burn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13549
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of the Roe" (for Cooey-na-Gal) and references there
NOTES [15 words]: For "Cooey-na-Gal" O'Cahan, and the other O'Cahans, see the notes on "The Banks of the Roe"
File: HHH667

General Armstrong

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you sons of liberty that to the seas belong"; the singer will describe the fight made by the privateer General Armstrong against John Bull. Captain Champlin fights hard but at last the ship is so damaged that it cannot continue
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1847 (Forget-Me-Not-Songster)
KEYWORDS: ship sea battle death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 26, 1814 - The General Armstrong fight
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 11-13, "General Armstrong" (1 text)
Roud #16893
NOTES [643 words]: Although no tune is indicated for this, it looks a lot like "Warlike Seamen (The Irish Captain)" -- almost an answer to that song or one of its relatives.
The ship the General Armstrong was real, and something like this song happened to her. The Armstrong was a privateer with nine guns and a crew of about ninety (Heidler/Heidler, p. 445). Having taken a reported million dollars of British property (Mahon, p. 255), she was in port in the Azores on September 26, 1814 when the British Plantagenet (74 guns), Rota (38 guns), and the Carnation (18 guns) entered the harbor.
The Azores were Portuguese, and neutral; the British should not have threatened the Americans. But four boats set out from the Carnation toward the American ship. Fearing boarders, the Americans opened fire and drove them off (Heidler/Heidler, p. 445).
The governor of the islands warned the British against further hostilities -- but the crew of the Armstrong hastily moved to a safer position and shifted their guns so that all could fire on British attackers. It didn't stop the British, who sent another boarding party, estimated at some 400 men. According to Mahon, p. 256, the British had 36 killed and 84 wounded; Heidler/Heidler, p. 445, make the casualties even higher -- about half of the assaulting force, against two Americans killed and seven wounded (plus one killed and one wounded in the first assault).
The British commander, Commodore Lloyd, also told the Portuguese that he would take the Armstrong even if he had to destroy the port. (His justification was that the Americans had fired first; Mahon, p. 256. It's true, I suppose -- but the British had been preparing to board!)
The Americans knew they had no chance, and prepared to evacuate the ship and scuttle. While this was going on, the Carnation started to approach. "A 42-pounder 'Long Tom' gun in the General Armstrong put holes in the hull of the enemy ship, tore up its rigging, and shot off its foremast top before the Carnation moved out of range" ((Heidler/Heidler, p. 445). The crew then scuttled the General Armstrong. As she was sinking, the British boarded, took off a few supplies, and set the ship afire. No doubt Lloyd wanted to claim he had sunk her.
The outcome was inevitable and a defeat for the Americans, but in another sense, it was an exceptional demonstration of prowess: "Ultimately the privateer was abandoned by her crew, but the British had suffered close to 200 casualties compared to only nine for the United States. 'The Americans,' said an English observer, 'fought with great firmness, but more like bloodthirsty savages than anything else.' British officials were so embarrassed by their losses that they refused to allow any mail on the vessels that carried their wounded back to England" (Hickey, p. 219).
What's more, the fight caused Lloyd to delay in the Azores for ten days. He was supposed to go to New Orleans for the assault on that city, and he didn't make it in time. Would it have mattered? Given how badly the British bungled the New Orleans campaign, perhaps not -- and, in any case, the war was over by then. But, still, the presence of Lloyd's force couldn't have hurt. In return for sinking one American privateer, he gave his own country two black eyes.
Much about the fight is accurately described in this song. There is, however, one major difference: The captain of the Armstrong was not "Champlin" but Samuel Chester Reid (1783-1861). He had one other important role in American history: He was the one who suggested that the American flag be standardized at thirteen stripes (Heidler/Heidler, p. 446). However, Guy R. Champlin had commanded the Armstrong in an earlier action, and had ordered the ship blown up instead of having her surrender (Mahon, p. 125). Thus there seems to be a conflation of two actions here. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: FMNS011

General Dickson, Le (The Dickson Song; Eulogy of Cuthbert Grant)

DESCRIPTION: Canadian French. "C'est a la RIvier Rouge, Nouvelles sone arrivees." News comes to the Red River of a "general" recruiting Metis to help him take over Mexico. "General" Dickson promises them honor in Mexico, but they all "desert" him
AUTHOR: Pierre Falcon (source: MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage humorous soldier Canada Mexico
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1836-1837 - "General" James Dickson tries to gather a band of Metis to help him in a filibustering expedition to Mexixo. An American, he journeyed to Canada to try to recruit his troops. The Hudson's Bay Company cut off his funds, and Dickson headed south almost alone. Theatrical to the end, he finally turned over his equipment to Metis leader Cuthbert Grant
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba, #4, pp. 23-30, "The Dickson Song" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
File: Macl04

General Florido

DESCRIPTION: French: "Oh General Florido! C'est vrai ye pas capab' pren moin!" "Oh, General Florido, It is true, you can't capture me." "There is a ship on the ocean, It is true, you can't capture me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage prisoner escape
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 169-170, (no title) (1 text plus translation, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 559, "(no title)" (1 short text plus translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [40 words]: Curiously, for a song of (what Courlander reports to be) an escaping Spanish prisoner/slave, the song is in French.
I have not been able to locate a historical "General Florido"; I suspect it may simply be derived from the name "Florida." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: CNFM169

General Fox Chase, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a bold undaunted fox" who has always paid his rent and taxes. The land agent evicts him. "I stole away his ducks and geese, and murdered all his drakes." The "fox" becomes the target of a manhunt across Ireland and escapes to "the land of liberty"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: emigration crime manhunt escape farming Ireland animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 68A, "The General Fox Chase" (1 text)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 19, "Farmer Michael Hayes" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FARMHAYS
Roud #5226
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "Farmer Michael Hayes" (on IRTLenihan01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(136), "Gallant Michael Hayes" ("I am a bold undaunted fox, that never was before on tramp"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also 2806 c.8(103), 2806 b.10(100), "The General Fox Chase"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gallant Farmer's Farewell to Ireland" (character of Michael Hayes)
NOTES [242 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "This ballad shows how a probably hateful character could become a gallant hero in the eyes of the oppressed peasants. Michael Hayes had been for many years the ruthless bailiff of a land agent, for whom he was said to have evicted more than one thousand people in one parish alone.... When he grew too old for this job he was allowed to stay on the land as a farmer, but a notice to quit was finally served on him too. He shot the agent in a hotel in Tipperary, (30th July, 1862)." In spite of a manhunt he was never caught.
Neither Zimmermann nor the Bodleian "The General Fox Chase" broadsides mention Michael Hayes by name; the slightly longer Bodleian "Gallant Michael Hayes" broadside mentions his name in only one line (I have reformatted the lines to emphasize what weak rhyme scheme there may be):
They searched the cellars underground,
The lime kilns, and each dwelling house,
And packet steamers there was found
To cross the raging sea,
But not meeting any chance,
They took another trip to France,
But still were baulked in their tramp,
They never met Gallant Michael Hayes.
Once these lines disappeared the remaining lines could be taken to apply to any fugitive. Zimmermann: "In 1865, a ballad singer was arrested in South Great George Street Dublin, for singing 'The General Fox Chase', which was then supposed to refer to the vain pursuit of Fenian fugitives. (The Nation, 4th November, 1865.)" - BS
File: Zimm068A

General Guinness

DESCRIPTION: General Guinness "is a soldier strong and 'stout,' Found on every 'bottle-front'" "He always finds a corkscrew far more handy than a sword." He "kept our spirits up in the midst of all the wars." "All over Bonnie Scotland too the General is seen"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 47, "General Guinness" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2914
NOTES [32 words]: Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster: "General Guiness has been winning battles for a brave few years now. Arthur Guiness bought the small and ill-equipped brewery at James' Gate, Dublin in 1759." - BS
File: MorU047

General Lee's Wooing

DESCRIPTION: "My Maryland, my Maryland, I bring thee presents fine, A dazzling sword with jewelled hilt...." (The Confederates "woo" the border state, but the end is bloody): "My Maryland, my Maryland, alas the ruthless day... Proud gentlemen... whose bones lie stark"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle death derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 17, 1862 - Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg). Robert E. Lee's invasion of Maryland meets a bloody check at the hands of McClellan
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 233-235, "General Lee's Wooing" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree)" (tune) and references there
cf. "The Battle of Antietam Creek" (subject)
NOTES [941 words]: The Confederates always wanted Maryland to secede from the Union and join them. Local sentiment in the state probably did not favor them, however (outside a few rebellious hot spots such as Baltimore), and in any case the federal government could hardly allow the secession of the state in which Washington was located. In the early days of the rebellion, urgent steps were taken to keep Maryland in the Union, including having soldiers fire on a secessionist rabble in Baltimore (Catton, pp. 345-346) and exerting strongarm tactics on secessionists -- including those in the state legislature (Catton, pp. 354-357). Mere suspicion of rebel sympathies could be grounds for arrest (Catton, p. 358)
As a result, if Maryland was to join the "Southrons," the South had to pursue a forceful "wooing." In 1862, having won the Seven Days' Battles and Second Bull Run, Robert E. Lee took the Army of Northern Virginia into Maryland (Harpers, p. 393). Apart from taking the fight to the enemy, and making an attempt to capture Maryland, it also meant that the southern forces, which had eaten northern Virginia bare, would be able to enjoy some of the fruits of the northern harvests.
The invasion didn't go well. It was hoped that Marylanders would flock to the colors, but few recruits came in (Harpers, p. 393). On September 7, Lee wrote to Jefferson Davis, "I do not anticipate any general rising of the people on our behalf" and conceded that he wouldn't be able to recruit many Marylanders. Best guess is that fewer than 200 men joined the colors. (Sears, p. 85).
That certainly wasn't enough to make up for losses along the way. Many of his Lee's own soldiers refused to cross the Potomac; more were debilitated by lack of shoes or a diet of green corn which disagreed with their stomachs -- a side effect of the poor logistics Lee suffered from (McPherson, p. 100). It is estimated that 20-25% of Lee's troops fell by the wayside, leaving him with only about 40,000 effectives. Add the fact that Union General George McClellan captured a copy of Lee's orders (Boatner, p. 17), and it was almost a miracle that the Confederate commander was able to assemble his army at Sharpsburg to fight McClellan.
McClellan had at least a two to one edge on Lee -- he had six full corps, meaning probably at least 90,000 men, at his disposal. And yet, as McPherson observes on p. 100, he never put more than 20,000 into action at any given time, and at least 20,000 were never engaged at all -- a failure which that allowed the Confederates to survive the battle fought around Antietam Creek, if just barely.
The Battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg was hardly a victory for anyone. It produced the highest casualties of any single day of battle in the war (Boatner, p. 21). By the time it was over, every regiment in Lee's army was worn out, and he may have had fewer than 25,000 effective soldiers left. McClellan still had unused troops, but he refused to commit them; his losses had also been immense. Murfin, p. 375, gives McClellan's losses at Antietam as 12,469, with another 2700 lost in preliminary skirmishes at South Mountain and Shepherdstown (this apart from some 12,000 captured by the Confederates at Harper's Ferry). Confederate records are never as reliable about such things, and are even worse than usual for Antietam, but Murfin, p. 377, estimates Lee's losses in the Maryland campaign as 10,292 -- out of probably not more than 40,000 who went north into Maryland. Boatner quotes even more extreme numbers from Livermore: 12,410 Federals, 13,724 Confederates. (The latter number, I must say, seems high; I suspect it includes men who did not cross the Potomac but came back to the colors after Lee went south.)
After the battle, Lee headed back across the Potomac. The wooing of Maryland was over. According to Scott, an unknown Union soldier wrote this song to commemorate the fiasco.
The Confederates had learned a lesson. Lee would invade the North again, leading ultimately to the Battle of Gettysburg, but that was not an attempt to bring in recruits or occupy northern territory; he was just trying to take the pressure off Virginia and try to defeat the Federals. Murfin, pp. 302-305, notes how, after Antietam, southerners would curse any band which played "Maryland, My Maryland," which until then had been regarded as an invitation for Marylanders to join the southern cause.
Amazingly, even some of the southern papers got the idea; Murfin, p. 307, cites this from the Petersburg Express: "We think that General Lee has very wisely withdrawn his army from Maryland, the co-operation of whose people in his plans and purposes was indispensable for success. They have failed to respond to his noble appeal, and the victories (sic.) of Sharpsburg and Boonsborough, South Mountain, purchased with the torrents of blood, have been rendered improfitable in a material point of view."
Despite Northern failure to finish off the battle, the outcome indirectly led to the South losing the war, since Lee's retreat ended, at least for the time, the possibility of foreign intervention. The one good result of Antietam was that it was enough of a Union victory -- barely -- to allow Lincoln to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. And that ended the possibility of intervention for all time. As Murfin writes on p. 311, "In a few strokes of the pen, with this thin thread of 'victory' at Sharpsburg as his guide, Lincoln changed the Civil War from a war of economics and politics to a war for the abolition of slavery, and automatically made Lee's Maryland campaign and the Battle of Antietam one of the most decisive of the war." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: SBoA233

General Michael Collins

DESCRIPTION: A memorial to Michael Collins. His part in the Easter rising is recalled as well as other activities before the Treaty. "De Valera and his Die-hards they forced Civil War And Mick Collins was ambushed ... brother on brother they never should turn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar rebellion homicide England Ireland memorial patriotic political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 22, 1922 - The head of the Provisional Government of Ireland, General Michael Collins shot and killed in an ambush by Anti-Treaty republicans (source: _Michael Collins (Irish Leader)_ and _Irish Civil War_ at the Wikipedia site)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads, pp. 264-265, "General Michael Collins" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lovely Willie" [OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 55] (tune)
NOTES [1756 words]: The song mentions Eamon de Valera. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 6, 1921 established the Irish Free State. The Civil War that followed was between the pro-treaty and anti-treaty factions. De Valera led the ant-treaty faction. (source: Irish Civil War at the Wikipedia site) - BS
Michael Collins (1890-1922) and Eamon de Valera (1882-1975) were indeed probably the two most important figures of the Irish Civil War. De Valera came to prominence first; the highest-ranking officer to have been spared the executions following the Easter Rising of 1916, he was regarded as the head of the Irish rebel government. But in the struggle that followed, Collins, the "Big Fellow," had done more to make Irish indepenence real than the slight de Valera, who looked like (and was) a mathematics teacher -- and not even Irish by birth; he was born in the United States (a fact which saved his life in 1916; OxfordComp, p. 377). When it came time to form an actual Irish state, Collins became its de facto leader; de Valera, by his opposition to the Treaty with England which allows the formation of the Irish Free State, was for a time pushed out of government.
Collins was the son of a surprisingly well-educated farmer, Michael John Collins, who died when Collins was six (Coogan, p. 6. Collins senior was about sixty when he married Marianne O'Brien, then aged about 23, and Michael junior was the youngest child. His mother too died when he was fairly young).
Collins, ironically, worked in London from 1906 to 1915 (Coogan, pp. 15fff.), when he returned to Ireland to take part in the struggle for independence. He was involved in the Easter Rising, being imprisoned for his part in the attack on the General Post Office, but he was not at that time a leader. Eventually released, he became an important Irish Republican Army organizer. Elected to parliament in 1918, he joined the other members of Sinn Fein in withdrawing and forming the separatist Dail Eireann.
In the provisional government that the Dail formed, he became first the Minister of Home Affairs, then took the desperately difficult job of Minister of Finance (Coogan, p. 106). All the while he was continuing the battle against the British, becoming probably the most renowned fighter in Ireland.
Eventually, he was appointed, against his will, to the committee appointed to negotiate with England.
There were five Irish commissioners, plus a secretary (Fry/Fry, p. 313): Collins, Arthur Griffith (the founder of Sinn Fein), and secretary Erskine Childers were the most prominent. De Valera carefully stayed home -- and even from there, did his best not to become involved. After difficult negotiations, Collins, Griffith, and two other commissioners agreed to a treaty which gave Ireland home rule (in effect, dominion status) in return for continued paper allegiance to the King; it also separated Ulster from the rest of Ireland, with a boundary supposedly to be adjusted based on a religious census; this of course never happened; indeed, Kee, p. 160, says that Lloyd George had offered irreconcileable boundary promises to the Irish delegation and to Ulster leader James Craig, and adds on p. 172 that when the time came to appoint the commissioners, Ulster simply refused to take part. (For notes on sources, see the Bibliography at the end of this article.) A vague attempt was finally made at a survey, but no changes came about; in effect, the decision was that the boundary would remain unchanged and Britain would forgive a bunch of financial claims against Ireland; Kee, p. 173.
Collins apparently felt that Ireland had to have peace; the IRA was too close to exhaustion (Fry/Fry, p. 313). Coogan, p. 274, quotes Robert Barton, one of Collins's fellow commissioners. Collins was in anguish: "Collins rose looking as though he were going to shoot himself...." But "[Collins] knew that physical resistance, if resumed, would collapse, and he was not going to be the leader of a forlorn hope."
There were other reasons for signing. Collins had earned most of his successes by having a better intelligence system than the British, and there was evidence that the British were catching up; see Coogan, p. 76, 83, etc. where instances are listed of the British firing the informers in their midst.
In addition, the Irish commissioners had been pressured and bluffed by the much more politically astute Lloyd George (Dangerfield, pp. 334-339). To say they were tricked would be a little strong, but they were certainly manipulated.
On the other hand, rationally speaking, it was a good deal for Ireland; see the notes to "The Irish Free State."
When he signed the agreement in December of 1921, Collins is reported to have said "I have signed my own death warrant" (Wallace, p. 131; Fry/Fry, p. 317; Dangerfield, p. 339; Coogan, p. 276, notes that Lord Birkenhead had commented that in approving the Treaty that he might have signed his political death warrant; to which Collins replied "I may have signed my actual death-warrant").
Collins did not consider the Treaty final; he described it as "not the ultimate freedom that all nations aspire... to, but the freedom to achieve it" (Fry/Fry p. 314; Coogan, p. 301).
Ireland still wasn't satisfied; the Dail barely approved the treaty by a vote of 64-57.
It is ironic to note that when Collins cast his vote in favor of the treaty -- the first vote of the roll call to favor it -- he cast it as member from Armagh, which would not be part of Ireland under the treaty.
De Valera, who had authorized the commission to England without outlining clear terms, proceeded to denounce the treaty and quit his own government (Fry/Fry, p. 315). *This* was what ultimately doomed Collins. What followed was civil war.
A provisional government was formed early in 1922, and after de Valera failed to earn re-appointment as head of the Dail, the office went to Griffith. But Collins was the heart and soul of the provisional government, and its provisional president. An election in that year overwhelmingly supported treaty candidates (Golway, p. 276; Fry/Fry, pp. 315-316; Younger, pp. 313-314, states that "pro-Treaty panel candidates gained 239,193 votes of a total of 620,283 votes cast [39%]; anti-treaty panel candidates... polled 133,864 [22%]; and Labour, Independents and Farmers [most of whom would have accepted the Treaty] won between them 247,226 votes [40%]").
De Valera and the hardliners were so dissatisfied that they went to war against their own allies. (This was rather typical of de Valera, whose grip on reality was sometimes rather weak; even Younger, who is sufficiently pro-Irish that he consistently calls terrorists "freedom fighters," says on p. 90 that "odd decisions" "were... almost habitual with de Valera".)
(To be fair, there are many historians who, instead of seeing de Valera as too hardline and inconsistent, see him as brilliant and subtle -- perhaps too subtle for the opposition to understand. E.g, Kee, p. 149, says, "It was indeed because de Valera knew there must be compromise that he remained in Ireland, but not in his own self-interest"; it is Kee's view that he was *allowing* compromise while keeping the hard-liners on his side. The problem with this theory, of course, is that he kept the hard-liners, but didn't support the compromise, and the result was the Civil War.)
In the struggle that followed, Collins ironically had the backing of Britain. But an exhausted Griffith died in early August 1922, and Collins was slain from ambush within a fortnight (Fry/Fry, p. 317; Dangerfield, p. 294). There was already war, of course, but that pretty well guaranteed that the war would continue for generations, at least in Ulster. Collins seemingly hoped for peace with "the North-East corner" (Coogan, p. 301), but few others went along.
The assassination of Collins was in some ways interesting. He travelled with an armed and armored party, but the party had difficulty finding its way in the area of the "Mouth of Flowers." Several ambushes were set up; one managed to catch him despite being outgunned. Collins, hothead that he was, actually left his car to fight the assassins -- and was killed.
Collins was the only member of his party to die, though others were injured.
Other details are fuzzy. According to Coogan (p. 420), Sonny O'Neill, who probably fired the fatal shot, died without telling his side of the story. And De Valera would eventually cause the government to destroy -- not seal, *destroy* -- its records (p. 418).
It will tell you how horrid the situation was at the time of the Civil War that even Younger, who approved of Irish terrorism, admits that the anti-Treaty faction of de Valera "made no effort to rule in any positive way. What they were setting out to do was to prevent the Dail government and its interwoven Provisional Government from ruling either." (p. 268). Nor did they seek to learn the will of the people: "The plain fact was that de Valera and his adherents did not want an election which they knew they could not win'" (p. 269).
"To many of his compatriots, Collins was the real architect of Ireland's freedom, and some said he was the greatest Irish hero since Brian Boru" (Fry/Fry, p. 317). That statement is surely too strong, but it obviously explains such songs as this one.
A good analogy might be to Abraham Lincoln: Both Lincoln and Collins had fought great wars that defined their nations, and with the war ending, were responsible for reconstruction and healing. Both were assassinated before reconstruction really began. Many historians think that Lincoln would have moderated reconstruction had he lived, as they think Collins might have held down the Irish Civil War had he lived. In neither case can we know, and Collins, since he died earlier in the process, probably had even less chance than Lincoln. But he was surely the only man who had any chance.
Apparently there was eventually a movie about Collins, entitled "Michael Collins" (how original), by Neil Jordan, starring Liam Neeson and Julia Roberts. All I know about this is what I read in Michael Padden and Robert Sullivan, May the Road Rise to Meet You, pp. 157-161, which is anything but a scholarly account. Apparently this tried to lay the blame for Collins's death at the feet of de Valera -- which caused Coogan, who had been hired as a consultant to the film, to blow up, noting that, if such a thing had been shown to be true, it would have signed de Valera's own death warrant. Whatever the film was like, it proved to be rather a flop. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: OLcM264

General Monroe

DESCRIPTION: At Ballynahinch Monro and his men fight until night. Monro pays a woman not to tell where he is hiding. She calls the army. They takes him home to Lisburn. He is hanged, beheaded and his head put on a spear. Monro's sister swears to avenge his death.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: betrayal execution rebellion Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Peacock, pp. 998-999, "General Munro" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 65, "General Munroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 16, "General Munroe" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 84, "General Munroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 12, "General Monroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 60-61, "General Munroe (2)" (1 text); pp. 58-59, "General Munroe (1)" is a come-all-ye which appears to be a different song but which shares some verses
DT, GENMUNRO*
ST Pea998 (Partial)
Roud #1166
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "General Munro" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 614, "General Munroe," E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also 2806 b.10(8), 2806 b.9(267), Firth b.26(204), Harding B 11(3562), Harding B 19(9), Firth b.25(315) [some illegible words], 2806 c.15(185), Harding B 11(1297), Harding B 11(1298), "General Munroe"; 2806 c.14(70) [partly illegible], "General Monro"; 2806 b.10(9), "General Munro"
Murray, Mu23-y1:024, "General Monro," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Munroe" (subject)
cf. "Betsy Gray" (subject: Battle of Ballynahinch)
NOTES [566 words]: In the 1798 Irish Rebellion shopkeeper Henry Monro (1768-1798) led a force of the United Irishmen in a losing battle at Ballynahinch -- about 12 miles from Belfast. Monro was captured and was hanged three days later, on June 16, 1798. Source BBC History site The 1798 Irish Rebellion by Professor Thomas Bartlett. - BS
Monroe (also spelled Munroe, Munro, and Monro) was, ironically, not even Irish; he was a draper, of a Scottish family -- and, like Wolfe Tone among others, a Protestant (Stewart, p. 206; that page gives his birth date as 1758, not 1768 as in Bartlett). He was not a member of the United army, and had had no expectations of being appointed a general. But he ended up in command of rebel forces (or, rather, the rebel mob; it hardly qualified as an army) in Down. According to Stewart, pp. 64-65, the local committee of the United Irish had seen their commander, Simms, announce his resignation on June 1, 1798, when dragoons rode through the town. There was no obvious successor. The committee proposed three possible replacements, including Monroe, "a linen draper from Lisburn." Apparently the committee decided to appoint whichever one of the three they found first, and that proved to be Monroe.
Their commander was about as well equipped to be a general as his troops were to be an army; he had no military training and wasn't even particularly well educated. Nor did he have time to do anything about his troops' inadequacy even had he known what to do; Kee, p. 129 reports that he took command in the county only one day before the scheduled beginning of the rising; his predecessor had been arrested.
Discipline the troops certainly did not have; when Monroe pressed for an attack, Catholics in particular held back (one source says they were afraid of Monroe's Presbyterianism). In a sense, they were right to be hesitant, because the troops simply weren't ready to fight. (Bartlett/Dawson/Keough, p. 128, observes that "very few of he United Irishmen in either Antrim or Down had really been prepared for combat in 1798 -- principally, it would seem, because the United Irish military plan had centered on Dublin"). Then the Loyal troops appeared.
The sight of opposing forces caused many of Monroe's troops to desert. Monroe sent most of his best pikemen into Ballynahinch, since only in the town could they avoid the British guns. But a loyal force equipped with two cannon destroyed the rebel camp, and Major General George Nugent, commanding loyal forces in Ulster, then attacked the town. The remaining rebels were quickly routed (Pakenham, pp. 229-231). It was, for all intents and purposes, the end of the 1798 rebellion in Ulster.
Monroe, who was betrayed soon after the battle by a farmer named William Holmes (who lodged him in a pig house then gave him away; Stewart, p. 250), was hung a few days later -- outside his own front door, according to Bartlett/Dawson/Keough, p. 127. According to Stewart, p. 250,"Munro had behaved with great dignity during the trial and had impressed the army officers present. His last words were 'Tell my country I have deserved better of her.'" - RBW
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "General Munro" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998)) - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea998

General Owen Roe

DESCRIPTION: Battle-weary Owen Roe finds a place to sleep. He pays a woman not to tell where he is hiding. She calls the cavalry. They capture him. He leaves his land to his family and his bridle and saddle to his son. His sister swears to avenge his death.
AUTHOR: Joseph Maguire
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (sung by Joseph Maguire on Decca 12137, according to Spottswood)
KEYWORDS: betrayal execution rebellion Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 35, "General Owen Roe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5284
NOTES [886 words]: According to Ethnic Music on Records: a Discography of Ethnic Recordings Produced in the United States, 1893 to 1942 by Richard K Spottswood (Urbana, c1990), Joseph Maguire wrote and recorded "General Owen Roe": Decca 12137, recorded January 13, 1938 (matrix number 63147-A). - BS
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen: "It tells of the bravery of ... Owen Roe O'Neill who returned from the continent to fight for the cause of his country in 1640.... This song tells of his bravery during an incident when he was betrayed while weary and tired from the throes of battle. [The singer] learned this song from a 78 r.p.m. record - he thinks it was a McGettigan record that came from the U.S. in the thirties. It seems possible that McGettigan wrote this version based on a similar song 'General Munroe' ...." The songs are more than similar. Whole verses are lifted, though the names are changed. Even the verse about Roe's/Munroe's sister is the same.
Owen Roe O'Neill was born in Co. Tyrone in either 1595 or 1597. He returned from the continent in 1642 and was appointed commander of the Northern Army of the Confederation of Kilkenny. His death was nothing like what is portrayed in this ballad. He became sick and died, probably of tetanus, on November 6, 1649 (source: "Owen Roe O'Neill - The Cavan Connection" by Jim Hannon at the Cornafean Online site). It had been thought that he was poisoned (see, for example, "Lament for Owen Roe O'Neill" by Thomas Davis:
"Did they dare, did they dare, to slay Owen Roe O'Neill!"
'Yes they slew with poison him they feared to meet with steel.'
"May God wither up their hearts! May their blood cease to flow!
May they walk in living death, who poisoned Owen Roe!
Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859 (reprint of 1855 London edition)), Vol I, p. 204.) - BS
Owen Roe O'Neill (Eoghan Rua O'Neill) is one of those slightly ambiguous figures so common in Irish history. The date of his birth is perhaps even more uncertain than the above might imply -- Golway, p. 26, gives the year of his birth as around 1580; O hOgain, p. 399, says 1582, and Foster, p. 80 plumps for 1590.
Whenever he was born, Owen was the nephew of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone (for whom see "O'Donnell Aboo"); see Golway, p. 26. He left Ireland around the time of the "Flight of the Earls," and had spent thirty-odd years fighting for Spain in the hope that they would rescue Ireland. Finally, during the Civil War of the 1640s, he came home.
Foster, p. 90, says of him, "Subtle, aristocratic, a great figure in the Spanish army, O'Neill was deeply imbued with Continental Catholic zeal... While he was capable of fervent Royalist rhetoric [at a time when Charles I was at war with his own parliament], it was suspected that he harboured the characteristic O'Neill ambitions on his own account." Unfortunately, after so long away, he didn't understand either Irish or English politics.
According to Wallace, p. 48, he claimed to be fighting on the order of the embattled Charles I -- which was only partly true; the Irish *thought* Charles would support them, but in fact they fought without his encouragement (Foster, p. 88). Still, their claims helped splinter the Irish. O'Neill became one of the chief leaders of Irish forces, but there was no overall commander to coordinate strategy.
O'Neill won a medium-sized battle against Munroe at Benburb in 1646 (according to Fry/Fry, p. 153, he left 3000 English and Scots dead on the field); it was the greatest single victory of Irish forces in the period (Foster, p. 80). He could perhaps have marched on Dublin at this point, or moved to clean out the remainder of the Parliamentary army of Scots who occupied Ulster, but did neither, wasting his advantage as he tried to strengthen Catholic control over Ireland rather than win the final battle over the English that would have let the Irish decide things on their own (Foster, p. 98)..
Soon after, the always-fragile unity of the Irish forces crumbled completely -- the moderate leader the Earl of Ormond wanted to make terms; the Papal nuncio, supported by O'Neill, tried to hold out for absolute Catholic supremacy. And then Cromwell came. His dreadful work is described under "The Wexford Massacre." Ireland was left a conquered, ruined country.
O'Neill didn't see much of this; he died in 1649. Golway, p. 27, claims he "died under mysterious circumstances," though Wallace, p. 50, asserts he had been sick for some time; Foster, p. 102, splits the difference and says he died of a "mysterious illness." O hOgain, p. 400, claims it was cancer, and afflicted his knee. Edwards, p. 151 n., says that he died "probably of an old wound. Romantice like Thomas Davis thought otherwise... 'Yes, they slew with poison him they feared to meet with steel.'" But apparently the worst fits of pain came while negotiating with the British, leading to charges of poisoning. O hOgain, in fact, relates a tale that a dance was organized in his honor, and he was given poisoned boots! As O hOgain says, "His death was one of the most momentous losses in Irish history, and the people refused to believe it had come from natural causes."
Ultimately, I fear he did Ireland more harm than good; by holding out so long, he made compromise impossible and opened the door for Cromwell. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: McB1035

General Patterson

DESCRIPTION: "We fought them at Manasses, We fought them at their will, The next time, boys, we fight them, It will be on Richmond Hill." "Show me the man That whipped General Patterson." The singer is a Yankee prisoner but expects Confederate victory
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: battle Civilwar prison
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 21, 1861 - First battle of Bull Run/Manasses fought between the Union army of McDowell and the Confederates under Johnston and Beauregard. (There was a second Bull Run battle a year later.)
May 31-Jun 1, 1862: Battle of Fair Oaks/Seven Pines
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #4, "General Patterson" (1 text)
Roud #5021
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Bull Run" [Laws A9] (subject: the battle of Bull Run) and notes and referenes there
NOTES [522 words]: This song is rather a curiosity, in that it is found in Florida but is about events in Virginia. There are a handful of references that supply context: The mention of Manassas, the mention of General Patterson, and references to Longstreet, Magruder, and Jackson.
The mention of Magruder (John Bankhead Magruder, commander of the Department of the Peninsula) shows that the song cannot be talking about the (first) Battle of Manassas, because Magruder wasn't there; he was in the Peninsula between the James and York Rivers (where he had earlier won the battle of Big Bethel).
But the reference to beating Union General Patterson shows that the soldier must have served in the Shenandoah Valley in 1861. At the time of First Bull Run, Patterson's job was to keep Joseph E. Johnston's four Confederate brigades occupied in the Shenandoah Valley. "He was... ordered, in mid-July, to prevent Johnson from reinforcing Beauregard at Bull Run while McDowell advanced. He failed to engage the enemy in battle, explaining that he had not received orders to attack. Much criticized for this, he was mustered out 27 July '61" (Mark M. Boatner III, The Civil War Dictionary, 1959 (there are many editions of this very popular work; mine is a Knopf hardcover), p. 623). Johnston was able to join Beauregard, and their united forces fought off the grass-green Union forces and won the battle of Manasses. Thus no one can be said to have "whipped" Patterson, but Johnston clearly outsmarted him. So the reference to the man who whipped him is surely to Johnston.
And that, plus the mentions of Richmond Hill, Longstreet, Magruder, and Jackson, gives us our setting: The Battle of Fair Oaks/Seven Pines in 1862. General McClellan was advancing his large Union army toward Richmond, and was very close to the city's suburbs (hence "Richmond Hill"). But his forces were divided by a river. General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Confederates, tried to attack the forces on one side of the river and defeat them in detail. Among his division commanders were generals Longstreet and Magruder; General Jackson was "in the rear" because he was in command of Johnston's old department of the Shenandoah Valley, where he was conducting the Shenandoah Valley campaign that drove the Union government crazy and became a military classic.
The Battle of Fair Oaks/Seven Pines was not the end of McClellan's Peninsular Campaign -- but it was the end of Johnston's service in the east; he was wounded in the battle (Boatner, pp. 273, 441). Robert E. Lee took charge thereafter. Thus the combination of references points us to a time just before the Battle of Fair Oaks.
This does not explain how the song ended up in Florida. According to the order of battle in JoAnna M. McDonald, We Shall Meet Again: The First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) July 18-21, 1861, Oxford, 1999, pp. 186-191, there were no Florida infantry units in Johnston's valley army, or even in Beauregard's larger army at Manassas, although there may have been a few odd Floridians around.
For more about Patteron and Bull Run, see the notes to "The Battle of Bull Run" [Laws A9]. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Morr004

General Rawlinson, The

DESCRIPTION: General Rawlinson leaves Marystown and docks at New Harbour. In a gale "the vessel struck the rocks" and sinks but the crew get to shore. They spend three weeks on meager rations waiting to be taken home.
AUTHOR: Ben Doucey
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 7, 1922 - General Rawlinson, docked at Oporto, Portugal, collides with the dock fin anchor and sinks. (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou, Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 40, "The General Rawlinson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #26430
NOTES [57 words]: I assume New Harbour, on the return trip, is in Portugal rather than the New Harbour not far from St John's. - BS
I assume the General Rawlinson was named for Henry Seymour Rawlinson (1864-1925), commander of the British Fourth Army in World War I. This presumably makes it a fairly new ship in 1922; perhaps the crew was inexperienced? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LdBe040

General Scott and Corporal Johnson

See General Scott and the Veteran (File: Wa013)

General Scott and the Veteran

DESCRIPTION: "An old and crippled veteran to the War Department came" to volunteer his services in the Civil War: "I'm not so weak but I can strike, and I've got a good old gun...." "We will plant our sacred banner in each rebellious town...."
AUTHOR: Bayard Taylor?
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud); said to have been written May 13, 1861
KEYWORDS: Civilwar patriotic soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 25, 1814 - Battle of Lundy's Lane (Bridgewater), at which the veteran is alleged to have fought. Winfield Scott was a brigadier at Lundy's Lane
1861-1865 - American Civil War. General Winfield Scott (1786-1866), who had been one of the leading generals in the Mexican war, was brevet Lieutenant General and commander in chief of Union forces until age forced him to retire in November 1861
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 13, "General Scott and the Veteran" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp.128-129, "Billie Johnson of Lundy's Lane" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #728, p. 48, "General Scott and Corporal Johnson" (5 references)
ST Wa013 (Full)
Roud #9583
NOTES [808 words]: Wolf, p. 48, lists five Civil War-era broadside prints of this song. It appears all were titled "General Scott and Corporal Johnson."
For details on the Battle of Lundy's Lane, see "The Battle of Bridgewater."
The reference to "Pickens" is to Fort Pickens, the *other* southern fort (besides Fort Sumter) in Federal hands when the Confederacy seceded. Fort Pickens was in Pensacola Bay, and a handful of federal troops under Lt. Adam J. Slemmer occupied in on January 10, 1861 (Boatner, pp. 641, 764-765; Catton, pp. 276-280).
This part of the story is quite similar to that of Fort Sumter -- as is the sequel: The Confederates demanded the surrender of Pickens several times in early April. But the Federals reinforced Pickens as they did not reinforce Sumter. Some 400 reinforcements arrived on April 12, and Colonel Harvey Brown took charge on April 18. The Federals held Pensacola for the entire war, depriving the Confederates of an excellent if rather out-of-the-way harbor.
The veteran's disparagement of the "mini" (minie) ball demonstrates both his crustiness and his uselessness -- the rifle musket and minie ball were the first (relatively) rapid-fire rifle type in the world (McPherson, pp. 474-475) -- about four times as fast as previous rifles. The veteran had used either smoothbore muskets (which couldn't hit a brick wall at fifty paces) or the older rifles (which took roughly two minutes to load and fire). In neither case was he as effective as he thought.
"Arnold" is, of course, the traitor Benedict Arnold (for whom see "Major Andre's Capture" [Laws A2]).
It is ironic to note that the song ends with the general (nowhere explicitly mentioned as Winfield Scott, but the description fits) turning down the veteran. By the end of the war, the Federals had formed an Invalid Corps of such tired and crippled old men. They needed every body they could get.
Several other high Union officers had experience in the War of 1812 (information from Boatner). John Wool (1879-1869), who commanded the key Union position of Fort Monroe in late 1861, had raised a company of New York soldiers in 1812 and fought on the Canadian border. Robert Patterson (1792-1881) had served with the Pennsylvania militia in 1812-1813, and at the start of the Civil War, he was in charge of forces in the Shenandoah Valley. His performance was poor enough that he was mustered out of the service on July 27, 1861 (for more on him, see "General Patterson"). Neither of these two would have been at the War Department in 1861, however, and -- unlike Winfield Scott -- neither had performed noteworthy service at Lundy's Lane.
There is one fairly well documented instance of a War of 1812 veteran fighting (as opposed to manning a desk) in the Civil War: John Burns of Gettysburg allegedly came out and fought with Union soldiers after Confederates chased off his cows. He is said to have been wounded three times and captured. No one, however, seems to have been able to verify his previous war service (Sears, p. 204, declares that he had been a non-combatant) -- and, in any case, he was not a proper soldier, just sort of a one-man posse (Sears says he was "regarded by his fellow citizens as cantankerous and something of a town character). Jameson, p. 94, says that he fought at Plattsburg, Queenstown, and Lundy's Lane, but offers no evidence. He did earn mention in the report of General Abner Doubleday for his deeds at Gettysburg, and even met President Lincoln (Sears, p. 204).
In addition, Tucker, p. 115, reports that one Reuben Wilder had led a cavalry company in the War of 1812, and when the Civil War came and his son John T. Wilder became a colonel in the western armies and eventually led a cavalry brigade, Reuben Wilder, who was 69 years old in 1862, volunteered to serve on his son's staff. Tucker does not say if the younger Wilder accepted his father's offer.
I don't know if this song was inspired by an actual incident, but it could have been. According to Woodworth, p. 6, at the start of the Civil War, a veteran of Lundy's Lane organized a company of men in their forties and fifties, and offered it to the State of Illinois -- only to be turned down because the men were too old. It's easy to imagine a songwriter turning a general incident into one about a particular soldier.
Bayard Taylor wrote other patriotic songs around this time, including "The Song of 1876" ("Waken, voice of the Land's devotion! Spirits of freedom, awaken all" -- Dime-Song-Book #34, p. 53).
Incidentally, the song was well enough known that Lydia Pinkham, of Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound (who, despite being a patent medicine quack, was in other ways a very progressive woman), put it in her notebook of thing for her children to use in school presentations; see Burton, pp. 34-35 (and, for Lydia herself, see the note to "Lydia Pinkham"). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: Wa013

General Summary, A

DESCRIPTION: As found in tradition, just a few lines: "As it was in the beginning Is today, official sinning, And shall be forevermore."
AUTHOR: Words: Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (date of writing, according to Internet sources)
KEYWORDS: sin nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 24, "As it was in the beginning" (1 fragment)
Roud #25360
NOTES [121 words]: Kipling's original poem opens
We are very slightly changed
From the semi-apes who ranged
India's Prehistoric clay;
He that drew the longest bow
Ran his brother down, you know,
As we run men down to-day.
The final verse, from which Alice Kane's half-verse derives, runs
Thus, the artless songs I sing
Do not deal with anything
New or never said before.
As it was in the beginning
Is to-day official sinning,
And shall be for evermore!
The general theme is of cheating through the ages -- e.g. the contractor who built the Great Pyramid probably cheated Pharaoh Cheops.
It is interesting to note that, since Kipling did not die until Alice Kane was in her late twenties, Kipling would have been alive when Kane learned this song.
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC024B

General Taylor

See Carry Him To the Burying Ground (General Taylor, Walk Him Along Johnny) (File: Hugi078)

General Wolfe

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, General Wolfe to his men did say, 'Come, come my boys, To yon blue mountain that stands so high...." "The very first volley the French fired at us, They wounded our general on his left breast." The dying Wolfe recalls his exploits
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Hill, Wiltshire Folk Songs and Carols)
KEYWORDS: battle death Canada soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 13, 1759 - Battle of Quebec. Wolfe and Montcalm killed.
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 162-163, "Bold General Wolfe" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 193, "Bold General Wolff")
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #4, "General Wolfe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 50-51, "General Wolfe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 6-7, "The Taking of Quebec" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 120-122, "Bold General Wolfe" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BRAVWLF3*
Roud #624
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Ralph, "General Wolfe" (on Ontario1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2156), "Death of General Wolfe," unknown, n.d.; same broadside as 2806 c.16(156)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brave Wolfe" (subject)
NOTES [129 words]: This ballad veers curiously between truth and fancy. Wolfe did not lead his men up a mountain -- but he *did* lead them up a high cliff to the Plains of Abraham, where the Battle of Quebec was fought. The bullet which mortally wounded him was not fired in the first volley (since he had already taken two other wounds), but it did hit him in the breast. And he had indeed been in the army for 16 years when he died at the age of 32.
For full historical notes, see "Brave Wolfe."
Spaeth mentions a song, "The Death of General Wolfe" (not the same as "Brave Wolfe") published in 1775 -- but I don't know if that is the same as this song. - RBW
Fowke describes "The Death of the Brave General Wolfe" as an alternate title for "Brave Wolfe" [Laws A1] rather than this song. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: FMB050

General Wolfe's Song

See How Stands the Glass Around (General Wolfe's Song) (File: DalC146)

General Wonder

DESCRIPTION: "General wonder in our land ... As General Hoche appeared; General woe fled through our land ... General gale our fears dispersed ... General joy each heart has swelled, As General Hoche has fled... General of the skies That sent us general gale"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: navy war sea ship storm France Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
December 1796 - A gale disrupts the French Fleet of 43 ships and 15000 men under General Hoche in Bantry Bay; only one ship was sunk and drove several ashore, and the rest returned to Brest. (source: "'Rackets and Tea': The Life and Writings of William Hazlitt (1778-1830)" in _Biographies_ on the Blupete site)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 29, "General Wonder" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), p. 259, (no title) (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shan Van Vogt" (subject)
NOTES [201 words]: As this song implies, the French invasion commanded by General Hoche was probably the closest Ireland ever came to being liberated by foreign forces. General Hoche was one of the brightest young stars of the French Republic (Napoleon being the other), and he had a sufficient force to cause the British great discomfort at least. (It might have been more than discomfort, given how bad most of the senior British officers were.)
But the wind caused disaster twice. First it scattered and damaged the French fleet. Most ships made it to Bantry Bay, but bad weather made it difficult to land. And the wind had also blown Hoche and naval commander de Galles away from the rest of the fleet. With no assertive officer to force the remaining ships to get something down, the French fleet essentially sat still in Bantry Bay from December 22 to December 25, then sailed for home. The Royal Navy was severely (and rightly) criticized for its complete failure to do anything, but the British had lucked out even so. Hoche would die soon afterward, and no one else in France was willing to devote significant resources to Ireland.
For more context on Hoche's expedition, see the notes to "The Shan Van Voght." - RBW
File: Moyl029

Generous Farmer and the Poor Soldier, The

DESCRIPTION: A farmer stops a lame soldier. He invites him in for food and beer. The soldier eats, drinks, and tells how his comrades were lost in battle. The farmer says, "This brave fellow shall ne'er want a morsel of bread For he's one that has guarded our land"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1832 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.17(196))
KEYWORDS: virtue poverty war help farming drink food hardtimes injury patriotic soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 239-240, "The Poor Wounded Soldier" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 379)
ADDITIONAL: The Universal Songster or Museum of Mirth (London, 1834 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol III, pp. 229-230, "He's One Who Has Guarded Our Land" ("A jolly old farmer once soaking his clay") (1 text)
Roud #1305
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(196), "Jolly Old Farmer" ("A jolly old farmer sat soaking [sic] his clay"), W. Wright (Birmingham), 1820-1831; also Firth b.25(479), "Jolly Old Farmer"; 2806 c.16(267), 2806 c.16(317), 2806 c.16(267), "The Generous Farmer", Johnson Ballads 832, Harding B 11(237A), "The Generous Farmer" or "Poor Soldier"; Harding B 25(720), "The Generous Farmer and the Poor Soldier"; Firth b.26(325), Harding B 11(3970), Harding B 15(153a), Harding B 15(153a), "Jolly Old Farmer Smoking His Clay"
File: WT239A

Genette and Genoe

See Jeanette and Jeannot (File: SWMS245)

Gentle Annie

DESCRIPTION: The singer reports that it is harvest time, and soon he will be traveling on. He bids farewell to "gentle Annie," the daughter of the farm. He offers her various warnings
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love separation farewell farming warning
FOUND IN: US(So) Australia Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 518, "Gentle Annie" (1 text)
Randolph 701, "Gentle Annie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 301, "Gentle Annie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saunders/Root-MusicOfStephenCFoster-Vol2, pp. 7-10+417, "Gentle Annie" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 18-21+419, "Gentle Annie for the Guitar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, p. 54, "Gentle Annie" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 354-355, 'Gentle Annie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 18, page headed "Ditty: The plains of"], "Gentle Annie" (1 fragment)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 5 and #1/64 p. 5, "Gentle Annie" (1 text)
DT, GENTLANN
ST R701 (Full)
Roud #2656
RECORDINGS:
Apollo Quartet of Boston, "Gentle Annie" (CYL: Edison [BA] 3289, n.d.)
Asa Martin, "Gentle Annie" (Champion 16568, 1933; rec. 1931; on KMM)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "When the Springtime Comes Again" (on Stonemans01)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(060), "Gentle Annie," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 1852-1859
SAME TUNE:
My Heart Is Sad for Thee, Annie (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 103)
NOTES [454 words]: Stephen Foster's original version is said to be based on Annie Laurie, and is mostly a lyric (a lament for a dead girl: "Thou wilt come no more, Gentle Annie, Like a flower thy spirit did depart; Though art gone, alas! like the many That have bloomed in the summer of my heart"). It's been said that it was inspired by his grandmother, Annie Pratt McGinnis Hart.
The song, however, has evolved heavily, presumably because the tune is strong but the lyrics banal. The Australian version (the one you may know from the singing of Ed Trickett), in particular, is heavily localized, and has become a near-ballad of a migrant worker bidding farewell to the (young?) daughter of the household.
Properly, the two should be split, but given the limited circulation of each in tradition, I decided not to bother.
This was almost the last success Foster had before his death, but it wasn't enough to rescue him financially. This was the only song he published in 1856, according to Howard, p. 253; his muse had effectively failed.
Acccording to TaylorEtAl, p. 127, "Morrison Foster, Stephen's brother, said that Gentle Annie was inspired by an actual incident which occurred in Stephen's neighbourhood. In his biography of Stephen, Morrison wrote:
"Once on a stormy night a little girl, sent on an errand, was run over by a dray and killed. She had her head and face covered by a shawl to keep off the peltings of the storm, and in crossing the street she ran under the horse's feet. Stephen was dressed and about to go to an evening party when he learned of the tragedy. He went immediately to the little girl's father, who was a poor working man and a neighbour he esteemed. He... remained all night with the dead child and her afflicted parents, endeavoring to afford the latter what comfort he could.
According to Briggs, p. 185, "Gentle Annie, or Annie [was] The weather spirit responsible for the southwesterly gales on the Firth of Cromarty.... [She had] a bad reputation for treachery." I doubt, however, that Foster had so much as heard of this Gentle Annie.
More likely to be derived from Foster's song are six different New Zealand usages, which make it effectively certain it was known there even though it has not been collected. According to Ell, p. 98, "Any Gentle Annie usually means a big, steep climb.... A popular washing machine once appropriated Gentle Annie's reputation." NewZealandEncyclopedia, p. 218, lists a creek, a road, and two hills, one quite large but rather out of the way, named "Gentle Annie."
NewZealandDictionary, p. 105, similarly says "Gentle Annie[.] A name often given to various hills or slopes (some, ironically, steep) on bridle-tracks and coach-roads, and remaining as loval names." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: R701

Gentle Boy, The (Why Don't Father's Ship Come In)

DESCRIPTION: "As I roved out one evening As I sat down to rest, I saw a boy scarce four years old Sleep on his mother's breast." They tell about his father who sailed away and was lost in a hurricane. "They cast their eyes to heaven and son and mother died."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: grief parting death sea disaster storm wreck baby mother father separation sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) US(MA,NE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 113, "The Gentle Boy" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 795-796, "The Ship That Never Came" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 330-331, "The Ship That Never Came (The Gentle Boy)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 120, "Why Don't Father's Ship Come In?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 37, "Why Don't My Father's Ship Come In?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, p. 117, "The Gentle Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2973
RECORDINGS:
John James, "My Daddy's Ship" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rocks of Scilly" [Laws K8] (theme)
File: GrMa113

Gentle Fair Jenny

See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Gentle Jesus Meek and Mild

DESCRIPTION: A child's prayer to Jesus to be brought to Jesus. The singer would have a "loving mind" and "fulfil ... my heavenly Father's will"
AUTHOR: Charles Wesley (1707-1788) (source: _Methodist Hymn-Book_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Ira D. Sankey, _Sacred Songs and Solos: Twelve Hundred Hymns_ (London: Marshall Morgan & Scott Ltd, 1921? ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #1149, ("Gentle Jesus meek and mild") (1 text)
Roud #29816
RECORDINGS:
Henry Williams, Henry Thomas, Margaret Wright, Edna Wright, "Gentle Jesus Meek and Mild" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [113 words]: Also see The Methodist Hymn-Book (London: The Methodist Publishing House, 1954), #842 p. 321, ("Gentle Jesus, meek and mild") (1 text).
The WITrinidadVillage02 Spiritual Baptist hymn is the five verse Sankey version, in that text's sequence, rather than -- for example -- The Methodist Hymn-Book's eight verses with the five sung in a different sequence. Donald R. Hill and Lise Winer, liner notes for WITrinidadVillage02 have this as "Sankey into Shout." After the second verse the singers of words have to compete more and more with singers, in tune, of "bam, bam,..." After the fifth verse the hymn continues without words and some "bams" and "bums" give way to "whoops." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcGJMaM

Gentle John

DESCRIPTION: "A virgin goes a maying" gathering flowers "growing in my lady's garden." A misstep and "Gentle John will make you cry" or "Give you a kiss" [counting in a player who selects a mate] The mate "is none of ours," is in the player's power: make a wedding.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 28, "Gentle John" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1842 ("Digitized by Google")), #219 pp. 123-124, ("Ring me (1), ring me (2), ring me rary(3") (1 text)
James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1843 ("Digitized by Google")), #244 p. 151, ("Ring me (1), ring me (2), ring me rary(3")); #245 p. 152, ("As I go round ring by ring") (2 texts)
Roud #21146
NOTES [34 words]: One of the Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame texts, though beginning "All around the mulberry bush, Boys and girls together," does belong here: "if by chance your foot should slip, Uncle Joe will give you a kiss." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa028

Gentle Johnnie Ogilvie the Knicht o' Inverwharity

See Go From My Window (I) (File: ChWI146)

Gentle Robin

See A Robin, Jolly Robin (File: Perc1185)

Gentle Shepherdess, The

See The Sailor and the Shepherdess [Laws O8] (File: LO08)

Gentle Young Lady, A

See Captain Wedderburn's Courtship [Child 46] (File: C046)

Gentle Zephyrs, Blow Ye Lightly

See Ella's Grave (File: BrS4319)

Gentleman Frog, The

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Gentleman Froggie

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Gentleman Near London

See William and Harriet [Laws M7] (File: LM07)

Gentleman of Exeter, A (The Perjured Maid) [Laws P32]

DESCRIPTION: A girl and a captain fall in love and vow to be true. After he sails away, though, she turns to another man. When the captain returns, she scorns him. He dies on the day of her wedding. That night he appears as a ghost and carries her away with him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity marriage death ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Bord)) US(Ap,NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws P32, "A Gentleman of Exeter (A Perjured Maid)"
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #100, "Hurricane Wind" (1 text, 1 tune, with the plot confused)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 119, "The Faithfu' Sea Captain" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 130, "The Noble Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 5-7, "A Gentleman of Exeter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 66, "The Oxfordshire Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2418, "Susan a Merchants Daughter dear"; cf. ZN789, "Disloyal lovers listen now"
DT 510, GENTEXTR*
Roud #997
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Susannah Clargy" [Laws P33] (plot)
cf. "The Ghost's Bride" (plot)
cf. "Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene" (plot)
File: LP32

Gentleman of the Army, The

See Paddy Whack (File: E153A)

Gentleman Soldier, The

DESCRIPTION: Soldier brings woman into his sentry-box. They have sex; he prepares to leave. She asks him to marry her; he says he can't, as he's already married -- and "two wives are allowed in the army, but one's too many for me!" Nine months later she has a child.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: adultery seduction sex abandonment pregnancy bawdy humorous soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 40-41, "The Gentleman Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan7 1471, "The Sentry" (4 texts plus a single verse on p. 507, 3 tunes)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 92, "The Sentry" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 88, "The Sentry Box" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 66-67, "The Gentleman Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #178
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drumdelgie" (tune)
cf. "One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing)" [Laws P14] (plot)
File: VWL040

Gentleman Still, A

See Poor, But a Gentleman Still (File: FSC103)

Gentleman's Meeting, A

See The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo) [Laws O3]; also "Pretty Little Miss" [LawsP18] (File: LO03)

Gentlemen of High Renown

See Bold Reynard ("A Good Many Gentlemen") (File: K243)

Gentlemen Should Please Refrain

See Humoresque (File: EM235)

Gently Does the Trick

DESCRIPTION: "Come all and hear me sing A song both good and wise" warning of various absurd conditions. Haste can be dangerous, "Gently does the trick," e.g. when dismounting an unbroken bronco or stealing a woman's jewelry
AUTHOR: Original music hall version by Punche Browne and sung by Arthur Corney; perhaps modified by Carson J. Robison
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Finger-FrontierBallads)
KEYWORDS: humorous trick thief cowboy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 114-115, "Gently Does the Trick" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8870
NOTES [99 words]: From what I can piece together from Internet sources, this was originated by Punche Browne; it describes stealing women's lockets, being blown up by a boiler, going to church and stealing from a collection plate, and being put in prison. Finger-FrontierBallads's version is identical in form but completely different in content; it's about how cowboys get in trouble. However, it appears to be traditional, while the original Browne version does not. Clearly someone adapted the song; it may have been Carson J. Robison; I don't know. In any case, I see no point in separating the versions. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Fing114

Gently Down the Stream of Time

DESCRIPTION: "Gently down the stream of time Floats our bark toward the sea." "Friends have gone, and ties are broken." A reflection on time and death: "We shall come to them at last... When the day of life is past, And our weary work is done."
AUTHOR: Words: "Major Barton" / Music: H. M. Higgins (source: (sheet music by Lyon & Healy and distributed by O. Ditson)
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (sheet music by Lyon & Healy and distributed by O. Ditson); there was apparently another edition from 1870
KEYWORDS: nonballad death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
(not in DT, but lyrics can be found on Mudcat.org)
NOTES [178 words]: This is not a traditional song, and frankly doesn't deserve to be, but some visitors will know it from the recording by Ed Trickett. I include it in the index only to note that this idea of a river of time, although said to be ancient, seems to have been relatively popular in the nineteenth century when this song was written. A Congregational hymnwriter named Thomas Raffles (1788-1863) seems to have written at least two poems on the theme, "What is life? A rapid stream" in 1838 and "Rapid flows the stream of time" in 1861 (see John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), pp. 948-949.
And then there is the dedicatory poem to Alice Liddell in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, published in 1871 but almost certainly composed earlier. The last six lines of that also suggest the same theme:
In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:
Ever drifting down the stream --
Lingering in the golden gleam --
Life, what is it but a dream?
- RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: MdGDTSOT

Gently Lead me

DESCRIPTION: "Gently lead me lest I stray, O my savior, day by day, Sadely lead till life is past, Till I reach the fold at last." "Lead me, O my savior, Lead and guide me, Lead me gently on...." The singer hopes to hear Jesus's call at the end of life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1960 (recording, The A. P. Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
Roud #18033
RECORDINGS:
A. P. Carter Family, "Gently Lead Me" (Acme 998)
NOTES [84 words]: The line "Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us" is part of a poem of the same name by Dorothea Ann Thrupp (for whom see "A Little Ship Was on the Sea"). The most common tune is apparently by William B. Bradbury; it has also been sung, according to the CyberHymnal site, to "Pleasant Pastures" and "Wallhead." In H. S. Perkins's 1893(?) hymnal The Climax is a tune credited to H. H. Johnson. However, that is not the same poem as this piece, although I suspect the imagery of the Thrupp poem inspired this. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: RcGenLea

Gently, Johnny, My Jingalo

DESCRIPTION: The speaker successively places his hands on various portions of his love's anatomy, all of them respectable. She tells him, "Come to me, quietly, do not do me injury/Gently, Johnny, my jingalo". They marry.
AUTHOR: To all intents and purposes, Cecil Sharp
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage sex derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1412, "Johnny Jiggamy" (2 texts, 3 tunes)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 65, "Gently, Johnny, My Jingalo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 34, "Gently Johnny My Jingalo" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 158, "Gently Johnny, My Jingalo" (1 text)
DT, JJINGLO*
Roud #5586
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A-Rovin'" (plot, theme)
cf. "Yo Ho, Yo Ho" (theme, floating lyrics)
cf. "Tickle My Toe" (theme)
NOTES [125 words]: [Sharp writes,] "The words were rather coarse, but I have, I think, managed to re-write the first and third lines of each verse without sacrificing the character of the original song." The second and fourth lines constitute a refrain, of course. With this in mind, I call this essentially a new song, written by CJS. Otherwise, it could well be listed under "A-Rovin'." -PJS
Ed Cray, following Reeves, notes that "Gently" was rewritten from "Yo Ho, Yo Ho," which follows the exact form of "A-Rovin'" although with even more explicit lyrics. Roud lumps the result with "Yo Ho." I say the amount of rewriting is so great to make them separate songs.
It is fascinating to find Greig/Duncan having something similar before Sharp did his bowdlerizing. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: ShH65

Gents to the Center

See Ladies to the Center (File: R577)

Geography Song

See Have You Heard Geography Sung? (File: ScaSC075)

Geordie [Child 209]

DESCRIPTION: Geordie is taken (for killing a man or the king's deer). When word comes to his lady, she sets out to do all possible to save his life. In most accounts she raises his ransom, though in others Geordie is executed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1792 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: execution hunting punishment rescue wife
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1514?-1562 -- Life of George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, claimed by some as hero of this song. He became Earl in 1524 when his grandfather died, and died in 1562 in the course of a rebellion against Mary Stewart
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord),England(All)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,NW,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (59 citations):
Child 209, "Geordie" (15 texts)
Bronson 209, "Geordie" (58 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 209, "Geordie" (5 versions: #1, #4, #11, #40, #50)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 180-182, "The Lady O Gight" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #75, p. 1, "Gight's Lady" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 249, "Gightie's Lady" (11 texts, 6 tunes) {A=Bronson's #3, C=#37?, D=#34}
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 197, "The Stealing of the King's Deer" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 24-26, "Geordie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 49, "Georgie" (2 texts)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 32-33, "Georgie or Banstead Downs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #42, "Spare Me the Life of Georgie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 77, "Spare Me the Life of Georgie" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 8, "Georgie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #136, "Geordie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine p. 475, "Geordie" (notes only)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 231-235, "Geordie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 127, "Georgie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 162-163, "Charlie and Sally" (1 text plus a fragment) (pp. 140-141 in the 1919 edition)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 76-78, "Geordie" (3 texts)
Randolph 28, "The Life of Georgie" (3 texts plus 1 excerpt, 2 tunes) {Randolph's A=Bronson's #36, D=#40}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 52-53, "The Life of Georgie" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 28D) {Bronson's #40}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 39, "Geordie" (3 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune entitled "Georgie") {Bronson's #30}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 34, pp. 262-266, "Geordie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 38, "Geordie" (1 text, in which the condemned man is "Georgia"!)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 38, "Geordie" (2 texts plus 3 excerpts, 5 tunes)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 213-215, "Geordie" (1 text, with local title "Georgy-O," plus an excerpt from Christie; 1 tune on p.411) {Bronson's #5}
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 17, "Johnny Wedlock" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #49}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 40, "Georgie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 241-242, "Charley's Escape" (1 text from the Green Mountain Songster)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 17, "Lovely Georgie" (1 text)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 27, "Geordie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 73-75, "Geordie" (2 texts plus 1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #23}
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 52-53, "Geordie" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #23}
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 128, "Georgie" (1 fragment)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 41, "Georgia" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 554-559, "Geordie" (3 texts)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 9, "Geordie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 3, "Geordie" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #18}
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, p. 31, "Charlie Condemned" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #33}
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 53, "Geordie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 34, "Geordie" (4 short texts plus 2 fragments, 6 tunes){Bronson's #50, #31, #51, #30, #55, #41}
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 24, "Georgie" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version) {Bronson's #30}
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #17, "Geordie" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #31}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 118-119, "Georgie" (1 text, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 42-43, "Geordie" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #27}
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 135, "Geordie" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 23, "Geordie" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 94-95, "Georgie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 75-76, "Georgie and Sally" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #27, "Geordie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 408-410, "Gight's Ladye"; pp. 456-457, "My Geordie, O, My Geordie O" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 16, "Geordie" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 567-568, "Geordie" (2 texts)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 261-265, "Geordie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 220, "Geordie" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN279, "As I went over London Bridge"
DT 209, GEORDI GEORDI2* GEORDI4*
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, The Scots Musical Museum (Edinburgh: Johnson & Co, 1792 ("Digitized by Internet Archive for NLS")), Vol. IV, #346 (second text) pp. 356-357, "Geordie - An Old Ballad") (1 text, 1 tune [of "A Country Life"]) {Bronson's #1}
James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #358, pp. 491-492, "Geordie -- An old Ballad" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1792)
Roud #90
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "Georgie (Geordie)" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #24}
Paul Joines, "The Hanging of Georgie" (on Persis1)
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Georgie" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
Bobby McMillon, "Georgie" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #35, recorded 05/20/2021; too short to be certain it is this song)
William Ritter, "Georgie" (Piotr-Archive #31, recorded 05/08/2021; recording is very noisy)
Levi Smith, "Georgie" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1797), "The Life of Georgey," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Harding B 25(488), "Death of Georgy", W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Firth c.21(20), Harding B 11(2297), "Maid's Lamentation for her Georgy"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Prisoner at the Bar (The Judge and Jury)" (plot)
cf. "Young Johnson" (theme of ransoming condemned prisoner)
cf. "George of Oxford" (theme and some lines) and source/stemmatic discussion there
cf. "The Death of George Stoole" (theme and some lines)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Death of Geordie
The Bog o' Gight
The Braes o' Gight
The Lady o' Gight
NOTES [1640 words]: The historical antecedents of this ballad are disputed. Some suggest that it is based on the life of George Gordon (1512-1562), Fourth Earl of Huntly, the son of Margaret Stewart, she being an illegitimate daughter of James IV. A blackletter ballad cited by Lloyd names Geordie as George Stoole of Northumberland, executed in 1610, but Lloyd suggests the ballad itself predates the 17th century. - PJS, RBW
The Huntly story really doesn't fit the song at all well. The 1560s were the period when Mary Stewart ("Mary Queen of Scots") returned to Scotland as a teenage widow after having spent a dozen years in France. In her absence, the Reformation had come to Scotland. It was a period of intense factionalism -- Catholics versus Protestants, pro- and anti-Mary elements (those factions were largely but not entirely the same), supporters of the Hamiltons versus the Lennox Stewarts as the heirs to the throne. And, according to Stedall-Maitland, the Gordons (including Huntly) were not aligned closely with any of these factions, but sought to feather their own nests.
"The character of the 4th earl belongs to that great tradition of independent Highland lords who throughout history have posed such problems for the central government -- since their policies... have in fact been consistently bent toward the aggrandizement of their own clans. Huntly had powerful royal connections: as the grandson of James IV by his natural daughter Margaret Stewart, he was, although thirty years older, Mary Stuart's first cousin (she always addressed both him and his son as 'cousin' in her letters), and since his own father died when he was a baby, he was actually brought up with King James V. Two of his nine sons were married to two daughters of the duke of Châterherault [the heir apparent to the throne until James VI was born]. His power extended across the north-east of Scotland in a formidable array of tangible castles, and intangible but effective family alliances" (Fraser, pp. 193-194).
The Huntleys had assembled this wealth in the reign of James IV, who had used them to break the power of the Lords of the Isles and rewarded them with much of the forfeited holdings (MacDougall, pp. 186-189 and especially p. 190).
"[Huntly] owned vast tracts of territory in Aberdeenshire, Banffshire and Angus and he was extremely wealthy. In 1530 he married Lady Elizabeth Keith, daughter of William, 3rd Earl Marischal, and they made their principal residence at Strathbogie Castle in Aberdeenshire. It was there that they brouggt up their nine sons and three daughters.... When he received visitors, Huntly sat in his hall beneath a quasi-regal crimson satin cloth of state embroidered with gold" (Marshall, p. 126).
Morrison, p. 84, declares that the Gordons were "the most difficult Catholic [family for Mary to handle]. The Earl of Huntly was the most powerful Catholic in the country, and held the important office of Chancellor. He was the chieftain of the north, rich in cattle and lands" -- though his military record wasn't great; he had been one of the senior officers at the Battle of Pinkie, where the Scots were heavily defeated (Magnusson, p. 327). Mary -- whose chief goal was already to become Queen of England after, or instead of, Elizabeth I, feared a Catholic rising because it would interfere with her hopes to succeed in England. And the Gordons were making trouble; Huntly's second son, John Gordon (Fraser says he was the third son), said to be the most handsome man in Scotland, had ended up in custody in the Tolbooth for brawling before he escaped. So now Mary had a Gordon fugitive on her hands (Morrison, pp. 84-85). So Mary's eyes were definitely on Huntly.
Huntly, according to Stedall-Maitland, p. 57, at this time was called upon to turn in a cannon that belonged to the crown, failed to do so, and was denounced as a rebel. He tried and failed to get support from the Hamiltons (i.e. the family of Châterherault, John Gordon's father-in-law; Châterherault's name was James Hamilton and his Scots title was Earl of Arran), then tried to get back into Queen Mary's good graces, with his wife as a go-between, and failed. He became a sort of a nomad, not daring to spend long in any one place.
Supposedly, according to Stedall-Maitland, p. 58 and Fraser, p 200, Huntly's wife consulted witches, who told her that his unmarked/un-wounded body would be at the tolbooth in Aberdeen the next day. Presumably interpreting this as meaning that he would be victorious, he planned to attack one of Mary's forces, which proved to be much larger than he expected. He and his brothers were captured, and Huntly had a heart attack or something and died on the spot. So the prophecy succeeded but did not mean what he expected.
According to Morrison, p. 87, Huntly had gathered his men on the Hill of Fare, but was hoping that the Queen's army would betray her. Mary's illegitimate half-brother, James Stewart, didn't trust his troops, but put the unreliable soldiers in front with the more reliable troops behind to push them forward.
"Steadily, doggedly, the men in the first company were thrust on. Nearly every one of them had a piece of heath stuck in his helmet as a secret sign that he was Huntly's man. When the combatants met, they cast aside their weapons and would have run, but Moray, with his relentless rear company, pressed them fiercely forward in the midst of the battle.
"Huntley's soldiers were forced to leave the hill, and when he saw then struggling in the marshy, quaking ground at the foot, hemmed in and trapped on every side, he knew he was defeated. Men were crowding round him, thrusting others aside, putting out their hands to grasp his horse's bridle for the honour of taking him prisoner. He was corpulent and weighted with armour: with the intense excitement he fell dead" (Morrison, p. 87).
(The Earl of Bothwell, who later became Mary's third husband, claimed that "Huntley... was seized as he travelled unsuspectingly about the country and secretly murdered on the orders of the Earl of Moray"; Drummond, p. 169. But Bothwell was an extremely unreliable witness and his story is uncorroborated. Moreover, Huntley wasn't the only member of his family to die in this way; in 1576, the fifth earl "deceased suddenly coming from the football"; Stewart, p. 94.)
Mary executed several other members of his family, but rehabilitated George Gordon, son of the old Earl, a couple of years later (Steadll-Maitland, p. 74; according to Morrison, p. 88, he "had taken no part in the strife"; Fraser, pp. 201-202 says he had some part in the revolt but was not present during the final stages, and adds that his younger brother Adam was also spared). When John Gordon was executed, the earl of Moray "forced his [half-]sister [i.e. the Queen] to be present" at the "mangled execution in Aberdeen" (Morrisson, p. 88). There is apparently a poem about this, with the lines "For Huntly's gallent stalwart son Was headed on the heading hill," but it is rarely printed.
James Stewart's reward, incidentally, was that Mary made him Earl of Moray, a title he coveted. Mary had promised it to him, but its property had been in Huntly's hands (Marshall, p.127). In essence, James conquered his own earldom (Stedall-Darnley, pp. 66-67.)
If the song is really about Huntly, much that we find in the common version is wrong -- e.g. the claim that the Geordie's lady was a "pretty fair maid" and that "three pretty babies I have born." Huntly's wife was Elizabeth Keith, the eldest daughter of Robert Lord Keith, and she had born Huntley nine sons and three daughters (! -- Hamilton, p. 166). From that standpoint, it's a better fit for Huntly's son, another George Gordon; by his wife Anne Hamilton this fifth earl of Huntly had three sons and a daughter (Hamilton, p. 168). He too died peacefully, in this case, in 1576.
The story is like this song in that Huntly's lady tried to intercede for him -- but unlike, in that Huntly was not in custody when she interceded. Huntly could have fled to the continent, e.g. -- he just didn't want to give up his position. So I really don't think this is the inspiration of, dare I say it, the "Standard 'Geordie'"?
To the above list of possibilities, I'm going to add one other possibility, though it is later than Lloyd's broadside. But it might have caused the song to be reshaped. According to Kybett, pp. 16-17, after the 1715 Jacobite rebellion, several peers (including, e.g., Lord Derwentwater) were condemned to death. One of them was William Maxwell of Nithsdale. His wife Winifred begged before George I for his life. Her request was refused, but she was granted a last visit -- and managed to help him escape.
I must admit to sometimes wondering if this is really a single ballad. In many texts, of course, Geordie is charged with murder. But in a few texts, such as Child's "H" and Ord's version "Gight's Ladye," the charge is poaching, and the whole feeling of the song (as well as the lyrics) is different. Coffin's notes in Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3 observes that there are two endings, one with Geordie ransomed, one with him executed, and that these seem to form distinct family groups. I wouldn't be surprised if two separate songs were mixed.
On this point, see now Ben Schwartz's note below and, especially, his analysis filed under "George of Oxford." - RBW
Kidson-TraditionalTunes prints eleven of the Johnson Scot's Museum fourteen verse text (Child 209A). I believe only the Scottish ballad should be classified as Child 209 and that all others, English and North American, and Bodleian broadsides, are versions of "George of Oxford." I think the argument is futile because "George of Oxford" and its descendants are widely -- though not universally -- accepted as Child 209. See the discussion at "George of Oxford." - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C209

Geordie Asking Miss Tiptoe in Marriage

See Geordie's Courtship (I Wad Rather a Garret) (File: Ord204B)

Geordie Cunningham

DESCRIPTION: Geordie would have sex with his sister. She rejects him "for there's a day o judgement." He says "there is nae heaven abune us Nor ony hell beneath." He is stricken down by God immediately. There's nothing ahead "but death I plainlie see"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1675 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(258a))
KEYWORDS: incest seduction rejection punishment brother sister fire
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 83, "Geordie Cunningham" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 94-100, "A Wonderful Example of God's Justice shewed upon one Jasper Conningham...." (1 text)
Roud #15528
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(258a), "A Wonderful Example of Gods Justice, Shewed upon Jasper Conningham" ("It was a Scotch man, a Scotch man lewd of life"), F. Coles (London), 1663-1674
NOTES [407 words]: The first part of the Bodleian broadside and Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 are close, with the broadside adding details: the brother, Jasper Cunningham, "long had lived unlawful from his wife" and the sister was "worshipfully wedded unto a worthy knight." The brother considers his sister's "Godly Christian talk" to be no more credible than "a tale of Robin Hood." When the brother is struck down it is by fire. The second part of the broadside, almost entirely missing from Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 83, describes the brother's suffering for the two hours it takes him to die. Then "his carkase stunk more fit then any carrion beast." It ends with a warning for all blasphemers also missing from Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2. - BS
The Bible offers a number of prohibitions on incest (although the King James Bible never uses that word); in Leviticus 18 we read, e.g., "None of you shall approach anyone near of kin to uncover nakedness" (18:6; to "uncover nakedness" means to have sexual relations). There are more than a dozen such prohibitions in Leviticus 18:6-20 (all directed at men), forbidding e.g. couplings with one's mother, stepmother, sister, half-sister, and aunt. (Nieces are not explicitly mentioned, which would be important in New Testament times; several of the Herodian kings married nieces). These are reinforced in Leviticus 20:17-21.
Thus it is rather ironic to note that the accounts in Genesis tell of multiple incests. Abraham and his wife Sarah were supposedly half-siblings (Genesis 20:12); Isaac and Rebekkah were first cousins once removed (Genesis 14:15), and Jacob/Israel was at once the first cousin (Genesis 29:10, etc.) and the second cousin once removed of his wives Rachel and Leah. (Perhaps it's little wonder that both the Abraham/Sarah marriage and the Isaac/Rebekkah pairing proved almost sterile. One wonders how many miscarriages the two women went through that the Bible does not record....)
Of course, all that was before the Law was given to Moses. There is an incident of incest after that -- the ugly rape of Tamar by her half-brother Amnon, told in 2 Samuel 13. Amnon ended up dead, but not at once, and not as the result of direct divine action. And the whole thing is blamed on David's adultery with Bathsheba anyway. So this particular story perhaps goes a little beyond what the Bible warrants. On the other hand, it's certainly smart in genetic terms.... - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: LyCr2083

Geordie Davidson

DESCRIPTION: The singer and Geordie, who follows the plough, are in love. He has a farm, horses, cattle, "a house in guid order and everything fine." He has promised to marry in the summer and she will bid farewell to her other sweethearts.
AUTHOR: William Lillie (source: Greig/Duncan4)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love marriage farming nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 759, "Geordie Davidson" (1 text)
Roud #6181
NOTES [34 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quoting Greig: "Lines by William Lillie, on George Davidson, Burnmill, St Fergus. - The heroine was Mrs Hay, a daughter of the author. (This is a copy in pencil by D Scott about 1860)." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4759

Geordie Downie

DESCRIPTION: "Hae ye heard o' a widow in rich attire... She's followed a tinker frae Dee-side, His name was Geordie Downie." She rejoices to follow tinker Geordie rather than her former husband. But he gets drunk, kills her, and falls off his horse and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: tinker Gypsy courting abandonment homicide death horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 279, "Geordie Downie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan7 1349, "My Bonny Love Geordie Gordon" (1 fragment)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 461, "Geordie Downie" (1 text)
Roud #3930
NOTES [43 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads discusses this in connection with the "glamour" cast by the Gypsy Laddie over women, implying that this is a sort of sequel of that song. This seems unlikely, but it probably does derive from the same sort of anti-Gypsy feeling. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord461

Geordie Gill

DESCRIPTION: "Of aw the lads I see or ken, There's yen I like abuin the rest; He's neycer in his warday duds Than others donn'd in aw their best." The singer recalls all the held she has had from Geordie. She admits that her heart is in his keeping
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Anderson (1770-1833), according to Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams
EARLIEST DATE: 1808 (Anderson)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 110-111, "Geordie Gill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #10, "Geordie Gill" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR110 (Partial)
Roud #1536
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Andro wi' His Cutty Gun" (tune)
File: StoR110

Geordie Moir

DESCRIPTION: The singer says that lassies that "wishes to keep a guid name" stay way from Schoolhill when "stockin' merchant." Geordie is home. Now "my bonnie hosein' laddie" is in Holland and "I win'er gin he minds on me"
AUTHOR: Baillie Livingstone (source: Greig/Duncan6)
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting travel nonballad rake
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1081, "Geordie Moir" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6772
File: GrD61081

Geordie Sits In Charlie's Chair

DESCRIPTION: "Geordie sits in Charlie's chair ... Charlie yet shall mount the throne." "Weary fa' the Lawland loon, Whae took frae him the British crown" whom the clans fought at Prestonpans. Cumberland's adventures in hell are recounted.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2)
KEYWORDS: Hell nonballad political Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 105, "Geordie Sits In Charlie's Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 131, "Highland Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3808
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hieland Laddie" (tune and structure)
cf. "The Lovely Lass of Inverness" (tune [Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 pp. 162-164], according to Hogg)
NOTES [227 words]: The alternate lines are "[My] bonny laddie, Highland laddie."
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2: "I have been told the song was originally composed by an itinerant ballad-singer, a man of great renown in that profession, ycleped 'mussel-mou'ed Charlie'" and that the original had only two verses about Cumberland in hell, viz., "Ken ye the news I hae to tell, Cumberland's awa to hell, The deil sat girnin in the neuk, Riving sticks to roast the Duke," "They pat him neist upon a spit, And roasted him baith head and feet, But a' the whigs maun gang to hell, That sang Charlie made himsel'"
For more about Cumberland see the notes to "The Muir of Culloden." - BS
Mussel-mou'ed Charlie is a fairly well-documented figure of the eighteenth century (dates supposedly 1687-1792), whose real name was Charles Lesly; there is a short biography at the beginning of Kinloch's Ballad Book, along with a drawing of the singer. Kinloch, p. iv, says that he resided in Aberdeen in his later years, so it is reasonable to find his songs there.
Kinloch quotes this song on p. vi, though with different verses from those cited above.
Incidentally, at the time this song was presumably written, the throne of England upon which Geordie sat was *not* Charles's even under Jacobite reckoning; the titular James III and VIII, Bonnie Prince Charlie's father, lived until 1766. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1131

Geordie Williamson

DESCRIPTION: At Aikey Fair the singer hires to Geordie Williamson. The cattleman, mistress, Ned the gardner, Jean the cook, and Jim the bailie [cattleman] are described. The food is bread and cheese. The cook is ugly but "she thocht she wis an awful swell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work moniker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 379, "Geordie Williamson" (1 text)
Roud #5916
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Guise o' Tough" (some verses are shared)
NOTES [20 words]: Ord translates "bailie" as cattleman on p. 261.
This is a short version of "The Guise o' Tough" with all names changed. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3379

Geordie's Courtship (I Wad Rather a Garret)

DESCRIPTION: "A maid of vain glory, with grandeur and pride Was asked by a ploughman for to be his bride." She rejects him, saying she would prefer to be hanged. He lists his assets. She still scorns him. He concludes, "I swear you shall never get me for a man."
AUTHOR: probably John Milne (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #129 quoting John Ord)
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (Milne's Selection of Songs and Poems)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection curse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #120, pp. 2-3, "Plooman Geordie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 827, "I Wad Rather a Garret" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 204-205, "Geordie Asking Miss Tiptoe in Marriage" (1 text)
Roud #5067
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Courting Case" (plot)
cf. "The Lass o' Glenshee" (tune, per Greig)
cf. "The Hills o' Glenorchy" (tune, per Greig)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Plooman Geordie
Sandy's Courtship
NOTES [74 words]: That this is a composed song is beyond doubt. My only hesitation in attributing it to Milne is the diversity of the forms found in tradition; nearly every collection has a different title and even some difference in form. It's hard to imagine that much variation arising in the few decades between Milne's publication and the early collections.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if this were inspired by "The Courting Case" or something similar. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord204B

Geordie's Frank and Geordie's Free

DESCRIPTION: "Geordie's frank and Geordie's free The lasses like Geordie but Geordie likes me; What would the lasses o' Buchan gie For the favour o' my bonnie Geordie?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1348, "Geordie's Frank and Geordie's Free" (2 fragments)
Roud #7229
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan7 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71348

Geordie's Lost His Penker

DESCRIPTION: Geordie has lost his penker (largest marble) in a cundy (drain-grate). The singer rams a clothes prop up the cundy, but can't retrieve the penker. He ties on a terrier, but fails; finally he blows up the drain -- as Geordie finds the penker in his pocket
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (recorded by Len Elliott)
KEYWORDS: game humorous dog | marbles drain pocket
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North)) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 193, "Wor Geordie's, lost his penker" (1 text, from user John5918, posted May 18, 2022)
DT, GORDPENK
ST RcGLHP (Partial)
Roud #8244
RECORDINGS:
Len Elliott, "Geordie's Lost His Penker" (on Elliotts01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Wee Willie's Lost His Marley
NOTES [30 words]: Anyone who thinks everything in this song is simple and straightforward hasn't heard Louis Killen sing it, or seen the look in his eye as he sings, "He rammed it up the cundy...." - PJS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: RcGLHP

Geordie's Wig

DESCRIPTION: "I wad sing a sang to you, Gin ye waur not a whig" about Geordie's burnt wig. "Fan he saw the wig was sung" he "flang't to the fire"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: clothes humorous nonballad political royalty hair
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 122, "Geordie's Wig" (1 text)
Roud #5815
NOTES [87 words]: Greig/Duncan1: "[The singer's] mother used to sing the following -- a sort of nursery-song. She wonders if [it] be a bit of a Jacobite song. Sir Walter Scott makes someone say that Geordie flung his periwig into the fire when he heard of the Porteous Riot." - BS
I might speculate, instead, that it might be about George I's relationship with his wife. She was unfaithful to him, and he divorced and imprisoned her. (For background on this, see the notes to "Came Ye O'er Frae France.") But this is wild speculation. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1122

George Alfred Beckett

DESCRIPTION: Beckett leaves Perlican for the coal fields of Cape Breton. At Glace Bay, he beats a taximan to death with an iron bar, intending to rob him. He escapes back to Newfoundland but is caught and returned to stand trial in Cape Breton
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: execution homicide trial gallows-confession
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 20, 1931 - George Alfred Beckett, convicted of murdering Nicolas Marthos, hanged in Sydney, Nova Scotia. (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 41, "George Alfred Beckett" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #26431
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Peter Mushrow, "George Alfred Beckett" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [78 words]: [Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou's] version starts with the usual references to honest parents who raised him tenderly. Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou discusses a version collected in Nova Scotia that adds the features expected at the end: don't do what I have done or you'll end on the gallows and, for my part, "may the Lord have mercy on my soul." Cape Breton, Sydney, and Glace Bay are eastern Nova Scotia. Perlican is on the Avalon Peninsula, not far from St John's. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LeBe041

George Aloe and the Sweepstake, The

See High Barbaree [Child 285; Laws K33] (File: C285)

George Barnwell (I)

DESCRIPTION: George Barnwell is seduced by prostitute Sarah Millwood. He steals from his master and, robs and kills his wealthy uncle. When the money is exhausted Sarah would turn him in. He runs but writes a letter resulting in her hanging. He hangs as well.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1708 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 3(40a))
LONG DESCRIPTION: George Barnwell, the singer of most of the tale, tells his story. George, apprentice to a London merchant, is seduced by prostitute Sarah Millwood. He steals his master's money to spend on her and, when he is in danger of imprisonment for embezzlement she threatens to turn him in. When he tells her he has rich relatives from whom he can filch funds she relents. He robs and murders his rich uncle and Sarah and George stay together to spend this money down. When that money is gone she threatens to turn him in as a thief and murderer. "To the constable she sent, To have him apprehended" George escapes to sea but, for "fear and sting of conscience," he writes a letter to the lord mayor admiting "his own and Sarah's fault" Sarah is arrested in Ludlow, "judg'd, condemn'd, and hang'd, For murder incontinent... For murder in Polonia, Was Barnwell hang'd in chains"
KEYWORDS: seduction betrayal crime execution homicide robbery theft gallows-confession whore apprentice
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 240-252, "George Barnwell" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques LXX, p. 114, "George Barnwell" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 283-297, "George Barnwell" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (London, 1765 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III, Book 3 #2 pp. 225-240, "George Barnwell" (1 text) [note that this copy has two p. 225, one with "St George and the Dragon"; the index refers to "George Barnwell"]
Roud #546
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(40a)[some words illegible; see Harding B 1(17) for a clear copy], " An Excellent Ballad of George Barnwell" ("All youths of fair England") , C. Brown (London), 1682-1707; also Harding B 1(17), Harding B 1(18), "An Excellent Ballad of George Barnwell"
NOTES [189 words]: Percy (1765): "The subject of this ballad is sufficiently popular from the modern play which is founded upon it. This was written by George Lillo, a jeweller of London, and first acted about 1730. As for the ballad, it was printed at least as early as the middle of the last century.... This tragical narrative seems to relate a real fact; but when it happened I have not been able to discover." For the subsequent travels of the story see the ballad indexed here as "George Barnwell" (II).
Incidentally, this story is not related to the ballads indexed here as "Sarah Barnwell" or "The Two Constant Lovers." - BS
There are at least two entries in the Stationer's Register about George Barnwell. Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard) has as #956 "George Barnewell (December 14, 1624, IV, 131" and "George Barnewell an apprentice of London, An excellent ballad of (Mch. 1, 1675, ii, 498). [Beg. 'All youths of fair England,' R[oxburghe] B[allads] VIII.61.]" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: PW3240

George Barnwell (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Vicked woman of the town", Mary Millwood seduces George Barnwell, apprentice to a London merchant. She convinces him to kill his uncle but he finds no money to rob. Millwood "peach'd him" He is hanged. Many, including the merchant's daughter, lament
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1828 (broadside, Johnson Ballads 3071)
KEYWORDS: seduction betrayal crime execution homicide robbery whore apprentice
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 232-233, "Georgie Barnwell" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 355)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 578, "Georgie Barnwell"
Roud #546
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 3071 View 3 of 3, "Georgy Barnwell" ("In Cheapside there liv'd a merchant"), T. Batchelar (London), 1817-1828; also Harding B 11(1307) , Firth c.17(59) , Harding B 11(4333), "Georgy Barnwell"; Harding B 11(1306), "Georgey Barnwell"; Firth b.25(503), Firth c.17(72), "George Barnwell"
NOTES [578 words]: Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 578 adds a nonsense chorus [to] the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text. See the Bodleian broadsides for a similar nonsense chorus.
There are no lines shared between "George Barnwell"(I) and "George Barnwell" (II).
Percy (1765): "The subject of this ballad ["George Barnwell" (I)] is sufficiently popular from the modern play which is founded upon it. This was written by George Lillo, a jeweller of London, and first acted about 1730. As for the ballad, it was printed at least as early as the middle of the last century.... This tragical narrative seems to relate a real fact; but when it happened I have not been able to discover." For an edition of Lillo's play with a "modern" introduction and biography of Lillo [d.1739], see George Lillo (,Adolphus Ward, editor), The London Merchant, or The History of George Barnwell and Fatal Curiosity (Boston, 1906 ("Digitized by Google")). The introduction notes that, "in anticipation of the performance, the old Ballad of George Barnwell ... was reprinted ... many thousands are said to have been sold in a single day." The play had a successful first run of twenty days and was put on again at least in 1742, 1751, 1789, 1796 and 1817. Ward says, "The printed editions of this play are extremely numerous; not less than 22 are to be found in the British Museum...."
Ward writes that "there is a general agreement between ballad ["George Barnwell" (I)] and play, the play introduces some features. Of these, two, discussed below, are in the later ballad, "George Barnwell" (II).
Supposedly, according to a "memoir" quoted by Ward, "Barnwell was tried at the Kingston assizes on October 18, 1706 ... [and] sentenced to be hung in chains on Kennington Common...."
The description follows Bodleian broadside Harding B 11(1306); Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames follows this text but ends with the robbery. The broadside, but not Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, is written in dialect: "vos" for "was," "cos" for "because," "vouldn't," "vicked," "arter" for "after," and slang like "dicky-bird" for no-good, "let loose his tripes" for murder (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames makes this "let loose his Uncle Tripes"), and "peach'd him" for turned him in. The reference to the merchant's daughter is from the play and does not appear in the "George Barnwell" (I); in the play the daughter's name is "Maria" and, as far as I have found, Sarah Millwood is just referred to as "Millwood"; in the broadside Millwood is "Mary Millwood" and the merchant's daughter is not named. In Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, Millwood is not named and the merchant's daughter is not mentioned. The play and "George Barnwell" (II) agree in having George hang in England, while "George Barnwell" (I) has him "hang'd in chains ... for murder in Polonia."
Incidentally, this story is not related to the ballads indexed here as "Sarah Barnwell" or "The Two Constant Lovers." - BS
There are at least two entries in the Stationer's Register about George Barnwell. Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard) has as #956 "George Barnewell (December 14, 1624, IV, 131" and "George Barnewell an apprentice of London, An excellent ballad of (Mch. 1, 1675, ii, 498). [Beg. 'All youths of fair England,' R[oxburghe] B[allads] VIII.61.]" - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: WT232

George Buck

See Georgia Buck (File: Br3500)

George Bunker

DESCRIPTION: George Bunker goes fishing but sees Nellie on the shore. He takes her for a "walk" and promises to marry her. He is already married. He sails away for fish intending to return to Nellie.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: adultery seduction lie promise fishing sea ship infidelity
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 192-193, "George Bunker" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Nicolle, "George Bunker" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea192

George Collins

See Lady Alice [Child 85] (File: C085)

George Collum

See Lady Alice [Child 85] (File: C085)

George Giles

See Lady Alice [Child 85] (File: C085)

George Jones [Laws D20]

DESCRIPTION: George Jones, of County Clare, tells the account of the Saladin mutiny. The mutineers kill the Captain and others of the crew, then are shipwrecked. Jones bids farewell and awaits execution
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: ship mutiny execution farewell
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1844 - the former pirate Fielding convinces part of the crew of the "Saladin" to mutiny against the harsh Captain Mackenzie. The conspirators then turn against Fielding; they are taken and executed after the ship is wrecked off Halifax
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US(NE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws D20, "George Jones"
Peacock, pp. 887-888, "The Saladin Mutiny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 110, "George Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 113, "George Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 112, "George Jones" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 104, "George Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 222-223, "Captain Fielding's Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune, heavily comosite)
DT 353, SLDNMTNY*
Roud #1817
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Mary Ann Galpin, "The Saladin Mutiny" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson" [Laws D19] (subject)
cf. "Saladin's Crew" (subject)
NOTES [51 words]: For details on the Saladin Mutiny, see the notes to "Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson" [Laws D19]. - RBW
[Regarding the version in Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick]: Roud makes this "Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson" [Laws D19] but only the first verse belongs to that ballad. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LD20

George Kelly

DESCRIPTION: Kelly and his crew prepare a logging camp for the rest of the men. He then hires "the cheapest you'll find." He sends the cook away. He "lost his whole crew" when they find the cook is gone. "Farewell to George Kelly, we'll ne'er see him more."
AUTHOR: John Hafford? (probable, per Ives-FolksongsFromMaine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Ives-FolksongsFromMaine)
KEYWORDS: lumbering food moniker logger
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 3, "George Kelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: IveMa03

George Mann

DESCRIPTION: Charles Mann recalls his quiet youth. He describes murdering John Whatmaugh along with Gustave Ohr (blaming the deed on Ohr). They fly but are captured. He grieves for his father, come to see him die. He warns young men against his crime
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio)
KEYWORDS: execution gallows-confession homicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1879 - George Mann and Gustave Ohr attack, rob, and beat to death John Whatmaugh. They are condemned to death later in the year
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 122, "Story of George Mann" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 403, "Story of George Mann" (1 text)
ST E122 (Full)
Roud #4096
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charles Guiteau" [Laws E11] (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "Gustave Ohr" (meter, subject)
NOTES [13 words]: As "The Story of George Mann," this song is item dE38 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: E122

George of Oxford

DESCRIPTION: Lady Gray asks the judge to spare George's life but George is condemned to be hanged. A rake that had taken ladies' rings and jewels, he apparently is condemned for stealing and selling the king's steeds. He is hung "in silken string"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1700 (Ebsworth dates the Pepys broadside to 1671-1692: "probably this was reprinted from an earlier and lost broadside ... circa 1612")
LONG DESCRIPTION: Crossing London Bridge, the singer meets Lady Gray lamenting for Georgy. She has her horse saddled and rides to New-Castle, to ask the judge to save his life. The judge says Georgy must be hanged. Her offer of her gold and lands does not avail. George says, "many a mad prank I have played ... but now they've overthrown me"; his heart will "burst in three, To die like a dog!" He had cut a figure with the ladies: "their rings and jewels would I take to keep them for a token." "I ne'er stole Horse nor Mare .. But once, Sir, of the King's white steeds, and sold them in Bohemia." "Georgy he went up the hill, and after followed many, Georgy was hanged in silken string...."
KEYWORDS: captivity crime execution punishment theft trial horse thief
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 209 Appendix, "The Life and Death of George of Oxford" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1891 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. VII Part 1 [Part 20], pp. 67-73, "George of Oxford" (1 text) [also includes Child 209A and "... the Death of ... George Stoole...."]
BROADSIDES:
EngBdsdBA 20768, Pepys 2.150, "The Life and Death of George of Oxford" ("As I went over London Bridge all in a misty morning"), Philip Brooksby (London), no date, accessed 08 Dec 2013.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Geordie" [Child 209] (theme) and references there
cf. "The Death of George Stoole" (theme and some lines)
cf. "Poor Georgy" (tune, per broadside, EngBdsdBA Pepys 2.150)
NOTES [3720 words]: Ebsworth has "Geordie" [Child 209] as a derivative of "George of Oxford" which is itself related to "... the death of ...George Stoole": "Scotland shows a fantastic and inexplicable modesty, a disparagement of her own resources and native manufacture, insomuch as she actually appropriates to herself several of our English freebooters .... And she has even tried to naturalize 'Georgy' as Geordie.' ... Kinloch thought that it ['Geordie'] 'originated in the factions of the Huntley family, during the reign of Queen Mary' [Ord, p. 457, writes that "The hero of this ballad was George, fourth Earl of Huntly, who was afterwards slain at the battle of Corrichrie on 28th October, 1562"] ... [Joseph Ritson prints] 'A lamentable new Ditty, made on the Death of a worthy Gentleman, named George Stoole ... with his penitent end' .... Date guessed circa 1610-1612. There is certainly a connection between this sorry 'Ditty' ... and our 'George of Oxford.' They probably refer to the same man, by name Skelton, alias Stowell.... Motherwell erred in declaring the George Stoole ballad 'evidently imitated from the Scottish song.' It was antecedent. He knew not our 'George of Oxford.' The 'Merchant's-man of Gowrie' [in 'George Stoole'] becomes [in 'George of Oxford'] some horse-purchaser for Bohemia (not improbably the Palgrave Frederick, husband of James I.'s daughter, the admired Princess Elizabeth), which helps to mark the early date, circa 1612.... The boast about 'never stolen horse or mare in my life' resembles George Stoole's 'I never stole no Oxe,' etc."
Child, who relegated both Georges to his "Geordie" entry, was aware of Ebsworth's comments. "Whether the writers of these English ballads knew of the Scottish 'Geordie,' I would not undertake to affirm or deny; it is clear that some far-back reciter of the Scottish ballad had knowledge of the later English broadside ['George of Oxford']."
At this point Child explains why he does not consider "Geordie" to be the same ballad as the George broadsides: "The English ballads, however, are mere 'goodnights.' The Scottish ballads have a proper story, with a beginning, middle, and end, and (save one late copy [Child 209J the Geordie character is freed but kills his lady in an argument and escapes]), a good end, and they are most certainly original and substantially independent of the English. The Scottish Geordie is no thief, nor even a Johnie Armstrong. There are certain passages in certain versions which give that impression, it is true, but these are incongruous with the story, and have been adopted from some copy of the broadside, the later ['George of Oxford'] rather than the earlier ['George Stoole']. These are ... where we have the king's horses stolen and sold in Bohemia, almost exactly as in the ballad of 'George of Oxford' .... That is to say, we have the very familiar case of the introduction (generally accidental and often infelicitous) of a portion of one ballad into another...."
Nevertheless, most texts I have seen, assigned by various editors to Child 209 but collected outside of Scotland, are a version of "George of Oxford." In the following discussion only the 14 Child references are considered "Geordie" and 11 Greig/Duncan2 #249 references are examined but used only to add information to the "ch" table entries; "Georgie" is 13 texts: Broadwood, English Traditional Songs and Carols (London, 1908), pp32-33 (1 text); Bodleian broadsides Harding B 11(1797), Bodleian Harding B 25(488), Bodleian Harding B11(2297) (3 texts); Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 39 A-D (4 texts); Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 52-53 (1 text); H.M. Belden, "Old-Country Ballads in Missouri. 'Geordie'" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XX, No. 79 (Oct-Dec 1907 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 319-320 (1 text); Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 73-75 A-C (three texts). "George of Oxford" is shown as "Oxford" and "George Stoole" is shown as "Stoole." For all texts cited the verse is indicated [for example, v10 is verse 10] to help keep the sequence of the text in mind.
Separating the elements shared among "George Stoole," "George of Oxford," versions of Child 209, and later versions of what I consider "Georgie" is not quite so straightforward.
* 1 - her+lament) Oxford v1
As I went over London-Bridge, all in a misty morning,
There I did see one weep and mourn, lamenting for her Georgy.
is close to the introduction to Broadwood v1, all three Bodleian broadsides v1, all four Davis
texts v1, Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged v1 and Belden v1; that's all of the "Georgie" texts examined here.
* 2 - his+name) Oxford v2
"George of Oxford is my name, and few there's but have known me,
Many a mad prank have I play'd, but now they've overthrown me"
is close to Child Fv1
Geordie Lukely is my name, And many a one doth ken me; O
Many an ill deed I hae done, But now death will owrecome me, O.
* 3 - his+letter) Stoole v8
He writ a Letter with his owne hand, he thought he writ it bravely;
He sent it to New-castle Towne, to his beloved Lady.
is close to Child Av2 and Iv6, skipping Oxford.
Gight has written a broad letter, And seald it soon and ready,
And sent it on to Gight's own yates, For to acquaint his lady.
* 3mod) A letter is sent ("O where'll I get a wi bit boy ... With a letter to my ladie?") in
Child Bv2, Dv2, Fv3, Gv1, Hv3, Iv5 and Jv6, Harding B 11(1797)v2 and Harding B 25(488)v2-3. In
Greig/Duncan2 G and I the messenger must swim.
* 4 - her+ride) Oxford v4
"Go, saddle me my milk-white Steed, go saddle me my bonny,
That I may to New-Castle speed, to save the life of Georgy"
is close to all of the "Georgie" texts but one Bodleian broadside, one Davis text and one
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia text, specifically: Broadwood v3, Harding B11(1797)v3, Harding B11(2297)v2,
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia Av2, Bv2 and Cv2, Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged v2, Belden v2 and Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia Bv3 ["Oh sad
will be my milk white steed"] and Cv1.
Some Child ballads are close to both lines: Child Fv7, Hv8 and Jv8,
while others
* 4mod) change the second line: Child vA4, Bv6, Cv3, Dv8, Gv3 and Iv8
"... And I'll straight to Edinburgh Myself and see my Geordie"
or
"... Ere I ride down to Edinburgh town Wi a lang side sark to Geordy."
* 5 - her+plea) Oxford v5
But when she came the Judge before, full low her knee she bended,
For Georgy's life she she did implore, that she might be befriended
becomes for Broadwood v4, Harding B11(1797)v4 and Harding B 11(2297)v2
And when she came to the good Lord Judge She fell down upon her knees already,
Saying "My good Lord Judge, come pity me, Grant me the life of my Georgie"
* 5mod) For Child A v8, alone among the Child ballads,
O she's down on her bended knee, I wat she's pale and weary:
"O pardon, pardon, noble king, and give me back my dearie!"
* 6 - his+condemnation) Oxford v6
Content your self, as well you may, for Georgy must be hanged
changes
* 6mod) in Broadwood v4, Bodleian Harding B 25(488)v4, and Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia Av3, Bv5 and Cv2 to
"My pretty fair maid, you are come too late, For he is condemned already"
or in Harding B 11(1797)v5
He said, "My dear you must begone, For there is no pardon granted"
or in Harding B11(2297)v3
The Judge he looked over his left shoulder Saying "Lady pray now be easy,
Georgy hath confess'd and die he must." "The Lord have mercy on my Georgy."
or in Belden v6
Says the La[w]yers unto Georgia Lord I feel so sorry for you
But your own confession has condemned you to die May the Lord have mercy on you.
* 7 - her+unsuccessful+offer) Oxford v7
She offer'd gold, she offer'd Lands, to save the life of Georgy
is close to Child Bv16 and Dv14
I have land into the north, And I have white rigs many,
And I could gie them a' to you To save the life of Geordie
* 7gHa) Harding B 11(2297) v3
I have got sheep I have got cows, Oxen I have plenty
And you shall call it all your own, Spare me the life of Georgy.
* 8 - her+children) Child Av9
"I hae born seven sons to me Geordie dear, The seventh neer saw his daddie;
O pardon, pardon, noble king, Pity a waefu lady!"
* 8mod) Child Bv17 Cv8, Dv15, Kv1 and Nv1
"I hae ele'en bairns i the wast, I wait the're a' to Geordie;
I'd see them a' streekit afore mine eyes Afore I lose my Geordie"
or
"... And I could bear them a' over again For to win the life o Geordie."
is close to Bodleian Harding B11(1797)v7 and Bodleian Harding B25(488)v5
It's six pretty babies I have got, and the seventh lies in my body.
I'd freely part with them every one, If you'd spare the life of Georgy.
* 9 - hill+fight) Stoole v13
"I would I were on yonder Hill, where I have beene full merry;
My sword and buckler by my side, to fight till I be weary" [spoken by Stoole]
is close to Broadwood v7, Harding B 11(1797)v10, Harding B 25(488)v7, Harding B11(2297)v5,
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged v8, Belden v9 and Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia Bv8.
"I wish I was on yonder hill, Where times I have been many,
With a sword and buckler by my side I would fight for the life of my Georgie" [spoken by his
lady]
* 9mod) Oxford v16 has
Georgy he went up the hill, and after followed many
so that the fight element is skipped.
* 10 - his+mitigation) Stoole v20
"I never stole nor Oxe nor Cow, nor never murdered any;
But fifty Horse I did receive of a Merchant's Man of Gory"
is close to Oxford v15
"I ne'r stole Horse nor Mare in my life, nor Cloven-foot or any,
But once, Sir, of the King's white steeds, and sold them to Bohemia."
which is close to Child Fv2, Gv7, Hv7, Iv13, Jv19,
"I neither murdered nor yet have I slain, I never murdered any;
But I stole fyfteen of the king's bay horse, And I sold them in Bohemia."
and Broadwood v2, Harding B11(1797)v6, Harding B25(488)v8, Harding B 11(2297)v1,
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged v5, Belden v5 and Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia Bv2.
Saying "Georgie never stood on the King's highway No never robbed money,
But he stole fifteen of the King's fat deer And sent them to Lord Navey."
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia Av4 has
"Has my Geordie been robbing all along, Or has he wounded any?"
"Oh no, but he stole three of the king's gold rings And sold them in Virginny."
* 11 - his+farewell) Stoole v6
As Georgie went up to the Gate, he took his leave of many
He took his leave of his Lards wife, whom he lov'd best of any.
is close to Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia Av7, Cv4 and Dv2, and Belden v8, skipping Oxford.
As George was walking up the streets, He bid farewell to many;
He bid farewell to his own true love, Which grieved him worse than any.
* 12 - his+planned+decapitation/hanging) In Child the likely tool of execution is the axe
[Child Av6,10, Bv14, Cv7, Dv12, Hv14, Iv23 and Jv20;
* 12chF) hanging is the method only in Child Fv15; but 209F, which begins "'Geordie Lukely is
my name" [see 2 - his+name], has clearly been "corrupted" by Oxford. Greig/Duncan2 B, G, H and
I expect him to be hanged and those are all versions that have him taken for poaching and that
include the usual mitigation text (i.e., that are likely affected by Oxford). Of the hanging
texts in Child and Greig/Duncan2, only Greig/Duncan2 Iv9 is consistent in that the men lusting
after the lady wish Geordie had been hanged rather than wish he had been decapitated.
* 13 - his+hanging) Stoole does not discuss the manner of execution but Oxford v6 "must be
hanged."
* 14 - in+silk/gold/marble) Oxford v16
"Georgy was hanged in silken string, the like was never any"
is close to Broadwood Av6 and Davis Bv3;
* 14mod) the "silken string/rope" changes to "chains of gold/golden cord" in Harding
B11(1797)v9, Harding B25(488)v8, Harding B11(2297)v6, Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia Av8 and Cv6, Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged
v7, Belden v7 and Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia Av5 and Cv3; he is to be buried in a "marble tomb" in
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia Av6 and Bv7.
* 14chF) Child Fv14, the Child version closest to Oxford, must not have an execution but
retains the silk
As she came up the Gallowes Wynd, The people was standing many;
The psalms was sung, and the bells was rung, And silks and cords hung bonnie
US+additions) Davis, in Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 39, points out verses that seem limited to the United
States: "... when all possible identifications have been made, there is a goodly residuum ...
to be found in no black-letter piece, which must be identified with the traditional ballad of
'Geordie' [or, as I would have it, 'Georgie']."
* 4gUS) Davis Av3, Cv3; Belden v3:
She rode all day, she rode all night, till she came wet and weary,
A-combing back her long yellow locks, A-pleading for the life of Georgie.
* 5gUS) Davis Av4; Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged v4; Belden v4:
It's out of her pocket she drew a purse of gold, the like I never saw any:
"Here, lawyers, come fee yourselves, And spare me the life of Georgie."
* 6gUS) Davis Av6, Cv5; Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged v6; Belden v6:
The oldest lawyer was a-standing at the bar, Saying, "George, I'm sorry for you,
That your own confession has condemned you to hang; May the Lord have mercy on you"
Of course, as in all but the Child 209 ballads, Georgie is hanged.

                                                  Stoole  Oxford   Child   Georgie

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[ch - If he is to be taken for poaching                               ch

         or cuckolding:

     She refuses to go with him

         from River Spey to Gight

     [Greig/Duncan2 A,D,G,H,

         but see Child Hv17-18];

     or she does go with him

         but not as his wife [Iv3,Jv4]

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[ch - Geordie blamed for killing                                      ch

         Charlie Hay in battle;

     or taken prisoner in battle

      [Greig/Duncan2 E];

     or taken for poaching deer;

     or taken in revenge by

         cuckolded husband [Iv4,Jv4]]

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[st - he is betrayed by friends, mourned            st

         by ladies, dies bravely]

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

 1 - her+lament                                     1                          1

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

 2 - his+name                                                2        2chF

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

 3 - his+letter                                     3                 3

                                                                      3mod     3mod

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[st - he admits folly, trusts God, would            3st

   have her be true but not grieve]

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[ch - she reads his letter]                                            3ch

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[st - he curses betrayers,                          st

         minimizes his crime]

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

 4 - her+ride                                                4        4        4

                                                                      4mod

                                                                               4gUS

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[ch - she has her horse swim when                                     4ch

         the ferry is not available]

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[ch - she would have people pray                                      4ch

        for him]

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[ch - she sees block and Geordie]                                     4ch

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

 5 - her+plea                                                5                 5

                                                                      5mod

                                                                               5gUS

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[ch - king would hasten execution]                                    ch

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

 6 - his+condemnation                                        6

                                                                               6mod

                                                                               6gUS

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[ch - she rejects men's advances]                                     ch

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

 7 - her+unsuccessful+offer                                  7        7

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[ch - ransom proposed and collected]                                  ch

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[ox - he admits cheating women he'd                          ox

        courted]

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

 7 - her+unsuccessful+offer                                  7        7

                                                                               7gHa

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

 8 - her+children                                                     8

                                                                               8mod

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

 9 - hill+fight                                     9                          9

                                                             9mod

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[st - he'd rather die fighting]                     9st

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[st - he says only Christ                           st

        save him; he would have her pray]

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[st - he gives her gold for her babies]             st

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

10 - his+mitigation                                10       10       10       10

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

11 - his+farewell                                  11                         11

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

12 - his+planned+decapitation or                                     12

12chF - hanging                                                      12chF

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

13 - his+hanging                                            13                13

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

14 - in+silk or                                             14                14

14mod - marble or                                                             14mod

14chF - gold                                                         14chF

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[st - he dies bravely [again]]                     st

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[gHa - she hopes to meet him in heaven]                                        gHa

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[chJ - king, to avoid conflict,                                       chJ

        releases, recondemns, and,

        faced with Lord Huntly's offer

        to fight for Geordie, proposes

        a ransom]

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[ch - she raises the ransom]                                          ch

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[ch - the ransom is accepted]                                         ch

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[ch - he is freed]                                                    ch

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[ch - they ride off together]                                         ch

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[ch - she would have a ballad                                         ch

        written about "a' this I've

        done for Geordie"]

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[ch - they declare their love for                                     ch

        each other, or ...]

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

[chJ - he still prefers his other                                     chJ

        mistress; she would stay with

        him anyway; they argue;

        he kills her; he escapes;

        her old friends mourn

        for seven years]

                                                 -------  -------  -------  -------

mod   modified

gUS   only Georgie: US addition

gHa   only Georgie: Harding B 11(2297)

st    only Stoole

ox    only Oxford

ch    only Child

chF   only Child 209F

chJ   only Child 209J

- BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: C209AGO

George Reilly

See John (George) Riley (I) [Laws N36] AND John (George) Riley II [Laws N37] (File: LN37)

George Reily

See John (George) Riley (I) [Laws N36] AND John (George) Riley II [Laws N37] (File: LN36)

George Ridler's Oven

DESCRIPTION: Bald George Ridler built an oven; his three sons sing. "My Dog and I" verses that don't mention George or his sons. The singer's mother warns him that strong beer will prove his overthrow. The singer complains that he is only welcome when he has money.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (Fosbroke, _Abstracts of the Records and MSS respecting the County of Gloster_, according to Baring-Gould); 1803 (Ruff) [but see note below re Bell's analysis); 1776 (according to Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Bald George Ridler built an oven from Bleakney quarry stone; his three sons sing: Dick sings treble, Jack the mean, George the bass. Verses shared with "My Dog and I" that don't mention George or his sons: the singer loves his hostess's maid Nell because she loves "my dog and I"; his dog can catch a hen; his dog has a trick to cure sick maidens. The singer's mother warns him that strong beer will prove his overthrow. The singer complains that he is only welcome when he has money.
KEYWORDS: poverty sex theft drink nonballad dog children mother money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 291-292, "George Ridler's Oven" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 171)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 419-422, "George Ridler's Over" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: H. Ruff, editor, The History of Cheltenham and its Environs (Cheltenham, 1803 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 334-202, "George Ridler's Oven" (1 text)
Robert Bell, editor, Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England (London, 1857 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 199-202, "George Ridler's Oven" (1 text)
S. Baring-Gould, English Minstrelsie (Edinburgh, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VI, pp. 100-101, x, "George Ridler's Oven" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST WT291 (Partial)
Roud #1319
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Todlin Hame" (one verse) and references there
cf. "My Dog and I" (some verses) and references there
NOTES [790 words]: Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland has notes explaining this piece as a sort of allegory of the time of Charles I. Certainly his text, in an affected dialect, makes little sense as it stands. I'm not sure the alleged explanation is much better, though. - RBW
Ruff: "The following song is considered as the great provincial song of [Glocestershire] ....."
Bell: "This ancient Gloucestershire song has been sung at the annual dinners of the Gloucestershire Society, from the earliest period of the existence of that institution; and in 1776 there was an Harmonic Society at Cirencester, which always opened its meetings with 'George Ridler's Oven' in full chorus."
At this point Bell introduces a controversy: "The substance of the following key to this very curious song is furnished by Mr H Gingell, who extracts it from the Annual Report of the Gloucestershire Society for 1835.... The words have a secret meaning, well known to the members of the Gloucestershire Society, which was founded in 1657, three years before the Restoration of Charles II. The Society consisted of Royalists, who combined together for the purpose of restoring the Stuarts. The Cavalier party was supported by all the old Roman Catholic families of the kingdom; and some of the Dissenters, who were disgusted with Cromwell, occasionally lent them a kind of passive aid."
Bell decodes the secret meaning of each verse. For example, "First Verse. ["The stwons that built George Ridler's oven, And thauy keam vrom the Bleakney quaar, And George he wur a jolly old mon, And his yead it grow'd above his yare."] -- By 'George Ridler' is meant King Charles I. The oven was built by the Cavalier party. The 'stwons' that 'built the oven,' and that 'came out of the Bleakney quaar,' were the immediate followers of the Marquis of Worcester, who held out long and steadfastly for the Royal cause at Raglan Castle, which was not surrendered till 1646, and was in fact the last stronghold retained for the King. 'His head did grow above his hair,' is an allusion to the crown, the head of the State, which the King wore 'above his hair.'" The verse about the singing sons refers to King, Lords and Commons. Bell's book is available online and you can read the rest of his decoding there.
Baring-Gould states that "Dixon gives this song in 'Ballads of the Peasantry of England' ... afterwards republished by Robert Bell; he says that it is an old Gloucestershire song...." and Baring-Gould goes on to recount the theory of secret meanings. His conclusion is that "all this is absurd. What seems clear enough is, that it is a simple folk-song relative to a certain George Ridler, who built an oven of Blakeney stone from the Forest of Dean. There is a comical touch in making the eldest son take the bass because he is the first born. The entire ballad consists of eight stanzas, of which three consist of the song sung in accordance with George Ridler's boast. This song is the well-known old "My dog and I .... There is [also] ... a verse that has a certain similarity to the Scotch song ['Todlin Hame'] but it does not in the smallest degree follow that in George Ridler there is any reminiscence of a Scotch song, but that both derive from an original common throughout England and the Lowlands of Scotland."
One assertion by Baring-Gould should be corrected. "George Ridler's Oven" is not in Dixon's book; it is one of the songs and notes that Bell (1857) did not crib from Dixon (1846). Apparently, this secret meaning is the result of Bell's own research.
What is the "secret meaning" of the verses shared with "My Dog and I", a song concerned with sex, petty thievery, and a passing reference to the defeat of Charles I (see that entry)? The reference to the maid who loved "my dog and I" is decoded as the Queen's Roman Catholic church's attachment to a leader -- "we must suppose" -- of the party and the dog, "a companion or faithful official of the Society." The dog, "good to catch a hen," is able "to enlist as members of the Society any who were affected to the Royal cause." And so on.
What about the verse shared with "Todlin Hame," a song about the joys of drink (see that entry): "When I have dree zixpences under my thumb, O then I be welcome wherever I come; But when I have none, O, then I pass by, 'Tis poverty pearts good companie" is explained as an allusion "to those unfaithful supporters of the Royal cause, who 'welcomed' the members of the Society when it appeared to be prospering, but 'parted' from them in adversity."
A final problem for Bell would be the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text that adds two "my dog and I," verses not in Ramsay, putting down "vools" who travel from "merry owld England." - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: WT291

George Riley

See John (George) Riley (I) [Laws N36] AND John (George) Riley II [Laws N37] (File: LN36)

George Washington

See Hallelujah (File: R421)

George Washington Never Told a Lie

DESCRIPTION: "George Washington never told a lie, He went 'round and stole a cherry pie. How many Cherries was in that pie? One, to three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Keystone Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: playparty food
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, p. 80, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 125, "Little Georgie Washington" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #150, "George Washington never told a lie" (1 text)
Roud #19550
File: CarMF80C

George Whalen

See James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC07)

George's Bank (I)

See Fifteen Ships on Georges' Banks [Laws D3] (File: LD03)

George's Bank (II)

DESCRIPTION: A captain's wife and three babes wait for the ship sunk on George's Bank. "Now many's brave fishermen sacrificed yearly Out on the ocean where danger do rise But God is father and lover of these children. Help and pity us poor fisherman's wives"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: grief death fishing sea ship wreck children wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 130, "George's Bank" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16964
RECORDINGS:
Frank Knox, "George's Banks" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [64 words]: The Northern Shipwrecks Database 2002 lists well over 200 ships by name lost on George's Bank between 1822 and 1995.
A July 2002 note by Wilfred Allan at Nova-Scotia Seafarers-L Archives site states "Georges Bank is at the edge of the Atlantic continental shelf between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia. Thus it straddles both the U.S and Canadian borders... about 250 km by 150 km in area." - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: GrMa130

George's Banks

See The Roving Newfoundlanders (II) (File: GrMa150)

George's Quay

DESCRIPTION: Johnny Doyle sails for China leaving Mary pregnant. Years later Mary's son grows up. She dresses as a sailor and ships aboard a pirate to find Johnny. Their ships meet. Johnny is a captain. They return home, marry and she becomes pregnant again.
AUTHOR: Jimmy Montgomery (source: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage reunion separation cross-dressing pregnancy sea ship baby sailor pirate
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 89, "George's Quay" or "The Forgetful Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 34-35, "George's Quay (or The Forgetful Sailor)" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [554 words]: Anyone else think this is an Irish rewrite of The Odyssey?
Incidentally, the song says that "In China... they're very wise and drown at birth their surplus daughters." This is historically true (though it's even more common in India), and there is evidence that elimination of baby girls continues in China due to the "one child" policy (though they now use abortion rather than infanticide). Ridley, p. 122, notes "The Chinese, deprived of the chance to have more than one child, killed more than 250,000 girls after birth between 1979 and 1984. In some age groups in China, there are 122 boys for every 100 girls. In one recent study of clinics in Bombay, of 8,000 abortions, 7,997 were of female fetuses."
Forbes, p. 184, gives even starker numbers: "[I]n societies with a tradition of female infanticide, the surplus of males over females rises sharply. Guangdong and Hainan provinces in rural China, for example, showed ratios of 130 and 135 males to 100 females in the 2000 census, and similar numbers of males to females were reported from rural Indian states in the mid-1990s."
Eberhard, p. 61, shows how deeply ingrained this is. "Implicitly if not explicitly, for the Chinese, 'children' means... 'sons.' Before 1949 only a male heir could inherit the parental estate...."
Jolly, p. 121, has an even more extreme version of this statistic: In Bombay, 7999 out of 8000 aborted fetuses were female, and the parents of the single exception allegedly sued because they had been falsely informed that the fetus was female. Her note claims that this data came from UNICEF. This strikes me as too extreme to be possible. But the very fact that no one seems to question the statistic indicates that the bias against girls is extreme.
However, this is by no means wise if the goal is to leave descendants. The policy obviously produces a surplus of males -- who end up leaving with no descendants because they cannot marry. According to Jones, p. 37, the effects of this were felt as early as the nineteenth century, in the province of Huai-Pei. Many girls were killed during a famine. "As their brothers grew up, they found nobody to marry. Great gangs of disaffected youths grew into a horde of a hundred thousand rebels -- the Nian. They almost overthrew the dynasty before they were crushed." Jones observes that, in modern times, this has resulted in an epidemic of kidnapping women to serve as wives for unmarried sons, or simply to serve as prostitutes. Jones on pp. 33-36 adds myriad examples of female-killing in India.
A recent book, which I have not seen, is Mara Hvistendahl, Unnatural Selection. This notes that modern sex selection techniques have caused major gender imbalances in large parts of Asia. And she also observes that crime rates increase in direct correlation to the number of excess males.
If anyone is tempted to say that the West has not made progress in the direction of women's equality, consider this: According to Jones, p. 38, families in developed countries tend to stop having children as soon as they have at least one girl and at least one boy. And, on p. 39, in discussing a machine which can dramatically bias the sex ratios of children born by artificial insemination, he observes that three-fourths of the clients of the company doing the work ask for a daughter, not a son. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.6
File: OLcM089

Georgia

See Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)

Georgia Boy

See The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn [Laws H13] (File: LH13)

Georgia Buck

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, my name is Georgia Buck, and I never had much luck." Various verses about Georgia's troubles and his wife, typically ending "Georgia Buck is dead, the last thing he said Was, 'Don't ever let a woman have her way" (or "Dig me a hole in the ground.")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: marriage death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 500, "Georgia Buck" (2 short texts plus a fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 500, "Georgia Buck" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 159, "George Buck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #73, "Georgia Buck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3428
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cotten, "Georgia Buck" (on ClassBanj)
Al Hopkins and his Buckle Busters, "Georgia Buck" (Brunswick 183/Vocalion 5182 [as the Hill Billies], 1927)
NOTES [27 words]: Roud lumps this with "The Southern Soldier Boy (Barbro Buck)," or at least some versions of it. That seems to be based solely on the word "Buck" in the title. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Br3500

Georgia Creek

DESCRIPTION: "Georgia's creek where I forsake, To the red stone hills I came; I fell in love with a pretty little girl...." The two ride together to Charleston, but pray to escape the town. They look forward to returning to the hills where she will keep bees
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Henry, collected from Austin Harmon)
KEYWORDS: courting travel return bug
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 35-36, "Georgia Creek" (1 text)
File: MHAp035

Georgia Land

DESCRIPTION: "My gal don't wear button-up shoes, Her feet too big for gaiters, All she's fit for [is] a dip of snuff...." "My dog died of whooping cough." The singer talks of his work. At the end, the singer requests to be taken back to Georgia Land
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (collected from Jim Owens/Goens)
KEYWORDS: work clothes hardtimes home dog disease | whooping cough
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 284-285, "Georgia Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15655
File: LoSi284

Georgia Lullabye

DESCRIPTION: "De little stars am blinkin', Cuase dey wants to go to sleep, Bye, oh mah baby, hush-a-bye." The stars need to watch, but baby can sleep. Mother is the sheep, baby is the lamb, and the mother loves the baby
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: lullaby nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 218-219, "Georgia Lullabye" (1 text)
File: MHAp218

Georgie

See Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)

Georgie Allen

See The Wreck on the C & O [Laws G3] (File: LG03)

Georgie and Sally

See Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)

Georgie Best, Superstar

DESCRIPTION: Rhymes about George Best rhyming with "superstar." For example, "How many knickers have you wore so far?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: sports playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 479, ("Georgie Best, Superstar") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Elizabeth Bartsch-Parker, Roibeard O'Maolalaigh and Stephen Burger, Lonely Planet British Phrasebook (1999 (copyrighted material limited preview "Digitized by Google")) p. 132, ("Georgie Best Superstar") (2 text fragments).
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesus Christ Superstar" (tune, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
NOTES [80 words]: George Best "was a Northern Irish football player best known for his years with Manchester United.... He was one of the first celebrity footballers, but his extravagant lifestyle led to problems with alcoholism...." (source: Wikipedia article George Best )].
Bartsch-Parker, et al: "Manchester United fans used to sing ... How many goals have you scored so far? The fans from any team playing against Manchester United used to sing ... Wears frilly knickers and a Playtex bra." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa479D

Georgie Collins

See Lady Alice [Child 85] (File: C085)

Georgie Porgie

DESCRIPTION: "Georgie Porgie [or Rowley Poley], pudding and pie, Kissed the girls and made them cry, When the boys came out to play, Georgie Porgie ran away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: courting escape food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 181, "Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #294, p. 170, "(Rowley Powley, pudding and pie)"
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #60, "Charley, Charley, wheat and rye" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 44, "Georgie Porgie" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 67, "Georgie Porgie, Pudding and Pie" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Tim Devlin, _Cracking Humpty Dumpty: An Investigative Trail of Favorite Nursery Rhymes_, Susak Press, 2022, pp. 23-30, "Georgie Porgie" (3 texts)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charley Barley" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rowley Poley
NOTES [414 words]: Well-known in the twentieth century, but poorly attested historically -- the first version is Halliwell's, and it mentions "Rowley Powley," not "Georgie Porgie." This makes it interesting that many attempts have been made to link it to an historical George. The suggestions I have seen made for identifying George include:
- George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (for whom see the notes to "A Horse Named Bill"), the favorite and perhaps the lover of James VI and I; despite his relationship with James I, he was heterosexual and did pursue women; the flight, in that case, might refer to the attempts to curb his influence, or to his 1627 expedition with James's son Charles I that ended disastrously. (For more about Buckingham, see of all things "A Horse Named Bill")
- Charles II, who had many mistresses but obviously wasn't named either "George" or "Rowley"
- George I, King of England 1702-1727, who put away his wife and had some of the ugliest mistresses known to the British court
- George IV, King of England 1820-1830 and Prince Regent before that, who also had a complicated sex life (he was an actual bigamist, although the English court refused to recognize his Catholic marriage and his second marriage functionally ended after one night; see the notes to "Queen Caroline"; also "The Ass and the Orangeman's Daughter") but was considered something of a coward. On the other hand, George IV had a weight problem in his middle years; maybe they cried because this not-very-attractive but stubborn man was after them....
Tim Devlin, Cracking Humpty Dumpty: An Investigative Trail of Favorite Nursery Rhymes, Susak Press, 2022, pp. 28-30, originally preferred George IV but then concluded that the "Rowley" version was about Charles II. His conclusion is that it originated with Charles II but was adapted to George IV.
I'm not dead sure this is about royalty, but let's assume it is. In earlier versions of the Index, I concluded that, If I absolutely had to pick one, I think I'd would have gone for Buckingham, since he's the only George who was actually attractive to women. The more I've studied George IV, though, the more I conclude that he was basically a great big suet pudding and deserved every bit of scorn that could be aimed at him. It makes a lot of sense that he was the target of the "Georgie Porgie" versions. Devlin's suggestion that this was a Charles II piece (or maybe a Buckingham piece, for all I know) adapted to George IV seems plausible to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OO2181

Georgie Porgie, Pudding and Pie

See Georgie Porgie (File: OO2181)

Georgina

See Jenny Jones (Jennie Jo) (File: Lins026)

Georgina, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the seventeenth of March, my boys, good people you all may know" Georgina leaves Liverpool "all bound for Pernambuco in South America" [fragment; first verse only]
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 17, 1844 - Georgina wrecked on Blackwater Bank; twelve of the crew of fourteen are lost (source: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast; Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 44)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 109, "The Georgina" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pomona (II)" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
cf. "Thomas Murphy" (tune)
NOTES [11 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: Tune is "Thomas Murphy" on p. 98. - BS
File: Ran109A

Georgy, Me Neck-a-Broke

DESCRIPTION: The shantyman sings "Georgy, me neck-a-broke" or "... I got no neck-a-broke." The chorus is "Hold 'em George, I damn near neck a broke ... I damn near are too broke ... I got no neck-a-broke."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: work shanty injury
FOUND IN: West Indies(Nevis)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 44-45, "Georgy, Me Neck-a-Broke" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [13 words]: Abrahams has this as a Nevis shanty "concerned with lifting and shoving...." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS044

German Boys Are Not So Funny

See German Boys They Act So Funny (File: BAAI087A)

German Boys They Act So Funny

DESCRIPTION: "German boys (they are/they act/are not) so funny, This is the way they count their money." Players count from one penny up to (a shilling), with actions for each total
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: game money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 87, "German Boys" (1 text)
Roud #20478
File: BAAI087A

German Clockwinder, The

DESCRIPTION: A German (clockwinder/musician) comes to town, offering to "(mend/wind) (clocks/pianos)" by day or night. A lady takes his offer. Her husband finds them at work. He beats the German, who vows never again "to wind up the clock of another man's wife."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954
KEYWORDS: technology bawdy sex foreigner
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,Lond)) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 201, "The German Musicianer" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CLOKWIND*
Roud #241
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "The Old German Musicianer" (on HCox01); "German Musicianer" (on FSBFTX19)
Jim Prentice, "The German Clock-Winder" (Piotr-Archive #103, recorded 03/08/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)" (alternate tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The German Clockmaker
The Wonderful German Musician
File: K201

German Flute, The

See The Banks of the Roses (File: Doe315)

German Girls, The

DESCRIPTION: "I once fell deep in love, sir, In a true colonial way, WIth a German girl who played and sung in the 'Union' Bar all day." New to Australia, he is beguiled and wastes much money in the bar. She changes workplaces; he follows her until his cash runs out
AUTHOR: "Coxon" (source: AndersonStory)
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: music money immigration foreigner courting travel rejection Australia
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 66-68, "The German Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9105
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Only Love" (theme of following a woman for her music)
File: AnSo066

German Musicianeer, The

See The German Clockwinder (File: K201)

Gerry Ryan

See Jerry Ryan (File: Doyl3068)

Gerry's Rocks

See The Jam on Gerry's Rock [Laws C1] (File: LC01)

Gest of Robyn Hode, A [Child 117] --- Part 01

DESCRIPTION: 456 stanzas about Robin Hood, his men, his travels, his robberies, his courtesy, his victims, his relations with the king, his piety, his betrayal and death, etc. Much of the ballad deals with Little John, the Sheriff, and their relations with Robin
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1534 (Wynkyn de Worde's edition of A Little Geste of Robyn Hoode was probably printed c. 1505)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A narrative in eight fits, set after Robin has become an outlaw.
In fit one, Robin sends out his men to seek a guest for dinner. They find a knight, who, however, has gone deeply in debt to ransom his son.
In the second fit, the knight (who has been lent the money to pay his debt by Robin) appeals to his lenders to have pity on him. They demand payment instead, and hope to have his lands. The knight pays his debts using Robin's money.
In the third fit, Little John takes part in an archery contest, wins, is invited to the Sheriff's house, has a fight with the Sheriff's cook, and induces the cook to join Robin's band.
In the fourth fit, Robin again seeks a dinner guest; they find a servant of the abbey to whom the knight owed money. They take his purse; it amounts to 800 pounds (twice what they lent the knight).
In the fifth fit, Robin and his men join an archery contest, but are discovered and must take shelter in the knight's castle.
In the sixth fit, the sheriff goes to London to appeal to the King; Robin and his men escape. The Sheriff captures the knight instead. Robin rescues him and kills the sheriff.
In the seventh fit, the King comes to deal with Robin Hood. He disguises himself and meets Robin's band. He pardons them and takes him into his service. This extends into the eighth fit.
At the end of the eighth fit, Robin grows tired of servitude and returns to the greenwood. Eventually he is killed by the prioress of Kirklees.
KEYWORDS: Robinhood outlaw knight royalty MiddleEnglish
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1272-1307 - Reign of Edward I
1307-1327 - Reign of Edward II
1327-1377 - Reign of Edward III
FOUND IN: Britain(England) Ireland
REFERENCES (30 citations):
Child 117, "A Gest of Robyn Hode" (1 text)
Bronson 117,"Robin Hood" (6 versions of tunes about Robin Hood, though none has a substantial text and only one shows any words at all; Bronson, with reason, questions their validity and does not attempt to link them to particular ballads); cf. Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 273, "Robin Hood (2 tunes, partial text) {Bronson's #2a}
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 1-59, "A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode" (1 text, based on Child's "b" text with some influence from "f")
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 115, "A Little Geste of Robin Hood and his Meiny" (1 text, probably from Child with modernizations)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 1-67+313-320, "A Gest of Robin Hode" (1 text, supposedly based on Child's a print but in fact somewhat closer to Child's "b" text and occasional corrections from f and g, which are manifest corruptions)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 154-200, "A Gest of Robin Hood" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 128-186, "A Gest of Robyn Hode" (1 text, which appears to follow Gummere-OldEnglishBallads exactly)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1915
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3129
ADDITIONAL: R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 79-112, "A Gest of Robyn Hode" (1 text, newly edited from the sources)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 80-168, "A Gest of Robyn Hode" (1 text, newly edited from the sources)
Thomas H. Ohlgren and Lister M. Matheson, _Early Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Edition of the Texts, ca. 1425 to c. 1600_, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2013, (no collective title; pp. 45-302, rather than an edited text of the entire Gest, have diplomatic texts of all the various prints: pp. 45-55=e+p+q; pp. 57-88=a; pp. 89-147=b; pp. 148-155=c; pp. 156-167=d; pp. 168-228=f, with the other Copland page on pp. 238=243; pp. 245-302=g. It should be noted that the attributions of c and d to Hugo Goes and Julian Notary are speculation, not fact)
Robert B. Waltz, editor, _The Gest of Robyn Hode_, Loomis House, 2012, pp. 16-127, "The Gest of Robyn Hode" (1 text with parallel modernization)
(William Beattie), _The Chepman and Myllar Prints: A Facsimile with a Bibliographical Note by William Beattie_, Edinburg Bibliographical Society, 1950, pp. 197-220, "(A gest of robyn hode)" (1 incomplete text, a facsimile of the Advocates Library copy, Child's "a")
CRITICISM: Joanne A. Rice, _Middle English Romance: An Annotated Bibliography, 1955-1985_, Garland Publishing, 1987, pp. 265-271 [no text but an extensive catalog of references]
William Hall Clawson, _The Gest of Robin Hood_, University of Toronto Press, 1909 (and now available in several low-quality print-on-demand reprints)
John Bellamy, _Robin Hood: An Historical Enquiry_, Indiana University Press, 1985 (which, despite its general title, is specifically about the "Gest")
Thomas H. Ohlgren, _Robin Hood: The Early Poems, 1465-1560_, University of Delaware Press, 2007
J. W. Bessinger, Jr., "The Gest of Robin Hood Revisited," being pp. 355-369 in Larry D. Benson, editor, _The Learned and the Lewed: Studies in Chaucer and Medieval Literature_, Harvard University Press, 1974
J. C. T. Oates, "The Little Gest of Robin Hood: A Note on the Pynson and Lettersnijder Editions," originally published in _Studies in Bibliography_, Volume 16, Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, 1963; now available on JSTOR at https://www.jstor.org/stable/40371350 (accessed July 26, 2023)
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: There are eight known fragments of the Gest. With Child's sigla:
a = Edinburgh, Advocates Library, H.30.a. The "Lettersnijder" edition. Printer unknown. This is the version from the Chepman and Myllar Prints edition cited above, but it is not from their press; some have suggested Jan van Doesborth of Antwerp. Copied from the Pynson edition. Slightly less than half the total text, from stanzas 1-349.
b = Cambridge, University Library Selden 5.18. The Wynkyn de Worde edition. Earliest complete copy, ancestor of f and g. STC, p. 304, #13689
c = Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce e.12. Fragment, portions of stanzas 26-60. From a binding. Printer unknown (despite claims to the contrary, e.g. STC attributes it to Wynken de Worde). STC, p. 304, #13687
d = Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce f.1. Fragment, portions of stanzas 280-350. From a binding, with edges trimmed resulting in loss of text. Printer unknown (despite claims to the contrary).
e = Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce f.51(3) . Fragment, portions of stanzas 435-450, often trimmed. Another text from a binding. From the same edition as p and q. Printed by Richard Pynson. This or an allied Pynson text is the ancestor of a
f = British Library C.21.c. The William Copland edition, which must date between 1548 and 1570 and is probably from c. 1560. Printed from b or a similar de Worde edition. STC, p. 304, #13691. There is a single leaf of a second print by Copland, Oxford, All Souls College, Codrington Library, LR.6.a.13a(2). Ohlgren and Matheson consider this to be a different, later edition; I do not know if this has been demonstrated.
g = Bodleian Library, Z.2.Art.Seld. The Edward White edition. Printed from f or a similar Copland edition. STC, p. 304, #13692
p, q = Fragments from the same edition as e. P, the Penrose fragment, now in the Folger Shakespeare Library; q is in the Cambridge University Library. Both are from book bindings. q=STC, p. 304, #13688
N.B. The Copland edition f should probably have appeared in the Stationer's Register, and the White edition g certainly should have, but neither does, according to Rollins. However, Rollins, #2307, p. 199, is "A ballett of Robyn Hod," printed 1562-1563 by John Alde. Rollins suspects this is another edition of the Gest, which, unless a portion survives in c or d, is now entirely lost. As "John Alday" this printer signed the charter of the Stationer's Company in 1557 (as did William Copland), and he apparently printed a lot of ballads, but the works of his press are said to have been inferior, and he was several times fined for reprinting other printers' copy, which suggests to me that Alde might have reprinted the Copland "Gest" (which on other grounds we think is a few years older). So it is most unlikely that his print is "c" or "d"
Roud #70
NOTES [556 words]: This is the longest ballad by far in Child's collection -- so long, indeed, that is should properly be called a romance, not a ballad. It is also the single most important source for the legend of Robin Hood. That makes it a logical location for an introduction to the whole Robin Hood corpus. In addition, there are many questions about its text and meaning.
These notes represent an earlier version of a book I have now published on the "Gest." Please note that they contain many typos and are incomplete. I suggest you try to get the full book if you really want the full notes.
My text and translation of the "Gest" are in "The Gest of Robyn Hode," available from Loomis House Books. You can find the full, revised version of these notes at https://www.mnheritagesongbook.net -- look for "Other Books by Robert B. Waltz."
Given the length of the "Gest," this results in a very long set of notes -- although, I hope, also one of the most comprehensive discussions ever compiled of this piece. But, because it is so long, it has to be broken up into separate parts, contained in separate Ballad Index entries.. Roughly speaking, the Notes divide into an introduction to the Robin Hood corpus, a discussion of the historical problems of the "Gest" in particular, a detailed commentary on the "Gest," and a discussion of the text of the "Gest."
The Contents below descibes the outline of these various entries.
*** Included in this entry:
* Full References for the song
* Bibliography
(Note: In the Bibliography, items shown in ALL CAPS I would consider primary references Robin Hood scholars should acquire. Items marked with a ++ represent items primarily about Robin Hood -- some of which, however, I consider to be unimportant enough that I have not marked them as primary sources).
*** Included in the Entry "Gest of Robyn Hode, A" --- Part 02 (File Number Link C117A):*
* Introduction
* The Early Ballads
* The Text of the Gest
* The Date of the Gest
*** Included in the Entry "Gest of Robyn Hode, A" --- Part 03 (File Number Link C117B):*
* The Gest: A Romance and its Sources
* What the Gest Represents
* Historical and Literary Sources for the History of Robin Hood
*** Included in the Entry "Gest of Robyn Hode, A" --- Part 04 (File Number Link C117C):*
* The Common Elements of the Early Ballads
* The Later Robin Hood Ballads
* Outlaw or Not?
* Dating the Legend
*** Included in the Entry "Gest of Robyn Hode, A" --- Part 05 (File Number Link C117D):*
* Sidelights on the Legend
* The Redating of the Legend: Robin Hood and Richard I
* Who Made Maid Marion, and Other Late Additions
* The Presumed History of Robin Hood
*** Included in the Entry "Gest of Robyn Hode, A" --- Part 06 (File Number Link C117E):*
* Notes on the Content of the "Gest" -- Fit I (Stanzas 1-50)
*** Included in the Entry "Gest of Robyn Hode, A" --- Part 07 (File Number Link C117F):*
* Notes on the Content of the "Gest" -- Fit I (Stanz 51)-Fit II
*** Included in the Entry "Gest of Robyn Hode, A" --- Part 08 (File Number Link C117G):*
* Notes on the Content of the "Gest" -- Fits III-V
*** Included in the Entry "Gest of Robyn Hode, A" --- Part 09 (File Number Link C117H):*
* Notes on the Content of the "Gest" -- Fits VI-VIII
*** Included in the Entry "Gest of Robyn Hode, A" --- Part 10 (File Number Link C117I):*
* Notes on the Text of the "Gest"
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: C117

Gest of Robyn Hode, A [Child 117] --- Part 02

DESCRIPTION: Continuation of the notes to "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. Entry continues in "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117] --- Part 03 (File Number C117B)
Last updated in version 2.6
NOTES [10875 words]: INTRODUCTION
It is a rare man that can make a name for himself that lasts across the years. It is still rarer for a name to make a man. Yet that is what happened with Robin Hood.
Dobson/Taylor, p. ix, sneer a little at the ballad scholars who have worked on this story, lumping them with "local enthusiast[s]" and "writer[s] of children's stories." Pollard, p. ix, notes that in recent years there has been an upsurge in Robin Hood scholarship, but most of it sociological -- a study of popular protest. Pollard wishes "to reclaim some of the ground for the historian." And this note -- exceptionally long as it is -- is an attempt to reclaim a bit of it for the folklorist also.
It appears that by 1250 at the latest, the name "Robin Hood," or some close variant ("Robehod," "Rabunhod") was commonly used as a name for un-apprehended prisoners. Knight/Ohlgren, p. 21, mentions a Robert Hod in 1226 who was a fugitive and whose property was given to St. Peter's of York . Baldwin, p. 51, tells of a Robert Hood of Cirencester who committed murder no later than 1216. Holt2, p. 188, lists William Lefevre of Berkshire, who was active 1261-1262, and who came to be known as "William Robehod." Baldwin, p. 52, probably following Holt2, p. 187, says there was a "distinct concentration" of people with the surname "Robinhood" in southeast England in the late thirteenth century. Child notes many more people with the name during the fourteenth century.
There is no reason to think these Robin Hoods were anything but common criminals, or that their name meant anything. As Pollard says on p. 187, "That there was an oulaw persona, possibly based on a person or persons who had once existed, called Robehod or variations of that name, known fairly widely by the 1260s, is not in doubt. But we do not know when or by whom stories about this persona were created, let alone when and by whom some of them were brought together as a narrative recognizably set in the early fourteenth century." What is certain is that, over the next two centuries, "Robehod" became "Robin Hood," the forest outlaw who defied the law and still managed to remain free for many years.
The legend has taken many twists over the years. Presumably it started with those robbers named Robehod. But it came to stand for more. The legend seems to have been at its best in the period from perhaps 1400 to 1500, when the "Gest" and other early ballads were written. It took a severe turn for the worse when Anthony Munday wrote a series of Robin Hood plays, and in the process converted Robin to a banished nobleman, gave him a wife, and otherwise bastardized what until then had been an excellent piece of folklore.
We cannot hope to find the "real" Robin Hood. Many scholars have tried to find an Original Robin over the years; none of their attempts has gained wide support, and most have convinced no one but the scholar himself. Many would agree with Mortimer's statement (p. 23) that "The Robin Hood of later legend was not a historical figure, but there were plenty of robbers and outlaws who were genuine enough." Yes, there are plenty of things named after Robin -- for instance, Wilson, p. 138, thinks the earliest significant record of Robin is the 1322 mention in the Monkbretton Chartulary of "The stone of Robin Hode," in Skelbroke in the West Riding of Yorkshire, near a site which later boasted a Robin Hood's Well. But the earlier records of outlaws named Robin Hood show that this stone is not a memorial of an early robber; it is a relic of a legend. Or, as Holt1, p. 106, declares, "the Robin Hood place names illustrate the spread of the legend, not the doings of the outlaw."
Holt1 (pp. 53-61) summarizes attempts to locate the original Robin; all have problems. Although all can be made to fit some part of the legend, they require ignoring other parts. Given the vast amount of effort expended, it seems clear that the surviving records are not sufficient to find "the" Robin Hood. Either the records are incomplete (to show how poor our sources are for the pre-Tudor period, consider that we don't even know the names of two of King Edward I's children; Prestwich1, p. 126) or there was no one man behind the legend. The summary in Baldwin, p. 42, is probably best: "It is clearly impractical to regard the ballads as even a semi-fictionalized biography of Robin and his followers."
The one thing that seems possible is that there was some early storyteller who created the first cycles of Robin Hood tales. The "Gest" as we have it can hardly be his work, but since it is composite, it may well incorporate portions of his account. Some of the other early ballads may also be close to this early myth-making. But for this, the "Gest" is the single most important source -- being as it is far longer than any truly traditional British ballad on record (it will probably be evident that, in this case, "gest" means "geste" ("song of deeds"), or perhaps "jest," not "guest").
Robin's situation in some ways resembles that of that other great name in British legend, King Arthur. There seems to have been an historical Arthur, although all we know is that he probably fought a battle against the Saxons at Mount Badon. The Welsh made him into the subject of folktale -- but it was Geoffrey of Monmouth whose largely fictional work created the Arthur legend. (For details on this, see "King Arthur and King Cornwall" [Child 30]).
Most of what follows is, of course, based heavily on the work of others, such as Holt and Keen and Knight/Ohlgren. I have tried to summarize the more important suggestions of these scholars, even when I disagree with them. Nonetheless, there seems to be much that is yet to be mined from the "Gest" and the other Robin Hood ballads.
THE EARLY BALLADS
The "Gest" is considered by Holt (Holt1, pp. 15-34.), following Child and others, to be one of only five fundamental pieces of the Robin Hood corpus, the others being "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne" [Child 118], "Robin Hood and the Monk" [Child 119], "Robin Hood and the Potter" [Child 121], and "Robin Hood's Death" [Child 120].
There are only a few variants on this list, mostly involving the "Death" -- my guess would be that this is because the Percy version is a mess and all the other copies are late. Holt1, pp. 27-28, do not even acknowledge any of the recent traditional versions of the "Death," and Knight/Ohlgren look at the 1786 English Archer version (Child's B) only where the Percy text fails (Knight/Ohlgren, p. 599) -- even though there are other traditional texts, including Davis's version, which appears to be a slightly damaged and mixed version of a very good original. Fortunately, since the "Death" overlaps the "Gest," its antiquity is not a major concern.
Keen's list of Robin Hood ballads of "proven early origin" (pp. 116-117) is the "Gest," the "Story of Robin Hood and the Potter," "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne," and "Robin Hood and the Monk"; he excludes the "Death" even though its plot is part of the "Gest" and so clearly ancient. (
On page 123, Keen in effect appends "Robin and Gandelyn" [Child 115] to his list (while adding that it is only the skeleton of a ballad; in his view, it is a sort of proto-Robin tale). He also points out the much-mentioned connection of the Robin Hood corpus to "Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly" [Child 116].
Ohlgren, p. 217, lists only the "Gest," the "Monk," and the "Potter" as early, seemingly based solely on external evidence: These three, and only these three, can be shown to predate 1525. "Robin Hood and the Monk" seems to be the earliest, coming from a manuscript of about 1450 (Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, p. 105, calls it "possibly as old as the reign of Edward II," but offers no reason for this incredibly early date. Thomas Wright also suggested this date, but Dobson/Taylor, p. 123n1, are openly contemptuous of this date). The manuscript, while well-written, is much-stained and hard to read (Knight/Ohlgren, p. 31); there may be a few textual uncertainties as a result.
The manuscript of the "Potter" is dated c. 1500 by Child and Ohlgren (and Copland in his late sixteenth century edition of the "Gest" also printed a play which seems to have drawn on the same tradition; Dobson/Taylor, p. 208). In fact there is very strong evidence that it is somewhat older, since it was the property of Richard Calle of Norfolk, who was active in the period 1455-1475 (see the notes to the "Potter"). But it is safe to add "Guy of Gisborne" to the list of early ballads, because, while the ballad itself is from the Percy folio, there is a fragment of a play on the same plot from c. 1475.
The list in Knight/Ohlgren, not surprisingly, is similar to that in Ohlgren; they file under "Early Ballads and Tales" the "Monk," the "Potter," the "Gest," "Guy of Gisborne" -- and tack on "The Tale of Gamelyn," "Robyn and Gandelyn," and "Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesley."
EncycLiterature, p. 957, lists the Gest, the Potter, the Monk, and Guy of Gisborne as the "core" of the legend.
Chambers, pp. 132-134, after a nod to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" (which on p. 131 he calls the earliest tale of Robin Hood, never mentioning that it does not use the name "Robin Hood") lists as early ballads Guy of Gisborne, the Monk, and the Potter, plus perhaps the Gest, but not the Death; instead he offers "Robin Hood and Friar Tuck," i.e. "Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar" [Child 123].
The dating of the "Curtal Friar" is a vexing question. The language of our surviving versions of the ballad is rather modern, but that is not an indication of date of origin. The tale as it stands features absurdly many fighters and dogs, but that may be the result of the inflation common in tradition.
The first apparent linking of the Friar and Robin Hood dates from the fragmentary play of "Robin Hood and the Sheriff" (Dobson/Taylor, p. 203), based on the same story as "Guy of Gisborne"; it has a reference to, and perhaps even a part for, "ffrere Tuke." Even more explicit is the play printed by Copland around 1560, often called "Robin Hood and the Friar," which has three characters: Robin, Little John, and Fryer Tucke (see the versions on pp. 286-290 of Knight/Ohlgren or pp. 210-214 of Dobson/Taylor). Both of these plays predate the earliest version of hte ballad of the Friar (Dobson/Taylor, p. 209).
From about the same time as "Robin Hood and the Sheriff" comes the so-called Tollet Window -- a panel window of the Morris Dances and May games, reproduced in GutchI, p. 349, and RiversideShakespeare, p. 1478, and alluded to on Dobson/Taylor, p. 62. It was thought by GutchI, p. 338, to have been painted in the time of Henry VIII but based on originals from the time of Edward IV.
The window shows in its bottom three panels an unknown man, a lady (presumed to be Maid Marian), and a friar (presumed to be Friar Tuck). There is no overwhelming reason to think the first figure is Robin -- but neither is there any other obvious candidate. However, RiversideShakespeare, p. 1478, believes that Robin is not the man to Marian's left but the hobby-horse above her. Obviously the presence of Robin in this context is debatable -- and, hence, so is this early connection with Friar Tuck. In any case, we note that this is a century after Langland's reference to Robin, and more than half a century after the Staffordshire Friar Tuck.
Logic says that the Friar is not integral to the legend -- if there had been a genuine cleric in Robin's band, for instance, why is he not mentioned when Robin dies? And why do we see Robin going to mass in Nottingham in the Monk?. We do meet Friar Tuck in the play version of "Guy of Gisborne" (Baldwin, pp. 68-69; Cawthorne, p. 188), but this might be the source of, rather than inspired by, the "Curtal Friar."
There isn't even absolute proof that the "Tuck" of later legend is the same as the Curtal Friar of the ballad. We are forced to admit that the data is not sufficient to reach a certain conclusion about Tuck. I personally think him a later addition; in any case, I will not base arguments on the "Curtal Friar." For how Tuck came to be associated with Robin, see the section on "Who made Maid Marion?"
In sifting through these materials, Keen sounds a useful warning:"we must remember that we are not dealing with a host of different stories, but with a host of versions of the same story, and that what is significant is the similarity of tone, the forest setting, the animus against the law and its officers, the callous indifference to bloodshed, and not the differences of detail. At the same time we must remember that we are not dealing with a series of individual characters, but with a type-hero, the outlaw, who, though he may appear under more than one alias, remains essentially the same, and what is significant about him is not his name or his individual acts, but his conventional attitudes" (pp. 126-127). Although, just to show how confusing these things are, Pollard, p. 12, says that "We are not dealing with one Robin Hood character: we are dealing with several."
THE TEXT OF THE GEST
Chances are that we do not have the text of the "Gest" in anything like its original form. The place names it mentions make it almost certain that it was written by a Yorkshireman (see the note on Stanza 3) -- and a Yorkshireman who rarely travelled beyond his home county.
Yet the text as we have it is in fairly generic Middle English, with almost no signs of northern dialect (Brandl, according to Clawson, p. 7-8, detected what he considered "Northern rhymes" in certain sections, but Clawson notes that such rhymes are in fact found throughout, and are in any case found in other parts of the country. There is nothing distinctly northern about the poem). Chaucer could almost have written it; certainly he would have understood it with little difficulty. There are some Robin Hood ballads in northern dialect, such as "Robin Hood and the Bride," a variant of "Robin Hood and Allen a Dale" [Child 138] found in the Forresters manuscript, but the "Gest" in its printed forms is not one of them.
And yet, this is the period when regional dialects of English were at their strongest and most distinct, and because English was only slowly regaining its role as an official language, "authors in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries generally wrote the English that they spoke -- whether in London, Hereford, Peterborough, or York" (Burrow/Turville-Petre, p. 5). Admittedly the "Gest" is more likely from the fifteenth century. But the expectation would still be that it would contain local linguistic forms.
The fact that it is so free of Northernisms strongly argues that there was a recensional stage when these characteristics were purged. What's more, because the surviving prints are all in essentially the same dialect, all our surviving copies must derive from this de-Northernized copy of the text. This needs to be kept in mind in evaluating our surviving witnesses. Dobson/Taylor, p. 6, suggest that "the next move in the investigation of the Robin Hood legend would seem to lie with linguistic scholars." But this challenge was not taken up until Ohlgren suggested it to Lister M. Matheson, and even Matheson's work is very preliminary.
Matheson, on p. 210 of Ohlgren/Matheson, declares that the printed editions of Pynson, de Worde, Goes, and Notary have all adapted the text to fit their preferred dialects, but adds that "a number of Northern spelling and forms survived this process.... Their appearance suggests strongly that the original author was indeed a Northerner and possibly a Yorkshireman." I must confess that I do not see how his methodology can support such a strong conclusion; his method is to compares the prints against the suggested regional dialects -- but not to compare the prints against each other in a meaningful way. Only by this means could he determine the residual dialect before the various changes.
Matheson does suggest, based on his analysis, that the source for the Pynson and de Worde editions was not a lost print by Caxton, because in that case the spellings would have been more standard. This conclusion is probably strong enough to stand. It does not mean that there was no Caxton print, but that it was not the common source. Pynson or de Worde might have used a Caxton original, but not both.
Like most of the Robin Hood ballads (and, of course, like the romances), we have no field collections of the "Gest" -- it is likely that it never existed in tradition. What we have are printed editions. Child's text is based on seven of these, which he calls a, b, c, d, e, f, and g -- a system usuallybut not always followed by the later scholars. The prints may be briefly described as follows:
a: "A Gest of Robyn Hode," is in the National Library of Scotland. The call number in Advocates Library H.30.a. Often referred to as the "Lettersnijder edition," based on the font used. A photo of the front graphic can be found in the photo section preceding p. 223 of Ohlgren, and a photo of the whole first page is on p. 107 of Ohlgren/Matheson. Isaac's plates 92-93 show the layout of two interior pages. Contains all or parts of Child's stanzas 1-83, 118-208, 314-349 -- just under half the total. It is Dobson and Taylor's A.
b. "A Lytell Geste of Robyne Hode," printed by Wynken de Worde. The surviving copy is in the library of the University of Cambridge, Selden 5.18. Photos of the frontispiece can be found in Ohlgren (again, in the section preceding p. 223), on p. 113 of Ohlgren/Matheson, and in Holt, p. 14. Dobson and Taylor cited it as B.
c. Bodleian, Douce e.12 (called Fragment #16 by Child). Duff-Bibliog #361. Two leaves. Portions of stanzas 26-60 only, said by Duff-Bibiog, p. 100, to have been taken from a binding and to be the central leaves of a quire. A photo is on p. 121 of Ohlgren/Matheson. Dobson/Taylor refer to Child's c and d under the siglum D.
d. Bodleian, Douce f.1 (called Fragment #17 by Child). Portions of stanzas 280-350 only. A photo is on p. 125 of Ohlgren/Matheson. Dobson/Taylor refer to Child's c and d under the siglum D. The pages were placed in binding strips and have been trimmed; this has resulted in the loss of text at the beginning of lines as well as at the top and bottom of pages. Unusually, this edition indents alternate lines, so that some lines are more defective than others.
e. Bodleian, Douce f.51(3) (called Fragment #16 by Child). Portions of stanzas 435-450 only; from stanza 443 on, only the ends of the lines survive. A photo, showing the extent of the damage, is on p. 100 of Ohlgren/Matheson. It is reported to have been extracted from the binding of a book (Oates, p. 3). Dobson/Taylor collectively cite e, p, and q under the symbol P.
f. "A Mery Geste of Robyn Hoode," British Library C.21.c. Printed by William Copland, meaning that it is from 1548 or later although before 1570. Since Copland registered a Robin Hood play in 1560, and Copland's print contains two dramas as well as the "Gest" (Dobson/Taylor, p. 208), it is likely that 1560 is the year of printing -- although Dobson/Taylor suggest that Copland had printed the plays in an earlier separate form, in which case the date must be after 1560. A photo is on p. 129 of Ohlgren/Matheson. Dobson and Taylor made the unfortunate decision to ignore Child's sigla and cite this as C. A single leaf of another Copland edition is Oxford, Cordington Libraray, All Souls college, k.4.19. It has been hypothesized that this is a later edition; I do not know if this has been proved.
g. "A Mery Iest of Robin Hood," Bodleian Library, Z.2.Art.Seld. Printed for Edward White, who was active well into the seventeenth century (e.g. Wikipedia reports that he printed the 1611 third quarto of Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus." He or a relative was also among the first to license "Greensleeves") He may well have known Anthony Munday, of whom more below. Gutch, p. 141, suggests on the basis of a Stationer's Register entry that this copy was printed in 1594.
Since Child's time, two more small fragments have been discovered. For reasons to be seen, I am labelling them p and q rather than h and i.These were studied in detail by Oates, and the descriptions are from his paper.
p. The "Penrose fragment," formerly owned by Boies Penrose but now in the Folger Shakespeare Library. A full leaf and a portion of a second, recovered from a book binding. Stanzas 227.4-235.2, 243.2-250.4, 312.4-319.3, 327.3-335.1. Dobson/Taylor collectively cite e, p, and q under the symbol P.
q. The University of Cambridge fragment. Found in a book binding and presented to Cambridge University in 1917. Contains 220.1-227.3, 319.4-327.2. Dobson/Taylor collectively cite e, p, and q under the symbol P.
Thus far is fact. Beyond that we must rely on inference. What follows summarizes information we derive from the contents of the prints (typefaces, etc.)
The type of a (Lettersnijder) is Lettersnijder 98 -- that is, 20 lines are 98 millimeters tall, making the type 13.9 point (in the modern usage of 72 points=1 inch.) The orthography is very peculiar. The first page is set entirely as prose -- Oates, p. 9, makes the reasonable suggestion that it was originally intended to be set as poetry, but then it was decided to include the woodcut of the mounted archer at the top, and the text had to be reset and dramatically compressed to make room for it.
Based on the samples in Isaac (plates 92, 93), the spaces between words are very small -- in a lot of cases, there are no spaces at all. The only punctuation marks are points which are placed almost at random (certainly not where we would place periods; some hardly even qualify as comma breakss) and a handful of section marks, some of which indicate line breaks. It also lacks stanza breaks.
The first letters of lines are capitalized, but in Isaac's first sample, almost nothing else (e.g. in lines 50.2-58.1, we find the following: "lancaster," "seynt mari abbey," "criste" (christ), and four instances of "robyn" -- balanced by one instance of "Robyn," as well as "Caluere." If you can see a pattern in that, you're smarter than I am.) In the second sample, proper names are regularly capitalized ("Robyn," "John," "Scarlok," although not "wylluam" or "much"), as is the pronoun "I." This second section also typically spells "The(e)" with a y and a superscripted e -- a usage not found in the first sample.
I rather suspect, based on the usage, that there were two typesetters, one more familiar with English orthography than the other.
Gutch1, pp. 80, 142, contends that Lettersnijder was issued by Myllar and Chepman in 1508, and Holt1, p. 122, also refers to it as among "the Chapman (sic.) and Myllar Prints of 1508." This is understandable but a mistake. Chepman and Myllar were authorized to print mass books and other materials in Scotland in 1507, and published for about twenty years (Isaac, introduction to Myllar and Chepman).
The largest single collection of works from their press is Advocates H.30. This book contains in one binding no fewer than eleven quarto books. The first nine of these are typographically similar, and seven of the nine contain a colophon or other markings associating them with Myllar and Chepman. The three with dates are all from 1508: Porteus of Noblenes, Chaucer's The Maying, and the Knightly Tale of Gologros and Gawaine. (For the full list of contents, see Isaac or p. 144 of Gutch1)
The natural assumption is that the last two items in the volume are also from Myllar and Chepman, especially since item #10, The Twa marrit wemen and the wedo, is attributed to the Scottish poet Dunbar. But it is notable that every one of the properly attributed Myllar and Chepman prints, according to Isaac, is in a Textura face. The Avocates copy of the "Gest" is not in Textura; it is, of course, in Lettersnijder.
The link to Myllar and Chepman appears dubious on other grounds. The small catalog of their known works includes two by Dunbar, one by Henryson, and Blind Harry's Wallace. Their other works, if not as obviously Scots by authorship, are strongly Scottish in style -- Hahn's edition of "Golagras and Gawain," based on the Myllar/Chempan edition, is so broadly Scots that it is not until line 76 that he can go a whole line without a gloss! Whereas at least 80% of the lines in the "Gest" make perfectly good English sense as printed, without need for explanation. And, as Clawson says on p. 2 (cf. Isaac), the incipit to the Advocates text of the "Gest" reads "Here begynneth" (English), not "Here begynnis" (Scots), a reading which would surely have been "Scotticised" even if nothing else had been.
Thus the strong weight of evidence is that Chepman and Myllar did not print the "Gest." There is, indeed, no reason to think that the printer was Scottish.
Beyond that we can say little, because the Lettersnijder font was common around the beginning of the sixteenth century. Most printers who used Lettersnijder were Dutch, and there are a few instances of errors which make sense in Dutch (e.g. "mijn" for "mine"; 200.3), so it is highly probable that it was the product of a Dutch press. Knight/Ohlgren, p. 80, and Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 101, mention an attribution to Jan van Doesborch of Antwerp, but this is speculation; the only real support for the belief is the fact that van Doesborch printed books for the English market. But Isaac, notes to Laurence Andrew,e, mentions a belief that van Doesborch published only books associated with Andrewe, and there is no reason to think the "Gest" should be so associated.
Because we do not know the printer, the the date is uncertain; the period 1510-1520 is often suggested, but it might be a decade or two earlier. Holt1, p. 15, merely suggests that it was published in Antwerp between 1510 and 1515.
It is clear that compositor did not know English very well, he also shows signs of inexperience in his craft. In particular, he seems to have had trouble with inverted letters, such as n/u and, once or twice, m/w. There may also be a few instances of mistaking the letter thorn for a d when it should have been transcribed th. (See the note on Stanza 179. This may indicate that the common ancestor of a and b still used eth and/or thorn. I have not spotted any instances which might arise from confusion caused by a yogh.)
(Incidentally, although a has the most problems with inversions, b also has a few, in 299.1, 305.3, 363.2. This leads me to wonder if there wasn't a printed version which preceded both a and b with many inversions, most but not all of which b corrected.)
Child, p. 40, offered a handful of instances which made him believe a more primitive than b, and this opinion has been repeated many times. I did not consider Child's short list of examples sufficient to be decisive, and Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 101, also admits doubts.
Wynken de Worde's b text is without doubt the earliest of the complete copies. De Worde (the successor of England's first printer Caxton) worked from 1492 to 1534, although the piece has no internal dating. The colophon says that b was "Enprented at London: In fletestrete at the sygne of the sone" (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 98). And de Worde did not move to Fleet Street until 1500. Thus the earliest possible date is actually in that year.
However, de Worde -- although his typography was always behind the times (Binns, p. 110, says that "most of his printing was of indifferent quality and some of it was thoroughly bad") -- gradually changed his fonts and his collection of clip art (he started using pure Textura-style blackletter but eventually acquired Roman and Italic and even Greek type; as Moran points out on pp. 26-38 -- although the Greek is perhaps the most unreadable font I have ever seen in my life).
Binns, p. 109, suggests that the "Gest" was printed around 1498-1500, when de Worde was busily printing other romances -- "Bevis of Hampton," "Sir Eglamour," and "Guy of Warwick." (E.g. Duff-Hand-List, p. 2, lists as his only four books certainly dated to 1498 the "Description of Britain," the "Morte d'Arthur," the "Canterbury Tales," and the "Legenda Aurea.") This makes excellent sense but suffers from the fact that a date before 1500 is ruled out by the colophon.
Based on the facsimiles, it appears de Worde published the "Gest" using his Textura 95 font (Duff's #8; facsimiles in Isaac, figures 2, 3, 7, 8 and Duff-Bibliog, plate XIV, where it is called #4). The number "95" refers to the size of the type -- it means that 20 lines of type were 95 mm. tall. In other words, 20 lines equalled 270 points, meaning that it was about 13 point type (as we would describe it today).
Isaac, facing figure 1, says that Textura 95 was "the most frequently found of all de Worde's types in the sixteenth century"; he used it for his entire career. Duff-Bibliog, pp. 127-129, lists 103 books believe to have been printed by de Worde before 1500; 82 of these use at least some Textura 95, and 26 appear to use it exclusively. However, it did evolve somewhat; in this periord, there were multiple forms of the letters a, d, h s, v, w, and y (Isaac, figure 1). The heading line of de Worde's edition of the "Gest" uses four of these letters, in states a-1, d-1, h-1, and y-2. The y is datable: de Worde was using y-1 in 1502, but by 1506 had shifted to y-2 (Isaac, notes to plates 2 and 3).
So the date almost has to be after 1503. But on other grounds, the earlier, the better. The illustration at the head of the print, which shows a woman, a man carrying a sword backwards, and a man who appears to be a herald. The artwork has no relevance at all to the "Gest," and de Worde gave up a large portion of his clip art (as well as some fonts of type) when he made the move; much of the material, in fact, ended up in the hands of another printer, Julian Notary (Duff-Printers p. 131). Had de Worde printed the "Gest" before his move, or long after, he could probably have used better art.
Another argument for a not-too-late date is the fact that, in around 1507, de Worde his rival Richard Pynson began a policy of cooperation (Isaac, notes on Pynson). This ended a strong rivalry that had existed between the two. Given that de Worde and Pynson both seem to have produced editions of the "Gest," this is an argument that the de Worde edition was printed before their agreement.
This is strong evidence for Ferguson's date of around 1506, (Oates, p. 7); this date is also found in the Short Title Catalogue of Book Printed in England, Scotland & Ireland, 1475-1640 (Ohlgen/Matheson, p. 112). My own date, based on examination of the facsimilies independent of the above, was c. 1505.
All that being said, someone really needs to examine the actual printed copy, not just facsimiles (which may not be the exact size of the original), checking all the letters; my suspicion is that, using Isaac's data, we could offer a much more exact date.
Of all the copies of the "Gest," de Worde's appears to have been the most used. No fewer than three readers but their names in it (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 117). One called himself "George Poll" (Powell) and urged readers to kiss his "briche and buttocks." A second simply says "By me John"; this is perhaps John Cony, who signed that name to two other books which were bound with the Gest, "The assemble of goodes" and "The Frere and the Boye" (interestingly, another copy of the latter poem is also bound in the volume containing sole copy of the "Potter").
The third name is entered twice, with different spellings: One claims the book is "Avdary Holman[']s," the other says it is "By me avdery homan of titsey." Audrey Holman also put her name in two of the other books bound with the "Gest." Ohlgren devoted significant effort to trying to locate Audrey Holman, eventually coming up with three candidates (Ohlgren/Matheson, pp. 117-120). His most likely candidate is his #2; we don't have her dates, but her older brother was born in 1571 (meaning that she was probably a few years younger), and she was still alive in 1621. She eventually married William Masters and had two children. Thus she cannot be the original owner. Still, the fact that the book went through at least three and probably four owners before being entered into the Bagford collection shows how popular it was.
It is has been stated that c and d are from the same original -- note, e.g., that Dobson/Taylor cite them under the same siglum, although they do not quite state that they are the same edition. However, even a casual glance at the letter forms shows they are distinct.
Ritson thought c to have been printed by Wynken de Worde -- but dated it 1489 (Child, p. 40). Duff-Bibliog, p. 100, has no doubt that it is by de Words, noting that "though in the earlier type it has the later I, and Caxton's I does not occur. It cannot be earlier than 1500, and quite probably was printed a year or two later." Ritson's date, at least, is impossible, because de Worde was Caxton's assistant until Caxton died in 1491 (Duff-Printers, p. 23); de Worde could not produce a book of his own before 1491, and the evidence is that it took him several years to start publishing large numbers of books (perhaps because he did not have Caxton's skills at compiling and editing). Knight/Ohlgren, p. 87, mention the attribution but not the year. Oates, p. 6, accepts the attribution to de Worde, and allows that it predates b, but does not offer a date.
The type is a good argument for the attribution to de Worde, but because there are so many Texturas floating around, it isn't quite proof. And, if it is from de Worde, why then are there so many differences from b? The differences are rarely substantial, but they are numerous.
Farmer instead suggested John Rastell as a printer (Child, p. 40). Rastell's dates are disputed; Child claims 1517-1536, but Isaac's introduction to Rastell suggests that he was in business from about 1512. (He also has the distinction of being the first English printer to handle music and text in one pass.) However, Rastell is another printer using those ubiquitous Textura types, so I doubt this can be demonstrated with certainty. I will say that, based on the facsimiles in Isaac, it doesn't look like Rastell's style.
Gutch1, pp. 80, 141, follows Ritson in saying that Copland's f print seems to have been derived from b, and Clawson, p. 3, declares it "apparently a reprint of b." This is clearly true; I noticed the matter independently before I saw the (brief and undocumented) claim in Gutch. It is strange to note that Child and other recent editors seem to have paid little attention to this fact -- Child cites the variants in f without saying anything about the ancestry of that print.
It is hardly surprising that William Copland followed the text of de Worde, because it is believed that William Copland was either the younger brother or the son of another printer, Robert Copland -- and Copland actually worked for Wynken de Worde early in his career (Isaac, introduction to Copland; Duff-Printers, p. 146), and apparently was responsible for editing some of de Worde's editions (Duff-Printers, p. 7); he was also mentioned in de Worde's will (Duff-Printers, p. 139).
Thus it is very likely that William Copland would have worked from a copy of de Worde's own earlier printing -- indeed, it is possible that Robert Copland worked on b. (Ohlgren seems to think it more than possible; on p. 114-115 of Ohlgren/Matheson, he suggests that the "rose garland" used in the archery contest of stanza 398 may have been an interpolation by Copland. The obvious difficulty with this is, if Copland had been rewriting the "Gest," why didn't he fill in the several lacunae in the poem? And we find other mentions of rose garlands in the Robin Hood literature; see, e.g, Knight, p. 7).
Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 186, notes the somewhat curious fact that there seem to have been many early editions of the "Gest," but that production then slacked off. Ohlgren thinks there was a 45 year gap between the Notary and Copland editions. Since his date for Notary's print is conjectural, the gap may not have been that long -- but it was probably substantial. Ohlgren's suggestion is that copies ceased to be printed because Henry VIII turned Protestant and Robin Hood was very Catholic. This does not account for the whole gap, because Henry was still quite Catholic, thank you, in 1520 (and even 1530), and never ceased to regard himself as Catholic. But it might explain part of the gap.
White's g text rarely gets much attention, simply because it is so much later than the others. It is instantly clear that the text has been much modernized, although this does not prove whether it is from a good or a bad source. We will cover its affinities below.
From the lineation, it will be evident that the two p and q fragments are from the same edition. It is also generally accepted that e is part of the same print (although not necessarily part of the same copy of that print). It is also clear from the fact that the first verses of q come before the first verses of p, but the last verses of p come before the last verses of q, that the two were not properly bound in a single quire. Oates, pp. 5-6, is convinced that they were mis-collated -- that is, the edition had its pages out of order.
This raises an interesting point. The epq text is widely attributed to Richard Pynson. The suggestion seems to go back to Duff-Bibliog, p. 100, based on a single leaf of q (even though he admits that the "collation [is] not known), and is accepted by Isaac (preface to images 92 and 93 of the "Gest"), and was accepted without question by Oates (p. 4), Dobson/Taylor (pp. 71-72), and Ohlgren (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 98). In terms of the type, this fits -- epq seems to be in the Textura 95 that Isaac (in the notes preceding plate 13) says was Pynson's standard type.
But almost everyone had a Textura 95: de Words (Isaac, before plate 1), Pynson (Isaac, figures 13, 14, 15, 19 -- indeed, based on figure 19, Pynson's collection of ornaments includes several which appear to me to be exactly the same as those de Worde used in the "Gest.), Hugo Goes (Isaac, before plate35; Goesacquired his Textura from de Worde), Robert Copland (Isaac, before plate 45), John Scolar (Isaac, plate 47; he and his successor Charles Kyrfoth, like Goes, had their Textura from de Worde), John Skot (Isaac, before plate 50), Thomas Berthelet (Isaac, introduction to Berthelet, says that this is another instance where that printer acquired it from de Worde), John Byddell (yet another had worked for de Worde and may have gotten some of his type; Isaac, introduction to Byddell), John Herford (Isaac, introduction to Herford).
Plus Julian Notary had a Textura 92 (Isaac, before plate 26), as did Ursin Mylner (Isaac, before plate 44). There were Textura 93s in the library of John Rastell (Isaac, before plate 36), Henry Pepwell (Isaac, before plate 48), Peter Treveris (Isaac, before plate 53), and Richard Bankes (Isaac, before plate 55). Even Chepman and Myllar, in Scotland, used a Textura 93 similar to de Worde's Textura 95 (Isaac, introduction to Chepman and Myllar).
This list could easily be extended, especially given how freely de Worde spread his favorite font around. And, as Duff-Bibliog points out on p. ix, "it is clear that almost all early English printers well understood what is now called 'leading', that is, producing a greater space between the lines by inserting slips of metal, so that we find the same type often with two, sometimes with three, different measurements." Thus simply measuring the height of the type is not sufficient to determine which font it is.
Ohlgren says on p. 101 of Ohlgren/Matheson that epq uses the forms of w and s found in Pynson's Textura 95. This appears to be correct based on the samples in Isaac, but the sample is too small. The fact that epq seems to be in Pynson's type is not quite proof.
Matheson, on p. 203 of Ohlgren/Matheson, affirms that the orthography of epq matches Pynson's. This too is strong evidence at a time when printers followed very different standards. But it appears from the footnote on p. 249 that Matheson used only a small collection of facsimiles, meaning he didn't have much material to work with.
According to Binns, pp. 110-111, Pynson was a Norman; he perhaps began as a bookseller rather than a printer. he probably learned the printing trade from Guillaume Le Talleur of Rouen, and in 1490 took over the printing business of William de Machlinia of Belgium. He moved to Fleet Street in 1500, began to work on government documents in 1503, became Royal Printer in 1508, introduced Roman type into England in 1509, and retired in 1528, dying two years later. According to Binns, p. 512, his listed output consists of law books, official publications, and missals. Steinberg/Trevitt, p. 48, declare that Pynson "obtained a virtual monopoly of law codes and legal handbooks."
And note the description of Pynson's work. Steinberg/Trevitt, p. 48: "Pynson published some 400 books, technically and typographically the best of the English incunabula." Or Binns, p. 112, "Pynson was without doubt the finest printer of his day. He had a fine range of types and used them well. His press-work was superior to that of his contempraries. He used illustration more sparingly and more effectively than de Worde, and was much more successful with his decorative initials and borders." And yet he decided to print something completely different in the "Gest,' and when he did so, he got the pages in the wrong order?
The matter is trivial; we are less concerned with the printer of epq than its text, but I do think caution is indicated. The one important result of Ohlgren's examination is that, if epq is indeed by Pynson (and I think it likely, just not certain), then it almost certainly dates from 1505 or earlier, when Pynson adopted a different form of w.
Ohlgren manages to assign printers to every edition except a (Ohgren/Matheson, p 98). In addition to Pynson for epq, de Worde for b, Copland for f, and White for g, he argues that c is the work of Hugo Goes of York, while d comes from the press of Julian Notary.
I wouldn't consider either attribution to be very strong. The connection of c with Goes is also found in the Short Title Catalog, but the font (as noted above) proves relatively little. Since Goes, de Worde, John Scolar. and Thomas Berthelet all had copies of de Worde's Textura 95, and Pynson had something quite close, any of them could have been responsible -- indeed, the way the text is printed looks to me a bit more like the sample of Scolar in Isaac than the sample of Goes. The Short Title Catalog suggests 1506-1509 as the date, but with a question mark.
Our knowledge of Goes is very limited; according to Isaac, we have three addresses for him (London, Beverly, and York), but the two former addresses were taken from materials now lost; our only datable book was printed at "York, in the Street called Steengate" in 1509 (Isaac). We have records of only three books by him (Binns, p. 129), and only one -- the Directorium Sacerdotum -- still survives.
We certainly cannot rule out the possibility that Hugo Goes printed the "Gest" -- a work which would likely be popular in Yorkshire. On the other hand, we note that his one known book was in Latin, and the other two also sound like they were intended for clerical use and were in Latin. From such works to the "Gest" is rather a stretch. And while the survival of early books is rather a matter of chance, the fact that we have so many surviving books by de Worde, and so few by Goes, is at least a slight argument against Goes as the printer.
Ohlgren does not absolutely deny the possibility that de Worde published c. On p. 122 of Ohlgren/Matheson, he says that if it is by de Worde, it must be earlier than b -- a statement which he does not justify. But he goes on to mention the point made above, that b and c have significant differences, which he considers strong evidence that c is not by de Worde. This is true but not decisive; I think we must consider the printer of c uncertain. What the differences do prove is that c can be treated as an independent witness.
Ohlgren does point out on p. 123 a suggestion that the Goes edition might have encouraged people to name all sorts of places in Yorkshire after Robin. This is possible but beyond proof.
The attribution of d to Notary is based on the use of Textura 92 (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 126), but the difference between Textura 92 and Textura 93 (or even Textura 95) is really only a difference in leading. Plus Notary wasn't the only printer using a Textura 92. Ohlgren says he was the only "major London printer" to use Textura 92, but offers no reason to think d came from a London printer. The Short Title Catalog dated it "c. 1515?" -- but this was apparently only a guess.
There is another argument against the attribution to Notary, and that is the list of materials Notary printed. The list on p. 129 of Duff-Bibliog lists seven items. Six are in Latin and appear to be church books. The only exception is a print of Chaucer's "Mars and Venus." Notary seems to have been aiming for a rather highbrow market; the "Gest" hardly fits!
There is agreement that all these prints have a recent common source, possibly a lost printed copy but more probably (given the dates of Pynson and de Worde) a manuscript, and clearly not the original, since all copies share certain defects. Further evidence for a recent source is shown by the fact that all the copies are quite closely similar. I do not think any reasonable scholar would dispute this point.
What, then, is the relationship between these prints?
Dobson/Taylor, p. 8, suggest that a is "apparently a cheap reprint of a previous and now lost edition by Richard Pynson," i.e. of epq. This follows from a comparison made on p. 9 of Oates, who compared the 70 lines for which epq and a both survive. Oates found several significant differences between a and epq, but six times as many cases where the two agree with each other against b. It is clear that they represent a single phase of the text, and it is likely that one is a copy of the other.
Oates is convinced that a is a copy of epq. And his evidence extends beyond the textual. The woodcut at the head of the Lettersnijder edition is a copy of one used by Pynson in his edition of the Canterbury Tales. But (contrary to, e.g., Holt1, p. 122) it is enphatically a copy -- the images can be seen side by side on pp. 104-105 of Ohlgren/Matheson, and the Canterbury version differs in the face, the spurs, the ribbons on the horse, and other details from the Lettersnijder version; in addition, Lettersnijder is cropped more closely. Oates believes -- and I think it almost certain he is correct -- that Pynson used that same illustration in his edition of the "Gest," and the Lettersnijder printer then copied it (and, as mentioned, forgot to leave room for it!).
Matheson seems to confirm this, declaring on pp. 200, 203 of Ohlgren/Matheson that the spelling of a closely matches epq. He does not a few variants in a which are valid English alternatives rather than errors, and suggests that this might mean that a native English speaker was involved in the typesetting of a. It strikes me as at least as possible that the copy of epq used to create a had a few corrections written into it -- but it might also be that these variants are from the typesetter who knew English, as opposed to the one (responsible for the majority of the remaining text) who did not.
There is a secondary point: If the Lettersnijder edition is derived from Pynson, it must be post-1490, when Pynson began printing, and likely post-1495. Probably Lettersnijder is later than that. If Duff is correct in dating Pynson to 1500, then a date after 1510 seems likely for Lettersnijder. (On the other hand, Ohlgren/Matheson, pp. 107-108 suggests a date in the early 1490s for Pynson, which allows Ohlgren on p. 110, to claim a date of c. 1495 for Lettersnijder.)
Looking at the other substantial copies, it is instantly clear that f and g go together -- g in fact looks like a modernized copy of f, perhaps compared with a copy of b; most of the differences between f and g are cases of an archaic form in f being replaced by a more modern form in g. Clawson, p. 3, calls it "very similar" to f.
On this basis, I would be inclined to date g as late as possible -- a Jacobean date would be far better than an Elizabethan, and frankly, I'm inclined to suspect that the attribution to White is deceptive and the piece actually printed in the reign of Charles I. f also has some signs of modernization, although far fewer than g,
It is also clear that f and g go with b. The relationship between b and f is noted on p. 130 of Ohlgren/Mathison, with the observation that f has had its language modernized -- although Ohlgren seems to have missed a few points about the copy of b used to produce f (Ohlgren does not examine g in any detail, merely calling it a "close copy" of f -- which is true of the basic text, but g modernizes f even more than f modernized b). Ohlgren/Matheson, pp. 132-133, suggests that Copland printed the work in part because of its anti-clerical tone.
There are strong indications that the copy of b used by the compositor of f was damaged. A good example is in stanza 305. The text of b has Little John say "No lyfe on me be lefte." All fg can offer is "That after I eate no bread," which is so utterly feeble that the only possible explanation is that the exemplar was damaged. In stanza 400, b has "And bere a buffet on his hede, I-wys right all bare," while fg give us "A good buffet on his head bare, For that shal be his fine," which fails to rhyme and is inept anyway. These readings suffice to prove the kinship of fg. The relationship to b is less instantly obvious but will be evident to anyone who goes over the collation.
Child does seem to have realized that fg were relatives of b, but he does not really describe the situation, if indeed he even thought in terms of a stemma. But it seems clear that we have two basic groups, which we might call Pynson and de Worde. Pynson consists of epq and a, with a having value only where epq is defective (admittedly, more than 80% of our knowledge of the Pynson text comes from a). de Worde consists of bfg -- and, because b is complete, this means not only that g has no value (as was recognized, e.g. by Dobson/Taylor and Ohlgren) but also that f has no value.
Unfortunately, the fragments c and d are all so short that their affinities cannot be firmly established. My feeling is that c and d are closer to the b group than to a, but not as close to b as are. This conflicts with the opionon of Ohlgren, p. 122, who thinks (on the basis of spelling rather than text) that it is another copy of Pynson. But if that is the case, why is it so distinct from a? I don't think Ohlgren's opinion can be sustained. The best guess is that it is independent.
Where the fragments are extant, they can give us some help. But the two combined include less thant a quarter of the "Gest." For the largest part of the poem, we are stuck choosing between a and b -- or, indeed, between b and conjectural emendation.
Although we cannot prove whether epq/a or b is the older text, Child (p. 40), Dobson/Taylor, and Knight/Ohlgren (p. 80) all consider a to be the more primitive -- but Child's evidence is summarized in a single note on p. 40 listing about a dozen variants. The primary evidence, really, is that a was incompetently typeset (note that there is a homoioteleuton error as early as the second stanza), meaning that the typesetter wasn't fiddling with it. Child in particular takes a as his copy text insofar as it is extant; he uses other readings only where it appears badly corrupt. Both Child and Knight/Ohlgren follow their copy text so closely as to alternate between spelling Little John's name "Lytel" where b is the copy text and "Litell" where a is extant -- an obvious absurdity.
As Ohlgren/Matheson states on p. 101, "Since 1899... all of the poem's editors have repeated Child's assertion that the Lettersnijder edition [a]... is the earliest surviving edition... and hence it has been given pride of place in various critical editions, even though it is in an imcomplete state. It has even supplanted the almost-complete Wynkyn de Worde edition [b]." This even though, as Ohlgren continues, "Lettersnijder is not only a decidedly poorer version of the text but also an almost incompetent copy of an earlier version by Richard Pynson, which now must be recognised as the earliest surviving edition of the poem."
Even before reading Ohlgren's comments, I didn't buy Child's argument. Child's collation method seems almost designed to obfuscate (particularly since he was inconsistent in how he recorded variants), but if we convert it to an inline collation, it was easy to see the two groups mentioned above: a on the one hand and bfg on the other.
It is at this point that the fact that the text we have is not northern becomes important. The common ancestor of a and b was not the original -- and if a preserves this edited text better than b, that doesn't really make it much closer to the original.
Hence I think Child's extreme preference for a exaggerated. True, it has older grammatical forms. But recall that it is probably Dutch, typeset by a Dutch compositor. Many of its errors are pure and simple goofs -- e.g. in 6.4, "vnkoutg" for "vnkouth"; 15.4 "mynge" for "mynde." Clearly the compositor of a simply transcribed the original mechanically.
Wynken de Worde, although born in the Low Countries, was thoroughly familiar with English, and his work was designed to make English audiences comfortable -- and, indeed, to standardize the language. His press made a habit of updating grammatical forms (Steinberg/Trevitt, p. 58). His text of the "Gest" has surely been touched up, so if the question is solely one of grammatical form, a is generally to be preferred. But there is no hint that de Worde made substantial revisions. Where the difference is one of fundamental meaning, as opposed to grammatical form, it seems to me that b has as much authority as a, and the poem should be re-edited on that basis.
The fact that Pynson and de Worde and (apparently) three other printers all issued versions of the "Gest" around the beginning of the fifteenth century is obviously a testimony to its popularity. But the fact that Pynson and de Worde have noticeably different texts is also noteworthy. If two printers, who sometimes worked together and were for very long based on the same street, produced substantially different versions, this clearly implies that one is not dependent on the other, although it is likely they are based on a common recent source.
Bottom line: The text of the "Gest" needs to be re-edited eclectically, based on the Pynson and de Worde types, with c and d consulted where extant and conjectural emendation sometimes necessary, especially in the places where Pynson is lost.
Fortunately very few of the differences between the texts are substantial -- the main reason why the texts are considered to go back to a single fairly recent original. But at least one variant, in stanza 53, is potentially significant; see the note on that verse.
If we were to grade the condition of the text, we would probably list it as "fair." There is no real doubt as to the general course of the narrative, meaning that the text of the "Gest" is in better shape than, say, the text of the "Death." But the amount of minor damage is extensive. As a result, I have included a textual commentary following the commentary on the content of the "Gest."
Based on the close similarity between the surviving texts, the archetype of the surviving versions (that is, their most recent common ancestor) probably dates from the reign of Henry VI or Edward IV (i.e. between 1422 and 1483), with the latter reign more likely than the former; this is obviously the latest possible date of composition But it is nearly certain that there were several generations of copies between the poet's autograph manuscript and the last common ancestor of our surviving copies. The various common errors, such as the lost first line of stanza 7, demonstrate this.
THE DATE OF THE GEST
If the "Gest" is not contemporary with the events it describes, when was it in fact written?
The dating of the poem remains a matter of controversy. GutchI, p. 81, claimed a date from the time of Chaucer, or the reign of Richard II (1377-1399) or Henry IV (1399-1413), which is not quite the same thing, but close. Chambers, p. 134, thinks he can detect signs of fourteenth century language in the "Gest." Child rejected this but left room for a date c. 1400. Knight/Ohlgren, p. 81, reject even this -- but their argument that the poem cannot have had a long life in manuscript is not logically sound.
Even if we allow for the possibility of rewrites to modernize the language, the "Gest" is unlikely to be earlier than the fourteenth century, simply because the saga of Robin Hood seems to be exclusively English. Unlike, say, the story of King Arthur, the Robin Hood tradition seems to be solely the possession of the English and English-speaking Scots (Holt1, p. 114). Given that the poem is clearly the work of a professional composer (see the section on the "Gest" as a romance), this requires a date after English was reasserting itself as a language of the middle and upper classes, which can hardly be before 1300.
Clawson, pp. 5-6, goes over Child's text and counts instances of inflexional -e and -es, counting 252 in all, or about one every other stanza. He argues for these as instances of fourteenth century usage (repeating the claim on p. 128), but this is far from decisive. These endings certainly were still used by Chaucer, and were gone by the time of Malory, but there are a few still in Charles of Orleans, and a provincial dialect might have preserved them longer than London did.
Holt, p. 192, mentions Clawson's observation that the poem throughout preserves Middle English inflexional endings (and of a type, it appears, more typical of the regions outside London), but also points out that no study of the language has been made since Clawson's 1909 work -- unfortunate, since knowledge of Middle English dialects has greatly increased since them. And inflexional -e alone can't prove much.
Vocabulary isn't really much help. There are a few strange words in the "Gest," some of which will be mentioned in the notes, but they are no hint to date because we don't know their meaning! Nor are there many words which changed their usage between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. We do note that there is no mention of the office of Ranger, an office probably instituted in the early fourteenth century and known to have been in existence in 1341 (Young, p. 163) -- but there is no mention of the older office of forester, either, so that's no help.
Ohlgren, p. 217, argues that the original was made in the reign of Henry V (1413-1422) or the first reign of Henry VI (1422-1461), but advanced no direct evidence.
Ohlgren argues that the poem, although written in Lancastrian times, was set in the reign of Edward III, perhaps on the basis of Laurence Minot [c. 1300-1352? (see note on Stanza 353). That the poet tried to set the poem in the reign of Edward III is certainly not inherently impossible, but it is not compelling. Minot seems to have been a northerner (Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 358), but his poems apparently survive in only a single manuscript, so there is little reason to think he was popular outside court circles. Nor can I detect any other allusions to his work (e.g. he often referred to Edward III as a boar -- Sisam, p. 254 -- and there is no hint of that in the "Gest").
Keep in mind that Edward III, once a hero-king, "outlived his own generation and his own usefulness, and became a considerable liability to the throne during his last years" (Ormrod, p. 35). Also, Edward III relied on parliament far more than earlier kings, and while he was anything but a constitutional monarch, that did mean that he had to redress grievances. And this was remembered. Why would a Robin Hood have arisen in this time? A date in the reign of Edward III is tempting to us now because (as we shall see) Langland's 1377 mention of Robin Hood is the earliest datable reference. But the elements of the poem suggest several different dates. We shall deal with these below.
In this connection we might note that Henry V (reigned 1413-1422) kept very tight reign on criminals, but his son Henry VI did not (1422-1461 plus 1470-1471), and his government was riven by faction (Wolffe, pp. 116-117). There was also much disorder in the reign of Henry IV (1399-1413), as that king tried to hold the throne he had usurped from Richard II. Might the disorder of the times have given rise to an interest in an alternate source of order?
Holt2, p. 10, observes that "Robin... was the product of a society where the threshold which separated lawful behavior from self-help by force of arms was indistinct and easily crossed." This, of course, was true for most of the middle ages. On the other hand, it was probably never more true than in the 1450s, at the beginning of the Wars of the Roses (see, e.g., Wagner, pp. 186-187, regarding the Percy-Neville feud).
Ohlgren, in his later writings, seems to have reconsidered his original dating. On p. 185 of Ohlgren/Matheson, he strongly urges a date toward the end of the Yorkist period, choosing 1483 as a somewhat arbitrary approximation. This, I think, is impossibly late, given that Ohlgren is arguing that Pynson's first printing was from around 1495. Although the primary texts of the "Gest," by de Worde and Pynson, are similar enough to have a recent common ancestor, they are also defective enough that it is hard to believe the original could be only twelve years old at the time Pynson printed it!
I think we are forced to admit that we don't know the date of the final editing of the "Gest," although it is probably fifteenth century; my personal date would be in the second quarter of the century -- but with older components. If it were much older than that, given the northern base of the legends, it would probably be much harder to understand.
Keen, followed by Holt1, pp. 35-36, does note that the three shorter early ballads have very different "feel": The "Potter" is humorous, with little real violence but a lot of tricks. Pollard, p. 12, in fact calls Robin a "trickster" in this tale -- although, in the "Gest," it really appears that Little John, not Robin, is the trickster. Nor is that the only instance -- e.g. in "Robin Hood and Allen a Dale" [Child 138], John is impressed into the role of Bishop, and rather than asking three times whether there are objections to the marriage, he asks seven times.
By contrast, The "Monk" and "Guy," especially the latter, are very bloody; in describing the latter, Pollard (p. 12) calls Robin a "cold-blooded killer." Pollard, p. 96, counts "nine homicides in the early ballads," although on p. 97 he grants that this is far fewer than the hundreds slain in "Adam Bell" and admits that the outlaws rarely inflict injury on the victims they rob. Compare this to Fulk FitzWarin, who kills fourteen of King John's knights on their first meeting (Ohlgren, p. xix), and more thereafter.
Pollard's suggestion, on pp. 98-99, is that Robin is appropriating forms of violence allowed by the rules of chivalry -- although, it should be noted, he has to take several of the ballads collectively to make this argument.
The "Death," if it be granted as ancient, is of course more a tale of treachery than anything else.
If the diverse nature of these ballads tells us anything, it is that the material of the legend is old enough that several different poets worked on it, each taking it in a different direction. We note that the "Gest," although composite, does not use any elements of the "Monk," the "Potter," or "Guy," and merely uses the content, not the lyrics, of the "Death." This implies a very large amount of material, of which the "Gest" takes only a small subset.
I will admit that I have held very different opinions over the date of the "Gest." Any suggestion must be extremely tentative. Right at the moment, however, I would be inclined to a date around the early 1450s, although based on materials from the earlier fifteenth and perhaps even the late fourteenth centuries. And the historical framework, if there was one, probably dates from the early fourteenth (which may, indeed, be the period when the name "Robin Hood" ceased to be that of simply a successful outlaw and became that of a courteous outlaw concerned with justice and propriety). It also seems likely that there was a revision of sorts, cleaning up the northern dialect although not changing the plot. Ohlgren's suggestion that this took place in Yorkist times is plausible, although I would prefer the period prior to 1475 to give more time for divergences to crop up.
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File: C117A

Gest of Robyn Hode, A [Child 117] --- Part 03

DESCRIPTION: Continuation of the notes to "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. Entry continues in "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117] --- Part 04 (File Number C117C)
Last updated in version 2.6
NOTES [19463 words]: THE GEST: A ROMANCE AND ITS SOURCES
Child included the "Gest" among the ballads. As a result, it tends to be discussed among the ballads. But this is really a mistake. The "Gest" is not a ballad. It is a romance.
Of course, this mostly a matter of definition. But the similarities of the "Gest" to the romances are strong and its similarity to the common ballads slight. Dobson/Taylor, p. 8, say it is "not strictly a ballad in any conventional sense" and add on p. 10 that 'the 'curteyse outlaw' of the Gest has many of the attributes of the well-born chivalric hero of medieval tradition. In other words the contents as well as the form of the early Robin Hood ballads reveal the strong influence upon them of the conventions of late medieval English romance."
Wilgus, p. 36, declares explicitly, "the Robin Hood ballads [combine] the features of the chanson de geste and the literary romance." CHEL1, p. 300, says, "Of Robin Hood [presumably the "Gest"] and Adam Bell and many more, it is hard to say whether they are to be ranked with ballads or with romances." Clawson, p. 49, looks at the first 15 stanzas of the "Gest," which provide a thumbnail description of Robin and declares, "The combination of a direct opening wtith characteristic description is not a ballad, but an epic construction."
And yet, these scholars do not take the next step and move the "Gest" to the romance category. They probably should have. For this, a comparison of the "romance" of Gamelyn and the so-called "ballad" we call the "Gest" is instructive.
If you see "Gamelyn" and the "Gest" on a printed page, they may at first glance appear rather different (see, e.g, the version of Gamelyn on p. 194 of Knight/Ohgren, or that on p. 156 of Sands) -- but this is because "Gamelyn" is printed in long lines, with each pair of lines rhyming, and is not divided into stanzas. The "Gest" is usually written in short lines and with stanza division. But the choice between long and short lines is arbitrary, and the stanza division found in Child does not derive from the sources -- b, c, d, epq, and f all print it without stanza divisions, and a not only lacks stanza divisions, it doesn't even have line breaks in the first portion.
The similarities are many -- the first long line of the "Gest" is "Lythe and listin, gentilmen That be of frebore blode"; the first line of "Gamelyn" is "Listeth and lestneth and herkneth aright." Some copies of "Gamelyn" are divided into Fitts, like the "Gest" (so the edition of Knight/Ohlgren although not the edition of Sands). And the "Gest" as printed by Knight/Ohlgren has 1824 short lines = 912 long lines; "Gamelyn" has 902 long lines in Sands, 898 long lines in Knight/Ohlgren -- in other words, it is almost exactly the same length as the "Gest."
And it is the "Gest," not "Gamelyn," which does not fit its alleged category -- the "Gest" is five times longer than the longest non-Robin Hood ballads in Child's collection. But if we look at the dozen romances in Sands (whose collection includes most of the best of the English romances), we find that their lengths are 1542 lines (King Horn), 3001 lines (Havelok the Dane), 810 lines (Athelston), 902 lines (Gamelyn), 580 lines (Sir Orfeo), 1044 lines (Sir Launfal), 408 lines (Lay Le Friene), 1131 lines (The Squire of Low Degree), 1083 lines (Floris and Blancheflour), 234 lines (The Tournament of Tottenham), 855 lines (The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnall, although this is damaged and must have been much longer), 660 lines (Sir Gawain and the Carl of Carlisle). The median lenght of these dozen romances is 879 lines -- just less than the length of the "Gest." The mean (average) is 1020 lines, or just more than the "Gest."
The fact that the length of the "Gest" is typical of romance does not make it a romance, of course. But the style of the Gest is the style of the romance: Sands, p. 1, says "Very generally, one can say that the Middle English romance is usually metrical, and the most favored prosodic convention is the iambic tetrameter couplet. The narrative concerns a series of incidents often very loosely strung together" -- a description which, except for the length of the lines, perfectly fits the "Gest.'"
Baugh also says, p. 141, that "the weakest point in medieval romance is characterization." The characters in romance are mostly stock -- gallant knights, hostile giants, beautiful princesses. The "Gest" succeeds in giving us new types, but mostly they are just sketched out. We have some insight into the behavior of Robin, John, the knight, perhaps the Sheriff, and the King, but very little of Scarlock or Much, and none at all into the others -- we don't know why the Prioress of Kirkless did what she did, for instance.
Hahn, p. 10, lists as characteristics of the contents of romances "chivalry, Arhturian legend, prowess in combat, personal love, intrigue, encounters with the marvelous, and the decisive resolution of every real or personal conflict." Of these seven, the "Gest" has at least four and arguably as many as six.
Some, to be sure, demand that a romance be "concerned with love' (so Hollister, p. 275). And the "Gest" certainly does not have a love interest. On the other hand, Robin's love of the Virgin Mary particularly suffuses the tale of Robin, the knight, and the abbot.
This is not to say that the "Gest" is a typical romance. It assuredly is not. A typical romance is a courtly tale, usually about knights, stressing certain themes such as physical prowess and loyalty to one's superiors and duties (Baugh, pp. 123). Mortimer, p. 27, observes that "The fine sentiments of loyalty were what the aristocracy liked to hear about and be told they possessed" -- in other words, loyalty tales were what they wanted in their romances. Little wonder, then, that they enjoyed tales like "Floris and Blancheflour," of a couple who were loyal even when threatened with death, or "Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnall," where Gawain marries a hag out of loyalty to Arthur -- and is rewarded for it.
Ohlgren declares on p. 136 of Ohlgren/Matheson that "the creators of the early Robin Hood poems deliberately cloaked them in courtly ideology, not because of 'ideology lag' but because the poems themselves marked a stage in the dialectical process of transforming the knightly adventurer to merchant adventurer." This whole chapter of Ohlgren/Matheson -- the longest in the book -- is an argument that Robin should be seen as "the 'marchaunt' of Sherwood" and the target audience is the guilds. He offers many cases of actions taken by Robin which fit with guild practice -- although almost all of them have other significance as well, and many of them were forced on him by his outlaw status. There is nothing in Ohlgren's list which forces us to consider Robin a guildsman.
I truly don't think it's as simple as any of the suggestions above -- but it is certainly true that the "Gest" is not like other romances. As Holt1, p. 66, declares, "The ballads are not bred in simple fashion from the romances. Mutation has intervened."
The "Gest" takes all the standard romance themes and diverts them from the gentry to the yeomanry -- perhaps because more minstrels were being forced to cater to the common people rather than the nobility (Loomis, p. ix, suggests that this is because the nobility was becoming literate -- all Kings of England from at least Edward III on could read and write -- so minstrels had to find someone still illiterate to hear their tales). Robin is not the greatest knight; he is the greatest archer. He is not loyal to his superiors; he is loyal to his fellows, as when he rescues Sir Richard from the Sheriff, or refuses to abandon Little John to be killed.
To accomplish this change of type, the "Gest" naturally must include new themes and perhaps some unusual materials, and at times the result is rather clumsy (as witness the fact that the "Gest" never figures out whether Robin is based in Barnsdale or near Nottingham). But overall it does a good job of reinventing the romance form .
As an aside, we might note that this was an early step in what became a general trend. In 1957, Northrup Frye wrote The Anatomy of Criticism, in which he classified literature into "myth" (a very poor term; he means supernatural tales, not ancient traditions which explain something), "romance" (which I would summarize tales of extraordinary but not fully divine creatures) "high mimesis (tales of exceptional men)," "low mimesis (the typical mode of modern fiction about rather ordinary people)," and "irony." (Summarized on pp. 33-34 of Frye.) Shippey, p. 211, points out perhaps the most important fact of Frye's analysis -- that fiction has tended to move down the scale over the centuries.
Shippey wanted to make the point that J. R. R. Tolkien was bucking the trend (which he assuredly was), but his discussion helped me to see that the "Gest" is like Chaucer in accelerating the trend. As Chaucer took the format of the "Decameron" and changed it to a tale of ordinary people, the author of the "Gest" took the romances (most of which fit Frye's "romance" genre) and -- while retaining the form -- converted it to a tale of high mimesis. Robin is a great archer, and an honest judge -- but there is no magic in the tale (by contrast, e.g., to Hereward, whose magical power was so great that they hired a witch against him; Alexander, p. 130), no Gawain whose courtesy overcomes all, no Roland so mighty that he can die only by blowing a horn so hard that he causes himself to suffer internal injuries!
(To be sure, Wimberly, p. 216, is convinced that there is a witch active in the Percy version of the "Death." But this is beyond proof -- the old woman is banning Robin, but we have no evidence that anyone thought she actually was a witch or had the power to make curses stick. And this element in any case is missing in the "Gest." This seems to be the only reference in all of Wimberly of magic in the Robin Hood ballads. All the magical elements we hear about today -- hobgoblins and the like -- seem to be modern inventions.)
The "Gest" in fact turns a common romance trope upside-down. In romance, a knight often goes hunting in the forest (this is the opening action of many of the Gawain romances, e.g.; Hahn, p. 169, and occurs even in some of the Welsh romances, such as the tale of Pwyll; Ford, p. 35). In the "Gest," a knight is hunted in the forest!
This is in many ways a dramatic improvement in the romance genre; CHEL1, p. 319, complains of their general trend: "Sated with the sight of knights and ladies, giants and Saracens, one longs to meet an honest specimen of the citizen class, but such relief is never granted." Never granted, that is, as long as one definces the romances as containing only knights, ladies, giants, and Saracens, but not Robin Hood.
It is noteworthy that Frye, p. 34, says that the hero of a tale of high mimesis is "a leader" -- of an outlaw band, say. Frye also suggests, pp. 36-37, that many tales of myth, romance, and high mimesis end with the death of the hero -- and that, in the first two, the death seems to imply the coming of a new, but probably inferior, age. This is what is called "thinning" in fantasy circles. Clute/Grant mention on p. 942 the most famous example of this: "The passing away of a higher and more intense REALITY provides a constant leitmotif in the immensely detailed mythology created by J. R. R. TOLKIEN. The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955) comes at the end of aeons of slow loss." What's more, it ends with the departure and loss of much that came before: The destruction of the Rings of Power brings the end of Sauron -- but also the devastation of the power that created Rivendell and Lorien, and the passing of the Elves; it hastens the decline of the Ents and the fading of the dwarves.
Even the word "romance" ceases to refer to a tale of honor and wonder and becomes simply a word for a love affair.
The Norse gods fail, and fall, at Ragnarok. Brien Boru wins at Clontarf, but dies in the battle. The death of Beowulf ends the heroic age of the Geats and leaves them exposed to outside attack. The death of Arthur means the end of Celtic Britain. The books about them end in elegy.
The tale of Robin ends in death and elegy, but the world is not changed. Not only did the prioress kill him -- the final triumph of the organized church over its tormenter -- but, according to the "Death," she is not even slain in her turn. In the long run, Robin has made little difference.
The romances most often connected with the tales in the "Gest" are the aforementioned romance of Gamelyn, plus those of Hereward the Wake, Fulk FitzWarin, and Eustache the Monk.
Hereward "the Wake" lived around the time of the Norman Conquest, although "Nothing certain is known of [his] background or of his early life" (Linklater, p. 238). Supposedly he was rebellious from his youth, and was an outlaw even before the Normans came (Cawthorne, p. 136) -- advantageous from the standpoint of the tale, because he was untainted by the conquest (Ohlgren, p. 17). In 1070 he apparently joined a Danish invasion in an attempt to regain lands he thought were his.
When the Danish invasion failed, he based himself on the easily-defended island of Ely until the monks of the island betrayed him (Baldwin, p. 35; Ohlgren, p. 13). He reportedly escaped, but is not heard from again in sober history (Linklater, p. 239, although Ohlgren, p. 13, mentions some reports that he was eventually reconciled with William the Conqueror). As Douglas, p. 222, puts it, "Hereward, having escaped with difficulty, passed out of history into legend.'
StentonEtAl, p. 106, notes that "Hereward and a few companions cut their way out to further adventures, in which Normans and English came before long to find a common interest." But we cannot really tell which of these are based on actual events and which are pure fiction; the Gesta is very bad history at its best (e.g. it never mentions the Danes who helped Hereward establish his base at Ely; Ohlgren, p. 15), and mixed with that bad history are many items which, flatly, are not history at all -- if the exploits described in Cawthorne, pp. 137-145, were even partly true, we would have learned of it from the chronicles!
In addition to his Gesta, which claims to be based partly on materials left by his priest Leofric (Ohlgren, p. 14; Wilson, pp. 124-125 says that it does appear that there were two sources used), the fourteenth century Croyland Chronicle says that women mentioned Hereward in their songs and dances (Chambers, p. 73). Knight/Ohlgren, p. 633, quote Charles Plummer's 1889 quip that Hereward had a brief life in history and a long one in romance. Indeed, Charles Kingsley wrote about him in the nineteenth century (Benet, p. 498). It is possible that he was eventuallly reconciled with William (Ohlgren, p. 13), but clear proof is lacking; the hypothesis is based on a short reference in Gaimar plus some references to Herewards (not necessarily the same Hereward) in Domesday Book (e.g. a Hereward held property in Marston Jabbett in Warwickshire at the time of Domesday, and held it in the reign of Edward the Confessor also; Domesday, p. 658; there was also a Hereward with land in Lincolnshire; Holt1, p. 63).
His saga contains two extremely close parallels to Robin Hood tales, one in which he disguised himself as a potter, as in the "Potter," and one in which he fought with a cook, as Little John fights the Sheriff's cook in the "Gest" (Baldwin, p. 36). Hereward also quarrels with an abbot, although Ohlgren, p. 16, notes that in this saga abbots are not all wicked; foreign abbots are distinguished from native. We also see an instance where he finds himself in trouble when his sword breaks (Cawthorne, p. 148), which resembles what happens to Robin in the "Monk."
It's possible that we see even older folklore in the story of Hereward: Hereward, we are told, was holding out on the island of Ely, and William the Conqueror built a causeway out to the island to attack him (Cawthorne, p. 134). This is reminiscent of the well-known story of how Alexander the Great took Tyre fourteen centuries earlier.
Ohlgren, p. 17, observes that the saga of Hereward is too early to really partake of the greenwood legend, but some of its elements may have contributed to the eventual formation of that legend.
The story of Hereward survives in only one copy (Ohlgren, p. 13).
Although the story of Eustace the Monk is often compared to that of Robin Hood, its parallels in the "Gest" are often to the story of Little John taking service with the Sheriff of Nottingham in Fit 3. Eustace, like John, quarrelled with his master (in this case, the Count of Bolougne) and turned outlaw, taking particular care to hunt the Count (Cawthorne, p. 120). In this, he was noteworthy for his use of disguise, as well as for playing the "Truth of Consequences" game with those he robbed (Cawthorne, p. 125).
In addition, Eustace eventually went to sea as a pirate. I wonder if this part of his story didn't inspire an equivalent story about Robin, which became "The Noble Fisherman, or, Robin Hood's Preferment" [Child 148]. He was in fact a servant for a time of King John, "and well known in the streets of WInchelsea" (Powicke, p. 10). But he then went to serve the French, and was a vital supporter of the French invasion of England.
Ironically, the man who is said to have tricked so many opponents finally succumbed to a trick; at a sea battle in 1217, an English ship seemed to be falling behind their fleet, and the lords Eustace was carrying in a last bid to retrieve the English position in France insisted on attacking it. The English threw powdered lime into the wind and incapacitated the French. Eustace's ship was captured. Although the nobles aboard were ransomed, Eustace was executed on the spot (Powicke, pp. 12-13).
Although Eustace's robberies are somewhat like Robin's, the differences in his story are very great. Whereas Robin served only himself, Eustace's services as a mercenary were available to the highest bidder (DictPirates, p. 115). His success is attributed to necromancy (Ohlgren, p. xviii), which Robin of course never would have considered. He was executed as a pirate in about 1217 (Cawthorne, p. 122). And he felt no qualms about exposing innocent bystanders to questioning and even beatings by the authorities (Cawthorne, p. 127). Plus his use of disguise was far more complete -- he even disguised himself as a woman and lured a man with sex (Cawthorne, pp. 128-129).
It strikes me as highly ironic that the story of Robin, who detested monks and abbots, would be based on the story of Eustace, who was a Benedictine monk (Cawthorne, p. 121), although one who had little use for his vows.
There is only one copy of the story of Eustace, and thiat is in Old French (Ohlgren, p. 61).
Fulk FitzWarin (sometimes FitzWarrene or Fitz Waryn) was the name of three post-conquest barons. The romance of "Fouke le Fitz Waryn" (found in translation in Knight/Ohlgren and Ohlgren) is about the third of these, and conflates the careers of the first two (Cawthorne, pp. 96-97). Fulk the third was a rebel against King John, and became the subject of a romance similar in theme to the tale of Robin's forgiveness by the King -- although with many unrelated elements (such as a tale that Fulk and John grew up together, but quarreled over a game of chess, causing John to hate Fulk; this is possible, since it fits John's youthful temper and we know little of the prince's childhood, but completely unverifiable; Warren-John, pp. 96-97).
Interestingly, Fulk, like Robin, has a giant sidekick -- in this case, his brother Alan (Cawthorne, p. 101). I also note with interest that the tale of Fulk contains an incident in which the outnumbered FitzWarins fight off their attackers, killing many and leaving only one whole (Cawthorne, p. 99). The similarity to ballads from "Earl Brand" [Chilld 7] to "Johnie Cock" [Child 114] to "The Dowie Dens o Yarrow" [Child 214] will presumably be obvious.
Keen hints that the tale of Robin, which probably started as a story of one of the Edwards, was attracted to the Richard I/John period by the similarity to the plot of Fulk. On the other hand, Fulk's tale is full of supernatural elements (Keen, p. 39; Ohlgren, p. xix points out conflicts with giants, serpents, and dragons); Robin's tale has none. Fulk's tale also has a number of elements which are historically impossible (e.g. the great battle with King John described on p. 106 of Cawthorne). Either the compiler of the "Gest" knew a version of Fulk's tale which omits all the falderol, or he ruthlessly cut it out. Although any conclusion must be tentative because we know so little of the historical Fulk, I would be more inclined to see Fulk's tale as deriving from the same elements as Robin's but elaborated in a different direction -- especially since (as Keen admits on p. 50) Fulk was a nobleman seeking noble position; Robin was a yeoman trying to survive a justice system which did not respect him.
As Cawthorne says on p. 120, "Certainly Robin of Locksley, the dispossessed earl of Huntington, bears a closer similarity to Fulk FitzWarren than he does to the Robin Hood of the ballads."
Like the tales of Hereward and Eustace, there is only one copy (British Library, Royal MS. 12.C.XII) of the romance of Fulk (Knight/Ohlgren, p. 687), which is in Anglo-Norman although we have a partial summary of a Middle English version (Ohlgren, p. 106). The manuscript, which is clarly not the original was written in the first half of the thirteenth century, making it clearly older than the "Gest."
We've already mentioned the romance of Gamelyn, which is perhaps from around 1350 (Holt1, p. 71). Pollard, pp. 13-14, suggests that the Tale of Gamelyn is a sort of a link between the Robin Hood tales and the aristocratic romances; CHEL1, p. 298, offers it as an example of native English romance without French influence and calls it "As You Like It" without Rosalind or Celia, adding tht Thomas Lodge used it as the basis of a novel.
Gamelyn was the youngest of three brothers. When his father died, the oldest brother seeks to dispossess Gamelyn, who is still a minor. Gamelyn rebels and flees to the greenwood with the sheriff in pursuit. His brother then becomes sheriff, and Gamelyn submits but is condemned along with the middle brother. Gamelyn and his outlaws then free the middle brother, kill the eldest, and are pardoned by the King, who appoints Gamelyn a royal official (Baldwin, p. 178).
"Gamelyn" helped inspire, at several removes, Shakespeare's "As You LIke It.
The parallels to the Robin Hood story are obvious; Gamely kills the sheriff (in this case, his brother), and he is pardoned by the King -- but "Gamelyn" is largely about family dynamics (a topic of intense interest to the aristocracy), not outlawry. Plus the tale of Gamelyn is extremely violent -- at least as violent as the "Monk" or "Guy of Gisborne," and over a longer period; it is much more bloody than the "Gest," where Robin only uses actual violence when attacked by the sheriff.
There are textual similarities between the "Gest" and "Gamelyn"; both are in rhymed couplets (although Gamelyn has shorter lines; it almost seems to hint at Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse) and they open with similar sterotyped invocations (see the first line in Sands, p. 156).
It is far from clear how popular "Gamelyn" actually was; it owes its survival to an odd chance. In the Canterbury Tales, the Cook's Tale is only a stub; either Chaucer never finished it (the more likely explanation) or his intended tale has been lost. Some scribe, sensing a need, plugged in the Tale of Gamelyn (Chaucer/Benson, p. 1125, although Sands, p. 154, and CHEL1, p. 298, mention with approval Skeat's suggestion that Chaucer might have planned to convert it into a tale for the Yeoman; perhaps it was among his papers). This means we have dozens of copies of Gamelyn, but odds are that every copy derives from the original manuscript copied into the Canterbury Tales.
In "Robin Hood Newly Revived" [Child 128], Robin welcomes Young Gamwell into his band; Sands, p. 155, suggests that Gamwell is Gandelyn.
These four romances -- Hereward, Fulk, Eustace, and Gandelyn -- are the tales most often linked to the "Gest." But these are not the only romances which share elements with the "Gest." We should also note several links between the "Gest" and the Gawain legend. Child's "A" version of the late ballad "Robin Hood and Queen Katherine' [Child 145] goes so far as to state that SIr Richard Lee comes from "Gawiin's blood" (stanza 22; cf. Holt1, p. 164), but this is too late to have any value.
The list of common elements is long, although none of the parallels are close. Robin's refusal to eat dinner before something interesting happens(Stanzas 6-7) is also found in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Gawain, like Robin, has a strong reliance on the Virgin Mary (Tolkien/Gordon, p. xxi.) The fragmentary romance of "The Turk and Gawain" hints at a hitting game such as the "pluck-buffet" of Stanza 424. And Hahn, p. 26, notes that more than half his Gawain tales "begin with a forest episode." Hahn suggests that these were interludes to, in effect, let the audience settle into their seats -- but it would be no great stretch to create a romance which never left the greenwood.
Hall, pp. 12-13, observes that, although the Gawain tales seem mostly to have been committed to writing in the fifteenth century, the equipment they describe is mostly fourteenth century -- the era of the three Edwards, and hence the presumed era of the "Gest."
In referring to the Gawain romances, Hall, p. 10, says that four of his seven romances are in Scottish dialect, and five of seven are set in Inglewood or Carlisle. Hahn, whose definition of a "Gawain romance" is distinctly broader, notes on p. 4 n. 6 that seven of his Gawain works are set in Carlisle but that only five other Middle English romances, all with some Arthurian links, even mention Carlisle! And Gawain was said to be the son of the King of Orkney, who was also Lord of Lothian near the Anglo-Scottish border (Hahn, p. 4). Was Gawain some sort of local hero in Cumbria or Northumbria? Obviously this is close to Robin Hood's haunts.
Child called Robin Hood "a popular Gawain" because of his courtesy (a remark which seems to have been noticed only by Gummere, p. 314), but he did not pursue the matter. Still, courtesy is a key component of both the Gawain cycle and of the "Gest" (see the note on Stanza 2). It seems reasonable to assume that the author of the "Gest" was familiar with the various Gawain stories floating around the north of England, and that they influenced his writing.
Clawson, in fact, compares the compiler of the "Gest' to the Gawain/Pearl poet (Clawson, p. 128). This is about like comparing Spike Jones to Stephen Foster -- too absurd even for consideration. But it is another token of the similarities in genre.
The "Greenwood Legend" is such a broad term that is can hardly be considered a source; it is more a theme. But English tales of a forest as a refuge go back at least to "Beowulf," where we find people using it to hide from the dragon (Young, 2). Young (p. 164) firmly declares that the Robin Hood legends can only be understood in the light of the forest laws -- although he also says on p. 170 that the conflicts over the forest were between the King and the nobles, not the upper and lower classes.
The "King in Disguise" is a commonplace now best known from the (later) tale of the Scottish King James V, but which also occurred in a late Middle Scots romance, "The Taill of Rauf Coilyear," which is probably from about the same time as the "Gest" (Sands, p. 2).
Knight/Ohlgren, pp. 2-3, and Ohlgren, p. 316 n. 12, point out that the "truth or consequences" game of outlaws asking travellers how much they have, and being robbed only if they lie, is also found in the tales of Eustac(h)e the Monk (where the Abbot of Jumieges claims to have four marks but turns out to have 30; Baldwin, p. 38; Cawthorne, p. 126) and Fulk FitzWarren.
The reconciliation with the king motif is found in the tales of Fulk and of Hereward the Wake.
The Outlaw in Disguise, used especially in the "Potter" and in "Guy" but also implicit in Robin's and Little John's dealings with the Sheriff (cf. Holt1, p. 35), is found, in much fuller form, in the tales of Eustace, Fulk, and Hereward.
Several sources even compare Robin to William Wallace, especially as portrayed after the fact by Blind Harry, who makes Wallace a great archer (Baldwin, pp. 39-40; Keen, pp. 75-76). But Blind Harry is more recent than the earliest reports of Robin Hood.
Less often mentioned as a possible source, but with real parallels to the story of Robin and the King, are the stories of "King Edward and the Hermit" and "King Edward and the Shepherd," with the former being particularly interesting. It exists in only one copy, in Codex Ashmole 61, and that is defective at the end (Shuffleton, paragraph 1). Ashmole 61 is of the fifteenth century (Sisam, p. 13), meaning that it was probably written within a few decades of the composition of the "Gest." And the manuscript's contents are very intriguing; it also has copies of "Sir Orfeo" and other romances such as "Sir Isumbras" and "Sir Cleges," plus several dozen other miscellaneous items.
We also note that a copy of "King Edward and the Shepherd" is found in the same manuscript as "Robin Hood and the Monk" [Child 119] (Dobson/Taylor, p. 9), MS. Cambridge Ff. 5.48 (a fact that Child curiously failed to mention).
"King Edward and the Hermit" is summarized on pp. 418-423 of Briggs-DIctionary. In the story, the king is on a hunting party (in Sherwood no less), and gets lost, and meets a hermit who does not recognize him and eventually treats him to a meal of the King's own deer. In the end. presumably, the hermit goes to the court and the king is revealed (Shuffleton, paragraphs 2-3).
Child prints relatives of this tale under the title "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth" [Child 173], but the Ashmole version, in which the King is an anonymous Edward, seems to me to fall closer to the "Gest" in feel as well as in date, and is long enough to count as a romance rather than a ballad -- Shuffleton prints it in twelve-line stanzas (although the aabccbddeffe rhyme scheme is far more complex than the "Gest"), and it is 520 lines long, implying a total length of probably about 600-700 lines. My guess is that "King Edward and the Hermit" and "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth" are a romance-and-ballad pair, similar to "Sir Orfeo" and "King Orfeo" or "King Horn" and "Hind Horn." So the compiler of the "Gest" very possibly knew this other romance of a King Edward.
There is also a version of this, known as "John the Reeve," found in the Percy Folio; according to Clawson, pp. 107-108, Edward I is the hero of this version. But the plot is generic to tales of this type and could apply to any king. Clawson, pp. 109-111, cites several other tales of the type, but most of these are either too late to be relevant or are tales unlikely to have been known in northern England (e.g. one is about Charlemagne).
Ohlgren/Matheson, pp. 148-149, classes all of these as "Tke King and the Subject," a genre name going back to Child, and observes that the king of "King Edward and the Shepherd" is clearly Edward III, while the "Tanner of Tamworth" is of course referred to the reign of Edward IV. The lineage of these poems may be one of the reasons why the "Gest" sets itself in the reign of a King Edward. But, treated collectively, the "King and Subject" tales are an amalgam of many reigns -- and many Edwards.
We might hypothesize that there was a romance, now lost, of Ranulf Earl of Chester which also contributed to the "Gest." This would make sense in the light of Langland's link between Robin and Ranulf (discussed extensively below), but unless it should somehow come to light, this remains pure speculation. Still, one story of Ranulf sounds a little like a part of the story of Robin and the knight: Ranulf was leading an army into Wales, but in the face of superior forces had to take refuge in Rothelan castle. He was rescued by a crowd of locals, supposedly led by minstrels (Wilson, pp. 128-129). We have this tale only from a rather fictional-sounding chronicle (Dugdale's Baronage); perhaps there is a more Robin Hood-like version in the original source.
Some of the aspects of the "outlaw tale" may predate the Norman Conquest and go back to Old Norse elements. IcelandicFaulkesJohnston, p. xxv, says that "there are some similarities between the outlaw sagas of Iceland and English outlaws like Robin Hood." If these actually go back to common roots, they would almost have to stem from the period of the Danish invasions of the late tenth and early eleventh centuries.
IcelandicFaulkesJohnston, p. xxv, makes the interesting observation that "Although Gisli spends his outlawry in solitude or being sheltered by his wife, and Grettir on remote heathland or island with an occasional male companion, and they only occasionally attract other outlaws, Hord gathers together a band of outlaws and lives with his wife and children in a community with a hierarchy resembling that of society in general. Both Gisli and Grettir employ tricks to escape their enemies, often disguising themselves or impersonating other people, and Grettir, like Robin Hood, attends assemblies of his people in disguise, obtaining safe-conduct from them, and competing in games (which he of course wins). Grettir, again like Robin Hood, manages to get on good terms with the king (of Norway), though he fails to become integrated back into society."
The analogies between Robin and the Biblical King David perhaps don't get enough attention from folklorists. Like Robin, David was regarded as a mannered outlaw -- according to the Bible, he never raided Israel, but only Geshurites and Girzites and Amalekites and other non Hebrews (1 Samuel 27:8-10, although few Biblical scholars actually believe this). He remained loyal to his king, having refrained from killing Saul when he had the chance (there are two versions of this, in 1 Samuel 24 and 26). Like Robin, David was famous for piety. Even the story of Nabal, Abigail, and David (1 Samuel 25) has some parallels to the tale in the "Potter," although the differences are too great for them to be truly considered related.
We should remember that, although literacy was becoming more widespread in the time the "Gest" was written, for many centuries the only people who could read and write were clergy, and what they read was mostly the (Latin Vulgate) Bible. The authors who wrote this tale would certainly have a lot of Biblical stories and quotations stored up in their heads.
The other religious element underlying the "Gest" is the form known as the "Miracles of the Virgin." The best-known English example of this is Chaucer's Prioress's Tale (Burrow/Turville-Petre, p. 306). In this, a young boy neglects his other studies to give all his attention to learning a song of the Virgin Mary, which he is able to sing beautifully. A group of Jews, despising the singing, cut his throat and throw his body away. But -- here is the miracle -- even having taken a death wound, the boy continues to sing the Virgin's song. As a result, he is found, the Jews are punished, and the boy finally given release and taken to heaven.
It is sometimes claimed that "Brown Robyn's Confession" [Child 57] is a Miracle of the Virgin (Wimberly, p. 381), but it would better be described as a song offering the possibility of such a miracle than one in which it actually happens.
Ohlgren/Matheson, pp. 152-153, and Clawson, p. 31, offer a parallel to this tale from the Vernon MS. (Bodleian MS. Eng. poet.a.1), "The Merchant's Surety," in which one Theodorus seeks a loan from a Jew, Abraham, offering the Virgin Mary as guarantee. An image of Mary reveals gold hidden by Abraham from Theodorus. (For more on this, see the note on Stanza 65.) Clawson, pp. 35-36, also points to the German tale of "Schimpf und Ernst," which is much like the story of Robin, the Knight, and the Monk, but is not a Miracle of the Virgin; again, see the note on Stanza 65.
Clawson, pp. 25-30, notes a number of tales in which making a loan to a man with poor security is rewarded supernaturally, although not all of these are Miracles of the Virgin. One of these, described on p. 26, describes an instance, similar to the "Gest," in which the creditor is paid back twice, once rather miraculously -- but it is an Arabic tale that surely is not a source of the "Gest." His next two examples are Arabic and Russian. The only one of his examples which might be an actual source is a variant of "The Merchant's Surety."
Chaucer/Benson, p. 913, notes that Miracles of the Virgin were often violently anti-Semetic (like the tale in Chaucer). Yet, here again, our poet has transformed the type. We still see a conflict between religious groups -- but the conflict is not between Christians and Jews, it is between true Catholics and the wealthy church hierarchy.
The "Gest" may also have some elements derived from stories of actual historical outlaws. There is a genuine tale of a man who gave support to a King of England while based in the woods. Early in the reign of the boy king Henry III, the French were occupying much of southeast England. Most of the barons who opposed the invasion were of course in the north and west -- but in the heart of the Rrench-occupied territory was the great forest of the Weald. William of Kensham, a local bailiff, organized resistance to the French in the forest, and came to be known as "Williken of the Weald" (Powicke, p. 10). He played a significant part in the expulsion of the French, and I wonder if this might not have vaguely influenced the tale of Robin.
Baldwin, pp. 104-106, mention a band of criminals, the Coterels, who lived in the early to mid fourteenth century; they were active during the reign of Edward III, and according to Bellamy "poached, ambushed, had a spy in Nottingham, ill-treated clerics, were pursued by bounty hunters and the sheriff, operated in Sherwood, entered royal service, had as an ally a member of the gentry who had lost his inheritance [Sir Williiam Aune], and were pardoned by the King" (quoted by Baldwin, p. 111; see also Dobson/Taylor, p. 27).
On the other hand, Cawthorne, p. 196, says that Sir Richard Ingram, sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, was in league with them, which doesn't sound much like Robin Hood!
Dobson/Taylor, pp. 27-28, although mentioning the Folvilles and the Coterels, think a closer parallel to Robin Hood is the band which William Beckwith led in Knaresborough forest in Lancashire in the period 1387-1392. Bellamy had much to say about this group, but of course their date is very late -- after Langland's first mention of Robin Hood.
Dobson/Taylor, p. 28, add that there is one very strong difference between the Robin Hood cycle and the actual outlaws: "the early Robin Hood ballads lack the theme of feuding between neighbours which seem to have been such a dominant element in the exploits of fourteenth-century gangs."
Keen, p. 101, regards the "Gest" as a combination of elements from four other ballads or tales, which he titles "Robin Hood and the Knight," "Robin Hood, Little John and the Sheriff," "Robin Hood and the King," and "Robin Hood's Death." He derives this list from Child (page 42), slightly changing the name of the first. Except for the last, they do not correspond to any extant ballads, although some of them were imitated in the later legends. Keen also notes that, for all its length, the "Gest" opens with Robin already in the greenwood; he simply appears there, almost like a wood sprite. There is no early legend of where Robin came from.
Pollard's list of components of the "Gest," on p. xvi, is "Robin Hood and the Knight," "Robin Hood and the Sheriff," " Little John and the Sheriff" (a tale which he suggests is for comic relief; p. 6) "Robin Hood and the King," and "The Death of Robin Hood."
Brandl sees three different components, consisting (according to Clawson, p. 7 n. 4) of fits I+II+IV, V+VI, and III+VII+VIII -- which we might perhaps call "Robin and the Knight," "Robin and the Archery Contest," and "Little John, the Sheriff, Robin, and the King."
Holt1, pp. 24-25, suggests that the "Gest" is based on at least two cycles, one being the account of the indebted knight and the other being the rest -- although Lord, p. 206, reminds us that even the creators of modern epics often produce tales which are episodic, with stories of the same hero all being jumbled together. He cites as an early English example the case of "Beowulf," with the episodes of Grendal and the Dragon. On p. 13, Lord explicitly contrasts the performers of epics with those of folk singers (although, we should note, an epic is not precisely the same as a romance -- and Lord was not speaking of actual folk singers anyway but of professionals who called themselves "folk" performers.)
Clawson digs even deeper than the other scholars, seeking to identify individual ballads which became components of the "Gest." His analysis strikes me as too detailed -- he assumes too many ballads which have the same form as the "Gest." But some of them may be real:
* A ballad of Robin Hood and the Knight, in which Robin, upon learning of the Knight's difficulties, pays his debts (Clawson, p. 24, 41), which forms the primary basis of the first fit.
* A possible tale of the knight going to Calvary and/or repaying the Abbot (Clawson, p. 42), which is the main element of the second fit, although Clawson was not certain this was in ballad form. He does suggest that there was, at minimum, a ballad about a knight on crusade (Clawson, p. 44). He says on p. 125 that the compiler treated it very freely, and compares it to "The Heir of Linne" [Child 267].
* A ballad about a wrestling (Clawson, p. 47), which underlies the wrestling at the end of the second fit. This may be somehow related to the tale of Gamelyn (Clawson, p. 48).
* A ballad about someone infiltrating an enemy's household, which underlies the tale of Little John becoming a servant of the Sheriff and then convincing the cook to desert at the beginning og the third fit (Clawson, pp. 63-64).
* A ballad about a robber in disguise tricking a high official into the forest and then robbing him, which underlies the tale of Little John tricking the sheriff with the tale of the green hart at the end of the third fit (Clawson, p. 75). He also suggests a "Robin Hood Meets His Match" ballad was used here (Clawson, p. 126).
* A ballad of Robin Hood robbing two monks, which in the "Gest" is turned into a tale of Robin robbing the High Cellarer (Clawson, pp. 19-20), which is the primary source of the fourth fit (Clawson, pp. 23-24, 41).
* A ballad of Robin Hood and his men participating in a shooting contest in Nottingham, being recognized, and fighting their way out (Clawson, p. 80), which provided the bulk of the fifth fit. He compares this not only to the tale of Fulk but of William Wallave.
* A ballad of Robin Hood organizing a rescue and killing the Sheriff, which occupies most of the sixth fit from stanza 329 on (Clawson, p. 86). Clawson, pp. 86-87, notes that many of the elements of this are similar to "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires [Child 140]," although that song contains many details not found in the "Gest." Clawson also notes on p. 89 a similarity to the story of Wulric the Heron, an ally of Hereward the Wake, as well as of Gamelyn's rescue of his brother Ote. These are, however, parallels of theme only, with no detailed similarities.
* A ballad in which the Sheriff places a price on Robin's head (Clawson, p. 96). Clawson does not attribute any portion of the "Gest" to this ballad but hypothesizes it to explain the enmity between the two. That there was such a tradition seems likely; there is no evidence that it was in ballad form.
* Some sort of ballad about Robin and the King (Clawson, p. 119), probably built around a visit to the royal court (Clawson, p. 127).
* The tale of Robin Hood's Death, which he merely excerpts to provide the last half-dozen verses (Clawson, pp. 123-124).
* In addition, Clawson posits elements which he does not claim existed in ballad form: The tale of a miraculous repayment of a loan (Clawson, p. 36), an exemplum about the Virgin Mary (Clawson, p. 38).
All of these sections have at least some stanzas by the compiler of the "Gest." In all, he attributes all or parts of stanzas 1-16, 44-61, 69-78, 80-85, 126-134, 143, 144, 150-153, 205-207, 253-254, 266-269, 276-280, 281, 309-328, 354-364 (see list on pp. 125-127 of Clawson). But Clawson, p. 86, suggests that only one major section -- stanzas 309-328, in which the Knight takes Robin Hood into his castle, thus setting up the confrontation with the King -- is a really independent part of the "Gest" supplied by the compiler.
There are two problems withClawson's view. One is primarily a matter of terminology: The sections he claims are from "ballads" often include stanzas with highly irregular meter. These can hardly be from ballads as we would understand the term, although they could well be from metrical romances, where the metrical rules are looser. The other problem is that his hypothesis simply requires too many sources. Holt2, p. 200 n. 11, says cautiously, "Clawson may have been a little to ready to multiply the number of separate components which must have underlain the Gest and to assume that those components already took the form of ballads." I would go farther: To postulate as many different ballads as he does is possible but too complicated to be convincing.
(In Clawson's defence, he was simply following in a venerable tradition that goes all the way back to the great Karl Lachmann's analysis of Homer, which also split that epic into smaller oral pieces; Lord, p. 10. Lachmann was a great textual critic, perhaps the greatest innovator in that field. As a folklorist... eh....)
Personally, I agree with Keen: there are at least four different parts, which (with the exception of the story which became "Robin Hood's Death") survive largely intact in the "Gest" but with a little glue to hold them together. This is not necessarily incompatible with Holt's two-source hypothesis, because the five component stories could have been gathered into smaller cycles. The one thing that we must keep in mind is that any particular feature we find might come from the source or the compiler or from some other stage in this complex history.
If it be objected that this scheme is incredibly complex and that this use of sources is more than a composer could normally juggle, it is worth noting that the Odyssey -- universally acclaimed as one of the greatest of epic poems -- is generally considered to be just such as composite, combining multiple sources in a continuous narrative (Finley, p. 35). The difference lies not in the nature of the combination but in the skill with which the elements were combined.
WHAT THE GEST REPRESENTS
Comparisons of Robin to other figures of folklore can be tricky. Robbers are just robbers -- but Keen, p. 128, suggests that the Robin Hood of legend, from the very start, was completely unlike an outlaw such as Dick Turpin or Jesse James: Robin "was the enemy of the existing order, not a parasite on it." Similiarly, Cawthorne, p. 71, says that he represented anarchy in the May Games -- "a rebel against the normal order of things." On this basis he allegedly acted as a control on social unrest. (Although we should note that Pollard, p. 109, declares that Robin uses "righteous violence to maintain true justice precisely when the officers of the law have failed." Pollard, pp. 157-158, follows Hobsbawm in seeing Robin as the "Noble Robber." It is hard to deny that this is what the Robin Hood tale became, but it is far less clear in the ballads than in modern folklore.)
Perhaps it would be clearer to say that Robin stood outside the existing order than that he was its enemy, but he was certainly something unusual. Jones-Larousse, p. 371 goes so far as to maintain that "it seems likely that he is an entirely fictitious character, in whom was embodied the rebellious disquiet during the turbulent years from the end of the 12th century, which culminated in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381." Keen, in his chapter "The Outlaw Ballad as an Expression of Peasant Discontent," also invokes (pp. 166-167) Wat Tyler's 1381 rebellion, although he does not mention Robin Hood in this immediate context, and on p. 173 denies a direct connection. Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 144, even compares him with the later rebel Jack Cade.
Holt objected to the connection on the grounds that Robin was a northern hero, with no connection with the southern rebels, and Dobson/Taylor, p. 30, agree. In any case, we know from Langland that the legend was already in existence in some form. We might even speculate that later poets wanted to explicity deny a connection between Robin and Wat Tyler -- Tyler, after all, failed to accomplish anything.
Ashley, p. 86, believes Robin represents a different sort of protest: "Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest was to become a popular hero because he defied the forest laws."
But to create a legend needs more than a feeling of discontent. John Ball, who actually preached the sort of message that Jones-Larousse describes (Ball's catch phrase was "When Adam delved and Eve span, who then was the gentleman?"), is barely remembered -- and, as Dobson/Taylor point out on p. 32, "The strong sense of Christian fraternity expressed in the mysterious letters (possibly written by ohn Ball)... has left little imprint on the outlaw ballads.". Similarly, the Lollards, who represented many of these same ideals and who were as much against wealthy clerics as was Robin, never had any great success.
Some moderns have even more extreme speculations -- to then, Robin became a wood spirit: "Robin Hood, whom modern criticism has transformed from a forester into a forest elf, a kinsman of Herne the Hunter. It can hardly be considered a dry or destructive criticism which thus metamorphoses Robin Hood and Maid Marian into Oberon and Titania!" (Garnett/Gosse, p. 305). Child (p. 47) mentions a scholar who claimed he was a manifestation of Woden, the Anglo-Germanic chief god, and CHEL1, p. 218, says explicitly that in the period around 1200 "the ancient figure of Woden was being slowly metamorphosed into the attractive Robin Hood." Pollard, p. 78, mentions scholars who have equated him with figures of legend such as the Green Man, or even Robin Goodfellow! Frye, p. 196, proposes that "The characters who elude the moral antithesis of heroism and villainy generaly are or suggest spirits of nature....Kipling's Mowgli is the best known of the wild boys; a green man lurked in the forests of medieval England, appearing as Robin Hood and the knight of Gawain's adventure."
If you think that's bad, consider this: Wilgus, p. 315, mentions a whole movement -- the "Cambridge School" -- which make the claim that Robin was "the grand master of a witch coven and therefore the survival of a pagan god."
Happily, Child declared (p. 48) that he could not 'admit... even the shadow of a case" for any such interpretation. Similarly Anderson, pp. 147-148: "Efforts to attach Robin Hood to the tradition of the Huntington family or of the family of Ralph [sic.] of Chester. as well as efforts to give him a purely mythological kinship with Woden, come to nothing." As a result, this sort of silliness has largely faded.
Much more likely is W. E. Simone's conclusion, quoted on p. 316 of Wilgus: "A historic figure may be at the matrix, and he may wear the tatters of a god, but certainly the legend has been built, ballad by ballad, overwhelmingly, if not exclusively, by the ballad maker. His imagination wove a rich diversity into the ballads which, surprisingly enough, will support almost any theory for the origin of the great English outlaw."
As Wilgus summarizes on pp. 316-317, "Simone has restored Robin Hood to his rightful place in a pattern, not of ritual myth, but of the outlaw from before Hereward the Saxon to Jesse James and beyond -- "a story that has been created before and will undoubtedly be created again." Pringle, p. 14, is even more succinct: "The psychology of Robin Hood is very plain. There was no Robin Hood, so it was necessary to invent one."
(It appears, in fact, that one recounting of the Jesse James story actually borrowed from the "Gest." It was told by Homer Croy in 1949, and is found on pp. 79-81 of Dellinger. The James Gang came upon a woman who was about to lose her land. They give her the money to redeem the property, tell her to get the receipt, then as the mortgage agent leaves her land, rob him and take the $800. Note that this not only is the basic plot of the story of Robin, the Knight, and the Monk in the "Gest," but the sum of money involved even matches, in a different currency, that stolen from the Monk!)
The audience of the tales has been much debated. The very first line of the "Gest" calls on "gentilmen" to listen to it (pointed out by Pollard, p. 173), yet follows that up by speaking of those of freeborne blood -- much more likely to be a reference of yeomen and guildsmen than the aristocracy or gentry. And CHEL1, p. 276, observes that our surviving medieval epics gradually become more popular: "Beowulf was composed for persons of quality, Havelok [the Dane] for the common people."
Dobson/Taylor, p. 10, declare that "'yeoman minstrelsy' remains the most appropriate description for the Gest" as well as the two other earliest poems, the "Monk" and the "Potter" -- but they hardly explain the term; as Holt1, p. 110, declares, "the words leave much to be defined."
Dobson/Taylor add on p. 32 that "An unprejudiced reading of the Gest leads one to the inescapable conclusion that the outlaw leader's famous acts of liberality derive less from any notion of social distribution of wealth than from the aristocratic virtues of largesse and display," which seems to imply an audience of people trying to climb the social ladder. But they go on to add on p. 33 that "in the last resort it is the differences between Robin Hood and his counterparts [such as Hereward the Wake and Fulk] rather than their similarities which deserve most attention." Robin, they point out, shows no desire to take a high place in the legitimate social hierarchy. This even though, we should note, he is described as having enough money and followers to be a baron (see the notes on stanzas 49 and 229).
Holt1, p. 128, believes the legend as a whole was addressed to the various clerks and other officials of feudal households, many of whom would have borne the title "yeoman." Yet he also notes that Robin Hood plays were at least known to, and very likely performed before, the Pastons (Holt1, p. 142) -- who were of the gentry, and fairly substantial even by the standards of that class. He also has a throwaway comment, on p. 157, that the tales were targeted to "young men without responsibility" (this on the basis of the lack of women in the early stories).
Ohlgren suggests, p. 220, that the target audience of the "Gest" was the rising class of merchants and guildsmen. Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 25, claims that "another ideological subtext promotes the interests of the London guilds by portraying Robin as a cloth merchant. The poem, I believe, was originally commissioned in the mid-to-late fifteenth century... [for use] at the election dinner of one of London's major cloth guilds."
The logic strikes me as a stretch -- yes, there are some points of contact between Robin's acts and the behavior of the guilds. But Robin is too much the critic of society for him to be a close fit with the guilds. The lack of business-like language in the "Gest" is no proof, since most of the modern terms such as "profit" did not come into English until quite late (Shippey, p. 85) -- but Robin doesn't *think* like a merchant, as his refusal to make a profit on his dealings with the Knight show. The contacts Ohlgren sees arise, I think, because the "Gest" poet came from a mercantile background, not because they were his audience.
Ohlgren/Matheson, pp. 26-27, also mentions a widespread belief that Robin Hood plays and legends were an "outlet valve" created by the upper classes to keep the lower classes from getting out of hand. This strikes me as even more improbable -- for one thing, the many ballads in which a lord marries a commoner seem to imply that the primary goal of the lower classes was to move up the social scale, not overthrow it. And would even the stupidest lord be tempted to give his villeins encouragement to run off? I strongly doubt it.
Pollard, although pointing out on p. 29 that the "Potter" is clearly written for a yeoman audience, on p. xi, suggests that from a very early time the legend "appealed to both gentry and the commons. There are elements of both chivalric romance and lewd ribaldries" in the extant materials. He suggests on pp. 8-9 that the "Potter," the "Monk," and "Guy of Gisborne" were addressed to common people, but that different portions of the "Gest" were addressed to gentle and humble audiences.
Anderson, p. 148, says that "Robin Hood is, in his prime, a fine archer and woodsman; he is something of a socialist, even a communist; he is an outlaw, but a beloved outlaw who represents the commoner's itch for opportunity at the expense of his feudal masters. He is decent, self-respecting, and chivalrous (though not chivalric); he is God-fearing, devout, but carefree; he has, in short, all the middle-class virtues." This obviously would seem to imply a middle-class (yeoman) audience.
Ohlgren, on p. 112 of Ohlgren/Matheson, suggests that the "Gest" has a "pro-Yorkist bias" and so would have appealed to the Yorkist exiles in France and Burgundy in the period after Richard III was overthrown in 1485. There were Yorkist exiles, of course, and it is not impossible that the Lettersnijder edition was produced for them -- but I'm somewhat pro-Yorkist myself, and I completely fail to see evidence of a "Yorkist bias" in the "Gest." And, if the Tudors had seen even a hint of such a thing, how could so many printers working under the Tudors (Pynson, de Word, Copland, and -- if Ohlgren is right -- Goes and Notary) have produced editions?
It is obvious that printers of the period thought the tale would appeal to an educated audience; were it not so, the "Gest" would not have been printed. The fact that it was printed, and repeatedly, proves that either the business classes or the aristocracy read it. The initial invocation also sounds rather like that in a lot of the romances, hinting at al attempt to appeal to the sasme audience. Still, it seems likely that it originated with the people. It seems even more likely, as Knight/Ohlgren observe on p. 82, that the ultimate audience was mixed.
HISTORICAL AND LITERARY SOURCES FOR THE HISTORY OF ROBIN HOOD
Other than the ballads, the first literary reference to Robin Hood -- and the first source to explicitly treat him as a figure of legend -- is in Langland's Piers Plowman. In the "B" text, Passus V, lines 395-396, we read
I kan [ken, know] noght parfitly my Paternoster as the preest it syngeth,
But I kan [ken] rymes of Robyn Hood and Randolf Erl [Earl] of Chestre
(so Langland/Schmidt, p. 82, but there are no major variants in these lines -- although the numbering varies; Dobson/Taylor on p. 1. n. 1 call these lines 401-402). It is believed that this was written around 1377, at the very end of the reign of Edward III or early in the reign of Richard II, implying that by that date the Robin Hood legend had already entered the ballad tradition. In the C text, according to Dobson/Taylor, p. 1, the reference is found in passus VIII, line 11.)
There is no particular reason to think that Langland means that Robin and Ranulf of Chester were contemporary with each other. We do find a statement in the Forresters manuscript text of "Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham" [Child 139] that "Randolph kept Robin fifteen winters" (Knight, p. xvii, with the actual text on p. 2), but there is no reason to think that that Randolph is the Earl of Chester (a point even Knight admits on p. 2). Even if it were, it isn't much help. Several Earls of Chester were named Ranulf, with the second and the sixth being probably the most important (Child, in his note on p. 40, seems to refer to the sixth earl).
The first Ranulf became Earl of Chester in 1121 when his uncle died in the famous sinking of the White Ship (Tyerman, p. 146). His son, the second Ranulf, succeeded to the Earldom in 1129 (Tyerman, p. 146) but did not become heavily inolved in politics until the time of King Stephen (reigned 1135-1154). Bradbury, p. 144, calls him the fourth earl of Chester, and notes on p. 175 that he died in 1153.
Warren-Henry, p. 25, says of him: "In the extent of lands he held and the number of his vassals, Earl Ranulf de Gernons eclipsed all the other barons of the realm. The marcher lordship of Cheshire was only one element, and not the most important, in an honor which embraced wide estates throughout the midlands, major holdings in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and manors scattered over most of the southern counties. In addition he held important lordships and hereditary fiefs which made him a dominating influence in western Normandy as far as the confines of Brittany."
According to Bradbury, p. 37, "Ranulf de Gernons (the mustachioed) was a vitriolic individual." During the civil war between Stephen and the rightful queen Matilda, he had reason to dislike Stephen, but generally stayed neutral -- until Stephen made an attack on his position. Ranulf called on the forces of the Empress Matilda and her half-brother Robert of Gloucester. The combined armies routed and captured Stephen (Warren-Henry, p. 26); had Matilda's behavior been even slightly more reasonable, she might have been able to assume the throne. When she failed, Ranulf went back to Stephen's side -- only to be arrested by that King (Bradbury, p. 137). This forced Ranulf back into rebellion, and prolonged the civil war -- which, until that moment, Stephen had been winning.
There is an interesting sidelights on this Ranulf. First, we know that he had an ongoing quarrel with the constable of Nottingham, William Peverel, whom he accused of poisoning him (Bradbury, p. 164).
A later Ranulf of Chester -- the "third Randle" of Child, p. 40 -- became earl in 1181 and held the dignity for half a century. He thus was active at the end of the reign of King John. He seems to be the standard nominee for Langland's earl.; Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 50, notes several other recent scholars who have accepted this link. And he does have a link of sorts with the tale of Robin Hood, since this Ranulf is mentioned in the story of Fulk FitzWarren (Knight, p. 2; Cawthorne, p. 114), which is considered a source of the "Gest." For once this is historically possible, since Ranulf was alive in the reign of King John.
Baldwin, p. 28, says that "The only thirteenth-century Randolf (more usually Ranulf), Earl of Chester, was Ranulf 'de Blundeville' (i.e. of Oswestry), who died in 1232" -- although he is honest enough to add that "it is unclear if he was associated with Robin in some way." Nor, of course, can we arbitrarily assume that Robin lived in the thirteenth century, although this is Baldwin's position.
Powicke, p. 2, observes that when the barons wished to make the Earl Marshal regent over the new King Henry III in 1216, who was still a young boy, "The marshal was reluctant. In any case he felt that they should await the coming of Ranulf de Blundevill, earl of Chester, the greatest baron of the realm." Only when Ranulf arrived did the marshal finally accept the office of protector -- although, interestingly, when an attempt was made to bring him into the Marshal's government in 1217, the barons rejected it (Jolliffe, p. 267). Eventually they drove Ranulf to the brink of rebellion (Jolliffe, p. 268; Powicke, pp. 24-25 has a confusing story of him beseiging foreigners in the Tower of London)-- which makes a certain amount of sense for an associate of Robin.
Langland/Schmidt, p. 427, thinks this is the Ranulf that Langland meant, since his note on the verse refers to the Earl who lived from 1172-1232. Langland/Goodridge, p. 274, says "The Earl of Chester may be the one who married Constance [of Brittany], the widow of Geoffrey Plantagenet and mother of Prince Arthur (Earl from 1181 to 1231). Though his exploits are known, no ballads about him have survived."
Although the ballads are lost, Wilson, p. 128, says that Dugdale's Baronage has a "long unhistorical story, ascribed to an 'old mon of Peterborough,'" of the deposition of King John, with Ranulf of Chester defeating a French invasion and crowning Henry III -- obviously something that sounds a lot like a romance.
His career was certainly ballad-worthy. How often, for instance, do you hear of a man kidnapping *his own wife*? Yet Ranulf did so (Gillingham, p. 260). When in 1199 the throne of England became vacant, he had to decide whether to support John or Ranulf's own stepson Arthur of Brittany as the new King of England -- and he chose John. Arthur's mother, Constance of Brittany, who was now his wife, obviously wasn't happy with that. She preferred to be separated from him, and to live in Brittany, while Ranulf preferred England, so he had to capture her to assert control over her (Cawthorne, p. 32; according to Tyerman, p. 333, the marriage was finally dissolved in 1199).
Late in his life, according to Tyerman, p. 334, Ranulf was a participant in the Fifth Crusade (the one that attacked Egypt). And crusaders always tended to attract romantic tales.
Apart from the mention of "rhymes of Robin Hood," there are two other comments in Langland that may have some very tangential interest to the Robin Hood legend (cf. Holt1, p. 156). In the A-text, V.234 (Langland/KnottFowler, p. 82), we read
Roberd the robbour on Reddite [making restitution] lokide.
In the B-text, V.462 (Langland/Schmidt, p. 85), this becomes
Roberd the robbere on Reddite loked.
Despite the disagreement on the spelling of "robber," (and the fact that the C-text changes "robbere" to "ryfeler"; Mustanoja, p. 62), there is no question but that Langland's Robert was one. And Robin is the diminutive of Robert. It may be coincidence -- Piers the Plowman is alliterative, and Langland may have simply wanted a name beginning with "R" -- but it is of note that this robber has the same name as Our Hero. Indeed, one manuscript actually reads "Robyn" for "Roberd" (MS. W, according to Mustanoja, p. 61; this is at Trinity College, Cambridge, MS. B.15.17, according to Langland/Schmidt, p. liv., which James, volume 1, p. 480, dates to the fourteenth century; the binding contains fifteenth century materials)
In addition, Langland mentions "Folvyles Laws" (Passus XIX, line 248 in Langland/Schmidt). According to Baldwin, pp. 107-108, and Holt1, p. 155, this is a reference to the Folville Gang, a band of robbers active in the reigns of Edward II and Edward III who in 1332 robbed a justice of the King's Bench (Baldwin, p. 106). Baldwin, p. 105, says that they eventually made peace with the authorities (perhaps because they were willing to fight for Edward III in France), and says on page 107 that they were admired in certain quarters. Despite Langland's reference, which seems to imply that "Folville Laws" were instances of "might makes right," the account of their deeds and their pardon could have influenced the Robin Hood legend.
John Ball, the hedge priest who helped incite Wat Tyler's 1381 rebellion, told his listenerds to bid "Piers Plowman go to his work and chastise wel Hobbe the Robbere" (for full text of the remark, from John Ball's Letter to the Peasants of Essex, 1381, see Sisam, pp. 160-161). Since there is at least one instance of a man being called both "Hobbehod" and "Robehod," Cawthorne, p. 40, thinks this might be a reference to Robin. It is interesting to note that the letter's salutation says it is from "Iohan Schef, som tym Seynte Marie prest of (Y)ork" -- the very religious house with which the knight of the "Gest" was involved. But Sisam's extensive notes on this verse do not link it Robin Hood; the one historical figure he cites is Robert Hales, the Treasurer of England who was killed in 1381 -- although Sisam thinks even that link unlikely. Sisam also notes that "lawless men" were called "Robert's men" starting in the fourteenth century.
Curiously, from about the same time as Langland and John Ball comes a mention of a yeoman archer, clad in much the same forest costume we see in most Robin Hood stories: lines 101, 103-105, 108 of the prologue to the Canterbury Tales read as follows (Chaucer/Benson, p. 25):
A YEMAN [yeoman] hadde he and servantz namo...
And he was clad in cote and hood of grene.
A sheef of pecok arwes, bright and kene,
Under his belt he bar ful thriftily....
And in his hand he baar a myghty bowe....
In line 118, Chaucer goes on to call the yeoman a "forster" = forester.
For the peacock feathers, see the note on stanza 132 of the "Gest." For foresters, see the note on stanza 1. On this basis, Dobson/Taylor, p. 35, suggest that "this may have been Chaucer's own portrait of Robin Hood," and Pollard seems convinced (pp. 47-48) that Chaucer's yeoman is patterned on Robin, although we of course have no proof that Robin was called a forester, or even was considered to live in the forest, at this time.
Keen also mentions a line in Troilus and Criseyde which reads "From haselwode, there joly Robin pleyde" (V.1174 in Chaucer/Benson), which Keen -- without manuscript support that I can see -- converts to "hazellwood there Jolly Robin plaid."
Keen thinks this passage a reference to Robin Hood, and Knight/Ohlgren, p. 1, call it "probably a glimpse of the outlaw at a distance." Chaucer/Benson, p. 1054, mentions the possibility but regards it as improbable, noting that "Joly Robin was a common name for a shepherd or rustic." Mustanoja, p. 64, appears to think it a reference to the French Robin-and-Marion traditions. Cawthorne, p. 31, seems to accept it as a reference to Robin, and Baldwin, p. 28, mentions it without even quoting the doubts. Chaucer/Mills, p. 274, states that it refers to the shepherd hero of "Robin and Marion" type romances. Chaucer'/Warrington's notes don't even mention Robin Hood. Chaucer/Benson and Chaucer/Warrington both think the hazelwood is a place divorced from contact with society -- an otherworld -- rather than part of the greenwood.
What is certain is that Chaucer never mentioned Robin Hood by name, though the Miller and several others in the Canterbury Tales are named Robin. However, some manuscripts *do* mention Robin. In a piece called The Reply of Friar Daw Topias (Wilson, p. 139; Chambers, p. 130) we read
And many men speken of Robyn Hood,
And shotte nevere in his bowe.
Cawthorne, p. 40, also notes this proverb in an edition of Dives and Pauper, which he cites as being a few years older than Friar Daw Topias. Dobson/Taylor, p. 2, observe that Dives was published by Pynson in 1493, but never really critically edited; it refers elsewhere to Robin Hood as a figure of song.
What Wilson believes to be a variant this proverb, minus the name of Robin, is found in Troilus and Criseyde, iii.859-861 (actually ii.861). And two manuscripts of Chaucer, H4 and Ph, make the line to refer to Robin (although neither manuscript is considered very good; Chaucer/Benson, pp. 1161-1162. Holt1, p. 141, also thinks this a de-Robinized version of the proverb).
For full discussion of this proverb, see Dobson/Taylor, p. 289. This is their section on proverbs of Robin Hood, but this appears the only true proverb of the bunch.
Robin occurs in several chronicles, but they place him in very diverse contexts. At one time it was believed he was mentioned by Fordun c. 1386 (Benet, p. 934), but Fordun's Chronicle was continued by Bower, and it is now accepted that Bower interpolated the reference to Robin (Keen, p. 177). Bower himself (c. 1445, according to Holt1, p. 40) called Robin a "famous murderer" and links him to Little John; he dates them to 1266 (reign of Henry III; Holt speculates that this might make him one of the defeated followers of Simon de Montfort; compare Keen, p. 177; Chambers, p. 130; Dobson/Taylor, p. 16; Cawthorne, p. 36).
Pollard, p. 3, makes the interesting observation that Bower's tale of Robin is not attested elsewhere. There is a Latin text in a footnote on p. 41 of Child, and a translation on p. 26 of Knight/Ohlgren. It involves Robin being trapped while hearing mass and managing to escape. Bower thus is in the odd situation of calling Robin a murderer and saying he was saved because of his religious devotion!
Baldwin, in fact, makes Bowyer's dating the basis for his whole book. He thinks Robin is based on Roger Godberd and Little John on Walter Devyas. Godberd was a rather rambunctious member of the yeomanry who fought for de Montfort, and Devyas was his ally (their biography occupies pp, 153-166 of Baldwin). The knight of the "Gest" is Sir Richard Foliot (Baldwin, p. 169), one of whose castles resembled the description of Sir Richard's in the "Gest" (Baldwin, p. 170), and who did shelter Godberd for a time (Holt1, p. 99).
The parallels to the story of Robin, the Knight, and the Abbott are impressive enough that Holt allows the possibility that Godberd's story was a source for the "Gest." Baldwin, p. 172. compares several of their actions to the events in the "Monk." They even operated in Sherwood Forest (Baldwin, p. 182).
There are difficulties, however. Even Baldwin admits, p. 168, that Roger Godberd was not known as an archer -- and, surely, if there is one thing Robin Hood must be, it is an archer! Nor was Godberd notably pious, and he had a wife and children (Baldwin, p. 174). Plus he was taken into custody in 1272 (Cawthorne, p. 152), and stayed there long enough to plead a case (Baldwin, pp. 183-184, 187). And Holt1, p. 98, observes that the association of Godberd with Sherwood was a misreading of the source manuscript; it actually reads "Charnwood."
Plus the story of Gilbert de Middleton has parallels to the story of the Knight which are about as close as those of Roger Godberd (see note on Stanza 292) -- and allow us a more consistent chronological framework. And, if the story of Roger Godberd is so carefully preserved that even the description of the Knight's castle is accurate, why does the "Gest" not tell more of the early parts of Roger Godberd's story?
I observe that Powicke's immense history of the thirteenth century never mentions Godberd. If he really did anything important enough to inspire the Robin Hood legend, that would seem unlikely.
And Baldwin, p. 172, quotes a section in Bower about Robert Hood, who was one of the rebels against Henry III -- but in a context separate from his mention of Robin Hood. Bower's information about Robert Hood may be from a historical source, but his information about Robin Hood is from legend, and there is no reason to equate the two.
Admittedly, some secondary support for Bower's date in the reign of Henry III comes from the fact that Henry, in his 1251 Assize of Arms, includes bowmen for the first time; men with property of 40 to 100 shillings were to bear a sword, dagger, and bow (Featherstone, p. 26; in the first assize, of 1181, a freeman with land worth 16 marks was supposed to have a hauberk, helmet, shield, and lance, according to Mortimer, p. 54). Thus this is the period when the longbow was first coming to prominence.
It is true that Gerald of Wales refers to what sounds like a longbow in 1188 (Baldwin, p. 46). But we are referring to English, not Welsh, use of the longbow. Even Henry III's son Edward I still took mostly spearmen when he fought in Wales in the 1280s, and archers do not seem to have been important at the great battles of Lewes and Evesham in the 1260s (Chandler/Beckett, p. 9). In any case, Lewes and Evesham were battles between the barons and Henry III; it doesn't make much sense for Robin to be a follower of Earl Simon unless he was at least of the gentry.
This does not mean that Roger Godberd's exploits could not have contributed to the general outlaw legend; they might well have. But that does not make him the Original Robin, or even a direct source.
Chandler/Beckett, p. 9, claims that it was "not until the 1330s that [longbowmen's] full value began to be recognized." This is a strong argument that Robin should be dated between about 1251 (when bows were becoming common) and 1330 (when they were all but universal).
The Scotsman Andrew de Wynton/Wyntoun (c. 1415, according to Holt1, p. 40; Knight/Ohlgren, p. 24, dates him c. 1420; EncycLiterature, p. 1218 gives his dates as c. 1350-c.1423) mentions Robin and John; see the note on Stanza 3. Wyntoun -- who was an old man at the time he wrote his octosyllablic chronicle, and so would probably have known had the legend arisen in recent decades (Baldwin, p. 59) dates Robin to 1283-1285 (reign of Edward I), and places him in "Ynglewode and Bernysdale" or "Ingilwode and Bernnysdaile" ("Inglewood and Barnsdale"). Keen, p. 176, thinks the mention of Inglewood, not normally associated with Robin, may be by confusion with "Adam Bell" -- although we there is no evidence that Adam's tale existed at this time.
It is interesting to note that Young, p. 118, shows a chart of forest receipts for Inglewood in the 1300s, and it reveals a decline in the 1320s, hitting bottom in 1323, followed by a sharp spike in 1324 and rising to a peak in 1328 before declining again. In the chronology below, the low point corresponds exactly to the time when Robin was most active in the greenwood, and the ascent begins the year below. Of course, the most likely explanation is that all this has to do with Edward II's wars with Scotland and the Duke of Lancaster, not with Robin Hood.
Alternately, Knight/Ohlgren, p. 24, suggest that the linkage of Inglewood and Barnsdale derives from the Barnsdale in Rutland, associated with the Earls of Huntingdon, who were Kings of Scotland. Except that the Scots king had lost the Huntingdon earldom a century before Wynton's time.
From about the same time is a scrap of poetry beginning
Robyn Hod in Scherewod stod,
Hodud & hathud, hosut & schod.... (Wilson, p. 140. cf. Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 18).
The fragment is only four lines, with no details, and the date of the handwriting is only a guess Baldwin, p. 28, would place it around 1410; but Wilson says only that the most likely date is early fifteenth century. Ohlgren/Matheson place in c. 1425 based on the fact that it uses linguistic forms which were just coming into use.
Dobson/Taylor, p. 18, go so far as to call it "the very first poem on the subject of Robin Hood," but it tells us nothing. Its main significance, apart from being a very early bit "ryme of Robyn Hood," lies in the fact that it places him in Sherwood (a name which is not mentioned even in the Nottingham portions of the "Gest") rather than Barnsdale. On the other hand, the mention of Sherwood is the only reason to assume the Robin Hood of this poem is the legendary outlaw.
Balancing that reference is a 1429 mention (supposedly as a legal maxim!) "Robin Hode en Bernesdale stode" (Dobson/Taylor, p. 18). Given the uncertainty of the date of the Sherwood reference, we really cannot say whether the Sherwood or Barnsdale reference is earlier.
Dobson/Taylor, p. 23, point to a chartulary of (probably) 1422 which mentions a Robin Hood's Stone; it seems to be on the same site as one of the places now known as Robin Hood's Well (in Barnsdale, on the Great North Road about four miles south of Sayles and Wentbridge).
A 1439 petition to parliament compares a certain Piers Venables to "Robyn-hode and his meyne" (Dobson/Taylor, p. 4Chambers, p. 130). The next year, we find a gang making some sort of demonstration and declaring that they were "Robynhodesmen" (Baldwin, p. 28).
A ship Robyn Hude was at Aberdeen in 1438 (Chambers, p. 131, Dobson/Taylor, p 40), although we don't know why it was so named. Perhaps vaguely linked to this is a report of an "early fifteenth century sermon" which mentions prophecies of "Thomas of Asildowne [Thomas of Ercildoune, i.e. Thomas the Rhymer] and Robyn Hoode" (Pollard, p. 163. This seems to be the only early mention of a supernatural side to Robin -- and, at that , it might not by prophecies by, but rather prophecies about, Robin. It would appear that this is the sermon mentioned by Ohlgren/Matheson, pp. 50-51, which was preached to parliament by Chancellor Robert Stafford in 1433.).
Our next mention of Robin probably comes from the ballads themselves; the earliest Robin Hood ballad manuscript is "Robin Hood and the Monk" [Child 119], which occurs in ms. Cambridge Ff. 5.48 of about 1450. Soon after, we find a dramatic fragment of the story of "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne" [Child 118] scribbled on the back of a slip of financial receipts dated 1475/6 C.E. (Note, incidentally, that Guy is *not* "Sir Guy"; he is a yeoman, not a knight.) This is not the ballad itself, but it is clearly the same story. The Complaynt of Scotland (1549), which mentions many ballads, also mentions shepherds' tales of "Robene Hode and litil ihone" (Chambers, p. 165).
A note in the margin of a reference work, Higden's Polychronicon, mentions Robin Hood as a robber. The Polychronicon was written by Ranulf (or Ralph) Higden (or Hyden, or Hygden), about whom little is known except that he probably diedi n 1364. It was a seven-book history of the world, popular enough to exist in about a hundred copies. In its original form, it seems to have ended with the year 1327, although there were continuations, including a common one taking the history to the year 1342 (Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 269). As a history, it is of slight significance, and it does not itself mention Robin Hood. But because it was so common, it would easily pick up glosses about other historical events. That seems to be the case with this particular note.
The note is not contemporary with the text; it is believed to have been written in about 1460. It gives no date and few other details, but it is written in a part of the Polychronicon dealing with the late period of Edward I's reign (implying a date for Robin c. 1295). Although the newspapers at the time made a lot of noise about the discovery of this note (Baldwin, pp. 60-61), the uncertainty about its date dramatically reduces its value. Its interest lies in the fact that it is in a history copied in England (Baldwin, p. 62). Every previous mention is either Scottish (Bower, Wyntoun, Major; see Holt1, p. 51) or literary rather than historical (Langland). (Indeed, Pollard, p. 64, makes the curious comment that, although the Robin Hood legend is clearly northern, the references to it in historical sources are all from southern England.)
During the Wars of the Roses, a certain Robin, surname unknown, led a gang in Yorkshire which supported the Earl of Warwick in 1468 (Ross-Edward, p. 119). One Robin of Redesdale raised a rebellion against Edward IV in 1469. This fellow also called himself "Robin Mend-All" (Ross-Edward, p. 126). The name is patently a disguise (Warkworth's Chronicle declares that Robin was really Sir William Conyers; Dockray, p. 69), and he was commissioned by the Earl of Warwick and other rebels, but Scott/Duncan, p. 531, calls him an "avatar" of Robin Hood, and I agree that the name seems a clear attempt to invoke Robin's legend. This marks an interesting change; in the early 1400s, rebels called themselves "Jack' -- in 1450, it was Jack Cade, and a rebel of the 1430s called himself Jack Sharp (Wolffe, p. 66).
On the other hand, another rebel of the period was called Robin of Holderness, and although Holt1, p. 58, links both Robin of Redesdale and Robin of Holderness with Robin Hood, the rebel of Holderness had few Robin Hood characteristics; it seems much more likely that "Robin" was just a common name for "ordinary folks." Note, however, the fact that Little John in stanza 149 of the "Gest" claims to be from Holderness.
It is fascinating to note that Robin of Redesdale's rebellion prompted Edward IV to come north to try to suppress him (Ross-Edward, p. 129), just as the king in the "Gest" came north to deal with Robin Hood. Edward, in fact, seems to have based himself at Nottingham for a time (Ross-Edward, p. 131). And, somewhat later, Edward formally pardoned Conyers/Robin (Ross-Edward, p. 144).
Edward IV's attempt to deal directly with Robin of Redesdale was, however, a complete flop; Redesdale was an open rebel, and Edward's attempt to suppress him never got off the ground; Edward in fact was captured soon after by the Earl of Warwick and temporarily removed from power (Ross-Edward, p. 133). And Redesdale beat forces sent by Edward to deal with him at the battle of Edgecote (Dockray, p. 65)
At least, that is the best reconstruction we can give today. Our historical sources for this period are extremely poor (Ross-Edward, pp. 130-131). Ross-Edward devotes an appendix to the sources for the various Robin-the-rebels (pp. 439-440), noting that they are so confused that different scholars have proposed four different explanations:
1. That there was a single rebellion, by Robin of Redesdale;
2. That there was a single rebellion, bu Robin of Holderness (or "Robert Hulderne");
3. That there were two rebellions, one by Redesdale and one by Holderness;
4. (and this is the one that Ross tentatively follows) That there were three rebellions, by Redesdale, by Holderness, and a revived rebellion by Redesdale. Reid, pp. 431-432, has a variant on this in which Robin of Holderness came first, then Robin of Redesdale, who was "suppressed" but then revived his rebellion.
About all we can say for certain is that one of the rebellions seemed to invoke Robin Hood.
At almost this same time, Child notes a mention of Robin Hood in the Paston Letters (1473) -- the legend inspired one or more Paston servants (the stableboy W. Wood, according to Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 57; Holt1, p. 142, mentions a "Kothye Plattyng") to run off to Barnsdale! It may be that the servant was inspired by that play of Guy of Gisborne; it has been suggested that the play came from the Paston correspondence (Dobson/Taylor, p. 204; Pollard, pp. 12, 164), and the glue on the back of the paper seems to imply that it was extracted from a larger collection of materials (Cawthorne, p. 68). Dobson/Taylor, p. 18, suggest that Paston's reference to Barnsdale is a joke, but it still links Robin with Barnsdale.
(It is interesting to note that the two earliest Robin Hood manuscripts, Cambridge MS. Ff.5.48 containing "Robin Hood and the Monk" [Child 119] and Cambridge MS. E.e.4.35 containing "Robin Hood and the Potter" [Child 121], was owned by someone who gave the Latin version of his name as Ricardo Calle, whom Ohlgren believes was Richard Call, a servant of the Pastons of Norfolk (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 21). Thus we have four substantial Paston links to Robin Hood: The "Monk," the "Potter," the play of Guy, and the servant who ran away. It seems Robin was very well known in the Paston area of Norfolk by the 1460s.)
The Tollet Window, mentioned above in connection with Friar Tuck, is only one of many pieces of evidence showing that, by the late fifteenth century, Robin Hood was a character in the May games -- Holt2, p. 194, thinks that this was how most people knew him around 1500. And most scholars, including Dobson/Taylor, p. 41 and Holt1, p. 160, think this is how he came to be associated with Maid Marian.
The first known instance of Robin in the games comes from Exeter in 1427 (Keen, p. 228),. But, except that he was a bowman associated with Little John, little can be learned from these early games. Although we do read that Robin collected tolls for the games, which might link to the notion of robbery (so Holt2, pp. 195-196). Supposedly playing the role of Robin Hood was very popular, and men had to wait years for the chance, at least in the town of Yeovil (Cawthorne, p. 70).
Pollard, p. 91, seems to suggest that the revival of the forest laws under Henry VII Tudor (reigned 1485-1509) would have renewed interest in that most noteworthy of poachers, Robin Hood -- which might be why the "Gest" was printed at least twice around this time. But the number of mentions of Robin in the century before 1485 rather reduces the force of this argument.
The Scotsman Gavin Douglas in 1501 mentions "Roene Hude, and Gilbert with the quhite hand" (Dobson/Taylor, p. 5) -- the first mention of Gilbert. Dobson/Taylor think this an allusion to the "Gest," but this seems unlikely -- why link Robin to such an obscure character?
Supposedly Henry VIII played around at being an outlaw in 1510 -- "he made a carefully prepard invasion of Queen Catherine's chamber one morning, with a dozen companions, all in short coats of Kentish Kendal with hoods on their heads, each with his bow and arrows, sword, and buckler, 'like outlaws, or Robin Hood's men, whereof the Queen, the ladies, and all others there were abashed.'" Only after dancing did the men reveal their identity (Williams, pp. 46-47).
Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 186, suggests that this was associated with the 1515 publication of Julian Notary's edition of the "Gest," but since we cannot prove either that Notary produced an edition or that he did it in 1515, this is obviously speculation.
Dancing with women, of course, is utterly unlike the early legend, but the gear is Robin Hood-like. Indeed, our source Edward Hall compares them to Robin Hood's men (Cawthorne, p. 72; Dobson/Taylor, p. 42; the textof Hall's report is in Ohlgren/Matheson, pp. 127-128) -- but he was writing a third of a century later and is not a very reliable author. Ohlgren suggests on p. 128 of Ohlgren/Matheson that there is some sort of link between Hall's account and the events of the last two fits of the "Gest."
Kendal Green was a color associated with outlaws, see the note on stanza 422.
We shouldn't make too much of Henry's games; Mattingly, p. 129, says of this event, "Once when the court was at Greenwich, a party of masked invaders, all in Kendal Green, burst into the Queen's apartments, conveniently followed by a band of music." It was obviously evident at once that this was Henry VIII -- and the fact that he chose outlaws is not unusual, because he and his fellow revelers did this sort of thing regularly, invading the Queen's appartments in the guise of "Turks or Moors or Germans."
Later, in 1515, Henry saw a Robin Hood pageant (Knight/Ohlgren, p. 9; Williams, p. 47; Cawthorne, pp. 72-73), although we have few details; it seems to have involved a longbow exhibition. This is perhaps most significant because Anthony Munday (of whom more below) used this as a framing device for his plays: The opening phase of "The Downfall of Robert, Earle of Huntington" features actors playing Henry's courtiers presenting a play before King Henry, with the courtiers then taking the roles of Robin and colleagues, making it a "play within a play" (Dobson/Taylor, p. 221; Knight/Ohlgren, p. 298, plus the cast of characters on p. 303, etc.).
In 1521, John Major (according to Holt1, p. 41) dated Robin to 1193/4 (reign of Richard I), although he called this an "estimate" (Keen, p. 177; Knight/Ohlgren, p. 27, quotes him as saying that Robin lived "About this time... as I conceive"). Major confirms that tales -- and songs -- of Robin were widespread (Dobson/Taylor, p. 5), that he defended women, that he robbed abbots, and that he had a large band of a hundred men (compare Stanza 229, where Robin is credited with seven score followrs). Major condemned his acts but called him the "humanest" of robbers.
Baldwin, p. 29, points out that Major credited Robin with helping rather than robbing the poor. Major also calls Robin the "dux" of robbers, which Knight/Ohlgren render as "chief." Cawthorne, p. 38, points out that "dux" was also the root of the English word "duke," and suggests that this was the first attempt to link Robin to the nobility -- which is perhaps possible, but the context seems to imply merely that Robin was the foremost robber. And to call Robin a shadow duke, rather than a shadow earl, is impossible in Major's context -- the first English Dukes were not created until the reign of Edward III (OxfordCompanion, p. 557; Barber, p. 20), and it was not until some time later that England saw its first non-royal duke.
In any case, Major published his work *after the "Gest" was published*, and probably long after it was written, so we have no reason to believe that the author of the "Gest" had even heard of a date in the era of Richard and John.
Major's date was followed by John Leland (fl. 1530) and later by Richard Grafton (fl. 1550), who claims to have found records of Robin in the exchequer rolls -- records which, however, cannot now be found. Grafton, who seems to have published in 1569 (Knight/Ohlgren, p. 27) also claimed an "ancient pamphlet" (but what are the odds that he would have an unprinted pamphlet? And if it was printed, then it wasn't very ancient.) Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 187, suggests that the pamphlet was a copy of the "Gest," but if this were so, why would Grafton have dated Robin to the reign of Richard I?
Grafton's claims of documentation seem to have given his claims extra weight (Knight/Ohlgren, p. 28), but there is every reason to think the claims were false. For more on Grafton, see the notes to Stanzas 451, 454.
Baldwin, p. 30, observes that Grafton claimed Earl Robin was outlawed for debt -- and points out that this is extremely unlikely. Earls certainly went bankrupt from time to time, but they didn't get outlawed, they just had to forfeit properties.
William Tyndale, the first man to translate the Bible from Greek into English, in 1528 denounced Robin Hood stories as "ribabldries" (Pollard, p. 10).
Around 1550, Bishop Hugh Latimer mentions "Robin Hood's Day" in a sermon to Edward VI (reigned 1547-1553), and gripes that he cannot find people to preach to on this day (Dobson/Taylor, p. 39), this is probably a reference to the May Games (Hazlitt, p. 519).
The Scottish parliament, in the course of the reformation, banned the May Games and Robin's role in 1555 (Cawthorne, p. 73).
The Stationer's Register for 1557-1558 contains a mention of the "ballett of Wakefylde and a grene" (Dobson/Taylor, p. 47). If, as seems likely, this is an early printed version of "The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield," that would make it perhaps the first Robin Hood piece printed after the "Gest," and the first true broadside print. There was also a "ballett of Robyn Hod" entered in 1562-1563, but this we cannot identify at present. Dobson/Taylor, p. 48, observe that Robin Hood broadsides are commonly registered starting in 1624; a handful of these survive today.
In 1560, William Copeland registered a Robin Hood play in the Stationer's Register (Cawthorne, p. 74). This is very likely the play which appears at the end of the "f" print of the "Gest," although the matter cannot be proved.
Our first tune associated with Robin, according to Bronson, comes from the period from 1575-1591, but as it is simply called "Robin hoode," and has no lyrics, we do not know whether it was for one of the extant ballads or is something else.
Knight/Ohlgren, p. 5, observe that a "remarkable number of plays and games of Robin Hood" are attested, from all parts of Britain, by 1600. Indeed, in 1577-1578, the Scottish Kirk felt the need to go beyond its action of 1555 and suppress "playes of Robin Hood, King of May, and sick others, on the Sabboth Day," and later to ban them entirely (Child, p. 45). He even begins to appear on the London stage in the 1590s (Cawthorne, p. 77) -- at least once in association with the pindar of Wakefield (Cawthorne, p. 78). One of these plays includes the unlikely stage direction "Enter Robin Hood in Lady Faukenberg's nightgown, a turban on his head" (Cawthorne, p. 80).
But these are only mentions; we do not have the scripts of the plays themselves, and cannot know what state of the legend they reveal. Knight/Ohlgren think Robin is used in them to raise money for community projects. On p. 6 they suggest that the surname "Robinhood," mentioned also by Holt, arose because it became hereditary in some families for someone to play Robin in village pageants. Knight/Ohlgren, p. 7, suggest that the plays may have preceded and given rise to the ballads. Chronologically this is certainly possible -- but the difficulty is that it is much easier for a ballad to spread than a play. The first play might have preceded the first ballad -- but in general, it seems likely that the ballads preceded the legend and the plays followed.
The London stage had certainly seen Robin in drama by 1593, when George Peele's Edward the First, sirnamed Edward Longshanks was published (Dobson/Taylor, pp. 43-44).
We do not kow the exact date when Anthony Munday started working on Robin Hood plays, but we know that he was paid five pounds for one in February 1598 (Knight/Ohlgren, p. 296).
Munday died in 1633; he born 1553 according to his tombstone, although there are indications that he was younger, according Kunitz/Haycraft, pp. 370-371; Boyce, p. 453, gives his birth date as "c. 1560."
Munday had apparently been a printer and an unsuccessful actor before turning his limited talents to writing. Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 371, give an amazing summary of his early career: "First he imitated the Mirror for Magistrates in two gloomy poems, The Mirror of Mutability and The Pain of Pleasure. Then he imitated Lyly's Eupheues in his prose romance Zelauto. Next, he turned informer against his Catholic friends and was instrumental in having several of them executed. In 1581-82 he wrote several anti-Catholic pamphlets and The English-Roman Life...." It was apparently around 1585 that he turned his talents to drama.
His two dramatic works on the Robin Hood theme were "The Downfall of Robert, Earle of Huntington" and "The Death of Robert, Earle of Huntington." Knight/Ohlgren suggest that this was originally intended to be one play, but was too long, Henry Chettle was called upon to break it into two items (making it one of the small handful of items we still have from Chettle's pen; Kunitz/Haycraft, pp. 104-105), although Dobson/Taylor, p. 221, think the plays are substantially as Munday wrote them.
The pair of plays seem to have been produced in 1599, although Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 371, date them to 1601 (the date they were printed) and Boyce, p. 453, to 1598 (apparently on the basis that Philip Henslowe commissioned "antony monday" to write a Robin Hood play in that year; Dobson/Taylor, p. 221).
Whether one play or two, monograph or collaboration, a primary source seems to have been Michael Drayton's 1594 poem "Matilda, the Fair and Chaste Daughter of Lord. R. Fitzwater" (Dobson/Taylor, p. 222) -- a long work now almost impossible to find. But Monday used his sources with "a freedom which occasionally bordered on violence" (Dobson/Taylor, p. 222, quoting the Malone Society edition of Munday).
It has been suggested (Knight/Ohlgren, p. 296) that the Robin Hood plays inspired Shakespeare to write "As You Like it." However, of the four Shakespeare references I checked, only one even mentioned the possibility, and only as a possibility. Perhaps the Munday plays suggested a play in the greenwood -- but Shakespeare also used the greenwood in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" without evident extermal prompting. Such vague thematic links as exist probably derive from the fact that Shakespeare's source for "As You Like It" used "The Tale of Gamelyn" for his plot.
There is an actual link between Munday and Shakespeare (as well as Chettle), but it is quite indirect: Munday seems to have been the primary scribe, as well as the primary author (perhaps with Chettle), of the play "Sir Thomas More," which Shakespeare (and three or four others) were called upon to rewrite because it was so lousy (RiversideShakespeare, p. 1683).
Although he had a modest success as a translator of French and Spanish romances, Munday seems to have been a hack; only one other of his unquestioned plays survives ("John a Kent and John a Cumber," written in 1594 according to Craig, p. 187), although Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 371, also credit him with "Fidele and Fortunio" (1585) and "Sir John Oldcastle" (1600).
Few of these products is regarded as memorable; Craig, p. 109, is the most charitable, and praises the Robin Hood plays and the poem "I serve a mistress whiter than the snow'" (which does absolutely nothing for me), yet even Craig admits that Munday was "not a great author." FordEtAl, p. 126, quotes an early source which calls him a "dismal draper of misplaced literary ambitions" (a wisecrack that is widely quoted but somehow never attributed). He would be almost completely forgotten were it not for his work on the Robin Hood plays and "Sir Thomas More."
It is an interesting comment on the power of Elizabethan theater that such a lousy work as Munday's plays could have so much influence on tradition. Admittedly Shakespeare's so-called "history" plays, which have about as much history in them as Hitler had friendship for Jews, have distorted people's understanding of the Plantagenets for centuries -- but that's Shakespeare. Knight/Ohlgren, p. 10, describe Munday's works as the best of the "gentrified" stories of Robin Hood, but grant that the Munday version "lacks an inner thematic and political tension," resulting in the enfeebling of the tradition.
Dobson/Taylor, p. 44, point out ironically that another alleged Munday play, "Metropolis Coronata, The Triumphes of Ancient Drapery," completely changes the scenario and makes Robin the son-in-law not of Lord Fitzwater but o Henry Fitz-Aylwin, the first Lord Mayor of London. However there seems to be significant doubt about whether Munday wrote the 1615 pageant. In any case, it had far less influence than his earlier work. For Ohlgren's suggestions about this piece, see the notes to Stanza 310.
Dobson/Taylor's conclusion about Munday is that "No English writer has ever handled the Robin Hood legend in a more high-handed and cavalier fashion" (p. 45) -- which does not alter the fact that he completely altered the shape of the story.
From around the same time as Munday is the biography of Robin found in British Library MS. Sloane 780. This seems to agree with Munday in making Robin a nobleman (Holt1, p. 42, although damage to the manuscript at the key point, and the fact that it is generally quite hard to read, make this unsure).
(Briggs, in her summaries of the Robin Hood tales, notes on p. 474 of volume A.2 that there is "no satisfactory treatment of the subject of the noble outlaw" in the various motif indices, which is truly unfortunate in examining tales such as this.)
In 1632, Martin Parker published "The True Tale of Robin Hood," which lists Robin's death date as December 4, 1198, very late in the reign of Richard I (Holt1, p. 41).
The first of the garlands was published in 1663 (and, according to Dobson/Taylor, p. 52, it cannot have been the first); it is the primary basis for many of Child's texts. Another garland followed in 1670. It has been suggested that the Forresters Manuscript was intended as the copy text for a garland. Eventually the garlands ran 80-100 pages and included 16-27 ballads (Dobson/Taylor, p. 51), although hardly what we would consider the best of them. We might note the comment of Dobson/Taylor (p. 50) that "generally, the Robin of the broadsides [and hence the garlands] is a much less tragic, less heroic and in his last resort less mature figure than his medieval predecessor." This was the Robin Hood of the middle seventeenth and eighteenth century.
The Percy Manuscript, the earliest source for, among others, "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne," "Robin Hood's Death," "Robin Hood and the Butcher," "Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar," "The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield," "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires," and "Little John A Begging," is thought to date from the mid-seventeenth century; so is the Forresters manuscript, discovered in 1993, with texts, often edited or expanded, of 22 Robin Hood ballads (Knight/Ohlgren, p. 13). Knight, p. xviii, suggests that it might have been compiled as the basis for a new and improved garland.
In 1661, the town of Nottingham was publishing a play, "Robin Hood and His Crew of Souldiers" (Dobson/Taylor, p. 237). This obviously implies that Robin was well known by then -- and that Nottingham thought him worth claiming, even though the tale heavily rewrites the legend and is really quite poor.
The papers of Thomas Gale (d. 1702) say that the inscription on Robin's alleged tombstone dated his death to 24 Kalends of December 1247 (this is not a legitimate Roman date, but may mean December 24; in any case the language of the inscription is far too modern for 1247 and Keen, p. 180, notes clear evidence of fakery: "Neither [English] spelling nor its pronunciation were ever so hideously mauled as here." (This was, of course, written before the days of Nigerian scams and sex sites pretending to be by illiterate Asians.) Those wishing to see the absurd thing for themselves may see Percy-Wheatley I, pp.103-104, or -- with a different spelling which is doubtless revealing -- Holt2, p. 42. Cawthorne, p. 44, does point out that Gale had the education to know better than to use a date of 24 Kalends. Ritson accepted this death date (Cawthorne, p. 45), even though it forced him to make Robin 87 years old at the time!
Other sources report a grave at Kirklees, with the inscription "Here lie Roberd Hude, William Goldburgh, Thomas" (names not otherwise found in Robin Hood lore, unless William Goldburgh was the real name of the man known in tradition as William Scarlock/Scathelock/Scarlett. We do find the names in Grafton; see the notes on Stanzas 451, 454. It has been suggested that the stone's inscription was taken from Grafton rather than the reverse). This was copied by Johnston in 1665, but was no longer legible in the time of Gough (1786), apparently because people had been chipping off portions as souvenirs or maybe even relics with curative powers (Cawthorne, p. 45; Balswin, p. 75), although Gough reprinted Johnson's version.
Today the grave slab can no longer be found -- presumably because the artifact-hunters and seekers of toothache cures kept pounding on it -- and Keen, pp. 180-182, notes conflicts in our sources regarding it. Gough did report that the ground under the slab was undisturbed, meaning that the slab was either a trick or had been moved (Holot1, p. 44). Holt1, p. 41, is convinced that the slab was real, because so many witnesses reported it, but while the actual stone might have given us some useful information, the stories about it don't.
There are many other alleged relics. We know of a "Robin Hood's stone" in Barnesdale, which apparently was seen by Henry VII in 1486 (Pollard, p. 70; Baldwin, p. 79, observes that this is the first spot which can be documented to have been named for Robin), "Robin Hood's Well," mentioned in 1622 (in fact, there are at least two Robin Hood's Wells, according to Baldwin, p. 78, one near Nottingham and the other near Barnsdale; Betts, Legends, p. 17, says they are near Doncaster and Fountains Abbey); etc.
Bett, pp. 16-17 in the "Legends" volume, gives a catalog of (mostly unlikely) sites and objects associated with Robin, such as Robin Hood's Penistone, a great rock which he is said to have kicked from the next town; a Robin Hood's Tower at Richmond Castle in Yorkshire; Robin Hood's Picking Rods in Derbyshire; and even Robin Hood's Bog in Northumberland.
Some may have been named for him long ago, but they are simply too widely scattered to have been originally associated with his legend. Indeed, Dobson/Taylor, pp. 295-311, give a catalog of artifacts and places traditionally associated with Robin Hood, and while the great majority are in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and Yorkshire -- but there are items in some two dozen counties, scattered from Kent to Essex to to Shropshire to Cumberland to Northumberland to Norfolk.
In addition to Robin's alleged gravestones, Keen, p. 182, notes *three* graves for Little John, one English (plates 7 and 36 in Baldwin offer a photo and an enhanced sketch of the English gravestone, which is in Derby), one Scottish, one Irish (where one legend says he was executed; Cawthorne, p. 80, who also notes a piece of wood at Barnsley alleged to have been John's bow). Will Scarlet's grave is said to be at Blidworth in Nottinghamshire (Carthorne, pp. 80-81). But all such relics are either lost or too-recent inventions. And, of course, some could refer to other people named Robert Hood.
Percy's Reliques was published in 1765, which published "Guy of Gisborne" -- the first publication of one of the older ballads since the White edition of the "Gest." Plus, of course, it sparked the "ballad mania" which eventually let to much more serious scholarship (Dobson/Taylor, p. 53).
In 1795, Joseph Ritson published his "Robin Hood." It is to him that Dobson/Taylor, p. 54, give credit for the "rehabilitation" of Robin -- and in one sense his is invaluable, as it contains a vast amount of Robin Hood material not accessible elsewhere (note how many of the Child references are to Ritson; Dobson/Taylor, p. 54, note that he published versions of all the major ballads except the "Monk"). On p. 55, they mention some evidence that Ritson's work actually influenced the later tradition.
Ritson also marked an important change -- for the first time, we see analysis of tradition. Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 437,. say of him "Ritson was the first 'scientific' editor of such material, and he was savagely critical of editors who (like Percy) 'improved' their originals or (like Pinkerton) wrote spurious folk poetry."
Unfortunately, his skills did not match his ambitions; his editions of Robin Hood material retail a lot of late rubbish, making little attempt to separate early from late. Ritson, e.g., says that Robin was born in 1160, in the reign of Henry II (Holt1, p. 45), providing what seemed like a basis for the Gilberts and Reads who "retold" the legend.
It was Ritson, too, who is largely responsible for the notion of "robbing the rich to give to the poor"; Major in 1521 had hints of it (Holt1, p. 154), but it is not mentioned in the ballads. (Although Holt2, p. 194, thinks it not unlikely: The poor weren't worth robbing, and by helping them even a little, Robin would build a support system). Dobson/Taylor, p. 55, suggest that this is a consequence of Ritson's radicalism -- he was one of the few British supported of the French Revolution, and was a follower of Tom Paine.
It is hard to imagine how such an idea could have arisen out of history. Almost all historical highway robbers were in it exclusively for the money. Sharpe, pp. 49-50, notes the case of James Hind, or "Captain" Hind, who lived in the time of the English Civil War and boasted that "most of the robberies he committed had parliamentarians as their victim" (making him a curious parallel to the oh-so-loyal-to-the-monarch Robin Hood) -- but the main reason that Hind was so noteworthy was that a robber with a political agenda was such a rare thing.
Interestingly, Hind was eventually to be credited to refusing to rob the poor (Sharpe, p. 54). It may well be that he was credited with this trait before Robin Hood was.
The lack of the theme of giving to the poor, so vital to the legend today, raises an interesting question: Why the Robin Hood legend became so widespread? If it wasn't due to transferring wealth from rich to poor, then why was he remembered? Perhaps for being free when few were? But this would not explain his survival after the reign of Edward III. It is yet another point on which we have no clear answer.)
Sir Walter Scott was apparently the first to suggest that Robin was a Saxon opposed to the Norman Conquest. In 1820, he made Robin an opponent of the "Norman" dynasty of Henry II, Richard I, and John (Holt1, p. 183). But as Holt observes, the Saxon/Norman dichotomy was false by 1189 -- and to place Robin in, or before, the actual Norman period (which ended in 1154) is absurd; prior to William the Conqueror, there were no forest laws (Keen, p. 26)
Knight/Ohlgren, p. 164, mention that forests were in the law codes of Ine, Alfred, and Cnut, but these rules were not onerous; Young, p. 7, says that the Norman creation of royal forest and forest law "provoked more negative comments from chroniclers than any of their other acts") and the longbow was not in use. It is true that Cawthorne, p. 134, sees an antagonism between "the Saxon peasantry and the Norman gentry" in the Robin Hood tales -- but there is absolutely no sign in the "Gest" of a distinction between Saxons and Normans, or even between those who speak England and those who speak French.
Robin's place as a Saxon rebel seems to be a confusion with the tale of Hereward the Wake (itself mostly legend) -- a suspicion strengthened by the parallels between "Robin Hood and the Potter" and a similar tale of Hereward's disguise, as well as by the fact that Hereward, like Robin, is said to have eventually reconciled with the King. Keen, p. 21, calls Hereward the "lineal ancestor of Robin Hood." But, although the link is obvious, Hereward was a political rebel, Robin an economic rebel. Robin has no quarrel with the King, only with the King's laws.
The forest laws offer additional evidence against an eleventh or early twelfth century date. There is no evidence that either Barnsdale or Sherwood was royal forest in Norman times. Young, p. 10, says "there is no mention of Sherwood forest [in Norman times], and its condition in the eleventh century can only be a matter of speculation." On p. 9, Young shows a map of known Norman forest sites. There are many along the Welsh border, and in the New Forest area in Hampshire and Suffolk. There are scattered sites in south-central and east-central England. There are none in Nottinghamshire or Yorkshire.
By the thirteenth century, we know that Sherwood was a royal forest (see map on pp. 62-63 of Young). So were Inglewood and Allerdale in Lancashire, plus Farndale, Pickering, and Galtres in Yorkshire and vicinity -- but not Barnsdale. In the early years of Edward III's reign, Sherwood, Inglewood, Galtres, and and Pickering were still forest, and Farndale had transformed into Spaunton. There is still no report of Barnsdale as a forest -- although Knaresborough in Yorkshire, which is very close to Barnsdale (according to Holt1, p. 86, it was the closest royal forest to Barnsdale), is now on the list.
A noteworthy point about the forests and forest law is how much the enforcement fell off during the Edwardian period. After all Edward I's attempts to take advantage of the forest, things slipped under Edward II and Edward III. Young, p. 154, notes an extreme decline in forest eyres in the fourteenth century, with typically only a few counties visited year by year. He notes that "Only Yorkshire had as many as four eyres in the fourteenth century (1334, 1336, 1337, and 1339)." It is fascinating to note that this would be the period when Robin Hood might have been lurking in Barnsdale after fleeing Edward II's court, if the "Gest" is treated as an historical source.
The one thing that comes out clearly in looking at the early chroniclers is how much they *disagree*. Clearly they have no more reliable data than we do. Holt1, p. 185, compares the accretions of Scott and Ritson to an ivy strangling the old oak of the Robin Hood legend. This is partly false -- in many ways the modern version is in better shape than when the seventeenth century broadsides made Robin a buffoon. But Scott and Ritson made permanent the false image of Robin the nobleman of the time of Richard ; we can dismiss it and pass on to more useful speculation as we seek the date. For example, Robin Hood is Catholic, so we can obviously eliminate the period of Henry VIII and all later kings; the official religion in the legend is clearly Catholicism.
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File: C117B

Gest of Robyn Hode, A [Child 117] --- Part 04

DESCRIPTION: Continuation of the notes to "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. Entry continues in "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117] --- Part 05 (File Number C117D)
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NOTES [9284 words]: THE COMMON ELEMENTS OF THE EARLY BALLADS
If the chronicles are useless, we can only turn back to the early ballads, especially the "Gest". These give us a surprisingly limited picture. Robin is an outlawed yeoman (see notes on stanzas 1 and 2), attended by a band of unknown size (see the notes on stanzas 4, 17, 229). Little John is certainly one of this band, but the others (Much the Miller's Son and Will Scarlock/Scadlock/Scarlett/whatever) are not really characters, just names. They live in the north of England, in Yorkshire or Nottinghamshire or possible Lancaster or Cumbria.
Holt, p. 86, makes the interesting note that Robin's band may not even have lived in the greenwood; there is, for instance, little or no mention of the King's Deer in the early sources -- but see the notes on stanzas 32-33, 357-358, 377. In the end, the King meets Robin because he's angry about the lack of deer in Plumpton Park.
The forest laws, according to Young, p. 4, protected "the red deer, fallow deer, roe deer, and the wild boar until a judicial decision in 1339 [reign of Edward III] removed the roe from the list," and points out on p. 5 that the purpose of the law was not just to protect the animals but their habitat. This was the reason, e.g., why people were forbidden to cut down trees in royal forests. But Holt does make an important point: We don't see foresters in the "Gest." It is not clear why.
As far as his character goes, Robin is genuinely religious, clearly Catholic (and devoted to the Virgin Mary; see note on Stanza 10) -- but no friend of high church officials such as abbots and bishops (see note on Stanza 19), whom he happily robs. Note too that it was a prioress who murdered him! (Stanza 451, etc.) He is willing to rescue those in need, but he does not seem to go out of his way to do so. He very likely eventually meets the King, who is coming to investigate troubles in the North (Stanzas 357-358, etc.)
What is absent from these accounts is notable. Holt1, pp. 35-38, catalogs what is missing: Maid Marian, Richard the Lion-Hearted (recall that Gest's king is Edward; Stanza 353), Robin's birth as Robin of Lockesly and/or Earl of Huntingdon (in the early legend, Robin is clearly a yeoman; stanza 1), and the theme of robbing the rich to give to the poor. Pollard, p. 188, offers a similar list of famous elements of the modern telling which are absent from the early stories: robbing the rich to give to the poor, Robin the Anglo-Saxon earl fighting the Normans, the Sheriff as agent of "Prince" John who is attempting to overthrow King Richard, and the tale of Maid Marion. (Pollard attributes all these changes to the rise of class consciousness, which I must say I find a stretch.)
Can we possibly add more details from the later ballads?
THE LATER ROBIN HOOD BALLADS
If we look at the ballads with true traditional attestation, the list is longer than the list of early ballads, but still rather thin. It appears that we can list only about fifteen songs, or fewer than half the pieces printed by Child, and only about four of these have a strong hold in tradition:
* Willie and Earl Richard's Daughter [Child 102] (traditional in US, but possibly from print)
* Robin Hood's Death [Child 120] (traditional in US)
* The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield [Child 124] (traditional attestation somewhat dubious)
* Robin Hood and Little John [Child 125] (traditional in Scotland, Canada, US)
* Robin Hood and the Tanner [Child 126] (traditional in England, US)
* Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon [Child 129] (traditional in US, although much damaged; the tune may have come from a non-traditional source)
* Robin Hood and the Ranger [Child 131] (traditional in England)
* The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood [Child 132] (traditional in England, Scotland, US, Canada; probably the most popular Robin Hood ballad in tradition)
* Robin Hood and the Beggar (II) [Child 134] (traditional in Scotland)
* Robin Hood and Allen a Dale [Child 138] (traditional in Scotland)
* Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham [Child 139] (traditional in Canada)
* Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires [Child 140] (traditional in England, Scotland, US; probably second only to #132 in popularity)
* Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly [Child 141] (traditional in US)
* Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford [Child 144] (traditional in England)
* Robin Hood Was a Forester Bold (traditional in US)
These add little useful information to the sources we already identified. Most of them are clearly late poor imitations of the basic handful -- as Keen notes (pp. 99-100), "Most, at least in the form in which we have them, are compositions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when Robin Hood's traditional world already belonged to a half-forgotten past. The cruel forest laws have fallen into desuetude; archery was no longer a national exercise; the abbeys whose monks the outlaws had robbed had been dissolved. Robin Hood's legend belonged, in fact, to a world so far away in time that almost anything could be believed of it, and as a result his story was sometimes changed out of recognition." In seeking the source of the legend, therefore, we must work mostly with the small collection of early ballads. The only one late text to which we will pay much attention is the "Bishop of Hereford."
Having catalogued our sources (such as they are), we can attempt to wring some meaning from them.
OUTLAW OR NOT?
Both Munday and the late ballad "Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham" [Child 139] offer explanations for how Robin was driven to the greenwood. Holt1, p. 44, also notes a tale transmitted by Roger Dodsworth, in which Roger Locksley killed his stepfather and was forced into the wood; in this version, it is apparenly Little John who was the disgraced nobleman.
These stories are all different -- and all late. There is no clue in the early materials how Robin came to be outlawed (Holt1, p. 9). Pollard, p. 13, points out the parallel in the tale of Gamelyn, in which Gamelyn is dispossessed by his brothers, but there is no sign of this in the "Gest" or other early ballads. In fact, we don't even know that Robin *was* outlawed, at least initially; he may simply have been forced off his land, or perhaps away from his employment. Kings and lords of this period were good at that.
Since we will have to deal in time with the claim that Richard I was Robin's king, we should note Richard was particularly rapacious, because of the financial demands of his crusade -- and later of his ransom, which resulted in an almost unendurable 25% tax, according to Gillingham, p. 230. Many people must have been forced off their lands to pay for their lion-hearted, pea-brained king.
But would Robin then side with Richard? I think not. If Robin were simply dispossessed, as opposed to outlawed, a date in the reign of one of the Edwards would seem more likely even if the "Gest" didn't refer to King Edward. And if Robin's ancestors were in fact squatters (which is perfectly possible), then there is a high likelihood that they took over the land in the lawless period after the Norman Conquest, and the sooner after the Conquest they did so, the more time for them to think the land was theirs.
Even Edward I, often held up as a lawgiver, was a land-grabber in his personal capacity as king, and Prestwich1, p. 105, comments that "The methods he used did him little credit: he was devious and grasping." For more on his methods, see the discussion on stanza 47.
Edward I's queen was even worse about grabbing land (Prestwich1, pp. 124-125; on p. 124 and again on p. 262, he quotes a fragment of what sounds like a folk rhyme, although apparently it was taken down in Latin: "The king he wants to get our gold, The queen would like our lands to hold"). And if other kings weren't as concerned with updating the statute books, they certainly were just as eager to latch onto any cash they could.
Around 1298, Edward I had had a major dispute with local residents about the boundaries of the royal forests (Prestwich1, p. 518), which had been at their greatest in the reign of Henry II and since steadily been reduced (Young, p. 19). Many locals tried to encroach upon the forests, leading to the conflict with the King (Prestwich1, p. 527; Young, p. 139).
Edward I being Edward I, this might well have caused him to punish harshly anyone whom he could lay his hands on. Edward, under pressure, reduced the total area of the royal forest -- but in 1305 "laid down that those people who had been placed outside the Forest boundaries would no longer be allowed to exercise any rights of common within them." In 1306, he reneged and took back some of that forest land (Prestwich1, p. 548).
This raises an interesting possibility, that the reason we never see Robin go to the greenwood is that he never did -- he was there all along. He lived in the wood on what he thought was his personal land, until the king reclaimed it. There is a tradition (found e.g. in "Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor, and Marriage" [Child 149] , although this is a very poor source) that Robin's father was a forester. This raises the possibility that Robin was a yeoman forester, and was displaced as a result of someone eventually enforcing the 1306 law.
Prestwich1, p. 286, adds that, in Edward I's time, due to some legal changes which made legal penalties stiffer but convictions harder to obtain, "Fairs and markets were the scene of a good many crimes, as when a royal bailiff was assaulted by Thomas de Aston and his two brothers, pursued, and beaten up publicly in the market at Stafford." Several similarities to "Robin Hood and the Potter" [Child 121] will surely be evident.
Another possibility relating to the forest laws has to do with the way they treated guilt. Young, p. 107, descibes the "climate of fear" they generated: If someone was found near the dead body of a deer, that person was often punished -- severely -- for its death. It was difficult to establish innocence. So Robin might simply have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Although it is usually assumed that Robin was an ordinary yeoman, it may be that Robin might have been a *royal* yeoman, in service to the king (Holt1, p. 120, argues strongly for this). In that case, it is not unlikely that he was cast out of the royal service during a purge of the household Edward I conducted in 1300 (Prestwich1, p. 159). On the other hand, there is little sign that Robin knows about courtly manners. 1300 also seems a little early for him to be active based on him still being the active head of his band in 1322 (if we can trust the one genuine chronological peg we have in the "Gest").
"Robin Hood's Birth" also has the tradition that "his mother was neece to the Coventry knight Which Warwickshire men call sir Guy." This presumably is a reference to Guy of Warwick, a famous saga hero who indeed was credited with killed a great boar although one who is claimed to have lived in the reign of Athelstan (Simpson/Roud, p. 158, Pickering, p. 128. Don't ask me what someone named "Guy" was doing in tenth century England...).
The period of the Wars of the Roses (roughly 1455-1485) were also tough on landowners. Since the crown changed hands so many times, there was a real danger that one might be attainted if one supported the wrong side. We don't know of any great lords turning outlaw, but a yeoman might. There are, however, two problems with a date this late: First, the "Gest" was probably already in existence, and second, of the two kings who reigned for most of this period, Henry VI was not active enough for the role given him in the "Gest" and wasn't named Edward anyway, and Edward IV, while obviously named "Edward," hardly had enough time as King.
If we had to make a wild guess about how Robin came to be outlawed, Pollard's suggestion that he had been a yeoman of the forest (pp. 41-43; see also the note on Stanza 222) does make a certain amount of sense. Perhaps he -- or, more likely, his father -- had been yeoman of the forest displaced during Edward I's reign, and he stayed in the forest to maintain his claim to what he considered his home and occupation. But while reasonable, this is clearly beyond proof.
The bottom line is, we simply don't know why Robin was outlawed (or, rather, why the earliest hearers of the tradition though he was outlawed). But the circumstances of the Edwardian period certainly offer many opportunities.
Dobson/Taylor, p. 29, make the interesting comment that "the royal courts of medieval England degraded the severity of sentences of outlawry by its over-use. During the course of the fourteenth century the application of the process of outlawry to cases of misdemeanor and even civil offenses lessened its deterrent effect still further." Outlawry, intended to be a hideous sentence which drove the victim away from home or forced him to appear in court, became more like having a pile of outstanding traffic tickets -- something which might even be considered a virtue to some.
Perhaps we should just conclude, with Shippey, p. 233, "in romance it is a good rule that not everything should be explained." If we truly *knew* why Robin went to the greenwood, it would probably detract from the legend: If he committed a true crime and was outlawed, it makes him less of a good man, but if he was simply went broke, that is far too mundane. The best answer, from a dramatic standpoint, is doubtless the one adopted by modern retellers: That he was driven from his land by unjust superiors. But even this runs the risk of reducing his motives to petty jealousy....
DATING THE LEGEND
In trying to date the Robin Hood legend, we must recall that we are dealing with multiple sources -- half a dozen different ballads, the most important of which, the "Gest," is itself compiled from multiple sources. Dobson/Taylor, p. 14. point out that the legend changed in the sixteenth century, and on p. 37 point out that there were at least two major periods of alteration of the story, the sixteenth century change coming at the hands of Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights and a later alteration by early nineteenth century romantics.
Pollard, p. x, points out that, since Robin's story changed completely in the sixteenth century, we cannot discount the possibility that it also changed completely between 1377 and 1450 -- and he notes on page 2 that all our extant early sources date from the fifteenth century. Thus any pattern we perceive in the various sources might be just the coincidental agreement of independent sources, or a side effect of the evolution of the legend.
I do not deny this point, but the more I looked at the scattered hints, the more I have become convinced that the intended setting of the "Gest" is a particular period: The reign of Edward II. This section tries both to present that case and to offer the evidence for other periods.
To show how confusing it all is, the "Gest" says the King is "Edward." Knight, p. xx, says that in the Forresters manuscript, three pieces name the king "Richard" (presumably Richard I). Two call him "Henry" (presumably Henry II, although Henry III is not an unreasonable possibility), and Knight thinks that one other Forresters piece also points to a King Henry -- although in this case either Henry V or Henry VIII, since his queen is Catherine.
As Baldwin points out on p. 48, we have conflicting evidence, some "suggesting an earlier date of composition [probably in the reign of Henry III or Edward I], the other later [probably the reign of Edward III]." On p. 84, Baldwin stoutly maintains that there were five kings in "what may loosely be called the Robin Hood era," referring to Richard I through Edward II. In fact, the evidence of names found by Holt shows there is every reason to think that the legend originated before Edward II. The content of the later ballads seems to indicate a date in the reign of Edward III or later. This by itself is modest support for the reign of Edward II as the meeting point, so to speak, of the two groups of evidence.
The references to Robin's skills with the bow really do seem to imply that he was a bowman from the start -- which by itself is a dating hint. The mention of the longbow requires, at the earliest, a post-conquest date for Robin; it also gives a latest possible date before the time of Henry VIII -- probably well before. Keen, p. 138, dates the decline of the longbow to the Battle of Castillon in 1453. This is accurate, in a way, although the English continued to use bows for many decades (e.g. they were a key weapon in the Wars of the Roses).
But Robin the Legendary Archer must have lived long before Castillon. Edward III, more than a century before that, commanded regular competitions with the bow (see the note on Stanzas 145-146) -- something often seen in the Robin Hood tales. And yet, once these competitions were well-established, it would be almost impossible for a band of outlaws, gathered at random, to all become master bowmen. For the longbow requires great skill (contrary to what is implied by Keen, p. 138). Longbows required more pull than short bows, but even the strongest muscles could not compete with a crossbow in power and range. To compete with crossbows, longbowmen had to aim in an arc far above their targets. This took long practice; archers, for the most part, had to be brought up to the bow, and stay with it throughout their lives -- even in the reign of Edward III, we find the king complaining that the common people weren't spending enough time with the bow (Chandler/Beckett, p. 10).
That was the main reason no one other than the English and Welsh took to the longbow.; it was too tricky. But the longbow won battles for the English at Halidon Hill (1333) and Crecy (1347) during the reign of Edward III. Featherstone in fact (p. 31) claims that archers from Sherwood Forest were given conditional pardon to serve the King at this time. It is true that Edward III gave pardons to outlaws wiling to fight in France (Ormrod, p. 57), but Ormrod says nothing of archers from Sherwood. Ormrod does tell us that this was new; no earlier King had offered such pardons (although Prestwich1, p. 561, says that Edward I pardoned soldiers who served in his campaigns. For the conditions attached to such pardons, see the notes on Stanza 439).
Hewitt, p. 30, observes that Edward III offered at least 850 pardons to those willing to serve in his wars in 1339-1340, several hundred more in 1346-1347, 140 in 1356, and 250+ in 1360-1361 -- and that very many of these were for murders. He believes that as many as an eighth of the soldiers in some English armies may have been pardoned criminals, and observes that some -- Sir Robert Knowles and Sir Hugh Calvely being obvious examples -- held quite senior commands.
We known that, as early as the reign of Edward I, longbow training was required of ordinary folk (Seward, p. 53), just as it would be in the time of Edward III.
In other words, by 1333, the longbow was a universal weapon, and the odds of Robin's men being exceptional is slight. This is evidence for a date before 1333.
It has been argued that, since the longbow was already common as early as the time of Edward I (reigned 1272-1307), we are forced to a date in the reigns of Henry II (1154-1189), Richard I (1189-1199), John (1199-1216), or Henry III (1216-1272).
This is not compelling; although Edward I had encouraged the use of the bow at times in his reign, he was not consistent. For his preparations for the invasion of Wales in 1277, Edward I ordered cartloads of crossbow bolts (Prestwich1, p. 179), leaving little if any room for arrows. Edward II (1307-1327) largely turned his back on the use of the bow. This was a major reason he lost at Bannockburn in 1314 (Phillips, pp. 236-237, who notes that a military revolution was going on at the time; both at Bannockburn and at Courtrai in 1302, mounted knights had lost to infantry, forcing a reassessment of tactics. The English learned the lesson after 1314, and Edward III began to depend on longbows; the French would need another century to learn).
Still, the use of the bow means that the only serious candidates for the Kings in the Robin Hood legend are Henry II (reigned 1154-1189), his son Richard I (1189-1199), his brother John (1199-1216), his son Henry III (1216-1272), his son Edward I (1272-1307), his son Edward II (1307-1327), and his son Edward III (1327-1377). Many would restrict the period even more -- e.g. McLynn, p. 244, would examine only the period 1215-1381.
Our single strongest clue, as repeatedly mentioned, is the fact that stanzas 353, 384, 450 of the "Gest" give the name of the king of England as Edward. At first glance. since we are not told which Edward, we might think this was Edward I. In many ways Edward I fits the content of the legend better than Henry II (his great-grandfather), Richard (his grand-uncle), or John (his grandfather), notably since the longbow was not used in the time of the early kings, at least outside Wales. The flip side is, there is nothing in the "Gest" which sounds specific to this reign.
Hunter, as mentioned in the notes to Stanzas 357-358, pointed out that Edward II had made a trip to the north in 1322-1323 which fits the ballad. The real problem with his reconstruction is that he then goes on to try to ring in a Robin Hood who was active around Wakefield at the time, and who was a follower of the Lancastrian rebels (Cawthorne, p. 49). This badly weakens his case, because the "Gest" implies that Robin was always loyal to the King. Hunter's full reconstruction cannot stand up, and many have rejected all of it on that basis -- but the evidence he found for the 1322-1323 visit to the north stands up. If (and this is a substantial if!) the "Gest" is supposed to be based on actual events, 1323 is an extremely strong candidate for the King's visit to Robin.
Nonetheless, Holt2, p. 192, affirms that fits 7-8 of the "Gest" *must* be based on Edward II's northern trip, and I agree.
The 1322-1323 dating is suitable on other grounds. We know that Edward II was very concerned with forests and forest management at this time (Young, p. 145).
And the context fits. There was a major famine and economic downturn in 1315-1317 (Prestwich3, p. 92; Phillips, p. 238, blames it on excessive rain beginning in 1314, adding on pp. 252-253, that the years 1315 and 1316 were unusually cold, that 1317 brought only a brief respite, and that 1318-1321 also saw bad weather and poor harvests). The problems were especially bad in the north; according to Wilkinson, p. 124, the bad harvest of 1315 was "followed by famine 'such as our age has never seen.'"
Kelly.J, p. 14, notes that worldwide conditions were so bad that some think they may have started the chain of events which led to the Black Death thirty years later. Kelly.J, p. 56, observes that large tracts of land were left unpopulated -- sometimes because they were simply no longer productive in the poor climate. On pp. 58-59, he notes that some parts of Yorkshire had all their topsoil eroded away. The rain was so heavy that in Yorkshire and Nottingham some farm fields became lakes -- he calls them "inland seas." The problem was so bad that there were widespread reports of cannibalism (p. 60).
Satin, pp. 106-107, mentions estimates that one tenth of the population of Europe died of famine in this period. J.Kelly, p. 62, thinks it may have exceeded 15% in some areas. Tenants everywhere were driven from their lands. If the knight was truly trying to repay a loan at this time, it is understandable that he failed -- it was the worst time in memory for raising money. This would surely raise the irony of the abbott serving rich food at this time, too.
To add to the misery of northerners, in the aftermath of Bannockburn, the Scots raided freely throughout the north of England. They had raided the north before, it is true, but these were larger raids, better organized, which penetrated much farther south (Phillips, p. 248). They could not capture fortified cities or castles, but they destroyed the holdings of peasants and forced them to flee (McNamee, pp. 72-74). And, of course, the lords rarely gave their tenants any sort of help if they had been raided -- if anything, their exactions increased as they gathered up food to feed their garrisons (McNamee, pp. 144-145).
As McNamee says on p. 147, "Altogether the North of England's castles ought to have been its salvation from the Scottish raids. The failure of the crown to pay and provision garrisons adequately, and to exercise control over castellans, left them to prey on those they were supposed to defend."
The Scots were relatively quiet in 1316 and 1317, but were back in 1318, when their raids reached as far south as Yorkshire (McNamee, pp. 84-86). There must have been very many refugees in the latter year -- and indeed as early as 1314, when McNamee, p. 134, says Northumberland was "descending into chaos." Plus we have reports of outbreaks of sheep murrain in 1315-1319 (McNamee, p. 107), which of course damaged the wool clip, meaning that the chief source of non-farm income for the northern provinces was much reduced. Other northern leaders were paying the Scots not to raid them, placing another demand ultimately on the peasants (McNamee, pp. 129-140).
These were the circumstances in which villeins slipped away from their lands and formed gangs. We know that the unsettled conditions of Edward II's reign weakened feudal bonds and created uncertainties for freeholders (Prestwich3, p. 109). It was the ideal situation for bands like Robin's -- which probably combined a few yeomen, such as Robin himself, with villeins -- to form.
There was actually a special word for the bands of robbers who arose in the wake of the Scottish incursions around the time of Bannockburn -- they were called schavaldores. They may well have robbed clergy; at least, a bishop told Edward II that he couldn't send tax money because of them (McNamee, p. 55). Nor was it easy to fight them, because the conditions made it hard to feed and supply a large force (McNamee, p. 81). And if a gang formed in 1316-1317, and grew larger in 1318-1319, it would allow enough time for the band to become well-known by the time Edward came north in 1322, and to make a significant dent in the deer population.
Edward II wasn't the only monarch whose reign saw near-anarchy in some parts of England. Three other kings -- Stephen (reigned 1135-1154), Henry III (1216-1272), and Henry VI (1422-1461, plus a brief restoration in 1470-1471) -- lived in times when government largely broke down. But Stephen was too early for legendary bowmen, and never had enough control to visit the forests of the north. Henry VI is far too late, and was a "useful political vegetable" in his later years (so Ross-War, p. 52; Ross-War, p. 118, notes that Henry VI was take prisoner *three times* during the Wars of the Roses). If anarchy is a criterion for dating Robin, then by far the most likely reigns are those of Henry III and Edward II. The intervening reign, of Edward I, is also possible simply because his taxes caused so much unrest.
We see in the notes to stanza 93 that we cannot identify the official or office the "Gest" means when it refers to a "justice." But the Edwardian period was one of extreme rapaciousness. Note during Edward II's reign the Earl of Lancaster, who held four earldoms after 1311 (McNamee, p. 51) and was chief counselor after 1316; and the Despensers, who largely ran the government when not in exile. The younger Despenser -- the ally of Robert Baldock the extortionist chancellor (for whom, again, see notes on Stanza 93) -- used just the sorts of methods described in the "Gest" to obtain lands formerly held by the Earl of Gloucester, killed at Bannockburn (Hutchison, p. 104).
Recall also the case of the Bishop of Durham being robbed by outlaws led by Gilbert de Middleton in the reign of Edward II (see notes on stanza 292 of the "Gest").
Edward II, as mentioned in the notes on Stanza 357, was the one king who seems to have made a hunting trip similar to that in Fit 7 of the Gest.
It is interesting to note that Edward II was the first king to request that his retainers recruit infantry as well as cavalry (Chandler/Beckett, p. 19). Every previous army of course included infantry, but they were incidental. It makes sense to imagine Edward II trying to hire a group of top bowmen. It makes far less sense to try to imagine the haughty Richard I or the foolish Henry III trying it.
Note also that the King talks to the outlaws with no hint of a translator (see note on Stanza 379). This is an argument for one of the Edwards, although it is little clue to which.
It is interesting to note that Robin and his men spend most of their time on foot, but that in Stanza 152 the Sheriff offers Little John a horse. This hints at a date after 1330, when Edward III mounted his archers. This was a major change -- it made archers (and hence armies) more mobile, but the greater need for horses also meant that armies were smaller. The fact that mounted archers aren't common probably argues for a date before the middle of the reign of Edward III, but probably not too much earlier, since the idea of mounting archers was obviously in the air.
There is nothing unusual about common folk who respect the King but reject lesser authorities. Campaigns to rid a King of his "evil councilors" were almost routine, and were the main excuse for the revolts against Edward II (e.g. Prestwich3, pp. 82-84). Somewhat later, in Wat Tyler's rebellion, the rebels respected Richard II but wanted the heads of many others (Saul, p. 68). They actually killed Archbishop Sudbury of Canterbury (Saul, p. 69). Pollard, p. 216, notes that campaigns against "evil councilors" waere common for centuries -- Jack Cade's 1450 rebellion was loyal to Henry VI, as were barons who began the Wars of the Roses, and even the sixteenth century Pilgrimage of Grace were theoretically loyal to Henry VIII -- just not to his religion.
By the end of his reign, Edwawrd II seems to have been very unpopular in the south of England, but was perhaps not so unpopular in the north. Phillips, pp. 532-533, gives a partial list of those who supported his deposition. They include many southern bishops and barons, but relatively few northerners. Henry of Lancaster supported the move, but he was a special case -- and apparently the only earl with major lands north of the Humber to support the deposition. The bishops of Coventry and of Lincoln supported the move, but the Archbishop of York signally did not, nor did the Bishop of Carlisle (Phillips, p. 536), and the Bishop of Durham is also missing from the list. The opinions of northern lords may not reflect those of commoners, of course, but it is reasonable to assume that northerners were more sympathetic to this otherwise-disliked King.
"Robin Hood and the Monk" [Child 119] offers us little in the way of datable evidence, but we note that the king in the song is extremely foolish. Since the manuscript is from c. 1450, this might be a veiled allusion to the King at that time (Henry VI, who was never very clever and eventually went mad), but if we assume the song is older, then we must look for an easily-fooled King. The best candidates for this arer Henry III or Edward II, with Edward being the better bet.
To be sure, John also had a very bad reputation, and in his earlier days was prone to bad mistakes. Warren-John, pp. 46-47, admits that John "stood in 1194 as a traitor and a fool. Such a reputation long clung to him, and in some quarters was perhaps never entirely displaced; but, in fact, the real John had not yet emerged.... As a king he was to show a grasp of political realities that had eluded the young Henry [John's oldest brother], a more fierce determination than even Geoffrey could boast of, as sure a strategic sense as Richard displayed and a knowledge of government to which the heroic crusader never even aspired. Only the Old King himself [Henry II] is comparable to the later John in his powers of organization...."
This is probably too kind to John. Tyerman, p. 296, is probably more balanced when he says John was "the most notorious English king, one of the most unfairly maligned but also one of the least successful. THe legend of his awfulness as a person as well as a ruler dates from his own lifetime. Even now, when his positive qualities as a conscientious judge, a careful administrator, a man of culture and a ruler of energy are widely recognized, his personality and style leave a nasty taste in the mouth." John was simply too sneaky to be on the list of possible Kings for the "Monk."
If we try to bring in Richard I, we have a timing problem.. Gillingham, p. 242, observes that Richard I did visit Sherwood Forest -- for one day, in 1194. He spent it hunting; clearly, in Richard's time, the forest had not been hunted out. Gillingham notes, however, that this was "the nearest [Richard] ever came to... Robin Hood," and that he promptly headed back to Nottingham to get some work done.
That visit to England lasted two months. Richard would never again return (Baldwin, p. 86).
Richard I might qualify as a fool -- he was a *terrible* king, despite his legend (as Warren-John says on p. 38, "Everything was sacrificed to raising money for [the Third Crusade], even good government." On p. 41, he adds that "Richard was no judge of men," so friendship with Robin Hood would have been no compliment to Robin anyway. Jolliffe, p. 227, notes that "With the accession of Richard we come to an new phase... in which the community begins to realize the potentialities of bureaucracy for oppression."
Runciman3, p. 75, compares his performance at home and on crusade and says "He was a bad son, a bad husband and a bad king, but a gallant and splendid soldier"). But Richard spent only about six months of his reign in England (Gillingham, p. 5). As Baldwin says on p. 84, "Richard I is unique among English monarchs in that he was a figure of European standing yet played only a small part in the affairs of his own kingdom." Thus it might be possible to fit him into the "Gest" (though even that is a squeeze), but not into the "Monk."
One very minor support for the reign of Henry II or Richard I is that the "Gest" never mentions a coroner -- an office created by RIchard I (Lyon, pp. 43-44). But this is at best quite indirect testimony; although coroners were royal officials responsible for looking into deaths and retaining suspects, there is no incident in the "Gest" which directly requires a coroner to be present.
The versions of the story which place Robin in the reigns of Richard and John have other problems. These tales often involve an incredible anachronism, as they refer to "Prince John." But John never held the feudal title "prince" -- indeed, England did not *have* princes until Edward I created the title of Prince of Wales a century after the reign of Richard I. John's feudal title was Count of Mortain. He was Count John, not Prince John.
What's more, the common picture of Richard as a fine king and John as a grasping tyrant are simply untrue. John fought with his barons, and one of the points of conflict was the forest law (Young, p. 60), but "how far [John] was a tyrant to common men is doubtful. At least he knew where Angevin government pressed them, and in 1212... he bid high for the support of the counties and boroughs, restoring the forest custom of his father" (Jolliffe, p. 247). On p. 248, Jolliffe adds that John investigated some of the worse abuses of sheriffs, and for the first time made them serve at pleasure rather than at farm (Jolliffe, pp. 269-270), which eliminated the main incentive to extort the locals.
Jolliffe adds that when the barons rose against John, the towns and the people generally stood with the king. What's more, John consulted with the locals about forest laws (Jolliffe, p. 307), which none of his predecessors had done.
Richard would never have done any of those things -- he *needed* to farm out sheriff's duties so as to raise the cash for his wars. Richard might, perhaps, have pardoned Robin in return for money, but only John would have pardoned him for right.
Also, if the reign were that of Richard I and John, would we not hear of the much-reviled chief forester Hugh de Neville (Young, p. 49), or of John's forester of Nottingham and Derby, Brian de Lisle (Young, p. 51). It has been claimed that, in this period, the four chief officials of England were the justiciar, chancellor, treasurer, and chief forester (Young, p. 49). The first and last would decline in importance in the reigns of Henry III and after; it is hard to imagine the a forest outlaw being able to ignore the chief forester in the early Angevin period.
On the other hand, a date in the reign of Henry II, Richard I, John, Henry III, or even Edward I has the advantage that it give time for tales to grow around Robin. This is more problematic if we accept a date in the reign of Edward II or Edwawrd III. Could a Robin Hood who was active in 1323 or later have become a legendary figure as early as the time Langland wrote in 1377?
This may not be quite as unlikely as it sounds. A similar situation occurs in the great Spanish epic The Poem of the Cid. This in fact has many similarities to the Robin Hood legend. Northup, p. 47, tells us that "The poet interpreted history imaginatively, but his imagination is restrained. Magic does not appear.... We lack completely the exaggeration so common in the French epic, where, as in the Chanson de Roland, whole armies fall in a faint. The Cid's personal exploits are no greater than those recorded of many knights...." This is the same mode of "high mimesis" as in the "Gest": Robin is an exceptional but not superhuman character.
The general feel of the "Cid" resembles the "Gest" in other ways: "There is no element of romantic love.... The poet is interested neither in in his hero's youth nor in his death. The Cid is presented in his prime, engaged in his greatest achievements" (Northup, p. 47). "The Cid figures as a loyal vassal ever seeking a reconciliation with his lord" (Northup, p. 44), and eventually he gains this reconciliation. The Cid is an outlaw, and his first act in the extant portion of the poem is to commit a robbery (Cid/Simpson, p. v). The Cid is "pious... loyal to his companions and even to his King... and... endowed with a saving peasant humor" (Cid/Simpson, p. vi). There is even a similarity in meter: The "Gest" is metrically irregular, and the "Cid" has so many different line formations that scholars, according to Northup, p. 48, cannot agree whether it is intended to be in ballad meter (eight syllables in four feet, then a caesura, then six syllables in three feet) or in Alexandrines (sixteen syllables with a caesura in the middle).
And when was the "Cid" written? Many authorities believe it was c. 1140 (Cid/Simpson, p. vii; Northup. p. 42). That date has been questioned in more recent times, but the sole extant manuscript seems to have been taken from an exemplar, not the original, which was written in 1207 (Cid/Michael, p. 16). Therefore the story must date from the twelfth century. The Cid died in 1099. it is likely that the time gap between the life and the tale of the Cid is no greater than that between Edward II and Langland. And the "Cid," although grounded in reality, contains a fair amount of non-historical material; it is proof that legends can quickly gather about a sufficiently extraordinary figure.
And Robin Hood wasn't even real -- anything could be added to his legend! The question is not what could be said about him, but what could be said about his context. There is nothing in the "Gest" that cannot be made to fit reasonably well in the context of the Edwardian period.
Another objection to a date in the reign of Edward II is that that king was deposed and murdered in 1327; is it possible that the legend would take no notice of this? (To be sure, the "Gest" says that Robin left the King's service after only a year; see the note on stanza 435. This would have allowed him to avoid Edward's debacle. But would it not be mentioned?) And why no mention of the war between Edward and Robert Bruce of Scotland, which was the main business of Edward's northern visit? (And in which Edward's forces suffered defeats at the hands of Bruce's raiders; Hutchison, p. 119.)
Keen, p. 186, suggests that Edward's unpopularity would argue against him being the good King of the "Gest." This would certainly be true if the audience of the poem was aristocratic; it is less of an objection in the case of the common people. Wilkinson, p. 132, observes that "after Edward's death it was the manner of his dying rather than his ruling which tended to be remembered. It was his cruel death and not his foolish life which made his tomb at Gloucester the centre of a cult." Being an ally of Edward II might be considered a failing in 1325; twenty years later, it might be a reason to make Robin a hero, for supporting Edward II when few others would.
Keen, p. 140, thinks that the frequent mentions of Robin as a yeoman implies a late date (p. 140), presumably after Edward III, since this was the period when villeins were becoming free yeomen. Keen, pp. 141-142, adds that the lack of offences against "vert" (the plants of the forest) dates Robin to the time of Edward III or later -- but poaching was a worse offence than three-cutting Young, p. 108. The typical forest eyre adjudicated far more offenses against "vert" than venison, although the penalties for the latter were higher -- despite which, Pollard, p. 85, says that even poaching was little punished in the fifteenth century).
It was not until very late, when the English navy needed every tall tree it could find for ship's masts, that tree-cutting became a serious crime. In any case, it was often difficult to prosecute offences against "vert" -- Henry VI, for example, granted so many exceptions that the laws became simply unenforceable (Wolffe, p. 111). It was only under Henry VII, whose goal was to bring the entire nation under his thumb, that the forest laws really revived (Pollard, p. 86).
To be sure, Ohlgren, p. 220, argues that Robin "imitates knightly behavior by giving liveries and fees to his retained men" (e.g. he notes on p. 317 that Robin's men wore a uniform of scarlet, not green, although later, they give the King green cloth; Ohlgren, p. 319 n.35) -- behavior typical of what is now called "bastard feudalism," which was largely a product of the Hundred Years' War (OxfordComp, p. 84). But Robin was not a king that he would be able to give out lands and titles; his behavior was quite typical of what a local Lord of the Manor would have done even in the height of the feudal era.
It was in 1296 that Edward I made a decision which completely changed the nature of military service in England. In that year, he conducted a census seeking men wealthy enough to perform knight service. In the past, such a demand had been made only of knights. After 1296, the qualification was simply wealth (Prestwich, p. 406). The barriers had fallen; a rich yeoman or an esquire could now do the work of a knight. This would obviously make it easier for a former yeoman such as Robin to enter royal service.
Looking at the case for other monarchs, we see that the main evidence for the reigns of Richard I and John comes from a strong mass of later legend, supported by late songs such as "The King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood" [Child 151], which explicitly gives the king the name "Richard." However, this ballad is probably an eighteenth century rewrite of the last two fits of the "Gest," and is certainly a hack job; it has no independent value. There are no hints in the early ballads which directly support a date in the period 1189-1216, except for the suggestion that Sir Richard at Lee might be going on crusade (see note on Stanzas 56-57), and this is neither a clear reference nor a decisive link to Richard I. Nor is there any sign, in the "Gest," of the difficult relations between Richard and John which so affected England in the mid-1190s (Warren-John, pp. 40-45) -- there isn't even a hint that the King had a brother. If Robin and Richard I actually met, it is almost inevitable that the Gest would have mentioned his troublesome brother.
We might add that, although Richard became a hero of folklore, he does not seem to have been popular in his own time. According to Warren-John, p. 31, the only son of Henry II to be popular with his contenporaries was Henry the Young King, who died before his father and never exercised power.
The "Gest," and several other song of Robin, show the outlaw, although a devoted Catholic, as opposed to the clerical establishment -- he happily robs bishops and abbots. Such a man would be unlikely to approve of Richard I, who financed his crusade largely by selling lands and rents to the bishops (Kelly.A, p. 252). Many of the abuses which Robin fought against were actually the result of Richard's actions. He might well have gotten along with Edward I, however, who went so far as to appeal to the Pope for the ouster of Archbishop Winchelsea of Canterbury (which he obtained; Prestwich, p. 541. It was yet another phase in Edward's attacks on the church). Edward II also had trouble with his bishops, notably Orleton of Hereford (more on this below), but Orleton wasn't the only one.
I can't help but note an irony: One folkloric account of the death of Richard I has the Greek Fates cut off his life. Why? Because he introduced the crossbow into France (Gillingham, p. 12). Not the longbow, note, the *crossbow*. For the evidence that Robin's weapon was the true longbow, which came later, see the note on Stanza 132.
The best argument for the reign of Henry III is that this is the period when the longbow was first becoming a respected weapon in the royal muster. The rebellion of Simon de Montfort could tie in with the traditions of conflict in the legends. Plus it was a long reign, giving lots of opportunities for potential Robins. And, for the very little it's worth, it ties in with Langland's reference to Ranulf of Chester, since one of the Ranulf of Chester was active early in the reign. And the reign of Henry III of course saw the activities of Roger Godberd, Baldwin's original Robin Hood.
I should probably mention that Keen sees links between the legend of Robin Hood and the stories told of William Wallace in the centuries after Wallace's death (Keen, pp. 75-76). Wallace was executed by Edward I in 1305, shortly before Edward II took the throne. So there is a theoretical possibility that the links to Edward II arise because the Wallace legend arose in Edward II's time, and that the Wallace legend was then converted to the Robin Hood legend. I really don't think this likely, however; first, the legend of Wallace (as opposed to Wallace the man) seems more recent than the Robin legend, and second, the Wallace legend and the Robin legend are dependent on very different monarchical situations, and I see no hint of Wallace's situation in Robin's legend or vice versa.
Holt seems to argue (Holt1, p. 115) that the fourteenth century feel in the legends is because Robin Hood is an English vernacular hero, and that it was only in the fourteenth century that the English vernacular again became common. In effect, he's arguing that Robin Hood must be from the fourteenth century because the fourteenth century allowed great men like Chaucer. This oversimplifies. First, French was still the language of the upper class in the early fourteenth century. Second, there was plenty of English vernacular writing prior to 1300 (e.g. Layamon's "Brut," "King Horn," "Havelock the Dane," "The Owl and the Nightingale"). None of this compares to Chaucer in quality -- but neither was there any quality Anglo-French literature in this period, and the fifteenth century produced no great English literature either. Chaucer was Chaucer because he was a genius, not because he lived in the fourteenth century! And Chaucer's contemporary Gower wrote as fluently in French and Latin as English.
Holt in his first edition made much of the links to the era of Edward II. His discovery of many "Robinhoods" in a period prior to that, already alluded to, caused him to back away from this in his second edition (Holt2, p. 189). This causes him to bring up a Robert Hod/Hobbehod, who seemingly was in trouble in two different shires in 1225-1226. He suggests, very vaguely, that this man might have been active in the 1190s, an outlaw in 1225, and dead in 1247 -- a version of the legend owing much to Ritson. This places him in the reigns of Richard I, John, and Henry III. But Holt is not convinced. Indeed, he thinks the first Robin Hood may have been earlier still.
Benet, p. 934, offers a similar speculation: "It is doubtful whether [Robin] ever lived -- the truth probably being that the stories associated with his name crystallized gradually around the personality of some popular local hero of the early 13th century."
Several scholars have strongly suggested that the "Gest" is targeted at the reign of Edward III. These include Ohlgren, who treats a date in the reign of Edward III as established fact, and Pollard. The chief evidence in Knight/Ohlgren seems to be the reference in the "Gest" to the "comely King," which title we know was used of Edward III (see note on Stanza 353). Pollard (pp. 202-204) bolsters the argument that Edward III must be meant with the claim that Edward III restored justice after a period when it was lacking, or at least was considered to have done so. This is true but a poor argument -- note that the single most substantial element in the "Gest" is built around an injustice which Robin has to correct because royal justice cannot.
Remember too that Edward II was proposed for sainthood.by Richard II (Phillips, pp. 600-606). True, Edward did not deserve it, but the idea was obviously "in the air" about the time the elements of the "Gest" were coalescing. And saints were generally considered just but unworldly -- a perfect fit for the King in the "Gest," who has a weak grip on what is going on but tries for justice once he finds out.
Yet even Holt2, p. 192, thinks that Edward II's trip north was a key component in the legend. I tend to agree.
Can we make something out of all this conflicting data? If we sit down and list all our various points of evidence, and fit which kings they match, we get this list (in alphabetical order by trait):
* King during a crusading period: Henry II, Richard I, John, Henry III, Edward I, Edward II
* King who used distraint of knighthood: Henry III, Edward I, Edward II
* King during whose reign high clerical officials were known to have been robbed by outlaws: Edward II
* King during whose reign longbows were a common weapon: Henry III, Edward I, Edward II, Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Edward IV
* King during whose reign longbows were used but not widely encouraged: Henry III, Edward II
* King during whose reign social unrest would encourage outlawry: Henry III, Edward I, Edward II, Henry IV, Henry VI
* King during whose reign there could be a connection between Robin and Ranulf of Chester: Henry III, Edward I
* King named Edward: Edward I, Edward II, Edward III, Edward IV
* King went to the north of England and was concerned with deer herds: Edward II
* King who lived during the period of problems with livery: Edward I, Edward II, Edward III, Richard II, Edward IV
* King who was clearly not up to the job, but who was regularly in England, fitting the situation in "Robin Hood and the Monk": Henry III, Edward II
* King who would be relatively likely to personally deal with ordinary outlaws: John, Edward II, Edward IV
* Kings whose reigns were early enough that Robin might be legendary by 1377: Henry II, Richard I, John, Henry III, Edward I, Edward II
* Kings in whose reign a sheriff would be powerful but not a noble: Henry III, Edward I, Edward II
* Kings in which coins were available for the counting of money: Henry III (briefly), Edward I, Edward II, Edward III (after 1344), Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI
* Kings who used a gold coinage: Henry III (briefly), Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Edward IV
* Kings who spoke English: John (?), Edward I, Edward II (?), Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Edward IV
* Kings who reigned more than 22 years: Henry II, Henry III, Edward I, Edward III, Henry VI
The archetype of the legend need not fit all these traits, but certainly should fit most of them. Note that Edward II fits probably 15 of the 18, and the only three he doesn't fit (a gold coinage, a reign of 22 years, and a tie to Ranulf of Chester) are the weakest on the list. Richard I fits only *two* of the traits.
Second place after Edward II is Edward I, who fits twelve traits (I will admit that I am sorely tempted to link Robin to the disorder and breakdown of law at the end of Edward I's reign. But the visit of the King implies a still-strong monarch. By 1290, when things started to come unglued, Edward I was too old). Henry III had eleven or (briefly) twelve traits. Edward III had seven; no one else had more than six.
For the reign of Henry II (three traits) there is no direct evidence except a sort of historical reconstructionism: "If Robin was around during the short reign of Richard I, he must have been around in the long reign of Henry II." But given Robin's problems with bishops, could he possibly have lived in the time of Henry II without mention of Becket? Or of Becket's rival for the Archbishopric of Canterbury, Gilbert Foliot -- who just happened at the time of Becket's election to have been Bishop of Hereford? (Dahmus, p. 160).
Adding to the case for Edward II is the fact that he seems to have been unusually pious. This is not to say that the other Plantagenets were not (with the likely exception of John, who was very possibly a freethinker). But Edward II was particularly fond of religious observance and religious men, according to Phillips, p. 66. What's more, when Edward was in danger after Bannockburn, he is said to have vowed to the Virgin Mary to found a college if he were spared (Phillips, p. 68). Edward II was also devoted to (St.) Edward the Confessor -- but when he upgraded the chapel of St. Edward at Windsor, he set it up to say two masses a day, one for his father Edward I and one for the Virgin (Phillips, p. 69). Edward's devotion to Mary probably did not match Robin's -- but it was evidently stronger than most.
Thus the clear preponderance of evidence points to the reign of Edward II as the period in which the "Gest" is set. Almost everything fits, and no other reign fits as well. I emphasize that this is not proof -- the "Gest" is clearly an assembly from older materials, and those older materials might have come from diverse reigns. But *if* there was some chronological setting used as backdrop for those early legends, it is likely that the context was the reign of Edward II -- or possibly spanned the reigns of Edward I and Edward II (since Edward I also fits at several points), or Edward II and Edward III. It is morally certain that it did not arise out of the reign of Richard I.
Holt's conclusion, on p. 190, is that "The answer then to the question 'Who was Robin Hood?', must be 'There was more than one.'" This suggestion is, I think, undeniable. But the legend, if not the man, was born in the reign of Edward II.
Last updated in version 2.6
File: C117C

Gest of Robyn Hode, A [Child 117] --- Part 05

DESCRIPTION: Continuation of the notes to "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. Entry continues in "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117] --- Part 06 (File Number C117E)
Last updated in version 2.6
NOTES [11199 words]: SIDELIGHTS ON THE LEGEND
If we accept as an hypothesis that many of the early Robin Hood tales were associated with Edward II, it can potentially explain other features of the legend.
One of our most difficult questions is the place where Robin lived. Although we think of him as haunting Sherwood Forest (and indeed, 17 of the ballads place Robin in Sherwood or Nottingham), the "Gest" never actually names Sherwood, and early sources usually place him in Barnsdale. Dobson/Taylor catalog these on pp;. 18-19: The "Gest" and "Guy of Gisborne" have explicit references to the Barnsdale area, and the "Potter" mentins Wentberg, which is probably near Wentbridge in Barnsdale. On the other hand, there is the "Robyn Hod in Scherewod stod" verse, and the "Monk" places itself in "mery Scherewode" in stanza 16.
The reference to Barnsdale is not necessarily to Barndsale Forest, merely to some place called Barnsdale. Barnsdale the place is not a forest; Child, p. 50, calls it a "woodland region," and Dobson/Taylor, p. 21, say of it, "A magnesian limestone area, probably not much more heavily wooded in the later middle ages than today, Barnsdale does not appear to have ever been a forest in either the literal or legal sense." It is in west Yorkshire, somewhat east of Leeds and Wakefield, more than ten leagues to the north of Sherwood (see map in p. 101 of Holt2). Barnsdale, note, is outside the "beat" of the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Although some (e.g. Baldwin, p. 44) claim that Robin could have lived in both Barnsdale and Sherwood, the two are so far apart that an outlaw could not reasonably occupy both simultaneously. (As of 2004, in fact, this has become an issue in the British parliament, with Nottinghamshire posting signs saying "Robin Hood Country" and Yorkshire wanting them taken down.) A man could travel from one to the other in a day, but would not have time to do anything upon arriving.
It is interesting to note that the three Edwards regularly hunted in Sherwood (Baldwin, p. 44). But this doesn't help us explain the events in the "Gest," because the King there complained about lack of deer at Plumpton Park, and that assuredly is not in Sherwood.
Additional minor evidence for why Barnsdale is a more likely home for the legend comes from the fact that arrows had iron warheads. In the Middle Ages, only five counties in England were important iron-producing areas. One was Yorkshire (Hewitt, p. 70). Nottingham was not one of them. Thus it would have been easier for Robin to liberate arrows in Barnsdale than Sherwood.
We should probably demonstrate why the claim that Robin Hood was earl of Huntingdon (the correct spelling) is impossible, and the claim that he was any sort of noble is almost as bad. The last Saxon Earl of Huntingdon was Waltheof, who was a young man at the time of the Norman Conquest. Our information on this period is scanty, but he was executed for some sort of treasonous activity in 1076 (Barlow-Rufus, p. 31) -- perhaps for complicity in Malcolm Canmore's invasion of the north in that year (Douglas, pp. 232-233).
Apparently Waltheof had no male heir, but according to Tyerman, p. 21, "his heirs were not harried," so the Huntingdon earldom was allowed to pass to his daughter Matilda/Maud and her husband Simon of Senlis (St. Liz), a soldier who served William the Conqueror well; she married him probably around 1090 (in the time of, and probably at the command of, William II; Bartow, pp. 93, 172-173).
After Simon's death, Matilda (who by now was around 40) married the future King David I of Scotland (Magnusson, p. 73, says this took place in 1114; Oram, p. 65, says in 1113), meaning that David was the first of several Kings of Scotland who also were Earls of Huntingdon. Matilda had earlier children (Oram, p. 65), but is was decided that her children by David would be the heirs of Huntingdon. There was only one child, a boy Henry, who ended up as David's only son, since the king never remarried after Matilda died in 1130 (Oram, p. 73). Thus Henry of Huntingdon became both Earl of Huntingdon and ancestor of the royal line of Scotland.
For the moment, however, he was perhaps more English than Scottish. Henry in fact became a member of the English King Stephen's court (Bradbury, p. 33), and Henry's son Malcolm "the Maiden" campaigned in France with Stephen's successor Henry II as his vassal (Magnusson, p. 80).
King David before his death passed the earldom to his son Henry (it was common practice for kings to give their heirs some sort of property to manage), and this was confirmed by King Stephen in 1139 (Bradbury, p. 36, although he notes that Ranulf of Chester wanted to take Carlisle from Henry of Huntingdon. Stephen ignored this -- one reason Ranulf turned against him -- although Stephen did split off part of the Huntingdon earldom to form the earldom of Northampton; Bradbury, p. 37. Thus a person with Northampton ancestry might also claim the Huntingdon earldom -- but as far as I know, no one ever linked Robin with Northampton.).
Henry of Huntingdon however died a year before his father, so he never became king of Scotland. Henry's older sons became kings, so the third son, David, eventually was given the earldom (Bradbury, p. 177). The honor passed to David's son John in 1219. John also inherited the earldom of Chester, but died childless in 1237 (Oram, p. 90). The Earldom of Chester went back to the English crown, but the Huntingdon earldom, although Mortimer, p. 78, declares it extinct, went to the Bruces of Anandale, since they were descended from Earl David's second daughter Isabel (see genealogy on p. 301 of Oram). Isabel's son Robert Bruce, the future competitor for the throne of Scotland and grandfather of King Robert I, fought with Henry III at the Battle of Lewes and was taken captive (Powicke, p. 190), and his son Robert fought with Edward I in Wales (Prestwich1, p. 196); indeed, an earlier Bruce had fought been with the English army that defeated the Scots at the Battle of the Standard in 1138! (Young/Adair, p. 24).
It would probably have been very difficult in this period to take the Huntingdon earldom from the heirs of Waltheof, since the dead earl was by this time being informally venerated as a saint (Tyerman, p. 21).
Members of the Scots royal family thus held the Huntingdon earldom from the reign of Henry I until the reign of Edward I -- Robert Bruce #2 (the son of the competitor and the father of the future king) held to his English allegiance until his death in 1306, very probably so that he would not lose his English title. The Bruces, like their ancestors, were at least as English as Scottosh -- they had a home in London at this time (Oram, p. 117), and one of Robert Bruce's brothers bore that quintessentially English name, Edward -- an especially noteworthy point since he was born in the reign of Edward I. Another brother, Alexander, graduated from Cambridge in 1303 (Oram, p. 118).
Still, Robert Bruce, Earl of Huntingdon, was regarded by all as a Scot, not an Englishman. This brings us to the curious part. Remember Langland's link between Robin Hood and Ranulf of Chester? The last Earl Ranulf of Chester died in 1232 without a direct heir (Mortimer, p. 78, who adds that his lands were divided). The next person in line for the Chester earldom was "John the Scot," the son of David of Huntingdon (Powicke, p. 197 n.). Once he died, the English crown reclaimed the Chester earldom (Mortimer, p. 78).
Even though the English King took back the Chester earldom, if you assume that Robin really was Earl of Huntingdon, then he almost had to be Scottish, and he also had the claim to being Earl of Chester. In other words, if Robin really was an earl, then Langland's link of Ranulf and of Robin would be of cousins (probably first cousins once removed), with Robin being Ranulf's heir!
No, I don't buy a word of it either. Apart from all the assumptions we have to accept, the Scots never took to the longbow -- one of the main reasons why the English won most of the battles with the Scots from 1300 to 1513. The one major Scottish win, at Bannockburn, came about because Edward II ignored his archers -- a lesson his son was quick to learn. And yet, if we continue the speculation, we do find in "Robin Hood and the Scotchman" [Child 130] the interesting fact that Robin is willing to accept Scots into his band. But this ballad is late, and the surviving versions short -- and the "Scotchman" shows no indications of actual Scottishness. I almost wonder if this isn't some sort of strange attempt to show James I or some other Stuart king that Robin was an equal opportunity outlaw.
One last observation: Martin Parker's feeble "A True Tale of Robin Hood" [Child 154], which in stanza 3 makes Robin Earl of Huntingdon in the reign of Richard I, in stanza 83 has Robin's men flee to "the Scottish King," but not Robin himself. Parker seems to have made up much of his tale, but some might be from now-lost tradition. His tale fits badly in the reign of Richard I; Richard lived before the formation of the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France. Scotland and England were often friendly in this period. Outlaws who fled to Scotland might be turned over to the English king. It was only after Bannockburn in 1314 that Scotland would be a safe and secure refuge.
None of that is really relevant, except to prove the following: The only way that Robin Hood could have been shadow Earl of Huntingdon is if he has been a child of Matilda daughter of Waltheof by her first marriage to Simon of Senlis. But that would mean that he was born in 1107 at the latest, and probably a few years earlier. This would mean that he would have been active in the reigns of Henry I (reigned 1100-1135) and Stephen (1135-1154). And that's just plain too early.
There is one other question: If the legend early on made Robin a shadow earl (perhaps under the influence of the Tale of Gamelyn or some such), why Earl of Huntingdon? We can't really answer this, but it leads to interesting speculations.
The office of Earl was established before the Norman Conquest. In Saxon times, the number and boundaries of the earldoms were not at all fixed (e.g. E. A. Freeman, as reproduced on p. 362 of Barlow-Edward, pp. 362-363, shows eight earldoms in 1045, but only six plus a sub-earldom in 1065-1066). Our knowledge of the earldoms at the time is very limited (Walker, p. 231), but they did not correspond at all to the modern counties; indeed, counties were often swapped from earl to earl during the reign of Edward the Confessor (Walker, pp. 2333-234, tabulates the little we know about these changes).
But several earldoms always existed in the late Saxon period, based in large part on the ancient kingdoms of Britain: The earldoms of Wessex, Mercia, and Northumberland, plus apparently the smaller earldom of East Anglia. The three major earldoms had belonged to three great families under King Cnut: Godwine of Wessex, Leofric of Mercia, and Siward of Northumbria (the father of the above-mentioned Waltheof). All of them were dead before 1060, but the later earls were selected from their descendents.
Without bothering with the details of how it ended up so, in 1066 King Harold II son of Godwine retained his old Earldom of Wessex as well as being king. His brother Gyrth was Earl of East Anglia, and his brother Leofwine held an Earldom in the southeast that doesn't seem to have had a name (Barlow-Edward, p. 197). Edwin the grandson of Leofric held Mercia, and his brother Morkere/Morcar had recently been granted Northumbria (Barlow-Edward, p. 238). Waltheof, the only living son of Seward, had been very young when his father died, but around 1065 was given land in Huntingdon and Northamptonshire (Barlow-Edward, p, 194 n. 3; Walker, p. 234). It is not clear what this earldom was called at the time, but after the Conquest, it was labelled the earldom of Huntingdon.
Here is what is interesting. After the Conquest, William the Conqueror broke up the great Earldoms -- indeed, it is Douglas's opinion (pp. 295-297) that William completely redefined the office of Earl, from an administrative post to a military one -- most of his earls held marcher counties. He immediately dissolved Harold's earldom of Wessex, and when a few years later he got rid of Edwin and Morkere, he dissolved Mercia and chopped Northumbria down to the county of Northumberland (Linklater, pp. 263-264). East Anglia was divided into Norfolk and Suffolk. Leofwine's southeastern earldom also was dissolved.
Thus Waltheof's earldom of Huntingdon, although small compared to the other Saxon earldoms, was the only one to survive essentially intact. Was whoever invented the Huntingdon claim anticipating Scott's idea of Robin the Saxon survivor? No idea. However, had Robin not been claimed as shadow earl of some other county, it is not unlikely that Scott, or an earlier author, would have converted him to Earl of Huntingdon just because it was such a historically interesting title.
But if Robin Hood was not Earl of Huntingdon, which he wasn't, then he surely did not live in the Barnsdale in Rutland. So we're still trying to decide between Sherwood and the Barnsdale in Yorkshire.
Or maybe someplace to the west. Much of the material in the "Gest" parallels portions of "Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly" [Child 116], first published in 1536. Those three outlaws were based in Inglewood in Cumbria and Lancashire, not Barnsdale or Sherwood (though, we might note, Wynton places Robin in Inglewood). An attempt to combine the two legends produced the monstrosity that is "Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor, and Marriage" [Child 149]. Some have tried to claim "Adam Bell" as an ancestor of the Robin Hood legend. But there is in fact no reason to think the dependency does not go the other way; Chambers, p. 159, calls it "almost a burlesque of Robin Hood."
More reasonably, the reference to Inglewood might come out of Edward II's wars with Scotland. McNamee, p. 47, notes that people in southwest Scotland were hiding their cattle in Inglewood due to English raids. (We see a similar situation in England in 1345, when English herders took their cattle to Knaresborough and Galtres forests in Yorkshire due to Scottish raids; Hewitt, p. 103.) Talk about an opportunity for outlaws! -- maybe Robin made a business trip. Another possibility is that Robin originally set up in Barnsdale, but during the period of the Scots raids, pickings grew so slim in Yorkshire that he moved south, perhaps temporarily, to Sherwood in Nottinghamshire, which was south of the area devastated by the Scots.
Young, p. 99, has an interesting table calculating up the average rate of offenses against venison at several forests in the late thirteenth century. The lowest rate is two per year at Melksham in Wiltshire. Ten of the other twelve forests for which statistics were available, all in southern or central England, averaged four or five offenses per year. Only two exceeded five offences per year: Sherwood, with seven, and Inglewood, with eight. (Barnsdale is not in the list.) It would seem that both were well-known as outlaw haunts.
"Guy of Gisborne" hints at a location somewhat south of Inglewood, in Lancashire -- but close enough that Robin could be in both. Gisburn is a small town, due north of modern Burnley, relatively close to the west coast of Britain, on the Ribble river in Lancashire; it is 30 or 40 miles west and somewhat north of Barnsdale -- although, interestingly, it is directly between Barnsdale and Sir Richard's presumed home in Wyresdale. If Guy lived in Robin's locality, Robin might well have lived in Bowland Forest east of the Wyre river, roughly in the center of a triangle with vertices at Preston, the city of Lancaster, and Gisburn. The chances of anyone from Sherwood, or even Barnsdale, casually showing up in the Gisburn area are slight.
Holt1, p. 105, makes the interesting observation that, although references to Lancashire locations are relatively few, they are scattered across the several parts of the poem -- the killing of the knight of Lancaster is in fit 1, the mention of Verysdale (Wyresdale?) is in fit 2, and King Edward is near the passes of Lancashire and Plumpton Park in fit 7. Holt suggests that the Lancashire references were all added after the story was nearly finished; the other possibility, of course, is that they are very ancient and precede localization to Sherwood and Barnsdale.
Vague additional support for a Lancashire setting comes from stanza 53 of the "Gest," which says that the Knight's son slew a knight of Lancaster/Lancashire. Obviously Lancashire knights were most common in Lancashire -- but on the other hand, who would identify a knight as being "of Lancashire" if the setting were Lancashire?
And then there is the alternate reading "Lancaster." Although a geographic designation, it is also a political one -- could the boy have slain a knight who was a vassal of the Earl (or Duke) of Lancaster? If so, it might even explain why Robin befriended Sir Richard, since the Earl of Lancaster, as we shall see, was Edward II's strongest adversary. And Lancastrians still existed and "were unreconciled" after the earl's execution (Wilkinson, p. 128). Alternately, "Lancaster" might be an anachronism -- a supporter of the House of Lancaster in the Wars of the Roses, which began after the "Gest" was written (probably, anyway) but before the "Gest" was printed.
This is one of the most important variants in the "Gest," and I disagree withChild on purely textual grounds -- although it would be very helpful if someone could do a more serious critical analysis. But if my analysis of the text is correct, then the reading "Lancashire" is an argument, although a weak one, against placing the Robin in Lancashire.
If the "Curtal Friar" be regarded as solid evidence, the Friar is from Fountains Abbey. The abbey dates from the twelfth century (founded 1132, according to Tatton-Brown/Crook, p. 112, by the Cisterians; Kerr, pp. 193-194, says the founders wanted to adopt a stricter rule and so broke away from the Benedictines -- although Tyerman, p. 116, says that this worked only moderately well), so it is no help with dating -- but it is in west Yorkshire, near Barnsdale, not in Nottinghamshire. It was raided by the Scots in 1318 or 1319 (McNamee, p. 88) -- which might perhaps explain why the Friar was active so far from his base: the Abbey residents were scattered. (The other possibility is that he was herding sheep; Kerr, p. 195, says that the abbey at one time had 15,000 sheep!)
I do note that Fountains eventually came to start paying significant sums to visiting minstrels (Holt1, p. 137); might Fountains Abbey have come to be part of the tradition because some visiting performer zipped its name into one of his Robin Hood songs?
For the interesting relationship between Richard of Fountains and the Abbot of St. Mary's, see the notes to Stanza 88.
Minor additional support for Barnsdale comes from the fact that several Scottish chroniclers knew of Robin; they would have been more likely to know of a Yorkshire robber than one from Nottinghamshire or probably Lancashire.
Almost all the sites named after Robin Hood are much later than the earliest references to the outlaw. The one partial exception, according to Holt1, p. 107, is a Robin Hood marker in Barnsdale attested from 1422. The first known Nottingham is dated to 1485 (Holt1, p. 408).
If we allow the dubious possibility that Edward IV was the "Gest's" king, this tends to support the Sherwood hypothesis. Edward I, Edward II, and Edward III all visited the north mostly for their wars. Edward IV, since he was not born to be king (he was the son of Richard Duke of York, and gained the throne by conquest), spent much time in the north when he was young, but after winning the Battle of Towton at the very beginning of his reign, tended to stay in the south. What is interesting is that Ross-Edward, p. 271, lists several visits he made around the country in the 1470s (his last trips outside southern England). One did go as far north as York, but in most, the King visited Nottingham and then returned south. He in fact rebuilt Nottingham castle to be a more comfortable residence (Ross-Edward, p. 272). Thus he was far more often in the vicinity of Sherwood than Barnsdale.
Edward's interest in Nottingham is in sharp contrast to his predecessor Henry VI, who visited Nottinham only once in the long period from his accession in 1422 until 1450 (Wolffe, p. 94). The map on pp. 96-97 of Wolffe, however, does show Henry VI visiting Blythe and Doncaster.
If we have three Robin Hood centers, in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Nottinghamshire, it makes slightly better sense to assume the legend originated in Yorkshire. In that case, the legend spread out from the central county. Otherwise, we have to assume that it spread from Nottinghamshire to Yorkshire to Lancashire, or vice versa, without being picked up in other counties. This could have happened -- but in general we should prefer the "middle" variant.
On the other hand, the earlier we date Robin, the more likely a Lancashire origin becomes. Of the three counties, Lancashire is the closest to Wales, where the longbow originated. Yorkshire is the most remote of the three. If we assume Robin took up the bow on his own, rather than under royal encouragement, then Lancashire makes the best sense.
Holt1, p. 53, notes that the description of Barnsdale in the "Gest" is more detailed and accurate (mentioning, e.g., Watling Street) than that of Sherwood (see the note on Stanza 3). On p. 88, he amplifies this, saying that "Barnsdale seems real. Sherwood is somewhat like the 'wood near Athens'" of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The details of Barnsdale might, however, be from the poet rather than the legend.
Kirklees, where Robin died according to both the "Gest" and the "Death," is much closer to Barnsdale than Sherwood -- a sick man would hardly want to make the two-day journey from Sherwood to Kirklees. But from Barnsdale it is about twenty miles -- perhaps less. It is also fairly close to Lancashire.
Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, and Lancashire all fit the account of King Edward's northern visit; Edward II visited all these places.
Of the three places (Nottinghamshire, west Yorkshire, Lancashire), Lancashire would be the least likely haunt for robbers; it was a rather poor area and is far from the main routes north from London. Barnsdale and Sherwood are both near the Great North Road/Watling Street (see map on p. 82 of Holt1).
Prestwich3, p. 68, makes the fascinating note that, when Edward I was preparing to campaign against Scotland, his army consisted of knights, men-at-arms, archers -- and *slingers* from Sherwood Forest. It was apparently not unusual for the King to call on foresters to recruit forces for his wars (in fact, Edward II called out levies from the forests south of Trent in 1322 for a campaign against Scotland; Young, p. 165) -- but this is the only instance I can think of of slingers in an English army. Could this be another reason for the transfer of Robin from Barnsdale to Sherwood?
My guess is that Barnsdale was Robin's original home, and that locals in other areas adopted him, and that Sherwood and Nottinghamshire won out because Nottinghamshire and Sherwood are larger and better known (Dobson/Taylor, p. 20; most modern maps don't even show Barnsdale). The connection with the unscrupulous Sheriff John of Oxford may have helped. So might the memory of Roger Godberd, that particularly busy robber who was active in Nottinghamshire in the reign of Henry III (Holt1, pp. 97-99) who was Baldwin's candidate for the Original Robin Hood. Several scholars have suggested that the current legend is a fusion of two cycles, one based in Barnsdale and one involving the Sheriff of Nottingham which attracted Robin of Barnsdale (Dobson/Taylor, p. 14). Holt1, p. 97, seems to accept a possibility that the Godberd tale, which involved the constable of Nottingham, might have attracted the Robin Hood legend to Sherwood.
But the possibility that the attraction went the other way cannot be ruled out; since Barnsdale was known as a den of robbers by 1306 (Holt1, p. 52; Dobson/Taylor, p. 24, following Hunter), a robber in Sherwood might have been relocated to Barnsdale (perhaps also helped by the link to the Hood family of Wakefield). Once the memory of Barnsdale as a haunt of robbers faded, the Sherwood legend might re-emerge.
I'll admit that I've had some pretty strange thoughts about this. For example, the fact that there seemed to be Robin Hood legends in three places -- Barnsdale, Sherwood, and Inglewood -- gave rise to the thought that Robin invented the idea of "franchising." The image is of a guy who sleeps and eats at home, then goes to his day job of Robinbooding. Robin set up his first outlaw band in Barnsdale. Then he granted a license for the name to someone (Young Gamwell, perhaps?) in Sherwood. Then he opened a third franchise in Inglewood -- perhaps selling the rights there to Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesley. Robin, after all, must have employed a very good bowyer, and Robin's fletcher must also have been good. They, and perhaps other specialists in his band, could potentially serve several outlaw bands.
It is interesting to note that two of the ballads describe Robin as robbing the Bishop of Hereford: "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford" [Child 144] and "Robin Hood and Queen Katherine" [Child 145]. The former is of course all about the robbery. The latter mentions it only in passing (stanza 23 of Child's "A" refers to Hereford, as does line 177 of the Knight/Ohlgren text based on the Forresters manuscript; see also Knight, p. 39, second stanza; Knight, p. 58). "Robin Hood and Queen Katherine" is partly based on the "Gest," and may also have influence from one of the various tales of Robin robbing bishops. In any case, "Queen Katherine" cannot be an early legend -- England did not have a Queen Katherine from the time of William the Conqueror until Henry V married Catherine of Valois in 1420.
"Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford" is another matter. The plot comes from Eustace the Monk, and it is so similar in concept to "Robin Hood and the Bishop" [Child 143] that Knight/Ohlgren do not seem even to distinguish them. But while copies of "The Bishop of Hereford" are fairly recent, it is noteworthy among the late ballads in placing Robin in Barnsdale, not Sherwood -- a strong hint a token of older content. And Child considers it superior to most of the later ballads, plus it is fairly well attested in tradition.
Admittedly the action in "Hereford" is probably a doublet of the robbing of the abbot in the "Gest," or the monk in the "Monk." But why the Bishop of Hereford? Hereford is nowhere near any of Robin's known haunts. Nor, we note, is it a rich bishopric. Barlow-Rufus, p. 262, has a table of the values of sundry bishoprics. The list is not complete. but Hereford, with a farm of 270 pounds per year in the time of Henry II, is the poorest see listed except for Chichester. Even allowing for inflation (there reportedly was heavy inflation in the early 1200s; Mortimer, p. 51), it's hard to see how a Bishop of Hereford could have 300 pounds in cash to haul around.
Almost all ot these problems are solved if we assume that the Bishop involved is Adam Orleton, Bishop of Hereford at the end of the reign of Edward II. Although he was only Bishop of Hereford at that time, he soon after was translated to Worcester (in 1327), and then to Winchester (in 1333); according to Hicks, p. 60, he was among the very first bishops to be translated (moved from one bishopric to another), a practice which had been frowned on in the early church.
Winchester was the richest diocese in England (with a farm of 1440 pounds per year in Henry II's time, or more than five times the value of Hereford, according to Barlow-Rufus, and on the order of 4000 pounds per year by the time of Henry III, according to Mortimer, p. 81), and was still considered "the richest of English sees" (Wolffe, p. 67) and a "lucrative" bishopric in the time of Henry VI (Wolffe, p. 56).
And, if we assume that Robin was a supporter of Edward II, then he had a particular reason to go after Orleton -- and to call him Bishop of Hereford even after his translation. Doherty describes Orleton (p. 86) as "ruffianly," while Hutchison, p. 128, calls him "unamiable and self-serving." Even the less pro-Edward Harvey declares (p. 160) that he was one of several bishops who "counted treason as nothing."
The most positive assessment I can find of him is in Hicks, p. 61, who thinks the Pope liked and promoted Orleton because Orleton -- a man of "exceptionally obscure" origins -- believed in a strongly hierarchical church (a church, thus, which might promote men like Orleton!). Hicks also notes that he seems to have made genuine efforts to manage his diocese well, and says that his reputation has suffered because of the works of one particular chronicler. This argument does not seem to have been convincing; few other historians have anything better to say of Orleton than Ormrod, p. 28, who merely calls him a "political prelate" (although, interestingly, he would later play a role in claiming the kingdom of France for Edward III) and Barber, who on p. 14 calls him "far from incompetent."
Orleton was unusual in that he was not the monarch's pick for his see. Edward II had opposed Orleton's appointment in the first place (Prestwich3, p. 105; Hicks, p. 61). Phillips, p. 450, says that Edward II had sent him on a mission to Avignon in 1317, and that Orleton managed to obtain the Bishopric of Hereford while there, presumably by intrigue. Edward tried to have the Pope set him aside. Orleton would more than have his revenge:
Edward II had trouble with several of his bishops at one time or another, but Phillips, pp. 453-454, says that Orleton was the one bishop with whom he was never reconciled -- he was actually called before judges in 1324 (Phillips, p. 453). Doherty, p. 86, declares that Orleton of Hereford was a friend of Roger Mortimer (who became Isabella's lover and later led the rebellion against Edward II) and helped Mortimer escape from the Tower. Edward, not surprisingly, took away his temporalities (Hutchison, p. 130). Later, Orleton would preach against Edward II's favorites the Despensers (Doherty, p. 91), and Hutchison, p. 135, declares that he "preached treason" at Oxford.
"The bishop of Hereford declared in the parliament of 1326 that if Isabella rejoined her husband [Edward II] she would suffer death at his hands. Soon after, we find the Bishop of Hereford allied with Queen Isabella against the King; he was one of those who joined her party in France" (Prestwich3, p. 97; although Phillips, p. 504, says that Orleton joined the rebels after they landed in England. Doherty also supposts the claim that Orleton saved Isabella from being reunited from her husband, allowing her to stick with her lover Mortimer).
Phillips, p. 98, says that Orleton was the first to openly declare Edward II a sodomite -- although it must have been whispered earlier; he also called Edward a tyrant (Phillips, p. 523, who notes however that Orleton later claimed -- once the political tide had turned -- that he was using the words about Hugh Despenser the Younger rather than Edward. Phillips, pp. 523-524, n. 22, does add that the charge of sodomy was widely reported on the continent but occurs rarely in English chronicles).
Once the anti-Edward rebellion succeeded, Isabella and Mortimer had to figure out what to do with Edward. They finally decided on trying to get him to publicly give up his throne -- and Orleton was one of those sent to talk him into it (Doherty, p. 110. Edward of course refused to go along). Orleton did manage to retrieve the Privy Seal (Hutchison, p. 137). When Parliament met, Orleton presented most of the arguments for Edward's deposition (Doherty, pp. 110-111; Hutchison, p. 138, says that on January 13, 1327, he preached on the theme "A foolish king shall ruin his people"). In Hutchison's view, in the period immediately after Edward's deposition, three people ran the country: "the adulteress Isabella, her paramour Mortimer and the execrable Orleton" (p. 140).
Orleton would later, once Edward III was firmly in control, be accused of ordering the death of Edward II. He was able to prove his innocence -- he was both out of favor and out of the country at the time of the murder (Doherty, pp. 130-131) -- but surely friends of the king would be those most likely to listen to such rumors.
We know Orleton ended up with a reputation for sneakiness. A late source, demonstrably false, told of him sending a message to Edward II's guards, "Edwardum occidere nolite timere bonum est" (Doherty, p. 130). If punctuated with a comma after timere, this becomes "Do not be afraid to kill Edward; it is good"; if punctuated with a comma before timere, it is "Do not kill Edward; it is good to be afraid." We know it's not true because, first, Orleton wasn't in the country to send the message, and second, the story was originally told of someone else (Hutchison, p. 142; Doherty, pp. 130-131). But it is probably a valid example of how Orleton was seen at the time.
Thus, while Robin Hood disliked bishops in general, if he lived c. 1327, the bishop he would surely hate above all would be Orleton of Hereford.
The most likely time for the robbery might be the period in 1327-1328, when memories of Orleton's part in the deposition of Edward II were fresh and Orleton was Lord Treasurer and hence would be dealing with large sums of money. Toward the end of the latter year, Orleton lost his post of Treasurer because he disagreed with the forced regency of Roger Mortimer (Ormrod, p. 15).
So while it would be unlikely that a bishop would carry 300 pounds, let along the 800 pounds allegedly taken from the cellarer of the "Gest," Orleton, if taken after 1333, or during his time as treasurer, would be good for the sum. And Robin and his men might call him "Bishop of Hereford" even after he was translated, because the translations took place under a regime they disapproved of. And Orleton lived until 1345, so there was plenty of time to rob him after his translations.
It is perhaps slightly ironic to note that it has been suggested that the compiler of the tale of Fulk FitzWarin was a member of Orleton's clerical family (Ohlgren, p. 106).
Orleton went blind by 1340, and died in 1345 (Hicks, p. 62).
THE REDATING OF THE LEGEND: ROBIN HOOD AND RICHARD I
Holt1, p. 36, declares, "Nothing has so confused the story of Robin so much as the imposition of modern anacrhronism on the medieval legend." The observations above and below surely show how true this is. If the original stories of Robin Hood are so clearly linked to the period of the Edwards, how did the later Robin Hood come to be so associated with the time of Richard I? As Dobson/Taylor point out on p. 16, "there is no evidence whatsoever" that Robin lived in the time of Richard and John, adding in note 3, "The only serious scholar to accept a twelfth-century date for Robin Hood in recent years was Professor W. Entwistle."
So why Richard I?
Some of it may have been the curious similarity between the story in the "Gest" of Robin and the Knight and that of Saint Robert of Knaresborough (see note on Stanza 91). Also, there was a tale, in Roger of Wendover's chronicle (1232?) which Briggs-Folktales prints on pp. 219-220, called "King Richard and the Penitent Knight," about a knight condemned for killing deer. This has some similarities to the tale in the "Gest," and might have caused the two to become attracted.
Probably a bigger part of it is just the wild guesses of the earlier chroniclers. It is interesting that many of the early reports about Robin are Scottish; Pollard, p. 190, suggests that the Scots chroniclers might have transferred Robin from the reign of the Edwards, who oppressed Scotland, to Richard, who granted Scotland independece. And Munday, and later Walter Scott, strengthened the suggestion.
But those early guesses -- which, after all, are probably based in part on materials we no longer have -- could also have been influenced by the many similarities (some trivial, some quite significant) between Edward II and Richard I:
* Both have been charged with homosexuality (although Edward managed to father children, which Richard did not. Edward was not openly accused of homosexuality until Tudor times; Philipps, pp. 25-26. But Edward's obsession with Piers Gaveston was a major issue even before Edward took the throne; Hutchison, p. 30). To be sure, Richard's homosexuality is disputed (see the notes to "Richie Story" [Child 232]). But the only other seemingly-homosexual pre-Tudor English king was William Rufus, who never married and apparently dressed his courtiers in effeminate styles (Barlow-Rufus, pp. 102-104). No one wanted to imitate Rufus, who was not admired. (Although, interestingly, he, like Richard, died of an arrow shot probably by a vassal.) In any case, Rufus was known for his poor relations with the church (Barlow-Rufus, p. 110) and his appropriation of funds from bishoprics he refused to fill (Barlow-Rufus, p. 181); although Barlow-Rufus on p. 113 denies that Rufus was actually non-Christian, the pious Robin probably would not have liked him.
* Both Richard and Edward were younger sons of overbearing fathers who did not initially expect to succeed to the throne (Edward II's older brother Alfonso was heir at the time Edward was born; Alfonso did not die until 1284, when he was 11 years old; Hutchison, pp. 5-6. Richard's brother was Henry the Young King, who died in 1183, when Richard was already 25 or 26).
* Both suffered severe financial difficulties (not that that is unusual for an English King).
* Neither held true to his word (Hutchison, p. 69, notes Edward's repeated flouting of the Ordinances to which he agreed; one of the reasons Richard fought his father was that neither could be trusted).
* Both were considered to have inherited the overlordship of Scotland from their fathers, and both lost it (Richard sold it to finance his crusade, Edward forfeited it at Bannockburn).
* Both died violently when rather young -- around 43. Richard was still on the throne when he died, whereas Edward II had been deposed earlier in the year, but Richard had sown a wind which would be reaped by his brother John, and which brought John to the brink of deposition.
Plus, Richard I is often said (somewhat exaggeratedly) to have been in conflict with his younger brother and successor John. This is a particularly common theme in the Robin Hood stories. And Edward II had been in conflict with his nobles long before his deposition -- notably with his cousin Henry of Lancaster.
Lancaster wasn't Edward II's brother -- but Edward II had no living full brothers, and his two half-brothers were young, and his only male heirs in 1318 were two boys under the age of seven. Apart from those boys, Henry of Lancaster was the heir in male line of Edward II; both were grandsons in male line of King Henry III. Close enough to a brother for ballad purposes (Wilkinson, p. 119, calls him the "first lord of the royal blood"); had Edward II died accidentally around 1315, the temptation would have been strong to give the throne to Lancaster.
Indeed, when Edward was deposed, Henry of Lancaster (the brother of the executed Thomas of Lancaster) became the nominal head of the government as regent for the young Edward III (Hutchison, p. 140). Plus, when Edward II was overthrown, Henry of Lancaster was part of the force which turned against him. And the Scots seem to have addressed a letter to Lancaster in which they called him "King Arthur" (Phillips, p. 406, although of course Arthur was not his name.)
In the end, even his real brother would betray Edward II: in the final rebellion which overthrew the king, Edward's half-brother the Earl of Norfolk gave support to the invaders led by Edward's wife, although he was not a leader (Hutchison, p. 134; Phillips, p. 504). The sons of Edward I all seem to have been pretty useless. Edward II never managed peace with his barons. His half-brother Edmund of Woodstock, earl of Kent, was disastrously defeated in Gascony; Hutchison, p. 125. And the other half-brother, Thomas of Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk, was a non-entity until the rebellion of 1326).
I also note that Richard at the Lee in the "Gest" and Richard I in the later legend are alleged to have been held up, then released, by Robin. Might confusion of names have somehow contributed to the assignment of Robin to the reign of Richard I? Particularly with the legend of Fulk FitzWarren also attracting Robin to the reigns of Richard and John? Keen, pp. 46-48, seems convinced that the story of Fulk lies at the roots of most of the "Gest." I would be more inclined to say that the same motifs went into both -- indeed, the fact that Fulk (who is historical) was firmly dated to the reign of Richard and John would be a reason to date Robin to the same period.
It must have b een tempting to dissociate Robin Hood the hero from Edward II the disaster. Richard I was a failure as a king, but he was a glorious failure -- a crusader, a figure of romance, a fighter to the end. But "No other English king has received such unanimous disapproval as Edward II," according to Hutchison, p. 145. I'm not sure that's true -- Henry VI was pure disaster -- but certainly Edward II was the worst in the century before Langland wrote "Piers Plowman," and retains a poor reputation to this day.
Suppose, then, that there was a tale of an outlaw who met with and supported Edward II. Perhaps he was one of those who conspired to restore Edward II after his deposition. Would not the temptation be to transfer his exploits to another time -- perhaps a time when there was a romantic king otherwise similar to Edward? After all, "More than any other King of England[,] Richard the Lionhearted belongs, not to the sober world of history , but to the magic realm of legend and romance. The picture we have of him is still shaped by the images of a child's view of the Middle Ages" (Gillingham, p. 4. He adds on pp. 5-6 that "Once we look a little more closely at some of the stories about Richard it soon becomes obvious that the coat of legendary paint which conceals him is a very thick coat indeed").
There might be another reason for the transfer. Richard I, after he went on crusade, was captured by Leopold of Austria, and was in captivity for more than a year. Since he had been out of the country for about four years in all, there were sporadic rebellions on his return. Most of these collapsed quickly. The very last town to hold out was Nottingham (Gillingham, p. 241). Since the sheriff of Nottingham was Robin's foe, and the town of Nottingham opposed Richard, mightn't that have helped attract Robin to Richard's time? Or, perhaps, explain a transfer from Barnsdale to Sherwood in Nottinghamshire.
WHO MADE MAID MARION, AND OTHER LATE ADDITIONS
In the earliest stage of the legend, Robin's band seems to have consisted of Robin himself, Little John, Scarlock, and Much (see the note on Stanza 4). Others -- Allen a Dale, Will Stutely, perhaps Friar Tuck -- came from one-off ballads. But no one is more closely associated with the late legend than Maid Marian.
The link between Robin and Marion/Marian perhaps comes from French romances -- Simpson/Roud, p. 223, note that Robin and Marion were stock lovers in French tradition starting in the thirteenth century, and Holt1, p. 160, observes that Gower knew this tradition circa 1380. Dobson/Taylor, p. 42, declare that it is "virtually certain that by origin whe was the shepherdess Marion of the medieval French pastourelles, where she was partnered by the shepherd Robin."
Mustanoja, p. 53, suggests that equivalent native English lovers would be Jankin and Malkin, citing e.g. the thirteenth century "Lutel Soth Sermun." They are, he suggests on p. 54, the names of "'any frivolous young man' and 'any flighty girl.'" (It is perhaps of interest to note that "Malkin" is connected by different scholars variously to the name Mary=Marion and Matilda, both of which are alleged as the true name of Maid Marion; Mustanoja, p. 55.) He also notes on p. 53 an English tradition linking men named Robin with women named Gill. If the link derived from English folktales, we almost certainly would not see Robin and Marian together.
Marian's link to Robin Hood may have been cemented by the May Games, where Marian was queen (and supposedly very lusty indeed, according to Dobson/Taylor, p. 42 -- a strong contrast to the aristocratic, chaste Marian of the Munday plays). This would also explain why there is no Scottish tradition about them (Chambers, p. 121).
In light of their role in the Games, it is interesting to note that Marian was often said to be as good a fighter as Robin himself (see "Robin Hood and Maid Marian" [Child 150]), and in the May Games she was usually played by a man (Benet, p. 675) or boy (Dobson/Taylor, p. 42).
Child says categorically that she should be linked sexually with Friar Tuck, not Robin (p. 218, in the notes to Child 150).
The data for this is somewhat ambiguous. The first mention of Robin and Marian in the same immediate context, made by Barclay around 1508, seems to contrast them, not link them: "Yet would I gladly hear some merry fytte Of Maid Marian, or else of Robin Hood" (Cawthorne, p. 181; Dobson/Taylor, p. 41). Henry Mackyn in his description of the May Games says that after the play of Saint George and the dragon, and various dances, there appears "Robyn Hode and lytull John, and Maid Marian and frere Tuke" (Dobson/Taylor, p. 40).
Observe that "Robin Hood and Maid Marian" is the only ballad that is really about her; two others mention her, but in a context such that she might be associated with any of Robin's band, or none.
Knight/Ohlgren note on p. 58 (compare Pollard, pp. 26-27) the almost complete absence of women in the early ballads (if you exclude the Virgin Mary). There is the prioress of Kirkless in the "Death," and we briefly see the Knight's wife in the "Gest," but the only woman who is at all a character is the Sheriff's wife in the "Potter," who gives hints of being interested in Robin. Pollard, p. 27, comments that she seems to be drawn from the same sources as the Wife of Bath and Noah's wife (who, in the plays of this period, was usually a shrew).
Pollard, pp. 14-15, suggests that, after the Reformation, Robin's devotion to Mary (which of course is idolatry to Protestants) was diverted to Marian instead.
It is worth noting that in Robin's death scene (in both the "Death" and the "Gest"), Robin makes no mention of a wife, and certainly none of children. There is no early hint that he was married. (To be sure, Munday had Marian die, poisoned by an agent of King John, shortly after Robin's death; Knight/Ohlgren, pp. 426-428. But this is entirely out of Munday's head.)
The many ballads in the Forresters Manuscript mention Marion only once, and not in a love context (Knight, p. xx). This implies that, even as late as the seventeenth century, Robin and Marion were not strongly linked.
Munday's plays invented a love triangle between Robin, Marian, and Prince John (Simpson/Roud, p. 299). This gives me the mad image of Robin courting Marian in English and John in Norman French, but this is patently an accretion. It is true that Robert FitzWalter, who in legend was the mother of Matilda=Marian (Holt, p. 162), was a genuine enemy of King John (Tyerman, p. 307), and that "There is a story of Robert arriving at the trial of his son-in-law for murder with five hundred armed men, a reflection if not of the truth then of his reputation for violence and wealth" (Tyerman, p. 312). That would need a lot of twisting to turn into the Robin and Marian legend, though.
Holt1, p. 162, gives Munday much of the blame for fixing the notion of a date in the reign of Richard I as well as for ennobling Robin -- but it probably comes ultimately from the fact that Fulk FitzWarrene married a woman, Matilda, whom John had sought after (Keen, p. 51; the plot as summarized by Cawthorne, p. 103, is almost identical to the Munday tale). The story of Marian is, to me, the clearest indication of the Robin legend borrowing from the Fulk legend (or, rather, of Munday using the Fulk tale) -- but Marian's entry into the Robin Hood corpus did not occur until both traditions were past their prime.
The case of Friar Tuck is more mysterious. Both as the Curtal Friar and as Friar Tuck (if, indeed, these two are the same), he seems to be a native English figure. But is he truly a part of the Robin Hood saga? Dobson/Tarlor on p. 41 point out the complications of this legend: "Many ingenious attempts to trace the origins of the Friar Tuck of the Robin Hood legend seem to have foundered on a failure to appreciate that he was the product of a fusion between two very different friars." They add that he did not become a key part of the Robin Hood legend until Scott reshaped him in Ivanhoe.
We should keep in mind that public opinion of friars waxed and waned dramatically. One of the main topics of "Pierce the Ploughman's Crede" is the corrupted state of various friars (Barr, p. 6), but in early Lancastrian times friars were given exclusive rights to preach in some settings. Edward I seems to have approved of them, and his queen liked them a lot (Prestwich1, pp. 112-113). But the ballad of the Curtal Friar is not clear enough to tell us whether the friars were "in" or "out" in Robin's time.
Simpson/Roud, p. 135, cautiously declare, "Tuck may have been an independent comic figure based on the medieval stereotype of a disreputable friar -- fond of fighting, hunting, and wenching." Copland's play seems to indicate that Tuck was lusty indeed; Dobson/Taylor, p. 209, observes that Child cut a dozen extremely bawdy lines from the end. Based on one of these lines, it appears that he wore an artificial phallus (Cawthorne, p. 75). Certainly Robin offers him "a lady free" as part of his fee (line 111 on p. 289 of Knight/Ohlgren). This does not, however, eliminate the likelihood that the outlaw of 1417 was the first "Friar Tuck."
Robin Hood's friar may not be a version of this particular figure of fun, but that Tuck originated separately seems very likely -- indeed, Holt1, pp. 58-59, described an actual outlaw of 1417 who called himself Friar Tuck. According to Baldwin, p. 68, he actually was in holy orders; his name was Robert Stafford, and he was chaplain of Linfield in Sussex. Stafford was like Robin in at least one regard: He was good at evading capture. He avoided the authorities for more than a dozen years (Pollard, p. 95).
Dobson/Taylor, p. 4, suggest that Stafford took the name "Friar Tuck" in imitation of Robin Hood's association, and Holt seems to think (p. 16) that Robin and the Friar were connected from the start.
On the other hand, Alexander, p. 99, notes Tuck's strong history outside the Robin Hood legend: "In the May Day entertainments Friar Tuck took on the role of the Fool while at Christmas he became the Abbot of Misrule in charge of the celebrations."
On this evidence, whatever the age of the ballad of the Curtal Friar, it draws upon tales not integral to the Robin Hood legend. The friar, like Maid Marian, may have come to be associated with Robin via the May Games.
Keen, p. 134, suggests that Marian and Tuck have no analogies in the early ballads because they were "inappropriate" to the natural situation of an outlaw. Knight/Ohlgren, p. 10, suggest that Marian was made a major character by Munday because he made Robin a nobleman, and a nobleman needs a wife so that he can have heirs. McLynn, p. 243, offers the wild suggestion that "Maid Marian underlies the link to fertility cults"!
If Munday helped establish Maid Marian,and retained Friar Tuck, he is even more important in the establishment of Robin as a nobleman. It is little surprise to see this sort of "promotion"; it happened with Hereward the Wake as well. The claim that Robin was well-born was made by Grafton, and was supported by the Gale inscription, paraphrased by Parker in 1598. Dr. William Stukeley, in 1746, combined inaccurate records of the peerage with a good deal of imagination (such as a "marriage" which took place after one of the participants was dead; Cawthorne, p. 47) to convert Robin into "Robert fitz Ooth" (an unattested name; read perhaps Fitzhugh?), third earl of Huntingdon, giving his death date as 1274, just after the accession of Edward I (Holt1, pp. 42-43). This even though the Huntingdon earldom was then in the hand of the Bruce family.
The ballad "Willie and Earl Richard's Daughter" [Child 102] makes Robin the (bastard) grandson of an Earl -- but Child declares the piece to be no part of the Robin Hood legend, and Bronson calls it a rehash of Child 101. It is a late ballad, plus Child's "A" text does not say which earldom Richard held ("B," which makes him Earl of Huntingdon, is patently literary). What's more, the mention of Robin Hood looks like a paraphrase of the proverb of Robin's bow in "Friar Daw Topias." Besides, the bastard descendent of an earl had no claim to nobility in English law. The Bruce claim to the Huntingdon earldom was valid, and Robin's claim, if he made one, would not have been upheld.
Since we don't know how Robin came to be outlawed, we certainly can't say where he was born! The common story that he was from Locksley (presumabed to be near Sheffield, and thus a bit north and a bit west of Nottingham but well south and west of Barnsdale and south and east of Lacashire) is found in "Robin Hood and Queen Katherine" [Child 145] and in one manuscript biography probably based on the ballads (Cawthorne, pp. 42-43), but it is probably best known because Scott used the name in Ivanhoe.
THE PRESUMED HISTORY OF ROBIN HOOD
Suggestions for the "original" Robin Hood are many. Baldwin, as we've mentioned several times, liked Roger Godberd. Hunter famously held out for the Robert Hood of Wakefield who lived in the reign of Edward II. Owen in 1936 found an outlaw named Robert Hood who was pursued by the Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1230 (Dobson/Taylor, p. 16; Holt1, pp. 53-54). But, for all that scholars try to make these characters fit the legend, they simply cannot be the same person as the hero of the "Gest." To try to flesh out the legendary Robin, we must look to the tales, not the chronicles.
Cawthorne, p. 46, offers a "shadowy biography" of Robin based on the combined legends: Born in Locksley around 1160, active as a robber around 1193-1194, outlawed again 1225, died 1247. Cawthorne claims this conforms to the 22 years Robin spent away from the court in the "Gest," although I fail to see how Robin could go to the greenwood for fear of King Edward when the King from 1216 to 1272 was Henry III.
Nor is this the only such reconstructed biograply; Cawthorne, p. 46, goes on to describe a biography suggested by Dodsworth in the seventeenth century. In this, Locksley was apparently Robin's surname. He had to flee after wounding his stepfather with a plow, met Little John in Derbyshire -- and suggested that John, not Robin, was the nobleman!
Most of these reconstructions fall down under their own weight, which should perhaps be a warning to me and other modern reconstructors. As Holt1, p. 61, says, "no one ever put a name to the abbot or the sheriff or... even to the prioress of Kirklees. They are lay figures. They contributed to the legend as types, not as individuals." But these attempts try to reconstruct based on the whole tradition -- as if all of it had equal value. This is clearly hopeless; many of the ballads are just made-up add-ons.
By restricting our aim, we can perhaps produce better results. As Holt1 says on p. 40, even though Robin Hood is essentially fiction, "From the first he was believed to be a real historical person." Dobson/Taylor, p. 11, make the even stronger statement that "the geographical allusions in the Early Robin Hood ballads, and especially in the Gest, are sufficiently specific to suggest the exploits of a real Barnsdale outlaw lay behind the later Robin Hood saga."
I think this statement is too stong; Holt's belief that there was no single source of the legend is clearly correct. But Holt's suggestion that Robin was *believed* to be historical is the more important point. This means that anyone writing about him would try to create a real world setting. I think there could be a historical framework underlying the "Gest" -- even though its hero is not himself historical. If I had to guess, I would guess that the first elements of the legend started to coalesce in the reign of Henry III -- but that the legend came to be set in other periods. Probably in different periods in the various early ballads. We know that, by the time the "Gest" was written, chroniclers were already producing conflicting dates (see the information above on Wyntoun and Bower and such).
But this means that anyone writing a tale of Robin had what amounted to free rein to choose a time. So we should not ask when Robin Hood lived, but *when the author of the "Gest" believed he lived.*There is, of course, an assumption here, which is that there is a chronology imposed on the materials -- which in turn assumes that Clawson is wrong and the "Gest" is made of only three or four component elements, not from dozens of ballads. This assumption is very weak, but it is stronger than Clawson's alternative.
We can, on this basis, create a "biography" of Robin Hood -- the biography used in the "Gest" (and only in the "Gest," note). Again, keep in mind that I do not claim that what follows is the story of an actual outlaw. I do not believe it is. I am not even sure that the author of the "Gest" worked from a chronological framework -- very likely he did not. But most authors, when they write novels, compile mental histories of their major characters. *If* the author of the "Gest" had such a framework -- a tremendous "if"! -- then this is my reconstruction of what the author of the "Gest" thought was Robin's story.
Robin Hood was born in the reign of Edward I, perhaps between 1290 and 1295. He was the son of a yeoman, perhaps in eastern Lancashire, the property of that "rapacious, grasping and cruel landlord," the Earl of Lancaster (Hutchison, p. 115), although we cannot rule out the possibility that he was born in Yorkshire -- perhaps in the area of Pontrefract, which is near Barnsdale; Lancaster's wife, Alice de Lacy, held the honor of Pontrefract from her father (Holt1, p. 53), and inherited it from her father in 1311 (Hutchison, p. 66) -- although Alice walked out on her husband in 1317! (Hutchison, p. 92).
It was a very unsettled period -- Edward I and his barons had been on the brink of civil war when the Scottish situation forced them to cooperate (Prestwich1, pp. 424-427). At this time, common men were expected to practice the longbow, and Robin took up this weapon at an early age. But Edward took fewer infantry on his later campaigns in Scotland (Prestwich1, p. 513, who argues that this was one reason the campaigns failed), and after the death of Edward I in 1307, the laws about the bow were relaxed. Some gave up the bow; Robin, the best of the local boys, continued to practice, and became better still as he grew older.
The reign of Edward II was a time of unrest. Probably sometime between 1310 and 1315, Robin found himself in trouble with the authorities in Lancashire. Perhaps it was in 1311, when the Earl of Lancaster succeeded to the de Lacy holding of Pontrefract (as well as to lands around Wyresdale). Perhaps Robin supported Edward II against the Earl of Lancaster -- dangerous in Lancashire even in normal times, a county where the Earl had palatinate powers even in peacetime. And Lancaster's power increased during the Scots Wars, since he became regional commander after Bannockburn (Phillips, p. 250). The possibility that Robin was one of the rebels against Lancaster is discussed in the notes to Stanza 412.
Another possibility is that the depression that had started in the 1290s forced him off his lands. Maybe it was an effect of the inflation of the period, caused by the appearance of cheap coins designed to look like English pennies but with rather less silver content; Edward I had been unable to prevent the import of these coins -- and later did a reminting allowing him to pick up cash but at the cost of jacking up prices for others (Prestwich, p. 531-532). Maybe it was an after-effect of Edward I's forest laws. Or perhaps it was the result of the 1315 famine, which would explain why his band was so small at the beginning of the "Gest" (see the notes to stanzas 4 and 17). We don't have enough detail to know.
Whatever the reason, Robin fled (over the border) to Yorkshire. Perhaps he went directly to the greenwood; perhaps, given the poor economy of the time, he sought work and only fled society when he could not find it. But by 1316 -- perhaps much earlier -- he was in Barnsdale. He likely joined an existing band of outlaws -- and rose to the top because of his superior leadership skills and ability with the bow. The early events of the "Gest," such as the encounter with Sir Richard atte Lee, happened in the period between 1313 and 1322 -- probably toward the middle ot the period, when Edward II still wanted to go on crusade, with 1316-1317 the most likely dating.
In 1322/1323, Edward II visited Robin during his northern trip. He gave Robin a (probably conditional) pardon -- very possibly because Robin had supported Edward against the Earl of Lancaster. But Robin -- a yeoman born and bred -- did not enjoy court life, and especially court life in the corrupt court of Edward II. He returned to the north, and to the greenwood. Possibly he spent some time in Sherwood at this time -- and possibly suffered enough pressure from the Nottinghamshire authorities that he returned to Barnsdale.
If the robbery of the Bishop of Hereford was part of the legend from the beginning, it probably took place in the years after 1327, when Orleton of Hereford had helped depose Edward II. Perhaps some of Robin's exploits in archery contests took place around 1330, when Edward III was starting to revive the practice but before Robin grew too old.
In 1345, Robin -- now well into his fifties -- grew ill. Although he had lived in Yorkshire for most of the last thirty years, his family was in Lancashire or on the border between Lancashire and Yorkshire. He therefore went to Kirklees, near that border, to be treated. But three decades had weakened the family ties, and there he was tricked and died. Many of his men, now leaderless, took the pardon of Edward III (Hewitt, p. 30, says that hundreds of outlaws were pardoned around 1346); some very likely served at Crecy (we cannot prove this either way, because none of the indentures for soldiers at Crecy has survived; Hewitt, p. 35).
There are a few other historic events which might tie in with this (call this the "hints for the historical novelist" section). For instance, if Robin joined Edward II's court in 1323, then he probably left it in 1324. It is interesting to note that this was a period when Robert Baldock and the Despensers were passing a series of changes in the government. Most of these were good reforms (Hutchison, p. 122), but Robin might not have trusted a change made by Baldock, given his (possible) involvement in the Richard atte Lee situation (see the note on Stanza 93). Or perhaps, with the Despensers sucking up all the available grants, there were no properties left for Robin (see the note on stanza 435).
When Edward II was taken into custody, the Earl of Lancaster (the brother of the man Edward had executed) originally had custody of him, but eventually turned him over to others. Was this because of the conspiracy in early 1327 which arose to free Edward (Doherty, p. 115)?
Given the timing and location, Robin and his band might have been part of the conspiracy. Doherty, p. 121, speaks of a "Dunheved gang," said to be "irrepressible," which tried to rescue Edward. Might this be Robin and his men? It is true that two of their raids were in Berkeley and Cirencester, far from Robin's home, and that Dunheved (or Dunhead) was said to be from the vicinity of Kenilworth in Warwickshire (Phillips, p. 542), but another Dunheved raid was in Chester, which wasn't too far away from Yorkshire (Doherty, p. 122). The counter-argument is that most of the raiders were allegedly captured (Doherty, pp. 124-125) and killed with torture (Hutchison, p. 141). It does appear that Edward was briefly loose, but not long enough to make any difference.
Neither that nor even Edward II's death stopped the rescue attempts, however -- supposedly a "demon-raising friar" said Edward was still alive (Doherty, pp. 147-150). An Italian priest claimed to have talked to Edward II as late as 1340 (Doherty, p. 185). And, if people could believe a dead king alive, they could certainly believe he could be rescued..... (Doherty, p. 217, thinks there is an actual possibility that Edward II escaped. But this section of Doherty is so fantastic that I came away with the idea that maybe, after escaping, Edward II would have gone on to join Robin Hood's band -- maybe, given his height, he was the original version of Little John. And no, I am *not* advancing this hypothesis; I use it to demonstrate how far-fetched Doherty's hypothesis is.) What is certain is that the cause of Edward II inspired great passion -- so much of it that there was a serious attempt to have him canonized (Phillips, pp. 600-604).
We also note that the new Earl of Lancaster died in 1345 (Ormrod, p. 27). Might this have freed Robin to visit his family in Lancaster -- and resulted in his fatal willingness to go to Kirklees?
It is a sad tale. Not only did Robin die by violence, but he failed in his goals. Holt, p. 10, declares that the tale of Robin is "all very satisfying," since Robin brings proper justice -- as well as being true to his word (unlike the sheriff), devout (unlike, seemingly, the established clergy), generous (unlike the abbot), courteous (unlike the cellarer). Holt sees Robin as winning the fight with oppression.
But the actual record is depressing. Edward II ended up deposed and murdered. The church would have to wait two more centuries for reform of the monasteries and the episcopal system -- and, when Henry VIII did all that, he left the episcopal system largely intact and did away with the practice of extreme reverence for Mary shown by Robin. Yeomen did gain in rights after his time -- but that was due to the Black Death, not to the work of outlaws. Robin's story is one of a long, slow defeat. But that was the way of the Middle Ages. If he could not change the world, at least he "dyde pore men moch god."
Last updated in version 2.6
File: C117D

Gest of Robyn Hode, A [Child 117] --- Part 06

DESCRIPTION: Continuation of the notes to "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. Entry continues in "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117] --- Part 07 (File Number C117F)
Last updated in version 2.6
NOTES [15453 words]: NOTES ON THE CONTENT OF THE "GEST"
With the above as background, let us look at the "Gest" itself, looking in detail at the contents. What follows is a sort of "Annotated Gest"; I have noted passages which might help us discover its history, or which need explanation.The notes are assembled under Child's stanza numbers; I have also supplied Knight/Ohlgren's line numbers.
This is not a commentary on the text, although I sometimes have had to make reference to textual issues. The textual commentary follows this section.
I have tried to note instances where the text of the "Gest" makes sense in historical context -- that is, where an event or statement in the "Gest" could be a reference to something which actually happened in history. Let me stress that I do not think that the "Gest" is history. But it is surely based at least in part on historical memories.
The majority of the links are to events in the reign of Edward II. This is perhaps slightly artificial -- once I had enough parallels to the reign of Edward II, I was forced to research Edward II in detail, causing me to find far more parallels. Also, I became convinced that the poem "targets" the reign of Edward II -- that is, that the poet was setting his poem in that reign. The number of Edward II references is, frankly, rather overwhelming. Most of these are probably coincidence. But I include them all because, while most of the details are coincidence, there is no way of knowing *which* of them are coincidence. And I have tried to include links to other reigns as well.
** Stanza 1/Line 1 ** The opening formula, "Lythe and listin, gentilmen..." occurs thrice more, in Stanza 144 (beginning of the third fit), Stanza 282 (second stanza of the fifth fit), and Stanza 317 (beginning of the sixth fit). The latter three mark major transitions in the poem. The break at the start of the third fit is a transition from the story of Robin Hood and the knight to the story of Little John and the sheriff; the break in stanza 282 indicates the start of the archery contest in Nottingham; the break at the start of the sixth fit marks the start of the episodes of the sheriff and King seeking to apprehend Robin.
It is interesting to ask whether these formulae were in the originals combined by the author of the "Gest," or whether he added them himself. They do not represent the most logical break points; on the other hand, those in stanzas 144 and 317 do represent roughly a third of the work. If we assume a typical recitation speed of five verses per minute, that would mean that each break comes after about half an hour. It would not be a surprise for a minstrel to take a halt after that period of time. The use in stanza 282 may have been imported from one of the sources, or an alternate break point.
As an alternative to the idea of the singer taking a break, Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 162, seems to suggest that the breaks built into the "Gest" are for phases of a feast. Ohlgren says that there "is a major meal in every fytte except fytte 6." This leads to the idea, suggested by Dean A. Hoffman (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 163) that the meals in the "Gest" might correspond to the serving of additional courses. But the meal in fit 3 is merely a hastily-grabbed snack, and several of the other references are short. And I doubt the minstrel and the cooks could coordinate that closely. I think it far more likely that the performances were organized around the "Lythe and listin" formula than about the meals.
The use of such an introductory formula is common, though of course not universal, in minstrelsy. Old English even had a word, "Hwaet," which we might infomally translate as "Listen up and listen good!" It is the first word of "Beowulf" and "The Dream of the Rood" and doubtless much other Anglo-Saxon literature. In much later folk song, we still find opening formula along the lines of "Come all ye bold (something-or-others) and listen to my song." Even the Slavic epics, which surely have no genetic relationship to any in English, have formulaic openings (Lord, p. 45).
It is interesting to note the alliteration of "lythe" (probably the imperative of "lythen," glossed by Knight/Ohlgren as "attend," hence "pay attention"; cf. Langland/KnottFowler, p. 279) and "listen," as well as the relatively strong L sound of "gentilmen." "Lythe" and "listen," although distinct words, are almost redundant; it would have been easy to use another word instead of "lythe" -- except for the alliteration. Although the poem was probably compiled after the peak of the alliterative revival which gave us "Piers Plowman" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," Benson/Foster, p. 5, notes that the "Stanzaic Morte Arthur" still delighted in alliteration, and this formula may derive from some source which does so also. There are a few other alliterative formulae in the Gest, e.g. Gummere, p. 315, points out "wordes fayre and fre" in stanza 31. Burrow/Turville-Petre, p. 59, note that in the Middle English period "Rhymed verse frequently uses alliteration as an ornament of style."
Observe that the word "lythe" as a verb for "pay attention" does not appear to have been used by Chaucer (based on Chaucer/Benson, p. 1265), who rejected alliteration, but is found in "Piers Plowman" (see p. 279 in Langland/KnottFowler; p. 532 in Langland/Schmidt) and in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (Tolkien/Gordon, p. 196), both alliterative. The word is from Old English hlytha, listen, and appears to have been fairly common in early Middle English, but by the fourteenth century it seems to have been almost completely confined to alliterative works.
This introductory formula survives in some of the later ballads; "Robin Hood and the Beggar, I" [Child 133] opens "Come light and listen, you gentlemen all"; "Robin Hood and the Beggar, II" [Child 134] preserves the form "Lyth and listen, gentlemen."
Compare also the Romance of Gamelyn, which opens "Listeth and lestneth and hearkneth aright" (Sands, p. 156).
The outlaw ballad of "Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly" [Child 116] has the lines "Now lith and lysten, gentylmen, And that of myrthes loveth to here" at the beginning of stanza 5.
"The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle" opens "Lythe and listenythe the lif of a lord riche" (Hahn, p. 47; cf. Sands, p. 326, who uses a slightly different orthography).
The invocation of "gentlemen" would seem to imply an aristocratic audicene. On the other hand, the formula might simply have been imported from some other romance targeting the upper class.
** Stanza 1/Line 3 ** Right from the start we are told that Robin was a "gode yeman," i.e. a "good yeoman." This has inspired some debate. The term "yeoman" is perhaps derived from "yongman," "young man," a usage actually found in stanzas 187-288 (Pollard, p. 33, Knight/Ohlgren, p. 149); this implies the sense "low fellow on the totem pole," and hence the meaning "royal servant."
The word had two meanings in the period around 1400 -- a small freeholder or a household officer. To some extent, this influences the dating of the poem. Keen, p. 140, thinks that the frequent mentions of Robin as a yeoman implies a late date (p. 140), presumably after Edward III, since this was the period when villeins were becoming free yeomen.
There is logic to this. Robin seems to have a significant band (see note on stanza 229) -- and, if the poem really would have us believe that they are all yeomen, that effectively requires that the date be after 1400.
But there were always yeomen in England. It's just that the number increased after the Black Death. Robin and John and a few of the others could be yeomen, with the rest villeins. Indeed, it makes better sense to assume that most of them were villeins, and fled to the greenwood for lack of another choice (a free man could always seek work elsewhere). In the period from Henry II to Edward II, villeins -- peasants -- were bound to the land (there are cases of them being sold; Stenton, pp. 142-143).
The Black Death of 1349 (which took place about halfway through the reign of Edward III) changed that by producing a shortage of workers (Ormrod, p. 29). The nobility tried to halt the exodus of the peasants (Wat Tyler's rebellion of 1381 was largely against these restrictions; Wilkinson, pp. 158-164; Ormrod, p. 30), but more and more peasants were becoming free in the reign of Edward III, and almost all were free by the early fifteenth century. Wilkinson, p. 187, after a catalog of restrictive laws, concludes that "Nothing, in the end, could resist a movement toward greater emancipation of the peasant" -- indeed, the fact that, by the reign of Edward III, they all carried longbows made it difficult for the nobility to suppress them!
Pollard, p. 34, points out the the "Statute of Additions of 1413," which required legal documents to state the class and occupation of those entering into a deal. This in effect made "yeoman" an official legal term. This is minor evidence for the belief that the "Gest" was written after that date.
Holt, however, is convinced that "The legend is... not [about] the yeoman freeholder, but the yeoman servant of the feudal household" (p. 4). This, in a sense, gives us another link to the story of David and Saul, in 1 Samuel 25:10, Nabal complains about David, saying "There are many servants today who are breaking away from their masters."
Some support for Holt's contention comes from the "Monk," where the King makes John and Much yeomen of the crown for bringing the letter about Robin Hood (cf. Holt, p. 29).
Pollard, p. 41, also notes the interesting title of "Yeoman of the Forest," a title for foresters. On p. 43 Pollard notes that both Little John and Robin refer to Robin by the title "yeoman of the forest" (see, e.g., stanza 222). And we do find Robin called a forester's son in stanza 3 of "Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor and Marriage," as well as in "Robin Hood Was a Forester Bold," which is not included in the Child canon.
But there is no hint in the "Gest" of Robin having ever held the title officially. What's more, a typical forest had only about half a dozen active foresters, according to Pollard, p. 44. If Robin's band truly numbered in the scores, it had to be something different. And foresters had various duties, such as managing the trees, e.g. by trimming, pruning, and cutting, to make the forest yield particular types of wood (Kerr, pp. 148-149). There is no evidence that Robin's men did any of these things.
In stanza 14, Robin orders his men to spare yeomen who walk the greenwood. Pollard, p. 45, suggests that this means Robin intends his men to leave the foresters alone. If I were a forester, I probably wouldn't want to be my life on that, but it's an interesting point. Pollard, pp. 46-47, argues that Robin sees himself as a sort of King of the Foresters, even to the point of trying to employ Little John as his bowbearer (the aid to the Keeper of the Forests) in the "Monk" (stanza 9. This strikes me as a little strong; Robin is simply saying, as he often does, that he needs only Little John as a companion. In any case, this theme does not appear in the "Gest.")
Pollard also argues, p. 50, that Robin's men are fully aware of the terminology of forestry and hunting, but the examples he cites are vague enough that they might have come from the poet, or from second-hand knowledge of forestry.
By the late fifteenth century, a yeoman could be quite well-to-do; at least some earned in excess of the 40 shillings per year required to be permitted to vote for members of parliament (Pollard, p. 35; Lyon, p. 152). It is noteworthy that 40 shillings is far less than the twenty marks which were bandied about as wages at several times in the "Gest" (Stanzas 150, 170-171).
The frequent mentions of yeomen in the "Gest" may be intended to appeal to a yeoman audience (which would be much larger in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century, when the poem was probably compiled) -- but this does not mean that it is about a time when yeomen were common.
** Stanza 2/Line 5 ** In addition to being a yeoman, Robin is a "prude (proud) outlaw." This does not mean he was a convicted criminal -- or not exactly. "Outlaw" was a technical term for one who failed to answer a summons for trial (Knight/Ohlgren, p. 149). Robin and his men are several times called outlaws (this being the first time; his men being called outlaws for the last time in stanza 447, when Robin returns to them after his time at King Edward's court; Robin himself is called a "good outlaw" in the very last verse (stanza 456), ironically immediately before he is said to have done much good for poor men.
it is noteworthy that nowhere are we told what Robin's original crime was.
One thing that is worth remembering is that "outlaw" was, at this time, primarily a local term. The King might, of course, send out a warrant to watch for a particular criminal, but most judgments were passed in one particular area. As Pollard notes on p. 105, "Men were frequently hounded for outlawry when they had no knowledge that they had in fact been outlawed, often in another county." It is at least possible that we see a hint of this in Stanzas 331-332 of the "Gest," in the arrest of the knight while hawking.
It is true that the "Monk" calls Robin the "kynggis felon" (stanza 21), and in the "Gest" we will eventually see King Edward intervene in the case. But the King's interest was more in rebellion than in what we would consider ordinary crime.
** Stanza 2/Line 7 ** Robin, we are told, is a "curteyse" -- that is, a courteous -- outlaw.
The very fact that this word is used shows that Robin is not a Saxon rebel; Shippey, p. 129, notes that the word is "post-Anglo-Saxon."
Courtesy in the Plantagenet period is more than manners; it is the specific rules of polite society -- and is one of the most basic elements in the description of a hero. Sir Gawain, the subject of so many romances, "achieved a reputation as the most courteous of Arthur's knights. After the late thirteenth century, courtesy became the hallmark of knighthood" (Hall, p. 4). Chaucer's Knight "loved chivalrie, Trouthe and honouyr, fredom and curteisie" (Prologue, lines 45-46; Chaucer/Benson, p. 24). Of king in "Sir Orfeo" we are told that "Large and curteis was he" (line 4; Sands, p. 187). Examples could be repeated indefinitely. The theme of courtesy will recur many times in the "Gest," as Robin is called "courteous" (implying that he is as good as a knight or member of the gentry), while those of higher station fail of their courtesy. (Observe, e.g., the abbot's treatment of the knight in stanza 103.)
Other examples: In stanza 24, we learn that Little John is courteous. In stanza 29, Robin courteously takes off his hood. In stanza 108, the knight begs the justice for courtesy (and is turned down). In stanzas 115 and 121, the knight calls the abbot uncourteous. In 151, Little John calls the knight (or maybe Robin) courteous. The sheriff's butler is uncourteous in stanza 159. John greets the sheriff courteously in 182. Robin is courteous to the monk in 226; the monk is not so courteous in return. In 256 the monk calls Robin uncourteous. The knight greets Robin courteously in 263, and offers a courtesy gift in 270. In 295, the prize arrow is accepted courteously by Robin. In 312, the knight recalls Robin's courtesy. In 383 Robin addresses the disguised king courteously.
This theme of courtesy gives a fascinating link to the Gawain romances. Robin, as Child said, was a "popular Gawain." And Gawain was the epitome of courtesy -- as Hahn notes on p. 2, even Chaucer's oh-so-particular Squire refers to Gawain as the pinnacle of courtesy (V.95, or F.85; p. 170 in Chaucer/Benson).
in the Gawain legend, courtesy and chivalry have important effects. Hahn, p. 25, declares that "Repeatedly, Gawain exhibits a willing retraint of available force or a refusal of the authority of position, which separates him from non-chivalrous opponents and also from the arbitrary bullying or domineering impertinance of Sir Kay." The result is to maintain and strengthen the social order.
Compare Robin's treatment of his victims in the "Truth or Consequences" game -- and also the contrast between the courteous Robin and the uncourteous monk in Stanza 226. Robin's courtesy, like Gawain's, allows him to sometimes restrain the force he could otherwise use. Which probably allows him to survive longer than he otherwise would, and to bring about better justice. Robin is an exceptional outlaw just as Gawain (in the British tradition) is an exceptional knight.
** Stanza 3/Line 9 ** "Robyn stode in Bernesdale." In the "Gest," there is uncertainty over whether Robin was based in Barnesdale (Yorkshire) or in Nottinghamshire (the "Gest" does not mention Sherwood in Nottinghamshire, but it was the great forest of that county; if Robin indeed worked in Nottinghamshire, Sherwood would surely have been his base). This is a complicated question discussed in the introduction; it is worth remembering that the early ballads tend to say Barnsdale. In the "Gest," the Richard at Lee portions are set in Barnsdale, the rest mostly in Nottingham (Holt1, p. 24); presumably the author combined tales without cleaning up the inconsistencies.
It has also been suggested (Baldwin, p. 44) that "Barnsdale" should be Bryunsdale in Nottinghamshire (near Basford). Tbis would obviously solve many of the problems, but it is a small and obscure place; it seems much more likely that "Bernesdale" means Barnsdale.
There is even some dispute over whether Barnsdale is in Yorkshire or Rutland. (Knight/Ohlgren, pp. 149-150, based on the research of Knight. Rutland, and the town of Huntingdon which is also associated with Robin in some of the late tales, are in east-central England south of the Wash. The one thing going for Rutland is that, according to McLynn, p. 241, and Knight/Ohlgren, p. 40, etc., Rutland's Barnsdale was in the domain of the Earl of Huntingdon, which would make sense if Robin were shadow earl of Huntingdon -- but not otherwise, since Rutland is in the wrong direction from Nottingham (to the southeast). There are some alleged Robin Hood relics in Rutland (Cawthorne, p. 34), but as usual there is no reason to think they are authentic.
The place names in the "Gest" are informative. The following list shows (I believe) every place named in the Gest, with the stanzas where it is mentioned:
Barnsdale: 3, 21, 82, 83, 134, 213, 262, 440, 442
Blythe: 27. 259
Calvary: 57
Doncaster: 27, 259 / In connection with Roger of Doncaster: 452, 455
Holderness: 149
Kirkesly, i.e. presumably Kirklees: 454 / In connection with the Prioress of Kyrkesly: 451
Lancaster or Lancashire: 53, 357
London: 253
Nottingam: 178, 205, 289, 325, 332, 337, 344, 354, 365, 369, 370, 380, 384. The Sheriff of Nottingham is given that full title in 15, 146, 282, 313,317, 329, 422, 423
Plumpton Park: 357
Saylis: 18, 20, 209, 212
St. Mary's Abbey: 55, 84, 233
Verysdale: 126
Watling Street: 18, 209
York: 84
In addition, there may be an allusion to "Wentbridge" in 135.
Calvary and London are, of course, not local cities and so do not reflect on the site of the action. Watling Street passes through many counties: Of the other names listed:
- In Yorkshire are: Doncaster, Holderness, Kirklees (near the Lancashire border), St. Mary's Abbey, Saylis, York (plus Wentbridge if that reading is accepted).
- In Yorkshire or Rutland are: Barnsdale
- In Yorkshire or Lancashire are: Plumpton Park
- In Lancashire are: Lancaster, Wryesdale (Verysdale)
- In Nottinghamshire are: Blythe (near the Yorkshire border), Nottingham
Thus we have five sites that are certainly in Yorkshire, and two more that probably are. Two, perhaps three, are in Lancashire. Other than Nottingham itself, the only place name mentioned in Nottinghamhire is Blythe, and it is just across the border from Yorkshire.
Thus we have no *specific* references to places in Nottinghamshire. All references to specific places are found in the Barnsdale section, and all are in or near Yorkshire. The detailed data in the "Gest" all points to Robin being based in Barnsdale, and specifically the Barnsdale in Yorkshire.
Holt says that Barnsdale was known as a haunt of robbers as early as 1306. This hints that there were outlaws on the scene before Robin's arrival.
Holt, pp. 73-75, does make the fascinating observation that, if we break up the material in the "Gest" into Nottingham and Barnsdale portions, the Nottingham parts are all parallels of earlier materials from the legends of Fulk and Hereward and such, while the Barnsdale portions (the tale of the knight, plus the death) are mostly original: "the nearer Robin gets to Nottingham the less authentic he becomes." This may be the best argument for a Barnsdale setting: It looks as if the Sherwood stories took older materials and just inserted Robin's name. But note that this still means that the adaption of these materials to refer to Robin must predate the "Gest" -- and must have had time to travel to Yorkshire to be combined with the Barnsdale stories.
** Stanza 3/Lines 11-12 ** Like Robin Hood, Little John is called a yeoman at the very first mention of his name. This is the only information we have about his origin in the "Gest" (unless we count his story to the sheriff, where he calls himself Robin Greenleaf of Holderness; see the notes on stanza 149). Unlike most of the other outlaws, Robin and John seem to have been connected almost from the start; Wyntoun, the very first chronicler to mention Robin, wrote
Lytill Ihon and Robyne Hode
Waythemen were commendyd gude
(so Chambers, p. 131; Knight/Ohlgren, p. 24, and Dobson/Taylor, p. 4, have very different orthographies. The version in Holt1, p. 40, is even more distinct, reading "Waichmen" for "Waythemen." This is not as absurd as it sounds; "i" and "y" were interchangeable at this time, and "c" and "t" looked almost identical in scripts of the time -- a problem which also afflicts the manuscript of "Judas" [Child 23]).
Little John has his own folklore -- that he was so-called because he was huge, or because his birth name was John Little (Baldwin, p. 64); another account give his name as John Nailor. The story that he was a giant is the one which has survived. There is, however, little evidence of this in the "Gest," where he often serves as a trickster.
Given that there does not seem to be an early story of his origin, is it possible that, instead of being a giant, he was in fact originally regarded as small, like many jesters? Note that, in stanzas 147-152 of the Gest, there is no hint that Little John is in any way unusual -- surely, if he were really a giant, the Sheriff would have asked more questions! And in Stanza 307, Much carries Little John for a mile -- hard to do if he were exceptionally large. Pollard, p. 13, calls John the "master of disguise," which also seems unlikely for a giant.
What is more, in Stanza 42, we see John counting money in a style perhaps reminiscent of the practices of the Exchequer, as if he were a clerk.
One might speculate that the idea of Little John as a giant derives from the romance of "Bevis of Hampton." In this as in many romances, the hero fights a giant -- but it features the interesting twist that Bevis, after defeating the giant, takes him on as a servant (Baugh, pp. 131-132), just as Robin at one time would have John be his bow-bearer. This, obviously, is a romance idea which was not followed by the author of the "Gest."
** Stanza 4/Line 13 ** Since "Will Scarlet," or some such name, came to be one of the standard members of Robin Hood's band, it is perhaps worth mentioning that he is not here called "William" or "Will," but just by his surname (Scarlock is mentioned in 11 stanzas of the "Gest." In stanza 208, he is "Wyllyam Scarlock." Other than that, it's just "Scarlock."). There is a variant in the spelling; see the textual note.
That some such man was early associated with Robin Hood follows from the fact that "Guy of Gisborne," stanza 13, refers to "Scarlett"; the "Monk"has "Wyll Scathlok" in stanza 63, and the Percy text of the "Death" has "Will Scarlett" in stanza 2. In addition, there is a parliamentary roll for Winchester in 1432 which some joker decided to pad out with the names of outlaws. In addition to the genuine citizens, it adds the names of "Adam, Belle, Clyme, Oclaw, Willyam Cloudesle, Robyn, hode, Inne, Grenewode, Stode, Godeman, was, hee, lytel Joon, Muchette Millerson, Scathelock, Reynold" -- that is, "Adam Bell, Clym o' [the] Clough, WIlliam [of] Cloudesly," then a clear line from a Robin Hood ballad, "Robin Hood in the greenwood stood, A goodman was he," then a list of his followers, Muchette the miller's son, Scathelock, Reynold (Holt1, p. 69, with a photo on p. 70; cf. Cawthorne, p. 58).
There is also an instance in the Forresters book where a later hand has corrected "Will Stutley" to "Will Scathlock" (Knight, p. xxvi), but the manuscript also has "Scarlett" and (once) "Scarett."
Anthony Munday, who did so much damage to the tradition, made Scathelock and Scarlet into separate characters (see, e.g., the Cast of Characters on p. 303 of Knight/Ohlgren). Obviously both names were known in his time -- but there is no reason to think that they were originally anything but one person.
"Scarlock" and "Scathelock" both imply a man who is good at getting past locks. He is the only one of Robin's band whom we might accuse of an actual crime: The name implies that he was a burglar. (At least, that's the general view; Alexander, p. 266, declares that the "'Scatheloke' version of his name suggests that he was red-haired.") It also makes it likely that "Scarlet" was a correction to make him less an obvious criminal.
But there is no obvious reason to prefer either "Scarlock" or "Scathelok." I will generally use "Scarlock" because Child does. For more detail, see the textual note.
** Stanza 4/Line 14 ** Much the Miller's Son, like Scarlock, is found in several of the early ballads; in stanza 8 of the "Monk" we encounter "Moche (th)e mylner sun," who joins Little John in robbing and killing the Monk; and he occasionally turns up in the later ballads. As a personal name, "Much" has not been found elsewhere; it has been suggested that it is a nickname, although from what source is not clear (unless it's the Muchette of the Winchester parliamentary return, but that's not a common name either).
In "Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar" [Child 123], he becomes "Midge" (stanza 4 in Child's B text) or "Mitch" in the version in the Forresters manuscript (Knight, p. 72, line14).
In stanza 73, we find Much complaining that Little John is measuring cloth too generously. As a wild speculation, could he have been called some nickname such as "Not So Much," because he was tight-fisted, and could this then have been shortened to "Much"? This also makes sense in light of the famous rapacity of millers expressed in songs such as "The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons)" [Laws Q21].
Much is not named in the plays of Robin Hood prior to Munday's works (see pp. 275-296 of Knight/Ohlgren), but there are parts for unnamed outlaws. Many of plays of this era used had a few types of characters who went under different names but always played much the same part -- as we see clowns in Shakespeare's plays, e.g. I wonder if Much might not have originated in such a play as a penny-pinching cheapskate who became an object of fun. It is noteworthy that Munday made him a clown (Knight/Ohlgren, p. 303).
In this first instance of his name, there is variation in the prints on whose son Much was; see the textual note.
It is interesting to note that Much is called "little Much" on several occasions (stanza 69 in some of the prints; stanza 73; stanza 77). The significance of this is unclear. It is distinctly odd that a tends to spell the word "lytell" wien applied to Much, "Litell" when applied to John. But perhaps the description "Little Much" explains the designation "Midge" used in the "Curtal Friar" -- perhaps it is used because it means a small person.
The next line says that every inch of Much's body was worth a "grome." Is this an indication that Much was short but capable? "Grome" is a difficult word; Knight/Ohlgren in this place gloss it as "man," and Gummere, p. 314, interprets the line as meaning that every inch of him was worth an ordinary man. But grome is also used in stanza 224, and there it might mean "groom" (and is so glossed in Knight/Ohlgren). The word has several meanings in Middle English. One is anger (Emerson, p. 377; "gromful" is "fierce," according to Dickins/Wilson, p. 273). Sands, p. 384, lists "grom" as meaning "man," perhaps derived from "growan," "grow."; and Langland/KnottFowler, p. 272, list "man" as the meaning of "grome"; Langland/Schmidt, p. 526, gives "fellows" as the meaning of "gromes." Turville-Petre, p. 233, suggests "servant, attendant" as a meaning for "grom" (perhaps from "groom"?). The exact meaning thus eludes us; I might suggest that the idea is that every one of Much's (relatively few) inches was worth a (taller but) lesser man -- or, alternately, that Much, being a free man, is worth more than any number of servants. Or just possibly we should emend "grome" to "grote," "groat."
It is interesting to note that, other than Robin and John, plus sundry saints, only seven people are given personal names in the "Gest" (many others, such as the Sheriff of Nottingham, the Abbot of St. Mary's, and the Prioress of Kirklees, have titles -- but no names; they are just placeholders) The list of people with names is as follows:
(King) Edward: Stanzas 353, 384, 450
Gilbert (of the White Hand): Stanzas 292, 401, 404
Much (the Miller's Son): Stanzas 4, 17, 61, 69, 73, 77, 83, 208, 214, 223, 293, 307
Reynold: Stanza 293 (also adopted as an alias by Little John in stanzas 149, 150, 157, 183, 189, but stanza 293 is the only mention of Reynold as a member of Robin's band)
(Sir) Richard at Lee: Stanzas 310, 331, 360, 410, 431
Roger (of Doncaster): Stanzas 452, 455
Scarlock/Scathelock: Stanzas 4, 17, 61, 68, 74, 77, 83, 208, 293, 402, 435
Note that Much is mentioned 12 times, and Scarlock in 11 -- and nine of the mentions of Much's name (including the first eight) are all in immediate context of the mention of Scarlock, and similarly the first nine mentions of Scarlock are in the context of Much. The only exceptions are in stanza 214-223, where Much helps John take the sheriff; stanza 307, where Robin and Much refuse to leave Little John in the hands of the Sheriff; stanza 402, where Scarlock but not Much is involved in the archery contest before the King, and stanza 435, where Scarlock stays with Robin in the King's service when everyone else except Little John abandons him. It would appear that Scarlock was found in the tale of Robin and the King, but Much was not. The rest of the time, it is almost as if they are a comedy team -- e.g. in stanza 73 Much complains about John's generosity with cloth, and Scarlock replies (in effect) "Why not? It didn't cost *us* anything."
It is interesting to note that, although Robin is said to have seven score men (stanza 229), only five of them have speaking roles, and the role of Gilbert is trivial. At this stage, we might speculate, Robin's band is quite small -- perhaps just the four we see here (Robin, John, Scarlock, and Much), or these four plus a few cooks and wiv es and craftsmen. See also the note on Stanza 17.
** Stanzas 6-7/Lines 21-28 ** Robin will not eat until he entertains a guest. Not much of a hint as to dating, but we know that this idea of not eating until something notable happens is common in romances, particularly Arthurian romances. We see it also in the ballad of "The Boy and the Mantle" [Child 29]; Child's notes to that piece list several parallels, although many are French or Latin rather than English.
One romance which contains the idea is, of course, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." The theme is far too common to suggest literary dependence (although see the note on Stanza 185), but it is worth noting that the manuscript of "Sir Gawain" is generally dated to c. 1400 (Tolkien/Gordon, p. xxv), with the poem probably composed not too many decades before that. More interestingly, it is generally accepted, based on the language, that "Sir Gawain" comes from somewhere in the north or north-west of England, quite possibly in Lancashire (Tolkien/Gordon, p. xiii), right in the area where Robin Hood was allegedly active.
The romance of "The Turk and Gawain," which also features the pluck-buffet contest (see stanza 424) at another point sees the Turk ordering Gawain to fast (lines 48-59, 83-88 on pp. 341-343 of Hahn). This romance is also considered northern, although it is probably later than the Green Knght.
Thus we know that this motif was in circulation in the area where Robin supposedly lived, in the time when his legend was coming into being. See the section on "Sources" in the introduction.
The author of the "Gest" would probably not like the comparison, but it is noteworthy that King Saul, who could not save Israel and was overthrown by the Philistines, also had a tendency to fast and even to order his men to fast; see in particular 1 Samuel 13.
Robin will again wait for a guest in stanza 143.
** Stanza 7/Line 25 ** The line that begins Stanza 7 is lacking in all texts; see the textual note.
** Stanza 7/Line 28 ** "That dwelleth here bi west." If this line is correct, it can hardly refer to Nottingham; perhaps West Yorkshire or Lancashire is meant. Perhaps we should understand it as "from the west" -- which might (might!) refer to a follower of the Earl of Lancashire, the enemy of Edward II, and hence possibly of Robin himself.
** Stanza 8/Lines 31-32 ** According to this stanza, Robin heard "thre messis," i.e. three masses, before meals. This is the first indication of Robin's intense religious devotion. The next is in stanza 10, where we hear that he loved "Our dere Lady" above all others.
It is worth asking who officiated at the masses, however. In "Robin Hood and the Monk," we find Robin deciding to go to Nottingham because he has not heard mass for two weeks (Holt1, p. 28). Did Robin at some point acqure a priest? How, and who was it? Or does the reference in the "Monk" refer to a high mass (Missa solemnis, featuring deacon and subdeacon and others singing and performing ancilliary tasks), whereas the "Gest" refers to a low mass, requiring only an officiating priest? (Davies, p. 364).
I do note the curious fact that Henry VIII heard three masses a day when he went hunting, and sometimes as many as five on other days (Williams, p. 40). Since Henry VIII did not take the throne until 1509, we know the "Gest" cannot refer to him -- but since Henry played at Robin Hood, could he have been influenced by it?
** Stanza 10/Lines 37-40 ** For love of "Our dear Lady," i.e. the Virgin Mary, Robin will never hurt a woman. We also see this paralleled in the "Monk" (in stanza 34, Little John says that Robin has "servyd Oure Lady many a day" and expects that she will protect him; cf. Holt, p. 29) and "Guy" (stanza 39; Robin, who has tripped, calls on the "deere Lady" and is saved; cf. Holt, p. 32).
There is an even fuller parallel in the "Death"; in stanza 25 of Child's "A" text, from the Percy folio, Robin declares that he will not hurt any widow at his end; in stanzas 15-16 we read, even more explicitly, "I never hurt woman in all my life, Nor men in woman's Company.... I never hurt fair maid in all my time, Nor at mine end shall it be."j
The protection of women was a common theme in the period; Mortimer, p. 23, notes that 'Those accused of murdering women were noticeably less likely to be acquitted than those accused of killing men -- there seems to have been a strong disapproval of violence by and against women, while that among men was normal."
Reverence of Mary was also frequent; the Virgin was often loved with a desperate, sometimes surprisingly erotic, love. The well-known poem "I Sing of a Maiden That Is Makeless" (Luria/Hoffman, p. 170) is a typical example. Mary is makeless -- both matchess and without a mate (Steven Manning, in Luria/Hoffman, p. 331). There is a strong sense of physical intimacy (Thomas Jemielity, in Luria/Hoffman, p. 326), even if the intimacy is with God. Other poems of this period have lines such as "Upon a lade my love is lente" (Luria/Hoffman, p. 177) and "WIth all my lif I love that may" (Luria/Hoffman, p. 183). Idolatrous, and even perverted, as the idea seems to Protestants, it was (and is) deeply ingrained in many Catholics.
Robin's devotion to the Virgin is even more explicit and significant in "Guy of Gisborne": in stanza 38, Guy succeeds in wounding Robin in the side, and seems to have won their battle. But in stanza 39, Robin invokesthe "deere Lady" who is "both mother and may" -- and goes on to win the fight. This "mother and maid" theme is quite common in Middle English poetry; it occurs explicitly in "I Sing of a Maiden (last stanza) and implicitly in much of the vast quantity of Marian poetry (see pp. 170-189 of Luria/Hoffman)
There is, of course, no basis in the Bible for Mariolatria such as Robin exhibits, and it developed in the Catholic Church only slowly (and was ruthlessly pruned out of most Protestant sects). We see some hints of it in Irenaeus at the end of the second century (WalkerEtAl, p. 192), but the creeds barely mention the Virgin Mary -- both the Apostles' and the Nicene Creeds mention her only as the mother of Jesus, and both starting only in about the fifth century (in the case of the Nicene Creed, Mary was introduced when the Council of Chalcedon rewrote it; in the case of the Apostles' Creed, the creed only dates from about the fifth century. See Bettenson, pp. 21-26).
But it was not until the time of Duns Scotus, who died in 1308, that we see Mariology become clearly defined (McGrath, p. 52). This brought about a debate over whether Mary was a co-redemptrix along with Jesus -- a view with absolutely no scriptural basis, but which Robin seems to share.
This was typical of Scotus's views; Scotus, in his opposition to Thomist Aquinas, came to a position of extreme doubt toward the power of thinking; "he according enlarges the number of doctines already recognised as capable of being apprehended by faith alone" (CHEL1, p. 211). Mariolatreia, for which there was no evidence even in the Thomist sense (and a modern empiricist finds even Aquinas far removed from rational thought, with Scotus being pretty close to incomprehensible), was a typical Scotist doctrine.
Once the cult took off, though, it took off like wildfire. To give a semi-random example, Hewitt, pp. 182-186, gives a list of the ships impressed by the British government to take an expedition to France in 1345. In all, 148 ships participated -- and 23 of them were named Seynt Marie or some variant!
Thus, the later the "Gest," the better the fit for Robin's extreme devotion to the Virgin. Still, the "Gest" shows no hint of (e.g.) the Immaculate Conception, another non-Biblical belief which was popularized by Duns Scotus but which did not become official Catholic doctrine until 1854 (McGrath, pp. 46-47; WalkerEtAl, p. 351). So we cannot absolutely rule out an early date; we can only say that Robin's views are more typical of a late date than an early.
It is interesting to note that there are several sites in Yorkshire with strong Marian associations. St. Mary's Abbey is the most obvious, but Kerr, p. 185, notes a bridge chapel of St. Mary's at Wakefield -- a place which Robin must surely have been tempted to haunt! It was built and consecrated in the reign of Edward III, however.
Ohlgren, who is convinced that the "Gest" has ties to the English guild system, notes that four important guilds chose Mary as their patron saint (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 151; the guilds were drapers, clothworkers, mercers, skinners). And we see John as a draper in stanza 73, and Robin offering up cloth in stanzas 70fff. and in 418. Interesting, but I don't find it as compelling as Ohlgren.
For more on Robin's piety, see the note on stanza 8. For a further example of Robin's devotion to the Virgin, see the note on stanza 65.
** Stanzas 11-12/Lines 41-48 ** In these stanzas, Little John asks instructions on how to live his life -- an oddity for someone who presumably has been part of Robin's band for some time. The whole business reminds me a bit of the way the disciples questions Jesus in the New Testament (see, e.g., the way in which they ask how to pray in Luke 11:1), but this is probably just a coincidence, the result of people who have heard Catholic preachers read the same lessons over and over again.
** Stanza 14/Line 49 ** Robin disclaims force here, but he will certainly use it, e.g., against the Sheriff; see Stanza 348.
** Stanza 14/Line 56 ** Robin's instructions say not to bother knights or squires who would be "a gode felawe." "Felawe"/"Fellow" is a word which occurs relatively rarely in the "Gest," but, as Pollard points out on p. 144, is extremely common in the "Potter." Pollard, pp. 134-142, extensively discusses Middle English uses of the word "fellow," but his conclusion boils down to the fact that it was even more ambiguous then than it is now. It might mean a servant or low-born person (compare the usage in some texts of the "Edward/Lizie Wan" type in which the mother fears that the son has done "some fallow's deed"), or even a member of a gang of robbers, but typically it means something like a comrade or equal.
On p. 142, Pollard points out the common equation between a fellowship and a meine/meyne, a band of followers -- a word of course used in the title of the "Gest" in some of the prints.
"Felawe" occurs in stanzas 14, 171, and "felaushyp"in 229. "Meyne" is in 31, 95, 97, 262, 419. Pollard, p. 143, appears to suggest that "fellow" refers to someone willing to join Robin's band, but it seems to me that Robin's actual followers are his "meyne," and his "fellows" are allies but not close followers.
** Stanza 15/Line 59 ** It is in this stanza that we first meet the Sheriff of Nottingham, who eventually became the primary bad guy of the cycle.
There is no explanation offered for why the sheriff is Robin's enemy (Holt1, p. 9), unless it's just the fact that he is a sheriff. This hardly seems sufficient in a Barnsdale context -- perhaps the Sheriff of Yorkshire, or the Sheriff of Lancashire, might be Robin's enemy, but why Nottingham?
Clawson, pp. 90-96, discusses some possibilities, most of which center around the events of fits III, V, and VI, including the Sheriff's breaking of his oath to be Robin's friend (see notes on stanzas 202, 204, 287). But these events, in the context of the "Gest," took place after this speech.
Pollard, p. 106, comments that "[W]e are never told why Robin Hood was outlawed. It is implied that he is the victim of malicious litigation by others for personal gain, in which the sheriff has colluded." This certainly would explain the hostility, but I must confess that I fail to see where this is implied.
Alternately, if we accept the idea that Robin was a forester or descendant of foresters, found in some of the late ballads although not the early, it might be that the hostility derives from the confilct between forest and non-forest officialdom. When a murder was committed in the forest, it led to problems between sheriff and forester, and disagreements over authority also arose when it was unclear whether a lesser crime had been committed inside or outside the forest (Young, p 93). Perhaps we might envision the sheriff stepping on Robin's family's perceived rights one too many times.
Holt mentions that Robin might have been outlawed by a group of false jurors, which would have been assembled by the Sheriff. This closely resembles a key element of "The Outlaw's Song of Trailbaston," a piece written c. 1305 and surviving in a unique copy of c. 1341 (Ohlgren, p. 99), copied perhaps in response to Edward III's attempt to use Trailbaston as a source of revenue for his wars (Ohlgren, p. 102).
It is written in French, and is the complaint of a many who claims to have served under the King (presumably Edward I), but who was hauled before the judges allegedly for hitting his servant a few times (Prestwich1, p. 286). Edward I's trailbaston law , promulgated in 1305 (Powicke, pp. 345-346), was designed to control thugs who went around beating and intimidating people (a "baston" is a club), so the idea of trailbaston courts was good (apparently this sort of thing was extremely common in 1304, and the trailbaston courts did a good job of cleaning it up, according to Prestwich1, pp. 285-286) -- but, in the Outlaw's Song, the singer declares that anyone is subject to fine or imprisonment by the courts. Being an archer, he faced a forty shilling fine or imprisonment (Prestwich1, p. 287), and so was forced to the woods instead. He recorded his complaint in writing and tossed it onto a highway so that the wider world might hear it.
The similarity to the conception of Robin Hood is obvious: An archer, probably a yeoman, forced into outlawry without cause, who flees to the woods. (Although he does threaten to kill his judges in stanza 10 -- Ohlgren, p. 103 -- which doesn't exactly make him sound like the image of meekness).
Alternately, the hostility might be a side effect of the tale of Gamelyn, where Gamelyn's older brother becomes sheriff and uses his authority against Gamelyn (Baldwin, p. 178).
Or maybe it's just the idea that a hero must have a worthy adversary (cf. Ohlgren, p. 109). In the early ballads, Robin has only two real adversaries: The sheriff, and Guy of Gisbborne. Guy, while a valiant fighter, is only a yeoman, meaning that he belongs to Robin's social class. Plus he winds up dead. The sheriff winds up dead, too, but since he doesn't have a name, he is replaceable. And he is also probably of the gentry or higher. So he becomes Robin's most available opponent -- even if he is in the wrong county!
The office of Sheriff (Shire-Reeve) went back to Saxon times, and gained in importance under the Normans -- "Norman kings, like Anglo-Saxon rulers, needed a link between the central power and local authorities.... It was upon the sheriff, so similar to the Norman vicecomes on the continent, that the mantle of local power fell.... Usually the strong central authorities appointed outstanding feudal barons in the shires as sheriffs" (Smith, p. 73). Bradbury, p. 128, notes a case in the reign of King Stephen, during which Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, was sheriff of Essex, Hampshire, London, and Middlesex! In the time of William II, many counties did not have a baron or earl; it was the sheriff who ran the county (Barlow-Rufus, p. 160).
At their peak, they were without doubt the most important royal officials. Barlow-Rufus, p. 72, believes that in the near-civil-war between William II and his older brother Robert Curthose, it was the support of the sheriffs that allowed William to keep his throne. On p. 190, Barlow-Rufus describes them as responsible for "Revenue, justice, defence and the execution of many administrative orders.'
After Norman times, the office declined. By the fifteenth century, the rewards were so small that it became a post to be avoided at all costs. The clipping of its powers began with the creation of the Justices of the Peace -- figures who do not appear in the early ballads in any form (Dobson/Taylor, p. 14). First created in the early fourteenth century, they were given broad powers by parliament in 1361 (Prestwich3, p. 234; Lyon, p. 154). Sheriffs began to be locally appointed in 1338, and in 1371 Edward III finally gave in to pressure and accepted that sheriffs should be appointed annually (Ormrod, p. 146). There was some backsliding on this (Richard II started appointing his own sheriffs in 1397; Saul, pp. 383-384), but there was no going back to the days of the over-powerful Sheriff.
Smith, p. 75, says that "the golden age of the sheriff was in the early part of the twelfth century. The thirteenth century saw many of his duties distributed among other men or abolished entirely. In still later times, especially under the Tudor monarchs (1485-1603), the lords lieutenant of the counties and the justices of the peace... assumed the main burdens of local government. The once proud sheriffs found that their stepping stones to power were cracked and crumbled by the new forces and new men." Similarly Pollard, p. 103: "By the fifteenthcentury the sheriff's remit was much reduced from earlier times. The great era of sheriff as the king's viceroy had been the twelfth and thirteenth centuries."
Pollard, p. 104, does however note that, even in the fifteenth century, the sheriff's office was important enough that corrupt sheriffs could be a real problem -- this was one of the complaints during Jack Cade's rebellion. But Pollard cannot accept Robin's sheriff as a fifteenth century official: "He is, anachronistically, the king's viceroy, occupying the office at the King's pleasure, and in regular communication with him. He resides, it seems permanently, not as a fifteenth-century sheriff would, but in the royal castle of Nottingham. He displays many of the characteristics of a great lord. He keeps a great household, under the direction of his steward and butler. He retains on a grand scale..." (Pollard, p. 106). Pollard, who wishes to place every attribute of the "Gest" in the fifteenth century, simply rejects the description of the sheriff -- but what he really proves is that the portrayal looks back to an earlier time.
The fact that the sheriff of Nottingham is a powerful official is, therefore, an argument that Robin must date from the reign of Edward III or earlier. However, there is a secondary argument against Robin living in the time of Richard and John or earlier. He could not have lived in Norman times -- if he had, the sheriff of Nottingham would have been called by his feudal title, not "sheriff." Smith, p. 73, implicitly notes that the barons were still sheriffs in the era of the earlier Plantagenets, but that "in John's reign (1199-1216) considerable confusion in the counties resulted when no strong man would take the office of sheriff. After all, many barons in John's day were among the king's enemies."
Another change began in 1236, when the various counties were carefully surveyed and re-valued. This allowed Henry III to force the sheriffs to operate on what we would now call a "percentage basis" -- instead of paying the king a flat fee and then being allowed to collect whatever they could make the county yield, they had to pay the king a fraction of the revenue (Mortimer, p. 43). It took some time for this to become permanent, but this once again made the office of sheriff less popular with the nobility.
Holt, p. 25, notes that we meet the sheriff twice, in fits 3 and 5, and his character seems to change dramatically: "The sheriff of fytte five is menacing and villainous. The sheriff of fytte three is a laughing stock." This might just be an indication of different sources, but it might be an indication of the high turnover of sheriffs which often happened in periods of unrest -- although we should also note that Robin seems to treat the sheriff as the same man (see the notes on stanzas 204 and 287).
Hence the role of the Sheriff, as seen in the "Gest" and elsewhere, argues for a date in the reign of Henry III, Edward I, or Edward II; prior to the reign of Henry III, the sheriff was a noble, and after Edward III, the sheriff simply didn't have the power to act as the sheriff does in the "Gest" and elsewhere.
The fact that the sheriff is, supposedly, a bad official is no argument as to date. Edward I had at one time made a top-to-bottom survey of his officials. We have only partial results, but they are indicative. Prestwich1, p. 95: "The Lincolnshire returns are particularly full. In the wapentake (the local equivalent of the hundred) of Aswardhurn the jurors listed eleven recent sheriffs and eighteen lesser royal officials, along with five seigneurial officials, and accused them of a range of offenses." Prestwich1, pp. 95-96, notes that much of the official misbehavior came as a result of government revaluing of the land to increase revenue (since land worth more was supposed to bring in more tax).
At least some of them were creative. According to Prestwich1, p, 95, one thieving sheriff claimed that he had confiscated chickens to prevent them being used to drop incendiaries on London!
As time passed, the sheriffs became more closely tied to the court. Wolffe, pp. 98, notes that "in 1448 alone fourteen of the thirty-six counties of England had household men as sheriffs." This might explain why the sheriff of Nottingham, in the latter part of the "Gest" and in the "Monk," has such access to the King: Perhaps, after getting rid of the sheriff of the early part of the "Gest" and of the "Potter," the King replaced him with a man who was closer to him.
It is worth noting that, in the year after Bannockburn, King Edward II replaced no fewer than thirty sheriffs -- although, surprisingly, the sheriffs he chose often were not closely tied to him; in 1326-1327, when Isabella and Mortimer were trying to clear out Edward's adherents, they saw need to replace only nine of 24 sheriffs (Phillips, p. 446).
Baldwin, p. 70, says that during some of the period in which we are interested, there was no actual sheriff of Nottingham (compare Pollard, p. 106, who declares that the title should have been "sheriff of Nottingham and Derby"), but on pp. 70-71 he lists a number of officials who might have been treated as the sheriff: Philip Mark, sheriff of Nottingham and Derbyshire 1209-1224, Brian de Lisle, chief forester of those shires 1209-1217 and with other local posts of importance (including sheriff of Yorkshire) until 1241 (these first two were first suggested by Holt; Holt1, p. 60); Eustace of Lowdham, sherrif or under-sheriff of Yorkshire 1225-1226 and of Nottingham and Derby 1232-1233; Robert of Ingram, of Nottingham and Derby intermittendtly from 1322-1334 and occasional mayor of Nottingham (cf. Dobson/Taylor, p. 15); and Henry de Fauconberg, to whom we shall return.
On the other hand, Holt found few Sheriffs of Nottingham with any responsibility for forests (Dobson/Taylor, p. 15).
Of course, the title "sheriff of Nottingham" might be a disguise. I note that, in the second reign of Edward IV, Lord Hastings became Constable of Nottingham Castle and steward and keeper of Sherwood Forest. Close enough to a sheriff for a ballad. And Hastings was also Edward IV's chamberlain -- meaning that he controlled who had access to the king. It is possible that Robin might have been a Lancastrian outlaw -- perhaps even Robin of Redesdale or Robin of Holderness -- whom Edward IV tried to suppress and then offered a pardon. Possible -- but highly unlikely; there just aren't enough specifics in the "Gest" to suggest that the poet was writing about current political controversies.
"A strong argument has linked the fictional sheriff of Nottingham in the Robin Hood stories with the real holder of that office in the 1330s [reign of Edward III], John of Oxford. He was guilty of a long catalogue of acts of arbitrary imprisonment, extortion, fraud and other offenses" (Prestwich3, p. 232). Baldwin, p. 72, refers to him, under the name "John de Oxenford." Holt1, p. 60, also mentions this identification (first made by Maddicott, who thinks the "Gest" referred to events of 1334-1338) with some approval (while expressing strong doubts about Madicott's other identifications), and Pollard alludes to it on p. 185, although without enthusiasm. Hicks, p. 83, declares that "John Oxenford's 'eccentric and yet typical career' so vividly illustrates the scope for corruption in local government that he has been proposed as the model for the sheriff ofNottingham in the ballads of Robin Hood."
Hicks, p. 84, lists among his offences accepting a bribe to set a prisoner free, extortion of various types (charging more than the accepted rate for receipt of writs, collecting fees twice, etc.), and having himself fraudulently elected to parliament. Despite this, he seems to have died in poverty and obscurity (Hicks, p. 85). Hicks, p. 85, concludes, "His origins and fate are thus unusual, but his misconduct in office was exceptional only in scale and fully explains why 'men still had a justifiable distrust' of sheriffs.
I am inclined to think, however, that memories of the vile Oxenford are more likely to have caused the Robin Hood legend to be transplanted to Nottinghamshire and Sherwood Forest, where it was not native, than to have originated the legend.
If John of Oxenford is the actual sheriff of the source story, then Thomas de Multon was perhaps the Abbot of St. Mary's and Geoffrey Scrope the justice (Baldwin, p. 73; Pollard, p. 185-186, who observes that Ohlgren and Aytoun also thought these events contributed to the legend; Holt1, p. 60). But I suspect that this is being too specific, and Holt agrees, particularly with respect to Scrope; had the author of the "Gest" known all these details, he would have used them. John of Oxford may have been the model of the sheriff, but it is unlikely that he actually was the sheriff.
Pollard, p. 107, proposes that the fifteenth century model for the sheriff might be Ralph, Lord Cromwell of Tattershall, who in 1434 became Constable of Nottingham Castle and Steward of Sherwood Forest. A veteran of Agincourt, he also was Chancellor in 1433 (Kerr, p. 131).
This again strikes me as highly unlikely. Cromwell would have been mostly an absentee landlord; he was for many years treasurer of England (Wolffe, p. 73), and had to deal with the financial disasters of Henry VI's reign. And he had lands far outside Nottinghamshire -- Tattershall is in Lincoln, he built a fine manor at Wingfield in Derbyshire (Kerr, p. 131), and his manors of Wressle and Burwell were in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire (Gillingham-Wars, p. 77). It is true that Wolffe, p. 274, calls him acquisitive, which fits, and Wolffe, pp. 121-123, shows how badly justice was distorted in the reign of Henry VI -- but Cromwell lived until 1456, and his death was natural (Wolffe, p. 357). And he would have been a contemporary of the author of the "Gest" -- yet the author of the "Gest" gives us almost no personal details about him. It is, I suppose, possible that the author wanted to slander him and be safe from persecution, but it just doesn't fit.
If we assume that the actual sheriff involved is the man who was sheriff of Nottingham and Derbyshire in 1323 when Edward II came north, that seems to have been Sir Henry de Faucumberg/Fauconberg, Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire in 1318-1319 and 1323-1325, and sheriff of Yorkshire 1325-1327, 1328-1330 (Cawthorne, p. 198). Cawthorne speculates that Fauconberg was actually transferred from Nottinghamshire to Yorkshire when Robin left court, in order to keep track of the outlaw. But, of course, he didn't end up dead while fighting Robin. He does appear, based on Cawthorne, p. 199, to have had sticky fingers, and to have been sustained by Edward II because he had fought against Thomas of Lancaster. This, theoretically, might have made him Robin's ally if we think (as I do) that Robin was an enemy of Lancaster. But this isn't really the right sheriff. It appears to me that we want the sheriff of 1317 and 1322, not 1318 and 1323.
It is interesting to learn that Fauconberg came from Holderness (see the note on Stanza 149).
But the bottom like is, I really don't think we should seek too hard for the historical sheriff. Unlike the King, there were few chronicle stories about sheriffs that our poet could use as a reference! The Sheriff probably derives primarily from the poet's imagination.
** Stanza 17/Line 68 ** "And no man abide with me." Robin has just ordered out Little John, Much the Miller's Son, and Scarlock. Does sending forth these three indeed leave him with no other men? Or has Robin sent all the others elsewhere? In Stanza 61, we also find references to Robin, John, Much, and Scarlock as if they are the only ones present. We cannot tell, but this is another indication that Robin's band may at this time have been small; see also the note on Stanza 4/Line 14.
** Stanza 18/Lines 69-70 ** "Saylis" and "Watling Street." "Saylis" is presumed to be Sayles, near Pontrefract, in the Barnsdale area, a holding listed by Baldwin, p. 43, as a tenth of a knight's fee. This identification was first made by Hunter (Dobson/Taylor, p. 22). Other than localizing Robin to Barnsdale rather than Sherwood, it has no evident significance, but Baldwin does say that "its value as a look-out position over the Road is apparent, even today." In particular, it overlooks the bottleneck at Wentbridge (Holt1, p. 83). According to Dobson/Taylor, p. 22 n. 4, it is fully 120 feet above the plain, making it not only a good place to watch Watling Street but anyone who would approach Barnsdale from the north or east.
It is in teresting that in every use (stanzas 18, 20, 209, 212) it is "the Saylis," not "Saylis." This sounds like it refers to a residence, not a village -- which would make sense if it were someone's holding. And, indeed, Dobson/Taylor, p. 22, note that the spot is still known as "Sayle's Plantation."
Watling Street was the single most important Roman Road in England, running from London to the north. Its mention is no help as to location, since it runs through both Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. Holt1, pp. 84-85, observes that Watling Streetchanged route in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the "Gest" seems to match the situation in the latter. This is more evidence for an Edwardian date, although it might come from the poet rather than the legend.
Knight/Ohlgren, p. 151, object that this section of the Great North Road -- now the A1 -- was properly called Ermine Street. and that Watling Street in fact runs to Chester (a point first noted by Ritson), but Dobson/Taylor, p. 22, point out that the name was used for many Roman roads -- and was used for the road toward Pontrefract in Yorkshire was referred to as "Watling Street" from at least the thirteenth century. The key is probably that it was the Roman Road running from London to Yorkshire.
The use of the name is a minor dating hint; Weinreb/Hibbert, p. 934, say that the name "Watling Street" is first attested in1230 for the road that in Anglo-Saxon times was known as Athelyngestrate. The road of course is older than this, but the use of the name "Watling Street" is strong evidence that the poem cannot be earlier than the reign of Henry III. Of course, the internal evidence in any case makes it much more recent than that.
Robin's men are again ordered to Sayles and Watling Street in stanza 209, and they reach Sayles in 212.
** Stanza 19/Lines 73-74 ** "Erle or ani baron, Abbot, or ani knyght." It may be coincidence, but the list of titles (Earl, Baron, Knight) is interesting. The titles "Earl," "baron," and "knight" went back to Norman times (although it took some time to establish fixed duties and titles). Note the absence of what became the two highest titles of the nobility, Duke and Marquis.
Edward III created the first dukes, beginning with his son the Black Prince (Barber, p. 20) and notably including Henry of Grosmont, the nephew of the enemy of Edward II, who became the first Duke of Lancaster -- significant because he had power in the region near Barnsdale and was given palatinate powers (OxfordCompanion, p. 557). York also became a dukedom at an early date; Edward III's fourth son Edmund was Duke of York. Richard II created the title of marquis in 1385 for the de Vere Earl of Oxford (OxfordCompanion, p. 621).
The failure to mention the titles of duke and marquis does not require us to accept a date prior to the reign of Edward III -- dukes were not common, and marquises were very rare. But the lack of those titles is at least a minor support for a date before Edward III.
It is interesting to note that we don't actually *see* any Earls in the "Gest." The title exists, but they aren't coming out of the woodwork they way they are in the twenty-first century. It is perhaps worth noting that the number of earls declined significantly in the reign of Henry III (Jolliffe, p. 283) -- and that neither Nottinghamshire nor Yorkshire had an earl at the end of that reign, nor generally in the next few decades; York became an earldom in the late Edwardian period.
Turning to abbots, we observe in the Tale of Gamelyn a scene where Gamelyn, who is pretending to be a prisoner, is ignored by a number of clergymen. Gamelyn then curses all abbots and priors (Cawthorne, p. 171). Could that passage have influenced this?
It's also interesting to note that secular law generally did not apply to clergy in the middle ages -- except, by special agreement with the Pope, forest law *did* apply (Young, p. 24). This is significant in light of the fact that Robin made his own version of forest law apply to high-ranked monks.
Clawson, p. 17, claims that "Hostility to wealthy and powerful churchmmen was a natural attribute of the mediaeval English outlaw," but as evidence he cites only the fight of Hereward the Wake against a Norman abbot, plus the tale of Gamelyn and the later Robin Hood ballads. Other than the case of Hereward, which was political and far too early, he seems to have no historical examples.
There is an interesting footnote in the forest laws: "Every archbishop, bishop, earl, or baron travelling through the forest may take one or two beasts by view of the foresters or he may blow a horn to give notice if they are not present" (Young, p. 68). Thus one might argue that the higher clergy and nobility were given the right, first, to interfere with Robin's livelihood, and second, that they used his patented horn calls. One wonders if Robin's use of the horn (in the Gest, found in stanzas 229, 389, 447 -- and far more common in the "Robin Meets His Match" class of ballads) might not have been inspired by this.
The fact that Robin so dislikes the higher clergy is perhaps another slight argument against the king of the "Gest" being Edward IV. Bishops in the middle ages were political figures, and often appointed from noble families -- e.g. the Bishop of York in 1470 was John Neville, the son of the late Earl of Salisbury and the brother of the Earl of Warwick (Wagner, p. 174) and the Archbishop of Canterbury was Thomas Bourchier, brother of the Earl of Essex and half-brother of the late Duke of Buckingham (Wagner, p. 35). But both these two were made bishops before Edward IV came to the throne (George Neville became Bishop of Exeter at the age of 23!). According to Ross-Edward, p. 320, the bishops appointed by Edward were, almost without exception, highly educated, and from gentle rather than noble families. This does not mean that they were saints, but certainly they set a much higher standard than the bishops of previous reigns.
Given Robin's hostility to the clergy, we should perhaps also note that the Catholic church was in rather bad shape in this period. The reigns of Edwrd II and Edward III almost exactly overlapped the so-called "Babylonian Captivity" (1305-1377), when the Popes, instead of being based in Rome, were living at Avignon, and hence unduly influenced by France. (This was in some ways better than being influenced by the Italian mobs, but to an Englishman, the French would presumably be The Enemy, and Rome just some faraway place.) There was also a papal schism in the 1180s, and various schisms in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It is easy to imagine an outlaw, who could not possibly know which Pope was actually canonically elected (especially since, in this period, the elections were often anything but honest), thinking something like "a plague on both your episcopal hierarchies."
It is perhaps worth adding that the Black Death decimated the clergy to a greater extent even than the population as a whole (Ormrod, p. 116; Kelly.J., p. 191), dealing a severe blow to monasticism in England and even weakening the bishops. The strong disdain of the higher clergy shown in the "Gest" appears to make more sense in the half century before the Black Death than in the period immediately after (although the hierarchy of course went back to its bad old ways thereafter).
** Stanza 20/Lines 77- 80 ** Note the precise parallel in stanza 212. The parallel continues through the first line of stanza 21 and stanza 213, except for a textual variant; see the note on stanza 213.
** Stanza 21/Line 82 ** John and his companions know a "derne" (hidden) street -- an indication that they know the forest well. This is a curious contrast to Stanzas 11-12, where Robin gives his men their instructions as if for the first time.
Pollard, pp. 58-59, objects that this makes little sense, because the forests of England in the Middle Ages were relatively tame places, often filled with little towns and farms, and easy to travel. This is, of course, true, but that is little help to a traveler who does not live in the forest and know these side paths.
In the parallel in stanza 213, John and his men look down the highway, i.e. Watling Street. Does the difference matter? Perhaps; the knight, who is alone, can travel a path, but the monk of stanza 213, who has a large company, needs to follow the road.
** Stanza 24/Line 94 ** For courtesy see the note on Stanza 2.
** Stanza 27/Line 108 ** "Blith or Dancaster" -- towns along Watling Street/the Great North Road, now typically spelled "Blythe" and "Doncaster." We will meet Roger of Doncaster at the end of the "Gest," when he is involved in Robin's murder. The two towns are between Nottingham and Yorkshire (Doncaster is now a fairly major town, Blythe a hamlet somewhat to its south), so they are no help on the question of whether Robin is based in Barnsdale or Sherwood -- although, if the knight is truly planning to go on crusade (see the notes on Stanzas 56-57), hewould presumably head south to London to start. If he is indeed headed south, that is additional support for Robin being in Barnsdale, not Sherwood.
We will meet these two places again in Stanza 259, where the implication of a setting in Barnsdale is even stronger.
The mention of Doncaster supplies some vague evidence against the contention (highly unlikely on other grounds) that the King Edward of the song is Edward IV. During the 1470 conflict that led to his temporary deposition, the Marquis of Montague was moving to attack Edward IV at Doncaster when Edward fled the country (Wagner, p. 179). This being Edward's strongest connection to Doncaster, and surely well-known at the time, could a contemporary author have failed to note it were Edward IV the hero of the Gest?
** Stanza 28/Line 151 ** Robin orders Little John to search the knight's baggage. This is a standard stage of the "truth or consequences" game, and will happen again in Stanza 246 (searching the Cellarer of Saint Mary's); oddly, we do not see the King searched in stanza 382.
Ohlgren on p. 158 of Ohlgren/Matheson says that guilds had the right of search of their members, and -- given his strenuous efforts to prove that the "Gest" is targeted at the guilds -- claims this as evidence of origin. But, as noted above, the source tales of Hereward and Eustace involve searches of prisoners, and we also see it (e.g.) in the later tales of Dick Turpin. An outlaw who did not search his victims would not be very successful!
** Stanza 29/Line 113 ** Robin and his men are here described as having a "lodge." Pollard thinks this is the same place as the trystel tree (for which see the note on Stanza 176), which is possible but by no means automatic; indeed, it would make sense for outlaws to have several meeting places in the forest and not bring outsiders to their man base. The existence of a lodge does indicate that Robin and his men have been here for a while (again making stanzas 11-12 seem odd), and also argues against the claim (for which see Stanza 176) that it is always summer at his camp -- a lodge is far more important in winter than summer.
Note also the sheriff's statement in stanza 198 that the life of the outlaws is harder than the requirements of "any" order of anchorites or friars. If it is always summer, it's not a very comfortable summer.
A faint possibility is that the Barnsdale/Sherwood confusion is caused by seasonal change -- Robin lives in one in the summer and the other in winter (probably Barnsdale in summer and Sherwood in winter, since Nottinghamshire would have better weather, and more travellers, in winter). But the much higher likelihood is that the confusion is just that: Confusion.
If the lodge is an actual building, its construction is probably another violation of the forest laws; Young, p. 109, says that the usual penalty in the early medieval period was twelve pence (still a large fine for a villein) but that in some cases the building might be razed.
** Stanza 29/Line 115 ** Note that, although Our Hero is called Robyn Hode/Robin Hood, this is very nearly the only reference to him wearing a hood. Hood is, of course, an English surname, and Hoods did live in the north country in Edwardian times; Hunter located records of several, and even tried to contend that one was "the" Robin Hood (Holt1, pp. 45-46). We really have no evidence whether the author of the "Gest" thought "Hode" a surname, or a name given for Robin's apparel -- or whether he even considered the question. Here, the hood is simply used as a demonstration of manners: Robin is courteous enough to take off his hood. (For "courtesy" see the note on Stanza 2.
We will again see Robin doff his hood to a guest in Stanza 225.
** Stanza 32/Line 125 ** Knight/Ohlgren, pp. 76, 152, suggest that the act of Robin and the knight washing together (paralleled in stanz 231, and also the "Potter," Stanza 41), is a demonstration of "civilized" or courtly behavior: People eating at a communal meal were expected to have clean hands. They add that the custom became increasingly common in the fourteenth century -- in other words, it is a custom from the reign of Edward II or later. It should be kept in mind, however, that washing of hands is a custom which goes back to pre-Christian times -- although one which Jesus declared not necessary from a religious standpoint (see, e.g., the first part of chapter 7 of the Gospel of Mark).
** Stanzas 32-33/Lines 127-132 ** Although outlaws are usually said to poach deer, and indeed the state of the king's deer park becomes an issue in Stanzas 357-358, and Robin admits in 377 to living by the King's deer, note that the menu here consists of bread, wine, "noumbles" of the deer (i.e. probably organ meat), swan, pheasant, and other birds (probably including duck). Mortimer, p. 19, says of the Plantagenet period that "Wild birds were an important component of the diet; the number of species and quantity of bones found archaeologically in medieval contexts is 'considerably greater than in any earlier period since the advent of farming. Species excavated or known to have been sold include swans, cranes, rooks, pipits, larks, crows, jackdaws and plovers, as well as wild ducks and, of course, quantities of blackbirds which were presumably baked in a pie."
On the evidence, the outlaws were not particularly reliant upon deer. It is interesting to note that the no plant matter of any kind is mentioned except bread and wine -- both of which can be stored for long periods (at least, flour and wine can). It sounds like a scurvy-inducing diet (assuming the deer organs are cooked, anyway), and makes me wonder if the meeting really took place in summer (see note to Stanza 176). This is winter food.
We also note that rabbit is not mentioned in this extensive catalog of animals which could be caught in a forest. This is not proof of anything, but rabbits were not brought to England until the thirteen century. Had they been mentioned, it would have been a strong hint of a late date.
** Stanza 37/Lines 145-148 ** Robin, to be blunt, shakes down the knight, on the grounds that a yeoman should not pay for a knight's meal. (Ironic, since, of course, tenant farmers raised the food that the gentry and nobility ate every day.) In Robin's case, this becomes a "truth or consequences" game -- those who admit their wealth are not robbed. (Of course, as Holt points out on p. 11, only the rich had any reason to lie about their wealth, so the social justice aspect of this can be exaggerated.)
Child, p. 53, notes that in the tale of Eustace the Monk, Eustace too asked, more directly, how much money his victims had. He then searched them, and confiscated everything above the amount they confessed to (e.g. the Abbot of Jumieges claimed to have four marks but turned out to have 30; Baldwin, p. 38). A summary of Eustace's methods is found on Cawthorne, p. 125. The parallel to the tale of Eustac(h)e is also mentioned on Knight/Ohlgren, pp. 2-3, and Ohlgren, p. 316 n. 12, plus they note something parallel in the tale of Fulk FitzWarren.
We shall see Robin ask this question again in Stanza 243; in that case, he will receive a false answer.
** Stanza 42/Lines 165-166 ** Little John will also spread out his mantle and count in Stanza 247. Might this be an indication that John is the most educated of the band? We don't really have any evidence either way, but it is interesting that he seems to be in charge of calculations.
What's more, the use of his mantle for counting seems to relate to the practice of the Exchequer (which presumably would have been used by others doing counting). According to Mortimer, p. 66, the Exchequer was so-called because its offers sat at a table with a checkered cloth when they examined the accounts of sheriffs and other officers.
Mortimer, p. 67, adds, "The calculations were performed by using the columns of the checked cloth to represent pence, shillings, pounds and so on; little heaps of coins representing the sum due were piled on one row of squares, and others representing sums atually paid put in the row below.... This means of calculation had the advantage of easing the problem of easing the problems of doing elementary arithmetic in roman numerals, by introducing what amounted to a zero."
** Stanza 43/Line 172 ** To the factually correct statement here that the knight is "trewe inowe," compare the ironic statement in stanza 248 that the monk is "trewe ynowe" not because the monk told the truth but because he has brought twice the payment Robin Hood expected from the knight.
** Stanza 45/Line 179 ** In this verse, Robin, trying to understand why the knight is so poor, remarks, "I trowe thou warte made a knyght of force" -- in other words, that the knight was compelled to become a knight.
This is clearly a reference to the phenomenon called "distraint of knighthood" (cf. Child, p. 45), under which the King forced a man with sufficient income to become a knight. (Realize that the picture of a knight from King Arthur television shows bears little relation to reality -- a knight was not a chivalrous soldier; a knight was a person with certain clearly-defined duties within the state.) This was primarily a revenue-raising measure -- during a war, the King could demand feudal service of a knight, or payment in lieu of it. Urban, p. 38, puts the situation bluntly: The duty of a knight to the king "was first to pay the fees that accompanied the ceremony [of knighthood], and second to pay scutage [the fee in lieu of service]. Whether they ever appeared in person, equipped for battle, hardly mattered."
According to OxfordCompanion, p. 298, it was Henry III who first used the proceedure, demanding that those with income of twenty pounds per year become knights (cf. Ohlgren, p. 316 n. 13). The standard soon became 40 pounds (Prestwich3, p. 138; Ormrod, p. 151, says that land valued at 40 pounds was the standard in the reign of Edward III), which better suited the genuine demands of knighthood.
Even as late as 1471-1472, in the reign of Edward IV, an examination of the tax rolls showed that the annual cost of a knight's household was 100 pounds, a baron's 500 pounds, and a viscount's 1000 pounds (Ross-Edward, p. 262). Magna Carta had fixed the "relief" owed to the crown for a knight's fee at five pounds (Mortimer, p. 46. The "relief" was the amount a new possessor had to pay the monarch to enter his estate -- in effect, an inheritance tax). A baron, by contrast, owed 100 pounds. This is further evidence that a knight's normal income was in the range of a few tens of pounds.
But it was Edward I, not Henry III, who really made distraint of knighthood common, starting in 1278 (Ohlgren, pp. 316-317, n.13). This was part of a massive housecleaning campaign which Edward embarked upon to regularize the government and improve his revenue; he also replaced almost all the sheriffs (Prestwich1, p. 278) so that he could more easily enforce the changes -- and also better learn who had the money to become a knight.
Dobson/Taylor, following Child and an article by Holt, argue that distraint of knighthood points to the reigns of Henry III or Edward I. But in 1316, Edward II followed in his father's footsteps: "On 28 February every landholder with land worth [fifty pounds] or more was ordered to take up knighthood" (Phillips, p. 268).
Thus Robin's remark is clear evidence for the reign of Henry III or later -- and probably the reign of Edward I or later. In fact, it is a pretty strong argument for the reigns of Edward I or Edward II, because Edward III didn't bother with making many knights. The evidence of the campaigns in the Hundred Years' War is that the number of knights fell dramatically in his reign (Prestwich3, p. 139; Reid, p. 219, argues that there were 870 knights on Edward III's expedition of 1359, but this seems to be too many knights compared to the number of archers).
** Stanza 47/Line 187 ** The knight'sstatement that his family had held his land for "a n hundred wynter" is significant in the context of land tenure (and, perhaps, Robin's outlawry). At first glance, this requires only that the year be 1166 or after (since effectively no Englishmen continued their land tenure after the Norman Conquest; it all was given to Frenchmen). This means the date could be as early as the reign of Henry II. And, indeed, we see proclamations at the beginning of Henry II's reign saying, in effect, that tenants had to prove that they had held their land at the end of Henry I's reign in 1135; changes in the two decades since were illegitimate (Mortimer, p. 7)..
However, William the Conqueror's writ ran only weakly in northern England -- indeed, Cumbria and Northumberland were considered part of Scotland in this period. William just didn't have enough followers to control the area (Barlow-Rufus, p. 297). A few Normans were established in Lancashire and Yorkshire, but the English kings did not really begin to assert control until the reign of William Rufus beginning in 1087. And Henry II died in 1189. Thus, while not impossible, it is highly unlikely that a knight from Lancashire or Yorkshire could have claimed a century's tenure in the reign of Henry II.
But the hundred year tenure becomes dramatically significant if we assume that the time is that of Edward I or after. Even as Edward I was making new knights, he was also doing his best to regain land for the crown. Edward clawed back land using something called "Quo Warranto" proceedings (Prestwich1 has many pages on this, e.g. p. 347). This required landholders either to show a valid deed *or* to show actual possession of the land for the period from 1189 to 1290 (when the proceedings took place). Theoretically this was an advance in law -- Hollister, p. 260, observes that Edward was converting England from government by custom to government to government by written law and record -- but the conversion was difficult.
Edward also made changes to something called "novel disseissin" (Prestwich1, p. 271). Combining what Prestwich1 says with what Smith says on p. 167, it appears that the changes made it easier to update an old writ -- and, hence, use out-of-date charges to dispossess a landowner. Since a deed might have been lost in the interim, the re-issuing of the writ, and the convening of a jury, would make it easier to evict the tenant.
Thus, for the knight to claim a hundred years' possession was to say that he had met the requirements of Edward I's land tenure requirements. An owner might speak with pride of a century's possession before Edward I came along -- but after Edward I's time, he was making a *legal* claim of right.
Edward I's laws were very hard on smallholders. To an illiterate peasant, the papers would easily be lost, and a century of possession was hard to prove. Many tenants must have lost their land. (This apart from the fact that many lineages failed to produce male heirs. I read somewhere that there were five thousand tenured knights mentioned in the Domesday Book, and that not one of those lineages is still in tenure. To maintain a line for a hundred years -- probably four generations -- was not insignificant.)
Corrupt officials made the problem of maintaining tenure worse; Edward I eventually tried to clean this up in 1298 (Prestwich1, pp. 431-432), but the bad precedent would continue for the rest of his reign and into the next. The victim of this fast dealing might not be a criminal -- but with no land, he had no livelihood. We have no information on how Robin Hood came to be displaced from his property -- but it is quite possible that he lost it due to one of Edward I's land-grabbing tricks. Kelly.J, p. 56, notes a substantial decrease in the area of land being cultivated starting around 1300; land laws and bad weather were driving tenants away.
** Stanza 48/Lines 189-190 ** In effect, the knight declares that he is poor because "time and chance happen to them all" (Ecclesiastes 9:11). There is nothing at all unusual about this view of fate; this was the standard pre-modern attitude. It is the whole theme of the Book of Job; who was a "blameless and upright man... who feared God and turned away from evil' (Job 1:1).
What is noteworthy is not the knight's attitude but the fact that Robin does not say something to the effect that it happened to him, too. This is additional clear evidence, were it needed, that Robin in the "Gest" is not a fallen nobleman. The result also differs from the Book of Job, where Job's three friends start out trying to comfort him and then turn on him when he persists in declaring himself innocent (in 16:20 Job openly declares that "my friends scorn me"). Robin asks pointed questions to get to the heart of the matter -- but, having been satisfied with the answers (as Job's friends were not), he resolves to help the knight.
** Stanza 49/Line 195 ** "Four hundred pound of gode money."
We see large sums of money at several points in the "Gest" -- in stanza 247, the monk carries eight hundred points. In stanza 120, we see that the knight and Little John between them could carry "Four hundred pound" (stanza 120). In stanza 176, John and the cook carry off three hundred pounds plus plate.
But no horse can be expected to carry 800 pounds of silver, even taking into account the fact that the pound sterling is only three-quarters of a pound Avoirdupois. For the weight and volume of a sum of 400 pounds, see the note on Stanza 120.
And, even though the knight in Stanza 121 tells the abbot "have here thi golde," money almost had to be kept in the form of silver. Prior to the reign of Edward III, the only coinage in England was the silver penny (Mortimer, p. 68), which went back all the way to King Offa in around 770 (Brooke, p. 59). There had been a brief attempt to introduce gold coins in the reign of Henry III, but it was withdrawn due to being undervalued (OxfordComp, p. 224). But to carry value equivalent to 800 pounds would seem to require gold coinage (the exchange rate of silver and gold varied, but it is safe to say that 800 pounds sterling of silver would be no more than 50 pounds avoirdupois of gold).
There is also the problem of counting 400 pounds, or even more extremely, 800 pounds. 800 pounds at 240 silver pence to the pound is 192,000 pennies. Even 20 marks, the amount the monk claimed in stanza 243, is 3200 pence. (Could Little John count that high? If he could, is this the reason why he is always the one who counts the cash?)
The number 400 pounds does have a peculiar significance. Tyerman, p. 245, shows a diagram of the checkered tablecloth used by exchequer clerks to count money. Based on this layout, the maximum that could be counted was 400 pounds (properly, 439 pounds and some change, but 400 pounds in round numbers). It was the largest amount that could be counted in one sitting.
It is true that, early in the reign of Edward IV, we hear of travellers being robbed of 200 pounds, 300 pounds -- even, in two unusual cases, of 700 pounds and 1000 pounds (Pollard, p. 92). But even if these reports are accurate, this is almost a century after the death of Edward III, and a century and a half after the reign of Edward II. Given inflation, those amounts appear to be less than is being bandied about here. Plus, by then, there were gold coins.
Odds are that the figures bandied about are simply exaggeration and that most of the money the knight used was actually letters of credit or something equivalent. Otherwise, it would be hard even to find that much coin. Prestwich1, p. 408, estimates that the total currency in *all of England* at only about a million pounds in the 1290s. No one but the crown and a few of the very richest earls could have hundreds of pounds -- even the King had only about 25,000 pounds of revenue in the twelfth century (Barlow-Rufus, p. 224).
But we need only assume the monk was carrying a substantial amount of money (even the 20 marks, or 13 and a third pounds, he claimed at the outset) for this to be a dating hint. Smith, p. 126, says that "coined money had become more widely available in the twelfth century," leading to more use of coinage in the reigns of Richard and John, but the first real reform of the coinage came under Edward I in 1279-1280, who introduced the farthing and groat and regularized other coinage (OxfordComp, p. 224). And coining was carried out only periodically, meaning that there was often shortage of coin. This was true for much of Henry III's reign, and late in Edward I's reign because of the high taxation for his wars (Prestwich1, p. 405). And Edward I hit the church particularly hard, because that is where the money was (Prestwich1, p. 418). Prestwich3, p. 236, and Ormrod, p. 156, also note currency crises in the early reign of Edward III. Thus, if there really was money being used in Robin Hood's time, the reign of Edward II is a very good bet.
On the other hand, it wasn't a bad rule of thumb to assume that the value of land was ten times the income -- in other words, if the knight had 400 pounds of land, then he would have income of forty pounds a year. Which matches the 40 pounds of income eventually expected of a knight. The knight may even have had a little more than 400 pounds of land, since the abbott (based on his behavior) very likely wanted securities worth more than the amount he was lending.
To put this in perspective, Mortimer, p. 80, says that in the reign of Henry II, "few lords" earned as much as 500 pounds per year. Tyerman, p. 305, estimates the average baron's income in the reign of John as 200 pounds. According to Ormrod, p. 141, a knight bachelor in Edward III's armies in the Hundred Years' War was paid 4 shillings a day (about 70 pounds per year), and a knight bachelor 2 shillings a day (35 pounds per year). Seward, p. 269, gives figures for expected incomes in 1436: 865 pounds for a baron, 208 pounds for a "well-to-do knight," 60 pounds for a lesser knight, 24 pounds for an esquire. Prices had of course inflated substantially in the period since the reign of Edward III; it is safe to assume that these values would have been at least a third less in 1345.
Which makes it curious to see the monk in stanza 92 declares the knight's lands to be worth 400 pounds per year. As the above numbers show, that is the income of a baron (if a rather impoverished one), not a knight. It is probably an error -- either by the monk or the poet.
Last updated in version 2.6
File: C117E

Gest of Robyn Hode, A [Child 117] --- Part 07

DESCRIPTION: Continuation of the notes to "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. Entry continues in "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117] --- Part 08 (File Number C117G). This entry contains notes on Stanza 51-Fit II of the "Gest."
Last updated in version 2.6
NOTES [14211 words]: ** Stanza 52/Lines 205-206 ** Compare the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32, although the Prodigal Son, unlike the knight's son, was not his heir. It is curious to note that, although the story of the knight is the fullest episode in the "Gest," we never find out the youth's fate. Did he flee the country, leaving his father on the hook for his bail?
** Stanzas 52-53/Lines 208-210 ** It is possible that there is a dating hint in stanza 52-53, describing how the knight's son killed a knight and a squire. Stanza 52, line four, states that this took place "In felde wolde iust full fayre." Ohlgren, p. 223, takes this to mean that the boy killed them in a tournament, reading "iust" as "joust" (the interpretation given also by Dobson/Taylor, p. 82, and Knight/Ohlgren, p. 96). This certainly makes better sense than reading it as "just."
We should note however that in stanza 116 the word "jousts" is printed "ioustes." Of course, consistency of spelling is rare in "Gest." But this may be one of the reasons why some have rejected this interpretation. Also, while the youth might have killed one man in an organized tournament, what are the odds that he killed two?
Still, if it does refer to an organized joust, it is a hint of a date in the reign of Edward I or Edward II. The first jousts, reported from the twelfth century, consisted of a man taking a spot of ground (say, the entrance to a bridge) and defending it from attackers (Reid, p. 33). They had no resemblance to the organized tilting of Malory; they were just mad scrambles. If more than two were involved, they were often called "melees." To see one man kill two in a joust is an oddity -- although killing two in a melee tournament is not impossible.
It is also possible that there is a political subtext here, since jousts were sometimes used as an excuse to raise private armies (Barber, p. 18).
Tournaments were disliked by the Church because they promoted fighting and sometimes killed people. Edward I, as a favor to the Church, banned them (Prestwich3, p. 37). This did not prevent people from organizing them, of course; they were too popular. But the fact that they were illegal made it murder to kill someone at one. That ended in the reign of Edward III, who "was a great patron of tournaments" (Prestwich3, p. 205), and indeed a highly successful competitor. So if the knight's son was accused of murder for killing people in a tournament, it implies a date in the reign of Edward I or Edward II.
See also the note on Stanza 116.
** Stanza 53/Line 209 ** Child's text, in line 53.1, says "He slewe a knyght of Lancaster;" so too Dobson/Taylor and Knight/Ohlgren. This is one of the most important variants in the "Gest," with various witnesses reading "Lancaster," "Lancashire," "Lancasesshyre," and "Lancastshyre ," which is much more likely to be the original reading than "Lancaster" (see the textual note). The distinction is potentially significant. "Lancashire" is without question a place designation. "Lancaster" might be -- but it is more likely a political designation, referring to a follower of the earl or duke of Lancaster.
** Stanza 54/Line 216 ** Gummere, p. 315, explains the odd form "Saynt Mari Abbey" as a genitive, "Mari" meaning "Mary's." There are few other such inflected forms in the "Gest"; perhaps most of the rest have been modernized. This may be one of the reasons why some scholars have suggested early dates for the "Gest."
St. Mary's Abbey was in York. It was founded by Alan the Red, a close companion of William the Conqueror, who was one of the chief rulers of the north of England (Barlow-Rufus, p. 313). William Rufus, the Conqueror's son, seems to have been present at the turf-cutting, presumably as part of his campaign to secure the throne he had just taken (Lack, p. 43). Henry I would also endow it (Barlow-Rufus, p. 432), so it was well-established and well-endowed by Plantagenet times.
After the Reformation, it naturally failed, and the buildings are in ruins; what is left can be seen in the gardens of the York Museum (Kerr, p. 187).
According to Pollard, p. 123, St. Mary's wasn't particularly popular with the local people: "There had been bitter and much publicised conflict between the abbeys of Bury St Edmunds, St Albans and St Mary's and the townsmen on their doorsteps in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries." Pollard in fact reports that the conflict between St. Mary's and York, about who controlled certain lands, was at its height in 1326-1327, at the very end of Edward II's reign.
On p. 128, Pollard adds that "St. Mary's would appear to have been one of the most active of the great Benedictine monasteries in the land and money market in the early fourteenth century."
This wasn't the only time in the reign of Edward II that St. Mary's was "in the headlines." It came to particular prominence when the King's favorite Piers Gaveston was to be housed there in 1312 while the peers decided what to do with him (Phillips, p. 188). People in the north of England would likely have been aware of this, but since no one except Edward liked Gaveston, I'm not sure what significance, if any, the fact might have had.
In addition, St. Mary's was supposed to have been the original home of the "hedge priest,' John Ball, the prophet of Wat Tyler's Rebellion of 1381 (Hicks, p. 153). Again, I'm not sure how this might relate, but perhaps it inspired our author to think of St. Mary's as producing populist outcasts.
For the act of borrowing based on land as collateral, and for St. Mary's right to acquire lands whem most abbeys were barred, see the next note.
** Stanza 55/Lines 219-220 ** The knight borrowed 400 pounds from the Abbott of Saint Mary, offering his land and holdings as collateral. The deal the knight struck with the Abbott is typical for the period. In 1093, for instance, we read of an abbott's son-in-law charged with some sort of financial crime. The abbott and others put up sureties worth 500 marks -- and lost them when the fellow fled to Flanders (Barlow-Rufus, p. 252).
Holt1, p. 75, calls the idea of the church gaining the knight's land the one original theme of the "Gest," not found in any other early romance. He observes that this violates the law of mortmain, passed by Edward I in 1279, which largely forbade the turning over of secular land to monastic organizations. He argues that, because of mortmain, the thirteenth century is a better date for the events of the "Gest" than some later time.
This need not follow. Edward I seems to have proposed mortmain as a curb on Archbishop Pecham of Canterbury (Prestwich1, p. 251). After Edward's time, kings allowed so many exceptions to mortmain that it was almost a dead letter (Powicke, p. 325). According to Smith, p. 186, "The intent of the Statute of Mortmain soon came to be widely evaded. For political and other powerful reasons, kings sometimes granted licences permitting the alienation of lands to the church." Smith also mentions a system known as "uses," where the land was handed over to a secular entity but the church enjoyed its use -- i.e. its income. The law was not rewritten to prevent this until 1391, in the reign of Richard II (Smith, pp. 186-187), and uses were not entirely stamped out until 1535, when Henry VIII imposted the Statute of Uses (Lyon, p. 170).
Pollard, p. 126, seems to suggest that the transfer of land was in fact illegal due to mortmain and that Robin was upholding the actual law. I can see no hint of this in the "Gest," and find it hard to believe that the crafty abbot would not have covered his bases.
One suspects that most kings would allow the handover -- provided they got their cut. We know that that was what was required in the 1450s, e.g., when John Fastolf was denied the right to found a chapel after refusing to pay off Henry VI's government (Castor, pp. 118-119) And a clever lawyer might have gotten around even that. Holt's real objection is that the Abbott shows no signs, in the song, of trying to evade mortmain -- but there is another point, and an astounding one: the abbot of St. Mary's Abbey -- founded in 1086, according to Tatton-Brown/Crook, p. 61, and upgraded by William Rufus in 1089 -- had unusual privileges, he was allowed to wear a mitre and had a seat in parliament like a bishop (Tatton-Brown/Crook, pp. 61-62). And he had the right to administer secular justice on his own lands (Tatton-Brown/Crook, p. 62). This made him so unpopular that the abbey had to be fortified in 1318.
(In the department of Really Strange Footnotes, I can't help but mention that I have dated the incident of Robin Hood and the Knight to 1316-1317 -- and Saint Mary's was fortified in that year. Could the abbey have been fortified to guard against Robin? Of course, the tenants -- and the Scots -- were the real reason.)
And St. Mary's had another amazing privilege: It had been given a special exemption to mortmain. Starting in 1301, they were allowed to take up to 200 pounds per year in property (Pollard, p. 128; Baldwin, p. 47). This privilege continued through most of the reign of Edward II, and we have records of the Abbot in the 1330s making loans. To be sure, the knight's lands were worth 400 pounds, which is more than 200 -- but remember that the loan was made in one year and paid in another. Given the legal nature of loans at the time (which were more like corporations pooling property), a good lawyer could certainly write the deed so that half the land was acquired when the loan was made and half when it failed to be paid.
We should also note that, in 1311, Edward II was forced to submit to the Ordinances -- a series of acts meant to control the government (and get the finances in better order). In effect, a committee of overseers -- the Ordainers -- was appointed. One of the Ordinances required "that no gifts of land, revenue, franchies, or wardship and marriages were to be made without the approval of the Ordainers" (Phillips, p. 172). The Ordinances never really worked; they contained some good ideas, but no functional enforsement mechanism (Phillips, pp. 179-180). But in the north of England, where the Earl of Lancaster (a chief sponsor of the Ordinances) had great influence, no doubt the form of the ordinances had to be followed closely.
These laws very likely explain why the "justice" was present: He was to write a transfer which met the requirements of mortmain -- or, perhaps, he would be the one granted the "use" of the land. He might also have been present to grant Ordainer approval.
The passage of mortmain was a part of a war between church hierarchy and king that was characteristic of the reign of Edward I (Prestwich1, p. 253; on p. 256, he lists the clergy's grievances). This fits rather well with the attitude of Robin Hood, who was a friend of the church and of the King but who despised bishops. But this doesn't help with dating. King John had such bad relations with the church that the Pope interdicted England (an argument, in a way, against placing Robin in John's reign -- Robin would largely have agreed with the anti-episcopal John). Henry II's reign saw the murder of Becket, whom Henry had nominated Archhishop because of his trouble with other clergymen. Stephen not only arrested several bishops, he actually tried starving them (Matthew, p. 91). Conflicts between King and bishops were so common that they tell us very little.
** Stanzas 56-57/Lines 223-226 ** There is a hint in these verses that the knight is going on crusade -- he will go "ouer the salte sea And se where Criste was quyke and dede" ("over the salty sea and see where Christ lived and died"). Although Ohlgren, p. 317 n. 18, makes the unlikely suggestion that Sir Richard was going to participate in the Hundred Years' War (see the note on Stanzas 88-89), and even suggests in n. 23 that he was getting money from the crown, the text clearly implies a visit to Palestine (stanza 57 says that the knight is going to "Caluere" =Calvary).
Can we use this as a date peg? Not with certainty -- after all, people had been going on pilgrimage as early as the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great (Runciman1, p. 39), and by the tenth century, pilgrimages were common and were sometimes given as pennances (Runciman1, pp.43-44). But Stanzas 88-89 hint that the knight will not just travel to Jerusalem but fight there. If the knight were going as part of a larger English expedition, this would at first glance seem to point to either the Third Crusade, led by Richard I (hence c. 1190; this is the implication of Holt2, p. 193) or Prince Edward's crusade (c. 1270). Those were the only two occasions on which English royalty went to the Holy Land.
This is not conclusive, however; there were other times when an Englishman might reasonably expect to go crusading There weren't many English involved in the First Crusade, but one of the major leaders was Robert Duke of Normandy (Lack, p. 75), the son of William the Conqueror who arguably should have become King of England in 1087 when the Conqueror died, and who certainly should have become King in 1100 when William Rufus died The Second Crusade, almost purely a French affair, was a washout, but the Third, the Crusade of Kings, was a very large affair. Several other Crusades followed; all were flops, but all attracted at least a few zealous followers.
Although Edward I's Crusade has the advantage of being relatively late, which makes it a better fit than the First and Third Crusades, it isn't really a good candidate. It was a very small expedition. Prestwich1, p. 71, thinks Edward took fewer than 1000 soldiers, and many of those were paid at least partly by the French. Since most of those men were retainers, not knights, the number of knights involved must have been counted only in the hundreds. This out of perhaps 15,000 knights in England at the time. And Prince Edward was not yet Edward I when he set out; Henry III died while Edward was still on his way home (after a valiant but futile trip; the French crusade had bogged down outside Tunis -- Prestwich1, pp. 73-74 -- and while Edward went on to Acre, he had too few men to accomplish anything except rebuild a tower and manage a few raids.)
But although Edward I was the last serious English crusader, that was not the final end of the Crusading impulse; "The crusade was preached again and again" (Powicke, p. 232). Edward I himself took the cross a second time in 1287 (Prestwich3, p. 23), but first the fall of the last Crusader cities, Acre and its dependencies, in 1291 (Runciman3, pp. 412-423) and then internal troubles kept him from fulfilling the vow. Edward managed to send a few soldiers, according to Runciman3, p. 413, but they were too few to make a difference and the King was too occupied to come himself.
Nonetheless, toward the end of the reign of Edward I, Clement V -- who was a Gascon and hence a subject of Edward I -- became Pope, and one of his chief goals was to restart the Crusades.
Clement worked very hard to heal the problems between England and France in hopes of enabling the Crusade (Phillips, p. 108). Clement in fact appointed Anthony Bek, the Bishop of Durham at the beginning of Edward II's reign, titular Catholic patriarch of Jerusalem in 1306 (Phillips, p. 51n.), a title he held until his death in 1311 (Phillips, p. 174). If anyone had an interest in restarting the crusade, it was obviously him! And Durham (just south of Newcastle) was a northern Bishopric, and one with palatinate powers. As a wild hypothesis, what the knight might have meant is that he would have joined the retinue of Bishop Bek (or, more likely, his successor) with the eventual expectation of joining Clement's proposed crusade -- which however never got off the ground.
Edward II was at least theoretically supportive of Clement's attempts; Edward and his father-in-law Philip IV of France took the cross in 1313, as did Edward's wife and Philip's daughter Isabella (Phillips, p. 210; this actually became the subject of a manuscript illustration reproduced as plate 11 in Phillips). Nothing came of this, partly because of tensions between the two and partly because of Bannockburn, but the knight might have been expecting more. Runciman3, p. 434, in fact suggests that Philip's sole purpose in taking the cross was to get his hands on the money that would have gone into the Crusade -- and certainly his plundering of the Templars in this decade (Phillips, p. 211) had been for purposes of getting his hands on their money (Runciman3, pp. 434-438). But Edward was likely sincere.
(I have to note a very folkloric touch here: Philip IV eventually had the Grand Master of the Templars, Jacques de Molay, burned at the stake, since the Templars were being accused of being heretics. From the flames, de Molay was said to have called Philip IV and Pope Clement V to meet him at God's tribunal, and to have cursed Philip's line; Doherty, p. 58. And, indeed, Philip and Clement both died within a year -- and Philip's three sons all died without male heirs, and there is evidence that they were cuckolded anyway; Phillips, p. 222. Thus the Capetian line died out, except for Isabella the wife of Edward II. The Valois inherited the Kingdom of France -- and as a result had to fight the Hundred Years' War against Edward II's and Isabella's son Edward III and his heirs. This, as I shall argue below, was the backdrop of the latter part of Robin's legend.)
Edward II was formally committed to the crusade from 1313 to 1316. In the latter year, with his reign having been blighted by Bannockburn and crop failures and fights with his barons, he formally asked the Pope to let him put off his crusade (Phillips, p. 284); the postponement was granted in early 1317 (Phillips, p. 287). So the most likely period for a knight to consider crusading was 1313-1317.
Even this is not the last possible date. As late as the reign of Edward III, the King of England talked about going on crusade with the King of France (Perroy, p. 88; Seward, p. 28). Even after that, there were still Crusades; they just didn't go to Palestine. So, for instance, in 1385, Bishop Despenser of Norwich was allowed to use money from crusading indulgences to pay for a cross-channel expedition in Flanders; this war on fellow Catholics was called a crusade because there were two different popes at the time (Saul, pp. 105-106). Again, when Henry of Bolingbroke (the future Henry IV) was exiled by Richard II, he went to fight pagans in northeastern Europe, and was considered to have gone on crusade.
To be sure, there is no hint that the knight is joining a larger expedition. It sounds as if he plans to go on his own. This suggests the possibility that the knight, instead of going on crusade, meant to join one of the crusading orders -- the Templars or the Hospitalars. But the Templars, as noted above, were suppressed during the reign of Edward II -- and Edward II promised to take the cross to fill the void left by their destruction (Doherty, p. 56). The Hospitalars lasted much longer, but after 1291, they had no place in Palestine. Thus the Knight could not reach Calvary by joining the orders -- and besides, the members of the orders were supposed to be unmarried, and we know the knight has a wife.
The most logical guess, adding all this up: The Knight was considering joining an organized crusade (probably Edward II's), but was prepared to go even if there was no crusade.
** Stanza 59/Line 233 ** "Where be thy frendes?"The language here is again vaguely reminiscents of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Luke 15:11-32, where "no one gave [the prodigal] anything." It is probably not an allusion but just one of those things people heard repeated.
Comnpare also Wisdom of Sirach 12:8-9: "A friend is not known (i.e. shown to be true) in prosperity, nor is an enemy hidden in adversity. One's enemies are friendly when one prospers, but in adversity even a friend disappears."
Finally, Sirach 29:10 advises, "Lose your silver for the sake of a brother or a friend" -- advice which only Robin follows.
It is significantly of note that Robin never asks the knight about his feudal overlord, who would in the Norman and early Plantagenet periods have been the person to whom anyone would naturally apply. I cannot see, anywhere in the "Gest," any sign of feudal relations. Feudalism was never dismantled; it just slowly faded, and was replaced by "bastard feudalism" -- in which affinities, or personal and contract relationships, took the place of the former relationships based on tenure and social order (Wagner, pp. 19-20). By asking about friends, the text strongly implies a date in the era of bastard feudalism.
The change from feudalism to bastard feudalism was gradual, but the dividing line is usually placed in the reign of Henry III (Jolliffe, p. 331). Thus this comment fits well in the era of the three Edwards -- and fits not at all with the time of Henry II, Richard I, and John.
** Stanza 61/Lines 241-244 ** Note that only four outlaws are mentioned as hearing the Knight's story: Robin, John, Much, and Scarlock. For the possibility that these are the only members of te band, see the note to Stanza 17.
** Stanza 62/Line 248 ** Although we usually say that Jesus died on the cross, the New Testament contains a number of places where he is said to have died on a tree (Greek xylon, which means both "tree" and "wood"): Acts 5:30, 10:39, 13:29, 1 Peter 2:24.
** Stanza 63/Line 252 ** Robin's refusal to accept Peter, Paul, or John as a guarantor of a loan is rather ironic, although probably not intentionally so. There isn't much mention of commerce or moneylending in the New Testament, but what there is mostly involved with Peter and Paul. Paul, when the slave Onesimus ran away from his owner Philemon, tried to induce Philemon to free Onesimus voluntarily on the grounds that Philemon owed him for bringing salvation, but if Philemon refused, Paul promised, "I will repay it" (Phillemon 19).
The case of Peter is not so explicit, but when the question of the Temple Tax came up, Jesus told Peter to take a hook and catch a fish, which would contain the money to pay the tax (Matthew 17:24-27). And when Ananias and Sapphira tried to cheat the church, it was Peter who called them out, resulting in their deaths (Acts 5:1-11). Thus Peter and Paul, whom Robin disdains, are the primary New Testament examples of financial integrity. Mary -- who as a woman would have had no control over money -- is never mentioned in a financial context.
** Stanza 65/Line 259 ** Having admitted that he has no other securities (a strange statement, since if he could pay his debt to St. Mary's Abbey, he would have his land back, and the land would be security), the Knight offers "Our dear Lady," i.e. the Virgin Mary, as security -- a guarantee which Robin at once accepts. Knight/Ohlgren, p. 82, declare that this must be based on the common motif of Miracles of the Virgin, for which see the introduction, although a precise parallel to this particular tale has not been found. Knight/Ohlgren, p. 153, mention a tale, "The Merchant's Surety," which similar themes although the plot details are rather different.
Similar in another way is the German tale of "Schimpf und Ernst," described on pp. 35-36 of Clawson, in which a man is captured, then released to raise his ransom based on a promise held by "got den herren" -- "God the Lord." The man cannot raise the funds, but his captor meets a monk who says God is his Lord. The captor robs the monk and takes what he finds as the ransom. The similarity in plot to the tale of Robin and the monk in Fit Four is obvious, but the transfer from God as guarantor to Mary as guarantor significantly reshapes the story.
For more on Robin's devotion to the Virgin, see the note on Stanza 10.
It is just possible that this Miracle of the Virgin is a dating hint. As noted in the section on sources, Miracles of the Virgin were often anti-Semitic. But that theme does not show up here at all -- the "Gest" is anti-church hierarchy, not anti-Jews. This makes sense, because Edward I had expelled the Jews from England in 1290. (For this, see the notes to "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" [Child 155], or Powicke, p. 322, or Prestwich1, p. 346). The absence of Jews in the tale may be because the author lived in a time after the Jews were expelled, but it might also be because the original tale came from a time after the Jews were expelled.
There is also the matter that, at this time, very few people other than clerics and some merchants and nobles were literate. What knowledge of Christianity most people had came partly from sermons and partly from performances such as the mystery plays. This definitely could cause people to develop peculiar notions. And Robin, as an outlaw, might not have much access to the regular clergy (despite the "three masses" of Stanza 8), but probably could see the Mystery Plays.
I mention this because the Mystery Plays seem to have been particularly popular in Yorkshire. Happe, p. 10, notes that we have four cycles of mystery plays plus odds and ends. Two of the cycles are from Yorkshire: The York cycle itself, and the so-called Towneley cycle, which is from Wakefield (a well-known Robin Hood site); this is the cycle which contains the famous Second Shepherd's Play. A third cycle is from Chester, not too far from Robin's haunts (the source of the fourth is uncertain). So Robin might have derived much of his knowledge of theology from this limited source -- one in which the Virgin Mary is one of the few female players to come off well.
(It should probably be noted, however, that we have no evidence of the use of mystery plays before about 1375; Happe, p. 13. Indeed, the plays were associated with the feast of Corpus Christi, and that was not promulgated until 1311 and did not become common in Britain until 1318, according to p. 19 of Happe. Thus the "real" Robin is unlikely to have learned anything from the mystery plays -- but the author of the "Gest" might well have.)
** Stanza 67/Line 268 ** The "modernization" of the "Gest" by Maud Isabel Ebbutt, quoted on p. 176 of Mersey, interprets the phrase "well tolde it be" to mean "well counted, with no false or clipped coins therein." This obviously assumes coinage (see the note on Stanza 49). And coin clipping certainly happened in Edwardian times (there were actually pennies that were designed to be cut into quarters!), and there were poor imported coins with less silver content than English pennies. But all Robin says is that John is to be sure the knight gets the right amount.
** Stanza 68/Lines 271-272 ** Here we see the actual loan paid out. The method is curious; see the textual note.
** Stanzas 70-72/Lines 276-286 ** Little John points declares to Robin that they must give the threadbare knight "a lyueray" (livery), suggesting scarlet and green. Robin gives him three yards of "euery colour." Despite this, Knight/Ohlgren, p. 281, suggest that the original reading should be "scarlet in graine," i.e. "scarlet dyed in the grain," a high grade scarlet cloth. There seems little point to this emendation.
A better explanation may come from Finlay, p. 147, who says of scarlet that "A fashion statement in medieval Europe was to wear clothes made of a new cloth, imported from central Acia. The new cloth was called 'scarlet'... vastly popular... but... extremely expensive -- at least four times the price of ordinary cloth. But the curious thing is, scarlet was not always red. Sometimes it was blue or green or occasionally black, and the reason that in English 'scarlet' means 'red' and not 'chic-textile-that-only-socialites-can-afford-but-we-all-aspire-to' is because of kermes [a red dye made from insects]." So perhaps the best explanation is that John suggests scarlet-type cloth dyed green, and Robin says scarlet-type cloth in all colors.
Green cloth will appear as Robin's color in Stanza 422. The reference to scarlet is more interesting, since the standard red dye of this period was kermes, "a red coloring obtained from insects living on evergreen oak trees in lands bordering the Mediterranean," according to Backhouse, p. 32; it is related to carmine and cochineal, and is said to be the origin of the word "crimson." It was expensive even in southern Europe, since harvesting it was labour-intensive, and very expensive in places such as England where it had to be imported. If scarlet is genuinely meant, as opposed to a poorer grade of red, this is an indication that Robin is giving gifts like a nobleman, and perhaps taking the role of a liege lord.
Knight, p. xix, makes the interesting observation that no fewer than nine of the ballads in the Forresters Manuscript refer to Robin's men wearing green; two also refer to Robin himself wearing scarlet.
We might note as a sidelight that we find the Paston family also debating the use of a red dye in their livery (Castor, p. 75).
The gift of cloth hints at the granting of livery (although we note that the knight is not given a livery badge, just cloth). It is interesting to note that, when the knight comes to return Robin's money, he wears white and red (stanza 133). The red might be Robin's color, but the white seemingly is not.
Is this a dating hint? Keen (pp. 137-138), referring to the general greenwood legend, strenuously argues that it must date from the fourteenth or fifteenth century, because of references such as this (as well as in some of the other early ballads) to livery and its misuse. As documentation of the problem he points, e.g., to certain sections in "Richard the Redeless" on this theme.
There is no question but that this was a much-discussed issue; Barr, pp. 19-20, says that "Richard the Redeless" goes so far as to identify various characters by their livery badges. Saul, pp. 200-201, says that the commons regularly petitioned about this in the reign of Richard II -- this even though Richard at one time withdrew the use of his own livery (Lyon, p. 116). One petition asked that "all liveries called badges, whether given by the king or the lords, of which use has begun since the first year of King Edward III (1327), and all lesser liveries, such as hoods, shall henceforth not be given or worn but shall be abolished upon the pain specified in this document."
The attempt at a fix did not work; parliament would still be bugging the crown about abuses of livery in the reign of Edward IV (Ross-Edward, p. 349).
The nature of the petition to Richard II implies that the problem was not believe to go back more than a reign or two. And Robin was legendary by 1377. Thus Keen's argument agrees with the "Gest" in dating Robin to the reign of one of the Edwards -- with Edward II and Edward III being the best bets. Livery was simply not an issue in the reign of Henry III, let alone the earlier kings.
The green and red cloth have another dating significance: They are another argument against the reign of Richard I. That king so despised common people that he restricted those of lower classes to gray clothing; colors were reserved to the upper (Finlay, p. 365). Thus if this incident took place in the reign of Richard I, giving the knight colored cloth might be making him guilty of a crime. And Richard, if he came to see Robin, would probably refuse to see a man clothed in Lincoln Green.
Robin also acts as a cloth merchant in stanza 418, and Ohlgren thinks this ties him to one of the cloth guilds; see the note on Stanza 10.
** Stanza 71/Lines 283-284 ** John declares that no merchant in England is as rich as Robin. This screams for an early date, before "bastard feudalism" and the rise of the merchant princes. An obvious example is the de la Pole family of Hull. William de la Pole's birth was so obscure that we don't even know his father's name (Hicks, p. 93), but his wealth was great enough that he became a major financier of Edward III's campaigns in the Hundred Years' War (OxfordCompanion, p. 758) and still had enough left over to found major memorial institutions at his death while leaving his family well-off (Kerr, p. 159); it eventually allowed his son to become Earl of Suffolk in the reign of Richard II (Saul, p. 117) -- although he was chased from the country just two years lated (Reid, p. 506).
By 1386, Michael de la Pole was earning more than 400 marks per year (Maxfield/Gillespie, p. 229), and while some of this was from lands Richard had granted him, much was from his merchant activity. The de la Poles were not the only merchants to (in effect) buy their way into the gentry (although Hicks, p. 94, does say that they were "the only great noble family based on trade in the later middle ages"); if John is right and no merchant can compare with Robin, this strongly implies a date before the time of Edward III.
Ohlgren/Mathison, p. 25, claims that the reference to merchants is evidence that the poem was created for one of the merchant guilds. But how would the guild have reacted to Robin being richer than they?
** Stanza 72/Lines 287-288 ** For the use of a "bowe-tree" as a measure, see also the end of the Percy version of "Robin Hood's Death": "Lay my yew bowe by my side, My met-yard [measuring rod] wi..." (Stanza 27 of the A text).
** Stanza 73/Lines 291-292 ** For a (just barely possible) explanation of Much the Miller's Son's complaint about Little John's generosity, see the note to Stanza 4 about Much.
Ohlgren, p. 24, suggests that reference to John as a "drapar" -- i.e. a draper -- is another indication that the "Gest" was intended for an audience of a guild, perhaps the guild of drapers. I would be more inclined to think the line is a joke.
** Stanzas 75-77/Lines 297-308 ** It is interesting to see Robin keeping horses -- fine horses, in fact -- in the greenwood. This may be an indication of date; it was not until the reign of Edward III that it became customary to mount archers. But how could the outlaws keep them fit while living in a forest?
Also, where could Robin have come across such fine beasts as these were said to be (in stanza 100, the porter praises the animals highly)?At this time, even horses were divided into yeoman's horses and gentleman's horses (Pollard, p. 36). One suspects that the animals had recently been taken from some relatively high-ranked person, and that Robin was willing to give them away because he had no good way to keep them.
Note that he gives the knight both a courser and a palfrey. To oversimplify, the courser or destrier was a fighting horse and the palfrey a riding horse (often a woman's riding horse, but a knight when not expecting battle might well ride a palfrey to avoid overburdening his warhorse). We may see this palfrey again in stanza 263.
The fact that the knight apparently lacks a good horse may possibly be an indication of just how hard he has been squeezed by his creditors. Mortimer, p. 26, notes that "When a knight's creditors foreclosed on him and his belongings were sold, he was to be left a horse -- unless he was a figting knight... in which case he was to be left his armour and several horses."
A quality horse, incidentally, was a significant addition to Robin's gifts. In the reign of Edward III, horses which were taken to France for the war were assessed before being shipped, and the minimum assessment was eight marks and the maximum ten pounds (Hewitt, p. 87) -- vastly more than the annual income of a plowman, e.g. Given that the horse is said to be extremely fine, it presumably is worth at least ten pounds.
** Stanza 80/Lines 317-320 ** Robin offers Little John as a servant on the grounds that a good knight should have one. This is fair enough -- but why pick his right-hand man, who (if he is indeed a giant) is highly recognizable, a very good fighter, and the man who counts the money? Is it possible that Robin chose John to watch over the knight and make sure he wasn't pulling a fast one?This might explain the curious events of stanzas 151-152.
Clawson, p. 56, suggests that the purpose of having Robin appoints John to the post so that John would be in better position to insinuate himself into the Sheriff's entourage. But given how little emphasis there is in the third fit on the knight being John's master, this hardly seems necessary.
** Stanza 84/Line 334 ** Clawson, p 45, makes the interesting observation that, although Little John has been made the Knight's servant, this is the last time John is mentioned in the second fit. The Knight rinds an entourage to come with him as he repays his loan (see the note on stanza 97), but there is no indication that John is part of the group. (And the comic potential of having John present are obvious.) Clawson therefore suggests that most of the scene between the Knight and the abbot is based on the tale of a crusading knight rather than a Robin Hood story.
Clawson also suggests on pp. 45-46 a comparison to "The Heir of Linne" [Child 267]. In the latter, the Heir is rescued from his profligacy by a gift from his forethoughtful father; there isn't much real similarity except that a surprise legacy allows the Heir to pay off debts otherwise beyond his ability to pay.
** Stanza 88/Line 349 ** Ritson, cited by Gummere, p. 88, notes that the prior of an abbey was the most senior official after the abbot, and hence the one in best position to cross the abbot -- which would explain the abbot's complaint in stanza 91 that the prior is always in his beard.
I do make one interesting note: Tyerman, p. 116, observes that the founder of Fountains Abbey (the supposed home of Friar Tuck), Richard of Fountains, was prior of Saint Mary's Abbey before breaking away. In the second fit of the "Gest," the Abbot is against the Knight, the Prior approves of him. Could the tale in the "Gest" be a faint echo of the conflict between the two which took place in 1132, and could this explain how a friar of Fountains came to be friendly with Robin Hood?
** Stanzas 88-89/Lines 351-356 ** The last two lines of stanza 88 make nonsense and are likely corrupt; Knight/Ohlgren, p. 154, suggest that the Prior means "*If it were me, I would rather pay the hundred pounds right away." But this must be taken in the light of the next stanza. The knight, according to the Prior, has been beyond the sea -- another hint at a crusade. Or might the Prior -- the one sympathetic person at St. Mary's -- have known that the knight was considering going on crusade? But one of the rules of the crusades was that the Crusader's lands and debts were to be safe while he was on Crusade -- even if he was delayed. So the Prior might be saying, "We have to wait." Alternately, perhaps, "Better to take a hundred pounds than get nothing" -- which might be what happened if the Abbot forced the knight on crusade and he died there.
There is one other interesting possibility: The church generally forbade usurious mortgages -- but was likely to allow them for Crusaders, because it was the only way Crusaders could raise cash quickly (Barlow-Rufus, p. 363, who points out that William the Conqueror's son Robert of Normandy was one so victimized.) Could it be that the knight claimed he was going on crusade in order to get the loan he had to have, on usurious terms, since he could not raise the money any other way? And then, when he failed to earn the money he needed to pay off the load, did he consider going crusading anyway?
The second line of stanza 89 is also probably troubled, and has caused several editors to emend the text (see textual note). Surprisingly, given the uncertainty of the text, scholars have tried to hang large conclusions on the meaning of this line.
The reading "In Englonde is his ryght," if original, is probably to be understood "fighting for England's cause" (although Pollard, p. 250, thinks it refers to the knight's English estates) This is the one piece of supporting evidence for Ohldgren's claim (for which see Stanzas 56-57) that the knight had been fighting in the Hundred Years' War -- a battle in France was far more a battle on behalf of England than a battle in the Holy Land. And a knight could hardly hope to go to Palestine and back in a year, whereas it was at least possible to make a one year trip to France. But, first, the Knight is in fact in England, not France or Palestine; second, the knight never mentions any fighting in France; third, while a man might bet his land on the proceeds of war (which often had a large payoff in booty), he would never risk a one year loan; there was too much risk that he could not get back in time. Ohlgren's explanation is not quite impossible, but this one conjectured line is not a sufficient basis for an understanding which causes so many difficulties.
Clawson, p. 43, considers there to be a contradiction here: He argues that the original source had the knight actually going on crusade, which of course is impossible in light of his meeting with Robin in the first fit. Clawson suggests that this has floated in from some lost ballad. However, the simplest explanation would appear to be simply that the knight in the first fit had talked about crusading, and that the prior (who presumably had heard of the knight's plans from some other source *before* the knight met Robin) thought he had actually made the trip.
** Stanza 91/Line 362 ** The abbott swears by "Saint Richard" (see textual note). Ohlgren, p. 224, expands this to refer to "Saint Richard of Cichester," described in a note as Richard de Wych, 1197-1253.
The only real support for suggestion is the fact that there is no important saint named Richard (see p. 977 of the list of saints in Benet or pp. 211-212 of DictSaints; Gummere, p. 316, observes that Ritson managed to find three Saints Richard, but all are quite obscure. There was a Saint Richardis who lived in the ninth century, according to DictSaints, p. 211, but she had no obvious English connections.).
Richard of Chichester is the only Saint Richard likely to have been known in England. He was canonized in 1262 (OxfordCompanion, p. 806; Dobson/Taylor, p. 85). Obviously the use of such an oath implies a date after 1262 (late in the reign of Henry III). This is more evidence for a date in the reign of one of the Edwards. But I have no idea why the abbott would swear by Saint Richard -- he was not a Northern saint, being associated (naturally) with Chichester and Sussex. Maybe it's just that "Richard" is a Southern (indeed, a French) name, and the poet wanted to suggest that the Abbot wasn't a local?
Alternately, perhaps it's supposed to be ironic, since Richard of Chichester spent time in poverty, and "denounced nepotism and simony, insisted on strict clerical discipline, and was most at home in the company of the poor and needy" (DictSaints, p. 211).
If Richard of Chichester is indeed meant, then we might guess that the visit to St. Mary's took place on April 3, Richard's feast day. And there is no other significant saint associated with that day (DictSaints, p. 290).
Two other possibilities occurs to me. One is Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury following Becket. Warren-Henry, p. 536, declares that "Richard of Dover was no time-server, and was to be one of the leaders in a remarkable efflorescence of interest in the development of canon law in England... he gave first place to the reform of the clergy."
Johnson, p. 211, declares that he "gave first place to the reform of the clergy and cooperation with the State." He of course was not canonized -- but canonization was rarely formal at this time (Richard of Chichester was noteworthy mostly because a real pope canonized him). People were called saints who never made it into the calendar of the church. Richard of Dover seems to have been a reasonably good man -- and it strikes me that the compiler of the "Gest" might have been subtly ironic to have the very unholy Abbott of Saint Mary's swear by a reforming bishop.
Tyerman, p. 231, says that he was an "unlikely choice as Becket's successor. A previously obscure mediocrity, he nonetheless demonstrated, to the dismay of the Becketeers, that effective cooperation with the king was possible," and adds on p. 232 that "it was Richard's policies, not Becket's, which charted the relationship between the English church and state for the rest of the Middle Ages."
The other is a radical emendation -- from "Saint Richard" to "Saint Robert." Robert of Knaresborough (in Yorkshire!) lived in the forest with a fugitive knight (Young, p. 59), and according to web sources, he died in 1218. The resemblance to the situation in the "Gest" is obvious. Indeed, I wonder if his situation might not have been one of the things that attracted the Robin Hood tale to the era of Richard I and John. If the Abbot did swear by Robert of Knaresborough, the irony would be exquisite.
Whoever the abbot is swearing by, it is interesting to see a churchman utter so many oaths (in stanza 91, he swears by God and Saint R....; in 92, by God that bought him dear, in 110, by God that died on a tree). The form of the oaths is pious, but the way the abbot omits them comes close to blasphemy.
** Stanza 92/Line 368 ** "Four hundred pounde by yere." Usually understood as "four hundred pounds per year," i.e. land yielding an income of 400 pounds annually. This is likely an error, perhaps for 40 pounds annually, perhaps for 400 pounds total value of the land. See note on stanza 49.
** Stanza 93/Line 369 ** The "hy selerer," or "high cellarer," was respondible for provisioning the abbey, and for bringing in supplies from outside. This position would vary in importance -- some abbeys raised most of their own food. But, clearly, the abbot of St. Mary's is fond of fine food, meaning that the cellarer would be responsible for getting him what he wants. This doubtless means that he is responsible for a large budget as well. We will meet the cellarer of St. Mary's again in Stanza 233, in very interesting circumstances.
** Stanza 93/Line 371 ** Child's text reads "The [hye] iustyce of Englonde"; the better text is probably to omit "hye," making it the "iustice of Englonde." This is one of the more significant textual problems of the "Gest" (see the textual note), because neither reading makes good sense. (Clawson, p. 52, who thinks that this scene was adopted from an existing ballad by the compiler of the "Gest," suggests that the justice was an insertion by the compiler, which might help explain the confusing reference.) In this case, we probably need to consider possible meanings of both readings.
If we omit "high," this fails to explain why this man is called THE "justice of England." To be sure, Knight/Ohlgren, p. 155 (note on line 416) explain that the title "justice," without a descriptive, refers simply to a "professional lawer... the agent of a powerful lord -- the abbot in this case," and note that justices had many functions in local courts. This would also explain why the justice has taken "clothe and fee," i.e. livery, from the abbot (stanza 107) -- the chief justice would never wear another's livery. But that still leaves us with the problem of "the justice of England."
We might speculate that the line is meant to be understood that the abbot had control of justice in England, but this doesn't wash because we see in stanzas 94, 96, etc. that this justice was an actual person.
But "the high justice of England" is no better. There was no such office. The number of courts and jurisdictions was extremely high in the early Plantagenet period -- a side effect of the fact that, until the reign of Edward I, legislation was essentially ad hoc. Edward I finally settled on the statute as a method of imposing laws, but even he had no standard legal format; some statutes were in Latin, some in French (Prestwich1, p. 268. English did not become the standard language of law until the reign of Edward III).
Although we begin to see a professional class of judges starting around 1200 (Mortimer, p. 73), the title Lord Chief Justice did not evolve until later. There was a court coram rege ("with the king") from an early date (Mortimer, p. 53), which became the King's Bench came in 1268, but did not operate independently of the king until the time of Edward III (OxfordComp, p. 548). What's more, in the reign of Edward IV, the Chief Justice of the King's Bench was paid 215 pounds in a year (Ross-Edward, p. 329). Even allowing for inflation, could the Abbot have taken a big enough cut from the profit of the knight's land to make it worthwhile to bribe such an official? This seems unlikely.
To be sure, the Chief Justice of the King's Bench would have been in the north frequently during the Scottish wars of Edward I and Edward II, so perhaps the Abbot could have borrowed him. But, since the Justice followed the King, the Abbot couldn't count on that. He might give the Justice a fee, but livery?
The other major early court was the Court of Common Pleas, but it was permanently based at Westminster (Mortimer, p. 61); a justice of Common Pleas would have had no actual jurisdiction in Yorkshire. By the time, in the fifteenth century, that there were special judges with particular jurisdictions, the expectation would have been that they also had to be addressed with some particular ceremonial which is absent here (Lyon, p. 155).
There was the justiciar in the early Plantagenet period (the office seems to have been made prominent by Henry I, although it may have been established earlier; Barlow-Rufus, p. 202. Barlow-Rufus, p. 204, adds that "the post of chief justiciar... hardly ever acquired a certain title," which is interesting). According to Jolliffe, p. 298, the barons felt the justiciar was "'to amend according to the law the wrongs done by all other justices and bailiffs and earls and barons', in short, to be the guardian of common right." Obviously it would make sense to call a person in this office the "high justice," but only if the correct title had been forgotten.
Not all justiciars were honest (Richard I, for instance, immediately after taking the throne deposed Henry II's justiciar Ranulf de Glanville for dishonesty ; Gillingham, p. 129; Tyerman, p. 237, adds that he was fined an incredible 15,000 pounds). But Henry III left the office of justiciar vacant after 1234, revived it only under pressure decades later, then let it lapse, never to be revived (Prestwich1, p. 25). There was never a justiciar under a King Edward (even when Edward II appointed his favorite Piers Gaveston as regent, he called him "custos regni" rather than justiciar; Phillips, p. 133), and since in earlier years the purpose of the office was mostly to serve as a viceroy, the justiciar is not likely to have been involved in a legal dispute.
(Edward I did appoint a justiciar of North Wales after he conquered the territory; Prestwich1, p. 206. But the post was specific to Wales; in England, the Welsh justiciar -- initially Otto de Grandson -- seems still to have been known by his English titles. Certainly the justiciars carried none of their Welsh authority in England.)
Pollard, p. 102, thinks the justice might be the chief justice of the forests north of the Trent. (This seems to be a variation on a suggestion by Valentine Harris that John de Segrave, Justice of the Forests North of Trent and Constable of Nottingham Castle in the time of Edward II, was the original Sheriff of Nottingham; Dobson/Taylor, p. 15.) This produces a title which fits -- but why would the Abbot need to buy his support? The Abbot is not trying to dispossess Robin Hood, who lives in the greenwood; he is going after the Knight.
In earlier times, there had been a single chief justice of the forest (Young, p. 74), but from 1239 onward, and at certain times before, the office was divided and there were two chief justices, one for north and one south of the Trent. This, from 1239, even if "justice" means "justice of the forest," he could not be the justice of all England. (Unless we emend "Englonde" to "the forest" or some such.) In addition, from 1311 until 1397, the forest officials were formally known as "gardiens," not "justices" (although it would be no surprise if people still called them justices). They were certainly not all honest; in the reign of Henry III, a chief forester ended up paying a thousand marks to the King as a punishment for misdeeds (Young, p. 77), and John de Neville, son of John's chief forester, was known to have abused his office (Young, p. 112).
It is fascinating to note that, toward the end of the reign of Edward II, Edward's much-favored councilor Hugh Despenser the Elder was Justice of the forests south of Trent (Young, p. 146). The Despensers were hated by almost everyone else (see the notes to "Hugh Spencer's Feats in France" [Child 158]), and many contemporaries regarded them as Edward's evil geniuses. As justices south of Trent, they probably wouldn't affect Robin, but the fact that Despenser had been a forest justice might influence how he is regarded.
In the period between the decline of the justiciar and the independence of the King's Bench, the Lord Chancellor (an officer which came into existence no later than 1069; Douglas, p. 293, although the Chancery did not really become separate from the King until the reign of Edward I; Lyon, p. 69) was generally in charge of justice.
And some Chancellors were pretty sleazy. Mortimer, p. 65, notes that "The beneficiary had to pay for charters and writs; the chancellor had ample opportunity to feather his nest." Powicke, pp. 335-339, generally praises Edward I's chancellors, but Prestwich1, p. 110, says that one of them,Robert Burnell, was sustained by Edward despite charges of corruption. (Edward, in fact, proposed Burnell for Archbishop of Canterbury in 1278 -- and the Pope turned it down flat; Prestwich1, p. 249; Hicks, p. 10. Edward later tried to have Burnell made Bishop of Winchester; that too was shot down; Prestwich, p. 255.) Burnell died in 1292, according to Prestwich1, p. 293, so if he is the corrupt official involved, the Richard at Lee episode would have to have taken place by about 1290.
To give him his due, Powicke, p. 338, thinks Burnell played a major role in shaping Edward's legislation and softening the king's justice. Hicks, p. 10, declares that Burnell was not a reformer (which is why the Pope didn't want to make him archbishop), but "he probably was not guilty of the immorality, homicide, usury, or simony with which he was charged." And he seems to have been generally accessible; Prestwich, p. 234, sums him up as "affable, but slippery." In any case, Hicks, p. 9, says that he was rarely separated from the King.
If our criterion is simply a corrupt senior judge, we do see an instance in the reign of Edward I when a justice of the King's Bench, William Bereford, was accused of corruption (Prestwich1, p. 167). Bereford nonetheless continued to serve in various posts until 1326 -- almost the end of the reign of Edward II. That might imply he was honest -- but more likely implies that he knew which side of his bread was buttered. If the Justice of the "Gest" is to be identified with an actual person (a position I would not wish to defend), Bereford is a good candidate. Not the only one, however....
Another possibility in the reign of Edward I was Walter Langton, Keeper of the Wardrobe after 1290. The Wardrobe was responsible for paying for Edward's wars, so it had both financial and judicial responsibilities, and Prestwich1, pp. 139-140, says that Langton was "a man of great ability and little principle" -- a man who, in fact, was accused of killing his mistress's husband with his own hands. Phillips, p. 3, says that he fell "spectacularly" as soon as Edward I was dead, and was accused of "murder, adultery, simony, pluralism, and intercourse with the devil."
As a wild speculation, Langton, in addition to his office of Keeper of the Wardrobe, was Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield. Obviously the Archbishop of York had jurisdiction over Barnsdale and the Yorkshire area, but Coventry isn't that far south of Nottingham (it's closer to it than is Barnsdale!). Could it have been Langton who forced Robin off his lands? There is absolutely no evidence for this, but it would explain why Robin so disliked high church officials, and why he would approve of Edward II who got rid of Langton.
Not even Edward I could stomach Thomas de Weyland, his chief justice of Common Pleas, who covered up for two murderers (Prestwich1, p. 339). Or what about Ralph Hengham of the King's Bench? Edward deposed him in 1289 and fined him heavily (Prestwich1, p. 293).
Perhaps Edward I's problem was that he didn't pay his officers much, according to Prestwich1, p. 154, so they had to gather money in other ways.
Prestwich1, p. 561, points out that the reign of Edward I saw "the virtual demise of the system of judicial eyres under an ever increasing weight of business, but there was no really effective replacement for them ever devised.... [I]t is clear that the pressures of war from the mid-1290s aggravated an already difficult situation. Few criminals were brought to book, and of those who were, many received pardons for good service on the king's campaigns." (For more on these pardons, see the note on Stanza 439.) This situation continued in the reign of Edward II, and was the perfect situation for abusive justice such as we see in the Richard at Lee story.
Prestwich1 states (p. 294) that starting around 1290 "[t]here was a change coming over the character of the judicial benches." Until that time, most of the judges and judicial officials had been clerics. But "[t]here was an increased secularization of the judicial profession evident by the end if Edward [I]'s reign." In other words, professional clerics -- who would generally have some other income, and no official family to support (although many of course had mistresses) -- were giving way to professional lawyers, who had no other source of income and who did have families. The latter would naturally be more aggressive in trying to crank up their income, often by inflicting harsher punishments. Which increases the odds of a man losing his land.
There is a tale of Edward II's chancellor Robert Baldock that sounds very much like the "Gest." "One favorite technique of the Despensers and their allies the Earl of Arundel and Robert Baldock was to compel men to acknowledge large fictitious debts to them.... William de Boghan lost some lands when payment was demanded after he acknowledged a debt of [4000 pounds]" (Prestwich3, pp. 94-95). There are records of them actually imprisoning Edward II's niece to extort her to give up lands! (Phillips, pp. 446-447, who reports that "the appearance of legality hid the reality of fraud, threats of violence and abuse of legal process").
(When Edward fell, in fact, Baldock was taken and tried along with the Despensers. Only the fact that he was a clergyman saved his life -- and even so, he ended up in prison and died soon after; Phillips, p. 516.)
A polemic of the time of Edward II was very upset about the conditions; "The church, from popes and cardinals to parish priest, is corrupt. Money rules in the ecclesiastical courts, the parson has a mistress, abbots and priors ride to hounds, friars fight for the corpses of the rich and leave the poor unburied. Chivalry is in decay; instead of going on crusade, earls, baron and knights war among themselves. Justices, sheriffs, and those who raise taxes for the king are all bribable" (from the "Poem on the Evil Times of Edward II," quoted on pp. 17-18 of Phillips).
J. R. Maddicott proposed (Holt1, p. 59) that the justice involved is Geoffrey le Scrope, Chief Justice of the King's Bench at the end of Edward II's reign and the beginning of Edward III's, whom Prestwich3 (p. 232) called "a remarkable political survivor" and who has the advantage, from our standpoint, of being one of the Scropes of Bolton, a family based in Yorkshire (Ormrod, pp. 99-100). Much Internet searching, however, seems to reveal that Scrope was -- by the standards of the time -- relatively honest.
Another interesting point, made by Prestwich3, p. 105, was that there was an extremely high rate of official turnover in the reign of Edward II -- in twenty years, he had fifteen treasurers and ten keepers of the privy seal. This might explain why the official involved is so vaguely titled -- no one remembered who played what role in Edward II's reign. Alternately, by the fifteenth century, the Signet was used as s third seal (Lyon, p. 151), so by the time the "Gest" was written, there might have been some confusion of terminology.
In the end, none of this is decisive. Jolliffe, p. 236, suggests that in general the Angevin legal system broke down whenever the King wasn't actively keeping it in line. But this fits a great many reigns: Richard I, especially early in his reign (because he wasn't around), John (because he just had too many plates to juggle), Henry III (first because he was a minor and then because he was incompetent), Edward II (incompetent), Henry IV (weak on his throne and so unable to assert himself), and Henry VI (incompetent).
** Stanza 97/Lines 387-388 ** Somehow, the knight has acquired a group of followers (meyne) whom he instructs to dress in the clothes they wore over the sea. This hints at a company going on a crusade (Clawson, pp. 42-44, suggests that this has floated in from some sort of crusading ballad), but there are several problems:First, how could an impoverished knight maintain a company, and second, when did he have time to go overseas? Plus the meinie is ignored in the next several verses. This looks as if it floated in from somewhere else (but see stanza 125). Perhaps the text is defective; see the note on the text of stanza 98.
** Stanza 99/Line 396 ** The irony of this line is obvious. The abbott evidently told his friends what he was up to, but not the porter. Thus not all monastics are evil -- it is the leaders who are under fire.
** Stanza 100/Line 399 ** For the surprising quality of the horse Robin gave the knight, see the note on Stanzas 75-77. The word "coresed" is unattested; some glossaries suggest that it means something like "dressed" (perhaps "corseted"), but the more likely meaning is that it is well-built -- i.e. thorougly capable of running a course; so e.g. Dobson/Taylor, p. 86.
** Stanza 102/Line 405 (and many stanzas following) ** The abbot is at meat. As we shall learn in stanza 122, it is "royal fare." Note that, in Stanza 103, the abbot does not ask the knight to join them, or even greet him; he just asks for his money.
This is not a direct Biblical allusion, but it is reminiscent of a scandal in Corinth that drew a rebuke from Paul (1 Corinthians 11:20-21): "When you gather, it is not really to eat the Lord's supper. For when the time comes to eat, each one goes ahead with his own supper, and one is hungry and another one is drunk." Of course communal meals had ceased to be part of the church's practice long before Robin's time (the mass was something completely different), but the lack of hospitality is blatant.
** Stanza 103/Lines 411-412 ** Note the abbot's complete lack of courtesy: He says no words of welcome or bring the knight into the feast. For courtesy see the note on Stanza 2; also the knight's request for courtesy in stanza 108, and the note on 102 for the theological implications of this.
** Stanzas 106-109/Lines 423-436 ** This scene makes me think a little of the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:26-36). In the parable, the man falls in among thieves; so too the knight is in the presence of a thief (the abbot). The man in the parable appeals, mutely, for the help of a priest and Levite, who are responsible for helping the people. Similarly, the knight appears first to the justice and then to the sheriff, who are supposed to uphold justtice. A second appeal to the abbot also fails. It is Robin, the outlaw, who supplies justice, just as the Samaritan -- a foreigner despised by Jews -- who helped out the Jew betrayed by those who should have rescued him.
For the knight's actions, compare also Proverbs 6:1-3: "My son, if you have stood surety for your friend/neighbour... go, hasten, and importune your neighbour.'
** Stanza 107/Lines 425-426 ** Child, p. 52, notes that the justice is bound to the abbott "with cloth and fee," i.e. by livery and payment, and that to hire someone to help deprive another of property was defined as conspiracy in the reign of Edward I. However, we have no indication that the justice was hired solely for this purpose, so this does not preclude a date after Edward passed his statute. Indeed, we find an instance late in Edward I's reign where one Margaret of Hardeshull appealing to the chancellor not to turn her case over to Ralph Hengham because Hengham was in the pay of her opponent in the case (Prestwich3, pp. 22-23).
The one firm date we have regarding this issue is that in the reign of Edward III judges were forced to take an oath not to accept livery (Pollard, p. 194). Thus a date before 1346 is strongly indicated -- but it is also possible that the arrangement is illegal, or that the justice in fact was a lawyer or otherwise not bound by the laws preventing judicial corruption. In light of the uncertainty about who the justice really was, this probably cannot be used as a dating hint.
For the whole issue of corrupt judges, see also the note on stanza 93.
** Stanza 108/Line 430 ** For courtesy see the note on Stanza 2.
** Stanza 109/Lines 433-436 ** Here the knight promises to "trewely serue" the abbot until his debt is paid. This is a tall order. Recall from the note on Stanza 49 that a knight bachelor was paid 35 pounds per year in the reign of Edward III, meaning that it would take 12 years to pay off the debt as a servant being paid a knight's wages. Given the inflation in that era, we can probably assume it would have taken at least 15 years to pay off the Abbot based on wages in the reign of Edward I or Edward II -- and that's if the Abbot accepts the knight's service at the full military rate, which is, obvioucly, unlikely. Odds are that the knight (who, after all, has an adult son) would be dead by the time he could pay off the debt. Our tentative conclusion must be that the knight is nof offering his personal service but his feudal loyalty -- he is offering to be the Abbot's vassal.
** Stanza 112/Lines 447-448 ** "For it is good to assay a frende Or that a man have need." Compare Wisdom of Sirach 6:4: "Gold is tested in the firre, and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation." Sirach 9:10 adds a warning not to trade old and trusted friends for new. Sirach is, of course, one of the apocryphal/deuterocanonical books, but this would not matter to a Catholic.
** Stanza 114/Line 455 ** To the statement here that the knight was never a "false knyght," compare the statement in Stanza 320 that he is "a trewe knyght."
** Stanza 115/Line 460 ** For courtesy see the note on Stanza 2.
** Stanza 116/Line 461 ** "In ioustes and in tournement." Tournaments, in the sense of mock battles, were quite old, and are not a dating hint. The joust -- the formalized passage of arms -- is altogether another matter. Of course it was well-known by the time the "Gest" was published (imagine Malory without jousts!), and in its more French form "juste" it occurs in Chaucer (Chaucer/Benson, p. 1260) and Langland (Langland/Schmidt, p. 528). But the idea was rare before the reign of Edward III, and the highly organized tournament we think of as a joust flatly did not exist in the early Plantagenet era. If not an anachronism, this is another hint of an Edwardian date, and the later the better.
See also the note on Stanzas 52-53, about the knight's son killing a knight and a squire, perhaps in a tournament.
** Stanzas 117-119/Lines 465-476 ** Although, theoretically, the abbot should own the land if the knight cannot repay, the justice apparently advises him to give the knight some consideration to induce the knight to sign away the land -- or, perhaps, to have him openly sell it to the abbot, since this would make the issue of ownership more certain. (This, at least, is the obvious interpretation of the lines; Mersey, p. 181, thinks that the justice is trying to extort a higher fee from the abbott. But this would not address the danger of the knight being willing to attack his dispossessor.)
The abbot, nettled, offers a hundred pounds; the justice suggests 200 -- a sum which would actually leave the knight fairly well off. Presumably the purpose is to keep the knight from turning outlaw and preying upon the new legal owners of the land (so, implicitly, the last line of stanza 117). But the knight refuses any such offer outright (stanza 119). This is, in one sense, standard knightly defiance. But what would he have done had he not had 400 pounds available to pay off the loan?
The justice's warning is probably wise. Note that, in stanzas 360-361, the King gives away the Knight's land, and in Stanzas 362-363, a counselor warns that no one will be able to enjoy the land while Robin is alive.
** Stanza 120/Lines 479-480 ** Here the knight repays the abbott by shaking four hundred pounds out of a bag. Difficult, if the money is in the form of silver; we are told that 100 pounds sterling of silver pennies filled a barrel (Barlow-Rufus, p. 365, and see note on Stanza 49). It would probably be a small barrell -- 100 pounds sterling is roughly 35 kilograms, and the density of silver is 10.5 kilograms per litre, so 100 pounds sterling takes up a bit more than three litres, and 400 pounds sterling is just about 13 litres. If melted down, that's a cube about 23 centimeters on a side. But if supplied in the form of coin, it will be much bulkier -- coins cannot be stacked perfectly . My rough calculation is that, in the form of coin, 400 pounds sterling would take up about17 litres (possibly more, if the pile contains coins of different sizes and thicknesses, such as farthings and groats as well as silver pennies).
In all, you're looking at 300 pounds/ 135 kilograms, and a cube 26 centimeters (just over 1 foot) on a side. The man who shakes that out of a bag isn't a middle-aged knight with an adult son, it's the Incredible Hulk. And even if the man could carry such a sack, what sort of cloth made in the Middle Ages could bear the strain?
And isn't it odd that no one counts the coin?
But give the Justice and Sheriff credit: Once the loan is repaid, they follow the law.
** Stanza 120/Line 481 ** "Have here thi golde, sir abbot." Here the poet resolves the problem of the incredible quantity of silver by telling us the knight gave gold. It solves the problem of weight; it leaves the problem of either coming up with enough gold coin (if we are in the late reign of Edward III) or of testing the weight and purity of the gold (if the knight gives raw metal).
The most likely explanation is anachronism: The poet simply did not realize that there were no gold coins prior to the reign of Edward III (see thenote on Stanza 49), and that it was not until roughly the Lancastrian Era that there were enough of them in circulation for a scene like this to be possible. This is strong evidence for dating the composition of the poem relatively late.
** Stanza 121/Lines 483-484 ** The knight declares that, had the abbot been courteous, he would have been rewarded. For the concept of courtesy, see the note on stanza 2. The rest of the verse reflects the church's attitude toward lending, interest, and usury. Exodus 22:25 explicitly forbids the people of Israel to lend at interest to each other. Leviticus 25:36-37 forbids interest and taking advantage of another's poverty. Deuteronomy 23:20 grants that "on loans to a foreigner you may charge interest," but 23:19 forbids charging interest to Israelites.
The church therefore forbid lending at interest. Since lending is sometimes necessary, Thomas Aquinas developed a doctrine of mutual risk, in which both the borrower and the lender were considered to be involved in whatever activity required the loan. It wasn't until the Protestant Reformation that this attitude began to shift (Bainton, pp. 237-249).
For one who truly needed a loan, this left only two choices. One was to borrow from the Jews, who were allowed to lend to Christians at interest. But Edward I had passed a strict anti-usury law in 1275, and -- having wrung every cent out of the Jews that he could -- expelled them from England in 1290 (Powicke, p. 322; Prestwich, pp. 343-346; Stenton, p. 197). This might be an indication of date: the knight probably could not have borrowed from Jews after 1275, and certainly not after 1290.
After 1290, that left only the possibility of borrowing from Christians. All such borrowing followed informal rules. Officially, the lender simply gave the borrower the money, expecting to be paid back, without interest, at the end of the loan period. Unofficially, it was understood that the lender would receive the money -- and also a gift from the borrower. In law, it was two separate transactions. In practice, the gift was the interest on the loan. In this case, the knight says that he will not pay the gift because of the abbot's vile behavior -- and, under the law, he had every right to do so. Hence his statement in stanza 124 that "shall I haue my londe agayne."
It is not clear how much interest would have been expected. Child, p. 52, points out that in stanza 270 the knight repays Robin with a gift of 20 marks on a 400 pound loan. Since 400 pounds is 600 marks, this is one part in thirty, which out to three and a third percent interest (with no compounding, of course). But the knight also gave the gift of bows and arrows (see notes on Stanzas 131 and 132).
** Stanza 122/Lines 485-486 ** For the abbot and his fine meal see the note on Stanza 102.
** Stanza 123/Lines489-492 ** The Abbot, having failed to gain the knight's land, demands that the justice repay the fee mentioned in stanza 107. However, the fee is not a contract as we would understand it -- the justice is the Abbot's man, but owes only certain duties. He has done these (presumably by showing up and witnessing the transaction), and sees no need to repay the fee. Perhaps a more honest man might return the fee -- but a more honest man would never have taken it in the first place. It is ironic that the Abbot, who tried to hold to the letter of the law, himself requested more than the letter of the law when the tables turned.
** Stanza 124/Line 495 ** On the knight's right to reclaim his land see the note on Stanza 121.
** Stanza 125/Lines 499-500 ** The knight puts on his good clothing, referring back presumably to the "symple wedes" of stanza 97, although that stanza and this seem to be the only references to what amounts to a disguise. (Could this be a reference to one of the sources? The tales of Fulk and Eustace and such are much taken with disguise, an element largely downplayed in the "Gest.") Note that the fact that he left his poor clothing behind when he changes into his richer attire is a strong argument that the "symple wedes" are not crusading garments.
** Stanza 126/Line 504 ** The knight's home is listed as "Verysdale." Ritson declared that there was a Lancashire forest named "Wierysdale" (Gummere, p. 336), and Mersey, p. 181, offers "Uterysdale" (a reading supported by several online sources but with no attestation in the prints and not found on any map I've seen). I'm somewhat tempted by "Weardale," the region along the Wear in Durham -- after all, a knight coming from Weardale would have to pass along the Great North Road to reach London orYork (the problem being that a man going from Weardale to York would never get as far south as Doncaster).
These problems have led most scholars to believe that the name "Verysdale" refers to Lee in Wyresdale; (Holt2, photo 15 facing p. 97; Ohlgren, p. 316 n. 9).The Wyre river is in Lancashire, somewhat north of the Ribble; Lee is not far from the town of Lancaster, being somewhat to the south and east at the crossing of the Wyre.
This fits with the statement in stanza 53 that the knight's son slew a Lancashire/Lancaster knight; presumably the boy killed someone close to home. Holt1, p. 103, notes that the lands around Wyresdale were divided among the Earls of Lancaster and the de Lacys of Lincoln -- but that all of them came into the Earl of Landcaster's hands when the last de Lacy earl died in 1311. Thus, if Wyresdale is meant and the period is, as I contend, the reign of Edward II, there is an intimate connection between Wyresdale and the Earl of Lancaster.
It should be noted, however, we also find the knight, in Stanza 310, having a castle somewhere between Nottingham and Robin's home. This may be the result of the "Gest" blending together two different accounts.
I must admit that I am tempted, instead of reading "Verysdale," to read "Ayredale." The river Aire, which naturally passes through the Airedale, flows east into the Ouse between York and Doncaster. Indeed, Ferrybridge over the Aire is on the Great North Road. In other words, it is right on the knight's path. This would fit well with the situation in stanza 310.
Another faint possibility is the valley of the river Ure, which however is not nearly as well known; I've never found a reference to "Uredale."
As a further interesting footnote, we observe that, in the time of Edward IV, there was an outlaw called "Robin of Redesdale," also known as "Robin Mend-All." As we shall see, he seems to have tried to invoke the spirit of Robin Hood -- and "Redesdale" is rather similar to "Wyresdale." Although the significance of the name "Mend-All" is rather uncertain -- one of the names Jack Cade had used in his 1450 rebellion was "Jack Amendalle" -- "Jack Amend-all" (Wagner, p. 133) -- or perhaps "John Amend-All" (Hicks, p. 279; the latter name seems also to have been used by a Norfolk rebel a few years later; Castor, p. 88).
** Stanza 131/Line 521** A hundred bows. It's worth noting that the best bows were made of yew, with the best yew coming from the Iberian peninsula. The knight, who is a legal citizen, could acquire imported yew bowstaves; Robin, as an outlaw, very possibly could not.
This may also be a dating hint. The Hundred Years' War led to a much-increased demand for munitions -- every archer in France needed a bow and several sheafs of arrows. During periods of heavy campaigning, this led to significant supply bottlenecks; in 1356, for instance, it was reported that no arrows at all were available inEngland (Hewitt, p. 66). This does not preclude a date in the reign of Edward III, since there were truce years and years of light campaigning during the War, but it is an argument against the years of the major battles.
** Stanza 132/Lines 525-526 ** The knight gives Robin arrows which are "an elle long." The ell, or "cloth yard" (hence the famous "clothyard arrow") was 45 inches long, or about 1.15 meters.
Holt and others think that Robin's weapon could have been a short bow., and it is true that few of the ballads mention the longbow specifically. Holt1, p. 79, even denies that there is a distinction. Similarly, Bradbury, p. 35, argues that longbows were used at the Battle of the Standard in 1138 -- but by "longbows" he means "non-crossbows." But a short bow could be fired facing forward, while a longbow was fired from the side, with the head over the shoulder and, for a long range shot, the left hand above the head. Some short bows, it's true, were longer than some longbows; the difference is one of technique.
But Robin's exploits imply a weapon of superior range and accuracy (see also Stanza 398). This clearly requires the longbow. What's more, a short bow would not require a clothyard arrow -- and most short bows were too short to be very effective with such a long arrow. The reference to these arrows strongly implies a longbow. And, indeed, the Lettersnijder edition of the "Gest" is illustrated with a picture of a longbowman, although this is canned clip art -- it had in fact been used earlier to illustrate an edition of Chaucer! (Baldwin, plate 40 facing p. 160; the image is also in Ohlgren, plate 21 after p. 222 and precedes p. 1 in Dobson/Taylor).
We are also told that the arrows were fletched with peacock feathers. Chaucer's yeoman archer also had arrows with peacock feathers (Prologue, line 104; , or see the section quoted above).
This is one of several indications that Robin must date after the time of Richard I and John. Chandler/Beckett, pp. 20-21, note that Richard and John's archers were crossbowmen. Indeed, according to Gillingham, p. 276, Richard suffered his fatal wound because he himself decided to take a turn shooting at the defenders of Chalus-Chabrol -- with a crossbow. This surely comes close to proof positive that Richard and Robin did not know each other -- Richard was too good a soldier to be fiddling around with crossbows if longbows had been available.
** Stanza 132/Line 527 ** The arrows had silver on them -- somewhere (see textual note). It hardly matters where, in practice; the point is, they were fancy and expensive.
** Stanza 133 /Line 529** An escort of "a hundred men." This sounds similar to the indenturing of soldiers, used particularly during the Hundred Years' War. This again implies a date during or after the reign of Edward I, with Edward III using indentures most heavily of all. A force of a hundred men is, we should note, very substantial at the time; it is hard to determine the actual size of armies in this period, but this is quite a few for a mere knight (at the great battle of Crecy, for instance, the ratio of knights to ordinary soldiers seems to have been less than 20:1). This is another hint that our knight had more resources than most.
** Stanza 133/Line 432 ** The knight returns to Robin wearing colors of red and white -- not green (and the red might not be the scarlet of Stanzas 70-72; we cannot tell). Thus he does not seem to be wearing Robin's colors.
** Stanza 135-142/Lines 537-570 ** The story of the "wrestling. Holt1, p. 23, considers the incident of the wresting an incidental insertion, arguing that it is not necessary to the plot. Certainly it seems to interrupt the action. But he offers no reason for the insertion; it seems more likely that such an oddity would be original than that it would be added later on.
Wrestling was considered a rather low-class sport at this time (Knight/Ohlgren, p. 157, note that Chaucer's Miller was a successful wrestler, and that his prize was a ram). The amazingly large prize in stanzas 136-137 (a white bull, a saddled courser with gold trimming, gloves, a gold ring, and a pipe of wine) suggests a special contest -- and yet, there seems to be no one to enforce the rules, forcing the knight to step in. This causes a delay, which is useful in terms of the plot because it allows time for Robin Hood's men to rob the monk of St. Mary's. Perhaps this strange wrestling was included in the Miracle of the Virgin tale that underlies this plot segment.
Alternately, we see Robin himself engaged in wresting in some of the later ballads, including the very first ballad of the Forresters manuscript, where Robin fights the crowd that drives him to turn outlaw (Knight, p. 1). He also wrestles in the play of c. 1475 which parallels "Guy of Gisborn" (Holt1, p. 33).
Another possibility is that this is some sort of side effect of the Tale of Gamelyn, which shares some elements with the "Gest." Gamelyn's story includes a tale of Gamelyn wrestling with a local champion -- a tale which occupies about a hundred lines (Clawson, p. 48).
I am also vaguely reminded of the romance of "The Tournament at Tottenham," one copy of which happens to be included in the same manuscript (Cambridge Ff. 5.48) as the sole witness to Robin Hood and the Monk" (Dobson/Taylor, p. 9). This is the farcical tale of a potter named Perkin who wishes to win a bailiff's daughter, and is told to take part in a tournament to earn her hand. He proceeds to win the tournament but nearly loses the girl when another entrant proceeds to make off with her (Sands, pp. 313-314). It does not appear parallel to this story, but several motifs are the same: A competition featuring low-born men rather than gentry, a richer-than-usual prize for such an event, and an attempt to cheat the winner.
If we accept the conjectural reading "Ayredale" for the location of the knight's castle (see note to Stanza 126). then it is reasonable to assume that the wrestling took place a Ferrybridge on the Aire, a convenient meeting point.
** Stanza 138/Line 551 ** A yeoman, apparently not a local, wins the wrestling match, and this causes a disturbance. The reason is not clear (see textual note). The likely meaning is something like "And he was far from home and friendless," but the line may be corrupt.
** Stanza 142/Line 565 ** Five marks: As we shall see in Stanza 150, twenty marks per year is an extremely generous allowance for a yeoman. Five marks thus represent at least a 25% bonus on a man's yearly pay, and probably more.
** Stanza 143/Lines 571-572 ** For Robin waiting to dine until a guest arrives, see the note on Stanzas 6-7.
Last updated in version 2.6
File: C117F

Gest of Robyn Hode, A [Child 117] --- Part 08

DESCRIPTION: Continuation of the notes to "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. Entry continues in "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117] --- Part 09 (File Number C117H). This entry contains notes on Fits III-V of the "Gest."
Last updated in version 2.6
NOTES [12026 words]: ** Stanza 144/Lines 573-574 ** Observe the parallel to the first stanza, which also begins "Lyth and listin, gentilmen," and to stanzas 282 and stanza 317. For notes on this introductory formula, see the notes to stanza 1.
This whole fit is about Little John as servant of the Sheriff. Pollard, p. 172, suggests that it is, in a way, a parody of The Book of Nurture, which trains a masterless young man in how to be a proper servant. Little John completely overturns the conventions. The curiosity in that case is that the Sheriff hires John after John competes well at archery. Why would he hire an archer as a domestic servant?
Clawson, p. 58, points out that this fit is chronologically out of order; the proper place for it is somewhere in the second fit (he suggests stanza 130). But he suggests that it is more effective when placed here.
Clawson, p. 61, notes that the basic theme of this section -- of the hero, or his servant, taking a position in the household of his enemy -- is found also in the stories of Hereward the Wake and Eustace the Monk. But the details of both accounts differ substantially from the "Gest." Neither tale can be considered a direct source, although they may have inspired some intermediate stage.
** Stanzas 145-146/ Lines 577-584 ** This archery contest, seen by the Sheriff of Nottingham, is the first of several in the "Gest" (see stanzas 282-283, 397). An archery contest is also a key element of the "Potter," where it gains Robin access to the sheriff (Holt1, p. 34). These contests could have taken place at any time, but it is noteworthy that Edward III, to improve the quality of the archers who would be fighting in France, commanded regular competitions with the bow (Keen, p. 139) .
** Stanza 146/Line 582 ** The "bullseye" type target for archery practice is a modern invention. Later in the "Gest" (stanza 398) we read of a rose garland on a pole (wand). Here we find Little John splitting the wand on which the target rests. This is of course an exceptional -- indeed, a well-nigh impossible -- feat. John surely must have used his own bow and arrows, and they must have been exceptionally well made, although we are given no information about the source of his equipment.
** Stanza 149/Line 593 ** "Holdernes"=Holderness. A small town in eastern Yorkshire, almost on the seacoast, not far north of the Humber. It is so small that it doesn't appear even on my 1 cm.=4 km. map of northern England, but it was well enough remembered that Conan Doyle had a fictitious "Duke of Holderness" in "The Adventure of the Priory School." The nearest significant town, Patrington, lies just to the west. (At least, so the maps I've checked online. Cawthorne, p. 164, says that it adjoins Beverly, north of Kingston-upon-Hull. In either case, it is in eastern Yorkshire north of the Humber, and both locations are far from any of the places associated with Robin Hood-- although closer to Barnsdale than Sherwood or Nottingham, even if you ignore the need to cross the Humber).
Holderness was probably better known in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries than now; in hte fourteenth century, one of the most beautiful major churches in the country was built there: Patrington Church, called "The Queen of Holderness" (Kerr, pp. 180-181). Might the pious John have claimed to be from there because of its great church?
John's mention of Holderness has at least two points of interest to Robin Hood scholars. The first is because it was the alleged home of "Robin of Holderness," who led one of many small rebellions against King Edward IV. Second, Henry de Faucumberg, the Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire in 1318-1319 and 1323-1325, came from a family which had an estate in Holderness (Cawthorne, p. 199). Would John have listed his home as Holderness had he known the Sheriff came from there? Surely not.
Of course, all of this is moot if the Sheriff is not based on a real person -- and he almost certainly is not; see the note on Stanza 15.
And yet, there is another interesting point: In the early stages of the Hundred Years' War, the English feared French raids, and set up local defence systems. The local sheriffs were responsible for this (Hewitt, p. 5). Most of the sites places under defence were on the English south coast (Hewitt, p. 6) or East Anglia (Hewitt, p. 3). But there was also a warning issued in Holderness (Hewitt, p. 6). Could some side effect of this have been what caused Robin or John to turn against the sheriff?
I do have to mention one minor conceit of my own. It is well-documented that one of the seminal visions which led J.R.R. Tolkien to produce The Lord of the Rings and his other works. In a glade in Roos, he saw his wife dancing, and it gave him the vision of the tale of Beren and Luthien (Shippey, p. 244; Pearce, p. 205, quotes Tolkien's own description of the event), the most beloved of all the tales of Middle-Earth to its author.
Roos happens to be very close to Holderness. Is it possible that this spot inspired two of the three greatest myth-cycles of English history? (Those of Robin Hood and Tolkien's Middle-Earth; obviously the origin of Arthur was elsewhere.)
** Stanza 149/Line 595 ** "Reynold Greenleaf." Later on, in stanza 293, we meet a Reynold who is a member of Robin's band. Why, then, does Little John borrow his name? This is never explained. My personal conjecture is that some lost list said that Reynold was part of Robin's band (Child prints an item from Ravenscroft which might somehow be related), but no tale existed of him, so the creators of two of the component poems of the "Gest" included him in the band in difference guises, and the compiler of the "Gest" never straightened it out. But this is only conjecture.
Knight/Ohlgren suggest on p. 182 that there was a ballad of Reynold serving the sheriff, which the compiler of the "Gest" took over and, presumably, transferred to Little John, leaving a few inconsistencies such as this one. Clawson, p. 64, attributes this suggestion to Fricke and thinks this may not have been a Robin Hood ballad but just a ballad of someone infiltrating the household of an enemy.
Cawthorne, p. 163, offers a third suggestion, which is quite interesting: That "Reynold Greenleaf" was rhyming cant for "thief." But has rhyming cant been shown to exist in the North at this time?
Pollard, p. 175, notes the fascinating fact that a man named "Greneleff" was accused of acting like Robin Hood in 1503. Knight/Matheson, p. 188, mentions the same fellow, although dating it to 1502 (and reprinting the relevant chronicle entry). But this is surely too late to have influenced the "Gest" -- perhaps Greenleaf took his name based on the same forgotten legend as the one which the Gest's author was using? Dobson and Taylor, in fact, suggest on p. 4 that he took the name from the "Gest," and Ohlgren is open to the possibility.
** Stanza 149/Line 596 ** "When I am at home." This is one of the few instances of a line where we might see northern dialect inflluence: "dame" in the second line should rhyme with "hame," not "home."
The verse reminds me a little of "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry" [Child 113], which involves, in a sense, another example of a man incognito, but that song is probably much more recent than the "Gest."
** Stanza 150/LIne 600 ** The Sheriff of Nottingham offers Little John "Twenty marke (20 marks) to thy fee." A mark is two-thirds of a pound, so this is thirteen and a third pounds per year. Recall that, in the reign of Edward III, a knight's fee was forty pounds, or sixty marks, a year! (See note on Stanza 45.)
Holt1, p. 122, cites an instance of a household yeoman (valet) earning two pounds a year. Hunter said that valets at the court of Edward II received three pence a day (Child, p. 55; cf. Holt1, pp. 122-123); this was also the wage of a foot archer in Edward III's wars (Hewitt, p. 36). This is 1095 pence per year, or not quite seven pounds. Seward, p. 269, says that "minor gentry, merchants, yeomen, and inportant artisans" could expect to earn from 15 to 20 pounds in 1436; a plowman made only 4 pounds per year. But this is after substantial inflation, plus a major increase in wages for the lower classes following the Black Death (a plowman before the plague earned between 10 shillings and a pound per year).
Hence to offer a servant twenty marks, in the period before 1350, was to offer a fee far above the prevailing rate (and, of course, is even more absurd if we go back to the period of Richard and John). Wages rose dramatically, and rents fell, after the Black Death (Pollard, p. 20; Kelly.J, pp. 205-206), but the amount still seems excessive even by post-plague standards. (Unless, by some wild chance, the source of this is Scottish, and the reference is to Scottish marks, which were only a fraction of English. But then the amount seems too small.)
The likeliest explanation is an anachronism; at some time in the history of the poem, the pay was adjusted to a fifteenth century rate. But if we assume the reading is old, we note that twenty marks is roughly what a man-at-arms was paid to serve in the foreign armies of Edward III (Ormrod, p. 141, states a man-at-arms as earning a shilling a day; Hewitt, p. 34, says that a man-at-arms earned 6 pence a day -- which happens to work out to almost exactly 20 marks in a year). Could the Sheriff of Nottingham be recruiting soldiers? If so, nothing comes of it, since John's brief service is all served in England. Bottom line: such a large fee would imply a date after the reign of Edward I -- ideally, one after the Black Death, when wages rose.
** Stanzas 151-1522/Lines 601-606 ** "The sherif gate Litell John Twelue monethes of the knight." Could it really be that simple?Would the sheriff, who presumably was the sheriff who was present when the knight and Little John repaid the abbot, not have seen what was going on? Would he hire John under those circumstances -- and would the knight be in position to consent so freely? On the face of it, we might suspect that a stanza or two is missing here.
Of course, there is another possibility, if we assume that Little John was in fact the knight's watchdog (see the note to Stanza 80). The knight might have desired to be rid of his shadow -- or John might have been satisfied that the knight was honest, and they could have agreed that he could go on to other activities.
For "courtesy" see the note on Stanza 2.
** Stanza 152/Line 608 ** The Sheriff gives John a "gode hors." Edward III began to use mounted archers in 1330 (Chandler/Beckett, p. 19)., and used them regularly on his campaigns in France -- this was one of the secrets of his success: He mounted not only the knights but the soldiers who would fight as infantry. This let his army move much faster than one which combined horsemen and infantry. If in fact the Sheriff is recruiting John for an expedition (see note on Stanza 150), he would indeed need a horse.
** Stanza 155/Line 618 ** The sheriff goes hunting -- seemingly in the forest, and seemingly for a hart (see note on Stanza 185). This is curious, since on its face this appears to be a violation of the forest laws against taking venison. It is true that the King sometimes granted exceptions -- but these were very limited. Young, p. 133, reports that in the final ten years of Henry III's reign (i.e. 1262-1272), that king granted rights in Sherwood Forest to take ten harts and three hinds of red deer and 61 bucks and 12 does of fallow deer. The restrictions under Edward I were even stiffer; from 1272-1287 he granted only one hart, 61 bucks, and 43 does. Does this mean that the sheriff was violating the law with his hunt?
** Stanza 156/Line 624 ** There is uncertainty about the text here (see textual note), but no question that a cranky Little John demands to be fed. This demand begins the quarrel which eventually causes Little John to fight, and then recruit, the cook.
** Stanza 159/Line 633 ** For courtesy, which the butler does not show, see the note on Stanza 2.
** Stanza 163/Line 650 ** Clawson, pp. 69-70. speculates on why the cook (as opposed to the butler or other household servant) becomes the hero in this part of the saga. He mentions a parallel to the story of Hereward, and also that there were other tales of heroic cooks, although he cites no examples that seem likely to be well-known to English audiences. Cooks are commonly mentioned in folk song and lore (because sailors and cowboys and such were so dependent on their skills), but these mentions are generally much more recent than the "Gest."
** Stanza 164/Line 654 ** It is not certain wheether the last word of this line should be "hyne" or "hynde"; see the textual note. Knight/Ohlgren gloss "shrewede hynde" as "cursed servant" and do not even note the variant.
There is the faint possibility that "hynde/hinde" should be read as "hind," the female red deer, but this is extremely unlikely. The word intended is probably hyne/hine, a Middle English word not found in Chaucer but fairly common in other thirteenth and fourteenth century texts. It goes back probably to Old English hine, from hiwan, household, or higa, member of the household. The exact sense varies slightly; Sisam interprets it as servant/laborer; Emerson, p. 384, offers servant/domestic; Turville-Petre, p. 236, servant/farm-worker; Sands, p. 385, servant; Langland/KnottFowler, p. 274, peasant/servant; Langland/Schmidt, servant/thing of low worth. Thus the sense might be of a peasant who wasn't up to his job.
Every one of these sources spells it "hyne" or "hine," without a d, but Emerson notes that "hynde" was a dialect version of the word. Thus the usage might tell us a little about the point of origin of the various texts, but this is far from sure.
** Stanza 168/ Lines 669-672 ** Little John and the cook fight for as long as it takes to walk two miles (probably about 40 minutes, although it might be anything between half an hour and an hour depending on the burdens the walkers carried), then "maintained" the fight for an hour. This is a quite exceptional period to be actually engaged in swordplay -- most medieval battles lasted only a couple of hours, usually with pauses. Supposedly the Battle of Evesham in 1265, which Baldwin would have us believe involved Robin, lasted two hours (Burne, p. 170). The Battle of Crecy in 1347, the greatest of Edward III's battles, technically lasted about six hours (Seward, p. 66), but it involved almost no hand-to-hand contact. Ross-War, pp. 123-125, says that the battle of Barnet in 1471, which began at sunrise, was over before the morning mist burned off, and many of the soldiers were not engaged for large parts of the battle.
Thus for two men to fight hand-to-hand for nearly two hours is an astounding feat. It is surprising that we do not hear more of the cook in the rest of the "Gest," given his prowess. It seems evident that this scene floated in from another tale, which presumably ended with the cook joining the band; there was nothing more to say about him.
Clawson, p. 66, does point out that many of the "Robin Hood meets his match" type ballads involve extended fights of this type -- another indication that this tale came from an earlier source.
** Stanzas 170-171/Lines 679-682 ** "Two times in the yere thy clothing chaunged shulde be; And eyery yeare.. Twenty merke to thy fe." In other words, Little John offers the cook, whom he has been battling, twenty marks a year and two changes of livery. For the high fee of twenty marks, see the note on stanza 150; for the idea of livery, the note on stanzas 70-72. In stanza 420, we see Robin expecting to have two changes of clothing per year from the King.
** Stanza 174/ Line 695 ** The comment that the locks were of "good steel" is likely to be misunderstood by moderns. Carbon steels were known at this time, and sometimes someone would turn up an iron deposit with enough nickel or cobalt in it to make a fairly good steel -- but generally medieval steels were not as strong (or as corrosion-resistant) as modern steels. Plus, locks were generally rather primitive. Yes, they had keys, but the keys were not very fancy. Much of the security of medieval locks came from all the leaves and decoration which made it hard to even operate the things. These often produced weak points. It was a lot easier to smash even the best medieval lock than the modern equivalents.
** Stanza 176/Lines 704, 706 ** There is an interesting textual variant here (see textual note), but the correct reading is almost certainly that Little John and the cook took "Three hundred pounde and more" to Robin Hood "Under the grene wode hore," that is, "under the green wood hoar."
"Hore," modern "hoar," is the root word of "hoarfrost," and refers to a grey or white color. Hence, by implication, it means "old." Gummere, p. 317, claims it was a common word for a forest. Did Robin meet the sheriff under an old tree or under a grey tree? If the latter, it implies that the tree is without leaves, which in turn implies that the season is winter, or at least that it is early enough in spring that the leaves have not budded.
This despite the fact that Pollard, p. 57, says that the "Gest" takes place in "perpetual early summer"; Baldwin, p. 33, agrees, and speculates that the band must have scattered in winter. I would not consider this decisive (see the notes to Stanza 29 and 32-33; also the faint hint in Stanza 91 that it might be April) -- but it is hard to believe that the sheriff would go so far afield in winter. So the word probably means "old" in this context. There are living trees associated with Robin Hood (e.g. Holt prints a photo of the "Major Oak" in Sherwood), but any tree ancient enough to be considered old at the time of the composition of the "Gest" is almost certainly dead by now.
Although Robin's tree is probably gone, there does seem to have been a "trystel tree," mentioned in stanzas 274, 286, 298, 387, 412, in the "Monk" (Stanza 37) and "Guy of Gisborne" and also, apparently, in Henry VIII's 1515 pageant (Pollard, pp. 52-53). Pollard on p. 53 claims that this requires that Robin be understood as an outlawed forester, but this strikes me as going beyond the data -- surely any band of outlaws will have a series of recognized meeting places!
There is the interesting question of just what "trystel" means. fg changed "trystel-tre" to "trusty tree," which is banal but perhaps possible. The word itself is rare, and (given the lack of Middle English spelling conventions) could be from several roots. Is it from "traist," "confidence" (Emerson, p. 450, compare Turville-Petre, p. 257, "traistis," "trust"); "trist," "appointed place, rendezvous" (Emerson, p. 451), whence our "tryst" (a word which we often think of as having sexual connotations, but which simply means a meeting place where secret things happen); or "tryste," "trust" (Emerson, p. 452)="truste," "trust" or "loyalty" (Dickins/Wilson, p. 315)? The essential meaning, however, is clear: A safe place to meet.
** Stanza 181/Line 361 ** Although the third fit is all about Little John and the sheriff, Clawson, p. 70, points out that it has two parts (which we might call "Little John in the Sheriff's Household" and "Little John Traps the Sheriff" or some such), and that these two are not directly linked in any way. Clawson considers these two originally to have been independent stories, and this the dividing point (the latter being almost incontestible of the former assertion is true).
** Stanza 185/Lines 737-738 ** "a ryght fayre harte, His coloure is of grene." A green hart? And the sheriff bought this tale? (And from a deserter?) The problem was sufficient that Allingham, without manuscript evidence, proposed emending "of grene" to "full shene" (cf. Gummere, p. 317). But, of course, John is referring obliquely to Robin Hood, while trying to lure the Sheriff with the sight of a wonder; the "sixty... tyndes" -- that is, sixtry tines, or forks in the antlers -- of the next verse are also intended to make the beast seem wondrous.
Might the green hart be a hint of another link to "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight?" (Again, probably not; Tolkien/Gordon, p. xx, believe the green knight came from the legend of the green man, whereas here, based on stanza 188, Robin is the green hart. Still, it's interesting to see this use of the color green.)
Child, p. 53, notes that a disguised Fulk FitzWarren lured King John into a trap using a tale of a long-horned stag. Clawson, p. 74, points out other similarities to this tale, e.g. Fulk brings in his men to trap the king. Evidently Little John wanted to go that tale one better. There is a difference in the tales, however, as we see from Cawthorne, p. 113. In the Fulk version, Fulk disguises himself as a peasant -- a charcoal-burner (itself an illegal occupation within the bounds of a forest unless one had a warrant from the king; Young, p. 110) . In the "Gest," John is incognito but does not use a new disguise.
The great hart -- that is, a buck with very large antlers -- was always the most desired trophy for a hunter; Pollard, p. 63, notes that they were becoming hard to find in the Middle Ages. (This, in fact, has happened again in the United States. In the Midwest, white-tailed deer ar so common as to be pests -- but because the rules favor hunting bucks over does, the population never goes down -- yet there are almost no large-antlered bucks left. The old males have been killed off, and the young ones are fathering the children.)
Clawson, p. 72, observes that we do find, in "Robin Hood and the Butcher" [Child 122], Robin himself, in disguise, offering to take the Sheriff to see his horned animals, which turn out to be deer. But the parallels are not close; in the "Gest," it is John, not Robin, who undertakes the deception, and John promises deer, not cattle. And the "Butcher" is widely felt to be a variation on the "Potter" andyway, and is more recent than the "Gest."
See also the note on stanza 155 about the sheriff's right to hunt in the forest.
** Stanzas 187-188/Lines 741-746 ** Little John professes to be afraid of the deer in the wood, and the sheriff insists on seeing them. Note that the sheriff, whatever the reasons for his dispute with Robin (reasons which we are never told), does not lack courage.
** Stanzas 188-189/Lines 751-756 ** The capture of the sheriff. Note that Robin also captures the Sheriff in the "Potter" (Holt1, p. 34)
** Stanza 191/Lines 762-764 ** Knight, p. 23, points out that the trick of having the Sheriff eat from his own silver also occurs in the Forresters version of "Robin Hood and the Sheriffe," i.e. "Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow" [Child 152].
** Stanza 192/Line 767 ** Robin grants the Sheriff his life "for the love of Little John." This is an interesting change from Stanza 15, where Robin gives specific orders against the Sheriff and John seemingly makes no objection. Could this be a different sheriff? This would likely be an indication of a late date, after it became the norm to change sheriffs regularly.
We see a similar situation in the "Potter," where again the sheriff is captured but spared. There, however, Robin spares the sheriff for the sake of his wife (Holt1, p. 34) rather than for the sake of LIttle John.
** Stanza 202/lLines 805-806 ** Robin makes the Sheriff swear by his "bright brand," i.e. sword. Swearing by the sword is a well-attested phenomenon; known e.g. from Malory (e.g. when Lancelot defeats three knights who are attacking Sir Kay, he makes them swear on their swords to submit to the judgment of the court; Book VI, chapter xi; Malory/Rhys, p. 169).
Some have suggested that tthe oath on the sword goes back all the way to the time when great men had swords with names and histories. Pickering, p. 281, claims that "an oath made on a sword was onde considered as binding as one made on a Bible." Normally, of course, we would expect a devout Christian like Robin to prefer an oath on the Bible -- but remember that Robin lived in a Catholic England in the era before printing. Even if Robin was literate (unlikely), Bibles were rare, and a complete New Testament (which required hundred of sheets of expensive parchment and months of scribal labor) would generally cost more than a sword. And Bibles were rarely seen outside religious foundations; even if they had been cheap, the Catholic Church didn't like lay people to read the Bible, or to see it translated into the vernacular. So a sword was surely his best bet for an oath.
Gummere, p. 317, observes that an oath upon the sword was still common lore in Shakespeare's day; see Hamlet, Act I, scene v, (lines 147-150 in RiversideShakespeare). Wimberly, p. 94, mentions three instances of swearing by or on swords in versions of other ballads: "Queen Eleanor's Confession" [Child 156], "The Bonnie House o Airlie" [Child 199], and "The Gypsy Laddie" [Child 200], although the motif is not present in all versions of any of those ballads.
Note that when Robin kills the sheriff, it is with this same bright brand (Stanza 348). Robin then calls him untrue (Stanza 349). In stanza 305, however, Little John calls it a "browne swerde."
In the final line of the stanza. Robin declares that the Sheriff shall swear not to harm him "by water ne by lande." Is this a hint that Robin is also a pirate? If so, the hint is not picked up -- although there was a Scottish ship Robin Hood. It's conceivable that this wandered in from the legend of Eustace the Monk, who was a pirate, or some other such story. Odds are, hwoever, that this is simply an oath that rhymes well.
** Stanza 204/Line 813 ** The sheriff swears an oath of friendship -- considered a very strong vow, at least unless one was a a king engaging in international diplomacy. (Some things never change....) For a possible consequence of this oath, see the note on Stanza 287.
** Stanza 204/Lines 815-186 ** The text says that the sheriff was "as full of grene wode As ever was hepe of stone"-- he was as full of (fed up with) the greenwood as was a "hepe" of stone. Knight/Ohlgren interpret "hepe" as "hip," a fruit, so the sheriff was as full as a fruit is with its seed (a suggestion going back to Ritson; cf. Dobson/Taylor, p. 93). But the ordinary meaning of "hepe" is "heap," just as you would expect, with a secondary meaning of "crowd, group, host." The more likely reading is that the sheriff was as full of the greenwood as a heap is full of stones.
** Stanza 205/Line 819 ** Althouth we tend to think of Robin leading "merry men," there aren't many references to the merry men in the "Gest"; they are usually young men, yeomen, or Robin's meinie. We do see "mery men" again in Stanzas 281, 316, 382, and the a text of 340; also his "mery meyne" in Stanza 262, and "mery yonge men" in 287.
** Stanza 206/Lines 823-824 ** Robin fears that the Virgin is "wrothe with me, For she sent me nat my pay" (or so most editors; see the textual note).
Knight/Ohlgren, p. 159, say that "commercial interests" are invading Robin and his band, but this does not follow. Robin accepted the Virgin as surety on his loan to the knight; her failure to pay is thus a theological, not a monetary, issue. Robin uses the identical words in Stanza 235. Of course, all will turn out well....
Given the emphasis on the Virgin Mary in this section, I am tempted to suggest that Robin's meeting with the knight, and the repayment, might both have happened on one of the Mariological feast days. Davies, p. 349, lists these as:
2 February -- the Purification of the Blessed Virgin (Candlemass)
25 March -- the Annunciation
July 2 (later moved to 31 May)-- the Visitation
15 August -- the Assumption of Mary
8 September -- the Birthday of the Blessed Virgin ("a very old feast," although the reason for the date is not known)
Of these, 8 September seems the most logical, since the weather in the day would still be fine, but it would be getting chilly at night, explaining the sheriff's uncomfortable night in stanza 200. It would also help explain Robin's three masses in Stanza 8.
I emphasize that this is purest speculation. There are no indications in the text that the events took place on a feast day.
** Stanza 207/Lines 825-828 ** For the running account of Mary sending Robin his payment via the monk of St. Mary's Abbey, see the note on stanza 214.
** Stanza 208 (and following) / Lines 209 (and following) ** Clawson, pp. 9-13, prints parallel texts of (most of) stanzas 17-44 with stanzas 208-251. The similarities between the two are too significant to be regarded as coincidence; clearly the poet designed them to be parallel.
The more noteworthy similarities will be pointed up in the notes below.
Clawson, p. 15, follows Fricke in suggesting that one of these tales was originally an independent ballad, which was taken over by the author of the "Gest" and then duplicated. But on p. 16, he allows the possibility of two source ballads. As supporting evidence, Clawson points out on p. 16 that the story of Eustace the Monk has two versions of the tale of Eustace taking a traveller, one in which the victim tells the truth and is spared, while in the other, the man Eustace captures lies and is robbed. But, as Clawson points out, these incidents are told in very different ways; they cannot be seen as the direct inspiration of the "Gest's" account.
Clawson's considered suggestion, on p. 17, is that the tale of Robin and the Knight originally existed in a short (ballad?) version in which Robin captured the knight and then, being generous, paid off the Knight's debt. The difficulty with this suggestion is that we have no evidence, in any extant source prior to Ritson, of this theme of Robin giving to the poor.
** Stanza 209/Lines 832-833 ** "Sayles"and "Watlynge-Street." See note on stanza 18.
** Stanza 212/Lines 845-848 ** Note the precise parallel in stanza 20 to the language about seeking a victim. The parallel extends to the first line of stanza 213 (but see the next note)
** Stanza 213/Line 850 ** In the parallel in stanza 21, instead of ofserving the highway, John and his men observe a "derne [secret] strete." See the note on stanza 21. See also the tale of "Schimpf und Ernst," about the robbing of a monk to pay another man's debt; this is summarized in the notes to stanza 65.
** Stanza 213/Line 852 ** Here again we see men riding palfreys, as in Stanzas 75-77. Of course, monks were not fighters, so it is less surprising to see them riding a type of horse usually associated with a woman.
** Stanza 213/Line 851 ** Child, p. 53, notes that the "black monks" are Benedictines -- possibly significant, because the Benedictines were "the richest and most worldly" order of monks (Pollard, p. 131). And, yes, St. Mary's was a Benedictine house (Pollard, p. 124). I note in addition that Edward I, his wife Eleanor of Castile, and Edward II had Dominincan confessors; Phillips, p. 65. On p. 73 Phillips tells of a Dominican priory founded by Edward. Phillips, p. 507, notes that the London Dominicans were so close to Edward II that, when London turned against the King, the monks felt it necessary to flee. After Edward's deposition, many Dominicans seem to have been involved in trying to bring him back (Phillips, p. 545). So it's possible that the Dominicans were the pro-Edward friars, which might make the Benedictines the allies of the anti-Edward party. But this is an extremely long stretch. The Benedictines were well established in Yorkshire -- the first Benedictine monasteries in England may well have been those founded at Ripon and Hexham, by Wilfred of York in the late seventh century (OxfordCompanion, p. 95).
It is ironic to note that Eustace the Monk, considered to be a source of the "Gest," was a Benedictine (Cawthorne, p. 121), meaning that Robin was attacking a member of the order to which the hero of one of the source legends belonged.
It probably isn't very significant in the way Robin treats these monks, but I will note that Duns Scotus, the pioneer of extreme Mariolatreia (see the note on Stanza 10) was associated with the Franciscans (WalkerEtAl, p. 349).
Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 166, notes as an apparent inconsistency the fact that we see two monks here, but after this, only one monk is mentioned. Of course, the junior monk might have fled with the guards, but we have no indication of this. Clawson, p. 19, cites several instances of the number shifting, and thinks(pp. 19024) the references to two monks represents a survival of an older ballad: In this ballad, Robin had robbed two monks; the compiler of the "Gest" took this ballad and mixed it up with elements taken from the tale of Robin and the Knight, producing a confused amalgam. It is a noteworthy point, particularly given other signs that the "Gest" is composite, but beyond proof.
** Stanza 214/Lines 853-856 ** This stanza is the first clear part of a runnng gag which occupies most of the fourth fit: That this monk of St. Mary's Abbey (stanza 233) has brought the payment of the loan for which the knight offered the Virgin Mary as guarantor. The monk of course would not see it this way, but in in stanza 207, John had told Robin he was sure the knight would pay; in this stanza, John suggests that the monk is bringing it; in stanza 236, John firmly states that "this monke it hath brought"; in 242 Robin agrees that the monk has brought it; and in 248 John counts the monk's money and finds that it is twice what the knight owes; "Our Lady hath doubled your cast." This causes Robin to affirm, in 249-250, that Mary is the truest woman and best security he has found. In 271, the knight shows up to pay the debt, and Robin refuses the gift, because Our Lady brought the payment.
** Stanza 215/Line 858 ** In Child's text, Little John tells his subordinates to "frese your bowes of ewe (yew)." There are several possible variants, but this is the most likely reading. What it means is another question; see the discussion in the textual notes.
** Stanza 216/Lines 861-862 ** The monk's company has seven "somers" -- i.e. sumpters, pack horses. Sumpters generally were not fast but could carry large burdens for a long time. At least two and probably three would be required to carry the eight hundred pounds of silver (stanza 247). That leaves four to carry the baggage of the company -- which would be substantial for a company of 52 guards, two monks, and two servants. This presumably would be mostly food, plus perhaps some spare arrows or such; the soldiers would carry their own clothing and weapons. Unless the company has carts (which are not mentioned), this means that they carried food for only about three days -- evidence that they would need money to buy food along the way.
** Stanza 219/Line 873 ** John orders, "Abyde, chorle monke." This is less an insult than it sounds today -- "churl" derives from Old English "ceorl," who was simply a peasant farmer. In Chaucer, e.g., it means both "common man"and "boor," but the former meaning is more common, in the opinion of Chaucerr/Benson, p. 1228 (under "cherl"). But one thing is certain: it means a person at the bottom of the social scale. Many monks, especially senior monks, were in fact younger sons of aristocrats whose families had purchased them a comfortable position. By calling the lead monk a churl, John (who is said in Stanza 3 to be a yeoman) appears at minimum to be asserting superior social status. A modern equivalent might be something like, "Hold it right there, low--life."
John will use "chorle" again, with stronger force, in Stanza 227.
** Stanza 222/Line 887 ** Note that Little John here calls Robin a "Yeoman of the Forest." This might, of course, mean simply "a yeoman who lives in the forest." But it was also an office in the Edwardian period; see the note on Stanza 1.
** Stanza 223/Line 889 ** Child's text says that Much had a"bolte" ready. There is a variant here (see the textual note); probably because the usage is imprecise; Ritson noted that a "bolt" from a bow was usuallly used to shoot birds (Gummere, p. 318); also, of course, crossbows fired bolts and longbows arrows. The text is probably correct, however, since an arrow could casually be called a bolt.
** Stanza 224/Line 895 ** The word "grome" appears twice in the "Gest," here and in Stanza 4. The meaning in stanza 4 is uncertain; here, it clearly means "groom." "Groom" was the lowest of three levels of servants in noble households in the late fifteenth century, the two above it being squire and yeomen (Dobson/Taylor, pp. 34-35; Pollard, p. 37; observe that "groom" was the only one which was never an independent social rank).
** Stanza 226/Lines 901-904 ** For Robin Hood and his hood, see the note to Stanza 29. Here, as there, the hood is simply used as a demonstration of courtesy (for which see Stanza 2): Robin is mannered enough to take off his hood. But in contrast to the well-mannered knight of Stanza 29, the monk has not the courtesy to remove his hood in response to Robin's gesture. He will call Robin uncourteous in stanza 256.
** Stanza 227/Line 905 ** For John's use of the word "chorle," see the note on stanza 219.
** Stanza 229/Line 915 ** Could Robin really have fed and supplied seven score men in Barnsdale? This is an astonishing number of outlaws -- but the poet will give this number several times (stanzas 288, 342, 389, 416, 448, and by implication in 342, where the reference is to seven score of bows, implying a similar number of bowmen). Possibly the number is derived from the tale of Gamelyn, where Gamelyn encounters seven score men in the forest when he and his brother's steward Adam flee there (Cawthorne, p. 171).
Ohlgren, on p. 154 of Ohlgren/Matheson, suggests instead that 140 is the approximate number of members of a guild at the time. This fits his suggestion that the poem is aimed at the guilds.
Pollard, pp. 93-94, discusses outlaw bands in the fifteenth century and notes that large bands did not hold together -- men would join and leave in short order. Probably it is just a matter of the poet exaggerating again. But if we take it seriously, the time is obvious: The Scots wars of Edward II, when raiders and robbers were everywhere. At minimum, it must be before the Black Death; if it were after, there would be enough land available that there would be no need for hundreds of men to go off and be outlaws.
It is interesting that none of the references to this large band are in the section of the "Gest" devoted to Robin, the Knight, and St. Mary's abbey; all might derive from the other tales used by the author of the "Gest." In the take of Robin and the Knight, there are hints that Robin's only followers are Little John, Scarlock, and Much (see the notes on Stanzas 4 and 17 ).
** Stanza 230/Line 918 ** There is disagreement as to the meaning of "raye." Ritson suggested undyed cloth; Gummere, p. 318, prefers Halliwell's explanation "striped cloth," which is also accepted by Knight/Ohlgren. We might also consider the possibility of emending to something like "scarlet and ryche arraye."
** Stanza 231/Line 921 ** For Robin's custom of washing before dinner, see the note on Stanza 32.
** Stanza 233/Line 932 ** The "Hye Selerer," or High Cellarer, was present when the knight went to St. Mary's (see the note to Stanza 93). This makes Stanza 239 particularly interesting.
** Stanza 235/Lines 939-940 ** These lines are the same as those at the end of Stanza 206; see the note there.
** Stanza 236/Lines 943-944 ** For the running account of Mary sending Robin his payment via the monk of St. Mary's Abbey, see the note on stanza 214.
** Stanza 237/Line 947 ** "A lytell money" -- clearly a joke; 400 pounds was a lot of money. See the note on Stanza 49.
** Stanza 239/Lines 955-956 ** The cellarer denies having heard of Robin's loan guaranteed by the Virgin Mary. Formally and legally, he is absolutely correct; he was not a witness to the meeting between Robin and the knight. But we know from Stanza 93 that the cellarer of St. Mary's was present when the knight paid the abbot. Unless a new cellarer has been appointed in the last year (possible, but unlikely, particularly in a story as well-worked-out as this), he should know about the loan to the knight. To give him his due, he might have no particular reason to recall that that little fiasco happened exactly a year before. But recall that Little John was serving as the knight's yeoman in Fit 2. Might not the cellarer have recognized him? (At least in fiction.)
** Stanza 240/Lines 959-960 ** "For Gode is holde a ryghtwys man" -- perhaps an echo of the Nicene Crede ("one Lord Jesus Christ, who for us men and for our salvation came down from the heavens and was made flesh of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man") or even John 1:14 ("and the word became flesh and dwelt among us"). The righteousness of God is a very common theme in Paul (see, e.g. Romans 3:25-26). The righteousness of Mary ("his dame") is not explicitly stated in the New Testament, but is vaguely hinted at in the creeds.
The text of these lines is rather messed up; see the textual note.
** Stanza 242/Lines 965-966 ** For the running account of Mary sending Robin his payment via the monk of St. Mary's Abbey, see the note on stanza 214.
** Stanza 243/Line 969 ** As in Stanza 37, Robin asks his guest to tell how much money he is carrying; see the note on that stanza.
** Stanza 243/Line 971** The monk claims, falsely, to have only "twenty marke" -- 20 marks, or 13 and a third pounds sterling, or 3200 pence. This is, by interesting coincidence, the amount the Sheriff offered Little John in Stanza 150, and which Little John offered the cook (stanza 171). It is a significant sum, which would surely have been enough to take the Monk to London had he travelled with a small company.
But the monk had 52 men in his company (stanza 216), and he did not have enough horses to supply their needs for more than a few days (stanza 216 again). If we assume he is paying each one three pence a day (a suitable rate, and one which would allow them to buy their own food), that's 156 pence per day for the whole company. Even if we assume no expenses other than paying the company, that means that the entire 20 marks would be used up in 21 days. In practice, he would presumably have other expenses -- if nothing else, his own food and lodging, which we can assume would cost more than the guards'. Even if we assume that the monk was very cheap about such things (which would explain why most of the men abandoned him so easily), in practice 20 marks probably would not maintain the company for more than about ten days. To bring so many from Yorkshire to London (stanza 253) really calls for a budget of more than 20 marks; he just doesn't have enough reserve. So he stands convicted by implication from the start.
** Stanza 247/lines 985-986 ** Little John spreads his mantle "As he had done before" -- in stanza 42, when he counted the knight's money.
** Stanza 247/Line 988 ** The monk allegedly carried "eyght [hondred] pounde" -- 800 pounds. For this extremely high total, see the note on stanza 49. See also the textual note.
** Stanza 248/Lines 991-992 ** For the running account of Mary sending Robin his payment via the monk of St. Mary's Abbey, see the note on stanza 214. Here John jokes that the monk is true -- true not in his statement (Stanza 243) that he had twenty marks, but true in his delivery of Robin's pay.
Compare this to the factually accurate statement in Stanza 43 that the knight is "trewe inowe" because he had only the handful of change that he said he had.
Although I doubt that the poet was thinking of this, there is an interesting analogy to the account of Joseph in Egypt in Genesis 40. In that tale, Pharaoh's baker and butler are imprisoned for having displeased Pharaoh, and Joseph interprets their dreams, telling both that Pharaoh will "lift up your head." As John says the knight is true because he is true and the monk is true in a completely different sense, so Joseph tells the butler that Pharaoh will lift up his head and restore him (Genesis 40:13), but he will lift up the baker's head and hang him (Genesis 40:19).
In the final line of the stanza, b says the Virgin Mary has doubled Robin's "cast," fg read "cost." This probably doesn't really mean "cost," since such usage is primarily modern, but even if it did, the reading of b is preferable -- Robin gambled on the knight's honesty (or on the Virgin's, if you will), as he might gamble on dice -- and he has been repaid double, as he might in gambling on dice.
** Stanza 251/Lines 1003-1004 ** Robin here promises to be "a friend" to the Virgin "yf she haue nede." Arguably she calls in this promise in stanza 336, where the knight's wife asks Robin for help "For Our dere Ladyes sake."
** Stanza 252Line 1005 ** Note that here Robin says that he will provide silver, but not gold, if the Virgin needs it. See the note on Stanza 49; it is somewhat curious to see silver promised here but gold paid out there.
** Stanza 253/Lines 1009-1012 ** Apparently the monk is being sent to London to try to get the King to deal with the Knight and give his lands to the abbot. (Something that formally should be done by Parliament with a bill of Pains and Penalties, but that's too complicated to put in a ballad.) This is obviously similar to a portion of the plot of the "Monk," which also involves St. Mary's. Here, as there, the monk is intercepted -- in each case, by John and Much. But here there is no rescue, just a preemptive strike.
That the monk's action is a legal one is proved by the word "mote" in the second line of the stanza. "Mote," or "moot" as we would usually spell it (think of "Entmoot," Tolkien fans), is a term "constantly associated with law," according to Gummere, p. 318.
Clawson, pp. 21-22, thinks that stanzas 253-254 contradict each other somewhat, and are out of place after stanza 252. He would move 253-257 to a location around stanza 232. Clawson's arrangement makes sense, and could possibly have arisen if the common ancestor of our prints had an arrangement of five stanza per page and became disarranged, but I do not think the disorder enough to justify such a drastic change.
** Stanza 256/Line 1021 ** The text of this line is troublesome and probably damaged (see textual note); the sense is probably that Robin asks what, or how much money, the monk is carrying on another horse.
** Stanza 256/Line 1024 ** "That were no curteysye." For the importance of courtesy, see the note on Stanza 2; for Robin's courtesy to the Monk, see Stanza 226.
** Stanza 257/Lines 1026-1027 ** Could Shakespeare have known this little bit of casuistry? Compare Falstaff's justification of his less-than-honourable ways: "Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal, 'tis no sin for a man to labor in his vocation" (1 Henry IV, I.ii, lines 104-105 in RiversideShakespeare).
** Stanzas 259-260/Lines 1035-1040 ** The monk has enough self-possession enough to try a little irony:, saying in effect, "The food is cheaper in Blythe and Doncaster." Robin, not to be outdone, in effect praises the abbot for sending such a profitable victim.
** Stanza 259/Line 1036 ** "Blith or...Dankestre", i.e. Blythe or Doncaster, for which see the note to Stanza 28. In this case, since we are absolutely certain the monk is going to London (stanza 253), this is strong evidence that the scene is Barnsdale, not Sherwood. This reinforces the sense that the knight was heading south in stanza 28.
** Stanza 263/Line 1049 ** Is this the palfrey Robin gave the knight in Stanza 77? We cannot say.
** Stanza 263/Line 1051 ** For courtesy see the note on Stanza 2. The knight again shows courtesy in 270.
** Stanza 265/Lines 1059-1060 ** Robin, having pretended that the monk was bringing the knight's money, perhaps continues the pretense here -- since Robin has been paid, the knight has no necessary reason to show up.
** Stanza 266/Line 1063 ** For the difficult problem of the "hye iustice" see the note on Stanza 93. Here, however, there is no textual variant.
** Stanza 268/Line 1069 ** There are very many problems with the text of this verse; several lines are probably missing. See the textual mote. Kittredge suggests that "a grefe" should be read as "a-grefe," in other words, don't take a grievance, don't hold a grudge.
** Stanza 270/Line 1079 ** Twenty marks of interest. See note on stanza 121.
** Stanza 271/Line1081-1084 ** For the story of Mary's repayment of the knight's loan, see the note on Stanza 214. This particular passage is reminiscent of the story of Joseph and his brothers in Genesis 42-44. Jospeh's brothers, jealous of the fact that he was his father's favorite, sold him into Egypt. There Joseph became the vizier. When famine hit Canaan, the brothers had to go down to Egypt for food. They brought money, but Joseph (who knew them although they did not recognize him) played a trick on them, causing the money to be placed in their sacks of grain. The famine was long, and eventually they were forced to come to Egypt again. When they came, they tried to explain, and Joseph declared (Genesis 43:23) "your God and the God of your father must have put treasure in your sacks for you; I received your money." (After some additional testing of his brothers, Joseph finally concluded that they had reformed, and all lived happily every after, but that has no parallel in this tale).
** Stanza 272/Lines 1085-1086 ** Note that Robin, in these lines, refuses to commit usury by accepting more than what he is owed. Admittedly he took the payment from the wrong source -- but he does not collect more than his due. It is a peculiar form of honesty, but considering the behavior of modern bankers (with their careful scheduling of payments to generate overdraft fees, and their concealment of loan terms), perhaps we ought not criticise.
** Stanza 274/Line 1096 ** For Robin's "trystel tre(e)" see the note on Stanza 176.
** Stanza 275/Line1102 ** There is a variant here, probably caused by the fact that "tresure" does not appear to rhyme with "me." " But "treasure" is doubtless to be pronounced "treasury."
** Stanzas 280-281/Lines 1117-1124 ** Although the copies all place the end of the fourth fit after stanza 280, internal evidence clearly indicates that the fits should be divided after stanza 281 (observe the use of the "lythe and listen" formula at the beginning of 282).
Of course, it is a genuine question whether the fits are authorial or editorial. The latter strikes me as more probable, in which case the fits have no authority anyway. My guess would be that the fits were marked by the editor who produced the first printed edition, and all the later printers followed that first ediiton -- and the editor marked "Fyfth Fytte" in the margin of the source manuscript alongside stanza 281, meaning it to follow 281, but hte compositor set it before.
** Stanza 282/Lines 1125-1126 ** Observe the parallel to the first stanza, which also begins "Lyth and listin, gentilmen," and to stanzas 144 and 317. For notes on this introductory formula, see the notes to stanza 1.
** Stanza 282/Lines 1125-1128 ** In Fit 5, as in Fit 3, the Sheriff of Nottingham is Robin's chief opponent, and there is no indication that a new sheriff has been appointed. But the Sheriff of Fit 3 is a relatively incompetent figure of fun. The Sheriff of Fit 5 comes close to destroying Robin (Holt1, p. 25). In Stanza 15, Robin had warned against the Sheriff; one suspects the warning was against the Sheriff of Fit 5, not the one of Fit 3. For more about the status of sheriffs, and why the new sheriff might have been closer to the king than the old, see the notes on Stanza 15.
This is the second archery contest of the "Gest"; for the first, see the note to Stanzas 145-146. Robin and his men will stage their own in stanza 397. But this one is different; it is supposed to bring in all the best archers of the North. Given that Robin's men in Stanza 301 almost fall victim to an ambush, this raises the possibility that the contest was intended to lure Robin into a trap. We see this made explicit in the Forresters version of "Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow" [Child 152] (Knight, p. 23).
** Stanza 285/Lines 1137-1140 ** The golden arrow as a prize for an archery contest. This strikes me as a rather strange prize; in a time when life was relatively short and people were poor, mementos like this were not popular; in the absence of another prize, the winner would probably have to melt it down. Nor would it be an effective arrow, since the gold would blunt and the silver break. Nonetheless the idea seems to have inspired "Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow" [Child 152].
Estimating the value of the arrow is difficult, because we don't have its dimensions. It probably wasn't a full "cloth yard." A reasonable assumption is that it would be the length of a war arrow -- about 28 inches (Featherstone, p. 65), or 70 centimeters. The shaft, by implication, had a diameter of about .3 inches, or .75 cm. The point would be a pyramid 2 inches (Featherstone, p. 66), or 5 cm., long and with sides about 75 cm. So the golden arrowhead would have a volume of about 1 cubic centimeter. Add perhaps 50% for the golden feathers and we get 1.5 cc. The density of gold is 19 grams per cubic centimeter. So the weight of gold is 28.5 grams -- a hair over one ounce; the difference is well within our margin of error, which is on the order of 50% even assuming we've guessed the right kind of point for the arrow.
The volume of silver is a little more than 30 cubic centimeters. The density of silver is 10.5 grams per cubic centimeter. So the total mass of silver is about 325 grams, or 11.5 ounces. So the total value, in silver equivalent, is about 30 oz. of silver. That's about 2.5 pounds sterling. It's a substantial sum to a yeoman, but one a royal official could probably afford. This makes rather more financial sense than many of the figures in the "Gest."
** Stanzas 287-288/Lines1145, 1151 ** "Yonge men" may be an archaism, the root form of "yeomen." (Or not; the point is disputed.) For yeomen note on Stanza 1.
** Stanza 287/Lines 1147-1148 ** Robin decides to participate in the Nottingham archery contest, declaring he "wyll wete [test] the shryues fayth, Trewe and yf he be." Ohlgren, p. 282, interprets this to mean that Robin will test whether the sheriff is true to the oath he swore in stanza 204 to be Robin's friend. This raises questions -- for starters, after that embarrassment, would the Sheriff still be sheriff?
But there is another point. The spelling in this line is not ""sherif," as in (for instance) stanzas 204 and 205, nor "sheryfe," as in stanza 282. Terminal e in middle English was often an optional syllable, for rhyme or meter, and i and y were really the same letter, so "sherif" and "sheryfe" were genuine variants. But "shryues"? That's about as close to "shreward," "rogue" (Dickins/Wilson, p. 306) as to "sherif"; also consider "shryn," "shrine" -- perhaps Robin made a pilgrimage and made some sort of conditional vow and wanted to see the effects?
It's just a feeling, but I suspect textual corruption here.
Even if "shryues" means "sherif," there is the possibility that Robin is not testing the Sheriff's oath of friendship but his promise to give the prize to the best archer no matter who it be -- that is, will he give the award to one of Robin's men? As it turns out, he will not -- a hint, it seems to me, that in fact it is a new sheriff.
Note however that in stanzas 296-298, Robin complains that the sheriff is untrue.
These lines give us another, very vague, parallel to the story of David and Saul., this time to 1 Samuel 20. By this time Saul is so jealous of David that he wants David dead. He had tried to have David killed by demanding that he kill a hundred Philistines as a bride-price for his daughter Michal -- but David, instead of dying, produced the hundred Philistine foreskins (the Hebrew text of 1 Samuel 18:27 in fact says that David killed two hundred, although the Greek says only one hundred). In 1 Samuel 19, Saul tries to take David in his bed, but David escapes.
In 1 Samuel 20, David and his friend Jonathan, Saul's son, agree to test Saul. David will be absent from Saul's monthly banquet. Saul will ask where he is. Jonathan will explain that he has gone to a family sacrifice, and has asked Jonathan for permission to do so. If Saul accepts the explanation, then David and Jonathan will know that David is safe; if Saul does not accept the explanation, then David must flee.
As it turns out, in 1 Samuel 20:30, Saul refuses Jonathan's explanation and even reviles Jonathan's mother, Saul's own wife.
Thus David tested Saul just as Robin tests the Sheriff, and just as Saul failed the test, so too does the Sheriff. And, in the end, Saul's lack of faith probably cost him his life (although it is not David who kills him), and certainly the Sheriff's lack of faith results in Robin killing him.
** Stanza 288/Line 1151 ** For Robin's seven score followers, see the note on Stanza 229.
** Stanza 292/Line1166 ** There is a variant here, over which outlaws hit the target, and whether they sliced or clave it; see the textual note. Knight/Ohlgren suggest, p. 161, that stanza 292 refers to a sort of "tiebreak" between Robin and Gilbert, the winners of the preliminary round, but the description of the contest is too brief for us to really assess what happened.
** Stanza 292/Lines 1167-1168 ** "Gylberte With the whyte hande." Until this point, the only outlaws given any real mention are Little John, Much the Miller's Son, and Scarlock, and John is the only one who has done much of anything. We have no background on Gilbert of the White Hand. (We do note that fg call him Gilbert of the "lylly white" hand.) As mentioned above, there was a 1501 mention of Gilbert by Gavin Douglas, but it tells us nothing except that he was associated with Robin by that year.
Is there any possibility that the name "Gilbert" was traditionally used for foresters? Young, p. 49, mentions a case in the time of Henry II when four knights were tried for killing a group of men including Gilbert the forester. But I know of no other foresters named Gilbert.
It is probably coincidence, but we find an instance in the reign Edward II of the bishop-elect of Durham and two cardinals being robbed by outlaws in the north of England (Hutchison, p. 88) -- a situation quite similar to "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford" [Child 144] as well as to portions of the "Gest." Prestwich3, p. 103, and McNamee, p. 84, say that the crime was committed by Gilbert de Middleton in 1317 -- exactly halfway into the reign of Edward II (and, astonishingly, exactly the time we would have expected Robin to have robbed the Monk if the knight had been talking of going on crusade in 1316). Phillips, p. 299, says that Middleton was one of Edward's household knights, as was one of his fellow robbers, Sir John de Lilburn.
Apparently all of this involved a local resident, John d'Eure, acknowledged a debt of 100 marks to John de Sapy, the keeper of the tenporalities of Durham, an agreement overseen by the Prior of Durham. This debt was only supposed to be paid if Louis de Beaumont was consecrated as Bishop of Durham (Philipps, p. 300). It's not the story of Robin, the Knight, and the Abbot, but it's surprisingly close.
According to Phillips, p. 299, the two cardinals were quickly released, but Bishop Louis of Durham, along with his brother Henry de Beaumont, were held for more than a month. The result was a political crisis, with Edward and the Earl of Lancaster each suspecting the other.
All this causes us to ask, Could "Gilbert de Middleton" have become "Gilbert of the White Hand"?
To be sure, Gilbert de Middleton's story does not end happily. He was captured in 1318, taken to London, tried, and executed (Phillips, p. 302).
As a really, *really* wild additional stretch, I'm going to mention the existence of a royal yeoman listed as "Robert le Ewer." The description on p. 437 of Phillips is astonishing: "One chronicler even described him as 'the prince of thieves'.... He appears to have served in the Scottish campaign but in September 1322 left the king secretly without permission and headed for his home county of Hampshire, where he allegedly acted like a Robin Hood, distributing the good of executed contrairants to the poor as alms for their souls."
As an alternate explanation for the name "white hand," Baldwin, p. 66, notes that Robert Earl of Leicester (1168-1190) was known as "Blanchemains," French for "White Hand." There is no reason to think Gilbert related to the Beaumonts of Leicester, however. Baldwin suggests that the name may have arisen because Earl Robert had vitiligo, which causes a sort of localized albinoism. But if we are getting speculative, we can wonder if there might not be a reason why Gilbert did not have a tan on his hands -- perhaps he had been a clerk or some such.
Some versions of the Tristam legend refer to "Isuelt of the White Hand" (CHEL1, p. 310), but I strongly doubt this is related.
** Stanza 293/Line 1170 ** Reynold. For Little John's use of the name Reynold Greenleaf, see the notes to Stanza 149. This is the only time in the "Gest" that Reynold is mentioned as an archer separate from Little John. (Although we do find Reynold listed amongh Robin's men in the list in the Winchester parliamentary roll of 1432; see the note on Stanza 4/Line 14). Scholars often treat this as a sign of inconsistency, and it surely is, but I wonder if, in the source, Little John did not compete under the name Reynold, and the compiler of the "Gest" failed to notice this.
** Stanza 295/Line 1179 ** For courtesy see the note on Stanza 2.
** Stanzas 296-298/Lines 1181-1192 ** For Robin's decision to test the value of the Sheriff's oath, see the note on Stanza 287. For the oath itself, see Stanza 204.
The first line of stanza 296, "They cryed out on Robyn Hode," is interesting. Who is doing the crying? The townsfolk of Nottingham? This is the suggestion of Knight/Ohlgren, p. 162, which obviously implies that Robin was not as popular with the townsfolk as some would have us think. It would also explain their fear of Robin and his men in Stanza 428. If it does mean the townsfolk, of course, it relieves the Sheriff of some of his guilt. But see the note on Stanza 301.
** Stanza 298/Line 1190 ** For Robin's "trystel tre(e)" see the note on Stanza 176.
** Stanza 301/Line 1201 ** The fact that an ambush has been laid in would seem to imply that the whole shooting contest was a trap -- not a legitimate contest but a way of luring Robin from the greenwood (see also the note on Stanza 282). This would seem to contradict the passage in stanza 296 implying that the townsfolk, not the sheriff, initiated the attack on Robin.
** Stanza 302/Lines 1205-1206 ** Little John's injury in the knee is similar to an event in the tale of Fulk FitzWarren, where Fulk is wounded in the leg (Baldwin, p. 37); also similar is the fact that both find shelter with a friendly knight.. Note however that in the tale of Fulk it is the hero himself, not his chief lieutenant, who is wounded. There is also a somewhat similar instance where Fulk's brother is wounded (Cawthorne, p. 115). Clawson, pp. 81-83, also notes a parallel in the story of William Wallace -- in which Wallace in fact executes the man, but another where Wallace rescues a man by carrying him on his back.
** Stanzas 303-305/Lines 1209-1220 ** The instances of an injured man pleading not to fall into the hands of an enemy are of course very old. Child, p. 54, has an eastern analogy involving one Giphtakis, but completely ignores the 3000 year old appeal of Saul of Israel, wounded by the Philistines on Gilboa, that his armor-bearer kill him rather than letting the Philistines capture him. This tale is told in 1 Samuel 31 -- the immediate follow-up to the raid on Ziklag., for which see Stanzas 338-339. There is, of course, the difference that there was no one to rescue Saul, who (when his armor-bearer could not bring himself to do the dead) fell on his own sword.
** Stanza 305/Lines1217-1220 ** Little John, if taken by the sheriff, would be tried and surely convicted -- and sentenced to death by torture. Very likely drawing and quartering -- castration, half-hanging, and evisceration, with his dead body cut into parts which would be displayed outside the gates of local towns. Given the sheriff's reasons to dislike John, we can hardly doubt that the punishment would be even more severe than usual. Little wonder that he begged for a quick, clean death!
It is interesting to see John call Robin's blade a "browne swerde"; elsewhere (Stanzas 202, 348) it is a "bright bronde."
** Stanza 309/Lines 1233-1236 ** Robin and his men come to a castle, which we learn in the next stanza belongs to Sir Richard at the Lee. This stanza describes it as a "fair castle, a little within the wood," walled, and with a double ditch.
This isn't much of a description -- after the Norman Conquest, the Normans studded England with what were called motte-and-bailey castles (Douglas, p. 216, who notes that this was one of the chief methods by which the Normans beat the English), which consisted of a ditch enclosing a palisade (wall), with the dirt used in digging the ditch carried inside to build a hill. Later, many of these had the palisade walls rebuilt in stone, but still, it would be hard to find a castle that didn't have a wall and ditch, and the addition of a second ditch was a cheap additional precaution.
Nonetheless Baldwin, p. 170, makes this description one of the keys to his identification of Sir Richard in the ballad with the historical Richard Foliot and his castle of Fenwick.
Clawson, p. 84, notes that the Sheriff probably could not expect to have enough men to overwhelm Robin and his seven score men, which is probably true. On this bases, Clawson (who regards this fit as an expansion of a ballad of Robin escaping the Sheriff) thinks the business with the castle an expansion. On the other hand, there is no guarantee that the original of this story assumed that Robin had so many followers.
** Stanza 310/Line 1238 ** "Syr Rychard at the Lee," or Sir Richard at Lee, as it is usually modermized. Note that, although Sir Richard is linked with the knight of the first four fits, this is the first time he is named -- an indication, presumably, of the composite nature of the "Gest." The poet has combined two tales, and claimed the knight of one is the knight of the other. Nonetheless the tale hints that they are distinct -- Sir Richard is close at hand when Robin and his men flee the Sheriff of Nottingham, which implies that he lived near Barnsdale or Sherwood. But the knight of stanza 126 lives in Verysdale, believed to be in Lancashire.
This is not as strong an objection as it sounds. We know from stanza 49 that the knight has land worth 400 pounds. The value of an ordinary manor would be measured in the tens of pounds in the fourteenth century. The knight almost certainly has at least three manors, and six to ten is a better bet. So there is no reason why he should not have manors in both Lancashire and south Yorkshire -- or, if we accept "Ayredale" for "Verysdale" in stanza 126, then he could have manors in north and south Yorkshire.
The real issue is the use of the name "Richard at Lee." One suggestion is that the name is derived from a Lord Mayor of London in Edward IV's time, Richard Lee (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 134). This possibility cannot be ruled out, but neither is there really anything to commend it.
Clawson's hypothesis (p. 101) regarding the origin of the "Gest" involves a very large number of sources, and he suggests that the compiler inserted the name here from a portion of one of the sources he used later on. But why, then, not introduce it in the first fit as well?
It is interesting to note that, in "The Noble Fisherman, or, Robin Hood's Preferment" [Child 148], Robin takes service with a fisherman under the name "Simon over the Lee" (stanza 7 in Child's text) -- the name "Simon" likely being suggested by the fact that Simon Peter was a fisherman, and became a fisher of men (Matthew 4:18-19 and parallels). It is even more interesting to observe that, in the Forresters Manuscript version of this ballad, which in this case seems to preserve an earlier form, Robin becomes "Simon of the Lee," (Knight, p. xvi), exactly paralleling the form in the "g" print of the "Gest." This late ballad would seem to imply that Robin was taking the knight's title.
Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 167, has a rather far-out suggestion for the use of the name at this point, based on the existence of the "other" Munday Robin Hood play, "Metropolis Coronata, The Triumphes of Ancient Drapery." Ohlgren mentions this piece and dates it to 1615. Then Ohlgren makes one of his flying leaps into quicksand. On p. 168, Ohlgren makes the observation that the fact that the "Metropolis Coronata" was written for a Lord Mayor means that the Robin Hood story was thus freely adapted to the situations of specific persons.
Because this happened once, Ohlgren, p. 169, speculates that the "Gest" might have been written for the London Mayor Sir Richard Lee, made Lord Mayor in 1460 and 1469 -- although not knighted until 1471. This would make a lot more sense if Sir Richard's name had been used throughout, rather than only in the latter half of the "Gest," and if the name had been "Richard Lee," not "Richard at the Lee," and if he had been a knight at the time Ohlgren would have us believe the "Gest" was performed.
Ohlgren, p. 169, explains the concealment of the Knight's name by analogy to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, where Sir Bertilak is not named until the end. This hypothesis of course suffers from the substantial problem that Gawain could not be allowed to know that Bertilak is the Green Knight, whereas there is no reason to hide the Knight's name.
** Stanza 312/Line 1246 ** For courtesy see the note on Stanza 2.
** Stanza 313/Line 1251 ** For Child's reading "proud[e]" see the note on Stanza 282.
** Stanza 315/Lines 1258-1259 ** Saint Quentin was an early martyr, slain in Gaul. His dates are unknown, but it was early enough that he was in conflict with Roman authorities (DictSaints, p. 206). He was not well-known in England; his cult was centered in France. He was not the patron saint of anything in particular. It is curious to find Sir Richard invoking him, unless he was a family saint dating back to the time before the Conquest. This is a strong argument against the idea that Robin Hood was a pro-Saxon rebel; he would not in that case be friends with a guy swearing by Norman saints.
Knight/Ohlgren, p. 162, suggest that Sir Richard swears by Saint Quentin because he is promising to spare Robin from Quentin's fate. Alternately, we might suggest that the day is October 31, Quentin's feast day.
The "forty days" of the next line (in Child's text; see the textual note) was the traditional annual period of feudal military service. It might also be an allusion to something such as the forty days and forty nights of rain during Noah's Flood in Genesis 7:4, etc., or the forty days Moses was on the mountain in Exodus 24:18, or the forty days Jesus fasted in the wilderness in Matt. 4:2, etc. The most likely explanation, however, is to the traditional right of sanctuary in a church: a wrongdoer was allowed protection there for forty days before being expelled into exile or civil custody (Lyon, p. 160). Hence the knight would seem to be offering Robin the same sanctuary that he would get from a church.
If the correct reading is, as I believe, "twelve days," there is no obvious source for the reading. Perhaps the twelve days of Christmas/Epiphany? But there is no hint of this in the text.
** Stanza 316/Line 1261 ** Gummere, p. 318, interprets "Bordes were layde" to mean that tables were set up by laying boards on trestles, although one might also understand this as meaning that the sideboards were filled (laden).
Last updated in version 2.6
File: C117G

Gest of Robyn Hode, A [Child 117] --- Part 09

DESCRIPTION: Continuation of the notes to "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. Entry continues in "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117] --- Part 10 (File Number C117I). This entry contains notes on Fits VI-VIII of the "Gest."
Last updated in version 2.6
NOTES [16105 words]: ** Stanza 317-318/Lines 1265-1272 ** Here again we have the "Lyth and listin, gentilmen" formula of stanzas 1, 144, and 282. For notes on this introductory formula, see the notes to stanza 1.
These stanzas, however, contain several additional curious readings (see the textual notes). As they currently stand, Stanza 317 ends in mid-sentence. This is unusual although not entirely unknown in the "Gest."
Observe also that, as it is written, we learn that the "proude shyref... full cam to the hye shyref." This on its face implies TWO sheriffs. Possibly the poet is simply using "hye" to refer to any senior official, as some texts refer to the "hye justice" in stanza 93. But this still seems to leave us with two sheriffs. And there is no such office as the "hye shyref." Possibly the poet uses this title to contrast with the under-sheriff (since the sheriff was for long the chief royal official of a county, he necessarily had many subordiates -- Mortimer, p. 66, lists deputy sheriffs, summoners, clerks, sergeants, "ministers," and bailiffs).
But the reference to a separate high sheriff would, on its face, make Robin's enemy the under-sheriff. It was unlikely enough that a sheriff was a lord with a castle and many servants. It is frankly unbelievable that an under-sheriff would have such. Presumably the intent of these lines is that the Sheriff raised some sort of hue and cry.
** Stanza 319/Line 1274 ** "Traytour knight." To charge the knight with treason is formally false; even after Edward III broadened and clarified the statute of treason in 1352, it included only plotting the death of the monarch, levying war against the monarch, raping the King's eldest daugher, killing royal justices in performance of their duties, and importing forged coins (Prestwich3, pp. 230-231). Clearly the knight had done none of these. However, the laws of treason were easily stretched -- Edward I had executed William Wallace on a charge of treason, even though Wallace never acknowleged Edward as his king (Prestwich, p. 503). Edward II, similarly, had a great many men executed on treason charges in 1322 (Phillips, p. 410). Some, like the Earl of Lancaster, were guilty to a degree, but some, like Bartholomew Badlesmere, had merely disagreed with the King until Edward forced him into open rebellion. Edward then arranged that he suffer an unusually harsh execution (Phillips, p. 411).
One suspects that the Sheriff was using the threat of a treason charge to frighten the knight into giving up Robin. The penalty for treason, as suffered by William Wallace, was drawing and quartering, one of the most painful and horrid deaths possible. This was similar to what was suffered by Badlesmere. (And probably why Little John begged for a quick death in Stanza 305.) If the Sir Richard gave up Robin, the likely penalty for harboring a fugitive would have been merely a fine. So the sheriff offered a strong incentive.
If the King is in fact Edward II, and if this in fact takes place about a year before Edward's visit north in 1323, then the charge becomes particularly telling: "Give up Robin Hood, or the King will do to you as he just did to Badlesmere and all the other rebels who fought with Lancaster."
Here again we have a Biblical parallel from the story of David, this one told in 2 Samuel chapter 20. After the rebellion of Absalom failed, Sheba son of Bichri rebelled against David. The rebellion quickly failed, and Sheba fled to Abel-Bethmaacah. David's army, under Joab, demanded the surrender of Sheba, implying that the city would be sacked if Sheba was not surrendered, but spared if Sheba were turned over. The outcome, however, was different: The residents of Abel gave up Sheba, throwing his head over the wall to Joab.
** Stanza 320/Line 1280 ** Sir Richard declares himself "a trewe knyght." Compare Stanza 47, where the knight declares that he is a proper knight; Stanza 109, where he promises to be a true servant if treated properly; Stanza 114, where he says he is not a false knight.
**Stanza 321/Line 1283** The Knight appeals to the King's will. Robin will do the same in stanza 353. This touchingly naive faith in the King's justice is somewhat reminiscent of the actions of Paul in Acts 25:11-12, where Paul, having been arrested and kept in prison for a long time without charge, appeals to Caesar (rendered "the Emperor" in some versions), to escape local justice. It is highly unlikely that this was a direct source for the "Gest," but might underlie it at some removes.
** Stanzas 331-332/Lines 1321-1328 ** If we need proof that the knight was in good financial shape by this time, these stanzas prove it: Hawking was an expensive and aristocratic sport. Knight/Ohlgren, p. 163, point out that the knight would not be properly armed while hawking (which requires special gloves and such rather than armor), making the sheriff's behavior in arresting him at this time somewhat improper. This is dubious, but the sheriff's decision to bind him hand and foot (stanza 333) is certainly improper behavior toward a member of the gentry who, as far as we can tell, has not been outlawed. Although the King had said in stanza 325 that he would take Robin Hood, that is not by itself a jury finding -- and Magna Carta had guaranteed the right to trial by jury long before Edward I took the throne.
The intent of the last line of 331 is not entirely clear (due in part to a textual variant), but if we are to understand that the sheriff let the hawk(s) fly loose, it means that he has done the knight monetary damage in addition to arresting him.
Clawson, p. 89, points out an inconsistency here: That the knight should have known better than to go hawking in public when he knew the Sheriff would be after him. He thinks this indicates that the compiler has shifted sources. However, this does not really fit his source-critical analysis. Probably the Knight just didn't think the Sheriff would watch him that closely.
** Stanza 336/Line 1343 ** Note that knight's wife invokes the Virgin Mary in asking Robin for help. This might be an appeal to Robin's known love for the Virgin -- but it also recalls his promise in Stanza 251 the if Mary has "nede to Robyn Hode," he will be her friend.
** Stanzas 338-339/Lines 1352-1353 ** These lines are missing in all the early prints, making this one of the most important defect in the "Gest"; see the textual notes.
There is a bit of a hint at the career of David here. David, after Saul tried to murder him, entered the service of the Philistines. The Philistines were preparing the the climactic campaign against Saul which ended in the Battle of Mount Gilboa (for which see the note to Stanzas 303-305). David and his company (supposedly 600 men) were preparing to serve on the Philistine side against Israel. But a majority of the Philistine leaders did not want an Israelite serving in their army at the great battle; they feared he would turn on them. They sent David to his home in Ziklag (1 Samuel 29).
When David got home, he found that Amelekites had raided Ziklag, and taken the wives, children, and relatives of David's soldiers prisoner (1 Samuel 30:1-2). David, frightened of his own men (who were brigands, after all), asked an oracle whether he should pursue them, and was told "Pursue, for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue" (1 Samuel 30:9). And, indeed, even as Saul was being killed at Gilboa (very conveniently for David), David overtook the raiders and rescued his wives and his followers' families.
** Stanza 342/Line 1366 ** For Robin's seven score followers, see the note on Stanza 229.
** Stanza 345/Lines 1379-1380 ** Note that Robin here asks the Sheriff for tidings of the king. This is perhaps an indication that Robin, despite being an outlaw, still is devoted to the King. We will see many more such indications in the seventh fit, where Robin honors the monk who comes from the king.
** Stanza 346/Lines1381-1382 ** Robin says that he has not moved this fast on foot in seven years. Probably this is just a conventional statement -- but it is interesting that it was seven years from 1316, which for various reasons seems to be roughly the time the knight went into debt, to 1323 when Edward II made his trip to the north.
** Stanzas 347-348/Lines 1385-1392 ** Why did not Robin's arrow kill the sheriff itself? Although improvements in plate armor meant that a longbow could no longer piece armor at long range by the mid-1400s (Reid, p. 353), the two were within speaking range, and an arrow fired at that range could still pierce armor. Probably the sheriff was dead and Robin simply made sure. But there is also a symbolic element: in Stanza 202, the sheriff swore on Robin's "bright brand"; since he broke the oath, the bright brand is used to execute him.
Pollard, pp. 107-108, sees a symbolic element to the whole episode of the sheriff: Killing the corrupt official is one half of restoring true justice (the other half being the receipt of the King's pardon). He adds that there was an "inextricable link between violence and the law in fifteenth century society." This is unquestionably true -- one of the major causes and side effects of the Wars of the Roses was that nobles settled their differences in battle rather than in the courts -- but it was hardly held up as ideal. And fifteenth century, which opened with the overthrow of Richard II and also saw the overthrows of Henry VI (twice), Edward IV (temporarily), and Richard III, was a period when the king's power to grant pardon and justice was hardly taken seriously -- a man pardoned by one king could expect to be subject to severe persecution by the next. In any case, Pollard's case is based on a fifteenth century date.
The cutting off of the head really sounds more like the Robin Hood of "Guy of Gisborne" than the Robin of the rest of the "Gest," however -- and surely he would not have been so crude to a man who supposedly was the husband of the Sheriff's wife of the Potter. Note that Robin accuses the sheriff's body of falsehood in the next stanza.
Child gives the last line of stanza 348 as "With his bright[e] bronde." "Brighte" is the reading of bdfg; a has "bright." In stanza 202, both a and b read "bright." We must at least allow for the possibility that the copyist of a assimilated this verse to that. "Brighte" is also better metrically. Although Knight/Ohlgren, p. 163, prefer to read "bright," the case for "brighte" appears slightly better.
Note that this isn't the only time in the early ballads that Robin kills the Sheriff. He does so also in "Guy of Gisborn" (cf. Holt1, pp. 32-33). Does this mean that there were several traditions of how Robin killed the sheriff, or that there were none and that different sources came up with different means? We cannot really say.
** Stanza 351/Line 1402 ** In this stanza Robin cuts... something... in two to free the knight. It may have been his "hoode" or his bonds; see the textual note. Perhaps the the guards could have tied the knight's hood over his eyes to prevent him from seeing. Also, "hode" sometimes seems to be used to refer to the head, or the contents of the hood, but this hardly helps. In practical terms, of course, it does not matter; what counts is that Robin cut the knight free.
If the original reading was "hoode," it is interesting to see that it is spelled with a double o, while Robin's name is spelled "Hode," with only one o.
** Stanza 352/Lines 1405-1406 ** Robin bids the knight to abandon his horse (the horse Robin gave him?) and run with the outlaws. For residents of an actual forest, this is always good advice -- but it makes less sense if Robin inhabits open land that is only nominally forest (which was the case for much of Barnsdale).
This may be a dating hint, sine it was not until the reign of Edward III that archers were mounted. So it makes sense, if we are in the reign of Edward II or earlier, for archers to be unmounted. On the other hand, this seems to contradict the situation in Stanza 152, where the Sheriff offers John a horse.
** Stanza 353/Line 1411 ** For this "appeal to Caesar," see the note on stanza 321.
Clawson, p. 113, makes an interesting point here: unlike almost all stories of penitents being helped by the King, Robin does not make a direct appeal, even though Robin in this verse strongly implies that he is seeking pardon. Robin will not leave the greenwood, which he loves, to go to the King. So the King must come to Robin. Clawson implies that a large part of this section is rewriting designed to turn a story of a normal appeal to the King into a case of the King coming to the suppliant.
** Stanza 353/Line 1412 ** "Edwarde, our comly kynge." Although there have been references to the King before this (stanzas 319, 321, 322, 325, 326, 345), this is the first one which gives him a name -- and it isn't William, Henry, Richard, or John, it's Edward.
There were six Kings Edward in English history before the first certain reference to Robin Hood as a figure of folklore: Edward the Elder (reigned c. 899-925), Edward the Martyr (c. 973-978), Edward the Confessor (1042-1066), Edward I (1272-1307), Edward II (1307-1327), and Edward III (1327-1377). There was another Edward, Edward IV (reigned 1461-1470 and 1461-1483) who lived before the "Gest" was published, and in some ways he fits the ballad -- but the piece would almost certainly have had to have been rewritten to refer to him, and this would likely have taken place in Tudor times. Not likely when Henry VII was trying to make a claim that he was the legitimate King (which he simply wasn't).
We can instantly reject the first three Edwards (the Elder, the Martyr, and the Confessor), because they lived before the Norman Conquest. The very fact that Our Hero is named "Robin" -- diminutive of "Robert" -- proves that he must be post-Conquest. The name "Robert" is Franko-Norman; William the Conqueror's father was named Robert, as was his eldest son. Checking multiple histories, I can find *no* pre-Conquest Englishmen named Robert; the index in Swanton lists 16 men named Robert -- and only one lived in England pre-conquest, and he was Robert Archbishop of Canterbury, and seems to have been an import from France (this was the period when Edward the Confessor was favoring Normans over Englishmen). Barlow-Rufus , p. 164, notes that Robert was, after William, the most common name among post-Conquest Norman office-holders.
The introduction discusses the matter of which Edward is meant. The only help we have in this verse is the fact that this Edward is called "comely." (A description also used for the king in line 331 of the "Monk," although this does not necessarily imply dependence; it was probably conventional).
Keen, p. 143, reminds us that Edward IV (reigned 1461-1470 and 1471-1483) was, in his prime, considered the handsomest man in Europe (cf. Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 150, which attributes the observation to Knight, not Keen). Knight/Ohlgren, p. 163, and Pollard, p. 200, point out that Edward III was called "our cumly King" in Laurence Minot's Poem IV; Ohlgren is convinced (and Pollard, p. 201, seems to accept the argument) that this means the "Gest" is about Edward III. This even though Ohlgren admits (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 147) that there is "no direct evidence" that the author of the "Gest" knew Minot. Nor was Minot popular; only one copy of his works survived (British Library, MS. Cotton Galba IX, according to CHEL1, p. 356). Although the author of the "Gest" would have had access to Minot if anyone did; Minot's verse shows signs of northern dialect and he seems to have known a lot about Yorkshire (CHEL1, p. 357).
Ohlgren then goes on (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 148) to suggest that the allusions, originally to Edward III, were then adapted to Edward IV.
The argument is however neutral; Edward I, Edward II, and Edward III were all tall and majestic, if not quite so handsome as Edward IV. The chronicles call Edward II "Fair of body and great of strength" and "Of a well proportioned and handsome person" (Doherty, p. 35). The anonymous author of the Life of Edward II, in speaking of the new King Edward III, hoped that he would have the traits of his ancestors: The energy of Henry II, the bravery of Richard I, the long life and reign of Henry III, the wisdom of Edward I -- and the good looks of Edward II (Ormrod, p. 47). In any case the phrase "comely king" is probably just a customary description.
There is another problem with making Edward IV the King of the "Gest," and that is that there is no hint in the "Gest" of the context of the Wars of the Roses. This even though the greatest of the battles in the Wars (indeed, believed to be the biggest battle ever fought in Britain) was the 1461 Battle of Towton (Reid, pp. 410-412). The preliminaries included two fights at Ferrybridge (Wagner, p. 272), which is right in the middle of Robin Hood country and might even be where the Knight saw the wrestling (see note on Stanza 126). The Towton battlefield itself is just a little north of there, between Ferrybridge and Tadcaster on the river Cock (see map on p. 428 of Reid). There was also a battle at Wakfield (see the map on p. 317 of Wagner). And, in 1469, Edward IV planned to gather his armies at Doncaster, although he never made it there (Castor, p. 203).
The conclusion is inevitable: If Robin Hood lived in Barnsdale in the reign of Edward IV, there would surely be some mention of these events. (To be sure, it's different if Robin lived in Sherwood.)
Plus, before we can say that the "Gest" refers to Edward IV, we have to prove that its current form comes from the reign of Edward IV. This has been asserted but not demonstrated.
To sum up: If we are to figure out which Edward is Robin Hood's king, we shall have to use other arguments than just the fact that he is here called "comely."
** Stanza 354/Lines 1413-1414 ** It is extremely unlikely that the King would come all the way to Nottingham simply to deal with an outlaw band and a disobedient knight. Edward I, it is true, spent some time chasing after William Wallace, but that is almost the only instance. Presumably he had other business. Unfortunately, Nottingham was a place English kings visited fairly often -- it was roughly the northern limit of their usual circuit. So this by itself is not a dating hint -- although there are several hints in the following stanzas.
** Stanzas 357-358/Lines 1425-1427 ** "Lancasshyre... Plomton Parke... He fauled many of his dere." In other words, the King went to a hunting reserve in Lancashire, called Plumpton Park, but was upset to find it almost devoid of deer. (A common problem, apparently; by the fifteenth century, red deer were nearly gone throughout the south and midlands, according to Pollard, p. 60, and presumably even the fallow deer were badly threatened in some places.)
It is interesting to note that Plompton Park is also mentioned in "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth," stanza 38 -- Child's version of the family of ballads referred to above as "King Edward and the Hermit." Knight/Ohlgren, p. 164, point out that Plumpton/Plompton is also mentioned in The Noble Fisherman, or, Robin Hood's Preferment" [Child 148] (stanza 13) -- Simon in that song wishes he were hunting deer in the park. It is not clear whether there is literary dependence.
Several locations have been proposed for "Plumpton Park"; Holt lists them on p. 101. His own preference is for Plumpton Wood in Lancashire, near the forest of Myerscough. Child, pp. 54-55, mentions a couple of possibilities, listing first Camden's suggestion of a location on the bank of the Petterel in Cumbria east of Inglewood; this was also Ritson's preferred site (Knight/Ohlgren, p. 164). Dobson/Taylor, p. 105, prefer Hunter's suggestion of Plumpton Park near Knaresborough in Yorkshire (about halfway between York and Harrowgate), a choice also mentioned, rather disapprovingly, by Child, and with strong approval by Baldwin, p. 23. I note that the Plumpton family was still based in the West Riding of Yorkshire in the reign of Edward IV (Ross-Edward, p. 200). Knight/Ohlgren, p. 164 are convinced it is in Inglewood Forest, where there was a Plumpton Hay. But it hardly matters which one is meant. It is a northern forest which has been hunted out, and Robin Hood is thought to be to blame.
Holt1, p. 156 quotes a document describing "great destruction of the game" in the lands which had formerly belonged to Thomas of Lancaster, which is extremely interesting in connection to Edward II's northern trip of 1322-1323, although it does ot tell us which Plumpton is involved.
It is certain that there was a Plumpton Park in existence from a very early date; we know that Geoffrey de Neville in 1279-1281 was repairing a paling and hiring men to guard a park and lawn within in (Young, p. 115). This Plumpton was in Inglewood (Young, p. 116).
There is a summary of the forest laws in Knight/Ohlgren, pp. 164-165, and much detail (naturally) in Young, who notes on p. 3. that "the royal forest of first of all an area in which a special kind of law --the forest law -- applied." On pp. 28-29, Young lists twelve major points of the laws as enforced by Henry II. Several of these are of great significance to the Robin Hood legend, including #2, that no one should have bows, arrows, or dogs in the royal forest; #3, that wood could not be taken from the forests; #4-#7, assuring that foresters guarded the forest; #7, charging the foresters with guarding venison (game) and vert (trees and habitat); and #8, that a forester was responsible for any unexplained destruction in the forest (making the forester responsible for suppressing people like Robin)
The forest laws before the Norman Conquest were relatively mild, but William the Conqueror started putting lands into royal forests, eventually including about a quarter of England (Young, p. 5), meaning that much "forest" was not woodland but merely land designated for the King's purposes. The primary purpose of the laws was to preserve trees and game where they existed. They also brought in some revenue from the farming out of the office of forester (Young, p. 14; on p. 52, Young mentions a case of a man paying 900 marks=600 pounds to become forester of Cumbria!), so Robin's band might be costing the King money as well as game.
The punishments for violating the laws varied over time, at least in practice if not officially; item #30 or so in the lengthy list of proofs that Richard I was not Robin's king comes in the fact that Richard ordered poachers of the deer to be blinded and castrated. Only in the period of the Magna Carta were these penalties relaxed --the forest charter of 1217 declared that no one would be executed or mutilated for violation of the forest laws (Young, p. 67).
Even before that, fines were a more typical punishment, and even those were often forgiven (Young, p. 30) -- but even a fine could destroy a serf. And the fines could be huge -- one year, forest eyres brought in 12,000 pounds, although between 1000 and 2000 was more typical (Young, p. 39). Even these often were kept on the books for decades because they went unpaid (Young, p. 40). A man who failed to pay could, under the later forest laws, be imprisoned for a year and a day and then exilded (Young, p. 68).
There is another footnote: "Park," like "Forest," was an officially designated area. The forest laws applied, but with some modifications (Young, p. 45). The custodians of a park were not foresters but, logically, parkers. A park was fenced to keep the game within (or without), and one of the tasks of the parker was to maintain the fence -- a park could be seized by the king if the enclosure was not tight (Young, p. 96). I gain the impression that parks were much more closely controlled than forests, so for Robin to be raiding a park was a significant accomplishment.
This hunting episode is by far the strongest dating hint in the "Gest." Almost all kings of England hunted deer, but they rarely went as far as Lancashire to do it; it was too long a trip, and the north of England too unsettled and uncomfortable.
As it turns out, all three Edwards spent time in the north of England -- but Edward I and Edward III were fighting the Scots, not hunting.
Of the kings of England in this period, we know that Richard I liked hunting -- indeed, we know that his one approach to Sherwood Forest was to hunt there (Gillingham, p. 242). John's son Henry III was "indifferent to hunting" (Baldwin, p. 114).
In 1852, Joseph Hunter (probably the first quality Robin Hood scholar, and the one who, according to Holt1, p. 179, restored the "Gest" to its rightful place in the legend) showed that the only King Edward who made a progress to northern England which resembled that of the "Gest" was Edward II, who visited Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Nottingham in 1323 (Holt1, p. 45). This was in the aftermath of one of the myriad baronial conflicts of Edward II's reign. He had finally managed to defeat and execute his long-time enemy the Earl of Lancaster (Hutchison, p. 114), and spent a period of months in the north of England trying to deal with the aftermath of the baronial conflict and with Scotland. While this was going on, he naturally spent time hunting and otherwise amusing himself.
Phillips, p. 73, says that Edward II had only an "occasional" interest in hunting, but most of his other biographers seem to think he was very keen for the hunt; his huntsman wrote the first English hunting manual (Hutchison, p. 10), and Edward himself spent great sums upon related activities, importing horses from Lombardy and buying a dead earl's entire stud and delighting in hounds (Doherty, p. 28). We also know that, in a conflict over forest laws, he gave in but reserved the right to hunt in the lands which he allowed to be disafforested (Young, p. 144). Even his wife Isabella is said to have engaged in hunting (Doherty, p. 176). Whereas Prestwich1, p. 115, thinks that Edward I was more interested in falconry (compare Powicke, p. 228).
In any case, even if Edward himself did not hunt, he would need a steady supply of meat for his table --and for the pet lion he kept (Phillips, p. 93). So he would be concerned if a forest had been hunted out even if he did not intend to hunt it himself. Plus parks reportedly brought in income as well as game (Young, p. 96; Barber, p. 39 notes that in the reign of Edward III, bad park management resulted in a shortfall of no less than a thousand pounds), so a hunted-out park might cost the treasury much-needed income.
To be sure, Child, p. 55, tartly comments, "Hunter, who could have identified Pigromitus and Quinapallus, if he had given his mind to it, sees in this passage, and in what precedes it of King Edward's trip to Nottingham, a plausible semblence of historical reality. Edward II, as may be shown from Rymer's Foedera, made a progress in the counties of York, Lancaster, and Nottingham, in the latter part of the year 1323. He was in Yorkshire in August and September, in Lancashire in October, at Nottingham November 9-23." (He also visited Nottingham in March/April, Baldwin, p. 57. Baldwin, like Child, does not think Edward's visit the source of the legend, but notes that many were made outlaws in Edward II's time, and thinks the visit might have led to tales of outlawry which contributed to the legend; Baldwin, pp. 58-59.)
Child is surely correct in thinking that Hunter wrang much more out of the historical data than is justified -- as Holt1, p. 47, points out, Hunter's argument was circular in that he started with the "Gest," found some people who might just possibly have been those mentioned in the "Gest," and then used the "Gest" to try to prove what he had assumed. But Holt1, p. 56, concedes that Child did "less than justice to Hunter's case" -- and I agree. *If* the "Gest" is to be linked to any actual historical events, this is the key date. The King Edward of these stanzas is Edward II. Our only hesitation about this conclusion is that the "Gest" is composite, or not intended to be based on history. This could be an isolated fragment associated with Edward II, with other parts of the piece deriving from other contexts.
** Stanza 359/Lines 1433-1434 ** Wild rages were characteristic of all the Plantagenets (except the feeble-minded Henry VI and the forgiving Edward IV and Richard III), and are no key to dating. On p. 94 of McLynn, for instance, we find reports of both Henry II and John biting their fingers when in a rage. Edward I was supposed to have once torn out his son's hair in anger (Phillips, p. 120, who doubts that it actually happened. More significant is the fact that people were willing to believe that it happened.)
There are hints, too, that Edward II's rages grew worse after his triumph over Lancaster in 1322. In 1323, he ordered the execution of Andrew de Harclay, who had won the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322 which gave Edward the win over Lancaster. After Boroughbridge, Edward made Harclay Earl of Carlisle. When word came that Harclay was negotiating with the Scots -- something fairly necessary in his position, although Harclay did go a little far in proposing a draft treaty -- Edward not only had him executed but also degraded from both earldom and knighthood (Phillips, pp. 432-433). A few weeks later, he sent a councilor to prison for disagreeing with him (Phillips, p. 435). The picture we get, in the 1323 period, is of a man who had lost all patience with opposition, even friendly opposition.
But we note that, although Edward vows a particular punishment (confiscation of lands) for the knight, he does not promise anything in particular for Robin. No doubt the implication was clear: Robin would suffer a traitor's death. This of course did not happen. But note the blow the king inflicts upon Robin in stanza 408. If called out to fulfill a vow to punish Robin, the King could say he had done so -- with his own hand!
** Stanza 363//Lines 1449-1452 ** The king is warned that no one will be able to safely occupy the Knight's land because of Robin Hood. This is similar to the situation in Stanza 117 in which the Justice warns the Abbot of the danger of simply confiscating the Knight's lands.
** Stanza 364/Lines 1453-1454 ** The warning to the king continues: The person who occupies the knight's land will lose "the best ball in his hode." Knight/Ohlgren, p. 165, suggest that this is a reference to ancient games which use a human head as a ball. I personally doubt this. It is true that tthere are many accounts of warriors collecting heads as trophies, and the Grimm Brothers story "The Boy Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was" has a tale of spirits playing ninepins using skulls for balls, and there are various accounts of men being executed after losing some sort of game -- but I do not know of any real uses in British history of a head or skull for a ball. Neither would suit the purpose at all well; the human head is neither round enough to roll well nor consistent enough in its components to bounce well.
I note that Wimberly, who has much discussion of heads and bones in ballad folklore, never mentions this idea.
Gummere, p. 319, explains the phrase as "a jocose expression of old standing" -- but offers no evidence or parallel citation.
I'm reminded a bit of the drawing of lots by pulling colored balls from a hood. But I can see no reason why that would apply here.
The line is in any case over-long. Perhaps we should emend to something like "At honde of Robyn Hode" or similar.
** Stanza 365/LInes 1457-1458 ** These lines line reports that the King's stay specifically in Nottingham lasted half a year. This doesn't fit any of the Edwards -- although Edward II was in Nottingham in early 1323 (March or April), and again from November 9-23 (Baldwin, pp. 55, 57), which makes about half a year from the time he first arrived to the time he finally left the area. He never stayed in one place for any lenght of time, however In any case, the King couldn't visit Plumpoton Park if he never left Nottingham.
The king's base in Nottingham may be genuine history (Edward II did spend time there), or the author may have placed him there because the story is associated with Sherwood -- but it is interesting to note that Nottingham, until the time of Edward I's northern wars, was generally as far north as a Plantagenet king would go on his regular travels (Mortimer, p. 17).
If we absolutely have to find a fit for spending a long spell continuously in Nottingham, it was probably Richard III in the period shortly before his death. With his wife and his son dead, and Henry Tudor about to invade, Richard chose Nottingham as the "castle of his care," and stayed there for much of 1485 until Henry Tudor finally landed.
** Stanza 367/Line 1465 ** A forester suggests the king's next act. If had been is a forester in Barnsdale or Sherwood, he might well know Robin (recall that in Stanza 14, Robin told John, Much, and Scarlock not to harm a yeoman who walked "the grene wode shawe," which probably means a forester). Could the whole situation be a set-up?
** Stanza 368/Line 1470 **"Gete you monkes wede," i.e. "disguise yourself as a monk." The motif of a king in disguise is rather common in folklore; we find it in "King Estmere" [Child 60] and in "King William and the Keeper," and in the Robin Hood cycle it occurs also in "The King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood" [Child 151], plus there were many later tales of James V of Scotland doing this sort of thing. In "Queen Eleanor's Confession" [Child 156], we even find the King and a companion disguised as clergymen, although for a rather different purpose. Indeed, Pollard, p. 201, reminds us that Shakespeare used the gimmick in "Measure for Measure." Clawson, p. 107, points out evidence gathered by Kittredge that people in the late fourteenth century believed that Edward III had visited people in disguise.
It didn't happen often in reality -- certainly there is no hint that the haughty Edward III went incognito. Interestingly, we do find Richard I trying to disguise himself to cross central Europe on his way home from the Crusade (Gillingham, p. 223). But this did not happen in England, or any land the Plantagenets ruled -- and the disguise was a failure anyway; Richard was taken prisoner and was not released until he had paid a huge ransom. Like most of Richard's ideas that didn't involve fighting, it was a really dumb thing to do. Bonnie Prince Charlie also disguised himself, on his voyage to Skye, but that was long after the "Gest."
One account of the life of Henry VI says that he often dressed as a "townsman" or a "farmer" (Wolffe, p. 10), and it is certain that he was often in disguise in the early 1460s when he had been overthrown and was trying to avoid capture. But the 1460s are a late date for the composition of the "Geste," and in any case Henry at this time had no power, and would not date reveal himself so openly -- and was not forceful enough to play the role of the king in the "Gest."
There is an account of Edward II in disguise reported from about the 1360s, which cannot be true but which might have fostered the idea of the concealed King: In about 1305, when Edward II and his father Edward I were quarrelling, Edward I was supposedly riding along a muddy, dangerous road in winter -- and Edward II, in disguise, came out and led his father's horse through the mud, so that his father did not fall (Phillips, p. 603).
Plus Edward II reportedly liked hanging around with monks and friars (Philipps, p. 602). The idea of dressing as a monk would probably appeal to him.
The idea of adopting a cleric's disguise would be particularly good in 1323, because Edward II had ordered them to gather, separately from parliament, early in that year. He summoned them to Lincoln to discuss a war subsidy (Phillips, p. 432). Thus Robin and his men, in that year, might have been keeping a particularly close watch for high church officials.
Also, there were several tales of Edward II having escaped his execution in 1327 and wandering around Europe. The probability of this is exceptionally low, but the stories usually describe him in the guise of a hermit of some sort (Phillips, pp. 582-592, 612, who doesn't believe it; Doherty, pp. 185-215, who takes one version seriously without being absolutely convinced). The story is in fact extremely implausible -- but it might have influenced the idea of Edward II disguising himself as a monk.
There is also an interesting tale from 1234, in the reign of Henry III: The King was going to visit Windsor Forest, and an outlaw named Richard Siward was attacking travellers in the area. If I understand the tale told on p. 105 of Young, it seems that only the King's presence kept Siward from attacking his party. Siward was not pardoned, however; attempts were made to take him as he moved toward Wales.
** Stanzas 368-369/Lines 1471-1476 ** The King is told to go from an abbey to Nottingham. This is pretty typical of what happened when Kings stayed in the north. They often stayed in abbeys, which were usually much wealthier than anything else in the vicinity and used to taking in guests. Also, the King could not stay in one place for very long; no place in the north had food and other supplies enough to provide for the king and all his entourage for more than a few days.
The idea that the King wandered about in the north fits far better with the history of Edward II (see Stanza 365) than the idea of him staying in one place for all that time.
** Stanza 369/Line 1473 ** The forester offers to be the king's ledes-man, i.e. guide, leader, but emendations to this line have been proposed; see the textual note.
** Stanza 373/LIne 1490 ** "Forsooth as I you say." This phrase occurs here, in Stanza 375, in and in stanza 424, but nowhere before this (although there are a few other uses of "forsooth"). This is a curious pattern of occurrences which may indicate the use of a source.
** Stanza 373/Line 1491 ** The king is said to have sung as he rode. Sadly, this is not much help with identification. There was a famous early story about Richard I making himself known to his minstrel Blondel by a song he sang (Gillingham, p. 224, although he notes that it can hardly be true). As late as the reign of Richard III, probably the last king to die before the "Gest" was printed, we find bishops complaining that the King was too interested in music and dance (Ross-Richard, pp. 141-142). But we know that Edward II was interested enough in music to send a courtier to the Welsh marches to learn the crwth (Phillips, p. 37), and Hutchison, p. 10, reports that "he was to be a keen patron of musicians and minstrels." Given that he was also fond of "theatricals," it would be no surprise to find him a singer as well as a hearer of music.
** Stanza 373/Line 1492 ** Since the "monks" wear grey, not black, they are not portraying themselves as Benedictines -- incidentally meaning that they are not from St. Mary's. Nor are they Cisterians, the white monks.
** Stanza 375/LIne 1500 ** "For this line see the note on stanza 373.
** Stanza 377/Lines 1505-1507 ** Here Robin in effect admits to living by poaching, despite claiming to be a yeoman of the forest. But see the note on Stanzas 32-33.
** Stanza 378/Line 1512 ** There is a textual variant in the spelling of the worde "saynt"; it is possible that this is a difference between the meanint "saint" and "saintly," but we really cannot tell. There is no well-known saint named "Charity"; the idea here seems to be "for holy charity."
** Stanza 379/Lines 1501-1504, etc. ** Note that the King and Robin speak to each other, seemingly in English, certainly without a translator. This implies a King who speaks English. William the Conqueror could not, nor could most of the kings between William I and Henry III. Richard I certainly could not (OxfordCompanion, p. 802. As Gillingham points out on p. 24, Richard had almost no English blood -- only one of his great-grandparents, Edith the wife of Henry I, could be considered English. The rest were all Normans or French or other "foreigners." Gillingham, p. 33, says Richard could write songs in Norman French and Provencal, and crack jokes in Latin -- but never mentions English. Markale declares on p. 57 that "never has an English king been so French").
The situation changed in the century after that. It is universally agreed that English was the first language of all kings from Henry VI (ascended 1422) on. Henry IV (1399-1413) is often said to be the earliest English King whose first language was English (Burrow/Turville-Petre, p. 17), Richard II (1377-1399) was clearly also fluent, having been able to casually converse with Wat Tyler's rebels while still in his early teens (Saul, p. 68ffff.). Edward III certainly knew English, and Edward I spoke it as a second language (Prestwich1, p. 6); so it is not unreasonable to assume Edward II did also; Hutchison, p. 9, thinks he did. So does Phillips, p. 60, although he finds no English documents at all among Edward II's letters; over 90% were in French, with the rest in Latin.
** Stanza 380/Lines 1517-1518 ** A subtle and artful statement, this: It gives the strong impression of being a statement by a clergyman, and yet it is basically the truth: The King has been in Nottingham in the company of the king. He is the head of the King's company, but he has been with it.... And a good King should not lie.
** Stanza 381/Line 1524 ** The text here is uncertain (see textual note). Child's text "I wolde vouch it safe on the" means that, if the king/abbot had a hundred pounds, he would trust it to Robin Hood. The reading of b is, however, "I vouch it half on the," that is, he would turn half over to Robin if his budget were in better shape.
** Stanza 382/Lines 1525-1528 ** This should be Robin's cue to search the King's party (see the note on Stanza 28), yet he fails to do so. Is this another hint that this is a set-up?
** Stanza 384/Lines 1533-1536 ** "The greteth Edwarde." For King Edward see note to stanza 353. Actual instances of a King inviting an outlaw to meet him are not unknown -- it happend a lot in Scotland -- but many monarchs could not be trusted to keep their safe conduct.
The royal seal was of course the means of validating official documents -- many of the early Norman and Plantagenet kings could not read or sign their names, and even if they could, the commoners could not read it. Thus developed the custom of sealing official documents. The King might have as many as three seals, and always had two, the Great Seal and the Privy Seal.
The Great Seal was generally kept by the Chancellor, who from the time of Edward I was housed at Chancery, often away from the court (Lyon, p. 69). Hence the Privy Seal, kept by the keeper of the Privy Seal, but which tended to move with the King (unless, as was common, he used a third seal to move the privy seal). A complication in the case of Edward II was that he had lost the privy seal at Bannockburn (Phillips, pp. 233-234) -- and, astonishingly, managed to misplace it again a decade later, during his time in the north (although, that time, it was found after a few days; Phillips, p. 320).
The song of course does not make it clear whether the seal was the great or the privy seal. Given the situation, the privy seal seems more likely. But we cannot be sure; the usage of the seals varied (Jolliffe, p. 278); indeed, if we knew which seal was involved, it would be a dating hint.
We also see the use of the King's seal in the "Monk" (Holt, p. 29), although there it is not addressed to the outlaws.
Knight/Ohlgren, p. 166, claims that the seal itself was revered. Too much weight probably should not be given to this; the English monarchy had not yet developed, for instance, the Tudor habit of calling the monarch "Your Majesty." The King was not a near-divine being -- as witness the fact that Edward II, and later his great-grandson Richard II, would be deposed....
** Stanza 385/Lines 1537-1540 ** This is a crux (see the textual note). The last word of 385.1 may be "tarpe" or "targe" or possibly "seale" -- the latter the easiest word, but then the other readings would not have arisen. The actual text of b says that the king showed his broad "tarpe." There seems to be no such word in Middle English. Child's suggestion is "targe." The normal meaning of "targe" is "shield." A shield would not bear a seal. A shield might well show the King's colors, to help identify him in battle, but in that case he would not give it to a monk.
Knight/Ohlgren, p. 166, note that the OED lists "targe" as a word for the privy seal in the Edwardian period, based perhaps on the use of a shield in the seal at the time; and Dobson/Taylor, p. 107, also gloss "targe" as "seal."
This raises two difficulties. First, the seals of the Edwards did *not* contain shields -- all were quite similar, with the King mounted and wearing armor on one side, and enthroned on the other. The exchequer seal did have a shield -- but the exchequer seal isn't going to cause anyone to get all excited. Plus the use of "targe" for "seal" was obscure even at that time, and probably effectively vanished by the time the "Gest" was written. The only justification for assuming the targe is a seal, rather than a shield, is that Robin refers to the seal in the next stanza.
Robin for "curtesy" then gets down on one knee at the sight of whatever-it-is. This, if nothing else, demonstrates his respect for the king.
** Stanza 387/Line 1548 ** For Robin's "trystel tre(e)" see the note on Stanza 176.
** Stanza 389/Line 1555 ** For Robin's seven score followers, see the note on Stanza 229.
** Stanza 390/Line 1560 ** "Saynt Austyn." This is usually stated to be Augustine of Canterbury, who converted Britain to Catholicism, not the more famous Augustine of Hippo. I am not absolutely convinced, however. The Dominicans (who first came to England in 1221; Powicke, p. 24) followed the rule of Augusting of Hippo (OxfordCompanion, p. 301). And Edward II seems to have been fond of the Dominicans (see note to Stanza 213). Might he have picked up this oath from his Dominican confessor? In any case, this cannot he be regarded as an indication of date. Augustine was sent to Kent by Pope Gregory the Great in 597 (Benet, p. 967).
There is a passage in one of Gower's French works (Mirour de l'omme) mentioning Saint Augustine and an unknown "Robyn" in consecutive lines (20886-20887, as given in Mustanoja, p. 64). I doubt that this is significant, however.
** Stanza 391/Lines 1563-1564 ** The king observes that Robin's men are "more at his byddynge" than are the King's own. This again hints at a date in the reign of Edward II. Nobody crossed Edward I -- at least not for long! Edward III had more trouble with his subordinates, especially about taxes, but his soldiers were quite obedient. Whereas orrders from Edward II were quite regularly ignored.
Discipline was not a widely-stressed virtue at this time. Reid, p. 32, notes that we have absolutely no records of soldiers training as a body. They learned their weapons, of course, but they do not seem to have practiced unit maneuvers -- certainly not at a scale larger than the company. So if Robin had his men firmly in hand, he really did have unusual control over his forces.
** Stanza 397-398/Lines 1585-1589 ** About an archery contest in which Robin's men shoot at garlands at great distance. This is another indication that Robin's weapon must be the longbow, not a short bow. For another indication, and supporting evidence, see stanza 132.
** Stanza 402/Lines 1606, 1608 ** The rhyme here, in all the prints, is spare... sore. It seems likely that the poet intended the rhymes to be pronounces "spare... sair." This is perhaps a hint of northern origin -- and of editing by a non-northern typesetter.
** Stanza 405/Lines 1619-1620 ** Robin has had each man who loses pay off to his master -- presumably, for others in the competition, another archer who wins a head-to-head contest. But here he treats the king/abbot as his master, for no obvious reason. Is this another hint that Robin actually already knew it was the King?
** Stanza 406/Lines 1621-1622 ** Many religious orders rejected shedding blood, with the interesting effect that we see fighting churchmen inventing weapons such as the mace and the war hammer so they could kill without letting blood. Probably most would not absolutely reject the striking of blows. It's a good bit of disguise, though.
** Stanza 408/Lines 1629-1630 ** The strength of the disguised king fells Robin. All three Edwards were tall and strong (as was Edward IV later on), but Edward II in particular seems to have had a reputation for exception physical strength. Barbour, the author of the Bruce -- obviously no fan of Edward -- wrote that he was "the strongest man of any that you could find in any country" (Phillips, p. 83), although this was written half a century after Edward's reign. When he was overtaken by the enemy at Bannockburn, every blow he struck was said to have felled its victim (Phillips, p. 233); his strength was regarded as being responsible for his escape. We also read in "Adam Davy's Dreams about Edward II (written probably early in that king's reign) that Edward was a "kni(3)t of mychel mi(3)ht" (Emerson, p. 227, although CHEL1, p. 356, says that we do not know why Davy wrote; there might be an element of flattery).
The king in stanzas 359-360 had been very angry with Robin Hood, without, it seems promising him any particular punishment (he said he would take the knight's lands, but merely wished to see Robin). If he vowed punishment for Robin, he could at least technically use this blow as a basis for saying he had fulfilled the vow. Fulfilled it with his own hand, in fact.
** Stanza 411/Lines 1643-1644 ** "Now I know you well" -- somehow, Robin and Sir Richard recognize the King. Possibly Sir Richard had met him -- but Robin? Was it just by the strength of the King's arm (this is the explanation of Baldwin, p. 24, but is surely inadequate) Or by his face on his seal? Robin saw the seal, but seals are not very detailed. The only likely way for ordinary people to know the king (unless he wore a crown or the like) was coin portraits. This argues for one of the Edwards rather than an earlier King (see note on Stanza 49), and the later the better; it argues very strongly indeed against Richard I and John, who made so little change to the old molds that their coins still used the name of Henry II (OxfordCompanion, p. 224).
** Stanza 412/Lines 1645-1648 ** Note that Child had two versions of the first two lines of this stanza (see the textual note). In his original edition, he printed
'Mercy then, Robyn,' sayd our kynge,
'Vnder your trystyll-tre,
In a correction (volume V., p. 297 in the Dover edition) he amended this to follow ing:
'Mercy,' then said Robyn to our kynge,
'Vnder this trystyll-tre.'
The former reading, however, is very much to be preferred.
Does the reading really mean what it says? Did the King expect that Robin would attack him if he became known? It sounds like it. Hunter hypothesized that Robin was one of Lancaster's rebels against Edward II. But here we again see evidence that Robin was not a rebel against a king, but an outlaw of some other sort.
Under what context might we find a man who does not consider himself a rebel, but who is regarded as a rebel by the King? It is reasonable to assume that Robin was opposed to one of the King's retainers -- or, in the case of Edward II, one of that king's traitorous vassals. I find myself wondering if Robin might have been one of the followers of Adam Banaster, one of Lancaster's vassals who rebelled against his lord. (Prestwich3, p. 92; Prestwich3, p. 96 refers to a period of "virtual civil war" in Lancashire).
Hicks, p. 48, is even more harsh, declaring, 'Lancaster's misuse of his power reflects 'the repulsive nature of the man. A generous almsgiver and pious benefactor, perhaps more than conventionally devout', he was also sexually immoral, quarrelsome, selfish and vindictive. He was rapacious to his tenants, maintained his retainers beyond the legitimate bounds of lordship, and seized what he wanted in defiance of right and the law. He readily resorted to brutality, violence, in his Thorpe Waterville dispute with Pembroke, his suppression of Adam Banaster's rebellion, his feud with Warenne, Sir Gilbert Middleton's kidnapping of two cardinals, and when wasting Damory's lands."
What would *you* do if he had been your overlord?
There is in fact a printed item (I hesitate to call it a song, or even a poem; it makes most doggerel look good) called "Robin Hood and the Duke of Lancaster: A Ballad," set to the tune of "The Abbot of Canterbury," which purports to treat of a quarrely between Robin and the Duke of Lancaster. It is printed in Dobson/Taylor (pp. 191-194), and there are several copies in the Bodleian collection (Douce Prints a.49(1), G. Pamph. 1665(8), Johnson c.74; reprinted on p. 398 of GutchII).
It apparently was printed in 1727 (GutchII, p. 397). But it is almost beyond belief that it represents an actual tradition; it claims to have taken place in the year 1202, when John was King -- but there was no Duke of Lancaster in 1202; there were no Dukes in England at all (Edward III created the first English dukes, beginning by making his son Edward the Duke of Cornwall in 1337; Barber, p. 20). So you don't have to look up that piece. And, believe me, you don't want to. Gutch suggests that it is a satire about a courtier who wanted a job as a royal forester, presumably in the reign of George I or George II; Dobson/Taylor, p. 192, are even more specific, declaring it to refer to Lord Lechmere, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the reign of George I.
** Stanza 412/Line 1646 ** For Robin's "trystel tre(e)" see the note on Stanza 176.
** Stanza 413/Lines 1651-1652 ** Here Robin formally asks the King's pardon, for himself and his men -- yet we still do not learn what his crime was!
It is interesting to note that, although Edward II seems rarely to have given out pardons as King, when Isabella and her rebels seemed to be in danger of taking over the country, Edward is reported to have given pardon to more than a hundred outlaws if they would join his forces (Phillips, p. 505 n. 307). This did not take place during Edward's northern excursion, but it might have figured into the legend somehow.
** Stanza 414/Lines 1654-1655 ** The king here tells a truth, although an ironic one: He intended to have Robin and his men leave the woods by taking them prisoner; instead he chooses to induce them to leave the woods by pardoning them.
For the effects of the offer of pardon and a place at the court, see the note to Stanza 435. For conditional pardons, see the note on Stanza 439.
** Stanza 416/Lines 1661-1664 ** Robin promises to come to court to be the King's servant (parallel, in a small way, toJohn and Much becoming yeomen of the crown in the "Monk"; cf. Holt1, p. 29). But he also promises to bring at least some of his men. To me, this seems to imply either that Robin wants pardon for all his men, or that he is promising to bring them all to be the King's soldiers (or bodyguards? If the year is 1323, Edward II might well have wanted a loyal bodyguard).
Knight/Ohlgren, p. 166, say however that "The idea of Robin holding an alternative lordship, with his own retinue, is clear." What is not clear is what is meant by an "alternative lordship." Certainly Robin, if were gentrified, would want to keep a retinue, but there is no hint whatsoever that he is being offered any sort of title -- merely a position.
For Robin's seven score followers, see the note on Stanza 229. In this verse we see Robin with "seven score and three" followers. Probably this is just poetry, but it might be that the three are Little John, Scarlock, and Much, and the seven score are all the other unnamed archers who exist mostly to supply "alarums and excursions."
** Stanza 417/Lines 1665-1668 ** Baldwin, p. 41, follows Pollard in pointing out that no outlaw could dictate the conditions of his own pardon. This is true in the sense that it was up to the King to grant the pardon and set the conditions. On the other hand, outlaws could decide whether to take the pardon -- and so could negotiate what it would take for them to give up their rebellion. I would consider this to be a warning by Robin to the King -- and, as it turns out, it was a warning Edward would have been wise to heed.
** Stanzas 417-418/Lines 1668-1669 ** This is marked as the beginning of the eighth and final fit. Knight/Ohlgren, p. 166, point out that there is no reason for a break here -- there is no scene change, and no break in the action. They suggest that the insertion of the heading is editorial. This seems likely -- unless, perhaps, there was damage either following 417 or preceding 418 (more likely, I suspect, the latter) and the material has been lost which would justify the break between fits.
** Stanza 418/Lines 1669-1672 ** Robin had earlier acted as a cloth merchant in stanzas 70-73, and Ohlgren thinks this ties him to one of the cloth guilds; see the note on Stanza 10. In fact, Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 180 accuses him of violating the law against "forestalling," but this law is not mentioned in either of my constitutional histories of England; I doubt it was really an issue.
** Stanza 420/Lines 1677-1680 ** Robin agrees to clothe the King in green, and expects the King to give him clothing in return at Yule (Christmastide and year's-end). In other words, Robin is accepting the King's livery. Since Robin does not expact a change of clothing until then, the date is presumably after midsummer's day (June 25).
The king's acceptance of green, and his calling forth of Robin's men while wearing green, is a strong argument against the king being Richard I; see the note on Stanzas 70-72.
** Stanza 421/Lines 1681-1684 ** Knight/Ohlgren, p. 167, says that the King's wearing green livery "acknowledges forest values." It also gets the king out of dirty (sweaty? flea-infested?) garments, so he might simply have wanted to change clothes. Nonetheless it does seem symbolic -- a symbol much more likely from Edward II than either his father or son; see the note on Stanza 424.
** Stanza 422/Line 1685 ** "Lyncolne grene," or Lincoln Green, and Kendall Green, were famous colours in the middle ages -- probably because greens were hard to make (Finlay, p. 275). There were few good dyes at the time -- and none at all that allowed cloth to be dyed green in one step. Paintings typically used copper compounds for greens -- but these were not good dyes. Green cloth was made by mixing the blue of woad (indigo, or modern FD&C blue dye #2) with any of several organic yellows. Supposedly Lincoln Green used a yellow dye called "weld" (Finlay, p. 276) -- usually applying the dyes serially.
Incidentally, weld fades faster than indigo, so if by chance you come across a piece of green cloth from that era, it will now appear blue (Finlay, p. 276).
Why Lincoln Green? Gummere, p. 319, quotes someone (Ritson?) as explaining that it was good at letting the outlaws hide from the deer. Neither Ritson nor Gummere could know it, but this is rather unlikely. Deer do not see as we do. Human vision is trichromatic -- red, green, and blue. But trichromatic vision, among non-marsupial mammals, is exclusive to primates (Dawkins, pp. 146-150). Deer, and all the other mammals of English forests, have dichromatic vision -- green and blue sensors only. We do know that dichromats can see through various forms of camoflage which fool trichromats (Dawkins, p. 151), and there are certainly concealment schemes which will fool a dichromat and not a trichromat. Without knowing the exact shade of green, we can't say just how a deer or rabbit would perceive a man in Lincoln Green, but based on the way it was made, I don't think it would be ideal camoflage. Brown or black would be better.
Others argue that Lincon Green was camoflage against human intruders. This makes some sense. Lincoln Green is a little too olive to be ideal forest coloration -- but there was no good leaf green available.
Finlay, p. 276, suggests instead that Robin dressed his men Lincoln Green "to show off," because green cloth was expensive due to the need for multiple dying steps. However, the evidence is that Lincoln Green was not that expensive -- certainly not when compared with, say, scarlet red based on kermes. The Welsh soldiers in Edward III's wars, for instance, were clothed in white and green (Hewitt, p. 39) -- and it is certain that no one would have spent much on clothing the Welsh!
Nonetheless, Kendall Green is a good symbolic color for outlaws, because Kent was famously considered a rebellious county (Cawthorne, p. 78) -- e.g. most of Wat Tyler's rebels came from there. This is probably somewhat exaggerated; Kentish rebels tended to be noticed more often in London because rebels in Kent could reach the city far more easily than those in, say, Lincolnshire. But Kent did have fewer villeins and more free men (OxfordComp, p. 959), so the people probably were somewhat more rowdy.
Wimberly, p. 178, says that green "is a fairy color and of ill omen," but points out that it is one of the most common colors of clothing in the ballads. Despite all those attempts to link Robin with the Green Man or the like, I doubt that the color has any mystical significance.
For more on cloth offered by Robin, see the notes on Stanzas 70-72.
** Stanza 424/LIne 1694 ** "For this line see the note on stanza 373.
** Stanza 424/Line 1695 ** The plucke-buffet, believed to be a contest in which the players exchange blows as forfeits, is attested in many forms. The extreme form is the beheading game of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." It also occurs in the tale of "The Turk and Gawain," found in the Percy folio, although we cannot tell the exact details because the folio is so damaged at this point (Tolkien/Gordon, p. xix). It also features in two other Gawain romances, the related "Syre Gawene and the Carle of Carlyle" and "The Carle off Carlile" (Lacy, p 154), although the latter of these is almost certainly later than the "Gest" and the former may be.
As a sport, it is sometimes known as an "Irish Stand-Down." Child, in his notes on this stanza (page 55) mentions a romance in which Richard the Lion-Hearted himself engaged in this game, but this is one of those stories (like Richard killing a lion with his bare hands by tearing out its heart -- and then eating it raw; Gillingham, pp. 7-8) which is demonstrably false.
Knight/Ohlgren, p. 167, seem to think that the contest between Robin and the King was also more serious than some casual shooting with the bow, followed by a blow to the loser, but they offer no reason for this hypothesis.
More interesting is the question of whether any English king would engage in such a contest with his subjects.
Holt1, p. 61, argues that the legend of the King being reconciled with Robin is derived from Fulk, or Hereward, or maybe (who knows?) Alfred and the Cakes (an idea going back at least to Clawson, p. 104, who on p. 105 mentions a similar story told of Henry II), all involving an incognito king. This is of course a common theme of folklore (see the note on stanza 368) but the fact that the motif is legendary does not preclude a reconciliation between King and outlaws -- several rebellions ended that way, because it was easier for the King to befriend the rebel than run him down!
This motif does however argue against a date in the reigns of Richard I or Edward I -- they were strong grudge-holders. Prestwich1, p. 202, says explicitly, "Clemency towards his enemy was not in Edward [I]'s character." What's more, Edward I had a strong streak of violence when crossed (Prestwich1, p. 3); he just wasn't the sort to go off and negotiate with rebels.
There is an actual recorded instance of Edward I accidentally ending up in single combat with an enemy because a ditch cut Edward off from his supporters, and Edward did formally forgive the other man -- "but there is no evidence that he was ever regarded with any special favor" (Prestwich1, p. 56, although Baldwin, p. 146, says that "There is nothing to substantiate Nicholas Trivet's story" of this encounter, and Pollard, p. 196, flatly declares it fiction. Clawson, pp. 107-108, points to the tale of John the Reeve, in the Percy Folio, in which Edward I is separated from his followers, but this is not the same tale).
Baldwin, p. 95, has a good summary when he says that "Edward [I] was respected b his barons, but he was a man of violent temper far removed from the jovial and understanding 'King Edward' of the ballads."
Richard I was, if anything, worse; he was aloof and generally lacked the common touch; according to Kelly.A, p. 173, "Richard was less affable in crowds than Henry [II], more selective in his friendshps, and less accessible to general company. He lacked the charm that attracted a large personal following... He often ruffled his peers with an overweening brusqueness."
He was such a snob that, when he heard a hawk shriek in a commoner's house, he went in and attacked the owners (even though they were not his subjects) -- and was forced to take to his heels when they fought back (McLynn, p. 144). During the conquest of Cyprus, he insulted the island's inhabitants by shaving off the men's beards just because they were ruled by his enemy (McLynn, p. 157). At Acre, he demeaned the Duke of Austria so badly that he left the crusade -- and Leopold of Austria was a *duke*, almost as high on the social scale as Richard himself. Richard didn't have subjects; he had two kinds of slaves, the chained and the unchained. The notion of him even talking to a commoner, other than one of his soldiers, is absurd.
Henry II had a way with common people, and was relatively accessible to them -- Dahmus, pp. 148-150 -- but even if we can accept such an early date for Robin, Henry was another grudge-holder.
Henry III, according to Baldwin, p. 118, "was often tempermental but he did not bear grudges."
By contrast, Edward II had a strange interest in common tasks and men, according to Hutchison, pp. 148-149 -- he liked woodworking and metalwork, kept company with craftsmen, and worked at thatching. A story tells of him engaged in hedging and ditching when he might have been at mass (Prestwich3, p. 80), and there are records of him ordering plaster so that he might build walls (Prestwich3, p. 81). Phillips, p. 13, quotes his best contemporary biographer as saying, "If he had practiced the use of arms, he would have exceeded the prowess of King Richard. Physically this would have been inevitable, for he was tall and strong, a handsome man with a fine figure.... If only he had given to arms the attention that he expended on rustic pursuits...." After Bannockburn, a member of his household declared that the king could not win battles if he "appl[ied] himself to making ditches and digging and other improper occupations' (Phillips, p. 15).
Even Hutchison, almost his only defender, admits on p. 2 his "rather odd personality." Although most instances of him engaging in a form of common labor are attested by only one source, Phillips, p. 72, mentions four source attesting his love for ordinary men's work, and the reports of him spending time rowing are well-attested. Phillips goes on to note that Edward II "enjoyed the near-presence of the low-born," and mentions an instance in 1325 of sailors and carpenters eating in the royal chamber.
What's more, Edward II liked games, including gambling games, and did not insist upon winning (Phillips, p. 75). This fits the stanza's indication that Robin out-shot the king and so was entitled to beat up his monarch. (Possibly the King felt this to be safer than to have his half dozen men fight all of Robin's band.) The wonder is that the King decided to participate, having seen Robin's prowess. He was probably a good archer with a hunting bow, but a longbow was a different matter.
And where Edward I, for instance, tended to look down his nose even at the higher nobility, Edward II displayed very little snobbishness. In Edward I's last years, there was a quarrel between the King and his son over the size and expense of the Prince's household. According to Phillips, p. 99 and note 131, there were four men the Prince really wanted to keep around him. Two were of gentle blood -- Piers Gaveston and Gilbert de Clare -- but the other two were yeomen.
Jolliffe, pp. 369-370, declares that "like several of our more incompetent kings, Edward II was inclined to advance popular principles" -- meaning, in this case, the principles of ordinary people rather than the high nobility; Edward increased the role of the commons in parliament (presumably to reduce the power of the barons).
It is true that Edward II was a man who never changed his mind, and he certainly held grudges. His best early biographer wrote in the Life of Edward II that, in 1322 when Edward finally seemed to have defeated his enemies, "the earl of Lancaster once cut off Piers Gaveston's head, and now by the king's command the earl of Lancaster had lost his head" (quoted by Phillips, p. 409). But Edward's grudges were very specific and pointed. A man who had not directly offended him or joined his enemies was forgivable. (To be sure, Hunter thought that the original Robin Hood served the Earl of Lancaster, and that this was why he needed the King's pardon. But the subtle hints in the "Gest" all point to an outlaw who was loyal to the King all along, as several mentions in the "Gest" demonstrate; Mark Ormrod also apparently pointed this out in an unpublished paper; Pollard, p. 253 n. 58.)
If ever there had been a king likely to meet with outlaws, it was Edward II. Doherty, pp. 23-24, explains this oddity based on the way his father neglected him: "Left to his own devices, bereft of a father and a mother-figure, the young Edward naturally looked for friendship from others, whether they were ditchers, rowers, sailors or boatmen." Doherty, p. 26, also thinks that Edward II had "a desperate yearning to be liked."
Edward's willingness to hang around with common people became so proverbial that, according to pp. 60-61 of Doherty, a pretender actually showed up during this reign claiming to be the real King Edward; he had been swapped with a peasant boy after a nurse had allowed him to be injured and was afraid to reveal the truth. The "proof" of this was that Edward showed tastes such as only a peasant would have, and thus must be an imposter. Naturally this pretender was executed (as was his cat, which obviously was innocent), but the whole story shows what Edward's reputation was like.
The only other Plantagenet I can imagine hanging around with common folks was John. However, we have already read, in stanzas 403-409, tells of an Irish stand-down between Robin and the King, in which the King gives Robin a blow which floors him. The Plantagenets were mostly very tall -- Edward I was called "Longshanks," and when his skeleton was measured, he was found to have been 6'2" (Prestwich, p. 567). Edward III is said to have been 6'3". Richard is said to have been tall, well-built, and with unusually long arms and legs (McLynn, p. 24). The only exceptions were Henry II, who was of average height, and John, who at 5'5" was perhaps the shortest Plantagenet known to us (Warren-John, p. 31). Henry II was strong despite his height. But John does not seem to have been a mighty man.
To be sure, the last King Edward to live before the publication of the "Gest," Edward IV, was so open to commoners that he became the hero of "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth" [Child 273]. Edward IV's brother Richard III seems to have tried -- seemingly for the first time -- to actually build a government out of men who were not members of the nobility; Cheetham, pp. 161-162. But both of these are almost certainly too late.
In connection with the King's fist-fight with Robin, see the note on Stanzas 429-430 regarding Edward II's fondness for horseplay and practical jokes.
** Stanza 428/Lines 1709-1712 ** Upon seeing what appears to be a mass invasion by Robin Hood's men, the people of Nottingham are very afraid (though without reason, as it turns out). This may very well connect with their hostility to him in Stanzas 296.
** Stanzas 429-430/Lines 1713-1717 ** The king laughs at the rout of the townsfolk, as people try by any means possible to flee the coming of Robin Hood. This too fits well with what we know of Edward II, who seems to have been fond of practical jokes and rough humor (Doherty, pp. 50-51). One can imagine him staging this little scene to see how the folk of Nottingham would respond; indeed. Mersey, p. 188, calls this "a jest on the king's part." For another instance of his fondness for low games and roughhousing, see the note on Stanzas 429-430.
Knight/Ohlgren, p. 167, compare this to the story of "Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham" [Child139], in which the people of Nottingham also fear and attack the outlaw. They see this as a contrast between "forest and urban values," but "Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham" is a later writing and not a source for the "Gest." And while there doubtless is a contrast between town and outlaw morals, the fear of the people of Nottingham more likely derives from the fact that Robin has already had two conflicts with them, one at the time of the archery contest when they attacked him and once when Robin attacked and killed the sheriff.
** Stanza 433/Line 1731 ** It is interesting to observe that Robin, who in Stanza 68 had been able to lend 400 pounds, apparently has only 100 pounds at his disposal here. (For more on the value of this money, see the notes to Stanzas 49 and 120). In stanza 150 we see the sheriff offer Little John 20 marks per year; in Stanzas 170-171, Little John offers the cook 20 marks per year to join Robin's band. Since 100 pounds is 150 marks, Robin's 100 pounds would pay only seven men for a full year at their old wage. If he truly had seven score men (Stanza 416), he could have paid them only one mark each -- or enough for three weeks at their old rate. See also the note on Stanza 435.
The implication, obviously, is that either Robin left much of his money behind, or that he had lost it in the interval between his intervention on the knight's behalf and the time he met the king. (Or, of course, that this section is from another source with more reasonable ideas of what money was worth.) It seems more likely that Robin's fortune would have declined; traffic would have learned to avoid Barnsdale if Robin became a truly successful robber (note the fear of him shown by the people of Nottingham in Stanza 428), plus his band probably grew in that time, meaning that he had to pay more in wages.
One wonders if Robin might not have accepted the King's offer because he was going broke.
Holt1, p. 118, makes the interesting observation that, by the time the "Gest" was probably written, "local society fell, in descending order, into knights, squires, gentlemen, yeomen and husbandmen.... Only the first two, knight and squire, had distinguishing qualifications. The gentleman, particularly, was sometimes simply he who claimed to be a gentleman, or lives like a gentleman, perhaps especially one who got into debt like a gentleman." That certainly sounds like Robin's behavior.
** Stanza 434/Lines 1733-1736 ** Gummere, commenting on Robin's prodigality, says on p. 319, "This liberal expenditure was the proper thing for knights and men of rank...." But his chief expense was likely just paying his men. In stanza 52, we perhaps saw a hint of the Tale of the Prodigal Son. This too mayhave been influenced by that tale (in chapter 15 of Luke); the Prodigal takes his inheritance, spends it on loose living, and then has to go home in disgrace.
It is interesting, although perhaps not very relevant, to note that Grafton declared that Robin went to the greenwood because of excess generosity (Knight, p. 1; Knight/Ohlgren, p. 28).
** Stanza 435/Line1737 ** After a year at the King's court (literally fifteen months, but the author is always adding threes to things), Robin has used up his resources. This is not really unusual. The King's senior officers often did not enjoy actual payment for their work; rather, the King granted them some sort of compensation. A cleric would get a certain number of "livings"; a secular lord would be given an office or the rent from sundry manors. We note that the King's offer of a place at his court (stanzas 414-415) contained no such offer. Perhaps Robin assumed one would be forthcoming (see stanza 420, where he seems to accept the King's livery); perhaps he did not realize the need for such a grant; perhaps the King simply did not live up to his promise.
This would fit well with either Edward I, who was notably stingy with pay for his officials, or with Edward II after his victories of 1322-1323 -- Phillips, p. 421, reports that in this period "Like the archetypal miser Edward [II] not only gathered every penny he could but was remarkably loath to spend any more than he had to." One almost wonders if he mightn't have brought Robin to court to try to get a hand on Robin's treasure.
As mentioned in the notes on Stanza 433, Robin's 100 pounds would pay only seven men for a full year at their old wage -- little wonder they deserted. Even if he paid only the three pence a day expected by valets (see the note on Stanza 150), that would allow him to maintain only about twenty men for a year.
** Stanza 436/Line 1742 ** There is a variant here which perhaps affects Robin's feelings about watching the archers; see the textual note.
** Stanza 437/Lines 1745-1748 ** Robin, in the King's service, recalls being a successful archer. Clearly he is not spending much time practicing with his bow at this time. This, it seems to me, is exceptionally strong evidence that this is not happening during the reign of Edward III. That king won his victories with the bow, and would not put the best bowman in England out to pasture!
One wonders if Robin might not have been disappointed with the court in other ways. This was the period when Edward's favorites the Elder and Younger Hugh Despensers were dominating -- and corrupting -- the government. (For more on them, see the notes on Stanza 93, or on "Hugh Spencer's Feats in France" [Child 158].) It was a period when no one's money or land was safe if the Despensers wanted it. Phillips, p. 448, notes that Edward II was deeply if indirectly involved in their extortion -- it couldn't have happened without his consent. But the attitude at this time seems always to have been "It's not the King, it's his evil counselors." Robin could have been -- would have been! -- disgusted by the Despensers, and might not have blamed the King. But he would doubtless wish to get away.
** Stanza 439/Lines 1753-1756 ** Robin determines to leave the King's service. This is an interesting decision if he had taken the King's pardon, because most pardons in the Edwardian period were conditional: "Though a few pardons were granted in advance, for the great majority of men indicted of murder or other serious felonies, charters of pardon were withheld till the [military] services had been performed and attested by the leaders in whose companies the men had served. Even then the pardons were frequently subject to further conditions" (Hewitt, p. 29).
For a man hired as a solder, Hewitt (p. 30) lists four typical conditions of a pardon, of which Robin arguably violates three: He must put up surety for his behavior (which Robin, one he is broke, can no longer do); that he be available for service to the King for up to a year at a time (Robin initially fulfulls this, then violates it -- and since most of his men deserted him before he himself quit the court [Stanzas 433-435], they would have violated it immediately upon desertion), and that he stay in the King's service while still in the vicinity of the conflict (which, if the King is Edward II and the conflict is that resulting in Edward's overthrow, he failed to do). Thus Robin, in all likelihood, violates the conditions of his pardon.
Pollard, p. 206, sees this as a sort of allegory: He believes that the King is Edward III, considered responsible for restoring justice -- but even this ideal king could not restore justice enough to satisfy Robin.
The difficulties with this hypothesis are myriad: First is the internal inconsistency -- if Pollard is going to claim that the "Gest' is set in the reign of Edward III because Edward III is a paragon of justice, then he can't really have it both ways. Nor is there any hint of this sort of allegory anywhere else in the "Gest." Plus Robin doesn't complain of injustice; he complains of being broke and of not being used as an archer.
In any case, Robin had to leave the King's service. Since the "Gest" and the "Death" tell the same general story, the story of Robin's death almost certainly existed before the "Gest" was composed. So Robin had to be in the greenwood in order to die. That means he had to leave the court.
** Stanza 440/Line 1759 ** Robin (claims to have) founded a chapel to Mary Magdalene. Given his piety, his ill management of his money, and his magnanimity, it seems not unlikely that Robin would have endowed a chapel -- it was a common thing to do in this period, when the prayers of the faithful were thought to shorten one's time in purgatory. The dedication to St. Mary Magdalene is interesting -- the first genuinely approprate mention of a saint in the "Gest." Robin would naturally have wanted a female saint, and Mary Magdalene was the saint of penitents (Benet, p. 975).
We have another faint parallel to the story of David here, although in the case of David and Saul, David was already in trouble with the King, whereas Robin is merely dissatisfied. David (thought Jonathan) tells Saul that he must go home for a family religious celebration. Having left the court, he flees and becomes an outlaw.. The core of this story is in 1 Samuel, chatper 20.
** Stanza 442/Line 1767 ** "Barefote and wolwarde" -- i.e. barefoot and with wool next to the skin. Walking barefoot was the standard token of a pilgrimage or penitant -- e.g. when Raymond of Toulouse set out to lead the Christian army on the last stage of the journey to Jerusalem in the First Crusade, he walked barefoot (Runciman1, p. 261). When Jane Shore was forced to do penance for her adultery with Edward IV,"on a Sunday, wearing nothing but her kirtle, she was led barefoot through the streets, a taper in her hand" (Jenkins, p. 166). Wearing wool next to the skin -- i.e. presumably a hair shirt -- is an even stronger sign of penitence; a hair shirt irritated the skin, and also held lice, so it was painful -- and it could be worn under other garments so that one could suffer a penance without parading one's piety before men. Becket, for instance, was said to have been wearing a hairshirt when he died (OxfordCompanion, p. 90).
Gummere, p. 120, notes a similar reference in Piers Plowman (B.xviii.1 in Skeat's edition): "Wooleward and wete-shoed went I forth after," which Langland/Schmidt, p. 306 (which spells the third word "weetshoed"), glosses as "With my skin toward the wool [i.e. with no shirt toward my cloak] and with wet feet [with feet shod with wet rather than with wet shoes]." Gummere also finds such a penance in v. 3512f. of "The Pricke of Conscience" by Hampole (that is, Richard Rolle, died 1349, known as the "Hermit of Hampole"; Benet, p. 941 -- although, according to Sisam, pp. 36-37, his authorship of "The Pricke of Conscience" has been strongly questioned. NewCentury, p. 940, calls the "Pricke" the most popular poem of the fourteenth century but notes that there is no evidence that Rolle wrote it).
As Knight/Ohlgren emphasize on p. 168, this is a sign of penance, not poverty.
** Stanza 445/Lines 1777-1780 ** As Robin arrives in the greenwood "on a merry morning," he hears the birds singing. Pollard, p. 72, notes this as an invocation of the legend of the merry greenwood. It does seem to indicate that Robin returned to the forest in late spring or summer.
** Stanza 448/Line 1791 ** For Robin's seven score followers, see the note on Stanza 229.
**Stanza 450/Line 1798 ** Robin spent "Twenty yere and two" in the greenwood after leaving the King. This would seem as if it might be a dating hint -- but it isn't much of one. Edward I reigned 35 years (1272-1307), Edward III reigned for fifty (give or take a few months; his official reign was 1327-1377), and Edward IV, from first to last, reigned just about exactly 22 (1461-1483, although with a hiatus in 1470-1471). Only Edward II fell short of this total -- he reigned twenty years, 1307-1327.
Thus Edward I or Edward III might be meant, or the number might be a later adjustment to the reign of Edward IV. But there is another intriguing possibility, which gives us a prefect chronological dovetail.
The "Gest" says that Robin served the King for about fifteen months, then returned to the greenwood for 22 years before being killed by the prioress at Kirklees. In that tine he presumably assembled a new band, who on his death would need a new leader or job. If the King is Edward II, and the year he met Robin is 1322/1323, then one year plus 22 years later is in the period 1345-1346 -- just in time for Robin's excellent archers to win the Battle of Crecy in 1346! The problem, of course, is that Robin stayed in the greenwood all that time "For all drede of Edwarde our Kinge." If this is read as meaning Edward was king for 22 years and more, Edward II cannot be meant. On the gripping hand, if the 1346 date be accepted, would it not make sense for Edward III to pardon the underlings if their leader was now dead?
** Stanzas 451-455/Lines 1801-1820 ** These five stanzas summarize, or rather hint at, the tale of betrayal which is the theme of "Robin Hood's Death" [Child 120]. Dependence on the same legend (although not on the same actual text) seems sure. Is this an indication of how the author of the "Gest" used his other materials? Probably not; it seems likely that he made fuller use of earlier sources for the cycle of the knight and the abbott, e.g.
The tale of Robin's end as told in the fuller versions of the "Death" has one more parallel to the tale of Fulk FitzWarin, in that Fulk, in one of his innumerable conflicts with King John, finds himself in a fight. Sir Ber(n)ard de Blois attacks him from behind; Fulk spins around and kills him -- nearly cuts him in half, in fact (Cawthorne, p. 145). This is much like what happens with Red Roger in the "Death." But Fulk, unlike Robin, survives (although so severely wounded that he falls into a coma and has to be taken from the field; Cawthorne, p. 146).
It does appear that Munday, in rewriting the legend, knew some relative of the story in the "Gest" but not the full tale in the "Death." Robin is poisoned, not bled to death, by his uncle, the prior of York, and a "Sir Doncaster" (Cawthorne, p. 80; and see the Cast of Characters on p. 303 of Knight/Ohlgren).
Although the "Gest" does not tell the tale of the last arrow found in the "Death," that account is another indication of a date in the reign of Henry III or later. Robin, in his weakness, needs help to fire the last shot. But if his bow were a crossbow, as it would have been in the time of Richard I, then one person could crank it for him and even a dying man could aim and fire it. The last arrow can only have come from a longbow.
Child in his notes on the "Death" suggests a parallel to "Sheath and Knife" [Child 16], where the girl asks her brother to shoot her and bury her at a spot she chooses. It seems to me, however, that this in fact reverses the motifs. In "Sheathe and Knife," she chooses the spot, and the bow is relatively incidental (perhaps he uses the arrow so that he does not have to slay her with his own hand). In the "Death," the bow and arrow is essential and the spot trivial. If anything, the analogy is to something such as "John Henry" [Laws I1], who dies with his hammer in his hand.
** Stanzas 451, 454/Lines 1803, 1815 ** The place where Robin Hood was killed is somewhat uncertain. Child prints "Kyrkesly" in stana 451, "Kyrke[s]ly" in 454; for the evidence, see the textual note. In the "A" (Percy folio) text of the "Death," it is "Churchles" or "Churchlees" ("church Lees" A.1.3, "Churchlees" A.11.3, "Churchlee" A.11.4, "church lees" A.12.1 Churchlee A.24.4), aligning "Church-Lee" with the more northern words for the same thing, "Kirk-Lee." The broadside versions of the "Death" (Child's "B") give "Kirkly" or "Kirkly-Hall" ("Kirkly-hall" broadside title, "Kirkly" B.3.1, "Kirkly-hall" B.4.1, "Kirkly" B.12.1, "Kirkly-hall" B.12.3, "Kirkly-hall" B.14.3, "Kirkleys" B.19.4; also "Kirkleys" and "Kirkley Monastery" in the end matter to B.b), which is also the reading of the Davis text from Virginia. The retelling of this tale in "Robin Hood and the Valiant Knight" [Child 153] has a tail note which reads "Birkslay," perhaps derived from the reading "Bircklies" of Grafton (for which see below).
The region of Kirklees on modern maps is south and somewhat west of Leeds, northeast of Manchester, and west of Wakefield. Knight/Ohlgren, p. 168, following Child, point specifically to the priory of Kirklees in west Yorkshire. According to Holt, pp. 87-88, it is twenty miles west of Barnsdale (far enough west that some might even have thought it to be in Lancashire, which has also been suggested as its location). Or, perhaps, it really is a generic name, "the Lee of the [unnamed] Kirk."
There is also a Kirkby not far north of modern Liverpool (one of quite a few Kirbys scattered about England), but it is rather far west of Robin Hood's usual haunts.
The "Gest" merely says that the prioress of Kirklees "nye was of hys kinne," i.e. a close relative, but stanza 10 of Child's "A" text of the "Death" calls him his aunt's daughter, i.e. first cousin, and in the "B" text of the "Death" he refers to her as his cousin in stanza 2, and she calls him cousin in stanza 5. Davis's text of the death also has him murdered by his cousin, although it is not said that she is the prioress.
In Grafton's Chronicle of 1569, which wemet in the introduction, we find the first dated mention of the claim that Robin was bled to death (Knight/Ohlgren, p. 29). Grafton lists the place as "Bircklies," which I do not find on any map of England (there is a "Birtley" in the Newcastle area, but that's pretty far from Robin's haunts). Knight/Ohlgren suggest that "Bircklies" is a misreading of "Kircklies," which seems likely. Grafton's account does seem to confirm the antiquity of the details in the "Death," although he adds the curious statement that the prioress of the place set up a memorial stone for Robin, "wherein the names of Robert Hood, William of Goldesborough and others were graven" (Knight/Ohlgren, p. 29).
Grafton's explanation for why she set up the stone was so that travellers would no longer fear being robbed by Robin (Baldwin, pp. 74-75). Of course, were that the actual reason, she might well have set up the stone withough possessing Robin's actual body.
Drayton also knew the story that Robin died at Kirkley (Gummere, p. 322).
Hunter suggested that the Prioress of Kirklees was one Elizabeth Staynton, possibly related to the Hoods of Wakefield (Cawthorne, p. 49). But the few details we have about Staynton do not really support the legend of Robin -- e.g. Baldwin, p. 74, says that she was indeed a nun at Kirklees in 1344 (which fits brilliantly with the reconstruction we gave above), but there is no evidence that she was the prioress.
Pollard, p. 120, suggests that the fact Robin is killed by a prioress is significant -- that it is the last token of the conflict between Robin and the church; he compares on p. 121 Chaucer's monk who "loved venerye." And we certainly are told in stanza 452 that the prioress loved Sir Roger, implying unchastity, and in 455 that he lay by her. This is not quite proof that she betrayed her vows (they might have been friends, and she might have allowed him to stay in hiding at the nunnery), but it is a strong indication.
The caution is that the parallel in the "Death" does not show the theme infidelity at all clearly. The prioress's unchastity might be in the missing sections of the Percy version, but Robin's anti-clericalism is not evident. That the Catholic hierarchy was corrupt in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is obvious -- Chaucer's Pardoner is even better proof than his Monk, and "Pierce the Ploughman's Crede" has much to say about the degraded nature of various friars (Barr, p. 6). But condemnation of the Church does not seem to be an essential part of the Robin Hood legend although it is a major theme of the "Gest."
** Stanza 452/Line 1806 ** "Donkesley" is the reading of the prints, but two stanzas later we read "Doncaster," which is a real place; Knight/Ohlgren, p. 168, suggest that Donkesly is a mistaken conflation of "Kirklees" and "Doncaster."
It is interesting to note that that, of the nine characters in the "Gest" to be given a personal name (Robin Hood, Little John, King Edward, Scarlock/Scathelock, Much the Miller's Son, Gilbert of the White Hand, Reynold, Sir Richard, and Roger of Doncaster), only Roger of Doncaster is Robin's enemy. All his other enemies -- the Sheriff, the Abbot of St. Mary's and his associates, the Prioress of Kirklees -- are given titles only. Unfortunately, the name doesn't help, since we have too few details about Roger of Doncaster to offer a secure identification.
Cawthorne, pp. 202-204, mentions several Rogers who are possibilities. There was a Roger of Doncaster at Wakefield in service to the earl Warenne, although this is rather early. There is a Roger son of William of Doncaster who was given eight acres of land at Crigglestone (now a parish in Wakefield) in 1327. Cawthorne on p. 203 sums up the case for one Roger of Doncaster (identified by Hunter) who fits well in the reign of Edward II: "In 1306, he was sent by the Archbishop of York to be priest at the church in Ruddington near Nottingham. According to the records, he was still the parish priest there in 1328.... What's more, Roger the chaplain also seems to have been a knight -- and a knight with a chequered sexual history. In June 1309, a 'Sir Roger de Doncastria' was charged with adultery with Agnes, the wife of Philip de Pavely."
Throw in the fact that, as a chaplain, Roger would have easier access than most to a nunnery, and the fact that there were "scandalous" rumours that the nuns of Kirklees in Yorkshire in 1315 (Cawthorne, p. 203), and we have a surprisingly good fit.
But it is by no means clear that all these mentions in fact describe one man; Holt, p. 61, declares that they in fact refer to at least two distinct Rogers.
** Stanza 454/Lines 1809-1812 ** This verse raises the question, Why was it the concern of the Prioress and Sir Roger of Doncaster to kill Robin? Why not the authorities? One possibility is that there was a reward, another is that Sir Roger was a local under-sheriff or the like. Or maybe he had been robbed by Robin. But I suspect it is a theme we also see in the Jesse James story: "He said there was no man with the law in his hand Who could take Jesse James when alive." Or catch Robin Hood while alive -- note that we saw this in Stanza 365, etc., that no outsider could catch Robin Hood.
** Stanza 455/Line 1818 ** This is the most explicit indication of the prioress's unchastity; see the note on Stanza 452. It is, however, just possible that the statement that Sir Roger lay by the prioress means that he lay in wait.
** Stanza 456/Lines 1823-1824 ** "For he was a good outlawe, And dyde pore men moch god." Pollard, pp. 192-193, compares this with the final stanzas of "The Outlaw's Song of Trailbaston," for which see the note on stanza 15.
The last line of the next-to-last stanza of the "Outlaw's Song" is rendered "Nor a thief out of malice to do people harm" on p. 10 of Ohlgren, and "Nor was I wicked robber to do people harm" on p. 192 of Pollard; this is the line Pollard thinks parallels the "Gest." It seems clear, however, that there is no literary dependence between the two.
Last updated in version 2.6
File: C117H

Gest of Robyn Hode, A [Child 117] --- Part 10

DESCRIPTION: This concludes of the notes to "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. This contains the textual notes.
Last updated in version 2.6
NOTES [10037 words]: As mentioned in the Introduction, there are very many variants among the prints of the "Gest," and some places where the text has been entirely lost. Many scholars have worked on the text, but none of the editions can be considered the last word. Indeed, I think a great deal of additional work needs to be done. This section summarizes most of the major variants, with occasional commentary on why one reading or another might be preferred. I have of course added my own observations where relevant.
The prints are referred to by Child's sigla, a b c d e f g (plus pq for the two fragments found since his time). For discussion of these copies, see the section "The Text of the Gest." As in the notes on the content of the "Gest," references are to Child's stanza numbers and Knight/Ohlgren's line numbers.
** Stanza 4/Line 13 ** "Scarlock." There is a variant in the spelling; the a text calls him "Scarlock," while b and f use "Scathelock," which g simplifies to "Scathlock." The fragment d has "Scathelocke" in stanza 293, which is perhaps as close as we can come to a "tiebreaker." We find other names in the later ballads, e.g. the first line of "Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon" [Child 129] calls him "Will Scadlock."
"Guy of Gisborne," stanza 13, refers to "Scarlett"; the "Monk" has "Wyll Scathlok" in stanza 63, and the Percy text of the "Death" has "Will Scarlett" in stanza 2. The parliamentary roll for Winchester in 1432 has the gag line "Robyn, hode, Inne, Grenewode, Stode, Godeman, was, hee, lytel Joon, Muchette Millerson, Scathelock, Reynoldn" (Holt1, p. 69; cf. Cawthorne, p. 58).
The Forresters manuscript version of "Robin Hood's Delight" [Child 136] corrects the "Scarlock" of the broadsides to "Scathlock," which Knight, p. xvii, declares the more traditional form. There is also an instance in the Forresters book where a later hand has corrected "Will Stutley" to "Will Scathlock" in the title of the ballad "Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly" [Child 141] (Knight, pp. xxvi, 92), but the manuscript also has "Scarlett" and (once) "Scarett."
There is no obvious reason, based on internal evidence, to prefer either "Scarlock" or "Scathelok." Neither of the latter two, we should point out, appears to be attested as an earlier form of the word scarlet. If one has to choose a reading, "Scarlock" is perhaps the best, since this is the middle reading; both "Scarlet" and "Scathelock" can be derived from it by a single phoneme change. But this is a weak basis for a decision.
The modern preference for "Scarlet" may be the result of Shakespeare, that great distorter of history, who in 2 Henry IV, V.iii, line 103 in RiversideShakespeare, has Silence sing "And Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John." (This is one of three instances of Shakespeare mentioning Robin Hood, according to Cawthorne, pp. 80-81; none of the mentions are substantial enough to tell us anything.)
** Stanza 4/Line 14 ** "Much the Miller's Son." In this first instance of his name, there is variation in the prints on whose son Much was; a calls him a "milser's" son, f and g a "mylner's" son. The first is obviously an error (recall that the typesetter of a didn't have much English, and in Textura fonts, an s looked like an f or even an l); the second might refer to a milliner, but obviously millers were far more common than milliners -- although note Much complaining about John's willingness to give away extra cloth in stanza 73. Still, "miller" seems to be the usual reading in the other instances; it is probably safe to print "miller" here.
** Stanza 7/Line 25 ** The line that begins Stanza 7 is lacking in all texts; Child prints it as a lacuna. Knight/Ohlgren offer as their line 25 the conjecture "Here shal come a lord or sire." They claim that this is similar to lines in other early ballads. The only merit that I can see to the line is that it rhymes with the third line of the stanza -- but the first and third lines do not normally rhyme in the "Gest."
Dobson and Taylor's conjecture is "Till that I have som bolde baron," which is rather better but doesn't seem to fit Robin's preoccupations. I doubt we can conjecture the original, but my thought (arrived at without seeing Dobson/Taylor) is, "We shal wait (i.e. await) som bold abbot."
** Stanza 7/Line 27 ** Child emended the third line of the stanza to read "Or som knyght or [som] squyer," a reading not attested in this form in any of the manuscripts; a omits "som" before "squyer," while bfg read "some." Knight/Ohlgren omit the word.
** Stanza 39 (also 41, 42)/Lines 155, 163, 168 ** There is a textual variant here regarding the number of shillings. Child in 39.3 and 42.3=Knight/Ohlgren line 155, 163 read "ten." The reading of a is xx, i.e. "twenty"; bc have .x., i.e. "ten" in both places.Obviously either reading is an easy error for the other. Child, followed by Knight/Ohlgren, read "ten shillings" on the basis of Stanza 42, where the knight is found to have wealth totalling half a pound. The reading "ten" also scans better. But I could make a case for "twenty"; it would be easy to understand the knight claiming to have twenty shillings; even in his poverty, he would want to round things up....
** Stanza 49/Lines 194, 196 ** Child's text follows the prints in reading the final word of the line as "knowe." This does not rhyme with "spende" in the final line of the stanza, and Knight/Ohlgren (without adding a note or explanation) emend the text to read "wende." This is a possible emendation, but not sure; we might as well emend the final line of the stanza to end (for instance) "goe." However, it is much more likely that the correction should be to a form of the verb "to ken," i.e. to know. Probably it should be "kende," although "kent" or "kennit" are also reasonable.
** Stanza 50/Lines 198-199 ** The second line of this stanza does not rhyme with the fourth, and the third line does. This defect occurs in all extant copies of the verse (abcfg). Child's conjecture is that we should swap the second and third lines, although it is possible that we should rewrite the final line to end in a word that rhymes with "wife" (e.g. "lyfe").
** Stanza 53/Line 209 ** Child's text, in line 53.1, says "He slewe a knyght of Lancaster;" so too Knight/Ohlgren. "Lancaster" is the reading of a. In bf we find "Lancastshyre," which g cleans up as "Lancashire." c has "Lancasesshyre." Child followed a presumably on the grounds that he always followed a. But the reading which best explains the others is surely "Lancastshyre," as in b; anyone confronted with this reading would either convert it to "Lancashire" (as g did, and as c did indirectly) or simplify it to "Lancaster."
** Stanzas 53-54/Lines 212-213 ** Child prints these lines as "My godes both sette and solde / My londes both sette to wede, Robyn." In these lines, a reads both...both; b reads both... beth; c reads bothe....bothe; f reads both...both, g reads both... be. Knight/Ohlgren, p. 153, argue that "both" makes no sense in the second instance, and so adopt "beth" ("be" or "will be") -- and then proceed to emend the first instance to read "beth" also, without manuscript support. But, as any ballad student knows, it is not uncommon for short words to be included in a text for reasons of smoothness. "Both" should surely be allowed in stanza 53, and is the better (although not certain) reading in 54 as well.
** Stanza 62/Lines 245, 246 ** There is a single/plural difference in both these lines; a has frende...borowe, bf(g) have frendes...borowes. Since the change happens in both lines, it is unlikely to be an accidental omission/deletion; one simply must decide between a and b. Similarly with wolde/wyll in the second line of the stanza (and also dyed on/dyed on a in the fourth line. This stanza shows clear evidence of recensional work, although it is not obvious in which direction it went). The only clue I can think of is that "none" in the third line is a considered to be singular and might have attracted the rest to it. This is extremely weak.
** Stanza 68/Lines 271-272 ** The counting out of the loan. Child's text reads that John counted it "by eight and twenty score"; Knight/Ohlgren offer "by eightene and two score." None of the prints actually expresses it this way; a reads xxviij score, i.e. 28 score; bfg read with variants "eighteen and twenty score." "Twenty score" of pounds is of course 400 pounds, but then why the 8/18? Gummere, p. 315, suggests that John was paying out "20 score and more," and indeed he showed such generosity with cloth in stanzas 72-73. But a 40% overpayment? Hard to believe -- and not stated at all clearly; even saying "twenty score and eight" would make the surplus more obvious. It is worth noting that 400 pounds is 600 marks, or 30 score of marks; possibly the 28 was supposed to refer to marks rather than pounds. But the best explanation is probably to start from b, accepting the Knight/Ohlgren emendation but reading it as eighteen-and-two score, i.e. twenty score. Or perhaps emend the line to read something like "by counting twenty score." And don't ask why the poet put it in such a confusing way!
** Stanza 69/Line 273 ** Text a reads "sayde Much," but b has "sayde lytell Much," follwed by f and g (which uses the modern spelling "little"). We find "little Much" in stanzas 73 and 77 without variant. The meter works better with "little" than without. Child included "lytell" in [square brackets] as dubious; Knight/Ohlgren print it without indication of doubt although they mention the variant in their notes. Given that short words are more typically dropped than added by scribes, "lytell Much" seems the better reading. See also the note on Stanza 4.
** Stanza 70/Line 277 ** a and b both read "To helpe his body therin." This reading is difficult enough that Child conjectured that the original should be "lappe," i.e. wrap (a reading found in fg); the noun "lappe" is found in Chaucer (e.g.) for a fold or hem or pocket (Chaucer/Benson, p. 1262), and the verb lappyn, fold, enclose, cover, swath occurs in several of the poems in Turville-Petre (cf. p. 238). Whether the emendation is solid enough to go against the testimony of both a and b must be left for the reader; all the recent editions have followed Child.
** Stanza 75/Line 298 ** The text of a has Little John speak "To gentill Robyn Hode"; bfg have John direct his speech "All unto Robyn Hode." Since Robin was not, at the time the "Gest" was written, considered to be of the gentry, we must suspect that "gentill" is the original text and bfg corrected what appeared to be an error of meaning.
** Stanza 76/Line 304 ** All the editions follow Child in reading "God graunt that he [the knight] be true." But b has "leve" for "graunt." "Leve" is shorthand for "believe," i.e. "trust." This is difficult enough that fg emend it to "lende." But, while difficult, it is not impossible. It is easy to see how "leve" could be replaced by "graunt," difficult to see how the reverse could come about. "Leve" appears the better reading. I might also conjecture that the original was "give," which would be the middle reading if attested.
** Stanza 78/Line 310 ** The a and b texts both have Little John suggest giving the knight a "clere" pair of spurs. Child and Knight/Ohlgren both change this to "clene" on the basis of f and g. But this surely is an emendation by f. Either we should let the reading stand or we should emend to something more meaningful -- perhaps "dere," i.e. costly. Or, perhaps, "clere" means something like "free and clear."
** Stanza 87/Line 345 ** All the extant texts (bfg) omit the first line of this stanza. Child suggested duplicating it from the previous stanza, on the ground that it might have fallen out because the two lines have the same ending (homoioteleuton). This reasonable emendation is adopted by the more recent editors but is beyond proof.
** Stanza 88/Lines 351-352 ** The last two lines of stanza 88 make nonsense and are likely corrupt, but the prints generally agree on thenonsense text (apart from a minor correction in g, "lay it downe" for "lay downe" in 88.4, a reading followed by Gummere), and no good emendation has been suggested; the best I can think of is "he will come anon."
** Stanza 89/Line 354 **Corruption is probable in stanza 88; it is almost certain in the second line of 89 (the two problems are most likely related). b reads "In Englonde he is ryght." Child and Dobson/Taylor both follow fg in reading instead "In Englonde is his ryght." This is, however, an utterly obvious conjecture with no real claim to originality. Knight/Ohlgren emend byomitting the words and reading the line "In Englonde ryght" and then use this for a complex argument. I am not convinced by either emendation, and doubt we can draw any sure conclusion based on the line.
** Stanza 91/Line 362 ** The abbott swears by "Saint Richard." Knight/Ohlgren emend this to "Saint Rychere" for purposes of maintaining the rhyme (Knight/Ohlgren, p. 155), a saint's name also used in "Gamelyn" but not otherwise known. There is little justification for the emendation; there are many instances of bad rhymes in the "Gest," and to replace an unlikely saint with a non-existent saint is not an improvement.
A second possibility is to emend the text more thorouthly, possibly to "Saint Cuthbert," who was a famous Northumbrian saint (the Venerable Bede wrote a life of him, and Douglas, p. 219, calls all England north of the Tees "St. Cuthbert's Land") and whose name rhymes fairly well (particularly if it were written, say, "Saint Cuthbere"). Chaucer, in the Reeve's Tale, has northerners still swearing by "Seynt Cutberd" (Chaucer/Benson, p. 81, line 4127; Pollard, p. 69). I also note that the previous line has a reference to the Abbot's beard, which rhymes well with "Saint Richard"; perhaps what we have is two stanzas badly shortened down to one.
One other possibility (and I emphasize that all of these are just speculations) is that the original was some variant (probably anglicized) on "Saint Roch," or "St. Rochur" (the Latin form of the name, which is obviously very similar in sound to "Richard"), which a copyist converted to "Saint Richard" because Roch is such an un-English name.
Roch, or Rocco, or Roque (c. 1295-1327) was a Frenchman famous for his ability to treat the plague and the patron saint of invalids (DictSaints, p. 213). He was also famous for an association with dogs because, in one tale, a dog fed him while he himself suffered plague (Benet, p. 977), Could the abbot, like Friar Tuck in a later form of the Robin Hood legend, have been a keeper of dogs? Alternately, could the day of the knight's visit have been August 16, Saint Roch's day?
It is true that Roch was not canonized until after the death of Edward II, and hence after the likely date of this incident, but Roch was well known during the plague years of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (and largelyforgotten after that); it would be a much more likely name at the time the "Gest" was written than at any timebefore or since.
I also am tempted by "Saint Robert," referring to Saint Robert of Knaresborough; see the explanatory note.
In the end, though, the reading "Saint Richard" is not nonsensical enough to justify emendation. I am sore tempted by "Saint Rochur," but am content to leave it in the margin.
** Stanza 93/Line 371 ** Child's text reads "The [hye] iustyce of Englonde"; Dobson/Taylor and Knight/Ohlgren omit "hye" (the former without so much as a footnore), making it the "iustice of Englonde." This is one of the more significant textual problems of the "Gest." The only witnesses are bfg. b omits the word "hye", which is found in f (g modernizes the spelling to "high"). Ordinarily, of course, a reading supported only by fg would not be considered. Presumably Child includes the word because it makes no sense to refer to one man as "the justice of England"; also, the phrase "hye iustice" is found without variants in stanza 266.
Possibly "high" is just a word the poet uses to fill a syllable before an office? In Stanza 318, he refers to the "hye shyref," and that office doesn't exist either. But why "high"? Probably we should follow b and read "justice," not "high justice."
Another possibility, which I have not seen elsewhere, is to emend "Englonde" rather than "iustice." All our problems would disappear if the text read something like "the iustice of the foreste" -- we know exactly what office that was!
** Stanza 98/Line 389 ** A line is missing here in all three extant witnesses (bfg). Child conjectured the text "They put on their symple wedes" based on the third line of the previous stanza. Child's emendation is probably the best we can do, but the probability is high that more than one line is damaged; the previous stanza does not fit with what has gone before. Instead of inserting a line here, an alternate proposal might be to omit the last three lines of stanza 97 and combine it with the last three lines of 98, or something similar. So possible readings would be something like
Than bespake that gentyll knyght
And with him Lytell Johnn,
The porter was redy hymselfe,
And welcomed them euerychone.
(emending the second line), or
Than arrived that gentyll knyght
They came to the gates anone;
The porter was redy hymselfe,
And welcomed them euerychone.
(emending the first line).
** Stanza 113/Line 450 ** Child and Knight/Ohlgren print this line as "And vylaynesly hym gan call." This is Child's conjecture to rhyme with the last word of the stanza ("hall"); acde are all defective here, fg omit the line, and b -- which is thus our only witness -- reads "And vylaynesly hym gan loke." The word "loke" is probably an error repeated from the previous line, meaning thatChild's conjecture is reasonable, but it would be possible to emend the last line, "Spede the out of my hall!" -- if we could find an acceptable substitute for "hall" that rhymes with "loke."
** Stanza 128/Line 511 ** Child reads "Ne had be his kyndeness" following a; bfg read "had not be." Dobson/Taylor, p. 88, read "he" for "be," without showing any indication that this is not the reading of a. Although both readings make sense, this is perhaps a typesetting error.
** Stanza 132/Line 527 ** The arrows had silver on them -- somewhere. b reads "I nocked all with whyte silver," that is "Nocked all with white silver"; fg read "And nocked the(y) were with whyte silver" -- but a has "Worked all with whyte silver." The nock was a groove in the back of an arrow into which the bowstring was placed. This was a weak point of an arrow, and a truly well-made arrow might have a metal cap there.
The reading of bfg implies that this cap was made of silver, which, as Knight/Ohlgren confess on p. 156, was "unusually lavish." So lavish as to be silly, since silver was not as structurally strong as iron. The arrows could just as well have been "worked" with silver, as in a, which might mean that the shaft or the point had silver tracings. Child and Knight/Ohlgren, who usually follow a slavishly, here adopt the reading of b (except for reading Inocked, one word, instead of I nocked, two words), but certainly a strong case could be made for "worked" -- the reading accepted by Dobson/Taylor, p. 88. A silver nock, after all, will not be very visible under the feathers!
** Stanza 133/Line 529** An escort of "a hundred men": so bfg; a is defective for the number.
** Stanza 135/Line 537 ** This line is surely corrupt. Child gives it in full as "But as he went at a brydge ther was a wrastelyng," which is too long and rather nonsensical. This is the reading of b; a is defective, and f and g appear to be attempts to correct the reading of b. Child suggests "at Wentbrydge" as an emendation for "Went at a brydge"; Knight/Ohlgren accept this into the text. This seems logical, since the place near Barnsdale where Watling Street crosses the Went is called, unsurprisingly, "Wentbridge." And Wentbridge ("Went-breg") is mentioned in stanza 6 of the "Potter." But there is no actual textual support for Child's emendation.
Dobson/Taylor, p. 88, do not print "Wentbridge," adopting the reading of b but suggesting it is a play on or allusion to "Wentbridge" -- although they admit on p. 21 that the allusion is vague.
My personal suspicion is that what we have is a case of three lines being lost. The text "But as he went at a brydge ther was a wrastelyng" is actually two lines, with the final two lines of that stanza, and the first line of the next stanza, missing.
** Stanza 138/Line 551 ** This line is disturbed, although the reason for the disturbance is not clear. a reads "And for he was ferre and frembde bested," followed by Child and the other editions; there are a few variants in the other copies, of which the only significant one is that bf(g) fread "frend" for "frembde." This hardly helps. The likely meaning is something like "And he was far from home and friendless," but the line may be corrupt.
** Stanza 140/Line 558 ** A hundred men followed the knight. But how? bfg say they followed him (in) fear; a simply says they followed him. Neither of these readings rhymes with "companye" at the end of the stanza. Child emended to read that they followed him "free," and most editors have followed this. It is a good emendation, although it is just possibly that we should emend the final line, e.g. change "companye" to something like "knyght dere."
** Stanza 147/Line 588 ** There is much uncertainty in the prints; a reads "That ever yet saw I," which (since the line is to rhyme with "tre(e)") is possible only if "I" is pronounced "ee." b reads "That yet saw I me," which is a proper rhyme but is short a syllable. fg read "That yet I did see," which both scans and rhymes, but is a rather modern formation.
Child proposes to emend the line to "That every yet saw I me," a rather otiose reflexive but one which also occurs in stanzas 100 and 184 (Knight/Ohlgren, p. 157). This is probably the best emendation, given the existence of the parallels, but it should be emphasized that this is a conjecture. Another conjecture would be to read "That ever saw I me," or we perhaps "That ever yet saw my ee" (eye).
And it is possible that a's reading is original. Unlikely as it seems, Child has to make the very same emendation in stanza 169, where he gives the last line as "That eyer yit saw I me," to rhyme with "lewte." The fact that the same emendation has to be made twice is an indication that perhaps the text is correct in both cases (which perhaps means that we should indeed read "I" as "ee." Could this be the result of a residual northernism?).
** Stanza 156/Line 624 ** A rough line for a rough demand: a reads "Give me my dinner, said Little John," while b offers "Give me to dine, said Little John" (fg have "Give me meat" for "Give me to dine"). Knight/Ohlgren mention the smoother emendation "Give me my dinner soon," which is also better poetry, but admit that there is no reason to question the text.
** Stanza 157/Line 628 ** Child follows a in reading "My dyner gif me." bfg read, with spelling variations, "My dyner gif thou me." Knight/Ohlgren accept the longer version on metrical grounds, but we could just as well emend to "My dyner gif to me."
** Stanza 160/Lines 637-640 ** The number of variants in the texts of this verse is astonishing. Such variation is often an indication of a damaged and conjecturally restored text, although there is no particular reason to reject Child's text. The most serious variant is in the first line of the stanza, where a says that Little John gave the butler a "tap" while bfg says John gave him a "rap." There is really no grounds for preferring either reading. Similarly, in the third line, a says that the butler would not feel such a blow in a hundred years, while bfg have a hundred winter(s). Interestingly, these two variants occur at the end of the two longest lines of the stanza. Could it be that the manucript which was the last common ancestor of a and b was damaged for the right-hand edge of this verse?
** Stanza 163/Line 650 ** Child gives the line as "The while that he wolde," rhyming with "bolde" at the end of the stanze. But a reads "The while that he wol be," and b has "The while he wolde." Child's reading is from fg. Knight/Ohlgren label Child's reading an emendation, which it is not, quite, but this line is quite uncertain and it and the final line of the stanza must both be considered doubtful. Dobson/Taylor, p. 91, follow a.
** Stanza 164/Line 654 ** Both a and b read this line as "Thou arte a shrewede hynde," which would usually be decisive, but fg read the last word as "hyne," and Child thinks this may be correct.
** Stanza 165/Line 659 ** Child gives the text of this line as "'I make myn auowe to God,' sayde Lytell John," on the basis of a (except that a, in one of its frequent typographical inversions, reads "anowe" for "avowe"). bfg, however, omit "to God," and Gummere also leaves out the words. Gummere's text is frequently erratic, but there is much to be said for the short reading in this case; the words "to God" might have floated in from the many uses of the phrase "auowe to God" (158.3, 164.1, 187.1, 190.1, 343.1, 346.1). The shorter text is also an easier read.
** Stanza 169/Line 675 ** Child gives the text as "That euer yit sawe I [me]," to rhyme with "lewte" (loyalty) two lines earlier. But a reads "That euer yit saw I." For discussion of the emendation "saw I me," see the note on Stanza 147, where Child made the same emendation. Here, however, "saw I me" is supported by bfg, which have divergent readings in stanza 147. Dobson/Taylor, p. 91, follow a in part but split "sawe" into two words and omit I, yielding "ever yit sa we" -- clever, but an emendation at a place where bfg have a perfectly good reading.
** Stanza 176/Line 701 ** Child reads "Also [they] toke the gode pens" (=pence). "They" is omitted by a; bfg include it. Knight/Ohlgren, p. 158, call the word "not grammatically essential" but follow Child's lead. Given the ineptitude of a, I would incline to include the word; a probably dropped it accidentally.
** Stanza 176/Lines 704, 706 ** The variant here is complex. a says that Little John and the cook took "Three hundred pounde and more" to Robin Hood "Under the grene wode hore," that is, "under the green wood hoar." fg have a different rhyme: The robbers took "Three hundred pounds and three" to Robin "under the green wood tree." b has the unlikely reading "three hundred pounde and more... under the green wode tre.'
Ordinarily, we might prefer the reading of b as best explaining the others: a corrected "tree" to "hore," and fg corrected "more" to "three." In this case, however, it is pretty clear that b mistakenly printed "green wode tre" (a common catchphrase) for "green wode hore" (rather obscure), and that f desperately emended the second line to make it match the fourth. Although it is interesting that, in stanza 179, we are told that John and the cook did in fact bring three hundred pounds and three.
** Stanza 179/Line 714 ** Child emends the line to "And sende[th] the here by me" and offers as a conjecture "sent the" for "sendeth the," citing stanza 384 as a place where the text uses the form "sent." ab read "sende the"; f gives the line as "And he hath send the here by me," which g modernizes as "sent thee..." Child's emendation was intended to make the verb tense match the preceding line. Knight/Ohlgren reject the emendation as unneeded. It should be noted that, although the issue in the prints is whether there reading should be "th" or "thth," in the original manuscript it might have been a single or double letter thorn. Copying two copies of a letter as one, or vice versa, is a very common error.
** Stanza 183/Line 731 ** Knight/Ohlgren emend Child's "shryef," of uncertain meaning but found in all texts, to "shyref," sheriff.
** Stanza 186/Line 741 ** Child reads "Their tyndes" (antlers, from the root for "tine"), with af; b reads "His tynde." Child's reading points to the antlers of the entire herd of deer John is describing; b's refers presumably to the green hart (i.e. Robin Hood) at their head. Knight/Ohlgren follow Child without even adding a note. It is awkward to see the antlers referred to in the singular, but if they were spoken of as singular, it would invite correction. There is much to be said for the "b" reading.
** Stanza 191/Line 763 ** Child's text says the Sheriff was served "well." This is the reading of a; bfg omit. Knight/Ohlgren follow Child, but the meter is better with "well" than without; it is perhaps an addition for smoothness.
** Stanza 192/Line 768 ** According to a, Robin says that "I graunt" the sheriff his life; in bfg, the verb is a passive, "is graunted." Is a passive more likely to be converted to an active or vice verse? I'd think the former.
** Stanza 193/Line 771 ** Child's text says Roin "commaunde[d]" Little John. a reads "commaunde"; b has "commanded"; f "commaunded," g "commanded." Knight/Ohlgren follow Child in using the past tense "commaunded," but the present tense is surely the more difficult reading; the text of a is probably preferable.
** Stanza 194/Line 775 ** Child gives the line as "And to[ke] hym a grene mantel." "Toke" is the reading of bf (g has "tooke"); a has 'to." Knight/Ohlgren accept the reading of bfg, but it is hard to imagine why anyone would have changed "toke" to "to," while the reverse change is quite plausible. The shorter reading is probably to be preferred.
** Stanza 201/Line 803 ** Child prints the last three words of this line as "the best[e] frende." a reads "thy best frende"; bfg read "the best frende." "Beste" improves the meter, but probably not enough to justify the emendation (although someone reading the line aloud might well say "beste"). Knight/Ohlgren follow a and read "thy best"; I would follow b and read "the best." Admittedly the reading of a is less smooth, but this is just the sort of error that is typical of a, and any poet good enough to compile the "Gest" could see that "the" would sound better than "thy."
** Stanaza 203/Line 810 ** Child has "By nyght or [by] day"; Knight/Ohlgren omit the second occurence of "by." "By day" is the reading of bf; g has "else by day"; a has simply "day" without "by." The reading of a gives us an extremely short line; the reading of b is still short and gives us two unstressed syllables. I would follow Child and include "by" on the grounds that no editor would add just that one word; someone playing with the text would add two syllables, as g did.
** Stanza 206/Lines 823-824 ** Robin fears that the Virgin is "wrothe with me, For she sent me nat my pay." For "pay" a reads "pray," but no editor has accepted this -- although it would be interesting to read it as "prey," meaning that Robin has not had enough victims to rob. But "pay" makes better sense in light of what follows.
** Stanza 209/Line 835 ** Child's text reads "And wayte after some vnketh (unknown) gest." Child's reading is a conjecture; b reads "And wayte after such vnketh gest," while fg have minor variants on "And looke for some strange gest." Knight/Ohlgren, p. 159, reject Child's emendation on the grounds that the reading of b makes sense, if rather forced sense; Dobson/Taylor, p. 94, also accept the reading of b. An alternate emendation would be "And wayte after such an vnketh gest." See also the next note; this section shows the signs of having been very corrupt and badly corrected.
** Stanza 210/Lines 838-840 ** The a text is defective here, and b does not rhyme (it gives the verse as "Whether he be messengere, Or a man that myrthes can, Or yf he be a pore man, Of my gode he shall haue some'). Child reverses the last two lines, omitting the "or" before "yf he be." This is a reasonable conjecture, but there may be deeper damage -- if we could emend the second line of the stanza to rhyme with "some," the structure would be more logical. Possibly emend the second line to something like "a man of myrthe and song" -- a weak rhyme, but it produces an orderly stanza. Knight/Ohlgren accept Child's conjecture; Dobson/Taylor do not.
** Stanza 213/Line 849 ** The text of bf reads "But as he loked in Bernysdale." For "he" g reads "they," which is also the reading of the parallel in stanza 21, and Child accepts this emendation, printing [t]he[y]. The plural accords with the plurals in stanza 212 and in the third line of this stanza, and Knight/Ohlgren accept it. But g is derived from bf; the change is clearly editorial. The reading "he" is clearly the earliest preserved, and probably should be preferred.
** Stanza 214/Line 856 ** Child prints the line "That [these] monkes haue brought our pay." The reading of b is "That monkes haue brought our pay." Child's reading follows fg. Knight/Ohlgren, p. 159, propose instead that the scribe of the ancestor of b misread the text; they emend to "The monkes." Another possible emendation would be to read "These monkes" without "That." Another possibility is to read "That the monk" (singular). The problem is, all of these conjectures are reasonable, but none is significantly better than the others. In all likelihood one of them is correct, but it might be best to follow b simply because we don't know which one.
** Stanza 215/Line 858 ** In Child's text, Little John tells his subordinates to "frese your bowes of ewe (yew)." "Frese" is the verb of b, although it says "our bowes" rather than "your bowes." fg reads "bend we our" -- almost certainly indicating that their exemplar read "frese our" and they did not understand it. Child suggests as emendations "dress" (i.e. "prepare") or "leese" (i.e. "loose.") Dobson/Taylor, p. 94, suggest but do not adopt the emendation "free," i.e. "prepare." Knight/Ohlgren accept the emendation "dress" (spelling it "drese"). Either emendation is possible; neither strikes me as very compelling.
"Frese" could be either of two Middle English words: the verb to freeze (freseth, from Old English freosan; Dickins/Wilson, p. 270; also Sisam under "frese") or the noun "frese/fresse," "danger" (so Sisam under "fresse") or "harm" (Turville-Petre, p. 231). Obviously a verb is required. And "frese" in Middle English would not carry the modern sense "hold still" conveyed by the command "Freeze!" I would be inclined to print "frese" with a notation that the text is corrupt, inviting a better conjecture than those proposed so far. Perhaps we should read "frese" as a noun (with the sense "You're in trouble!") and add a verb, along the lines of "And frese! See our bowes of ewe...."
Gummere, Dobson/Taylor, and Knight/Ohlgren are agreed in reading "our bowes" for Child's emendation "your bowes."
** Stanza 216/Line 861 ** In Child's text, the monk had 52 men, with [men] in brackets as questionable. b omits 'men' (and writes 53 as lii); the word "men" is found in f, while g has "man." a is defective here. Knight/Ohlgren think "men" can be omitted, and I incline to agree.
** Stanza 218/Line 870 ** In b, John tells his companions (Much and Scarlock) to make "all you prese to stonde" -- that is, to make the approaching press (crowd) to halt. In f(g), John orders "you yonder preste to stonde." "Preste" means "priest" (and is so spelled in g). In the variant "you" versus "you yonder," Child emends to "yon," which is logical. The more significant variant is between "press" and "priest" -- a change of only one letter. All editors appear to read "prese" with b, which is of course the best text, but either reading is possible.
** Stanza 223/Line 889 ** The text of b says that Much had a"bolte" ready. Probably because crossbows fired bolts and longbows arrows, f (followed, of course, by g) amends the line to read "bowe," but since an arrow could casually be called a bolt; there is no need to emend.
** Stanza 240/Lines 959-960 ** For "rightwys man," i.e. "righteous man." b reads "ryghtywysman," i.e. perhaps "right wise man"; f in fact reads "ryght wise man." The reading "dame" is a conjecture based on fg; b reads either "name" (so Child) or "ame" (so Knight/Ohlgren. This disagreement is not as large as it sounds, since an overbar could sometimes indicate a letter n).
** Stanza 247/Line 988 ** The monk allegedly carried "eyght [hondred] pounde" -- 800 pounds. So Child's text, anyway; b omits the word "hundred"; f and g read "hundreth." But since Robin and John claim that the monk paid back twice the 400 pounds borrowed by the knight, the meaning is hardly in doubt.
** Stanza 249/Line 994 ** Child's text is "Monke, what tolde I the," parsed as a question, "Monk, what told I thee?." This is the reading of b. However, fgp read "that" instead of "what." If parsed as a declarative statement, "Monk, that told I thee" -- Robin is declaring to the monk that he told the monk how true Mary is. Given that it is supported by p, and that it is probably the slightly more difficult reading, "that" should probably be preferred to "what."
** Stanza 256/Line 1021 ** The text of b, "'How moch is in yonder other corser?' sayd Robyn," has caused problems since the time of f, which amends Robin's quote to read, "And what is on the other courser?" g goes beyond even that and produces "And what is in the other coffer?" Kittredge suggested emending "corser" to "forcer," another word for "coffer," and Clawson, p. 22, approves of the emendation.
I am not convinced. The line is certainly too long, and far from clear, but, so far, no convincing emendation has been proposed; perhaps we should mark it as having a primitive error. In performance, we should probably give the line as something like "'How much is on the other courser?'" (omitting "said Robin," which is not needed).
I do wonder a little about Robin referring to a baggage horse as a "courser." Perhaps it was a particularly poor-looking nag (used perhaps for disguise?), and Robin was being ironic?
** Stanza 262/Line 1048 ** According to Knight/Ohlgren, p. 160, the text of bfg reads "And all they mery meyne," although Child's text prints "And all his mery meyne," and none of his collations show a variant here. The meyne is clearly Robin's, based on the previous line, so Child's emendation (?) "his" makes sense -- but Knight/Ohlgren suggest that "they" ("thy?") is an error for "the." Knight/Ohlgren's argument is reasonable, but the reading of the prints should probably be checked.
** Stanza 268/Line 1069 ** "'But take not a grefe,' sayde the knyght, 'That I heue been so longe..." This is the text printed by Child, on the evidence of b. f prints it as two lines --both of them metrically correct -- making up the line count by combining the last two lines of 270. The line as given by b is patently too long, as the compositor of f recognized. Knight/Ohlgren seek to emend by taking out "sayde the knyght." That emendation is required is clear, but this leaves a line still too long, and there is no reason for this. I very stongly suspect that what we have is not a case of one line that is too long but of three missing lines. We may also see evidence of this in the first line of 270, which like the first line of 268 is badly overburdened. The original reading was perhaps something like this:
268. 'But take not a grefe,' sayde the knyght,
'That I haue been so long.
For as I came to grene wode
I stopped to rite a wrong. (Or "I met a yeman strong", or some such).
268A. "For as I passed Wyresbridg
I came by wrastelyng...."
And so forth. We of course cannot recreate the missing lines, and so perhaps it is best to retain Child's version, but we should certainly mark this as corrupt.
** Stanza 271/Line 1083 ** Child has the line refer to the "[hye] selerer." b omits the word "hye"; it is found in f (which spells it "high") and g ("hie"). Knight/Ohlgren omit, and I agree. Child perhaps adds the word under the influence of stanza 233.
** Stanza 275/Line1102 ** The text of b here reads "And go to my treasure," which is to rhyme to "me." This confused the publishers of fg, who could not see how "treasure" rhymed with "me." They therefore changed it to the feeble "My wyll done that it be." But "treasure" is doubtless to be pronounced "treasury."
** Stanza 282/Line 1127 ** This marks the first of several instances (also stanza 291/line1163, stanza 300/line 1199, stanza 313/line 1251) where Child prints a text which refers to the "proud[e] sheryf." In each case, the primary text (b) prints "proud" rather than "proude." Both "proud" and "proude" are found in the "Gest" -- but, in Middle English, both forms are correct, and interchangeable; the one which is metrically better is perhaps to be preferred. This is certainly "proude sheriff," since otherwise we have back-to-back stressed syllables. On the other hand, all the instances cited are the third line of a stanza, which is probably the part of the text where the meter is least important. Someone reading the text might well pronounce the word "proude," but it is an open question what we should print.
** Stanza 283/Line 1131 ** Child prints the line "And [he] that shoteth allther best."Of the prints, fg read "they" instead of "he" (and read the verb as "shote"/"shoote" and have "all ther" for "allther"); b has no pronoun. Knight/Ohlgren would follow b. It is likely that the line is corrupt.
** Stanza 290/Line 1158 ** Child makes the last word of the line "he[ue]de," i.e. "hevede," to rhyme with "desceyued," "deceived," at the end of the stanza. The text of b, however, is simply "hede." The form "hevede" is based on a legitimate early English form, but does not occur, e.g., in the "Gest." While there may be corruption in this verse (note the number of variants in this and the next two stanzas), Knight/Ohlgren are probably right to follow b.
** Stanza 291/Line 1163 ** For Child's reading "proud[e]" see the textual note on Stanza 282.
** Stanza 291/Line 1164 ** Child gives the last line of the stanza as "All by the but [as] he stode." The word "as" is found in d but omitted by b. Both meanings are sensible; the reading without "as" is better metrically. It is unfortunate that d is so short that we cannot firmly assess its text. Short words like "as" are easily lost, and I can see no reason to add it, since the longer reading damages the meter. Knight/Ohlgren omit "as." I incline to think Child was right to include it.
** Stanza 292/Line1166 ** Child makes the text to read that, during the archery contest, "alway he [Robin] slist the wnd," meaning that his arrows always touched the wand holding the target. However, instead of "he," b reads "they," as does d, which however reads "clyft" (cleft) for "slist" (sliced, slit); f has "he' but changes "slist" to "clefte"; g reads "he claue"(="clave"). Presumably the b text means that either all Robin's archers sliced the wand or, more likely, all his arrows did so. This is unclear enough that fg changed it, and Child for some reason went along.
** Stanza 300/Line 1199 ** For Child's reading "proud[e]" see the textual note on Stanza 282.
** Stanza 303/Line 1210 ** Child gives the second line of the stanza as "If euer thou loue[d]st me," but bd gives the verb as "louest." f reads "loues," g reads "loued." The reading of f is impossible; that of g a clear correction. Knight/Ohlgren think, and I agree, that we should read "louest"; the syntax here is complex enough that we need not expect exact verb concord.
** Stanza 305/Line 1220 ** For "No lyfe on me be lefte," the reading of b (d?), fg read, with minor variants "That after I eate no bread." This is so obviously feeble that it is clear their archetype worked from a copy where the last line of the stanza is illegible or has been torn away. We see another instance of this in stanza 400, where two lines were illegible.
** Stanza 310/Line 1238 ** For "Syr Rychard at the Lee," or Sir Richard at Lee, as it is usually modermized, g reads "Sir Richard of the Lee."
** Stanza 312/Line 1245 ** Child's reading is "And moche [I] thank the of thy confort." b omits "I"; f rephrases as "And moche I do the thankes (sic.; g reads "thanke") for thy confort." Knight/Ohlgren, p. 162, accepts Child's emendation, although we note that none of the prints contains Child's reading.
** Stanza 315/Lines 1259 ** Child reads "forty" days based on the reading xl of a, but b reads "twelue," and fg also support the reading "twelve" although they rewrite other parts of the line. d is defective. I personally incline to prefer the reading "twelve"; there are just too many Biblical uses of the phrase "forty days," plus forty days was the standard period of sanctuary in a church (Lyon, p. 166). A scribe might naturally think of forty days when thinking of the knight giving sanctuary.. And the two are easily confused in a lot of scripts, since forty is "xl" and twelve is "xii."
** Stanza 317-318/Lines 1265-1272 ** There are several curious textual features in these verses. Stanza 317 ends in mid-sentence. This is unusual although not entirely unknown in the "Gest." The next few lines imply the existence of two sheriffs. There is no evidence of textual corruption in the prints; abd all agree on the essential words. fg make a minor change to 317, but it does not resolve the problem. Emendation seems required.
To make 317 end on a full sentence, several emendations are possible. The simplest would be to change "Howe" at the beginning of the third line to "Of" or similar. Alternately, the first word of the fourth line could be emended from "And" to "Called" or "Brought."
In 318, the simplest emendation would be to omit "to" from the first line; in that case, "hye shyref" becomes symply a synonym for "proude shyref."
** Stanza 330/Line 1317 ** The text of a reads "The shyref there fayles of Robyn Hode" bdfg reads "fayled" for "fayles" All editors seem to accept the b reading.
** Stanzas 331/Line 1324 ** This line is given by Child as "And let [his] haukes flee," but a omits the word "his," found in bd (fg have "his hauke"). Knight/Ohlgren omit the word on the basis of a, but the testimony of bd makes it not unreasonable to retain it.
** Stanzas 338-339/Lines 1352-1353 ** Child leaves blank the last line of stanza 338 and the first stanza of 339, which are lacking in all three of the best witnesses, abd. fg have, with minor variations, "The proude shirife than sayd she" for the last line of 338 but omits the second line of 339., leaving a two-verse fragment. Knight/Ohlgren accept the f reading in stanza 338 (since it almost certainly mentioned the sheriff, and had to rhyme with "the"). In stanza 339, they repeat this with a variant, which is possible, but at least two other types of emendation are equally possible, along the lines of: "They taken hym to Nottyngham" (referring to his destination) or "They took him but two hours past" (referring to the time).
** Stanza 343/Line 1370 ** The text of Child, following ad, says that Robin wishes to see and take (i.e. capture) the Sheriff. But bfg say that Robin wishes to see and take (i.e. rescue) the knight. Both readings have substantial merit. Since there is no real reason to prefer one over the other, we should probably follow ad over b.
** Stanzas 348/Line 1392 ** Child gives this line as "With his bright[e] bronde." "Brighte" is the reading of bdfg; a has "bright." In stanza 202, both a and b read "bright." We must at least allow for the possibility that the copyist of a assimilated this verse to that. "Brighte" is also better metrically. Although Knight/Ohlgren, p. 163, prefer to read "bright," the case for "brighte" appears slightly better.
** Stanza 349/Line 1395 ** The a text, which had several lacunae prior to this point, ends after the third line of this stanza and is lacking for the rest of the poem. The d text, which began with stanza 280, ends with stanza 350. Thus for stanza 351 to the end of the poem, except for the few dozen lines of e, we have essentially only one witness, the b text and its inferior relatives fg.
** Stanza 351/Line 1402 ** In this stanza Robin cuts... something... in two to free the knight. What was it? b says his "hoode," which is accepted by Dobson/Taylor, p. 104. Child emends this to "bonde," which certainly Robin must have cut at some point and is in any case a better rhyme. The reading "bonde" is accepted by Knight/Ohlgren; they note on p. 163 that in stanza 332 the knight was merely bound hand and foot, not hooded. Nonetheless the b reading could have been correct; the guards could have tied the knight's hood over his eyes to prevent him from seeing.
** Sanza 355/Line 1420 ** It is hard to imagine a dialect in which "Hode" (line 2) and "stout" (line 4) rhyme. Possibly we should emend "stout" to "gode," but there is no indication of this in the prints.
** Stanza 357/Line 1425 ** Child's text reads "All the passe of Lancasshyre,"on the basis of b. Gummere, p. 319, explains "passe" as meaning limits, bounds, extant -- i.e. the whole region. This is not the usual meaning of "passe," however. The most suitable meaning in Chaucer, according to Chaucer/Benson p. 1276, is "pace," which is also the meaning that Sisam gives for "pas." Turville-Petrie, p. 245, might suggest "road" as a meaning. None of the noun forms is common, although "pas(s)(e)" is a common verb.
For "passe" fg read "compasse," which Knight/Ohlgren, p. 164, accept; they argue that "passe" makes no sense and suggest that "compasse" is original because of its complexity. But a reading of fg is really no more than a conjecture. We might just as well conjecture "parke" (or "parkes"), which fits the context.
For that matter, Lancashire is surrounded by the Pennines to the east and by other hills to the north and south. These are not high hills, but they are rough enough that travellers tended to use the passes between the peaks (it was considered an amazing accomplishment when William the Conqueror managed to take an army through the Pennines in winter; Douglas, p. 221). Or it might be a mis-reading of "pathes." I would incline to leave the reading alone and let it suggest *all* these meanings, but if we are going to emend, we should emend to "parkes."
** Stanza 361/Line 1442 ** Child says that the King offers a charter which he seals "[with] my honde"; the word "with" is omitted by b although found in fg. Knight/Ohlgren, p. 165, argue that it can be omitted in accord with Middle English usage. An instrumental without a preposition is a very early form, and would tend to push the poem's date earlier, plus the line scans better with "with." Short words are easily lost by scribes. On purely internal grounds, the reading with "with" might be better, but the extermal evidence is so strong that we might probably omit the word.
** Stanza 369/Line 1473 ** The forester offers to be the king's ledes-man, i.e. guide, leader, in bf (g spells it "lodesman"), but Knight/Ohlgren emend this to "bedesman" (a "beads-man," hence "one who prays" or uses the rosary; Langland/Schmidt, p. 516.) Knight/Ohlgen, p. 137, would extend it to mean "one who leads in prayer." They argue (p. 165) that "ledesman" is an assimilation to the previous stanza and that "bedesman" heightens the sense of disguise. It is a clever emendation, and is certainly possible, but "bedesman" is a rare word and the line as given makes sense and emendation is not required.
** Stanza 371/Line 1481 ** Child reads the line "hastely" on the basis of f (g has "hastily"), but b reads "hastly," which Knight/Olhgren consider to be correct.
** Stanza 371/Line 1484 ** Child has this line read "And hasted them thyder blyve," i.e. "hastened them there swiftly," but b has "blyth," not "blyve," and f and g also have "blythe," althoughwith different spellings. It might be argued that hasted...blyve is a more reasonable combination (although it is also redundant) -- but the reading of b is perfectly sensible. Although Knight/Ohlgren and Dobson/Taylor follow this emendation without comment, I really don't think there are sufficient grounds for changing the text.
** Stanza 377/Line 1508 ** The line Child prints here, "Other shyft haue not wee," is lacking in b; he takes it from fg. b instead repeats the text of the second line of the stanza, "Vnder the grene-wode tre." Knight/Ohlgren, p. 166, accept that the poet meant to repeat the line, but this seems highly dubious -- he could surely have produced some sort of variant. The fourth line is probably lost forever; we must either conjecture it or accept the fg reading (which is itself probably a conjecture because the compositor of f, unlike Knight/Ohlgren, felt a different line was needed). An alternate emendation might be something like "My mynie and me" or "My mery men and me."
** Stanza 378/Line 1512 ** Child emends b's reading "saynt charity" to "saynte charyte"; Knight/Ohlgren accept the reading of b. Child's reading perhaps makes it more clear that the reference is not to a particular saint -- the "Gest" seems to prefer the spelling ""Saynt" for a saint (stanzas 84, 91, 315, 390).
** Stanza 381/Line 1524 ** Child's text is "I wolde vouch it safe on the." The reading of b is, however, "I vouch it half on the." This confused f enough that it converted it to "I would give it to thee." Knight/Ohlgren, p. 166, argues that the text of b is sensible enough to be retained. The reading of b is indeed strange and possibly corrupt, but Child's emendation does not explain how it came to be corrupt; it is probably better to retain the reading of b until someone proposes a better reading.
** Stanza 385/Lines 1537-1540 ** The reading of the first line is a crux. The text of b says that the king showed his broad "tarpe." There seems to be no such word in Middle English. Certainly it confused the compositors of fg, who change it to "seale." Child, who was more facile with an emendation, instead proposed "targe," followed by most modern editors -- but this is not a great help. A reading such as "charter" or "letter" would fit better, but it is harder to explain the error of b in that case. A possible suggestion would be to emend the second line of 385, replacing "sone" with "seale." Then the "targe" becomes a letter showing the king's shield (so it can be seen at a distance) and sealed with his seal (for detailed examination). This would explain a lot -- if only it weren't pure conjecture.
** Stanza 400/Lines 1597-1598 ** For Child's text, in which Robin tells outlaws who miss the rose garden that, in addition to losing their gear, "And bere a buffet on his hede, I-wys right all bare,'" f and g read "A good buffet on his head bare, For that shal be his fine," which does not even rhyme with the last word of the stanza. Here again it is clear that the copy used by the compositor of f was defective, and he made up two lines, and g followed. We see a similar instance of a lost line in stanza 305.
** Stanza 401/Line 1604 ** The text of b reads "the good whyte hande'; fg have "lilly" for "good." Child however prints simply "the whyte hande" -- a reading which is metrical if one pronounces "whyte" as two syllables but which might well be an assimilation to stanza 292. Dobson/Taylor follow b, but both Knight/Ohlgren and Gummere accept Child's emendation -- Knight/Ohlgren don't even comment on it!
** Stanza 409/Lines 1635-1636 ** Child reads these lines "Thus our kynge and Robyn Hode, Togeder gan they mete," the latter to rhyme with "shete."This is a sufficiently incompetent line that I rather suspect corruption in the prints.
** Stanza 412/Lines 1645-1646 ** Note that Child had two versions of thse two lines. In his original edition, he follows b and printed
'Mercy then, Robyn,' sayd our kynge,
'Vnder your trystyll-tre,
In a correction (volume V., p. 297 in the Dover edition) he amended this to follow fg:
'Mercy,' then said Robyn to our kynge,
'Vnder this trystyll-tre.'
If the reading of fg were in a, we might perhaps consider it. But a reading of fg against b has no value -- clearly the transcriber of f was bothered by this reading, presumably because it made the King show fear, and corrected it to an easier reading, in order to make it appear that Robin, not the King, is asking mercy. Child was right the first time, and Dobson/Taylor and Knight/Ohlgren both follow the text of b.
** Stanzas 412-414/Lines 1645-1656 ** It appears that the exemplar used by f was very badly damaged for stanzas 412-414; about half the text of these stanzas is rewritten, usually very badly, as is typical of f when it cannot read its exemplar. And, as usual, g follows f with some stylistic improvements. The most noteworthy change is that described in the previous note, but there are some other smaller alterations.
** Stanza 417/Line 1666 ** In the second line of the stanza, Child prints the text as "I wyll come agayne full soone," but b omits "wyll" (found in fg). Knight/Ohlgren point out that the verb "will" is not needed; we should probably omit.
** Stanza 421/Lines 1683-1684 ** The last two lines of this verse have invited many emendations. The text of b is
And euery knyght had so, ywys
Another had full sone.
Child emends "had so, ywys" to "also, i-wys,' meaning that, like the king, each of the knights soon was wearing a green garment. Knight/Ohlgren, p. 167, suggest instead replacing "Another had" in the final line with "Another hode" -- in other words, saying that the knights soon had new hoods.
Both emendations are clever, and both eliminate the problem of the redundant use of "had." Neither reading is compelling, however. Child's reading implies less change of meaning; Knight/Ohlgren's requires a smaller change in the text. But an even smaller change would be to alter the second "had" to "hat." All one can really do is pick one, or even leave the text alone, and perhaps mark a primitive error.
** Stanza 423/Line 1689 ** The text of b here is "Theyr bowes bente, and forth they went." Child emends this to "They bente theyr bowes, and forth they went," on the basis of (f)(g). Perhaps he objected to the internal rhyme, which does have the air of floating in from somewhere else. Dobson/Taylor and Knight/Ohlgren prefer the b reading, and indeed there appears to be no real reason to emend; sometimes internal rhymes just happen.
** Stanza 433/Line 1731 ** There is some textual uncertainty in this line; Child and Knight/Ohlgren both print it as "That he had spend an hondred pounde" on the basis of fg, but b omits "had." I am not convinced that the emendation of fg is correct. Mightn't Robin have incurred debts that came due that day, or some such? Possibly there is an error here, but we have no assurance that the reading of fg is the correct alternative.
** Stanza 436/Line 1742 ** Robin sees young men shooting "full fayre upon a day" according to Child; this is the reading of e (which begins with this stanza) and f (g reads "faire"); b has "ferre," i.e. probably "far." Knight/Ohlgren prefer the reading of b, reading it to mean that the archers are shooting a distant targets rather than that they are a sight worth seeing. There is no strong reason to prefer either variant; it probably comes down to our assessment of the relative values of b and e.
** Stanza 437/Line 1747 ** Editors have generally emended the third line of the verse. b says Robin was "commytted" the best archer in England, and e has comitted. fg, confused by the b reading, have one of their typical monstrosities, "commended for." Child and Knight/Ohlgren are both sure that the word should have been a Middle English form of "counted"; Child emends to "compted," Knight/Ohlgren to "comted." The latter seems more likely, although there are many other possibilities, along the lines of "command to" or "committed to be."
** Stanza 444/Line 775 ** Child's text of this line says that Robin took his leave "full courteysly." Knight/Ohlgren omits the word "full," without explanation or support in the prints.
** Stanzas 451, 454/Lines 1803, 1815 ** The place where Robin Hood was killed is somewhat uncertain. Child prints "Kyrkesly" in stana 451, "Kyrke[s]ly" in 454; bfg all read Kyrkesly in the first and Kyrkesly in the second. Knight/Ohlgren are convinced (p. 168) that Child is wrong and both should read "Kyrkely." See also the variants mentioned in the commentary on the text.
Last updated in version 2.6
File: C117U

Get a Bit of Pork

DESCRIPTION: "Get a bit of pork, And stick it on a fork, And give it to The Jew boy, Jew."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty Jew food discrimination
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 128, "(Get a bit of pork)" (1 text)
File: SuSm128B

Get Acquainted

See It's a Good Time to Get Acquainted (File: ACSF249I)

Get Along Home, Cindy

See Cindy (File: LxU028)

Get Along, John, the Day's Work's Done

See Hopalong Peter (File: CSW104)

Get Along, Little Dogies

DESCRIPTION: Characterized by the chorus, "Whoopee ti yi yo, get along, little dogies, It's your misfortune and none of my own. Whoopee ti yi yo, get along, little dogies,You know Wyoming will be your new home." Tells of herding cattle down the trail for slaughter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (journal of Owen Wister)
KEYWORDS: cowboy animal work
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (34 citations):
Randolph 178, "Little Doogie" (sic) (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 268-270 "Whoopee, Ti Yi Yo, Git Along, Little Dogies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 70-71, "Get Along, Little Dogies" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 76, "Git Along Little Dogies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 184-185, "Whoopee, Ti Yi Yo" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 58, "Git Along Little Dogies" (1 text plus addenda, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 385-389, "Git Along, Little Dogies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 242-244, "Run Along, Little Dogies" (1 text, 1 tune, mostly "Get Along, Little Dogies" but with lyrics imported from "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)")
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 189, "Go On, You Little Dogies"; 190, "Run Along, You Little Dogies" (2 texts, 2 tunes, both of which appear to be mixtures of this song with something else; the chorus of 190 derives partly from "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)")
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 98-104, "Git Along Little Dogies" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 140, "Whoopee High Ogie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 139, "Git Along, Little Dogies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #16, "Whoopee Ti Yi Yo, Git Along Little Dogies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 40-45, "Whoopee Ti-Yi-Yo, Git Along Little Dogies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 853-854, "Git Along, Little Dogies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 80, pp. 174-175, "Whoopee Ti Yi Yo, Git Along Little Dogies" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 26-28, "Git Along Little Dogies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 126-127, "Git Along, Little Dogies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 174-175, "Whoopee Ti Yi Yo, Git Along Little Dogies" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 162, "Whoopee Ti-Yi-Yo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 227-228, "(No title)" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 365-366, "Git Along, Little Dogies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 109, "Git Along, Little Dogies" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 244, "Git Along Little Dogies (Whoopee Ti Ti Yo)"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 54, 230, "Get along Little Dogies" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 86-87, "The Dogie Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 78, "Git Along, LIttle Dogie" (sic.; the text refers to "dogies") (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 42, "Git Along, Little Dogies" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 84-85, "The Dogie Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 37, "Dogie Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 33, "Dogie Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GITDOGIE*
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 16-26, "Git Along, LIttle Dogies" (1 text, 1 tune, plus various excerpts and a history of the song)
Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, pp. 14-15, "Whoopee, Ty Yi Oh, Get Along Little Doggies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #827
RECORDINGS:
Bill Bender (The Happy Cowboy), "Whoopee Ti Yi Yo" (Varsity 5153/Elite X18, n.d., rec. 1939)
Beverly Hill Billies, "Whoopee Ti Yi Yo Get Along" (Brunswick 598. 1932)
Cartwright Brothers, "Get Along Little Dogies" (Columbia 15410-D, 1929; rec. 1928; on WhenIWas2)
Cowboy Tom's Roundup w. Chief Shunatona, Doug McTague & Skookum, "Cowboy Tom's Roundup, Part 1" [medley], (Columbia 15781-D, 1932)
Edward L. Crain, "Whoopie Ti-Yi-Yo, Git Along Little Doggies" (Crown 3275/Homestead 23003, 1932; rec. 1931)
Eddie Dean, "Get Along Little Dogies" (Conquror 8598, 1935)
Girls of the Golden West, "Whoopie Ti-Yi-Yo, Get Along Little Doggies" (Bluebird B-5718, 1934)
Woody Guthrie & Cisco Houston, "Whoopie-Ti-Yi-Yo, Get Along Little Dogies" (on Struggle2, CowFolkCD1)
Beverly Hillbillies, "Whoopie Ti Yi Yo" (Brunswick 598, c. 1931)
Kenneth Houchins, "Get Along Little Doggies" (Champion 16584, 1933)
Harry Jackson, "As I Went Walking One Morning for Pleasure" (on HJackson1)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Get Along, Little Doggies" (Victor V-40016, 1929, rec. 1928; Montgomery Ward M-4469 [as Harry "Mac" McClintock and his Haywire Orchestra], 1934)
Pete Seeger, "Little Dogies" (on PeteSeeger09, PeteSeegerCD02)
John I. White, the Lonesome Cowboy, "Whoopee-Ti-Yi-Yo" (Banner 32179/Perfect 12709//Conqueror 7753/Romeo 1629 [as "Little Doggies"], 1931; on BackSaddle)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Night Herding Song
NOTES [54 words]: Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore and Abernethy-SinginTexas both claim this is derived from "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)," and Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest lists that as the tune. There are obvious similarities, but not enough that I would necessarily call either a descendant of the other. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R178

Get Away Old Maids Get Away

See I Wouldn't Have an Old Man (File: R401)

Get Away, Old Man, Get Away

See I Wouldn't Have an Old Man (File: R401)

Get Hold of This (When There Isn't a Girl About)

DESCRIPTION: "Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet... There came a spider, sat down beside her, Whipped his old bazooka out," and begs, "Get hold of this... When there isn't a girl you feel so lonely..." Various tales of how men satisfy themselves without women
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopins)
KEYWORDS: soldier sex bawdy nonballad derivative | spider
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 156-157, "Get Hold of This" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10708
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Miss Muffet" (lyrics)
cf. "Little Jack Horner" (lyrics)
File: Hopk156

Get in the Union

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: Call "Get in union." Responses, "Jesus died," "Jesus listening." Verses: "We got members from power to one (two or three, ..., eleven to twelve), Some of these members will have fun (don't like me, ..., are doomed to hell)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (LomaxCD1713)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Union" (on LomaxCD1713)
NOTES [8 words]: The verse structure is like "New River Train." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcGeITU

Get Me Down My Petticoat

DESCRIPTION: "Get me down my petticoat, get me down my shawl, Get me down my buttoned boots, for I'm off to Linen Hall." The singer goes to seek her love, who may have enlisted to fight the Boers. She asks the British to hold the Dubliners back
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (MacColl & Seeger, _Singing Island_)
KEYWORDS: soldier separation love clothes
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1899-1902 - Boer War
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, PETICOAT*
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 64-65, Get Me Down My Petticoat"" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2565
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hand Me Down My Petticoat
NOTES [20 words]: For background on the Boer War and the Irish soldiers there, see "John McBride's Brigade"; also "Marching to Pretoria." - RBW
File: Hart065

Get Off the Track

See Clear the Track (File: SCW48)

Get On Board, Little Children

DESCRIPTION: "The gospel train is coming, I hear it just at hand... Get on board, little children (x3), There's room for many a more." The train will carry all who wish to board, and "the fare is cheap."
AUTHOR: possibly John Chamberlain
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (The Jubilee Harp, Advent Christian Publication Society, p. 366, #638)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad train
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Bahamas) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 131, "Git on Board, Little Children" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 134 in the 1901 edition)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 619-624, "The Gospel Train Is Coming" (2 text plus a text of "The Gospel Train (IV)"; 1 tune for each of the two songs)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 529, "The Gospel Train" (2 texts plus a fragment; the "C" fragment is this piece; "A" and "B" are "The Gospel Train (II) and (III)")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 529, "The Gospel Train" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 16-17, "The Gospel Grail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 5, "Git On Board" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 82, "Get On Board, Little Children" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 254-255, "De Gospel Train Am Leabin'" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 361, "Get On Board, Little Children" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 65, "Git On Board, Little Children" (1 text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Elsie Clews Parsons, "Spirituals and Other Folklore from the Bahamas," Vol. 41, No. 162 (Oct-Dec 1928), Anthems: Cat Island #11 p. 460, ("I got a daughter name' Nancy") (1 text)
Roud #13948
RECORDINGS:
Alphabetical Four, "Get On Board Little Children" (Decca 7594, 1939; rec. 1938; on AlphabFour01)
Sam Block, "Freedom Train" (on VoicesCiv)
Harry C. Brown, "De Gospel Train Am Comin'" (Columbia A-2255, 1917; rec. 1916)
Rev. Clayborn, Guitar Evangelist, "The Gospel Trains Coming" (Vocalion 1082, 1927; rec. 1926)
Rev. Mose Doolittle, "Get On Board" (Victor 20295, 1926)
Dunham Jubilee Singers, "Get On Board" (Columbia 14676-D, 1933; rec. 1931)
Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Moses, "Get On Board" (onSingFreeCD)
Kanawha Singers, "The Gospel Train" (Brunswick 365, 1929)
Moore Spiritual Singers, "Get On Board" (Bluebird B-8095, 1939)
Norfolk Jubilee Quartette, "Get On Board, Little Children, Get On Board" (Paramount Oriole Male Quartette, "Get On Board Little Children" (Oriole 893, 1927)
Willie Peacock, "Get On Board, Children" (on VoicesCiv)
Clara Smith, "Get On Board" (Columbia 14183-D, 1927; rec. 1926; also issued as E8938, n.d.)
Sons of Israel, "Gospel Train" (Kingsport 901, n.d.)
Southern Plantation Singers, "Get On Board Little Children" (Vocalion 1414, 1929; rec. 1928)
Tuskegee Institute Singers, "Get On Board" (Victor 18446, 1918; rec. 1916)
12268, 1925; Herwin 92009 [as Southland Jubilee Singers], 1926)
T-Bone Walker, "Get On Board, Little Children" (Capitol 133, 1943; rec. 1942)
Williams Jubilee Singers, "Gospel Train is Coming" (Columbia 14457-D, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cindy (I)" (tune)
cf. "My Station's Gonna Be Changed" (lyrics)
cf. "I Want To See Jesus" (lyrics)
NOTES [109 words]: Gail Greenwood points out that a number of sources credit this (as "The Gospel Train") to John Chamberlain (1821-1893). This includes an old (but undated) printed "ballet." It is not clear whether he was responsible for the music. Cohen mentions this attribution but without comment on its value.
The title in the ballet is "Rail Road Hymn."
Thanks to Jim Dixon for pointing out the 1868 printing in The Jubilee Harp, which lacks the "little children" phrase but is clearly the same song. - RBW
The civil rights versions of this song have been altered so little from the original spiritual that, in my judgment, they don't warrant a "SAME TUNE" tag. -PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB361A

Get Out and Swim

DESCRIPTION: "Just a boy and a girl in a little canoe And the moon was shining all around." They talk as it grows dark; he tells her, "You'd better kiss me or get out and swim!" "So you know what to do in a little canoe... GET OUT AND SWIM!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: ship courting rejection warning campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Linda Weaver, "Camp Songs: Reflections of Youth," Vol. XXII, No. 2 (May 1974), p. 79, "(Get Out and Swim)" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 234, 514, "A Boy and a Girl in a Little Canoe" (notes only)
Roud #22409
File: NCFJGeSw

Get Out of Bed! (Bugle Call Lyric)

DESCRIPTION: World War I lyric set to the tune of the infantry reveille: "Get out of bed! Get out of bed! You lay bastards. I feel sorry for you I do."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 232, "(no title)" (1 short text)
File: BrPa232A

Get Out, Yellowskins, Get Out

DESCRIPTION: "The Yellowskins here in these hills Now know how it appears To have their gold by others stole As we have suffered for years. Get out, Yellowskins, get out (x2), We'll do it again if you don't go. Get out, Yellowskins, get out!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: China gold homicide
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 157, (no title) (1 short text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 309, "Get Out, Yellow-Skins, Get Out!" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [225 words]: Reportedly based on an incident of July 1885, in which eight white men shot up a camp where 32 Chinese were digging for gold. None of the murderers were ever punished. I must say, though, that Burt-AmericanMurderBallads's finding a song about the incident seems awfully convenient. The flip side being, of course, that the song seems to accurately reflect the vicious and irrational anti-Chinese prejudice of the era.
J. Franklin Jameson, Dictionary of United States History 1492-1895, Puritan Press, 1894, p. 131. says of this event, "In 1885, twenty-eight Chinamen were murdered by miners in Wyoming and $147,000 of property was destroyed."
A period of extreme restrictions on Chinese immigration followed. A series of treaties in 1844, 1858, and 1868 had opened the doors for immigrants from the far east; 105,000 Chinese were identified in the 1880 census. An attempt to restrict immigration was passed by congress in 1879 but vetoed by President Hayes. In 1880, an agreement was reached with China to limit immigration. This also made it harder for those who left the United States for China to return. In 1888, immigration was stopped entirely. In 1892, laws were passed permitting expulsion of the Chinese. The limits were clearly unfair, since Europeans were still permitted to enter the country in large numbers, but what else is new? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Burt157

Get That Boat

DESCRIPTION: "Get that boat! my lucky little driver, Get that boat, get that boat, I say." The singer orders the crew to overtake the boat ahead of them, even if it means skinning them alive, or crashing into the other vessel if it won't get out of the way
AUTHOR: possibly Pearl R. Nye
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (OHS)
KEYWORDS: ship racing river
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: [no author listed], Scenes & Songs of the Ohio-Erie Canal, Ohio Historical Society, 1971, "Get That Boat" (1 text, 1 tune, from Pearl R. Nye)
NOTES [76 words]: According to the notes in the Ohio Historical Society booklet, the Ohio-Erie Canal (not to be confused with the Erie Canal; it ran from Cleveland on Lake Erie to Columbus, Ohio and on down to the Ohio River at Portsmouth) often suffered from traffic jams around towns,where they had to check in with canal officials. This led to intense competitions to move ahead in the line -- and hence to boat races (or maybe we should say battles) like this one. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: OHSGBoa

Get Together (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Love is but a song we sing, Fear's the way we die." "Come on, people now... Everybody get together, Try to love one another right now." We are not here long, so love those around you
AUTHOR: Jesse Colin Young (source: Google lyrics)
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 547, "Get Together" (notes only)
File: ACSF547G

Get Together (II)

See The More We Get Together (File: NeTMWGTo)

Get Up and Bar the Door [Child 275]

DESCRIPTION: Old man and old wife must bar the door; neither wants to. They agree that whoever speaks first shall bar the door. Thieves enter the house, and play tricks on the couple. At last the old (man) cries out; the (wife) orders him orders him to bar the door
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: humorous robbery bargaining contest
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (32 citations):
Child 275, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (3 texts)
Bronson 275, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (20 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 275, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (2 versons: #1, #12)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 92, "The Barring o' the Door" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 321, "The Barrin' o' the Door" (4 texts, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #16, B=#11, C=#12}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 318-321, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #17, #10}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland4, pp. 72-75, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 148-150, "The Barrin' o' the Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 34, "Get Up and Shut the Door" (2 fragments, 1 tune) {Bronson's #20}
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 153, "Arise and Bar the Door" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 43, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 43, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #171, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #15}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 44, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (1 fragment, possibly this song)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 51, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 92-93, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 18, "Joan and John Blount" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 239-240, "Bar the Door O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 657-658, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 172, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 58, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 38, pp. 128-129, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 185, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (1 text)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 88-89, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 8, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 77, "Get up and Bar the Door" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 62, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 40, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 87-88, "Get Up and Bar the Door" (1 text)
DT 275, BARDOOR* BARDOOR2 JHNBLNT BARDOOR4*
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #368, pp. 503-504, "Johnie Blunt" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1792)
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #300, p. 310, "Get up and bar the Door" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Roud #115
RECORDINGS:
Mrs Thomas Walters, "Bar the Door O" (on PeacockCDROM)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Old Man and the Door
Johnny Blunt
NOTES [65 words]: Louis Untermeyer, in The Golden Treasury of Poetry, calls this "an old joke with its origins in the Orient." I am guessing that this is a reference to what Child calls "The Arabian tale of Sulayman Bay and the Three STory-Tellers," which is not really Oriental as most of us would mean the term. In any case, there is much dispute over whether this is truly the original of this piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: C275

Get Up Early in the Morning

DESCRIPTION: "Get up early in the morning, Go and bait your trawl, You scarce had time to light your pipe, When over your dories go. And make three runs a day, No matter how hard she blows, And the devil is in the merchant, boys, He just keeps us alive."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1998 (Andersen, Voyage to the Grand Banks, according to Hallowell)
KEYWORDS: fishing hardtimes commerce
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Gerald Hallowell, _The August Gales: The Tragic Loss of Fishing Schooners in the North Atlantic, 1926 and 1927_, Nimbus Publishing, 2013, pp. 147-148, "(Get Up Early in the Morning)" (1 text, quoted from Raoul Anderson, Voyage to the Grand Banks: The Saga of Captain Arch Thornhill, 1998)
File: AdGUEItM

Get Up Goodwife and Shake Your Feathers

DESCRIPTION: "Here comes in a guid new year" The singers come to the back of the house. "Rise up, goodwife and shake your feathers .. gie us oor hogmanay. ... Up stocks, doun steils, Dinna think that we're feils" We're cold. "Gie's a piece an' lat's rin"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1822 (Blackwood's)
KEYWORDS: request begging ritual nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) New Zealand
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast 5, p. 1, ("Get up gudewife and shak' your feathers") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 639, "Get Up Gudewife" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 61, "(Git up, good wives, and shake your feathers") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Amy Stewart Fraser, The Hills of Home (London, 1973 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 74 ("Rise up, good wife, and shake your feathers")ADDITIONAL: K. M'Gonigle, "Scraps of English Folklore, XI: Northumberland (Ellingham Women's Institute)" in Folklore, Vol. XXXVI, No. 3 (Sep 1925 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 250-251 ("Get up, auld wife, and shake your feathers") (1 text)
R[obert] Chambers, editor, The Book of Days: A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in Connection with The Calendar (London, 1832 ("Digitized by Google")),Vol. II, p. 788, ("Get up, goodwife, and shake your feathers")
J. Christie in John Bulloch, editor, Scottish Notes and Queries (Aberdeen, 1888 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, No. 10, March 1888, p. 163, "[Query ]81. New Year Rhymes" ("Here comes in a guid new year") (1 text with 5 verses, 1 tune)
John Muir, "Notes on Ayrshire Folk-Lore" in John Bulloch, editor, Scottish Notes and Queries (Aberdeen, 1895 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VIII, No. 3, August 1894, p. 39, ("Get up, Guidwife, and shake your feathers")
"Hogmanay and New-Year's Day" in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (Edinburgh, 1822 ("Digitized by Google")),Vol. XI, January 1822, p. 31, ("Rise up, gudewife, and shake your feathers")
R.C. MacLagan, "Additions to 'The Games of Argyleshire' (Continued)" in Folklore, Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Jun 1905 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 215-216 ("This night is called Hogmanay") (1 text: four verse epilogue to "The New-Year Mummer's Tale of Golishan" "'as it used to be said, sung, and acted all over Scotland, from Cheviot to Cape Wraith,' ... as communicated to the _Scotsman_ of 31st Dec, 1902.")
Roud #5887
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ye Gae But to Your Beef-Stan'" (subject)
cf. "Our Feet's Cauld" (one verse, at least in Christie's version)
NOTES [231 words]: "Hogmanay" is the Scottish New Year's Eve celebration.
Greig: .".. on the last day of the year we used to sally forth to serenade the neighboring houses with [this song]."
Muir, Chambers, M'Gonigle, Blackwood's, and Greig/Duncan3 639 have only one verse. Chambers's version is "Get up, goodwife, and shake your feathers, And dinna think that we are beggars; For we are bairns come out to play, Get up and gie's our hogmany." Christie's text is the basis of the description. Christie's last verse is the Greig/Duncan 640 fragment; most reporters that I have found separate the two and I have kept "Our Feet's Cauld" separate.
Christie's fourth verse - "Up stocks, doun steils, Dinna think that we're feils, For we're but bairnies come to play, Rise up an' gie 's oor hogmanay" - is also combined with the "shake your feathers" verse by Fraser as "Up sticks! Down stools! Don't think that we are fools."
MacLagan's example combines "shake your feathers" and "our feet's cauld" in a different way than Christie's text. The first verse is an introduction to the holiday and a "bless the master" verse. Then comes another "get up, guid wife" ("get up, guid wife, and binna sweir") that is usually reported as a separate rhyme; it concludes with "shake your feathers" and "our feet's cauld." Possibly, the formality of the mummer's play made combining usually independent verses attractive. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: GrD3639

Get Up Gudewife

See Get up Gudewife (File: GrD3639)

Get up gudewife and shak' your feathers

See Get up Gudewife (File: GrD3639)

Get Up, Jack -- John, Sit Down

See Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down! (File: Wa071)

Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down!

DESCRIPTION: A song of the eternal tasks of the sailor, repeated from generation to generation. The sailors all enjoy their rum, find girls in the towns, get drunk, spend their money, and have to return to sea, as their fathers did before him.
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (expanded version of the play "Old Lavender")
KEYWORDS: sailor work drink
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE) Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. II, #114, pp. 114-116, "Get Up, Jack -- John, Sit Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 106-108, "Outward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 71, "The Jolly Roving Tar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 33, "Get Up, Jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 493-494, "Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down!" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Frank L. Warner [nephew of Frank M. Warner], "Songs My Uncle Taught Me" Vol. XI, No. 1 (Jul 1963), pp. 31-32, "The Jolly Rovin' Tar" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "We're Homeward Bound" is in Part 4, 8/4/1917.
DT, GETUPJCK JACKJOHN
Roud #2807
RECORDINGS:
Stanley Baby, "Homeward Bound" (on GreatLakes1)
Lena Bourne Fish, "Jolly Rocing Tar" (on USWarnerColl01)
Mick Moloney, "Get Up Jack John Sit down" (on HarriganBrahamMaloney)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Outward and Homeward Bound"
cf. "Jack Tar's Frolic" (plot)
cf. "Strike Up the Band (Here Comes a Sailor)" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Outward Bound
NOTES [713 words]: Written by Edward Harrigan and his father-in-law David Braham for the play "Old Lavender," which is listed as premiering September 1, 1885. (Information supplied by Philip Harrigan Sheedy.) "Old Lavender" actually premiered September 3, 1877 (Moody, p. 260), but Harrigan expanded it for the 1885 show, and this song was added. The song has since entered oral tradition, as known versions exhibit significant variations. - DGE, RBW
The song has cross-fertilized with "Outward and Homeward Bound"; it may be that that was the inspiration for this song -- although Edward Harrigan's father was a sailor (born of Irish parents in Carbonear, Newfoundland; Moody, p. 7), and Harrigan himself had been a ship's caulker (Moody, pp. 15-19), so Harrigan had plenty of background on a sailor's life. Nonetheless the handful of versions in oral tradition, although typically shorted than the Harrigan/Braham original, clearly retain large parts of the original. It's a rather odd piece in the Harrigan/Braham repertoire; Ned Harrigan , despite his nautical background, rarely wrote about the sea in his plays.
The song was from the play "Old Lavender," one that Harrigan worked on for many years (the first version his company performed was one of the few Harrigan shows that didn't do well, but he eventually got it right): "Harrigan toyed with Old Lavender most of his life. In 1885 he added more songs: "Poverty's Tears Ebb and Flow"; "Please to Put That Down"; a tribute to liquor, "When sorrow sits down on your brow, / and sadness peeps out of your eye, / don't stop to think but take a drink"; and one of the swingiest Braham-Harrigan tunes, "Get Up, Jack, John, Sit Down" (Moody, p. 81).
Apparently the original version of the drama, "Old Lavender Water, or, Around the Docks" did not feature any music (Franceschina, p. 107), because it came out before Harrigan's association with composer David Braham was firm; the addition of the music no doubt helps to explain the success of the revived version.
Old Lavender was a character Harrigan played himself (there is a photo of Harrigan in the role in the photo insert following p. 54 of Moody); according to Moody, pp. 78-79, "The seedy and lovable reprobate, Old Lavender, copied after an eccentric who had achieved celebrity on Corlear's Hook, was one of Harrigan's finest portraits. His counterpart might be found among the soggy inhabitants of any waterfront saloon, but few devout drunks could match Lavender's astonishing resistance to inebriation and to the deprivations of poverty. His elegant circumlocutions emerged in greater profusion with each dash of lubrication, and his natural dignity was unimpaired by his damaged top hat, his ragged frock coat, and his fingerless gloves. Harrigan had spotted the costume on an old man on lower Broadway."
In the play, Lavender is disowned by his brother Philip for drunkenness. Philip's wife runs off with a fellow named Paul Cassin -- who proceeds to dump her, literally: he throws her in a river. She is saved by Rat, a friend of Lavender (Franceschina, p. 174), "Lavender's Sancho Panza," played by Tony Hart (Moody, p. 79). Lavender himself is afraid of water after a flood in a gold mine he discovered, hence his drinking (Moody, p. 80). But it all ends in reconciliations.
Harrigan said of him, "I think Old Lavender fits more of my own individuality in stage characterization than any other part I ever played. I never could see his rags. He was the sort of fellow who could be welcomed anywhere, and was man enough to set off a little from the rest of the crowd. With his conversational powers he could hold his audience. He drank not for drink's self [sic.], but for sociability -- and I've seen many Lavenders" (Moody, p. 81). In the last two years of Harrigan's life, when he was ill and no longer able to perform, his family and old colleagues such as his leading lady Annie Yeamans would visit him and perform parts of his plays. What he requested most often was something from "Old Lavender" (Kahn, p. 300).
This song is sung by Lavender himself; as presented, it "is a jaunty sea chantey with a busy hornpipe accompaniment and a vigorous 'manly' chorus" (Franceschina, p. 174).
For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: Wa071

Getting Married (Hog and Hominy)

DESCRIPTION: Singing game. "Here stands a loving couple, Join heart and hand, One wants a wife, And the other wants a man." They hope to agree to marry and have hog and harmony. Once married, the man goes to war. After the war, he joyfully returns home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana)
KEYWORDS: playparty love courting war separation reunion
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 43-44=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, p. 174, "Getting Married" (1 text)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, p. 203, "Hog and Hominy" (1 text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #10, "Marriage" (2 texts)
Roud #7894
File: Neel203

Getting Upstairs

DESCRIPTION: "First young gent with the right hand round, Back to the left and swing clear around, Swing her to the center and we'll all join hands, Such I getting upstairs I never did see, Such a getting upstairs, it don't suit me." Continues with more dance steps
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 44-45=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 153-154, "Getting Upstairs" (3 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 753, "SUch a GIttin' Up-Stairs" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7891
File: Wolf044

Ghaist o' Fern Den, The

See The Ghaist o' Fernden (File: GrD2342)

Ghaist o' Fernden, The

DESCRIPTION: A farmer's wife needs a midwife but the men won't fetch one for fear of meeting "the ghaist o' Fern-den." The ghost himself fetches the midwife and, leaving her at the farmer's door, reveals his identity and promises to take her home at midnight.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (Jervise, _The History and Traditions of the Land of the Lindsays in Angus and Mearns_, according to Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: childbirth ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 342, "The Ghaist o' Fernden" (2 texts)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 162-164, "The Ghaist o' Fern Den" (1 text)
Roud #5872
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Brownie of Fernden
NOTES [21 words]: The sense of "ghost" here seems to be spirit but not of a particular person. One text in Greig/Duncan2 refers to a "brownie." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: GrD2342

Ghost Army of Korea

DESCRIPTION: "Just below the Manchurian border, Korea is the spot, We're due to spend time here In the land that God forgot." The soldiers endure bad weather and nasty creatures, have no comforts, and are forgotten and ignored by those safe at home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs); said to have been collected 1956
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes war
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 180-181, "Ghost Army of Korea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2567
File: DalC180

Ghost in the Cellar

DESCRIPTION: Game. "Mother, I see a ghost." The mother responds, "IT was only your father's coat hanging up." The ghost appears and catches someone who becomes the next ghost.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newll)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad mother ghost
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #158, "Ghost in the Cellar" (1 text)
File: Newe158

Ghost of John

See Have You Seen the Ghost of Tom? (File: ACSF437P)

Ghost of Polly Rock and Her Two Bantlings, The

DESCRIPTION: "When I was but a tiny boy, And sailed on board a privateer, Three dreadful ghosts did me annoy": a woman and her two children, betrayed by the ship's Captain Rock. He tells her where to find the captain. The captain meets them but concludes he is drunk
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: husband wife betrayal children ghost humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 210-211, "The Ghost of Polly Rock and Her Two Banglings" (1 text)
Roud #V1060
File: TNY210

Ghost of the Peanut Stand, The

DESCRIPTION: Biddie Magee owns a Jersey City peanut stand. She loves Connie O'Ryan who joins the army. Biddy takes to bed and dies, "the peanut-stand went up the spout," Connie is drummed out. Her house is haunted by the ghosts of Biddy, Connie, and the peanut stand
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1879 (broadside, LOCSinging sb30417a)
KEYWORDS: courting army Civilwar separation death humorous ghost
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 70, "The Ghost of the Peanut Stand" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1861, p. 125, "The Peanut-Gal's Ghost" (1 reference); #1862, p. 125, "The Peanut Stand" (4 references)
Roud #2762
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, sb30417a, "The Peanut Stand," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Joe Bowers" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(690))
NOTES [412 words]: The De Marsan text is more complete than the Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick fragment, and is the basis for the description. If nothing else, the De Marsan text dates itself to the Civil War: Connie "got in with a parcel of Jersey roughs; they led him around like a toy; So, he joined the New-York Fire-Zoo-Zoos, and he went for a soger-boy."
The Union 11th [New York] Regiment Infantry "1st New York Fire Zouaves" were mustered in May 7, 1861 and mustered out June 2, 1862. (source: The Civil War Archive site); see also "Abraham's Daughter" for a reference to "the fire Zou-Zous." - BS
As the dates above show, the 11th New York was not long in service (a lucky bunch; they enlisted for two years but served only one); its only real battle was First Bull Run, though it was also involved in the early part of the Peninsular campaign. It was called the "Fire Zouaves" because many of the members were New York firemen -- skills which they put to good use in fighting a fire that threatened to consume part of Washington, D.C. Otherwise, its service was noteworthy mostly for the rowdy conduct of the troops. Certainly it didn't suffer many casualties; according to William F. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War 1861-1865, 1881; fourth edition 1888 (I use a photoreproduction of the 1898 Albany Press edition which does not list a publisher!), p. 477, in its entire war service, it suffered only 51 men killed and mortally wounded and 15 who died of disease. For comparison, of the other 39 two year regiments that were the 1st through 40th New York, only four had fewer casualties.
The regiment was also famous for its first colonel, E. Elmer Ellsworth (1837-1861), who in 1862 led the regiment into Alexandria, Virginia, and proceeded to tear down the Confederate flag flying over the Marshall House hotel. The owner, James T. Jackson, proceeded to murder Ellsworth (and was killed in return by one of Ellsworth's soldiers), making the young soldier an instant martyr.
It will be observed that the odds of an Irish peanut vendor joining that particular regiment were pretty small -- but, of course, the unit was unusually well-known and hence a likely subject for songs.
For more about Ellsworth, see the notes to "The Soldier's Funeral." - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb30417a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: CrSNB070

Ghost of Willie-O

See Willy O! (File: CrMa113)

Ghost So Grim, The

See The Sailor and the Ghost [Laws P34A/B] (File: LP34)

Ghost Song

See Skin and Bones (The Skin and Bones Lady) (File: R069)

Ghost's Bride, The

DESCRIPTION: John Gordon comes to court Mary, saying her lover, his brother, is long dead. She agrees to marry him. She hears the dead brother speak, saying John stole his land, wife, and life. When John Gordon awakes, Mary is gone, her bones by the brother's grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting brother death homicide betrayal marriage abandonment reunion
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 58, "The Ghost's Bride" (1 text)
ST BrII058 (Full)
Roud #6567
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Gentleman of Exeter (The Perjured Maid)" [Laws P32] (plot)
cf. "Susannah Clargy" [Laws P33] (plot)
cf. "Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene" (plot)
cf. "An Sgeir-Mhara (The Sea-Tangle, The Jealous Woman)" (theme)
NOTES [93 words]: This song, "A Gentleman of Exeter," and "Susannah Clargy" are all essentially the same story, and looking at the titles in the Broadside Index, I wonder if they haven't cross-fertilized -- or aren't retellings of some epic original. (Note that the story is almost "Hamlet.")
The notes in Brown describe this as the best of the lot, and it is certainly vividly told. If there is any complaint against it, it is that it is a little *too* perfect, and the Brown copy seems to be the only collection. Perhaps it was composed in the family of the informant? - RBW
File: BrII058

Ghostly Crew, The [Laws D16]

DESCRIPTION: A sailor has endured much without fear -- until the night twelve ghosts board his ship and take stations "as if [they] had a right." They disappear as the ship passes a lighthouse. The singer is sure they are sailors drowned in a collision with his ship
AUTHOR: words: Harry L. Marcy
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 ("Fisherman's Ballads and Songs of the Sea")
KEYWORDS: sea ship ghost
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws D16, "The Ghostly Crew"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 180-182, "The Ghostly Crew" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 204-205, "The Ghostly Fishermen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 115, "The Spirit Song of George's Bank" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 873-874, "The Ghostly Sailors" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 96, "Ghostly Fishermen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 158-159, "The Spirit Song of George's Bank (The Ghostly Seamen)" (1 text, 1 tune on p. 204)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 117, "The Ghostly Sailors" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 114, "The Ghostly Sailors" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 96-99, "The Ghostly Sailors" (1 text)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 79-80, 245-246, "The Ghostly Fishermen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 25-28,79, "The Ghostly Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 701, GHOSCREW GHOSCRE2
Roud #1822
RECORDINGS:
Pat Crich, "The Spirit Song on St. George's" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mrs. T. Ghaney, "Spirit Song on George's" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Morris Houlihan, "The Ghostly Fisherman" (on NFMLeach); "Twelve Ghostly Fishermen" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Pat Murphy, "The Ghostly Fishermen" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Glen Alone" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Ghostly Seamen
NOTES [433 words]: Gordon Bok reports, "The story I heard was that the schooner Haskell, out of Gloucester, was anchored near George's [Bank] when a sudden gale parted her ground tackle and she went charging, bare-poled, down through the fleet. She cut the schooner Johnston almost in two, killing all her men. On every voyage thereafter, a crew would appear on her deck at night and go through the motions of fishing. After a few trips, no crew would even sign on her, and she rotted at the wharf."
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick adds more details: On March 7, 1866, the new Charles Haskell rammed the Andrew Jackson, inspiring this song; the Haskell later became known as "the ghost ship."
Some of this may be folklore; after all, we hear a lot of ghost stories about ships sunk by ramming. For example, a story very much like this took place twenty years *after* Marcy's text was published: On June 22, 1893, HMS Camperdown, in a confused practice maneuver involving an admiral showing off, rammed HMS Victoria, causing the latter to sink with the loss of 358 men including the admiral. Camperdown survived, but was put into reserve roles not long after, and was broken up in 1911 although she was only 22 years old.
And there is a ghost associated with the story: According to Peter Underwood's Gazetteer of British, Scottish & Irish Ghosts, p. 135, shortly after the Victoria sank, the ghost of the admiral aboard, George Tryon, was seen at the home of Lady Tryon in London.
Nonetheless, although the ghosts on the Haskell have not been verified, Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, p. 203, assures us that the beginning and end are true: The Haskell did sink another ship, and she rotted at the pier because no one would serve on her. On p. 205, Beck compares the story to that of the North Star, a sealer out of Saint John's. This, however, seems to be simply a tale of another unlucky ship, not a true parallel.
Another ship-related ghost story from Newfoundland is found on pp. 35-36 of Captain Joseph Prim and Mike McCarthy, The Angry Seas: Shipwrecks on the Coast of Labrador, Jesperson Publishing, 1999. A ship Antelope had sunk in a great storm in 1878. Many men died and were buried in Conception Bay; others were to go home on the Abeoya. The captain of the latter took a boat to where the dead were buried and called out repeatedly, "Is there anybody here who wants to go home?" Supposedly the boat tipped eighteen times, as if men had come over the side, and when they returned to the Abeoya, the rope over the side moved eighteen times as if men were climbing her. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: LD16

Ghostly Fisherman, The

See The Ghostly Crew [Laws D16] (File: LD16)

Ghostly Lover, The

See Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover) (File: Ord089)

Ghostly Sailors, The

See The Ghostly Crew [Laws D16] (File: LD16)

Ghostly Seamen, The

See The Ghostly Crew [Laws D16] (File: LD16)

GIddy Giddy Gout

DESCRIPTION: Teasing game. "Giddy giddy gout, You're shirt's hanging out. Five miles in, And ten miles out." Or "Little Devil Doubt, If you don't give me money, I'll sweep you all out...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty clothes
FOUND IN: New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 125, "(Giddy giddy gout)" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 9, "Dicky, Dicky, Dout" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 17-18, "(Here come I, Little Devil Doubt)" (
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #160, "(Dicky, Dicky Dout)" (1 text)
Roud #12747
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Here Come I, Beelzebub" (used in the same Mumming plays as some versions of this)
NOTES [33 words]: Roud includes a very large family in his #12747; I am by no means sure they are all one item. Probably it needs further investigation. Some are from mummers' performances, but this clearly isn't! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SuSM125

Gideon's Band

See Old Uncle Noah (File: E075)

Giein' the Nowte Their Fother

DESCRIPTION: "As I rode in by yon bonnie waterside... there I spied a weel-faur'd maid, She was gien the nowte their fodder." He asks her to fancy him; she replies that she has no dowry. Next summer, he returns and asks again, and makes her a rich lady
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #72, pp. 1-2, "Giein' the Knowte Their Fother" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 839, "Giein' the Knowte Their Fother" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 228-229, "Gien the Nowte Their Fodder" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 90-91, "The Laird of Southland's Courtship" (1 tune)
Roud #3934
NOTES [18 words]: Christie's text, "improved" or not, at least shows that the ballad existed in some form as early as 1876. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord228

Gien the Nowte Their Fodder

See Giein' the Nowte Their Fother (File: Ord228)

Gift of the Sego Lily, The

DESCRIPTION: "So sunbaked, barren, bleak, and full of tears The country seemed; so stretched the endless years." Her husband brings her a "small floral gift." There is "no lovelier diadem" than the Sego lily. She blesses the man who brought her to "Dixie"
AUTHOR: Mabel Jarvis?
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle)
KEYWORDS: love marriage flowers home | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, pp. 78-79, "The Gift of the Sego Lily" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sego Lily" (subject of the Mormon lily)
NOTES [98 words]: For St. George, Utah (known as the Mormon "Dixie"), and other songs about it, see the notes to "Saint George and the Drag-On."
The sego lily is a popular symbol in Utah; a Washington Post story ("This is Utah's new flag -- and here's why more states are mulling redesigns" by Kim Bellware; March 25, 2023) said that they are the flowers in the old Utah state flag. Of course, the reason the Post had the story was that Utah was planning to change its flag, mostly because it was too complicated. So the lilies are gone, but that doesn't really change their significance to the state. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSSS078

Gigantic, The

DESCRIPTION: The schooner Gigantic, with a crew of six, leaves Newfoundland for Portugal and has a difficult crossing from October 22 until November 13. They land their cargo of fish and take on salt for the trip home.
AUTHOR: William Best (written 1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: commerce sea ship ordeal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 42, "The Gigantic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #30127
RECORDINGS:
John James, "Gigantic" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: LeBe042

Gight's Ladye

See Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)

Gil Brenton [Child 5]

DESCRIPTION: A lord is preparing to wed. His bride seeks to conceal the fact that she is not a virgin, but the truth -- that she had once slept with a lord in a wood -- comes out. It is then revealed that the man she slept with was her husband-to-be.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783/1799 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: marriage seduction trick disguise
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Child 5, "Gil Brenton" (8 texts)
Bronson 5, "Gil Brenton" (3 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 5, "Gil Brenton" (3 versons: #1, #2, #3)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 186-193, "Gil Brenton/Chil Brenton" (2 parallel texts plus a photo of the badly-transcribed tune; also a reconstructed tune on p. 284)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 1, "Lord Bangwell's Adventure" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 13, "The Little Page Boy" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune, which Randolph places with "Child Waters" though it also has lines from the "Cospatrick" version of "Gil Brenton" and is so short it might go with something else)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 59-63, "Gil Brenton" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 5, "Cospatrick" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 42, "Gil Brenton" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 1, "Gil Brenton" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's #1}
DT, GILBRENT*
Roud #22
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Willie's Lady" [Child 6] (lyrics)
NOTES [962 words]: The description above is that of the fullest versions of this ballad; often large parts of the plot have been lost, even in the longest text (e.g. Mrs. Brown's 74 verse version lacks the preliminary seduction).
Sir Walter Scott's version of this (Child's B) names the hero "Cospatrick," which Scott lists as the name of the Earl of Dunbar around the time of Edward I of England. The name was still used in Child's time for members of the Dunbar line.
The name, however, is older; there were at least two significant figures named Cospatrick (the spelling of Mitchison, p. 16, Oram, p. 58) or Gospatrick (so Barlow-Edward, p. 137, etc.; Barlow-Rufus, p. 295; Swanton, pp. 202-203) around the time of the Norman Conquest.
The first Cospatrick seems to have been an Anglo-Saxon thegn (thane); he was killed at the court of Edward the Confessor in 1064, although probably not at that king's command (Barlow-Edward, p. 235). According to StentonEtAl, p. 578, he was "the heir of the native earls of Bernicia" -- although Bernicia was never an earldom, but rather a kingdom that became part of Northumbria; apparently there was speculation that Edward's queen had arranged the murder to create opportunities for her brothers. But this seems unlikely, since her brother Tosti(g) was already Earl of Northumbria (and was overthrown soon after).
The other Cospatricks were northern Earls; it's not clear how many of them there were. According to Barlow-Edward, p. 235n., an Earl Utrecht of "Northumbria" was murdered in 1016, leaving several sons, Cospatrick being the third. Barlow doubts that this is the same as the preceding, although it is just chronologically possible. It seems more likely the 1016 earl was an ancestor of the one from 1064. The same note mentions another Cospatrick who was with Tostig, the brother of the future King Harold II Godwinson, when Tostig visited Rome in 1061.
There was also a Cospatrick who was Lord of Allerdale and Dalston in the time of Edward the Confessor (Barlow-Edward, p. 137n.). Barlow speculates that this might have been the Cospatrick who was murdered at Edward's court.
Finally, in 1067-1068, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions a Jarl (Earl) Cospatrick who was active in the north of England (Swanton, pp. 202, 204). But, theoretically, the earl of Northumbria at this time was supposed to be Morcar (Morkere), who had been appointed late in the reign of Edward the Confessor. Douglas, p. 218, lists Gospatrick among those rebelling against William the Conqueror in 1069, and Ronay, pp. 162-163, says that he was one of those who took to Scotland the remnants of the Old English royal family (Edgar the Atheling and his sisters Christina and Margaret, the latter the future wife of King Malcolm III), but details seem uncertain.
Northumbria and Cumbria and Lothian were at this time rather debatable properties (England in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest had largely lost control of the north, because William the Conqueror didn't have enough Normans to colonize and control the north; Barlow-William, p. 297). Both Malcolm III King of Scots and the king of England had some claims to these territories (Douglas, pp. 225-226. The simplest explanation being that Malcolm was their direct overlord but held them as a vassal of the King of England. But Malcolm, who was always fighting the English, probably would not have seen it that way).
Mitchison, p. 16, says that a Cospatrick was apparently a Saxon claimant to one or another northern English earldom in 1069, and whose son held Cumberland until William II of England conquered it in 1092. It was presumably this Cospatrick whose daughter Octreda married Duncan (II), the oldest son of Malcolm III of Scotland (Barlow-Rufus, p. 295; Oram, p. 58). When Malcolm died, he was succeeded by his brother Donald Ban. Duncan in 1094 invaded Scotland and took the throne, but was killed later that year; Octreda and her son William fled to England (Oram, p. 58), where William and descendants later put in an unsuccessful claim to the Scottish throne (the "FitzWilliam" claim).
If this Earl Cospatrick was the same as the preceding, he should perhaps be regarded as Earl of Cumbria rather than Northumberland. Or maybe he was Malcolm's earl, or maybe he ruled the area north of the Tweed. Douglas's suggestion is that Malcolm and Swein King of Denmark were looking to carve out a state in northern England which would be ruled by Edgar the Atheling, the man who (by ancestry) should have been King of England rather than William of Normandy. But why, then, would Gospatrick support a man who was taking this earldom? And how would Malcolm and Swein decide who was Edgar's overlord? Obviously it is all pretty vague.
It seems unlikely that any of this has a genuine connection to the ballad; I mention it mostly to demonstrate the point that there really were a lot of Cospatricks/Gospatricks. It is interesting to note, however, that Cospatrick is said in Child B brought his wife from over the sea. Might this be a sign of the Saxon earl marrying a Norman wife?
Of course, the "Cospatrick" text is Walter Scott's, and seems to be almost unknown in other forms of the ballad. Might this have been Scott's insertion to memorialize a famous local lord?
Again, several instances of the ballad mention violence by the groom against the bride on their wedding night; this sounds much like the Thousand and One Nights, but there is unlikely to be a direct connection.
Bronson-Song, p. 43, studying the text and tune of this, suggests that the tune collected from Mrs. Brown must have had an internal refrain, the text of which was not taken down. This apparently was a habit of the transcriber; he omitted the internal refrains of "Clerk Colvill," "Gil Brenton," and "Willie's Lady." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: C005

Gil Morice

See Child Maurice [Child 83] (File: C083)

Gil Morissy

See Child Maurice [Child 83] (File: C083)

Gil Norice

See Child Maurice [Child 83] (File: C083)

Gila Monster Route, The

DESCRIPTION: A hobo is left behind by the train. The poem recalls his history: He and his pal, given a handout, used it for wine rather than food, got drunk, and were arrested. Set free, the hobo wanders until he catches another train
AUTHOR: L. F. Post and Glenn Norton
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: hobo travel prison drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 24-26, "The Gila Monster Route" (1 text)
Roud #9924
NOTES [42 words]: This is not even a song (let alone a traditional song); it is a poem published in Railroad Man's Magazine. I cannot for the life of me tell why the Lomaxes reprinted it; apart from a liberal use of railroad slang, it has very little to commend it. - RBW
File: LxA024

Gilboyd gave orders to James to their assistance go

See Kenneth Cameron (File: Rick131)

Gilder Roy

See Gilderoy (File: RL040)

Gilderoy

DESCRIPTION: "Gilderoy was as bonny a boy as e'er cam tae the glen." The singer describes his charms and how lovingly he once cared for her. He taken as an outlaw. He is convicted (falsely, in her mind) and hanged because the laws were so strict
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1725 (an isolated stanza appears in "Westminster Drollery," 1671)
KEYWORDS: love outlaw trial execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1636? - execution of "Gilderoy," aka Patrick McGregour, in Edinburgh
FOUND IN: US(So) Britain(England(South),Scotland) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 318-323, "Gilderoy" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XVIII, p. 59, "Gilderoy" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 27-31, "Gilderoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 560-562, "Gilderoy" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 482, "Gilderoy" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #43, "Gilderoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 63, "Gilderoy" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 40-41, "Gilderoy" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune, connected with the Scottish ballad more by the tune than the text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 187-189, "Gilder Roy" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN955, "Gilderoy was a bonny boy"; ZN1821, "My love he was as brave a man"
DT, GILDROY
ADDITIONAL: William & Susan Platt, _Folktales of the Scottish Border_, published 1919 as _Stories of the Scottish Border_, republished by Senate Press, 1999, pp.215-219, "Gilderoy" (1 text interspersed with commentary)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #87, "My Handsome Gilderoy" (1 text)
Roud #1486
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, S.302b.2(020), "Gilderoy," unknown, after 1700
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Salisbury Plain" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
The People's Song ("We long to see the season come When we can vote for Harrison") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p. 50)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Blowed Her with My Horn
NOTES [455 words]: Claude Simpson, The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music, pp. 252 ff., [notes that Gilderoy] seems to have been so glorified that he appears in historical legends not long after [his execution]. Simpson cites a broadside ballad printed "in the 1690s..." "probably written much earlier," entitled "The Scotch Lover's Lamentation: or, Gilderoy's Last Farewell... To an excellent new Tune, much in request." That ballad begins, "Gilderoy was a bonny boy." It is to be found in Pepys, Craford, Bagford and A Collection of Old Ballads, 1723-1725. - EC
William Rose Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia has this to say:
"Gilderoy. A famous cattle-stealer and highwayman of Perthshire, who is said to have robbed Cardinal Richelieu [died 1642] in the presence of the King, picked Oliver Cromwell's pocket [Cromwell, however, was not of any note in 1636, and had not yet led his armies into Scotland], and hanged a judge. He was hanged in 1636.... Some authorities say there were two robbers by this name."
David Brandon's Stand and Deliver: A History of Highway Robbery (p. 76) gives another version of this, but with a twist: the robber is named "Gilders Roy." Brandon reports that "when he stopped a judge... his gang stripped his two footmen, tied them up and threw them into a pond, whereupon they drowned. Roy himself smashed the judge's carriage, shot the horses, and then hanged his hapless victim." Right. Shoot valuable horses?
Much of this seems to be derived from Percy, but Wheatley adds a much less flattering commentary: "The subject of this ballad was a ruffian totally unworthy of the poetic honours given him.... [H]e was betrayed by his mistress Peg Cunningham, and captured after killing eight of the men sent against him, and stabbing the woman...
"He was one of the proscribed Clan Gregor, and a notorious lifter of cattle in the Highlands of Pethshire for some time before 1636. In February of that year seven of his accomplices were taken, tried, condemned, and executed at Edinburgh.... [I]n July, 1636, [he] was hanged with five accomplices at the Gallowlee."
The National Library of Scotland site, however, lists his death year as 1638.
Ford lists certain others of his exploits; he too is cautious about their veracity.
Sam Hinton notes the most likely source for the robber's name (cf. Ford): "Gilderoy" could be a corruption of Gaelic "Giolla Ruadh" ("Gillie Roy") -- "red-haired boy."
There is another piece called "Gilderoy" in the Scots Musical Museum (#66); this is probably a rewrite based on the traditional tune. I strongly doubt it ever went into tradition itself; it begins "Ah! Chloris, cou'd I now but sit As unconcern'd as when Your infant beauty could beget No happiness, nor pain!" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: RL040

Giles Collins

See Lady Alice [Child 85] (File: C085)

Giles Corey

DESCRIPTION: "Come all New England men And hearken unto me And I will tell what did befalle Upon the Gallows tree." "In Salem village was the place." "This Goody Corey was a witch." Wife and husband are accused; he is pressed to death and she is hung
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: witch execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1692 - Salem Witch Trials
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 105-108, "Giles Corey and Goodwyfe Corey -- a Ballad of 1692" (1 text)
NOTES [71 words]: Salem did not invent accusations of witchcraft; Samuel Elliot Morrison reports that there had been 44 witchcraft trials, and three executions, prior to 1692.
But in that year, 14 women and five men were hanged, with Giles Corey, as the broadside states, being pressed to death (i.e. having weights placed on him until he suffocated). Four others died in prison, and hundreds more were awaiting trial when sanity prevailed. - RBW
File: Burt105

Giles Scroggins

DESCRIPTION: "Giles Scroggins courted Molly Brown... If you love me as I love you, No knife can cut our love in two." "But scissors cut as well as knives... For just as they were going to wed, Fate's scissors cut poor Giles's thread." She refuses his ghost in a dream
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1848 (Davidson's Universal Melodist)
KEYWORDS: love courting death ghost humorous
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 66-67, "Giles Scroggins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 25, "[Appendix to] Lady Alice" (1 text)
Roud #1620
NOTES [91 words]: Davis thinks this piece "evidently a burlesque of 'Giles Collins,'" and this is certainly possible. But it is so broad, and the plot so commonplace, that it could easily have arisen independently.
Davis also has notes on the authorship and various places it has appeared, mostly in broadside or songster form. He admits that the attributions are all uncertain. It's not clear if the song ever really went into tradition, but it certainly was printed frequently.
Scott's comment is that it is "A clown song; undoubtedly in Grimaldi's repertory." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: DavB025

Gilgarrah Mountain

See Whisky in the Jar (The Irish Robber A) [Laws L13A]/The Irish Robber B (McCollister) [Laws L13B] (File: LL13)

Gilgarry Mountain

See Whisky in the Jar (The Irish Robber A) [Laws L13A]/The Irish Robber B (McCollister) [Laws L13B] (File: LL13)

Gilhooly's Dinner Party

DESCRIPTION: "Gilhooly gave a party to his friends a week ago, There were guests from County Sligo and Galway and Mayo." The many sorts of food are described. People eat in strange and messy ways. Eventually Gilhooly charges the diners ten dollars each
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Finger-FrontierBallads)
KEYWORDS: party humorous food courting money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 151-152, "Gilhooly's Dinner Party" (1 text)
Roud #8836
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Jubilee" (theme) and references there
File: Fing151

Gill Morice

See Child Maurice [Child 83] (File: C083)

Gill Morrice

See Child Maurice [Child 83] (File: C083)

Gill Stoup, The

DESCRIPTION: "What a mischief whisky's done ... Brings muckle grief at hame." Jake gets drunk and sets out "owre the ragin' main." Soldier Tam draws his pay but he and Soldier John drink it all. A husband buys meal at the mill but sells the sack to buy whisky.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 32, ("Oh, what a mischief whisky's done") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 597, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Weary on the Gill Stoup" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6047
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(109a), "The Gill Stoup" ("O weary on the gill stoup"), Sanderson (Edinburgh), 1830-1910
ALTERNATE TITLES:
What a Mischief Whisky's Done
NOTES [12 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 17(109a) is the basis for the description. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD3597

Gilly Gilly Wash Wash

See Kille Kille Wash Wash (Gilly Gilly Wash Wash; Hail to Our Wigwam) (File: ACSF148K)

Gillymong

See Guillemont (Gillymong) (File: AWTBW092)

Gimme de Banjo

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Dance, gal, gimme de banjo!" The singer "was sent to school fer to be a scholar," but had no success and left his books to others. (Now he is at sea picking the banjo)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor music
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 45, "Gimme de Banjo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 341, "Gimme de Banjo" (2 texts, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 256-257]
ST Doe045 (Partial)
Roud #9437
File: Doe045

Gimme Him

See Give Me Him (File: Parr021)

Gimme Oil in My Lamp

DESCRIPTION: "Gimme oil in my lamp, keep shinin' and look down. Gimme oil in my lamp; I will pray every day. Gimme oil in my lamp, keep shinin' and look down, Until the break of day." "Sing hosanna (x3) to the king of kings." "Give me (joy/love/faith) in my heart."
AUTHOR: A. Sevison (source: hymnals cited by Hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 758, Gimme Oil in My Lamp" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 310, "Give Me Oil for My Lamp" (notes only)
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Alligood, "Sing Hosanna (Oil in My Lamp)" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #264, recorded 09/26/2022)
NOTES [56 words]: The Arthur Alligord version probably should be considered a humorous parody, with verses "Give me wax on my board, Keep me surfin' for the Lord" and "Give me gas in my Ford, keep me truckin' for the Lord" -- but there is no actual difference in form, so I've kept them together.
I'd sure rather be singing the Alligord version, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BrS5758

Gimme Wax On My Board

See Gimme Oil in My Lamp (File: BrS5758)

Gin and Coconut Water

DESCRIPTION: The singer, from the West Indies, now in U.S., complains that he has "lost my strength and my energy" because he cannot get gin and coconut water in America. He goes to a doctor who says, "Take this advice fom me ... go back to the West Indies"
AUTHOR: Wilmoth Houdini
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Houdini)
KEYWORDS: emigration drink America nonballad doctor
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jim Morse, _Folk Songs of the Caribbean_ (New York: Bantam Books, 1958), p. 182-185, "Gin and Coconut Water" (Honey come and go with me, Back to the West Indie) (1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Gin and Coconut Water" (on WIHIGGS01)
Wilmoth Houdini and his Royal Calypso Orchestra, "Gin and Cocoanut Water" (1946, on Decca 23543 A)
NOTES [29 words]: Higgs keeps Houdini's name in the song. The doctor's prescription according to both Higgs and Houdini is "Take this advice from me Houdini and go back to the West Indies" - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcGiCoWa

Gin Gang Goolie

DESCRIPTION: Gin gang, goolie goolie goolie goolie watcha, Gin gang goo, Gin gang goo, Heyla, heyla sheyla, Heyla sheyla, Heyla, ho!... Shallywally, shallywally! Shallywally, shallywally! Oompah-oompah! Oompah-oompah!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1999 (mudcat.org thread "ging gang gooly")
KEYWORDS: nonsense drink campsong
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 4, "(Gin gang, goolie)" (1 short text, from user John5918, posted August 28, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 148, 150, 444, 527, "Ging gang gooley gooley wash wash"/Ging Gang Goolie"/"Ging Gang Gooey Gooey" (notes only)
ST LTCS04E (Partial)
RECORDINGS:
Alessandra Delia-Lôbo, Cameo Delia, "Ging Gang Goolie" (Piotr-Archive #387, recorded 12/18/2022)
NOTES [127 words]: Apparently a bar song as well as a camp song; John5918 declares, "Slightly later in life, often with a wee drinkie or two inside us, we would sing things like" this item. There was no explanation for the syllables.
The mudcat.org thread "ging gang goolie" cites a 1957 occurrence in the "Gilwell Camp Fire Book" and a 1905 public performance. But I can't verify the former (though it seems likely, given the citation in Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs) and have no way to prove that the latter is this song, so I'm using the 1999 verifiable date.
The Delia sisters heard that this was based on something in Dutch, but again, there isn't any real proof.
John Patrick believes this to be the same as the song indexed as "Em Pom Pee." Hard to say, with nonsense lyrics. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LTCS04E

Gin Ye Be For Long Kail

See Cowe, Cowe (File: GrD81656)

Gin Ye See My Lad Kiss Him and Clap Him

DESCRIPTION: "Gin ye see my lad kiss him and clap him, And tell him that I was bookit [registered as betrothed in the session records] the streen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1344, "Gin Ye See My Lad Kiss Him and Clap Him" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7225
NOTES [16 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan7 fragment and the Greig/Duncan7 [gloss]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71344

Gin Ye Wed a Bonnie Wife

DESCRIPTION: "Gin ye wed a bonnie wife Little sleep will sair [Greig/Duncan8: serve] ye"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: marriage wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1920, "Gin Ye Wed a Bonnie Wife" (1 fragment)
Roud #15120
NOTES [38 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
Scottish proverb: "He that has a bonnie wife needs mair than twa een" (source: Andrew Henderson, Scottish Proverbs (London, 1876 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 61). - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81920

Gin ye'll gie me your hand, Sarah

See Sarah Barnwell (File: GrD2218)

Ging Gang Gooey Gooey

See Gin Gang Goolie (File: LTCS04E)

Ging gang gooley gooley wash wash

See Gin Gang Goolie (File: LTCS04E)

Ginger Blue

DESCRIPTION: Walky, talky, Ginger Blue, White man run, but the nigger he flew." "Wakin' talkin' Ginger Blue, I can tell you might true, I'm just from the Tennessee mountains. Take a drink of beer as sweet as water That flows from the Tennessee fountains."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Randolph), but apparently in existence in the nineteenth century
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 298, "Ginger Blue" (1 fragmentary text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 496, "Jinger Blue" (1 fragmentary text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 496, "Jinger Blue" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 41, "(Last Night and the night before)" (1 text, which appears to consist of two lines of "Not Last Night But the Night Before" followed by two lines of "Ginger Blue")
Roud #11762
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Oaks, "Ginger Blue" (Vocalion 15344, 1926)
Arthur Tanner, "Dr. Ginger Blue" (Columbia 15479-D, 1929)
SAME TUNE:
Sherman's March ("Now, listen to my song," by Michael Fee) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 141)
NOTES [117 words]: The notes in Brown suggest that his text (the "Jinger Blue" version) might be derived from "Walkin' in the Parlor" as well as the nineteenth century pop song "Ginger Blue." Possible -- but with only a fragment, it's beyond proof.
Edward Harrigan, in his performance piece "The London Comic Singers," featured an African-American military unit, the "Ginger Blues" (an imitation of Harrigan's "Skidmore Guard" from the "Mulligan Guard" plays). The Ginger Blues had a song, which isn't this (it can be found in Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #11, pp. 37-40), but it's possible that one of the songs influenced the other. For background on Harrigan, see the notes to "Babies on Our Block." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R298

Ginger, You're Balmy

DESCRIPTION: Taunt against those with red hair. "Ginger, you're balmy/barmy, So is our Mammy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: hair colors mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 49, "Ginger, you're barmy" (1 short text)
Roud #37282
File: KSUC049A

Ginnie's Gone to Ohio

See Ginny's Gone to Ohio (File: DTginnyg)

Ginny's Gone to Ohio

DESCRIPTION: "Ginny's gone to Ohio, Ginny's gone away, Ginny's gone to Ohio, Ginny's gone away." "Ginny's a pretty gal, don't you know," "Ginny's gone, an' I'm goin' too, " Ginny's dressed in strings and rags"
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad clothes beauty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Philip Houston Kennedy, "An Unusual Work-Song Found in North Carolina: Ginnie’s Gone to Ohio," Vol. XV, No. 1 (May 1967), pp. 30-34, "Ginnie’s Gone to Ohio" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GINNYGON*
Roud #481
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Riley" (lyrics)
NOTES [234 words]: Although the Golden Ring recording calls this traditional, I wonder a little. Guy and Candie Carawan, Voices from the Mountains, 1975 (I use the 1982 Illini Books paperback), p. credits the words to Rich Kirby and Michael Kline, but their version has a number of protest verses about mining; I suspect Kirby and Kline are responsible only for some added words -- the more so since Carawan gives a 1971 copyright date, four years after the NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal article! The only actual non-secondary printed version seems to be the NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal from Carlie Tart and family (Carawan credits them with the tune and gives it a 1960 copyright date), which makes me wonder if it isn't a version of "Riley" somewhat adapted.
The NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal article connects it with a piece found in the 1830s journal of Fanny Kemble:
Jenny shake her toe at me,
Jenny gone away.
Jenny shake her toe at me,
Jenny gone away.
Hurrah! Miss Susy, oh!
Jenny gone away.
Hurrah! Miss Susy, oh!
Jenny gone away.
Allowing that "Jennie" could easily turn to "Ginnie/Ginny," I don't really see much connection in the rest of this song.
Roud files it in with versions of "Tommy's Gone to Hilo," but if so, the genders have changed and other changes have been made. At minimum, it is a deliberate rewrite. Ultimately, unless we find more versions, I don't think we can say much about the origin. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DTginnyg

Ginseng Blues

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "You can't read my mind. When you think I'm loving you I'm quitting you all the time." Singer has a girl in Georgia, one in Dixie, his home's in Carolina but he's got two children in Georgia.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: infidelity sex bragging rambling nonballad lover children
FOUND IN:
Roud #10620
RECORDINGS:
Kentucky Ramblers, "Ginseng Blues" (on StuffDreams1)
NOTES [38 words]: The Kentucky Ramblers' track follows each chorus with a yodel. The title is from the first verse: "I ain't going to dig no ginseng, I ain't going to hunt no crow, Ain't going to do a doggone thing but love my dear sweet mama." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcGinsBl

Gipsies

See The Lost Lady Found [Laws Q31] (File: LQ31)

Gipsies' Glee, The

DESCRIPTION: "A merry, merry life we gipsies lead" in the forest. We pitch our tents by day, listen to song birds, sit under a tree and drink ale. We pitch our tents by night and drink a tankard.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad Gypsy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 68, "The Gipsies' Glee" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 299)
Roud #1244
File: WT068

Gipsy Countess, The

DESCRIPTION: "There came an Earl a-riding by, A gipsy maid espyed he," and asks her to come with him, but she prefers the greenwood. He lists all the good things civilization brings. Finally she gives in and marries him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: beauty love courting Gypsy nobility
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #50 Part I, "The Gipsy Countess" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #87}
Roud #6910
NOTES [61 words]: Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd seems to think that this is either a preface to, or an English version of, "The Gypsy Laddie" [Child 200], with which it is included. I am quite sure they are not related, and frankly doubt that this is traditional at all. Bronson puts it in an appendix to "The Gypsy Laddie," which is perhaps a reasonable compromise. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGSW050A

Gipsy Girl, The

See The Gypsy Maid (The Gypsy's Wedding Day) [Laws O4] (File: LO04)

Gipsy King, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer says he is the Gipsy King but he has no crown, courtiers, or ministers. His subjects are his equal and they share their table and drink. "They don't grudge me the largest glass, Nor ... the prettiest lass ... Ne'er a king do I envy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (_Janus_)
KEYWORDS: drink food nonballad royalty Gypsy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 127-128, "The Gipsy King" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 43)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #743, p. 49, "The Gipsy King" (2 references)
ADDITIONAL: Janus, or, The Edinburgh Literary Almanack (1826 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 315-316, "Song of the Gipsy King" (1 text)
Roud #1259
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 146, "The Gipsey King" ("'Tis I'm the gipsey king"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 20(58), Harding B 11(1319), "The Gipsey King"
NLScotland, L.C.1269(181b), "The Gipsey King" ("'Tis I'm the gipsey king"), J. Scott (Edinburgh), 1843-1855
NOTES [8 words]: The Janus text is headed "from the German." - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: WT127

Gipsy Laddie O

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Gipsy, Gipsy, Caroline

See Queen Caroline (File: GrD81643)

Gipsy's Warning

See The Gypsy's Warning (File: R743)

Gipsy's Warning, The

See My Irish Molly-O (File: FSC062)

Gipsy's Wedding Day, The

See The Gypsy Maid (The Gypsy's Wedding Day) [Laws O4] (File: LO04)

Giraffe, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's hard to make a living now, in country or in town, The rich man's great ambition is to pull the poor man down." The squatters bring in guards "to protect the long Giraffe" from shearers who demand better conditions. The shearers eventually succeed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: sheep work labor-movement Australia
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 195-196, "The Giraffe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9108
File: AnSt195

Girl and the Oysters, The

See The Oyster Girl [Laws Q13] (File: LQ13)

Girl from Clahandine

DESCRIPTION: Before the singer leaves for America he bids his friends adieu and tearfully leaves his girl. He finds no one in America as true or kind as the girl he left behind. When he has enough gold he'll return to marry her and settle in a cottage in Clahandine.
AUTHOR: Tom Flanagan (source: notes to IRClare01)
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (IRClare01)
KEYWORDS: poverty love parting America Ireland emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #18474
RECORDINGS:
Michael Flanagan, "Girl from Clahandine" (on IRClare01)
NOTES [66 words]: Notes to IRClare01: ."..it has obviously been re-written from the popular 'The Girl I Left Behind' to place its location around North Clare. Saint Bridget's Well [he was born near there] is at Liscannor a few miles south of Luogh."
The verse structure, final line of two verses, and a few other lines follow Laws P1A but the story line does not follow any "The Girl I Left Behind" that I know. - BS
File: RcGiFCla

Girl from Turfahun, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye bards may sing your sweetest lays In praise of beauty's grace...." The singer went to Ballycastle fair, where he sees a beautiful girl. They meet again at a dance, and during a pause, he asks her name. He learns she is married. He laments
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty husband wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H521, p. 372, "The Girl from Turfahun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6887
File: HHH521

Girl I Left Behind (I), The [Laws P1A/B]

DESCRIPTION: Two lovers promise to be faithful. He then sets out on a voyage. Before they can be reunited, one or the other proves unfaithful. (In Laws's "A" texts, the man marries a Scottish girl and his love dies of a broken heart; in "B" texts, the girl is untrue)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1847 (Forget-Me-Not Songster)
KEYWORDS: courting promise infidelity separation
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES (58 citations):
Laws P1A/B "The Girl I Left Behind"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #83, p. 1, "The Girl I Left Behind"; #157, p. 2, "The Girl I Left Behind Me"; #88, p. 2, ("I'll stay with her and think no more On the girl I left behind") (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan5 1059, "The Girl I Left Behind" (12 texts, 8 tunes)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 198-200, "Peggy Walker" (3 texts)
Randolph 283, "The Girl I Left Behind" (4 texts, 1 tune. Laws assigns Randolph's A text to P1A and B, C, and D to P1B)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 101-104, "The Girl I Left Behind" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 64A)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 434-440, "The Girl I Left Behind" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 38-39, "The Girl I Left Behind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 145, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (5 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more. Laws lists the "A" and B" texts as P1A and "C," "D," "F," and "G" as P1B)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 145, "The Girl I Left Behind" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 79, "My Parents Reared Me Tenderly" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 92, "The Rambling Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 134-135, "The Rambling Cowboy" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 392-393, "The Rambling Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 153-154, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 44, "Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 305-206, "The Maid I Left Behind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 76, "Peggy Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 39, "The Girl I Left Behind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 96, "My Parents Treated Me Tenderly" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 47-49, "The Girl I Left on New River" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H188, p. 401, "The Girl I Left Behind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 148, "My Parents Raised Me Tenderly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 155-156, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text) (pp. 133-134 in the 1919 edition)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 28, "The Girl I Left Behind" (1 text plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 10, "The Girl I Left Behind" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p.115, "There Was a Rich Old Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune, rather worn-down)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 33, pp. 48-49, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text, mostly lyric but probably derived from this)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 17-18, "Across the Plains of Illinois" (1 text, 1 tune, so heavily localized that it might well be considered a separate song)
Peacock, pp. 449-452, "The Girl I Left Behind" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 76-77, "The Girl I Left Behind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 47, "Peggy Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 134, "Jennie Ferguson" (1 text, 1 tune); 138, "The Girl I Left Behind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 70, "the Girl I Left Behind (Janey Ferguson)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 134, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text, a single stanza probably of a version rewritten for seal-hunting, but with only four lines, it can hardly be separated from the main song)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 106-109, "The Broken-hearted Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 50, "The Rich Old Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 165, "The Girl I Left Behind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 38, "The Girl I Left Behind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 62, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (2 texts, 1 tune, with the "A" text, although mixed and westernized, probably belonging here and the "B" text being the lyric piece); 63, "My Parents Raised Me Tenderly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 200-203, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text, 1 tune, a cowboy adaption)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 84, "The Girl I Left in Missouri" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 85, "My Parents Reared Me Tenderly" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 59-6-, "Maggie Walker, the Girl I Left Behind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H188, pp. 401-402, "The Girl I Left Behind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 45-47, "I'll Ne'er Forget the Parting" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 65, "The Girl I Left Behind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 202-203, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 16-17, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #747, p. 49, "The GIrl I Left Behind Me" (4 references)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 70 and #3/62, p. 31, "The Girl I left behind Me" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 220-221, "The Maid I Left Behind" (1 text, 1 tune, which despite the title often refers to "The girl I left behind me"; it looks as if the title was changed to avoid confusion with the more lyric "The Girl I Left Behind Me" on p. 218)
Heart-Songs, pp. 66-67, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text, 1 tune, beginning "The dames of France are fond and free")
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 117, "The Girl I've Left Behind Me" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 114, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text)
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, p. 68, "The girl I left behind me" (1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 313, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (notes only)
DT 338, GIRLEFT (GIRLEFT2* -- perhaps a mixed version, with the text of Laws P1 and the tune of the playparty?) GIRLLFT6*
Roud #262 and 23929
RECORDINGS:
Jules [Verne] Allen, "The Gal I Left Behind" (Victor V-40022, 1929; on WhenIWas2)
Clint Howard et al, "Maggie Walker Blues" (on Ashley02, WatsonAshley01)
Dock Boggs, "Peggy Walker" (on Boggs3, BoggsCD1)
Texas Gladden, "Always Been a Rambler" (on USTGladden01 -- a tiny fragment that might be this or almost anything)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "I've Always Been a Rambler" (Gennett, unissued, 1928) (Victor V-40324, 1928; on GraysonWhitter01, LostProv1, ConstSor1)
Harry Jackson, "The Gal I Left Behind" (on HJackson1)
Billie Maxwell, "The Arizona Girl I Left Behind" (Victor V-40188, 1930; on MakeMe)
Bobby McMillon, "The Girl You Left Behind" (Piotr-Archive #86, recorded 11/04/2021; very noisy)
Pleaz Mobley, "My Parents Raised Me Tenderly" (AFS; on LC12)
Spencer Moore, "The Girl I Left Behind" (on LomaxCD1700, LomaxCD1702)
New Lost City Ramblers, "I've Always Been a Rambler" (on NLCR13, NLCRCD2)
Mrs. Clara Stevens, "The Girl I Left Behind" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(187), "Margaret Walker" ("My parents raised me tenderly having no child but me"), S. Russell (Birmingham), 1840-1851; also Firth b.25(478), "Margaret Walker"; Firth c.26(280), "Girl I Left Behind"; Harding B 11(2237), Firth c.14(210), "The Lover's Lament" or "The Girl I Left Behind Me"
Murray, Mu23-y1:050, "The Girl I Left Behind Me," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C, with the unhappy ending left off
NLScotland, L.C.1270(015), "The Girl I Left Behind Me" ("Now for America I am bound, Against my inclination"), unknown, c. 1880, with the unhappy ending left off
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Girl I Left Behind Me (III)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Old England Forty Years Ago (File: TPS048)
Well I Couldn't Care Less (File: Tawn032)
The Girl I Left Behind Me (by Thomas Davis) (Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 471-472)
A New Song on the Causes -- beginnings, events -- end -- and consequences of the late war with Great Britain ("Old England forty years ago, When we were young and tender") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 217)
The Girl I Left Behind Me (square dance calls) (Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 99-100)
The Sealer's Song (I) (File: Doyl3052)
The Girl I Left Behind Me ("I'll go to the ice and I'll catch some seals") (ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, editor, _Songs Sung by Old-TIme Sealers of Many Years Ago_, James Murphy Publishing, 1925 (PDF available from Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 19)
NOTES [89 words]: In addition to this ballad form, there is a song with this title (indexed as "The Girl I Left Behind Me (lyric)"). As the two have cross-fertilized (often, e.g., sharing the latter's tune "Brighton Camp"), the reader is advised to check both songs for completeness.
The texts entitled "The Rambling Cowboy" are fairly distinct, being about the daughter of a rich old rancher who wins a cowboy's heart, but the song is still recognizably this. Presumably it was reworked by someone -- Thorp mentions an attribution to a "K. Tolliver." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LP01

Girl I Left Behind Me (II), The (lyric)

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the girl he left behind, and now plans to return to her, even if it involves losing his job. He reminisces: "Oh, that girl, that sweet little girl, The girl I left behind me, With rosy cheeks and curly hair, The girl I left behind me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(66)); (tune "Brighton Camp" dated by Chappell to 1758)
KEYWORDS: separation love return nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,So)
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Randolph 546, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 98, pp. 229-230, "The Gal I Left Behind Me" (1 text)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 173-174, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text, 1 tune, short enough that it's not really clear if it's this or a very defective version of "The Girl I Left Behind Me (I)")
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 10-11, "The Gal I Left Behind Me" (1 text)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 46-47=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 155-156, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 76-77, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 107-108, "The Gal I Left Behind Me" (1 text, 1 tune, unusually long but still a nonballad)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 280-282, "The Gal I Left Behind Me," "That Pretty Little Gal" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 62, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (2 texts, 1 tune, with the "B" text belonging here and the "A" text being a Westernized form of Laws P1)
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 69-70, "The Gal I Left Behind Me" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 390-391, "The Gal I Left Behind Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Finger-FrontierBallads, p. 63, "The Gal I Left Behind Me" (1 short text, filed here because it is Western and short)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 48-49, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 708-711, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 187-189, "Brighton Camp, or, The Girl I've Left Behind Me" (1 tune, partial text)
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 8-9, "Brighton Camp" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 79-80, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 tune plus dance instructions)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 226-227, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text, a Civil War adaption)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, p.218, "The GIrl I Left Behind Me" (1 text, possibly rewritten, which does not seem to include the chorus; pp. 220-221 have "The Maid I Left Behind Me," which is the ballad version of the song, Laws P1)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #141, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 281, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 242-244, "The Girl I Left Behind Me"
DT, GIRLLFT4* GIRLLFT5* GRLBHNDZ
Roud #4497 and 7680 and 23929
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singer, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (on Unexp1)
Bull Mountain Moonshiners, "Johnny Goodwin" (Victor 21141, 1927; on TimesAint05)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (Columbia 437-D, 1925)
Uncle Dave Macon, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (Vocalion 15034, 1925)
Pete Seeger, "Girl I Left Behind" (on PeteSeeger24) (on PeteSeeger40)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (Columbia 15170-D, 1927)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(66), "The Girl I Left Behind Me" ("I am lonesome since I cross'd the hills"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 16(330b), Harding B 18(570), Harding B 11(1322), Harding B 26(214), "[The] Girl I Left Behind Me"; Harding B 11(455), Firth c.20(167)[many illegible words], "Brighton Camp" or "The Girl I Left Behind Me"
LOCSinging, cw102000, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" ("I'm lonesome since I cross'd the hills"), J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also cw102010, as201170, sb20156a, as104460, as107220, as10446a, "The Girl I Left Behind Me"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brighton Camp" (tune)
cf. "The Wayward Boy" (tune)
cf. "The Battle of the Windmill" (tune)
cf. "The Waxies' Dargle" (tune)
cf. "When I Look Back to Bonny Aberdeen" (tune)
cf. "Anti-Confederation Song (II)" (tune)
NOTES [222 words]: The tune "Brighton Camp," suitable for playparties, dances, and all sorts of fun occasions, seems to have sustained a variety of texts which then became intermixed. Some may even have cross-fertilized with the ballad "The Girl I Left Behind" [Laws P1]. The reader is advised to check all these sources to get a complete cross-section.
W. Bruce Olson contributed extensive notes to the Digital Tradition regarding the origin of the tune, arguing against Chappell's date.
The Folksinger's Wordbook credits this piece to Samuel Lover, who did indeed publish a set of lyrics in 1855. Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd also attributes its version to Lover. But it seems likely he just touched up an existing piece, as the tune and the title are older.
This song seems to have given rise to a singing game/playparty of the same title, exemplified e.g. by the versions of Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana and McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks. Roud seems to number the playparty versions as #7680 and the non-playparties as #4497. I think. But unless a version is labelled a playparty, it's next to impossible to tell them apart. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging cw102000: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R546

Girl I Left Behind Me (III), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is bound for Baltimore but still thinks about "the girl I left behind me. My friends they sent me off for fear I'd wed a steam-loom weaver ... Sweet Helen, dear, tho' far from thee,Our hearts will ne'er be parted." He returns to Glasgow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (broadside, Murray Mu23-y1:050)
KEYWORDS: love emigration separation America
FOUND IN:
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding 2806 c.15(254), "Girl I Left Behind Me" ("Now for America I'm bound")," unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 26(215), "Girl I Left Behind Me"; Harding B 19(86), also "The Girl I Left Behind Me" ("Now I am bound for a foreign land"), W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 b.10(65), "The Girl I Left Behind Me" ("Now I am bound for a foreign land")
Murray, Mu23-y1:050, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" ("Now for America I'm bound"), James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.1270(015), "The Girl I Left Behind Me" ("Now for America I'm bound"), unknown, c.1880
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(215))
NOTES [53 words]: The "Now I am bound for a foreign land" broadsides have the singer leave Bantry [Clonmel in Anderson, Farewell to Judges & Juries] rather than Glasgow, head for Sydney instead of Baltimore, and spend his exile in Van Diemen's Land, rather than America.
Broadside NLScotland L.C.1270(015) lacks the happy ending. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BrTGILB3

Girl I Left Behind Me (IV), The

See The Wicklow Rangers (File: OLoc018)

Girl I Left Behind Me (V), The

DESCRIPTION: The war with France is over and, after ten years, the sailors "now return to embrace The partners of their bosoms." The singer plans to "spend my life to live and love The Girl I left behind me." When their lives are over they'll be together in heaven.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(83))
KEYWORDS: love war reunion nonballad sailor
FOUND IN:
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(83), "The Girl I Left Behind Me" ("The wars are o'er, and gentle peace"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.13(244), Firth b.25(36), Harding B 11(2738), "The Girl I Left Behind Me"; Harding B 11(2068), Harding B 15(168a), "The Lass I Left Behind Me"
File: BdGILB5

Girl I Left Behind Me (VI), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer bids farewell to his beloved and departs for the war. He shares "the glory of that fight." He swears that if he does not return, "Dishonor's breath shall never stain/The name I leave behind me." The girl may tell how she will miss him if he dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Lloyd & Howard Massey)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer bids farewell to his beloved -- "I breathed the vows that bind me" -- and departs for the war. He shares "the glory of that fight." He looks forward to the day of victory and to being reunited with his love, but swears that if he does not return, "Dishonor's breath shall never stain/The name I leave behind me." In one version the voice then shifts to the girl: "He don't come it'll break my heart/And a-almost run me crazy"
KEYWORDS: virtue love marriage promise army battle Civilwar war farewell parting return reunion separation lover wife soldier
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 327, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT, GIRLLFT7
RECORDINGS:
Dr. Lloyd & Howard Maxey [Massey], "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (OKeh 45150, 1927)
NOTES [115 words]: The Digital Tradition entry assigns a keyword of "Irish" to this, but they also state that it's from "Songs of the Seventh Cavalry" (published by the Bismarck Tribune); it certainly has the ring of an American Civil War piece to my ears. As the DT entry is undated, I use the Masseys' recording for Earliest Date. - PJS
There are of course two other famous girls left behind: the lyric based on the tune "Brighton Camp," and the ballad Laws P1, which he confusingly gives this title ("I've Always Been a Rambler" might have been a better title). The simple presence of this key line seems to cause some interchange of lyrics; best to check them all if you're looking for all instances. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: DtGLFT7

Girl I Left Behind Me (VIII), The

See As Slow Our Wagons Rolled the Track (The Girl I Left Behind Me) (File: CAFS2630)

Girl I Left Behind Me, The

See The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)

Girl I Left in Missouri, The

See The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)

Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is happily returning home to see the girl he left behind. He recalls the joyful times in Tennessee. Finally the train pulls into his hometown, and he sees his relatives but not Mary. His mother tells him that Mary is dead and in her grave
AUTHOR: Harry Braisted and Stanley Carter
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (copyright; first recording by Byron Harlan)
KEYWORDS: love separation return death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 86-86. "The Girl I Loved in Sunny Tennessee" (1 text)
Randolph 810, "The Girl I Loved in Sunny Tennessee" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 725, "Sunny Tennessee" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 98, "The Girl I Loved in Sunny Tennessee" (3 texts plus mention of 1 more, 2 tunes)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 67, pp. 110-111, "Girl in Sunny Tennessee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 69, "The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 272-273, "The Girl I Loved in Sunny Tennessee" (1 text plus a sheet music cover)
Roud #4290
RECORDINGS:
S. H. Dudley & Harry Macdonough, "The Girl I Loved in Sunny Tennessee" (Zon-O-Phone 506, rec. c. 1901; on Protobilly)
Morgan Denmon, "Girl I Loved in Sunny Tennessee" (OKeh 45105, 1927)
Floyd County Ramblers, "Sunny Tennessee" (Victor V-40307, 1930; on Protobilly)
[Byron] Harlan & [Frank] Stanley, "The Girl I Loved in Sunny Tennessee" (Columbia 257, 1901)
Byron G. Harlan, "The Girl I Loved in Sunny Tennessee" (CYL: Edison 5716, c. 1899)
John James, "Sunny Tennessee" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Wade Mainer, "The Girl I Left In Sunny Tennessee" (King 1093, 1952)
Asa Martin & James Roberts, "Sunny Tennessee" (Banner 32306, 1931; Conqueror 7935, 1932; rec. 1931)
Peerless Quartet, "The Girl I Loved in Sunny Tennessee" (Victor 19390, 1924)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee" (Columbia 15043-D, 1925; on CPoole04)
Red Fox Chasers, "The Girl I Loved in Sunny Tennessee" (Gennett 6930/Supertone 9497, 1929)
Walter Scanlan, "The Girl I Loved in Sunny Tennessee" (Edison 51893, 1927)
Ernest V. Stoneman "The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee" (Challenge 151, 1927); "The Girl I Left Behind in Sunny Tennessee" (Challenge 151/Gennett 3368/Herwin 75529, 1926)
Sweet & Zimmerman, "The Girl I Loved in Sunny Tennessee" (CYL: Edison 7414, 1900)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bull Dog Down in Tennessee" (tune, subject of parody)
cf. "Down on the Farm (II)" (theme)
cf. "I'll Be There, Mary Dear" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Bull Dog Down in Tennessee (File: RcBDDITe)
File: R810

Girl I Left on New River, The

See The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)

Girl I Loved in Sunny Tennessee, The

See The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee (File: R810)

Girl in Portland Street, The

DESCRIPTION: Sailor meets a girl and they go about courting/seducing each other. Refrain of "Fal-de-lol-day" throughout. This has some of the anatomical progression verses of "Yo Ho, Yo Ho." Harlow's version ends with the sailor discovering the girl has a cork leg.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty bawdy humorous
FOUND IN: US Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 70-71, "A Fal-De-Lal-Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 54-55, "The Girl In Portland Street" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 50-51]
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, pp. 263-264, "A Fal-Del-Lal-Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9162
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A-Rovin'" (theme of moving down the body) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fol-de-lol-day
NOTES [18 words]: Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips says that the first refrain of this was often whistled rather than sung. - SL
Last updated in version 3.3
File: Hugi054

Girl in Sunny Tennessee

See The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee (File: R810)

Girl in the Army, A

See Bonnie Jean O' Aberdeen, She Lang'd for a Baby (File: OOx2183)

Girl in the Blue Velvet Band, The

See The Black Velvet Band (I) (File: R672)

Girl of Constant Sorrow

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of leaving her mother (now dead) and her home in Kentucky so that her children could be fed. She then describes the coal miners' poor food, homes and clothing; she is sure "if there's a heaven/That the miners will be there"
AUTHOR: Words: Sara Ogan Gunning / tune "Man of Constant Sorrow" (Emry Arthur?)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1950 (recording by author)
KEYWORDS: separation mining hardtimes poverty family worker derivative
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 1168-169, "I Am a Girl of Constant Sorrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 128, "Girl of Constant Sorrow" (1 text)
DT, CONSTSR2*
Roud #499
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Man of Constant Sorrow" (structure, tune)
NOTES [25 words]: Although the source lists a copyright date of 1965, I'm certain [this] was recorded on a Library of Congress field recording in the 1930s or 1940s. - PJS
File: FSWB128B

Girl of Killy Kranky, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer was once such a "smart chap" that "the Prince of Wales he wanted me to go and join the army." Now he is "old an' frail like a dog without a tail" For that he blames his wife, Jane McLean the lass from Killie Kranky." She assails him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage abuse humorous husband wife soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #2572
RECORDINGS:
Cyril O'Brien, "The Girl of Killy Kranky" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Killy Kranky" (another song turning the name "Killiecrankie" to another use)
File: ML3GoKiK

Girl on the Greenbriar Shore, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer leaves his home, despite his brokenhearted mother's warnings, for the girl on the greenbriar shore. The girl leaves him, and he remembers his mother's words -- "Never trust a girl on the greenbriar shore."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: love warning abandonment
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 54-55, "The Girl on the Greenbriar Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 165, "The Girl On The Greenbriar Shore" (1 text)
DT, GRNBRIR3*
Roud #17338
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "The Girl On The Greenbriar Shore" (Bluebird B-8947, 1941)
NOTES [28 words]: For the (fragile) relationship between this piece and "The New River Shore (The Green Brier Shore; The Red River Shore)" [Laws M26], see the notes on the latter piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CSW054

Girl Scout Pep Song

See G for Generosity (Girl Scout Pep Song) (File: ACSF482P)

Girl Scout Prayer

See Softly Falls the Light of Day (Girl Scout Prayer, Scout Vespers) (File: ACSF456S)

Girl Scouts Together

DESCRIPTION: "Girl scouts together that is our song, Winding the old trails, rocky and long, Learning our motto, living our creed, Girl scouts together in every good deed. Girl scouts together happy are we.... Known as true Girl Scouts wherever we roam."
AUTHOR: Gladys Cornwall Goff (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Girl Scout National Song Contest honorable mention)
KEYWORDS: campsong nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 464, 472, "Girl Scouts Together" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 22-23, "Girl Scouts Together" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 6, "Girl Scouts Together" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [115 words]: Both words and music of this are credited to Goff. It really feels as if it goes to the tune of (the chorus of) "Blessed Assurance," though: "This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long." I admit that this is not the printed tune.
According to Averill, Sigmund Spaeth was one of the judges who gave this an honorable mention in the 1941 Girl Scout song contest. Which makes one wonder how dreadful the other entries must have been.... The winner was "Girl Scouts Are We" ("Let us join our voices clear and strong, Scouts are we, Scouts are we, Of Sacajawea sing a song, Tell her deeds joyfully"" by John Rivenburg; it is on pp. 18-21 of GirlScouts-SingTogether. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF464G

Girl That Frose to Death, The

See The Orphan Girl (The Orphan Child) (File: R725)

Girl that Wore a Waterfall, The [Laws H26]

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a pretty girl who "wore a waterfall." Eventually he walks her home, where he encounters her husband. The singer is beaten black and blue and relieved of watch and money. He says he will no longer approach girls with waterfalls!
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting hair punishment fight
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws H26, "The Girl That Wore a Waterfall"
Randolph 389, "The Girl with the Waterfall" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 44-46, "The Girl That Wore a Waterfall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 70, pp. 114-115, "The Girl Who Wore the Waterfall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 304, "The Girl with the Waterfall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 64, "The Girl That Wore a Waterfall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 58, "The Waterfall" (1 fragment, 1 tune, plus a citation of a songster version)
DT, WATERFL2
Roud #2189
NOTES [68 words]: The "waterfall" as a hair style came into vogue in 1845, and continued to be used until shortly after the Civil War. Randolph describes it as "a mass of artificially curled hair, worn at the back of the head, arranged about a nucleus of false hair known as a 'rat.'" The word can also refer to a neck scarf.
The popularity of the song is evidenced by a reference to it in the Canadian song "Hogan's Lake." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: LH26

Girl Volunteer, The (The Cruel War Is Raging) [Laws O33]

DESCRIPTION: (Johnny) has been ordered off to war. His sweetheart begs to go with him. He refuses her; military service would fade her beauty. She offers to buy his release; this too fails. (In some versions Johnny relents and allows her to come.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: war soldier separation love cross-dressing
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws O33, "The Girl Volunteer"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 177-180, "Lisbon" (3 texts, of which this is the third, to which Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety does not assign a letter; the first two are "William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I)" [Laws N8])
Randolph 44, "Johnny Must Fight" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 94-95, "Johnny Must Fight" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 44B)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 7, "The War is Now Raging" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 6-7, "Oh, Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 100, "The Girl Volunteer" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 100, "The Girl Volunteer" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 10, "Poor Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune, which the editors file here although the text appears to have many floating verses); p. 50, "Johnny, Oh, Johnny" (1 text)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 77-78, "I Was Standing on Pickets" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 113, "The Warfare is Raging" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 109, pp. 178-179, "I'm Going to Join the Army" (1 text)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 104, "Johnny" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 272, "The Cruel War Is Raging" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 131-132, "May I Go With You, Johnny?" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 234, 550, "The Cruel War is Raging"/"Cruel War" (notes only)
DT 487, CRUELWAR* CRUELWR2*
Roud #401
RECORDINGS:
Louise Foreacre, "The War Is A-Raging" (on Stonemans01)
Aunt Polly Joines, "The Warfare is A-Raging" (on Persis1)
Land Norris, "Johnnie" (Okeh 45047)
Pete Steele, "The War Is A-Ragin' For Johnny" (on PSteele01)
Rick Ward, "Johnny, Poor Johnny" (Piotr-Archive #137, recorded 04/18/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Manchester Angel"
cf. "Jack Monroe" [Laws N7]
cf. "William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I)" [Laws N8]
cf. "The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II)" [Laws N9]
cf. "High Germany (I)"
cf. "Oh! No, No" (theme: sweetheart tries to convince soldier to let her accompany him)
SAME TUNE:
The Panther Pack is Prowling (RECORDING, Chip Dockery, in "Panther Pack Medley" on InCountry)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Cruel War
NOTES [50 words]: The Combs version of this song contains a reference to Pensacola -- the port from which many American troops set out for Cuba during the Spanish-American war (1898). The song is surely much older than that, however, although diligent searching has failed to turn up a version from before the 1910s. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LO33

Girl Who Never Would Wed, The

See The Courting Case (File: R361)

Girl Who Slighted Me, The

See Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)

Girl Who Was Drowned at Onslow, The

DESCRIPTION: What mournful news that we did hear." A girl is drowned in an icy stream. After a three day search her body is found. Her true love and parents mourn.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: drowning mourning family river
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 154, "The Girl Who Was Drowned at Onslow" (1 text)
Roud #3287
NOTES [39 words]: Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia says this "true song" is about an accident in the farming community of Onslow "at the head of Cobequid Bay in Colchester County" Nova Scotia.
This song is item dG42 in Laws's Appendix II. - BS
File: Mack154

Girl Who Wore the Waterfall, The

See The Girl that Wore a Waterfall [Laws H26] (File: LH26)

Girl with the Black Velvet Band, The

See The Black Velvet Band (I) (File: R672)

Girl with the Blue Velvet Band, The

See The Black Velvet Band (I) (File: R672)

Girl with the Flowing Hair, The

DESCRIPTION: "My heart went pitty pitty patty As she passed me by so beautiful and fair. Oh, she winked at me with her soft blue eye, The girl with the flowing hair."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: hair beauty
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 175-176, "The Girl with the Flowing Hair" (1 tune, fragment of text)
File: MA175

Girl with the Striped Stockings On, The

DESCRIPTION: "One rainy day I'll ne'er forget, The prettiest girl I ever met, When she raised her skirts to the wet, I saw she had striped stockings on." He sees her often, with her stockings showing. They walk together. She steals his watch and chain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Suzi Jones, _Oregon Folklore_)
KEYWORDS: clothes beauty trick theft
FOUND IN: US(MW,NW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Suzi Jones, _Oregon Folklore_, University of Oregon/Oregon Arts Commission, 1977, p. 31, "The Girl with the Striped Stockings" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tom Nash and Twilo Scofield, _The Well-Travelled Casket: Oregon Folklore_, Meadowlark Press, 1999, pp. 58-59, "The Girl with the Striped Stockings" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5359
File: OregF031

Girl with the Waterfall, The

See The Girl that Wore a Waterfall [Laws H26] (File: LH26)

Girleen Don't Be Idle

DESCRIPTION: Macaronic. "Girleen don't be idle, gather your ducks and mind 'em"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad bird
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 62, "Girleen Don't Be Idle" (1 text)
Roud #16244
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Girleen Don't Be Idle" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [19 words]: The current description is quoted from the English part of the OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin jingle. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC062

Girls and Boys Come Out to Play

See Boys and Girls Come Out to Play (File: FlBr187)

Girls Around Cape Horn, The

See Rounding the Horn (File: VWL090)

Girls From Newfoundland, The

See The Bouncing Girl in Fogo (File: Pea354)

Girls Lover, A

DESCRIPTION: "My love is like a little bird that flies From tree unto tree, And when you are with a fairer maid Do you ever think of me? Must I go bound and you go free? Must I love a man that won't love me, And would I act a childish part, Marry a man that would...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (High-OldOldFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection bird marriage floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 10, "A.. Single Life She Choosed" (1 short text)
File: High010

Girls o' Aiberdeen, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing the flowers o' Don and Dee, The charming girls o' Aiberdeen." The Scottish lasses are better than the fair girls of England, but the girls of Aiberdeen are "far aboon them a'." "I loe the lasses ane and a'," but Aiberdeen girls best of all.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #70, p. 1, "The Girls o' Aiberdeen" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 519, "The Girls o' Aiberdeen" (1 text)
Roud #6003
NOTES [30 words]: The Dee and Don are rivers that flow into the North Sea at Aberdeen.
Greig #68 has the contributor say "he used to sing ["The Girls o' Aiberdeen"] in New Zealand in early days." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3519

Girls of Coleraine, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer talks of "a sweet little spot in the county of Derry." He says there is no such town in all Ireland. He warns against girls of the city, or places like Killarney. But girls and boys of Coleraine never change. He blesses the town
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H64, pp. 161-162, "The Girls from [of] Coleraine" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), p. 20, "The Girls of Coleraine" (text, music and reference to Decca F-2603 recorded Oct 4, 1931)
Roud #13460
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Teddy O'Neill" (tune)
NOTES [24 words]: The date and master id (GB-3357-1) for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. - BS
File: HHH064

Girls of Newfoundland, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sailed from "a hot and sunny clime" for Harbour Grace thinking about "those girls from Newfoundland." Now the crew are home and "drink a health to all seamen bold" and enjoy the girls.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: homesickness sex sea ship drink sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 875-876, "The Girls of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9804
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Nicolle, "The Girls of Newfoundland" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [34 words]: The first line of this in Peacock is given as "We weighed our anchors in Harley Buck," which is all the sense he can make of the town name. I would suggest that this is a mis-hearing of "Corner Brook." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea875

Girls of the King's Navy

DESCRIPTION: "The first thing we'll ask for, we'll ask for some men, And may we have one more for every good WREN." Or maybe ten men. The women also want more pay. And more dates. The XO offers them what they want -- and much more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 144-145, "Girls of the King's Navy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #350
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The First Thing They Asked For" (lyrics, form)
NOTES [54 words]: This appears to me, based on the chorus, to be based on the Sailor's Alphabet or one of its relatives, but it is not itself an alphabet song. Roud lumps it with "The Soldier and the Sailor," which I don't see, but he also includes under that number "The First Thing They Asked For," which does appear to be a relative. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hopk144

Girls of the Shamrock Shore

DESCRIPTION: "It being in the spring when the small birds sing And the lambs do sport and play, I entered as a passenger To New South Wales sailed o'er...." Sentenced to transportation for fourteen years, the singer bids farewell to the girls of the Shamrock Shore
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: transportation separation parting
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 171, "The Girls of the Shamrock Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 40-41, "The Girls of the Shamrock Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GIRLSHAM*
Roud #3365
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Van Dieman's Land (II -- Young Henry's Downfall)" (floating lyrics)
cf. cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
cf. "The Shamrock Shore (The Maid of Mullaghmore)" (theme of separation -- not transportation -- and one verse)
File: MA171

Girls of Ulan, The

DESCRIPTION: "The girls from Ulan need no schoolin' For blucher boots are all the go. And how their hobnail boots they rattle On that hard and slippery floor, Like a mob of Queensland cattle On the rush at four...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: clothes
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 213-214, "The Girls of Ulan" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 291, "Ulan Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22663
NOTES [61 words]: It's not entirely clear whether these two songs are the same -- particularly since both are fragmentary. The first insults the Ulan girls, and has no tune; the second praises them. One may be a parody, or they may be complimentary fragments. For the moment, pending fuller versions, I'm lumping them together on the principle that they're about the same subject. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: MA213

Girls of Valparaiso, The

See Rounding the Horn (File: VWL090)

Girls Won't Do to Trust, The

See The Boys Won't Do to Trust (File: R461)

Git Along, Josie

See Jim Along Josie (File: R575)

Git Along, Little Dogies

See Get Along, Little Dogies (File: R178)

Git Away, Old Man

See I Wouldn't Have an Old Man (File: R401)

Git Back Blues

See Black, Brown, and White (File: SBoA350)

Git on Board, Little Children

See Get On Board, Little Children (File: FSWB361A)

Git On the Evening Train

See Morning Star (File: ElCh050A)

Git Up Off'n the Floor, Hannah

See Young Charlotte (Fair Charlotte) [Laws G17] (File: LG17)

Git Up, Good Wives, and Shake Your Feathers

See Get up Gudewife (File: GrD3639)

Give a Thing, Take It Back

DESCRIPTION: A warning for those who try to reclaim gifts: "Give a thing, take it back, Dance upon the devil's back." Or, "...take it back, God will ask you Where is that. If you say that you don't know, God will send you down below."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: warning Devil gift
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 19, "(Give a thing)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 41, "(Give a thing)" (1 text)
Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #143, "(Give a thing, take it back)" (1 text)
Roud #20781
File: BAAI019A

Give an Honest Irish Lad a Chance (The Honest Irish Lad)

See The Honest Irish Lad (File: FMB089)

Give Me a Blighty Girl

DESCRIPTION: "Give me a Blighty girl, a Blighty girl for me. I've been across the sea, I know what's good for me. French girls are very nice For Frenchmen I can see, But when I get back to Blighty, a Blighty girl for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: love home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 220, "(no title)" (1 short text)
File: BrPa220B

Give Me a Hut

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, give me a hut in my own native land... I don't care how far in the bush it may be, If there's one faithful heart that will share it with me." The singer praises Australia and the life there, and hopes that someone will be willing to share said life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: Australia marriage loneliness
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 137, "Native Mate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 140-141, "Native Mate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 118-119, "Oh, Give Me a Hut" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 103, "Oh, Give Me a Hut" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 255-256, "Australia for Me" (1 text, probably deliberately modified, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 155-157, "Oh, Give Me a Hut in My Own Native Land" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Gumtree Canoe" (tune)
NOTES [66 words]: Edward E. Morris, A Dictionary of Austral English, 1898 (I use the 1972 Sydney University Press with a new foreword but no new content), p. 207, defines "Hut" as follows: "a cottage of a shepherd or a miner. The word is English but is especially common in Australia, and does not there connote squalor or meanness. The "Men's Hut' on a station is the building occupied by the male employees." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: MA137

Give Me a Prein

DESCRIPTION: Gie's a preen [pin] to stick i' my thoom, To carry my lady to London toon. Oh London toon's a bonnie braw place; It's a' covered over wi' gold an' lace
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: playparty injury
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 176, "Give Me a Prein" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Inglis, Oor Ain Folk (Edinburgh, 1894 (second edition) ("Digitized by Google")), p. 100, ("Gie's a preen to stick i' my thoom") (1 text)
Roud #15525
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Carry My Lady to London" (first two lines (see Gomme 1.59))
NOTES [9 words]: The current description is all of the Inglis text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2176

Give Me a Rose

See Bring Me a Rose in the Wintertime (File: ACSF194B)

Give Me Back, Give Me Back the Wild Freshness of Morning

See I Saw from the Beach (File: HMHS033A)

Give Me Him

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Gimme Him gimme Him Aw sho Gimme Him Gimme Him until I die (x2)." Verses: Jesus died a happy death for sin that was not his own. "He died on the Roman cross That we might live"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 21, pp. 112-113, "Gimme Him" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Parr021

Give Me Jesus

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, when I come to die (x3), Give me Jesus (x3), You may have all this world, Give me Jesus." "I heard my mother say (x3), Give me Jesus." "Dark midnight was my cry...." "In the morning when I rse...." "I heard the mourner say...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1997 (Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 36-37, "Give Me Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 59, pp. 240-242, "Oh When I Come To Die" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12360
File: WarSp036

Give Me Oil for My Lamp

See Gimme Oil in My Lamp (File: BrS5758)

Give Me That Old Time Religion

See That Old Time Religion (File: R628)

Give Me the Roses While I Live

DESCRIPTION: "Wonderful things of men are said, When they have passed away, Roses adorn the narrow bed, Over the sleeping clay. Give me the roses while I live... Useless are flowers that you give After the soul is gone." Encouraging companionship while still alive
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: friend flowers religious nonballad death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, GIVEROSE*
Roud #17339
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "Give Me Roses While I Live" (Victor Vi-23821, 1933; Montgomery Ward M-7356, c. 1937)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Leave These Earthly Shores" (theme of giving roses)
cf. "Love Me Now" (theme of love while one is still alive)
NOTES [16 words]: In the Sacred Harp, this is given the tune-name Odem, after a friend of editor Thomas Denson. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcGMTRWL

Give Me Three Grains of Corn, Mother

See Three Grains of Corn (File: San041)

Give Me Your Heart (I Have a Sweetheart)

DESCRIPTION: "I have a little sweetheart, And you can't guess his name, Or the town he lives in; He lives there just the same. He won't let me kiss him, But I can call him dear." She asks him, "Give me your heart, and let it be true." He is willing to agree
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 12, "I Have a Sweetheart" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Roud #7505
File: Brne012

Give My Love to Nell

See Jack and Joe (File: R813)

Give the Dutch Room

DESCRIPTION: "Stand back, boys, and give the Dutch room." The singer describes how the Dutch fight hard in the campaign which culminates in the capture of Fort Smith.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
December 1862 - first campaign against Fort Smith, including the battles of Cane Hill (Nov. 28) and Prairie Grove (Dec. 7). The Union troops, though they occupied Fort Smith, could not hold it; they gained control of the town "for keeps" on Sept. 1, 1863
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 373-374, "Give the Dutch Room" (1 text)
Roud #7762
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Prairie Grove" (subject)
NOTES [270 words]: This is a strange, and perhaps confused, little song. The first verse refers to a battle at "Cahound." Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety suggests that this is the Battle of Cane Hill (which he misdates to Dec. 5), and I have no better suggestion.
Belden's notes also suggest that the "Lane" of the song was James H. Lane. This seems a little dubious. There were two James H. Lanes in the war: A Unionist Sernator from Kansas (1814-1866) and a Confederate brigadier (1833-1907). The latter served only in the east, however, and the former, although he had fought for "bleeding Kansas," is not listed as a Civil War general.
My own guess is that Lane is Walter P. Lane (1817-1892), a Confederate officer who served in the west throughout the war, though he didn't earn his brigadier's star until March 1865.
The other curiosity is the use of the word "Dutch." The "Dutch" were actually Germans, and the name was used in a derogatory way by non-Germans. But here they are praised. So who wrote the piece?
The purpose may have been somewhat political, to encourage the German soldiers. Their record in the war was not particularly good overall, though through no fault of their own.
At Wilson's Creek, Sigel's "Dutch" brigade had been routed. Troops under Sigel had suffered badly at the hands of Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. And those same troops, now the XI Corps, had been outflanked and routed at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. At no point had the soldiers done wrong; it was the officers' fault. But they had a terrible reputation. This might have been an attempt to perk them up. - RBW
File: Beld373

Give the Fiddler a Dram

See Dance All Night with a Bottle in Your Hand (File: Rose020)

Give the World a Smile

DESCRIPTION: "Are you giving to the world a smile, sunny smile, Helping lessen someone's dreary mile, dreary mile? ... Give the world a bright smile each day, Helping someone on life's dreary way." The singer can make the world better with joy, smiles, a song
AUTHOR: Words: Otis Deaton / Music: M. L. Yandell (source: Abernethy)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, th Corley Family)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad music
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 120-121, "Great God, Attend" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of a shape note version)
Roud #29160
RECORDINGS:
McDonald Quartet, "Give the World a Smile" (Gennett 6581) (Royal 91519)
File: Aber120

Give Three Cheers for the Red, White, and Blue

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "Give three cheers For the red, white, and blue, One, two, three, And out goes YOU."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes)
KEYWORDS: colors | cheers counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 118, "Give three cheers" (1 text)
Roud #23522
NOTES [39 words]: Roud appears to lump this verse with "Britannia the Pride of the Ocean," which often does contain a cheer for the red, white, and blue, but this appears to be an independent fragment, though possibly inspired by the longer song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DCCR118B

Give Up the World

DESCRIPTION: "The sun give a light in the heaven all round (x3), Why don't you give up the world?" "My brother, don't you give up the world? (x3) We must leave the world behind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, pp. 27-28, "Give Up the World" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11981
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Give Up the World and Come On, Sun Going Down" (theme)
File: AWG027B

Give Up the World and Come On, Sun Going Down

DESCRIPTION: "Give up the world and come on, Sun going down (x4)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (USSeaIsland03)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Minnie Gracie Gadson, "Give Up de Word and Come On (Sun Going Down)" (on USSeaIsland03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Give Up the World" (theme)
File: RcGUWCOS

Give Us a Flag

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Fremont he told them when the war it first begun How to save the Union and the way it should be done, But... Old Abe he had his fears Till ev'ry hope was lost but the colored volunteers." The war went badly until Black troops were used
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Moore, Songs of the Soldiers, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar Black(s) battle soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 293-295, "Give Us a Flag" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 64-65, "Give Us a Flag" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11631
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hoist Up the Flag" (tune, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
NOTES [799 words]: The Union first began enlisting black troops (informally) in 1862. By the end of that year, four regiments were raised, only to have Lincoln shut them down. After the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, however, Lincoln allowed the formation of (segregated) "colored" regiments.
In the end, over a hundred and fifty such regiments were raised. Their performance was mixed -- but this was probably the fault of the (white) officers rather than the black troops. A large fraction of the officers in the "colored" regiments were soldiers who had given up on promotion in the white army, and shifted to the "Colored" troops to get ahead. These officers were far from the best the Union had to offer.
The "colored" troops had other reasons for bad morale; their pay was much lower than their white counterparts, and their equipment less good. And soldiers from both sides looked down on them.
Among the references in this song are:
"Frémont he told them when the war was just begun" -- General John C. Frémont was the first theatre commander west of the Mississippi. He was a bad general but a good Free Soiler (in 1861, in Missouri, he had tried to free the slaves of those who opposed the government; Boatner, p. 315), and proposed the raising of Black regiments.
"McClellan went to Richmond with two hundred thousand brave" -- refers to McClellan's Peninsular Campaign of 1862. McClellan was a conservative Democrat, and did not want the war to interfere with slavery. The song exaggerates his forces (he had about 120,000 men in the Peninsula), but correctly notes that his campaign failed.
"The 54th" presumably refers to the 54th Massachusetts, perhaps the most distinguished of the "colored" regiments. It fought in the unsuccessful assault on Fort Wagner (outside Charleston; July 18, 1863), and suffered roughly 40% casualties. (For the whole assault, Livermore, p. 104, estimates Union casualties at 21.4%, but the 54th was the leader and suffered more).
According to Fox, p. 423, says, "In the attack on Fort Wagner, this regiment was given the honor of leading the assault, and, when the division was drawn up on the beach at nightfall preparatory to the attack, the order to advance was delayed until the Fifty-fourth marched by and took its place at the head of the column It charged under fire over a long distance of sandy plain, reaching the ditch, where many of the men climbed the parapet and entered the outer works; but the fort proved impregnable, and a bloody repulse ensued, the regiment losing 34 killed, 146 wounded, and 92 captured or missing." And that was in just one assault; in the entire Fort Wagner campaign, they suffered 58 killed, with other losses in proportion. And Robert Shaw, the colonel who raised the regiment, was killed there.
Fox lists other indignities they suffered. They also served at the Battle of Olustee, one of the worst botches of the entire war (for background, see the notes to "I Can Whip the Scoundrel") -- and were effectively abandoned on the field when the Federals retreated, though they managed to make their way out with some loss (Nulty, pp. 164-169).
A Black sergeant was promoted for gallantry at Olustee; the Federal government refused to honor the promotion (Fox, p. 423).
Truly they were the victims of the government they served so loyally. Only once, belatedly, were they given proper recognition: Federal rules originally paid "colored" troops just $7 a month, compared to $13 for a white private. The men of the 54th regularly refused this payment, demanding white man's pay. On September 28, 1864, a year and a half after the regiment was raised, the Federal government finally did the right thing and paid them in full for the entire period of their service.
The phrase "Give Us a Flag" is a request for a regimental standard. All ordinary regiments had flags, which were proudly carried and zealously defended from enemy attack; to give the Black troops a flag would be to treat them more like proper soldiers.
For another song about Black troops, see "Marching Song of the First Arkansas."
There are many books about Black soldiers in the Civil War, a few of which include Ray Anthony Shepard, Now or Never!: Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Infantry's War to End Slavery; James M. McPherson, The Negro's Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted During the War for the Union; Dudley Taylor Cornish, The Sable Arm: Black Troops in the Union Army, 1861-1865; Joseph T. Glatthaar, Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers; Noah Andre Trudeau, Like Men of War; George Washington Williams, A History of the Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865; and James Henry Gooding, On the Altar of Freedom: A Black Soldier's Civil War Letters from the Front. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: SCW064

Give Us a Song

DESCRIPTION: "'Give us a song,' the soldier cried, the outer trenches guarding." On the eve of an attack against the Russian forts the soldiers sing 'Annie Laurie' and think about Irish Norah or English Mary. The soldier is killed by mortar fire.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: love battle death music Russia
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 108, "Give Us a Song" (1 text)
Roud #5786
NOTES [91 words]: Greig/Duncan1: "The song seems most likely to refer to the unsuccessful assault of 18 June 1855 but it could apply to the attack later that year on 8 September immediately before the Russians abandoned Sebastopol." - BS
I would hesitate to attribute it to any particular event; there were so many small clashes in the siege of Sebastopol that the "candidate" attacks must number in the dozens. But it is patently a Crimean War song: Even if you ignore the mentions of the Russians, the description of fortifications and mortars assures that. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1108

Glad Tidings Good People

DESCRIPTION: "Glad tidings good people, we are here for to tell, This morning in Bethlehem lies a baby just born." It is Jesus. Think about his life. "Sympathize with Mary, his mother so mild." Spread the news; "we found our savior on this Christmas day"
AUTHOR: Words: Harrison Bryant (source: Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport)
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport)
KEYWORDS: religious baby Jesus
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, p. 112, "Glad Tidings" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Virgin Most Pure" (tune)
File: CoxN112

Gladys Kincaid (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Little Gladys Kincaid" is talking with a friend. Her brother finds her body, and instantly concludes that Brodus Miller killed her. A reward is offered. The community is outraged that a "Negro beast" could do such a thing causes him to be hunted down
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Henry, collected from Hazel Winters)
KEYWORDS: abduction rape homicide death punishment
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 57-58, "Gladys Kincaid" (1 text)
NOTES [186 words]: To tell this song from Gladys Kincaid (II), consider this opening stanza:
Little Gladys Kincaird,
A girl we all knew well,
She started back to her home
To where her mother dwell
And on on her way she met a girl
And stopped her for a talk
And while they was a-standing there
Up Brodus Miller walked.
It sounds to me as if this version is based on "The Knoxville Girl" or something like it. Henry's version -- the only one extant -- seems to have lost at least one crucial verse describing her abduction, and presumably her rape. The racism of the text is palpable; in the song, it appears that the only evidence against Brodus Miller was that he was Black.
Although this murder inspired two ballads (this one and one in Brown, neither widespread), the editors of Brown were unable to determine anything about the story behind the ballad.
A correspondent who signs herself "Amanda" tells me the murder took place in Morganton, North Carolina. Her grandmother apparently knew Gladys Kincaid, and sang one of the songs (probably Gladys Kincaid II).
This is item dF41 in Laws's Appendix II (Gladys Kinkaid II is dF42). - RBW
File: MHAp057

Gladys Kincaid (II)

DESCRIPTION: Gladys is on her way gome from work in the hosiery mill when "the negro... did this awful deed Too horrible to tell" (i.e. rape and murder). Miller, the alleged perpetrator, is hunted down and shot; his body is displayed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: abduction rape homicide death punishment
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 297, "Gladys Kincaid" (1 text)
ST BrII297 (Full)
Roud #4114
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gladys Kincaid (I)" (subject)
NOTES [106 words]: To tell this song from Gladys Kincaid (I), consider this opening stanza:
Come all of you good people
And listen if you will
Of the fate of Gladys Kincaid
Who worked in the hosiery mill.
Although this murder inspired two ballads (this one and one in Henry, neither widespread), the editors of Brown were unable to determine anything about the story behind the ballad.
A correspondent who signs herself "Amanda" tells me the murder took place in Morganton, North Carolina. Her grandmother apparently knew Gladys Kincaid, and sang one of the songs (probably this one).
This is item dF42 in Laws's Appendix II (Gladys Kinkaid I is dF41). - RBW
File: BrII297

Gladys, Gladys, Come Out Tonight

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Gladys, Gladys, come out tonight, The moon is shining bright."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | moon
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #151, "Gladys, Gladys" (1 short ext)
Roud #22195
File: AJRR151

Glasgerion [Child 67]

DESCRIPTION: The king's daughter declares her love for Glasgerion and invites him to her bed. He tells his servant of the tryst. The boy sneaks in in his stead. When the lady learns this, she kills herself. Glasgerion kills the lad, (then himself)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy Folio)
KEYWORDS: nightvisit love sex betrayal death suicide homicide trick
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland,Wales)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Child 67, "Glasgerion" (3 texts)
Bronson 67, "Glenkindie" (1 version)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 246-252, "Glasgerion" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 45-49, "Glasgerion" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 222-229, "Glasgerion" (2 texts plus one "analogy")
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 40, "Glasgerion" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 71, "Glasgerion" (1 text, 1 fragment)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 216-218, "Glenkindie" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 41, "Glasgerion" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 340-342, "Glasgerion" (1 text, printed in the notes to "Lord Randal")
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 16, "Glasgerion" (1 text)
DT 67, GLENKIND
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 94
Roud #145
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Jack Orion" (on Lloyd2, Lloyd3, ESFB2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor)" [Laws K40] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jack O'Ryan
Jack Orion
Jack O'Rion
Glenkindie
NOTES [628 words]: "Glasgerion" was famous enough to be mentioned in line 1208 of Chaucer's "House of Fame" in the context of Orpheus and other great musicians:
There herde I pleyen on an harpe
That sowned bothe wel and sharpe,
Orpheus ful craftely,
And on his syde, faste by,
Sat the harper Orion, [=Arion]
And Eacides Chiron, [i.e. the centaur Chiron]
And other harpers many oon,
And the Bret Glascurion;
[Lines 1201-1208 as given in Chaucer/Benson. The text as given on p. 85 of Chaucer/Havely is almost the same, apart from spelling variants, except that it reads "And on the syde" for "And on his syde" in line 1204. There are five sources for the "House of Fame," three manuscripts (F, B, P, of which F is the earliest and best) and two early printings, by Caxton (Cx) and Thynne (Th). In the key liine 1208, there are three variants. One, "As" for "And," is pretty definitely an error in the manuscript (P) which has it. "Bret" is the reading of B; F has the obvious error "Gret"; P has something like "Bretur," but corrected it; Cx Th read "Bryton." "Glascurion" is the spelling of F B; P Cx Th read "Glaskyrion." Despite all these differences, the essential meaning seems secure.]
"Glasgerion" is widely stated to be an anglicisation of "Glas Keraint," a legendary Welsh harper said to be able to harp "a fish out o' saut water Or water out o' a stane." Chaucer/Benson, p. 986, says there is a legend that he was a bard to Alfred the Great of England.
Glas Keraint is often stated to have been historical (though Chaucer/Benson, p. 986, notes that there are no truly contemporary mentions), in that there are chronicle mentions of him, but the stories are not very circumstantial. In fact, I couldn't find out anything about him except the Chaucer references. But no one knows how Chaucer heard of him. And there are some who disagree with the identification of Glasgerion with Glas Keraint. Chaucer/Havely, p. 197, reports, "Breeze suggests... that the real identity of Chaucer's Glascurion is 'to be found in Gwydion ... the famous otherworld magician, craftsman, storyteller, and bard' (*Glasgwydion). Meecham-Jones... argues that Chaucer is unlikely to have had access to the texts dealing with Gwydion (Bk 4 of the Mabinogi) and proposes two possible identifications: an anonymous Welsh exile and Merlin. His third suggestion (*Glastyrion) lacks support" (as it is based on a misreading of manuscript B).
Gwydion shows up in more places than just the fourth tale of the Mabinogi [i.e. the tale of Math son of Mathonwy]. Bromwich, pp. 392-393, says "there are a number of allusions to Gwydion in poems belonging to Hanes Taliesin [the history/tale of Taliesin], and in the main, these characterize Gwydion in a manner similar to that in Mabinogi Math. Here Gwydion is a powerful magician, who can make horses and hounds out of toadstools, shoes out of seaweed..., a woman out of flowers, and who can produce the illusion of a sea filled with hostile vessels." This would give Chaucer more chances to read of Gwydion, but it's still hard to see how he would have heard of him in London, and if he did hear of Gwydion, it would probably be as a magician and trickster, not a musician!
Sypherd, p. 153, does have a speculation, which apparently derives from an article by Kittredge. Chaucer knew a vintner named Lewis Johan (no surprise that Chaucer knew such people, since Chaucer's father was also a vintner). Johan had a Welsh father and mother, so perhaps Chaucer learned of Glascurion from them. Or possibly from fellow poet John Clanvowe, who in the 1380s had government responsibilities in Wales. But we cannot be sure of this, and in any case, the trail goes cold there.
All agree that, whoever Glascurion was, he is the same as the Glasgerion of this ballad. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: C067

Glasgow Barber, The

DESCRIPTION: Pat from Belfast stops at a Glasgow barbershop for a Mayo haircut but is given a Scottish haircut instead. When Pat refuses to pay the barber calls two bobbies. Pat takes down bobbies and barbers with his stick. Enough of Scottish barbers and haircuts.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: fight Ireland Scotland humorous police hair
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 30, "The Glasgow Barber" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 29, pp. 71-72,116,168, "The Glasgow Barber" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2908
NOTES [82 words]: Anthony Columbanus O'Cadhla points out a clarification to the description: "it should be pointed out that 'Pat' actually hails from County Mayo in the West of Ireland -- on the Atlantic seaboard -- which the song's lyrics clearly indicate. In order to travel from Mayo to Glasgow, it is first necessary to make one's way to Belfast, a port city on the Irish sea, which lies on the east coast of Ireland. and from there take passage on a ferry to Glasgow, also a port city on the Irish sea." -(RBW)
Last updated in version 4.3
File: MorU030

Glasgow Doctor, The

DESCRIPTION: A short Glasgow doctor married a tall woman who did "scratch and tear his eyes." When she caught cold he "gave her such a dose" she died. At the feast "in honour o' her death" he choked on too much gin and was buried with his wife in one coffin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (broadside, Murray Mu23-y2:014)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage homicide funeral medicine drink party humorous husband wife doctor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1504, "The Glasgow Doctor" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #7166
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y2:014, "Glasgow Doctor," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1856
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Short Doctor
NOTES [38 words]: The type of humor is illustrated by a typical verse: "The people came baith far and near To try the doctor's skill And those he knew not how to cure He well knew how to kill." - BS
For which punch line, see also "Kill or Cure." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71504

Glasgow Fair On the Banks of Clyde

DESCRIPTION: The singer, from Ireland, meets a girl in Glasgow. She says it was well known that he was to be married in Ireland. He seduces her anyway. When she recalls his promise to marry, "I promised to meet her there again, But I forgot and cross'd the Clyde."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1853 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.26(194))
KEYWORDS: seduction promise parting Ireland Scotland
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1402, "Glasgow Fair on the Banks o' Clyde" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #7256
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(194), "Banks of the Clyde" ("When I was young and youth did bloom"), John Ross (Newcastle), 1847-1852
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(126a), "Glasgow Fair On the Banks of Clyde" ("When I was young and youth did bloom"), Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1869; also L.C.Fol.178.A.2(347), "Banks of Clyde"
File: GrD71402

Glasgow Fair, The

See The Humours of Glasgow Fair (File: GrD4887)

Glasgow Green

See Bonnie Glasgow Green (File: Ord121)

Glasgow Lassie, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets his Glasgow lassie at a fair. She rejectts his offer to go to Edinburgh because she is already engaged. He offers barns, etc. She says her love was poor but he'd work. She goes with the singer to the tavern for drink and is seduced.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(33))
KEYWORDS: seduction drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1320, "The Glasgow Lassie" (1 text)
Roud #7144
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(33), "Glasgow Lassie" ("The first time that I saw my Glasgow lassie"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824
NOTES [38 words]: The description follows Greig/Duncan7. In the Bodleian broadside the male pursuer does not convince the Glasgow Lassie to go with him and decides that "now my courtship is all in vain. I'll go quickly unto yon tavern" [alone]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71320

Glasgow Merchant, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a wealthy merchant In Glasgow town did dwell; He had a lovely shopboy And his mistress loved him well"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: husband wife servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1443, "The Glasgow Merchant" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7274
NOTES [14 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan7 fragment excluding the chorus. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71443

Glasgow Peggy [Child 228]

DESCRIPTION: A Highland man comes to Glasgow and falls in love with Peggy. Her parents declare themselves against his suit; they will guard her more than all their other property. But she chooses to go with him, and he reveals that he is a rich nobleman
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: courting disguise
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 228, "Glasgow Peggy" (7 texts, 1 tune)
Bronson 228, "Glasgow Peggy" (14 versions+1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 228, "Glasgow Peggy" (3 versions: #3, #12, #13)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #44, p. 1, "Glasgow Peggy" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 850, "Glasgow Peggy" (12 texts, 8 tunes)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 588-589, "Glasgow Peggy" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 34-35, "Glasgow Peggy" (1 text)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 160, "(Oh Sandy is a Highland lad)" (1 short text)
DT 228, GLASGPEG*
Roud #95
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Glasgow Peggy" (on SCMacCollSeeger01) {cf. Bronson's #2, taken from a different recording and with a few lyric variations but mostly the same}
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonny Lizie Baillie" [Child 227] (theme)
cf. "The Blaeberry Courtship" [Laws N19] (plot)
cf. "MacDonald of the Isles" (tune and general plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Hieland Laddie
Hielan' Lads Are Brisk and Braw
NOTES [31 words]: Roud lumps this with "MacDonald of the Isles." That there is some sort of interdependence is clear. But they seem to be distinct songs; see the notes to "MacDonald of the Isles." - (BS, RBW)
Last updated in version 4.1
File: C228

Glasgow Ships

DESCRIPTION: "Glasgow ships come sailing in On a fine summer morning." If "she" steps on board John/George will kiss her. Send butter and bread to the Captain's daughter. Her lover's dead. She turns her back, washes her face, wears a ring
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Maclagan)
KEYWORDS: ring ship food death nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,High))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #159, p. 2, "A Glasgow Ship" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1581, "Glasgow Ships Come Sailing In" (2 texts)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 29, "Glasgow Ships" (3 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Craig Maclagan, The Games and Diversions of Argyleshire (London, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 81-82, "Glasgow Ships" (1 text, 1 tune)
Robert Ford, Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories (Paisley, 1904 (2nd edition, "Digitized by Google")), pp. 81-82, "Glasgow Ships"
Roud #12971
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Saw Three Ships" (some lines, but not the tune)
cf. "Sheriffmuir" (tune, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
cf. "The Blacksmith" (one verse) and references there
NOTES [73 words]: Ford's version of the game includes the verse, familiar -- for example -- from "The Blacksmith" and "Brave Wolfe": "Braw news is come to town, Braw news is carried; Braw news is come to town, [so-and-so's] married." This is also a verse -- one of two -- for Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #173, p.98, ("Braw news is come tae toon") - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD81581

Glasgow Waves

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Glasgow waves go rolling over, Rolling over, rolling over, Glasgow waves go rolling over, Early in the morning."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Bluebells My Cockle Shells, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | Glasgow waves rolling
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Scotland))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #152, "Glasgow waves go rolling over" (1 text)
Roud #20483
File: AJRR152

Glasgow, The

DESCRIPTION: John Williams is banished from Coot-hill. "They tore me from the arms of my charming Sally Greer." His friends take him to Liverpool and pay his passage to New York on Glasgow. The mate lets the ship run aground. Twenty-five men are lost.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor emigration separation lover
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 110-111, "The Glasgow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7346
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sally Greer" (theme, plus the girl's name)
NOTES [191 words]: February 14, 1837: "... sunk after striking the Barrells .... lost her rudder and drove over the rocks.... Altogether 82 were rescued by the Alacia [under Captain Walsh] at considerable risk" (source: Bourke in Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast v1, p. 44)
Is this "Coot-hill" or Courtown? From Last Name Meanings site re "Coote: (origin: Local) Welsh ,Coed, a wood; Cor. Br., Coit and Cut. Coot-hill or Coit-hayle, the wood on the river." For more on "coot-hill" see notes for "The Champion of Coute Hill."- BS
An even more interesting question is the relationship of this song to "Sally Greer." Both are songs involving an emigrant who is aboard a wrecked ship, and both involve a girl named Sally Greer who is left behind.
On the other hand, the ship is different (Glasgow versus Monatch of Aberdeen), the motivations are slightly different, "Sally Greer" never mentions Liverpool, and this song describes a lesser disaster (in "Sally Greer," over 90% of the people on the ship are lost).
My best guess is that one is a rework of the other, with "Sally Greer" perhaps slightly more likely to be the original, since it's more widespread. - RBW
File: Ran110

Glashen-Glora

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the mountain stream and thinks of happier days. Wherever he travels he will think about this stream. "Thy course and mine alike have been Both restless, rocky, seldom green"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (_Cork Constitution_, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: lyric river
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 189-191, "Glashen-Glora" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859 (reprint of 1855 London edition)), Vol I, pp. 51-52, "Glashen-Glora"
NOTES [63 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "This lyric originally appeared with the signature W---.... 'Glashen-glora,' adds the author, 'is a mountain torrent, which finds its way into the Atlantic Ocean through Glengariff, in the west of this count (Cork).' The Editor may add that the name, literally translated, signifies 'the noisy green water:' glas, green; en, water; glorach, noisy." - BS
File: CrPS189

Glass Market, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's been mony a feein' [hiring] market On this side o' the Dee But the like o' the last Glass Market I never chanced to see."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #118, p. 3, ("There's been mony a feein' market") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 369, "The Glass Market" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #5912
NOTES [84 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 fragment excluding the chorus.
Greig/Duncan3: "Markethill to the north of Haugh of Glass (see map [see following note]) was 'for centuries the site of Glass market' [quoting Godsman, Glass, Aberdeenshire, The Story of a Parish]."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Haugh of Glass (369) is at coordinate (h4,v4) on that map [roughly 40 miles WNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD3369

Glass of Whisky, The

DESCRIPTION: Murrough O'Monaghan, home from the wars minus a leg, begs along a road. He wishes he had been a marine that had retired with a full pay pension. Good whisky gives him strength to face illness and weather. He wishes Merry Christmas and whisky for all.
AUTHOR: William Paulet Carey (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1793 (_The Sentimental and Masonic Magazine_, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: drink begging injury disability soldier
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 80-82, "The Glass of Whisky" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Was a Young Man in Sweet Tipperary" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
NOTES [114 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland details Carey's background, including his turn as witness for the Crown. "Considering the political apostasy of the author -- a crime seldom forgotten or forgiven in Ireland -- it is singular that any song known to have been of his writing should have become popular, which Murrough O'Monaghan's aspiration respecting a glass of whisky certainly did; and it has continued to be so to the present time -- upwards of forty years. This, however, has been accounted for to the Editor by the statement that the character of Murrough O'Monaghan was a sketch from life" of a well known character said "to have been a faithful emissary of the United Irishmen." - BS
File: CrPS080

Glaw, Keser, Ergh Ow-cul Yma

See Let Me In This Ae Nicht (File: DTaenich)

Glead, The

DESCRIPTION: A young glead is abandoned but rescued and well raised by a man. In his greed he ignores the tenth commandment, drives poor women from their farms, and tries to buy the town of Mains. The singer wishes "muckle toil and pains For a' your gread and pains"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: greed farming bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 679, "The Glead" (1 text)
Roud #6102
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Greedy Gled o' Mains" (subject?)
NOTES [70 words]: Greig/Duncan3 glossary p. xlii: "gled,glead" is translated as "kite,hawk."
"The Greedy Gled o' Mains" begins "There lives a farmer in this place His name ye nead na speire." Greig/Duncan3 says nothing to solve the mystery for that song or for "The Glead." It seems likely to me that both songs are about the same person.
Exodus 20.17: the tenth commandment is "thou shalt not covet ... anything that is thy neighbor's." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3679

Gleanntan Araglain Aobhinn (Happy Glen of Araglin)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer bids farewell, across the waves, to the Glen of Araglin. He recalls the wine and beer, baying hounds, magic music, plough-teams, horses, cattle, birds, deer, "and the beautiful fair-breasted maiden"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage farewell lyric nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 82-83, "Gleanntan Araglain Aobhinn" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [19 words]: The description is from O Canainn's translation.
OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "The Araglin is a river in County Cork." - BS
File: OCan082

Glen Alone, The

See The Wreck of the Glenaloon (File: Mack162)

Glen Gyle

See Sir Neil and Glengyle [Laws M39] (File: LM39)

Glen Isla

DESCRIPTION: "Keen blaws the wind roond the nooks o the shielin, His auld mallin promise are covered wi sna. Hoo changed fae the times since we went up Glen Isla." THe singer recalls the hard times on the journey away from Blair. She misses her mother
AUTHOR: Belle Stewart (1906-1997)
EARLIEST DATE: 2006 (Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather)
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes mother
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, p. 43, "Glen Isla" (1 text)
Roud #21436
File: StQue043

Glen Logie

See Glenlogie, or, Jean o Bethelnie [Child 238] (File: C238)

Glen O'Lee

DESCRIPTION: The exile recalls leaving Donegal. He tells of leaving his friends. He mentions all the things he can no longer do: Play the fiddle at balls, dance the jig with the girls, etc. From ten thousand miles away, he wishes peace and contentment to his old home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H672, p. 212, "Glen O'Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH672

Glen of Aherlow, The

See Patrick Sheehan [Laws J11] (File: LJ11)

Glenaloon

See The Wreck of the Glenaloon (File: Mack162)

Glenariffe

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises his home in Glenariffe, saying, "The beauty of our lovely glen is straight from God's own hand." He describes the local waterfall, the heights, the hallowed ground at Kilmore. He blesses his home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H801, pp. 164-165, "Glenariffe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13474
File: HHH801

Glenarm Bay

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a pretty girl along Glenarm Bay. He asks what she is doing. She answers, in effect, "Looking for boys. What else would I be doing up so early." He asks her if she will marry. Being assured he is serious and will be faithful, she consents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H102, p. 464, "Glenarm Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 28, "Glenarm Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3575
File: HHH102

Glencoe

See MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe) [Laws N39] (File: LN39)

Glendronach

DESCRIPTION: "O potent ally Glendronach, Thou Prince of the barley bree."
AUTHOR: Rev. James Simmie (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #62, pp. 2-3, ("O potent ally Glendronach") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 570, "Glendronach" (1 fragment)
Roud #5896
NOTES [83 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3/Greig fragment.
Greig: The correspondent says this is written by Rv James Simmie, "minister of Rothiemay in the early part of last century, composed on the Glendronach Distillery. She can recall only a part of the refrain."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Glendronach (570) is at coordinate (h4-5,v6) on that map [roughly 31 miles NW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3570

Glendy Burk, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains, "I can't stay here 'cause they work too hard; I'm bound to leave this town; I'll take my duds and tote 'em on my back when the Glendy Burk comes down." He describes the "funny" boat and promises to take his girl to Louisiana
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: ship work hardtimes travel
FOUND IN: US(MW) Australia
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 109-110, "When the New York Boat Comes Down" (1 text, 1 tune -- a heavily localized version sung to the tune of "Year of Jubilo"; also fragments of another version)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 62, "The Selkirk" (1 fragment, 1 tune, clearly this although the boat's name is changed to the "Selkirk")
Saunders/Root-MusicOfStephenCFoster-Vol2, pp. 93-96+427, "The Glendy Burk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 19-20, "The Glendy Burk" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #7/72, p. 8 and #7/64, p. 8, "The Glendy Burk" (1 text)
DT, GLNDYBRK*
ST MA109 (Full)
Roud #29373
NOTES [542 words]: This song, for some reason, seems to have done particularly well in Australia, with several localized versions ("The New York Boat," "The Bundaberg") known. These versions on their faces often bear little resemblance to Foster's song -- but in almost all cases (as the titles show), the errors are simple errors of hearing. In the case of Rickaby's "The Selkirk," it is clear that the song was deliberately rewritten, but Rickaby had only one verse and a chorus, and the only change in those eight lines is the name of the boat; unless a version shows up with a full text, I'm going to continue lumping it here.
It's also worth noting that the tune I learned for this song (from Debby McClatchy) is not the same as Foster's sheet music. Thus this text has acquired at least two new tunes over the years. Highly unusual, given that Foster is credited with more tunes than texts, and that very many of his texts are in fact quite poor.
I have to suspect, in fact, that this song sat on a shelf somewhere for several years. Note that Saunders/Root firmly date the sheet music to 1860. And yet, there was a real ship, the Glendy Burke which went into service on the Ohio and the lower Mississippi in 1851 (according to scattered Internet sources). But Berman, p. 245, says that this Glendy Burke was snagged and sunk at Cairo, Illinois in 1855. I find no record of a replacement built in the period after that. The logical conclusion -- though it is obviously not certain -- is that Foster wrote this song prior to the boat's sinking, or at least five years before the song was published.
According to Emerson, p. 255, "The steamboat Glendy Burke (never a sure speller, Foster dropped the "e") had been built in Jefferson, Indiana, in 1851, and named for a New Orleans banker, merchant, and legislator, Glenn D. Burke, with whom Morrison Foster had done business back in 1843.... [T]he Glendy Burke was no longer even afloat. In 1855, the 435-ton side wheel packet hit a snag and broke up near Cairo. Its wreckage damaged other vessels for decades. Foster's 'mighty fast boat' was nothing but a navigational hazard."
This probably needs a minor correction. Steven S. Lohmeyer points out to me that Jefferson, Indiana is not on a river (and probably is too small to have supported a major boat-builder anyway); the reference should be to "Jeffersonville, Indiana," home of the Howard Steamboat Yard, which *is* on the Ohio River, across from Louisville, Kentucky.
Morneweck, pp. 273, has more information on this topic, some of it perhaps from her father, none other than Morrison Foster, Stephen's older brother:
"Morrison was traveling regularly on the river now [1843]. His next trip in 1843 was to New Orleans in November, and straight back again; he arrived home on the steamboat Allegheny on December 10. This winter journey resulted in a $14,400 order placed with Burke, Watt and Company, commission merchants of Carondelet Street, whose chief officer was the notable Glendy Burke. The famous steamboat, later immortalized in song by Stephen, named for Glendy Burke, was not launched, however, until 1851. Her first captain was J. M. White. Morrison's impression was that Mr. Burke's name originally was Glen D. Burke, not Glendy...." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: MA109

Glendy Burke, The

See The Glendy Burk (File: MA109)

Glenelly

DESCRIPTION: "There is no other spot in the land of the Gael Where my young heart the full strains of pleasure could feel." The singer recalls his poor but happy home, his friends, his dreams. He prays that he may return to Glenelly before he dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home rambling
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H720, p. 165, "Glenelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13475
File: HHH720

Glenkindie

See Glasgerion [Child 67] (File: C067)

Glenlogie, or, Jean o Bethelnie [Child 238]

DESCRIPTION: Jean o Bethelnie is enraptured with handsome Glenlogie; he wants someone richer. Jean takes to her bed; her father's chaplain appeals to Glenlogie. Glenlogie changes his mind and marries Jean
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1768 (Percy collection)
KEYWORDS: love rejection marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Child 238, "Glenlogie, or, Jean o Bethelnie" (9 texts)
Bronson 238, "Glenlogie, or, Jean o Bethelnie" (21 versions+1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 238, "Glenlgie, or, Jean o Bethelnie" (1 version: #10)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 305-306, "Glenlogie" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 46-49, "Glenlogie/There war Aucht an' forty nobles" (2 texts)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 144-145, "Glenlogie" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 412-415, "Bonnie Jean o' Bethelnie" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #58, pp. 1-2, "Glenlogie or Jean o' Bethelnie"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 21, ("Bethelnie, O Bethelnie") (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan5 973, "Glenlogie" (15 texts plus two fragments on pp. 601-602, 18 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 57-58, "Glenlogie" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 85, "Glenlogie" (1 text)
DT 238, GLENLOG GLENLOG2*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 308-309, "Glenlogie"
Roud #101
RECORDINGS:
John Strachan, "Glenlogie" [fragment] (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743); "Glenlogie (Jean o' Bethelnie)" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.)" [Laws P9] (lyrics in some texts)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonnie Jeannie o Bethelnie
NOTES [124 words]: Reported to be the story of Jean Meldrum and Sir George Gordon of Glenlogie. Meldrum became a servant of Mary Stewart in 1562. Some versions of the song follow the details of the story very closely, implying either that the song is of broadside origin or that the alleged history is just that: Alleged.
(For details, see the notes in Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, which quote an article by Dr. Shearer in the Huntly Express of January 24, 1882). - RBW
Grafted onto the end of Greig/Duncan 973A and 973B is the "ye shine where ye stand" fill-in-the-name verse found in such songs as "Bonny Portmore" (see references there). In this case, "Bethelnie, O Bethelnie, Ye shine where ye stand, May the heather bells around you Shine o'er Fyvie's land." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: C238

Glenora, The

DESCRIPTION: Tom Warren is captain of Glenora out of Burgeo. This day Warren stays on shore and Glenora runs into a gale which the crew rides out. After the wind dies Warren came out in a motor boat and gives loud and obvious orders before going to sleep.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: sea ship storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 44, "The Glenora" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #31208
NOTES [63 words]: Burgeo is on the south coast of Newfoundland, about 70 miles east of Port-aux-Basques by sea. - BS
Frank Galgay and Michael McCarthy, Shipwrecks of Newfoundland and Labrador, Volume III, Creative Publishers, 1995, p. 157, mention a schooner named Glennara, Captain Jacobs, wrecked at Strawberry, Labrador in 1876. I have no idea if this is the same ship as the Glenora. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LeBe044

Glenorchy Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: "When spring spread her green velvet claes on the common, When summer wi' flow'rs decks the heather braes," even then, there is nothing "more inviting, to me more delighting" than the Glenorchy maid. The singer expects to live with her in bliss
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 135-137, "The Glenorchy Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13115
File: FVS135

Glenrannel's Plains

See Owenreagh's Banks (File: HHH100b)

Glenshesk Waterside, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls wandering along the Glenshesk water, but now he must sadly depart. He wishes he were still there, "But fate proposes I must go, in foreign lands abide." He describes all the things he won't see again
AUTHOR: P. C. J. McAuley (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration homesickness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H19a, p. 194, "The Glenshesk Waterside" (1 text, 2 tunes, one a corrected version of the other)
Roud #9510
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH019a

Glenswilly

See The Hills of Glensuili (File: TST097)

Glenwhorple Highlanders

DESCRIPTION: "There's a braw fine regiment as ilka mon should ken, They are deevis at the fechtin', they hae clured a sicht o' men." The singer boasts of the deeds of Scots going back to MacAdam, the very first man, who dwelt in Glen Eden, up to today's drinkers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier humorous drink bragging
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 64-65, "Glenwhorple Highlanders" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #29411
File: Hopk064

Glink Glonk

See Little Green Frog (File: ACSF122L)

Glittering Crowns

See The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)

Gloamin' Fa'

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks her husband to sit by her on their fiftieth wedding anniversary. She recalls their life together. Their children now are grown, except one "oor Father didna spare ... Thank God the others hae been right." She hopes they'll die together.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: age love marriage nonballad children husband wife death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 928, "Gloamin' Fa'" (1 text)
Roud #6239
File: GrD4928

Gloamin' Star at E'en, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of his hard work all day, but is happy when it's through: "But I maun haste awa' Where the tryst was set yestreen To meet my bonnie lassie Neath the gloamin' star at e'en." He blesses the star, and cares not for riches when he has her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love courting work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #82, p. 1, "The Gloamin' Star" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 880, "The Gloamin' Star" (6 texts, 8 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 66-67, "'Neath the Gloamin' Star at E'en" (1 text)
DT, GLOAMSTR
Roud #5569
NOTES [21 words]: Quite a few versions of this open with a reference to Phoebus (Apollo); I have to think it started as a broadside somewhere. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord066

Gloamin' Star, The

See The Gloamin' Star at E'en (File: Ord066)

Glorious Beer

DESCRIPTION: "I won't sing of sherbet and water, For sherbet with beer will not rhyme... I look to that great institution... Beer, beer, glorious beer, Fill yourselves right up to here; Drink a great deal of it, Make a good meal of it." It beats other "lubricants"
AUTHOR: Words: Will Godwin / Music: Steve Leggett
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (recorded by Dan W. Quinn); reportedly written 1896
KEYWORDS: drink humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 22, page headed "this item was obviously...."], "(no title)" (1 fragment)
Roud #V4214
RECORDINGS:
Dan W. Quinn, "Glorious Beer" (CYL: Columbia 5063, 1899)
File: FaWGloBe

Glorious Exertion of Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "Gallia burst her vile shackles on this glorious day, And we dare to applaud the great deed." "Columbia ... was cleared ... Chains disappeared." "'Mong our neighbors, now, Liberty dwells ... On the rock of Man's Rights she a fortress has planned."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (_Paddy's Resource_(Philadelphia), according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: America France nonballad patriotic freedom
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 14, 1789 - The Bastille is taken, marking the beginning of the French Revolution
1791-1792 - Thomas Paine publishes _The Rights of Man_
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 15, "The Glorious Exertion of Man" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Man is Free by Nature" (subject of the French Revolution)
File: Moyl015

Glorious Meeting of Dublin, The

DESCRIPTION: October 10, 1869 many thousands gather, without disturbance, "to use all legal means to set these brave men free." Butt and Moor speak. "Five hundred thousand did stand" across Ireland in support. "No separation do we want we only seek our rights"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1867 [after October 1869] (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(219))
KEYWORDS: prisoner Ireland political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 10, 1869 - Peaceful demonstration in Dublin of about 40000 people in support of amnesty for Fenian prisoners (source: _The Times_ Oct 11, 1869, pg. 5, col. D, Issue 26565. Copyright 2002 The Gale Group)
FOUND IN:
Roud #V8269
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(219), "The Glorious Meeting of Dublin Held in Cabra ," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867
NOTES [243 words]: October 2, 1869 at Youghall a petition for amnesty for Fenian prisoners held for sedition was presented by the Town Commissioners to John-Poyntz Earl Spencer, Lord Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, without response. The meeting at Dublin followed and drew up a petition to Gladstone. Mr Butt presided and other speakers included Mr Moore M.P., Rev Mr Leverett, Mr Russell and Mr O'Donnell President of the Trade Association. (sources: The Times Oct 4, 1869, pg. 9, col. C, Issue 26559. The Times Oct 11, 1869, pg. 5, col. D, Issue 26565. Copyright 2002 The Gale Group)
The following year Isaac Butt founded the Home Government Association, which was soon replaced by the more agressive Home Rule League. (source: "Home Rule" on the Irelandseye site).
January 5, 1871 - "33 Fenian prisoners, including Devoy, Rossa, O'Leary and Luby, are released by the British in a general amnesty" (source: Irish Culture and Customs site)
See "Rossa's Farewell to Erin" for another example about the Amnesty Movement; Rossa is one of the prisoners mentioned in the Bodleian broadside and freed January 5, 1871. Others are General Thomas F Burke (as "Burk"; see "Thomas F Burke" in Speeches from the Dock, Part I at the FullBooks site [also
Burke's Dream" [Laws J16] - RBW]), McSweeney (who also appears in Brereton's broadside "Exile's Return" in Hugh Anderson, Farewell to Judges & Juries, pp. 396-397) and a difficult to read name beginning "O'Ne." - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BrdTGMoD

Glorious Repeal Meeting Held at Tara Hill

DESCRIPTION: Dan and Steele at the Tara meeting say they won't yield without repeal of the Union. "God bless our Queen ... But in spite of all the tory clan We will repeal the Union." "In spite of Wellington and Peel We'll gain our liberation"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Ireland freedom royalty political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 15, 1843 - Repeal meeting at Tara (source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 50A, "Glorious Repeal Meeting Held at Tara Hill" (1 text)
Roud #V4968
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Meeting of Tara" (subject)
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
NOTES [303 words]: Daniel O'Connell founded National Association of Ireland for full and prompt Justice and Repeal April 1840 (In January the Association was renamed the Loyal National Repeal Association). O'Connell argued that the Union Act of 1801 was invalid. In October Young Ireland established The Nation which supported Repeal. In 1843 O'Connell spoke to "monster" meetings attended by 100,000 or more supporters in favor of Repeal. The June meeting at Mallow was followed in August by the meeting at Tara and, in September, by a meeting at Mullaghmast. Finally, on October 7 [my sources all say October 4 - RBW], the government prohibited the meeting scheduled at Clontarf the following day. O'Connell issued a notice that the meeting was "abandoned." That ended the Repeal meetings. (source: The Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco) site entry for Daniel O'Connell; O'Connell's notice for the Clontarff meeting can be read at 1169 and Counting site)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 50: "Thomas Steele, although a protestant landlord, was one of O'Connell's lieutenants."
The commentary for broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(065) states "The meeting at Tara, Co. Meath in the summer of 1843, is now estimated to have been attended by 750,000 people." - BS
A number which should inspire some skepticism -- 750,000 people was a tenth of the population of Ireland! Robert Kee (p. 208 of The Most Distressful Country, which is volume I of The Green Flag) mentions this estimate, but notes that it was from The Nation, which was pro-Irish. O'Connell's estimate was an even more absurd million and a half. A more realistic estimate is a quarter of a million (from Cecil Woodham-Smith, The Great Hunger, p. 11).
For additional information on the context, and the failure of Repeal, see the notes on "The Meeting of Tara." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Zimm050A

Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken

DESCRIPTION: "Glorious thing of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God. He whose word cannot be broken, Formed thee for his own abode." Hearers are reminded that God is an unshakable foundation. the source of living water, seen in cloud and fire
AUTHOR: Words; John Newton (1725-1807) / Music: Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
EARLIEST DATE: 1779 (see Notes)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p, 51, "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken" (1 text, 1 tune)
Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 50-51, "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7112
NOTES [307 words]: For background on John Newton, see the notes to "Amazing Grace." Morgan, p. 51, observes that Haydn's tune for this came to be used first at the Austrian and then as the German national anthem.
John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 427, has much to say of this text:
[First] pub[lished] in the Olney Hymns, 1779, B[oo]k i., No. 60, in 5 st[anzas] of 8 l[ines], and entitled, "Zion, or the City of God," Isa. xxxiii.20, 21. It has attained great popularity in all English-speaking countries, and ranks with the first hymns in the language. It is used, however, in various forms as follows:--
[I summarize the next section: 1. The original text. 2. An 1819 version based on stanzas i, ii, and v. 3. An 1852 version, rarely used, derived from stanzas i, iii, v. 4. An 1853 version based on stanzas i and ii, with an added doxology not by Newton; 5. A minor version rewritten in four line stanzas with the doxology of #4 and a new verse by I. G. Smith, producer of the whole mess; 6. A rewrite by J. Keble which used the doxology of #4 plus new words by Keble. 7. A version consisting of stanzas i, ii, iv, v. 8. A version consisting of stanzas i-iv with slight alteration.]
In the American collections the same diversity of use prevails as in G[reat] Britain. Sometimes the hymn is broken into two parts, with p[ar]t ii beginning, "Blest inhabitants of Zion." ... Stanzas i., ii., v., have been rendered into Latin by the Rev. R. Bingham, and included in his Hymno. Christ. Latina, 1871, "Dicta de te sunt miranda."
According to LindaJo H. McKim, Presbyterian Hymnal Companion, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, pp. 286, 447, Haydn's tune is known as "Austrian Hymn" because it was written for the Habsburg (Austrian) Emperor's birthday in 1797. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: BdGTOTAS

Glorious Wedding, A

DESCRIPTION: "I will sing you a song of a comical style... It's all about a wedding, a glorious affair; As I was the bridegroom, I happened to be there." The singer reports all the wild events at the wedding, and all the peculiar guests who were present
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: marriage humorous wedding drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 182, "A Glorious Wedding" (1 text)
ST JHCox182 (Full)
Roud #5158
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blythesome Bridal" (theme)
NOTES [36 words]: This seems to be sort of an American version of "The Blythesome Bridal" -- not the same song, but the same idea, of a wild party. The wedding is not really part of the plot; it's just the occasion for the party. - RBW
File: JHCox182

Glorious! Victorious!

DESCRIPTION: "Glorious! Victorious! (Half) a (case of beer/bottle of gin) between the four of us. Thank the Lord there are no more of us." (Cause we could drink it all alone.) "Oh they had to carry ... to the ferry... 'cause the couldn't carry any more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: drink
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 67, "(Glorious!)" (1 short text)
Roud #26338
File: PKKB067B

Glory and Love to the Men of Old (Soldier's Chorus from Faust)

DESCRIPTION: "Glory and love to the men of old, Their sons may copy their virtues bold, Courage at heart and a sword at hand, Ready to fight and die for the Fatherland."
AUTHOR: music: Charles Gounud (1818-1893)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: patriotic children battle
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 153-154, "Glory and Love to the Men of Old" (1 text)
Roud #25543
File: KSUC153D

Glory Hallelujah!

See John Brown's Body (File: Doe072b)

Glory Land

See Over In the Glory Land (File: RcOitGlL)

Glory Road, De

DESCRIPTION: "I lay on mah bed untell one erclock, An' de Lord come callin' all his faithful flock. An' He call 'Whoo-ee!,' an' He call 'Whoo-ee!" The hearer is told to hurry up and get to heaven. "Ode glory road... I'm gwine ter drap mah load upon de Glory Road. "
AUTHOR: Words: Clement Wood / Music: Jacques Wolfe)
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (sheet music, "Three Negro Poems by Clement Wood," with settings by Jacques Wolfe)
KEYWORDS: religious travel home
FOUND IN: US(NE)
RECORDINGS:
Patricia Campbell, "De Glory Road" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #230, recorded 09/05/2022)
NOTES [51 words]: This is incredibly racist; I find it hard to believe that a northern informant would even admit to knowing such a thing. Patricia Campbell's version has had the dialect cleaned up, and she doesn't get to the part where God talks to the "N...." -- but it still makes me feel unclean to include this thing. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: PDio230

Glory to His Name

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Glory to his name (2x), There to my heart was the blood applied, Glory to His name." Verses: At the cross the singer was cleansed from sin by Jesus's blood. The singer is glad to have entered "the fountain that saves from sin"
AUTHOR: WORDS: E. A. Hoffman /MUSIC: J. H. Stockton (source: Date)
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Date)
KEYWORDS: ritual religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Henry Date, Pentecostal Hymns Nos. 1 and 2 Combined (Chicago: Hope Publishing Company, 1898 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #41 p. 41, "Glory to His Name" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Glory to His Name" (on MJHurt05)
NOTES [10 words]: The last line of the four-line verse is "Glory be His name." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: RcGlTHNa

Glory to Thee My God This Night

DESCRIPTION: The singer wishes to be kept beneath the wings of the King of Kings. He asks forgiveness for the "ills I have done" "for Thy dear son" and hopes to sleep in peace, not fear death, and "rise glorious at the Judgment Day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Ira D. Sankey, _Sacred Songs and Solos: Twelve Hundred Hymns_ (London: Marshall Morgan & Scott Ltd, 1921? ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #301, ("Glory to Thee my God this night") (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Henry Williams, Henry Thomas, Margaret Wright, Edna Wright, "On My Own (My Soul Has Found Abiding Rest)" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [95 words]: WITrinidadVillage02 liner notes title of "My Soul Has Found Abiding Rest" does not seem connected to this song. "My soul has found abiding rest" is the first line of "Abiding Rest" in Zion's Praises (Lamoni: Herald Publishing House, 1903 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #92.
This is a Sankey hymn, and the writers of the WITrinidadVillage02 liner notes characterize this track as "Sankey into Shout." The WITrinidadVillage02 track begins with the last line of the first Sankey verse, continues with the second verse, and then sounds the tune out without words. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcGTMGTN

Glory Trail, The (High Chin Bob)

DESCRIPTION: 'Way high up the Mogollons... A lion cleaned a yearlin's bones." High-Chin Bob, who wants to ride the "glory trail," ropes the lion. But the lion is healthy, and keeps fighting. Even today, Bob's ghost(?) and the lion continue their struggle
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Badger Clark
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Clark, Sun and Saddle Leather, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: cowboy talltale fight animal
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 124, "The Glory Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 81-83, "HIgh-Chin Bob" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 49, "High Chin Bob" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 148-151, "High Chin Bob" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 48-50, "The Glory Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 360-361, "High Chin Bob" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, p. 155-157, "The Glory Trail" (1 text)
DT, HIGHCHIN*
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 126-136, "Badger Clark, Poet of Yesterday's West" (1 text plus discussion and a short biography of Clark)
Roud #12499
RECORDINGS:
Glenn Ohrlin, "High Chin Bob" (on Ohrlin01)
NOTES [22 words]: Charles Badger Clark's original title for this is "The Glory Trail," although "High Chin Bob" seems to be more common in tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: FCW124

Glory When the Mornin' Come

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Glory day when the morning come, Glory day." Each line names a spiritual journey (Judah, Jordan, Zion, Galilee), function (shouting or marching, and baptism, mourning, singing) or spiritual baptist role (bishop and parson, acolyte, all people)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: mourning ritual music nonballad religious clergy
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Ebenezer Philip, "Glory When the Mornin' Come" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [6 words]: This is a Spiritual Baptist hymn. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcGWTMCo

Glory, Glory Hallelujah

See Since I Laid My Burden Down (File: ADR70)

Glory, Glory, Hallelujah

See John Brown's Body (File: Doe072b)

Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, Teacher Hit Me with a Ruler

See Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Burning of the School (File: PHCFS100)

Glory, Glory, How Peculiar

DESCRIPTION: Various silly verses to the "John Brown" tune, e.g. "One slick snake slid up the stake, the other slick snake slid down." Or, "Mine eyes have seen.. He is wearing pink pajamas." Chorus: "Glory, glory, how peculiar (x3)," with the last line from the verse
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook)
KEYWORDS: humorous wordplay derivative
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 106, "Glory, Glory, How Peculiar" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 130, "([One] Blue beetle was bleeding blood)" (notes only)
DT, GLORYPEC*
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "How Peculiar" (Piotr-Archive #379, recorded 12/07/2022)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
One Slick Snake
File: DPio379

Gloucester Boys Are Going Away, The

See The Sailors They Are Going Away (File: Tawn112)

Gloucestershire Wassailers' Song

DESCRIPTION: "Wassail! wassail! all over the town, Our (pledge/toast) it is white, our ale it is brown." Health to the master's (animal's) body parts that he be sent a good present. Butler, "bring us a bowl of the best" else "down fall butler, and bowl and all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1822 (_Time's Telescope for 1814_)
KEYWORDS: request drink nonballad wassail animal horse sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 116-117, "Thames Head Wassailers' Song" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO WT 367, "Cricklade Wassailers' Song"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 367, "Thames Head Wassailers' Song")
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 755.2, "Thames Head Wassailers' Song" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #51, "Wassail Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #18, pp. 199-200, "Gloucestershire Wassailers' Song" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 403-404, "Gloucestershire Wassailers' Song" (2 text)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, 55. 251-253, ""Wassail, Wassail, all over the Town" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Time's Telescope for 1814 (London, 1822 (3rd edition, "Digitized by Google")), p. 3, ("Wassail! wassail! all over the town") (1 text)
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #92, "Wassail, Wassail, All Over the Town [The Gloucester Wassail]" (1 composite text)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 23-25, "(no title)" (3 short texts, which could be souling or wassailing songs or something else)
Roud #209
RECORDINGS:
Billy Buckingham, "The Waysailing Bowl" (on Voice16)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Somerset Wassail" (subject, one verse) and references there
NOTES [373 words]: The opening verse seems common to "Somerset Wassail" and "Gloucestershire Wassailers' Song." The rest of the text seems distinct enough to warrant splitting the two.
The Billy Buckingham version on Voice16 includes verses of which this is a typical example:
Now here's a health to my master and to his right eye.
Pray God send our master a good Xmas pies,
And a good Xmas pie that we may all see.
To my wassailing bowl I'll bring unto thee.
The "right eye" is replaced by "right ear," "right arm," "right hip" and "right leg" with gifts of "happy New Year," "good crop of corn," "good flock of sheep" and "a good fatted pig."
Dixon's "Gloucestershire Wassailers' Song" ("Wassail! wassail! all over the town"), which was copied by Bell, is like Buckingham's except that the body parts belong to named animals rather than "master." For example, "Here's to our mare, and to her right eye, God send our mistress a good Christmas pie." Bell's footnote 46: "the name of the horse is generally inserted by the singer [for 'our mare']; and 'Filpail' is often substituted for 'the cow' in a subsequent verse." (source: Robert Bell, editor, [The Project Gutenberg EBook (1996) of] Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England (1857)).
Bell 1857, as is so often the case, takes his text from Dixon 1846 without attribution. In this case, Note 46 is Bell's own.
From Time's Telescope for 1814: "In Gloucestershire [on New Year's Eve], the wassailers still carry about a great bowl, dressed up with garlands and ribbons, and sing the following verses: ...."
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames: "I have named this the 'Thames Head Wassailer's Song' because I have not heard it except around the Thames source. It has been called 'The Gloucestershire Wassailing Song,' though it seems to have been quite as popular in North Wilts as in Gloucestershire ...."
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO "manuscript Wt 367 includes two songs, one identified as the 'Thames Head Wassailers Song', is in Williams' own hand. The second is a typescript which uses the same number but is identified as the 'Cricklade Wassail Song'. The Thames Head version lacks Verse 9 in the published edition on pages 116, 117 while the Cricklade version lacks Verse 5." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcGlWasS

Glove and the Lions, The

See The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)

Glove, The

See The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)

Glow-Worm (Gluhwurrmchen)

DESCRIPTION: Obnoxious little piece beginning, in English, "Glow little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer." The rest is equally pointless.
AUTHOR: Music: Paul Linke (German words by Bolten-Backers; English words by Lill Cayley Rpbinson, according to Gardner)
EARLIEST DATE: 1902
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad bug
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 246, "Glow-Worm"
SAME TUNE:
Down by the Seashore (I) (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 149)
Down by the Seashore (II) (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 149)
Grow Little Boobies (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 149)
We Are the Girls from Concordia College (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 150)
We Are the Smurthwaite Kewpie Dolls (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 150)
Glow Li'l Glow-Worm (DT, GLOWRM2)
I Wish I Was a Fascinating Lady (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 168)
Roam, Joyous Gypsies (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 168, 333)
NOTES [105 words]: Emphatically not a folk-song, but the number of parodies caused me to list it here.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 280, estimates that this was the second most popular song in America in 1908, peaking at #1 in May 1908 (#1 for the year being Will D. Cobb and Gus Edwards' "Sunbonnet Sue").
Grdner adds that it was feature in a 1907 play "The Girl Behind the Counter," that it returned to the charts in 1910 (peaking at #16 in pril 1910, according to p. 289), and that a version with revised lyrics was a hit in 1952. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: xxGluhw

Glowerowerum

See Bonnie Buchairn (File: KinBB20)

Glub, Glub, Glub Your Boat

DESCRIPTION: "Glub, glub, glub your boat, Underneath the stream, Ha, ha, fooled you; I'm a submarine!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook)
KEYWORDS: technology nonballad river campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 213, "Glub, Glub, Glub Your Boat" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 436, "Glub Your Boat" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" (tune)
File: ACSF436G

Glug, Glug, Glug

DESCRIPTION: "Anchors away, my boys, Anchors away... glug, glug, glug"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: navy ship disaster derivative
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 112, "Glug, Glug, Glug" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Anchors Aweigh" (tune)
File: ZiZa112D

Go 'Long Mule

See Whoa Mule (The Kickin' Mule) (File: LoF231)

Go 'Way From Mah Window

DESCRIPTION: Woodchopping song: "Go 'way from mah window, Go 'way from mah door, Go 'way from mah bedside, Don't you tease me no mo'." "Go 'way in de springtime, Come back in de fall, Bring you back mo' money Dan we bofe can haul."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: work separation
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 439, "Go 'Way from My Window" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 377, "Go 'Way F'om Mah Window" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 198, "Go Way f'om Mah Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 91, pp. 143-144, "Go Away from My WIndow" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11017
File: San377

Go 'Way from My Window

See Go 'Way From Mah Window (File: San377)

Go A Sparking

DESCRIPTION: A man goes sparking but the girls are "mad and their heads not combed"; they can't make bread; he has to saw the meat they cook. Their father comes gunning for him. At church they wear an old lint sack and "leather bonnet with a hole in the crown"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes hair humorous nonballad father youth
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 222-223, "I Went Out A-Sparkin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 112-113, "Went Out A-Sparkin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 466, "The Old Leather Bonnet" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Fred High, "Go A Sparkin'," Max Hunter Folk Song Collection, Cat #0369 (MFH #222), accessed 6 September 2014 from http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=369
Roud #6359
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.)" (theme, structure, tune)
NOTES [63 words]: This seems, in text and form, the man's answer to "Come All You Virginia Girls." - BS
I originally filed Randolph's "Old Leather Bonnet" under "Come All You Virginia Girls" on the grounds that it might be a version of that song that had lost its first verse. But the Owens texts make it likely that this is indeed an independent song, so (at Ben's suggestion) we file it here. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: Ow2E112

Go and bring me old bad Lazarus

See Poor Lazarus (Bad Man Lazarus) [Laws I12] (File: LI12)

Go And Dig My Grave

DESCRIPTION: "Go and dig my grave both long and narrow, Make my coffin neat and strong... Two, two to my head, two, two to my feet, Two to carry me, Lord,when I die." "My soul's gonna shine lie a star... I'm bound for heaven when I die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 18, "Dig My Grave Long and Narrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 90-93, "Dig My Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 350, "Dig My Grave" (1 text)
DT, GO&DIG
Roud #15633
RECORDINGS:
Unidentified men from Andros Island, "Dig My Grave" (AAFS 502 B1, 1935; on LomaxCD1822-2)
David Pryor, Henry Lundy et al, "Dig My Grave" (AFS, 1935; on LC05)
John Roberts & group, "Dig My Grave Both Long and Narrow" (on MuBahamas2)
Pete Seeger, "Dig My Grave" (on PeteSeeger04)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Beggar Boy" (floating verses)
NOTES [60 words]: Fred W. Allsopp, in Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II, p. 159, reports an item in Harper's Magazine in 1878 with the chorus
Soul shall shine lak a star in de mornin',
Soul shall shine lak a star in de mornin';
Oh, my little soul's gwine to rise an' shine,
Oh, my little soul's gwine to rise an' shine.
Whether that is related to this I do not know. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: FSWB350B

Go and Leave Me

See Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection) (File: R755)

Go and Leave Me If You Wish To

See Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection) (File: R755)

Go Away From Me, Willie

DESCRIPTION: "Go away from me, Willie, and leave me alone, For I'm a poor stranger...." "The boys they won't have me, as I understand; They want a freeholder...." "The leaves they will wither...." ""I'll build me a castle on the mountain so high...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (collected from Charlie Hatcher by Boswell)
KEYWORDS: love rejection floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 98, pp. 151-152, "Go Away From Me, Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #54, "(O) Go Away Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #417
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pretty Saro" (lyrics)
cf. "On Top of Old Smokey" (lyrics)
cf. "The Poor Stranger (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone)" (lyrics)
NOTES [74 words]: Wolfe's version song is extremely composite, with two verses from "Pretty Saro," three from "On Top of Old Smokey" or one of its relatives, and three that are floaters. Gentry shares two of these verses in a three verse text, so I put it here. Roud tossed it one of his catchall numbers. I finally decided that it was so conflate that it needed its own number. But, no matter how you look at it, it's really a bunch of songs mashed together. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BoWo098

Go Away from My Window

See Go 'Way From Mah Window (File: San377)

Go Away Now

See Happy, Frisky Jim (File: R431)

Go Away Sister Nancy

DESCRIPTION: "Go 'way! Sister Nancy, go 'way! I don't want you to hold me. Got sugar and 'lasses in my soul, And I want brother Honeycutt to hold me!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, p. 74, "(Go Away Sister Nancy)" (1 short text; tune on p. 386)
Roud #8811
NOTES [53 words]: Reportedly the cry of an ecstatic in church. In Pentecostal sorts of denominations, shouting during a service is common, and in this denomination, it was usual for a neighbor to hold onto the shouter. Reportedly this woman wanted the handsome Brother Honeycutt to assume that duty rather than the female Sister Nancy. - RBW
File: ScSC074A

Go Away Willie

See Go Away From Me, Willie (File: BoWo098)

Go bet, penny, go bet, go!

See Sir Peny (File: MSSrPen)

Go bet, Peny, go bet, go

See Sir Peny (File: MSSrPen)

Go Bring Me Back My Blue-Eyed Boy

See The Butcher Boy [Laws P24]; also My Blue-Eyed Boy (File: LP24)

Go Down Emmanuel Road

DESCRIPTION: "Go down Emanuel Road, go for broke rock stone," "knock out" or "broke them" or "rock them" or "out come" or "count down" one by one ... eight by eight or "mash your finger" "finger mash no cry" "'member to play with a play"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory)
KEYWORDS: game nonballad worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas,Jamaica) Belize
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 98, ("Me go da Galloway road, Gal an' boy them broke rock stone") (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Olive Lewin, _Rock It Come Over The Folk Music of Jamaica_ (Jamaica: The University of West Indies Press, 2000), p. 80-81, Manuel Road (1 text, 1 tune)
Jim Morse, _Folk Songs of the Caribbean_ (New York: Bantam Books, 1958), pp. 104-106, "Manuel Ground" (1 text fragment, 1 tune) [source: Bennett Folkways recording]
Ervin Beck, "Belizean Creole Folk Songs" in _Caribbean Quarterly_, Vol. 29, No. 1 (March 1983 (made available online by JSTOR)), pp. 44-45, "Kellyman Town" (1 text, 1 tune) (recorded 1956-57)).
RECORDINGS:
Louise Bennett, "Manuel Ground" (1957, on "Childrens' Jamaican Songs and Games," Folkways FC 7250)
Blind Blake Higgs, "Go Down Emmanuel Road" (on WIHIGGS01)
Lord Composer and the Silver Seas Hotel Orchestra, "Hill and Gully Ride[sic]";"Mandeville Road" (before 1956, on Motta MRS DMS 31, before 1956, Motta LP MOTL 103, 2004, "Mento Madness, Motta's Jamaican Mento: 1951-56," V2 Music Ltd CD 63881-27201-2)
Lord Fly and Dan Williams Orchestra, "Medley of Jamaican Mento-Calypsos(Linstead Market; Hol' him Joe; Dog war a mattuse lane; Manuel Road)" (1951, on Motta MRS 02A, 2006, as "Medley: Linstead Market/Hold 'Im Joe/Doh War A Matches Lane/Emanuel Road" on "Take Me to Jamaica," Pressure Sounds CD PSCD 51)
The Gaylads, "Emanuel Road" (1965, as "Gal & Boy" on C and N Records 45rpm EP CN 111, 2002, "Ska Days," Soul Beat CD) "Gal & Boy"
NOTES [539 words]: The Gaylads version is a ska recording that is close to an abbreviated Bennett version. The third, and longest verse is "[Go down a Manuel Road, gal and boy, /Fe go bruk rock stone (gal and boy)][2x], Bruk them one by one (gal and boy)/ ... /Bruk them four by four (gal and boy) /Finger mash you no cry (gal and boy)/Member to play wid a play (gal and boy)/Finger mash you no cry (gal and boy)."
The instructions are usually (see Jekyll, Lewin and Bennett, Lord Composer) aimed at "gal and boy" but Higgs has "jolly boys" and Lord Fly has "Jolly Boy." Lewin (p. 43) has "gal" and "boy" "commonly used in the Jamaican context" of song.
Lewin, p. 80: "In 'Manuel Road', the most popular [Jamaican stone] game, six or more players kneel in a circle, each tapping a fairly large stone on the ground in time to the song. The speed thus established, the game begins in earnest. Players pass the stones to the right. If the movement coincides with the accents of the song (indicating the passing of the stones) all is well. If not, a finger can be crushed as a stone lands on it heavily."
Bennett liner notes p. 2, and Morse, pp. 105-106, give a different description of the game, without literal stones, in which "anyone who drops out is the 'mashed finger."
The title of Bennett's track is "Manuel Ground" but she sings "Go down a Manuel Road," album liner notes and Morse's transcription notwithstanding.
Jekyll has "Galloway road", "where there is a quarry."
The label on Lord Composer's 78 MRS DMS 31 has its two songs as "Jamaican digging songs." While the references I have make "Go Down Emmanuel Road" a ring game, Lewin has this to say about "Hill an' Gully": "Most Jamaicans know 'Hill an' Gully Rider' as a work song. It, however, started life as a rather athletic game played by men and boys in western Maroon towns" [Lewin, p. 82]. The label is at least partly justified, but see the following note as further justification for marking "Go Down Emmanuel Road" a worksong.
The following description of Jamaican women's work songs -- commenting specifically on "Hill an' Gully" and "Manuel Road" -- reminds me of Gaelic songs for milling wool (waulking tweed) (see, for example, the Index entries for "Oran Na Caillich," "Brughaichean Ghlinn-Braon, "Fhear a Bhata" and "O A lu, Nach Till Thu Dhomnaill"):
"Manual labour was such an all-pervading feature in the life of black Jamaicans that music from other areas of activity was borrowed to accompany it. For example, the Maroon game 'Hill an' Gully' ... is now known and used in field and on stage as a work song. Work movements and rhythms also inspired play activities, such as stone passing games. I remember women in my childhood, sitting facing piles of stones, breaking them for covering dusty or water-pocked roads. They worked rhythmically, whether singly or in groups, to let the 'music carry the work' and make it easier for them. The same rhythm was transferred to games such as 'Manuel Road'...." [Lewin, p. 101].
Ervin: "Although one Belizean informant associated 'Kellyman Town' with Kelly Street in Belize City, the word 'Kellman' probably should be regarded as a Belizean transmutation of the 'Galloway road' (site of a stone quarry) in Jekyll's version." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Jek199

Go Down Moses, Hold the Key

DESCRIPTION: "Go down Moses, Hold the key, Don't let the wind blow on the righteous." "Come a fish by the name of whale, Swallowed brother Jonah by the head and tail" "Want to go to Heaven when you die, Just stop your tongue from telling lies"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Bible
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 8, "Go Down, Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [160 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. The tag line for each couplet is "Hey! hey! my soul."
What is the key and wind about in the first verse? The wind, at least, may refer to Exodus 14:21 -- "and the Lord caused the sea top go back by a strong east wind ... and the waters were divided" - or, more likely, the Exodus song at 15, and specifically at 15:10 - "Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them [the Egyptians]: they sank as lead in the mighty waters" - in hope that the wind of judgment not be turned against the singers (citations from King James Bible). - BS
Given that the second verse mentions Jonah, one might speculate that the wind is the storm which pursued Jonah at sea and forced the sailors on his ship to throw him overboard.
Note also that the song says "whale"; the Hebrew Bible unambiguously says "fish" and never mentions a mammal (for more about this, see the notes to "God's Radiophone"). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa008

Go Down, Moses

DESCRIPTION: Moses is commissioned to free the Israelites: "Go down, Moses, Way down in Egypt's land. Tell old Pharaoh to let my people go." The firstborn of Egypt are specifically threatened; the rest is more general
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (sheet music published under title "The Song of the Contrabands 'O Let My People Go'")
KEYWORDS: religious Bible freedom escape death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 108-109, "Go Down, Moses" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 153 in the 1909 edition)
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (I), pp. 13-21, "Go Down, Moses" (1 text with variants, 1 tune with variants)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 570, "Go Down, Moses" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 570, "Go Down, Moses" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 213-215, "Go Down, Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 276-277, "Go Down, Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 26-27, "Go Down, Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 109, "Go Down, Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 42, "Go Down, Moses" (partial text)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, pp. 366-367, "The Song of the 'Contrabands.' 'O Let my people go'" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of a version rewritten by Rev. L. C. Lockwood)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 354-355, "O! Let My People Go" (1 text -- an excerpt)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 40-42, "Go Down, Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 316, "Go Down, Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 294, "Go Down Moses" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 31-34, "Go Down, Moses" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 247, "Go Down, Moses"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 51, "Go Down Moses" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, pp. 54-55, "Go Down, Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GOMOSES* GOMOSES2*
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, pp. 56-57, "Go Down, Moses" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 126 in the 1876 edition)
Roud #5434
RECORDINGS:
Marian Anderson, "Go Down Moses" (Victor 19370, 1924) (Victor 1799, 1937)
Bentley Ball, "Go Down Moses" (Columbia A3085, 1920)
Big Bethel Choir, "Go Down Moses" (Victor 20498, 1927)
Charioteers, "Go Down Moses" (Columbia 35718, 1940; rec. 1939)
Cotton Belt Quartet, "Go Down Moses" (Vocalion 1024, 1926)
Ebony Three, "Go Down Moses" (Decca 7527, 1938)
Rev. Fullbosom, "Moses Go Down into Pharoahland" (Paramount 13078, 1931 -- possibly a recorded song/sermon)
Hampton Institute Quartette, "Go Down Moses" (RCA 27472, 1941)
Harmonizing Four, "Go Down Moses" (Vee Jay 864, rec. 1958)
Roland Hayes, "Go Down Moses" (Vocalion 1073, 1927; Vocalion 21002, n.d.; Supertone S-2238, 1931)
Rev. H. B. Jackson, "Go Down Moses" (OKeh 8804, 1930; rec. 1929)
Reed Miller, "Go Down, Moses" (CYL: Edison [BA] 3574, n.d.)
Pete Seeger, "Go Down Moses" (on PeteSeeger31)
Noble Sissle & his Southland Singers, "Go Down Moses" (Pathe 20488, 1921)
Southern Sons, "Go Down Moses" (Bluebird B-8808, 1941)
Edna Thomas, "Go Down, Moses" (Columbia 1606-D, 1928)
Tuskegee Institute Singers, "Go Down Moses" (Victor 17688, 1915; rec. 1914)
Tuskegee Quartet, "Go Down Moses" (Victor 20518, 1927; rec. 1926)
University of North Carolina Club, "Go Down, Moses" (Brunswick 3161, 1926)
University Singers, "Go Down Moses" (Cameo 530, 1924)
Virginia Female [Jubilee] Singers, "Go Down Moses in Egyptland" (OKeh 4437, 1921)
Wheat Street Female Quartet, "Go Down Moses" (Columbia 14067-D, 1925)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Song of the Contrabands
NOTES [86 words]: Rev. L. C. Lockwood, described as "Chaplain of the 'Contrabands' at Fortress Munroe," [sic. -- the fort's name was Fort Monroe - RBW] collected the song, reporting that "This Song has been sung for about nine years by the Slaves of Virginia." The original has 11 verses, only a few of which seem to have made it into tradition. - PJS
Moses's specific threat against the firstborn of Egypt is made in Exodus 11:4f. and is carried out in 12:29f. The rest of this song is based loosely on the background in Exodus. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LxU109

Go Down, Ol' Hannah

See Go Down, Old Hannah (File: LoF286)

Go Down, Old Hannah

DESCRIPTION: "Go down, old Hannah, well, well, well! Don't you rise no mo'. If you rise in the mornin', Bring Judgment Day." The singer describes the dreadful conditions in the Brazos River prisons, and hopes for release in any form
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recording, unknown artists, AFS CYL-7-1)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes work worksong
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, "Go Down, Ol' Hannah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 286, "Go Down, Old Hannah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 745, "Go Down, Old Hannah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 142, "Go Down Old Hannah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 77-75, "Should A Been on the River in 1910" (1 text, 1 tune; the first verse, about driving women and men alive, is from this song or "Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos", but the remainder is a separate piece); pp. 111-118, "Go Down Old Hannah" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 71, "Old Hannah" (1 text)
DT, OLDHANN2*
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 50, "Go Down Old Hannah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6710
RECORDINGS:
James "Iron Head" Baker, Will Crosby, R. D. Allen & Mose "Clear Rock" Platt, "Go Down Old Hannah" (AFS 195 A2, 1933; on LC08) [note: the AFS reissue identified this as 196 A2; this listing comes from Dixon/Godrich/Rye] (AFS 617 A3, 685 A2, 696 A1, 717 B, all 1936)
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt, "Go Down Old Hannah" (AFS 2643 A1, 1939)
Dock Reese, "Go Down, Old Hannah" (on AschRec2)
Texas state farm prisoners, "Go Down, Old Hannah" (on NPCWork)
Unknown artists, "Go Down Old Hannah" (AFS CYL-7-1, 1933)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos"
NOTES [103 words]: The amount of common material in this song and "Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos" makes it certain they have cross-fertilized. They may be descendants of a common ancestor. But the stanzaic forms are different, so I list them separately.
The name "Hannah" refers to the sun. Jackson notes that, in some prisons, if a prisoner died or fainted in his row, he would be given no help, so the prisoners literally had to work until they dropped. On a day when it was particularly bright and hot, death in the fields was a real possibility -- hence the appeal, in some versions, "Wake up, dead man, Help me carry my row." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LoF286

Go Down, You Little Red Rising Sun

DESCRIPTION: "Uh... go down, you little red, redder than rouge rising sun, And don't you never... uh... bring day...." The singer wishes the judge who sentenced him was dead. He proclaims that he has never committed murder, robbed, or done any other crime
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (collected from Roscoe McLean)
KEYWORDS: prison punishment hardtimes work
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 360-361, "Go Down, You Little Red Rising Sun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15594
File: LoSi360

Go Easy, Mabel

DESCRIPTION: Percy dates Mabel Fitch, who thought "he was rich and didn't have to work." He begs her "If you can't go easy, Mabel, go as easy as you can." They marry; she becomes pregnant. When he learns she expects four children, he again begs for restraing
AUTHOR: Words: Ben Shields, Will D. Cobb & Ed Moran / Music: Fred Helf
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (recording, Edward Meeker)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Ribbon clerk Percy is on a date with Mabel Fitch, who thought "he was rich and didn't have to work." He hears her ordering extravagantly and pleads with her to restrain herself, asking "If you can't go easy, Mabel, go as easy as you can." She expresses astonishment at "a millionaire that's broke." They marry, and after a year she is pregnant. The doctor and nurse arrive; the nurse holds up fingers signifying the number of babies about to arrive; when she shows four fingers young Percy reacts -- "PDQ he pleaded through the keyhole in the door," "Go easy, Mabel; Mabel if you love your Percy, cease, oh goodness gracious mercy" and again, "Mabel if you can't go easy, go as easy as you can."
KEYWORDS: courting marriage food humorous pregnancy childbirth baby children husband wife
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Delmore Bros., "Go Easy Mabel" (Bluebird B-8204, 1939; on Protobilly)
Edward Meeker, "Go Easy Mabel" (CYL: Edison 10173, 1909; on Protobilly)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bill Morgan and His Gal" (theme: the date that eats and drinks unbelievable quantities) and references there
File: RcGoEaMa

Go From My Window (I)

DESCRIPTION: Characterized by the line "Go (away) from my window, my love, (go/do)." Rain or other difficulties may trouble the swain, but he usually gains admittance in the end: "Come up to my window, love... The wind nor rain shall not trouble thee again...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1611 (The Knight of the Burning Pestle); but see notes for evidence of 16th century versions
KEYWORDS: courting rejection nightvisit nightvisit
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 50, "Go From My Window" (1 text)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #41, "Come To My Window" (1 text, 1 tune, which omits the opening part telling the lover to leave)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 140-142, "Go From My Window" (4 fragments of text, 2 tunes)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 146-147, "Go From My Window" (3 fragments of text, 1 tune)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 159, "Gentle Johnnie Ogilvie the knicht o' Inverwharity" (1 fragment which may be this)
DT, GOWINDOW*
ADDITIONAL: F. W. Moorman, editor, _The Knight of the Burning Pestle: A Play Written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher_ (J.M. Dent, London, 1898 ("Digitized by Google")), "The Knight of the Burning Pestle", Act III, Sc. 5, ll. 32-36, 54-58, pp. 94-95, ("Go from my window, love go") (1 text: two verses); a 1613 edition has the song in Act IV (Beaumont/Fletcher).
M. L. Wine, editor, _Drama of the English Renaissance_, Modern Library, 1969, Act III, scene v, ll. 26-30, 46-50, pp. 352-353 ("Go from my window, love go") (1 text: two verses)
Sabine Baring-Gould, _Strange Survivals_, 3rd edition(Methuen & Co, London, 1905 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 203-206, ("Begone, begone, my Willy, my Billy")
Charles Read Baskerville, "English Songs on the Night Visit" in Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 (March 1921 ("Digitized by Google")), Art. xxvii, pp. 589-590, ["The Coal-Pit is Tomorrow"] ("The wind is in the west")
Peter Buchan, _Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland_ (W&D Laing, and J Stevenson, Edinburgh, 1828), Vol. II, pp. 221-222, 337, "The Cuckold Sailor" (1 text)
Roud #966
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drowsy Sleeper" [Laws M4]
cf. "One Night As I Lay on My Bed"
NOTES [1031 words]: This piece was obviously very popular in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries (Chappell reports eight sources from that period, though presumably most of these are the tune. Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd devote a couple of pages of notes to tracing the lyrics). The earliest dated text (partial, of course) appears to be that in Francis Beaumont's (and John Fletcher's?) c. 1608 play "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," Act III:
Go from my window, love, go;
Go from my window, my dear;
The wind and rain
Will drive you back again:
You cannot be lodged here.
This is Act III, scene v, lines 26-30 on p. 352 of Wine; in KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, which does not mark scenes, it is Act III, lines 499-503 on p. 79; KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner gives it as Act III, lines 503-507 on p. 124 and gives Chappell's tune on p. 180. For more on "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," see the notes to "Three Merry Men." - RBW
"Go From My Window (I)" is Baskerville's prime example in English of "the intrigue ballad of the night visit":
"An extension of the song on the night visit is found in a ballad of an intrigue type very widely spread among European folk. Several traditional forms collected in England and Scotland show, by reason of similar lines, a very close connection to the old comic song of the London stage. In this ballad a youth visits by agreement an old sweetheart who has married and borne a child, and the wife as she sings to the child warns the lover that her husband has unexpectedly remained at home" (Baskerville, p. 587).
This story is frequently told in the form of a cante fable. Two examples are "The Coal-Pit is Tomorrow" [the collier husband has stayed home from work and the wife has difficulty making her lover understand that "the cuckoo's in his nest And the coal-pit is tomorrow"] (Baskerville, pp. 589-590) and ("Begone, begone, my Willy, my Billy"). The lover keeps tapping at the window, refusing to understand the problem, the husband keeps asking what is causing the noise at the window, and the singer keeps hiding her answer to the lover in a lullaby to the baby until, exasperated, "she sprang out of bed, threw open the casement, and sang:- 'Begone, begone, my Willy, you silly; Begone, you fool, yet my dear. O the devil's in the man, And he can not understan' That he cannot have a lodging here" (Baring-Gould, p. 205).
Buchan tells the same story for "The Cuckold Sailor":
"Sailor's wives, in general, are not the most faithful to their husband's beds, when they are plowing the watery main.... [In this song] [t]he sailor's wife had made an appointment with her gallant to admit him unto her embraces that night, upon the usual private signal or watch-word being given, which he was to make at her window, at the time appointed; but as fate would have it, the sailor unexpectedly arrives, and to his astonishment hears a whistling at the window. He asks her the cause, when she informs him it was nothing but a bird called a cuckold, whistling, and requests him to be quiet and she would sing him a song, and begins with an address to her paramour, as given in the first verse; but he not perceiving its meaning, and her suitor continuing still at the window, the sailor questions her again and again on its meaning, but still receives evasive answers, and continues to sing to the satisfaction of all parties, the disappointed lover excepted, who was obliged, in the end, to go away dissatisfied" (Buchan, p. 337).
The Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle line "the cuckoo's in his nest" -- referring to the singer's husband -- must at one time have been "the cuckold's in his nest." The point of "cuckolding" is that cuckoos don't have nests of their own but lay their eggs to be hatched and raised in other birds' nests by the cuckolded nester. Buchan has "the cockle's in his nest." (Buchan, p. 221).
The song without the story, and without the cuckold line, appears in The Knight of the Burning Pestle.
Ebsworth quotes "another verse of the original" from John Fletcher's "Monsieur Thomas" (Ebsworth p. 200, footnote). In the context of the play Fletcher may have been adapting the song rather than repeating a traditional verse: Maid sings, "My man Thomas did me promise He would visit me this night"; Thomas sings, "I am here Love, tell me dear Love, How may I obtain thy sight"; Maid replies in song, "Come up to my window love, come, come, come, Come to my window my dear, The wind, nor the rain shall trouble thee again, But thou shalt be lodged here" (Waller, "Monsieur Thomas" Act 3, scene 3, pp. 137 l. 32-138 l. 1) [ Wikipedia dates the play to 1610-1616.]
For a 1638 stage song based on "Go From My Window" but with no cuckold see Heywood, pp. 256-257, ("Arise, arise, my Juggie, my Puggie") [a song, according to Heywood, "added by the stranger that lately acted Valerius."]. Willie calls on Juggie to let him in because "the weather is cold, it blowes, it snowes"; Juggie answers that "the weather is warme, 'twill do thee no harm ... thou canst not be lodged here"; when Willie prepares to leave Juggie relents: "the weather doth change ... thou shalt be lodged here."
Baring-Gould has a 1588 entry: "John Wolfe obtained leave to print three ballads; one was, 'Goe from my window, goe'" (Baring-Gould, p. 203). That is not the only evidence that the song was popular in the 16th century. Gilchrist makes the case that "Go From My Window" was well enough known in 1578 that it served as the basis for a "sacred parody" published in The Gude and Godlie Ballates (Gilchrist, pp. 161-164). The parody begins with the Lord saying "Quho is at my windo? quho, quho? Go from my windo, go, go! Quho callis thair, sa lyke a strangair? Go from my windo, go!" The petitioner pleads, "Lord, I am heir, ane wretchit mortall, That for thy mercy dois cry and call" (Gude&Godlie, p. 116). After rejections and further pleas, a final plea, "O gracious Lord celestiall, As thow art Lord and King eternall, Grant us grace, that we may enter all, And in at thy dure for to go," is answered, "Quho is at my windo? quho? Go from my windo, go! Cry na mair thair, lyke ane stranger, Bot in at my dure thow go" (Gude&Godlie, p. 119). - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: ChWI146

Go From My Window (II)

See One Night As I Lay On My Bed (File: VWL079)

Go Get the Ax

DESCRIPTION: "Peepin' through the knot-hole Of grandpa's wooden leg, Who'll wind the clock when I am gone? Go get the ax, There's a fly in Lizzie's ear, For a boy's best friend is his mother." The remainder of the song is equally farfetched
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: nonsense nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 332, "Go Get the Ax" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #20046
NOTES [29 words]: According to Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, this was collected from a girl who was forced to sing it to be initiated into a sorority. One hopes it was nothing worse than that. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: San332

Go Hearty

DESCRIPTION: "Go hearty, fearty, hally go lum, (An old man/fox) went out to have some fun, He got some fun and (hurt/tore) his (skin/shin), Ho hearty, fearty, hally go in."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: nonsense injury playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 90-91, "(Go hearty, fearty, hally go lum)," "(Go heerty, feerty, hally go lum)" (2 texts)
File: SuSm090C

Go In and Out the Window

DESCRIPTION: "Go in and out the window (x3) As we have done before (or: "For we have gained the day")." "Go round and round the levee..." "Go forth and face your lover..." "I kneel because I love you..." "One kiss before I leave you..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland West Indies(Jamaica) New Zealand
REFERENCES (29 citations):
Randolph 538, "Round and Round the Levee" (3 texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 76, "In and Out the Window" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore576, "In and Out the Window" (1 tune plus a text excerpt); also p. 524, "Marching Round the Levee" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 140, pp. 287-288, "Marching Round the Levee" (1 text)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 35, "Marching Round the Levee" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 136, "Susie Brown" (1 text, a mixed text which has two verses typical of "Cuckoo Waltz" or something like it and two from "Go In and Out the Window"); p. 131, "I Measure My Love to Show You" (1 text, with unusual verses but the "For we have gained the day" chorus")
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 243, (no title) (1 fragment, probably this)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 22-23, "In And Out the Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 105, "Go In and Out the Window"; pp. 209-210, "We're Marching 'Round the Levee" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 52, "We're Marching Round the Level" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 220-222, "Marching ' Round the Level" (1 text, 1 tune)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 103, "Go Round and Round the Village" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 9-10, "Go In and Out the Windows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 175, "Go Out and Meet Your Lover" (1 text)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 47-48, "Go In and Out the Windows" (1 text, 1 tune)=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 171-172, "Go In and Out the Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 216-217, "Marching 'Round the Levee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 92-93, "Marching Round the Levee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #63, "Go Round and Round the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune); #163, "Walking on the Levy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, pp. 18-19, "We're Sailing Round the Ocean (We're Marching Round the Levee)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 285-286, "Round and Round the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, p. 204, "Marching Round the Levee" (1 text)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 191-193, "We're Marchin' 'Round the Levee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 22, "Round About the Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 115-116, "All Around the Village" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 36, "(In and out the windows)" (1 text)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 6, pp. 10, 43, "Mr. Noah" (4 texts, 1 tune, all to the tune of "Go In and Out the Window"; the first text, on p. 10, has an "Old Uncle Noah" first verse and a "Go In and Out the Window" second verse but is given its own Roud number, #1405. the (A) text on p. 43, "Marry's Grandma," is a fragment that does not seem to occur elsewhere; (B) on p. 43 mixes verses about a lunatic asylum with "in and out the window" lines and is also unique; its Roud number is #1410. The final lyric on p. 43, (C), is a fairly normal "Go In and Out the WIndow" variant)
Greig/Duncan8 1615, "Out and In at the Windows" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 34, "(In and out the windows)," "(Walking round the village)," (In and out the windows)" (3 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Olive Lewin, "Rock It Come Over" - The Folk Music of Jamaica (Barbados: The University of the West Indies Press, 2000), p. 69, "In an' Out the Windah" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R538 (Full)
Roud #4320
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Go in and out the Windows" (Piotr-Archive #280, recorded 10/03/2022)
Kelly Harrell, "Cave Love Has Gained the Day" (Victor 23649, 1929; on KHarrell02)
Louise Massey & the Westerners, "Go In and Out the Window" (Vocalion 05361, 1939)
Pete Seeger, "Go In and Out the Window" (on PeteSeeger21)
SAME TUNE:
Yes! And We Can Do It! (File: BrPa035)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Go Round and Round the Valley
Round and Round the Village
Marching Round the Valley
NOTES [127 words]: Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs explains, "'Levee' here has no connection with flood control! It must mean a morning party or reception. (See Webster.) Such levees were held during the War Between the States to celebrate victories... 'For we have gained the day.'"
Maybe this explains why I've never heard the "levee" verses in the north. But the notes in Brown claim "Levee" is an error for "Valley."
Harrell's recording gained its odd name by studio incompetence. He sang the chorus as "Caze [='Cause] love has gained the day." The studio people couldn't figure out "Caze," and interpreted it as "Cave"!
It appears that the "Go In and Out the Window" title is rare in tradition. But that's the first verse of the song as I learned it in my youth, so there. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R538

Go In and Out the Windows

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

Go in the Wilderness

DESCRIPTION: "If you want to go to heaven/go in the wilderness (3x)/...and wait upon the Lord." "If you want to see Jesus..." "Lord, my feet looked new when I come out the wilderness..." [secular playparty version:] "First little lady go in the wilderness..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment); 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious playparty Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 14, "Go in the Wilderness" (1 text, 1 tune)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 24, p. 212, "Go In the Wilderness" (1 text)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 208-209, "Leanin' on de Lord (Ef You Want To See Jesus)" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 184-185 in the 1874 edition)
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 23, "Come Out the Wilderness" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John W. Work, American Negro Songs (New York: Crown Publishers, 1940 (republished by Mineola: Dover Publications, 1998)), p. 185, "Ain't I Glad I've Got Out of the Wilderness" (1 text) (1 tune)
Roud #11846
RECORDINGS:
Famous Blue Jay Singers, "I'm Leaning on the Lord" (Paramount 13119/Crown 3329, 1932; Champion 50056, c. 1935; Decca 7446, 1938; on Babylon)
Edwards' Luling Dixie Singers, "How Did You Feel When You Came Out of the Wilderness" (1999, on "Field Recordings Vol. 14 Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky (1934-c.1950)," Document DOCD-5630)
Gullah Kinfolk, "Cum Out De Weederness" (on USSeaIsland04)
James Garfield Smalls, "Pitch It Right/Go in de Wilderness" (on USSeaIsland03)
Providence Missionary Baptist Church, "How Did You Feel When You Come Out of the Wilderness" (on USMississippi01)
Selah Jubilee Singers, "How Did You Feel When You Come Out of the Wilderness" (1996, on Selah Jubilee Singers Vol. 1 (1939-1941) Document DOCD-5499)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)" (tune, structure)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Wait Upon the Lord
How Did You Feel When You Came Out of the Wilderness?
Ain't I Glad I Got Out of the Wilderness
NOTES [74 words]: This is the song which is ancestral to "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)" and its kin. - PJS
Or. at least. an early member of the family. The editors suggest that the earliest version known, that of Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, might be descended from "Ain't I Glad I Got Out of the Wilderness," which they call a Methodist hymn (though it seems to have long since gone out of their hymnals). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcGITW

Go In, You Big Bumblebee

DESCRIPTION: "Go in, you big bumblebee, You couldn't catch a flea."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty bug
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 131, "(Go in, you big bumble bee)" (1 text)
File: SuSM138D

Go Into Old Ireland and Soon You Will Know

See The Skunk (File: BeLo067)

Go Mary and Toll the Bell

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Go Mary and toll the bell, Come John and call the roll, I thank God." Verses: "Who is that coming dressed in white (red, blue, black), They must be the children of the Israelite (Moses led, coming through), mourners turning back), I thank God."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 153, "Go, Mary, an' Toll de Bell" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 113 in the 1901 edition)
ADDITIONAL: Howard W. Odum, Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes, (reprint from American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, July 1909, Vol.3 pp. 265-365 "Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 95, ("Go, Mary, an' ring de bell") (1 fragment)
Roud #15231
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Go Tell It on the Mountain (I -- Christmas)" (lyrics, some versions)
File: Dett153

Go On Deacon and Get Your Crown

DESCRIPTION: "Go on, deacon, and get your crown (x3), The house of the Lord I'm bound for. My soul is bound for glory, yes, Lord, glory (x2), That's what Satan is a-grumbling about."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 248, "Go On Deacon and Get Your Crown" (1 short text)
Roud #18165
File: KiWa238G

Go On, You Little Dogies

See Get Along, Little Dogies (File: R178)

Go Out and Meet Your Lover

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

Go Over to Ireland

DESCRIPTION: "Go over to Ireland, and there you may see, How all dirty and ragged the Irish they be. A two-legged stool, and a table to match, And a string on the door, to lift the latch." The singer describes the dirt and vermin that infest the typical Irish home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Nestler)
KEYWORDS: Ireland bug hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), p. 102, "Go Over to Ireland" (1 text)
NOTES [46 words]: Nestler hints that this was an English song insulting the Irish, even though his informant claimed it came from an Irishman. Insult the Irish it certainly does, but it should perhaps be recalled that it was the English laws who left the Irish in such a situation of poverty! - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Nest102B

Go Personate Some Noble Lord

DESCRIPTION: A woman tells her lover to "personate some noble lord." He plays cards with the father and the daughter tips her lover to her father's cards. The father loses everything and the lover offers to trade his winnings for the daughter. The lord smiles.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting disguise trick gambling cards father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 1017, "Go Personate Some Noble Lord" (1 text)
Roud #6721
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "South Coast" (plot elements)
File: GrD1017

Go Preach My Gospel

DESCRIPTION: "Go preach my gospel, saith the Lord, Bid the whole world my grace receive, Ye shall be saved to trust my way and ye condemn who won't believe, Teach all the nations my commands, I'm with you till the world shall end."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 102-103, "Go Preach My Gospel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10962
NOTES [8 words]: An abbreviated paraphrase of Matthew 28:19-20. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: NCF162GP

Go Roun' the Border Susie

See All Around de Ring, Miss Julie (File: Br3106)

Go Round and Round the Valley

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

Go Round and Round the Village

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

Go Round the Mountain

DESCRIPTION: "Go round this mountain, two by two (x3), Rise up, sugar, rise."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1939 (Tobitt-SkipToMyLou)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, pp. 530-531, "Go Round the Mountain" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-SkipToMyLou, p. 12, "Here We Go Round the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21191
NOTES [44 words]: The description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment. Tobitt's text is longer, with the additional veres "Give us a little motion" and "That's a very fine motion," but I wouldn't be at all surprised if those are additinons. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5530

Go Slow, Boys (Banjo Pickin')

DESCRIPTION: "Go slow, boys, don't make no noise, For old Massa's sleepin'. Go down to the barnyard an' wake up the boys, An' let's have a little banjo pickin'. For oh, it's almost mornin', Don't you hear the old cock crowin'?" The slaves (?) sneak off to a dance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928
KEYWORDS: music slavery
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 278, "Go Slow, Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 427, "Have a Little Banjo Beating" (1 text); also probably 118, "Hush, Honey, Hush" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 427, "Have a Little Banjo Beatin" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #7783
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Banjo Picking
File: R278

Go Tell Aunt Betsey

See Go Tell Aunt Rhody (File: R270)

Go Tell Aunt Patsy

See Go Tell Aunt Rhody (File: R270)

Go Tell Aunt Rhody

DESCRIPTION: "Go tell Aunt (Rhody) (x3) The old gray goose is dead. The one she'd been saving (x3) to make a feather bed." The cause of death varies; "a pain in the head"; "somebody... knocked it on the head"; "from standing on its head"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1913 (JAFL26)
KEYWORDS: bird death mourning
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Randolph 270, "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" (2 texts plus 2 excerpts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 230-231, "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 270A)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 118-120, "Go Tell Aunt Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune, with an "Aunt Rhody" opening but an ending that might be from The Grey Goose")
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 262-263, "Old Gray Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 128, "Go Tell Aunt Patsy" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 128, "Go Tell Aunt Patsy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 256, "Aunt Tabby" (1 text)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 8, (no title, but the goose's owner is Aunt Patsy) (1 text); pp. 195-196, "Go Tell Aunt Tabby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 236, "The Old Grey Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 87-88,"Aunt Rhody" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 193, "Aunt Tabbie" (1 text plus an excerpt)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 56-58, "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a shape note reprint of a hymn with part of the same melody)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 257, "The Old Grey Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, p. 207, "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" (1 text, 1 tune)
Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth, pp. 30-31, "Run, Tell Aunt Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 3, "Go Tell Aunt Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 305-306, "The Old Gray Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 46, "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 62, "(Go tell Aunt Susy)" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 39, "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 176-177, "The Old Gray Goose is Dead" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 45, "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 275, "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 404, "Aunt Rhody" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 261, 289, "Aunt Rhody" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "Old Gray Goose" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 31)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 72, "(Go tell Aunt Betsey)" (1 text)
DT, AUNTRODY
Roud #3346
RECORDINGS:
Perry Bechtel's Colonels, "Go Tell Aunt Tabby" (Brunswick 498, c. 1930)
Boyden Carpenter, "The Old Grey Goose is Dead" (Champion 16519, 1932)
Pickard Family, "The Old Gray Goose is Dead" (Conqueror 7517, 1930; Melotone M-12129, 1931; on CrowTold01)
Edna & Jean Ritchie, "Go Tell Aunt Rhodie" (on Ritchie03)
Pete Seeger, "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" (on GrowOn2) (on PeteSeeger47); "Aunt Rhody" (on PeteSeeger18)
Dan Tate, "Old Grey Goose" (on FarMtns1)
Erica Warnock, "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #465, recorded 01/26/2023, with two different tunes, one of them not the standard tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Go Tell Young Henry [Ford] (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 229)
LISTED AS TO THE TUNE OF ROSSEAU'S DREAM:
Mayor Brown ("Gather round all friends and neighbours") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 192)
My God! What Is All This For? ("Oh my God! what vengeaful madness," said to be the dying words of a Union soldier at the first Battle of Manassas/Bull Run) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 192)
Our Marshal Kane ("Come and listen to my story," listed as to "Roseas Dream"!) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 192)
Recognition of the Southern Confederacy ("Recognize us, recognize us") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p.193)
Up and Do ("Up and do, ye working people! Even while you waiting stand") (by Mary Dana Shindler) (Foner, p. 140)
NOTES [186 words]: Randolph quotes Chase to the effect that this tune was used in an opera by Jean Jacques Rousseau in 1750. The situation is rather more complex than this would imply. The most recent, and most significant, work on this subject is Murl Sickbert, Jr.'s "Go Tell Aunt Rhody She's Rousseau's Dream" (published 2000). Norm Cohen reports the following:
"In 1752, Rousseau composed 'Le Devin du village,' a pastoral opera bouffe.... [The Aunt Rhody tune appears] as a gavotte in the pantomime no. 8 (divertissement or ballet). It is danced by 'la villageoise,' a shepherdess or country girl, to music without words."
Sickbert observes that the Rousseau composition is more elaborate than the folk tune, with "two addditional parts or reprises, not one as Lomax gives it."
The tune came to be called "Rousseau's Dream," apparently by confusion: Another Rousseau score allegedly came to him while he was suffering from delirium. The title, according to Percy A. Scholes in The Oxford Companion to Music, was given by J. B. Cramer. List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana says that Cramer used the tune in 1818. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R270

Go Tell Aunt Susy

See Go Tell Aunt Rhody (File: R270)

Go Tell Aunt Tabbie

See Go Tell Aunt Rhody (File: R270)

Go Tell It on the Mountain (I -- Christmas)

DESCRIPTION: "Go tell it on the mountain, Over the hills and everywhere, Go tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born." The singer describes the revelation of Jesus's birth to the shepherds and notes how God "made me a watchman"
AUTHOR: unknown (the version found in most hymnals was rewritten by John Weley Work II)
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Fisk Jubilee Singers repertoire)
KEYWORDS: religious Christmas Jesus
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 78, App.III, "Go Tell It on de Mountain" (2 texts, 2 tunes; p. 174 in the 1909 edition)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 43-44, "Go, Teill It on the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 381, "Go Tell It On The Mountain" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 545, "Go, Tell It on the Mountain" (notes only, so it's not clear which version of the song is meant, but the scouting books I checked have the Christmas version)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 33, "Go Tell It on the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Go Tell It on the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 54) (12th edition, p. 51)
DT, GOTELLMT*
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #25, "Go, Tell It on the Mountain" (1 text)
Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 256-257, "Go Tell It on the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Bivens, "Go Tell It On the Mountain" (on HandMeDown2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Go Tell It on the Mountain (II -- Freedom)"
cf. "Jesus Setta Me Free" (lyrics)
cf. "Go Mary and Toll the Bell" (lyrics, some versions)
File: FSWB381A

Go Tell It on the Mountain (II -- Freedom)

DESCRIPTION: "Go tell it on the mountain, Over the hills and everywhere, Go tell it on the mountain To let my people go." The singer describes the people, clothed in various colors, coming out of bondage
AUTHOR: unknown (but the new lyrics have been attributed to Fannie Lou Hamer)
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (recorded by Fannie Lou Hamer)
KEYWORDS: religious freedom nonballad travel
FOUND IN: US West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, GOTELMT2
Roud #15220
RECORDINGS:
Fannie Lou Hamer, "Go Tell It on the Mountain" (on Voices Civ)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Go Tell It on the Mountain (I -- Christmas)"
cf. "Jesus Setta Me Free" (lyrics)
NOTES [79 words]: The "freedom" adaptation of "Go Tell It on the Mountain" came out of the civil rights movement of the early 1960s. I list "Jamaica" as a location in the "FOUND IN" field because ta variant ("set my people free") of this version was recorded by Bob Marley long before he became an internationally-known star, when reggae was still arguably an indigenous folk style. Does this qualify within the "folk tradition"? Eyes of the beholder, perhaps, but I wanted the fact noted. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: DTgotelm

Go ter Sleep

See All the Pretty Little Horses (File: LxU002)

Go to Bed, Says Sleepyhead

See We'll Go to Our Bed, Said Sleepyhead (File: GrD81638)

Go to Berwick, Johnny

DESCRIPTION: "Go, go, go, Go to Berwick, Johnny, You shall have the horse, I shall have the pony."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (Ritson, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: animal travel
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1689, "Busk and Go to Berwick, Johnnie" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 281, "Ride Away, Ride Away, Johnny Shall Ride" (3 texts)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 571, "Go to Berwick Johnnie" (2 texts)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 9, "(Go, go, go)" (1 fragment)
Roud #8693
NOTES [141 words]: Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes: "Denham (1858) says that the Scottish version [of ("Ride away, ride, away, Johnny shall ride")], in which Johnny rides to Berwick, is a fragment of the 'good old border song "Go to Berwick, Johnny"'." ("Ride away, ride, away, Johnny shall ride") is a nursery rhyme version.
Whitelaw: "The old tune of 'Go to Berwick, Johnnie,' is usually sung to a nursery doggerel [sic] beginning "Go, go, go...." Then he prints two verses from Johnson's Museum "said to have been partly written by John Hamilton" about a raid across the border to bring back an English "bonnie lassie." The Greig/Duncan8 text, and one of the Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes texts seem somewhere between "nursery doggrel" and border raid song. I can't decide how to split the texts so I am lumping everything together here. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: MSNR009

Go to Boston

See Going to Boston (File: SKE67)

Go to Helen Hunt for It

DESCRIPTION: "Miss Helen Hunt knows all the spooks, And calls them out of dusty nooks." In case of uncertainty or loss, one is advised to turn to Miss Hunt. The song concludes when "Spain wanted money very bad." Spain had to "go to hell and hunt for it."
AUTHOR: Harry Connor?
EARLIEST DATE: 1898? (Copyright listed on undated sheet music)
KEYWORDS: political magic war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1898 -- Spanish-American War
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 502, "Go to Helen Hunt for It" (1 text)
Roud #7641
NOTES [80 words]: The final verse of this song, which reveals the true reading of the name "Helen Hunt," refers clearly to the Spanish-American War. Spain, faced with insurrection in Cuba, tried to get international support, and failed. Isolated, Spain could not give in to American demands fast enough, and the U.S. went to war -- with disastrous results for Spain. Meanwhile, the American press has utterly besmirched the Spanish reputation, leading to scornful remarks such as those found here. - RBW
File: R502

Go To Saint Pether

DESCRIPTION: The singer orders that news be carried to "Saint Pether" (i.e. the Papacy) of the troubles facing the Catholic cause. The Pope is distressed to hear that his armies are defeated. Mary of Hungary calls for "liquor to temper me pain."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio)
KEYWORDS: battle religious
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 149, "Go to Saint Pether" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST E149 (Full)
Roud #5346
NOTES [234 words]: This is truly a difficult song to figure out, because so few details survive in the text. The one seemingly-identifiable figure is Mary of Hungary. The most notable woman of that name and title is Mary of Hungary and Bohemia (1505-1558), the sister of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the wife of Louis II of Hungary.
In 1531, Mary was appointed regent of the Low Countries by Charles V. Charles was becoming involved in his great wars against Protestantism (this is, of course, shortly after Luther began his revolt, and the period in which Calvin was forming his opinions). That being the case, Mary of Hungary was involved in the persecution of Protestants. But they were Dutch Protestants, and for the most part she kept them under control. Thus it is hard to see how this song, presumably of English or Irish origin, could refer to her.
Another possibility occurring to me is that this song describes the Catholic distress after the defeat at the Battle of the Boyne (July 11, 1690). Catholics supported the former King James II (reigned 1685-1688/9) against the protestant William III of Orange, but were defeated. It may be that "Mary of Hungary" is Mary of Modena, James II's second wife, who bore him his son James the Old Pretender (it was the birth of this child that led to the Glorious Revolution of 1688; the nobility was not prepared to allow James to raise his son as a Catholic). - RBW
File: E149

Go to Sea No More

See Dixie Brown [Laws D7] (File: LD07)

Go to Sea Once More

See Dixie Brown [Laws D7] (File: LD07)

Go to Sleep Little Baby

See All the Pretty Little Horses (File: LxU002)

Go To Sleep, My Darling Baby

DESCRIPTION: "Go to sleep, my darling baby, Cuddle down and go to rest. Nestle here where heart-throbs tell you, You are safe on mamma's breast." The birds and flowers are asleep, so baby can sleep too; the birds, flowers, and sun will come out when it is time to wake
AUTHOR: Words: Charlotte B. Merritt / Music: Hubert P. Main (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (copyright date on the page shown at hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: baby lullaby bird flowers | sun sleep
FOUND IN:
Roud #17907
RECORDINGS:
The DeZurik Sisters (The Cackle Sisters), "Go To Sleep My Darling Baby" (Vocalion 4781-A, 1938)
Hannah & Tom, "Go to Sleep my Little Baby" (Piotr-Archive #113, recorded 04/06/2022)
NOTES [89 words]: The description is based on the text at hymnary.org. I'm far from sure the DeZurik sisters recording (which seems clearly to be the source of the Hannah & Tom recording) is the same; the lyrics are dramatically different. But how do you distinguish songs that are all about cuddling babies and trying to get them to go to sleep? I have been unable to find any source for the DeZurik version, which begins Go to sleep, my darling baby,
Oh baby, the moon smiles above.
Cuddle closer, little baby,
Oh baby, you're my precious love. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcGTSMDB

Go To Sleep, My Little Baby

See Go To Sleep, My Darling Baby (File: RcGTSMDB)

Go to Sleep, My Little Pickaninny

DESCRIPTION: The "little Alabama coon" is told, "Go to sleep, my little pickaninny, Brother Fox will catch you if you don't...." Fuller forms may describe the child's life and ambitions for when he grows up
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: lullaby nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 116, "Go to Sleep, My Little Pickaninny" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 116, "Go To Sleep, My Little Pickaninny" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #18978
RECORDINGS:
Debra Sharpe, "Go to Sleep My Little Picaninny" (Piotr-Archive #590, recorded 05/30/2023)
NOTES [49 words]: Brown gives two forms of this song, one a genuine song in which the baby describes its aspirations (such as they are), the second probably a pure lullaby. The full form, which is strongly racist, is probably a minstrel piece which wore down to the somewhat less offensive lullaby version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Br3116

Go To Sleepy

See All the Pretty Little Horses (File: LxU002)

Go to Sleepy Little Baby

See All the Pretty Little Horses (File: LxU002)

Go Up West

See Will You Go Out West? (File: FSC088)

Go Wash in That Beautiful Pool

DESCRIPTION: "Go wash in that beautiful pool (x2). The rivers of life flow freely for all. Go wash in that beautiful pool." "My father passed over the river, Is now in the kingdom above. He's safe where the angels all dwell, Go wash...." "My mother passed over...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong)
KEYWORDS: religious father mother death nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 224, "Go Wash in That Beautiful Pool" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 109-111, "Go Wash in That Beautiful Pool" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7875
NOTES [50 words]: Roud lumps this with "Go Wash in that Beautiful Stream," but I really don't see it. "Beautiful Stream" is about Naaman the Syrian in the Hebrew Bible. The Beautiful Pool, if it refers to anything, is from the New Testament. The forms of the text are similar, but there is nothing unusual about that! - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: JoLun224

Go Wash in the Beautiful Stream

DESCRIPTION: "Go wash in the beautiful stream, Go wash in the beautiful stream, Oh, Naaman, oh, Naaman, Go down and wash, Go wash in the beautiful stream."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible river
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 575, "Go Wash in the Beautiful Stream" (1 fragment)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 97, "O Naaman" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7875
NOTES [119 words]: An allusion to 2 King 5. Naaman, a soldier of Damascus, comes to Israel seeking a cure for his leprosy. He is eventually referred to the prophet Elisha. Elisha tells him to wash himself in the Jordan. Naaman argues, asking why he can't wash in the rivers of Damascus, but eventually does as he's told and is cured.
Naaman did have something of a point: The Jordan valley is not "beautiful"; it is drab, dusty, and very, very hot.
Roud lumps this with "Go Wash in that Beautiful Pool," but I really don't see it. This is about Naaman the Syrian in the Hebrew Bible. The Beautiful Pool, if it refers to anything, is from the New Testament. The forms of the text are similar, but there is nothing unusual about that! - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Br3575

Go Way, Old Man

See I Wouldn't Have an Old Man (File: R401)

Go Your Bond

DESCRIPTION: "You gonna need somebody on your bond (x2), When your room gets darn and death comes creepin' down, You gonna need somebody...." ""Well, I got somebody on my bond (x2), When your room gets dark...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious death
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 175, "Go Your Bond" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 254-255, "Wan' King Jedus Stan' My Bon'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16306
File: Arno175

Go-d'ling

DESCRIPTION: "Go-d'ling, go'dling ... link-i-bum .... Link-i-bum and a merry go too ... There are no more than thirty-two"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense riddle
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 194, "Go-d'ling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17754
NOTES [33 words]: Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest: "I.N. Taber... sang this riddle.... '... When she [Aunt Mary Daves] completed the song, I had thirty-two counts. And that's the answer to the riddle.'" - BS
Last updated in version 3.3
File: MooSW194

Goat Hill

DESCRIPTION: "They had a cattle show On Goat Hill, on Goat Hill, They had a cattle show And I did like to go, For nodding but girls dey show." The singer complains that the girls are fat but still says he kissed Fanny Reed, Katie Tweed, and all the others
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Shoemaker)
KEYWORDS: humorous courting | kissing
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, "Goat Hill" (1 text) (p. 156 in the 1919 edition; not found in the third edition)
Roud #14081
NOTES [24 words]: I assume this was sung to "Sam Hall"/"Captain Kidd," but Shoemaker doesn't say so. It was happily dropped from later editions of his work. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SMMP156X

Goat Song

See Bill Grogan's Goat (File: SRW141)

Goat's Will, The

DESCRIPTION: "Concerning a battle.. Between Larry's black goat and brave Mary McCloy." The goat, tethered outside its proper territory, will die to make amends. It makes its will (e.g. giving its teeth to a man who has none), curses McCloy, and bids farewell
AUTHOR: Hugh McCann (1869?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: animal death lastwill
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H119, p. 21, "The Goat's Will" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13343
File: HHH119

Goathland Fox Hunt, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer invites "all you brave sportsmen ... for a day of hunting ... In Goatland parish." Some huntsmen are named.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal moniker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, p. 138, "The Goathland Fox Hunt" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
File: KiTu138

God Be With You

DESCRIPTION: "Till we meet (x3) At Jesus' feet, Till we meet." "Till we meet (x2), God be with you till we meet again."
AUTHOR: J. E. Rankin / Music: W. G. Tomer (source: Date; Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Date)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Heart-Songs, p. 507, "God Be With You" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Date, Pentecostal Hymns Nos. 1 and 2 Combined (Chicago: Hope Publishing Company, 1898 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #304 p. 220, "God Be With You" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Rosa and Joseph Murray, "Till We Meet Again" (on USSeaIsland03)
NOTES [86 words]: According to Rosa and Joseph Murray, "God Be With You" closes the prayer service. - BS
According to John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), pp. 951-952, Jeremiah Eames Rankin (1828-1904) in 1878 edited the Gospel Temperance Hymnal; a later book was Gospel Bells. Some poems had appeared earlier, in Songs of New Life (1869). He is said to have been best known for "Labouring and Heavy Laden" and "Rest, Rest, Brother, Rest." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: RcGBeWYu

God Be With You Davy

DESCRIPTION: Singer says "God be with you Davy. I had you for Christmas and I had you for Easter. And now I haven't your ould breeches thrown up in the tayster."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 63, "God Be With You Davy" (1 text)
Roud #16245
NOTES [14 words]: The current description is all the OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin text. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC063

God Bles the Moonshiners

See Moonshiner (File: San142)

God Bless America

DESCRIPTION: "God bless America, land that I love, Stand beside her and guide her." You know the rest
AUTHOR: Irving Berlin
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (revised 1938), but not published until 1939 (Fuld)
KEYWORDS: patriotic nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 248, "God Bless America"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 332, "God Bless America" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 45, "God Bless America" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GODBLESS
Roud #V44297
NOTES [572 words]: Gardner, p. 442, estimates that this was the eleventh most popular song in America in April 1939 (#1 for the year being the "Beer Barrel Polka"), with another hot spell in August 1940 (it was #8 for the month, according to p. 449).
The main part of this was written by Irving Berlin in World War I when he was in the military; supposedly writing a musical got him out of the drudgery of being a GI. But the musical was so patriotism-heavy that they dropped the song as too serious. In 1938, Kate Smith wanted a patriotic song, so Berlin put a new opening on it, and Smith recorded it, and you know the rest. Ironic that we hardly ever hear the material added in 1938.
According to Shaw, pp. 124-127 (which features a photocopy of Berlin's original melody page), the changes in the song were small but significant -- the original like "Make her victorious on land and foam" became "From the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam," with, naturally, a change in melody to accommodate the extra syllables; a removal of a political reference, a change of musical stress in the last line, and some other small changes. Shaw thinks that the changes, although minor, made it a much stronger song.
It's hardly surprising that the Girl Scouts loved this; Berlin assigned the royalties to them. Spaeth, p. 460, says that, in 1948, it had already earned them around $200,000 dollars; in all, they must have earned the equivalent of tens of millions of twenty-first century dollars.
Fuld notes that there were a bunch of earlier songs titled "God Bless America," none of which amounted to anything. Since 1939, of course, any song with this title just about has to be a parody.
It's easy to be sarcastic about a piece of froth like this, particularly if one is not inclined to mindless patriotism (or mindless religion). Woody Guthrie's irritation with it inspired "This Land Is Your Land" (Shaw, pp. 2-3), and I don't blame him one itty bit. With luck, I'll never have to hear it again. But it's worth remembering that Israel Baline was a Jewish child whose family had fled a pogrom in Russia. As Jews, they may have been second class citizens in America, but at least the United States took them in instead of burning their home! (Shaw, pp. 9-15). For Baline, later Berlin, America truly was a better place than where he had come from.
According to Shaw, p. 21, "'God Bless America' would quote a line from an 1823 parlor ballad, a cadence from a European national anthem, and a snatch of melody from a 1906 avatar of vaudeville rudeness." The parlor ballad, based on p. 51, is "Home! Sweet Home!"; p. 127 says the 1906 song is a gag song "When Mose with His Nose Leads the Band"; pp. 129-130 says the anthem is a Russian piece known in English as "God Bless the Czar"; p. 84 implies in addition a dependence on George M. Cohen's ""You're a Grand Old Flag." I'm inclined to think that some of these are just instances of grabbing commonplace phrases, but I certainly wouldn't claim that Berlin never borrowed anything. After all, this wasn't the first time Berlin used such a trick; consider the line "If you want to hear that Swanee River done in ragtime" in "Alexander's Ragtime Band."
Smith, incidentally, decided to sing the song in a march tempo, which was not Berlin's intended style. She also cut the first part of the song (Shaw, pp. 135-136). Given how well her version succeeded, he could hardly argue after that! - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: ACSF332B

God Bless My Soul, Would You Buy a Wooden Bowl

DESCRIPTION: "God bless my soul, Would you buy a wooden bowl, And suck [=sup?] coul' porridge In the morning'?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: food commerce
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 47, "(God bless my soul)" (1 text)
Roud #22991
File: PKKB047F

God Bless the Master of this House

DESCRIPTION: "God bless the master of this house with a gold chain round his neck, O where his body sleeps or wakes, Lord send his soul to rest." The listener is reminded of Christ's crucifixion, death, and redeeming blood. (A New Year's blessing is given.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (recording, Frank Bond)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 272-273, "God Bless the Master of this House" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #35, "God Bless the Master" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1066
RECORDINGS:
Frank Bond, "God Bless the Master Of This House" (on Voice16)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bellman's Song (The Moon Shone Bright)" (lyrics)
NOTES [37 words]: This piece shares many of its words with "The Moon Shone Bright," and the general sense of the piece is very similar. But the tune and stanza form are different, so -- barring a "missing link" -- I list them separately. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: CoSB272

God Bless You Merry Gentlemen

See God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen (File: FSWB378A)

God Dawg My Lousy Soul

DESCRIPTION: "God dawg my lousy soul (x2), I'm goin' down the river And I couldn't git cross, God dawg..." Bluesy song; only the third and fourth lines change, e.g. "She put me in the bed And she covered up my head," "I'm goin' to Missouri To git me another dame"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: work love nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 25-26, "God Dawg My Lousy Soul" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10002
NOTES [39 words]: Yes, you know and I know what the title of the song should really be. But it's not clear whether Wheeler or her informant (Uncle Tom Wall) cleaned it up. If the latter, it's possible that it circulated in tradition in this form. - RBW
File: MWhee025

God Don't Like It

DESCRIPTION: A warning against drink: "Well, God don't like it, no, no!... It's a-scandalous and a shame!" "Some people stay in the churches... They drinkin' beer and whisky, And they say that they don't care."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Pearson Funeral Home Choir, according to Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: religious drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 28-30, "God Don't Like It" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 73-74, "(God Don't Like It)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 338-339, "(God Don't Like It)" (1 text)
Roud #15642
File: CNFM073

God Got Plenty o' Room

DESCRIPTION: "God got plenty o' room, got plenty o' room. 'Way in the kingdom, God got plenty o' room my Jesus say." "So many weeks and days have passed, Since we met together last." "Daniel's wisdom I may know." "We soon shall lay our school-books by."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 106, "God Got Plenty o' Room" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12062
NOTES [119 words]: This song has more scriptural references than almost anything in Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, though the references are often rather loose. The reference to God having "room" is clearly to John 14:2, "In my father's house are many mansions (KJV) or "In my Father's mansion are many rooms" (variously rendered in the modern versions).
Jacob's Ladder is in Genesis 28:12, and though Jacob is not said to have prayed there, he did make a vow there in Genesis 28:20.
"Daniel's wisdom" -- there are several references to this; perhaps the most explicit is in Daniel 2, where Daniel is lumped with the Wise Men of Babylon, and perhaps 5:11-12.
Stepehn's faith and spirit are described in Acts 7:55-60.
- RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG106

God Has Created a New Day

DESCRIPTION: "God has created a new day, Silver and green and gold. Live that the sunset may find us, Worthy his gifts to hold. God has created a new night, Silver and dark and still, Live that the morning may find us, Ready to do his will."
AUTHOR: Marie Gaudette (1894-1966) (source: Tobitt-TheDittyBag; ChansonsDeNotreChalet)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Kent County (Girl Guides) Song Book, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 335, 438, "God Has Created a New Day" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 174, "(no title)" (1 short text, 1 tune, the sixth of six "Graces")
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 64, "(no title)" (1 short text, 1 tune, the sixth of six "Graces")
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 111, "(Grace)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 10, "God Has Created a New Day" (4 short texts, 1 English, 1 French, 1 German, 1 Dutch; 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, "Grace" (1 short text, 1 tune, with the author's name misspelled)
SongsOfManyNations, "God Has Created a New Day" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 93)
File: ACSF335G

God Help Kaiser Bill

DESCRIPTION: "Uncle Sammy, he's got the artillery, He's got the cavalry, He'd got the infantry., But when, by God, we all get to Germany, God help Kaiser Bill." Rest of song is variations on these lines
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: war soldier travel nonballad royalty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, p. 167, "(no title)" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ki-Wi Song" (tune, lyrics)
File: NiMo167

God Is Always Near Me

DESCRIPTION: "God is always near me, hearing what I say, knowing all my thoughts and deeds, all my work and play...." "God is always near me, though so young and small; not a look or word or thought, but God knows it all."
AUTHOR: Philip P. Bliss (1838-1876) (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (A Collection of Revival Hymns and Plantation Melodied #62, accoring to hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 108, "God is always near me" (1 fragment)
Roud #25517
NOTES [32 words]: For more on Philip Paul Bliss, see the notes to "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning." Oddly, given that Bliss was more a tune-writer than a text-writer, many tunes have been used for this text. RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC108D

God Is at de Pulpit

DESCRIPTION: "God is at de pulpit, God is at de do', GOd is always over me, While He is in de middle of de flo'. God is a God, GOd don't neber change, 'Cause He always will be king."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 568, "God Is at de Pulpit" (1 short text)
Roud #11888
File: Br3568

God Made a Trance

See Christ Made a Trance (God Made a Trance) (File: Leath192)

God Moves in a Mysterious Way

DESCRIPTION: "God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform, He plants his footsteps on the sea (x2), And rides upon the storm (x3)." "Ye fearful saints fresh courage take. "Judge not the Lord by feeble sense." "Blind unbelief is sure to err."
AUTHOR: Words: William Cowper (1731-1800)
EARLIEST DATE: 1774 (Newton, Twenty-four Letters on Mysterious Subjects)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad storm
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 101, "God Moves in a Mysterious Way" (1 text)
NOTES [451 words]: According to Julian, p. 265, "The leading events in the life of Cowper are: b[orn] in his father's rectory, Berkhampstead, Nov. 26, 1731; educated at Westminster; called to the Bar, 1754; madness, 1763; residence at Huntingdon, 1765; removal to Olney, 1768; to Weston, 1786; to East Dereham, 1795; death there, April 25, 1800."
It was a life marked by wild changes in mood. The "madness" mentioned above included three suicide attempts, "with laudanum, knife, and cord," and he developed an extreme belief in his guilt before God. It was in the aftermath of this that he met John Newton, the hymnwriter based at Olney. But in 1773, he suffered another bout of depression. He recovered again, and was able to work with Newton to publish Olney Hymns in 1779 and also Poems by William Cowper in 1782. Benet, p. 250, says that "From his twenty-fourth year on he suffered from a morbid religious mania which manifested itself in a sense of overwhelming guilt and despair and intermittent attacks of insanity.
Cowper clearly suffered from either major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder; on the whole, I suspect the latter. Nor am I alone in this; after I wrote the above, I found on p. 64 of Jamison a table marking him as one of many great eighteenth century poets with bipolar disorder; her summary of his case is "Recurrent psychotic melancholia and repeated suicide attempts. Delusions and hallucinations. First signs of mental instability while in his twenties, confined to asylum in his early thirties. Family history of melancholia."
Benet, p. 250, says that he began writing poetry late in life, "with the production of hymns, didactic verse, and nture lyrics, and intense, introspective religious poetry." He also translated Homer and Milton (?) -- and occasionally translated his own poetry into Latin.
Julian, p. 433, reports of this song, "The commonly accepted history of this hymn is that it was composed by Cowper in 1773, after an attempt to commit suicide in the Ouse at Olney." But after sifting the evidence, Julian concludes, "To our mind it is evident that Cowper must have written this hymn, either early in 1773, before his insanity became so intense as to lead him to attempt suicide in October of that year, or else in April of 1774, when "he used to compose lines descriptive of his own unhappy state.' Of these date the latter is the more probable of the two."
The Olney Hymns is regarded as one of the greatest hymn collections; in this collection, Cowper is responsible for "God Moves in a Mysterious Way" and "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood"; he also wrote "Oh! for a closer walk with God." His one secular song in the Index is "The Sinking of the Royal George." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: Grim101

God Moves on the Water

See The Titanic (III) ("God Moves on the Water") (Titanic #3) (File: CNFM076)

God Prosper Long Our King and Queen

See The Battle of Schenectady (The Schenectady Massacre) (File: CAFS1097)

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

See God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen (File: FSWB378A)

God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen

DESCRIPTION: "God rest you merry, gentlemen, Let nothing you dismay, Remember Christ our savior Was born on Christmas day... Oh tidings of comfort and joy." The birth of Jesus is recounted and listeners urged to sing praise and rejoice in the new year
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1820 ("A Political Christmas Carol" is an undeniable parody of this piece)
KEYWORDS: religious carol Christmas Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 581, "God Rest You, Merry Gentlemen" (1 text)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 106, "God Bless you Merry Gentlement" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 105-107, "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen" (1 text)
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, pp. 92-93, "God Bless You Merry Gentlemen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 11, "God Rest You Merry"; 12, "God Rest You Merry" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #219, "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 260, "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 752-755, "God Bless You, Merry Gentlemen" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 378, "God Rest You Merry Gentlemen" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 249, "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen"
DT, GODREST*
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #26, "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen" (1 text)
Roud #394
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Somerset Carol"
SAME TUNE:
A Political Chrismas Carol (William Hone's 1820 satire on Lord Castlereigh) (Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_, pp. 101-102)
NOTES [214 words]: Although this song is often sung in America as if punctuated, "God rest you, merry gentlemen" (and, indeed, at least one of my old hymnals, The Parish School Hymnal of 1926, writes it that way), there is agreement that the correct reading is "God rest you merry, gentlemen." The gentlemen are being wished merriment, not being called merry.
Bradley in the Penguin Book of Carols notes several other problems with the song: sexist language, non-Biblical details (common in traditional carols, of course), and the bad theology that "this holy tide of Christmas all others doth deface." I'm not sure I buy that last one -- yes, the essence of the Christian message is the Atonement, which is celebrated in Good Friday and Easter. But Christmas celebrates the *beginning* of the Incarnation, so surely it would be more important than any day in the calendar except Good Friday, Easter, and maybe Ascension Sunday. So Christmas would seem to deface at least 99% of other days. Good enough for ordinary engineering purposes.
Bradley notes that this song seems to have been sung to several tunes in its early years. The common tune (the so-called "London Tune") was collected by Rimbault in 1846 and seemingly first printed in connection with these words by Bramley and Stainer in 1871. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: FSWB378A

God Save Ireland

DESCRIPTION: "High upon the gallows tree swung the noble-hearted three, By the vengeful tyrants stricken in their bloom." The three declare, "God Save Ireland" as they prepare to die, and say that their deaths don't matter. Listeners are encouraged to remember
AUTHOR: Timothy Daniel Sullivan (1827-1914)
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (_The Nation_ Dec 7, 1867, according to Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1867 - Imprisonment of the Fenian leaders Kelly and Deasy, and the bungled rescue
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 125, "'God save Ireland!' cried the prisoner" (1 fragment)
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 83-84, "God Save Ireland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 74, "God Save Ireland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 137-138, "God Save Ireland" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 144-145, "God Save Ireland" (1 text)
DT, GSAVILD*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 522-523, "God Save Ireland" (1 text)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 9-10, 508, "God Save Ireland"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" (tune) and reference there
cf. "The Smashing of the Van (I)" (subject: The Manchester Martyrs)
cf. "Allen, Larkin and O'Brien" (subject: The Manchester Martyrs)
cf. "The Manchester Martyrs" (subject: The Manchester Martyrs)
NOTES [83 words]: Edward Condon was one of five men tried in 1867 for the death of Charles Brett. (For this incident and the story of the "Manchester Martyrs," see the notes to The Smashing of the Van.") One of those on trial was not connected to the crime. Three others were sentenced to death. Condon was allowed to live.
At the end of his trial, Condon cried out "God save Ireland." It became a Fenian slogan.
Sullivan is the author of a number of Irish patriotic poems, of which this is probably the best-known. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: PGa083

God Save Our Gracious King

DESCRIPTION: "God save our Gracious King! Hit him in the belly with a gravy ring, God save our King."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: royalty | belly
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 53, "(God save our gracious king)" (1 text)
Roud #22973
File: PKKB053F

God Save the King (God Save the Queen, etc.)

DESCRIPTION: Good wishes for the King of England: "God save (our Lord, or any monarch's name) the King, Long live our noble king, God save the King. Send him victorious, Happy and glorious, Long to reign over us, God save the King." Other verses equally insipid
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1744 ("Harmonia Anglicana")
KEYWORDS: royalty political nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 691-707, "God Save the Queen" (1 text, 1 tune, plus many variants and the longest discussion in the book)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 194-200, "God Save the King" (1 tune plus variants, 1 partial text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 244, "God Save the Queen" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 208, "God Save the King" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 249-251+, "God Save the King"
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #18, "God Save the King" (1 text)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 13-22, "God Save the Queen" (1 text plus various related texts)
DT, GODSAVE*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)" (tune) and Same Tune references there for versions based on that text rather than this
SAME TUNE:
Heil Dir in Siegerkranz
O Deus Optime (cf. Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, p. 195)
America (My Country 'Tis of Thee) (File: RJ19006)
South Carolina, A Patriotic Ode (File: CAFS1298)
My Country (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 88-89)
God Save the King (The King He Had a Date) (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 115; see next item)
Poor Georgie ("Queen Mary, so they say, Had a dictating way"; this appears to be a version of "The King He Had a Date" customized to George V and his wife Mary of Teck) (Harbin-Parodology, #47, p. 18)
My Country's Tired of Me (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 159)
Can Opener, 'Tis of Thee (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 159)
Our Land Is Free (celebrating the end of transportation to Van Diemen's Land) (Robert Hughes, _The Fatal Shore_, p. 572)
God Save the Rights of Man (1798 Irish revolutionary song) (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 128; mentioned in Thomas Pakenham, _The Year of Liberty_, p. 193)
God Save America (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 78)
His Excellency George Washington ("From the Americ shore, The vast Atlantic o'er, Shout -- 'Washington!'") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 92)
(Washington songs) ("Americans rejoice, While songs employ each voice" and "Hail Godlike Washington! Fair Freedom's chosen son") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 96); Ode to be sung on the Arrival of the President of the United States ("Hail thou auspicious day! Far let America Thy praise resound") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 117)
Ode ("Now let rich Musick sound And all the Region round With Rapture fill") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 97)
Ode for the Fourth of July ("Come all ye sons of song, Pour the full sound along") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 128; Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, pp. 74-75)
Closing Ode ("Patrons, with dignity, The basic industry") (by A. P. Knapp) (Albert P. Knapp, _Grange Songster_, 1915, p. 3)
So Say We ("So say we all of us, So say we all of us, So say we all") (Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 125)
NOTES [600 words]: This, obviously, has never been a true popular or traditional tune. But, given the number of songs derived from it, as well as the parodies (e.g. "The King he had a date, He stayed out very late, He was the King. The Queen she paced the floor, She paced till half past four, She met him at the door, God save the King"), it seems to me that it belongs here.
Fuld tells an interesting anecdote showing that this was once a political song. As first printed, the opening line read "God save our Lord the King." When Bonnie Prince Charlie landed in 1745, this was hastily amended to "God Save great GEORGE our King" -- with "George" printed in large type. Nettel, p. 136, says it was taken up at that time by companies at Drury Lane and Covent Garden, and hence became popular with the public.
Prior to its adoption in Georgian times, the English used "The Roast Beef of Old England" as their anthem.
Julian devotes more than three large pages of small type to the origin of the song: "The origin and authorship of the English national anthem have given rise to much controversy, and many theories respecting them have been advanced, often demonstrating little save the writers' misapprehension of the points really at issue" (p. 437). In the appendix on p. 1566, he prints many stanzas of verses which were written as the song evolved toward its current form(s), with first lines like "God bless our native land."
Julian lists no fewer than seven claims to the authorship of the tune. 1. A certain Richard Clark attributed it to one Dr. John Bull, who played it for James VI and I in 1607; Julian notes that Clark's book is highly inaccurate. 2. It is derived from Thomas Ravenscroft's "Remember O Thou Man" (the resemblance, sez I, is faint indeed). 3. It is based on a sonata by Purcell (Julian says this resemblance is even fainter). 4. It is said to have been sung for James II c. 1688, but with no source mentioned. 5. It is claimed as a Jacobite composition of some later date. 6. The origin is a French piece made for Louis XIV -- an hypothesis which is highly unlikely, since the French words appear translated from the English. 7. Henry Carey is credited with both words and tune (this is the only hypothesis that is even slightly plausible, but proof is lacking; the song is not found in Carey's collected works, and the claim that he sung it in 1740 was not published until 1796 -- by his son, according to Ford-SongHistories, so he probably saw advantage in claiming it.) Since none of these suggestions is tenable, it appears we must consider the composer to be unknown.
Julian adds that the text found in Harmonia Anglicana, the earliest verifiable version (undated but thought to be from 1743 or 1744) 'is headed 'For two voices,' the air differs slightly from the modern version, and the words consist of two stanzas only." This was quickly adapted the the "Great GEORGE" version described above, in a score by Arne (Julian, p. 438). Many other modifications and parodies followed.
The phrase "God Save the King" is officially listed as Biblical (1 Sam. 10:24, 1 Kings 1:25, 34, 39, 2 Kings 11:12, 2 Ch. 23:11, etc.). One has to note that this is an inaccurate translation in the King James version, leading to the speculation that the acclamation actually predates the KJV (the navy may have used it around 1545, and the Agincourt Carol, which is more than a century older than that, has a line "Now gracious God he save oure kynge"). The Hebrew phrase correctly translates as "let the King live," and so is rendered "Long live the King" in almost all modern Bible translations. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChWII194

God Sent for Us the Sunday

See Hampshire Mummers' Carol (God Sent for Us the Sunday) (File: LEBC078)

God Speed the Plough

DESCRIPTION: "Here's a health to the farmer and God speed the plough, Send him in his fields a good crop for to grow." "For the farmer indeed is a capital man." They fill the barn with food for the nation. All rejoice, for the "farmer enjoys his life more than a king"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Sumner-TheBesomMaker)
KEYWORDS: farming food
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #22, "God Speed the Plough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sumner-TheBesomMaker, pp. 5-8, "God Speed the Plough" (1 text, 1 tune)
RELATED: (versions of the song "I-blessed be Christs sonde"/"God Spede the Plowe All Day"/"The merthe of alle this londe"):
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics CXLII, pp. 241-242, "(no title)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1405.5
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2339
ADDITIONAL: Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #85, pp. 147-148, "(Iblessyd be Cristes sonde)" (1 text)
Rossell Hope Robbins, _Historical Poems of the XIVth and XVth Century_, Columbia University Press, 1959, #37 pp. 97-98, "God Speed the Plough" (1 text)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #152, pp. 382-383, "God Speed the Plough" (1 text)
E. K. Chambers, _English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages_, Oxford, 1945, 1947, pp. 95-96 (no title)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSArchSeldenB26}, Oxford, Bodleian Library Arch. Selden B.26, folio 19 (with music)
NOTES [61 words]: The refrain "God Speed the Plough" is very old; the manuscript Bodleian Arch. Selden B.26 is from the fifteenth century. There probably isn't a genetic relationship between that song and this, which is why I don't index the Bodleian piece, but one suspects it achieved proverbial status. Many of the references cited for the Bodleian poem will list other citations. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: PECS022

God Speed the Plow, and Bless the Corn-Mow

See The Husbandman and the Servingman (File: K226)

God Who Touches Earth with Beauty

DESCRIPTION: "God who touches earth with beauty, Make my heart anew. With your Spirit recreate me Pure and strong and true." The singer asks to share the virtues of nature, e.g. "Like the arching of the heavens, lift my thoughts above....."
AUTHOR: Words: Mary S. Edgar (1889-1973)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Abingdon Song Book; Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 332, "God Who Touches Earth with Beauty" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 53, "Camp Hymn" (1 text)
SongsOfManyNations, "God Who Touchest Earth with Beauty" (1 text) (CC edition, p. 84)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "For the Beauty of the Earth" (theme)
NOTES [114 words]: Hymnary.org shows this being sung to at least four different tunes, none of them dominant; the most common is "Geneva," by C. Harold Lowden, but it appears that less than half the hymnals which include it use that tune. I can't help but wonder if it was inspired by "For the Beauty of the Earth," which strikes me as being both more direct and as having a stronger melody. I can see why a nature camp would like this, but without a better tune, I doubt it has actually gone into tradition. I've included it from Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs because it meets my criteria (she says she found nine versions) -- but I wouldn't be surprised if every one of those nine was a print version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF332G

God, He's Gwine to Set Dis World on Fire

See Welcome Table (Streets of Glory, God's Going to Set This World on Fire) (File: San478)

God's A-Gwine Ter Move All de Troubles Away

DESCRIPTION: "God's a-gwine ter move all de troubles away (x3), See 'm no more till de comi' day." "Genesis, you understand, Methuselah was the olde's man." "Dere was a man of de Pharisee, His name was Nicodemus and he wouldn't believe."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries)
KEYWORDS: religious death age
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (II), pp. 69-81, "God's A-Gwine Ter Move All de Troubles Away" (1 text with variants, 1 tune with variants)
Roud #17443
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Samson and Delilah" (lyrics and theme of the Samson story)
NOTES [181 words]: Methuselah is not explicitly said to be the oldest man in the Bible, but in Genesis 5:27, he is listed in the Hebrew text as living to be 969, which is in fact the greatest age listed for any patriarch. We should note, however, that the ancient Samaritan version says 720.
The account of Jesus and Nicodemus is from John 3:1-21. This song follows the mistranslation of the King James Bible, which quotes Jesus as saying people should be "born again" when the clear intent of the Greek is to say they must be "born from above."
The story of Samson is in Judges 13-16, with the story of Samson and Delilah taking up chapter 16. The Biblical account does not say how many he killed -- 14:19 says he killed 30 in Ascalon, in 15:8 he commits a "great slaughter," 15:15-16 says he killed a thousand (exactly?), and at the end of chapter 16 he supposedly killed more than in his entire career up to then, but obviously there is no way to add that up to a particular total except that it must be greater than 2062 (which is twice 1000+3+1), assuming you take all those round numbers seriously. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CuBu069

God's Going to Set This World on Fire

See Welcome Table (Streets of Glory, God's Going to Set This World on Fire) (File: San478)

God's Gonna Set the World on Fire

See Welcome Table (Streets of Glory, God's Going to Set This World on Fire) (File: San478)

God's Own Country

DESCRIPTION: "Give me, give me God's own country (from a spieler's point of view)." The singer lists all the beautiful places of New Zealand -- and how wonderful they are IF you have cash. The country has been leased out to absentees
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Auckland Star, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: beauty money New Zealand landlord
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 82-83, "God's Own Country" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BaRo082

God's Radiophone

DESCRIPTION: "One day Nebuchadnezzar constructed an image of gold" and ordered all to worship it, but the Hebrew Children refused, "For they had a connection with heaven on God's wonderful radiophone." The examples of Daniel, Elijah, and Jonah are also cited
AUTHOR: Charles C. Mourer ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1); there was apparently a copyright claim for a song of this name in 1924
KEYWORDS: technology religious rescue
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 13-14, "God's Radiophone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7118
RECORDINGS:
Wade Mainer, "God's Radio Phone" (King 975)
NOTES [293 words]: The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace is told in chapter 3 of the book of Daniel. Interestingly, there is no hint whatsoever that they received any vision or prophetic knowledge before their ordeal; Daniel was a prophet, but the three young men were not.
The story of Daniel in the Lion's Den is in Daniel 6, with the mention of him praying three times a day being in 6:10. Fascinatingly, although Daniel was a prophet, he didn't have any notice about his fate, either. In the Book of Daniel, apparently, you only hear a voice from God when you don't actually need to hear it!
The story of Jonah and the Fish (not in the version recorded by Norman and Nancy Blake) is the subject of the whole book of Jonah. And the Hebrew Bible says explicitly fish, *not* "whale"; "whale" is the interpretation of the Greek Bible. Nor does God speak to Jonah while Jonah is inside the sea creature; in Jonah 1:17, God "provides" a fish to swallow Jonah, but doesn't comment on it; Jonah, Chapter 2, consists of Jonah talking to God; in 2:10, God spoke *to the fish*, not to Jonah, and told it to spit the prophet out.
The story of Elijah and the Contest on Mount Carmel (not in the Burton/Manning version) is told in 1 Kings 18, and his opponents were not "professors and fakers"; they were priests of Baal. (A word which happens to mean "Lord," so if properly translated, the contest is between Elijah, a prophet of the LORD, and 400 priests of the Lord. Hm). Elijah didn't get any explicit messages from God at that precise moment, but I'll grant that he had been told to go to King Ahab of Israel, who ended up sponsoring the miracle described in the song. Still, I can't say I'm much impressed with the thinking in this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BuMa013

Godalmighty Drag

DESCRIPTION: "Mama and papa, O lawdy, Mama and papa, O my Lord, Done told me a lie...." "Done told me they'd pardon me... by next July." "July and August... done come and gone." "Left me here rolling... On this ole farm." "Gonna write to the Governor...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: prison family lie pardon worksong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 398-399, "Godalmighty Drag" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 309-311, "Godalmighty Drag" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 130-132, "No More Cane on the Brazos/Godamighty" (1 text, 1 tune, a mixture of this with another song Jackson calls "Godamighty" though it has almost no lyric elements in common with "Godalmighty Drag"); pp. 261-267, "Godamighty" (3 texts, 2 tunes; possibly once again separate songs but so fluid that it isn't worth separating them out)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Please Have Mercy on a Longtime Man" (lyrics)
cf. "Texarkana Mary" (lyrics)
File: SBoA309

Godamighty

See Godalmighty Drag (File: SBoA309)

Goddesses

See see under A North Country Maid (File: LK43B)

Goin Over on de Uddah Side of Jordan

See Wayfaring Stranger (File: FSC077)

Goin' Cross the Mountain

DESCRIPTION: "Goin' 'cross the mountain, Oh, fare thee well, Goin' 'cross the mountain, Hear my banjo tell." The singer has his kit ready, and is going to join the Union army "to give Jeff's men a little taste of my rifle ball." He promises to return at the war's end
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar fight parting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 121, "Goin' Cross the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa121 (Partial)
Roud #4624
NOTES [60 words]: Although large parts of the Appalachians were in Confederate territory, the rough terrain did not encourage slaveholding, and most of the residents remained loyal to the Union. Kentucky stayed with the North, West Virginia seceded from Virginia, and eastern Tennessee welcomed Federal occupying troops. One suspects this song came from one of those regions. - RBW
File: Wa121

Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad

See Going Down this Road Feeling Bad (File: LxU072)

Goin' Down This Road Feelin' Bad

See Going Down this Road Feeling Bad (File: LxU072)

Goin' Down to Cairo

See Black Them Boots (Goin' Down to Cairo) (File: R550)

Goin' Down to Town

See Lynchburg Town (File: Wa181)

Goin' Down Town

See Lynchburg Town (File: Wa181)

Goin' from the Cotton Fields

DESCRIPTION: "I'm goin' from the cotton fields, I'm goin' from the cane, I'm goin' from the old log hut That stands in the lane." Hard times force the singer to move north even though Dinah fears the cold. He regrets home and the old master's grave, but must go
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands), from a manuscript apparently dated before 1895
KEYWORDS: hardtimes home emigration slave travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 121-122, "Goin' from the Cotton Fields" (1 text)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 115, "I'm Gwine from the Cotton Fields" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Fus121 (Partial)
Roud #16311
NOTES [56 words]: This has something of a minstrel feel, given that the singer talks about the "little patch of ground That good old master give me 'Fore the Yankee troops come down," as well as the former slave caring for Master's grave. And yet, the overall feel is quite authentic: Hard times and a hard migration. I've no idea what to make of it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Fus121

Goin' Home

DESCRIPTION: Sung to the swinging of a pick. "Ev'rywhere I look (hanh!), Where I look this mornin'... Look like rain." The singer describes his prowess wit the pick, tells how his girl wants him home, and hopes he can win a pardon from the governor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
LONG DESCRIPTION: As a menhaden chantey: The singer will work "a few days longer" and go home. When he left his woman she cried and asked him not to go. He gets a letter from her every mail day asking him to come home. Looks like rain.
KEYWORDS: prisoner chaingang work separation pardon love home parting return reunion nonballad shanty worksong
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 84-86, Goin' Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Frye-TheMenAllSinging, p. 184, ("I Left my baby standin' in the back door cryin'"); p. 185, ("We're goin' home but got no ready made money") (2 texts)
GarrityBlake-FishFactory, p. 87, ("If I just had me one more dollar and a quarter"); GarrityBlake-FishFactory, p. 88, ("Do you see that dark cloud rising over yonder"); GarrityBlake-FishFactory, p. 99, ("I left my baby standing in the back door crying") (3 fragments)
ADDITIONAL: Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men (New York: Harper Perennial,1990 (paperback edition of J.B. Lippincott, 1935 original)), pp. 269-270, "Mule On de Mount" (1 text, 1 tune) (floating verses: see Notes)
Harold Anderson, "Spotlight on Culture: Menhaden Chanteys - An African American Maritime Legacy" in Maryland Marine Notes, Vol 14, No 1 (Jan-Feb 2000) available at http://www.mdsg.umd.edu/maryland-marine-notes-archive accessed November 12, 2016, p. 2, ("Chesapeake Bay ain't no money makin' country"); p. 5, ("Everywhere I look this morning") (2 texts)
Roud #15035
RECORDINGS:
Bright Light Quartet, ("Cap'n don't you see that dark cloud risin' over yonder") (on LomaxCD1708)
Menhaden Fishermen, "I'm Gonna Roll Here" (on USMenhaden01)
Northern Neck Chantey Singers, "Every Mail Day" (on USMenhaden02)
William Thompson and Group, "Every Mail Day" (on VaWork)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Every Mail Day" (some verses)
NOTES [783 words]: The LomaxCD1708 song is part of the "Menhaden Chanteys" track.
VaWork "Every Mail Day" includes the "Hiking Jerry" verse, at least, from "Mule on the Mountain." These recordings on VaWork are by two different groups.
For more about Hurston's "Mule On de Mount" see "Mule on the Mountain."
"Goin' Home" is a menhaden chanty (as well as a prisoner work song). See the notes to "Help Me to Raise Them" for information about menhaden chanteys. As noted there, there is a general format and tune that seems especially suited for menhaden chanteys shared by "Biting Spider," "Drinking of the Wine," "Evalina," "Going Back to Weldon," "Goin' Home," "Mule on the Mountain," "My Ways Do Seem So Hard," "Poor Lazarus" and "Section Gang Song." In the following discussion, lower case is the precentor chanteyman lining out the verse; upper case is the crew; "(chatter)" is directions called out by the crew about hauling.
There is a *rough* analogy between the phrase structures of these menhaden chanteys and 12-bar blues.
To make my point clearer, here is the second verse of Richard "Rabbit" Brown's "James Alley Blues" (Victor 20578-A, 1927):
I done seen better days (phrase break) but I'm putting up with these
(instrumental response)
I done seen better days (phrase break) but I'm putting up with these
(instrumental response)
I'd have a much better time (phrase break) but these girls now are so hard to please
(instrumental response)
The (instrumental response) in twelve bar blues may vary from a brief pause to an interlude longer than the line that calls it. The (phrase break) may just be a breath.
Here is the second verse of USMenhaden01 version of "Goin' Home":
I left my baby (O LORD) STANDING IN THE BACK DOOR CRYING
(chatter)
I left my baby (O LORD) STANDING IN THE BACK DOOR CRYING
(chatter)
Saying daddy don't you go (O LORD LORD LORD) DADDY DON'T YOU GO
(chatter)
The phrase breaks in menhaden chanteys may be an exclamation -- (O LORD) or (O LORD LORD LORDY) -- or just a breath (as in "My Way Seems So Hard"). The (chatter) is often omitted from recordings.
In both blues and chantey the first line begins a thought without resolution, the second line repeats that to heighten the tension, and the third line resolves the thought. For the chantey the words to a particular verse may vary from crew to crew and perhaps from performance to performance. "Goin' Home" -- without repetition, breaks, chatter, or change of case -- illustrates the variation. (I've included the Hurston and Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs versions as well).
Going home:
I'm gonna roll/row here a few days longer ... I'm going home (Frye, USMenhaden01, VaWork)
If I can make June July and August ... I'll go back home (USMenhaden02, Hurston)
If I can make June July and August ... I'll be a man (GarrityBlake-FishFactory, LomaxCD1708)
Gonna make/If I had me one more dollar and a quarter ... Then I'm going/I'd go back home (Frye, GarrityBlake-FishFactory)
Ready-made money:
How can I stay home I got no ready-made money ... Get around (USMenhaden01)
I can't go home I got no ready-made money ... To pay my way/fare (GarrityBlake-FishFactory, USMenhaden02)
How can I get there ain't got no ready-made money ... To pay my way (VaWork)
I'd go home but I aint got no money ... To pay my way (Frye)
I ain't got no ready-made money ... I cain' go home (Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs)
The letter (also see indexed prison song "Every Mail Day" which includes Warner #173):
Every mail day I get a letter ... Saying daddy come home (USMenhaden01, USMenhaden02)
Every mail day I git a letter ... My son come home (Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, Warner)
Every pay day I gits a letter ... Son come home (Hurston)
Money-making country:
North Carolina is a money-making country ... And that's my home (USMenhaden01)
Chesapeake Bay ain't no money making country ... How do you know, By self experience (Anderson)
Looks like rain:
O captain don't you see that dark cloud rising over yonder ... Looks like rain (USMenhaden01)
O captain don't you see that dark cloud rising over yonder ... First sign of rain (LomaxCD1708)
Everywhere I look this morning ... Sign of rain (Anderson)
Everywhere I look this mornin' ... Looks like rain (Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs)
For the "going home" set, Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry has "I'm go'n' make these few days I started, Then I'm goin' home" (John A Lomax and Alan Lomax, Our Singing Country (New York: The Macmaillan Company, 1949)), pp. 380-381, "Take This Hammer").
For a lined out prison song with the same phrasing but without chatter except for the "huh" after the verse hear "On a Monday" on VaWork. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LxA084

Goin' to Georgia

See I'm Sad and I'm Lonely (File: San243)

Goin' to Have a Talk with the Chief of Police

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes to talk with the police chief, apparently with regard to his "good girl" who has been avoiding him. He looks for her on boats and trains, hopes she will come to love him, and wishes she were not in trouble
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Peelee Hatchee)
KEYWORDS: police love separation
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 98, "Goin' to Have a Talk With the Chief of Police" (1 text); pp. 271-272, "I'm Going Uptown" (1 tune, partial text)
Roud #10993
RECORDINGS:
Peelee Hatchee [pseud. for Emanuel Jones], "Talk with the Chief of Police" (on NFMAla6)
NOTES [23 words]: This song is so confused that I suspect it is composite. Some of it is reminiscent of "Corinna, Corinna" -- but some of it, well, isn't. - RBW
File: CNFM098

Goin' to Leave Ol' Texas

See Going to Leave Old Texas (Old Texas, Texas Song, The Cowman's Lament) (File: FCW066E)

Goin' To Ride On de Cross

See Going To Ride On the Cross (File: Edwa034)

Goin' to Shout All Over God's Heav'n

See All God's Children Got Shoes (File: CNFM067A)

Goin' to Shout All over God's Heaven

See All God's Children Got Shoes (File: CNFM067A)

Goin' to the bathing house

See I Wouldn't Go There Any More (File: Parr119A)

Goin' Up Cripple Creek

See Cripple Creek (I) (?) (File: San320)

Goin' up the Mountain

See Liza Jane (File: San132)

Goin' Where My Troubles Will Be Over

See Little White Robe (File: RcLWRobe)

Going Across the Sea

DESCRIPTION: Floating lyrics, bound by the chorus, "Going (across the sea/to Italy) before long (x3) To see that gal of mine." Sample verses: "Yonder comes a pretty little girl, How do you reckon I know..."; "Finger ring, finger ring, shines like glittering gold..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon), but some of the floating verses show up in Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 88, "Betty Anne", which was collected in 1916.
LONG DESCRIPTION: Floating lyrics, held together by the chorus, "(across the sea/to Italy) (x3) To see that gal of mine." Sample verses: "Yonder comes a pretty little girl, How do you reckon I know..."; "Finger ring, finger ring, shines like glittering gold..."; "I asked that gal to marry me... She said she wouldn't marry me If all the rest was dead."
KEYWORDS: floatingverses courting travel love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 111, "Wish I Had a Needle and Thread" (7 text, of which only "E" is really substantial; it is certainly the "Italy" version of "Going Across the Sea." The other fragments contain verses typical of "Shady Grove," "Old Joe Clark," and others)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 111, "WIsh I Had a Needle and Threat" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 44-45, "Italy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp. 229-230, "Italy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 88, "Betty Anne" (1 text, 1 tune, with lyrics from "Shady Grove," "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss" and "Going Across the Sea")
Roud #11516
RECORDINGS:
Henry L. Bandy, "Going Across the Sea" (Gennett test pressing GEx14360, 1928; unissued; on KMM)
R. D. Burnett & Lynn Woodard, "Going Across the Sea" (recorded for Gennett 1929, but unissued; on BurnRuth01)
Crook Brothers String Band, "Going Across the Sea" (Victor V-40099, 1929)
Zeb Harrelson & M. B. Padgett, "Finger Ring" (OKeh 45078, 1927; rec. 1926)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Italy" (Brunswick 227/Vocalion 5246, 1928) (on BLLunsford01) (Riverside RLP 12-645, 1956)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Going Across the Sea" (Vocalion 15192, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Train on the Island (June Apple/June Appal)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Shady Grove" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Troubled In My Mind" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Took My Gal a-Walkin'" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Chilly Winds" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [38 words]: Given that both songs are almost pure collections of floating verses, it may seem improbable to link "Italy" with "Going Across the Sea." The tunes, however, are the same; under the circumstances, that seems reason enough. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: RcItaly

Going Along

See Crossed Old Jordan's Stream (File: CSW122)

Going Around the World (Banjo Pickin' Girl, Baby Mine)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going across the ocean (friends of mine/baby mine) (x3) If I don't change my notion." "I'm going across the sea... Say you'll love no one but me." "I'm going around the world... (with/I'm) a banjo-pickin' girl." Verses usually about courting
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Mackay, Music: Archibald Johnston
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (antecedent song "Baby Mine" published)
KEYWORDS: courting love nonballad travel music money rambling
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 58-66, "Banjo Pickin' Girl" (5 texts, 2 tunes; the texts with tunes are titled "Baby Mine" and "Banjo Pickin' Girl")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 54, "Baby Mine" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 356-357, "Baby Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11519
RECORDINGS:
R. D. Burnett & Lynn Woodard, "Going Around the World" (recorded for Gennett 1929, but unissued; on BurnRuth01)
Coon Creek Girls, "Banjo-Pickin' Girl" (Vocalion 04413/OKeh 04413, 1938; on GoingDown)
Leslie Keith & the Blue Sky Boys. "Going Around This World" (on Protobilly)
Elizabeth Spencer, "Baby Mine" (CYL: Edison 2383, 1911)
Pete Steele, "Goin' Around This World, Baby Mine" (on PSteele01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Crawdad" (floating lyrics)
cf. "New River Train" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [80 words]: Old-time singers in the Revival era tend to sing this as "Banjo Pickin' Girl," with a much more feminist feel than the earliest version known to me (sung by Burnett and Woodard). I have to suspect that someone (presumably one of the all-girl groups) touched the song up slightly. It is still clearly the same song, however. - RBW
Your suspicion is right on the nose -- it was the Coon Creek Girls. Incidentally, it's been much more commonly recorded as "Banjo-Pickin' Girl." - (PJS)
Last updated in version 6.0
File: RcGAtW

Going Back to Dixie

See I'se Gwine Back to Dixie (File: DTheartd)

Going Back to Weldon

DESCRIPTION: "Going back to Weldon, Get a job in the Weldon yard." "Captain's got a Luger, Mate's got a forty-five." "If you fire me You got to fire all my buddies too" "I don't want no woman Got hair like a horse's mane" "The house is on fire And all goes burning..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1990 (USMenhaden01)
KEYWORDS: work floatingverses nonballad shanty worksong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GarrityBlake-FishFactory, pp. 61-62, ("Captain's got a luger"); p. 88, ("Captain if you fire me"); p. 101, ("The house is on fire") (3 fragments)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Anderson, "Spotlight on Culture: Menhaden Chanteys - An African American Maritime Legacy" in Maryland Marine Notes, Vol 14, No 1 (Jan-Feb 2000) available at http://www.mdsg.umd.edu/maryland-marine-notes-archive accessed November 12, 2016, p. 5, ("The Captain's got a new girl") (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Menhaden Fishermen, "Going Back to Weldon" (on USMenhaden01)
NOTES [222 words]: "Going Back to Weldon" is a menhaden chantey. See the notes to "Help Me to Raise Them" for information about menhaden chanteys. It follows the general format and tune that seems especially suited for many menhaden chanteys. The verse structure is illustrated and discussed in the notes to "Goin' Home."
The "Captain's got a Luger" verse has floated from prison work songs and has become tamer because the relationship between menhaden captain and workers is voluntary. The notes to "They Don't Allow Me To Beat Them" illustrate a couple of prison versions: "Cap'n got a 44 an' he try to play bad, Take it dis mornin' ef he make me mad" and "Captain got a lugger [sic] Tryin' to play bad, I'm goin' to take it in the mornin' If he makes me mad." The menhaden versions are "Captain's got a Luger, And the mate's got a forty five" and "Captain's got a new girl, And the mate's got his eyes on her."
Compare the menhaden verse "I don't want no woman Got hair like a horse's mane" with "She's got eyes like diamonds, her teeth shine just the same, She got sweet ruby lips and hair like a horse's mane" (Jimmie Rodgers, "Blue Yodel No. 3 (Evening Sun Yodel)" (Victor 21-0177, 1928)).
Another Weldon verse is "We will catch a load And get back to Weldon on the road." Weldon may be the site of the railroad yard at Weldon, North Carolina. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: GaBl061

Going Back West 'fore Long

See Going West (File: FCW053)

Going Down the Railroad

DESCRIPTION: "Going down the railroad, Do do do. Oh, Sally, won't you marry? Do do do. Ole Miss Kiser goin' to turn all around (x2), Do do do."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad marriage
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 537, "Going Down the Railroad" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: BrS5537

Going Down the River

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses: "Hey, little girl, if you don't give me dinner/I'll buy me a boat and sail down the river" "Coon Creek's up, Coon Creek's muddy/I'm so drunk I can't stand steady" "Goodbye wife, goodbye baby/Goodbye biscuits sopped in gravy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Dr. Smith's Champion Hoss Hair Pullers)
KEYWORDS: marriage food river dancetune floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, DOWNRIVE
RECORDINGS:
Dr. Smith's Champion Hoss Hair Pullers, "Going Down the River" (Victor 21711, 1928)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Going Down the River" (NLCR13)
NOTES [13 words]: This shouldn't be confused with any of the other "Down the River" songs. - PJS
File: RcGDtRy1

Going Down the Road Feeling Bad

See Going Down this Road Feeling Bad (File: LxU072)

Going Down This Road Feeling Bad

DESCRIPTION: A series of complaints, all ending "And I ain't gonna be treated this a-way." Examples: "I'm going down this road feeling bad." "I'm going where the climate suits my clothes." "I'm tired of lying in this jail." "They feed me on cornbread and beans."
AUTHOR: Unknown, although the credits for Whitter's first recording read "Austin-Mills"
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (recording, Henry Whitter)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes rambling
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 441, "I'm Going Down This Road Feeling Bad" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 441, "I'm Going Down the Road Feeling Bad" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 176, "Goin' Down This Road Feelin' Bad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 22, "I'm Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 72, "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 346-347, "Goin' Down the Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 876-877, "I'm A-Goin' down This Road Feelin' Bad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 206-207, "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 60, "I'm Going Down This Road Feeling Bad" (1 text)
DT, GOINDOWN
Roud #4958
RECORDINGS:
H. M. Barnes & his Blue Ridge Ramblers, "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" (Brunswick 327, 1929)
James Barton, "I'm Going Where The Climate Fits My Clothes" (OKeh 40136, 1924)
Big Bill Broonzy, "Goin' Down the Road" (on Broonzy01)
Samantha Bumgarner, "The Worried Blues/Georgia Blues" (Columbia 166-D, 1924; Harmony 5111-H [as Luella Gardner, "Worried Blues"], n.d.) [Both songs are versions of "Going Down This Road Feeling Bad"]
Jack Burchett, "Chilly Winds (Lonesome Road Blues" (on WatsonAshley01)
Cliff Carlisle, "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" (Banner 32842/Melotone M12821/Oriole 8276/Perfect 12949/Romeo 5276/Cpnqueror 8201, 1933)
Fiddlin' John Carson & his Virginia Reelers, "Goin' Where the Climate Suits My Clothes" (OKeh 45498, 1930)
Dillard Chandler, "Going Down The Road Feeling Bad" (on Chandler01)
Cherokee Ramblers, "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" (Decca 5138, 1935)
George Childers, "Goin' Down This Road Feelin' Bad" (on FolkVisions2)
Elizabeth Cotten, "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad" (on Cotten01)
Cousin Emmy [Cynthia May Carver], "Lonesome Road Blues" (Decca 24215, 1941)
Crazy Hillbillies Band, "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad" (OKeh 45579, 1934)
Ollie Crownover & group "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" (AAFS 3562 B2)
Warde Ford, "I'm going down this road feelin' bad / I ain't gonna be treated this a-way / Goin' down that road feelin' bad" (AFS 4206 A2, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Woody Guthrie, "Blowin' Down This Road" (Victor 26619, 1940); "I'm Goin' Down That Road Feelin' Bad" (AAFS 3418 A1)
Roy Hall's Cohutta Mountain Boys, "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad" (Fortune 170)
Rex & James Hardie, "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" (AAFS 3566 A1)
Sid Harkreader, "Way Down In Jail On My Knees" (Broadway 8115, c. 1930)
The Hillbillies, "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" (Vocalion 5021, c. 1926)
Theophilus G. Hoskins "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" (AAFS 1519 A3)
David, Bill & Bully Ray Johnson, "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad" (on ClassOT)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" (AAFS 1805 B1)
Ray Melton, "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" (AAFS 1347 A2)
David Miller, "Way Down in Jail On My Knees" (Perfect 12697 [as Blind Soldier]/Conqueror 7709, 1931)
John D. Mounce et al, "I'm a-Goin' Down This Road Feelin' Bad" (on MusOzarks01)
J. J. Nesse, J. C. Sutphin & Vernon Sutphin, "Lonesome Road Blues" [instrumental version] (on Stonemans01)
Pie Plant Pete [pseud. for Claude Moye], "Goin' Down the Road" (Decca 5030, 1934)
Joe Rakestraw, "Leavin' Here, Don't Know Where I'm Goin'" (on FolkVisions2)
George Reneau, "Lonesome Road Blues" (Vocalion 5029, c. 1926)
Robert Ricker, "Goin' Down This Road Feelin' Bad" (AAFS 3903 B5)
Roe Bros. & Morrell, "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" (Columbia 15199-D, 1927)
Smith & Irvine, "Lonesome Road Blues" [instrumental version] (Champion 16518, 1932; on StuffDreams1)
Soco Gap Band, "Lonesome Road Blues" (AAFS 3256 B3)
Gussie Ward Stine, "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" (AAFS 4103 B1)
Ernest Stoneman, "Lonesome Road Blues" (OKeh 45094, 1927; on TimesAint02, StuffDreams2)
Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & Uncle John Patterson, "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" (on DownYonder)
Henry Whitter's Virginia Breakdowners, "Lonesome Road Blues" (OKeh 40015, 1924, rec. 1923); "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" (OKeh 40169, 1924)
Williamson Bros. & Curry, "Lonesome Road Blues" (OKeh 45146, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Leavin' Here, Don't Know Where I'm Goin'" ("water tastes like wine" lyric)
SAME TUNE:
Out Past the End of the Line (by Woody Guthrie) (Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 34-35)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Goin' Down this Old Dusty Road
NOTES [163 words]: Botkin credits the words of this piece to Woody Guthrie, and certainly Woody sang the song. But there is every reason to believe it predates him. - RBW
Indeed it does; the Skillet Lickers included it in their skit "A Corn Likker Still in Georgia" in about 1930, and it may have been present in Black tradition before then. [Possibly the confusion arises because Woody used the tune for his own song "Out Past the End of the Line." - RBW]
Confusingly, [Warde] Ford's version is listed in the song catalog as, "I ain't gonna be treated this a-way," although the page is headed "I'm going down this road feelin' bad." He credits learning it from "Kaintucks" in Wisconsin.
Both "Worried Blues" and "Georgia Blues," as recorded by Samantha Bumgarner & Eva Davis, incorporate enough elements of "Goin' Down This Road Feeling Bad" that I classify them here.
I place the Barton record here tentatively, as I have not heard it. The title, however, is far too suggestive to ignore. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LxU072

Going for a Pardon

DESCRIPTION: The pretty little girl on the train has no ticket. Her father is in prison and going blind; she is going for a pardon. The conductor lets her stay on the train. She meets the governor and is granted a pardon for her father
AUTHOR: Words: James Thornton and Clara Hauenschild / Music: James Thornton
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: prison father disability pardon family children train
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 316-320, "Going for a Pardon/The Eastbound Train" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph 721, "Going for a Pardon" (2 texts)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 256-257, "The Eastbound Train" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard,pp. 46-48, "The Eastbound Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7390
RECORDINGS:
Blue Sky Boys, "The East Bound Train" (Bluebird B-8552, Montgomery Ward M-8670, 1940)
Asa Martin, "East Bound Train" (Gennett 6621, Supertone 9178 [as Emmett Davenport], 1928)
Asa Martin & Fiddlin' Doc Roberts, "East Bound Train" (Champion 15585 [as Jesse Coat & John Bishop], Champion 33045, 1928)
Asa Martin & James Roberts "East Bound Train" (Banner 32178, Oriole 8065, Perfect 12711, Romeo 5065, Conqueror 7837, 1931; Broadway 4086, 1932)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner [Mac & Bob], "The Lightning Express" (Brunswick 200, 1928; Brunswick 326, 1929; rec. 1927); "The East Bound Train" (Brunswick 169B, 1927)
Nelstone's Hawaiians, "North Bound Train" (Victor V-40065, 1929)
Riley Puckett, "East Bound Train" (Columbia 15747-D, 1931)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "East Bound Train" (Edison 52299, 1928) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5548, 1928)
"Dock" Walsh, "The East Bound Train" (Columbia 15047-D, 19270
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Please, Mister Conductor (The Lightning Express)" (plot)
NOTES [57 words]: According to Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, pp. 255-256, James Thornton was a very popular songwriter from about 1892 to 1898, producing such songs as "My Sweetheart's the Man in the Moon," "Don't Give Up the Old Love for the New," "She May Have Seen Better Days," and (especially) "When You Were Sweet Sixteen." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R721

Going Over in the Heavenly Land

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "The heavenly land (2x), Just going over in the heavenly land." Verse, for example: "Sinner joins the church and he runs pretty well, Just going..., Before six weeks he's on his road to hell, Just going...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 42, "Jes' Gwine Ober in de Heavenly Lan'" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [28 words]: Barton-OldPlantationHymns also includes floating verses such as "You can hinder me here, but you can't do it there, For He sits in the heavens and he answers prayer." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart042

Going to Boston

DESCRIPTION: Playparty: "Goodbye girls, I'm going to Boston, (x3) Early in the morning." "Rights and lefts and play the better." "Won't you look pretty in the ballroom." The verses may describe the girls following the boys, or may just be about dancing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (JAFL 20)
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, p. 49=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 200-201, "Go to Boston" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 526, "We'll All Go to Boston" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 163-164, "Roll for Boston"; pp. 205-206, "We'll All Go to Boston" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 154, "Going to Boston" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 297-298, "Going to Boston" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 67, "Going to Boston" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 62-64, "[Goin' to Boston]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 19, "Goin' to Boston" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 261, "Going to Boston" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 391, "Going To Boston" (1 text)
DT, GOINBSTN
Roud #3595
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Going to Boston" (on PeteSeeger21)
Art Thieme, "Going to Cairo" (on Thieme05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Paw-Paw Patch" (lyrics)
File: SKE67

Going to Cairo

See Going to Boston (File: SKE67)

Going to Chelsea to Buy a Bun

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl and introduces himself as Harmless James. When she asks to be left alone and refuses his invitation to the Bun House he follows her through the fields until she yields. They marry the next day and she has a fine son.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1829 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(753))
KEYWORDS: courting seduction wedding childbirth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1352, "The Fair Maid of Chelsea" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #946
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(753), "Going to Chelsea to Buy a Bun" ("As I was going to Chelsea one day"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also 2806 c.19(12), "Going to Chelsea to Buy a Bun"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Leave Me Alone
NOTES [28 words]: Greig/Duncan7 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Harding B 25(753) is the basis for the description. - BS
So was the guy buying a bun, or looking to put one in the oven?
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71352

Going to Church Last Sunday

See Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)

Going to Clonakilty the Other Day

DESCRIPTION: The singer "was going to Clonakilty" and met "Dan and Miley ... and Gerry Connors and his hair." They step into a pub: "we'll fix it here." At the end the singer still has a fiver and claims someone should not brag, having been "born in the wagon"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: drink money hair
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #16694
RECORDINGS:
Mary Delaney, "Going to Clonakilty the Other Day" (on IRTravellers01)
NOTES [49 words]: Jim Carroll's notes to IRTravellers01: "One of numerous pieces made up by Travellers concerning a small incident among themselves ... the details of which are probably long forgotten, leaving only a handful of verses."
I assume "being born in the wagon" is equivalent to being a Traveller. - BS
File: RcGtCtOD

Going to German

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I'm going to German', I'll be back some old day (x3)." "Tell me, mama, what more can I do? I been around the world, can't get along with you." The singer says he has paid the girl's fine, but they still didn't get along. He now has a new girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, [Gus] Cannon's Jug Stompers)
KEYWORDS: travel love abandonment
FOUND IN: US
Roud #29273
RECORDINGS:
[Gus] Cannon's Jug Stompers, "Going to Germany" (Victor 38585, 1929; Victor 21351, Bluebird B5413, 1930s)
NOTES [57 words]: Jerry Silverman thinks this is a First World War song. but there is absolutely no hint in the song that the singer is a soldier, no mention of fighting, no mention of the Kaiser. Bob Bovee notes that, although Gus Cannon (who seems to be the ultimate source) called the song "Going to Germany," everyone sings the song "Going to German." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcGoToG

Going to Heaven

See I Am Going to Heaven (File: Br3533)

Going to Heaven by the Light of the Moon

See In the Morning by the Bright Light (File: R304)

Going to Kentucky

DESCRIPTION: We're going to Kentucky" or "the tatty" ... "going to the fair, To see the senorita" or "Cinderella" "with flowers in her hair." Instructions to twist, or shimmy, or turn around.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond)) Canada(Ont) South Africa
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 122, "Going to Kentucky" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #19158
File: OpGa122

Going to Leave Old Texas (Old Texas, Texas Song, The Cowman's Lament)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going to leave old Texas now, They've got no use for the longhorn cow...." The singer departs to "make his home on the wide wide range." When he dies, he will "take [his] chance on the holy one."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Sanders-SingHighSingLow)
KEYWORDS: cowboy travel death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 66, "The Trail to Mexico" (5 texts, 1 tune, of which only the "E" text goes here; "A" and "B" are "The Trail to Mexico" and "C" and "D" are "Early, Early in the Spring")
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 224-227, "I'm Going to Leave Old Texas Now" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 233, 240, 308, 317, 441, 458, "Ol' Texas"/"I'm Going to Leave Ol' Texas" (notes only)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, pp. 16-17, "Goin' to Leave O'' Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 67, "Ol' Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 21, "Goin' To Leave Ol' Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Ol' Texas" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 2)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 8, "Ol' Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDTEXAS
Roud #12711
RECORDINGS:
Harry Jackson, "I'm Gonna Leave Old Texas Now" (on HJackson1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (tune)
NOTES [21 words]: Often sung to the tune of "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie," but Gordon Bok's family tradition includes a different tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FCW066E

Going to Little Creek

See Cripple Creek (I); also Ida Red (I) (File: San320)

Going to Live Humble to the Lord

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Humble, humble, humble yourselves, Going to live humble to the Lord"(2x). Verse: The singer, who has "my trials," was "walking along... elements opened... love came down." If you aim for the sky, don't lie.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 6-7, "Gwine to Live Humble to de Lord" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 135 in the 1901 edition)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 54, "Live a Humble"; p. 74, "Live a Humble" (2 copies of the same text))
Roud #11952
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hide Away (Jonah and the Whale)" (chorus: "Live humble ....")
NOTES [115 words]: Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses include the floater, "If you get there before I do, Tell all my friends I'm coming too." The second and fourth line of each verse is "Going to live humble to the Lord." - BS
Work's version is quite different, with chorus, "Live a humble, humble, humble yourself, the bells done rung" (repeated. There is no internal refrain in the verses. I was very tempted to split them. But it's very hard to define this sort of plot-less, idea-less, song that almost certainly originated among illiterate slaves or ex-slaves. Roud lumps the two, so I do too, because there isn't much actual point in splitting them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Dett006

Going to Mass Last Sunday

See Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)

Going to Pull My War-Clothes

See Down By the Riverside (Study War No More) (File: San480)

Going to Rest from All My Labor

DESCRIPTION: Verse format: First line ending "when I'm dead" is repeated, followed by "In the morning O Lord, My soul's so happy now, O Lord when I'm dead." First lines include "I'm going to rest from all my labor," "Going to rally with the angel Gabriel"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 244-245, "Gwine T' Res from All My Labuh" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR244A

Going to Ride in the Chariot in the Morning

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Swing low, Going to ride the chariot in the morning, Elijah, going to ride the chariot in the morning." Verses: "Swing low chariot in the East (West, North, South), Let God's people have some peace (some rest, a talk, a shout)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 100, "Swing Low, Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 125 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #5435
File: Dett100

Going To Ride On the Cross

DESCRIPTION: "My Jesus, Going to ride on the cross (3x), In heaven forever more." "Jesus, says he's better than gold (3x), In heaven forever more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 34, "Goin' To Ride On de Cross" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [12 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa034

Going to Ride Up in the Chariot

See I Hope I'll Join the Band (Soon in the Morning) (File: R266)

Going to See My Girl

See When I Get On My Bran' New Suit (File: Fus158A)

Going to See My True Love (Jenny Get Around)

DESCRIPTION: "The days are long and lonesome, The nights are gettin' cold, I'm goin' to see my true love 'Fore I get too old. O get around, Jenny, get around, O get around I say... long summer's day." Mostly floating verses, mostly about courting
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (collected from James Mullins, according to Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: love courting dancing floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 192-193, "[Goin' to See My True Love]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 63-64, "Jinny Get Around" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9175
NOTES [111 words]: This is one of those Great Floating Verse collections; every line of this song (as printed by Jean Ritchie) can be found somewhere else: "The days are long and lonesome, The nights are gettin' cold, I'm goin' to see my true love 'Fore I get too old." "I went up on the mountain, Give my horn a blow, Thought I heard that pretty girl say Yonder comes my beau!" "Asked that girl to marry me, Tell you what she did, Picked her up a knotty pine stick And like to broke my head." And so forth.
The result reminds me most of "Train on the Island (June Apple)," but the tune is utterly different. Jean Ritchie mentions a comparison to "Napoleon Crossing the Rockies." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: JRSF192

Going to the Mexican War

See Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle); also Little Pink, etc. (File: R524)

Going to the Zoo

DESCRIPTION: "Daddy's taking us to the zoo tomorrow... and we can stay all day." "We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo, You can come too, too, too." They will see various animals -- elephant, monkey, bear, seal. At the end, they go home tired
AUTHOR: Tom Paxton
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad father
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 550, "Going to the Zoo" (notes only)
DT, GOINGTOZ
NOTES [102 words]: This was one of several Tom Paxton songs converted into illustrated books around the 1990s. It was illustrated by Karen Lee Schmidt and published by HarperCollins in 1996; there was apparently a second edition in 1999 by Scholastic.
I find it interesting that Tom Paxton has, as of this writing, five songs in the Index -- "The Marvelous Toy," "The Last Thing on My Mind," "My Ramblin' Boy," "Going to the Zoo," and "I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound" -- and all were written and recorded very early in his career. Nor have I seen any hints of any of his later songs matching those five in popularity. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ACSF550Z

Going Up

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I'm going up, going up, Going all the way, Lord, Going up, going up, To see the heavenly land" (x2). Verses: The singer will keep climbing to see the angels, and likes best the shouting Methodists who drive the devil away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Devil
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 34-35, "Gwine Up (Oh Yes, I'm Gwine Up)" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 216-217 in the 1874 edition)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 66, "Oh, Yes, I'm Going Up" (1 text)
Roud #12080 and 12356
File: Dett034

Going Up (Golden Slippers II)

DESCRIPTION: "What kind of shoes are you going to wear? Golden slippers (x2) Golden slippers, I'm a-going away... To live with the Lord. Goin' up (x13) to live with the Lord." "What kind of robes are you going to wear? Long white robes." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (recording, Fisk Univ. Jubilee Quartet)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 571, "Golden Slippers" (1 text)
Roud #11835
RECORDINGS:
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "Golden Slippers" (Victor 16453, 1910; rec. 1909)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "What Kind of Crowns Do the Angels Wear?" (floating verses)
NOTES [40 words]: Although the editors of Brown seem to think this is the same as the standard "Golden Slippers," it clearly is something else again, though perhaps inspired by memories of the other.
The tune given in BrownV is the usual "Golden Slippers." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3571

Going Up Camborne Hill, Coming Down

DESCRIPTION: "Going up Camborne Hill, coming down (x2), The horses stood still, the wheels turned around, Going up Camborne Hill, coming down." "White stockings she wore (x6), Going up Camborne Hill, coming down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall)
KEYWORDS: clothes railroading horse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 53, "Going Up Camborne Hill, Coming Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3102
RECORDINGS:
Barry Osborne, Jill Fox, "Up Cambourne Hill" (Piotr-Archive #571, recorded 04/27/2023)
File: Gund053A

Going Up Hippocreek

See Cripple Creek (I); also Ida Red (I) (File: San320)

Going West

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going out west before long (x2), I'm going out west where times are best." "My boy, he's gone west... and he'll never come back." "Little girlie, don't cry when I tell you goodbye." "You promised you'd marry me." "Lay your hand in mine...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: love courting separation travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 53, "Going West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 296, "Going Back West 'fore Long" (1 fragment, too short to classify but it might well be this piece)
Roud #5113
NOTES [31 words]: Roud lumps this with "I Am Going to the West." That song, however, is a parting song, with the singer leaving because his land is ruined. The only common element is the migration theme. - RBW
File: FCW053

Gol-Darned Wheel, The

DESCRIPTION: The cowboy boasts of his skill with horses. But a tenderfoot brings in a "gol-darned wheel" (bicycle). The cowboys get the singer to ride it, but it won't stop when he pulls on the handles. He crashes, but is glad that the "wheel" is even more damaged
AUTHOR: James B. Adams
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Recreation magazine; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: humorous cowboy technology injury
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 16, "The Gol-Darned Wheel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 71-74, "The Gol-Darned Wheel" (1 text)
DT, GDWHEEL*
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, pp. 40-41, "The Gol-darned Wheel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jack H. Lee, _Cowboy Songs_, McKee Printing Co, 1934, p. 40.
Hal Cannon, editor, _Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering_, Giles M. Smith, 1985, pp. 10-11, "The Gol-Darned Wheel" (1 text)
Roud #4043
RECORDINGS:
Glenn Ohrlin, "Gol Darn Wheel" (on Ohrlin01)
The Westerners (Massey Family) "Gol-Darn Wheel" (ARC 6-01-54(C 843-1) Chicago, IL,  Wednesday 14, 1934 (Curt Massey f, Larry Wellington, ac, Allen Massey v/g, Milt Mabie, sb. Tony Russell, p. 610.)
Marc Williams, "The Gol-Durned Wheel" (on BackSaddle)
NOTES [173 words]: This song is item dB38 in Laws's Appendix II.
Gary Stanton has done research on this song, and sent me the following: [- RBW]
This past spring [2014],in using the Library of Congress "Chronicling Historic America" site, I brought up the front page of the St. Johns' Herald (Apache County, Arizona Territory) 14 March 1896, [which printed] the stanzas to "The Cowboy and the Wheel." But the tag line was "Gol Darned Wheel." Just below the title was a bracketed source "[Recreation]" but no author. Well, Recreation was the name of a sporting magazine published by G. O. Shields, as the publication of the American Canoist's Association. In the February 1896 issue he published, "The Cowboy and the Wheel," by James B. Adams. James Barton Adams was a newspaper man in Denver and published Breezy Western Verse in 1899, but this poem was not included. What this information lacks is identifying who first put the tune to the verses but it must have been relatively soon after being composed. It is very well distributed across the West.
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Ohr016

Gold

DESCRIPTION: "When the gold fever ranged I was doing well," but nonetheless the singer sets out (for California). He meets hard times, and misses his wife and family. He imagines himself at home, but wakes to find it was a dream. He returns to his miserable mining
AUTHOR: Enuel Davis?
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes family loneliness dream gold warning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 346-347, "Gold" (1 text)
Roud #7774
NOTES [48 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety mentions that this was written "by Enuel Davis," who contributed other complaints about the trail to California, and sung to the tune of "Lily Dale." But in context, it appears possible that Davis was the transcriber or publisher. - RBW
File: Beld346

Gold Band, The

DESCRIPTION: "Goin' to march away in the gold band, in the army, bye and bye (x2) Sinner, what you gonna on that day (x2), When the fire's a-rolling behind you, In the army, bye and bye." "Sister Mary's goin' to hand down the robe... the robe and the gold band"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious army
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 85, "The Gold Band" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 289-290, "The Gold Band" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, p. 74, "The Gold Band" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11632
File: SCW74

Gold Digger's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am going far away from my creditors just now, I ain't got the tin to pay 'em, and they're kicking up a row." He is fleeing because all the talk about gold was false. He doesn't know where he would go. If he were President, there would be no debts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (Hunter, Reminiscences of an Old Timer, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: gold hardtimes travel escape
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 91, "The Gold Digger's Lament" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #779, p. 52, "The Gold Digger's Lament" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 48 and #3/62, p. 55, "The Gold-Digger's Lament" (1 text)
Roud #38052
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jeanette and Jeannot" (tune) and references there
File: LDC091

Gold Dust Fire, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ain't that a pity, oh Lord (x3), Ain't that a pity 'bout the Gold Dust men. Some got scalded, some got drowned, Some got burnt up in the Gold Dust fire"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: river ship disaster fire
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 7, 1882 - Explosion of the packet Gold Dust, killing 17 and wounding 47
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 41-43, "The Gold Dust Fire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10011
File: MWhee041

Gold Is the Great Friend of the Masses

DESCRIPTION: "Gold is the great friend of the masses, The mainstay of the classes, The great aim of the lasses, And the ruin of the asses."
AUTHOR: Charles Thatcher? (source: Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: gold nonballad
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 55, "(Gold Is the Great Friend of the Masses)" (1 short text)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 273, "(Gold is the great friend of the masses)" (1 short text)
NOTES [29 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BaRo055B

Gold Is the Root of Evil

See You Rambling Boys of Pleasure (Down by Sally's Garden) (File: FowM059)

Gold Spoons vs. Hard Cider

DESCRIPTION: "In a cabin made of logs, By the river side, There the Honest Farmer lives, Free from sloth and pride." This contrasts to the "Tinsell'd finery" of Martin (van Buren). "THe farmer" eats crackers, cheese, cider. Martin's lackeys block the farmer's way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (Poughkeepsie Journal, according to Nestler)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad food farming
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 2, 1840 - William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren
Mar 4, 1841 - Harrison (the first Whig to be elected President) is inaugurated. He gives a rambling inaugural address in a rainstorm and catches cold
April 4, 1841 - Harrison dies of pneumonia, making him the first president to fail to complete his term. After some hesitation, Vice President John Tyler is allowed to succeed as President
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 106-107, "Gold Spoons vs. Hard Cider" (1 text)
A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p. 73, "Gold Spoons vs. Hard Cider" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Tippecanoe (I)" (subject of the Harrison/van Buren election) and references there
NOTES [41 words]: Lest we think that Donald Trump is the only President who had no acquaintance with the truth, this song is, for all practical purposes, pure lies. Martin van Buren grew up fairly poor, and William Henry Harrison was not a poor but honest farmer. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Nest106

Gold Strike

DESCRIPTION: "There's gold in the hills, gold in the streams, I'm goin' down to Dahlonega, honey lamb, The great gold rush is on." The first gold was found by Benjamin Parks in 1828. People are still panning for gold. Local industries stamp out the gold
AUTHOR: Ray Knight
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: gold nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 213, "Gold Strike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16277
File: Rose213

Gold Watch [Laws K41]

DESCRIPTION: A sailor sees a girl and asks her to sleep with him. After an initial show of reluctance, she agrees to a fee of five guineas. They go to supper and then to bed. When he awakens, the girl is gone -- as are his money and his gold watch
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: sex seduction robbery whore humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws K41, "Gold Watch"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 52, "Gold Watch" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 417, RMBSAIL2*
Roud #1901
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shirt and the Apron" [Laws K42] (plot)
cf. "Maggie May" (plot)
cf. "Can't You Dance the Polka (New York Girls)" (plot)
cf. "Dixie Brown" [Laws D7] (plot)
cf. "The Poor Chronic Man" (plot)
cf. "The Winnipeg Whore" (plot)
cf. "The Red Plaid Shawl" (plot)
cf. "The Rookery" (plot)
cf. "The Young Man Badly Walked" (plot)
cf. "Roving Jack the Baker" (plot, with sex roles reversed)
File: LK41

Gold Watch and Chain (I)

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells girl that he would pawn his gold watch and chain, his ring, and his heart if she would love him again. He demands that she give back the gifts he's given her, including a lock of hair and a picture, and laments her unfaithfulness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Ephraim Woodie & The Henpecked Husbands)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal floatingverses gift
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, GOLDWTCH
Roud #16993
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Gold Watch and Chain" (Victor 23821, 1933; Montgomery Ward M-7354, c. 1937)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Gold Watch and Chain" (on NLCR13, NLCREP2)
Ephraim Woodie & The Henpecked Husbands, "Last Gold Dollar" (Columbia 15564-D, 1930; rec. 1929; on LostProv1)
File: DTgoldwt

Gold Watch and Chain (II)

See The Female Highwayman [Laws N21] (File: LN21)

Gold Watch, The

DESCRIPTION: A con man allows a farmer to embarass him into making a foolish bet: that his fancy gold watch chain is not attached to a watch. Other farmers take part of the bet. The con man wins by revealing a hidden watch.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(4308))
LONG DESCRIPTION: A well dressed out-of-town con man walked into an inn parlor and feigned sleeping. A farmer found that the stranger's gold watch chain was attached to a piece of wood in his watch pocket, rather than to a watch. The farmer bet the stranger that he had no watch attached to the chain [which, I assume, would be an embarassment to the stranger], and other farmers joined in the bet. The con man opened the piece of wood, revealed a gold watch hidden inside, and won the bets.
KEYWORDS: wager trick
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 257-258, "The Gold Watch" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 234)
Roud #1311
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4308), "The Wooden Watch" ("A stranger once in Worcestershire") , W.S Fortey. (London), 1858-1885
File: WT257

Gold's a Wonderful Thing

DESCRIPTION: "Gold's a wonderful thing, what a change it can make, 'Tis the great civiliser... It peoples the country; wherever it's found, There's certain to be a great rush to the ground." The song lists some who grew rich, and the gold-seekers and girls who follow
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Thatcher's Wit and Humour, according to Mike Harding, _When the Pakeha Sings of Home: A Source Guide to the Folk & Popular Songs of New Zealand_)
KEYWORDS: gold humorous travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 56, "Gold's a Wonderful Thing" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 34 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 95, "(Olden Days of Lake Wakitipu)" (1 short text)
Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, p. 57, "(Olden Days of Lake Wikatipu)" (1 excerpt); pp. 180-182, "Gold"; compare pp. 169-171, "Olden Days at Lake Wakatipu" (1 text)
NOTES [136 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong.
This song poses a bit of a conundrum, because Charles Thatcher wrote at least two items beginning "Gold's a Wonderful Thing." Given the likelihood of cross-fertilization, and the lack of evidence that either one is traditional, I've lumped them -- and used the title Gold's a Wonderful Thing" because it's clearly more memorable than Thatcher's titles. What appears to be the more common text was originally titled "Olden Days of Lake Wakatipu," with the tune is listed as "St. Giles and St. James's"; the other one, which Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher just calls "Gold," is to the tune of the Irish Washerwoman. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Colq034

Golden Altar, The

See John Saw the Holy Number (File: Br3538)

Golden apple, lemon and a pear

See Rosey Apple Lemon and Pear (File: MSNR071)

Golden Axe, The

DESCRIPTION: "Join that happy band." "Crawled to the chicken coup on my knees, Thought I heard a chicken sneeze...." "Hawk's a-setting on the railroad tack Picking his teeth with a carpet tack... hit him on the head with the golden axe."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: violence nonsense floatingverses humorous parody nonballad animal chickens
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 284, "The Golden Axe" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 177-178, "Oh Hear That Trumpet Sound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7785
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Henhouse Door (Who Broke the Lock?)" (floating verse)
cf. "Polly Wolly Doodle" (floating verse)
cf. "Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady)" (gospel parody)
NOTES [82 words]: The "join that happy band" chorus is "Oh hear that trumpet sound Stand up and don't set down If you don't join that happy band What you gonna do when they chop you on the head with the golden axe" marks this as a gospel parody.
The "chicken sneeze" verse is a floater; see, for the whole verse, the entry for "Henhouse Door (Who Broke the Lock?)" The carpet tack verse can also be found in "Polly Wolly Doodle" (see, for example, Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 462). - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: R284

Golden Ball, The

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Golden Bible, The

DESCRIPTION: "A new Golden Bible was lately discovered, Which for six thousand years could not be found." The singer describes "The new Golden Bible, the new-fangled Bible... that lay under the ground," and all the great figures, like Moses, who never saw it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1837 (Painsville [Ohio] Telegraph, May 26, 1837, according to Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle)
KEYWORDS: derivative humorous | Book of Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, pp. 118-121, "The Golden Bible" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Oaken Bucket" (tune) and references there
NOTES [412 words]: I have no evidence that this is traditional, but better to leave it in just to be sure.
According to W. Paul Reeve and Ardis E. Parshall, editors, Mormonism: A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2010, p. 72,
"The Book of Mormon is a book of scripture used by embers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), the Community of Christ (formerly known as the Reorganized CHurch of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or RLDS), and all other denominations that look to Joseph Smith (1805-1844) as their founding prophet. Published in Palmyra, New York, in the spring of 1830, it is the foundational text of the LDS Church and is the source of its nickname, the Mormon Church.
"Joseph Smith, named according to copyright laws as author and proprietor of the book, claimed to have translated the Book of Mormon from ancient metal plates whose location was revealed to him in 1823 by an angel named Moroni. The narrative begins in Jerusalem in 600 BC with the prophet Lehi, who sailed with his family to the Americas." Although this quote doesn't say so, Smith describes the metal plates as being made of gold; hence the song's reference to the Golden Bible.
There is of course reason to suspect that Joseph Smith -- who according to his biographer Fawn M. Brodie had a history of trying get-rich-quickly-at-others'-expense schemes -- made up the Book of Mormon. But this song lays it on too thick. Moses, if he existed, probably lived around 1200 BCE; David died around 950 BCE; Solomon died before 900 BCE; thus they could not have known the Book of Mormon even if Smith's claimed history were true. And it is demonstrable that Luther, Calvin, etc. worked with substantially defective copies of the New Testament, so the fact that they didn't know the Book of Mormon is not an argument relevant to its historical significance or even its canonical state. As a non-Mormon, I found the first few lines of this a lot of fun. But then it started laying it on a little too thick, exchanging logical argument for illogical, and asserting as true things which are at least subject to question.
There is an actual book called the Golden Bible (several, in fact), because they have so much gold leaf in them. Echternach has a Golden Bible, "Codex Aureus"; Stockholm has another "Codex Aureus"; Munich's Bible of St. Emmeram is also a "Codex Aureus"; there are a few other golden codices which are of less note because the quality of their texts is very inferior. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSSS118

Golden Carol, The (The Three Kings)

DESCRIPTION: "Now is Christemas y-come, Father and Son together in one, Holy Ghost us be on...." The song announces Christmas, then tells the story of the "three kings" who came, visited Herod, saw Jesus, offered their gifts, and went home another way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1475 (Oxford, Bodleian ms. Eng. Poet. e. 1)
KEYWORDS: Jesus Bible Christmas carol religious MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #125, pp. 82-86, "(no title)" (3 texts plus variant readings)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 110-112, "Now is Christmas Ycome" (1 text); pp.112-115, "Reges de Saba venient/Now is the Twelfth Day ycome" (a sort of parallel/sequel to the preceding)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 107, "The Three Kings" (1 text)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 173, "The Golden Carol" (1 text plus a tune by Vaughan Williams)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #2333; an Epiphany version is #2339
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3763 and #3769
MANUSCRIPT: {MSCambridgeS54}, Cambridge, St. John’s College MS. S.54 (Cambridge University 259), folio 7 [IMEV #2339]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 17 [IMEV #2339]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 31 [IMEV #2339]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSHarley541}, London, British Library, MS. Harley 541, folio 214 [IMEV #2333]
ST OBB107 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Three Kings (Kings of Orient)" (subject)
cf. "Be mery all that be present, Omnes de Saba venient" (lyric on Herod and the wise men, from Richard Hill's manuscript; see Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, #1, p. 1) (lyrics)
NOTES [1510 words]: This is essentially the story told in Matt. 2:1-12. It should be noted, however, that
1. There is no reason to believe that there were three visitors from the east. All we know is that they gave three gifts -- and although one of the gifts was gold, it certainly wasn't enough to make Jesus's family rich.
2. They may not even have been from the east (the orient); it was the *star* which was in the east if anything was (Albright/Mann, p. 12, suggest that Greek ανατολη, "anatole," should be rendered "rising" -- i.e. the reading is that the visitors saw the star "in/at the rising." Both the major Greek lexicons -- Liddell & Scott for classical Greek and Baur for Koine Greek -- agree with this interpretation, although there are some New Testament uses where "east," or the direction of dawn, clearly seems indicated. Beare, p. 77, says that the use of a plural in verse 1 and a singular in verse 2 means that the word in verse 2 must mean rising). The only real indication that the visitors were from the east is the fact that magi were mostly Babylonian.
3. The visitors were not kings and were not wise men. They were "magi" -- Babylonian mystics and perhaps astrologers. Jews would generally consider magi to be evil sorcerers (the Greek word μαγος, "magos," apart from the uses in Matt. 2:1, 7, 16, is used only in Acts 13:6, 8 of Elymias, clearly an evil magician. Simon Magus, a magician who claimed to be "the great power of God," worked μαγια, "magia," in Acts 8, although he isn't called a "Magos" explicitly in Acts; he was only called by the title "magus" in post-canonical works). Albright/Mann are among the many commentators who explicitly translate the word as "magi," not "wise men" as in the King James Version; the New English Bible's "astrologers" is better but still a little deceiving. Fenton, p. 46, demonstrates that it was understood as "magician" or "diviner" in the early church; Ignatius of Antioch, in the early second century, says that the appearance of the star signaled the fading of the power of magic.
Beare, p. 77, declares that "the magoi from the east are undoubtedly introduced in the character of astrologers, perhaps from Iran, but more likely from Arabia, the source of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, at least according to Hebrew poetic convention (Isa. 60:6; Cant. 3:6...). The early iconographic tradition represents them uniformly as Persians. 'But attempts to determine the country intended are guesses' (McNeile)."
According to James, p. xxvii, "It is not before the sixth century that [the Magi are]... described [as kings], at least commonly, though Kerhrer quotes a passage from Tertullian (adv. Marc. III.13) which is capable of being interpreted in that sense."
What's more, the Latin Vulgate -- the official Bible of the Catholic Church at the time this was written, when few in the West knew Greek -- correctly renders the word in Matthew 2:1 as "magi," not kings or wise men.
I wouldn't bet more than I can afford on their other gifts being frankincense and myrrh, either (there is no question about the meaning of the word "gold"). The word λιβανος, "libanos," "frankincense," is found in the New Testament only here and in Rev. 18:13 -- and it is also the name of the Lebanon mountain range, so it might mean "the thing from Lebanon." (Although the word tus, the word used in the Latin Vulgate translation which was "the Bible" of England at the time this was written, unquestionably means "incense.")
"Myrrh" is even more interesting. It's also a rare word (σμυρνα, "smyrna") which occurs only here and in John 19:39. And it too can be a place name, Smyrna (which also occurs a couple of times in the New Testament), so it could be "the thing from Smyrna." Also, two very important manuscripts, D and W* (both from probably the fifth century, making them two of the six oldest copies of this passage) read ζμυρνα, "zmyrna." This is probably just an orthographic variant -- Greek, like English, was a bit inconsistent in its use of "s" and "z" -- but still, there is variation in the manuscripts. Here again, though, the Vulgate is clear: it reads "myrrh." Thus the carol is unquestionably right about what the Vulgate reads; it's just that the Greek is slightly more doubtful.
Albright/Mann, p. 13, make the interesting comment that "Myrrh was certainly suitable for a king, and was used at his anointing (cf. Ps[alm] xlv 8). But the gifts were also part of the common stock-in-trade of magi, and magical charms were written with myrrh-ink..... Regarded as the tools of a trade, offerings of the magi would not be gifts of homage, but a declaration of dissociation from former practice."
Greene-Earliest, p. 377, says that only one of the four copies of this appears as "a true carol with a burden," and that the burden does not metrically match the text, although he also notes a discontinuity in another copy, meaning it might have had a (more suitable) burden. But the "probability is that the original form of the piece was that of a song without a burden, particularly as the 'bob-and-wheel' type of stanza is not frequently combined with a burden." All this is true and argues against this song being traditional. But we can certainly say that it was popular.
The Oxford Book of Carols cites this as from Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), a famous anthology of about 75 poems (Chambers, p. 96, says 75, 63 of them in English, 28 four elsewhere), Notably, if I count correctly, 17 of the 75 pieces in the Bodleian manuscript are also found in Oxford, Balliol Library 354, the Richard Hill manuscript (although Greene-Selection, p. 179, says there are only thirteen -- either way, a very high number; that's almost a quarter of the total!) I don't have an explanation for this link, but it strikes me as probably significant.
There are also, according to Greene-Selection, eight pieces shared with Sloane 2593 (Chambers, p. 96, says just six), the famous Sloane Lyrics; for more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115].
Greene-Selection, p. 169, dates the Bodleian manuscript to the late fifteenth century, and is of the opinion that it is from the Beverly Minster in Yorkshire (a suggestion tentatively accepted also by Julia Boffey on p. 224 of FeinEtAl); Boffey considers it a choir songbook (Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 207). Greene suspects an interest in St. John the Evangelist, based on the presence of two carols to St. John. Greene-Selection declares that "No other MS. except Balliol 354 has correspondences with so many of the known carol manuscripts." On p. 180 he concludes that it was used both before and after the Reformation, because it includes pieces on Thomas Becket which were defaced. A few pieces have music, although most do not.
Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 includes the following songs which are in the Index:
• Assay Thy Friend Ere Thou Hast Need {Brown/Robbins #3820; also in Balliol 354}
• Bring Us Good Ale (Brown/Robbins #549)
• The First Day of Yule (Brown/Robbins #3343; also in Sloane 2593)
• Gabriel of High Degree (Brown/Robbins #889; also in Balliol 354)
• Gabriel That Angel Bright (Brown/Robbins #890; also in Balliol 354)
• The Golden Carol (The Three Kings) (Brown/Robbins #2333)
• The Gossips' Meeting (Brown/Robbins #1362; also in Balliol 354)
• In Bethlehem, that Fair City (Brown/Robbins #1471; also in Balliol 354)
• Mary for the Love of Thee (Brown/Robbins #2098; also in Balliol 354)
• O Mary Mother (Brown/Robbins #1219/2211; also in Balliol 354 and Sloane 2593)
• Of a Rose, a Lovely Rose (Brown/Robbins #1914; also in Balliol 354)
• Pray for Us, Thou Prince of Peace (Brown/Robbins #3776; also in Balliol 354)
• Some Be Merry and Some Be Sad (Women, Women, Love of Women) (Brown/Robbins #3171; also in Balliol 354)
• The Salutation Carol (Brown/Robbins #3736; also in Balliol 354)
• This Endris Night (Brown/Robbins #3627; also in Balliol 354 and Sloane 2593)
• Tyrle, Tyrlo (Tyrley, Tyrlow) (Brown/Robbins #112; also in Balliol 354)
The manuscript also shares with Balliol 354 something very similar to "Things Impossible"; see the notes to that song. It also has "Holly and Ivy Made a Great Party" (Brown/Robbins #1225; for this see the notes on "The Holly and the Ivy"), "Timor Mortis Conturbat Me" (Brown/Robbins #375), a boar's head song (although not the usual "Boar's Head Carol"; it begins "At the begynning of the mete"; Brown/Robbins #436), another Gabriel song, "Gabriel that angell bryght," shared with the Hill manuscript (Brown/Robbins #890); and other secular poems on religious themes.
However, the Index of Middle English Verse says that the version with the Oxford Book's first line is from British Library MS Harley 541, folio 214a. One may suspect the Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols version of being conflated.
The text is also found in the small booklet Cambridge, St. John's College MS. S.54, which has been suspected of being a traveling musician's notebook. For more about this manuscript, see the notes to "Mary for the Love of Thee (Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay)." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: OBB107

Golden Chain

DESCRIPTION: "Now the golden chain is broken, And you are forever free, I have not one tie or token That I've kept (to?) remember thee." "Take them as a vow I send you: You to me (are) forever dead." "You have wrecked a heart that loved you." And you'll be sorry, too
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 53, "Golden Chain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5114
File: Arn053

Golden City

See The Wind (Rain, Rain, the Wind Does Blow) (File: RcRRtWDB)

Golden Dagger, The

See The Silver Dagger (I) [Laws G21] (File: LG21)

Golden Gate Firmly Locked

DESCRIPTION: "Fellow countrymen, four hundred million strong," the Chinese are often skilled. They want to come to America, "but are barred." The singer wishes for wings to fly past the barbarians
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Jinshan ge ji, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: emigration discrimination China
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 666, "[Golden Gate Firmly Locked]" (1 text)
NOTES [19 words]: For some background on Chinese immigration and the Chinese Exclusion Act, see the notes to "The Heathen Chinese." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: CAFS2666

Golden Glove, The (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20]

DESCRIPTION: A lady is to be married, but finds she prefers the farmer who is to give her away. She pleads illness and calls off the wedding. She claims she has lost a glove (which she placed on the farmer's land) and will marry whoever finds it. The rest is obvious
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(181))
KEYWORDS: clothes courting marriage trick
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,West,South),Scotland) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (44 citations):
Laws N20, "The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun)"
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #11, pp. 106-108, "The Golden Glove, or The 'Squire of Tamworth" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 290-292, "The Golden Glove, or, The Squire of Tamworth" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #95, p. 2, "The Golden Glove" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 166, "The Golden Glove" (7 texts, 3 tunes)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 583, "Golden Glove" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #17, "The Golden Glove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 58-59, "The Golden Glove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 49-51,173, "The Golden Glove" (2 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #26, "Golden Glove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 229-231, "Dog and Gun (The Golden Glove)" (1 text plus 2 extracts and fragments of 2 more, 1 tune)
Randolph 71, "With Her Dog and Gun" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 95-97, "With Her Dog and Gun" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 71A)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 64, "Dog and Gun" (2 texts)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 73, "The Dog and the Gun" (1 text plus an excerpt and mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 183-187, "The Farmer and the Damsel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 24, "The Dog and the Gun" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 117-118, "The Dog and Gun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 29-31, "Dog and Gun" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 26, "The Dog and the Gun" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 416-417, "The Lost Glove" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 197, "Dog and Gun" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 197, "Dog and Gun" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 60, "The Golden Glove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 80, "The Jolly Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 43, pp. 158-159, "The Golden Glove" (1 text, lacking the beginning explaining the reason for the lady's behavior)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 24, "Dog and Gun (The Golden Glove)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 227-230, "The Golden Glove" (1 text plus a fragment, with local titles "Lady Lost Her Glove," "The Dog and Gun"; 2 tunes on pp. 416-417)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 49, "The Lady and the Glove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties,pp. 170-171, "The Dog and Gun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 145, "The Golden Glove (or, The Dog and the Gun)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, pp. 110-111, "Golden Glove" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H524, p. 328, "The Squire's Bride" (1 text, 1 (non-traditional) tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 121, "Dog and Gun" (1 text plus mention of 4 more, 1 tune -- but for one of the unprinted texts!)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #20, pp. 83-84, "The Farmer and His Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 70-73, "The Golden Glove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 140-141, "The Wealthy Squire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #38, "Off She Went Hunting" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 62, "The Golden Glove" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 147-150, "The Dog and the Gun" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 21, "The Golden Glove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 340-341, "The Golden Glove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 13, "The Dog and His Gun" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 332, DOGGUN*
Roud #141
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "Dog and Gun" (on Abbott1)
Logan English, "The Lady and the Glove" (on LEnglish1 -- several verses filled in from Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1)
Leo Halleran, "The Farmer" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Carmen McCord Hicks, "Dog and Gun (The Jolly Farmer)" (Piotr-Archive #479, recorded 01/29/2023)
Martin Howley, "Golden Glove" (on IRClare01)
Bradley Kincaid, "Dog and Gun" (Bluebird B-5255, 1933)
Ned Martin, "Squire of Bristol" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(181), "The Golden Glove," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Firth b.33(35), Harding B 11(3656), Firth c.17(304), 2806 c.16(12), Harding B 11(1360), Harding B 15(121b), Harding B 11(1355), Harding B 11(1357), Harding B 11(1358), Harding B 11(1359), Harding B 11(384), Johnson Ballads 1093, 2806 c.17(149), Harding B 26(221), Johnson Ballads fol. 381 View 1 of 2, Firth b.27(457/458) View 1 of 4 [torn], Harding B 17(114b), Harding B 17(115a), Harding B 11(3909), Harding B 16(331b), Harding B 25(755), Harding B 26(222), Harding B 11(1356), Firth c.18(165), Firth c.18(164), "The Golden Glove"; 2806 c.8(213), "The Lady Went a Hunting With Her Dog and Her Gun"
Murray, Mu23-y1:041, "The Golden Glove," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C; also Murray, Mu23-y3:046, "The Golden Glove" (also by Lindsay)
LOCSinging, as104640, "The Golden Glove," E. Hodge's (From Pitts), 19C; also as109080, "My Dog and Gun"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol70(140b), "Golden Glove," unknown, c. 1845; also L.C.Fol.178.A.(035), "Golden Glove," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 1852-1859
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Squire
The Rich Esquire
Waistcoat and Britches
NOTES [45 words]: When they are married the lady expects that she will "milk my own cows." The motif of the rich woman enjoying wifely chores not common among the wealthy is also in "The Rich Lady Gay." - BS
I'll bet that lasted about a week.... Many of the versions I've seen omit that. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LN20

Golden Gullies of the Palmer, The

DESCRIPTION: "Then roll the swag and blanket up, and let us haste away To the Golden Palmer, boys, where everyone they say Can get his ounce of gold, or it may be more, a day...." A cheerful call to set out for the gold fields of the Palmer River
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1984
KEYWORDS: river gold
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1875 - Discovery of gold in the Palmer River in Queensland. The influx of people from all over the world meant that few grew rich -- and many starved in the inhospitable terrain
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 100-101, "The Golden Gullies of the Palmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, pp. 170-171, "The Golden Gullies of the Palmer" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marching Through Georgia" (tune & meter)
File: FaE100

Golden Hind, The

DESCRIPTION: Jim Harding ships on board the Golden Hind bound for Bahia. On the return trip with a cargo from Barbados the Golden Hind runs into a snow storm off Cape Race. Harding dies in the storm as the Golden Hind makes St John's.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: grief death sea ship storm sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 922-924, "The Golden Hind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9938
RECORDINGS:
Jim Rice, "The Golden Hind" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [115 words]: Obviously not Francis Drake's Golden Hind. Bahia is on the coast of Brazil. - BS
Although Francis Drake is not part of Newfoundland history, a ship named the Golden Hind was. Humphrey Gilbert, who is considered to have founded Newfoundland as a colony (although his expedition was a disaster in which Gilbert himself died), sailed in a convoy of five ships, one of which was a 40 to vessel called the Golden Hind, which survived the voyage (see Paul O'Neill, The Oldest City: The Story of St. John's, Newfoundland, Press Procepic, 1975, pp. 38-39). That obviously isn't the Golden Hind of this song, either, but I would suspect there were later Newfoundland ships named for her. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea922

Golden Ring Around My Susan Girl

DESCRIPTION: "Golden ring around (the/my) Susan Girl (x3), All the way around the Susan girl." "Take a little girl and give her a whirl...." "Round and around, Susan girl...." "Do-si-do left, Susan Girl...." "All run away with the Susan girl...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (recording, Jean Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 29, "Golden Ring Around Susan Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GOLDRING
Roud #7405
File: RitS029

Golden Ring Around Susan Girl

See Golden Ring Around My Susan Girl (File: RitS029)

Golden Slippers (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh. my golden slippers am laid away, Kase I don't 'spect to wear 'em till my weddin' day... O 'dem golden slippers... Golden slippers Ise gwine to wear To walk de golden street." The singer reflects on things he cannot have now but will have in heaven
AUTHOR: James A. Bland
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (sheet music published by John F. Perry & Co. of Boston); text copied into the log of the Andrew Hicks in that same year
KEYWORDS: clothes religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 144-147, "Oh, dem Golden Slippers!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 571, "Golden Slippers" (1 tune pus a text excerpt, unrelated to the text in Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 38-39=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 226-227, "Dem Golden Slippers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 172, "Raccoon Up in de 'Simmon Tree" (1 text, 1 tune, with the chorus of "Golden Slippers (I)" though the sole verse is "Raccoon up in de 'simmon tree, Possum on de ground...."); this is followed by two more versions of the 'simmon tree verse
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 255-256, "Golden Slippers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 250, "Golden Slippers" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 41-42, "Oh, Dem Golden Slippers!" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 184-186, "Oh, Dem Golden Slippers" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #130, "Oh! Dem Golden Slippers" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 399, "Oh dem Golden Slippers"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 91, "Oh, Them Golden Slippers" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, pp. 50-51, "Oh Dem Golden Slippers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 14, "Oh, Dem Golden Slippers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 9, "Oh! Dem Golden Slippers" (1 text)
National-4HClubSongBook, pp. 32-33, "Oh Dem Golden Slippers" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GOLDSLIP*
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, pp. 14-15, "Oh, Dem Golden Slippers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 87-89, "Oh Dem Golden Slippers" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a plate of part of the color cover of the sheet music version)
ST RJ19144 (Full)
Roud #13941
RECORDINGS:
Wolfe Ballard & Claude Samuels, "Golden Slippers" (Broadway 8036, late 1920s)
H. M. Barnes & his Blue Ridge Ramblers, "Golden Slippers" (Brunswick 313, 1929)
Al Bernard, "Oh, Dem Golden Slippers" (Grey Gull 4209/Radiex 4209/Van Dyke 74209 [as Buddy Moore], 1928)
Harry C. Browne w. the Knickerbocker Male Quartet, "Oh! Dem Golden Slippers" (Columbia A-2116, 1916)
Vernon Dalhart, "Golden Slippers" (Durium [UK] 9-4, 1933)
Vernon Dalhart & Co. "O Dem Golden Slippers" (Edison 52174, 1928)
Vernon Dalhart & Carson Robison, "Golden Slippers" (Victor 20539, 1927) (Columbia 15181-D [as Vernon Dalhart & Charlie Wells], 1927) (Romeo 464, 1927; Conqueror 7062, 1928) (Regal 8408, 1927) (Champion 15567 [as "Oh Dem Golden Slippers"], 1928)
Dykes' Magic City Trio, "Golden Slippers" (Brunswick 128, 1927)
Edgewater Sabbath Singers, "Golden Slippers" (Paramount 3000, 1927)
Roy Harvey & the North Carolina Ramblers, "Oh Dem Golden Slippers" (Champion 45017, 1931)
Kanawha Singers, "Them Golden Slippers" (Brunswick 189/Vocalion 5173, 1927)
Minster Singers, "Oh! Dem Golden Slippers" (Gramophone Co. [UK] GC-4466, n.d.)
Chubby Parker, "Oh Dem Golden Slippers" (Silvertone 25102, c. 1927)
[John Wallace "Babe"] Spangler & [Dave] Pearson, "Golden Slippers" (OKeh, unissued, 1929)
West Virginia Ramblers, "Golden Slippers" (Champion 45017, 1935)
SAME TUNE:
Golden City (Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 51-52)
NOTES [24 words]: James A. Bland also composed "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" and "In the Evening by the Moonlight"; for more about him, see those entries. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RJ19144

Golden Slippers (II)

See Going Up (Golden Slippers II) (File: Br3571)

Golden Vallady

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Golden Vanitee

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Golden Vanity, The [Child 286]

DESCRIPTION: A ship is threatened by a foreign galley. The ship's cabin boy, promised gold and the captain's daughter as wife, sinks the galley. He comes back to his ship; the captain will not take him from the water. (The ending is variable)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1685 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: sea battle death promise lie abandonment betrayal trick
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 1552-1618 - Life of Sir Walter Raleigh (one of whose ships was named "The Sweet Trinity")
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Ireland US(All) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (114 citations):
Child 286, "The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity)" (3 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #52, #55}
Bronson 286, "The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity)" (111 versions+1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 286, "The Golden Vanity" (7 versions: #2, #27, #43, #71, #74, #94, #102)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #116, p. 1, "The Lowlands O"; #119, p. 2, "The Lowlands Low" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan1 37, "The Golden Vanity" (5 texts, 4 tunes) {D=Bronson's #13}
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 450-451, "The Lowlands Low" (1 text)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #30, pp. 165-166, "The Golden Victory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 182-183, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 199-200, "The Golden Vanitee" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 444)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 51, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 37-38, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 78-79, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #64, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #9, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire 7, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 130-131, "(The Golden Vanity)" (1 text, excerpted)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 339-347, "The Golden Vanity" (4 texts plus 2 fragments, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #108, #66}
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 156-157, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland4, pp. ,188-263 "The Sweet Trinity or the Golden Vanity" (39 texts plus 11 fragments, 18 tunes) {E=Bronson's #71, HH=#64}
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 103-106, "The Goulden Vanitee" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #53}
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 97-100, "The Golden Vanity" (3 texts)
Randolph 38, "The Lowlands Low" (4 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #69, D=#48, E=#51}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 56-59, "The Lowlands Low" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 38A) {Bronson's #69}
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 142-146, "The Golden Willow Tree" (1 text, 1 tune, plus some excerpts)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 47, "The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity)" (4 texts plus 2 fragments, 1 tune entitled "The Turkish-Rogherlee and the Yellow Golden Tree, or Lowlands Low") {Bronson's #109}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 43, pp. 339-343, "The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 47, "The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity)" (3 texts plus mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 47, "The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity)" (6 excerpts, 6 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 21, "The Green Willow Tree" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #50}
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp. 196-197, "Merrie Golden Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 28-29, "THe Mary Golden Tree" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #97}
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #174, "The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity)" (2 texts)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 25, pp. 125-127, "The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity)" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 56, "There Was a Little Ship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 38-40, "The Merry Golden Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 5, "Golden Willow Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 20, pp. 37-39, "There Was a Ship Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 37-38, "The Golden Willow Tree, or The Turkish Rebilee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 86-87, "The Golden Willow Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 184-189, "The Sweet Trinity; The Golden Vanity" (2 texts; the first, with no title, is from Randolph; the second has local title "The Golden Willow Tree"; 1 tune on pp. 406-407) {Bronson's #107}
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 62-63, "The Lonesome Sea Ballad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 10, "The Little Shipi" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 25, "The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity)" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #68}
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 291-294, "The Lowland Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 82, "The Lowlands Low" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #110, related to "The Arkansas Traveller"}
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 165-168, "The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 230-231, "The Green Willow Trees" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 136-137, "The Gallant Victory or Lowlands Low" (1 short text, with no hint of the Captain's refusal to save the boy; he is hauled aboard and dies, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 101-106, "The Sweet Trinity, or The Golden Vanity" (3 texts plus 2 fragments, 4 tunes) {Bronson's #44, #17, #19, #18}
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 10, "Sweet Trinity; or The Golden Vanity" (1 text, called "Golden Vallady" by the singer, 1 tune) {Bronson's #21}
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 6, "The Golden Vanity" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 19, "The Golden Vanitie" (2 fragments)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 64, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 154-156, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #45}
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 35-36, "Golden Vanitee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 153-154, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 62-64, "Lowlands Low" (3 texts, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 58-60]
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 42-46, "The Goulden Vanitie (Golden Vanity, or the Low Lands Low)" (2 texts)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 667-670, "The Sweet Trinity or The Golden Vanity" (3 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 89-90, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 8, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 72, "The Mary Golden Tree, or The Lonesome Low" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #37}
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 93-94, "The Merry Golden Tree" (1 text)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 74-75, "Lonesome Sea" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #41, which is also by Jean Ritchie and uses the same tune but a different title and slightly different words}
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 34-36, "The Green Willow Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 7, "Sir Walter Raleigh Sailing in the Lowlands" (1 text; #7 in the first edition); also 8, "The Sweet Trinity" (2 texts, 1 tune, with texts and tunes from different sources; #4 in the first edition)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 409, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 67, "The Bold Trellitee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 132-133, "The Cruise in the Lowlands Low" (1 text) (pp. 111-112 in the 1919 edition); pp. 299-300, "The Golden Vanity, or The Low Lands Low" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 132, "The 'Golden Vanity'" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 104, "Lowland Low (or, The Golden Willow Tree)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 51-52, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 108-109, "A Ship Set Sail for North America" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #85}
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 41, "The Golden Vanity" (7 texts plus 3 fragments, 11 tunes) {Bronson's #94, #93, #88, #104, #43, #46, #78, #90, #99, #39, #106}
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 14, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 27, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronsons' #1}
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #21, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #94}
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 61, "The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 28, "The Weeping Willow Tree (The Golden Vanity)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #94}
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 46-47, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #35}
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 138-139, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 38-40, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 82, "The 'Green Willow Tree'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 23, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text fragment, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 4, "The Golden Vanity"; Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 61, "The Green Willow Tree" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 210-212, "The Low-Down, Lonesome Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 95, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune) {should be Bronson's #73, but heavily reworked}
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 120-121, "The Merry Golden Tree" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #74}
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 79-80, "Golden Willow Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 10, pp. 24-26, "The Lowlands Low" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 32, "The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity)" (2 texts plus a fragment)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #15A-C, pp. 64-69, "The Golden Vanity," "The Mary Golden Lee," "The Green Willow Tree" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #38, which -- despite Cox -- he calls "The Weeping Willow Tree"; this version has two American ships "The Weeping Willow Tree" and "The Golden Silveree"}
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 88-90, "The Green Willow Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 96-97, "The Golden Willow Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #34, "Golden Willow Tree" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 16-17, "The Golden Willow Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #18, "The Golden Vanity" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #75, "Sir Walter Raleigh Sailing in the Low-lands" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 22, "Sir Walter Raleigh Sailing in the Lowlands" (1 text)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 22, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune, much-rearranged)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XLIV, pp. 74-76, "Sir Walter Raleigh Saling in the Low-Lands" (1 text); XLV, pp. 77-78, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 106-107, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 64-66, "The Sweet Trinity"; "The Golden Willow Tree" (1 text plus a fragment)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 172, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 213, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, pp. 14-15, "Merry Golden Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Andra Joy Hamilton, "A Garland of Ballads from Caldwell County", Vol. 3, No. 1 (Jul 1955), pp. 8-9, "The Golden Willow Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Horton Barker: Folk Singer Supreme," Vol. XXII, No. 4 (Nov 1974), pp. 143+147-148, "The Golden Willow Tree" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2370, "Sir Walter Rawleigh ha's built a Ship"
DT 286, VANTYGL1* VANTIGL2* VANTIGL3* VANTIGL4* (VANTYGL9)
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 201-204, "Sir Walter Raleigh Sailing in the Low-Lands" (1 text)
James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, pp. 229-230, "A Ship Set Sail for North America" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Mrs. M. G. Jacobs, Maud Jacobs, Pearl Jacobs Borusky) {Bronson's #85}
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #411, "The Golden Vanity" (1 text)
Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 58, "Lowlands" (a two-verse fragment, on of which is from "The Golden Vanity" and the other about "Pompey" although it's too short to know which Pompey song is meant)
ST C286 (Full)
Roud #122
RECORDINGS:
Almanac Singers, "The Golden Vanity" (General 5016B, 1941; on Almanac02, Almanac03, AlmanacCD1)
Horton Barker, "The Turkish Rebilee" (on Barker01) {Bronson's #74}
Justus Begley, "Golden Willow Tree" (AFS, 1937; on KMM)
Bill Cameron, "The Golden Vanity" (on FSB5) {Bronson's #10}
The Carter Family, "Sinking In The Lonesome Sea" (Conqueror 8644/Okeh 03160, 1936; Columbia 37756) {Bronson's #73}
Dodie Chalmers, "The Golden Victory (The Golden Vanity) (on FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #33}
Johnny Doughty, "The Golden Vanity" (on JDoughty01, HiddenE)
Warde Ford, "The Lowlands Low" [fragment] (AFS 4194 A2, 1938; in AMMEM/Cowell); "The Lowlands Low, or The Golden Willow Tree" (on USWolfRiver) {Bronson's #20}
Sam Hazel, "The Golden Willow Tree" (AFS 2095 B2, 3096 A, 3096 B1, 1939)
[Mrs.?] Ollie Jacobs, "A Ship Set Sail for North America" (AFS, 1941; on LC58) {Bronson's #86}
Paul Joines, "Green Willow Tree" (on Persis1)
Joe Kelly, "The Golden Vanity" (on Ontario1)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "The Merry Golden Tree" (Riverside RLP 12-645, 1956)
James Maher, "The Golden Vanity" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Paralee McCloud, "The Little Ship" (on FolkVisions1)
Jimmy Morris, "The Golden Willow Tree" (AFS, 1937; on LC58) {Bronson's #105}
New Lost City Ramblers, "Sinking in the Lonesome Sea" (on NLCR06, NLCR11)
Frank Proffitt, "Lowlands Low" [excerpt] (on USWarnerColl01)
Almeda Riddle, "Merry Golden Tree" (on LomaxCD1707)
Jean Ritchie, "The Merry Golden Tree" (on JRitchie01) {Bronson's #41}
Pete Seeger, "The Golden Vanity" (on PeteSeeger16) (Commodore 3006, n.d. -- but this may be the same recording as the General disc by the Almanac Singers)
Rob Walker, "The Lowlands Low" [fragment] (AFS 4194 A3, 1938; in AMMEM/Cowell) {Bronson's #49}
Doug Wallin, "The Golden Vanity" (on Wallins1)
Rick Ward, "The Merry Golden Tree" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #134, recorded 04/18/2022)
Erica Warnock, "The Golden Vanity" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #462, recorded 01/26/2023)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1086), "The Golden Vanity" or "The Low Lands Low," H. Such (London), 1849-1862
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(122a), "Lowlands Low," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1877; also L.C.Fol.70(103b), "Lowlands Low"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Louisiana Lowlands" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Sinking of the Great Ship (Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2, #287, pp. 662-663, the "A" text)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lonesome Low
The Merry Golden Tree
The Sweet Kumadee
The Weep-Willow Tree
The Turkish Revoloo
Cabin Boy
Lowland Sea
Ye Gowden Vanitie
NOTES [733 words]: Connecting this song with actual events is impossible even if one accepts Sir Walter Raleigh as the murderous captain. Moreover, there is a curious mystery of where, exactly, is the "Lowland Sea" in which the song is set. But Steve Woodbury suggested to me that it should be set in the seas near the Netherlands, pointing to the title "The Lowlands of Holland," as well as references to the Netherlands in some of the versions (e.g. Child's "A", with its opening lines, "Sir Walter Raleigh has built a ship / In the Netherlands ....  / Sailing in the Low-lands").
It's a good point, and it set me researching. With very little success. I consulted dictionaries about the sea, folklore dictionaries, Middle English dictionaries, common speech dictionaries... and found no references. Internet searches all seemed to be derived from this song. As best I can tell, there never was an actual "Lowland Sea."
So what do we know? Start with the fact that the typical versions have either a Spanish or a Turkish enemy. The Spanish for a long time ruled the Netherlands -- the Habsburgs inherited the Netherlands from the extinct line of the Dukes of Burgundy in the late fifteenth century, and the troops for the Armada's invasion of England were mostly supposed to be picked up from the Spanish Netherlands. So it would be no surprise if a Spanish ship attacked an English ship in the North Sea off the Low Countries. There was certainly much English shipping there.
On the other hand, the North Sea is almost always rough, and the waters are generally cold. To swim to an enemy ship, drill holes in her, and come back safely was not impossible (after all, there are people who have swum the English Channel) -- but it is not at all easy and is extraordinarily dangerous. It would be much easier in the warmer, calmer waters of the Mediterranean.
On the other hand, it would be easier to see a diver in the clear waters of the Mediterranean.
What's more, while a Spanish ship might well have been found in the North Sea (or in the Mediterranean), a Turkish (Ottoman) ship could only be found in the Mediterranean.
Informal conclusion: I think you get to decide for yourself where the "Lowland Sea" is. If the enemy is a Turk, then it has to be the Mediterranean. If the enemy is Spanish and the song refers to the Netherlands, it's probably the North Sea. If neither of those conditions apply... it's your call.
Oddly enough, the best date is almost certainly fifteenth or sixteenth century, no matter where the song takes place, as shown by the following dates:
1453 - Fall of Constantinople gives the Turks good access to the Mediterranean Sea.
1571 - Battle of Lepanto cripples the Turkish navy.
1588 - Voyage of the Spanish Armada. Spanish navy crippled.
As far as I know, every version lists the enemy as Spanish, Turkish, or French. It should be noted, however, that the Barbary pirates were often called "Turks," since the Ottoman Empire had (often nominal) soveriegnty over them.
Incidentally, while this song does not have a historical setting, the plot has historical antecedents; Bowers, p. 24 and note, mentions a 1605 pamphlet, "Two most unnatural and bloodie Murthers: The one by Maister Cauerly... the other by mistris Browne and her servant Peter." Apparently Peter, a servant, had been promised land and the girl's hand; when her father reneged, the young couple turned to murder.
The sinking of a ship by a youth is also apparently attested: Rodger, p. 46, says that a Saracen vessel threatened the fleet of Richard I on his way to the Third Crusade, but that one report claims it was sunk by a boy with an auger. Unfortunately, Rodger does not cite any primary sources for this account, and I don't believe sinking a ship with an auger is actually possible (by that time, ships had pumps and carpenters to plug leaks). I suspect that one of Rodger's sources actually heard a distorted version of this song.
Somewhat later, at the Battle of Sluys in 1340, the English fleet of Edward III "even [had] divers who tried to sink the enemy ships by boring holes in their hulls below water," according to Seward, p. 44. Sluys was a great English victory, but if the divers accomplished anything, I haven't heard of it. - RBW
In Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 4 the drowned cabin boy returns as a ghost and -- never having said he would not sink it -- sinks the captain's ship. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C286

Golden Voyage, The

DESCRIPTION: "Listen awhile and I here will unfold What seemeth to promise promotion." A treasure had been lost at sea for 43 years. The "James and Mary" goes to the sight; working in harsh conditions far from shore for six weeks, they bring up the gold
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (FIrth)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 24, "The Golden Voyage; or, the prosperous Arrival of the James and Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V40809
File: PaSe024

Golden West

DESCRIPTION: "Many a miner searching for riches, Many a man gone to his last long rest, Surely virgin gold bewitches, Out under the sky of the golden west."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback)
KEYWORDS: mining death gold
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, p. 85, "The Golden West" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #29037
File: TrMe085

Golden Willow Tree, The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Gone Long Ago

DESCRIPTION: "Where are the friends that to me were so dear? Gone long ago... Hopes that I cherished are fled from me now, I am degraded for rum was my foe, Gone long ago, long ago." The singer looks back on what drink has cost him: His wife, his youth, his virtue
AUTHOR: (based on "Long, Long Ago by Thomas H. Bayly)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: drink warning parody
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 315, "Gone Long Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7791
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Long, Long Ago!" (tune)
File: R315

Gone to Cripple Creek

See Cripple Creek (I) (?) (File: San320)

Gonesome Scenes of Winter, The

See The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter [Laws H12] (File: LH12)

Gonna Buy Me a Horse and Buggy

DESCRIPTION: "Gonna buy me a horse and buggy For to ride my gal about. Let her take the fresh morning air. Feed her on bananas, And she'll never get the gout. Tie a yaller ribbon in her hair."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: horse courting travel food hair clothes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #103, "Gonna Buy Me a Horse and Buggy" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5003
File: Morr103

Gonna Die With My Hammer In My Hand

See John Henry [Laws I1] (File: LI01)

Gonna Keep My Skillet Greasy

See Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy (File: Wa122)

Gonna Shout All over God's Heaven

See All God's Children Got Shoes (File: CNFM067A)

Gonna Tie My Pecker to My Leg

DESCRIPTION: Usually short fragments of "The Chisholm Trail" distinguished by the unique chorus which gives this variant its title.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 192-194, "Gonna Tie My Pecker to My Leg" (3 texts)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 203-204, "The Old Chisholm Trail"
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 9, pp. 60-69, "Jimmie Tucker" (2 texts, 1 tune, both of which are really "The Old Chisholm Trail (II)," but in his notes are excerpts from "Gonna Tie My Pecker to My Leg")
DT, (CHISHLM)
Roud #3438
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Chisholm Trail (II)"
NOTES [16 words]: Versions are lumped with the similar "Old Chisholm Trail" in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I. - EC
File: EM192

Goo Bye Me Lover

DESCRIPTION: "Goo'bye me lover, goo'bye me dear oh." "Charles a-go down ah he new courtin-gal oh." "Bo Riley oh Boom-a-lay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: grief courting infidelity love magic nonballad lover
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 31, "Goo Bye Me Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [57 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "... the grief is over a human lover who deserts his woman for a new 'courting gal'.... [T]he reference in the chorus to Bo Riley, the great obeahman [shaman] .... One drummer spoke about the custom of women to employ the services of the powerful obeahmen to 'bring back' errant lovers to their home and children." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo031

Goober Peas

DESCRIPTION: "Sitting by the roadside, on a summer's day... Lying in the shadows underneath the trees, Goodness how delicious, Eating goober peas." The southern soldier complains about army life, the battles, and the poor equipment; goober peas are his chief comfort
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866
KEYWORDS: food Civilwar nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 73-75, "Goober Peas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 100, "Goober Peas" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 184-186, "Goober Peas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 54-55, "Goober Peas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 82, "Goober Peas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 715, "Eating Goober Peas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 158-160, "Goober Peas" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 351, "Goober Peas" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 10, "Goober Peas" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 276, "Goober Peas" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 276, "Goober Peas" (notes only)
DT, GOOBPEAS
ST RJ19073 (Full)
Roud #11628
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "Goober Peas" (on NLCREP4)
NOTES [331 words]: First published in 1866 (with words credited to A. Pindar and music to "P. Nutt"!), we know from outside references that this song was popular with southern soldiers in the Civil War. It is particularly accurate as a description of the last few years of the war, when the complete breakdown of Confederate industry left the soldier ragged, and the loss of farmland and rail lines left them starving. Peanuts -- "goober peas" -- often served as an emergency ration for soldiers in Georgia and other parts of the south.
Stories about Georgians and peanuts apparently go back to the very beginning of the war. Warren Wilkinson and Steven E. Woodworth, A Scythe of Fire: A Civil War Story of the Eighth Georgia Infantry Regiment, William Morrow, 2002, pp 41-42, tell a story from the summer of 1861, before the First Battle of Bull Run. The Eighth Georgia was marching in the Shenandoah Valley with the army of Joseph E. Johnston. The Georgians were passing by a field of clover, which they somehow mistook for a field of peanuts. So they went and started pulling the clover, only to be disappointed to find that there were no peanuts. Some Virginia troops took to calling the Eighth Georgia "Goober Grabbers," and in time the name was used for all Georgia regiments in the Army of Northern Virginia.
The phrase in the song, "Mister, here's your mule" is usually treated as a joke about the fancy horses ridden by some officers, but E. Lawrence Abel, Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861-1865, Stackpole, 2000, pp. 162-163, has another explanation. A sutler (called "Pies" of all things) worked near Jackson, Tennessee, and had a mule which drew his wagon. On one occasion, the soldiers hid the mule, then pretended to search for it, occasionally shouting out, "Mister, here's your mule." Supposedly they eventually returned it, and the phrase went into the soldiers' lexicon. Possible, of course, but it really sounds like an explanation after the fact. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RJ19073

Good Ale (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, good ale, thou art my darling, Thou art my joy both night and morning." Drink encourages the singer to work, to dream, to enjoy. But also "It is you that makes my friends my foes, It is you that makes me (wear old/pawn my) clothes...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1790 (The Banquet of Thalia)
KEYWORDS: drink hardtimes poverty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 590, "The Braw Black Jug" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 273, "Good Ale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 91, "Old Brown Ale" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 263)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 276-277, "O, Good Ale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 600-601, "O Good Ale, Thou Art My Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, p. 179, "Good Ale, Thou Art My Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GOODALE*
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Atkinson, The Banquet of Thalia, Or, The Fashionable Songsters Pocket Memorial (York, 1790 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 84-85, "O Good Ale! Thou Art My Darling" ("The landlord he looks very big") (1 text)
Roud #203
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2212), "O Good Ale Thou Art My Darling ("Long time I have been seeking thee"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 25(1393), Harding B 15(225b), "O Good Ale! Thou Art My Darling"
LOCSinging, as112320, "O! Dear Grog Thou Art My Darling," L. Deming (Boston), no date
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Aul' Black Jug
NOTES [49 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "Learnt at Kinaldie about 1855.... Noted 19th December 1906." As Duncan writes, in the same note, his version has "some affinity in words" with "O Good Ale Thou Art My Darling." Some verses agree and the chorus is close enough that I don't think Greig/Duncan3 should be split. - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: K273

Good Ale (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Good ale gars me sell my hose ... and pawn my sheen." The singer had six oxen in a plough but sold them all for "good ale." His children are ragged and might have been hanged but he has had them jailed instead.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: poverty drink nonballad children prison animal clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 593, "Good Ale" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6045
NOTES [17 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "'Learnt from a farmservant fully twenty-six years ago. Noted 13th September 1907." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3593

Good Ale, Thou Art My Darling

See Good Ale (I) (File: K273)

Good Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: "I have led a good life, full of peace and quiet. I shall have an old age, full of rum and riot. I have been a good boy, wed to work and study. I shall be an old man, ribald, coarse, and bloody." The once-good boy describes what he will now do
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: rebellion age virtue
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 203, "The Good Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 80-81, [no title] (1 text, tune referenced)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 113, "(no title)" (1 text)
DT, GOODBOY
Roud #13612
NOTES [85 words]: Various authors have claimed this piece (the Digital Tradition lists Lemuel F. Parton, though Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag merely describes him as a source; Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions also lists Lemuel F. Parton, and calls him a New York newwpaperman. Spaeth offers Malcolm Ross and Ralph Albertson). Since versions differ dramatically in character, with only the first line or two being constant, one suspects that all these alleged "authors" are in fact customizing a generic piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: San203

Good Brown Ale and Tobacco

See Here's to the Grog (All Gone for Grog) (File: K274)

Good bye Mursheen Durkin

DESCRIPTION: Molly Durkin marries Tim O'Shea. Cooney, "to keep my heart from breakin', I sailed to Americay." He finds no work in New York. He goes to San Francisco, finds gold and heads back to Ireland where "I'll marry Miss O'Kelly, Molly Durkin for to spite"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (for USBallinsloeFair, according to site irishtune.info, Irish Traditional Music Tune Index: Alan Ng's Tunography, ref. Ng #1331)
KEYWORDS: travel gold work drink America Ireland humorous rake emigration betrayal return
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 36, "Good bye Mursheen Durkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MRSHDRK
Roud #9753
RECORDINGS:
Murty Rabbett, "Molly Durkin" (on USBallinsloeFair)
SAME TUNE:
On Johnny Mitchell's Train (File: KPL396)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Muirsheen Durkin
Muirton Durkin
NOTES [355 words]: O Lochlainn says "I learnt the last verse in childhood and 'invented' the other two finding nothing else but a fragment 'And now to end my story, I'll marry Queen Victorey'." What O Lochlainn remembers as the last verse appears to be the chorus. That fragment ending beats "I'll marry Miss O'Kelly" but otherwise "Molly Durkin" (on USBallinsloeFair) seems more authoritative.
In any case the description I used is from USBallinsloeFair. Here though is the description for O Lochlainn's version: Corney tires of courting and drinking locally. He goes off to roam the world. Then he tires "of all this pleasure" in Ireland and heads for New York. Now "good-bye Mursheen Durkin, Sure, I'm sick and tired of workin'" and heads for gold in California.
In Murty Rabbett's version the singer "landed in Castle Garden" in New York. That may be useful in bracketing the dates on that version. Castle Garden, before and again "Castle Clinton" at The Battery in New York, was the entry point for immigrants between 1845 and 1890 [see, for example, "Castle Garden, New York" transcribed from The Illustrated American of March 1, 1890 at Norway-Heritage site]. One problem with using "Castle Garden" for dating is that the name may have remained synonymous with "entry point for New York" long after the building became the New York Aquarium. In my own family I heard about "Kesselgarten" sixty years after it closed, although my grandfather arrived in New York thirteen years after that building became home to captive fish.
For a similar Castle Garden(s) reference see the notes to "Castle Gardens (I)." - BS
Although O Lochlainn's text seems to be the source for almost every version known today, it seems to have been pretty heavily folk processed by revival singers. And I'm not talking about the zillion ways of spelling "Mursheen/Muirsheen."
According to Soodlum's Irish Ballad Book, the tune is "Cailini Deas Mhuigheo" ("The Beautiful Girls of Mayo").
I seem to recall reading somewhere that "Murisheen Durkin" is another name for Ireland. Of course, if you read enough Irish books, *everything* is a disguised name for Ireland. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: OLcM036

Good Company

DESCRIPTION: "When I sit by myself," the singer cannot see into the future "but I feel I'm in very good company." Similarly, when he sits with a friend "to fight some great battle of wisdom or mirth," or considers "the meanings and mysteries" of love with his darling
AUTHOR: Charles Mackay (1814-1889) (source: Mackay)
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Mackay's _The Collected Songs of Charles Mackay_)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 41, "Good Company" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 81)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Mackay, The Collected Songs of Charles Mackay (London, 1859 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 308, "Good Company" (1 text)
Roud #1228
NOTES [18 words]: Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames: "I am told it was the favourite of the morris dancers in times past." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT041

Good English Ale

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a little 'un my father did say, 'Whenever the sun shines that's time to make hay," and when it's haying time, it's time for good ale. The singer pities those who don't drink. He wants drink and good food. He jokes of M.P.s who sleep on the job
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook)
KEYWORDS: drink work farming political
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #120, "Good English Ale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1512
File: PECS120

Good for a Rush or a Rally

DESCRIPTION: "They are good for a rush or a rally, But they have no bottom to stay, But when I go out for a tally, I shear two hundred a day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: work Australia sheep
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 276, "Good for a Rush or a Rally" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [38 words]: For comparison: A "gun" shearer was one who could consistently shear a "century" -- 100 sheep. The all-time record, which will likely never be broken, is held by Jackie Howe, who once sheared 328 sheep in an eight hour day. - RBW
File: MA276

Good Friends and Companions

See A Health to the Company (Come All My Old Comrades) (File: CrSe222)

Good King Wenceslas

DESCRIPTION: On St. Stephen's Day, Wenceslas sees a poor man gathering wood, and decides to help the peasant. Wenceslas and his servant go out in the bad weather. Returning home, the servant suffers from the cold but Wenceslas miraculously keeps him warm
AUTHOR: Words: J. M. Neale (1818-1866) / Music: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (tune from Piae Cantiones, 1582)
KEYWORDS: religious royalty
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 136, "Good King Wenceslas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #218, "Good King Wenceslas" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 382, "Good King Wenceslas" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 247, "Good King Wenceslas" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 254-255, "Good King Wenceslas"
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 105, "Good King Wenceslas" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GOODKING*
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #29, "Good Kin Wenceslas" (1 text)
Roud #24754
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Flower Carol (Spring Has Now Unwrapped the Flowers)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Good King Wences (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 115)
NOTES [299 words]: Fuld gives details of how J. M. Neale created words (which the editors of the Oxford Book of Carols call, with reason, "one of his less happy pieces") to the tune "Tempus adest floridum" ("Spring Has Unwrapped Her Flowers"), which had appeared in the published version of the Piae Cantiones the previous year.
Wenceslas is Saint Wenceslaus (or Vaclav, to use the non-Latinate form) of Bohemia (c. 905-c. 932), properly a Duke (since Bohemia was a duchy), who succeeded to the throne of Bohemia c. 920 and took over from the regency c. 924 but was murdered in 935.
Wenceslaus's kingdom was beset by religious conflict, and this contributed to his fall. His grandmother was Christian, as was his dead father, but his mother Dragomira and his brother Boleslav (who murdered him) were pagan. As a ruler, Wenceslaus does not seem to have amounted to much; his later reputation probably derives from his martyrdom. He is the Catholic saint of the Czech Republic (which includes Bohemia). Several later kings shared his name, including the famously incompetent Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia (1361-1419, Holy Roman Emperor from 1378 but deposed 1400).
There is no evidence that Wenceslaus ever did any of the things described in this carol, and indeed it has been noted that there are several logical flaws in the narrative; apparently it came almost whole out of Neale's head as he sought to make a song for Saint Stephen's Day.
On lyrical and theological and historical grounds, then, the song probably should be dropped. But, as Eric Routley commented (quoted by Bradley), it "contains snow and philanthropy in just the proportions calculated to make it a favorite." More to the point, it has a great tune -- though, of course, that tune has nothing to do with Wenceslaus, or Neale, or Christmas. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB382

Good Looking Man

See My Good-Looking Man (File: FSC42)

Good Lord, Shall I Ever Be de One

See Good Lord, Shall I Ever Be the One (File: Dett032)

Good Lord, Shall I Ever Be the One

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Good Lord, shall I ever be the one (3x), To get over in the Promised Land." Verses: "About the cool of day ... (God) call for old Adam" who tried to run away (in one verse) and said "hear me" (in another)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 32, "Good Lord, Shall I Ever Be de One" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 123 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #15284
NOTES [53 words]: Genesis 3.8-12: "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden, And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? ... And the man said ...." (King James). - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett032

Good Lord, When I Die

DESCRIPTION: "Good Lord, when I die (x3), shout one, Good Lord, when I die." I want to go to heaven when I die (x3)., Good Lord, when I die" "I want to see my Jesus, when I die (x3), Good Lord, when I die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 63, "Good Lord, When I Die" (1 text)
Roud #12070
File: FSAN063A

Good Lordy, Rocky My Soul

See Rock-a My Soul (File: FSWB357B)

Good Luck to the Barley Mow

See The Barley Mow (File: ShH99)

Good Man, A

See William a Trimbletoe (File: Skea018)

Good Mornin', Blues

DESCRIPTION: "I woke up this morning' with the blues all around my bed... Went to eat my breakfast, had the blues all in my bread." The singer describes how the loss of his girl has left him lonely, in pain, and otherwise miserable
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Ashley & Foster)
KEYWORDS: loneliness separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 311, "Good Mornin', Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 75, "Good Morning Blues" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962,p. 64, "Good Morning Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11687
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley & Gwen Foster, "Drunk Man Blues" (Oriole 8183, rec. 1931; on Ashley04)
NOTES [29 words]: Another Alan Lomax special; I don't know what fraction of it is traditional. - RBW
Well, Lead Belly sang it with those words. - PJS
OK, so it's a Lomax/Lead Belly special. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: LoF311

Good Morning Miss Carrie

DESCRIPTION: The singer thought Carrie was his girl but she will marry someone else. "Had a mighty good cry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt05)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage rejection nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Good Morning Miss Carrie" (on MJHurt05)
File: RcGeMoMC

Good Morning Mister Railroadman

See The Gambler (II) (File: BRaF459)

Good Morning My Pretty Little Miss

See Pretty Little Miss [Laws P18] (File: LP18)

Good Morning Sky, Good Morning Sun

DESCRIPTION: "Good morning, sky; Good morning, sun; Good morning, little winds that run!" The child also greets the birds, trees, bees. The child is now awake and will soon come out to play
AUTHOR: Fannie R. Buchanan (source: several non-scholarly web sites; at least one calls the author "Fennie")
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: children nonballad | morning
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Diane McCafferty, "Good Morning" (Piotr-Archive #609, recorded 07/08/2023)
NOTES [55 words]: Almost every version of this I found online was in an educational context (typically as part of a worksheet children could use to analyze the song), so I presume it comes out of schools, but I don't have absolute proof. All the versions seem to be quite new; I'm surprised that Derek Piotr's informant learned it from her mother. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio609

Good Morning, Ladies All (I)

DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. Title from second chorus: "Ah-ha, me yaller gals, Good mornin', ladies all." A packet heads out "bound to hell," the crew is mostly wiped out by "Yaller Jack" (yellow fever) and take on some monkeys as a crew.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
KEYWORDS: shanty ship disease animal
FOUND IN: Britain West Indies
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas pp. 349-351, "Good Morning, Ladies All" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the "a" text is this piece, while "b" is "Good Morning, Ladies All (II)") [AbEd, p. 262]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XVII, p. 20, "Good Morning, Ladies All" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8284
NOTES [103 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas claims that any shanty including the phrase "Good morning, ladies all" would be of Negro origin, and had collected this from Tobago Smith, a West Indian shantyman. He also speculates that this may be a rumored but as yet undocumented shanty which tells the story of a crew of monkeys taking charge of a ship, but the three verses he had weren't enough to be sure. Sharp's verses don't even get that far, but the tune is pretty much the same. Sharp says this has some affinity with "Heave Away, Me Johnnies," though I couldn't see it, except for a couple notes in the tune of the chorus. - SL
File: Hugi349a

Good Morning, Ladies All (II)

DESCRIPTION: Pump or halyard shanty. "We are outward bound for Mobile Town, with a heave-o, haul! An' we'll heave the ol' wheel round an' round, Good mornin' ladies all!" Rest of verses on going home, spending money, women, and general good times themes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Richard Runciman Terry's _The Shanty Book_, Pt.1)
KEYWORDS: shanty home dancing
FOUND IN: Britain West Indies
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas pp. 349-351, "Good Morning, Ladies All" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the "b" text is this piece, while "a" is "Good Morning, Ladies All (I)") [AbEd, p. 263]
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #18, "Good morning, ladies all" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 91-92, "Good Morning, Ladies All" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8290
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Outward and Homeward Bound" (shared verses)
File: Hugi350

Good Morning, Merry Sunshine

DESCRIPTION: "Good morning, merry sunshine, How did you wake so soon? You frightened all the stars away And shined away the moon." "I do not go to sleep, dear child, I just go round to see The little children of the east Who rise and watch for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 879, "Good Morning, Merry Sunshine" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7544
File: R879

Good Morning, Mick

DESCRIPTION: "'Good morning, Mick.' 'Good morning, Pat.'" A conversation follows in each verse, e.g. "How's your taties? Very fat. Did you eat them all?" Or, "Have you been to market? I have that...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: dialog food commerce
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling. p. 67, "(Good mornin', Mick)" (2 texts)
File: PKKB067

Good Morning, Valentine

See Children's Song on Valentine's Day, at Eastleach (File: WT303)

Good Morrow, Gossip Joan

See Gossip Joan (Neighbor Jones) (File: Br3144)

Good News

DESCRIPTION: "Good news, chariot's coming (x3), And I don't want to be left behind." "There's a long white robe in Heaven I know." The song catalogs all the things to be found in heaven; the singer hopes to achieve all
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 90-91, "Good News, de Chariot's Comin'" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 224-225 in the 1874 edition)
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (I), pp. 32-38, "Good News, Chariot's Comin'" (1 text with variants, 1 tune with variants)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 572, "Good News -- Chariot's Comin'" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 572, "Good News -- Chariot's Comin'" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 49, "Good News, the Chariot's Coming" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 370, "Good News" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 550, "Good News, Chariot's Coming" (notes only)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, pp. 18-19, "Good News" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GOODNEWS
Roud #11891
RECORDINGS:
Bobby Jean Chauteau & group "Good News, Chariot is Coming" (New Light 101, n.d.)
Dixie Jubilee Quintet, "Good News" (Brunswick 3150, 1926)
Fisk Jubilee Quartet, "Good News" (Victor 16856, 1911)
Fisk University Jubilee Singers, "Good News, the Chariot's Coming" (Columbia A2072, 1916)
Hall Johnson Negro Choir, "Good News" (Victor 36020, 1930)
Master Spiritual Singers, "Good News, the Chariot is Coming" (Hub 3018, n.d.)
Southern Four, "Good News, Chariot's Comin'! and O Mary, Doan You Weep" (Edison 50885, 1921)
Tuskegee Institute Singers, "Good News" (Victor 17663, 1914)
File: FSWB370B

Good News -- Chariot's Comin'

See Good News (File: FSWB370B)

Good News (II -- Just Coming from the Throne)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Good news, O good news! Just coming from the throne." Verses include "As grief from out my soul shall fly ... I'll shout salvation when I die...." "The angels brought the tidings down." "I want to go to heaven when I die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious | heaven throne
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 32, p. 216, "Good News" (1 text)
NOTES [45 words]: The description is based on Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment.
The chorus lines are also alternate lines in two-line verses. For example, "The white folks call us a noisy crew, Good news, O good news! But this I know, we are happy to, Just coming from the throne." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Hi032216

Good News Coming from Canaan

DESCRIPTION: "I thought I heard my mother say, Good news coming from Canaan. I want to hear my children pray, Good news coming from Canaan."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 574, "Good News Coming from Canaan" (1 fragment)
Roud #11893
File: Br3574

Good News In the Kingdom

DESCRIPTION: "Good news in the kingdom and I won't die no more, my leader, Good news in the kingdom, Lord, and I won't die no more." Verses include "A Roman soldier pierced my Lord ... They pierced him to his tender side" and floaters
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious Bible Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 17, "Good News In the Kingdom" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Good News in the Kingdom" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 61)
NOTES [95 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. The verse is call and response, with "And I won't die no more" the response to each verse line. Floating verses include "I saw King Peter on the sea ... He left his net and followed me," "I do believe without a doubt ... The Christians have a right to shout," and "Come on Moses don't get doubt ... Stretch your rod and come across."
The "Roman soldier" verse refers to John 19:34, "But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water" [King James]. - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Edwa017

Good News, Chariot's Comin'

See Good News (File: FSWB370B)

Good News, Member

DESCRIPTION: "Good news, member, good news, member, Don't you mind what Satan say. Good news, member, good news, And I heard from heaven today." "My brother have a seal and I so glad." "Mr. Hawley have a home in paradise." "Archangel bring baptizing down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, pp. 97-98, "Good News, Member" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12054
File: AWG097B

Good News, the Chariot's Coming (I)

See Good News (File: FSWB370B)

Good news, the Chariot's Coming (II)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Good news the chariot's coming (x3), I don't want it to leave me behind." Verses: "Going to get up in the chariot." "There's a long white robe (golden crown, golden harp, silver slippers) in heaven I know"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 101, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 179 in the 1874 edition)
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Raichelson, Black Religious Folksong: A Study in Genericand Social Change (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1975), p.315, "Good News, de Chariot's Comin'" (1 text)
Roud #5435
NOTES [89 words]: The description is based on the Raichelson text. Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute has "swing low sweet chariot" instead of "good news." Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses are "the good old chariot swings so low" and "the good old chariot will take us home." Both Raichelson and Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute repeat the verse line three times, followed by "I don't want it to leave me behind." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett101

Good Night and Good Morning

DESCRIPTION: "A fair little girl sat under a tree, Sewing as long as her eyes could see"; when it is too dark, she says, "Dear work, goodnight, goodnight." As rooks fly to their night perches, she says, "Little black things, goodnight, goodnight"
AUTHOR: Richard Monkton Milnes, Lord Houghton (1809-1885) (source: Fowke's notes in Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (according to Fowke)
KEYWORDS: work bird | sewing night rooks
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 57, "A fair little girl sat under a tree" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 68, "(A fair little girl sat under a tree)" (1 text)
Roud #23016
NOTES [85 words]: Alice Kane remembered only two verses of the six verses of this, and Maggi Kerr Peirce twelve lines, but it doesn't get any less nauseating; the last two verses read:
The tall pink foxglove bowed his head;
The violets curtsied and went to bed;
And good little Lucy tied up her hair,
And said, on her knees, her favorite prayer.
And while on her pillow she softly lay,
She knew nothing more till again it was day;
And all things said to the beautiful sun,
"Good morning, good morning! our work is begun." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC057B

Good Night Molly Darling Good Night

DESCRIPTION: The singer, outside Molly's window, standing in the snow, sees her light is on and leaves a message. When she looks out of her window she'll see his footprints. He wraps himself in his cloak and goes home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: courting love nightvisit nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 64, "Good Night Molly Darling Good Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9310
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Are Ye Sleeping Maggie?" (theme)
File: OCC064

Good Night to You All, and Sweet Be Thy Sleep

DESCRIPTION: Round. "Good night to you all, and sweet by thy sleep, May angels around you their silent watch keep (or "May silence surround you, your slumber be deep"), Good night, good night, good night, good night." Or "Sweet rest, sweet rest descend to all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #333, p. 82, "Good Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 121, "Good Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 435, "Good night to you all, and sweet be thy sleep" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 86, "Good Night to You All" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Good Night to You All" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 46)
File: ACSF435G

Good Night, Bye-Bye, Forever

DESCRIPTION: "This night we part forever, You are nothing more to me... Not a tear would I shed for thee." "Good night, bye, bye, forever." "Take back the ring you gave me." "Go break the heart of another." The singer blesses the man and hopes he won't harm another
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal separation ring
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 234-235, "Good Night, Bye-Bye, Forever" (1 text)
Roud #4329
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection)" (theme, some lyrics)
File: Neel234

Good Night, Sleep Tight

DESCRIPTION: "Good night, sleep tight, Don't let the bedbugs bite." Perhaps continues, "If they do, don't squall; Take a spoon and eat them all," or "And if they bight, Hold them tight, They'll not come back Another night"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Opei & Opie, I Saw Esau, first edition)
KEYWORDS: bug nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 122, "(Good night)" (1 short text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #595, p. 208 note 48, "(Good night, sleep tight)"
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 19, "(Good night, sleep tight)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 45, "(Good night)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #168, "(Good night, sleep tight)" (1 text)
Roud #19322
NOTES [50 words]: The Baring-Goulds claim this as a parody of something that runs "Good night, Sleep tight, Wake up bright In the morning light To do what's right With all your might." All I can say is, I've heard the "bed bugs bite" version but never this alleged original, which sounds too feeble to be traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SaKo122G

Good Nite Darling

See One More Kiss Before I Go (File: MHAp168)

Good Old Bailing Wire

DESCRIPTION: "Things keep breaking every day at some place on the farm... But some one makes the loss all right and pulls us from the mire By mending things almost at sight by using bailing wire." Bailing wire repairs all things. Perhaps it holds the universe together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (High-OldOldFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad farming technology
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 36-37, "Good Old Bailing Wire" (1 text)
ST High036 (Partial)
File: High036

Good Old Days of '50, '1, and '2, The

DESCRIPTION: "Tom Moore has sung of '49 And the pioneers who came" in 1849; the current singer will tell of those who turned up in 1850-1852. There were robbers like Joaquin; there were miners who came to get rich and ended poor. They opened the Golden Gate for you
AUTHOR: Words: J. Riley Mains (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest), but from nineteenth century broadsides
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes robbery gold moniker derivative mining death clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 560, "The Good Old Days of '50, '1, and '2" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Days of Forty-Nine" (source for song)
File: LDC560

Good Old Days of Adam and Eve, The

DESCRIPTION: "I sing, I sing of days grown older... Sing high, sing ho, I grieve, I grieve For the good old days of Adam and Eve." In the good old days, the town was smaller, the people bolder, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.26(81))
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 431, "The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve" (1 text)
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 7, "A New Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7836
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(763), "The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve" ("I sing, I sing, of good times older"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also 2806 c.17(150), 2806 c.17(152), Firth b.26(81), "[The] Good Old Days of Adam and Eve"
LOCSinging, as107360, "The Good Days of Old Adam and Eve," Pitts (London), no date
Bodleian, Firth b.26(81), "The Good Days of Old Adam and Eve" ("I sing, I sing of good times older"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Meditations of an Old Bachelor (The Good Old-Fashioned Girl)" (theme)
cf. "Twenty Years Ago (Forty Years Ago)" (theme)
cf. "Why Do You Bob Your Hair, Girls?" (theme)
cf. "You Must Live Holy" (theme)
cf. "In Old Pod-Auger Times" (theme)
cf. "Maurice Hogan's Song" (theme)
cf. "It Wasna Sae" (theme)
cf. "Old-Time Lumberjacks" (theme)
cf.. "In Former Times" (theme)
cf. "The New-Fashioned Farmer" (theme)
cf. "In Our Grandfathers' Days" (theme)
cf. "The Old Chesuncook Road" (partial theme)
SAME TUNE:
A New Song on the Times (broadside Murray, Mu23-y3:021, "A New Song on the Times" ("You people now both high and low, pray listen to these rhymes"), unknown, 19C)
An Invitation to the Log Cabin Boys to Old Tippecanoe's Raisin' ("Come all you log-cabin boys, we're going to have a raisin'") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, p. 16)
NOTES [113 words]: Since this song is mostly whining about the new ways of doing things, it's not too surprising that the handful of known versions (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's, plus several known to and assembled by Sandy and Caroline Paton) have few lyrics in common. There is no question, though, that they're the same song. - RBW
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong, analyzing the before and after, dates his version to Belfast in the 1820s. Most of the discussion would do as well for the Bodleian broadsides, which share some verses with Leyden and with each other, though referring to other cities.
Broadsides LOCSinging as107360 and Bodleian Firth b.26(81) are duplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Beld431

Good Old Dollar Bill, the

DESCRIPTION: "They are telling of old Glory Now in pictures songs and stories.... Sing the praises of Old Glory, But I've been through the mill And a real star spangled banner Is a good old dollar bill." The singer tells how money produces popularity
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1950 (article "The Wanigan Song Book" by Isabel J. Ebert)
KEYWORDS: money nonballad America
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "The Wanigan Songbook" by Isabel J. Ebert, p. 217, "The Good Old Dollar Bill" (1 text, sung by Emory DeNoyer)
Roud #30389
NOTES [82 words]: I originally wrote of this piece, "Emory DeNoyer, who sang this song, was blind and had a maimed left arm. He cannot have had much money. I rather suspect he wrote this. But Isabel Ebert, who collected it from him, did not say so. We will never know. Nor will we know the tune; it appears the song never went into tradition, and DeNoyer's melody was not recorded." It turns out this is not true; another version seems to have been found in New York. But the song is clearly quite rare. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: JPL217

Good Old Egg-Head

DESCRIPTION: "Did you go to the henhouse? Yes, ma'am! Did you get any eggs? Yes, ma'am. Did you put them in the bread...." And so forth, as the bread is baked. Similarly, and more bitterly, for going to a lynching, or for going to a wedding
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (RIng Games of American Children, according to Coffin & Cohen)
KEYWORDS: playparty food wedding execution
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, pp. 181-182, "Good Old Egg-Bread" (1 text, probably of three different games)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yes Ma'am" (form) and references there
File: CoCo181

Good Old Husband

See My Good Old Man (File: R426)

Good Old Jeff

See The Poor Old Slave (File: MWhee118)

Good Old Keg of Wine, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a time in each year when the boys do feel queer With the good old keg of wine.... They all get boozy woozy on the good old keg of wine." They drink when it's hot or cold. It makes them sick. They end up in the pig pen and don't even care.
AUTHOR: Moses E. Gifford (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous derivative
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 152-153, "The Good Old Keg of Wine" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10866
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In the Good Old Summertime" (tune) and references there
File: ChMS152

Good Old Leathern Bottle, The

See The Reaphook and Sickle (File: BrMa066)

Good Old Man (I), The

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Good Old Man (II), The

See My Good Old Man (File: R426)

Good Old Mountain Dew

DESCRIPTION: "Beside a hill there is a still Where the smoke runs up to the sky." The smell reveals that "the liquor boys are nigh." The making of the dew is described, and it is said to have been praised by scholars. The singer calls for more dew.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE) Canada(Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 41, "The Hidden Still" (1 fragment, probably this piece)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore541, "The Hidden STill" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 64, "The Real Old Mountain Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 23, pp. 53-54,112,166, "The Mountain Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 180-182, "Good Old Mountain Dew' (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 288-289, "Real Old Mountain Dew" (1 text, filed with "Old Mountain Dew")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 229, "Real Old Mountain Dew" (1 text)
DT, MTDEW2*
Roud #938
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Real Old Mountain Dew" (on Abbott1)
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Real Old Mountain Dew" (on IRClancyMakem01)
John Griffin and Ed Geoghegan?, "The Real Old Mountain Dew" (on Voice13)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Are You There Moriarity" (tune, per OLochlainn)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Let the Grasses Grow
NOTES [80 words]: OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads: "I am told it was written by Phil O Neill of Kinsale." - BS
Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 37, on the other hand, attributes it to Samuel Lover. But I should observe that few of his song notes seem to find support in reputable sources. And, of course, it's possible that Lover published a version without actually writing it.
Not to be confused with Bascom Lamar Lunsford's "Old Mountain Dew." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: LxA180

Good Old Rebel, The (The Song of the Rebel Soldier)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a good old Rebel soldier, and that's just what I am, And for this Yankee nation I do not give a damn!" The rebel tells of his history in the Confederate army. He scorns the Reconstruction governments, and proclaims, "I won't be reconstructed!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866?
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 21, 1861 - First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas. Confederates under Beauregard and Johnston rout an inexperienced Federal force under McDowell.
Aug 29-30, 1862 - Second Battle of Bull Run/Manassas. Lee's army takes Pope's force in flank and rolls it up.
Apr 7 and Sept 8, 1863 - Federal attempts to retake Fort Sumter and Charleston Harbor. Both failed.
May 1-4, 1863 - Battle of Chancellorsville (which would appear to be the "Battle of the Wilderness" referred to in some texts, since Stonewall Jackson is mentioned in the immediate context). Lee defeats Hooker, but Jackson is killed
May 5-7, 1864 - Battle of the Wilderness. Lee's army mauls the Federal force under Grant and Meade, but the Federals refuse to retreat
May 11, 1864 - Battle of Yellow Tavern. Confederate cavalry commander J.E.B. Stuart mortally wounded (he died May 12).
1865-1872 - The era of the Freedmen's Bureau. Its purpose was to help former slaves to make the transition to freedom, and to give them as many opportunities as possible. Most Southerners fought it tooth and nail, and finally the Radical Republicans abandoned it in 1872
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Randolph 231, "I'm a Good Old Rebel" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 216-217, "I'm a Good Old Rebel" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 231C)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 193, "The Song of the Rebel Soldier"; 194, "An Old Unreconstructed" (2 traditional texts plus assorted floating stanzas and a copy of a printed text plus mention of 6(?) more, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 70-71, "The Old Rebel Soldier" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 391, "The Good Old Rebel" (2 texts plus a fragment and mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 391, "The Good Old Rebel" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 118, pp. 259-260, "I'm a Good Old Rebel" (1 text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 57, pp. 95-96, "I'm a Good Old Rebel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 77, "I'm a Good Old Rebel" (1 text)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, pp. 45-47, "The Good Old Rebel"; "For I'm a Good Old Rebel" (2 texts)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 437, "O I'm a Good Old Rebel" (1 text); also a sheet music cover on p. 443
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 356-357, "Oh, I'm a Good Old Rebel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 88-89, "Oh, I'm a Good Old Rebel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 535-540, "Good Old Rebel" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 133, "The Good Old Rebel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 716, "I'm a Good Old Rebel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 134-135, "I'm a Good Old Rebel" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #C122, p. 192, "Oh, I'm a Good Old Rebel" (1 reference)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 351-353, "I'm a Good Old Rebel" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 290, "The Good Old Rebel" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Frank L. Warner [nephew of Frank M. Warner], "Songs My Uncle Taught Me" Vol. XI, No. 1 (Jul 1963), pp. 32-33, "The Unreconstructed Rebel" (1 text)
DT, UNRECON MOONSHI5*
ADDITIONAL: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 123, describes what appears to be the first sheet music printing
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 87, "I'm a Good Old Rebel" (1 text)
Roud #823
RECORDINGS:
Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock, "Uncle Jim's Rebel Soldier" (on McClintock01); "Reconstructed Rebel Soldier" (on McClintock02) [The two McClintock recordings are listed tentatively, awaiting audition. - PJS]
NOTES [519 words]: Cox lists several early printers and authors who claimed to be responsible for this song. The most common attribution is to Major Innes Randolph (CSV), but is from a book published by Randolph's son in 1892. An 1890 text is attributed to J.R.T. (perhaps based on an edition by Blackmar printed in 1864); another, printed 1903, dedicates it to "Thad. Stevens, 1862" and claims it was sung by "Harry Allen, Washington Artillery, New Orleans, LA."
The dedication to Stevens goes back to what Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 123, think is the earliest printing, perhaps by Blackmar, which has a cover by the famous artist Adelbert Volck and which says it is by "RI" or "IR" (the letters overlap).
A dedication to Stevens makes a perverse sort of sense; Stevens was a humorless anti-Southern abolitionist. The 1862 date makes little sense, however. Still, something caused the song to go into oral tradition. I think we must simply regard the matter as uncertain.
"Marse Robert" is, of course, the soldiers' nickname for Robert E. Lee.
Point Lookout was a Federal prison camp in Maryland. It was an unpleasant place (the prisoners were housed in tents, and water was sometimes scarce), but the army that produced the Andersonville prison camp had no grounds for complaint!
The "darkies dressed in blue" were Blacks who joined the Federal army; their performance was not spectacular, but this was mostly the fault of bad officers. Needless to say, the Confederates hated them above all -- but at the end of the war they too were preparing to put Blacks in uniform!
The Warner text "An Old Unreconstructed" appears to belong with this piece; the lyrics are different, but the spirit and the meter are the same.
In that song, the rebels claim that their cavalry was always superior to the Federals'. This was certainly true in the early years of the war, but by the time of Brandy Station (June 9, 1863), the two forces were equally competent (the Confederates had better officers, but the Federals had better weapons), and by 1864, with Southern horses running out and Sheridan in charge of the Federal cavalry, the Union horse was probably superior.
The "cowardly blockade" refers to the Federal blockade that largely cut off the Confederates from the outside world. It was not "cowardly"; blockade was already recognized under international law. Nor did it automatically cut off the Confederates from munitions; the blockade did not really begin to bite until 1863, by which time the Confederates were fairly well equipped with weapons (often captured from the Unionists). More important was the complete Confederate failure to industrialize.
The "German immigrants" referred to are probably the Federal XI corps, composed primarily of German refugees, which suffered the worst casualties at Chancellorsville and was routed at Gettysburg. These troops were held in very low esteem by both sides. Except for some Irish formations (none larger than a brigade), I know of no other Federal forces composed entirely of "furriners." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Wa193

Good Old Slave, The

See The Poor Old Slave (File: MWhee118)

Good Old State of Maine, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells how lumbering woods are "different from the good old State of Maine." The woods have "alieners and foreigners" and low wages, deep snow, harsh regulations and bad food. "I'll mend my ways and spend my days in the good old State of Maine."
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Ives-LarryGorman)
KEYWORDS: lumbering ordeal nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 111-114, "The Good Old State of Maine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 18, "The Good Old State of Maine (Henry's Concern)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 103-105, 193, "The Good Old State of Maine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 111-112, "Henry's Concern" (1 text)
ST IvNB111 (Partial)
Roud #1955
RECORDINGS:
Jim Brown, "The Good Old State of Maine" (on Miramichi1)
NOTES [48 words]: Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick: The song is about the J.E. Henry & Co. sawmill and lumbering operations in the Zealand Valley, in New Hampshire. - BS
According to Manny and Wilson, the "correct" title is "Henry's Concern," but note that Ives files it under "The Good Old State of Maine." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: IvNB111

Good Old Summer Time

See In the Good Old Summertime (File: FSWB257A)

Good Old Way (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "The good old way, the good old way, I am travelling in the good old way, And no matter where I be nor what people thinks of me...." "The Baptists in their glee may turn their back on me...." The singer condemns sinners and vows to stick with God
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 93, "The Good Old Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16937
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O I Shall Have Wings" (lyrics)
File: ChFRA093

Good Old Way (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "As I went down in the valley to pray, Studying about that good old way When you shall wear the starry crown, Good Lord, show me the way. Oh (mourner/sister/member), let's go down, let's go down, let's go down... down in the valley to play."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 84, "The Good Old Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12041
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down in the Valley to Pray" (lyrics)
NOTES [27 words]: This shares a lot of lines with "Down in the Valley to Pray," and some would perhaps lump them. But the overall form is different enough that I have split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG084A

Good Old Yankee Doodle, The (For the Fourth of July)

DESCRIPTION: "Yankee Doodle is the name some Yankee chap invented To sing on Independence Day to make us feel contented." The Mormons find it "convenient" to sing the song on Independence Day. Mormons are spreading. Some want to change the Constitution to stop them
AUTHOR: George W. Johnson?
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (George W. Johnson, Jottings by the Way, according to Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle)
KEYWORDS: derivative humorous | Mormon Yankee Doodle
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, pp. 331-332, "The Good Old Yankee Doodle" (1 text)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 185-186, "The Good Old Yankee Doodle" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10877
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (tune) and references there
File: ChMS185

Good Religion

DESCRIPTION: Format is ((phrase, "I got good religion") (3x) "My feet been taken out the miry clay"). Phrases include "I'm so glad," "In my heart," "Day was Monday/Tuesday/..." May be other four line verses.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (USMississippi01)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
The Blind Boys of Alabama, "Good Religion" (2001, on "Spirit of the Century," Real World USCDR W95)
Providence Missionary Baptist Church, "So Glad I Got Good Religion" (on USMississippi01)
File: RcGooRel

Good Roarin' Fire, A

DESCRIPTION: "Wi' the day's work done," these things make the singer happy to come home: "a good roarin' fire," "your childer lep an' run," a "wife is kind an' happy," "a clean-swep' stone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: home work fire nonballad children wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #167, p. 2, "When a Chap Comes Hame" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1070, "When a Chap Comes Hame" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, p. 32, "A Good Roarin' Fire" (1 text)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 38-41, "The Big Roaring Fire (A Good Roaring Fire; A Tidy Smilin' Wifey)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6301
RECORDINGS:
Angus McDonald, "Home From the War" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Jim Rice, "Roarin' Fire" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: HayU032

Good Scow Alice Strong, The

DESCRIPTION: "When running down for Cleveland On the good scow Alice Strong, The Captain's eyes grew weary." He orders the mate to take charge. "The mate was but a farmer Who'd seen service with a plow": He steers the ship on a straight course -- into another boat!
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Collected from John S. Parsons by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship farming wreck humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 165-166, "The Good Scow Alice Strong" (1 text)
Roud #19887
File: WGM165

Good Ship Calabah, The

See The Calabar (File: HHH502)

Good Ship Came A-Sailing, The

See William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I) [Laws N8] (File: LN08)

Good Ship Cantaloupe, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas off the coast of China in the good ship Cantaloupe, When up the creek we sprung a leak With a load of Irish soap. The shore was a thousand miles away or maybe a trifle more... we grabbed the soap and washed ourselves ashore."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: wordplay ship humorous disaster | soap China
FOUND IN: US(NE)
RECORDINGS:
Patricia Campbell, "Good Ship Cantaloupe" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #239, recorded 09/05/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Noble Duke of York" (approximate tune, with a bit of "Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer" thrown in for good measure)
NOTES [44 words]: I feel as if this OUGHT to be familiar, but extensive searching hasn't revealed anything. I wonder if there might be a version in which the ship is the "Antelope" rather than the "Cantaloupe," but it is certainly not the same song as "The Loss of the Antelope." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio239

Good Ship Cumberland

See The Cumberland [Laws A26] (File: LA26)

Good Ship Jubilee, The

See The Flemings of Torbay [Laws D23] (File: LD23)

Good Ship Kangaroo, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes to sea on the Kangaroo. His sweetheart gives him a token to remember her by. On his return home, he learns the she has run off with another man. He vows to go to a foreign shore and "throw [him]self away" on a foreign girl
AUTHOR: Harry Clifton (source: Greig/Duncan6)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1884 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.22(95))
KEYWORDS: love separation sailor return infidelity
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1211, "On Board of the Kangaroo" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 109, "On Board the Kangaroo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 473-476, "Aboard the Kangaroo," "On Board the Kangaroo" (2 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 351-353]
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 60, "Aboard of the Kangaroo" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SHPKNGR*
Roud #925
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "On Board the Kangaroo" (on IRECronin01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.22(95)[some words illegible], "On Board of the Kangaroo" ("Once I was a waterman, and lived at home in ease"), H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Harding B 11(2845), "On Board of the Kangaroo"; Firth c.12(365), 2806 c.14(48), "On Board of the 'Kangaroo'"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(087), "On Board the 'Kangaroo,'" unknown, c.1875
NOTES [197 words]: According to Peter Davison, Songs of The British Music Hall, Oak, 1971, pp. 28-29, Harry Clifton (1824-1872) was a British music hall performer who wrote more than 500 songs. His most famous is said to have been "Pretty Polly Perkins" (the tune of which was also used for "Cushie Butterfield"); Davison also mentions "Paddle Your Own Canoe" (included in the Ballad Index) "Pulling Hard Against the Stream" (also in the Index) "Work, Boys, Work, and Be Contented," "Barclay's Beer," and "The Weepin' Willer" (also in the Index) and prints "A Motto for Every Man" (with music by Charles Coote; also in the Index).
In addition, the 1868 sheet music of "The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue" is attributed to Clifton -- but Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep does not mention his authorship, and there is a broadside which very likely precedes the 1868 publication; it is likely that Clifton modified an existing song. This may be the case with "Paddle Your Own Canoe" also (see the notes to that song). Other song in the Index attributed to Clifton but not listed by Davidson include "The Calico Printer's Clerk," "The Waterford Boys," "My Rattlin' Oul' Grey Mare," and "Where the Grass Grows Green." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: MA060

Good Ship Mary Cochrane, The

See The Wreck of the Rebecca (The Mary Cochrane) (File: HHH565)

Good Ship Venus, The

DESCRIPTION: A quatrain ballad, this song describes the interminable sexual misadventures of the crew of the Good Ship Venus, whose mast is a rampant penis.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Vance Randolph firmly dates the three versions in his "Unprintable" Collection from the Ozarks to 1890.
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex humorous ship
FOUND IN: Australia Canada Britain(England) US(NE,MW,So,SW) New Zealand
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 315-318, "The Good Ship Venus" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 500-501, "Frigging in the Rigging" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 58-59, "Good Ship Venus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp 177-178, "There's Nothing Else to Do" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 68-71, "The Good Ship Venus" (1 text)
Brand-BawdySeaSong 2, "The Good Ship Venus"; 12, "Frigging in the Rigging" (2 texts)
DT, FRGGING SHPVENUS
Roud #4836 and 8350
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Christopher Columbo" (lyrics)
NOTES [69 words]: The limerick-form stanzas with the internal rhyme in the third line of "Good Ship" frequently migrate to "Christopher Columbo." - EC
Roud splits off Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea's "There's Nothing Else to Do" as a separate song, #8350, presumably because it never mentions the ship "Venus." But it has the "Frigging in the Rigging" chorus, and it's a quatrain ballad about sexual escapades; I think they can be lumped. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM315

Good Shot, Never Miss

DESCRIPTION: "Good shot, never miss, When you've got a girl to kiss."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 131, "(Good shot, never miss)" (1 text)
File: SuSm131A

Good Time Coming, A

See There's a Good Time Coming (File: ScES092)

Good Time in Georgia

DESCRIPTION: "Dere ain't no good times in Georgia, Like I used to have. Dere ain't no good times in Georgea, Like I used to have. I'm going back to Alabama and git my good gal back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: love separation travel hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 237, "Good Time in Georgia" (1 short text)
Roud #18158
File: KiWa237G

Good Woman

See The Three Butchers (Dixon and Johnson) [Laws L4] (File: LL04)

Good-by Mama

See Report Card (File: AJRV029)

Good-by Mother

See Report Card (File: AJRV029)

Good-By, Mike, Good-By Pat

See I'm Leaving Tipperary (File: GrD81754)

Good-by, Mother

See Goodbye, Mother (File: LxA592)

Good-by, Pretty Mama

See Goodbye, Pretty Mama (File: LxA020)

Good-bye (Goodbye My Brother)

DESCRIPTION: "Goodbye, my brother, goodbye, Hallelujah! Goodbye, sister Sally, goodbye, Hallelujah! Going home, Hallelujah! Jesus call me, Hallelujah! Linger no longer, Hallelujah! Tarry no longer, Hallelujah"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 52, "Good-bye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12011
File: AWG052A

Good-Bye Brother

See Goodbye, Brother (File: San477)

Good-Bye Dolly Gray

See Dolly Grey (File: MCB035)

Good-Bye Everybody

DESCRIPTION: "Good-bye everybody, Good-bye, sing Hallelujah." The singer is leaving. Jesus is at the Sacrement Table, "handing bread and wine to the members." Good-bye "all you deacons (preachers, false pretenders)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: farewell nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 15, pp. 90-92, "Good-Bye Everybody" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Joe Armstrong and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Goodbye, Everybody" (on LomaxCD1712, recorded 1959)
NOTES [39 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. Parrish says this was a favorite St. Simons farewell song at the end of an evening service.
Parrish includes this among her "ring shout" songs. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Parr015

Good-bye My Lovely Annie

See Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy (File: E153D)

Good-bye My Riley-O

See Riley (File: LoF278)

Good-bye Sweet Liza Jane

See Goodbye Eliza Jane (File: SRW211)

Good-bye-ee, Don't Cry-ee

See Goodbye-ee (File: BrPa220A)

Good-bye-ee!

See Goodbye-ee (File: BrPa220A)

Good-bye, My Honey, I'm Gone

DESCRIPTION: Singer had a girl, Isabella, who ran off with another fella. He has bad luck with girls, and often "hollered for a copper But he said he couldn't stop her." Cho: "Good-bye my honey I'm gone (x2)," last two lines of verse, then "Good-bye my honey I'm gone"
AUTHOR: Monroe H. Rosenfeld (source: broadside, Levy 054.045)
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (broadside, Levy 054.045)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity humorous lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 119, ("Good-bye my honey I'm gwine") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Wehman's [Universal Songster] Collection of 106 Songs No. 9 (New York, n.d.[date 01/1886 per ] ("digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 10, "Good-Bye, My Honey, I'm Gone" (1 text) [see Notes re publication date]
Roud #20911
RECORDINGS:
Pickard Family, "Goodbye My Honey, I'm Gone" (Banner 6343, 1929)
BROADSIDES:
Levy 054.045, "Good Bye My Honey I'm Gone", P.R. McCargo & Co, 1885, (1 text, 1 tune), Courtesy of the Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music, The Sheridan Libraries, The Johns Hopkins University at https://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/collection/054/045 accessed 19 July 2023
NOTES [32 words]: Guthrie T. Meade Jr., Dick Spottswood and Douglas S. Meade, Country Music Sources (Chapel Hill: Southern Folklife Collection, 2002), p. 479 has January 1886 as Wehman's publication date. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Parrp119

Good-bye, My Honey, I'm Gwine

See Good-bye, My Honey, I'm Gone (File: Parrp119)

Good-Bye, My Lover

See Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye (File: BMRF591)

Good-Bye, My Lover, Good-Bye!

See Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye (File: BMRF591)

Good-Bye, You Old Dry Landers

See The Cowboy's Farewell (File: PRJ022)

Good-Looking Widow, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a good-looking widow, has had three husbands and is looking for a fourth. Her husbands were a tailor who was a swell, a baker who was a loafer, and another who "was some fond o' me, but mair fond o' a dram"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: marriage drink death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1302, "The Good-Looking Widow" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #7199
NOTES [31 words]: Sounds like a Scottish rewrite of the Wife of Bath's Prologue. It might be interesting to sing it with "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" [Child 31], which is essentially the Wife's tale. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71302

Good-night Ladies

See Goodnight Ladies (File: FSWB258A)

Goodbye

See Darling, I Have Come to Tell You (Farewell Nellie, Little Bunch of Roses, Many Miles Apart, Don't This Road Look Rough and Rocky) (File: BrS5689)

Goodbye Darling I Must Leave You

See One More Kiss Before I Go (File: MHAp168)

Goodbye Dolly Gray

See Dolly Grey (File: MCB035)

Goodbye Eliza Jane

DESCRIPTION: "Lookey here 'Liza, listen to me, you ain't the girl you promised to be." Disappointed that Liza "went riding with Mr. Brown," the singer declares, "Goodbye, Miss Liza, I'm going to leave you." He demands his gifts back; Mr. Brown can replace them
AUTHOR: Words: Andrew B. Sterling / Music: Harry Von Tilzer
EARLIEST DATE: 1903
KEYWORDS: courting separation betrayal
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, p. 211, "Good-bye, Eliza Jane" (partial text and tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 93, "Good-bye Sweet Liza Jane" (1 text)
Roud #12403
RECORDINGS:
Peerless Quartet, "Minstrels Part 4, Goodbye Eliza Jane" (Little Wonder 343, 1916)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Good-bye Sweet Liza Jane" (Columbia 15601-D, 1930; on CPoole03 as "Goodbye Liza Jane")
NOTES [83 words]: I couldn't believe this was a Harry von Tilzer song either. Amazing what a little Charlie Poole influence can do.
For some background on Harry von Tilzer, see the notes to "A Bird in a Gilded Cage."
Andrew B. Sterling is best known for writing the words to "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis" and "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie"; also "On the Shores of Havana," "Strike Up the Band (Here Comes a Sailor)," "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown (What You Goin' to Do When the Rent Comes 'Round?)," and others. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: SRW211

Goodbye Fare-Ye-Well (I)

See Blow the Man Down (File: Doe017)

Goodbye I Am Going

DESCRIPTION: "Goodbye I am going."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1994 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: ritual nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 43, "Goodbye I Am Going" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [29 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago describes the ritual that accompanies this "mournful 'song of dispatch' heard at the baptismal ceremony of the Spiritual Baptist (Shouters) church." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo043

Goodbye Jeff

DESCRIPTION: "Their soldiers reconnoiter like the mischief, Jeff, And appropriate our cattle and our corn." The Union soldiers have taken half the slaves and will free the rest. The war is failing. The Confederate concludes, "I think we'd better give it up and run."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar slave humorous soldier desertion
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 360, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #6614
File: TNY360A

Goodbye Jenny

DESCRIPTION: "Sandy felt as swanky as the Duke of Killiecrankie" now that he is a soldier, "But Jenny by his side her sorrow could not hide." He tells her, "Goodbye Jenny, I must gang awa', Because my king is needin' laddies Big and braw." He'll scare the Germans
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier love separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 11-12, "Goodbye Jenny" (1 text)
NOTES [53 words]: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver gives no authorship information or date for this song but says it was sung by Hetty King. Her Wikipedia entry gives her dates as 1883-1972 and says that she performed as a male impersonator, often playing a soldier or sailor. Which seems as if it might be a good fit for this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW011

Goodbye John

DESCRIPTION: "Twas on a Friday morning I bid London Town adieu." "Goodbye, John, Don't stay long, But come back home to your own chickiebiddie, My heart bears so to see you go, Don't forget your darling"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (broadside, Bodleian Bod8412 Firth c.12(385))
LONG DESCRIPTION: John loved sweet Nancy, a big lass (15 stone=210 pounds, face the size of a dinner plate) who ran a sweets shop. He dreamt, while sailing, that she came to him looking "just like a mermaid." In the morning, as they approached land, Nancy came to meet him in a boat which capsized and sent her to the bottom, In a spoken interlude John explains that as a British sailor he cannot stand by to "see a British female in distress"; to save her as she was going down a third time, he grabbed her hair; to his surprise it was a wig that came off and she went to the bottom of the Thames.
KEYWORDS: love separation travel request beauty hair death drowning river sea ship shore dream England humorous sailor
FOUND IN: US(SE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 690, "Goodbye John" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 149-151, "Goodbye John, But Don't Stop Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24344
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "Goodbye John, But Don't Stop Long" (on NFAGuigné01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod8412 Firth c.12(385), "Goodbye John" ("Twas on Friday morning I bade London town goodbye"), Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1868
NOTES [94 words]: The above description is based mostly on Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 plus a stray line. I assume there is more to the song, but I don't have any way to test it. - RBW
The description "Goodbye, ... darling," is the chorus; the long description is based on Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's text for Bennett's recording. The Poet's Box broadside has more details of John's sailing to exotic ports, keeps the tragic end, but lacks the spoken patter,
Guigné has this as a music hall number which she found in a Tony Pastor song book. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: BrS5690

Goodbye John, But Don't Stop Long

See Goodbye John (File: BrS5690)

Goodbye Little Bonnie Blue Eyes

See More Pretty Girls Than One (File: CSW192)

Goodbye Liza Jane (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Our horse fell down the well around behind the stable (x2), Well he didn't fall clear down but he fell, fell... As far as he was able. Oh, it's goodbye Liza Jane." Similarly "My gal crossed a bridge... but the bridge it wasn't built yet." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: nonsense humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 51, "Good-by Liza Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST San051 (Full)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Goodbye Liza Jane" (on PeteSeeger22)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Black Them Boots (Goin' Down to Cairo)"
File: San051

Goodbye Liza Jane (II)

See Liza Jane (File: San132)

Goodbye Liza Jane (III)

See Goodbye Eliza Jane (File: SRW211)

Goodbye Lovely Lou

See Lovely Lou (File: LaGo162)

Goodbye Mama, Goodbye Dada

DESCRIPTION: "Goodbye mama, goodbye dada, Goodbye to all the rest, Goodbye mama, goodbye dada, For I love dolly best." "Past 8 o'clock and it's bedtime for dolly, Past 8 o'clock and it's bedtime for me. Dolly must sleep... Dolly and I are quite sure to agree."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice)
KEYWORDS: nonballad mother father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #2, p. 112, "Goodbye Mama, Goodbye Dada" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [252 words]: The first verse of this ("Goodbye mama.... For I love dolly best") is the entire text recalled by Jeannie Robertson, and there seem to be no other clear collections from tradition. And yet, I seemed to recall the lyric when I saw it.
Hunting around on the Internet didn't produce much, but on the King Laoghaire Irish site someone supplied a text that supplies the "Past 8 o'clock and it's bedtime for dolly" verse, with chorus
Good night Mama, good night Papa,
Good night to all the rest,
Good night Mama, good night Papa,
For I love dolly best.
and a second verse
Ma turn the lights out for I am so sleepy,
Papa good night, love and give me a kiss,
Dolly good night I will see you tomorrow,
Dolly and I are quite sure to agree.
Several others claimed to recall the song.
Another poster claimed that this was a song about a Topsy doll (aka a Topsy-Turvy doll) -- that is, a doll with two heads and upper bodies joined at the waist, so that by flipping over the skirt, you could show either head. Typically one head was black and one white. These dolls were apparently in existence by the 1890s if not earlier, and still made into the 1950s.
There was a song about the Topsy dolls in which the girl washes her doll but can't make it white. Obviously racist, but it has several lyrics that look like they are related to the Robertson fragment. So my guess is that Jeannie Robertson heard the Topsy Doll song in her youth, and (consciously or unconsciously) kept the least offensive part, which became this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: RPG002

Goodbye May While You're Away

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Goodbye Mary/May, While you're away, Send a letter home, Say you're better, love, Don't forget your dear old (Nell)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1816 (Douglas, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope separation home | letter
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #154, "Good bye (May) wile you're away" (1 text)
Roud #22996
File: AJRR154

Goodbye to My Stepstone

DESCRIPTION: The singer has stayed at home among loved ones for a long time, but now is leaving: "Goodbye to my stepstone, goodbye to my home, God bless the ones that I leave with a sigh; I'll cherish dear memory while I am away; Goodbye, dear old stepstone, goodbye."
AUTHOR: probably J. O. Webster
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (collected from Lela Ammons by Bascom Lamar Lunsford. Source: _Sing Out_, volume 35, #4 [1991], p. 8); J. O. Webster published his piece "Old Doorstep," the likely ancestor, in 1880
KEYWORDS: travel home farewell rambling
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, "Old Stepstone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 713, "The Old Stepstone" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Randolph 853, "The Old Stepstone" (1 texts plus 2 fragments)
DT, STEPSTON*
Roud #7453
RECORDINGS:
Daphne Burns, "Goodbye To My Stepstones" (Paramount 3032, 1927)
Floyd County Ramblers, "Step Stone" (Victor V-40331, 1930; Bluebird B-5107, 1933; on TimesAint05)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Stepstones" (Brunswick 231, 1928; Brunswick 314, 1929; on BLLunsford01) (Rounder LP 0065, 1957)
Peg Moreland, "The Old Step Stone" (Victor V-40008, 1929)
E. R. Nance Singers, "Goodbye to My Stepstone" (Champion 16316, 1931)
Three Muskateers, "Goodbye to the Step Stones" (Bluebird B-6525, 1936)
Ernest V. Stoneman and His Dixie Mountaineers, "Goodbye Dear Old Stepstone" (Edison 52489, 1929); Ernest Stoneman and Eddie Stoneman, "Good-bye Dear Old Stepstone" (ARC, unissued, 1934)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Old Doorstep
NOTES [27 words]: I've seen this attributed to Woody Guthrie, but the texts in Randolph, and his references to 1890s songbooks, make it clear that the basic song predated him. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: R853

Goodbye to the Cracking of the Pistols

See The Dying Cowboy of Rim Rock Ranch (File: FCW120)

Goodbye to the Old Pick and Shovel

DESCRIPTION: "farewell to my old pick and shovel... The bulldozer now has took over To tear down the mountains of stone." The 'dozer mechanic has skills the old road-builder doesn't, but couldn't survive the life the old man once led. The world is changed, not better
AUTHOR: Words: Dennis Hogan (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Fern Fire, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: worker technology hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 137, "Goodbye to the Old Pick and Shovel" (1 text)
NOTES [20 words]: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ list this as being sung to "Red River Valley." It sort of fits, but it's hard work.... - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: BaRo137

Goodbye-ee

DESCRIPTION: "Goodbye-ee, Don't sigh-11! Wipe the tear, baby dear, From your eye-ee. Though it's hard to part I know, (Still) I'll be tickled to death to go. Don't sigh-ee! Don't cry-ee! There's a silver lining in the sky-ee.... Napoo! TOodle-oo! Goodbye-ee!"
AUTHOR: R. P. Weston (1878-1936) and Bert Lee (1880-1946)
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: home separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 185, "Good-bye-ee, don't cry-ee" (1 fragment); p. 189, "Bonsoir, Old Thing" (1 fragment/parody)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 220, "(no title)" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 44-46, "Good-by-ee!" (2 texts, one the Weston & Lee original, one a parody by the troops)
Roud #10939
NOTES [84 words]: Of the songs in the Index, authors R. P. Weston and Bert Lee were also responsible for "Anne Boleyn (With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm)," "Rawtenstall Annual Fair," "Send Him a Cheerful Letter," "Lloyd George's Beer," and "The Gypsy Warned Me," and Weston also co-wrote "I'm Henery the Eighth I Am," "Where Are the Lads of the Village Tonight?" and "Private Michael Cassidy." Weston was also co-author of the fairly well-known "I've Got Rings on My Fingers" with Maurice Scott and Fred Barnes. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BrPa220A

Goodbye, Annie Darling

See Enoch Arden (File: BrS5684)

Goodbye, Brother

DESCRIPTION: "Goodbye, brother (x2), If I don't see you more; Now God bless you (x2), If I don't see you more." "We part in the body, but we meet in the spirit, If I don't see you more; We'll meet in the heaven, in the blessed kingdom, If I don't see you more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad parting separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 477, "Good-bye, Brother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 47, "Good-bye Brother" (1 text. 1 tune)
Roud #12004
File: San477

Goodbye, Fare Ye Well

See Homeward Bound (I) (File: Doe087)

Goodbye, Fare You Well (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Fare you well, Julianna, you know, Hoo row, row, row, my boys, To the westward we roll and we now coming home, Goodbye, fare you well, goodbye, fare you well." The sailors bid farewell to the whales and look forward to arriving home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971
KEYWORDS: whaler home nonballad sailor whale
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 321-322, "Goodbye, Fare You Well" (1 text)
DT, FARWJUL
NOTES [18 words]: A great tune; I'm surprised it's not more widely collected. But hardly a good sentiment in these days. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: DarNS321

Goodbye, Fare You Well (II)

See Homeward Bound (I) (File: Doe087)

Goodbye, Fare-Ye-Well (II)

See The Dreadnought [Laws D13] (File: LD13)

Goodbye, Little Bonnie Blue Eyes

See More Pretty Girls Than One (File: CSW192)

Goodbye, Little Bonnie, Blue Eyes

See More Pretty Girls Than One (File: CSW192)

Goodbye, Little Bonnie, Goodbye

See More Pretty Girls Than One (File: CSW192)

Goodbye, Little Girl, Goodbye

DESCRIPTION: "The sound of the bugle is calling, Fare thee well, fare thee well." The soldier boy sets out: "Goodbye, little girl, goodbye... In my (Virginia/blue) uniform, I'll return to you." In the din of battle, he sends a (dying?) message to the girl
AUTHOR: Words: Will D. Cobb / Music: Gus Edwards
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (copyright date on sheet music)
KEYWORDS: soldier separation love
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 271, "Goodbye, Little Girl, Goodbye" (1 text)
Roud #15745
NOTES [73 words]: The Brown text appears confused. It starts simply enough, with a soldier bidding goodbye to his girl. But when the battle comes, it's not clear whether the lover dies, or the lover lives and goes home, or someone else asks him to send a message.
Lyricist Will D. Cobb was also responsible for "Dolly Grey." He and Gus Edwards seem to have specialized in rather silly love songs, based on the back cover of the sheet music to this piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Br3271

Goodbye, Mary Dear

See I'll Be There, Mary Dear (File: RcGoMaDe)

Goodbye, Mick

See I'm Leaving Tipperary (File: GrD81754)

Goodbye, Mother

DESCRIPTION: "Goodbye, Mother, goodbye, Your voice I shall hear it no mo', Death done flamished yo' body...." The singer hears mother calling from the grave, wishes she were still alive, and hopes to go to heaven where there is no trouble
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: death mother burial religious
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 592-593, "Good-by Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15566
File: LxA592

Goodbye, My Blue Bell

DESCRIPTION: "Goodbye, my Blue Bell, Farewell to you. One last fond look into your eyes so blue. 'Mid campfires gleaming, Through shot and shell, I will be dreaming Of my sweet Blue Bell." "Blue Bell, my heart is breaking... Blue bell, my tears have started."
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Madden / Music: Theodore Morse (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Recording, Harry Macdonough & the Haydn Quartet)
KEYWORDS: soldier separation
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 395, "Goodbye, My Blue Bell" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 395, "Goodbye, My Blue Bell" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 48, "Blue Belle" (1 short text)
Roud #11331
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Adcock, "Virginia Bluebell" (Patuxent CD-300, 1963; on Protobilly)
Richard Brooks & Reuben Puckett, "Good Bye, My Blue Bell" (Victor 20542, 1927)
Byron Harlan & Frank Stanley, "Blue Bell" (CYL: Edison 8655, rec. 1904)
Harry Macdonough & the Haydn Quartet, "Blue Bell" (CYL: Columbia 32515-2, 1904; on Protobilly)
Merle Travis, "Blue Bell" (Capitol transcription, 1945; on Protobilly)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bluebell (One Night I Thought I'd Enjoy Myself)" (partial tune; that song is a response to this).
NOTES [80 words]: The authors' title for this was "Blue Bell."
Brown's informant thought this came from the Spanish-American War. A reasonable assumption, but actually the song is later. It might have been inspired by the war, of course.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 265, estimates that this was the most popular song in America in May 1904, peaking in popularity in May of the year. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Br3395

Goodbye, My Love, Goodbye

DESCRIPTION: Hauling shanty, probably Negro in origin. "I'm bound away to leave you, Goodbye, my love, goodbye. I never will deceive you, Goodbye, my love, goodbye." Given verses are all variations on the 'goodbye, farewell, we're bound away' theme.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Davis/Tozer _Sailor Songs or Chanties_)
KEYWORDS: shanty farewell separation
FOUND IN: Britain US West Indies
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 62, "Goodbye, My Love, Goodbye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 118-119, "Goodbye, My Love, Goodbye" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 102]
Roud #4709
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" (chorus form)
cf. "Shallo Brown" (similar tune and meter)
NOTES [50 words]: I thought very seriously about lumping this with "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye," given that both have sailor versions and both are weak in the plot department. I'm still not sure, but I haven't seen any actual common lyrics, and the tunes are different. Still, it's hard to be sure about fragments. - RBW
File: Hugi118

Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye

DESCRIPTION: A riverman, departing for New Orleans, bids his sweetheart farewell: "I'm going away to New Orleans, Goodbye, my lover, goodbye...." "She's on her way to New Orleans... She's bound to pass the Robert E. Lee...." "I'll make this trip and make no more...."
AUTHOR: T. H. Allen?
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (copyright, according to College Songs)
KEYWORDS: river farewell work separation floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 274, "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" (1 text plus a fragment)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 46-47, "Good-bye, My Lover, Good-Bye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 97-99, "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 160, "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" (1 text)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #65, "Good-bye, My Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 591, "Let Her Go By" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #140, "Good-bye, My Lover, Good-bye!" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 152, "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 47, "Good Bye, My Lover, Good-Bye" (sic.) (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 37, "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 17, "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, pp. 54-55, "Good-bye, My Lover, Good-Bye!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15381
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" (Vocalion 5209, 1928)
Kanawha Singers, "Goodbye My Lover Goodbye" (Brunswick 242, 1928)
Bill Mooney & his Cactus Twisters, "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" (Imperial 1150, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Goodbye, My Love, Goodbye" (chorus form)
cf. "Sunflower Chorus on Micanopy People" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Sunflower Chorus on Micanopy People (File: Morr012)
Harrison 1888 Campaign Song ("Steamboat coming 'round the bend, Goodbye, old Grover, goodbye") (Paul F. Boller, Jr., _Presidential Campaigns_, second revised edition, Oxford University Press, 1984-2004, p. 160)
Good-bye, My Party, Good-bye (Farmers Alliance song by Luna Kellie; John D. Hicks, _The Populist Revolt: A History of the Farmers' Alliance and the People's Party_, 1931, p. 169; for background, see the notes to "Marching for Freedom")
Good-by, Old Bilious (Harbin-Parodology, #55, p. 20)
Bought a Little Rooster (Harbin-Parodology, #92, p. 26; Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 123)
Election of Officers ("Here comes the boat around the bend, Goodbye, my lover, goodbye") (Harbin-Parodology, #185 p. 49)
NOTES [427 words]: The description above is based on the most coherent version I could find -- although neither the Robert E. Lee nor New Orleans are mentioned in the College Songs texts. Brown's texts, however, have nothing of either plot; both have a verse "See the train go 'round the bend... Loaded down with (railroad/Chapel Hill) men," with the other stanzas floating. Jackson's version is similar: The train comes round the bend filled with CONVICT men. It appears that the simple tune was used for all sorts of floating verse songs.
The Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors version seems to have been particularized for Great Lakes sailors; it begins "A farmer boy stands on the deck" and complains about all the things he doesn't know (e.g. he can't tell various types of sail apart). This may have been influenced by "Goodbye, My Love, Goodbye," which is also a sailor song, but that is a separation song, and the Walton version is a taunt, so I don't think they are the same.
This has been attributed to T. H. Allen (so College Songs, and cf. Brown), but I don't know the reliability of the citation.
This song was apparently popular enough in the late 1800s to have played a minor but odd role in politics. The chief issue in the presidential campaign of 1896 was the issue of free silver (for background, see the notes to "Free Silver"). The larger part of the Republican party was in favor of the gold standard, but a substantial minority, especially from agricultural states where high interest rates caused great success, was pro-silver. This became a major issue at the presidential nominating convention, when the Silver Republicans tried to put their position into the platform.
According to PresElections, p. 1803, when the gold standard plank was introduced as an amendment to the Republican platform, the Silver Republicans made it clear that they would leave the party if their position was adopted. This threat was greeted with jeers, including "Go to Chicago!" (site of the Democratic convention), "Put him out," and "Goodbye, my lover, goodbye." And, yes, the Silver Republicans bolted, with some in the audience still shouting this at them as they left (Jones, pp. 172-173). - RBW
There is a parody version ["See the Steamer Go 'round the Bend"]: "See the steamer go 'round the bend, goodbye, my lover, goodbye/They're taking old Sammy away to the pen...And why are they taking old Sam to the pen?...He hit a policeman and hit him again/goodbye, my lover, goodbye." Sam Hinton credits this to his father, who liked to improvise. - PJS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: BMRF591

Goodbye, Old Paint

DESCRIPTION: "Goodbye, old Paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne." The impatient cowboy is off for Montana. He bids farewell to the girl and starts his horses on their way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Harry “Haywire Mac” McClintock)
KEYWORDS: horse cowboy rambling
FOUND IN: US(Ro,So)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 184, "Old Paint" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 169-170, "Goodbye, Old Paint" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 63(A), "Old Paint" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 383-385, "Good-by, Old Paint" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 195, "I'm A-Leavin' Cheyenne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, p. 263, "Goodbye, Old Paint" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 118-119, "Old Paint" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 83, "Old Paint" (3 texts, 1 tune, although the "C" text appears to be "The Wagoner's Lad")
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 24-25, "Old Paint" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 572, "Goodbye, Old Paint" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 380-381, "Goodbye, Old Paint" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 122-125, "Goodbye Old Paint" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 275, "Goodbye, Old Paint" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 106, "Goodbye Old Paint" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 77, "Old Paint" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDPAINT*
Roud #915
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Charlie [pseud. for Charlie Craver], "Goodbye Old Paint" (Vocalion 5270, rec. 1928)
Emmett Brand, "Riding My Buggy, My Whip in My Hand" (on MuSouth06)
Sloan Matthews, "Goodbye, Old Paint (II)" (AFS, 1940s; on LC28)
Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock, "Goodbye Old Paint" (Victor 21761, 1928; on WhenIWas1)
Patsy Montana, "Ridin' Old Paint" (Conqueror 8575, 1935)
Jess Morris, "Goodbye, Old Paint (I)" (AFS, 1942; on LC28, LCTreas)
Tex Ritter, "A-Ridin' Old Paint" (Conqueror 8144, 1933/Perfect 12984, 1934; on BackSaddle); "Goodbye Old Paint" (Vocalion 5493, c. 1931; Conqueror 8073, 1932; Vocalion 04911, 1939)
Pete Seeger, "Old Paint" (on PeteSeeger09, PeteSeegerCD02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I Ride an Old Paint"
NOTES [42 words]: I classify Emmett Brand's recording here because it has to go somewhere, but it also includes material from "Rye Whiskey (Jack of Diamonds)" and "Wagoner's Lad," and a tune the collector found reminiscent of "One Morning in May." Ah, the folk process! - PJS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LxU063A

Goodbye, Pretty Mama

DESCRIPTION: "I'm gonna take those shoes I bought you, Put yo' feet on de groun' (x2)." "I'm gonna leave you jes' like I foun' you, All out an' down (x2)." "I ain' gonna buy you nothin' else, When I go to town (x2)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: separation clothes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 20, "Good-by, Pretty Mama" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15522
NOTES [33 words]: The Lomaxes call this a "variant of the Tie-Tamping Chant." They offer no supporting evidence, however, and the forms of the two songs are different. So I separate them (though Roud lumps them). - RBW
File: LxA020

Goodbye, Susan Jane

DESCRIPTION: Susan Jane tells the singer that she is in love with Rufus Andrew Jackson Payne. He asks "give me back my love again." She says "I cannot love [you] again." She is "so deceiving" he "threatened twice to leave her" and now he must. Now he thinks her ugly.
AUTHOR: Will S Hayes
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1874 03345)
KEYWORDS: love infidelity rejection humorous playparty
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont) US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 62, "Goodbye, Susan Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 241-243, "Miss Susan Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 435, "Liza Jane" (2 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune; the "B" text is this, "A" is "Liza Jane," and "C" is too short to clearly identify)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 86, "Good-bye, Susan Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Goldy M. Hamilton, "The Play-Party in Northeast Missouri," Vol. XXVII, No. 105 (Jul-Sep 1914), #5 pp. 291-292 "Susan Jane" (1 text)
Roud #2328
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1874 03345, "Susan Jane" ("I went to see my Susan"), J.L. Peters (New York), 1874 (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [116 words]: Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario: Vance Randolph reports it from Missouri, giving it as a variant of 'Liza Jane,' but textually it seems to be a separate song."
See Mrs L D Ames, "The Missouri Play-Party" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXIV, No. 93 (Jul-Sep 1911 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 299-300 "Oh, Ain't I Gone" (1 text, 1 tune) for a song that shares only one line in its chorus - "So good-by, Susan Jane! - with this song but is otherwise a collection of floating verses not in Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario or Hamilton. - BS
I suspect that this began as some sort of popular comic song, but I will admit that I haven't found the original. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: FowOn062

Goodbye, Sweetheart, Goodbye

DESCRIPTION: "The bright stars fade, the morn is breaking, The dewdrops pearl each bud and leaf." The singer must leave, and bids, "Goodbye, sweetheart, goodbye." "The sun is up, the lark is soaring," but despite saying goodbye, he cannot bring himself to leave
AUTHOR: J. L. Hatton (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1855 (broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(2784))
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Heart-Songs, pp. 160-161, "Goodbye, Sweetheart, Goodbye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13897
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(62)=Firth c.12(437)=Harding B 11(2565), "Good bye, sweetheart, good bye," J. T. Burdett (London), c. 1855; also Harding B 11(2783), "Good bye, sweetheart, good bye," (Ryle and Paul, London), 1838-1859; also Harding B 11(2784), "Good bye, sweetheart, good bye," H. Such (London), 1863-1855; also Harding B 11(2787), "Good bye, sweetheart, good bye," W. S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; Firth c.26(68), "Good-bye, sweetheart, good-bye," T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899; also Harding B 14(106), "Good-bye sweetheart," unknown, n.d.; also Firth b.27(170), "Good bye, sweetheart, goodbye," unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.16(92)=Firth c.26(117)=Harding B 11(2483), "Good-bye, sweetheart," unknown, n.d.
File: HeSo160

Goodman's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer threatens to retaliate for thin or lumpy porridge by making the oxen run or leave the land unploughed. "Wine wine wine awa', Halkie's [cow] ane and humlie's [hornless cow] twa, Wine wine wine awa"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work food nonballad drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 395, "The Goodman's Song" (1 text)
Roud #5928
File: GrD3395

Goodnight Irene

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes how he courted Irene. Now he and his wife are parted. "And if Irene turns her back on me, gonna take morphine and die." Chorus: "Irene, goodnight, Irene, goodnight; Goodnight, Irene, goodnight, Irene, I'll (get/see) you in my dreams."
AUTHOR: popular version by Huddie Ledbetter ("Lead Belly")
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recordings, Huddie Ledbetter [Lead Belly])
KEYWORDS: love courting separation drugs suicide loneliness floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 315, "Irene" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 48, "Irene, Goodnight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 307-308, "Irene (Goodnight, Irene)"
DT, IRENGDNT
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 93, "Irene" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11681
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Goodnight Irene" (Piotr-Archive #378, recorded 12/07/2022 -- a parody verse but one which implies knowledge of the rest of the song)
Scott Dunbar, "Goodnight Irene" (on USDunbarS01)
Nancy Finley, Samuel Finley, "Goodnight Irene" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #622, recorded 08/01/2023)
Gordon Jenkins & The Weavers, "Goodnight Irene" (Decca 27077, 1950; on Weavers01)
Huddie Ledbetter [Lead Belly], "Irene" (AFS 120 A1, 1933) (AFS 120 A6, 1933) (AFS 120 A7, 1933) (Atlantic 917, 1950)
Pete Seeger, "Goodnight, Irene" (on PeteSeeger24) (on PeteSeeger43)
Guy Wolff, "Goodnight Irene" (Piotr-Archive #444, recorded 01/08/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dark and Dreary Weather" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Willy, Poor Boy" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Sometimes I'm in This Country" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Late Last Night When Willie Came Home (Way Downtown)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Rambling Round" (approximate tune)
cf. "Roll On, Columbia" (tune)
NOTES [188 words]: Fuld quotes the Lomaxes to the effect that Lead Belly learned the chorus of this song from his uncle. Many of the verses can also be shown to be older. To what extent Lead Belly created this song, as opposed to reshaping the materials, cannot now be determined.
The 1888 song "Irene, Goodnight," sung by the Haverly Minstrels and credited by Spaeth to "Davis" (but dated 1892), is a separate piece. - RBW
The "Davis" cited by Spaeth is Gussie L. Davis, and according to Guy Logsdon & Jeff Place the date is 1887, not 1888. They note some melodic similarity to the song sung by Lead Belly.
According to Seeger, Lead Belly said Irene was a sixteen-year-old girl he knew, who took up with a rambler. - PJS
Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 142, refers to Davis's composition of "Irene, Good Night" in a way that implies he thinks it is the same. But he offers no evidence.
Judy Cook's parody verse is:
Sometimes Irene wears pajamas,
Sometimes Irene wears a gown,
But when they're both in the laundry,
Irene is the talk of the town. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LoF315

Goodnight Ladies

DESCRIPTION: "Goodnight ladies (x3), We're going to leave you now." "Merrily we roll along, Roll along, roll along, Merrily we roll along Over the deep blue sea." "Farewell ladies, (x3), We're going to leave you now." "Sweet dreams, ladies, We're going to leave...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: nonballad farewell
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 179-180, "Goodnight, Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 145, "Good-night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #138, "Good-night, Ladies" (1 text)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 57, "Good-night Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 258, "Goodnight Ladies" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 255-256, "Goodnight Ladies"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 313, "Good Night Ladies" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 36, "Good Night Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 24, "Good Night Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 122-123, "Campfire Medley" (1 text, a combination of "Our Boys Will Shine Tonight," "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean," "Sailing, Sailing," and "Goodnight Ladies")
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 28, "Good Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (partial tune)
SAME TUNE:
Good-by, Dinner ("Good-by, dinner; good-by, dinner; good-bye, dinner; We're going to eat you now") (Harbin-Parodology, #268, p. 66)
NOTES [87 words]: The notes in Fuld indicate a complex history for this song. "Farewell Ladies," containing the first verse of the piece, was printed in 1847 and credited to E. P. Christy. It seems likely enough that the Christy Minstrels used it to close programs.
The complete text, with the "Merrily We Roll Along verse" (which shares a melody with "Mary Had a Little Lamb") was published in 1867.
Fuld says that the melody is that of "I've Been Working on the Railroad," but if so, there has been a lot of embellishment along the way. 0 RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB258A

Goody Goody Gout

DESCRIPTION: Taunt rhyme, also occasionally used as a jump-rope rhyme. "Goody Goody Gout/Gouch, Your shirt-tail's out." "Goody, goody, gin, Put it back again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: clothes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 75, "(Goody-goody gouch)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #156, "Goody, goody, gout" (1 text)
Roud #16346
File: ZiZa075B

Goody-Goody Gouch

See Goody Goody Gout (File: ZiZa075B)

Goondiwindi

See Old Black Alice (File: PASB092)

Goorianawa

DESCRIPTION: "I've been many years a shearer, and fancied I could shear... But, oh my! I never saw before The way we had to knuckle down at Goorianawa." The shearer describes the many places he has worked, then complains how Goorianawa broke his spirits
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (short version in "The Lone Hand")
KEYWORDS: work sheep Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 268-269, "Goorianawa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads, pp. 20-21, "Goorianawa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, p. 96, "Goorianawa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 192-194, "Goor9anawa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 126-127, "Goorianawa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 186-189, "Goorianawa" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 60-61, "Goorianawa" (1 text)
Roud #9114
NOTES [41 words]: Accorting to Patterson/Fahey/Seal, Goorianawa was known among shearers as a hard station to work -- bad conditions and low pay. "Banjo" Paterson had heard of this song at the time he assembled Old Bush Songs, but was unable to locate a text. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: MA268

Goose and the Gander, The

DESCRIPTION: "Goose and gander walked over the green." Goose walked barefoot afraid of being seen. "I had a black hen" with a white foot and she laid an egg in a willow tree root.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad nonsense bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 71-72, "The Goose and the Gander" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 62-63, "The Grey Gooise And Gander" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1094
NOTES [38 words]: Kidson-TraditionalTunes (1891): "Many years ago this used to be a favorite song round about Leeds... common in the kitchens of quiet publichouses, and were in general the exclusive copyright of old fogies who gathered there." - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: KiTu071

Goose Drank Wine, The

See Three, Six, Nine (File: OpGa135)

Goose Hangs High, The

DESCRIPTION: "Im June of '63, I suppose you all know, General Lee he had a plan into Washington to go." Stuart loses a battle, but Lee invades Pennsylvania; Meade replaces Hooker; the Union wins: "You cannot whip the Yankee boys while the goose hangs high"
AUTHOR: G. P. Hardwick? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1863 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 9, 1863 - Battle of Brandy Station. Union cavalry attack Stuart's rebel horse, but are driven off
July 1-3, 1863 - Battle of Gettysburg. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac holds off Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 372-373, "The Goose Hangs High" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
cf. Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #794, p. 53, "The Goose Hangs High" (1 reference); also #795, "The Goose Hangs High #2," and #796, "The Goose Hangs High #3," plus perhaps #797, "Der Goose Hangs High"
Roud #7763
NOTES [661 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety admits that this song may not have been traditional; both texts were copies sold as pamphlets, probably by the same blind man, Jasper Kinder. There was, however, some sort of transmission involved. Page 8 of Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, has as its item 100 a broadside entitled "The Battle of Gettysburg," which has as its first line "In June of '63, I suppose you all know." It is listed as by G. P. Hardwick, who also published it; it is said to have seven verses, and to use the tune "Where everything is lovely and the Goose hangs high." A copy of such a broadside was sold on eBay in 2019; it appears to have been printed in red ink, and had an 1863 copyright. There is another copy in the Duke University digital collections, item bsvg301446. Presumably that is this song, and it implies an even earlier "Goose hangs high" song. This seems to be listed on p. 53 of Wolf, which has a #794 "The Goose Hangs High" ("7 verses, beginning 'Now good folks I will sing you a song," said to be "Composed and Sung by Mat. Gebler with unbounded applause"), which inspired "The Goose Hangs High No. 2" ("Come, listen to my rhyming, and I'll not detain you long"), and "No. 3" ("The sights, in New-York City, you'll find, are strange and queer"), and even "Der Goose Hangs High" ("Come, all yer gallus fellers, and listen unter me").
I cannot for the life of my guess what the significance of a goose hanging high might be. There was a movie by that name, derived from a book by Lewis Beach, but it was from 1925, so it can't be the origin of the phrase. I would note that a "Goose Hangs High Songster" was published in 1866 -- but I haven't seen it. Joe Offer at mudcat.org commented that geese *fly* high when the weather is good, so it is his belief that the "goose hanging high" means that all is well. But another poster said that it meant to let dead game hang until it starts to get "high," i.e. aged.
At least the historical context of the song is clear. After the Battle of Chancellorsville, northern Virginia was largely denuded of supplies, which made it hard for Lee to provision his army (a fact mentioned in the text). In addition, the North's Army of the Potomac was, for nearly the only time in the war, shrinking; a number of regiments had volunteered in early 1861 for two years, and now were mustering out. With the Union forces weak and defeated, it seemed like time to invade the North.
The Union had a bit of a surprise waiting: Until this time, Jeb Stuart's cavalry had been much superior to the Federal forces. But Joe Hooker, the Union commander, had reorganized the union horse as a single corps (as opposed to un-unified brigades and divisions). For the first time in the war, they came looking for Stuart at Brandy Station -- and fought on fairly even terms.
In the end, contrary to the song, the Union troopers were driven off, and took more casualties than the Confederates. But they had shown they could stand up to the Confederates -- which would stand them in good stead at Gettysburg, where they beat off an attack by Stuart. Plus they had learned a lot about Rebel movements.
As the Rebel forces moved north, Lincoln and his cabinet became more and more worried about Joe Hooker, the loser of Chancellorsville, who was still in command. Finally, on June 28, they induced Hooker to resign, replacing him with George Gordon Meade (1815-1872). It was Meade who held off Lee's attack at Gettysburg. The song is again too optimistic about the aftermath, though; while Lee failed to drive Meade off his position, Lee was not routed, and Meade pursued very slowly, inflicting very little additional damage on Lee's forces.
The day after the end of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 4, 1863, Grant captured the city of Vicksburg. It was the single best week for Union arms in the entire war. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Beld372

Goose Round

See Why Shouldn't My Goose (File: ACSF437W)

Gooseberry Grows on an Angry Tree, The

DESCRIPTION: "The gooseberry grows on an angry Tree ... Others are merry as well as we ... Some are sad and some are glad, Thorns flourish not on every Tree ... About ye merry maids all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (James Hook, _Christmas Box_, according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 289, ("The gooseberry grows on an angry Tree") (1 fragment)
File: OpGap289

Goosey, Goosey Gander

See Goosey, Goosey, Gander (File: BGMG089)

Goosey, Goosey, Gander

DESCRIPTION: "Goosey, goosey, gander, Whither shall I wander, Upstairs and downstairs And in my lady's chamber." The ending varies; possibly "There I met an old man Who wouldn't say his prayers, I took him by the right leg And threw him down the stairs."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammer Gurton's Garland)
KEYWORDS: bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 190, "Goosey, goosey gander" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #89, p. 86, "(Goose-a-goose-a, gander)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 50, "Goosie, Goosie Gander" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 98, "Goosey, Goosey Gander" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 97, "(Goosey, goosey gander)" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 4, "(Goosey goosey gander)" (1 short text, from user John5918, posted August 28, 2021)
ST BGMG089 (Full)
Roud #6488
NOTES [231 words]: This is another Mother Goose rhyme I seem to vaguely recall hearing sung rather than recited, so I'm including it on that basis, though I'm anything but sure about this.
The early version, in Gammer Gurton's Garland, ends with instructions that the listener will find provisions in the lady's chamber; in the common version, it houses "an old man Who would not say his prayers" -- which the Baring-Goulds note is a relic of another nursery rhyme, "Old Father Long Legs."
Katherine Elwes Thomas, of the ever fertile imagination (and we know what was used as the original fertilizer), The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp. 180-181, believes the man who was thrown downstairs was the militantly anti-Protestant Cardinal (David) Beaton, who in fact was thrown downstairs and killed in 1546. To be fair, it should be noted that he might be found in a lady's chamber; he was far from celibate. And not every version of the piece has this ending.
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel offers instead that it comes from the reign of Elizabeth I and the Papist Purges, with the ganders being priests, since all Catholic priests were male. (The problem with this, of course, is that all Protestant priests were male at that time, too.)
The Opies suggest that the modern version might be combined from several late eighteenth century rhymes, but do not list their origin. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BGMG089

Goosie, Goosie Gander

See Goosey, Goosey, Gander (File: BGMG089)

Gopher Guts

See Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts (File: PHCFS133)

Gordon o' Newton's Marriage

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes "this night our Gordon has brought home a young and bloomming bride." The house and tenants "wi' harmless mirth welcome our lady home" and drink her health. "Wi' Gordon's plaid the Forbes maid does now herself adorn"
AUTHOR: Alexander Moir (source: Greig/Duncan3)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: marriage drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 615, "Gordon o' Newton's Marriage" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6056
NOTES [81 words]: Greig/Duncan3, citing Bulloch, The House of Gordon: "The song celebrates the marriage of Alexander Gordon of Newton, b. 1804, and Sarah, eldest daughter of Alexander Forbes, which took place on 20 February 1844."
Greig/Duncan3: "It was sung at the tenants' dinner."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Newton (615) is at coordinate (h3,v6-7) on that map [roughly 23 miles NW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3615

Gorion-Og

DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "I found the track of the wind in the trees...but never a trace of baby o." Similarly "...mist on the hill..." and "swan on the lake."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (recording, Margaret MacArthur)
KEYWORDS: baby family lullaby
FOUND IN: US(NE)
RECORDINGS:
Margaret MacArthur, "Gorion-Og" (on MMacArthur01)
NOTES [67 words]: This sounds like a fragment or degenerated form of a child-disappearance ballad. In the hope that the rest of it may surface some day, and because there's a thread of narrative buried in what sounds like a nursery rhyme, I include it. - PJS
I must admit that this explanation never occurred to me (the song just sounds like a lullaby) -- but it's a beautiful melody; I too hope we can find more of it. - RBW
File: RcGorion

Gornal Nailmakers' Carol, The

See Christ Was Born in Bethlehem (File: MA189)

Gospel Boat, The

See Hide Away (Jonah and the Whale) (File: R286)

Gospel Cannonball

DESCRIPTION: "On the great and holy Bibble, on the pages I do find, How God came down from heaven to redeem this soul of mine." The singer notes the popularity of the Bible and urges listeners to heed so they too can go to God on the Gospel Cannonball
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (recording, Wade Mainer and the Sons of the Mountaineers)
KEYWORDS: train religious nonballad derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 636-637, "The Gospel Cannonball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18559
RECORDINGS:
Delmore Brothers, "Gospel Cannon Ball" (Decca 5970/46049, 1941)
Wade Mainer and the Sons of the Mountaineers, "The Gospel Cannonball" (Bluebird B-8349/Montgomery Ward M-8448, 1939)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wabash Cannonball" (lyrics)
NOTES [61 words]: Cohen considers this derived from the "Wabash Cannonball," while admitting that none of the recorded versions use that popular tune. Certainly some of the lyrics are closely parallel. The source is unknown. It is interesting to note that, though the song talks a lot about the Bible, it never actually cites it, and the theology is, to say the least, simplified. - RBW
File: LSRai636

Gospel News Is Sounding, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Gospel news is sounding to nations far and near; Good people, pay attention, and to its truth give ear." Give glory to God. Repent. Be baptized. The wicked will be destroyed and the New Jerusalem will come. There will be a Temple in Zion
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle)
KEYWORDS: religious warning
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, pp. 320-322, "The Gospel News" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 103-105, "The Gospel News is Sounding" (1 text)
NOTES [71 words]: Although a Mormon song, most of this is scripturally orthodox -- at least if you accept the Revelation to John as canonical, which was a matter of dispute in the early Church. There are references to Zion's Hill, which are rather Mormon, but not so sectarian as to make the song heretical to non-Mornons, and in any case they could be cut. The final part, about the Thousand Years of Peace, is straight out of Revelation 20. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS103

Gospel Pool, The

DESCRIPTION: "Brother, how did you feel that day, When you lost your guilt and burden? I felt like the Lord God freed my soul, And the healing waters move." The healed man says that he could run (or his hands looked new), and "the green trees bowed."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious healing
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 521, "The Gospel Pool" (2 short texts)
Roud #11816
NOTES [47 words]: This seems to be based, very loosely, on the healing in John 5:2-9, where a crippled man hopes to enter the healing waters of Bethzatha. But the parallel is not very close -- and the part about the healing effects of the waters is largely absent in the best manuscripts of John. - RBW
File: Br3521

Gospel Ship (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "The Gospel Ship is sailing by, The Ark of Safety now is nigh; On sinners, unto Jesus fly... Oh, there'll be glory... when we the Lord embrace." Fathers and brothers are invited to come along; the end of the world is described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Thompson-APioneerSongster, from a manuscript dated 1843); Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads cite a manuscript seemingly from 1831
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 71, "The Gospel Ship" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 75-77, "The Gospel Ship" (1 text)
ST FlBr075 (Partial)
Roud #2838
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shout, Shout, We're Gaining Ground" (lyrics)
NOTES [119 words]: Although the title of this is clearly reminiscent of "The Old Gospel Ship," the kinship consists at most of a few stray lines. It's a bit closer to Randolph's fragments, "Shout, Shout, We're Gaining Ground," which may be a free-floating chorus of this verse.
The piece itself is clearly inspired by the New Testament Apocalypse, but the language itself has almost no resemblance to the Bible (e.g. the name "Jehovah," which isn't what the Hebrews called their God anyway [see the notes on "Guide Me, Oh Thou Great Jehovah"], is not used in the New Testament, which uses the Greek word "Lord"; nor did YHWH the Father open the sealed book; it was the Lamb, i.e. God the Son, who opened the scroll; see Rev. 6.1ff.) - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: FlBr075

Gospel Ship (II), The

See The Old Gospel Ship (File: FSWB351B)

Gospel Ship (III), The

DESCRIPTION: The reponse to each line is "Hosann-sann." Verse lines are "The Gospel ship is sailing." "Jesus is the captain." "The angels are the sailors." "Is your bundle ready?" "Have you got your ticket?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment)
KEYWORDS: ship nonballad religious Jesus sailor
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 30, p. 215, "The Ship of Zion" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Howard W. Odum, _Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes_, (reprint from American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, July 1909, Vol.3 pp. 265-365 "Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 78, ("De gospel ship is sailin'") (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't You Weep After Me"(floating lyrics)
File: Hi030215

Gospel Train (I), The

See Get On Board, Little Children (File: FSWB361A)

Gospel Train (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Select de proper train (x3), When de bridegroom comes." "Git on board de train (x3) When de bridegroom comes." "Gwine to travel wid my Savior." "Gwine to travel home to glory."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad train
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 529, "The Gospel Train" (2 texts plus a fragment; this is the "A" text; "B" is "The Gospel Train (III)"; "C" is a fragment of "Get On Board, Little Children")
Roud #11820
NOTES [18 words]: Roud lumps this with "Boundless Mercy (Drooping Souls, No Longer Grieve)" -- a clerical error, I suspect. - RBW
File: Br3529A

Gospel Train (III), The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, don't you hear that whistle blowin' (x3), Get on board, get on board." "Oh, it ain't no harm to trust in Jesus (x3), Get on board, get on board." "Jesus is the conductor." ""Oh! have you got your ticket ready?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad train
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 529, "The Gospel Train" (2 texts plus a fragment; this is the "B" text; "A" is "The Gospel Train (II)"; "C" is a fragment of "Get On Board, Little Children")
File: Br3529B

Gospel Train (V)

See Little Black Train Is A-Comin' (File: BAF914)

Gospel Train Am Leabin' (II), De

See Get On Board, Little Children (File: FSWB361A)

Gospel Train Am Leaving (I)

DESCRIPTION: "De gospel train am leaving For my father's mansions, De gospel train am leaving, And we all be left behind." "Oh, run, Mary, run, De gospel train am leaving, Oh, run, Mary, run, I want to get to heaben today."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious train nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 255, (no title) (1 short text)
File: ScaNF255

Gospel Train is Coming (I), The (Gospel Train IV)

DESCRIPTION: "The gospel train is coming, don't you want to go (x3), Yes, I want to go." "Jesus is the engineer, don't you want to go? (x3). Yes, I want to go." "Can't you hear the bell ring...." "Can't you hear the wheel hum...." "She's comin' round the curve...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1926 (recording, Rev. Edward W. Clayborn)
KEYWORDS: train religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 619-624, "The Gospel Train Is Coming" (1 text plus 2 texts of "Get On Board, Little Children"; 1 tune for each of the two songs)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 770, "Way Back in Heaven" (1 short text, 1 tune, with the form of this song although the surviving stanza does not mention the gospel train)
RECORDINGS:
Rev. Edward W. Clayborn (Clayburn, Clayton, Claiborn), "The Gospel Train is Coming" (Vocalion 1082/Melotone M12546, c.1927)
File: LSRai619

Gospel Train Is Coming (II), The

See Get On Board, Little Children (File: FSWB361A)

Gosport

DESCRIPTION: "I sing not of Naples, of Venice, of Rome... But will sing of a seaport, and Gosport's the town." They don't know what mops are at the inns; there are no more than 10,000 "lasses of pleasure"; justice is drowned in beer. The singer bids the town farewell
AUTHOR: Words: Henry Man / Music: Richard Leveridge (source: Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire)
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (broadside, according to Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire)
KEYWORDS: humorous home sailor whore nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 57-59, "Gosport" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BrHa057

Gosport Beach (The Undutiful Daughter)

DESCRIPTION: "On Gosport beach I landed, that place of noted fame." The sailor meets a beautiful whose merchant parents threw her out. He offers to marry her, breaks a ring, and goes on his voyage. Three months later, he returns and marries her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.12(383))
KEYWORDS: sailor love clothes brokentoken wedding marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 127-129, "The Undutiful Daughter" ( text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 53, "Gosport Beach" (1 text)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 143, "Gosport Beach" (1 text)
Roud #1038
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(383), "Gosport Beach" ("On Gosport beach I landed"), B.W. Dickinson (York), 1823-1834; also Harding B 11(1383), Harding B 11(1380), Harding B 11(1381), Harding B 11(1382), Firth c.12(379), Harding B 16(105d), Harding B 11(1936), 2806 c.17(153)[some words illegible], Firth c.13(12), 2806 c.17(484v), "Gosport Beach"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Furze Bloom" (tune)
File: SWMS127

Gosport Nancy

DESCRIPTION: "Gosport Nancy she's my fancy, She's the girl to make good sport, How she'll greet you when she meets you When your ship gets into port." The singer tells how Gosport women are good to sailors -- but Nancy's establishment is best of all
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor navy beauty sex whore
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 54-55, "Gosport Nancy" (1 text, with tune on p. 150)
File: Tawn040

Gosport Tragedy, The

See The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (The Gosport Tragedy; Pretty Polly) [Laws P36A/B] (File: LP36)

Goss Hawk, The

See The Gay Goshawk [Child 96] (File: C096)

Gossip Joan (Neighbor Jones)

DESCRIPTION: "Good morrow, Gossip Joan, Where have you been a-walking? I have for you, for you for you, for you for you... a budget full of wonders." The wonders are listed: A cow with a calf that cannot eat hay, a duck which died from eating a snail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1720 (Pills to Purge Melancholy)
KEYWORDS: talltale animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(SE)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 672-673, "Good Morrow, Gossip Joan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, p. 98, "Good Morrow, Gossip Joan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 34, "Gossip Joan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 37, "Gossip Joan" (2 texts)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 54, "Gossip Joan" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 41-42, "Gossip Joan" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 262)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 144, "Neighbour Jones" (1 text)
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 38-39, "Good Morrow, Gossip Joan" (1 short text, 1 tune; the text may not be original)
ADDITIONAL: Wit and Mirth, or, Pills to Purge Melancholy (London, 1720 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol VI, pp. 315-316, "The Woman's Complaint to Her Neighbor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1039
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Martin Said To His Man" (theme)
NOTES [72 words]: Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO has one verse not in Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames ("My duck has swallowed a snail ...."). - BS
The Civil War general D. R. Jones (David Rumph Jones, 1825-1863), who eventually came to command a division in the Army of Northern Virginia, was known by the nickname "Neighbor Jones." Since none of the sources I checked explained how he came by the nickname, I do not know if it is related to this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Br3144

Gossips' Meeting, The

DESCRIPTION: "I shall you tell of a full good sport, How gossips gather them on a sort." Seven or more gather to drink and talk. Men who strike their women will feel wrath in return. A harper plays. Once a week they will gather and drink, and then go home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1475 (Oxford, Bodleian ms. Eng. Poet. e. 1)
KEYWORDS: drink travel home money abuse music MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #419, pp. 280-284, "(no title)" (2 texts plus variant readings)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 117-120, "Lytyll Thanke" (1 text) [DIMEV #3795]
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1362
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2274 (6-line version) and #3795 (quatrains)
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #90, pp. 106-108, "[Hoow, gossip myne, gossip myn]" (1 text, with an additional text on pp. 187-188; the main version is DIMEV #2274, the one in the note #3795)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #258, pp. 537-540, "Good Gossips Mine" (1 text) [DIMEV #2274]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 57 [DIMEV #2274]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 206 [DIMEV #2274]
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Cotton Vitellius D.XI, folio 43 [DIMEV #3795]
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS Cotton Titus A.XXVI, folio 161 [DIMEV #3795]
ST MSGosMee (Partial)
NOTES [265 words]: I had some difficulty deciding what to do with this piece. Its strong attestation argues for its inclusion in the Index: four manuscripts, including the Richard Hill manuscript and Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1, both of which have contributed many songs to the Index. The relatively mundane, even vulgar, sentiment also argues for popular origin.
On the other hand is the fact that it exists in two forms (one in quatrains, Greene's "B" text, although this text is missing much text due to manuscript defects; not in IMEV, but #2358.5 in the IMEV supplement; DIMEV #3795) and one in six-line stanzas rhymed aaabbc (IMEV #1362, DIMEV #2274). What's more, it is the six-line form -- the less folk-like stanza form -- which is found in the Richard Hill and Eng. Poet. e.1 copies.
The two manuscripts with the quatrain version are not major folk manuscripts. The piece is the only poem in Cotton Vitellius D.XI; Cotton Titus A.XXVI has about ten poetic items, but except for "Erthe upon Erthe (Earth upon Earth, Earth out of Earth)," they are either long literary pieces or short proverbial scribbles. It seems clear that one form of this is a rewrite of the other, but it's not clear which is which. It is possible that the article by Rossell Hope Robbins "Good Gossips Reunited," British Museum Quarterly 27 (1963): 12-15: 12-13, clarifies the matter, but I haven't seen it.
In the end, I decided to index the piece and let you make up your own minds.
For more about the famous anthology Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSGosMee

Got Dem Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Got dem blues, but I'm too mean, lordy, I'm too damned mean to cry. I got dem blues, Got dem blues, but I'm too damned mean to cry. Yes, I got dem dirty blues, But I'm too damned mean to cry, Yes! mean to cry, Sweet daddy! Uh-huh! Turn me down! Uh-huh!
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 232-233, "Got Dem Blues" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #29317
File: San232

Got No Honey Baby Now

See Sugar Baby (Red Rocking Chair; Red Apple Juice) (File: ADR82)

Got No Sugar Baby Now

See Sugar Baby (Red Rocking Chair; Red Apple Juice) (File: ADR82)

Got No Travellin' Shoes

See Traveling Shoes (File: CNFM070A)

Got the Blues That Can't Be Satisfied

DESCRIPTION: Singer's "got the blues and can't be satisfied," but someday he'll catch a train and ride. Meanwhile, he wants a quart because whiskey will keep the blues away. He buys his girl a diamond ring, finds her with another man, whom he kills.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt04)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity sex train travel homicide death drink lover
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Got the Blues That Can't Be Satisfied" (on MJHurt04)
File: RcGBTCBS

Got the Farm Land Blues

DESCRIPTION: Farmer laments that thieves have gotten his chickens, corn, beans and the tires from his car, while the boll weevils have eaten his cotton and a storm has torn down his corn. He plans to sell his farm and move to town.
AUTHOR: probably Clarence "Tom" Ashley of the Carolina Tar Heels
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Carolina Tar Heels)
KEYWORDS: theft farming storm bug
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 68, "Got the Farm Land Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17630
RECORDINGS:
Carolina Tar Heels, "Got the Farm Land Blues" (Victor 23611A, 1930; on AAFM1, HardTimes2)
NOTES [8 words]: The song is in the form of a "white blues." -PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: ADR68

Got the Jake Leg Too

DESCRIPTION: Singer wakes up in the middle of the night with "jake leg"; he can't get out of bed and feels nearly dead. His Aunt Dinah has it; a preacher drinks and gets it too. Singer warns against drinking "Jamaica ginger"; he will pray for his fellow jake-leggers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Ray Brothers)
KEYWORDS: disease warning drink
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1919 - The Volstead Act establishes prohibition of "intoxicating liquors" to carry out the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
1930 - With Jamaica ginger ("jake") having become a popular way to get illegal alcohol, contaminated "jake" causes an outbreak of neurological symptoms in the United States
1933 - The 21st amendment to the U.S. Constitution ends prohibition.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Roger Whitener, "Selections from 'Folk-Ways and Folk-Speech,'" Vol. XXIX, No. 1 (Spring/Summer 1981), pp. 63-63, "(I can't eat, I can't talk)" "(I went to bed last night, feelin' mighty fine)" (2 excerpts, not necessarily of the same song)
Roud #17562
RECORDINGS:
Ray Brothers, "Got the Jake Leg Too" (Victor 23508, 1930; on RoughWays1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jake Limber Leg Blues" (topic of jake)
cf. "Alcohol and Jake Blues" (Tommy Johnson) (topic of jake)
cf. "Old Rub Alcohol Blues" (topic of dangerous prohobition alcohol substitutes)
cf. "Clarksdale Moan" (Son House) (topic of dangerous prohobition alcohol substitutes)
cf. "Canned Heat Blues" (Tommy Johnson) (topic of dangerous prohobition alcohol substitutes)
cf. "If I Call You Mama" (topic of dangerous prohobition alcohol substitutes)
NOTES [1920 words]: In 1929-1930 public health authorities in the USA became aware of an epidemic of neurological disease, "jake leg," characterized by irregular, halting gait and muscular palsy, caused by impurities contained in bootleg liquor, most notably "Jamaica ginger." Jake leg inspired numerous tunes and songs among country and blues artists. - PJS
Not all Jamaica ginger was dangerous -- but one batch was very bad. MacInnis, pp. 42-43, has this report:
"Ginger Jake [was]... a popular substitute for liquor during Prohibition in the United States. This was an alcoholic extract of Jamaica ginger, and legally listed in the U. S. Pharmacopoeia as a cure for assorted ailments. It tasted so horrible that the authorities thought it would surely be safe enough to sell, but the poor bought it anyway to satisfy their need for a buzz. Sadly, in 1930 one batch was accidentally adulterated with poisonous tri-orthocresyl phosphate (TOCP). Victims' symptoms beginning with cramps and sore calf muscles but developing into a form of leg paralysis known and celebrated in song as Jake Leg." (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, p. 64, says it was also sometimes called "Jake Foot.")
The account in Timbrell, pp. 259-263, is similar. The disease, when first noticed, was called "1930-type of polyneuritis," and received a good deal of newspaper attention. "Foot drop" was the most common symptom (because the sufferer's foot would droop if lifted into the air), but "wrist drop' was also known. It was found mostly in the states in a band from Texas to Ohio -- supposedly Cincinnati General Hospital dealt with 400 cases in one half-year period in 1930.
Baum, p. 311, observes that one of the first to spot the problem was a doctor named Ephraim Goldfain, The first case he was was of "a man whose name is lost to history [who] staggered in off the street. The patient's feet dangled like a marionette's, so that walking involved swinging them forward and slapping them onto the floor.... He wasn't in any pain, he said, but he could barely get around." The disease didn't appear to be polio, but tests for lead poisoning came back negative. And there weren't any other obvious candidates. A new disease had been found.
Baum, p. 315, mentions another consequence not cited in most of the other articles: Jake Leg caused impotence. This was apparently one of the main side effects; one of Baum's contacts suggests that this was the real reason the condition became the subject of so many songs.
"Jake" was apparently a widely-used remedy for all sorts of minor pains -- presumably because it was almost pure alcohol. Theoretically "jake" really was undrinkable in pure form -- the usual method of consumption was to dilute it with water or soft drinks. It was still pretty bad when taken with water, but Coca-Cola made it palatable. And it was cheaper than going to a speakeasy.
Although the FDA regulated and tested "jake," the tests were not very effective. The test, according to Satin, p. 177, consisted of heating it to 250 degrees Fahrenheit for three hours. This boiled off all alcohol and water. The test consisted of weighing what was left over. If it weighed enough, the jake was considered legitimate. But in fact it could contain any adulterant that didn't boil off at 250 degrees. Since Jamaica Ginger was somewhat expensive, many recipes had only a little ginger and used something else, such as castor oil, to make up the rest of the non-volatile material (Satin, p. 179). After all, no one cared about the ginger -- they were buying it for the alcohol.
Unlike a modern pharmaceutical, there was no one standard source; several different manufacturers made jake, which made it easier for one batch to become contaminated without others being affected.
One of the manufacturers of cheap "jake" was a fellow by the name of Harry Gross. But, in 1929, he had a problem: castor oil was getting expensive. He needed a substitute (Satin, p. 179). He started looking around for a chemical he could get at industrial rates. And -- because he did all the mixing himself in a secret work room -- no one really knew what he was doing (Satin, p. 181). To make things even more complicated, although the "jake" was all manufactured in Gross's secret operation, it was sold under a variety of labels -- Gross used half a dozen names, and had agreements to share others (Satin, p. 182; Baum, p. 318, sees this as a sinister attempt to evade regulations, adding that his license to handle alcohol during Prohibition had been revoked some years earlier).
As a replacement for castor oil, Gross eventually settled on a chemical called Lindol, which, as we have seen, was properly tri-ortho-cresyl phosphate, or TOCP (Satin, p. 180) -- a lacquer solvent! Blum, p. 204, explains that it combined "carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen into a ring-shaped structure called a cresol (also found in creosote), and phosphorus hangs onto the ring like an exhausted swimmer gripping a life preserver." It passed the boiling test, and it was colorless, tasteless, odorless, and mixed easily with the other components of "jake."
Apparently no one realized it was dangerous -- products were not properly tested for toxicity at this time (Timbrell, p. 261; Baum, pp. 316-317, says that it had been found non-toxic in dogs and monkeys, although it later proved to be dangerous to rabbits and calves). Lindol made up about 2% of the mix produced by Gross, and exposure to it was quickly found to produce "jake leg" type symptoms in animals (Timbrell, p. 260).
Blum, p. 204, suggests that the TOCP actually made the "jake" pack more punch -- the neurotoxic effect of the TOCP gave the consumer more of a buzz. The flip side is, most drinkers of "jake" were already alcoholic; what they wanted was the alcohol more than the high.
It generally took between seven and sixteen days for symptoms to develop (TOCP operates by killing off nerves, and it took time for the damage to accumulate; Timbrell, p. 261; Blum, p. 206, says that some of the byproducts actually resemble nerve gases such as sarin). This is one reason why it took some time to diagnose the problem. A newspaper broke the story on March 7, 1930 (Satin, p. 182).
The contaminated samples were eventually traced to Hub Products, Harry Gross's company; the FDA visited him on March 17. He was minimally cooperative, but stopped shipping "jake" on March 18; he shut down his business a few weeks later (Satin, p. 184).
Gross, his brother-in-law Max Reisman, and a distributor were charged with violations of the Prohibition and Food and Drug acts (i.e. selling illicit alcohol and an adulterated substance. Satin, p. 185, is indignant that no charges were brought for their poisoning of thousands of people).
The case went to trial in March 1931. Gross and Reisman eventually (and separately) pleaded guilty to relatively minor charges, and were given suspended sentences and fines (Satin, p. 184). Because they remained relatively uncooperative, they eventually were sent to prison to serve their time (so Satin, p. 185; Baum, p. 319, says Gross went to jail but Reisman did not).
There was talk of a suit against the Celluloid Corporation, maker of the TOCP (Baum, p. 319), but that went nowhere -- properly, it seems to me, since they had no idea how their product was used.
Estimates of those who suffered from "Jake Leg" reportedly ranged from 35,000 (Timbrell, p. 261) to 50,000 (MacInnis, p. 42), some of whom took the Jake for legitimate medical reasons rather than because they were drunks -- but there was little sympathy for the sufferers, since most of them were alcoholics. This helps to explain why no compensation was paid to the victims. Also, it appears that Gross and Reisman were bankrupt; they never paid their lawyers, let alone any settlements (Satin, p. 185).
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, p. 64, says that there were some local concentrations where the number of Jake Leg sufferers was particularly high, including in Kentucky and Tennessee, which may help explain the old-time "Jake" songs.
Timbrell, p. 262, mentions several more recent incidents of outbreaks of TOCP poisoning around the world, but apparently not on the same scale as the Ginger Jake disaster.. And (as far as I know) none has inspired a song, at least in English.
Timbrell, p. 262, cites a little bit of the Ray Brothers recording of this song, and says that there were at least ten other blues songs about Jake Leg. Satin, p. 183, says that four had been released by May 1930, and on p. 186 quotes one by the Allen Brothers. If any went into tradition, I am not aware of it, but see "Alcohol and Jake Blues."
Jamaica ginger, and contaminated jake, were not the only bad alcohol substitutes used during Prohibition; methyl alcohol/methanol (and the derived "methylated spirits"), rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol), and others were used, as the songs in the cross-references show.
Rubbing alcohol is usually isopropyl alcohol (isopropynol), C3H8O or CH3CHOHCH3; it differs from propyl alcohol in that the hydroxyl group -OH comes off the middle carbon, not one of the carbons on the end. Like most alcohols other than ethyl alcohol, it gives a brief buzz but is deadly if metabolized; indeed, it is a skin irritant. It was not widely available until after World War I, so somebody must have tried it out as an ethanol substitute quite quickly.
Rubbing alcohol is mentioned as an alcohol substitute in "Old Rub Alcohol Blues" and "Clarksdale Moan," and in "Canned Heat Blues" in the formulation known as "alcorub."
Methyl alcohol gives the drinker the impression of consuming "regular" alcohol, but methyl alcohol is in fact a poison (Emsley, p. 110, says that methylated spirit is more poisonous than bleach). Plus its buzz didn't last very long (Blum, p. 161), tempting the drinker to consume more sooner, adding to the danger of overdose.
But methyl alcohol is cheap (Blum, p. 40) -- and was commonly used as an adulterant during Prohibition in the United States. Nor was it just during Prohibition. In June 2020, I saw reports of methyl alcohol (also known as methanol) being used in place of ethyl alcohol (ethanol) in hand sanitizer.
Ironically, the more ethyl alcohol, the less poisonous the methyl alcohol; the ethyl alcohol soaks up the enzyme which otherwise converts the methyl alcohol into lethal formic acid (Timbrell, pp. 196-197). The main effect of methyl alcohol in small doses is to make hangovers far worse, but it can also damage the kidneys and eyes, and if consumption reaches about 70 ml, death will generally follow.
Methanol sometimes would show up even in un-adulterated alcoholic beverages; some of the "kick" in bad moonshine was from methanol, and certain fruit-based brandies, such as slivovic, could contain quite a lot (Timbrell, p. 196) -- I would guess that some of this came from the pits of the fruit being processed.
The signs of wood alcohol poisoning, according to Blum, p. 41, are "weakness, severe abdominal pain and vomiting, blindness, a slip into unconsciousness, heart failure." We now know that this is because the enzyme that deals with ethyl alcohol transform methyl alcohol into poisonous formic acid.
Methy alcohol is also known as wood alcohol or methanol, and as we saw, is a component of methylated spirits. Another name for a mix of methyl and ethyl alcohol is "denatured alcohol," a component in the heating fluid Sterno. Under one name or another, methanol is mentioned in songs including "The Man that Waters the Workers' Beer" and "Canned Heat Blues." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: RcGtJLT

Gotta Travel On

DESCRIPTION: Singer says he's "Done laid around, done stayed around/This old town too long" and he wants to travel on. He says the police are after him, but "There's a lonesome freight at 6:08" and he'll be on it.
AUTHOR: Nominally Paul Clayton, but it's clear that the song is derived from "Yonder Comes the High Sheriff," first recorded in 1927
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: police hobo train travel
FOUND IN:
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yonder Comes the High Sheriff" (tune, words, structure)
SAME TUNE:
Done Played Around and Stayed Around Viet Nam Too Long (RECORDING, Chuck Rosenberg, Saul Broudy, Bull Durham, Tom Price & Robin Thomas, on InCountry)
File: RcGotTrO

Gottuh Tek duh Chillun Outuh Pharaoh Han'

See Done Took the Children out of Pharaoh's Hands (File: HPR290A)

Gougane Barra

DESCRIPTION: There is a green island in lone Gougane Barra." What better place for a bard? The singer thinks about past bards there, "far from the Saxon's dark bondage and slaughter." When Ireland is free some minstrel will come here a lay a wreath on his grave
AUTHOR: James Joseph Callanan (1795-1829) (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1830 (_The Recluse of Inchidony_, written 1826, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: Ireland lyric nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 191-195, "Gougane Barra" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 107, "Gougaune Barra" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 192-194, "Gougaune Barra"
Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859 (reprint of 1855 London edition)), Vol I, pp. 47-49,"Gougaune Barra"
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 398-399, 496-497, "Gougaune Barra"
NOTES [172 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: The origin of the river Lee is the lake of Gougane Barra, "about two miles in circumference," with one small island which, "in times of trouble, [was] sought as an asylum." The lake is formed "by numerous streams descending from the mountains that divide the counties of Cork and Kerry." Croker points out that Callanan is not buried at Gougane Barra, but in Portugal. - BS
There is a certain amount of confusion about this author. Most sources list his name as James Joseph Callanan, but he is also sometimes listed under the name "Jeremiah" (and, yes, it is known that it is the same guy). Most sources agree that he was born in 1795, but his death date seemingly varies; Hoagland and MacDonagh/Robinson give 1829. He wrote some poetry of his own, but is probably best known for his translations from Gaelic. Works of his found in this index include "The Convict of Clonmel," "The Outlaw of Loch Lene," "Sweet Avondu," "The Virgin Mary's Bank," "Gougane Barra," and a translation of "Drimindown." - RBW
File: CrPS191

Goulden Vanitee, The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Goulden Vanitie, The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Government Claim, The

See Starving to Death on a Government Claim (The Lane County Bachelor) (File: R186)

Governor Al Smith

DESCRIPTION: "Cal in the White House preparing for his rest, Al and his buddies are doing their best, He'll win, Al will win." Hoover will be "hard to beat," but with booze "hard to drink," Smith will win because he opposes Prohibition
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Carolina Night Hawks)
KEYWORDS: political drink nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1928 - Election of Herbert Hoover to replace Calvin Coolidge. Al Smith was the unsuccessful Democratic nominee
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 121-122, "Governor Al Smith" (1 text)
Roud #17521
RECORDINGS:
Carolina Night Hawks, "Governor Al Smith" (Columbia 15256-D, 1928)
File: CAFS1121

Governor Zane

See In Defense of Polygamy (File: Hubb246)

Gowans are Gay, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer walks out in May and meets a "proper lass." He asks what she is doing; she replies, "Gathering the dew; what need you ask?" He asks her to marry; she says it is not her task to give him her maidenhead. He returns home wondering who she was
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: courting virginity virtue loneliness
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 140, pp. 142-143, "The Gowans are Gay" (1 text)
Roud #4295
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Seeds of Love"
cf. "Thyme, It Is a Precious Thing"
cf. "In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme"
NOTES [43 words]: I suspect that this is a reversal of one of the "Thyme" songs (probably a "Garners Gay" version of "Thyme (It Is a Precious Thing)"). There are many similarities. But even if it is such, the changes are enough that we have to list it as a separate song. - RBW
File: CW142

Gown of Green (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Polly agrees "to wear the gown of green" The singer leaves "to fight our relations in North America." Many are killed. Some men foolishly buy their sweethearts toys, rings and posies; "give her the gown of green to wear, and she will follow you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1818 (_The Vocal Library_, according to Kidson) [but note the 18C "answer" and rhe several broadsides from before 1813]
KEYWORDS: courting sex war separation death America lover soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 907, "The Gown o' Green" (4 texts plus a single verse on p. 575, 4 tunes)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 61-63, "The Gown of Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 19, "The Gown of Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1085
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(106a), "The Gown of Green" ("As my love and I was walking to view the meadows round"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Harding B 25(766), Harding B 17(116b), Firth c.14(198), Harding B 11(1098), Harding B 11(2104), Harding B 25(766), "The Gown of Green"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Lovely Home" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
NOTES [575 words]: The description follows broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(1098).
Greig/Duncan4 quoting Duncan: "Learnt fifty to sixty years ago in Kinardine. Noted 26th November 1908."
Greig/Duncan4 versions share only the first two verses with the broadsides. The description is from the broadsides but Greig/Duncan4 versions omit the narrative dealing with separation and North America and goes right to commentary on the fickleness of young women." One verse of Greig/Duncan4 907B seems not connected to the tradition but is suggested by "the fickleness of young women" theme: "When Adam was created, and none on earth but he, And Eve she was his only bride, and full of modesty, No bed of down, I'm sure they had, but on a flowery plain, No wonder that her daughters love to wear the goons o' green."
There are broadsides answering "The Gown of Green"; see, for example, Bodleian, Harding B 25(767), "The Answer to The Gown of Green" ("As a soldier was walking all on the highway"), J. Grundy (Worcester), 18C; also Harding B 25(766), "Answer to The Gown of Green"; 2806 c.18(132), "Sequel to The Gown of Green" - BS
Roud assigns the same number to "The Gown of Green" (I) and (II). The two are obviously related though there is no overlap in story or evidence that they are fragments of some longer ballad; in fact, the wars are not the same. - BS
(In fact it's just possible that they are the same, though not likely. During the American Revolutionary War, Spain was fighting against Britain; if the hero was a sailor, or simply a soldier being transported in a warship, it's just possible that he could have been in a fight with a Spaniard. Alternately, if we reverse the place where he lost the limb, Our Hero could have fought in Wellington's Peninsular Campaign in Spain, then been shipped to America to fight in the War of 1812. That happened to several regiments. - RBW)
The expression "Gown of Green" predates this song. See, for example, J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford: The Ballad Society, 1897 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. VIII Part 3 [Part 25], pp. 689-690, "The Shepherd's Ingenuity; or The Praise of the Green-Gown" ("Amongst the pleasant shady Bowers, as I was passing on"), printed c.1682, and which ends "Now, all you little pretty maids, that covets to go brave, Frequent the meadows, groves and shade, where you those girls may have, When Flora's coverlid she spreads, then Bridget, Kate, and Jane, May change their silly maiden-heads for curious Gowns of Green."
Also, [Thomas d'Urfey,] Wit and Mirth, or, Pills to Purge Melancholy (London: J Tonson, 1719 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol V, pp. 17-14, "Jockey's Escape from Dundee and the Parsons Daughter whom he had Mow'd" ("Where gott'st thou the Haver-Mill bonack") (1 text, 1 tune), which includes the following verse: "All Scotland ne'er afforded a lass, So bonny and blith as Jenny my dear; Ise gave her a Gown of Green on the Grass But now Ise no longer must tarry here." According to James Henry Dixon, Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads (London: The Percy Society, 1845 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 89, "Got on the gown o' green.] A young female who has acted indiscretely, is, in Scotland, said to have put on 'the gown of green.' The expression is not confined to Scotland, but prevails in the north of England." - BS
For that matter, "Greensleeves" is sometimes taken to refer to green clothing with, shall we say, suggestive overtones. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: RcTGoGr1

Gown of Green (II), The

DESCRIPTION: Harry meets a woman and baby. He claims to know her. He reminds her of the day "you wore the gown of green." He has returned from Portugal and Spain with gold and a pension, though he has lost a limb "saving my commander's life." He proposes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 18C (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(767))
KEYWORDS: love marriage war reunion Spain baby lover sailor soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
Roud #1085
RECORDINGS:
Jack Norris, "The Gown of Green" (on Voice01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(767), "The Answer to The Gown of Green" ("As a soldier was walking all on the highway"), J. Grundy (Worcester), 18C; also Harding B 25(766), "Answer to The Gown of Green" ("A sailor was walking upon the high way"); Harding B 17(278b), "Sequel to The Gown of Green" ("As a soldier was walking all on the highway"); Harding B 25(522), "The Disconsolate Maiden"
NOTES [134 words]: The opening line makes Harry either a soldier or a sailor.
Roud assigns the same number to "The Gown of Green" (I) and (II). The two seem related though there is no overlap in story or evidence that they are fragments of some longer ballad; in fact, the wars are not the same. - BS
(In fact it's just possible that they are the same, though not likely. During the American Revolutionary War, Spain was fighting against Britain; if the hero was a sailor, or just a soldier being transported in a warship, it's just possible that he could have been in a fight with a Spaniard. Alternately, if we reverse the place where he lost the limb, Our Hero could have fought in Wellington's Peninsular Campaign in Spain, then been shipped to America to fight in the War of 1812. That happened to several regiments. - RBW)
File: RcTGoGr2

Gra Geal Mo Chroi

See Gay Girl Marie [Laws M23] (File: LM23)

Gra Geal Mo Chroi (II -- Down By the Fair River)

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a woman wishing her lover were here. Her lover passes. The singer remarks on her beauty "like a sheet of white paper her neck and breast." He or she promises to prove true to his or her own love.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads citing P W Joyce's _Old Irish Folk Music and Songs_)
KEYWORDS: love beauty lover promise
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 150-151, "Down by the Fair River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 69, "Down By the Fair River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 27, "Groyle Machree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H582, pp. 238-239, "Gragalmachree" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 13, "Gra Geal Mo Chroi" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 30, "Gra mo Chroi" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2329
RECORDINGS:
Mikeen McCarthy, "One Fine Summer's Morning" (on IRTravellers01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(148), "Lovely Young Johnny" or "Gra Gal Ma Cree ," H. Such (London), 1863-1885
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Stone and Lime" (lyics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Newry Mountain
NOTES [336 words]: Is this Laws M23 ["Gay Girl Marie"]? I don't believe so. There is no letter from the lover, and none of the consequences of that letter (some versions of this ballad have a line "Like a sheet of white paper her neck and breast" that may hint at a letter).
The coded name as "Grey Gram o'Chree" (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs) or "Gra geal mo chroi" (O Lochlainn) is mentioned ("And her name in plain Irish is ....") once or twice, but is not the end of almost every verse as it is in Laws M23. This ballad is about a girl thinking about her lover; it is a collection of floating verses -- connected to that theme -- that I don't find in Laws M23. For example,
The moon it may darken and show us no light
The bright stars of heaven fall down from their height
The rocks may all melt, and the mountains remove
The ships of the ocean may go without sails
The smallest of fishes turn into great whales
In tha middle of the ocean there will groe an apple tree
For good measure, Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs adds "Come all ... Never build your nest on a green hollow tree...." lines and "I lost my own darling by courting too shy."
One point I missed in earlier contrast of this song with "Gay Girl Marie" [Laws M23] is that Laws M23 has a male protagonist ["I am a bold rover ..."] while this song is a woman's story ["If I were an empress ..."] - BS
In earlier editions of the Index, with the improbable title to guide us, however, we did lump them. See additional notes under "Gay Girl Marie" [Laws M23].
It is unfortunate that, apart from Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, almost none of the versions of this were available to Laws. But Laws does not list the Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia text here. So we have now split the songs.
According to William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 34, "machree" (used in some of the alternate titles) is a popular word in Irish song because it comes from Irish Gaelic "mo chroí," "my heart." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: CrMa069

Gra Machree

See Gra-mo-chroi. I'd Like to See Old Ireland Free Once More (File: OLoc063)

Gra Mo Chleibh

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer meets a beautiful woman. OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin appears to have verses missing. The last verse implies that the singer "was obliged to run for his life from the girl's father."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting beauty father
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 65, "Gra Mo Chleibh" (1 text)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC065

Gra mo Chroi

See Gra Geal Mo Chroi (II -- Down By the Fair River) (File: CrMa069)

Gra-mo-chroi. I'd Like to See Old Ireland Free Once More

DESCRIPTION: "Last night I had a happy dream ... I thought again brave Irishmen Had set old Ireland free." Some modern heroes are named and Father Murphy and the Wexford men of ninety-eight. "It's Gra-mo-chroi, I'd like to see old Ireland free once more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: rebellion dream Ireland nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1775-1847 - Life of Daniel O'Connell
1778 - Birth of Robert Emmet
1796 - A French fleet (carrying, among others, Wolfe Tone) sets out for Ireland
May 26, 1798 - Beginning of the Wexford rebellion
May 27, 1798 - The Wexford rebels under Father John Murphy defeat the North Cork militia
June 5, 1798 - The Wexford rebels attack the small garrison (about 1400 men, many militia) at New Ross, but are repelled
June 21, 1798 - The rebel stronghold a Vinegar Hill is taken, and the Wexford rebellion effectively ended
1803 - Robert Emmet attempts a new rebellion. The revolt is quickly crushed, and Emmet eventually hanged
Nov 24, 1867 - Hanging of the Manchester Martyrs; this year also marked the failed Fenian rising
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 63, "Gra-mo-chroi. I'd Like to See Old Ireland Free Once More" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST OLoc063 (Partial)
Roud #5204
BROADSIDES:
Margaret Barry, "Gra Machree" (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
NOTES [242 words]: This song mentions many heroes of Irish freedom, most of whom are the heroes of other songs:
For (Daniel) O'Connell, see "Daniel O'Connell (I)" and "Daniel O'Connell (II)."
For Lord Edward (Fitzgerald), the sort-of-leader of the 1798 United Irishmen, see the notes to "The Green Above the Red."
For Wolfe Tone, the Irish Protestant who helped organize the failed invasion of 1796, see especially "The Shan Van Voght."
For Robert Emmet, the rebel against the post-1798 Union, see among others "Bold Robert Emmet, "Emmet's Death," "Emmet's Farewell to His Sweetheart," and "My Emmet's No More."
For Father Murphy and his role in the 1798 rebellion, plus the Battle of Vinegar Hill, see the notes to "Father Murphy (I)" and the references there; also "Sweet County Wexford."
"Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien" were the "Manchester Martyrs," for whom see especially "The Smashing of the Van (I)."
If the song dates from the time of the Manchester Martyrs, I would note the existence of a roughly contemporary song, "Slave's Dream," beginning, "I had a dream, a happy dream, I dreamed that I was free" (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, pp.142-143). I know of no connection, but the use a lot of common words.
According to William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 34, "machree" (used in some of the alternate song titles) is a popular word in Irish song because it comes from Irish Gaelic "mo chroí," "my heart." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: OLoc063

Grabe Sinkin' Down

See Grave Sinking Down (File: HPR296G)

Grace Before Meat at Hampton

DESCRIPTION: "Thou art great and Thou art good, And we thank Thee for this food; By Thy hand we must be fed, Give us, Lord, our daily bread. Amen"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 179, "Grace Before Meat at Hampton" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 143 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #15285
File: Dett179

Grace Brown and Chester Gillette [Laws F7]

DESCRIPTION: Gillette is awaiting execution for drowning his sweetheart on a boating excursion. The singer mentions the grief of the mothers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution grief
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 11, 1906 - Murder of Grace Brown
Mar 30, 1908 - Execution of Chester Gillette for the murder of Brown
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws F7, "Grace Brown and Chester Gillette"
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 444-445, "The Ballad of Grace Broen and Chester Gillette" (1 text)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 32-34, "The Murder of Grace Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 119-121, "The Ballad of Grace Brown and Chester Gillette" (1 text)
DT 809, GRACBRWN
ADDITIONAL: Joseph W. Brownell and Patricia A. Wawrzaszek, _Adirondack Tragedy: The Gillette Murder Case of 1906_, Heart of the Lake Publishing, 1906, p. 145, "(no title)" (1 excerpt, of the end, significant only because it includes a verse not found in Thompson's version)
Craig Brandon, _Murder in the Adirondacks: An American Tragedy Revisited_, North Country Books, 1986 (I use the sixth paperback printing on 1995), pp. 326-327, "The Ballad of Grace Brown and Chester Gillette" (1 text)
Roud #2256
NOTES [7928 words]: This murder provided the model for Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy. The movie "A Place in the Sun" is also reported to be based on it. I have not seen it. There is also a novel, Joseph W Brownell, Adirondack Tragedy: The Gillette Murder Case of 1906. I haven't even tried to see that. Chester Gillette was born in Wickes, Montana Territorry, on August 9, 1883, fhe oldest child of Frank and Louise Gillette (Sherman/Brandon, p. 11). He would eventually have two sisters and a brother (there is a very poor reproduction of a family photo on p. 25 of Brandon and p. 31 of Sherman/Brandon). The family moved to Seattle when Chester was three (Sherman/Brandon, p. 12); three years later, in 1894, Frank joined the Salvation Army and brought the whole family with him (Sherman/Brandon, p. 12; Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 43).
Possibly the restrictions of family life bothered Chester; certainly he was a problem child, stealing things from his classmates, lying about his behavior, and frequently running away from home (Sherman/Brandon, p. 12; Brandon, p. 19, says that he showed these problems as early as first grade!). When he was arrested for murder, his mother's first thought (upon hearing of his arrest but not knowing the reason) was that he was again stealing things (Brandon, p. 166, quoting a letter she wrote to Chester). He eventually rejected his family's Salvation Army membership (Sherman/Brandon, pp. 12-13). There don't seem to have been reports of violence in his records as a boy. His handful of later letters to Grace and to his mother "reveal... a person who could only be described as flippant, immature, and self-centered. They confirmed the opinion generally held at the time -- formed chiefly as a result of his demeanor during the trial -- that Chester Gillette was insensitive, shallow, and unintelligent" (Sherman/Brandon, p. 22). Yet his academic performance proved that he was not stupid. When he first attended Oberlin Academy, he earned good grades (Brandon, p. 33). And he became a voracious reader in prison, adding book reviews to his diary (Sherman/Brandon, p. 24). What he lacked was not pure intelligence but the ability and willingness to imagine the effects of his actions. There is a very high association of his known childhood traits (which today might result in a diagnosis of Conduct Disorder) and illegal behavior as an adult.
Chester also seems to have had an inability to recognize that his actions had consequences and that bad things could happen to him -- even while on death row, he tended to deny that he could ever be executed (Sherman/Brandon, p. 89). In a diary entry written two days before his execution, when he was finally preparing to die, he wrote in his diary that he "usually" acted on impulse rather than thinking things through (Sherman/Brandon, p. 135). When he did finally start thinking about death, he compared it to having a new experience such as taking a balloon ride (which he had never gotten to do), and concluded, "It will be a condition much different, and I am sure interesting, tho (sic.) I may not realize that. It will be a change, a development and advance. Although I do not want to die, I haven't the fear of it that one expects to have" (Sherman/Brandon, p. 123. This sounds very like the statements of many criminals with antisocial personality disorder).
When he was in prison, he was not allowed a knife or fork, for fear of suicide attempts (Brandon, p. 171), but this might have been more a matter of routine than anything about Chester's behavior.
Grace's sister would later say that he had a "shifty eye" and didn't look directly at people (Brandon, p. 72). The source is suspect, but it's an interesting fact if true. So is the fact that his facial expressions during his court case were so impassive that it attracted comment in the newspapers (Sherman/Brandon, p. 128; Brandon, p. 191, mentions that he was the only person in the courtroom who didn't dissolve in tears when Grace Brown's letters were read) -- it sounds as if he either wasn't having normal emotional responses or his emotional responses were not reflected in his face.
In an attempt to preclude an insanity defense during his trial, the prosecution arranged for a test of his mental competence. He was found sane (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, pp. 133-134). The nature of the testing was ridiculous -- but the result is clearly right; people with antisocial personality disorder are perfect sane, they just don't care about other people and don't accept responsibility for their actions.
Gillette seems to have had a curious affection for people who were not quite psychologically normal -- another hint that he might have been abnormal himself. The pastor who Chester grew close to while in prison, Henry M(a)cIlravy, had a "bizarre personality" (Sherman/Brandon, p. 30), suffered a nervous breakdown in 1907 (Sherman/Brandon, p. 51), and was put in an asylum in 1909 (Sherman/Brandon, pp. 29-30); it sounds as if he also had a delusion that he had earned a law degree (cf. Sherman/Brandon, p. 80). Florence Ferrin, the sister of his friend Bernice Ferrin, drowned herself in 1908 (Sherman/Brandon, p. 42). Several of his family members were clearly odd. It sounds as if the father had a few slightly loose screws. Chester's sister Hazel (based on Sherman/Brandon, p. 28) sounds a little peculiar, too, although there certainly isn't anything diagnosable in the short summary of her life.
After the Salvation Army, the family would join what amounts to a cult (Sherman/Brandon, p. 14; Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 50). This was the group led by John Alexander Dowie, which is known by several names but is typically called something like the "Christian Catholic Church" or the "Christian Apostolic Church in Zion." Mead/Hill, p. 71, say it was formally organized in 1896. Dowie grew up in Scotland and was ordained in Australia. In 1901 the church made its base in what it called "Zion City," Illinois, north of Chicago. Dowie had some progressive ideas -- he was against racism, e.g. -- but he also opposed the press and the medical profession, substituting Dowie's faith-healing powers for the latter (Chester's mother claimed that he had healed her, her husband, and one daughter; Brandon, p. 37). The sect was an evangelical Protestant type which believed in triune baptism, the Second Coming, tithing, and the supremacy of Scripture. Dowie eventually gave out that he was the prophet Elijah returned. The sect actually deposed him in 1906! Christie-Murray, p. 219, describes it as "Fundamentalist, pre-Millenialist, completely Pentecostal, emphasizing faith-healing and worshipped... with wild, enthusiastic spontaneity." Green, p. 318, says it "forbade alcohol, tobacco, and pork" -- a strange mix of Jewish and Christian ideas. It still exists, though it is small, but Zion City is no longer closed to outsiders, and it is closer to a mainstream Pentecostal sect. The Gillettes, however, joined when it was patently wacko (and quit soon after Dowie was set aside; at the time of Chester's trial, the Gillettes were out on their own trying to make a living with no resources and few skills -- Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 106). It didn't appeal to Chester, who generally stayed away from his family after they joined (Brandon, p. 37).
The family had bounced around a lot because of their Salvation Army work, and possibly put Chester in a boarding school for part of that time (Brandon, p. 27, though no one can even identify the school); the father was eventually appointed head of the Salvation Army mission in Hilo, though he had to give up the job because of ill health (Sherman/Brandon, p. 13). The family eventually tried to resolve their problems with Chester by sending him to Oberlin Academy, a pre-college branch of Oberlin College. (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 48, don't mention any family problems; they suggest his parents sent him to Oberlin because their constant moves for the Salvation Army had affected his education. They also suggest his parents wanted him to go to college. This seems unlikely; going to college was a rare thing in the years around 1900! And even if they wanted to send him to boarding school, why such a remote one? I have no proof, but I suspect Sherman/Brandon have it right.) He was enrolled as a sophomore even though, as an eighteen-year-old, he was as old as a senior (Brandon, p. 32).
Brandon, pp. 57-58, describes him as five feet seven inches tall, 150 pounds, athletic, and handsome. He is said to have made friends easily. But he also liked to smoke and play cards. And he lived lavishly and was constantly in debt (Brandon, p. 58).
I wonder if it was a mistake to send him to a co-ed school. (Even he eventually admitted that he was too fond of young women; Brandon, pp. 58-59.) His result there, as we have seen, were initially good. But it didn't last. In his second year, he started cutting classes and ceased to earn good results; he took only three real classes in the fall, and two in the spring, while limiting his exposure to the Bible classes that his family probably wanted him to take (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 50). His landlady reported that he had become a "very rough boisterous fellow" (Sherman/Brandon, p. 14).
Eventually the school told his family that there was no point in him being in school; he gave up his education in 1903. He then worked odd jobs such as traveling book salesman (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 51), as well as train brakeman, got in trouble for not paying a hotel bill (Brandon, p. 38; it would not be the last time he did this), and spent at least some time in jail (Sherman/Brandon, p. 14).
After a couple of years of that, in 1905 (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 53), he went to work with his uncle in Cortland, New York (so most sources; Sherman/Brandon, in what I can only think is a typo says Cortland, Illinois), at the Gillette Skirt Factory (there is a photo of the building on p. 28 of Brownell/Wawrzaszek; p. 29 shows the boss, Chester's uncle N. Horace Gillette. The building is still standing, although it later became L. Werninck & Sons [Furniture] Supply Co. The company has shut down, but you can see the building in Google Maps; it is at 32 Miller St, Cortland, NY 13045, very little changed, at least from what it looked like when Brownell/Wawrzaszek took their photo in 1986 or earlier).
Chester was also getting involved with a lot of women (Sherman/Brandon, p. 14); no doubt his athletic prowess (which was very real) helped there.
One of those women he met was Grace Brown, who was then nineteen, who worked in another part of the skirt factory in Cortland, New York (so most sources; Sherman/Brandon says Cortland, Illinois) where Chester was then employed. She was known by the nickname "Billy" (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 33; she even signed some of her letters "The Kid," as in "Billy the Kid"; see e.g. Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 74). The nickname is said to have come from the song, "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?" -- Grace (who was fond of music and dancing) sang it so much that people supposedly called her after it (Brandon, p. 51). I can't help but note the irony that she took her name from a song about a lowlife, and ended up being killed by an even lower lowlife.
Brown came from a farm family, and the farm was not particularly prosperous; it was too far from the railroads to be a good place to raise cash crops (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, pp. 39-40), and her father had mis-managed his mortgage. One wonders if she might have suffered slightly from childhood malnutrition; she was only five feet tall (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 56), or perhaps five feet two inches (Brandon, p. 55). As a middle daughter in a large family which had financial difficulties, she had little hope for inheritance. So when her older sister Ada married and moved to Cortland, Grace went to live with them. While there she went to work for the Gillette Skirt Company. And then... Ada and her husband lost their baby son Robert, and rather than live with the memories, they left the area (Brandon, p. 68). Grace stayed and continued to work at the factory (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 41).
There is disagreement about whether or not she attractive (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 56, say she wasn't; Brandon, p. 54, say she was. Of the photos I've seen, there is only one in which she looked at all pretty to me, but it's the one you always see printed); it's not clear what drew Chester to her. But he visited her a lot at work sneaking away from his stockroom job to do it (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 58; Brandon, p. 66). Not that it kept him from seeing other girls.
He also visited her at home quite a bit, but apparently they never did anything together -- they just sat and talked (Brandon, p. 67). It was a strange relationship.
Apparently co-workers warned Grace about Chester's involvement with other women, but somehow that didn't stop her. Some time around the beginning of 1906, he apparently talked her into sleeping with him (Sherman/Brandon, p. 15; Brandon, p. 67, suggests that that was the purpose of all those long conversations; on p. 205, Brandon tells of Chester recounting during his trial that she repeatedly resisted his advances before finally giving in. Clearly, for Chester, "No" did not mean "No").
Did Gillette ever feel real affection for Brown? He did sometimes sign letters to her "with love" (Brandon, p. 70) -- but in a diary entry written three days before his execution, he wrote, "I have never been in love" (Sherman/Brandon, p. 131). Sherman/Brandon never mention any instances where he actually seemed to show love for Grace, and on several occasions (e.g. p. 39 n. 6) they suggest that, if he had romantic feelings toward anyone, it was Bernice Ferrin, a slightly older woman who was a friend of his family in Zion City, Illinois -- who gave him much support while in prison but in the same period but also became engaged to someone else in this period (Sherman/Brandon, p. 30. It is clear from the diary that Chester really liked Ferrin; whether the feeling was romantic we simply have no way to tell). Chester only once mentions Grace in his diary, and that very obliquely, in a reference to friends of hers (Sherman/Brandon, pp. 72, 74).
In May 1906, Grace realized she was pregnant (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 61), and presumably tried to get Chester to marry her. He clearly refused -- at the trial, he said that he never promised to marry her (Brandon, p. 81). From this point, the story gets vague. Grace went back to her family's home in South Otselic, New York, and kept writing to Chester about her situation (between bouts of morning sickness that she tried to conceal from her family). Chester's responses indicate that he had no intention of doing anything about her problem -- until she threatened to return to Cortland and tell her story (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, pp. 68-70).
It is important, in assessing what follows, to know that Grace was showing signs of depression. "She cried much of the time" and "her letters turned dark and morose" (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 71). At least twice, she told people at work that she wanted to die (Brandon, p. 80; Brandon, p. 213, says that four witnesses at Chester's trial reported hearing her say that). Even though she was pregnant, she had lost a lot of weight (Brandon, p. 82). She rarely engaged in the activities, such as picking berries and flowers, that she used to share with her family. The problem was so severe that her family almost called a doctor (Brandon, p. 83).
One of her letters to Chester is shocking. In part, it read, "If I could only die. I know how you feel about this affair, and I wish for your sake you need not be troubled. If I die I hope you can be happy. I hope I can die" (Brandon, p. 88).
Her very last letter is also frightening: "This is the last letter I can write dear.... [My parents] think I am just going out there to DeRuyter for a visit.... I have been bidding goodbye to some places today.... I know I shall never see any of them again. And Mama! ... If I come back dead, perhaps, if she does not know, she won't be angry with me. I will never be happy again, dear" (Brandon, pp. 108-109). She begs Chester to give her just one evening.
Clearly she needed help -- though the sorts of help available in 1906 probably wouldn't have done much for her. When they were read during Chester's trial, they brought the courtroom down in tears (Brandon, p. 190).
Chester came up with a plan, though it is likely that what he told Grace and what he intended to do were different. It is noteworthy that, before he set out to deal with Grace, he tried to scrape up all the money he could, including asking his uncle for a loan which was never to be repaid (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 75). Chester was still dating other girls even as he set out on this "vacation" with Grace (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, pp. 72-73).
Was he already planning murder? We can't know. The attorney who prosecuted him suggested so, but Brandon, p. 113, thinks he hadn't made up his mind. What is, I think, certain is that he intended to be rid of Grace one way or another.
If Grace thought she was never coming back, Chester pretty clearely intended to come back to Cortland after meeting her, since he made arrangements for others to cover his duties at his church (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 76; according to Brandon, p. 58, he was heavily involved in Cortland's First Presbyterian Church) and he left many of his possessions behind.
On July 8, Chester set out for DeRuyter, New York, where he had arranged to meet Grace; when he registered at the Tabor House, he did something he would repeat several times during the trip: He signed in under an assumed name that used his initials "C. G." (probably to match his monogrammed luggage); in this case, the name was "Charles George." He would later claim that he used false names to protect Grace's reputation (Brandon, p. 115).
Grace came to DeRuyter by stage on July 9. Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 79, says that she knew the wife of the Tabor House's owner and talked to her. Chester and Grace met at about 10:00, and an hour later they were on a train to somewhere called Canastota. They sat separately -- and Chester spent time with two women he knew from Cortland (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 79). If Chester was trying to keep his presence secret, he was doing a lousy job.
They then headed by train for Utica, and took a room as a married couple under assumed names; this time, it was "Charles Gordon and Wife" (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 80). They never checked out or paid their bill. Then they headed for a resort called Tupper Lake, again using assumed names (Sherman/Brandon, pp. 16-17). The one time Chester used his own name was when he took some clothes to a laundry and asked that they be directed to him (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 80); this would eventually help to trace him.
On July 11, there was one last round of train trips. (On which, curiously, a witness claimed they were "spooning" -- Brandon, p. 121 -- which seems pretty unlikely at this stage!) Grace checked her bag for Old Forge, New York, but they continued past it and got off at Tupper Lake. Chester bullied his way into getting a room, this time signing as "Charles George and Wife." The landlord reported that he and Grace were arguing (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 84); another witness said that Grace was crying bitterly when they left -- though her last message to her family claimed "Am having a lovely time" and "am glad we are here" (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 86). One cannot but suspect that she was still trying to conceal her ruin from her family.
It was almost their last stop. They headed bad down the railroad to Big Moose Station and went to the Glenmore Hotel on Big Moose Lake (Sherman/Brandon, pp. 17-18; there is a map of all this on pp. 82-83 of Brownell/Wawrzaszek) -- even though Grace's trunk was on its way to Old Forge. Grace signed in (or was signed in by Chester) under her own name; Chester signed as "Carl Grahm" of Albany. They rented a boat (a 17-foot "Adirondack skiff," according to Brandon, p. 132) and went out on the lake. Grace left her hat behind, but Chester, interestingly, took his suitcase and all his possessions with him (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, pp. 88-89. His claim was that he took their lunch in the suitcase; Brandon, p. 132. But unless he was willing to leave the crackers loose to crumble into his clothing, he must have had a bag or something for the lunch that he could have taken out. Like most of Chester's explanations, it's barely possible in isolation, but there were just too many "barely possibles" in his story). They were seen by the people in another boat late in the afternoon (Brandon, p. 134), but those in the other boat could not give much information about what they were doing -- at that moment, they were just drifting.
We can't know what they said to each other in the boat; we don't even have witnesses who saw the ending. But, around 6:00, Grace died, with her body ending up at the bottom of the lake. Chester went off with his suitcase toward the town of Eagle Bay.
At first no one suspected anything wrong; the first searchers, Robert Morrison and two young relatives, went out to try to get their boat back (Brandon, p. 1). They eventually found the boat overturned in an unpopulated cove. Some hair that was identified as Grace's was found on the oarlock of the boat (Brandon, p. 153). Morrison took the two boats back and convinced a man with a steamboat to go search for the missing couple (Brandon, p. 4). They eventually found a woman's body on the bottom of the bay (Brandon, pp. 6-7). It was, of course, the body of Grace. The body of "Carl Grahm" was not to be found (Brandon, p. 8, Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 90. On p. 91, they have a copy of her death certificate, dated July 11, though large parts of the photo are so dark as to be almost unreadable.
It is important to note that the coroner's report, although it obviously notes that Grace was in the water, also mentions signs of injury on her head: a "sight contusion over the right eye and a bruise on the lower lip" (Brandon, p. 142). The coroner tentatively suggested that she had been the victim of violence (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 92. He would later claim in public that she had been "badly beaten," but this was not his initial report; Brandon, p. 151). She also had a torn garter (Brandon, p. 194), which, it was suggested, was torn during her final struggle -- but it could surely have been torn as they pulled her out of the water or for some other reason.
The district attorney had promptly sent a request for a detailed autopsy, even sending a list of doctors he wanted involved. It was too late; the coroner had given the body to the undertaker (Brandon, p. 148). The undertaker also noticed signs of violence, but nonetheless proceeded to embalm her, making further forensic examination difficult (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, pp. 130-131; Brandon, p. 195). But doctors who looked at the body thought the head trauma, not drowning, the probable cause of death (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 131). They did remove Grace's unborn fetus; the prosecution tried to introduce this into evidence at Chester's trial; rather than let it be shown, Chester's defense was forced to admit that Grace was pregnant and that Chester knew it (and was the presumed father). This came after a prolonged courtroom argument (Brandon, p. 197) that showed what a circus the trial had become.
Chester had made no attempt, after Grace's death, to seek help for her. Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 93, based on what they claim is Chester's own testimony, say he went ashore, picked up the suitcase he had left there, changed clothes, and headed off to the south. He turned up at the Arrowhead Hotel, across the lake from Glenmore. There is a map of this on p. 128 of Brandon; Chester had about a five mile walk to make, most of which was by road, which should have been easy for an athletic young man. This time, when he registered, it was in his own name. It had to be; he had asked someone at work to wire him money there (Brandon, p. 136).
Once word got out of Grace's death, Herkimer Country Attorney George W. Ward moved quickly to pursue the case -- and had the incredible stroke of luck, while on his way to investigate, of meeting someone who knew both Grace and Chester. And he had a postcard from Chester showing that Chester was in the Adirondacks (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, pp. 97-99) -- this Bert Gross had apparently set out to help Chester, given the evidence that he was in trouble (Brandon, p. 144. The story was corroborated when a newspaper (based apparently upon calling the factory; Brandon, p. 143) reported that Gillette had been Grace's boyfriend. (I wonder what Gross was thinking during all this -- he would later raise money for Gillette's clemency application; Sherman/Brandon, p. 106. He clearly talked too much; one suspects he wasn't too bright) They also found a package of laundry addressed to Gillette with instructions to forward it to Arrowhead. All Ward and his helpers had to do was track Chester down -- and there was so much evidence that two different parties traced him to the Arrowhead Hotel separately (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 100). On July 14, Herkimer County Attorney George Ward arrested Chester and placed in the Herkimer County Jail (Sherman/Brandon, p. 18).
Ward's ambitions really did influence what happened -- he was running for judge, and wanted a big case to help him win. (This is, in retrospect, rather scary, since Ward would use the flimsiest of evidence in his cases. He should *not* have been a judge. But anyway....) So he talked up his case to the newspapers even though it was likely to spoil public opinion, and later pressed for a special court term that would let Chester be prosecuted early -- if he waited for the regular term, the case would last past the election and probably past his term as D.A.; (Brandon, pp. 154-155.) Not that the press needed any help in exaggerating the story; there were so many reporters covering the case that they often resorted to lies or tricks, e.g. a bunch of them disguised themselves, went to the jail, called for Chester's lynching -- and then wrote stories about the lynch mob! (Brandon, p. 310). And one photographer, unable to locate a photo of Grace, pulled a girl -- who looked nothing like Grace -- out of a drug store, took a photograph of her, and sent it off as a photo of Brown! (Brandon, pp. 310-311).
Chester had not paid for his room and had no more money with him. He was told that anything he said could be used against him, but he did not have a lawyer when initially questioned (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 100). He told so many different stories when initially questioned that the D.A. was convinced that he was lying -- and hence that he had committed the murder (Brandon, pp. 146-147). But he could hardly deny that he and Grace had arrived on the lakes together and that he had left alone. He was promptly identified by many people who had seen him on his travels, both with Grace and after her death. In August, a grand jury handed down an indictment for first degree murder (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 110).
If he wanted to show that he had cared about Grace, he had a funny way of showing it: during his long stay in prison, he decorated his cell with pictures of actresses and other women (Brandon, p. 172),
Chester had no money for an attorney -- which handicapped him; at a time when Ward and the police were soaking up evidence (and putting out statements to prejudice public opinion), no one was doing anything for Chester's defense (Brandon, p. 164). Eventually the court appointed former State Senator Albert M. Mills and, at Mills's request, a younger man, Charles Thomas, to represent him (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, pp. 109-110; Brandon, p. 169); the county was supposed to pay them, although apparently they felt they were poorly paid. They perhaps did not give the case their best effort -- for instance, they apparently made no attempt to win a change of venue (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 111, who add that some of Mills's statements reveal an "air of futility." I think they really should have sought the change; newspaper coverage was extensive, somewhat hysterical, and sometimes flagrantly inaccurate; Herkimer County would eventually successfully sue the New York Morning Telegraph and writer Bat Masterson for their false stories; Brownell/Wawrzaszek, pp. 142-144; the case resulted in a plea bargain; Brandon, p. 325).
Ward and the prosecution argued for a trial in October, the defense wanted late December; Judge Devendorf (who was trying his first-ever murder case; Brandon, p. 175) finally compromised on a start date of Monday, November 12 (Browning, p. 169), which at least had the advantage of being after the election.
Jury selection lasted more than a week, and it took three panels for them to find twelve jurors (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, pp. 115-117). Browning, p. 180, says that most of them were farmers, and thinks that the fact that several of them had daughters of about Grace's age was bad news for the defense.
The prosecution had more than seventy witnesses and 101 exhibits (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 129) -- including the letters Grace had sent Chester, which were found among his baggage. They were able to document the relationship, and trace Chester's every move until he got to Big Moose Lake, and all his moves after he left the lake. They had clear evidence of his repeated lies (Brandon, p. 195). The only thing they did not have a witness for was Grace's actual death. They had a woman, Marjorie Carey, who thought she had heard a scream, and called it a witness. But since the woman could not say who screamed, and it could not be determined if when Grace died, it could not be known if it happened at the same time (Brandon, p. 184). Non-evidence, sez I. And the prosecution's theory of the case was pretty clearly overblown (e.g. Ward claimed that, when Gillette used aliases while traveling with Grace, he was trying to invent "another boyfriend" for her; Brandon, p. 226. This is clearly going far beyond the facts).
The defense tried to call for a mistrial on the grounds that the prosecution had claimed to have a witness and didn't. That went nowhere.
The defense had to admit all sorts of bad things: That Chester had slept with Grace even as he hung around with other women; that he had taken her to the Adirondacks while using false names, that he had been with her in the rowboat when she died (!), that he had walked away from the death site (without reporting) and then started using his own name again, and that he had tried to scrounge money for the trip (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 134). His only claim was that he hadn't hit or drowned her.
When the defense started its case, it called Chester to tell his story. He agreed with all the events up to the time he and Grace went out on the lake. He claimed that only then did they try to decide what to do, with Chester arguing they should tell Grace's parents and Grace afraid to do so. He claimed that, as they argued, Grace jumped over the side. (Given her depression, this might be plausible -- but, given her desperate hope that he would help her, Brandon, p. 135, is probably correct in saying that that still would imply that Gillette said something to her so cutting that it caused her to despair. Even if he didn't kill her directly -- which leaves the problem of why she had head trauma -- it still says he was abusing her emotionally. And Grace's mother, at the time of the trial, made the interesting comment that, even if Grace killed herself, she wouldn't have done it in such a way as to implicate Chester; she loved him too much; Brandon, p. 177. This doesn't really apply to impulsive suicide, but it does argue that she wasn't *planning* to kill herself.)
Chester said he overturned the boat as he tried to save her. Grace could not swim (others testified to the truth of this), and she never surfaced. He panicked and left the scene (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 136).
That was effectively the end of the defense case. They had promised a doctor who would disagree with the coroner's report, but they never called one. They called a few character witnesses, but that was it (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 137).
The prosecution also spent much more time summing up than did the defense. All the defense had was a few inconsistencies in the prosecution case and the lack of a direct witness to the murder (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 138).
The jury received the case late on Tuesday, December 4. According to what jurors said later, the result on the first ballot was unanimous, but they waited a few hours to make it appear that they had carefully deliberated (Brandon, p. 235. How they thought people would believe this when they later admitted the truth defeats me.) Even with that delay, they returned before midnight. The jury convicted him of first degree murder (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p.139). On December 10, the judge sentenced Gillette to the electric chair, with the sentence to be carried out during the week of December 28 (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 139).
A few days later, Chester was transferred from Herkimer Country to the prison at Auburn, New York, where executions were undertaken. Since his lawyers quickly filed an appeal, the execution was postponed. Gillette would spend the rest of his life -- 474 days -- at Auburn (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 144). He was immediately placed on Death Row, which meant the loss of several privileges -- he was allowed fewer visitors, and there were no windows; the lights were electric and never turned off; the food was worse and the guards distant; there were restrictions on what he could read and write, and his letters were examined (Brandon, p. 258). Frankly, it sounds almost like the purpose was to get the prisoners to want to be dead.... For the most part, the only people he saw were his sisters (who took turns living in Auburn to visit him) and various ministers, including MacIlravy.
There were some grotesquely humorous notes in the aftermath. The case had been expensive, and got more expensive when the six doctors who had examined Grace's body tried to claim their services were worth $600 each. The county would only pay half of that (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 145. Even that was clearly more than their work was worth).
Gillette's family tried to raise money for an appeal; his mother staged a mostly-unsuccessful lecture tour (Sherman/Brandon, p. 29; Brandon, p. 262, says that there were people willing to hear her in some places, but it was very hard for the mother of a convicted murdered to gain access to affordable venues such as churches; the pastors wanted no part of her. And when she did manage to speak, her arguments were not well-received, since, rather than try to raise reasonable doubts, she attacked the doctors who did the autopsy and went after the character of Grace Brown; Brandon, pp. 265-266). After a couple of weeks, she gave up (Brandon, p. 267). Still, the appeal went forward. On a massive scale, in fact; the official record for the case was 3000 pages, and newspapers claimed it was the longest court record ever created to that time (Brandon, p. 272).
Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 149, list five basic grounds on which Chester's lawyers appealed. Several of them -- e.g. that the evidence was circumstantial, and that the court met at an irregular date -- are ridiculous. The claim that the prosecutor had made false statements in his summing-up seems more significant, but the court turned it back. Probably the major claim was that Grace's private letters should not have been taken into evidence (which sounds as if it might have been valid, given that Chester's lawyers said they had been obtained without a warrant; Brandon, pp. 190, 273). The New York Court of Appeals did not consider this grounds for overturning the verdict, nor did they have any use for Chester's claim that Grace committed impulsive suicide, and did not take up the case -- something which shocked Chester (Sherman/Brandon, p. 89). In essence, the appeals court rejected the appeal on the grounds that none of these trifling little details changed the fact that Gillette was the man on the spot when Grace died (Brandon, p. 274). Which I think is true, though I also think there was prosecutorial misconduct.
With the appeal rejected, the execution was re-scheduled for the week of March 30, 1908 (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 150).
With no other choice available, his family then began seeking a commutation of his sentence from the governor. Astoundingly, Chester seems to have thought he should get a full pardon, not just commutation (Sherman/Brandon, p. 98). But governor Charles Evans Hughes did not act on the request. (I would note that most requests for pardon require the guilty party to admit guilt, and Chester resisted that.) The family tried to gather signatures and testimonies (Brandon, p. 279), but Hughes -- who of course was a rigid conservative when he became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court -- never paid much attention to such petitions (Brandon, p. 276).
Finally, five days before the execution, friends and relatives of Gillette tried to claim Grace was epileptic, and that explained her death, so Chester should get off (Sherman/Brandon, p. 127). This of course contradicts Chester's own testimony, as well as the testimony of Grace's own doctor (Brandon, p. 291), and was treated with all the respect it deserved: none whatsoever. (The whole story of people trying to defend Gillette has a horrid smell of blaming it all on Grace. Grace was very foolish to be taken in by a jerk like Chester, but that doesn't change the fact that she was exploited!)
There were hopes for a confession. If Chester confessed, though, it was never released to the public. There was a statement from one of the ministers that was interpreted as a confession (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 158), but it wasn't really -- and the minister probably exaggerated anyway.
Gillette was electrocuted on March 30, 1908 at 10:18 a.m. (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 156; Sherman/Brandon, p. 19). The witnesses consistently reported that he went to his death more calmly than anyone they had ever seen, and was cooperative with the executioners (Brandon, pp. 293-294).
The family having no money to take his body back to their home, after he was autopsied and his brain remove for study in Philadelphia, the rest of his body was buried in an unmarked grave in a cemetery for the indigent in Auburn (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, pp. 158-159. No one knows what eventually became of the brain; Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 195).
Gillette did not start his diary until he was already in custody, so it gives us no insight into the events surrounding the death of Grace Brown, but it does give us more insight into his personality. Notably, the diary never says that he killed Grace but never denies it either. There were newspaper reports shortly after his death that he had confessed to the murder, but it appears that he simply told his spiritual advisors that there was "no legal mistake" in his trial. (Sherman/Brandon, p. 25). That merely means the procedure was correct, not that the verdict was. It appears that he never actually confessed.
Sherman/Brandon, p. 26, think that Gillette's diary show a man who reformed and turned to religion (p. 27: "Ultimately, the diary is the compelling story of a man who -- gradually, but triumphantly -- found redemption"). Dunno. After all, he was trying for a commutation; what did he have to lose? Keep in mind that the authorities read his letters and may have (at least, they had the legal right to) read the diary (Sherman/Brandon, p. 30).
The song is correct in saying that Gillette spent his final months in Auburn Prison; he was transferred there in December 1906 (Sherman/Brandon, p. 6). It was there that he began his diary in late 1907, while he was trying for an appeal or pardon.
To this day there are those who wonder if Chester actually committed the murder. The last words of Brownell/Wawrzaszek, on p. 201, are "No one really knows" -- a statement which they base on the fact that all the evidence against Chester is circumstantial (apparently not realizing that circumstantial evidence is known to be reliable and eyewitness testimony is almost certain to be unreliable.) We obviously can't prove it one way or the other. And Ward's case against Chester was unnecessarily full of hot air; he surely had plenty of facts on his side, but he played to the newspapers to help his political position.
All that being true, it's worth noting what is certain: Gillette was a known repeat petty criminal. He got Grace Brown pregnant and refused to marry her. When she became depressed, he offered no help whatsoever. He was clearly hiding something when he traveled with her, since he never signed his own name. When she died, he at minimum did not report it and fled the death site. There might be enough doubt that I'd have given him life in prison rather than the death penalty, but I really doubt he should have been allowed back into the community. There is no doubt that he was at least guilty of criminal mistreatment of Grace.
There is a memorial sign to Grace in South Otselic -- in fact, as of May 20201, it's the first photo Google Maps shows if you look up the town. (The second is of her tombstone.) The sign mentions Dreiser's book but not much else.
Dreiser's novel, although it is considered his best and most famous, is by no means close to the actual history. (So far from it, in fact, that some people apparently thought he had rung in the tragedy of Naomi Wise; Wellman, p. 103.) The name "American Tragedy" came about because Dreiser believed (not entirely accurately, I think) that a certain type of murder was typical of the United States, where social climbing was a norm (Brandon, pp. 333-334). The Gillette case was closest to what Dreiser wanted, but he still altered the plot to give it more characteristics of what he thought of as this Standard American Murder. In addition to a lot of changes to increase the drama and pathos, and the addition of a love triangle, Chester become "Clyde Griffiths" and Grace is called "Roberta Alden." Brownell/Wawrzaszek, pp. 171-174, have a table showing the equivalences between real life and the book; it contains more than fifty names, which I assume is evidence for how closely Dreiser followed some details of the case, despite creating the love triangle.
Some of his errors weren't his fault, since he got most of his information from the papers (especially the New York World, according to scholars; Brandon, p. 337), and they frequently made things up to sell copy.
Incidentally, he didn't really have a choice about changing some of the names, precisely because of the love triangle. Harriet Benedict, the alleged "other woman" -- and the daughter of a lawyer -- had put out an official statement threatening a libel suit against anyone misrepresenting her (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 124) -- which, in this context, meant perpetuating the idea of a love triangle. She stated in court that she had been on a few dates with Chester, but no more, and there is good reason to think this true. Chester hadn't settled down to chasing just one girl, although the roll of film in his camera when he was apprehended showed some photos of a date with Benedict (two of which -- of Gillette, not Benedict -- are shown on p. 89 of Brandon).
The first movie based on Dreiser's novel, also called "An American Tragedy," was not very noteworthy -- and so angered Dreiser with it changes that he tried to have it suppressed (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 180). "A Place in the Sun," the 1951 movie adaption, with Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, Shelley Winters, and Raymond Burr," changed things even more (all the names were changed again, e.g., probably in part to avoid the legal challenges that had come with the first movie; Brandon, p. 360) -- but Dreiser was off the scene by then and couldn't complain as much. Still, by the time Hollywood rewrote Dreiser who rewrote history, there wasn't much of Gillette or Brown in "A Place in the Sun."
The first attempt at a non-fiction book on the topic was Death was the Bridegroom by Charles Samuels, from 1955. But Samuels relied on the trial transcript and newspaper accounts, and was written for a low-quality True Crimes series; it really didn't add much to the record (Brandon, pp. 361-362). It certainly would tempt readers to a wrong conclusion, since the cover illustration shows a blonde woman with a 1950s hair style wearing very short shorts being threatened by a somewhat deformed-looking left hand. I have not read it, but I doubt it's worth seeking out. If it had any real effect, it was to inspire more serious researchers to see what they could find out.
There was at least one other contemporary (i.e. pre-Dreiser) song written about the case, "Entreating" by Maude E. Gould (Brownell/Wawrzaszek, p. 146 and p. 210 reference for note 13; Brandon, p. 328, has the text). It was published in 1907 with a picture of Grace on the cover. There is no hint that it went into oral tradition; library searches indicate that sheet music copies are rare, and I can't find references to it being sung. Looking at the text in Brandon, I don't think Gould's arrangement of the words is as heart-rending as the actual letters were.
There have also been reports of the ghosts of Chester and/or Grace at various places (Brandon, pp. 328-329). If so, they definitely haven't done anything to clarify the story.
Brownell/Wawrzaszek have quite a few photos of places and people associated with the story -- the Gillette Skirt Factory on pp. 28-29; the Brown family house on p. 35; Grace and school classmates on p. 36; a page from Grace's diary on p. 38; Chester's residence house at Oberlin on p. 49; Chester with his basketball team on p. 52; Grace's and Chester's residences in Cortland on pp. 54-55; places the two met on their final journey on pp. 76-77, 87-89, 99, 188-189; places associated with Chester's trial and execution on pp. 109, 114, 140, 144, 155; Grace's death certificate on p. 91; the defense lawyer on p. 135; Chester's mother on p. 148. But they note starting on p. 187 how many of the building have changed or been torn down. And that was in 1986; even more have disappeared since.
The song as we have it is mostly accurate although it offers little "inside information." Brandon, p. 326, suggests that it was composed after Chester was convicted but before his execution, and this is probably right; I would guess it was written before the appeal was filed. It correctly states that:
- A jury convicted Chester
- That two mothers were both deeply involved. Louisa Gillette was heavily involved in the trial and post-trial actions. Minerva Brown was not, but she and her husband were present for almost all of the court case and almost certainly were in contact with the prosecutor (Brandon, p. 196).
- The audience was indeed "wondering what Gillette would say" when he was on the witness stand, since he was the only one who knew exactly what happened and he was the only substantial defense witness.
- Gillette was indeed transferred to Auburn Prison after his conviction.
- Grace did indeed gather lilies on the water on her last boat trip; some of them were found with her. She had put some in her coat pocket and pinned one to her lapel (Brandon, p. 134).
- Grace died on Big Moose Lake, in the region known as South Bay.
- No one was ever found who knew exactly what happened except Gillette.- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: LF07

Grace Darling (I) (The Longstone Lighthouse)

DESCRIPTION: "Twas on the Longstone lighthouse there dwelt an Irish maid," Grace Darling. At dawn she saw "a storm tossed crew ... to the rocks were clinging." With her father's reluctant help, she launched a boat, rowed out, and "boldly saved that crew."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast); 19C (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 13(240))
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor rescue
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 7, 1838 - Grace Darling and her father rescue nine of the crew of Forfarshire (source: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 86-87, "The Longstone Lighthouse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 100, "Grace Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1441
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 13(240), "Grace Darling" ("Twas at the Longstone lighthouse"), unknown, no date; also Harding B 11(4158), "Grace Darling"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Grace Darling (II)" (subject)
cf. "Grace Darling (III)" (subject)
NOTES [740 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: "Grace Darling was the daughter of the light-house keeper on one of the Farne Islands (a group of Islands, also called The Staples, seventeen in number) two miles off the N.E. coast of Northumberland.... The song has evidently been adapted for Irish audiences." - BS
According to Paine, p. 188, the Forfarshire was a steamer which carried cargo from Hull and Dundee. Built in 1834, her last trip began on September 5, 1838, from Hull. She suffered boiler problems the next day, and the engines eventually went out completely in a storm. Her pumps also were struggling (Cordingly, p. 218.) Captain Humble nonetheless decided to continue with sails only rather than seek shelter -- even though her unpowered paddlewheels would make her far less maneuverable. She was wrecked on the Farnes shoals a little before 4:00 a.m. on September 7 (Paine, p. 188).
No one seems quite sure how many were aboard; Hudson/Nicolls, p. 90, suggests a crew of 25, with 40 passengers. They say the boat broke in two on the rocks, with the stern section (with the captain and almost all of the passengers but only part of the crew) swept out to sea, with no survivors. Cordingly, p. 218, suggests that she carried 55 passengers and crew in addition to Captain Humble and his wife. He says on p. 219 that the twelve who were on the forward section included a women, two children, a handful of other passengers, and carpenter John Tulloch, who managed to bring the survivors to a rock. They had no food and no shelter, and were soaking wet and in danger of hypothermia. And they were about a mile from the lighthouse.
The Longstone Lighthouse was built in 1826 to replace an earlier lighthouse which had been ineffective in preventing wrecks. The Darling family had long kept the lighthouse; William Darling had succeeded his father as keeper of the old lighthouse in 1815, and then had moved to the Longstone light when it was finished (Cordingly, p. 216).
William and his wife Thomasina (who apparently was considerably older than her husband) had nine children, but only two -- Grace and one boy -- were still at home in 1838, and the boy happened to be away on the night of the storm. The Forfarshire wreck was not the only time WIlliam Darling went on a rescue mission; Cordingly, p. 217, tells how he and his sons had rescued a man from the Autumn in 1834. By 1838, however, most of the boys had moved out.
Grace Darling was apparently the first to see the wrecked Forfarshire. Because it took at least two to handle their lifeboat (a 21-foot-long coble, according to Cordingly, p. 219), William Darling had to have Grace to help him go out on his rescue mission. The gale was still blowing, and their boat was open, so this was genuinely dangerous (Cordingly, p. xii).
Three of the survivors -- a clergyman and the two children -- had died before the Darlings could reach them (Cordingly, p. 220). It took two trips, but the nine passengers still living were all brought back to Longstone (Cordingly, p. 221. Several of them helped with the rowing during the rescue; according to Uden/Cooper, Grace and her father William made the first rescue trip, but William and two of the survivors made the second).
Although William and Grace both took part in the rescue, it was Grace who became famous for her part (as Cordingly says on p. 215, "For a woman to row out to a shipwreck in a storm was unheard of, and the story received even more attention for the fact that the woman was twenty-two years old, had a pleasant face and modest manner, and had a name that might have come straight from the pages of a Victorian novel). A subscription brought her about 750 pounds in gifts, and she became a popular subject of poetry and at least four books. The lighthouse became the site of a perverse sort of pilgrimages; the myriad visitors made it hard for the Darlings even to tend the lighthouse (Cprdingly, p. 222).
According to Benet, p. 275, Grace Horsley Darling was born in 1815, making her 22 years old (and hence rather a spinster) at the time of the Forfarshire wreck. She died in 1842, still a heroine, of a cough she picked up not too long after the rescue (Cordingly, p. 223; Uden/Cooper, p. 113, say the cause of death was consumption).
Uden/Cooper reproduce a portrait of her by H. Perlee Parker. I found several others online, which don't look at all alike; I wonder which, if any, were painted from life. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Ran086

Grace Darling (II)

DESCRIPTION: Grace tells her father to launch the lifeboat in the storm to rescue "the shipwreck'd wanderers from the grave." He answers "'twere worse than madness." At daybreak she calls on him again to launch the boat. They launch the boat and save the crew.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1861 (broadside, LOCSinging sb20150a)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor rescue
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 7, 1838 - Grace Darling and her father rescue nine of the crew of _Forfarshire_. (source: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 87)
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, "Grace Darling" (1 text, 1 tune, from different sources)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #798, p. 53, "Grace Darling" (2 references, which appear to be this song)
Roud #V3152
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(3a/b) View 8 of 8, "Parody. Grace Darling" ("Oh! dearest dad, the winds are blowing"), G. Ingram and Co. (London), no date
LOCSinging, sb20150a, "Grace Darling" ("Oh! father loved! the storm is raging"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Grace Darling (I) (The Longstone Lighthouse)" (subject) and notes there
cf. "Grace Darling (III)" (subject)
NOTES [83 words]: The description is based on broadside LOCSinging sb20150a.
Broadside LOCSinging sb20150a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
While broadside Bodleian, Firth b.28(3a/b) View 8 of 8 is labelled "parody" it is not comical. Instead it seems a mild paraphrase. - BS
For background on Grace Horsley Darling, see the notes to "Grace Darling (I) (The Longstone Lighthouse)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: BdGrDa02

Grace Darling (III)

DESCRIPTION: At night in a heavy sea the "Forfarshire" steamer strikes a rock on Longstone Island. "To pieces she flew." Grace Horsley Darling hears the cries and asks her father to go to the rescue. They launch a boat and save nine of sixty.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.12(126))
KEYWORDS: rescue drowning sea ship wreck father
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 7, 1838 - Grace Darling and her father rescue nine of the crew of Forfarshire (source: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #168, p. 1, "Grace Darling" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 30, "Grace Darling Our Langoleen" (1 text)
Roud #3811
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(126), "Grace Darling" ("I pray give attention to what I will mention"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1858; also Harding B 15(118a), Firth c.12(125), 2806 c.14(25), "Grace Darling"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Grace Darling (I) (The Longstone Lighthouse)" (subject) and references there
cf. "Grace Darling (II)" (subject)
NOTES [110 words]: "Langoleen" is not in the Greig/Greig/Duncan1 text. It is not in the Greig #168 article. Greig/Duncan1 neither explains it nor says the song title is "editorial." Finally, I don't know what the word means. - BS
Partridge's Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English defines "langolee" (no terminal n) as a ninteenth century term for "the male member"; maybe this is the reason for the lack of a definition in most of the textbooks. If we assume "langoleen" is the feminine form, then perhaps it's "beloved." Or perhaps I'm speculating out of turn.
For background on Grace Horsley Darling, see the notes to "Grace Darling (I) (The Longstone Lighthouse)." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1030

Grace, Grace, Dressed in Lace

DESCRIPTION: Skipping/counting game. "Grace, grace, dressed in lace, Went upstairs to powder her face. How many boxes did she use? One, two three...." (Or "five, ten, twenty....")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: clothes playparty jumprope | Grace lace counting
FOUND IN: US(NE,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 109, "(Grace, Grace, dressed in lace)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 53, "Grace, Grace" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #3, "(Grace, Grace, All dressed in lace"); #45, "(Grace, Grace, dressed in lace)"; #71, "(Grace, Grace, Dressed in lace)"; #136, "(Grace, Grace, dressed in lace)" (4 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 127, "Grace, Grace, dressed in lace" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #158, "Grace, Grace, dressed in lace" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Joan McCaskill, collector), "Rope-Skipping Games", Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 10, "(Grace, Grace, dressed in lace)" (1 text)
Roud #19323
File: SuSm109B

Gracie M Parker

DESCRIPTION: Gracie Parker leaves Alberton for Saint Pierre "heavily lumber-laden." In a heavy gale "she struck a sunken rock ... And all on board were drowned." Two bodies wash up on the beach. The drowned crew are named
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor moniker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 16, 1893 - Schooner Gracie M Parker from Alberton, PEI stranded and wrecked in a storm in St Pierre Harbour under Captain Farrell (Northern Shipwrecks Database) (Note that the ballad has the schooner put to sea on November 15, 1893 so someone is wrong by a month)
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 49-50, "Gracie M Parker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 136-137,254-255, "The Schooner Gracie Parker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12469
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Benjamin Smith, "The Schooner Gracie Parker" (on MREIves01)
NOTES [25 words]: Alberton is on the north west coast of Prince, Prince Edward Island. St Pierre Harbour is on St-Pierre, a French island southwest of Newfoundland. - BS
File: Dib049

Gradh Geal mo cridh

See Bheir Me O (File: DTnheirm)

Grafted into the Army

DESCRIPTION: "Our Jimmy has gone for to live in a tent, They have grafted him into the army... I told them the child was too young, alas! At the Captain's forequarters they said he would pass...." The mother talks of her little boy in the army; she hopes he comes back
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (sheet music published by Root & Cady, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar; the version in Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work just says "186_")
KEYWORDS: soldier mother youth humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work, pp.137-140, "Grafted Into The Army" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 361-362, "(no title)" (1 text)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 371, "Grafted Into the Army" (1 text, a copy of a Johnson & Co. broadside)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #799, p. 53, "Grafted Into the Army" (13 references)
Dime-Song-Book #11, p. 22, "Grafted into the Army" (1 text)
Sllber-CivWarFull, pp. 311-313, "Grafted into the Army (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 68-69, "Grafted into the Army" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 93, 'Grafted' into the Army" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 113-115, "Grafted into the Army" (1 text)
DT, GRFTRMY*
Roud #6596
NOTES [58 words]: Various authors note that Henry Clay Work's verb "grafted" is a multi-layered pun. It is, on its face, a mis-statement of "drafted"; it is a form of "grafting," as in combining the branches of different trees -- and it reminds us of graft, as in financial illegalities, which were common among military suppliers and recruiters in this period. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SCW68

Gragalmachree

See Gra Geal Mo Chroi (II -- Down By the Fair River) (File: CrMa069)

Gramachree

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears the birds singing and courting as he wanders by the banks of Banna. He thinks longingly of Molly, who once said she loved him but now hates him. He says that he will be true for as long as he lives
AUTHOR: George Ogle (1739-1814)? (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1787 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H204, pp. 388-389, "Gramachree" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 122, "Molly, Asthore" (1 text); pp. 158-159, "Gramachree Molly" (1 text)
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 133-136, "Banna's Banks" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 40, "Molly, Asthore" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1449, p. 98, "Molly Asthore" (2 references)
ST HHH204 (Full)
Roud #4717
RECORDINGS:
Caroline Brennan, "Banna's Banks" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(770), "Gramachree Molly", J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth c.26(66), "Molly Ashtore"; 2806 c.8(179), Harding B 11(2435), Harding B 11(2400), "Molly Astore"
LOCSinging, sb30338b, "Molly Asthore", H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nancy's Complaint in Bedlam" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Gra'-mo-chree
Mailigh Mo Store
Molly Asthore (Molly, My Treasure)
Molly Bheag O!
Grai My Chree! (Love of my Heart)
NOTES [136 words]: This is apparently sometimes credited to Samuel Lover (1797-1868). Since, however, it appeared in the Scots Musical Museum before Lover was even born, we can discount this; I suspect it is a confusion with "Widow Machree."
Sir George Ogle the Younger (c. 1740-1814) was a poet and politician born in county Wexford. He served in the Irish parliament in the 1790s, and was briefly a Tory representative to Westminster. His best-known works are considered to be "Banna's Banks" (in the Index as "The Banks of Banna") and "Molly Astore" (this piece); in this Index he is also contributed "The Hermit of Killarney." - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb30338b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: HHH204

Grampound Wassail. The

DESCRIPTION: "Wassail, wassail, wassail, wassail And joy come to our jolly wassail. Now here at this house we first will be seen, To drink the king's health such a custom has been." The singers salute the house and ask gifts; they offer good wishes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Palmer, but apparently collected in the nineteenth century)
KEYWORDS: request ritual drink food begging nonballad wassail royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #144, "The Grampound Wassail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #209
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Somerset Wassail" (subject) and references there
NOTES [39 words]: Roud lumps this with the many other wassail songs, but the form is very different, and it's much longer than most wassails -- as given in Palmer, almost a script for how everyone behaves. I have no hesitation in splitting them.. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: PECS144

Grand Conversation on Brave Nelson, The

DESCRIPTION: Heroes discuss Nelson and his victories at Copenhagen and the Nile. He is wounded and dies in the victory at Trafalgar and is returned to be buried in England. A memorial statue is erected in renamed Trafalgar Square at Charing Cross.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 20(61))
KEYWORDS: battle commerce England memorial political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 2, 1798 - Battle of the Nile at Aboukir Bay
Apr 2, 1801 - Battle of Copenhagen
Oct 21, 1805 - Battle of Trafalgar
1843 - Nelson's Column is erected in Trafalgar Square
FOUND IN:
Roud #V714
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 20(61), "Grand Conversation on Nelson Arose" ("As some heroes bold, I will unfold, together were conversing"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth c.12(49), Harding B 11(1387), Johnson Ballads 2534, "Grand Conversation on Brave Nelson"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon" (structure)
cf. "The Grand Conversation Under the Rose" (structure, theme)
cf. "Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar (Brave Nelson)" [Laws J17] and references there (subject)
NOTES [163 words]: The theme of commerce benefiting from war gets passing notice in "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon" and is the main theme of "The Grand Conversation Under the Rose." In this broadside it has one verse between the victories at Copenhagen and the Nile, and the final victory and death at Trafalgar:
Many a gallant youth, I'll tell the truth, in action have been wounded
Some left their friends and lovers in despair upon their native shore.
Others never have returned again, but died upon the raging main,
Causing many a mother to cry, my son, and widows to deplore.
When war was raging, it is said, men for their labour were well paid
Commerce and trade was flourishing, but now it ebbs and flows,
And poverty it does increase, tho' Britons say they live in peace,
This grand conversation on brave Nelson arose.
The reference to Trafalgar Square and Nelson's Column assures that "The Grand Conversation on Brave Nelson" was written after "The Grand Conversation of Napoleon." - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BrdGCoBN

Grand Conversation on Napoleon, The

DESCRIPTION: Consider Napoleon's imprisonment on St Helena. Better to have died at Waterloo than be condemned by England to this "the dreary spot." His defeat at Moscow and betrayal at Waterloo are recounted. We will speak again of him when again we face the foe.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1389))
KEYWORDS: battle exile betrayal death commerce France memorial political prisoner Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, p. 192, "The Grand Conversation of Napoleon" (1 fragment)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 196, "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 162, "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon" (2 texts (1 Irish Gaelic), 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 128-131, "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1189
RECORDINGS:
Tom Costello, "A Grand Conversation on Napoleon" (on Voice08)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1389), "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon ("It was over that wild beaten track a friend of bold Buonapart")," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 19(107), 2806 c.15(104)[some words illegible], "Grand Conversation on the Remains of Napoleon"; also Firth b.34(196), Firth c.16(92), Harding B 11(4086), Firth c.16(91), Harding B 11(1508), Harding B 11(253), "[The] Grand Conversation on Napoleon"; also Harding B 11(1390), "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon Arose"; Harding B 11(254), "The Grand Conversation of Napoleon"
NOTES [1122 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 192 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(254) is the basis for the description.
Easily missed in passing is a one-line reference to the benefit commerce has from war: "He caus'd the money to fly wherever he did go." This theme is expanded in "The Grand Conversation on Brave Nelson" and is the main theme of "The Grand Conversation Under the Rose."
The allusion to England is as reference to the "bunch of roses" (Zimmermann p. 192). An unspoken reference is to Ireland as the "we" in "may our shipping float again to face the daring foes ... we'll boldly mount the wooden walls."
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001))
Harte speculates that the last line of each verse ("And the grand conversation on Napoleon arose") is a corruption of the last line of each verse of "The Grand Conversation Under the Rose" ("This grand conversation was under the rose"); that is to say, the conversation was sub rosa=secret. - BS
There seems to be a tendency in broadsides to blame Napoleon's failure at Waterloo on betrayal. "Napoleon Bonaparte (III)" blames Marshal Grouchy. This song prefers to blame Marshal Ney (1769-1815).
There is some justification for this (as there is for blaming Grouchy, who didn't march to the sound of the guns at Waterloo). Ney's performance in the Waterloo campaign was utterly pitiful.
Napoleon should have known better. Ney had performed brilliantly in the 1813 retreat from Moscow; his rearguard action had saved all that could be saved (Glover, p. 181). Napoleon had long before called him "the bravest of the brave" (Chandler, p. 830) But he was not the smartest of the smart. He had hardly any education at all, and "never made much pretense at being able to express himself in a very civil manner, or even of pssessing the thinnest veneer of culture" (Schom, p. 31). Napoleon himself had said that it would be dangerous to give Ney a significant independent command.
But when Napoleon returned from France to Elba, Ney led a body of troops against him -- and then changed his mind and joined his old commander (Schom, p. 32). Maybe Napoleon felt he owed him something. Or maybe Napoleon really had lost it. Whatever the explanation, it was a major mistake.
Once Europe became aware that Napoleon was back, they hastened to gather their armies -- but it took time for many of the forces, which could move no faster than a marching man, to reach the front (Chandler/Beckett, p. 154). The first to reach the French border were the Anglo-Dutch under Wellington and the Prussians under Blucher. Napoleon had only about 200,000 men to guard all of France (Keegan, p. 121), while the Prussians alone were bringing 100,000, and the Anglo-Dutch about 70,000 (Keegan, p. 123, although many of these were unreliable), and Austria and Russia would eventually bring at least 300,000 more. If he let them all gather, Napoleon would be swamped.
But only the Anglo-Dutch and the Prussians were in place in June 1815. Napoleon's plan was to interpose between them and defeat them in detail (Keegan, p. 122). To do this, he divided the army into three wings of roughly two corps each. Grouchy commanded the right, Napoleon the central reserve (which could reinforce either wing). The left was eventually assigned to Ney.
Appointed to command the left wing less than a week before Waterloo (Chandler, p. 1029), Ney's first task was to defeat a British rearguard while Napoleon and Grouchy fought the Prussians at Ligny. But Ney, given the chance to gobble up a few British brigades, instead stopped moving and muffed the Battle of Quatre Bras (June 16, 1815; Schom, pp. 258-259, 267-268). If he had won, it would have chewed up Wellington's army before Waterloo, making the latter battle easier for the French.
And in muffing Quatre Bras, he also contradicted Napoleon's orders to I Corps commander Jean-Baptiste Drouet Comte d'Erlon. As a result, d'Erlon didn't fight at Quatre Bras -- and didn't fight with Napoleon at the simultaneous battle at Ligny (Chandler, pp. 1034-1057, especially pp. 1051-1053; also Schom, pp. 271-272, detailing how d'Erlon was bounced around the countryside by Napoleon and Ney. At one point, he was on the brink of attacking at Ligny -- and actually turned around and marched away!). D'Erlon's presence at Ligny would probably have turned Ligny, which was a tactical win for the French despite dreadful weather, into a complete strategic victory (Chandler/Beckett, pp. 155-156). Instead, the Prussian losers -- whom Napoleon expected to retreat toward Prussia (Glover, p. 213) -- were able to regroup and show up to support Wellington at Waterloo.
Ney's disastrous performance continued at Waterloo itself, where the Marshal had tactical control of the battlefield. (Keegan, p. 126. Napoleon was feeling unwell and played very little role; Glover, p. 216.) Ney started late (see map on pp. 124-125 of Keegan), and did little except put in frontal attack after frontal attack (Glover, p. 216) -- and no one understood defensive warfare better than Wellington. If Blucher hadn't shown up, it's possible that Ney's bull-in-a-stainless-steel-plateware-shop style might have worked -- but Blucher's arrival (with Grouchy, who was supposed to watch him with 30,000 men -- Chandler, pp. 1060-1062 -- nowhere to be found; Chandler, p. 1069) doomed Napoleon.
Still, the ultimate fault is Napoleon's. He knew that Ney had all the imagination of a pithed frog; the man was simply not fit for independent command. (If you want to get a picture of Ney, think George W. Bush: Charming, aggressive, and unable to adapt to new data.) And Napoleon knew it, and he had much better commanders (notably Davout, whom he had made War Minister) available. Napoleon chose the wrong officers, and didn't exercise close control over them, and paid the inevitable price.
As for the idea that Ney sold out Napoleon -- this is a pitiful joke. When Napoleon returned from Elba, Ney led the first substantial body of troops to oppose him. He could have stopped Napoleon on the spot -- but instead rallied to his standard. And, after Napoleon fell, Ney was tried for treason and shot in December 1815 (Schom, p. 318, who notes that he actually commanded the firing squad himself). By the time of Waterloo, his only hope was for Napoleon to win. Ney's only "betrayal" lay in accepting a command he wasn't fit to exercise. And that's a crime quite a few others, including many Presidents and Prime Ministers, have been guilty of. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.2
File: BrdGCoNa

Grand Conversation on O'Connell Arose

DESCRIPTION: Dan O'Connell is dead. His career is reviewed: MP for 18 years, supported the Reform Bill, "left our church and clergy free," opposed slavery, killed Lestaire in a duel. He would have supported Irish unity when the British were fighting in the Crimea.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1862 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.26(87))
KEYWORDS: death Ireland memorial patriotic political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1775-1847 - Life of Daniel O'Connell
Feb 1, 1815 - Kills D'Esterre in a duel over a political comment made by O'Connell
1823 - O'Connell's Catholic Association formed to resist the requirement that Irish Catholics pay tithes to the Anglican Church of Ireland.
July 1828 - Daniel O'Connell elected MP.
1829 - Catholic "emancipation," allowing them every political right open to Protestants of equivalent position
1840-1843 - O'Connell led the movement to repeal the act that joined Ireland and Great Britain as the United Kingdom
May 15, 1847 - O'Connell dies
1854-1856 - Crimean War
FOUND IN:
Roud #V716
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.26(87)[final lines illegible], "Grand Conversation on O'Connell Arose" ("Come all you sons of Erin's land and mourn the loss of noble Dan"), J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1858-1861; also 2806 b.10(20)[some lines illegible], 2806 b.10(36), "Grand Conversation on O'Connell Arose"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon" (structure)
cf. "The Grand Conversation on Brave Nelson" (structure)
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
cf. "Ould Father Dan" (subject)
NOTES [233 words]: O'Connell on slavery: "With respect to the principles of President Tyler on the subject of negro slavery, I am as abhorrent of them as ever I was; indeed, if it was possible to increase my contempt of slave-owners and the advocates of slavery, my sentiments are more intense now than ever they were, and I will avail myself of the first practical opportunity of giving utterance to them, especially in connection with the horrible project of annexing Texas to the United States." (source: "Letter to James Haughton, February 4, 1845" at Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, Yale Center for International and Area Studies site.
Except for the line and rhyme structure and the use of the title in the last line of each verse this ballad seems unrelated to the earlier "Grand Conversation" broadsides. - BS
This item shows O'Connell as more of a visionary than usual: President Polk (the successor to Tyler) would annex Texas under the pretext of the Mexican War, and that annexation did indeed provoke the American Civil War, because it led to the collapse of the Missouri Compromise and led to the increasingly frantic attempts at conciliation which eventually failed and caused the Union to come apart.
It also shows the higher plane on which O'Connell lived: The Irish leaders of the next generation generally had no qualms against slavery; John Mitchel, indeed, actively advocated it. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BrdGCoOA

Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose (I)

DESCRIPTION: The British defeat the Russians at Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and Sebastopol. British generals and units are named. Incidentally, there was some help by "6,000 sons of France"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: war battle patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 20, 1854 - Battle of Alma
Oct 25, 1854 - Battle of Balaclava
Nov 5, 1854 - Battle of Inkerman
Sep 9, 1855 - Fall of Sevastopol following an 11 month siege
FOUND IN:
Roud #V715
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.14(71), "Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose" ("You Britons all, both old and young, attend unto my song"), unknown, no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon" (structure)
cf. "The Grand Conversation on Brave Nelson" (structure)
cf. "Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose (II)" (subject)
cf. "The Heights of Alma (I)" [Laws J10] (subject: British boasting about the Crimean War)
NOTES [72 words]: Except for the line and rhyme structure and the use of the title in the last line of each verse this ballad seems unrelated to the earlier "Grand Conversation" broadsides. - BS
For background on the Crimean War, and the rather inaccurate numbers in this piece, see the notes to "The Heights of Alma (I)" [Laws J10].
Roud lumps the two "Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose" types, but the forms imply that they are different. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BrdGCSA1

Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose (II)

DESCRIPTION: The British and French join Omar Pasha "to seize upon Sebastopol and set poor Turkey free." They defeat the Russians at Alma when Lord Raglan leads the battle with "legions of France by the side of old Britain" and Colin Campbell leads the Highlanders.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: war battle patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 20, 1854 - Battle of Alma
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 207-210, "The Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V715
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(224), "Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose" ("As the Western powers of Europe, united all together"), unknown, no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Heights of Alma (I) [Laws J10]" (subject) and references there
cf. "The Kilties in the Crimea" (subject)
cf. "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon" (structure)
cf. "The Grand Conversation on Brave Nelson" (structure)
cf. "Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose (I)" (subject)
NOTES [336 words]: Except for the line and rhyme structure and the use of the title in the last line of each verse this ballad seems unrelated to the earlier "Grand Conversation" broadsides. - BS
Roud lumps the two "Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose" types, but the forms imply that they are different.
The Crimean War was hardly fought to "set Turkey free." The Ottoman Empire was a despotism, and remained one -- but it was considered a useful one by the Western powers, since it kept Russia from controlling Constantinople and the straights. Hence the Crimean War.
Omar Pasha (or Omer Pasha; that being the spelling used in Kinross, p. 493) is described by Kinross as an "impatient general"; he was certainly quite a character. Born in 1806 in Croatia, with the name Michael Lattas, he had been an Austrian army cadet, but then deserted to the Ottomans (Palmer, p. 55). In October 1853, he had opened the fighting against Russia (Royle, p. 81). In early 1854, though, he hesitated, leaving Silistria (the first major object of the Russian invasion) to its fate. It was the Russians who finally gave up their siege. According to Kinross, p. 498, he had only limited involvement in the siege of Sebastopol, fighting instead in the defence of Eupatoria. This may be in part because the British and French had so little use for the Turks.
He ended up being disgraced for his conduct at Kars in 1855, was rehabilitated in 1861, and died in 1870.
Lord Raglan, a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, was the original Allied commander in the Crimea; for his story, see the notes to "The Heights of Alma" [Laws J10].
Sir Colin Campbell (1792-1863) was a far better general, but socially inferior; he too fought in the Napoleonic Wars, as a junior officer of brilliant talent, but it took him more than twenty years to gain command of a regiment. The commander of the Highland Brigade, he and it gained fame together in the Crimea. He ended his career by suppressing the Indian Mutiny. For more about him, see "The Kilties in the Crimea." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: BrdGCSA2

Grand Conversation Under the Rose, The

DESCRIPTION: Mars and Minerva sit under the rose, considering the rusting implements of war. British peace has followed the war of independence in the States and the defeat of Napoleon in France. "Come stir up the wars, and our trade will be flourishing"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1821 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.17(449)
KEYWORDS: war commerce America England nonballad political gods Napoleon
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, p. 33, "The Grand Conversation Under the Rose" (1 fragment)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 197, "The Grand Conversation Under the Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 584, "Grand Conversation Under the Rose" (1 text)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 125-127, "Under the Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 730, "Under the Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21272
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(449), "Grand Conversation Under the Rose," G. Thompson (Liverpool), 1789-1820; also Firth b.25(353), Johnson Ballads 848, Harding B 11(1391), Harding B 11(1392), Harding B 11(1393), Harding B 11(2479), Harding B 16(106d), Johnson Ballads fol. 27[some words illegible], Firth b.25(84), Johnson Ballads 194, Harding B 17(117b), "The Grand Conversation Under the Rose"; Firth c.16(95), "The Grand Conversation Held Under the Rose"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Land of Liberty" (tune, per broadside Firth c.16(95))
NOTES [322 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 33 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian 2806 c.17(449) is the basis for the description. Zimmermann's reference underscores the reliance of commerce on war; after all, the broadside notes, "Napoleon did make the money fly about" [a line shared with "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon"]. The rose may be a symbol for England (cf. "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" [Laws J5]) - BS
The effect of Napoleon on commerce is, at best, a debatable point. War production certainly helped some economies at some time (look what it did for the United States in World War II!).
But the Napoleonic Wars seem to have caused not growth but recession, or at least loss of personal wealth due to inflation, in Britain (see the versions of "Ye Parliaments of England" which blame economic woes on Napoleon). Napoleon's "continental system" was an embargo on British trade which might have proved fatal had it not been so widely flouted; the British government's massive spending on its military sucked capital out of the economy and damaged internal trade. Plus the army and navy required so many men that farming and industrial production suffered; it was the desperate British need to round up sailors for the navy that caused the impressment crisis and led to the War of 1812 with the United States.
Napoleon helped make the munitions makers rich (and that may be the reference here); historian Arthur Herman, whose outlook never manages to make it much beyond the deck of a navy ship, claims that in the period of the Continental System, "Britain's economy was booming. The wheels of the Industrial Revolution were humming... War had given Britain the biggest economy... in the world" (To Rule the Waves, p. 413; compare p. 406). Possibly, if you just count total output. But ordinary people suffered.
For more background on the Continental System and its economic effects, see the notes to "The Ports Are Open." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: BrdGCUtR

Grand Coureur, Le

DESCRIPTION: French shanty. Verses tell of the Corsair, which sets out from L'Orient to hunt the English. She runs into bad weather, bad Englishmen, bad food. Finally sinks and the crew save themselves by floating on various unfloatable objects (guns, anchors, etc)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Hayet _Chansons de bord_)
LONG DESCRIPTION: French shanty. Verses tell of the Corsair, which sets out from L'Orient to hunt the English. She runs into bad weather, bad Englishmen, bad food. Finally sinks and the crew save themselves by floating on various unfloatable objects (guns, anchors, etc). Chorus: "Allons le gars, gai, gai! Allons les gars gaiment! / Let's go, lads, cheerily, cheerily, Let's go lads, so gaily!"
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty ship wreck
FOUND IN: France
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 422-424, "Le Grand Coureur" (2 texts, French & English, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 134-135, "Le Grand Coureur" (2 texts, French & English, 1 tune)
File: Hugi422

Grand Dissolving Views (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer, by a fireside, sees "a Grand Dissolving View" of poverty on one hand and of famous business men, authors, and monarchs. He hopes in the future rich may see the poor as brothers, and workhouses and prisons will be few.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: poverty death England nonballad political
FOUND IN:
Roud #V41824
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1394), "The Grand Dissolving Views ("While thinking of some past events at home the other night"), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Grand Dissolving Views (II)" (subject and form)
NOTES [133 words]: The first verses of "The Grand Dissolving Views" (I) and (II) are identical [causing Roud to lump them - RBW]; the second verses are almost identical in their portrayal of a poor family and they share one more verse comparing the fates of a swindler and poor thief. The question is "which is the original and which the derivative?" For a date, an 1875 broadside for another song lists "Grand Dissolving Views" as one of the newest songs (NLScotland, RB.m.143(144), "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls," The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1875).
The famous people cited include London investment banker George Peabody (1795-1869), writers Charles Dickens (1812-1870) and Robert Burns (1759-1796), heiress and philanthropist Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts (1814-1906), and Queen Victoria (1819-1901) - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BrdGDV1

Grand Dissolving Views (II), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer, by a fireside, sees "a Grand Dissolving View" of past events as -- a poor worker and his starving family, a swindler going free while a starving orphan goes to jail -- and Irish heroes who "died for love of country; it was an honourable crime"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: poverty death Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 30-32, "The Grand Dissolving views" (1 text)
Roud #V41824
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(35), "The Grand Dissolving Views" ("While thinking of some past events at home the other night"), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "By Memory Inspired" (subject and references there)
cf. "The Grand Dissolving Views (I)" (subject and form)
NOTES [307 words]: The first verses of "The Grand Dissolving Views" (I) and (II) are identical [causing Roud to lump them - RBW]; the second verses are almost identical in their portrayal of a poor family and they share one more verse comparing the fates of a swindler and poor thief. The question is "which is the original and which the derivative?" For a date, an 1875 broadside for another song lists "Grand Dissolving Views" as one of the newest songs (NLScotland, RB.m.143(144), "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls," The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1875).
The heroes cited often each have ballads of their own: executed Father Murphy ["Come All You Warriors," "Father Murphy (I)," "Some Treat of David," "Father Murphy (II) (The Wexford Men of '98)," "Boulavogue"], Robert Emmett ["Emmett's Grave"], Lord Edward ["Edward (III)"], Allen Larkin and O'Brien ["Allen, Larkin and O'Brien"], O'Connell ["Daniel O'Connell (I)," "Erin's King (Daniel Is No More)"), "Kerry Eagle"] and General Meagher ["The Escape of Meagher"]; I have found no song yet for United Irishmen John and Henry Sheares [see now "The Brothers John and Henry Sheares" - RBW], or 18th century orator and member of the Irish parliament Henry Grattan [as "Henry Grattin"] (source: "Henry Grattan" and "Shears Brothers" in 1798 Rebellion at the Rathregan National School site). - BS
Several histories I've read have notes about how Irish folklore magnifies some heroes, such as Wolfe Tone and Father Murphy, and ignores the Sheares brothers. The latter are at least mentioned in "The Tree of Liberty," plus the probably-not-traditional "The Brothers John and Henry Sheares." Gratton earns a brief comment in "Ireland's Liberty Tree," which is mostly about the parliament he built up.
I do think "The Grand Dissolving Views (I)" is the original; (II) looks very much like a local adaption. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BrdGDV2

Grand Falls Tragedy, The

DESCRIPTION: At 3 A.M. a flat-car, loaded with rocks, falls down an incline and crushes three workmen below. The dead workmen are named and their home told.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: death worker railroading
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 46, "The Grand Falls Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #30701
NOTES [97 words]: Grand Falls is on TC-1, south of Notre Dame Bay, along the old route of Newfoundland's trans-insular railway. - BS
There was a famous accident in 1907 known as "The Grand Falls Tragedy" which took place as a dam was being built. Despite the name, this song clearly refers to a separate incident (both the number and the names of the dead are different). Note that the song has no date and does not in fact mention Grand Falls. So all we have to go on is the name of the dead, and one of those is thought to be wrong! So far, I have not been able to identify the date and situation. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe046

Grand Hotel, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a place in Vancouver the loggers know well, It's a place where they keep rotgut whiskey to sell. They also keep boarders and keep them like hell, And the name of that place is the Grand Hotel."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949
KEYWORDS: logger drink
FOUND IN: Canada(West)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 180-181, "The Grand Hotel" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GRNDHOTL*
Roud #30932
RECORDINGS:
Stanley G. Triggs, "The Grand Hotel" (on Triggs1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "Farewell to Tarwathie" (tune)
NOTES [49 words]: The ship "Cassiar" (referred to in the third verse) was a coastal steamer whose special duty was to carry loggers back and forth from the camps to Vancouver for sprees.
The Digital Tradition lists this as having "Farewell to Tarwathie" as its tune. Most others list "Sweet Betsy." Both fit. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: FJ180

Grand Idaho

DESCRIPTION: "Kind providence our lot may case, And yet we have to choose at last, If you're inquiring where to go, Come down to southern Idaho." The trees yield abundantly. The rains come constantly. Workers are urged to supply brawn; they will be welcome
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Western Folklore 24, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: derivative home work farming emigration
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp 582-583, "Grand Idaho" (1 text)
Roud #19475
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beulah Land" (tune, form) and references there
File: CAFS2582

Grand Mystic Order, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams of his initiation into the Orange Institution. He must answer that Joshua took the Israelites unto the Promised Land. His conductor knocks in code on a door. The path through the door is dangerous and he passes other tests.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: mid-19C (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: dream ritual religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 97, "The Grand Mystic Order" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Brilliant Light" (subject and some phrases)
cf. "The Knight Templar's Dream" (subject)
cf. "The Grand Templar's Song" (subject and some phrases)
cf. "The Blackman's Dream" (subject)
NOTES [855 words]: "The Loyal Orange Institution was founded after the Battle of the Diamond [at Diamond Crossroads] on September 21, 1795. The 'skirmish' was between the Roman Catholic Defenders and the Protestants of the area.... At the beginning the membership was of the labouring and artisan classes.... In the Rebellion of 1798, the Orangemen were on the side of the Crown and had much to do with the defeat of the United Irishmen.... With the rebellion at an end the lodges were to be less fighting societies, and more political and fraternal clubs.... From 1815, the Institution had been seriously affected, by internal disputes. Many of them were about lodge ritual and the attempts to form higher orders." (source: The Orange Institution - The Early Years at Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland site.)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 302: The initiation songs "evoke Moses' rod, the crossing of the Red Sea or the Jordan, and strange wanderings in darkness, barefooted, among terrifying noises, to final illumination." - BS
For the Battle of the Diamond, see the notes to "The Battle of the Diamond," "Bold McDermott Roe," and "The Boys of Wexford." Songs about the Orange Order are too numerous to list.
The statement that the Orangemen were on the side of the British in 1798 is far too simplistic; most of the rebel leadership in 1798 was Protestant -- including Henry Munro (for whom see "General Monroe") and the Presbyterian Henry Joy McCracken (for whom see "Henry Joy McCracken (I)"), who ended up in command of the Ulster rising.
What is true is that the Protestants in Ulster generally did not rise in 1798. Kee, pp. 130-131, discusses at length the reasons for this. Probably most important was the fact that they had largely been disarmed in 1797, and they didn't have any remaining organization. And they had been led to expect French intervention, and had so far been disappointed.
Plus they had reason to fear their Catholic colleagues. The United Irishmen, with their Protestant leaders, had tried to "paper over" the split, but the Wexford rebellion, which was more spontaneous, had shown extremely sharp sectarian divisions (note especially the much-discussed atrocity at Scullabogue, for which see e.g. "Kelly, the Boy from Killane"). Had the Ulster Protestants still had a military organization, they might have joined the Catholics -- but they couldn't really take part as individual rebels. So they fell back on particularism and groups like the Orange Order.
Hence this song. Joshua was, of course, the leader of the Israelites after the death of Moses, who was responsible for the conquest of Palestine. Joshua also brought a new religion. He is an obvious symbol for any religious minority with militant intentions.
It's not really an accurate picture, we should point out. The Bible seems to portray Joshua as leading a small army to defeat much larger local forces (note, e.g., the reports of the spies of the great population of Palestine in Numbers 13:28-29, and the claim in Deuteronomy 7:1 that the nations of Canaan are "mightier and more numerous" than the Israelites)-- but if the census figures in Numbers are correct, the Israelites probably outnumbered the whole population of Palestine at the time. Numbers 26:51 says that the population of fighting men shortly prior to the entry into Canaan was 601,730 (implying that there were two million or more Israelites counting women and children). Such an army could defeat any local city-state foolish enough to send out a force to fight it.
At least three explanations for this discrepancy have been offered. One is that the Hebrew word for "thousand" is in fact used with a different meaning here -- that it should mean something like "squad," of perhaps a dozen men. So, e.g. the figure in Numbers 26, instead of being read 601,730, should be something like "six hundred (or perhaps "sixty") squads, one thousand seven hundred thirty men." This explains everything, but there is no evidence for it.
Another possibility is that the Exodus was not a single event: That either there were multiple invasions of Palestine, each by a smaller group, or that there was only one, but that several local tribes eventually came to be adopted as "Jewish." The simplest form of this hypothesis is that Joshua -- who was an Ephraemite -- led the "Joseph Tribes" of Ephraem and Mannasseh into central Palestine and gradually influenced the tribes around it (Cornfeld, pp. 73-74; Wright, pp. 77-78).
A more nuanced version is that Canaan was captured in small bits and pieces over many years, with relatively small armies involved in each conquest but a roll of all those who participated over the centuries giving rise to a very high total. This fits the archaeological record: Ai was destroyed around 2400, long before the Israelites came on the scene, and never reoccupied (Wright, p. 80), Jericho around 1400 and perhaps not reoccupied until much later (Kenyon, p. 189), other cities destroyed in the period up to 1200. Joshua could hardly have lived through this entire period, but wherever and whenever he was active, he may indeed have fought against the odds. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: Zimm097

Grand Old Duke of York, The

See The Noble Duke of York (File: FSWB390B)

Grand River, The

See Three Men Drowned (The Grand River) (File: Rick129)

Grand Roundup, The

See The Cowboy's Dream (File: R185)

Grand Saint Pierre, Ouvre Ta Porte (Great Saint Peter, Open Your Door)

DESCRIPTION: French. A Scottish sailor is at heaven's door. St Peter refuses him: sailors belong in Hell with the rest of the demons. If I let you in you will ruin paradise. The sailor says a Scottish sailor would wipe out the devils in Hell. St Peter lets him in.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage humorous religious talltale sailor Devil Hell
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 878, "Grand Saint Pierre, Ouvre Ta Porte" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Joseph Lemoine, "Grand Saint Pierre, Ouvre Ta Porte" (on PeacockCDROM)
File: Pea878

Grand Templar's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: Grand Templars will be led by Moses's staff and Aaron's rod "to the promised land of God." Moses saw the Burning Bush and became a pilgrim. Noah loved the Free Masons and built the first ship. The singer sees lights and the serpent and finds "the Secret"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: religious ritual
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 130, "The Grand Templar's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Grand Mystic Order" (subject and some phrases)
cf. "The Knight Templar's Dream" (subject)
cf. "The Brilliant Light" (subject)
cf. "Orange and Blue" (Masonic symbolism)
NOTES [224 words]: The images in Tunney-StoneFiddle seem confused but become clearer when compared with other Masonic songs. For example, the line "The serpent passed me by, I bent unto the ground" are, in "The Brilliant Light" dream sequence: "I cast it [Aaron's rod] on the ground and a serpent it became When he ordered me right courteously to lift it up again. I stooped and it spit fire ... I done as those words commanded and took it by the tail." The burning bush and travels of Moses are themes shared with "The Grand Mystic Order." These images are also in "The Knight Templar's Dream." What seems to have been lost in Tunney-StoneFiddle is a first verse explaining that the images are part of a dream and an indication that Masonic rituals are being described. - BS
The story of Aaron's staff that became a serpent is told in Exodus 7:8fff., I wonder, though, if the reference here isn't to Numbers 21:6fff., where God sends serpents ("fiery serpents," in the King James Bible, though the translation is somewhat uncertain). The Burning Bush is in Exodus 3. The story of Noah is in Genesis 6:9-9:29; nowhere does it state that Noah built the first ship.
The Freemasons -- who hallucinated that their craft went back to the building of Solomon's Temple -- did see themselves as having a link with the Templars, so the title of this is no great surprise. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: TSF130

Grandawill

DESCRIPTION: Grandawill is doing a chore (churning butter/washing the floor). A man (sailor/soldier) makes a pass. He takes her by the middle and lays her on the floor/grass. Something noteworthy happens (e.g., the wind of her arse blows open the door)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 183, "Grandawill" (1 text)
Roud #15529
NOTES [120 words]: Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2: "... 'The Witty Shepherd' (Madden 21.281) ... contains the lines: 'He laid the maiden down on the barn floor, / And the wind of her a..e blew open the door." Lyle may be referring to a version of broadside Bodleian, Harding B 25(2094), "Witty Shepherd" ("A shepherd kept sheep on a hill so high"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829, which has the lines "Then he set this fair maid down on the green ground, / And he made her believe the world it went round." In any case, the broadside plot -- the shepherd, in disguise, meets the pregnant girl again and claims he never heard of her lover (he had given her a false name) -- does not fit Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 183. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2183

Granddaddy Is Dead

See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Grandfather Bryan

DESCRIPTION: Grandfather Bryan dies on St Patrick's day. The singer lists the worthless items he inherits: cloth-leather britches, broomstick with the head of a rake, blanket of cloth patches, a key with no lock .... "I'm fixed in grand style for the winter."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: death humorous nonballad lastwill
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 121, "Grandfather Brian" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 55-56, "Grandfather Bryan" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, pp. 83-84, "Grandfather Bryan" (1 text)
Roud #17696
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.15(113), "My Grandfather Brian", unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 19(41), "My Grandfather Brian"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maurice Crotty" (tune)
cf. "My Father Died a Month Ago" (theme) and references there
NOTES [78 words]: The first verse of O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland has lines close to first verse lines of Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 155, "My father died a month ago" (" ... died ... And left me all his riches ... And a pair of leather breeches"); the themes are identical (earliest date in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes is 1894). - BS
A similar item occurs in Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 172, "(My father died a month ago)." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Pea055

Grandfather's Clock

DESCRIPTION: A description of the relations between grandfather and clock. The clock ran for the entire length of the old man's life, celebrating happy occasions and never complaining. "But it stopp'd -- short -- never to go again When the old man died."
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (sheet music published by C. M. Cady of New York)
KEYWORDS: technology family nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work, pp. 177-180, Grandfather's Clock" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 72, pp. 94-96, "Grandfather's Clock" (2 texts plus 2 fragments)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 219-220, "Grandfather's Clock" (2 texts)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 76-79, "Grandfather's Clock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 124-125, "My Grandfather's Clock" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 67-68, "Grandfather's Clock" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 176-179, "Grandfather's Clock" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #116, "Grandfather's Clock" (1 text)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 9, "Grandfather's Clock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 251, "Grandfather's Clock" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 250, 314, "My Grandfather's Clock" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 63, "My Grandfather's Clock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 17, "Grandfather's Clock" (1 text)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 56, "Grandfather's Clock" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, pp. 10-11, "Grandfather's Clock" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GRANCLOK*
ADDITIONAL: Martin Gardner, editor, _Famous Poems from Bygone Days_, Dover, 1995, pp. 168-169, "Grandfather's Clock" (1 text)
ST RJ19076 (Full)
Roud #4326
RECORDINGS:
Patricia Campbell, "Grandfather's Clock" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #497, recorded 02/23/2023, with a telephone call in the background)
Carolina Buddys, "Grandfather's Clock" (Decca 5142, 1935)
[?] Clark & [Walter] Scanlan, "Grandfather's Clock" (Edison 50979, 1922)
Judy Cook, "Grandfather’s Clock" (Piotr-Archive #255, recorded 09/13/2022)
Frank Crumit, "Grandfather's Clock" (Victor 19945, 1926)
Mrs. B. H. Cutler, "Grandfather’s Clock" (Piotr-Archive #221, recorded 08/29/2022)
Edison Male Quartette, "Grandfather's Clock" (CYL: Edison 8967, 1905)
Chubby Parker, "Grandfather's Clock" (Supertone 9732, 1930)
Tom & Roy, "Grandfather's Clock, Part 1/Part 2" (Montgomery Ward M-4242, 1933)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "His Grandfather's Hat" (tune, form)
SAME TUNE:
My Grandfather' Cock (File: EM270)
My Grandfather's Socks (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 250)
NOTES [960 words]: Soon after the Civil War, Henry Clay Work retired from songwriting (presumably because of the poor pay). In 1871, however, the Chicago fire burned down the offices of Root and Cady (the publishing firm). George F. Root wrote of this, "Our presses had been at work all summer, and great piles of books filled the basement of the main building, ready for the fall trade. They would all be gone in a few weeks, so we did not take out a special insurance upon them, but assumed the risk for that short time ourselves" (Root, pp. 152-153). Most of Root & Cady's printing plates, and their account books, survived (Root, p. 155). But all the stock was destroyed, and even though Root & Cady sold off the plates and copyrights (the sheet music and copyrights going to S. Brainerd's Sons, Cleveland), it wasn't enough; Root & Cady was through, and "Mr. Cady left the city" (Root, p. 157), while Root's own family formed "Geo. F. Root & Sons" in connection with John Church & Co. (which had bought other copyrights).
With his catalogue gone and Root, his internal source of music, having gone his own way, Chauncy M. Cady asked his friend Work to write some songs to help him re-establish his business.
One of the songs Work turned in was "Grandfather's Clock," which had been gathering dust in his files for some years. The song sold some 800,000 copies, and earned Work about $4,000 in royalties (at that time, easily enough to retire on). He dedicated it "To my Sister Lizzie."
Of course, it helped that it was heavily promoted. According to Gardner, p. x, "The first song to be nationally promoted through an ad campaign was 'Grandfather's Clock' in 1876."
Folklore has it that, until this song was published, floor clocks were just "floor clocks" or "tall clocks." Since then, they have been known as "Grandfather clocks." This strikes me as more reasonable than many folk derivations, but I cannot verify this from any of my linguistic sources. Partridge, p. 116, says only that the term is from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.
Incidentally, there are famous instances of something rather like this actually happening, though I doubt it inspired Work's song. One story is of the famous Captain Cook and his final voyage of exploration. One of the reasons Cook was such a great explorer was that he was among the first officers to actually be able to tell longitude; in recent decades, enough astronomical data had been gathered to make it possible to navigate by the stars -- plus the chronometer (the first timepieces accurate enough to tell time while at sea) had been invented.
True chronometers were still very rare in Cook's time, since they had to be hand-made with incredible accuracy. John Harrison (1693-1776) had invented the device and built a handful; Larcum Kendall had made a handful in imitation of Harrison. Kendall's first machine, known as K-1, was used by Cook on his voyages. And, according to Sobel, p, 151, "Almost at the instant the captain died in 1779, according to an account kept at the time, K-1 also stopped ticking."
Opie/Tatem, p. 84, tells a tale of the clock at the House of Lords, which should have been wound up, stopping when George III died. They also mention a comment in Notes & Querries, 1864, in which nurses said it was a common occurrence for a clock to stop when someone died. Opie/Tatem have several more references to this type of thing, but all are more recent than the song.
Cameron, p. 11, has a story about a British-made town clock in the town of Hillsboroufh, North Carolina, which was very old and, by the time of World War I, had ceased to sound. But it was reported that it suddenly started striking for several minutes. The next day came word of a British victory during the previous day. But since this was after Work was dead, it can hardly have influenced this song! The question is whether the song influenced the story. I suspect it might have. - RBW
Parodies of this piece have been common. Paul Stamler tells us of "His Grandfather's Hat," which likely will not make it into this collection: "'His Grandfather's Hat' is a parody of 'Grandfather's Clock,' referring to candidate Benjamin Harrison [elected in 1888, but defeated in 1892], grandson of President William Henry Harrison: 'His grandfather's hat is too big for his head/But Ben puts it on just the same.'" - PJS, RBW
Not all the parodies were political; Finson, pp. 132-133, reports, "Work's vision of the clock as a human servant generated parodies numbering 'upwards of twoscore,' according to Birdseye, who exaggerated little in this case. Alice Dale and George W. Morgan copied Work's song immediately in 'Grandmother's Clock' (1876) which also provides companionship (she talks to the machine throughout) and dies with its owner. B. M. McWilliams came very close to plagiarism in 'The Clock That Struck When Grandpa Died' (1880). And Work himself tried to capitalize on his success with 'Sequel to "Grandfather's Clock"' (1878), in which a relative returns to the old man's house and watches the useless machine chopped up for kindling."
Finson, p. 126, notes that there had been a number of earlier clock songs, often lamenting aging and the passage of time, which (like this song) imitated clock noises. So Work was imitating a popular genre -- but transformed and totally transcended it; those other songs all seem forgotten.
Finson, p. 215, says that the song was popularized by Sam Lucas: "Lucas (1848-1916), born of former slaves in Fayette County, Virginia, enjoyed one of the most distinguished careers on stage of any nineteenth-century entertainer, at first as a member of the Original Georgia Minstrels (an all-black troupe which also include [James] Bland) and later in reviews, plays, and vaudeville." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: RJ19076

Grandfather's Story

DESCRIPTION: When children ask for a story, grandfather tells the sad tale of James Tenny and Nancy Foes, who grow up and fall in love in the woods. He goes out hunting, and is long delayed. She goes out to seek him, and dies in the snow. He finds her on his return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: love death separation hunting
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 217-219, "Grandfather's Story" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9059
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "After the Ball" (theme)
NOTES [22 words]: The mechanism of this reminds me rather strongly of "After the Ball." I wonder if it wasn't written in imitation of that song. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet217

Grandfather's Whiskers

See Father's Whiskers (File: FSWB241A)

Grandma Gruff

See Boys Can Whistle, Girls Can Sing (File: PHCFS073)

Grandma Grunts

See Boys Can Whistle, Girls Can Sing (File: PHCFS073)

Grandma Would Have Died an Old Maid

See Grandma's Advice (File: R101)

Grandma, Grandma Grey

See Grandmother Gray (File: BAAI149B)

Grandma's Advice

DESCRIPTION: The girl is cautioned by her grandmother to be cautious of boys. "They will flatter you and cunningly deceive." But the girl, courted by Johnny Green and Ellis Grove, thinks "If the girls... had been afraid / Grandma herself would have been an old maid"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (The Lover's Harmony); supposedly also The [Winchester] Virginia Sentinal and Gazette, March 2, 1795
KEYWORDS: courting youth
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All)) Canada(Mar) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (31 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 74, "Grandma's Advice" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 173)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 56-57, "Granny's Advice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 45, "My Grandma Lives on Winson Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 101, "Grandmaw's Advice" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 138, "Little Johnny Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 157, "My Grandmother Lived on Yonder Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 13, pp. 21-22, "Little Johnnie Green" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 194, "Grandma's Advice" (1 text plus a fragment and mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 194, "Grandma's Advice" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #194, "Little Johnny Green" (2 short texts)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #83, "Grandma Would Have Died an Old Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 374-375, "Die an Old Maid" (2 texts, with local titles "My Grandmother Lived on Yonder Little Green," (no title); 1 tune on p. 457)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 44, "Grandma's Advice" (2 texts plus mention of 2 more)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 243-245, "My Grandmother Lived on Yonder Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 405-406, "(no title)" (1 text)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 36, "Grandma's Advice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 90-91, "Grandma's Advice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 157, "Little Johnny Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 159-160, "My Grandmother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H208, p. 258, "Grandma's Advice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 79, "My Grandma's Advice" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 161, "Little Johnny Green" (1 text)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #26, pp. 101-102, "Grandma" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 38-39, "My Grandma..." (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 46, "My Grandmother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #2/72, p. 15 and #2/64, p. 15, "My Grandmother's Advice" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1506, p. 103, "My Grand-Mother's Advice" (1 reference)
Heart-Songs, pp. 302-303, "My Grandma's Advice" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 480, "Little Johnny Green" (source notes only)
DT, GRANYADV*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 209, "Grandmaw's Advice" (1 text)
ST R101 (Full)
Roud #282
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Wolf, "Grandmama's Advice" (on USWarnerColl01)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1857 610450, "My Grandma's Advice," Horace Waters (New York), 1857; also sm1885 04362, "My Grandma's Advice" (tune)
LOCSinging, sb30329a, "My Grand-Mother's Advice," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also as104760, "Grand-Ma's Lesson"; as109120, "My Grand-Mother's Advice!"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Birken Tree"
cf. "She Loves Coffee and I Love Tea" (floating lyrics)
cf. "No, My Child" (theme)
NOTES [33 words]: Broadside LOCSinging sb30329a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R101

Grandma's Song (Memories of 1846)

See O! They Marched Through the Town (The Captain with His Whiskers) (File: Wa069)

Grandmaw's Advice

See Grandma's Advice (File: R101)

Grandmere

See Old Grandma (File: FJ094)

Grandmother Gray

DESCRIPTION: "Grandmother Gray (Granny Grey, etc.), Let's go out to play, I won't go near the water To hunt the ducks away. I let the baby fall Over the garden wall. My mother came out And gave me a clout...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: mother baby bird punishment injury | grandmother
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 149-150, "Old Granny Grey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 34, "(Grandma, Grandma Grey)" (1 text)
Roud #12730
File: BAAI149B

Grandmother's Chair

DESCRIPTION: After the singer's grandmother died, her will was found to grant large sums to several siblings, but to the singer, only granny's old armchair. He is far from content, but takes the chair home -- and eventually discovers a fortune hidden inside
AUTHOR: Probably Eliza Cook (words) and Henry Russell (tune) (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (broadside, LOCSheet, sm1880 02996)
KEYWORDS: money death hiding
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 705, "Grandmother's Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 658, "Old Armchair" (1 text)
Randolph 467, "Granny's Old Arm Chair" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 360-362, "Granny's Old Armchair" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 467A)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 70, "Old Arm Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 668, "The Old Armchair" (1 short text (an excerpt?), 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 100, "My Grandmother's Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 72-75, "Granny's Old Arm Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 258-259, "My Grandmother's Old Armchair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 373-374, "Grandmother's Old Armchair" (1 text; tune on p. 457)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 123-125,252, "The Old Arm Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 204-206, "The Arm Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R467 (Partial)
Roud #1195
RECORDINGS:
[Clarence] Ashley & [Gwen] Foster, "The Old Arm Chair" (Vocalion 02647, 1934)
Daisy Chapman, "My Grannie's Old Armchair" (on SCDChapman01)
Crockett's Kentucky Mountaineers, "Granny's Old Arm Chair" (Crown 3188 [as Johnny Crockett & Trio]/Montgomery Ward M-3026 [as Harlan Miners Fiddlers]/Paramount 3277/Varsity 5078, all c. 1931)
Frank Crumit, "Granny's Old Arm-Chair" (HMV [UK] B-4059, 1932)
Pete Daley's Arkansas Fiddlers, "Granny's Old Armchair" (Varsity 5078, n.d.)
Charlie Parker & Mack Woolbright, "The Old Arm Chair" (Columbia 15694-D, 1931; rec. 1927)
Williamson Bros. & Curry, "The Old Arm Chair" (OKeh 45146, 1927)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(4a/b) View 3 of 8, "Grandmother's Chair" ("My grandmother she at the age eighty-three"), R. March and Co. (London), 1877-1884; also Harding B 20(62), "Grandmother's Old Arm-chair"
LOCSheet, sm1880 02996, "Grandma's Old Arm-chair", White, Smith & Co (Boston), 1880 (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Old Arm Chair
NOTES [599 words]: Warner notes that this piece was printed twice in 1880 -- once, under the title "Grandmother's Chair," credited to John Read (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong gives the name as "Reed"), and the other, "Grandma's/Granny's Old Arm Chair," attributed to Frank B. Carr. No definitive information about the author has been forthcoming.
Cohen, however, notes sheet music from 1841, credited to Eliza Cook (words) and William Clifton (music), but cites Spaeth to the effect that it was composed by Henry Russell (credited with singing it in the Cook/Clifton printing) in 1840.
The attribution to Cook and Russell is also found in Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 113. I should add that it makes sense, because Eliza Cook was a fairly well-known poet and Russell a popular composer (responsible for more than a dozen songs in the Index, the most popular probably being "Woodman, Spare That Tree."). Of Cook, Finson says, "Cook (1818-1889) was a British poet of no small reputation. Daughter of a tradesman, she taught herself letters, and she wrote for the Weekly Dispatch and the New Monthly for years."
Scarborough claims that it is of "British origin," but cites no evidence -- but of course the description would fit Eliza Cook.
For background on Henry Russell, see "Cheer, Boys, Cheer (II)."
We also know that Cook and Russell collaborated on other songs.
Since John H. Warland and T. Bissell published "A Reply to the Old Arm Chair" around 1841 (FInson, p. 115), I think the attribution to Cook and Russell fairly sound. - RBW
See one version of "Grandma's Old Arm-Chair" [Sheet Music: digital id sm1880 02996], published in Boston in 1880, attributed to Frank B Carr, at the Library of Congress American Memory site.
There are three versions of an entirely different song as "The Old Arm Chair" beginning "I love it, I love it, and who shall dare, To chide me for loving that old arm chair." This is probably the Cohen reference since the words are attributed to Eliza Cook in two cases and the music is attributed to William Clifton and sung by Henry Russell ([Sheet Music: digital id sm1841 380380], published in New York in 1841), music attributed to Henry Russell ([Sheet Music: digital id sm1840 370920], published in Boston in 1840) and with no music attribution ([Sheet Music: digital id sm1842 381990], published in Baltimore in 1842); all three are at the Library of Congress American Memory site. This is also the song in three "[The] Old Arm[-/ ]Chair" broadsides [America Singing: digital id as110050/sb30397a/as110060] at the Library of Congress American Memory site.
[I concur with Ben in this; "The Old Armchair" can also be found in Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 90-91, and is a different song.]
As to Frank B Carr, here is a note from John Hill in the DigiTrad discussion of "Fields of Athenry": "Finding the published song isn't always the end of the story. Someone recently asked if I could find the words to 'Granny's old arm chair'. I found them in the collection of the Library of Congress. Written by Frank B. Carr 'America's Motto vocalist' (whatever that was) published in 1880 in Boston. Then about 3 weeks later (by accident) I found the same song in the same collection written by John Reid. pub 1881 Boston. There were other songs by John Reid but no other by Frank B. Carr. So was the later Publication the real writer and maybe the earlier one only the performer (Although he claimed to be the writer) What was odd was they were both published in the same town... " - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R467

Grandmother's Old Armchair

See Grandmother's Chair (File: R467)

Grandpa's Whiskers

See Father's Whiskers (File: FSWB241A)

Grandy Needles

DESCRIPTION: "Grandy Needles, Grandy Needles, set, bump set! Through the long lobby we go, we go." Thread grandmother's needle. Open the gates for King George and his lady. It is too dark to see how to thread grandmother's needle.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Partridge)
KEYWORDS: playparty royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South)) West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 2, "Grandy Needles" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: J.B. Partridge, "The Game of 'Thread the Needle' and Custom of Church Clipping" in Folklore, Vol. XXIII, No. 2 (Jun 1912 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 200 ("Grandy needles, thread your needles - set! set! set!") (1 text)
J.B. Partridge, "Cotswold Place-Lore and Customs (Continued") in Folklore, Vol. XXIII, No. 4 (Dec 1912 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 446 ("Thread the needle to begin") (1 text, 1 tune)
Martha Warren Beckwith and Helen Roberts, _Folk-Games of Jamaica_ (Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1922 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #31 pp. 38-39, "Thread the Needle" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Marjorie Rowling, _The Folklore of the Lake District_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 114, "(Grandy Needles, Grandy Needles, set, bump set") (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Thread the Needle" (game) and references there
NOTES [28 words]: The "Grandy needles, thread your needles ..." text from Partridge is associated with a "Thread the Needle" game played until about 1860 in Cumbria on Easter Tuesday. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: OpGa002

Granemore Hare, The

DESCRIPTION: The boys from Maydown hunt a hare. The hare sings about the the strategy of the chase and how she has been trapped by the dogs. Dying, she blames McMahon for bringing Coyle and his dogs, changing the way the hunt had been carried out all these years.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: death hunting animal dog
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 42, "The Granemore Hare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2883
RECORDINGS:
Patsy Flynn, "The Grangemore Hare" (on IRHardySons)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hare of Kilgrain" (theme: fatal hare hunt)
cf. "The Innocent Hare" (theme: fatal hare hunt)
cf. "The White Hare" (theme: fatal hare hunt)
NOTES [8 words]: Granemore and Maytown are in County Armagh. - BS
File: MorU042

Granfa' Grig Had a Pig

DESCRIPTION: "Granfa' Grig Had a pit In a field of clover; Pittie died, Granfa' cried, And all the fun was over."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Notes & Querries, according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: animal death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 191, "Granfa' Grig" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 50, "(Granda Grig had a pig)" (1 short text)
Roud #20647
File: OO2191

Granger

DESCRIPTION: "I wish I was a granger, and with the granger band, With a haystack on my shoulder And a pitchfork in my hand." Chorus is dance instructions. Similarly, "I wish I was a cowboy." "I want to be a preacher." "I want to be a farmer." "I want to be a rich man"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Botkin, The American Play-Party Song)
KEYWORDS: playparty farming work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 106-108, "Granger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7913
File: Spurg106

Granite Mill Fire, The

DESCRIPTION: "May God, the great Creator With wisdom me provide, Guide and direct my pencil, These few lines to inscribe." The singer tells the tragic scenes of the fire, such as workers leaping to their deaths. He tells others to plan their work better
AUTHOR: A. W. Harmon (according to the broadside)
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (New Green Mountain Songster); probably published c. 1874
KEYWORDS: fire death disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 19, 1874 - Burning of the Granite Mill in Fall River, Massachusetts. The tragedy, in which 20 died, three disappeared, and 36 were injured, was aggravated by the failure to sound a fire alarm for twenty minutes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 57-58, "The Granite Mill Fire" (1 text plus a print of a broadside)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Burning of the Granite Mill" [Laws G13] (subject)
NOTES [16 words]: A. W. Harmon is also credited with "The Capture of William Wood by the Blackfoot Indians." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: CAFS1057

Granite Mill, The

See The Burning of the Granite Mill [Laws G13] (File: LG13)

Grannie Gair

DESCRIPTION: "Lang lang syne I lo'ed a lassie, Lo'ed a lassie young and fair; Then her name was Jeannie Cassie, Noo she's kent as Grannie Gair"
AUTHOR: J Imray (source: Greig/Duncan4)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: age love
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 740, "Grannie Gair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6172
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4740

Granny and the Golden Ball

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Granny Hatchett

See Who Goes Round? (Granny Hatchett) (File: SKea031)

Granny in the Kitchen

DESCRIPTION: "As I/Granny in the kitchen, Doing a bit of stitching, In came a bogey man, And I walked out. I saw a lark Shining in the dark."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: clothes bird | grandmother bogey
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland) US(Ap,SW) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #22, "As I was in the kitchen" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 22, "(Polly in the kitchen)" (1 text)
Roud #19244
File: AJRR022

Granny Will Your Dog Bite?

DESCRIPTION: "Chicken in the bread tray, Scratching out the dough, (Granny/Auntie) will your dog bite? No, chile, no." Other verses may also be about chickens or involve questions: "Auntie, will your oven bake?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: bird chickens food nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 158, "Chicken in the Bread Tray" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 158, "Chicken in the Bread Tray" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 181, "Chicken in the Bread Trough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 194, (no title) (1 short text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 109, "Chicken in the Bread Tray" (1 short text)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 226, "Children's Quatrains" ("Chicken in de' bread tray") (1 short text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Joseph D. Clarke, "Burke Davis as Folklorist," Vol. XIX, No. 2 (Mar 1971), p. 63, "(Folk Song)" (5 stanzas, probably representing multiple songs, beginning "Mamma pass the corn bread," "Chicken in the bread tray," "Oh, Nellie had a pair of shoes," "Ye living men come view the ground," "Eat the meat, gnaw the bone,"; the second is from "Granny Will Your Dog Bite?"; we file the first as "Mama Pass the Corn Bread" and the third as "Barefoot Nellie"; the last two are too short to file)
Roud #6389
RECORDINGS:
Floyd County Ramblers, "Granny, Will Your Dog Bite?" (Victor V-23759, 1930/Timely Tunes 1561)
File: Br3158

Granny, Granny, I Am Ill

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

Granny, Granny, I Am Sick

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

Granny's Advice

See Grandma's Advice (File: R101)

Granny's Old Arm Chair

See Grandmother's Chair (File: R467)

Granny's Old Armchair

See Grandmother's Chair (File: R467)

Granua's Lament for the Loss of her Blackbird Mitchel the Irish Patriot

DESCRIPTION: Granua sings "My Blackbird's banished to a foreign isle ... John Mitchel brave is my Blackbird's name," tried with Reilly and Meagher and sentenced by Baron Lefroy to be transported for 14 years. O'Connell died in '47. Mitchel was transported in '48
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1848 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: transportation trial Ireland patriotic bird lament
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 27, 1848 - Judge Thomas Lefroy sentences John Mitchel (source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 60, "Granua's Lament for the Loss of her Blackbird Mitchel the Irish Patriot" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 372-373, 372-373, "Granua's Lament for the Loss of Her Blackbird Mitchel" (2 texts, with a tune on p. 595)
Roud #V4933
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(389), "The Blackbird" ("Come all you Irishmen both great and small"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also 2806 b.10(56), "The Blackbird"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Mitchel" (subject: John Mitchel)
NOTES [67 words]: From National Library of Scotland commentary on broadside NLScotland RB.m.143(013), "Shiel's Rights of Man": "Granua (also spelt Grainne). The daughter of the mythical Irish warrior and folk hero, Finn McCool, Granua is also used as a symbol for Ireland - much like the figure of Britannia is employed as a symbol for Great Britain." - BS
For background on Mitchel, see the notes to "John Mitchel." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Zimm060

Granuaile

DESCRIPTION: "Poor Old Granuaile," bound in chains, in deep distress, mourns the loss of the old heroes and avengers. Dan O'Connell says "I have got the bill to fulfil your wishes.... Her voice so clear fell on my ear"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: Ireland patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 3, "Granuaile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 33-34, "A New Song Called Granuaile" (1 text, probably this though printed without stanza divisions)
Roud #3034
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Granuwale" (theme)
cf. "Old Granny Wales (Granny O'Whale, Granua Weal)" (subject of Granuaile)
cf. "Sheila Nee Iyer" (aisling format)
cf. "Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce hi (For Ireland I Will Not Tell Whom She Is)" (aisling format)
cf. "Eileen McMahon" (aisling format)
cf. "Erin's Green Shore" [Laws Q27] (aisling format)
cf. "Erin's Lament for her Davitt Asthore" (aisling format)
cf. "Poor Old Granuaile" (aisling format)
cf. "The Rights of Man" (aisling format)
cf. "The Cailin Deas" (theme; also the aisling format)
cf. "The Blackbird of Avondale" or "The Arrest of Parnell" (theme)
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
NOTES [785 words]: Two similar but different broadsides:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(25), "Granauile" ("One morning fair to take the air and recreate my mind"), J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 507A, "Granawail" ("[Come] all you Irish hero's that's craving for liberty"), E. Hodges (London), 1855-1861
"Granuaile O'Malley (Or Grace O'Malley, or Gráinne Ni Mhaille or Gráinne Uaile) is among the most illustrious of O'Malley ancestors. She was a 'Sea Queen' and pirate in the 16th century." (Source: The Official Web Site of The O'Malley Clan Association)
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Granuaile" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001))
Harte: "The older Gaelic poets when they wished to write on the wrongs that Ireland has suffered at the hands of the English since the invasion of Ireland in 1169, they often adopted the type of poem called 'The Aisling'." He goes on to describe the 'aisling' and shows that Granuaile is typical of the pattern. - BS
Power associates the aisling in particular with Aodhagan O Rathaille (c. 1670-c. 1730), and notes on p. 97 that "If any form of verse can be described as typically 18th century, then the aisling deserves this title. Essentially, the aisling means vision and the poetry... known as 'aislings' are essentially vision poems. The first poems of this kind appeared during the end of the 16th century."
By the eighteenth century, he adds, a formula had been fixed: "The poet goes out walking and meets a beautiful lady. He then describes her dress and appearance and asks her who she is. She is generally the personification of Ireland and she promises early deliverance from the foreign yoke and the return of the Stuarts to the English throne.... Aisling-poetry was always closely connected with the Jacobite movement and is mainly escapist in mode. It often abounds in classical allusions."
Power would technically deny this song Aisling-hood, since the "last aislings were written in the early 19th century and even still referred to the Stuart prince." The references to Daniel O'Connell obviously changes the picture, but the form fits -- this might be called a neo-aisling. Especially since it's in English.
Granuaile seems to have inspired a whole family of these neo-aislings, in fact -- enough that it might be called a sub-genre at least. See "The Rights of Man" and "Poor Old Granuaile," ; compare also "Erin's Green Shore" [Laws Q27] and "Erin's Lament for her Davitt Asthore."
For more on aislings, see Ben Schwartz's note to "Eileen McMahon."
OxfordCompanion, p. 410, gives Granuaile O'Malley's dates as c. 1530-c. 1603 (making her an almost exact contemporary of Elizabeth I), observes that she was married twice and imprisoned 1577-1579 -- and notes that, on the whole, she strove for peaceful relations with the English. In 1593, when in England, she supposedly met Queen Elizabeth, although no details of this meeting survive (Chambers, pp. 142-143).
Boylan, pp. 302-303, listing for Grace O'Malley, gives her dates as c. 1530-c. 1600 and says she was "Called Gráinne Umhaill or 'Granuaile' from her family's territories. (The popular form 'Gráinne Mhaol', with its meaning of 'bald' or cropped', is erroneous." Boylan gives a few other details, e.g. of her capture by Sir Richard Bingham and her release on payment by her son-in-law Richard Burke, but admits that most of what is recorded about her comes from tradition rather than valid history.
Her name seems to have been unusually popular in Newfoundland. StoryKirwinWiddowson, supplement, p. 695, has this entry: "gruanuail n also granua uile, graunyer whale. FOr a summary discussion of the allusion to Grace O'Malley (1530?-16--?), queen of the O'Malleys of Connaught whose proper name in Irish was Grainne Ni Mhaille, Grania Uaile in the popular form, and the shirt to the later personification, see G. M. Story, 'A Tune beyond Us as We Are," N[ewfoundland] Studies iv, p. 134-5, and for further oral variant granny whale, cp George Borrow, Wild Wales (1862), Ch. 25. In ballad usage: Ireland, Hibernia, freq old graunuail." They offer citations back to 1835.
Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847) was an Irish patriot who worked vigorously for Catholic freedom. He did not take part in the 1798 rebellion, but promoted Irish and Catholic rights for many years, and in 1829 saw Britain lift the ban on Catholics in parliament. One of the greatest of the peaceful Irish leaders, his tragedy is that eventually neither side trusted him. For more about his history, see the various songs named for him. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: OLoc003

Granuwale

DESCRIPTION: Granuale "the distress of Erin she sorely lamented." Irish men had fought for old England but England, in turn, "oppressed poor old Granuale." She hopes for help in "some strange nation" but mourns the loss of the green Linnet banished to St Helena
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: first half 19C (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Ireland patriotic Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo, after which Napoleon seeks sanctuary with the British and ends up exiled on St. Helena
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 29, "The New Granuwale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 204, "The New Granuwale" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Green Shore" [Laws Q27] (theme)
cf. "Poor Old Granuaile" (theme)
cf. "Granuaile" (theme)
cf. "Erin's Lament for her Davitt Asthore" (theme)
cf. "The Blackbird of Avondale" or "The Arrest of Parnell" (theme)
NOTES [100 words]: Granuaile is sometimes a standin for Ireland.
"Granuaile O'Malley (Or Grace O'Malley, or Grainne Ni Mhaille or Grainne Uaile) is among the most illustrious of O'Malley ancestors. She was a 'Sea Queen' and pirate in the 16th century." (Source: The Official Web Site of The O'Malley Clan Association)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 55: "At the time of the United Irishmen, Granu Waile standing for Ireland was already celebrated by broadsides in English."
For another example of Napoleon as the Green Linnet see "The Green Linnet" - BS
For more on Grace O'Malley, see the notes to "Granuaile." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Zimm029

Grapes in May

See Gathering Nuts in May (File: R561)

Grass of Uncle Sam, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come, people of the Eastern towns, It's little that you know About the Western prairies" where beef is grown and horses run wild "on the grass of Uncle Sam." The singer describes cowboy life, both when on the range and when in town
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Miles City, Montana Stock Growers' Journal, credited to "M.C.")
KEYWORDS: cowboy travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 101-105, "The Grass of Uncle Sam" (2 texts, 1 tune, plus various excerpts and a history of the song)
Roud #11313
File: JIWGA101

Grasshopper and a Fly, A

DESCRIPTION: A grasshopper and a fly argue about priority. The fly claims a royal father. Grasshopper responds, "But your mother was a Turd." "Rebel Jemmy Scot, That did to Empire soar, His Father might be the Lord knows what But his mother we knew was a whore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1719 (_Pills to Purge Melancholy_)
KEYWORDS: nonballad political bastard royalty bug
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 304, "The Fly and the Grasshopper" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 369)
ADDITIONAL: Wit and Mirth, or, Pills to Purge Melancholy (London, 1719 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, pp. 275-277, "An Allegory" ("A grasshopper, and a Fly") (1 text, 1 tune)
John Stephen Farmer, editor, Merry Songs and Ballads, Prior to the Year 1800 (1897 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol III, pp. 212-213, "A Grasshopper and a Fly" (1 text)
Roud #1326
NOTES [254 words]: According to WitandMirth:"set to Musick by Mr Henry Purcell [c.1659-1695]."
The Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text is complete enough to not be considered a fragment but it cleans up the text ("And, let thy father be what he will, Thy mother was never a king [sic]" instead of "Your Father might be of high Degree, But your Mother was but a Turd") and altogether omits the chorus referring to "Rebel Jemmy Scot." In the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text the political symbols are changed, if they survive at all, and the fly returns the grasshopper's insult by saying, "And let thy mother be what she will, Thy father sprang from a frog"; there is no such comeback in the older text and it is not clear whom the grasshopper is meant to represent.
This is apparently about James, Duke of Monmouth (1649-1685), contender for the crown, whose mother was Lucy Walter, mistress of Charles II. Fraser writes, "Lucy Walter was not a whore. But she did belong to that restless and inevitably light-moralled generations of young ladies who grew up in the untrallelled times of the Civil War.... Charles himself never questioned Monmouth's parentage. He assumed responsibility for the child from his birth and was inclined rather to remove him from his unsuitable mother's care than to consign him to a limbo of doubtful bastardy" (source: Antonia Fraser, Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration (New York, 1979), p. 64-65). - BS
For a bit more about Monmouth, see the notes on "The Battle of the Boyne (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT304A

Grasshoppers Three

DESCRIPTION: Round. "Grasshoppers three a-fiddling went Hey! Ho! Never be still, They paid no money toward their rent But all day long with elbow bent, They fiddled a tune called rillaby, rillaby Fiddled a tune called rillaby rill."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Tobitt)
KEYWORDS: bug music nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 437, "Grasshoppers Three" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 33, "Grasshoppers Three" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Grasshoppers Three" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 15)
File: ACSF437G

Grassy Islands

DESCRIPTION: "I'm gwine away to leave you, O-o-o-o-o! I'm gwine away to the grassy islands, O-o-o-o-o!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: travel separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 207, "Grassy Islands" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
File: ScNF207A

Grat for Gruel

DESCRIPTION: "There was a weaver o' the north, And O but he was cruel; The very first nicht that he was wed, He sat and grat for gruel." The wife explains that gruel cannot be had; he will have it if she must cook it in the wash-pot and he must eat it with a trowel
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recording, Jimmy McBeath)
KEYWORDS: humorous food marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 202, "Grat for Gruel" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GRUELL*
Roud #935
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy McBeath, "Gruel" (on FSB3) (on FSBFTX19)
NOTES [88 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland describes this tune as a "variant" on The Lincolnshire Poacher. There are points of similarity, but "variant" probably implies a degree of similarity not justified by the facts of the case (among other things, "Grat for Gruel" has a chorus). - RBW
No chorus in "The Lincolnshire Poacher"? What's "'Tis my delight on a shiny night/In the season of the year"? Chopped liver? - PJS
Picky, picky. "Poacher" has a single long-line chorus; "Grat for Gruel" four short lines related to the verse. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: K202

Grave of the Section Hand, The

DESCRIPTION: "They laid him away on the brow of the hill, Outside of the right-of-way." The section hand's many years of service are recalled. His grave will guard the track. The place of the burial is briefly described.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: death railroading burial
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 129, "The Grave of the Section Hand" (1 text)
Roud #9584
File: Dean129

Grave of Wolfe Tone, The

DESCRIPTION: "In Bodenstown churchyard there is a green grave ... Once I lay on that sod -- it lies over Wolfe Tone." He wakes to the sound of students and peasants who come to the grave to raise a simple monument "fit for the simple and true"
AUTHOR: Thomas Davis (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (_The Nation_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: patriotic political Ireland burial
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 10, 1798 - Wolfe Tone (1763-1798) condemned to execution; he cuts his own throat to avoid hanging as a criminal (his request to face a firing squad had been denied)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 39, "The Grave of Wolfe Tone" (1 text)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 32, "The Grave of Wolfe Tone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 121, "The Grave of Wolfe Tone" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, p. 244, "Tone's Grave"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 481-482, "Tone's Grave" (1 text)
Roud #9313
RECORDINGS:
Liam Clancy, "In Bodenstown's Churchyard" (on IRLClancy01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(690), "Wolfe Tone's Grave!", Haly (Cork), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Emmett's Grave" (tune, broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(690))
NOTES [78 words]: Given Ireland's recent history, it's ironic to note that Wolfe Tone was a Protestant. For the history of the events that led to his execution, see the notes to "The Shan Van Voght." - RBW
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Bodenstown Churchyard" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998)) - BS
File: OCon039

Grave Sinking Down

DESCRIPTION: "(It was sad when the grave was sinking down)(x2) That awful time, People keep awake all night, It was sad when the grave was sinking down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: death funeral mourning derivative nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 296-297, "Grabe Sinkin' Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Titanic (I), The ("It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down") [Laws D24] (Titanic #1)" (form)
NOTES [27 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect.
This seems a one verse adaptation of a "Titanic" song. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR296G

Graveyard, The

DESCRIPTION: "Who gwine to lay this body, Member, O shout glory, And who gwine to lay this body, O ring Jerusalem." "O call all the members to the graveyard." "O graveyard, ought to know me." "O, grass grow in the graveyard."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad burial
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 15-16, "The Graveyard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11844
File: AWG015B

Gray Cat on the Tennessee Farm

DESCRIPTION: About life on a Tennessee farm. All the singer wants is a "baby in the cradle and a pretty girl to rock it," plus meat in the sack, sugar in the gourd, a tub of lard. Ch: "Big cat spit in the little kitten's eye/Little cat, little cat, don't you cry...."
AUTHOR: Uncle Dave Macon, more or less
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Disjointed verses about life on a small farm in the Tennessee Hills. Singer says all he wants is a "baby in the cradle and a pretty girl to rock it," along with meat in the sack, sugar in the gourd, and a big tub of lard. Chorus: "Big cat spit in the little kitten's eye/Little cat, little cat, don't you cry/I do love liquor and I will take a dram/I'm gonna tell you, pretty Polly Ann"
KEYWORDS: farming drink nonballad baby family animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "The Gray Cat on the Tennessee Farm" (Vocalion 5152, 1927)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Grey Cat on the Tennessee Farm" (on NLCR06)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Fine Day" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Mary, She Did Dream a Dream" (lyrics)
File: RcGCotTF

Gray Goose Gone Home

See The Fox (File: R103)

Gray Goose, The

See The Grey Goose (File: LxU005)

Gray Mare, The [Laws P8]

DESCRIPTION: The miller gains Kate's love and is offered a large dowry. He also demands her father's gray mare. The father turns him out of the house for asking too much. When he later meets Kate, she tells him she wants no part of the man who preferred a mare to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(45))
KEYWORDS: courting dowry marriage
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,Ro) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland,England(North,West),Wales) Ireland
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Laws P8, "The Gray Mare"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #67, p. 2, ("Rodger the miller came a-courting of late") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan4 761, "Roger the Miller" (2 texts)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 79-81, "The Grey Mare" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #51, "The Grey Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 59-62, "Young Jimmy, the Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 235-236, "The Gray Mare" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 63, "Young Rogers, The Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 160, "My Father's Gray Mare" (1 text)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 230-231, "John Roger, the Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #49, "Courting My Father's Gray Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 26, "Rogers the Miller" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 278-279, "The Gray Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 53-56, "Roger the Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 79, "Roger the Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 89, "Roger the Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 718, "Young Rogers the Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H90, pp. 365-366, "The Grey Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 144, "Young Roger Esquire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 34, p. 80, "My Father's Gray Mare" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 62-64, "Gay Jemmie, The Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 14-15, "Gay Jemmie, the Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 339, GREYMARE*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 40, #2 (1995), pp, 104-105, "John Roger the Miller" (1 text, 1 tune, from the singing of John W. Collier)
Roud #680
RECORDINGS:
Bob Atcher, "Young Rogers the Miller" (Columbia 20483, 1948)
Everett Bennett, "The Gray Mare" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Ollie Conway, "The Grey Mare" (on IROConway01)
Mike Kent, "Old Grey Mare" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Stanley McDonald, "Roger the Miller" (on Miramichi1)
Phil Tanner, "Young Roger Esquire" (on FSBFTX13)
May Whalen, "The Grey Mare" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(45), "The Farmer's Grey Mare" ("Young Roger the miller, went a courting of late"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 25(1647), "Roger the Miller"; Harding B 11(1435), Harding B 11(1434), "Grey Mare"; Harding B 25(1645), 2806 c.16(50), "Roger the Miller and the Grey Mare"; Harding B 16(316b), Firth c.18(216), "Young Roger and the Gray Mare"; Harding B 11(4390), "Young Roger and the Grey Mare "
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Young Jimmy the Miller
Young Johnny the Miller
Tid the Gray Mare
File: LP08

Gray Squirrel

DESCRIPTION: "Gray squirrel, gray squirrel Swish your bushy tail, Gray squirrel, gray squirrel Swish your bushy tail Wrinkle up your little nose Hold a nut between your toes Gray squirrel, gray squirrel Swish your bushy tail"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad food campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 55, 279, "Gray Squirrel" (notes only)
File: ACSF279G

Grazier Tribe, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, ye toilers of this nation, I hope you will draw near... My pen I take to hand To try to describe a grazier tribe That now infests this land." The singer laments the British controls on Irish production and the corruption of the system
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: Ireland poverty hardtimes crime
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 21-22, "The Grazier Tribe" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 78, "The Grazier Tribe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2998
RECORDINGS:
Straighty Flanagan, "The Grazer Tribe" (on Voice05)
NOTES [223 words]: It appears that this song refers to the period of time around the famines, when many Irish smallholders were displaced and their properties converted into large estates to graze animals rather than grow crops.
The "graziers" are, of course, the members of the English government who were devouring Ireland's subsistence.
It should be noted that, economically, this made sense. Ireland is not good country for growing crops; there isn't enough sun. It is excellent country for pastoral industries. The problem is, there were too many Irish to be supported by herding. They needed to wring every calorie they could out of the soil.
The charges in this song are technically correct; England heavily restricted Irish commerce and instituted a system of officialdom that severely restricted Irish freedom.
It should be noted, however, that this was the way all of Europe treated its colonies (including the British colonies in North America). The real problem was not the economic policies (though these did produce much poverty); rather, it was the sullen relationship between the Irish and their masters, as well as the strained relations between Catholics and Protestants -- a problem worsened by the English anti-Catholic statutes.
Understanding and compassion could have made a bad situation much better -- but that was sadly lacking. - RBW
File: PGa021

Grazier's Dochter, The

DESCRIPTION: A squire secretly weds a servant maid. She becomes pregnant. His parents threaten them with ruin; he leaves her and marries another. His first wife dies of grief. Her ghost finds him in bed with his bride, kills him, and writes of the story on the corpse
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1767 (dated Harvard College Library chapbooks 57(iii):10, according to Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: grief infidelity love marriage abandonment revenge corpse death pregnancy father servant ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 8, "The Grazier's Dochter"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1, pp. 229-234, "The Unfortunate Grazier's Daughter" (2 texts)
Roud #3854
File: LyCr108

Greaser Joe's Place

DESCRIPTION: "You kin brag of city caffeys and their trout from streams and lake... But the grub at Greaser Joe's is the finest ever dealt. Come, hombre, and just tuck a bowl of chili 'neath your belt." Further extravagant praise of Joe's food follows
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 74-75, "Greaser Joe's Place" (1 text)
NOTES [32 words]: Thorp says he had this from the Denver Republican, so presumably Greaser Joe's was a restaurant there. Why Thorp thought this a cowboy song, rather than a silly advertisement, I don't know. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: ThLo074

Greasy Cook, The (Butter and Cheese and All, The Cook's Choice)

DESCRIPTION: The singer keeps company with a cook. One day she is about to send him off with cheese and butter when the master comes in. He hides in the chimney; the fire melts cheese and butter and sets them afire. The master douses him; he flees to a chorus of jeers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(692)))
KEYWORDS: cook courting food humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,Lond),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Newf) US(Ro)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 108, "Butter and Cheese and All" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 251-252, "Butter and Cheese" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan4 914, "A Cook I Went a-Courtin'" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 108-109, "Butter and Cheese and All" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 304 with vocal rendition)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 236-237, "The Cook's Choice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #64, "Butter and Cheese and All" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 129, "The Greasy Cook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #85, "Butter and Cheese" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #510
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "The Greasy Cook" (on HCox01) (on FSBFTX13)
Sam Larner, "Butter and Cheese" (on SLarner02)
Alexander March, "Butter and Cheese" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mrs Clara Stevens, "Butter and Cheese" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(692), "Cookey's Courtship", "Cupboard Love" or "Butter, Cheese, and All" ("Tis a pity you should teaze me so"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth c.18(274), "Butter and Cheese"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boatsman and the Chest" [Laws Q8] (plot) and references there
NOTES [43 words]: This and similar songs are sometimes traced back to a story in Boccaccio (seventh day, second story: Gianella, Peronella, and her husband). But the story is really one of the basic themes of folktale, and doubtless predates Boccaccio as well as these songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: CoSB236

Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts

DESCRIPTION: "Great (big) gobs of greasy, grimy gopher guts...." The singer lists a variety of available non-delicacies, and laments, "And me without a spoon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: food parody campsong
FOUND IN: US(SE,SW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Gloria Dickens, "Childhood Songs from North Carolina" Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), p.5, "(Great, green gobs of greasy, grimy gopher guts)" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 133, "Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 103, 164, "Great big gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts"/"Great big gobs" (notes only)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Jay Mechling, "Magic of the Boy Scout Campfire," Volume 93, Number 367 (Jan-Mar 1980), p. 39, "Gopher Guts" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT, GOPHRGTS
RECORDINGS:
Travis Johnson, "Great Green Gobs of Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts" (Piotr-Archive #509, recorded 03/08/2023)
Deborah Paulukaitis, "Great Green Gobs" (Piotr-Archive #725, recorded 10/28/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)" (tune)
File: PHCFS133

Greasy Rails and Timber Bridges

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Greasy rails and timber bridges, Up the hills and down the ridges. Hard to stop and easy to start; What's the initial of my sweetheart? A, B, C, D....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Midwest Folklore, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: love jumprope | rails bridges hills letters
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #159, "Greasy rails and timber bridges" (1 text)
File: AJRR159

Great A Little A

DESCRIPTION: "Great A, little A, Bouncing B, The cat's in the cupboard And she can't see me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1744 (Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: animal playparty nonballad wordplay
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 51, "Great A, little a" (1 text plus a possible variant)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #607, p. 240, "(Great A, little a)"
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 116, "(no title; filed under "Rope Jumping")" (1 short text)
File: ByGo116a

Great American Bum, The (Three Jolly Bums)

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you jolly jokers if you want to have some fun And listen while I relate the tale of a great American bum." The singer rejoices getting maximum results from minimum work: "I am a bum, a jolly old bum, and I live like a royal Turk...."
AUTHOR: Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: rambling begging work
FOUND IN: US Australia
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 192-193, "The Two Professional Hums" (sic; see note) (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 293-295, "Two Professional Hums" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 183, "Shovellin' Iron Ore"; 192, "We Are Four Bums" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 184-185, "The Great American Bum" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 532-533, "The Great American Bum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 50, "The Great American Bum" (1 text)
Roud #9833
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Bum Song" (Columbia 1488-D, 1928)
Dick Holmes, "The Bum Song" (Oriole 1324, 1928)
Eddie Kirk, "Bum Song" (Edison 52384, 1928)
Frank Luther, "The Bum Song" (Brunswick 254/Brunswick 4029, 1928)
Frank Marvin, "The Bum Song" (Romeo 719/Cameo 8296 [as Lazy Larry], 1928
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "The Bum Song" (Victor 21343, c. 1928) (Decca 5640, 1939)
Hobo Jack Turner [pseud. Ernest Hare] "The Bum Song" (Harmony 705-H/Diva 2705-G/Velvet Tone 1705-V, 1928)
"Weary Willie", "The Bum Song" (Perfect 12461/Pathe 32382, 1928; this is, surprisingly, not the same recording as the one by "Lazy Larry")
Pete Wiggins, "The Bum Song" (OKeh 41092, 1928)
SAME TUNE:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Bum Song No. 2" (CYL: Edison [BA] 5653, n.d.); Vernon Dalhart & Co., "The Bum Song, No. 2" (Edison 52472, 1929)
Jerry Ellis [pseud. for Jack Golding] "Bum Song #2" (Champion 15646, 1928; Supertone 9342 [as Weary Willie], 1929)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "The Bum Song, No. 2" (Victor 21704, 1928) (Decca 5689, 1939)
Carson Robison Trio, "Bum Song No. 5" (Pathe 32477, 1929; Perfect 12571, 1930)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bum Song
NOTES [67 words]: "Hum" is Australian slang for "bum"; the Australian version abounds in such localizations.
Something like the "gimmick" of this song seems to go back about four centuries. I have lost the source of the citation (it's apparently from T. A. Shippey on p. 33 of some book, but I don't know which), but there is a 1622 citation, "I might haue been a scholler, learn'd my Grammer, But I haue lost all...." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FaE192

Great American Flood Disaster, The

DESCRIPTION: "A terrible disaster Has come upon our land, Down where the Mississippi flows On her way so grand." People are enjoying life along the Mississippi when a great storm and floods come to bring ruin
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: flood river disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1927 - Mississippi River floods, devastating the Delta region and leaving thousands homeless
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 120-121, "The Great American Flood Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Backwater Blues" (subject)
cf. "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues" (subject)
cf. "Mighty Mississippi" (subject)
File: MCB120

Great Apache Chief, The

See The Noble Duke of York (File: FSWB390B)

Great Big Dog

DESCRIPTION: "Great big dog come a-runnin' down de river, Shook his tail an' jarred de meadow. Go 'way, ole dog, go 'way, ole dog, You shan't have my baby. Mother loves you, Father loves you, Ev'ybody loves Baby. Mother loves you...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: lullaby dog animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 157-158, "Great Big Dog" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: ScNF157C

Great big gobs of greas grimy gopher guts

See Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts (File: PHCFS133)

Great Big Nigger Sittin' on a Log

See Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady), which has this chorus though the verses are from everywhere (File: San011)

Great Big Sea Hove in Long Beach, A

DESCRIPTION: "A great big sea hove in Long Beach... And Granny Snooks she lost her speech." "Me boot is broke, me frock is tore... But George Snooks I do adore." "Oh, fish is low and flour is high... So Georgie Snooks he can't have I."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 2nd edition)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad sea hardtimes
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 11, "Great Big Sea Hove in" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 176-177, "A Great Big Sea Hove in Long Beach" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "A Great Big Sea Hove in Long Beach" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 27 in the 2nd edition; p. 25 in the 3rd; p. 25 in the 4th; p. 13 in the 5th
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 42-43, "A Great Big Sea Hove in Long Beach" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 77, "A Great Big Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
England-HistoricNewfoundlandAndLabrador, p. 51, "A Great Big Sea Hove in Long Beach" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4426
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gaberlunzie Man" (tune & meter)
cf. "Kate's Big Shirt" (tune)
NOTES [62 words]: Fowke suggests this song dates from the 1930s, when Newfoundland sailors received poor pay for their fish but had to pay high prices for flour. Long Beach is a town on the east coast of Newfoundland.
On the other hand, Gibb Sahib offers the idea that it's derived from the "Hieland Laddie" complex, with non-Newfoundland references deleted and local references added. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: FJ176

Great Big Taters in Sandy Land

DESCRIPTION: "Big yam taters in de sandy lan', Sandy bottom, sandy lan'." "Sift your meal an' save de bran, Mighty good livin' in de sandy lan'." The singer describes farming and courting in "de sandy lan'," and describes some of the local characters
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad
FOUND IN: US(S0)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 69-70, "Raise Big Taters in Sandy Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 236-237, "Sandy Lan'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-SkipToMyLou, p. 3, "Sandy Land" (1 text, 1 tune, which appears to be composite -- the first verse is "Great Big Taters in Sandy Land," the second is is "Oe more river I'm bound to cross," and the last is a "Sixteen Come Sunday" verse)
Roud #7909
RECORDINGS:
Patricia Campbell, "Sandy Land" (Piotr-Archive #235, recorded 09/05/2022, with a final fragment from "Sixteen Come Sunday," -- derived from the Tobitt version?)
NOTES [111 words]: Alan Lomax says this is the same tune as "Sally Anne," and close to "Sally Goodin." Paul Stamler, who knows all three as fiddle tunes, concedes a relationship to "Sally Anne" but not "Sally Goodin." Based on the versions I've heard, I agree -- but I've only heard bluegrass versions of "Sandy Land," so that proves very little.
The final verse of the American Ballads text is "Sal's Got a Meatskin..." -- but of course this may be a Lomax insertion.... But the number of versions which have a final verse from some other song is very high. It's almost as if there was a songbook out there somewhere that said, "Sing this then stick something else on the end." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LxA236

Great Big Turkey

See Big Fat Turkey (File: DPio368)

Great Boobee, The

See The Great Booby (File: TPS087)

Great Booby, The

DESCRIPTION: This great booby fails at his ABC's and at plowing, and is a country clown in town. He falls out of a boat. "To go and see the circus [playhouse] sir to me is most inviting." He may become an entertainer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1681 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 1(92a))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Through the centuries of broadsides the story outline stays the same and some verses remain, but the details change as the signs of the country bumpkin change. In all the versions, after his father turns the whip on him when he can't make the ox or horse plow, he goes to town to escape school and see the fashions and, for his trouble, is called a country clown and great booby. Once in town, whether London or Boston, his tour depends upon the times, but he is always ridiculed for his manners and naivety. In 17C London he goes to St Paul's steeple, Westminster Abbey, Pye-corner [orders roast meat he cannot pay for], Smithfield [loses his purse to a woman pick-pocket after she runs up a wine bill], the Exchange and Paris Garden, making a fool of himself at every stop. In 19C London or Boston or "town" the tour is much briefer but no less disastrous. And there's always the tumble from the boat. He may end as an entertainer: a bear-baiter in 17C London or a singer or clown later. And, depending on the site, the 19C broadsides my say he has heard that the French or British are coming, but only a booby would believe that Napoleon or John Bull is really coming.
KEYWORDS: travel ordeal farming humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 87, "The County Clown" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John Payne Collier, A Book of Roxburghe Ballads (London, 1847 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), pp.221-226, "The Great Boobee" ("My friend if you will understand my fortunes what they are") (1 text)
John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 48-51, "The Great Boobee" (1 text)
Roud #12618
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(92a), "The Great Boobee" ("My friends if you will understand"), F. Coles (London), 1624-1680; also Douce Ballads 3(35a), Vet. A3 b.43(9), "The Great Boobee"
Bodleian, Harding B 16(283b), "The Great Booby" ("My feyther he put me to school"), A. Carvalho (London), 19C; also Harding B 17(119a), "The Great Booby"
LOCSinging, as104880, "The Great Booby" ("My feyther put me to the school"), L. Deming (Boston), no date
VonWalthour,CDDrive>g>g(118),"Great Booby" ("My feyther put me to the school"), unknown, no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sellingers Round" (tune)
NOTES [135 words]: Broadsides LOCSinging as104880 and VonWalthour,CDDrive>g>g(118) appear to be the same edition.
Collier p. 221, referring to "The Great Boobee": "a remarkable and very droll ballad, relating to old manners and amusements: by various allusions in it we may assign it to the reign of James I." The Collier and Bodleian Douce Ballads version shares some verses with Thompson-APioneerSongster, VonWalthour and Bodleian Harding but includes many more examples and does not end with the circus.
Chappell has a list of "Ballads Printed For and Sold By William Thackeray at the Angel in Duck-Lane, London" that includes "Great Booby." Chappell: "The above list of Thackeray's is probably one of his latest, seeming to have been issued about the year 1689." Wm Chappell, The Roxburghe Ballads (London, 1871), p. xxvii. - BS
Last updated in version 3.1
File: TPS087

Great Camp Meeting

See Walk Together Little Children (Great Camp Meeting in the Promised Land) (File: Rose040)

Great Change Since I Been Born

See Things I Used To Do (File: San482)

Great Day

DESCRIPTION: "Great day! Great day, the righteous marching, Great day! God's going to build up Zion's walls." "Chariot rode on the mountain top... My God spoke and the chariot did stop." "This is the day of jubilee." "We want no cowards in our band."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Work)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad soldier
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 46-47, "Great Day! Great Day!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12224
File: WarSp046

Great Day Since I Was Born

DESCRIPTION: "It's a great day since I was born." "Things I used to do Will do them no more." "Places I used to go I don't go there now." "The people I used to see I don't see 'em now"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (White)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 41, "Great Day Since I Was Born" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Newman I. White, _American Negro Folk Songs_ (Hatboro: Folklore Associates Inc, 1965 (reprint of Harvard University Press, 1928) #ii.66 pp. 116-117, ("Been a great change since I been born") (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Gary Davis, "Great Change Since I Been Born" (1992, on "Harlem Street Singer," Prestige Bluesville CD OBCCD-547-2(BV-1015); recorded 1960)
NOTES [33 words]: "'Great Change Since I Been Born' tells of [the singer's] own conversion to the church and the change that this new 'birth' brought to his life" (Larry Cohn, liner notes for Harlem Street Singer). - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo041

Great Day! Great Day!

See Great Day (File: WarSp046)

Great Elopement to America, The

DESCRIPTION: Mick courts Nancy Keays, "a rich farmer's daughter." Her father will not agree to the marriage. With her 500 pounds they elope. Her father searches through Ireland without success and posts a reward for their arrest, but they are safe in America.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.8(158))
KEYWORDS: courting elopement emigration manhunt escape America Ireland father
FOUND IN:
Roud #V4359
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.8(158), "The Great Elopement to America" ("Farewell to old Ireland the land of my fathers)," Haly (Cork), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "M'Kenna's Dream" (tune, broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(201))
cf. "The Gallant Farmers' Farewell to Ireland" (words, and references there)
cf. "William and Phillis" (plot)
File: BrTGETA

Great Favorite Song, entitled The Sailor's Hornpipe in Jackson Street

See The Shirt and the Apron [Laws K42] (File: LK42)

Great Fight Between Tom Sayers and Bob Brettie, The

DESCRIPTION: Sayers's fights, from his first, with Aby Crooch in 1842, to his most recent, with Tommy Burns, are listed. Then he fights Brettle who yields after being injured by a fall. Sayers is "the champion of proud England, and the conqueror of all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859-1860 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: fight injury moniker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 9, 1859 - Boxing match between Bob Brettle and Tom Sayers
FOUND IN:
Roud #V9717
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 13(13), "Lines on the Great Fight Between Tom Sayers Champion of Britain and Bob Brettle of Birmingham" ("You lovers of the pugelistic [sic] ring, attend with mirth and cheers"), unknown, 1859-1860
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Heenan and Sayers" (subject) and references there
NOTES [64 words]: Sayers's next fight, with John C. Heenan, on April 17, 1860, was much more notable than his fight with Brettle. So, with an early printing date of the fight between Sayers and Brettle, it seems reasonable to make the late date the fight between Sayers and Heenan [see Laws H20]. Brettle, who lost this fight with Sayers when his shoulder was dislocated, retired after this fight. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BdGFBTSB

Great Getting Up Morning

See In that Great Gettin' Up Morning (File: LxU106)

Great Gittin' Up Mornin'

See In that Great Gettin' Up Morning (File: LxU106)

Great God A'mighty

DESCRIPTION: A chopping song with story. "He's a-choppin de new ground (x3), Great God a'mighty." The singer describes his axe blade, boasts of his ability, and discusses arguments with the captain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: prisoner chaingang work
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 79-82, "Great God A'mighty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15571
RECORDINGS:
Texas state farm prisoners, "Chopping in the New Ground" (on NPCWork)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Choppin' Charlie" (lyrics)
NOTES [34 words]: This shares many of its verses, and its setting, with "Choppin' Charlie." But "Choppin' Charlie" has a plot of sorts, and "Great God A'mighty" is just a chopping song, so I very tentatively split them. - RBW
File: LxA079

Great God, I'm Feelin' Bad

DESCRIPTION: "Great God, I'm feelin' bad, I ain't got the man I thought I had."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 238, "Great Gawd, I'm Feelin' Bad" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #29308
File: San238

Great Grand-dad

DESCRIPTION: "Great grand-dad when the West was young, Barred his door with a wagon tongue." He raised 21 boys without any trouble -- but now there's a great-grandson, and of course youth being what it is, *that* one gives trouble
AUTHOR: Lowell Otus Reese
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Saturday Evening Post)
KEYWORDS: father children family
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 482, "Great Grand-dad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 266, "Great Granddad" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 266, "Great Granddad" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 83-85, "Great Grand-dad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 24-25, "Great-Granddad" (1 text, 1 tune, apparently the version sung by Tex Ritter)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 557, "Great-Grand-Dad" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 176-182, "Great Grandad" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a history of the song)
Roud #4446
RECORDINGS:
John White, "Great Grand Dad" (Domino 4440, c. 1929; on MakeMe)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Grandma"
NOTES [16 words]: You mean it isn't just the current generation of old people who complain about the young? :-) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R483

Great Grandad

See Great Grand-dad (File: R483)

Great Granddad

See Great Grand-dad (File: R483)

Great Grandma

See Old Grandma (File: FJ094)

Great Historical Bum, The

See (notes under) I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song) (File: R410)

Great Judgment Morning, The

DESCRIPTION: "I dreamt that the great judgment morning Had dawned and the trumpet had blown...." The singer describes the scene before God's throne "as the lost was told of their fate" and the poor, widows, and orphans rewarded. The rich man's money does not save him
AUTHOR: Words: Bertram H. Shadduck / Music: Lycurgus L. Pickett
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (reported date of composition); first field collection 1925 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious death Hell
FOUND IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 618, "The Great Judgment" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 270-271, "Great Judgment Morning" (1 text)
Roud #4731
File: R618

Great Nineteen Sixteen Fresh, The

See The Brushy Mountain Freshet (File: BrII284)

Great Northern Line, The

DESCRIPTION: "My love he is a teamster, a handsome man is he... With his little team of bullocks on the Great Northern Line." The singer describes her handsome, hard-driving, hard-swearing, flirting, madly inventive teamster love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia)
KEYWORDS: work Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 273, "The Great Northern Line" (1 text)
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, pp. 85-86, "The Great Northern Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Knickerbocker Line" (tune & meter)
File: MA273

Great Round-Up, The

See The Cowboy's Dream (File: R185)

Great Selchie of Shool Skerrie, The

See The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry [Child 113] (File: C113)

Great Ship Went Down, The (Titanic #16)

DESCRIPTION: "Titanic was a ship... Oh, it was a pleasure trip." "Titanic was her name, Atlantic was her fame, she sank about five hundred miles from shore, 1600 were at sea... went down an angry wave to rise no more." 1600 die in the "angry wave."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Cofer Brothers)
KEYWORDS: sea wreck family disaster death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Cowboy Loye and Just Plain John, Old Time Ballads & Cowboy Songs (no date but internal evidence dates it after 1932), pp 43-44, "Titanic"
RECORDINGS:
Cofer Brothers, "The Great Ship Went Down" (OKeh 45137, 1927)
NOTES [111 words]: The Cofer Brothers version of this is so generic that it might almost be a rewrite of one of the other songs, but the Cowboy Loye version has the interesting feature of mentioning Mr. and Mrs. Isidore Strauss -- the second richest couple on the ship after John Jacob Astor. I haven't met this in any other Titanic song. It is also unusual in that it doesn't shove a moral down your throat.
Thanks to John Garst for help with the Loye text.
For an extensive history of the Titanic, with detailed examination of the truth (or lack thereof) of quotes in the Titanic songs, see the notes to "The Titanic (XV)" ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15) - RBW
File: RcGSWD

Great Silkie of Sule Skerry, The [Child 113]

DESCRIPTION: A lady mourns that she knows not her son's father. He appears at her bedside, revealing that he is a silkie. He prophesies that she shall marry a "gunner," who will shoot both him and her son.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1852
KEYWORDS: selkie seduction
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Hebr))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Child 113, "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry" (1 text)
Bronson 113, "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry" (1 version, though only the fifth stanza is proper to the tune)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 113, "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry" (1 version)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 321-323, "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry" (2 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 59-60, "The Great Selchie of Shool Skerrie" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 31, "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 27, "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's (#1)}
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 74, "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry"; 75, "Sealchie Song" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 69, "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 216-218, "The Grey Selchie of Sule Skerry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 219, "The Great Silkie" (1 text)
DT 113, SILKIE1* SILKIE2*
Roud #197
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry" (on Thieme06)
NOTES [457 words]: The tune to which this ballad is most often sung nowadays was composed by James Waters in the late 1950s. It was also used by Pete Seeger as the melody for his setting of Nazim Hikmet's poem about Hiroshima, "I Come and Stand at Every Door." -PJS
The fullest collection of texts and tunes for this piece is probably that of Alan Bruford, who in "The Grey Silkie" (originally published in Scottish Studies 18, 1974; also available in E. B. Lyle, ed., Ballad Studies) prints, in tolerably incomprehensible form, eight texts or fragments and two tunes.
Bruford also discusses the relationship of the song to "The Play o de Lathie Odivere" (best known now perhaps in Gordon Bok's adaption "The Play of the Lady Odivere"), having much to say, and little of it good, about this piece first published by Walter Traill Dennison in The Scottish Antiquary in 1894. Bruford doesn't quite say so, but it appears that he believes Dennison's piece to be a forgery built upon a small core of traditional material.
According to Jack Zipes, The Great Fairy Tale Tradition, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 2001, p. 51, "The motif of a young hero who is compelled to wear an animal skin is an ancient one and made its first literary appearance in Sanskrit in the Pancatantra, a collection if Indian didactic fables and stories, about 300 C.E. In 'The Enchanted Brahmin's Son,' a father burns the snakeskin of his son to preserve his humanity. This particular motif is found in numerous folktales. Generally speaking, however, it is a young woman or her parents who burn the animal skin to set a young man free." Zipes goes on to list many more "Beastly Born Heroes," although his list does not appear to include the seal folk.
I had one thought about this song that doesn't seem to have been covered by anyone else. This refers to the fact that the selkie is killed by a "good gunner." Seals were hunted by guns, but it wasn't common -- if a seal is hit in the water, it sinks, so there is no point in shooting it unless it's on land or ice (and, even then, it will head for the water if it is merely wounded). Inuit seal hunters, for instance, don't seem to have taken to firearms even when available. Guns were used in the Newfoundland seal hunt, but they were phased out over time, partly to conserve the species but partly because they were so pointless.
Which leads to the observation that shooting seals was both a temporary and a local phenomenon. Norwegians and Newfoundlanders hunted seals as a commercial operation; so did Scots, especially from Dundee. There wasn't much Irish sealing. This raises the thought that, somewhere deep down, this isn't just a competition between seal and human but between peoples from two different lands. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C113

Great Speckled Bird, The

DESCRIPTION: "What a beautiful thought I am thinking Concerning the great speckled bird." The bird, though attacked by other birds, "is one with the great church of God." The bird's success is promised when God comes on the bird's wings
AUTHOR: Sara Dillon? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Aurora Advertiser)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible bird
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 126, "The Greak Speckled Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 621, "The Great Speckled Bird" (1 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 435-437, "The Great Speckled Bird" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 621A)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 368, "The Great Speckled Bird" (1 text)
DT, GRTSPCKL* GRTSOCK2*
Roud #7444
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff & his Crazy Tennesseans, "Great Speckle Bird" (Vocalion 04252/OKeh 04252/Conqueror 8740, 1936; ARC 7-01-59, 1937; Columbia 37005, c 1946; Columbia 20031, c. 1947; Columbia [Canada]C-1139, 1948; rec. 1936)
Charlie Glenn, Dianne Ward-Hicks, "Great Speckled Bird" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #195, recorded 06/06/2022)
Hall Brothers, "The Great Speckled Boatman" (Bluebird, unissued, 1938)
Holiness Church congregation, "Great Speckled Bird" (on MMOKCD)
Jack & Leslie, "The Great Speckled Bird" (Decca 5555, 1938)
Charlie Monroe's Boys, "The Great Speckled Bird" (Bluebird B-7862, 1938)
Morris Brothers, "The Great Speckled Bird" (Bluebird B-7903, 1938)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Broken Ties (I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Great Speckle Bird No. 2 (RECORDING: Roy Acuff & his Smoky Mountain Boys, ARC 07-06-54/Conqueror 8877, 1937; Vocalion 04374/OKeh 04374, 1938; Columbia 37007, 1946; Columbia 20003. c. 1948; rec. 1937; Columbia 20032, c. 1945)
Answer to Great Speckled Bird (RECORDING: Roy Hall & his Blue Ridge Entertainers, OKeh 4771, prob. 1939; recorded 1938; listed as Vocalion 04771/Conqueror 9184 in Lornell, _Virginia's Blues, Country & Gospel Records 1902-1943_)
NOTES [341 words]: Usually credited to Roy Acuff (who certainly popularized it); however, a 1936 printing in the Aurora, Missouri Advertiser precedes Acuff's 1937 copyright, and there is a claim that it was written around 1934 by Guy "Uncle George" Smith. And some of Randolph's informants would date the song much earlier. W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 5, believes it was written by a West Virginia songwriter named Sara Dillon, probably in 1926.
In fact it is know that Acuff did not write it. According to McNeil, Acuff was working at a Knoxville radio station, WROL, when he heard a group called the "Black Shirts" sing it. When they prepared to leave the station, Acuff paid them to write out the words for it, then started singing it. It proved so popular that the American Record Company offered Acuff a contract on the strength of it. It also opened the doors of the Grand Ole Opry to him.
There is a significant similarity to the Carter Family's version of "Broken Ties (I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes)," which may have inspired this as well as several later important country songs.
The image of the "great speckled bird" comes from Jeremiah 12:9 in the King James Bible ("Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her"). This is not, however, a very apt translation of a difficult Hebrew original (which mentions, seemingly as a single subject, a hyena and a bird of prey; the ancient Greek version reads "My inheritance is a hyena's cave"; a few Greek manuscripts also mention bandits; the KJV translation is probably derived from the Latin "avis discolor," a multicolored bird, which looks like a wild guess by the Latin translator). Most modern versions render the verse in a way not parallel to the KJV, although John Bright in the Anchor Bible offers "speckled bird of prey." The Jewish Tanakh tries to have it both ways: "Like a bird of prey [or] a hyena," while admitting the meaning is uncertain; the brackets around "[or]" are in the Tanakh text. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R621

Great Storm Pass Over, A

DESCRIPTION: A hurricane passes over Andros Island; for three days the sun is blotted out. The singer fixes his heart on Jesus; while many are crippled, wounded, or killed, he is spared. He tells sinners that the time of judgement is coming; they had better pray
AUTHOR: "Tappy Toe" (nickname, real name unknown; Andros Island sponger)
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (recording, men from Andros Island)
KEYWORDS: warning death disaster storm Caribbean Jesus
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1929 - The Bahamas are devastated by a hurricane with little or no advance warning. Many deaths and much damage results
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
Roud #15622
RECORDINGS:
Unidentified men from Andros Island, "A Great Storm Pass Over" (AAFS 504 A, 1935; on LomaxCD1822-2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Run Come See" (subject)
NOTES [17 words]: While the storm described is the same one described in "Run Come See," this is an independent song. - PJS
File: RcAGSPO

Great Titanic, The

See The Titanic (I) ("It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down") [Laws D24] (Titanic #1) (File: LD24)

Great Wheel, The

See The Fucking Machine (File: EM392)

Great-Granddad

See Great Grand-dad (File: R483)

Great, green gobs of greasy, grimy gopher guts

See Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts (File: PHCFS133)

Great, High Wind that Blew the Low Post Down, The

DESCRIPTION: "It blew in the valley and it blew on the hill, And it blew till the sun and the moon stood still... It's the great, high wind that blew the low post down." It's so strong it blows "the whiskers off the rye," "buttons off the sky," and stirs chicken soup
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad storm
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 12-14, "The Great, High Wind that Blew the Low Post Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7025
File: BWV2013

Grecian Bend, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm the wretchedest man that e'er was seen, For badly swindled I have been." He meets a girl with a Grecian Bend. She is very pretty, and he ends up paying her (expensive) rent. Then she goes off with another man. He warns against such girls
AUTHOR: Tony Pastor (source: New-Comic-Songster)
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (New-Comic-Songster)
KEYWORDS: love courting clothes warning recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
New-Comic-Songster, p. 56, "The Grecian Bend" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #21, pp. 5-6, "The Grecian Bend" (1 text); cf. p. 24, "The Grecian Bend: No. 2" (1 text); also Dime-Song-Book #22, p. 17, "That Lovely Grecian Bend" (1 text); p. 20, "The Grecian Bend" (1 text)
Roud #24766
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Burlesque on the Fashions of the Day, 1870, or, The Grecian Bend" (subject of the Grecian Bend)
NOTES [70 words]: Although pretty clearly of American origin, the only sign of a traditional collection comes, oddly, from England. I'm not sure I trust it, but I index the song just in case....
The Grecian Bend seems to have been a greatly exaggerated bustle that seems, based on illustrations, to have almost forced the wearer to lean forward dramatically while wearing it. In addition to looking strange, it frankly looks painful. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: NCSGreBe

Greedy Gled o' Mains, The

DESCRIPTION: "There lives a farmer in this place" known for his greed. In all weather he greedily drives his crew. He is too smart for "poor silly folk" round about. "Grab a' ye can is aye the plan Wi' the greedy gled o' Mains."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: greed commerce farming nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 358, "The Greedy Gled o' Mains" (1 text)
Roud #5903
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Glead" (subject?)
NOTES [115 words]: Greig/Duncan3 glossary p. xlii: "gled,glead" is translated as "kite,hawk"
Greig/Duncan3: "John Milne published this song in 1901 (Milne, p. 9) and commented: '[This song] was popular in the first thirty years of the [nineteenth century].'"
This song begins "There lives a farmer in this place His name ye nead na speire." Greig/Duncan3 says nothing to solve the mystery for this song or for "The Glead." It seems likely to me that both songs are about the same person.
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Mains of Pitfour (358) is at coordinate (h5,v0) on that map [roughly 28 miles N of Aberdeen] - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3356

Greedy Harbour

DESCRIPTION: "Down in Greedy Harbour we went one time; We shipped on board with old man Ryme; The skipper and I could not combine, With him I spent a very short time." The singer buys and loses a punt, dresses a cow in silks, and drinks turpentine thinking it wine
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad talltale
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 127, "Greedy Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 114, "Grady's Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6344
NOTES [525 words]: The Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland version of this claims that it was written by Jack Maher and Stephen Mullins of the Sagona. On the other hand, Leach's informants thought the song local to Labrador. There are several hints in the Leach text that it is indeed the more original (e.g. the reference to "Grady's Harbour," a real place, rather than "Greedy Harbour," which does not exist; the use of Ryan as the Captain's name rather than "Ryme" -- but, of course, these could be localizations).
What we can say is that the S. S. Sagona was a real ship. She was built in 1912 for Crosbie & Co., later being sold to the Reid company and the Newfoundland Railroad, which in addition to running trains also ran the coastal steamers (Hanrahan, p. 201). Ryan/Drake, p. 40, list her as being a steel steamer, 420 net tons, 98 horsepower -- surprisingly small for a steel steamer, although about typical for the wooden wall steamers of the period. Connors, p. 39, quotes a newspaper report from 1912 which describes her as "a vessel of 807 gross tons, 420 net, length 175 feet, breadth 28 feet, depth 20 ft. 3 ins. Her accommodation for the sealers 'tween decks is fine. She has a fine saloon amidships and steerage aft, with smoking rooms and ladies' cabn. The ship can take 50 saloon and 40 steerage passengers, can steam 14 knots."
As the newspaper account says, she was designed to carry passengers (which again makes it surprising that she was so small). But she did serve on the Newfoundland/Labrador run for a time, so men who served on her could have written a Newfoundland song.
In addition to ferry service, she spent some time as a sealer, starting in 1912-1914 under S. R. Winsor, then taking the war period off and resuming service in 1921 under Job Knee (Chafe, p. 104). In 1923, she and the other ships belonging to the Newfoundland Railroad reverted to the ownership of the Newfoundland government when the Reid Newfoundland Company gave up its assets in Newfoundland (Connors, p. 48). Ryan/Drake, p. 40, says that her last year as a sealer was 1938, and she was sold in the 1940s. (She was one of the few steel sealers to still be active in that period; all the other steel steamers were sold off, mostly to Russia, during World War I.)
I don't have a complete list of captains of the Sagona, but Winsor, p. 60, lists her commanders for all but two years of them, and there are no Ryans or Rymes among them. If "Old Captain Ryan" is a real person, I would suspect he is the nineteenth century sealing captain William Ryan, for whom see "Captain Bill Ryan Left Terry Behind."
Ryan/Drake, p. 40, and Connors, p. 40 have photos of the Sagona. (Yes, they have their photos on the same page. It's the same photo, too).There is also a picture on p. 60 of Winsor which seems to confirm that she was more of a liner than s sealer, she looks quite fine and is steaming fast enough to create quite a wave. The Sagona is also mentioned in "Arrival of 'Aurora,' 'Diana,' 'Virginia Lake,' and 'Vanguard,' Loaded," "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912," and "To the Memory of the Late Captain Kennedy." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.5
File: GrMa127

Greedy Jane (Pudding and Pie)

DESCRIPTION: "'Pudding and pie,' Said Jane, 'Oh, my!' 'Which would you rather?' said her father. 'Both!' said Jane, Quite bold and plain."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Lucas, Another Book of Verse for Children, according to Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: food father children
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 118, "Pudding and pie" (1 text)
Roud #25476
File: KSUC118A

Green Above the Red, The

DESCRIPTION: When the English red has been above the Irish green our fathers rose to set the green above the red. Heroes are named. Irish green is banned now but "we vow our blood to shed, Once and forever more to raise the green above the red"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.10(118))
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic political rebellion
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 58, "The Green Above the Red" (1 text)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 125-126, "The Green Above the Red" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 86, "The Green Above the Red" (1 text)
ST OCon058 (Partial)
Roud #V417
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(118), "The Green Above the Red" ("Full often when our fathers saw the Red above the Green"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 11(1411), Harding B 11(1412), "The Green Above the Red"
NOTES [160 words]: The "Lord Edward" of some texts is Lord Edward Fitzgerald (1763-1798), one of the leaders of the United Irishmen and the last one to retain his liberty after the government cracked down (March 12). He doesn't seem to have been particularly smart, and was eventually wounded and captured (May 19); he died in prison of the effects of his wound. For more about him, see the notes to "Edward (III) (Edward Fitzgerald)."
For Wolfe Tone, see, e.g., the notes to "The Shan Van Voght."
Patrick Sarsfield, made Earl of Lucan by James II, was one of the Irish around the time of the Boyne; for his story, see "After Aughrim's Great Disaster."
My guess is that "Owen" is Owen Roe O'Neill (c. 1582-1649), nephew of Red Hugh O'Neill; he served for a time in the Netherlands, then fought against the English in Ireland in the 1640s, though he did not cooperate very well with other Nationalist leaders. For background on his career, see the notes to "General Owen Roe." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon058

Green Banks of Banna, The

DESCRIPTION: "By the green banks of Banna I wander alone Where the river runs softly by sweet Portglenone." The singer recalls the day her lover said he must leave her. She laments his long absence. She will be happy once he returns
AUTHOR: Maud Houston?
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H233, pp. 287-288, "The Green Banks of Banna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3818
NOTES [28 words]: Sam Henry attributed this to Maud Houston, but only in one of his copies. In any case, it's the sort of thing anyone might scrap together from traditional pieces. - RBW
File: HHH233

Green Bed, The

See Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)

Green Besoms

See The Besom Maker (File: BdBesMa)

Green Brier Bush, The

See The Bonnie Brier Bush (File: FVS157)

Green Brier Shore (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, then I can court little and I can court long, and I'll court an old sweetheart till the new one comes along. I'll kiss them and court them...." Nancy and Willie declare their love and lamenting her rich parents' disapproval of Willie.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: love courting floatingverses
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 68, "Green Brier Shore, The" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 329, GRNBRIR2*
Roud #549
RECORDINGS:
Orlo Brandon, "The Green Briar Shore" (on ONEFowke01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The New River Shore (The Green Brier Shore; The Red River Shore)" [Laws M26] (lyrics)
cf. "Lovely Willie" [Laws M35] (lyrics)
cf. "Way Down the Ohio" (lyrics)
NOTES [151 words]: Though it has the same title, it does not have the story line of the Laws M26, "Green Brier (Red River or New River) Shore" [though Roud lumps them, and I'm almost tempted to do the same until and unless more versions of this form show up - RBW].In fact there is precious little story line at all, the verses all describe Nancy and Willie declaring their love for each other and lamenting her rich parents disapproval of Willie.
Has a completely unrelated and lighthearted first verse which could also function as a chorus, "Oh, then I can court little and I can court long, and I'll court an old sweetheart till the new one comes along. I'll kiss them and court them -- keep their mind at ease. But when their back is turning I'll court who I please."
Fowke states that it seems to be a composite, borrowing verses from several other songs, including the other "Green Brier Shore" and "Lovely Willie." - SL
Last updated in version 2.6
File: FowM068

Green Brier Shore, The

See The New River Shore (The Green Brier Shore; The Red River Shore) [Laws M26] (File: LM26)

Green Broom

DESCRIPTION: Old broom-cutter tells his lazy son to get to work cutting broom. The boy does, then takes it to market to sell. A lady hears him, and has him brought in, where she proposes marriage to him. They wed, as the lady sings his praises.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1720 (Pills to Purge Melancholy, under the title "The Jolly Broom-Man: Or the unhappy BOY turn'd Thrifty')
KEYWORDS: love marriage work worker courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 104-105, "Broom, Green Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 88-89, "Green Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 93, "Broom Dasher"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 10, "Jack and His Brooms" (2 texts)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 152-153, "The Green Broom" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 422)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 56, "Green Broom" (1 text)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 65, "Green Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #10, "Green Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #96, "Green Brooms" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #122, p. 2, "The Broom-Cutter"; #124, pp. 2-3, "The Broom-Cutter" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan5 950, "The Broom-Cutter" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 49, "Green Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 223, "Green Brooms" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 76, "Green Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H147, p. 474, "Green Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 82, "Little Girleen With the Curling Poll Would You Buy Brooms" (1 text)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 32, "Green Broom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #120, pp. 98-99, "(There was an old man, and he liv'd in a wood)" (first half of the song only)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 166, "(There was an old man)" (1 fragment)
DT, GRNBROOM* GRNBROM2*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #139, "Green Broome" (1 text)
Roud #379
RECORDINGS:
Sam Larner, "Green Broom" (on SLarner02)
Sean McDonagh, "Green Brooms" (on FSB3)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(156), "The Green Broom," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 16(108a), Firth b.26(294), Firth b.25(38), Firth c.18(205), "Green Brooms"; Harding B 28(93), "Jack and His Brooms"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jack and His Brooms
NOTES [85 words]: Found in Gammer Gurton's Garland, according to Sharp, and also in Pills to Purge Melancholy. -PJS
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 93 is listed twice: as "Broom Dasher" and "Twas of a Broom Dasher." The "Twas of a Broom Dasher" entry says, "The words are incomplete in the manuscript." The notes to "Broom Dasher" -- with a slightly different text -- says, "It is obvious that these are but fragments." - BS
Not to be confused with "The Broomfield Hill," also sometimes found under the title "Green Broom." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ShH49

Green Brooms

See Green Broom (File: ShH49)

Green Bushes, The [Laws P2]

DESCRIPTION: The singer courts a girl he meets by chance, offering her fine clothes if she will marry him. Although clothes do not interest her, she is willing to marry, even though she is already pledged. Her former love arrives and comments bitterly on her falseness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (in the play "The Green Bushes" by Buckstone); before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 30)
KEYWORDS: courting love clothes infidelity
FOUND IN: US(NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland,England(All)) Ireland
REFERENCES (31 citations):
Laws P2, "The Green Bushes"
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 47-48, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 42-43, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #45, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 40, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 173-174, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 126, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 48, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 38, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 240-241, "Down by the Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 397, "Green Bushes" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 57, "The Green Bushes" (1 text)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 16, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 170-171, "The Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 156, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 20, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #64, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #43, "The Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H143, p. 395, "The Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 147, "Green Bushes" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 30, "The Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 84, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 19, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 120-121, "Green Bushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 246-247, "Way Down by the Green Bushes" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 66, "Green Bushes" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, p. 246, "Green Bushes" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 195, "Green Bushes" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #822, p. 55, "The Green Bushes" (1 reference)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 134-135, "The Green Bushes" (1 text)
DT 491, GREEBUSH*
Roud #1040
RECORDINGS:
Geoff Ling, "The Green Bushes" (on Voice01)
Thomas Moran, "Green Bushes" (on FSBFTX15)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 30, "Among the Green Bushes, &c," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.18(145), "The False Lover" ("As I was a walking one morning in May"), unknown, handwritten note "1827"; Harding B 11(52), Harding B 17(4b), Harding B 11(51), Harding B 11(53), "The False Lover"; Harding B 11(52), Harding B 17(4b), Harding B 11(51), Harding B 11(53), Firth c.18(147), "Among the Green Bushes"; 2806 b.10(80), Harding B 11(3102), "Down by the Green Bushes"; Firth c.18(146), Harding B 20(64), Johnson Ballads 512, 2806 c.8(194), 2806 d.31(71), 2806 c.17(157), Harding B 11(1416), Harding B 11(1889), Harding B 18(220), "Green Bushes" [same as LOCSinging as104920]; cf. Bodleian, Firth c.18(79), "Nut Bushes" ("As I walked out cne [sic] evening"), unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.13.310, "The Nut Bushes" (partially illegible)
LOCSinging, as104920, "The Green Bushes," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859 [same as Bodleian Harding B 18(220)]; also sb10147a, as101350, "The Green Bushes"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cutty Wren" (tune)
cf. "Farewell to Tarwathie" (tune)
cf. "Queen of the May" (theme)
cf. "The Shepherd's Lament" (theme, floating lyrics)
cf. "False Mallie" (theme: a man driven "mad" by a woman's infidelity)
cf. "Lovely Annie" (one verse and theme: a man driven "mad" by a woman's infidelity)
NOTES [387 words]: Not to be confused with the song called "Behind the Green Bush" in Huntington. The latter appears to be derived from a minstrel piece (the lovers are "Damon" and "Pastora"), and does not appear to be traditional.
The broadside text "The Nut Bushes" is very like some versions of this song, but with a somewhat different ending, which Ben Schwartz describes as follows: "Singer meets Molly who is singing that she is to meet her lover below the nut bushes. He promises fine clothes if she will marry. She refuses. Her lover comes. Singer is frantic at losing Molly. His Captain threatens to send him to Bedlam."
As Ben says, "The Captain threatening the singer with Bedlam convinces me that the singer is a sailor; 'Molly' rejecting a sailor bound to Bedlam" is the plot line of 'False Mallie.' However, 'Nut Bushes' shares neither text nor structure with that ballad. The last verse -- the only one to name Molly and the only one to mention Bedlam -- is shared almost word for word with 'Lovely Annie'; the significant differences are the committer ('Captain' vs 'master') and the name of the woman." On that basis, I'm treating "Nut Bushes" as a redaction of this song, and filing it here because there is little evidence it exists in tradition. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as104920: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
One of the Bodleian broadsides, Johnson Ballads fol. 30, has the written date "1827" though the printer is not known. In any case, broadside Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 30 predates the 1845 play by Buckstone. - BS
Or at least its publication; Buckstone was not a very successful author, though certainly prolific. The Londoner (1802-1879), who was an actor as well as a writer, is credited by The New Century Handbook of English Literature (ed. Clarence L. Barnhart with William D. Haley, revised edition, Meredith Publishing, 1967) with "200 melodramas and farces," but Larousse's Biographical Dictionary counts only 150, none of them being of any note. (My quick check revealed the names of only three pieces by Buckstone, and none of the contents.)
Buckstone did do a tour of the U. S. in 1840; it is thus possible that he introduced the British song in America. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LP02

Green Carpet

DESCRIPTION: "On the green carpet here we stand, Take your true love by the hand, Take the one whom you profess To be the one whom you love best." "Oh what a beautiful choice you've made... Give her a kiss, and send her away, And tell her she can no longer stay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell)
KEYWORDS: playparty marriage love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 46-47, "On the Green Carpet" (1 text, 1 tune, which seems to mix "Green Carpet" and "Oats and Beans")
File: Lins46

Green Cockade (I), The

See The Summer Morning (The White/Blue/Green Cockade) (File: StoR068)

Green Cockade (II), The

DESCRIPTION: In 1782 the Volunteers "won for Ireland full free trade" in return for Irish aid. In 1789 the Volunteers surrounded King William's statue "proclaiming Ireland should be free." But "the Irish divided, the English gained And Ireland once again was chained"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Madden's _Literary Remains of the United Irishmen of 1798_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: England Ireland patriotic political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 4, "The Green Cockade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V37861
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(266), "The Green Cockade," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shamrock Cockade" (subject of the 1782 Volunteers)
cf. "The Song of the Volunteers" (subject of the 1782 Volunteers)
cf. "The Dungannon Convention" (for that event)
NOTES [313 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 p. 1: "On St Patrick's Day, 1778, the first company of Belfast Volunteers was formed in response to the danger of a possible war between Britain and France. [According to Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, A History of Ireland, p. 186, the year was 1777, though few other companies formed until 1778.] The movement spread like wildfire and soon there were companies in all parts of Ireland. At their height they numbered 100,000 members. By the following year they had become politicized and swung their weight behind the so-called Patriot Party, those in favour of legislative independence from the British parliament and the removal of impediments to Irish commerce."
[Moylan lists the following] Irish Volunteer Society protests
February 15, 1782 - Volunteer Convention in Dungannon, Co. Tyrone
September 8, 1783 - Volunteer Convention in Dungannon, Co. Tyrone
November 4, 1779 - Volunteers parade at "the site, at the time, of an equestrian statue of King William. They had signs fixed to their cannon which read 'Free Trade or This'." - BS
For more on the Volunteers and their effect on Anglo-Irish relations, see the notes to "The Song of the Volunteers." The references to Irish unity accomplishing much are quite accurate; even before Grattan's Parliament (for which see "Ireland's Glory") gave Ireland a measure of independence, the Irish had shown that they could sometimes act on their own -- Mike Cronin, A History of Ireland, p. 94 writes that the Irish "could, when they operated as a single block, defeat the will of the British Parliament"; he notes on pp. 93-98 several instances of this in the period 1750-1780. But he also notes that they were usually not united, and when not united, the British could almost always manipulate the results to their own ends. And then, of course, came 1798, and the whole thing fell down. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Moyl004

Green Corn (I)

See Black-Eyed Susie (Green Corn) (File: R568)

Green Corn (II)

See Hot Corn, Cold Corn (I'll Meet You in the Evening) (File: R267)

Green Erin

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls happy times in Erin with Norah and their child. Years later he has returned. "But dark is my home and wild wild its trees wave For my wife and my baby are dust in the grave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love return death Ireland nonballad baby wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1241, "Green Erin" (1 text)
Roud #6782
File: GrD61241

Green Eyes, Greedy Eyes

DESCRIPTION: "Green eyes, greedy eyes, Brown eyes, pick the pies, Blue eyes tell lies."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty colors
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 126, "(Green eyes, greedy eyes)" (1 text); p. 130, "(Green eyes, greedy eyes)" (the same text)
Roud #19925?
File: SuSm126C

Green Fields

See Once There Were Greenfields (File: ACSF543O)

Green Fields and Meadows, The

See The Silver Dagger (I) [Laws G21] (File: LG21)

Green Fields of America (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to Ireland. His parents weep to leave but he wants a trouble-free life in America with no taxes or tithes. We must follow "our manufacturies" across the Atlantic. "The landlords and bailiffs" have driven us from home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Bodleian Harding 2806 b.10(70))
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell poverty America
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 156-158, "The Green Fields of Canada" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GRNFLDA3* GRNCANAD
Roud #2290
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "The Green Fields of Amerikay" (on IRPTunney01); "The Green Fields of Canada" (on Voice04); "Green Fields of Canada" (on IRPTunney02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(70), "Green Fields of America" ("Farewell to the land of Shillelagh and shamrock"), H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Harding B 11(1413), Harding B 11(3626), Harding B 11(2600), "Green Fields of America"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Emigrant's Farewell" (theme)
NOTES [85 words]: Many versions of this song note that there are "no taxes or tithes to devour up our wages" in America. While this obviously is not true (America always had at least some taxes, even if only on the sale of taxable items), the freedom from the tithe was very important. For many years, Irish Catholics were charged a tithe which went to the (Anglican) Church of Ireland. Ireland was not entirely freed of the tithe until the mid-nineteenth century, though after 1838 it was up to the landlords to administer it. - RBW
File: DTgrncan

Green Fields of America (II), The

See The Emigrant's Farewell (File: HHH743)

Green Fields of America (III), The

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "The poet asks for bread and soup and lots of it."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 163, "Green Fields of America, The" (1 text)
NOTES [39 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin.
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin: "Our text has the look of a chorus.... The usual words... bear no relation to our text." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC163

Green Fields of Canada, The

See The Green Fields of America (File: DTgrncan)

Green Fields Round Ferbane, The

DESCRIPTION: "I curse the day that I sailed away From my dear little Isle so green." The singer recalls his youth and some friends he'll see no more. "The lust for gold it soon grows cold." "I'll turn my face from this awful place" and go home to stay.
AUTHOR: John Mary Doyle (1896-1969) (source: notes to IRHardySons)
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (IRHardySons)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration return Ireland gold
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #17891
RECORDINGS:
Big John Maguire, "The Green Fields of Ferbane" (on IRHardySons)
File: RcGFRFe

Green Flag of Erin

DESCRIPTION: An song favoring "De Valera" over Colonel Lynch and his supporters, who "our country have sold" for the East Clare MP seat. The rest of the song is about "the banner of freedom, The Green White and Gold," the flag of the "republic we'll have"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (IRClare01)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1917 - Eamon De Valera defeats Patrick Lynch in the East Clare MP bi-election
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #18469
RECORDINGS:
Michael Flanagan, "Green Flag of Erin" (on IRClare01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "DeValera Election Song" (subject)
NOTES [155 words]: Notes to IRClare01: "The East Clare by-election of 1917 played a vital part in the movement towards Irish independence.... Newly released from prison and having narrowly avoided execution for his part in the Rebellion, Eamon De Valera easily took the seat." - BS
Not only was De Valera elected to the British parliament on July 11, 1917, but he was even elected to a seat that had formerly been held by the brother of John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Nationalist party (i.e. the moderate Irish faction); see Terry Golway, For the Cause of Liberty, p. 251. This was the third in a series of by-elections in which pro-Republic candidates defeated "Nationalist" (moderate) candidates (see Peter and Fiona Somerset fry, A History of Ireland, pp. 296-296). It was one of the first major tokens of the shift in feeling in Ireland from a desire for Home Rule to a desire for something less dependent on the British government. - RBW
File: RcGrFlEr

Green Flag, The

DESCRIPTION: "Hibernia's sons, the patriot band" are united, patriotic, and hope the time will come to punish the English "landlords, absentees, and knaves" "Hibernia then will raise her head, The green flag wide extending ... Justice then begins her reign"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (_Paddy's Resource_(Philadelphia), according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: England Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 10, "The Green Flag" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Moyl010

Green Flowers O

DESCRIPTION: Anna Lee wonders whether "God forgot in his creating hours" to create flowers "with petals tinged of green." She finds one. The singer has never seen another.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (NFOBlondahl03)
KEYWORDS: flowers religious
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Green Flowers O" (on NFOBlondahl03)
NOTES [101 words]: Blondahl03 has no liner notes confirming that this song was collected in Newfoundland. Barring another report for Newfoundland I do not assume it has been found there. There is no entry for "Green Flowers O" in Newfoundland Songs and Ballads in Print 1842-1974 A Title and First-Line Index by Paul Mercer. - BS
There is a biological reason why flowers aren't green: Most pollinators (bees, hummingbirds, etc.) are programmed to seek non-green colors when looking for nectar. A green flower would attract little attention -- and so the mutation, even if successful in other regards, would likely die out. - RBW
File: RcGrFloO

Green Garden

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Green Grass (I)

DESCRIPTION: "A dis, a dis, a green grass, A dis, a dis, a dis, Come all you pretty fair maids, And dance along with us." The singer goes a-roving, takes a girl by the hand, and promises her a prince. If the prince dies, she shall have another. All clap hands.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Robert Chambers, _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 106-107, "Tripping Up the Green Grass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 17, "Green Grass" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #645, p. 256, "(A dis, a dis, a green grass)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 62, "(A dis, a dis, a green grass)" (1 text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #3, "Here Comes a Duke" (4 texts, three of them being "Three Dukes," the last being this); #4, "Tread, Tread the Green Grass" (1 text); #161, "Tread the Green Grass" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1844 ("Digitized by Google")), #271 p. 154, ("Trip trap over the grass")
Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1847 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 375, "A Dis, A Dis, A Green Grass" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #215, "Green Grass" (1 text)
Roud #1381
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Walking on the Green Grass"
NOTES [25 words]: Roud lumps this with "Walking on the Green Grass," apparently on the basis that they're both playparties about green grass. They look distinct to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: BGMG645

Green Grass (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Green grass, green grass, Growing up so high, For you are the one that I love best, And (Susie) come up to me." If she says no, "You naughty girl, you sassy girl, You ought to be ashamed, For you are the one that I live best, And Susie come up again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 125, "Green Grass" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wallflowers" (lyrics)
NOTES [29 words]: This might be derived from "Green Grass (I)," or "Walking on the Green Grass," or something, but it's so short that it's hard to be sure of the source, so I split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: ByGo125A

Green Grass Grew All Round, The

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

Green Grass Growing All Around, The

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

Green Grass It Grows Bonnie

See I Wonder What Is Keeping My True Love Tonight (Green Grass It Grows Bonny) (File: K157)

Green Grass, The

See The Seasons of the Year (File: BrMa143)

Green Grassy Slopes of the Boyne, The

See The Green Grassy Slopes (File: OrLa003)

Green Grassy Slopes, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going to speak ... of the deeds that were done by King William, On the green grassy slopes of the Boyne." "Praise God for sending us King William." "If ever our service is needed" we "will join, And fight, like valiant King William"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1895 (Graham-TheOrangeSongster)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 1, 1690 - Battle of the Boyne. William III crushes the Irish army of James, at once securing his throne and the rule of Ireland. Irish resistance continues for about another year, but Ireland east of the Shannon is his, and the opposition is doomed.
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 3, "The Green Grassy Slopes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-TheOrangeSongster, p. 22, "The Green Grassy Slopes of the Boyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 186, "On the green grassy slopes of the Boyne" (1 short text)
Roud #37298
NOTES [21 words]: For the Battle of the Boyne, see "The Battle of the Boyne (I)"; for the political background, see also "The Vicar of Bray." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OrLa003

Green Grave, The

See The Unquiet Grave [Child 78] (File: C078)

Green Gravel

DESCRIPTION: "Green gravel, green gravel, Your (bank/grass) is so green; The fairest young damsel I ever have seen." Usually a short lyric of praise for a girl, then a report that the girl's love is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Gomme); c.1835 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: courting death river playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,West)) US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Ireland Canada(Ont) New Zealand
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 26-27, "Green Gravel"; Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 27, "Around the Green Gravel" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph 532, "Green Gravel" (2 short texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 109, "Green Gravel"; p. 110, "Green Gravel" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 129, "Green Gravel" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 510, "Green Gravel" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #130, "Green Gravel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 7-8, "Green Gravel" (2 short texts, 1 tune)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 6, "Green Gravel, Green Gravel" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 75-78, "Green Gravel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H48b, p. 10, "Green Gravel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 10, "Green Gravel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 63, "(Green Gravel, Green Gravel)" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, p. 188, "Green Gravel" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 10-11, "Green Gravel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 54, "Green Gravel" (6 texts, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #15, "Green Gravel" (1 short text, 1 tune); #172, "Green Gravel" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, pp. 40-41, "Green Gravel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #160, "Green gravel, green gravel" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 289-290, "Green Gravel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 26, "(Green gravels, green gravels)" (1 text)
DT, GRNGRAVL*
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, A.F. Chamberlain, "Folk-Lore of Canadian Children," Vol. VIII, No. 30 (Jul 1895), p. 254 "Green Gravel" (1 text) (Toronto, 1893)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, E. J. Ladbury, "Scraps of English Folklore, VIII. Worcestershire," Vol. XXXV, No. 3 (Sep 1924), #7 p. 265 "Green Gravel" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1842 ("Digitized by Google")), #277 p. 148, ("Around the green gravel the grass grows green") (1 text)
Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, p. 79
ST R532 (Full)
Roud #1368
RECORDINGS:
Pratt family, "Green Gravels" (on Ritchie03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Trace-Boy on Ligoniel Hill" (tune)
NOTES [440 words]: Usually tells of a girl whose young man was slain (in the Napoleonic wars?), but in the Ozarks it's a playparty. The Beers Family sings a version in which the young man survives and returns to the girl -- but I wonder if they didn't write that.
Randolph was told that the song "reflects the Irish Catholic's hatred of the Masonic fraternity," but the only evidence I've seen for this is the mention of "free masons" (or corruptions thereof) in a few texts.
By the time Linscott picked it up, it had become a singing game -- and she reports that it wasn't very popular because "it called for little energy or imagination." She thought it described the process of laying out the dead, but there is no hint of that in her words.
Lowry Charles Wimberly, Folklore in the English and Scottish Ballads: Ghosts, Magic, Witches, Fairies, the Otherworld, 1928 (I use the 1965 Dover paperback edition), p. 243, suggests that the green gravel of the song is an abortifacient, pointing out that there is a version of "Tam Lin" [Child 39] in which Janet seeks to use "gravil green" to end her pregnancy. But I've yet to see a version of this song which seems to refer to pregnancy. But he also noted that green was a color associated with death and mourning, so perhaps the green gravel is a sign of the lover being dead.
The "Green gravel" refrain may perhaps be from a nursery rhyme from Halliwell (see Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #326, p.177):
Around the green gravel the grass grows green,
And all the pretty maids are plain to be seen;
Wash them with milk, and clothe them with silk,
And write their names with a pen and ink
- RBW
Are all forms of this song really games and nursery rhymes? Even the "straight versions" that follow the description above may be from a game. Hammond-SongsOfBelfast describes his version as "a funeral game, a bare and simple acceptance of death and change, a 'ceremony of innocence.'" Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs says "this dismal little game ... is obviously a dramatic representation of mourning, and the suggested explanation of 'green gravel' as a corruption of 'green grave' ["green grave, O"?] is almost undoubtedly the right one."
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "Green Gravel" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959))
Sean O Boyle, notes to David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland": "Irishmen like to think that the mysterious name ['Green Gravel'] is a folk rationalization of 'An Glas Gaibhlinn,' the name of a fabulous Irish cow whose milk never ran dry." - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R532

Green Gravel, Green Gravel

See Green Gravel (File: R532)

Green Gravels, Green Gravels

See Green Gravel (File: R532)

Green Green

See Rocky Road (Green Green) (File: CNFM154)

Green Green Rocky Road

See Rocky Road (Green Green) (File: CNFM154)

Green Grow the Laurels

See Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs) (File: R061)

Green Grow the Laurels (II)

See Lovely Willie [Laws M35] (File: LM35)

Green Grow the Leaves

DESCRIPTION: "O green grow the leaves on the (hawthorn) tree, Some grow high and some grow low; With this wrangling and this jangling We never shall agree, And the tenor of our song goes merrily."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, p. 206, "Marden Forfeit Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Leath206 (Full)
Roud #2121
NOTES [43 words]: This seems to be known mostly as a singing game, but Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire reports that her version, which has a counting-down chorus, was sung as a forfeit -- that is, if you missed one of the numbers, you had to drink a penalty. Hence her title. - RBW
File: Leath206

Green Grow the Lilacs

See Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs) (File: R061)

Green Grow the Rashes (II)

See Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs) (File: R061)

Green Grow the Rashes, O

DESCRIPTION: "There's naught but care on ev'ry han' In ev'ry hour that passes, O." In praise of women and love: "Green grow the rashes, O... The sweetest hours that e'er are spent Are spent amang the lasses, O." Other texts may be more explicitly bawdy
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1794
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad seduction bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #121, p. 2, ("Green grows the rashes O"); "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 14-15, ("Green grows the rashes, O") (2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan7 1297, "Green Grows the Rashes O" (1 text)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 66, "Green Grows the Rushes-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 98, "Green Grow the Rashes O" (1 fragment consisting of the chorus, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #825, p. 55, "Green Grow the Rushes, O!" (2 references)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 97-99, "Green Grow the Rushes O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 160, "Green Grow The Rashes, O" (1 text)
DT, GRRASH* (the standard version) GRRASH1* (bawdy)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #45, pp. 43-44, "Green grow the Rashes. A Fragment" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1784/1785); cf. #124, "A fragment" (1 text, with the "Green grow the Rashes" chorus but different lyrics)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume I, #77, p. 78, "Green grows the Rashes" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST SBoA097 (Full)
Roud #2772
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 25, "Green Grow the Rashes," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838
NLScotland, RB.m.168(207), "Green Grow the Rashes," J. Pitts (London), 1820-1844
NOTES [381 words]: Not to be confused with the ritual/religious "Green Grow the Rushes, O." - RBW
Broadside NLScotland, RB.m.168(207): the imprint "Pitts, Printer, Wholesale Toy and Marble Warehouse, 6, Great St. Andrew Street, Seven Dials" is dated "between 1819 and 1844" at Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue; date shown is NLScotland "probable period of publication."
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin is from Delaney's Scottish Song Book. The title of the song is in Cronin's song list.
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick is from the chorus as in the description above.
A description for Greig/Duncan7: The world's troubles are caused by women. Samson slew a thousand but a woman "his great strength subdued." King David paid dearly "when fair Bathsheba caught his eye." The first verse ends "the sourest hours the wardle saw Sprang frae the wives and lasses O." - BS
Samson, in fact, had enough woman trouble to be a twenty-first century sports star. In Judges 14:1-15:8, he becomes enamored of a Philistine woman, and engages in terrorism against the Philistines when the marriage plans don't work out. In 16:1-3, he hired a prostitute in Gaza and was trapped in the city, but escaped by tearing down the city gate. And only then, in Judges 16:4-31, did he become involved with Delilah, to whom the Greig/Duncan song clearly refers, since she was able to trick him into revealing the secret of his strength, allowing the Philistines to capture and blind him.
David's interest in Bathsheba is told in 2 Samuel 11 -- David spies Bathsheba, Uriah's wife, and sleeps with her. Then, to cover his crime, he has Uriah killed. Most of the rest of 2 Samuel is devoted to working out the consequences of this: Bathsheba's first child by David dies soon after birth (2 Samuel 12:15-25), David's heir Amnon rapes his half-sister Tamar (2 Samuel 13:1-22), Amnon's half-brother Absalom kills Amnon (2 Samuel 13:23-38), Absalom rebels and deposes David, then is killed in his turn (2 Samuel 15-18).
Jim Dixon points out to me that a song which is marked as being to the tune of "Green Grow the Rushes O" and with the same meter as the Burns song, is found in The History of Pudica, a Lady of N-rf-lk by Richard Gardiner (London,: M. Cooper, 1754; available on Google Books), p. 96. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: SBoA097

Green Grow the Rushes (III)

See Lovely Willie [Laws M35] (File: LM35)

Green Grow the Rushes (World War II version)

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing you one-oh, Green grow the rushes, oh. What is your one-oh.... Number one is the old C.O. And ever more shall be so." Similarly for Two, the second in command, on up no nine, the boys in the firing line and ten for the C.O.'s rover
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: cumulative soldier war derivative
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 55-57, "Green Grow the Rushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #133
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grow the Rushes-O (The Twelve Apostles, Come and I Will Sing You)" (theme and structure)
NOTES [41 words]: Roud lumps this with the "straight" "Green Grow the Rushes-O (The Twelve Apostles, Come and I Will Sing You)," from which it is patently derived, but although the form is familiar, the text is completely rewritten, so I have separated them. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hopk066

Green Grow the Rushes O (II)

See Green Grow the Rashes, O (File: SBoA097)

Green Grow the Rushes-Ho!

See Green Grow the Rushes-O (The Twelve Apostles, Come and I Will Sing You) (File: ShH97)

Green Grow the Rushes-O (The Twelve Apostles, Come and I Will Sing You)

DESCRIPTION: Cumulative song with religious themes e.g., "I'll sing you three-o/Green grow the rushes-o/What is your three-o/Three for the Hebrew children/Two, two, the lily-white babes/clothed all in green-o/One is one and all alone and evermore shall be so."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (Sandys, _Christmas Carols--Ancient and Modern_)
KEYWORDS: ritual cumulative religious nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West),Scotland),US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (40 citations):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 207, "The Ten Commandments" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 97, "The Ten Commandments" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 605, "The Twelve Apostles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 425-429, "The Twelve Apostles" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 605)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 50, "The Dilly Song" (2 texts; the first starts with the number 5!)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 50, "The Dilly Song" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #17, pp. 159-162, "The Twelve Apostles" (1 text, 1 tune, somewhat conjectural)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #37, "The Twelve Apostles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 83-85, "The Twelve Apostles" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 150, "The Twelve Apostles" (1 text)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 187, "Scripture in the Nursery" (1 text)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, pp. 33-35, "The Twelve Commandments (sic.) or The Twelve Apostles" (1 text, 1 tune
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #193, "The Ten Commandments" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 61-62, "Come and I Will Sing You" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 74-75, "I'll Sing You One Ho!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 154-155, "The Twelve Apostles"; Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 156-159, "Green Grow the Rushes, Oh!" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #146, "One, O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 88, "Dus Ha My A Gan Dhys (Come and I Will Sing You)" (1 Cornish text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 37, "Dilly Song" (1 text plus a Cornish translation, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #78, "The Dilly Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 41, "The Twelve Apostles" (2 texts)
Peacock, pp. 800-801, "The Twelve Apostles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 89, "The Twelve Apostles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 23, "Come and I Will Sing You" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 48-49, "The Twelve Apostles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 116, "Green Grow the Rushes, Ho!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 359, "Green Grow the Rushes" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, posts 7-8, "(Green Grow the Rushes-O)" (2 mention, from users Crypto-Willobie and John5918, posted August 28, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 282, 391, "Green Grow the Rushes" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 50-51, "Green Grow the Rushes-Ho" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 57, "Green Grow the Rushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 19, Green grow the Rushes" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 100-101, "Green Grown the Rushes, Oh" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 64, "Green Grow the Rushes-Ho" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 35, "Come Let Us Sing" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GRNRUSH* (see also GRNRUSH2) GRNRUSH5
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 44-47, "Song of Numbers"
Enid Porter, _The Folklore of East Anglia_, Batsford, 1974, p. 69, "(no title)" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928, notes to #258, ("What will be our twelve, boys") (1 text)
Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, pp. 124, "Seven Was the Keys of Heaven" (1 tex)
Roud #133
RECORDINGS:
Patrick Gaffney, "Green Grow the Rushes Oh" (Columbia 350-D, 1925)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Children Go Where I Send Thee" (theme and structure)
cf. "Eleven to Heaven" (theme and structure)
cf. "Green Grow the Rushes (World War II version)" (structure)
SAME TUNE:
Green Grow the Rushes (World War II version) (File: Hopk066)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Singing the Ten Commandments
Holy Babe
NOTES [1237 words]: Chambers, p. 47, cites his source as "a large manuscript collection of hitherto unpublished Scottish songs, by Mr P. Buchan." - BS
This is a song cluster extending as far as the Jewish Passover service, but whether it passed from there to folk song or vice versa is hard to say. -PJS (Sharp and Marson connects it with the Hebrew ritual "Counting the Omer/Song of the Kid" ; Newell links it to the Passover chant "Echod Mi Yodea," a connection supported by Cohen; Archer Taylor tried to link it to Sanskrit roots! - RBW)
[Compare also the American piece "Children Go Where I Send Thee." Botkin prints a text of that song] from a 1942 field recording and remarks:
"The present cumulative song is a version of 'The Carol of the Twelve Numbers' (often known as 'The Dilly Song'). There is a good deal of variation in the symbolism of the twelve numbers, and in the present song their significance has often been lost.
"For texts and notes, see 'The Twelve Apostles,' by Phillips Barry, Bulletin of the Folk-Song Society of the Northeast, Number 9 (1935), pp. 3-4; 'Ballads and Songs,' by George Lyman Kittredge, Journal of American Folklore, Volume XXX (July-September, 1917), pp. 335-337; 'The Carol of the Twelve Numbers,' by William Wells Newell, ibid., Volume IV (July-September, 1891), pp. 215-220; and 'The Carol of the Twelve Numbers,' by Leah Rachel Clara Yoffie, Southern Folklore Quarterly, Volume IV (June, 1940), pp. 73-75." - NR
Not to be confused with Burns's "Green Grow the Rashes-O," or with the "Green Grows the Laurel/Lilacs" family.
The Cornish words printed by Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland are by Talek and Ylewyth; they are translated from an English version, though Kennedy lists versions in other languages.
Some people consider this to be a variation of "Children Go Where I Send Thee"; since I'm not sure, I split them.
Bob Stewart, Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, p. 74, claims that "The 'Dilly Song' is surely the best known and most popular of all true folksongs." As with most Stewart comments, he offers neither data no description of just what he was drinking when he came up with this idea. Probably he is another who lumps it with a wide variety of other songs. The version he prints, from the Barton Hill Mummers' Play (Bristol), appears rather untypical of tradition -- although very suitable for the rather strange interpretations he will use.
He suggests that the imagery comes from the Qabalah and ideas of the tree of life. (And Palmer actually finds this convincing.) I will agree only in the sense that, although the sense of the song is religious, many of the references are in no sense Biblical. The following annotated version will demonstrate the point, with observations on Biblical links (where there are any) plus what Stewart thinks each number stands for:
I'll sing you one, O
Green grow the rushes, O
What is your one, O
One is one and all alone and evermore shall be so. -- Refers to God or Jesus or both. Clearly it is a reference to the essential unity of God. (Even Stewart, p. 77, agrees with this, which tells you how certain it is -- although he makes a great deal more out of a basic Hebrew formula than the evidence is worth.)
Two, two, lily-white boys, clothed all in green, O -- Non-biblical. Stewart, p. 78, suggests that it links to "The Twa Brothers" [Child 49]! Baring-Gould suggested astrological Gemini twins Castor and Pollux. If we do look for Biblical twins, we have Jacob and Esau, and Judah's sons Perez and Zerah, but the latter pair are not personalities, and there is no hint that the former brothers were ever clothed all in green -- and then never got along.
Three, three, the rivals -- Who knows what this refers to? Not explicitly Biblical. The "three" may be the Trinity. although Stewart denies this; he offers a rather incoherent but Gnostic-sounding explanation
Four for the gospel makers -- Matthew, Mark, Luke John. Stewart, pp. 82-84, goes off on a long discussion of the four beasts associated with the Evangelists (man, eagle, lion, and bull), which he ties into what sound like Gnostic ideas. Here his information is so patently incomplete as to be absurd -- he ignores the use of the symbols in very early Gospel manuscripts, when the sort of heretical ideas he discusses were abhorrent to the Church.
Five for the symbols at your door -- ritual, not Biblical. (Though five could represent the five books of Moses). Stewart, pp. 84-85, connects this with the points of the pentagram, or with the sphere of Mars in the Tree of Life.
Six for the six proud walkers -- Got me (Brown A has "Firemen in the boat." Which doesn't help. Brown B has "ferrymen in the boat," which sounds rather like Charon). Stewart, p. 85, suggests that it is the Saint George whom he claims drowns in his longboat in the "Padstow May Song," whom he in turn links to the murderer in "Edward" [Child 13]. He suggests that the six proud walkers come from "The Joys of Mary."
Seven for the seven stars in the sky -- I'd blame this on J.R.R. Tolkien if it weren't so old. :-) (These would be the Pleiades, important to agricultural peoples as a sign of spring and planting season. - PJS.) Stewart, p. 86 also mentions the Pleiades, but again rings in the Tree of Life as well, and the crown of heaven, and druidic legend.
Eight for the April rainers -- Another ritual oddity (Brown: Eight archangels. Most traditions say there are *seven* archangels, though the Bible doesn't name them all and the Koran gives a different list. The figure eight might be the seven plus an unknown "head of the order")
Nine for the nine bright shiners -- Ditto (Brown: Nine is the night that the star shone bright!). Stewart, np. 87, notes versions which mention pale moonshine, and notes taht Luna, the Moon, was associated with fertility.
Ten for the Ten Commandments -- Ex. 20:2-17; Deut. 5:6-21. Stewart has a reference to the Qabalistic tenth sphere. I could imagine an obscure reference of this sort being corrected to a reference to the Commandments, but Stewart appears to have no actual basis for his tie-in except the number ten.
Eleven for the eleven who went to heaven -- The Twelve Disciples (Matt. 10:2-4; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 10:14-16; Acts 1:13), less Judas Iscariot. Despite this obvious Biblical reference, Stewart links this to the abyss separating the Qabalistic spheres..
Twelve for the twelve Apostles -- same as the above, with either Judas or Matthias (Acts 1:23-26) added. Stewart, p. 88. rings in the twelve signs of the Zodiac as well.
In the Department of Strange Footnotes, this song helped inspire a minor moment in Lloyd Alexander's well-known "Chronicles of Prydain," although not a very happy one. According to Michael O. Tunnell, THe Prydain Companion: A Reference Guide to Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles, 1989 (I use the 2003 Henry Holt hardcover), pp. 211-212, "Alexander discovered the Proud Walkers when reading about a Celtic archaeological find.... 'In rituals and ceremonies... (ancient, barbaric customs) indeed there were people walking around on stilts. I saw the term Proud Walkers, and it suddenly connected in my mind with that old folk songs, "Green Grow the Rushes-o"' (Alexander, 1986b). Alexander goes on to explain that one line of the song speaks of the Proud Walksers. From these sources were born the Proud Walkers in The Book of Three." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ShH97

Green Grow the Rushes, Ho!

See Green Grow the Rushes-O (The Twelve Apostles, Come and I Will Sing You) (File: ShH97)

Green Grow The Rushes, Oh! (II -- Singing Game)

DESCRIPTION: "Green grow the rushes, oh! (x2), Kiss her quick and let her go, Never mind the weather if the wind don't blow." "Though she wears a checkered gown, He and she must both kneel down...." "Give her a kiss and send her away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 11-13, "Green Grow the Rushes, Oh!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #7, "Green Grow the Rushes, O!" (1 short text, probably this)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 69, "(Green grow the rushes O!)" (1 short text, probably this)
Roud #12979
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Crooked Ring" (lyrics)
NOTES [89 words]: Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland describes this as a kissing game, and seems to link it to the "Green Grows the Laurel" family. In fact it seems to partake of many other songs ("Green Grow the Rushes," "Hop High Ladies," etc.), and the mix is complex enough that I gave it its own entry. Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren's text is some sort of ring game, much shorter, but since it's a singing game with a "Green grow the rushes" line, it seemed best to file it here. Roud seems to have a different set of song divisions. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Lins011

Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments, "I once had a sweetheart but now I have none." (S)he wrote him a letter; the reply says to stop writing. (His/her) very looks are full of venom. (S)he wonders why men and women love each other
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (in U.S., according to Studwell); before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.18(245))
KEYWORDS: love rejection parting colors ring floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord),England(Lond,North)) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (37 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 490-491, "Green Grows the Laurel" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Randolph 61, "The Orange and Blue" (3 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 118-121, "The Orange and Blue" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 61A)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 280, "Red, White, and Blue" (3 texts with an interesting assortment of green-growing flowers); also probably 282, "I Sent My Love a Letter" (3 texts, of which "B" is clearly this; "A" is "Down in the Valley" and "C" is a mess with some "Down in the Valley" verses and others about Lulu; it's not clear which Lulu)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 280, "Red, White, and Blue" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 77, "Green Frows the Laurel" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 91A, "Green Grows the Laurel"; 91B, "Green Grow the Lilacs" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 163-164, "Green Grow the Lilacs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 331-332, "The Orange and the Blue" (3 texts, all short, with local titles "Red, White and Blue," "Green Grows the Laurel," "Green Grows the Laurel"; 2 tunes on pp. 445-446)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 156, "Green Grows the Laurel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 63-64, "Green Grow the Lilacs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, "Green Laurel" (1 text plus an excerpt)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 286-288, "The One O" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 20)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #52, "Orange and Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 158, "Green Grows the Laurel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #46, "Green Grow the Laurels" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H165a+b, p. 260, "Green Grow the Rashes (Green Grows the Laurel)" (2 texts, 2 tunes, though both are strongly mixed with something like "If I Were a Fisher"); also H624, p. 349, "I Am a Wee Laddie, Hard, Hard Is My Fate" (1 text, 1 tune, also probably a composite of this and something else)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 29, "Green Grows the Laurel" (2 texts; the "A" text is probably mixed with some other lost love song)
Peacock, pp. 454-455, "Green Grows the Laurel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 20, "I Wrote My Love a Letter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 29-30, "Green Grows the Laurel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 44, "I Once Loved a Lass" (1 text, 1 tune, from LaRena (Mrs. Gordon) Clark, which begins with verses probably from "The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass," continues with stanzas from "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)," then has a "My love is like a dewdrop" stanza often found in "Farewell He," and includes several other lyrics that might have floated in)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 113-114, "Green Grows the Laurel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan6 1138, "Green Grows the Laurels" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #70, p. 2, "Green Grows the Laurel"; #153, p. 3, ("Come all ye roving young men") (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 182, "Green Grows the Laurel" (1 text); also p. 187, "The Rose and the Thyme" (1 text, mostly "I Wonder What Is Keeping My True Love Tonight" but with several verses which probably belong here)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #64, p. 229-230, "Green Grow the Laurels" (1 text, 1 tune, with the first three verses being "Green Grows the Laurels"; the stanza form then shifts, with a few lines typical of "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)," and a broken token conclusion too short to identify)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 66-67, 151, "Green Grows the Laurels" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, pp. 94-95, "Green Grows the Laurel" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 130, "Sweet William and Nancy" (1 text, mostly "William and Nancy (II) (Courting Too Slow)" [Laws P5] but mixed with this song and other material)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 170, "Green Grows the Laurel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #161, "Green grows the laurel" (1 excerpt)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 139, "The Green Laurels" (2 texts)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 62, "Green Grows the Laurel" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 174, "Green Grow the Lilacs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 165, "Green Grow the Lilacs" (1 text)
DT, GREENGRO* GRENGRO2* WEELADDY* (the last being the mixed Sam Henry version)
Roud #279
RECORDINGS:
Daisy Chapman, "Green Grow the Laurels" (on SCDChapman01)
Robert Cinnamond, "Green Grows the Laurel" (on FSBFTX15)
Mary Delaney, "Green Grows the Laurel" (on IRTravellers01)
Louie Fuller, "Green Grow the Laurels" (on Voice15)
Marie Hare, "Green Grows the Laurel" (on MRMHare01)
Mike Kent, "The Nightengale" (on NFMLeach); "Nightingale Laurels" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Tex Ritter & his Texans, "Green Grow the Lilacs" (Capitol 206, 1945)
Jeannie Robertson, "Green Grow the Laurels" (on FSB01)
Mrs. Clara Stevens, "Green Grows the Laurel" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.18(245), "I Changed the Green Willow for the Orange and Blue", W.S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Will Ye Gang, Love"
cf. "The German Clockwinder" (tune)
cf. "The Ploughboy (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Blackbird and Thrush" (lyrics)
cf. "If I Were a Fisher" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I Wonder What Is Keeping My True Love Tonight (Green Grass It Grows Bonny)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Yellow Handkerchief (Flash Company)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I've Travelled This Country (Last Friday Evening)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Rue and the Thyme (The Rose and the Thyme)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "A Warning to Girls" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Loved by a Man" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [1254 words]: A legend has it that Mexicans call Americans "Gringos" because, during the Mexican War, the yanquis sang "Green Grow the Lilacs" so often. The term "gringo" is much older than this, however. - RBW
Tristram Coffin [JournalOfAmericanFolklore 65 (1952), p. 342 ff.) and Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice (228) make the point that the colors referred to in the various versions indeed differ, but they point out that the colors refer to plants and their traditional attributes: "green" laurel as a symbol of virginity and faithful love, rue as a symbol of abstinence and therefore faithfulness ("rue" later often changed to dew"), while "origin" refers to "origin blue -- blue bastard marjoram-thyme," with both marjoram and thyme "closely related to fertility and virility" (Coffin 343). So, writes Coffin, it would make sense after a long period of separation to exchange the "green laurel's" virginity for the "blue" of fertility in marriage. As regards to "origin," John Greenway notes "Herbs of the genus Origanum, often called 'origane' and 'origin,' being closely related to herbs of the genus Marjorana, are frequently called 'bastard marjoram'" (Cited in Coffin, p. 343). Thus it could well be that the significance of the colors is far more "herbal" "and "social" than "historical-political." While this is can be true generally, we cannot say for sure whether any one specific singer on either side of the Atlantic actively knew of these relationships.
Tristram Coffin follows two strains of the tradition. "Group A", the British (probably original) emphasizes that in spite of the lovers having parted (or sent letters), the singer trusts that they will soon "renew" or consummate their relationship. "Group B", the Scottish and often American, emphasizes that the singer, even after an acrimonious exchange of letters, "hopes" that at their next meeting their "joy will renew" -- in other words a much more tenuous outcome. Both groups often have stanzas wondering how men can love maids, or maids men, when "they" are so deceitful. (Coffin, "A Tentative Study of a Typical Folk Lyric: 'Green Grows the Laurel,'" JournalOfAmericanFolklore 65 (1952), pp. 341-351.)
Jeannie Robertson's version from the Traveller tradition in the northeast of Scotland goes in a different direction: after they have parted and letters are rejected, a stranger appears to the singer, offers the singer castle, gold and silver if she would sleep with him the night. She cares nothing for all that, wishing her Willie were with her that night. He produces the broken token ring, reveals himself to be Willie, come back to marry her. Stated more abstractly, these Northeast variants combine the theme of separated lovers coming to a resolution (positive or negative), plus, in a relatively small subset, the theme of the "false-true lover" producing the broken token. Given, that all the hundreds of various narrative variants in this complex are so embedded in lyric and floating verses, it is probably better to "lump" them rather than try to "split" them. - DGE
Leach does not explain why the title of this cut on NFMLeach is "The Nightengale."
"Cupid's Garden" (I) includes the following lines: "For I mean to live a virgin, And still the Laurel wear" (see, for example, Bodleian broadside Harding B 20(119)). In the language of flowers laurel stands for "perfidy"; the spurge laurel stands for "coquetry"
In Louie Fuller's Voice15 version each verse lists another seducer: the singer, a sailor and a pageboy.
Mary Delaney's version on IRTravellers01 adds verses I haven't seen before: "Now me mamma she blames me For courting too young, She may blame my small beauty And my flattering old tongue. She may blame my small beauty And my dark rolling eye, If my love is not for me And sorry am I." and "Oh then, thank God, agraghy, The case could be worse, I got money in my pocket And gold in my purse, When my baby is born I can pay for a nurse, And I'll pass as a maiden In a strange countery."
William E Studwell, The American Song Reader (New York,1997), on page 101 traces "red, white, and blue" from a Jacobite line "We'll change the green laurel to the bonnet so blue": "Irish-American soldiers in the Mexican War of 1846-1848 sang a version containing their homeland colors at the time, "orange and blue." (The song was published in the United States in 1846, while the war was still going on.) In time, the colors changed to the American national colors "red, white, and blue" and the plant changed from laurel to lilacs, with the ending line becoming "And change the green lilacs to the Red, White and Blue."
The "green laurel" line seems to be from this song, though I haven't seen any other connection to the Jacobite cause. The "blue bonnet" -- often a reference to the Black Watch -- may be a Jacobite reference (see the Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 reference to "Cock Your Beaver"), though I don't even find that to be clear. Was the Orange Order flag -- blue or purple star on an orange background -- or any other flag with Williamite colors -- widely used in 19th century Ireland? [But see "The Protestant Boys": "... loyal Protestants ... Orange and Blue, ever faithful and true, Our King shall support and sedition affright"; also see the Orange Order song "Orange and Blue."] In spite of my reservations, what interests me here is the idea of Irish soldiers singing about "homeland [Orange] colors."
Roy Palmer, in Folk Songs Colected by Ralph Vaughan Williams says "There is a somewhat implausible theory that the song might have had a covert political meaning in Ireland, where green stands for republicanism (though united with orange and white in the tricolour) and the orange and blue for Ulster separatism."
Greig #153 begins "Come all ye roving young men, And listen to me; And never lay your love On the top of a tree." For a parody of this verse see "Come All You Young Men." This is the typical "green grows the laurel" verse with the sexes reversed (at least on the first line).
On the other hand (that is: "orange and blue" are just colors): in eleven Greig/Duncan6 1198 versions of "The Nobleman's Wedding" the bridegroom says, after his lover's death, "First I'll put on is a coat of red [or blue, or green] velvet, And I will wear it for one month or two, Next I'll put on is the green and the yellow, And aye, aye after the orange and blue"; in three more "the green and the yellow" are replaced by "the red and the yellow." I have only seen these colored mourning suits in versions from Scotland (Greig-Duncan, including Greig, and Ord). The Irish versions (Kennedy, McBride and Henry) and North American versions (Sharp, Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland, Peacock, Karpeles and Darling) may mention willow, but no suits. In fact, Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia has the suit verse but substitutes green willow for the suits. Kennedy's notes have (p. 383) a verse with "suits of deep mourning" -- but no colors -- from Donegal, and with the colored suits from North-East Scotland.
The verse "at our next meeting Our love we'll renew, And we'll change the green and yellow To the orange and blue" also floats to "Stone and Lime," where it has nothing to do with mourning suits. So far we only have "Stone and Lime" from Scotland.
The Mike Kent recordings seem mislabelled. There is no "nightingale" in the texts which do have "Green grows the laurels and soft falls the dew." - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: R061

Green Grows the Rushes-O

See Green Grow the Rashes, O (File: SBoA097)

Green Grows the Willow Tree

DESCRIPTION: "Green grows the willow-tree (x3), Up steps a lady with a rose in her hand." "Bargain, bargain, you young man; You promised to marry me a long time ago. You promised to marry me -- you sha'n't say no."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty flowers courting promise
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #169, "Green Grows the Willow-Tree" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Dan Patterson, "A Sheaf of North Carolina Folksongs," Vol. IV, No. 1 (Jul 1956), pp. 30-31, "Green Grows the Willow Tree" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7918
File: Newe169

Green Hills of Antrim, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, dark was the day when I sailed from Cushleake And crossed the wild ocean, my fortune to seek." The singer's new land has beautiful birds and high mountains, but he misses home and Mary Machree "where the green hills of Antrim sweep down to the sea"
AUTHOR: Words: Canon Barnes
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration separation derivative
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H606, p. 208, "The Green Hills of Antrim" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mountains of Mourne" (tune, lyrics)
File: HHH606

Green Hills of Erin, The

See The Green Shores of Fogo (File: Pea522)

Green Hills of Islay, The

DESCRIPTION: "The green hills of Islay (or New Bay), they're far far away" The singer thinks of the glens and hills of home. His mother prays for him and longs for his return. A sweetheart may change an old love for new but the love of a mother is always the same.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: homesickness home return separation nonballad mother
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Alexander MacMillan MacShannon, "The Green Hills of Islay". School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1975.045, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/74841?l=en accessed 7/15/2023
Roud #24801 and 30128
RECORDINGS:
Theresa Butler, "The Green Hills of New Bay" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [31 words]: The MUNFLA/Leach text is a localized version of the Argyllshire text. Islay is an island of the Inner Hebrides; New Bay is on the north coast of Newfoundland. Steve Roud splits the two. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ML3GHiIs

Green Is Irish

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Green is Irish, Shamrock, too, I saw Irish, How about you?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (recording, Folkways 7029, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | Irish shamrock green
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #162, "Green is Irish" (1 text)
File: AJRR162

Green Island Shore

See All Around Green Island's Shore (File: Doy65)

Green Laurel

See Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs) (File: R061)

Green Laurels, The

See Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs) (File: R061)

Green Leaf

DESCRIPTION: "On to the next and circle four, Green leaf so green, Right hand crossed, The left hand back, You know very well what I mean. Swing her by the left, Swing her by the right, Green leaf... Balance all and swing her about, You know very well what I mean."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 49-50=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, p. 158, "Green-leaf" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7892
NOTES [18 words]: Roud lumps this with "Green Leaves," but they don't have much in common except the leaves. I split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Wolf049

Green Leaves

DESCRIPTION: "Green leaves, green leaves, that grow on a vine, Go choose your partner as I've chosen mine, Honey in the gum so sweet, so sweet, (Joy/Love) is bound to be." Or, "...So choose a partner, the prettiest you can find."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: love courting playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, pp. 525-527, "Green Leaves" (3 short texts, 3 tunes)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 111, "Green Leaves" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Charles W. Joyner, "The Repertory of Nancy Jones as a Mirror of Culture in Scotland County," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), p. 91, "The green leaves, the green leaves that grow on the vine" (1 text)
Roud #7892
NOTES [23 words]: Roud lumps this with Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana's "Green Leaf," but they don't have much in common except the leaves. I split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: BrS5525

Green Leaves So Green

See The Trooper Watering His Nag (File: RL044)

Green leaves, the green leaves that grow on the vine, The

See Green Leaves (File: BrS5525)

Green Linnet, The

DESCRIPTION: "Curiosity bore a young native of Erin To view the gay banks of the Rhine" where he sees a "young empress" looking for her "green linnet." She recounts his exploits and says she will search until she finds him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 227); c.1830 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Napoleon love separation bird
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1769 - Birth of Napoleon Bonaparte
1798 - Napoleon's Egyptian campaign. When his fleet is destroyed at the Battle of the Nile, he is forced to abandon the troops there
1809 - Napoleon divorces his first wife Josephine; he marries Maria Louisa of Austria in 1810
1814 - Napoleon exiled to Elba
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
1821 - Death of Napoleon on Saint Helena
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 211-214, "The Green Linnet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 458-460, "The Green Linnet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 45, "The Green Linnet" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 10-11, "The Green Linnet" (1 text)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 30, "The Green Linnet" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 201, "The Green Linnet" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 140, "Sweet Boney Will I E'er See You More" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #826, p. 55, "The Green Linnet" (2 references)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 76-77, "The Green Linnet" (1 text)
DT, GRENLINN*
Roud #1619
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Green Linnet" (on Abbott1)
Elizabeth Cronin, "Sweet Boney Will I E'er See You More" (on IRECronin01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 227, "Maria Louisa Lamentation. The Green Linnet," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(2326), Harding B 11(2327)[some illegible words], Harding B 11(3877), "Maria Louisas Lamentation"; Harding B 11(934), "Maria Louisa's Lamentation for the Green Linnet"; Harding B 25(1217)[largely illegible], "Maria Louisa's Lamentation"; Harding B 11(1421), 2806 b.11(72), 2806 c.17(158), 2806 c.18(134), "The Green Linnet" ("Curiosity bore a young native of Erin")
LOCSinging, as104930, "The Green Linnet," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Royal Eagle" (theme: Napoleon)
NOTES [315 words]: This song is curiously confused. The speaker seems to be Maria Louisa of Austria, Napoleon's second wife (it can hardly be his first wife Josephine; she died before Waterloo) -- but surely she would know her husband's career better than she seems to.
This apart from the fact that theirs was a political marriage, and neither party seems to have had any real affection for the other. (Napoleon died with the name of his first wife Josephine on his lips, and Maria Louisa, once Napoleon was exiled, quickly became involved with other men.)
The green linnet as a symbol for Irish nationalism occurs in "The Green Linnet" (where it may refer to Napoleon, or perhaps his son) and "Erin's Green Linnet" (where Daniel O'Connell seems to be the subject). The reason for this is not obvious, unless it has something to do with the linnet's reputation as a fine singer. - RBW
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "The Green Linnet" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001))
Harte on the bird theme here: "The Irish have throughout history attributed the names of animals, and of birds in particular, to their various leaders... During the Jacobite period the Stuart Pretender was known as the 'Royal Blackbird' [a symbol of course shared by the Scots - RBW], Dan O'Connell was known as the 'Kerry Eagle,' and Charles Stewart Parnell was known as the 'Blackbird of Avondale;' so that it would not be strange for an Irish singer to find Napoleon Bonaparte referred to as the 'Royal Eagle,' or as in this song, the 'Green Linnet.'"
Broadside LOCSinging as104930: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: SWMS211

Green Little Shamrock of Ireland, The

See The Dear Little Shamrock (File: OCon112)

Green Mossy Banks of the Lea, The [Laws O15]

DESCRIPTION: The young man, driven by "curiosity," roams the world. In Ireland he falls in love with a girl at first sight. He gains her father's approval by saying that he is rich. The two are married, and the American lad settles down on the banks of the Lea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.26(498))
KEYWORDS: rambling love courting marriage
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,Ro) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(West)) Ireland
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Laws O15, "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea"
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, pp. 18-19, "Green Mossy Banks of the Lea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 585, "American Stranger" (1 text)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 18-19, "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 34, "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #27, "Green Mossy Banks of the Lea" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 98, "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 164, "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lee" (2 texts)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 31, "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 70, "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea" (1 text, short and full of odd distortions, e.g. the girl is "beautified" rather than "beautiful")
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #39, "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 523-524, "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 600, "The Sweet Mossy Banks of the Wey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 24, "American Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 47, "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 47, "Green Mossy Banks of the Lea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 221-223, "On the Green Mossy Banks of the Lea" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 205, "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lee" (1 text)
DT 477, MOSSYLEA MOSSYLE2
Roud #987
RECORDINGS:
Jim Keeping, "The Sweet Mossy Banks of the Wey" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Anita Best and Pamela Morgan, "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lee" (on NFABestPMorgan01)
Pat Maloney, "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Tony Wales, "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea" (on TWales1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(498), "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea," G. Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Harding B 11(2224), Firth c.18(95), Harding B 11(1426), Firth c.18(86), Firth b.27(321), Johnson Ballads 1227, Johnson Ballads 1400, Harding B 11(1423), Harding B 11(1424), Harding B 11(1427), Harding B 11(1429), Harding B 11(1425), Harding B 11(1640), Firth b.26(65), Harding B 11(4030), Harding B 11(1430), Firth b.25(300), Johnson Ballads 341, "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea"; Harding B 26(232), Harding B 26(231), "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lee"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Miss Green" (tune)
File: LO15

Green Mossy Banks of the Lee

See The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea [Laws O15] (File: LO15)

Green Mountain

See The Streams of Lovely Nancy (File: VWL098)

Green Mountain Boys, The

See The Backwoodsman (The Green Mountain Boys) [Laws C19] (File: LC19)

Green New Chum, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all of you assembled here, Just listen for a while... you can see with half an eye That I'm a green new chum." The singer went mining, had many troubles and little luck -- and now, with experience, looks and laughs at the next green new chum
AUTHOR: probably Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 27-28, "Green New Chum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-GoldrushSongster, pp. 76-77, "The Green New Chum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 9-10, "The Green New Chum" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [164 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong.
According to Bruce Moore, Gold! Gold! Gold! A Dictionary of the Nineteenth-century Australian Gold Rushes, Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 100, which quotes a portion of this song, although "New Chum" was at first a generic term for inexperienced arrivals in Australia, in the gold fields it meant specifically "A novice digger, a newcomer to the goldfields."
Another verse refers to the new chum buying a claim that the owners said was rich, but on which he found nothing.
Of course you know they'd peppered it,
The gold was all a hum.
They'd sold it me because they saw
I was a green new chum.
Moore, p. 111, says "to pepper" was to "fraudulently introduc[e] samples of the minerals sought" (usually gold, of course). This was also known as "salting," which is the more common term outside Australia. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AnSt027

Green on the Cape

See Green Upon the Cape (File: PGa091)

Green Peas and Barley

DESCRIPTION: "Green [hot] peas and barley O On a Sunday [Christmas] morning." "This is the way the teacher [gentleman] stands, Fold your arms and clap your hands"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1603, "Hot Peas and Barley Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 73, "Green Peas and Barley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12977
File: GrD81603

Green Peas, Mutton Pies

DESCRIPTION: "Green peas, mutton pies, Tell me where my Jeannie lies, And I'll be with her ere she rise, And cudle her to my bosom." "I love Jeannie over and over, I love Jeannie among the clover; I love Jeannie and Jeannie loves me; That's the lass that I'll go wi."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1875 (reported in 1929 in _Buchan Observer_, according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: food courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 81, "Green Peas, Mutton Pies" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 77, "(Green Peas, Mutton Pies)" (1 short text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #85, "Cold meat, mutton pies" (1 text)
Roud #13204
NOTES [77 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame points out that the usual first lines, "Green peas, mutton pies, Tell me where my mother/truelove lies, I'll be there before she dies" is a parody of "Greensleeves." Specifically, "Green sleeves and pudden-pyes, Come tell me where my true love lyes, And I'll be wi' her ere she rise" (see Hans Hecht, editor, Songs From David Herd's Manuscripts (Edinburgh, 1904), #57 pp. 177,305, "Green Sleeves" [Not yet indexed as Hecht-Herd 57]). - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: MNSR077

Green Plaid, The

DESCRIPTION: Lord Lennox's Edinburgh regiment marches through Dumfries. One man would roll a lass in his green plaid. He says they have orders "each man to have a wife." She says her mamma would not approve. They leave for Minorca. She wishes she had gone with them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: courting parting army clothes Scotland mother soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 90, "The Green Plaid" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #5793
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lord Lennox' Men
Minorca
NOTES [47 words]: Greig/Duncan1: "The 25th Regiment of Foot (The Edinburgh Regiment), under the command of Lord George Henry Lennox, was based in Dumfries, Annan, and Kirkcudbright from the middle of 1767 until February 1768. In the latter year it embarked for Minorca where it served until 1775." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD090

Green Shores of Fogo, The

DESCRIPTION: "Our barque leaves this harbour tomorrow." The singer is leaving Fogo and Katie "my fortune I'm after seeking In a far distant land o'er the sea"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: grief love parting nonballad lyric emigration
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1537, "The Green Hills of Erin" (1 text)
Peacock, p. 522, "The Green Shores of Fogo" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SHORFOGO
Roud #6335
RECORDINGS:
Ken Peacock, "Green Shores of Fogo" (on NFKPeacock)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blooming Bright Star of Belle Isle" [Laws H29] (tune)
NOTES [200 words]: Peacock states "This native love lyric is patterned on a much older Irish song entitled The County I'm Leaving Behind." I considered marking this derivative but I have not seen the base text. - BS
Roud does lump them, but Joe Hickerson, in his notes to "Drive Dull Care Away, Volume 1," says merely that it "seems to be based on" the Irish song. That's separate enough for me. - RBW
If Greig/Duncan8 is Peacock's "much older Irish song" then I agree with Roud in lumping them. The Newfoundland song in both Peacock and Digital Tradition has "green shores of Fogo" instead of "green hills of Erin" and leaves out a few verses. Peacock says, "I strongly suspect that she herself [the singer] is the Katie in the song," but the Katie verses are also in Greig/Duncan8. - BS
As additional data, Philip Hiscock's notes to this song in Eric West, Sing Around This One: Songs of Newfoundland & Labrador Vol. 2, Vinland Music, 1997, p. 54, say that local tradition in Fogo says that the girl's name was Kate Miller; the woman Peacock collected it from was "Mrs. John Fogarty," whose own first name is not given. Hiscock affirms that this is related to an IRISH folk song but is native to Newfoundland. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Pea522

Green Sleeves

See Greensleeves (File: ChWI239)

Green Trees around Us

DESCRIPTION: "Green trees around us, blue skies above, Friends all around us, in a world filled with love Taps sounding softly, hearts beating true As we all say, goodnight to you." Now usually sung in a medley with "Taps"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Celebrate With Song", Girl Guides of Canada)
KEYWORDS: friend music nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 192, 332, 520, "Green Trees"/"Green Trees around Us" (+"Taps") (notes only)
File: ACSF192G

Green Trees Bending

DESCRIPTION: "Green trees bending, green trees bending, green trees bending, Hold to the side and swing to the back; If you catch a pretty boy, back right back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, pp. 513-514, "Green Trees Bending" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [21 words]: Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 connects this with Newell's "Green Grows the Willow-Tree." I don't see it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5513

Green Upon the Cape

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a lad that's forced an exile From my own native land... I'm a poor distressed croppy For the green upon my cape." The boy goes to Belfast, bids farewell to his parents, and sets out by ship for Paris. He hopes to return to a free Ireland
AUTHOR: William Michael Watson (source: Greig/Duncan1)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1879 (broadside, LOCSinging as10165a); c.1800 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Ireland soldier exile
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 91-93, "Green Upon the Cape" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 21A, "Green On My Cape" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 32, "Green Upon the Cape" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 143, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 126-127, "(A Much Admired Song Called) Green on the Cape" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2527, p. 171, "Wearinf of the Green" (1 reference)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 15-17, 511-512, "Green Upon the Cape"
Roud #5773
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.8(47), "Green on the Cape," unknown, n.d.
LOCSinging, as10165a, "Wearing of the Green," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also as101650, as10165a, "Green on the Cape"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Green (I)"
NOTES [217 words]: Galvin lists this as a "Northern variant of 'The Wearing of the Green,'" but the sheet music makes it obvious that this is forced; there aren't enough notes in the melody for the lyrics.
Clearly the singer is one of the "Wild Geese" who fled Ireland. The Wild Geese often formed "Irish Brigades" in foreign countries; this seems to be the case here.
The first migration of the Wild Geese came after the Boyne and the succeeding battles (roughly 1691-1700), but this song, despite its reference to Cromwell, probably refers to the second migration, as the young man left via Belfast. - RBW
It's not certain that broadside LOCSinging as10165a predates the other LOCSinging entries; it is the only one I can come close to dating. Its text seems corrupt. All three LOCSinging entries have Bonaparte promising to send a fleet "to pull the orange down," but only the De Marsan text has him promise as well to "guillotine their leaders, As well as 'King and Queen.'" In the broadside Bodleian 2806 c.8(47) the exile goes to New York and meets "Meagher, Walsh and Kelly" who promise to "send a convoy with you."
Broadside LOCSinging as10165a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: PGa091

Green Valley

See Yon Green Valley (File: K168)

Green Wedding, The

See Katharine Jaffray [Child 221] (File: C221)

Green Willow Tree (I), The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Green Willow Tree (II), The

See In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme (File: R090)

Green Willow, The

DESCRIPTION: Phoebe accuses William. "She said he had deceived her" Usual "All Around My Hat" complaints. She fears dying a maiden. William claims his deception "was only to try if you were true" They marry and live happily as an example for young lovers.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: love marriage lie
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 81, "All Around My Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #567
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1432), "The Green Willow," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.18(133), Harding B 11(1433), "The Green Willow"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All Around My Hat" ("All around my hat" lyrics)
NOTES [96 words]: Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs pp. 80-81 words fit "All Around My Hat" but the tune is not the standard tune. On the other hand, Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs p. 81 has the standard "All Around My Hat" tune but, what seems to me to be, a different theme.
Broadside Harding B 11(1432) matches Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs p. 81 but replaces the line "But since it is my fortune that I must Marry an old man" with "But since 'tis my misfortune that I must die a maiden." The description for "The Green Willow" is from a more complete but undated broadside Bodleian Firth c.18(133). - BS
File: CrMa081

Green Woods o' Airlie, The

DESCRIPTION: "The bonniest lass in a' the countryside Has fa'en in love wi' the plooman laddie But little did she think her heart was betrayed At the fit o' the green woods o' Airlie." After some laments over him, he comes back to her and they are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #66, p. 1, "The Green Woods o' Airlie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 846, "The Green Woods o' Airlie" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 111-112, "The Green Woods o' Airlie" (1 text)
Roud #3324
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My Bonny Plooman Lad
File: Ord112

Green Woods of Bonnie-O, The

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

Green-Leaf

See Green Leaf (File: Wolf049)

Green, Green the Grass is Green

See The Butcher's Shop (File: GrD81612)

Green, Green, It's Green They Say

DESCRIPTION: "Green, green, it's green , they say On the far side of the hill Green, green, I'm going away To where the grass is greener still." No one -- not a mother, not a lover -- will keep the singer from seeking greener places
AUTHOR: Barry McGuire; Randy Sparks (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (recording, The New Christy Minstrels)
KEYWORDS: rambling mother begging
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 540, "Green, Green" (notes only)
DT, GRENGREN
NOTES [87 words]: According to W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 252, this song (which appeared on the fourth album by the New Christy Minstrels, "Ramblin'") was the group's biggest hit single. The album never hit the Top Ten (peaking at #15), but it was on the charts for 77 weeks and reached gold status. McGuire (who left the Minstrels in 1965) probably topped it, in terms of sales, with "Eve of Destruction," but flamed out due to drugs in the 1970s before becoming a religious singer. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF540G

Green, Green, You're the Best Ever Seen

DESCRIPTION: "Green, green, You're the best ever seen. Red, red, You don't go to bed. Yellow, yellow, You dirty fellow. Black and white, You dirty skite."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty colors
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 134, "(Green, green)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Apples and Oranges" (lyrics)
File: SuSm134E

Green, White, and Yellow

DESCRIPTION: "Green, white, and yellow, My mother got a fellow, The fellow died, My mother cried, Green, white, and yellow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: colors mother courting death
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 51, "(Green, white, and yellow)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #38156
NOTES [36 words]: This looks as if it might be a combination of "One, Two, Three, Mother Caught a Flea" and "Red, White, and Blue (III)," but since the combination seems to be unique, Roud splits it, and I tentatively do the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI051A

Greenback (I)

DESCRIPTION: "If I had a scoldin' wife, I tell you what I'd do... Ho yo that greenback, greenback, hi yo today, Hi yo that greenback, they're done courting me." Other verses from floating themes: Someone steals the singer's overcoat; he warns others away from his wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (collected from Dave Macon by Boswell)
KEYWORDS: money floatingverses wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 92, pp. 144-145, "Greenback" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11022
File: BoWo092

Greenback (II)

See Possum Up a Gum Stump (File: R280)

Greenback Dollar

DESCRIPTION: Categorized by a lost love theme ("Don't forget me, little darling") and the line(s) "I don't want your greenback dollar; I don't want your watch and chain." Many versions say that the couple cannot marry because of parental opposition
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Weems String Band)
KEYWORDS: love separation family floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 733, "Don't Forget Me, Little Darling" (4 texts, 2 tunes, but only "A" and "B" are this song; "D" is "Don't Forget Me, Little Darling"; "C" is probably composite)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 504-505, "Don't Forget Me, Little Darling" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 733A)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #60, "Greenback Dollar" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GBDOLLAR*
Roud #3420
RECORDINGS:
[Clarence] Ashley & [Gwen] Foster, "Greenback Dollar" (OKeh 02554/Vocalion 02554/Conqueror 9112, 1933; on Ashley04)
Homer & Walter Callahan, "Greenback Dollar" (ARC 6-07-52/OKeh 03108/Vocalion 03108/Conqueror 8682, 1936; Columbia 37608/Columbia 20207, 1947)
Davis & Nelson, "I Don't Want Your Greenback Dollar" (Paramount 3188/Broadway 8243/QRS R-9014, 1930)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Greenback Dollar" (Bluebird B-6090 [as Daddy John Love?], 1935)
Weems String Band, "Greenback Dollar" (Columbia 15300-D, 1928) [see notes]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drowsy Sleeper" [Laws M4] (plot)
cf. "The Silver Dagger (I)" [Laws G21] (plot)
cf. "Rye Whiskey"
cf. "I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister" (tune)
cf. "Don't Forget Me, Little Darling (I)" (plot, floating lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Roy Acuff, "New Greenback Dollar" (Vocalion 03235/OKeh 03235, 1936; Conqueror 9122/ARC 8-03-59, 1938; Conqueror 9781, 1941; Columbia 37614, 1947; Columbia 20213. 1948. Rec. 1936)
Dixon Brothers, "Greenback Dollar - Part 2" (Bluebird B-6462, 1936)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Answer to 'Greenback Dollar'" (Bluebird B-7151/Montgomery Ward M-7301, 1937)
Wiley, Zeke & Homer, "Greenback Dollar - Part 3" (Bluebird B-7426, 1938)
NOTES [361 words]: Most versions of this appear to be pastiches of floating verses -- or at least floating themes. The mention of the "greenback dollar" is so characteristic, however, that I decided to classify this as a separate song. - RBW
This should not be confused with the fiddle tune of the same name, nor the folk-revival song with the chorus "I don't give a damn about a greenback dollar/Spend it as fast as I can"; the former is a popular fiddle tune, while the latter was composed by Hoyt Axton. Neither is any relation to this song. - PJS
The Axton song is now indexed as "Greenback Dollar (II)" because apparently a lot of scouts sang it. I'm dubious.
We might note that the line "I don't want your greenback dollar" might have originated in a context not related to a rejected lover: The first "greenbacks" -- i.e. paper money unbacked by gold -- were issued during the Civil War, and they did depreciate significantly, with an average exchange rate of about three greenbacks for two gold dollars, but it sometimes fell to about two to one when Union forces seemed to be in particular trouble.
George Lineberry, the husband of the grand-niece of "Uncle Dick" Weems and "Uncle Frank" Weems, offers what is probably the final word on the matter:
"The Weems String Band (Perry County, TN) traveled to Memphis, TN in 1928 where Columbia was recording groups for the potential '1928 version American Idol.' (NOT).
"[Their] musical numbers were instrumental -- not vocal arrangements. However, Columbia wanted lyrics, i.e. no lyrics -- no record. So the Weems String Band went back to the hotel, created some lyrics (kind of) for their two songs: 'Greenback Dollar' and 'Davy' (sometimes referred to as 'Davy, Davy'). The lyrics met the minimum requirement, but both songs remained basically instrumentals.
The next day they returned to Columbia's 'studio' and recorded both songs, resulting in their only record."
In the case of "Greenback Dollar," it appears that other hillbilly musicians (presumably operating under the same "get some words or get lost" imperative) proceeded to supply their own lyric grafts to produce the confusion of words found in the recording list. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: R733

Greenback Dollar (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Some people say I'm a no-'count, Others say I'm no good, But I'm just a natural-born traveling man." "And I don't give a damn about a greenback dollar; Spend it fast as I can." No one cares about him as he travels except brandy and song
AUTHOR: Hoyt Axton (1938-1999) and Ken Ramsey
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (recording, The Kingston Trio)
KEYWORDS: rambling drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 550, "Greenback Dollar" (notes only)
DT, GRENBACK
File: ACSF550G

Greencastle Jenny

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Greencastle streets were a stream of steel... And the scared earth muttered and shook to feel... of Longstreet's Corps." Little Jenny runs for "the flag her brothers died for" and waves it at Pickett's men. They cheer her
AUTHOR: Words: Helen Gray Cone (1859-1934) (source: Black Cat Poems) / Music: Bob Zentz
EARLIEST DATE: 1991 (reported date of Bob Zentz tune)
KEYWORDS: soldier patriotic Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 1-3, 1863 - Battle of Gettysburg. Many Confederate forces pass through Greencastle, Pennsylvania on their way there
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Greencastle Jenny" (Piotr-Archive #303, recorded 10/11/2022)
NOTES [662 words]: Yes, this is "Barbara Fritchie," only with a young girl rather than an old woman. Helen Gray Cone was a popular enough poet that Granger's Index to Poetry lists thirteen poems by her, but this isn't one of them. Bob Zentz set it to music; Judy Cook's version (which she recorded commercially as well as giving to Derek Piotr) seems to be a variation on this tune.
There is an element of truth in the song: Greencastle, Pennsylvania is about ten miles roughly south of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, about halfway between Hagerstown, Maryland and Chambersburg. Most of the Confederate troops that went to Gettysburg followed the Hagerstown/Chambersburg route, and many of them, including Lojngstreet's Corps and Pickett's division of that Corps (the rearguard of the army). approached Gettysburg along the Chambersburg Pike.
Longstreeets Corps was not the first to pass through Greencastle, though. Ewell's Corps had passed through the town on June 20 as the vanguard of the invasion. Indeed, it had fought a skirmish against the 1 NY Cavalry there. Boatner, p. 355, says this resulted in twenty casualties, although it's not clear to whom. Ewell's men also requisitioned many supplies from the town (Coddington, p. 163). It is reported that the bands of Rodes's division played "The Bonnie Blue Flag" as this was going on (Coddington, p. 163). The song claims Longstreet's troops played it also, which is not improbable.
A. P. Hill's Third Corps also passed through the town on the way from Hagerstown to Chambersburg (Freeman, Volume III, p. 73).
The cavalry brigade of Jenkins made Greencastle its base for raiding for several days (Coddington, pp. 161-162).
There was even a small skirmish in the town *during* the Battle of Gettysburg, when Captain Ulric Dahlgren's cavalry squadron reached the town (to a hero's welcome) on July 2, attacked a Confederate mounted unit, capturing three officers, fourteen enlisted men, and a small pack of official letters to Lee's army (Tucker, pp. 312-313). It didn't make any real difference in the battle, but it gave Greencastle something to talk about!
There was also a story about Confederates seizing free Blacks in Pennsylvania to make them slaves -- illegal under Confederate law, but of course Blacks had no way to protest. Some of the people of Greencastle freed some of them. Pickett's troops guarded some of these victims of war crimes (Coddington, p. 161).
There is a story coming out of Hood's Division (part of Longstreet's Corps, though obviously not Pickett's Division) somewhere in this part of Pennsylvania, which is perhaps something to think about: "A story went the rounds concerning a woman who stood looking defiantly at the Texans as they streamed past the door of her house. She had a huge American flag pinned to her 'ample' bosom. One of the men with a straight face said, 'Take care, Madam, for Hood's boys are great at storming breastworks when the Yankee colors is on them'" (Coddington, p. 157).
Judy Cook states that Longstreet's men were around Greencastle on June 26. This is correct: "Most of [Longstreet's] men camped on the night of June 26 about four miles south of Greencastle, and next day marched to within a few miles of Chambersburg. On the 29th Longstreet's corps, except Pickett's division which remained behind to hold the town, moved out of Greenwood [yes, a different town] on the Gettysburg Pike" (Coddington, p. 172).
It wasn't the last the Confederates would see of Greencastle. On July 4, after the Confederate defeat, Robert E. Lee started sending his wounded home. The first contingent went through Greencastle (Coddington, p. 538).
All of this makes this poem extremely unlikely (and none of my sources describe anything like it except for that story from Hood's Division). Her family, having seen the casualties, would certainly have kept "Jenny" from risking her life, given that it was clear that casualties could happen! But then, "Barbara Fritchie" isn't true, either. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio303

Greenfields (How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours)

DESCRIPTION: "How tedious and tasteless the hours When Jesus no longer I see; Sweet prospects, sweet birds, and sweet flowers Have all lost their sweetness to me. The midsummer sun shines but dim, The fields strive in vain to look gay...."
AUTHOR: Words: almost certainly John Newton (1725-1807)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1779? (published with tune in 1808 in the Missouri Harmony)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 625, "How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 112-114, "How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 154, "Greenfields" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3385
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Glenn, "How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #187, recorded 06/06/2022)
Old Harp Singers of Eastern Tennessee, "Greenfields" (on OldHarp01)
Julia McDonald leading Hall's United Methodist Church Singing and Praying Band, "How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours" (on USPrayingBands01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Delights in Christ (tune)"
cf. "Edgefield" (same words, different tune)
NOTES [181 words]: The uncertainty about the authorship of this hymn derives from the fact that many early sources do not credit it. The earliest record seems to be The Original Sacred Harp, which credits John Newton in his book Olney Hymns, 1779. The tune is "Delights in Christ." - PJS, (RBW)
(The Missouri Harmony version, to the tune "Greenfields," precedes the Sacred Harp publication, but with no author listed. Note that there is another tune, "Greenfield," in the Missouri Harmony; it's not the same. The Missouri Harmony also sets the words to the tune "Harpeth.")
Moderns, of course, will know it (if at all) to the tune "Greenfields." The Sacred Harp also sets this to the tune "Edgefield," by J. T. White, but that version seems less popular.
Since the song does in fact appear in the Olney Hymns, which is mostly John Newton's work, the attribution to Newton seems pretty strong. But Newton rarely documented his writing process, so we can't say much more. For background on Newton, see the notes to "Amazing Grace." - RBW
Julia McDonald "raises" the hymn on the USPrayingBands01 track. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: San154

Greenhorn Makes Good, A

DESCRIPTION: "Me vorking fer Prospect, me gotta gut job," but the singer doesn't like the work and quits. He can't find anyone to hire him until Paddy Burke takes him on. But Burke can't pay. A judge writes a note that gets him what he wants
AUTHOR: Con Carbon ? (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: worker hardtimes mining humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 134-135, "A Greenhorn Makes Good" (1 text)
NOTES [36 words]: Korson says "tradition" attributes this to Con Carbon, which implies oral circulation, but I have no real evidence for that supposition. The dialect looks awfully German for a worker whom Korson suggests is a Slav. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP134

Greenhorn, The

DESCRIPTION: Recitation; a greenhorn arrives in the lumber camp and makes friends with everyone except Joe Bonreau, the camp bully. The greenhorn doesn't respond until Joe talks about the greenhorn's girlfriend, after which he proceeds to wipe the floor with Joe
AUTHOR: Probably Marion Ellsworth
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Recitation; a greenhorn arrives in the lumber camp, and although he's quiet and doesn't smoke, drink or chew tobacco, he makes friends with everyone except Joe Bonreau, the camp bully, who teases him without mercy. The greenhorn doesn't respond until Joe makes remarks about the greenhorn's girlfriend, after which the greenhorn proceeds to wipe the floor with him. All approve, and Joe shakes his hand, saying to the speaker, "I guess, Jack, you was right/When I start in to rile that kid/I was fool with dynamite."
KEYWORDS: lumbering fight logger recitation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 103, "The Greenhorn" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 29, "The Greenhorn" (1 text)
Roud #8882
NOTES [18 words]: This, like the other pieces probably written by Ellsworth, does not seem to have entered oral tradition. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be103

Greenland (The Whaler's Song, Once More for Greenland We Are Bound)

DESCRIPTION: "Again for Greenland we are bound To leave you all behind." The singer describes the trip to the Greenland whaling grounds -- and the return, where they "see our sweethearts and our wives All waiting on the pier." The singer will return next year
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: whaler travel return reunion sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #85, p. 1, "The Whaler's Song"; #65, p. 2, ("Once more to Greenland we are bound"); "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 69-70, "The Whaler's Song" (2 texts plus 1 fragment, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 10, "Greenland" (7 texts, 8 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 317-318, "The Whaler's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GRNLNDBD GRNLNDB2*
Roud #970
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Greenland Bound" (on Lloyd9)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Once More for Greenland
File: Ord317

Greenland Disaster (I), The

DESCRIPTION: A sealing expedition leaves St. John's for the ice fields and all is well. When the men reached the ice, a storm comes up and freezes them. There are 25 dead and 23 missing. The singer concludes by hoping his audience will pray with him.
AUTHOR: Mrs. John Walsh ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: storm disaster death hunting
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 21, 1898 - Greenland disaster
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Greenland Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 40-41 in the 2nd edition
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 146, "The Greenland Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 79, "The Greenland Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 46-51, "The Greenland Disaster (1)," "The Greenland Disaster (2)" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Higgins: Pamela Higgins, _Perished: The 1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster_, Boulder Publications, 2013, p. 17, "The Greenland Disaster" (1 partial text, 1 tune, a reprint of Doyle)
ST Doy40 (Partial)
Roud #4080
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Greenland Disaster (II -- Sad Comes the News)" (subject)
cf. "The Greenland Disaster (III -- Miscellaneous)" (subject)
NOTES [1930 words]: Horace Beck in his book Folklore and the Sea (Mystic Conn.: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1985), p. 208 gives a brief account of sealing disasters in Newfoundland that he obtained from George A. England, Vikings of the Ice (London, 1924) pp. 54-59. - SH
England's account really covers only three events, and even those only superficially. All three resulted in pieces cited in the Index: The Greenland Disaster of 1898, discussed here; the Newfoundland Disaster of 1914, for which see "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)," and the disappearance of the Southern Cross, for which see "The Southern Cross (I)."
This song is item dD34 in Laws's Appendix II. Laws knew only the version in Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland; obviously it is more popular than he thought.
The versions of this song are very diverse; Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing's, e.g., tells the story of the disaster in detail, while Doyle's is a bit briefer on that account but spends many stanzas detailing the names of the dead. Some of this may be caused by the vast numbers of Greenland Disaster poems floating about; Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff have four probably non-traditional versions (lumped in the Index as "The Greenland Disaster (III -- Miscellaneous)") in addition to the two traditional forms (this and "The Greenland Disaster (II)").
Of all the tragedies great and small in the history of the Newfoundland sealing industry (and they were many, for sealing was hard and dangerous work), none seems to have embedded itself as deeply into the island's consciousness as this. Even if we ignore all the pieces about the disaster printed in Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, the story of the Greenland seems to be the event that most often turns up in ordinary histories. Feltham, p. 58, says, "the Greenland, even in my youth, almost a half-century after the disaster that bears her name, conjured up mental pictures of raging blizzards and dead and dying men." Greene, pp. 63-64, wrote "Many of the survivors were shipmates with the author four years afterwards, and their stories of suffering and of madness, of self-sacrifice, and of a wonderful endurance, were heart-rending in their relation."
As late as 1956, people were still collecting stories of the Greenland Disaster; Winsor, pp. 85-87, is an account by Nathan House, who was then 84 years old, and so was 26 at the time of the disaster.
The Greenland was built in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1871 -- and although she had a steam engine, it had only 75 horsepower (Feltham, p. 59), so her sails still played a vital part in her work; she could not go far or fast on her engines alone, and could do little to batter her way through ice. Despite this significant drawback, she went to the ice for the first time in 1872, and returned there every year until 1907, serving three different owners and ten different captains, including members of the famous Kean, Dawe, Barbour, and Winsor families (Feltham, p. 59).
From a very early date, she seems to have been regarded as unlucky -- e.g. in 1884, just two years after she was transferred to Newfoundland, she burned to the waterline and sank at her moorings, but was rebuilt (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 37).
By 1898, seals were getting harder to find than in the early 1800s, and the ships were getting more expensive. Ships couldn't afford to just harvest seals in one spot near the ship. So the habit had evolved of having "watches" of sealers -- usually four watches, i.e. gangs of dozens of men, per ship -- which would leave the ship to go hunting. (According to Nathan House, one of the "Master Watches" or watch leaders, quoted on p. 85 of Winsor, each watch on the Greenland consisted of fifty men.) Often the captain would leave one or two watches in one place, then sail off somewhere else and drop another watch, and so on. The watches left behind had to walk back to the ship or hope it can back for them (Cadigan, p. 184).
The song is correct in saying that the Greenland was commanded by Captain Barbour. The Greenland's captain in 1898, the year of the disaster, was George Barbour (1858-1928); one of eight sons of Benjamin Barbour, five of whom -- George, James, Joseph, Thomas, and William -- became sealing captains, although George is the only one of the brothers to get much mention in poetry. He was born at Cobbler's Island near Newtown in Bonavista Bay; Ryan, p. 498, and first commanded a sealer in 1893; DictNewfLabrador, p. 12). His wife, Lucretia Oakley of Greenspond, was the first teacher at the school in Flowers Island (Kean, p. 23), so the family did much for Newfoundland.
The Greenland left port on March 10, 1898 (Feltham, p. 59), with 207 men aboard (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 38; Winsor, p. 83, says there were 208. The difference may be that one counted the captain and the other didn't). It was a year and a voyage marked by rotten luck from the beginning; the Greenland had harvested a good haul of seals, but before they could load them, the carcasses were supposedly stolen by other crews (Feltham, pp. 59-60). According to Cadigan, p. 185, it may have been the notorious Abram Kean who was responsible. (For Kean, see "Captain Abram Kean.") At least, Kean's Aurora was the only ship in the vicinity when Barbour came back to find his seals missing (Collins, p. 192. For the Aurora, see "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full"). Barbour chased the Aurora to try to get his pelts back, and had a screaming brawl with Kean, but Kean (who frankly strikes me as a psychopath, based both on his history and on his autobiography) refused to give Barbour any satisfaction (Collins, pp. 192-193). Kean also made a vigorous defense of his conduct in the papers (Ryan, p. 306).
The need to make up for the lost seals explains why Greenleaf's text refers to a "saving" voyage; with much of his harvest lost, Barbour had to at least try to break even; a "saving trip" was a "moderately profitable voyage" or one determined to make enough to get by (StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 436).
Hoping to make up the loss, four of the Greenland's watches of sealers had been let out at different points when a large storm blew up on March 21 (Winsor, p. 83). Captain Barbour had gone back to where he had left off the first watch, and picked them up -- but then was jammed by the ice and had no way to reach the other three watches as the storm closed in; all he could do was sound his whistle and hope they could find him (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 40. Unfortunately, this was a lesson not learned; in 1914, the Newfoundland Disaster -- subject of "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)" -- would likely have been prevented if Westbury Kean, the captain of the Newfoundland, had been willing to sound his whistle). The whistle was no help; a lake developed on the ice between the ship and the men, giving them no good path to get home even though they knew where to go (Ryan, p. 306). All they could do was try to huddle together and set up "pinnacles" of ice to guard against the wind. Six died that night; others seem to have fallen into the sea due to snow- and wind-blindness (Winsor, p. 83). Some men managed to light a fire and kill and eat a seal pup, but conditions were so bad that even men close to them could not join them to get warm by the fire and contribute equipment that could be burned (Winsor, pp. 83-84)
At daylight the next day, Captain Barbour sent out as many men as he could to find the lost sailors. They found six men "barely alive and 24 frozen corpses." Another body was found the next day, and the Diana and Iceland, which came to help with the rescue, found one more survivor and fourteen more bodies the next day. (Feltham, p. 61; Galgay/McCarthy, p. 41. For the Diana, see "Arrival of 'Aurora,' 'Diana,' 'Virginia Lake,' and 'Vanguard,' Loaded"). In all, 48 men died, and only 25 of their bodies were found (Feltham, p. 62; there is a list of all the victims on p. 63; Winsor, p. 84, also has a list, plus a list of where funeral services were hed; Ryan, p. 324 n. 153 has another list showing where different accounts gave different names; Galgay/McCarthy, p. 38, has a copy of Barbour's first message to the owners at Baine Johnston and Company summarizing the disaster and asking where to go, and also gives a list of the dead on pp. 69-70). In addition to the dead, several others ended up needing limbs amputated (Ryan, p. 306). Greene, p. 63, says that "65 of those that had been saved were badly frostbitten."
The song lists the names of two of the dead -- in the Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland version, Mike Hennessey of St. Brenden and William Heaton of Harbour Grace. Ryan's list of casualties does not include a William Heaton, but there was a William Heath of Harbour Grace. The name of the other man is less certain. The Evening Herald listed a Michael Hennessey of St. Brendan's, but the Evening Telegram called him "Nicholas Hennessey" and the Evening Herald called him "M. Hennebury." A local consulted by Ryan says that Michael Hennessey was the correct name. In any case, it's clear that both the references in the song were to actual casualties of the disaster.
The Greenland's bad luck wasn't over; she grounded on the way home and barely survived (Feltham, p. 61; Winsor, p. 86). She had tried to bring the injured to her home port of Harbour Grace, but there was no hospital there, so the ship (once she was re-floated) had to move on to St. John's (Winsor, p. 86).
Interestingly, George Barbour continued to be given commands (he would command sealers for 35 years, starting in the Walrus and ending with the exceptionally modern Beothic II in 1928; Ryan, p. 498), and seemingly had little trouble finding sealers; "Captain Barbour was respected by his men because he always tried to consider their wealth and safety, despite the considerable blot on his career.... [I]t was generally felt there was absolutely nothing he could have done to have averted the disaster. The sudden unheralded storm came within an inch of destroying his vessel" (Feltham, p. 86 n. 58). Indeed, his career total of 752,563 seal pelts was second all-time for any captain (Ryan/Drake, p. 75; the all-time record was by the aforementioned Abram Kean,). There is a photo of Barbour on p. 75 of Ryan/Drake; p. 25 of Winsor has an 1899 photo of him alongside other famous sealing captains such as Abram Kean plus a portrait of him on p. 71, Arthur Jackman, and Alphaeus Barbour.Winsor, p. 45, has a (very grainy) photo of the Greenland entering St. John's Harbour after the disaster.
Cadigan, p. 184, says that some reforms followed the disaster, but not enough to prevent future tragedies such as that described in "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)," which was even more costly than the Greenland story but was similar in many ways.
Despite this horrid history, the Greenland continued to go to the ice until 1907. In late March of that year, while commanded by Captain Dan Bragg (mentioned as captain of the Greenland in "The Sealer's Song (II)"), she broke her main shaft and soon began to go down (Feltham, pp. 65-66), though it took long enough that there was no great loss of life that time time (Winsor, p. 45).
In addition to the three songs on the Greenland Disaster, the Greenland is also the subject of "The Sealing Trip of the S. S. Greenland 1891." There is a picture of the Greenland as she appeared in 1888 on p. 17 of Ryan/Drake. Higgins, pp. 16-17, also has a picture, as well as reproducing the page of the Evening Telegram reporting the disaster and listing the dead. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Doy40

Greenland Disaster (II -- Sad Comes the News), The

DESCRIPTION: "Sad comes the news from over the sea...." The Greenland sails for the ice in March, and soon finds seals. At the end of March, a blinding snowstorm begins. The men on the ice freeze, and many are never found.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Peacock; MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: storm disaster death hunting
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 21, 1898 - Greenland disaster
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 926-927, "The Greenland Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 50-51, "The Greenland Disaster (3)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Farley Mowat, _Wake of the Great Sealers_, with prints and drawings by David Blackwood, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1973, p. 92, "(Sealer's Song") (1 text)
ST RySm050 (Partial)
Roud #6465
RECORDINGS:
Jim Rice, "The Greenland Disaster" (on PeacockCDROM) (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Greenland Disaster (I)" (subject)
cf. "The Greenland Disaster (III -- Miscellaneous)" (subject)
NOTES [120 words]: The Greenland incident produced several poems; Ryan and Small have no fewer than seven items on the tragedy, though their first two are both versions of "The Greenland Disaster (I)" and the last four appear to be non-traditional.
Based on Peacock's text, this can be distinguished from the more-common "Greenland Disaster (I)" partly by being in triple time, partly by the first line quoted, and also by an inaccurate date (March 31 rather than March 21).
Peacock's note on this song is incorrect; the Greenland was not lost in the 1898 disaster; rather, she had dozens of sealers killed by ice conditions, but the ship herself came home safe. For background on this, see the notes to "The Greenland Disaster (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: RySm050

Greenland Disaster (III -- Miscellaneous), The

DESCRIPTION: Catchall entry, for all poems about the Greenland Tragedy not covered by the other pieces on the subject. The Greenland goes to the ice, and 48 men are frozen or lost as a heavy storm traps them away from the ship
AUTHOR: various, some unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (variius poems in the Harbour Grace Standard)
KEYWORDS: storm disaster death hunting
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 21, 1898 - Greenland disaster
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 53, "Written in Memory of the 48 Men Who Lost Their Lives in the S. S. Greenland Sealing Disaster of Monday, March 21st, 1898 (4)"; p. 54, "The Greenland Disaster (5)"; pp. 55-56, "The Greenland Disaster (6)"; pp. 57-58, "The Greenland Disaster (7)" (4 texts)
ADDITIONAL: John Feltham, _Sealing Steamers_, Harry Cuff Publications, 1995, pp. 64-65, "(no titles)" (2 excerpts from the March 28, 1898 _Evening Telegram_, neither of them the same as any of the preceding)
Roud #V44707
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Greenland Disaster (I)" (subject)
cf. "The Greenland Disaster (II -- Sad Comes the News)" (subject)
NOTES [49 words]: The poems cited here are not one piece, but I've lumped them because there are so many of them, none traditional. These pieces are to be strongly distinguished from The Greenland Disaster (I) and (II), which *are* traditional.
For background, see the notes to "The Greenland Disaster (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm052

Greenland Fishing

See The Greenland Whale Fishery [Laws K21] (File: LK21)

Greenland Men, The

DESCRIPTION: "On board the noble Ann, 27th of March, from Shields to Greenland we set sail." They fall in with a French privateer. Poorly armed, their ship is taken and they suffer until ransomed. Back home, an attempt is made to press them to sea. They hope for peace
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Firth)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor pirate freedom pressgang money prison trick
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 063, "The Greenland Men" (1 text)
Roud #V29830
File: PaSe063

Greenland Voyage, The, or, The Whale Fisher's Delight

DESCRIPTION: ""Why stay we at home now the season is come? Jolly lads, let us liquor our throats." The singer urges others to prepare the ship for the voyage. The spot a whale; the singer cheers as they kill it, and congratulated them on their work
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: ship whaler drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 36, "The Greenland Voyage, or, The Whale Fisher's Delight" (1 text)
Roud #V37548
File: PaSe036

Greenland Whale Fishery, The [Laws K21]

DESCRIPTION: The singer and his companions (are forced by poverty to) sign on a whaler. They spot a whale. The whale is harpooned, but sinks the boat and escapes. Five crewmen are killed. The captain regrets the loss of whale and/or crew. At last they leave Greenland
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1820 (_The Mavis_, according to Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast); before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.17(160))
KEYWORDS: ship whale whaler death
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland(Aber)) West Indies(Bahamas) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (34 citations):
Laws K21, "The Greenland Whale Fishery"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 104-105, "The Greenland Whale Fishery" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 9-10, "The Whalefish Song" (1 text, 1 tune, without reference to the drowned men); pp. 11-12
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 18-19, "Brave Boys (The Greenland Whale)" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 29-30, "Brave Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 226-229, "The Greenland Whale Fishery" (2 texts plus an excerpt)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 166, "The Greenland Whale" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 151-152, "Greenland Fishery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 223-227, "The Whale," "The Greenland Whale" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 147-148, "The Whale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 707-708, "The Greenland Whale Fishery" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 147-148, "Whaling Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 42, "The Greenland Fishery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 401, "The Greenland Whale Fishery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 169, "The Greenland Fishery" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 95, "Bound for the Stormy Main" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 81, "The Greenland Whale" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #85, pp. 2-3, "The Greenland Fishery"; #87, p. 2, "The Greenland Fishery"; #135, p. 2, "The Greenland Fishery" (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan1 9, "The Greenland Fishery" (10 texts, 8 tunes)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 50-51, "The Greenland Whale Fishery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 200, "Whale Fishers" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 58, "The Greenland Whale Fishery" (1 text)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 83, "The Greenland Fishery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #11, "The Greenland Whale Fishery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 122-123, "The Whale" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a fragment from _Moby Dick_ which may well be derived from this song)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 89, 'When de Whale Get Strike" (1 short text, 1 tune); , pp. 214-215, "Greenland Whale Fishery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 32, "The Greenland Whale Fishery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 142-144, "The Greenland Whale Fishery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 832-833, "Greenland Fishery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #83 insert, "The Greenland Whale Fishery" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs, p. 72, "The Greenland Whale Fishery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tod-WhalingInSouthernWaters, p. 129, "The Greenland Whale"; "The Whalefish Song" (2 texts)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 94, "Greenland Fisheries" (1 text)
DT 321, GREENLAN* GRENLAN2* GRNFISH* GRENFIS4*
Roud #347
RECORDINGS:
Almanac Singers, "Greenland Fishing" (Rec. 1941, unissued at the time; on AlmanacCD1)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Greenland Whale Fishery" (on Lloyd9)
David Pryor: "When the Whale Get Strike" [fragment] (AAFS 512 A1, 1935; on LomaxCD1822-2)
Pete Seeger, "The Greenland Whalers" (on PeteSeeger10)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(160), "Greenland Whale Fishery" ("In eighteen-hundred and twenty-three"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Firth c.13(67), Firth c.13(68), Firth c.13(69), Firth c.13(71), Harding B 11(90), Harding B 11(3307), Harding B 11(958), Harding B 25(778), "Greenland Whale Fishery"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Barrack's Song" (form)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Greenland
Whale-Fishing
NOTES [788 words]: [Lloyd cites a blackletter printing of this piece from before 1725.]
In 1830, the English whaling fleet moved from the right-whale grounds off Greenland to Baffin Bay, and thence to the grounds off Hawaii and Peru. The whalers' songs nonetheless continued to refer to the Greenland grounds. - PJS
It is true that there was a decrease in whalers going to the Greenland in 1830, but the Davis Strait and Baffin Bay were close enough that sailors might refer to the latter as "Greenland." More noteworthy was the decline Arctic whalers overall, because 1830 was "the most disastrous year in the whole history of British whaling. Out of 91 ships in Davis Straits (sic.), 19 were lost and 21 returned clean [i.e. without taking a whale]" (Lubbock, p. 278). 1835 was also very bad: "The disastrous years of 1835 and 1836 played havoc with British whaling, and the only fleet that could be said to be in a flourishing condition in 1837 was that of Peterhead, and this mainly because Peterhead captains made such a success of the sealing" (Lubbock, p. 342). One of those lost in 1835 was the famous whaler and exploration ship Isabella (Lubbock, p. 299). So there just weren't as many ships to go to the Arctic.
Plus, of course, whales were getting fished out; in 1838, one of the most successful whalers, the Eclipse, caught nothing but juveniles (Lubbock, p. 343).
Nonetheless, there were still whalers in the Arctic for many years. The aforementioned Isabella rescued John Ross in 1833 (see "Bold Adventures of Captain Ross"); the last ship to see the Franklin Expedition in the 1840s was a whaler (see "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9] ").
Nonetheless it must be said that by 1843 "a large fleet of ships in Davis Straits was now a thing of the past" (Lubbock, p. 344). Watson, p. 4, says, "The toll of such losses and paucity of whales acted as a turning-point in British Arctic whaling. From a peak of over 160 vessels in 1815, barely 30 sailed in 1830. Yields dropped, companies failed, boiling yards closed and men were paid off. London abandoned whaling in 1835 and Leith in 1840. The once-mighty Aberdeen fleet was cut to three vessels by 1839."
But that wasn't the end -- because of steam. Observe, for instance, that the ships of "The Old Polina" were steam whalers of the 1880s. "Just when it looked as if the trade... faced extinction, a timely restoration of fortunes returned to the port [of Dundee] through the innovative decision to introduce steam power to the fleet.... It provided speed to the fleet, ice-breaking capabilities in the whaling grounds, and safety in being able to press forward and cautiously retreat.... These factors... acted to motivate owners to construct bigger and better vessels to stalk the Right whale." It wasn't until 1885-1886 that the Greenland/Baffin Bay fishery went into terminal decline (Watson, p. 93), with a few whalers continuing in service until World War I (more went from being whalers to being sealers, creating a tradition in Newfoundland that is still fondly remembered to this day even though the last of the "wooden wall" sealers was scuttled shortly after Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949).
Whalers also continued to sail from New England -- in fact, "Of an estimated nine hundred whaleships of all nations engaged in whaling in the late 1840s, more than seven hundred were American (Allen, p. 82) -- and this song is known in America as well as Britain, so maybe the American whalers kept the "Greenland" references alive.
In addition, although we don't use the term today, Spitsbergen (Svalbard) was sometimes known as "Old Greenland," so the song might refer to that.
Of course, the whales eventually failed, and the whaling steamers either went to Newfoundland or were sold off or scrapped. Arctic whaling was truly done by World War I.
Also, the skills needed for whaling in the Arctic differed from those needed in the Pacific: "the [arctic] bowhead, having no teeth, was forced to defend himself with his flukes; and it is probable that as many whale-boats have been smashed up and as many men killed or maimed by a Greenland or right whale's flukes [as in this song] as by a sperm whale's teeth. The chachalot or sperm whale was constantly killed by one lone boat, but it usually required three or four boats to kill a Greenland whale" (Lubbock, p. 5).
Interestingly, this song was well enough known to show up in Irish stage musicals, or at least in books inspired by them. Ned Harrigan (for whom see "Babies On Our Block") on p. 281 quoted the opening line as "'Twas in the good ship Nancy" and on pp. 281, 282, 286, 287, 288, 431 gave the conclusion "An' they niver cot that whale, brave boys! An' they niver cot that whale!" - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: LK21

Greenland Whale, The

See The Greenland Whale Fishery [Laws K21] (File: LK21)

Greenmount Smiling Ann

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a beautiful girl, "Greenmount smiling Ann." He sees a young man in green approach her. They go off together; the birds sing and the swans glide along with them. He is assured they are "joined in Hymen's ban."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love husband wife bird marriage beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H182, pp. 464-465, "Greenmount Smiling Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4457
File: HHH182

Greenock Railway, The

DESCRIPTION: Paddy pays a fare on the Greenock Railway to Glasgow. He enters a box and fights an upper-class man who says he is in the wrong fare class. He fights and escapes to work the harvest and return to Ireland, or is taken by a peeler and serves three months.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1879 (broadside, LOCSinging sb30407a)
KEYWORDS: violence travel escape technology Scotland humorous police railroading
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 290, "The Greenock Railway" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1821, p. 123, "Paddy on the Railway" (` reference)
Roud #5833
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(823), "Paddy on the Railway" ("A paddy once in Greenock town"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also 2806 c.15(276),"Paddy on the Railway"; Harding B 11(2925), 2806 b.11(250), Harding B 11(2924), "Paddy on the Railway" ("Paddy one day from Greenock town")
LOCSinging, sb30407a, "Paddy on the Railway," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(086), "Paddy on the Railway," unknown, c.1870; also SSSSSS, "X"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Iron Horse (I)" (theme: country folk ride the railroad)
NOTES [129 words]: If the description has not made it clear, this is another song about the country man confused by "wonders" of "civilization" for "never one in the county of Clare, Ever saw or heard of a Railway."
Sir Robert Peel established the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1812 and its success led, in 1829, to the Metropolitan Police Act for London. Originally the term "Peeler" applied to the London constabulary. (source: Sir Robert "Bobby" Peel (1788-1850) at Historic UK site.)
Greig/Duncan2 texts are fragments; broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(823) is the basis for the description.
Broadside LOCSinging sb30407a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: GrD2290

Greens

DESCRIPTION: "Greens, greens, good old (collard/culluhed) greens, I eats 'em in the mornin', I eats 'em in the night, I eats 'em all the time; They make me feel just right."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 347, "Greens" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 8, "Collard Greens" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #4491
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Turnip Greens" (lyrics, subject)
cf. "Carrot Greens" (lyrics, subject)
NOTES [73 words]: It's not clear whether the Sandburg and Pankake songs are the same (about all they have in common are the phrase "good old collard greens") -- but both are fragments; it seems pointless to separate them.
The Pankakes have another song, "Turnip Greens," which may spring from the same, er, roots. However, I would consider it a distinct song (although Roud lumps them); if I combined the latter with anything, it would be "Carrot Greens." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: San347

Greense's Bonny Lass

DESCRIPTION: The singer, with "a wee drap spirits," pays a night visit to his love who had left the window ajar and the door bar greased. "Wi' hasty feet and lovin' arms I catched my lovey in the dark." He is ecstatic. She was "blithe to bid me come again"
AUTHOR: William Scott of Fetterangus (source: Greig/Duncan4)
EARLIEST DATE: 1832 (Scott, _Poems, Chiefly in the Buchan Dialect_, according to Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting sex nightvisit
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #30, p. 2, ("My neiper Jock wis fast asleep") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan4 786, "Greense's Bonny Lass" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6198
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blythe, Blythe and Merry Was She" (half the chorus and the sense of the chorus)
File: GrD4786

Greenside Wakes Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis Greenside wakes, we've come to the town, To show you some sport of great renown." The singer calls for a spinning contest: "Tread the wheel (x2), dan don dell O." The singer boasts, and hopes to entertain again next year
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland)
KEYWORDS: work contest
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 407-408, "The Greenside Wakes Song" (1 text)
ST BeCo407 (Partial)
Roud #4585
File: BeCo407

Greensleeves

DESCRIPTION: A song of a man rejected by "Lady Greensleeves," whom he describes as "all my joy" and "my delight." He offers various gifts and honors if she will return to him and complains about what he has already spent upon her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1580 (Stationer's Register; the first surviving printing is from _A Handful of Pleasant Delights_,1584, and we first find the tune in 1652)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, p. 137, "Handkerchief Dance [Greensleeves]" (1 tune, with dance instructions but no text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 227-234, "Green Sleeves" (1 full text plus many excerpts, 2 tunes plus "My Robin Is to the Greenwood Gone")
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 239-242, "Green Sleeves" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 170-174, "Lady Greensleeves" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 140, "Greensleeves" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 259, "Greensleeves"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 544, "Greensleeves"
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 80, "My Lady Greensleeves" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Greensleeves" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 5)
ADDITIONAL: Norman Ault, _Elizabethan Lyrics_, 1949 (I use the 1960 Capricorn Books edition), pp. 86-89, "A New Courtly Sonnet of the Lady Greensleeves" (1 text)
DT, GRNSLVS* GRNSLV3*
ST ChWI239 (Full)
Roud #V19581
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Greensleeves" [probably instrumental] (on PeteSeeger47)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O Shepherd, O Shepherd" (tune)
cf. "The Lord of Lorn and the False Steward" [Child 271] (tune)
cf. "What Child Is This?" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Allan o Maut (II) (How Mault Deals With Every Man) (File: WhBA0M2)
At Rome there is a most fearful rout/New Song of Lulla By (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN331; Bodleian Wood E 25(110); Bodleian Harding B 39(131))
You traitors all that doo deuise, to hurt our Queen in trewcherous wise/A warning to all false Traitors.. [execution of 14 traitors, Aug. 1588] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3138)
Good Lord what a wicked world is this/A most excellent godly new Ballad (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1009)
Come listen a while both young and old/Which nobody can deny (Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 109; it is not a good fit for the tune)
NOTES [569 words]: I have heard that green sleeves betokened a prostitute, and that this song is about a young man who yearned for a woman he could not marry because of her occupation. Kelly Eberhard informs me of a contrary legend, that green sleeves betokened English royalty. (I wonder, in all seriousness, if green sleeves did not betoken a "queen," which means of course both the female member of the ruling family and a prostitute.)
Also, Briggs, volume A.1, p. 296, has a tale of "Green Sleeves," in which Green Sleeves is a robber and magical being to whom the hero must appeal for answers; the tale reminds me a bit of the Loathly Women/"What Do Women Want" story (for which see the notes to "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" [Child 31].
The song has sometimes been credited to Henry VIII. There is nothing inherently impossible about this; Henry was a reasonably skilled musical performer, and he did fool around with composing -- and he was not the first English king to be a composer; the early fifteenth century "Old Hall Manuscript" (British Library Add. MS. 57.950) contains two pieces credited to "Roy Henry" -- King Henry -- which must mean either Henry IV or Henry V, although we can't be sure which (Given-Wilson, p. 386. Personally, I'd guess it was Henry IV, who seems to have been a good musician before becoming king; Kirby, p. 254). But there is little sign that Henry VIII had the skill to write such a tune. The actual origin of this tune is unknown -- but it became popular almost instantly after its registration. Shakespeare mentions it twice in "The Merry Wives of Windsor" (II.i.57 and V.v.18); Chappell lists many other mentions from before 1600. Ault notes that the title was registered to Richard Jones (who would later print the Handful of Pleasant Delights version) on Sept. 3, 1580 (cf. the Stationer's Register entry "A newe northen (sic.) Dittye of ye Ladye Grene Sleves, Rollins, #1892, p. 165) -- and, that, on the same day, another printer (Edward White, according to Rollins, #1390, p. 120) registered "The Ladie Greene Sleeves Answere to Donkyn her frende," implying that the piece was already well enough known to draw knock-offs. Examples of the latter include:
Rollins #1049, p. 94, "Greene Sleves and Countenaunce in Countenaunce is Greene Sleves" (Edward White, September 18, 1580)
Rollins #1050, p. 94, "Greene Sleves is worse awaie, Yellow Sleeves Comme to decaie, Black Sleeves I holde in despite, But White Sleeve is my delight" (Edward White, September 18, 1580; apparently White wanted to corner the market on lousy imitations)
Rollins #1742, p. 151, "a merry newe Northen songe of Greenesleves begynninge the boniest lasse in all the land" (Richard Jones, December 14, 1580)
Rollins #2276, p. 197, "A Reprehension against Greene Sleves by William Elderton" (Richard Jones, February 13, 1581)
There is also this inimitable 1580 item (Rollins, #1051, p. 94): "Greene Sleves moralised to the scripture Declaringe the manifold benefites and blessinges of God bestowed on sinful manne (Sept. 15, 1580, II, 378, Henry Carr)."
Whether the piece ever really took a place in the traditional repertoire is another matter. - RBW
The words perhaps [did] not [become traditional], but the tune certainly did, being found in various forms as a morris dance, a country dance ("Green Sleeves and Yellow Lace") and two carols ("What Child Is This," of course, and "Dame Get Up and Bake You Pies"). -PJS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: ChWI239

Greenwich Pensioner, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in the good ship Rover I sail'd the world around, And for three years and over, I ne'er touched British ground." The singer survives a storm off Portugal, but loses a limb in a battle. Now he is in Greenwich. He blesses the King but cannot sail
AUTHOR: probably Charles Dibdin (1745-1814)
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton-RealSailorSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor injury home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #52 insert, "The Greenwich Pensioner" (1 text)
ST AshS052i (Partial)
Roud #17509
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 53, "The Greenwich pensioner," W. Fores (London), 1791?; also Harding B 11(1431)=Firth b.26(289)=Johnson Ballads 1172, "The Greenwich Pensioner," H Such (London), 1863-1885; Harding B 22(105), unknown, n.d.
NOTES [14 words]: For more on probable author Charles Dibdin, see the notes to "Blow High Blow Low." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: AshS052i

Greenwood Laddie, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes the beauty of her greenwood laddie. Her parents oppose the match because he has no riches, but she says "the more that they slight you, the more I'll invite you". She would still cherish him if she had the gold of the Indies or of Africa.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recorded from Charles Boyle)
KEYWORDS: love beauty gold money lyric nonballad lover father mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 130, "The Greenwood Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 137, "The Greenwood Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2123
RECORDINGS:
Charles Boyle, "Greenwood Laddie" (on FSBFTX13)
Robert Cinnamond, "The Greenwood Laddie" (on IRRCinnamond02)
Paddy Tunney, "Greenwood Laddie" (on IRPTunney01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of the Bann (I)" [Laws O2] (lyrics)
NOTES [83 words]: In 1909 Joyce collected "The Greenwood Lad," but only the tune, and without seeing it I won't cite it as Earliest Date. This is similar in tone to "Banks of the Bann," and even shares a verse, but it's otherwise different enough that I split them without question. - PJS
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland speculates that this might be somehow connected with a Gaelic song, and that the youth's "green-ness" might have political significance. Which strikes me as a rather forced interpretation. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: K130

Greenwood Siding, (The)

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

Greenwood Tree, The

See William and Phillis (File: CrSNB033)

Greenwood Trees

See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

Greer County

See Starving to Death on a Government Claim (The Lane County Bachelor) (File: R186)

Greer County Bachelor, The

See Starving to Death on a Government Claim (The Lane County Bachelor) (File: R186)

Greer's Grove

DESCRIPTION: Johnny intends to spend the night with Nancy but her cronies beat him and take his money. Next day his mother and neighbors comment on his appearance. He denies being beaten. Fellows, beware of Nancy.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond02)
KEYWORDS: courting sex fight humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
ST RcGrrGrv (Full)
Roud #7004
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Down By Gruyer's Groves" (on IRRCinnamond02)
NOTES [22 words]: The description is based on John Moulden's transcription from IRRCinnamond02 included in the Traditional Ballad Index Supplement. - BS
File: RcGrrGrv

Greetings to the Sergeant

DESCRIPTION: "You've got a kind face, you old bastard, You ought to be bloody well shot: You ought to be tied to a gun-wheel, And there to bloody well rot."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier punishment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 67, "Greetings to the Sergeant" (1 text)
Roud #10540
File: BrPa067

Gregorio Cortez

DESCRIPTION: Spanish. "In the country of the Carmen... The sheriff mayor died." An investigation points to Gregorio Cortez. When he is found, he pleads self-defense. Authorities pursue him. Eventually he gives up. The singer clearly sympathizes with Cortez
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Pedro Rocha and Lupe Martinez, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage police homicide punishment escape
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 526-527, "Gregorio Cortez" (1 Spanish text plus a literal English translation)
File: CAFS2526

Grenadier and Lady

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

Grenadier and the Lady, The

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

Gresford Disaster, The

DESCRIPTION: 242 miners and three rescuers died in the Gresford mine explosion. The management is accused of destroying the fireman's records to cover criminal negligence. "Down there in the dark they are lying; they died for nine shillings a day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952
KEYWORDS: disaster death mining
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 22, 1934 - explosion of the Gresford pit mine (in Denbyshire) kills 265 miners and three rescuers
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, pp. 11-12, "The Gresford Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 116, "The Gresford Disaster" (1 text)
DT, GRESFORD
Roud #3089
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. A. Cosgrave, "The Gresford Disaster" (on FSB3)
File: PBB116

Grey Cat Kittled in Charlie's Wig, The

DESCRIPTION: "The grey cat's kittled in Charlie's wig (x2), There's one of them living and two of them dead, The grey cat's kittled in Charlie's wig"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: animal childbirth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 40, "(The grey cat's kittled in Charlie's wig)" (1 short text)
Greig/Duncan8 1675, "The Grey Cat's Kittled in Charlie's Wig" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1826 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 143, ("The cats hae kittled in Charlie's Wig")
Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 385, ("The cat has kittled in Charlie's Wig")
Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #43, p. 33, "The Grey Cat"
Roud #13024
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jock Robb" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
NOTES [14 words]: Chambers (1826) includes this and a Lillibulero verse as "Whig rhymes after 1745." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: MSNR040

Grey Cock, The, or, Saw You My Father [Child 248]

DESCRIPTION: Man bids his love to let him in. After some hours of lovemaking, he tells her he must depart when the cock crows (or before). She hopes the cock will not crow soon, but it crows early. She learns that her lover is a ghost, and may never return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Herd)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Man comes to his lover's window, bidding her open and let him in. They spend the night in lovemaking; toward dawn, he tells her he must leave when the cock crows for day. She prays the cock not to crow too soon, but the cock in fact crows early. She remarks her lover's cold lips and skin, realizing he has returned to her dead. As he leaves, she asks when she will see him again; he replies with impossibilities ("When the fish they fly, love, and the sea runs dry, love/And the rocks they melt in the heat of the sun") -- i.e., at the Judgment Day.
KEYWORDS: love sex farewell death dialog nightvisit paradox supernatural lover ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland) US(Ap,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Child 248, "The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father" (1 text)
Bronson 248, "The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father" (16 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 248, "The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father?" (5 versions: #1, #5, #8, #9, #12)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 427, "O Saw Ye My Father" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 36, "The Grey Cock" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #19, "The Grey Cock" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 310-313, "The Grey Cock" (1 text plus Joyce's version of "The Lover's Ghost")
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 611-612, "The Grey Cock" (2 texts)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 90, "Pretty Crowin' Chicken" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 78-79, "Pretty Crowin' Chicken" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 47, "Saw You My True Love John?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 83-85, "The Grey Cock" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #11, #13}
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 21, "The Lover's Ghost" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 52-53, "The Grey Cock, or The Lover's Ghost" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #16}
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 48, "Willie the Waterboy" (1 text, 1 tune, short enough that it might be Child #77 or Child #248 or a combination or perhaps independent; Roud files it with Child #248, but Dawney with Child #77)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 148, "The Grey Cock" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H699, pp. 383-384, "The Bonny Bushes Bright" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 77, "True Lover John" (1 text, 1 tune); 55, "My Willie O" (1 fragment, so short that it might be almost any revenant ballad, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 731, "Saw You My Father?" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
DT 248, GREYCOCK*
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume I, #76, p. 77, "O Saw ye my Father" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST C248 (Full)
Roud #179
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Fly Up My Cock" (on IRRCinnamond02)
Cecilia Costello, "The Grey Ghost" (on FSB5 [as "The Grey Cock"], FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #16}
Joe Holmes and Len Graham, "The Pretty Little Cock" (on IREarlyBallads)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Lover's Ghost" (on Lloyd01) (on Lloyd2, Lloyd3)
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Grey Cock" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
Virgie Wallin, "The Worrysome Woman" (on OldTrad2, FarMtns3 [as "The Worrisome Woman"])
Roisin White, "True Lover John" (on IRRWhite01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Night Visiting Song" (motif)
cf. "A Waukrife Minnie" (motif)
cf. "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover)" (motif)
cf. "Willie's Fatal Visit" [Child 255] (motif)
cf. "The Light of the Moon" (theme: night visit ended by a crowing cock)
cf. "Dandyman Oh" (motif of spirits departing before dawn)
NOTES [1556 words]: [Of Bronson's sixteen versions,] only one is of the Night Visiting Song type and one of the I Once Loved a Lass type. - AS
Hugh Shields wrote an article, "The Grey Cock: Dawn Song or Revenant Ballad?" (reprinted in E. B. Lyle, Ballad Studies, pp. 67-92) which argues that, in its original form, this was an "alba" or "dawn song" rather than a revenant ballad.
The problem with the hypothesis, as even Shields grudgingly admits, is that this type of song is literally unknown in English (it's associated primarily with the Iberian peninsula, though James J. Wilhelm, Medieval Song, p. 107, claims that the oldest Dawn Song is the Provençal "En un vergier sotz folha s'albespi," and Wilhelm prints several other dawn songs from France, and even a few from Germany).
Shields never ever really defines the form, giving only a few footnotes, one pointing to a German article on Chaucer's Troilus. Looking at the examples in Wilhelm (there are several more found among the Provençal songs), it appears that the characteristic of the form is two young people, forbidden to meet, still coming together at night and having to part before dawn. Though there are also "religious" alba songs, presumably in praise of the light, and a few other things. All of them, however, are art or minstrel songs, not folk songs.
The former type of alba song, obviously, resembles "The Grey Cock" -- but the motivations are entirely different, and so, generally, is the outcome; in the alba songs, the light simply threatens to reveal the lovers, while it threatens the ghost's very existence in the English ballad. I incline to think the similarity, if there is one, is coincidental -- i.e. "The Grey Cock" may be an alba song, but it is not from the tradition of alba songs.
I should probably note, though, that the Provençal examples cited come mostly from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries -- i.e. some of them come from the time when England ruled large parts of Provence. Henry II had Provençal troubadours in his entourage (perhaps the most famous of all, Bertran de Born, c. 1140-1214, had a part in the quarrels between Henry and his son Henry the Young King, and wrote a lament for the latter). So the form could have been introduced into England at the time -- if you believe that it could have survived the conversion into English and then have lasted until modern times.
There is a nursery rhyme verse which is probably related to this, though it might also have been influenced by "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" or something similar:
Oh, my pretty cock, oh, my handsome cock,
I pray you, do not crow before day,
And your comb shall be made of the very beaten gold,
And your wings of the silver so gray. (Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #852, p. 320.)
David C. Fowler, in J. Burke Severs and Albert Hartung, editors, A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1500, in ten volumes with continuous page numbering; Volume 6 (edited by Hartung), Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1980, p. 1764, suggests that this may be related to a famous piece in the Sloane Manuscript, "I Have a Gentle Cock" (we might modernize the first verse of this piece as "I have a gentle cock, It crows for day, It bids me rise early, My matins for to say"). You can read more about Sloane MS 2593 -- and even about "I Have a Gentle Cock," in the entry on "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115] -- but I don't think there is any connection except the idea of a cock perhaps interrupting a tryst, which is commonplace. For starters, "I Have a Gentle Cock" is loaded with innuendo, which is lacking in this ballad. - RBW
The nine-verse Costello version [VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs] of "The Grey Cock" begins with five verses often found in "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover)," including the distinguishing lines
Saying, "I'll be guided without a stumble...."
"....Disturbing me from my long night's rest?"
"It is your own true love, pray don't discover..."
"....For I am wet after my long night's journey,
Besides I'm wet love unto the skin."
followed by the "where is the blushes" verse from "Willy O!", two bribery and betrayal verses from Child 248, and ends with the "when the fish they fly" verse from "I Will Put My Ship In Order"; Ewan MacColl's version of the Costello text adds one more verse from "Willy O!"
Perhaps a revenant "The Grey Cock" was closer to the P.W. Joyce version and the two closely related Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland texts; that ballad also concludes with the "when the fish they fly" verse. There the distinguishing lines include
"And where is your bed, my dearest love," he said,
"And where are your white Holland sheets?
And where are the maids, oh my darling dear," he said,
"That wait upon you whilst you are asleep?"
"The clay it is me bed, my dearest dear," she said,
"The shroud is my white Holland sheet.
And the worms and creeping things are me servants, dear," she said,
"That wait upon me whilst I am asleep."
(Joyce's text, unlike Karpeles's, reverses the sex of the parties.) Or maybe that is another independent set of ballads.
Child's notes to "The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father?" refer to a ballad without a ghost theme ended prematurely by a crowing cock: "The cock is remiss or unfaithful, again, in a little ballad picked up by Burns in Nithsdale, 'A Waukrife Minnie,' Cromek, Select Scottish Songs. You can read the text of the 1789 poem at Burns Country site.
Robert Cinnamond's version on IRRCinnamond02, like Child, Johnson, Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople and Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine, have no ghostly elements. At the end, as in Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople, the woman is deserted by a man who would just rather not be married. My own inclination, without getting into the "alba" controversy, is to believe that the ghostly versions, like Costello, VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs and MacColl, have imported the ghost from entirely different ballads.
Ford says of Burns's report of "The Waukrife Minnie" (lovers interrupted by early crowing with no ghost involved) that he had it "from the singing of a country girl in Nithsdale." Ford's comment is in connection with his own text of "My Rolling Eye" [Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17]] (Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland [first series] (Paisley,1899), pp. 102-105) which includes the following verses, again about the interruption of two non-ghostly lovers by an early-crowing cock:
It's waery fa' the waukrife cock
May the foumart lay his crawing,
He wauken'd the auld wife frae her sleep,
A wee blink ere the dawing.
She gaed to the fire to blaw the coal,
To see if she would ken me,
But I dang the auld runt in the fire,
And bade my heels defend me.
Finally having read the Shields article cited above, I see that it analyzes the Costello version on pp. 71-77. Once the chimeric nature of that and other texts is demonstrated I find it difficult to understand the grounds for considering "The Grey Cock" to be a revenant ballad.
See R. H. Cromek, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, (London, 1810), pp. 72-75, "The Gray Cock," which Child describes as "a song by Allan Cunningham, impudently put forward as 'the precious relique of the original'." Cromek writes, "This copy was communicated by Mr. Allan Cunningham. He had it from his father...."; Cunningham's "forgery" has nothing of the revenant theme which, I assume, he would have incorporated if he had thought it appropriate to the ballad he was faking.
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario [1965], p. 185, also looks at the Costello version: "Of her ten stanzas, the first five parallel almost line for line the correspoonding stanzas sung by Mrs. Clark [of 'Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In']." Shields, in footnote 14, acknowledges Fowke's analysis. Since Fowke considers her text a version of "The Grey Cock," she may think of the Costello text as a "more complete" version of Child 248 of which her own text is a fragment. The other way of looking at the two texts is to consider Costello a composite with the Fowke text as one of its elements.
Whether or not they are "dawn songs," the Index includes a number of non-revenant night visits besides Child 248 that are ended early by premature cock crow. See, for example, the discussion of "My Restless Eye" and "A Waukrife Minnie," indexed as "Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17]." Another example is the song indexed as "The Light of the Moon." See "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover)" for the note beginning, "Summing up: this is not a ghost song at all"; in this case the visit is ended by cock crow, though not prematurely.
For a discussion of "dawn songs", with and without ghosts, see Charles Read Baskervill, "English Songs on the Night Visit" in Publications of the Modern Language Association of America , Vol. XXXVI, No. 4 (December 1921 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 565-614. I would use this article as the starting point for any study of the subject.
Piling it on -- against the revenant -- is the Joe Holmes and Len Graham recording which ends "There was once I thought my love was as constant unto me As the stones that lie under yon ground, But now since I do find he's altered his mind I would rather live single as be bound." - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: C248

Grey Gooise And Gander, The

See The Goose and the Gander (File: KiTu071)

Grey Goose, The

DESCRIPTION: "Last Monday morning, Lord, Lord, Lord... My daddy went a-hunting... for de grey goose." The goose is found and killed; it takes six weeks to fall, and six weeks to pluck, and six weeks to cook... It cannot be cut, and comes back to life and flies away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recording, Washington "Lightnin'")
KEYWORDS: talltale bird cook hunting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 5, "The Grey Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 242-243, "De Grey Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 95-97, "Grey Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 907-908, "The Grey Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 118-120, "Go Tell Aunt Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune, with an "Aunt Rhody" opening but an ending that might be from The Grey Goose")
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 16-17, "The Gray Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 109-110, "Grey Goose" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 403, "The Gray Goose" (1 text)
DT, GRAYGOOS
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 88, "Grey Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11684
RECORDINGS:
James "Iron Head" Baker, "The Grey Goose" (AFS 207B, 1933) (AFS 205 A3, 1934; on LC03)
Augustus "Track Horse" Haggerty & group, "The Grey Goose" (AFS 223 A2, 1933)
Lead Belly, "The Grey Goose" (on GrowOn2)
Pete Seeger, "Gray Goose" (on PeteSeeger05); "Grey Goose" (on PeteSeeger08, PeteSeegerCD02)
Washington "Lightnin'," "The Gray Goose" (AFS 182 A, 1933)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Derby Ram" (theme)
cf. "The Sucking Pig" (theme)
cf. "The Worderful Crocodile" (theme)
cf. "T'Owd Yowe wi' One Horn" (theme)
cf. "Home, Happy Home"
NOTES [71 words]: Paul Stamler writes, "[This song and 'Home, Happy Home'] are so close that it might be better to call [the latter] an Alternate Title." I have no knowledge of "Home, Happy Home." Anyone know more? - RBW
"Home, Happy Home" was collected, almost certainly from white informants, by Garry Harrison in southern Illinois, probably in the 1970s. - PJS
John Greenway sees this as similar to "Cutty Wren." Once again, I don't see it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LxU005

Grey Hawk (I), The

See The Bonny Boy (I) (File: FSC037)

Grey Hawk (II), The

See Cupid's Trepan (Cupid's Trappan, The Bonny Bird) (File: ChWII149)

Grey Mare, The

See The Gray Mare [Laws P8] (File: LP08)

Grey North Sea, The

DESCRIPTION: "And oh, we peppered them hot, sir, And yelled aloud with glee, Till the enemy staggered back to port In the grey North Sea."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1984 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy fight
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 31-Jun 1, 1916 - Battle of Jutland. The Royal Navy suffers more losses than the German fleet but forces the Germans to flee back to port
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 144, "The Grey North Sea" (1 fragment)
NOTES [282 words]: Roy Palmer, who gave this to Tawney, thought it was about the Battle of Jutland. Tawney's text is too short to be sure, but it seems likely. The Royal Navy didn't fight many battles, particularly large-scale battles, in the North Sea.
The Germans claimed victory in the battle. As Nigel Steel and Peter Hart, Jutland 1916: Death in the Grey Wastes, Cassell, 2003 (I use the 2004 paperback edition), pp. 424-425, say, "Any superficial analysis of ships lost and of casualties sustained shows that the Germans did indeed have a case for celebrating a victory.... In all, the British lost three battlecruisers, three armoured cruisers and eight destroyers. The Germans lost one battlecruiser, one pre-dreadnought, four light cruisers and five destroyers.... In the battle some 6,094 British sailors lost their lives as opposed to 2,551 Germans."
But they Steel/Hart go on to add on p. 425, "Whatever specious claims can be constructed from an analysis of losses or casualties it remains a fact that the British won the Battle of Jutland. In the end the material successes of the High Seas Fleet fade into complete insignificance in comparison to the crushing strategic success the Royal Navy secured for the British Empire." They had chased the Germans back into port, from which they never emerged again in the war. And they did it in just the way the song describes: they "peppered them hot." The British lost more ships -- but many German ships barely made it back to port due to the damage they had sustained; they frankly fled with their tails between their legs. So the song is a good fit for Jutland. The newspapers argued about who won. But the sailors on the British ships knew. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn109

Grey Selchie of Sule Skerry, The

See The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry [Child 113] (File: C113)

Grief Is a Knot

DESCRIPTION: Willie leaves Mary for another girl. Mary goes to her deathbed and sends for Willie who promises to take care of their baby. The baby dies too and is buried with Mary.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924-1925 (see notes); 1952 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: infidelity sex burial death baby lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 153-155, "Grief Is a Knot (False Willie)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 673-674, "Grief Is a Knot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9803
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Freeman Bennett, "Grief Is a Knot" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Frances "Fanny" Bennett, "Grief is a Knot" (Piotr-Archive #493, recorded 02/14/2023)
Anastasia Ghaney, "Grief is a Knot" (on NFAGuigné01)
NOTES [87 words]: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports: "Sometime around 1924-1925, while working in Sop's Arm as a volunteer for the International Grenfell Association, Florence Clothier acquired a fifteen-stanza version of 'Grief is a Knot,' ...." - BS
The version of this song from Frances "Fanny" Bennett is too short to really classify, but Derek Piotr points out to me that Mrs. Bennett (who was 105 at the time of the recording, and sounds it) is from the same family as Peacock's informant, so it is surely the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Pea673

Grigor's Ghost

DESCRIPTION: Grigor loves his rich cousin Katie. Her father arranges for Grigor's impressment. He is killed near Fort Niagara; the finger with her ring is cut off. His ghost appears to Katie without the finger. She dies. The father is left "bereft of all joys."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1825 (Buchan, _Gleanings of Scotch, English, and Irish Scarce Old Ballads_, according to Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: grief love ring army battle parting death America Scotland father servant soldier ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 340, "Grigor's Ghost" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #4600
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On One Thursday's Evening" (tune, according to Greig/Duncan2)
NOTES [731 words]: This is a long ballad and many elements were left out of the description. Among them: Grigor, whose father had been exiled, was taken in and poorly used as a servant by his uncle MacFarlane; Katie is courted by wealthy suitors; her mother overhears their meeting and reports it to MacFarlane; when Grigor and Katie part she asks to be allowed to accompany him in the army but Grigor refuses and she gives him a ring; after Katie dies of grief the mother dies the same night.
According to the ballad, Grigor is killed near Fort Niagara July 30, 1759, four days after the battle there. - BS
The battle of Fort Niagara was part of William Pitt's grand strategy of 1758-1759 for the French and Indian War, in which he attacked the French in Canada on many fronts. The most notable of these campaigns was that of James Wolfe against Quebec, for which see "Brave Wolfe" [Laws A1].
The Niagara campaign took place some weeks before that, and in some ways was even more decisive (because the French had no real chance to reverse the result; they could have retaken Quebec). The British had already accomplished one of the objectives for which they had started the war: They had taken the fort at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, the site of the future Pittsburg (see Walter R. Borneman, The French and Indian War, Harper-Collins, 2006, pp. 187-192). This allowed British resettlement of much of western Pennsylvania, from which they had been driven after Braddock's Defeat (for which see the song of the same name). But if the British could capture Fort Niagara, they could cut off Quebec (and, hence, European France) from the trans-Appalachian areas.
John Prideaux, newly appointed brigadier general, was given 3000 troops and sent up the Mohawk River to take the fort. (Borneman, p. 193). He was joined by about a thousand Iroquois at Oswego (see Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 2000; I use the 2001 Vintage Books edition; pp. 330-331). This was significant for the British, because the Iroquois had been fairly quiet until then, and most other tribes supported the French. Prideaux therefore left a thousand British and American troops at Oswego to guard his communications and rebuilt the fort there, and rowed the rest of the troops to a point near the mouth of the Niagara River (Borneman, p. 194).
Fort Niagara, built in 1725 near the mouth of the Niagara and much improved in the years since, was well-built and well-situated for most purposes, with water on three sides and a strong wall on the fourth. But it was undermanned; the officer in charge thought that the threat was over for the year, and had sent most of his garrison off to other duties (Anderson, p. 355). His reasons were valid, but the conclusions were wrong; when the British showed up, the fort was manned by only about 500 men (fewer than 200 French regulars and about 300 locals). Plus it was vulnerable to artillery fire from a high point nearby (Borneman, p. 195). Prideaux put his troops there on July 7, 1759 and began a siege.
On July 20, Prideaux was killed by his own artillery (Anderson, p. 336, Borneman, p. 196). On July 23, before the English command could properly be reorganized, the French troops that had earlier left the fort returned. But, disregarding advice from the locals, the 1500 or so men marched right into an ambush and were slaughtered on July 24 (Borneman, p. 198; Anderson, p. 337, says that the Indians in the relief column pulled out, so it was perhaps only 600 Frenchmen who went to their doom. Either way, the relief expedition failed). With no further hope of rescue, Fort Niagara surrendered on July 25 (Anderson, p. 337; Borneman, p. 199).
The battle broke the back of the French position west of the Appalachians. For the moment, New France (what we now would call Quebec) still stood, but it had no real supply line to the southwestern forts. French settlements in places like Michigan and Illinois were cut off from contact with the French government. Few were actually attacked, but they could be taken any time the British wanted them.
The last sputter of the Niagara campaign came as the French attacked Oswego on the supply line to Fort Niagara (Borneman, pp. 202-203). This was a complete fiasco for the French, but perhaps this was the attack in which Grigor was killed. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2340

Grim Winter

See The Road to Dundee (File: Ord152)

Grimsby Lads, The

DESCRIPTION: "Here's to the Grimsby lads out at the trawling," working all night on the sea. "They sail in the cold and the grey of the morning," heading to the cold waters of the North Sea, where they work eighteen hours a day. In ten days they will return
AUTHOR: John Conolly and Bill Meek
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor fishing home hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 156, "The Grimsby Lads" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [35 words]: There is of course no hint at all that this is traditional. John Conolly is also responsible for "Fiddler's Green," which arguably has become traditional -- at least, people do learn it from oral tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: PaSe156

Grind the Coffee

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Grind the coffee, grind the coffee, Choo, choo choo, Grind the coffee, grind the coffee, out with you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Folk Rhymes and Verses of Maryland Children, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | coffee
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #163, "Grind the Coffee" (1 text)
NOTES [20 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes says this is a jump-rope rhyme, but I wonder if it wasn't originally used for counting out. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR163

Grindstone Teamsters and Horses, The

DESCRIPTION: "During the winter '26, In the woods at Grindstone, Maine, There worked a hearty lumber crew...." The singer lists those involved: cook Alphonse Harvery, foreman Johnny White, "25 bold teamsters," and many more. A typical moniker song
AUTHOR: Mike Gorman, nephew of Larry Gorman (source: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: logger nonballad moniker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 159-163, "The Grindstone Teamsters and Horses" (1 text)
File: EcSm159

Grizzly Bear (Grizzely Bear)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh that grizzely, grizzely, grizzely bear, Tell me who was that grizzely bear. Oh Jack o' Diamonds was that grizzely bear." The singer describes the grizzely bear (and how his family tries to avoid and/or hunt it)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (sung by convicts of Negro Prison Camp Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work)
KEYWORDS: nonballad hunting animal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 106, "Grizzly Bear" (1 text)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp.184-192, "Grizzly Bear" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 402, "Grizzly Bear" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 411, "Grizzley Bear" (1 text)
Roud #16673
RECORDINGS:
Texas state farm prisoners, "Grizzly Bear" (on NPCWork, FMUSA) [Jackson believes the lead singer here is Joseph "Chinaman" Johnson]
NOTES [129 words]: Courlander suggests the "Grizzly Bear" was a convict whose appearance was so wild that he resembled a bear. As most if not all versions seem to come from prisoners, this is at least possible. But several of the prisoners Jackson spoke to thought it was a warden, Carl Luther McAdams, considered very strict but fair and sometimes known as "the Bear." Still others mentioned a Joe Oliver who predated McAdams.
Jackson notes that some scholars consider "the bear" to be a homosexual convict, but observes that the prisoners he talked to rejected that interpretation completely.
Jackson's versions of the song vary widely; the two sung by Benny Richardson actually have plots of sorts, and Jackson calls them ballads -- though they're pretty vague, just a sort of travelogue. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: CNFM106A

Grizzly Hogan

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, there's a road to Seattle As plain as can be, And if you want to see a wreck, Just take a look at me." The police are afraid to deal with the singer, "Grizzly Hogan," when he gets drunk. He kissed his girl and broke her jaw. No one can match him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan)
KEYWORDS: lumbering talltale injury drink
FOUND IN: US(MW,NW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 53-55, "Grizzly Hogan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6518
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Frozen Logger" (theme of the logger breaking his girlfriend's jaw when kissing her)
NOTES [34 words]: The verse about the logger breaking his girlfriend's jaw by kissing her occurs also in "The Frozen Logger." For what little we can say about the relationship between the two, see the notes to that song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BBun053

Grog Shop Door, The

See Drunkard's Doom (I), The (File: R306)

Grog Tent We Got Tipsy In, The

DESCRIPTION: "The grog tent we got tipsy in, in old Bendigo, Was certainly the queerest place it's been my lot to know." The text is small and primitive but the landlady was pretty; all the miners went there. But with the landlady having married, it's all gone now
AUTHOR: Words: "Coxon"? / Music: N. J. Sporle
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: drink mining marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 88-90, "The Grog Tent We Got Tipsy In" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: AnSt088

Grog Time of Day (Fine Time of Day)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Hurrah! my jolly boys, grog time o' day." "The captain's gone ashore, but the mate is aboard." "Captain locked the door and took away the key." I assume they get grog anyway.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1814 (_Landsman Hay_ per Wikipedia; see NOTES)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Fine time o' day." We're rowing To St Thomas. There are fine girls -- Nancy Gibbs and Betsy Braid -- there. "Massa" [our passenger] is a rich, handsome man from London and he loves pretty girls: "him lub 'em much, him lub 'em true." He chases them around the guava bush and catches them in the sugar cane....
KEYWORDS: drink shanty seduction sex
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 11,16, "Grog Time a Day"; Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 18-19, "Fine Time 'o Day" (1 text plus 3 fragments, 1 tune))
DT, FINETIME
NOTES [337 words]: Wikipedia, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea%5Fshanty, accessed July 15,2023, cites four references for this song: "The song, the tune of which is now lost, was sung by:
Jamaican stevedores at a capstan in 1811 [Robert Hay, Landsman Hay: The Memoirs of Robert Hay 1789-1847, Ed. By M.D. Hay (1953)]]; Afro-Caribbeans rowing a boat in Antigua ca. 1814 [British Naval Officer, Service Afloat, Edward C. Miele (1833) p. 259]; Black stevedores loading a steamboat in New Orleans in 1841 [Negro Singer's Own Book (ca. 1843-45) p. 337]; and a Euro-American crew hauling halyards on a clipper-brig out of New York ca. 1840s ['An Old Salt,' 'Quarter-deck yarns; or, Memorandums from My Log Book,' in The Evergreen; or Gems of Literature for MDCCL[sic., should be MDCCCL], Ed. By Rev. Edward A. Rice, J.C. Burdock (1850) p. 11]." The Service Afloat reference is also cited and quoted by Abrahams. The Evergreen reference is available and "Digitized by Google."
The "Fine Time o' Day" text is quoted by Abrahams from Trelawney Wentworth, The West India Sketch Book (London: Whitaker & Co, 1834 ("Digitized by Google")), vol. 1 pp. 239-242 [Abrahams mis-cites this as vol. 2]. The Digital Tradition citing follows Wentworth but "cleans up" the grammar. That text was apparently put to a commonly-sung shanty to meet particular occasions. Wentworth writes that the singers are rowing from Tortola to St Thomas in a boat "pulling six oars, furnished with two lugger sails.... The subject matter of the song was as discursive and lengthy as Chevy Chase; and it showed an aptitude at invention on the part of the leader, as well as a tolerable acquaintance with the weak side of human nature, on the score of flattery: a small portion of it will suffice." Abrahams comments that "The song is obviously directed as a song of derision at the white man transcribing the song."
The long description follows Wentworth and Digital Tradition. Abrahams writes that "the refrain is still sung [1974] throughout the West Indies."- BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: WIS011A

Grogal McCree

See Gay Girl Marie [Laws M23] (File: LM23)

Groggy Old Tailor, The

See The Trooper and the Tailor (File: FSC139)

Grouchy Bill

DESCRIPTION: "Yes, I know Bill was grouchy, I know he was sometimes tough, Still... He had p'ints what was good enough." When the crew is called to break a logjam on the Brule, a young man is caught out on the river. Bill sets out to rescue him; both die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Menominee Herald-Leader, according to Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan)
KEYWORDS: logger rescue death river
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 156-161, "Grouchy Bill" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 86, "Grouchy Bill" (1 text)
Roud #6511
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jim Bludsoe" (theme of a dead rescuer)
NOTES [23 words]: Beck doesn't say so, but this feels to me like it was inspired by "Jim Bludsoe," although it sounds as if it was based on a real event. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: BBun156

Groun' Hawg

See Ground Hog (File: R413)

Ground for the Floor (I)

DESCRIPTION: At day's end, the singer (a shepherd) makes his way home, where he sits content. He praises the cottage, though he has "nothing but ground for my floor." He sleeps well, rising cheerfully to his work and playing his pipe; he has no high ambitions
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2066))
KEYWORDS: home farming work music nonballad sheep shepherd worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 153, "Ground for the Floor" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 423)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 250, "Ground for the Floor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1269
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "The Sun Being Set" (on Maynard1); "Ground for the Floor" (on Voice20)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2066), "Ground for the Floor ("I lived in a wood for a number of years"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Harding B 11(3659), Harding B 11(3660), Harding B 16(108b), Harding B 11(1438), Harding B 11(1439), Harding B 11(1437), Firth c.19(212), Harding B 11(321), Harding B 25(781), "Ground for the Floor"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ground for the Floor (II)" (subject)
File: RcGftF

Ground for the Floor (II)

DESCRIPTION: The singer has "a neat little cottage with ground for the floor" surrounded by brambles and thorns. He is happy with his dog and gun, a three-legged stool, a fire on the ground, bed of straw, and one guinea in the pocket of his only suit.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3660))
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 96-97, "Ground for the Floor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1269
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3660), "Ground for the Floor" ("I lived in a wood for a number of years"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Harding B 11(3659), Harding B 16(108b), Harding B 11(1437), Harding B 11(1438), Harding B 11(1439), Firth c.19(212), Harding B 28(81), Harding B 11(321), Harding B 25(781), "Ground for the Floor"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ground for the Floor (I)" (subject)
NOTES [43 words]: The description is from broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(3660). Roud assigns the same number to this and "Ground for the Floor" ("The sun being set"); while they are about the same general subject and share a single phrase, I don't see how they are related. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: RcGftFl2

Ground Hog

DESCRIPTION: A family goes ground hog hunting, catches one, cooks and eats it with great enjoyment. Almost anything can happen in the process as verses float in and out.
AUTHOR: unknown (credited on the Norris recording to Harold Gray)
EARLIEST DATE: 1911
KEYWORDS: hunting food humorous animal family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Randolph 413, "The Ground-Hog Song" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 221, "The Ground Hog" (3 texts plus a fragment and indirect mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 221, "Ground Hog" (5 tunes plus text excerpts)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 30, "The Ground Hog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 92-93, "Groun' Hawg" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 123, "Groundhog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 8, "Ground Hog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 131, "Groundhog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 271-274, "Groun' Hog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 893-895, "Groun'-Hog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 231, "The Ground Hog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 5-6, "Ground Hog" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 176, "Ground Hog Song" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 12-13, 'Groundhog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 15-16, "Groundhog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 182-183, "Groundhog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 97, "Groundhog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #136, "Ground Hog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #86, "Groundhog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 56-57, "Ground Hog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 56-57, "Groundhot" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Dan Patterson, "A Sheaf of North Carolina Folksongs," Vol. IV, No. 1 (Jul 1956), pp. 27, "Ground Hog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 402, "Groundhog" (1 text)
DT, GRONDHOG*
Roud #3125
RECORDINGS:
Almanac Singers, "Ground Hog" (General 5018B, 1941; on Almanac01, Almanac03, AlmanacCD1)
Seena Helms, "Groundhog" (on HandMeDown2)
Stanley Hicks, "Groundhog" (on FarMtns2)
Homer & Jethro, "Groundhog" (King 596, 1947)
Vester Jones, "Groundhog" (on GraysonCarroll1)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Groundhog" (on NLCR16)
Land Norris, "Ground Hog" (OKeh 40096, 1924)
Frank Proffitt, "Groundhog" (on Proffitt03)
Jack Reedy & his Walker Mountain String Band, "Ground Hog" (Brunswick 221, 1928; on CrowTold02, LostProv1)
Pete Seeger, "Ground Hog" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b) (on PeteSeeger08, PeteSeegerCD02)
Doc Watson, Arnold Watson & Gaither Carlton, "Ground Hog" (on Watson01)
File: R413

Groundhog

See Ground Hog (File: R413)

Grounding of the Cabot Strait, The

DESCRIPTION: Cabot Strait leaves Sydney for Port aux Basques and runs aground off Cape Ray. Local people "row out in their dories through the bitter wind and snow" and rescue the passengers and crew. The Cabot Strait is "out" and awaiting repairs.
AUTHOR: Martha Osmond (source: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports and Osmond recording)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: rescue sea ship shore storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 17, 1957 - The ferry Cabot Strait ran aground during a blinding snowstorm at Grand Bay near Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland (per Guigné, UP dispatch "52 [12 passengers and 39 crew [??]] Taken Safely Off Grounded Ferry" in The Niagara Falls Gazette (Niagara Falls, Jan 18, 1957), p. 11).
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 156-157, "The Grounding of the Cabot Strait" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25335
RECORDINGS:
Martha Osmond, "The Grounding of the Cabot" (on NFAGuigné01)
NOTES [264 words]: According to Clayton E. Cook, Tales of the Rails: The Newfoundland Railway, Creative Publishers, 1991, p. 27, "Around 7:45 A.M. on January 17th, 1957, in a 100 mile per hour south-east gale wind while proceeding at half speed on a southeasterly heading bound from North Sydney, Nova Scotia, to Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, the vessel S. S. Cabot Strait grounded near Cap Ray, Newfoundland. She carried 12 passengers, 164 tons of general cargo, 120 tones of fuel and 289 tons of water."
Captain O'Keefe of the Cabot Strait sent out a distress call which was heard by the S. S. Baccalieu. The water where the ship was grounded was too shallow to lower lifeboats, plus the swell would capsize them as they came to shore, so he asked for dories to come out to rescue those ashore. The train was ashore near the course of the Newfoundland Railroad, which owned the ship, so a rescue train was outfitted to go to the ship. This seems to have worked well; the first passengers were taken off as 12:20 p.m., and all were off by about 4:30 p.m.
The S. S. Curb was ordered to salvage the ship; it arrived on the afternoon of January 20 and managed to get the Cabot Strait off on February 5; once free, she was able to go to Port aux Basques under her own power. She was then returned to service, being reitred in 1973. (Cook, p. 28).
Cook, p. 28, says the Cabot Strait was built in 1947. She was 2045 gross tons and 272 feet long. Cook has three photos of her, one while in service and two while aground, one of them showing her being lightened to get her off the rocks. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Guig156

Group of Jolly Cowboys, A

See The Wandering Cowboy [Laws B7] (File: LB07)

Grouse, Grouse, Grouse

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the Army and the Aviation section Is all shot to Hell, so they say." The soldier complains of his officers, and notes that they do the same, "'Cause they think the only thing we do is grouse." But at least they fight; generals stay safe in the rear
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: war food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 48-49, "Grouse, Grouse, Grouse" (1 text)
Roud #10553
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Barbed Wire (I Know Where They Are)" (theme of generals being safe while soldiers fight)
File: NiM048

Grousing

See Raining Raining Raining (Grousing, Marching, Starving) (File: BrPa045B)

Groves of Blackpool, The

DESCRIPTION: "Now de war, dearest Nancy, is ended." The Cork City Militia return home to a grand reception and local brew. Their band plays "Boyne Water" and "Croppies Lie Down." It's good to be back among the tanners and glue-boilers "in de Groves of de Pool"
AUTHOR: Richard Alfred Milliken (1767-1816) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: rebellion drink music soldier home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 61, "The Groves of Blackpool" (1 text, 1 tune)
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 168-173, "The Groves of Blackpool" (1 text)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
De Groves of de Pool
NOTES [227 words]: The text mimics the local accent by replacing "th" by "d" with occasional other translations ("because" becomes "bekase," "pretty" becomes "purty," "murder" becomes "murther," "educated" becomes "edicated," ....).
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "A song from the loyalist side ... commemorates the activities of the North Cork Militia who became notorious, during the period when Wexford was under martial law, for the enthusiasm and brutality with which they carried out their duties." Moylan quotes Sparling's caracterization (from Irish Minstrelsy p. 504): "In 1798 Milliken was unenviably notorious for 'zeal and efficiency' as a yeoman."
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "The Cork Militia were especially Orange. They suffered severely in the Rebellion of 1798...."
Croker believes the last verse - a toast to the tanners and glue-boilers "in de Groves of de Pool" - is the work of John Lander rather than "honest Dick Millikin." - BS
According to the brief biography in Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 791, Milliken (or Millikin, as she spells it) lived and died in Cork; she gives his death date as 1815. He is known almost exclusively for his poem "The Groves of Blarney," which if nothing else had quite a vogue in the broadside press; see its entry. In this index, see also "The River Lee." - RBW
File: Moyl061

Groves of Blarney

DESCRIPTION: "The groves of Blarney they are so charming." The flowers, "grand walks," "the stone" and statues are described. No commander can compare with Lady Jeffers. If the singer were a poet like Homer "in every feature that I'd make it shine"
AUTHOR: probably Richard Alfred Milliken (1767-1816) (see Notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (1798-1799 probable date written, printed copies in Cork by 1800, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: nonballad lyric
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 33, "Groves of Blarney" (1 text)
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 137-144, "The Groves of Blarney" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 157, "The Groves of Blarney" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #830, p. 55, "The Groves of Blarney" (1 reference)
ADDITIONAL: Oliver Yorke, The Reliques of Father Prout (London, 1873 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 53-62, "The Groves of Blarney" (1 text in Gaelic, English, French, Greek and Latin)
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 362-365, "The Groves of Blarney" (1 text)
Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, _The Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1958, 1979), pp. 28-30, "The Groves of Blarney" (1 text)
Roud #V668
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4035), "Groves of Blarney" ("The groves of Blarney, they are so charming") , J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1855-1858; also Harding B 11(2095), 2806 b.11(161), Harding B 18(223), "Groves of Blarney"
LOCSinging, sb10145b, "The Groves of Blarney", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Last Rose of Summer" (tune, per Hoagland)
cf. "Castle Hyde" (tune and theme, per Hoagland)
cf. "The Plains of Drishane" (theme: extravagant praise of Cork)
cf. "Castle Hyde" (theme: extravagant praise of Cork)
cf. "The Groves of Glanmire" (theme: extravagant praise of Cork)
SAME TUNE:
Our Ulysses ("A new Song of this great Ulysses," by John Ross Dix) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, pp. 121-122)
NOTES [353 words]: H. Halliday Sparling's Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 437-438, 505, "The Groves of Blarney" makes the attribution to Milliken. [Granger's Index to Poetry accepts this identification, but notes at least one version with an additional stanza by Francis Sylvester Mahony, for whom see "Bells of Shandon"; the attribution in Granger's appears to be based on Hoagland. She adds that "Millikin at a party declared he could write a piece of absurdity which would surpass 'Castle Hyde....' The Groves of Blarney was the result...." Other poems by Millikin in this index include "The Groves of Blackpool" and "The River Lee." - RBW].
See Yorke p. 60 for Father Prout's "There is a stone there ..." verse 6.
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, quoting the memoir prefixed to Poetical Fragments of the late Richard Alfred Millikin[1823]: "During the Rebellion, several verses were, in the heat of party [Croker: an electioneering dinner], added to this song, particularly those alluding to the mean descent of a certain noble lord [Croker: Lord Domoughmore (then Lord Hutchinson)]; but they were not the production of the original author, who, incapable of scurrility or personal enmity to those with whom he differed in opinion, scorned such puerile malice." Croker makes the added verse "'Tis there's the kitchen hangs many a flitch in ... All blood relations to my Lord Donoughmore"; Croker notes that, in The Reliques of Father Prout [Rev Francis Sylvester Mahony (1804-1866)] that verse is replaced by "There is a stone there, that whoever kisses ...." "may clamber to a lady's chamber, Or become a member of parliament....
The Jeffrey/Jeffers/Jeffares family were Protestants granted lands previously owned by Catholic Irish. In County Cork they took over Blarney Castle (source: The Jeffrey Family site). Kissing the Blarney Stone, on the top story of the castle tower, is supposed to give the gift of eloquence.
Broadside LOCSinging sb10145b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon033

Groves of Glanmire, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer "come to this country a stranger" and, in his travels, has found "none to equal Glanmire." He lists the fine groves, the Bride Valley, the salmon fishing, hare hunting, "the finest of oak, lime and larch" and working mills.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: travel commerce fishing hunting nonballad lyric
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 90-91, "The Groves of Glanmire" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Groves of Blarney" (theme: extravagant praise of Cork) and references there
NOTES [131 words]: This is more moderate in praise of local places than "Castle Hyde" and "Dear Mallow, Adieu," and fairly close in spirit to "The Town of Passage" (I). On the other hand it is just one more of the family of songs that has spawned so many parodies around Cork. See, for example, "The Groves of Blarney,' "The Plains of Drishane,' "Darling Neddeen,' "The Town of Passage" (II and III) and "The Praise of Kinsale." Or maybe this is just too subtle a parody for me to understand; it does end with a strange line that of all the mills working "there is one making silverspring starch." Silverspring Starch Company is/was in Glanmire (according to an entry on the Limerick City Council site 2/13/2006).
OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "Glanmire [is] some four miles from Cork city, on the Dublin Road." - BS
File: OCan090

Groyle Machree

See Gra Geal Mo Chroi (II -- Down By the Fair River) (File: CrMa069)

Gruig Hill

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes out to take the air, and sees a beautiful girl who lives near Gruig Hill. He describes her beauty at length. They go to her home; her family greets him kindly. He sets out for his home, hoping to marry her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love beauty drink
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H626, p. 465, "Gruig Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18996
File: HHH626

Grumbler's Song, The

See Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)

Grün, Grün, Grün

DESCRIPTION: German: "Grün, grün, grün sind alle meine kleider." Green, green, green is the color of my clothing, Green green green is everything I wear. I wear green... because my love's a hunter." Similarly for other colors, clothes, and occupations
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Tobitt-YoursForASong)
KEYWORDS: clothes colors worker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 123, "Grün, Grün, Grün" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 11, "Grün, Grün, Grün" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [45 words]: Said to come from Pomerania, but now said to be know to most Germans. Ross Sutter, from whom I learned it, apparently collected a copy in Minnesota, so it has gone "folk" in the United States, if perhaps only locally. I wonder if Sutter's informatnt learned it in camp. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: TobGrGrG

Gruver Meadows

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Gruver Meadows, my name I'll never deny, I've done a cruel murder and in prison I must die." Meadows has murdered his wife and Standon Dean. A claim of insanity is no help. He kisses his children and prepares to die
AUTHOR: unknown (perhaps influenced by Andrew Jenkins)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Andrew Jenkins)
KEYWORDS: husband wife homicide execution farewell
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 210-211, "Gruver Meadows" (1 text)
Roud #22283
RECORDINGS:
Andrew Jenkins (as "Gooby Jenkins"), "Gruver Meadows" (Okeh 45115, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charles Guiteau" [Laws E11] (tune & meter) and references there
File: CAFS1210

Gude Wallace [Child 157]

DESCRIPTION: Wallace meets a woman washing at a well. She says 15 Englishmen who seek him are at the inn. He says he'd go there if he had any money; she gives him some. He goes, disguised, vanquishes the 15, calls for food, is set upon by 15 more and defeats them too.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1768?
KEYWORDS: fight outlaw money food disguise
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1286 - Death of Alexander III of Scotland
1290 - Death of his granddaughter Margaret "Maid of Norway"
1292 - Edward I of England declares John Balliol king of Scotland
1296 - Edward deposes John Balliol
1297 - William Wallace, the Guardian of Scotland, defeats the English at Stirling Bridge
1298 - Edward defeats Wallace at Falkirk. Wallace forced into hiding
1305 - Capture and execution of Wallace (August 23)
1306 - Robert Bruce declares himself king of Scotland
1307 - Death of Edward I
1314 - Battle of Bannockburn. Robert Bruce defeats Edward II of England and regains Scottish independence
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Child 157, "Gude Wallace" (9 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Bronson 157, "Gude Wallace" (2 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 157, "Gude Wallace" (2 versions: #1, #2)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 96, "A Sang o Gude Wallace" (1 text)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 8-12, "The Gude Wallace" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 465-466, "Gude Wallace" (notes plus part of Child G and a fragment of Child A)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 133-134, "Gude Wallace" (1 fragment, which mentions Wallace but otherwise has little resemblance to the Child ballad; it may be unrelated)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 433-435, "Gude Wallace" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 233-237, "The Gude Wallace" (2 texts)
DT, GUDWALL*
Roud #75
NOTES [2601 words]: Chambers, a composite of Buchan's "Ballads of the North of Scotland" and "Gleanings of Scarce Old Ballads" and a text in Johnson's Museum is the source for Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads [Robert Chambers, The Scottish Ballads (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1829 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), footnote p. 12]. The first half of Chambers/Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads is the Buchan text at Child 157H. - BS
William Wallace is one of the most famous figures in Scottish history, but surprisingly little is known of him. Prior to the reign of John Balliol, he was invisible; we don't even know his birth date, though many think he was born around 1272 (Magnusson, p. 133). And, ironically for a man known for being a Scottish patriot, his name means "William the Welshman," and being from Lanark, he probably was of Welsh descent (CraigieEtAl, p. 103).
As Keen puts it on pp. 66-67, "Considering the impact which his career made on the imagination of his countrymen, we know remarkably little historical detail of the life of William Wallace. The date of his birth is unknown. He came of a family of small landowners whose estates were in Ayrshire, and who seem to have been of Welsh origin. Nothing certain is known of him until after the outbreak of war between England and Scotland in 1296. In 1297... he slew the sheriff of Lanark, according to tradition to avenge the death of his beloved, Marion Bradfute, the heiress of Lamington, who had been executed by the English for sheltering her outlawed lover. This deed made him immediately a hero in the eyes of the common people.... He soon found himself at the head of a powerful irregular force. It was his genius that converted this undisciplined horde into an army of foot soldiers."
King Alexander III of Scotland had died in 1286, with his only heir being his granddaughter, Margaret Maid of Norway. But she in turn died in 1290 -- without heirs, not surprisingly, since she was only eight years old. (For background on this, see the notes to "Sir Patrick Spens" [Child 58]). There was no other obvious heir -- not only had Alexander III had no other children, but his father Alexander II had no other descendants, nor his grandfather William the Lion. Thus the heir would presumably have to be sought among the descendants of William's younger brother David Earl of Huntington, or among William's and David's sisters, meaning that, if they were in the same generation as Alexander III, they would be third cousins of the dead king. (There is a convenient genealogy of this on page 301 of Oram, although it has an error in the genealogy of William the Lion's older brother Malcolm the Maiden.)
Alexander had been on good terms with Edward I, the King of England at the time, and Edward had already been interfering in Scottish affairs even before Margaret died (Prestwich, pp. 359-364). With her dead, Scotland faced a real succession crisis as perhaps as many as sixteen claimants came forward (Oram, p. 113). Most of them could be set aside, but the claims of John Balliol and Robert Bruce the Competitor (the grandfather of King Robert I Bruce) were strong -- Balliol was the grandson of David of Huntington's eldest daughter, and Bruce the son of the second daughter.
Edward was given the right to determine the heir to the Scottish throne. He conducted a long investigation and decided (correctly, by modern reckoning) that Balliol deserved the throne (Prestwich, pp. 366-368). But Edward also decided that Balliol was his vassal, and answered to Edward, and would do just what Edward told him. From the moment Balliol took the crown, Edward insisted on hearing legal cases over his head (Prestwich, pp. 370-371).
Prestwich notes on p. 371 that Balliol -- his father's fourth son -- had not expected to be a great magnate, let alone a king; he had no training for the role he had entered into. He probably wasn't as ineffective as he came to be portrayed (Oram, p. 112); Scots chroniclers portrayed him in the worst possible light because they wanted to glorify Robert Bruce, and English looked down on him because he failed to defeat Edward I. But he certainly wasn't imperious enough to face Edward I in a contest of self-importance.
There is a genuine debate over just how much homage the King of Scots owed the King of England. Warren, pp. 177-179, studied what records there are and suggests that the most reasonable opinion is that the Scottish kings owed homage for Lothian (plus their lands in England), but nothing else in Scotland. Of course, this was before Henry II took forced homage from William the Lion -- and then Richard I sold back the claim. For a ridiculously low price, too -- 10,000 marks, or 6,667 pounds (McLynn, p. 122). Scotland was poor, but that still was only a year or so of Scottish revenue. Only a monomaniac would have sold Scotland so cheaply. But Richard did it. Richard's sale, it seems to me (as to most Scots) should have freed Scotland from any obligation at all (although Prestwich, p. 374, thinks Edward had a claim). But even Prestwich agrees that Edward's demands were too extreme.
The Scots called Balliol the "Toom Tabard" (empty coat) because he wouldn't stand up to Edward -- but even Balliol eventually suffered more abuse than he could take and went into what Edward regarded as rebellion (this came when Edward demanded that Balliol perform feudal service in France; Prestwich, p. 372). The Scots, unwilling to comply and needing help. concluded what would come to be known as the "Auld Alliance" with France. Edward deposed Balliol and declared himself in charge (Oram, pp. 114-115). This was typical Edward; Balliol reportedly had been willing to turn over his kingship to Edward in return for an English earldom, but Edward the Inflexible turned that down flat (Prestwich, p. 473), and even went so far as to publicly tear the coat of arms from Balliol's clothes (Prestwich, pp. 473-474 -- another reason for the "Toom Tabard" name).
Balliol ended up living on his estates in France, hoping for French help which never came (Oram, p. 115) -- although his son would later claim the Scottish throne, ironically with the support of the English King Edward III. It's not even absolutely sure when Balliol died; it was probably 1313.
Edward's attempt at a takeover was so complete, he even set up a new administration in Berwick, abandoning Edinburgh (Prestwich, p. 474). He gave control of the country to Earl Warrene, who as it turned out did not want to do the job (Prestwich, p. 477).
It was in 1296 that Balliol was deposed. A sort of conspiracy by the nobility of Scotland collapsed instantly as Edward overran the country. Edward thought he had won (Prestwich, p. 476). It didn't take long to prove him wrong. In a sort of People's Revolt, Wallace rose to defend Scotland from Edward's attempts to take over the country. His rebellion apparently started quietly enough: He got into a brawl with some of Edward's soldiers who were at Lanark, and had to flee. A women (possibly his wife) who helped him escape was tortured and killed; Wallace responded by killing a local English officer (Fry/Fry; p. 78; MacLean, p. 37).
In other times, Wallace might have been called simply an outlaw. But with Scotland an occupied nation, he could call himself a freedom fighter. He declared himself a supporter of John Balliol and raised a rebellion.
The higher nobility of Scotland was almost universally indifferent. They weren't happy with Edward I, but they had made terms with him, even if at sword point, and weren't willing to risk more fighting. (The fact that a lot of them had estates in England was a major factor in this.) But Wallace was able to gather a band of small landowners and minor knights. And he picked a good time: The French had recently declared that Edward I's province of Gascony was forfeited to them, so Edward was spending his time in Flanders and other places trying to get Gascony back. He wasn't paying attention to Scotland -- except to try to extract money from it, which obviously made him even less popular (Prestwich, p. 476).
In 1297, Wallace's troops met an English army at Stirling Bridge, the last place it was possible to cross the Forth without boats. The English under the Earl of Surrey started to cross the bridge in the presence of Wallace's army (Magnusson, pp. 135-138), and of course he destroyed the portion across the bridge and won a major victory -- Cook, p. 91, says the bridge broke under the fleeing English, though Magnusson, p. 139, makes the more reasonable suggestion that Surrey ordered it destroyed to protect his remaining troops.
It was not a complete victory for the Scots; Wallace's chief lieutenant Andrew de Moray was mortally wounded in the battle (Magnusson, p. 139), and many English garrisons held out. But the Scots had shown they could still fight -- an immense pschological boost. As a result, Wallace became a Guardian of Scotland, and obviously respectable (Mitchison, p. 43). People even called him "William the Conqueror" (McNamee, p. 22).
But Stirling Bridge had been fought while Edward I was away campaigning against France. He came rushing back, assembled an army, and himself led it -- the first time he had actually led an army in battle in more than thirty years (Prestwich, p. 479).
Edward's campaign was not really very well-organized; he had supply problems (Prestwich, pp. 480-481). But he had by far the better-equipped army. And Wallace, the guerilla, tried to fight a set-piece battle at Falkirk in 1298, and was disastrously beaten by Edward (MacLean, p. 38). Edward, no fool, assembled an army of bowmen, cavalry, and infantry, while Wallace had little but spearmen, arranged in schiltrons. Fifteen years later, at Bannockburn, it would be demonstrated that the schiltrons could beat off infantry or cavalry. But Edward I was not the military incompetent his son was. He had, and used, his longbowmen -- the first real use of the weapon that would later bring the English to the brink of victory in the Hundred Years' War. The bowmen broke up the schiltrons, then the cavalry swept up the scattered remnants (Magnusson, pp. 143-144). The Scottish army had ceased to exist. Wallace survived, but from Guardian of Scotland he fell to being a fugitive outlaw; he soon resigned his guardianship and went into hiding (Magnusson, p. 147).
Wallace supposedly went on to try to negotiate with France and the Papacy on behalf of Balliol (Magnusson, pp. 148-149). Edward was distracted by continental affairs and couldn't concentrate fully on Scotland; there were even truces between the sides during this period. A certain amount of governmental work was done by the Scots, and they did send embassies all over the place (Prestwich, pp. 490-496). But if Wallace was part of this, he was largely ineffective -- indeed, it's hard to imagine them dealing with a man who hadn't even been a knight until so created, perhaps unofficially, after he became a guerilla.
When the French armies were defeated at Courtrai in 1302, the respite for Scotland was over. Edward was able to devote all his energies to Scotland (Prestwich, p. 497). Edward had pretty well pacified Scotland by 1303. Wallace spent the rest of his life on the run, with a price on his head (a hundred pounds, according to Magnusson, p. 152). Prestwich, pp. 499.500, reports Wallace fighting the English again in the winter of 1303-1304, but their force was routed and Wallace, although he again escaped, once again found himself without any soldiers.
Wallace betrayed and captured in 1305 (by Scots, no less; Prestwich, p. 503), subjected to a kangaroo trial in England (the charge was treason, even though he had never taken an oath to Edward I, and the trial, according to Magnusson, p. 155, consisted simply of a recitation of the charges followed by conviction and sentence; Edward I, that alleged paragon of justice, did not so much as allow a statement by the defence), and executed with torture (Fry/Fry, p. 79). Edward's justification for drawing and quartering Wallace was that the Scot hadn't fought according to the rules of chivalry (Prestwich, p. 503). Portions of his body were gibbeted at various sites around England (Keen, p, 68).
Wallace's brother John Wallace was apparently captured the next year (Prestwich, p. 510).
That much is (probably) fact -- and it's about all the fact we have. Edward I had used black propaganda about Wallace, circulating horror stories about his behavior (Prestwich, p. 512). Once he was in custody, Edward tried to blot out Wallace's memory and leave no relics (hence the treason indictment and the destruction of Wallace's body, according to Magnusson, pp. 157-158), and even the histories sponsored by the Bruces and the Stuarts tried to ignore him (Magnusson, pp. 162-163), just as they tried to blacken John Balliol (Oram, p. 112). Wallace, after all, made Robert Bruce look inconsistent; Bruce's ancestors had competed against John Balliol, and Bruce himself had worked with the English as recently as 1301 (Prestwich, p. 496) -- as Earl of Huntingdon, he was one of those guys with estates on both sides of the border.
It was only later that Wallace became a true national hero, meaning that his legend was created after the facts were almost completely lost -- e.g. it is believed that Blind Harry wrote his "Wallace" in the reign of James IV, almost two centuries after Wallace's death (Keen, p. 69). Kunitz/Haycraft, pp. 259-260, hint that Blind Harry didn't even write "Wallace," since it contains Latin allusions a blind man would be unlikely to know. They suggest that John Ramsey, who copied the only manuscript in 1488, may have had a hand in the composition. They declare that it contains "no attempt to picture the historic Wallace."
Whether Blind Harry wrote it or not, the poem (of which Keen says on p. 69, "Its literary merit is slight, and its historical accuracy is even slighter," while noting that it is very long) is largely hagiographic, giving Wallace a bunch of Robin Hood-like adventures (Keen, p. 74, who notes the utter improbability of it all -- since Robin was a genuine outlaw but Wallace was a royal servant). The most that can be said is that the fictional Wallace described by Blind Harry is the sort of person who would have adventures such as are found in this ballad.
Blind Harry also makes Wallace larger than life -- literally; Harry says that he was two and a quarter ells tall, or 83 inches=6'11" or 2.1 meters (Magnusson, p. 133). The other late Scottish sources are little better. Scotland's National Wallace Museum has an artifact called (almost certainly falsely) Wallace's Sword; it is 1.7 meters long, or 5'7" (Magunsson, p. 126). Magnusson, pp. 146-147 also notes how many alleged Wallace relics there are around Scotland -- most notably a Wallace Oak, but just as Robin Hood in England gathered wells and churches and trees named after him, so did Wallace in Scotland. This ballad seems to be another example of that; Child notes that the incident is found in Blind Harry, though I suspect the ultimate inspiration was the tale of Wallace's wife and how her treatment caused him to become an outlaw. But Severs/Hartung, volume 6, p. 1791, believes it is based on the Wallace, lines 1080-1119 -- meaning that the ballad is much longer than the source text.
Wallace's influence is still being felt today; Magnusson, p. 159, notes that when a referendum was held to re-create a Scottish parliament in the late twentieth century, the date chosen for the referendum was September 11, 1997 -- the seven hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Stirling Bridge. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: C157

Gudeman, Ye're a Drunken Carle

DESCRIPTION: Dialog in which the husband and wife continue a twenty year fight about his drinking. She concedes she'll take a drink for a cure. They agree to end the fight and share the pitcher from now on.
AUTHOR: Alexander Boswell (1775-1822) (source: Ford)
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Boswell)
LONG DESCRIPTION: She: you're a drunk, confused, ne'er-do-weel. He: You're a scold and a cow that would be a bull. She: I spin to clothe you and you waste it on drink. He: You like a drink yourself. She: Perhaps only to cure the cholic. He: You don't hesitate to take a cholic when it brings a drink; but we've fought for twenty years so let's stop now. She: I'm wrong; we're too feeble to fight longer. He: You're right; from now on we'll share the pitcher between us.
KEYWORDS: accusation drink dialog humorous husband wife bargaining
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1870, "Hech, Goodman, You're a Drunken Carle" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: [Alexander Boswell], Songs Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (Edinburgh, 1803 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 5-7, "East Nuik o' Fife" ("Auld gudeman, ye're a drunken carle, drunken carle") [see note]
Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland [second series] (Paisley, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 126-127, "Gudeman, Ye're a Drucken Carle"
Roud #13496
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "East Nuik o' Fife" (tune, per Ford)
NOTES [46 words]: Boswell prints each song with the title "Song" and, under that -- as if the title -- the name of the tune. This song is printed with the apparent title "East Neuk o' Fife." Ford makes it clear that Boswell had written new words to the old fiddle tune, "East Neuk o' Fife." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81870

Guerrilla Boy, The

See The Roving Gambler [Laws H4] (File: LH04)

Guerrilla Man, The

See The Roving Gambler [Laws H4] (File: LH04)

Guess I'll Eat Some Worms

DESCRIPTION: "Nobody (likes/loves) me, Everybody hates me, Going to the garden To eat worms." The rest of the song may describe the means by which one consumes the invertebrates or list the reasons why the singer is disliked (assuming it isn't obvious)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Opie & Opie)
KEYWORDS: animal food campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp.138-139, "Guess I'll Eat Some Worms" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 99, 499, 510, "Nobody Likes Me"/"I Eat Worms" (notes only)
DT, EATWORMS
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #137, "(Nobody Loves Me)" (1 text)
Roud #12764
File: DTeatwor

Gui-Annee, La

See Guillannee, La (La Gui-Annee) (File: BMRF584)

Guid Coat o' Blue, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer's wife buys him a good coat against the winter. "Nae mair will I dread the cauld blasts o' Ben Ledi." He ridicules those who, in pride, prefer new fashions to such a coat. "We fret over taxes ... but daft silly pride is the warst tax o' ony"
AUTHOR: John Paterson (source: _Whistle-Binkie_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (_Whistle-Binkie_)
KEYWORDS: pride clothes nonballad wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 660, "The Guid Coat o' Blue" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Rodger, editor, Whistle-Binkie, Fifth Series (Glasgow, 1843), pp. 10-11, "My Guid Coat o' Blue"; also Whistle-Binkie, (Glasgow, 1878), Vol II, pp. 128-129, "My Guid Coat o' Blue"
Roud #6087
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.27(324), "Guid Coat o' Blue" ("The blue bell was gane, and the bloom aff the heather"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1849-1880; also Harding B 17(205b), "My Guid Coat o' Blue"; Harding B 26(238)[some words illegible], "The Gude Coat o' Blue"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lass o' Glenshee" (tune, per _Whistle-Binkie_ and Bodleian broadsides Firth b.27(324) and Harding B 17(205b))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Coat o' Blue
File: GrD3660

Guid Guid Wife, The

DESCRIPTION: "To hae a wife, and rule a wife, Taks a wise wise man." The singer lists the penalties and injuries a man with a bad wife will suffer, and the benefits to a man with a good wife. A man with a good wife "gets gear eneuch"; a bad wife brings "care eneuch"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: marriage hardtimes warning nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 154, "A Guid, Guid Wife" (1 text)
File: Ord154

Guid Nicht an' Joy Be Wi' You A'

DESCRIPTION: As the singer prepares to leave the gathering, he declares, "Guid nicht, an' joy be wi' you a', Since it is sae that I maun gang." He praises those with whom he has been drinking, has a last drink of his own, and starts on the long voyage home
AUTHOR: Words: John Imlah/Music: James B. Allan ?
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(762)); there is a probable reference from 1804 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: drink home friend nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1530, "Good Nicht an' Joy Be Wi' You A'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 373-374, "Guid Nicht an' Joy Be Wi' You A'" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John Imlah, May Flowers (London, 1827 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 131-132, "Guid Night! an' Joy Be Wi' You A'!"
Roud #3936
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(762), "Good Night, and Joy Be With You All" ("All the money e'er I had, I spent it in good company"), W., Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824
SAME TUNE:
On the Murder of Hamilton (A Scotch Ballad) ("Oh! wo betire ye, Aaron Burr!) (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 179)
NOTES [227 words]: An argument could easily be made that "Guid Nicht an' Joy Be Wi' You A'" and "The Parting Glass" are the same song. Two verses often show up in both songs: "All the money e'er I had, I spent it in good company, And all the harm that e'er I did, I hope excused I will be, And what I've done for want of wit, to my memory I cann't recall, So fill us up a parting glass -- good night and joy be with you all," and "If I had money for to spend, And leisure time to set a while, There is a fair maid in this town, that surely has me heart beguile: Her rosy cheeks - and her ruby lips I own she has my heart enthrall'd; Then fill to me the parting glass, Good night - and joy be with you all." The difference is in the remaining verses. "The Parting Glass" is concerned with a lover missed; "Guid Night, and Joy Be With You all" is about leaving a party, or emigrating, or dying, and leaving good friends behind. - BS
Although we have not found a clear version of this song that can be dated earlier than 1820, there is a strong hint that it dates from 1804 or earlier. The song "On the Murder of Hamilton," cited in the SAME TUNE field, is said to have used the tune "Good night, and joy be wi' ye a'!" -- presumably this. This can't be dated, either, but Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton on July 11, 1804, so presumably the song was written not long after. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: Ord373

Guide Me, Oh Thou Great Jehovah

DESCRIPTION: "Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, Pilgrim though this barren land; I am weak, but Thou art mighty.... Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more." The singer asks to be guided by the pillar of fire and to be taken safely to Canaan
AUTHOR: Words: William Williams (1717-1791) and others?
EARLIEST DATE: 1745 (words translated, according to the Methodist Hymnal)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 48, "Guide Me, Oh Thou Great Jehovah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 286, "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 85, "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 94-95, "Guide Me, Oh Thou Great Jehovah" (1 text, 1 tune)
John Julian, editor, _A Dictionary of Hymnology_, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), pp. 77-78, "Arglwydd arwain trwy'r anialwch" (1 Welsh plus 2 English texts)
Roud #7103
NOTES [1085 words]: There seems to be some confusion about the origin of this hymn. With the exception of H. S. Perkins, The Climax (White, Smith & Co,, 1893?, p. 199, where it is given the name "Morrill" and credited to W. L. Woodcock), every source I checked credits at least some of the words to William Williams (who, according to McKim, p. 282, was known as "the 'Sweet Singer of Wales' and 'the Isaac Watts of Wales'"). Johnson thinks him the original and sole composer; Granger's Index to Poetry supports this. But the hymnals I checked all consider it a translation of the Welsh "Arglwydd arwain trwy'r Anialwch," with Peter Williams (1722-1796) responsible for some of the translation. Reynolds, p. 81, also mentions a possibility that John Williams, son of William, had some role in shaping the text.
Perhaps the most authoritative statement is from Julian, p. 77:
Arglwydd arwain trwy'r anialwch. W. Williams.... This was pub[lished] in the 1st ed. of the author's Alleluia, Bristol, 1745, in 5 st[anzas] of 6 l[ines].... [The Welsh text, titled "Nerth i fyned trwy'r Anialwch," follows.]The first tr[anslation] of a part of this hymn into English was by Peter Williams in his Hymns on Various Subjects (vii.), Together with The Novice Instructed: Being an abstract of a letter written to a friend. By the Rev. P. Williams, Carmarthen, 1771, Printed for the Author.... [A three stanza text, "Hymn V, Praying for Strength," follows.] These stanzas are a tr[anslation] of st[anzas] 1, iii, v. W. Williams himself adopted the tr[anslation] of st[anza] i, tr[anslated] st[anzas] iii. and iv. into English, added a fourth stanza, and printed them in a leaflet as follows:
A Favorite Hymn
sung by
Lady Huntingdon's Young Collegians.
Printed by the desire of many Christian friends.
Lord, give it thy blessing.
[The standard text follows.] This leaflet was undated but was c. 1772." Julian also notes many divergences in the printed texts, and says that the translations of the poem into other languages are all based on the English, not the Welsh.
The confusion about the words is nothing to the tune, though. The first three books I tried gave three different melodies, and it turned out there were more than that:
-- Johnson lists his as by Thomas Hastings (1784-1872). This tune is usually known as "Zion."
-- A Lutheran hymnal I checked claims a tune written by George W. Warren in 1884.
-- A different Lutheran production, the 1926 The Parish School Hymnal. puts it to "Pilgrim" by J. P. Ohl (1859).
-- A Methodist hymnal sets it to John Hughes's "Cwm Rhonda," probably best known as the tune for "God of Grace and God of Glory"; this is also the tune cited on p. 201 of McKim. Reynolds, pp. 81, 342-343, also has it to "Cwm Rhonda," and says that author John Hughes lived in Wales 1873-1932. (A Mormon hymnal also uses "Cwm Rhonda, without listing the tune name on the page, but changes the lyrics to begin "Guide US, O thou great Jehovah, GUIDE US TO THE PROMISED land; WE ARE weak, etc.)
-- Jean Ritchie's tune is unattributed but appears to be something else
-- The earliest printing in my possession, in H. S. Perkins, H, J. Danforth, and E. V. DeGraff, The Song Wave, American Book Company, 1882, pp. 196-197, does not credit the lyrics but says the tune is "from Flotow." With no explanation of who or what a Flotow is. Presumably it's a reference to Friedrich von Flotow (1812-1883), whom Internet sources associate with this song; his best-known tune appears to be that for "Another Year Is Dawning."
-- Perkins, in another book, The Climax, has multiple versions. That on p. 201 he calls "Martha" and lists as "Arr. from FLOTOW by H.S.P." But on p. 199 he has it to the tune "Morrill" credited to W. L. Woodcock.
Hymnary.org, which says the song is found in more than 1700 hymnals, as of February 5, 2022, showed about 25% of versions being sung to "Cwm Rhondda," about 30% to "Zion" by Hastings -- and about 45% to other tunes, implying that there are at least two and that none is used for as many as 20% of the texts. Ironically, hymnary.org has a statement that the popularity of the song is due to the use of "Cwm Rhondda" as the tune.
The imagery of the song is strongly reminiscent of the Exodus -- e.g. in Exodus 16:4 God promises "bread from heaven" (the manna which the Israelites ate until they settled in Canaan). The Israelites are led by a pillar of fire at night (Exodus 13:21, etc.) There are no crystal fountains in Exodus, or anywhere in the Hebrew Bible, but the idea may have been inspired by the various references to water from a rock.
There is one other Exodus-inspired reference in the song, which is, however, an error. The name "Jehovah" is found in the King James translation of Exodus 6:9 as the (personal) name of God.
Unfortunately, that's not the correct name of God, which is written יהוה. The proper English consonants are not JHVH but YHVH, and the vowels are simply wrong. Jews eventually came to consider it profane to read the name of God (hence the Greek Bible consistently renders the name YHWH by κυριος, Kyrios, the Lord, and English versions follow suit for the most part; the King James Bible has only half a dozen exceptions where it uses a translation other than "The Lord," but Exodus 6:9 is one of them).
To remind scripture readers not to pronounce the name of God (which was pretty definitely pronounced YAHVEH or YAHWEH), the Jews eventually started writing the consonants YHWH with the vowels of "adonai," the word for "Lord." What this was supposed to mean was, "When you see YHWH, read 'adonai.'" But the translators of the King James Bible took it literally, and applied the vowels of "adonai" to the consonants of "YHWH" and so produced the barbarism "Jehovah."
To be sure, neither Williams would be likely to care about Jewish practice, or even Christian practice; Reynolds, p. 462, describes Peter as having been converted by George Whitefield as a boy, ordained in 1744 -- and promptly driven from the Episcopal Church. He became a "Calvinistic Methodist," but was expelled from that denomination for heresy. Eventually he founded his own congregation -- independent and presumably heretical. Reynolds, p. 464, describes William as having originally intended a career in medicine, then gone into the ministry -- but, having become a deacon, he refused ordination and quit the Church of England and became an itinerant preacher. He is alleged to have written 800 Welsh hymns and 100 English hymns; this is the only one of any note. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: RitS048

Guignolee, La

See Guillannee, La (La Gui-Annee) (File: BMRF584)

Guillannée, La (La Gui-Annee)

DESCRIPTION: A (new year's) revel song, in which the singers demand pork-chine, or else the daughter of the house. Guillannee is mistletoe. In English this becomes "La Gui-Annee"; the singers declare "We've come to ask for mistletoe on this last day of the old year."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety); according to McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, a version was copyrighted by Mrs. Charles P. Johnson in that same year
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad party father children
FOUND IN: US(MW, So) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 515-516, "La Guignolee (La Gaie-Annee)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 584, "La Guillannee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 10, "La Guillannee" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 3-7, "La Gui-Annee" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, p. 34, "(La Guignolee)" (1 text + translation)
RECORDINGS:
Bloomsdale Singers, "La Guignolee" (KSGM 11279-A, n.d., prob. 1950s)
Prairie Durocher [sic] Singers, "La Guignolee" (KSGM 11279-B, n.d., prob. 1950s)
NOTES [35 words]: Botkin offers extensive notes on the Guillannee custom. He quotes Carriere: "The name Guillannée is to be explained as an abbreviation of gui de l'année, gui de la nouvelle année, New Year's Mistletoe." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BMRF584

Guillemont (Gillymong)

DESCRIPTION: "We were rushing along In Gillymong; We could hear the Boches a-singing. They seemed to say, 'You have stolen our trench, But don't go away, And we'll pepper you with tear shells All the day." How soldiers capture and lose much-fought-over trenches
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier fight | trenches
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p.92, "Gillymong" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10774
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Moonlight Bay" (tune)
File: AWTBW092

Guilty Sea Captain, The

See Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B) [Laws K22] (File: LK22)

Guinea Negro Song

DESCRIPTION: A slave's complaint of his capture: (lines from various versions): "The Englie man he [s]teal me, And carry me to Birgimy [Virginee]. The American man he [s]teal me, And give me pretty red coatee, And make me fence rail toatee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: slave work commerce theft clothes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 472, "Guinea Negro Song" (2 short texts, probably from the same informant)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 472, "Guinea Negro Song" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Roud #11800
NOTES [82 words]: Brown's notes indicate that this came from an ex-slave to whom this originally happened. White objected that this was chronologically impossible. It isn't, quite -- while the English banned the slave trade in the early nineteenth century, and even the Americans eventually stopped it, an Englishman with no morals might have taken a slave and slipped him through American customs.
But I think White is right and the informant didn't suffer this fate. The dialect is just a little too cutesy. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3472

Guise o' Tough, The

DESCRIPTION: "I gaed up to Alford for to get a fee, I fell in wi' Jamie Broon and wi' him I did agree." He eats till all are amazed. He works, finds his plow bad, replaces it, damages the replacement. He lists the other characters in the bothy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: work farming moniker money food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #4, pp. 2-3, "Guise o' Tough"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 48-49, ("I gaed up to Alford for to get a fee") (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan3 378, "The Guise o' Tough" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 236-237, "The Guise o' Tough" (1 text)
Roud #3800
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Geordie Williamson" (some verses are shared)
cf. "Drumdelgie" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
NOTES [73 words]: Greig #21, p 2: "While no doubt several of the expressions used in this class of song are more or less common property, it will be seen that 'Guise o' Tough' must have borrowed a good deal from 'South Ythsie."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Guise (378) is at coordinate (h1-2,v6) on that map [near Alford, roughly 24 miles W of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord236

Guise of Tyrie, The

DESCRIPTION: "O wat ye how the guise [happening] began ... at Tyrie." Lady Tyrie and the laird o' Glack plotted to instal "bobbing Andrew [Cant]." The "muirland wives" give Lady Tyrie "ill tauk," saying she and her husband will go to hell; they tear her veil.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: political religious clergy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 33, ("Oh wat ye hoo the guise began") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 681, "The Guise o' Tyrie" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Peter Buchan, Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1875 (reprint of 1828 edition ("Digitized by Google"))), Vol I, pp. 260-261, 312-313, "The Guise of Tyrie"
William Walker, The Bards of Bon-Accord 1375-1860 (Aberdeen, 1887 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 70-72, ("O wat ye how the guise began")
Roud #6106
NOTES [163 words]: Walker explains that the subject is the appointment of Andrew Cant by Alexander Forbes, Lord Pitsligo, to the pulpit of a new church in Pitsligo. The appointment of this "apostle of the Covenant" "was received with considerable disapprobation in the adjoining parish of Tyrie ... and out of this discontent sprang the song." Lady Fraser supported Cant "but how Elphinstone of Glack got mixed up in it, we have been been unable to explain."
Buchan says of Cant that he was "a character much celebrated in the history of the troubles of Scotland in the seventeenth century. His induction to the pastoral charge of the parish of Tyrie, of which he was the first Protestant minister, having given great offence to the rabble, one of them composed the Guise of Tyrie. Mr Cant being an avowed enemy to all, and everything that savoured of Popery ... [Buchan concludes with an example]."
For more about the Scottish Covenanters see the notes to "The Bonnie House o Airlie" [Child 199]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3681

Gull Cove

DESCRIPTION: If you commit to fishing Gull Cove and "if the codfish fades away as it often done before, We could lose our year in Gull Cove, where the stormy winds do blow." The song describes a bad year and all the boats that lose the year.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: fishing hardtimes
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 48, "Gull Cove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #26473
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best, "Gull Cove" (on NFABest01)
NOTES [21 words]: Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou: Gull Cove is near Branch, St Mary's Bay [at the southwest corner of the Avalon Peninsula]. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe048

Gull Decoy, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer reports, "I take no books, nor I read no papers, I have no money to spend or lose." He reads other people's newspapers, sets his dogs on orphans, and has no company but the gulls he whistles to, hence the name "the Gull Decoy."
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness dog bird money
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 255-256, "The Gull Decoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 85-86,246, "The Gull Decoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 30-34, "The Gull Decoy" (1 text plus some fragments, 3 tunes)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 19, "The Gull Decoy" (1 text plus some fragments, 1 tune)
ST Doe255 (Partial)
Roud #9193
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mick Riley" (characters)
NOTES [174 words]: Manny and Wilson state that "This song was made up by Larry Gorman before he left Prince Edward Island in 1873.... Tradition says that the ballad was a satire on Larry's own uncle, and that Larry was 'run off the Island' for it." It is also said that later Larry was 'run out of Miramichi' for the mostly unprintable Donahue's Spree, so he went to Maine. These are only two of the many fables that cluster round the memory of that imp, Larry, the terror and delight of the logging camps for over fifty years." - RBW
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland: There is a discussion alleging that "Gorman was convinced Riley [the subject of the song names himself Patrick Riley] had cheated him out of some wages, but whatever he may have done, that poet dug up all the dirt he could find on him, and (according to some people I've talked to) what he couldn't find he invented.... [We] have enough here to show the kind of character assassination local satire could involve, and few employed it with more zest or skill than Larry Gorman." - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Doe255

Gum Shellac

DESCRIPTION: Singer cites real and fictitious accomplishments of tinkers with gum shellac: making Pharaoh's coffins; building Birmingham; fighting the Romans, Spanish, Danes, Black and Tans, and Cromwell; making cannons in Hungary; teaching Nero to play.
AUTHOR: "Pops" Johnny Connors (source: Jim Carroll's notes to IRTravellers01)
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: humorous political talltale tinker
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #2508
RECORDINGS:
"Pops" Johnny Connors, "Gum Shellac" (on IRTravellers01)
NOTES [65 words]: Jim Carroll's notes to IRTravellers01: "Gum shellac is a paste formed by chewing bread, a technique used by unscrupulous tinsmiths to supposedly repair leaks in pots and pans. When polished, it gives the appearance of a proper repair but, if the vessel is filled with water, the paste quickly disintegrates, giving the perpetrator of the quick just enough time to escape with his payment." - BS
File: RcGumShe

Gum Tree Canoe, The

DESCRIPTION: "On Tom Big Bee river so bright I was born In a hut made of husks of the tall yellow corn, And there I first met with my Julia so true And I rowed her about in my gum tree canoe." The singer describes his work -- and the happy times courting in the canoe
AUTHOR: S.S. Steele ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1847 420770)
KEYWORDS: courting home love river
FOUND IN: US(MA,Ro,SE,So) Australia
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 69, "My Gum Tree Canoe" (1 text)
Randolph 787, "The Gum Tree Canoe" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 269, "The Gumtree Canoe" (1 short text plus a fragment)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #69, "My Gum Tree Canoe" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, "(Singing row, we will row, o'er the waters so blue)" (1 fragment) (p. 157 in the 1919 edition; not found in the third edition)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 473, "The Gumtree Canoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 172-173, "The Gumtree Canoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 22-23, "The Gum-Tree Canoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 168-170, "The Gumtree Canoe" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 34, "On the Tombigbee River So Bright" (1 text plus a part of the S. S. Steel version)
Heart-Songs, pp. 250-251, "Tom-Big-Bee River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 7 and #5/64, p. 7, "Gum-Tree Canoe" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 481, "My Gum Tree Canoe" (source notes only)
DT, GUMTREE GUMTREE2 TOMBIGBE
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 21, "Tom-big-bee River" (1 text. 1 tune)
Roud #759
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1847 420770, "The Gum Tree Canoe," G. P. Reed (Boston), 1847; also sm1885 18094, "The Gum Tree Canoe" (tune) [both attribute words to S.S. Steele and music to A.F. Winnemore]
LOCSinging, as104990, "The Gum Tree Canoe," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as104980, as105000, as201240, "The Gum Tree Canoe"
NLScotland, RB.m.143(143), "The Gum-Tree Canoe," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Indian Hunter" (theme)
cf. "Give Me a Hut" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Our Gallant Yankee Boys! ("From the banks of the Potomac, our army so grand") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 120)
Hurrah for Jeff. Davis ("Our country now calls, we'll up and away") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 190)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
On Tom Big Bee River
The Tombigbee River
NOTES [99 words]: The 1847 sheet music credits this to S. S. Steele, an attribution accepted by Patterson/Fahey/Seal -- but we all know that such attributions were less than utterly reliable. It is reported to have been sung by "A.F. WINNEMORE and his band of VIRGINIA SERENADERS." It does seem likely that the song did originate with this group; the earliest outside collection that I know of comes from 1909. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as104990: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R787

Gum-Tree Canoe, The

See The Gum Tree Canoe (File: R787)

Gummy Gummy Go

DESCRIPTION: Taunt against children whose front teeth are out: "Gummy, gummy, goo, Half past two, Put him in the letter box And see what he'll do. I'm telling the nun You stole a bun, You put it in your pocket And you gave me none."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: food theft clergy punishment
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 14, "Gummy, Gummy, Goo" (2 texts)
File: BAAI014

Gumtree Canoe, The

See The Gum Tree Canoe (File: R787)

Gun Canecutter, The

DESCRIPTION: The canecutter is struggling to survive, and "there's no joy for me, I got to cook my own tea, So I think I will marry a slutter." He needs her to help him with his work, so he hopes she'll "look into me eyes, she'll fall for me lies..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: wife work Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 106-107, "The Gun Canecutter" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA106

Gunner and Boatswain, The

DESCRIPTION: Boatswain and gunner meet. They agree that the next man they meet will decide which is most evil. It is the devil; he weighs them in his balance and says "I think you are... both for me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: accusation wager humorous sailor Devil
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 89, "The Gunner and Boatswain" (1 text)
Roud #2852
NOTES [149 words]: Thompson-APioneerSongster: "This humorous ballad is so fragmentary that the story is not clear. It seems to be a trial of the honesty of two men, with the devil acting as judge." Possibly it belongs among the tests of truth with [TMI] Motif group H 226, ordeal by balance [Defendant is weighed twice. He must be lighter second time; Stith Thompson, Motif-Index of Folk-Literature revised and enlarged by Stith Thompson, Indiana University Press, 1955 (Motif-Index of Folk-Literature on CDROM, Intelex Corporation, 1992). TMI example is from Penzer, The Pentamerone of Giambittista Basile, V.iii [?] 195 n.3]" While checking Thompson I looked for applicable motifs for "scales" or "judgment" or "balance" or "wager" and found no hits. Moreover, I looked at Hans-Jorg Uther, The Types of International Folktales, Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 2004 and found no relevant tale types either. - BS
Last updated in version 2.8
File: TPS089

Gunner's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "We're poor little lambs who have lost our way, Ba, Ba, Ba, We're former artillery now infantry, Ba, Ba, Ba." The former artillerymen lament being forced to fight as foot soldiers, and suggest they "drown our sorrows with many beers."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: derivative soldier technology drink
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 109, "The Gunner's Lament" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #29400
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Whiffenpoof Song" (tune)
NOTES [578 words]: This is (I think) intended to be dryly funny, but it is nonetheless a genuine complaint. Artillerymen required skills not needed by infantrymen (e.g. mathematics), and so were more highly trained and more elite; the Canadians tested soldiers for intelligence and ability to decide who would be in services such as artillery and anti-aircraft units (Bercuson, p. 240). To be downgraded to infantry status was a genuine demotion. (This apart from the fact that it probably put them in more danger.)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear attributes the events of this song to a reorganization of the forces in Italy. This appears to be correct, but a slightly different perspective is possible. The Italian campaign was very difficult, because of all of Italy's mountains and rivers. The 5th Canadian Armored Division, one of the most experienced Canadian units, was reorganized to take this into account. Bercuson, pp. 189-190, records:
"The 1st Canadian Corps would have a two-month hiatus... time enough for the 5th Canadian Armoured Division to continue tank-infantry training and to be reorganized to take into account lessons learned by British and Canadians in the Italian campaign thus far.... The most important of these lessons was that the armoured divisions were too poor in infantry to be effective in a country that did not lend itself to mobile warfare. It was therefore decided to add a second infantry brigade (the 12th) to the armoured division, formed from reconnaissance, motorized, and anti-aircraft regiments converted to infantry. The reason was simple: shortages of trained infantry were already becoming apparent only weeks after the Normandy landing. The Canadian Army staff... based on the war in the North African desert, and greatly underestimated infantry casualties and overestimated how many other troops it would need when allocating manpower resources [the North African war was more mobile and had less trench fighting than in Italy]. This would become a serious problem by the fall [of 1944] and would precipitate a general manpower crisis in the Canadian Army."
The reorganization worked; the 5th Armored, after going back into line, managed to create a break in the German "Gothic Line." But the Allies had no troops in position to exploit it (Bercuson, pp. 190-191).
The same problem of not having enough infantrymen would afflict the Normandy invasion, and result in a very unpopular change in the Canadian conscription laws that contributed to the eventual downfall of the Mackenzie King governing coalition (Bercuson, p. 241; Tillman, p. 130).
For the British, the problem was if anything even worse; their estimates of casualties in various branches of the service tended to be inaccurate (d'Este, pp. 254-255 and repeatedly elsewhere in chapter 15, "The Manpower Dilemma"), and they had no men to spare. 94% of adult British males were in some sort of war service by 1944 (d'Este, p. 252). Manpower shortages in Normandy were so severe that whole divisions were being organized out of existence and the troops reallocated to other forces or trained for other roles (d'Este, p. 262).
The use of the Whiffenpoof Song (words by George S. Pomeroy and Meade Minnigerode, music by Tod B Galloway) as a melody is interesting. It is old enough to have been used in World War II -- published in 1936, according to Gardner, p. 491. But it did not become a hit until 1947 (Gardner, p. 491, says it was #6 in America in November of that year). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Hopk109

Gunpowder Tea

DESCRIPTION: "Johnny Bull and many more, Soon they say are coming o'er And as soon as they're on shore, They must have tea. So Polly, put the kettle on...." "They'll want it strong... Sweetened well with sugar of lead." Their hides we will completely tan...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard)
KEYWORDS: patriotic battle drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 58-59, "Gunpowder Tea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 52, "Gunpowder Tea" (1 text)
Roud #11622
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Molly Put the Kettle On (Polly Put the Kettle On)" (tune)
NOTES [162 words]: This piece, to the tune of "Polly Put the Kettle On," is clever in its ability to link ordinary objects to fighting. The reference is clearly to the Boston Tea Party, but there is no certainty that it dates from the Revolutionary War as opposed to the War of 1812.
"Gunpowder Tea" is a genuine product, still sold today; I found several Internet advertisements.
"Sugar of lead" is lead acetate, a poisonous but widely-used sweetener; the Romans used it extensively (since they had limited access to genuine sugar); see John Emsley, Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements, Corrected edition, Oxford, 2003, pp. 227-228. Sometimes, vintners didn't even bother with sugar of lead; they just put a lead bullet in their bottles. This had a double advantage: If the wine was going to vinegar (acetic acid), the lead would soak up the vinegar and convert it to sugar of lead. Thus it removed a bad taste and added a sweet taste. Too bad about the poison.... - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: CAFS1052

Gustave Ohr

DESCRIPTION: Gustave Ohr recalls his quiet youth and how he fell in with (George) Mann's evil company. Eventually they attacked a man in a sugar camp. Ohr was taken and condemned to die. He concludes by thanking various legal officers for their kindness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio)
KEYWORDS: execution gallows-confession
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1879 - George Mann and Gustave Ohr attack, rob, and beat to death John Whatmaugh. They are condemned to death later in the year
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 121, "Story of Gustave Ohr" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 402-403, "Story of Gustave Ohr" (1 text)
ST E121 (Full)
Roud #4099
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charles Guiteau" [Laws E11] (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "Charles Mann" (meter, subject)
NOTES [13 words]: As "The Story of Gustave Ohr," this song is item dE39 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: E121

Gutboard Blues

DESCRIPTION: "I'm off down the road ev're morning 'bout eight, Going down to the job, and it's a job I hate. Hackin', cuttin' mutton gut on a contract basis." The sheep guts never stop coming; it's hot and smelly and he's splashed with acid, with the "gutboard blues"
AUTHOR: Dave Jordan
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: worker hardtimes technology sheep food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 81, "Gutboard Blues" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 61 in the 1972 edition)
RECORDINGS:
Dave Calder, "Gutboard Blues" (on NZSongYngCntry)
File: Colq061

Guy Fawkes

DESCRIPTION: "I'll tell a doleful tragedy; Guy Fawkes, the prince of sinisters, Who once blew up the House of Lords... That is, he would have blown them up... If only they had let him." Fawkes is betrayed, captured, and executed, and now they repeat it every year
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1826 (Universal Songster, George, and Robert Cruikshank, John Fairburn, Routledge and Jones, Publisher)
KEYWORDS: political execution nobility memorial death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1605 - The botched "Gunpowder Plot"
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 37, pp. 84-86, "Guy Fawkes" (1 text)
DT, GUYFAWKE
Roud #4974
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bow Wow Wow" (tune) and references there
cf. "The Fifth of November (Guy Fawkes Song)" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
Lloyd George, The Prince of Sinisters (The New Guy Fawkes) (Letter to the Editor, London Times, Tuesday, Dec. 7, 1909, p.10)
The Court of Momus ("What a shabby Government you have; Some ground should be selected") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, pp. 162-164)
NOTES [235 words]: Earlier versions of the Index described this as written by Thomas Hudson (per Moffat, English Songs of the Georgian Period). Conrad Bladey informs me that this was "a party piece at vauxhall gardens and thus associated with" Hudson, but is older. There are texts from the 1820s. Personally, I wonder if there isn't a still earlier version adapted to produce the George IV text.
The "Gunpowder Plot" was an attempt by a group of Catholics to regain control of united Britain. The plan was to blow up the British houses of parliament (along with King James I and VI) on November 5, 1605. To this end, several dozen barrels of gunpowder were stashed below the parliament building.
It was in this secret chamber that Guy Fawkes, who was largely responsible for the execution of the plot, was captured on November 4. He and many fellow conspirators were eventually rounded up and hung. Guy Fawkes Day has since been an annual occasion for fireworks and celebrations in England: "Please to remember The fifth of November: Gunpowder Treason and Plot!"
There is, however, some reason to believe that the government was in on the secret all along, and let the plot proceed as far as it did in an attempt to strengthen its shaky position.
This is one of several political pieces set to the tune "Bow Wow Wow" -- a song which hardly exists in its own right, but which makes it very easy to sustain a line of patter. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LPnd084

Guy of Warwick

DESCRIPTION: "Was ever knight, for lady's sake, So todd's in love as I, sir Guy?" Guy is enamored of Phyllis. He fights the infidels. He travels to many distant lands. He returns home, then leaves as a pilgrim. He fights giants. Etc. Now he's finally ready to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1592 (broadside registered)
KEYWORDS: knight travel courting death battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 107-113, "The Legend of Sir Guy" (1 text; this might be the Percy Folio's "Guy and Phyllis," part of which Percy tore out)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques LII, pp. 96-97, "The Legend of Sir Guy" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 314-318, "Sir Guy of Warwick" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 171-172, "The Legend of Sir Guy" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
RELATED: Versions of the Romance "Guy of Warwick" --
Julius Zupitza, _The Romance of Guy of Warwick: Edited from the Auchinleck MS in the Advocates Library, Edinburgh and from MS. 107 in Caius College, Cambridge_, originally published as Early English Text Society, Extra Series, numbers 42 (1883), 49 (1887), 59 (1891); reprinted in a single volume 1966 (2 texts, of the Auchinleck and Caius versions in parallel but no introduction or bibliography and only a few marginal notes; there is no attempt to establish the original text)
Alison Wiggins, editor, _Stanzaic Guy of Warwick_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2004 (1 text, containing only the "Stanzaic" section of the romance, i.e. the second of the two sections about Guy)
Maldywn Mills and Daniel Huws, _Fragments of an Early Fourteenth-Century Guy of Warwick_, Medium Ævum Monographs, New Series IV, Blackwell/Oxford, 1974 (this contains only the manuscript fragments which the DIMEV numbers #6734, which Mills/Huws, p. 12, suggest is an attempt to reduce the tale to a more reasonable length; on p. 12 they note its rough edges, implying that this is either the original manuscript of the abridgment or is copied from a draft that wasn't finished)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3145
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #4907+1557; also 6734
MANUSCRIPT: {MSAuchinleck}, The Auchinleck Manuscript, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 19.2.1, folios 108r-146v, "Guy of Warwick"
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, Gonville & Caius College MS. 107/176, pp. 1-271
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Sloane 1044, folio 248 (fragment)
RELATED: Versions of the (alternate) Romance "Guy of Warwick" (fifteenth century) --
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3146
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #4908
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, University Library MS. Ff.2.38, folios 161-231
RELATED: The Percy Folio Text "Guy and Phillis" (probably related to the broadside) --
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 201-203, 608, "Guy and Phillis" (1 text, with supplement from Ritson)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 254 (incomplete)
RELATED: The Percy Folio Text "Guy and Colbrande" --
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 509-558, "Guy and Colbrande" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 349
Roud #V4091
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Wood 402(6, 7), "A pleasant song of the valiant deeds of chivalry, atchieved by the noble knight Sir Guy of Warwick," John Wright (London) c. 1667; also Douce Ballads 1(92b), "A pleasant song of the valiant deeds of chivalry, atchieved by that noble knight, Sir Guy of Warwick," F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright (London), 1663-1674 (despite the different printer names, this seems to be from the same pritnter, if not the same print, as Wood 402(6, 7)); also Wood 401(3), "A pleasant song of the valiant deeds of chivalry, atchieved by noble knight, Sir Guy of Warwick," F. Coles, T. Vere, W. Gilbertson (London), 1658-1664 (again, same printer/printing); also Douce Ballads 3(83b), "A pleasant and renowned song of sir Guy, earl of Warwick," unknown (n.d.)
NOTES [2700 words]: The story of Guy of Warwick presents a significant conundrum. Individually, no part of it can be clearly shown to be traditional. Yet the surviving components are so widespread and varied that they clearly imply some sort of survival. These survivals include:
••• A romance (sometimes called Guy of Warwick A) so popular that parts of it survive in eight copies and inspired a sequel ("Reinbrun") about Guy's son
••• A second, less common romance ("Guy of Warwick B"), created probably in the fifteenth century and consisting of 11,976 lines in couplets (Bennett, p. 313)
••• The "Speculum Gyde Warewyke" or "Speculum of Guy of Warwick," a sort of religious meditation on the story (Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1101, DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1782), popular enough to be found in ten medieval manuscripts
••• A broadside ballad summary which was popular enough to be quoted in two plays, one of them, "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," well-known for all the folk pieces it contains (for this see below)
••• Two pieces in the Percy Folio
••• A mention in Chaucer: "Men speken of romances of prys, of Horn child and Ypotys, Of Beves and sir Gy, Of sir Lybeux and Pleyndamour -- But sir Thopas, he bereth fhe flour Of roial chivalry!" ("Men speak of romances of excellence/prize, of Horn Child and Ypotis, of Bevis [of Hampton] and Sir Guy [of Warwick], of Sir Lybeaus Desconus [the fair unknown] and Pleyndamour, But Sir Thopas, he bears the flower of royal chivalry") (from "Sir Thopas," the first tale placed in the mouth of Chaucer the Pilgrim; Canterbury Tales Fragment VII, lines 897-902; Chaucer/Benson, p. 216). Horn Child, Bevis of Hampton, and the Lybeaus Desconus were romance heroes (for the first of them, see the notes to "Hind Horn" [Child 17]), and Ypotes was subject of a pious legend; Pleyndamour is unknown (Chaucer/Benson, p. 922; Laura Hibbard Loomis thinks it is the "Playn de Amours" who later figured in Malory; Bryan/Dempster, o, 487). The mention in "Sir Thopas" is interesting but perhaps not complimentary -- Chaucer's list does not include any of the best romances, such as "Sir Orfeo" or the works of Gower; while Bevis and Guy were famous, their romances were far below Chaucer's standards, as was the Lybeaus. According to Laura Hibbard Loomis, "Guy of Warwick and, to a lesser extent, Libeaus Desconus, were... [Chaucer's] chief 'sources,' as from these he culled much of the phraseology and several of the narrative motifs used in Thopas." So what does it say that Chaucer invokes them, and especially "Guy," in "Sir Thopas," which is a parody on romances and deliberately wordy and silly?
••• A poem by John Lydgate, opening "From Christs birth complete nine hundred year"; Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #875; DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1464; according to DIMEV, it is 592 lines in 8-line stanzas (i.e. 74 stanzas); there are seven manuscripts, but printed editions are few and hard to obtain. I must admit that the idea of Lydgate, a formidably dull poet, dealing with the history of Guy, a formidably dull story, was more than I wanted to research; "There is a tradition that regards Guy of Warwick as Lydgate's worst poem" (Pearsall, p. 167. On p. 58, Pearsall says "it is difficult to imagine an English sentence which contains neither subject nor predicate, but if there is one, it can probably be found at the opening of Guy of Warwick.) It appears the poem was made at the request of relatives of a later Earl of Warwick (Pearsall, p. 71, 291). According to Pearsall, p. 167, it deals with the last part of Guy's story: his return to England, his fight with the giant Colbrand, and his death, which for some reason was regarded as more historical than the rest. It was probably written around 1425. It is based not on the English romances but on the Latin of Gerardus Cornubiensis. (For more on Lydgate, see the notes to "The London Lackpenny.")
*** Paston/Davis-I, #316, pp. 516-518, is an inventory of the books belonging to Sir John Paston (John Paston II), which Paston compiled between 1475 (the date when one of the books had been printed by Caxton) and 1479 (when Paston died). The list is damaged in the right edge, meaning that much of the text has been lost, but the contents are enough to make medieval scholars drool: one or another romance on the Death of King Arthur. The romance of "Ri Cure delyon" (Richard Coeur de Lion, quite popular). Two of Chaucer's works, the "Parlement off Byrdys" and the "Troylus" (The Parliament of Fowls and Troilus and Criseide), plus "The Legende of Lad..." (The Legend of Good Women?). "The Greene Knyght." "Þe Lamentacion off Chylde Ypotis" (Ipotis/Ypotis, a famous dialog between a child and the Emperor Hadrian; note the mention by Chaucer listed above). The list shows that Paston clearly liked folk literature. And book #1, right before the mention of Richard Coeur de Lion, refers to "...Warwyck." and book 5, right after "Þe Parlement off Byrdys," has "Balade ... off Guy (and) Colbronde." So Paston, in a collection of popular literature, had one of the Guy romances, even though we can't tell which one.
••• There is a lot of folklore about Guy that is still remembered in Warwickshire -- there are even some alleged artifacts -- even though both are false (some examples in Palmer, pp. 131-133).
••• Several later chapbook pieces, most of them derived from a 1608 rewrite of the story by Samuel Rowlands, which dropped many of the pointless incidents and boiled down the rest to a less exhausting length (Simons, p. 20) although Rowlands did add a scene in which Guy picks up a skull and talks about the vanity of earthly life (Simons, p. 23. Had he been watching "Hamlet" or something?). From his derived the first chapbook published in 1680 and attributed to Samuel Smithson (Simons, p. 22), and most of the later chapbooks probably descended from that.
After some thought, I decided to index the broadside (it's the item that ends up in all the folk anthologies, after all) and dump everything else in this entry along with it. Those who want to see the chapbook texts can find them in Simons; pp. 53-68 has a prose version printed in 1796 by James Drewry of Derby; pp. 70-77, a 1793 poetic version printed by George J. Osborne of Newburyport, Rhode Island (which even Simons, p. 25, calls "quirky").
Presumably it all started with the Romance, so here is how Wells, pp. 16-17, summarized the plot:
Guy, son of Siward, steward of Rohand, Earl of Warwick, is cupbearer to the Earl. He falls in love with the daughter of Rohand, Felice [hence Phyllis as Guy's lover], who scorns the steward's son. Finally impressed with his love, the lady agrees that if he were knighted she would grant him favor. Roland (sic.) knights Guy. Felice declares Guy must prove his prowess. The Knight goes oversea, and wins great glory in various lands. On his return, Felice refuses to marry him, for marriage might prevent him from adding to his glory; when he is peerless she will wed him. Guy goes back to the Continent. After proving his supremacy in various enterprises, among which are his relations with the Emperor of Germany, his saving of Constantinople, and his association with Sir Tirri, he returns again, to be received with honor by King Æthelstan, and to kill a dragon that has been infesting Northumberland.
Here the couplets end, and the strophic version (a) begins. Felice is wedded to Guy. There is much joy for fifteen days. Then Guy is suddenly struck with remorse for his undevout life. Abandoning his wife and unborn child, he becomes a pilgrim. Journeying in the East, he fights a Saracen giant, Amorant, in Germany, he again aids Sir Tirri. An old man, he returns to England, were near Winchester he champions England against the African giant Colbrand, representative of the Danes under Anlaf. He kills the giant, in disguise visits his wife, becomes a hermit, and later dies in his wife's arms.
Which wouldn't be too bad a plot if it were told in, say, 1500 lines. Unfortunately, it's told in 11,000+. Unfortunately, as Wells says on p. 18, "The romance is a long-winded narrative of insignificant incidence, many of which might be omitted without detriment to the plot. The first episode of Sir Tirri, for example, is purely gratuitous yet occupies over twenty-five hundred lines. Triteness of matter, overlapping of phrases, and sheer wordiness, add to the tediousness of the piece." Similarly Bennett/Gray, p. 128, says it is "distinctly prolix." Which is probably why the only real edition is still Zupitza's, from the nineteenth century, and it more a transcript than a true edition.
It is also didactic and intended to teach moral lessons; Bennett/Gray, p. 134: "Guy of Warwick enjoins readers to
"Take ensawmpull be wyse men [Take example by wise men]
That have before thys tyme ben [That have before this time been]." (This is actually a reference to the fifteenth century version; it is lines 7-8 of the Cambridge University Ff.2.38 text.)
Nonetheless it is among the most popular of Middle English romance. The Digital Index of Middle English Verse counts three manuscript copies (including the Auchinleck Manuscript, the most important), and three or four early printings -- the first, of which only a fragment survives, probably by Richard Pynson, a second perhaps by Wynkyn de Worde (Duff, p. 46) and so short that no one seems to cite it (it might be a different work), and the others by William Copland. There are also a couple of fragments of a recension.
Making this all the more curious is the fact that the form of the romance changes in mid-stream -- something which causes many editors to consider it two romances even though it's a continuous text in the Auchinleck Manuscript. WIggins, for instance, says unequivocally on p. 4 that the "couplet" and "stanzaic" romances are independent, and backs it up by printing only the latter. Barron, p. 76, summarizes the three sections of the Auchinleck text: "Guy's career before marriage ([lines] 1-6898 - octosyllabic couplets); after marriage ([lines] 6899-10479); and the career of his son Reinbrunn ([lines] 10480-1200 -- twelve-line stanzas with a complicated rhyme-scheme, like the second section)." What Wiggins prints is the second of the three, ignoring the first and the third
We should note that "Reibrunn" is found only in the Auchinleck version. The couplet romance, about Guy himself, is found in both the Auchinleck and Caius manuscripts. Wiggins says that the second part, "Stanzaic" Guy, is found only in Auchinleck, yet Zupitza manages to print many lines from Caius in parallel to Auchinleck. Looking at the facsimile of the Auchinleck manuscript, the transition between the parts is obvious -- the two are in different handwriting, and the stanzaic section has paraph marks (⊄) at the start of each stanza, but there is no break whatsoever between the two; the stanzaic section starts with an enlarged initial with penwork, but such penwork initials are found throughout both sections.
Auchinleck and Caius have enough text in common that it is clear they derive from a common original -- but they have diverged dramatically; it must have been an incredibly hard task for Zupitza to put them in parallel. Checking pages at random, I rarely found it possible to exactly compare more than about four lines in a row. For example, on pp. 100-101, there are seven more lines in Auchinleck than Caius; on pp. 200-201, Auchinleck has about 16 more lines than in Caius; on pp. 300-301 the number of lines seems to be the same but it does not appear that any of the lines start with the same two words; on pp. 400-401 Auchinleck has about twice as many lines as Caius. (To be sure, there are also sections where Caius is longer than Auchinleck.) On the whole, the language of Caius seems more modern than Auchinleck's -- to give an obvious example, Auchinleck's text regularly uses the letters thorn and yogh (þ and ȝ); Caius does not.
Chappell says that the citation of the broadside in "The Knight of the Burning Pestle" is in Act ii, scene 8. This is an error, at least based on the edition I have of the "Knight"; Wine (p. 336) numbers the scene II.ix and makes it lines 89-96. KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner does not mark scenes; he makes it Act II, lines 522-529 (pp. 102-103). KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, pp. 56-57, makes it lines 513-520. It is the last poem/song in Act II:
Was never man for lady's sake,
Down, down,
Tormented as I, poor Sir Guy,
De derry down,
For Lucy's sake, that lady bright,
Down, down,
As eve men beheld with eye,
De derry down.
Compare this to Ritson's first four lines:
Was ever knight, for lady's sake,
So toss'd in love, as I, sir Guy,
For Phillis fair, that lady bright,
As ever man beheld with eye?
It's pretty clearly the same song, but dramatically changed -- and the "Knight" text cannot be sung to Chappell's tune. This seems strong evidence of folk processing. For more on "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," see the notes to "Three Merry Men."
Curiously, although you'd think a story about a man from Warwick would be English, it is thought to derive from French sources. The earliest version extant is in Anglo-Norman (Palmer, p. 132) -- which, to be sure, was French as spoken in England; this romance of 'Gui" likely dates from the late twelfth or early thirteenth century (cf. Fewster, p. 105, for the date of the manuscript. Barron, p. 75, and others suggest a date of c. 1232-1242 for the French text and mentions that it might be by a "canon of Osney Abbey"; Wiggins, p. 3, dates Gui de Warewic to c. 1220. WIggins, p. 7, follows Maldwyn Mills in seeing a link in the translation to the romance of Amis and Amiloun. For a bit more about that romance, see the notes to "Bewick and Graham" [Child 211] -- though the links Mills observed were more a matter of style than plot).
The history behind this is muddled. For one thing, the king is called Athelstan/Athelston -- but King Athelstan was a Saxon king who died in 939. There would not have been an Earl of Warwick named "Guy" then (it's a French name, and the English title was Ealdorman anyway, and Warwickshire was not then an Earldom, not achieving that status until 1088! -- Fewster, p. 104 n. 3). I have to wonder if the name derives from the completely unhistorical romance of "Athelston," which features a king of that name.
There was a Guy, Earl of Warwick (of the Beauchamp line) -- he was the tenth earl and died in 1315. But he patently wasn't this Guy -- in fact, he was reputedly named after Guy the Hero (Hicks, p. 44. Fewster, p. 111, tells us that his younger brother was named "Reynbrun," which is the name of the hero's son; clearly Guy's legend was being invoked). It is not unreasonable to assume that the support of the Earls of Warwick helps explain how this otherwise banal story survived.
As Fewster says on p. 104, "From the viewpoint of modern evidence, it is doubtful that this figure Guy ever existed; certainly he was not an earl of Warwick."
Several sources, including Barron, p. 75, report a suggestion that Guy's name "may derive from that of Wigod of Wallingford, a famous cupbearer of Edward the Confessor, one of whose daughters married Robert d'Oilli, a member of the family to which the Earl of Warwick's mother belonged; another daughter married Brian Fitzcount, some of whose exploits may have contributed to what is otherwise a tissue of romance commonplaces." I can't see any genuine basis from this.
Spence, p. 162, goes so far as to say of Guy's death soon after his revelation to his wife of who he is, "The old tale of Odysseus and Penelope is repeated, save for a sprinkling of Christian sentiment. His bride follows him shortly to the tomb. He is the sun-hero, and she the sunset which cannot linger long when the sun has gone to his rest." To be sure, there probably wasn't a single copy of the Odyssey in England at the time "Guy" was written -- no one there could understand Greek! -- but that the plot is more folkloric than historical is surely true.
Rimbault's tune was "discovered in the Ballad Opera of 'Robin Hood,' performed at Lee and Harper's Booth in 1730." I strongly doubt its authenticity.- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: GuyWarwi

Guy Reed [Laws C9]

DESCRIPTION: Guy Reed is trying to break up a log jam when he is drowned. His funeral is given a full description; he is buried in his family plot
AUTHOR: Joe Scott (a friend of Reed's)
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: logger death drowning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 9, 1897 - Death of Guy Reed of West Byron, Maine
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws C9, "Guy Reed"
Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker, pp. 140-177, "Guy Reed" (2 texts, 2 tunes, with mentions of 51 versions)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 96-99,246, "Guy Reed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 63-68,79-80, "Guy Reed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 183-186, "Guy Reed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 55-58, "Guy Reed" (1 text, 1 tune, with an excerpt of "Little Nell of Narragansett Bay" for comparison)
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 24-28, "Guy Reed" (1 text)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 20, "Guy Reed (The Andrew Grogan Shore)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 709, GUYREED
Roud #1968
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Nell of Naragansett Bay" (tune; cf. Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker, pp. 160-162)
NOTES [47 words]: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland: The singer says he bought a printed copy from Joe Scott in or before 1912.
The site of the log jam is the Androscoggin River in Maine. In Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi it is corrupted to "Andrew Grogan," which explains the alternate title. - BS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: LC09

Guyandotte Bridge Disaster, The

See The C. & O. Wreck (1913) [Laws G4] (File: LG04)

Guye of Gisborne

See Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne [Child 118] (File: C118)

Guysboro Song

DESCRIPTION: The singer loses his parents and sister. He is treated badly by an uncle. He loses a captain's job at Canso: he drinks the freight and drowns 2 boys. On his other ship only 4 of 13 survive. He breaks his good knee in the Indies and decides to retire.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: drink hardtimes injury wreck orphan sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 119, "Guysboro Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS119 (Partial)
Roud #1824
NOTES [49 words]: This song is item dD48 in Laws's Appendix II.
The ballad mentions Guysborough County as the singer's birthplace, and Canso Strait and Ingonish as locales of his "hardships and pain." Guysborough County and Canso are on the south coast of Nova Scotia; Ingonish is on the Cape Breton coast. - BS
File: CrNS119

Gwan Round, Rabbit

DESCRIPTION: A call and response song: "My dog treed a rabbit, My dog treed a rabbit. Now watch that critter sittin' on that log, Now watch that critter how he do that dog."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942
KEYWORDS: animal dog hunting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 707, "Gwan Round, Rabbit" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BSoF707

Gwi' Lay Down My Life For My Lord

See I'm Gonna Lay Down My Life For My Lord (File: RcIGLDMY)

Gwine 'Round Dis Mountain

DESCRIPTION: "Gwin 'round dis mountain, To geirgia I'm a gwine. Setting by that pretty little gal Broke dis heart o' mine. Car'lina gal can't you remember me... Someday you'll remember me." "Gonna hew dis mountain down, my love... 'Fore the sun goes down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: love courting work hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 741, "Gwine 'Round Dis Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16311
NOTES [28 words]: The description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 text. Roud lumps this with "Goin' from the Cotton Fields," but I don't see the link. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5741

Gwine Down Jordan (I)

See probably The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)

Gwine Down Jordan (II)

See No More, My Lord (File: SBoA312)

Gwine Down to Jordan

See No More, My Lord (File: SBoA312)

Gwine Follow

DESCRIPTION: "Titty (i.e. Sister) Mary, you know I gwine follow, I gwine follow, gwine follow. Brother William, you know I gwine follow, For to do my Father('s) will. 'Tis well and good I am coming here tonight (x3) For to do my Father('s) will."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 18, "Gwine Follow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11841
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Buffalo Gals" (partial form)
NOTES [24 words]: Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates note that the second part of this is essentially "Buffalo Gals," but the first part is independent. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG018B

Gwine Ride Up in the Chariot

See I Hope I'll Join the Band (Soon in the Morning) (File: R266)

Gwine T' Res from All My Labuh

See Going to Rest from All My Labor (File: HPR244A)

Gwine Tell-a My Lord, Daniel

DESCRIPTION: "Gwine tell-a my Lord, Daniel, How y'all talk about me, Daniel. I love-a coffee; you love-a tea; You go 'round town and talk about me. Gwine tell-a my Lord, Daniel, How y'all talk about me, Daniel."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: nonballad drink
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #98, "Gwine Tell-a My Lord, Daniel" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5059
NOTES [35 words]: Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida regards this as a very-much-worn-down spiritual. This is certainly possible, but I don't think we can even call it a religious song based on the tiny amount of material remaining. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: Morr098

Gwine Ter Jine de Band

See I Hope I'll Join the Band (Soon in the Morning) (File: R266)

Gwine to Lay Down My Burden

See Down By the Riverside (Study War No More) (File: San480)

Gwine to Live Humble to de Lord

See Going to Live Humble to the Lord (File: Dett006)

Gwine to Run All Night

See Camptown Races (File: RJ19039)

Gwine Up (Oh Yes, I'm Gwine Up)

See Going Up (File: Dett034)

Gwineter Harness in de Mornin' Soon

DESCRIPTION: "Baby, baby, you don't know; De way you treat me I bound to go. Gwineter harness in de morning soon...." Descriptions of the life of a mule driver, primarily about a difficult job and an equally difficult team
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: work animal hardtimes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 47-49, "Gwineter Harness in de Mornin' Soon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15569
File: LxA047

Gypsey Davey, The

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Gypsies, The

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Gypsy Countess, The

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Gypsy Daisy

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Gypsy Davy, The

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Gypsy Girl, The

See The Gypsy Maid (The Gypsy's Wedding Day) [Laws O4] (File: LO04)

Gypsy Laddie, The [Child 200]

DESCRIPTION: A lord comes home to find his lady "gone with the gypsy laddie." He saddles his fastest horse to follow her. He finds her and bids her come home; she will not return, preferring the cold ground and the gypsy's company to her lord's wealth and fine bed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1720 (Ebsworth); 1740 (Ramsay)
KEYWORDS: elopement Gypsy marriage abandonment husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord,High),England(All)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,So,SE,SW) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (105 citations):
Child 200, "The Gypsy Laddie" (12 texts)
Bronson 200, "The Gypsy Laddie" (128 versions+2 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 200, "The Gypsy Laddie" (10 versions: #2, #4, #8, #21, #42, #71, #73, #83, #101, #120)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 127-129, "Johnie Faa, the Gypsy Laddie" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #110, pp. 1-3, "The Gipsy Laddies" (2 texts plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan2 278, "The Gypsy Laddie" (11 texts, 7 tunes) {A=Bronson's #45, B=#47?, C=#43, D=#44, E=#48, F=#3, G=#88}
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #14, pp. 131-133, "The Gypsy Laddie (Child 200" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #45.1}
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 14, "Gipsy Laddy O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 120-122, "The Draggle-tailed Gipsies" (2 texts) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 195; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 260)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 61, "The Gypsy Countess" (2 texts)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 46, "Seven Gypsies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #50 part II, "The Gypsy Countess" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #54}
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #81, "The Gipsy Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #42}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 269-277, "Gipsy Davy" (4 texts plus 2 fragments and a quoted broadside, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #109, #110}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 193-229, "The Gypsy Laddie" (19 texts plus 6 fragments, 8 tunes) {N=Bronson's #107}
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 207-209, "Gypsy Daisy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 73-76, "he Gypsy Laddie" (3 texts plus portions of another)
Randolph 27, "The Gypsy Davy" (6 texts plus 2 fragments, 4 tunes) {Randolph's A=Bronson's #100, E=#103, G=#123, H=#40}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 49-51, "The Gypsy Davy" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 27G) {Bronson's #123}
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 32, "Blackjack Davy"; p. 48, "Black Eyed Davy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 26-28, "Black Jack Davey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 97-98, "Black Jack Davy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 38, "The Blackjack Davy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 47-49, "Gypsy Davy" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #124}
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 29-31, "Gypsy Davy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 156-159, "Black Jack Davy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 21, "The Gypsy Laddie" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #77, #98}
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 140-141, "The Gypsy Laddie" (1 text, a short mixture of "The Gypsy Laddie" [Child 200] and "Seventeen Come Sunday" [Laws O17])
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 19, "The Gypsy Laddie" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 5, p. 11, "The Gypsy Laddie" (1 fragment)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, p. 52, "Harrison Brady" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #128}
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 43, "Gypsy Davie" (1 text)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 37, "The Gypsy Laddie" (7 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #6, #91, #33}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 33, pp. 253-261, "The Gypsy Laddie" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 37, "The Gypsy Laddie" (6 texts plus an excerpt, many of them mixed with "Sixteen Come Sunday"; "D" also partakes of "Devilish Mary")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 37, "The Gypsy Laddie" (13 excerpts, 13 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 16, "Gypsy Davy" (1 fragment)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 4-5, "Black Jack Davie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp.199-200, "Black Jack Davy (The Gypsy Laddie)" (1 text, 1 tune) {same source as Bronson's #4, but the transcription is quite different}
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #166, "The Gypsy Laddie" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #13, #12}
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 20, pp. 117-119, "The Gypsy Laddie" (2 texts)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 26, "Black Jack David" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #115}
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 59-60, "The Gypsy Laddie (Gypsy Davy)" (1 text)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 36-37, "The Radical Gypsy David" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 15, pp. 28-30, "The Gypsies (The Gypsy Laddie)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #12, "Gypsy Davy" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11}
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 215-225, "The Gypsy Laddie" (7 texts, with local titles "The Three Gypsies," "Black Jack Davy," "Gypsia Song," Oh Come and Go Back My Pretty Fair Miss," "Gypsy Davy," "The Lady's Disgrace," "Gypsy Davy"; 5 tunes on pp. 411-414) {Bronson's #75, #126, #106, #32, #9]
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 116-117, "The Gypsy Davy" (1 text, 1 tune) {from the same informant, although not the same session, as Bronson's #8}
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 71-72, "The Gypsy Laddie" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #10}
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 4, "Gypsie Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 16, "The Dark-Clothed Gypsy" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #50}
Peacock, pp. 194-197, "Gypsy Laddie-O" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 17, "The Gypsy Laddie" (3 texts, 4 tunes)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 3, "The Gypsy Daisy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 21, "The Gypsy Daisy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 220-221, "Gypsy Daisy," "Seven Gypsies in a Row" (1 text plus a fragment)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 546-547, "Clayton Boone" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 539-543, "The Gypsy Laddie" (4 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 120-122, "The Gypsy Laddie" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 105, "The Gypsy Laddie (Johnny Faa)" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 148, "The Gypsy Countess" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 42, "Gypsy Davy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 6-7, "Blackjack Davy" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 18, "The Gypsy Laddie" (1 text)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 110, "The Seven Yellow Gipsies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 5, "The Wraggle Taggle Gipsies, O!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 52, "The Gypsy Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 80, "The Gypsy Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #38, a separate, somewhat different transcription}
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 33, "The Gypsy Laddie" (5 texts plus 5 fragments, 10 tunes) {Bronson's #35, #21, #17, #26, #20, #97, #33, #104, #36, #34}
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 22, "Gypsy Davy (The Gypsy Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version) {Bronson's #26}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 18, "The Gypsy Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #73}
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, # 15, "Gipsy Laddie" (1 short text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #26}
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 311, "Gypsy Davy" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #99}
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H124, p. 509, "The Brown-Eyed Gypsies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 57, "The Dark-Eyed Gypsy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 63, "(There were three gypsies in a room)" (1 fragment, probably this)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 17, "The Dark-Eyed Gypsy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 108, "Black Jack David" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 72, "The Gypsy Laddie" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 21, "The Gyspy Laddie" (4 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #94}
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #10A-C, pp. 40-45, "Gypsy Davy," "The Raggle Taggle Gypsies, O," "The Wraggle Taggle Gypsies, O" (3 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #9, #74}
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 72-73, "The Gypsy Davy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #26, "Black Jack Davey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 411-412, "The Gypsie Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #60}
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 76, "Seven Gypsies on Yon Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 6, "The Gipsy Laddie" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 181-184, "Gypsy Davey"; "Gypsy Laddie O"; "Gypsy Laddie" (3 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #83, #81, #27}
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 268-269, "Johnie Faa" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 75-78, "The Gypsy Laddie"; "Gyps of David"; "Gypsy Davy (Catskill's)"; "The Gypsy Laddie" (3 texts plus a fragment)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 70, "The Wraggle-Taggle Gypsies, O!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 35, "The Gypsy Davy" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 219-221, "The Gypsy Laddies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 194, "Gypsy Davey"; p. 211, "The Gypsy Rover"; p. 213, "The Wraggle-Taggle Gypsies" (3 texts)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 229, "Gypsy Rover" (notes only; the title hints that most of the camps used Sixties rewrites rather than traditional versions)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 12, "The Gipsy Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Christine A. Cartwright, "Johnny Faa and Black Jack Davy: Cultural Values and Change in Scots and American Balladry," Volume 93, Number 370 (Jan-Dec 1980), pp. 397-416 (many excerpts)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Lattye Eunice Arnold, "A Sketch and Two Songs," Vol. VI, No. 1 (Jul 1958), p. 18-19, "Black Jack Davy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2567, "There was seven Gipsies all in a gang"
DT 200, GYPDAVY GYPLADD GYPLADD2* GYPLADD3 GYPLADX GYPBLJK* GYPSYRVR* GYPHARBR* BLCKJACK* BLCKJCK2 BLKJKDAV GYPLADY*
ADDITIONAL: J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VIII Part 1 [Part 23], pp. 156-157, "The Gipsy Laddy" (1 text)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #181, p. 189, "Johny Faa, or the Gypsie laddie" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
John Finlay, Scottish Historical and Romantic Ballads (Edinburgh: William Creech, and Archibald Constable and Co, 1808 ("Digitized by Google")) Vol. II, pp. 35-43, "The Gypsie Laddie" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #83, "The Wraggle Taggle Gipsies" (1 text)
Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, pp. 38-29, "The Wraggle Taggle Gipsies O!" (1 text, 1 tune)
S Baring Gould and H Fleetwood Sheppard, Songs and Ballads of the West, (London, 1891? ("Digitized by Google")), #50 pp. 106-109, xxviii, "The Gypsy Countess" (1 text, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #54, #72}
Roud #1
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Gypsy Daisy" (on Abbott1)
Freeman Bennett, "Gypsy Laddie-O" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Cliff Carlisle, "Black Jack David" (Decca 5732, 1939)
Carter Family, "Black Jack David" (Conqueror 9574, 1940; Okeh 06313, 1941)
Dillard Chandler, "Black Jack Daisy" (on Chandler01)
Robert Cinnamond, "Raggle Taggle Gypsies-O" (on IRRCinnamond02)
Debra Cowan, "Dark-Skinned Davey" (on HCargillFamily)
Harry Cox, Jeannie Robertson, Paddy Doran [composite] "The Gypsy Laddie" (on FSB5 [as "The Gypsie Laddie"], FSBBAL2) {cf. Bronson's #42, #45.1}
Mary Jo Davis, "Black Jack Davy" (on FMUSA)
Texas Gladden, "Gypsy Davy" (AFS 5233 A1; on USTGladden01) {Bronson's #29}
Mrs. T. Ghaney, "Roving Gypsy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Woody Guthrie, "Gypsy Davy" (AFS, 1941; on LCTreas)
Joe Holmes, "The Dark-Eyed Gipsy" (on IREarlyBallads)
Harry Jackson, "Clayton Boone" (on HJackson1)
Margaret MacArthur, "Gypsy Davy" (on MMacArthur01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Black Jack David" (on NLCR04); "Black Jack Daisy" (on NLCR14, NLCRCD2)
Maire Aine Ni Dhonnchadha, "The Gypsy-O" (on TradIre01)
Lawrence Older, "Gypsy Davy" (on LOlder01)
Walter Pardon, "Raggle-Taggle Gypsies" (on Voice06)
Jean Ritchie, "Gypsy Laddie" (on JRitchie01) {Bronson's #38}
Jeannie Robertson, "The Gypsy Laddies" (on Voice17)
Pete Seeger, "Gypsy Davy" (on PeteSeeger16)
Warren Smith, "Black Jack David" (Sun 250, mid-1950s)
Erica Warnock, "The Raggle Taggle Gypsies O" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #453, recorded 01/26/2023)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1446), "Gypsy Laddie," W. Stephenson (Gateshead), 1821-1838; also Harding B 11(2903), "Gypsy Loddy"; Harding B 19(45), "The Dark-Eyed Gipsy O"; Harding B 25(731), "Gipsy Loddy"; Firth b.25(220), "The Gipsy Laddy"; Harding B 11(1317), "The Gipsy Laddie, O"; Firth b.26(198), Harding B 15(116b), 2806 c.14(140), "The Gipsy Laddie"; Firth b.25(56), "Gypsie Laddie"
Murray, Mu23-y3:030, "The Gypsy Laddie," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(092), "The Gipsy Laddie," unknown, c. 1875
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Roving Ploughboy" (theme, lyrics, tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Black Jack Davy
The Gypsy Davy
Johnny Faa
Davy Faa
The Wraggle Taggle Gypsy
The Lady and the Gypsy
Harrison Brady
Gypson Davy
Black-Eyed Davy
The Heartless Lady
Egyptian Davio
It Was Late in the Night
When Johnny Came Home
The Gyps of Davy
The Dark-Clothed Gypsy
NOTES [1148 words]: Hall, notes to Voice17, re "The Gypsy Laddies": "Francis James Child locates the history behind the ballad to the expulsion of the Gypsies from Scotland by Act of Parliament in 1609, and the abduction by Gypsies of Lady Cassilis (who died in 1642), her subsequent return to her home and the hanging of the Gypsies involved. [ref. Child, IV, pp. 63-5.]"
Jeannie Robertson's version on Voice17 follows Child 200C,G in that the Gypsies are hanged in the last verse. - BS
Although the hero of this song is often called "Johnny Faa" or even "Davy Faa," he should not be confused with the hero/villain of "Davy Faa (Remember the Barley Straw)." - RBW
[Silber and Silber mis-identify all their texts] as deriving from "Child 120," which is actually "Robin Hood's Death." - PJS
Also sung by David Hammond, "The Dark-Eyed Gypsy" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)) Sean O Boyle, notes to David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland": "The tune has been known in the O Boyle family for four generations and has never been published."
Ebsworth says of his Roxburghe version: "In White-letter, a single narrow slip, set up by Southerners, probably as a page of some Chap-book 'Garland of Songs' for circulation in the northern counties. Date circa 1720, not earlier" (p. 157). Baring-Gould writes that "The Scottish ballad of 'Johnny Faa' first appeared in Allan Ramsay's 'Tea Table Miscellany,' 1724," but I don't find it there; Ebsworth cites Cunningham's claim for Ramsay 1724 (p. 154), so that is probably the source of Baring-Gould's assertion.
Both Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 61A and Baring-Gould 50 cite James Parsons as the source of a strange version. The texts are different but agree in having a prequel to the usual story: the "lady" of the story is a gypsy girl who reluctantly marries the Earl (possibly against her will) and is recovered by the gypsies. Of the prequel Baring-Gould speculates, "I venture to suggest that the Jacobites took an earlier ballad of a gipsy girl married to an Earl, and adapted it to serve as a libel on Lady Cassilis [the supposed heroine]" (p. xxviii). Baring-Gould, but not his source, split the ballad into two parts "so as to give both melodies."
Martin Graebe points out in a note to the Ballad-L list that "There is, on the Bodley site, a broadside, 'The Gipsy Countess' which is a Victorian parlour version of the seduction which was often sung as a duet (some versions are subtitled 'a celebrated duet'). This has been included by Bellowhead on a recent CD -- and great fun it is too! It is possible that James Parsons knew this song. Baring-Gould had copies of the broadside in his collection but has clearly discounted it as being irrelevant, though he has adopted its title But is this what Parsons was referring to when he told Baring-Gould of an earlier part? And is there a, so far, undiscovered version from which both Parsons' version and the Victorian song are derived?"
The broadside referred to by Martin Graebe is Bodleian, Harding B 11(1312), "The Gipsy Countess, a Celebrated Duet" ("She. Oh, how can a poor gipsy maiden like me"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 11(666), 2806 c.16(214), "Gipsy Countess". In this duet between "a poor gipsy maiden" and a "noble" man with "lands and proud dwellings," she asks how she can ever hope to be his bride. He answers that "All my heart, all my future, I'll lay at your feet." He asks her to marry and promises never to betray her. He tries to convince her of his sincerity. Finally, they agree to marry.
Child cites Finlay in his research on the Lady Cassilis story, but relegates Finlay's version of the ballad to notes on 200A and 200E. Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads follows Finlay, changing a few words. - BS
Sigrid Rieuwerts, in an essay entitled "The Historical Moorings of 'The Gypsy Laddie': Johnny Faa and Lady Cassilis," printed in Harris, notes that Child didn't think there was much history in this ballad, but seems to imply that Child wasn't trying very hard to find it (p. 79f.). He notes on p. 84 a poem written by one "Patrick Chamers" in 1719, in which one "Francy Fa an Egyptian" witched away "The Earle of Duglass Daughter Bessy by name... From her fathers Castle." An interesting coincidence of language, at the least.
On p.p. 89-90, Rieuwerts notes that King James V gave special privileges to one Johnny Faa in 1540. He was even awarded the title of "earl" -- although it wasn't a landed earldom; he was earl of the Roma in Scotland. Still, this made the name "Faa," and "Johnny Faa," very popular, because the Roma wanted the protection they thought the name would bring.
In fact the name was no help. By 1609, the Roma were being persecuted, and a number of men named Fa/Faa/Faw were hanged without proper trial on July 31, 1611 (pp. 90-91); others would follow in coming years. The Fifth Earl of Cassilis participated in some of these trials, so if this ballad is historical, the events of 1611 are the obvious place to start looking for the participants. Rieuwerts on pp. 91-92 notes that Child refers to a condemnation of a Johnny Faa in 1616 -- but adds that Child was wrong; the sentence of death was not carried out.
On p. 93, Rieuwerts says that the woman involved is generally identified as Jean Hamilton (1607-1642), who in 1621 married the sixth Earl of Cassilis. But he admits that nothing in the ballad, except the title "Cassilis," links the contents of the song with Lady Jean. It is noteworthy, however, that in 1630, Earl Cassilis was instructed by the crown to execute certain Roma over whom he had jurisdiction. (p. 94).
After all that analysis, however, Rieuwerts is forced to conclude that he cannot link the ballad to any actual historical events. He thinks (p. 96) that is makes historical sense. But that isn't the same thing.
According to David Fowler on p. 1795 of Severs/Hartung, a scholar named Judith Knoblock suggested that this ballad "had its origin in parody of the romance of Sir Orfeo" (for which see the notes to "King Orfeo" [Child 19]). There are some similarities -- the lady is taken away from her husband, perhaps by magic, and he seeks her. But the similarity ends there. One can perhaps accept the change from fairy abductors to gypsies as an attempt to rationalize the story. But, in "Orfeo," the woman is taken unwillingly and in effect stuck on a shelf. Her husband seeks her but only finds her much later, spending years as a near-madman in the woods. And Orfeo wins her back -- and not by talking her around but by extracting a rash promise from the King of Faërie and then holding the king to it. It is a completely different ending based on a mildly different premise. I really don't think there is any relationship; it's just two stories which use a few of the same motifs. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C200

Gypsy Maid, The (The Gypsy's Wedding Day) [Laws O4]

DESCRIPTION: The gypsy girl, left to fend for herself, meets a young lawyer who asks her to tell his fortune. She tells him that he has courted many fine ladies, but he is to marry a gypsy. He takes her to his home and marries her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.26(40))
KEYWORDS: prophecy marriage Gypsy
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So) Britain(England(Lond,North,South))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws O4, "The Gypsy Maid (The Gypsy's Wedding Day)"
Randolph 129, "The Gypsy Maid" (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 100, "The Gypsy's Wedding Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 177-179, "The Gypsy Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 346, "The Little Gipsy Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 245, "Gipsy Girl" (1 text)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 9, "The Gipsy's Wedding Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #32, "Little Gipsy Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 100, "The Orphan Gypsy Girl" (1 text)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 90, "My Gypsy Girl" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 634-635, "The Oregon Gipsy GIrl" (1 text)
DT 469, GYPSGIRL
Roud #229
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "The Gypsy's Wedding Day" (on Barker01)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "My Gypsy Girl" (Columbia 15519-D, 1930; on CPoole02)
Jasper Smith, "The Squire and the Gypsy" (on Voice11)
Joseph Taylor, "The Gypsy Girl" (on Voice01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(40), "The Gipsey Girl" ("My father was king of the gypsies you know"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth b.28(37) View 2 of 2, "Gipsey Girl"; Harding B 16(101d), "Gipsy Girl"
Murray, Mu23-y1:046, "The Little Gipsy Girl," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C; also Mu23-y1:117, "The Little Gipsy Girl," unknown, 19C; Mu23-y4:028 [the last a very short version probably edited to fit in a corner of a page]
LOCSinging, as201140, "The Gipsey Girl" ("My father was king of the gipsies you know"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(55), "The Little Gipsy Girl," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Squire and the Gipsy" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Gypsy Girl
The Little Gypsy Girl
NOTES [237 words]: [Sources such as] Charlie Poole have cleaned this one up. Broadside LOCSinging as201140 reads:
He took me to a house, it was a palace I am sure,
Where ladies were waiting to open the door;
On a bed of soft feathers, where I pleased him so well,
In nine months after his fortune I could tell.
Her father keeps the baby, she gets a pension of twenty pounds a year and "no more shall my gipsey girl ever more rove" but when she's in the neighborhood, she says, "your fortunes I will tell."
The Murray broadsides are all of the same version in which "little gypsy girl" meets "two handsome young squires," goes with one of them, and becomes pregnant; they marry.
Broadside LOCSinging as201140: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
This song may, just possibly, have actually encouraged one actual marriage: "Alberta Slim" (Eric Edwards, 1910-2005), the Canadian country singer, had a sideline of reading tea leaves. His daughter, after his death, reports that her father had met her mother when the mother had her tea leaves read. Slim looked at the leaves (and presumably looked at her even more intently), and told her that she was going to marry him. Which, of course, she did.
I don't know that Alberta Slim knew this song, but he did know quite a selection of English folk songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: LO04

Gypsy Warned Me, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Gypsy warned me, the Gypsy warned me, 'Oh,' she said to me, 'my child, He's a bad lad, a very bad lad,' but I only blushed and smiled." The man "took me to the country once" because she disobeyed the Gypsy's warning. They have other adventures
AUTHOR: R. P. Weston (1878-1936) and Bert Lee (1880-1946) (source: http://folksongandmusichall.com)
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (recording, Violet Loraine, according to http://folksongandmusichall.com)
KEYWORDS: Gypsy courting mother warning soldier
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 156, "The Gypsy warned me, the Gypsy warned me" (1 text)
Roud #25548
NOTES [81 words]: Of the songs in the Index, authors R. P. Weston and Bert Lee were also responsible for "Anne Boleyn (With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm)," "Rawtenstall Annual Fair," "Goodbye-ee," "Lloyd George's Beer," and "The Gypsy Warned Me," and Weston also co-wrote "I'm Henery the Eighth I Am," "Where Are the Lads of the Village Tonight?" and "Private Michael Cassidy." Weston was also co-author of the fairly well-known "I've Got Rings on My Fingers" with Maurice Scott and Fred Barnes. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC156B

Gypsy, Gypsy (I)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Gypsy, Gypsy, Rosemary (or, "Please tell me" or "Do not tarry"), [Tell me] What my husband's name will be (or "Tell me when we shall marry"), A, B, C...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Keystone Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: jumprope Gypsy marriage | fortune-telling
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #165, "Gypsy, gypsy, please tell me" (1 text)
Roud #19937
File: AJRR165

Gypsy, Gypsy (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Gypsy, gypsy in her tent, Couldn't afford to pay the rent. Policeman came and took all her money, Left her nothing but bread and honey."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: home money police police | rent
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 81, "Gypsy Gypsy in her tent" (1 text)
Roud #19596
NOTES [32 words]: Roud lumps this with "Little Nellie In Her Tent" probably because they share the second line about not being able to pay the rent. But the rest is different, so I think they should be split. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC081D

Gypsy, Gypsy, Lived in a Tent

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope and counting-out rhyme. "Gypsy, gypsy, lived in a tent, Gypsy, (gypsy), couldn't pay (the) rent. She borrowed one, she borrowed to, And handed the rope to you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Those Dusty Bluebells)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | gypsy rope counting-out
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes,#164, "Gypsy, gypsy, lived in a tent" (1 text)
Roud #19596
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ipsy Gypsy
File: AJRR164

Gypsy's Warning, The

DESCRIPTION: "Trust him not, oh gentle lady, Though his voice is low and sweet." "Listen to the Gypsy's warning, Gentle lady, trust him not." The Gypsy tells of a girl betrayed; the lady scorns (her). (The sequel may give the man's self-defense and the lady's answer)
AUTHOR: (first part attributed to "Georgiana D. S." in the Godey's Lady's Book publication)
EARLIEST DATE: 1857 (Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine -- Part I only); the oldest sheet music version seems to be from 1864
KEYWORDS: Gypsy love warning
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Randolph 743, "The Gypsy's Warning" (4 texts, 1 tune, the first being the "Gypsy's Warning" proper, the second the "Answer to the Gypsy's Warning," the third being "The Decision in the Gypsy's Warning," and the last an excerpt from a copyrighted piece by Monroe H. Rosenfeld)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 525-527, "The Gypsy's Warning" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 743A)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 73, "Gipsy's Warning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 154-155, "The Gypsy's Warning" (1 text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 55, "The Gypsy's Warning" (1 text plus mention of 1 more); 56, "Answer to the Gypsy's Warning" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 75-76, "The Gypsy's Warning"-"Do Not Heed Her Warning"-"The Decision" (1 text, consisting of the three parts, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 58, pp. 76-79, "The Gypsy's Warning (And Answer)" (3 texts, two being of the "Warning" and one being the "Answer")
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 149, "The Gypsy's Warning" (1 text)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #30, pp. 201-202, "The Gypsy's Warning" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 50, "The Gypsy's Warning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #88, "The Gypsy's Warning (and Answer)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #60, "The Gypsy's Warning" (1 text, 1 tune); #61, "Answer to the Gypsy's Warning" (1 text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 116-118, "The Gypsy's Warning" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 111-112, "The Gipsy's Warning" (1 text); pp. 112-113, "Answer To The Gipsy's Warning" (1 text) (pp. 94-95 in the 1919 edition has the "Answer")
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 228-229, "The Gypsy's Warning" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 230-231, "Reply to the Gypsy's Warning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 19-21, "Love's Ritornella" (2 texts, 1 tune, with this piece listed as an appendix to the song named)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #744, p. 49, "The GIpsy's Warning" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #19, pp. 54-55, "Don not Heed her Warning" (1 text, being the "Answer" without the original "Warning")
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 479, "The Gypsy's Warning" (source notes only)
DT, GYPWARN*
ADDITIONAL: _Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine_, Volume 55, November 1857, p. 448, "The Gypsy's Warning" (1 text, of the first part)
Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 82-83, "The Gipsy's Warning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1764 and 3761 and 6421
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Gypsy's Warning" (Perfect 12330, 1927; Romeo 601, 1928) (Brunswick 122, 1927; Supertone S-2011, 1930)
"Gooby" Jenkins, "The Gypsy's Warning" (Okeh 45069, 1926)
Arthur Smith Trio, "The Gypsy's Warning" (Bluebird B-7893, 1938)
NOTES [137 words]: This probably originated as three separate pieces, the original being "The Gypsy's Warning" (Roud #1764) and the sequels being the "Answer to the Gypsy's Warning" (Roud #3761, in which the young man begs the girl "Do not heed her warning") and the "Decision in the Gypsy's Warning" (Roud #6421, in which the girl decides to heed the warning).
The three can, however, be sung together, and they are obviously dependent. What is more, the versions have sometimes merged (e.g. in the version in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin). So I am listing them as one song even though I know they are multiple.
The song seems to have been in tradition by 1880; Laura Ingalls Wilder quotes the first part in By the Shores of Silver Lake, chapter 22.
Thanks to Jim Dixon for locating the Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R743

Gypsy's Wedding Day, The

See The Gypsy Maid (The Gypsy's Wedding Day) [Laws O4] (File: LO04)

Gyteside Lass, The

DESCRIPTION: "Aw warn'd ye heven't seen me lass -- her nyem aw winnet menshun." He met her "When aw strampt upon her good, an' the gethors com away," but that did not prevent them courting. He tells of his delight that she will continue to spend time with him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 182-183, "The Gyetside Lass"/"Maw Bonny Gyetside Lass" [both titles are used in the page headings] (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3177
File: StoR182

H'Emmer Jane, The

DESCRIPTION: "Now 'tis of a young maiden this story I tell, and of her young lover...." Her love, a ship's captain, sails away and is presumed lost. H'Emmer Jane goes crazy and drowns herself. He finally returns; shown the grave of his beloved, he dies himself.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (sheet music arranged by Thomas Comer)
KEYWORDS: love separation death drowning humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 50, "The H'Emmer Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The H'Emmer Jane" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 45 in the 4th edition, p. 21 in the 5th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 105, "H'Emmer Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 161-164, "H'emmer Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _The Stonewall Songbook: Being a Collection of Patriotic, Sentimental_ and Comic Songs_, West & Johnson (Richmond), 1865, p, 26, "Emma Jane" (1 text)
Roud #4425
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "The H'Emm'r Jane" (on NFOBlondahl03)
Lloyd Soper, "H'emmer Jane" (on NFAGuigné01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. Vilikens and His Dinah (tune, meter and same satirical treatment of story) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Emmer Jane
NOTES [781 words]: Satire on popular broadsides and ballads of the period that told such melodramatic tales in great seriousness. Lyrics are written in imitation of an exaggerated Newfoundland accent, [e.g.] "On a cold stormy mornin' all down by the sea, H'Emmer Jane sot a-waitin', sot a'waitin' for 'e. On a cold stormy mornin' her body were found, so t'was figgered pretty ginerally she'd gone crazy and got drowned."
[The] date from a broadside set by Golden Hind Press, Madison NJ, 1941. States that "Emmer Jane is a fold song from the south shore on Newfoundland here printed for the first time." - SL
The dead captain is recognized because he is carrying H'Emmer Jane's handkerchief. If a [broken] ring is a man's token to be kept by a woman then perhaps the woman's token is her handkerchief. That is true in "Jack Robinson" where Jack reveals himself to his old lover by showing her handkerchief. See also the French ballad "Arthur" [indexed here] where the heroine embroiders Arthur's name on her handkerchief. Maybe the question is: How much credit do we give H"Emmer Jane's author for familiarity with the broadside scene? Is Jane's name a reference to "Crazy Jane" [also indexed here, with allusions to its many parodies]?
H'Emmer Jane's handkerchief is found in the vest-pocket of the Captain's "cold carcass"; in a modern literal (?) reading of "The Suffolk Miracle," the daughter's "holland handkerchief" is found around her dead young man's head [but then there's the counter-example of "The Silvery Tide" in which the murdered Mary is found bound by the murderer's handkerchief].
Soper's 1951 recording includes an introduction by the singer. Soper says "H'emmer Jane is a folk song which comes to us from the northeast coast of Newfoundland. At least, that's what was picked up several years ago by Bob McLeod who worked [I'm not sure about the word 'worked'] for Mr. Gerald Doyle in compiling a couple of books of Newfoundland folk songs."
Soper refers to the line in his text, "with a boatload of shingles our captain sailed away": "As far as we know, this is a Newfoundland folk song. The references are local. The idiom is local. And most of all, the melody [that] is followed ['Vilikens and His Dinah'] is one that has been frequently used in various poems for several Newfoundland folk songs. The only point that causes me to query at the authenticity of it as a Newfoundland folk song is one reference there to 'shingles' -- 'a boatload of shingles' -- which would indicate that it might have originated, probably, in Cape Breton because shingles are not a local product, strictly speaking. However, it is now accepted as a Newfoundland folk song, and there's no desire to disown it or let anybody else gain the benefit of the origin of it."
The point about the locality of the tune is not convincing and Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports has a long discussion of the history of the tune as a stage favorite across the English-speaking world and as a common vehicle for poems that could be fit to the meter and tune. In the case of "H'emmer Jane" the last line of each verse is often so long that its words must be clipped and jammed together to fit the tune. - BS
Might the original intent have been to have the last line of the verse peter off into spoken speech? That would account for metrical irregularities.
But much of our speculation must be modified in light of a nineteenth century printed version of the song. All credit to Michael Taft for finding and pointing this out! The copy of the Stonewall Song Book that he found (dated 1865, and it says it's the eleventh edition) is in the University of Pittsburg digital collections; as of November 2022, it is at https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735061821256
No tune is indicated, though it fits "Vilikens." The text opens,
'Tis of a young maiden that a story I'll tell,
Also of her lovieur, and what them befel,
Oh! her lovieur was a salieur, he sailed the salt sea,
And the consequences attending his parting from she.
And the consequences, &c.
The song is calle "Emma Jane," which is both the name of the ship and the woman, and you can see that it was already in dialect. The simplest assumption is that the song originated in the United States, probably in the south, and was carried to Newfoundland, the only place where it was preserved. It can't have been too much older than 1865, given that "Vilikens" came out only a few decades before that.
Slightly older still is an 1859 sheet music copy; it lists no author but was arranged by Thomas Comer and printed by Oliver Ditson and Co. I have seen only part of a copy; I can't tell if it contains additional information. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FowM050

Ha Mi Ow-mos En Gun Las (The Octopus)

DESCRIPTION: Cornish. "Ha mi ow-mos en gun las." A riddle: The singer went on the sea and heard the fishes. He found one fish with "nine tails." but none in St Ives or Marazion could capture it. The answer is apparently an octopus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1698 (source: Deane/Shaw)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage fishing riddle
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 80, "(Ha mi ow-mos en gun las')" (1 short Cornish text plus English translation)
File: DeSh090A

Ha, Ha, Ha

DESCRIPTION: Refrain: "Ha, Ha, Ha! Don't you hear me now?/The Black horse calverns are coming...." Verse: "When the war is ended the boys will see their fun/They'll march through the South with their ladies... And I'll raise me some little Union babies"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Refrain: "Ha, Ha, Ha! Don't you hear me now?/The Black horse calverns are coming/The ladies in the town, they think they're mighty gown/The hoopskirts they are a-flowing/It takes 40 yards of alapac to cover up the hoops/and to cover up the happy land of money." Verse: "When the war is ended the boys will see their fun/They'll march through the South with their ladies/I'll march mine through some Southern Union clime/And I'll raise me some little Union babies"
KEYWORDS: army Civilwar clothes nonballad nonsense children lover soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1861-1865 - American Civil War
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 150, "Ha, Ha, Ha" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3638
NOTES [6 words]: Eat your heart out, Uncle Dave. - PJS
File: ShAp2150

Ha'k 'E Angels

See Yonder Come Day (File: SBoA321)

Haben Aboo an' a Banner

DESCRIPTION: The singer's family members are disreputable (father hanged for sheep stealing, mother burnt as a witch) and the singer himself fucks all comers in various positions for various reasons.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: crime execution commerce bawdy nonballad family witch
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1446, "When I Was a Souter in Fife" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
DT, DICKDAR3
Roud #7275
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as102960, "Dick Heuston, the Cobbler" ("My name is Dick Heuston, the Cobbler"), W. S. & J. Crowley (Baltimore), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher" ("hedger and ditcher" line) and references there
cf. "I Used to Work in Chicago" (theme) and references there
cf. "The Cobbler" (theme) and references there
NOTES [138 words]: Greig/Duncan7: "Cf. 'Wi' ma habben a boo an a banner' in the Arthur Argo collection of songs in the archive of the School of Scottish Studies." The Greig/Duncan7 are clearly either fragments of this song or floating lines common to it. The description is from the text at "The John Patrick Collection" at the folklore site. The text there has as its source Arthur Argo, A Wee Thread O' Blue [Prestige LP 13048). My copy of Ed Cray's The Erotic Muse (Pyramid, New York, 1972) has a long discussion of "I Used to Work in Chicago" and its relatives, including Argo's "Haben Aboo an' a Banner," with a fragment of Argo's text, on pp. 208-211.
The LOCSinging broadside is an entirely cleaned up version but its "When I was a 'prentice in London" verses and lack of verses about a wife make it this song rather than "The Cobbler." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71446

Habit, The

See Once You Get the Habit (You Can't Keep Still) (File: ArWo066)

Habitant d'Saint-Barbe

DESCRIPTION: Cumulative, call and response song: "L'habitant d'Saint-Barb' s'en va t'a Montreal" after six verses, building to "Le bout d'la queue du chien d'l'enfant d'la femm' d'l'habitant de Saint-Barbe..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage cumulative nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Que,Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 32, "L'Habitant d'Saint-Barbe" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [11 words]: Progression of verses is very similar to "The Wild Man of Borneo." - SL
File: FowL32

Hackler from Grouse Hall, The

DESCRIPTION: Paddy Jack, the Hackler, has fallen on hard times since the Sergeant was assigned Grouse Hall. He jails people on false charges, including drinking, for which he jails the Hackler. But soon Home Rule will sack "Old Balfour's pack"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: prison drink Ireland humorous police
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 39, "The Hackler from Grouse Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3035
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sergeant's Lamentation" (sequel to this ballad)
NOTES [506 words]: "The hackler was a distiller of high quality Poitin in 19th century Ireland" (source: Hearing before Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, US Patent and Trademark Office, January 6, 2000 in re United Distillers plc "On December 16, 1996 United Distillers plc filed an intent-to-use application to register the mark HACKLER on the Principal Register for 'alcoholic beverages, namely, distilled spirits, except Scotch whisky, and liqueurs.'....)
Apparently the more common definition is "one that hackles [to chop up or chop off roughly]; esp: a worker who hackles hemp, flax, or broomcorn." (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976); its this last definition that OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads follows.
OLochlainn notes to "The Hackler from Grouse Hall" and its answer, "The Sergeant's Lamentation," explain the Sergeant's deeds and the references to people named in both songs and happenings in County Cavan. His source for notes is the singer.
The occurrences appear to be during Arthur Balfour's tour as Chief Secretary of Ireland in the late 1880s [1887-1891; his repressive methods earned him the nickname "Bloody Balfour." He made something of a habit of taking political prisoners -- see Robert Kee, The Bold Fenian Men, being Volume III of The Green Flag, p. 111 - RBW]. See for example the reference to the 1888 imprisonment of Father McFadden of Donegal in Derry Prison "for an agrarian speech" (source: Chapters of Dublin History site, Letters and Leaders of my Day Chapter XXII "Parnellism and Crime" (1887-8), by T.M. Healy). I'd guess, no doubt naively, that the issue here is moonshining to defeat high alcohol taxation. - BS
The other possibility for the date is 1902-1905, when Balfour was prime minister in succession to his uncle Lord Salisbury. Gladstone's proposals for Irish Home Rule had of course failed, but the issue never really went away, and the Liberals were increasingly in favor of it in the early twentieth century.
Supporting this dating is the fact that, during the Balfour administration, there was a movement for "tariff reform" -- i.e. lowering of duties within the British Empire, which would have made it easier for the Irish to export to England.
Balfour tried to calm the tariff controversy, but succeeded mostly in turning his party purely protectionist, thus making the Liberals even more popular with the Irish, since they were more likely to favor both Home Rule and Free Trade. So the song might well look forward to the 1906 election which shunted the Conservatives from power.
It appears, incidentally, that "hackler/heckler" has different regional meanings. The agricultural use is typical in Yorkshire; according to Arnold Kellett, The Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition, and Folklore, revised edition, Smith Settle, 2002, p. 79, "heckle" means "to dress flax by combing out and splitting the fibres with a special kind of comb called a heckle (var[iant] of hacke, from O[ld] E[nglish] haecel, related to 'hook')." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: OLoc039

Had a Big Fight in Mexico

See Little Fight in Mexico (File: R549)

Had a Fine Sash

DESCRIPTION: ""Had a fine sash, As fine as silk, Any man that walks with me Calls me white as milk." "I had a little dog, His name was Blue, Put him on the track, He fairly flew." "I had a little pig, I fed him on cheese, I fed him so much His tail fell off."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: nonsense humorous animal dog food
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 169, "Had a Fine Sash" (1 text)
Roud #11361
NOTES [25 words]: Most of the lyrics here float, but the combination is unique, as is the first verse, so I agree with Roud in filing this as an independent song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne169

Had a Little Duck

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

Had a Little Fight in Mexico

See Little Fight in Mexico (File: R549)

Had a Little Teddy Bear

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

Had I the Tun Which Bacchus Used

DESCRIPTION: If the singer had Bacchus's wine cask he'd drink all day at no cost. And to avoid drinking alone he'd bring a friend. But since he does not have it, "let's drink like honest men." Let Bacchus have his wine; whisky is more divine.
AUTHOR: Richard Alfred Millikin (1767-1815) (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 88-92, "Had I the Tun Which Bacchus Used" (1 text)
NOTES [66 words]: Bacchus (seemingly a Lydian name) is the God more properly know as Dionysus -- who was of course the god of wine and drunkenness -- and also of orgaistic rites; he was accompanied by the satyrs and Maenads (Baccae). He also had fertility aspects, which explains the idea of the bottomless wine vat.
Richard Alfred Millikin is better known as the (probable) author of "The Groves of Blarney." - RBW
File: CrPS088

Had I the Wyte

See Eence Upon a Time (Had I the Wyte) (File: GrD71399)

Haddie Massa an' Haddie Missie

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks the free men and women going home to Africa to greet those at home for them. Don't cry on your trip home. Tell your mother we are free.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: farewell parting return travel freedom sea ship slavery Africa nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 18, "Haddie Massa an' Haddie Missie" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ElTo018

Hag's Rant, The

DESCRIPTION: Old Susie spins in the corner and asks for her tollies. We have to eat them dry because the cream turned. Hags have a connection with milk and butter. That old crone "some day at a witch stake will burn." "If only old Ireland was free!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1991 (Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder)
KEYWORDS: age magic food witch
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 28-29, "The Hag's Rant" (1 text)
NOTES [66 words]: Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder: "tollies" are "potatoes" [though the play on "toll" is interesting - RBW]. Tunney doesn't say so but this may only be a song in Gaelic, which he has translated into "the slave's patter, as you say."
Pure speculation: Potatoes, an old woman, free Ireland: is Suzy just an old lady, or Granuaile or Granua [see notes to "Granuwale" and "The Young Man's Dream"], or both? - BS
File: TST028

Hagg Worm, The

See The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs (File: C034A)

Haggertys and Young Mulvanny, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer wanders on a "pleasant evening"; as the sun illuminates the landscape, he sees a beautiful girl crying for "young Mulvanny Who lost his life on the Kipawa stream." She tells how he and the two Haggerty brothers died in a rafting accident
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger river death lumbering
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #39, "The Haggertys and Young Mulvanny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4559
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Kipawa Stream
File: FowL39

Haggis o' Dunbar, The

DESCRIPTION: "The haggis o' Dunbar": many better, few worse. To make it nice, they put in a peck of lice. To add fat, they put in a scabby cat. Chopped cheese, chickweed, sow's snouts and mugwort: you may get a bit if you're civil.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1819 (Scott, fragment); 1824 (Sharpe)
KEYWORDS: food humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1876, "The Haggis o' Dunbar" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, A Ballad Book (Edinburgh, 1891, reprint of 1824 edition), Vol II, #26 p. 12, "The Haggis o' Dunbar"
Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 134, "Dunbar"
Roud #6477
NOTES [53 words]: .".. and he began to sing the old Scottish song, 'There was a haggis in Dunbar, Fal de ral, &c, Mony better and few waur, Fal de ral,'" (source: Walter Scott, "The Bride of Lammermoor" in Jedediah Cleishbotham, editor, Tales of My Landlord, Third Series (Edinburgh, 1819 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, p. 94). - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81876

Hagios Vasiles Erchete

See Saint Basil's Song (Αγιος Βασiλης Eρχεται) (File: RcSBasil)

Hagmena Song

See Queen Mary's Men (New Year's Eve Carol) (File: MSNR200)

Hail Be Thou Mary the Mother of Christ (Ave regina celorum, Hail Queen of Heaven)

DESCRIPTION: Marian hymn with Latin final lines of verses. "Hail be thou, Mary mother of Christ, Hail be thou blessed, that bore a child... Ave, regina celorum." Each verse hails Mary, "Comforter of care," fairest of women, "Granter of grace," "Virgin of virgins"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1480 (Heege Manuscript)
KEYWORDS: religious foreignlanguage MiddleEnglish | macaronic Latin Virgin Mary
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1032
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1691
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #66b, pp. 59-60, "[Hail, Mary]" (1 text)
Frederick J. Furnival, _Hymns to the Virgin and Christ, The Parliament of Devils, and other Religious Poems, chiefly from The Archbishop of Canterbury's Lambeth MS. #853_, Early English Text Society, Tuebner & Co., 1867, pp. 4-5, "Hail, Blessed Mary" (1 text, from the Lambeth manuscript)
Carleton Brown, editor, Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1939, #23, pp. 41-42, "Ave Regina Celorum, I" (1 text, from the Dublin manuscript)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, leaf 146
MANUSCRIPT: {MSHeege}, The Heege Manuscript, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 19.3.1, folio 91
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, Trinity College, MS. R.4.20 (Trinity 652), folio 172
MANUSCRIPT: Dublin, Trinity College, MS. 516, folio 25
MANUSCRIPT: London, Lambeth Palace Library MS. 853, pp. 24-26
NOTES [41 words]: As usual with Middle English verse, we have no proof this is traditional. But with five manuscript copies, including the Hill and Heege manuscripts, I thought it worth including, particularly since there are differences between the versions. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MEHBTMMC

Hail Mary

See Some Valiant Soldier (File: AWG045)

Hail Mary Full of Grace

DESCRIPTION: Chant for trying to get out of being chosen to be "it" in a children's game: "Hail Mary full of grace, Put me in a lucky place."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 52, "(Hail Mary full of grace)" (1 short tex)
File: BAAI052D

Hail to Our Wigwam

See Kille Kille Wash Wash (Gilly Gilly Wash Wash; Hail to Our Wigwam) (File: ACSF148K)

Hail to the Homeland

DESCRIPTION: "Hail to the Homeland, Great bastion of the free, Hear now thy children Proclaim their love for thee." Places in Cornwall are listed. " Great pulse of freedom In every Cornish heart, Prompt us and guide us...."
AUTHOR: Words: Pearce Gilbert / Music: Kenneth Pelmear (1923- 1995) (source: cornishnationalmusicarchive.co.uk)
EARLIEST DATE: words: 1959 (cornishnationalmusicarchive.co.uk
KEYWORDS: patriotic nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Jill Fox, "Hail to the Homeland" (Piotr-Archive #572, recorded 04/27/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Trelawny" (cited in this song)
NOTES [70 words]: Wikipedia calls this "one of the unofficial anthems of Cornwall." I strongly doubt it is traditional anywhere (the lyrics, at least, just aren't that good!), but it's in the Piotr archive, so I'm indexing it. I simply doubt that it was learned from tradition.
The song was eventually translated into Cornish, but the original Gilbert lyrics contain no words of Cornish, even though the song refers to a "Celtic flame." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio572

Hail to the Oak, the Irish Tree!

DESCRIPTION: "The Irish oak ... the kingly forest tree ... sickens where the slave, To power despotic, homage gives ... Its branching green head long defend The Shamrock, Thistle and the Rose. Hail to the oak, the Irish tree, And British hearts ..."
AUTHOR: W. Kertland? (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 115-117, "Hail to the Oak, the Irish Tree!" (1 text)
NOTES [80 words]: See "The Sprig of Shillelah" for another example of "The Shamrock, Thistle[Scotland] and the Rose[England]" unity theme during and after the Napoleonic wars. Nevertheless, reference to "power despotic" remains. - BS
The unity theme is perhaps best known from its appearance in "The Bonny Bunch of Roses-O" [Laws J5]. I musst admit to finding some irony in the Irish calling the oak their tree at a time when the British made "Heart of Oak" almost an alternative national anthem. - RBW
File: CrPS115

Hail, Blessed Mary

See Hail Be Thou Mary the Mother of Christ (Ave regina celorum, Hail Queen of Heaven) (File: MEHBTMMC)

Hail, Hail, Scouting Spirit

DESCRIPTION: "Hail! Hail! Scouting Spirit! Best in the Land; Hail! Hail! Scouting Spirit! Loyal we stand. Onward and upward we're treading, Always alert to make Scouting ready, We are prepared. Hail! Hail! Scouting Spirit! Hail, Hail, Hail!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1997 (BoyScoutSongbook1997)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 166, "Hail, Hail, Scouting Spirit" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 67, "Hail! Hail! Scouting Spirit" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Hero" (tune, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
NOTES [23 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs lists 13 collections of this, which is fairly high, so I'm indexing it, but I really doubt it's traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF166L

Hail, Hail, The Gang's All Here

DESCRIPTION: "Hail, hail, the gang's all here, So what the hell do we care, What the hell do we care? Hail, hail, the gang's all here, So what the hell do we care now?"
AUTHOR: claimed by D. A. Esrom, to a tune by Sir Arthur Sullivan
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 36, "Hail, Hail!" (1 short text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 170-171, "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #170, p. 48, "Hail! Hail!" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 166, 378, "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 48, "Hail! Hail!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 6, "Hail! Hail" (1 text -- not the same text as in Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 261-263, "Hal! Halt! The Gang's All Here -- (The Pirates of Penzance)"
Roud #9639
SAME TUNE:
Rejoice! Rejoice! ("Rejoice! Rejoice! the multitude's assembled") (Harbin-Parodology, #3, p. 9)
To the Ladies ("Wail! Wail! The girls/our wives are here, Let's be awfully quiet, Can the usual riot") (Harbin-Parodology, #196, p. 52)
He's a Sight ("Hail! Hail! XXX's a sight. Don't you think he's all right?") (Harbin-Parodology, #204, p. 53)
Meat's All Gone ("Hail! hail! the meat's all gone, What'll be the next course") (Harbin-Parodology, #264, p. 65)
Soup! Soup! ("Soup! Soup! We all want Soup! Needn't stop to strain it") (Harbin-Parodology, #272, pp. 66-67; a significantly different version is in Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 12)
NOTES [125 words]: "D. A. Esrom" appears to be a pseudonym of Theodore Morse ("Esrom"="Morse" spelled backward) and his wife Theodora "Dolly" Terris Morse; they wrote a number of hits, but none of them went into tradition that I can tell.
The tune is "Come, Friends, Who Plough the Sea" from "The Pirates of Penzance," so the tune is from 1879.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 319, estimates that this was the thirty-eighth most popular song in America in 1918, peaking at #11 in January 1918 (#1 for the year being J. Will Callahan and Lee G. Roberts's "Smiles"). Gardner credits the words to Esrom (Theodora Morse) and the tune to Theodore Morse and Sullivan. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SBar036B

Hail, Smiling Morn!

DESCRIPTION: "Hail! smiling morn! that tips the hills with gold, Whose rosy fingers ope the gates of day; Who the gay face of nature doth unfold, At whose bright presence darkness flies away."
AUTHOR: Reginald Spofforth (1769-1827; dates per Wikipedia) (source: Clark and broadside LOCSheet sm1835 361)
EARLIEST DATE: 1814 (Clark)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 306, "Hail, Smiling Morn!" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 587)
ADDITIONAL: Richard Clark, The Words of the Most Favourite Pieces Performed at The Glee Club, The Catch Club, and Other Public Societies (London, 1814 ("Digitized by Google")), V. III, p. 114, ("Hail! Smiling morn! That tips the hills with gold") (1 text)
Roud #1346
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 125, "Hail Smiling Morn" ("Hail smiling morn that tips the hills with gold"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth b.26(541), "Hail Smiling Morn"
LOCSheet, sm1835 361340, "Hail Smiling Morn", S. H. Parke (Boston:), 1835 (with tune)
NOTES [9 words]: The current description is all of the Clark text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT306H

Hail! Hail! Hail!

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Hail! (x3), I'm going to join the saints above, Hail! (x3), I'm on my journey home." Verses: floaters such as "If you get there before I do, Look out for me, I'm coming too." "Look up yonder what I see, Bright angels coming after me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 185, "Hail! Hail! Hail!" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 177 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #15240
NOTES [23 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "I'm on my journey home." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett185

Hail! King of the Jews

DESCRIPTION: "Hail! King of the Jews, Hail! Star of the East, I'm coming to worship thee." "Jesus my Lord, He's has been down here, He went up again, Jesus my Lord, He went up again and He comes no more, Jesus my Lord"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 3, "Hail! King of the Jews" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [102 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. - BS
The mention of Jesus as King of the Jews is fairly common in Christianity -- among others, the Wise Men came to seek "the child who has been born king of the Jews?" (Matt. 2:2); Pilate asked if Jesus was the King of the Jews (Matt. 27:11 and parallels; John 18:33); the soldiers mockingly hail him as King of the Jews (Matt. 27:29 and parallels), and the notice on the cross reads "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews" or similar (Matt. 27:37 and parallels; John 19:19); in John, Pilate even declares Jesus to be the King (John 19:15). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa003

Hainan's Waal

DESCRIPTION: The singer prefers a drink from Haining's Well to "liquor or wine or usquebaugh [whisky]." He describes the stream. The quarrymen picnic there. "Beasties" stop there. Wanderers recall it. Let's "hae a fling" to a fiddle there and then sing its praises.
AUTHOR: Frank Gilruth (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: dancing drink fiddle lyric
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #164, p. 1, "Hainan's Waal" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 506, "Hainan's Waal" (1 text)
Roud #5991
NOTES [120 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Haining's Well (506) is at coordinate (h3-4,v5-6) on that map [roughly 31 miles WNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
I would not go so far as to suggest literary dependence, but there is an interesting parallel here with the Biblical account of David and his Mighty Men in 2 Samuel 23:15fff. David, for whatever reason, declared, "O that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate!" David at this time was still in the wilderness and could not move freely, so three men attacked a Philistine camp to bring David some of the water (which he then reused to drink). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3506

Hairs on Her Dicky Di Do, The

DESCRIPTION: A quatrain ballad, this describes in graphic detail the pubic hairs of the maid of the mountain, and her sexual adventures.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) Ireland US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 134-135, "The Hairs on Her Dicky Di Do" (1 text)
Roud #21469
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singer, "Dicky Dido" (on Unexp1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ash Grove" (tune)
File: EM134

Hairst o' Rettie, The

DESCRIPTION: "I hae seen the hairst o' Rettie... I've heard for sax and seven weeks The hairsters girn and groan... But a covie Willie Rae... Maks a' the jolly hairster lads Gae singing down the brae." The singer praises Rae's efficient, comfortable organization
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work moniker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #3, pp. 2-3, "The Hairst o' Rettie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 408, "The Hairst o' Rettie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 271-272, "The Hairst o' Rettie" (1 text)
Roud #3512
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Parks o' Keltie" (tune, per Greig)
cf. "The Boghead Crew" (subject: harvest crew moniker song)
cf. "The Kiethen Hairst" (subject: harvest crew moniker song)
cf. "The Ardlaw Crew" (subject: harvest crew moniker song)
cf. "The Northessie Crew" (subject: harvest crew moniker song)
NOTES [246 words]: This song is so unusual that it's almost hard to describe (and impossible to keyword). Whoever heard of a bothy song in praise of the owner? - RBW
The "bothy song in praise of the owner" is not so strange considering that the crew is not hired for six months but only for the harvest. Peter A Hall, "Farm Life and the Farm Songs" in Greig/Duncan3: "Improvement [technological] also had its effect on harvest, which as well as being the culmination of the farm year, was a most important social event particularly in terms of courtship ([Greig/Duncan3] 406). The harvest crew was composed of farm workers, along with many temporary employees from the district ([Greig/Duncan3] 401), drawn from a wide variety of occupations." (p. xxv); [the] last of the bothy ballads of the old pattern are from the 1880s ([Greig/Duncan3] 372, 374), and although certain features are carried over into some of the local harvest songs ([Greig/Duncan3] 408 to 412), they lack both the emotional tone and the structure of the older pieces." (p. xxx).
Greig: "Most people, we fear, will think that the poetry of the harvest field is ... gone; but that something may be made even out of the mechanical reaper is evident from the following clever and spirited ditty...."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Rettie (408) is at coordinate (h6-7,v6) on that map [near Banff, roughly 42 miles NNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ord271

Hairst, The

DESCRIPTION: "I see the reapers in the field, for hairst is come." The singer praises "The bonnie yellow waving grain, our precious staff o' bread." He hopes Victoria may long reign over the people, and rejoices, for "The hairst is here again."
AUTHOR: James Davidson
EARLIEST DATE: reportedly written 1859
KEYWORDS: farming harvest food nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1837-1901 - reign of Queen Victoria
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 263, "The Hairst" (1 text)
Roud #2167
File: Ord263

Hairy Capie

DESCRIPTION: Have you seen "hairy capie" [hairy cap] coming through the yard? He'll be here. He won't let his horse and mare rest. He's a "keerious cankert carlie" [strange, ill-natured churl]. A "Jenny Nettles" verse is included as well.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: farming derivative nonballad horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1726, "Hairy Capie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2581
NOTES [41 words]: Roud lumps Greig/Duncan8 with "Jenny Nettles" with good reason. The second of the two verses is the usual first verse of "Jenny Nettles." I split them because the first verse, while patterned on "Jenny Nettles," has nothing to do with that story. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81726

Hal-an-Tow

DESCRIPTION: Spring ritual song; "Robin Hood and Little John they both are gone to fair-O"'; other verses similar. Cho.: "Hal-an-tow/Jolly rumble-O/For we are up as soon as any day-O/For to fetch the summer home, the summer and the May-O...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: possibly 1660 (mentioned by Nicholas Boson of Newlyn); first actual text 1846 (Sandys); Palmer claims another text from 1838
LONG DESCRIPTION: Spring ritual song; "Robin Hood and Little John they both are gone to fair-O"; "Where are the Spaniards that made so great a boast-O/They shall eat the goose feather and we shall have the roast-O"; "Of all the knights in Christendom St. George he is the right-O." Chorus: "Hal-an-tow/Jolly rumble-O/For we are up as soon as any day-O/For to fetch the summer home, the summer and the May-O/For summer is a comin' in and winter is a-gone."
KEYWORDS: magic ritual dancing nonballad Robinhood
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #12, pp. 187-189, "The Helstone Furry-day Song" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 387-389, "The Helstone Furry-Day Song" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 62, "The Hal-an-Tow" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 92, "Hal-An-Tow" (1 text + Cornish translation, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #135, "Helston Furry Dance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, pp. 10-11, "The Helston Furry Dance, or Flora" (1 text, 4 tunes); pp. 12-14, "The Hal-an-tow" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #24, "The Hal-an-Tow or Helston Furry Dance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 152, "Robin Hood and Little John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 21, "Robin Hood and Little John" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HALANTO*
Roud #1520
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maidens of England, Sair May Ye Mourn" (words of unknown meaning)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Haile an Taw and Jolly Rumbelow
NOTES [688 words]: A May song and Maypole dance. A version is still performed along with the Helston Furry Dance on May 8th of every year. Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland's Cornish words are a revivalist translation from the English. The phrase "Hal-an-tow [taw]" is variously translated as "heave on the rope" and "hoist the roof." - PJS
Both "hal-an(d)-to" and "rumbelo/rumble-o" have provoked extensive scholarly discussion, mostly because they exist in the far older song "Maidens of England, Sair May Ye Mourn" (which see). This pushes the origins of the phrases back at least to the fourteenth century. Without quoting all the various versions cited under "Maidens of England," here is Michael Prestwich's modernized text (Prestwich, p. 81), which he describes as "a song mocking the oarsman's chant of 'Heavalow, Rumbalow'":
Maidens of England, sore may you mourn,
For you have lost your men at Bannockburn with 'Heavalow'.
What, would the king of England have won Scotland with 'Rumbalow'?"
This seems to be the citation that has drawn all the attention, but in Ravenscroft's Pammelia there is a version of the song indexed as "My Lady Went to Canterbury" which has these lines:
heave and hoe Rumbelo,
hey trolo troly lo,
hey trolo trolly hey
So the words continued to be used in some form for many centuries (Bannockburn was in 1314, Ravenscroft published in 1609, and this song was found in the twentieth century).
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland offers two alternate explanations for the words Dutch "Haal aan het tow, "haul on the rope" was taken over by Cornish sailors as "hal-an-tow." Alternately, "hal an to/taw" may be Cornish for "raise the roof." It is not obvious how this phrase, whatever its origin, would be combined with the northern "rombylogh."
The verse about the "Spaniards that made so great a boast-O" presumably refers to the Spanish Armada of 1588, which signally failed to invade England and suffered losses of thousands of men and dozens of ships.
In the Complaynt of Scotland of 1549, we find a reference to a song "Sal i go vitht zou to rumbelo fayr?" (Complaynt, p. lxxxv), but even if "rumbelo" is a word and not a place name, that doesn't tell us what it means!
Whether any of these explanations is true, or none, the "rumbelow" refrain was well enough known that W. S. Gilbert used it in "The Mikado." In Act I, lines 67-71 (p. 265 in Gilbert/Sullivan/Bradley), we find the chorus
Then man the capstan -- off we go,
As the fiddler swings us round.
WIth a yeo heave ho,
And a rumbelow,
Hurrah for the homeward bound!
Bradley often has notes on Gilbert's sources, but of this he can only say "rumbelow: A meaningless combination of syllables or words, like 'yeo heave ho', used as a refrain by sailors when rowing or performing some other routine and rhythmical task. In some editions of the libretto the phrase is altered to 'a rum below'."
Alexander, p. 99, also gives a reinterpretation, printing "Jolly Rumble, O!" for "jolly rumbalow."
Kennedy's Cornish words are by Talek and Yleweth, as are many of his other Cornish songs. Talek (E. G. R. Hooper) is perhaps the most interesting of the Cornish revivalists. Berresford Ellis, pp. 182-183, has this to say of him:
With the death of Nance, E. G. R. Hooper (Talek) was elected as [the third] Barth Mur [Grand Bard]... in 1959 [and served until 1965 when the rules forced election of another]. Hooper has been a great benefactor to the revival by his publication of much work that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. Perhaps his most notable achievement has been the editing and production of the all-Cornish periodical An Lef Kernewek in which has appeared much of the most notable writing in Unified Cornish.... A prolific translator and writer, he edited Kemysk Kernewek, a miscellany... in Cornish, published in 1964. An Lef Kernerek have also published, in 1962, Lyver Hymnys ha Salmow, containing 100 hymns and psalms in Cornish.
Parry/Shipley is not complimentary of most Cornish literature, which it calls amateurish, but mentions Talek's Kernow yn Catalunya ["A Cornishman in Cataluna"] as one of the few exceptions - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: K092

Halarvisa

DESCRIPTION: Swedish hauling or capstan shanty. "En sjoman segla jordan runt." No story line to verses, choruses: "Viktoria, Viktoria! Karre-verre-vitt-bom! Hurra sa! Viktoria, Viktoria! Karre-verre-vitt-bom!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1875
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty worksong nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 426-427, "Halarvisa" (2 texts-Swedish & English, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 51, "Halarvisa" (2 texts-Swedish & English, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Kom Till Mig Pa Lordag Kvall" (similar chorus)
NOTES [24 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas's notes (quoted from Sternvall's Sang under Segel 1935) say this was written down by "Navigation Pelle," 1875) - SL
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hugi426

Half a Pint of Porter

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Half a pint of porter, Penny on the can. Hop tere and back again, If you can."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas)
KEYWORDS: jumprope drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #167, "Half a pint of porter" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #76, "(Half a pint of porter)" (1 text)
Roud #19324
File: AJRR167

Half a Pound of Twopenny Rice

See Pop Goes the Weasel (File: R556)

Half Ahead Together

DESCRIPTION: "Half ahead together, Take her up to thirty feet, Raise the after periscope While the captain has a peep, There's a Jerry cruiser Right on the starboard bow, Let's go up and sink the cow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy technology derivative
FOUND IN: Britai(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 115, "Half Ahead Together" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Arm in Arm Together" (tune)
NOTES [388 words]: Germany in World War II did not have a large fleet of cruisers -- Worth, pp. 50-53, lists light cruisers Emden, Königsberg, Köln, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Nürnberg, heavy cruisers Admiral Hipper, Blücher, Prinz Eugen, and the panzerschiffe Deutschland/Lûtzow, Admiral Scheer, Admiral Graf Spee. What's more, most of them didn't get out much -- the three heavy cruisers had badly defective engines (Fowler, p. 59), and most of the light cruisers were structurally deficient (Worth, pp. 50-51) -- and Emden, the one exception, was so antique in her design as to be almost useless as a cruiser.
Despite that, they had quite a few encounters with British submarines. The first big encounter was December 13, 1939. The British Salmon (on of the S-Boats that were the subject of "Twelve Little S-Boats"; Bagnasco, p. 110) spotted Köln, Leipzig, and Nürnberg in the North Sea. Lt. Commander Bickford of the Salmon fired one torpedo at long range, which hit the Leipzig. The Germans then turned -- and a torpedo from Bickford's second batch hit the Nürnberg (Becker, pp. 68-69). Both German cruisers survived, but Leipzig's boiler damage was so severe that she never again served as an active combat unit (Fowler, pp. 54-55).
Most of the German fleet was involved in the invasion of Norway, and they suffered for it -- e.g. Blücher was sunk by the Norwegian defenses and Königsberg by British aircraft. On April 10, the very day Königsberg was lost, the British Truant torpedoed the Karlsruhe, destroying her engines and forcing the Germans to scuttle her (Showell, p. 115; Fowler, p. 52). At the same time, Spearfish torpedoed the Lützow, doing to much damage that she had to be towed into port for repairs (Showell, p. 108).
Two years later, on February 23, 1942, Trident damaged the Prinz Eugen so badly that her stern broke off (Bagnasco, p. 119; Fowler, p. 63), although she survived (later to have a collision with Leipzig truly ended the later's career Fowler, p. 55; Prinz Eugen was to be expended after the war in nuclear weapons tests).
And those are just the incidents where the British hit the German ships! No doubt there were other times when British submarines saw German cruisers. I don't know if one of those inspired this song, but obviously one or another incident might have. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn085

Half Crown, The

DESCRIPTION: De Valera will give a half crown to every newborn. Singer marries a widow and does his "best for the blooming half crown." His wife says he's not trying hard enough but then admits she's 63. "Check your wife's age before going to bed"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: age sex marriage childbirth money humorous wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #16988
RECORDINGS:
Vincie Boyle, "The Half Crown" (on IRClare01)
Andy Cash, "The Half Crown" (on IRTravellers01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cod Liver Oil" (tune) and references there
NOTES [403 words]: The tune, verse structure, and some lines derive from "Cod Liver Oil." Compare, for example, these lines from "Cod Liver Oil" [OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 30]
I'm a young married man, and I'm tired of my life,
For lately I married an ailing young wife.
with these from "The Half Crown"
I'm a young married man and I'm tired of life,
Half killed and half crazy from this strap of a wife.
In Andy Cash's version on IRTravellers01 the singer earns his half-crown in spite of his wife's age (though, perhaps, the "young baby scream" makes him wonder if the reward were sufficient).
Notes to IRClare01: "In 1944, despite considerable opposition, the DeValera government introduced a family allowance of two-and-sixpence for every child after the first." The song says that DeValera was concerned because "the population of Ireland was beginning to fall." - BS
Ireland's population was a constant concern of her politicians -- see, e.g., "Daniel O'Connell (I)," plus all the hundreds of emigration songs. The problem did indeed continue into the twentieth century and De Valera's presidency -- Ruth Dudley Edwards, An Atlas of Irish History, second edition,Routledge, 1981, shows that the population of Ireland *fell* 4% from 1901 to 1946 (a period when the rest of the world increased its population massively), and fell another 1% from 1946 to 1961. What's more, the population decrease was all concentrated in the Republic of Ireland (8% and 4%, respectively); in Ulster, the population increased in this period.
So De Valera had a point. Except -- paying people to have children only works if there are jobs to support the children, and the Republic of Ireland was an economic basket case for most of De Valera's lifetime, including at the time he proposed this silly idea. If, instead of gimmicks, he has worked on genuine economic development, real free trade (including even with England), and a reasonable policy on science and technology, he could have had the kids and kept them in the country too. As witness the fact that Ireland is doing just fine now that it's gotten away from De Valera type economics -- it's very nearly the fastest-growing country in Europe.
[Later: The above was written around 2005, and the 2008 recession did a fine job of smashing the Irish economy, But the point remains: People don't produce economic development; production of useful products produces economic development.] - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: RcTHaCro

Half Door, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer finds a home with "a sweet colleen" behind an open half-door. She invites him to come in. They dance. He proposes but she tells him to come back when she is older"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (NFOBlondahl04)
KEYWORDS: courting dancing
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
Roud #5275
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry and Michael Gorman, "The Half-Door" (on Voice15)
Omar Blondahl, "The Half Door" (on NFOBlondahl04)
NOTES [35 words]: GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site has this as "Irish traditional" though I haven't yet seen any paper copy. - BS
There are a number of Irish recordings; actual field collections seem to be few. - RBW
File: RcHalDoo

Half Horse and Half Alligator

See The Hunters of Kentucky [Laws A25] (File: LA25)

Half of the Castle

DESCRIPTION: "Half of the castle is built, built, built, Half of the castle is built, My fair lady." "All of the castle is built, built, built, All of the castle is built, My fair lady."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: nonballad game
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 139-140, "Half of the Castle" (1 text)
Roud #38129
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hark the Robbers" (sometimes played as part of this game)
File: BAAI139B

Half-Hitch, The [Laws N23]

DESCRIPTION: A girl pretends to refuse her fiance. Finally he gives up, promising to marry the first girl he sees. She disguises herself as the ugliest woman possible and makes sure he sees her. He asks her to marry; she consents. She reveals herself after they wed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Sturgis and Hughes)
KEYWORDS: courting disguise trick marriage
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE,Ro)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Bronson (31), 1 version
Laws N23, "The Half-Hitch"
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 382-389, "The Loathly Bride" (1 text plus a version reprinted from Sturgis)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 236-239, "The Half-Hitch" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 33-37, "The Half-Hitch" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's (#1) in the appendix to #31}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 265-275, "The Half-Hitch" (2 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's (#1) in the appendix to #31}
Sturgis/Hughes-SongsFromTheHillsOfVermont, pp. 58-65, "The Half-Hitch" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 417-421, "The Half-Hitch" (1 text)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 19-22, "The Old Shoe" (1 text)
DT 453, HALFHITC
Roud #1887
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" [Child 31]
NOTES [159 words]: This text is associated by some editors (e.g. notably Flanders) with Child 31, "The Marriage of Sir Gawain." It should be noted, however, that the only themes the two have in common are a marriage made for honour rather than love and an ugly woman who turns out to be beautiful (themes also found in "King Henry," Child 32). It isn't even really a Loathly Lady tale; it's just a matter of disguise, and the unattractive woman, unlike the usual Loathly Lady, has no particular skill or power.
The title "Half-Hitch" may possibly be significant. "Hitch" is a technical term, for sailors, for a way of tying a rope firmly to another object. (This by contrast to "a knot," which is a permanent attachment, and a "bend," which generally ties two ropes together). The "half-hitch" is "the basis and simplest of all hitches" (Grant Uden and Richard Cooper, A Dictionary of British Ships and Seamen, 1980 (I use the 1981 St. Martin's Press edition), p. 251). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LN23

Half-Past Ten

DESCRIPTION: The singer courted "wifie Jean," but her parents always locked the door at half past ten. Eventually she sees to it that the clock stops so she has more time with the young men. Finally her parents agree to the marriage; all live happily thereafter
AUTHOR: Catherine Mackay Bacon
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage trick technology
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 110-112, "Half-Past Ten" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #82, pp. 1-2, "Half-Past Ten" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1501, "Half-Past Ten" (5 texts plus a single verse on p. 540, 6 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 71-72, "Half-Past Ten" (1 text)
Roud #2856
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, R.B..m.168(213), "Half-Past Ten," Robert MacIntosh (Glasgow), c. 1850; also L.C.Fol.178.A.2(077), "Half-Past Ten," unknown, c. 1870
File: FVS110

Halifax Explosion, The [Laws G28]

DESCRIPTION: In Halifax harbor, a ship loaded with explosives is rammed by another vessel. The explosion and fire which follow cause terrible damage to the city and its population -- 1200 killed and 2000 wounded
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933
KEYWORDS: fire death disaster ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 6, 1917, 9:05 a.m. - The Halifax Explosion
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws G28, "The Halifax Explosion"
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 208-209, "The Halifax Explosion" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 676, HALIFAXX
ADDITIONAL: Ernest Fraser Robinson, _The Halifax Disaster, December 6, 1917_, Vanwell Publishing Ltd., 1987, 1997, pp. 58-60, "The Halifax Disaster" (1 text, said to be from the 1917 Halifax Mail-Star; it appears to have been tidied up somewhat)
Roud #2724
NOTES [7027 words]: I am not entirely sure this song belongs in Laws's catalog; he knew of only one collection, and that one collection is not very good, implying that tradition has not had the chance to work on it. But there can be no question that the event was worthy of commemoration in song. But a few versions have been found since, so it does seem to have been traditional.
The Halifax explosion has been called "the second most devastating blast in history" (behind Hiroshima; it actually did more damage than Nagasaki). As a survivor said, "Halifax was gone." Not surprisingly, it inspired several books. The most recent as of this writing are Bacon and Cuthbertson (both released at the time of the explosion's centenary), but both actually came out after the first draft of this entry was written. So the outline is based on the next-most-recent book, MacDonald, written by a resident of Halifax (or, rather, by a resident of Dartmouth, the city on the other side of Halifax Harbour; apparently Dartmouth residents don't like being treated as part of Halifax). The core of what follows is still based on MacDonald, although I have tried to tell the story in a more linear fashion (if I hadn't read the outline in Paine, I would have found her account very difficult to understand. As it is, reading MacDonald felt like I was watching a television drama where she took a commercial break every few pages). I have supplemented this with other references where I could.
To briefly sum up, the Halifax Explosion took place when the French munitions freighter Mont Blanc and the Norwegian Imo collided in Halifax harbor. The Mont Blanc was scheduled to make a run to Britain with a large load of explosives when the Imo, also bound to sea and sloppily steered, collided with it. The impact was not particularly damaging in itself, but it struck sparks, starting a fire on the French ship. The captain, rather than fight the fires, ordered the crew to abandon ship. Twenty minutes later, burning and floating aimlessly, the Mont Blanc ran up against a pier. The ship exploded, causing much damage and also starting a great wave which added to the damage.
"The chain of events that put the Imo and the Mont-Blanc on a collision course was as improbable as it was bizarre. It defied logic. The weather was clear and mild. The sea was calm. Veteran harbour pilots were guiding each ship. The two captains involved were experienced mariners" (Cuthbertson, p. 9).
If it weren't so tragic, the story of the Mont Blanc would be almost comic. Why in the world was such a lousy ship used for such an important purpose? The cargo consisted mostly of explosives, along with a large amount of gasoline-related fuels (MacDonald, p. 16).
The Mont Blanc was not in great shape, either. Built in 1899 (Paine, p. 344), she was already pretty tired by 1906 (Cuthbertson, p. 18); she had a "long history of bare-minimum maintenance" (Bacon, p 6; cf. p. 108). She was about 320 feet long, 47 feet wide (Bacon, p. 5). The French Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (in effect, the French government's freight arm) had bought her in 1915 and done some repair work in 1917 (as well as fitting her with two lightweight guns for submarine defense), but she was still a worn-out ship (Cuthbertson, p. 19).
All this in a ship with an inexperienced crew and a captain who was new to his ship; Aimé Le Médec he had only reached the rank of captain in 1916 (Glasner, p. 15; Bacon, p. 109, calls it a "wartime promotion," perhaps implying that he only became a captain because the war increased the demand for officers). He had only been given the Mont Blanc two months earlier (Cuthbertson, p. 35), and had little English (MacDonald, pp. 15-16; Cuthbertson, p. 21). Before he took the Mont Blanc from New York to Halifax, he had been asked about his ship's abilities, and had said frankly that he didn't know! (Cuthbertson, p. 22). In a crisis, he would not know how to deal with his ship. It probably didn't help that he had never been to Halifax before (Glasner, p. 26). And he was apparently a very private, very reserved, and somewhat peculiar man (Cuthbertson, pp. 22-23), who believed in doing things "by the book" and enforcing strict discipline (Cuthbertson, p. 35). He not the master who could inspire a crew in a crisis.
To top it all off, he was a smoker, and the ship's explosive cargo forced a smoking ban (Bacon, pp. 8-9), so he was probably constantly cranky.
The Monc Blanc clearly was not a good choice to haul high explosives, but no one involved had much choice. The French government just told the freighters what to do, and they had to obey. The existing crew didn't even know in advance what they would be carrying (Cuthbertson, p. 21).
The Mont Blanc had been refitted to hold her touchy cargo (e.g. the nails in her hold had been replaced by copper to avoid striking sparks; MacDonald, p. 17). The port authorities even had police guards watching her while the refitting was going on (Bacon, p. 109). This was apparently the first any of her crew heard that she would be carrying explosives (Cuthbertson, p. 25). It doesn't sound as if anyone in the crew was trained to deal with them, either.
All those things were bad, but her biggest problem was her speed. Although originally designed to make 11 knots (Cuthbertson, p. 18), by 1917, the best the Mont Blanc could manage was about eight knots, and over a long stretch, she would probably not be able to exceed seven and a half. In fact, Glasner, p. 14, says that with the loading she had on her final trip she could barely make seven knots. By 1917, submarines were doing great damage, and the British were convoying their ships. The Mont Blanc was too slow to sail with the fast convoys that went direct from New York to Britain. She would have to go to Halifax to join one of the slow convoys there -- and even being part of a slow convoy might be beyond her abilities (MacDonald, p. 18). The later description "Large Slow Target" would have been a brilliant description of the Mont Blanc.
Halifax was by this time the major shipment point from Canada to Britain. Fears of submarines had caused the harbor to be made more secure. There were anti-submarine nets at the entrance which were closed at sunset. When the Mont Blanc arrived, the gates were still open, but by the time the naval examining officer had cleared her for entry, they were shut for the day (Cuthbertson, pp. 78-81); she had to spend the night outside (Glasner, pp. 14, 16; MacDonald, p. 16), and then join what we might call the morning rush hour.
The other ship involved in the disaster was also trapped by the submarine precautions. The Imo had been launched as the White Star Lines ship Runic, but had been sold in 1895 and was now a Norwegian tramp steamer used among other things to ferry food to civilians in Belgium. She was older (built 1889) and larger (430 feet long; 5043 gross register tons) but was probably in better shape than the Mont Blanc. She was faster, too, although not very fast (12 knots). Her captain Haakon From had been with her since 1914 (Cuthbertson, p. 46), and had an explosive temper (Cuthbertson, pp. 47-48). Her crew had recently spent a lot more time sitting around than sailing, and were probably very disappointed when they failed to make past the submarine barriers before they closed for the day (MacDonald, p. 20); they had had to wait for a shipment of coal (Glasner, p. 27).
Many ports had regulations about explosives. Halifax did not; the ship was allowed into harbor without restrictions (Cuthbertson, pp. 80-81).. It was also standard practice for ships with explosives to fly a red flag -- but Le Médec did not do so while at sea, to avoid becoming a target (Cuthbertson, p. 80; Glasner, p. 35), and when he entered Halifax Harbor, he told his officers that it was not necessary (Bacon, p. 125; Cuthbertson, p. 107), so no one except those on the Mont Blanc knew she was carrying explosives. Most of the mistakes that led to the tragedy were the Imo's, but this one was the Mont Blanc's.
The shape of the bay contributed to the problem. Halifax is an excellent port, with a large inner bay (the Bedford Basin) capable of holding many ships. But the basin is reached by "the Narrows," a long channel only about a third of a mile wide -- good for security, since it's easy to guard and control (Glasner, pp. 16-17) but a definite traffic bottleneck. Two ships can pass each other in the Narrows, but only if they stay on their proper courses. Ships going in and out have to be steered by pilots experienced in entering the channel. (Many harbors of course require such pilots, but few need them as much as Halifax. And Halifax, notably, had just fourteen pilots, and even when traffic exploded during World War I, they refused to allow more to be trained; Bacon, p. 73).
The Imo, in its haste, broke the rules. As she left the Bedford Basin, she encountered the Clara. The standard for ships at Halifax was to pass "port to port" -- that is, as we might say it, to "keep on the right side of the road." But, because of where the ships were located, it was quicker to pass "starboard to starboard" -- and the Imo was in a hurry. The Imo ended up on the wrong side of the channel (Cuthbertson, pp. 116-117; MacDonald, p. 30). And she then noticed another ship, the Stella Maris, pulling two scows near the south bank (MacDonald, p. 32-34; Bacon, p. 132). And there was some haze over the Narrows (MacDonald, p. 31). Despite this, the Imo did not slow down; a witness reported, "She is going as fast as any ship I ever saw in the harbor" (MacDonald, p. 33). According to Glasner, p. 27, she was moving at seven knots, two knots faster than the harbor speed limit, though it's not clear how this was determined; Cuthbertson, p. 112, says she was doing six knots, which still exceeded the speed limit. Captain From was letting his impatience get control of him.
Bacon, p. 124, calls what followed "A Game of Chicken." That's not quite true; the Mont Blanc was not misbehaving. But it looked like a game of chicken.
The pilot of the Mont Blanc, Francis Mackey, apparently spotted the Imo first, though all he could see in the fog was her masts. He realized that the Imo was far out of her lane, having moved around the Clara and dodged rather than yielding to the Stella Maris. Mackay ordered the Mont Blanc to edge toward the starboard (northeast) bank. He sent whistle signals to the Imo to explain his actions (MacDonald, p. 38).
Unfortunately, the communication by whistles did not prevent disaster. The Mont Blanc whistled once, to say that she would stay to the right, where she belonged. The Imo, rather than sounding the whistle once to say she was going back into her lane, sounded it twice! (Cuthbertson, p. 124; Bacon, pp. 134-135). Mackey gathered that the Imo, already far out of her lane, intended to stay there -- and if she stayed, the two would collide. He couldn't head closer to the shore on the starboard side without running her aground; he was as close as he dared to take the heavily-laden ship. He steered Mont Blanc to port and let the ship, already moving slowly, drift to a stop (MacDonald, pp. 39-40). The Mont Blanc repeated its signal; the Imo again signalled that it would not yield even though it was in the wrong lane (Bacon, p. 135). At this point, a collision was all but inevitable; the Mont Blanc desperately tried to do what the Imo had wanted her to do and steer to port (Bacon, p. 136), but there wasn't much time left.
The Imo once again reacted improperly. Instead of steering around the Mont Blanc, she ordered her engines to reverse. It didn't help. There were two possible problems with the move. Because she had no cargo, her screw was too high in the water to have much power, and she was slow to answer the helm (MacDonald, p. 40). Plus, putting the ship in reverse caused the screw to reverse, and that causes the stern of the ship to shift position and the ship to change direction -- in this case, straight toward the Mont Blanc (Bacon, p. 137; Cuthbertson, p. 126). With nothing else to do, the captain and pilot on the Mont Blanc tried to put their ship in reverse (Bacon, p. 137). It was too late. The Imo crashed into her starboard side (MacDonald, p. 41).
The Imo, as is often true in these cases, suffered only slightly -- a small hole above the waterline and other minor damage. But the Mont Blanc was badly sliced open -- at the deck level, the hole was about five or six feet wide, tapering as it went down toward the waterline (Bacon, p. 145)..
You would think that was the worst possible outcome. It wasn't. Only then, far too late, did the Imo manage to actually start moving backward. She backed out of the Mont Blanc, causing further damage. And, in the process, she did something which started a spark (Glasner, p. 29, thinks the grinding of metal on metal did it; Cuthbertson, p. 128, specifically mentions the Imo's anchor getting hooked inside the other ship). Whatever it was, it was the caused the benzol on the Mont Blanc's deck to catch fire.
At that point, disaster was guaranteed. It was oil fire, the kind that cannot be put out just with water -- even if the Mont Blanc had had hoses able to reach the spot, which it didn't (MacDonald, p. 43; Bacon, p. 142, says they were in the forward part of the ship where the fire was already raging). The collision also broke many barrels lose, breaking them open and making them even more dangerous (Bacon, p. 141). Within minutes, flames were shooting high in the air (Cuthbertson, p. 133). It appeared there was nothing the crew could do. The ship couldn't even be scuttled; the seacocks were rusted shut (Glasner, p. 30; MacDonald, p. 48), and apparently Captain Le Médec didn't know where they were anyway! (Cuthbertson, p. 134).
Pilot Mackay had the best idea: Head out to sea (Bacon, p. 143). The flow of water might help control the fire (Cuthbertson, p. 135), and even if it didn't, it would get the ship out of the Narrows where it would do less harm. Captain Le Médec didn't think that feasible, or ignored or didn't understand the suggestion. At his order, the crew of the Mont Blanc abandoned ship (Bacon, p. `143) -- and headed for the Dartmouth shore, so they didn't even give the Halifax city authorities a warning. They did call out some warnings on the Dartmouth side -- but in French, which was pretty useless in Halifax. One crewman managed to save a woman, Aggie March, and her baby. They "would be the only people the Mont-Blanc's captain, crew, or harbor pilot would save that day" (Bacon, p. 149).
It's not quite certain what they did before abandoning. Did they change course? Start up the engines? The witnesses disagree. Whatever they did, the ship for some reason drifted across the Narrows to bump into a pier on the Halifax shore (MacDonald, p. 42; Cuthbertson, p. 138, says the drift was the result of the outgoining tide).
Various ships came around to try to pull the ship back into mid-channel, or put out her fires (Glasner, pp. 32-39, and Bacon, p. 144, list some of the attempts). None of them knew there were explosives aboard, because the authorities had kept it silent, and Le Médec had not put up a red flag -- and although the fleeing crew could have told the rescuers, they just kept fleeing (Bacon, p. 145). Le Médec, who had apparently wanted to go down to his ship (he had to be pushed to leave; Bacon, p. 146), until that time had been more sinned against than sinning, but was now actively contributing to the disaster.
Without the knowledge to deal with the Mont Blanc, the other ships couldn't do much. She was too big to move and burning too hard to control the conflagration (MacDonald, pp. 50-51) -- pouring in water just pushed the oil about and made it burn harder! Indeed, she was burning so hot that she ignited the pier she was drifting toward (Cuthbertson, p. 140).
Only one officer in the harbor, other than the men of the Mont Blanc, knew what she carried. When he saw her ablaze, he sent a man ashore to warn the people of Halifax, and headed back to his office to try to spread the word (Cuthbertson, pp. 143-144). But there was no time, and he apparently had no radio; this man, Officer Murray, was killed as he tried to reach his office (Cuthbertson, pp. 162-163). Probably the only man to get out word in a useful was was a telegrapher named Vincent Coleman, who heard of what was happened and at 8:49 sent out a message to the railroads: "Hold the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbour making for Pier 6 and will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye, boys" (Bacon, p. 164). Coleman was indeed killed but became a Canadian hero. Not that running would likely have helped him; the man who was with him when he prepared to send the message fled without waiting -- but was killed also (Cuthbertson, p. 175).
Gradually the barrels of benzol and monochlorobenzol cooked off. Eventually, they set off the high explosive in the hold (at 9:04:35 a.m., according to later seismic measurements; MacDonald, p. 181, etc.).
It was quite a haul -- the value was estimated at three million dollars (Cuthbertson, p. 27), which surely exceeded the value of the ship. 200 tons of TNT. Ten tons of guncotton (nitrocellulose: cotton fibers treated with nitric acid. Horribly touchy when dry. Safe enough when wet, but how could it stay wet when surrounded by benzol fires?) Worst of all, 2300 tons of picric acid, some wet (which made it less touchy), some dry.
Picric Acid -- (NO₂)₃C₆H₂OH -- is a "very poisonous, yellow, crystalline, intensely bitter acid used in explosives, in dyeing, and in medicine" (AHDictSci, p. 496). It isn't just a munition; its first major use, from the 1840s to the 1860s, was as a yellow dye (Ball, p. 208). But it wasn't color-fast (Ball, p. 209), and its manufacture might have almost stopped -- except that it had such a useful ability to destroy things. It was the primary component of lyddite ("picric acid... mixed with 10% nitrobenzene and 3% Vaseline," PengDictSci, p. 254). It consists of a benzene ring with a hydroxyl (OH) group and no fewer than three NO₂ groups, meaning that it can release tremendous amounts of chemical energy -- the only difference between picric acid and TNT is that TNT has a methyl group (CH₃) where picric acid has its hydroxyl group (Le Couteur/Burreston, p. 98). Lyddite was used by the British as a shell burster (i.e. it's what made shells blow up when they hit something), and picric acid was the active ingredient; when dry, it explodes upon being subjected to pressure (e.g. being hit by a hammer, or of course colliding with an enemy ship or trench). It would also burn explosively if heated.
Although less familiar than TNT, because it is so much touchier, picric acid actually releases more energy when it explodes.
Picric acid was dangerous on other grounds. According to Darrow, p. 250, it also could be made into poison gas: "Chloropicrin, made from picric acid by the action of chlorine, was another [gas used in World War I]. It was mixed in a shell or bomb with tin chloride, which forms dense white clouds of vapor capable of penetrating the gas masks and carrying with it the volatile chloropicrin. Highly poisonous in itself, chloropicrin induces nausea and vomiting, thereby causing the victim to remove his mask and rendering him an easy prey to other lethal gases."
(If you're wondering why, given its dangers, picric acid was being made in Canada and shipped to Britain, rather than manufacturing in Britain, the basic answer is "nitrates." Picric acid, like every other major explosive used in the early twentieth century, required saltpeter or an equivalent nitrate source -- and the main source of nitrates was the west coast of Latin America. It was much easier to get them to Canada than to Britain in the days of submarine warfare. For more on this history of nitrates, see the notes to "Chamber Lye" and "Tommy's Gone to Hilo.")
The explosives did not quite fill the ship, so -- just to add to the fun -- at the last minute, a load of benzol was added. Benzol is a petrochemical, used as a fuel and a basis for other fuels. And, unlike the explosives, it was not carefully packed and stowed; it was in barrels that were just lashed together on deck and below decks. And the barrels were leaky; the smell was everywhere (Bacon, p. 112). Cuthbertson, p. 115, and Bacon, p. 133, reports that the loading was so sloppy and the leaks so large that an officer on another ship was able to see and smell it!
MacDonald, p. 61, says that there were 2925 tons of explosives, total, on the Mont Blanc. The temperature of the explosion is thought to have been in the 5000C/9000F range (MacDonald, p. 62). In the era of conventional bombs, the largest ever used was about 10 tons. 2925 tons of mostly picric acid is in the nuclear weapons range -- at the very low end of the range (less than Hiroshima or Nagasaki by an order of about five), but unlike anything the world had ever seen in 1917, except for volcanic eruptions and meteor strikes.
The explosion was heard over 200 miles away, on Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island (Glasner, p. 81; MacDonald, p. 63). The Mont Blanc's anchor was thrown more than two miles, and other parts of the ship went three miles (MacDonald, p. 67).
All buildings within half a mile of the blast were destroyed (MacDonald, p. 64). The blast was so strong that it spawned secondary tornadoes (MacDonald, p. 66). It also caused a 20-foot-high wave to scour the Halifax basin, at some places reaching six blocks inland (MacDonald, map in frontispiece; similarly Cuthbertson's frontispiece); three ships apart from the Mont Blanc were destroyed, and 27 damaged, including the Imo; the latter included a couple of naval vessels. And it produced perhaps the world's first artificial mushroom cloud (Bacon, p. 168; photo on p. 169 of Cuthbertson and in Bacon's photo inset). Supposedly it was heard more than 150 miles away and broke windows more than fifty miles away (Cuthbertson, p. 169). Locally, there was enough debris in the air to make it look as if it were dusk rather than full daylight (Bacon, p. 168). Later, much of that oil and coal particles and such fell as a black rain (Bacon, p. 169) that can't have been safe to breathe.
There were secondary effects -- fires, even the collapse of a magazine at a military base. It didn't explode, but it did burn a bit, putting out enough smoke to cause a secondary panic (Glasner, pp. 61-65; Bacon, p. 205, says that an officer at the magazine used a fire extinguisher to put out the fire, and the smoke of that was what caused the panic).
People died in many ways. Possibly as many as 150 were simply vaporized and never found. More were killed by the pressure wave -- pulverized to death. Others died by being thrown into walls or other objections. Flying glass killed and maimed many more.
Relief efforts were at first quite disorganized. The mayor of Halifax was away, leaving the Deputy Mayor in charge (Glasner, p. 55; MacDonald, p. 93, Bacon, p. 229, says that he was thrown off his feet by the blast as he walked to his real job, leading Bacon to quip that, instead of a leader and an emergency plan, "Halifax had a glorified clothes salesman who didn't realize he was in charge until the explosion bounced him on his backside." And when he reached City Hall to try to do something, he found only two people there. Halifax was in the charge of a man who hadn't wanted the job and had no staff to support him. Plus the building's windows had been blown out, so there was no head; Cuthbertson, p. 221. The only good news was that one of the two was the city's police chief).
In addition to the mayor being out of town, the fire chief had been killed (MacDonald, p. 94), as had many of the firefighters, and the city's one motorized fire engine ruined (Glasner, p. 120). Many doctors were killed or hurt and unable to treat patients (MacDonald, p. 112). The hospitals ranged from damaged to almost completely unusable (MacDonald, p. 113). And there weren't enough hospital beds anyway -- Bacon, p. 236, says Halifax and Dartmouth together had four public hospitals with a few hundred beds, most already full, and various military hospitals with 500-odd additional beds; in all, enough for about a tenth of the wounded. Medical supplies soon ran low, and the only way to sterilize equipment was to put it in boiling water (MacDonald, p. 118). Doctors operated on patients without anesthesia, and sewed up their wounds with ordinary cotton thread (Glasner, p. 94).
The deputy mayor and city council soon put the city under martial law. Fortunately, there were plenty of soldiers and sailors available to help -- men who otherwise would have been on their way to the war (Bacon, p. 234). They even asked help from the American naval ships in the harbor, who supplied some 250 men (Bacon, p. 235).
It was hard to bring in help from outside. The railroads had been damaged, or were blocked by ruined trains, and many telegraph lines were down (for a while, the city had to send messages to Havana for retransmission to North America! -- Bacon, p. 232). Only one rail line, in fact, was fully serviceable, and it was a new line, not yet up and running (MacDonald, p. 111). Plus much rail stock had been damaged, and the facilities in Halifax were out of commission (Cuthbertson, p. 224). Even access by sea was a bit difficult, since the Narrows was for the moment largely blocked by debris (Cuthbertson, p. 224). Reportedly 102 doctors eventually came from other parts of Canada, and 120 from the United States (Bacon, p. 331), but that took some time.
The temperature the night after the blast was well below freezing (MacDonald, p. 143), and there followed a fierce blizzard, causing additional deaths (MacDonald, p. 145), adding to the strain on the survivors, and making it that much harder to bring in help. It also, e.g., knocked out many of the restored telephone lines and other repaired facilities, making it much harder to conduct rescue work until they could be re-repaired (Bacon, p. 259).
The casualties could never be perfectly counted. Cuthbertson, p. 175, says that almost 2000 were killed. Ritchie's round numbers (p. 95) are 1600 killed, 8000 wounded, 2000 missing. MacDonald's Appendix D, p. 291, lists 1611 official dead as of 1918; p. 293 lists 1201 bodies as buried, with 242 of them unidentified and 410 bodies missing -- but she reckons the known dead as of 2004 as 1952. She lists (p. 66) 6000 people as injured and 9000 as homeless. Others reverse those figures. Glasner, p. 41, says 1900 were dead and 9000 wounded, while on p. 118 she says 2000 were dead, 9000 injured, and 20,000 homeless -- which, if correct, means that more than half the city's population of roughly 50,000 was dead, wounded, or homeless. Very many of the injured lost their eyes to flying glass; 16 people lost both eyes, 249 lost one eye, and over 5500 had some sort of eye injury; 41 ended up totally blind (MacDonald, pp. 159, 234). The number of bodies was so large that, even when identifications had been made in the field, the information was often lost (MacDonald, p. 162). Bacon, p. 334, says that the official figure was 1953 dead, but adds that the total must be larger -- and points out that that is more casualties than the entire province of Nova Scotia suffered during the Great War. On 335 he cites an estimate the 1600 were killed at once, between 400 and 800 more died later, 9000 were wounded, and 25000 homeless. He also notes that many had "trademark scars, tinged with black and blue from the soot and TNT," which Haligonians grew used to seeing.
Because the task was so great and the clues so few, very many bodies had to be buried before they were identified. Many of these, and some of the identified bodies from poor households, were buried in the same graveyard as the bodies brought in after the Titanic disaster (MacDonald, pp. 244-245). Coffins were improvised in all sizes, with parts of bodies in some and multiple corpses in others (MacDonald, p. 248). Because of the inability to identify bodies, some families never would accept that their loved ones were gone (Cuthbertson, p. 267).
There were hundreds of orphans: some 70 children who lost both parents, and 200 who lost one or the other parent. Of the latter, about 110 had lost their mothers and had no father at home (usually because he was serving in the war); MacDonald, p. 232.
One estimate suggests that 2,000 buildings were destroyed and 10,000 damaged, leaving 25,000 people with damaged homes. Cuthbertson, p. 175, says more than 1,500 were destroyed and 12,000 more were damaged. Bacon, p. 255, says 1,630 buildings were destroyed and 12,000 damaged, and agrees with the estimate of 25,000 people with destroyed or damaged homes.
Also damaged was the cable between Halifax and Dartmouth, and most of the phone system, and the telegraphs. Halifax was almost cut off, and didn't even have internal communications to coordinate relief (Bacon, p. 206). And officials for some reason told the survivors to head for higher ground. This kept them safe from the secondary explosions that didn't happen, but meant that people trapped in the rubble were not rescued, that the fires burned unchecked, that nothing was done to stop further damage (Bacon, pp. 206-207
In one way, recovery was surprisingly swift. The explosion took place on Thursday, December 6. By the following Monday, December 10, the authorities were saying they did not need more medical people (a number of temporary hospitals were up and running), and most mail and gas service was restored (MacDonald, pp. 219-220; Cuthbertson, p. 280). The naval station was back in action even more quickly, on December 8 (Cuthbertson, p. 280). But it took several weeks to end food rationing, and families were given a food allowance even after that (MacDonald, p. 229). And rebuilding took far longer -- indeed, most permanent rebuilding could not begin until spring when the ground thawed (MacDonald, p. 237). Even today, anyone digging near the harbor will soon find many artifacts of the explosion (MacDonald, p. 276).
The damage was estimated at $35 million -- Canadian dollars, by most accounts (Bacon, p. 346, says it's U. S. dollars), but 1917 Canadian dollars. MacDonald, p. 68, applied conversion factors to make this $420 million in 2004 U. S. dollars. Bacon comes up with $728 million 2017 U. S.dollars. I suspect even that is low. That's strict inflation, but buildings were proportionally cheaper back then (e.g. a house could be had for $4000). I suspect that it would cost several billion to build replacements in today's world. And insurance companies were unwilling to cover the costs, arguing that their policies did not cover city-leveling explosions. (Which I suppose is true, and it's likely that they didn't have enough in the bank to cover all the destruction anyway!) Eventually they were pressured to pay between 20 and 35 cents on the dollar of the face value of their policies (Cuthbertson, pp. 289-290).
Even as the burials were going on, an investigation was underway -- Ottawa had ordered an investigation as soon as it heard what was going on (Cuthbertson, p. 244). In the end, there would be four different investigations and court cases, not finishing until 1920 (Bacon, p. 315). But the first inquiry -- which was supposed to be just an investigation into the cause of the disaster -- set the tone. It was not supposed to be a criminal proceeding, but the man in charge was a judge, Arthur Drysdale, and a witness said, "The setting was almost Dickensian" (MacDonald, p. 252). It was a difficult situation, with the public howling for blood. It was also a ticklish diplomatic problem, with a French ship that was carrying cargo exploding in a Canadian harbor while under the direction of British authorities (Cuthbertson, pp. 248-249). And the whole thing was supposed to start just six days after the disaster! (Cuthbertson, p. 248).
It appears members of the commission were biased -- e.g. one was the second in command of the Port of Halifax, so he wasn't going argue that the authorities did anything wrong! (Cuthbertson, p. 314). Plus the company that owned the Imo had come up with a much more aggressive lawyer than any of the other parties (Cuthbertson, pp. 310-312; Bacon, p. 316, says that Charles Burchell "was widely regarded as a first-rate attorney but a bit of a brawler"; adding on p. 317 another author's testimony that Burchell "browbeat and misled witnesses, disregarded all the rules of courtroom behavior and, on a number of occasions, violated the standards of legal ethics" -- but he generally convinced Judge Drysdale to go along).
There was also the problem that, while the pilot and master of the Mont Blanc had survived, those on the Imo were both dead (Glasner, p. 43, and Cuthbertson, p. 256, have a photo of the ship blown ashore; her masts survived but her upper works were "demolished"). Imo's first officer had also been killed (Cuthbertson, p. 258). It was difficult to reconstruct what the crew of the Imo was thinking. MacDonald speculates that perhaps they failed to hear some of the whistle signals, but this seems insufficient.
MacDonald gives a detailed account of the proceedings (pp. 252-272), which ended with the blame being assigned almost entirely to pilot Mackay and master Le Médec of the Mont Blanc, plus the harbor Chief Examining Officer Frederick Evans Wyatt. (Wyatt was the man in charge of shipping in the harbor, but he had almost no information on what was going on -- once he found out, shortly before the explosion, he got busy, but it was too late. Wyatt didn't help his cause by being combative -- Cuthbertson, pp. 320-325 -- although he bore no direct blame, it's likely that he bears some indirect guilt because people were afraid to argue with him about ideas.) They were available to be scapegoats, they were not well-spoken, and they didn't have fancy lawyers. And they weren't cronies of people in power; it looks as if some people were let off the hook because higher-ups protected them (Cuthbertson, pp. 324-325).
The conclusions were abrupt and brutal: "the judgment was but a single page of text that took him only a few minutes to read. Drysdale concluded that the Mont-Blanc was entirely to blame for the collision. With that in mind, he recommended some corrective measures, four of which were key. Drysdale opined (1) that Francis Mackey should face criminal charges and lose his pilotage license; (2) that the French government should cancel Captain Aimé Le Médec's master's ticket, (3) that RCN senior officials should discipline Commander Evan Wyatt; and (4) that they should censure pilot Edward Renner (who had guided the tramp steamer that preceded the Mont-Blanc through the Narrows on December 6), as ell as the Halifax harbour pilots in general" (Cuthbertson, p. 328; compare Bacon, p. 318). Apparently he took the idea of "pour encourager les autres" to heart and decided it was wasn't tough enough....
It's evident that the inquiry was unfair. Reading MacDonald, Bacon, and Cuthbertson, it's pretty clear, at least to me that there were many mistakes that led to the disaster, and the Imo made all of them but the final one, when Mackay turned the Mont Blanc hard to port to try to escape the coming collision and thereby caused it. Even there, Mackay seems to have thought that was what the Imo was calling for. It is clear that MacDonald and Cuthbertson consider Mackay a scapegoat, and Paine too is open to the possibility (p. 345). Ritchie, p. 95, assigns no direct blame but mentions only the mistakes made by the Imo. Glasner, p. 121, makes it explicit: "A scapegoat was required, but Captain Haakon From [commander of the Imo] and [pilot] William Hayes were both dead. As a result, blame was placed squarely on the shoulders of the captain and pilot of the Mont Blanc and Commander Wyatt.... Wyatt, Le Médec, and Francis Mackay were all placed under arrest and charged with manslaughter. Eventually, however, all charges were dropped." *For the deaths of From and Hayes, see also Bacon, p. 179, who has a folkloric bit about rescuers having to shoot From's dog because it wouldn't let them near the body.)
That first trial before Drysdale was just Wreck Commission inquiry. Later, it became a true court case -- which, incredibly, was allowed to go before Drysdale again, and it was clear that he wasn't going to listen to any new information; he actually said "So far as I'm concerned, I have been over [my notes and have my mind made up" (Bacon, p. 338).
Fortunately, when the case was referred to a real judge, Benjamin Russell, he took testimony from witnesses who had seen what had happened, and he dismissed the cases against Mackay and Le Médec (Bacon, p. 330). This led to protests which forced them to leave the area, but at least they were free! (Bacon, pp. 330-331). Wyatt went on to a career outside the Navy (Cuthbertson, p. 332); Le Médec went back to his career in France (Cuthbertson, pp. 330-331); Mackay stayed in Halifax to try to clear his name and get his job back. He managed the latter despite strong prejudice against him in the town, but he never managed to get his back pay, and his first wife died young, her demise probably helped by all the stress (Cuthbertson, pp. 332-333).
The companies that owned the Imo and the Mont Blanc ended up in court over who was to blame -- and originally got stuck with Judge Drysdale again, who again let the Imo off the hook. Appeals courts lifted the blame from the Mont Blanc but simply left a null judgment; neither company was given damages (Cuthberton, pp. 333-335. The legal twists here were extreme; Bacon, pp. 340-343, says that the appeals court vote was 3-2, with the minority wanting to uphold Drysdale, but the swing judge was neutral on the Monc Blanc's actions, adding that while the crew's behavior afterward, in not warning people, was reprehensible, it was not a crime. This produced a strange situation in which the two French-speaking justices had to also vote for a "no fault" verdict, lest Drysdale's lower court verdict be upheld because the appeals court had no majority -- it would have been split 2-2-1. The French justices knew the Mont Blanc was innocent, but only by concurring with the swing justice and declaring equal fault could they avoid placing all the blame on the Mont Blanc! Pp. 344-345 describe the final appeal, in Britain, which again ignored Drysdale and again ruled that both ships were at fault; it felt they both should have stopped, and neither did so until too lat).
The Imo, amazingly, was salvaged after the explosion, renamed, and put back in service -- but managed to wreck itself in the Falklands in 1921 (MacDonald, p. 282).
A fund was set up to pay pensions to survivors. Amazingly, three were still alive in 2004, though all are of course gone now (Cuthbertson, p. 343). Eventually there were plans made for a memorial cite; in 1948 a park was set aside, although it wasn't until 1983 that the current memorial bell tower went up (Cuthbertson, p. 344).
This song has all the features of a broadside prepared shortly after the explosion; I wouldn't be surprised if the author intended it to help the people raising money for relief. It includes the following accurate details:
"It was on the sixth of December, nineteen hundred and seventeen,
That Halifax suffered disaster, the worst she'd ever seen;
It was five minutes after nine, those still alive can tell"
The time of the explosion was December 6, 1917, 9:05 [a.m.].
"She carried a deck load of benzoil and shells for overseas,
In her hold a new explosive, they call it TNT."
Benzoil, or benzol, is the liquid fuel that caused the initial fire. The cargo was not shells, but shell bursters; close enough. The TNT, as we see above, was a relatively small part of the cargo (and not a new explosive; trinitrotoluene had been around for decades. However, the Germans had used it first; it was a newer product to the British). But TNT was more famous than picric acid, even though less dangerous.
"Children were gone to their lessons, their mothers were busy at home,
While fathers worked on at the factories little dreaming they'd soon be alone."
Most of MacDonald's and Glasner's books are devoted to documenting where people were -- and, yes, it was an ordinary work day.
"The relief ship had rammed the monster tearing a hole in her side,
And eased out in the stream again and drifted on with the tide."
Obviously accurate from the account given above.
"Houses were crushed like paper, people were killed like flies,
The coroner's record tells us the toll was twelve hundred lives."
This would seem to imply the song was written very soon after the explosion, before the various missing could be tallied; 1200 is close to the number of actual bodies, but the death toll is usually considered to be closer to 2000.
"Two thousand were mAiméd and wounded, hundreds more lost their sight
And God knows how many children were alone in the world that night."
This again implies composition soon after the event, since the number of wounded is low and the number of blinded slightly higher than the total who in the end were completely blinded.
"And then the following morning as if to hurt them twice
There came a storm from the ocean, a blizzard of snow and ice."
This obviously refers to the snowstorm that so hampered the relief efforts.
The major Canadian author Hugh MacLennan, who was a boy in Halifax at the time of the explosion, went on to make it the subject of his noteworthy first novel, Barometer Rising, published in 1941 (Brown, p. 417). It also became the subject of a "Heritage Minute," a series of Canadian historical segments for television; the "Minute" told the story of telegraph operator Vincent Coleman, who stayed at is work to warn trains not to come into the town and was killed at his station (Cuthbertson, p. 11). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: LG28

Hall's Lumber Crew

DESCRIPTION: The singer is hired for Hall's lumber crew; the various characters on the crew are described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work moniker humorous logger
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 69, "Hall's Lumber Crew" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 109, "Hall's Lumber Crew" (1 text)
Roud #8841
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Peaslee's Lumber Crew" (structure)
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (theme) and references there
NOTES [65 words]: The "moniker song" consists mostly of listing the names of one's compatriots, and perhaps telling humorous vignettes about each; it's common among lumberjacks, hoboes, and probably other groups. Sometimes, as with this song and "Peaslee's Lumber Crew", it's clear the singer is plugging names and descriptions into a generic structure, although in this case he's added a bit of narrative. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be069

Halle-Lu

DESCRIPTION: "Oh the books of Revelation Are a sure foundation, And we'll cross over Jordan, halle lu, And we'll cross over Jordan, halle lu, halle lu, And we'll cross over Jordan, halle lu." "If you want a double blessing, You must sleep without undressing...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad river
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 66-67, "Halle-Lu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11625
NOTES [70 words]: There is no "Book of Revelations." The book called the Apocalypse of John (Αποκαλυψις Ιωαννου, "apocalypsis ioannou") is generally titled "The Revelation to John" in English translations.
The verse about sleeping without undressing makes me think of 2 Corinthians 5:3 ("If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked" according to the King James Bible), but I wouldn't bet that it is actually the inspiration. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: HuVi066

Hallelu, Hallelu

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, one day as another, Hallelu, hallelu, When the ship is out a-sailing, Hallelujah." "Member walk and never tire... Member walk Jordan long road." "Member walk tribulation... You go home to Wappoo (?)" "...You want to die like Jesus"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 50, "Hallelu, Hallelu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12009
File: AWG050B

Hallelujah

DESCRIPTION: "The election now is over, Now, men, you all know well, The Democrats done the best they could But the Republicans gave them -- Hallelujah (chorus)." Each verse leads you to expect a word, then zips in the chorus instead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Pope's Arkansas Mountaineers)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad political lie Hell wordplay
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 421, "Old Lyda Zip Coon" (1 text)
Roud #7632
RECORDINGS:
Pope's Arkansas Mountaineers, "George Washington" (Victor 21469, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny Fell Down in the Bucket" (technique)
cf. "Hopalong Peter" (technique)
cf. "Teasing Songs" (technique)
cf. "Old Zip Coon (II)" (technique)
cf. "Old Lady of Amsterdam" (technique)
cf. "Oh, Jenny Brown She Baked My Bread" (technique, lyrics)
NOTES [90 words]: Like "Johnny Fell Down in the Bucket," this is one of those "hidden word" songs -- the verse leads you to expect the last word, which is usually not fit for polite company. But instead of saying the word, it breaks off into the chorus (which in this case starts with "Hallelujah," though the rest may vary).
The form is so close to "Oh, Jenny Brown She Baked My Bread" that I would probably have lumped them. But Roud splits them, and given that this is seemingly a political piece, there is probably a deliberate rewrite along the way. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: R421

Hallelujah (Been Down Into the Sea)

See Been Down Into the Sea (File: Bart044A)

Hallelujah Christian, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a hallelujah Christian, From the wilderness I came, I'm saved and washed in Jesus's blood, Hallelujah to his name!" The singer visits the Jordan and Jericho, meets giants, dwells in Beulah, and awaits the Bridegroom (i.e. Jesus)
AUTHOR: W. H. Vanderherchen (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 66, "The Hallelujah Christian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13917
NOTES [140 words]: This is quite a hodgepodge. References to being washed in Jesus's blood are never explicit, but Rev. 7:14 refers to those washed in the blood of the Lamb, i.e. Jesus. The Jordan river is of course mentioned many times. The conquest of Jericho is covered in Joshua 6 (although the town was later rebuilt). There are numerous references to the Anakim, often understood to be giants: in the King James Bible,they are mentioned in Deut. 1:28, 2:10, 11, 21, 9:2; Josh. 11:21, 22, 14:12, 15 as well as references to "Anak," as well as other giants, the Rephaim and Nephilim. The land of Beulah is mentioned only in Isaiah 62:4, although modern versions (e.g. NRSV) may render this by its meaning "Married." Implicit mentions of Jesus as Bridegroom show up in Matthew 9=Mark 2=Luke 2; the reference to the Bridegroom coming is from Matthew 25. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Rich066

Hallelujah on the Bum

See Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (I) (File: LxA026)

Hallelujah, Bum Again

See Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (I) (File: LxA026)

Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (I)

DESCRIPTION: The bum explains that he cannot work when there are no jobs available, but then reveals his pleasure in a rambling life. He describes riding the rails, meeting women, begging, and -- sometimes -- troubles with the law.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (IWW Little Red Songbook)
KEYWORDS: begging humorous hobo train work
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 184-185, "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 109-111, "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" (1 text, said to be "copied from a broadside")
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 26-28, "Hallelujah, Bum Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 882-884, "Hallelujah, Bum Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 13, "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 358, "Hallelujah I'm a Bum" (1 text, following the text of "Revive Us Again")
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 197-202, ("Hallelujah, I'm a Bum") (partial texts illustrating the history of the song)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 529, "Hallelujah, on the Bum" (1 text, 1 tune, from the IWW songbook)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 102, "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 207, "Hallelujah, I'm A Bum" (1 text)
DT, HALLEBUM HALLEBU2
Roud #7992
RECORDINGS:
Dale Borusky, "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" (Piotr-Archive #558, recorded 04/18/2023)
Dana Borusky, "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" (Piotr-Archive #575, recorded 05/05/2023)
Arthur Fields, "Hallelujah I'm a Bum (Grey Gull 2418/Grey Gull 4228/Madison 1642 [as John Bennett)/Madison 1938 [as George French], 1928)
Harry Kirk [probably a pseudonym], "Hallelujah! I'm a Bum" (Edison 52364, 1928)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Hallelujah, I'm A Bum" (Victor 21343, 1928) (Decca 5640, 1939) (on McClintock01)
Frank Marvin, "The Bum Song" (Romeo 719/Cameo 8296 [as Lazy Larry], 1928)
Frank Luther, "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" (Brunswick 254, 1928; Supertone S-2056, 1931)
Pete Seeger, "Hallelujah I'm a Bum" (on PeteSeeger32)
Hobo Jack Turner [pseud. Ernest Hare] "Hallelujah! I'm a Bum" (Harmony 705-H/Diva 2705-G/Velvet Tone 1705-V, 1928)
Weary Willie [pseud. for Jerry Ellis/Jack Golding] (Perfect 12461/Pathe 32382, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (II)"
cf. "Revive Us Again" (tune, form)
SAME TUNE:
Here We Rest (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 145)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Bum Song No. 2" (CYL: Edison [BA] 5653, n.d.)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "The Bum Song, No. 2" (Victor 21704, 1928) (Decca 5689, 1939)
Carson Robison Trio, "Bum Song No. 5" (Pathe 32477, 1929; Perfect 12571, 1930)
Hallelujah, Mr. Dean (song of Merrimac Mill strikes; Doug deNatale and Glenn Hinson, in their article, "The Southern Textile Song Tradition Reconsidered," published in Archie Green, editor, _Songs about Work: Essays in Occupational Culture for Richard A. Reuss_, Folklore Institute, Indiana University, 1993, p. 98)
NOTES [274 words]: Sung to the hymn tune "Revive Us Again." - PJS
Note the following Argyllshire rhyme: "Hallelujah make a dumpling Hallelujah bring it ben Hallelujah make a big one Hallelujah amen" (source: R.C. Maclagan, "Additions to The Games of Argyleshire" in Folk-Lore, (London, 1905 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XVI, p. 453). - BS
I've seen this credited to Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock (e.g. by Greenway and Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest), but George Milburn offers evidence that the song is older; Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag also claims it was sung in 1897. McClintock was responsible for popularizing it, and the publishers seem to have thought his name would increase sales.
Greenway offers a detailed discussion of the history of the song (including Milburn's evidence), coming to the conclusion that McClintock really was the author. On the other hand, William M. Adler, The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon, Bloomsbury Press, 2011, pp, 130-131, 380, shows that it was being sung by IWW members -- including probably Hill -- in 1909. McClintock doubtless created his own version, but it is hard to believe that he originated the song.
It is interesting to compare the two recordings in the Piotr archive by the two grandchildren of Pearl Jacobs Barusky. They are effectively identical, but not the same as the version I've always heard. Did Pearl Borusky modify it, or was it one of her sources?
Topical texts on this basic pattern are common; a recent one by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber (p. 310 in the Folksinger's Wordbook) is about the activities of Richard Nixon. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LxA026

Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (II)

DESCRIPTION: A quatrain ballad, this tells the bawdy adventures of a bum who begs food from housewives.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy begging humorous hobo sex
FOUND IN: US(MW,SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 200-202, "Hallelujah I'm a Bum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7992
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (I)"
NOTES [15 words]: This bawdy subset of McClintock's Wobbly song is sung to the hymn tune "Revive Us Again." - EC
File: EM200

Halloween Visitor, A

DESCRIPTION: "The moon across the velvet sky was creeping, creeping The very shadows seemed to lie sleeping, sleeping, When all at once, behind the shed, A ghostly shape without a head, Jumped and like a phantom fled. Leaping, Leaping."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2007 (Judy Cook posting on Mudcat)
KEYWORDS: supernatural ghost | moon
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "A Halloween Visitor" (Piotr-Archive #284, recorded 10/03/2022)
NOTES [52 words]: Judy Cook said she learned this in school, which would seem to imply it came from some sort of instructional material. But I can't find any hint of it. And the tune is odd, with numerous shifts in tempo. I wonder if a teacher simply made it up. But I don't know. I'm far from sure it qualifies as traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio284

Ham and Eggs

DESCRIPTION: "Ham and eggs, ham and eggs, Some like theirs all golden brown, Some like theirs turned upside-down, Ham and eggs, ham and eggs, Flip 'em, flop 'em, flip 'em, flop 'em, Ham and eggs"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Carl E. Zander and Wes H. Klusman, _Camp Songs_ ("Popular Edition")
KEYWORDS: food nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 255, "Ham and Eggs" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 47, "Ham and Eggs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 7, "Ham and Eggs" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 26-27, "Ham and Eggs" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Ham and Eggs" (Piotr-Archive #581, recorded 05/17/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tammany" (tune, according to Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition)
File: ACSF255H

Ham Bone

See Hambone (File: Parrp114)

Ham Bones and a Big Bully Lump of Fat

DESCRIPTION: "Ham bones and a bully big lump of fat -- My gosh, boys, what do you think of that?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 154, "Ham bones and a bully big lump of fat" (1 short text)
Roud #25544
File: KSUC154A

Hambone

DESCRIPTION: "Hambone hambone where've you been... Round the world and back again." "Hambone hambone where'd you stay... Met a pretty girl couldn't get away." "Mother bought me a billy goat... If that billy goat don't butt... Momma's going to beat my rusty butt."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, pp. 114-116, "Ham Bone Ham Bone" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 494, "Hambone Am Sweet" (notes only, which say that the song is derived from "Watermelon on the Vine" -- but the use of claps Averill describes hints that it might belong here)
RECORDINGS:
The Phillips Wonders,"Hambone" (on "Art of Field Recording Volume I," Dust-to-Digital CD DTD-08, 2007; recorded 1976 in Iowa)
NOTES [8 words]: Each line is followed by a line of clapping. - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Parrp114

Hambone Am Sweet

See Watermelon on the Vine; also Hambone (File: Parrp114)

Hamborg, Du Schone Stadt (Hamburg, You Lovely Town)

See Hamburg, Du Schone Stadt (Hamburg, You Lovely Town) (File: Hugi564)

Hamborger Viermaster, De

See Ho for California (Banks of Sacramento) (File: E125)

Hamburg, Du Schone Stadt (Hamburg, You Lovely Town)

DESCRIPTION: German shanty. Sailor meets a girl who initially resists his advances, then takes his two dollars and tells him to wait while she runs up to her room. When he follows her up, he finds four men who beat and rob him. Choruses of "Oh, du mein ja, mein je!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Baltzer, _Knurrhahn_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty whore robbery Germany
FOUND IN: Germany
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 564-566, "Hamburg, Du Schone Stadt" (2 texts, German & English; 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p.64, "Hamborg Du Schone Stadt" (2 texts, German & English; 1 tune)
File: Hugi564

Hamburger Fair, The

See Animal Fair (File: San348)

Hame Came Our Gudeman

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Hame to My Nancy

See My Fancy Dwells With Nancy Belle (File: GrD4727)

Hame, Dearie, Hame

See Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: LK43)

Hame, Hame, Hame

DESCRIPTION: "Hame, hame, hame, hame, fain wad I be ... to my ain countrie" "The green leaf o' loyalty's begun for to fa', The bonny white rose it is withering and a'; But I'll water't wi' the blood of usurping tyrannie" The sun will shine yet.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783-1785 (_Robert Burns's Commonplace Book_, according to Cromek)
KEYWORDS: nonballad political Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 80, "Hame, Hame, Hame" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #135, pp. 1-2, ("Hame, hame, hame, O hame fain would I be") (1 text fragment)
Greig/Duncan5, p. 637, ("Hame, hame, hame, O hame fain would I be") (1 text fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol I, pp. 101-102, "Hame, Hame, Hame"
R. H. Cromek, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, (London, 1810), pp. 169-170, ("Hame, hame, hame, O hame fain would I be")
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #191, "Hame, Hame, Hame" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosemary Lane" [Laws K43] (structure and some lines)
cf. "Hame, Hame" (tune, per Chambers)
NOTES [301 words]: Hogg: .".. taken from Cromek; and sore do I suspect that we are obliged to the same masterly hand for it with the two preceding ones. The air to which I have heard it sung very beautifully, seems to be a modification of the old tune of "Mary Scott, the Flower of Yarrow." The two previous songs are "The Wars of Scotland" and "Lochmaben Gate," and Hogg suspects the author to be Allan Cunninghame [sic].
The Greig/Duncan5 text, from Greig, is in a note to Greig/Duncan5 1057, "Hame, Dearie, Hame."
Greig: "Around the touching cry of "Hame, hame" different songs have at one time or another been woven. Allan Cunningham and James Hogg produce versions with a Jacobite message. But verses like the following are alien to true folk-song: - [text]. Such things we never pick up on the traditional field. Nobody hears of them until they appear in some printed collection. The editor allows his readers to suppose that they are traditional and old, but the critic knows that they are mainly the work of the editor."
"Cromek died [1812] shortly after the issue [1810] of Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, which was mostly written by Cunningham, though palmed upon Cromek as recovered antiques." (source: J. Ross, The Book of Scottish Poems: Ancient and Modern, (Edinburgh, Edinburgh Publishing Co, 1878), "Allan Cunningham 1784-1842," p. 738; other sources agree)
However, in this case, if there is a Cunningham "forgery" [the term I have seen applied to his contributions to Cromek; for example, see Shoolbraid's comments re "Annie Laurie"], then Cromek would have to be complicit. Cromek writes, "This song is printed from a copy found in Burn's Common Place Book, in the editor's possession. It has long been popular in Galloway and Nithsdale, and has many variations, of which this is the best." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5p637

Hamfat Man, The

DESCRIPTION: The ham fat man falls in love with Sara Ann, a girl in the market who sells him "polony sausages." But every day she wants a new dress, and after he goes broke she goes off to Bathhurst. The moral: "Never trust a girl that lives in Sydney town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1984
KEYWORDS: courting food money separation
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 94-95, "The Hamfat Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 5, "Ham Fat Man" (1 fragmentary text, which does not contain any of the above plot, and is almost certainly bawdy, but which appears from its pattern to be the same piece)
NOTES [61 words]: Don't ask me why the title of the song (in Fahey, anyway) is "The Hamfat Man" while all the references in the text are to a "Ham fat man."
Dime-Song-Book #12, p. 35, "The Ham Fat Man" is probably from the same source as Gilbert, but it looks like a minstrel-type song modified for the Civil War; the last line is "I'll stick to the Union and the ham fat man." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FaE094

Haming on a Live Oak Log (Mister Gator)

DESCRIPTION: "I went down on the river on a live oak log, log, log, Well the way I was haming, partner, like a lowdown dog, like a lowdown dog." The singer confuses a gator for a log and has to fight it. He complains about his sentence and the work his captain demands
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recorded from "Chinaman" Johnson by Bower, Lomax, and Seeger)
KEYWORDS: animal fight prison
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 240-245, "Haming on a Live Oak Log" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #17457?
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Was Down in the Bottom
Shake It, Mister Gator,
Move Along, 'Gator
File: JDM240

Hamlet Wreck, The

DESCRIPTION: "See the women and children going on the train, Fare-you-well, my husband, if I never see you again." The train runs late, and collides with a local (?). The rest of the song amplifies the repeated line, "So many have lost their lives"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Durham Morning Herald)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 27, 1911 - The Hamlet Wreck
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 290, "The Hamlet Wreck" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 290, "The Hamlet Wreck" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 77-82, "The Hamlet Wreck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 238-239, "The Hamlet Wreck" (1 text)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 273, "The Hamlet Wreck" (notes only)
Roud #6634
NOTES [260 words]: The notes in Brown say that the passenger train involved in this wreck was a special carrying some 900 members of St. Joseph's African Methodist Episcopal Church on an annual outing (from Durham to Charlotte). The collision occurred near the town of Hamlet, and at least 8 people killed and 88 injured.
The piece apparently was first printed as a broadside credited to Franklin Williams and William Firkins, but Brown left a note expressing strong doubts about the attribution. I must say, though, it looks like a composed song to me -- and not one which circulated much in oral tradition. Had it been created orally, there would have been more personal stories included.
On the other hand, Lyle, p. 82, suggests "In short, 'The Hamlet Wreck' is more like black American music than white, and the only 'black' wreck song we have." This is not precisely true -- Laws explicitly defined "Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long)" [Laws I16] as being of "Negro" origin -- but certainly "The Hamlet Wreck" is rare in its concentration on a Black disaster tale.
There is a book about the event, Railroading in Richmond County, North Carolina and the Hamlet Wreck, by S. David Carriker and Suzanne C. Linder. I have not seen it; it is described as two volumes, by two different authors, in one cover, so it might be that one or the other exists independently. (Carriker wrote extensively about North Carolina railroads; I suspect that the book might be two volumes by Carriker with some sort of addition by Linder.) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: BrII290

Hamma-Tamma Damma-Ramma

DESCRIPTION: Hammer song without real words, merely repeating "Hamma-tamma (hah!) damma-ramma (hah), etc.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: worksong nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 120, "Hamma-Tamma Damma-Ramma" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Rose120

Hammer Man

DESCRIPTION: "Drivin' steel, drivin' steel, Drivin' steel, boys, Is hard work, I know...." "Treat me right... I am bound to stay all day; Treat me wrong, I am bound to run away." "Boss man... See the boss man comin' down the line."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad worksong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 139, "Hammer Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18764
File: San139

Hammer Ring

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, my hammer, hammer ring (x2), Ringin' on de buildin, hammer ring (x2)." Doncha hear dat hammer... She ringin' like jedgment." "Oh, Lawd, dat hammer." There may be references to Black Betty, or mentions of Noah/Norah
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: chaingang work
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 61-62, "The Hammer Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 193-201, "Hammer Ring" (7 texts, 2 tunes, very diverse; some could perhaps be filed with "Black Betty" or other prison songs, and they often share verses with "Drop 'Em Down")
RECORDINGS:
Jesse Bradley and group of prisoners, "Hammer, Ring" (AFS 219 A2; on LC8)
Texas state farm prisoners, "Let Your Hammer Ring" (on NPCWork)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Take This Hammer"
cf. "Don't You Hear My Hammer Ringing"
NOTES [15 words]: Not to be confused, obviously, with the Modern Folk "Hammer Song" ("If I Had a Hammer"). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: LxA061

Hammerin' Song

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

Hammering

DESCRIPTION: Call and response. Each line is answered by "Hammering." Lines include "What the hammer say." "I nailed him down." "Mary wept." "Martha mourned." "They buried him" "And on the third day" "He ascended high" "To his Father's house"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 39, "Christmas Hymns of the Crucifixion" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John W. Work, American Negro Songs (New York: Crown Publishers, 1940 (republished by Mineola: Dover Publications, 1998)), p. 100, "Hammering" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12264
NOTES [11 words]: The description is based on the Barton-OldPlantationHymns text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart039

Hampshire Mummers' Carol (God Sent for Us the Sunday)

DESCRIPTION: "There is six good days all in the week, All for the labouring man, But the seventh is the Sabbath...." The singer urges hearers to go to Church and to bring up their children well. Read the Bible. Failure is likely to bring punishment.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (Kingsclere Mummers, according to Broadwood)
KEYWORDS: religious death Jesus work burial
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 78-79, "The Hampshire Mummers' Christmas Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, p. 225, "Mummers' Carol" (1 text)
Roud #1065
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Moon Shines Bright (The Bellman's Song)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
There Are Six Good Days All in the Week
File: LEBC078

Hampshire Mummers' Christmas Carol, The

See Hampshire Mummers' Carol (God Sent for Us the Sunday) (File: LEBC078)

Han Skal Leve

DESCRIPTION: Danish. "Han/Hun skal leve (x3), højt hurra. Hurra hurra hurra hurra hurra, Han skal leve (x3), højt hurra" English, "Live for long (x3) hu-hurrah!" Used for birthdays or parties, with the sense of "Live well, live long, hurrah!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: In English tradition, 1962? (Songs of Many Nations); the Danish is much older
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 193, "Han Skal Leve" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "Han Skal Leve" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 30)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hun Skal Leve
NOTES [30 words]: The Songs of Many Nations version of this is a medley with "Bravo Bravissimo," and based on Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 193, this is the normal way of handling the songs in camps.
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACFS193H

Hancock Boys, The

DESCRIPTION: "The (Hancock) boys, they think they're men; They go a-courting when they kin," using any trick they can "To cheat some pretty girl." They work to buy courting clothes and try to put on a show. The singer says they fail and is happy they are upset at him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: clothes courting
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 153-154, "The Hancock Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4892
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Comical Ditty (Arizona Boys and Girls)" (theme)
NOTES [42 words]: I was very tempted to lump this with "A Comical Ditty (Arizona Boys and Girls)." I am far from convinced that they are distinct. But this song doesn't offer the girls' side, so I've very tentatively separated them, mostly to align to the Roud Index. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: SaKo153

Hand by Hand We Shall us Take

See Child is Born Among Men, A (Honnd by Honnd) (File: NNHonCB)

Hand Loom v PowerLoom

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you cotton weavers, Your looms you must pull down, You must get employed in factories...." The power looms are displacing the old weavers. They must work for a hard overseer. They will have little leisure and low pay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (Harland, according to Raven)
KEYWORDS: weaving hardtimes work technology boss
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 117-119, "Hand Loom v Power Loom" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: JRVI117

Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane

DESCRIPTION: Known mostly by the first verse: "Hand me down my walkin' cane (x3), I'm gonna catch the midnight train, All my sins been taken away, taken away." Remaining verses involve traveling, prison, food, where the singer wants to be buried, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recordings, Kelly Harrell, Gid Tanner, Henry Whitter & Fiddler Joe)
KEYWORDS: rambling food prison death burial floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 363, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 95, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 53, "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (1 text)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 21, "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 14, "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (1 text)
DT, WALKCANE
Roud #11733
RECORDINGS:
Boswell Sisters, "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (Brunswick 6335, 1932)
Vernon Dalhart, "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (Durium [UK] 9-3, 1933)
Durium Dance Band w. Carson Robison & his Pioneers, "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (Durium [UK] EN-27, 1932)
Sid Harkreader w. Grady Moore, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Paramount 3022, 1927; Broadway 8055 [as "Harkins and Moran"], c. 1930)
Kelly Harrell, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Victor 20103, 1926; Montgomery Ward M-4330, 1933; on KHarrell02)
Sim Harris, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Oriole 916, 1927)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Brunswick 107/Vocalion 5028, 1927)
Claude Moye, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Champion 15688 [as Asparagus Joe]/Supertone 9363 [as Pie Plant Pete], 1929)
North Carolina Hawaiians, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (OKeh 45297, 1929; rec. 1928)
Carson Robison w. his Pleasant Valley Boys, "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (MGM 12266, 1956)
Carson Robison [Trio], "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Crown 3027, c. 1930)
Short Creek Trio, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Gennett 6272/Challenge 398 [as Logan County Trio], 1927)
Ernest V. Stoneman and the Dixie Mountaineers, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Edison 51938, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5297, 1927)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Banner 1993, 1927/Domino 3964/Regal 8324/Oriole 916 [as by Sim Harris]/Homestead 16490 [as by Harris], c. 1929)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (Columbia 15091-D, 1926)
Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & Uncle John Patterson, "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (on DownYonder)
Henry Whitter & Fiddler Joe [Samuels], "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (OKen 45061, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All My Sins Been Taken Away"
cf. "Heaven and Hell" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Mary Wore Three Links of Chain" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Free at Last" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Dawsonville Jail" (lyrics)
cf. "Herlong's Train" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Ballad of Blue Bell Jail (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 143)
NOTES [32 words]: It is possible (perhaps even likely) that the song filed as "All My Sins Been Taken Away" is a worn-down version of this piece, but it is known in enough versions that I finally split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB053

Hand O'er Hand (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Hand, Hand, Hand o'er hand, Divil run away with a west country man." Other verses, if any, probably float.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Bone-CapstanBars)
KEYWORDS: shanty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bone-CapstanBars, p. 42, "Hand O'er Hand" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: BoCB042

Hand O'er Hand (II)

See So Handy (File: Doe012)

Hand on My Heart

See My Hand on My Head (Hand on my Heart, Nicky Nicky Nu) (File: ACSF285N)

Handcart Song (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye saints who dwell on Britain's/British/Europe's shore, prepare yourselves for many more." "For some must push and some must pull" as the Mormons head west with their handcarts. The song praises how the Saints work together to make the migration.
AUTHOR: Words: William Hobbs (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Daughters of Utah Pioneers, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest); 1946 (collected from Lalovi M. Hilton)
KEYWORDS: emigration travel
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #209, "Handcart Song" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 64-66, "The Handcart Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 595, "The Handcart Song" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 252-253, "The Handcart Song" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, pp. 67-70, "(Ye Saints who dwell on Britain's shore)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 197-198, "The Handcarts, I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4748
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Handcarts" (subject)
cf. "Handcart Song (II)" (subject)
cf. "The Handcart Song (Missionary)" (subject)
cf. "The King of the Cannibal Islands" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
NOTES [287 words]: When the Mormons were driven out of Illinois and Missouri, they did not have the funds to afford a great migration. So Brigham Young came up with the idea of moving them west to Deseret (Utah) in handcarts.
According to Claudia Lauper Bushman and Richard Lyman Bushman, Building the Kingdom: A History of Mormons in America, Oxford University Press, 1999, 2001, p. 44, "The handcarts were open wagon boxes about four feet square with two large wheels. A man or woman stepped between wooden shafts in front and, with a shaft under each arm, pulled the wagon or pushed against a crossbar in front. Each wagon held a few personal possessions and four or five hundred pounds of food, clothing, bedding, and cooking utensils. The leaders estimated that fifteen miles a day would bring the walkers to Utah in seventy days initially, but with a little practice they could travel faster. The handcart movement led more than three thousand poor Saints to walk with their carts to Zion between 1856 and 1860."
The migration to Deseret was long and difficult and encountered many tragedies; Brigham Young and Co. were wildly optimistic about the feasibility of long-distance travel over great distances on poor to non-existent roads. A less stubborn people would surely have turned back. That Mormonism survived the ordeal is a credit to the determination of those who followed the trail. On balance, though, it was a very bad idea. To be sure, it was becoming clear that the Mormons just weren't acceptable to most normal Christians and needed to find a way to separate themselves. And they didn't have any money to travel by better means. So there may not have been any good ideas available if one wished to remain a Mormon. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CAFS2595

Handcart Song (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Obedient to the Gospel call We serve our God the all in all, We hie away to Zion. We do not wait to ride all day, But pull our handcarts all the way, And Israel's God rely on." They will travel many lands to reach Zion where Grand Temples will rise
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
KEYWORDS: religious travel | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 254, "Handcart Song" (1 text)
Roud #10893
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Handcarts" (subject)
cf. "Handcart Song (I)" (subject)
cf. "The Handcart Song (Missionary)" (subject)
NOTES [27 words]: For background on the migration to Zion (Utah), and the handcarts the Mormons used because they had no other means, see the notes to "The Handcard Song (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GFGW254

Handcart Song (III), The

See Handcarts (File: Hubb210)

Handcart Song (Missionary), The

DESCRIPTION: "No purse, no scrip they bear with then, But cheerfully they start, And cross the plains a thousand miles, And draw with them a cart." "Israel must be gathered soon." The missionaries set out on their appointed task traveling with their handcart
AUTHOR: Philllip Margetts (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1857 (Millenial Star, according to Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: money religious travel | Mormon missionary handcart
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 66-67, "The Handcart Song (Missionary)" (1 text, tune referenced)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 200-201, "The Handcarts, III" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10828
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Handcart Song (I)" (subject)
cf. "The Handcart Song (II)" (subject)
cf. "Handcarts" (subject)
cf. "Oh! Susanna" (tune)
NOTES [48 words]: For background on the migration to Zion (Utah), and the handcarts the Mormons used because they had no other means, see the notes to "The Handcard Song (I)."
It became a strong part of their faith, though, so when missionaries went out, they apparently turned to handcarts once again. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS066

Handcarts

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, our faith goes with our handcarts, They have our hearts' best love; They're a novel way of traveling, Devised by God above, so sing Hurrah for the camp of Israel! Hurrah for the handcart scheme! Hurrah! hurrah! It's better far Than wagon or ox team."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Stenhouse, Rocky Mountain Saints, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest); 1945 (American Folklore 58)
KEYWORDS: religious travel
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #210, "Handcarts" (1 short text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 253, "Handcart Song" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 199, "The Handcarts, II" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10892
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Handcart Song (I)" (subject)
cf. "The Handcart Song (II)" (subject)
cf. "The Handcart Song (Missionary)" (subject)
cf. "A Little More Cider" (tune, according to Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest and Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
NOTES [27 words]: For background on the migration to Zion (Utah), and the handcarts the Mormons used because they had no other means, see the notes to "The Handcard Song (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hubb210

Handcarts (I), The

See The Handcart Song (I) (File: CAFS2595)

Handful of Earth from Mother's Grave, A

DESCRIPTION: "I must leave this dear old place where my childhood days were spent," but to preserve his memories, the singer will take "a handful of earth from mother's grave." It will guide him wherever he goes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: mother death burial travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 95, "A Handful of Earth" (1 text)
Roud #16354
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Earth from Mother's Grave
File: HMHS095B

Handful of Earth, A

See A Handful of Earth from Mother's Grave (File: HMHS095B)

Handsome Bill

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells Bill that she is too young to marry. Her sisters have not yet left school so she is still needed at home. She has already turned Ned, her cousin, down twice. And she will never marry a drinker: "join the temperance army and claim me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage rejection drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 903, "Handsome Bill" (1 text)
Roud #6234
File: GrD4903

Handsome Cabin Boy, The [Laws N13]

DESCRIPTION: A disguised girl signs aboard ship as a cabin boy. The ship's captain discovers her secret and, even though his wife is aboard, gets her pregnant. One night the "boy's" cries awaken the crew, who learn she is in labor. All are thoroughly astonished
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Journal from the Champion)
KEYWORDS: cross-dressing ship pregnancy adultery disguise childbirth sailor infidelity love
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws N13, "The Handsome Cabin Boy"
Greig/Duncan1 181, "The Handsome Cabin Boy" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 160, "The Handsome Cabin Boy" (1 text)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #26, pp. 157-158, "The Handsome Cabin Boy [Laws N13]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 32, "The Female Cabin Boy" (1 text)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #6, "The Female Cabin Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 163, "The Handsome Cabin Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 174, "The Handsome Cabin Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 280-281, "The Handsome Cabin Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 174-175, "The Female Cabin Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 97, "The Female Cabin Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 86, "The Handsome Cabin Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #836, p. 56, "The Handsome Cabin Boy" (1 reference)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 123-125, "The Handsome Cabin Boy" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 192, "The Handsome Cabin Boy" (1 text)
DT 445, CABINBOY*
Roud #239
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Mary Ann Galpin, "The Handsome Cabin Boy" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Bob Hart, "The Female Cabin Boy" (on Voice12)
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:035, "The Female Cabin Boy," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C
NOTES [64 words]: For accounts of women who served in the navy or the army, and sometimes became pregnant as a result, see the notes to "The Soldier Maid."
According to Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 56, there is a De Marsan broadside of this, with eight verses. This would imply a date before 1865. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LN13

Handsome Charlie's Sing Out

DESCRIPTION: "Away, hey, Oh, haul him high-O! Way, hey! Oh, haul him high-O! Way, hey! Oh, haul him high-O! High-O! Raise him and haul him high-O!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips)
KEYWORDS: sailor shanty nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, p. 20, "Handsome Charlie's Sing Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, p. 113, "(no title)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9161
File: Harl020A

Handsome Collier Lad, The

See The Collier Lad (Lament for John Sneddon/Siddon) (File: HHH110)

Handsome Harry (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Handsome Harry Thomas He was sued for breach of promise." Mary told her family, they told the preacher, and he toll'd the wedding bell. If you ever take a girl take one named Daisy, "because Daisies don't tell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage seduction sex wedding accusation humorous wordplay father mother rake wife clergy
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #21116
RECORDINGS:
Theresa White, "Handsome Harry" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcHanHa2

Handsome Harry (The Sailor and the Ghost B)

See The Sailor and the Ghost [Laws P34A/B] (File: LP34)

Handsome Joan the Dairy Maid

See Lovely Joan (File: ShH57)

Handsome John

DESCRIPTION: "A lady lived near Portland square, She keep a waiting maid so fair Who loved the footman as her life Expecting for to be his wife." The lady loves the footman and beats the maid. The maid runs away and the lady marries handsome John
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: infidelity love marriage promise injury
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 38, "Handsome John" (1 text)
Roud #6363
NOTES [13 words]: Why do I have this feeling the marriage turned out to be not very happy? - RBW
File: GrMa038

Handsome Mary, the Lily of the West

See The Lily of the West [Laws P29] (File: LP29)

Handsome Molly

DESCRIPTION: The singer sings the praises of handsome Molly, noting that "Sailing round the ocean, sailing round the sea, I'll think of handsome Molly wherever she may be." She proves less than faithful, but he loves her still
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting sailor separation abandonment
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 82, "The Lover's Lament" (4 texts plus a fragment, "E," that is probably "Handsome Molly"; the others are true "Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly)" texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 82, "The Lover's Lament" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes; the "B" excerpt is probably "Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly)" while "E" is probably "Handsome Molly")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 710, "My Hair Was Black As Ribbon" (1 fragment, 1 tune, which could be anything but matches the form of this song)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 57-58, "Lovely Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 180, "The Irish Girl" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 3 tunes, with the "A" text going here and the "B" and "C" fragments tentatively filed under "The Irish Girl")
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 62-64, "Handsome Molly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 148, "Handsome Molly" (1 text)
DT, HNDSMMOL
Roud #454
RECORDINGS:
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Handsome Molly" (Gennett 6304/Champion 15629, 1927) (Victor 21189, 1928; rec. 1927; on GraysonWhitter01, LostProv1)
Mike Seeger, "Handsome Molly" (on MSeeger01)
Glenn Neaves, "Handsome Molly" (on GraysonCarroll1)
Doc Watson & Gaither Carlton, "Handsome Molly" (on Ashley02, WatsonAshley01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly)"
NOTES [195 words]: It is my firm belief that this is a version of the "Farewell Ballymoney/Loving Hannah" family of songs (with which it shares several verses and the whole plot, as well as melodic similarities). In this I actually agree with Roud.
Paul Stamler, however, observes that "The plotline is similar, but I'd be inclined to split off 'Molly' and class the 'went to church on Sunday' verse as a floater. Look at it this way -- if you ask old-time musicians to play 'Handsome Molly' about 95% can do so, but if you ask them to play 'Farewell Ballymoney' at least 95% will go, 'Hah?'"
I still think I'm right, but it is certainly true that "Molly" has achieved independent circulation (though all the versions I hear seem to come ultimately from the Grayson & Whitter recording), and so we list it as a separate song. - RBW
The Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians version shows that the song, with lyrics very close to those sung by Whitter, was circulating some nine years before he made his very-influential recording. Whitter, it should be noted, came from the same area in Virginia where the Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians version was collected. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: FSWB148

Handsome Sally

DESCRIPTION: A young man loves Sally, a servant, whose mistress also wants the lad. The mistress has Sally drowned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1909 (Joyce, _Old Irish Folk Music and Songs_)
KEYWORDS: homicide drowning
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 120, "Handsome Sally" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2370
NOTES [37 words]: This in several regards resembled "The Lady and the Farmer's Son" [Laws O40]. Paul Stamler indeed filed them under the same heading. But Laws and Roud separate them, and I can hardly argue with that weight of authority. - RBW
File: ShAp2120

Handsome Sam

See Lolly-Too-Dum (File: LxU012)

Handsome Shepherdess, The

See The Sailor and the Shepherdess [Laws O8] (File: LO08)

Handsome Shone the Dairymaid

See Lovely Joan (File: ShH57)

Handsome Young Airman, The

See The Dying Aviator (File: MA142)

Handsome Young Farmer, The

See Teasing Songs (File: EM256)

Handsome Young Sailor, The

See The Soldier Maid (File: DTsoldma)

Handwriting on the Wall, The

DESCRIPTION: "At the feast of Belshazzar and a thousand of the lords, While they drank from golden vessels," "the hand of God" wrote "on the wall." Daniel explains the situation to Belshazzar. The hand may write about you, too
AUTHOR: Knowles Shaw (1834-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 46, "At the Feast of Belshazzar" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7123
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There's a Little Hand Writing on the Wall" (subject)
NOTES [397 words]: This is a brief summary of the first part of Daniel 5. The festival for a thousand of his lords is in Daniel 5:1. The bringing in of golden vessels is in 5:2. The hand that writes on the wall appears in 5:5. Daniel is summoned in 5:12, although he should not be called a "captive"; he was in exile, but seems to have been free to go where he wished, at least in Babylon, at this time. The Shaw song does not continue the story after this, but the rest of the chapter of Daniel describes Belshazzar's fear and the overthrow of Babylon.
Unfortunately for anyone interested in this hymn, there was no King Belshazzar of Babylon. The last king of Babylon was Nabonidas. He had a son whose name would probably have been rendered "Belshazzar" in Aramaic (the language of this section of Daniel), but this Belshazzar never became king. The rest of the "history" in this part of Daniel is even worse, e.g. there was no King Darius the Mede, and while there were Kings Darius of Persia, they came after, not before, Cyrus of Persia. All evidence is that the author of the Book of Daniel wrote during the 160s B.C.E., during the persecution of Antiochus IV of Syria, and that the author knew effectively nothing about the events of 539 B.C.E. (when Persians under Cyrus captured Nabonidas's Babylon). He doesn't even seem to have been able to write proper Hebrew (a scholarly rather than a living language by the 160s), which is probably why he gave up and started writing in Aramaic.
It is also curious that the Septuagint Greek translation, which was probably made just a few decades after Daniel was written, omits much of this chapter, especially verses 17-22, which is most of Daniel's condemnation of Belshazzar. This raises a strong possibility that the Aramaic of this chapter was heavily interpolated by a later writer.
Steve Roud initially separated "The Handwriting on the Wall" (#7123) and "There's a Little Hand Writing on the Wall" (#11814); he has now combined them under the former number. He may be right; they are obviously about the same topic. But the Writing on the Wall is one of the most vivid and famous of Old Testament stories, and has been the subject of much later writing. Given the difference in form, I (tentatively) continue to split them; the lyrics of "There's a Little Hand" do not occur in Knowles Shaw's original text of "The Handwriting on the Wall." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BuM1046

Handy Andy Sugary Candy

See Handy Dandy (Handy Pandy, Andy Pany, Amos and Andy) (File: SuSm101A)

Handy Bandy Barque, The

See The Campanero (File: Doe084)

Handy Dandy (Handy Pandy, Andy Pany, Amos and Andy)

DESCRIPTION: "Handy dandy, Sugary candy, Which will you have, (High or low/Top or bottom)." Or, "Andy pandy, sugary candy, French almond nuts," or "Amos and Andy and all stock candy, When you lick it, you are dandy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: playparty food
FOUND IN: Britain New Zealand US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 101, "(Andy pandy, sugary candy)," "(Ansy, pansy, sugary candy)" (2 texts)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 77, "Amos and Andy" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 21, "(Andy, Mandy)" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 87, "(Handy Andy sugary candy)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #10, "Amos and Andy, sugar and candy" (1 text)
Roud #19429
NOTES [273 words]: The incredible Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 203, has a version of this which runs, "Handy Spandy, Jack-a-Dandy, Loved plum cake and sugar candy, He bought some at a Grocer's shop, Then out he came, hop, hop, hop!" Thomas, whose connection to reality was so remote that I doubt she could even see it from where she stood, claims the plum cake is Spain and the verse is about James VI and I's love for that country. Hey, I don't make up her delusions....
"Handy Dandy" itself is said to be a game in which something -- candy, say -- is held cupped in both hands of one player, which may then be shaken, and the two hands separated so that the candy is hidden in one hand. The other player has to guess which hand holds the candy/prize.
This game is so old that it is possible that it is mentioned in Langland's Piers Plowman of the late fourteenth century. Passus IV, line 75 in the B text reads "To maken his pees with his pens, handy-dandy payed" (Langland/Schmidt, p. 56), which E. Talbot Donaldson modernized as "To make his peace with his pennies, paid out handy-dandy" (Langland/Donaldson, p. 35) -- which I think means bribery involving secrecy or trickery (so explicitly the note in Langland/Pearsall).
In the "C" text of some years later, the passus is rearranged; the line is changed to "And for to here helpe handy-dandy paid" ("And to have their[? -- it refers to Wrong, or to Wrong and Wisdom] help paid handy-dandy.)" This is line 68 of passus IV in the C text (Langland/Pearsall, p 91). The line is changed, but the point is definitely the same. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: SuSm101A

Handy Pandy

See Handy Dandy (Handy Pandy, Andy Pany, Amos and Andy) (File: SuSm101A)

Handy, Me Boys

See So Handy (File: Doe012)

Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley

See Tom Dooley [Laws F36A] (File: LF36A)

Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Been All Around This World)

DESCRIPTION: Man about to be hanged laments his life. Says, "Hang me, oh hang me, and I'll be dead and gone/It's not the hangin' that I mind, it's layin' in the grave [or jail] so long." In some versions he describes his life as a gambler.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: execution punishment death gambling gallows-confession lament
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 472-473, "The Gambler" (1 text)
Randolph 146, "My Father Was a Gambler" (2 texts, 2 tunes); 348, "Since I Left Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 173-175, "My Father Was a Gambler" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 146A)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 232, "The Gambler" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 92, "I've Been All Around This World" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 57, pp. 130-131, "The Gambler" (1 text)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #16, "Rovin' Gambler" (1 text, 1 tune); #54, "My Daddy Was a Gambler" (1 short text, 1 tune, which Roberts thinks is a "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Been All Around This World)" fragment although it looks more like "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man)" [Laws H4] to me)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 298, "John Henry-I"; 299, (1 text, 1 tune, containing a large portion of "Been All Around This World" or a relative)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 129-130, "I've Been All Around the World" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GAMBLR2
Roud #3416
RECORDINGS:
Justus Begley, "I've Been All Around This World" (AFS, 1937; on KMM)
Grandpa Jones, "I've Been All Around This World" (King 524, 1946)
Art Thieme, "Cape Girardeau" (on Thieme02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man)" [Laws H4] (floating lyrics)
cf. "Don't Let Your Watch Run Down" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Horse Trader's Song" (tune, floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Cape Girardeau
I've Been All Around This World
The Hobo's Lament
The Hobo Blues
NOTES [40 words]: Laws regards Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's and Randolph's versions of this as a ballad, "The Gambler," which he lists as dE43. But the text seems much more diffuse than Laws's small and highly specific subset. - RBW
File: R146

Hang on the Bell

DESCRIPTION: "The scene is in a jailhouse; if the curfew rings tonight The guy in number 13 cell will go out like a light." To prevent the bell from ringing, the convict's daughter Nellie ties herself to the bell, and keeps it silent until a pardon arrives
AUTHOR: T. Connor, C. Erard, R. Parker (according to Joe Hickerson)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1950 (recording, Beatrice Kay)
KEYWORDS: prison execution humorous reprieve father children derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, HANGBELL
NOTES [205 words]: This is often listed as a parody of Rosa Hartwick Thorpe's 1867 poem "Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight" (for which cf., e.g., Michael R. Turner, Victorian Parlour Poetry: An Annotated Anthology, 1967, 1969 (page references are to the 1992 Dover edition), pp. 81-63). "Parody" may be a rather strong word; there is no stylistic influence at all. (The first lines of the Thorpe poem, published when she was just 17, are "Slowly England's sun was setting o'er the hilltops far away, Filling all the land with beauty at the close of one sad day, And the last rays kissed the forehead of a man and maiden fair," or, in other publications, "England's sun was slowly setting...." The rest is equally nauseating.)
Despite its lack of quality, this thing was popular enough to earn nine citations in Granger's Index of Poetry.
The one thing that survived from the Thorpe original to this song is the absurdist plot of the girl silencing the curfew bell.
This byblow is not widely published, and there are few if any early recordings, but Joe Hickerson traced enough oral transmission that I have, with some misgivings, included it in the Index. Mostly, perhaps, to examine the relationship between the original poem and the derived song. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: DThangbe

Hange I wyl my nobyl bow vpon the grenewod bough

See I Have Been a Foster (The Old Forester) (File: MSIHBAF)

Hange-ed I Shall Be

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Hanged I Shall Be

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Hanging Johnny

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Away, away... Hang, boys, hang!" The singer reports, "They call me Hanging Johnny... Oh they say I hang for money. They say I hung my daddy... We'll... hang together... And we'll hang for better weather."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment); Great Lakes sailor Carl Joys said he learned it before 1870
KEYWORDS: shanty ship sailor
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,SE) Canada(Mar) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 31, "Hanging Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 65-67, "Hanging Johnny" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 72-73,"Hanging Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 47-48,"Hanging Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 284-285,"Hanging Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 208-209]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, LI, p. 56, "Hanging Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 92-93, "Hanging Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 779, "Hanging Johnnie" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 54, "Hanging Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 26, "Hangman Johnnie" (1 text)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #19, "Hanging Johnny" (1 text. 1 tune)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 47, pp. 203-204, "Call Me Hangin' Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 37, pp. 220-221, "Hangman Johnny" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 87, "Hanging Johnny" (1 text)
DT, HANGJOHN
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). Hanging Johnny" is in Part 2, 7/21/1917.
Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, pp. 253-254, "Hanging Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), p. 94, "They Call Me Hanging Johnny" (1 text)
Roud #2625
RECORDINGS:
Bob Roberts, "Hanging Johnny" (on LastDays)
Leighton Robinson w. Alex Barr, Arthur Brodeur & Leighton McKenzie, "Hanging Johnny" (AFS 4231 A1, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
W[illiam] H. Smith, "Hangman Johnny" (on NovaScotia1)
NOTES [65 words]: According to most sources, the "hanging" in this song does not refer to execution. Great Lakes sailor Carl Joys said it referred to the young sailors who went aloft to swing out the halyards when a sail was hoisted. Another account says it referred to a sailor who held a rope lashed to other sailors. If this "hanger" let them go in a bad sea, they would be washed overboard and lost. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Doe031

Hanging of Charlie Birger

DESCRIPTION: Charlie Birger is feared throughout the Midwest; after the shooting of Joe Adams, Birger's henchman Thomasson turns state's evidence and Birger is sentenced to hang. Despite appeals and an unsuccessful suicide attempt, he is hanged on April 19, 1928.
AUTHOR: Carson J. Robison
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Charlie Birger, bandit, is feared throughout the Midwest; after the shooting of Joe Adams and a public outcry, Birger's henchman Thomasson turns state's evidence and Birger is sentenced to hang. Despite appeals and an unsuccessful suicide attempt, he is hanged on April 19, 1928. The singer draws lessons in morality from this story
KEYWORDS: accusation betrayal crime execution homicide punishment death suicide outlaw
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 19, 1928 - hanging of Charlie Birger
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 266-268, "The Death of Charlie Burger" (1 text)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 214-215, "(The Death of Charlie Burger)" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 453-454, "The Death of Charlie Birger" (1 text)
DT, CBIRGER
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 405-407, "The Death of Charlie Burger" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Hanging of Charlie Birger" (OKeh 45215, 1928) (Edison 11002, 1929 [as "The Hanging of Charles Birger"])
Frank Luther, "The Hanging of Charlie Birger" (Supertone 9183, 1938)
Art Thieme, "The Hanging of Charlie Birger" (on Thieme02)
NOTES [62 words]: Birger's gang, and the rival Shelton Bros. gang, made Williamson Co. in southern Illinois a battleground in the mid-1920s, fighting over the rights to the regional bootlegging trade. The first bomb ever dropped on United States soil was a load of dynamite the Sheltons dropped on Birger's hangout from an airplane. The song accurately tells what happened after that. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: DTcbirge

Hanging of Eva Dugan, The

DESCRIPTION: "Down in Arizona was just the other day The first time that a woman the death price had to pay, Yes, Mrs. Eva Dugan... Stepped up to the gallows." She leaves a note, "Bring me joy, oh, bring me sorrow, WIth the comin' of the morrow, I won't beg...."
AUTHOR: Word: Arthur Fields / Music: Fred Hall
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Al Craver (Vernon Dalhart))
KEYWORDS: death execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 21, 1930 - Hanging of Eva Dugan for the crime of murdering Andrew J. Mathis
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 543, "The Hanging of Eva Dugan" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart (as Al Craver), "The Hanging of Eva Dugan" (Columbia 15530-D, 1930)
File: CAFS2543

Hanging of Sam Archer, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye people who delight in sin, I'll tell you what has lately been, Come sympathize... For this young man who died in Shoals." "It is so hard for us to say, He was executed here today." He murdered Bunch, and -- like all his bad family -- must suffer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Hoosier Folklore 5, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: death homicide execution punishment prison mother
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 422-423, "The Hanging of Sam Archer" (1 text)
File: CAFS2422

Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire

See The Old Barbed Wire (I Know Where They Are) (File: San442)

Hanging Out Clothes

See My Mother and Your Mother (I) (File: MHAp240A)

Hanging Out the Linen Clothes

See Driving Away at the Smoothing Iron (File: ShH82)

Hangman Johnnie

See Hanging Johnny (File: Doe031)

Hangman Tree, The

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Hangman, Hangman

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Hangman, Slack on the Line

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Hangman, Slack Up Your Rope

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Hangman, The

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Hangman's Song, The

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Hangman's Tree, The

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Hangs-a-man

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Hangtown Gals

DESCRIPTION: "Hangtown girls are plump and rosy, Hair in ringlets, mighty cozy... Touch them and they'll sting like hornets. "Hangtown girls are lovely creatures, Think they'll marry Mormon preachers." They are often seen grinning and exposing their linens
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 97, "Hangtown Gals" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 192, "Hangtown Girls" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 656-657, "Hangtown Girls" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Buffalo Gals" (tune)
File: Arn097

Hank! Hah!

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

Hanky Pank

See Down on the Banks of the Hanky Tank (File: ACSF146H)

Hanky Panky

See Down on the Banks of the Hanky Tank (File: ACSF146H)

Hanky, The

See The Bonny Blue Handkerchief (File: HHH161)

Hannah from Butte, Montana

DESCRIPTION: "I've got a girl named Hannah, From Butte Montana, The reason I don't love her, She's dead, gol darn her! She lived on the Untrodden hills of Butte. None cared to love her And none dared to shoot."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: love death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 145, "Hannah" (1 short text)
Roud #9538
NOTES [53 words]: Shay's seems to be the only text of this, so reconstruction may not be possible, but his text (apart from being short) appears damaged. There needs to be a missing word in the lines "She lived on the [???] Untrodden hills of Butte." Is there a word that would explain why no one else would either love her or shoot her?
Last updated in version 4.2
File: SBar145

Hannah Healy, the Pride of Howth

DESCRIPTION: The singer is love sick for Hannah. Each morning courters swarm around her but none "dare entreat her or supplicate her." The singer is giving up; he'll "raise my mind from all female kind so Adieu, sweet Hannah, the pride of Howth!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1840 (From a Waterford chap-book, according to Sparling)
KEYWORDS: love beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 93, "Hannah Healy, the Pride of Howth" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 329-330, 512, "Hannah Healy, the Pride of Howth"
Roud #9773
NOTES [11 words]: The Howth peninsula is about seven miles northeast of Dublin. - BS
File: OLcM093

Hannah McKay (The Pride of Artikelly)

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to Ireland and Magilligan, wondering how he can leave such a beautiful, friendly place. Even more painful is parting with Hannah McKay. He will think of her all the way through his voyage.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation farewell
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H656, p. 187, "Hannah M'Kay/The Pride of Artikelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13543
File: HHH656

Hannamaria

DESCRIPTION: Hannamaria used to live in singer's town; she weighed 590 pounds. After supper a bunch of fellows get drunk and fight; singer is knocked ten feet into the air, but, "I fell down 'cause Hannamaria." Singer is going home with her; he warns others not to
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (recording, Poplin Family)
KEYWORDS: sex warning fight drink humorous talltale lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Poplin Family, "Hannamaria" (on Poplin01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hopalong Peter" (theme)
NOTES [49 words]: Very confused story line. The singer picked it up from her father, though, so it has entered tradition in a small way. I suspect minstrel origins. - PJS
And there appears to be another recording, LC 4083 A2, sung by Crockett Ward, though I haven't been able to verify that it is the same song. - RBW
File: RcHanMar

Hannibal Hope

DESCRIPTION: "There was once a moke named Hannibal Hope with a circus, understand"; he played the calliope and rum. When the circus comes to his home in Nashville, his girlfriend Mandy Green attends and praises his musical skills
AUTHOR: Words: John Lowitz and Frank French
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: music courting travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 280-281, "Hannibal Hope" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [41 words]: Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin includes three songs from the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin. He does not offer a reason for including them in a book of folk songs; all are composed and give no evidence of having existed in tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet280

Hans and Katrina

DESCRIPTION: "There was a rich Dutchman, in New York did dwell." His daughter Katrina is ordered to court a rich young man, but she loves Hans. She prepares to leave home, and chokes on a sausage as she gets ready. Her lover discovers her body and the sausage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads)
KEYWORDS: love courting death food humorous parody
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 182-183, "Hans and Katrina" (1 text, 1 tune on p. 208)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 39, pp. 54-55, "Vilikins and His Dinah" (2 texts, but both are "Hans and Katrina")
ST LeHe182 (Partial)
Roud #271
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Katrina
File: LeHe182

Hanskin

See (references under) Sir Francis Drake, or Eighty-Eight (File: PaSe007)

Hanstead Boys

See Cape Cod Girls (File: LoF023)

Hantoon, The

DESCRIPTION: Wexford barque Hantoon is off the coast of Portugal "when this cruel British monster on us came bearing down." Captain Neill tried "to save his ship and crew, But those cursed, heartless tyrants had cut our barque in two." Four of eleven are lost.
AUTHOR: William Martin, Slippery Green, Wexford
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 27, 1881 - The Hantoon wreck
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 46-47, "The Hantoon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7351
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fethard Life-Boat Crew (I)" (tune)
NOTES [37 words]: December 27, 1881: "'The Hantoon' ... was run down ... on the homeward voyage from Galatz"; four of the crew of eleven were lost. Galatz is "one hundred miles up the Danube" [p. 53]. (source: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast) - BS
File: Ran046

Hap an' Rowe

See Hap and Row (File: MSNR157)

Hap and Row

DESCRIPTION: "Hap and row, hap and row, Hap and row the feetie o't; I never knew I had a bairn Until I heard the greetie o't." Life with the baby is described: A cinder from the cooking fire burns its feet; Sandy's mother wraps them in her cap
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: baby clothes food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1398, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Hap and Row" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #58, p. 220, "Hap An' Rowe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 157, "(Hap and row, hap and row)" (1 text)
Roud #7252
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Reel o' Stumpie" (lyrics, tune?)
NOTES [107 words]: This is presumably the original which Burns converted into "The Reel of Stumpie." Roud, in fact, lumps them. I suspect there are cross-fertilized versions, so some care should be taken in looking at each. - RBW
While the first text is "late," from Greig-Duncan in 1914, the air is considerably older, 1734 according to Porter-Gower (p. 220). To this air is (often) attached a burden, such as Jeannie Robertson sang in 1954, or a few verses. Thus an "original" narrative might be suspected, but we know nothing of it. Perhaps the song's "interest" lies in its implied narrative possibilities, but certainly its musicality is significant. - DGE
Last updated in version 6.1
File: MSNR157

Happiness Is Two Kinds of Ice Cream

DESCRIPTION: "Happiness is two kinds of ice cream" or other simple pleasures such as learning to whistle or tie a shoe -- or being friends
AUTHOR: Clark Gesner, based on characters by Charles M. Schultz (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (musical "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown")
KEYWORDS: nonballad friend campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 540, "Happiness Is Two Kinds of Ice Cream" (notes only)
File: ACSF540H

Happiness Runs in a Circular Motion

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a "little pebble upon the sand" and thinks about how time passes. "Happiness runs in a circular motion, Thought is like a little boat upon the sea. Everybody is a part of everything anyway, You can have everything if you let yourself be."
AUTHOR: Donovan (Donovan Phillips Leich)
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Donovan's album "Barabajagal")
KEYWORDS: ship nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 314, 444, "Happiness Runs in a Circular Motion" (notes only)
File: ACSF314H

Happy 'Tis, Thou Blind, for Thee

See Callino Casturame (Colleen Og a Store; Cailin O Chois tSiure; Happy 'Tis, Thou Blind, for Thee) (File: HHH491)

Happy Angel

DESCRIPTION: "Happy angel day's a-comin' Look out the window, I see day." "Happy angel change my name Change my name for the comin' day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1994 (Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious | angel name
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, pp. 120-121, "Happy Angel" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [78 words]: The description is two verses from the Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree text.
The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree text is a "ring shout" song. - BS
This makes me think of Genesis, chapter 17-18, where God appears to Abram and Sarai, changes their names to Abraham and Sarah, makes the covenant of circumcision, and promises them a son. I may be reading more into the song than is actually there, but it's a Biblical instance of a change of name on what is treated as a happy day.
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RSBF120

Happy Child, The

DESCRIPTION: "You parents who have children dear, To what I shall relate give ear, In Barnet lived a happy pair." The husband dies leaving a wife and daughter. The daughter tries to convert non-Christian children. The Devil appears. The girl goes to heaven.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster); broadside versions probably from the late eighteenth century
KEYWORDS: religious Devil orphan
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 48-53 (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FlNG048 (Partial)
Roud #4657
NOTES [2 words]: Ewwww. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: FlNG048

Happy Coon, The

DESCRIPTION: "I've seen in my time some mighty funny things, But the funniest of all I know Is a colored individual." The "very queer old coon" never speaks, is knock-kneed and pigeon-toed, but whistles all the time -- even when his wife dies or he is hit with a brick
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: abuse disability music
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 424, "The Happy Coon" (1 text)
Roud #11766
File: Br3424

Happy Country Lass

See The Brisk and Bonny Lass (The Brisk and Bonny Lad) (File: K244)

Happy Crook, The

See I Wish There Was No Prisons (File: RcIWTWNP)

Happy Days of Youth, The

DESCRIPTION: "The happy days of youth they are fast fleeting by Old age is coming on with a dark stormy sky." The singer recalls meeting his love "among the broom" and wishes he could have such a day again. "Farewell to happy youth likewise to mirth and glee"
AUTHOR: Robert Gilfillan (1798-1850) (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #136, p. 2)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: age courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #82, p. 1, "The Happy Days of Youth" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 542, "The Happy Days of Youth" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6018
NOTES [15 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "[542C] From her [Mrs Beaton] early note-book, this being written in 1867." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3542

Happy Days to Those We Love

DESCRIPTION: Round. "Happy days to (all) those that we love! Happy days to all those that love us! Happy days to all those that love them that love those that love them that love those that love us."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962? (Songs of Many Nations)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 445, "Happy Days to Those We Love" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "Happy Days" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 36)
OneTuneMore, p. 45, "Happy Days" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [49 words]: According to Averill, this is derived from an older song, "Leprechaun." Given that there are several songs which have, or could be referred to as having, that name, it's not clear which one she means. And she nowhere else refers to "Leprechaun," even though it apparently was sung in camps. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF445H

Happy Family (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "I will sing you a song of a settler bold, Who lived at Botany Bay" and marries a tranportee wife, "The Pride of Botany Bay"; "The first of her virtues was beauty... and the 102nd was chastity." She "has friends" dearer than her husband. It's his folly
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland)
KEYWORDS: transportation marriage betrayal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 129-130, "The Happy Family" (1 text)
File: AnFa129

Happy Family (II), The

See The Irish Family (File: K275)

Happy Frien'ship

See Happy Friendship (File: McSc144)

Happy Friendship

DESCRIPTION: The singer and friends are together for a drink. "Freenship maks us aa mair happy... Freenship consecrates the drappie." Friendship is more satisfying than riches.
AUTHOR: unknown, but see notes re authorship by Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (Cunningham)
KEYWORDS: money drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 144-145, 156, "In Freenship's Name" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 477, "Happy Friendship" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Allan Cunningham, The Works of Robert Burns (London: C Daly, 1840 ("Digitized by the Internet Archive")), pp. 392-393, "Happy Friendship" (1 text)
Nathan Haskell Dole, editor, The Songs of Robert Burns (New York: Thomas Y Crowell and Co, 1900 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 363-364, "Happy Friendship" (1 text)
Roud #21761
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Here Around the Ingle Bleezing
NOTES [312 words]: Allan Cunningham (1784-1842) attributed this song to Robert Burns in his 1840 edition; the song is not in Cunningham's 1834 edition -- as he explains in 1840 -- nor in Dick's authoritative The Songs of Robert Burns (London, 1903 ("Digitized by Microsoft")). [Nor is it in either of my complete Burns collections, one of which, by James Kinsley, is also considered quite authoritative. - RBW] In fact, while it appears again in Cunningham's posthumous editions it is not in the 1842 edition, in which he writes "I cannot give to my country this embellished edition of one of its favorite poets without stating that I have deliberately omitted several pieces of verse ascribed to Burns by other editors, who too hastily, and I think on insufficient testimony, admitted them among his works." He names some of those errors by other editors but does not explain why he omitted "Happy Friendship." (Allan Cunningham, The Complete Works of Robert Burns(London: George Virtue, 1842 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), Preface).
In 1843 Whitelaw commented about "Happy Friendship": "This song is attributed to Burns, but without much certainty." Dole includes the song in a section of "Poems Rejected by Latest Editors of Burns": "The following poems have been printed in nearly all the earlier editions of Burns, and many of them are reprinted in late editions, as being undoubtedly the poet's productions. Other editors have been more critical and have rejected them as being either spurious, or not verified" (p. 361). Cunningham's own 1840 story of the song, "now for the first time communicated to the public," is that he had a copy of the original manuscript from a Captain Hendries, nephew of a friend of Burns upon whose request Burns wrote the poem for a party. Cunningham writes that he first saw the text while his 1840 edition was already in the printer's hands. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: McSc144

Happy Green Shades of Duneane, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks the muses to help him praise Duneane. It is the land of his fathers. But now he must leave; he bids farewell to friends and says there is nothing like living among them. He hopes someday to return.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation homesickness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H653, p. 211, "The Happy Green Shades of Duneane" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH653

Happy Hooligan Number Nine

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme: "Happy Hooligan number nine, Hung his britches on the line; When the line began to swing, Happy Hooligan began to sing."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Emrich and Korson, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope clothes | Happy Hooligan
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #169, "Happy Hooligan number nine" (1 text)
File: AJRR169

Happy in Eternity

See Oh Ye Young, Ye Gay, Ye Proud (File: R639)

Happy Is the Miller

See The Miller Boy (Jolly is the Miller I) (File: R518)

Happy It Is

See Callino Casturame (Colleen Og a Store; Cailin O Chois tSiure; Happy 'Tis, Thou Blind, for Thee) (File: HHH491)

Happy Land (I Want Some Peas)

DESCRIPTION: "I want some peas and I want some rice, Oh Happy Land, I want some pretty girl to be my wife, Oh Happy Land."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 539, "Happy Land" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [37 words]: The current description is the whole of the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment. Although I suspect this to be part of another game song, the short Brown text is too brief to allow identification. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5539

Happy Land (II)

DESCRIPTION: Sister let's go where my teacher, 30 days "mourning," will bring a message of the promised land. At Jordan, they shout, dip you in the water, shout a doption, and we are going to the happy land of Canaan.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
The Lion (Rafael de Leon), "Happy Land of Canaan - Calypso Shouter" also John H. Cowley, liner notes to disc 9, #244 pp. 255-256,(on "West Indian Rhythm," Bear Family Records 10CD BCD 16623 JM, 2006)
Lord Invader (Rupert Westmore Grant) and Duke of Iron (Cecil Anderson), "Happy Land of Canaan" (on "Calypso at Midnight," Rounder CD 11661-1840-2, 1999; recorded 1946)
Emile Paul, Carl Monsegui, Allan Lovelace, "Happy Land" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
Wilmouth Houdini and his Shouting Congregation, "Happy Land of Canaan" (on "The Gospel Tradition: The Roots and Branches, vol. 1," Columbia/Legacy CD AAD 47333, 1991)
NOTES [384 words]: Do not confuse this with the hymn indexed here as "There Is a Happy Land."
Donald R. Hill and Lise Winer, liner notes for WITrinidadVillage02 have this as a Spiritual Baptist baptising song, and Lion's words support that. The description follows Lion's text. "Mourning" and "doption" are Spiritual Baptist terms. The trips are understood to be "spiritual journeys" that are such an important feature of Spiritual Baptism.
Lion's tune and words are not the same as Paul's and Invader's, but Lion's may just be a more complete text. Cowley has a hand in the liner notes for Lion and Invader, and Hill has a hand in the liner notes for Paul and Invader, and both liner notes make the connection to the Johnny Walker 78 for Victor (which I have not heard): "things equal to the same thing ...?" Invader's version was recorded "before a live audience" in 1946, is less than two minutes, and got what I take to be an enthusiastic response. It is a shorter version than Houdini's and seems to me to be a partial cover of Houdini's three minute 1934 Columbia recording.
'"Happy Land of Canaan' is a common Spiritual Baptist song often parodied in Caribbean popular music" (Donald R. Hill and Lise Winer, liner notes for WITrinidadVillage02, p. 24). Is the song itself parodied or just the sentiment, as for Lion's "Happy Land of Canaan" (John H. Cowley, "Canboulay, Carnival, and Calenda," liner notes on "West Indian Rhythm", pp. 259-271, Bear Family Records 10CD BCD 16623 JM, 2006)
"This is a Spiritual Baptist song. Spiritual Baptists were derisively called "Shouters"; their faith dates from the nineteenth century and may have originated in St. Vincent, although there is evidence of related wake ceremonies in Trinidad as early as 1848.... 'Happy Land of Canaan' was first recorded on May 17, 1921 for Victor by Johnny Walker, a Trinidad vaudevillian...." (Donald R. Hill and John H. Cowley, "Song Notes" liner notes for "Intro to 'Happy Land of Canaan'" on "Calypso at Midnight," Rounder CD 11661-1840-2, 1999) (recorded 1946)])(Spottswood has this as Vi 73207 "Happy Land-Shouters Meeting (Brother Walters)"(Richard K Spottswood, Ethnic Music on Records: a Discography of Ethnic Recordings Produced in the United States, 1893 to 1942 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, c1990), vol. 5 p. 2923).)) - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcHapLa2

Happy Land of Canaan, The

DESCRIPTION: "Down in Harper's Ferry Section there was an insurrection, John Brown thought the niggers would sustain him. But old Governor Wise put his specs upon his eyes For to send him to the happy land of Canaan." The rebels defy the abolitionist northerners
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar rebellion death war slavery
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
October 16-18, 1859 - John Brown and 20 others (15 of them, including Brown's three sons, are white) capture the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, hoping to gather the weapons needed for a slave rebellion. Forces led by Robert E. Lee soon attack the rebels; only Brown and four others live to be captured and placed on trial
Dec 2, 1859 - Hanging of John Brown at Charlestown, Virginia
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 363-364, "The Happy Land of Canaan" (1 text)
Randolph 226, "The Happy Land of Canaan" (3 texts (one Unionist), 1 tune)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 81, (no title) (1 fragment, beginning "There was old Nelson on the nigger stealin' plan," perhaps of this piece or perhaps another "Happy Land of Canaan" variant, but it uses that line and dates from the slavery era) (OakEd, p. 90)
cf. Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #845-#851, p. 57, "Happy Land of Cannaan No. 3" through "No. 6" plus "A New Version" and "Happy Land of Kanaan"" (14 total references); #1125, p. 77, "John Beoqn" (2 references)
Roud #7705
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bull Run (War Song)" (floating lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Execution of Hicks ("All you people far and near") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 39)
Uncle Snow ("Oh, my name is Uncle Snow," by Ben Cotton) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 161)
Union Happy Land of Canaan ("Oh I'm almost 79 and I'll tell you in my rhyme") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 163)
("You Rebels come along and listen to my song") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 194)
NOTES [114 words]: The "Governor Wise" in the first stanza of both Randolph's and Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's texts is Henry A. Wise (1806-1876), Governor of Virginia 1856-1860 and later a Confederate Brigadier. As ex-governor, he was strongly pro-secession, and worked hard to push his state and his successor in that direction.
The title "Happy Land of Canaan" seems to have been very popular in the mid-nineteenth century; Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 57, lists five "Happy Lands of Canaan," "(A New Version Of) The Happy Land of Canaan," and "Happy Land of Kanaan." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: R226

Happy Land, The

See There Is a Happy Land (File: DTtiahl)

Happy Marriage, The

DESCRIPTION: "How blest has my life been, what joys have I known, since wedlock's soft bondage made Jessie my own." The singer looks fondly back on life and children. Though his wife is growing old, he finds happiness at home and tells others they should do the same.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: love husband wife marriage children age
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H753, p. 501, "The Happy Pair" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST HHH753 (Full)
Roud #9464
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Contented Wife and Answer
File: HHH753

Happy Morning

DESCRIPTION: "Weep no more, Marta/Martha. Weep no more, Mary. Jesus rise from the dead, Happy morning. Glorious morning, glorious morning, My Savior rise from the dead, Happy morning." "Doubt no more, Thomas...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 10, "Happy Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11852
File: AWH010B

Happy or Lonesome

DESCRIPTION: "Come back to me in my dreaming, come back to me once more.... When the spring roses are blooming, I'll come back to you." "Absence makes my heart fonder, Is it the same for you? Are you still happy, I wonder, or are you lonesome too?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Burnett & Rutherford)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: US
ST RcHOL (Full)
Roud #11518
RECORDINGS:
Burnett & Rutherford, "Are You Happy or Lonesome" (Columbia 15187-D, 1927; on BurnRuth01)
The Carter Family, "Happy or Lonesome" (Bluebird 5650=Victor ???, 1934)
Steve Ledford, "Happy or Lonesome" (Bluebird 7742, 1938)
SAME TUNE:
"My Sweetheart in Tennessee" (recorded by Burnett & Rutherford, Columbia 15187-D, 1927; on BurnRuth01)
NOTES [78 words]: Charles K. Wolfe calls this a parlor song which gained favor with old-time musicians, but does not list the author.
The Burnett and Rutherford recording is the earliest mention I can find of the piece. Curiously, the duo recorded only two songs in that session: "Happy or Lonesome" and "My Sweetheart in Tennessee" -- with nearly-identical tunes. One suspects the latter of being something Burnett just fixed up to have something to put on the flip side of the disk. - RBW
File: RcHOL

Happy Pair, The

See The Happy Marriage (File: HHH753)

Happy Ploughman, The

See The Happy Plowman (File: DPio583)

Happy Plowman, The

DESCRIPTION: "Near a home in a wood With a horse very good, A poor young farmer Smiled as he stood... he sang as he ploughed the row, Heigh-ho my little buttercup We'll dance until the sun comes up." His wife also sings the refrain
AUTHOR: unknown (translation from Swedish by Mrs. Albert Magnuson, according to SongsOfAllTime and SongsOfManyNations)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Music In Our Country, according to mudcat,org)
KEYWORDS: horse farming dancing wife
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
SongsOfAllTime, p. 63, "The Happy Plowman" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "The Happy Plowman" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 21)
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "The Happy Ploughman" (Piotr-Archive #583, recorded 05/17/2023)
NOTES [15 words]: Clearly this originated as a camp song and managed a minor hold in tradition as a result. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio583

Happy Roon' the Ingle Bleezin'

DESCRIPTION: The miser spends his time "watchin' ower [his riches] wi' cautious e'e." On the other hand, "the sons of social pleasure Spend the nicht in harmony." Friendship brings us together "happy roon' the ingle [fireplace]"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad friend
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 549, "Happy Roon' the Ingle Bleezin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6025
File: GrD3549

Happy Shamrock Shore, The

See The Shamrock Shore (I) (File: HHH069)

Happy Stranger, The

See Poor Stranger, The (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone) (File: R059)

Happy Wanderer, The

DESCRIPTION: "I love to go a-wandering along the mountain track, And as I go, I love to sing, my knapsack on my back." The singer extols the joys of hiking and hopes to continue to do so
AUTHOR: Words: Edith Möller and Florenz Siegesmund / Music: Friedrich Wilhelm Möller /English translation: Antonia Ridge (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1949 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: rambling nonballad travel campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 145, 310, 332, "The Happy Wanderer" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 80, "The Happy Wanderer" (1 text)
DT, HAPWANDR*
Roud #25580
SAME TUNE:
I Love to Go A-Gorging (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 32)
I Love to Go A-Wandering Down by the Chapel Door (File: PKKB059C)
NOTES [25 words]: A genuine folk song, or just something they inflict upon kids at camp? Don't ask me. I learned it in elementary school, rather less than voluntarily. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: DThapwan

Happy We Are All Together

DESCRIPTION: "Happy we are all together, Happy we are e'en now." "Here around the ingle blazing, We're so happy and free... Friendship warms both you and me." Isn't friendship better than the miser's gold? He will be judged someday
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Creighton collection)
KEYWORDS: nonballad friend gold death
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 78-79, "Happy We Are All Together" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3004
NOTES [15 words]: Roud appears to lump this with "The Parting Glass," but they appear quite distinct to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: PoEll078

Happy, Frisky Jim

DESCRIPTION: Assorted nonsense about Jim's family and neighbors: "I'm my daddy's only son, Gay and lively, full of fun, Brother's twice as old as me, So we're twins, you plainly see." Jim's girl, whose "mouth is like a big bull calf," also figures prominently
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonsense family twins
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 431, "Frisky Jim" (2 texts)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 153, "Happy, Frisky Jim" (1 traditional text plus a sheet music version, 1 tune)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 78, "Go Away Now" (1 text, probably not related, but it borrows the character of Happy, Frisky Jim)
ST R431 (Partial)
Roud #7610
NOTES [88 words]: Although the statement about the brothers being twins sounds like nonsense, there is a time when it is true -- at the time when the younger brother is exactly as old as the interval between the births of the older and younger. Of course, this requires a baby less than an hour old to be talking....
Although the sheet music version in Cazden et al is apparently from the nineteenth century, it doesn't appear to me to be the original; it looks as if it has had minstrel verses grafted onto a traditional (non-racist) core. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: R431

Haram, Skarum, Stand a Barum

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Harbour Grace

DESCRIPTION: "Harbour Grace is a very nice place And so is the Bay of Islands, So we give three cheers for Carbonear When the boys comes home from swilin'." Disconnected verses about George and Lizer, going to town and sea, and Mackety Bay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: courting hunting sea humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 35, "Harbour Grace" (1 text)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 180, "Harbour Grace"; p. 207, "Harbour Grace" (2 text, 2 tune)
Roud #2723
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Harbour Grace" (on NFOBlondahl04)
Berton Young, "Harbour Grace Diddling" (on MRHCreighton)
NOTES [137 words]: A song in the style of Weevily Wheat but clearly not related. Smith/Hamm: "this is a Newfoundland song. It is a dance tune, used by fiddlers." Of the places mentioned in the song, Harbour Grace and Carbonear are on the west shore of Conception Bay on the Avalon Peninsula and Bay of Islands is on the west coast of Newfoundland just south of what is now Gros Morne National Park.
MRHCreighton and Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 180, is an example of Newfoundland "chin" or "cheek" music and Nova Scotia diddling [the book and LP are of the same performance]. Peacock explains "'Chin' or 'mouth' music is a vocal imitation of instrumental music and is used for dancing when a fiddle or accordion is not handy. Some singers ... become so proficient that they are often called upon even when instruments are available." - BS
File: RcHarGrI

Harbour Grace Affray

DESCRIPTION: "On the fourteenth day of August, being a great deal of talke, The day it was appointed, the Orange had to walk." 98 Irish Catholics meet 700 Protestants. Pat Callaghan is shot. The Irish counter-attack. The Orangemen flee. The singer praises Irishmen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1994 (Thomas and Widdowson)
KEYWORDS: religious battle death
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth S. Goldstein, "A Report on Continuing Research into 'Treason Songs': A Private Newfoundland Tradition," essay on pp. 126-153 of Gerald Thomas and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, _Studies in Newfoundland Folklore: Community and Process_, Breakwater Books, 1991, pp. 147-148, "Rebellion in Harbour Grace" (1 text)
NOTES [23 words]: In Newfoundland, this was sometimes regarded as a "Treason Song." For background on Treason Songs, see the notes to "The Prooshian Drum." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: ThWi147

Harbour Le Cou

DESCRIPTION: "As I rowed ashore from my schooner close by, A girl on the beach I chanced to espy" who lives in Harbour Le Cou. The sailor courts and wins girl until they meet his "old comrade" who sends "regards to your missus and wee kiddies two"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs; MUNFLA/Leach)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A sailor takes up with a girl in Harbour Le Cou, but has his amorous plans thwarted by a ship-mate who inquires (within hearing of the girl) about the health of the sailor's wife and children. The girl tears into the sailor and he flees, warning others to beware not only of pretty girls but also of old comrades.
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity seduction separation humorous children husband sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Peacock, pp. 198-199, "Harbour Le Cou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Harbour Le Cou" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 26 in the 3rd edition, p. 31 in the 4th, p. 23 in the 5th
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 56, "Harbour Le Cou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 108-109, "Harbour Le Cou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 32-33, "Harbour Le Cou" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HARBLCOU*
Roud #7297
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Peter Mushrow, "Harbour Le Cou" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14]" (theme)
NOTES [36 words]: Harbour Le Cou is a fishing village on the southwest coast of Newfoundland near Port aus Basques. - SL
Also apparently collected from Harry Mercer of Newfoundland; see Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, p. 189. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doyl3026

Harco Mine Tragedy

DESCRIPTION: "It happened in December, in 1941," shortly after Christmas, when the Harco Mine explodes. Mr. Dietz comes out to call for help. Rescuers try to pump in air. The bodies of eight men are eventually found
AUTHOR: probably Mary Dooley of Harco
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (sent to McIntosh)
KEYWORDS: mining death disaster
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 455-456, "Harco Mine Tragedy" (1 text)
File: CAFS2455

Hard Luck Blues

See Talking Hard Luck (File: CSW214)

Hard of Hearing

See The Deaf Woman's Courtship (File: R353)

Hard Rock Dann

DESCRIPTION: "The sun was setting in the West, One evening late in May." Hard Rock Dann and his companion are dying of thirst. In time, a note is found asking that his body be taken back to Comstock for burial
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Book of Nevada Poems, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: death mining travel burial
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 610-611, "Hard Rock Dann" (1 text)
File: CAFS2610

Hard Time in Old Virginnie

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Hard Time in Old Virginnie." Verses: "Summer comin' again." "Comin' in the rainbow." "Comin' in the cloud." "My old missus promise me" "When she die she set me free." "She love so long" "Till her head got bald."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: hardtimes freedom slave nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 116, (no title) (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Raise a Ruckus" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Old Marse John" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [10 words]: Described by Courlander as a pestle song for pounding rice. - RBW
File: CNFM116A

Hard Time in Ole Virginny

See Hard Times in Old Virginia (File: Parp234)

Hard Times (II)

See The Rigs of the Times (File: K237)

Hard Times (III)

See The Cryderville Jail (File: LxU090)

Hard Times (IV)

See Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb, etc. (File: Br3479)

Hard Times (V)

See Henry Connors [Laws M5] (File: LM05)

Hard Times and Old Bill

DESCRIPTION: "Old Ailey Bill came home from court" and stops at a bar (?) "to have some sport. And it's hard times and poor old Bill." Will McNealey hides under a bed, sees what happens, steals a frying pan, sells it, and beats his wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (collected by Henry from C. L. Franklin)
KEYWORDS: abuse escape husband wife commerce
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 11, "Hard TImes and Old Bill" (1 text)
NOTES [30 words]: For the life of me, I can't tell what this is about. I suspect that it is based on a real incident, but that several verses have been lost from Henry's seemingly unique text. - RBW
File: MHAp011.

Hard Times at New Little River

See The Cryderville Jail (File: LxU090)

Hard Times Come Again No More

DESCRIPTION: "Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears While we all sup sorrow with the poor." The singer describes sad people suffering from poverty, and begs, "Hard times, come again no more."
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1854 760350; not copyrighted unti January 17, 1855)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes
FOUND IN: US Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 588, "Hard Times Come Again No More"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 589, "Hard Times Come Again No More" (2 texts)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #852, p. 57, "Hard Times Come Again No More" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 57, "Hard Times, Come Again no More" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 86-87, "Hard Times Come Again No More" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 86-88, "Hard Times Come Again No More" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 82-83, "Hard Times Come Again No More" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #121, "Hard Times, Come Again No More" (1 text)
DT, HRDTIMES*
Roud #2659
RECORDINGS:
Edison Quartette, "Hard Times Come Again No More" (CYL: Edison 9120, 1905)
L. M. Hilton, "Hard Times Come Again No More [Mormon version]" (on Hilton01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(866)[few words missing or illegible], "Hard Times Come Again No More" ("Let us pause in life [sic] pleasures and count its many tears"), J.B. Hodge (Sunderland), 1850-1861; also Harding B 11(3352), Harding B 11(1477), Harding B 11(1478), Harding B 11(1479), Firth c.16(246), Harding B 11(1687) , Harding B 11(1686), "Hard Times Come Again No More"
LOCSheet, sm1854 760350, "Hard Times Come Again No More", Firth, Pond, & Co. (New York), 1854; also sm1882 21586, "Hard Times Come Again No More" (tune)
LOCSinging, as105130, "Hard Times Come Again No More" ("While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay"), Firth, Pond, & Co. (New York), no date; also as105130, sb20165b, "Hard Times Come Again No More"
SAME TUNE:
Brighter Days in Store (File: ChMS091)
Ditches Break Again No More (File: ChMS153)
Hard Crackers, Come Again No More (cf. Spaeth, _A History of Popular Music in America_, p. 116)
Sad Times. The Burning of the Steamboat New Jersy, on the Delaware, Night of March 15, 1856. Sixty-Two Persons Hurried into Eternity by Water and by Fire (by Ned Buntline) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 138)
Sorrow Shall Come Again No More ("What to me are earth's pleasures, and what its flowing tears") (words by Rev. W. Kenney) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 148)
NOTES [266 words]: It is perhaps more a comment on the folk revival than on this song to note that it is easily the most popular Foster song with revival singers. It wasn't especially popular at the time, and Spaeth, p. 116, regards it as an "adequate potboiler."
According to notes in TaylorEtAl, p. 19, "Stephen once told his brother, Morrison, that Oh! Boys, Carry Me 'Long, and Hard Times Come Again No More were based on snatches of Negro melodies he heard in a Negro church to which he was taken in childhood by the family nurse, Olivia Pise. They are the only songs in which Foster admittedly used actual Negro material."
Howard, p. 82, also refers to Olivia Pise, but calls her a "bound girl" -- in other words, a family slave, even though she was living in a free state. Whatever that tells you about the Foster family.
Emerson, notes that Stephen Foster's parents lost their home very early in Foster's life, and suggests that "Foster would compose so many songs about home in part because he seldom knew one for long." That is perhaps more true than usual for this song, since Foster's father was failing fast at the time it was written (and, as it turned out, his mother would die the day after it was copyrighted). Morneweck, p. 464, describes it as topical: "'Hard Times' is wholly a song of the people; it was probably composed in November or December of 1854, when Stephen saw many of his own good friends among the helpless victims of hard times right in the neighborhood of his home. That winter in Pittsburgh and Allegheny was a time of great distress owing to the shutting down of the mills." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: DThrdtim

Hard Times in Dixie

DESCRIPTION: "Hear the mournful music swell, It's hard times in Dixie. Hear Rebellion's fun'ral knell...." Rations are short in the Confederacy; the South is gloomy. Grant, Lincoln, Butler are making the Confederacy crumble. The singer hopes traitors will suffer
AUTHOR: Words: "M. K." / Music: "Eugarps" (possibly a pseudonym for M. K. Sprague?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (sheet music published by W. W. Whitney, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar political food hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 340-342, "Hard Times in Dixie" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: SCWF340

Hard Times in Mount Holly Jail

See The Cryderville Jail (File: LxU090)

Hard Times in Ol' Virginia

See Hard Times in Old Virginia (File: Parp234)

Hard Times in Old Virginia

DESCRIPTION: Response is "Hard time in old Virginia." Leader lines include "Old Virginia," "My old missus was a rich old lady," "Seven children around her table." Also verses like "my old missus promise me ... When she died she'd set me free"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad shanty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 234, "Hard Time in Ole Virginny" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
John Davis and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Hard Times in Ol' Virginia" (on LomaxCD1713)
File: Parp234

Hard Times in the Country

See Down on Penny's Farm (File: LoF147)

Hard Times in the Mill (I)

DESCRIPTION: Complaints of life in the mills (e.g. "Worked in a cotton mill all my life, Ain't got nothin' but a barlow knife"). The wages are poor, the bosses hard, and the conditions brutal. Chorus: "Hard times in (this old mill), Hard times (everywhere)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Lester Smallwood)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes factory technology boss miller
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 274-275, "Hard Times in the Mill" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Lee Brothers Trio, "Cotton Mill Blues" (Brunswick 501, rec. 1930)
Mike Seeger, "Cotton Mill Blues" (on MSeeger02)
Pete Seeger, "Hard Times in the Mill" (on PeteSeeger13)
Lester Smallwood, "Cotton Mill Girl" (Victor V-40181, 1930; recorded 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Hard Times in the Mill (II)"
cf. "Pickle My Bones in Alcohol" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hard Times in This Old Mill
Cotton Mill Blues
NOTES [119 words]: This is obviously very similar to "Hard Times in the Mill (II)" -- but since the versions I've seen have different metrical patterns, and have no words in common except "hard times in," I tentatively classify them separately.
This version is recognized by longer lines in the verse (see sample above) and the non-repeating chorus. - RBW
I'm not sure I'd split these two songs. The verses tend to be floaters (e.g., the "Barlow knife" one, which shows up in fiddle tunes), and the metrical differences aren't that big. I guess I'd want to see all the verses. There's a 1962 recording by Hedy West with the Barlow knife verse in it. - PJS
It's the usual problem of the ordinary versus the extreme versions. Sigh. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: SBoA274

Hard Times in the Mill (II)

DESCRIPTION: About bad conditions in the mills (e.g. "Ev'ry morning at half past five, You got to get up dead or alive"). The food is poor, money tight, "the boss is cussin' and the spinners cryin'." Chorus: "Hard times in the mill, my love, hard times in the mill."
AUTHOR: Possibly Dorsey Dixon
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes factory technology boss miller
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 145, "Hard Times in the Mill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 142, "Hard Times in the Mill" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 369-370, "Hard Times in the Mill" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Seena Helms, "Hard Times" (on HandMeDown2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hard Times in the Mill (I)"
NOTES [152 words]: This is obviously very similar to "Hard Times in the Mill (I)" -- but since the versions I've seen have different metrical patterns, and have no words in common except "hard times in," I tentatively classify them separately.
This version is recognized by shorter lines in the verse (see sample above) and the repeating chorus. - RBW
I'm not sure I'd split these two songs. The verses tend to be floaters (e.g., the "Barlow knife" one, which shows up in fiddle tunes), and the metrical differences aren't that big. I guess I'd want to see all the verses. There's a 1962 recording by Hedy West with the Barlow knife verse in it. - PJS
It's the usual problem of the ordinary versus the extreme versions. Sigh.
To add to the fun, there are at least three different mill working songs called "Cotton Mill Blues" (a variant title for this family), first recorded by Wilmer Watts, Daddy John Love, and Tommy Scott. - RBW
File: Arn145

Hard Times of Old England, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells that the trade has gone; if you go to a shop without money, you can't buy. If you ask for a job, there is none; tradesmen walk the street looking for work; soldiers and sailors have come home to starve. He hopes the hard times will not last.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian, Harding B 17(321a))
KEYWORDS: poverty commerce unemployment work hardtimes starvation England worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 204-205, "Hard Times of Old England" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 224, "The Hard Times of Old England" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HRDTMENG*
Roud #1206
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(321a), "The Tradesman's Complain" ("Draw near brother tradesmen, listen to my song ...") J. Pitts, London, 1802-1819
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rigs of the Time" (subject)
NOTES [125 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland seems to think that this song arose in the recession following a war, since sailors and soldiers were returning home to find no work. But the British military did not institute a true draft until World War I; the size of the military stayed relatively constant. And economic trouble was constant in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century; the population was growing faster than the system could expand. So this could be just a song of falling standards of living.
However, the first known broadside, by Pitts, appeared around the time of the Napoleonic Wars, so Kennedy's guess appears pretty good (thanks to Abby Sale for pointing this out, and ultimately to Malcolm Douglas for figuring it out). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: K224

Hard Times/De Ole Sheep Done Know de Road

See The Old Sheep Done Know the Road (File: Dett004)

Hard to Be a Nigger

DESCRIPTION: "Well, it makes no difference How you make out your time. White man sho' to bring a Nigger out behind. Ain't it hard (x3) to be a nigger?" "Nigger makes do cotton, White folks get de money." The singer complains about unequal pay and unequal justice
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: discrimination Black(s) hardtimes nonballad work
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 233-234, "Hard to Be a Nigger" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 282-283, "AInt' It Hard to Be a Right Black Nigger?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 473 "White Folks Go to College" (1 fragment, at least tangentially related to this song); also 480, "Hard Times" (1 text, massively composite: Chorus from "Lynchburg Town" and verses from "Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb" and the "White Folks Go to College" version of "Hard to Be a Nigger")
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 227-228, "Ain't It Hard to Be a Nigger" (1 text plus a possible fragment)
Roud #15555
File: LxA233

Hard to Rise Again

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Satan comes like a busy old man, Haly, haly, hallelu, He gets you down at the foot of the hill, Hard to rise again." Verses warn that the devil is a conjurer who'll conjure you; Satan's a snake in the grass who'll get you at last.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Devil
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 11, "Hard to Rise Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Bart011A

Hard Traveling

DESCRIPTION: "I been doin' some hard travelin', I thought you knowed." The singer describes the hard times he's met on his travels: "Workin' in a hard rock tunnel," "Workin' that Pittsburgh steel," facing the lonely task of following Highway 66
AUTHOR: Woody Guthrie
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad loneliness hardtimes rambling train prison farming work worker hobo
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 226, "Hard Travellin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 89, "Hard Traveling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 538, "Hard Travelin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 59, "Hard Traveling" (1 text)
DT, HARDTRAV*
ADDITIONAL: Greg Vandy with Daniel Person, _26 Songs in 30 Days: Woody Guthrie's Columbia River Songs and the Planned Promised Land in the Pacific Northwest_, Sasquatch Books, 2016, p. 14 (copy of one of Woody's own typed texts)
Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 28-29, "Hard Travelin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13926
RECORDINGS:
Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston & Sonny Terry [Saunders Terrell], "Hard Traveling" (on WoodyFolk)
Pete Seeger, "Hard Travelling" (on PeteSeeger18)
NOTES [157 words]: Greg Vandy with Daniel Person, 26 Songs in 30 Days: Woody Guthrie's Columbia River Songs and the Planned Promised Land in the Pacific Northwest, Sasquatch Books, 2016, p. ix, lists this among Woody's Columbia River songs, which would ordinarily mean it was written in 1941. However, the original version was written in 1940 -- at the home of Harold Ambellan and Elizabeth Higgins in New York, according to Vandy/Person, p. 160; Woody submitted it to the Bonneville Power Administration to increase his song count (he may have done a little rewriting, but there is nothing specific to the Columbia).
The tune is a variant on "This Train Is Bound for Glory."
Vandy/Person, p. 160, say that the term "hard travelin'" has become a tag to separate the singers who had truly lived a folk singer's life from urban singers who have had a relatively sheltered experience. Possibly this helps explain why it is one of Woody's most-recorded songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LoF226

Hard Travellin

See Hard Traveling" (File: LoF226)

Hard Trials

DESCRIPTION: "The foxes have holes in the ground... And everything has a hiding place, but we poor sinners have none. Now ain't them hard trials?..." Unrelated verses, often floating, about religious life, fidelity to denominations, the Devil, justice, death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious death Devil floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 222-223, "Hard Trials" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 213-214 in the 1874 edition)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 600-602, "Hard Trials" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Roud #7554
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Methodist Pie" (floating verses)
cf. "Lonesome Valley (I)" (floating verses)
NOTES [45 words]: It's not clear, from the Lomax notes, whether this song actually exists on its own. Of their eight stanzas, they themselves admit to importing four. Three of the others float. The chorus is commonplace. So I am tempted to regard this as simply a Lomax assembly job. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: LxA600

Hard Up

See In the Days when I Was Hard Up (File: FSC099)

Hard Up and Broken Down

DESCRIPTION: "Once I had money plenty and friends too, by the score... But now I'm poor and lonely... No one seems to know me now because I'm broken down." He has wasted his fortune, and now his old friends ignore him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Dime-Song-Book #26)
KEYWORDS: poverty money
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 838, "Hard Up and Broken Down" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #26, p. 47, "Broken Down" (1 text)
Roud #7446
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime" (theme)
cf. "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (theme)
cf. "If But One Heart Be True" (theme)
cf. "Up a Tree" (theme)
NOTES [47 words]: Randolph speculates that this is the "ruin of some English music-hall ditty." The literary reference ("As the immortal Shakespeare says, all this world's a stage" -- As You Like It, II.vii.139b) makes this a strong possibility, but it looks as if it was first published in America. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R838

Hard Working Miner (II), The

See Only a Miner (The Hard-Working Miner) [Laws G33] (File: LG33)

Hard Working Miner, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a hard-working man, you can see by my hands, Although I am friendly and free, A dollar a day is very small pay For a man with a large family." The singer describes his hard work in the mines and looks forward to seeing his family
AUTHOR: Patrick J. "Giant" O'Neill (1863-1936) (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Spencer)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes family money
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 226-227, "The Hard Working Miner" (1 text)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 198, "The Hard Working Miner" (1 text)
DT, HRDWRKMR*
ADDITIONAL: Scott B. Spencer, editor, _The Ballad Collectors of North America_, Scarecrow Press, 2012, pp. 201-202, "(The Hard-Working MIner)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jock Stewart (The Man You Don't Meet Every Day)" (tune, form)
NOTES [13 words]: For another song by Patrick J. O'Neill, see "The Battlefields of France." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: DThrdwrk

Hard-Working Miner, The

See Only a Miner (The Hard-Working Miner) [Laws G33] (File: LG33)

Hard, Ain't It Hard

See (references under) Tavern in the Town (File: ShH94)

Hard, Hard Times

See The Rigs of the Times (File: K237)

Hardest Bloody Job I Ever Had, The

See Ard Tack (File: PFS266)

Harding Campaign Song

DESCRIPTION: "I'm from Ohio, dear old Ohio, Oh, there's nothing quite so fine As that Buckeye state of mine." "It's the land of Grant and Sherman... And you'll hear from President Harding before this year is through." The only man who can stop it might be Jimmie Cox
AUTHOR: Ernest R. Ball (source: Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection)
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection); presumably written 1920
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1920 - Warren G. Harding of Ohio defeats James M. Cox, also of Ohio, for president
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 55, "Harding Campaign Song" (1 text)
NOTES [214 words]: Seven men who were considered to be Ohioans have been President: Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and Warren G. Harding. (William Henry Harrison is also sometimes listed as an Ohioan, because he lived there when elected President, but he lived everywhere...). All of them, except Harrison, were Republicans -- and every Republican who became President after Lincoln and before Calvin Coolidge was from Ohio, except Chester A. Arthur (who was a vice president who succeeded to the Presidency and did not seek re-election) and Theodore Roosevelt (who also succeeded to the Presidency, although he did win re-election). Republicans had never won the Presidency without winning Ohio.
Since Republicans felt they had to win Ohio, their best bet for winning the Presidency was to nominate an Ohioan. Thus, by the late nineteenth century, it was Republican tradition -- almost a Republican law -- to do just that. Warren G. Harding was the last of the Ohio winners -- even though, to this day (2022), no Republican has ever won the Presidency without winning Ohio. Democrats have done it a few times (starting with Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892; also FDR in 1944 and others since), but not Republicans. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Grim055

Harding's Defeat

DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "Come all you good people the truth I'll relate/Concerning of Harding's most cruel defeat/Concerning bad conduct was used, they say/That caused us to be defeated on that very day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: army battle fight war
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 204, "Harding's Defeat" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3603
NOTES [249 words]: Making even an educated guess about the subject of this song is difficult, given that we have only one stanza. The collection date obviously precludes World War I and all later wars, as well as references to Warren G. Harding. I'd say the Spanish-American War is also out, because the informant would have remembered more.
The Civil War is an obvious possibility, but this is a Southern song, and there were no Confederate generals named Harding. There were a couple of Union general officers, but neither suffered an obvious defeat.
There is the confusing case of the American ship Defence in the Revolutionary War. Samuel W. Bryant's The Sea and the States, p. 83, mentions an American ship Defence, commanded by a Captain Harding -- but Bryant describes only a victory won by this ship. The Revolutionary War also featured a privateer Defence which suffered was sunk in 1779. Privateers of course had notoriously bad discipline. But if the data in Lincoln P. Paine's Ships of the World is correct, these two ships named Defence cannot have been the same vessel.
I'm stumped. My guess is that "Harding" is an error for some other name. Hardee, maybe -- confederate Lt. General William J. Hardee was a competent officer whose ineffective forces made it impossible to interfere with Sheman's March to the Sea. Alternately, there is John Hardin, 1753-1792, a Virginian who moved to Kentucky and was heavily involved in Indian fighting until killed in 1792. This may be the best bet. - RBW
File: ShAp2204

Hardly Think I Will

See Common Bill (File: R119)

Hardtack and a Half, A

DESCRIPTION: "Don't talk about your hardships, Don't talk of them to me"; he has voyaged to the Pacific, where "you have to go it On a hardtack and a half." Sailors work hard and face danger; the singer warns that the job is not worth the poor food and bad pay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (log of the Pacific)
KEYWORDS: whaler travel hardtimes food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 56-58, "A Hardtack and a Half" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27502
File: HGam056

Hardy Sons of Dan, The

DESCRIPTION: "For to score a goal there was none so bold, As the hardy Sons of Dan," named for Dan O'Connell. They won the Belturbet Tournament in 1889 and their second team won another tournament at Derrylin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (IRHardySons)
KEYWORDS: sports
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #17895
RECORDINGS:
Red Mick McDermott, "The Hardy Sons of Dan" (on IRHardySons)
Marge Steiner, "The Hardy Sons of Dan" (on Steiner01)
NOTES [84 words]: Notes to IRHardySons: "Drumlane, or Droim Leathan, is just a few miles south of Belturbet, in Co. Cavan. The 'Drumlane Sons of O'Connell' formed in 1886, and faded out of existence, probably in the inter-war years. They re-formed in 1966, and its present ground, O'Connell Park, opened in 1986. The GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) was founded in Thurles, Co Tipperary, on the 1st November 1884, and Drumlane joined in 1888."
For background on Dan O'Connell see the notes to "Daniel O'Connell" (II). - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: RcHaSoDa

Hardyknute

DESCRIPTION: "Stately stepp'd he east the wall, And stately stepp'd he west." The hero had thirteen sons; nine are dead. The Norse king comes to invade. Hardyknute is called upon to fight. Others also serve at the Battle of Largs, and the Norse are defeated
AUTHOR: Elizabeth Wardlaw (1677-c.1727, according to Whielaw-Ballads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1724 (Ramsay)
KEYWORDS: battle Scotland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 2, 1263 - Battle of Largs
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 335-345, "Hardyknute" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 205-209, "Hardyknute" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 105-121, "Hardyknute" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XXIII, p. 64, "Hardyknute" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsay, The Ever Green (Being a Collection of Scots Poems Wrote by the Ingenious before 1600) (Edinburgh: Allan Ramsay, 1724 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II pp. 247-264, "Hardyknute" (1 text)
Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 221-230, "Hardyknute or The Battle of Largs" (1 text)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #280, p. 289, "Hardyknute; Or, the Battle of Largs" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MBra221 (Partial)
Roud #8180
NOTES [79 words]: It is widely (I believe universally) agreed that this is not a folk song, but it appears in some old collections, so it goes in the Index.
I assume the name "Hardyknute" is inspired by the name of Harthecnut, one of the sons of King Cnut, who was King of England 1040-1042; the name would properly be spelled HARÐACNUT/Harðacnut, which to someone who didn't know the Old English alphabet (in which the letter eth, Ð/ð, was pronounced "th") would look like "Hardecnut." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: MBra221

Hare Hunting Song

See The Morning Was Charming (File: WT059)

Hare of Kilgrain, The

DESCRIPTION: The hunter goes out in pursuit of sport. The hare tells its story of how the dogs pursued it. It leads them on a long chase, and proclaims that it did humans no harm, but at last the hounds catch and kill their innocent prey
AUTHOR: James Sloan ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection; reportedly written c. 1770)
KEYWORDS: animal death hunting
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H12, p. 31, "The Hare of Kilgrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2883
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Innocent Hare" (theme: fatal hare hunt)
cf. "The Granemore Hare" (theme: fatal hare hunt)
cf. "The White Hare" (theme: fatal hare hunt)
NOTES [44 words]: The Henry text appears to be composite; the first two verses are in praise of the hunt and Richard Hunter at its head. The perspective then shifts to the hare, forced to flee and run and at last die.
Nimrod was "a mighty hunter before the Lord" (Genesis 10:8-10). - RBW
File: HHH012

Hare's Dream, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the twenty-seventh of January," the hare is awakened from its dream as the hounds come hunting. The trapped hare complains that the hunters let the fox go free while taking the hare; "All the harm e'er I done was crop the heads o' green kale."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: animal hunting food dog
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H172, pp. 31-32, "The Hare's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3574
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "The Innocent Hare" (theme: fatal hare hunt)
cf. "The Hare of Kilgrain" (theme: fatal hare hunt)
cf. "The Granemore Hare" (theme: fatal hare hunt)
cf. "The White Hare" (theme: fatal hare hunt)
cf. "Donagh Hill" (form, hunting theme)
NOTES [58 words]: For the complex relationship between this song and "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)," see the notes to that song.
There is a broadside, NLScotland, Ry.III.a.6(020) "Hare's Dream," unknown, n.d. It is not related; the "Hare" in this case is an Irish-born criminal apprehended in Scotland who dreams of what happened after his crimes. - RBW
File: HHH032A

Hare's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: An old hare, hiding from poachers and sent by "Queen" Mother Mouse, asks old Pat Bashon for shelter. They recall old times when he chased and fooled the poachers. He goes to the poachers' court and informs for twenty pounds. Happy ending for "haries"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: escape help poaching animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 500, "The Hare's Lament" (1 text)
Roud #5985
File: GrD3500

Hares in the Old Plantations

See Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping (File: K249)

Hares on the Mountain

DESCRIPTION: The singer avers that if young women ran like hares on the mountain, if he was a young man he'd go hunting. Likewise if they sang like birds in the bushes he'd beat the bushes, etc. ad (possible) nauseum
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1836 (Samuel Lover's novel _Rory O'More_ . See NOTES)
KEYWORDS: sex lyric nonballad animal bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Ireland US(NE,SE)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Bronson (44), "The Twa Magicians" -- the appendix includes 11 versions (#2-#12) which are this song
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads (44), "The Twa Magicians" (3 versions, of which #2 and #12 are this song)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 38, "Hares on the Mountains" (4 texts)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 63, "Hares on the Mountains" (1 text)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 55, "Hares on the Mountain"; 64, "Sally My Dear" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 224, "If Pretty Maids Could Sing" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 357)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #28, "Hares on the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 63, "Hares on the Mountains"; 64, "O Sally, My Dear" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #2, #12}
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 169, "Blackbirds and Thrushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 50, "Blackbirds and Thrushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 173, "Sally My Dear" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Horton Barker: Folk Singer Supreme," Vol. XXII, No. 4 (Nov 1974), pp. 143+147, "To My Right Folly Diddle Dero" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 5, "O Sally, My Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HARESMTN* SALLYDR*
ADDITIONAL: Samuel Lover, Rory O'More (London, 1839 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 109-110, ("Oh! if all the young maidens was blackbirds and thrishes [sic]") (1 text)
Roud #329
RECORDINGS:
Dickie Lashbrook, "Blackbirds and Thrushes" (on FSB2CD)
Pete Seeger, "Sally My Dear" (on PeteSeeger06, PeteSeegerCD01) (on PeteSeeger14)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll Your Leg Over" (form, theme)
cf. "Creeping and Crawling" (tune)
cf. "The Twa Magicians" [Child 44]
NOTES [109 words]: It has been theorized that this song descends from "The Twa Magicians" [Child 44] (so, for instance, Bronson, who prints this piece as an appendix to that ballad). Frankly, I don't see it. More likely is the connection with "Creeping and Crawling (The Knife in the Window)," with which it shares a tune. But even they have separate plots. - RBW
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "Sometimes attributed to Samuel Lover (1797-1865) as he printed it in his novel Rory O More, but is probably an older ballad rewritten. He was a versatile genius, poet, artist, novelist, folk-lorist and antiquarian." See my speculation on Lover for "Widow Machree (II)." - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ShH63

Hark from the Tomb

DESCRIPTION: "Hark from the tomb a doleful sound, My ears attend the cry, Ye living man, come view the ground Where you must shortly lie." "Grant us the power of quickening grace To fit our souls to fly, Then when we drop this dying flesh We'll rise above the sky"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1836 (Methodist Hymnal)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 638, "Hark from the Tomb" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 112-114, "Hark! from the Tomb" (1 text, 1 tune, a reprint of a shape note version)
Roud #7563
NOTES [46 words]: Sometimes credited, seemingly on inadequate evidence, to John or Charles Wesley. In the Sacred Harp, where it bears the tune "Plenary," the words are said to be by Isaac Watts, with the tune by A. Clark. The Missouri Harmony uses the tunes "Funeral Thought" and "New Durham." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: R638

Hark Niebour here

See The Teem Wa's (The Toom House) (File: Ord089B)

Hark the Herald Angels Sing (Beecham's Pills version)

DESCRIPTION: "Hark the herald angels sing, Beecham's Pills are just the thing. Safe in use, in action mild, Two for man and one for child." Or, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Mrs. Simpson stole our king."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: commerce derivative royalty humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 95, "Hark the herald angels sing" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 58, "(Hark the herald angels sing, Mrs. Simpson stole our king)" (1 text)
Roud #32828
NOTES [155 words]: Probably there were several independent sarcastic parodies of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," but Steve Roud lumps them, so I will do so as well. The topics of the lampoon vary:
-- In the Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling version, it's "Mrs. Simpson," who "stole our king," is of course (Bessie) Wallace Warfield Simpson (1896-1986), the divorcee for whom King Edward VIII abdicated the throne in 1936.
-- In the Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood version, it's Beecham's Pills, a patent remedy marketed from about 1842 as a cure-all though their only real effect was for digestive ailments, and that only mild (which, to be sure, still made them better than most patent medicines, which weren't good for anything at all). Although they were still marketed as late as 1998, their heyday was in the nineteenth century (when they could be advertised as curing ailments they didn't actually treat), so this verse is presumably older. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: KSUC095C

Hark the Robbers

DESCRIPTION: "Hark the robbers coming through, coming through, coming through, Hark the robbers... My fair lady." "What have the robbers done to you?" "You have stole my watch and chain." "Off to prison you must go." "Here's a prisoner we have got"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty robbery prison
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All)) Ireland New Zealand
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 32-33, "(Here's a prisoner we have got)," "(What have the robbers done to you)" (2 texts)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp.140-141, "Here's the Robbers Passing By" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 73, "Here are the robbers coming through" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 34, "(We are the robbers coming through)" (1 text)
Roud #13172
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Half of the Castle" (sometimes played as part of this game)
NOTES [53 words]: Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling explains this as an "arch game," where the players go through an arch and have to choose between two options (she says gold and silver) to choose teams. I am guessing the "arch" is two children joining their arms over their heads (since I recall such games), but Peirce does not say so. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SuSm032

Hark to the Chimes

DESCRIPTION: "Hark to the chimes! Come bow your head! We thank Thee, Lord, For this good bread "
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (copyright, according to GirlScouts-SingTogether)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad food music campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 437, "Hark to the Chimes" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 172, "(no title)" (1 short text, 1 tune, the second of six Graces)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 62, "(no title)" (1 short text, 1 tune, the second of six Graces)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 13, "Hark to the Chimes" (1 short text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Chimes Grace" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 93)
File: ACSF437K

Hark, Hark, the Dogs Do Bark

DESCRIPTION: "Hark, hark, the dogs do bark, The beggars are coming to town, Some in rags, and some in jags, And one in a velvet gown."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: dog animal begging clothes travel
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 90, "Hark, hark, the dogs do bark" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 140, "Hark, Hark" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #84, pp. 84-85, "(Hark, hark, the dogs do bark)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 55, "Hark, Hark, the Dogs Do Bark" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 30, "Hark, Hark, the Dogs Do Bark" (1 text)
Roud #19689
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rowley Poley
NOTES [106 words]: Reportedly first found in the 1788 Tommy Thumb's Song-Book, but I have been unable to verify this.
One hypothesis is that the "beggars" referred to here are the followers of William III of Orange, hangers-on who showed up after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. If we want to give it a political context of a foreign monarch, though, I'd think George I (reigned 1714-1727) a better bet -- he was more foreign, and had a more useless company. Another hypothesis links it with the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the monks and nuns who lost their livelihood and were forced to beg. I can't claim to find any of this very convincing. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OO2140

Hark, How All the Welkin Rings

See Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (File: FSWB381C)

Hark, Sweet Maid, the Trumpet's Sound

DESCRIPTION: "Hark, sweet maid, the trumpet's sound, And honor calls to war, Now Love I leave, perhaps for wounds...." The writer asks the girl not to sigh; he has devoted his life first to fame, and he must fight for American liberty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales; written before 1783)
KEYWORDS: love soldier separation patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 339, "(no title)" (1 text)
File: TNY339A

Hark! Listen to the Trumpeters

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "They look like men (x3) of war; Armed and dressed in uniform, They look like men of war." Verses: "Trumpeters... call for volunteers" Officers enlist men to march to Canaan. The singer will enlist. "We need no cowards." Jesus is the general
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (c. 1830?) (Camp-Meeting Chorister)
KEYWORDS: army recruiting war freedom nonballad religious soldier
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 180-181, "They Look Like Men of War (The Enlisted Soldiers)" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 145 in the 1901 edition)
ADDITIONAL: Camp-Meeting Chorister (Philadelphia: W.A. Leary, 1844 (also c.1830) ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #108 pp. 102-103, ("Hark! Listen to the Trumpeters")
Zion's Praises (Lamont: Herald Publishing House, 1903 ("Digitized by Internet Archive"), #181, "Listen to the Trumpeters"
William Booth, Salvation Army Songs (London: The Salvation Army Book Department, 1911 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #532 p. 374, ("Hark! listen to the trumpeters")
Roud #15230
NOTES [71 words]: Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute restates the note from 1901, by S. C. Armstrong, who -- "while recruiting and drilling the 9th Regiment, U.S. Colored troops at Benedict, Maryland, in the winter of 1863-1864" -- recalls hearing this hymn sung by "nearly a thousand black soldiers." Only Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute has the chorus. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett180

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

DESCRIPTION: "Hark! The herald angels sing, Glory (be) to the new-born King." In praise of the baby Jesus, the "incarnate deity, pleased as man with man to dwell." The song offers both praise and thanks for the coming of Jesus
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Wesley (1707-1788) (adapted by George Whitefield) / Music: Felix Mendelssohn (1808-1847)
EARLIEST DATE: 1739 ("Hymns and Sacred Poems")
KEYWORDS: Christmas nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 67-68, "'Ark, 'Ark, the 'Eavenly Angels Sing" (1 short text, 1 tune, which appears to be a badly damaged remnant of this song; the informant was 87)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #211, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 264, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 381, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 269-270, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 101, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 45, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HRALDANG*
ADDITIONAL: John Julian, editor, _A Dictionary of Hymnology_, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 487, "Hark, how all the welkin rings" (2 parallel texts, one Wesley's and one closer to the "common" version)
Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 46-47, "Hard, the Herald Angels Sing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #32, "Hard, the Herald Angels Sing" (1 text); cf. #31, "Hark, How All the Welkin Rings" (1 text)
Roud #8337
SAME TUNE:
Uncle Joe and Aunty Mabel (File: EM374)
Beecham's Pills (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 37)
Make New Friends But Keep The Old (partial tune) (DT, NEWFRNDS*, GSFRIEND*)
NOTES [426 words]: In the Sacred Harp, this is given the tune "Cookham." It's not the standard Mendelssohn melody.
The original Charles Wesley text might come as a surprise; the title line is "Hark how all the welkin rings, 'Glory to the king of kings,'" then turns to more familiar lines. This text can be found, e.g., in the Penguin Book of Carols. Julian, p. 487, has a detailed comparison of the Wesley text and the "improved" version. Some of these changes even have theological implications -- e.g. Wesley wrote one line as "Veil'd in flesh, the Godhead see" (which is the way I've always heard it), but one text makes this "Veil'd in flesh the Godhead HE."
Even Methodists tend to sing the version adapted by M. Madan.
Nor was Madan's the last word; one George D. Elderkin turned this into a thorough mess that begins "Hark! the herald angels sing, Jesus, the light of the world"; if you want to expose yourself to that, see Warren-Spirint, pp. 145-147.
The "welkin" is the firmament or the dome of heaven; George Whitefield apparently changed it (and made sundry lesser changes) not because the word was archaic because it didn't fit his theology; Wesley was of course Arminian (meaning that human beings actually had some role in gaining, or at least accepting, salvation), but Whitefield was pure Calvinist, meaning that he believed in salvation by God's caprice, with no amount of human action having anything to do with it. (As you can probably tell, I am not a Calvinist.)
It was a fellow by the name of William Hayman Cummings (1831-1915), who had performed under Mendelssohn's direction, who mated the Wesley/Whitefield words with the Mendelssohn melody, publishing the result in 1856. Only then did the song become popular. McKim, p. 31, says that Mendelssohn had written the tune for a male chorus and orchestra; "Festgesang an die Kunstler" was written (slightly prematurely) to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of printing with movable type. Since Mendelsson died, while still in his thirties, in 1847, he did not see the words fitted to his tune. Which is perhaps just as well; according to Stulken, p. 162, Mendelssohn did not think the tune suitable for sacred use.
Reynolds, p. 82, says that the text had previously been published with the tune "Hendon," also used for "Ask ye what great thing I know."
According to Julian, p. 1569, Charles Wordsworth translated this into Latin as "Audite! cantant Angeli praeconium."
For the life of Charles Wesley, author of (some of) the lyrics of this piece, see the notes to "Jesus Lover of My Soul." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB381C

Harlaw

See The Battle of Harlaw [Child 163] (File: C163)

Harley Marley Pease Straw

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme: "Harley, Marley, peas straw, Gin pinches is the law, Pinch him now, pinch him then, Pinch him till he counts to ten."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folk Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | pinch
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #170, "Harley, Marley, pease straw" (1 text)
File: AJRR170

Harlot of Jerusalem, The

See Kathusalem (Kafoozelum) (II) (File: EM204)

Harm Link

See The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn [Laws H13] (File: LH13)

Harmless Young Jim

DESCRIPTION: Jim says to a girl, "My name it is harmless Young Jim" and offers to "take you to the bakery and buy you a bun." She resists. He persists. They marry and have a son. "I'm sure I'd been better to leave her alone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage sex childbirth bawdy wordplay food
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 282-283, "Harmless Young Jim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9968
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. George Decker, "Harmless Young Jim" (on PeacockCDROM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blackberry Grove" (innuendoes)
cf. "Buttercup Joe" (innuendoes)
File: Pea282

Harmony Greeting

See Hello! Hello (File: ACSF437H)

Harness up Yo' Hosses

DESCRIPTION: "Harness up yo' hosses, Hey, o hey! Harness up yo' hosses, We'll teach you how ter drive 'em, Hey, oh hey! We'll fight fur Uncle Sam."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: horse work fight Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 373, "Harness up Yo' Hosses" (1 fragment)
Roud #11748
NOTES [52 words]: Brown's text is too short for certainty, but it seems reasonable to assume that this refers to the American Civil War and the way "contrabands" (escaped or captured slaves) were treated: The Federals quickly began to use them as teamsters, and by the middle of the war was enlisting them as soldiers as well. - RBW
File: Br3373

Harp of Erin (I), The

See Erin, My Country (The Harp of Erin) (File: HHH478)

Harp of Old Erin, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Harp of Old Erin will be heard once again, And will twine with the Shamrock in every green glen, And the round tower and wolfdog in sunshine will be With Home Rule for Ireland and Ireland free"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: Ireland patriotic political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads, p. 231, "The Harp of Old Erin" (1 fragment)
NOTES [13 words]: The current description is all of the OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads fragment. - BS
File: OLoc231

Harp of Tara, The

See The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls (File: FSWB320C)

Harp on a Willow

See I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree (I) (File: MN1113)

Harp on the Willow, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come brethren and sisters, and hear me relate, And I will inform you of my present state." The singer trusted Jesus, but now feels rejected, "My harp on the willow seems to be hung." The singer begs to be restored to the former state of grace
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious request harp
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 655, "The Harp on the Willow" (1 text)
Roud #7576
NOTES [39 words]: This song contains assorted allusions to Psalm 137 (e.g. the harp on the willow, Psalm 137:2), but they seem almost incidental to the plot -- the piece just uses them as the coin of the realm, rather than actively adopting the psalm. - RBW
File: R655

Harp or Lion

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees in the news that Irishmen "despise their country's story, All they love is England's glory, Ha-ha-ha!" Shame on O Neill, Emmet, Tone and Ninety-eight. We should replace "our old green banner" with "the mangy British lion! Ha-ha-hah!"
AUTHOR: T.D. Sullivan (1827-1914) (source: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (_Songs and Poems_ by T.D.S., according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: England Ireland humorous nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 47, "Harp or Lion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9763
NOTES [20 words]: Sullivan is the author of a number of Irish patriotic poems, of which "God Save Ireland" is probably the best-known. - RBW
File: OLcM047

Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls, The

DESCRIPTION: "The harp that once through Tara's halls The soul of music shed Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls As tho' that soul were fled." Tara's glory is fled, and the only sign that freedom still exists "Is when some heart, indignant, breaks."
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Moore-IrishMelodies-1846)
KEYWORDS: harp music freedom nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, pp. 13-14, "(The harp that once through Tara's halls)" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 10, "Harp That Once" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #89, "The Harp THat Once THro' Tara's Halls" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 24-25, "The Harp That Once Thro' Tara's Halls" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 57, "The Harp of Tara" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #855, p. 57, "The Harp That Once Thro' Tara's Halls" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 31 and #4/64, p. 31, "The Harp that once thro' Tara's Halls" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 320, "The Harp That Once Thro' Tara's Halls" (1 text)
DT, TARAHARP*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 381, "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls" (1 text)
Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, _The Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1958, 1979), pp. 32-33, "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls" (1 text)
Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #488, p. 819, "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls" (by Thomas Moore)
Roud #13392
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(8a/b) View 8 of 8, "The Harp That Once Throug Tara's Halls," R. March and Co. (London), 1877-1884; also Harding B 11(1155), "The Harp that Once Tara's Halls"; Firth b.26(381), "The Harp That Once in Tara's Halls"; Firth c.26(121), "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Hall"; Firth b.27(457/458) View 2 of 4, "The Harp of Tara's Hall"
LOCSheet, sm1851 490660, "The Harp That Once Thro' Tara's Halls," William Hall and S (New York), 1851; also sm1851 680650, "The Harp That Once Thro' Tara's Halls"; sm1851 491690, sm1879 02685, "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Hall" (tune)
LOCSinging, as105190, "The Harp That Once Thro' Tara's Halls," Thos. G. Doyle (Baltimore), 19C
NLScotland, RB.m.143(144), "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1875
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Highland Maid" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Highland Maid (File: Ord297)
Old Ireland I Adore (File: OCon113)
The Last Ditch! or, Davis, Booth and Lee ("The Man who once did loudly boast") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 84)
The Soldier's Return ("Poor Nellie was a Soldier's Wife") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 145)
When I am on a Distant Shore (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 174)
Maryland's Appeal ("Oh, Maryland enslaved, opprest," by Helen Sumner) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 192)
The Land of Our Fathers ("The and our fathers strugged for Is covered now with shame") (by Mrs. Jacief) (Foner, p. 155)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Tara's Harp
NOTES [66 words]: This is one of the classic poems of Irish melancholy; Granger's Index to Poetry cites no fewer than fifteen anthologies. Ironically, it seems rare in tradition.
Tara, according to legend at least, was the seat of the ancient Irish high kings.
One source (Songs That Never Grow Old, 1909, 1913) credits the music to "Molly Astore," but this is presumably the name of the tune, not the composer. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB320C

Harpin' Mannie, The

See The Lochmaben Harper [Child 192] (File: C192)

Harpkin

See The Fause Knight Upon the Road [Child 3] (File: C003)

Harrigan

DESCRIPTION: "Who is the man who will spend or will even lend? Harrigan, that's me! ... For I'm just as proud of my name, you see." "H, A, double-R, I, G, A, N spells Harrigan Proud of all the Irish blood that's in me Divvil a man can say a word agin me."
AUTHOR: George M. Cohan (1878-1942)
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 ("Fifty Miles to Boston")
KEYWORDS: Ireland wordplay
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 175-176, "H, A, double R, I, GAN spells Harrigan!" (1 text)
Roud #25468
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lollypop" (tune, form)
cf. "Castor Oil" (tune, form)
cf. "Davenport" (tune, form)
SAME TUNE:
Lollypop (File: ACSF125L)
Castor Oil (File: ACSF266C)
Davenport (Fle: ACSF267D)
NOTES [102 words]: Although the show "Fifty Miles to Broadway," and this song, are entirely the work of George M. Cohan, he chose the name "Harrigan" as a tribute to a man whose shows he much admired, Edward Harrigan, for whom see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block." Cohan's father in fact is said to have performed with Harrigan.
The song is popular enough to have a Wikipedia page, which lists multiple uses in movies and popular recordings.
Although the song has, at best, a very weak hold in tradition, its by-blows ("Lollypop," "Castor Oil," "Davenport") are all alive and well and keeping the tune popular among children.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: KSUC175C

Harrison Brady

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Harrison Campaign Song

DESCRIPTION: "A farmer there was, who lived at North Bend"; he regretfully leaves his log cabin to go to Washington. Coming to the White House, he sets everyone astir. When they prove unable to dislodge them, he warns them to get hard cider by March fourth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 2, 1840 - William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren
Mar 4, 1841 - Harrison (the first Whig to be elected President) is inaugurated. He gives a rambling inaugural address in a rainstorm and catches cold
April 4, 1841 - Harrison dies of pneumonia, making him the first president to fail to complete his term. After some hesitation, Vice President John Tyler is allowed to succeed as President
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 335, "Harrison Campaign Song" (1 text)
Roud #7840
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Tippecanoe (I)" (subject of the Harrison/van Buren election) and references there
NOTES [156 words]: For details on the (thoroughly dirty) 1840 Presidential campaign, and the purely false picture it drew of William Henry Harrison, see the notes to "Old Tippecanoe."
It should perhaps be pointed out that, at the time this song was sung, new Presidents were still inaugurated on March 4.
The way this song is written might make it appear that Van Buren undertook some sort of cabinet shake-up during the 1840 campaign. He didn't; three of his six cabinet secretaries stayed the whole administration, and while two offices turned over in 1840, one of those was Postmaster, held by Amos F. Kendall, the advisor Van Buren "could not spare;" he assuredly was not driven out.
Interestingly, this song does not seem to be included in the most comprehensive collection of Harrison campaign songs known to me, A. B. Norton, Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Beld335

Harrison Town

DESCRIPTION: The singer (warns against bad company which led him to break the law). He now has been captured and faces prison. He hopes that his horse, which served him so well, will be well cared for. (He promises to live a reformed life with his girl when released)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: outlaw crime punishment prison horse
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 162, "Harrison Town" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 155-156, "Harrison Town" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 162A)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 23, "He Wanted to B in Arkansas" (sic.) (1 short text)
Roud #4095
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boston Burglar" [Laws L16] (theme)
NOTES [56 words]: This song is item dE34 in Laws's Appendix II. Randolph's second text shows some signs of influence from "The Boston Burglar" or something similar, but these may be later additions; the first text shows none. High-OldOldFolkSongs's text also seems Burglar-less, although it's enough of a mess that this element could have been lost. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: R162

Harrowing Time

DESCRIPTION: A bothy ballad describing spring harrowing. "Cauld winter it is now awa', And spring has come again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #71, pp. 1-2, "Harrowing Time" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 421, "Harrowing Time" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 70, "Harrowing Time" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 256-257, "Harrowing Time" (1 text)
Roud #5587
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drumdelgie" (tune)
cf. "The Miller of Straloch" (tune, per Greig)
cf. "The Fyvie Ploughmen" (subject: ploughing match)
cf. "The Plooin' Match" (subject: ploughing match)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Cauld Winter's Noo Awa
Come All Ye Jolly Ploughboys
File: DBuch70

Harry Bahel

See Harry Bale (Dale, Bail, Bell) [Laws C13] (File: LC13)

Harry Bail

See Harry Bale (Dale, Bail, Bell) [Laws C13] (File: LC13)

Harry Bale (Dale, Bail, Bell) [Laws C13]

DESCRIPTION: The orphan Harry Bahel is at work in a sawmill when he is dragged onto the saw. He dies the next day and is buried as his siblings grieve
AUTHOR: Charles Bahel?
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: orphan death burial technology lumbering grief
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 1879 - Death of Harry Bahel, at age 19, in Arcadia Township, Lapeer County, Michigan
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,So) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws C13, "Harry Bale (Dale, Bail, Bell)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 418-419, "Harry Bale" (1 text, in which the hero is called "Harry Dale")
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #33, "Harry Bale" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 80, "The Little Shingle Mill (The Death of Harry Vail)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 27, "Harry Bail" (1 text)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 27, "Harry Bail" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 113, "Harry Bail" (1 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 61, "Harry Bail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 141-144, "Harry Bahel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 75, "Harry Bail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 33-35, "Harry Bale" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 412-413, "Harry Bahel (Bail)" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 222, "Harry Bale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 92, "Harry Bell" (1 text) (pp. 79-80 in the 1919 edition)
DT 700, HARYBALE
Roud #2217
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl)" [Laws C25]
NOTES [67 words]: Two of Gardner and Chickering's informants, John B. Redhead and William Rabidue, both of whom worked in lumber mills in the general vicinity, credit this to Harry Bahel's brother Charlie (Rabidue, who supplied Gardner and Chickering's main text, also mentions a Johnny Coffey). There does not seem to be any actual proof of this.
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps cites a copy of Harry Bahel's tombstone. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LC13

Harry Bell

See Harry Bale (Dale, Bail, Bell) [Laws C13] (File: LC13)

Harry Dunn (The Hanging Limb) [Laws C14]

DESCRIPTION: Harry Dunn has gone to work in the woods of Michigan despite his mother's advice. One day he dreams that there is trouble at home. On that very day he is killed by a falling branch. His parents are shocked to death when his body arrives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy; Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: logger dream family mother death lumbering
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Newf,Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws C14, "Harry Dunn (The Hanging Limb)"
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 26, "The Hanging Limb" (2 texts)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 26, "The Hanging Limb" (2 texts)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 114, "Harry Dunn" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 120-122, "Harry Dunn" (1 text)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 221-223, "Harry Dunne" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 162, "Harry Dunn" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 763-765, "The Woods of Michigan" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 158-160, "Harry Dunn (The Hanging Limb)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 36-37, "Harry Dunn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 59, "Harry Dunn" (2 texts, one called "Harry Dunne"; 1 tune)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 151-156, "Harry Dunn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 74, "Harry Dunn" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #34, "Harry Dunn" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 130, "Lumbering Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 767, HARRDUNN
Roud #639
RECORDINGS:
George Decker, "The Woods of Michigan" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Pat Murphy, "Harry Dunn" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Martin Sullivan, "Harry Dunn" (on Lumber01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Boy Killed by a Falling Tree in Hartford" (plot)
cf. "Chance McGear" (plot)
cf. "The Substitute (plot)
cf. "My Neighbors Dear (The Falling Tree)" (plot)
cf. "Whitney's Camp" (tune, plot)
cf. "Erin's Green Shore" (tune)
File: LC14

Harry Dunne

See Harry Dunn (The Hanging Limb) [Laws C14] (File: LC14)

Harry Flood's Election Song

DESCRIPTION: "Ye lovers of trade and every handicraft" strike up the band for Harry Flood. "Our freedom's declared, we'll chase dull sorrows, All cares we'll banish to feast and banquet." Listeners are urged to toast Harry Flood
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1771 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 86, "Harry Flood's Election Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9770
NOTES [169 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "This fragment of an election song for the famous Henry Flood (1732-1791) undoubtedly dates back at least to 1770." - BS
It is interesting to speculate on just when Flood or his supporters would have used this song. He did not run for office very often; when he first entered the Irish parliament, there was no upper limit on how long a parliament could sit.
He first became a member of parliament in 1759, sponsored by a landowner interest. A fine orator, he argued vigorously for reforms and increased rights for the Irish (at least for Protestants).
In 1775, though, Flood was induced to join the establishment as vice-treasurer, and he was no longer in position to oppose the existing order. He left the government in 1781, eventually purchasing a seat in the British parliament. (His gifts as a speaker and lawyer had made him rich), but he was no longer particularly important as a reformer; his causes were taken over by Henry Grattan (for whom see "Ireland's Glory"). - RBW
File: OLcM086

Harry Hayward Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Minneapolis was excited, And for many miles around, For a terrible crime committed." "Kit" goes riding, and is found shot and beaten to death. The rest of the song thunders at the criminal
AUTHOR: probably Joseph Vincent Brooks
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Minneapolis Journal); probably published 1895
KEYWORDS: homicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
December 1895 - Execution of Harry Hayward for the murder of Kitty Ging
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 96-99, "(The Harry Hayward Song)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 463-464, "The Fatal Ride" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Shawn Francis Peters, _The Infamous Harry Hayward: A True Account of Murder and Mesmerism in Gilded Age Minneapolis_, University of Minnesota Press, 2018, pp. 259-260, "(no title)" (1 text)
Walter N. Trenerry, Murder in Minnesota (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1985), pp. 154-155, (no title) (1 text)
Roud #22300
NOTES [4187 words]: I'm not sure I've ever seen a murder ballad with fewer facts mixed in with more moralizing. The version printed by Burt-AmericanMurderBallads has only a partial name of the victim, no name for the murderer, no real background, no date, and no aftermath.
And not much poetry, either.
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads states that Harry Hayward was (and so would remain as of 2020), the last man legally hanged (as opposed to lynched) in Minnesota. This statement is incorrect; the death penalty was not abolished until 1911 (Blegen, p. 439), and according Trenerry pp. 223-227, there were ten executions after Hayward's date with a hempen necktie, and all are described as hangings. The Hayward case did produce a change, though; many legislators, including one of Hayward's attorneys, passed a law banning public hangings -- Hayward was hung on an indoor rather than an outdoor scaffold, with no press coverage (Peters, pp. 222-223).
The crime itself gets little historical attention today; it's not mentioned in Blegen, nor in Norman K. Risjord's A Popular History of Minnesota, nor in William E. Lass's Minnesota: A History. As of when I first indexed the song, there wasn't even any mention of it on the Minnesota Historical Society's web site that I could find, although I eventually managed to locate a photo of a well-dressed, vaguely handsome young man with a mustache.
This was in trong contrast with the press coverage at the time, which was lurid, and which resulted in at least one contemporary book on the subject, Harry Hayward by Edward H. Goodsell, 1896; it seems to consist mostly of court testimony and transcribed interviews (Goodsell was Hayward's cousin and heard Harry's final confession), but it does have two photos of Hayward, one of his brother Adry, one of Kitty Ging, one of the actual murderer Claus Blixt, and a few others, mostly people involved in prosecuting the crime. It also has a laughable appendix by W. A. Jones, M.D., "A Mental Scientist," about the physiology of Hayward's brain, which labels Hayward "a degenerate." (The Introduction also talks about Hayward's psychology, declaring "if society is to shield itself against another Harry Hayward it must bring some more scientific analysis to bear on the subject than the artless prattle of the motto book." A century and a quarter later, I write this sentence on the day of yet another mass shooting, so that didn't work too well....)
In April 2018, long after the first draft of this entry was written, Shawn Francis Peters published The Infamous Harry Hayward : A True Account of Murder and Mesmerism in Gilded Age Minneapolis. This is now clearly the key reference, but this entry was originally written based on the account in Trenerry. I have supplemented it from Peters.
In 1894, Harry Hayward and Katherine "Kitty" Ging were both 29 years old and unmarried. Hayward is said to have been handsome (a statement his photograph bears out), vain, and a fan of high living (Peters, pp. 49-50). He was the son of William W. Hayward, who owned and managed the "Ozark Flats" or "Bellevue Hotel" (Trenerry, p. 135) -- a building then just two years old. It's still there today, although I can't see either name on it; it appears the ground floor has been heavily remodeled and as of 2018 contains a coffee shop and a bar/restaurant.
Hayward was "a professional gambler, a ne'er-do-well, and an associate of petty crooks" (Trenerry, p. 135); at his trial, he admitted to never learning a trade, and allowed that he had not had real work for years (Peters, p. 166). He was said to be extremely good with woman, and was around them a lot (Peters, pp. 49-51). He also dealt in counterfeit money, as well as "green goods," which was a scam to exchange good money for bad, or no money at all (Peters, pp. 94-96); this apparently allowed him to keep gambling after he would otherwise have been bankrupt. He had never really held a steady job; his family was sufficiently well-off that his father gave him a building, which he sold to finance his gambling. According to Goodsell, p. 4, he several times declared, "Money was my God."
There seems to be some uncertainty about Ging's legal name. Trenerry calls her "Katherine" and "Kitty"; Peters, "Catherine" and "Kittie." She had come to Minnesota from her family home in New York, and worked as a seamstress and clothing designer; she was apparently quite good at it, but certainly not becoming rich or widely renowned.
Hayward met Kitty Ging in early 1894, and later that year, she moved into Ozark Flats. She worked as a dressmaker, with her niece as an employee, but the niece knew little about her private life (Peters, p. 6).
It appears that Kitty Ging, perhaps tempted by promises of marriage, gave Hayward both money and her body. (The former seems certain. The forensics of 1894 would of course have been unable to prove that Hayward was the one responsible for her not being a virgin. Trenerry's language is very decorous, Peters, p. 5, says explicitly that she was found not to have been pregnant.)
On December 3, 1894, a man named William Erhardt got off a streetcar near Lake Calhoun (as it was then called; the name was recently changed to Bda Maka Ska) around 8:25 and prepared to walk home (Peters, p. 1). He was almost run over by a fast-driving buggy, then shortly after came across a body -- the body that would prove to be that of Catherine Ging. It was still warm (Peters, p. 2). He called police; officers Peter Fox and Charles Moore were the first to arrive. It took much longer for a doctor to show up to confirm that she was dead. (Peters, p. 3; Trenerry, p. 137, says the doctor arrived first).
It took some time to identify her; she seems to have carried no identification, although the name "Ging" was eventually found on one document (Peters, p. 4). What really tipped the police off when a buggy she had rented returned empty to its livery stable (the horse knew its way home) and showed signs of violence (Peters, p. 5). With that hint in hand, it was possible to identify the dead woman as Catherine Ging (Peters, p. 6).
She had been shot in the head -- behind the right ear, to be specific (Peters, p. 20), and the body was then dumped from a cart and run over.
Hayward arrived at home soon after the murder and set out to "help" the police. He helped identify the body -- and set up a constant moan about the money she allegedly owed him (Trenerry, pp 138-139; Peters, pp. 14-15). All that talk about money, and his agitation, left the police suspicious (Peters, p. 15). But the newspapers, at least, identified several other suspects -- a couple of ex (or perhaps not-so-ex)-beaus, a girlfriend of one of the other men (Trenerry, p. 140). But all of them had an alibi.
Of course, so did Hayward. At the time of Ging's murder, he had been at a play with another woman (Peters, p. 14) -- and was seen by others while there (Peters, p. 16). What's more, he had spent most of the day out on the town with a friend (Trenerry, pp. 140-141).
Still, there were oddities about his relationship to Ging. She had two $5000 life insurance policies, and Hayward had induced Ging to name him the beneficiary; these were said to be securities for the loan he had allegedly lent her to help her with her business (Peters, p. 16). The loans were said to total $9,500 (although, since they were between private parties, that is a little uncertain; Peters, p. 60) and the only explanation he had for where he had gotten the money was that he had won it at gambling (Peters, pp. 33-34; Trenerry, p. 144, claims that the money was mostly counterfeit, and as we shall see, there is strong evidence that he did deal in counterfeit money). He did at least supply some evidence that he and Ging had had financial dealings (Peters, p. 34).
The treatment of Hayward would probably not pass muster today. The mayor of Minneapolis, William H. Eustis, personally intervened in the case and questioned Hayward (Peters, p. 26), although he of course had no right or reason to do so. Hayward was subjected to extraordinary questioning in the days after the murder even though there was no reason to connect him to the crime except for his financial dealings with Ging (Peters, p. 28). He spent most of December 4 being questioned before being released on December 5 (Peters, p. 29).
As suspicions grew, various people came forward to testify that Hayward had asked them if life insurance could be made out in the name of a non-relative, if it covered murder, and how best to kill a person (Peters, p. 48).
Peters also claims he engaged in a bit of arson-for-profit (Peters, p. 59; according to p. 69, this was his first use of his associate Claus Blixt in a crime, and of course Harry used it to strengthen his control over Blixt, who now had something to lose if he blabbed), and even staged a robbery of Ging that didn't net him much (Peters, p. 60).
Hayward, who never gave a hint to police of any guilt, couldn't keep quiet to others. He had talked to his not-too-clever older brother Adry about killing Ging -- plus supposedly he had discussed methods for murdering someone long before he chose his victim (Trenerry, p. 143). On November 30, before the murder, Adry had talked to a lawyer about Harry's plans -- but the lawyer thought Adry was crazy and did not act at the time (Peters, pp. 44-45).
On December 5, though, the police caught a break. The lawyer who had talked to Adry came forward with his tale. So the police talked to Adry. And Adry told what he knew (Peters, p. 48; Peters, p. 102, says the lawyer was there and urged him to talk); the excuse Adry gave for not doing something earlier was that Harry had mesmerized him (Trenerry, p. 149; Peters, p. 103; Peters adds that the recent publication of George du Maurier's novel Trilby had made the idea of a person exerting a malevolent influence commonplace). That gave the police grounds to arrest Hayward on December 6 (Peters, p. 97). They took in Adry for good measure (Peters, p. 45; although the two were imprisoned together for a time, Adry was eventually moved to a Saint Paul jail; Peters, p. 101).
An employee of the Ozark Flats building, janitor Claus A. Blixt, who managed the Ozark Flats furnace, was arrested the next day (Trenerry, p. 142). He was an immigrant from Sweden who arrived in the U.S. as a young boy around 1860 (he wasn't himself sure of the year; Peters, p. 46). He was not a very reputable type, having had three wives and a wide variety of jobs. Some people think he wasn't too bright, either, and when he was arraigned, his behavior was so strange that there were questions about whether he was in his right mind (Peters, pp. 105-106. His current wife had actually brought him to the attention of the police (Peters, pp. 46-47), and also told them that he had been away from home at the time of the murder (Trenerry, p. 149).
Hayward and Blixt were charged with murder on December 13 (Peters, p. 105).
His solid alibi proved Hayward himself did not commit the murder. Rather than do the deed himself, as the song said, he "found another" to commit the actual killing. The contention was that he had induced Blixt to do the deed (getting him thoroughly drunk to help him along).
Blixt, like Hayward, was subjected to unfair questioning (including showing him an account that made it look as if Harry Hayward had confessed); again, mayor Eustis was involved (Peters, pp. 84-85). Nor did he have a lawyer at the time; indeed, the court case would later have to be delayed until he could find one (Peters, p. 106). Unlike Hayward, Blixt cracked after they threatened his wife.
Blixt would claim that Hayward had himself actually made an attempt to kill Ging, but failed to manage it (Trenerry, p. 145) -- I assume because there were witnesses around. Hayward also, according to Blixt, complained about the way she was always pawing him. A frustrated Hayward, on the day of the murder, decided to make Blixt do the crime, ordering him to drink a whole bottle of whiskey and do the deed that night (according to Peters, p. 75, Blixt managed to dump most of the whiskey -- and, at his trial, Blixt seemed to claim that Hayward had poisoned him; he talked about being sick for many days after the murder; Peters, p. 139). Blixt, in explaining why he went along, also recorded Hayward staring him down and giving him orders -- and threatening to have a gang member murder Blixt (Trenerry, p. 146). Blixt apparently didn't think to ask why Hayward couldn't just have the gang member murder Ging. Hayward also hinted that Blixt's wife could be in trouble if Blixt backed out (Peters, p. 75).
Hayward also promised Blixt $2000 from the insurance money (Trenerry, p. 146).
This wasn't the only mention of Harry's alleged gang; Harry, when trying to talk Adry into committing murder, claimed that he had been instrumental in three previous killings (Peters, p. 67; Blixt also had a version of this, in which Hayward committed "only" two murders plus a maiming; Peters, p. 69). If anyone followed up on that testimony to see if Adry or Blixt was telling the truth, it doesn't seem to have been recorded; the newspapers speculated about murders that might have been committed by Hayward (Peters, pp. 90-91), but nothing came of that.
What happened between 7:00 and 9:00 that December night can only be reconstructed from the testimony of Blixt, Adry Hayward, and others. The account on pp. 146-147 of Trenerry seems impossibly complicated: Hayward arranged for Ging to meet Blixt, he told Adry what he was up to, he made noise at Ging's apartment, he met with the woman who was to be his alibi, and he made a spontaneous decision to go the the theater!
Blixt, by his own account found it hard to commit the murder, but finally did it, then ran the cart over the body and fled for home. He seems to have abandoned the cart about two miles from the murder scene and walked the rest of the way home, stopping at a bar along the way to try to calm himself down (Peters, pp. 80-81). Blixt made it home around 10:00 p.m. and threw the cartridges he hadn't used in the shooting into the furnace (Peters, p. 82). He soon told Hayward that the deed was done; after that, they would not talk until they faced each other in court (Peters, p. 83).
Blixt's lawyer came up with an interesting variant of the insanity defence: He admitted that Blixt had done it, but claimed that Hayward had hypnotized Blixt, as well as giving him some magic chemical to make it easier for Hayward to control the man (Peters, pp. 107-108). The lawyer did not explain why, if Hayward hypnotized Blixt, he did not order Blixt to forget the fact.
Harry himself lost his original lawyer early on; apparently he told the lawyer the truth about what happened, and the lawyer was too sickened to stay on the case (Peters, pp. 113-114). But his father doted upon Harry so much that he brought in an extremely high-powered attorney, William Wallace Erwin -- even selling the Ozark Flats building to pay him! (Peters, pp. 112-113). The case was so big that it had to be transferred from the courthouse to a labor hall to admit all the spectators (Peters, p. 116).
It's interesting that the state decided to try Hayward and Blixt separately; both cases were offered to the judge on the same day, according to Peters, p. 118, and he took Hayward's first. (Another version has it that the prosecutors wanted to postpone Blixt's trial to make sure he would testify against Hayward., which certainly sounds logical.)
Curiously, Hayward was charged once with inducing Blixt to shoot Ging and once with committing the murder himself. The judge dismissed the second charge after the trial concluded; although Hayward was, in effect, tried on two counts, the jury ended up deliberating on just one (Peters, p. 178).
The trial lasted 46 days and involved the testimony of 136 witnesses (Trenerry, p. 149), although obviously most of them could only testify to peripheral matters; only Blixt and Adry Hayward could really testify to the crime. Hayward's attorney tried to get Adry Hayward's testimony excluded on the grounds that he was insane (they even had Hayward's mother take the stand on this point -- and to try to prove to the jury that the family believed Harry, not Adry; Peters, pp. 158-159), but the judge rejected all their evidence based on distant relatives and such (Peters, p. 131). Furthermore, they put Harry's father on the stand to claim Adry had talked about robbing trains (Peters, pp. 160-161), but of course he had no supporting evidence.
Harry's attorney also tried to break Blixt down, but it seems to me that the very fact that Blixt was not very bright stood him in good stead; he didn't have the imagination to get caught up in lawyer Erwin's elaborate hypotheticals and wild alternative theories! (Peters, pp. 145-146). When Adry Hayward came to the stand, Erwin tried to break him down, too, and make him look crazy, but again, it didn't work (Peters, pp. 149-151). This was surely important, because the jury might have been disinclined to believe the foreigner Blixt. As lawyer Erwin pointed out, Blixt was a confessed murderer -- hardly an unbiased witness (Peters, p. 187, etc.). It didn't matter.
The trial went badly enough that the defense eventually decided to put Harry on the stand himself (Peters, p. 162). Harry's version was Adry and Blixt had killed Ging (Trenerry , p. 151; Peters, pp. 131-132; 161-162). And the newspapers thought that he was not convincing in his delivery (Peters, p. 167). Worse, toward the end of the trial, in his anger, he threatened his own brother's life at the trial (Peters, pp. 168-169).
In the end, the testimony of Adry and Blixt plus the miscellaneous other evidence was enough for conviction (the judge actually told the jury to consider whether Adry's testimony corroborated Blixt's; Peters, p. 179). On March 8, 1895, the case went to the jury, They returned a verdict of first degree murder after less than three hours including time for lunch (Trenerry, p. 151; Peters, p. 180).
Judge Smith had never sentenced a man to death before, and it apparently was an emotional moment for him, but he did it (Peters, p. 186).
After Hayward's conviction, he made various non-legal attempts to get out of prison. One was a simple escape attempt, but another was an attempt to have confederates murder Adry, write a fake a confession, and try to make it look like a suicide (Peters, pp. 195-197). None of it worked, of course.
There was an appeal, which delayed the execution, but it was denied, and Hayward went to the gallows on December 11, 1895 (Trenerry, p. 152). He gave a long confession shortly before his death (Trenerry, p. 153); this is reproduced by Goodsell. It took many hours to gather it all, and it describes many of his misdeeds, including, yes, additional murders, these committed with his own hand (Peters, pp. 231-237). It was called a confession, but Goodsell declares on p. 7, "Harry Hayward's ante-mortem statement can hardly be called a confession. There was no contrition, no regret, no remorse" -- a statement Trenerry agrees with. He was a man obsessed with money, thrilled by gambling, and clearly promiscuous, and he saw nothing wrong with that; he was willing to do what it took to feed his habits; as he said, "Money was always foremost in my mind, and girls next, and then my disposition to travel" (Peters, p. 234).
Toward the end, he reported, "Although I believe there is no God, and stand prepared to meet anything that comes after death square in the face, I think that if there is a God he certainly will not blame me for these things, as I have honestly followed the dictates of my conscience" (Peters, pp. 241-242).
There had been some discussion of Harry's mental state (Peters, p. 205). He grew more disturbed after the conviction, and when Adry visited him (at Harry's invitation), he tore into him (Peters, pp. 207-209). A third brother, Thaddeus, doubted the truth of his final interview (Peters, p. 243). He showed other signs of delusions and mental disorder. This led some to discuss a commutation of Harry's death sentence to life imprisonment -- but apparently at least some of Harry's tantrum was play-acting in hopes of just that (Peters, pp. 210-211. Peters, starting on p. 215, has an extended discussion of whether Harry was a psychopath. This is the one area where Peters did not do proper research -- psychopathy is not a recognized psychiatric diagnosis, and Peters fails to offer the correct diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder. I'll spare you the details.)
It should be noted that Antisocial Personality Disorder (unlike, say, schizophrenia) is not a defense against murder charges, since those who suffer from APD do not experience delusions. There is no question but that Harry met the "McNaughton standard" of moral culpability -- he knew what murder was, and that society opposed it (Peters, p. 214). By the standards of the time, he certainly deserved execution.
That was the fate he met in the early morning (shortly after 2:00 a.m.) of December 11, 1895. His last words were directed to one of the deputies running the hanging: "Now, Meegarden go ahead. Keep up your courage, gentlemen. Pull her tight. I'll stand pat" (Peters, p. 249). Sadly for Hayward, the execution was botched -- I would guess that there wasn't room, in the indoor execution chamber, for a good drop. Hayward's neck was not broken; he was strangled. It took thirteen minutes for him to stop breathing (Peters, p. 250).
There were stories at the time that someone had smuggled away Hayward's body and resurrected it; Trenerry says that this account was still in circulation in 1962 (Trenerry, p. 154). I've never heard it, so the tale presumably died in the half century since them. But he seems to have managed to have an affair while in prison (Peters, pp. 217-220) -- and he also tried to claim the life insurance payment for Kitty Ging! (Peters, p. 220). Others -- notably Kitty's twin sister Julia -- also claimed the insurance, but since Hayward was the only listed beneficiary, the final result was that no one collected (Peters, p. 221).
Apparently someone managed to make an Edison cylinder of Hayward talking in the days before his death; it reveals his ongoing anger (Peters, pp. 228-229; p. 229 has a photo of the cylinder).
After Hayward was convicted, it was Blixt's turn to go on trial. He had earlier pleaded not guilty to murder, but when the case came before the judge (a different judge than the one who tried Hayward), Blixt changed his plea to guilty (Peters, p. 189). That left the interesting question of the sentence. Blixt, not Hayward, was the actual murderer, so his actual crime was worse -- but he hadn't wanted to do it, so Hayward's intentions were worse. The prosecutors begged the judge to give Blixt a lighter sentence. The judge thought the crime deserved death. But, in the end, Judge Pond sentenced Blixt to life imprisonment (Peters, pp. 190-191). There was an attempt to lynch him on the way to the prison, but he made it (Peters, p. 193) to Stillwater Prison (where, incidentally, the Younger Brothers were also incarcerated at this time). He went insane some time before his death, according to Trenerry, p. 154, although Peters doesn't mention this. (Sort of makes you wonder about the hotel where Adry and Harry Hayward lived and Blixt worked, doesn't it? Was there perhaps a mercury source somewhere nearby?)
It's hard to believe this feeble piece of poetry could be traditional, but Trenerry's text, from the 1924 Minneapolis Journal, differs substantially from Burt-AmericanMurderBallads's in the later stanzas. I doubt we can find out much more about Trenerry's version; the Minneapolis Journal, from which it is derived, ceased publication before I was born.
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads does not mention the fact, but the tune appears to be "The Fatal Wedding," which was published and became very popular just a few year before the Ging murder.
Although Burt-AmericanMurderBallads does not mention it, it appears we can finally reconstruct the history of the song. Dunn, p. 141, describes an advertisement in the Brainerd Weekly Journal of a song called "The Fatal Ride": "It was written by one 'Marius' to words by Joseph Vincent Brookes who... was formerly in the restaurant business in [Brainerd] and locally celebrated as a 'tragic poet.' The front page of this song describing the notorious murder in Minneapolis of Kitty Ging by Harry Hayward was said to have been decorated 'with a very fine picture of the buckskin horse and carriage that were used when Miss Ging rode to her death.'"
The description is surely of this song, although neither Dunn nor I have been able to locate the sheet music. But the evidence seems sufficient to list Brookes as the probable author of the words.
Peters, p. 47, has a photo of Blixt around the time of the crime. P. 11 has a photo of Ging. P. 30 has a photo of the horse and carriage in which she took her final ride, as well as some newspaper engravings based on those photos. It appears Trenerry reproduces some of the latter as well. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Burt096

Harry Lumsdale's Courtship

DESCRIPTION: "First when Harry cam' to Clatt," he asks bonnie Jean, "wilt thou go Up to Auchindoir we' me?" Jean and her mother hesitate. Harry decides to turn to Betty Brown. After he leaves, Jeannie says, "O for him back again!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love courting mother rejection separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #32, p. 3, ("O Jeannie will ye go, Go to Auchindoir wi' me?") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan4 766, "Harry Lumsden," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Harry Lumsden" (2 texts)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 427-429, "Harry Lumsdale's Courtshhip" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Hogg and William Motherwell, editors, The Works of Robert Burns (Glasgow, 1841 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, pp. 197-200, ("First when Harry came to Clatt") (1 text)
Roud #6186
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Highland Harry
NOTES [175 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads describes this as the original for Burns's "My Harry Was a Gallant Gay" (aka "Highland Harry.") This strikes me as unlikely. The common material is a single verse, near the end of Ord's text and clearly not integral to it; it seems more likely that "Highland Harry" is a genuine traditional song and that Ord's obscure poem has picked up its chorus. - RBW
Burns says, "The chorus I picked up from an old woman in Dunblane; the rest of the song is mine." The quote is from Cunningham [probably The Complete Works of Robert Burns 1835] in Hogg and Motherwell. That "chorus" is from "Harry Lumsdale's Courtship."
Hogg and Motherwell tell the story that Harry "was the second son of a Highland chieftain who came downj to the Garioch, a district in Aberdeenshire, and made love to Miss Jeanie Gordon, daughter to the laird of Knockhaspie. This lady ... was afterwards married to her cousin Habichie Gordon [who later "lopped off several of Lumsdale's fingers" when the couple accidentally met, leading to Lumsdale's death]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord427

Harry Lumsden

See Harry Lumsdale's Courtship (File: Ord427)

Harry Lyle's Last Train Ride

DESCRIPTION: "On a cold and dark stormy evening Just before the close of day, There came Harry Lyle and Dillard, And with Anderson they rode away." They travel far, then the train goes off the rail into the river. Harry suffers a fatal head wound. Listeners are warned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 72-73, "Harry Lyle's Last Train Ride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7127
File: BuMa072

Harry Newell

See Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going) (File: SBoA050)

Harry Orchard

DESCRIPTION: "Harry Orchard is in prison, The reason you all know; He killed Frank Steunenberg...." "He set his bomb out carefully." "Harry blamed the Wobblies." "The chiefs were brought to Denver... Bill Haywood and George Pettybone Were brought to Idyho."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution punishment IWW trial execution sabotage
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1897-1901 - Frank R. Steunenberg's term as governor of Idaho
Dec 30, 1905 - Steunenberg killed by a bomb blast at his home. Harry Orchard, his accused murderer, would spend the rest of his life in prison.
1906-1907 - Trials of the IWW officials for complicity in Steunenberg's murder
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 93-95, "(The Song of Harry Orchard)" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p 585, "The Song of Harry Orchard" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 550, "Harry Orchard" (1 text)
Roud #4105
NOTES [5955 words]: There is a good Wikipedia article about Harry Orchard; there is also a huge book (800+ pages!) about the whole assassination and trial, J. Anthony Lukas, Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America. Orchard's memoir, The Confessions and Autobiography of Harry Orchard (1907), is out of copyright and is available on Google Books and in print in a lot of cheap photocopy editions, although the consensus seems to be that it is utterly unreliable -- and 80% of it covers the period before the assassination anyway. There is also Harry Orchard: The Man God Made Again, by Orchard and Leroy Edwin Froom, which sounds deadly and is from 1952, so it's still under copyright. Frank Steunenberg Jr. eventually published The Martyr of Idaho about his father in 1974; I have not seen it, but one wonders what the son could remember after all that time....
Frank Steunenberg had been involved in Idaho state politics literally from the beginning; he was a delegate to Idaho's constitutional convention, and he was a member of the very first state legislature (Lukas, p. 39; Riffenburgh, p. 263). Curiously, he was a Democrat, even though his father and brothers were Republicans (Lukas, pp. 39-40) -- but that may have been smart, given that Idaho would not vote for a Republican for President until 1904. He early on obtained a spot as Secretary to the Democratic State Committee, which proved a stepstone to the governorship (Lukas, p. 40).
Interestingly, after his term as governor (1897-1901), he seemed to lose his touch. A Senate run failed, and the state Democratic party fell in behind other leaders. He had to scramble so hard to find money that he became part of a timber syndicate that eventually wound up under criminal investigation; he might have ended up on trial if he hadn't been dead by then (Lukas, pp. 744-745).
Steunenberg, during his term as governor of Idaho, had made difficulties for the Western Federation of Miners -- a group that had already suffered in and been effectively driven out of Colorado (Riffenburgh, p. 254). He was certainly heavily involved in business; he and his brothers owned and managed a bank, and Frank also owned a large farm, plus he lived on another, smaller, farm with a very large house and a servant (Lukas, pp. 16-17). And he had a lot of real estate involvement. Lukas, p. 39, estimates his net worth at $55,000 -- and that's 1905 gold dollars, so he would be worth substantially more than a million dollars today.
I find it interesting that the wife he had married in 1885, Eveline Belle Keppel, was his first cousin (Lukas, p. 30) -- and she ended up a religious fanatic; some of her relations thought she had "gone off the deep end," and it is said that she had given up "conjugal relations" with her husband because of her faith (Lukas, p. 88). Steunenberg himself did not follow in her religious bent, but one wonders if he might not have had a tendency toward fanaticism in pursuit of wealth.
Idaho's economy was largely driven by mining. The Pinkertons -- who by this time were more a corporate security firm than an investigative agency -- had been involved in the Idaho mining region since the early 1890s, when agent Charles Angelo Siringo infiltrated the mine organizations (Lukas, p. 102). He had helped tip the owners off to an upcoming labor action that had looked like it would work -- until President Benjamin Harrison had sent in the troops (Lukas, p. 103). The outgunned miners had seen little choice but to form a larger union, the Western Federation of Miners (Lukas, p. 104).
It was in this volatile climate that Frank Steunenberg had run for governor. The Populists were strong in the state -- they had actually taken the state in the 1892 Presidential election (PresElections, p. 1784) -- so the Democrats and Populists formed a fusion ticket in 1896, with the Democrats being allocated the governorship and several down-ballot offices and the Populists being allowed the state's one congressman and being promised the senate seat (Lukas, p. 107) if the combined party won the legislature, which at that time was still responsible for naming Senators. Steunenberg was a Democrat, not a Populist, but he was a believer in Free Silver, so the Free Silver forces that supported William Jennings Bryan thought they could accept him (Lukas, p. 107). It was a big year for the fusion ticket; they took more than 75% of the Presidential votes (PresElections, p. 1874), and Steunenberg's margin was comparable (22096 to 6441); the fusion ticket also won all but one seat in the state legislature (Lukas, p. 108). That proved to be the easy part for the coalition.... The labor violence continued in northern Idaho, and the Populists and Democrats split. Steunenberg won re-election in 1898, but this time, it was a close contest (Lukas, p. 109; Riffenburgh, p. 263, attributes his survival to pro-Silver Republicans who backed him against their party).
When the Western Federation of Miners had struck against the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mine Company in 1899, and blew up a mine plant (Lukas, pp. 113-115, Riffenburgh, p. 263), "Steunenberg obtained Federal troops [most of the National Guard was away fighting the Spanish-American War] under the command of Gen. H. C. Merriam, and martial law was declared. Many union participants fled to British Columbia or Montana, but hundreds of miners were gathered up and put in 'bullpens'.... With the presence of the troops, the WFM was nearly forced out of existence. No one could work in the mines unless they signed an oath declaring that they did not belong to the WFM and that they had not participated in the bombings" (Peterson, p. 111).
Merriam, who had served since the Civil War, brought in eight companies of Black troops plus some odds and ends to control the violence (Lukas, pp. 117-118). He, and the governor's political operatives in charge, acted with extraordinary repressiveness, depopulating a whole miners' town and sending hundreds upon hundreds of men to what was, in effect, a concentration camp (Lukas, pp. 143-147). The miners had been violent; the response was, by the sound of it, even worse. And Steunenberg, although he denied that he was opposed to organized labor, told a reporter that he intended to "totally eradicate from this community a class of criminals who have for years been committing murders and other crimes in open violation of the law" (Lukas, p. 147).
And yet, when the actual criminal justice system started to look at the rounded-up miners, it charged only thirteen and convicted only ten, and those on minor charges (Lukas, p. 149). Undoubtedly there were some men who should have been charged with sabotage and destruction of property, but most of those imprisoned were innocent.
Of course, a few minor convictions were not very satisfying, so Steunenberg and others insisted on trying for something bigger. Helped by a $32,000 contribution by the mine owners to the prosecution, and despite a complete lack of direct culpatory evidence, the first man tried, "[Paul] Corcoran got seventeen years at hard labor -- an object lesson in the dangers of aggressive unionism in the Steunenberg era" (Lukas, p. 149. Fortunately, the eight who were next in line to be tried managed a mass escape; Lukas, p. 150).
Steunenberg, the former populist, considered fair-minded, now showed a completely different face, telling a congressional investigation committee that looked into the violence: "I assume responsibility for every arrest that was made in Shoshone County, whether by General Merriam or anybody else" (Lukas, p. 153). Over the next several weeks, Steunenberg received many death threats (Lukas, pp. 153-154). But nothing happened for the next several years.
On December 30, 1905 (ironically, shortly after he renewed his life insurance), Steunenberg was returning to his home in Caldwell, Idaho. Passing through the gate, "As he turned to close it, an explosion split the evening calm, demolishing the gate, the eight-inch-thick gatepost, and the nearby fencing, splintering yards of boardwalk, scooping shallow oval hole in the frosty ground, and hurling the governor [who was no lightweight] ten feet into his yard" (Lukas, p. 50).
His 13-year-old daughter Frances saw the explosion and rushed to his side, with her mother following shortly after. A neighbor also came. The governor was still barely alive; he asked for "Mama" (probably meaning his wife), asked who shot him, and asked to be carried in out of the cold. But he was too heavy to move, and his lower body on the right side was effectively destroyed; both his ankles were broken, and his right arm all but severed (Lukas, p. 53). Moving him would be dangerous (Lukas, p. 51). Eventually they found a blanket, and enough people showed up to get him inside (Lukas, p. 52). I don't know if it's Lukas's overblown rhetoric or actual incompetence, but it sounds like it took a long time to find a doctor. Not that it would likely have mattered. Three eventually showed up, but there was nothing they could do given the knowledge of the time. Steunenberg died at 7:10 p.m. on December 30, 1905 (Lukas, p. 53).
His murder was thought to be in retaliation for his anti-labor activities as governor.
Examination showed that debris from the explosion had flown as far as two hundred yards. Various groups raised a $25,000 dollar reward fund (Riffenburgh, p. 260).
Idaho didn't have much in the way of law enforcement (Lukas, p. 74), resulting in a lot of private investigators getting into the act, but very many people joined up to encircle Steunenberg's home town of Caldwell. Several people were harshly investigated based primarily upon their appearance (Lukas, pp. 55-73),
One of those caught in the dragnet was a man who at first called himself Tom Hogan but was better known outside Idaho as Harry Orchard. According to Lougee, p. 113, Orchard was implicated "rather easily." He reportedly had been hanging around town for some time, spending money and doing nothing to earn it except for talking about purchasing land or sheep (Lukas, p. 68; Riffenburgh, p. 260). Apparently a woman he had been spending time with, Lizzie Vorberg, saw him come in white-faced after the explosion; she suggested that his hotel room be searched. There were enough signs of bomb-making in the room that "Hogan" was taken into custody (Lukas, pp. 69-70).
Later, a search of his baggage revealed ordinary items such as clothing and business cards with Hogan's name -- but also several guns (not too unusual in 1905 Idaho!), explosives -- and two pairs of shoes, one of them still wet, which proved to be the same size and have the same nail pattern as some footprints near exploded Steunenberg gate. There was also correspondence involving the leadership of the Western Federation of Miners (Lukas, p. 92).
Hogan, already a strong suspect, was now considered the likely murderer. But Hogan had no particular connection with Steunenberg. Was there a connection to the miners' union? Under questioning, he admitted to "really" being not Hogan but "Harry Orchard." After first claiming that he had a venereal disease and that he was looking for a place to try to recover, he also admitted knowing the leaders of the Western Federation of Miners. He claimed, however, that the bomb-making materials found in his lodging were instead Plaster of Paris with which to make loaded dice (Lukas, p 95). If you're getting the impression that Orchard's testimony was erratic, you are definitely on to something. Others also thought he was "volatile"; some reporters thought him "sick, depressed, deranged, or flatly insane"; even the Pinkerton detective James McParland worried about him committing suicide (Lukas, p. 409). In the course of the William Haywood trial, it came out that Orchard had several relatives, probably including a grandfather, with mental illnesses (Lukas, p. 700). Lukas thinks this issue to be "silliness," but we now know that most mental disorders have strong genetic component. Orchard clearly didn't have a major mental illness, but it really does seem as if his contact with reality was a little shaky.
Clearly it was a case for detectives. The Thiel detective agency, the most famous other than the Pinkertons, quickly became involved, having been hired by the mine owners, meaning the state got their services at no charge (Riffenburgh, p. 251). But they didn't have much luck extending the case beyond Orchard, so Idaho governor Frank Gooding brought in the Pinkertons (Riffenburgh, p. 267). At this time, the Pinkertons had three departments, based in New York, Chicago, and Denver (Lukas, p. 157), so it was Denver manager James McParland (occasionally spelled McPharland, and he used the spelling "McParlan" in his early years in the United States; Lukas, p. 188; Riffenburgh, p. 166) who got the call. Already he was famous for cracking the Molly Maguires (and, incidentally, the model for "Birdy Edwards" in the Sherlock Holmes story "The Valley of Fear"; for the Molly Maguires and McParland's work, see the notes to "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E25]). It should be noted that he had perjured himself in those trials (Riffenburgh, p. 156. Riffenburgh, p. 345, demonstrates that McParland also perjured himself in the case of Steve Adams, which was related to the Steunenberg case). Also, when he married in 1879, he had robbed the cradle -- he was 35, his bride 19 (Riffenburgh, p. 166). He had also worked to cheat his sister-in-law out of an inheritance, and ended up losing a court case to her about it (Riffenburgh, pp. 169-170). Not someone I'd want chasing after *my* daughter, believe you me!
McParland's first major move was to go to work on Orchard (Chace, p. 174). He was not the first Pinkerton on the scene, but McParland proved the key figure. Having managed, by means that would surely be regarded as criminal today, to get Orchard isolated and mistreated (Riffenburgh, pp. 267-268), then showed up to reason with the prisoner. He pointed out to Orchard that those who turned states' evidence in criminal trials often came out much better than those who did not (Lukas, p. 195) -- and McParland should know, because of all the trials he had helped initiate! He also played "good cop," arranging for Orchard to get better treatment in prison (Lukas, p. 196). And he told Orchard that, while the evidence had him dead to rights (which wasn't really true), the murder wasn't really his fault; the men who planned the assassination bore more moral responsibility (Lukas, p. 197). Clearly he went all out to make Orchard trust him -- and it worked. He also gave the impression, which was false, that a confession to him would assure Orchard's safety. (Remember, the Pinkertons were a private agency; they were not the justice system! They could not offer a plea bargain.)
After their second meeting, Orchard asked McParland to come back the next day (Lukas, p. 199) -- and McParland ended up coming for five straight days, eventually bringing a stenographer. What he got was an incredible confession -- 64 pages written in shorthand! Orchard confessed to killing Steunenberg, and seventeen sundry others; to trying to assassinate the governor of Colorado and several other state officials there, plus the President of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining Company. All this was done at the behest of the Western Federation of Miners, notably President Charles H. Moyer, Secretary/Treasurer William "Big Bill" Haywood, and one George A. Pettibone. He also listed three immediate accomplices, Jack Simpkins (who was already suspected), Steve Adams, and Vincent St. John (Lukas, pp. 199-200).
Lougee, p. 113, adds that Orchard turned out to be to be Canadian and a bigamist.
It didn't take long for Moyer, Hayward, and Pettibone to realize that they were being trailed, and they started hiding -- so McParland arranged for a false report on the investigation to appear in the newspapers to get them off their guard (Lukas, pp. 243-244).
Idaho authorities couldn't arrest the suspects because they weren't in Idaho but in Colorado, and they had been in Colorado at the time of the murder, so Idaho couldn't claim they had fled the state and demand extradition (Lukas, p. 244). They sought extradition anyway, although the paperwork they came up with would not fool anyone who actually looked at it. McParland and the Idaho authorities proceeded to kidnap Moyer, Haywood, and Pettibone -- capturing them in Colorado and putting them on a sealed special train that ran through areas where the courts were closed for the weekend (Lougee, p. 113; Chace p. 175). So concerned was McParland about avoiding the law that he demanded the train go through Cheyenne, Wyoming, at the dangerous speed of 30 miles per hour, and he put armed guards on the train to fight off anyone who tried to get aboard (Lukas, p. 266).
The illegal precautions worked. Moyer, Haywood, and Pettibone arrived "safely" in Idaho, and were indicted for murder on March 6, 1906 (Chace, p. 176). McParland continued his psychological warfare by imprisoning them on death row (Lukas, p. 271). And Idaho's Supreme Court granted the prisoners no redress, basically saying that it didn't matter how the prisoners had been taken; they were in Idaho now, and tough luck that they had been taken unlawfully (Lukas, p. 277). Nor would the very conservative United States Supreme Court step in (Lukas, p. 284). The only way the accused could get off was by being cleared at trial.
But Idaho had a law: You couldn't convict a man on the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice (in this case, Orchard). The state needed at least one more witness -- either Adams or Simpkins. Simpkins seems to have vanished without a trace; apparently it still isn't known what happened to him (Riffenburgh, p. 276). So, at the time they kidnapped their suspects, they also located Steve Adams (who was in Oregon) and set out to bring him back (Lukas, p. 256). As they had with the union officers, they sent an illegal extradition request, but Adams's lawyer told him not to fight it. So he was taken to Idaho (Lukas, p. 294). In a bit of blatant stupidity, the authorities confined him with Orchard (Lukas, p. 295), which raised the obvious possibility of witness contamination. But it arguably worked out well for the state, since Orchard told Adams about the state wanting testimony to convict the mine bosses (Riffenburgh, p. 286).
Which was indeed what the state wanted: the authorities suborned perjury, telling Adams, when his lawyer wasn't present (Riffenburgh, p. 287), that they would hang him if he didn't testify against the labor leaders. He "confessed." To McParland, with detailed prompting from McParland; although Adams mentioned several genuine crimes, he seemed unable to give many details without help (Lukas, pp. 296-297).
Meanwhile, Idaho was bringing in the really big guns to lead the prosecution; James H. Hawley was probably the most experienced lawyer Idaho had, and future Senator William E. Borah the most financially successful (Lukas, pp. 288-290; Borah was also, according to Lukas, p. 291, a womanizer so flagrant that he was reported to have fathered a child on Theodore Roosevelt's daughter Alice, and he would later be indicted in the timber fraud scheme that also involved Steunenberg). The state was so intent on winning a conviction that it broke the budget; the state had to issue emergency "deficiency certificates" (short-term, high-interest, unsecured bonds -- basically, junk bonds) to pay its legal costs (Lukas, pp. 346-347). The situation was so unprecedented that the banks didn't trust the state to repay them, since the state legislature hadn't authorized them (Lukas, pp. 347-348). The bank that bought the largest share of them was run by the mine owners (Lukas, pp. 350-351) -- in essence, the mine owners were paying for the prosecution of the WFM leaders. What's more, mine owners in Colorado were supplying money as well (Lukas, p. 375). Legally, it may not have been vigilante justice, but morally, it came close. Even President Theodore Roosevelt was concerned about the way the state was handling things, making him less willing to support the state should unrest arise, even though he disliked the union agitation (Lukas, pp. 368-369) and clearly thought the WFM leaders guilty.
McParland even planted a spy in the defense's legal team, although he was a support staffer, not a lawyer (Lukas, p. 439). The same fellow, "Operative 21," also was invited onto the Socialist Party's Canyon County Central Committee (Lukas, p. 440), and also spent a lot of time in bars (Lukas, p. 446); one wonders how he found time to report to McParland! Another operative was trying to find witnesses who could be brought in to testify for the defense and turn on them (Lukas, p. 447). Both sides were trying to get information on anyone in the county who might end up in the jury pool. The infiltrators weren't discovered until well into jury selection (Lukas, pp. 536-537), when it sounds as if they had to get out of town fast.
It is interesting to note that Idaho Governor Gooding was afraid of assassination (perhaps with justice) -- so he hired as one of his several bodyguards a convicted criminal nicknamed "Four Gun Jack," who was free pending appeal, as a bodyguard (Lukas, p. 357). Apparently Gooding had no trouble being around criminals -- it was just union men who bothered him. Despite all that pressure, he won re-election during the run-up to the trial (Lukas, p. 406).
McParland also decided he needed a bodyguard, although he was able to use one of his Pinkerton colleagues (Lukas, p. 433).
While all this was going on, Harry Orchard was languishing in prison -- and getting visits from the Revered Newell Dwight Hillis and the Reverend Edwin S. Hinks. Hinks became Orchard's "spiritual advisor", and nudged Orchard in the same direction that McParland had earlier -- and Orchard responded by turning to Christianity (Lukas, pp. 495-497). A lot of criminals, of course, "convert" in hopes of better treatment, but Orchard, who seems to have been impressionable and highly erratic, appears to have genuinely converted.
It will perhaps tell you something about the Pinkerton Agency at this time that they did not rely on the Idaho's prosecutors; McParland hung around to assist, and in no small part to manage, the prosecution (Lukas, p. 516).
Clarence Darrow, however, was by now leading the defense -- he said that he would have liked to avoid it, given the strength of the opposition, but "I do not see how I can get out of it" given the unfairness of the prosecution (Lukas, p. 328). And the union leaders also had cash, supplied by contributions by the miners' organizations -- eventually the WFM made a formal assessment of its members (Lukas, p. 379).
Darrow promised to defend Adams (possibly offering financial inducements as well, although it was never proved; Lukas, pp. 331-332) and convinced him to recant. The maneuvers which followed are almost incomprehensibly complex, with writs flying all over the place, including one instance of Adams being freed by one judge and immediately being arrested again on a different charge (Lukas, pp. 334-335).
The authorities decided to try Adams for the murder of one Fred Tyler, but this trial was held in Wallace, Idaho -- smack in the heart of mining country; the prosecutors ran out of peremptory challenges striking people they thought pro-miner and had to accept a jury that had some "doubtful" members (Lukas, p. 501). The case came down to what Adams said he had done versus what a Pinkerton detective claimed he had admitted to (Lukas, pp. 501-502). Darrow convinced a majority of the jury to acquit (7-5, according to a juror who talked to McParland; Lukas, p. 503). Despite the hung jury, the state decided to keep Adams on the hook -- but they also were working to exploit disagreements between Haywood and Moyer, who were confined together (Chace, p. 177). Of the three IWW officials, Haywood was perhaps the most likely to have been involved; he was originally an officer of the Western Federation of Miners, and later presided over the founding of the IWW. The authorities thought their case against him the strongest, so he was tried first.
In the main trial, the state had two judges leave the case before it finally was tried by Judge Fremont Wood (Lukas, p. 453) -- who apparently was regarded as fair by both sides (Lukas, p. 454). Wood promptly granted a change of venue -- although only from Caldwell to Boise (Lukas, pp. 453-455). This was probably a pretty good compromise -- the prosecution wanted to try the case in Steunenberg's hometown, the defense wanted it somewhere where there hadn't been much publicity. Boise was not too far from Caldwell, and had heard about the case, but it hadn't consumed every news cycle. Plus it was a decent-sized city where many of the lawyers in the case were based; the case wouldn't be quite as zoo-like as it would have been in Caldwell. Even so, they had to rearrange the courthouse to try to make room for everyone who wanted to be there; the capacity was increased from 250 to 300 spectators, with the principals crowded very close together even in the heat of a warm summer (Lukas, p. 520).
On May 9, 1907, the trial got underway, with the judge denying a defense motion to see the evidence against Haywood (Lukas, p. 521).
Darrow, of course, managed everything to his advantage. He even brought in Haywood's wife Nevada Jane Minor (the subject of the Utah Phillips song "Nevada Jane") and their daughters Vernie and Henrietta. Haywood and Nevada Jane (contrary to the Phillips song) were apparently not close at all -- but Nevada Jane was wheelchair-bound, and actress Ethel Barrymore observed of Darrow, "He has all the props, an old mother in a wheelchair and a little girl with curls draped around Haywood" (Chace, p. 178). Hayward's mother was also there, as was Nevada Jane's nurse, and Henrietta would often cling to her father (Lukas, p. 524). The prosecution had evidence of Hayward's infideity, but couldn't present it because the witnesses, although they didn't like Hayward, weren't willing to testify (Lukas, p. 525. Of course, it was irrelevant anyway, but that was unlikely to stop them!).
Jury selection took all of May and a few days into June -- it lasted so long that the state legislature actually put its thumb on the scale, passing a law to increase the number of peremptory challenges (elimination of jurors for arbitrary reasons) for the prosecution, making it easier for them to get the jury they wanted (Lukas, pp. 527-530). Lukas does not state the exact number of jurors questioned, but they were on their third pool when the defense used its last peremptory challenge, meaning that at least 180 were questioned to get twelve jurors (Lukas, pp. 537-538). Twenty were stricken peremptorily, meaning that at least 80%, or 150+, were rejected for cause (either bias or incompetence). They ended up with a jury that was (of course) all white and male, all but one over fifty (mostly late fifties or sixties), and all current or former farmers (Lukas, p. 538). It was a narrow range of occupations -- no one on the jury had ever worked for wages! -- but of course they weren't going to take any miners or unionists, and there weren't too many other occupations in nineteenth century Idaho.
The trial proper finally began on Tuesday, June 4, 1907 -- and Darrow was picking on Hawley from the very beginning (Lukas, p. 550), making him look both pompous (which he probably was) and stupid in his opening statement. The prosecution didn't really even make a specific charge against Haywood; mostly it listed all the things Harry Orchard had done. So Darrow asked to postpone his opening statement, and the prosecution got started by calling witnesses to describe the assassination. This took only a few hours, since there wouldn't be any real argument on this point; on June 5, the prosecution got down to business and called Harry Orchard (Lukas, p. 551).
The prosecutors had been very careful. There had been fears that Orchard would be assassinated, but they kept him safe -- and dressed him up so carefully that the old scruffy petty criminal could not be recognized (Lukas, pp. 551-553; Riffenburgh, p. 326). Orchard proceeded to tell a tale of a drifter's life, which culminated in him becoming a sort of hired assassin for the Western Federation of Miners (Lukas, p. 556). He claimed that, in 1905, Haywood, Moyer, and Pettibone had hired him, and four others including Steve Adams, to assassinate Steunenberg.
(This, to me, raises a big hole in Orchard's story. Orchard's record as an assassin, by his own admission, was miserable. Why, if the WFM had so many violent miners available -- and it appears they did -- would the bosses hire an untrustworthy incompetent like Orchard? It makes no sense.)
The defense lawyers apparently had an internal argument about who would question Orchard, and Darrow lost; Edmund F. Richardson cross-examined Orchard for 26 hours -- and failed to crack him (Lukas, pp. 561-563); it appears that Orchard had already drafted a memoir, and that of course meant that he had his story all sorted out. But, of course, Orchard was just one witness. Could he be corroborated?
The prosecution called additional witnesses and brought various writings into evidence, but not one actually connected Haywood with the murder. When the prosecution rested, defense lawyer Richardson rose to request a summary judgment; the prosecution hadn't proved its case (Lukas, pp. 565-566). Judge Wood rejected the motion -- he explained later that he thought that Orchard was telling the truth but he didn't think the state had produced enough corroboratory evidence. This should have caused him to dismiss the case, but he didn't want to make it look as if he was being easy on the defense. So the case went on (Lukas, pp. 566-567; Riffenburgh, pp. 328-329). Nonetheless, things were looking bad for the prosecution.
A key element of the defense was to bring in an ex-Pinkerton employee to show just how deeply the Pinkertons had infiltrated the Western Federation of Miners. Had the WFM come up with the plot against Steunenberg -- or had the Pinkertons? No one actually said the latter, but the idea clearly hung in the air (Lukas, p. 688).
McParland, who had orchestrated the whole case, was getting justifiably worried. He needed something new, and tried to get Moyer, who was up on the same charges as Haywood, to crack. But the sheriff in charge of the prisoners was a fair man and would not apply the pressure McParland wanted (Lukas, pp. 689-693). Moyer did eventually testify -- but as a defense witness, and he performed well and is thought to have helped Haywood's cause (Lukas, pp. 696-697).
Haywood himself was the last major witness. He admitted to strong disagreements with Steunenberg's policies, denied ever attacking Steunenberg the man, denied Orchard's plots. And, when cross-examined by Borah, he not only didn't give an inch, he seemed to intimidate and outwit the prosecution lawyer a few times (Lukas, pp. 697-700).
"When the defense completed its case on Saturday, July 13, many thought the efforts had done more harm than good" (Riffenburgh, p. 331)
Closing arguments took days, with Darrow giving an amazing argument for the defense and Borah by all accounts a great speech for the prosecution. It took Judge Wood most of an hour to give the jury their instructions (Lukas, p. 720), stressing the need for corroboration and that people were innocent unless proven guilty. The jury argued overnight, and well into the next day. Darrow, Haywood, and Co. were very afraid that this spelled doom; when they were called back, Darrow even told Haywood to prepare for the worst. There was a last-minute mixup when the jury foreman gave the judge an empty envelope. But when it was all straightened out, Haywood was found not guilty (Lukas, p. 722).
Despite the fears on the Haywood team, there had been little chance of conviction; the initial jury vote was 8 for acquittal, 2 for conviction, 2 abstentions (Lukas, p. 723); in the heat and the crowding, the majority eventually talked around the doubters. It sounds to me as if it was really a "Scotch Verdict," that is, "Not proven" -- the jury felt that the state had not offered sufficient evidence to support Orchard's claim, and since Idaho law explicitly said that an informer's testimony had to be corroborated, the prosecution had not met the standard for conviction.
Between paying the Pinkertons and paying for the prosecution, Idaho was out a lot of money (there had been a time when Governor Gooding had worried it would come out of his pocket, until out-of-state sources helped out; Riffenburgh, p. 297), so they weren't willing to give up just because Haywood got off. So they went after George Pettibone, who was more a technical person than a union leader; supposedly he created the materials for Orchard's bomb. Darrow was sick, so the union brought in Judge Orin Hilton (Lougee, p. 114), who would later unsuccessfully defend Joe Hill in his appeal in Utah. Hilton, perceiving that the evidence against Pettibone was weak but that the opposing lawyer was brilliant, decided not to mount a defense, and so deprived the prosecutor of the right to rebut!
And it worked. Pettibone too got off in January 1908 (Lougee, p. 115), and the state gave up on Moyer (Chace, p. 179; Lukas, p. 748, who adds that Moyer promptly pushed Haywood out of the WFM). The state arguably had the last laugh on Pettibone, who had contracted tuberculosis in prison and died not long afterward (Riffenburgh, p. 347) -- but he was officially not guilty. In the long run, the Steunenberg affair was very damaging for the unions, but the leaders were safe.
Then it was finally time to go after Orchard. He alone was punished, being convicted in March 1908 and sentenced to death -- a sentence that was commuted to life imprisonment because of his religious conversion. (According to Riffenburgh, p. 348, Orchard changed his plea from not guilty to guilty, against the advice of counsel -- because the charges he faced meant an automatic death penalty. It was not a plea bargain; the full charges stood. Judge Wood perforce sentenced him to death, with a recommendation to the Board of Pardons for mercy, and the Board granted it.) Although eventually eligible for parole, he elected to spend the rest of his life (nearly fifty years) in prison rather than live on his own, dying in 1954 at age 88 (Lukas, p. 748).
Imprisoned during World War I for opposing the war, Haywood would eventually skip bail and flee to the Soviet Union, leaving his wife behind; having bigamously married another wife, died there in 1928 at the age of 59 (Weir/Hanlan, p. 223).
So did Haywood and Moyer actually order the murder? According to Riffenburgh, pp. 337-339, the jurors all thought so, but concluded that the prosecution didn't prove it beyond doubt. Lukas, pp. 750-754, argues based on letters by others who knew them that they did. But I wonder. Everything still comes down to Harry Orchard's testimony. Without denying Orchard's sincerity on the stand, I really, really question his mental stability. Even ordinary people can create false memories if they are exposed to unexpected information. This process is can be much easier in the case of the disordered. Did Orchard tell his own story, or McParland's? I just don't know. And I doubt we'll ever know.
Among those who covered the trial was Upton Sinclair; it is said that the last chapter of The Jungle alludes to it (Lukas, p. 450).
This is item dE48 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Burt093

Harry Saunders

See Prince Robert [Child 87] (File: C087)

Harry the Tailor

DESCRIPTION: Harry seeks a wife. He tickles Dolly, the dairymaid. She shoves him into the well. The farmer hauls him out. He accused the farmer of knocking him in; the farmer throws buttermilk at him. He tells his mother "If this is your courtin', the devil take all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland)
KEYWORDS: courting accusation abuse farming humorous mother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, p. 455, "Harry the Tailor" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 8, "Harry the Tailor" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 131, "Harry the Tailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HRRYTAIL*
Roud #1465
RECORDINGS:
Bill Westaway, "Harry the Tailor" (on FSBFTX13)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Friar in the Well" [Child 276] (plot)
File: K131

Harry's Courtship

DESCRIPTION: "Harry courted modest Mary... Harry was country neat as could be, But his words were rough, and his duds were muddy." She asks about what he has in the way of pottery. She demands an easy life. He declares he will court Margery instead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection humorous clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 375-376, "Harry's Courtship" (1 text)
ST BeCo375 (Partial)
Roud #2470
File: BeCo375

Hartford Wreck, The

DESCRIPTION: A train is wrecked on near Hartford, Vermont. Passenger Joseph Maigret is fatally injured and discusses his fate with his son.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
KEYWORDS: train wreck father death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 4/5, 1887 - The Hartford Wreck
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 156-159, "The Hartford Wreck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 30-31, "The Hartford Wreck" (1 text)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 272, "The Hartford Wreck" (notes only)
Roud #4136
NOTES [153 words]: There is an account of this incident, somewhat dramatized, on pp. 148-152 of Matthew P. Mayo, Bootleggers, Lobstermen & Lumberjacks, Globe Pequot Press, 2011. Apparently, Train #50 was a night express leaving White River Junction, Vermont. The train was two hours late and Engineer Pierce tried to make up the lost time. On an icy bridge, the train came apart and several cars derailed in the snow.
There were 91 people aboard. 28 of them were killed at the scene; more than thirty others were hurt, often severely. The Central Railroad was found guilty of poor maintenance. Engineer Pierce, for his recklessness, was found guilty of manslaughter.
Flanders et al coments that "'Hartford Wreck' is a good example of an American journalistic ballad. Sadly lacking in the qualities which make good poetry, and not any too singable to boot, it was written for quick salability."
This is item dg36 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: LSRa272C

Harvard Student, The (The Pullman Train)

DESCRIPTION: As the train pulls into a village, a girl gets on and openly sits next to the "tall and stout and swell" (Harvard student). He gets "soot" in his eye; she offers to remove it. They enter a tunnel, and after kissing sounds her earring is found in his beard
AUTHOR: Louis Shreve Osborne?
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (Harvard Advocate)
KEYWORDS: courting train humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 391, "The Harvard Student" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 218-320, "The Harvard Student" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 391)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 109-110, "The Eastern Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 50-52, "In the Tunnel" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 9-10, "In the Tunnel" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 238, "Coming down from Bangor" (notes only)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 87-88 "The Eastern Train" (1 text)
Roud #7617
RECORDINGS:
John Greaves, "Riding Down from Bangor" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #68, recorded 08/11/2021 -- a tiny fragment with no plot, placed here solely on the basis of the title; it might be something else)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Pullman Train
Riding Down from Bangor
NOTES [304 words]: According to Cohen, the 1871 printing in the Harvard Advocate is credited to "S. O. L." It was printed under the title "In the Tunnel." Cohen speculates that "S. O. L." might be a distortion of the initials of poet Louis S. Osborne, who attended Harvard at the time.
His speculation has external support. Having read Cohen's comments, I went looking for works of Louis Shreve Osborne's. I found exactly one in Granger's Index to Poetry, that being "Riding Down from Bangor," in Hazel Felleman's The Best Loved Poems of the American People, p. 515. Which proves to be this very poem. But it may be that Felleman followed the same line of logic; her attributions are not very reliable. I think, on the whole, we have to list this as a "probable" case of authorship.
Jim Dixon brings to my attention "The Kiss in the Railway Train" (words by Watkin Williams, music by C. H. Mackney, published by B. Williams, 1864 -- i.e. seven years before the earliest date which I can currently demonstrate for this song), which occurs in the Roud Index as V20269, typically titled "Riding in a Railway Train." Jim mentions some thematic similarities but also differences: "it is told in the first person by the young woman; instead of her earring being transferred to him, his false moustache is transferred to her! And he turns out to be a purse-snatcher. Also, the verse structure is much different." He wonders about the relationship. I do, too -- I don't think there is direct literary dependence, but there probably is thematic dependence -- there was some story or poem or something which stands behind both pieces. "The Kiss in the Railway Train" almost sounds like a parody of this mixed with "The Charming Young Widow I Met on the Train." But that's all speculation. Further research is left as an exercise for the reader. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R391

Harvest

DESCRIPTION: "Manitoba, Manitoba, Fair thy fields of harvest stand, Mellow light of early autumn Stealing down across the land." It is a land of homesteads where once the buffalo roamed. The people should raise a song of harvest
AUTHOR: Words: Jessie Louise Hetherington / Music: S. Ferretti (1817-1874) (Source: MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba)
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (according to MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba)
KEYWORDS: Canada home patriotic nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba, #15, pp. 88-90, "Harvest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25767
File: Macl015

Harvest Home (III), The

DESCRIPTION: "Let us see how your liquors be." Each lad and lass try the brown ale and strong beer "and welcome the harvest home" Everyone dances to a fiddler's tune. The brown beer drives care away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Lake; see note)
KEYWORDS: harvest dancing drink fiddle music party
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 230, "Welcome the Harvest Home!" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 473)
Roud #1294
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.19(168), "The Harvest Home" ("Oh come let us see how your liquors be") , H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 11(2334), "The Harvest Home"
NOTES [181 words]: "harvest home n 1 : the gathering and bringing home of the harvest; also : the time of harvest ... 2 : a feast made at the close of the harvest -- called also hockey, kirn, mell, mell supper 3 : the song sung by the reapers at the close of the harvest" (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976).
An article describing beer-making quotes the last two lines of this song as "The nut brown beer that will drive away care, And welcome the harvest home "(source: Henry Lake, "A Drop of Good Beer" in M.E. Braddon, editor, Belgravia A London Magazine, Vol. IX (Feb 1873 ("Digitized by Google")), Nov 1872, p. 68).
There seems to be a dance game here: "Now Jack and Sue proposed a dance, It was agreed upon by chance, That they should ha' it on the grass, And the fiddler play them a tune.... Now just before the dance was done, 'Thou art out,' says Dick, -- 'Thou art a liar,' says John, 'The fiddler played it wrong,' says Tom, 'So we'll ha' it o'er again,' Then every lad took forth his lass, And gently led her on the grass ...." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT230

Harvest Home Song (I)

DESCRIPTION: Singer toasts the master of the house, his health and prosperity, and the mistress; listeners are urged to drink up. Cho: "So drink, boys, drink! And see that you do not spill/For if you do, you shall drink two, for that is our master's will"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: farming harvest ritual drink party nonballad worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #14, pp. 190-191, "Suffolk Harvest-Home Song" (1 text)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 150-151, "Harvest Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 591, "Harvest Home - To the Children of the House"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 591, "Harvest Home - To the Master"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 591, "Harvest Home - To the Mistress 1"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 591, "Harvest Home - To the Mistress 2"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 591, "Harvest Home - To the Mistress 3" (5 texts)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 66-67, "The Harvest Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #21, "Harvest Home Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MILLDEE3*
ADDITIONAL: Enid Porter, _The Folklore of East Anglia_, Batsford, 1974, p. 67, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, pp. 128-129, "(We've plougher, we've sowed)"; "(Here's a health unto our Maister)"; "(Now we've drunk our Maister's health)" (3 short texts, the latter two at least, and possibly all three, being this)
Roud #310
RECORDINGS:
Tony Wales, "The Woodcutter" (on TWales1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All of a Row" (theme, floating lyrics)
NOTES [51 words]: This was sung as part of a harvest-supper ritual; each person's cup would be filled as the song was sung around the table. Variants salute other rural occupations, such as woodcutting (cf. the Wales recording). This can be distinguished from other harvest-home songs by the "Drink, boys, drink" chorus. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: RcHaHS1

Harvest Home Song (IV -- Your Hay Is Mow'd)

DESCRIPTION: "Our oats they are hoed and our barley's reaped, Our hay is mowed and our hovels heaped. Harvest home! Harvest home! We'll merrily roar out our harvest home!" "We cheated the parson; we'll cheat him again." ""We'll drink off our liquor while we can stand"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1691 (Purcell's "King Arthur"; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: harvest drink party
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #6, pp. 175-176,245-246, "Harvest-Home Song"; Song #7, pp. 176-177, "Harvest-Home" (2 texts)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 376-378, "Harvest-Home Song," "Harvest Home" (2 texts, minimally related; either may go back to "Harvest Home Song (I)" but as copied appear distinct)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 579-584, "Harvest-Home" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a "Girls and Boys Come Out to Play" text and tune that seems unrelated)
Roud #310
NOTES [219 words]: Josh Andre writes to us about this song,
"[W]hen I saw the words 'Harvest Home,' I was reminded of Henry Purcell's semi-opera (spoken play with interspersed opera-like vocal and instrumental music) King Arthur, which has a pastoral song which begins with the words 'Your hay it is mow'd.' As I looked at each of the index entries for 'Harvest Home Song,' I discovered that the description of 'Harvest Home Song (IV)' matches the lyrics of 'Your hay it is mow'd' very closely, with just a few word differences.
"King Arthur, which has the song being sung by a chorus of peasants led by the god Comus (as part of an Act V 'victory masque'), was first performed in 1691. The index entry gives an earliest date of 1846, which I assume is the date of the earliest known version of the text and/or melody of the piece as a folk song. [It was the date it was printed in Dixon. - RBW.] I wonder, did Purcell -- and John Dryden, the librettist -- compose an original 'harvest song' that passed into the oral tradition and/or was reprinted as a 'folk' piece, or was there a pre-existing song that they appropriated for their play?"
I can't answer that certainly, but if the song didn't change in two hundred years, I'd guess that the Purcell version is original and Dixon picked it up, after which Bell copied Dixon. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: CeCo376

Harvest Home, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come, ye jolly lads and lasses, Ranting round in pleasure's ring... Blythe and merry we hae been, Blythe and merry let us be." The workers are not gathered to gain "warldly gear" but to celebrate now that the harvest is over
AUTHOR: John Anderson of Upper Boyndlie (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: work music party
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #164, p. 2, "The Harvest Home" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 632, "The Harvest Home" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 272-273, "The Harvest Home" (1 text)
Roud #5595
NOTES [14 words]: Greig: ." .. written about the middle of last century, or perhaps somewhat earlier." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ord272

Harvest is Ower, The

See Molly, My Dear (File: GrD4861)

Harvest Land

DESCRIPTION: "The harvest drive is on again, John Farmer needs a lot of men To work beneath the Kansas heat" -- but they won't take the low wages he pays. They don't trust him. The big farmers are found throughout the west, but "I will not be here again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (IWW Songs, 17th Edition, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: farming hardtimes money labor-movement derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 491-492, "Harvest Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9827
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beulah Land" (tune, form) and references there
File: LDC491

Harvest Shearin', The

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell, love, for I maun leave you" "Don't you hear the colonel crying, Run brave boys, keep colours flying." "No more we'll go to the harvest shearin'" or hear the blackbird. Farewell father, mother, sister, comrades and dearie.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: farewell war nonballad family friend lover soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 101, "The Harvest Shearin'" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #1301
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fareweel, Lassie, I Maun Leave Ye
Love Farewell
File: GrD1101

Harvest Song (I)

DESCRIPTION: "When we arise all in the morn for to sound our harvest horn" we'll sing and drink. Our master has us work until Phoebus sets in the west Our master is kind so we will follow his orders Our mistress is as good.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (collected from Jack Dade by Butterworth/Vaughan Williams)
KEYWORDS: harvest drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 55-56, "Harvest Song" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 446)
Roud #2471
File: WT055A

Harvest Song (II)

See Harvest Home Song (I) (File: RcHaHS1)

Harvest Song (III)

See All of a Row (File: PECS015)

Harvest Song, A

See Poor Tom (File: ReSh039)

Harvest War Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "We are coming home, John Farmer; we are coming back to stay; For nigh on fifty years or more, we've gathered up your hay." In response he has called them "tramps and hoboes, and pesky go-abouts." Now, though, they are organized
AUTHOR: Words: Pat Brennan (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest_
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (IWW Songbook, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: worker farming derivative labor-movement
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 498, "The Harvest War Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 211, "Harvest War Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary" (tune) and references there
File: LDC498

Harvey Duff

DESCRIPTION: "Harvey Duff, keep the step, Oh, what's up with you." This could perhaps become a jump-rope rhyme, "Harvey Duff, Harvey Duff, Pay the rent and that's enough."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1881 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: nonballad police jumprope
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 78, "Harvey Duff" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #172, "Harvey Duff, Harvey Duff" (1 short text)
Roud #19325
NOTES [354 words]: The tune seems to me to be close to "The Worms Crawl In."
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "The name became a popular cry to abuse traitors after the success of Dion Boucicault's melodrama The Shaughraun, first produced in 1875. The hero of the play was a Fenian, and the villain an informer -- Harvey Duff, 'a police agent in disguise of a peasant'," quoting The Dolmen Boucicault. "For a time, to call somebody Harvey Duff was like calling him a traitor -- cf. the name Quisling in the mid twentieth century. The constables had grounds for considering the expression offensive when it was systematically applied to them.... The name Harvey Duff survived as synonymous with policeman in the street rhymes of Dublin children."
Zimmermann discusses the arrests in 1881 of children, one six years old, for whistling the tune. He has other reports of people attacked or arrested by police for whistling "Harvey Duff" and of animals reportedly famous for their ability to mimic the tune.
"The arrests for whistling in Newcastle became a national controversy and 'Harvey Duff'" was whistled at every crossroads and every Land League gathering in the country." (source: "Hugh Murray Gunn" and Harvey Duff" quoting Freeman's Journal, February 12, 1881 at Gaelscoil O Doghair site.
As for words... one typical] fragment is included as the description, Zimmermann says "it is likely that many occasional squibs were set to this short air -- and soon forgotten."
Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, (Cardiff,2001), p. 155 refers to the following text "used by the urchins of Dublin to taunt the police ... Harvey Duff, don't take me, Take the fellow behind the tree." "The words would be repeated until either the law gave chase or the game was abandoned for lack of action." - BS
I'm far from sure that the jump-rope rhyme cited by Abrahams is the same as Zimmerman's song, but they're both fragments, they're both from Ireland, and they both involve Harvey Duff, so I've listed them together until more texts of one or the other turns up. - RBW
For background on Dion Boucicault, see the notes to "Cruiskeen Lawn." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Zimm078

Harvey Logan [Laws E21]

DESCRIPTION: Harvey Logan, pool player, gambler, and brawler, comes to the attention of the police after a gaming fight. Arrested following a gun battle, be escapes from Knoxville by taking the jailer hostage and riding off on the sheriff's horse
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Byrd Moore)
KEYWORDS: gambling prison escape
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 8, 1904 - Probable date of the death of Harvey Logan
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws E21, "Harvey Logan"
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #41, "Harvey Logan" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 326-328, "Harvey Logan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 195-196, "Harvey Logan" (1 text)
DT 790, HARVLOGN
Roud #2250
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "Harvey Logan" (on Boggs1, BoggsCD1)
Byrd Moore, "Harvey Logan" (Gennett 6549, 1928)
NOTES [2748 words]: If anyone was born to be a habitual criminal, it was probably Harvey Logan. Most of the little we know about his early years seems to come from census records, so there is a lot missing, but Wilson, pp. 2-3, says that the family came from Kentucky, where father William Henry Neville Logan was born in 1834 and mother Eliza Jane Johnson was born in 1838. Their first child, James, was born in Kentucky in 1860; soon after they moved to Iowa. Children born after that were Henry ("Hank") in 1862, Harvey in 1867 (O'Neal, entry on Logan, says 1865, in Tama, Iowa), daughter Arda ("Allie") in 1868 (although Wilson on p. 15 implies she was born in 1863), John in 1870, and Lorenzo ("Lonie" or "Lonnie") in 1872. They also had a number of children stillborn or died as infants.
The father then moved to a farm in Missouri -- possibly not all at once; father William and eldest son James may have departed, or even fled the family. We know that William and James were in the Albany, Missouri jail in 1880; the crime they committed is unknown, but William seems to have been both irresponsible and reckless.
Mother Eliza died in childbirth around 1876, not yet age 40. With an unreliable father and a dead mother, the children had to be taken in by relatives -- and may have had to locate them themselves; Wilson thinks that Arda Logan, not yet fifteen years old, may have reached out to an aunt. Because none of their relatives had much money, the children had to be split up, generally two to a household. Harvey and Johnny are believed to have ended up in one home.
James, the oldest brothe, despite his early troubles, became a successful businessman, dying in California in 1925 (Wilson, p. 4). Hank also seems to have been responsible (Wilson, p. 3). But Harvey, Johnny, and Lonnie all ended up in trouble. Harvey was "reserved and talked slowly" (unlike the outgoing Lonnie and the impulsive Johnny; Wilson, p. 3); O'Neal says he was very dour and a heavy drinker. It's hard to imagine Harvey playing fiddle, e.g. (although he proved to be deeply devoted to music while in prison, he once "squeaked with delight" when a fiddler played there; Wilson, p. 163), but Lonnie was a good fiddler and was popular as a result (Wilson, p. 24); he also played banjo (Wilson, p. 98).
Harvey turned violent at a young age, almost killing another child during a baseball game after the other boy apparently called him by a racial slur (Wilson, p. 5; the Logans were part-Welsh, and most of them had dark hair and eyes).
Although some have thought that Logan adopted the pseudonym "Curry" after George "Flatnose" Currie, a later associate, Wilson, p. 8, thinks he took it at this early date, when he and Hank started their travels -- Hank may have been trying to escape an unhappy marriage, and so started calling himself "Curry" so as to be harder to trace. Since Harvey was younger, and was with his brother, he became "Kid Curry" (Wilson, p. 12). Wilson adds, p. 57, that Logan also used the surnames Roberts, Howard, and Jones as an outlaw -- indeed, he seems to have used new names constantly.
Interestingly, in these early years, Harvey was actually saving lives, saving Jim Thornhill from drowning (a debt that was repeatedly repaid, as Thornhill seems to have helped Harvey for the rest of his life) and bringing home Robert Coburn after he had been crushed by his horse (Wilson, pp. 12-13). No doubt Harvey's strength helped get the horse off Coburn; he was said to be very strong and fast on his feet (Wilson, p. 12).
Over the next few years, younger brothers Johnny and Lonnie also headed west (Wilson, p. 14; O'Neal, gives the simpler story that, at age 19, Harvey headed west with Johnny and Lonnie). They opened a ranch in 1888, with what O'Neal describes as stolen cattle, although their land claims seem to have been legitimate (Wilson, p. 24). O'Neal suggests they worked as hired guns for a time (fighting in the Johnson County War, for which see the notes to "The Blood-Stained Diary"), although the chronology in Wilson does not take Harvey to Wyoming until after the fighting was over in that area. There is a photo of Harvey, Lonnie, and Johnny in the photo insert preceding p. 113 of Wilson; it of course has several other photos of Harvey as well, including one with his girlfriend Annie Rogers. (Probable real name, Beulah Phinburg; Wilson, p. 167.)
(It's not clear exactly what Logan's relationship was with Rogers; Wilson, p. 122, says he encountered her at "Fanny Porter's local bordello." Did he hire her service? Did he help guard the bordello? Little is known about her, as we shall see.)
Johnny Logan got into a fight in this time, and was shot so badly that his arm had to be amputated; there are stories that Harvey committed his first murder to avenge his brother, but this cannot be proved (Wilson, pp. 26-27).
Apparently there were several criminal complaints filed against one or another "Curry" in this period, but juries would not convict. Did the jurors like the Logans? Were they afraid of them? There is no way to know (Wilson, p. 30). But it seems as if Hank was keeping his younger brothers under relative control -- until he contracted tuberculosis. He died at the age of 31, and the rest of the Logans were on their own (Wilson, p. 31). The other brothers would have been in their early to mid-twenties.
In 1895, Harvey's brother Johnny was killed in a very Logan way -- he ordered a neighbor to leave the area. When the neighbor didn't, Johnny came a-shooting, on horseback, with a revolver in one hand and his reigns tied to his stump; little surprise that his intended victim, John Winters, shot more accurately! (Wilson, pp. 42-45). Thereafter Harvey became even more brutal, killing three sheriffs around the west and joining the gang" of outlaws associated with "Butch" Cassidy. Captured at least once, charged with a botched bank robbery, he escaped before he could be tried (Wilson, pp. 63-64).
The Cassidy/Sundance gang was known as "The Wild Bunch," It was not a fixed group, but "One was Harvey Logan, a rough cowboy and cattle thief originally from Iowa, but who had lived in Missouri, Texas, Colorado, and numerous other parts of the West. In 1895 Logan fled to Wyoming from Landusky, Montana, after killing the man for whom the town had been named. One story was that Pike Landusky had started a brawl over Logan's attraction to his daughter -- only for her to acknowledge after her father's death that she was pregnant by Logan's brother Lonnie. Also known by the alias Kid Curry, Logan was the smallest of the bunch -- at five feet seven and a half inches and about 145 to 150 pounds -- but he was also the most violent, and before he joined up with the Wild Bunch he and Lonnie had ridden with the feared train robber and murderer Tom 'Black Jack' Ketchum" (Riffenburgh, p. 226).
Logan certainly took part in many robberies alongside other members of the "Wild Bunch." In 1897, in Montana, they were planning a raid, but were overtaken by a posse and Logan was wounded. Several, including Logan and Sundance, were taken captive, but raiders broke them out on October 31 (Riffenburgh, p. 227). Some of the freed men were recaptured, but Logan and Sundance stayed free (Riffenburgh, p. 228). Ironically, the charges against the others were dropped.
It is believed, although it can't be proved, that Logan was one of the robbers involved in the Wilcox Train Robbery of June 2, 1899, one of the most famous of all time, in which the robbers damaged a train bridge and blew up the safe in a mail car, then made their escape (Riffenburgh, pp. 229-230; Wilson, pp. 80-83)).
On May 27, 1900, Harvey and two companions lulled two deputies and killed them. On August 29, he robbed and blew up another train (RIffenburgh, p. 237).
Harvey's brother Lonnie was among the first gang members to be taken out. In early 1900, he went to visit an aunt in Dodson, Missouri, where the Pinkertons located him and came to gather him in. He spotted them and fled but was killed as he ran (Riffenburgh, p. 233; Wilson, pp. 100-101).
Harvey Logan, meanwhile, continued his wild behavior. On November 21, 1900, he, Butch Cassidy (real name Robert Leroy Parker), the Sundance Kid (Harry Longabaugh), Will Carver, and Ben Kilpatrick posed for a photo (which can be seen on p. 190 of O'Neal and in the photo inserts in Riffenburgh and Wilson). That may not have been so smart, since the Pinkertons discovered it and used it to make wanted posters (Riffenburgh, p. 240).
The posters didn't cause any problems for most notorious of the Wild Bunch. On February 20, 1901, "Sundance" and his partner Etta Place fled to Argentina; Cassidy probably went with them (Riffenburgh, p. 240). The Pinkertons traced them down, but no one was willing to pay them to try to bring them home; had they been content with their takings, they could have lived out their lives. Instead, they went back to their criminal ways and were killed in 1908 (Riffenburgh, p. 241). At that, they outlived many of the other gang members, including Logan.
Logan had had the chance to go with them, but seemingly refused. He apparently wanted to stay with Annie Rogers and continue as a robber (Wilson, p. 124). This was of course a plan that was effectively guaranteed to result in his eventual death or imprisonment. A Pinkerton named Lowell Spence was now assigned specifically to Logan, although he took a long time to catch up with him (WIlson, pp. 128-129).
In March 1901, Logan killed Oliver Thornton, a neighbor of fellow Wild Buncher Ben Kilpatrick's family. In July, they robbed another train (Riffenburgh, p. 240). Logan appears to have headed south after that, picked up Annie, and gone on on a tour of the South with her, disposing of his captured (non-negotiable, since unsigned) notes on the way. In October 1901, he and Annie took a room in Nashville, registering as "Mr. and Mrs. Logan" (Wilson, p. 143), though there is no record of an actual marriage ceremony. Wilson blames her for taking a lot of the stolen money to a bank to exchange it for clean money. The bankers were immediately suspicious and called authorities (Wilson, p. 144). She was promptly taken into custody, giving her name as "Maud Williams." She was arrested and charged (Wilson, pp. 144-145). There was pretty strong evidence against her -- some of the signatures that had been forged on stolen bank notes appeared to be hers -- but Logan (by then in prison himself) gave a deposition that admitted knowing her but denying that she took knew where the money came from; that plus evidence of ill-treatment in prison caused her to be judged not guilty and released (Wilson, p. 164). It's not clear what eventually became of her; she seemingly tried to sneak Logan a hacksaw blade through an intermediary (Wilson, p. 166), but that failed and she seems to have stopped trying after that. There are no certain records of her thereafter (although there are a lot of contradictory reports); it is at least possible that she gave up on prostitution and went back to her family (Wilson, pp. 166-167).
Logan, who was still free when she was captured, apparently didn't even see her after this, but skipped town to get more of the (stolen) money to hire a lawyer for her (Wilson, p. 145; on p. 146 he lists some of the statements she made -- some true, mostly not -- because a lawyer wasn't around to tell her to keep quiet). But even with Annie in custody, more of the stolen money was being spent -- some in Nashville, some in other places. So it was clear that Logan was still on the loose.
Later in the year, back in Tennessee, he was in a bar in Knoxville when he got into a fight over a game of pool. Two officers moved in to break up the fight. He shot and injured two policemen, both of whom suffered problems for the rest of their lives (WIlson, p. 162), but was injured himself (Wilson, pp. 150-151). With bloodhounds on his tail (Wilson, p. 152), he was eventually captured in Jefferson City, Tennessee (Wilson, p. 154). He was found with about $2300 in cash, almost all of it stolen (Wilson, p. 155).
Logan doesn't seem to have expected to survive. To two policemen who had been relatively kind to him, he gave away a gold ring and his pocket watch (which contained a photo of him with Annie; it would be used against her). He also described his world view to a Knoxville Sentinel reporter: "I never harmed an innocent or helpless man or woman. I believe those large corporations are squeezing the life out of people, and it does no harm to take a few thousand or even a few million from them. When a man gets out and takes his life in his hands and on his nerve robs an express car, he earns what he gets" (Wilson, p. 156).
But Logan got lucky, in a way; he was wanted in several states and on Federal charges, which led to conflicts of jurisdictions (Wilson, p. 165). I would guess that the fact that he went on trial in Tennessee saved him from the gallows. The defense lawyers, in fact, apparently expected him to get off on the Federal charges, but he was found guilty on 10 of 19 counts (Wilson, p. 168). Given a long prison sentence, he escaped in 1903 shortly before being moved to a federal prison, tricking one guard, catching him with the wrapping wire taken from a broom, and then pulling a gun on a second and on a prison employee, using one of them as a human shield, then getting away on the sheriff's horse (Wilson, pp. 168-170).
What happened to Logan after that is not absolutely clear (not that his deeds in the period before his imprisonment are entirely known!); Wilson, p. 175, says, "There are several versions regarding what Logan did next and how and when he died."
The most accepted version is this: On June 7, 1904, he tried to rob another train. He and his confederates were hunted down, and Logan was injured in a shootout. Rather than be taken captive again, he shot himself in the head and died (Riffenburgh, p. 240; O'Neal, p. 184, also mentions him dying after this unsuccessful train robbery attempt, although he omits the suicide and mentions stories of other possibilities). Wilson, p. 182, mentions the same story but says it leaves loose ends -- and it's certainly true that Logan doesn't seem like the type to commit suicide. The body of the man who killed himself was photographed four times, and a death mask made; Pinkerton agent Spence said it was Logan (Wilson, p. 191), and once he came to that conclusion, found others to corroborate the identification. The body, which had been buried, was exhumed and examined -- and was said by some to be missing scars that Logan was known to have had (Wilson, p. 192). But the body was significantly decomposed; some say that this made identification by means of scars impossible (Wilson, p. 193). I think the bottom line is that we just don't know what happened to Logan, though it is not unlikely that he was the man who died on that day. There is no substantial evidence of his existence after 1904 -- but, of course, he was always changing the name he used. If everyone was convinced he was dead, then they would never identify him....
It doesn't really matter in the context of the song anyway, since it opens with Logan in Knoxville in the gambling fight and ends with his escape. At a very basic level, it has the details right, although a lot of the song sounds like it comes from generic bad man ballads. It's not obvious, to me at least, why anyone wrote a song about this little fragment of his life.
The above doesn't begin to cover all of Logan's robberies and murders. Wilson, pp. 204, says that "the National Criminal Investigation Bureau describes him as having had the longest criminal record ever known in the United States until 1910, and that he had accumulated rewards of forty thousand dollars for his crimes." There seems no pattern to his actions, other than the desire to make money; he was just *mean*. But this will give the general idea.
There are at least five books about Logan: Donna B. Ernst, Harvey Logan: Wildest of the Wild Bunch; Frank Bruce Lamb, Kid Curry: The Life and Times of Harvey Logan and the Wild Bunch; Gary A. Wilson, The Life and Death of Kid Curry : Tiger of the Wild Bunch (cited here); Sylvia Lynch, Harvey Logan in Knoxville; and Mark Smokov, He Rode with Butch and Sundance : The Story of Harvey Kid Curry Logan. There are obviously even more about The Wild Bunch. I haven't read most of them; these were not gentleman robbers or in any way interesting. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: LE21

Harvey, Jarvey, Jig, Jig, Jig

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Harvey, jarvey, jig, jig, jig, Went to buy a pig, pig, pig, Went to France to learn to dance, Harvey, jarvey, jig, jig, jig."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Haufrecht, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope animal commerce dancing | pig jig
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, # 173, "Harvey, jarvey, jig, jig, jig" (1 text)
File: AJRR173

Harwich Naval Force Song

DESCRIPTION: "Don't send away the Dido, Don't send her out to see, If you send away the Dido, Then down comes Parkestone Quay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: ship navy
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 81, "Harwich Naval Force Song" (1 short text)
NOTES [197 words]: Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy's informant L. B. Horton said that the Dido was the depot ship for the destroyers based at Harwich in the First World War. Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I (1919; I use the 1990 Studio Editions reprint with modern foreword by Captain John Moore, RN), p. 62 lists the Dido as an 1896 cruiser of the Eclipse class. That, by 1914, made her ancient (she was actually slower than contemporary battleships, which meant she was completely useless at sea). Little wonder she was used as an accommodations ship. It seems most unlikely that she would ever actually have been sent to sea.
Although I have no reason to doubt that this song refers to the Dido of World War I, there was also a cruiser Dido in World War II; that one actually fought (she was the name ship of a class of anti-aircraft cruisers built in the late 1930s and early 1940s, according to M. J. Whitley, Cruisers of World War II: An International Encyclopedia, Arms and Armour Press, 1995, p. 112). This Dido spent some time in the Home Fleet, so she could have been at Harwich for a while (Whitley, p. 114), but probably not long enough for her to become a fixture! - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn061

Has Anyone Seen the Colonel?

See The Old Barbed Wire (I Know Where They Are) (File: San442)

Haselbury Girl, The (The Maid of Tottenham, The Aylesbury Girl)

DESCRIPTION: A girl on the way to market meets a rakish young man, who proceeds to tie up her garter, which costs her her maidenhead. In many versions, she asks his name, and he refuses to answer.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1656 (printed in Choyce Drollery: Songs and Sonnets... Never Before Printed [London])
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex clothes courting
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 176, "The Haselbury Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 41, "The Hazelbury Girl" (1 text)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 49, "Jackie Rover" (1 text)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 162-168, "The Maid of Tottenham" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
DT, HASLBURY* MAIDTOTN* UPSNDOWN
Roud #364
RECORDINGS:
Pop Maynard, "The Aylesbury Girl" (on Voice15)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" [Child 110]
cf. ""The Next Market Day""
ALTERNATE TITLES:
To Market, To Market
Tottingham Fair
The Salisbury Girl
The Ups and Downs
Jack the Rover
NOTES [29 words]: Legman's notes in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, p. 167, terms this "a carefree reduction" of "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (Child 110). The evidence is thin. - EC
Last updated in version 2.6
File: K176

Hash o' Bennygak (Hash o' Benagoak)

DESCRIPTION: Bothy ballad. Humorous description of characters working on a farm. Singer says if you want to find him, he'll be on a herring boat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (collected from Maggie McPhee)
KEYWORDS: farming work humorous moniker nonballad worker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 106, "The Hash o' Bennygak" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1527
File: McCST106

Hat McGinnis Wore, The

DESCRIPTION: ""Good evening to you one and all, Good luck to what I say... I'm going to introduce to you bright memories of your, The relics of old days and scenes, The hat McGinnis wore." McGinnis was killed by the Shannon. Respect his hat lest his ghost haunt you
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1993 (Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs)
KEYWORDS: death clothes ghost
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, pp. 26-27, "The Hat McGinnis Wore" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #22613
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hat Ned Kelly Wore" (derivative song)
NOTES [42 words]: The obvious temptation is to regard this as a version of "The Hat My Father Wore" -- after all, they're both about Irishmen and old hats. It's hard to be certain, since Scott's is the only version and it's pretty short, but I think this is separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: ScCol027

Hat Me Father Wore, The

See TheHat My Father Wore (File: BrdHMFW)

Hat Me Old Man Wore, The

DESCRIPTION: "Good evening to you one and all, Good luck to you I say... I've brought with me a relic Of past happy days of yore." The singer tried to wear it in the Navy, and was not allowed, but he kept it as a good luck piece. Others should not touch it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: clothes navy derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 129-130, "The Hat Me Old Man Wore" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hat My Father Wore" (tune)
File: Tawn096

Hat My Father Wore, The

DESCRIPTION: Paddy Miles comes from Ireland to America. On St Patrick's day he wears the hat "wore for more than ninety years ... From my father's great ancestors." He plans to return to Ballymore with "the hat my father wore"
AUTHOR: Daniel Macarthy (source: broadside LOCSheet sm1876 01751)
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1876 01751)
KEYWORDS: emigration return clothes America Ireland father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland US(MW) Canada(Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1538, "The Hat My Father Wore" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #168, p. 2, "The Hat My Father Wore" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 64, "The Hat Me Father Wore" (1 text)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 165, "The Hat My Father Wore" (2 texts)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 26, "The Hat Me Father Wore" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 206, "The Hat Me Father Wore" (1 text)
Roud #4796
RECORDINGS:
Angus "The Ridge" MacDonald, "The Hat My Father Wore" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1119), "The Hat My Father Wore ("I'm Paddy Miles an Irish boy"), Jones (Sheffield), n.d.
LOCSheet, sm1876 01751, "The Hat My Father Wore!," E. H. Harding (New York), 1876 (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sash My Father Wore (I)" (form)
cf. "The Sash My Father Wore (II)" (many lines)
cf. "The Hat Me Old Man Wore" (parody which shares many of the same ideas)
SAME TUNE:
The Hat Me Old Man Wore (File: Tawn096)
NOTES [367 words]: Zimmermann: "It has been noted that 'much of the pugnacity has gone from the music played on the 12th day of July' [S.H. Bell Erin's Orange Lily, p. 14]; there is a tendency to replace the most violent ballads by innocuous songs such as 'The Ould Orange Flute' or 'The Sash my Father Wore'. 'The Ould Orange Flute' appeared on nineteenth century broadsides. The other song ['The Sash my Father Wore'] is more recent; it was probably the paraphrase of a non-political song, 'The Hat my Father Wore'. A nationalist version, quite different in character but singable to the same tune, appeared in The Shan Van Vocht, August 1896." The "Donagh MacDonagh Song Collection" at tripod.lycos site includes a version of "The Hat My Father Wore" that has the singer exiled "For the joining of the Brotherhood in the year of '64"; the tune for MacDonagh's version is "The Sash my Father Wore." It is clear that "The Sash" is an adaptation of "The Hat," or vice versa.
The author is in question. The sheet music, LOCSheet sm1876 01751, states "words by Daniel Macarthy" with no attribution for the tune. Greig/Duncan8 says "Cf. Walton's Treasury of Irish Songs and Ballads (Dublin, 1947), p. 105. The song was written by Johnny Paterson."
Weldon Thornton, Allusions in Ulysses: An Anotated List, (Chapel Hill, 1982), p. 92, refers to both claims as songs "which must be substantially the same" and goes no further to resolve the claims. - BS
According to Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, p. 331, William ("Billy") Jerome and Jean Schwartz in 1909 published a song "The May My Father Wore on St. Patrick's Day." That can hardly be the original of this, but I don't know how the one influenced the other.
The song appears in Harrigan & Hart's Skidmore Guards Songster, which hints that Edward Harrigan (for whom see "Babies on Our Block") might have written, or rewritten, it, but I don't find it among the songs composed by David Braham in John Franceschina, David Braham: The American Offenbach, Routledge, 2003, so the Harrigan songster just adds to the confusion. Presence in that particular songster doesn't prove anything, though, since it included several pieces not by Harrigan. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: BrdHMFW

Hat Ned Kelly Wore, The

DESCRIPTION: "Good evening to youse one and all, Good luck to what I say... I've brought to you the relics boys, of the good old days of yore, You'll curse the day you trampled on the hat Ned Kelly wore." The singer has searched far but has never found the like
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1993 (Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs)
KEYWORDS: clothes outlaw
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1855 - Birth of Ned Kelly
1880 - Execution of Kelly. His last words are reported to have been "Such is life."
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 26, "The Hat Ned Kelly Wore" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #22612
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kelly Was Their Captain" (subject) and notes and references there
cf. "The Hat McGinnis Wore" (probable source)
NOTES [53 words]: Scott's informant said there was more to this song, which he could not remember. I wonder if it described Kelly's hat -- and if it WAS a hat. One trick Kelly tried as an outlaw was creating a very primitive suit of armor (more like a set of tin cans than actual medieval armor). Could the hat be the helmet from that? - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: ScCol026

Hateful Mary Ann

DESCRIPTION: A confused piece, with hints of stage origin. The singer waits for her love, who is much delayed. She fears bad weather has caused him to stop "with that hateful Mary Ann" "And it's all for the chilly, driving rain. At last he arrives (to her reproaches?)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting betrayal storm
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 144, "Hateful Mary Ann" (1 text)
Roud #6564
File: BrII144

Hattie Belle

See Lonesome Road (File: San322)

Hatton Woods

See The Bonnie Woods o' Hatton (File: Ord185)

Haud Awa, Bide Awa

DESCRIPTION: He asks that she accept him, a shepherd who would "row ye in his tartan plaid," and Highland soldier with a house and meadow and wealth to share with her. She rejects him and "winna gang wi' you" He says he'11 leave. She stops him. They agree to marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting farming money dialog soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #79, pp. 1-2, "Oh, Haud Awa'"; #140, pp. 1-2, "Haud Awa, Bide Awa"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 15, ("Haud awa, bide awa, Haud awa frae me, Donald") (2 texts plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan4 858, "Haud Awa, Bide Awa" (6 texts, 5 tunes)
Roud #6251
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Haud Awa' Frae Me Donald (I)" (format and some lines of dialog)
File: GrD4858

Haud Awa' Frae Me Donald (I)

DESCRIPTION: Donald offers Eppie a plaid, ring and kiss, praises his own thigh and claymore, offers a silver brooch and coracle, cheese and butter, no work or spinning. She rejects each offer: "Ye are nae a match for me." In that case, he says, he'd never marry her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: courting bragging rejection dialog humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 857, "Haud Awa' Frae Me Donald" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 495, "Haud Awa'" (1 text)
Roud #6133
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Haud Awa, Bide Awa" (format and some lines of dialog)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hielan' Donald
NOTES [17 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quoting Duncan: "Learnt from his mother sixty-five years ago. Noted December 1906." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD4857

Haud Awa' Frae Me Donald (II)

DESCRIPTION: Donald asks Jenny to "come awa' wi' me." He asks why she no longer favours him. She says "some fickle mistress you may find will jilt as fast as thee." He claims the report of his infidelity is false and that he spread it. She tells him to prove it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity lie rejection dialog
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 494, "Haud Awa'" (1 text)
Roud #8719
File: WhLa494

Haughies o' Indego, The

DESCRIPTION: On Halloween the Farquharsons, Frasers and Gordons gallop through the lea. Some dance under the moon. "Catherine Gordon was a bride, The laird o' Skene lay by her side." Some go to Skye, some by "Brig o' Dye" and "the laird he had to France to fly"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: sex travel dancing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 620, "The Haughies o' Indego" (1 text)
Roud #6058
NOTES [112 words]: Greig/Duncan3 cites different interpretations. Maybe it refers to 1645, "when contingents were gathering to the Battle of Alford." Duncan says "the verses given seem to me much more like the celebration of some kind [of] gathering for sport or merry making.... The words do not suggest the ballad style of the seventeenth century."
[And nobody mentioned the 1745 Jacobite rebellion? With someone going to Skye, and the Laird going to France? Amazing. - RBW]
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Indego (620) is at coordinate (h0-1,v5) on that map [roughly 28 miles W of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3620

Haughs O Cromdale

See The Haughs o' Cromdale (File: BrHauCro)

Haughs o Newe, The

DESCRIPTION: "As I gaed up the haughs o' Newe And through Strathdon upon my pony," the singer meets a maid so pretty that she makes him lightheaded. She turns him down; he cannot dance and speaks no Gaelic. He wishes he could do more to impress her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1238, "The Haughs o' Newe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 135, "The Maid of Don" (1 text); p. 193, "The Haughs o Newe" (1 text)
Roud #6781
File: Ord193

Haughs o' Cromdale, The

DESCRIPTION: "As I came in by Auchindoun, a little wee bit frae the toon... To view the Haughs o' Cromdale," the singer hears that the Highland army has been defeated. But Montrose refuses to accept defeat, and in a second battle heavily defeats the English
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1819 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1)
KEYWORDS: patriotic Scotland Jacobites battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 30, 1690 - Battle of Cromdale
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 2, "The Haughs of Cromdale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 83-85, "Haughs O Cromdale" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #96, p. 1, "The Haughs o' Cromdale" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 113, "The Haughs of Cromdale" (2 texts, 5 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 546-548, "The Haughs of Cromdale" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth Norman MacDonald, "The Gesto Collection of Highland Music," 1895 (reprinted 1997 by Llanerch Publishers), Appendix, p. 63, "The Haughs of Cromdale" (1 tune)
Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 187-189, "The Haws o' Cromdale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5147
RECORDINGS:
John MacDonald, "The Haughs O' Cromdale" (on Voice08)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(814), "The Hearts of Campbell" ("As I came in from Auchindown"), W. Stephenson (Gateshead), 1821-1838; also Harding B 11(480), "The Hearts of Campbell"; 2806 c.14(66), "The Haughs of Crumdel"
Murray, Mu23-y1:070, "Haughs o' Crumdal," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, RB.m.143(024), "Haughs o' Crumdale," unknown, c. 1890
SAME TUNE:
The Herald's Approach (per broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:070)
On the Restoration of the Forfeited Estates 1784 (_Scots Musical Museum_ #298, to the tune "As I came in by Auchindown")
NOTES [608 words]: Historical accuracy is rarely to be found in folksong, but this piece comes close to taking the cake. There was only one Battle of Cromdale, in which Williamite army of Thomas Livingstone beat the Jacobites under Buchan easily. Montrose (1612-1650) was not involved in any way, having been executed some 40 years before!
John Prebble, Glencoe, Martin Secker & Warburg, 1966 (I use the 1968 Penguin edition), p. 90, says that Hugh Mackay, the Williamite commander in Scotland, "sent Sir Thomas Livingstone against Buchan [who had raised a standard of rebellion on behalf of James II] with twelve hundred horse and foot, and some levies from Clan Grant and Clan Mackay. The Jacobite leader was a brave and romantic fool. He made no proper reconnaissance, and posted too few sentinels. In the first dawn of May, while his army was still sleeping upon the haughs of Cromdale, Livingstone's six troops of dragoons galloped out of the mist, swinging their swords. It was a rout, not a battle.... Buchan [escaped] without hat, coat or sword. Four hundred Highlanders were taken prisoner and the rest went home in disgust."
That being the case, there have been various attempts to determine what battle the song is actually about. The best guess is the Battle of Auldern, May 9, 1645. Montrose, typically, had won a battle at Inverlochy in February, only to see most of his army dissolve. (A large part of his force was MacDonalds, and they were very inconsistent allies.) By May, the Covenanters felt strong enough to attack him. They managed an initial surprise, but Montrose won the day with a counterattack.
In some ways, the story of the song reminds me more of the raid on Dundee a month earlier (April 4-6), though that wasn't much of a battle -- but it did involve an attempt to attack Montrose, which miscarried. This was called a victory in London, but Montrose obviously was around to fight again a month later.
In neither case, though, did the result change the strategic situation much. Auldern came only a few weeks before the Battle of Naseby (June 14), and that much bigger and more important battle settled Charles I's hopes for good and all (though it was a while before people realized that).
Auldern does seem the best fit, but given the strange situation, I would not consider the connection proved. In particular, why conflate it with Cromdale? The latter was not a significant battle in any way; most short histories don't so much as mention it.
The song, despite its inaccuracy, has survived well, but that seems to be mostly because of its excellent tune, beloved by pipers. - RBW
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 8" - 1.3.03 regarding John MacDonald's version of "The Haughs O' Cromdale": "It was a complete shambles, prefiguring the Battle of the Boyne fought two months later, and the present song reflects events very much the way they happened. Curiously enough, the first song called The Haughs o' Cromdale to be printed (Jacobite Relics, 1819, vol.1 song 2) makes the battle a Jacobite victory, and brings in the long-dead Montrose to retrieve the day. John's song, recorded 150 years later, is certainly older than the Jacobite Relics rewrite." There are not two songs, but only one (though an argument can be made that the radical difference in outcome would justify splitting them): Hogg's -- and the broadsides' -- version has the reporter "in tartan trews" report the victory for Montrose; MacDonald's reporter simply states
For MacDonalds' men, Clan Ronald's men,
MacKenzie's men, MacGelvey's men,
And the highland men and the lowland men
Lay dead and dying in Cromdale. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: BrHauCro

Haughs o' Gartly, The

DESCRIPTION: "Lang Lowrie o Bucharn He wis there wi's tree o' arn [alder stick] He said he wid them a' govern Upon the Haughs o' Gairtly"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: sports
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 647, "The Haughs o' Gartly" (1 text)
Roud #6070
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Haughs o' Cromdale" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
NOTES [80 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 entry.
Greig/Duncan3 quoting a 1906 letter to Duncan: "[The Haughs o' Gartly] is a description of a New Year game of shinty." "Shinty" is "shinny" or -- in my day -- a pickup hockey game, not necessarily on ice.
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Gartly (647) is at coordinate (h4,v4) on that map [roughly 32 miles WNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3647

Haul 'Em Away

See Haul 'Er Away (Little Sally Racket) (File: FSWB086A)

Haul 'Er Away (Little Sally Racket)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty, with internal chorus "Haul 'er/'em away... Haul 'er away... Haul 'er away With a haul-ey-hi-o, Haul 'er away." Verses are about the "little" girls ashore ("Little Sally Racket," "Little Daisy Dawson" etc.) and their (sexual) exploits
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty bawdy sex whore
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 315-317, "Haul 'Er Away" (2 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 237-239]
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 86, "Little Sally Racket" (1 text)
DT, HAULRAWY
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cheer'ly Man" (form, lyrics)
cf. "Tiddy High O!" (character of Sally Rackett)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Haul 'Em Away
Haul Him Away
Sally Rackett
NOTES [158 words]: A. L. Lloyd, in the notes to the recording "A Sailor's Garland," reports that this shanty (to a tune known in Jamaica as "Mr. Ramgoat" or "Hill and Gully") was discouraged in American vessels, though the British allowed it to be sung.
The song shares its verse form, and some lyrics, with "Cheer'ly, Man," but the choruses are distinct enough that we split them rather tentatively. Lloyd, among others, lumps them.
To haul, in nautical terminology, of course means to pull on a rope. "Haul away," according to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, A Seaman's Pocket Book, London, June 1943, designed for sailors newly taken into the Royal Navy in World War II; (I use the 2006 MJF Books edition), p. 42, is "an order to haul steadily until further orders." - RBW
For tunes to "Mr. Ramgoat" and "Hill and Gully" Murray, p. 9, "Hill and Gully" and p. 39, "Missa Ramgoat." The tunes are similar but not identical. Both songs are in the Index. - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: FSWB086A

Haul Am Day

DESCRIPTION: Call and response. Mother has gone to the mountain to bring home yellow plantain. "Haul am day," is the response.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: work food nonballad worksong children mother
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 36, "Haul Am Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [44 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "As the lumber-men toil in the deep forest pulling the heavy logs out to level ground where sawyers will cut them up into board, they sing the praise of the mother who works as hard as the men to bring home the best to the children." - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: ElTo036

Haul Away, Boys, Haul Away

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Oh, Haul away an' let's get goin', boys. Haul away, boys, haul away! Oh, Haul away for merchant's money, boys. Haul away, boys, haul away!" No particular story line, but several verses have references to Cuba and sugar.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong animal
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 357-358, "Haul Away, Boys, Haul Away" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 269-270]
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 111-113, "Haul Away, Haul Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb" (lyrics)
NOTES [58 words]: To haul, in nautical terminology, of course means to pull on a rope. "Haul away," according to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, A Seaman's Pocket Book, London, June 1943, designed for sailors newly taken into the Royal Navy in World War II; (I use the 2006 MJF Books edition), p. 42, is "an order to haul steadily until further orders." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Hugi357

Haul Away, Haul Away

See Haul Away, Boys, Haul Away (File: Hugi357)

Haul Away, I'm a Rollin' King

See South Australia (File: Doe071)

Haul Away, Joe

DESCRIPTION: Shanty, characterized by, "Away, haul away, haul away, Joe" (or "...haul away, pull"). Some versions tell a story: the sailor has trouble with his Irish girl and goes to sea, or suffers grief from a Yankee girl, or otherwise suffers at women's hands
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (what appears to have been a fragment of the chorus appears in the diary of Mary Bray, probably in 1859; see A. A. Hoehling _Ships that Changed History_, p. 18)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor courting
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 4-5, "Haul Away, Joe" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 76-78, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 41-42, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 75-78, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 358-361, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text plus several fragments, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 270-272]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXVII, p. 32, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 138-139, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 780, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #28, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 93-94, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 208-209, "Haul Away, My Rosy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 30, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text plus some loose verses, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p 36, "Haul Away Joe" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 127, "Oh once I loved an Irish girl but she was fat and lazy" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 145, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 87, "Haul Away Joe" (1 text)
DT, HAULJOE*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Dance the Boatman Dance" is in Part 1, 7/14/1917. "Haul Away, Joe" is in Part 2, 7/21/1917.
Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, pp. 272-273, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, pp. 87-88, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text)
Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 77, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #809
RECORDINGS:
Almanac Singers, "Haul Away, Joe" (General 5015B, 1941; on Almanac02, Almanac03, AlmanacCD1)
Bob Roberts, "Haul Away Joe" (on LastDays)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Haul Away, Old Fellow, Away" (similar chorus)
NOTES [193 words]: To haul, in nautical terminology, of course means to pull on a rope. "Haul away," according to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, A Seaman's Pocket Book, London, June 1943, designed for sailors newly taken into the Royal Navy in World War II; (I use the 2006 MJF Books edition), p. 42, is "an order to haul steadily until further orders."
The Silber text has a verse (also in Shay) "King Louis was the King of France Before the revolution... But then he got his head cut off Which spoiled his constitution."
I have to suspect this is some wag's addition, but it is worth noting that Louis XVI's France did not have a constitution. (If it had, Louis might have survived the revolution.) Louis (1754-1793) became king in 1774, was reduced to figurehead status by the Revolution in 1789 and failed in an escape attempt in 1791 (even though still theoretical head of state!). In 1792, with a Prussian invasion in progress, the Republic was proclaimed (though never properly constituted), and Louis was put on trial. He was guillotined on January 20, 1793. - RBW
Bob Roberts also sang the "King Louis" verse. It's in tFireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, too. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Doe004

Haul Away, My Rosy

See Haul Away, Joe (File: Doe004)

Haul Away, Old Fellow, Away

DESCRIPTION: Halyard shanty. French verses with English choruses "Haul away, old fellow, away." Sailor tells of meeting and falling in love with a girl, but she's too fine for him; sailors only get the trollops. He's sick of it all and is going to ship out far away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Hayet, _Chansons de bord_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty love farewell
FOUND IN: France Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 361-363, "Haul Away, Old Fellow, Away" (2 texts, French & English, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 95, "Haul Away, Old Fellow, Away" (2 texts, French & English, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Haul Away, Joe" (similar chorus)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
C'est en passant sur l'pont de Morlaix
NOTES [58 words]: To haul, in nautical terminology, of course means to pull on a rope. "Haul away," according to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, A Seaman's Pocket Book, London, June 1943, designed for sailors newly taken into the Royal Navy in World War II; (I use the 2006 MJF Books edition), p. 42, is "an order to haul steadily until further orders." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hugi363

Haul Him High-O!

See Handsome Charlie's Sing Out (File: Harl020A)

Haul in Your Bowline

See A Trip on the Erie (Haul in Your Bowline) (File: Wa035)

Haul in Your Towline

See A Trip on the Erie (Haul in Your Bowline) (File: Wa035)

Haul on th' Bowlin'

See Haul on the Bowline (File: Doe009b)

Haul on the Bo'line

See Haul on the Bowline (File: Doe009b)

Haul on the Bowlin'

See Haul on the Bowline (File: Doe009b)

Haul on the Bowline

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Haul on the bowline, the bowline haul!" The lyrics may relate to the singer's friendship with Kitty in Liverpool (or elsewhere), or perhaps complain about a sailor's life.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 ("Once a Week")
KEYWORDS: shanty nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 9-10, "Haul on the Bowline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 75-76, "Haul on the Bowline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 42-43, "Haul on the Bowline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 95-96, "Haul the Bowline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 354-357, "Haul the Bowline" (2 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 266-269]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXXVII, p. 42, "Haul on the Bow-line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 105, "Haul upon the Bowline"; pp. 108-109, "We'll Haul the Bowlin'" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 139-140, "Haul the Bowline" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 167, "Haul on the Bo'line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, p. 54, "'Jolly Poker' and 'Haul on the Bowline'" (1 short text, 1 tune, with one verse of this and one of "Johnny Boker (I)")
Greig/Duncan1 1, "Haul Away Your Bowline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, p. 131, "Haul on the Bowline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 12-13, "Haul on the Bowline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 33, "Haul the Alabama Bowline" (1 text)
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 38-39, "Haul on th' Bowlin'" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #29, "We;ll haul the bowlin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 27, "Haul on the Bowline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 459, "Haul on the Bowlin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 310, "Haul on the Bowlin'" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 87, "Haul on the Bowline" (1 text)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 36, "Haul the Bowline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 38, "Haul on the Bowline" (1 text)
DT, HAULBWLN* HAULBWL2*
ADDITIONAL: "On Shanties," article in E(neas) S(weetland) Dallas, editor, _Once a Week_, New Series, Number 31, August 1, 1868 (published by Bradbury and Evans and available on Google Books), p. 93, "(Haul the bowline, the fore and main-top bowline, Haul the bowline, the bowline haul)" (1 excerpt)
Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Haul the Bowline" is in Part 3, 7/28/1917, one verse only.
Roud #652
RECORDINGS:
Joseph Hyson, "Haul the Alabama Bowline" (on NovaScotia1)
Richard Maitland, "Haul the Bowline" (AFS, 1939; on LC26)
Stanley Slade & chorus: "Haul On the Bowlin'" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Haul Away the Bowline
NOTES [322 words]: Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman says of this song, "Its unusual antiquity is shown by the fact that not since the sixteenth or early seventeenth century has the term 'bowline' been used for any rope on which a shanty would be sung."
Bone-CapstanBars makes this statement even stronger; "'Haul on th' bowlin'... is probablly the oldest song we know at sea. The bowline has not been an important rope since, in about 1500, staysails were put in use to hold a ship on a wind. Before that date, the bowline was doubtless of stout cordage to haul the weather leech of a square-sail forward when the old carrack was sailing with the wind abeam. But, although a bowline of sorts was used in modern square rig, it could be set taut by a hand or two."
The above statements are true if the bowline is indeed a rope (and it would normally be a rope that is hauled). We might mention however that a bowline is also "a quick method of putting a temporary eye in the end of a rope, such as a hawser, or a line passed round a man working over the side. Two hands are required" (Seaman'sPocket, p. 49). Uden/Cooper, p. 253, report that "there are several varieties -- running, on a bight, double and french. All provide a loop or double loop which does not jam, used for securing, lowering or hauling." So perhaps to haul on a bowline is to haul on something secured by a bowlne knot?
Also, StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 59, note a Newfoundland usage, "A length of rope used esp[ecially] to fasten a load of wood on a sled and for hauling"; they cite a mention of a bowline in the song familiar Newfoundland song "Tickle Cove Pond," where people are told to haul on the bowline with all their might. Perhaps Newfoundland preserved an older usage?
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland claims, without citing a source, that this "is said to have been a favorite in the time of Henry VIII" (1509-1547). Shay reports the same, again without a source. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Doe009b

Haul the Alabama Bowline

See Haul on the Bowline (File: Doe009b)

Haul the Bowline

See Haul on the Bowline (File: Doe009b)

Haul, Haul, Haul, Boys

DESCRIPTION: "Haul, haul, haul, boys, haul and be lively, Haul, oh haul, boys, haul. She will come, she must come; haul, boys, haul. (x2) Well, it seems to me like the time ain't long; Haul and be lively, haul, boys, haul."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: fishing work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 226, "Haul, Haul, Haul, Boys" (1 text)
NOTES [27 words]: The editors of Brown suggest that this is a fishing adaption of "Haul Away, Joe." Certainly possible -- but there is nothing compelling about the suggestion. - RBW
File: Br3226

Hauling Logs on the Maniwaki

DESCRIPTION: To the "Derry Down" tune, the singer tells of setting out for the Maniwaki -- a difficult trip. Once the loggers arrive in camp, the song settles in to a routine of describing the members of the crew
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger work lumbering moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #20, "Hauling Logs on the Maniwaki" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4384
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Derry Down" (tune) and references there
File: FowL20

Hauling Wood to Bangor

DESCRIPTION: Singer gets up at five to haul wood to Bangor; he arrives and gets drunk. His father comes to find him. A fiddler plays "The Bells of Old Ireland" and the men dance. To the old women: "Perhaps you done as bad yourself And perhaps a damn sight worse"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: lumbering dancing drink music humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 31-32, "Hauling Wood to Bangor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12475
File: Dib031

Haunted Falls

See Haunted Wood (File: FCW041)

Haunted Hunter, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer, walking toward camp, is joined by a snowshoed figure who leaves no tracks. The singer falls in a snowdrift, to be found with hair bleached white. The other trappers recognize the signs of an encounter with the haunted hunter; all leave the area.
AUTHOR: possibly Billie Maxwell
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Billie Maxwell)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, walking toward camp, is joined by a mysterious snowshoed figure who leaves no tracks in the snow. The singer falls in a snowdrift, to be found the next morning with hair bleached white. The other trappers recognize the signs of an encounter with the haunted hunter, and all leave the area.
KEYWORDS: hunting supernatural ghost
FOUND IN: US
Roud #11521
RECORDINGS:
Billie Maxwell, "Haunted Hunter" (Victor V-40241, 1929; on AuthCowboys, WhenIWas1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bill Was a Texas Lad" (tune)
File: RcHauHun

Haunted Road Blues

See Worried Man Blues (File: BAF890)

Haunted Wood

DESCRIPTION: A white man builds a home near "Haunted Falls." One day when he is away, Indians cast his wife to die on the rocks and burn his home with his children inside. "Now the old man wanders lonely... And the people... Call this place Haunted Wood."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (collected from Buck Lee; printed in JournalOfAmericanFolklore 1954); a related song was in existence by 1863; see NOTES
KEYWORDS: death homicide Indians(Am.) revenge family
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 41, "Haunted Wood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 144-146, "(Haunted Wood)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 34, pp. 190-194, "Haunted Falls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5503
RECORDINGS:
Eva Ashley Moore, "The Haunted Woods" (on Ashley02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Minnehaha, Laughing Water" (approximate subject)
cf. "Petit Rocher" (plot)
NOTES [4816 words]: Speculation about this song has involved hanging some very big coats on some very small pegs.
I had wondered if this was based on a book by Edward S. Ellis, The Haunted Wood: A Legend of the Mohawk Valley in 1778, first published by Chapman & Co. in 1866 and republished as one of "Irwin's American Novels" in 1867 (Johannsen, p. 149), which was also published as The Phantom Horseman in the series "Beadle's Dime Novels," #190. My speculation appears to be wrong (unless Ellis took an existing legend and heavily rewrote it); there really is a phantom horseman in the book.
A different Beadle book sounds closer: Paul Bibbs, The Scarlet Moccasin, or, The Forest Fort's Queen, Frank Starr's American Novels, #44, 1870 (Johansson, p. 158), also published in 1879 in Beadle's Pocket Novels, #136. Johansson's description: "Robert Lorraine, of New Salem, Minnesota, goes on a business trip to Saint Paul, and when he returns he finds his home in ashes and his wife murdered by Sioux. He vows revenge and, after he has killed all of the men taking part in the raid, returns to the east. New Orleans and a trip up the Mississippi are briefly mentioned." But a search of the text does not turn up the word "haunted." And there is no town called New Salem, Minnesota, and as far as I can tell, there never has been. (Incidentally, Bibbs seemed to like Indian warfare in Minnesota; he wrote at least three other books on the topic -- e.g. Johansson, p. 160, lists another book by him, Red-Ax, the Indian Giant; or The River Stockade. A Tale of Border Life, 1872, "Indian warfare in the St. Peter's River country of Minnesota." Another story that looks like it was made from whole cloth)
Still, this bit of fiction fits with other hints about the song. Burt-AmericanMurderBallads (later cited by Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging) quotes her informant's guess that the song derives from the 1862 Sioux Uprising -- now generally referred to by the more balanced name of the Dakota Conflict. I don't think this fits, either. "Haunted Wood" takes place in woods near a waterfall in the mountains. But Minnesota has no mountains; the highest point in the state, although called "Eagle Mountain," is merely a medium-sized hill, 2301 feet above sea level -- and it is in an area occupied by the Ojibwe, not the Dakota. Nor were there forests in Dakota country -- northern and eastern Minnesota were forested at the time of the Dakota Conflict, but the Dakota were prairie nomads; they never lived in the Big Woods!
Nor does the plot of the song seem to match anything that happened in Minnesota. The Dakota Conflict began with a massacre -- but it doesn't sound like *this* massacre. Indeed, Karolevitz, p. 64, says that killing women and children went against Dakota tradition, although there were certainly instances of it during the Conflict. But there was also at least one famous instance of Dakota men giving up their personal possessions to ransom women and children taken captive by militant Santees (Karolevitz, p. 66).
We should note that our records of the Dakota Conflict are surprisingly patchy, due (I think) mostly to bad communications. At a time when Civil War armies transported forces by rail and communicated with each other by telegraph, almost all messages in the Dakota Conflict were carried by messenger, and railroads had no influence at all -- most of Minnesota was still beyond the rails. The first major history of the state, Folwell's, is constantly stressing the rides people made to carry news (e.g. pp. 115, 147). There was a severe shortage of Springfield rifle muskets (Folwell, p. 158), and entrenching tools were even more rare. The whole thing sounds more like the French and Indian War than the Second Bull Run campaign then being fought in Virginia. Most estimates of casualties seem to have been pure guesses. Phisterer lists six battles of the Dakota Conflict on pp. 110-115, but in half the cases describes them only as "Fight with Indians" or "Organizations not recorded."
There was plenty written about the Dakota Conflict, though -- much of it as bad fiction. E.g. Johanssen lists several books in the Beadle's Dime Novels series about the conflict: Edward S. Ellis, Indian Jim: A Tale of the Minnesota Massacre, 1864 (Johannsen, volume I, p. 85, #67); Lt. Col. Hazelton, The SIlver Bugle; or, The Indian Maiden of St. Croix, 1867 (Johannsen, volume I, p. 86, #73); Edward S. Ellis, The Hunter's Escape. A Tale of the Northwest in 1864, 1864 (Johannsen, volume I, p. 86, #75); "Bruin" Adams, Old Zip; or, The Cabin in the Air, 1871 ((Johannsen, volume I, p. 94, #239); Joseph E. Ellis, Dusky Dick; or, Old Toby Castor's Great Campaign. A Story of the Last Sioux Outbreak (Johannsen, volume I, p. 95, #247). I wouldn't be surprised if a story in one of these, or a similar story from other books of the period, inspired this song. (There were plenty of other cheap novels about Indian misdeeds!)
The roots of the Dakota Conflict went back almost sixty years. It was in 1805 that Zebulon Pike "bought" the region at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers (near the heart of what is now the Twin Cities) from the local Indians for a little money and a lot of alcohol and trinkets (Beck, pp. 3-4). Fort Snelling, the first European settlement in the state apart from some old fur trade posts, was built beginning in 1819; at the time, it was the only American government post northwest of a line running from Fort Howard on Green Bay through Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin to Fort Atkinson at the junction of the Missouri and Platte rivers (see the map in Blegen, p. 98). At the time, Americans hadn't even surveyed the Minnesota River; that was done by Major Stephen Long in 1823 (Risjord, pp. 46-48). In 1825, the federal government tried to create a peaceful boundary between the Dakota (Sioux) and Ojibwe (Chippewa). It failed (Beck, p. 4).
The real encroachments on Indian territory began in 1837, when the Dakota were forced to give up all their lands east of the Mississippi (Beck, p. 4; Risjord, p. 56). Then the Federals came up with the idea of reservations. It was the only way to make enough land available to meet migrants' demands. In 1849, when Minnesota became a territory, there were only about 4000 whites in the region. Nine years later, when Minnesota became a state, there were over 150,000 (Beck, p. 5). This was possible only because the Dakota had been bullied into making territorial concessions. By 1858, the Dakota were confined in a tiny area along the Minnesota River from its headwaters to a point somewhat west of New Ulm (see map in Blegen, p. 268). The whole thing was administered from two agencies (known, logically enough, as the Upper and Lower Sioux Agencies).
In return for these concession, the Dakota were supposed to receive a regular annuity. That, plus a conversion to an agricultural lifestyle, was supposed to allow them to live on a territory far smaller than their old nomadic range.
If you ignore the fact that it was destroying Dakota culture, which, frankly, would have had to happen soon anyway, because of population pressure -- even before the great European influx, Beck, p. 15, notes that the big game in Minnesota was largely hunted out; the Dakota, contrary to myth, did not live an environmentally sustainable lifestyle -- the treaty terms were sort of fair. Except for the footnotes. The Indians were tricked into giving up a large part of their annuity to settle alleged claims by whites (Risjord, p. 65). This meant that their income, which should have been reasonably sufficient, kept them in poverty. Jackson, p. 162, observes that "many more... would have entered on the agricultural life had the Government provided ways and means for them to do so." Beck, p. 15, adds that the government had neither improved the land nor supplied the instructors and material to let the Dakota do so themselves; not only did this lack cause resentment, it also caused many Dakota to go back to their old ways.
Even Harpers, p. 283, writing from the perspective of 1866 and with a clear desire that native culture be eradicated, admits that "It was unfortunate, however, that the patronage which the government bestowed upon the Indians was frequently dispensed through agents who took many opportunities to defraud the beneficiaries."
Charles Flandrau, one of the members of the first Minnesota Supreme Court, who also had done some work as an Indian Agent, commented, "Had I been an Indian, I would have rebelled too" (Karolevitz, p. 64).
An Episcopal Bishop, Henry A. Whipple, who had been in Minnesota since 1859, wrote to a new Indian agent, "[The Indians'] history with us has been one of robbery & wrong. Dishonest agents or careless servants have made way with his money, corrupt whites have polluted his home, wife & daughters & blasted his home by the accursed fire water.... An American might blush to ask how it happens that the English govt. have not had an Indian war in Canada this century? how it is we have a new one every year? ... The fault is our own" (Meier, p. 98).
Whipple later wrote, in his preface to Jackson (p. viii), "The Indian Bureau is often unable to fulfill the treaties, because Congress has failed to make the appropriations. If its agents are not men of the highest character, it is largely due to the fact that we send a man to execute this difficult trust at a remote agency, and expect him to support himself and family on $1500 a year. The Indian Bureau represents a system which is a blunder and a crime.... The Indian is the only human being within our territory who has no individual right in the soil. He is not amenable to or protected by law."
Beck, p. 67, tells us that the Dakota were often desperate enough to prostitute their daughters and wives to the soldiers at Fort Ridgely in exchange for food and clothing. On p. 128, he notes that the number of White settlers in the Minnesota Valley roughly tripled from 1860 to 1862, putting even more of a squeeze on the Dakota.
During the conflict, Chief Little Crow would send a message to Henry Hasings Sibley (of whom more below) declaring (as Sibley wrote to his wife), "the reason the war was commenced was because he could not get the provisions and other supplies due the Indians, that the women and children were starving, and he could get no satisfaction from Major Galbraith, the U. S. Agent" (Meier, p. 102).
This was because, in 1862, the annuity payments were late (Carley, p. 6. It wasn't the first time, either; in 1854 and 1855, the payments had been both too late and smaller than promised; Beck, p. 56). It had been a hard winter, and the Dakota were going hungry. The Agencies refused to give them food until the payment came, and trader Andrew Myrick callously declared that they should "eat grass or their own dung" (Lass, p. 128. When Myrick's body was later found, the mouth was stuffed with grass; Jones, p. 212). Even then, many of the Dakota opposed going to war. Folwell thinks that the whole war could have been avoided had the money arrived on time (cf. discussion in Blegen, p. 267). But some young hotheads could take no more.
According to Blegen, p. 260, "On Sunday, August 17, [1862,] four young devil-may-care Wahpetons attached to a Mdewakaton camp were returning from a deer hunt in the Big Woods. They happened to pass the farmstead of a settler in Meeker County [between Litchfield and Willmar]. Their almost incredible names were Killing Ghost, Breaking Up, Runs against Something When Crawling, and Brown Wing; and the farmer... [was named] Robinson Jones. The Indians... decided to kill Jones, went to his house, first requested liquor, were refused, then followed him to the neighboring house of one Howard Baker, where Mrs. Jones was visiting. There... the Sioux hunters first engaged in a seemingly innocent target practice with the white men. The game was a ruse. The white men did not reload after firing at the target; the Sioux did so immediately, then took aim and shot down Baker, Jones and his wife, and a man named Webster, who chanced to be there on a search for land.... The Indians rushed back to the first farm and shot a girl, while the wives of Baker and Webster and some children saved their lives by hiding."
It will be evident, since none of the husbands involved survived, that this could not be the source for "Haunted Wood."
There were few trained troops in Minnesota at the time; most had been transferred east or south to fight the Confederates. The regulars were long gone (something that didn't help Indian relations; most regulars had been replaced by volunteers, who tended to dislike the Dakota more than the regulars, according to Beck, p. 127), and even volunteers were being pulled away as quickly as possible. Malvern Hill, the last of the Seven Days' Battles, had been fought on August 5. Second Bull Run took place on August 30. Antietam followed in September. Braxton Bragg invaded Kentucky in late August. (Jones, p. 191, thinks the Union failures of this period contributed to the Dakota decision to rebel, although his chronology is a few weeks off.)
This meant that, apart from a few under-strength companies, and a larger collection of untrained and unequipped recruits, every available soldier was on the front lines of the Civil War. It has been estimated that there were 7000 Dakota braves in the state at the time. Had they all been organized and properly led, they might very well have taken over the whole western half of Minnesota. As it was, they pushed many settlers off of their homes, sometimes violently. But they failed to take Fort Ridgely, or New Ulm, or most of the other key sites where battles occurred.
Some of the killings of settlers qualify as atrocities (e.g. Jones, p. 203, tells of a child having her leg torn off and being left to die), but most were fairly clean. Stephen Osman, formerly of the Minnesota Historical Society, tells me that the Uprising involved quite a few acts of torture by the Dakotas, but this ended quickly (and I have to note that few of the atrocity stories seem to have been verified). On pp. 109-110, Folwell tells of the slaughter in battle of a company of the Fifth Minnesota on August 18, but those were soldiers. Folwell does observe that many of those who were attacked in the area were German settlers (p. 111). On p. 115, he notes the killing of "nearly... fifty peaceable German settlers" near Milford. The song "Minnehaha," cited below, seems to imply a slaughter of Germans or Scandinavians.
But Folwell also notes that women generally were not killed. Similarly, there was a famous massacre at Lake Shetek in southwestern Minnesota, but men were the primary casualties; Carley, pp. 23-24, lists only widows, not widowers, so again, there were no men who survived their families. Jones, pp. 194-199, tells many stories of attacks on August 18, but again, it was either men or whole families being killed; he tells only one story (p. 198) of a woman (Mrs. Joseph Stocker) being killed when her husband survived. Even in that instance, there seem to have been no children involved.
Still, Jackson, p. 163, states that "For three days the hostile bands, continually re-inforced, went from settlement to settlement, killing and plundering. A belt of country nearly two hundred miles in length and about fifty in width was entirely abandoned by the population, who flocked in panic to the towns and forts."
As soon as the Dakota chief Little Crow heard about the Robinson Jones murders, he tried to calm things down. Accused of cowardice by the young bravoes, he took charge of the uprising, but warned his people that "Yes, [the whites] fight among themselves, but if you strike at one of them, they will all turn upon you and devour you and your women and little children, just as the locusts in their time fall on the trees and devour all the leaves in one day. You will die like rabbits when the hungry wolves hunt them down in the hard moon" (Blegen, p. 261). He proved right.
After a month and a half of shifting fortunes, the Union finally managed to assemble the equivalent of a brigade to take on the Dakota. On September 23, at Wood Lake near Granite Falls, Union forces under Henry Sibley met those of Little Crow. The "battle" was not very well organized (Blegen, p. 274, calls it a "confused and random engagement"; Lass, p. 131, says it was an "awkward standoff punctuated by intermittent gunfire"; Risjord, p. 98, speaks of a "general melee... [in which the Dakota] withdrew after two hours, leaving fourteen dead on the field, among them Mankato, Little Crow's most valuable lieutenant.") Carley, pp. 62-63, says that the whole thing came about because soldiers from the Third Minnesota (which had been forced to surrender to the Confederates and had returned to Minnesota without its officers) went foraging and ran into the Dakota. This let the Union forces stand largely on the defensive -- a tremendous advantage given the technology of the time. They suffered seven killed and 33 wounded.
Little Crow and his forces retreated. Sibley did not really pursue; he wanted the Indians alive, so he could recover their captives (Jones, p. 217). Most of the captives were eventually released.
The Uprising was over. The retribution would follow.
No one knows how many Minnesotans were killed. Folwell p. 391, lists contemporary estimates that from 500 to 800 Europeans were killed, and on p. 392 seems to support an estimate of 644 as being roughly correct. Jackson, p. 163, says "Nearly a thousand were killed." Utley/Washburn, p. 203, declare that "fully eight hundred whites died violently in atonement for the wrongs done the Santee." Carley, p. 1, thinks the number between 450 and 800 but seems to favor the lower end of that range. Karolevitz, p. 64, mentions estimates from 490 to 800. The 800 number may be based on Harpers, p. 283.
Little Crow would eventually be killed in a raid in 1863 (Blegen, p. 281; Utley/Washburn, p. 204, say he was "shot down by a settler while picking berries") but that was after the Minnesota phase of the rising was crushed. The Indians may have had fewer losses at the time, but in the long run, they suffered severely. Carley, p. 1, says that no accurate estimate of Dakota losses in the war can be made; Dakota witnesses later admitted to 21 losses, but it is known that they carried off their injured and dead, and many surely died who were not counted.
In the aftermath, some 1700 Dakota were taken prisoner and held in a concentration camp below Fort Snelling. A military commission "tried" them, but each "trial" lasted only minutes; Lass, p. 132, says that the commission sometimes settled forty cases in a day. It condemned fully 303 to death; Carley, p. 70. President Lincoln, to his great credit, ordered that all but 39 of them be spared; Carley, p. 72. One was later granted clemency, but the other 38 were hung on December 26, 1862; Carley, p. 73.
The remaining Sioux were then mostly forced out of the state, carted by steamship to the Dakotas, and later to Nebraska and other places (Lass, p. 133). The result was a new conflict in the Dakota Territory in 1863 (Jackson, p. 164), with occasional raids into Minnesota. Henry Sibley (who earned a brigadier's commission for his work, according Utley/Washburn, p. 204; although Phisterer, p. 278 notes that the commission dated from September 29, 1862, and expired in 1863) -- eventually led a long campaign through the Dakota region in 1863, adding to the tragedy (Carley, pp. 88-89; Beck, pp. 156-157). Back then, it was called "Manifest Destiny." These days, we have another term: "Ethnic cleansing." The Dakota remember it with bitterness to this day; I have heard them tell the tales of their anger and grief for those confined and often left to die by the banks of the Minnesota River.
Tales of massacres grew in the telling. The local newspapers had printed many false stories of Indian crimes even before the Uprising (Beck cites instances on pp. 46, 132 and elsewhere). During the Uprising, the New York Tribune at one time claimed that the towns of St. Peter, Henderson, and Glencoe had been burned. But of these three, only St. Peter was close to the conflict zone, and even it was some distance "behind the lines." During the conflict, the Yankton Dakotian called for revenge for those who has "seen their wives and husbands, fathers, and mothers and children, butchered before their eyes" (Karolevitz, p. 65) -- even though the conflict apparently had not reached that part of South Dakota.
Bottom line: "Haunted Wood" does not fit conditions in Minnesota during the Dakota Conflict and does not appear to describe an actual incident of that conflict.
That isn't the end of the story, though. Because there is a possible ancestor of this song which has strong Minnesota ties. At the time the Index was begun, there was no evidence that it had gone into tradition, but it has now turned up in the Rickaby collection. But I'm leaving the rest of this as-is for now.
According Dunn, pp. 124-125, "[T]here is at present no reason to doubt that Frank Wood's 'Minnehaha' was the first song by a Minnesota to find local publication.... It followed Wood's initial composition by eight months, appearing in October, 1863. The words -- 'Minnehaha, laughing waters, cease thy laughing now for aye' -- were written by Richard H. Chittenden, a captain in the First Wisconsin Cavalry, who took part in the Sioux Uprising. The song is dedicated 'To the memory of the victims of the Indian Massacre of 1862.' It deals in lurid words the terrors of the Indian revolt and was as close to the Civil War as any of the local music came."
Dunn, p. 124, also notes that Wood was Minnesota's "first song writer"; he published at least eight songs and one march, and taught piano in Saint Paul until he died in 1899. Few of his songs had any success.
Except, perhaps, for "Minnehaha." I have found no certain copy of this (even Dunn did not seem to have access to the sheet music), but there is an item in the John A. Nelson papers at the Minnesota Historical Society, an anonymous poem called "Minnie-ha-ha!" The singer begs Minnehaha Falls to stop laughing ("Minnehaha" is usually said to be from Dakota words meaning "Laughing Waters" -- although it seems in fact to be a generic Dakota word for a waterfall). The poet asks them to "Give me back my Lela's tresses," says, "See that smoke that was my dwelling," and asks, "Have they killed my Hans and Otto?"
The poem is printed on page 100 of Meier. Looking at this version, I find few verbal resemblances to "Haunted Falls," but the two songs are almost certainly about the same incident. In addition, Bessie Stanchfield collected a song "Minnehaha, Laughing Water" from Elma Snyder McDowell of Saint Cloud in the 1940s (I think). Stanchfield's papers in the Minnesota Historical Society archives are fragmentary and do not seem to have a full text, but it seems clear that it was the same song as in Meier. So this song appears to have had some slight hold on Minnesota tradition.
The problem is, as the above outline of the tale of the Uprising reveal, the "Minnehaha" song no more appears to refer to any actual event of the Dakota Conflict than does "Haunted Wood." Minnehaha Creek runs through the western Twin Cities, and Minnehaha Falls is right in the middle of the city of Minneapolis and only a couple of miles from Fort Snelling, the first permanent site of American government in Minnesota. And the name "Minnehaha Falls" is attested on pp. 244-235 of Mayer/Heilbron as having been in common use in August 1851 (before Longfellow published "The Song of Hiawatha"). There are important Indian sites in the area, but all had been abandoned; by the time of the Dakota Conflict, there can't have been many Indians in the vicinity.
Blegen in fact has a map of the "hot spots" of the Dakota Conflict on p. 268, and none are closer to the Twin Cities than Mankato, which would be at least a two day march on foot. The chief battles of the early part of the war were even farther away up the Minnesota River, at Fort Ridgely between New Ulm and Redwood Falls (Folwell, pp. 125-130) and at New Ulm itself (Folwell, pp. 133-143). But Fort Ridgely was defended by soldiers; there were no children there. At the "First Battle of New Ulm" (another German community), only a single 13-year-old girl was killed. At the "Second Battle," 26 European men were killed and others wounded, but there were few if any female casualties. Thus these battles cannot explain the story of "Minnehaha" any more than they can explain "Haunted Wood."
Folwell, p. 124, in fact notes that most of the refugees from the first stage of the conflict headed for the Twin Cities (then three cities, Minneapolis, Saint Anthony, and Saint Paul). Anyone who reached Minnehaha Falls would have been safe.
Plus I haven't found any references to Minnehaha Falls being called haunted. Unless the idea is somehow linked to "The Death of Minnehaha" in Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha." Longfellow's poem seems to have inspired a number communities to adopt the name "Minnehaha." But Longfellow's poem was published only in 1855. That is stretching coincidence to the breaking point.
So we're back where we started. "Minnehaha" may have inspired "Haunted Wood" (I suspect it did), but it still isn't true. On the other hand, so many stories were swirling around that it is perfectly possible that someone told a similar tale to whip up hatred against the Dakota.
I would add that I don't think the rewrite of "Minnehaha" which produced "Haunted Wood" was done by a Minnesotan. It *really* doesn't sound like a Minnesota story to me, and I live in Minnesota. That's not proof, of course -- not after a century and a half. But I do note that "Haunted Wood" (as opposed to "Minnehaha, Laughing Waters") is found mostly in the west, and not in Minnesota.
If we assume that "Minnehaha, Laughing Waters" is the source, we can at least try to see what it might have described. There are other places called Minnehaha around the country. One is a county in South Dakota -- the county containing South Dakota's largest city Sioux Falls, in fact. Sioux Falls, on the Big Sioux River, was settled in 1857 (Karolevitz , p. 41) and temporarily abandoned during the Dakota Uprising (Beck, p. 152, which notes that all but three buildings of the new town were burned in a raid). Could the "Minnehaha" of "Minnehaha, Laughing Waters" be the falls of the Big Sioux in Minnehaha County, rather than Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis? This would explain much. And the author of the poem might not want to call the Big Sioux River after his enemies, and so use a different name.
Alternately, there is a Minnehaha district in Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, associated with an obscure folk Pennsylvania folk song, "Minnehaha (A Lament)." This is a region with woods and falls, although there doesn't seem to be any record of "Haunted Woods" there.
Consider too the Spirit Lake Massacre of 1857. A band of outcast Dakota, led by one Inkpaduta, attacked several households near Spirit Lake, Iowa on March 8-9. According to Beck, p. 43, "When they finished, thirty-four people, mostly women and children, were dead and four other women taken prisoner." (Karolevitz, pp. 41-42, however, says that 42 were killed and four women taken captive; Folwell, p. 402, says that "some thirty" were killed and three taken captive. Although Folwell shows a map of the sites raided on p. 403, and most of the names are English, not German, making "Hans" and "Otto" unlikely names for the children.) Inkpaduta's Dakota went on to attack Springfield, Minnesota (not the same site as the modern town of Springfield; it's on the Des Moines River just north of the Iowa border) on March 26. Army attempts to catch up with him failed (Blegen, p. 265); he fled into Dakota Territory -- perhaps giving the other Dakota more reason to think they could ignore White justice.
Spirit Lake is closer to South Dakota, and to Sioux Falls, than to the Twin Cities. Inkpaduta probably went very close to Sioux Falls in his flight -- and a defensive work was built there to defend against him (Karolevitz, p. 42). All in all, I rather suspect that it was one of the events at Spirit Lake, not the Dakota Conflict itself, which inspired this song.
Reinforcing this is the fact that Inkpaduta was reported to be roaming around the Yellow Medicine River in July 1862 (Beck, pp. 127-128). Stories of his outrages five years earlier would readily mix with the reports of the actual troubles of 1862.
I emphasize that all of this is extremely speculative. Still, I think the likelihood high that "Haunted Wood/Haunted Falls" is a rewrite of "Minnehaha, Laughing Waters," with the local Minnesota references deleted, perhaps to justify some local action against Indians. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: FCW041

Hava Na Shira

See Hava Nashira (Come, Let's Be Singing) (File: ACSF443N)

Hava Nagila

DESCRIPTION: Modern Hebrew: "Hava nagila (x3) venis mecha. Hava neranena (x3), venis mecha. Uru, uru achim, Uru achim belev sameach." Hearers are urged to be merry
AUTHOR: unknown (reworked by Abraham Z. Idelsohn; see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (tune collected by Idelsohn, who apparently set the words in 1918)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 443, "Hava Nagila" (notes only)
DT, HAVANAGI
NOTES [227 words]: Not exactly a folk song by origin, but now so popular that it may qualify in practice. And its roots are "folky." Frankly, however, I included it only because I found the following information on p. 16 of Irene Heskes, Passport to Jewish Music: Its History, Traditions, and Culture, originally published as #33 in Contributions to the Study of Music and Dance, 1994 (I use the 1995? Tara Publications paperback edition):
"Abraham Z. Idelsohn [1882-1938] was especially drawn to the works of Hebrew poets, particularly Chayim Nachim Bialik (1873-1934), some of whose poems he set to music.... He compiled a first songster in order to bring good Jewish music into the schools., adapting for educational use many Jewish folk melodies, one of which he renamed as Hava Nagilah (Let us be merry). It was derived from a Hasidic nigun (tune) sung by the follower of the celebrated Hasidic leader Rabbi Yisroel (1797-1850) o Sadigora (Krilovitz), also known as the Rizhiner rebbe (rabbi)."
If I understand Heskes correctly (the text is not very clear), the text of Hava Nagila was first published in Folksongs of the Eastern Jews (Volume 9, p. 200, song #716). Idelsohn had earlier published the tune, without text, as his #155. He had collected it in 1915. But he did not copyright the combination of text and tune, so he is rarely credited with the piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: DThavana

Hava Nashira (Come, Let's Be Singing)

DESCRIPTION: Hebrew round: "Hava nashira hi yatchil et hasher (x3)." English version: "Come, let’s be singing who’ll, then, begin the song?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad music campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 412, ""Hava Na Shira (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 443, "Hava Nashira"/"I Shall Arise" (notes only)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Prodigal Son
NOTES [139 words]: I assume the alternate title "The Prodigal Son" arises from the "I Shall Arise" translation cited by Averill (which I have failed to locate). In Luke 15, the Prodigal Son asks his inheritance of his father, squanders it, finds himself feeding pigs for a pittance too slight even to feed himself, and resolves to return to his home, saying in 15:18 (King James version), "I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee...."
This was a fairly popular basis for hymns, including "Far, Far Away from My Loving Father" (found in several shape note hymnals) and "The Prodigal's Return" by Joseph C. Fisher. It also seems to have influenced some versions of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (I)."
It's an odd alternate title for a song that originated in Hebrew, though! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF443N

Have a Cherry, Have a Plum

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Have a cherry, have a plum, Have a piece of chewing gum, Along with red hot pepper!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food | cherry plum gum hot peppers
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #174, "Have a cherry, have a plum" (1 text)
File: AJRR174

Have a Good Stare

See Stare, Stare, Like a Bear (File: SuSm132B)

Have a Little Banjo Beating

See Go Slow, Boys (Banjo Pickin') (File: R278)

Have a Piece of Barley-O

DESCRIPTION: "Have a piece of barley-o, Barley-o, barley-o, Have a piece of barley-o, Fresh sugary candy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 77, "(Have a piece of barley-o)" (1 text)
Roud #38141
NOTES [80 words]: "Barley-sugar is a transparent, brittle candy, usually in twisted-stick form, still sold in England. It was formerly made by boiling cane sugar in a concoction of barley" (The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition by Lewis Carroll with Introduction and Notes by Martin Gardner, W. W. Norton, 2000, p. 90, n. 2. Barley-guar is referred to in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, chapter IX, "The Mock Turtle's Story," near the beginning of the chapter, in the third paragraph). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI077A

Have Courage My Boy to Say No

DESCRIPTION: Singer exhorts his son, leaving home, to take a righteous path, despite temptation: he should shun "bright ruby wine," for "poison it stings like a viper," as well as "vile gambling dens," rather trusting in God. Refrain: "Have courage, my boy, to say no"
AUTHOR: Words: Ira D. Sankey and H. R. Palmer / Tune: H. R. Palmer (source: Sankey and Moody, Sacred Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (copyright, according to Sacred Songs)
KEYWORDS: virtue warning gambling drink wine nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(MA,Ro,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 148-150, "Have Courage, My Boy, To Say No!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 238, "Have Courage, My Boy, to Say 'No'" (1 text)
DT, SAYNO
Roud #5263
RECORDINGS:
Dixon Bros. "Have Courage To Only Say No" (Bluebird B-7767, 1938; on Dixon04)
L. M. Hilton, "Have Courage My Boy to Say No" (on Hilton01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean" (tune as sung by Jennie Devlin)
NOTES [26 words]: Even Cheney, a Mormon, comments on the "offensive didacticism" of this song. I agree with the message, but it really could have been presented better! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcHCMBSN

Have Fun Our Motto Is

DESCRIPTION: "Have fun! Our motto is, Have fun! Or you will miss A life of happiness While you’re young Remember, have fun Remember, have fun!" "Have friends, believe in them...." "Have faith In God above." "Have love, It's all that's good." But always "have fun"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: friend nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 288, 442, 445, 543, 552, "Have Fun Our Motto Is"/"Our Motto"/"Have Fun, Our Motto" (notes only)
File: ACSF288H

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?

DESCRIPTION: "Have I told you lately that I love you, Could I tell you once again somehow, Dear, have I told with all my heart and soul how I love you, Well, darling, I'm telling you now." The singer describes how much he depends on the other
AUTHOR: Scotty Wiseman (source: Wikipedia -- and a big lawsuit)
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (recording, Gene Autry)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN:
Roud #26487
RECORDINGS:
Frank Vance, "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You" (Piotr-Archive #121, recorded 04/11/2022)
NOTES [46 words]: First recorded by Gene Autry rather than by Lulu Belle and Scotty, and the subject of a major lawsuit before Scotty Wiseman could establish his authorship. There were many other pop recordings (Wikipedia lists more than fifty), but very little that qualifies as truly "folk." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcHITYL

Have Two Prisoners Here in Jail

DESCRIPTION: "(Here we) have two prisoners in jail (x3), Turn about, ladies, turn, turn, turn, Turn about, ladies, turn." "Stole a farner's pretty little girl." "What will it take to set them free." "Yankee dime (or "Hug and a kiss") will set them free."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Owens, Swing and Turn, according to Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty)
KEYWORDS: playparty prison reprieve money
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 112, "Here We Have Two Prisoners in Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12437
File: Spurg112

Have You Any Bread and Wine (English Soldiers, Roman Soldiers)

DESCRIPTION: "Have you any bread and wine, My fairy and my forey, Have you any.... Within the golden story?" More and more wine is requested, until the questioner is told to go away. The two sides declare allegiance to their lords, then prepare for a fight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Thornley)
KEYWORDS: food drink playparty nonballad fight
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,West),Scotland(Aber)) US(MW,NE,SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1600, "We Are All King George's Men" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 40-42, "My Fairey and My Forey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, pp. 24-25, "The Rovers Meet the Winders" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 112-115, "The Roman Soldiers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 75, "Will you give us bread and wine" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 65, "Romans and English" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #178, "Have You any Bread and Wine?" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 507, "Yankee Soldiers" (1 short text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, E.J. Ladbury, "Scraps of English Folklore, VIII. Worcestershire," Vol. XXXV, No. 3 (Sep 1924), #10 pp. 266-267 "The Roman Soldiers" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Leah Rachel Clara Yoffie, "Three Generations of Children's Singing Games in St. Louis,"Vol. LX, No. 235 (Jan 1947), #18 pp. 25-26 ("Will you give us bread and wine, bread and wine, bread and wine") (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Canon Thornley, "Children's Games as Played at Kirkoswald, Cumberland" [1900] in W.G. Collingwood, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archeological Society (Kendal, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, pp. 273-274, "Roman Soldiers" (2 texts)
ST Lins040 (Partial)
Roud #8255
ALTERNATE TITLES:
With Eerie and With Orie
NOTES [232 words]: Hammond-SongsOfBelfast: "This song is represented in hundreds of versions all over these islands, a conventionalized confrontation between two factions. According to Lady Gomme in her magnificent collection of 1894 [Alice B Gomme, Children's Singing Games], the game owes its origins to the ritual forays of the Border country. When two classes of mill worker arranged a ritual encounter in a Belfast street, they obeyed the rules of the games, confontation without contact. In this example, the rovers were aggressors, the winders in retreat."
The Hammond-SongsOfBelfast version has the rovers issue a challenge, the rovers advance, the winders reply, the rovers advance again and the winders reply again. Rovers advance with "Ha! Ha! You had to go.... riding on a donkey" [as in some versions of "Hieland Laddie"]; winders reply with "Raddy daddy and we're not beat yet.... A button for your marley." This seems to have degenerated from something like text Ab of Greig/Duncan 8 1600, "We Are All King George's Men" in which King George's men and King William's men alternate declaring allegiance, having wine, challenging to battle, pointing to a battlefield, and calling for support; Greig/Duncan's text B, "With Eerie and With Orie," with no wine, has a pattern similar to Hammond-SongsOfBelfast: only the sides alternating pointing to a battlefield and challenging to fight remains. - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Lins040

Have You Ever Ever Ever

See Did You Ever, Ever, Ever (File: San329A)

Have You Ever Seen?

See Horse Fly (File: ACSF277H)

Have You Ever Watched a Camp Fire

See Have You Ever Watched the Campfire (File: ACSF337H)

Have You Ever Watched the Campfire

DESCRIPTION: "Have you ever watched the campfire, When the wood has fallen low, And the ashes start to whiten Round the embers' crimson glow.... Tell me, were you ever nearer To the land of heart's desire Than when you sat there thinking...?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: fire nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 337, "Have You Ever Watched a Camp Fire" (notes only)
File: ACSF337H

Have You Heard Geography Sung?

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, have you heard Geography sung? For if you've not 'tis on my tongue. Oceans and seas and gulfs and these All covered over with little green islands."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (copied by Agnes E. E. Kemmerer; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, p. 75, (no title) (1 fragment)
ST ScaSC075 (Full)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Geography Song
NOTES [51 words]: The tiny fragment in Scarborough seems to be the only surviving traditional version of an actual nineteenth century school song. Timothy Warke in 2014 sent me a scan of a version copied out by Agnes E E Kemmerer of Limeport, Pennsylvania (between Allentown and Philadelphia); it is dated January 28, 1880. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: ScaSC075

Have You Not Heard (Our Dear Savior's Love)

DESCRIPTION: "Have you not heard of our dear Savior's love? And how he suffered like a harmless dove?" The singer is reminded that friends are hard to find when one is sentenced to death. Hearers are warned to go to church and to avoid drunkenness and other sins
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (collected from William Philipps Family, according to Raven)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad warning
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 164-165, "Have You Not Heard of Our Dear Savior's Love (Christmas Carol)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2116
File: HRUI164

Have You Not Heard of Our Dear Savior's Love

See Have You Not Heard (Our Dear Savior's Love) (File: HRUI164)

Have You Seen My Baby

DESCRIPTION: "Somebody tell me have they seen my baby I want to know which way did the girl go." She left last night and didn't come back. Now I'm up working hard ... down to the barnyard ... trying to make a living for the cold hard winter time"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (USMississippi01)
KEYWORDS: love parting farming work nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Sonny Boy Watson, "Have You Seen My Baby" (on USMississippi01)
NOTES [51 words]: Though this is treated as a single track on USMississippi01 and, though the playing is continuous, Sonny Boy Watson's tune changes and makes this seem like two songs: the first about his baby leaving and the second about working the farm and thinking, "There must be something better further up the road." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcHYSMBa

Have you seen my love pass by

See The Blacksmith (File: K146)

Have You Seen the Ghost of John?

See Have You Seen the Ghost of Tom? (File: ACSF437P)

Have You Seen the Ghost of Tom?

DESCRIPTION: "Have you seen the ghost of Tom (John, etc.) Long white bones with the (skin/rest) all gone? Oo-oo-oo... Wouldn’t it be chilly with no skin on?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1992 (recording, The Armstrong Family)
KEYWORDS: ghost nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 437, "Poor Tom" (notes only)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Have You Seen the Ghost of John?
Ghost of John
File: ACSF437P

Have You Seen the Sha?

See Better Live Humble (File: AdBeLiHu)

Have you stopped to think when the hearse goes by

See The Worms Crawl In (File: San444)

Haven of Rest, The

DESCRIPTION: "My soul in sad exile was out on the (sea/deep), So burdened with sin and distress(ed), When I heard a sweet voice saying, 'Make me your choice,' And I entered the haven of rest." The song describes how faith in Jesus brings rest and calm
AUTHOR: Henry L. Gilmour
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (according to Morgan; Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors says 1885)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus home
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 218-219, "Haven of Rest" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 202-203, "The Haven of Rest" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 206-207, "The Haven of Rest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4727
NOTES [22 words]: According to Morgan, Henry L. Gilmour was a dentist who too a season off each year to work as a musician and singing evangelist. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: BeMe218

Haw low, here we go!

See Juba (File: BSoF708)

Hawai'i Aloha (Beloved Hawaii)

DESCRIPTION: Hawaaian. "E Hawai'i, e ku'u one hanau e." "Oh Hawaii, O sands of my birth, my native home." The singer urges listeners to rejoice in Hawaii. He hopes for God's blessing on the island and describes its beautiful features
AUTHOR: Lorenzo Lyons (died 1886)
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Elbert & Mahoe, Na Mele o Hawai'i Nie, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 690, "Hawai'i Aloha (Beloved Hawaii)" (1 Hawaiian text plus English translation)
File: CAFS690A

Hawco, the Hero

DESCRIPTION: Jim Hawco drops his load of wood on the railroad track believing that the train has already passed by. Suddenly, the train comes and he risks his own life to take the wood off. He is arrested for his mistake but found in court to be a hero instead.
AUTHOR: M. A. Devine (1857-1915)
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Murphy, Songs of Our Land, Old Home Week Souvenir)
KEYWORDS: recitation train rescue trial
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Hawco, the Hero" (1 text): p. 75 in the 2nd edition
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, compiler/publisher, "(Old Colony Song Book: Newfoundland)," James Murphy, 1904 (available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site; the cover is missing, but I suspect it is a copy of "Songs of Our Land"), p. 73, "Hawco the Hero'" (1 text)
Roud #7298
RECORDINGS:
Charles Dawe, "Hawco the Hero" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [77 words]: According to Doyle, the song is about a true incident that happened in Harbour Main in Conception Bay around 1905. The song also uses the names of judges that were active during the time of the incident. - SH
Note that the date must in fact have been 1904 or earlier, since the poem was published by Murphy in that year. Murphy attributes the poem to M. A. Devine but offers no hint that it is based on an actual incident. - RBW
Dawe's recording is a recitation. - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy75

Hawg Foot

DESCRIPTION: "Shove that hog foot further under the bed, Juliann, don't you hear me? Wish to God that hog was dead! Juliann, don't you hear me." "Here comes Josh, now set him a cheer." ""Howdy, Josh, have you got any news?" They try to hide the hog from Josh
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs)
KEYWORDS: animal food
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 82-83, "Hawg Foot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13914
File: Rich082

Hawk and the Crow, The

See The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat) (File: K295)

Hawke's Engagement

See Bold Hawke (File: LeBe010)

Hawkie

See Ca' Hawkie Through the Water (File: StoR132)

Hawkie Is a Schemin' Bird

DESCRIPTION: "Hawkie is a schemin' bird, He schemes all round the sky, He schemes into my chicken house And makes my chickens fly." Remaining verses and chorus seem to float.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: bird chickens hunting floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 192, "Hawkie Is a Schemin' Bird" (1 text, with the "Hawkie" first stanza, a chorus from "Lynchburg Town," and verses such as "Went up on a mountain To give my horn a blow" and "Climbed up on a mountain... To sweeten Liza Jane")
File: ScaNF192

Hawking

DESCRIPTION: "Now shut your mouths, you loafers all; You vex me with your twaddle"; the singer advises that they get some "damaged rags" and hawk (peddle) them. Other occupations have their burdens, but hawking doesn't require skills, land, or anything else
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: commerce work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 104-106, "Hawking" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: AnSt104

Hawks and Chickens

See Chickee Chickee Ma Craney Crow (Hawks and Chickens) (File: R570)

Hawks and Chickens Play

See Chickee Chickee Ma Craney Crow (Hawks and Chickens) (File: R570)

Haws o' Cromdale, The

See The Haughs o' Cromdale (File: BrHauCro)

Hawthorn Bush, The

See The Hawthorn Green (File: LyCr104)

Hawthorn Green, The

DESCRIPTION: The ballad explains that while a hawthorn's freshness returns even when cut almost to the root a maiden's beauty, once lost, is not refreshed.
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1790 (Ritson); the Cotton manuscript is from no later than the early seventeenth century
LONG DESCRIPTION: A maid marvels that a hawthorn remains so green and asks the tree its secret. The hawthorn explains that the dew renews it year after year even if its flowers and branches are taken. On the other hand a maid "when your beauty once does go Then it will never more be seen." The maid had "thought herself so fair and clean, Her beauty still would ever grow green" but now fears that her already lost virginity will be obvious to anyone who sees her. The next year the maid does not return to talk to the hawthorn again.
KEYWORDS: vanity virginity questions beauty dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 4, "The Hawthorn Green" (1 text)
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 15, "The Hawthorn Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wells-TheBalladTree, p. 279, "Dargason" (1 partial text, 1 tune, said to be the source for this; see Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 63-64, "Oft Have I Ridden Upon my Grey Nag"/"Dargason"/"A Mery Ballet of the Hawthorne Tre" (2 partial texts, 2 tunes, linked to this by Wells [see above])
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 230, "Dargison" (1 tune)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 146-148, "A Mery Ballet of the Hawthorne Tre" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter J. Seng, _Tudor Songs and Ballads from MS Cotton Vespasian A-25_, Harvard University Press, 1978, #38, pp. 82-83, "A mery Ballet of the Hatorne tre" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Cotton Vespasian A.xxv (67), folio 154
ST LyCr104 (Partial)
Roud #1072
NOTES [641 words]: Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2, p. x: "MS ... which includes a song version like 4 "The Hawthorn Green" ..., should have been assigned to the sixteenth, not the fifteenth, century." This corrects a statement at Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1, p. xxxv. Ritson puts his text in class IV, "comprehending the Reigns of Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth [1547-1603]."
Except for differences in dialect, there is no substantial difference between the Chappell and Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 texts; both omit three verses in which it becomes clear that the girl is not a virgin. - BS
Hamer's version has been shortened even more; there is very little left except the description of the hawthorn which renews itself each year.
The British Museum manuscript has an attribution at the end to "G. Peele" (so Seng; others have read it differently), but this was not written by the original scribe and may not be an actual assertion of authorship.
The manuscript involved, British Library Cotton Vespasian A.xxv, is described by David C. Fowler on p. 1778 of Volume 6 of J. Burke Severs and Albert Hartung, editors, A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1500, in ten volumes with continuous page numbering; Volume 6 (edited by Hartung), Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1980 as follows:
"A miscellany of Renaissance carols, 'ballets,' and songs, some with tunes indicated and at least one with musical notations appended (folio 173). The manuscript was copied in the late sixteenth century.... There are various prose pieces in Latin and English, along with prophecies, miracles, and sermons. The songs reflect various moods, from religious piety to secular exuberance. One in particular, 'a mery Ballet of the Hathorne tre, to be sung after Donken Dargeson, is signed 'G[eorge]. Peele' (transcribed by Böddecker as 'G. Poete'), but it is not in the original hand of the manuscript, which is too early to have included anything by Peele."
The DIMEV lists only six pieces from the book, not including this one; it has two carols, Richard de Caistre's hymn, a "Dance Macabre" piece, the Rule of St. Benedict, and a version of "Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon" [Child 178]. The DIMEV being what it is, this list of six is only the items they consider to be roughly pre-1500. Seng lists the materials that precede the section on songs; I have tried to make his list a little clearer:
1. (Penitential) Psalms. It appears these came from a printed copy which has been removed (if I understand Seng, p. xii)
2. Exhortation to Thomas Cranmer from the Pope's Commission (from Cranmer's trial in the reign of Mary I, based on Seng, pp. xiv-xv)
3. About "a peculiar thing" that happened in the time of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Seng, p. xv, calls it "brief notes" on the events of that time.
4. Prophecies by a French hermit
5. A prophecy by a Frenchman concerning May 5, 1573
6. A sermon a man directed at "several Theeves" who robbed him in Hampshire
7. Points of Religion that priests should know
8. St. Benedict's Rule
9. The method of ordaining a nun
10. The songs and carols
These pieces are of very different dates. They aren't even the same size page! Multiple scribes were involved, and Seng thinks it has been misbound. Seng, p. xiv, says that it "shows considerable evidence... of the recusant origins of much of its material" (that is, these items came from Catholics in Britain who avoided giving up their faith after the Reformation). Even if you aren't a folk song scholar, I'd say the only interesting part is #10! (If by some chance you want to know more, see Seng, although I found his descriptions very unclear).
Other pieces in the Index from the Cotton MS. are:
-- Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon [Child 178]
-- When Griping Griefs the Heart Doth Wound
-- The Honeymoon (By West of Late As I Did Walk) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LyCr104

Hawthorn Tree (II), The

See The Hawthorn Green (File: LyCr104)

Hawthorne Tree (I), The

See Katie's Secret (File: R778)

Hawwer reche (Raking Oats)

DESCRIPTION: German game song. "Es rejjert un schneejet, 'Sis kalt schtaermich Wedder...." "It rains and it snows, The weather is cold and stormy, The farmer comes home And gets some cider. Who will rake the oats?" The singer misses his lost sweetheart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage playparty food love separation
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, p. 110, "Hawwer reche (Raking Oats)" (1 German text plus non-poetic translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL110

Hay Marshall

See Rosie Anderson (File: Log392)

Hay Sing, Come From China

DESCRIPTION: "My name Hay Sing, come from China, Me keep a washee shop way down the street." He courts an Irish girl. He and the girl have a fight; the police lock him up. A Mexican steals the girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Western Folklore, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: immigration courting fight | Chinese Mexican racist
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 304, "Hay Sing, Come from China" (1 text)
File: LDC304

Hay-o-My-Lucy-o

DESCRIPTION: "Hay-o-my-Lucy-o, bonnie, bonnie Lucy-o, I'd give this world and all I know, To change and swing my Lucy-o. Here we go topsy-turvy, Round the room we go, hay-o-Lucy-o, Change and swing my Lucy-o."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 51-52=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 177-178, "Hay-o-My-Lucy-o" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7895
File: WOlf051

Hayes Campaign Song

See Hayes's Band (File: Grim076)

Hayes's Band

DESCRIPTION: "Old Sam, you haven't got a man (x3) That wouldn't follow old Hayes's band. Better pay your taxes early in the morning, Better pay your taxes early in the day, Better pay your taxes early in the morning, And follow old Hayes's band."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Helmick's Republican Campaign Songster, according to Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1876 - The Hayes/Tilden election. Samuel Tilden certainly won the largest share of the popular vote, and probably should have won the Electoral College as well, but Republican maneuverings resulted in Rutherford B. Hayes becoming President
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 76, "Hayes Campaign Song" (1 text)
File: Grim076

Haymaker's Jig

See Turkey in the Straw (File: R274)

Haymakers, The

See The Merry Haymakers (File: HHH697)

Haymaking Courtship

See Joy After Sorrow (File: ReSh040)

Hayseed (I)

DESCRIPTION: The hayseed finishes his work and decides to go on a spree. He goes to town and takes an expensive ("five dollars a minit"!) room in a hotel. Before going to bed, he blows out the gas -- and dies of the fumes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: death corpse technology money
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 50, "Hayseed" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HAYSEED*
Roud #12498
NOTES [81 words]: The story of a visitor from the country blowing out the gas in a hotel and dying of the fumes seems to be common. According to Charlie Maguire, it really did happen at least once, to an Indian chief from the Itasca area named Busticogan, who died in 1910 (according to a historian named Bill Marshall). Details are hard to come by, and Busticogan has become largely a figure of cheap folklore. In any case, Busticogan was not on a spree; he was trying to obtain help for his people. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: San050

Hayseed (II), The

See A Hayseed Like Me (File: Grnw060)

Hayseed Like Me, A

DESCRIPTION: "I once was a tool of oppression And as green as a sucker could be, And monopolies bundled together To beat a poor bum like me." The newly energized singer promises to strike back: "The ticket we vote next November Will be made up of hayseeds like me."
AUTHOR: Words: Arthur L. Kellogg?
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Farmer's Alliance, October 4, 1890 edition, according to Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore)
KEYWORDS: political poverty hardtimes derivative
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 60, "A Hayseed Like Me" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 489-490, "The Hayseed" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, p. 67, "The Hayseed" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 484, "The Hayseed" (1 text, tune referenced)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 359-360, "Hayseed Like Me" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 117, "The Hayseed" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Nebraska Folklore, Pamphlet Eighteen, "Farmers' Alliance Songs of the 1890's," Federal Writers' Project, 1938, p. 1, "(no title)" (1 short text)
John D. Hicks, _The Populist Revolt: A History of the Farmers' Alliance and the People's Party_, 1931, p. 168, "The Hayseed" (1 partial text)
Roud #12497
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Hayseed Like Me" (on PeteSeeger13)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (tune) and references there
cf. "Acres of Clams (The Old Settler's Song)" (tune, floating lyrics)
NOTES [136 words]: I've seen versions of "Acres of Clams" which seem to have swallowed this song almost entire. But as it seems to have originated separately, I list it in its own right.
The Folksinger's Wordbook lists this as by Arthur L. Kellogg, and Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore and Hicks's The Populist Revolt: A History of the Farmers' Alliance and the People's Party also attributes it to Kellogg (and says that the tune is "Save a Poor Sinner Like Me"; Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest also lists the tune as "Save a Poor Sinner Like Me" but lists no author). Greenway, however, treats it as a traditional song from the populist movement of the nineteenth century. Certainly portions of it have "swapped" in and out of tradition; the amount of Kellogg influence on a particular version may be open to question. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Grnw060

Hazel Rung, The

See The Wicked Wife o' Fife (File: GrD71283)

Hazelbury Girl, The

See Haselbury Girl, The (The Maid of Tottenham, The Aylesbury Girl) (File: K176)

He Ain't Gonna Jump No More

DESCRIPTION: "'Is everybody happy?' cried the Sergeant looking up. "Our hero feebly answered 'Yes,' and then they hooked him up. Various problems prevent his parachute from opening, "and he ain't gonna jump no more." "Glory, glory, what a hell of a way to die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: death soldier technology
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 122, "He Ain't Gonna Jump No More" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #29393
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune) and references there
cf. "He'll Never Fly Home Again" ("Glory, glory what a hell of a way to die" chorus) and references there
cf. "I'd Like to Find the Sergeant" (subject of death by parachute)
File: Hopk122

He Arose from the Dead

DESCRIPTION: Story of the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. He tells his disciples to meet him in Galilee; he is crucified; Mary comes running to see him, the angels roll away the stone, and he arises from the dead
AUTHOR: Unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 ("The Story of the Jubliee Singers; with their songs")
KEYWORDS: execution resurrection death burial Bible religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(So, SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 49-51, "He Arose" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Willie & Minder Coleman, "He Rose" (AFS 5089 A1, 1941)
Fisk Jubilee Singers, "He Arose" (on Fisk01)
Blind Lemon Jefferson, "He Arose from the Dead" (Paramount 12585 [as Deacon L. J. Bates], 1927/Herwin 93004, 1929; on Jefferson01, JeffersonCD01)
Rev. D. C. Rice & congregation "He Arose Them from the Dead" (Vocalion 1520, 1930)
Congregation of the Wesley Methodist Church, "He Rose From The Dead" [fragment] (JohnsIsland1)
Rev. S. J. "Steamboat Bill" Worell, "He 'Rose From the Dead" (Vocalion 1089, 1927)
Unidentified church parishioners, "Moaning" (AFS 4767 A1, 1941)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Christ Was Born in Bethlehem" (lyrics)
NOTES [19 words]: The common version of this may have been adapted by Blind Lemon Jefferson, but it appears to be older. - (PJS, RBW)
Last updated in version 3.8
File: RcHAFTD

He Brought Me from a Long, Long Way

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, he brought me from de rocking of my cradle, he brought me from a long long way (x2)." "Oh, he shoed my feed for a journey, And he brought me from...." "Oh, he clothed me when I was nacked." "He brought me from the rocking of my cradle."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 246-247, "He Brought Me from a Long, Long Way" (1 text)
Roud #18153
File: KiWa246

He Came from the North

DESCRIPTION: "He came from the North and his words were few, But his voice was kind and his heart was true... So I married the man of the North Countrie." No one is happier with her love than she is with him. She wishes others knew of him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster,)
KEYWORDS: marriage nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster,, p. 169, "He Came from the North" (1 text)
Roud #6548
File: HMHS169A

He Comes Down Our Alley

See Do You Love an Apple? (File: K203)

He Courted Her in the Month of June

See Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now (File: C277RR)

He Hey, Why Do We Pay?

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a youngster my father said, Boy, you're the kind of a fellow the girls will annoy. He hey, why do we pay for something we can't carry away?" Three hundred barmaids weep for the singer. Many people lock their daughters away from him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: sailor sex bawdy royalty father
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 120-122, "(He Hey, Why Do We Pay?)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27883
NOTES [8 words]: I think we need a keyword, "Utterly obnoxious." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: NiMo120

He Is Coming to Us Dead

See The Express Office (He Is Coming to Us Dead) (File: R696)

He Is King of Kings

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "King of kings, Lord of lords, Jesus Christ, first and last, No man works like him." Verses: "He built a platform in the air, He meets the saints from everywhere." "He pitched a tent on Canaan's ground, And broke the Roman kingdom down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute); 1893 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 146, "He Is King of Kings" (1 text) (1 tune; p. 99 in the 1901 edition); Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 151, "Why, He's the Lord of Lords (He's the Lord of Lords)" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 96 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 68, "He Is King of Kings" (1 text)
SongsOfManyNations, "King of Kings" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 57)
Roud #11961
NOTES [116 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "No man works like him" or "No one can work like him. The version Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute calls "Why, He's the Lord of Lords" the verses include the floater "Paul and Silas bound in jail."
The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "He's the Lord of Lords" on page 96, with the note "Fisk Jubilee Collection, by permission" (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 96. - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Dett146

He Knows

DESCRIPTION: "He knows, he knows, my blessed Savior, he knows (x2)." "He knows when I'm up and he knows when I' down." "He knows when I'm weak and he knows when I'm strong." "He knows when I'm sick and he knows when I'm well. "He knows when I'm right...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 163, "He Knows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16302
File: Arno163

He Lies in the American Land

DESCRIPTION: A man emigrates to America, leaving wife and children back in Europe. When he sends for them, they arrive to find only his grave; he has been killed in the steel mill. She cries out to him; his voice tells her not to wait, for he lies in the American land
AUTHOR: Andrew Kovaly
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (collected from the author; Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends; reportedly written in the early 1900s)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation reunion death work wife children worker technology foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 437-438, "Odpocivam v Americkej pode (I Lie in the American Land)" (1 Slovak text plus non-poetic English translation, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 155-156, "I Lie in the American Land" (1 Slovak text with English translation)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 287, "I LIe in the American Land" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: MacEdward Leach and Henry Glassie, _A Guide for Collectiors of Oral Traditions and Folk Cultural Material in Pennsylvania_, Pennsylvania historical and Museum Commission, 1973, pp. 38-39, "Odpoivam v Americkej pode" (1 Slovak text with English translation)
Pete Seeger, _Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Musical Autobiography_, A SIng Out Publication, 1993, 1997, p.118, "He Lies in the American Land" (1 Slovak text, 1 tune, plus Pete Seeger's translation)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "He Lies in the American Land" (on PeteSeeger13, AmHist2, PeteSeeger48)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Have a Father in My Native Land" (theme)
NOTES [180 words]: Many, perhaps most of the workers who made steel in the two great centers of South Chicago and western Pennsylvania were eastern European immigrants. - PJS
I don't know if this is an authentic folk song; Paul thinks so, or he would not have submitted it. Certainly it has the genuine folk sensibility; it's almost a modern revenant ballad. It appears that the original meaning of the last line is "I lie in the American land," but I use the "He Lies..." title because that's the way Pete Seeger recorded it. Seeger, on p. 117 of Where Have All the Flower Gone, recalls learning the song while singing for the International Workers' Order (IWO) near Pittsburg in 1947. A man came up to him and said that he used to make up songs when he was young. Seeger asked the man to teach one to him. The man said that Seeger wouldn't understand; it was in Slovak. But Seeger's companion, Dr. Jacob Evanson, knew Slovak, and was able to take down text and tune. The man was Andrew Kovaly. Seeger eventually came up with a singable translation, which is how most people know the song today. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcHLITAL

He Lookit Up into Her Face

DESCRIPTION: A man looks at a woman's face. She smiles. He thinks "I'll maybe you beguile." She blushes. He knew then "that her hert was a' my ain"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: seduction nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1357, "He Lookit Up into Her Face" (1 text)
Roud #7235
File: GrD71357

He Mele No Kane (The Water of Kane)

DESCRIPTION: Hawaaian. "He u-i, he ninau, E u-i aku anu au ie oe." "A query, a queston, I put to you: Where is the Water of Kane?" The Water of Kane is to the eat, it is on the mountains, it is on the sea. The singer asks the Water of Kane to give life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Emerson, "The Hula," Unwritten Literature of Hawaii, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 687, "He Mele No Kane (The Water of Kane)" (1 Hawaiian text plus English translation)
File: CAFS687B

He Never Came Back

DESCRIPTION: Stories of people who "never came back." The first is a soldier lost at Bull Run. The rest are humorous: A waiter who never returned with a patron's steak, a swain who never returned with a ring for an old maid, a mother-in-law set loose in a balloon
AUTHOR: William Jerome ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Delaney)
KEYWORDS: humorous separation family technology soldier oldmaid
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 21, 1861 - First battle of Bull Run fought between the Union army of McDowell and the Confederates under Johnston and Beauregard
Aug. 29-30, 1862 - Second battle of Bull Run, fought between the Union army of Pope and the Confederate army of Lee
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 399, "He Never Came Back" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 368-371, "He Never Came Back" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 399)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 394, "He Never Came Back" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 394, "He Never Came Back" (1 tune plus text excerpts)
Roud #4948
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "He Never Came Back" (Decca 5447, 1937; Montgomery Ward 8025, 1939)
Peg Moreland, "He Never Came Back" (Victor V-40101, 1929)
Pickard Family, "He Never Came Back" (Perfect 12607, 1930)
File: R399

He Never Said a Mumbalin' Word

See Never Said a Mumbling Word (File: LxU102)

He Never Went Back on the Poor

See Jim Fisk [Laws F18] (File: LF18)

He Ngeri (A Jeering Song)

DESCRIPTION: Maori, "E noho ani i toku kainga i Nii Tireni." "I am living in my home in New Zealand." The singer suggests that the "mad drunkards set off to Europe" and declares that "The King [of the Maoris] shall encircle the whole island."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: political royalty rebellion New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 34, "He Ngeri" (1 short text plus English translation)
File: BaRo034

He Plays Comic Music Across the Broadgate

DESCRIPTION: "He plays comic music across the Broadgate But some of the notes are rather difficult to get He's got an ammunition for watering flowers." He makes ladies' shoes and charges six shillings and sixpence.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: nonballad music
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1449, "He Plays Comic Music Across the Broadgate" (1 fragment)
Roud #7277
NOTES [71 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan7 fragment.
I have no idea what this is about. - BS
Wild guess: It's a music hall song about a wannabe-musician who makes his actual living lighting lamps and such. I've seen several such songs, though this doesn't appear to be one of them. In a way, it's a sideline of the "shabby genteel" songs -- the guy wants to be a light opera singer but doesn't have what it takes. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71449

He Plowed the Lowlands Low

See Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low [Laws M34] (File: LM34)

He Promised He'd Buy Me a Basket of Posies

See Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be? (File: FSWB150B)

He Rambled

See Didn't He Ramble (File: CSW174)

He Rode the Strawberry Roan

See (references under) "The Strawberry Roan" [Laws B18] (File: LB18)

He Set Me Free

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "He set me free, He set me free, He broke the bonds of prison for me, I'm glory bound my Jesus to see. Glory to God He set me free." Jesus freed the singer from sorrow and "listened to me" Now I'm working daily and praying: "homeward bound"
AUTHOR: Albert E. Brumley (source: Dyen, see notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Dyen, see notes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Chuck Wagon Gang, "He Set Me Free" (OKeh 06596, 1941)
Miccosukee Church of God of Prophecy, "He Set Me Free" (on USFlorida01)
NOTES [177 words]: Dyen: "'He Set Me Free' ... was composed and published by white gospel songwriter Albert E. Brumley in 1939, and which served as the inspiration for Hank Williams's 1948 hit, 'I saw the Light' (Doris J. Dyen, "Looking Back/Looking Forward: Sacred Group-Singing Traditions," USFlorida01 liner notes, p. 168).
Compare the recordings of USFlorida01 and the "Chuck Wagon Gang," The Miccosukee Church of God of Prophecy cross-rhythmic clapping is a marker of Black religious "shout" (see for example, William T. Dargan, Lining Out the Word (Chicago: Center for Black Music Research, 2006), pp. 58, 130, 206).
"Bishop Beckwith begins the gospel song, 'He Set Me Free,' .... The church members respond by joining the singing, accompanying themselves on their instruments and with handclapping and foot-tapping. Near the end of the song, everyone stops singing but the instrumental accompaniment continues. Then, as the instrumental rhythm stops, all in the congregation shout 'Praise the Lord' three times, each time raising their arms upward" (Dyen, pp. 167-168). - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcHeSMeF

He Swore by the Toenails of Moses

DESCRIPTION: "And he swore by the toe nails o' Moses That he'd like all who dared to oppose us"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1894, "He Swore by the Toenails of Moses" (1 fragment)
Roud #13563
NOTES [108 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Just in case you were wondering, there are no Biblical references to Moses's toenails -- nor to anyone else's, really. Even the word "toes" occurs only 13 times in the King James Bible (several of them perhaps inaccurately). The closest approach is in Leviticus chapter 8, where blood is placed upon the big toe in a ritual sequence. Also, women are to trim their nails in a purification ritual in Deuteronomy 21:12.
Perhaps the reference is to Exodus 3:5, where Moses is commanded to take off his sandals in the presence of the burning bush. Or, more likely, it's just a joke. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: GrD81894

He That Will Not Merry Be

See He That Will Not Merry, Merry Be (File: WT051)

He That Will Not Merry, Merry Be

DESCRIPTION: "He that will not merry, merry be": "May he in Bridewell be shut up ... May he be plagued with a scolding wife ... May he be obliged to drink small beer ... May he be buried in the church-yard And me put in his stead [with his mistress]."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1733 (Ramsay [Logan says his copy is from Ramsay 1724 but I don't find it there - BS])
KEYWORDS: drink humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 297-298, "He That Will Not Merry Be" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, "The Merry Fellows; or, He That Will Not Merry, Merry Be" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 51, "Now We've Met Let's Merry, Merry Be" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 149)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 588, "Three Merry Men of Kent" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 161-162, "Three Merry Men of Kent" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scots Sangs (in three vols) (London, 1733 (ninth edition) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, #75 pp. 329-330, ("He that will not merry merry be") (1 text)
Robert Bell, editor, Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England (London, 1857 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 239-240, "The Merry Fellows" or "He That Will Not Merry, Merry Be" (2 texts)
ST WT051 (Partial)
Roud #615
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl" (theme: drink and good fellowship) and references there
NOTES [41 words]: Bell: "The popularity of this old lyric, of which ours is the printer's version, has been increased by the lively and appropriate music recently adapted to it by Mr Holderness. The date of this song is about the era of Charles II [1660-1685]." - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: WT051

He Took Her by the Lily-White Hand

DESCRIPTION: Perhaps the remains of a play-party song: "He took her by the lily white hand and lifted her over the gutter, With a kiss for you and a kiss for me and a kiss for the governor's daughter."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Creighton and Senior)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 260, "He Took Her by the Lily-White Hand" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: CrSe260A

He Took Her in the Garden

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "He took her in the garden And set her on his knee, And said, 'Baby, please, Won't you marry me?' Yes, no, maybe so (x2)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: love jumprope | garden
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #183, "He took her in the garden" (1 text)
File: AJRR183

He Touched Me

DESCRIPTION: "Shackled by a heavy burden, 'Neath a load of guilt and shame, Then the hand of Jesus touched my, Now I am no longer the same." Jesus's touch brings comfort and makes the sinner whole
AUTHOR: Bill Gaither (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (source: hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Amy Michels, "He Touched Me" (Piotr-Archive #168, recorded 05/10/2022)
NOTES [25 words]: Too recent to really be a folk song, and I don't think either text or tune are strong enough to make it likely that it will go into oral tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio168

He Wanted to B in Arkansas

See Harrison Town (File: R162)

He Was a Friend of Mine

DESCRIPTION: "He was a friend of mine (x2), Never had no money to pay his fine..." "He died on the road, Never had no money to pay for his board." "He never done no wrong, He was just a poor boy a long way from home." "I stole away and cried...."
AUTHOR: reportedly Bob Dylan, Dave Van Ronk, Eric Von Schmidt
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (recording, Bob Dylan)
KEYWORDS: rambling friend death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 60, "He Was A Friend of Mine" (1 text)
DT, FRNDMINE
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shorty George"
NOTES [17 words]: In 1964 Roger McGuinn rewrote the song as a tribute to the recently assassinated President Kennedy. - PJS
File: FSWB060

He Was a Travelling Man

See Traveling Man (Traveling Coon) (File: RcTMTC)

He Was Boasting of His Shearing

DESCRIPTION: "He was boasting of his shearing Up in Jimmy Homlan's Bar...." This strange little fellow "tried to murder Hogan" for doubting his exploits. At last the quarrelling is silenced by the free availability of beer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: drink fight bragging Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 201, "He Was Boasting of His Shearing" (1 text)
File: MA201

He Was Only a Commoner Soldier

DESCRIPTION: "He was only a commoner soldier, One of the royal recruits, And he fought for the honor of Hollywood, All for an old pair of boots... He got hit with a hard barmbrack, But he nobly fell, 'neath the shot and shell, Wrapped up in a Union Jack."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: soldier death clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 68, "(He was only a commoner soldier)" (1 text)
Roud #23017
NOTES [19 words]: This really sounds like it's a parody of... something. But I have no idea what, and Peirce of course offers no clues.
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PKKB068D

He Was Standing by the Window

See The Broken Engagement (I -- She Was Standing By Her Window) (File: R771)

He Wears a Bonnet for a Hat

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns "there's nane o' you been gude to me" but it would pay to treat her well. When her wealthy lover comes in bonnet, napkin, and jacket to install her in the hall in fancy clothes she might be able to help her listeners with a peck of meal.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting bragging reunion clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #18, p. 2, ("Maybe I'll Be Mairriet Yet") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 798, "He's Comin' Here," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Maybe I'll Be Married Yet" (17 texts, 11 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, p. 40, ("Oh, maybe I'll be married yet") (1 fragment, 1 tune); Vol. II, pp. 58-59, "He Wears a Bonnet for a Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6210
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bell Hendry" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
cf. "The Tailor and the Sailor" ("Maybe I'll Be Mairriet Yet" lines finish the song)
cf. "A Man's a Man for A' That" (lyrics)
NOTES [240 words]: Bell Robertson, one of Greig's sources, writes of "He Wears a Bonnet for a Hat" that "that was such a common song that I do not know who I got it from. Everyone sung it." Were those singers united in what to make of the song: is there really a wealthy lover [who may own the local mill] who will give her stocking and shoes while her listeners go barefoot? One who's "comin' owre the hills, That'll tak' me frae ye a' yet"?
The Greig/Duncan8 Addenda account for 10 texts and 7 tunes. According to the supplementary notes at Greig/Duncan8 p. 433 these texts and tunes "had been treated as a separate song in the early preparation of this edition but it is difficult to make a complete break between them and the items given as 'He's Comin' Here' and so they have been added as extra versions of that song." Verses float so freely between the two sets of texts that I cannot justify splitting them.
Greig/Duncan4 quoting Gillespie: "First heard from Annie Duncan, Craigculter, about 1846. Noted 1905."
The chorus to Burns's "For A' That" [indexed as "A Man's a Man for A' That" - RBW] and "He Wears a Bonnet for a Hat" share their first two lines: "For a' that, an' a that, And twice as meikle's [muckle's] a that" (see Robert Burns, The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (New Lanark,2005), p. 94, "For A' That").
Christie: "The Editor has often heard it sung in his young days...."
Roud splits Greig and Christie p. 40 as #6278. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD4798

He Who Would Valiant Be

See Who Would True Valour See (He Who Would Valiant Be) (File: AddHWWVB)

He-Back, She-Back

See Old Moke Pickin' on the Banjo (Song of the Pinewoods) (File: Be022)

He'd Be There

DESCRIPTION: "I think I heard Brother Johnson say He'd be there." Repeat until someone comes up with a new name, e.g. "I think I heard Sister May say, He'd be there." And keep it up ad tedium
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, p. 86, "He'd Be There" (1 text, just barely a song)
File: ReSm086A

He'll Never Fly Home Again

DESCRIPTION: "I was flying flipping Albacores at forty flipping feet, I was flying through the flipping snow... And I made my flipping landfall on the Firth of Flipping Forth. Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die." A pilot crash landed: "He'll never fly home again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier death technology derivative pilot
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 118, "He'll Never Fly Home Again" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #29399
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune) and references there
cf. "He AIn't Gonna Jump No More" ("Glory, glory what a hell of a way to die" chorus)
cf. "I'd Like to Find the Sergeant" ("Glory, glory what a hell of a way to die" chorus)
cf. "I Was Chasing One-Elevens" ("Glory, glory what a hell of a way to die" chorus)
cf. "There's a Fuck-up on the Flight Deck" (subject: the defects of the Fairy Albacore)
NOTES [451 words]: Crash landings were a significant problem for the British air force: British weather of course resulted in lousy visibility, and many British bases were newly built, hard to locate -- and often close to hills or buildings. Flights of eight hours or more, much of the time under enemy attack, meant pilots were often exhausted when they got home High casualty rates meant that many pilots were green, so they weren't very good at landing anyway. And the RAF started the war with a lot of frankly lousy aircraft that no competent air force would have put in the air.
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear says that there were versions of this for many different types of aircraft, and I believe it. But the Albacore is a particularly fit airplane to be singled out. When the war began, the standard British carrier torpedo bomber was the Fairey Swordfish, a biplane with a top speed of 138 miles per hour that was so old that even the British knew that the "stringbag" needed to be replaced (Munson, p. 68). So they came up with the Fairey Albacore. Which was, ahem, another biplane. In 1940. The Albacore was slightly faster than the Swordfish, and had a slightly longer range, and had an enclosed cockpit (more comfortable for the pilot), but otherwise, it was such a flop that the Swordfish "remained in service alongside, and eventually outlasted, the [Albacore]" (Munson, p. 62).
Brown, p. 60, reports, "In retrospect, the Albacore epitomised the ascendency of the conventionalists over the visionaries; the least adventurous approach that could possibly have been made to solving the problem of replacing the venerable and patently obsolescent Swordfish. That the authorities should have opted to perpetuate the biplane configuration at a time when the imminence of its final demise in all operational roles was surely obvious to all is difficult to comprehend today, forty years on." He adds that the defects of the Albacore were its lack of maneuverability, its unresponsive controls, and its large size that made it harder to handle and easier for enemy gunfire to hit. It was a good plane as long as there were no enemies around, but too easy a target in combat.
Munson, p. 62, adds, "Production ceased in 1943 after 803 Albacores had been built, but by the end of that year all but two squadrons had been re-equipped with Barracudas or American Avengers. One of the squadrons, however, handed on their Albacores to the R.C.A.F., by whom they were employed in the D-day landings of June 1944." Fortunately for the Canadians, there were few Axis fighters to take advantage of the Albacore's pitiful lack of speed; for this plane, at least, the conditions of British landing fields were danger enough! - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: Hopk118

He'll Never March Again

See The Tired Soldier (File: Nest100)

He's a Battle Axe

See The Alphabet of the Bible (File: RcAlpotB)

He's a Bonnie, Blue-Eyed Laddie

DESCRIPTION: "For I will dress you in tartans And ribbons sae braw, 'Cause your daddie he's a soldier In the bold Forty-Twa. He's a bonnie, blue-eyed laddie, He's the flooer o' them a', An' he jined yon gallant regiment Ca'd the bold Forty-Twa."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice)
KEYWORDS: soldier father children clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #12, p. 128, "He's a Bonnie, Blue-Eye Laddie" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: RPG012

He's a Dark Man

DESCRIPTION: "He's a dark man, he's a black man He's nae match for me He'd scarcely be linin' To the lad that likes me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 751, "He's a Dark Man" (1 fragment)
Roud #3869
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mailin" (theme) and references there
NOTES [129 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 fragment. - BS
Greig/Duncan4 suggests the fragment be compared to Crawford's "The Mailin," which. Roud lumps the two with Kinloch 22 "Court Her and Leave Her." In looking at the Kinloch item (#XXII), I was reminded of Cox's "Black Phyllis," which begins, "And then came black Phyllis, his charger astride, And took away Annie, his unwilling bride." And *that* is sounds like it could be linked in plot to this (this piece being Annie's words as she rejected the black man). If we took all these fragments, we could probably build a pretty good ballad. Which is not proof they belong together, however. Ballad links are not transitive; if A links with B, and B with C, there is no reason to think A has been mixed with C. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD4751

He's a Fine Man, Johnnie Gollacher

DESCRIPTION: "He's a fine man, Johnnie Gollacher, He's a fine man to me; He's a fine man, Johnnie Gollacher, Gin he wad come for me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 752, "He's a Fine Man, Johnnie Gollacher" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6179
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "To a Meeting One Evening" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4752

He's a Ragtime Soldier

DESCRIPTION: "He's a ragtime soldier, Ragtime soldier, Early on parade every morning, Standing to attention with his rifle in his hand. He's a ragtime soldier, As happy as the flowers in May (I don't think!), Fighting for his King and his Country... a shilling a day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier clothes money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 58, "He's a Ragtime Soldier" (1 text)
Roud #10506
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ragtime Lover" (tune)
File: BrPa058A

He's Comin' Here

See He Wears a Bonnet for a Hat (File: GrD4796)

He's Comin' This Away

DESCRIPTION: "Yonder comes my Lord (x2), He's comin' this away (x2), Yonder comes my Lord (x2), He's comin' this away (x2)." "A Bible in his hand...." "He's come to judge the world, Livin' an' the dead...." "Yonder comes that train...." "My mother's on that train...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious train death mother
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 219, "Oh, Yes, Yonder Comes My Lord" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 112 in the 1901 edition)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 259-260, "He's Comin' This Away" (1 text)
File: ScaNF259

He's Coming to Us Dead

See The Express Office (He Is Coming to Us Dead) (File: R696)

He's Going Away for to Stay a Little While

See Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot (plus related references, e.g. The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76]) (File: C076A)

He's Gone Away

See Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove) (File: Wa097)

He's Gone Where the Slaveholders Go

DESCRIPTION: "Come all my brethren, let us take a rest... Old master has died, and lying in his grave... For he's gone where the slaveholders go." "Hang up the shovel and the hoe, Take down the fiddle and the bow, Old master has gone to the slaveholder's rest"
AUTHOR: William Wells Brown? (c. 1814-1884) (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (William Wells Brown, Clotel)
KEYWORDS: music slave death freedom
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 67-68, "(About half past four o'clock this morning)" (1 fragment)
NOTES [111 words]: William Wells Brown was an escaped slave who became an author; Clotel was one of his major works, and this song is found on pp. 149-150 of what seems to be the original edition (available on Google Books). He neither gives the song a title nor lists a tune, but I am almost certain that it is sung to "Uncle Ned," a song that was popular around this time.
Martin Delany's Blake seems to have a variant of this song which is explicitly said to have been sung to "Uncle Ned." The differences between the two texts are significant. Does this mean it was traditional? I suppose it's possible, but it seems more likely that Delany took and adapted Brown's song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GFGW067F

He's Got No Courage In Him

See My Husband's Got No Courage in Him (File: K213)

He's Got the Money Too

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes being engaged to someone who is a fine person -- and rich, too: "Oh don't I love my honey, And won't I spend his money? I'm as happy as a flower that sips the morning dew, For I've got a little (feller) and he's got the money too!"
AUTHOR: C. T. Lockwood?
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Dime-Song-Book #31)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage money
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 299, "I Know a Little Feller" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #31, p. 59, "And He's Got the Money Too" (1 text)
Roud #7827
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "She's Got the Money Too" (OKeh 45552 [w. Sam McGee], 1931; rec. 1930) (Bluebird 7549, 1938)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1875 03568, "And He's Got the Money Too," Brainard's Sons (Cleveland), 1875
ALTERNATE TITLES:
She's Got the Money Too
I Went Down to New Orleans
NOTES [93 words]: LOCSheet, sm1875 03568 lists this as by C. T. Lockwood, but it's not clear if he wrote the whole thing, or the tune, or just the arrangement. Dime-Song-Book #31 credits him with the words only, but I don't consider that very reliable.
Randolph reports his (single-stanza) text as a fragment of a piece called "I Went Down to New Orleans." The recordings I've heard (Macon's and other folk revival versions) don't seem connected -- but that may be a case of Uncle Dave free-associating about the song. Note that he changed the gender of the performer, e.g. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R299

He's Got the Whole World in His Hand(s)

DESCRIPTION: "He's got the whole world (right) in his hand (x3); He's got the whole world in his hand." The number of additional verses probably approximates the number of English speakers on earth; most are spiritual, but you can probably imagine some that aren't
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 168, "He's Got the Whole World in His Hand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 361, "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 273, "He's Got the Whole World in His Hand"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 62, 494, 514, 545, "He's Got the Whole World in His Hans" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp.102-103, "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WHOLWRLD
Roud #7501
RECORDINGS:
Johnny Brown, "He Got the Whole World in His Hand" (on USFlorida01)
Bessie Johnson's Sanctified Singers, "The Whole World in His Hand" (OKeh 8765, 1930; rec. 1929; on Babylon)
File: Wa168

He's My Rock, My Sword, and Shield

DESCRIPTION: Jesus is my rock, sword, shield, lily of the valley and bright morning star. "Makes no difference what you say I'm going on my knees and pray, I'm going to stay right here until my Jesus comes." Other verswes end with "I'm going to wait..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (recording, Original Blind Boys of Alabama)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Fannie Bell Chapman and Family, "He's My Rock, My Sword, and Shield" (on USMississippi01)
The Original Blind Boys of Alabama, "Rock, Sword and Shield" (1963, on "You'll Never Walk Alone," Vee Jay VJLP 5029)
The Selah Singers, "He's My Rock, Sword and Shield" (2000, on "Capitol From the Vaults (Vol. 5: The Roots of Rock 'N' Roll)," Capitol 72435-28292-2 4)
Ethel Waters, "Gospel Medley" (1960, on "His Eye is On the Sparrow," Word W-3100=LP)
NOTES [81 words]: Golden Gate Quartet, "He's My Rock, My Sword, My Shield" is not this hymn (1996, on Golden Gate Quartet Radio Transcritions ... 1941-1944," Document DOCD-5502). It is close to the hymn indexed as "What Could I Do," but it's not that hymn either. It does have lines in common with "He's My Rock, My Sword, and shield": "He's my rock my sword my shield" and "He's the lily of the valley" but the first two lines of the only verse are "Tell me what could I do without the Lord," repeated. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcHMRMSS

He's Nae Very Bonnie

DESCRIPTION: "He's nae very bonnie, but he's awfu' guid, And that's the chap that a girl should wed; Beauty's like flowers, it soon doth fade, They bloom to-day, and to-morrow dead"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1863, "He's Nae Very Bonnie" (1 short text)
Roud #13587
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81863

He's Only a Chimney Sweeper

DESCRIPTION: "He's only a chimney sweeper, but I love my darling Jack, And every time he kisses me, He covers me over with black." His work is hard: "His trade is black, but his heart is white, And he's the lad for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands)
KEYWORDS: love worker | chimney sweep
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 43, "Chimney Sweep's Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #1127
File: PSOM043

He's Owre the Hills, an' He's Whistlin' Bonny

DESCRIPTION: The singer thinks about Johnny and their time together. "He's far awa, but he's nae forgettin' He has my he'rt, an' I winna che't him ... he may coort, but he daurna mairry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1111, "He's Owre the Hills, an' He's Whistlin' Bonny" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6840
ALTERNATE TITLES:
He's Far Awa'
File: GrD61111

He's the Lily of the Valley

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "He's the lily of the valley, Oh, my Lord (x2), King Jesus in his chariot rides, Oh, my Lord, With four white horses side by side, Oh my Lord." Verses: The singer wears "gospel shoes" and "you can wear them if you choose"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Marsh)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 145, "He's the Lily of the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: J.B.T. Marsh, The Story of the Jubilee Singers (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1903 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #41 p. 97, "He's the Lily of the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12146
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Peter Was a Fisherman" (theme) and notes there
NOTES [21 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "Oh my Lord" - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett145

He's the Man for Me

DESCRIPTION: Singer plans to go to the mining areas, marry a rich senorita, wear fine clothes, and live without working. If necessary, he will divorce her and, although morally opposed to it, live by stealing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Put's Golden Songster)
KEYWORDS: marriage theft clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SW)
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "He's the Man for Me" (on LEnglish02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (tune)
NOTES [9 words]: Pity we don't have keywords "laziness" and "loafing." - PJS
File: RcHtMfM

He's Up With a Smile on His Face in the Morning

DESCRIPTION: "He's up with a smile on his face in the morning And off for a bucket of water he goes," for he scorns laziness. "Oh God, help the workman wherever he goes." He treats his wife kindly. He is an honest and pleasant miner
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: worker husband wife food
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, p. 288, "(no title)" (1 fragment)
File: KMMP288C

Heab'n

See All God's Children Got Shoes (File: CNFM067A)

Head, Shoulder, Baby

DESCRIPTION: Rope-skipping game. "Head, shoulder, baby, one two three, (x3), Knee and ankle, baby, one two three (x3)." And similarly with other body parts.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 132, "(no title)" (1 text)
File: ByGo132

Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

DESCRIPTION: "Heads, shoulders, knees, and toes, knees and toes (x2) And eyes and ears and mouth and nose And heads, shoulders, knees and toes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (source: Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 171, 394, 417, 516, "Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" (notes only)
Roud #36105
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tavern in the Town" (tune)
NOTES [59 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 171, appears to say that this was written in 1883. This, however, appears to be a reference to the tune, (the Rudy Vallee version of) "Tavern in the Town." I can't find any really early printings of the words, but it was well enough known that they inflicted it upon me in elementary school, probably in the late 1960s. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF171H

Healin' Waters

DESCRIPTION: "Healin' waters done move (x2), What's de matter now?" "Healing waters done move (x2), Come to Jesus!" "... Soul gittin' happy now!" "...Hallelujah!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 581, "Healin' Waters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15564
File: LxA581

Health to All True-Lovers, A

See Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover) (File: Ord089)

Health to the Company, A (Come All My Old Comrades)

DESCRIPTION: Singer, preparing to emigrate, gives a toast: "Come all my old comrades, Come now let us join, Come blend your sweet voices in chorus with mine.... So here's a health to the company, and one to my lass... For we may and might never all meet here again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (Greig/Duncan8); Ord claims a report from 1836
KEYWORDS: emigration drink farewell
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #59, pp. 1-2, "The Donside Emigrant's Farewell" (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan8 1516, "The Emigrant's Farewell to Donside" (13 texts, 10 tunes)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 222-223, "Come All My Old Comrades" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 59, "Come All Ye Old Comrades" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 152-153, "Come All Ye Old Comrades" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 350-351, "The Emigrant's Farewell to Donside" (1 text plus sundry stanzas, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 172, "Kind Friends and Companions" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 50, "We May and Might Never All Meet Here Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 29, "Good Friends and Companions" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HLTHCOMP*
Roud #1801
RECORDINGS:
Marge Steiner, "Friends and Companions" (on Steiner01)
Belle, Sheila, and Cathie Stewart, "The Parting Song" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
NOTES [127 words]: There is a broadside, NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(41b), "Drink and be Merry, or The Bold 42!," (There was a puir lassie, I pity her lot"), Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890, which has this chorus, but the rest is about a girl saying goodbye to a soldier off to the wars. It's not clear which is earlier, but the broadside is quite commonplace. - RBW
Lines, by no means in all versions, that may be unique to this song are "There is an old proverb I believe it is true That 'Love is more precious than the gold of Peru'" (Greig/Duncan6 1516A-C,K-M and Greig #59; Ord-BothySongsAndBallads; Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia text B); Tunney's version is: "I have read that old proverb, I have read it so true My love she's as far [sic] as the bright morning dew." - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CrSe222

Hear de Angels Singin'

See Hear the Angels Singing (File: Dett206)

Hear de Lambs a-Cryin'

See Hear the Lambs a-Crying (File: Dett224)

Hear Dem Bells!

DESCRIPTION: "All day I works in de cotton an' de corn... Waiting for Gabriel to blow his horn, So I won't have to work any more." "Hear dem bells -- oh, don't you hear dem bells? Dey's ringing out de glory of de dawn." "I sings and shouts wid all my might."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: work religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 229, "Hear Dem Bells!" (1 text)
File: ScNF229A

Hear that Rumbling

DESCRIPTION: "(Hear/I heard) that (rumbling/lumbering) (up/down) in the (ground/sky)." With many variants and floating material, the listener is told to reform, asked to pray for the singer, admonished to wait for Jesus, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 577, "Hear that Rumbling (I Heard a Mighty Rumbling)" (2 texts plus a fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 577, "Hear that Rumbling (I Heard a Mighty Rumbling" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Roud #11895
File: Br3577

Hear the Angels Singing

DESCRIPTION: "Sing all the way (x3), Hear the angels singing." Verses: We're marching to heaven with Jesus but those Christians are "idling on the battle line." The singer will is sure of going to heaven and loves to shout and sing. "Jesus died for you and me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 206, "Hear de Angels Singin'" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 246 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #15272
File: Dett206

Hear the Lambs a-Crying

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Hear the lambs a-crying (x3), O Shepherd, feed my sheep." Verses: Jesus asks Peter "'feed my sheep.'" Jesus is crucified and "hangs three hours in dreadful pain." The singer wants to leave "this vain world" and follows Jesus's road.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious floatingverses Jesus sheep
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 224-225, "Hear de Lambs a-Cryin'" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 210-211 in the 1874 edition)
ADDITIONAL: John W. Work, American Negro Songs (New York: Crown Publishers, 1940 (republished by Mineola: Dover Publications, 1998)), p. 114, "You Hear the Lambs a-Crying" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12257
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blood-Stained Banders" (chorus lines)
NOTES [271 words]: In the verses, every alternate line is "O shepherd, feed my sheep."
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute includes the floater "If I had wings like Noah's dove, I'd fly away to the heavens above."
The Biblical reference is John 21:17: "He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep" (King James). - BS
The incident the song alludes to is a good deal more complicated than the above quote above shows. Jesus twice asks (in 21:15, 16) if Peter loves him with (Christian) love (using the verb αγαπαω, "agapao") and Peter answers that he feels ordinary love (φιλεω, "phileo") toward Peter. Then, the third time (21:17), cited above, Jesus asks if Peter loves ("phileo") him, and thus induces Peter to say that he loves Jesus ("agapao"). But none of this is evident in the King James translation. Also, the better Greek manuscripts say Peter was son of Ιωαννου, John, not son of Ιωνα, Jonas (and are followed by, e.g., the New Revised Standard Version). This is a variant in the texts of the manuscripts, not a translational variant; five of the six oldest manuscripts read "John," but almost all manuscripts after the seventh century read "Jonah/Jonas"). Also, Jesus was on the cross for six hours, not three hours -- from the third hour to the ninth hour of the day; see Mark 15:25, 34. Three hours was the period there was said to be darkness on the land (Mark 15:33). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Dett224

Hear the Lively Song of the Frogs in Yonder Pond

See Hear the Lively Sound of the Frogs (File: ACSF436F)

Hear the Lively Sound of the Frogs

DESCRIPTION: Round, with motions: "Hear the lively song of the Frogs in yonder pond
, Krik, krik . . . krik, krik, krik Brrr-r-r-r—rum!" Or, " Hear the lively song Of the frog in yonder pond Crick, crick, crickety crick Burrrrrrr-rum"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Palmer, The Song Herald, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 436, 518, "Hear the Lively Sound of the Frogs"/"Hear the lively song of the frogs in yonder pond" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 107, "Frog Round" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 13, "Frog Round" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ACSF436F

Hearken, Hearken

DESCRIPTION: A man and woman court seven years. His mother threatens to disown him "if you marry one that's below your station." The woman says "children ought to obey their parents" He marries her anyway, adores his wife and "never minds what his mother told him"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage money mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #177, pp. 1-2, "Hearken, Hearken" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1000, "Hearken, Hearken" (1 text)
Roud #6288
NOTES [58 words]: Greig #177 includes a version of "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover)" - ("Hearken, hearken, and I will tell you") -- with a first verse virtually shared with "Hearken, Hearken": "Hearken, hearken, and I will tell you Of a lad and a country lass; Seven long years they've been a-courting, Many a jovial hour betwixt them passed." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1000

Hearken, hearken, and I will tell you

See Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover) (File: Ord089)

Hearken, Ladies, and I Will Tell You

See Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover) (File: Ord089)

Hearse Song (I), The

See The Worms Crawl In (File: San444)

Hearse Song (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever think as the hearse roll by That the next trip they take they'll lay you by, With your boots a-swinging from the back of a roan...." The soldier will inevitably end in the hands of the grave-diggers; the soldier's body will rot in the ground
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: war death soldier burial
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 188-190, "The Hearse Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15546
NOTES [29 words]: Roud lumps this with "The Worms Crawl In," with which of course it shares its initial words. But I would consider this a separate song though derived from the same original. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: NiMo188

Heart and Soul

DESCRIPTION: Pop song. "Heart and soul, I fell in love with you...." If you don't know the words, you know the tune
AUTHOR: Words: Frank Loesser / Music: Hoagie Carmichael
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Copyright)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN:
Roud #25671
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Boomdeada" (melody)
NOTES [90 words]: I strongly doubt that the lyrics of this are traditional, but it has a Roud number, so I'm including it.
The tune, on the other hand, has become traditional, being used for "Boomdeada."
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 435, estimates that this was the second most popular song in America in November 1938 (#1 for the year being Larry Clinton's "My Reverie," based on a theme by Debussy), and also hit the charts in 1952 and 1961. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcHeaSou

Heart Cry from the West, A

DESCRIPTION: "By Pacific's wave I'm sighing for my homeland, I long to breathe her healthful airs again." "The sunset floods the golden gate with glory... Yet the heart within me cries for my home'neath northern skies... Take me back... To the hils... of Newfoundland"
AUTHOR: Words: D. Carroll / Music: P. Sheehan (source: Doyle4)
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 4th edition)
KEYWORDS: homesickness Canada nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "A Heart Cry From the West" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 11 in the 4th edition, p. 9 in the 5th
Roud #26492
File: Doyl4011

Heart of Oak

DESCRIPTION: In praise of the British Navy that can drive off any foe: "Heart of oak are our ships, Jolly tars are our men: We are always ready. Steady, boys, steady, We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again."
AUTHOR: Words: David Garrick/Music: Dr. William Boyce
EARLIEST DATE: 1759 ("Harlequin's Invasion")
KEYWORDS: navy sailor patriotic ship nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 715-717, "Heart of Oak" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 189-191, "Heart of Oak" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #92, "Hearts of Oak" (1 text)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 155-156, "Heart of Oak" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XXX, pp. 44-45, "Hearts of Oak" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HEARTOAK*
ADDITIONAL: C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 220,"Hearts of Oak" (1 text)
Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 212-213, "Heart of Oak" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Hawke" (context of the Battle of Quiberon Bay)
SAME TUNE:
Liberty/The Liverty Song ("Come join hand in hand, brave Americans all") (by John Dickinson) (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, pp. 14-15, 26; Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 340; Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, pp. 6-8)
Come Shake Your Dull Noddles [parody of The Liberty Song] (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 30; Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, p. 9)
The Massachusetts Liberty Song [parody by Benjamin Church of The Liberty Song, and once printed from the same staff notation!] (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 31)
A New Liberty Song ("Come rouse up my lads and join this great cause") (by J. W. Hewlings) (Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, p. 10)
A Refugee Song ("Here's a bumper, brave boys, to the health of our King") (Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, p. 11)
NOTES [233 words]: This may not, at first glance, seem a folk song -- but it is one of Great Britain's leading patriotic songs; Morison, p. 165, says that "British throats went hoarse bawling out 'Heart of Oak"" in 1759, the year of England's greatest success in the Seven Years' War (Morison quotes the song on p. 170).
It appears that the song and the furor were inspired by the English success at Quiberon Bay, in which Admiral Hawke's British squadron demolished a French fleet and ended any possibility of France invading Britain. (Herman, p. 290. For Hawke and his various victories, see the notes to "Bold Hawke.")
The song is quite correct in describing British ships as built of oak. Oak was the preferred wood for ships because it resisted rot -- presumably because of the tannic acid found in it. It didn't last forever, but other woods usually wore out sooner (Cordingly, p. 18).
It is ironic to note that what is believed to have been the first American pro-independence song was set to this tune; in 1768. John Dickinson published what was called the "Song for American Freedom." We do not, however, seem to know what the song was actually about; Fisher, pp. 20-21, notes that an advertisement for Dickinson's song survives, but no copy of the text itself has been preserved.
According to Waites & Hunter, this was originally written by David Garrick for a pantomime called "Harlequin's Invasion." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: ChWII189

Heart that Forms for Love, A

DESCRIPTION: The young man reports that he is tired of the single life. He has seen his love in dreams, but does not know where she is. He describes her looks. He declares he will seek her everywhere: "I'll mount old Barney... And find my Delsenia as soon as I can."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting separation dream
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 675, "A Heart that Forms for Love" (1 text)
Roud #7367
NOTES [44 words]: Randolph conjectures that the proper title of this piece is "A Heart that Yearns for Love." I'd suggest "A Heart that Mourns for Love."
"Delsenia" makes me think of "Dulcinea," as in Don Quixote's girlfriend. Sounds awfully literary for an Ozark Folksong, though. - RBW
File: R675

Hearts Like Doors Can Ope' With Ease

DESCRIPTION: "Hearts like doors will open with ease To very little keys, And they are these: 'I thank you sir' and "If you please.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (J. S. Ogilvie, "One Thousand Popular Quotations... Suitable for Writing in Autograph Albums")
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 126, "(Hearts like doors will open with ease)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: J. S. Ogilvie, _One Thousand Popular Quotations Comprising the Choicest Thoughts and Sayings of Eminent Writers of All Ages, Together With Nearly Three Hundred Original and Choice Selections, Suitable for Writing in Autograph Albums_, J. S. Ogivie, Publisher (New York & Chicago), 1884 (available on Google Books), p. 111 f Part I and p. 72 of Part II, "Hearts, like doors, can ope' with ease" (2 texts)
NOTES [46 words]: Hymnary.org reports that this was printed in the 1936 "Hymnal for Boys and Girls" with the tune being the Larghetto from Beethoven's second symphony. I have no idea if Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore's informant, who learned it in the nineteenth century, knew it to that tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: SaKo1256

Hearts Like Doors Will Open With Ease

See Hearts Like Doors Can Ope' With Ease (File: SaKo1256)

Hearts of Gold

DESCRIPTION: The sailor compares sea life with that on land. The landlubbers work at the plow, go home at night, and sleep with their wives; the sailors work all hours and face storms. The sailor declares his life is better, and tells the girls to appreciate it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1832 (Journal from the _Bengal_)
KEYWORDS: sailor work home farming nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 68-70, "Hearts of Gold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 222-223, "Sailor's 'Come-All-Ye'" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 4, "The Sailor's Come-All-Ye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 137, "Sailor's 'Come-All-Ye''" (1 text, quoted from Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 219-222, "Edgartown Whaling Song" (1 text)
Roud #2022
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whistling at the Ploo" (theme)
cf. "I Love My Sailor Boy" (theme)
File: SWMS068

Hearts of Oak

See Heart of Oak (File: ChWII189)

Hearts of Oak (II -- A New Sea Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Hearts of oak who wish to try Your fortunes on the sea, And Briton's enemies defy...." Sailors are offered two months' pay as a bounty. They are offered a good ship and captain -- plus prize money. "Can British Tars wish more?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadsides published by J. Harkness)
KEYWORDS: sailor money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #85 insert, "A New Sea Song" (1 text)
Roud #22234
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.15(278), "Jolly Tar," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 20(165), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866
File: AshS085i

Hearty Good Fellow, The

See The Penny Wager (File: McCST115)

Heat the Poker Hot, Hot, Hot

DESCRIPTION: "Heat the poker hot, hot, hot, And bore a wee hole in the baby."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: baby | poker
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 31, "Heat the poker hot, hot, hot" (1 text)
Roud #25364
File: KSUC031C

Heathen Chinese, The

DESCRIPTION: "I've a very sad pitiful story to tell you, Although it's a common one too... But alas! there is no work for a white man to do; They're hiring the Heathen Chinese." The singer tells of his poor family; he will join the Knights of Labor to stop the Chinese
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement poverty foreigner
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1869 - Establishment of the Knights of Labor by Uriah S. Stephens
1879 - Terence V. Powderly becomes Grand Master Workman of the Knights, opening membership to the unskilled -- and to minorities
1886 - Haymarket Riot causes the decline of the Knights of Labor
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 233, "The Heathen Chinese" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 233, "The Heathen Chinese" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #15777
NOTES [510 words]: Bret Harte wrote a piece, "Plain Language from Truthful James," generally called "The Heathen Chinee." This is a tale of a Chinese man who has peculiar success at cards and is punished for it. It does not appear to be directly related to this piece but may well have helped inspire it.
The Haymarket Riot is one of those events that seems to have been viewed very differently by different sources. Jameson, writing not long after the event, gave this summary on p. 299:
Haymarket Massacre (Chicago), an Anarchist riot, originating in labor troubles which culminated in an open-air meeting in Haymarket Square, May 4, 1886. Violent speeches were made by the Anarchists Spies, Parsons, and Fielden. A bomb was thrown among the police, causing great loss of life. Spies, Parsons, Fischer, Engel, Schwab, Lingg, and Niebe were arrested and tried. The first four were hanged November 11, 1887. Fielden and Schwab were imprisoned for life. Lingg committed suicide. Governor Altgeld, of Illinois, pardoned Fielden and Schwab in 1893.
Schlesinger, p. 361, says that some 180 police were in attendance for the event. The weather was rainy and the crowd already starting to break up as a result when they arrived. The bomb killed seven and wounded more than fifty. "No one seems to know who committed the dreadful crime." Reportedly eight were arrested for murder -- evidently the seven listed by Jameson and one other. Terror is said to have swept the country, but there is no mention of organized labor.
I must say that, in reviewing this entry, I have no idea why I noted the Haymarket Riot. It is not mentioned in the song. It perhaps gives us a hint at the last possible date for the song, but we could be fairly sure it was before 1888 anyway.
Jameson, p. 131, notes a series of treaties in 1844, 1858, and 1868 had opened the doors for immigrants from the far east; 105,000 Chinese were identified in the 1880 census. An attempt to restrict immigration was passed by congress in 1879 but vetoed by President Hayes. In 1880, an agreement was reached with China to limit immigration. This also made it harder for those who left the United States for China to return. Another Exclusion Act was vetoed by President Chester A. Arthur, but then he allowed another Act to become law when it was clear that his veto would be overridden (Karabell, pp. 84-85). This 1882 law was informally called the "Chinese Exclusion Act" (Weir/Hanlan, p. 84). In 1888, immigration was stopped entirely. In 1892, laws were passed permitting expulsion of the Chinese. Chinese exclusion was a major issue in the 1888 presidential election, when Harrison was accused of not being firm on the issue (Wesser/Schlesinger, pp. 1647-1648). Thus the song almost certainly dates from before 1888. My guess is that it dates from after the Panic of 1873 but before 1880.
The mention of the Knights of Labor is significant, because they were strongly opposed to Chinese immigration (Weir/Hanlan, p. 85).
Restrictions on Chinese immigration were not entirely repealed until 1943 (Weir/Hanlan, p. 86).- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: Br3233

Heather Down the Moor (Among the Heather; Down the Moor)

DESCRIPTION: The singer wanders "down the moor" and meets a beautiful girl. He courts her "the live-long day," and she stays with him even as her flocks wander. At the end, she leaves him. He wishes he could find her again and make her his "queen among the heather"
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty separation sheep
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H177, pp. 271-272, "O'er the Moor amang the Heather" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 3, "Heather on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 6, "Doon the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 79, 152, "Owre the Muir Amang the Heather" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HTHRMOOR*
Roud #375
RECORDINGS:
Roisin White, "Among the Heather" (on IRRWhite01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Queen Among the Heather" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "The Magpie's Nest" (lyrics)
cf. "Banks of Sullane" (theme)
NOTES [376 words]: This song is very close to "Queen among the Heather" (Kennedy #141, etc.); they have similar plots and occasional common lyrics. There will be versions where it is almost impossible to tell which is which. I thought about listing them as one song. (Roud lumps them.)
But on consideration, this song has two characteristics rarely seen in "Queen among the Heather." First, this song tends to follow a complex stanza pattern:
One morn in may, when fields were gay,
Serene and pleasant was the weather.
I chanced to roam some miles from home
Among the bonnie bloomin' heather
Down the heather
O'er the moor and through the heather.
I chanced to roam some miles from home
Among the bonnie bloomin' heather
Down the moor.
"Queen among the Heather" usually has simple four-line stanzas.
"Heather down the Moor" also tends to end with the lines
But if I were a king, I would make her a queen,
The bonnie lass I met among the heather
Down the moor.
The authorship of this is a conundrum of another sort. The earliest text of this was that collected by Robert Burns and printed in the Scots Musical Museum. Burns had this from Jean Glover (1758-1811), who according to Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, p. 144, was a weaver's daughter possessed of good looks and a fine singing voice who ran off "with a sleight-of-hand performer called Richard."
Burns reported, "This song is the composition of a Jean Glover, a girl who was not only a whore, but also a thief; and in one or other character has visited most of the correction-houses in the west. She was born, I believe, in Kilmarnock: I took the song down from her singing as she was strolling the country with a slight-of-hand blackguard."
Was Burns correct in claiming that Glover wrote the song? There seems to be no evidence to the contrary. On the other hand, her version is a bit different from the one we commonly hear today. So I would regard it as at least possible that Glover did not write the song but rather took an existing song and adapted it. On the third hand, maybe the changes from the common version are the work of Burns, not Glover. On the whole, I think we just have to admit uncertainty. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HHH177

Heather Jock

DESCRIPTION: "Heather Jock's noo awa' (x2), The muircock noo may crousely craw, Since Heather Jock's noo away'." Jock can hide anywhere, and steal anything; bad from his youth, he also plays music on the sabbath. Now he is caught and on his way to Botany Bay
AUTHOR: credited by Ford to Dr. James Stirling
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: thief transportation
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H39, pp. 123-124, "Heather Jock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 276, "Heather Jock" (1 text)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 131-135, "Heather Jock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan2 255, "Heather Jock" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 347-348, "Heather Jock" (1 text, with a tune on p. 590)
Roud #2339
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(093), "Heather Jock," unknown, c. 1875; also L.C.Fol.70(132b), c. 1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Donald Caird" (tune, according to Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong; see Notes)
NOTES [103 words]: The tune here is not quite "Bobby Shaftoe" (or relatives such as "Katie Beardie"), but it sounds to me as if it might be derived from that type.
Even though Jock was apparently a scourge of the community, you can't help but feel that the singer admired him.
Ford gives extensive notes regarding John Ferguson, who reportedly inspired the song. He is said to have been placed on trial in 1812 and transported for life, primarily for stealing cattle. - RBW
For a possible lead on the tune see Mudcat Cafe thread "Lyr Add: Donald Caird's Come Again (Walter Scott)" at http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=16763#158078 - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HHH039

Heathery Hills, The

DESCRIPTION: "I mind it well, and I see it yet" The singer recalls past days meeting Rory on the Heathery Hill. She misses her mother and her father's fields. "The city holds no pleasure" and she would give it up for a summer eve with Rory on the Heathery Hill.
AUTHOR: Ethna Carbery (Mrs. Seamus MacManus, Anna Johnston) (1866-1902) (source: _A Celebration of Women Writers_ on the University of Pennsylvania Library site)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Ethna Carbery, _The Four Winds of Erinn_, according to _A Celebration of Women Writers_ on the University of Pennsylvania Library site)
KEYWORDS: homesickness love separation lyric nonballad lover mother
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Bord))
Roud #5295
RECORDINGS:
Brigid Tunney, "The Heathery Hills" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
NOTES [132 words]: IRTunneyFamily01: Brigid Tunney explains that she learned the song from her sister; it was among the songs she learned in Glasgow and brought back to Ireland on her annual return. - BS
According to Patrick C. Power, A Literary History of Ireland (Mercier, 1969), p. 160, Ethna Carbery, a native of Belfast, took Donegal as her theme; her "fame rests on one volume alone -- The Four Winds of Erinn. This was published posthumously in 1902. She essentially belongs to the nationalistic ballad tradition which goes back to the Nation writers."
According to Kathleen Hoagland, 1000 Years of Irish Poetry, p. 775, Carbery's true name was Anna Johnston McManus. (I have no idea why she needed a pen name after her death.) Her one song work well-known in folk circles is "Roddy McCorley." - RBW
File: RcHeaHil

Heave and Go, My Nancy O

DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. "Come all ye jolly sailors bold. Heave and go, my Nancy O! Listen till my tale is told. Heave and go, my Nancy O!" English version of a Danish shanty. No particular story line to the verses, but some make reference to Danish place names.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (L. A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Denmark Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 319, "Heave and Go, My Nancy O" (1 text)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Om Dannebrog Man Ved
NOTES [54 words]: This was quoted from L.A. Smith's Music of the Waters where it was included as a translation of a Danish shanty. It may have some connection with a song that Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman found "Pull Away Now, my Nancy O!" but Smith didn't give a tune. The Danish version was called "Om Dannebrog Man Ved." - SL
File: Hugi319

Heave Away (I)

See Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go) (File: Doe062)

Heave Away (II)

See Heave Away, Me Johnnies (File: Doe063)

Heave Away (III)

See Heave Away, Boys, Heave Away (I) (File: Hugi308)

Heave Away (IV)

DESCRIPTION: "Heave him up, O he yo, Butter and cheesefor breakfast, O he yo, The steward he's a making swankey.""Heave away... Duff for dinner, duff for dinner, Now I see it... Hurrah for the Cape Cod girs." "Now I don't... Round the corner Sally, Up she comes..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Ross, Etchings of a Whale Cruise)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp, 44-45, "Heave Away" (1 text)
Roud #27503
File: HGam044

Heave Away Cheerily

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: Sing me lads cheerily, Heave me lads cheerily, Heave away cheerily o-ho! For the gold that we prize an' for sunnier skies, away to the south'ard we go!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (JFSS)
KEYWORDS: shanty money
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 43-46, "Heave Away Cheerily" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 310-311, "Heave Away Cheerily O!" "As Off to the South'ard We Go" (2 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 232-233]
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, pp. 249-250, "Heave Away Cheerily (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #932
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Off to the South'ard We Go
NOTES [49 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas gives the second text, "As Off to the South'ard We Go," as a variant of "Heave Away Cheerily" and quotes it from vol. 5 of the Journal of the Folk Song Society where was taken down by a Mr. Piggot from the singing of shantyman J. Perring of Dartmouth in 1912. - SL
Last updated in version 3.3
File: Hugi310

Heave Away My Johnnies

See Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go) (File: Doe062)

Heave Away, Boys, Heave Away (I)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Heave away, heave away, for the merchant's money, Ch: Heave away boys, heave away!" Verses mostly about money, "Heave away for the buckra's silver," etc...
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas); the Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates version is from 1867 but might be any of several "Heave Away" songs
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong money
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 308, "Heave Away, Boys, Heave Away" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the "a" text is this piece; "b" is "Heave Away, Boys, Heave Away (II)") [AbEd, pp. 230-231]
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 61, "Heave Away" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [213 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas says this (and the other "Heave Away, Boys, Heave Away") are halyard shanties, despite the use of the word "heave" in the chorus. - SL
The easiest way to distinguish the two may be the fact that this one is in 2/4; "Heave Away, Boys, Heave Away (II)" is in 3/4.
The fragment in Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates is so short as to be almost unclassifiable; Roud sticks it in with "Heave Away, Me Johnnies," but that seems to be simply a case of a catchall entry. I classify it here because the form fits better here than elsewhere.
One line in the Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates text occurs occasionally elsewhere: "I'd rather court a yellow gal than work for Henry Clay." Henry Clay was, of course, one of the most important American politicians of the early nineteenth century, who was only fifteen years dead at the time Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates picked up their text. So it might be about him, or perhaps about someone who opposed his presidential ambitions. It might also be about a different Henry Clay.
On the other hand, given that it is a sea song, there is a possibility that the line should not read "for Henry Clay," but rather "on the Henry Clay," referring to one of the ships by that name. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Hugi308

Heave Away, Boys, Heave Away (II)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Oh I love the sailor an' the sailor loves me. Heave away, boys, heave away! He comes to my window ev'ry mornin' at three. Heave away, boys, heave away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Oh I love the sailor an' the sailor loves me. Heave away, boys, heave away! He comes to my window ev'ry mornin' at three. Heave away, boys, heave away." Verses all nonsense rhymes with some typical floating verses, i.e. "when I was a young man well in me prime, I'd love them yaller gals two at a time."
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong nonsense
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 309, "Heave Away, Boys, Heave Away" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the "b" text is this piece; "a" is "Heave Away, Boys, Heave Away (II)") [AbEd, p. 231]
NOTES [49 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas says this (and the other "Heave Away, Boys, Heave Away") are halyard shanties, despite the use of the word "heave" in the chorus. - SL
The easiest way to distinguish the two may be the fact that this one is in 3/4; "Heave Away, Boys, Heave Away (I)" is in 2/4. - RBW
File: Hugi309

Heave Away, Me Johnnies

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Heave away, me johnnies/jollies, heave away, ay!" The sailor lists some of the ports the ship has been sent to, but now rejoices to be returning to (Liverpool) and its girls.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman)
KEYWORDS: shanty
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Newf) Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 61-64, "Heave Away" (3 texts, 1 tune, but only the last text goes with this piece; the others are "Yellow Meal")
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 93-94, "Heave Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 14-17, "Heave Away My Johnnies" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 303-308, "Heave Away, Me Johnnies" (3 texts, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 226-230]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXVI, p. 30, "Heave Away, My Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 49, "Heave Away!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 105, "Heave away, my Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 41, "Heave Away, My Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 34, "Heave Away, My Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune, which looks like a combination of the chorus of "Heave Away, Me Johnnies" with verses from a bowdlerized version of "Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid)")
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 35, "Heave Away, My Johnny" (1 text, the same strange mix as in Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings)
DT, HEAVJHN* HEAVEJH2*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "We're All Bound Away" is in Part 1, 7/14/1917.
Roud #616
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go)" (tune, meter, chorus)
cf. "Yellow Gals (Doodle Let Me Go)" (style)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
We're All Bound to Go
NOTES [36 words]: This song is probably identical in origin to "Yellow Gals (Doodle Let Me Go)," and perhaps also akin to "Yellow Meal." As, however, those songs have taken on a completely separate plot, I treat them separately. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Doe063

Heave Away, My Johnny (I)

See Heave Away, Me Johnnies (File: Doe063)

Heave Away, My Johnny (II)

See Hieland Laddie (File: Doe050)

Heave Her Up and Bust Her

DESCRIPTION: "The St. Clair River is thirty miles long, Heave 'er up, lads, Heave 'er high, An' we'll set our canvas to this merry song, Heave 'er up and bust her." The sailors head for Lake Huron, talking about the tasks of sailing the lakes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1963 (Walton collection)
KEYWORDS: sailor river
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 45-46, "Heave Her Up and Bust Her" (1 text)
Roud #19894
File: WGM045

Heave on the Trawl (The Smacksman)

DESCRIPTION: "Once I was a schoolboy and learned my ABCs; No I am a smacksman and I plough the raging seas... Let's heave on the trawl, When we get our fish on board we'll have another haul." A description of the tasks of working on a fishing smack
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (recorded by Sam Larner)
KEYWORDS: fishing ship sailor work
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 135, "The Smacksman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 164-165, "(Oh, once I wuz a schoolboy") (1 text)
Roud #1788
File: PaSe135

Heave, My Boys, Away

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Walk 'er round for we're rollin homeward. Heave me boys together! The bully ol' ship is a-lyin windward, Heave me boys away!" Verses have simple rhymes on sailing themes. Full ch: "Heave 'er an' we'll break 'er, For the old ship's a-rollin home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Bradford & Fagge, _Old Sea Chanties_)
KEYWORDS: shanty ship sailor
FOUND IN: Scandinavia Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 528-529, "Heave, My Boys, Away" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 384-385]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hob-y-derri-dando" (very similar tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Capstan Bar
NOTES [22 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas learned this from Swedish sailors, and says he has no idea how popular it was in British ships. - SL
File: Hugi528

Heaven Bell a-Ring

DESCRIPTION: "My Lord, my Lord, what shall I do? And a heaven bell ring and praise God." "What shall I do for a hiding place?" "I run to the sea, but the sea run dry." God's promises to the faithful are briefly summarized; listeners are advised to listen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 20, "Heaven Bell A-Ring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 322-323, "Heaven Bell a-Ring" (1 text)
Roud #12065
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sinner Man" (lyrics)
File: DarNS32

Heaven Bells Are Ringing (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Heaven bells are ringing and I'm (my mother is, my Jesus is) going home" (3x) "Climbing up Zion's hill." "Heaven bells are ringing and the sinner has lost a home"(3x). "Climbing up Zion's Hill"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 20, "Heaven Bells Ringin, And I'm A-Going Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22634
RECORDINGS:
Wade Mainer and Sons of the Mountaineers, "Heaven Bells Are Ringing" (1939, Bluebird B 8203, 2009, "J.E. Mainer Classic Sides 1938-1941," JSP Records CD JSP77124C)
NOTES [77 words]: The description is based on the Barton-OldPlantationHymns text.
The Mainer version verse is "If you don't mind and hurry you'll be too late... Climbing up Zion's hill" - BS
Phillips's chorus for "Climbing up Zion's Hill" is "I'm climbing up Zion's Hill, I'm climbing up Zion's hill, Climbing, climbing, Climbing up Zion's Hill" (Philip Phillips and Wm. B. Bradbury, The Silver Bells (Chicago: Alfred L. Sewell, 1867 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p.21) - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart020A

Heaven Bells Are Ringing (II)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "The heaven bells are ringing, Archangels are singing, Heaven bells are ringing, In the morning." Verses: "Oh come my dearest sister (mother, father, ...), And don't you want to go, And sit along side of Jesus, And don't you want to go?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 25, "The-r Heaven Bells Are Ringin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [29 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. Perhaps the verses don't float but the "don't you want to go" response is common in hymns and other songs. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa025

Heaven Bells Are Ringing In My Soul

DESCRIPTION: Repeated alternate line: "Heaven bells are ringing in my soul." Chorus: "Heaven bells are ringing. Sing-sol-singing.... Going away to see my Jesus. Going away to see my Lord...." Verse: The singer is going to see heaven; you can't get there without grace
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 10, "Heaven Bells Ringin' In My Soul" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Bart010

Heaven Bells, The

DESCRIPTION: "O Mother, I believe (x3) That Christ was crucified." "Oh, don't you hear the heaven bells a-ringing over me? A-ringing over me? Oh, don't you hear the heaven bells a-ringing over me? It sounds like judgment day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 79, "The Heaven Bells" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12040
File: AWG079

Heaven is a Beautiful Place (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Heaven is a beautiful place, I know (x2), If you want to go to heaven on time, Sure got to plumb the line." "Ain't no sorrow in heaven I know...." "Ain't no (murders/gamblers/etc.) in heaven...." ""Loving union in heaven I know...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 579, "Heaven Is a Beautiful Place" (2 texts, but only "A" is this piece; "B" is "Heaven is a Beautiful Place (II)")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 579, "Heaven is a Beautiful Place" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11830
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Heaven is a Beautiful Place (II)" (lyrics)
NOTES [49 words]: The editors of Brown saw fit to lump the two "Heaven is a Beautiful Place" songs, but while they share the "Heaven is a beautiful place... If you want to go to heaven on time" stanza, the rest seems quite distinct; version (I) is a description of heaven; version (II) is mostly about Elisha. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3579A

Heaven is a Beautiful Place (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Elisha has done and seen the beautiful place. Heaven is a lovely place I know, I know." "Elisha done seen the sight, And said he didn't need any light. He has gone on to Heaven to rest. Heaven is a beautiful place, I know."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 579, "Heaven Is a Beautiful Place" (2 texts, but only "B" is this piece; "A" is "Heaven is a Beautiful Place (I)")
Roud #11830
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Heaven is a Beautiful Place (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [149 words]: The editors of Brown saw fit to lump the two "Heaven is a Beautiful Place" songs, but while they share the "Heaven is a beautiful place... If you want to go to heaven on time" stanza, the rest seems quite distinct; version (I) is a description of heaven; version (II) is mostly about Elisha.
It's not at all clear to me why Elisha is singled out in this song; he reported no visions of heaven, and it was Elijah, not Elisha, who was carried up into heaven (2 Kings 2). Elisha simply died and was buried in an ordinary manner (2 Kings 13).
It's true that Elisha was responsible for an astonishing number of miracles (including one after his death) -- but they were not really *inspiring* miracles; the result reads almost like a Davy Crockett story, but with miracles rather than animals: Where Davy might kill a bear and defeat a wildcat, Elisha would cure a leper and feed a multitude.... - RBW
File: Br3579B

Heaven Is Shining, The

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "The heaven is shining, shining, The heaven is shining full of love." Verses: the singer bids friends farewell: "going to leave you all." Death says, "this very day, you must go." If he had it to do over, he would avoid the road to sin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 94-95, "Oh, de Hebben Is Shinin'" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 219 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #15223
NOTES [53 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "The heaven is shining full of love."
One of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses floats from "Oh Death (III)," asking Death to "spare me yet another day." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett094

Heaven's a Long Way Off

DESCRIPTION: "This world is all so dark and cold, That' I've been a long time mourning, But the streets of heaven are paved with gold, Its light is upon me dawning. But heaven's a long way off (x3) And I've been a long time mourning." The singer warns of the grave
AUTHOR: unknown ("arranged" by Septimus Winner)
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (The Song Wave)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad warning
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: H. S. Perkins, H, J. Danforth, and E. V. DeGraff, _The Song Wave_, American Book Company, 1882, pp. 114-115, Heaven's a Great Way Off" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Heaven's a Great Way Off
NOTES [53 words]: Although I have never seen a traditional collection of this, The Song Wave calls this a "Slave Camp Hymn" arranged by Septimus Winner -- who is known to have worked with other Black material. So I'm including the song, very tentatively. For more on Septimus Winner, see the notes to "Listen to the Mockingbird." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BdHaGWOf

Heaven's My Home

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye dear children and help me to sing, I'm going to Jesus, he's Heaven's great king. He died to atone for the sings of the world; His banner is flying, his sails are unfurled. Heaven's my home (x2), I'm going to Jesus, for Heaven's my home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #86, "Heaven's My Home" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5025
File: Morr086

Heavenly Aeroplane, The

DESCRIPTION: "One of these days about twelve o'clock... The sinner's going to tremble and cry with pain And the Lord will come in his aeroplane." Jesus will take the saved on a very smooth, easy passage to heaven in the aeroplane.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: religious pilot technology Jesus travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 214-215, "The Aeroplane Song" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 215-216)
Randolph 660, "The Heavenly Aeroplane" (1 text)
Roud #7384
File: R660

Heavenly Road, The

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: ("Won't you go with me"(3x) "For to keep our garments clean"). You may talk about me but I hope you pray tonight, because "I believe I'm a child of God As I walk in the heavenly road." Jesus rolls away the rocks Satan puts in my way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 33, pp. 216-217, "The Heavenly Road" (1 text)
File: Hi033216

Heavenly Sunlight (Heavenly Sunshine)

DESCRIPTION: A hymn praising Jesus who allows us to "Walk... in sunlight all of my journey" and who will never forsake us. Chorus: "Heavenly sunlight (x2) / Flooding my soul with glory divine / Hallelujah, I am rejoicing / Singing his praises, Jesus is mine"
AUTHOR: words: George H. Cook / music: Henry J. Zelley
EARLIEST DATE: 1899
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 80, "Heavenly Sunshine" (1 text, 1 tune, combined with #81, "My Lord Knows the Way")
ST FSC080 (Partial)
RECORDINGS:
Dorothy Robinson, "Heavenly Sunlight" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #684, recorded 09/19/2023; almost too short to recognize)
NOTES [26 words]: Not to be confused with the Carter Family song "Sunshine in the Shadows" or "Sunshine in the Mountains," which is also properly titled "Heavenly Sunshine." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSC080

Heavy-Hipped Woman (Black Gal II)

DESCRIPTION: "Quit yo' long-time talkin' bout yo' heavy-hipped woman, she done gone, she done gone." "My woman, she keeps on grumblin', Bout a new pair of shoes." Verses about poverty, work, prison, courting, a runaway woman, almost anything else.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: courting work prison railroading hardtimes poverty courting separation loneliness floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 13-14, "Heavy-Hipted Woman" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HEAVYHIP*
Roud #6714
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Black Gal (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [78 words]: Since this is one of those wonderful Lomax accumulations of unrelated verses (from, e.g. "Take This Hammer"/"Swannanoah Tunnel"), it's hard to tell what the real story of this song is. I hope you can identify its relatives....
For a while I lumped this with "Black Gal (I)"; this follows Roud. But "Black Gal (I)" has a much stronger plot than this, which is mostly a complaint song. I suspect that song may have inspired this, but I would now consider them distinct. - RBW
File: LoF294

Heavy, Heavy Hangs Over Your Head

DESCRIPTION: "Heavy, heavy hangs over your head, What are you going to do with it?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #88, "Redeeming Forfeits" (assorted short rhymes)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 43, "Heavy, Heavy Hangs Over You Head" (1 text, filed under "A Note on the Games of Adolescents")
Roud #19434
NOTES [66 words]: Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren lists this among rhymes for redeeming forfeits. Solomon-ZickaryZan calls it a kissing game. But my mother's family tradition (from Michigan) had it as a sort of a game, perhaps for birthdays: An object (gift, whatever) is placed over a child's head so that he cannot see it. The question is asked, and the child has to guess what to do with the object. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Newe088

Heber Springs Tornado

See The Storm of Heber SPrings, November 25, 1926 (Heber Springs Tornado) (File: Abrr021)

Hebrew Children, The

See Where Is Old Elijah? (The Hebrew Children, The Promised Land) (File: San092)

Hech hiegh Durham

See The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Hech, Hey, Lowrie lay

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Hecketty Pecketty

DESCRIPTION: "Hecketty Pecketty needles and pins" Sorrow begins when a woman marries. Man's love is all "my eye" [nonsense]. You wash and brew and mend his socks while he's out drinking. The singer prefers to remain an old maid.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: marriage work drink nonballad husband oldmaid wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 42, "Hecketty Pecketty" (1 text)
Roud #3459
NOTES [172 words]: Alternatively, this can be "Higgledy! Piggledy! Needles and pins ...." (Helena Swan, Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations (London, 1904 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 364). On the other side is "the old saw," "Needles and pins, needles and pins, When a man marries his sorrow begins" ("Soapey Sponge's Sporting Tour" in W. Harrison Ainsworth, editor, The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, (London, 1851 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XCI, p. 321). - BS
The unfathomable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 75, says that the "When a man marries his sorrows begin(s)" form is a reference to Henry VIII and his fifth wife, Katherine Howard. Given that the whole thing comes out of Thomas's imagination anyway, it's not obvious why Thomas decided to apply this song to Howard, given that she didn't give Henry any trouble; it was Howard herself who soon got in trouble when she got bored with her obnoxious, overweight, probably almost-impotent tyrant of a husband. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ReSh042

Hecklin' Kame, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm come to borrow yer hecklin' kame [Greig/Duncan8: comb for dressing flax]," Answer: "I'll heckle my hemp and gie ye't again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: weaving dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1713, "The Hecklin' Kame" (1 text)
Roud #13079
NOTES [145 words]: The Greig/Duncan8 notes relate this song to "The Bob O' Dumblane." See James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #513, p. 634, "The Bob o' Dunblane" (1 text, 1 tune): "Lassie, lend me your braw hemp heckle, And I'll lend you my thrippling kame: My heckle is broken, it canna be gotten, And we'll gae dance the Bob o' Dumblane. Twa geed to the wood, to the wood, to the wood, Twa gaed to the wood -- three cam hame: An't be na weel bobbit, weel bobbit, we'll bobbit, An't be na weel bobbit, we'll bob it again." From James Hogg, The Forest Minstrel, editors PD Garside and Richard D. Jackson (Edinburgh, 2006) ,p. 320: "Thomas Crawford ... says that the term 'The Bob of Dumblane' always had an equivocal sense because it refers to both the marriage festivity with its accompanying high jinks, and the sexual act itself." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81713

Hector MacDonald

DESCRIPTION: Hector joins the army and defeats Afghans in Kandahar. At Omdurman "in his great roll of glory It added the crown to his wide-world fame." "Now the great soldier's brave soul has departed ... he died broken hearted"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: battle death Africa nonballad soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 141, "Hector MacDonald" (1 text)
Roud #5774
NOTES [828 words]: Greig/Duncan1: "Hector Macdonald (1853-1903) became a hero in Britain, and particularly in Scotland, following the spectacular part he played in the battle of Omdurman fought in the Sudan on 2 September 1898. He shot himself when about to be court-martialled on a charge which has never been divulged but is presumed to have been one of homosexuality."
For an account of MacDonald's part on September 2 see Winson Churchill, The River War (London, 1997), pp. 209-218. Churchill: "All depended on MacDonald, and that officer, who by valour and conduct in war had won his way from the rank of a private soldier to the command of a brigade, was equal to the emergency" [p. 215]. See also Wikipedia article Battle of Omdurman - BS
Byron Farwell, Queen Victoria's Little Wars, 1972 (I use the 1985 Norton edition), p. 207. says that MacDonald first came to be noticed two dozen years before his death, in Afghanistan. As Lord Roberts traveled with a small escort in 1879, his force was attacked by Afghans. "In the sharp engagement that followed, Roberts was struck by the bravery and leadership shown by a colour sergeant of the 92nd. His name was Hector MacDonald and during the course of the action one of his men had called out to him, 'We'll make ye an officer for this day's work, Sergeant!' And another added, 'Aye, and a general too!' Roberts gave MacDonald a battlefield commission...."
He certainly didn't seem destined to be an officer in the very class-conscious British army, being a draper's assistant who had run away from home to become a soldier (Farwell, p. 247). And, indeed, he was more than nine years in the ranks before his promotion, and was still only a lieutenant in 1881, when he fought at Majuba Hill (for which see the song of that name). MacDonald was so determined that, once all else had failed, he actually fought the Boers with his fists, but finally was taken prisoner (Farwell, p. 250). Soon after, he was selected by General Evelyn Wood to be one of the two dozen officers Wood took to Egypt to rebuild the Egyptian army (Farwell, p. 282).
Initially he served as a battalion commander of Sudanese troops (Farwell, p. 332) -- another job looked down on by the snobs. He seems to have been known at this time as "Fighting Mac" (Farwell, p. 333). In 1898, as Kitchener went to fight in Sudan, Macdonald (then a colonel) was given command of a brigade of local troops (Farwell, p. 334). The Battle of Omdurman came about because Kitchener, without knowing it, planned to march across the front of a major force of dervishes. MacDonald was rather far from the main body when the Africans attacked. He calmly swung his brigade to face them, and beat off a force estimated at 20,000 (Farwell, p. 338). Farwell credits MacDonald solely with the victory; he thinks Kitchener botched his part. David Chandler, general editor; Ian Beckett, associate editor, The Oxford History of the British Army, 1994 (I use the 1996 Oxford paperback edition), p. 208, also mentions his noteworthy work at Omdurman, which "enable[d] Kitchener to complete the rout of the enemy and enter Omdurman in triumph."
Other battles in which Macdonald served included Gemaizah, Toski, Tokar, Firket, and Hafir (Farwell, p. 334).
"The fate of the crofter's son was [sad]. Macdonald further distinguished himself in the Boer War and he eventually became a major-general, but in 1903, while commanding the British forces in Ceylon, he was charged with being a practicing homosexual. He went to London to defend himself, but was ordered back to Ceylon to face a court of inquiry. He got no further than Paris. There in a hotel room this officer, so brave under the fire of Afghans, Dervishes and Boers, shot himself" (Farwell, p. 338).
MacDonald would have been 61 in 1914 -- still young enough, probably, for field service. I can't help but wonder what would have happened if he, rather than the excitable John French (one year older) or the unimaginative Douglas Haig (eight years younger) had commanded the British in France.
This is all the more so since there were apparently legends about his death, and perhaps even his return to fight for Britain; according to Christina Hole, English Folk Heroes: From King Arthur to Thomas a Becket, 1948? (I use the 1992? Dorset Press reprint), p. 25, "Such theories [about sleeping heroes] cannot now survive the natural span of a life.... but that they spring up as spontaneously in modern as in earlier times can hardly be denied by any who remember toe loss of Lord Kitchener, or the many curious stories which followed the deaths of Sir Hector Macdonald and Adolf Hitler."
Hole describes this theory on pp. 36-37. One version makes the German general Mackensen to be MacDonald in disguise! She suggests that this was because MacDonald received a very low-key funeral, without military honors. Presumably this was because he was a suicide and a probable homosexual, but it led to rumors that he wasn't really dead. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: GrD1141

Hector Protector

DESCRIPTION: "Hector Protector was dressed all in green; Hector Protector was sent to the Queen. The Queen did not like him, No more did the King, So Hector Protector was sent back again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: clothes royalty travel rejection
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 207, "Hector Protector" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #215, p. 145, "(Hector Protector was dressed all in green)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 57, "Hector Protector" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, 3222, "I had a dolly dressed in green" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 25, "(I had a dress and it was green)" (1 text, a quite distinct version in which the dress, not Hector or the dolly, is sent to the queen)
Roud #20151
NOTES [362 words]: Although this seems to be old, attempts to figure out what it means strike me as largely unsuccessful. The Opies don't even try to offer an explanation. Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel mentions Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector 1653-1658, but of course there was no King or Queen at the time, and so he concludes that the Lord Protector must be Richard Duke of York (died 1460), who was Lord Protector in the reign of Henry VI when that king went insane; Richard was hated by Queen Margaret of Anjou, who pulled Henry VI along with her during his more lucid moments, so the description more or less fits -- but it's a long time from the 1450s to the printing of the rhyme by Halliwell.
Katherine Elwes Thomas, who had a more fertile imagination than a whole college full of creative writing students (and less sense), suggests that the poem refers to Henry VIII's "rough wooing" of Scotland, in which he tried to force the Scots to marry their baby queen Mary to his son Edward VI; her candidate for Hector Protector is Edward Seymour, then Earl of Hertford, later Duke of Somerset (Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 174). Somerset was Protector after Henry VIII died, but, again, he wasn't a Hector. And he wasn't a Protector when he invaded Scotland. To be sure, neither the Queen Mother of Scotland nor King Henry VIII liked him much after his wooing failed while causing a lot of damage to Scotland, but surely the sense here is that King and Queen are monarchs of the same nation. And while Henry VIII lived three generations after Henry VI (he was in fact the great-grandson of Richard of York), that's still a long time for a rhyme to survive.
There is also the fact that neither Richard of York nor Edward Seymour was named Hector, but maybe the poet was just looking for an easy rhyme.
All this may explain why a few versions got rid of Hector Protector and replaced him with a dolly dressed in green, as in Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes. Abrahams doesn't seem to recognize the Hector Protector versions as the same song, but I agree with Roud in lumping them; the only difference is the mention of Hector. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OO2207

Hedgehog, The

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

Hedger and Ditcher

See My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher (Nobody Coming to Marry Me) (File: BrII185)

Hedger, The

See Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man) (File: R127)

Heel and Toe Polka

DESCRIPTION: Descriptions of how to dance the polka and other dances: "First the heel And then the toe And that's the way the polka goes." Or, "Heel and toe, we always go," etc. Similarly, "First the toe and then the heel, That's the way to dance a reel."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Montgomerie)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 110, "(First the heel)" (1 text, with the curious tag line "And we'll meet Johnnie Cope in the morning"!)
Roud #7932
File: MSNR110

Heelin' Bill

DESCRIPTION: "Contestants galore and fans by the score Set roostin' the gates of Saint Pete...." The various rodeo riders who have died are recalled. Finally we see "amongst them all, on old Fireball, There set ol' Heelin' Bill."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: cowboy death recitation moniker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1937 - Death of Pete Knight
1950 - Death of "Heelin'" Bill Nix
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 36, "Heelin' Bill" (1 text)
NOTES [18 words]: The number of famous bronc riders listed in this song probably tells us something about the profession.... - RBW
File: Ohr036

Heenan and Sayers [Laws H20]

DESCRIPTION: Heenan travels from America to fight the British boxers. Sayers draws first blood, but Heenan is ahead after thirty-seven rounds, and the British stop the fight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Journal of the Pacific)
KEYWORDS: fight injury
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 17, 1860 - Boxing match between John C. Heenan and Tom Sayers
Events mentioned in some versions of the song:
c. 1541-1596 - Life of Sir Francis Drake
June 17, 1775 - Battle of Bunker Hill (fought on Breed's Hill, and won by the British, though at heavy cost)
Oct 19, 1781 - Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown
Sapt 10, 1813 - Perry defeats the British at the Battle of Lake Erie
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,Ro) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws H20, "Heenan and Sayers"
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 49, "Heenan and Sayers" (2 texts)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 49, "Heenan and Sayers" (2 texts)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 24-25, "Heenan and Sayers" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 9, "The British-American Fight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, "Heenan and Sayers (The Bold Benicia Boy)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #189, "Johnny Bull" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 48-49, "Heenan and Sayers" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 76-77, "Heenan and Sayers" (1 text)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 214-215, "Heenan and Sayers" (1 text, 1 tune, "reconstructed" by the collector)
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 8, page headed "HEENAN AND SAYERS"], "(Heenan and Sayers)" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 321, "Heenan and Sayers" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads, pp. 253-255, "Heenan and Sayers" (1 text, tune referenced; OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 26)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 205-206, "Uncle Sam and Johnny Bull" (1 text, badly jumbled, 1 tune)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 25-26, "Uncle Sam and Johnny Bull" (1 text, 1 tune, containing the fight but no mention of Heenan or Sayers)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 136-137, "Heenan and Sayers" (1 text)
DT 679, HEENSAYR
Roud #2148
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Whole Hog or None" (subject)
cf. "Donnelly and Cooper" (subject, tune)
cf. "Morrissey and the Black" (subject)
cf. "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (tune, subject)
cf. "Morrissey and the Benicia Boy" (subject)
cf. "The Great Fight Between Tom Sayers and Bob Brettie" (subject: Tom Sayers)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bold Benicia Boy
NOTES [764 words]: John C. Heenan (Johnny Morrissey's last opponent) was born in New York but was called "the Benicia Boy" after Benicia, California, where he lived during his late teens. His match with Tom Sayers, which was stopped after more than three dozen rounds (different sources say 37 or 42), is said to have been the last of the (official) bare-knuckle boxing matches.
Tom Sayers was so successful as a boxer that his ability to land a blow had already entered the realm of proverb at the time of the Crimean War.
According to Roger Ellis, Who's Who in Victorian Britain, 1997 (I use the 2001 Stackpole Books edition), p. 207, "TOM SAYERS (1826-1865), prize fighter, was the last famous figure in the old bare-fisted ring; two years after his death the Marquess of Queensberry devised rules which transformed boxing."
Elllis adds that "Sayers, at between 10.2 and 10.12 stone, was a middleweight, and, measuring only 5' 8½", was normally outreached. But he carried much of his weight around his shoulders and neck" and had persistence and was hard to batter. He once fought a bout that lasted 109 rounds!
The weight difference in the Heenan and Sayers fight was substantial; Ellis says Heenan was 6'2" and weighed 14 stone.
If you are wondering about all those historical references which appear to have nothing to do with the Heenan/Sayers fight, they are all appropriate to the Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl text, sung by "Yankee" John Galusha. This text is so distinct from all other "Heenan and Sayers" versions I've seen that I am tempted to list it as its own song. But it does have some common lyrics; it probably doesn't deserve a separate listing.
At least one other fight involving Tom Sayers produced a broadside. See "Lines on the Great Fight between TOM SAYERS, Champion of England, and BOB BRETTLE, of Birmingham," found in Jon Raven, The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham, Broadside, 1977, pp. 209-210. - RBW
[Abraham Lincoln Papers] at the Library of Congress American Memory site: "Outside of the politicians there is in this city very little care or talk about party or candidates. Heenan & Sayers eclipsed the Charleston Convention ..." Letter from Orville H. Browning to Abraham Lincoln, June 29, 1860, re prospects in Pennsylvania.
America Singing at the Library of Congress American Memory site does not have this ballad but has eight other distinct ballads about Heenan and Sayers:
LOCSinging, as201320, "Heenan the Champion of the World," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also sb20189b, "Heenan, Champion of the World"
LOCSinging, as201310, "Heenan the Champion of the World," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also sb20189a, "Heenan the Champion of the World"
LOCSinging, as100200, "The American Eagle and British Lion" or "Yankee Heenan and English Sayers," unknown, n.d.
LOCSinging, sb20171a, "Happy Land of Canaan," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also cw102250, "Happy Land of Canaan"
LOCSinging, sb20170a, "Happy Land of Canaan," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also cw102250, "Happy Land of Canaan"
LOCSinging, sb10143b, "Great Champion Prize Fight," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
LOCSinging, sb20190b, "Heenan the Pride of America," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
LOCSinging, sb10021a, "Ballad in Answer to Sayers, England's Pride," H. De Marsan (New York), [imprint: 1860] [before the fight]
Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue does not have this ballad but has six others about Heenan:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(587/588)[could not be downloaded], "A New Song on Heenan and King," J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899
Bodleian, Harding B 18(234),"Heenan the Champion of the World" (New York), H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
Bodleian, Harding B 18(235),"Heenan the Pride of America," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878 attributed to A. Scott
Bodleian, Firth c.19(19),"The English Prize-Fighter and the American Champion," J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899 about the fight with Sayers
Bodleian, Harding B 26(247),"Heenan's Arrival in England," unknown, n.d. before the fight with Jem Mace
Bodleian, Harding B 19(62),"Heenan's Challenge to Mace," unknown, n.d.; 2806 c.15(229),"Heenan's Challenge to Mace" before the fight with Jem Mace
Broadside H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadsides LOCSinging as201320 and Bodleian Harding B 18(234) are duplicates, [as are] broadsides LOCSinging sb20190b and Bodleian Harding B 18(235). - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: LH20

Heezh Ba

See Rock-A-Bye Baby (File: Wa190)

Heifer, The

DESCRIPTION: The heifer, a fabulous creature "with horns upon her heels," does incredible damage till the owner determines to sell her. She begs that she not be killed; she is the spirit of Lord Leitrim. The company determines to blow up the heifer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: animal Devil commerce humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H675, pp. 24-25, "The Heifer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13347
NOTES [16 words]: I'm sure this is political in some sense or other, but I can't tell the nature of the beast. - RBW
File: HHH675

Heigh Me Know

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: Heigh me know, bombye [overseer?] me takey. Jenny goes to the market to buy the singer "varrow prantin" [?]. The neighbors know Jenny's been "a bad gal"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1833 (_Service Afloat_ quoted by Abrahams)
KEYWORDS: accusation sea work slavery shanty
FOUND IN: West Indies(Virgin Islands)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, p. 11, "Heigh Me Know" (1 fragment)
File: WIS011f

Heigh-Ho-Diddle-Um-De-A

See Possum Up a Gum Stump (File: R280)

Heigh-ho, Sing Ivy

See My Father Had an Acre of Land (File: K300)

Heights at Alma, The

See The Heights of Alma (I) [Laws J10] (File: LJ10)

Heights of Alma (I), The [Laws J10]

DESCRIPTION: The British and French land outside Alma. They attack and rout the Russians (most versions give the primary credit to the British, and especially the Scots), forcing them back to Sevastopol. Both sides suffer heavy casualties
AUTHOR: James Maxwell?
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford); c.1854 (broadside, NLScotland RB.m.143(159))
KEYWORDS: war battle patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 14, 1854 - Anglo-French landing near the mouth of the Alma
Sept 20, 1854 - Battle of Alma. The allies win an expensive victory over the Russians
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(MW) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Laws J10, "The Heights of Alma"
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 249-251, "The Heights of Alma" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 158, "The Battle of Alma" (1 fragment)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H123, p. 90, "The Heights of Alma" (1 text with variants, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 90, "The Heights at Alma" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 1000-1001, "The Heights of Alma" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 67, "Battle of Alma" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 148-149, "Battle of Alma" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 55, "The Battle of Alma" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 74, "The Heights of Alma" (1 text)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 73, "The Heights of Alma" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 40-41, "The Heights of Alma" (1 text)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 214-215, "The Heights of Alma" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 394, HGHTALMA*
Roud #830
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Heights of Alma" (on Abbott1)
Cyril O'Brien, "The Heights of Alma" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 2336, "The Battle of Alma" ("You loyal Britons pray draw near"), unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 26(41)[faded to almost total illegibility], Firth c.14(47)[faded to almost total illegibility], "The Battle of Alma"; Harding B 19(88), 2806 b.9(245), "Bloody Alma"
Murray, Mu23-y1:116, "The Battle of Alma," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, RB.m.143(159), "The Battle of Alma," unknown, c.1854
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Victory Won at Richmond" (meter, lyrics)
cf. "The Waggoner" (meter, lyrics)
cf. "The Kilties in the Crimea" (subject)
cf. "Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose (I)" (subject: British boasting about the Crimea)
cf. "Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose (II)" (subject: Battle of Alma)
cf. "Here's to the Army and Navy" (subject)
cf. "The Battle of Alma" (subject)
NOTES [2876 words]: Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue has other broadsides about the battle:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(62), "We'll Hae Nane but Hielan' Bonnets Here!" ("Alma field of heroes, hail!"), unknown, n.d.
Bodleian, Harding B 26(43), "Battle of Alma" ("Oh boys have you heard of the battle, the allies have gained on the shore"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; Harding B 12(246), "Battle of Alma"
Bodleian, Harding B 26(42), "The Battle of Alma" ("Come all you true-bred Irishmen, and listen unto me"), unknown, n.d.
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "[This version] differs in words and tune from any published version we have seen. It may possibly have been altered by Jared MacLean [the singer] himself." This version does share two verses with Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 74; lacking Mackenzie's chorus it still has the same pattern and seems close enough to me for this to be considered Laws J10.
Greig/Duncan1 has the one verse augmented by "Hey, Menschikoff, are ye waukin' yet? Sebastapol bells, are ye ringing yet? Gin ye were waukin, I wad wait, An' meet ye on the banks o' Alma" and sung to the tune of "Johnny Cope." - BS
The Crimean War probably doesn't set a record for strange beginnings (there was, after all, the War of Jenkins's Ear), but it came close: It started with a conflict over who had keys to which rooms in churches in the Holy Land (Binkley, pp. 168-171). But this involved politics in the Ottoman and Russian Empires plus the various Catholic states, and that meant Napoleon III was involved, and the British were trying to reform the Ottoman Empire, and mash it all up, and you ended up with a war.
A singularly inefficient war. The Russians were fighting the Turks by 1853. Britain and France allied with the Turks in March 1854, and sent off their armies to the east. "An Anglo-French expeditionary force appeared at Varna in June to drive out the Russians, but the Russians had already gone. Without even seeing the enemy the expeditionary force lost a fourth of its numbers through sickness" (Binkley, p. 174).
Finally, in the fall of 1854, the allies managed to locate some real live Russians in the Crimea, and set out to attack them.
The English commander was Lord Raglan, who had fought against Napoleon forty years earlier (and had lost an arm; see Woodham-Smith, p. 131), but he was now 65 years old and perhaps lacking in initiative (Woodham-Smith, p. 156).
According to Hibbert, p. 2, he was so like the Duke of Wellington that they were sometimes thought to be father and son (they differed by about twenty years in age). After brief service as a very junior officer, Lord Fitzroy Somerset, as he was then known, joined Wellington's staff, and served on it for some forty years, until Wellington died.
His life was amazingly limited. Hibbert, pp. 4-5, reports these traits: "His private life... was happy and successful, He was devoted to his wife and to his four young children. He was not rich, but had enough to spend between three and four thousand a year... He loved hunting and shooting and good food and the company of good-looking women and the pleasures of society. And like so many members of that society he cared little for the changing world outside it. Science and mechanics, which were beginning already to change the whole life of Europe [and the weapons their armies used, and hence military tactics] meant nothing to him. Nor did painting, nor music; nor did books. In fact in the great mass of his private correspondence only once does he mention having read one.... Even politics interested him only when they impinged upon the Army. In the six years that he sat as a High Tory Member for Truro he never once spoke in the House. He nonetheless was made the first Lord Raglan in 1852 (Hibbert, p. 6).
The British didn't really have much choice about picking such inferior commander; all their officers were either ancient or inexperienced or both -- or had earned their experience in India, which made them socially inferior; see Farwell, p. 69. Plus the British still followed the rule of commission by purchase (Hibbert, p. 8), which was to foist upon then such fools as Lord Lucan and Lord Cardigan of Light Brigade infamy; purchasing of commissions was not eliminated until 1871 (Chandler/Beckett, p. 188). This lack of competent officers was to cost them dearly in the course of the war. Hibbert, p. 16, says that four officers were considered for command of the expeditionary force -- and that only Raglan was under seventy. Compared to the alternatives, he may actually have been a good choice.
Give Raglan this much credit, at least: It was he who pushed the British army to adopt rifle muskets rather than smoothbores (Hibbert, pp. 18-19). These would utterly change the nature of war, and Raglan probably didn't understand them -- but they were a big advantage to the side that had them, since they had a much greater range than smoothbores, and they could actually hit a target.
To add to Raglan's age and conservatism, and the general incompetence of the British staff system, was the fact that Raglan was sick. Heat and dysentery affected him no less than his men (Hibbert, p. 21) -- and he was older and permanently crippled.
At the beginning of the war, Raglan's failings didn't matter. His stubbornness was important to getting the British and French to actually take action (Hibbert, p. 21), which had the secondary benefit of getting them out of the disease pits of their first landing place near Varna (Hibbert, pp. 29-31). Sadly, that didn't really get the armies to do anything useful; British forces had not coordinated their plans with that of the French under Saint Arnaud. (Liaison between the two forces was terrible -- indeed, even within the armies, commanders were hardly willing to work together. Part of it was political, but most of it was sheer personal jealousy.) This was one of the reasons it took so many months to get the forces actually on their way to the Crimea. To add to the absurdity of it all, the time spent in Bulgaria was completely wasted; no one used the time to gather useful intelligence. The Allies would be going into the Crimea blind (Hibbert, p. 33).
No one had even managed to gather decent information on a landing site; in the end, Raglan and his staff cruised the shoreline north of Sebastopol and simply picked a likely-looking spot (Hibbert, pp. 37-38).
Even the landing was a botch, despite being unopposed; although a buoy had been set out to delimit the British and French landing areas, the buoy somehow moved in the night before the landing, so the French had the entire beach and the British had to take their landing craft and hunt for a new spot to go ashore (Hibbert, p. 40). The landing took place September 14, 1854. By the time the rains began that afternoon, men were already collapsing -- some of them dying -- on the beach due to the stress of trying to travel while sick (Hibbert, p. 41).
When the song says the British troops spent the first night on the "cold, cold ground," it is no less than the truth; their tents had been sent back aboard ship after the landing (Hibbert, p. 42, attributes this to the impossibility of the weary troops to carry them, though I wouldn't be surprised if the staff botched things up again).
The British were so disorganized that it took them four days to get moving; the French had been ready two days earlier. Even after all that waiting, most men were not supplied with water for their canteens -- worsening their problems with the day's heat (Hibbert, p. 45). They also did not have time to cook their rations.
After a cavalry mix-up, the Russians settled in to their position of "enormous strength" on the Alma River. "...the Russsians withdrew from the ridges of Bulganak, and the British army came up on them to advance to bivouac for the night in order of battle. When darkness came the men, most of them too exhausted even to eat, fell to the ground, permitted at last to sleep.... Beyond the river, on steep ridges with rise to a formidable height, an untouched Russian army lay encamped" (Hibbert, p. 51). The troops would also have to cross the Alma, but at this time of the year, the water was low and it was a relatively minor obstacle; there were many fords (Hibbert, p. 54).
It is estimated that the 38,000 Russians faced 65,000 Allies (30,000 French, 26,000 British, and 9,000 Turks fought at the Alma, although both sides were starting to suffer severely from disease, and the European allies didn't let the Turks do much). The allies also had an advantage in armaments: The British forces, as noted, had rifle muskets, while almost all of the Russians still had the old smoothbore muskets, which couldn't hit anything beyond a few dozen yards (Wawro, p. 10).
The battle of Alma took place on September 20, 1854. The Russians occupied a position they thought impregnable, but they left parts of it essentially unoccupied (Woodham-Smith, pp. 180-182; Hibbert, p. 54). The allies marched south toward them; with the French on the right (east), with the sea guarding their flank; the British were on the left, with their left flank in the air (not that the Russians were going to leave their strong position to attack it).
According to Hibbert, pp. 56-57, the French commander St. Arnaud, apparently proposed that the French attack on the seaward side while the British tried to outflank the Russians on the landward side. Lord Raglan did not bother arguing with the sick man, but he didn't exactly do as planned, either.
By good luck rather than coordination, the French and British managed a sort of an attack en echelon (Hibbert, pp. 58-59, blames it on the nearsightedness of a British division commander, who couldn't see what he was doing and drifted off-line). The Russians could have made the British pay by attacking their flank -- but they made no move. Instead, the British advance -- though it stalled for some time, forcing the soldiers to face artillery fire they could not answer (Hibbert, p. 61) -- progressively involved the Russian forces and at last brought extra force into play on the Russian flank, causing it to break. (I'm vastly oversimplifying here, but the see-saw battle that actually happened really requires a map to explain.) Raglan's oblique movement had cost heavy casualties, but had -- potentially -- won the war. (Only to have the victory dissolve in more failure of coordination.)
Casualties figures at Alma are uncertain, particularly since many men were dying of cholera all the while. Initial reports had 1755 Russians killed, 362 British, and 60 French (!). Of these, only the Russian figure is possible. Warner, p. 33, gives figures of 6000 Russians, 2000 British, and French negligible -- though he also quotes a contemporary officer's letter claiming 2000 British and 5000 French casualties (Warner, p. 39), while on p. 40 he lists 342 British soldiers killed while noting that conditions for the injured were so bad that most of them would die and on p. 44 quotes a contemporary as saying there were 1400 French losses including those from disease.
After this much time, no reliable figures will ever be known, but it is a reasonable guess that at least 5000 men died. In any case, battle casualties in the Crimea were a joke; men were dying of disease so fast that many formations just melted away. Disease casualties far outnumbered those caused by fighting.
The song is generally fairly accurate about details: There was a downpour on the night after the landing, the British troops were without tents (the French were better off), meaning that the men did sleep on the ground. They were hardly better off on the day before Alma: The day the men marched to the Alma was indeed very hot and dry (Woodham-Smith, p. 170). The dry ground above the Alma River was indeed very high and a potentially strong defensive position (I seem to recall reading that at some points it rose 300 feet above the river) -- though it was not fully fortified (Warner, p. 29). The song is wrong about one thing: the landing took place on September 14, not September 18 as found in several versions (the confusion probably came about because, while the army landed starting September 14, it just sat there for four days. The advance toward the Alma began September 18; Hibbert, pp. 44-45).
The comment, "Scottish lads in kilts and hose Were not the last, you may suppose" is nothing less than the truth; according to Palmer, p. 101, "To the Russians, Sir Colin Campbell's kilted Black Watch and Cameron Highlanders seemed an irresistable force, 'the savages without trousers,' as the mortally wounded General Karganov alled them with grudging admiration." According to Woodham-Smith, pp. 187-188, it was the Highlanders who won the battle, taking the redoubt that anchored the Russian line despite extremely heavy fire. It was the second time the British had taken the position (the Russians had weakened it by pulling out its artillery, according to Hibbert, p. 70; they had a very strong tradition of not allowing guns to fall into enemy hands), but they had been driven out the first time (due in part to mistaken orders and the almost-standard confusion of battle; Hibbert, p. 72). The Highlanders took it and held it.
The song also says "The shot it flew like wind and rain When we the battery strove to gain." Again, this may be based on an eyewitness report; while crossing the river, a sergeant said many men were "shot down with grape and cannister -- which came amongst us like hail -- while attempting to cross [the Alma]" (Hibbert, p. 66).
Versions of this song give chief credit to different regiments for the victory at Alma; Ford's and Henry's texts mentions the "Thirty-third and the Fusiliers," but chief credit is probably due (as even the Ford and Henry texts imply) to Sir Colin Campbell's Highland Brigade: 42nd Highlanders (Black Watch), 78th Highlanders (Seaforth, though this regiment was not given honours for Alma) and 93rd Highlanders (Sutherland).
The additional stanzas in some of the Sam Henry variants mention "Prince Metchnikoff"; this is General Prince Alexander Sergeievich Menshikov/Menschikov/Menschikoff (1789-1869; the variant spellings of course arise because his name is written in the Cyrillic alphabet, but no source I've checked spells it the way Henry does). He was commander of Russian forces in the Crimea until his recall for reasons of health during the Sebastopol siege. Menshikov proved an utter disaster to the Russians (Warner, p. 42, says that "Raglan was inept, Menshikov was more so"); before the war, he had been sent to the Turks as an ambassador. His orders gave him little leeway to avoid war, but he did nothing to use what leeway he had.
The Henry text says that Menshikov left his coach at Alma. This is not true, but there was a Russian review before the battle, and many fine gentlemen and ladies turned out. Many of them fled, leaving coaches and picnic baskets behind.
Jacques Letoy de Saint Arnaud (1796-1854), who helped put Napoleon III on the French throne and was rewarded with a marshal's baton, was the overall commander of Allied forces in the battle, but this wasn't much to his credit; Raglan's movement, which was expensive but which won the battle, was against his orders.
Saint Arnaud did not die in combat at Alma, as the Henry text implies; instead, he was sick (one source suggests heart disease and cholera, another stomach cancer) at the time of the engagement, and died nine days later.
His timing was abominable. Had the allies moved straight on Sebastopol after winning at Alma, they might have taken it by siege -- but Saint Arnaud and others delayed things (Woodham-Smith, p. 191), and then wasn't around to straighten things out; the invaders instead tried a flank march around an army that was too disorganized even to have a flank at this time (Woodham-Smith, p. 192). The delay would cause great misery, at Balaclava, Inkerman, Sebastopol, and all the lands around, where men died of cholera, bad food, and all the other ills that plagued the ill-supplied Crimean armies.
Sam Henry twice credits this song to James Maxwell (fl. 1870), a schoolteacher from near Dungiven, to whom he credits several other songs. I'm not particularly confident of this; the other two Maxwell songs ("Adieu to the Banks of the Roe" and "Dungiven Priory Church") are poor pieces, different in style and quality, with no such historical allusions. I suppose Maxwell could have been a One Hit Wonder, but I'd like better proof of authorship.
Whoever the author was, he appears to have had access to Raglan's remarks on the battle; Raglan spoke of "the hill opposite, over which the Russians fled, quite thick with dead and wounded... the work of the Highland Brigade."
For further information about the Crimean War and the Sebastopol campaign, see "The Famous Light Brigade."
We might also note that "Alma" gives strong evidence of being molded on some earlier piece, though I haven't managed to locate such an exemplar. Neither does Laws mention such a piece. But the fact that the Alma form was used for "The Victory Won at Richmond" (1860s) and "The Waggoner" (internally dated to some time prior to 1840) clearly implies the existence of a "proto-Alma" ballad. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.2
File: LJ10

Heir of Lin, The

See The Heir of Linne (I) [Child 267] (File: C267)

Heir of Linne (I), The [Child 267]

DESCRIPTION: The Heir wastes his money in gambling and wild living, (sells his lands,) and falls into poverty. He remembers a (letter/key) to be used only when he is in need. It tells him where to find a treasure; the Heir is once again rich -- and now wiser
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy Folio)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "The Lord of Linn wastes his substance in riotous living. John of the Scales persuades him to sell his estate. He wastes the purchase money too, and is soon in great distress. He goes to Edinburgh and begs, and is abused. Bethinks him of a bill his father had left him, only to be looked at in dire necessity. Looks at it now, and is informed of a fresh store of money. Fills his wallet from it. Goes to John of the Scales' house, is rudely treated by John's wife, but spoken for by one of the guests. John mockingly offers to resell the estate for 20 shillings less than he gave for it. The heir takes him at his word, and pays down the money. John's wife is much crestfallen. The kind guest is rewarded. The heir vows to be more careful."
KEYWORDS: money gambling drink poverty begging
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Child 267, "The Heir of Linne" (3 texts)
Bronson 267, "The Heir of Linne" (4 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 267, "The Heir of Linne" (2 versions: #1, #3)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 174-179, "The Heir of Lin" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 147-150, "The Heir of Linne" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 217-225, "The Heir of Linne" (1 text)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 275-284, "The Heir of Linne" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #72, p. 1, "The Heir o' Linne" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 273, "The Heir o' Linne" (3 texts, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #2, B=#3}
Dixon-ScottishTraditionalVersionsOfAncientBallads IV, pp. 30-36, "The Heir of Linne" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 637-641, "The Heir of Linne" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, p. 81, "The Heir of Linne" (1 text fragment)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 80, "The Heir of Linne" (1 text)
DT 267, LAIRDLIN*
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, p. 406, "The Heir of Linne" (a prose summary)
John W Hales and Frederick J Furnivall, Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript (London: N Trubner & Co, 1867 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I,, pp. 174-179, "The Heir of Lin" ("Off all the lords in faire Scotland a song I will begin") (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 267
Roud #111
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Heir of Linne" (II) (derived from this song)
NOTES [168 words]: Child lists many foreign analogues to this ballad. It should not be assumed, however, that they are actually related; the theme is commonplace. Indeed, it could easily be suggested by the Biblical story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32); the only real difference is that, in the New Testament story, the father is still alive.
Still, Bronson links the tune loosely with "The Boom o' Cowdenknowes" -- which would make sense if someone were translating a text and fitting it to a British tune. - RBW
Hales and Furnivall is the source for Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry and Child 267B. It is included here because it is referenced in the notes to Percy's ballad, "The Heir of Linne (II)." The Long Description is a quote of Percy's marginal notes to the Hales and Furnivall text, included here to provide a base, from Percy's point of view, to his new song. - BS
(As Hales and Furnivall commented tartly, volume I, p. 174, Percy "polished [his text] till he could see his own face in it." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C267

Heir of Linne (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The heir's father has his drinking son make a deathbed promise that involves a trick: when the son has lost everything and is desperate enough to commit suicide, it will provide him the means to win back his land and convince him to stay sober.
AUTHOR: Thomas Percy
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The Lord of Linn wastes his substance in riotous living. His father realizes he cannot stop his son's drinking. He builds a cottage, has his son promise not to sell it, and to go there when at the end of his rope. John of the Scales persuades the heir to sell his estate. He wastes the purchase money too, and is soon in great distress. In desperation he goes to the cottage. He finds a gibbet and rope and hangs himself. The gibbet and ceiling collapse and he is surrounded by falling gold. Having returned as from the brink of death, the heir swears never to drink again, and sets out with his newfound gold to regain his land. He goes to John of the Scales' house, is told to leave by John's wife, but is spoken for by one of the guests. John mockingly offers to resell the estate for 100 marks less than he gave for it, which John is sure cannot be paid. The heir takes him at his word, and pays down the money. When the price is paid the ex-holder complies unhappily. John's wife is much crestfallen. The kind guest is rewarded. The heir vows to be more careful.
KEYWORDS: money gambling drink poverty bargaining promise trick death suicide gold father derivative
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 138-147, "The Heir of Linne" (1 text)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 41, "The Heir of Linne" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 81-84, "The Heir of Linne" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Francis James Child, English and Scottish Ballads (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1860 ("Digitized by Google"), Vol. VIII, pp. 60-70, "The Heir of Linne" ("Lithe and listen, gentlemen, To sing a sing I will beginne"") (1 text)
Roud #111
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Heir of Linne (I)" [Child 267] (source)
cf. "The Drunkard's Legacy" (source)
NOTES [1445 words]: With the exception of Davis [all] the texts cited are Percy's.
Here's what Child had to say of Percy's rewritten Heir of Linne, "the heavily-expanded version printed in the Reliques": "Percy... revised and completed [Child 267]A 'by the insertion of supplemental stanzas,' 'suggested by a modern ballad on a similar subject.' In fact, Percy made a new ballad, and a very good one, which, since his day, has passed for 'The Heir of Linne.'" [vol. V, p. 12]. [Hales and Furnivall, in their text of the Percy folio, commented that Percy had "polished [the original text] until he could see his own face in it. - RBW]
Child had included the text of Percy's "new ballad" in Francis James Child, English and Scottish Ballads (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1860 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VIII, pp. 60-70, "The Heir of Linne"; he also printed there the text later included as Child 267B.
The point is not whether or not Percy's creation is "a very good one" -- as Child wrote in 1860 -- but that he did not include it as a Child 267 text in 1894, although he did include one of Percy's sources as Child 267A. (For an unfavorable review of Percy's version see John W. Hales and Frederick J. Furnivall, Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript (London: N Trubner & Co, 1867 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, p. 174).
Davis: "The Virginia text evidently belongs to the version published by Percy.... This version is practically Child A [quoting Percy] 'revised and completed by the insertion of supplemental stanzas suggested by a modern ballad on a similar subject.' Except for the introduction of the lonesome lodge, the rope, and the hundred marks instead of twenty pounds, the Virginia text might pass as a much compressed variant of Child A." Coffin repeats Davis's summary: "[The Virginia text] is close to Child A, though much compressed and corrupted by some of the additions made by Percy and taken by him from The Drunkard's Legacy...." [Tristram P Coffin, The British Traditional Ballad in North America (Philadelphia, The American Folklore Society, 1950), p. 142].
I think Davis and Coffin understate the degree to which the Virginia text relies on Percy and is independent of Child 267A [that is, Hales and Furnivall]. Davis has no line that is not from Percy, though sometimes modernized. Many of those lines repeated from Percy are not in Child A at all.
The following table maps lines shared and not shared among Hales and Furnival, Percy and Davis. Where the corresponding lines are similar but "polished" by Percy, to use Hales Nad Furnival's disparaging term, the Percy line is marked with a percent sign %. Exclamation point marks line sets with sequence changes made by Percy.
"H&F" is from Hales and Furnivall (the original for Child 267A), "Percy" is from Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry (Percy's recomposition of his Hales and Furnivall text), and "Davis" is the version collected in Virginia. Be careful -- if you are checking line numbers for yourself -- to use those sources.

H&F ll0.01-010 Percy ll.001-010%

-------------  Percy ll.011-004

H&F ll.011-012 --------------

H&F ll.013-016 Percy ll.025-028%  Davis ll.01-04

H&F ll 017-018 Percy ll.029-030%

-------------- Percy ll.031-032

H&F ll.019-020 Percy ll.033-034

-------------- Percy ll.035-036

H&F ll.021-024 Percy ll.037-040%

-------------- Percy ll.041-048

-------------- Percy ll.049-052  Davis ll.05-08

H&F ll.025-032 Percy ll.053-060%

H&F ll.033-040 Percy ll 061-068

-------------- Percy ll.069-076

H&F ll.041-050

H&F ll.051-053 Percy ll.077-079  Davis ll.09-11

H&F ll 054-055

H&F ll,056-056 Percy ll.080-080  Davis ll.12-12

H&F ll.057-060

-------------- Percy ll.081-088

H&F ll.061-068

-------------- Percy ll.089-092

-------------- Percy ll.093-096  Davis ll.13-16

-------------- Percy ll.097-128

H&F ll.069-072 Percy ll.129-134  Davis ll.17-18

-------------- Percy ll.135-138  Davis ll.19-22

-------------- Percy ll.139-139

-------------- Percy ll.140-140  Davis ll.24-24

-------------- Percy ll.141-146

H&F ll.075-076

H&F ll.077-081 Percy ll.147-152

-------------- Percy ll.152-152

H&F ll.082-083 Percy ll.153-154

H&F ll.084-087 Percy ll.155-158%

H&F ll.088-089 Percy ll.159-160

-------------- Percy ll.161-168

H&F ll.090-092 Percy ll.169-171  Davis ll.25-27

-------------- Percy ll.172,174! Davis ll.28,30!

H&F ll.093-095 Percy ll.173-176! Davis ll.29-32!

-------------- Percy ll.177-184  Davis ll.33-40

H&F ll 096-101

-------------- Percy ll.185-186  Davis ll.41-42

H&F ll.102-105 Percy ll.187-190  Davis ll.43.46

-------------- Percy ll.191-192  Davis ll.47-48

H&F ll.106-106 Percy ll.193-193  Davis ll.49-49

H&F ll.107-107

H&F ll.108-108 Percy ll.194-194  Davis ll.50-50

H&F ll.109-109

-------------- Percy ll.195-198  Davis ll.51-54

H&F ll.110-115 Percy ll.199-212  Davis ll.55-60

H&F ll,116-117 Percy ll.201-202

H&F ll.118-118

-------------- Percy ll.203-203

H&F ll.119-121 Percy ll.204-206

-------------- Percy ll.207-208

H&F ll.122-123 Percy ll.213-214% Davis ll.61-62

H&F ll.124-125 Percy ll.215-216  Davis ll.63-64

Where Percy "polished" a Child 267A line, it is without exception, polished the same way in Davis. For example:
H&F ll.013-016
sayes, "how dost thou, Lord of Linne,
doest either want gold or fee?
wilt thou not sell thy lands soe brode
to such a good fellow as me?"
Percy ll.025-026
Sayes, Welcome, welcome, lord of Linne
Let nought disturb thy merry cheere;
Iff thou wilt sell thy landes soe broad,
Good store of gold Ile give thee heere.
Davis ll.01-04
"Welcome, welcome, Lord of Linne,
Let naught disturb your merry cheer;
If you will sell your lands so broad,
Good store of gold I'll give thee here."
Finally, where the lines in Percy are in a different sequence than in Child 267A, Davis follows Percy.
H&F ll.90-95
then be-spake a good fellowe
which sate by Iohn o the Scales his knee,
Said, "have thou here, thou heire of linne,
40 pence I will lend thee, --
some time a good fellow thou hast beene, --
& other 40 if neede bee."
Percy ll.169-176
Then bespake a good fellowe,
Which sat at John o' the Scales his bord;
Sayd, Turn againe, thou heire of Linne;
Some time thou wast a well good lord:
Some time a good fellow thou hast been,
And sparedst not thy gold and fee;
Therfore Ile lend thee forty pence,
And other forty if need be.
Davis ll.25-32
Thus bespake a good fellow,
Which sat at John o' Scales his board,
Said, "Turn again, thou heir of Linne,
Some time thou was a real good lord.
"Some time a good fellow thou hast been
And spared not your gold and fee;
There for I'll lend thee forty pence,
Another forty if need be.
There remains the question of the influence of "The Drunkard's Legacy" on Percy's text. We have Dixon's text "taken from an old chap-book, without date or printer's name," and Child's slightly different text "from a Broadside among Percy's Papers." In any case, there is no copy in Hales and Furnivall. Judging by Percy's text and "The Drunkard's Legacy," it seems more likely that Percy was remembering the plot of "The Drunkard's Legacy" rather than looking at that text. Not all "The Drunkard's Legacy" 184 lines -- whether using Child's text or Dixon's -- affected Percy's song of 216 lines.
Dixon ll.001-012 ----------------
Dixon ll.013-056 Percy ll.013-052 father realizes he cannot stop his son's drinking. He builds a cottage, has his son promise not to sell it, and to go there when at the end of his rope. Father dies.
Dixon ll.057-080 Percy ll.081-088 son loses eveything and, in desperation, goes to the cottage
Dixon ll.081-112 Percy ll.089-128 son finds a gibbet and rope and hangs himself; the gibbet and ceiling collapse and he is surrounded by falling gold
Dixon ll.113-124 Percy ll.135-146 son swears never to drink again and sets out with his newfound gold to regain his land
Dixon ll.125-128 Percy ll.161-168 he visits the current holder of his land and is told to go away
Dixon ll.129-152 Percy ll.185-186 son tricks the current holder of his land to return it at a bargain price, which the holder is sure cannot be paid
Dixon ll.153-164 Percy ll.195-198 when the price is paid the ex-holder complies unhappily
Dixon ll.165-184 ----------------
With all this overlap in plot it is surprising to me that only one line comes close to being shared:
Dixon l.100: Did place the rope about his neck
Percy l.121: Then round his necke the cord he drewe
The longdescription gives an idea of how much each source contributed to the final text. It combines the longdescription from "The Heir of Linne" [Child 267] - which was made up of Percy's marginal notes to his copy of Child 267A - and the parts of the plot contributed by "The Drunkard's Legacy," as noted above. - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C267Perc

Helen an' Edwin

See Helen and Edwin (File: LyCr2126)

Helen and Edwin

DESCRIPTION: Helen is jilted by Edwin for a richer girl. Helen dies of a broken heart after asking that her corpse be brought to the wedding. At the wedding Edwin dies of shame. Warning to young men: "remember Edwin's awsum fate An' fear tae meet him there"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: grief love wedding infidelity burial corpse death money warning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 126, "Helen an' Edwin" (1 text)
Roud #15102
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Babes of the Wood" (tune, per Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
cf. "Sarah Scott" (theme: girl, jilted by lover for money, dies of a broken heart)
cf. "The Deluded Lover" (theme: girl is jilted by lover for money)
cf. "Fair Annie" [Child 62] (theme: girl is jilted by lover for money)
cf. "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" [Child 73] (theme: girl is jilted by lover for money)
cf. "The Fatal Snowstorm" [Laws P20] (theme: girl is jilted by lover for money)
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] (theme: girl is jilted by lover for money)
cf. "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" [Laws P25] (theme: girl is jilted by lover for money)
cf. "I Know My Love" (theme: girl is jilted by lover for money)
cf. "Tavern in the Town" (theme: girl is jilted by lover for money)
cf. "You Girls of Equal Station" (theme: girl is jilted by lover for money)
File: LyCr2126

Helen of Kirconnell

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments, "I wish I were where Helen lies." The two had been together when Helen was shot and died. The singer pursues and kills her slayer, then promises to be true forever. The rest of the song is a wish to join his love in death
AUTHOR: (published by Robert Burns)
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 (_Scots Musical Museum_ #155); seemingly also in Herd
KEYWORDS: courting love death revenge
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 227, "Helen of Kirkconnell" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 152, "Helen of Kirconnell" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 324-325, "Helen of Kirconnell" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1856, "My sweetest sweet and fairest fair"
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #589, p. 39, "Fair Helen" (1 reference)
DT, HELNLIES
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #155, p. 163, "Where Helen Lies" (1 text, 1 tune)
The Illustrated Book of Scottish Songs from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century, (London, 1854 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 159-160, "Helen of Kirkconnell"
William & Susan Platt, _Folktales of the Scottish Border_, published 1919 as _Stories of the Scottish Border_, republished by Senate Press, 1999, pp. 96-98, "Fair Helen of Kirconnell" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #424, "Helen of Kirconnell" (1 text)
ST OBB152 (Full)
Roud #8191
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alas And Did My Savior Bleed" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Wish I Were Where Ellen Lies
NOTES [38 words]: Under the title "Fair Helen," this is one of the handful of traditional songs in Palgrave's Golden Treasury (item CXXXV).
This song, or the folktale that underlies it, is said to have inspired Wordsworth's "Ellen Irwin." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: OBB152

Helg yn Dreean

See Hunt the Wren (File: K078)

Heligoland

DESCRIPTION: "We'll all go up to Heligoland, To get the Kaiser's goat. In our little pogie boat, Up Kiel canal we'll float. And when we meet the German fleet, We'll make them understand, That we'll knock the Hell-igo Out of Helligo, into Heligoland."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship war navy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 31-32, "Heligoland" (1 short text, tune referenced)
Roud #27870
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES [88 words]: Heligoland island was a major German naval base in World War I, and the Kiel Canal cut across the Jutland/Denmark Peninsula, allowing German naval vessels to cross from east to west without facing attack from the British naval forces in the North Sea. Thus to attack Heligoland and the Kiel Canal was to raid right into the heart of German power. The area was heavily mined, hence the need for the "pogie boats" as minesweepers. But it never happened; the British navy was never strong enough to sail that close to Germany. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: NiM030

Hell & Texas Song

See Hell in Texas (File: R196)

Hell and Heaven (I've Been Buked and I've Been Scorned)

DESCRIPTION: "I been 'buked and I been scorned, Childrens... I been talked 'bout sure as you're born." The singer tells how to drive Satan away with the gospel, how he will ride to heaven with Jesus, and declares that he will enjoy himself there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (recording, Tuskegee Institute Singers)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad Devil
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 588-591, "Hell and Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Roud #15565
RECORDINGS:
Tuskegee Institute Singers, "I've Been Buked and I've Been Scorned" (Victor 18447, 1918)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Mary Don't You Weep" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (floating lyrics)
File: LxA588

Hell and Texas

See Hell in Texas (File: R196)

Hell Broke Loose in Georgia

DESCRIPTION: "Ain't no hell in Georgie (x4)." "Little Indian goes Georgie (x4)." "Ride old buck to water (x4)/"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 775, "Hell Broke Losse in Georgia" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #13955
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Hell Broke Loose in Georgia" (Okeh 45018)
File: BrS5775

Hell in Texas

DESCRIPTION: The Devil, bored with Hell, decides it's time to expand the franchise. The sandiest place available is Texas; the Devil acquires a lease from God after negotiating the water rights. The Devil adds tarantulas, cacti, etc. and opens for business
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: Devil humorous Hell
FOUND IN: US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Randolph 196, "Hell and Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
HIgh, pp. 41-42, "Hell & Texas Song" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 397-399, "Hell in Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 77-79, "Hell in Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 27, "Hell in Texas" (3 texts -- one each for Texas, Arizona (this one properly filing with "Arizona") and Alaska, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 523-524, "Hell in Texas" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 681-683, "Alaska, or Hell of the Yukon" (1 text, the Fife's Alaska version)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 12-13, "Hell in Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HELLTEXS*
ADDITIONAL: Hal Cannon, editor, _Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering_, Giles M. Smith, 1985, pp. 55-56, "Hell in Texas" (1 text)
Roud #5104
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Arizona" (theme)
NOTES [64 words]: This song and "Arizona" clearly are related; one probably suggested and influenced the other. But there is no way to clearly demonstrate which came earlier, so I list them separately.
Thorp says he found five versions of this, with at least three different authors listed. Clearly there was a lot of rewriting along the way, He thinks the original was "The Birth of New Mexico." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R196

Hell-Bound Train, The

DESCRIPTION: The drunk passes out and dreams of the hell-bound train. The Devil is the engineer. When he announces that Hell is the next stop, the riders beg for mercy; the Devil replies with a list of tortures they face. The drunkard awakens and reforms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Railroad Men's Magazine, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: train Devil Hell drink
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 638-644, "The Hell-Bound Train" (1 text plus extensive excerpts and aportion of "Ride on the Black Valley Railroad" and a broadside print of "Railroad to Hell"; 1 tune)
Randolph 599, "The Hell-Bound Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 210, "The Hell-Bound Train" (1 text, 1 tune, the latter allegedly by Lomax himself)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 125, "The Hell-Bound Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 15, "The Hell-Bound Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 79-81, "The Hell-Bound Train" (1 text)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 94, "The Hell-Bound Train" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 91, "The Hell-Bound Train" (1 text)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 163-164,246, "The Hell-Bound Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 110-113, "The Hell-Bound Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 168-169, "The Hell-Bound Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 263, "The Hell Bound Train" (1 text)
DT, HELLBOND* HELLBND2*
ADDITIONAL: Martin Gardner, editor, _Famous Poems from Bygone Days_, Dover, 1995, pp. 7-8, "The Hell-Bound Train" (1 text)
Roud #5103
RECORDINGS:
Frank Hutchison, "Hell Bound Train" (OKeh 45452, 1928) (Velvet Tone 2366-V, 1931)
Sunset Jubilee Singers, "The Hellbound Train" (Hub 3004, n.d.) [Note: I'm not certain this is the same song, but I'm playing the odds]
Joseph Walsh, "The Hell-Bound Train" (on MREIves01)
NOTES [103 words]: Lomax editions suggest "J. W. Pruitt(e)" as the author of this piece. One of Randolph's sources mentions a "Tom Gray." I wouldn't bet much on either attribution. - RBW
In the Beck version, Tom Gray is the protagonist, rather than the author (the song is in third person). - PJS
Cohen notes a strong similarity in concept to "Ride on the Black Valley Railroad," credited to I. N. Tarbox and printed in 1876. For more on this, one should see Cohen.
This song apparently inspired a short story by Robert Bloch, also entitled "The Hell-Bound Train." It won a Hugo award as the best science fiction short story of 1958. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: R599

Hello Girls

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Hello Ma Baby

DESCRIPTION: The singer says hello to his "sugar," his "old-time gal," and asks "why don't you write me?" She says hello to her "sugar," her "old-time boy," but she wouldn't marry him, "even for a fardin'"
AUTHOR: Joseph E Howard and Ida Emerson (according to LOCSoundRecording, berl 1305)
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Spencer on LOCSoundRecording, berl 1305); 1906 (Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer has never met his "honey," the "ragtime gal" he talks to "across the telephone" but every morning he has Central "fix me up along the line." He tells her to "send me a kiss by wire" and "tell me I'm your own"; else "you'll lose me" and be left alone. She tells him her name and address but he is still afraid, "if the wires get crossed," that he'll lose her to some "other guy"
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage request rejection dialog
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 161, "Hullo me honey!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 272, "Hello, Ma Baby"
RECORDINGS:
LOCSoundRecording, berl 1305, Len Spencer, "Hello, Ma Baby" (1899, E. Berliner's Gramophone)
NOTES [127 words]: The DESCRIPTION and KEYWORDS follow Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory, while the LONG DESCRIPTION follows Spencer.
The LOC sound recording is difficult, but you can make it out if you already know the words; what I found very helpful were the lyrics at the AllMusic site, http://www.allmusic.com/song/hello-ma-baby-mt0010995555/lyrics, accessed March 14, 2015.
Jekyll appears not to know the published song. The Jamaican version is a reasonable adaptation in a place where the singers do not use telephones. - BS
There is a song I've heard, the origin of which I do not know, about Captain Jinks hearing about the phone and going broke trying to call his girl. That has a line "give me a kiss by wireless." I think it must be newer, but the similarity is interesting. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Jeky161

Hello Stranger

DESCRIPTION: "Hello, stranger, put your loving hand in mine." Floating verses describing singer's grief because her sweetheart is in prison.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: loneliness separation prisoner floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 114 "Hello Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15144
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Hello Stranger" (Decca 5479, 1938; Montgomery Ward 8027, 1939; recorded 1937)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Going To Cross That Ocean By Myself" (lyrics)
File: ADR114

Hello, Central, Give Me Heaven

DESCRIPTION: "Papa, I'm so sad and lonely... Since dear Mama's gone to heaven." The child says that Papa has never smiled, and decides to call Heaven to talk to Mama. A voice at the other end says to kiss Mama through the telephone
AUTHOR: Charles K. Harris
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Source: Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America)
KEYWORDS: technology death father mother children
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 40, pp. 56-57, "Hello, Central, Give Me Heaven" (2 texts plus a fragment)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 250-251, "Hello Central, Give Me Heaven" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 250-251, "Hello, Central, Give Me Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4336
RECORDINGS:
Byron G. Harlan, "Hello, Central, Give Me Heaven" (CYL: Edison 7258, 1901)
NOTES [47 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 253, estimates that this was the second-most popular song in America in 1901, peaking at #1 in July 1901 (#1 for the year being "Dolly Grey"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Stou040

Hello, Hello Sir

DESCRIPTION: "Hello, hello, sir! Meet me at the grocer. No, sir! Why, sir? Because I have a cold, sir. Where did you get the cold,.... At the north Pole.... What were you doing there... Catching polar bears. How many did you catch? One, two... ten. Old Dutch cleanser
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Yoffie, according to Coffin & Cohen)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad commerce jumprope
FOUND IN: US(SW) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 130, "Hello, hello, hello, sir" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #175, "Hello, sir, hello, sir"; #595, "What are you doing here, Sir?" (2 texts)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 22, "(A very good morning to you, sir)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 188, "A Ball-Bouncing and Rope-Jumping Song" (1 text)
Roud #19189
NOTES [44 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes splits his two texts, and I see his point, but the forms of this are so extremely diverse that it seems almost pointless to try to split -- we could create a dozen songs, all related, with no clear dividing line between versions. A mess. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CoCo188

Hello, Hello, Who's Your Lady Friend?

DESCRIPTION: "Jeremiah Jones a lady's man was he.... Till he found a wife..." -- but on their honeymoon, a voice says, "Hello! Hello! Who's your lady friend? Who's the little girlie by your side? I've seen you with a girl or two." Everywhere, he gets the same question
AUTHOR: Lyrics: Hubert Worton David & Bert Lee / Music: Harry Fragson
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (recorded by Harry Fragson)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage wife humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 214, "(no title)" (1 text, which includes only the chorus)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 24-25, "Hello! Hello! Who's Your Lady Friend?" (1 text)
File: BrPa214C

Hello, My Boy, Not I

See Oh, No, Not I (File: DTmarryn)

Hello, Sir, Hello, Sir

See Hello, Hello Sir (File: CoCo188)

Hello, Somebody

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Hello, somebody, hello!" "There's somebody knocking at the garden gate...." "Somebody wants to know my name...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933
KEYWORDS: shanty
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 46, "Hello, Somebody" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 256-257, "Hello, Somebody!" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 186-187]
ST Doe046 (Partial)
Roud #9441
File: Doe046

Hello! Hello!

DESCRIPTION: Round. "Hello, hello, hello, hello We are glad to meet you We are glad to greet you Hello, hello, hello, hello," Or, "Hello! Hello! Well, well, here we come singing Our voices are ringing with Hello! Hello!"
AUTHOR: unknown (but OneTuneMore says it is printed by permission of Thomas E. Harbin)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 437, "Hello, Hello" (notes only)
Harbin-Parodology, #166, p. 47, "Hello! Hello!" (1 short text, 1 tune)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 11, "Hello! Hello!" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, pp. 1, 113, "Hello! Hello!" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 55, "Hello! Hello!" (1 short text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 6, "Hello! Hello" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 17, "Hello! Hello!" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 10, "Hello! Hello!" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 25, "Harmony Greeting" (1 short text, 1 tune in 4-part harmony printed on a single staff)
File: ACSF437H

Help Me Drive

DESCRIPTION: Hammering song. "Help me drive 'er, Uh! Help me drive 'er, Uh! Help me drive 'er, Uh! ah, home. Uh!" "Little Mary... ah, home!" "To de mountain... ah, home!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: worksong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 218, "Work-Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: ScaNF218

Help Me to Raise Them

DESCRIPTION: Response lines: "wo o honey" twice, "See you when the sun goes down." Verse call lines are repeated (see notes): "Won't you help me to raise them"; "The weight's on the mate's boat / captain's boat / donkey now." Some verses float (see notes)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (LomaxCD1708)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea ship work floatingverses nonballad shanty worksong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Frye-TheMenAllSinging, p. 185, ("All the weight's on the mate's boat") (1 text)
GarrityBlake-FishFactory, pp. 101-102, ("I got a letter this morning") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Anderson, "Spotlight on Culture: Menhaden Chanteys - An African American Maritime Legacy" in Maryland Marine Notes, Vol 14, No 1 (Jan-Feb 2000) available at http://www.mdsg.umd.edu/maryland-marine-notes-archive accessed November 12, 2016, p. 1, ("Won't you help me to raise 'em boys") (1 text)
Roud #17300
RECORDINGS:
Bright Light Quartet, "Hey, Hey Honey" (on LomaxCD1708)
Menhaden Fishermen, "Help Me to Raise 'Em" (on USMenhaden01)
Northern Neck Chantey Singers, "Help Me To Raise Um" (on USMenhaden02)
NOTES [1465 words]: MENHADEN CHANTEYS
A few hundred-thousand two-pound menhaden have been caught in a huge "purse seine" suspended between two small boats; no singing while rowing or catching; quiet is at a premium. The problem is for a twenty-man crew to pull the net together so its contents can be handled by a donkey-steam-engine-driven dip-net and dumped into the hold of the mother ship (GarrityBlake-FishFactory; Anderson; Frye pp. 143, 181-188, 215; Hinson pp. 12-14).
The singing is to coordinate the pulling between sung lines. "Crewmen emphasized that singing or 'blowing' of chanteys was not simply helpful; the chanting was necessary to generate the collective power and euphoria for raising hundreds of pounds of fish. Fishermen described working shoulder to shoulder as one, singing to make 'heaven and earth come together,' while focused trancelike on the 'money' in the net. While singing, crewmen lost all track of time, surroundings, and aching muscles" (GarrityBlake-FishFactory pp. 104-105).
"Help Me to Raise Them" might be sung:
"will you help me to RAISE 'EM BOYS" "O HO HONEY" (chatter) ...
Lower case is the precentor chanteyman lining out the verse; upper case is the crew; "(chatter)" is directions called out by the crew about hauling. You sing and prepare to work and you work while the crew chatters about how to "raise them," that is, the fish. The verse continues:
"will you help me to RAISE 'EM BOYS" "O HO HONEY" (chatter) "will you help me to RAISE 'EM BOYS" "SEE YOU WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN" (chatter).
"Lining out" is not as it is in classical "Dr. Watts" hymn style, where the precentor deacon says a line or verse before the congregation sings. For the chantey, the lining out is just a few words identifying which of the many verses the crew knows is to be sung. Not enough to define the line exactly: the precentor chanteyman needs only a word or two and once the crew knows which line is to be sung they know how it is to be sung. As illustrated in the notes to "Goin' Home," the words of the line may vary from crew to crew. (I wish I knew whether "Dr. Watts" lining out is practiced in the churches the fishermen attend; alternatively, is their style of lining out just an obvious way to handle these chanteys?)
The You Tube video of The Northern Neck Chantey Singers performing "Help Me to Raise Them" (at "Won't You Help Me to Raise 'Em - Northern Neck Chantey Singers" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5Ix98vxU&t=8s, accessed November 20, 2016) shows how the work is coordinated.
Unlike the deep-water chantey singing, harmony is an important part of menhaden chantey singing. "'That what make the chantey so beautiful, is the pretty harmony,' a crewman told me. 'One person can't do it. You gotta have bass, baritone, tenor, then lead voice, see. All them boys get hooked up together, you got something pretty. Make you feel good. Make you pull good'" (GarrityBlake-FishFactory p. 103). This is clear in the two on-the-job menhaden recordings we have of "Evalina" and "Drinking of the Wine" (VaWork). (One non-chantey harmonized work song is the T.C.I. Section Crew recording of "Section Gang Song"; however, we can't tell from that recording how the work was coordinated with the song).
The USMenhaden01 version of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" shows the church harmony and work song harmony to be similar. That carries over to the performance of hymn as chantey; examples include "My Way Seems So Hard" and "Drinking of the Wine." "Drinking of the Wine" is an example of a hymn that has found a place as a work song in many environments, though sung differently to match the work. So Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands writes that its "swinging rhythm ... made it a favorite with the chain-gang for cutting weeds along the highway" (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands p. 249); the menhaden chantey performances of "Drinking of the Wine" do not approach a "swinging rhythm" (VaWork, USMenhaden01, USMenhaden02). There was no thought that singing hymns at work was inappropriate. Allen commented -- in 1867 -- on how many of the work songs heard on the Sea Islands were hymns; in fact, he writes, "it is often, indeed, no easy matter to persuade them to sing their old (secular) songs, even as a curiosity, such is the sense of dignity that has come with freedom" (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates p. x). The twentieth century oyster-shucking songs on VaWork -- "I Don't Want Nobody Stumbling Over Me," "Sit Down, Servant, and Rest A Little While," and "Wade in the Water" -- are all religious songs.
One hundred years later secular, sometimes bawdy, songs are also used as work songs.
If a song has verses easily recognized when lined out, and repeats lines, it may be used as a menhaden chantey. Listen, for example to the USMenhaden01 renditions of "I Wish I Was Single Again" and "Mama Liza Jane" (that is, "Li'l Liza Jane"). On the other hand, there is a general format and tune that seems especially suited for menhaden chanteys shared by "Biting Spider," "Drinking of the Wine," "Evalina," "Going Back to Weldon," "Goin' Home," "Mule on the Mountain," "My Ways Do Seem So Hard," "Poor Lazarus" and "Section Gang Song." The verse structure is illustrated and discussed in the notes to "Goin' Home."
Lines float freely from one menhaden chantey to another and from other songs to the chanteys. The Frye and LomaxCD1708 versions of "Help Me to Raise Them" include "I've got a gal in Georgia/Baltimore" from the "Mama Liza Jane" chantey; Frye adds "the streetcar runs right by her door" shared with the "Sweet Rosie Annie" chantey. The USMenhaden01 text has "Her name is Evalina boys" and LomaxCD1708 has "she shakes like jelly boys" from the "Evalina" chantey. Hurston's "Mule on de Mount" (pp. 269-270) seems a compilation of a number of menhaden chanteys including "Evalina" and "Goin' Home."
A pair of verses from GarrityBlake-FishFactory and LomaxCD1708 are "I got a letter this morning boys" and "I couldn't read it for crying boys." A close set is in American Ballads and Folk Songs: "Ev'y mail day, mail day I git a letter, 'My Son, come home, my Lawd, son come home'" and "I cain't read her, read her letter for cryin', My time's so long, my Lawd, my time's so long" (Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs pp. 84-86, "Goin' Home", cf. also Warner #173).
Finally, there are lines that seem to have floated to "Help Me to Raise Them" from other Black sources: LomaxCD1708 and USMenhaden01 have "I got a long tall yellow gal"; Frye has "She's long and tall" and "I want to see her"; GarrityBlake-FishFactory has "Mary had a baby" and "It was a sweet little baby."
Floating lines from outside the genre are in other menhaden chanteys as well. For example, the Anderson, USMenhaden01 and USMenhaden02 versions of "Mama Liza Jane" -- itself an import -- all include "When she goes walking down the street... All the little birdies go tweet tweet tweet", apparently taken from Bobby Day's 1958 "Rock-In Robin" (Class 229); the USMenhaden02 version has a whole section of "Papa's Going to Buy Me a Mockingbird," as well as a section of "Joe D" (Grinder, see Jackson) calls, which adds time in the armed forces as a likely source. The GarrityBlake-FishFactory version of "Help Me to Raise Them" has a modification of the title of Furry Lewis's 1928 "I Will Turn Your Money Green" (Victor 38506).
Reference to recordings is not surprising: menhaden chanteys seem a twentieth century phenomenon and the fishermen were not isolated at all from the rest of twentieth century United States. For example, Frye, GarrityBlake-FishFactory, VaWork and USMenhaden01 all have a version of the work song "Poor Lazarus"; the work song "Goin' Home" is in those sources as well as USMenhaden02; Hurston writes that "Mule on the Mountain" is "the most widely distributed and best known of all Negro work songs" (p. 269). And, illustrating eposure to "the outside," the "Christian Automobile" recorded by the Bright Light Quartet -- all menhaden fishermen -- on LomaxCD1708 covers the the Dixie Hummingbirds 1957 recording (Peacock 5-1780).
The songs as recorded have been "cleaned up," either by the singer or the collector: "Now understand that chantey singing was done on the water. There wasn't anybody out there but the fish, the sea gulls, and the men. So, consequently you could sing about anything you want to. So you can understand that these songs that we give would really be quite colorful. Well, this is Sunday ... so we can't get as colorful as we really would like to ...." (Dr. Elton Smith Jr, VFL). Perhaps the reference "I have a girl in Baltimore, The streetcar runs right by her door" is an inside joke as those lines were often the least "colorful" part of a well-known obscene set (Perrow, #iv.30.1 p. 156, footnote). - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.2
File: FrGBHMRT

Helstone Furry-Day Song, The

See Hal-An-Tow (File: K092)

Hembrick Town

See Katharine Jaffray [Child 221] (File: C221)

Hemp-seed I Set

See Hempseed I Set (Divination Rhyme) (File: Simp122)

Hempseed I Set (Divination Rhyme)

DESCRIPTION: "Hemp-seed I set, hemp-seed I sow, The young man that I love, Come after me and mow, I sow, I sow, then, my own dear, come hoe, come hoe, then mow and mow." A girl sows hemp in a churchyard (on Halloween?) to find someone to marry her soon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (Latham, according to Simpson; also in Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: courting farming
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #401, pp. 192-193, "(Hemp-seed I set)"
ADDITIONAL: Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, p. 122, "(Hempseed, I sow thee)" (1 text)
Roud #19644
File: Simp122

Hempseed, I Sow Thee

See Hempseed I Set (Divination Rhyme) (File: Simp122)

Hen and Duck

See The Hen and the Duck (File: GC199)

Hen and the Duck, The

DESCRIPTION: "The hen to herself said one beautiful day, Cluck, cluck, The day is so fine we'll step over the way And call on my neighbor and friend Madam Duck." The hen warns her chicks not to join the ducklings in the water -- but the chicks don't listen and drown
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: bird chickens death drowning river
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 199, The Hen and the Duck"" (1 text)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 98-99, "Hen and Duck" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST GC199 (Partial)
Roud #3712
File: GC199

Hen Cackle

DESCRIPTION: Characterized by the structure, "The old hen cackled... The next time she cackled...," E.g. "The old hen cackled, she cackled in the lot, The next time she cackled, she cackled in the pot." Material floats freely.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (recording, Fiddlin' John Carson)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad food floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 252, "Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Going to Crow" (1 text)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 157, "The Hen Cackled" (first of 12 single-stanza jigs) (1 text, perhaps from this though it's just a floating verse)
Roud #11058
RECORDINGS:
DeFord Bailey, "Old Hen Cackle" (Vocalion 5190, 1927)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Goin' to Crow" (OKeh 4890, 1923)
Bill Chitwood & Bud Landress, "Hen Cackle" (Brunswick 2811/Silvertone 3050, c. 1925; rec. 1924)
Coleman & Harper "Old Hen Cackle" (Perfect 12751, 1931) (Oriole 8095, 1931)
Homer Davenport & the Young Brothers, "The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster Crowed" (Silvertone 4009, 1925; Challenge 110 or 304, 1927 [both Challenge records as The Three Howard Boys])
George Edgin's Corn Dodgers, "Corn Dodger No. 1 Special" (Columbia 15754-D, 1932)
Fruit Jar Guzzlers, "Cacklin' Hen" (Paramount 3116/Broadway 8108, 1928)
Whit Gayden, "Hen Cacklin' Piece" (Victor V-40315, 1930)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Barnyard Serenade" (Victor V-40038, 1929; rec. 1928)
J. D. Harris "The Cackling Hen" (OKeh 45024, c. 1926; rec. 1925)
The Hillbillies, "Cackling Hen" (Vocalion 5020, c. 1926)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers, "Hen Cackle" (OKeh 45123, 1927)
Clayton McMichen & his Georgia Wildcats, "The Old Hen Cackled" (Varsity 5064, c. 1942/Joe Davis 3512, n.d.)
Short Creek Trio, "The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster Crowed" (Silvertone 8178, 1928)
Gid Tanner & Riley Puckett, "Hen Cackle" (Columbia 110-D, 1924)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Hen Cackle" (Columbia 15303-D, 1928); "Cacklin' Hen and Rooster Too" (Columbia 15682-D, 1931)
Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & Uncle John Patterson, "Medley: Cumberland Gap/Gid Tanner's Bucking Mule/Hen Cackle" (on DownYonder)
Tennessee Ramblers, "Cackling Pullet" (Brunswick 225, 1928; Supertone S-2083, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cluck Old Hen"
NOTES [142 words]: This merges almost continuously with "Cluck Old Hen," and readers may want to check both. The line "The old hen cackled and the rooster's going to crow" is highly characteristic of this song.
According to The Old-Time Herald, Volume 11, #10, April-May 2009, p. 26, "[Ralph] Peer recorded Carson -- grudgingly, country music lore has it -- in conditions that were less than ideal. The sound of Carson's record, Peer would later say, was 'pluperfect awful.' Nevertheless, a test pressing of 500 of Carson's debut -- "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" on the A-side and "The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Going to Crow on the reverse -- sold out in the space of an afternoon." Although this was not the first "country" recording waxed, it began the southern music boom. For more on this, see the notes to "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcOHCRGC

Hen House Serenade

See Henhouse Serenade (File: DPio112)

Hen's March, The

DESCRIPTION: "Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick-a-lairy ... And the aul' hen cries out, 'Tick-a-lairy'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1664, "The Hen's March" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13044
NOTES [24 words]: Greig/Duncan8: "There are more words describing all the actions of the hens."
The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Grd81664

Henhouse Door (Who Broke the Lock?)

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses: "Down in the henhouse, down on my knees/I thought I heard a chicken sneeze" "Hen... told the rooster, I love you best... you're a pop-eyed liar...." Ch.: "Who broke the lock? I don't know/Who broke the lock on the henhouse door..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (recording, Standard Quartette)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Floating verses: "Down in the henhouse, down on my knees/I thought I heard a chicken sneeze" "Hen and a rooster went out west/Hen told the rooster, I love you best/Rooster told the hen, you're a pop-eyed liar/Saw you in the alley with the big Shanghai" "My old hen's a good old hen/Ain't laid an egg since I don't know when" etc. Chorus: "Who broke the lock? I don't know/Who broke the lock on the henhouse door..."
KEYWORDS: jealousy theft farming floatingverses humorous nonballad animal chickens
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
RECORDINGS:
Alabama Washboard Stompers, "Who Broke the Lock" (Vocalion 1587, 1931)
H. M. Barnes & his Blue Ridge Ramblers, "Who Broke the Lock on the Hen-House Door" ((Brunswick 310, 1929/Supertone S-2052/Brunswick [UK] 1027, 1930)
Jack Bland's Rhythmakers aka Jack Bland & his Rhythmakers, "Who Broke the Lock" (Banner 32605/Melotone M-12513/Oriole 2593/Perfect 15694, all 1932, on Protobilly; Columbia 35841, 1940)
Bryant's Jubilee Quartet, "Who Stole De Lock Off De Henhouse Door" (Gennett 6608/Champion 15543 [as Southland Jubilee Singers]/Supertone 9081 [as Dixie Jubilee Choir]/Supertone 9293 [as Dixie Jubilee Singers], all 1928); "Who Stole De Lock" (Banner 32173/Oriole 8060/Perfect 175 [as Famous Garland Jubilee Singers]/Romeo 5060/Conqueror 7749, all 1931)
[Sam] Cousins & [Ed] De Moss, "Who Broke the Lock (Berliner 3012, 1898; on Protobilly)
Vance Dixon & his Pencils, "Who Stole the Lock" (OKeh 8891, 1931)
Dunham Jazz Singers, "Who Stole the Lock" (Columbia 14609-D, 1931)
The Georgia Browns, "Who Stole de Lock" (Melotone M12615, 1933; on Protobilly)
Otto Gray & his Oklahoma Cowboys, "Who Broke the Lock" (Vocalion 5479, c. 1931/Polk P9017, n.d./Panachord [UK] 25449, 1933)
Dick Hartman & his Tennessee Ramblers, "Who Broke the Lock?" (Montgomery Ward M-4914, 1936)
Texas Jim Lewis, "Who Broke the Lock" (Vocalion 3754/Perfect 7-12-55 [as Texas Jim Lewis' Lone Star Cowboys], 1937)
Frank Luther, "Who Broke the Lock" (Decca 5322, 1935)
Riley Puckett, "Riley's Hen House Door" (Bluebird B-7373, 1938)
Standard Quartette, "Who Broke the Lock on the Henhouse Door?" (CYL: Columbia, no #, rec. 1894)
Washboard Rhythm Kings, "Who Broke the Lock" (Victor 23283, 1931)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Talking Blues" (floating verses)
cf. "Cluck Old Hen" (floating verses)
cf. "The Chicken Song (I Ain't Gonna Take It Settin' Down)" (floating verses)
cf. "The Golden Axe" (floating verse)
NOTES [18 words]: The Bryant's Jubilee Quartet recordings are a perfect illustration of why discographers get migraines. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: RcWBTL

Henhouse Serenade

DESCRIPTION: "Cock-a-doodle-doo, I'm the rooster, Cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck, I'm the hen." "We run around together In all kinds of weather." The two chickens describe how much they love each other
AUTHOR: F. Hart (source: OKeh 18029)
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (recording, Joe Maphis and Rose Lee)
KEYWORDS: bird chickens love
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Hannah & Tom, "Hen House Serenade" (Piotr-Archive #112, recorded 04/06/2022)
Joe Maphis and Rose Lee, "Henhouse Serenade" (Okeh 18029, 1954)
NOTES [22 words]: Anyone who actually knew chickens, even fairly casually, would know that this is not a description of actual chicken behavior. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio112

Hennessy Murder, The

DESCRIPTION: "Kind friends, if you will list to me, A sad story I'll relate, 'Tis of brave Chief Hennessy And how he met his fate." The song mentions the time of his death, and opines that his killers were working with Satan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1890 - Death of New Orleans Chief of Police David Hennessy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 165-166, "The Hennessy Murder" (1 text, 1 tune); also "Hennessy Avenged" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 347, "The Hennessy Murder" (1 text)
Roud #4128
NOTES [7 words]: This is item dF58 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Burt165

Henpecked Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm the most henpecked man in town, I used to have lots of fun..." until his wife discovers him having an affair when he forgets to have receipts for the errands he allegedly was running. She makes sure he can't do it again. He warns against lies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Kelly Harrell)
KEYWORDS: husband wife adultery hardtimes trick lie clothes
FOUND IN: US
Roud #13148
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "The Henpecked Man" (Victor 23689, 1929; on KHarrell02)
NOTES [65 words]: I've never seen a version of this other than Harrell's, but it sounds traditional. The problem may be that no man would sing it for a collector.
Alfred Steagall's guitar accompaniment on this song is fascinating -- somewhere between ragtime and Mississippi John Hurt. I've heard nothing else like it on a recording of this era. I wonder if Steagall didn't influence later guitar stylists. - RBW
File: RcTHM

Henry

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Henry and His Maryanne

See Henry and Mary Ann (Henry the Sailor Boy) (File: HHH037)

Henry and Mary Ann (Henry the Sailor Boy)

DESCRIPTION: Mary Ann bids Henry to stay with her. He refuses, and also refuses her offer to come with him. He goes to sea, where he performs valiantly and saves the Captain's life. When he comes home, the Captain gives him fifty pounds; the couple get married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1853 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(246))
KEYWORDS: love separation sailor money
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H37, pp. 485-486, "Henry, the Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 96-97, "Henry and His Maryanne" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 899-900, "Young Henry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 32, "My Mary Ann" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #2284
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(246), "Henry and Mary Ann," J. Moore (Belfast), 1846-1852; also Firth c.12(284), Firth b.27(353), "Henry and Mary Ann"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The River Roe" (tune)
cf. "Jeannette and Jeannott" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Firth c.12(284))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My Mary Ann
NOTES [52 words]: Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople, re the tune for "Henry, the Sailor Boy": "almost all the [Irish] murder songs were composed to it." The tune is close to the one used by A.L. Lloyd for the verse of "Paddy West" (on Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd, "Blow Boys Blow," Tradition TCD 1024 (1996)) - BS
File: HHH037

Henry and Nancy

DESCRIPTION: Henry courts Nancy. Her parents lock her in their castle. Nancy writes Henry a letter. He dreams of her and wakes to find her letter. He goes to the castle, kills her, and kills himself. Her parents blame themselves. Nancy's ghost blames her mother.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting love homicide suicide dream father mother ghost prison
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 675-676, "Henry and Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9943
RECORDINGS:
Mike Kent, "Henry and Nancy" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea675

Henry and Ruth

See The Beautiful Lady of Kent (File: BeCo304)

Henry and Servilla

DESCRIPTION: Broadside. Henry and Servilla are in love, but her mind changes; "perhaps it was a better match Within the mother's eye." Henry is bidden not to return. Henry intercepts her on her way to school, and shoots her then himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: love courting betrayal homicide suicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
January 13, 1854 - Murder/suicide of Servilla (Jones?) and Henry
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 45-47, "Henry and Servilla, or the Death Bridal -- being a graphic account of the New Boston Tragedy" (1 text, slightly shortened)
NOTES [95 words]: What I want to know is, why didn't someone shoot the mother who named her daughter "Servilla"?
This is as bad as it sounds, being littered, e.g. with small caps:
One had a DAUGHTER, just sixteen....
He loved SERVILLA long and well,
(Surely it was not strange,)
And happy was he in her love,
But ah! THERE CAME A CHANGE!
He took the maiden by the hand,
"YOU SHALL BE MINE," he said;
Then drew a pistol from his breast
AND SHOT HER THROUGH THE HEAD.
On second thought, I want to know why Henry didn't shoot the so-called "poet" who would inflict *that* on the world. - RBW
File: Burt045

Henry Clay Beattie (I)

DESCRIPTION: Beattie is convicted of murdering a girl, but denies his guilt. His family tries to get him to confess, lest he "go to [his] doom with a lie." At last he confesses. On a Friday morning he is executed in the electric chair
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Kelly Harrell)
KEYWORDS: death homicide prison punishment execution Hell
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 24, 1911 - Execution of Henry Clay Beattie
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 25, "Henry Clay Beattie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #13147
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "Henry Clay Beattie" (Victor 20797, 1927; on KHarrell02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Clay Beattie (II)" (subject)
NOTES [242 words]: The use of the electric chair as a means of execution obviously dates this song to the few decades before Harrell's recording. This would seem to imply that it is based on actual events. But I found no references to Beattie until Paul Stamler found an online auction of a publication entitled The Great Beattie Murder Case: Henry C. Beattie Jr., Life and Crime. Sensational story of the life of Beulah Binford, 'the woman in the case.'"
How far one can trust anything with a title like that is an open question, but Lyle Lofgren has found supporting evidence. He reports, "Henry Clay Beattie, Jr. (1884 - 1911), of Richmond, VA, married Louise Owen in 1910. In 1911, a few months after their first child was born, Henry and Louise went for a late-night drive. It ended with Louise dead, shot at close range with a shotgun. Henry reported that they were accosted by highwaymen -- he had miraculously escaped. But lots of people knew that Henry was also involved in a long-term liaison with Beulah Binford, described as a woman of 'questionable reputation.' [I've also read a claim that she didn't know he was married.] He was indicted for murder."
A newspaper report of the testimony in the case can be found on the New York Times archive (subscription now required).
Lyle suggests that this was originally published as a newspaper poem or broadside.
Norm Cohen found out much more information in researching the case; see "Henry Clay Beattie (II)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RcHCB

Henry Clay Beattie (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Come on, honey, let's go for a spin. You won't need a wrap, just jump right in. No, don't take the baby, we won't go far..." because Beattie soon pulls off the road and shoots his wife. The singer points out that Beattie is bound for the electric chair
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Gordon collection)
KEYWORDS: death homicide prison punishment execution technology
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 24, 1911 - Execution of Henry Clay Beattie
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 204-205, "Henry Clay Beattie" (1 text)
Roud #13147
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Clay Beattie (I)" (subject)
NOTES [59 words]: Roud lumps this with "Henry Clay Beattie (I)," which was recorded by Kelly Harrell -- but, as Cohen points out, the two songs are completely distinct although based on the same incident. Cohen has extensive notes on the improbably story, and prints a cover of a sensationalist book written about it. Cohen also wrote a journal article on the subject. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: CAFS1204

Henry Clay Songs

DESCRIPTION: Tunes in favor of "The Statesman, the Patriot, Clay" during his presidential campaigns. Sung to popular tunes such as "Rosin the Beau," they include "The Mill-Boy of the Slashes" and "Old Hal of the West"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: political nonballad derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1777 - Birth of Henry Clay in Hannover County, Virginia -- a region known as "The Slashes," hence the song title "The Mill-Boy [=miller-boy] of the Slashes"
1824 - Clay's first campaign for President (in the first election where popular votes are recorded, Andrew Jackson is the clear winner in the voting, but no one wins in the Electoral College. John Quincy Adams is elected president by the House of Representatives, due mostly to backing from Clay)
1832 - Clay's second campaign for President. He is defeated by Andrew Jackson
1844 - Clay's third campaign for President, producing both ""The Mill-Boy of the Slashes," with its erroneous reference to Van Buren (who failed to earn the Democratic nomination) and "Old Hal o' the West." Clay is defeated by James K. Polk.
1852 - Death of Henry Clay
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 39-40, "The Mill-Boy of the Slashes" and "Old Hal o' the West" (2 texts, filed under "Old Rosin, the Beau," tune referenced)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 84, p. 211, "Henry Clay" (1 short text, to the tune of "Old Dan Tucker," with many floating elements)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 246, "Here's a health to the wokingman's friend" (1 short text); pp. 310-311, "Here's To You Henry Clay" (1 text); p. 312, "Hurrah for Henry Clay" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of a broadside); p. 314, "Hurrah for Henry Clay" (1 text, not the same as the preceding)
ADDITIONAL: John Siegenthaler, _James K. Polk_, Times Books, 2003, p. 91, (A single stanza of a Clay campaign song beginning "Hurrah for Henry Clay" and ending "And Polk will soon burst his boiler")
cf. "Clay and Frelinghuysen" (broadside cited on p. 22 of Edwin Wolf 2nd, _American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870_, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963)
Roud #4495
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (tune) and references there
cf. "The Coon Song (I)" (subject; Henry Clay and the 1844 election)
NOTES [810 words]: This is a lumping entry, for all the various political songs associated with Henry Clay and his sundry campaigns for president. They're all of separate origin, but since they had tenuous hold on tradition (at best), it seemed easier to put them all here. (I excluded one, "The Coon Song (I)," as it does seem to have been traditional).
My old high school history text described the period of 1830-1850 as the era of Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster. This is a little unfair; no matter how weak President Martin van Buren and John Tyler were, there is no questioning the importance of Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk!
Nonetheless, Clay was one of the greatest voices of the era, and the single most important force behind the Whig party -- one might almost say he *was* the Whig party, since it died almost the moment he did.
These days, he is usually remembered either for his many compromises, ending finally with the Compromise of 1850, or for his many presidential campaigns. But he was more. Holt's massive work gives this description on, p. 25:
"Clay was five years the senior of Webster, his great rival in the anti-Jackson camp. Whereas the granite-like Webster inspired awe and admiration, the irresistably appealing Kentuckian inspired love, affection, and often rapturous adoration from virtually everyone he met... Clay was a brilliant conversationalist, sparkling, witty, playful. Tall and thin, with a sandy complexion, a shock of brunette hair... gray, laughing eyes, and a straight, thin-lipped mouth that broke readily into a smile, the gracious, fun-loving clay charmed both men and women wherever he went. Neither as profound nor as learned as Webster, he exuded emotion and charisma when he addressed public audiences."
Jameson, p. 416, has this to add: "Mill-boy of the Slashes, a designation applied to Henry Clay, who was born in humble circumstances in the portion of Hanover County, Virginia, known as the "Slashes," and, like other farm-boys, used to ride to mill."
Schlesinger, p. 12, says this of Clay
"No man in American had a greater gift for exciting intense personal enthusiasm than Clay. A splendid orator, with a sure understanding of the crowd, he was endowed with a magnificent and garish imagination, which caught up and expressed the inarticulate popular feelings in their vague longing, their vulgarity and their wonder. He made Federalism a living vision, replacing the dry logical prose of Hamilton with thrilling pictures of a glorious future. The blaze of nationalist suggest a new and disarming name -- the American System -- and under Clay's solicitous care, this rebaptized Federalism slowly won its way to the inner councils of the government."
And yet, if Clay's vision resembles the modern American government, in the short term, he was largely a failure. Depending on how you count, he ran for President from three to five times -- the most by any serious candidate prior to Franklin Roosevelt. But the results were far from successful (see Hammond Atlas, p. U-59):
1824 -- the famous four-way election and the "corrupt bargain" that made John Quincy Adams President. Andrew Jackson won 43% of the popular vote, and 99 electoral votes; Adams has 31% of the vote and 84 electoral votes. William H. Crawford earned 13% of the vote and 41 electoral votes. Clay had 13% of the vote and 37 electoral votes. The election went to the House of Representatives. Clay, being the fourth place finisher, was eliminated from the contest. He threw his support to Adams, who thus (in the first election to feature direct vote count for President) because the first President elected with less than a plurality of the vote.
1832 -- Jackson, who had won the rematch with Adams in 1828, ran for re-election against a variety of candidates: Clay, Floyd, and the anti-Mason Wirt. Jackson won 55% of the vote, and 77% of the electoral vote; Clay won only 25% of the popular vote.
1840 -- By this time, the anti-Jackson, non-Democratic party had a name: They were Whigs. They had run three candidates in 1836, and lost to Martin van Buren. In 1840, Clay made noises about availability, but the Whigs nominated William Henry Harrison (one of their candidates in 1836) -- and won.
1844 -- With Harrison dead, the Whigs at last nominated Clay (the first time he was the sole candidate of the non-Democrats); he earned 48% of the vote to James K. Polk's 50%, but Polk won 62% of the electoral votes.
1848 -- Once again Clay made himself available; once again the Whigs nominated at general (Zachary Taylor) and won the Presidency for the last time.
Nor was this his last noble failure. In 1850, an old man of 72, he managed to put together the Compromise of 1850. He died in 1852 -- and, in 1854, Stephen A. Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act, thereby destroying the Compromise and opening the door for Civil War. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 3.5
File: SRW039

Henry Connor of Castledawson

See Henry Connors [Laws M5] (File: LM05)

Henry Connors [Laws M5]

DESCRIPTION: Dejected Henry tells his story. A serving man, he fell in love with his master's daughter. The girl's mother aids the match, but the father is opposed. When the two plan to flee to Scotland, the father plants evidence against Henry and has him transported
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1911 (broadside, Bodleian Bod21727 2806 c.15(291))
KEYWORDS: servant courting father emigration transportation betrayal trick love
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws M5, "Henry Connors"
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H128, pp. 440-441, "Henry Connor of Castledawson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 94, "Henry Connors" (1 text)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 165-167, "Henry Connors" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 816, HENRCONR
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 175-176, "Henry Connor" (1 text)
Roud #1909
RECORDINGS:
Martin Reddigan, "Hard Times" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod21727 2806 c.15(291), "Connor's Farewell" ("The orders have arrived boys, and we are bound for Dublin"), J. Lindsay (London), 1851-1910
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Lovely Home" [Laws M6] (plot)
cf. "Jock Scott" (plot)
cf. "Matt Hyland" (plot)
cf. "The Footboy" (plot)
File: LM05

Henry Downs

DESCRIPTION: "Many an Orange villain fell Beneath the hand of Downs" "The trembling tyrants did propose A partial amnesty" which took "unsuspecting clowns" out of the battle. Downs continued to fight. In Dublin he was taken by Sirr, tried, condemned, and hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Madden's _Literary Remains of the United Irishmen of 1798_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution trial Ireland patriotic police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 1799 - Henry Downs is hanged at Malahide after being taken by Major Sirr in a Dublin alehouse.(source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 125, "Henry Downs" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Edward (III) (Edward Fitzgerald)" (character of Major Sirr)
cf. "The Man from God-Knows-Where" (character of Major Sirr)
cf. "The Major" (character of Major Sirr)
NOTES [106 words]: For more about Major Sirr see "Edward" (III), "The Man from God-Knows-Where," "The Major" and the notes to "Who Killed Cock Robin?" (II).
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 adds some information illuminating the events here. There was an amnesty and it was accepted by many insurgents. Downs, while a member of Joseph Holt's guerilla band, killed Jonathan Eves, mistakenly taking him to be an informer. He broke with the guerillas on this account. He came close to killing Major Sirr while being taken. Moylan reports Madden, in Literary Remains of the United Irishmen of 1798, believed that Downs was executed for shooting Eves. - BS
File: Moyl125

Henry Green (The Murdered Wife) [Laws F14]

DESCRIPTION: Henry Green threatens suicide if Mary Wyatt will not marry him (she is unsure about the idea because he is rich and she is poor). Soon after the marriage, he poisons her. She forgives him before she dies, but he is sentenced to death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: homicide marriage poverty execution poison
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1845 - Marriage of Marry Ann Wyatt and Henry Green (Feb 10, 1845), followed by the murder of Mary Ann Wyatt Green (Feb 18) and execution of Henry Green (Sep 10)
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE,SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws F14, "Henry Green (The Murdered Wife)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 321, "Henry Green" (1 text)
Randolph 157, "Henry Green" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 125-127, "Henry Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 65-68, "Henry Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 792-793, "Henry Green" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 66, "The Arsenic Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp.442-443, "(The Murdered Wife, or, The Case of Henry G. Green, of Berlin, Rensselaer County, New York") (1 text)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 178-184, "Miss Riot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #64, "Young Henry Green" (1 text, 1 tune, with the local title "Miss Yowta")
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 142, "Young Henry Green" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 624-627, "The Murder of Miss Wyatt" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 100, "Henry Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 11-13, (no title) (1 partial text, 1 tune, plus an excerpt from this or a related ballad)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 106-108, "Henry Green of Troy" (1 text plus a broadside print)
DT 666, ARSENICT*
Roud #693
RECORDINGS:
Pat Murphy, "Henry Green" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Will O'Brien, "Henry Green" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Billy Vite and Molly Green" (plot)
cf. "The Murdered Wife or the Case of Henry G. Green" (subject, plot)
NOTES [255 words]: The Digital Tradition editors speculate that this was adapted from the music hall song "Billy Vite and Molly Green." This is conceivable, but a significant stretch -- this song is serious, "Billy" comic; "Billy" involves a supernatural element, and in "Billy" it is the boy who is poor and the girl rich. Cohen believes it went the other way; "Billy" is a parody of this serious song. - RBW
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast notes that "the murder took place in Rensselaer County, New York" - BS
This is confirmed by Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, which has extensive notes about the events, including copies of the tombstones of Green and Wyatt. The tombstone says Wyatt was poisoned with arsenic -- an interesting choice if true, because by 1845 the Marsh Test for arsenic was established (it was developed in 1836). But if Wyatt's body was tested for arsenic, I haven't seen the reports.
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads has notes about the case in its entry for "The Murdered Wife or the Case of Henry G. Green." Mary Ann Wyatt was a performer in a troupe which staged temperance dramas. Her appearance so excited Henry Green that he joined the troupe to court her. They were married in February 1845.
The marriage was so sudden that Green felt compelled to publicize it with a sleighing party for his friends, at which a former love told him that she had once wished to marry him. Wyatt felt sick the next day, and Green went to get some medicine. He shoved more and more down her throat, and she died by poison. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LF14

Henry Green of Troy

See Henry Green (The Murdered Wife) [Laws F14] (File: LF14)

Henry III and the Archbishop of Canterbury

See King John and the Bishop [Child 45] (File: C045)

Henry Joe

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

Henry Joy

DESCRIPTION: The singer from Ulster tells how he left his wife and children to follow Henry Joy McCracken. They are defeated at Antrim. Henry Joy is taken to Belfast by the redcoats and hanged in the barrack square.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1998 (Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998))
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion Ireland execution patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 17, 1798 - Henry Joy McCracken, a founder of the United Irishmen, is executed outside the Market House in Belfast (source: notes to Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998))
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 110, "Henry Joy" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Joy McCracken (I)" (character of Henry Joy McCracken) and references there
NOTES [98 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "This song possibly dates from the early 19th century" - BS
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Henry Joy" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998)) - BS
Henry Joy McCracken was one of the most admirable of the United Irishmen. Sadly, he was no soldier, and his attempt to fight the British at Antrim a disaster; for details, see the notes to "Henry Joy McCracken (I)." - RBW
File: Moyl110

Henry Joy McCracken (I)

DESCRIPTION: "It was on the Belfast mountains I heard a maid complain... Saying, 'Woe is me... Since Henry Joy McCracken died on the gallows tree." Henry fought against the English, but was taken; now only his ghost comes got her. She dies and is buried
AUTHOR: attributed by different writers to P. J. McCall, William Drennan, and T. P. Cunning (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Ireland love death burial execution ghost
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 7, 1798 - Henry Joy McCracken, a founder of the United Irishmen, leads several thousand men against Antrim, but is driven off. The Ulster phase of the 1798 rebellion is completely defeated by June 13, and the leaders later executed
July 17, 1798 - Henry Joy McCracken hanged in Belfast. (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 34-35, "Henry Joy McCracken" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 60, "Henry Joy McCracken" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 109, "Henry Joy McCracken" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 39, "Henry Joy McCracken" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3008
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Joy" (subject)
cf. "Henry Joy McCracken (II)" (subject)
cf. "McCracken's Ghost" (subject)
cf. "The Social Thistle and the Shamrock" (written by McCracken)
NOTES [685 words]: OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads writes about finding the tune in 1913 in George Petrie [1789-1866], The Complete Petrie Collection. "The song here given was written by P. J. McCall [1861-1919], author of 'Boolavogue.'"
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong's source is OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 60. - BS
The ballad is recorded on two of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Tim Lyons, "Henry Joy McCracken" (on "The Croppy's Complaint," Craft Recordings CRCD03 (1998); Terry Moylan notes)
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Henry Joy McCracken" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998)) - BS
Pakenham, p. 172, says of McCracken (1767-1798) that he was "a remarkable man -- in may way the most attractive of all the original United brotherhood of Ireland." A Presbyterian, he tried to promote learning and social justice (not something that interested most Irish leaders); Smyth, p. 117, describes him as part of the "often socially radical" faction of the United Irishmen. He was also religiously tolerant (his brothers, Golway, p, 68, had attended the opening of Belfast's first Catholic Church in 1784, along with other members of the Belfast volunteers, as a gesture of ecumenicalism. McCracken himself, according to Golway, p. 69, actually supported Catholics when they were attacked by Protestants.)
McCracken, it appears, was not inherently opposed to British rule; he simply thought that Ireland could not achieve the social order he felt desirable without independence.
Sadly, British justice cared little for nobility of character. And, as a leader of troops, McCracken was contemptible. And several of his senior officers were in contact with the British General Nugent. McCracken, in attacking Antrim, made no provisions to guard against reinforcements. Nor could he make any real use of his ancient, ill-mounted cannon. The result was a complete defeat for the United Men at Antrim.
Four days later, the remnants of the United forces abandoned their camp at Donegore Hill. As an army, that was the end of them.
McCracken had not expected to command the Ulster army. Robert Simms had originally commanded the troops in County Antrim. But he wasn't going to fight without the French. He resigned, leaving McCracken in command (Golway, p. 84). McCracken had no military experience. A veteran army might have survived an ignorant commander. But the troops were as raw as he. They scared the British, but they posed little real danger.
McCracken himself escaped the rout, and hid in the home of his "lover" Mary Bodle (by whom he apparently had an illegitimate daughter; see Golway, p. 85). Contrary to what is reported in "Henry Joy McCracken (II)," Steward, p. 240, says that a patrol simply stumbled on him -- but one of themn had bought cloth from him and recognized him. What followed is confused -- apparently some of the men of the patrol wanted to free him -- but he ended up in custody. Golway, pp. 87-88, says that his trial began on July 16, and he was hung July 17 after refusing an offer to turn informer. Stewart, p. 241, says the court-martial began July 17 (the contradiction is probably a matter of how the phases of the McCracken case are labelled).
Stewart, p. 242, notes that McCracken's father and sister Mary Ann were present at the trial. The officer in charge, in an act of blatant cruelty, spoke to the father and told him that McCracken could live if he would reveal the name of his commander. Stewart reports the incident as follow: "Pollock caled Henry over and made the same offer to him. McCracken said, 'I will do anything which my father knows is the right thing for me to do.' 'Harry, my dear,' said his father, 'I know nothing of the business, but you know best what you ought to do.' At this McCracken said, 'Farewell, Father,' and walked back to the table."
The trial took place the same day, and although it was hard to find witnesses, McCracken was found guilty and ordered to be executed immediately. McCracken was hung at 5:00 p.m. on July 17 (Stewart, p. 245). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: PGa034

Henry Joy McCracken (II)

DESCRIPTION: McCracken is betrayed for 50 pounds by Niblock. Why is there no song from 1798 to mark his hanging on High Street, Belfast? He is buried in Clifton Street cemetery with his sister Mary.
AUTHOR: Mrs Eileen Keaney (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (written 1964, published _Ceol_ vol. 2, no. 1, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion betrayal execution patriotic burial
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 17, 1798 - Henry Joy McCracken hanged in Belfast. (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 111, "Henry Joy McCracken" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Joy McCracken (I)" (character of Henry Joy McCracken) and references there
NOTES [119 words]: For background on Henry Joy McCracken, one of the most admirable but perhaps not the most competent of the 1798 rebels, see the notes to "Henry Joy McCracken (I)." According to Terry Golway, For the Cause of Liberty, pp. 85, 87-88, his sister Mary Ann (1770?-1866) had tried to smuggle him out of the country before his death, but he was captured before arrangements were completed.
She kept on having ideas. She tried to come with him to the gallows. (Interestingly, he apparently gave no last speech.) After his hanging, she tried to have a doctor revive him., naturally without success. She then helped care for his illegitimate(?) daughter Maria. Mary Ann McCracken never married, and died in Maria's house. - RBW
File: Moyl111

Henry K. Sawyer [Laws G5]

DESCRIPTION: Henry K. Sawyer is fatally burned when he is trapped under a derailed train. He is taken from the wreck, but all he can do is bid farewell to his wife before he dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
KEYWORDS: train wreck farewell death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 8, 1848 - Henry Sawyer, superintendent of repairs for the Bangor and Oldtown Railroad, is fatally injured when his train derails
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws G5, "Henry K. Sawyer"
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 58-60, "Henry K. Sawyer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 6-7, "Henry K. Sawyer" (1 text)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 272, "Henry K. Sawyer" (notes only)
DT 757, HENRSAWY
Roud #3249
NOTES [19 words]: Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster declares this "the second oldest song of railroad life." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: LG05

Henry Lee

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Henry Martin

See Henry Martyn [Child 250] AND Sir Andrew Barton [Child 167] (File: C250)

Henry Martyn [Child 250]

DESCRIPTION: Henry Martin (Martyn), the youngest of three brothers, is chosen by lot to turn pirate "to maintain his brothers and he." Martin overhauls a merchant ship; he either sinks her or is himself mortally wounded
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(181))
KEYWORDS: brother pirate
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber),Wales) US(Ap,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So,SW) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (39 citations):
Child 250, "Henry Martyn" (5 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #42}
Bronson 250, Henry Martyn" (50 versions+2 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 250, "Henry Martyn" (5 versions: #8, #12, #31, #33, #36)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 30-31, "Henry Martin or Salt Seas (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 78-79, "Henry Martin" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 117)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 29-32, "Henry Martin" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 22, "Henry Martin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #53, "Henry Martyn" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #39}
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 87-89, "Henry Martin" (1 text, called by the singer "Andy Bardan")
Randolph 31, "Andrew Bardeen" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #50}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 48, "Andrew Bardeen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 24, "Henry Martyn" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #16, #47}
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, pp. 70-71, "The Jolly Scotch Robbers" (1 text, with "Andrew Brattan" as the hero)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 107-108, "There Were Once Three Brothers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 81, "The Three Scotch Robbers" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #6, #10}
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 80-81, "Andrew Martine" (1 text, which seems rather defective although no gaps are shown)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 210-211, "Andrew Barden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 72-74, "Andrew Marteen"; pp. 201-203, "Andrew Batan" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #31, #46}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland4, pp. 15-44, "Sir Andrew Barton" "but including Henry Martyn" (11 texts plus a fragment, 10 tunes; in every text but "L," the robber is Andrew Bardeen or something like that, but many of the texts appear more Henry Martin-like) {K=Bronson's #2 tune for Child #167; B=#46, C=#31 for Child #250}
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 150, "Henry Martin" (1 text)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 82-83, "Henry Martin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 37, pp. 290-299, "Henry Martyn" (1 text)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, #XIII, pp. 156-158, "Andrew Bartin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #42}
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, pp.38-39 "Andrew Bartin" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #14, "Andrew Bardean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 37-38, "(Elder Bardee)" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 86-87, "Henry Martyn" (1 text, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #3, #4}
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 22, "Henry Martin" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 13, "Bolender Martin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #17}
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 3, "Henry Martin" (2 texts, 1 tune; the text is composite and neither tune direct associated with it; #2 in the first edition); also 4, "Andrew Bardeen" (1 text, 1 tune, from Moore; #4 in the first edition)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 615-616, "Henry Martyn" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 358, "Henry Martyn" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #36}
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 1, "Henry Martin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #36}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 26, "Henry Martin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #40}
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XLIII, pp. 71-72, "Henry Martin" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 109-111, "Henry Martin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 215, "Henry Martin" (1 text)
DT 250, HENRMART* HENRMRT3
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, pp. 36-37, "Henry Martin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #104
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Andrew Batan" (AFS 4194 B1, 1938; on LC58, in AMMEM/COWELL); "Andrew Batan" (on USWolfRiver) [this is a different recording from the one already cited] {Bronson's #8 under "Sir Andrew Barton"}
A. L. Lloyd, "Henry Martin" (on ESFB1, ESFB2)
Sam Larner, "The Lofty Tall Ship" (on SLarner01, Voice12);"Henry Martin" (on SLarner02) [I do not know that the two Larner recordings are in fact different -- these two compilations drew from the same collection of field tapes -- but as the titles are given as different I thought it prudent to separate them. - PJS]
Lawrence Older, "Elder Bordee" (on LOlder01)
Pete Seeger, "Elder Bordee" (on PeteSeeger29)
Phillip Tanner, "Henry Martin" (on FSB5); "Young Henry Martin" (on Voice02) {one of these recordings, which may be the same, is Bronson's #33}
Tony Wales, "Henry Martin" (on TWales1)
Erica Warnock, "Henry Martin" (Piotr-Archive #461, recorded 01/26/2023)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(181), "Henry Martin," W. Armstrong (Liverpool) , 1820-1824; also Firth c.12(87), Harding B 11(1367), Harding B 11(4096), 2806 c.16(273), Harding B 17(295a), Harding B 11(4207), Firth b.26(253), Firth c.26(210), "Henry Martin"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sir Andrew Barton" [Child 167] (plot, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Elder Bordee
NOTES [271 words]: This ballad cannot always be distinguished in practice from "Sir Andrew Barton" [Child 167]; see also the discussion under that song. - RBW
Having looked at the lyrics to "Elder Bordee," I'd place it somewhat closer to "Henry Martyn" than to "Sir Andrew Barton" [even though the Lawrence Older recording lists it as Child #167]; it's shorter, and it doesn't include the theme of the complaining merchants. Frankly, I think Child goofed when he split these ballads. - PJS
Child had the "advantage," if such it can be called, of seeing only British versions. Those are distinct enough. I've yet to see such clear distinctions in American versions.
Checking through the sources available to me, here are the "votes" of the various scholars:
Barry: One ballad (but with some rather farfetched conjectures about its evolution)
Belden: Apparently two (but based on the close similarities of the "Henry Martin" texts, which really proves only that this is a distinct family)
Bronson: One ballad (apparently, but based mostly on others' comments)
Child: Two ballads (probably), with "Andrew Barton" the elder and the source
Coffin: One ballad, following the arguments from Barry.
Davis: Two ballads
Frank: Two ballads, but with "Henry Martin" descended from "Andrew Barton" (and he prints a version which he seems to think is an intermediate)
Gray: Apparently one ballad, since he connects his single short text to both songs
Sharp: Two ballads
Joyner: One ballad (by implication, since he prints his version under both numbers)
Editors who print texts from their collections but state no clear opinion: Cox, Eddy, Flanders, Randolph
- RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C250

Henry Munroe

DESCRIPTION: At Ballynahinch General Nugent attacks the rebels under Clokey and Munroe. Having exhausted ammunition, Munroe escapes. Betrayed by a woman, he is taken and executed. "His head was put up" but retrieved by rebels. Young Teeling is also killed at Killala.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1893 (Young's _Ulster in '98_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: betrayal battle execution rebellion Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 13, 1798 - Battle of Ballynahinch (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 85, "Henry Munroe" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "General Monroe" (subject) and references there
cf. "The Frenchmen" (character of Bartholomew Teeling)
NOTES [269 words]: While sympathetic to the Defender cause the song blames the rebels "In attacking the Government when their strength it was so; It caused many to die like brave Henry Munroe."
"Teeling" is apparently Bartholomew Teeling hanged with Matthew Tone in Dublin (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 p.87 re "The Frenchmen") - BS
For Munroe/Monroe, see the notes to "General Monroe."
Smyth, pp. 118-119, describes a whole Teeling family. Luke Teeling was the patriarch, an Ulster linen merchant; he bankrolled some revolutionary publications. His son Charles H. Teeling is described as "The chief architect of the revamped Defenders." Charles's older brother Bartholomew journeyed on foot across most of Ireland, apparently campaigning against the British. A third Teeling, George, seems to have been slightly less active.
Stewart, p. 23, declares "The Teelings were Catholics in comfortable circumstances, and active liberals who had ardently supported the volunteers."
Charles Teeling, though not much past twenty (Stewart, p. 23, says he was only 18), was imprisoned in 1796 during the mass arrests of rebels in that year; eventually to be released on bail because he was ill (Stewart, p. 57). His role thereafter seems to have been minor. Bartholomew fled to France in 1797 (Smyth, p. 159), to return (and die) with Wolfe Tone.
Pakenham, esp. p. 344, mentions two Teelings, Batholomew and Matthew. The index cites Bartholomew once, and Matthew three times. But the first two references to Teeling do not mention his first name, and the third could be a conflation of Bartholomew Teeling and Matthew Tone. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: Moyl985

Henry Orrison

See The Gallant Brigantine [Laws D25] (File: LD25)

Henry Stewart

DESCRIPTION: "Our gallant captain to us did say, 'We had better give ourselves up to pray ...' We had scarce lost sight of the Scottish shore When the sea most furiously began to roar." Only Captain Henery Stewart and one man more live to land ashore.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship shore storm wreck Scotland
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 99, "Henry Stewart" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #2773
NOTES [16 words]: The current description is based on the Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick fragment. - BS
File: CrSNB099

Henry the Eighth

See I'm Henery the Eighth I Am (File: LTCDHen8)

Henry the Sailor Boy

See Henry and Mary Ann (Henry the Sailor Boy) (File: HHH037)

Henry V and the King of France

See King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164] (File: C164)

Henry Was a High-Learnt Man

See Caroline of Edinborough Town [Laws P27] (File: LP27)

Henry, My Son

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Henry's Concern

See The Good Old State of Maine (File: IvNB111)

Henry's Downfall

See Van Dieman's Land (II - Young Henry's Downfall) (File: FaE16)

Henry's Tribute

See King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164] (File: C164)

Henry's Worry Blues

DESCRIPTION: Henry worries night and day about women. His baby "worries me on every hand... because she can"; "she mistreats me both night and day... to pass the time away." He bid her goodbye, prayed for and "got another woman now tie my troubles away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Henry Townsend)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness love farewell separation nonballad lover
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Henry Townsend, "Henry's Worry Bluese" (Columbia 14529-D,1929; on USChartersHeroes)
NOTES [18 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcHeWoBl

Her Age It Was Red

DESCRIPTION: "It's a long time ago I remember it well, All alone in the poorhouse a maiden did dwell.... Her age it was red and her hair was 19." Her lover asks her to fly away by starlight. Her father shoots him with "a horse pistol raised from a colt."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd)
KEYWORDS: humorous wordplay love death father home
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 20-21, "Hindside Afore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 105-106, "Her Age It Was Red" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #147, "Belinda" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 288, "Belinda" (notes only; probably this, based on the note, but it might be "O Belinda," which Averill also cites)
Roud #7014
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Maiden's Romance
The Starlight Tragedy
File: Gil105

Her Bonny Blue E'e

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the beautiful girl "doon by the burn brae," and admits to thinking of her bonny blue eyes when he should be saying his prayers. But he is going across the sea; he must leave her for another to wed. He wishes her happiness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love beauty separation emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H71, pp. 246-247, "Her Bonnie Blue E'e" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13336
NOTES [21 words]: Sam Henry claims this is a Scottish song. The only evidence for this is the dialect. The plot seems more typically Irish. - RBW
File: HHH071

Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still

DESCRIPTION: "It's been a year since last we met, We may never meet again. I have struggled to forget, But the struggle was in vain. For her voice lives in the breeze...." The sailor lives, dreams, and ornately alludes to the memory the sweetheart he left behind
AUTHOR: Words: J. E. Carpenter / Music: W. T. Wrighton
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Journal of the Pacific); reportedly written 1864
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 157, "Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still" (1 text plus a songster version, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 165-166, "Her Bright Smile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 31-32, "Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 290-291, "Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 380-381, "Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #871, p. 58, "Her Bright Smiles Haunt Me Still" (3 references)
DT, BRITESML*
Roud #4353
RECORDINGS:
Eleazar Tillett and Martha Etheridge, "Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still" (on USWarnerColl01)
File: Wa157

Her Bright Smiles Haunt Me Still

See Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still (File: Wa157)

Her First Name Is

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Her first name is --, Catch her if you can, 'Cause she's in love with --, And that's her only man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: love jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #182, "Her first name is...." (1 text)
File: AJRR182

Her Hair Was Like the Raven's Wing

DESCRIPTION: "Her hair was like the raven's wing, And her neck was like the swan"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: beauty hair
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 717, "Her Hair Was Like the Raven's Wing" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6155
NOTES [64 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 fragment. - BS
A quick google search shows that these similies are extremely common (the name "swan-neck" goes back at least as far as Edith Svanneschals, "Edith Swan-Neck" the beloved mistress -- perhaps wife -- of King Harold II of England, who died at Hastings); I suspect the source of this fragment will never be identified. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4717

Her Hair Was o' a Darkish Brown

DESCRIPTION: "Her hair was o' a darkish brown, Her eyes o' a bonnie blue, Her cheeks were like the roses red, And the curls hung roun' her broo"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: beauty hair
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1209, "Her Hair Was o' a Darkish Brown" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Roud #6797
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan6 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61209

Her Mansion Is Higher Than Mine

DESCRIPTION: "There are mansions high, there are mansions wide, 'Way up in gloryland, There are mansions built in jasper, O wondrous beauty grand." The singer expects a mansion, but is sure "my mother's mansion Is higher than mine." Jesus has places for all
AUTHOR: Albert E. Brumley (Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 ("Gospel Tide," according to Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
KEYWORDS: home mother
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 53, "Her Mansion Is Higher Than Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V44986
NOTES [198 words]: An allusion to John 14:2 in the King James version, "In my Father's house are many mansions." NRSV renders "...many dwelling places"; the Greek word μονη, mone, is found in the New Testament only here and in John 14:23, where KJV renders "abode" and NRSV renders "home." In classical Greek the sense seems to be a place to stop or rest, or the act of stopping or tarrying. I'd almost be tempted to render "campsites."
The mansion being made of "jasper" is interesting. The word "Jasper" occurs in the KJV New Testament four times, all in the Apocalypse: 4:3, 21:11, 21:18, 21:19. In this case, NRSV agrees with the rendering "jasper." In 4:3 it is a reference to a divine being's appearance; in chapter 21, parts of the New Jerusalem are described as looking like jasper, and that is clearly what is being invoked here. The oddity is that, although Revelation says that the city was "a very rare jewel, like jasper," jasper is at best a semiprecious stone. But the English word "jasper" is more specific than Greek ιασπις, which really means an opaque precious stone. (Ironic that 21:11 refers to the jasper as "clear as crystal").
But that, no doubt, is over-analysing Brumley's text. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ABLT053

Her Mantle So Green

See The Mantle So Green [Laws N38] (File: LN38)

Her Mighty Sails the Breezes Swell

DESCRIPTION: "Her mighty sails the breezes swell, And fast she leaves the lessening land." Many wave the ship goodbye, but it is never seen again. Many mothers grieve for their lost children. No one knows the fate of the ship
AUTHOR: Words: John Malcolm / Music: W. D. Brinkle, M.D. (source: Sheet music published by G. Willig, reprinted b y Godey's Magazine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (Sheet music published by G. Willig); poem written 1824 (so Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor death
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 45, "The Missing Ship" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: _Godey's Magazine_, Volumes 20-21, 1840 (available on Google Books) , pp. 234-235, "Her Mighty Sails the Breezes Swell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27803
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship That Never Returned" [Laws D27] (theme)
NOTES [73 words]: Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors say the music of their version is "not attributed." It is not quite identical to the Brinkle melody in the WIllig sheet music (found in the Library of Congress collection), but most of it is close (it looks to me as if the singer leveled out some of the harder intervals). Lane/Gosbee's final verse is not in the sheet music, but it has the same puffed-up feeling; clearly it is from the same original. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LaGo045

Her Name Was Lil

See Poor Lil (File: RL248)

Her Servant Man

See The Iron Door [Laws M15] (File: LM15)

Her Sweetheart

See There Was a Lady in the East (File: Pea726)

Her White Bosom Bare

See Olban (Alban) or The White Captive [Laws H15] (File: LH15)

Herd Laddie o the Glen

DESCRIPTION: Shepherds and sheep are not what they used to be. Sheep now have more hair and less wool. In winter now both sheep and shepherds wear fancy plastics to keep from the wet and cold. "Yon auld herd and his plaidie you will ne'er see again."
AUTHOR: Willie Scott (source: McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
KEYWORDS: ordeal nonballad sheep shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 124-126, 155, "Herd Laddie o the Glen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5128
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonny Strathyre" (tune, per McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
File: McSc124

Herd Laddie, The (The Herdie)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh for the innocent days I hae see, When a' my young thoughts they were happy and keen." In those days he herded the cattle and swam with "wee Jenny," then used their clothes for beds. He recalls other details of his early life
AUTHOR: William Scott of Fetterangus (1785-?) (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1832 (Scott, Poems, Chiefly in the Buchan Dialect, according to Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: courting animal sex home work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #6, p. 1, "The Hirdie"; #3, p. 1, "The Hirdie" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 429, "The Herd Laddie" (7 short texts, 6 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 269-270, "The Herdie" (1 text)
Roud #5594
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hills of Glenorchy" (tune, per Greig)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Herd Loon
NOTES [72 words]: Greig: "'The Hirdie,' another of his [Scott's] songs, is perhaps as well-known as 'Johnnie Sangster.' A verse will recall it to many readers:...." It was well-known enough that Greig never thought it worth while to print more than that one verse.- BS
This seems like it should lead to a conclusion -- the girl getting pregnant, the lad getting fired, something. But it doesn't. Unless Ord, like Greig, was suppressing the ending. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord269

Herd Laddie's Lament

DESCRIPTION: "A wee laddie sat wi' the tear in his e'e," and complains of his life: His feet are sore, wrapped in unrepairable shoes; he has no money for a new pair. His clothes are just as bad, he is hungry and worked too hard. He wishes for a better master
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: work poverty clothes hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 274, "The Herd Laddie's Lament" (1 text)
Roud #5596
File: Ord274

Herdie Derdie

DESCRIPTION: "Herdie Derdie, blaw your horn, A' your nowt's [cattle] among the corn; First ane, and syne twa, Herdie Derdie beats them a'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Gregor, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland, according to Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #159, p. 2, "Herdie Derdie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 431, "Herdie Derdie" (2 texts)
Roud #5947
NOTES [50 words]: Greig/Duncan3 quotes Gregor with other lines ("... Sic a hird a nivir saw, Here aboot or far awa..." and, sometimes the last line of "Deel blaw the hirdie's plaid awa"). - BS
Looking at the lyrics of this, I wonder if "Herdie Derdie" is indeed an animal, or perhaps a "Yowie wi' a Crookit Horn." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3431

Herdie, The

See The Herd Laddie (The Herdie) (File: Ord269)

Herding Lambs Amongst the Heather

See Queen Among the Heather (File: K141)

Here Are the Lady's Knives and Forks

DESCRIPTION: "Here are the lady's knives and forks, Here is the lady's table, Here is the lady's looking-glass, And here is the baby's cradle."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Chambers, according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad | knife fork table mirror cradle silverware
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 295, "Here are the lady's knives and forks" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #605 n. 65, pp. 240-241, "(Here are my lady's knives and forks)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 161, "Here Are the Lady's Knives and Forks" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 3, "The Family's Things" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 18, "(Here are the lady's knives and forks)" (1 text)
Roud #19714
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Here Is the Church"
File: OO2295

Here Are the Robbers Coming Through

See Hark the Robbers (File: SuSm032)

Here Are Two Dukes

See Three Dukes (File: R551)

Here Around the Ingle Bleezing

See Happy Friendship (File: McSc144)

Here at Thy Table, Lord, We Meet

DESCRIPTION: At the communion table, "Thy body is the bread we eat, Thy precious blood the wine." Christ's "bitter torments" are recounted. "Well thou mayest claim that heart of me, Which owes so much to thine"
AUTHOR: Probably Samuel Stennett
EARLIEST DATE: 1787 (Rippon's _Selection_, according to Julian)
KEYWORDS: ritual nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: C.G. Sommers and John L. Dagg, The Psalms and Hymns of Dr. Watts arranged by Dr Rippon (Philadelphia: David Clark, 1839 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #1201 ("Here at thy table long we meet") (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Rosa and Joseph Murray, "Here at Thy Table, Lord, We Meet" (on USSeaIsland03)
NOTES [96 words]: The Murrays say this hymn is sung very slowly at communion. - BS
Sommers and Dagg attribute this to Isaac Watts, but John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes),p. 1092, attributes it to Samuel Stennett (1727?-1795). Internet sources list the same author. So I have followed that.
The confusion probably arises because Rippon's 1787 work in which the poem appears is entitled A selection of Hymns from the best authors, intended as an Appendix to Dr. Watt's Psalms and Hymns (Julian, p. 964). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: RcHaTLWM

Here beside dwelleth a rich barons doughter

See Here Beside Dwells a Rich Baron's Daughter (The Juggler) (File: MSHBDRBD)

Here Beside Dwells a Rich Baron's Daughter (The Juggler)

DESCRIPTION: A baron's daughter says that she "would have no man that for her love sought her." Many try and fail, but a "juggler" creates the illusion of wealth and beauty and beds her. She awakes to see him as he is, and rejects him; he enchants her again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Richard Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354)
KEYWORDS: nobility love rejection magic trick sex bawdy MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics CL, pp. 251-253, "(no title)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1194.5
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1957
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #98, pp. 115-116 "(The Juggler and the Baron's Daughter" (1 text)
R. T. Davies, editor, _Medieval English Lyrics: A Critical Anthology_, 1963, #175, pp. 284-286, "The magician and the baron's daughter" (1 text)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #257, pp. 535-536, "The Juggler and the Baron's Daughter" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, fp. 509
NOTES [91 words]: This is attested only in Richard Hill's manuscript, and there is no evidence it is a song (it has a chorus, "Draw me nere, draw me nere, Draw me nere, þe joly juggelege": "Draw me near, draw me near, Draw me near, the jolly juggler" -- but it also has a very un-folk-like "bob" of four or five syllables at the end of each verse). But if it is a song, it sounds very folk-like to me, and the Hill Manuscript is very "folky," so I have very tentatively included the piece.
In this case, we should probably understand a "juggler" to be a magician. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSHBDRBD

Here Come Four Dukes A-Riding

See Three Dukes (File: R551)

Here Come I John Funny

DESCRIPTION: Traditional fee-collecting song for a Christmas play: "Here come I John Funny, I'm the man who collects the money. It's money we want and money we'll have; If you don't give us money we'll sweep you all out."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1890 (Rowling)
KEYWORDS: money nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Marjorie Rowling, _The Folklore of the Lake District_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 127, "(Here come I John Funny") (1 short text)
File: Rowl127

Here Come I, Beelzebub

DESCRIPTION: "Here come I, Beelzebub, And over my shoulder I carry my club, And in my hand my frying pan, And please to get all the money I can."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: Devil begging
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 17, "(Here come I. Beelzebub)" (1 text)
Roud #12747
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Giddy Giddy Gout" (used in the same Mumming plays as this)
NOTES [663 words]: Roud includes a very large family in his #12747; I am by no means sure they are all one item. Probably it needs further investigation. "Here I Come, Beelzebub," according to Fowke, is from a mummer's play; this is not true of many of the others.
The name "Beelzebub" is a conundrum on several levels. For starters, there is the origin of the name. Although it surely derives from Hebrew or Aramaic or some other Semitic language, it occurs only in the New Testament, in Matthew 10:25, 12:24, 27; Mark 3:23; Luke 11:15, 18, 19. There is a substantial disagreement over the spelling; taking Matthew 10:25 as a sample, the two oldest substantial copies of the verse, B and ℵ (which are also the two best, so that their testimony is at least equal to all the others combined) spell it βεεζεβουλ, "Beezeboul"; all other Greek manuscripts have Βεελζεβουλ, "Beelzeboul." Many Latin manuscripts, including the official Catholic vulgate, spell it "Beelzebub." " Similarly in Luke 11:15, 18, 19, B and ℵ spell it βεεζεβουλ, "Beezeboul," although in Luke, there are two even older, very valuable manuscripts, 𝔓45 𝔓75, which join all the others in reading "Beelzeboul," and again there is the Latin "Beelzebub." But nowhere is there Greek testimony for reading "Beelzebub" (or "Beezlebub"; no significant Greek or Latin witness spells it "Beezlebub").
"Beelzebul," as in the Greek, is the spelling used by the official Catholic New American Bible. But the Douai/Rheims Catholic Edition -- the approved translation at the time Alice Kane learned the song -- gives "Beelzebub." So do the classic Protestant versions, the Geneva and King James Bibles. So the Kane version has the authority of the older English translations even though it is not correct. The New Revised Standard Version gives "Beelzebul." (I know no English versions that spell it "Beezebul" despite its strong manuscript attestation.)
Aside: So why do we often say "Beezlebub" rather than "Beelzebub" or "Beelzebul"? It probably starts with the fact that "Beelzebul" is just plain hard to say. It's an easy metathesis (transposition of sounds) to make it "Beezlebub." The latter form seems to have shown up in some old mummers' plays, probably by accident. Probably it's just a traditional spelling that caught on.
But what does "Beelzebul" mean? It's truly not clear where the Greek name came from. The Vulgate Latin probably looked to 2 Kings 1:2 and its reference to Baal-Zebub "the god of Ekron" (a town in Philistia) and so produced its translation. "Baal" is the Hebrew word for a god or lord, and "zebub" means "fly," so Baal-Zebub, in Hebrew, can be understood God of the Flies, probably meaning a god who can drive away flies (InterpretersDict, volume I, p. 332), or perhaps one who gave oracles through flies. But there is no reason to assume that a Philistine god would have a Hebrew name; the name is probably a distortion, perhaps deliberate, of an indigenous name that we really can't guess. Albright/Mann, p. 126, believe (based on Ugaritic) that it should be "Beelzebul," as in the Greek, and it means "Baal the Prince." But Beare, p. 247, thinks the name Aramaic.
Nor is there any real warrant for assuming that Beelzebub was the same as The Adversary/Satan/the Devil; some of the New Testament passages call Beelzebul the "ruler [αρχων, archon, first/leader/ruler] of demons," but that's not really the same as being the Top Boss -- and the name Beelzebul doesn't seem to be attested anywhere else in Greek except in commentaries on the Gospels. The Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, calls The Adversary "ο διαβολος" ho diabolos, "the devil," not the prince of devils, in Job 1:6, etc. And the Hebrew "Satan" is also attested in the Greek Bible. But most people do assume Beelzebul and "The Devil" are the same. What is certain is that it is not a usual name for any of the various enemies of God. But the children making up rhymes probably liked the name for its exotic sound. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC017A

Here Come I, old Father Christmas

See Old Father Christmas (File: Simp157)

Here Come Three Dukes A-Riding

See Three Dukes (File: R551)

Here Come Three Kings A-Riding

See Three Dukes (File: R551)

Here Come Three Merchants Riding

See Three Dukes (File: R551)

Here Come Two True-Lovers

DESCRIPTION: Singing game. "Here come two true-lovers, Joined heart and hand, He wants a wife, And she wants a man. Now if they are kind-hearted," they will wed. Now he must go to war, and she cries "If he does leave me I surely will die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
KEYWORDS: playparty love marriage separation war
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 70-71, "(Here come two true-lovers)" (1 text)
NOTES [24 words]: I feel as if this is made up of bits and pieces of several singing games, but since I can't identify a predominant one, it gets its own entry. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GFGW070

Here Comes a Duke

See Three Dukes (File: R551)

Here Comes a Duke A-Riding

See Three Dukes (File: R551)

Here Comes a Little Bird

See Bluebird (File: OpGa097)

Here Comes a Lusty Wooer

DESCRIPTION: "Herecomes a lusty wooer, My a Dildin my A Daldin, Here comes a lusty wooer, Lilly bright and shine, A." "Pray who do you woo for?" "For your fairest daughter." "Then there she is for you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1744 (Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 10, "The Lusty Wooer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #26, p. 39, "(Here comes a lusty Wooer)"
Roud #13184
File: BGNMG026

Here comes a poor woman from baby-land

See Lady of the Land (Here's a Poor Widow) (File: BGMG641)

Here Comes a Queen from Dover

DESCRIPTION: "Here comes a Queen from Dover, This very night came (D)over, Shall she be attended or no? No be Queen be not offended... For you shall be attended, By all the respects that we owe.... Oh, is your bottle out.... So come down and choose your lassie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana)
KEYWORDS: playparty royalty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, p. 55=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 229-230, "Here Comes a Queen from Dover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 11-12, "The Queen of Dover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7897 and 7038
File: WOlf055

Here comes Mrs. Macaroni

See Here Comes Solomon and All His Glory (File: GrD81611)

Here Comes Solomon and All His Glory

DESCRIPTION: "Here comes so-and-so Riding on a pretty [royal] pony Standing by [looking for] the house of glory" on so-and-so's wedding [washing] day. The singer would take Lily by the hand and give three cheers for so-and-so's daughter.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: wedding nonballad horse playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #152, p. 2, "Here Comes the King" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1611, "Here Comes Solomon and All His Glory" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 85, "Mrs Macaroni" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #177, "Here comes Mrs. Macaroni" (1 text)
Roud #13203
NOTES [157 words]: The "so-and-so" riding can be Solomon, the king, or Mrs Macaroni.
Greig/Duncan8: "Verses 2-3 of B [Greg #152] correspond to Opie, Singing Game, No. 86 'Monday Night', of which there are versions in this edition at [Greig/Duncan4] 919 'Some Delights In Cards and Dice'." - BS
The line "Here comes Solomon in all his glory" is reminiscent of Song of Songs 3:7-11, but the royal pony is more likely a reference to 1 Kings, chapter 1. As David lay dying, his sons Adonijah and Solomon disputed the succession. David supposedly declared that Solomon, the younger son, should succeed (1 Kings1:28-37). The actual evidence for this is thin -- really just Solomon's propaganda. What is certain is that Solomon was proclaimed King, and rode King David's Mule (1 Kings 1:38). This was one of the acts which made him King. Too bad that he proved a spendthrift who did nothing to strengthen the kingdom, which broke up immediately after his death. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: GrD81611

Here Comes Someone A-Roving

See Three Dukes (File: R551)

Here Comes Susie

DESCRIPTION: "Here comes Susie, Strutting like a floozie, Here comes Susie, All day long." "Here comes another one, Just like the other one, Here comes another one, All day long." "This way Valerie (x3), All day long."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp, 89-90, "Here Comes Susie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16803
NOTES [50 words]: There is no agreement about the origin and age of the word "floozie." But all sources seem to agree that it did not become common until the middle third of the twentieth century, so this song and game cannot be much older than the version printed by List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: List089B

Here Comes Teacher A'Yelling

See Here Comes the Teacher (File: McIn102C)

Here Comes Teacher with a Hickory Stick

See Here Comes the Teacher (File: McIn102C)

Here Comes the Bride (Parody)

DESCRIPTION: Parodies of the Wedding March, perhaps not all related. "Here comes the bride, Big, fat, and wide, See how she wobbles From side to side." Or, "Here comes the bride, All dressed in white, Here comes the fellow, All dressed in yellow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: humorous wedding derivative
FOUND IN: US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 113, "Lohengrin" (1 short text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #180, "Here comes the bride" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 16, "Here comes the bride, Bandy and cockeyed" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 55, "(Here comes the bride)" (2 short texts)
Roud #20187
File: ZiZa113C

Here Comes the Teacher

DESCRIPTION: "Here comes the teacher with a (great big/hickory) stick, Now it's time for arithmetic. One and one are two, two and two are four. Now it's time for spelling. R-a-t spells rat.... Charlie Chaplin went to France To teach the girlies how to dance."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: nonballad travel dancing humorous jumprope | teacher school Charlie Chaplin spelling
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 102, "(Here comes the teacher with a great big stick)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 45, "(Here comes teacher with a big, fat stick)"; p. 55, "Here Comes the Teacher" (2 texts)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #44, "(Yonder comes the teacher)"; #88, "(Here comes teacher with a hickory stick)" (2 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 125, "Here comes the teacher with a big fat stick" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #178, "Here comes teacher a'yelling"; #179, "Here comes teacher with a hickory (big red) stick" (2 texts); cf. #540, "Teacher, teacher, here comes teacher" (a single line which might be this)
Roud #19422
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Chaplin Went to France" (lyrics)
File: McIn102C

Here Comes the Teacher with a Big Fat Stick

See Here Comes the Teacher (File: McIn102C)

Here Comes Three Lawyers

See Three Dukes (File: R551)

Here Comes Uncle Jesse

DESCRIPTION: "Here comes Uncle Jesse, walking down the street, With his horse and buggy And buckles on his feet. Now if you want a fellow, I'll tell you what to do, Just get some salt and pepper, And put it in your shoe, All gone girl, shake that stuff...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (collected from Ottie Brails Ford and children by John A. Lomax)
KEYWORDS: playparty horse clothes food courting
FOUND IN: US(MA,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 129-130, "Here Comes Uncle Jessie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #181, "Here comes Uncle Jessie" (1 text)
Roud #18726
File: ByGo129

Here Comes Uncle Jessie

See Here Comes Uncle Jesse (File: ByGo129)

Here Each Day We Daily Travel

DESCRIPTION: "Only God can make a rainbow, Only he makes stars to shine. By his power the dewdrops glisten.... Only God can save a sinner like me." There are mansions awaiting on the other side.
AUTHOR: Otto Terry Pillow (1918-1977) (source: hymntime.com; hymnary.org calls him "Terry Pillow," which seems to be the name under which he usually published)
EARLIEST DATE: 2002 (Piotr Archive)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Debbie Harris Terrell, Duane Terrell, "Here Each Day We Travel" (Piotr-Archive #124, recorded 04/17/2022)
NOTES [98 words]: According to hymntime.com, Terry Pillow received early piano instruction from Albert E. Brumley, and he seems to have written gospel songs in a very Brumley-like style. The Terrell recording sounds very much like it was learned from a (white) gospel recording. I strongly doubt the song is traditional in any real sense. Given its complete failure to understand differential scattering of light, nuclear fusion, reflectivity, and seemingly everything this side of 2+2=4, I certainly hope so....
The tune makes me think of "Life's Railway to Heaven (Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio124

Here Goes a Bluebird

See Bluebird (File: OpGa097)

Here I Am Amongst You

DESCRIPTION: "Here I am amongst you and I'm here because I'm here, And only twelve months older than I was this time last year." Unusual life advice: "Never throw a brick at a drowning man." Men don't always want more, e.g. a man with a black eye doesn't want anoger
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad age drowning injury money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 33, "Here I Am Amongst You" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5278
File: GrHo033

Here I Brew and Here I Bake

DESCRIPTION: "Here I brew and here I bake, And here I make my wedding-cake, ANd here I must break through." (Or: "Here I bake and here I brew, And here I lay my wedding-shoe, And here I must and shall break through.")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: cook marriage playparty
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #27, "Here I Brew, and Here I Bake" (2 short texts)
File: Newe027

Here I Come, Little Devil Doubt

See GIddy Giddy Gout (File: SuSM125)

Here I Stand All Ragged and Dirty

See All Ragged and Dirty (Here I Stand All Ragged and Dirty) (File: R573)

Here Is a Lady from Barbaree

See Lady of the Land (Here's a Poor Widow) (File: BGMG641)

Here Is a Letter, Fair Susannah

DESCRIPTION: Susannah receives a letter from the merchant that courts her. She says she will remain true to her sailor William: "he ploughs the sea Though he be married I will die a maiden"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting love parting sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1092, "Here Is a Letter, Fair Susannah" (1 fragment)
Roud #6830
NOTES [16 words]: Roud assigns the same number to fragments Greig-Duncan6 1092 and 1114, "High in the Highlands." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61092

Here Is the Church

DESCRIPTION: "Here is the church, and here is the steeple. Open the doors and here are the people. Here is the parson going upstairs And here he is a-saying his prayers."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: clergy playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand US(MW,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 102, "Here is the church, and here is the steeple" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #605, p. 240, "(Here is the Church)"
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #79, "The Church and the Steeple" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 182, "(Here's the church, and here's the steeple)" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 121, "(This is the church)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 14, "(There's the church)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 18, "(Here's the church)" (1 short text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 2, "Here's the Church" (1 text)
Roud #16226
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Here Are the Lady's Knives and Forks"
NOTES [48 words]: Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes: "Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren (1883) collected the first two lines of the text in the U.S.A." - BS
And this one is still played today, or was in my youth, although not really as a game; it was more a coordination exercise, I think. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BGMG605

Here Is to Sweet Ireland

DESCRIPTION: "Here is to sweet Ireland, the land of my birth, The land of the Shamrock, the best land on earth. The Irish were Irish when England wasn't much, And still will be Ireland, when England turns Dutch." By next summer, the Germans will have beaten England
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Nestler)
KEYWORDS: Ireland patriotic war
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), p. 102, "Here Is to Sweet Ireland (1 text)
NOTES [66 words]: Nestler says this song is from World War I, and the fact that England is at war with Germany obviously implies that it dates from one of the World Wars. But, during World War I, many Irish voluntarily fought for Great Britain, and the British, although they never looked like they were winning, rarely appeared to be losing, either. Which makes me wonder if this wasn't tweaked in World War II. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Nest102A

Here Lies de Body uv Po' Little Ben

DESCRIPTION: "Here lies de body uv po' little Ben. We ain't gwyne to see 'im in I dunno when. 'Twas hard to part, but it could 'a' been wuss, 'Case Ben mou'ter been a no-'count cuss." Other verses may float
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death burial floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 440, "Here Lies de Body uv Po' Little Ben" (1 short text, with a second stanza probably from "Watermelon on the Vine")
Roud #11779
File: Br3440

Here Sits the Queen of England

DESCRIPTION: "Here sits the Queen of England in her chair, She has lost the love that she had last year; So rise upon your feet, and kiss the first you meet, For there's many around your chair."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: royalty love playparty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #14, "Here Sits the Queen of England" (1 text)
File: Newe014

Here Stands an Old Maid Forsaken

DESCRIPTION: Kissing game: "Here stands an old maid forsaken, She's of a contented mind, She's lost her own true lover And wants another as kind; She wants another a kind, sir, I'll have you all to know, She's very well provided for With 45 strings to her bow (x2)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: love courting oldmaid playparty
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 15-16, "Here Stands an Old Maid Forksaken" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Lins015 (Full)
Roud #8065?
File: Lins015

Here They Come

DESCRIPTION: "Here they come, here they come, Silly great buggers every one, Half-a-crown a week to pay For putting a girl in the family way." "Here they come... Second of Foot but second to none." Covered in bullshit, they are off to Salisbury Plaim
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier sex work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 52, "Here They Come" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Braganza" (tune, according to Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
File: AWTBW052

Here We Are

DESCRIPTION: "Here we are, all together, as we sing our song joyfully, Here we are, all together, as we pray we will always be, Join we now as friends and celebrate." "Glorify the Lord with all our voices." "Let us make the world an alleluia"
AUTHOR: Ray Repp
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Repp's "Mass for Young Americans")
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 545, "Here We Are" (notes only)
File: ACSF545H

Here We Are Again

DESCRIPTION: "Here we are, here we are, Here we are again, There's Pat and Mac and Tommy and Jack and Joe. Where there's trouble brewing, when there's something doing, Are we down-hearted? No, let 'em come... Never mind the weather, Now then, all together, Here..."
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Knight / Music: Kenneth Lyle (source: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 214, "(no title)" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 15-16, "Here We Are! Here We Are Again!" (1 text)
Roud #10778
File: BrPa214A

Here We Are! Here We Are Again!

See Here We Are Again (File: BrPa214A)

Here We Come (Jamestown, Virginia)

DESCRIPTION: "Here we come." "Where from?" "(Jamestown Virginia/New York/etc.)." "What's your trade?" "(Sweet) Lemonade." "Give me some." The leader then sets out a pair of initials of another player, and indicates an action with the same initials
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad food wordplay
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #179, "Jamestown, Virginia" (1 text)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 108, "Lemonade" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 118-119, "(Here We Come)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 28, "Bum, Bum, Bum, Here We Come" (1 text)
Roud #19436
File: Newe179

Here We Come A-Wassailing

DESCRIPTION: "Here we come a-wassailing Among the leaves so green." Chorus: "Love and joy come to you And to you your wassail too, And God bless you and send you a happy new year." The singers remind the listeners that they are not beggars, and bless them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (Husk)
KEYWORDS: request ritual drink food begging nonballad wassail
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North)) US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 14-15, "The Wassail Bough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 4, "Here We Come A Wassailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, p. 166, "Wassail Song" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 68-69, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 253-255, "The Wassailer's Carol"; :"Here we Come A-Whistling" (2 texts)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 15+16, "Wassail Song" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 10-13, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas/I Wish You a Merry Christmas/Open the Door/Here We Come A-Wazling" (6 short texts, 5 tunes; A-C are probably "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"; D is too short to classify; E mixed "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" with the "Souling Song"; F is "Here We Come A-Wassailing")
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 94, "The Wassail Song" (1 text, 1 tune., with only the first two verses from tradition; they appear to go here, but the rest of the song looks like scrapings from several Christmas songs)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 270, "Wassail Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 379, "Wassail Song" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 112, "Wassail Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WASSCOME* WASSBUD
ADDITIONAL: Charlotte Sophia Burne, editor, Shropshire Folk-Lore (London, 1883 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 568,655, "The Wessel Cup Hymn" or "Wassail Cup Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #33, "Here We Come A Wassailing" (1 text)
Roud #209
NOTES [141 words]: Burne (1883): "Commonly sung in Shrewsbury twenty years ago." - BS
The custom of "wassailing" (going from house to house, usually on January 5, begging food, drink and hospitality) is mentioned as far back as the 12th century in England; similar rituals are found across the continent of Europe and in the United States. - (PJS)
"Wassail," incidentally, is from Old English "Wes hael," "Be hale/whole," i.e. "Be in good health."
To tell this wassail song from all the others (most if not all of which are lumped by Roud), consider either the first verse:
Here we come a-wassailing
Among the leaves so green,
Here we come a-wassailing
So fairly to be seen,
or the chorus, not met with in all versions:
Love and joy come to you
And to you your wassail too,
And God bless you and send you a happy new year,
(And God send you a happy new year)
- RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: JRDF166

Here We Come A-Wazlin

See Here We Come A-Wassailing (File: JRDF166)

Here We Come A-Whistling

See Here We Come A-Wassailing (File: JRDF166)

Here We Come Gathering Nuts in May

See Gathering Nuts in May (File: R561)

Here We Come with a Dan, Dan, Dan ("Riding the Stang" verse)

DESCRIPTION: "Here we come wi' a dan, dan, dan! It's neither for my cause nor thy cause I ride this stang, but for (name) his wife he did bang."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1994 (Kellett), but certainly much older
KEYWORDS: crime punishment ritual
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Arnold Kellett, _The Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition, and Folklore_, revised edition, Smith Settle, 2002, pp. 149-150," (no title, but filed under Riding the Stang)" (1 short text)
NOTES [35 words]: This verse was apparently used as part of a ritual designed to ruin the reputation of an adulterer or wife-beater; he was paraded about while verses like this were hurled at him. For more details, see Kellett. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HWCWADD

Here We Dance Lubin Loo

See Looby Lou (File: R554)

Here We Go Gathering Nuts and May

See Gathering Nuts in May (File: R561)

Here We Go Gathering Nuts in May

See Gathering Nuts in May (File: R561)

Here We Go in a RIng

See Jingo Ring (Merry-Ma-Tanzie, Around the Ring) (File: Fus173)

Here We Go in Mourning

DESCRIPTION: "Here we go in mourning, In mourning is my cry, I have gone and lost my true love, And surely I must die." "It's yonder he comes, And it's How do you do? And it's how have you been since I parted from you?" "Come now and let's go and get married."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty mourning
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 72, "Here We Go in Mourning" (1 text)
Roud #7871
File: Br3072

Here We Go Looby Loo

See Looby Lou (File: R554)

Here We Go Looby Lou

See Looby Lou (File: R554)

Here We Go Loop-dy Lou

See Looby Lou (File: R554)

Here We Go Lubby-Lu

See Looby Lou (File: R554)

Here We Go Round a Jinga-ring

See Jingo Ring (Merry-Ma-Tanzie, Around the Ring) (File: Fus173)

Here We Go Round the Jing-a-ring

See Jingo Ring (Merry-Ma-Tanzie, Around the Ring) (File: Fus173)

Here We Go Round the Mountain

See Go Round the Mountain (File: BrS5530)

Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush

DESCRIPTION: "Here we go round the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, Here we go round... So early in the morning." "This is the way we wash our clothes." "This is the way we bake the bread." And so forth, through many household tasks
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1834 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,So) Canada(Ont) New Zealand
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 56-57=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 215-216, "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 38-40, "Mulb'ry Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 244, (no title) (1 short text)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 110-111, "Mulberry Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 66, "The Mulberry Bush" (5 texts)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #23, "We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #638, p. 253, "(Here we go round the bramble bush)"
Solomon-ZickaryZan, pp. 16-17, "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 61, "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 126, "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 28-29, "(Here we go round the mulberry bush)" (1 text, opening with "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" and continuing with "This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes")
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Emelyn E Gardner, "Some Play-Party Games in Michigan," Vol. XXXIII, No. 128 (Apr 1920), #33 pp. 113-114, "Mulberry-Bush" (2 texts, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, F.W. Waugh, "Canadian Folk-Lore from Ontario," Vol. XXXI, No. 119 (Jan 1918), #637 p. 54 "The Mulberry-Bush" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 258, 393, 521, 523, 529, "Here We Go 'round the Mulberry Bush" (notes only)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 378, "Mulberry Bush"
DT, MULBERBS
Roud #7882
RECORDINGS:
Lorraine Hammond, "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (Piotr-Archive #693, recorded 10/01/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She Washes the Dishes Three Times a Day" (form)
cf. "The Old Soap-Gourd" (form)
cf. "A Young Lady Sat Down to Sleep" (lyrics, form)
SAME TUNE:
This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes (File: Br3096)
Gathering Nuts in May (File: R561)
Lazy Mary (She Won't Get Up) (File: R396)
Silly Old Man (File: OpGa040)
Days of the Week (I) (File: OpGa067)
Mary Was a Bad Girl (File: OpGa071)
There Was a Young Couple (File: OpGa107)
Institute Motion Song ("This is the way my money goes, money goes, money goes") (Harbin-Parodology, #43, p. 17)
NOTES [104 words]: Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland reports this to the tune "Nancy Dawson," also used for "Nuts in May," and they do use the same tune in my experience, though I've never heard it called "Nancy Dawson."
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons mentions a suggestion by R. S. Duncan that this was about Wakefield Prison and the female prisoners there, who had a mulberry tree -- but this really strikes me as a children's song, not some sort of political piece!
There is another song, indexed as "This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes," which shares lyrics and feeling with this. But it's a doll-dancing song; I've very tantatively split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Lins038

Here We Go Round the Strawberry Bush

See A Young Lady Sat Down to Sleep; also Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (File: Newe160)

Here We Go Up (Hey My Kitty)

DESCRIPTION: "Here we go up, up, up, up, up, Here we go down, down, downy; Here we go over and over and over, And here we go round, round, roundy." "O, my kitty, my kitty, my kitty, O my kitty my dearie, Never was such a kitty as this, Never so far nor neary."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1740 (Tea-Table Miscellany, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad animal lullaby
FOUND IN: US(NE,SE) Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 203, "Here We Go Up, Up" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 209-210, "Here We Go Up" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #231, "Hey. My Kitten" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 288, "Hey, my kitten, my kitten" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #560, p. 228, "(Oh my Kitten a Kitten)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 51, "(Hey my kitten, my kitten)" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 93, "How We Go" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Choice Songs, Scots and English (in two vols) (London, 1788 (seventeenth edition) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, pp. 439-440, "The Nurse's Song" ("Hey! my kitten, a kitten") (1 text)
Roud #3748
NOTES [89 words]: Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland claims this is a lullaby. The second verse, perhaps; the first seems more like a rhyme a parent would use while swinging a child through the air. In Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes, the "My Kitten" verse stands alone. Possibly the two should be split. Especially since the Opies find several other sorts of verses tacked onto the "My Kitten" rhyme.
Gloria Delamar claims to have written the Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes version. But it's just this with the "kitten" verses cut out. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Lins209

Here We Go Up, Up

See Here We Go Up (Hey My Kitty) (File: Lins209)

Here We Go Zootie-O (Zoodiac)

DESCRIPTION: "Here we go zootie-o [or "zoodiac"], zootie-o, zootie-o, Here we go zootie-o, All night long." "Step back Sally, Sally, Sally, Step back Sally, All night long." "(Going down/Walking through) the alley, alley, alley, Going through... All night long"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting travel
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 130, "Here We Go Zootie-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24170
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Zoodiac
File: ByGo130

Here We Have Two Prisoners in Jail

See Have Two Prisoners Here in Jail (File: Spurg112)

Here We Sit Like Birds in the Wilderness

DESCRIPTION: "Here we sit like birds in the wilderness, birds in the wilderness, birds in the wilderness, Here we sit like birds in the wilderness,waiting for you to come." Or, "...waiting for our food," or "waiting for our bread." Or it may be flies in the sugar bowl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 164, 289, 290, 291, 379, "Here We Sit Like Birds in the Wilderness"/"Here We Sit Like Skunks in the Wilderness" (notes only)
Harbin-Parodology, #71, p. 23, "Birds in the Wilderness" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #19557
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)" (tune) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Here We Sit Like Flies in a Sugar Bowl
NOTES [60 words]: Almost all sources call this "Here We Sit Like Birds in the Wilderness," not "Here We Sit Like Skunks in the Wilderness" (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs title on p. 379), so they might be separate songs -- but given Averill's extremely sloppy and inconsistent use of names, the fact that she has 14 collections of each leads me to believe they are the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF164H

Here We Sit Like Flies in a Sugar Bowl

See Here We Sit Like Birds in the Wilderness (File: ACSF164H)

Here We Sit Like Skunks in the Wilderness

See Here We Sit Like Birds in the Wilderness (File: ACSF164H)

Here We Suffer Grief and Pain

DESCRIPTION: "Here we suffer grief and pain, Here we meet to part again; In heaven we part no more." "O that will be joyful, Joyful, joyful, joyful! O that will be joyful, When we meet to part no more." "Holy children will be there, Who have sought the Lord by prayer"
AUTHOR: Thomas Bilby (1794-1872) (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1832 (The Infant School Teacher's Assistant, according to hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad children
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 113, "Little children will be there" (1 fragment)
Roud #25524
NOTES [91 words]: Kane's version of this is interesting. There are a few verbal variants from the Bilby text, but most notably, there is another line! Which presumably implies a different melody. Bilby's version of the verse Kane quotes is
Holy children will be there,
Who have sought the Lord by prayer,
From every Sunday school
Whereas Kane gives the verse as
Little children will be there
What has long and curly hair,
What has sought the Lord by prayer
In every Sabbath school.
I must admit to finding that a fascinating addition. I wish we had Kane's tune! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC113A

Here, Jola, Here

DESCRIPTION: Used for cornhusking, but perhaps a hunting song: "Jola was a coon dog, Here, Jola, here." "Jola was a possum dog, Here, Jola, here." "Jola was a rabbit dog, Here, Jola, here." "Jola was a bird dog, Here, Jola, here."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: dog nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 207, "Here, Jola, Here" (1 text)
File: Br3207

Here, Rattler, Here

See Old Rattler (File: CNFM104)

Here's a Chorus

DESCRIPTION: "Here's a chorus; -- Irish slaves -- End your quarrels." Remember Emmet and Tone. "Union makes the nations great, End your quarrels." Remember the graves of 1798. "Steel is true and God is just, Chains or laurels"
AUTHOR: R.D. Williams (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion nonballad political Ireland
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 167, "Here's a Chorus" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [84 words]: This song is a plea for the position of the United Irishmen. For information about the early history of the United Irishmen see "The Boys of Wexford." Wolfe Tone, a founder of the United Irishmen, was executed in 1798. United Irishman Robert Emmet was executed in 1803. The Irish rebellion against British rule was started, and put down, in 1798. - BS
For the history of Wolfe Tone, see in particular "The Shan Van Voght." For Robert Emmet, see "Bold Robert Emmet" and the many cross-references there. - RBW
File: Moyl167

Here's a Health to All Good Lasses

DESCRIPTION: "Here's a health to all good lasses, Pledge it merrily, fill your glasses, Let a bumper toast go round, May they live a life of pleasure, Without mixture, without measure, For with them true joys are found"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (_The Lyre_); before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 2996)
KEYWORDS: love drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 52, "Here's a Health to All Good Lasses" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 340)
ADDITIONAL: The Lyre (Edinburgh, 1824 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 149, "Glee" ("Here's a health to all good lasses") (1 text)
Roud #1235
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 2996, "Here's a Health to All Good Lasses" ("Here's a health to all good lasses") , J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth b.27(104), Firth b.27(125) [some words illegible], Johnson Ballads fol. 412 View 2 of 2, Harding B 11(4161), Harding B 17(126b), Firth b.34(275) View 2 of 2, Harding B 11(3143), "Here's a Health to All Good Lasses"; Firth b.26(541), "Glee"
NOTES [35 words]: Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 340 is assigned to both "Here's a Health to All Good Lasses" and "Come, Ye Friends of a Social Life"; 341 appears not to have been assigned. The editor has been notified (11/28/2009). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT052

Here's a Health To All True Lovers

See Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover) (File: Ord089)

Here's a Health to His Majesty

See Pass Around the Grog (Here's a Health to Our Majesty) (File: ChPMHHOM)

Here's a Health to King George

DESCRIPTION: "You drink to your friends and I'll drink to mine." "Health to King George ... Success to his arms ... down with the pride of France and of Spain ... Let each man drink a bumper ... Success to old England and God bless the King"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: drink music nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 49, "Here's a Health to King George" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 97)
Roud #1232
File: WT049

Here's a Health to Lord Ronald MacDonald

DESCRIPTION: An old woman drinks "a health to [ne'er do well] Lord Ronald McDonald That wears the huden [homespun] grey coat And another to [ruined] aul Leddy Jannet [who eloped with him]. That spins the yarn o'ot." (The bracketted comments are a spoken commentary)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: elopement nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 855, "Here's a Health to Lord Ronald MacDonald" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6224
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Naebody Comin' to Marry Me" [i.e. "My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher (Nobody Coming to Marry Me)"?] (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
File: GrD4855

Here's a Health to My Molly

DESCRIPTION: The singer gives a "health to my Molly where ever she be She is worthy of company better than me." If he were a sailor and she a fleeing fish he'd net her. "Of all the pretty maidens lovely Molly's for me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond03)
KEYWORDS: love lyric
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #6996
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Lovely Molly" (on IRRCinnamond03)
File: RcHaHtmM

Here's a Health to Our Sailors

DESCRIPTION: The singer toasts sailors and soldiers and to "yon bonnie lad" that has left her alone to rock her baby in Caledonia [Scotland].
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad baby sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1110, "Here's a Health to Our Sailors" (1 text)
Roud #6839
File: GrD61110

Here's a Health unto His Majesty

See Pass Around the Grog (Here's a Health to Our Majesty) (File: ChPMHHOM)

Here's a Health Unto our Maister

See Harvest Home Song (I) (File: RcHaHS1)

Here's a Poor Widow

See Poor Widow (File: HHH048f)

Here's a Poor Widow from Sandiland

See Lady of the Land (Here's a Poor Widow) (File: BGMG641)

Here's a Prisoner We Have Got

See Hark the Robbers (File: SuSm032)

Here's a Thing

DESCRIPTION: "Here's a thing, A very pretty thing. What's to be done With this very pretty thing?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p.145, "(Here's a thing)" (1 text)
File: SuSm145

Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries

DESCRIPTION: "Here's adieu to all judges and juries, Justice and Old Bailey too; Seven years you've transported my true love, Seven years he's transported you know." The singer wishes he had wings of an eagle to return to Polly. He vows to be rich if he ever returns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1857 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 2079); Anderson estimates his broadside as c. 1820
KEYWORDS: love separation transportation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 39, "Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 34-35, "Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 346-351, "New Jail/Prisoner's Song/Here's Adieu to all Judges and Juries" (1 text, not collected by Scarborough, of "Judges and Juries," plus 6 texts from her collections)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 3-4, "Farewell to Judges and Juries" (1 text)
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 27-28, "Farewell to Judges and Juries" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 225-226, "Adieu to All Judges and Juries" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 44, "Farewell to Judges and Juries" (1 text, with tune on p. 538)
A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 61, "Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries" (1 text)
Roud #300
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 2079, "Farewell to Your Judges & Juries" ("Here's adieu to your judges and juries"), H.F. Sefton (Worcester), 1834-1856; also Harding B 11(756), "Farewell to Your Judges and Juries"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Botany Bay (I)" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "The Fenian's Escape (The Catalpa)" (tune)
NOTES [21 words]: This may well be the piece from which the music hall song "Botany Bay" arose. The earliest broadsides are dated c. 1815. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FaE034

Here's Adieu to Old England

DESCRIPTION: The singer is leaving parents and sisters and "London city where I took great delight" to join the convoys; "with our twenty-six pounders we will fight blow for blow" and "never will yield"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: navy war separation nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 1002-1003, "Here's Adieu to Old England" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9941
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "Here's Adieu to Old England" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea1002

Here's an Oul' Widow

See The Rich Widow (File: Lins019)

Here's Away to the Downs

DESCRIPTION: The huntsman calls out the hounds. He names the hounds as they hunt. He would call back the hounds to increase the sport but the footmen call them on. The joy is in the hunt, not in shooting, snaring, or the death of the quarry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: hunting moniker dog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 65-66, "Here's Away to the Downs" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 39)
Roud #1243
File: WT065

Here's First to Those Farmers

DESCRIPTION: The singer lists rogues: farmers selling corn, the "thief in a mill", bakers, butchers, landlords who serve bad beer, and shoemakers. We would be happy to see them all hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer says farmers selling corn "are as big rogues as ever were born." They would complain of having nothing if yield were improved 50 to 1. Other rogues: the "thief in a mill" whose "delight was in taking of toll"; bakers who mix alum and bean meal in bread; the butcher who'll "cock up his scales"; landlords whose ale is "too sharp, too flat, or too stale"; shoemaker "pinches us up in our toes." "We all have good reason to sing ... to see all those rogues on the gallows to swing"
KEYWORDS: greed commerce farming drink food nonballad miller
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 104, "Here's First to Those Farmers" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 25)
Roud #876
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rigs of the Times" (theme)
NOTES [95 words]: Roud makes this the same song as "Rigs of the Times" and it has the same idea, without any chorus, of accusing different occupations of fraud and thievery. Kennedy p. 537 cites the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text as "a Berkshire version with other verses." The only verse [half-]shared with Kennedy's main text attacks the butcher.
Grigson quotes the first verse and says the song "was current in Wiltshire, and perhaps in Hampshire as well around [1821]. (source: "Cobbett in Wiltshire" in Geoffrey Grigson, Essays from the Air (London, 1951), pp. 134-135). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT104

Here's Luck to All My Cocks and Hens

See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

Here's My Sister Betsy

See The Old Maid's Song (File: R364)

Here's Sulky Sue

DESCRIPTION: "Here's Sulky Sue, What shall we do? Turn her face to the wall Till she comes to."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1800 (source: Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 131, "(Here's Sulky Sue)" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 492, "Here's Sulky Sue" (1 text)
Roud #19754
File: SuSm131S

Here's Tae the Kaim and the Brush

DESCRIPTION: The singer toasts "him that's won my hert But winna tak my han' ... Deep in love but daurna marry." He was a stable boy but now he's "in a foreign land" If he were here "I wadna smile tae you ava"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad servant hair
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1109, "Here's Tae the Kaim and the Brush" (1 text)
Roud #6838
File: GrD61109

Here's the Church, and Here's the Steeple

See Here Is the Church (File: BGMG605)

Here's the Gipsy Riding

See Three Dukes (File: R551)

Here's the Robbers Passing By

See Hark the Robbers (File: SuSm032)

Here's the Rosebud in June

See Rosebud in June (File: ShH93)

Here's the Tender Coming

DESCRIPTION: "Here's the tender coming, Pressing all the men, Oh! dear, hinny, What shall we do then? Here's the tender coming, Off at Shields Bar...." Despite attempts to avoid the pressgang, "They tyuek maw bonny laddie, Best iv all the crew."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: pressgang separation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, p. 177, "Here's the Tender Coming" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 77, "Here's the Tender Comin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TNDRCOMN*
Roud #3174
File: StoR177

Here's Three Beggars

See Three Sailors (Three Kings; Three Beggars; Thee Soldiers; Three Sweeps) (File: GrD81568)

Here's to --- and ---

See Drink It Down (File: SCWF189)

Here's to a Long Life

DESCRIPTION: "Here's to a long life and a merry one, A quick death and a painless one, A pretty wife and a loving one, A long cold drink... and perhaps another one."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2009 (Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ)
KEYWORDS: drink death wife nonballad
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 291, "(Here's to a long life)" (1 short text, perhaps a toast rather than a song)
File: Garl291B

Here's to the Army and Navy

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, boys, have you heard of the battle, The allies brave had on the shore... The total defeat of the Russians was echoed with joy everywhere." "Then here's to the army and navy, In Russia they're on the advance." The allies gloriously win at the Alma
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs)
KEYWORDS: battle soldier navy
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 14, 1854 - Anglo-French landing near the mouth of the Alma
Sept 20, 1854 - Battle of Alma. The allies win an expensive victory over the Russians
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 211-213, "Here's to the Army and Navy" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Heights of Alma (I) [Laws J10]" (subject) and references there
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (tune) and references there
File: DalC211

Here's to the Black Watch

DESCRIPTION: The Black Watch fought in Japan, India, and Waterloo. "Let foreign countries think of us, and if they want to war, They will soon be taught a lesson by the gallant Forty-twa." "Here's to the Black Watch"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: army Scotland nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #158, p. 3, "The Gallant Forty-Twa" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 71, "Here's to the Black Watch" (1 text)
Roud #5798
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gallant Forty-Twa" (subject: 42nd Highlanders or Black Watch) and references there
NOTES [40 words]: It is sad to note that this toast to the greatest of British regiments is no longer relevant; the Black Watch, the Forty-Second regiment, has been consolidated out of existence. For background, see the notes to "Wha Saw the Forty-Second." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1071

Here's to the Devil, With His Wooden Pick and Shovel

See Oh, Mister Revel (Did You Ever See the Devil?) (File: Br3141)

Here's to the Good Old Beer

See Drink It Down (File: SCWF189)

Here's to the Good Old Brandy, Drink It Down

See Drink It Down (File: SCWF189)

Here's to the Grog (All Gone for Grog)

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes his "nobby, nobby" coat, breeches, etc. All are decrepit, but will not be replaced, for "It's all gone for grog, Jolly, jolly grog... I've spent all my tin with the lassies drinking gin, And across the western ocean I must wander."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Sharp MS.)
KEYWORDS: clothes drink poverty hardtimes sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North,South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar) Australia
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 580, "Ale and Tobacco" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 296, "Good Brown Ale and Tobacco" (1 text fragment) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 426)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 274, "Here's to the Grog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 287, "All Through the Beer" (1 text)
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 132, "This Old Hat of Mine" (1 fragment, which has this chorus though it's too short to properly identify)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 64, "Western Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 238-240, "Across the Western Ocean I Must Wander" (1 text)
DT, HEREGROG*
Roud #475
RECORDINGS:
Liam Clancy, "All For Me Grog" (on IRLClancy01)
A. L. Lloyd, "All for Me Grog" (on Lloyd5, Lloyd12)
Tom Newman, "My Old Hat That I Got On" (on Voice13)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Nobby Hat
My Jolly, Jolly Tin
NOTES [55 words]: Although some versions of this song make no reference at all to the sea, the singer's references to grog (which is technically rum mixed with water) label him as a sailor; only a seaman would speak of grog as opposed to some other sort of alcoholic beverage.
Creighton thinks the song might have originated as a music hall piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: K274

Here's to the Last to Die

See Stand to Your Glasses, Steady (File: Hopk120A)

Here's to Ye A' and a Happy New Year

DESCRIPTION: "Here's to the lassie that aye proves sae true Here's tae the lad that's aye fill'd in beer ... I'll toss o'er this glass and I'll drink it with cheer For a health tae ye a' and a Happy New Year"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 638, "Here's to Ye A' and a Happy New Year" (1 text)
Roud #6074
File: GrD3638

Here's to You As Good As You Are (The Bullockies' Toast)

DESCRIPTION: "Here's to you as good as you are, Here's to me as bad as I am, But as bad as I am and as good as you are, I'm as good as you are and as bad as I am."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad wordplay
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 20, page headed "Drinking Song"], "(no title)" (1 short text)
Roud #22622
File: FaWHTYAG

Here's Your Mule

DESCRIPTION: "A farmer came to camp one day, With milk and eggs to sell, Upon a mule that would often stray." The animal disappears, and "ev'ryone he met in camp [said] 'Mister, here's your mule.'" Various tricks are used to prolong his search
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (sheet music published by C. D. Benson, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: farming animal trick Civilwar
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 223-224, "Here's Your Mule"; p. 224, "How Are You, John Morgan?" (1 text plus a parody, 1 tune)
SAME TUNE:
How Are You, John Morgan? (File: Salt089)
NOTES [134 words]: The phrase in this song, "Mister, here's your mule," is best-known from its use in "Goober Peas"; it is usually treated as a joke about the fancy horses ridden by some officers, but E. Lawrence Abel, Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861-1865, Stackpole, 2000, pp. 162-163, has another explanation. A sutler (called "Pies" of all things) worked near Jackson, Tennessee, and had a mule which drew his wagon. On one occasion, the soldiers hid the mule, then pretended to search for it, occasionally shouting out, "Mister, here's your mule." Supposedly they eventually returned it, and the phrase went into the soldiers' lexicon. Possible, of course, but it really sounds like an explanation after the fact.
Clearly this song is either the source or another version of the story. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: SCWF222

Herefford and Norfolke

See (notes under) The Death of Archbishop Scrope (File: MsDArScr)

Hereford and Norfolk

See (notes under) The Death of Archbishop Scrope (File: MsDArScr)

Herlong's Train

DESCRIPTION: "Hand me down my walking cane this morning, Oh, hand me down my walking cane so soon... See if I can't catch old Herlong's Train, this morning, this morning so soon." "I got me a wife and a sweetheart too... My wife don't love me but my sweetheart do."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: train derivative love
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #11, "Herlong's Train" (1 short text, 1 tune, apparently localized to Micanopy, Florida)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 322-323, "Herlong's Train" (1 text)
Roud #5017
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (lyrics)
NOTES [48 words]: This is pretty definitely a localized version of "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" designed to promote local pride. But since Cohen picked up Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida's version and listed it as a separate song, I've done the same to make it easier to find all the versions of this text. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: CAFS322B

Hermit of Killarney, The

DESCRIPTION: On Killarney's bank the singer sees a hermit who says "Adieu, adieu, thou faithless world, thou wert not made for me!" The hermit's pitiful condition is recounted. He criticizes the world's pomp, state, and ambition and laments his own credulity. He dies
AUTHOR: George Ogle (1739-1814) (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: dying nonballad river
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 199-204, "The Hermit of Killarney" (1 text)
NOTES [135 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland quotes Mr Weld who believes the inspiration for this song may be "an Englishman, of the name of Ronayn. The spot which he selected for his retreat was this small island, which yet retains his name; and when first I visited Killarney (1800), the ruins of his little habitation, planted in the midst of rocks very near the water, were still visible." Croker also quotes John Bernard Trotter['s reference] to this "celebrated song." - BS
Sir George Ogle the Younger (c. 1740-1814) was a poet and politician born in county Wexford. He served in the Irish parliament in the 1790s, and was briefly a Tory representative to Westminster. His best-known works are considered to be "Banna's Banks" (in the Index as "The Banks of Banna") and "Molly Astore" (in this index as "Gramachree"). - RBW
File: CrPS199

Hermit of St. Kilda, The

DESCRIPTION: "And is the Percy yet so loved By all his friends and thee? 'Then bless me, Father,' said the youth, For I thy guest am he."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: reunion father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1789, "The Hermit of St. Kilda" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #12994
NOTES [328 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
This apparently refers to Stallir, "a devout Hermit of St Kilda," who built a house on the remote rocky island of Borrera a few miles from St Kilda off the north-west coast of Scotland (source: James Wilson, A Voyage Round the Coasts of Scotland and the Isles (Edinburgh, 1842 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II., p. 57).
Greig/Duncan8: "Words of ballad from Chambers' Miscellany." That's not definite enough for me to find. Is this in one of many volumes of Chambers's Miscellany of Instructive and Entertaining Tracts by William and Robert Chambers? Is it The Book of Days: a Miscellany...." by Robert Chambers? Something else? - BS
St. Kilda and Borerra are well to the west of the Hebrides, the most isolated rocks in all of Britain, but the mention of "the" Percy bothers me -- this sounds like a reference to the Percy earls of Northumberland, not some hermit. The Percies, who ruled a very large earldom very remote from London, were constantly involved in rebellion (the first one, Henry, and his son Harry Hotspur were involved in the overthrow of Richard II; the second, third, and fourth all had their hands in the Wars of the Roses, mostly on the Lancastrian side). As a result, they were always getting deposed, or at least in trouble. So a son might at any moment go into hiding.
The wild thought that came to me, the second time I read this entry, is that the father is in fact Henry Percy, First Earl of Northumberland, and the son is Harry Hotspur. Hotspur was killed in 1403 (in rebellion against Henry IV, whom he had earlier helped place on the throne), and Henry the Father lived until 1408 -- but this was a period when no one believed anyone was dead (e.g. there were constant rumors that Richard II was still alive), so maybe a rumor arose that Harry Hotspur survived the Battle of Shrewsbury and returned in disguise to his father.
Pure, wild, crazy speculation, of course. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: GrD81789

Hermit, The

DESCRIPTION: "A hermit who dwelt in the Solitudes crossed me" and stops the singer, saying, "No rest but the grave for a Pilgrim of Love." He urges the singer to rest until after the "burning noon passes." The ending is apparently lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger)
KEYWORDS: travel
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 20, page headed "Drinking Song"], "The Hermit" (1 short text)
File: FaWTHerm

Hermitage Castle

DESCRIPTION: The bloody history of the castle is recalled, the "river runs as broon" as blood. Once "the willing slave of love A queen cam riding doon... From Jedburgh to Hermitage That bright October day." Now "a ghostly band" repeats the ride.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
KEYWORDS: love reunion Scotland royalty ghost
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
16 Oct 1566 - Bothwell's mistress, Mary Queen of Scots, rides from Jedburgh to Hermitage Castle to "consult with" the wounded Bothwell (source: see Notes).
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 56, 150, "Hermitage Castle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21744
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tramps and Hawkers" (tune, per McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen) and references there
NOTES [83 words]: For a reference to Mary's ride see Antonia Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots (New York: Dell Publishing, 1969), pp. 274-275.
For a general historic reference see the Wikipedia "Hermitage Castle" entry (1 October 2013). - BS
Mary's relationship with Bothwell was one of the key reasons for her overthrow, so this song covers one of the most important events of her reign. Which probably explains why there is a ghost story -- I seem to recall a lot of Scottish tales of ghosts associated with Mary. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: McSc056

Hero of the Coast

DESCRIPTION: "Now you've heard of old Ned Kelly And other outlaws of fame, But now we have a new one, Stan Graham is his name." He shoots four policemen and heads for the bush. The army is called out to hunt him. It's too bad he can't fight the Japanese
AUTHOR: Jim S. Case
EARLIEST DATE: before 1945 (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: outlaw New Zealand police army
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 156-157, "The Hero of the Coast" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (portion of tune)
File: BaRo156

Herod and the Cock

See The Carnal and the Crane [Child 55] (File: C055)

Heroes, British Heroes

DESCRIPTION: "We sing of these soldiers and sailors, The deeds they have done on the foam, But what of the lads that work in the mine? Little of these do we know. They are heroes, British heroes." They face danger and death with no warning, and often die without hope
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads)
KEYWORDS: mining death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, pp. 12-13, "Heroes, British Heroes" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BRITHERO*
File: MacCS12

Herring Gibbers, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's all about the herring gibbers and how they get along." The packers and gibbers wake and cannot find their pants or socks. Some others laugh at the joke. The song names the captain, second hand, cook and one leaving Newfoundland.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea ship derivative moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 132-135, "The Herring Gibbers" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #667
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Freeman Bennett, "The Herring Gibbers" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Joshua Osborne, "The Herring Gibbers" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lumber Camp Song" (theme and tune)
NOTES [101 words]: Peacock re [the Lumber Camp Song]: "The Herring Gibbers [could be] the original version. However, considering the fact that the lumbering version has been traced back at least a hundred years I am inclined to give it priority" - BS
The Lumber Camp Song is also much more widespread, making it a better candidate for parodying. Roud resolves the question by lumping the two.
Peacock's versions refer to the "second hand" Sandy/Stanley Royle. A "second hand" in Newfoundland dialect is the officer who would elsewhere be referred to as the "first mate" or "executive officer" -- the #2 officer of the ship. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea132

Herring in Salt, A

DESCRIPTION: "I hae laid a herring in saut Lass, gin ye lo'e me, tell me now." The singer gives reasons for her to "tell me now": "I hae brew'd a forpit o' maut," "a calf that will soon be a cow," "a house upon yon moor," ... but "I canna come ilka day to woo"
AUTHOR: James Tytler (1747-1805) (source: broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(127b))
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd); 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong) [see NOTES]
KEYWORDS: courting farming humorous derivative food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 890, "I Hae Laid a Herrin' in Saut" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 335-336, "Lass Gin Ye Lo'e Me" with Herd's ("I hae layen three herring a' sa't") (1 text)
Roud #6138
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 25, "A Herring in Salt" ("I ha'e laid a herring in salt"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(127b), "Lass, Gin Ye Lo'e Me," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1856
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Hae Layen Three Herrings a Sa't (I Cannot Come Every Day to Woo)" (probable original)
NOTES [246 words]: NLScotland commentary to broadside L.C.Fol.70(127b): "This broadside not only gives the reader the song, as reworked by James Tytler [1747-1805] in the 'Scots Musical Museum' (c. 1790) but also [like Whitelaw] gives the older version of 'Lass, gin ye Lo'e Me', as it appeared in Herd's 'Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs' (1776). The first line of Tytler's version is, 'I hae laid a herring in saut', and the older version begins, 'I ha'e layen three herrings a-sa't'."
Not all of the arguments presented by the singer are entirely convincing. "I hae a hen ... That ilka day lays me an egg" but the hen has "a happitie leg." "I hae a cheese upon my shelf" but "soon wi' mites 'twill rin itself." The house is big enough that "three sparrows may dance upon the floor." Money may not run fast and free: "a penny to keep, and a penny to spen'." The Herd fragment is hardly more convincing and also speaks more of potential than present wealth: the calf would be a cow, as in Tytler, and a grice would be a sow. As in Tytler, the suitor is too busy to "cum ilka day ... to lilt and to woo." - BS
This is clearly Tytler's rewrite of "I Hae Layen Three Herrings a Sa't (I Cannot Come Every Day to Woo)"; I could argue for lumping them, since the two are very close in content. Steve Roud seems to be moving both songs, originally #8543 and #6138, to the latter number. But because this is a deliberate rewrite, I'm keeping them separate. Perhaps best to see both listings, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: GrD4890

Herring Loves the Moonlight, The (The Dreg Song)

DESCRIPTION: "The herring loves the moonlight, The mackerel loves the wind; But the oyster loves the dredging song, For she comes of a gentle kind." The oysters are called, and hearers are urged to buy them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose), with related materials going back to at least 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: food fishing
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #870, p. 325, "(The herring loves the merry moonlight)"
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 140, "The Oyster Fishers' Song" (1 short text, 1 tune, possibly this)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p 30, "The Oyster Fishers' Song" (1 short text, 1 tune, possibly this)
DT, DREGSONG?
ADDITIONAL: Lady Caroline Kerrison, edited with notes by Lucy Toulmin Smith, _A Common-place Book of the Fifeenth Century: A Religious Play and Poetry, Legal Forms, and Local Accounts_, privately printed, 1886, p. 11, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Roud #8628?
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Quo' the Haddock to the Skate" (lyrics)?
cf. "The Fox Loves the Valley" (lyrics)
NOTES [398 words]: This is rather a conundrum, though it may be the fault of one or another of the Fisher Family (probably Archie). There is, in Herd, a song beginning "I rade to London yesterday," and continuing
Hay-cock, quo' the seale to the eel,
Cock nae I my tail weel?
Tail-weel, or if hare,
Hunt the dog frae the deer,
This was recorded by Cilla Fisher. A similar song is indexed as "Quo' the Haddock to the Skate." The version in the Digital Tradition ends with
The oysters are a gentle kin,
They winna tak unless you sing.
Come buy my oysters aff the bing,
To serve the sheriff and the king,
And the commons o' the land,
And the commons o' the sea;
Hey benedicte, and that's good Latin.
Murray Shoolbraid's Digital Tradition notes imply that this is from another source.
And Archie Fisher has recorded that as "Dreg Song." But he prefaces it with a verse quoted as a Mother Goose rhyme by the Baring-Goulds (#870): "The herring loves the moonlight...." But this is from Walter Scott. There is, however, a very similar rhyme in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes (#206): "The hart he loves the high wood, The hare she loves the hill; The knight he loves his bright sword, The lady loves her will," which is thematically similar to some of the tales related to "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" [Child 31]."
The Toulmin Smith book cited above give the earliest form of the poem about the hart, from New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Library MS. 365 [olim Ipswich County Hall deposit, Hillwood; prior Brome Hall, Suffolk], copied in the fifteenth century:
The hart lovyt þe wood, the hare lovyt þe hyll;
The knyth lovyt hys sword, the carll lovyt hys byll;
The fowlle lovyt hys folly, the wysseman lovyt hys skyll,
The properte of a shrod qwen ys to have hyr wyll.
(Toulmin Smith, p. 11) i.e.
The hart loves the wood, the hare loves the hill,
The knight loves his sword, the churl loves his bill (bull?);
The fool loves his folly, the wise man love his skill,
The properte of a shrewd (?) queen is to have her will.
This is followed by a series of anti-feminist puzzles encoded in a very simple cipher.
This manuscript is also one of three copies of "The Salutation Carol"; see that entry for background on the manuscript.
So I don't know what genuinely goes with what. For the moment, I'm lumping the whole mess here.
For another example of this sort of verse, see "The Fox Loves the Valley." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: BGMG870

Herring Song, The

See The Red Herring (File: VWL086)

Herring, The

See The Red Herring (File: VWL086)

Herring's Head, The

See The Red Herring (File: VWL086)

Herrings' Heads

See The Red Herring (File: VWL086)

Hesitation Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Well, standing on the corner with a dollar in my hand, Lookin' for a woman who's lookin' for a man, Tell me, how long do I have to wait...?" The women want to see the money before they become friendly. The singer grumbles about sex
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (recording, Esther Bigeou)
KEYWORDS: sex whore money
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 507, "I Got de Hezotation Stockings and de Hezotation Shoes" (1 short text, with a verse and chorus from "Hesitation Blues" and a verse from "Wanderin'")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 507, "I Got de Hezotation Stockings and de Hezotatin Shoes" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 276-277, (no title) (1 text, beginning "Ships in de ocean, rocks in de sea, Blond-headed woman Mak a fool out of me" but with chorus "Tell me how long I'll have to wait! Oh, tell me, honey, don't hesitate!")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 75, "Hesitation Blues" (1 text)
Roud #11765
RECORDINGS:
Allen Brothers, "Can I Get You Now" (Vocalion 02890, 1935)
Jesse Ashlock w. Bill Boyd & his Cowboy Ramblers, "Must I Hesitate?" (Bluebird B-6351, 1936)
Esther Bigeou, "Hesitating Blues" (OKeh 8065, 1923)
Milton Brown & his Musical Brownies, "The Hesitation Blues" (Decca 5266, 1936)
(Columbia 15240-D, 1928; Velvet Tone 2496-V/Clarion 5436-C [both as Clayton & Parker], 1932; rec. 1927; on KMM)
Sam Collins, "Hesitation Blues" (Gennett 6379, 1927; Champion 15472, 1928; Bell 1173/Supertone 350/Silvertone 5181?, all n.d.; rec. 1927)
Walter "Buddy Boy" Hawkins, "Voice Throwing Blues" (Paramount 12802, 1929; on TimesAint01)
Jim Jackson, "Hesitation Blues (Oh! Baby, Must I Hesitate?)" (Vocalion 1477, 1930)
Sara Martin (& Eva Taylor), "Hesitation Blues" (OKeh 8082, 1923)
Wingy Manone & his orchestra, "Hesitation Blues (Oh! Baby Must I Hesitate)" (Bluebird B-6394, 1936)
Reaves White County Ramblers, "Hesitation Blues" (Vocalion 5217, 1928)
Arthur Smith Trio, "Hesitating Blues" (Bluebird B-8101, 1939)
Cas Wallin, "Hesitation Blues" (on FarMtns4)
cf. Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "If the River Was Whiskey" (with verses from this song and "Rye Whiskey"; Columbia 15545-D, 1930; on CPoole02)
NOTES [143 words]: W. C. Handy produced a song, "The Hesitating Blues" (copyright 1915; see Handy/Silverman-BluesAnAnthology, pp. 100-103) which uses this key line, but it is much more elaborate and with a different plot; I suspect they are separate songs, with one inspiring the other. Though the Brown text shows how mutable such blues can be. - RBW
The Esther Bigeou recording gives the writing credit to Handy; the Sara Martin (note the different title) attributes the song to Billy Smythe & Scott Middletonn. Is it the same song? Are they variants? We need to hear the actual records to sort all this out. - PJS
Washington Phillips used the melody of "Hesitation Blues" for a song called "Denomination Blues," about the sectarian divides in Christianity, but given the doubt about the history of this song, I don't think we can absolutely file it here as a "Same Tune." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FSWB075

Hesleys, The

DESCRIPTION: Stories about the outcast Hesley family. Mrs. Hesley throws a man's boots in the street for refusing to board with her. She steals sheep. Her daughter cannot not find a husband even when she goes to Newark. And so forth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958
KEYWORDS: family
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 163, "The Buck Sheep-The Hesleys" (1 text+fragment, 1 tune)
ST FSC163 (Partial)
File: FSC163

Hevey's Mare

DESCRIPTION: "The Major," Jemmy at his side, takes Hevey's mare so that he need not chase traitors on foot. Sirr's need was sufficient to name Hevey criminal. But Hevey complains in court. "Adieu to all our seizures ... Loyalty now has few pleasures"
AUTHOR: "Ierne" (R.R. Madden) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Madden's _Literary Remains of the United Irishmen of 1798_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: humorous horse police theft
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 169, "Hevey's Mare" (1 text)
NOTES [140 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 makes "The Major" in this song Major Sandys. Maybe so. In other songs about Jemmy O'Brien (see the notes to "The Major") "The Major" is Town Major Sirr [for whom see, e.g., "The Major" - RBW]. Here is Moylan quoting P.J. McCall: "In turning their prisoners to pecuniary account Sirr and Sandys played into each one another's hands. The Major made the arrests, turned over the prisoners to Sandys and O'Brien (Jemmy the Informer), and the latter duly worked upon their hopes and fears ... [to obtain either] goods or money..... Heavey's liberation cost him a mare..." This, from "Who Killed Cock Robin?" (II):
Who stole the brewer's mare?
His worship turning round,
This soft impeachment owned,
He stole the brewer's mare! - BS
Madden's pen-name of "Ierne" is one of the sundry ancient names for Ireland. - RBW
File: Moyl169

Hewery, Hiery, Hackery, Heaven

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme: ""Hewery, hiery, hackey, heaven [or other nonsense words], Hack a bone, crack a bone, ten or eleven, Baked, stewed, fried in the sun, Twiddlelem, twiddlelelm, twenty-one."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Deane/Shaw)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 119, "Meena, deena, deena, duss" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 52, "(Hewery, hiery, hackery, heaven)" (1 short text)
File: DeSh052A

Hexhamshire Lass, The

DESCRIPTION: "Hey for the buff and the blue, Hey for the cap and the feather, Hey for the bonny lass true That lives in Hexhamshire." The singer wishes he could have the girl; he cannot sleep without her, and says his heart will break
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (Bell)
KEYWORDS: love rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 64-65, "The Hexhamshire Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, (HEXHMLAS)
Roud #3182
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going)" (lyrics)
cf. "Aye Wauking, O" (some verses)
NOTES [35 words]: Fragments of this seem to have made their way into Burns's "Ay Waukin Oh" (1790), but it's not really clear if this piece mixes Burns's source with something like "Katie Cruel" or if Burns reworked this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: StoR064

Hey a Rose Malindey

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Hey Arise and Come Along

DESCRIPTION: The singer, in California, thinks about his girl in Canada. It's a fine sailing day and the boat is taking him far from Canada. Tell his girl that if he returns he will "drive her in great style" He arrives in Quebec [?] and drinks a health to Canada.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario)
KEYWORDS: love parting money sea ship America Canada nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 30, "Hey Arise and Come Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2317
NOTES [90 words]: The Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario text makes more sense if the sequence of verses is reversed: the singer would leave Quebec to make his fortune and sail to California.
Fowke: "This is a Canadian version of a well known Scottish song, 'Farewell to Fiunary'.... [Except for the 'The wind is fair' verse, the] rest of the Canadian words are quite different.... They were probably composed at the time of the great gold rush of 1849 when Ontario lads, like others the world over, headed for California to seek their fortunes." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: FowOn030

Hey Baby Right Away

DESCRIPTION: "You told me you'd marry." The singer wants to go to the courthouse and get the license read. "Right away baby, right away, Hey, honey right away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt04)
KEYWORDS: marriage nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Hey Baby Right Away" (on MJHurt04)
File: RcHeBRAw

Hey Betty Martin

DESCRIPTION: "Hey Betty Martin, tip-toe, tip-toe, Hey Betty Martin, tip-toe fine." Other verses, if there are any, are usually equally simple and may relate to dancing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag), but clearly older, since a parody appeared in the 1840s
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 158, "Hey Betty Martin" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 587-588, "Hey, Betty Martin!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 280, "Hey Betty Martin" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, p. 85, "High, Betty Martin" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 11, "Hey, Betty Martin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15418
SAME TUNE:
The Abortive Van Buren Convention ("Pretty little Martin, tiptoe, tiptoe") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 286)
File: San158

Hey Bonnie Laddie, Mount and Go

DESCRIPTION: A lady asks a sailor/robber to take her with him. He had loved her before but her parents married her to an old man. He takes her on a ship. The old man sends sailors to bring her back but they are driven off. Now she is rich and the old man grieves.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: age elopement abandonment escape money sea ship sailor outlaw
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #158, p. 2, "Mount and Go" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1361, "Hey Bonnie Laddie, Mount and Go" (10 texts, 9 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 57, "Lady Beltrees" (1 fragment)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 129, "The Beltrees Sang" (1 fragment); 146, "Ramillies" (1 text)
DT, MOUNT&GO*
ADDITIONAL: D.I. Harker, editor, Songs from the manuscript collection of John Bell (Warwickshire, 1985), pp. 341-342, "Mount and Go" ("The lady looked over the castle wal") (1 text)
Roud #3860
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hynd Horn" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
cf. "Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier)" ("I'll sell my rod, I'd sell my reel" lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Waters Wan
My Parents Hae Married Me Owre Young
NOTES [366 words]: Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 is a fragment that does not appear in Greig or any of the Greig/Duncan7 texts. If not for the very similar first verse of the Harker text I would not have put the Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 fragment here. The Harker first verse is "The lady looked over the castle wal[l] And there she spied her marners all And there she spied them one and all Saying go an ile go with you laddie." The Harker text then continues with the usual story: "My father married me when I was young...." Harker's first verse still seems to me to be out of place, rather belonging after she describes her unsatisfying life with the old man.
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 p. xliii on the title "Lady Beltrees" which is in no text I have seen: "... Lady Beltrees ... is related by its title to the family of the Sempills of Beltrees in Lochwinnoch Parish." Harker writes, "The piece is said to be close to Ramillies attributed to one of the Sempills."
I could have lumped the Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 129 fragment with "Shule Agra." The fragment is "I'll sell my rock I'll sell my reel An' I will sell my spinnin wheel An' I will sell my fleckit cow An' follow the laddie wi the red an' blue." The fourth line is against that. Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 146 clinched it for me. The second verse there has the same - allowing for dialect -- first two lines, a "Shule Agra"-like third line ("And I'se buy thee a kep o' steill") and a fourth line of "And thou gang wi' me, laddie." The pattern, if not the exact words, are also in Greig/Duncan7 1361F, 1361I and 1361J; for example; "It's I will leave my guid peat-stack And sae will I my guid kail-yard And sae will I my guid aul' laird And I'll fly the plains wi' my laddie O." My point is that the verse in Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 fits the intent (?) of the ballad though it may have replaced lines with floaters from "Shule Agra." Stretching the point, having found the verse already in a border version of "Hey Bonnie Laddie, Mount and Go," it seems reasonable to me to assume the Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 129 fragment was originally in that ballad also. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD71361

Hey Bonnie May, wi' Yer True Lovers Gay

DESCRIPTION: A lover is offered to a boy/girl. She/he is rejected ("I'll set him on yon thorn tree," for example): "He's fit for anither but he's nae fit for me." This is repeated until an acceptable lover is offered: "I'll tak' him in my arms twa"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: courting sex rejection nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1576, "Hey Bonnie May, wi' Yer True Lovers Gay" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 201, "Hey Willie Wine" (1 text)
Roud #12968
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jenny Jenkins" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hey Wullie Wine
The Wadds
NOTES [6 words]: For general info see Gomme 1.207-210 - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD81576

Hey Diddle Diddle

DESCRIPTION: "Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon; The little dog laughed to see such sport, And the dish ran away with the spoon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: animal dog music fiddle nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 213, "Hey Diddle Diddle" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 65, "Hey Diddle Diddle" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 127, "Hey Diddle Diddle, the Cat and the Fiddle" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Tim Devlin, _Cracking Humpty Dumpty: An Investigative Trail of Favorite Nursery Rhymes_, Susak Press, 2022, pp. 41-48, "Hey Diddle Diddle" (2 texts plus some possibly-related lyrics)
Roud #19478
NOTES [585 words]: The Opies list no fewer than six proposed meanings for this rhyme, and Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel comes up with another, putting it in the reign of Richard III (in which case the Cat is Sir William Catesby and the Dog is Viscount Lovell, from the line "The Cat, the Rat [Richard Ratcliffe], and Lovell our dog, Rule old England under the Hog [Richard III's emblem was a boar]." (Unfortunately, Jack, and Devlin, who mentions this possibility on pp. 43-44, claim that Richard III was "highly unpopular," which is probably wrong -- what was unpopular was admitting, after he had been overthrown, to having supported Richard.)
Jack also mentions a link to Elizabeth I; this goes back at least to Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp. 136-137, which makes Elizabeth herself the cat *and* the cow which jumps over the moon. -- or, perhaps, Elizabeth the cat and the dish and spoon being Lady Katherine Grey (the sister of Jane Grey) and her eventual husband Edward Seymour (Devlin, p. 43). None of these makes much sense to me.
Devlin, p. 41, cites Halliwell's speculation that this originated in ancient Greece. Devlin quotes the reconstructed Greek as αδ αδηλα, δηλα δ’αδε. These are the letters given by Halliwell, but the accents and spacing are wrong; I too have to omit the accents to keep this intelligible when translated into ASCII, but it should be αδ’ αδηλα, δηλα δ’ αδε. Αδε is an irregular form of ανδανω, which Halliwell translates as "sing," but Liddell/Scott give as "to please" or "to express an opinion." δηλαδη is "to be clear," so αδηλαδη is "to be unclear." Hence Halliwell translates his lyric as "Sing words not clear, and sing words clear" -- but it seems to me it's more like "To not please but to please." (assuming δ’ = δε, δε being a contrastive particle with a force somewhere between our "and" and "but." The other possibility is that δ’ = δια, which roughly means "through," which would give us "To fail to please by means of pleasing"). But I don't believe Halliwell's re-creation anyway.
Devlin himself recalls thinking (p. 42) that the rhyme is about Henry VIII, Catherine of Aragon, and Anne Boleyn, but does not know where the idea originated; he rejected it upon consideration. Additional explanations on pp. 44-48 of Devlin involve various pubs, stargazing, Egyptian gods (! -- this one goes back to Lewis Spence, and is crazy enough to make Katherine Elwes Thomas blush), and a farmer named "Hey" who farmed near Bolton Priory.
I think a good general rule is that, when something admits of this many plausible but unprovable explanations, it's probably about none of them....
In one of his earliest attempts to examine what the lost archetypes of nursery rhymes might have been like, J. R. R. Tolkien dramatically expanded this as "The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late," found in the Prancing Pony section The Lord of the Rings and as #5 in the Adventures of Tom Bombadil which first appear in 1923 (source: Shippey, p. 36), which I believe means that either it or Tolkien's other "Man in the Moon" poem, "The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon" (his attempt to "explain" the nursery rhyme of that name) was the first published example of the Middle-Earth writings.
George MacDonald also fiddled with the poem; he made a sort of expanded combination of the two "moon" rhymes in "The True History of the Cat and the Fiddle" in the chapter "Another Early Bird," chapter 24 of At the Back of the North Wind. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: OO2213

Hey Diddle Diddle, the Cat and the Fiddle

See Hey Diddle Diddle (File: OO2213)

Hey Donal, How Donal

DESCRIPTION: Donald meets "a bonnie wee lass" who says "when you think that no-one sees Donal come and kiss me." "I kissed her till her gums were sair" and she complained about his whiskers. He proposed; she accepted, as her mother had accepted her father's proposal.
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage humorous father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 910, "Hoch Donal" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6258
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Love and Freedom" (lyrics)
NOTES [132 words]: The "Official Website for Sir Harry Lauder" has a version of "Hey Donal'!" attributed to Alex Melville and Harry Lauder. The first two verses and chorus are the same as Greig/Duncan4 910B, with some difference in spelling and punctuation. The third verse has Miss MacKie telling Donal to leave quickly because, if her mother finds him there, "ye're a croaker." The third verse of Greig/Duncan4 has the question and answer about mother, viz., "She said My mither's done too true the very same as I will do She took my father and I take you we'll baith take ane anither." - BS
Roud lumps this with Mary Brooksbank's "Love and Freedom," which uses a few words of the chorus, but the plot of Brooksbank's song is quite different, and so are most of the words; I do not hesitate to split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: GrD4910

Hey Down Derry

See Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man (File: K207)

Hey Everybody

DESCRIPTION: Rope-skipping game: "Hey everybody, Gather round Madison town. Like two up, Two back, False turn, Birdland twice, Kick that bird, Then spit that bird."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Keystone Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: nonballad jumprope
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 131, "(no title)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #184, "Hey, everybody" (1 text)
Roud #19953
File: ByGo131

Hey for the Birds o Benothie

DESCRIPTION: "Hey for the birds o Benothie, An' hou for the Bissats o Ferald."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Harris Manuscript)
KEYWORDS: bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 142, "Hey for the Birds o Benothie" (1 fragment of just 2 lines)
Roud #18041
File: HLMM142

Hey Hey Watanay

See Iroquois Lullaby (Ho, Ho, Watanay) (File: FMB002)

Hey How Johnny Lad

DESCRIPTION: "Hey how, my Johnny Lad, ye're no sae kind's ye sud hae been." The singer complains that Johnny had the opportunity to meet her as her parents were away, but he never arrives. She concludes she needs a more ardent lover.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: courting abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1351, "Hoch Hey, Johnny Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, pp. 215-216, ("Hey how Johnny lad, ye're no sae kind's ye sud hae been")
Phillip A Ramsay, The Poetical Works of Robert Tannahill (London, preface 1838), pp. 18-19, "Och Hey! Johnnie, Lad"
Roud #7148
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(110), "Och Hey, Johnnie Lad," unknown, c. 1840
NOTES [80 words]: This is found in the fourth volume of the Scots Musical Museum, but it is not known whether it is by Burns or whether he touched it up. The NLScotland broadside is dramatically different from the SMM version.
The NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(110) version follows Tannahill in which the man explains that it was just a misunderstanding -- he was waiting in the wrong place -- and he invites her to another tryst to "seek the joys we tint yestreen." Herd agrees with the Description. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BrHHJL

Hey how Johnny lad, ye're no sae kind's ye sud hae been

See Hey How Johnny Lad (File: BrHHJL)

Hey Li Lee Li Lee

See Married Man Going to Keep Your Secret (Hey Lilee) (File: LoSi084)

Hey Liddie

See Married Man Going to Keep Your Secret (Hey Lilee) (File: LoSi084)

Hey Liddy

See Married Man Going to Keep Your Secret (Hey Lilee) (File: LoSi084)

Hey liddy liddy liddy, Hey liddy liddy lo

See Married Man Going to Keep Your Secret (Hey Lilee) (File: LoSi084)

Hey Lilee Lilee Lo

See Married Man Going to Keep Your Secret (Hey Lilee) (File: LoSi084)

Hey Little Lassie

DESCRIPTION: "Hey, little lassie, will you have me?" He has leather gloves and wooden shoes -- though leather shoes are best. He's from the east, she's
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1938 (Tobitt-SkipToMyLou)
KEYWORDS: clothes dancing playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 103, "Hey Little Lassie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-SkipToMyLou, p. 16, "Hey, Little Lassie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13503
NOTES [31 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "This is a Swedish game which is played at Brownies and occasionally in the playground. It appeared in Janet E Tobitt's Singing Games for Recreation ...." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa103

Hey Lizzie Lass

DESCRIPTION: The singer is waiting in the snow and cold for Lizzie to let him in. He says he'd be quiet and "wadna waken up ane o' your kin." Then, "I hear your fit on the floor" and his "fanciful fears" leave.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: courting nightvisit nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 38, ("O Lizzie lass, gin ye'd lat me in"); #109, p. 2, "Hey, Lizzie Lass" (2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan4 781, "Hey Lizzie Lass" (1 text)
Roud #6195
File: GrD4781

Hey Nevuh, Looka Dey

DESCRIPTION: "Hey neevuh look-a dey." "Dey da clean." "Dey da clean look-a dey."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (USSeaIsland03)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Rosa and Joseph Murray, "Hey Nevuh, Looka Dey" (on USSeaIsland03)
NOTES [89 words]: I have no idea what this song is about. The phrases are repeated many times. The cross-rhythmic clapping is typical of Gullah "shout" hymns (William T. Dargan, Lining Out the Word (Chicago: Center for Black Music Research, 2006), pp. 58, 130, 206). On the other hand cross-rhythmic clapping accompanies some Gullah children's games ("John's Island South Carolina: Its People & Songs," Folkways FS CD 3840 (1973, recorded 1970)).
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates p. xxvi has one clue: "day-clean is used for day break." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: RcHNeLDa

Hey Rube

See Si Hubbard (Hey Rube) (File: San350)

Hey the Bonnie Breistknots

See The Bonnie Breist-knots (File: FVS303)

Hey the Mantle!

DESCRIPTION: "Early in the morning whan the cat crew day, Hey the mantle! how the mantle! Our gudeman saddl'd the bake-bread and fast rade away...." As he travels, he sees many marvels
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: humorous talltale clothes travel
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook XII, pp. 45-47, "Hey the Mantle!" (1 text)
ST KinBB12 (Full)
Roud #8149
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Four and Twenty Tailors" (style)
File: KinBB12

Hey the Rose and the Lindsay, O

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Hey Tutti Taitie

DESCRIPTION: "Landlady, count the lawin, The day is near the dawin; Ye're a' blind drunk, boys, And I'm but jolly fou. Hey tutti taiti, How tutti taiti, Hey... wha's fou now?" "Weel may we a' be, Ill may we never see, God bless the king And the companie. Hey tutti..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: drink royalty nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 161, "Hey Tutti Taitie" (1 text, a combination of "Hey Tutti Taitie" and something that looks like "The Land o' the Leal," which uses this tune)
Roud #8687
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Land o' the Leal" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Land of the Leal (File: DTlandle)
Scots Wha Hae (Bruce Before Bannockburn) (File: FSWB299)
File: HLMM161C

Hey Wi' the Rose and the Lindsay, O

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

Hey Willie Wine

See Hey Bonnie May, wi' Yer True Lovers Gay (File: GrD81576)

Hey You Copycat

DESCRIPTION: "Hey you copycat, You dirty rat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 132, "(Hey you copy cat)" (1 text)
File: SuSm132D

Hey, Bonnie Lassie

See Hie Bonny Lassie (File: GrD4881)

Hey, Boys! Up Go We!

DESCRIPTION: "When maize stands more than ten feet high, And bursting cobs a yard or more," the harvesters head out to the field. Others hunt, but the singer will farm and keep livestock. The singer wishes good health for George [IV] and the governor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (words, in the Sydney Gazette of June 16)
KEYWORDS: farming royalty nonballad food work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 19-21, "Hey, Boy! Up We Go!" (1 text, 1 tune, a newspaper text with a tune of the same name that may or may not go with it)
File: AnSt019

Hey, Boys! Up Go We! (Australian)

DESCRIPTION: "When maize stands more than ten feet high, And bursting cobs a yard or more... why, then, 'tis, 'Hey, Boys! up go we!" When it is wheat harvesting time, kangaroo hunting time, peach season, or time to toast King George, the chorus is repeated
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 167-169, "Hey, Boys! Up Go We! " (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hey, Then, Up Go We (Hey Boys Up Go We)" (lyrics)
File: AnFa167

Hey, Bully Monday

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "Hey boy." The shantyman sings: "Walk down sal' pond" "Hey, Bully Monday... He go walk sal' pond." "We go out down sal' pond."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: work shanty
FOUND IN: West Indies(St Vincent)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 94-96, "Hey, Bully Monday" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [31 words]: Abrahams quotes a blackfish whaler, "You have to work hard in sal' pon' becau' you bring a large whale you have to bring plenty salt to salt the whale. Have to work 'pon de sal' pon'." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS094

Hey, Ho, Nobody Home

DESCRIPTION: "Hey, ho, nobody home, Meat nor drink nor money have I none, Yet will I be merry...." Often sung as a round.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (Ravenscroft, Pammelia)
KEYWORDS: nonballad food drink
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 231, "Ho-Hum, Nobody's Home" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 412, "Hey, Ho, Nobody Home" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 433, 442, 447, 448, 451, 452, "Hey Ho, Nobody Home" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 105, "Hey, Ho!" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 29, "Hey, Ho!" (1 text)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 21, "Hey, Ho! Nobody Home" (1 text plus a French translation, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 29, "Ho ho! Nobody Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Hey, Ho! Nobody Home" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 43)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #187, "Hi, ho, anybody home?" (1 text)
Roud #37118
RECORDINGS:
The Crofut Family, "Hey, Ho, Nobody Home" (Piotr-Archive #669, recorded 09/17/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rose, Rose" (lyrics, partial tune)
NOTES [166 words]: This is in Ravenscroft's Pammelia as a unison canon. It is also in Francis Beaumont's play "The Knight of the Burning Pestle":
Ho, ho, nobody at home,
Meat nor drink nor money ha' we none,
Fill the pot, Eedy,
Never more need I.
(Wine, Act IV, scene IV, lines 42-45 on p. 367; in KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, it's Act IV, lines 362-365 on p. 98; KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner makes it Act IV, lines 365-368on p. 142, with tune on p. 181. For background on "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," see the notes to "Three Merry Men.")
Did this really survive in tradition? There are a few modern pseudo-collections, but all might hearken back to print. I've seen it treated as a sort of wassail song, begging for gifts, but I doubt this is authentic. It does seem to have re-inserted itself into camp tradition, however, since Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs says she has 63 mentions of it and found versions in several languages. Camp tradition might also explain the Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes version. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB412G

Hey, Jock ma Cuddy!

DESCRIPTION: "Heg-beg" [old version] -- or "ma cuddy" [recent version] -- is on this side of the dyke and on the other side. If you touch it it will bite you or make you "very uneasy" [Chambers].
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (Mactaggart)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 112, "Hey, Jock ma Cuddy!" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: "Rhymes upon Natural Objects" in Robert Chambers, Selected Writings of Robert Chambers (Edinburgh, 1847 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 173, ("Heg-beg adist the dike, and Heg-beg ahint the dike, If ye touch Heg-beg, Heg-beg will gar ye fyke") (1 text)
Ewart Simpkins John [sic], Examples of Printed Folk-lore Concerning Fife - With Some Notes Clackmannan and Kinross-shires (?, 2007 [date of author's preface is 1914, written in Edinburgh, and signed "Jno. E. Simpkins"; this is apparently a reprint] ("Digitized by Google")), p. 306, ("Hey Jock, my cuddy") (1 text)
John Mactaggart, The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia (London, 1876 [second edition, based on 1824 edition] ("Digitized by Google")), p. 10, ("Heg Beg adist the dyke -- and Heg Beg ayout the dyke -- Gif ye touch Heg Beg -- Heg Beg -- will gar ye byke") (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hokey Pokey (II)" (tune, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
NOTES [50 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame has "cuddy" as "a snappish donkey" but also quotes an Mactaggart's riddle for "nettle" that seems the ancestor of the rhyme. Chambers also claims a "nettle" riddle for his "Heg beg" version. For a nettle riddle assertion for the more recent version see "Ewart Simpkins John." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa112

Hey, Rufus

DESCRIPTION: "Hey Rufus, hey boy, Where in the world you been so long? Hey buddy, hey boy, Well, I been in the jungle, ain't goin' there no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: worksong nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 85-86, "(Hey Rufus)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10994
File: CNFM085

Hey, Shoo All the Birds (Bird Scarer's Cry)

See Bird Starver's Cry (File: ReSh013)

Hey, Then, Up Go We (Hey Boys Up Go We)

DESCRIPTION: "Know this, my brethren, Heaven is clear, and all the clouds are gone: The righteous man shall flourish now, good days are coming on. Then comes my brethren and be glad, and eke rejoice with me... And hey then up go we"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1681 (broadside, Bodleian Vet. A3 c.29(6))
KEYWORDS: religious death nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 9, "Hey, Then, Up Go We" (6 texts, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 425-429, "Hey, Then, Up Go We" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 204-208, "Hey, Then Up Go We" (1 tune, partial text)
Roud #V19592
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Vet. A3 c.29(6), "A proper new Brummigham ballad to the tune of Hey then up go we" ("Know now my brethren heaven is clear"), unknown (London), 1681
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hey, Boys! Up Go We! (Australian)" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Good Fellows all come lend an ear/The Good Fellows Consideration (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1002)
Here is a crew of jovial Blades/The Good Fellow Frolick, Or, Kent Street Club (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1126)
I walking near a Prison a Wall [sic]/ The Jesuits Exaltation (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1343)
As Tom met Roger upon the Road/Tom and Rogers Contract (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN315)
A thumping lusty country lad/ Love in a Mist (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2613)
Come listen young lovers/The Country Lass for me (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN662)
Come lovers all both great and small/ The Country Lass for me (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN669)
Come ye merry men all, of Watermans-hall/The Thames Uncas'd (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN703)
Where have you been, you drunken Dog/A Dialogue between a Baker and his Wife (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2903)
Come, England, make a joyful Day/ England's Joy, For the Taking of the Chimney-Money (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN574)
Now now the Papists all go down/ Popery's Downfal, and The Protestants Uprising..Crowning of King William and Queen Mary (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1951)
A Country Lad and bonny Lass/Have-at a Venture (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN726)
A frolick strange I'le to you tell/The Westminster Frolick, Or, the Cuckold of his own procuring (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN924)
A story strange I will declare/News from Crutchet- Fryers (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2399)
Young maidens all, to you I call/Crafty Maids Invention (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3183)
I am a Maiden in my prime/The Wanton Maidens Choice (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1209)
You Batchelors that single are/Advice to Batchelors (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2993)
Brave Bristol boys, where e're you be/The Brave Boys of Bristol (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN433)
Walking one Evening in a Grove/The Jesuits Lamentation (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2723)
Since women they are grown so bad, I'le lead a single life/The Politick Countreyman (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2364)
Fair maids draw near to me awhile/The West Country Maids Advice] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN845)
You Dukes and Lords, and English Knights/.. Great Victory at Sea/ ..by Admiral Russel, May 1692 (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3007)
See how the Tories drives their trade/A New Ballad, With the Definition of the Word Tory (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2328)
The wanton Girls of Graves-end Town have now quite lost my heart/A Farewel to Graves-end (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2724)
Now, now King James of high renown/.. Gratulation of King James the Second (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1947)
The Lady Marquess and her gang are most in favour seen/Animadversions on the Lady Marquess (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1594)
Come, come, my roaring ranting boys/The Merry Boys of Christmas (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN571)
What silly senseless country clown has put this wit in print/ The Citizen's Vindication Against the Downright Countryman (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2810)
This twenty years and more that I have liv'd a single life/The Unsatisfied Lover's Lamentation (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2584)
I am a downright Country-man, both faithful, and true/The Downright Country- Man (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1195)
NOTES [153 words]: The title of broadside Bodleian Vet. A3 c.29(6) indicates that the "original" predates 1681 by enough that the tune was already popular at that time.
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 has one entry in his main text which "I am informed ... is one of Charles I.'s time, and that it was originally an English song, though popular in this country"; that text follows the description above and broadside Bodleian Vet. A3 c.29(6). The other five texts are in his notes. Four are fragments but the fifth, which probably deserves its own entry in the index, is complete and "plainly relates to what was termed the Fanatic Plot, in the reign of Charles II." - BS
Yet another song I can't show to have existed in tradition, but which was so popular as a source of broadsides that I think it belongs here. Hard to tell, in this case, why the tune was so popular; it's not particularly effective. Perhaps it was liturgical use. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ChWI204

Hey! John Barleycorn

See John Barleycorn's a Hero Bold (File: K277)

Hey. My Kitten

See Here We Go Up (Hey My Kitty) (File: Lins209)

Hi for Saturday Night

See Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going) (File: SBoA050)

Hi For the Beggarman

See The Gaberlunzie Man [Child 279A] (File: C279A)

Hi Ho Jarum

See Hi Ho Jerum (File: FSWB025)

Hi Ho Jerum

DESCRIPTION: "There was a rich man and he lived in Jerusalem, Glory hallelujah hi ro je-rum." The rich man rejects a request for help from a "human wreckium." The poor "wreckium" dies and goes to "Heavium"; the rich man ends up in "Hellium"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Early 1950s (recording, Sam Hinton)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Macaronic song with pseudo-Latin phrases, e.g. "The rich man died, but he didn't fare so wellium/He couldn't get to Heaven, so he had to go to Hellium." In some versions, it's a retelling of the Dives and Lazarus tale: the poor man at the rich man's gate asks for bread; the rich man calls a "policium"; when they die, the poor man goes to Heaven, the rich man goes to Hell. Chorus inevitably includes the line, "Glory Hallelujah, Hi-Ho-Jerum" or similar.
KEYWORDS: poverty humorous warning hardheartedness death begging Hell campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 184, "There Was a Rich Man Who Lived in Jerusalem" (1 text, tune referenced)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 25, "The Rich Man and the Poor Man" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 132, 141, "Hi Ho Jarum" (notes only)
DT, RICHPOOR*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 33, #1 (1987), pp, 28-29, "Hi-Ho-Jerum" (1 text, 1 tune, as sung by Sam Hinton and learned from Dr. Norris Rakestraw)
Roud #4571
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lazarus and the Rich Man" (theme)
cf. "Dives and Lazarus" [Child 56] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hi Ro Jerum
NOTES [42 words]: This, obviously, is Jesus's parable of the rich man and Lazarus, with the names removed and a trace of feeble humor added. For background, see the other Lazarus songs. - RBW
This song has bawdy variants; I'm surprised they didn't turn up in Cray. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB025

Hi Ho! Nobody Home

See Hey, Ho, Nobody Home (File: FSWB412G)

Hi Ho! Skippety Toe

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme, "Hi ho! Skippety toe, Turn the ship and away we go. Judy and Jack dressed in black, Silver buttons down her back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Daiken, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope clothes ship
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #189, "Hi ho! Skippety toe" (1 text)
Roud #11498
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Mack (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [17 words]: Roud includes this with "Mary Mack (I)," which is clearly related, but I would consider it separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR189

Hi Rinky Dum

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)

Hi Tak the Bonnie Lassie

See My Mither Built a Wee, Wee House (File: GrD81727)

Hi Yo Boat Row

See De Boatman Dance (File: BMRF566)

Hi Yo Dinkum Darkey

DESCRIPTION: "No more hoein' corn, No mo' diggin' taters, No mo' blackin' boots, No mo' darkey waters. Jingle, lingle, gingle jee, hi yo dinkum darkey (x2)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: freedom Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 123, "Hi Yo Dinkum Darkey" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #16295
File: Arno123

Hi-ne-mah Tov

See Hineh Ma Tov (File: ACSF446H)

Hi, Bara Manishee

DESCRIPTION: Travellers' cant. "Hi, bara manishee, will ye bing wi' me?" Translated: "Hi, bonnie lassie, will you go with me?/Hi, bonnie laddie, I didn't know your face/Will you come, will you hurry... to the camp?/If you don't get food, you'll get some drink"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (collected from Charlotte Higgins)
KEYWORDS: courting drink food foreignlanguage nonballad Gypsy migrant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 131, "Hi, Bara Manishee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6330
File: McCST131

Hi, Ho, Anybody Home?

See Hey, Ho, Nobody Home (File: FSWB412G)

Hiawatha's Wooing

DESCRIPTION: "Then come with me in my little canoe, Where the (sea/river) is calm and the sky is blue." The singer urges against delay lest something go wrong. He promises to hunt what she needs to live a good life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (Hutchinson Family''s Book of Words, according to Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: hunting love courting
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 97-101, "Hiawatha's Wooing"; "Paraphrase of Hiawatha's Wooing"; "Come Live With Me In My Little Canoe"; "The Little Canoe' or Burman Lover"; "The Braes o' Balquither" (1 text from tradition, 1 text said to be a retranslation of a translation into Ojibwe, 1 text of "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love", 1 non-traditional text of this poem, and 1 text of "The Braes o' Balquhither") (pp. 81, 87-89 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #14099
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ossian's Serenade" (lyrcs, form)
NOTES [85 words]: Despite the title that Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania pastes on this, it is *not* "Hiawatha's Wooing" from Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha." It doesn't even mention HIawatha! Shoemaker in fact suggests a "Celtic" origin. Hence Shoemaker's citations of "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" and "The Braes o' Balquhither." The whole section is full of crazy ideas; it looks to me as if this is a modification of "Ossian's Serenade" (Roud files some versions of that song here). See that entry also. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Shoe097

Hibberty Bibberty

DESCRIPTION: "Hibberty bibberty I salliberty, Pompalary jig, Every man who has no hair Ought to/Is bound to wear a wig."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty hair
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 99, "(Hibberty bibberty I salliberty)" (1 text)
File: SuSm099A

Hibernia's Lovely Jane

See Hibernia's Lovely Jean (File: HHH467)

Hibernia's Lovely Jean

DESCRIPTION: The singer returns to Ireland from fighting in Spain, where he meets Hibernia's Lovely Jane. He says that her beauty exceeds that of goddesses or legendary beauties. But her parents will not let her marry a soldier. The singer despairs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Kenedy)
KEYWORDS: love soldier separation father mother beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H467, p. 428, "Hibernia's Lovely Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4385
File: HHH467

Hicarmichael

DESCRIPTION: The sheriff goes to arrest Hicarmichael on a Sunday; as the sheriff reads the warrant, Hicarmichael shoots him dead. Hicarmichael is arrested and taken to Knoxville. The singer warns listeners not to live a "wrecked" life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (recording, Dillard Chandler)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The sheriff goes to arrest Hicarmichael, a black man, on a Sunday; as the sheriff reads the warrant, however, Hicarmichael shoots him dead. Hicarmichael is eventually arrested and taken to Knoxville. The singer warns listeners not to live a "wrecked" life, nor to take life, for they cannot give it, and that money will not save them before God
KEYWORDS: violence warning crime homicide law prison punishment death police Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
Roud #6981
RECORDINGS:
Dillard Chandler, "Hicarmichael" (on Chandler01)
File: RcHicarm

Hick's Farewell

See The Dying Preacher (Hick's Farewell) (File: R617)

Hickerty, Pickerty, My Black Hen

See Higgledy Piggledy, My Black Hen (File: BGMG299)

Hickety (Buck Buck, Horny Cup, How Many FIngers; Mingledy, Mingledy)

DESCRIPTION: Guessing game. A player holds up a number of fingers and says "Hickety hickety horny cup, How many fingers do I hold up?" or "Buck, buck, how many horns do I hold up?" Another player guesses. Game may repeat, with punishments, until the number is guessed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 87, "Hickety" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #93, "How Many Fingers?" (1 text)
Roud #16287
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hully Gull" (theme)
File: ARno087

Hickety, Bickety, My Black Hen

See Higgledy Piggledy, My Black Hen (File: BGMG299)

Hickety, Pickety, My Black Hen

See Higgledy Piggledy, My Black Hen (File: BGMG299)

Hickman Boys, The (The Downfall of Fort Donelson)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Hickman boys, I'll say to you, Our fate is awful, but it's true." "On the banks of the Cumberland Lay the bodies of a thousand men." "We fought them up till Saturday night, At length the North did rain a shower." The singer hopes to live in peace
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (collected from E. T. Brown by Boswell)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar death soldier river
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 12-16, 1862 - Siege and fall of Fort Donelson
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 55, pp. 92-94, "The Hickman Boys (The Downfall of Fort Donelson)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 267, "The Tennessee Boys" (1 text)
Roud #4902
NOTES [978 words]: Localizing this song is by no means easy. The Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee text has only five specific references: The name "Hickman boys," a reference to a conflict between North and South (which tells us nothing except that it comes from the Civil War), and mentions of a fight on a Saturday night on the banks of the Cumberland leading to a thousand casualties.
The Cohen text, from a Wehman print, is no better; it refers to action in Tennessee, to a Thursday march, to a Saturday fight, to surrender, to North and South, to ten thousand casualties, and to the Cumberland.
The reference to the Cumberland is no help; since the Tennessee front was one of the most active of the entire war, the reference might be to almost anything from the siege of Fort Donelson at the beginning of 1862 to the Battle of Nashville at the end of 1864.
Wolfe did find another version of the song with a reference to "General Buckener," i.e. Simon Bolivar Buckner (1823-1914). This is not proof, but it is strong evidence that the battle involved is the Siege of Donelson.
Jefferson Davis in 1861 appointed Albert Sidney Johnston to defend the Confederate west, from the Appalachians to the Mississippi (with some authority beyond). Ideally he would have liked to have his line run along the Ohio River, but in practice -- given that he had only about 70,000 men and the Federals at least half again as many (McPherson, p. 394) -- he ended up with a line running around the Tennessee/Kentucky border. From the standpoint of defence, this had the disadvantage that two easily navigable rivers, the Tennessee and the Cumberland, ran right through it (Anders, p. 80).
Johnston's response was logical: He built forts to stop any thrusts by Yankee river fleets: Fort Henry on the Tennessee and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland.
Meanwhile, General Ulysses S. Grant was looking at those forts, and at his river ironclads, and he managed to gain permission to attack them (McPherson, p. 395).
Fort Henry was easy. It was unfinished, and the portions that had been completed were badly built (McPherson, p. 396). It flooded in early 1862. The Confederate commander, Lloyd Tilghmann (1816-1863), realizing that his position could not be held against a strong force, sent his infantry away to reinforce Fort Donelson (Anders, p. 81) and prepared to hold off the Union gunboats as long as possible with artillery alone. It wasn't long. Flag Officer Foote's riverboats forced its surrender on February 6, 1862 (Woodworth, pp. 76-77; Boatner, p. 394).
No one is quite sure why Johnston did what he did next. One hypothesis is that he felt that he needed to construct a new line south of the Cumberland, and tried to make sure Fort Donelson would hold until he could do so (this is the explanation in Boatner, p. 395). The other possibility is that he wanted to fight his big fight at Fort Donelson (an idea mentioned on p. 398 of McPherson).He ended up making an uneasy compromise, pulling back along most of his line -- but sending two divisions to Fort Donelson (Boatner, p. 395). These were the divisions of Buckner and Floyd; they joined the division sent by Tilghmann (now under Pillow, since Tilghmann had been taken prisoner at Fort Henry).
This proved a mistake, although the real mistake was putting the wrong officers in charge. Flag Officer Foote had taken his riverboats from Fort Henry on down the Tennessee and come up the Cumberland to Donelson -- which was, however, much stronger and better-sited than Henry. it easily fought off the gunboats (Anders, pp. 84-85), giving Foote a wound from which he never recovered (Boatner, p. 287). If Donelson was to be taken, it would have to be done by Grant's infantry.
The troops arrived on February 12, 1862 (Boatner, p. 395). The Confederates, who were at least as numerous as the Yankees around them, decided to attack. They had every advantage. Grant had left the field to confer with Foote without leaving anyone else in charge (Woodworth, p. 94), and the Federals were hit by snowy weather (possibly mentioned in the song) for which they were mostly unprepared -- they had thrown away their blankets in the previous days' heat (McPherson, p. 400; Boatner, p. 396). The Confederate attack easily swept the Union forces aside; the Confederate way of escape was open (Anders, p. 85) -- indeed, they might have been able to destroy Grant's army (Boatner, p. 396). But the bemused General Floyd, who was in charge, halted the attack, and when Grant returned, he restored the situation.
The estimate in the song is about right: Nearly 1000 men, Yankee and Rebel, had been killed, with three times that many wounded (McPherson, p. 401).
There wasn't much left for the Confederates to do but to surrender. Except that General Floyd, the senior Confederate commander, and General Pillow, his #2, were both afraid of what would happen to them if they were captured. So Floyd turned his command over to Pillow and escaped by steamboat. General Pillow then turned command over to Buckner, and also made his escape. More usefully, Nathan Bedford Forrest got out with his troops. General Buckner, unlike his superiors, was willing to face the consequences of his actions (McPherson, p. 401). He didn't like Grant's demand for unconditional surrender (Woodworth, p. 117) -- but he made the deal.
The Confederates never really recovered their position in the west (Woodworth, p. 119). Albert Sidney Johnston would go on to die at Shiloh (Boatner, p. 440), and it is quite possible that the Federals could have won the war in the summer of 1862 if their generals had not thrown away all their advantages due to excessive caution.
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee suggests that "Hickman Boys" is not a reference to a family named Hickman but to residents of Hickman County, Tennessee, many of whose residents were at Fort Donelson. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.7
File: BoWo055

Hickory Ben Double

See What's Your Name? (File: SaKo120B)

Hickory Dickory Dare

DESCRIPTION: "Hickory, dickory, dare, The pig flew up in the air, (A man in/Farmer) Brown (Brought/Shot) him down, Hickory, dickory, dare."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: nonsense animal | pig fly
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 18, "(Hickory, dickory, dare)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hickory Dickory Dock" (lyrics)
NOTES [32 words]: This obviously looks like an additional verse of, or rewrite of, the better-known "Hickory Dickory Dock." But they seem to circulate almost entirely separately, so I've kept them distinct. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: WEMM018C

Hickory Dickory Dock

DESCRIPTION: "Hickory Dickory Dock, A mouse ran up the clock, The clock struck one, The mouse fell down...." Other time-related verses may be added. Perhaps sometimes used to determine who is "it" for a game
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1744 (Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 217, "Hickory, dickory, dock" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #8, p. 31, "(Hickory Dickory Dock)"
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 68, "Hickory, Dickory, Dock"; "O-U-T" (2 texts)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 70, "Hickory, Dickory, Dock" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 100, "Hickory, Dickory, Dock" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 39, "Hickory, Dickory, Dock"; p. 117, "Hickory, Dickory, Dock" (2 texts); cf. p. 119, "Hickory, dickory, six and seven" (1 text)
Roud #6489
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hickory Dickory Dare" (lyrics)
NOTES [42 words]: Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel mentions a suggestion that this refers to Richard Cromwell, the son of Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England 1658-1659 (succeeding his father). As usual, this is only an hypothesis, and not a particularly convincing one. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BGMG008

Hickory Dickory Six and Seven

See (references under) Hickory Dickory Dock (File: BGMG008)

Hicks Farewell

See The Dying Preacher (Hick's Farewell) (File: R617)

Hicks the Pirate

DESCRIPTION: "A mournful tale heart rending To you kind friends I will relate" of an oyster sloop which had a pirate aboard. Hicks killed the captain and two boys, and took their money, then fled to shore. Taken and brought to trial, Hicks is hung "on Bedloe's Island"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (broadside, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate money ship punishment execution homicide | Albert Hicks
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 13, 1860 - Execution of Albert Hicks for piracy (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 27, "Hicks the Pirate" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Rich Cohen, _The Last Pirate of New York_, Spiegel & Grau, 2019, p. 217, "Hicks the Pirate" (1 excerpt)
Roud #V28365
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(240), "Hicks the Pirate," De Marsan (New York), c. 1860
Library of Congress, American Song Sheets Library of Congress Rare Books and Special Collections, Series 2 Volume 2, "Hicks the Pirate," De Marsan (New York), c. 1860
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rose Tree" (tune)
NOTES [3234 words]: There are at least two books about Albert Hicks. One is your standard gallows-confession: The life, trial, confession and execution of Albert W. Hicks, the pirate and murderer: executed on Bedloe's Island, New York Bay, on the 13th of July, For the Murder of Capt. Burr, Smith and Oliver Watts on board the oyster sloop E. A. Johnson, De Witt, New York (no date but presumably 1860-1861). This is available on Google Books; it's a tough read (for one thing, it includes an assessment of Hicks's "Phrenological Character"). Unlike a lot of these books, it is semi-authentic; Cohen, p. 142, says that it is based on Hicks's actual words, but substantially rewritten by the transcriber. It contains a poem about Hicks unrelated to this one.
Presumably more reliable is Rich Cohen, The Last Pirate of New York. A Ghost Ship, a Killer and the Birth of a Gangster Nation, Spiegel & Grau, 2019, though it strikes me as both flamboyant and prone to tangents. It sums up Hicks this way on p. 6: "He operated so long ago, in a city so similar to and yet so different from our own, the word gangster had not yet been coined. He was called a pirate."
According to Cohen, pp. 24-24, Hicks was one of eleven children, and not the only one to get in trouble; the oldest brother, Simon, had been convicted of killing an old man for his money, but had escaped before he could hang. Albert Hicks was almost six feet tall (one record introduced in court said he was six feet one inch; Cohen, p.115), with broad shoulders. His confession said that he was born in Rhode Island "about 1820." He was married and had at least one child, who was still very young in 1860; he was also a Freemason (a potentially significant fact; Cohen, p. 97, thinks that the two lawyers Hicks retained took the case because they too were Masons and felt it to be an obligation of membership. The Masons probably also supplied the fancy clothes in which he was hung; Cohen, p. 199). The officer who arrested him in 1860 gave his age as 32 (Cohen, p. 74; the court record on p. 115 says he was 43, but if he was born in 1820, he would have been 39 or 40). He was apparently illiterate; at least, when he gave permission to be extradited from Rhode Island to New York, he did not sign the paper but authorized it with his mark (Cohen, p. 75), and he dictated rather than writing his confession.
He had left home at fifteen, and tried to make a living by petty theft -- and failed so badly that he came back home (Cohen, p. 145). But the authorities tracked him down; he was sentenced to eighteen months in prison (Cohen, p. 146). He escaped several times but was caught each time (Cohen, pp. 145-147). The experience did not cause him to give up crime; if anything, it made him worse.
He had done honest work at times; after his release from prison, he spent time in a shoe factory, then served on a whaler (Cohen, pp. 148-149). He continued to work as a sailor -- not always happily; he was one of those involved in the Saladin Mutiny (Cohen, p. 151, who thinks it gave him ideas; for the Saladin Mutiny, see "Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson [Laws D19]"). Supposedly he encouraged other mutinies as well (Cohen, pp. 152-153, 163-164; reportedly he blew multiple fortunes in the process of this). Certainly it was all that time serving at sea that gave him the skills he needed to get a job on the E. A. Johnson.
He also spent time in California during the gold rush... killing miners for their cash. Supposedly some of the crimes attributed to Joaquin Murrieta were actually conducted by Hicks (Cohen, p. 161).
He met his wife (whose first name apparently is unknown, although the family name was probably Bunting; Cohen, p. 91) while working as a sailor on the Isaac Wright in 1853; she was one of a family of Irish immigrants on the ship (Cohen, pp. 87-88). Her family apparently found him untrustworthy, but he courted her carefully, offering many gifts; Cohen, p. 89, says they were married in April 1853, although either this date or the date of her voyage to America must be wrong. She apparently didn't realize what she was getting into when she married him; when his crimes were brought to her attention, she became very angry (Cohen, p. 86. I find it ironic and revealing that Hicks apparently didn't use his real name even with his wife; when she bade him farewell for the last time, she said, "Goodbye, Willie. Willie, Goodbye"; Cohen, p. 197). What happened to her and her son after Hicks died seems to be unknown (Cohen, p. 214).
There was a story that he had been shanghaied as a young man, and learned about the sea on that voyage, but Cohen, p. 27, denies it. Cohen does, however, describe him as a thug for hire, and maybe a hit man, in the 1850s in New York (Cohen, p. 26).
Hicks met his downfall when he became interested in the E. A. Johnson. She was an "oyster sloop" -- a ship that went down to Virginia to buy oysters which it carried to New York. This meant she had to carry a lot of cash so that she could purchase the oysters on the spot, load them, and get them back to New York before they spoiled. And her crew was small -- Captain Burr and a pair of half-brothers; they were looking for a fourth man. Hicks signed on as a seaman and carpenter (Cohen, pp. 28-29).
There is no way to know exactly what came next, because Hicks was the only surviving witness.
Apparently the Johnson went on a short voyage starting on March 16, 1860, more of a shakedown than anything else (Cohen, p. 32). Her real voyage began on March 20. After Captain Burr and crewman Smith Watts went to bed that night, Hicks mortally wounded the third crewman, Oliver Watts, with an ax (Cohen, pp. 33-34, though it took him some time to die, and Hicks ended up cutting off his fingers as he clung to the side of the boat). Smith Watts heard the commotion, came up on deck, and was murdered in turn -- Hicks cut off his head, and the body fell into the cabin. (Cohen, p. 34). Hicks then went for the captain. This time, there was a fight, but Hicks was able to split the captain's head (Cohen, pp. 34-35).
Hicks's plan was apparently to take the ship back into the harbor, strip the valuables, set her afire, and flee (Cohen, p. 36). He would not have time. The ship was too much for one man to really handle, so he lost control of her. Soon after, on the night of March 21, the J. R. Mather collided with the E. A. Johnson. Not too surprising -- the Johnson was without lights (Cohen, pp. 11-12). Hicks was still aboard, but was able to hide, then flee with some of the loot (Cohen, p. 37. He couldn't stay with the Johnson, which was badly damaged). When officials came to inspect the ship, the amount of blood gave clear indications of foul play (Cohen, pp. 11-12).
Investigations quickly found records of Captain Burr and the Watts Brothers. But they could find nothing about the fourth crewman, whose name was recorded as "William Johnson" (Cohen, p. 42). The only other lead was that the Johnson's yawl was missing. It was eventually found on Staten Island (Cohen, p. 43). Investigators followed from there. Hicks didn't do much to hide himself. He was carrying a heavy sack; he just missed the ferry off the island; while waiting for the next ferry, he got a drink at a saloon and flashed a lot of money (Cohen, pp. 48-49). He seems to have gotten pretty drunk; at least, once he got to Manhattan, his trail was surprisingly easy to trace. He was trying to hide, though; he moved and his family out of his apartment (Cohen, pp. 58-60), and he went to a bank to trade in his money for something harder to trace; a broker named Albert James gave him $260 for his collection of miscellaneous cash and notes from various banks (Cohen, pp. 60-61).
Having (he thought) escaped and laundered his money, Hicks did not take the necessary next step of laying low. He seems to have continued to drink and make a spectacle of himself, as well as telling wild and inconsistent stories about where his money came from. Cohen, p. 62, believes he thought he was clear; there was nothing to connect him to any crime -- and, indeed, no proof that a crime had been committed. He didn't even change his false name -- when he and his family took a ferry, he continued to use the name "William Johnson." The detective on the case had trouble with false leads (Cohen, pp.62-64), but persisted. However, it was a reporter, Elias Smith, who correctly guessed where Hicks went (Cohen, pp. 66-67). He was located at a cheap boarding house in Providence, Rhode Island (Cohen, pp. 68-70). The detective pretended that his crime was passing counterfeit bills. Hicks, when found, admitted to his real name although he also admitted to the "William Johnson" alias (Cohen, pp. 70-71). When his effects were searched, they contained several items that later proved to have been taken from the shipmates he had murdered (Cohen, p. 72), and he didn't have a coherent explanation for where the effects or his money had come from (Cohen, p. 73). When told of the actual charges, he denied them (Cohen, pp. 74-75), but of course was shipped back to New York anyway.
I can't help but feel that the police really abused their powers in this case. Ignore the fact that Hicks didn't get a Miranda warning; that right wouldn't be established for another century. But the police lied to him by refusing to tell the nature of the charges, they searched his effects without a warrant, and indeed they pursued him without judicial authority.
Despite all that, Hicks was apparently so confident that they could not prove anything against him that he went voluntarily to New York, and made no attempts to escape despite riding on a commercial train without any physical restraints (Cohen, pp. 77-79); his only fear was of the crowds that wanted to get their hands on him.
The case would become a circus -- almost literally; P. T. Barnum struck a deal with Hicks to make a cast of his face (Cohen, pp. 106-107). This was in no small measure because the man who took charge of Hicks was U. S. Marshal Isaiah Rynders (Cohen, p. 78). He was hardly a paragon of virtue, having been involved in fighting, gambling, liquor-selling, and gang activities, but President Buchanan had made him Federal Marshall of New York for political reasons (Cohen, p. 82). Rynders promptly set about finding witnesses to demonstrate that Hicks had been associated with the Johnson (Cohen, pp. 84-85).
The reason Hicks was charged with piracy rather than murder was the lack of bodies; without a body, murder was beyond proof, but piracy was still a hanging crime (Cohen, p. 108). This led to a legal debate about whether "piracy" could take place on a ship that was in harbor. The judge said it could.
The defense -- properly, I think -- asked for a change of venue; the judge denied it (Cohen, p. 109). The trial proper began on May 14, 1860, after two days of jury selection (Cohen, p. 111).
Witnesses quickly demonstrated that Hicks was the William Johnson who had signed on to serve on the Johnson (Cohen, pp. 115-116). Cohen considers this "devastating" testimony, but Hicks did not deny using the "Johnson" name; he just denied being on the boat. The one item that I would consider serious evidence against him came from Daniel Simmons, who had supplied the money with which Captain Burr was to buy oysters. Simmons testified that Hicks was had had the money bag which Simmons had given to Captain Burr (Cohen, p. 116).
Over the course of six days of the trial, 27 witnesses would testify (Cohen, p. 117). But much of the testimony simply proved that Hicks spent money, or that the Johnson had been damaged in her collision, or that it looked as if someone had been murdered aboard her (examples on pp. 118-119 of Cohen).
It appears to me that the testimony pretty well proved that:
1. Hicks served on the Johnson.
2. That someone had attacked the crew of the Johnson, either kidnapping them or murdering them, probably the latter.
3. That Hicks had ended up with a great deal of loot from the Johnson, including both money and personal possessions of the crew.
To me, that doesn't seem like proof of murder. He could have left the ship before the crew was attacked, and found the loot, stolen it without killing anyone, or gotten it from the actual killer. To be sure, this does not explain why he denied serving on the Johnson.
The prosecution also brought in the mother of one of the missing men and let her sob for the jury (Cohen, p. 122). It had nothing to do with Hicks's guilt or innocence, but Hicks's lawyers don't seem to have brought that out very well.
Based on the description in Cohen, it really sounds to me as if the defense blew it. The prosecution hadn't proved that Hicks killed his shipmates -- only that he had taken their property and lied about it. They should have brought that out. Instead, they got into an argument with the judge about jurisdiction -- an argument which they naturally lost (Cohen, p. 123). Then they got into another argument over the change of venue, a fight that they had lost even before the trial started (Cohen, p. 124). Only then did they take up the circumstantial nature of the evidence (which wasn't really circumstantial -- it included a lot of eyewitness testimony -- but it was indirect). This argument should have been strong; I personally don't think the evidence sufficient to prove anything stronger than receiving stolen goods. But the judge no doubt was getting irritated with legal pettifogging by then; he turned that argument down too (Cohen, pp. 124-125). And juries back then were willing to convict on what strikes me as pitifully inadequate evidence.
The lawyers finished late on Thursday, May 17, 1860. The judge gave the jury its instructions, and sent them to deliberate at 10:36 a.m. the next morning. They were out for just seven minutes before returning a guilty verdict (Cohen, p. 128).
The lawyers wanted a new trial. They didn't get it (Cohen, pp. 128-129). The sentencing was the next week. And the punishment for piracy was clear. The judge sentenced Hicks to hang on July 13, 1860 (Cohen, pp. 129-132). (The judge also said that "no one could doubt the correctness of the verdict"; Cohen, p. 131. Well, I do doubt it. Oh, Hicks did it. But the state didn't prove it!)
After the sentence came down, Hicks started talking to a Catholic priest (Cohen, pp. 134-138). The priest convinced him that he had to confess his crimes to receive forgiveness. Gradually, Hicks started to admit to the murders (Cohen, pp. 138-140, reprints his earliest, incomplete, newspaper confession). He eventually sold his story to raise money for his wife and child (Cohen, p. 141). He spent a morning telling the story in prison.
Hicks confessed to a lot more than just the killings on the Johnson. It was an incredibly litany of crimes -- but it should be remembered that he was trying to raise his "value." And he was probably a boaster anyway.
New York by this time had banned public executions, but because Hicks had been under federal jurisdiction, he would hang in public -- the last public execution in New York (Cohen, pp 133-134). He was hanged on Bedloe's Island, later to become the site of the Statue of Liberty (Cohen, pp. 195-196).
The newspapers variously estimated the crowda at ten to twenty thousand people (Cohen, pp. 208-209). Many of them were drunk and seem to have tried to get close to Hicks -- whether to touch him or insult him or hasten his death. Hicks himself was in a hurry -- his last words were the utterly prosaic "Hang me quick -- make haste" (Cohen, p. 210). They dropped him at 11:15 on July 13. At least it was competently done; the hanging broke his neck (Cohen, p. 211).
He was given a common burial -- and the corpse was quickly stolen (Cohen, p. 214).
Toward the end of his time in prison, Hicks (claimed to have) composed a gallows-confession song (Cohen, pp. 191-192, gives the text. He thinks this actually happened!). This refers to his time on the Saladin, and has a peculiar resemblance to "Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson" [Laws D19]; see the notes to that song for details.
Cohen never seems to figure out why Hicks did what he did. But Hicks had a number of revealing traits. As a child, he had been very hard to control. He was often angry and paranoid (Cohen, p. 143). He was very restless and easily bored, which resulted in him moving around a lot and quitting jobs (Cohen, p. 89). He apparently sponged off his wife's family (this is how I read a letter to his wife from her mother printed on p. 91 of Cohen. Despite her anger when he was arrested, she seems to have forgiven him since she visited him in prison until the end; Cohen, p. 197). He did very little long-term thinking and clearly thought he could worm his way out of things. He had no trouble sleeping on the night before his execution (Cohen, p. 198). This is a very standard "recipe" for a criminal, and it seems to stem from an inability to learn from mistakes and a failure to accept the rights of others; this antisocial person is in it only for himself. But the lack of self-control often leads to trouble -- as it did for Hicks.
Those traits make me doubt much of his confession; most people try to conceal their misdeeds, but a certain sort of criminal will exaggerate them to try to be more notorious. Hicks sounds like that sort. I simply do not believe it possible that he did everything he claimed to have done (e.g. getting wrecked on two different ships in one voyage, losing his long-time partner in crime the second time; Cohen, pp. 174-175), In fact, Harper's Weekly, June 16. 1860 (available on Google Books), p. 374 (by the internal page number; it's p. 350 in Google's PDF) cites a case where Hicks claimed a murder that someone else committed!) Cohen on p. 181 admits the possibility that Hicks made it up while claiming it helped investigators solve certain unsolved crimes. He doesn't say which ones, though.
As Ben Schwartz commented, such a notorious case would call for a gallows confession, and De Marsan (or someone) supplied it in the form of this broadside. The surprise is that no Hicks song seems to have gone into tradition.
At least the broadside is relatively original (and unusually accurate for this sort of thing; clearly the author had been following the stories in the newspapers). The meter is quite unusual -- eight line stanzas with alternating lines of 78787878 syllables rather than the usual ballad form of 8686.
Lines with some historical meaning:
"Of three that met a tragic fate" -- three men did indeed die on the Johnson.
"An Oyster Sloop was sailing" -- as we saw, the Johnson was an oyster sloop.
"The captain and two boys did slay" -- the two Watts brothers weren't really boys, but that's a nitpick.
"He seized the gold and silver Which this poor captain had in store" -- a lot of it was bills, but that again is a nitpick.
"His watch and clothes did pilfer" -- the watch in fact was used as evidence against Hicks.
"He overboard soon threw them" -- a little more complicated than that, but they ended up in the sea.
"In a boat he left the vessel" -- true.
"He soon was overtaken And to New York was brought again" -- true.
"On Bedloe's Island Hicks was hung" -- true.
"Some thousands there attended" -- true.
Thus every historical fact in the broadside is basically true if occasionally slightly embroidered. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Fran027

Hicks' Farewell

See The Dying Preacher (Hick's Farewell) (File: R617)

Hicks's Farewell

See The Dying Preacher (Hick's Farewell) (File: R617)

Hidden Still, The

See Good Old Mountain Dew (File: LxA180)

Hiddle Diddle Dirdie

DESCRIPTION: "Hiddle diddle dirdie, When I was a herdie." Apparently the cattle ran to the corn, the herder ran home and got a bannock. The laird took his plaid, leaving him out in the cold.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: clothes farming food animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1633, "Hiddle Diddle Dirdie" (1 text)
Roud #13069
File: GrD81633

Hide and Go Seek

DESCRIPTION: "Hide and go seek, The man in the beak (or "Your mother's a leek," etc.), Who will be on it For hide and go seek?" "Going, going, Ready or not...." "I spy (someone) behind the red car, 1, 2, 3, come out."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: game mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 147, "Hide and Go Seek" (1 text)
Roud #19363
File: BAAI147A

Hide Away (Jonah and the Whale)

DESCRIPTION: Bible tales with warnings for sinners who don't heed: "Get your baggage on the deck and don't forget to take your check For you can't steal on board, hide away." Verses concern Jonah and the whale, Moses and Pharoah, (Daniel, Noah, etc.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920
KEYWORDS: Bible religious warning humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 286, "Jonah and the Whale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 346, "Jonah and the Whale" (6 text and/or fragments, but only the "C" text is this piece; "A" and "B" are "Jonah and the Whale (Living Humble)" and "D"-"F" are "Who Did Swallow Jonah?")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 346 "Jonah and the Whale" (3 tunes plus text excerpts, of which "C" is this piece)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 72, "There Was an Ole Fish" (1 text, 1 tune, probably a conflation -- Roud files it with #7786, "Hide Away (Jonah and the Whale)," but the form is "Few Days")
ADDITIONAL: [no author listed], Scenes & Songs of the Ohio-Erie Canal, Ohio Historical Society, 1971, "The Gospel Boat" (1 text, 1 tune; there are six verses, with the first two being traditional and the last four written by Pearl R. Nye. Nye's version does not mention Jonah -- it seems to be a river song -- but it has the "Hide away" chorus)
Roud #7786
RECORDINGS:
Ford & Grace, "Hide Away" (OKeh 45157, 1927)
McCravy Brothers, "Hide Away" (Victor V-40104, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jonah and the Whale (Living Humble)" (subject)
cf. "Jonah and the Whale (IV)" (subject and stanza form)
cf. "Wake Up, Jonah (Jonah III)" (subject)
cf. "Who Did Swallow Jonah?" (subject)
cf. "Going to Live Humble to the Lord" (chorus: "Live humble ....")
NOTES [108 words]: There is another Jonah song, now indexed as "Jonah and the Whale (IV)," which I initially included with this song. It uses the same (somewhat uncommon) metrical pattern, and it's on the same theme; as long as I knew only one version of the other one, I suspected they were a single song. But having seen more versions, I suspect this to be a humorous rewrite of that.
All the texts, of course, are based on the Biblical book of Jonah. The humorous versions exaggerate; Cox's text stays fairly close to the actual content of chapters 1 and 2 of Jonah (except for, at times, calling the fish a "whale"; the Hebrew Bible emphatically says "fish"). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: R286

Hide Thou Me

See Rock of Ages (II -- Hide Me Over the Rock of Ages) (File: Br3547)

Hidi Quili Lodi Quili

DESCRIPTION: "Hidi, quili, lodi, quili, Hidi, quili, quackeo, If you'd a-been as I'd a-been, You would a-been so pretty, o!" (Someone) maakes a song, "heels in the path and toes in the grass, Don't take nothing but a dollar and half."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: music floatingverses work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 206, "Hidi Quili Lodi Quili" (1 text)
NOTES [81 words]: Listed in Brown as a corn-husking song, but it appears to be more than that. The first two verses look like a song about a migrant singer, or at least a migrant worker who sang, with the first verse being his song.
The third stanza, "The ole fish hawk said to the crow, I hope to the Lord tonight it'll rain; The creeks am muddy and millpond dry; 'Twasn't for tadpoles minnows all die," floats (e.g. from "The Crow Song (I)"); whether it played a role in the original song is unclear. - RBW
File: Br3206

Hie Bonny Lassie

DESCRIPTION: A poor shepherd says "Hey, bonnie lassie, blink o'er the burn." He tells all he would do when "we'll be married and lie in ae bed": turn her sheep for her, give her his dog, knife, and half-year's fee and sell one of his two lambs to buy her a head-piece
AUTHOR: Rev. James Honeyman (died c.1779) (source: Whitelaw and Greig/Duncan4)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting marriage farming nonballad dog sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 881, "Hey, Bonnie Lassie" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 298, "Hie, Bonnie Lassie" (1 text)
Roud #6136
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(835), "Hie bonny lassie" ("Hie bonnie lassie, come over the burn"), unknown, no date
NOTES [59 words]: Servants and farm hands were typically hired for half a year. The offer here is for all the silver earned in that half year. See, for example, "The Hiring Fair at Hamiltonsbawn" which describes the practice in Ireland, and "Blackberry Grove" for England; the Scottish practice followed a similar calendar. See also, "Bad Luck Attend the Old Farmer." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD4881

Hie Marshall

See Rosie Anderson (File: Log392)

Hielan' Donal'

DESCRIPTION: Hielan' Donal kisses Katie Ronal' while she picks camomile. She says she wouldn't have him. He asks her to go to the hills with him where he had a big house and livestock. She declines. When he turns to leave she changes her mind and goes with him.
AUTHOR: Bell Robertson
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: elopement flowers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #143, p. 2, "Hielan' Donal'" (1 text)
Roud #1917
NOTES [13 words]: Written by Bell Robertson based on the "Hielan' Donal' Kissed Katie" verse. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Gre143

Hielan' Donal' Kissed Katie

DESCRIPTION: "Hielan' Donald kiss't Kitty, Comin through the Narrow Wyn'" or among the camomile. She wore a striped coat and woolen gown; he kissed her when everyone was sleeping.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Anderson)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1718, "Hielan' Donald" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: William Anderson, Rhymes, Reveries, and Reminiscences (Aberdeen, 1867 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 183, ("Hielan' Donald kiss't Kitty")
Roud #6317
File: GrD81718

Hielan' Hills, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Hielan' hills are high high The Hielan' miles are long But Hielan' whisky is the thing To mak a body strong." "She'll tak a glass" or five or six "what business that tae you." A whisky "is the thing To paint it [her nose] like the rose"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 558, "The Hielan' Hills" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6032
File: GrD3558

Hielan' Jane

See Highland Jane (File: HHH477)

Hielan's o' Scotland, The

See The Blaeberry Courtship [Laws N19] (File: LN19)

Hieland Jane

See Highland Jane (File: HHH477)

Hieland Laddie

DESCRIPTION: Used by sailors as they stowed cotton or lumber. "Were you ever in Quebec? Bonnie Laddie, Hieland Laddie, Stowing timber on the deck, Bonnie Hieland Laddie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Erskine-TwentyYearsBeforeTheMast)
KEYWORDS: nonballad shanty work
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE,SE) Britain(Scotland) Canada(Que) West Indies(St Vincent)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 50-51, "Highland Laddie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, p. 102, "Bonbie Highland Laddie (1 text, with localization to the Great Lakes, including mentions of Marquette and Grand Marais)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 95, "Highland Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 72-73, "Riding on a Donkey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 143-150, "Heiland Laddie," "Donkey Riding," "My Bonnie Highland Lassie-O" (5 texts, 5 tunes plus fragments) [AbEd, pp. 115-121]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXVI, p. 30, "Heave Away, My Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 27, "Bonnie Laddie, Hieland Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune, derived from a folk revival singer)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 55-56, "Donkey Riding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 38-39, "Donkey Riding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Erskine-TwentyYearsBeforeTheMast, p. 297, "(Were you ever in Boston town)" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 242, "Isle o' Holt" (1 text); pp. 244-245, "Higland Laddie" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 64, "Donkey Riding" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 96, "Hieland Laddie" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 280-281, 498, 510, 512, "Donkey Riding" (notes, with an unusual stanza on p. 281)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 81, "Donkey Riding" (1 text, 1 tune)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 22, "Donkey Riding" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DONKEYRD* HIELND* HIELND3* HIELNDLD*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Nordhoff, _The Merchant Vessel: A Sailor Boy's Voyages To See the World _(Cincinnati: Moore, Wilstach, Keys & Co., 1856 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 42, "(Were you ever in Quebec)" (1 text)
Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Highland Laddie" is in Part 2, 7/21/1917.
Roud #4691
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Donkey Riding" (Piotr-Archive #270, recorded 09/27/2022)
Pete Seeger, "Hieland Laddie" (on PeteSeeger26)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Belle-a-Lee" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Stow'n' Sugar in de Hull Below" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Tommy's Gone to Hilo" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Powder Monkey (Soon We'll Be in England Town)" (similar chorus)
cf. "Geordie Sits In Charlie's Chair" (tune and structure)
SAME TUNE:
Mussel Mou'd Charlie (Kinloch-BalladBook, pp. xi-xiii)
Geordie Sits In Charlie's Chair (File: GrD1131)
NOTES [425 words]: Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman writes that this is "usually heard at the capstan ... as a walkaway shanty" (p. 50).
Both Nordhoff and Erskine heard this chantey in the 1840s from sailors acting as winter stevedores using cotton jack-screws to stow bales into waiting holds in New Orleans and Mobile. Nordhoff writes that -- in the versions he has heard -- the sailors are "calling to their minds the peculiarities of many spots with which they have become familiar in their voyagings." Erskine's version has that theme also: "Were you ever in Boston town... Where the ships sail up and down," "Were you ever in Mobile Bay... Screwing cotton by the day," "Were you ever in Miramachi... Where you make fast to a tree" and "Were you ever in Quebec... Stowing timber on the deck." Nordhoff adds "Were you ever in Dundee... There some pretty ships to see." - BS
Some versions of this song have verses or chorus about "Donkey riding, donkey riding, Riding on a donkey." This is legitimate shipboard technology, referring to a donkey engine (which might indeed need someone "riding" it to keep it running), but also caused the song to be tempting to children.
Since, however, there is no possible way to separate sea versions from kids' versions, I keep them as one song.
Riding the donkey might also be known as "donkeying around." Modern folkies may recognize this from Larry Kaplan's song "Old Zeb."
The "Isle o' Holt" of the Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine is better known today as "Isle au Haut," subject (e.g.) of two Gordon Bok songs; the name is a corruption of Samuel Champlain's title "Ille Haulte" -- hence English versions "Aisle au Holt" and "Isle au Holt" (Roger F. Duncan, Coastal Maine: A Maritime History, 1992 (I use the 2002 Countryman Press paperback edition), p. 57 and note)- RBW
Day has another children's version from St. Vincent in the 1840s, probably modified from the shanty:
"Singing seems to be the grand feature, and I hear the children singing in chorus half the day. Pious ejaculations are accompanied by the drollest tunes. As a specimen, I may mention one of the St. Vincent melodies:
'Holy Bible, book divine, tural-ural, tural-ural,
Precious, precious, thou art mine, tural-ural, tural-ural'
The tune was 'Bonnie laddie, sodger laddie.'
'A boat, a bota unto the ferry,' is another infantile chorus, while the children promenade round the school room."
(Charles William Day, Five Years' [1846-1850] Residence in the West Indies (London: Colburn and Co., 1852 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. 2, pp. 274-275) - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Doe050

Hieland Rory

DESCRIPTION: This song is about the wedding of Hieland Rory and Mary Morrison. The songs sung and played are listed. "The piper he got drunk" so a fiddler was brought in for the dancing.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (recording, Jimmy McBeath)
KEYWORDS: wedding dancing drink music party
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
Roud #5146
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy McBeath, "Hieland Rory" (on Voice14)
File: RcHieRor

Higgledy Piggledy, My Black Hen

DESCRIPTION: "Higgledy piggledy, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen, Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay, Sometimes nine and sometimes ten, Higgledy piggledy, my black hen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: Bird chickens food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) New Zealand
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1665, "Hickerty, Pickerty, My Black Hen" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 122, "(Hickety bickety, my black hen)" (1 text); p. 150, "(Ickety, bickey, my black hen)" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #299, p. 171, "(Hickety, pickety, my black hen)"
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 209, "Hickety, pickety, my black hen" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 74, "Higgledy, Piggledy, My Black Hen" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 100, "Hickety, Pickety, My Black Hen" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Iona and Peter Opie, _Children's Games in Street and Playground_, Oxford, 1969, 1984, p. 38, "(Skinty, tinty, my black hen)"

Roud #13043
RECORDINGS:
Lorraine Hammond, "Higgledy Piggledy My Black Hen" (Piotr-Archive #688, recorded 10/01/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cluck Old Hen" (partial theme)
NOTES [96 words]: The spelling of the first couple of words of this piece vary greatly ("Hickety, pickety," "Hickerty, pickerty," "Higgledy Piggledy"). I doubt any particular form is authoritative, so I spelled it the way I learned it way back when. I don't recall a tune, but there are enough references that it may be a traditional song.
The incomparable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 167, thinks this is about Francis Bacon and a woman from whom he purchased a chicken! Evidence for this is, of course, non-existent. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGMG299

High Above a Theta's Garter

See Far Above Cayuga's Waters (Parodies) (File: EM348)

High Banks o Yarrow, The

See Bonnie Annie [Child 24] (File: C024)

High Barbaree [Child 285; Laws K33]

DESCRIPTION: (Two) ships meet a pirate man-o-war. In the ensuing battle, the pirate is sunk, disabled, or taken.
AUTHOR: unknown (the "High Barbaree" recension is by Charles Dibdin)
EARLIEST DATE: 1670 (the title is mentioned 1611; a fragment is found in 1634)
KEYWORDS: battle navy ship pirate
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland US(MA,NE,NW,SE)
REFERENCES (38 citations):
Child 285, "The George Aloe and the Sweepstake" (1 text)
Bronson 285, "The George Aloe and the Sweepstake" (15 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 285, "The George Aloe and the Sweepstake" (2 versions: #6, #10)
Laws K33, "High Barbaree"
Greig/Duncan1 38, "The Coasts of Barbary" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 91-92, "The High Barbaree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 153, "High Barbaree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 161-162, "High Barbaree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 419-4212, "High Barbaree" (3 texts, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 320-321]
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 133-135, "High Barbaree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 413-418, "High Barbary" (1 text plus 2 songster and 1 broadside version)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 118, "High Barbaree" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 118, "High Barbaree" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #21, "High Barbaree" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #2, #9}
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 25, "The Queen of Russia and the Prince of Wales" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #14}
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 229, "New Barbary" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland4, pp. 176-187, "The Coast of Barbary" (4 texts plus 3 fragments, 5 tunes) {F=Bronson's #8}
Thompson-APioneerSongster 7, "The Bold Pirates" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 665-667, "The George Aloe and the Sweepstake"; pp. 777-778, "High Barbaree" (2 texts)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 399, "The George Aloe and the Sweepstake"; p. 407, "High Barbaree" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 131, "The 'George-Aloe'" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 142, "Barbaree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 38-39, "(The Bold Pirates)" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 79, "The Salcombe Seaman's Flaunt to the Proud Pirate" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 12, "The Coasts of High Barbary" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 5, "The Coasts of High Barbary" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 212-213, "The High Barbaree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #11, "The Sailor's onely Delight. Shewing the brave Fight between the George-Aloe, the Sweepstake, and certain Frenchmen at Sea" (1 text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 102-104, "High Barbaree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 5, "The George Aloe and the Sweepstake" (1 text, 1 tune; composite; #5 in the first edition); also 6, "High Barbaree" (4 texts, 1 tune; #6 in the first edition)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 8, "The Sailor's Only Delight" (1 text)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XLI, pp. 61-64, "The Saylor's Only Delight" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 100-101, "High Barbaree" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 166, "The Coasts of High Barbary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 91, "High Barbaree" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN953, "The George-Aloe and the Sweep-stake too"
DT, HIGHBARB* HIGHBRB3*
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 205-208, "The Sailors onely Delight" (1 text, of "The George Aloe...")
Roud #134
RECORDINGS:
Almanac Singers, "The Coast of High Barbary" (General 5017B, 1941; on Almanac02, Almanac03, AlmanacCD1)
Bob Roberts, "High Barbaree" (on LastDays)
Erica Warnock, "Coast of High Barbaree" (Piotr-Archive #463, recorded 01/26/2023)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 4o Rawl. 566(183), "The Saylors Only Delight; shewing the brave fight between the George-Aloe, the Sweepstake, and certain Frenchmen at sea" ("The George-Aloe, and the Sweep-stake too"), F. Coles (London), 1663-1674; also Douce Ballads 2(196b), "The Seaman's Only Delight: shewing the brave fight between the George-Aloe, the Sweepstakes and certain French men at sea"
LOCSinging, as102370, "Coast of Barbary," L. Deming (Boston), n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailor's Joy" (tune, broadsides Bodleian 4o Rawl. 566(183) and Douce Ballads 2(196b))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Blow High, Blow Low
NOTES [512 words]: Scholars continue to debate the relationship between Child's text "The George Aloe..." and the better-known "High Barbaree." Laws considers them separate, as does Roud (listing "The George Aloe" as #6739 and "Barbaree" as #134, which will give you some idea of their relative popularity); Coffin, in Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland4, reports that "High Barbary" retains "little of [its] model beyond the plot outline and the Barbary refrain."
I, obviously, think them the same. (Or, more correctly, regard them as separate recensions, but see no point in separating two songs so often filed together, particularly given the rarity of "The George Aloe.") Bronson doesn't even note the difference.
Frank Shay and Coffin, among others, reports that "High Barbaree" was written by Charles Dibdin (1745-1814), who wrote a number of songs for the Royal Navy (including "Blow High Blow Low"). If so, it seems likely that he was inspired by "The George Aloe..."; I do not consider this by itself reason to separate the two (again, most especially since certain publications do not distinguish them).
For more on author Charles Dibdin, see the notes to "Blow High Blow Low."
The first known text of "The George Aloe..." is found in the Shakespeare/Fletcher play "The Two Noble Kinsmen" (perhaps written c. 1611; printed 1634), Act III.v.59-66 (a section generally attributed to Fletcher):
The George Alow came from the south,
From the coast of Barbary-a;
And there he met with brave gallants of war,
By one, by two, by three-a.
Well hail'd, well hail'd, you jolly gallants!
And whither now are you bound-a?
O let me have your company
Till [I] come to the sound-a." [The word "I" is missing in the quarto print; conjectured by Tonson.]
Child can find no historical records of a voyage of these ships, particularly in the vicinity of Barbaree. But it is noteworthy that, in the 1540s, Henry VIII had a ship called the Sweepstake. According to Rodger, p. 181, this ship and three others were set to patrolling Scotland in 1543 (?). And the enemy ship in "The George Aloe" was French, and the English squadron kept a French fleet from joining with the Scots.
We also find a ship called the Sweepstake in commission in the 1580s, commanded by Captain Diggory Piper; she was a privateer who took at least a couple of Spanish ships. This is interesting because Piper seemed to inspire music; there is a "Captain Diggory Piper's Galliard" mentioned on p. 343 of Rodger.
I won't say that either event inspired this song, but it might have influenced the name of the ship.
In addition to the Shakespeare mention, there is a 1611 item in the Stationer's Register with this name. Rollins, #955, p. 87, gives this entry: "George Aloo and the Swiftestake, Item the second parte of the (Mch. 19, 1611, III, 456, Rich. Jones). [The Sailor's onely Delight: Shewing the brave fight between George-Aloe, the Sweep-stakes and certain French-men at Sea. To the tune of The Saylor's Joy.... Beg. 'The George-Aloe and the Sweep-stake too,' R[oxburghe] B[allads] VI, 409." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C285

High Barbary

See High Barbaree [Child 285; Laws K33] (File: C285)

High Blanter Explosion, The

See The High Blantyre Explosion [Laws Q35] (File: LQ35)

High Blantyre Explosion, The [Laws Q35]

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of meeting a young girl mourning her lover, John Murphy. Murphy, only 21, was killed in the mines of High Blantyre in a great explosion. She transplants the daisies they walked among to his grave and waters them with her tears
AUTHOR: John Wilson? (source: broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(46b))
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (collected by A. L. Lloyd); c.1877 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(46b))
KEYWORDS: mining death love flowers
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 22, 1877 - Explosion at the Dixon Colliery in High Blantyre near Glasgow. Over two hundred are killed
FOUND IN: US(MA) Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws Q35, "The High Blantyre Explosion"
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 6, "The Blantyre Explosion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 27, pp. 69-70,115,167, "The Blantyre Explosion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, "The High Blanter Explosion" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 59, "The Blantyre explosion" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 543, BLANTYRX*
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 94-95, "The Blantyre Explosion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1014
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(46b), "The Sorrowful Lamentation of Jane Sneddon for the Loss of her Lover, John Murray, in the Disaster at High Blantyre," unknown, c.1877
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Collier Lad (Lament for John Sneddon/Siddon)" (theme, characters?)
NOTES [65 words]: Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(46b) is "signed" by "John Wilson, B.S.,G." - BS
And that broadside poses rather a conundrum, because of the name "Sneddon." The broadside is clearly this song (though unusually full), but the name might well be derived from "The Collier Lad (Lament for John Sneddon/Siddon)." Since both are on the same theme, I have to suspect some sort of connection. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LQ35

High Chin Bob

See The Glory Trail (High Chin Bob) (File: FCW124)

High Country Musterer Lay Dying, A

See Wrap Me Up in my Tarpaulin Jacket (File: FR439)

High Country Weather

DESCRIPTION: "Alone we are born And die alone, Yet see the red cold cirrus over snow mountains shine. Upon the upland road ride east, stranger; Surrender to the sky your heart of anger."
AUTHOR: Words; James K. Baxter (1926-?) / Music: Neil Colquhoun
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 98, "High Country Weather" (1 text, 1 modern tune)
File: COl2098

High Germany (I)

DESCRIPTION: Young man, conscripted into the war in Germany, bids his sweetheart come with him. She demurs, saying she is not fit for war. He offers to buy her a horse, and also to marry her by and by. She laments the war (and/or her pregnancy)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2899))
KEYWORDS: love war soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1714 - Hannoverian succession causes Britain to become involved in German wars
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 96, "High Germany" (14 texts, 11 tunes)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 56, "High Germany" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 72, "High Germany" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 43, "High Germany" (2 texts)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 447, "In High Germany" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 679-680, "High Germany" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 192-193, "A Song of Love (High Germany)" (1 badly garbled text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 79-80, "Higher Germany" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 279, "High Germany" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN3231, "O cursed be the wars that ever they began" (?)
DT, WARGRMNY* WARGRMN2*
Roud #904
RECORDINGS:
Jim Bennett, "High Germany" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Phoebe Smith, "Higher Germany" (on PhSmith01, HiddenE)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2899), "High Germany" ("O Polly love, O Polly love, the rout it is begun"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 11(1536), Harding B 17(127b), Firth c.14(154), Harding B 25(836), Firth c.26(222)[some words illegible], Harding B 11(829), "[The] High Germany"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack Monroe" [Laws N7]
cf. "William and Nancy I" [Laws N8]
cf. "The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II)" [Laws N9]
cf. "The Manchester Angel"
cf. "Across the Blue Mountain" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Wars o' Germanie" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "In Low Germanie" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "High Germany (II)" (subject)
cf. "Lovely on the Water" (theme, some lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Wars of Germany
Germany
High Germanie
NOTES [237 words]: Sharp cites a date of c. 1780 for this song. That the current forms of the song date from the eighteenth century is almost a historical necessity. The Hannoverian Succession (1714) brought a German prince to the British throne, meaning that English troops might be sent to intervene in German affairs. British interest in Germany ended when Napoleon rebuilt the Holy Roman Empire on his own terms, leaving the Hannoverian princes out of the picture.
This was reinforced a few years later, when King William IV died (1837). William's heir under English law was his niece Victoria, but Hannoverian law did not permit a female succession, so the throne of Hannover fell to Victoria's uncle Ernest. And, of course, Hannover, like the rest of Germany, was absorbed by Prussian in the 1860s and 1870s.
It's also worth noting that, by the nineteenth century, it was common for the wives of British soldiers to accompany them; the army actually made allowance for a certain number of wives per regiment.
In at least one of these cases, that of Fanny Dubberly, she even took a part in the fighting: At Gwalior, India (1858?), cavalrymen of the Eighth Hussars started a charge at the Indian mutineers. Mrs. Dubberly's horse was nearby and joined the charge (without her husband!). It's not clear what she would have done had she caught anyone, since she wasn't really a soldier -- but she did add weight of numbers to the charge. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: ShH56

High Germany (II)

DESCRIPTION: A soldier has been called up and must leave his pregnant sweetheart. She would follow him "through France, Spain and even Ireland." He warns of the hardships and that her parents will be angry. She insists. He agrees to take her and will marry her first.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3897))
KEYWORDS: love marriage request army war parting pregnancy France Ireland Spain lover soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 64, "High Germany" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #90, "High Germany" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 104, "The True Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1445
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3897), "The True Lovers" or "The King's Commands Must Be Obey'd" ("Abroad as I was walking alone"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 15(335b), Harding B 11(3898), 2806 c.18(317), "The True Lovers" or "The King's Commands Must Be Obey'd"; Harding B 15(161b), "The King's Commands Must Be Obeyed" or "The True Lovers"
NOTES [114 words]: There is no statement here about cross-dressing but she "will go For to fight ... [any] daring foe." - BS
The two songs we index as "High Germany" both involve soldiers leaving sweethearts, and I suspect they frequently mix. I will not guarantee that all versions are properly filed. Roud seems to have a few confused versions, too. A characteristic of this song is that it usually starts with a line such as "Abroad as I was walking, and a-walking alone"; the other opens with lines such as "O Polly, dear Polly, the rout it is begun" or "Busk, my bonnie Betsy, busk, and buckle braw" or "O, cursed be the wars love that ever they began." And, yes, I know that's not much to go on! - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: ReCi064

High in the Highlands

DESCRIPTION: Highlanders clip sheep, Lowlanders feed cattle. The singer says a local lad "has a fancy for me" but she prefers someone farther away. She wants paper, pen, and ink "and I'll write a letter to my dear Willie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1114, "High in the Highlands" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6830
NOTES [18 words]: Roud assigns the same number to fragments Greig-Duncan6 1092 "Here Is a Letter, Fair Susannah," and 1114. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61114

High Minded

DESCRIPTION: "Indians are high minded. Bless my soul they’re double jointed. They climb hills and don’t mind it. All day long." "Camp fire girls are high minded...." A sniff, as of inhaling drugs, may precede the words "high minded"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: drugs humorous Indians(Am.) campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 123, 444, "Indians Are High Minded"/"Camp Fire Girls are (sniff) High Minded" (notes only)
NOTES [10 words]: This may be the same as Roud #17273, but I can't be sure. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF444H

High O

DESCRIPTION: "In come another one, High O! A mighty pretty little one, High O! Then get about, go! High O! Then get go about! High O!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: playparty travel nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 223, "High O" (1 short text)
File: KiWa223H

High O, Come Roll Me Over

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "One man to strike the bell, High-O, come roll me over." Verses continue with "Two men to man the wheel", "Three men to'gallant braces," "Four men to heave the lead<" and so forth, to Ten men to dip the ensign" and perhaps beyond
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong cumulative
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 169, "High O, Come Roll Me Over" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 136]
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 106, "Oh, Come Roll Him Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8294
File: Hugi169A

High Road to St. Paul's, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells about the men building the road and bridges from Sally's Cove to St Paul. "Such needed employment it is a God-send To provide for these families those hard-working men." He is among the workers down with the flu and "nothing to do"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: work disease technology
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 171-173, "The High Road to St. Paul's" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25322
File: Guig171

High Rocks o' Pennan, The

DESCRIPTION: "Cauld blaws the wind o'er the high rocks o' Pennan" as the singer laments the absence of Jamie, gone to America. She discusses their parting, at which he complained that the laws are too strict. He promises to fetch her once he has the money
AUTHOR: John Anderson (d.c.1870) (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love separation emigration crime
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #21, p. 1, "The High Rocks of Pennan" ; #23, p. 2, "High Rocks of Pennan" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1121, "The High Rocks o' Pennan" (6 texts plus a single verse on p. 548, 5 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 342-343, "The High Rocks o' Pennan" (1 text)
Roud #3944
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lass o' Glenshee" (tune, per Greig/Duncan6)
NOTES [48 words]: This is the only emigration song I can recall where the singer's main reason is the laws against poaching. The overall feeling reminds me a lot of "Teddy O'Neill" (to which it can be sung), but I doubt there is dependance. - RBW
Greig: .".. written in the early [eighteen-]forties ...." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord342

High Society Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: "Granny, get your hair cut, paint your face and shine, Granny get your hair cut short like mine... Granny, get your dress cut short like mine." The girl urges granny to adopt modern ways, such as going to movies and swimming alongside the boys
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: humorous technology
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 130, "The High Society Girl" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #11340
NOTES [78 words]: Evidently written in the 1920s to heap scorn on young flappers and other too-modern young women. Yet it appears that it was performed more for its humor value; it's less a complaint than an observation that what works for the young simply may not be possible or enjoyable for the old. Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric comments that there are many songs that criticize the changes adopted by young people, but "this one is perhaps the best. It is surely the funniest." I agree. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne130

High Times in Our Ship

DESCRIPTION: "It's of Martin Hurley, you bet he's not slack, He gets the two Daltons to work his cod trap." They meet rough water but get a good haul. The song continues with episodes showing "high times in our ship."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea ship nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 136-137, "High Times in Our Ship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9964
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Martin Hurley
File: Pea136

High Times in the Store

DESCRIPTION: Low on bread, the singers stop at the store at Lance au Loop hoping for help. The shopkeepers complain that they are expected to give bread away. "These are two sturdy old fellows, gives nothing away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: bargaining rejection shore hardtimes commerce food
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 84, "High Times in the Store" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab084 (Partial)
Roud #9976
NOTES [13 words]: L'Anse au Loup is on the lower Labrador coast on the Strait of Belle Isle. - BS
File: LLab084

High Water Everywhere

DESCRIPTION: Flood drives Charley from town to town: Sumner, Greenville, Leland, Tallahatchie... "the whole round country ... river has overflowed ... levee broke" "I'm going back to the hill country, won't be worried any more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (StuffDreams2)
KEYWORDS: travel river disaster flood nonballad
FOUND IN:
Roud #21695
RECORDINGS:
Charley Patton, "High Water Everywhere - Part 1" (on StuffDreams2)
NOTES [29 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought.
This is probably a reference to the great Mississippi flood of 1927. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcHiWaEv

High Waters

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme: "The (Alabama) River goes higher, higher, higher...." or "When it rains, the Mississippi/river gets higher, higher, higher...." The jumper must keep jumping higher until he or she fails
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: playparty river jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 49, "High Waters" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #43, "(When it rains the Mississippi River)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #599, "When it rains the Mississippi River" (1 text)
File: ZiZa049C

High Wood to Waterlot Farm

DESCRIPTION: "There is a wood at the top of the hill, If it's not shifted it's standing there still." There is a farm nearby, but don't go there by day; there are snipers watching, "For the wood down by Waterlot Farm Is a bloody high wood."
AUTHOR: Ewart MackIntosh (sic.) (source: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: war derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 94-95, "High Wood to Waterlot Farm (1 short text plus the opening words of the source of the parody, "Chalk Farm to Camberwell Green")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Chalk Farm to Camberwell Green" (tune)
File: AWTBW094

High-Chin Bob

See The Glory Trail (High Chin Bob) (File: FCW124)

High-Toned Dance, The

DESCRIPTION: "Now you can't expect a cowboy to agitate his shanks In the etiquettish fashion of aristocratic ranks." The singer is out of his depth at a dance in Denver. Still, the ladies enjoy the chance "To see an old-time puncher at a high-tone dance."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (recording, Wilf Carter)
KEYWORDS: cowboy dancing humorous
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 104, "The High-Toned Dance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11094
RECORDINGS:
Wilf Carter, "The Cowboy's High-Toned Dance" (Bluebird [Canada] B-4991, 1935)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mormon Cowboy (I)" (plot)
File: FCW104

High-Toned Southern Gentleman

DESCRIPTION: "Down in the sunny Southern clime, the curious ones may find, A ripping tearing gentleman of an uncommon kind." He drinks heavily, wears fancy clothes, plays euchre, goes into debt. Verses often break into extended non-metrical speeches
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (F. J. Child, War Songs for Freemen, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: humorous Civilwar clothes gambling nonballad drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 338-339, "High-Toned Southern Gentleman" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old English Gentleman" (tune, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar) and references there
File: SCWF338

High-Topped Shoes

See Don't Let Your Deal Go Down; also Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot (File: CSW182)

High, Betty Martin

See Hey Betty Martin (File: San158)

Highbridge (Through Every Age, Eternal God)

DESCRIPTION: Shape note hymn: "Through every age, eternal God, thou art our rest, our safe abode; High was thy throne ere heav'n was made Or earth thy humble footstool laid." "Death, like an overflowing stream, Sweeps us away; Our life's a dream, an empty tale..."
AUTHOR: Words: Isaac Watts
EARLIEST DATE: 1707
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 155, "Highbridge" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Gerald L. Pocius, "Folk Religion And The Ethnography Of Literacy: The Image Of The Word On Newfoundland Gravestones," essay on pp. 259-286 of Gerald Thomas and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, _Studies in Newfoundland Folklore: Community and Process_, Breakwater Books, 1991, p. 270, "(Death like an overflowing stream)" (1 short inscription, from 1812)
Roud #15052
RECORDINGS:
Singers from Stewart's Chapel, Houston, MS, "Stratfield" (on Fasola1)
NOTES [70 words]: This is set to the tune "Highbridge" in the Missouri Harmony but to "Stratfield" in the Sacred Harp. There is a second Sacred Harp version, opening with the "Death, like an overflowing stream" stanza, which has the most evocative tune-name "Exit."
The "Death like an overflowing stream" stanza is in the Missoury Harmony with the tune Amanda.
For more on Isaac Watts, see the notes to "O God, Our Help in Ages Past." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: San155

Higher Germany

See High Germany (File: ShH56)

Higher That the Mountain Is, The

DESCRIPTION: "The higher that the mountain is, The lower grows the grass, The bonnier that the lassie is, She needs the tocher less." "The aulder that the crab tree grows, The sourer grow the plumbs...." Reportedly a pslam warmup/practice tune
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (letter to Aytoun from the Harris family)
KEYWORDS: nonballad humorous beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 128, "(The higher that the mountain is)" (1 short text)
Roud #18042
File: HLMM027

Higher Up the Cherry Tree

See Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss (File: CSW066)

Highery O Valerio

See The Farmer in the Dell (File: DTfrmrde)

Highest is the Leader

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope game ending in "hot peppers" (a fast rope): "Highest is the leader, Lowest must take the end."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | leader
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #100, "(Highest is the Leader)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #185, "Highest is the Leader" (1 text)
File: AJRV100

Highgrader, The

DESCRIPTION: "Way out in the State of Nevada, In a mining camp far out of the way," a hobo appears with "a look on his face That said... 'Nearer, my God, to Thee.'" He preaches for a hundred days and leaves. The singer marvels at his heavy burden
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: clergy hobo travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 611-612, "The Highgrader" (1 text)
File: CAFS2611

Highland Balou, The

DESCRIPTION: "Hwe, balou, my sweet young Donald, picture o' the great Clanranald, Brawlie kens our wanton chief, Wha got my young Highland thief." The mother hopes the babe will go forth and steal a "naigie" and a "Carlisle coo" and return home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: children mother travel animal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 65, "The Highland Balou" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HIGHBALU
Roud #9748
File: McPCHiBa

Highland Harry

DESCRIPTION: Highland Harry's banished and the singer mourns she'll "never see him back again!" She wishes some "villains [were] hangit high" so he could return. He had "rush'd his injur'd prince to join; But, Oh! he ne'er came back again!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2)
KEYWORDS: rebellion exile nonballad Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 30, "Highland Harry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 134, "Highland Harry" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #164,, pp. 276-277, "My Harry Was a Gallant Gay" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1787)
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #209, p. 218, "My Harry was a Gallant gay" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST GrD1134 (Full)
Roud #3809
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Harry Lumsdale's Courtship" (some lines) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Oh For Him Back Again
NOTES [222 words]: Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2: "This edition is taken from Mr Moir's collection. The first three verses were altered by Burns from an old song; the other two were added by Sutherland."
Burns: "The chorus I picked up from an old woman in Dunblane; the rest of the song is mine." - BS
The tune is listed as "Highlander's Lament." Which obviously fits.
Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, pp. 182-183, says that the part Burns picked up from an old woman was the stanze "My Harry was a gallant gay." Peter Buchan states that this original was about one Harry Lumsdale, and Mrs. Jean Gordon, who was married to her cousin Habichie Gordon, son of the Lord of Rhynie. When Habichie Gordon and Harry Lumsdale met, Gordon attacked Lumsdale and cut off several fingers, with Harry dying not long after. Peter Buchan being Peter Buchan, one cannot help but wish for more evidence. Nonetheless it would be no surprise if Burns put a Jacobite slant on a song which originally lacked it.
It is interesting to note that Burns's text never mentions *which* villians should be hanged high; it's perhaps worth noting that (according to my Burns editions) he wrote the song in 1787, at which time Bonnie Prince Charlie was still alive though not for much longer. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GrD1134

Highland Heather

DESCRIPTION: "The heather's queen o' mountain flowers." The singer compares the heather to the red and white rose, the lily, daisy and forget-me-not. "Search roon the world -- she beats them a'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: flowers nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 527, "Highland Heather" (1 text)
Roud #5876
File: GrD3527

Highland Jane

DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears another cry, "I have lost my bonny bride, My bonny blooming hielan' Jane." He describes her beauty. She was taken away soon after marriage. He hopes that death will soon take him as well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: death separation marriage mourning
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1240, "My Blooming Highland Jane" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H477, p. 140, "Hielan' Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 641, "My Blooming Highland Jane" (1 text)
Roud #2554
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.13(191), "Highland Jane" ("As [I] walked out one morning fair"), R. McIntosh (unknown), no date
File: HHH477

Highland Lad and Lawland Lass, The

DESCRIPTION: A couple argue. He is bound to fight for Charles. She is unhappy that he would leave her so freely. He assures he he will be true and finally convinces her that he should go. She sends him off to fight for Charles, "procure renown" and return to her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The Highland Lad says "the pipers play" and it is time "for freedom and our prince to fight." Jenny complains that he would "so freely part." He says king and country outweigh his love. She says Whigs will mock her for trusting him. He says he will always be true and when he returns "Charles shall reign, and she's be mine." She concedes that she would not want "your manly courage stay." He praises "your charms, your sense, your noble mind" and says his "sole delight shall br My prince's right and love of thee." She sends him off to "procure renown, And for your lawful king his crown" before he returns to his Jenny.
KEYWORDS: dialog political Jacobites separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 106, "Lawland Lassie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 123, "Lowland Lassie" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #578,, p. 683-684, "Highland Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune, from the Scots Musical Museum)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Highland Laddie" (tune and structure)
NOTES [181 words]: The alternate lines for the male part are "[My] bonny lassie, Lawland lassie" and for the female part "[My] bonny laddie, Highland laddie."
The Greig/Duncan1 and Burns texts are almost identical.
Greig/Duncan1: "This text combines stanzas found in two separate songs, both sung to the tune 'Bonny laddie, Highland laddie'.... St. 1 occurs in 'A Song' beginning 'The bonniest lad that e'er I saw' and sts. 2-3 occur in 'The Highland Lad and Lawland Lass' beginning 'Trumpets sound and cannons roar'." I have kept it with the latter since the Greig/Duncan1 version retains the dialog form. - BS
The Burns and Grieg/Duncan forms may be alike, but they are much worn down from the full form found in the description. The Burns form has only six stanzas -- two for the girl, then two for the guy, then two more for the girl. What's more, it never mentions Charles. That, to be sure, may have been a factual correction, since Bonnie Prince Charlie's father was still alive at the time of the 1745 rebellion -- even had the revolt succeeded, Charles would not have been King for many years. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1123

Highland Lad, The

DESCRIPTION: he singer says "I'll follow up my Highland lad." "I've been in Inverness Commend me to the Highland lad He wears the Highland dress." She describes his uniform: scarlet coat, green philabeg [kilt], sky-blue ribbons
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: clothes nonballad soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 528, "The Highland Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6007
File: GrD3528

Highland Laddie (I)

See Hieland Laddie (File: Doe050)

Highland Laddie (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Princely is my lover's weed, Fu' his veins o' princely blude." "Brows wad better fa' a crown" "a hand the sceptre bruiks," "a hand the broad sword draws." "He'll wake the snorers round the throne, Till frae his daddie's chair he blaw"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Cromek)
KEYWORDS: rebellion return nonballad Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 63A, "The Highland Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: R. H. Cromek, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, (London, 1810), pp. 150-153, "Highland Laddie"
NOTES [142 words]: The alternate lines are minor variations on "Bonnie laddie, Highland laddie." In this case the subject is clearly Bonnie Prince Charlie himself.
"Cromek died [1812] shortly after the issue [1810] of Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, which was mostly written by Cunningham, though palmed upon Cromek as recovered antiques." (source: J. Ross, The Book of Scottish Poems: Ancient and Modern, (Edinburgh, Edinburgh Publishing Co, 1878), "Allan Cunningham 1784-1842," p. 738; other sources agree)
Cromek: "The Highland Laddie seems to be the son of James VII [the 'Old Pretender' James Francis Edward Stuart]"; in other "Highland Laddie" fragments that Cromek prints it's clear that Charlie is the Highland laddie.
Cromek: "It is printed from the recitation of the young girl who contributed 'Derwenwater' [but see the note above on Cunningham]." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Hog2063A

Highland Laddie (III), The

DESCRIPTION: "I canna get my mare ta'en, Master had she never nane, Take a rip an' wile her hame, Nought like heffing by the wame"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2)
KEYWORDS: nonballad horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 63B, "The Highland Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [51 words]: The current description is all of the Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 63B fragment, omitting the "Bonnie laddie, Highland laddie" lines. Hogg says of it, "I think it probable that this had, likewise [to Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 63A], been a Jacobite song, but I do not remember any more of it." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Hog2063B

Highland Laddie (IV)

See The Highland Lad and Lawland Lass (File: GrD1123)

Highland Laddie (V)

See The Blue Bells of Scotland (File: FSWB280A)

Highland Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: "Again the laverock seeks the sky And warbles dimly seen... Nae mair can cheer this heart forlorn, Or charm the Highland Maid." "My true love fell by Charlie's side." Her home is lonesome, her sleep troubled; the girl hopes to join him in the grave
AUTHOR: William Blair (b.1800) (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: Jacobites death battle soldier separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #44, p. 2, "The Highland Maid" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 130, "The Highland Maid" (5 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 297, "The Highland Maid" (1 text)
Roud #2183
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Harp that Once through Tara's Halls" (tune)
NOTES [77 words]: Greig/Duncan1 has the tune as "The Maid in Bedlam," "originally called 'Will ye go to Flanders' ... found in Ireland and called 'Molly Astore' ... also 'Grammachree.'"
Greig: "'The Highland Maid' I have always heard sung to a tune which is practically the same as 'The Harp that once through Tara's Halls.'" - BS
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads repeats the attribution of this to William Blair, but lists him as being born in 1880. This is clearly an error in date.. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ord297

Highland Mary

DESCRIPTION: "Ye banks, and braes, and streams around The castle o' Montgomery, Green be your woods... For there I took the last fareweel O' my sweet Highland Mary." The singer recalls their love and their parting and laments her death
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1792 (original publication)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation farewell death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1786 - Romance between Robert Burns and Mary Campbell. They met in spring and pledged faith at their parting in May; Campbell died that autumn, probably of typhus
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #76, p. 2, ("Ye banks and braes and streams around"); "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 19, ("Ye banks and braes and streams around") (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 84-86, "Highland Mary" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, p. 161-162, "Highland Mary" (1 texts, 1 tune, including 3 stanzas not part of the Burns poem)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 262-263, "Highland Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2269, p. 153, "Sweet Highland Mary. A Favorite Scotch Ballad" (1 reference)
DT, HIGHMARY
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #389, pp. 526-527, "Highland Mary" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1792)
Roud #1095
RECORDINGS:
Brigid Tunney, "Burns and His Highland Mary" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.1270(001), "Highland Mary," unknown, c. 1845; also RB.m.143(029), "Highland Mary," unknown, c. 1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Katharine Ogie" (tune)
cf. "Burns and His Highland Mary" [Laws O34] (subject)
NOTES [43 words]: The Brigid Tunney song on IRTunneyFamily01 is mis-titled. On the recording itself Brigid Tunney identifies the song as "Highland Mary." - BS
For the little we know about "Highland" Mary Campbell, see the notes to "Burns and His Highland Mary." [Laws O34] - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CrSe161

Highland Mary (II)

See Burns and His Highland Mary [Laws O34] (File: LO34)

Highland Muster Roll, The

DESCRIPTION: "Little wat ye wha's coming" (x4). "Duncan's coming, Donald's coming, Colin's coming, Ronald's coming, Dougal's coming, Lauchlan's coming." All the Jacobite supporters are listed. They will be victorious: "At ilka stroke they'll fell a Whig"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: Jacobite nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 40-41, "The Highland muster roll" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HLANDMST*
Roud #9746
File: MPCHiMuR

Highland Soldier, The

See The Gallant Soldier (Mary/Peggy and the Soldier) (File: HHH782)

Highlanders' War-Cry at the Battle of Alma, The

DESCRIPTION: The Highlanders fight "where the Gaul and the Briton their legions unite To tread on the neck of the Czar." Their war cries "give wings to the slaves of the Czar." "And the tyrants shall tremble to hear That 'Cry' in the battle again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: war death Russia nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 20, 1854 - Battle of Alma. The allies win an expensive victory over the Russians
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 159, "The Highlanders' War-Cry at the Battle of Alma" (1 text)
Roud #5828
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Heights of Alma (I) [Laws J10]" (subject) and references there
NOTES [77 words]: Greig/Duncan1: "The Royal Highlanders, the Cameron Highlanders and the Sutherland Highlanders under the command of Sir Colin Campbell played a prominent part of the battle." - BS
For background on the Battle of Alma, see "The Heights of Alma (I)" [Laws J10]. For Sir Colin Campbell (the one and only competent general in the Crimea) and his Highland Brigade, see also "The Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose (II)" and especially "The Kilties in the Crimea." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD159

Highlands! The Highlands, The

DESCRIPTION: "Though bleak be your clime and though scanty your fare My heart's in the Highlands, oh! gin I waur there!" The singer thinks about his mother in her cottage "croonin', 'Haste ye back, Donald, to leave us na mair."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: homesickness travel nonballad mother home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 522, "The Highlands! The Highlands" (1 text)
Roud #6004
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My Heart's in the Highlands
NOTES [55 words]: This is one of a group of songs in which mother waits in her cottage (or so the son believes) for her son who is far away; for example, "Cottage With the Horsheshoe o'er the Door," "My Gray Haired Irish Mother," and "There's No One Like Mother To Me" (and, lacking the cottage, songs like "When the Work's All Done This Fall"). - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3522

Highly Educated Man, The

See I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song) (File: R410)

Highway Robber, The

See The Highwayman Outwitted [Laws L2] (File: LL02)

Highway Song

See Employment Song (File: BeDo100)

Highwayman Outwitted

See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

Highwayman Outwitted, The [Laws L2]

DESCRIPTION: A highwayman stops a merchant's daughter. When she dismounts, her horse runs home with her money. He abuses her and strips her, then has her hold his horse as he bundles up his gains. She jumps on the horse and rides home, still naked but with his money
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.18(142))
KEYWORDS: outlaw escape clothes
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws L2, "The Highwayman Outwitted"
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 133-136, "The Maid of Rygate" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 448, "Highwayman" (1 text)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 16-17, "The Merchant's Daughter and the Highwayman" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire 12, "The Rich Farmer's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 21, "The Highway Robber" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 226-228, "The Rich Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 2 tunes)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 89, "The Highwayman Outwitted" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 40-41, "The Highwayman Outwitted" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 682, HIOUTWIT
ST LL02 (Full)
Roud #2638
RECORDINGS:
Mike Kent, "The Rich Merchant's Daughter" (on PeacockCDROM)
Wiggy Smith, "There Was a Rich Farmer at Sheffield" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.18(142), "The Highwayman Outwitted by the Farmer's Daughter," J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 11(92), Firth c.17(17), "The Lincolnshire Farmer's Daughter"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Crafty Farmer" [Child 283; Laws L1]
NOTES [144 words]: It's just possible that this has a real-life origin, though I doubt it: David Brandon, in Stand and Deliver! A History of Highway Robbery, pp. 29-31, reports that one Isaac Atkinson held up a young woman, who -- apparently thinking he wanted something harder to recover than her money -- threw a bag of coins in the ditch. Atkinson, instead of either pursuing his seduction or doing anything to control the girl, simply jumped off his horse to pick up the coins.
The girl then flew away on her horse, and by chance his horse followed. She was able to report where she had left him, and he was taken and hanged.
Brandon, however, cites no sources; I almost wonder if his tale wasn't based on this song, or perhaps on something like "The Crafty Farmer" and/or "Lovely Joan."
For a bit more on Atkinson, see the notes to "The Crafty Farmer" [Child 283; Laws L1]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LL02

Highwayman, The

See The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)

Hikin' Down de Main Line

DESCRIPTION: "Hikin' down the main line, Gasoline burner don't stop here, don't stop here."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: travel technology
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 742, "Hikin' Down de Main Line" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [31 words]: The description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 text. Clearly there must be more to it, but I don't recognize the fragment as part of anything else. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5742

Hiking Song (I'm Happy When I'm Hiking)

DESCRIPTION: "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!.... I'm happy when I'm hiking, Pack upon my back; I'm happy when I'm hiking, Off the beaten track, Out in the open country." The singer likes tramping with a friend, even 20, 30, 40, 50 mile a day, and is "happy to be alive"
AUTHOR: See NOTES
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition)
KEYWORDS: travel friend nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 333, "Hiking Song" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 16, "Hiking Song"" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 65, "I'm Happy When I'm Hiking" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [63 words]: The authorship of this is confusing. Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition list Max T. Krone. BoyScoutSongbook1997 lists no author and lists it as an "English Hiking Song" but list it as by Neil A. Kjos Music Co. of Chicago. I've never seen a field collection from England (or from America, except in Averill). It seems clear that someone wrote it, but I have no idea who. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF333H

Hill and Gully

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: chorus "hill an' gully ride-a, hill an' gully" (2x). Each verse line is followed by "hill an' gully." Roughly: bend down low/ hill and gully/ low down best you be down/ hill and gully/ better mind or you tumble down/ hill and gully.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: game nonballad worksong injury Devil
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, p. 9, "Hill and Gully" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Olive Lewin, "Rock It Come Over" - The Folk Music of Jamaica (Barbados: The University of the Westy Indies Press, 2000), p. 82, "Hill an' Gully" (1 text, 1 tune)
Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time - Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), p. 52, "Hill and Gully" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jim Morse, _Folk Songs of the Caribbean_ (New York: Bantam Books, 1958), pp. 98-99, "Hill an' Gully" (1 text, 1 tune)
Martha Warren Beckwith and Helen Roberts, _Folk-Games of Jamaica_ (Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1922 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #32 pp. 39-41, "Hill and Gully Riding" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Hill an' Gully" (on WIEConnor01)
Lord Composer and the Silver Seas Hotel Orchestra, "Hill and Gully Ride[sic]";"Mandeville Road" (before 1956, on Motta MRS DMS 31, before 1956, Motta LP MOTL 103, 2004, "Mento Madness, Motta's Jamaican Mento: 1951-56," V2 Music Ltd CD 63881-27201-2)
The Charms, "Hill and Gully" Island (1964, 45 rpm WI-154 B)
Valerie Walker, "Hill and Gully" (on JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
NOTES [277 words]: Lewin: "Most Jamaicans know 'Hill an' Gully Rider' as a work song. It, however started life as a rather athletic game played by men and boys in western [hilly] Maroon [free black] towns."
The description follows Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica and Dexter/Taylor. Morse has a similar verse: "an' you fall down, low down/ hill an' gully/ an' de low down Debil glad/ hill an' gully/ an' he laffin' wen you tumble down/ hill an' gully." Lewin's continues along the same line: if you fall you'll break your neck; if you beak your neck you'll go to hell; if you go to hell the devil will laugh. Lord Composer has "bend down low down/.../ and then you dance right round down/.../ and if you broke your neck you gonna hell/..."
Murray has this as a game song. Dexter/Taylor has it as a work song. Lewin has it as "a Maroon [free black] play song: a plantation work song"; she describes the game. Both Walker and Lord Composer have the "if you fall down you'll go to hell" verse and Walker's version clearly seems to be a game ("if you broke it then you go again"). The Charms's ska version -- "careful how you go, mind your back and fore" -- can be read as dance -- "back to back, belly to belly" -- or sex instruction; no fall down or go to hell.
There is a dancehall version by Yellowman which, after the dedications, I cannot translate from Jamaican patois; I'm not surprised that I hear nothing there -- except the chorus -- that sounds like anything I have heard on other records or seen in the books. (Yellowman, "Hill and Gully Rider" (on 1984, "Yellowman - Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt," Greensleeves LP GREL 71).
Also, see the notes to "Go Down Emmanuel Road." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: JaMu009

Hill o' Callivar, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer advises to "Ask her for to be your wife and tak' her at her will And tak' her for a ramble on the Callivar Hill." The site "wad mak' your heart contented." He's old now but he'd "drink the health o' Scotland yet and Forbes Arms Hotel."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 507, "The Hill o' Callivar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5992
NOTES [40 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Coiliochbhar Hill (507) is at coordinate (h1-2,v5) on that map [near Alford, roughly 28 miles W of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3507

Hilli Ballu

See Looby Lou (File: R554)

Hills Above Drumquin

DESCRIPTION: "Drumquin, you're not a city, but you're all the world to me." The singer has seen the Scottish Highlands and Lowlands but "always toiled content" because at the end of the day his heart goes back to Drumquin.
AUTHOR: Felix Kearney (source: Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder)
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder)
KEYWORDS: nonballad lyric
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 68-70, "Hills Above Drumquin" (1 text)
Roud #9320
NOTES [5 words]: Drumquin is in County Tyrone. - BS
File: TST068

Hills and Glens, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer was born "on North River's sloping bank" and lived 40 years among "the hills and glens around St Ann's. He taught, opened a store, and loses two sons and a cousin in the army "killed in France ... while fighting the Germans"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: war death soldier children
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 210, "The Hills and Glens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2726
NOTES [12 words]: Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs: "The war referred to is that of 1914-1918" - BS
File: CrMa210

Hills o' Ballyboley, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recounts the pleasures of life in Ballyboley: The birds, the flowers, the friends. He says that no such flowers grow elsewhere. Even now, grown old, he remembers the beauties of the place
AUTHOR: William Hegan
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H511, pp. 157-158, "The Hills o' Ballyboley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13454
File: HHH511

Hills o' Gallowa', The

DESCRIPTION: The singer and his lassie "softly slid the hours awa' Till dawnin'" If he were with her "amang the hills o' Gallowa'" he would blythely steer through life in spite of the world's gloom. "Oh bury me ... amang the hills o' Gallowa'"
AUTHOR: Thomas Cunningham (1776-1854) (source: Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: love Scotland nonballad lover burial
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 504, "The Hills o' Gallowa'" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 115-116, "The Hills o' Gallowa'" (1 text)
Roud #5989
File: GrD3504

Hills o' Gowrie, The

See The Lass o Gowrie (File: GrD5954)

Hills o' Trummach, The

DESCRIPTION: "The hills o' Trummach pe ill to clim' Pe ill to clim' pe ill to clim', The hills o' Trummach pe ill to clim', Tre hoey an' tre hoey."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 531, "The Hills o' Trummach" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6010
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Braes o' Mar" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 entry. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3531

Hills of Connemara (Mountain Tae, Mountain Tay)

DESCRIPTION: Moonshiners are told, "Gather up the pots... Run like the devil from the excise man." The excise men come to the still, but they come to drink "all night, Drinkin' up the tae till the broad daylight"
AUTHOR: Sean McCarthy
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (McCarthy)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, HILLCONN*
RECORDINGS:
Hector MacIsaac and Jerome Downey, ("Keep your eyes well peeled today") (on NFHMacIsaac01)
Sean McCarthy, "Mountain Tae" (on Sean McCarthy, "The Wandering Man," EMI CD ISRMCD 009 (2002) reissue of EMI (1970))
NOTES [132 words]: Hector MacIsaac and Jerome Downey sing two verses ("keep your eyes well peeled today...." and "A kettle to the butcher and a quart to John....") and the chorus ("Gather up your pots and your old tin cans...."). They follow McCarthy's version ("the tall tall men are on their way") rather than the GEST version ("the excise men are on their way"). The unattributed text and the three audios at GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site (http://www.wtv-zone.com/phyrst/audio/nfld/03/pots.htm, accessed February 24, 2015) all disagree with the McCarthy and MacIsaac Downey versions on this point. - BS
This song seems to have become quasi-traditional very quickly. Soodlum's Irish Ballad Book, from 1982, already treats it as traditional -- and has a text much altered from McCarthy's. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: BeDoTHCM

Hills of Cumberland

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets "the Rose of Cumberland" who invites him to sit and talk; she babbles. He explains that he is from a nearby village "where there are maidens just as handsome" and advises her to let her beauty speak for her rather than her mouth.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: courting beauty rejection
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 110-111, "Hills of Cumberland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12458
NOTES [55 words]: This is a Prince Edward Island song not to be confused with the similar ballad Bodleian, Harding B 11(1205), "The Blooming Rose of Cumberland," W. Stephenson (Gateshead); , 1821-1838 ; also Harding B 25(220), "The Blooming Rose of Cumberland." Cumberland Hill is near Dundas near the east coast of Kings, Prince Edward Island. - BS
File: Dib110

Hills of Dan, The

DESCRIPTION: "The world is not one garden spot Or pleasure ground for man; Few are the spots that intervene Such as the Hills of Dan." The singer recalls the weather and the friends now buried; though he departs, he hopes in the end to "rest Amid the Hills of Dan"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Greensboro Daily News)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 403, "The Hills of Dan" (1 text)
Roud #11759
NOTES [17 words]: Although the only collections of this seem to be from North Carolina, it *really* sounds Irish to me. - RBW
File: Br3403

Hills of Donegal, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Donegal, the pride of all, My heart still turns to thee...." The singer describes how he left Donegal, looking back the while, and sailed away via Lough Foyle. He wishes he could return to his old home
AUTHOR: James Moore ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H196, p. 120, "The Hills of Donegal (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10685
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH196

Hills of Glenshee, The

See The Lass of Glenshee [Laws O6] (File: LO06)

Hills of Glensuili, The

DESCRIPTION: An exile curses "those tyrannical laws that bind our native land" and thinks about the birds, fields, and dances of Glensuili. He has left his harp there to remind those left behind of him. He hopes "the time soon come around when I'll return"
AUTHOR: Michael and Brigid McGinley (source: notes to IRPTunney02)
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (IRPTunney02)
KEYWORDS: exile separation Ireland nonballad patriotic harp
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 97-99, "The Hills of Glensuili" (1 text)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 36, "Glenswilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5087
RECORDINGS:
The McNulty Family, "Hills of Glenswilly" (on "Irish Show Boat," Coral Records CRL 57368 LP (1961))
Bernard Nash, "The Hills of Glenswilly" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Paddy Tunney, "The Hills of Glenswilly" (on IRPTunney02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hills of Tandragee (I)" (form, lyrics, tune)
NOTES [217 words]: Loch Suili and Gleann Suili (Glenswilli), mentioned in the song, are in Donegal, Ireland.
This is the same song, with only place names and a few words changing the political viewpoint, as "The Hills of Tandragee (II)." The tunes of McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 36, and Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 41, "The Hills of Tandragee" are very similar. Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster: "Here's a fairly modern Orange song ["The Hills of Tandragee"], and a great favorite among 'the brethren' because they can all join in on the last line of each verse. Dick Bamber, who gave it to me, is generally credited as the writer, but he tells me this is not correct. An old lady who lived beside him in Ballylisk near Tandragee, 'wrote it years ago.' It is a parody of a song she had on an old 78 r.p.m. record called 'The Hills of Glenswilly'. Just how long ago she wrote it he doesn't remember, but he says she gave it to him and he was the first to sing it in public. Now it's an Orange standard." These songs are not to be confused with "Craiganee," sometimes called "The Hills of Tandragee"; there is no love interest here.
Also collected and sung by Kevin Mitchell, "The Hills of Glen Swilly" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: TST097

Hills of Glenswilly

See The Hills of Glensuili (File: TST097)

Hills of Mexico, The

See Boggy Creek or The Hills of Mexico [Laws B10b] (File: LB10B)

Hills of New Hampshire

DESCRIPTION: "Far away on the hills of old New Hampshire Many years ago we parted Ruth and I." Now she sleeps in the village churchyard "on the hills of my old New Hampshire home." "Now my heart lies buried with her"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: love home parting separation death mourning lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18211
RECORDINGS:
Clare O'Driscoll, "Hills of New Hampshire" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcHiNeHa

Hills of Ohio, The

DESCRIPTION: "The hills of Ohio, how sweetly they rise, In beauty of nature to blend with the skies, With fair azure outline and tall ancient trees... I love thee for these." The homes are beautiful. May God shield Ohio. "Take thou to thy bosom my ashes at last"
AUTHOR: Alexander Auld (source: Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory)
EARLIEST DATE: 1992 (Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, p. 96, "The Hills of Ohio" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [28 words]: Like many pieces in Salt, there is no evidence whatsoever that this is traditional. She reports that Alexander Auld was a nineteenth century singing school teacher. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Salt096

Hills of Tandragee (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer says to those who see him leave Tandragee that he hopes the Orange flag will soon fly over its hills. He thinks about the birds and fields of Tandragee. He hopes for peace in Ulster and that "the time soon come around when I return"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 41, "The Hills of Tandragee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2884
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hills of Glensuili" (form, lyrics, tune)
NOTES [167 words]: This is the same song, with only place names and a few words changing the political viewpoint, as "The Hills of Glensuili." The tunes of McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 36, "Glenswilly," and Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 41 are very similar.
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster: "Here's a fairly modern Orange song, and a great favorite among 'the brethren' because they can all join in on the last line of each verse. Dick Bamber, who gave it to me, is generally credited as the writer, but he tells me this is not correct. An old lady who lived beside him in Ballylisk near Tandragee, 'wrote it years ago.' It is a parody of a song she had on an old 78 r.p.m. record called 'The Hills of Glenswilly'. Just how long ago she wrote it he doesn't remember, but he says she gave it to him and he was the first to sing it in public. Now it's an Orange standard."
These songs are not to be confused with "Craiganee," sometimes called "The Hills of Tandragee"; there is no love interest here. - BS
File: MorU041

Hills of Tandragee (II), The

See Craiganee (File: HHH749)

Hills of Tennessee, The

DESCRIPTION: "How we jolly boys did play In the month of merry May As gathered flowers flowing by the stream... When we played among the hills of Tennessee." Those days are long gone, but the singer still recalls his boyhood and how happy he was
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: home youth nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 92, "The Hille of Tennessee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11386
File: Brne092

Hills of Tyrone, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls watching the sun rise this morning in Tyrone. He is already far away, ready to sail away. He reports that his heart is breaking at leaving home, friends, girl. He says he will always regard it as the fairest place on earch
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H609, p. 199, "The Hills of Tyrone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 4, pp. 6,101,156, "Behind Yon Blue Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2925
File: HHH609

Hills, The

DESCRIPTION: "The hills in their glorious height Surround us by day and night. Sing praise to the hills."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 446, "The Hills" (notes only)
NOTES [19 words]: Averill apparently knows a version that includes the line "PROTECT us by day and night," but I haven't seen it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF446

Hillsville, Virginia

See Sidney Allen [Laws E5] (File: LE05)

Hilo March

DESCRIPTION: Hawaiian. "'Auhea wale 'oe e ka 'ala tuberose." "Heed, O fragrance of tuberose." The sweet smell sings to the heart. The singer tells of the beauties of Hilo. He greets the Pu'ulena wind. He says, "Wait until the princess comes."
AUTHOR: Joseph K. Ae'a
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Elbert & Mahoe, Na Mele o Hawai'i Nie, according to Cohen; the music at least is reported to have been written 1881)
KEYWORDS: Hawaii home beauty royalty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 691-692, "Hilo March" (1 Hawaiian text plus English translation)
File: CAFS2691

Hilo, Boys, Hilo

DESCRIPTION: Halyard shanty. "The blackbird sang unto the crow, Ch: Hi-lo boys Hi-lo! I'll soon be takin' you in tow, Ch: Oh! Hilo somebody below." Other verses have the birds talking to each other or to the crew.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong bird
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 254-255, "Hilo, Boys, Hilo," "Hilo, Come Down Below" (2 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 185-186]
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #20, "Hilo Somebody" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8291
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Crow Song (I)" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Shallow Brown (II) (File: Hugi257)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hilo Somebody Below
Hilo Somebody Hilo
NOTES [47 words]: Both [of Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas's] versions are of Negro origin and likely began as cotton-hoosier's songs. - SL
Several verses, indeed, appear to be derived from "The Crow Song (I)." One suspects that this is an adaption of that for use at sea -- or perhaps the reverse. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: Hugi254

Hilo, Come Down Below

See Hilo, Boys, Hilo (File: Hugi254)

Hilo, Johnny Brown

See Sally Brown (File: Doe074)

Hilo, My Ranzo Way

See Huckleberry Hunting (File: Doe032)

Hilo, Somebody

See Hilo, Boys, Hilo (File: Hugi254)

Himmel og Jord

See Music Alone Shall Live (File: FSWB412A)

Hind Etin [Child 41]

DESCRIPTION: Lady Margaret is lured by a sound to Elmond's Wood, where (Akin/Etin) keeps her while she bears 7 sons. The eldest seeks to know why his mother is sad, then accomplishes (a reunion with her family, a pardon for his father, and) a churching for all.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1818 (Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads); Danish versions are said to date to the sixteenth century
KEYWORDS: pregnancy captivity children escape
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Child 41, "Hind Etin" (3 texts)
Bronson 41, "Hind Etin" (2 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 41, "Hind Etin" (2 versions: #1, #2)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 193-200, "Hynde Etin" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 205-209, "Young Aikin" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #157, p. 1, "Young Aiken" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 331, "Young Aiken" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 141-148, "Hind Etin" (2 text -- 1 from Danish)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 36, "Hynd Etin" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 21, "Hind Etin" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 28, "Hind Etin" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 125-127, "Young Aikin" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 51-57, "Hind Etin" (1 text)
DT 41, HINDETIN*
Roud #33
NOTES [75 words]: The notes in Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, following Child, observe that the British versions of this ballad are far less supernatural than the Scandinavian equivalents. This makes it interesting to note that, although Child calls the kidnapper "Etin," most of the handful of field collections call him "Aiken." Was Hind Etin originally thought of as an etin (troll)? And was he then naturalized? I doubt we can answer this with certainty. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: C041

Hind Horn [Child 17]

DESCRIPTION: Jean gives Hind Horn a ring that will tell him if her love remains true. When the ring fades, he sets out for court disguised as a beggar. He shows her the ring, and her love returns. "The bridegroom has wedded the bride but... Hind Horn took her to bed"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1825 (Motherwell)
KEYWORDS: magic love wedding
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,So) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (42 citations):
Child 17, "Hind Horn" (9 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #23}
Bronson 17, "Hind Horn" (23 versions plus 2 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 17, "Hind Horn" (6 version: #2, #4, #4,1, #21, #22, #23)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 59-63, "Hyn Horn" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #80, pp. 1-2, "Hynd Horn"; #172, p. 1, "Hynd Horn" (3 texts)
Greig/Duncan5 1022, "Hynd Horn" (17 texts plus 2 fragments on pp. 621-622, 13 tunes)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 73-80, "Hind Horn" (1 text (with two variant forms) plus a fragment, 2 tunes); pp. 479-481 (additional notes and fragments) {Bronson's #4, #5}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 47-48, "Hind Horn" (1 short text, properly titled "The Jolly Beggar," which might be "Hind Horn" [Child #17] or "The Jolly Beggar" [Child #279] or a mix; 1 tune) {Bronson's #18}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 223-225, "Hind Horn" (1 short text, properly titled "The Jolly Beggar," which might be "Hind Horn" [Child #17] or "The Jolly Beggar" [Child #279] or a mix; 1 tune) {Bronson's #18}
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 22-23, "In Scotland Town Where I Was Born" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 9, "I Gave My Love a Gay Gold Ring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 11-17, "Hind Horn" (3 texts plus 2 fragment, 3 tunes) {C=Bronson's #17, E=#22}
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 5, "Hind Horn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 5, "The Beggarman" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #21}
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 4, "Hind Horn" (1 text, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #2}
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 72-73,246,252, "The Old Beggar Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 19-22,83, "The Old Beggar Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 55, "The Old Beggar Man (Hind Horn)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 32, "The Old Beggar Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 96-100, "Hind Horn" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 35, "Hynd Horn" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 12, "Hind Horn" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a single stanza which might be this ballad -- but could be something else)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 260-262+357, "Hind Horn" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 44, "Hind Horn" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 134-136, "Hynd Horn" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 57-59, "Hind Horn" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 59-61, "Hind Horn" (1 text)
DT 17, HINDHORN HNDHORN2* HNDHORN3*
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke, "American Cowboy and Western Pioneer Songs in Canada" in The Western Folklore, Vol. XXI, No. 4 (Oct 1962 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 249-250, ["The Cowboy's Wedding Ring"] ("A cowboy with his sweetheart stood beneath a starlit sky") (1 text)
Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, p. 407, "Hind Horn" (a prose summary)
RELATED: Versions of the Romance "King Horn" --
Jennifer Fellows, _Of Love and Chivalry: An Anthology of Middle English Romance_, Everyman/J. M. Dent, 1993, pp. 1-41, "King Horn" (1 text, of 1532 lines, based mainly on Cambridge MS. Gg. 4.27.2)
Ronald B. Herzman, Graham Drake, and Eve Salisbury, editors, _Four Romances of England: King Horn, Havelock the Dane, Bevis of Hampton, Athelston_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1999), pp. 17-56, "King Horn" (1 text, of 1545 lines, based mostly on Cambridge MS. Gg. 4.27.2)
Donald B. Sands, editor, _Middle English Verse Romances_, Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1966, pp. 15-54, "King Horn" (1 text, of 1540 lines, somewhat cleaned up, based mostly on Cambridge MS. Gg. 4.27.2)
J. Rawson Lumby, editor (1866), revised (1901) by George H. McKnight, _King Horn, Flori3 and Blauncheflur, The Assumption of our Lady_, Early English Text Society/Oxford University Press, 1901 (reprinted 1962), pp. 1-69, "King Horn" (showing the three manuscripts in parallel)
Walter Hoyt French and Charles Brockway Hale, _Middle English Metrical Romances_, Prentice-Hall, 1930, pp. 25-70, "King Horn" (1 text, nominally of 1530 lines, based mostly on Cambridge MS. Gg. 4.27.2)
John Edwin Wells, _A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1400_, 1916 (references are to the 1930 fifth printing with three supplements), pp. 8-11, "(King Horn)" and "Horne Childe and Maid Rimhild" (prose summaries of the two romances)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #166
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #312
MANUSCRIPT: {MSAuchinleck}, The Auchinleck Manuscript, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 19.2.1, folios 317v-323v "Horn childe and maiden rimnild"
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Laud misc. 108 (Bodleian 1486), folio 219
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, University Library MS. Gg.4.27 (Part 2), folio 11
Roud #28
RECORDINGS:
Edmund Doucette, "The Old Beggar Man" (on MREIves01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kitchie-Boy" [Child 252] (lyrics)
cf. "The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat) (File: K295)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Pale Ring
The Jeweled Ring
The Beggar at the Wedding
NOTES [2624 words]: Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario: "A North American adaptation of the "Hind Horn" story has turned up in Ontario as "The Cowboy's Wedding Ring": the text appears in Western Folklore."
In that text the parting sweethearts promise to be true. Jack gives Nell half of a broken ring: each keeps the half of the ring engraved with the other's name. Jack shows up at Nell's wedding three years later and joins with her father to "drink a toast to this fair young man and his lovely bride." Jack drops his half of the ring into Nell's glass. When she sees Jack's half of the ring she says "It's you, my cowboy sweetheart back, and my Jack I'll wed tonight."
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads is from William Motherwell, Minstrelsy: Ancient and Modern (Glasgow: John Wylie, 1827 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), pp. 36-43, "Hynd Horn." Motherwell says, "An imperfect copy of this very old Ballad appeared in 'Select Scotish Songs, Ancient and Modern,' edited by Mr Cromek [included by Child as 17.D]; but that gentleman seems not to have been aware of the jewel he had picked up, as it is passed over without a single remark. We have been fortunate enough to recover two copies from recitation, which, joined to the stanzas preserved by Mr Cromek, have enabled us to present it to the public in its present complete state." - BS
For Bronson's proposed relationship between this song and "The Whummil Bore" [Child 27], see the entry on the latter piece.
Briggs describes the tale of "Two Irish Lads in Canada"(found in volume A.2., pp. 499-501) as a "modern version" of "Hind Horn."
Literary historians have connected this ballad with the thirteenth century romance "King Horn" (who lost his kingdom to Saracens, then won it and his sweetheart back after heroic adventures) -- but if so, there has been a lot of folk processing along the way.
Child mentions the romance, but notes that the ballad contains only the "catastrophe" of the written epic; Wells, p. 12, considers the ballad to be taken from the "banquet scene of Horne Childe" (the other Horn romance).
The Horn legend found in "King Horn" appears in various forms. CHEL1, p. 304, declares it "a viking story plainly adapted to romantic ends." "King Horn" itself is listed as "the earliest of the extant romances in [Middle English]" (Dickins/Wilson p. 29). Similarly Sands, p. 15, "With the tale of Horn and the fair Rymenhild we have the earliest extant English romance. This distinction it can claim; other distinctions, especially technical and esthetic, are hard to come by. Yet Horn possesses considerably more interest than a good number of competent pieces: it can be regarded as the prototypic Middle English romance." Bennett/Gray, p. 135, say "The oldest extant romance is probably King Horn: oldest both in its manuscript form and in date of composition." This probably explains why it is so often cited.
According to Herzman/Drake/Salisbury, p. 11, it used to be dated c. 1225, but recent studies make it later. But even if the more modern date of perhaps c. 1280 is accepted, that still gives it pride of date. There even seems to be a reference to it in another romance; according to Bennett/Gray, p. 125, an item called the "'Laud' Troy Book" mentions near the end
Of Havelok, Horne and of Wade,
In romaunces that of hem ben made.
(Many other romance heroes are also mentioned, e.g. Bevis [of Hampton], Guy [of Warwick], Sir Gawain, Tristan, Percival, and Roland, so the references in this line are presumably to "Havelock the Dane," "King Horn," and an unknown epic of "Wade." Wade seems to have been an important character in Old English and Germanic folklore, according to Wilson, pp. 16-19, but all that survives is scattered references.)
The complaints about the form of "King Horn" may arise from its antiquity. Derek Pearsall, on p. 26 of Brewer, suggests, "The couplet of Horn is a unique non-alliterative derivative from the alliterative first-half-line, blended with the French trimeter to give a standard line of three stresses, though two and four occur in special contexts. This development of alliterative verse is already well advanced in Laȝamon's Brut, and Horn thus stands midway between Laȝamon, the debt to whom is explicit in a number of borrowed phrases, and the later couplet.... Where they modify the metre of the oldest text, the two later manuscripts of Horn (Laud 108 and Harley 2253) always move toward four-stress regularity, but the clipped, short-breathed lines of the Cambridge Horn, with their sparse, abrupt syntax and lack of articulation, are the perfect complement of the narrative's literary quality and may be considered a deliberate choice."
CHEL1, pp. 287-288, declares, "King Horn is singular in its verse, an example of one stage in the development of modern English metres. It is closely related in prosody to Layamon's Brut, and might be described as carrying through consistently the rhyming couplet, which Layamon interchanges with blank lines. The verse is not governed by the octosyllabic law; it is not of Latin origin; it has a strange resemblance to the verse of Otfried in Old High German and to the accidental riming passages in Old English.... There is no other romance in this antique sort of verse."
Alternately, it may simply be massively corrupt; so apparently Rosamund Allen.
Anne Scott, on p. 39 of Brewer, reports that "The short, alliterating couplets in the poem which occur in the Cambridge and Oxford versions and its terse, rhythmical style give the poem a songlike quality and have led both early and later critics to liken the poem to a ballad." It is not, however, anything like an English ballad, and would not fit a standard tune.
Mehl, p. 49, makes the observation that although it is found in three early manuscripts, "The later collections that contain a greater number of romances have not included it." This implies that its early popularity faded -- or that it went into the hands of the folk at a very early date, which would explain why the ballad is so unlike the romance. Fellows, p. xi, quotes Rosamund Allen to the effect that the three manuscripts are a literary miscellany from Herefordshire, probably made by am amateur copyist; part of a mixed collection of religious and secular narratives; and an addition to a collection of saints' lives -- suggesting that perhaps the story was considered to go with the tales of saints.
Wilson, p. 27, suggests that the story of Horn is based on an actual historical event, but if so, it has been lost from actual history. CHEL1, p 287 elaborates: "it has been suggested that the original Horn was Horm, a Danish viking of the ninth century who fought for the Irish king Cearbhall, as Horn helped King Thurston in Ireland against the Payns, i.e. the heathen invaders with their giant champion. Also, it is believed that Thurston, in the romance, may be derived from the Norwegian leader Thorstein the Red, who married a grand-daughter of Cearbhall. But, whatever the obscure turh may be, the general fact that Horn's wanderings and adventures are placed in scenery and conditions resembling those of the ninth and tenth centuries in the relations between Britain and Ireland." Maybe -- but none of that has gone into the ballad.
The romance of "King Horn" exists in three manuscripts (Dickens/Wilson, p. 30; Sands, p15): Cambridge University Library Gg.4.27.II (late XIII century, according to Dickens/Wilson; c. 1250 according to Sands), Bodleian Laud Misc. 108 (early XIV century, according to Dickens/Wilson), and B.M. Harley 2253 (written by a scribe who can be shown to have been active in 1314 and to still have been working until at least 1346, baesd on his other works; Fein, p. 8), the latter the famous source of the "Harley Lyrics." The Cambridge manuscript is, however, considered by Sands to be the best as well as the oldest copy; so too Fein, p. 6 (Dickens/Wilson prefer Harley). The original composition is dated c. 1225 based on the language; the dialect seems to place it in the south or the midlands (Sands p. 15).
The legend also appears in a French epic, "Horn et Rimel," and there is a second English version, probably of the fourteenth century, called "Horne Childe" (Dickins/Wilson, p. 29) or "Horne Childe and Maiden Rimnild" (Mehl, p. 48). Benet, p. 516, says that "Horne Childe" is "generally called The Geste of King Horn. The nominal author is a certain Mestre Thomas." (However, Bennett/Gray, p. 135, argue that "the later and longer Anglo-Norman romance of Horn by one Thomas is clearly related to [i.e. derived from] some version of this poem." (This point is, naturally, disputed.) What is certain is that "Horne Childe" is a tail rhyme romance (Mehl, p. 52), and as far as I know no tail rhyme romance has ever been clearly linked to a traditional song. In any case, the general feeling is that "Horne Childe" is not as well constructed as "King Horn," even if it is better poetry. For a bibliography of works on "Horne Childe," see Rice, p. 295, who calls it "Horn Child." It is, interestingly, one of the shortest bibliographies in her book; "Horn Child" does not seem to have been much valued by scholars. The much fuller bibliography for King Horn occupies pp. 307-314, which lists 18 editions although many of them are not really publicly available.
Sands, p. 15, makes the interesting note that "King Horn" "lacks chivalrous ideas" -- a hint, perhaps, of folk rather than courtly origin. Keen, p. 131, observes that it shows some aspects typical of tales of the period: "Medieval authors had a passion for disguises; the irony of the situation in which enemies or livers met incognito seems to have endlessly delighted them. So one will find Hind Horn coming to the presence of his beloved Rimenheld in the guise of an old woman... and Ippomedon tourneying before his lady in a series of disguises." Similarly Herzman/Drake/Salisbury, p. 13: "The story contains unexplained actions and situations that can only be explained beause the poet is referring, sometimes incompletely, to folk tale sources. One 'folk-tale non sequitur' Barron notes is that Horn gives no particular reason for hiding his true identity. And John Speirs sees misty connections to mythology in the symbol of Horn himself -- to the Horn of Plenty and ultimately the Holy Grail."
According to Garnett/Gosse, volume i, p. 115, "King Horn is another romance with a Scnadinavian groundwork going back to the time of the expeditions of the Danish Vikings before their conversion to Christianity." CHEL1, p. 218, also lists the legend as being of Danish origin, naturalized in the period around 1200. Dickens/Wilson, pp. 29-30, amplify this: "the story is usually supposed to be based on events which took place during the Anglo-Saxon conquest or the Viking raids. This is plausible enough, but any basis in fact that there might originally have been can now distinguished from the mass of folk-tale with which it has been overlaid, nor is it possible to localize the events." We might conjecture, however, that the "Suddene" of the poem (although often interpreted as some such place as the Isle of Wight, according to Sands, p. 16) is in fact Sweden. (Which in turn hints that Horn might be the Scyld Scefing of Beowulf, but that has little to do with the matter of this ballad.)
GArnett-IHearAmericaSinging and Gosse, p. 115, add that the piece has "no great poetical merit." Herzman/Drake/Salisbury, p. 12, suggest that it is unusually well plotted, but AS POETRY it isn't much. In support of this we might note that the meter is so irregular that scholars have not even managed to agree on whether it's supposed to be trochaic or iambic! Bennett/Gray, p. 135, have a possible explanation for this, describing the piece as consisting of "just over 1,500 short and rather jerky lines in a metre probably deriving -- like Layamon's Brut -- from the old English alliterative measure."
Sands, p. 16, explains this on the grounds that it is "a transitional piece. It contains the rhymed couplet introduced from the French, but does not lengthen the two- and three-stress lines taken over from the Old English half-line into the usual tetrameter line of later romances. It hovers between the older trochaic rhythm and the coming iambic and never really favors one over the other, a feature perhaps which prompts Kane to remark that the prosody 'sometimes looks and possibly is incompetent.'" - RBW
The magic stones of the ring in "King Horn" make the wearer invulnerable; Horn is to look at the ring just to remind him of her (French/Hale, "King Horn," ll. 541-576) He happens to return to Westernesse after seven years when "word bigan to springe Of Rymenhilde weddinge" (French/Hale, ll. 1007-1018). The rest of the story, including the return of the ring in the wine horn (French/Hale, ll. 1159-1170) agrees well enough with the plot, for example, of Child 17B.
The magic stones of the ring in "Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild" have the property of changing color, as in the ballad, when Rimnild changes her mind or loses her maidenhead (Mills, ll. 565-576)) It happens that when seven years have passed that Horn notices that the stones have changed color (Mills, ll. 836-840). Here too, the ring is returned in a wine cup (Mills, ll. 994-996).
Child notes the similarities in plot between the ballad and "Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild." However, he denies that "the special approximations of the ballads to the romance of Horn Child oblige us to conclude that these, or any of them, are derived from that poem." He goes on further to say "It is often assumed, without a misgiving, that oral tradition must needs be younger than anything that was committed to writing some centuries ago; but this requires in each case to be made out; there is certainly no antecedent probability of that kind." - BS
Several other ballads also derive loosely or from Middle English romance, or from the legends that underlie it, examples being:
* "King Orfeo" [Child 19], from "Sir Orfeo" (3 MSS., including the Auchinlek MS, which also contains "Floris and Blancheflour")
* "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" [Child 31], from "The Weddynge of Sir Gawe and Dame Ragnell" (1 defective MS, Bodleian MS Rawlinson C 86)
* "Blancheflour and Jellyflorice" [Child 300], from "Floris and Blancheflour" (4 MSS, including Cambridge Gg.4.27.2, which also contains "King Horn," and the Auchinlek MS, which also contains "Sir Orfeo")
Of these ballads from romances, this is the only one that really seems to have gone solidly into tradition ("Sir Orfeo" came from tradition, but in circumstances that make a minstrel origin a strong possibility).
Child has a very extensive discussion of the relationship between this ballad and the literary romances.
Incidentally, it appears that some of the language of "King Horn" influenced J. R. R. Tolkien. Not surprising; he lectured on the text of the romance at Oxford in 1927 (ScullHammond, p. 139). I have not yet found any traces of what he said -- which is singularly unfortunate, given that he knew both the romances and the folklore of ballads so well; he might well have had much to say about the piece. TolkienLetters, p. 361, says that Tolkien used "Westerness" as a translation of "Numinor," which he declared was "known to [him] only in MS. C [the Cambridge manuscript] of King Horn. (Line 161 in Sands (p. 21) and Herzman/Drake/Salisbury (p. 21); line 171 in Lumby (p. 8), which shows that the other two (inferior) manuscripts of the romance read "westnesse." - RBW
Greig: "The tune to which 'Hynd Horn' is sung seems to be the original form of 'Logan Braes,' and is associated with many other songs and ballads. As far as my records show, it is the most common folk-tune we have." - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: C017

Hindside Afore

See Her Age It Was Red (File: Gil105)

Hine Ma Tov

See Hineh Ma Tov (File: ACSF446H)

Hineh Ma Tov

DESCRIPTION: Hebrew round: "Hineh ma tovumah nayim Shevet achim gam yachad." "How goodly it is and how pleasant For brethren to dwell together."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cray-AshGrove)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage brother nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 446, "Hine Ma Tov" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "Hiney Mah Tov" (1 Hebrew text with translation, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 13)
Cray-AshGrove, p. 25, "Hi-ne-mah Tov" (1 text, 2 tunes [presented on a single staff, so it's hard to tell where one stops and the other starts])
RECORDINGS:
Fran Block, "Hine Ma Tov" (Piotr-Archive #539, recorded 03/09/2023)
NOTES [63 words]: No one seems to be able to agree on how to transliterate the Hebrew here; I chose the spelling I thought least likely to result in bad jokes. The Hebrew text is as given in "Songs of Many Nations" except for that.
The text is adapted from Psalm 133:1, which the King James version renders, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ACSF446H

Hiney Ma Tov

See Hineh Ma Tov (File: ACSF446H)

Hingin' on the Nail

DESCRIPTION: The singer, forty-four, has spent her life "hinging on the nail." She thinks she's not too bad looking though "the shadow o' my former sel'." She doesn't care about looks or brains "if only he would act his part, and ease me aff the nail"
AUTHOR: Alexander G Murdoch (1843-1891) (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #160)
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Murdoch's _The Laird's Lykewake and Other Poems_, according to Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #160 and Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #89, p. 2, "Hingin' on the Nail" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1380, "Hingin' on the Nail" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6271
File: GrD71380

Hinkumbooby

See Looby Lou (File: R554)

Hinky Dicky, Parlee-Voo

See Mademoiselle from Armentieres (File: RL513)

Hinky Dinky Parley-Voo?

See Mademoiselle from Armentieres (File: RL513)

Hip, Hip, Hooray

See The Twenty-Fourth of May (File: MaWip35)

Hippety Hop to the Baker Shop

See Hippety Hop to the Barber Shop (File: AJRR190)

Hippety Hop to the Barber Shop

DESCRIPTION: Jumprope rhyme. "Hippety hop to the (bakers/barber) shop To buy a stick of candy, One for you and one for me And one for sister Annie." Or perhaps "Hop, hop, to the baker shop, And see how long it takes you.... Your mother will be there."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: jumprope commerce food mother courting | candy
FOUND IN: US(MA) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #190, "Hippety Hop to the Baker Shop" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 164-165, "Hop, Hop, to the Baker's Shop" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #19279
NOTES [22 words]: I'm not absolutely sure the Abrahams and Brady texts are the same, but the first lines are so close that I've filed them together. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR190

Hiram Hubbard

See Hiram Hubbert [Laws A20] (File: LA20)

Hiram Hubbert [Laws A20]

DESCRIPTION: Hiram Hubbard is captured and brought to trial. Although he is not guilty of anything, he is tried and convicted on the evidence of his captors. He makes a will and is summarily shot. (He is reported to have been ninety miles from the crime scene.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909
KEYWORDS: trial execution lastwill trial Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws A20, "Hiram Hubbert"
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 48, pp. 171-172, "Hiram Hubbert" (1 text)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 77, "Hiram Hubbard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #32, Hiram Hubbard" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 367, HIRAMHUB*
Roud #2208
RECORDINGS:
Jean Ritchie & Doc Watson, "Hiram Hubbard" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchiteWatsonCD1)
NOTES [94 words]: Reported to be "an echo of the guerilla warfare in the [Kentucky/Tennessee?] Highlands during the Civil War" (indeed, the RItchie text refers explicitly to rebels) This strikes me as not unlikely. These regions were filled with Unionists who did not like the fact that their states had put them into the Confederacy. It took the Union two years to get troops to Knoxville. Until they did, there was generally trouble between the locals and the Confederate government.
I have not located any actual references to a Hiram Hubbard who was executed in this period. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LA20

Hirdie, The

See The Herd Laddie (The Herdie) (File: Ord269)

Hireing Fairs of Ulster, The

See The Hiring Fairs of Ulster (File: OLcM025)

Hireman Chiel, The

DESCRIPTION: A baron's son disguised as a laborer wins the heart of a young lady. Her parents do not approve, but they escape together and at last the young man reveals his station.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Greig/Duncan5)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A baron's son, told by his father to marry, disguises himself as a laborer to find a lady who will marry for love. He sees a beauty at a castle gate, and gets himself hired by the grieve. The lady falls in love (of course), and writes him a letter to arrange a meeting. They meet, declare their love, and arrange to meet again by night, with the young man's assurances not to wrong her honor. They begin meeting every night, and her parents become suspicious. She tells the young man of her father's threats to hang him, and he scoffs at them. But they are overheard and confronted by her mother. The young man departs, telling the mother her daughter is still marriageable. A nobleman courts and wins the young lady, but as they are going to be married the young man reappears and the two lovers escape. The father pursues them to the young man's home. His identity revealed, the young man asks the father's blessing, saying, "Seven years I served for her sake, But now I've got my fee."
KEYWORDS: courting disguise nobility worker love virginity family
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 480-486, "The Hireman Chiel" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #146, pp. 1-2, "The Hireman Chiel"; #67, pp. 1-2, "The Hireman Chiel" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan5 1055, "The Hireman Chiel" (11 texts plus a fragment on p. 636, 7 tunes)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 64, "The Hireman Chiel" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix)
ST DBuch64 (Full)
Roud #5624
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Errol on the Green" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Baron Turned Ploughman
NOTES [36 words]: That last section ("Seven years I served for her sake, But now I've got my fee") sounds to me very much like an echo of the story of Jacob, Rachel, and Laban (Gen. 29:15-30) -- but I suppose it could be coincidence. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: DBuch64

Hiring Fair at Hamiltonsbawn, The

DESCRIPTION: At the Hamiltonsbawn hiring fair the singer hires for six winter months to Tom McCann. After one good meal, the food "no human eye could stand," the work is hard, the fleas unbearable at night. "My trousers got too wide ... my hair got like a wig"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: humorous hardtimes farming food bug work clothes bug
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 23, "The Hiring Fair at Hamiltonsbawn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bad Luck Attend the Old Farmer" (subject: hiring fair servant's half-year term hard times)
NOTES [79 words]: Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster: "If you travel the road from Armagh City to Tandragee, you pass through the snug town of Hamiltonsbawn.... Hiring fairs were in full swing up to fifty years ago and the one at 'the Bawn' is remembered as recently as forty years ago [c.1929].... May and November seem to have been the months favoured for 'hiring'; no doubt because May marked the beginning of the harvest season and November heralded preparation of the ground and planting." - BS
File: MorU023

Hiring Fair, The

DESCRIPTION: On the way to Strabane, or Antrim, singer meets a maid on the way to the hiring fair. He offers his umbrella to keep her from the rain. They stop for drinks and miss the fair. They spend the night, marry next day, and have been happy since.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (IRTunneyFamily01); c.1845 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.1270(018))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage drink work travel
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 39, "The Hiring Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 24, "The Hiring Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 14, pp. 34-35,106,162, "The Strabane Hiring Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2516
RECORDINGS:
Michael Gallagher, "The Hiring Time" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Feeing Time (I)" (plot)
NOTES [64 words]: This follows the same general story line as "The Maid of Lismore" but ends happily. - BS
The similarity to "The Feeing Time (I)" is even greater; it's esentially the same plot, and there are some common lyrics as well. They maybe the same song; Roud lumps them. But it clearly falls into Scottish and Irish families, so -- with some hesitation -- I've allowed them to stay separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcHiriFa

Hiring Fairs of Ulster, The

DESCRIPTION: In May there are hiring fairs for servants in Ulster. Plough boys, dairy maids, cowboys and shoe boys, labouring boys and kitchen maids are interviewed by farmers. "The servants' wages now should rise" to offset rising prices
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry); 19C (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.7(31))
KEYWORDS: work nonballad money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 25, "The Hiring Fairs of Ulster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 89-90, "The Hireing Fairs of Ulster" (1 text)
Roud #6533
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.7(31), "The Hireing Fairs of Ulster" ("Good people all atention [sic] pay"), P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867
LOCSinging, as105370, "The Hireing Fairs of Ulster," P. Brereton (Dublin), n.d.
NOTES:
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hiring of the Servants" (subject)
cf. "Copshawholm Fair" (subject)
NOTES [12 words]: Broadsides LOCSinging as105370 and Bodleian 2806 c.7(31) are duplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: OLcM025

Hiring of the Servants, The

DESCRIPTION: "The time of the hiring is coming." Working conditions on Irish farms are hard and "not like the day of the good old time." Farmers are warned that Ireland's youth are going to England for better wages; "You must double their wages or give up your land"
AUTHOR: Patrick O'Sullivan (source: broadside Bodleian 2806 c.8(218))
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (recording, Jamesy McCarthy)
KEYWORDS: farming England Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #12936
RECORDINGS:
Jamesy McCarthy, "Come To the Hiring" (on Voice20)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.8(218), "The Hiring of the Servants" ("Young men and maidens draw near for awhile"), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Spailpin Fanac" and references there
cf. "The Hiring Fairs of Ulster" (subject)
File: RcHirOTS

Hirrum Tirrum

DESCRIPTION: The singer would visit a lass at night. She says her modesty won't permit that. He convinces her she has nothing to fear. She leaves the door open for him so he can come at any hour. They go to bed. "I stole her virgin bloom, And then I left her alone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: seduction sex virginity dialog nightvisit abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 773, "Hirrum Tirrum" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #6189
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rise and Let Me In
Come Canny!
NOTES [16 words]: Greig/Duncan4: "From Peter Murray at Tillyorn about sixty years ago. Noted 24th July 1907." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4773

His Jacket Was Blue

See Jacket So Blue, The (The Bonnet o' Blue) (File: FSC43)

His Lordship Had a Coachman

DESCRIPTION: His Lordship discharges coachman John. John claims to be the finest coachman alive. To demonstrate, "I'll drive you all around Belfast town, And I won't go through a street." His Lordship agrees John can keep his job if he succeeds. John keeps his job.
AUTHOR: Fred Ginnet (source: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: humorous wordplay servant unemployment
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 9, "His Lordship Had a Coachman" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [123 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: "The song dates from 1888 when the Lord Mayor was Sir James Horner Haslett." The trick to the song is that it "takes us all around Belfast without going through a single street!" So, the tour goes up Rugby Road, down Agincourt Avenue, South Parade, Carrickfergus Way, King Street Mews, Glengall Place, and the like. - BS
Jonathan Bardon, A History of Ulster, Blackstaff Press, 1992, first mentions Haslett on pp. 382-383 as MP for West Belfast, defeated in the "home rule" election of 1886 by Catholic votes. He became Lord Mayor not too long after, for he greeted Queen Victoria when she visited the city in 1888. He later went back to parliament as the member from North Belfast, and died in office in 1905. - RBW
File: Leyd009

His Name So Sweet

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Lord, I just come from the fountain (x3) His name so sweet." "Poor sinner, do you love Jesus, Yes, yes, I do love my Jesus, Poor sinner, do... His name so sweet." "Class leader, do you love Jesus?" "'Sidin' elder, do you love Jesus?" "Brother, do..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1997 (Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, p. 52, "His Name So Sweet" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: WarSp052

His Wants

See Rye Whiskey; also The Rebel Soldier (File: R405)

Historian, The

See I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song) (File: R410)

History ob de World, De

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

History of Prince Edward Island, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of the "dismal fate" of the Island. He complains that the rich folk of Canada have "made us slaves and sold Prince Edward Isle." He tells of a time of troubles and of many leaving their homes. At last he too must depart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: Canada lament exile political patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1867 - Prince Edward Island declines to join the newly-formed Canadian Confederation
1873 - Prince Edward Island joins Canada
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 256-257, "The History of Prince Edward Island" (1 text)
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 120-121, "Prince Edward Isle, Adieu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 108-110, "Prince Edward Isle, Adieu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 230-233,253, "Prince Edward Isle, Adieu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 46-49, 199, "Prince Edward Island, Adieu" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Douglas Baldwin, _Land of the Red Soil: A Popular History of Prince Edward Island_, 1998; Ragweed Press, 2000, p. 148, "Prince Edward Island, Adieu" (1 text)
Roud #4517
NOTES [221 words]: According to Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, Prince Edward Island has a long history of trouble with government. The original settlement left the island owned primarily by a handful of absentee landlords who had little sympathy for the common people. When the Canadian Confederation was formed, PEI at first opted out. When Confederation was at last passed, a number of Islanders fled to New England.
Despite their fears, Confederation was probably good for PEI. The Canadian government bought out the absentee landholders, allowing the local residents the chance to own the land.
Various poets have been suggested as the author of the verses. Larry Gorman, naturally, has been mentioned -- but it hardly sounds like his work. Other candidates include Larry Doyle and "a schoolteacher named Fitzgerald." Ives, on pp. 46-50 of Ives-LarryGorman, admits to vacillating in the face of conflicting evidence -- but he prints it, implying that he thinks it might be by Gorman. Douglas Baldwin's history attributes it to *both* Gorman *and* Doyle, which seems unlikely -- Gorman wasn't the sort of person to collaborate.- RBW
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland: "Briefly ... it is a ... view of the political situation around 1880.... The song has been a significant presence in Island folklore for over a century." - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Doe256

History of the World

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Hit at the Times, A (Root, Hog, or Die VIII)

DESCRIPTION: "Way out upon the Platte, near Pikes Peak, we were told, There by a little digging, we could get a pile of gold." It is a hard life. Many -- surveyors, doctors, preachers -- exploit the miners, who in the end must "root, hog, or die"
AUTHOR: Words: A. G. McGrew (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Oklahoma Times, February 17, 1859, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining travel hardtimes derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 114-115, "A Hit at the Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die" [Laws B21] (tune, lyrics) and references there
File: LDC114

Hit Him

DESCRIPTION: "Hit him. Hit him -- my man John -- hit him. A slap with a pan. Hit him -- blackbird. Hit him -- bluebird. All hands lay on't." Chant used to manage punishment on convict ships.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger)
KEYWORDS: ship punishment nonballad
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 2, page headed "I asked Joe..."], "(no title)" (1 short text)
File: FaWaHitH

Hitchin May-Day Song

See May Day Carol (File: JRSF238)

Hitchy-Koo

DESCRIPTION: "If you've got an ear for music then just gather near, Tell me, can't you hear it buzzin' in your ear?... It's your ever-lovin' honey calling baby dear." "It's the cutest little thing, Got the cutest little swing, Hitchy-koo, hitchy-koo, hitchy-koo."
AUTHOR: Words: L. Wolfe Gilbert / Music: Lewis F. Muir and Maurice Abrams (source: Sheet music published by F. A. Mills)
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: music love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 22-23, "Hitchy Koo" (1 text)
Roud #V25001
RECORDINGS:
[Arthur] Collins & [Byron] Harlan, "Hitchy-Koo" (Columbia A-1226, 1913; recorded 1912)
NOTES [167 words]: According to Wikipedia, this was so popular that it was featured in Broadway reviews from 1917 to 1920 and was a hit in both Britain and America.
Spaeth, p. 406, seems to say that the first of these revues was by Raymond Hitchcock and E. Ray Goetz, while p. 427 says the 1920 edition (which he calls "Hitchy Koo" rather than "Hitchy-Koo") featured music by none other than Jerome Kern, with words by Glen MacDonough and Anne Caldwell. Pp. 500-501 says that Cole Porter also wrote for the Hitchy-Koo revues. According to Jasen, p. 225, Porter's first hit, "Old Fashioned Garden," was from the 1919 "Hitchy-Koo" revue, although it was a sentimental song rather than the sort of clever song he wrote later. (Indeed, Ewen, p. 254, says that while Porter wrote about a dozen songs for the Hitchy-Koo of 1919, "Old Fashioned Garden" was an earlier song he resurrected for the show.)
Gardner, p. 296, estimates that this was the sixteenth most popular song in America in 1912, peaking at #4 in December 1912. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW022

Hitler Has Only Got One Ball

DESCRIPTION: To the tune of the Colonel Bogey march: "Hitler has only got one ball, Goering has two, but they are small. Himmler has something sim'lar, But poor Goebbels has no balls at all."
AUTHOR: unknown (music by Lieutenant F. J. Ricketts, also known as Kenneth J. Alford, 1881–1945; published 1914)
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: nonballad injury | Hitler
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 186, "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 24, "(Hitler has only got one ball)" (1 mention, from user John5918, posted August 29, 2021)
DT, HITLERBA*
Roud #10493
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Colonel Bogey March" (tune)
cf. "Comet" (tune)
NOTES [48 words]: Note that, although the Colonel Bogey march is now primarily associated with the movie "The Bridge on the River Kwai," that movie was made in 1958. Thus this song did not derive the tune from the movie; it already had it. For more on the tune, see Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 175-176
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Hopk186

Hitler in Bits

DESCRIPTION: "This is the year of forty-one." Hitler "made a Poland that we could not understand"; we hope he comes to Newfoundland. "He thought he was going to rule us" "I suppose he will be over ... And he'll go back to Germany with his yellow planes in bits"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: war nonballad patriotic | Hitler
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30129
RECORDINGS:
Frank Shanahan, "Hitler in Bits" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3HiiBi

Hitler, Hitler Looks Like This

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Hitler, Hitler looks like this, Mussolii bows like this, Sonya Henie skates like this, Betty Grable misses like this."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Evening Bulletin, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | Hitler Mussolini
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, # 192, "Hitler, Hitler looks like this" (1 text)
File: AJRR192

Hitler, Hitler, I've Been Thinking

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Hitler, Hitler, I've been thinking, What in the world have you been drinking. Smells like beer, tastes like wine, O, my gosh, it's turpentine. How many bottles did you drink? One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: drink jumprope | Hitler turpentine
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #19, "(Hitler, Hitler, I've Been Thinking)"; #89, "(Hitler, Hitler, I've been thinking)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #181, "Hitler, Hitler, I've been thinking" (1 text)
NOTES [33 words]: Although the first line is obviously reminiscent of "Reuben and Rachel," the form of the rest implies that it is something else, even though Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes considers this a parody of that. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRV019

Hitler's Song

DESCRIPTION: Overnight Old Nick grows a mustache on Hitler. Convinced that this miracle assures him "we'll conquer the world" he starts the war "like a wild maniac." He and his friends are doomed: "when we get through The pieces we leave will be too small to mend"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: war humorous nonballad patriotic Devil | Hitler
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 177-181, "Hitler's Song (sung to the tune of the 'Squid Jiggin' Ground')" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25323
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Squid-Jiggin' Ground" (tune)
File: Guig177

HMS Ariel Song

DESCRIPTION: "Air-i-el, Shades of Hell, What a place to live in. Rain all round, Weather bound, Gone to ground and never be found For years and years, Confirms our fears That we're forgotten numbers. Here are we till eternity...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy hardtimes derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 107, "HMS 'Ariel' Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. Heykens's "Serenade No. 1" (tune)
cf. "Pump, Suck, Blow" (tune)
File: Tawn078

HMS Exeter Song

DESCRIPTION: "When the Exeter went on patrol, We all put our woolies on, But south of the border is more in our line, Or the land of the Rising Sun.... But a certain marine down the fore magazine Said, 'Buet mon droit, bless 'em all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: ship clothes travel navy
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 1, 1942 - Sinking of HMS Exeter
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 88, "HMS 'Exeter' Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bless 'Em All" (tune)
NOTES [174 words]: According to M. J. Whitley, Cruisers of World War II: An International Encyclopedia, Arms and Armour Press, 1995, p. 94, HMS Exeter, the only cruiser of her class, was laid down at Devonport on August 1, 1928, launched July 18, 1929, and completed July 27, 1931; she was sunk March 1, 1942. She was a heavy cruiser, but a rather under-gunned one (the result of British naval economies), with just six 8" guns (a normal heavy cruiser would have eight or more) and a rather poky design speed of 32 knots. She had a tough career, barely avoiding being sunk in her first battle and then being destroyed in her second campaign.
This song is largely right: even though Exeter was a British ship, she spent most of her World War II career in the southern hemisphere, first while chasing the German Graf Spee and then in the south Pacific defending the Malay Barrier from Japan. It was there that she was sunk in the aftermath of the Battle of the Java Sea. For a fuller overview of her career, see the notes to "The Sinking of the Graf Spee." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Tawn066

Ho Boys Ho

See Ho for California (Banks of Sacramento) (File: E125)

Ho for California (Banks of Sacramento)

DESCRIPTION: The "plot" of the song varies widely, according to its use by pioneers, sailors, or gold-diggers. The chorus is fixed: "(Then) Ho! (boys), Ho! To California go! There's plenty of gold in the world, we're told, on the banks of the Sacramento"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Journal of William F. Morgan of the La Grange)
KEYWORDS: gold shanty travel
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1849 - California gold rush
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Australia Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 125, "California" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 70, "Ho, Boys, Ho" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 68-70, "Sacramento" (3 texts, 2 tunes, though the last of these derives its verses from "Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid)")
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 105-106, "Sacramento" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 39-40, "Banks of Sacramento" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 109-110, "Banks of Sacramento" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 106-114, "California," "Sacramento" (7 texts-1 in German, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 95-100]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 11, "Sacramento" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 149, "De Hamborger Viermaster" (2 texts, German & English, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 82-83, "The Banks of Sacramento" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 69, "Sacramento" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 110-111, "California"; 111, "The Banks of Sacramento" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 37, "On the Banks of the Sacramento" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 42, "Sacramento" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 91, "Banks of the Sacramento" (1 fragmentary text, in which the singer seeks girls rather than gold; 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 174-176, "The California Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 655-656, "Ho! For California!" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 88, "Sacramento" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 14-15, "Ho! For California!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 38, "Sacramento" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 32, "Hoodah Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 34, "Hooday-Day" (1 text)
OneTuneMore, p. 26, "Sacramento" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 158-159, "(De) Camptown Races--(Sacramento)"
DT, SACRMNTO* SACRMNT2*
ADDITIONAL: "On Shanties," article in E(neas) S(weetland) Dallas, editor, _Once a Week_, New Series, Number 31, August 1, 1868 (published by Bradbury and Evans and available on Google Books), p. 92, "(Blow, boys, blow, for California, O)" (1 excerpt)
Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Sacramento" is in Part 2, 7/21/1917.
Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, p. 320, "Banks of Sacramento" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart Gordon, _A History of the World in Sixteen Shipwrecks_, ForeEdge, 2015, p. 176, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #319
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "Sacramento" (on LEnglish02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (tune)
cf. "A Capital Ship" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Californi-O
Blow, Boys, Blow for Californi-O
Der Hamborger Veermaster
Der Hamborger Vullrigger
NOTES [109 words]: Possibly created and certainly popularized by the Hutchinson Family (who published a text in their 1855 songbook), versions of this song are found throughout the U.S., and are well-known among sailors.
The texts are diverse (Hugill, for instance, has a version in which a sailor courts a girl and winds up with a venereal disease), but most seem to be related to the California gold rush. The tune is a variation on "Camptown Races," perhaps in turn based on "A Capital Ship."
(Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, however, lists it as being sung to "De Boatman Dance. There appears to have been some re-writing to make it fit that melody.) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: E125

Ho-Hum, Nobody's Home

See Hey, Ho, Nobody Home (File: FSWB412G)

Ho, Ho, Watanay

See Iroquois Lullaby (Ho, Ho, Watanay) (File: FMB002)

Ho! For a Rover's Life; or The Song of the Pirate

DESCRIPTION: "Ho! for a rover's life, Battle and stormy strife! Fearless he braves Wild wind and waves." The pirate courts "the dark-eyed maid" with his guitar. He sets out to attack a ship; the enemy is a warship, and hi is killed crying "Stand to your guns!"
AUTHOR: John H. Hewitt (1801-1890) (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (sheet music, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate courting death music
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 57, "Ho! For a Rover's Life; or The Song of the Pirate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V39487
File: FrPi057

Hob-Y-Derri-Dando

DESCRIPTION: Welsh shanty often sung mixing English verses and the Welsh chorus. The translation of the Welsh version has a chorus something like "Jane, sweet Jane, full of charm, the birds are singing merrily."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Welsh shanty often sung mixing English verses and the Welsh chorus. The translation of the Welsh version has a chorus something like "Jane, sweet Jane, full of charm, the birds are singing merrily." The most common English verses featured nonsense rhymes about "Davy Davy" from Nevin and various members of his family. However other versions also borrowed from "Sally Brown" among others. The English verses sung to this were also often put to the tune of another Welsh shanty, "Mochyn Du.
KEYWORDS: shanty foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Britain Wales
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 525-528, "Hob-Y-Derri-Dando" (4 texts-English & Welsh, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mochyn Du" (English verses often interchanged with this)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hob-Y-Derrin-Dando
File: Hugi525

Hoban Boys, The

DESCRIPTION: On the night of October 27, a hurricane blows in. The next day, the singer sees the wrecks of the Minnie and Lilly & Jim. The singer's own Mayflower has been towed to St Pierre and looted; they pay the fee to the French, clear customs, and head home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: sea ship storm wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 51, "The Hoban Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #28979
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Mayflower" (theme of wreckers) and references there
NOTES [696 words]: "The Hoban Boys" text mentions no year. My guess is that it refers to the October 28, 1921 storm but, while there is documentation for damage by that storm in Trinity Bay and Conception Bay (Fred Martin's site has a list of those losses) and Robert Parsons mentions damage at Hermitage Bay and Fortune Bay, I find no information about losses in between, at Placentia Bay.
Northern Shipwrecks Database, and that database's owner -- David Barron -- also has no specific information about ships lost on that date; he recommends I review microfilm of local papers for that week. I contacted a Placentia Bay newspaper, The Southern Gazette, but they have no information about the storm (they started publication in 1975) and thought "only the Telegram or the defunct Daily News would have recorded that info." The Telegram has not responded to my inquiry.
Neither Ms. Lehr nor Ms. Best could pin down the year for this storm; Ms. Best, noting that "sometimes dates in songs are imperfectly remembered and passed on, as you will no doubt realise" wondered why I would take the dates mentioned in the ballad so literally. Obviously, that's a good point. Even for such a famous sinking as "The Loss of the Atlantic," for which I've seen six distinct versions, Ranson [Songs of the Wexford Coast] p. 88 has the sailing date from Liverpool April 18 -- rather than March 20 -- for a wreck that occurred on April 1; Ranson's other version has the sailing from Queenstown on March 21 -- as should be -- but the departure from Liverpool as March 14.
Any further research will have to be done in Newfoundland. - BS
The place names in the song make it clear that the location is indeed the Placentia Bay. The gale apparently took place October 27 and after. The ships involved are said to be the Minnie (lost on Woody Island), the Lilly and Jim (or Lily and Jim, or some such), the Mayflower, and two ships that were not involved but might rescue the survivors, the Argyle and the Daisy.
The Argyle is the best hint. The most noteworthy Newfoundland ship named Argyle was one of the members of the Alphabet Fleet (for the Alphabet Fleet, see the notes to "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie"), which was placed in service in 1900, and which served in Placentia Bay (Hanrahan, p. 3). she was in service until 1946 (Hanrahan, p. 199) although she was sold in 1941 (Connors, p. 4). That doesn't quite guarantee that the events in the song took place between 1900 and 1946, but it's the way to bet.
The name Daisy is not as clear a hint, but there was a tug Daisy which served in St. John's in 1880 (Power, p. 45). These tugs tended to be utility vessels, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same ship, moved to Placentia Bay when she got older. This would tend to imply a relatively early date.
So does the mention of paying a fee to the French. The French had settled the western parts of Newfoundland in the period before the American Revolution, and even after Britain took over the island, the French had rights on the "French Shore." It wasn't until 1904 that the French gave up their last rights in the region (Noel, p. 34). So I think a case could be made for a date before 1904.
Galgay/McCarthy2, p. 105, has a list of thirteen ships lost on October 28, 1921. As Ben said, none were lost in Placentia Bay, but they were lost on both sides of her, and some of the names might have inspired the names in this song: D. P. Ingram, Jean and Mary, Passport, Prospector, Pansy, Natoma, Brothers, Willis Martin, Dianthus, A. Hardy, Cactus, Gordon, and Galatea.
"The Old Mayflower" also mentions a ship named Mayflower being looted. Whether that describes the same event as this I do not know.
Because the event took place in October, the Minnie involved is presumably not the Minnie which was wrecked on Kelly's Island, January 6, 1886 (Galgay/McCarthy3, p. 160), nor the Minnie Parsons, which was lost on an unknown date in the Strait of Belle Isle, not Placentia Bay (Galgay/McCarthy1, p. 87). Similarly, the Lilly is not the HMS Lily wrecked near Point Amour, Labrador in September, 1889 (Galgay/McCarthy3, pp. 119-128). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: LeBe051

Hobbie Noble

See Hobie Noble [Child 189] (File: C189)

Hobbies, The

DESCRIPTION: In praise of hobbies, "for each has a hobby from cobbler to king." Some have unfortunate hobbies (e.g. "The hobbies of scolds are their husbands to tease,") some have the hobbies of courting; "The Americans'... hobby is Madison, peace, and free trade."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: political sports patriotic nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1809-1817 - Presidency of James Madison
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #50, p. 1, "Hobbies"; #51, pp. 2-3, "Hobbies" (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan8 1914, "Hobbies" (3 texts)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 36-37, "The Hobbies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5632
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Imphm" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
cf. "The Wee Window" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
NOTES [18 words]: Greig quoting his correspondent in 1908: "I have sung it hundreds of times during the last 50 years...." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Arn036

Hobbleton and Jinnikie

DESCRIPTION: "Hobbleton and Jinnikie Be kind to Peter Din." "Ye needna ca' me b.a. [Greig/Duncan8: black arse], Ye never saw my skin"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1723, "Hobbleton and Jinnikie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13141
File: GrD81723

Hobgoblin Nor Foul Fiend

See Who Would True Valour See (He Who Would Valiant Be) (File: AddHWWVB)

Hobie Noble [Child 189]

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells how Hobie, an Englishman exiled to Scotland, was convinced by the traitor Sim of the Mains to raid England. Warned of Noble's coming, the land-sergeant (whose brother Noble had killed) takes him. Noble is hanged at Carlisle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1775 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: borderballad fight punishment execution revenge
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 189, "Hobie Noble" (1 text)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 49-53, "Hobbie Noble" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 516-519, "Hobie Noble" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 252, "Hobie Noble" 1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 381-384, "Hobbie Noble" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 139, "Hobbie Noble" (1 text)
DT 189, HOBINOBL
Roud #4014
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jock o the Side" [Child 187] (characters)
NOTES [110 words]: According to James Reed, The Border Ballads, University of London/The Athlone Press, 1975, p. 70, "Beyond what we learn of him from this ballad and from Jock o' the Side [which also mentions him in some versions], little is known of Hobbie Noble. A 'Hobbe Noble' is mentioned as dwelling 'within the Nyxsons' in a letter to Burghley of 1583, and Edmund Bogg (without offering evidence) says that he was born at Crew Tower, a pele [small fortified dwelling] about two miles north of Bewcastle. It is just possible that he is the 'Hobbe of Cumcrooke, an English outlaw "resett" some time in both countries -- for whose apprehension I shall do my diligence.'" - BW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C189

Hobo Bill's Last Ride

DESCRIPTION: "Riding on an eastbound freight train, speeding through the night, Hobo Bill, a railroad bum, was fighting for his life." Bill dies alone and is found with a smile on his face, but none mourn; "he was just a railroad bum who died out in the cold."
AUTHOR: Waldo O'Neal (born 1908, according to Cohen)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Jimmie Rodgers)
KEYWORDS: death hobo
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 393-396, "Hobo Bill's Last Ride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7513
RECORDINGS:
Gene Autry, "Hobo Bill's Last Ride" (Gennett 7290/Champion 16073/Supertone 9702, 1930; Superior 2769, 1932)
Frank Marvin, "Hobo Bill's Last Ride" (Banner 773/Domino 4601/Jewel 6024/Challenge 785/Romeo 1388/Conqueror 7592 [all as Frankie Wallace], 1930) (Brunswick 474, rec. 1930)
Jimmie Rodgers, "Hobo Bill's Last Ride" (Victor 22421, 1930; rec. 1929/Montgomery Ward 4210)
Hank Snow, "Hobo Bill's Last Ride" (RCA Victor 20-4095, 1951)
File: LRai393

Hobo Diddle De Ho

See Old Bob Ridley (Hobo Diddle De Ho) (File: R499)

Hobo from the T & P Line, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a hobo, gets a job in (Wellford). He courts the boss's daughter; the boss calls him "a bummer, all dressed up." Bidding farewell to the daughter, he sets off down the road with tears in his eyes, vowing to return
AUTHOR: Almoth Hodges & Bob Miller?
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Almoth Hodges w. Bob Miller's Hinky Dinkers)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a hobo, lands in (Wellford), is hired by a boss who gives him easy work and treats him well. He and the boss's daughter court; the boss calls him in, saying, "They say you're a bummer, all dressed up." Singer tells boss he does his work well; if the boss doesn't like it, he'll leave. Bidding farewell to the daughter, he sets off down the road with tears in his eyes, vowing to return
KEYWORDS: grief courting love rambling work boss worker hobo
FOUND IN: US(SW)
Roud #17631
RECORDINGS:
Almoth Hodges with Bob Miller's Hinky Dinkers, "The Hobo from the T & P Line" (Brunswick 399 [in two parts], probably 1930; rec. 1929; Part 1 is on Rose1)
Clayton McMichen, "Bummin' on the I. C. Line" (Varsity 5097, 1930s)
Mary Sullivan, "The T & P Line" (AFS 5099 A, 1941; on LC61)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Farmer's Boy [Laws Q30]" (plot) and references there
NOTES [8 words]: The "T & P" was the Texas and Pacific Railroad. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcTHFTPL

Hobo's Grave, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer comes upon a hobo's grave. The wolves howl over it; the box cars roll on, but the hobo, his father's only son, his mother's pride, lies at rest. There's no stone to mark the spot, no one to watch over it, "none to direct the money or the checque"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1957 (recording, Tom Brandon)
KEYWORDS: loneliness grief burial death mourning hobo
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
Roud #4825
RECORDINGS:
Tom Brandon, "The Hobo's Grave" (on Ontario1)
NOTES [80 words]: The lyrics sound like a commercial "hobo song" from the 1920s, or perhaps a poem, but so far I haven't been able to locate a source from that period. Tom Brandon says he learned it from his brother, who worked in northern Ontario in the 1930s.
The reference to "the money or the checque" suggests the hobo may have been a "remittance man," perhaps an English ne'er-do-well shipped off to Canada and supported by an allowance so that he wouldn't embarrass his wealthy family. - PJS
File: RcHobGra

Hobo's Last Ride (I), The

DESCRIPTION: A hobo lifts his dying partner Jack into a boxcar, then reminisces about their past. He is keeping his promise to take Jack back home to be buried. He sighs for the old days and "for his pal so cold/Who was taking his last long ride"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Buell Kazee)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A hobo lifts his dying partner Jack into a boxcar, then reminisces to him as they ride about the places they've been and the lines they've ridden. He is keeping his promise to take Jack back home to be buried, and laments the doctor who was "too busy with the wealthy folks/To doctor a worn-out bum." As the train rolls east, he sighs for the old days and "for his pal so cold/Who was taking his last long ride"
KEYWORDS: grief poverty rambling train travel burial death dying friend hobo
FOUND IN: US(SE) Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 540, "The Hobo's Last Ride" (1 text)
Roud #9847
RECORDINGS:
Buell Kazee, "The Hobo's Last Ride" (Brunswick 330, 1929; Supertone S-2056, 1930)
Goebel Reeves, "The Hobo's Last Long Ride" (MacGregor 858, n.d.)
Hank Snow, "The Last Ride" (RCA Victor, c. 1959)
Art Thieme, "The Hobo's Last Ride" (on Thieme03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Hobo" [Laws H3] (plot)
NOTES [81 words]: Despite the obvious similarity in plot, this is an entirely separate song from "The Dying Hobo."
The Kazee and Reeves recordings use a tune that Kazee composed as a setting for a poem by A. L. Kirby, which he said he found in a book of Northwest poems. Hank Snow's recording, cited above, uses a different tune, possibly composed by Ted Daffan. To confuse things, Snow recorded another song called "The Hobo's Last Ride," which we have indexed separately as "Hobo's Last Ride (II)."- PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcTHLR

Hobo's Life, A

See The Faggot Cutter (File: FowOn045)

Hobo's Lullabye

DESCRIPTION: "Go to sleep you weary hobo, Let the town drift slowly by. Listen to the steel rails humming, That's the hobo's lullabye." The hobo is urged not to think about tomorrow, to ignore the police (who will not be found in heaven), and to remember mother's love
AUTHOR: Goebel Reeves
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (recording, Goebel Reeves)
KEYWORDS: hobo rambling lullaby
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 410, "Hobo's Lullabye" (1 text)
DT, HOBOLULL*
Roud #16629
RECORDINGS:
Billy Cox & Cliff Hobbs, "The Hobo's Lullaby" (Vocalion 04924/Conqueror 9221, 1939; Conqueror 9352, 1940)
Goebel Reeves, "Hobo's Lullabye" (Champion 45181, 1936); (Vocalion 02828, 1934)
NOTES [34 words]: Although composed, this has become so popular that I think it qualifies as a genuine folk song. Woody Guthrie, for instance, was very fond of it, and many people must have learned it from his singing. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: FSWB410C

Hoboes Grand Convention, The

DESCRIPTION: "If you give me your attention, A few facts I will mention Concerning a convention That was held last fall." The hoboes gather in Montreal, and have a quiet convention, "For every bum was loaded To the neck with alcohol."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: hobo party drink
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 51-52, "The Hoboes Grand Convention" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HOBOCONV*
ST FlBr051 (Partial)
Roud #5445
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hobos' Convention" (subject)
NOTES [23 words]: Unlike most hobo songs, this one is clearly unsympathetic to the hobos; it equates them directlly with bums and indirectly with thieves. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: FlBr051

Hoboes of Maine, The

DESCRIPTION: "All brother Hoboes, I pray come along, I hope you will listen and join in my song." There were many young men traveling the state. They live lousy lives. The Police oppress them. They have "great hope That in some future day they will have further scope"
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Ives-LarryGorman; Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: hobo hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 119-121, 195, "The Hoboes of Maine" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 140-144, "The Hoboes of Maine" (1 text)
Roud #32546
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Chesuncook Road" (subject of travels in Maine)
NOTES [39 words]: The notes in Ives-LarryGorman say that this is one of the few Gorman songs found in broadsides, the others being "The Old Pod Auger Days" and "The Workman." The Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine derives from one of the broadsides. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LaGoHoMa

Hoboken Fire, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on a Saturday evening that the fire bells rang out, The North German Docks are burning! most every one did shout." It is "a picture no artist could paint" as three German ships burn at the docks. Listeners are urged to help the victims
AUTHOR: Larry Lavake
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (Cohen); original publication c. 1900
KEYWORDS: ship fire disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 20, 1900 - Fire at the docks of the North German Lloyd Steamship Company pier in Hoboken, New Jersey
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 128-129, "The Hoboken Fire" (1 text)
File: CAFS1128

Hobos' Convention, The

DESCRIPTION: "You've heard of big conventions... Now get this straight, there's none so great, As when we hobos met." They gather in Portland, Oregon from all over the country. The singer tells of some of the other hobos, then catches a train
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Gordon collection, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: hobo party moniker
FOUND IN: US(NW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 639-640, "The Hobos' Convention" (1 text)
Roud #9843
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hoboes Grand Convention" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hobo Convention at Portland, The
File: CAFS639B

Hobson, the Cobbler

See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Hodge of the Mill and Buxome Nell

See Young Roger of the Mill (File: Log343)

Hoe-Cake, The

See Jinny Get Your Hoecake Done (File: Fus158C)

Hoffnung, De

DESCRIPTION: Hugill lists this as a German version of "Long Time Ago." Translated text tells of a captain making a deal with the devil to get him to port on time. The Devil complies but then the Captain gets the best of him by splicing his tail to the anchor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor Devil bargaining trick
FOUND IN: Germany
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 104-105, "De Hoffnung" (2 texts, German & English)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 182, "De Hoffnung" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Long Time Ago" (tune, chorus)
cf. "Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail" [Laws B17] (theme)
File: Hugi104

Hog and Hominy

See Getting Married (Hog and Hominy) (File: Neel203)

Hog and Tarry

DESCRIPTION: "Hog an tarry, baloo bonny, Hog an tarry, hishy ba; Hog an tarry, baloo bonny, Hog an tarry, hishy ba"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: lullaby
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1555, "Hog and Tarry" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #13516
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blacksmith" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
NOTES [67 words]: Greig/Duncan8: "Spelling doubtful -- possibly should be 'Hogin': meaning unknown. No more words remembered, but one other verse says: 'He's a sailin' on the sea'."
The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text. - BS
How about "Whig and Tory"? Odd words for a lullaby, I grant, but I can imagine a Jacobite mother singing something about "Baloo, my bairnie, Whig and Tory cannae get ye...." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81555

Hog Drovers

DESCRIPTION: Playparty. "Hog drovers (x3) we air, A-courtin' your daughter so handsome and fair. Kin we get a largin' here?" The father turns them down. Others (gold miners, cowboys, etc.) ask for her hand. Most are rejected; one (a farmer?) may be acceptable
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty rejection father children
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Randolph 555, "Hog Rovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, pp. 517-520, "Hog Drovers" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 148, pp. 296-297, "Hog Drovers" (1 text)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 31, "Hog Drovers" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 155-156, "Hog-Drovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 94, "Hog Drovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 98-99, "Five Tinkers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 207, "Hog Drovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame pp. 111-113, "(Hog-drivers, hog-drivers, hog-drivers we air)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #164, "Swine-herders" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 810-812, "Swine-Herders (Hog Drovers)" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Julian Mason, "Owen Wister: Observer in North Carolina," Vol. XX, No. 4 (Nov 1972), pp. 165-166, "Hog Drovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LoF207 (Full)
Roud #3596
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Three Dukes" (plot, lyrics)
NOTES [13 words]: Randolph reports that this is based on the Irish game "The Nine Daughters." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LoF207

Hog Rogues on the Harricane

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, concerning of some gentlemen who lived down below, They followed hog stealing wherever they did go." The set out to catch an old spotted sow -- then steal several sheep. The locals are upset by the crime
AUTHOR: Tom Morgan?
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (collected from Theophilus G. Hoskins)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal theft
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 114-115, "Hog Rogues on the Harricane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15604
File: LoSi114

Hog Rovers

See Hog Drovers (File: LoF207)

Hog-drivers, hog-drivers, hog-drivers we air

See Hog Drovers (File: LoF207)

Hog-Eye (I)

See Roll the Boat Ashore (Hog-eye I) (File: San380)

Hog-eye (II)

See Sally in the Garden (File: CSW067)

Hog-Eye Man (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The Hog-Eye Man [read: "The Vagina-hungry Man"] meets Sally or Jenny or Molly who is lying in the grass or the sand and who does good service with him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922
KEYWORDS: bawdy shanty sex
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 401-404, "The Hog-Eye Man" (8 texts, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 104, "The Hog-Eye Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 54-55, "The Hog-Eye Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 269-272, "The Hog-Eye Man" (3 texts & several fragments, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 199-200]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, V, p. 6, "The Hog-Eyed Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 58-59, "Hog's-Eye Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 410-411, "The Hog-Eye Man" (1 fragment, 1 tune, evidently bowdlerized)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, "The Hog's-eye Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 123, "As I Went Down to Mas' Cornfliel'" (2 fragments, 1 tune, too short to really identify and filed here mostly because one of the informants through it unsuitable for public performance)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 17-18, "Sally Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HOGEYEMN*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "The Ox-eyed Man" is in Part 4, 8/4/1917.
Roud #331
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sally in the Garden" (the "clean" version of this piece)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Ox-Eye Man
The Hogs-Eye Man
The Hawks Eye Man
Oh, Who's Been Here?
NOTES [135 words]: Ed Cray explains "hog-eye man" as one deeply interested in sex. Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag explains a "hog-eye" as the barges that traveled from the Atlantic ports around Cape Horn to San Francisco. A "hog-eye man" would therefore be a crewmember of such a barge.
Give the length of the voyage around the Horn in the 1850s, the two definitions may not be mutually exclusive.
This overlaps very much with "Sally in the Garden" -- so much so that Roud lumps them, and it is often hard to tell which song a fragment goes with; better to check both. - RBW
"Oh, Who's Been Here?" is quoted by Hugill, from a shanty which Cecil Sharp gave in the Journal of the Folk Song Society. Hugill only quotes one line, which has the same melody and very similar words as "Hog-Eye Man" though not the usual "Hog-eye" chorus. - SL
Last updated in version 6.0
File: RL401

Hog-Eye Man (II)

See Roll the Boat Ashore (Hog-eye I) (File: San380)

Hog-eyed Man (III), The

See Sally in the Garden (File: CSW067)

Hog-Thorny Bear, The

DESCRIPTION: "I call the attention of each merry blade, Be still as a mouse and let nothing be said." Two men meet with a "bear." Laking guns, they beset it with axes and chase it up a tree. They chop down the tree and the dog catches the "bear" -- really a porcupine
AUTHOR: Stephen Streeter (source: Flanders-ChapBook Flanders-VermontChapBook)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster); reportedly written 1820
KEYWORDS: animal dog hunting humorous
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 219-221, "The Hog-Thorny Bear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-ChapBook Flanders-VermontChapBook, pp. 34-37, "The Hog-Thorny Bear" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FlNG219 (Partial)
Roud #4155
NOTES [7 words]: Tthis is item dH35 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: FlNG219

Hog-tub, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer is invited home by his "pretty young lass." She pushes him in the hog-tub and, had not a friend come by to save him, he would have drowned. He takes his love to a dance. He defends kissing: if bad it would not have approval of parsons and ladies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection rescue dancing Bible humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 177-178, "She Bundled Me Into the Hog-tub" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 375)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 298, "It's once I courted as pretty a lass" (1 fragment)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #282, pp. 165-166, "(It's once I courted as pretty a lass)"
ADDITIONAL: James Orchard Halliwell, The Book of Nursery Rhymes Complete (Philadelphia, 1846 ("Digitized by Google")), #116 p. 79, ("It's once I courted as pretty a lass") (1 text)
Roud #1273
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.33(36), "The Hog-tub," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kissing's No Sin (I)" (theme, lyrics)
NOTES [72 words]: Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 298, "It's once I courted as pretty a lass" has only the first verse. The description is from broadside Bodleian Firth b.33(36). - BS
There is a very complicated situation here, with "The Hog-Tub" sharing lyrics with "Kissing's No Sin (I)," which shares them with "The Mautman." I have no idea how these strands are to be disentangled. For more, see the notes to "Kissing's No Sin (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OO2298

Hog's Heart, The

DESCRIPTION: A man is deceived that his wife is unfaithful. He sends a servant to kill her and bring back her heart but he brings a hog's heart instead. When the original deception is proven man and lady are reunited
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A merchant bets a shopkeeper that the merchant's wife is faithful. The shopkeeper tricks the merchant into believing his wife is not faithful. The merchant sends his servant to kill his wife and bring back her heart. The wife convinces the servant to bring back a hog's heart instead. To escape, wife dresses as a man and becomes a commander in the army. Returning, she has the merchant, servant, and deceiver arraigned before a magistrate where she reveals herself, the original deception is admitted, the deceiver commits suicide, merchant and lady are reunited, and faithful servant
KEYWORDS: accusation lie wager return reunion separation travel crime prison punishment cross-dressing suicide commerce England Russia husband wife servant
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 4, "The Hog's Heart" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Halliwell 1850, "Palatine Garland Supplementary to the Palatine Anthology," pp. 1-11, "The Chester Garland" ("A merchant in London as many report") (1 text)
Roud #24145
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 3(109), "The Chcster[sic] Garland" ("A merchant of London as many report"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Douce Ballads 4(2), Vet. A3 b.43(4)[missing verse 43 "Summ," 51 "Dress'd in men's apparel she said to him John"]
NOTES [388 words]: Thompson-APioneerSongster and [formerly] Roud make this Child 268 ["The Twa Knights"] on the basis of motif agreement rather than any textual agreement. Of the TMI motifs Thompson-APioneerSongster cites for this ballad only N15 ("chastity wager") applies to Child 268 [see the note below on motifs].
Halliwell says of this ballad that "it is of great curiosity, being founded on the same tale as Cymbeline, and from the close similarity of its story to the tale as related in 'Westward for Smelts,' 1620, it would appear that it was formed from the popular traditional version of the romance, not on the play (Halliwell 1850, p. 1). In his preface to Westward for Smelts Halliwell mentions a controversy about the 1620 edition and whether there might have been a now lost 1603 edition (Halliwell 1848, p. vi). The point is that if there were a 1603 edition Shakespeare might have read it before writing Cymbeline. The tale related in Westward for Smelts is "The Fish Wife's Tale of Stand on the Green" (Halliwell 1848, pp. 19-36). There are differences in plot between the ballad and story. In the tale no evidence of the murder is required or offered but, to keep the secret, the wife does have to dress as a man. This is a tale type ATU 880, "a man boasts of his wife" [see Hans-Jorg Uther, The Types of International Folktales, Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 2004, Vol. I, pp. 502-503]. Also, in the ballad, the deceiver is smuggled into the wife's room in a chest; in the story he simply hides under the bed.
Munro (Vol 2, p.1172) reviews arguments that the wager-theme [in Cymbelline] might have come directly from Decameron or Westward for Smelts, or that the source for Cymbelline and Westward for Smelts may have been "independent versions, each related to Boccaccio."
The proof of the killing in the ballad is close to the scheme in Grimm #53, "Little Snow White": there the huntsman, required to return with Snow White's lung and liver, spares Snow White and returns a boar's lung and liver instead.
Thompson-APioneerSongster sees the following TMI motifs in the ballad: K512.2 "compassionate executioner: substituted heart," K521.4.1.1 "girl escapes in male disguise," K1342 "entrance into a woman's room by hiding in a chest," K2112.1 "false tokens of wife's unfaithfulness" and N15 "chastity wager." - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: TPS004

Hog's-Eye Man, The

See The Hog-Eye Man (I) (File: RL401)

Hogan's Lake

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you brisk young fellows that assemble here tonight, Assist my bold endeavors while these few lines I write...." The singer tells of the exploits of the logging gang Bill and Tom Hogan led to Hogan's Lake
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods)
KEYWORDS: logger work
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #6, "Hogan's Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 174-176, "Hogan's Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 20, "Hogan's Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FMB174 (Partial)
Roud #3682
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "Hogan's Lake" (on Lumber01)
File: FMB174

Hogs in the Garden

DESCRIPTION: "Hogs in the garden, catch 'em, Towser; Cows in the corn-field, run, boys, run! Cats in the cream-pot, run, girls, run; Fire on the mountain, run, boys, run!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1843 (Only True Mother Goose's Melodies)
KEYWORDS: animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #660, p. 260, "(Hogs in the garden, catch 'em, Towser)"
File: BGMG660

Hokey Cokey, The

See Hokey Pokey (II) (File: OpGa110)

Hokey Pokey (I)

DESCRIPTION: We kneel on the carpet, then stand to choose a lover. The baby sits on its mother's knee crying for "hokey-pokey": a penny a lump, "that's the stuff to make you jump" and fall.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad children
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1573, "Hokey Pokey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 96, "(Ice-cream a penny a lump)" (1 short text, which might be this although it's almost too short to classify)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #193, "Hoky, poky, penny a lump" (1 fragment)
Roud #13519
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Here's Three Beggars" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
cf. "This Pretty Girl of Mine" (one verse)
NOTES [59 words]: I would not consider this the same as the horrid "Hokey Pokey" game they inflicted upon us in elementary school in Minnesota in the 1960s. I have no idea if this song inspired that, or if the school version was just some well-intentioned teacher's nightmare project. It appears that song does have some traditional roots; see the "Hokey Pokey (II)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: GrD81573

Hokey Pokey (II)

DESCRIPTION: "You put your right arm in, You put your right arm out, In, out, in, out, Shake it all about; You do the hokey pokey And you turn yourself around, And that's what it's all about"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell)
KEYWORDS: playparty campsong
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 110, "Okey Kokey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #68, "RIght Elbow In" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 249, "The Hokey Cokey" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 146, 519-520, "Hokey Pokey" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Looby Lou" (text) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Cokey Cokey
NOTES [387 words]: The words in the description, above, are usually associated with "Looby Lou."
"The buyers of so-called penny ices sold in the London Streets during the summer months are charged only a halfpenny; and the numerous vendors, usually Italians, need no cry... Parti-coloured Neapolitan ices, vended by unmistakeable natives of Whitechapel or the New Cut, whose curious cry of ''Okey Poke' originated no one knows how, have lately appeared in the streets. Hoke Pokey is of a firmer make and probably stiffer material than the penny ice of the Italians .... (source: Andrew W. Tuer, Old London Street Cries (London, 1885 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 58). I have seen speculation that "Hokey Pokey" derives from "hokus pokus." - BS
Roger Abrahams affirms that "Hokey Pokey" is a term for an ice cream salesman.
Although the Opies call this "Okey Kokey," I have filed it under the name which was inflicted upon us in elementary school, since presumably I wasn't the only victim. Yes, this was a REQUIRED school activity. I don't know exactly when we were first forced to play it, but it was in my elementary school, which means 1972 or earlier. Don't ask me why we were pushed into it; I can only say that I hated this thing with a passion. And I never in my life saw any child play it on the playgrounds; it was something shoved at us in gym class. Talk about ruining a tradition!
According to Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 250, "The general belief is that Charles Mackay, Tafit Baker, and Larry LaPrise wrote the American version of the song, 'The Hokey Pokey," in 1949 to entertain skiers at the Sun Valley resort in Idaho, USA." He goes on to list others who had claimed rights to the source song. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 519-250, also discusses the matter. Averill points out that the "Hokey Pokey" version (as opposed to "Looby Lou") arguably isn't a folk song but rather a dance, since the singers did not perform the music themselves; it came from a recording. Certainly that's the way we did it in elementary school.
The phrase "Hokey Pokey" is older than the commercial version of this, and very possibly older than the original game. Dime-Song-Book #24, p. 18 has a song, "Hokey-Pokey," which consists of several folk rhymes with a chorus that begins "Oh, hokey-pokey winky-wum, How do you like your taters done?" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OpGa110

Hoky Poky Penny a Lump

See Hokey Pokey (I) (File: GrD81573)

Hoky, Poky, Winky, Wum

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme? "Hoky, poky, winky, wum, How so you like your taters done? Snip, snap, snorum, High populorum. Kate go scratch it. You are OUT."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: nonsense | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 19, "(Hoky, poky, winky, wum)" (1 text)
NOTES [32 words]: It appears that this chorus has worked its way into a Virginia version of "The King of the Cannibal Islands," but it certainly isn't organic to that song. So I've given it its own listing. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: WEMM019A

Hol-di-ri-dia

See Weggis Song (File: ACSF147W)

Hol' Out de Light

See Sun Don't Set In the Morning (File: Dett023)

Hol' Yuh' Han' (Hold Your Hand)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: The singer says that it's a long time since he has seen his girl and asks [chorus] that she let him hold her hand. "Peel-head John Crow" sits on a tree top peeling blossoms. Let's wheel and turn until we fall down.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: courting separation nonballad bird
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 29-30, "Hol' Yuh Han'" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Olive Lewin, _Forty Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Washington: General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, 1973), pp. 59-60, "Dis Long Time Gal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time - Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), pp. 76-77, "Dis Long Time Gal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jim Morse, _Folk Songs of the Caribbean_ (New York: Bantam Books, 1958), pp. 114-115, "Hol' Yuh Han'" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Hol' Yuh Han'" (on WIEConnor01)
NOTES [58 words]: "Peel-head John Crow" refers to the turkey vulture. Jekyll has a Jamaican Annancy story that explains why John Crow has no feathers on his head (Walter Jekyll, Jamaican Song and Story (New York: Dover Publications, 1966 (reprint of 1907 edition)), #43 pp. 132-135).
See "Wheel and Turn Me" for another example of wheel, turn and tumble down. - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: JaMu029

Holbeck Moor Cock-Fight, The

See The Cock-Fight (File: VWL027)

Hold 'im Joe

DESCRIPTION: Joe: hold my donkey; it wants water and candy; it's dandy. Singer works and people call him "copperhead"; resting on the beach people call him "sponger man." They say his donkey is bad; it's from Trinidad; he says it's good; it's brave like Robin Hood
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory)
KEYWORDS: sex animal nonballad worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas,Jamaica,Trinidad) Panama Canal Zone
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 84, "Me donkey want water" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Helen H Roberts, "A Study of Folk Song Variants Based on Field Work in Jamaica," Vol. XXXVIII, No. 148 (Apr-Jun 1925), #32 p. 177 "Hol' Him Joe" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Louise Cramer, "Songs of West Indian Negroes in the Canal Zone" in _California Folklore Quarterly_, Vol. V, No. 3 (Jul 1946 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 251-252 "Hold Him Joe" (2 texts)
Noel Dexter and Geodfrey Taylor, _Mango Time: Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), pp-38-39, "Hol' 'im Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_ (New York:Marlowe & Co, 2002) "excerpt digitized by Google"), pp. 107-108, "My Donkey Want Water [Macbeth]" ("Hold him Joe, hold him Joe, Hold him Joe but don't let him go")
Timothy White, _Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley_ (New York: Henry Holt, 1989), pp. 382-383, "Hold Him Joe") (1 fragment)
RECORDINGS:
Harry Belafonte with Hugo Winterhalter and his Orchestra, "Hold 'em Joe" (1954, on RCA Victor 78 rpm 20-5617, 1980, "Harry Belafonte All Time Greatest Hits Vol. I," RCA BMG LC 0316)
Louise Bennett, "Hol' 'm Joe" (on WILBennett01)
Blind Blake Higgs, "Hold 'im Joe" (on WIHIGGS01)
Lord Fly and Dan Williams Orchestra, "Medley of Jamaican Mento-Calypsos (Linstead Market; Hol' him Joe;Dog war a mattuse lane; Manuel Road)" (1951, Motta MRS 02A, 2006, as "Medley: Linstead Market/Hold 'Im Joe/Doh War A Matches Lane/Emanuel Road on "Take Me to Jamaica," Pressure Sounds CD PSCD 51)
Lord Lebby and the Jamaican Calypsonians, "Hol 'im Joe" (1955, on Kalypso 45/78 rpm RL102,2013, "Mento, Not Calypso," Fantastic Voyage CD FVDD163)
Sam Manning's Orchestra, "Hold Him Joe" (1926, on Columbia 2409-X, n.d., "Sam Manning Volume 1 (Recorded in New York 1924-1927)," Jazz Oracle CD BDW 8028 [instrumental])
Macbeth the Great[Patrick McDonald] and Gerald Clark and the Band, "Me Donkey Wants Water" (1999, on "Calypso after Midnight," Rounder CD 11661-1841-2 [recorded 1946])
Macbeth the Great and Gerald Clark and His Original Calypsos,"My Donkey Want Water (Hold Him Joe)" (1946, on Musicraft 434 [recorded 1945; see Guild 115B])
The Sparrow, "Donkey Want Water" (2011, on "50's Calypso Music from Trinidad," Black Round Records MP3)
Ziggy Marley, "Hold Em Joe" (2009, on "Family Time," Tuff Gong/VP CD TGWCD 0004)
Hubert Porter and the Tower Islanders, "Hol Him Joe" (1954, on Topaz 78 rpm TI-1008 in 78 rpm album "The Tower Islanders - Calypso as Played at Tower Isle, Jamaica,l B.W.I", 2013, "Mento, Not Calypso," Fantastic Voyage CD FVDD163) Topaz 78 rpm TI-1008 in 78 rpm album "The Tower Islanders - Calypso as Played at Tower Isle, Jamaica,l B.W.I"), 1954)
The Prince Brothers, "Hold Him Joe", (1978?, High Note EP (no number)
Yellowman and Fathead, "Donkey Want Water" (2009, on "The Trojan Dancehall Collection," Sanctuary)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dingo Lay" (theme; some lines) and references there
cf. "Lemme Go, Melda Marcy" (sexual theme; some lines)
NOTES [133 words]: Notes on "Hold 'im Joe" and "Jump in the Line" will be included in a future version of the Index.
Each song was created in one tradition -- "Hold 'im Joe" is Jamaican and "Jump in the Line" is Trinidadian -- and later crossed into the other. That is not unique to these songs. Many of the songs thought of as "calypsos" are from Jamaica.
And some calypsos have been more popular in the form of what Jamaican reggae has become.
What part has the West Indian population in New York played in the change? And what part was played in both islands by American soldiers during the second world war? And so on.
Without being exhaustive -- there are lots of books, articles, and collections of recordings on the subject -- I hope to show how the changes are reflected in the history of these two songs. - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: RcHoImJo

Hold de Wind

See Hold the WInd (File: LoF247)

Hold Fast My Gold Ring

See Biddy, Biddy, Hold Fast My Gold Ring (File: LxSi082)

Hold My Hand, Lord Jesus

DESCRIPTION: "Hold my hand, Lord Jesus, hold my hand (x2), There's a race that must be run, And a vict'ry to be won. Every hour, give me power, to go through." The devotion of the singer to Jesus is emphasized
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 169, "Hold My Hand, Lord Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 17-18, 75, "Hold My Hand, Lord Jesus" (1 text, given twice)
DT, LORDJSUS*
Roud #7487
RECORDINGS:
Sue Thomas, "Hold My Hand, Lord Jesus" (on USWarnerColl01)
File: Wa169

Hold My Mule

See Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle); also Little Pink, etc. (File: R524)

Hold On

See Keep Your Hand on the Plow (File: LxU111)

Hold On, Abraham

DESCRIPTION: "We're going down to Dixie, to Dixie, to Dixie... To fight for the dear old flag.... Hold on, Abraham... Uncle Sam's boys are coming right along." The song catalogs soldiers and generals who are fighting to recover the South for the Union
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 529-530, "Hold On, Abraham" (1 text)
Roud #15567
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Are Coming, Father Abraham"
NOTES [442 words]: The chorus of this song implies kinship with "We Are Coming, Father Abraham," but the verses are completely different.
The mention of 600,000 enlistees does not exactly match any of Lincoln's calls for enlistments (the closest was the 1861 authorization of a 500,000 man army; Phisterer, p. 4), but two levies in the summer of 1862 (one for 300,000 three year volunteers and one for 300,000 nine month volunteers; Phisterer, pp. 4-5) totalled 600,000 men.
A date of late 1862 also fits the list of generals mentioned in the song, all of whom were in senior posts in 1862 (but often replaced by 1863). Among those listed:
"General Grant": Ulysses S. Grant, eventual Union high commander, who by late 1862 had already captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson as well fought as the bloody battle of Shiloh (Jameson, p. 274).
"Our Halleck": Henry W. Halleck, who never actually fought a battle as a Union general, but was Grant's theatre commander and received credit for all victories in the west. A good organizer, the one time he led armies in the field (Corinth campaign, late spring 1862), he showed so little initiative that he took almost a month to cover 20 miles in the face of slight resistance (Catton, p. 291). Despite this, he was promoted to command of all Union armies in July 1862 (McPherson, p. 488). He held the post until 1864, when Grant took over the job (Boatner, p. 367).
"Bold Kenney": There was no Union General Kenney (the index in Phisterer, p. 332, lists Kennedy, Kennett, Kent, no Kenney). The reference is probably to General Philip Kearny, who although only a division commander was probably the most aggressive and competent officer in the Army of the Potomac (Catton, p. 401; Freeman, volume II, p. 133). He was killed at Chantilly on Sept. 1, 1862 (Boatner, p. 449).
"General Burnside": Ambrose Burnside, commander of the Army of the Potomac in the final months of 1862. A complete incompetent, he lost the Battle of Fredericksburg and was returned to subordinate roles for the rest of the war (Jameson, p. 94).
"Picayune Butler": Benjamin F. Butler, called "Old Picayune" (apparently a reference to a female character, "Picayune Butler," in the minstrel song of that title; there was also a banjo player named John Picayune Butler; see "Picayune Butler, Is She Coming to Town").
Butler was a complete incompetent, but he managed to remain a field general for years because of his political connections. In late 1862 he was commander of occupied New Orleans, and so brutal and corrupt that the southerners called him "Beast Butler" (Catton, p. 341) and accused him of stealing spoons with his own hands (Boatner, p. 109). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: LxA529

Hold Out to the End

DESCRIPTION: "All them Mount Zion member, they have many ups and downs, But cross come or no come, for to hold out to the end. Hold out to the end, hold out to the end, It is my 'termination for to hold out to the end."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 57, "Hold Out to the End" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12016
NOTES [37 words]: Inspired, I suspect, by chapter 13 of Mark, or its parallels -- Jesus's apocalypse shortly before his arrest. Mark 13:13 reads, in the King James translation. "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG057A

Hold the Baby

DESCRIPTION: Leader: "Hold the baby." "Rock the baby." "What's the matter?" "He needs some water." "He's got a fever." "He needs some medicine." "He needs the doctor." "Oh mamma's baby" Responders: "Hold 'im"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (McIntosh1)
KEYWORDS: disease nonballad baby doctor
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, pp. 132-133, "Hold the Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Freddie Palmer and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Hold the Baby" (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation)
Doretha Skipper and the McIntosh County Shouters, "Hold the Baby" (on McIntosh1)
NOTES [28 words]: The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree/McIntoshShouters-RingShoutSongs text and track is a "ring shout" song. The McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation video shows the shout. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcHoTBab

Hold the Fort

DESCRIPTION: "Ho, my comrades, see the signal, Waving in the sky; Reinforcements now appearing, Victory is nigh. 'Hold the Fort, for I am coming,' Jesus signals still...." The "great Commander" will defeat Satan's "mighty host."
AUTHOR: Philip P. Bliss (1838-1876)
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (sheet music published by S. Brainard's Sons, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar; it appeared in Bliss's collection _The Charm_ in 1871, according to Julian)
KEYWORDS: religious battle nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 358-359, "Hold the Fort" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 82-83, "Hold the Fort" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 363, "Hold the Fort" (1 text)
DT, HOLDFRT2*
Roud #42793
RECORDINGS:
Chautauqua Preachers' Quartette, "Hold The Fort" (Columbia A1585, 1914)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hold the Fort (Union Version)"
SAME TUNE:
Hold the Fort (Union Version) (File: PSAFB020)
Hold the Fort for Balfour's Coming (File: KSUC187A)
Storm the Fort, Ye Knights (Knights of Labor song: "Toiling millions now are waking, See them marching on") (Foner, p. 154; Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 371-372)
Storm the Fort ("Oh, my brothers, see the children, Crying in the street") (Foner, p. 269)
Our Battle Song ("Hark! the bugle note is sounding Over all the land") (Foner, p. 269)
Columbia's Daughters (by Harriet H. Robinson; Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 358)
The Bromsgrove Nailers (Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 164-165)
Workman's Hymn ("Look comrades, see the signal Waving in the sky") (by Alfred Green) (Foner, p. 130)
Cooper Campaign Song ("Listen comrades! sore beleaguered, In the toils we lie") (by Mrs. S. M. Smith) (Foner, p. 136)
Poll Your Vote ("Greenback voters, take fresh courage, Rouse and lead the way") (Foner, p. 136)
Spread the Light ("Fellow-toilers, pass the watchword! Would you know your powers?") (Foner, p. 166)
An Eight Hour Song ("Ho! my brothers! See the danger, Gath'ring fast and dread") (Foner, p. 225)
Henry George Campaign Song ("Ho! ye workmen, see the campaign Now is raging high") (FOner, p. 262)
Campaign Song [1887] ("Say, boys, did you hear the thunder? Look out for a storm") (by J. W. Jackson) (Foner, p. 265)
[Socialist parody by W. B. Creech] ("Ho! our comrades, see our emblem, Waving in the sky!") (Foner, p. 297)
Our Cause ("Dedicated to Socialistic Comrades") ("Comraes, up! up! and be doing For our cause so just and grand") (Foner, p. 299)
Round Our Banner ("Round our banner let us rally Hearts on fire with zeal") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 7)
Hurrah for General Garfield ("Patriots, to the standard rall Of the true and just") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p.11)
Victory Is Sure ("Rally round the flat again! The flag that Union bore!") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 15)
NOTES [712 words]: Inspired by, though hardly based on, a Civil War event (with a text perhaps suggested in part by Isaiah 13:2). After Atlanta had fallen to the Union, General Sherman set up a supply dump at Allatoona. General John Bell Hood, the Confederate commander who had lost Atlanta, decided to attack Sherman's communications. A Confederate force under General French attacked the base at Allatoona on October 5, 1864, and called upon Union General Corse to surrender. Soon after, General Sherman was said to have sent a simple message to Corse: "Hold the fort; I am coming." Corse held out, and Sherman's troops arrived in time to drive off French.
The battle itself was minor; Woodworth, p. 585, devotes only a paragraph to it, saying, "On October 5, major elements of Hood's army struck a Union garrison of slightly fewer than 2,000 men under the command of John Corse at Allatoona Pass. Corse's little band of Army of Tennessee troops.... succeeded in beating off a daylong series of assaults by several times their numbers of Confederates, inflicting ruinous casualties on the attackers. The approach of Sherman's main force finally compelled the Rebels to break off their efforts and withdraw." In total, there were just eight Union regiments of infantry and a battery of artillery involved (Phisterer, p. 194), from Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois.
But, as Boatner says on p. 8, the action was "best known for a number of dramatic incidents associated with it."
The garrison was originally smaller, according to Boatner, p. 8 -- 860 men under Lt. Colonel John F. Tourtellote of the Fourth Minnesota regiment. (Harpers, p. 671, gives the slightly higher total of 890 and says that they were "well protected by redoubts"). Brigadier General Corse was ordered to bring up about a thousand reinforcements when it appeared Hood's forces were on the prowl. French, upon arriving before the garrison and their fort, sent in a request for the Federals to surrender "to avoid a needless effusion of blood," to which Corse answered, "we are prepared for the 'needless effusion of blood' whenever it is agreeable to you."
The initial fighting took place outside the entrenchments, but Corse's men were forced back to their defenses early in the conflict. They had inflicted enough casualties, however, that French paused, allowing Corse to put his men in strong positions (Harpers, p. 682)
The Federals had a system of signal flags, and General Sherman sent multiple messages. One of them read "Sherman is coming. Hold out." A sloppy journalist reported this as "Hold the fort; I am coming," and composer Bliss took it from there.
Many of General Corse's men suffered; 707 out of 1944 were casualties. The Rebels reportedly lost 799 (Boatner, p. 9). Corse himself was wounded in the face, and was unconscious for a time as a result (Boatner, p. 9), but he managed a day later to get off another of his dramatic messages: "I am short a cheek-bone and an ear, but am able to whip all hell yet" (Harpers, p. 672 n. 1).
Sherman supposedly said that the signal corps, which had passed the messages between Corse and the main army, had done such good work in the campaign that it more than paid its entire expence from the time of its origination (Harpers, p. 672)
Corse's skill with words had its rewards. Corse, a brigadier general with limited experience, was breveted major general to date from the day of the conflict (Phisterer, p. 257), while Lt. Colonel Tourtellotte (whose troops had broken up one of the Confederate assaults, according to Harpers, p. 671) was made Colonel to date from that day (Carley, p. 148).
The event did have some deeper significance: It caused Sherman to realize that he was going to have problems with supplies as long as he was based in Atlanta and Hood was prowling around the railroad from Tennessee. It was this problem, according to Grant, p. 356, which inspired Sherman to plan and implement his famous "March to the Sea."
Philip P. Bliss, when he published this song in his 1871 collection The Charm, apparently used the tune name "Faithfulness" (Julian, p. 150). For more on Bliss, see the notes to "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning." Julian, p. 1613, also suggests seeing p. 105 of Ira D. Sankey's My Life for information on this song. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: SCW82

Hold the Fort (Union Version)

DESCRIPTION: Rewrite of traditional hymn: "Hold the fort, for we are coming/Union men be strong/Side by side we battle onward/Victory will come"
AUTHOR: Tune by Philip P. Bliss (1838-1876); words attributed to English transport workers, late 19th century and said to have been circulated by the Knights of Labor
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement nonballad worker derivative
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 20 "Hold the Fort" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 372-373, "Hold the Fort" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 138, "Hold the Fort" (1 text)
DT, HOLDFORT*
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, p. 21, "Hold the Fort" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Hold the Fort" (on PeteSeeger01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hold the Fort" (tune) and references there
File: PSAFB020

Hold the Fort for Balfour's Coming

DESCRIPTION: "Hold the fort for Balfour's coming, See he comes and saves. Keep the Union Banner flying, Britannia rules the waves."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: navy patriotic derivative | Arthur Balfour
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1848-1930 - Life of Arthur Balfour
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 187, "Hold the fort for Balfour's coming" (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hold the Fort" (tune) and references there
NOTES [236 words]: Arthur Balfour, now perhaps best remembered for the "Balfour Declaration" about the future of Palestine, served many offices in the British government. He made the Balfour Declaration while Foreign Secretary (1916-1919), but he had earlier been Prime Minister (1902-1905). Alice Kane evidently thought this a World War I song, but I wonder. He had been Chief Secretary for Ireland in the Salisbury Government (Lord Salisbury was his uncle). He was a firm opponent of Home Rule for Ireland, and took various measures to prevent it. So while this might be about World War I, I can see any of three different situations which it might fit
- 1887, when he became Irish secretary (serving until 1891); in this case, the song is sung by the Protestants of Ulster who expect him to defend their rights
- 1903, when his government passed the Land Purchase (Ireland) Act, which took over many Protestants' land, displacing the landlords, which might be cheered by the Catholics
- 1915, when he became First Lord of the Admiralty, succeeding Winston Churchill (serving until 1916, when he was succeeded by the Edward Carson, an intense Ulster Unionist)
The third of these would explain the reference to Britannia ruling the waves, but Balfour didn't do a particularly good job as head of the Navy and didn't keep the post very long, which is why I wonder if the song might refer to some other part of his government service. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC187A

Hold the Wind

DESCRIPTION: "Hold the wind (x3), Don't let it blow." "You may talk about me just as much as you please... I'm gonna talk about you on the bendin' of my knees." The singer assures us that (s)he, at least, has been redeemed, and plans to enjoy Heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Sparkling Four)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 247, "Hold the Wind" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John W. Work, American Negro Songs (New York: Crown Publishers, 1940 (republished by Mineola: Dover Publications, 1998)), p. 159, "Hold the Wind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11946
RECORDINGS:
Famous Garland Jubilee Singers, "Hold the Wind" (Banner 32249, 1931; Conqeror 8354 [as Bryant's Jubilee Singers], 1934)
Rosa and Joseph Murray, "Hold de Wind" (on USSeaIsland03)
Southern University Quartet, "Hold the Wind" (Bluebird B-5846, 1935)
Sparkling Four, "Hold the Wind" (OKeh 8741, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On My Journey (II) [Mount Zion]" (floating verse)
File: LoF247

Hold the Woodpile Down

DESCRIPTION: Original and floating verses: "Saw my love the other night/Hold the woodpile down/Everything wrong and nothing was right...." Chorus: "But I was a-travelling, travelling/As long as the world goes round/For the backyard shine on the Georgia line/Hold...."
AUTHOR: Originall Words: Edward Harrigan, Music: David Braham. Later verses probably written by Uncle Dave Macon
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (appearance in Harrigan-Braham musical "Pete")
LONG DESCRIPTION: Original and floating verses: "Saw my love the other night/Hold the woodpile down/Everything wrong and nothing was right/Hold the woodpile down"; "Gave her a little kiss to make her happy/Gave me a little love lick and in came her pappy"; "Come to town the other night/Heard a lot of noise and seen a big fight/Police running and jumping all round/Load of moonshine done come to town"; "Down in the packinghouse, stole a ham/Folks don't know how bad I am/Carried it home and I laid it on the shelf/I'm so bad, I'm scared of myself." Chorus: "But I was a-travelling, travelling/As long as the world goes round/For the backyard shine on the Georgia line/Hold the woodpile down."
KEYWORDS: courting drink humorous nonsense floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. II, #139, pp. 199-200, "Haul the Woodpile Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 210-212, "Hold That Woodpile Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4443
RECORDINGS:
Charles A. Asbury, "Haul the Wood Pile Down" (CYL: New Jersey Phonograph Company, no #, c. 1891; on Protobilly)
Uncle Dave Macon & his Fruit Jar Drinkers, "Hold That Wood-Pile Down" (Vocalion 5151, 1927; on Protobilly)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Hold That Woodpile Down" (on NLCR03)
Sam Patterson Trio, "Haul De Woodpile Down" (Edison 51644, 1925)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll the Woodpile Down" (chorus)
NOTES [1040 words]: This song is a conundrum. The verses are pure minstrel (Uncle Dave played minstrel shows in his youth), but the chorus is almost identical to that of "Roll the Woodpile Down," a chanty from African-American riverboat workers: "Rolling, rolling/Yes, rolling the whole world around/That brown gal of mine's down the Georgia line/And we'll roll the woodpile down." Other versions of "Hold the Woodpile Down" say, "Black gals shine on the Georgia line", which is closer to the chanty form. -PJS
I'll admit that, based only on the traditional versions, I would have classified this as a "Dave Macon-ised" version of "Roll the Woodpile Down" -- but Paul has probably examined the matter more than I have. However, the key point is that it seems to have originated with the Harrigan/Braham song "Haul the Woodpile Down." (For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block.") This perhaps then gave rise to "Roll the Woodpile Down," which Dave Macon converted to "Hold the Woodpile Down."
Probably the song is mis-split. But I'm talking about the Harrigan song here, since it's enough of a mess that I don't want to fiddle any more.
Franceschina, p. 185, says that "The work song 'Haul the Wood Pile Down' is another fine example of [David] Braham's pseudo-spiritual numbers... with an imaginative juxtaposition of major and minor modes." As for what a work song is doing in a Broadway musical, the plot of "Pete" (premiered November 20, 1887; Moody, p. 260) will make that clear:
"In Pete, Harrigan returned to the melodramatic entanglements of his early plays. Colonel Coolidge has inadvertently married twice. His first wife has given him a child unbeknownst to him. His second wife is after his fortune. He's called up to join his regiment, is killed, and when the second wife tries to claim the plantation, she's foiled by his child Mary Morgan with the assistance of Old Pete [who is black]. The telltale document is the original wedding license. The witnesses' names have been shot away, but Pete has retrieved the wad from the bullet, with the names! It took three hours and ten minutes to ravel and unravel the story, explore related sub-plots, exhibit both threatening and entertaining spectacles, and introduce slavery songs and spirituals" (Moody, p. 176). According to Moody, p. 173, it was a "new kind of play."
Franceschina, p. 184 describes the play this way: "Based on an earlier sketch, 'Slavery Days,' and set in Florida... Pete tells the melodramatic story of an African-American slave, Pete (Harrigan), whose master, Colonel Randolph Coolidge (Marcus Moriarty), has had a daughter by a secret marriage. When the colonel is killed in the Civil War, it falls to Pete to tell his daughter, Little May (Kate Patterson), what has happened to her father, and to protect her from the colonel's gold-digging wife, who wants to rob the girl of her rightful inheritance by questioning her legitimacy." The damaged marriage certificate is then described, but Pete "is beaten with a whip for his efforts [to reconstruct it] and left to bleed to death. Little May nurses him back to health and is thrown into a millpond for her kindness. Her charity does not go unrewarded, however, for Pete rescues her as she descends the millrace, proves her legitimacy, and vanquishes the villains for a happy ending.
"Local color was provided by the presence of Vi'let (Dan Collyer), a half-mad slave girl who engages in voodoo, and comedy was present in the personality of a New York alderman, Constantine Brannigan (Joseph Sparks), his maid and wife, Mary Duffy (Annie Yeaman), and his servant, Gasper Randolph (John Wild)."
Harrigan definitely worked to get into the part of Pete: "FOr another of his starring roles, that of an elderly ex-slave in Pete, Harrigan [who was based in New York] dispatched an emissary to the South, where he visited a few plantations, negotiated with some aged Negroes on them, and returned triumphantly with a trunkful of clothing that gave every evidence of having belonged to the sellers long before they had achieved freedom. Harrigan selected for himself from this beguiling wardrobe a pair of pants that was exactly what he had been looking for; it had been mended so often that it was all patches" (Kahn, p. 53).
FinsonCollected, volume I, p. xxx, has this to say about the drama:
"The faithful 'darkey' makes only one appearance in Harrigan's later output, but it is a notable one: he and Braham arranged a whole musical entitled Pete (1887) around the theme. In an interview right before the premier Harrigan claimed:
Pete is not the hallelujah negro of the ordinary drama, nor is he the negro of the mnistrel show. He is just such a negro as you find in the South to-day, and the characters around him are drawn from life. The play don't deal with slavery, except incidentally in the first act, the time of which is the day after the firing on Sumter, and it is not a war piece. The last three acts are placed 12 years after the close of the war, and the whole is wholly and simply domestic, portraying the life of negroes and white men in the south."
In another place, Harrigan referred to Blacks as "our African brother[s]" (Root, p. 58).
Finson goes on to add that "In reality Pete comes right out of contemporary popular song, which delighted in the fantasy who stays on the plantation after the war to help his former master, or in this case the master's kindhearted daughter" -- but adds that Harrigan had gone somewhat beyond the standard two-dimensional portrait of Blacks; "For one thing, African-Americans are portrayed as an ethnic group equal to any other, with their own culture and traditions of which they are proud." I would say that, if "Pete" starts from a too-common trope, Harrigan has taken it in a new direction that does genuine credit to Pete -- he is not a fool, and while he is loyal to a white person of property, the loyalty is earned and is returned. If Pete is not equal to a white man, he is more equal than in most dramas of the era. The bad guys in the play are white.
I find it a fascinating example of racial attitudes that Harrigan made Pete the hero of this story, and a definite positive role model -- and played him in blackface. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: CSW210

Hold to God's Unchanging Hand

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Hold to God's unchanging hand (2x), Build your hopes on things eternal, Hold to God's unchanging hand." Verses: Nothing on earth is permanent. If friends desert you "seek to gain heavenly treasures. They will never pass away"
AUTHOR: WORDS: Jennie Wilson / MUSIC: F.L. Eiland (music) (source: Date)
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Townsend); copyright 1906
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, HOLDTO
ADDITIONAL: Mrs. A.M. Townsend, The Baptist Standard Hymnal with Responsive Readings (Nashville: Sunday School Publishing Board National Baptist Convention, 1924 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #298 p. 238, "Hold to God's Unchanging Hand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16987
RECORDINGS:
Reverend Gary Davis, "Hold to God's Unchanging Hand" (on "Say No to the Devil," Prestige/Bluesville CD OBCCD-519-2, 1990, rec. 1961)
Mississippi John Hurt, "God's Unchanging Hand" (on MJHurt05)
Evelyn & Douston Ramsey, "Hold to God's Unchanging Hand" (on FarMtns2)
NOTES [83 words]: Gary Davis keeps the Wilson chorus and the Eiland tune, but none of the verses. His four verses include two half verses from Sankey, "If you cannot give your thousands" and "If you cannot speak like angels" (Ira D. Sankey, Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos (1200 Hymns) (London: Collins, 1921?), #813, ("Hark the voice of Jesus crying")). "If you cannot speak like angels, If you cannot preach like Paul, You can tell the love of Jesus, You can say He died for all" has become a floating verse. - BS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: DTholdto

Hold Your Hands, Old Man

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Hold Your Light

DESCRIPTION: "What make ole Satan da follow me so? Satan hain't nothin' all all for to do with me. (Run Seeker.) Hold your light (Sister Mary), Hold your light (Seeker turn back), Hold your light on Canaan's shore."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Devil
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 10, "Hold Your Light" (1 text, 1 tune)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 1, p. 199, "Hold Your Light" (1 text)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 84, "Hold Your Light" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H.G. Spaulding, "Under the Palmetto" in _The Continental Monthly_, Vol. 4, No. 11 (August 1863 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 198, "(Hold your light)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11851
NOTES [9 words]: Spaulding is writing from Port Royal, South Carolina. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: AWH010A

Hold-Up at Eugowra Rocks, The

See The Morning of the Fray (File: FaE084)

Hold-Up, The

DESCRIPTION: "Faith in me cuttle and stick in me buttle," the singer goes off to Dublin to look for work. A robber stops him and sticks a gun in his mouth. The singer steps back and knocks down the robber with his "shallallah," and goes on his way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Hoosier Folklore V, according to Dorson)
KEYWORDS: travel robbery humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 394-397, "The Hold-Up" (1 text, tune refernced)
Roud #2101
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Washerwoman" (tune)
cf. "Billy O'Rourke" (plot)
cf. "The Railroad Corral" (tune and references for the "Irish Washerwoman" tune)
NOTES [17 words]: Roud lumps this with "Billy O'Rourke"; there is plot similarity, but I'm not sure about the text - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RDBW394

Hole Hole Bushi (Japanese Work Song)

DESCRIPTION: Japanese. "Hawaii, Hawaii, Kite mirya Jigoku." "Hawaii, Hawaii... When I came what I saw was hell. The boss was Satan." The singer says that a letter from home in Japan made the work slightly less hard
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Hawaii Herald, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: Hawaii work separation Devil nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 692, "Hole Hole Bushi (Japanese Work Song)" (1 Japanese text plus English translation)
NOTES [90 words]: According to Kevin Phillips, William McKinley [a volume in the American Presidents series edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.], Times Books, 2003, pp. 105-106, by the McKinley administration (1897-1901), Japanese immigration to the Hawaiian Islands had become so large that they represented a quarter of the island's population. (American citizens were about a twelfth.) In that context, the surprise is not that there were Japanese folk sons in Hawaii, but that there were so few -- according to Cohen, this is the only one known. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: CAFS2692

Hole in the Bottom of the Sea

See There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea (File: Br3135)

Hole in the Bucket

See There's a Hole in the Bucket (File: DTholebc)

Hole in the Elephant's Bottom,The

DESCRIPTION: "My ambition's to go on the stage, From this you can see that I've got 'em... I'm the hole in the elephant's bottom." From this viewpoint, the singer looks out at the girls, and blows out beer fumes; he can fire through the hole at enemies if they come
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous scatological
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 153-154, "The Hole in the Elephant's Bottom" (1 text)
Roud #10150
File: RuSoHoEB

Hole In The Wall, The

DESCRIPTION: "On a Saturday night the crowd were invited to be there on Sunday to open the ball ... I'll title the harbour 'The Hole In The Wall.'" The singer, a stranger on this shore, "saw at a glance that the girls they were plenty ... We danced the whole night."
AUTHOR: Peter Leonard
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports; MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: dancing party shore
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Hole In The Wall" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 69-70 in the 3rd edition
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 52, "The Hole in the Wall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 182-184, "The Hole in the Wall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4416
RECORDINGS:
Harry Curtis, "The Hole in the Wall" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [80 words]: Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou: The song "refers to the village of Little Bona in Placentia Bay." - BS
Peter Leonard is also credited with at least four songs in the Index, "The Hole in the Wall," "Soup Supper in Clattice Harbour," and "Tobias Murphy and Tom Hann," and this one, which seems to have been his "hit"; I would guess that this is because it was printed by Doyle.
This should not be confused with the song "The Hole in the Wall" by Edward Harrigan and David Braham. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doyl3069

Hole, The

See Doughnut Song (File: ACSF096D)

Holla Hi

DESCRIPTION: German, "Horch was kommt von draussen 'rein, Holla hi, Holla ho, Wird wohl mein Feinsliebechen sein." The singer thinks he sees his girlfriend, but she passes by. He will love whom he pleases. When she marries someone else, he will mourn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (ChansonsDeNotreChalet)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love marriage campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Cray-AshGrove, p. 24, "Holla Hi" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 145, 345, "Holla Hi, Holla Ho" (notes only)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 55, "Holla Hi, Holla Ho" (2 texts, 1 German, 1 English; 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Holla Hi, Holla Ho" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 31) (12th edition, p. 31)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 10, "Holla Hi, Holla Ho" (1 text, 1 tune)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 9, "Holla Hi, Holla Ho" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: CrAGr24

Holla Hi, Holl Ho

See Holla Hi (File: CrAGr24)

Holland Handkerchief, The

See The Suffolk Miracle [Child 272] (File: C272)

Holland is a Fine Place

See The Lowlands of Holland (File: R083)

Holland Song, The

See The Sheffield Apprentice [Laws O39] (File: LO39)

Hollin, Green Hollin

DESCRIPTION: "Alone in the greenwood I must roam, Hollin, green hollin, A shade of green leaves is my home, Birk and green hollin." "Where nought is seen but boundless green." "A weary head a pillow finds." "Enough for me... To live at large with liberty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Montgomerie)
KEYWORDS: home rambling nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 116, "(Alone in the greenwood I must roam)" (1 text)
NOTES [26 words]: This doesn't sound much like a folk song, but it apparently made some popular poetry anthologies, so I thought I'd better include it for future reference. - RBW
File: MSNR116

Holly and his Merry Men

See (notes under) The Holly and the Ivy (File: FSWB383)

Holly and Ivy Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come buy my nice fresh ivy And my holly boughs so green, I have the fairest branches That ever yet were seen. Come buy from me good Christians And let me home I pray...." She, and God, will bless them if they buy her branches
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: commerce nonballad Christmas
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 206, "The Holly and Ivy Girl" (1 text)
Roud #3188
File: HMHS206B

Holly and Ivy Had a Great Party

See (notes under) The Holly and the Ivy (File: FSWB383)

Holly and the Ivy, The

DESCRIPTION: "The holly and the ivy, when they are both full grown, Of all the trees that are in the wood, The holly bears the crown." The holly's attributes are detailed; each ties to a reason Mary bore Jesus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (Sylvester's "Christmas Carols")
KEYWORDS: religious Christmas Jesus nonballad MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (32 citations):
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 38, "The Holly and the Ivy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 383, "The Holly And The Ivy" (1 text)
Bronson 54, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (version #29 contains a scrap of "The Holly and the Ivy")
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 103, "The Holly and the Ivy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 199-200, "The Holly and the Ivy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 267-268, "The Holly and the Ivy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, pp. 104-105, "The Holly and the Ivy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HOLLYIVY*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #228, "The Holly and the Ivy" (1 text)
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #78, "The Holly and the Ivy" (1 text)
Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 145, "(The Holly and the Ivy)" (1 text)
RELATED: Versions of "Holly and Ivy Had a Great Party" --
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, p. 262, "Holly and Ivy Made a Great Party" (1 text)
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, p. xcix, "(Holvyr and Hevvy mad a gret party)" (1 text, which he does not consider a carol and does not include in his catalog)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics CXXXIX, p. 237, "(no title)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1225
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2038
ADDITIONAL: Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, _Middle English Lyrics_, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974 pp, 136-137, #148 (no title) (1 text)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #219, p. 480, "Holly and Ivy" (1 text)
Rossell Hope Robbins, Secular Lyrics of the XIVth and XVth Century , Oxford University Press, 1952,#50, pp. 45-46, "Holly and Ivy" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 30
RELATED: Versions of "Nay, Ivy, It Shall Not Be, Iwys" --
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #135, pp. 93-94, "(no title)" (2 texts, of which "A" is this although "B" is a "The Holly Bears a Berry" forerunner)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics CXLI, pp, 239-240, "(no title)" (1 text)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, p. 264, "A Song on the Ivy and the Holly" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins, Index of Middle English Verse , #1226 [This number also used for a "Holly Bears a Berry" forerunner]
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2039 [This number also used for a "Holly Bears a Berry" forerunner]
ADDITIONAL: Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Mdieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #34A, p. 92, "(Nay, Ivy, nay, hyt shal not be, iwys)" (1 text)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #202, p. 451, "Holly and his Merry Men" (1 text)
Roman Dyboski, Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book , Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #99, pp. 116-117, "[The Holly and the Ivy]" (1 text, with an additional text on p. 189)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 251
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Harley 5396, folio 275
Roud #514
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Holly Bears a Berry" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "Nay, nay, Ive, it may not be, iwis" (Holly-and-ivy lyric, from Richard Hill's manuscript; see Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, #99, pp. 116-117, with a variant text on pp. 189-190) (lyrics); this might possibly be the ancestor of "The Holly and the Ivy," but they are very different as they now stand
NOTES [1715 words]: This clearly derives from the same roots as "The Holly Bears a Berry," and a strong case could be made that they should be considered one song. [Indeed, Kennedy lumps them. - PJS. As does Roud. - RBW] As, however, both are circulated in fairly fixed forms, I decided to separate them.
Jenkins, p. 32, for some reason quotes this song in connection with the 1464 marriage of England's King Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. She does not, however, justify the connection in any way I can see.
Simpson/Roud, p. 182, declare the holly "the most popular plant for Christmas decorations," and say that its folklore associations are primarily positive -- although some said it should not be brought into the house except at Christmastide. It was often planted by churches to guard against witches. They declare that it has been considered unlucky to cut down a holly tree since at least the fifteenth century.
Pickering, p. 140, mentions a legend that the cross of Jesus was made of holly, and that its berries became red in remembrance of his blood; supposedly they had previously been yellow.
Opie/Tatem, p. 201, note that holly and ivy were often considered paired plants, either as a married couple or as rivals for dominance. According to Binney, p. 177, the holly was considered male and the ivy female.
Francis Lee Utley, on p. 725 of Severs/Hartung, says, "Ancient fertility customs connected with these two varieties of Christmas greenery gave rise in the fifteenth century to a courtly game, the exclusion of feminine Ivy from the hall by the followers of masculine Holly. There are several points of contact with the bird-debates. Among our major records of the game are several songs and carols" (then describes half a dozen or so)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, who on pp. 262-268 has six holly-and-ivy songs, thinks it is a relic of nature worship and thinks there was a ritual in which young men played holly and girls ivy. Robbins, #51-52, pp. 46-47, has two more, and suggests (p. 242) that his song in praise of ivy is derived from a poem of praise to the Virgin Mary.
GreeneSelection, p. 33, quotes this interesting early verse about their rivalry (also in Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, p. 262; Sisam, #219, p. 480; Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 209; Robbins, #50, pp. 45-46, with orthographic variants):
Holvyr [holly] and Heyvy [ivy] mad a gret party,
Ho xuld [should] have the maystre [mastery]
In londes qwer [where] thei goo.
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 198-199, quotes a "Holly Bears a Berry" ancestor which also seems to refer to this sort of rivalry (different version in Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 265-266, which refers to both holly and ivy bearing berries; also in Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 114-115):
Nay, Ivy, hyt shal not be, iwys;
Let Holy hafe the mastry, as the manner ys.
This is found in the Richard Hill manuscript among others, so it may have had traditional currency. Parker, p. 81, says that the song is "not specifically [treated as] a Christmas carol." He suggests, "Perhaps the song was meant to be sung in mixed company as a sort of dancing 'challenge' to the ladies. It is followed in the manuscript by another song which, while it doesn't mention Christmas specifically, could be used at Christmas festivities; 'Bon jour a vous' challenges all comers to a song contest...."
Greene, p. xcix, suggests that both "Holver and Heivy made a grete party" and "Nay, Ivy, hyt shal not be, iwys" might be game-songs, the latter perhaps being one in which Ivy is excluded from the hall, i.e. loses the game. Whether true or not, he thinks it quite possible that both are true folk songs. I would probably give them separate listings except that it is possibly to list them here.
GreeneSelection mentions an old Kentish custom of burning effigies of the "Holly-boy" and "Ivy-girl" at Shrovetide. Thus the linkage is widespread both in time and in space.
GreeneSelection, p. 34, points out that palm was generally not available in Britain, so ivy was often substituted on Palm Sunday. This gives another sort of link between holly and ivy: Holly was the plant associated with Jesus's birth, and Ivy with his passion.
The history of this song is vexed even if you ignore the link with "The Holly Bears a Berry." GreeneSelection's #93 (p. 160)=Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols #50 begins
Grene groweth the holy,
So doth the ive
Thow wynter blastys blow never so hye,
Grene growth the holy.
(See also Douglas Gray, The Oxford Book of Late Medieval Verse and Prose, Oxford University Press, 1985, p. 175, "Green Groweth the Holly").
The song is a farewell to "myne owne lady... my specyall." It appears in British Library MS. Additional 31922, and is credited to none other than Henry VIII. GreeneSelection, p. 49, suggests that Henry was turning the holly and ivy "from Christmas decorations into symbols of evergreen love." This obviously implies that they had been Christmas symbols from at least the early sixteenth century. On the other hand, Simpson/Roud, p. 183, declare that holly could be used in love divination, which might be the real reason Henry spoke of it. And ivy, according to p. 150 of Pickering, will bring dreams of future lovers if placed under the pillow.
Simpson/Roud, p. 195, and GreeneSelection, #34A (p. 92), both quote a fifteenth century item from British Library MS. Harley 5396:
Holy stond in the hall, fayre to behold;
Ivy dtond without the dore, she ys ful sore a-cold.
Holy and hys mery men, the dawnsyn and they syng;
Ivy and hur maydenys, they wepyn and they wryng.
Sisam, #202, p. 451, gives the title of this as "Holly and his Merry Men" and opens it with the chorus "Nay, Ivy, nay, it shal not be y-wis; Let Holy have the maistry, as the maner is."
These verses are very similar to GreeneSelection's #34B, from (Oxford), Balliol College MS. 354 (the Richard Hill manuscript), of the sixteenth century, which however is clearly related to "The Holly Bears a Berry":
Holy berith beris, beris rede ynouwgh;
The thristilcock, the popyngay daunce in every bow.
Welaway, sory ivy, whoat fowles hast thiw,
But the sory howlet, that syntigh, 'How, how?'
Vry berith beris as black as any slo;
Ther commeth the woode-colver and fedith her of tho.
She liftith up her tayll, and she cakkes or she go;
She would not for [a] hundred poundes serve Holy soo.
GreeneSelection's #35 and #36, and Sisam's #220, p. 480, are other fifteenth century carols in praise of ivy.
Another early carol, GreeneSelection's #7, "Letanundus exultet fidelys chorus, Allelluia," from the fifteenth century, does not mention holly or ivy in the text, but there are inscriptions at the beginning and end mentioning the two plants.
For the whole range of Middle English Holly and Ivy carols, see Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols #136-137, plus the Ivy carols #138-#139.
Boklund-Lagopolou, pp. 209-211, quotes several of these holly-and-ivy carols, with discussion, observing on p. 211 that the holly (masculine) usually tops the ivy (feminine) -- but noting that most of these songs were taken down by men. She speculates that, if women had done more of the collecting, the ivy might have been more successful!
Turner, p. 348, suggests that the competition of the holly and the ivy might be compared to another medieval contest, that of the Flower and the Leaf. "The game of the flower and the leaf involved choosing sides and debating and defending certain values. Most commonly the flower and the leaf was a gender comparison, with the flower associated with women and the lead with men" (Turner, p. 347).
This competition is mentioned by Chaucer in the so-called "F" prologue to the "Legend of Good Women": "Whether ye ben with the leef or with the flour" (F prologue, line 72; Chaucer/Benson, p. 590). Chaucer/Benson, p. 1061, explains, "Courtiers in England and France, as part of their May Day festivities, playfully divided themselves into two parties, defenders respectively of the flower and the leaf." The game is also mentioned in Gower's Confessio Amantis, 8.2468. There was also a somewhat later poem, appropriately entitled "The Floure and the Leafe," 595 lines as given by Pearsall, pp. 4-21. Our only copy was that printed by Speght in his 1598 collected works of Chaucer, although it is not by Chaucer (Pearsall, p. 1).
Pearsall, pp. 1-2, explains that the poem "takes its origin from the real or supposed courtly cult of the Flower and the Lead to which Chaucer refers i the Prologue to The Legend of Good Women and to which Deschamps had referred before him (and Charles d'Orleans after, in the English poems written in his captivity, 1415-1440). Knights and ladies would declare their adherence to the Flower or the Leaf and maintain the propriety of their choice with no doubt elegant and sophisticated casuistry. The poet of FL gives a fresh twist to the debate by moralizing adherence to the Flower and the Leaf in terms of a contrast between perseverance and fidelity in love and fashionable fickleness and flirtation, and between honor and valor in battle and idleness. This contrast is developed in the poem with a wealth of allegorical and metaphorical suggestion. Te flower, which is fading and transitory... is contrasted with the leaf (of certain evergreen trees, especially the laurel), which is enduring; the nightingale (female), which sings of faithful and betrayed love, is contrasted with the more light-hearted goldfinsh (male)," etc. The poem probably dates 1460-1480 (Pearsall, p. 1).
Turner's belief (p. 348) is that "The flower and the leaf was directly echoed in the holly and the ivy, where the hard, prickly holly represented the male, the malleable ivy the female."
It's an interesting notion, but I'm not sure I buy the connection -- on several counts. First, in the songs, the holly and the ivy are in direct contest; although the songs declare a winner, there is generally no debate. Second, although the Flower and the Leaf can be documented slightly earlier (Chaucer wrote the "F" prologue before 1395), there are enough old Holly-and-Ivy songs that I don't really believe that the Flower and the Leaf is older. And, third, there is no evidence that the Flower and the Leaf games were played by any but the nobility and gentry. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: FSWB383

Holly Bears a Berry, The

DESCRIPTION: "The holly she bears a berry as white as the milk/And Mary bore Jesus who was wrapped up in silk"; similarly "... berry red as the blood/...to do sinners good", "green as the grass/...who died on the cross."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Dunstan)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "The holly she bears a berry as white as the milk/And Mary bore Jesus who was wrapped up in silk", similar verses for "The holly bears a berry as red as the blood/...to do sinners good", "green as the grass/...who died on the cross." Cho.: "And Mary bore Jesus Christ our Saviour for to be/And the first tree that's in the greenwood it was the holly"
KEYWORDS: religious Christmas Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 91, "'Ma Grun War 'n Gelynen [The Holly Bears a Berry]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 35, "Sans Day Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 198-199, ("Nay, Ivy, hyt shall not be, iwys") (1 text, which looks like a combination of this song with a poem about the rivalry between holly and ivy)
Bronson 54, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (version #27 contains "The Holly Bears a Berry")
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 42, "The Holly Bears a Berry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #135, pp. 93-94, "(no title)" (2 texts, of which "A" is "Nay, Ivy, It Shall Not Be, Iwys," for which see "The Holly and the Ivy"; "B" is the forerunner of "The Holly Bears a Berry")
SongsOfAllTime, p. 30, "Now the Holly Bears a Berry" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 264-265, "A Song on the Ivy and the Holly" (1 text, which contains several verses of this although in a different context)
DT, HOLLYBR*
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1226
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2039
Roud #514
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Holly and the Ivy" (theme, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sans Day Carol
NOTES [171 words]: This clearly derives from the same roots as "The Holly and the Ivy," and a strong case could be made that they should be considered one song. [Indeed, Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland lumps them. - PJS] As, however, both are circulated in fairly fixed forms, I decided to separate them. - RBW
Agreed. Norma Waterson, incidentally, places this as a spring carol, appropriate between Passiontide and Easter. Kennedy's Cornish words are a revivalist translation from the English. - PJS
According to the Oxford Book of Carols, the title the "Sans Day Carol" does not mean "Carol Without a Day," nor is it a reference to [All] Saints' Day; rather, the song was taken down at St. Day in Cormwall.
Jean Ritchie learned this in the United States, but it was not from her family tradition; I have not listed it as found in the Appalachians, because she does not give full details about the source of her version.
For the relationship between holly and ivy, and more history of this song, see the notes to "The Holly and the Ivy." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: K091

Holly Bough, The/The Maid of Altibrine

DESCRIPTION: "In Altibrine there lives a maid, a maid of beauty rare, The violet or primrose with her never could compare." He praises her beauty, and offers to take her away. The girl (?) says that her dowry is too small. He says that the holly will never fade
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty dowry
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H111, pp. 229-230, "The Holly Bough/The Maid of Altibrine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7981
File: HHH111

Holly Ho

See Tooraloo (Boy With No Shoes, All Tattered and Torn, I Dreamt I Had Died) (File: Gard014)

Holly Twig, The [Laws Q6]

DESCRIPTION: The singer finds that his new wife is a scold and a nag. He recounts his misery day by day. After a few days he goes to the woods and cuts a (holly twig), (whipping her so hard her soul is sent to hell). (A devil/her father comes to take her back).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1760 (_West Country Garlands_)
LONG DESCRIPTION: On Monday the singer marries; on Tuesday he cuts a holly stick; on Wednesday he beats her with the stick until it breaks. On Thursday she takes sick (presumably from the beating); he says if she isn't better by tomorrow the devil can take her. On Friday the devil takes her. On Saturday the bells toll her death and the singer is jolly. On Sunday he relaxes alone, saying "Here's good luck to a week's work's end."
KEYWORDS: husband wife abuse violence death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West)) US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Laws Q6, "The Holly Twig"
Randolph 367, "I Married Me a Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 6, "Little Willer Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 184, "The Holly Twig" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 184, "The Holly Twig" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 43, "The Holly Twig" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 58, pp. 174-175, "The Holly Twig" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 53, "The Holly Twig" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 70, "On Monday Morning I Married a Wife" (2 texts)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #12, "The Bachelor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 246, "The Holy Twig" (sic.) (1 text, which the singer knew to be defective and in which the wood, rather than being holly, is willow)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 16-17, "The Brisk Young Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 134-135, "Blue Bottle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 59, "The Unwilling Bride" (1 text, 1 tune, listed as Child 277 but appearing to me to be more similar to this ballad)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 78-79, "On Monday Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #67, "The Holly Twig" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 4, "The Batchelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #117, "A Week's Work Well Done" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 72-73, "Scolding Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 520, HOLLYTWG*
Roud #433
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Gilbert, "Willow Green" (on LomaxCD1707)
Texas Gladden, "The Scolding Wife" (AFS 5232 A1; on USTGladden01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" [Child 277] (plot)
cf. "A Week's Matrimony (A Week's Work)" (theme)
cf. "The Old Gray Goose (I)"
cf. "I Had a Wife"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Week's Work Well Done
A Bachelor Bold and Young
File: LQ06

Holly, Holly, Ho, The

See A Big Ship Sailing (File: FSWB386A)

Holmes Camp

DESCRIPTION: "It was early last April when the logging was done I went to Fort Francis to join in the fun. My intentions were good -- one drink and no more...." But he (and others) get drunk; he hits on a girl, is rejected, has a headache, vows not to get drunk again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger drink rejection
FOUND IN: Canada(West)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #48, "Holmes Camp" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #4562
File: FowL48

Holver and Heivy made a grete party

See (notes under) The Holly and the Ivy (File: FSWB383)

Holvyr and Heyvy mad a gret party

See (notes under) The Holly and the Ivy (File: FSWB383)

Holy Babe, The

See Children Go Where I Send Thee (File: LoF254)

Holy Church of Rome, The

DESCRIPTION: "As I roved out one morning being in the month of May," the singer "spied my heart's delight, the pride of Dunern Town." He asks her to marry, but he is Protestant and she is Catholic. They argue; she will only marry if he joins "the Holy Church of Rome"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1994 (Thomas and Widdowson)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection religious
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth S. Goldstein, "A Report on Continuing Research into 'Treason Songs': A Private Newfoundland Tradition," essay on pp. 126-153 of Gerald Thomas and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, _Studies in Newfoundland Folklore: Community and Process_, Breakwater Books, 1991, pp. 143-144, "The Holy Church of Rome" (1 text)
Roud #26524
NOTES [144 words]: In Newfoundland, this was sometimes regarded as a "Treason Song." For background on Treason Songs, see the notes to "The Prooshian Drum."
This song is clearly Catholic (like all the Treason Songs printed by Goldstein), because it declares "For you know it was cursed Luther who did your church complete. It was Cranmer and old Cromwell who very well were known Who fell off like rotten branches from the Holy Church of Rome." (Henry VIII is not mentioned.)
Cranmer and Cromwell were indeed Henry VIII's allies in founding the Church of England -- but Luther absolutely was not, and indeed the Anglican church is not Protestant. Nor is it Reformed (Calvinist/Presbyterian). Anglicanism is its own thing. It is understandable that a Catholic would not understand this, but to refer to Luther in an argument about Anglicanism truly misses the point of Anglicanism. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: ThWi143

Holy Dan

DESCRIPTION: "It was in the Queensland drought"; there is no water or grass. Bullock drivers watch their animals die. Most curse, but Holy Dan refuses to blaspheme as animal after animal dies. Finally, with one bull left, he swears -- and is drowned by a burst of rain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Beatty)
KEYWORDS: animal death flood curse humorous
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 133-134, "Holy Dan" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 83-84, "Holy Dan" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 304-305, "Holy Dan" (1 text)
Davey/Seal: Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, _A Guide to Australian Folklore_, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 154, "Holy Dan" (partial text)
NOTES [25 words]: This is a very popular Australian piece, recorded by Slim Dusty but with words anonymous. I have seen no evidence that it has entered tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Bea0304

Holy Ghost

See We'll Roll the Old Chariot Along (File: Doe049)

Holy Ground Once More, The

See Swansea Town (The Holy Ground) (File: Doe152)

Holy Ground, The

See Swansea Town (The Holy Ground) (File: Doe152)

Holy Is the Lamb of God

DESCRIPTION: "O holy Lord, holy my Lord, holy Lord, Holy is the lamb of God. I was in the dark and I could not see... Till Jesus brought this light to me." "If you talk about shouting here below... Just wait till you get upon the other shore."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 97, "Holy Is the Lamb of God" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16939
NOTES [42 words]: The most famous reference to the Lamb of God is of course John 1:29, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world." Though the Lamb as an actual being, as opposed to a metaphor, is found in the Apocalypse only, starting at Rev. 5:6. - RBW
File: ChFRA097

Holy Manna

DESCRIPTION: "Brothers, we have met together, And adore the Lord our God." The singer exhorts hearers to evangelize; "All is vain unless the spirit Of the Holy One comes down"; if it does, manna will be showered with it. Will the hearers ignore the needs of sinners?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #94, "Holy Manna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 199-200, "Brethren, We Have Met to Worship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5055
NOTES [42 words]: The Torah says that the Israelites ate manna in the wilderness from the time of the Exodus until the entry into Canaan; manna is described in Exodus 16 (with the detailed description starting at Ex. 16:13), and its cessation is told in Joshua 5:12. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Morr094

Holy Mary, Mother of God

DESCRIPTION: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, Send us down a couple of bob!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: money humorous | irreverent
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 56, "(Holy Mary, Mother of God)" (1 text)
Roud #19221
File: PKKB056A

Holy Moses, King of the Jews

See Nebuchadnezzar's Wife (File: PalWa097)

Holy Moses, What a Job

DESCRIPTION: Children's fishing rhyme: "Holy Moses, what a job! Catching conners by the gob."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1984 (Tizzard)
KEYWORDS: nonballad fishing
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Aubrey M. Tizzard, _On Sloping Ground Reminiscences of Outport Life In Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland_ (edited by J. D. A. Widdowson), Breakwater Books, 1984, p. 176, "(Holy Moses, what a job!)" (1 short text)
NOTES [78 words]: According to G. M. Story, W. J. Kirwin, and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, Dictionary of Newfoundland English, second edition with supplement, Breakwater Press, 1990, p. 112, a "conner," also "cunner," was "The blue perch (Tautogolabrus aspersus), a bottom-feeding fish of inshore waters, esp. common around wharves and stages." This agrees with Tizzard's own description. There is also a verb "to connor," which is to catch connors; thus this is a connoring rhyme. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Tizza176

Holy Nunnery, The [Child 303]

DESCRIPTION: Willie's parents vow that he shall not marry Annie. Told of this, Annie vows to become a nun and never kiss a man again. After seven years, Willie can bear no more; he dresses as a woman and goes to see Annie in the nunnery. She will not break her vow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: love separation father mother clergy disguise cross-dressing
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 303, "The Holy Nunnery" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 686-689, "The Holy Nunnery" (1 text)
Roud #3886
File: C303

Holy Twig, The

See The Holly Twig [Laws Q6] (File: LQ06)

Holy Well, The

DESCRIPTION: Mary sends Jesus out to play. He meets a group of noble children, who scorn him as poor. Jesus bitterly runs home to Mary. She urges him to curse/damn them. Jesus, as the worlds's savior, realizes he cannot do so
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1828 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 1484); a broadside thought to date from the eighteenth century calls it "old," and Rickert suspects it originated in the fifteenth century
KEYWORDS: abuse Jesus poverty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 690-691, "The Holy Well" (1 text)
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 186-187, "The Holy Well" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 84-86, "The Holy Well" (1 text)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 97, "The Holy Well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 110, "The Holy Well" (1 text)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 56, "The Holy Well" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 9, "The Holy Well" (1 text)
ST L690 (Partial)
Roud #1697
RECORDINGS:
Wiggy Smith, "The High-Low Well" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1484, "The Holy Well" ("As it fell out one May morning"), T. Wood (Birmingham), 1806-1827; also Douce adds. 137(12), Harding B 7(10), "The Holy Well"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bitter Withy" (plot)
NOTES [404 words]: Holy wells are just what they sound like: wells which are considered holy for one reason or another. England has quite a few of them, especially in the Celtic regions of Cornwall and Wales, according to Kerr, p. 75. And those happen to be the areas of Britain where this song is attested (although the Kerrs believe that many of these holy wells were probably regarded as magical even before Christianity penetrated the area).
The curiosity is the mention of them in Palestine. There are wells with historical significance, such as Beersheba, site of an agreement between Abraham and the Philistines (Genesis 21:22-34, with a parallel agreement between Isaac and the Philistines in Genesis 26:26-33). Chapter 4 of John also mentions Jacob's Well, held in great esteem by the Samaritans, and in Chapter 5 we hear that the pool of Bethzatha/Bethesda had healing powers -- but it isn't a well, and it doesn't seem to have been venerated. Jesus also used the pool of Siloam for a cure in John 9, but again, it isn't a well and it isn't described as holy.
Of some historical significance is the well of Bethlehem, which David wished he could drink from during his days in the wilderness (2 Samuel 23:13-17). This probably had the greatest historical significance of any of the wells.
But none of them are in Galilee, where Jesus grew up.
These and other sites eventually came to be considered pilgrimage sites by Christians (even though the identification of most of them is extremely, and I do mean *extremely*, dubious). But they weren't holy wells at the time (even if one believes that they are now). The whole concept is an anachronism.
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols has an answer for this; she says that many stories like this were known in writings such as the Vita Christi in British Library MS. Additional 29434. This would at least explain the anachronisms.
Fowler, p. 51, connects this with a piece he calls "Childhood of Jesus," a medieval English poem; for more on it, see the notes to "The Cherry-Tree Carol" [Child 54]. On p. 1806 of volume 6 of Severs/Hartung, has another suggestion, originated by Janet Graves, which explains the relationship between this and "The Bitty Withy": that this was adapted from that song to suit Protestant attitudes. Possible, of course, but it would require "The Bitty Withy," at least, and probably both songs, to be centuries older than their earliest attestation. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: L690

Home Again

DESCRIPTION: "Home again, home again, From a foreign shore, O it fills my heart with joy To be with friends once more." The sailor wept to leave home, but he rejoices to return. He sees friends and enjoys the music. He seeks no palace, just home
AUTHOR: Marshall Pike (source: Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang)
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: home sailor return nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 289-290, "Home Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 327, "Home Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #45, "Home Again" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 21 and #1/64 p. 21, "Home Again" (1 text)
Roud #27504
File: HGam289

Home Brew Rag

DESCRIPTION: "Well, I've never been drunk but about one time, And it think it was on home brew; If you ever drink any brew yourself, You know just what it'll do.... Ick-poo, home brew, We know what we'll do." The singer proposes a little drink to test the brew
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Roanoke Jug Band)
KEYWORDS: drink
FOUND IN: US(SE)
ST RcHoBreR (Full)
Roud #17857
RECORDINGS:
Roanoke Jug Band, "Home Brew Rag" (OKeh 45393, 1929)
Lowe Stokes & His North Georgians, "Home Brew Rag" (Columbia 15241-D)
File: RcHoBreR

Home Brew Song, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer "makes the whiskey That some people calls home brew." He is arrested and taken for trial to Newcastle. Condemned by a woman's testimony, he is sentenced to $200 or 6 months. He chooses bug-ridden prison because "they feed on bread and tea"
AUTHOR: Frank O'Hara (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: crime prison trial food drink humorous bug
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 21, "The Home Brew Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi021 (Partial)
Roud #9192
SAME TUNE:
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "The Home Brew Song was written in Prohibition Days by Frank O'Hara of Grey Rapids while he was serving a term in the County Jail for selling home brew." - BS
File: MaWi021

Home Came the Old Man

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Home Een duh Rock

See Home in that Rock (File: FSWB355A)

Home from the Fair

DESCRIPTION: "Come Nanny, come Polly, come Danny, come Bobby, keep house like good bairns while I go to the fair." The children may be rewarded if they avoid trouble. They have an accident with granny's tea. Mother gives them gifts anyway
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Palmer)
KEYWORDS: mother children gift home
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #114, "Home from the Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1513
File: PECS114

Home From the War

See A Good Roarin' Fire (File: HayU032)

Home I Left Behind, The

DESCRIPTION: "An Irish boy he sat alone by Susquehanna shore" thinking sadly of "the home he left behind." He recalls summer, dances, and a girl in Ireland. He and his widowed mother were driven from home "when landlord, bailiffs and police broke in our cottage door"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration separation dancing hardtimes America Ireland nonballad mother landlord
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 46, "The Home I Left Behind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5235
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "The Home I Left Behind" (on IRTLenihan01)
File: RcHILBh

Home in that Rock

DESCRIPTION: "I've got a home in(-a) that rock, don't you see, don't you see? Up between earth and sky, Thought I heard my savior cry, 'You've got a home....'" The fates of Dives and Lazarus are alluded to, or David, or Judas, or the happy fate of Noah
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Odum)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 608, "Little David" (1 short text)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #46, "I Got a Hope in That Rock" 91 text, 1 tune)
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 302-303, "Home Een duh Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 355, "Home In That Rock" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Howard W. Odum, Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes, (reprint from American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, July 1909, Vol.3 pp. 265-365 "Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 63, "(I got a home in the Rock)" (2 texts)
Roud #12209
RECORDINGS:
Elder Charles Beck, "I Got a Home In That Rock" (Eagle 103, n.d.)
Biddle University Quartet, "I've Got a Home In That Rock" (Pathe 22400, 1920/Perfect 11225, 1925)
Birmingham Jubilee Singers, "Home in that Rock" (Columbia 14163-D, 1926)
Carolina Ladies Quartet, "I Got a Home in That Rock" (Champion 16662, 1933; Champion 45117, 1935; rec. 1931)
Carter Family, "God Gave Noah the Rainbow Sign" (Victor V-40110, 1929; Bluebird B-5272/Montgomery Ward M-4427/Electra-Disc 2146/Sunrise S-3353, 1933) (Conqueror 8693/ARC 6-11-59, 1936; rec. 1935)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers "Got a Home In That Rock" (Bluebird B-6539, 1936)
Otis Mote, "Home in the Rock" (OKeh 45429, 1930)
Paul Robeson, "I Got a Home In-a Dat Rock" (Victor 21109, 1927)
Smith's Jubilee Singers, "I've Got a Home in That Rock" (Sterling 1503, n.d.)
Marshall Smith, "Home in the Rock" (Columbia 15080-D, 1926)
Kid Williams & Bill Morgan [pseuds. for Walter Smith & Lewis McDaniel], "When He Died He Got a Home in Hell" (Homestead 16094, c. 1929; Conqueror 7739, 1931)
NOTES [84 words]: The editors of Brown think that their "Little David" version is linked to "Little David, Play On Your Harp." That may perhaps have asserted some influence, but the final line, "He got [or "lost," in the case of Judas] a home in that rock, don't you see?" strikes me as the key characteristic.
The parable (not an actual historical event!) of the rich man ("Dives") and Lazarus is found in Luke 16:19-31. The story of Noah's flood is in Genesis 6-8, with the covenant of the rainbow in Gen. 9:12-17. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: FSWB355A

Home in the West

See Home on the Range (File: R193)

Home Manufactures

DESCRIPTION: "Let home manufactures engage our attention, For foreign products must suffer declension" (sic.). The singer praises the mineral and natural wealth of Utah, and lists the many sorts of people among the Mormons, which will enable them to build an economy
AUTHOR: probably William Willes
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Willes, The Mountain Warbler)
KEYWORDS: technology worker | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 246-247, "Home Manufactures" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: William Willes, _The Mountain Warbler: Being a Collection of Original Songs and Recitations, by WIlliam Willes, with a Selection from Other writes, for the Use of Choirs, Sabbath Schools and Families_, Deseret News Book and Job Establishment, Salt Lake City, 1872 (available on Google Books), pp. 24-25, "Home Manufactures" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sprig of Shillaleh" (tune)
NOTES [74 words]: Not everything in the Willes book is by Willes (and, we might add, it's texts only; no tunes are printed; despite its title, it's not what I would call a book for choirs!). Willes generally attributes poems written by others, and this has no attribution. On the other hand, he put a "W. W." after some of his own poems, and it doesn't have that, either. It's almost certainly by Willes, but perhaps one could argue that it has not been proved. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC246

Home on the Mountain Wave, A

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Ha ha my boys, these are the joys of the noble and the brave, who love the life in the tempest's strife and a home on the mountain wave." Several verses basically describing the thrills of sailing, especially in stormy weather.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Broadside)
KEYWORDS: sailor storm foc's'le
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 214-216, "A Home on the Mountain Wave" (1 text)
Roud #9152
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(362), "Mountain wave", ("A bold brave crew and an ocean blue") T. M. Scroggy (Philadelphia), n.d.
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mountain Wave
A Bold Brave Crew
NOTES [17 words]: This is found on two broadsides in the Bodleian collection, published in New York and Philadelphia. - SL
Last updated in version 3.5
File: Harl214

Home on the Range

DESCRIPTION: "Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam...." The singer praises the land of the west, "Where the sky is not cloudy all day." Details vary from version to version, and besides, you all know the song anyway....
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (lyrics published in Smith County [KS] Pioneer)
KEYWORDS: cowboy home
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Randolph 193, "Home on the Range" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 166-168, "Home on the Range" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 62, "Home on the Range" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 108, "Home on the Range" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 496-497, "Western Home" (1 text)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 212-215, "Home on the Range" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 445-447, "Western Home," "Home on the Range" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 141-142, "Home on the Range" (1 text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 134-135, O, GIve Me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam" (1 text, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 31-32, "A Home on the Range" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 26, "Home On The Range" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 164, "Home on the Range" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 49, "Home on the Range" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 178-179, "Home on the Range" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 65-66, "Western Home" (1 text)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 4, "Home on the Range" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 273-274, "Home on the Range"
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 82, "Home on the Range" (1 text, from user LadyLo, posted September 21, 2021, with a parody, "No Pope of Rome," posted by John5918 in post 84 on September 22)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 52, 124, 255, 292, "Home on the Range" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 90, "Home on the Range" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 71, "Home on the Range" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 41, "A Home on the Range" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 75, "Home on the Range" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HOMERANG
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, pp. 18-19, "Home in the West" (1 text, 1 tune, labelled the "Original version of 'Home on the Range'")
Kirke Mechem, "Home on the Range,'" article published 1949 in _The Kansas Historical Quarterly_; republished on pp. 51-83 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009
John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 153-166, "'Where the Deer and the Antelope Play" (2 texts, 2 tunes, plus a copy of an early newspaper print and a history of the song)
William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, pp. 36-37, "(no title)" (1 text, tune on pp. 115-116)
ST R193 (Partial)
Roud #3599
RECORDINGS:
Jules Allen, "Home On The Range" (Victor 21627, 1928; Bluebird B-4959/Montgomery Ward M-4463, 1933)
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "Home on the Range" (Gennett 7065/Supertone 9571, c. 1930)
Black Bros., "Home on the Range" (OKeh 45572, 1932)
Judy Cook, "Home on the Range" (Piotr-Archive #325, recorded 11/02/2022)
Vernon Dalhart, "Home on the Range" (Brunswick 137, 1927)
Hank Keene, "Home on the Range" (Bluebird B-5241/Montgomery Ward M-4397, 1933)
Ken, Chuck & Jim, "Home on the Range" (Champion 16579, 1933; Montgomery Ward M-4988, 1936)
Frank Luther Trio, "Home on the Range" (Banner 32966/Perfect 12975 [both as Buddy Spencer's Trio], 1933; Conqueror 8273 [as Buddy Spencer Trio], 1934)
Frank Luther & Carson Robison, "Home on the Range" (Columbia 2642-D, 1932)
Ken Maynard, "Home on the Range" (Columbia test recording, c. 1930; on MakeMe, WhenIWas2)
Patt Patterson & Lois Dexter, "Home on the Range" Perfect 12650, 1930 [as "A Home on the Range"]; Conqueror 7711, 1931)
Red River Dave [McEnery], "Home on the Range" (Sonora 1063, n.d.)
Roy Rogers, "Home on the Range" (RCA Victor 21-0077, 1949)
Pete Seeger, "Home on the Range" (on PeteSeeger17, CowFolkCD1)
Miriam "Mimi" Wright, "Home on the Range" (Piotr-Archive #296, recorded 10/10/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Colorado Home" (form)
SAME TUNE:
Toys, Beautiful Toys (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 32-33)
Alaska: Home on the Snow (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 243)
Frank Luther & Trio, "Home on the Range Part 5/Part 6" (Decca 1429, 1937)
No Pope of Rome (see SuppTrad)
Home on the Tundra (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 255)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Arizona Home
NOTES [509 words]: Various candidates have been proposed as the author of this piece, e.g. Daniel Kelley and Dr. Brewster Higley (1873; for this story, see Fuld), "C.O. Swartz... and other prospectors" (1885), and probably others. Given the feel of the piece, it seems likely that there is only a single author -- but I'd have a hard time saying WHICH single author. The matter is the chief topic of the article by Mechem cited in the references, who notes that there was a major lawsuit about the matter in the 1930s (p. 52 in the Cohen reprint). Mechem's conclusion is that the words were by Higley (1823-1911) and the music by Daniel E. Kelley (1843-1905).
The lawsuit is particularly interesting because it involved the Southern Music Publishing Company -- which happened to be run by Ralph Peer (see Barry Mazor, Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Roots Music, Chicago Review Press, 2015, p. 155-157), the man responsible for recording the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers and others. "Home on the Range" had become incredibly popular in the early 1930s, and everyone thought it was public domain because John A. Lomax had published it two dozen years earlier in Cowboy Songs. But William and Mary Goodwin of Tempe, Arizona had copyrighted a version they called "Arizona Home" in 1905 -- and Peer controlled the copyright on that version. So he started seeking payment. In the course of the lawsuit, though, the Higley text turned up. That predated the Goodwin version and ended the lawsuit, although it didn't actually prove Higley the author.
Various adaptions have been published over the years, such as the Goodwins' "Arizona Home," but none depart far from the original form. Mechem's article also contains a copy of the February 26, 1876 Kirwin Chief, one of the first publications of the lyrics. It is on pp. 70-71 of the Cohen reprint.
Mechem, pp. 329-330, suggests that two early changes contributed significantly to the success of the song. He notes that the earliest texts all give the third line of the last verse as "I would not exchange my home here to range" and that the chorus began "A home, a home, where the deer and the antelope play." The former line was converted to "I would not exchange my home ON THE range," and the latter to "Home, home on the range, where the deer...." The former change altered the whole meaning of the song; the latter improved its singability.
The piece eventually became the state song of Kansas. According to Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 141, the bill that made it the state song also made it official, at least in Kansas, that it was by Higley and Kelley.
User John5918, of the book cataloging site LibraryThing, pointed out to me that there were many adaptions of this used in the Troubles in Northern Ireland, most Catholic, some Protestant; he quoted one of the Protestant ones (since it's a little less offensive): "Oh give me a home, Where there's no Pope of Rome, Where there's nothing but Protestants stay, Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, And flute bands play 'The Sash' every day." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R193

Home Rule for Ireland

DESCRIPTION: Hearers are urged to join the Home Rule Movement. Mr Butt and other leaders are named. Gladstone thought that the church bill would suffice, "but Paddy wants to rule himself." America and France support Home Rule. Butt leads "his little band" of MPs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, p. 61, "Home Rule" (1 fragment)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 145-146, "Home Rule" (1 text)
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 21, page headed "Home Rule for Ireland"], "Home Rule for Ireland" (1 text)
Roud #V4329
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 13(340), "Home Rule for Ireland" ("Come all you sons of Erin"), unknown, n.d.; also 2806 b.10(224), Firth c.16(407)[first nine lines illegible], "Home Rule for Ireland"
NLScotland, L.C.1270(009), "Home Rule for Ireland," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Loyal Song Against Home Rule" (subject: the quest for Home Rule) and references there
NOTES [989 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 61: "Constitutional agitation had been revived in 1869 through meetings demanding an amnesty for the Fenian prisoners. A 'Home Government Association for Ireland', created in 1870 [founded by Isaac Butt], became the 'Irish Home Rule League' in 1872 and soon met with great success as the Irish Parliamentary Party. Broadside ballads praised its leaders, and looked once more for encouragement from overseas." [see also "The Glorious Meeting of Dublin" and references there].
The leaders of the movement named in the broadside are, besides Butt, are John Martin and Shea, Dr Cummins and Galbraith; the "little band" of Home Rule MPs are not named.
The reference to Gladstone and the church refers to his 1869 move disestablishing the Church of Ireland in 1869 so that Catholic farmers did not have to pay tithes to that church. In 1885 Gladstone announced his support for Irish Home Rule. (sources: "Gladstone and Home Rule 1886" in Northern Ireland Timeline at the BBC site; "Gladstone and Ireland" at the History Learning site)
Zimmermann p. 61 is a fragment; broadside NLScotland L.C.1270(009) is the basis for the description. The NLS probable period of publication as 1840-1850 is obviously incorrect when the broadside refers to events after 1870. - BS
The initial organization of the Home Government Alliance was rather ironic, as it included Protestants upset about the disestablishment of the Protestant Church (Kee, p. 61; also the notes to "The Downfall of Heresy").
Isaac Butt himself was a non-Catholic: "While Gladstone was endeavoring to solve the Irish problem by reforms, a new effort to win independence by constitutional means was launched.... This was the home rule movement, founded in 1870 by Isaac Butt, the leading Irish barrister of the age, a man of large and colourful personality, a Protestant and formerly a unionist, who had been converted to nationalist by his experience of Irish suffering in the Great Famine and then by the courage and integrity of first the Young Irelanders and then of the Fenians."
If Kee is to be believed, the Home Rulers were right about Gladstone: "Gladstone seems at first to have imagined that he could solve the problem of Ireland forever by two measures: first, By disestablishing the Irish Protestant Church and, second, legislating to compensate a tenant financially on eviction" (p. 58). The first measure came into force in 1869, and was welcomed in Ireland (although hardly by Conservatives in England). The second took the form of the first Land Bill, passed in 1870. But it corrected only a few minor abuses: Evicted tenants had to be paid for improvements they had made, but they could still be evicted. Something stronger was needed.
The mention of the Church Bill dates the song after 1869. The lack of reference to the second Land Bill, and of Gladstone's Home Rule proposal, surely dates it before 1886 -- and the lack of reference to Parnell probably dates it very early in that period. Isaac Butt had been a moderately important figure since 1848, when he defended Smith O'Brien and some of his confederates. But it wasn't until 1869 that he became a major political force, urging a program of constitutional reform.
Butt was convinced (correctly) that the Irish economy was badly mismanaged. The famine years of the 1840s "led Butt to realize that it was not enough simply to blame the laisez-faire policies of the government. It was the fundamentally unsound relationship between landlord and tenant that lay at the root of the trouble" (Lyons, p. 147).
Butt was entirely right about the economic program -- but, like many others after him, he confused political freedom with an efficient society. He didn't really have a program, except a parliament for Ireland. On that basis he managed to recruit a number of Irish MPs -- but he couldn't hold them together in Westminster (Kee, pp. 64-66. This was especially so since he had to work part-time, and wasn't really in position to head a party).
"In the general election of 1874 -- the first to be fought under the conditions of secret voting in accordance with the Ballot Act of 1872 -- Butt's new party won more than half of all Irish seats.... But his claim to separate nationhood for Ireland was not taken seriously by either British party" (Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, pp. 246-247). From 1875, when Charles Stewart Parnell made his maiden speech declaring Ireland to be "not a geographical fragment but a nation," Butt was a spent force.
Home Rule nearly took care of Gladstone, too. He introduced the bill in 1886 -- and it split the Liberal party; a block of about fifty M.P.s, headed by Joseph Chamberlain, bolted (Massie, pp. 235-238). For about twenty years, Britain had what amounted to four political parties: Orthodox liberals (committed to social reform and home rule), Conservatives (opposed to social reform and home rule), the Irish delegation (which often split many ways; the most important faction, led by John Redmond, believed in home rule, though many were liberal on other issues), and the Chamberlainites (the "Liberal Unionists," who were liberal on social issues but adamantly opposed to Home Rule). It made Britain nearly ungovernable, except when the Chamberlainites managed to extract liberal concessions from the Conservatives. The Conservatives developed a policy of "killing Home Rule with kindness" (Kee, p. 111), but kindness wasn't really their specialty.
A few years later, Parnell died (October 10, 1891), and Kee (p. 115) writes that "The chances of Home Rule for the next twenty years were buried with him"; see also the notes to "We Won't Let Our Leader Run Down." For the future course of the Home Rule movement, see the notes to "A Loyal Song Against Home Rule."
Chamberlain, in addition to splitting the liberal party and postponing home rule, had one more dubious gift to give to Britain: His younger son, Neville Chamberlain. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: BrdHoRuI

Home Sweet Home to Me

See Fourth of July at a Country Fair (Home Sweet Home to Me) (File: Brne144)

Home to Dinner

DESCRIPTION: "Home to dinner ... There's the bell ... Bacon and potatoes . . . Ding dong dell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 303, "Home to Dinner" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 55)
Roud #1339
NOTES [13 words]: Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames: "Catch, formerly well known at Bibury." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT303A

Home, Boys, Home

See Ambletown; also Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: LK43A)

Home, Dearie, Home

See Ambletown; also Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: LK43A)

Home, Green Erin, O

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, come all you true born Irish men, I hope you will attend, I hope you'll pay attention to these few lines I've penned." The singer is forced to leave "green Erin, O." He must leave home, family, and the girl he loves for "Columbia."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation home
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 43, "Home, Green Erin, O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #23057
NOTES [73 words]: If there are versions of this other than O. J. Abbott's, I have not identified them, and Abbott's seems confused. If the emigrant's parents are "honoured," as in verse 4, why is he forced to leave? Rebellion? It's not mentioned. Religious persecution? There are mentioned of Luther, and of hedge priests, but both references seem to be damaged. Unless we can find another version, the details of this song are likely to remain a mystery. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: AbFo043

Home, Home, Home

See When I Was Young; also Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: EM075)

Home, Sweet Home

See Home! Sweet Home! (File: RJ19080)

Home, Sweet Home (Australian Parody)

DESCRIPTION: "From towns great and small, and from country we come, From all sorts of 'places' we thus hasten home." The captain makes sure they stay there. They're abused and fed poorly while within the walls. In spite of all this, "there's no place like home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland)
KEYWORDS: home hardtimes derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 134-136, "Home, Sweet Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: AnFa134

Home, Sweet Home (II)

See The Wandering Cowboy [Laws B7] (File: LB07)

Home, Sweet Home (Parody)

DESCRIPTION: "When you're having heaps of fun and getting full of beer, There's no place like home. When your feet get tangled up and you walk on your ear, There's no place like home." It's a place to fall down drunk, to suffer when others visit, to regret your wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: derivative hardtimes humorous drink baby wife injury
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 152, "Parody of 'Home, Sweet Home'" (1 text)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 21, "There's No Place Like Home Parody" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 149-150, "There's No Place Like Home" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #4896 and 11351
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Brisk Young Bachelor (I)" (theme)
NOTES [38 words]: These are not really all the same parody, but they all share a common sort of idea: When something miserable happens to you, there is no place like home. Such songs will inevitably cross-fertilize, so I'm lumping them here. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Brne152

Home! Sweet Home!

DESCRIPTION: "'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble there's no place like home." The singer yearns to return to that "lowly thatched cottage" which brings peace of mind
AUTHOR: Words: John Howard Payne (c. 1791-1852) / Music: possibly Sir Henry Bishop (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (in the opera "Clara [or the Maid of Milan]")
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 80-82, "Home! Sweet Home!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 120, "Home, Sweet Home" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 87, (no name; a partial text of a parody)
Krythe-SamplerOfAmericanSongs 3, pp. 40-61, "Home, Sweet Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #44, "Home, Sweet Home" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #895, p. 60, "Home, Sweet Home" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 53 and #4/64, p. 53, "Home, Sweet Home" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 57-58, "Home! Sweet Home!" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 374-375, "Home, Sweet Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 52, "Home Sweet Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 143-145, "Home, Sweet Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 254, "Home, Sweet Home" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 274-275, "Home! Sweet Home!"
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 3, "Home, Sweet Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 311, "Home, Sweet Home" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 36, "Home, Sweet Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 24, "Home, Sweet Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 48-53, "Home, Sweet Home" (1 text)
DT, HOMSWEET
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _The Vocal Companion_, second edition, D'Almaine and Co., 1837 (available from Google Books), p. 33, "Home! Sweet Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 16-18, "Home! Sweet Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Michael R. Turner, _Victorian Parlour Poetry: An Annotated Anthology_, 1967, 1969 (page references are to the 1992 Dover edition), pp. 175-176, "Home, Sweet Home" (1 text)
Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, pp. 39-41, offers some history of the song and a list of several dozen early printings; plate 9 shows the cover of the earliest sheet music
Roud #13449
RECORDINGS:
The Breaux Freres, "Home Sweet Home" [in Cajun French] (Vocalion 2961B, 1934; on AAFM2)
Eleanora de Cisneros, "Home, Sweet Home" (CYL: Edison (BA) 28145, 1913; on Protobilly)
Elizabeth Cotten, "Home Sweet Home" (on Cotten03)
Edward Franklin, "Home Sweet Home" (Columbia 44, 1901)
Frank Jenkins, "Home Sweet Home" (Silvertone 5080, 1927)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Home Sweet Home" (Brunswick 475, 1930)
Margarethe Matzenauer, "Home, Sweet Home" (Pathe Actuelle 027519, n.d.)
McMichen's Melody Men, "Home Sweet Home" (Columbia 15288-D, 1928)
Don Reno, "Home, Sweet Home" (King 1474, 1955; on Protobilly)
Royal Hawaiians, "Home Sweet Home" (Broadway 8100, c. 1930)
DaCosta Woltz's Southern Broadcasters, "Home Sweet Home" (Supertone 9162, 1928)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(7a/b) View 7 of 8, "Home, Sweet Home" ("Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam"), R. March and Co. (London), 1877-1884; also Harding B 25(854), Harding B 11(1564), Firth c.17(40), Harding B 11(2341), Harding B 11(4032), "Home, Sweet Home"
LOCSheet, sm1851 490710, "Home, Sweet Home" ("'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam"), Firth, Pond and Co. (New York), 1851; also sm1851 670130, sm1852 510930, sm1852 692100, sm1883 17251, sm1883 21656, "Home, Sweet Home" (tune)
LOCSinging, as105460, "Home, Sweet Home," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also sb20169b, "Home, Sweet Home"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There Is No Place in the Height of Heaven" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Song That Reached My Heart" (recalls this song)
cf. "Home, Sweet Home (Parody)" (lyrics, form)
SAME TUNE:
Home, Sweet Home (Parody) (File: Brne152)
There's No Place Like Home ("I've got a little house that I call my home, There's no place like home") (Harbin-Parodology, #18, pp. 12-13)
NOTES [532 words]: Krythe-SamplerOfAmericanSongs gives extensive notes on the career of John Howard Payne (1791-1852), actor, playwright, poet, minor American diplomat, expatriate, and man with absolutely no idea how to manage his affairs. This song was originally part of an operetta, "Clari, the Maid of Milan," which Payne sold for fifty pounds in 1823. (Rudin, p. 92, says the figure was 250 pounds. Given the way the music business worked back then, that in fact strikes me as a very good sum. Even fifty pounds isn't too bad.)
Jameson, p. 486, gives this biography of the lyricist:
Payne, John Howard (1792-1852), was an author and actor of considerable merit and fame at home and abroad. He is eminent as the author of "Home, Sweet Home," which he composed for his drama, "Clari, or the Maid of Milan." His renown as a song-poet was unsurpassed. He was U. S. Minister to Tunis from 1841 to 1845 [Tyler administration] and again from 1851 to his death [Fillmore administration].
Ford-SongHistories, however, has a story that Payne, when he was having a spell of hard luck, stumbled upon a happy dinner party, and the sight inspired the text, which he incorporated into the text of "Clari."
Dichter and Shapiro, p. 39, note the curious fact that three different birth dates are cited for Payne (June 9, 1791; April 1, 1791; and June 8, 1792), and that he has three different death dates (between April 1 and April 10, 1852). Waites & Hunter add the interesting point that neither Payne nor Bishop "experienced the simple pleasures of home life"; Bishop was knighted but was "a noted reprobate, homewrecker and spendthrift," while Payne was too poor a businessman to really handle his own affairs.
Apparently these stories were widely exaggerated; Rudin, p. 91, reports popular accounts saying that "Payne often heard this song played in London, Paris, and other capitals of the world, while he himself wandered poor and unknown, with hardly a crust of bread to eat, and no place to lay his head." The obvious problem with a story like that is that destitute people would find it rather difficult to get to at least three European capitals, at least two of them separated by the English channel! (Although he did spend several decades in Europe, and was there when he wrote "Clari") Rudin, p. 92, points out that Payne "was never in actual want," and says that he was a friend of Washington Irving and Daniel Webster
The music to the opera "Clari" was by Henry Rowley Bishop. Some have questioned, however, whether he wrote the music for this particular song. It has been claimed that it is an old French tune. The 1823 sheet music cited by Dichter & Shapiro says that it is "Composed & partly founded on a Sicilian Air by Henry R. Bishop." (Nettel, p. 155, reconciles these accounts by saying Bishop wrote the tune, but separately from the opera, and published it in a book of national songs.)
The sheet music sold hundreds of thousands of copies, but of course none of the proceeds went to the composers. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as105460: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: RJ19080

Homesick Boy, The

See Ten Thousand Miles Away (On the Banks of Lonely River) (File: R697)

Homespun Dress, The

DESCRIPTION: "Yes, I am a southern girl, and glory in the same, And boast it with far greater pride than glit'ring wealth or fame...." The girl proudly boasts that, though her dress is homespun and her clothing poor, it is all southern and better than northern finery
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Southern Poems of the War)
KEYWORDS: clothes Civilwar patriotic
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 360, "The Homespun Dress" (1 text)
Randolph 215, "The Southern Dress" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 380, "The Homespun Dress" (2 texts plus a reprinting of a printed version)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 125, pp. 265-266, "The Homespun Dress" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #9, "The Homespun Dress" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #C154, p. 194, "Southern Girl and Parody" (1 reference)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 68, "The Homespun Dress" (1 text, tune referenced)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 229-230, "The Homespun Dress" (1 text, tune referenced)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 78-79, "The Homespun Dress" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CNFEDGAL*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 224, "The Homespun Dress" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, pp. 67-69, "The Southern Girl's Song" (1 text)
Roud #4504
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "Young Ladies in Town" (theme)
NOTES [136 words]: The authorship of this piece is disputed; several sources list a Lt. Harrington, killed at Perryville (Oct 9, 1862); others credit the song to Carrie Bell Sinclair, whose name is listed on the Wolf broadside. The notes in Brown contain an extensive, but inconclusive, discussion, which consists mostly of citations of unauthoritative sources.
E. Lawrence Abel, Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861-1865, Stackpole, 2000, pp. 126-127, discusses a major investigation of the question. Apparently some five hundred people attempted to claim the piece when a Dr. Lloyd offered a reward for helping him secure a complete text, and it eventually was submitted to a panel of judges. The conclusion was that the words were by Carrie Bell Sinclair. I do not know the basis for this conclusion. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: R215

Homestead Strike, The

DESCRIPTION: "We are asking one another as we pass the time of day Why men must have recourse to arms to get their proper pay." The union workers go on strike; the company hires Pinkertons to break it. The result is bloodshed
AUTHOR: J. W. Kelly?
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement fight hardtimes strike
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 1, 1892 - Declaration of the Homestead Strike (one of many strikes taking place about this time). The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers strikes Carnegie's Homestead Steel Works in Pennsylvania, trying to win the right to collective bargaining.
Relations between the Union and management has, until this time, been fairly good, but manager Henry Clay Frick decided the expiration of the current contract was a good opportunity to break the union. He cut wages and refused to negotiate.
July 6, 1892 - Frick brings in 300 Pinkertons (the "paid detectives" of the song) to battle the strikers and relatives (who number about 5000). Twenty people were killed in the ensuing battle, in which the Pinkertons were repelled (and, without exception, injured)
July 9, 1892 - Frick convinces Pennsylvania Governor Pattison to send in 7000 militia to break the strike
July 15, 1892 - Despite appeals from all over the world (including President Cleveland), the Homestead Mill is re-opened by scabs
Nov 14, 1892 - The Homestead workers give up their strike. They have made no real gains (except in public opinion), and many have lost their jobs to scabs
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 443-446, "The Homestead Strike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 20-21, "The Homestead Strike" (1 text, 1 tune, with another text in the notes on pp 29-30)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 183, "The Homestead Strike" (1 short text, 1 tune, informant and date unknown)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 22, "The Homestead Strike" (1 short text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 156-157, "The Homestead Strike" (1 text)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 244, "The Homestead Strike" (1 text; there is another "Homestead Strike" on p. 243, but I would consider it a separate song)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 198-199, "A Fight for Home and Honor " (1 text)
DT, HOMESTD*
Roud #7744
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Homestead Strike Song" (on PeteSeeger47)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Father Was Killed by the Pinkerton Men" (subject)
NOTES [627 words]: The Homestead Strike was one of the bitterest labor disputes in American history, as shown by both this song and "Father Was Killed by the Pinkerton Men."
A contemporary account gives this summary description (Jameson, p. 310):
Homestead Riots. On the final refusal of the workingmen's association to accept certain changes in the wage scale, the proprietors of the Carnegie Steel Mills, at Homestead, PA., closed the works July 1, 1892. The employes declared a strike about the same time. A mob prevented the sheriff from placing pickets in the mills. July 6 a body of 300 Pinkerton detectives arrived. A bloody fight between these men and the strikers immediately took place, resulting in considerable loss on both sides. The Pinkertons surrendered. The Pennsylvania militia was then ordered out and remained at Homestead to protect the mills. Many of the strikers were arrested and indictments were found against them."
Note that this description (written no later than 1894) reters to the events as "riots."
(Incidentally, we think of the Pinkerton Agency as a detective organization, and that was certainly how they initially presented themselves, but as the company expanded, it became more and more what we would now call a contract security firm -- and an armed one, which existed to do the bidding of corporate managers, the "Pinkerton Protective Patrol" (Lukas, pp. 81-83); they sound very much like the sort of private security firms the United States has used in the twentieth century in places like Iraq to substitute for the U. S. military.)
The Homestead Iron Works was partly owned by Andrew Carnegie but was run by Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919), who was a robber baron's robber baron. PresElections, p. 1725, describes his behavior: "The management's contract with skilled workers was to expire on June 30 [,1892]. Despite apparent national prosperity, Frock lowered the wage rates of about one-sixth of the labor force in proposed new contracts. His refusal to negotiate, or accept full unionization produced a strike and over-reaction on both sides early in July. Strikers left the building talking of violence; management locked out employees. Barbed wire, observation towers, and private guards, later including Pinkertons, protected strikebreakers."
The strike was so bitter that Nevins/Commager, p. 327, refer to "a pitched battle on the banks of the Monongahela."
Unfortunately for workers, a quirk of fate turned the public against them. On July 23, a nut named Alexander Berkman attempted to assassinate Frick. Berkman injured but did not kill Frick, and the public blamed the union even though Berkman was a lone wolf who had nothing to do with the Homestead laborers (PresElections, pp. 1725-1726). Frick went on to give $25,000 to the re-election campaign of President Benjamin Harrison, whose administration had refused to intervene.
The strike was doomed, especially since strikebreakers had succeeded in resuming partial production at the mill. Eventually, after months of struggle and suffering, the strikers gave in. Many lost their jobs, and the remainder had to accept Frick's pay cuts. All they had succeeded in doing was leaving a blot on people's memories which would still be remembered two generations later (Hofstadter, p. 244).
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection has a different take on the Homestead Strike, referring it to a "mine fire stared in 1884 near New Straitsville, a town just south of Zanesville in Perry County[, Ohio]." I can see no reason in the Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection version to support this supposition, although it is not inherently impossible. I do wonder, a little, if all the songs filed under this title are actually the same; some of them have rather different forms. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Gil198

Homesteader, The

DESCRIPTION: "On a distant lonely prairie, In a little lonely shack, New life the homesteader faces; On the world he's turned his back." He lives fifteen miles from a neighbor, and a hundred miles from a town. But he has freedom and is building up Canada
AUTHOR: Words: John Hughes Arnett
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba)
KEYWORDS: home farming freedom nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba, #12, pp. 75-77, "The Homesteader" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25769
File: Macl12

Homeward Bound (I)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Goodbye, fare you well, goodbye, fare you well... Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound." While the rest of the shanty usually tells a story about sailors' return, the stanzas are often compiled from floating verses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (from the log of the Minerva)
KEYWORDS: shanty reunion
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) West Indies(St Vincent)
REFERENCES (30 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 87-89, "Homeward Bound" (3 texts, 1 tune. The first text is largely "Outward and Homeward Bound"; the third partakes of "Rolling in the Dew" and "Ratcliffe Highway"")
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 50-52, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone-CapstanBars, p. 117, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 113-114, "Good-bye, Fare You Well!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 119-121, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 120-124, "Goodbye, Fare-Ye-Well" (8 texts-5 English, 2 Norwegian, 1 French, 2 tunes. Version c's verses are from "Blow the Man Down," version d's are from "The Dreadnaught") [AbEd, pp. 103-106]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 36, "Goodby Fare-Ye-Well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 69-70, "Outward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 85, "Goodbye, Fare You Well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 132-133, "Goodbye, Fare-Ye-Well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 140-141, "Homeward Bound" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 176, "Homeward Bound 2" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 63 in the 2nd edition, p. 29 in the 3rd, p. 47 in the 4th, p. 25 in the 5th
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 165, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 23, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 34, "Goodbye, Fare Ye Well" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 37, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 56-57, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 103, "We're Homeward Bound" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 5, "Good-Bye, Fare Ye Well" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 18, "We're Bound to St Peter's" (1 short text, probably this although refers once to being "Dundee bound" rather than "homeward bound")
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H53a, p. 97, "I'm Going Home" (1 text, 1 tune - a fragment, probably of this song)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #3, Good-bye, fare ye well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 80-81, "Those Girls from Bermuda" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 33, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 34. "Homeward Bound" (1 text)
DT, GDBYFWL*
ADDITIONAL: "On Shanties," article in E(neas) S(weetland) Dallas, editor, _Once a Week_, New Series, Number 31, August 1, 1868 (published by Bradbury and Evans and available on Google Books), p. 92, "(The Liverpool docks we'll bid adieu, Good-bye, fare you well)" (1 fragment, almost certainly this)
Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). We're Homeward Bound" is in Part 4, 8/4/1917.
Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, pp. 341-342, "Homeward Bound (Good-Bye, Fare You Well)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1104 and 927
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Homeward Bound" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
Capt. Leighton Robinson w. Alex Barr, Arthur Brodeur & Leighton McKenzie, "Goodbye, Fare You Well (Homeward Bound)" (AFS 4229 A, 1939; on LC27 as "Homeward Bound"; in AMMEM/Cowell)
W[illiam] H. Smith, "Goodbye, Fare You Well" (on NovaScotia1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Et Nous Irons a Valapariso" (partial tune and chorus)
cf. "As-Tu Connu le Per Lanc'lot?" (French adaption of this song)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Goodbye, Fare You Well
Ved Ankerhioning (Anchor Song) [Norwegian versio]
As-tu-connu le Pere Lancelot [French version]
The Glasgow Lasses
NOTES [56 words]: Horace Beck in his book Folklore and the Sea (Mystic Conn.: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1985), p. 137, explains that this chanty was sung by British sailors as they "walked the capstan round" bound for home. Other ships hearing this would give them mail and messages to take with them. On American ships "Shenandoah" was sung instead. - SH
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Doe087

Homeward Bound (II -- Loose Every Sail to the Breeze)

DESCRIPTION: "Loose every sail to the breeze, The course of my vessel improve... Ye sailors I'm bound to my love." The sailor rejoices to be going home to his faithful Emma. He toasts the ship and the wind which carries her home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1795 (Journal from the Joseph Francis)
KEYWORDS: sailor sea home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 52-53, "Loose Every Sail to the Breeze" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2016
NOTES [39 words]: Huntington thinks this a traditional song, but his tune, at least, can hardly be regarded as traditional. It requires a range of two full octaves. Some singers could handle this, but probably not enough to keep the song current. - RBW
File: SWMS052

Homeward Bound (III)

See Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down! (File: Wa071)

Homeward Bound (IV)

See Outward and Homeward Bound (File: Hugi541)

Hona, Mama, Mona, Mike

See Aina Mania Mana Mike (File: McIn102A)

Honest Farmer, The

DESCRIPTION: "I saw an honest farmer, his back was bending low, Picking out his cotton... until the merchant come.... That he might pay them some." "Goodbye boll weevil, for you know you've ruint my home." Weary, and poor, his wife advises him to trust in the Savior
AUTHOR: Probably Fiddlin' John Carson
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recorded by Fiddlin' John Carson)
KEYWORDS: farming hardtimes bug
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, BOLWEEV3*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 22, #5 (1973), p, 22, "The Honest Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune, the John Carson version)
Roud #17582
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Honest Farmer" (OKeh 40411, 1925) (Bluebird B-5742, 1934/Montgomery Ward M-4849, c. 1935)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Palms of Victory (Deliverance Will Come)" (form)
File: SOv22n5a

Honest Girl (I Went to Church Like an Honest Girl Should)

DESCRIPTION: "I went to church like an honest girl should, And the boys come too, Like other boys would." I come home like an honest girl should, And the boys came too.... She ends up pregnant and has a baby, "And the boys denied it, just like boys would."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Henry, collected from Mrs. Samuel Harmon)
KEYWORDS: courting pregnancy abandonment lie
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 28-29, "Honest Girl" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, p. 86, "Honest Girl" (1 text)
Roud #27679
NOTES [16 words]: This may be the best five-stanza summary of the relationship between the sexes I've ever seen. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: MHAp028

Honest Irish Lad, The

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Tim McNare, I'm from the County Clare In that lovely little isle across the sea." The singer loved Ireland, but his farm could not support his family. Now in America, he can find no work. He still hopes to bring his family to join him
AUTHOR: Thomas F. Kerrigan and Dan McCarthy (c. 1880) (source: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 broadside, see notes; 1888 (Wehman's [Universal Songster] Collection)
KEYWORDS: poverty emigration family separation unemployment
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 142-145, "Give an Honest Irish Lad a Chance (The Honest Irish Lad)" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 89-91, "The Honest Irish Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Wehman's [Universal Songster] Collection of 98 Songs No. 18 (New York, 1888 ("Digitized by Internet Archive)), p. 17, "Give an Honest Irish Lad a Chance" ("My name is McNamara, and I came from County Clare") (1 text)
Wehman's Irish Songster [of 200 Songs] No. 1 (New York, n.d. ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 32, "Give an Honest Irish Lad a Chance" ("My name is McNamara, and I came from County Clare") (1 text)
Roud #4522
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "No Irish Need Apply" (subject)
cf. "An Irish Laborer" (subject)
NOTES [18 words]: One of Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's texts is a fragment from an 1880 New York broadside. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: FMB089

Honest Miner, An

DESCRIPTION: "When first I went to mining, I was uncommon green," and has very little luck. So the singer learns of ways that an "honest miner" can succeed, e.g. by "finding" a pig in a bag. The thefts are blamed on "Joaquin"
AUTHOR: Words: John A. Stone ("Old Put")
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 ("Put's Original California Songster," according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes thief
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 132-134, "An Honest Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Low Backed Car" (tune)
File: LDC132

Honest Ploughman, The (Ninety Years Ago)

DESCRIPTION: An old ploughman complains that he, his wife, father and mother worked hard; now wives wear "dandy veils" and daughters and sons don't milk or plough. He can no longer work and gets no respect; if on relief he will go to the "Whig Bastile."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2125))
KEYWORDS: age poverty marriage farming nonballad father husband mother wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 294, "Ninety Years of Age" (1 fragment) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 244)
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #9, "The Honest Ploughman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #619
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2125), "The Life of an Honest Ploughman" or "90 Years Ago" ("Come all you jolly husbandmen & listen to my song"), J.Russell (Birmingham), 1814-1838; also Firth c.16(297), Harding B 11(1571), Harding B 11(1570), 2806 c.13(48), "Honest Ploughman" or "90 Years Ago"; Johnson Ballads 2561, "Honset [sic] Ploughman" or "90, Years Ago"; Firth c.16(299), Harding B 11(3294), "The Honest Ploughman"
File: WT294

Honest Working Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "Way down in East Cape Breton, where they knit the sock and mitten, Cezzetcook is represented by the husky black and tan. May they never be rejected, and home rule be protected, and always be connected with the honest working man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: work fishing
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 31, "The Honest Working Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HONSTWR*
Roud #4535
NOTES [29 words]: Written as a piece of irony aimed at the importation of surplus labor in the summer months.... Referred to in several sources as "the national anthem of Cape Breton workers." - SL
File: FowM

Honey Babe (I)

See New River Train (File: AF073)

Honey Babe (II)

See Sound Off (Cadence Count, Jody Chant) (File: LoF317)

Honey Babe (III)

DESCRIPTION: "If I could lay my head on your sweet breast, Honey baby, I could find rest, sweet rest, I could find sweet rest, Honey babe, I could find sweet rest." "If could could set down in your lap, Baby mind, I could have a nap, Good nap, sweet nap, Honey...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: nonballad love
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 743, "Honey Babe" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [26 words]: The description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 plus that in Odum & Johnson. I don't know if there are longer versions. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5743

Honey Bee

See Crawdad AND New River Train (File: AF073)

Honey in the Rock

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Honey in the rock, got to feed God children, Honey in the rock (2x), Honey in the rock, got to feed God children, Feed every child of God." Floating verses like "Satan mad and I so glad He missed the soul that he thought he had"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Blind Mamie Forehand)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, pp. 232-233, "Honey in the Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16119
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Honey in the Rock" (Decca 5467. 1938; Montgomery Ward 8024, 1939; rec. 1937)
Blind Mamie Forehand & A. C. Forehand, "Honey in the Rock" (Victor 20574, 1927)
NOTES [85 words]: The current description is based on the Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight text. - BS
The Victor ledgers for the recording by Blind Mamie Forehand credit her and A. C. Forehand with the authorship. The lyrics of the Forehands' recording are considerably different from the description of those in Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight. They may be completely independent songs. I have not heard the Carter Family's recording, so I can't say whether it's the same song as the Forehands', the Carawans', or neither. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CarCa232

Honey Pots, Honey Pots

DESCRIPTION: "Honey pots, honey pots, All in a row, Honey pots, honey pots, all in a row."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty food
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 51-52, "(Honey pots, honey pots)" (1 short text)
Roud #19197
File: SuSm051

Honey, Take a Whiff on Me

See Take a Whiff on Me (File: RL130)

Honey, Turn Your Damper Down

See Sweet Mama (File: ScNF242b)

Honeymoon, The (By West of Late As I Did Walk)

DESCRIPTION: "By west of late as I did walk," the singer hears two newlyweds. She declares she will not work for him. He says that if she will not work, "I shall the(e) dryve." They fall to fighting. She lands more blows than he. He singer hopes for peace
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Aytoun); the manuscript is from no later than the early seventeenth century, and Robbins suggested that a Stationer's Register entry from 1590 refers to thie piece
KEYWORDS: husband wife marriage fight
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Peter J. Seng, _Tudor Songs and Ballads from MS Cotton Vespasian A-25_, Harvard University Press, 1978, #22, pp. 42-44, "By west off late as I dyd walke" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Cotton Vespasian A.xxv (67), folio 140
ST PJSe022 (Partial)
Roud #8206
NOTES [115 words]: Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 151, #1740, is "A merye newe ieste of a wife that threst her husband with a flea," registered by Thomas Scarlet on August 15, 1590; Rollins suggests that the printed piece is this item, but I can't prove it.
The form of the text doesn't look much like a folk song to me, but Ritson and Aytoun and others printed it, so I'm including it very tentatively.
For more information about the manuscript British Library Cotton Vespasian A.xxv, see the notes to "The Hawthorn Green."
Last updated in version 6.5
File: PJSe022

Honk-Hiss-Tweet-GGGGGGGGGG

See One Day I Met a Wee Little Pig (Honk-Hiss-Tweet-GGGGGGGGGG) (File: DPio396)

Honkytonk Asshole

DESCRIPTION: "I hang out in bars and bother the dollies, I peak when I'm not spoken to." The singer describes his performance in bars, and tells how he gets thrown out of the place as "bad for business.'
AUTHOR: Baxter Black
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging)
KEYWORDS: drink work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 61, pp. 275-277, "Honkytonk Asshole" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10111
NOTES [36 words]: Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging thinks this a typical example of modern bawdy songwriting. This strikes me as unlikely; it's dirty, but it's much too much like pop-country whining-because-I'm-on-the-road songs. - RBW
File: Logs061

Honour of a London Prentice, The

See The Valiant London Apprentice [Laws Q38] (File: LQ38)

Honour of Bristol, The

DESCRIPTION: "Attend you and give ear a while, and you shall understand Of a battle fought upon the seas by a ship of brave command." The "Angel Gabriel" fights three Spanish ships. They battle for seven hours, but the "Angel Gabriel" is victorious
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads); a song with the name "Honour of Bristow" was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: battle ship Spain moniker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 12, "The Honour of Bristol" (1 text)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads LVII, pp. 104-107, "The Honour of Bristol" (1 text)
Roud #V29012
NOTES [60 words]: Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads suggests that this was written around 1625, probably by Laurence Price, who has also been credited as the author of "Robin Hood's Golden Prize" [Child 147], "Love's Fierce Desire and Hope's of Recovery," and "The Seaman's Compass," although none of these attributions is firm and none of his songs seem to have done well in tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: PaSe012

Hontyng of the Cheviat, The

See The Hunting of the Cheviot [Child 162] (File: C162)

Hoodah Day

See Ho for California (Banks of Sacramento) (File: E125)

Hoodoo

See You Remind Me of a Man (The Voodoo Man) (File: DCCR166)

Hook and Line

DESCRIPTION: "Gimme the hook and gimme the line; Gimme the girl you call Caroline." Possibly part of the same song: "Set my hook and give it a flip; Caught old (name) by the lip."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: fishing courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 157, "Hook and Line" (third of 12 single-stanza jigs) (1 fragment); also possibly p. 157, "The Hook" (the fourth jig)
ST Fus157 (Full)
Roud #13943
File: Fus157

Hooker John

DESCRIPTION: "Oh me Mary she's a sailor's lass. Ch: To me Hooker John, me Hoo-john! Oh we courted all day on the grass (Ch) "Full Ch: Way Suzanna Oh way, hay, high, high, ya! Johnny's on the foreyard, Yonder way up yonder!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "Oh me Mary she's a sailor's lass. Ch: To me Hooker John, me Hoo-john! Oh we courted all day on the grass (Ch) "Full Ch: Way Suzanna Oh way, hay, high, high, ya! Johnny's on the foreyard, Yonder way up yonder!" Verses continue with other girls, "Flora she's a hoosier's friend, Sally she's a nigger's gal" etc.
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong courting
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 290-291, "Hooker John" (2 texts, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 214-215]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ooker John
File: Hugi290

Hooks and Eyes

DESCRIPTION: "Hooks and eyes, Joined together, You're a book, And I'm a feather."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 115, "(Hooks and eyes)" (1 text)
File: SuSm115A

Hooly and Fairly (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Doun in yon meadow a couple did tarry": the wife drank and the husband complained that she drank his liquor also. Not only did she sell all her clothes for drink, but all his as well. When drunk she insulted him and their children.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness drink children husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 584A,584B, "Hooly and Fairly" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 29, "Hooly and Fairly" (1 text)
Roud #5654
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hooly and Fairly (II)" (subject) and references there
NOTES [70 words]: The theme, chorus and a few lines in the first verse are the same as in "Hooly and Fairly (I)" but the verses are different. In fact, while this version ends each verse "gine my wifie wid drink hooly and fairly" Baillee's song ends each verse differently asking only in the first verse that she drink hooly and fairly; other verses wish that she feast, spend, dress, strike, sleep timely, and speak "hooly and fairly." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD3584

Hooly and Fairly (II)

DESCRIPTION: Singer wonders why he married; his wife drinks and calls him cheap. She dines out and dresses well while he must wear rags. She overdresses, fails to keep house, and sleeps too much. He wishes he were single, and that she would live "hooly and fairly"
AUTHOR: Joanna Baillee (source: Whitelaw)
EARLIEST DATE: text 1751 (published in "Yair's Charmer" as "The Drucken Wife o' Gallowa'"); melody 1759 (The Caledonian Pocket Companion, same title); both together under title "Hooly and Fairly," 1757 (Thirty Scots Songs for Voice and Harpsichord)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer wonders why he married; his wife drinks canary wine and calls him cheap. She dines with her gossiping friends, goes to fairs, "bridals," and preachings well-dressed while he must wear rags. She overdresses in church, fails to keep house, and sleeps while the neighbors are waking. She won't take advice, arguing with the minister. He wishes he were single, and that his wife would drink/spend/dress/speak "hooly and fairly"
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage clothes drink nonballad wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 584C, "Hooly and Fairly" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 111, "Hooly and Fairly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 30, "Hooly and Fairly" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #191, p. 199, "Hooly and Fairly" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST McCST111 (Partial)
Roud #5654
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hooly and Fairly (I)" (theme, chorus and a few lines in the first verse)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Drucken Wife o' Gallowa'
NOTES [87 words]: The singer is a kvetch. "Hooly" = "slowly, softly, gently." Joanna Baillie (1762-1851) was a child prodigy who composed verses before she could read; in addition to writing songs, for forty years she was a dramatist for the London Theatre. - PJS
"Hooly and Fairly (I)" seems the basis for Baillee's rewrite.
Whitelaw: "Written by Joanna Baillee for George Thomson's collection of Scottish melodies." [Is this George Thomson, A Select Collection of Original Scotish Airs for the Voice in 5 volumes (London,1804-1818)?] - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: McCST111

Hooraw for the Blackball Line

See The Black Ball Line (File: LxA489)

Hooray, Hooray

DESCRIPTION: "Hooray, hooray, my father's gonna be hung, Hooray, hooray, that dirty, drunken bum, For he was very mean to me When I was very young." Similarly Mother, "that dirty drunken sot," and uncle, "that nasty pervert," and brother will suffer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cray-AshGrove)
KEYWORDS: mother father brother death bawdy humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-AshGrove, p. 34, "Hooray, Hooray" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marching Through Georgia" (tune)
File: CrAG34B

Hoosen Johnny

See The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)

Hoot Owl Song

DESCRIPTION: "Kukuku'u ningosa, Kukuku'u nngosa, ningosa. Kukuku'u ningosa." Ojibwe song about being afraid ("ningosa) of various owls.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Goodin, Sounds of the Lake and the Forest, according to Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage bird nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs, p. 2, "Hoot Owl Song (1 text, 1 tune, neither demonstrably traditional)
File: LewMi02

Hoot Owl Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "When you hear that hoot owl calling, it's gonna turn cold, it's gonna turn cold." And when the singer cries, (s)he's "thinkin' of days of old." The singer will go to the river; "There let me slumber when I die." She wonders why she loved him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Roberts/Agey-InThePine)
KEYWORDS: bird love river death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #99, "The Hoot Owl Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: RAInPi99

Hoot Says the Owl

DESCRIPTION: "Hoot says the owl, and I wish 'twas night, Fly away to my heart's delight, Only pleasure I can see, Is to court all night and sleep next day." "You are my true love, you for me, Keep right up here by the side of me, Kiss her quick and let her go...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1999 (Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty)
KEYWORDS: playparty bird
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 113, "Hoot Says the Owl" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat)" (lyrics)
NOTES [27 words]: I suspect this is a worn-down version of "The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat)," but I can't prove it, so it gets a separate entry. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Spurg113

Hootchy Kootchy Dance

See The Hootchy-Kootchy Dance (File: RcTHoKoD)

Hootchy-Kootchy Dance, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a place in France/Where the women wear no pants" and similar bawdy verses. Cho: "Do what your mama says and do what your papa says/But don't split your pants, doin' the hootchy-kootchy dance"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893
KEYWORDS: sex clothes bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 276+, "Hootchy Kootchy Dance"
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singer "The Hootchy-Kootchy Dance" (on Unexp1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonaparte's Retreat" (sometimes used as a C part for that tune)
cf. "All the Girls in France" (lyrics)
cf. "Did You Ever See a Fishie?" (lyrics)
NOTES [154 words]: Yes, you know it. This is the piece that is *always* used in a cartoon as the music when anything having to do with Arabia, Egypt, belly dancing, snake charming or Muslims in general is depicted. Originally a Tin Pan Alley song, popular at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where exotic dancers adopted it instantly; Sol Bloom, entertainment director at the Exposition, claimed he wrote it, but it has also been connected to traditional tunes in Iraq and Algeria. The title usually associated with the tune is "The Streets of Cairo." (See http://tinyurl.com/tbdx-HKDance for more history.) It's a tune nearly everyone in America knows, and many older Americans (and maybe kids?) know the "women wear no pants" verse. A folk song if ever there was one. - PJS
With the ironic footnote, based on the Streets of Cairo site above, that those of Arabic culture will NOT know the tune. It is, in a way, a false stereotype. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RcTHoKoD

Hoow, gossip myne, gossip myne

See The Gossips' Meeting (File: MSGosMee)

Hop Along Sister Mary (I)

DESCRIPTION: "You'll have to be the lover of an undertaker's daughter If you want to get a coffin when you die. Hop along, sister (Mary/Molly), hop along. Hop along, hop along, Hop along, sister Mary, hop along"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: burial humorous derivative
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 732, "Hop Along" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #17848
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hop Along Sister Mary (II)" (chorus)
NOTES [67 words]: The description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment.
Schinhan says that this is a parody of the church song "You Must Be a Lover of the Lord, If You Want to Go to Heaven When You Die." I suspect there may be an intermediate stage -- a serious song about Sister Mary -- but I haven't seen one. See, however, "Hop Along Sister Mary (II)," which also has this chorus. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: BrS5732

Hop Along Sister Mary (II)

DESCRIPTION: "There was a man named Rosenthal, Who bought a goat some time next fall. He did not buy it for his kid, But bought it for himself instead. Hop along, Sister Mary, hop along..." Bill Johnson's wife leaves him for inadequacy. Married life is long and hard
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: humorous animal husband wife abandonment
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 176, "Hop Along, Sister Mary" (1 text)
Roud #11365
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hop Along Sister Mary (I)" (chorus)
NOTES [67 words]: Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric thinks this probably composite, the chorus being from a popular song (in fact extant in the Index under this title, from the Brown collection) and the verses deriving from perhaps two other lost songs. I think he's right, but the other components either have been lost or are too short to recognize in Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric's form. See, however, "Hop Along Sister Mary (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne176

Hop Along, Let's Get Her

DESCRIPTION: Call and response: Leader sings "I see the (name of boat?)" "Loaded with people" "Comin' off the island" "She's heavy loaded" "That's a ring-tailed gator" .... Response "Hop-a-long let's get 'em" "Carry in tow the island" "Gator off the island" ...
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (LomaxCD1713)
KEYWORDS: ship work nonballad shanty animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Henry Morrison, John Davis and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Hop Along, Let's Get Her" (on LomaxCD1713)
NOTES [24 words]: Alan Lomax and Anna L. Chairetakis, liner notes for LomaxCD1713 have this as a "hauling and lifting chantey from the days of the schooners." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RdHALGHe

Hop Head

DESCRIPTION: "Around a hop layout three dope fiends lay." One dreams of millions of herds, ships, coins, wives. One thinks he owns a gold mine. One thinks he is king of the "Isle of Poppies." They end up in prison, the army, or elsewhere
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: drugs dream prison
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 126-127, "Oh, in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 143, "Hop Head" (1 text)
Roud #9542
NOTES [64 words]: Spaeth's and Shay's texts are different in their plots -- Spaeth's has the three hop-heads actually go to the police station and end up in prison; Shay's is a list of places the hop-head has visited. But both involve mention of a million nickels and dimes, and hop, and neither seems common; it doesn't seem worthwhile to split them, given that they have at least cross-fertilized. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: SBar143

Hop High Ladies (Uncle Joe)

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses ("Did you ever go to meeting, Uncle Joe?" "Every time you turn around you jump Jim Crow"). Characterized by the refrain "Hop high ladies, (the cake's all dough/Three in a row), Don't mind the weather when the wind don't blow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Henry Whitter)
KEYWORDS: nonballad dancing dancetune floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Randolph 252, "Jump Jim Crow" (1 text, 1 tune, a short text with the chorus of "Jump Jim Crow" and other material that might float)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 219-220, "Jump Jim Crow" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 252)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 85, "Hop Light, Ladies" (2 fragments)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 85, "Hop High, Ladies" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 147, pp. 293-294, [no title] (1 text, a square dance sample with a lot of material appropriate to that setting but with a chorus that seems to place it here)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 174, "Hop Light, Ladies" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #90, "Did You Ever See the Devil, Uncle Joe?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 116, "Uncle Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 58-59, "Hop Up, My Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 64-65, "Hop High Ladies, the Cake's All Dough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 33, "Uncle Joe" (1 text)
DT, HOPUPLAD*
Roud #6677
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Hop Light Lady" (OKah 45011, 1925)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Hop Light Ladies The Cake's All Dough" (Vocalion 5154, 1927)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Hop High, Ladies" (on NLCR10) ; "Hop High, Ladies, the Cake's All Dough" (on NLCR12)
Fiddlin' Powers and Family, "Did You Ever See the Devil, Uncle Joe?" (OKeh 45268, 1927)
Riley Puckett, "Hop Light Ladies" (Bluebird B-5514, 1934)
Red Fox Chasers, "Did You Ever See The Devil, Uncle Joe" (Gennett 6461/Champion 15522, 1928)
Doc Roberts, "Did You Ever See the Devil Uncle Joe" (Perfect 12724, 1931; Melotone 12390, 1932; Conqueror 8136, 1933)
Oliver Sims, "Hop About Ladies" (Columbia 15103-D, 1926)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Hop Light Ladies" (Edison 52056 [may also have been listed as by the Dixie Mountaineers, same record number], 1927)
Henry Whitter, "Hop Light Ladies and Shortenin' Bread" (OKeh 40064, 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Miss McCleod's Reel " (tune)
cf. "Jump Jim Crow" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [29 words]: Randolph has a report that this song has been heard as far afield as Delhi, India, but seems to be referring to "Jump Jim Crow" (of which his version has just the chorus). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: R252

Hop High Ladies, the Cake's All Dough

See Hop High Ladies (Uncle Joe) (File: R252)

Hop Light, Ladies

See Hop High Ladies (Uncle Joe) (File: R252)

Hop Picking in Kent

See Hopping Down in Kent (File: RcHoDIKe)

Hop Song

See Take a Whiff on Me; also perhaps Take a Drink on Me (File: RL130)

Hop Up, My Ladies

See Hop High Ladies (Uncle Joe) (File: R252)

Hop-Joint, The

DESCRIPTION: "I went to the hop-joint And thought I'd have some fun, In walked Bill Bailey With his forty-one! (Oh, baby darlin', why don't you come home?)" Bailey, or somebody, shoots the singer in the side: "Don't catch me playin' bull In the hop-joint any more!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: cards drugs violence injury homicide
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 90-91, "The Hop-Joint" (1 text, apparently incomplete, plus a fragment; 1 tune); also some additional lyrics on p. 91
ST ScaNF090 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?" (some lyrics; character of Bill Bailey)
NOTES [95 words]: Scarborough's source apparently had a great deal of trouble acquiring a complete text of this song, and the resulting fragments are difficult to interpret.
It also is a peculiar composite; quite a few lines, and of course the main character, are reminiscent of "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?" (though it's not clear whether that song, from 1902, was the inspiration of this or derived from it); the feel seems more like "Duncan and Brady," and of course there are lots of stories of violence in drug-houses. We really need more information than we have. - RBW
File: ScaNF090

Hop-Pickers' Tragedy, The

DESCRIPTION: A group of hop-pickers on their way from work approaches (Larklake) Bridge in a horse-drawn vehicle. The horses shy; the vehicle plunges over the bridge into the River Medway with great loss of life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (recording, Jasper Smith)
KEYWORDS: death drowning farming harvest work disaster horse worker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct. 20(?), 1853 - The Medway accident
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 120, "The Hop-Pickers' Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1729
RECORDINGS:
Jasper Smith, "Hartlake Bridge" (on Voice08)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
There Was Four-and-Twenty Strangers
NOTES [196 words]: [On October 20, 1853,] A horse-drawn brake carrying a party of hop-pickers plunged over Hartlake Bridge into the River Medway. Thirty people, including four children, were drowned. The dead included Travellers, Irish, and English.
[MacColl and Seeger write,] "In spite of being very well known among Kent and Surrey Travellers, the song does not appear to have been printed at any time." - PJS
Regarding the date of the event, Hall, notes to Voice08, re "Hartlake Bridge" cites Mike Yates as source for an October 1858 date. Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 8" - 1.3.03 also has the date as October, 1858. - BS
It appears this is a misreading. I found a reference to the accident in the October 29, 1853 edition of the London Illustrated News. It claims 32 people were killed. As of this writing, a citation may be found at http://tinyurl.com/tbdx-MedwayTrag. (It's in section 39 of the page; use a find command to look for "Medway." The headline is "'The Upper Great Hartlake Bridge over The medway, The Scene of the Late Accident' Collapse of a bridge killing thirty two men women and children, hop pickers on their way home"). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: McCST120

Hop, Hop to the Baker's Shop

See Hippety Hop to the Barber Shop (File: AJRR190)

Hop, Hop, Hop

See Down to the Baker's Shop (File: AJRR121)

Hop, hop, hop, to the butcher's shop

See The Butcher's Shop (File: GrD81612)

Hop, Hop, the Butcher's Shop

See The Butcher's Shop (File: GrD81612)

Hop, Old Squirrel

See Peep Squirrel (File: ChFRA119)

Hop, Skip, and Jump

DESCRIPTION: "Hop, skip, and jump, Hop, skip, and jump. If you cannot do this, You are punk."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 131, "(Hop, skip, and jump)" (1 text)
File: SuSm131H

Hopalong Peter

DESCRIPTION: Nonsense song. "Old mother Hubbard and her dog were Dutch/A bow-legged rooster and he hobbled on a crutch/Hen chawed tobacco and the duck drank wine/The goose played the fiddle on the pumpkin vine" and similar verses.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (recording, Mainer's Mountaineers)
KEYWORDS: nonsense animal chickens drink wordplay
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 160, "Get Along, John, the Day's Work's Done" (1 text, of only three lines, but two of them correspond to this song)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 104-105, "Hopalong Peter" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CSW104 (Full)
Roud #17679
RECORDINGS:
Fisher Hendley & his Aristocratic Pigs, "Hop Along Peter" (Vocalion 04780, 1939, on CrowTold01)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Hop Along Peter" (Bluebird B-6752 [as Mainer, Morris & Sherrill?]/Montgomery Ward M-7131, 1937)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Hopalong Peter" (on NLCR10, NLCRCD1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hallelujah" (technique) and references there
cf. "Johnny Fell Down in the Bucket" (technique)
cf. "I'll Rise When the Rooster Crows" (lyrics)
cf. "Hannamaria" (theme)
NOTES [301 words]: Although most people who hear this song probably think this is about a lagomorph, probably a rabbit (thanks to Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit), this may not be the case. Pamela J. Chance of North Carolina knew about it from her father, Winton Lewis Chance of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan (born July 27, 1920); his version gives the chorus as
Hop along a PeeDee, Hop along a PeeDee,
Where you goin'? Where you goin'?
She notes the following:
"[Winton Chance] was taught this song by his father, Floyd Alden Chance of Indiana when Win was a boy. Win's mom's name was Alma Nellie (Weber) Chance. The family lived in Napoleon, Indiana where they ran the general store and then moved to Muncie, Indiana. Alma ran a pie shop in Muncie from their home.... on the edge of the Ball State University campus. Floyd's side of the family was English, (possibly Scottish) and Alma's side German. Germans use the name 'PeeDee' or 'PeeDee dinks' for a small frog."
This might indicate a German origin for the song, but a similar word in fact occurs in English; according to Alexander Warrack, The Scots Dialect Dictionary, Waverly Books, 2000, p. 397, a paddock (also spelled puddock) is a frog or toad. There is even a version of "Frog Went A-Courting" titled "Puddy He'd A-Wooing Ride." So an original in which the word was "peedee" or perhaps "paddock" or even "paddy" is not unlikely, with that form later corrupted to "Peter."
A number of verses to this song rely on the "unexpected final word." For example, a common first verse runs
Old Uncle Peter, he got tight,
Started up to Heaven on a stormy night.
The road being rough and him not well,
He lost his way and he went... to...
(Chorus)
Hopalong Peter, where you going (x2)
Hopalong Peter, won't you bear in mind
I ain't coming back till the gooseberry time. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: CSW104

Hopkin Boys, The

See The Rifle Boys (File: GrD1089)

Hopping Down in Kent

DESCRIPTION: "Some say hopping's lousy. I don't believe it's true," but then the singer describes the hoppers' hard life, poor wages, and bad food. And when the money's spent "don't I wish I'd never went A-hopping down in Kent"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: harvest work hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, pp. 121-122, "Hop Picking in Kent" (1 text)
Roud #1715
RECORDINGS:
Mary Ann Haynes, "Hopping Down in Kent" (on Voice05)
NOTES [85 words]: Hops are picked in September. Most hoppers in Kent were the poor and unemployed from London. "At the hop industry's peak more than 80,000 people poured into Kent every autumn. Whole families came and there are many records of families visiting the same gardens for several generations." (source: "History of Hop Picking in Kent" in A History of Hop Growing in Kent and the South East at the National Hop Association of England site; the article describes hopping and some of the terminology used in the song) - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: RcHoDIKe

Horkstow Grange

DESCRIPTION: Steeleye Span and "his man" John Bowlin' live on Horkstow Grange. They have an argument on a market day and Bowlin' beats Steeleye, reversing their previous experiences.
AUTHOR: J. S. Span
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: fight farming
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 10, "Horkstow Grange" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1760
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John Bowlin'
NOTES [56 words]: From OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs p. 35: "In the manuscript is written: 'John Bowlin' was a foreman at a farm at Horkstow, and John Steeleye Span was waggoner under him. They fell out, and J. S. Span made these verses.' The text, however, seems to imply that Span was foreman over, or employer of, Bowlin'." - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: OSGr010

Horn Fair

DESCRIPTION: "As I was a-walking one morning in spring," the singer meets a girl on a horse going to Horn Fair. He asks to ride her horse. She would not be fit to be seen when she arrives. He says he is going there anyway. They aren't the only couple at the fair
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams)
KEYWORDS: horse travel sex
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #92, "Horn Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, p. 125, "(As I was a-walking one fine summer morn)" (1 text)
Roud #2482
NOTES [80 words]: Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams gives a short history of Horn Fair (at Charleton, Kent), based on Captain Francis Grose's A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. The fair goes back to the early Middle Ages, and folklore says that it was established as a result of one or another early king being involved with a woman of the place then being discovered by her husband. Of this there is little proof, but the fair was real until it was shut down in 1874. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: VWP092

Horn of the Hiram Q, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes a whaling trip -- he was the best man aboard, and the "worst of them was you." Cho: "With a yo ho and there she blows; Steer for her tail and you'll fetch her nose, with a la-de-da, and a how d'ye do, and hark for the horn of the Hiram Q"
AUTHOR: L. E. Richards
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Mostly nonsense, written in dialect. Singer talks of a whaling voyage -- he was the best man aboard, and the "worst of them was you." Cho: "With a yo ho and there she blows; Steer for her tail and you'll fetch her nose, with a la-de-da, and a how d'ye do, and hark for the horn of the Hiram Q"
KEYWORDS: whaler humorous nonballad nonsense
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 227-228, "The Horn of the Hiram Q" (1 text)
Roud #9155
NOTES [84 words]: I'm just guessing that this is a piece of composed poetry because it is in the section of Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips's book where he's including things like excerpts from the Wizard of Oz (see "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay"). The author is given as L.E. Richards and I couldn't make any further determination who that might be. However, it does *not* appear to be Laura E. Howe Richards (daughter of Julia Ward Howe). She wrote a good bit of poetry, but this piece doesn't seem to be one of hers. -SL
File: Harl227

Horn, Boys, Horn

See So Selfish Runs the Hare (Horn, Boys, Horn) (File: So38n2b)

Horncastle Fair

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a maid riding to Horncastle Fair. She rejects his offer to ride with her: she'll have nothing to do with a rogue. He claims to be an honest man and would not harm her if she allows him to ride with her. They marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage rejection travel
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire 8, "Horncastle Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21234
NOTES [47 words]: O'Shaughnessy: "Lincolnshire's claim to this song lies in its subject matter. Horncastle Horsefair was once the largest of its kind in in the kingdom -- perhaps in the world. It was held in August, ran for three weeks and attracted dealers from the continent and from America." - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: OSLi08

Hornet and the Peacock, The

DESCRIPTION: "King George says [to the Peacock] 'To America go / The Hornet, the Wasp is the British king's foe.'" However, the Hornet defeats the Peacock: "The Peacock now mortally under her wing / Did feel the full force of the Hornet's sharp sting/"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio)
KEYWORDS: sea battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1760-1820 - Reign of George III of Britain
1812 - Battle between the U.S.S. Hornet and the H.M.S. Peacock off the coast of South America. The American ship won
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 107, "The Peacock that Lived in the Land of King George" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
DT, HRNTPEAK
Roud #5339
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Hornet" (songster text about the same ship; Forget-Me-Not-Songster, p. 33; Roud V850)
NOTES [747 words]: What seems to be the most widely distributed text of this ballad runs, "The peacock that lived in the land of King George / His feathers were fine and his tail very large / He spread out his wings like a ship in full sail / And prided himself on the size of his tail... The hornet doth tickle the British bird's tail." Hornet and Wasp were American ships.
The Hornet was an 18-gun sloop with a complement of 144 men. Even before this battle, she had had a busy war; she was one of four ships (President, Congress, Argus, and Hornet) which on June 23 encountered the British Belvidera in the first naval conflict of the war, although the Belvidera escaped the trap (Utt, p. 65-66). Hornet's next voyage had her accompany the famous U.S.S. Constitution, but the two had separate off Bahia, where Captain Bainbridge of the Constitution ordered the Hornet to blockade the British Bonne Citoyenne. The Hornet stood guard from December 13, 1812 to January 24, 1813, but then had to flee when a British ship of the line, the Montagu, showed up (Heidler/Heidler, p. 243). She went out prowling for other prey.
The battle between U.S.S. Hornet and H.M.S. Peacock was strange. The Hornet was commanded by James Lawrence, a brash young officer barely in his thirties. On February 24, 1812, still cruising off Brazil, the 18-gun Hornet spotted H.M.S. Espiegle, another 18-gun ship, off Brazil (Borneman, p. 112).
Before the two ships could engage, another 18-gun brig, H.M.S. Peacock, showed up. Peacock, unlike Espiegle, wanted to fight. It was a bad decision; although nominally equivalent in strength to the Hornet, the American ship's guns were mostly 32-pound carronades (Utt, p. 194), which gave the Hornet a big edge in firepower at short range (although she was almost helpless at long). Plus the Peacock was a spit-and-polish ship, nicknamed "the yacht" becaue her captain William Peake kept her in such fine shape (Utt, pp. 194-196)-- but had neglected to properly train his crew for battle.
Peake apparently did not recognize the difference between discipline and actual training; he clearly thought he had a great ship and crew. The Peacock headed straight for the Hornet (there is a map on pl 195 of Utt, showing both ships approaching almost head-on), and paid for it; Peacock had to strike her colors after only a quarter of an hour, and Peake was killed (Utt, p. 196). And she was so badly damaged that Lawrence quickly abandoned the prize and took off Peacock's crew. (According to Pratt, p. 82, the Peacock sank even before the crew could get off. Mahon, p. 123, notes that the only three Americans who died in the battle were drowned on the Peacock as she sank.)
Through all this, the Espiegle sat behind the bar where she had hidden before the battle. The Hornet had taken some damage to her rigging, and was crowded with men from the Peacock; the Espeigle surely would have had a good shot at winning a single-ship battle -- and of course could have really helped Peacock had she come out earlier. But she didn't come out, and her Captain Taylor was court-martialed. The first court convicted him; a second court could not prove dereliction and so reversed the sentence, but he lost seniority (Utt, p. 197)
Lawrence's reward -- which he felt was overdue -- was a promotion to full captain (Utt, p. 199). That also meant he was due command of a frigate. The frigate he received (Borneman, p. 113) was the ill-fated U.S.S. Chesapeake (for its story, see the notes to "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (I)" [Laws J20]).
The Hornet would have one more big adventure in the War of 1812. In 1815, under the command of James Biddle, she was one of a small fleet blockaded in New York, but she and two other ships managed to run the blockade. In a hard battle fought after the war ended, she captured the H. M. S. Penguin, which then was scuttled. (Heidler/Heidler, pp. 243-244).
The Hornet was lost with all hands in 1829, but her success caused several later American ships to carry on her name. The loss of the ship seems to have been commemorated in a song, "The Loss of the Hornet" (Roud V850), found in the Forget-Me-Not Songster, but this does not seem to have made it into tradition.
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 44-45, has another Hornet song, "The 'Hornet,' or Victory," beginning "Rejoice! Rejoice! Fredonia's sons rejoice" (Roud V17245), but I see no hint of it in tradition. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: E107

Horns, The

DESCRIPTION: "Aurora's (morning's) blush the East adorns, now quit, my friends, the genial bed" to hunt a "beast" "with horns." "Tally-ho, my boys, the horns forever." Hear the bugle; see the hung; follow the "beast"
AUTHOR: possibly Charles Armiger
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (Armiger, The Sportsman's Vocal Cabinet)
KEYWORDS: hunting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 263-264, "The Horns" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Armiger, _The Sportsman's Vocal Cabinet_, T. Griffiths, London, 1831 (available on Google Books), p. 233, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #15004
NOTES [100 words]: Armiger gives this no title; the index simply cites it by first line. It is in the part of the index devoted to "stag-hunting." Did Armiger write it? I don't know; he seems to imply that he compiled rather than wrote his anthology, but he lists no titles, and the book has dozens of references to "Aurora" (a reference replaced by "morning" in Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania; presumably someone didn't know what Aurora was!). I would guess that most of the Aurora pieces are by the same author, but there is no way to know who it is.
Since Armiger gives no title, I've used Shoemaker's. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe263

Horrors of Libby Prison, The

DESCRIPTION: "Did the soldier dream of plenty on the Richmond prison floor? Did he dream that he was marching with his own brave army corps?" The singer describes the starvation and wretched conditions in southern prisons and hopes for release
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier prisoner food death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 59-63, "The Horrors of Libby Prison" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 70-73)
NOTES [104 words]: I rather doubt that this is an actual song, though Thomas describes it so; it's too long and plodding to survive in oral tradition. Nonetheless conditions in Confederate prisons were always bad; they hadn't enough to feed their own soldiers, so how could they feed prisoners?
Although the song refers to Libby Prison (and Pemberton Prison), I doubt it is based on anyone's actual experiences at that place; the song seems to describe the fate of enlisted men, but Libby Prison (in Richmond, on the James River, the former warehouse of Libby and Sons) was reserved for officers, and was largely shut down after May 1864. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa059

Horse Fly

DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever see a horse fly, a horse fly, a horse fly, Did you ever see a horse fly, a horse fly, fly, fly." Similarly "Did you ever see a board walk?" "Did you ever see a show lace?" Similarly hair pin, tooth pick, eye drop, neck tie, sun set, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook)
KEYWORDS: wordplay nonballad bug clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 197, "Have You Ever Seen?"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 277, 292, "Did You Ever See a Horse Fly?"/""Did You Ever See a Porch Swing?"" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 40, "Sunset Set" (1 text, tune referenced)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 7, "Sunset Set" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #15699
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Did You Ever See a Lassie?" (tune) and references there
File: ACSF277H

Horse Named Bill, A

DESCRIPTION: "I had a horse, his name was Bill And when he ran, he couldn't stand still. He ran away one day And also I ran with him." Nonsense verses about the singer, his girlfriend, her cat, birds, balloons, and all else that comes to mind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: animal nonsense
FOUND IN: US(MW,SW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 340-341, "A Horse Named Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 69, "The Horse Named Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 120-121, "The Crazy Dixie" (1 text, 1 tune, beginning with "The Horze Named Bill" and including "Crazy Song to the Air of Dixie" verses)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 174, "A Horse Named Bill" (1 text, tune referenced)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 241, "A Horse Named Bill" (1 text)
DT, HORSEBIL
Roud #6674
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dixie" (tune) and references there
NOTES [928 words]: Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag describes the tempo of this as "with lucid intervals if possible." The tune is the same as the first part of "Dixie." - RBW
I incline to the opinion that Sandburg wrote most of these verses. - PJS
Certainly a fair possibility, though he clearly started with some piece of craziness which he amplified (compare the "Crazy Song to the Air of 'Dixie'") - RBW
Verse 1 of Sandburg is similar to verse 4 of Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 355, "There was a monkey climbed a tree" (earliest date in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes is 1626).
Sandburg: "I had a horse, his name was Bill And when he ran, he couldn't stand still He ran away, one day And also, I ran with him"
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 355: "There was a horse going to the mill, When he went on, he stood not still."
Unlike "Horse Named Bill," all of Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 355 is of this type. For another example, "There was a crow sat on a stone, When he was gone, then there was none."
Halliwell 26, ("There was a monkey climb'd up a tree") [The Nursery Rhymes of England] is the same as Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 355. Halliwell says "it appears ... that these verses were written in 1626, against the Duke of Buckingham." - BS
Halliwell's reference appears to be to the couplet
There was a navy went to Spain,
When it returned, it came back again.
If this indeed was written in 1626, then it is presumably a reference to the failed attack on Cadiz ordered by, yes, Buckingham.
That's George Villiers, whom James VI and I made Duke of Buckingham. Villiers was a handsome young man (born 1592) when James -- who inclined to homosexuality -- noticed him in 1616. In fact, it appears several men-about-the-court gave him money to outfit him, intending to wave him under James's nose (Stewart, p. 268). According to Kishlansky, p. 96, "It was money well spent." Not only did Villiers eventually earn himself a Dukedom (something that should have been impossible, since he wasn't a member of the royal family; according to Phillips, p. 322, he was one of only two Dukes in Britain at the time of his promotion a few years before James died), he also gained grants for his relatives (Kishlansky, p. 97).
Plus he became a major influence on the government -- so much so that, he was in a position to set policy that violated James's own goals. One of these errors -- taking Prince Charles to Spain in a failed attempt to arrange a marriage -- was so bad that some historians (e.g. Fry/Fry, p. 167) think that Buckingham had to have James killed to avoid blame. Stewart, pp. 315-316, however, thinks that James went along with the idea but made sure that Buckingham went with Charles to keep him safe. (Which mostly shows how distored was James's view of Buckingham; the two travelers were utterly inept; Stewart, p. 317). Whatever the truth of this, when Charles I succeeded his father in 1625, Buckingham retained influence (Charles and Buckingham had initially been enemies, they came to be quite close; Stewart, pp. 280-281). But being close to Charles did not endear Buckingham to the nobility! -- he was impeached by the commons in 1626. He was assassinated in 1628 (Cannon, entry on "Buckingham, George Villiers, 1st Duke of").
According to Kishlansky, p. 89, Buckingham became the most hated man in England -- so hated that even his funeral procession had to be surrounded by armed guards, and it took place in the middle of the night (Kishlansky, p. 90).
The Cadiz expedition was one of those expensive fizzles that were an English specialty in this period. According to Stokesbury, p. 48, "[In 1625] England launched a great expedition against Cadiz, but it turned out to be a dismal affair. Failing to destroy the Spanish shipping, Lord Wimbledon decided to take the city instead. He landed his troops, who unfortunately but happily found the storage center for all the wine bound for the Indies. The troops immediately drank themselves into a blind stupor, and they were with great difficulty gotten back aboard ship before the Spanish could round them up."
However, there were quite a few times when the English attacked, or at least proclaimed their intention to attack, Spain. Francis Drake had once raided Cadiz safely, in 1587 (Stokesbury, pp. 23-24) -- which resulted in a lot of English expeditions to Spain intended to emulate Drake. But if ever there as a human activity where trying to repeat just what was done before doesn't work, it's commerce-raiding.
Buckingham's failed expedition was one of many reasons why Charles I came under extreme pressure in his early years. Parliament's complaints against Charles would almost instantly result in the passage of the Petition of Right (Smith, p. 320). This did not solve Charles's problems, but "One grievance was soon removed when the Duke of Buckingham was murdered by a malcontent lieutenant, "John Felton, who blamed Buckingham for his personal disappointments" (Kishlansky, p. 89). Charles I was overcome with grief. There was national rejoicing." Obviously any minister that unpopular would have been an easy target for scurrilous broadsides.
Folklorists seem to have a thing about Buckingham. Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes, #181, mentions a suggestion that he is the Georgie Porgie of "Georgie Porgie Pudding and Pie"; there has also been a an attenpt to link him with "A Carrion Crow." In both cases it is possible to imagine a link between the poem and the career of Buckingham. But in neither case is the link compelling. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: San340

Horse Racing Song

DESCRIPTION: "It is of three north noble country dukes from the Newmarket came." They visit "Lord Framplin's halls" to see his horses. The "poorest duke" wagers 30,000 pounds. The riders taunt each other. Lord Framplin's horse wins the race
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Butterworth Collection)
KEYWORDS: horse racing gambling nobility
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, pp. 20-21, "Horse Racing Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #72, "Horse Race Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1392
File: ButDo020

Horse Ran Around, The

See Horses Run Around (File: ACSF257H)

Horse Shit

DESCRIPTION: "A pilot of great reknown" attempts intercourse with a young woman, and fails in successive tries. The name derives from the refrain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy nonballad pilot sex
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 42-43, "Horse Shit" (1 text)
Roud #10137
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Monk of Great Renown"
NOTES [57 words]: This technically is not a ballad at all. - EC
As Ed notes, this is really a simplified version of "The Monk of Great Renown." He classifies them separately because this one has taken on odoriferous life of its own. Also, the versions of this piece seem to have lost the theme of abusing the girl to death found in some texts of "The Monk." - RBW
File: EM042

Horse Teamster, A

DESCRIPTION: Brady, a horse teamster driving for Cooley, comes to the skidway and asks for a tow. The teamster protests that his horses are stiff and lame, but Brady insists. The horses balk despite all his whipping; eventually he's hauled out by another team
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work horse
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 32, "A Horse Teamster" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 33, "A Horse Teamster" (1 text)
Roud #4055
NOTES [26 words]: In the early days, the teamsters in the pinewoods drove oxen, later horses and (less often) mules. - PJS
This song is item dC30 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be032

Horse Trader's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's do you know those horse traders, It's do you know their plan? (x2) Their plan it is for to snide you And git whatever they can; I've been all around the world." About the tricks and travels of horse traders
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: horse commerce travel trick
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 495, "The Horse-Traders' Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 355-357, "The Horse-Trader's Song" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 495)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 168, "The Horse Trader's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5728
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Been All Around This World)" (tune, floating lyrics)
NOTES [19 words]: Clearly a specialized adaption of "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me" -- but the difference in plot makes them separate songs. - RBW
File: R495

Horse Traders' Song, The

See The Horse Trader's Song (File: R495)

Horse Tramway, The

See Riding on the Tramway (File: Leyd015)

Horse Wrangler, The (The Tenderfoot) [Laws B27]

DESCRIPTION: A young fellow decides to try cowpunching. The foreman assures his that it is an easy job, but the young man soon finds reason to disagree. Hurt by a fall, he gives up the job or is fired
AUTHOR: words credited to D. J. O'Malley (but see below); tune "The Day I Played Base Ball"
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Miles City, Montana Stock Growers' Journal, credited to "R. J. Stovall")
KEYWORDS: cowboy injury work horse humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA,NW,So) Canada
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws B27, "The Horse Wrangler (The Tenderfoot")
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 96-97, "The Tenderfoot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 274-275, "The Tenderfoot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, pp. 86-87, "The Tenderfoot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys III, pp. 44-57 (13-14), "The Tenderfoot" (7 texts, 4 tunes); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 146-148, "The Tenderfoot" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 72, "The Tenderfoot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 19, "Cowboy's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 17, pp. 118-122, "The Skewbald Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 82, pp. 176-178, "Breaking in a Tenderfoot" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 22-24, "The Horse-Wrangler" (1 text, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 54-55, "The Tenderfoor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp.189-190, "D-2 Horse Wrangler" (1 text plus an excerpt of "The Day That I Played Baseball")
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 338-339, "The Horse Wrangler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 114, "The Tenderfoot" (1 text)
DT 599, TNDRFOOT
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 73-100, "D. J. 'Kid' O'Malley, Montana Cowboy Poet" (1 text, 1 tune on pp. 89-91)
Hal Cannon, editor, _Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering_, Giles M. Smith, 1985, p. 28-29, "D-2 Horse Wrangler" (1 text)
Roud #3246
RECORDINGS:
Bill Bender (The Happy Cowboy), "The Tenderfoot" (Varsity 5148, n.d.; rec. 1939)
Slim Critchlow, "D-Bar-2 Horse Wrangler" (on Critchlow1, BackSaddle)
Glenn Ohrlin, "The Tender Foot" (on Ohrlin10)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Day I Played Base Ball" (tune)
NOTES [270 words]: The authorship of this piece is slightly uncertain. Lomax credits it to D. J. O'Malley (writing under the name R. J. Stovall), and this is followed, e.g., by Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest; in 1932 O'Malley emphatically claimed authorship, claiming to have written in the piece in 1893. Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging apparently has no hesitation about crediting it to O'Malley; neither does Cannon. Sam Hinton heard a story that the real R. J. Stovall gave O'Malley a $5 hat for the right to publish the song under his name (so Sing Out!, volume 41, #2 [1996], p. 134, probably deriving the story from p. 87 of the essay by John I. White cited below).
However, the song was also claimed by an R. D. Mack, and Thorp's 1921 edition credits it to "Yank Hitson, Denver, Colorado, 1889." Perhaps more significantly, Thorp reports collecting it in Arizona in 1899. J. Frank Dobie rejected O'Malley's authorship, although for frankly rather absurd reasons.
In support of O'Malley's authorship, we note that O'Malley is also credited with "Charlie Rutledge," which also appeared in the Miles Ciry journal in the 1890s. On the other hand, O'Malley has also been credited with "Little Joe the Wrangler," and the evidence is strong that Thorp wrote that.
For background on O'Malley (and some prints from the Miles City newspaper), see John I. White, Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 73-100, "D. J. 'Kid' O'Malley, Cowboy Poet." O'Malley's title for the piece was "The 'D2' Horse Wrangler." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LB27

Horse-Thief, The

See Wild Rover No More (File: MA069)

Horse-Wrangler, The

See The Horse Wrangler (The Tenderfoot) [Laws B27] (File: LB27)

Horse's Complaint, The

See The Drunkard's Horse (File: R318)

Horse's Confession, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come brother gelding, lend an ear And listen to my story... And it's for me you'll feel sorry." The horse has had three masters, each worse than the last. He's had hard times and has "good reason to complain, sir"
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: horse hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 25-27, 195, "The Horse's Confession" (1 text plus several fragments)
Roud #25126
File: LaGoHoCo

Horses Run Around

DESCRIPTION: "The horses run around, their feet are on the ground. Oh! Who will wind the clock while I'm away?" "While looking through the knot hole in Grampa's wooden leg, I slipped and sprained my eyebrow on the pavement." And other nonsense
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Camp Clavell and Girl Reserve Club Songs)
KEYWORDS: horse nonsense campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 257, "Horses Run Around" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 44, "The Horses Run Around" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 22-23, "The Horses Run Around" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HORSERUN
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Horse Ran Around
File: ACSF257H

Horsey

DESCRIPTION: "Ride a little horsey, downtown, Watch out, horsey, don't fall down." "Old horsey, keep your tail up (x2) ANd let the sun shine in."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: nonballad horse
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 14, "Horsey" (2 fragments)
File: ZiZa014A

Horsey Song

See All the Pretty Little Horses (File: LxU002)

Horsey, Horsey, Don't You Stop

DESCRIPTION: "Horsey, horsey, on your way (or, "Don't you stop"), We’ve been together for many a day, So let your tail go swish as the wheels go ‘round — Giddy-up! We’re homeward bound." " I like to hear old Dobbin’s clip-clop I like to feel the wheels go ‘round"
AUTHOR: Paddy Roberts and Ralph Butler (source: Dolby-OrangesAndLemons)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (composed, according to Dolby-OrangesAndLemons)
KEYWORDS: horse nonballad home campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 102, "Horsey, Horsey" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 314, 387, 441, 499, "Horsey, Horsey" (notes only)
Roud #21559
File: Dolb102

Horsham Boys

DESCRIPTION: Jarvis and James go to the pub and treat all the local low-lifes to drink, in the hope of buying their votes for Jarvis in the Parliamentary election. The rogues drink and smoke with the voters all night; the singer remonstrates with his fellow citizens
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 ("A Parliamentary History of Horsham, 1295-1885" by William Albury)
KEYWORDS: drink political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1847 - John Jarvis stands for Parliament
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
RECORDINGS:
Tony Wales, "Horsham Boys" (on TWales1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Buffalo Gals" (tune)
File: RcHorBoy

Horsie, The

See I Am Gaun to the Garret (File: Ord058)

Horton's In, The

DESCRIPTION: "The day retired serene and fair" as the Horton [which had slipped out of Canadian custody] returned home. The locals cheer that "The Horton's in!" The congratulate themselves on their cleverness in escaping
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: sea escape
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 8, 1871 - Canada seizes the E. A. Horton (then in Halifax harbor) on a charge of fishing inside Canadian territorial waters
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 311-313, "The Horton's In! [I]" (2 texts)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, p. 213, "The Horton's In" (1 text)
Roud #4725 and 6563
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The E. A. Horton [Laws D28]" (subject: the escape of the Edward A. Horton)
cf. "The Escape of the Horton" (subject: the escape of the Edward A Horton)
NOTES [101 words]: Although this event was celebrated enough to inspire at least three songs, reading the description of what happened on p. 212 of Beck-FolkloreOfMaine makes it sound as if the Americans were more in the wrong than the Canadians. Possibly the Edward A. Horton was innocent of the charge against her, but that should have been settled by diplomacy, not international piracy. Which is what this was, although the songs don't ever use the word.
For extensive background on what happened, see pp. 303-310 of Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, an essay entitled "The Story of the Return of the E. A. Horton." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: BeMe213

Hosannah! Mi Bui' Mi House (Hosannah! I Built My House)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: The singer says he built a home on sandy ground and the rain soaked it, the sun burnt it, the river flooded it and the breeze blew it down. Must be obeah at fault. But then he builds on rocky ground and it survives.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: accusation fire flood ordeal magic
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 55-56, "Hosanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time - Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), pp. 36-37, "Hosannah! Mi Buil' Mi House" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Hosanna" (on WIEConnor01)
Louise Bennett, "Hossana" (on WILBennett01, n.d., on "Jamaica-Mento: 1951-58," Fremaux and Associes CDFA 5275).
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fyah Bun (Fire Burn)" (theme of destroyed house)
cf. "Bound to Go" (I) (theme: "built my house upon the rock ... no storm can blow it down")
NOTES [176 words]: Dexter and Taylor have this as a reference to Matthew 7:24-27. [So do I. No question; I knew it halfway through the description. There is a parallel in Luke 6:48-50. That passage is probably the basis for "Home in that Rock" and other songs. - RBW]
The Bennett recording eliminates the obeah blame; the obeah blame seems a distraction from the point of the song since there is no "three pigs" outcome in which the obeah tries but fails to take the house on rocky ground down (Jekyll does have has a "three pigs" story collected in Jamaica that closely following the English text. Walter Jekyll, Jamaican Song and Story (New York: Dover Publications, 1966 (Reprint of David Nutt, 1907)), #26 pp. 79-83); James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London: Frederick Varnbe and Co, 1886 ("Digitized by Google")), tales #55, pp. 37-41, "The Story of the Three Little Pigs"). - BS
Obeah is an ill-defined word, but it in this case it probably means a person with some spiritual or magical power who uses it for not entirely positive ends. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: JaMu055

Hospital Ship Song

DESCRIPTION: "Oh messmates the Maine is a wonderful sight When she steams out of Alex. with lamps on at night. We know where we're bound for and where we will go.... We chased the Eighth Army on Africa's shore," then head back to port and rest
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 96-97, "Hospital Ship Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
NOTES [112 words]: The Maine had "lamps on at night" because hospital ships were supposed to be lit so that enemy ships could identify them. It didn't always work, but generally the Axis respected the hospital ships.
After the fall of Crete, Malta was Britain's only real base in the Mediterranean between Gibraltar and Alexandria in Egypt (here called "Alex.").
The Eighth Army was the British army in Egypt that fought German general Rommel in the Desert War in the seesaw campaigns leading up to the British victory at El Alamein. This campaign went back and forth for years, which might explain why the Maine went back and forth. But there are no real dating clues in the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn073

Hoss and a Flea, A (A Catch)

DESCRIPTION: "A hoss and a flea an' a little mice, Settin' in the corner shootin' dice; Hoss foot slipped and he sot on the flea, Flea sang out, 'That's a hoss on me.""
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927(Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: animal horse bug gambling injury
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 26, "A Catch" (1 short text)
Roud #9635
File: SBa026

Hostess's Daughter, The

See I Sowed Some Seeds (File: ReSh045)

Hostler Joe

DESCRIPTION: Hostler Joe and pretty Annie wed and have a child. After four years, though, a stranger lures Annie away from her home with promises of fame and fortune. Her beauty wins her fame, but both fade in time. Joe arrives as she is dying
AUTHOR: Words: George Robert Sims
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: death beauty marriage abandonment children
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 830, "Hostler Joe" (1 text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 90-95, "'Ostler Joe" (1 text)
ST R830 (Partial)
Roud #7440
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ostler Joe
NOTES [82 words]: If I were to use one word to describe this piece of moralizing tripe, the word would be
"sickening." Randolph remarks, "It is often recited by people of the same kind who recite 'The Face on the Barroom Floor.'"
Based on Hazel Felleman's The Best Loved Poems of the American People, it appears that the author's title of this is "Ostler Joe." But since Randolph's appears to be the only truly traditional collection (if it is truly traditional -- note the lack of a tune), I use his title. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: R830

Hot Ash-Pelt, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer McGuire leaves the farm for the asphalt crew. A peeler insults the men, and the singer knocks him into the boiler. They pull him out but the tar won't come off; now he hangs in the National Museum, "an example of the dire effects of hot ash-pelt"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (collected from John McLaverty)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer McGuire leaves the farm to be boss of the asphalt crew. A peeler (policeman) asks to light his pipe on the boiler fire; he insults the men, and the singer hits him, knocking him into the boiler. They pull him out and scrub him, but the asphalt won't come off; now he hangs by his belt in the National Museum, "an example of the dire effects of hot ash-pelt"
KEYWORDS: fight violence work humorous boss worker police technology
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 225, "The Hot Ash-Pelt" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, pp. 26-27, "Hot asphalt" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HOTASPLT
Roud #2134
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(70a), "Hot Ashfelt," unknown, c. 1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Napoleon Crossing the Alps" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hot Asphalt
NOTES [169 words]: Although we tend to think of paved roads as a modern contrivance (with, perhaps, the exception of the Roman roads), paving has been around for quite a while. The first modern paved roads were built by John Loudon McAdam (1756-1836), who as paving commissioner of Bristol from 1806 began using crushed rock to build solid surfaces ("macadam").
The idea caught on quickly; by the mid-nineteenth century, most "turnpikes" in the United States were paved. (A fact which could have important historical effects, e.g. during the Civil War. It's often stated that the Battle of Gettysburg took place where it did because it was a road center -- which is true, but there are plenty of road centers in Pennsylvania. Gettysburg was especially noteworthy because no fewer than three turnpikes -- the Baltimore, Chambersburg, and York Pikes -- met there.)
The earliest macadamized roads were made simply of rock, but by the end of the century, bitumen was being used as a binder, requiring a device to keep the asphault hot. - RBW
File: K225

Hot Ashfelt

See The Hot Ash-Pelt (File: K225)

Hot Asphalt

See The Hot Ash-Pelt (File: K225)

Hot Boiled Beans and Melted Butter

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme, "Hot boiled beans and melted butter; Ladies and gentlemen, come to supper"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas)
KEYWORDS: food jumprope | beans butter
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #186, "Hot boiled beans and melted butter" (1 text)
Roud #22185
File: AJRR186

Hot Codlings

DESCRIPTION: "A little old woman her living she got By selling hot codlings hot, hot, hot." But she feels cold, so she seeks "a quartern of RI tol iddy iddy iddy...." She drinks a whole bottle, and boys steal her codlings while she is drunk. She warns of drunkenness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Scott); said to have been sung by Grimaldi in 1828 and earlier
KEYWORDS: food commerce drink humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 58-59, "Hot Codlings" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #907, p. 61, "Hot Codlins" (3 references)
Roud #13942
NOTES [37 words]: Grimaldi seems to have been the first to sing this song, but its real fame may have arisen from its use by others; Wolf, p. 61, lists three broadsides, with the credit "as sung by the great Comic Vocalist, Tony Pastor." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: ScED058

Hot Corn, Cold Corn (I'll Meet You in the Evening)

DESCRIPTION: Stanzas about drink, courting, drink, slavery, drink (you get the idea). Recognized by the themes of the chorus: Corn, a demijohn, evening meetings: "Hot corn, cold corn, bring along a demijohn (x3), I'll meet you in the (morning/evening), Yes, sir."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (recording, Arthur Collins)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad courting floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 267, "I'll Meet You in the Evening" (2 texts, 2 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 228-230, "I'll Meet You in the Evening" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 267A)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 238-240, "Green Corn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 164-165, "Hot Corn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4954
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Old Aunt Peggy, Won't You Set 'em Up Again?" (OKeh 40108, 1924)
Arthur Collins, "Hot Corn" (Columbia A-493, 1909; rec.1907) (CYL: Columbia 33075, 1907)
[Asa] Martin & [James] Roberts, "Hot Corn" (Champion 16520, 1932; Champion 45065, 1935) (Melotone 6-03-52 [as Fiddlin' Doc Roberts Trio], 1936; rec. 1934) [One of these discs is on KMM, but I don't know which]
Fiddlin' Doc Roberts Trio, "Hot Corn" (Perfect 6-03-52, 1936)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Hot Corn" (on NLCR03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Black-Eyed Susie (Green Corn)" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Green Corn
NOTES [49 words]: It is possible that this song and "Black-Eyed Susie (Green Corn)" spring from the same sources, since they share lyrics and themes. However, they have evolved far enough apart that I feel I have to split them. - RBW
I place the Fiddlin' John Carson record here for want of a better place. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: R267

Hot Cross Buns

DESCRIPTION: "Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns! One a penny, two a penny, Hot cross buns! If your daughters do not like them, give them to your sons...." Else, "eat them yourselves"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 (_Christmas Box_, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: food commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1686, "Hot Cross Buns" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 84, "Hot Cross Buns!" (2 texts)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 75, "Hot Cross Buns" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 159, "Hot Cross Buns" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 119, "Hot-cross buns, hot-cross buns" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 97, "(Hot Cross Buns)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 48, "(Hot cross buns)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Enid Porter, _The Folklore of East Anglia_, Batsford, 1974, p. 59, "(no title)" (1 text)
Marjorie Rowling, _The Folklore of the Lake District_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 112, "(Hot Cross Buns, Hot Cross Buns) (1 short text)
Roud #13029
NOTES [116 words]: Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes: "This was formerly a street cry, as mentioned, for instance, in Poor Robin's Almanack for 1733." - BS
As the Opies note, this began life as a street cry. But the tradition of hot cross buns at Eastertide has become so strong that it appears the piece has gone into tradition.
There is a pretty good chance the buyers' daughters (as the song says) would not like them -- because (in Sussex at least) the buns were often kept for the entire year, as a good luck charm, and were said to never grow moldy. Which was probably true, because they were baked very dry and hard; see Jacqueline Simpson, The Folklore of Sussex, B. T. Batsford, 1973, p. 112. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OpOx084

Hot Dog (I)

See I Had a Little Puppy (Pussy Willow, Hot Dog) (File: PHCFS068)

Hot Dog (II)

See Father Is a Butcher (File: SuSm108C)

Hot Engagement Between a French Privateer and an English Fireship, (An Excellent New Song Entitled A...)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a prize for a captain to fall on, My name it is seafaring Kate." "My bottom was strongly well planked, My deck could a tempest endure, But ne'er was a poor dog... So tossed as was the Monsieur." "Then Monsieur got off and was grieved...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1691 (broadside date)
KEYWORDS: sailor trick ship sex
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 27, "An Excellent New Song Entitled A Hot Engagement Between a French Privateer and an English Fireship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V12060
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fire Ship" (theme)
File: PaSe027

Hot Nuts

DESCRIPTION: To a chorus beginning "Hot nuts. Hot nuts. Get 'em from the peanut man," we hear descriptions of various men's nuts, and various girls' reaction to same. All verses end with the exclamation "Nuts!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (recording, Lil Johnson)
KEYWORDS: bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 344-346, "Hot Nuts" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Lil Johnson, "Get 'Em from the Peanut Man" (Champion 50002, 1935) (Vocalion 03199/Vocalion 03241, 1936); "Get 'em from the Peanut Man (Hot Nuts)" (Champion 50002, 1935) (ARC 6-5-58/Vocalion 03199, 1936)
Georgia White, "Get "em from the Peanut Man" (Decca 7152, 1936)
SAME TUNE:
Georgia White, "New Hot Nuts" (Decca 7631, 1939)
Lil Johnson, "Get 'em from the Peanut Man (The New Hot Nuts)" (Vocalion 03241, 1936)
File: EM344

Hot Time in the Old Town, A

See There'll Be a Hot Time (In the Old Town Tonight) (File: RL532)

Hotel Tipster, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh stop the horses or I'm ruined, Knock 'em up against the fence, Shoot Mulvolio [a racehorse] at Strathmore, Or I'll ose my eighteen pence.... Holy Diamons, Grey Gown has it, Or Jesus, she'll have lost."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger)
KEYWORDS: horse racing gambling nonballad
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 7, page headed "Horse racing played..."], "(no title)" (1 short text)
File: FaWHotTi

Hound and the Fox, The

See Bold Ranger, The (File: R076)

Hound Dawg Song, The

See The Hound Dog Song (File: R512)

Hound Dog Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ev'ry time I come to town, The boys keep kickin' my dog around, Makes no diff'rence if he is a hound, They gotta quit kickin' my dog around." The details of the tussle between dog and people is described, ending when the dog's owners counterattack
AUTHOR: Edison Company lists Words: Ebb M. Oungst; music: Cy Perkins; similarly Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs; there are many, many other claims
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (sundry sheet music publications)
KEYWORDS: fight dog injury
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Randolph 512, "The Hound Dog Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 357-360, "The Hound Dog Song" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 512)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 72, "The Hound Dawg Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica, "The Hound Dawg Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 80-81, "They Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dawg Aroun'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 253-254, "The Hound Dog Song" (1 text)
DT, KICKDAWG*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 196-198, "The Ozark Dog Song" (1 fragment plus extensive folklore about whether the song is from Missouri or Arkansas)
Susan C. Attalla, "The Dawg Song War," article in _Missouri Folklore Society Journal_, Volume 27-28 (cover date 2005-2006, but published 2015), pp. 70-95 (various excerpts with extensive historical notes about the claimed sources of the song)
Roud #6690
RECORDINGS:
American Quartet & Byron G. Harlan, "They Gotta Quit Kicking My Dog" (Victor 17065, 1912)
Byron G. Harlan, "Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dawg Aroun'" (Columbia A-1150, 1912) (Edison Amberol 1023, 1912)
Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers, "Ya Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dog Aroun'" (Columbia 15084-D, 1926)
Cy Stebbins, "They Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dawg Aroun'" (Vocalion 14378, 1922)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
You Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dog Around
NOTES [805 words]: This was the campaign song of Champ Clark, [representative] from Missouri, during his campaign for President of the United States. He lost. - PJS
This perhaps needs clarification. James Beauchamp "Champ" Clark was never even nominated for the Presidency, though he came very close. As Congressman from Missouri, he had been a leader in the fight to strip the Speaker of the House of his dictatorial powers in that chamber. This made him an obvious candidate for the Presidency in 1912. There were four major candidates that year -- Clark, Woodrow Wilson, Representative Oscar W. Underwood of Alabama, and Ohio Governor Judson Harmon, with three-time nominee William Jennings Bryan less a candidate than a kingmaker.
On the first ballot, Clark had 440½ votes, Wilson 324, Harmon 143, Underwood 117½, 56 for others (Chace, p. 152). On the tenth ballot, Clark reached 556 votes -- a majority (DeGregorio, p. 415).
But the Democratic Party required that candidates receive two-thirds of the votes of the nominating convention delegates, and Clark -- though he was the clear favorite among the candidates -- never did gain that many votes (this was in the days when most delegates were chosen by caucus). Eventually his support started to fail, and a series of deals made Woodrow Wilson the Democratic nominee.
William Jennings Bryan, who had already been nominated three times and lost all three times, had a lot to do with this; he had led the Nebraska delegation, and they had supported Clark -- but on the fourteenth ballot he declared that he would not support Clark as long as New York did (to vastly oversimplify, he claimed the New York delegation was corrupt; Chace, p. 155). According to one who was there, "Mr. Bryan had not the slightest idea, when he changed the vote of Nebraska, of contributing to the nomination of Wilson. He merely desired to defeat Champ Clark, with the concealed hope and expectation of prolonging the contest and receiving the nomination himself" (Chace, p. 155). Like most of Bryan's fantasies, that didn't work out, even though Wilson had been vacillating about releasing his delegates by that time (Chace, p. 154). The nomination contest went on.
The first real movement came on ballot #28, when Indiana shifted to Wilson, abandoning favorite son Thomas Marshall (who would eventually be chosen Wilson's vice president). Two ballots later, Wilson edged ahead of Clark, although he was still shy of the majority (Chace, p. 156). On ballot #43, Illinois went for Wilson, giving him a majority for the first time (Chace, p. 157). Two ballots later, other states started releasing their delegates, and on ballot #46, Wilson gained 990 votes and the nomination (Chace, p. 158).
It was the first time since 1844 that a candidate who had earned a majority of the delegates failed to eventually make it to two-thirds and the nomination (Chace, p. 153).
With the Republican Party split between the factions of Taft and Theodore Roosevelt, the Democratic nominee's election was assured. Thus Clark was only a rule change away from being elected President -- but not a single person ever voted for him in a national election.
To add injury to insult, in 1920, when Warren G. Harding was elected President, there was a Republican landslide. One of those swept out of the House was Clark, after 28 years in congress. When Clark was asked why, he snarled "Wilson." He was probably right; the nation was repudiating the ex-President (Boller, p. 214). Thus Wilson not only cost Clark the Presidency but eventually even his congressional seat.
Chace, p. 147, describes Clark as "at best an old-fashioned Democrat, ready to support moderate reforms. He has been described by Wilson biographer Arthur Link as 'a distinguished-looking figure.' As he stood at the speaker's desk 'in his long coat' or appeared 'on the street in his broad-brimmed black slouch hat, with a touch of color in his neck-scarf, he made one think -- well, of Henry Clay.'"
Randolph heard a story which based this on a pre-Civil-War incident in Forsyth, Missouri. Proof is, of course, lacking, and if the attribution to Oungst and Pekins is correct (which I don't quite believe), it seems unlikely to be true.
The closest thing to a definitive word is probably the article by Susan B. Attala cited in the references. She lists an extraordinary number of claims about the source or authorship of the song, none of which can be proved. Her ultimate conclusion is that we don't know the source.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 298, estimates that this was the twenty-eighth most popular song in America in 1912, peaking at #11 in May 1912 (#1 for the year being I. Wolfe Gilbert and Lewis F. Muir's "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee"). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: R512

Hound Dog, Bay at the Moon

DESCRIPTION: "Hound dog, bay at the moon, Lay back your long ears, sing a sad tune, Lift u p your long head... Hound dog, bay at the moon." The singer describes the hard times he is experiencing and wishes God would forgive and/or make it rain
AUTHOR: James William Smith M.D. (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cray-AshGrove)
KEYWORDS: work dog hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-AshGrove, p. 30, "Hound Dog" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [61 words]: There was a long Mudcat thread about this song in 2007. The general consensus was that James William Smith, M.D., a teacher of medicine at Oklahoma University Medical Center, wrote the original. Katie Lee modified it, Cisco Houston perhaps did so also, and a version was sung in the 1952(?) movie "The Meanest Man in Arizona." I have no way to verify any of this. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: CrAGr30A

Hourra, Mes Boués, Hourra!

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Sailor is gathering strawberries and feeding them to a girl. Her mother arrives; he says he's using the berries to fix her teeth. The mother wants her share too, but the sailor says they're only for girls of 15. The old ones are for the captain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty bawdy food
FOUND IN: Canada France
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 137-138, "Hourra, Mes Boués, Hourra!" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Derriere chez nous y a z'un petit bois (Behind Our House There is a Little Wood)
NOTES [24 words]: If sung in French, the text is full of bawdy double entendres. This was possibly derived from a French-Canadian folk song with a similar story. - SL
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hugi137

House an' Lan' (House and Land)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: A poor girl says she has no man because "house an' lan' a buy fambly."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: grief poverty marriage nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, p. 36, "House an' Lan'" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "House an' Lan'" (on WIEConnor01)
File: JaMu036

House Carpenter and the Ship Carpenter, The

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

House Carpenter Wife, A

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

House Carpenter, The

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

House Is on Fire, The

See Going Back to Weldon (File: GaBl061)

House o' Glenneuk, The

See The Pedlar (I) (File: FVS126)

House of Mr Flinn, The

DESCRIPTION: Flinn is tall and thin, his wife short and fat. She eats the beef leaving him the bone. She lashes him with tongue and fists. He tries to control her but she beats him down and takes to drinking gin. Don't let a woman have her way.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness violence drink drink dialog humorous husband wife food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1288, "The House of Mr Flinn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7142
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Scolding Wife (I)" (theme)
cf. "The Scolding Wife (IV)" (theme)
NOTES [37 words]: The title comes from the chorus ("By all the houses I have seen for grumbling and for din It beats them all to flindersticks the house of Mr Flinn") and the last line of each verse which is a variation on the chorus line. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71288

House of the Rising Sun, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments, "There is a house in New Orleans / They call the Rising Sun / It's been the ruin of many a poor girl / And me, O God, I'm one." She tells of her troubled childhood, laments that she cannot escape her life, and warns others against it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recording, Ashley & Foster)
KEYWORDS: whore lament gambling drink husband father mother
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 250-253, "The House of the Rising Sun" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 368-369, "The Rising Sun Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 151, "The Rising Sun Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 348-349, "Rounder's Luck" (1 text)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 18, "House Of The Rising Sun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, pp. 31-32, "House of the Rising Sun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 184, "House Of The Rising Sun" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 234, "The House of the Rising Sun" (notes only)
DT, HOUSESUN*
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 57, "House of the Rising Sun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6393
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff & his Smoky Mountain Boys, "The Rising Sun" (Vocalion 04909, 1939)
Almanac Singers, "House of the Rising Sun" (General 5020B, 1941; on Almanac01, Almanac03, AlmanacCD1)
Clarence Ashley & Doc Watson, "Rising Sun Blues" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01)
[Clarence] Ashley & [Gwen] Foster, "The Rising Sun Blues" (Vocalion 02576, 1933)
Homer Callahan, "Rounder's Luck" (Melotone 6-02-59, 1936; rec. 1935)
Dillard Chandler, "Sport in New Orleans" (on Chandler01)
Tom Darby & Jimmie Tarlton, "Rising Sun Blues" (Columbia 15701-D, c. 1931)
Woody Guthrie, "House of the Rising Sun" (on AschRec2) (on WoodyFolk)
Esco Hankins, "The Rising Sun" (King 650, 1947)
Daw Henson, "The Rising Sun Blues" (AAFS 1508 B2)
Roscoe Holcomb, "The Rising Sun" [LP] or "House in New Orleans" [CD] (on Holcomb-Ward1, HolcombCD1)
Bert Martin, "The Rising Sun Blues" (AAFS 1496 B2)
Pete Seeger, "House of the Rising Sun" (on PeteSeeger18)
Georgia Turner, "The Rising Sun Blues" (AAFS 1404 A1)
SAME TUNE:
The Ballad of Jackhammer John (by Woody Guthrie; tune conjectured by Pete Seeger) (Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 70-73, with Seeger's notes on p. 69)
NOTES [91 words]: Legman offers extensive, if rambling, notes in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I. - EC
While this song is generally associated in the public mind with African-American tradition, it clearly circulated in the Anglo-American community extensively; Clarence Ashley said he learned it from his grandmother. - PJS
Tex Alexander in 1928 recorded a song with the "Rising Sun" title, which we took for a time to be the earliest reference. But Mark R. Fletcher sends me information making it clear that this is a different piece with the same name. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RL250

House That Jack Built, The

DESCRIPTION: Jack built his house." "This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built" "This is the sack that held the malt that lay in the house that Jack built" ....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1780 (J. Marshall, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "Jack built his house" The master of hounds chases the fox that killed the cock that woke the priest that married the man that married the maiden that milked the cow that tossed the dog that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that gnawed the string that tied the sack that held the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.
KEYWORDS: cumulative nonballad marriage farming animal clergy home
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 258, "This is the house that Jack built" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #30, pp. 44-45, "(This is the house that Jack built)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 77, "The House That Jack Built" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 39, "This Is the House That Jack Built" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 154-156, "The House That Jack Built" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 535-537, "The House That Jack Built" (1 text)
Roud #12921
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Wills, "The House That Jack Built" (on Voice18)
NOTES [186 words]: The Opies believe that this has been parodied more than any other nursery poem/song. They note parallels or translations into other languages -- apparently Danish, French, and German.
Halliwell, according to Briggs, found analogies going back all the way to a Hebrew rhyme, but Briggs admits this is strained.
Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp, 59-60, connects this (as well as "Jack Be Nimble") with the Jack Horner of "Little Jack Horner," fame, whom she contends made off with a property deed in the time of Henry VIII (see "Little Jack Horner" for this possibility). Given that the only connection between the two appears to be the word "Jack," this must be regarded as dubious. Nonetheless, Thomas goes on (p. 62) to conclude that the "man all tattered and torn" and the "priest all shaven and shorn" is John Still, Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1593, who married Jack Horner's niece Joan and died in 1608. How a man born just four years before the end of the reign of Henry VIII could have been involved in Jack Horner's career escapes me. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: RcTHTJBu

House to Let, Apply WIthin

DESCRIPTION: Sometimes a jump-rope rhyme. "House to let, apply within, People turned out for drinking gin, Smoking pipes is a terrible sin, So (Annie/Jennie) go out and Mary (run/jump) in." Or "Rooms for rent, Inquire within, When I move out, Let (X) move in."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas)
KEYWORDS: playparty home drink drugs jumprope
FOUND IN: New Zealand US(So) Britain Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 59, "Roome for Rent" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 100, ("House to let, apply within") (2 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 137, "Apartment for rent, inquire within" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 81, "House to let" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 27, "(House to let)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #197, "A House to Let"; #560, "This house to let, no rent to pay" (2 texts)
Roud #19223
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Floor to Let
House to Rent
Rooms to Rent
File: SuSm100

House to Rent

See House to Let, Apply WIthin (File: SuSm100)

House-Burning in Carter County, The

DESCRIPTION: "Last Wednesday night I spied a light" as a mother leaves her home to ask a neighbor for liniment. As she talks, her home catches fire and her two children are killed. The horrified mother finds their burned corpses with their arms around each other
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: mother children death fire medicine
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 108-109, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 116-117)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #84, "Fire Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ThBa108 (Partial)
Roud #4151
NOTES [24 words]: This is item dG53 in Laws's Appendix II. It has now been found frequently enough that it probably should be promoted to a regular Laws number. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa108

Housecarpenter, A

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

Housekeeper's Tragedy, A

See The Housewife's Lament (File: FSC097)

Housekeeping

See Molly Put the Kettle On (Polly Put the Kettle On) (File: DarNS256)

Housewife's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: The housewife complains of her never-ending war against dirt: "Oh life is a toil and love is a trouble, Beauties will fade and riches will flee, Pleasures they dwindle and prices they double...." At last she dies "and was buried in dirt."
AUTHOR: probably Eliza Sproat Turner (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (Arthur's Lady's Home Magazine," Volume 37)
KEYWORDS: work wife lament death burial dream
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 312, "A Housekeeper's Tragedy" (1 text plus an excerpt)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 312, "A Housekeeper's Tragedy" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #110, "Poor Old Woman" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 97, "Life Is a Toil" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 67, "The Housewife's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 184, "The Housewife's Lament" (1 text)
DT, HSEWFLAM
Roud #5472
RECORDINGS:
Loman D. Cansler, "The Housekeeper's Complaint" (on Cansler1)
NOTES [165 words]: Earlier editions of the Index listed this as by H. A. Fletcher, which a question mark; I am no longer sure where I found this information. Jim Dixon gives what seems much more likely to be accurate information:
"THE HOUSEWIFE'S LAMENT [your title] was written as a poem titled A HOUSEKEEPER'S TRAGEDY by Eliza Sproat Turner. It appeared in her book Out-of-Door Rhymes (Boston, J. R. Osgood & Comp., 1872; reprinted Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1903). The latter edition can be seen at Google Books...
"The earliest printing I can find was in Arthur's Lady's Home Magazine, Volume 37 (Philadelphia: T. S. Arthur & Sons, April, 1871 [also on Google Books]), page 241, where it appears without attribution:
"A year later, it appeared in Locomotive Engineers' Journal, Volume 6, No. 7 (Cleveland, Ohio: Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, July, 1872 [once again on Google Books]), page 310, with the correct attribution:
"I don't know who set it to music, or when." - JD, (RBW)
Last updated in version 4.1
File: FSC097

How About a Date?

DESCRIPTION: "Hi, ho, (Silver/Roy Rogers/Tony Curtis/Davy Crockett), How about a date? Meet you at the corner about half past eight. I can rumba, I can do the splits, I can wear my dress high above my hips"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Western Folklore)
KEYWORDS: jumprope dancing | dating
FOUND IN: US(NW,So) Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #188, "HI, ho, Silver, how about a date?" (1 text)
Roud #19435
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Spanish Dancer" (lyrics)
File: AJRR188

How Are You, Conscript?

DESCRIPTION: "How are you, conscript? Oh, how are you today? The provost marshal's got you In a very tight spot, they say, Unless you've got three hundred greenbacks To pony up and pay." (In the original, most of the song tells the conscript about drill)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Dime-Song-Book #10)
KEYWORDS: soldier money Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 233-234, "How Are You, Conscript?" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #377, p. 25, "Conscript, How Are You?" (2 references); compare #910, p. 61, "How Are You? Conscript!! Hop De Doodle Doo" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #10, p. 7, "How Are You, Conscripts" (1 text); #15, p. 23, "How Are You, Conscript?" (1 text)
Roud #15674
NOTES [837 words]: Although the text in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin does not say so, there is no doubt but that this song refers to the American Civil War draft; Wolf, p. 25, cites two versions of "Conscript How Are You?" "As sung by D. McConahy, the Razor Powder Man." Another listing, on p. 61, credits "How are you? Conscript!! Hop de Doodle Doo" to Don Felix, with an 1863 date, but I cannot be sure whether these are the same song.
In fact it appears that the song in Peters is a sort of addendum or answer to the original song, which in the Dime-Song-Book #10 version begins
The wheel is turning round, boys,
Hurray, now, for the jam.
How are you, conscripts? -- hurry up!
To fight for Uncle Sam....
But I've lumped them because the Peters fragment is too short to stand on its own.
Both sides in the Civil War eventually turned to conscription -- the South very early, in 1862 (Boatner, p. 172), the North rather later, in 1863. But both sides offered exceptions -- in the South, e.g., an overseer of a large number of slaves was exempted.
In the North, to which this song clearly refers, the goal was to provide a carrot and stick: If possible, to spur voluntary enlistment rather than bringing in actual draftees (Anders, p. 424) -- as well as to induce the states to produce soldiers in numbers roughly proportionate to their populations (Randall/Donald, p. 314). But this meant that not everyone whose number was called would be forced to join the army. Theoretically, all men from ages 20 to 45 were subject to the draft and to service of up to three years (Randall/Donald, p. 314).
But there were three legal escape routes. One was to be exempted for some cause, usually due to having a dependent with no other means of support or perhaps physical incapacity. The table on p. 604 of McPherson shows that, in several typical districts, between a third and half of those called up were "exempted for cause." (Throw in the one-sixth to one-quarter of the draftees who failed to report, fleeing instead to Canada or the west, and fewer than half those who were called actually made it to the stage of having to decide what to do next.)
That still didn't mean that a man had to join the military. As Catton puts it on p. 206, "built into [the draft law] was a rule that a man with money could not be compelled to go into the army." There were two ways to buy one's way out. One was to hire a substitute -- that is, to induce another man to enlist in your place and pay the cost. This led to a large-scale business in "substitute brokering." It was a very bad business (many substitutes were recent immigrants -- some of them just off the boats -- who were not subject to the draft because they were not citizens; most of the rest were drunks or otherwise worthless). It was expensive, too -- hiring a substitute often took on the order of $1000 in the South (McPherson, p. 603) but at least it finally settled a man's draft status.
A Northern man who did not hire a substitute could still get a deferment by paying a commutation fee of $300 (Anders, p. 424) -- the purpose of this, in fact, was to hold down the price of substitutes (McPherson, p. 603). This did not spare him from future drafts, just kept him out of the army until the next draft call. But with substitutes hard to find, it was better than nothing. It was also exceptionally unfair; $300 was a substantial fraction of a year's earnings for a laborer (Catton, p. 206) -- and more than twice the annual pay of a private who was paid $13 per month (Boatner, p. 624), and that in greenbacks which were usually depreciated.
The result was actual rebellion against the draft laws in some areas of the North (Catton, p. 163), as well as severe draft riots in New York City (Randall/Donald, pp. 315-316). Damage estimates for the riots run from $400,000 up to six times that, and some sources say a thousand people were killed (Catton, p. 207).
To prevent such violence, some governments actually started paying people's commutation fees (McPherson, p. 604). In most areas, those who managed to escape the army vastly exceeded those who were inducted (McPherson, p. 604), and the ones who did join were those with the least clout.
Naturally those on the front lines resented those who stayed behind, and those who volunteered for the armies had a low opinion both of those who avoided the draft and of the draftees and substitutes. This war, even more than most others, was a "rich man's war and a poor man's fight" (McPherson, p. 602).
The rule regarding commutation (although not that regarding substitutes) was so unpopular that it was repealed in 1864 (McPherson, p. 601 n. 22), so this song could only have been written in 1863 or 1864.
The provost marshal, mentioned in the Peters version, was the officer responsible for enforcing the law. All significant Union armies had one, as did the local districts, and the provost marshal was responsible for enrolling those of eligible age (McPherson, p. 600) and for drawing the names for the draft (Boatner, p. 245). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Pet233

How Are You, John Morgan?

DESCRIPTION: "A famous rebel once was caught With saber bright i hand Upon a mule he never bought But pressed in Abra'm's land." John Hunt Morgan is put in prison, "but prison fare he did not like," so he escapes with much property to further plague the Union
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (sheet music published by D. D. Benson, Nashville, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier derivative prison escape horse humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 224, "How Are You, John Morgan?" (1 text with reference back to the source, "Here's Your Mule")
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 89-90, "How Are You, John Morgan?" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Morgan, Where You Been?" (subject)
NOTES [563 words]: John Hunt Morgan (1825-1864) was a type of which the Confederacy had a sufficiency: The gallant cavalry raider, always impeccably dressed, with an appeal to the ladies. Some of these types, like J. E. B. Stuart, were considered successful; some, like Earl Van Dorn, were considered failures; but all three were dead by the end of 1864.
Maybe the simplest way to talk about him is to quote his capsule biographies.
Warner, pp. 220-221:
"John Hunt Morgan, whose two sisters married Generals A. P. Hill and Basil W. Duke, was born at Huntsville, Alabama, Jun 1, 1825. Educated at Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky... he enlisted in the Mexican War and saw service at Buena Vista. He was mustered out in 1847, and commenced the manufacture of hemp in Lexington, and engaged in the general merchandising business left him by his grandfather Hunt. He organized the Lexington Rifles in 1857, but when the Civil War came, Morgan led his command to Bowling Green and joined the force of [Confederate] General Bucker.... He was promoted colonel of the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry on April 4, 1862, and brigadier general on December 11. His series of raids into Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio earned him a vote of thanks from the Confederate Congress and the undying enmity of a large segment of the frightened North. On his famous raid north of the Ohio in 1863 he was captured near New Lisbon and imprisoned in the Ohio State Penitentiary, together with a number of his officers. [He contrived] to escape and make his way south.... [This is of course the subject of this song.] He bivouacked in Greenville, Tennessee, on the night of September 3, 1864, while en route to attack near Federal forces near Knoxville. Early the next morning he was surprised by a detachment of Union cavalry and was killed in the garden of the house where he had been sleeping."
Boatner, p. 566:
"MORGAN, John Hunt.... After fighting in the Mexican War, he was a businessman in Lexington, KY, and raised in 1857 the Lexington Rifes, a militia group. He was commissioned Capt. in Sept. '61 and given a squadron of cavalry for scouting. The next year saw the start of the famous Morgan's Raids [Boatner, lists four, July 1862, October 1862, December 1862-January 1863, and the Ohio raid, July 2-26, 1863]. At Shiloh he commanded the Ky. Squadron of cavalry.... He was captured 26 July '63 near New Lisbon (Ohio) and escaped with others from the Ohio State Penitentiary (Columbus) 26 Nov. In Apr. '64 he commanded the Dept. of Southwest V[irginia] and on 4 Sept. '64 was surprised and killed by Federal troops at Greenville, Tenn. His courtship and marriage to Mattie Ready were in the romantic tradition of his military operations."
Boatner, p. 682, says that Ready was a girl of Murfreesburo, Tennessee who, after that town was occupied, defended his reputation despite never having met him. When a Federal asked her name, she replied, "It's Mattie Ready now, but by the grace of God one day I hope to call myself the wife of John Morgan." Morgan heard about it, visited her, and married her in December 1862; Confederate General Leonidas K. Polk, an Episcopal bishop, performed the marriage.
No one seems to have paid much attention to the story of the young widow after the war. And, of course, no one added any verses to this song to explain how Morgan was killed, for practical purpose, in his bed. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: Salt089

How Ashamed I Was

DESCRIPTION: Upon joining the service or meeting a member of the opposite sex, the soldier recalls "How ashamed I was." The singer describes military life, or seduction, or both, concluding, Oh, gor blimey, how ashamed I am/was."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier clothes courting seduction hardtimes
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 82-83, "How Ashamed I Was -- WD Version" (1 text, tune referenced); p.133, "How Ashamed I Was" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #20494
NOTES [27 words]: The male version of this looks like someone was trying to create a modernized "A-Rovin'" but couldn't remember the tune. The other versions took off from there. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hopk082

How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?

DESCRIPTION: Times are hard; goods used to be cheap, but they're now exorbitant. Schools are bad, but all children are sent nonetheless. Prohibition, although good, is inappropriately enforced. Preachers and doctors are corrupt.
AUTHOR: Blind Alfred Reed (1880-1956)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Blind Alfred Reed)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes nonballad money
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 383-384, "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?" (on NLCR09, NLCRCD1)
Blind Alfred Reed, "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?" (Victor V-40236, 1929; on HardTimes1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rigs of the Times" (subject)
NOTES [23 words]: Pity we don't have a keyword "bitching." - PJS
For background on Blind Alfred Reed, see the notes to "Why Do You Bob Your Hair, Girls?" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcHCPMSS

How Can I Be Merry Now?

DESCRIPTION: "As I went up thro' Union Street, I spied an apple as green as a look, The outside was fair, but the inside was rotten, And fin love's oot o' sight it'll soon be forgotten ... how can I be merry now? My poor heart's heavy since my love's gone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1200, "How Can I Be Merry Now?" (1 short text)
Roud #6801
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is based on the one Greig/Duncan6 verse. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61200

How Can I Keep from Singing

DESCRIPTION: "My life flows on in endless song Above earth's lamentation... It sounds an echo in my soul, How can I keep from singing." The singer notes all the troubles swirling around, but refuses to be influences by such things
AUTHOR: Robert Lowry (1826-1899)
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (New York Observer and Chronicle, according to John Garst)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 353, "How Can I Keep From Singing" (1 text)
DT, KEEPSING*
NOTES [529 words]: My original notes on this mentioned it as a Quaker song, based on liner notes on an album that shall remain nameless. Certainly it fits Quaker doctrine regarding the individual conscience, plus there is that line about "When friend (Friends?) by shame are undefiled...." But John Garst has found out more about it:
"The text was first published with a tune by Robert Lowry in Bright Jewels for the Sunday School, 1869. The text alone, entitled Always Rejoicing, was published in the New York Observer and Chronicle, August 27, 1868 (information from Barbara Swetman). The text was submitted to the Observer, apparently as an original work, by 'Pauline T.' The song has nothing to do with Quakers, who did not sing hymns in their early days, except that Doris Plenn's Quaker grandmother knew it. One of the stanzas sung by Pete Seeger, beginning "When tyrants tremble, sick with fear," is by Doris Plenn. It is a protest of McCarthyism." - JG (RBW)
Julian, p. 699, gives this publication history: "In Bright Jewels, 1869; the Royal Diadem, 1873, and others in America and G[reat] Britain, with music by the author."
Julian gives this biography of Lowry: "D.D., s[on] of Crozier Lowry, was b[orn] at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 12, 1826, and educated at Lewisburg University. Having received ordination as a Baptist Minister, his first charge was a West Chester, Pennyslvania. From thence he passed to New York City, and then to Brooklyn, N. Y. In 1876 he was appointed Professor of Rhetoric in his University. On resigning his Professorship he undertook the charge of the 2nd Baptist Church, New Jersey. Dr. Lowry has been associates with some of the most popular Sunday School hymn-books published in the States, including Happy Voices, 1865; Chapel Melodies, 1868; Bright Jewels, 1869; Pure Gold, 1871; Royal Diadem, 1873; Tidal Wave, 1874; Fountain of Song, 1877; Welcome Tiding, 1877, &c."
EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 237, says, "This important figure in early gospel music was born in Philadelphia and, for more than forty years, pastored several Baptist churches in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. He attended the University of Lewisburg (now Bucknell University) and was a professor of belles lettres at his alma mater from 1869 to 1875. He was very well suited for the position because he was a spellbinding orator with considerable administrative abilities." He had no formal training in music, and his hymn-writing was for long a sideline.
Unlike most hymn composers, Lowry managed to produce several songs that went into oral tradition. In addition to this song, he wrote "Shall We Gather at the River" and "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight?." According to Reynolds, p. 192, one of the congregations where Lowry served was at "Hanson Place" in Brooklyn; "Shall We Gather at the RIver" was given its official tune name after that congregation.
In addition to the songs for which he wrote words and music, EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 237, says that he produced the melodies for the well-known (but probably not traditional) hymns "I Need Thee Every Hour," "All the Way My Savoir Leads Me," and "We're Marching to Zion." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.1
File: FSWB353A

How Can I Keep My Maidenhead

See My Mither Built a Wee, Wee House (File: GrD81727)

How Can I Leave You

DESCRIPTION: "The maiden was wealthy, the lover was poor." She rejects him because "wealth came between them." He says the difference means nothing to him. She leaves. Two years later "she'd lost all her riches," and asks his forgiveness. He takes her back.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: poverty love rejection parting reunion money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1837, "How Can I Leave You" (1 text)
Roud #13605
File: GrD81837

How Cauld Those Winds

See The Unquiet Grave [Child 78] (File: C078)

How Come That Blood on Your Shirt Sleeve

See Edward [Child 13] (File: C013)

How Come That Blood?

See Edward [Child 13] (File: C013)

How Come This Blood on Your Shirt Sleeve?

See Edward [Child 13] (File: C013)

How Could I Live

DESCRIPTION: "How could I (live / walk / talk) If it wasn't for the Lord?" "Once I was alone In this world of sin Jesus lifted me up."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (LomaxCD1708)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #17301
RECORDINGS:
Peerless Four, "How Could I Live" (on LomaxCD1708)
File: RcHCILiv

How Do You Do?

DESCRIPTION: "How do you do, ev'rybody? How do you do? How do you do, ev'rybody? How are you? When the skies are kinda grey And you're feeling just that way, Ain't it great to hear folks say, 'How do you do?'" Various people or groups may be greeted
AUTHOR: credited to Phil Fleming, Charlie Harrison, Cal DeVoll on 1924 sheet music (source: Jim Dixon in mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: How Do You Do (Carter Family)"
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 301, "How Do You Do?" (notes only)
Harbon-Parodology, #153, p. 45, "Howdy Do, Everybody" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 113, "Howdy Do" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 5, "How Do You Do?" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 44, "Howdy Do" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song)" (tune, according to Averill)
NOTES [212 words]: There are versions of a Billy Barlow song with a similar opening. I do not know if they are related. - RBW
A curiosity of this is the existence of multiple versions. Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs and National-4HClubSongBook give texts along these lines:
Howdy do, (Mister Speaker), Howdy do? Howdy do?
Is there anything that we can do for you, do for you?
We'll do everything we can,
We are with you to a man,
Howdy do, Mister Speaker, Howdy do!"
(BoyScoutSongbook1997, lets you substitute any name for "Mister Speaker" and doesn't have so many repeated lyrics).
The similarity to the chorus the Harrigan and Braham song "Old Boss Barry" is noteworthy:
Then it's Old Boss Barry, how d'ye do?
Is there anything that we can do for you?
Come tell us of your plan,
We're with you to a man,
For Old Boss Barry, Hip Haroo!
The tunes are not the same. Still, it is easy to suspect a connection. However, the Harbon-Parodology text, to the tune of "I Gave Her Kisses One," is clearly related to the Rodeheaver song but not to "Old Boss Barry":
How do you do, everybody, how do you do?
Is there anything that we can do for you?
We're mighty glad you came;
We hope you feel the same;
How do you do, everybody, how do you do.
Is there some sort of mixture going on? I don't know. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF301H

How Dry I Am

DESCRIPTION: "How dry I am/How dry I am/Nobody knows/How dry I am"
AUTHOR: Music: Edward Rimbault, adapted by Tom A. Johnstone; Words: Will B. Johnstone
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 279-280, "How Dry I Am"
RECORDINGS:
Bar Harbor Society Orchestra, "Old Timers" (Vocalion A-14315, 1922)
Wise String Orchestra, "How Dry I Am" (Vocalion 05360, 1939)
NOTES [89 words]: This fits Dave Para's definition of folklore perfectly: What everybody knows, and no one gives a second thought. I'm astonished it's not listed in any books we've indexed thus far.
Fuld describes the melody as an adaptation of the hymn "(O) Happy Day," published in the 1855 "Wesleyan Sacred Harp." A short version of the song appeared in the musical "Up in the Clouds", and we've listed that as "Earliest Date." The complete song was published in Gaskill & Ernest's "Good Fellow Songs," published in 1933 -- just in time for Repeal. - PJS
File: RcHDIA

How Firm a Foundation

DESCRIPTION: "How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in God's excellent Word! What more can be said than to you God hath said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?" Whatever perils threaten, Jesus will be there
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1787 (John Rippon's "Selection of Hymns from the Best Authord", according to Julian)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 103, "How Firm a Foundation" (1 text, 1 tune)
Original Sacred Harp, 1971 Denson Revision, p. 72, "How Firm a Foundation" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7102
RECORDINGS:
Artricia Gordon, "How Firm a Foundation" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #88, recorded 12/29/2021)
SAME TUNE:
Ellen Smith [Laws F11] (File: LF11)
NOTES [204 words]: The original attribution of this in Rippon's Selection was apparently just "K." Julian, p. 537, says "The authorship of this hymn has been the subject of much enquiry. We have (1) in modern editions of Rippon the name of "Kirkham"; (2) in Fletcher's 1835 ed... "Keen"; (3) and in Spurgeon's O. O. H. Bk., "George Keith."
Julian concludes that the correct author is Keen. Johnson does not attempt to elucidate the signature "K" but seems to say that the tune is from John F. Wade's 1751 "Cantus Diversi." Hymnary.org mentions both "George Keith" and "R. Keen."
McKim, p. 361, says that R. Keene was the precentor at John Rippon's church and wrote the tune, allowing the possibility that he wrote the text also. Reynolds, p. 90, says that Keene was the precentor at Rippon's church 1776-1793 and probably helped with the "Selection of Hymns" but believes that Keene did not write the words, since no other hymns are attributed to him.
No other source I've seen seems to have anything to add to this, though some may attribute the song to a particular author rather than admitting uncertainty.
It's sad that more cannot be said, because the hymn is very popular, used by almost every American denomination and many British. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio088

How Five & Twenty Shillings Were Expended in a Week

See How Five-and-Twenty Shillings Are Expended in a Week (File: KiTu162)

How Five-and-Twenty Shillings Are Expended in a Week

DESCRIPTION: A tradesman asks his wife how his wages are spent. She lists to the halfpenny: rent, meat, bread ... his fish, drinking, tobacco and shaving... and her drop of gin
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1846 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 520)
KEYWORDS: money work drink food dialog humorous husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, p. 162, "How Five-and-Twenty Shillings Are Expended in a Week" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, Modern Street Ballads (Detroit: Singing Tree Press, 1968 reprint of London: Chatto & Windus 1888 edition), pp. 48-51, "How Five and Twenty Shillings Were Expended in a Week" ("It's of a tradesman and his wife, I heard the other day") (1 text; see note)
Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 233-234, "How Five & Twenty Shillings Were Expended in a Week" (1 text)
Roud #V1598
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 520 [many illegible words], "How Five and Twenty Shillings Was Expended in a Week" ("It is of a tradesman and his wife"), E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1844-1845; also Harding B 11(1585), Firth c.20(129), Firth b.27(336), Harding B 11(1583), Harding B 11(1582), "How Five and Twenty Shillings Was Expended in a Week"; Harding B 11(1584), "How Five and Twenty Shillings Are Expended in a Week""; Firth b.25(251), "How Five and Twenty Shillings Were Expended in a Week"
LOCSinging, as112660, "How 25s. Were Expended in a Week" ("It is a tradesman and his wife, I heard the other day"), unknown, no date
SAME TUNE:
Pretty Little Miss (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.27(336))
File: KiTu162

How Folks Ride

See This Is the Way the Ladies Ride (File: OO20290)

How Goo Goo Goo

DESCRIPTION: "How goo goo goo, Bunty doodle ido, Don't you feel like Standing on your head? When you're single, You wish that you were married, And when you're married, You wish that you were dead."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: marriage nonsense
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 33, "How goo goo goo" (1 text)
Roud #25365
File: KSUC033B

How great is the pleasure How sweet the light

See Music and Love (File: WT306A)

How Happy is the Man!

DESCRIPTION: "How happy is the man that is free from all care." He can drink, smoke, and sing with friends. "How happy this isle" which has plenty of meat and drink, "free from control," bold soldiers, valiant sailors. Let's drink and sing "till we hail the new day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: drink music commerce nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 43, "How Happy is the Man!" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 37)
Roud #1230
File: WT043

How Happy's the Mortal

DESCRIPTION: The miller is happy because his life depends only on his own mill wheel and "not on fortune's wheel." If his wife is a scold his mill "drowns all the discord" with its "clack, clack, clack" He prevails over wife and daughter by physical abuse and rape
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1707 (Pills to Purge Melancholy, according to Farmer)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The miller is happy because his life depends only on his own mill wheel and "not on fortune's wheel." If his wife is a scold his mill "drowns all the discord" with its "clack, clack, clack." He prevails over wife and daughter by "sticking a Cog, of [or?] a foot in their tails" and if his wife annoys "he lays upon her back; And all the while he sticks it in."
KEYWORDS: shrewishness rape sex violence abuse work ordeal bawdy children husband wife miller
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: John Stephen Farmer, editor, Merry Songs and Ballads, Prior to the Year 1800 (1897 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol III, pp. 157-158, "How Happy's the Mortal" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jolly Miller" (first verse, more or less)
NOTES [70 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame points out the similarity between the first verse of "How Happy's the Mortal" ("How Happy's the Mortal, That lives by his Mill; That depends on his own, Not on Fortune's Wheel; By the slight of his hand, And the strength of his Back; How merrily, how merrily, His Mill goes Clack, clack, clack, How merrily, how merrily, His Mill goes Clack") and the usual first verse of "The Jolly Miller." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: AdHHtMo

How Hard It Is to Love

See Lonesome Road (File: San322)

How I Could Ride!

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains of having no horse to ride, nor saddle, nor spurs. His mother tells him not to be idle but to ride the old bull and use rags and nails. "So I took the old bull and he cocked up his tail, And away went I in a storm of hail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: animal mother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 47, "How I Could Ride!" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 356)
Roud #1231
File: WT047

How I Love the Old Black Cat

DESCRIPTION: "Who so full of fun and glee? Happy as a cat can be, Polished sides so nice and fat, How I love the old black cat! Yes I do." The boys try to sic dogs on the cat, but the girl (?) rescues it. She prefers it to other pets
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 147, "How I Love the Old Black Cat" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 147, "How I Love the Old Black Cat" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #15767
File: Br3147

How I Love Them Pretty Yellow Gals

DESCRIPTION: "How I love them pretty yaller gals, One named Becky and the other named Sal. Soon there'll be a wedding in the cottage over yonder, And I'll be happy evermore. Soon there'll be great times dancing In the kitchen on the floor."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: love marriage dancing
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 744, "How I Love Them Pretty Yellow Gals" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [33 words]: The description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5. Schinhan suggests that this is a minstrel song, which seems likely enough, but I can't find a published source. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5744

How I Wish I Was Single Again

See I Wish I Were Single Again (II - Female) (File: E070)

How I Wish They'd Do It Now

See I Wish They'd Do It Now (File: Gil111)

How Is Your Old One?

DESCRIPTION: "How is your old one? Game ball. [i.e. doing well.] Out in the back yard, Playing ball."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: questions game | ball
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 173, "How Is Your Old One?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #38155
File: BAAI173C

How Kelly Fought the Ghost

See Maurice Kelly (File: GrMa078)

How Lang Have I a Bachelor Been

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells his mother he has been a bachelor for (48 years), and Meg will not have him no matter how often he asks. Mother tells him to go back and ask again. He declares that Meg must marry him. She refuses; he wails; mother says to stop crying
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection mother humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 148-150, "Oh! Mither I hae a batchelor been" (1 text)
Roud #8548
File: HLMM148

How Lon the Train Been Gone?

DESCRIPTION: "Come and go with me (x3)." "How long the train been gone? (x3) Come and go with me." "Got my mother and gone (x3), Come and...." "It been very long gone." "Got my father and gone." "Dark cloud risin' in the east." "I'm gonna rise in that Judgment Day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: father mother religious travel
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 84-85, "How Long the Train Been Gone?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16267
File: Rose084

How Long Blues

DESCRIPTION: "How long, how long Has that evening train been gone, How long, Baby, how long, how long?... How long will it be Before you learn to quit mistreating me?" The singer complains about his lost woman and the travelling he has done.
AUTHOR: Leroy Carr?
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recordings, Tampa Red's Hokum Jazz Band, Gladys Bentley); perhaps 1921 (recorded by Daisy Martin)
KEYWORDS: loneliness separation travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 437-440, "How Long, How Long Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 314, "How Long Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HOWLONG*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 25, #1 (1976), p, 39, "How Long" (1 text, 1 tune, from Mable Hillery, which is a somewhat dubious relative; it has this general tone and many similar lyrics but also has much floating material and a different final line); Volume 38, #4 (1994), pp. 40-41, "How Long Blues" (1 text, 1 tune, the original Carr/Blackwell version)
Roud #15204
RECORDINGS:
Shelley Armstrong [Bumble Bee Slim] , "How Long, How Long Blues" (Champion 50008, 1935)
Gladys Bentley, "How Long - How Long Blues" (OKeh 8612, 1928)
Leroy Carr [and Scrapper Blackwell], "How Long -- How Long Blues" (Vocalion 1191, 1928; Vocalion 1241, 1929; Banner 32557/Oriole 8166/Perfect 0215/Romeo 5166, 1932)
Jed Davenport, "How Long How Long Blues" (Vocalion 1440, 1930)
Folkmasters, "Rising Sun" (on Fmst01) [This is *not* "House of the Rising Sun," but a Brownie McGhee partial rewrite of "How Long Blues"]
Bertha "Chippie" Hill w. Baby Dodds' Stompers "How Long Blues" (Circle J-1003, n.d.)
Skip James, "How Long 'Buck'" (Paramount 13085, rec. 1931)
Wingy Manone & his orchestra, "How Long Blues" (Bluebird B-10749, 1940)
Daisy Martin, "How Long? How Long?" (OKeh 8009, 1921, possibly this song)
Tampa Red's Hokum Jug Band, "How Long How Long Blues" (Vocalion 1228, 1928)
SAME TUNE:
Leroy Carr, "How Long, How Long Blues Part 2" (Vocalion 1279, 1929; Banner 32557/Oriole 8166/Perfect 0215/Romeo 5166, 1932; rec. 1928); Carr later released additional "How Long" sequels
Leroy Carr w. Earl, "Scrapper" Blackwell, "The New How Long How Long Blues" (Vocalion 1435, 1930)
NOTES [216 words]: I have not heard the Daisy Martin recording; it may be a different song. If it's the same, however, that shoots Carr's authorship in the foot. - PJS
According to Cohen, Martin's recording is "not closely related"; neither is a song recorded in 1928 by Alberta Brown, "How Long." Cohen of course does note some earlier materials which may have inspired Carr.
Cohen adds that their June 1928 recordings "inaugurat[ed] a major change in the nature of recorded blues music. Smoother, more urbane than most of the country blues that preceded them, more polished, and considerably more danceable, their style was immediately emulated." The result was to make piano-and-guitar blues much more common. - RBW
Except that they *didn't* get much more common, unless Carr and Blackwell were doing them. It's a difficult combination. - PJS
Carr and Blackwell alone were responsible for quite a few; the 1994 article in Sing Out! quotes William Barlow's The Emergence of Blues Culture as saying the two had to re-record the song three times because the master kept wearing out! It was one of the best-selling "race" records of the period.
Carr unfortunately died in 1935 of alcohol abuse; he was only 30 years old. This probably means that a number of questions about this song will never be answered. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LoF314

How Long Watchman

See Ask the Watchman How Long (File: CarCa084)

How Long, How Long Blues

See How Long Blues (File: LoF314)

How Lovely It Was

DESCRIPTION: "Thanks for the memory Of biplanes in the sky, Of pilots who could fly, Of four hour trips, attacking ships, returning with a sigh, How lovely it was." The singer recalls shore leave, equipment repair, WRENs, wartime heartbreak, and service life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy work love separation derivative technology pilot
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 77, "How Lovely It Was" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Thanks for the Memories" (tune)
File: Tawn077

How Many Biscuits Can You Eat?

DESCRIPTION: "How many biscuits can you eat, this mornin', this mornin'? (x2) Forty-nine, and a ham of meat, this mornin'." Discussion of food, work, etc., with many floating verses ("Ain't no use me workin' so hard," "If you get there before I do").
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Humphrey Bate)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #7876
RECORDINGS:
Dr. Humphrey Bate & his Possum Hunters, "How Many Biscuits Can You Eat?" (Brunswick 232, 1928)
Gwen Foster, "How Many Biscuits Can I Eat" (Bluebird B-8082/Montgomery Ward M-7859 [as "How Many Biscuits Can You Eat"], 1939)
Grandpa Jones, "How Many Biscuits Can You Eat?" (King 740, 1948)
Pickard Family, "How Many Biscuits Can You Eat" (Coast 253, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Crawdad" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Crawdad (File: R443)
NOTES [34 words]: This is pretty definitely built about "Crawdad," or one of its relatives, and manages to be even sillier than that silly song. But it's been recorded enough that I finally decided it went in the Index. - RBW
File: RcHMBCYE

How Many Boys

See She Loves Coffee and I Love Tea (File: Br3091)

How Many Children Will We Have?

See How Many Children Will You Have? (File: ZiZa048A)

How Many Children Will You Have?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme for telling fortunes: "How many children will you have? 1, 2, 3, 4...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: children questions jumprope
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 48, "(How many children will you have?)" (1 text, under "Telling Fortunes")
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 139, "How Many Children Will We Have?" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "What Kind of Evening Gown Will You Marry In?" and references there
NOTES [38 words]: This is one of a sequence of fortune-telling jump rope rhymes that begin with "What Kind of Evening Gown..."; see that entry for the full sequence. All of them are filed as separate entries because they can also circulate separately.
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ZiZa048A

How Many FIngers (Mingledy, Mingledy)

See Hickety (Buck Buck, Horny Cup, How Many FIngers; Mingledy, Mingledy) (File: ARno087)

How Many Horses (Blind Man's Buff rhyme)

DESCRIPTION: "How many horses has your father got in his stables? Three. What color are they? Red, white, and gray. Then turn about and tist about and catch them when you may." A rhyme for Blind Man's Buff or "Blinc buck-a-Davy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Deane /Shaw)
KEYWORDS: horse playparty colors nonballad father
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 51, "(How many horses has your father got in his stables?)" (1 short text)
File: DeSh051B

How Many Messages Can You Carry?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "How many messages can you carry? One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | message counting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #198, "How many messages can you carry?" (1 text)
File: AJRR198

How Many Miles from this to Babylon?

See How Many Miles to Babylon? (File: HHH040a)

How Many Miles to Babyland?

See How Many Miles to Babylon? (File: HHH040a)

How Many Miles to Babylon?

DESCRIPTION: Singing game: "How Many Miles to (Babylon)? (Three) score and ten. Can I get there by candlelight? Yes, and back again." The rest of the song may refer to the pleasures of "Babyland" (Henry text), or to courting, or traveling -- or something else
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (Songs for the Nursery, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: playparty travel nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(All), Scotland) US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Ont) New Zealand
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H40a, p. 12, "How Many Miles to Babyland?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 18-19, "How Many Miles to London Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 26, "How many miles to Babylon?" (2 texts)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 4, "How Many Miles to Babylon?"; Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame p. 173, ("Here's my black and here's my blue") (5 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #146, p. 115, "(How many miles to Babylon?)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 81, "(How many miles to Glasgow Lea?)" (1 text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #101, "How Many Miles to Babylon?" (2 texts)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 27, "How Many Miles to Burnham Bright?" (1 text)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 85, "How Many Miles to Bethlehem?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 42, "(How many miles to Babylon?)" (1 fragment); p. 109, "(How many miles to London town)" (a counting rhyme that might be independent)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #199, "How many miles to London town?" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Katherine H. Wintemberg and W.J. Wintemberg, "Folk-Lore from Grey County, Ontario," Vol. XXXI, No. 119 (Jan 1918), #348 p. 111, ("How many miles to Barleytown?") (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Leah Rachel Clara Yoffie, "Three Generations of Children's Singing Games in St. Louis," Vol. LX, No. 235 (Jan 1947), #33 p. 32 ("How many miles to Mile-a-Bright?") (1 text)
cf. Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 29, "Molly, Molly Bright" (notes only)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1826 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 298, ("King and Queen of Cantelon, How many miles to Babylon?") (1 text)
G.F. Northall, English Folk-Rhymes (London, 1892 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 397-398, ("How many miles to Hebron"),("How many miles to Babylon?") (4 texts)
Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 51, "(How many miles from this to Babylon?)" (1 short text)
Roud #8148
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Thread the Needle" (game) and references there
NOTES [897 words]: Sam Henry was of the opinion that the original text of this song referred to "Babyland," with "Babylon" as a corruption. Gomme, however, has nineteen texts (though a handful may not be this piece), and seven refer to Babylon, three to Banbury (Cross or Bridge), a couple of others to variants on Bethlehem, a few to London, and none to Babyland.
As secondary evidence, I note that Lewis Carroll quoted the piece, referring to "Babylon," in Chapter XVIII ("Queer Street, Number Forty") of Sylvie and Bruno. Carroll quotes quite a few popular lyrics -- and generally seems to have tried to use the best-known forms.
In defense of Sam Henry, there is a piece called "Baby-land" with several sheet music settings, by Jeannette Amidon (LOCSheet, sm1877 04182, "Baby-land," Wm. A. Pond (New York), 1877 (tune)) and Gerrit Smith (LOCSheet, sm1884 24704, "Baby-land," Wm. A. Pond (New York), 1884 (tune)). But these really look like by-blows to me. I have to think "Babylon" is original even though it's hard to explain.- RBW
One Northall text is "How many miles to Hebron? Three score and ten, Shall I be there by midnight? Yes, and back again. Then, thread the needle."
The "thread the needle" reference has to do with the game associated with "How many miles to...?" However, Northall adds the following with no further comment: "Letter and Memoir of Bishop Shirley, p. 415, 'Lord Nugent, when at Hebron, was directed to "go out by the needle's eye," that is by the small side gate of the city.'" The same text and reference to Lord Nugent had previously been cited in Notes and Queries, August 23, 1851 ("Digitized by Google"), Vol. IV, No. 95, p. 141 with the comment "Now this explains one of the strongest and most startling passages of Scripture, on the subject of riches; for the camel can go through the needle's eye, but with difficulty, and hardly with a full load, nor without stooping" [Matthew 19.24, Mark 10.25, Luke 18.25]; the note goes on to comment that this "does not tell much" about the game. On another, probably coincidental note, the game is often associated with Shrove Tuesday and sometimes with Easter Monday or May Day. - BS
The mention of "Hebron" is perhaps more counter-evidence to the claim, mentioned above, that the original reference was to "Babyland," since "Babylon" and "Hebron" are both Biblical names; it's hard to imagine a change from "Babyland" to "Hebron," but not too much of a stretch to change from "Babylon" to "Hebron" -- especially since Babylon no longer exists.
The distance from Jerusalem to Hebron, to be sure, is far less than seventy miles; it's closer to twenty miles. The distance from Jerusalem to Babylon, on the other hand, was many hundreds of miles away as the crow flies, and even more as the caravan travels. So to say that the distance to Hebron is three score and ten miles is less inaccurate than to say that that is the distance to Babylon.
Incidentally, the attempt to explain away Jesus's comment on the basis of a "Needle Gate" or the like is completely unfounded. InterpretersDict, volume 3, p. 531, says, "Jesus used the figure of the impossibility of a camel's going through the eye of a needle to teach the difficulty of a rich man's entering the Kingdom of God.. Some late Greek MSS. [avoid the problem by changing the text]. A much later interpretation made the saying refer to a postulated small gate called the 'Needle's Eye,' through which a camel would go with difficulty. Neither interpretation is justified."
Another article in InterpretersDict (2.854) bolsters this by showing multiple maps of post-exilic Jerusalem as reconstructed by various scholars. These list the various gates identified: Corner Gate, Gate of Ephraim, Old Gate, Valley Gate, Dung Gate, Fountain Gate, Water Gate, Horse Gate, "E Gate," Muster Gate, Sheep Gate, Fish Gate. No "Needle's Eye," note. And Jerusalem was not a large city. A dozen gates was *plenty*.
On p. 860, there is a New Testament map. Its gates are New Gate, Damascus Gate, Herod's Gate, "St. Stephen's Gate" (obviously a more modern name), Single Gate, unnamed gate, Jaffa Gate.
Preiffer, p. 113, has a map which shows Gennath Gate, Water Gate, Golden Gate, and internal Holdah Gates, plus at least three unnamed gates. At least one other atlas uses this exact map, and I seem to recall seeing it in a third as well.
HarperAtlas, which is the most complete and (it seems to me) the most accurate of all my six Biblical atlases, gives its map of New Testament era Jerusalem on pp. 166-167, shows the Damascus Gate, Gennath Gate, Essenes Gate, and three, possibly four, unnamed gates.
Thus the consensus appears to be that there were six to eight gates to Jerusalem in Jesus's time. Most of these are unnamed -- although many would keep their names from the time of Nehemiah. It is theoretically possible that there was a "Needle Gate" or "Needle's Eye Gate" -- but Jerusalem was a fortress, and a very strong one; it took the Romans years to conquer it both during Pompey's campaigns in the first century B.C.E. and during the Jewish Revolt of 66. It is extremely unlikely that there was a Needle's Eye Gate -- a gate would need guards, and if you have to have guards anyway, better to build a substantial gate which allows real commerce. The odds are high that Jesus meant what he said: That he did not consider wealth to be conducive to salvation. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: HHH040a

How Many Miles to Banbury?

See How Many Miles to Babylon? (File: HHH040a)

How Many Miles to Bethlehem?

See How Many Miles to Babylon? (File: HHH040a)

How Many Miles to Burnham Bright?

See How Many Miles to Babylon? (File: HHH040a)

How Many Miles to Glasgow Lea?

See How Many Miles to Babylon? (File: HHH040a)

How Many Miles to Hebron?

See How Many Miles to Babylon? (File: HHH040a)

How Many Miles to London Town?

See How Many Miles to Babylon? (File: HHH040a)

How Many Miles?

See Bluebells, Cockleshells (File: SuSm104B)

How Many Years? (Apple, Peach, Pumpkin Pie)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Apple, peach, pumpkin pie, How many years before I die? One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas, acccording to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: food death jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 62, "How Many Years?" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #20, "Apple, peach, pumpkin pie" (1 text)
Roud #19425
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Apple, Peach, Pear, Plum" (theme of fruits and questions)
File: ZiZa062A

How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck

DESCRIPTION: Tongue-twister. "How much would would a woodchuck chuck If a woodchuck could chuck wood?" Rest is not fixed, e.g. "He would chuck, he would, as much as he could," or "As much wood as a woodchuck would chuck...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes)
KEYWORDS: animal wordplay | woodchuck
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 147, "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #752, p. 283, "(How much wood would a woodchuck chuck)"
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #108, "(How much wood would a woodchuck chuck)" (1 text)
Roud #16343
NOTES [62 words]: Since the woodchuck, or groundhog, is an American mammal, it is surprising to find this included in some Mother Goose collections. Even in North America, the name "groundhog" is said to be more common than "woodchuck" (though my personal idiolect uses "woodchuck," not "groundhog"). Possibly some linguistic research could help us determine where this rhyme came from. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DCCR147I

How Old Are You, My Pretty Little Miss?

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)

How Old Will You Be When You Marry?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme for telling fortunes: "How old will you be when you marry? 11, 12, 13, 14, 15...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: marriage questions jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 47, "(How old will you be when you marry?)" (1 text, under "Telling Fortunes")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "What Kind of Evening Gown Will You Marry In?" and references there
NOTES [38 words]: This is one of a sequence of fortune-telling jump rope rhymes that begin with "What Kind of Evening Gown..."; see that entry for the full sequence. All of them are filed as separate entries because they can also circulate separately.
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ZiZa047B

How Paddy Stole the Rope

DESCRIPTION: Paddy and Mick rob a church. They need rope to bind the loot. Paddy climbs the bell rope to the top, cuts the rope above himself and falls. Mick climbs up, cuts the rope beneath himself and can't get down. The boys are caught and thrown in jail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: prison robbery unemployment humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 68-69, "How Paddy Stole the Rope" (1 text)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 57, "Paddy Stole the Rope" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Hazel Felleman, Best Loved Poems of the American People, p. 474, "How Paddy Stole the Rope" (1 text)
ST OCon068 (Partial)
Roud #2037
RECORDINGS:
Tom Cornelly, "When Paddy Stole the Rope" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
J. Molloy, "When Paddy Stole the Rope" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 20(65), "How Paddy Stole the Rope," unknown, n.d.
File: OCon068

How Pat Is Represented

DESCRIPTION: The singer protests that Irishmen are presented unfairly: Punch "depicts us... with crooked limbs and villainous face." On the stage we have "not a word of common sense." "Do me justice... I won't be laughed at anywhere but fairly represented"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1991 (IRRWhite01)
KEYWORDS: discrimination nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #2969
RECORDINGS:
Roisin White, "Do Me Justice" (on IRRWhite01)
File: RcDoMeJu

How Peculiar

See Glory, Glory, How Peculiar (File: DPio379)

How Sad

DESCRIPTION: "Behold in me a married man whose life is full of gloom, How sad, oh, how sad. My eyes have lost their brightness...." He has to take care of the baby in the middle of the night while his wife sleeps and snores; he does the housework as she talks suffrage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: husband wife hardtimes political baby
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 77, "How Sad" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11406
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)" (theme of the husband having to do his wife's work and care for the baby)
NOTES [25 words]: For some reason, Roud lumps this with a song about a man/woman who "won't marry a (farmer/bachelor/black girl/etc.)." I don't see the relationship. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne077

How Sad Was the Death of My Sweetheart

See Saint James Infirmary (File: San228)

How Sadly My Heart Yearns Toward You

See Broken Ties (I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes) (File: BrII156)

How Stands the Glass Around (General Wolfe's Song)

DESCRIPTION: "How stands the glass around? For shame, ye take no care, my boys.... Let mirth and wine abound, The trumpets sound." As the soldiers set out, the singer asks, "Why, soldiers, why Should we be melancholy?" Live or die, they should drink and be happy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1729 (ballad opera "The Patron, according to Chappell)
KEYWORDS: soldier drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 669, "How Stands the Glass Around" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 134-135, "The Duke of Berwick's March, or Why, Soldiers, Why, or How Stands the Glass Around" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp 146-147, "Why, Soldiers, Why?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9397
NOTES [83 words]: This is called "General Wolfe's Song" because there was an account that he wrote the song. Perhaps he sang it, but the tune "Why, Soldiers, Why" dates at least to 1729, and the lyrics are found in an old manuscript book as "Duke of Berwick's March," so we can assume it is older, (Whether it is traditional is another matter -- it doesn't appear so.) Nonetheless it seems to have been widely printed as "General Wolfe's Song." For background on Wolfe, see the notes to "Brave Wolfe" [Laws A1]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: DalC146

How Sweet is the Horn!

See When Bucks a Hunting Go (File: GrD4727)

How Sweet the Love That Meets Return

DESCRIPTION: "When first I ken'd young Sandy's face, He sung and look'd with such a grace, He stole my heart but did not care"; he loves another girl. But that girl rejects him, so Sandy instead turns to Jenny, who declares, "How sweet's the love that meets return"
AUTHOR: James Hook ? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 ? (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: love rejection flowers
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 280-281, "How Sweet's the Love That Meets Return" (1 text)
Roud #11703
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.11(3)=Johnson Ballads 1495a=Johnson Ballads 1495b=Johnson Ballads 1496a=Johnson Ballads 1496b=Johnson Ballads 1497a=Johnson Ballads 1497b, "How sweets the love, that meets return, D. Wrighton (Birmingham), 1812-1830; also Firth b.26(521)=Firth c.18(107)=Harding B 11(3902) (Wrighton)=
Harding B 28(217); also Harding B 25(868) (Wrighton); also Firth b.25(151), "How sweet's the love that meets return," B. W. Dickinson (York), 1823-1834; also Firth b.25(152)=Harding B 11(1589), Dickinson; also Harding B 28(12), "When first I kenn'd young Sandy's face," unknown, n.d.
NOTES [65 words]: The earliest date of 1800 and attribution to James Hook are both based on a Google Books record of sheet music for this song. But the actual scan consists of only one page with neither date nor attribution, though it says the song was "sung by Mrs Kennedy." The various broadsides at least prove it is from the early nineteenth century, and I found a songster list that is dated to 1803. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe280

How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds

DESCRIPTION: "How sweet the name of Jesus sounds In a believer's ear. It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds And drives away his fear." The singer asks that his praise of Jesus be accepted. "May the music of thy name Refresh my soul in death."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (Brunson and Pitman)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Alfred Brunson and Charles Pitman,_The Sweet Singer of Israel: A Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs Usually Sung at Camp, Prayer, and Social Meetings, and in Revivals of Religion_ (Pittsburgh: C.H. Kay & Co., 1840 ("Digitized by Internet Archive"), #115 pp. 130-131, ("How sweet the name of Jesus sounds") (1 text)
Ira D. Sankey, _Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos (1200 Hymns)_ (London: Collins, n.d.), #112 (1880 #145), ("How sweet the name of Jesus sounds") (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Revival Zion pastor and congregation, "How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds" (on JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
NOTES [30 words]: The JamaicaFaithWorkPlay recording is lined-out, "Dr. Watts" style. A leader calls out each line and the congregation sings the line slowly, often a whole note for each syllable. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcHSNoJS

How Sweet the Rose Blaws

DESCRIPTION: "How sweet the rose blaws, it fades and it fa's; Red is the rose and bonnie, O! It brings to my mind what my dear laddie was; So bloomed -- so cut off was my Johnnie, O!" Peace is come, but the singer's love is dead. She will meet him soon (in death)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love soldier death flowers
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, p. 176, "How Sweet the Rose Blaws" (1 text)
Roud #13166
NOTES [17 words]: This is almost the only song in Ford which is offered entirely without comment. Whatever that means. - RBW
File: FVS176A

How Tattersall's Cup Was Won

DESCRIPTION: "Fair, every heights are gleaming Beneath the sun God gave, Great waves of life are swaying Along the wheel-worn wave." A very detailed description of the race, listing many of the horses as well as the rider who was thrown and killed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: racing death horse
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 249-253, "How Tattersall's Cup Was Won" (1 text)
NOTES [29 words]: Meredith and Anderson believe this piece pertains to the race in which Alec Robertson was killed. This is quite reasonable, but the accident plays a relatively minor role. - RBW
File: MA249

How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours

See Greenfields (How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours) (File: San154)

How the Money Rolls In

See My God, How the Money Rolls In (File: EM107)

How They Giggled, How They Laughed

DESCRIPTION: "How they giggled, how they laughed, How the sailors of the Grand Fleet chaffed When they heard their Admiral declare 'You can land your bally German fleet right there.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: navy sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 1918 - German High Seas Fleet interned at Scapa Flow
Jun 21, 1919 - High Seas Fleet ships scuttled to protest British behavior
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 181, "How they giggled, how they laughed" (1 text)
Roud #25463
NOTES [171 words]: Alice Kane didn't know what this fragment was about, but it seems pretty clear to me: One of the major demands of the British at the end of World War I was that the German fleet cease to be a threat to the Royal Navy. The British demanded that almost all modern units of the German fleet be brought to British waters, under the eyes of the British Grand Fleet (referred to in the song). The Germans, having little choice, arrived in the Firth of Forth on November 20-21, where Admiral David Beatty, commander of the Grand Fleet, ordered, "The German flag will be hauled down at sunset today and will not be hoisted again without permission." A few days later, starting on November 25, the German ships went to Scapa Flow in the Orkneys, where they were even more isolated and could not threaten the British coasts. So the Admiral giving the orders is Beatty, and the order he gave is either the one sent in the Firth of Forth or the one sending them to Scapa Flow.
Fowke lists this as a parody of "Granny's Old Arm Chair." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC181H

How to Dodge the Hard Times

DESCRIPTION: "How to dodge the hard times is the hardest of tasks, For whatever becomes of us? Ev'ryone will ask." Raising food is not enough to survive or support the colony. Make cloth and clothes as well, work at trades, build a future
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Wellington Evening Post, according to Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: New Zealand hardtimes food nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 35, "How to Dodge the Hard Times" (1 text, 1 modern tune) (p. 20 in the 1972 edition)
File: Colq020

How We Go

See Here We Go Up (Hey My Kitty) (File: Lins209)

How We Got Back to the Woods Last Year

See How We Got Up to the Woods Last Year (File: FowL45)

How We Got Up to the Woods Last Year

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you lads that would like to hear How we got up to the woods last year." The singer and colleagues gather (to go logging). They hire a coach and feel grand. They perhaps get drunk. They arrive.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: travel drink logger
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont,Que)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #45, "How We Got Up to the Woods Last Year" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 22, "How We Got Up to the Woods Last Year" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3676
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "How We Got Back to the Woods Last Year" (on Lumber01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Conroy's Camp" (tune, lyrics, theme)
cf. "Rantin', Roarin', Drunk on the Way" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Conroy's Camp (File: FowL46)
NOTES [54 words]: This is about as interesting as the description implies; even Fowke admits that the song lacks "any dramatic incident."
The chorus is shared, in general form, with "Rantin', Roarin', Drunk on the Way" -- but the plot is different; it appears to be simply a case of the cross-fertilization so common among lumbering songs. - RBW
File: FowL45

How Will You Stand in That Day?

DESCRIPTION: "For the sky it will be darkened, And the thunder will be rolling, And the lightning will be flashing In that day. O fathers, It's how will you stand, It's how will you stand in that day?" "For the earth will be shaken." "For the stars will be falling."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 59-60, "How Will You Stand in That Day?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7752
File: KPL059B

How Would You Like to Be Me?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "How would you like to be me? Up in an apple tree? A lump of jelly in my belly. How would you like to be me?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Folkways 8501, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food | tree jelly
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #200, "How would you like to be me?" (1 text)
File: JRR200

How You Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm?

DESCRIPTION: "Reuben, Reuben, I've been thinking, said his wifey dear," that the boys would soon return to the farm. But, "How you gonna keep 'em down on the farm After they've seen Paree?" Or keep them at work when they've seen Broadway?
AUTHOR: Words: Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young / Music: Walter Donaldson (source: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (sheet music by B. & S. Waterson)
KEYWORDS: husband wife soldier farming | Paris temptation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 125, "How'ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm?" (1 text)
Roud #25956
ALTERNATE TITLES:
How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm?
NOTES [67 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 271, estimates that this was the fourth most popular song in America in 1919, peaking at #1 in May 1919 (#1 for the year being J. H. Remick's "Till We Meet Again"). The sheet version by B. and S. Waterson sold more than a million copies, according to Gardner. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW125

How! we shall have game and sport ynow!

See A Hunting Carol (At A Place Where I Me Set) (File: MSAHuCar)

Howard Carey [Laws E23]

DESCRIPTION: The singer, Howard Carey, recalls his happy youth. But he left home and parents and, despite his mother's warnings, turns to a dissolute life. Blaming his fate on whiskey and bad women, he kills himself
AUTHOR: probably Joe Scott
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: suicide drink family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 5, 1897 - "Howard Carrick, a woodsman, aged 33, hanged himself in his room at Annie Siddal's boarding house in Rumford, Maine..." (source: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws E23, "Howard Carey"
Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker, pp. 106-139, "Howard Carey" (2 texts, 5 tunes, with mentions of a total of 49 versions)
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 59-60, "Howard Kerry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 131-132,247, "Howard Carey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 22, "Howard Carey" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 834, HOWCAREY*
Roud #9191
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Howard Carragher
Howard Kerrick
NOTES [96 words]: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland is unequivocal about the author being Joe Scott. - BS
So is Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker. Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi attributes it without hesitation to Scott as well. They note, however, what appear to be allusions to British material. Their background notes that this is described as "the true story of Howard Carey (variously spelled Kerrick, Currie, Carrick...) who was born in Grand Falls on the Upper St. John River. Howard led a wandering life, went to the bad, and finally hanged himself in Rumford Falls, Maine." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LE23

Howard Kerrick

See Howard Carey [Laws E23] (File: LE23)

Howard Kerry

See Howard Carey [Laws E23] (File: LE23)

Howden Fair

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the horses he saw at Howden Fair: all colors, ages, and conditions. "They bring their worst, they bring their best... Let's have room to show them all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1853 (Peacock, in _Notes and Queries_)
KEYWORDS: commerce farming horse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 23, "Howden Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Peacock in _Notes and Queries_ (London, 1888 ("Digitized by Google")), Seventh Series Vol. V, No. 123, May 5 1888, p. 345, "Howden Fair" ("It's I have been to Howden Fair") (1 text)
Roud #1086
NOTES [72 words]: OShaughnessy-Yellowbelly1: "The horse-fair at Howden (near Goole) was an important one in the South Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire area." He quotes Peacock who says the song was "sung by Lincolnshire farmers and horse-dealers, who were in the habit of visiting the great Yorkshire horse-fair in the early years of the reign of George III."
The OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 text is slightly modified from Peacock's text. - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: OSY023

Howdy Do

See How Do You Do? (File: HaBr)lBB)

Howdy Do, Everybody

See How Do You Do? (File: HaBr)lBB)

Howdy Howdy

DESCRIPTION: "Howdy howdy brother (sister, father, preacher, mourner), Howdy howdy do M-m-m-m-m, And I do mighty well And I thank God too M-m-m-m-m"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious clergy
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 4, "Howdy Howdy" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [26 words]: Barton-OldPlantationHymns: "This is the entire hymn... It is a song for the opening of service... The 'M-m-m-m-m' is a humming sound with closed lips." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bar004

Howdy, Bill (How I Got My Wife)

DESCRIPTION: "Howdy, Bill, git down a minute, Come right in from the sea." The singer will describe how he found his wife. They grew up together and fell in love, but he was afraid to say anything. Finally, sitting at far ends of a bench, they move closer (then marry)
AUTHOR: probably Bill Chitwood (Robertson)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs)
KEYWORDS: love courting work
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 59-60, "Howdy, Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3121
RECORDINGS:
Bill Chitwood & Bud Landress, "Howdy Bill" (Brunswick 2809)
File: Rich059

Howe o' Fife, The

DESCRIPTION: "Comin' thro' the Howe o' Fife, I met a lass, she was sae blythe, She smiled on me sae couthily, My he'rt gaed pit-a-patter"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 871, "The Howe o' Fife" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6228
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4871

Howes o' Glenorchy, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the howes o' Glenarchy there is a bit ground, The more that you toil it, more pleasure is found"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1442, "The Howes o' Glenorchy" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7273
NOTES [20 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan7 fragment.
Greig/Duncan7: "The words are stated to be indelicate." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71442

Howes o' King-Edward, The

DESCRIPTION: "Though lovely the land where in childhood I wandered," the singer looks back on a different, more gloomy world. He recalls happy days of the past; now, "O, changed are the Howes o' King-Edward to me!"
AUTHOR: William Cruikshanks (died 1868)
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 339-340, "The Howes o' King-Edward" (1 text)
Roud #3942
File: Ord339

Hu, Hu, Hu!

DESCRIPTION: German shanty. Translation: "Oh the bosun's great big fid boys, Hu, hu, hu, hu, hu! Is as long as a tops'l yard boys. Hu... Ch: Yaw, yaw, yaw we'll sing boys, an' we'll heave away (x2)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Baltzer, _Knurrhahn_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty
FOUND IN: Germany
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 536-537, "Hu, Hu, Hu!" (1 text, 1 tune -- a translation only; Hugill says the original was too rough)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Reise, Reise!
File: Hugi536

Huckleberry Hunting

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "To me, Hilo, me Ranzo boy!" Boys and girls went huckleberry hunting, with the boys naturally chasing the girls. In the end a boy proposes to a girl (perhaps after seeing her garter)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917
KEYWORDS: shanty courting
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 32, "Huckleberry Hunting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 69, "Huckleberry Hunting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 88-89, "Hilo, My Ranzo Way" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 249-250, "We'll Ranzo Way" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 181-182]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XIV, p. 17, "Huckleberry Hunting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 102, "The Wild Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #12, "The Wild Goose Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 77-78, "The Wild Goose Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, (RANZORAY* -- the text here is very similar to Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman's, but the tunes are so different that one wonders if they could be the same shanty)
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Huckleberry Picking" is in Part 1, 7/14/1917.
Roud #328
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ranzo Ray" (floating lyrics, form of chorus)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sing Hilo, Me Ranzo Ray
File: Doe032

Huckleberry Picking

See Huckleberry Hunting (File: Doe032)

Hucklejee Bread

DESCRIPTION: "My father and mother Are sick in bed, And I must learn how To make hucklejee bread. Then up with your feet... And that is the way to make hucklejee bread."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: mother mother disease food cook
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 125, "Hucklejee Bread" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _Dialect Notes_, the publication of The American Dialect Society, Volume IV, 1913-1917 (available on Google Books), p. 108, "Huckle Jee Bread" (1 text)
NOTES [49 words]: The second stanza in Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore opens "Then up with your feet And down with your head." I can't prove it, but I suspect that should be "...feet, and STAND ON your head."
The huckles, according to "Dialect Notes," are the hips, so the name describes the movement, not the bread.- RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: SaKo125

Hudson River Steamboat

DESCRIPTION: "Hudson River steamboat, sailing up and down, New York to Albany or any river town, Choo choo to go ahead, Choo choo to slack her...." Sketches of places one would pass and things one might see from the steamboat
AUTHOR: perhaps adapted by John Allison?
EARLIEST DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: river ship nonballad technology
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 40, "Hudson River Steamboat" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HUDSNRVR
Roud #6671
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hudson River Steamer
File: LoF040

Huey Long

DESCRIPTION: "Huey began to holla, Huey began to squall. "It was too bad Huey had to go, For he'd taken from the rich And he'd given to the poor." The people gather around the hospital where Huey is dying. His wife bids farewell and wishes she could do his work
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Coffin & Cohen)
KEYWORDS: political death homicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 10, 1935 - Assassination of Huey Long
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, pp. 93-94, "The Haunted Wood" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mister McKinley (White House Blues)" (lyrics, form)
cf. "Death of Huey P. Long" (subject)
File: CoCo091

Hugh Hill, the Ramoan Smuggler

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a member of Hill's smuggling crew, recalls how Dixon betrayed them. A cutter captures Hill's ship, but when the crew is brought to trial, no proof is available; Hill and crew go free and will smuggle more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: trial punishment ship escape
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H494, pp. 127-128, "Hugh Hill, the Ramoan Smuggler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13372
NOTES [48 words]: One of the less-intelligent British colonial policies was to cut off all sorts of external (and even internal) trade. This made smugglers like Hugh Hill heroes. There really weren't many of them, though -- Ireland didn't have enough excess income to support a large smuggling industry. - RBW
File: HHH494

Hugh McGeehan

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you true-born Irishmen wherever you may be": Don't go to jail or you will rue the day you came to America. McKenna and Kerrigan have brought ruin on many, including Hugh McGeehan, who declares he never knew Kerrigan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining prison homicide betrayal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 21, 1877 - Execution of Hugh McGeehan
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 264-265, "Hugh McGeehan" (1 text)
Roud #4091
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32] (subject: the Long Strike and the Molly Maguires) and references there
NOTES [1298 words]: This song is item dE30 in Laws's Appendix II.
For the background to the whole issue of the Long Strike and the Molly Maguires, see the notes to "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32]. Briefly, in the 1870s, the owners of the mines in the Pennsylvania anthracite region put the squeeze on their workers. The workers responded by striking -- an event known as "The Long Strike." It failed, and the miners had to go back to work for reduced pay. In the aftermath, there were a series of murders in the anthracite region, blamed on the "Molly Maguires." The mine owners infiltrated the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) to try to find those responsible. They eventually arrested many, and tried and executed twenty men. One of those executed was Hugh McGehan (the spelling used in the histories although not by Korson).
Kenny, p. 293, gives this capsule biography of McGehan: "AOH member, Summit Hill, Carbon County. Kept a saloon a Summit Hill. Born about 1852 in Carrickfin, County Donegal. Emigrated to the United States with his family as a child. Worked for the mine superintendent John P. Jones, who blacklisted him. The prosecution alleged that he had participated in the Yost killing in the understanding that the favor would be returned by the murder of Jones. Hanged at Pottsville on June 21, 1877 for the murder of Yost."
Although there were murders as far back as 1862 that were eventually attributed to the Molly Maguires, there was a flurry of murders in the coal country between July and September of 1875, following the failure of "The Long Strike" (for which see "The Long Strike" as well as, again, "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32]). The first of these murders, based on the list on p. 8 of Kenny, was that of policeman Benjamin Yost, on July 5/6, 1875, in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania.
Riffenburgh, p. 85, says that Yost was a 34 year old policeman, of German ancestry. He wasn't really anti-Union -- but he was not friendly to the Irish; he had arrested James Kerrigan for drunkenness more than once, and beaten him at least once in the course of one of the arrests. Kerrigan, the narrator of "Jimmy Kerrigan's Confession" (which see) had a violent temper and an urge for revenge. And he was sufficiently high in the AOH to be able to arrange it. (Thomas Duffy, the subject of "Thomas Duffy," was also accused of seeking Yost's death, but the evidence against him is very weak.) Yost, who was also responsible for putting out street lamps, was about to put out the light by his own house when two men came up and shot him twice. Yost's partner fired back, but the assassins escaped. Yost died a few hours later; he and his partner both thought that the assassins were men they had seen at James Carroll's tavern (Riffenburgh, p. 85).
According to the Pinkerton detective James McParlan, who had infiltrated the AOH, it was the habit of the Molly Maguire leaders to not use locals for their assassinations. Instead, a group in one town would trade favors with another, so that the assassins would not be readily identifiable by the locals (Riffenburgh, p. 87). Hugh McGeehan's beef was with John P. Jones (for whom again see the notes to "Jimmy Kerrigan's Confession"). But he and James Boyle had been "traded" from Summit Hill to deal with Yost: Kerrigan (and supposedly Duffy) had asked James Roarity, the bodymaster at Coaldale, to arrange it. Roarity would not participate himself -- his wife was sick -- but he lent his revolver to McGehan for the crime (Riffenburgh, pp. 87-88).
McGehan supposedly eventually gave a direct confession to McParlan (Riffenburgh, p. 92); unfortunately, we know that McParlan was not above modifying the truth, so this has (as far as I'm concerned) no evidential value.
The police did not arrest McGeehan at once. It was only when Kerrigan confessed to his role in the Jones killing that McGehan (and Roarity, Boyle, and three others suspected of other killings) were taken into custody, having been implicated by Kerrigan.
On May 4, McGehan, along with Boyle, Roarity, Thomas Duffy (who allegedly instigated the assassination along with Kerrigan), and James Carroll (a tavern owner who helped facilitate the crime; see below) went on trial for the murder of Yost. On May 6, McParlan the Pinkerton began his testimony. This first trial ended in a mistrial, however, when one of the jurors died (Kenny, p. 219). The case was retried from July 6-22 (except that Duffy had been granted a separate trial; he would be convicted despite a lack of substantial evidence). McGeehan, Boyle, Carroll, and Roarity were all found guilty (Kenny, p. 221). They and Duffy were among ten alleged Molly Maguires hung on June 21, 1877 for the murders of Yost, Jones, and others (Kenny, p. 270).
Miscellaneous references in the song:
"Tom Munley" -- Kenny, p. 294, gives this biography: "AOH member, Gilbertson, Schuylkill County. Born in Tallaughn, parish of Kilcommon, County Mayo, in 1845. Came to the United States in 1864. Went first to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where members of his father's family lived at the time. Moved to Gilbertson, Schuylkill County, where he lived until the time of his arrest. Worked at the Draper Colliery, but was unemployed when arrested. Hanged at Posttsville on June 21, 1877 for the murders of [Thomas] Sanger and [William] Uren." It appears to me that his only real connection with McGehan was that both were hung at Pottsville on the same day -- and received their final communion together on the morning of the execution (Kenny, p. 253).
"James McKenna" -- the name used by James McParlan(d) when he infiltrated the Molly Maguires. He was the leading witness for the prosecution, and the key to their conviction. It is interesting that the song calls him by the name which McGehan would have known, not his birth name.
"Jimmy Kerrigan" -- as mentioned above, the leading informer, for whom see "Jimmy Kerrigan's Confession." The song claims McGeehan never knew Kerrigan. This may well be true -- note that it was Roarity, not Kerrigan, who recruited McGehan to do the dirty work, and McGehan lived in Summit Hill while Kerrigan lived in Tamaqua.
"Mauch Chunk," in Carbon County, was one of the largest towns in the coal country; it has since been renamed "Jim Thorpe." It was a local government center, and many of the Molly trials were held there.
"Tamaqua" -- located in Schuylkill County, Alexander Cambell, James Carroll, Thomas Duffy, and James Kerrigan all resided or worked there; it was a center of Molly activity, but McGehan was not from there.
"Cambell, Kelly and Doyle" -- see the notes to "The Doom of Campbell, Kelly and Doyle."
"James Carroll and James Roarity, with Boyle, Duffy, and Hugh McGeehan" -- Boyle was, as mentioned, McGehan's fellow assassin, and Roarity was alleged to have recruited them. Carroll was the AOH secretary in Tamaqua, and a tavern-keeper. The Yost murder was planned in his saloon, and he probably helped with the planning although he did not participate. Whether Duffy really had a role in all of this is dubious; see the notes to "Thomas Duffy."
Franklin B. Gowen -- the man who assembled the coal collective that so afflicted the Irish workers; for his activities, see (yet again) the notes to "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32]. He also was lead prosecutor in many of the Molly trials. His role in McGehan's trial seems to have been less, but he was involved (Riffenburgh, p. 124).
The song is correct in saying that McGehan was born in Donegal.
Kenny, in the section of illustrations following p. 164, has a sketch of McGehan, along with most of the others mentioned in the song: Carroll, Doyle, Duffy, Munley, Roarity, Boyle, Campbell, and Kelly, as well as a sketch of Yost (though that presumably wasn't from life). There are also photos of Gowen and Kerrigan. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP264

Hugh of Lincoln

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Hugh of Lincoln and The Jew's Daughter

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Hugh Spencer's Feats in France [Child 158]

DESCRIPTION: Hugh Spencer is sent to the king of France to know whether there be peace or war; answer: War. The French queen challenges him to joust with her knight. French horses and spears are inferior but he wins, then fights others until the king sues for peace.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy Folio)
KEYWORDS: royalty war France knight fight
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1337-1453 - Hundred Years' War between Britain and France
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 158, "Hugh Spencer's Feats in France" (3 texts)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 290-295, "Hugh Spencer" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 281
Roud #3997
NOTES [5437 words]: In trying to figure out what this song is about, we have the following clues from the texts of the ballad (which is known only from the Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads text plus three texts printed by Child, respectively from the Percy Folio, from another text in the Percy papers, and from a Scottish version collected in Aberdeenshire by Joseph Robertson; the song has never been found in modern tradition):
In Child A, B the hero is Hugh Spencer and he is English. In Child C and Glenbuchat, he is "Sir Hugh," or "young Sir Hugh," and is Scottish.
In all versions, Hugh is sent to France.
In Child B, Hugh is accompanied by Hugh Willoughby and John of Atherly. He apparently sails alone in Glenbuchat.
In Child A, C, and Glenbuchat, the unnamed Queen of France argues with Spencer. In Child B, the Queen is Maude.
In Child A, the French King is Charles.
In Glenbuchat, it appears that the King of France is aged.
Child A mentions a battle fought at Walsingham.
The English King is not named in A or B, nor the Scottish King in C and Glenbuchat.
Glenbuchat mentions a "Duke of Darbois." This is certainly a corruption, but it's hard to say what it is a corruption of. My guess is that it might be a sort of conflation of the French Dukedom of Berry with the English Earldom of Derby (Darby), but the name certainly can't be used as a dating hint. The other possibility might be Robert of Artois, who was a count rather than a duke but who was instrumental in getting Edward III to start the Hundred Years War; exiled from France, he goaded Edward into war by implying that the king wasn't tough enough in standing up for his rights (Neillands, p. 75).
Child apparently felt that the Hugh Spencer of this song was a real person (Brown, p. 122). Fowler, p. 165, also considers it historical (indeed, he considers it the only historical ballad in the Percy Folio to survive into the nineteenth century).I must confess to doubting it.
Child begins by stating that there were "many Hugh Spencers" in English history, but this is somewhat exaggerated. No doubt there were many of that name -- but none of great fame. OxfordCompanion, p. 883, lists only one Spenser (the poet Edmund Spenser) and two Spencers, neither named Hugh and both too late for the song. Even Child implicitly admits the lack of noteworthy Spencers, for the only Hugh Spencer he mentions explicitly is "the younger of the favorites of Edward II."
However, "Spencer" is not the usual name for this man. Child calls him Hugh Spencer, and Doherty consistently gives the family name as "de Spencer" (e.g. p. 65), but most authorities call him "Despenser": CokayneIV, p. 259, Harvey (p. 131), Hicks (p. 63), Hutchison (p. 98), Myers (p. 18), OxfordCompanion (p. 289), Prestwich (p. 80), Phillips (p. 9), SaulII (p. 431), Tuck (p. 9), Warner (p. 23), and Wilkinson (p. 125). Other than Child, I cannot recall *anyone* in modern times calling him "Spencer."
On the other hand, there is another piece in the Percy Folio, "Proude where the Spenc[ers], Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume III, pp. 478-484: MSPercyFolio, p. 508, which is clearly about Edward II and the Despensers and calls them "Spencers." A quirk of one of the sources of the Percy Folio, since it contains both these pieces? I don't know. It doesn't appear to be traditional, though; some anonymous poet dug up a famous story and versified it.
The first Hugh Despenser of any significance lived in the reign of King Henry III. That king appointed him to the noteworthy post of Justiciar in 1260 (Powicke, p. 162), and he spent a second brief term as Justiciar a little while later (although not by Henry's choice; that was one of the times when the barons were telling what to do; Hallam, p. 60). That Hugh Despenser's father-in-law Philip Basset had also been justiciar (Hicks, p. 62). However, the Justiciar -- in effect, the regent when the King left the country -- should not have been able to leave the realm, so he wouldn't be in position to have feats in France. In any case, this Despenser was killed at Evesham a few years later (Powicke, p. 202) -- while opposing the King! (Hutchison, p. 95).
This Despenser is unlikely on other grounds because there was no King Charles of France at this time; Louis IX was the French King from 1226-1270, and he was succeeded by Philip III (1270-1285) and then Philip IV (1285-1314). Other than kings who were impossibly early, there was not to be a King Charles until Charles IV (1322-1328); later on, Charles V reigned 1364-1380 (and was regent for some time before that) and Charles VI reigned 1380-1422.
Better candidates than Henry III's Hugh are the Hugh Despensers, father and son, who were important in the reign of Edward II (reigned 1307-1327). The elder was, according to Hutchison, p. 95, the son of the Despenser of Evesham; he was born around 1261 (Phillips, p. 418; Hicks, p. 62, says 1262). His son Hugh the Younger was about Edward's age; they had, in fact, been knighted on the same day (Hutchison, p. 103). This would mean Despenser the Younger was born around 1284.
The elder Despenser was of some note as a soldier, having fought at Bannockburn and elsewhere (Hutchison, p. 95; Hicks, p. 62, says he fought in Flanders and Gascony as well as Scotland). He had also been one of the commissioners who arranged for Edward II's marriage to Isabella of France (Phillips, p. 117). But by the time Charles IV took the throne of France, he was too old to be a champion -- although hardly as old as Froissart claims; that less-than-reliable writer says he was ninety at the end of Edward's reign; (Froissart I. 10; Froissart/Jolliffe, p. 16). This being the case, if the Spencer of the song is based on a Despenser, it almost certainly is the younger.
It is ironic to note that, according to Phillips, p. 363, Edward and the younger Despenser apparently disliked each other at first. That would change over time.... Edward II was a king who was always dependent on favorites. His first had been Piers Gaveston, who however had been murdered in 1312. (Interestingly, there seem to have been oral pieces written about Gaveston, although none have been found in modern tradition -- probably because many of them were in Latin. Rigg, pp. 87-88, quotes from two of them, parodies of Latin hymns, which were both still current in the fifteenth century; one begins "Vexilla regni prodeunt; fulgit cometa comitum," the other "Pange, lingua, necem Petri qui turbauit Angliam."
Over the next decade, Edward relied on a small circle, but gradually the Despensers came to the fore. Mortimer, p. 99, declares that "by the end of 1320 [Despenser] had become the pivot upon which the balance of Edward's reign turned." And the younger Despenser was even appointed to a mission to France (Phillips, p. 384). But, although our records are incomplete, it proved a very short visit, if indeed he made it to Paris at all.
The single strongest argument against the possibility that the younger Hugh Despenser is the Hugh Spencer of the ballad is the fact that everyone except Edward II hated the Despensers. Despenser the younger was suspected of a sexual liaison with the King -- indeed, Queen Isabella eventually openly accused him of it (Doherty, p. 96), and so did Adam Orleton, Bishop of Hereford (Warner, p. 217). Hicks, p. 64, is certain that the charge is true. Lyon, p. 83, declares that "the manner by which both Edward and the younger Despenser were put to death strongly implies that the king was considered in his lifetime to be homosexual, and on p. 81 affirms that "it is likely that his relationships with his male favorites were homosexual" -- even believing (on no evidence that I can see) that he "adopt[ed] the passive role in homosexual acts."
It seems to me that the majority of recent commentators disagree. Phillips, p. 98, offers evidence against the hypothesis, and even offers some reason to think Edward had a relationship with Despenser's wife, not Despenser himself. Warner agrees that, toward the end of his reign, Edward and Despenser's wife, who had always been friendly, "became extremely familiar" -- particularly noteworthy because she was Edward's niece. Somebody certainly had sex with her; Eleanor de Clare had at least ten children during her twenty years of marriage to Despenser (Warner, p. 125). Phillips, pp. 102-103, sums up the evidence about Edward's sexuality: He had several children by his wife, and seemingly a shadowy illegitimate child as well. Phillips also notes that the King of France, who was unusually anti-homosexuality in a time when homophobia was normal, let Edward marry his daughter. It seems highly unlikely that he was exclusively homosexual.
If Edward had a homosexual love affair, it was much more likely that it was with his earlier favorite, Piers Gaveston. Phillips, who generally downplays the idea, on p. 102, admits "It is impossible to be certain of the true nature of the relationship between Edward II and Gaveston, whether sexual, a formal bond of brotherhood, or simply a very close friendship." What is certain is that Gaveston was exalted above everyone else in the land, and Edward really liked being around him. Surely many at the time suspected a sexual element.
My personal suspicion is that Edward II had a hint of autism. He was not stupid, as he showed at times when he outwitted his barons. But he was ridiculously insensitive to the opinions of his greater subjects, which is common for those with autism.
What makes this significant is that those with autism often find a few very close friends to whom they are extremely loyal -- as Edward was to Gaveston; at one point, he offered to give up sovereignty over Scotland just to get Gaveston shelter there! (Tuck, p. 65). His relationships with Hugh Audley and Roger Damory (Mortimer, p. 90) also sound a bit like autistic friendships. But to people who had no knowledge of autism, it could have looked like homosexuality.
But if Edward had one homosexual affair, it was easy to assume he had two -- and that meant Despenser the younger. Given the attitudes of the time, would an accused homosexual have been exalted as a champion of England?
Nor was this the only reason the younger Despenser was so disliked; he and his father were both extremely grasping, and used their favor with the king to gain extensive lands and wealth (Prestwich, p. 89; Hicks, p. 64, declares that his goal in government service was to gain wealth; Tuck, p. 75, declares, "Despenser [the Younger] was ambitious and greedy; the phrase he himself coined, "That Despenser may be rich and may attain his ends," succinctly sums up his intentions")
As Myers says on p. 18, "The Despensers were abler and less greedy than is sometimes supposed..... But Edward's government was, on the whole, inept, and the Despensers were widely hated as covetous and oppressive." As early as August 1321, Edward II had been forced to exile the pair and take away their holdings (Prestwich, p. 90; Mortimer, p. 109).
Despenser the Younger proceeded to turn pirate during the exile (Mortimer, p. 111). It is true that he preyed mostly on non-English ships (Hutchison, p. 107), and piracy at this time was considered far more honorable than it later became -- but it was hardly a nobleman's work, and the French were not his sole target; his biggest prize was Genoese (and caused a diplomatic incident).
Edward's treatment of the Despensers resembled the King's behavior with Gaveston a decade before: Edward had exiled his favorite, then stupidly called him back. The Despenser saga followed the same script: Edward II turned on his opposition soon after, and recalled the Despensers in 1322 (Hutchison, p. 111). It had been a very short exile.
In some ways, they were actually more problematic than the previous favorites: "Compared with Gaveston, whose influence seems to have been over the person of the king rather than the day-to-day business of government, there was much more reason to accuse [the younger] Despenser of acting as if he were king" (Phillips, p. 442).
As administrators, they seem to have been competent enough (Hutchison, p. 118, notes useful reforms passed by the parliament of 1322) -- but their goal was self-aggrandizement, not good government. "Their success in 1322 revived the Despensers' appetite for land and wealth; they had not learned their lesson from the previous rising against them" (Prestwich, p. 93). Despenser the younger "was blatantly corrupt and untouchable and his regime was a reign of terror" (Hicks, p. 65). The father was promoted to an earldom (Prestwich, p. 94); the son was given more than three dozen land grants which made him lord of almost all of South Wales (Hutchison, p. 117) and produced an income of about 7500 pounds per year (Hicks, p. 65); a royal ship was named La Despenser (Prestwich, p. 94).
According to Prestwich, p. 104, after the defeat and execution of the Earl of Lancaster and his supporters, "Edward II had at his disposal the greatest territorial windfall that any medieval English monarch enjoyed. The estates could have been used to create a new loyal following: instead, the benefits of royal favour were shared out by a small clique of the Despensers and their cronies in a period of tyrannical rule." The elder became Earl of Winchester; the younger, although he was not actually granted the title of Earl, collected almost all the lands of the Earldom of Gloucester and a big chunk of Lancaster lands (Phillips, p. 418) -- and almost all in Wales and the Marches, making it worth more than equivalent lands scattered around the nation, which is what most Earls had.
There was, to be sure, a quarrel between England and France at the time. Edward I of England (reigned 1272-1307) and Philip IV of France (reigned 1285-1314) had had many quarrels over the borders of the English province of Guyenne in southwestern France, an English possession that was nonetheless considered subject to the French crown. But when Edward II succeeded his father, he went through with a marriage with Philip's daughter Isabella, and for a time the two nations were friendly (Prestwich, p. 85). Two sons, Louis X (reigned 1314-1316) and Philip V (1316-1322) succeeded Philip, but the third of Philip's sons, Charles IV (1322-1328) eventually ended up quarelling with his brother-in-law and his chief minister Despenser the Younger.
Phillips, p. 43, notes that "The accident of the survival of part of Despenser's personal archives shows that he was centrally involved with the administration of Gascony during the time of the Anglo-French war there in 1324-1325."
Under Despenser, tensions between France and England heated up over affairs in Gascony (Phillips, pp. 455-457); the two nations ended up in a small-scale war, the "War of St. Sardos" -- really a border squabble that got out of hand. A party in Gascony attacked St. Sardos, a town that was being fortified by the French, and hanged a French officer (Phillips, pp. 461-462). The French called for satisfaction, didn't get it, and Edward's half-brother the Earl of Kent made a hash of the embassy which followed (Hutchison, p. 125).
Without planning it, Edward and the Despensers found themselves at war with France, but the conflict was no English victory; the French occupied La Reole (Seward, p. 24). The English ended up buying a peace; Edward II supposedly paid some 90,000 pounds to keep his remaining lands in Guyenne (Ormrod, p. 14).
Nor did either Despenser command in the war; Edward II had originally planned to lead the English army, but then decided to turn the command over to the Earl of Surrey (Phillips, p. 468). Indeed, Phillips, p. 428, suggests that Despenser could not safely have gone to France at this time.
Meanwhile, hostility was growing between Queen Isabella, King Edward, and the Despensers (Hutchison, p. 128). Edward, during the French wars, had taken away some of her land (Phillips, p. 466). The Despensers cut back on her allowance and planted an open spy in her household (Hutchison, p. 129). Phillips, p. 482, thinks that hostility between the Queen and the younger Despenser began by at least 1322, although she may not yet have turned against her husband himself.
Late in the reign of Edward II, at the height of the Despenser power, Queen Isabella went on a diplomatic mission to her brother Charles IV to end the War of St. Sardos. At one time Edward and Despenser were supposed to come to formalize the agreement made (Phillips, p. 475). But again Despenser did not come to France -- at first, Edward apparently wanted to go, but Despenser, according to Mortimer, p. 142, was unwilling because he feared assassination if Edward left. And he couldn't go to France himself, because the French had declared that he would be tortured if ever found there (Mortimer, p. 143). Instead it was decided to send Edward II's son Edward.
This was disastrous. Once Isabella was joined by her son (the future Edward III), she refused to come home, claiming that he had not only deprived her of her privileges but of her conjugal rights. In effect, she accused him of homosexuality before the French court (Mortimer, p. 143). She had become, in Hutchison's words (p. 127), "the dominating personality in a miscellaneous group whose sole binding agent was its hatred of the power and pride of the Despensers."
Edward tried to get her to come back, but he did it in uncompromising terms, simply ignoring her claims. He had his bishops write to her to call her home -- but it appears that he wrote what they sent (Mortimer, p. 144). Finally, on February 8, 1326, Edward formally admitted that his wife had turned against him (Mortimer, p. 146)
Naturally Charles IV took his sister's side. The younger Despenser finally took a hand, though. He did not travel to France to fight -- but he did offer flattery and money to Charles IV (Froissart I.7; Froissart/Jolliffe, p. 10). It worked well enough that Isabella had to head off to Hainault to raise her invasion.
She does seem to have been quite militant, though; Mortimer, p. 218, reports an incident where she actually put on armor and prepared for battle.
This raises an interesting possibility. There is no hint of this in the ballad, but perhaps if we change the Queen OF France to the Queen FROM France, we might have an explanation for the quarrel in the ballad between Queen and Spencer. Possible -- but without proof. Doherty, p. 100, thinks the Despensers may have encouraged Edward II to distrust his queen, but this too is beyond proof. We do know that she made many accusations against them (Doherty, p. 101).
And the Despensers were responsible for guarding against an invasion (Doherty, pp. 88-89).
Unfortunately their efforts failed; as Doherty notes on p. 89, Edward had made so many enemies that many lords were willing to secretly turn their backs on him. As Barber says on p. 14, neither party was popular: "As Isabella's power grew, so she seemed to imitate her husband's failings: The Despensers were balanced by Mortimer, Edward's dislike of government by Isabella's rapacity for money. [After she took charge, she latched onto more than 30,000 pounds in immediate cash, a huge income, and the Despenser treasures; Mortimer, pp. 171-173.] But Isabella was the more determined character...."
And she had managed to raise a small army. In Hainault, she married her son Edward III to Philippa of Hainault, one of the count's daughters, and spend the entire dowry to raise troops (Packe, p. 27). They then sailed for England.
Support for Edward collapsed almost instantly (Doherty, pp. 90-91). The London mob attacked and murdered suspected supporters of the Despensers (Hutchinson, p. 135). Adam Orleton, the Bishop of Hereford (who just might be the Bishop of Hereford of the Robin Hood saga; see the extensive notes to "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117] and those to "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford" [Child 144], as Edward II might well be the king of the "Gest") preached against Despenser the Younger. (Although his text, "I will put enmity between you and the women" -- Mortimer, p. 155 -- is a little forced; yes, Edward and Isabella were enemies by this time, but hardly for the same reasons.)
The elder Despenser -- who may have halted his flight to try to buy time for his son and Edward II (Packe, p. 29) -- was cornered and apparently tried to negotiate, but his castle was stormed (Mortimer, p. 156) and he was captured.
He was given a mock trial (Prestwich, p. 97, calls it a "deliberate parody" of the Earl of Lancaster who had been executed in 1322, and Phillips, p. 513, says it was modelled on that procedure). He was not granted the right to answer the charges against him (Packe, p. 30) -- on the almost-reasonable grounds that he had made a law denying the accused the right to address their charges (Phillips, p. 512). Supposedly Isabella pleaded for his life (Mortimer, p. 159), but I suspect this was staged. He was executed as a traitor and his head ordered to be displayed at Winchester even before Edward II was captured (Doherty, pp. 92-93), which shows how much the Despensers were hated.
The younger Despenser was taken not long after -- and knew he could expect no mercy (the summary of the charges against him occupies almost all of page 517 in Phillips; it appears to me that there were at least 13 capital charges and as many more which would probably result in severe fines or punishment).
Faced with charges that would clearly end with him being executed with torture, Doherty (p. 105) and Warner (p. 226) think he tried to kill or starve himself. The conspirators who had overthrown Edward II concluded that he might not live to face a show trial in London, so he was tried in Hereford. Froissart I.13 (Froissart/Jolliffe, p. 20) says he made no answer to the charges (which Doherty, p. 106, interprets to mean that he was not allowed to reply. This seems likely, since he was tried before most of the same judges who had tried his father; Phillips, p. 516).
Naturally he was condemned to death by the most extreme means possible. Froissart/Joliffe's version has it that ,in the initial stages, his genitals were cut off and thrown into the fire because of his alleged sexual relations with Edward II (Phillips, p. 518 n. 382 thinks the real purpose was to indicate the destruction of his family line, also symbolized by the removal and destruction of his coat of arms). Doherty's description is more like a standard drawing and quartering -- but there is no doubt; Despenser was tortured to death. His head was then displayed on London Bridge.
Mortimer, p. 160, thinks that his quartering was inevitable, because -- literally -- everybody wanted a part of him. Or at least of his corpse.
On p. 162, Mortimer says that the judge concluded Despenser's trial by declaring, "Go to meet your fate, traitor, tyrant, renegade; go receive your own justice, traitor, evil man, criminal!" (Of course, the sentence would not have been read in Modern English....)
Despenser's punishment seems to have been made extra symbolic (Mortimer, p. 162): He was drawn by four horses rather than the usual two, and when they half-hanged him, they put him on a gallows fifty feet high (it doesn't say so, but this was presumably to "hang him higher than Haman"). His castration and evisceration was also done high in the air so all could see.
(It is ironic to note that Roger Mortimer, who was largely responsible for overthrowing the Despensers, would come to a similar end: Tried without being allowed to defend himself, he was drawn to his place of execution, then hung; Mortimer, pp. 239-241. At least he wasn't eviscerated.)
Despite the cruel end, Dohery, p. 107, declares that "Nobody would mourn de Spencer." The rebels then set about deposing the king, finally inducing him to abdicate so that his son, rather than someone else, would be raised to the throne (Dockray, pp. 112-113, etc.; Prestwich, p. 98). Prestwich, pp. 98-99, thinks that his abdication was not part of the original plan; Isabella and Mortimer hoped to rule in his name. But that didn't work, so he became an embarrasment. In 1327, after at least one attempt at rescue (Doherty, p. 117), the decision was made to murder Edward II. The grisly tale that he was killed with a red-hot poker up the anus does not appear until later (Prestwich, p. 99, although Philipps, p. 32, notes that the tale that Edward was homosexual and killed in this way is now universally know in England), but it is effectively certain he was killed in 1327.
Not all of the problems in Edward II's reign were the fault of the Despensers, who merely took advantage of the opportunities Edward II offered, but it appears absolutely no one approved of their actions. It is hard to imagine making a song about them.
We should note that this was not the end of the Despenser family. A third Hugh, or Huchon, the son of the younger Despenser, had been born around 1309 (CokayneIV, p. 271), and had been besieged in Caerphilly Castle during the rebellion against Edward II; the castle did not surrender until Hugh/Huchon's life was guaranteed (Warner, p. 223), although he was imprisoned until 1331 (CokayneIV, p. 272; Warner, p. 227). His daughters also survived, and some married and had children although others were forced into nunneries (Warner, p. 227). Hugh the Younger's wife was given back her dower lands very early in the reign of Edward II's son Edward III (Mortimer, pp. 173, 200). Hugh/Huchon Despenser was restored to his estates in 1337 (Tuck, p. 104), and served in the army that fought at Crecy in 1346 under Edward III (CokayneIV, p. 273); indeed, this Hugh Despenser helped clear a vital crossing of the Somme before the battle, leading the force that drove the French defenders away from the north bank (Barber, pp. 62-63; Neillands, p. 97). He was summoned to parliament as "Hugo le Despenser" in 1338, allowing him to return to the peerage as "Lord le Despenser" (CokayneIV, p. 273). But he died in 1348 (CokayneIV, p. 274) and the direct line of the Despensers was extinct.
The title Lord le Despenser was apparently revived in 1357 for Edward Despenser, nephew of one of the last Hughs (CokayneIV, p. 276). He died in 1375. His son Thomas Despenser was apparently very young at the time (CokayneIV, p. 278).
Richard II made Thomas Despenser. the great-grandson of Edward II's favorite, Earl of Gloucester (SaulII, p. 382; CokayneIV, p. 279), presumably because his the family had married into the Gloucester earldom (and because Richard had disposed of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who had held the title). Tuck, p. 206, says that he was also one of Richard's court circle, adding on p. 211 that Despenser managed to have the judgment against his ancestors cleared by Richard in 1397. When Henry IV succeeded, however, Despenser lost the Gloucester title (Given-Wilson, p. 161) -- and was later involved in a conspiracy to restore Richard II to the throne and killed by a mob (Tuck, p. 225; Given-Wilson, p. 162). The Despensers were never fully restored after that; Tuck, p. 248; the attainder of 1400 was not reversed until 1461; CokayneIV, p. 282. The barony came back into existence in 1604, according to CokayneIV, p. 283, but there later Despensers clearly cannot have been the subject of the song.)
SaulII, p. 102, mentions an Edward Despenser who became a Knight of the Garter in the reign of Richard II, and his younger brother became Bishop of Norwich -- although he loved to fight (and would be known for leading a failed military expedition which resulted in his impeachment; SauIIl, p. 106, Reid, p. 239). This bishop was another victim of the reaction after Richard II was deposed (Given-Wilson, p. 161) although he lived until 1406 (having been appointed bishop as early as 1369; Given-Wilson, p. 358). "From his zeal in suppressing the revolt of 1381 and crusading in Flanders he had come to be known as the fishing Bishop, but he never seems to have reconciled himself to Henry [IV]'s occupation of the throne. In the first years of the reign he was repeatedly summoned to the King's presence, and constantly excused himself, but never openly rebelled" (Kirby, p. 182).
A Sir Adam Despenser took the side of the barons in the civil war in Henry III's time (CokayneIV, p. 287). A Sir Philip le Despenser fought with John of Gaunt in Brittany in 1378 (CokayneIV, p. 289); he had a son Philip. Apart from the difference in name, I can't see that they did anything against the French.
Sir Hugh Despenser served as Henry IV's envoy to Guyenne in May 1400 (Given-Wilson, p. 255) -- but if he did anything except travel to Guyenne, I can't find it. And Guyenne was under English rule at the time, although considered part of the Kingdom of France.
It's just barely possibly that Bishop Henry Despenser (c. 1341-1406) might be considered to have had "feats in France," since his campaign was in Flanders (Hicks, p. 172), which was a French vassal state. It is sometimes suggested that the Squire in the Canterbury Tales served under Henry Despenser (Chaucer/Benson, p. 802; according to Chaucer/Andrew, p. 94, this suggestion, associated with Tatlock, is now generally accepted), since the Squire is said (line 86 of the General Prologue) to have served 'In Flaunders, in Artoys, and Pycardie." However, Despenser's expedition was a total flop -- Hicks, p. 173, declares, "The expedition was too late as the Flemings had been decisively defeated in 1382 at Rosebeke, but Despenser was also at fault for several breaches of his contract with the government. He took less men than agreed, changed his destination, took command himself rather than employing a nobleman as king's lieutenant, and disbanded his forces, which could have been used in another theatre of war." He also offended the nobility by refusing to allow the Earl of Arundel to take part in the expedition (Tuck, p. 182). Thus he is unlikely to have been remembered for its "feats," and the other Despensers were minor characters. It is noteworthy that, while Chaucer seems to mention the expedition, he makes no mention of its leader Despenser.
It was a decade after the deposition of Edward II that the real war with France began, when the new French king, Philip VI of Valois, confiscated all of Guyenne (Ormrod, p. 19). But there is no hint of a champion challenging him prior to the war -- let alone scaring him off.
It is interesting, although perhaps not very relevant, that King Edward III himself challenged Philip of Valois (Philip VI) to a single combat (Prestwich, p. 173). Nothing came of that, of course; Philip in 1339 was about 45 years old, and wearing out, whereas Edward III was 32, and very tall and strong, and was also a very stout fighter -- he won several large tournaments in the 1340s, and supposedly was still a better-than-average combatant as late as 1359 (Prestwich, p. 205. Seward, p. 39, has a different version of this, in which Edward offered single combat or a combat between a hundred knights of each side -- but does not cite a source). But the challenge to combat between Edward and Philip of course was given only *after* the war had started.
This whole business of tournaments to settle conflicts between nations is, of course, very old; we see an instance of it during the quarrel between David and Ishbaal in 2 Samuel 2:12-17 (where, however, all the participants died and nothing was settled).
On the whole, the simplest explanation for this song is probably that it is fiction, and the name Hugh Spencer is coincidence. But we cannot rule out the possibility that it is a conflate song. The first part, we might conjecture, is about Hugh Despenser the Younger, but the story of the Feats in France dates either from the reign of Henry V (in which case Henry himself might be the hero) or from the reign of Edward III -- in which case John Hawkwood or Robert Knowles (both semi-outlaws who led robber bands but were regularly employed by the state) strike me as strong candidates.
In this connection, it is interesting to note that Charles V reigned in France during the latter part of the reign of Edward III, and Charles VI reigned for most of the reign of Richard III (the successor of Edward III) and all of the reigns of Henry IV and Henry V. Both, however, have drawbacks -- Charles V's reign saw France recapture most of the English conquests in France, and Charles VI was mad for almost his entire reign, so he could hardly have directly contested with Hugh Spencer. For more on Henry V, and the Hundred Years' War in general, see the notes to "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" [Child 164]. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: C158

Hughie Graham

See Hughie Grame [Child 191] (File: C191)

Hughie Grame [Child 191]

DESCRIPTION: Hugh the Graeme is taken for horse thieving. Many pray for his life, but the Bishop (of Carlisle) is bitterly opposed and has his way. (Hugh is executed.) The reason is that the Bishop has seduced Hugh's wife, and the horse stealing was in retaliation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1697 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(204b))
KEYWORDS: execution revenge adultery robbery
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber,High))
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Child 191, "Hughie Grame" (9 texts)
Bronson 191, "Hughie Grame" (7 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 191, "Hughie Grame" (5 versions: #1, #2, #3, #4, $5)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 292-293, "Highie Graham" (1 text)
Dixon-ScottishTraditionalVersionsOfAncientBallads XV, pp. 73-76, "Sir Hugh, the Graeme" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 124-125, "Hughie Graham/Hughie Grame" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan2 271, "Sir Hugh the Graeme" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 98-99, "Hughie the Graeme" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 410-411, "Hughie the Grame"; pp. 411-412, "Hughie Graham" (2 texts)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 129-132, "Hugh the Graeme" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 143, "Hughie the Graeme" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN287, "As it befel upon one time"; ZN1008, "Good Lord John is a hunting gone"
DT 191, HUGRAME* HUGRAME2*
ADDITIONAL: J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads (Hertford: The Ballad Society, 1888 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. VI, Part 3 (Part 18), pp. 595-597, "The Life and Death of Sir Hugh of the Grime" ("As it befell upon one time about Mid-summer of the year")[1672-92]; pp. 598-599, "Sir Hugh in the Grimes Downfall" or "A New Song Made on Sir Hugh in the Grime, Who Was Hang'd for Stealing the Bishop's Mare" ("Good Lord John is a hunting gone Over the hills and dales so far")[c1770?] (2 texts)
James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #342, pp. 474-476, "Hughie Graham" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1792)
Roud #84
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl, "Hughie the Graeme" (on ESFB1, ESFB2) {Bronson's #6}; Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Hughie Grame" (on SCMacCollSeeger01) {for tune cf. Bronson's #4}
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Don. b.13(51), "The Life and Death of Sir Hugh of the Grime" ("As it befel upon one time"), P. Brooksby (London), 1672-1696-1844; also 4o Rawl. 566(9), Douce Ballads 2(204b), "The Life and Death of Sir Hugh of the Grime"
EngBdsdBA 20766, Pepys 2.148, "The Life and Death of Sir Hugh of the Grime" ("As it befell upon one time about Midsummer of the year"), P. Brooksby (London) , 1672-1696?, accessed 05 Dec 2013.
EngBdsdBA 31062, BritLib Roxburghe 3.344-345, "The Life and Death of Sir Hugh-in-the-Grime" ("As it fell out upon one time about Midsummer of the year"), unknown, 1720?, accessed 05 Dec 2013.
EngBdsdBA 30748, BritLib Roxburghe 2.294, "The Life and Death of Sir Hugh of the Grime" ("As it befell upon one time about Midsummer of the year"), P. Brooksby (London), 1672-1696?, accessed 05 Dec 2013.Grime" ("As it fell out upon one time about Midsummer of the year"), unknown, 1720?, accessed 05 Dec 2013.
EngBdsdBA 31128, BritLib Roxburghe 3.456-457, "Sir Hugh in the Grimes Downfall" or "A New Somg Made on Sir Hugh in the Grime, Who Was Hang'd for Stealing the Bishop's Mare" ("Good Lord John is a hunting gone Over the hills and dales so far"), L. How (London), 1741-1762?, accessed 05 Dec 2013.
EngBdsdBA 32803, NLS Crawford 121, "The Life and Death of Sir Hugh of the Grime" ("As it befell upon one time about Midsummer of the year"), P. Brooksby (London), 1672-1696?, accessed 05 Dec 2013.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gallant Grahams" (lyrics)
cf. "Druimionn Dubh" (tune, according to Burns)
cf. "Young Johnson" (theme of ransoming condemned prisoner)
NOTES [281 words]: Broadsides Don. b.13(51), EngBdsdBA 32803 and EngBdsdBA 30748 appear to be the same edition as Ebsworth pp. 595-597.
Broadside EngBdsdBA 31128 is the same edition as Ebsworth pp. 598-599. - BS
Stenhouse, in the Scots Musical Museum, claimed that this referred to an event of 1560 (a date which was not possible, since the bishop he claimed was involved, Robert Aldridge of Carlisle, died in 1555), but Child suspected that this tale derived from the ballad, and I have heard of no additional evidence since Child's time to support Stenhouse's hypothesis.
I've always wondered if this song has become disordered. In the version sung by Ewan MacColl, for instance, Hughie makes a great jump *before* his trial. It would make more sense if he made the Big Leap afterward in an escape attempt.
Such a thing is attested. After the Battle of Sedgmore (for which see "The Monmouth Rebel"), an man named Jan Swayn or John Swain was arrested. "The story goes that Jan Swayn asked his escorts to allow him to demonstrate his prowess as a long-jumper to his family just one more time, and surprisingly they agreed. The young man, however, proceeded to make three gigantic jumps, not one, and disappeared into the woodland. To this day in Lodley Wood beside the main road are to be seen three stone markers, separated by distances of 13 ft. 8 in., 13 ft. 3 in., and 14 ft. respectively at the reputed site of this achievement" (see David Chandler, Sedgemoor 1685: From Monmouth's Invasion to the Bloody Assizes (Spellmount, 1985, 1999), p. 83. There was a John Swayne who was considered one of Monmouth's rebels and eventually pardoned, although proof of the great jumps seems to be lacking). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C191

Hughie the Grame

See Hughie Grame [Child 191] (File: C191)

Hughie Wricht

DESCRIPTION: Hughie Wricht was Groosie Norie's son. His uncle, also Hughie Wricht, told the singer the story [apparently about Hughie's drinking, adventures, and, finally, taking the "teetotal pledge"].
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1652, "Hughie Wricht" (1 fragment)
Roud #13048
NOTES [34 words]: Greig/Duncan8 quoting Middleton's Selection: "Hughie 'lang had lik'd the yill [ale],/ Water seldom cross'd his throttle' but he took the 'teetotal pladge' after the adventures he had one Hallowe'en." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81652

Hull's Victory, or, Huzzah for the Constitution

DESCRIPTION: "Ye true sons of freedom give ear to my song While the praise of brave Hull I attempt to prolong." The fight with the Guerrriere is described. The sailors are going home. They expect to sail again, and to be victorious, and cheer "our brave Captain"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (American National Songbook of 1832); broadsides appear to go back to at least 1813
KEYWORDS: sea war battle ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 19, 1812 - the 44-gun Constitution defeats and captures the 38-gun Guerriere
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 214-215, "Hull's Victory" (1 text, 1 tune, the latter probably not original)
Roud #V50491
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Constitution and the Guerriere" [Laws A6] (subject) and references there
File: LaGo214

Hullaballo-Balay

See Hullabaloo Belay (File: FSWB084A)

Hullabaloo Balay

See Hullabaloo Belay (File: FSWB084A)

Hullabaloo Belay

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Hullabaloo belay, Hullabaloo bela belay." The singer's mother keeps a boarding house. With the boarders at sea, Shallo Brown courts the mother. She runs off with Shallo (but returns the next day). The father pines away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: shanty home mother father abandonment death jealousy adultery infidelity return humorous
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 484-485, "Hullaballo-Balay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 59-60, "Hullabaloobalay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 781, "Hullabaloo Balay" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 84, "Hullabaloo Belay" (1 text)
DT, HULLABOO*
Roud #8339
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shallo Brown (Shallow Brown)" (character)
cf. "Ali Alo" (similar tune and chorus)
File: FSWB084A

Hullabaloobalay

See Hullabaloo Belay (File: FSWB084A)

Hullo me honey!

See Hello Ma Baby (File: Jeky161)

Hully Gull

DESCRIPTION: Guessing game. "Hully gull." "Handful." "How many?" (Second player makes a guess.) A player takes nuts from a collection, places them in his hand, shakes them; a second player must guess the number. Winner takes nuts from the other.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 17, "Hully Gull" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hickety (Buck Buck, Horny Cup, How Many FIngers; Mingledy, Mingledy)"
NOTES [23 words]: The game portion of this -- the guessing of a number of objects -- is obvious. I haven't seen the "Hully Gull" line elsewhere, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Skea017

Humanity Is Calling

DESCRIPTION: "We have come to ask your assistance, For at home we've been starving too long...." "For humanity is calling, Don't let the call be in vain, But help us, we are needy and falling." Children are starving. There is no cotton because of the "American War"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside Harding B 11(1594))
KEYWORDS: worker hardtimes war poverty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 10, "Ashton Famine Song" (1 text,
Roud #V23635
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1594), "Humanity is Calling," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Red, White and Blue" (tune, according to Bodleian Harding B 11(1594))
cf. "Gentle Annie" (tune, according to Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire)
NOTES [149 words]: This song is an accurate reflection of conditions in England's spinning and weaving districts in 1862-1863. They were supplied mostly with cotton from the American South, which was cut off by the American Civil War. At first, the Southerners refused to export their cotton to try to force Britain to recognize them; then, by 1863, the Union blockade was starting to make export difficult. With no cloth to weave, towns in Lancashire and elsewhere had no work to do.
The result was poverty and riots, such as the one at Ashton-under-Lyne pictured in Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire. It is of historical note that those largely stopped when Abraham Lincoln put forth his Emancipation Proclamation. It was controversial in America, but the workers of Industrial England -- who weren't much better than slaves themselves -- supported emancipation, and no longer wanted to help the American South. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: MHFL010

Humback Mule

DESCRIPTION: "Riding on a hump-back mule (x2) Walkin', pawin' every(), The only song that I can sing is 'Ride that hump-back mule." "Rode him down town, four o'clock, Tied him up to (), Riding on a hump-backed mule"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 745, "Hump-Back Mule" (1 short text, 1 tune, perhaps mixed with "Paddle Your Own Canoe")
Roud #16365
RECORDINGS:
Cumberland Ridge Runners, "Ridin' on a Humped Back Mule" (Conqueror 8162)
NOTES [107 words]: The description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment and a version collected by Max Hunter in 1975. The latter sounds to me very much like a fiddle tune with a few words added; my guess is that this is one of those instances of someone in an early string band told that he needed WORDS to get a recording contract, and added these words to an existing tune. And then someone added some mule effects. My guess would be that this was the Cumberland Ridge Runners (aka "Karl and Harty" and "The Renfro Valley Boys"), since they were known for having a crazy fiddler (one of their songs was called "Goofus"). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5745

Humble Beggar, The

DESCRIPTION: "In Scotland lived a humble beggar ... weel liket by ilka bodie." At his wake were "lads and lasses o' high degree." When they go to bury him he knocks on the coffin and jumps out. They all run, but he runs fastest "and he helpit to drink his ain dirgie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: funeral drink begging humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #31, p. 2, "The Humble Beggar" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 443-444, "The Humble Beggar" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol I, pp. 124-125, "The Humble Beggar" (1 text)
Allan Cunningham, The Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern, (London, 1825 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol III, pp. 31-32, "The Humble Beggar" (1 text)
Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland [first series] (Paisley, 1899), pp. 227-228, "The Humble Beggar" (1 text)
David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, pp. 28-30, "The Humble Beggar" (1 text)
Roud #5511
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Wake" [Laws Q18] (theme of a dead man leaving his coffin)
NOTES [106 words]: Chambers: "First published in Herd's Collection, but certainly much more ancient. I have heard it sung by old people who were not likely to have seen Herd's Collection." Chambers here agrees with Cunningham's evaluation.
Cunningham: "The hero seems to have been a kind of martial mendicant, who obtained alms by other means than intercession; his horn and his kale goolie made the impatience of his friends for his interment very justifiable. The joy and sorrow at his lyke-wake is a very just picture of other times, when, according to the proverb, more mirth was found at the end of a funeral than at the beginning of a wedding." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Grg031

Humble Farmer, The

DESCRIPTION: "I saw a humble farmer, His back was bending low, A-pickin' out the cotton, Along the cotton row." The ragged farmer meets the merchant, who demand, "Pay me all you owe." The farmer cannot pay it all; he hopes for an extension until next fall
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: work poverty hardtimes farming
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 213, "The Humble Farmer" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 213, "The Humble Farmer" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #6709
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Farmer Is the Man" (theme)
cf. "Po' Farmer" (theme)
cf. "Down on the Farm (III)" (theme)
File: Br3213

Humble Village Maid Going a-Milking, The

DESCRIPTION: Maid going milking rejects advances of rich suitor "for Edmund he's the lad I love He won my heart,she said, And he has promised for to wed his humble village maid"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting love marriage rejection money
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 77, "The Humble Village Maid Going a-Milking" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #31126
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. K. McCarthy, "Village Maid" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: GrMa077

Humble Yourself De Bell Done Ring

See Humble Yourself, The Bell Done Rung (File: Parp164)

Humble Yourself, The Bell Done Rung

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Live humble Humble your soul (little children, little soul, I say), The bell done ring." Verses tell how Jonah is tossed off the ship to Tarshish as he tries to escape the Lord's command to save Ninevah.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Marsh)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 164, "The Bell Done Ring" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John Wesley Work, Folk Song of the American Negro (Nashville: Fisk University, 1915 ("Digitized by the Internet Archive")), p. 54, "Live a Humble" (1 text)
James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, The Books of American Negro Spirituals (New York: Viking Press, 1969 (copyright 1925, 1926)), Book 2, pp. 183-189, "Humble Yourself De Bell Done Ring" (1 text, 1 tune)
J. B. T. Marsh, The Story of the Jubilee Singers (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1903 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #130 p. 301, "Humble Yourself, The Bell Done Rung" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11952
RECORDINGS:
John Davis and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Live Humble" (on LomaxCD1713)
NOTES [197 words]: In the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands and Davis text the song ends when the sailors wake Jonah (Jonah 1:5-6). It's not clear what part humility has to play in this part of the story. (Parrish says the song goes further but does not say what happens.)
Other versions of the song have nothing to do with Jonah, and the relevance of humility is not clear in any of them. The Work and Johnson texts warn that, on Judgment Day, God will come "a-riding down the line of time": don't be caught "with your work undone." Marsh's text has couplets "If you want to see old Satan fall Load and shoot hime with the Gospel ball," "See the hearse come rolling around, Carrying the body to the new burying ground" and "[I stand on] a sea of glass all mingled with fire, God's going to raise my soul up higher." Odum has a fragment referring to Paul and Silas: "Togedda dey sung, togedda dey prayed, De Lawd he heard how dey sung an' prayed. Den humble yo'selves, de bell done rung" (Howard W. Odum, Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes, (reprint from American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, July 1909, Vol.3 pp. 265-365 "Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 84) - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parp164

Humbug Steamship Companies

DESCRIPTION: "The greatest imposition that the public ever saw Are the California steamships that run to Panama"; the "Golden Gate" and "Yankee Blade" promise to take people to San Francisco in comfort, but the trips is terrible
AUTHOR: Words: John A. Stone ("Old Put") / Tune: "Uncle Sam's Farm" by the Hutchinson Family
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Put's Golden Songster, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: travel derivative humorous gold ship | goldrush
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 30-31, "Humbug Steamship Companies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V32673
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Uncle Sam's Farm" (tune)
NOTES [121 words]: During the Gold Rush, there were three ways to get to California: Overland by various routes (long and dangerous), by sea via Cape Horn (long and uncomfortable) -- or by sea to Central America, where one might cross at Panama or Nicaragua and then take another ship on the west coast. This song is about the third method, in which the traveler might take the Yankee Blade from the eastern U.S., cross Panama, and take the Golden Gate the rest of the way. It didn't work all too well, as the song testifies -- and it gave the travelers two chances for their ship to sink; according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 22, both ships were lost in fairly short order, with 253 people dying in the process. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC030

Humoresque

DESCRIPTION: An omnibus of disparate stanzas, bawdy and scatological, set to Dvorak's familiar piano composition. Examples: "Gentlemen should please refrain From flushing toilets while the train...."
AUTHOR: unknown (music by Antonin Dvorak)
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (music published 1894)
KEYWORDS: bawdy scatological humorous
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US(MW,SW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 235-239, "Humoresque" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 75-76,, "Gentlemen Should Please Refrain" (1 text)
DT, HUMORESQ*
Roud #10262
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Footprints on the Dashboard" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Passengers Should Please Refrain
NOTES [40 words]: The late Supreme Court Associate Justice William O. Douglas claims that he and fellow Yale Law School professor Thurman Arnold wrote at least one of the verses to this in the early 1930s. See Douglas's Go East, Young Man (pp. 171-172). - EC
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM235

Humours of Donnybrook Fair (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "To Donnybrook steer, all you sons of Parnassus, Poor painters, poor ... To see what the fun is": pig hunts, fights, horse races, tradesmen of all kinds, tinkers, singers, dancing dogs, pickpockets, barbers, whisky. "There's naught more uproarious"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: commerce sports drink food music begging humorous nonballad animal dog horse
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 184-189, "The Humours of Donnybrook Fair" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 265-267, "The Humours of Donnybrook Fair"
Roud #V4007
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding Harding B 25(28), "The Humours of Donnybrook ("To donnybrook steeer [sic] all ye sons of parnassus"), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ballynafad" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
NOTES [78 words]: Donnybrook is less than three miles from Dublin. - BS
Parnassus is a mountain near Delphi in Greece, considered sacred to Apollo and the muses. Hence the soms of Parnassus are artists, poets, and the like.
According to Partridge's Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, the term "donnybrook" for a fight is originally Australian and comes from c. 1920, but it derives from the reputation of Donnybrook Fair for wild events such as those described here. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: CrPS184

Humours of Donnybrook Fair (II), The

DESCRIPTION: Dermot O'Nolan M'Figg, "that could properly handle a twig" goes to Donnybrook Fair intent on dancing. At each tent he "took a small drop." He sees his Kate dancing and clubs her partner, who, she explained, is her cousin. They are reconciled.
AUTHOR: Charles O'Flaherty (1794-1828) (source: Hoagland)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(937))
KEYWORDS: fight dancing drink humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 390-392, "The Humours of Donnybrook Fair"
Roud #V4008
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(937), "The Donnybrook Jig" ("Oh, 'twas Dermot O'Nolan M'Figg"), W.S. Fortey (London)), 1858-1885
NOTES [63 words]: Broadside Bodleian B 11(937) is the basis for the description.
Donnybrook is less than three miles from Dublin. - BS
According to Partridge's Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, the term "donnybrook" for a fight is originally Australian and comes from c. 1920, but it derives from the reputation of Donnybrook Fair for wild events such as those described here. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Hg10390

Humours of Glasgow Fair, The

DESCRIPTION: At dawn Willock wakes Tam to go to the fair with Jenny and Maggy. There was "funning and sporting," drinking, music and shows. They spend the night at Luckie Gunn's. "Ne'er saw ye sic din and guffawing -- Sic hooching and dancing was there"
AUTHOR: John Breckinridge (source: Whitelaw and Greig/Duncan4)
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (Hutchison citing Glasgow chapbook MU25-f.12:12, according to Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: commerce sports drink food music humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 887, "The Sun Frae the Eastward was Peepin'" (1 fragment)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 212-213, "The Glasgow Fair " (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland [first series] (Paisley,1899), pp. 198-204, "The Humours of Glasgow Fair"
Roud #6260
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1336), "Glasgow Fair" ("O, the sun frae the eastward was peeping"), J. Wright (Edinburgh), no date
NOTES [109 words]: "This ditty, descriptive of 'The Humours of Glasgow Fair' was popular as a street song some twenty-five years ago.... The fair of Glasgow is held annually, and has been so from time immemorial, on the second week of July that includes a Monday" (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, 1843).
Greig/Duncan4: "Cf. Peter Ross, The Songs of Scotland, pp. 376-9, "Glasgow Fair," where the song is attributed to John Breckenridge, a compositor in Glasgow about 1820."
Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(218), "Humours of Glasgow Fair" ("O, the sun frae the eastward was peeping"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1866 is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD4887

Hump-Back Mule

See Humback Mule (File: BrS5745)

Humphrey Marshall

DESCRIPTION: "Oh General Humphrey Marshall Who weighs all of three hundred pound, To fetch here safe your message, On that purpose I am bound." "Humphrey Marshall he's our boss, Brave as hell and big as a hoss."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar nonballad soldier
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 55-56 (no title) (2 very short fragments) (OakEd, p. 67)
NOTES [184 words]: Humphrey Marshall (1812-1872) was a Confederate politician (a Kentuckian, he served in congress as a Whig 1849-1852 and as a Know-Nothing in 1855-1859 as well as in the Confederate congress 1864-1865).
Marshall, who had graduated West Point (barely) but resigned after only a year of military life, was appointed a Confederate general in 1861, and -- in an interesting sidelight to Thomas's narrative about General Garfield -- fought against that Union general in early 1862.
Marshall had originally tried to keep Kentucky neutral in the Civil War, and only "went south" after his hopes failed. He probably received appointment because the Confederates needed Kentucky officers for recruiting purposes; this caused Marshall to be given a command during Bragg's 1862 invasion of Kentucky.
His record, however, was apparently not very distinguished; his weight is mentioned in both my biographic sources, and he is said to have been a poor disciplinarian. He finally resigned from the Confederate army in 1863 (he had already quit once in 1862), perhaps because he couldn't acquire a meaningful command. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa055

Humping Old Bluey (The Poor Bushman)

DESCRIPTION: "Humping old bluey it is a stale game... You're battling with poverty, hunger, sharp thorn -- Things are just going middling with me." The shearer complains about the life after the shearing is over
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: rambling sheep Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 125, "Humping Old Bluey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 142, "Humping Old Bluey" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA125

Humpty Dumpty

DESCRIPTION: "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. Threescore men and threescore more Cannot place Humpty Dumpty as he was before." (Or, ... All the kings horses And all the king's men Couldn't put Humpty together again.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Gammer Gurton's Garland)
KEYWORDS: death riddle
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1681, "Humpty Dumpty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 233, "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #670, pp. 268-269, "(Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 80, "Humpty Dumpty" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 51, "Humpty Dumpty" (1 text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #70, "Humpty Dumpty" (description of the game only; it is not clear it uses this rhyme)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #136, "Humpy Bumpy" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 115, "Humpty Dumpty" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Tim Devlin, _Cracking Humpty Dumpty: An Investigative Trail of Favorite Nursery Rhymes_, Susak Press, 2022, pp. 51-60, "Humpty Dumpty" (1 text plus many variants and alternate sources)
Roud #13026
NOTES [359 words]: These days, we all know this from Lewis Carroll -- though, interestingly, we don't use his last line ("Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty in his place again," which Alice correctly notes doesn't scan). It's found in the chapter "Humpty Dumpty" in Through the Looking Glass. But the first form quoted here is that found in Gammer Gurton's Garland, which according to the Baring-Goulds is the first appearance of the rhyme in print.
They claim, however, that the rhyme is much older as a riddle (presumably it ended with a question asking who Humpty was, the answer being "an egg"; compare Devlin, p. 56). The Opies, p. 10, cite a version from Saxony in which Humpty becomes Hümpelkin-Pümpelken (with umlauts on the u's) and a Danish version about Lille Trille.
Humpty Dumpty was also a character in John Bowles's The Little Riding School, 1754-1764 (Devlin, p. 57).
The incomparable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp. 38-39, claims this is about Edward IV, Richard III, and the latter's death at Bosworth. One wonders what the original rhyme might have been, since it would have had to be in Middle English. But others have also made this suggestion, as noted on pp. 51-52 of Devlin.
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel claims that this dates back to the English Civil War and the Royalist defense of Colchester, in which a cannon named Humpty Dumpty played a role. The defense failed when the cannon fell from the walls. Possible, of course, but Jack cites no source. Devlin, pp. 52-56, mentions the same notion, and is able to trace it to one David Daube in 1956 -- but notes that the tale was told of Gloucester before it was transferred to Colchester. Nonetheless it is the latter version that became widespread despite a complete lack of evidence. Daube also mentioned the possibility that Humpty was not an egg but a tortoise (Devlin, p. 53).
Devlin, p. 57, points out an alcoholic beverage called "humpty dumpty," with the name first attested in 1698. His final conclusion, p. 60, is that the drink came first, then a Humpty Dumpty riddle, with the nursery rhyme the last step in the process. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BGMG670

Humpy Bumpy

See Humpty Dumpty (File: BGMG670)

Humpy Hargis

See Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line (File: ADR98)

Hun Skal Leve

See Han Skal Leve (File: ACFS193H)

Hundred and Fifty-One Days

DESCRIPTION: "For a hundred and fifty-one days a lock-out! The kids and mum get a knock-out! The union funds' pay then run out!" "A thousand pay but the company locks out... they'll get the cops out." "They lock us out, then call it a strike."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement hardtimes New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 80, "151' Days" (1 text, 1 tune, called "Hundred and Fifty-One Days" in the source notes) (p. 60 in the 1972 edition)
RECORDINGS:
Bill Taylor, "Hundred and Fifty-One Days" (on NZSongYngCntry)
NOTES [225 words]: According to Gordon Ell, Kiwiosities: An A-Z of New Zealand traditions & Folklore, New Holland Publishers, 2008, p. 257, the phrase "The 151 Days" refers to the "Duration of the waterside workers' strikes (or the Waterfront Lockout) of 1951. Prime Minister Sid Holland broke the impasse by deregistering the waterfront unions and bringing in troops to work the wharves."
On p. 274, Ell reports, "This test of left- and right-wing politics was finally won by the National government abolishing the waterfront unions and setting up new ones. In a state of national emergency, servicemen were used as strike breakers to keep essential goods moving over the wharves and around the coasts. The strike spread from the waterfront to encompass other unions which affected the means of production and distribution.... The waterfront workers' leaders, President H. Barnes and Secretary T. Hill, were represented as evil 'commies' by one side but revered by the other. There were street demonstrations with some violence; a railway bridge near Huntly was damaged by dynamite. It became illegal to help a waterfront worker or to speak about conditions brought on by the strike...." Eventually Labour Party leader Walter Nash convinced Prime Minister Holland to call an election over the issue; Holland won, which effectively meant that the strikers lost. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Colq060

Hundred Bottles of Beer on the Wall, A

See Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer (File: R456)

Hundred Years Ago (I), A

DESCRIPTION: Shanty or windlass song, "A hundred years is a very long time, Oh, aye, oh, A hundred years on the Eastern Shore, A hundred years ago." "Ol' Bully John from Baltimore, Oh, aye, oh, I knew him well, that son-of-a-whore, A hundred years ago."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: sailor work shanty
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE) Britain
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 67-68, "A Hundred Years on the Eastern Shore" (1 text)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 62-63, 150, "A Long Time Ago (version 3)," "A Hundred Years Ago" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 101, "A Long Time Ago" (1 text, version "g" of "A Long Time Ago") [AbEd, p. 92]; pp. 509-511 "A Hundred Years Ago" (2 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 375-376]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, LII, p. 57, "A Hundred Years on the Eastern Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 485, "A Hundred Years Ago" (1 text, 1 tune, curiously listed as a religious song!)
DT, HUNDAGO*
Roud #926
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee John, Stormalong (Liza Lee)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Tis Time For Us to Go
File: San485

Hundred Years Ago, A

See A Long Time Ago (File: Doe037)

Hundred Years on the Eastern Shore, A

See A Hundred Years Ago (I) (File: San485)

Hung My Bucket on de White Folks' Fence

DESCRIPTION: "Hung my bucket on de white folks' fence, Hain't seen my bucket sense. Oh Lawd! Oh Lawd! Old Aunt Dinah, well she bounce around, Leave her wooden leg on de ground, Save her meat skin, lay dem away, To grease her wooden leg every day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: theft dancing
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 475, "Hung My Bucket on de White Folks' Fence" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 475, "Hung My Bucket on de White Folks' Fence" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11801
File: Br3475

Hungarian Ball, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ah me last night got plenty fun, At beeg, beeg ball for vidow woman." Everyone gets drunk on moonshine and starts fighting. There is much fighting. The women get upset at the chaos
AUTHOR: Con Carbon ? (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: fight party humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 135-137, "The Hungarian Ball" (1 text)
NOTES [36 words]: Korson says "tradition" attributes this to Con Carbon, which implies oral circulation, but I have no real evidence for that supposition. The dialect looks awfully German for a worker whom Korson suggests is a Slav. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP135

Hungarian Christening, A

DESCRIPTION: "On Chewsday [Tuesday] last week as I laid on the sofa, Me backbone was sore" when a Hungarian comes and asks the singer to "stand for me child" -- the first time an Irishman has done so. But he won't eat their food; he and his wife have to flee
AUTHOR: Con Carbon? (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: baby party humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 133-134, "A Hungarian Christening" (1 text)
NOTES [69 words]: Korson's sources attributed this to Con Carbon, the most noteworthy songwriter of the anthracite region, but Korson apparently didn't get it directly from Carbon. I'm not sure it's traditional, and it certainly isn't very generous to foreigners, but I'm including it just in case.
Con Carbon, the purported author of this piece, is also known for "Me Johnny Mitchell Man"; see that song for other songs of his. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP133

Hungarian Round

DESCRIPTION: Round. "Sweet the evening air of May Soft my cheek caressing, Sweet the unseen lilac spray With its scented blessing, White and ghostly in the gloom Shine the apple trees in bloom Apple trees in bloom Sweet the evening air of May Soft my cheek caressing"
AUTHOR: unknown (Engish translation by Betty Askwith, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs and GirlScouts-SingTogether)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Kent County (Girl Guides) Song Book, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: flowers nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 438, "Hungarian Round" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 111, "Old Hungarian Round" (1 text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 45, "Hungarian Round" (2 texts, 1 English, 1 French; 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Hungarian Round" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 60) (12th edition, p. 36)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 13, "Hungarian Round" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _Songs of Many Nations_, Cooperative Recreation Service, Inc., undated 96 page edition (1962?), p. 60 / twelfth edition 1962, p. 36, "Hungarian Round"(1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Old Hungarian Round
File: ACSF438H

Hungry Army (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Having fought with his sweetheart, the Irishman enlists in the army. He quarrels with his NCOs, then is sent off to (China?) in a boat too small and ill-equipped for the soldiers. Sent into battle, he is injured and discharged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection); c. 1856 (broadside NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(054))
KEYWORDS: soldier battle injury disability
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H92, p. 86, "The Hungry Army" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 158-161, "The Hungry Army" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #19105
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(27), "The Hungry Army" ("The wind in thundering gales did roar"), unknown, n.d.
Murray, Mu23-y1:097, "The Hungry Army," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(054), "The Hungry Army," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c.1856
NOTES [59 words]: The notes to broadside Bodleian 2806 b.11(27) make the subject "War, Opium War, 1840-1842, Ireland"
Broadside Murray Mu23-y1:097 has the site of the war in China and the battle simply "on the field of battle."
Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(054) has the site of the war in Russia, rather than China; the singer is wounded November 5 at Inkerman. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HHH092

Hungry Army (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer enlists and is sent to Ballarat. The men are so thin a strong wind "blew the lot away"; the singer gets a medal for surviving. He eats cabbage broth. Utensils are only used to cut hair. Sent to drill still strong recruits, he is beaten.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(254))
KEYWORDS: army ordeal starvation Australia humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
Roud #1746
RECORDINGS:
Walter Pardon, "The Hungry Army" (on Voice14)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(254), "The Hungry Army" ("When I was young and in my prime"), W.S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; also Firth c.19(219), 2806 c.8(288), "The Hungry Army"
NOTES [233 words]: Hall, notes to Voice14: "Servicemen also have the gift of moaning, and 'The Hungry Army', set in mid-nineteenth century Australia, is a typical squaddie beef at conditions and authority."
Ballarat is in Victoria, Australia, about 65 miles east of Melbourne. - BS
According to Andrew and Nancy Learmouth, Encyclopedia of Australia (article on Ballarat in the second edition), the Ballarat region was not opened for settlement until 1837, during a drought. The population remained small until the 1851 gold rush; in 1851 "a septuagenarian digger named John Dunlop discovered the richest field of all, at Ballarat" (see Robert Hughes, The Fatal Shore, p. 562). I suspect that this is what brought Ballarat to the broadside-writers' attention -- especially since the British government charged the large fee of 30 shillings a month for a gold license (Hughes, p. 562),meaning that they needed some sort of law and order in the area. But gold rushes are almost always attended by squalor, since there are few supplies in the area. Hence, presumably, this song. But we note that it has mentions absolutely nothing about Australia except the name "Ballarat." I assume it is in fact an older piece adapted to the Australian gold rush.
Roud lumps this with "The Hungry Army (I)." But while the theme is the same, the plot is different enough that Ben Schwartz and I both believe it should be split. - RBW
File: RcHunAr2

Hungry Confederate Song, A

DESCRIPTION: "The streets are all lonely and drear, love, And all because you are not here, love, if you were here, you would shed a sad tear And open your cupboard to me." The singer describes his woeful condition and wishes that he had stew or cornbread or something
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi)
KEYWORDS: food love
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 114, p. 257, "A Hungry Confederate Song" (1 text)
Roud #4498
NOTES [51 words]: Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi lists this as a Civil War song, and certainly it fits that conflict, in which Southern troops in particular often went hungry -- but there is no actual evidence in Hudson's text that it is a Civil War song, and neither he nor I knows another version to settle the claim. - RBW
File: Hud114

Hungry Fox, A

See The Fox and the Grapes (File: GC479a)

Hungry Hash House

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a boarder and I dwell in that second-rate hotel. If I stay here long, I think I'll go insane...." "Well, she promised she would meet me when the clock struck seventeen...." "She's my darling, she's my daisy. She's hump-backed and she's crazy...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes home disease nonballad nonsense madness food
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,Ro,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Randolph 478, "The Boarding-House" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 371-373, "The Boardinghouse" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 478)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 100-101, "The Lonesome Hungry Hash House" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #233, "The Apex Boarding House" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 131, "The Apex Boarding House" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 207, "She Promised She'd Meet Me" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 220-221, "Hungry Hash House" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 74, "Hungry Hash House" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 191-192, "The All Go Hungry Hash House" (1 text)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 53-55, "My Kentucky Jane" (1 text, 1 tune, probably influenced by other songs)
DT, HASHOUSE*
Roud #11719 and 10173 and 7635
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Charlie [pseud. for Charlie Craver], "That Old Go Hungry Hash House" (Vocalion 5401, 1930)
Binkley Brothers' Dixie Clodhoppers, "All Go Hungry Hash House" (Victor 21758, 1928)
Cofer Brothers, "All Go Hungry Hash House" (OKeh 45099, 1927)
Bill Cox, "Hungry Hash House Blues" (Gennett 6974/Champion 15792 [as Luke Baldwin]/Supertone 9534 [as Charley Blake], 1929)
Uncle Dave Macon, "All Go Hungry Hash House" (Vocalion 15076, 1925)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Hungry Hash House" (on NLCR13)
Charlie Poole & the North Carolina Ramblers, "Hungry Hash House" (Columbia 15160-D, 1927; Velvet Tone 2492-V/Clarion 5432-C [both as Pete Harrison & his Bayou Boys], 1932; rec. 1926; on CPoole03)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "The Old Go Hungry Hash House" (Okeh 45062, 1926); "All Go Hungry Hash House" (Victor 20237, 1926); [Ernest Stoneman &] The Dixie Mountaineers, "All Go Hungry Hash House" (Edison, unissued, 1927) (Edison 52350, 1928) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5528, 1928)
Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & Uncle John Patterson, "Lonesome Hungry Hash House" (on DownYonder)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Sara Jane" (tune, floating lyrics)
NOTES [141 words]: The verse "She's my darling, she's my daisy, She's humpbacked and she's crazy... She's my freckled-faced consumptive Mary Ann" floats (e.g. Charlie Poole uses it in his version of "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song)"), and it also appears in "Sara Jane." Paul Stamler thinks that the most likely source, so we are now, somewhat tentatively, listing loose citations of that verse there unless we can determine their source. See, however, "Dennis McGonagle's Daughter Mary Ann."
Roud, it will be noted, regards this as multiple different songs, and he may well be right; this entry grew by accretion. I've also split off some of the songs he lists under 10173 into other songs. There is a clear need for a real study of "crummy boarding house" songs, many of which, I suspect, were considered unprintable for a long time. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: San207

Hungry Hash House Blues

See Hungry Hash House (File: San207)

Hunky Punky

DESCRIPTION: "My song is of a nice young girl, She is my hunky punky... Her ears are long...`` and her feet are like an elbow." She is a circus member and cares for the animals, cleaning the hippopotamus and shaving the elephant's trunk and engaging in other nonsense
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard)
KEYWORDS: animal hair nonsense humorous father
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 51-53, "Hunky Punky" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HuVi051

Hunt the Bufalo, or the Banks of the Pleasant Ohio

See Chase the Buffalo (I) (File: GrD61103)

Hunt the Buffalo

See Shoot the Buffalo (File: R523)

Hunt the Slipper

See Cobbler, Cobbler, Where's My Shoe (File: BGMG585)

Hunt the Squirrel

DESCRIPTION: "Hunt the squirrel through the wood, I lost him, I found him; I have a little dog at home, He won't bite you, He won't bite you, And he *will* bite you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal hunting dog
FOUND IN: US(NE) New Zealand
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 37-38, "Lucy Locket" (1 text, 1 tune, which has the "I Wrote a Letter" verse, the "Little dog" verse, and the "Lucy Locket" verse but which is said by Linscott to use the "Hunt the Squirrel" game)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, p. 806, "Hunt the Squirrel (Itisket, Itasket)" (1 text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #117, "Hunt the Squirrel" (1 text, 1 tune, with the tune being "Itisket" but the game being "Hunt the Squirrel")
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 104, p. 133, "Nursery Rhyme" (1 text of two verses, the first being "Yankee Doodle" and the second "Lucy Locket/Hunt the Squirrel")
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 30, ""I sent a letter to my love"; "I had a little dog"; "Lucy Locket" (3 texts, the first being of the "Atisket, Atasket (I Sent a Letter to My Love)" type, the second of the "Hunt the Squirrel" type, the third being "Lucy Locket," but all apparently used for the same game)
ST BAF806 (Full)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Atisket, Atasket (I Sent a Letter to My Love)" (floating lyrics, playparty form)
cf. "Lucy Locket" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [194 words]: Botkin, following Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, lumps this with "Atisket, Atasket." There is, however, little contact in the lyrics; if they are connected, it is because both are used as platforms for the "drop glove" playparty game. For details, see the notes on "Atisket, Atasket (I Sent a Letter to My Love)."
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland has still a different version, opening with the verse "Lucy Locket lost her pocket, Kitty Fisher found it, There was not a penny in it, only ribbon 'round it." This also occurs in nursery rhymes (see Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #279, p. 165, "(Lucy Locket lost her pocket)"). But the second verse is the "I wrote a letter to my love," and the third is "I have a little dog at home" -- plus she says the game is "Hunt the Squirrel." So I file the piece here. Possibly it should be with "Atisket, Atasket (I Sent a Letter to My Love)." Or maybe the two should be lumped.... - RBW
Verse 1 of Linscott is the same as Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 312, "Lucy Locket" (earliest date in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes is 1842). - BS
This is also the name of an English country dance. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: BAF806

Hunt the Wren

DESCRIPTION: "Let's go to the wood, said Robin-the-Bobbin, Let's go to the wood, said Richard to Robin. Let's go to... said John Tullane, Let's go to... said everyone." They hunt, kill, and eat the wren, and argue over disposing of the body
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1744 (Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, Volume II)
KEYWORDS: wren hunting foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North,South),Scotland(Bord),Wales) US(Ap,NE,SE)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 184-185, "Richat and Robet" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 167)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 78, "Helg yn Dreean [Hunt the Wren]" (1 Manx Gaelic text+translation, 1 tune, plus fragments and a text of "The Cutty Wren" in the notes)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #143, "Hunting the Wren" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 2, pp. 6, 42, "I've Fun' a Bod's Nest" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 117, pp. 235-236, "Let's Go to the Woods" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 230-233, "Let's Go to the Woods or The Hunting of the Wren" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 108-109, "Roberty Boberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, #XVI, pp. 164-166, "Hunting the Wren or 'Let Us Go to the Woods'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 447, "We will go to the wood, says Robin to Bobbin" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #29, p. 41-44, "(We will go to the Wood)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 16, "The Hunting of the Wren" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 175-177, The Wren Hunt" (1 text)
DT, HNTWRN2 HUNWREN2
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 37-38, "The Hunting of the Wren"
Roud #236
RECORDINGS:
Jack Elliott, "Billy the Bob" (on Elliotts01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wren (The King)" (subject)
cf. "Billy Barlow" (form)
cf. "Cricketty Wee" (form)
cf. "The Cutty Wren" (form, subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Robin-the-Bobbin
NOTES [167 words]: Many have identified this song with "Billy Barlow," "Cricketty Wee," or (especially) "The Cutty Wren," but while the form is similar, and in the latter case even the subject is the same, the plot is distinct enough that the Index splits them.
In some cases, e.g. the Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland text, I'll admit this is doubtful, but some of the Digital Tradition texts are more distinct, and even pick up pieces of "The Wren (The King)." In another Digital Tradition text (HNTWRN2), the plot doesn't even involve a wren; it's just a bunch of kids(?) finding a bird's next; that one seems to have some "Billy Barlow" in its ancestry (or, more likely, the reverse).
In the case of the Opie "We Will Go to the Wood" text, it seems not unlikely that someone took a "Cutty Wren" text and made it a nursery song. This might explain the complex relationship between the texts.
For a little information, and a lot of speculation, on the history of wrenning, see the notes to "The Wren (The King)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: K078

Hunter and the Farmer, The

See Dialogue entre Deux Metis: Le Cultivateur et la Chasseur (The Hunter and the Farmer) (File: Macl11)

Hunter from Kentucky, A

See The Hunters of Kentucky [Laws A25] (File: LA25)

Hunter Winds His Bugle Horn, The

See Hunters' Chorus (File: Pet255)

Hunter's Log Camp

See Burns's Log Camp (File: Doe217)

Hunter's Song, The

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Hunters of Kaintucky, The

See The Hunters of Kentucky [Laws A25] (File: LA25)

Hunters of Kentucky, The [Laws A25]

DESCRIPTION: The hunters of Kentucky are praised and offered as a specimen based on their performance at the Battle of New Orleans
AUTHOR: Samuel Woodworth
EARLIEST DATE: 1822 (first published 1824 by T. Birch, according to Dichter/Shapiro, p. 32)
KEYWORDS: war patriotic bragging
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 8, 1815 - Battle of New Orleans. Although a peace had already been signed, word had not yet reached Louisiana, which Pakenham sought to invade. Andrew Jackson's backwoodsmen easily repulsed Pakenham's force; the British commander is killed in the battle.
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,So)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Laws A25, "The Hunters of Kentucky"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 298-299, "The Hunters of Kentucky" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 1 tune, but the "A" fragment and part of "C" is "Pakenham")
Randolph 666, "A Hunter from Kentucky" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 93-94, "The Hunters of Kentucky" (1 text)
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 40, "The Hunters of Kentucky" (1 text (Woodworth's original) plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 40, "The Hunters of Kaintucky" (1 text (Woodworth's original) plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 231-232, "The Hunters of Kaintucky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 427-429, "The Hunters of Kentucky or Half Horse and Half Alligator" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 54, "The Hunters of Kentucky" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 244-246, "Hunters of Kentucky (1 text plus a broadside with "The Hunters of Kentucky," "Barney's Lament," and "The Bay of Biscay, O!")
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 212, "The Hunters of Kentucky; or the Battle of New Orleans" (1 text, a copy of an early broadside); p. 227 (a reprint of part of the sheet music)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #933, p. 63, "The Hunters of Kentucky" (2 references)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 111-113, "New-Orleans (The Hunters of Kentucky" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 113-117, "The Hunters of Kentucky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 163-164, "The Hunters of Kentucky" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 34-35, "The Hunters of Kentucky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 288, "Hunters of Kentucky" (1 text)
DT 369, HUNTKENT*
Roud #2211
RECORDINGS:
Bob Atcher, "Hunters of Kentucky" (Columbia 50484, 1948; rec. 1947)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of New Orleans" [Laws A7] (subject)
cf. "Pakenham" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Unfortunate Miss Bailey" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Log Cabins and Log Cabin Boys ("Log Cabins now are all the go") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p.56)
The Hero of Ohio ("Come listen, lads and ladies, now) (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p. 64)
NOTES [149 words]: Samuel Woodworth's only other noteworthy composition was "The Old Oaken Bucket." His novels and plays are mercifully forgotten.
For a Creole account of this battle, see Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 167-168 (an untitled piece which appears to be about the Battle of New Orleans).
For the general background of the final campaigns of the War of 1812, see the notes on "The Siege of Plattsburg." For the Battle of New Orleans itself, see The Battle of New Orleans" [Laws A7].
It should probably be noted that the Kentucky and Tennessee militia weren't all that great in themselves; in a series of Indian engagements in 1814, they showed a disastrous tendency to fall apart. Some of them, in fact, were routed at New Orleans -- only to be saved when general Pakenham refused to take advantage of the opening. But Andrew Jackson executed some of the deserters, and managed to tighten discipline. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: LA25

Hunters' Chorus

DESCRIPTION: "The hunter winds his bugle horn. To horse, to horse, hello, hello, The fiery coursers snuff the morn, And thronging serfs the mark pursue." The dogs search the field. A white deer flees and is pursued
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: hunting dog
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 255, "Hunters' Chorus" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 64-65, "The Hunter Winds His Bugle Horn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15681
NOTES [39 words]: This is quite obviously of English origin, and the source song may well be in the Index somewhere. But what is left of it in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin is so short and so patently damaged that I cannot identify the original. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pet255

Huntin' for Fun

DESCRIPTION: "Ain't no use in foolin' around, Too many cops in this old town." The singer advises going to the country for corn liquor and women, more common there than in town. "Just fill up your belly and roll in the leaves, Sing and whistle and do as you please."
AUTHOR: probably adapted by John Daniel Vass
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (collected by Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains from John Daniel Vass)
KEYWORDS: drink courting police nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, p. 52, "Huntin' for Fun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7332
NOTES [92 words]: Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains notes the similarity of this tune to a military cadence, though he does not state whether informant John Daniel Vass was ever in the military. Nonetheless, given the nature of the material collected from Vass, and the degree of repetition in this piece (in essence, it consists of a threefold repetition: No drink in this town, go to the country; No women in this town, go to the country; No fun in this town, go to the country) I have to suspect that Vass put it together himself based on the cadence chant. - RBW
File: Shel052

Hunting After Gold

DESCRIPTION: "When I left old New York, to hunt after gold, Chunks bigger than my head I could pick up, I was told." The singer says he has been drunk since he arrived, and lists all the other drunks he has seen. He hasn't found any gold, though
AUTHOR: John A. Stone (Old Put) (Source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Put's Golden Songster)
KEYWORDS: gold humorous drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 89, "Hunting After Gold" (1 text)
NOTES [87 words]: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest lists the tune as "Combo." I suspect that this is not an actual melody but an indication that the song uses multiple melodies.
Being a nitpicker, I have to comment on the line, "Chunks bigger than my head I could pick up." The specific gravity of water is (more or less by definition) 1.00; that of gold is 19.32. Thus a lump of gold the size of a human head would probably have a mass of 60-80 kilograms and would weigh 120-160 pounds. One would not casually pick it up.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC089

Hunting Ballad

See Shoot the Buffalo (File: R523)

Hunting Carol, A (At A Place Where I Me Set)

DESCRIPTION: "As I walked by a forest side," a forester tells the singer to bide. They wait for a hart. The singer looses his hounds and sounds his horn, declaring, "We shall have sport and game enough: With hey! go bet! Hey! go bet! how!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1521 (printed by Wynkyn de Worde)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #424, pp. 287-288, "(no title)" (2 texts)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics CXLIV, p. 245, "(no title)" (1 text)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, p. 139, "A Carol of Hunting" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #418
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #695
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #87, pp. 103-104, "[How! we shall have game & sport ynow!" (1 text, with a second text on p. 186)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #249, p. 526, "Stag-Hunt" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 176
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson 4to 598, recto (this is actually a print by Wynkyn de Worde, from 1521, but it's from the manuscript era and cataloged with them)
NOTES [178 words]: This exists in only two copies, but both are fairly significant. One is the famous Richard Hill manuscript; the other is a scrap of a carol book by Wynkyn de Worde, dated to 1521, which also contains the Boar's Head Carol. These two are clearly the same song but also substantially different (e.g. the Hill text has a "Tro-ro-ro" call in the verse which de Worde lacks); although they are very nearly contemporary, the evidence of folk processing is strong. I've indexed the piece on that basis.
The chorus "Go bet!" seems to inspire some disagreement in commentators. The Sisams gloss "bet" as "quick," Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols calls it a hunting cry and says "bet" might mean "better" or "beat"; Greene explains it explicitly as "better." Greene compares it to line 1213 of Chaucer's "Legend of Good Women"; that line (in the Legend of Dido) reads "WIth 'Hay! Go bet! Pryke thow, Lat gon! Lat gon!'" The Riverside Chaucer glosse "Go bet" as "hurry up," which is certainly the point of the rest of the line. "Go bet" also occurs in the carol "Sir Peny." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSAHuCar

Hunting Deer

DESCRIPTION: "Come on, ye hunters, if ye want to hear, That famous story of hunting deer, A deer in the woods and not a deer in the bag." The hunter wasted his ammo and bagged nothing. He warns against not to "skin your deer before you kill it" and lists other hunters
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1926 (Rickaby collection, according to Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra)
KEYWORDS: hunting hardtimes humorous derivative moniker
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 65, "Hunting Deer" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #28963
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Casey Jones (I)" [Laws G1] (tune, characters) and references there
File: RDL065

Hunting for a City

DESCRIPTION: "I am hunting for a city, to stay a while (x3), O, believer got a home at last."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 18, "Hunting for a City" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11840
RECORDINGS:
Isabel Simmons and the Moving Star Hall Singers, "We Are Hunting for a City" (on USSeaIsland02)
NOTES [35 words]: The Herskovits Trinidadian Spiritual Baptist account of "Jesus Lover of My Soul" fits this USSeaIsland02 track as well. Although this is not a Sankey hymn, the performance style matches "Sankey into Shout." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: AWG018A

Hunting for the Lord

DESCRIPTION: "Hunt till you find him, Hallelujah, And a-hunting for the Lord. till you find him, And a-hunting for the Lord."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 13, "Hunting for the Lord" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11848
File: AWG013B

Hunting in Chevy-Chase, The

See The Hunting of the Cheviot [Child 162] (File: C162)

Hunting of Arscott of Tetcott, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the month of November, in the year '52, Three jolly Fox-hunters, all Sons of the Blue, They rode from Pencarrow...." They search for Reynard. They pursue as long as it takes, "For Arscott of Tetcott loves hunting so well."
AUTHOR: "Dogget" (source: Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
EARLIEST DATE: 1820 (ms. copy, according to Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: hunting | fox
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #2, "The Hunting of Arscott of Tetcott" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6902
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)" (theme, lyrics)
NOTES [71 words]: This is so close to "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)" that I have to think them related -- indeed, I might have lumped them had not Roud split them. I incline to think "Bold Reynard" is older, since it's so much more widespread, but it appears this can be documented at an earlier date. It's just that it's about a specific person, and that person long dead and not very important, so it hasn't survived well. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGFS002

Hunting of the Cheviot, The [Child 162]

DESCRIPTION: Percy, Earl of Northumberland, goes deer hunting into Earl Douglas' land of (Cheviot/Chevy Chase), in defiance of a warning from Douglas. In battle they earn each other's respect, but both die, along with many of their men.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy; mentioned in "Wit's End" in 1617 and in the Stationer's Register in 1624); the manuscript Ashmole 48 is thought to have been written during the reign of Mary 1 (1553-1558)
KEYWORDS: battle hunting death nobility
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1377-1399 - Reign of Richard II
Aug 1388 (probably August 19) - Battle of Otterburn. Scots under Douglas attack England. Although Douglas is killed in the battle, the Scots defeat the English and capture their commander Harry "Hotspur" Percy. Hotspur, contrary to the ballad, is not killed
1399-1413 - Reign of Henry IV
1402 - Battle of Homildon Hill
Jul 21, 1403 - Probable date of the Battle of Shrewsbury, at which Hotspur actually died
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland) US(NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES (39 citations):
Child 162, "The Hunting of the Cheviot" (2 texts)
Bronson 162, "The Hunting of the Cheviot" (10 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 162, "The Hunting of the Cheviot" (6 versions: #1, #3, #5, #6, #7, #10)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 1-16, "Chevy Chase" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 20-35+notes on pp. 51-52, "The Ancient Ballad of Chevy Chase"; pp. 249-264, "The More Modern Ballad of Chevy Chace" (sic.) (2 texts)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XV, p. 56, "The More Modern Ballad of Chevy Chace" (1 partial text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp.81-92, "Chevy Chase" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 335-343, "The Hunting in Chevy-Chase" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 18-19, "Chevy Chace" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 243-248, "Chevy Chase" (1 text)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 135-144, "The Hunting of the Cheviot, or Chevy Chase" (1 text, from "The Charms of Melody" rather than tradition)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 34, "The Hunting of the Cheviot" (1 text)
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 31, pp. 239-244, "The Hunting of the Cheviot" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 34, "Chevy Chase" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 446-463, "The Hunting of the Cheviot" (3 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 73-81, "Chev Chase" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 276, "Chevy Chase" (1 text, 2 tunes) {approximating Bronson's #1, #4}
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 1-3, "Chevy Chase" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #6, also from Stokoe's collection but differing in one note}
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 92-101, "The Hontying of the Cheviat" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 128, "Chevy Chase" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 71, "Chevy Chase (The Hunting of the Cheviot)" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 105-115+325-327, "The Hunting of the Cheviot" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 96, "Chevy Chase (The Hunting of the Cheviot)" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 21, "The Hunting of the Cheviot" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 93-101, "Chevy Chase" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 43-45, "Chevy Chase" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 198-199, "Chevy Chace" (1 excerpt, 1 tune); cf. also pp. 196-198, "Pescod Time," (1 short text, 1 tune), a melody which is said to be used for this ballad
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 90-92, "Chevy Chase" (1 tune, perhaps linked to this piece)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 201-207, "Chevy Chase" (1 text)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 31-40, "Chevy Chase" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN980, "God prosper long our Noble King"; ZN982, "God prosper long our noble king" (?)
DT 162, CHEVCHAS*
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1577, #5432
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Wright, editor, _Songs and Ballads, with other short poems, Chiefly of the Reign of Philip and Mary_, 1860 (I use the 1970 Burt Franklin reprint); the book is an edition of Oxford University Library MS. Ashmole 48, #VIII, pp. 24-28, (no title) (1 text; note that the manuscript copy is in long lines with no stanza breaks; the presentation of the text in ballad format is Child's)
Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 233-240, "The Hunting of the Cheviot or Chevy Chase" (1 text)
Leslie Shepard, _John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844_, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 111, "The UNHAPPY MEMORABLE SONG of the HUNTING OF Chevy Chase" (reprint of a Howard and Evans broadside)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, pp. 1175-180, "(The Hunting of the Cheviot)" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 48 (Bodleian 6933), folio 15 [DIMEV #5432]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 188 [DIMEV #1577]
Roud #223
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Otterburn" (subject)
cf. "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" [Child 73] (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Of Turkey lately I did read/The Patient Wife betrayed; Or, The Lady Elizabeths Tragedy (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2124)
Give o'er you rhiming Cavaliers/ Bloody News from Chelmsford (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN971)
In bloody town of Newberry/...Shuff of Newberry (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1413)
In Popish time when Bishops proud/The King and the Bishop (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1452)
In searching ancient chronicles/A pleasant history of a Gentleman in Thracia (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1461)
Strange news, strange news, I here have write/..Relation from the Faulcon.. Mr Powel [a ghost] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2405)
Amongst the Forresters of old/The Unfortunate Forrester ...Lord Thomas.. fair Elener (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN173)
God prosper long our noble King, and send him quickly o'er/Hunting-Match (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN986)
When as my mind was fully bent/ Bloudy News from Germany (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2821)
All you which sober minded are/Terrible News from Branford (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN155)
All tender hearts that ake to hear/The Spanish Virgin (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN97)
God prosper long our noble king, His Turks and Germans all/An excellent new Ballad (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN983)
God hath preserved our Royal King/The Royal Patient Traveller [Charles II] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN978)
The Belgick Boar (Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, p. 392; broadside Bodleian Firth b.21(143); Roud #V40822)
The Producers' Hymn ("In hallow'd graces our fathers sleep, Who fann'd up freedom's fire") (Foner, p. 32)
NOTES [4458 words]: According to Rollins, the Stationer's Register entries for this are ""Chevie chase" (December 14, 1624; no printer listed; p. 33, #285) and "A memorable song of the unhappy hunting in Chivey Chase" (registered March 1, 1675; no printer listed; p. 148, #1600). - RBW
Child opines that this is based on the same events as "The Battle of Otterburn" (Child #161) rather than some other border battle between Percies and Douglases. The historical Henry Percy (Hotspur) fought [and] was captured [by the Scots], but did not in fact die at Otterburn in 1388 or at any other battle with Scots but was instead slain in battle with Henry IV's forces. - KK
In addition, Harry Hotspur was never Earl of Northumberland. His father (the first of five generations of Henry Percys of Northumberland) was the first Earl, and lived until 1408. Hotspur was killed in 1403, and thus never succeeded to the title, although Hotspur's son became the second Earl.
To repeat, none of the various Earls Percy died in battle with the Scots. The first Earl was a traitor against Henry IV; the second (d. 1455) and third (d. 1461) were casualties of the Wars of the Roses, and the fourth was killed by the people of his own Earldom because he had not supported Richard III at Bosworth. (Richard, despite his later reputation, was loved in the north of England for being fair and honest and keeping the Scots away from the borders.)
Child has two basic texts, "A" from manuscript (Bodleian) Ashmole 48 and "B" being made up of all the later versions compared -- the last of them, according to Fowler, p. 158 n. 25, being from the Percy Folio. The Ashmole manuscript, according to Fowler, p. 96, contains 76 miscellaneous pieces, most if not all of them in verse; these are transcribed, verbatim and without any notes or glosses, in Wright. The slight majority have attributions, mostly to authors who would be considered poets, not song-writers. (It is noteworthy that this piece is the only one from the manuscript that Child included among the ballads; Wright, p. x, says that the only two poets cited who are otherwise known are Lord Vaux and William Elderton, each responsible for one poem. For more on Elderton, see the notes to "Mary Ambree.")
One of these authors is Richard Sheale, who signed five poems (including this: "Expliceth, quoth Rychard Sheale"; Wright, pp. vii-viii, 28), sometimes considered the compiler of the manuscript (and hence sometimes regarded as the author of the song). The other pieces are very diverse, including even a summary of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde (Fowler, p. 101). Fowler declares the pieces "primarily didactic," with a plurality being moral teachings. This perhaps argues against Sheale as the author/compiler, since Fowler believes he was a minstrel in the court of the Earl of Derby who "play[ed] the myrry knave"; Wright, p. viii, also thinks he was indebted to Derby.
The Ashmole text of this poem has been reprinted many times; the standard edition is Wright's, but it is #3445.5 in Robbins & Cutler's Supplement to the Index of Middle English Verse, and they list fifteen printings, including Skeat's (used by Child) and several of the editions indexed here.
As Chambers, p. 162, comments "The Hunting is even more remote from historical verity than Otterburn. The scene is laid in the Cheviot hills, where not Hotspur but Earl Percy goes to hunt, in defiance of Douglas, and the event is put in the reign of Henry IV [1399-1413] rather than Richard II [1377-1399]. Douglas is killed by an arrow, Percy by Sir Hugh Montgomery, Montgomery himself by another arrow. But the battle is called Otterburn. King Henry avenges it in that of Homildon Hill (1402)."
Wells, p. 142, professes to see a similarity between this song and the opening portion of the Middle English romance "Sir Degrevant," found in two manuscripts, the Lincoln Thornton Manuscript and the Findern Manuscript, both of the fifteenth century; they, and the romance itself, seem to be from the north of England. Neither Child nor the two editions of "Sir Degrevant" known to me mention any such connection. It is certainly not a similarity of form; "Degrevant" uses the stanza type known as "tail rhyme" (best known from Chaucer's "Sir Thopas," although that is a different variant on tail rhyme), and it would be very hard to set that form to music. The similarity seems to be minimal, and thematic; "Degrevant" opens with the knight and a neighboring earl visiting -- and harrying! -- each other's lands, and features a lot of conversations over castle walls.
Izaak Walton's Compeat Angler refers to this tune (Chapter II), although in a strange list mixing folk songs ("Johnny Armstrong," "Chevy Chase") and art songs ("As at Noon Dulcina Rested," "Phyllida Flouts Me").
Sir Philip Sidney, in his Apologie for Poetrie of 1595, wrote, "I neuer heard the olde song of Percy and Duglas (sic.), that I found mot my heart mooued more then with a Trumpet." It is not possible, however, to tell whether this is a reference to "The Battle of Otterburn" [Child 161] or "The Hunting of the Cheviot" [Child 162]. A caution, pointed out by Friedman, pp. 33-34, is that Sidney was descended from a Duke of Northumberland. Not from the Percys, but still, the story had personal interest to him. The Complaynt of Scotland of 1549 refers to separate songs "The hunttis of the cheviot" (Complaynt, p. lxxxv) and "The persee & the mongomrye met" (Complaynt, p. lxxxvi); again, we can't know which song is meant -- although, if both are references to the extant ballads, then "The Percy and Montgomery Met" is "Otterburn" and "The hunttis of the Cheviot" is that ballad. The Complaynt also mentions "That day, that day, that gentil day" (Complaynt, p. lxxxvii), which Child thinks another citation of a Harlaw ballad, but that is disputed.
Most scholars, going back to Child, think "The Battle of Otterburn" [Child 161] is the older of the two Otterburn ballads (since Sheale's book is dated by other pieces in it to the reign of Mary Tudor, 1553-1558), and Child 161 is certainly the more accurate. But the language of the collected versions is newer than the earliest text of "The Hunting of the Cheviot," and Fowler, pp. 108-109, therefore argues that "The Hunting of the Cheviot" is the older song. I'm not sure I buy that, particularly since the two have cross-fertilized. The argument on p. 110 of Fowler that "Otterburn" is English and pro-Percy, while "Cheviot" is Scottish and pro-Douglas, seems better founded.
Friedman, pp. 84-113, argues that this song was the very first subject of ballad criticism, being the subject of an item by Addison in The Spectator.
As for what really happened at Otterburn.... Our sources aren't great, but the reign of Richard III was a time when Anglo-Scottish tensions were high. The Scots had imported French troops in 1385, but the English had invaded Scotland, and while the Scots avoided battle, they agreed to a three year truce (Magnusson, pp. 215-216). That truce ended in 1388, in conditions that favored the Scots; as Boardman, pp. 78-81, points out, it was a time when the English government was in disorder. King Richard II was still in his early twenties, and inexperienced. In 1386, John of Gaunt, the king's uncle and (contrary to what was believed at the time) chief support had decided to make an attempt to take the throne of Castile, to which he had a claim in right of his second wife Constance of Castile, so he was out of the country and busy (Saul, pp. 148-151). The so-called "Lords Appellant" had seized control of the government in 1386-1387 (Saul, pp. 151-153, 177, etc.). They set aside Richard's friends and, with the support of the "Merciless Parliament," purged and, in a number of cases, executed them (Saul, p. 195, etc.). The Appellants were busy running the government their way, the youthful Richard II was trying to get back control, and John of Gaunt was not available (by 1388, his campaign in Castile had failed, but he stayed in Aquitaine until 1389; Saul, p. 197). There was no strong central government in England to raise forces against the Scots, whose raid completely surprised the Appellants (Saul, p. 198); the northern barons were on their own.
The Douglas of this song, although his title was 2nd Earl of Douglas and Mar, was not a descendant of the James Lord Douglas (died 1330) who had been the right-hand man of King Robert I Bruce in the early 1300s. James Lord Douglas had had a half-brother Archibald "the Tyneman," who was briefly one of the Guardians of Scotland before he was killed in 1333. His son William (died 1384) was the first Earl of Douglas and Mar; the James Douglas of Otterburn was his son, making him the grand-nephew of the great James Douglas (Brown, pp. 32-33).
The Otterburn campaign was much more than just a raid. The Scots had two armies (Boardman, p. 82). The larger, under the Earl of Fife (that is, Robert Stewart, the second son of King Robert II), attacked in the west, toward Carlisle; the smaller, under James, Earl of Douglas, head of the "Black Douglases" (Boardman, p. 85) attacked in the east.
Hotspur, at the time of the Douglas raid, was young (still in his early twenties), but he had some experience: he had led a force to the relief of Brest in France in 1387 (Saul, pp. 196-197).
Saul, p. 198, says that the western army did more damage, pillaging Cumbria and Westmorland though it failed to take Carlisle. But it didn't feature a battle on the scale of Otterburn; that happened in the east.
Reliable information about what actually happened is limited -- there are about seven accounts (see e.g. the list on p. 84 of Boardman), but most are at many hands' remove, and except for Froissart's, they are short and probably distorted for poetic purposes, while Froissart is reliable only in making things seem more chivalrous than they actually were. He was exactly the sort to make up a single combat between leaders, e.g.
The eastern army did not slow itself down by sowing destruction on its way south, preferring to move as fast as possible until they reached the point where they started pillaging (Boardman, p. 90). They made it through Northumberland and down into County Durham before turning back (Burne, pp. 190-191) after making a feint at Newcastle. Supposedly, the Scots had captured a pennon of Harry Hotspur's outside Newcastle (the claim is that Douglas and Hotspur actually fought a single combat over it (Boardman, p. 93), but that strikes me as just too much Froissart-iness -- though Froissart himself says only that Douglas captured the pennon; Froissart/Jolliffe, p. 308. Magnusson and Burne take the story seriously; Boardman, pp. 94-95, observes that our non-Froissart sources don't mention it.
Thomas Percy, of Reliques fame, was told he had seen the banner involved -- but, as Boardman, p. 96, points out, the pennant that survives, and which Percy is believed to have seen, is a Douglas pennant, not a Percy penant! What's more, it's now believed to be from the sixteenth century, not the fourteenth.
If true, of course, this inspired Hotspur to try to get it back (Burne, p. 191; Magnusson, p. 216). Hotspur gathered his forces and, living up to his nickname, pushed hard to catch the Scots before they could escape. Some sources, not all, indicate that he did indeed surprise them (Boardman, p. 95).
The exact location of the battle is unknown (Magsusson, p. 217). The only known contemporary marker, the "Battle Stone," was removed and lost, and its exact relation to the more recent "Percy Cross" is uncertain (Magnusson, p. 217). Still, we know the fight took place in Redesdale, near where the Otterburn Brook joined the river Rede (map on p. 198 of Burne), an area where the Rede runs at the bottom of a significant slope.
The fight was on the northeast side of the Rede, which flowes into the north branch of the Tyne some distance to the south. There was a peel tower near where the burn flowed into the Rede, and it is believed the area around the tower, and near the Rede, was marshy. The Otterburn does not seem to have been a major obstacle, but the Rede was a significant river that could not be crossed at most points. The river to the west, and the hill to the east, funneled the battle into a narrow valley. One of the few major roads of the time went through the valley, roughly following the course of the modern A696 (Boardman, pp. 100-101; there is a map in his photo section).
The records are so poor that we don't know whether the fight took place on August 5 or August 19. The sources are divided, according to Burne, p. 201 and note, but Burne prefers August 19 because there was no moon on August 5 and the battle was said to be fought by moonlight (according to Boardman, p. 113, the moon was full on August 20). The modern record cited by Magnuson, p. 216, also says August 19, and Boardman clearly accepts that date as well.
The fight was unusual in a number of ways, most especially the fact that it took place at night (Froissart/Jolliffe, p. 310). This was probably a big help to the Scots, since they were all mounted and had no archers; the English could not use their longbowmen at night.
It seems as if both armies tried similar strategies: A main body that advanced near the river Rede while a secondary body of troops tried an outflanking maneuver on the slopes above. Boardman, p. 102, thinks that this is because the Scots had two separate camps.
It is likely that the difference is that the Scots flanking column stayed relatively close and got into the fight; the English column, under either Sir Thomas Umfraville or under Matthew Redmane and Robert Ogle, took a longer path to go after the Scots camp and get into their rear, and did not do much to help the English main force. On the other hand, Boardman, pp. 102-103, thinks that Redmane and Ogle were in charge of the force in the Rede valley, and Hotspur took the column that went up the hill.
At this point I think we just have to say that we don't actually know how the battle progressed. (E.g. Boardman, pp. 108-110, seems to think the English tried to fight on horseback, but by 1388, that was not at all common; knights fought on foot.) Somehow, in the dark, the two armies came into contact and started fighting. It may be that the Scots set up their position to ambush any pursuers, but it is likely they did not expect to be attacked at night. It may well be that both sides were surprised. And it is possible that the surprise was complete enough that Douglas went into battle before he had finished putting on his armor (so Boardman, p. 104).
One thing that is clear is that both Douglas and Hotspur fought with their troops. Douglas was mortally wounded and Hotspur was captured. That is all that is really certain. One story says that Hotspur was actually the one who killed Douglas, but not even Froissart asserted that! Possibly Douglas was set under a bush or tree to die. Possibly Hotspur was trapped, and called upon to surrender. The folklore claims that he would only surrender to the mortally wounded man under the tree. In any case, he went into captivity and had to be ransomed. In addition to Hotspur, his younger brother Ralph Percy was wounded and captured; Boardman, pp. 113-114, thinks this was before Hotspur himself was made prisoner.
Odds are that the remnants of Hotspur's forces were rescued by the army the Bishop of Durham was bringing up behind him (Boardman, pp. 117-118).
Which says to me that Durham had an infantry army, and Hotspur's men were all mounted (which would explain how they could make it from Newcastle to Otterburn -- thirty-odd miles! -- in a day). Which in turn means that the English were very tired when they attacked. Truly Hotspur was impetuous.
How many casualties were there at Otterburn? Chroniclers at this period were so unreliable that there isn't even any point in consulting them, and we have no pay records or the like. Boardman, p. 119, thinks that a mass burial containing some 1200 bodies is from Otterburn, but I really doubt it; even if that represents both English and Scots casualties, it's hard to believe the two armies would have had many thousands each. But I have no better figures to offer.
Ralph Percy, Hotspur's younger brother, was apparently released quickly because his injuries were s severe. Hotspur, however, had to be ransomed. He was important enough that the crown itself contributed (Boardman, p. 122). Supposedly the ransom was £3000 (Boardman, p. 122), though that seems a bit high at a time when an earl's annual income was generally a lot less than £1000. I suspect it's either Scots pounds (which were less valuable than English pounds) or that the £3000 covered several prisoners, not just Hotspur. But that's me speculating....
Douglas's last words were alleged to be "God be praised, not many of my ancestors have died in their beds" (Brown, p. 128). Which was true enough, but very problematic -- he had no legitimate son, and he was young enough that there was no plan for the succession. There were, at this time, three main lines of Douglases: First, the line of James Lord Douglas, the close associate of Robert Bruce, which was extinct in legitimate line but represented by James Douglas's illegitimate son Archibald, the ancestor of the "Black Douglases." Second, the line of Earl Douglas himself, also extinct in legitimate male line but now represented by Earl Douglas's illegitimate half-brother George, from whom sprang the "Red Douglases." And third, the line of the William Douglas, the "Knight of Liddesdale" (for whom see "The Knight of Liddesdale" [Child 160]), who had no living descendants at all but whose line was represented by his nephew James Lord of Dalkeith, the ancestor of the Douglases of Dalkeith (for chart, see Brown, p. 32). Earl Douglas's earldom really should have passed to his sister Isabella Countess of Mar and her first husband Malcolm Drummond. But because of the complications of Scottish politics, the Drummonds got only a portion of the inheritance and the title of Earl of Douglas, plus the largest share of the properties, went to Archibald of the Black Douglases (Brown, p. 77. The map and chart on pp. 78-79 show that, while Isabella was granted many Douglas properties and a few went to others, the lion's share of the border properties went to Archibald as Earl of Douglas, giving him a tremendous amount of power there -- more than his predecessor as Earl of Douglas). The result of this confusion, although it ultimately strengthened the Douglases, was a weakening of the central Scottish government that sorely hindered its development as a nation.
For all the attention it got, Otterburn didn't have much more effect than any other major border raid. Things continued as before: The Scots could often do more damage on raids, but the English, with their archers, won the big battles. Indeed, that is exactly what happened at Homildon Hill in 1402, the next major battle of the wars. The winner at Homildon? None other than Harry Hotspur.
Our lack of knowledge of what actually happened makes it hard to really assess the historical truth of the Otterburn songs, but I'll do what I can.
The idea that Percy and Douglas met while hunting in the Cheviots is, of course, pure fiction, and presumably everybody knew it.
Child's A text, stanza 3, says that "the Percy" came out of Bamburgh; in stanza 2 of B he is "Earl Percy." Note, however, that Hotspur was not Earl Percy (that is, the Earl of Northumberland); his father was. And Boardman, p. 91, says that Hotspur was at Alnwick, not Bamburgh. Apparently Northumberland did order Hotspur to pursue the raiders.
A stanza 3 and B stanza 6 say that Percy had 1500 archers, and A stanza 12 says that Douglas had 2000 spearment. As mentioned above, we don't really know how many men either side had. 1500 is a reasonable estimate for a force Hotspur could raise quickly, and ordinarily most would presumably have been archers -- but archers usually went on foot, and could hardly have covered the distance from Newcastle to Otterburn in one day. So this is probably wrong, but we don't really know what the error is. The estimate for Douglas is entirely reasonable: 2000 was a strong force by standards of the time, and the standard Scots army consisted of spearmen who formed a phalanx or "schiltron." (The difference in armaments probably explains the outcome of wars between the Scots and English at this time: In daylight, the English bowmen could slaughter the Scots spearmen, so that the English won most of the battles, but at night, the tight-ranked Scots spearmen could deal with the disorderly English.)
A stanza 4 seems to date the start of the campaign to a Monday; stanza 66 says the battle was on a Monday. The former is probably right, the latter not: August 19 was a Tuesday, but Percy would have been getting ready to fight the day before.
A stanza 22 has a Northumbrian squire, Richard Witherington, refer to "King Herry the Fourth"; in B stanza 24, WItherington refers to "Henery our king," without giving a number. B stanza 59 also refers to King Henry. This is blatant anachronism; as we've stated, the King at the time of Otterburn was Richard II. Henry IV would not overthrow Richard for another eleven years.
A stanza 25, and after, refers to the English shooting with their bows; similarly, B stanza 6 refers to 1500 bowmen, and stanza 27 has the English bowmen shooting. But even archers were present, they did not play a major part in the battle, because the battle was at night!
B Stanza 21 has Douglas call Percy an earl and declare that he, Douglas, was an earl also. But Hotspur was not an earl -- indeed, he never achieved the Northumbrian earldom, because he died before his father.
A stanza 31 and following has Percy and Douglas cross swords at length. This is barely possible but not likely -- and would surely have been reported in all our sources had it happened. Moreover, neither wins the fight -- Douglas is wounded by an arrow during the fight (A stanza 36; B stanza 36). No way.
A stanza 40 and following, and B Stanza 41 and following, has Sir Hugh Montgomery come to Douglas's rescue when the Earl was injured; in stanza 42 of both versions, Montgomery kills Percy. Boardman, p. 116, calls Montgomery "a candidate" for Hotspur's eventual captor (Froissart/Jolliffe, p. 315, credits him with the feat). In other words, we don't know who captured Percy, but Montgomery is at least a possibility. But A stanzas 46 and 55 B stanzas 46 and 51 say that Montgomery was slain. However, Boardman, p. 195, 206, has Montgomery at Homildon Hill (at least, both pages refer to "Lord Montgomery," and the index says it's Hugh Montgomery), so he wasn't slain. We also read that Hotspur was slain, and he wasn't; he was captured.
A stanzas 52-56 and B stanzas 48-53 lists various knights killed. No source I've found verifies any of these -- e.g. Froissart/Jolliffe, p. 315, lists only a squire, Thomas Felton, who isn't in the ballad's list. Froissart/Jolliffe, p. 308, does list a bunch of knights who were in the north with Percy, but none of them match the ballad at all, unless "Sir Ralph Langley" is the same as Stanza 53's "Ser Raff, the ryche Rugbe." There was a minor battle, at Nesbitt Moor in early 1402, for which we have a short casualty list, but that doesn't seem to fit either. A.55 mentions a "Sir Dawy Lwdale" ("Charles Morrell" in B), who perhaps might be one of the Lauders who were with the Scots army; A.56 has a "Ser Chartles a Murre"; John, Earl of Moray was also imvolved (Brown, p. 152).
A stanza 50 claims there were just 73 English survivors and 55 Scots. B stanzas 53-54 says 53 English and 59 Scots survived. Right.
B stanza 33 refers to "James our Scottish king," and A Stanza 59 (compare B, stanzas 57-58) says that a report of Otterburn came to "Edinburgh... to Jamy the Scottish king." That must have been one incredibly slow messenger, because Otterburn was fought in 1388, Hotspur was killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 -- and King James I ascended in 1406! The king of Scotland at the time of Otterburn was Robert II. Robert III succeeded him in 1390, and then James I came to the throne in 1406. But James did not act as king for decades after that; Robert III's older son David had been murdered, probably by his uncle, the Duke of Albany; supporters of the 11-year-old James tried to take him to safety -- and taken into custody by Henry IV. Robert III died a few days later (Magnusson, pp. 226-228). James succeeded while in enemy hands; he would remain in custody for the rest of the reign of Henry IV, the entire reign of Henry V, and the first few years of the reign of Henry VI (released in 1424, according to Magnussoon, p. 229). So James could not have received news in Edinburgh until the 1420s -- a third of a century after Otterburn, twenty years after the death of Hotspur, and more than a decade after the death of Henry IV!
A stanza 63 refers to Henry IV leading his army to the battle of "Hombyll-down," And B stanza 62 to "Humble-down," which is another name for Homildon Hill. That battle was indeed an overwhelming victory for the English, who in this case followed their usual longbow tactics and slaughtered the Scots. It could be considered revenge for Otterburn. The English captured at least five earls, including the current Douglas earl (who was badly wounded and lost an eye) and the Earl of Fife, the son of the regent Albany, and many lesser soldiers were killed or drowned in the Tweed as they fled. English losses were almost non-existent -- the battle report to Henry IV says five killed (Given-Wilson, p. 200; Boardman, pp. 195-196); except for the fact that the Scottish King and Regent were not there, it was perhaps the most lopsided English victory in all the Scots wars, including even Flodden a century later. And it took place in the reign of Henry IV (in 1402, to be specific). Indeed, having exaggerated both sides' losses at Otterburn, the song under-counts the Scots losses here, claiming 36 knights slain (A stanza 64) -- but most estimate Scots losses at 80 knights. But Henry IV wasn't there; he was involved in unsuccessful Welsh campaigns (Given-Wilson, p. 201). Who won the battle? None other than Harry Hotspur, who, contrary to the song, was still alive. (At least, some sources say Hotspur was in command; others credit the victory to his father, Henry Percy the earl -- Boardman, p. 186 -- but there is no doubt that Hotspur was there.)
All this raises a question: The number of errors in this song is so high that it's hard to imagine it being written before 1450. Certainly not before 1440. So... why write about such a minor border battle of fifty years earlier?
- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: C162

Hunting of the Wren, The

See Hunt the Wren (File: K078)

Hunting Parson, The

See The Hunting Priest (Parson Hogg; Sing Tally Ho!) (File: HHH222)

Hunting Priest, The (Parson Hogg; Sing Tally Ho!)

DESCRIPTION: The singer will tell of the priest "with constitution strong," who regularly goes out "to 'Tally ho, the hounds, sir.'" He will interrupt anything -- a sermon, a wedding -- when he hears the sound of the hunt.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany)
KEYWORDS: clergy hunting
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H222, pp. 29-30, "The Hunting Priest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #5, "Parson Hogg" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany: Containing a Selection of the Most Fashionable Songs, with Many Originals, Not Inserted in Ashburner's Vocal and Poetic Repository, G. Ashburner, Ulverston, 1812 (available on Google Books), p. 158, "The Hunting Parson" (1 text)
Roud #1861
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We'll All Go A-Hunting Today" (theme)
NOTES [41 words]: The thene of gentlemen who prefer hunting to church is an ancient complaint in Britain; "The Mourning of the Hare" is the tale of a creature which is pursued by huntsmen who do not wait for mass; it is thought to date to the fifteenth century. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: HHH222

Hunting Seals

DESCRIPTION: "With knife and fork, with kettle and pan, With spoon and mug, and glasses.... For we are swoilers fearless, bold, As we copy from pan to pan, sir." The singer describes hunting seals, facing polar bears, and enticing girls with furs
AUTHOR: probably James Murphy (1868-1931)
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Murphy, Songs Sung by Old-Time Sealers....)
KEYWORDS: hunting courting animal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 133, "Hunting Seals" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, editor, _Songs Sung by Old-TIme Sealers of Many Years Ago_, James Murphy Publishing, 1925 (PDF available from Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 14, "Seal Hunting Song" (1 text)
Roud #12526
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rigs O Barley" (tune, according to Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff)
NOTES [413 words]: There is a good bit of sealing usage in this song, some of it slightly obscure. "Lasses," in the first verse, is not young women but molasses (StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 331, citing this piece); sealers often used molasses to sweeten their tea.
"Swoil/swile" and "Swoiler/swiler" are dialect for "seal" and "sealer," respectively.
A pan is a sheet of flat ice; sealers who were away from their ships often gathered seal pelts into pans for later recovery (StoryKirwinWiddowson,p. 367). The pelts themselves are the skins with the fat still attached (StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 373; for most of the time Newfoundlanders hunted seals, the fat, which could be made into a fine oil, was the part of the seal most sought after). A panning staff, or pan flag, was a marker to say which ship the seals in a pan belonged to -- although not every sealing captain could be trusted to respect another ship's flags.
Bats and gaffs are tools for killing seals and managing the ice.
Frosters were cleats on a boot (or a horse's hoof) to prevent sliding on ice (StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 204).
In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the sealers usually left St. John's on March 10 (according to Greene, p. 94 n. 1, out of 71 seasons from 1863 to 1933, the fleet set sail on precisely March 10 in 44 of them); they were supposed to start sealing on or around St. Patrick's Day.
"Harps" are harp seals, the main target of the hunt, which were easy to fight; "hoods" were hooded seals, the other Newfoundland species, and they were indeed "the devil for fighting"; much heavier than a man, they would defend themselves and their young, as the harps would not. A "dog harp" is a male harp; "dog" was a term for a male animal (StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 144).
A "white coat" or "whitecoat" is a baby harp seal, the primary object of the hunt, because they had lots of fat and made no attempt whatsoever to fight or flee (the fact that they were cute, helpless, intelligent, and endangered rarely entered a sealer's mind).
Bedlamers are second year seals, not yet fully mature but able to care for themselves -- sort of the seal equivalent of teenagers. The title is a description of age; a bedlamer may be either a "harp" or a "hood." The origin of the name is uncertain; some connect it with "bedlam," because they create bedlam, others with French "bête de la mer," "beast of the sea" (Young, p. 33; StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 37, prefer the "bedlam" sense, and first cite the term from 1766). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm133

Hunting Song (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells about hare-hunting dogs. When Timer hunts the hare, "she knows that her life's nearly run." When the formal hunt is over too soon, Gay-Lad "will go by himself on the mountain and will hunt by the light of the moon"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
KEYWORDS: hunting nonballad dog animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 10, pp. 23-24,104,158-159, "Hunting Song" (1 text fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #2932
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hunting Song (II)" (subject of hare-hunting)
File: MoMa023

Hunting Song (II)

DESCRIPTION: "It was early one bright winter's morning, Mister Streeter a-hunting would go." Hounds Dido, Ruler, Bonny Lass, and Julius run merrily to hunt the "puss" (hare). The course of the hunt is described; finally they catch the puss
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams)
KEYWORDS: hunting dog animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #95, "Hunting Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2531
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hunting Song (I)" (subject of hare-hunting)
File: VWP085

Hunting Songs (sic.)

See Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!) (File: DTReynrd)

Hunting Tale, A

See The Sally Buck (File: SKE70)

Hunting the Hare (I)

DESCRIPTION: The hunter and his hounds chase the hare into the hay, barley, wheat, rye, and oats where, finally, "the hounds tore out the poor puss's guts"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: death hunting animal dog food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 66, "Hunting the Hare" (1 text)
Roud #1041
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Somersetshire Hunting Song" (subject)
NOTES [41 words]: There is a fairly well-known Middle English piece, "The Hunting of the Hare," published in volume III of Henry William Weber, Metrical Romances Of The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, And Fifteenth Centuries, volume III (1810), pp. 279-290. This is not it.
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ReCi066

Hunting the Hare (II)

See Somersetshire Hunting Song (File: BeCo437)

Hunting the Wren (I)

See Billy Barlow (File: SBoA165)

Hunting the Wren (II)

See Hunt the Wren (File: K078)

Huntingdon Shore

DESCRIPTION: The singer narrates preparations for a fishing journey to Huntingdon Shore. Conditions aboard and the itinerary are described. They meet girls on Round Island, Labrador but the singer insists that the place can't compare with the Huntingdon Shore.
AUTHOR: John(?) Doyle (A fisherman of St. John's and not the editor of the collection)
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Murphy, Songs Their Fathers Sung)
KEYWORDS: fishing work travel
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland , "Huntingdon Shore" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 23 in the 2nd edition
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 53, "The Huntingdown Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, _Songs Their Fathers Sung: For Fishermen: Old Time Ditties_, James Murphy Publishing, 1923 (PDF available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 3, "Huntingdon Shore" (1 text)
Roud #4415
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Huntingdon Shore" (on NFOBlondahl05)
NOTES [41 words]: Said to have been composed in the 1860s. - SH, RBW
"Young Goodridge," according to Doyle, was a renowned merchant of the time. - SH
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou: "The Huntingdown or Huntingdon shore was a fishing area on the Labrador coast." - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy23

Huntingdown Shore, The

See Huntingdon Shore (File: Doy23)

Huntingtower

See When Will Ye Gang Awa'? (Huntingtower) [Laws O23] (File: LO23)

Huntsman, The

See Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!) (File: DTReynrd)

Huntsman's Horn, The

DESCRIPTION: "The sturdy boys from Newton and the boys from College Land" hunt hare in Kilnacran. The hounds are named as well as the landmarks passed. At least two hare are killed. A health to Ned Crudden and Comely who "did bring the cup to old Loughgar"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (IRHardySons)
KEYWORDS: death hunting animal dog horse moniker Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #12920
RECORDINGS:
James and Paddy Halpin, "The Huntsman's Horn" (on IRHardySons)
Big John Maguire, "The Huntseman's Horn" (on Voice18, IRHardySons)

CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fair of Rosslea" (subject: competitive hare hunt from the huntsman's point of view)
cf. "Killafole Boasters" (subject: competitive hare hunt from the huntsman's point of view) and references there
NOTES [15 words]: The hunt takes place in the area around Lough Erne, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. - BS
File: RcHuntHo

Huntsman's Song

See Bold Reynard ("A Good Many Gentlemen") (File: K243)

Hurling Down the Pine

See The Lumber Camp Song (File: Doe210)

Hurly Burly Trumpet Trace

DESCRIPTION: "Hurly burly trumpet trace/tray, The cow shat in the market (place), Some go far and some go near, Where does this poor Frenchman steer?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: cattle travel | market
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 34, "(Hurly, burly, trumpet tray)" (1 text)
Roud #19535
File: PKKB034E

Hurly Burly Trumpet Tray

See Hurly Burly Trumpet Trace (File: PKKB034E)

Huron Carol, The (Jesous Ahatonhia)

DESCRIPTION: The Christmas story in Indian terms: "'Twas in the moon of wintertime when all the birds had fled That mighty Gitchi Manitou sent angel choirs instead. Before their light the stars grew dim, and wand'ring hunters heard the hymn...."
AUTHOR: Father Jean de Brebéuf (1593-1649); English text by J. E. Middleton, 1926
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1642
KEYWORDS: Christmas Jesus religious Indians(Am.)
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1634 - the Jesuit Jean de Brebeuf leads the first missionary party to evangelize by living among the Hurons
1639 - Father Jemore Lalemant founds the mission of Ste-Marie.
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 130-132, "The Huron Carol (Jesous Ahatonia)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 29-31, "The Huron Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Une Jeune Pucelle" ("A Young Maiden") (tune)
NOTES [552 words]: Having been unable to teach the Indians old Catholic hymns, Father Brebéuf created this song for the Hurons in 1641 or 1642 (long after the first permanent missions to the Hurons were created in 1625). They sang it every Christmas until 1648, when the Hurons were attacked by Iroquois (the Hurons had by then been badly weakened by the white man's diseases).
In a twist of irony, few Hurons showed to that time had shown any interest in Catholicism; Catholic ways were very different, the French themselves brought disease, and often they looked down on native ways.
To an extent, the Iroquois attack changed that. The Iroquois set out starting in 1645 to destroy all their neighbors (which they would succeed in doing by 1655); the Huron were the 1648 victims.
This caused some Hurons to turn Catholic. The Iroquois were winning with the white man's weapons; perhaps the Hurons thought the white man's religion might answer. But it was too late; Huronia was destroyed in 1649. (A severe blow to the French settlement, which was closely allied to the Hurons.)
Father Jean de Brebéuf (1593-1649) and Father Gabriel Lalemant (the nephew of Jerôme Lalemant of Ste.-Marie), the leading spirits of the Jesuit missions, refusing to flee to safety, were captured, tortured, and killed. (We should note that they were not tortured for their faith; the Iroquois simply tortured captives as part of a policy of terror.)
Even then, the song continued to be sung in Huron circles; it was collected by another Jesuit, Father de Villeneuve, and was translated into French (as "Jesus est ne") as well as English. According to LindaJo H. McKim, Presbyterian Hymnal Companion, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, p. 61, the English translation by Jesse Edgar Middleton (1872-1960) was made in 1926.
"Gitchi Manitou" -- in other Algonquian-language-family traditions, Keeche Keeche Manitou -- is "The Great, great Spirit... the master of life... [who] leaves the human race to their own conduct, but has placed all other living things under the care of [lesser] Manitos" (from the notes of the early explorer David Thompson, though he was writing of the Cree, not the Huron; the Huron language is part of the Iroquoian family, which is not Algonquian, so there appears to be some cultural contamination here).
McKim, p. 61, says that the Presbyterian church lists the song under the name "'Twas in the Moon of Wintertime," and calls the tune "Une Jeune Pucelle," which some consider related to the German "Von Gott Will Ich Nicht Lassen."
There is an ironic side to this story, although I truly don't know which way the irony points. William F. Fowler, Jr., Empires at War: The French and Indian War and the Struggle for North America, 1754-1763, 2005 (I use the 2006 Walker paperback), p. 7, summarizes the story of the founding of the Iroquois as follows:
"According to Iroquois history, sometime long before Europeans arrived, a virgin Huron living near the Bay of Queinte, was visited by a heavenly messenger who announced that she would be the mother of a son to be named Dekanahwideh, whose mission would be to bring peace to the warring Mohaw, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Oneida nations who lived in the Mohawk Valley between Lake Ontario and the Hudson River." The similarities to the Christian story are obvious. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FJ130

Hurrah for Arkansas

See We're Coming, Arkansas (We're Coming, Idaho) (File: R343)

Hurrah for Baffin's Bay

DESCRIPTION: Nonsense song. Ch: "Avast belay, Hurrah for Baffin's Bay! We couldn't find the pole, because the barber moved away. The boat was cold we thought we'd get the grip so the painter put three coats, upon the ship! Hip, hip! Hip, hip! Hurrah for Baffin's Bay!"
AUTHOR: Words: Vincent Bryan / Music: Theodore F. Morse (1873-1924)
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Broadway "Wizard of Oz")
KEYWORDS: sailor nonsense nonballad humorous exploration
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 230-231, "Baffin's Bay" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Margaret Bradford Boni, editor, _Songs of the Gilded Age_, with piano arrangements by Norman Lloyd and illustrations by Lucille Corcos, Golden Press, 1960, pp. 22-24, "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stanley Appelbaum, editor, _Show Songs: from The Black Crook to The Red Mill_, Dover Publications, 1974, pp. 189-193, "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
ST Harl230 (Partial)
Roud #9157
RECORDINGS:
[Arthur] Collins and [Byron G.] Harlan, "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay" (CYL: Edison 8447, 1903)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bosun's Story" (humorous song about reaching the North Pole)
NOTES [6914 words]: From the 1903 Broadway production of "The Wizard of Oz." It was performed by the comedy team of Fred A. Stone and David C. Montgomery (and may have been written with them in mind). - SL
And a surprisingly topical item it is, because there was a "polar push" going on at the time, but the participants had a pretty astounding record of failures. So this was written with that record in mind -- and the play was so popular that L. Frank Baum dedicated the second Oz book, The Land of Oz, to Montgomery and Stone, "whose clever personations of the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow have delighted thousands of children throughout the land." Ray Bolger, the Scarecrow in the MGM musical, "admitted that his vaudeville hero was Fred Stone" (Loncraine, p. 284) -- indeed, he went into acting after seeing Stone perform; until then, he had just been following in his father's footsteps. When he was offered the role of the Tin Woodman, Bolger campaigned to get the Scarecrow role instead, because of Stone (Harmetz, p. 114).
The irony is that Baum had hoped to produce a Wizard of Oz musical, but the show that went on the stage was hardly his. Baum originally met an unknown composer named Paul Tietjens in 1901; Tietjens proposed that Baum write the libretto of a musical, that Tietjens prepare the music, and that Baum's illustrator W. W. Denslow manage art, costumes, etc. (Rogers, pp. 105-106). Their first idea was for a non-Oz-related show, but eventually (after a lot of fights about royalties and such) they came up with a "Wizard of Oz" musical.
Apparently Baum planned a traditional sort of comic show -- the Scarecrow as comedian, the Tin Woodman as straight man, the Cowardly Lion a clown (Rogers, p. 107). Baum offered the script to an experienced producer, Fred R. Hamlin. (That's "Hamlin" as in "Hamlin's Wizard Oil Songsters," according to Baum/Hearn, p. lvii, so there is a musical link.)
Hamlin liked the idea of adding a comic duo to the plot -- but thought the show needed work. He called in an experienced director, Julian Mitchell, to work on it. And work on it Mitchell did. Baum's plot was submerged in the comedy of the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman; Dorothy was made a woman rather than a girl (and attracted the attentions of one "Sir Dashemoff Daily"), and Toto the dog was transformed to a cow. Only eight of the Baum/Tietjens songs were retained (although one of them, "When You Love, Love, Love," was apparently the most popular in the show). Twenty other songs were added (Rogers, pp. 107-109), including this one -- note that it is not by Baum and Tietjens.
Baum may not have recognized the result of all this work, but it certainly paid off for him; the show ran for eight years, and Baum and Tietjens, despite their limited roles, are said to have earned close to a hundred thousand dollars each in royalties (Rogers, p. 109).
Gardner, p. 262, estimates that this was the eighth most popular song in America in May 1903 (#1 for the year being Charles K. Harris's "Always in the Way").
According to Riley, p. 78, the musical was so successful that it inspired Victor Herbert to write "Babes in Toyland," which of course is still well-known. Riley believes that "Babes" survives and the Oz musical does not because "Babes" had better tunes. This strikes me as likely, although I suspect the movie version of "The Wizard of Oz" also helped to displace the earlier musical. Interestingly, Victor Herbert would later hire Stone and Montgomery to perform in "The Red Mill" (and some of the other performers from the "Oz" musical were cast in the original production of "Babes in Toyland," according to Baum/Hearn, p. lxi).
Appelbaum, p. xlii, has two photos of Montgomery and Stone in the musical. One shows them as they sang this song, in nautical garb. The other is even more interesting. The Scarecrow costume looks pretty poor, but the Tin Woodman shows the Woodman with a funnel on his head, looking almost exactly like the costume used in the Wizard of Oz movie (the funnel, to be sure, goes back to the original book illustrations).
Whether this song was written with Stone and Montgomery in mind is perhaps a matter of definition. They did not audition for the musical; Mitchell -- who evidently already knew them -- actually called them back from a tour in England to play the parts. Supposedly Mitchell, upon meeting Stone, declared, "Fred, you are a perfect scarecrow." Stone, not knowing why he had been called back, responded that his clothes had been made by one of the best tailors in England. It is interesting to note that Stone and Montgomery would quit the show before its run ended, given that Stone met his wife on the set, and his brother Edwin got the part of Imogene the cow, the replacement for Toto (Gardner/Nye/Baum, p. 27).
Composer Vincent P. Bryan seems to have been fairly popular at the time; in addition to this, he wrote "Down Where the Wurzburger Flows" with Harry von Tilzer and "In My Merry Oldsmobile" with Gus Edwards.
At the time this song was written, the quest for the North Pole was looking much like the quest for the Northwest Passage fifty years earlier, or the quest to climb Mount Everest forty or fifty years later: Lots of attempts, little luck -- and the prospects for success rather poor.
Indeed, Mirsky observes (p. 293) that "In the recent history of Arctic Exploration undue stress was laid on the attainment of the North Pole. In 1896 Nansen showed conclusively by the Fram's drift across the polar basin that the Pole lay somewhere on a shifting, ice-covered sea, at a point that had to be mathematically determined." In other words, by the time this song was written, everyone knew that the North Pole was sea, not land; there would never be a base or research station there.
It's interesting to note that the serious quest for the North Pole began relatively late (though earlier than the quest for the South Pole); people had been seeking the Northwest Passage for years before they really started looking for the Pole. (For background on the quest for the Passage, see the notes to "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream)" [Laws K9].) Indeed, the first two serious Northward Nuts (Elisha Kent Kane and Charles Francis Hall) started their careers searching for Franklin's lost expedition. Charles Francis Hall managed to bring home some Franklin artifacts and tales, as well as relics from Frobisher's very first Northwest Passage quest -- but he also started a ridiculous story that Franklin's second-in-command Crozier was still alive as late as 1860.
The Pole expeditions never produced the casualties that the Franklin expedition did -- but only because no one was willing to send so many men.
The first fairly modern attempts to reach the pole were made in the early nineteenth century by the British Navy. The first, in 1818, was commanded by David Buchan in the Dorothea, with John Franklin in the Trent as his second-in-command. The goal was to go forward by ship, but they made it only about to the north end of Spitsbergen. They gave up after a long summer, their ships much battered but with the crews intact (Fleming-Barrow, pp. 52-55).
The second naval attempt, in 1827, was made by William Edward Parry, the Admiralty's darling boy for his near-conquest of the Northwest Passage in 1819. This time, the ship Hecla was only to take them to Spitzbergen; from there they would proceed with sledges and small boats. They quickly discovered that the polar ice was not smooth, so the sledges were slow, and that the ice had a southward drift. The expedition set a new record for "Farthest North" that would stand for half a century (Fleming-Barrow, pp. 239-240), but finally had to return.
That ended naval attempts at exploration; there just wasn't the money for more expeditions with such feeble results. When polar exploration resumed, it was largely done by amateurs, who found amazing ways to get in trouble.
It probably didn't help that, where the Northwest Passage expeditions were led by sober men like Parry and Franklin, many North Pole expeditions were organized by fruitcakes like Elisha Kent Kane, who had little contact with reality. (It is probably not coincidence that, when Farley Mowatt published a book about arctic exploration in the 1960s, it was entitled The Polar Passion; Bryce, pp. 944-945). In the expedition Kane commanded, he faced multiple near-mutinies, ended up eating rats, and finally lost his ship (Berton, pp. 250-258, 273-295). His problems may even have been genetic; reading histories of the Mormons, I find that his brother Thomas Leiper Kane was also given to wild plans, grandiose notions, and illnesses that sound psychosomatic. (T. L. Kane was not an explorer, but he mediated between the U. S. Government and the Mormons, and later became a Civil War general, with limited success.)
Charles Francis Hall had no relevant training (he was an engraver who had run a no-account newspaper in Cincinnati) and was given to prophetic dreams, quarrels with everyone, and perhaps a mild case of bipolar disorder; on an earlier expedition, he had murdered one of his crew, but was never prosecuted because no one could figure out which jurisdiction the case fell under (Henderson-Fatal, p. 44). At one point, he tried to forbid his sailors from cursing (Henderson-Fatal, p. 69), which has to be one of the most quixotic orders ever given.
Robert Peary, who came later, wasn't given to visions, but he was secretive to the point of paranoia, and so obsessed that he refused to have his toes treated for frostbite on one expedition. He ended up losing eight toes -- and being forced to stop anyway; see Berton, p. 525. Fleming-North, p. 284, calls him "probably the most unpleasant man in the annals of polar exploration," noting that in his youth he liked to trip his grandfather just to see the old man fall down. Bryce, p. 871, quotes an observer who said, "Peary strikes me as a man who never smiles except when he thinks it would be rude not to."
The Pole really did seem to lure people who were in it for the glory. This was utterly unlike the Northwest Passage expeditions, which had strong scientific components (John Franklin's Journey to the Polar Sea, for instance, which describes his disastrous 1819 expedition, notes that he was instructed to "register the temperature of the air at least three times in every twenty-four hours; together with the state of the wind and weather and any other meteorological phenomena. That I should not neglect any opportunity of observing and noting down the dip and variation of the magnetic needle, and the intensity of the magnetic force; and should take particular notice whether any, and what kind or degree of, influence the Aurora Borealis might exert on the magnetic needle..." and so forth. See the introduction to Franklin's work, p. 28 in the 2000 Brassey edition with introduction by James P. Delgado). Peary's sole goal and desire, by contrast, was to reach the Pole. So strong was Peary's obsession that, when he heard of other attempts, he gave orders to his subordinates to automatically discount them -- see Henderson-True, p. 210.
Hall's third expedition, 1871-1873, in the ship Polaris, shows how badly a polar expedition could fail: They made an incredible push northward, heading up Baffin Bay to the Kane Basin between Ellesmere Island and Greenland, then continuing up the Kennedy Channel to reach the north shore of Greenland at the place now called Hall Basin.
But the expedition crew by then was in near-total disarray, with a drunken ship's captain and a rebellious scientific staff (Henderson-Fatal, pp. 42-45, tells us that this conflict started before they even really reached the ice). Although George Tyson, clearly the best of the officers under Hall (though, unfortunately, he had no real role; Hall had hired him as a sort of spare captain), thought that Hall was energetic, persevering, courageous, and unselfish (Henderson-Fatal, p. 48), he also wondered how any expedition could survive such divisions. It is clear that Hall, who of course had no experience of military command, was unable to exert control. Yet, as events proved, the other senior officers (captain Buddington and senior scientist Bessels) were even worse. It was a disaster for the expedition when, in November 1871, Hall died.
Almost a century later (1968), Chauncey Loomis led an expedition that excavated Hall's grave -- and found he had been poisoned with arsenic.
Unlike the Franklin Poisoned By Lead theory, this doesn't seem to have been questioned, but it's not clear if it was murder or accident -- though Henderson-Fatal, p. 71, reports an ominous incident in which Captain Buddington, before Hall set out on his last sledge voyage, says that Hall won't live long. For the story, see Loomis, especially the epilogue starting on p. 303, which describes the trip to conduct the Hall autopsy. A shorter summary can be found in Berton, pp. 390-394. A third vivid account is found in Fleming-North, pp. 138-141. In Berton and Fleming, the pages before and after describe the horrid plight of the crew on the expedition, giving rather more detail than Loomis, who devotes most of his work to Hall himself.
Potter, writing long after Loomis, has another interesting footnote: that Hall (who, we should note, was married) and Dr. Bessels, the man who treated him and would have been the logical one to poison him if he had been poisoned, were both interested in the same woman! (Potter, p. 114). So we have motive, means, and opportunity, but no proof.
Other than Hall, most of the members of the expedition eventually made it home, but the Polaris was lost and the crew suffered extreme privations.
The 1879-1882 expedition of the Jeannette was worse. Paine, in the entry on the Jeanette, tells of how the former H.M.S. Pandora was sold to U. S. Navy Lt. George W. de Long. The ship was renamed for the sister of James Gordon Bennett, editor of the New York Herald, which had earlier sent reporter Henry M. Stanley into Africa to find Dr. Livingstone (Guttridge-Ice, p. 21) and who had also sent a reporter on de Long's one previous arctic expedition, to search for Hall's Polaris (Guttridge-Ice, p. 14). Bennett loved to publish exploration stories, so he decided to fund a new polar venture. At least, he promised to fund it. In practice, he demanded that de Long keep the cost under control, causing a lot of dangerous corner-cutting (Guttridge-Ice, pp. 41-44, etc.; Sides, p. 31, comments that when de Long struck his deal, he "could not [have] know[n] nof Bennett's many obsessions, his peculiar prejudices, his random gusts of spite or whimsy... [Bennett] was also New York's moodiest brat.") The ship's boilers were inefficient, she had divided objectives, she didn't acquire a tender until the last minute, and she really wasn't designed to withstand the ice. Some changes were made before she sailed, including strengthening of the sides -- but certainly not enough (Guttridge-Ice, pp. 55-56; Sides, pp. 105-107, describes what the experts at the Mare Island naval yard recommended, most of which didn't get done -- and much of what did get done was done while de Long was on the East Coast, so he didn't supervise it! The ship came out much stronger but did not handle well).
The ship's voyage began on July 8, 1879 (Guttridge-Ice, p. 2). On August 28, 1879, after numerous delays for this and that, Jeannette set out through the Bering Straight, to try to reach the Pole from western Canada. They were seeking the alleged open Polar Sea (the crazy idea that there was a large body of open water around the North Pole), even though the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey determined in that year that such a sea almost certainly did not exist (Guttridge-Ice, p. 80).
It was late in the year, and coal was relatively low (de Long was always profligate with fuel; he had gone through too much on the Polaris rescue mission, and on the trip to San Francisco -- Sides, pp. 99, 104 -- and had used it up at a prodigious rate pushing toward the Arctic; Guttridge-Ice, pp. 15, 63), but de Long didn't hesitate; he tried to make it as far north as possible even after the ice started to close in (Guttridge-Ice, pp. 80-81). He made little northward progress, and within days, the ship was trapped in the ice (Guttridge-Ice, p. 83).
It wasn't long before the ship sprung the first of several leaks (Guttridge-Ice, p. 114); it took all the ingenuity of chief engineer George Melville to rig enough pumps to keep the ship afloat (Guttridge-Ice, pp. 115-128, etc.) -- and even with all his exertions, much of the ship was flooded and many supplies destroyed, plus, until Melville managed a wind-powered pump, they were burning irreplaceable coal. And they were trapped in a trap they would never escape. They could perhaps have tried to leave the ship to reach Wrangel Island (which, until then, had been known as "Wrangel Land," because it wasn't until de Long passed north of it that it was demonstrated to be an island). They had sighted it just before they became trapped (Guttridge-Ice, pp. 79-81), and it would still have been within reach. But de Long wasn't ready to abandon ship for an unexplored island; not yet. (And, though he couldn't know it, Wrangel Island would prove very inhospitable for the crew of the Karluk thirty years later; see the notes to "Captain Bob Bartlett." Of course, de Long would have had his expedition in better shape than Bartlett had he abandoned immediately.)
The next summer, when they hoped to get free of the pack, they were able to make some repairs (Guttridge-Ice, p. 133 and following; Sides, p. 197 and following), but the ice had carried them north; it never quite thawed enough to let them loose. By the summer of 1881, they were passing north of the New Siberian Islands, several of which they had discovered and named (Guttridge-Ice, pp. 157-158). Several of them suffered lead poisoning in this period; even though the doctor figured out the source, several men were still debilitated when they had to abandon the ship (Sides, p. 201 and following). In June 1881, the ice finally destroyed the Jeannette (Guttridge-Ice, p. 163). The islands nearby were far too cold and small to support them; the crew sledged painfully over the ice, then upon reaching open water set out for home in three smaller boats they had hauled with them (Guttridge-Ice, pp. 185-190). Fleming-North, pp. 221-229, tells how they were separated in bad weather. One boat. commanded by De Long's executive officer Charles Chipp, simply vanished. Two landed near the outlet of the Lena river in Siberia, but not together. The crew led by engineer Melville managed to survive. De Long and his party starved to death. Before they died, de Long had sent his two strongest men to seek help, and they managed to survive and locate Melville. Melville, with the help of the Russian authorities, sought out de Long's party next spring, but none had survived (Sides, p. 385 and following). Between the loss of Chipp's party and the deaths among de Long's, over half the Jeanette's crew was killed.
Publisher Bennett probably got his money back from all the stories his reporters filed -- one even broke into the graves of the dead from the de Long party to check for whether there had been cannibalism. There hadn't (Sides, p.402).
The story of Adolphus Greely's party, which set out shortly after the Jeanette went missing, was similar, at least in terms of casualty rate (though de Long had been a much better leader). Greely and his party of 25 was sent to explore northern Ellesmere Island, gathering scientific data and perhaps making a run for the Pole. They were supposed to stay several years, with supplies arriving in summer. They were ill-equipped for the task; it was mostly an army signal corps expedition, and few men had arctic experience (Guttridge-Sabine, p. 7).
Even though the expedition had to sail north to their base at Lady Franklin Bay, was little inter-service cooperation (Greely had boats, but no navy men; apart from one former seaman and a sergeant brought up on Cape Breton, no one even knew how to manage a boat! -- Berton, p. 459). Greely had a congressional appropriation to outfit his party, but it was too small and long-delayed; it was nearly impossible for Greely to acquire the supplies he required with the money he had available (Guttridge-Sabine, pp. 39-47). He had a hard time finding the officers and specialists he needed. Finally, on deadline, the party set out despite not really being ready.
It didn't take long for trouble to arise. Greely had a strange notion of discipline (reading Guttridge-Sabine, pp. 117-118, and other passages, he seems to have been the sort who felt that forcing people to obey silly and arbitrary commands promoted military order; Berton, p. 437, calls him a martinet and humorless -- very bad for an expedition in the arctic, where initiative is key). He sacked his second in command (Guttridge-Sabine, pp. 64-66) almost the moment the expedition arrived at its destination, then (p. 118) started taking duties away from the doctor/naturalist. When trouble came, he was in a position where he had no intelligent subordinates whose advice he could trust.
The first supply ship, which was supposed to arrive in 1882, never showed up; the army bureaucracy in effect placed all the arrangements in the hands of a private, who was given conflicting orders and had no useful experience (Guttridge-Sabine, pp. 92-97); the ship he chartered was blocked by ice, and he gave up after caching a bare handful of the supplies he had brought (Guttridge-Sabine, pp. 100-101). Not long after, the private would die of a drug overdose (Guttridge-Sabine, p. 203).
The ship involved, the Neptune (Guttridge-Sabine, p. 92), was a Newfoundland whaler/sealer that is mentioned in several songs; see the notes to "Neptune, Ruler of the Sea."
The next year's supply expedition was bigger -- it included the Proteus, which had brought the expedition north in the first place, and the naval vessel Yantic -- but the Yantic was neither fitted nor supplied for the ice (Guttridge-Sabine, p. 130), and the Proteus ended up "nipped"; she sank with most of her supplies (Guttridge-Sabine, p. 138). Plagued by indiscipline in the transport's crew (her excellent complement of two years earlier having been replaced by a different and more mutinous bunch; see e.g. Guttridge-Sabine p. 139), it took some effort just to get the relief expedition home; they left no supplies (Guttridge-Sabin, pp. 144-146). As with the Neptune, several of the ships involved on this occasion (the Arctic and the Aurora; Guttridge-Sabine, p. 270; Lubbock, p. 415); are mentioned in other songs; for the Aurora, see expecially "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full" and "The Old Polina"; for the Arctic, see "The Old Polina." But the Arctic and Aurora bear no blame in the failure of the expedition; they merely led the way for the relief ships as they went on their normal whaling trips.
After two years without contact, Greely decided to abandon Fort Conger, the base on northern Ellesmere. This was written into his instructions: if he hadn't been resupplied by September 1, 1883, he would depart. After 721 days at their base, Greely decided to leave just a little early, on August 9 (Guttridge-Sabine, p. 152; Berton, p. 448). Greely can hardly be blamed; while there was still sufficient food for at least another year, the men were unhappy (especially with him, as it would prove), and travel in the arctic winter was never easy.
What followed showed the disastrous effects of inadequate planning; Greely did not really know what course to take, and made assorted errors along the way. He took too many records and equipment (which could always have been recovered from Fort Conger at a later date) and too few rations. Plus, as an example of the nut case he was, he insisted on hauling along his heavy dress uniform (Berton, p. 458). Had everything gone exactly as planned, he had just enough food to get to where he was going (Guttridge-Sabine, p. 157)
But nothing ever goes according to plan in the arctic. The engineer in charge of keeping the motorboat's engine running was an alcoholic, and Greely couldn't keep him sober (Berton, p. 459; Guttridge-Sabine, p. 158, 162, etc.). Greely eventually decided to take passage on an ice floe, leading the rest of the expedition to discuss mutiny (Berton, p.. 460; Guttridge-Sabine, p. 163-164). Greely himself fell in the water, and though he was rescued, many of the party thought he should have been left to drown (Guttridge-Sabine, p. 164). His failed planning caused one of the boats to be destroyed (Guttridge-Sabine, p. 173). Even his most reliable sergeant described this part of the trip as "madness" (Guttridge-Sabine, pp. 198-199). The map in Guttridge-Sabine, p. 213 shows how the ice drove them around the Kane Basin as they tried to get to the island known as Cape Sabine; twice they came within sight of it only to have the ice turn them around).
As all this went on, the Yantic headed south on September 15 (Guttridge-Sabine, p. 171), and the war department decided not to send further help (Guttridge-Sabine, p. 184).
Greely's crew came ashore south of their destination at Cape Sabine, with some of the men starting to become ill from their ordeal (Berton, p. 462). They had perhaps three months' worth of food to last the entire arctic winter (Berton, pp. 463-464). They built a shelter that was more cave than hut (25 feet long, 18 wide, but only 5 feet high; Guttridge-Sabine, p. 222), and basically prepared for rescue or death. (They hoped at first to be able to sledge to the Greenland side, but the ice, for once, never closed over the passage, and they were too debilitated to try the remaining boats; Guttridge-Sabine, p. 239).
By New Year's, the doctor was amputating a soldier's foot and fingers due to frostbite (Guttridge-Sabine, p. 226). They had lived at Fort Conger for two years without scurvy, but now, with little fresh food, the traces began to appear; when the first man died on January 18, 1884, it was of a mix of scurvy and starvation (Guttridge-Sabine, p. 234; Berton, p. 469).
Ironically, Greely, a failure until this point, managed to be a good fairly leader at this time (Berton, p. 472), rationing the food and keeping the the men relatively sane (Berton, pp. 467). But they slowly died off due to malnutrition. There were several instances where men stole food (Berton, pp. 467, 470, 473, etc.); in the end, they had to execute the worst thief, who had enlisted under an assumed name to hide his history (Berton, p. 475; Guttridge-Sabine, p. 272, says that he was not really given a trial, simply shot -- though he admits that, in the circumstances, the formality of a court-martial "was out of the question"). On the last day before rescue, when the tent by the burial plot (to which they had moved their base, Guttridge-Sabine, p. 266) fell in, no one was strong enough to put it up again. And it was later shown that someone had engaged in cannibalism (Berton, pp. 484-485). It was probably the doctor, since it was skillfully done and ceased at about the time he died (none of the men who died after him had any flesh removed), but Guttridge-Sabine, pp. 271, 275, offers a few cryptic hints that others might have been involved.
By early June, the deaths were happening almost daily, and the survivors had no strength left to bury the corpses; the last one was simply pushed out into the snow. When they were finally rescued in the fourth week of the month, only seven men were still alive, and one of them was the man who had had his feet amputated; he would soon after die of his injuries, leaving only six. Out of 25 who had set out. Apparently only two were still relatively mobile when found. Greely was the only officer to live.
A constant theme of Polar expeditions, repeated in exploratory party after exploratory party, is men who went out of control. Some of this, no doubt, is commanders who didn't know how to command (even Peary was a civil engineer, not a line officer). But I wonder a little about seasonal affective disorder. In any case, in 1903, the quest for the pole had a worse record than the quest for the Passage had shown when Franklin set out.
No wonder, then, that the repeated Polar expeditions became the subject of mirth: What sane person would risk what the explorers had been through? Besides, there were all the mad inventor types the quest encouraged: Peary was mailed ideas for building a wooden tunnel to the pole, for building a pipe to transport hot soup, and to fire himself to the pole by cannon (Henderson-True, p. 185; compare Fleming-North, p. 353).
In 1904, about the time this song came out, Peary founded the Peary Arctic Club with the declared mission of "altering... public opinion so that existing prejudice against Arctic work would be lessened" (Henderson-True, p. 159). You almost wonder the song and the club were cause and effect.
Note that the Pole was not reached until 1908 at the earliest (by Cook and/or Peary, for whom see below), five years after this song was performed -- and it was probably much later. The first person we are certain saw the North Pole was Roald Amundsen and the crew of the dirigible Norge, which flew over the pole in 1926.
This was days after Robert Byrd's attempt to fly over the Pole. Although Byrd claimed success, the evidence is against him (for Byrd's failure, see Roberts, pp. 155-168).
Roberts, pp. 159-160, summarizes the case against Byrd: In trials, his plane never exceeded 75 miles per hour, and was slower with landing skis, but his flight time of only fifteen and a half hours meant he had to average 87 miles per hour to reach the pole. He returned with an engine leaking oil, which would have forced him to turn around as soon as it was noticed, whether he had reached the Pole or not. And his only sextant had been broken, so that, even if the readings were accepted, the instrument's error could not be checked.
It was very Peary-like: No one could prove Byrd didn't make it, but there was no good evidence and the claim required travel speeds while unobserved which Byrd had never managed while observed. Byrd's claim isn't as outrageous as Peary's -- he claimed a tailwind helped him out, which at least means he acknowledged the problem -- but the probability is low. And he went to great lengths to hide his records; Roberts, p. 164. Bryce, p. 921, makes the interesting point that the man who "verified" Byrd's record was the same one who "'proved,' and improved, Peary's observations at the 'Pole.'"
The following list shows key dates in the quest for the North Pole (adapted from Berton, p. 637 and following).
1818 - David Buchan's expedition from Spitzbergen (two ships, the other commanded by Lt. John Franklin)
1827 - William Edward Parry's expedition from Spitzbergen passes the latitude of 82 degrees N
1860-1861 - An American expedition under Isaac Hayes seeks (and naturally fails to find) the "Open Polar Sea"; it also produces some hideously inaccurate maps (Berton, pp. 353-364; Fleming-North, pp. 61-78)
1871-1873 - North Pole expedition of the Polaris (Hall's third northward expedition, but the first devoted to the Pole rather than Franklin), which features the death of Hall and the stranding of half his crew; see description above
1875-1876 - British naval expedition under George Nares. This is the last try by the British navy, and it does briefly set a new Farthest North record -- but scurvy, which the Admiralty thought it had solved, forces the expedition home a year early (Berton, pp. 413-429; Fleming-North, pp. 161-186)
1879-1882 - Jeannette expedition, described above. All told, 20 out of 33 involved die.
1881-1884 - Adolphus Greely explores Ellesmere Island and his team sets a new "farthest north" record, but only six of 25 survive (due mostly to American government errors), and at least one man was guilty of cannibalism
1886 - Robert Peary fails to cross Greenland (crossing Greenland may not sound like a big deal, but the island is all glacier; there is no life at all for hunters to harvest, and the Inuit wouldn't go near the interior. Had Peary succeeded, it would have been a testimony to his techniques; also, there was at the time a hope that Greenland might provide a route to the Pole). Peary also claims to chart shoreline later shown not to exist
1888 - Fridtjof Nansen crosses Greenland
1891-1892 - Another Peary expedition to Greenland. He doesn't chart any more territory -- and makes off with sacred and irreplaceable Inuit artifacts which he sells entirely for his own profit. Later he will lure six Inuit back to "civilization" where they will become the victims of "scientific" experimentation; all will die young, and it will be decades before their bones are returned north for burial
1893-1895 - Nansen, using a new type of boat (the Fram) and later sledges, sets a new Farthest North but does not reach the pole
1897 - Salomon Andrée tries and fails to reach the pole by balloon. He and his crew make it back to the uninhabited islands of Franz Joseph Land but die there; their bodies are not discovered for more than thirty years
1898-1902 - Another Peary expedition fails -- this time leaving Peary with damaged feet
1899-1900 - Abruzzi expedition sets another Farthest North record but doesn't approach the Pole
1901-1902 - Ziegler/Baldwin expedition from Norway fails to reach the pole
1903-1905 - Ziegler/Fiala expedition, again from Norway, fails with the loss of the ship America
1905-1906 - Peary fails again. He claimed to reach a new "Farthest North," but at least some observers doubt his data (Larson, p. 110) -- and we have very good reason to think he futzed his data in his next expedition. In both expeditions, he claimed his fastest sledge runs at times when there was no one who could verify his numbers (Rawlins, p. 68).
1908-1909 - Peary claims to reach the Pole (April 6, 1909). So does Dr. Frederick Albert Cook (April 21, 1908).
Examination of the incomplete records of Cook and Peary makes it unlikely that either ever made the Pole -- but Peary saw to it that Cook's instruments and many of his records were lost, making it impossible for Cook to offer proper evidence for his claims. (In fact, Bryce, p. 848, notes that Peary began a six-part plan to discredit Cook the moment he learned the doctor had set out for the pole. To make things even harder for Cook, an accident also destroyed many of his photos -- Bryce, pp. 335 -- but these probably would not have affected the case, since they were taken before his run for the pole.)
In addition, Edward Barrill, who had accompanied Cook on an expedition to Mt. McKinley (Bryce, p. 280, etc.), released a report claiming Cook never made the summit (Henderson-True, pp. 267-269, offers evidence that Barrill's account was made up after the fact and that he was paid by Peary supporters to concoct it, and Bryce, p. 797, says that Barrill definitely *was* paid a great deal for producing it, but Fleming-North, p. 386, offers evidence that Cook's description doesn't match reality, and Roberts, pp. 120-124, covers attempts to retrace Cook's actual footsteps, which allowed them to take photos which matches Cook's but from points other than where he said he took them). With Cook's claim definitely unprovable, and with his reputation damaged, Peary's equally unprovable claim was accepted almost by default (for details on this, see the notes to "Captain Bob Bartlett").
So did Cook or Peary reach the pole? The controversy continued for years, with Cook's supporters and his descendants fighting to clear his name until the last of them died out. Cook's case is much weakened by his lack of observations; indeed, there are charges that he could not so much as use a sextant to find his latitude (Bryce, p. 860fff.). Peary's partisans also stuck to their guns, and the National Geographic Society apparently still refuses to re-examine the matter; they initially accepted Peary's claim -- after all, they had supported his expedition; in fact they never really tested his data. Forty years later, just discussing the matter was enough to get Walt Gonnason thrown out of their offices (Bryce, p. 747). They still maintain that attitude; the eighth edition of their World Atlas (no copyright date but released after 2000) still lists him as the first to reach the pole (Roberts, pp. 153-154, considers this to be the result of loyalty to its own reputation).
Of other authorities I checked, Henderson-True thinks Cook made it and Peary may have. Asimov does not state an explicit opinion but strongly implies that Peary made it and Cook didn't. Berton thinks neither did (though Berton, whose general policy is to consider everyone a disreputable idiot, does make the observation that, though Peary didn't reach the Pole, he came closer than anyone else to go there solely by muscle power, without support from aircraft, and returning under his own power; see p. 624). Roberts of course is sure that neither Cook nor Peary made it. Fleming thinks Peary didn't but doesn't see why it matters (a view more meaningful in hindsight: We now know there is no land under the pole, so there is no real distinction between 88 or 89 or 90 degrees north. But Peary *didn't* know that -- in fact, he reported seeing land that wasn't there -- and he wasn't doing science anyway). The 1972 edition ofWebster's Geographical Dictionary did not mention Peary and says the Pole was first crossed by foot and dogsled 1968-1969, though the 1998 edition credits Peary with reaching the Pole while admitting the claim is disputed.
Bryce, p. 876, makes an interesting observation. On p. 864, he hypothesizes that the navigationally-challenged Cook might have tried to reach the Pole by "following the magnetic meridian." This in fact would not work, but Cook might have thought it would. This allows two possibilities: That he was trying to cheat all along -- or that he tried his meridian trick, came back thinking he had made it, learned when he returned that his method was not adequate -- but tried to revive his claim once he realized that Peary's 1909 effort had not reached the Pole. But, as Bryce points out, Cook's behavior would have been much the same either way, so we can't tell which is true. I will admit that I find much of Cook's behavior incomprehensible, making me wonder if he was entirely sane; it's interesting that several other witnesses cited by Bryce (pp. 844, 901), including Roald Amundsen, thought the same thing -- and, indeed, the Arctic was good at driving people mad; see again "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream)" [Laws K9]. Bryce, however, does not accept this explanation.
Bryce's first conclusion on Peary (p. 880) is that "All of Peary's actions after April 6, 1909... give every indication of a guilty man trying to shield his greatest deceit from the spotlight of any impartial investigation. Moreover, evidence preserved by Peary himself shows that all his expeditions before 1909 had produced exaggerated or false claims." Interestingly, though Bryce absolutely rejects Cook's claim to have reached the Pole, he considers his story of attaining it far more plausible than Peary's (p. 916).
At this time, the matter probably cannot be settled by direct evidence; we must rely on the (very strong) indirect evidence. Hence my firm belief that neither Cook or Peary made it to the pole.
Even if you disagree, I would make a secondary observation: We don't let athletes who use steroids earn credit for winning races. Nor are candidates who commit vote fraud generally allowed to win elections. Why shouldn't Peary be held to the same standard? Did he reach the Pole? Maybe. Did he lie (to the Inuit), cheat (Bartlett, whom he had promised to take to the Pole), and steal (from Cook and from the Inuit -- taking at various times their meteorites, their people to be museum exhibits, and, for his last expedition, their much-needed dogs; Bryce, p. 332)? Yes. Indeed, at one point, his behavior could be called murder, since he refused to allow a doctor to treat Inuit who needed help (Bryce, pp. 319-320). By today's definitions, he was guilty of abduction and perhaps even rape of underage girls (Bryce, p. 341) and child pornography (Roberts, between pages 100 and 101, reprints one of his nude photos of a 14-year-old Inuit girl). Bryce, p. 854, reports that some Inuit labelled him "the great tormentor" for decades. His behavior should disallow his claim.
Incidentally, the first people to stand at the Pole may not have arrived (by plane) until 1953 (Roberts, p. 166). And, although trips to the North Pole are now almost routine (since a traveler in trouble can always radio for help and be rescued by air), the arctic has not entirely relented since Peary's time. Alfred Wegener, who did noteworthy work on meteorology and lunar craters and who invented the modern theory of Continental Drift in the period before the first world war (though it did not come to be accepted until decades after his death) sought evidence for his theories in Greenland, and died there in 1930 when the expedition ran into trouble (Asimov, p. 595; Gribbin, p. 448). And, of course, no less a man than Roald Amundsen died on the polar cap while searching for the survivors of another wreck (Asimov, p. 561; Mirsky, pp. 314, 317). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Harl230

Hurrah for Greer County

See Starving to Death on a Government Claim (The Lane County Bachelor) (File: R186)

Hurrah for Matrimonial Joys

DESCRIPTION: "Tra la la la, I'm father of a family, Three small girls and four small boys, Jack, John, Jim, Joe, Mary, Jane and Emily -- Hurrah for matrimonial joys."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: father children
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 20, "(Tra la la la, I''m father of a family)" (1 short text)
Roud #25482
File: KSUC020

Hurrah for the Rover and His Beautiful Lass

See The Pirate's Serenade (File: CrMa152)

Hurrah, Hurrah, Hurrah!

DESCRIPTION: German shanty. Sailors arrive in David street in Hamburg where they can buy girls for five pennies. Song enumerates various girls and their attributes. The sailors spend all the money and go back to sea.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty sailor whore sex money
FOUND IN: Germany
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 138-140, "Hurrah, Hurrah, Hurrah!" (2 texts-German & English, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Wat Wi Doht
David Straat
File: Hugi138

Hurrah, Lie!

See Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

Hurrah, Sing Fare Ye Well

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "We're bound away to Callyo, Hurrah sing fare ye well. Oh fare ye well, me Liverpool gal, Hurrah sing fare ye well." Verses have vague courting, whoring, and sailing themes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty separation farewell
FOUND IN: US Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 119-120 "Hurrah, Sing Fare Ye Well" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 102-103]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Goodbye, Sing Fare You Well
Fare Ye Well
My Bonnie Young Girl
File: Hugi119

Hurricane Wind

See A Gentleman of Exeter (The Perjured Maid) [Laws P32] (File: LP32)

Hurry Sundown

DESCRIPTION: "My seed is sown now, my field is plowed; My flesh is bone now, my back is bowed. So hurry, sundown, be on your way, And hurry me a sun-up from this beat-up sundown day." The singer hopes the next day will be better
AUTHOR: E. Y. Harburg & Earl Robinson (source: LyricFind)
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (recording, Peter, Paul and Mary)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 539, "Hurry Sundown" (notes only)
File: ACSF539H

Hurry Up, Harry

See The Lumber Camp Song (File: Doe210)

Husband Lamenting the Death of the Wife, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come, my dear friends, and mourn with me In my afflicted state. I am bereaved, as you may see, Of my dear loving mate." He tells his grief, notes how the children miss their mother, and says it is God's will
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety), from a diary of the Civil War era
KEYWORDS: husband wife death loneliness orphan
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 467, "The Husband Lamenting the Death of the Wife" (1 text)
Roud #7957
File: Beld467B

Husband With No Courage In Him, The

See My Husband's Got No Courage in Him (File: K213)

Husband-man and the Servant-man, The

See The Husbandman and the Servingman (File: K226)

Husband's Departure, The

DESCRIPTION: The husband prepares to go to war against the south. His wife tries to dissuade him. He says she would not respect him if he were a coward. He finally convinced her and departs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: husband wife battle Civilwar dialog
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 378-39, "The Husband's Departure" (1 text)
Roud #7761
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rolling Stone" [Laws B25] (form, lyrics)
NOTES [30 words]: Sort of a cross between "The Rolling Stone" (which Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety lists as a probable source) and Lovelace's "To Lucasta, Going to the Wars." - RBW
File: Beld378

Husband's Dream, The

See The Drunkard's Dream (I) (File: R307)

Husbandman and the Servingman, The

DESCRIPTION: A husbandman and a servingman meet and discuss their occupations. The servant describes all the rich people he associates with; the husbandman details the pleasure of a good season in the fields. The servingman wishes he had chosen the other occupation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland); 17C (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: work dialog farming servant
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 144-145, "The Servingman and the Husbandman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 112-115, "The Husbandman and the Servingman" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 512)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Poem #10, pp. 42-46,241, "A Dialogue between the Husband-man and the Serving-man" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 264-269, "God SPeed the Plow, and Bless the Corn-Mow," ""A Dialogue Between the Husbandman and the Servingman" (2 texts)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 226, "The Husband-man and the Servant-man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, pp. 8-9, "The Husbandman and the Serving Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 117-120, "I Am the Duke of Norfolk, or Paul's Steeple" (1 text plus various excerpts, 1 tune, said by Kennedy to be this piece -- a statement going back at least to Bell)
cf. Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 282-283, "Paul's Steeple, or I Am the Duke of Norfolk" (1 tune, partial text, said by Kennedy to be this piece -- a statement going back at least to Bell)
DT, HUSBSERV
ADDITIONAL: J.O. Halliwell, The Loyal Garland (London, 1850 ("Digitized by Google")), Song #78 pp. 66-69, "The Husband-man and Serving-man"
cf. Enid Porter, _The Folklore of East Anglia_, Batsford, 1974, p. 68, "(I am the Duke of Norfolk)" (1 text)
Roud #873
RECORDINGS:
Mummers from Symondsbury, "The Symondsbury & Eype Mummer's Play & The Singing of the Travels" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741, FSB9)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me)" (theme: professional comparison) and references there
cf. "Buttercup Joe" (subject, a few phrases)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Singing of the Travels
NOTES [145 words]: Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, discussing the Halliwell text as "the oldest printed version of this dialog", comparing it to Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs's own text which comes from Davies Gilbert's Ancient English Carols: "the words are only slightly different from those given above, except that in the last verse, the second line runs, "Pray for the peace of old England," in allusion to the Civil Wars, from which the collection dates." - BS
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland claims that Chappell's piece "I Am the Duke of Norfolk" is this tune. This overstates the case -- Chappell's tune is similar but not identical in the tenor line. And neither tune is the one I know. "I Am the Duke of Norfolk" is, however, a popular tune; it is cited many times in the Broadside Ballad Index (ZN338, ZN1208, ZN1839, ZN2168, ZN2570, ZN2671, ZN2955). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: K226

Hush a Bye

See Hush-oh-bye Baby (File: LeBe054)

Hush a Bye Baby

See Hush-oh-bye Baby (File: LeBe054)

Hush Alee

DESCRIPTION: "I sit up all night with the fire burning bright, While rocking my baby to sleep, Singing, 'Hush a-le la lee, hush a-lo lee, Your daddy will come by and by, So close your eyes and go to sleep, Your dear mother she is tired, Singing hush alee..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: lullaby nonballad father mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H591b, p. 6, "Hush Alee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 343, "Hush, Little Babbie" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HUSHALEE*
Roud #2158
NOTES [83 words]: It's far from certain that these songs are the same. Kennedy, who knew the Henry collection, did not equate them, speculating instead that "Hush, Little Babbie" came from a Gaelic original.
But both the Kennedy and Henry texts are from Northern Ireland, and they share lines and somewhat similar choruses. I decided to equate them.
The text cited in the description is from Henry. Kennedy's version has a curious floating segment, "Where are you going, my old man, Where are you going, my honey?" - RBW
File: HHH591b

Hush and Baloo, Babie

DESCRIPTION: "Hush and baloo, babie, Hush and baloo; A' the lave's in their beds -- I'm hushin' you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: lullaby baby
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1548, "Hush-a-Baloo"; Greig/Duncan8 1549, "Oh Hush-a-Baloo"; Greig/Duncan8 1550, "Hush and Baloo, Babie" (3 short texts, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 13, ("Hush and baloo, babie")
Roud #13514
NOTES [78 words]: "The favourite old Scottish term for a lullaby is the baloo." (source: Ewan McVicar, Doh Ray Me, When Ah Wis Wee (Edinburgh, 2007), p. 9)
The current description is all of the Chambers text, which is very close to Greig/Duncan 1550. Roud lumps Greig/Duncan8 1548, 1549 and 1550 together. What text there is is very close and the most "complete" text is the one quoted in the description. There seems little point, just considering the texts, in separating them. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1548

Hush You (The Black Douglas)

DESCRIPTION: "Hush you, hush you, Little pet you, Hush you, hush you, Dinna fret you, The Black Douglas Shall not get you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Montgomerie)
KEYWORDS: lullaby
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 137, "(Hush you, hush you)" (1 text)
NOTES [284 words]: Whether this is a traditional song I do not know -- but it's old enough to have folklore about it. Unfortunately, I don't remember the source, but the tale went as follows:
A singer, high in a castle, was singing "The Black Douglas shall not get you" to her bairn, when Douglas, who was raiding the castle and had come up behind her, announced, "I'm not so sure of that."
Probably too good to be true, to be sure.
The Douglas family arose to prominence in the reign of Robert I Bruce (King of Scotland 1306-1329); Sir James Douglas (died 1330) was Bruce's right-hand man, and I seem to recall one version of the above story in which he was the Douglas involved.
But James Douglas was not a "Black Douglas"; at the time, there was but the one Douglas family. His descendants became Earls of Douglas. It was the second Earl, another James, who died young at Otterburn (for which see "The Hunting of the Cheviot [Child 162]"). He had no direct heir, so the Douglas family split into Red and Black branches.
The Black Douglases were the stronger -- indeed, they were the strongest family in Scotland, probably stronger than the King. For half a century, they were a constant menace, until James II killed William Douglas (the eighth earl) in 1452. His brother James succeeded as ninth earl, but was driven into exile a few years later, and the Douglases were finally broken.
Thus this piece, if real, would have to date from between 1388 and 1455. Probably it comes from the earlier end of that period, in the period of the most intense border wars -- which were not really battles between England and Scotland; like Otterburn, they were between the Percies of Northumbria and the Douglases of Lothian. - RBW
File: MSNR137

Hush-a-Ba Baby On a Tree Top

See Rock-A-Bye Baby (File: Wa190)

Hush-a-Ba Baby, Dinna Mak' a Din

DESCRIPTION: "Hush-a-ba baby, dinna mak' a din": "ye'll get a fishie when the boats come in" or "ye'll get a piece when the baker comes in"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Maclagan)
KEYWORDS: food lullaby nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,High))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1561, "Hush-a-Ba Baby, Dinna Mak' a Din" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: R.C. Maclagan, "Additions to _The Games of Argyleshire_" in Folk-Lore, (London, 1905 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XVI, p. 453, ("Hush-a-baa baby, dinna mak' a din")
Roud #13510
NOTES [66 words]: The Greig/Duncan8 verse is the "fishie" one. Compare this to the "Dance To Your Daddy" line "You shall have a fish and you shall have a fin, You shall have a coddlin' when the boat comes in." McVicar considers this fragment a version of that song; however, his other versions do not have a "hush-a-ba baby" line (see Ewan McVicar, Doh Ray Me, When Ah Wis Wee (Edinburgh, 2007), pp. 15-17). - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81561

Hush-a-Ba Baby, Lie Doon

DESCRIPTION: "Hush-a-ba baby, lie doon, Your mammy's awa to the toon And when she comes back ye'll get a wee drap -- Hush-a-ba baby lie doon"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: lullaby baby mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1554, "Hush-a-Ba Baby, Lie Doon" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #13515
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1554

Hush-a-ba Birdie, Croon

DESCRIPTION: "Sheep/kye's are gane to the silver wood," "the coos are gane to the broom." It's good to milk cows while the birds sing, bells ring, and deer gallop by. Goats/sheep are in the mountains and won't be back till noon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: lullaby nonballad animal bird sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 125, "The Kye's Gane to the Sillar Wode" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 125, "Huah-a-ba Birdie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 13, "Huah-a-ba Birdie" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 16, "A Lullaby" ("Hush-a-ba birdie, croon, croon"); Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 23-24, ("Ba, wee birdie, birdie") (2 texts)
Robert Ford, Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories (Paisley, 1904 (2nd edition, "Digitized by Google")), pp. 128-129, "Hush-a-ba Birdie, Croon" (1 text)
Roud #15101
File: LyCr2125

Hush-a-Bye, Baby

DESCRIPTION: The singer is forty-five with a young wife who "loves to go out on a spree" leaving him to watch the baby. One night he goes out for a stroll while the baby is sleeping and "my dear wife I spied hugging a soldier sixteen"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: infidelity marriage baby wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 115, "Hush-a-Bye, Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab115 (Full)
Roud #9971
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)" (theme)
cf. "Unhappy Jeremiah (The Brats of Jeremiah)" (plot)
File: LLab115

Hush-a-bye, Baby, On The Tree Top

See Rock-A-Bye Baby (File: Wa190)

Hush-a-Bye, Don't You Cry

See All the Pretty Little Horses (File: LxU002)

Hush-oh-bye Baby

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a woman with her three children on a sleeting night. She say her husband, a farmer, was killed in town by a gang. She spent all she had to bury him and was put on the road when she could not pay rent. She and the babies die of the cold.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: poverty burial death children mother husband storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 54, "Hush-oh-bye Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #28971
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best, "Hush-o-bye Baby" (on NFABest01)
John James, "Hush a Bye" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
John Molloy, "Hush a Bye Baby" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Three Perished in the Snow" [Laws G32] (plot)
cf. "It Was Early One Cold Winter's Morning" (theme)
NOTES [67 words]: In the song the couple are said to live "in a place they called Newton Perry." Newton Perry is a sector of Limerick City, County Limerick, Ireland (source: inforing Ireland Gateway site). Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou (viz., Anita Best): "This is no doubt a song which originated in Ireland where, in the nineteenth century, evictions of poor tenant farmers unable to pay rent was extremely common." - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LeBe054

Hush, Baby, Don't You Cry

See Hush, Little Baby (File: SBoA164)

Hush, Be Still as Any Mouse

DESCRIPTION: "Hush, be still as any mouse, There's a baby in the house. Not a dolly, not a toy, Nothing but a baby boy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle)
KEYWORDS: lullaby nonballad baby
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 103, "Lullaby" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7511
File: Boet103

Hush, Honey, Hush

See Go Slow, Boys (Banjo Pickin') (File: R278)

Hush, Li'l' Baby

See Hush, Little Baby (File: SBoA164)

Hush, Little Babbie

See Hush Alee (File: HHH591b)

Hush, Little Baby

DESCRIPTION: "Hush little baby, don't say a word, Papa's gonna buy you a mockingbird. And if that mockingbird won't sing. Papa's gonna buy you...." And so forth, through many objects, ending "And if that () won't (), you'll still be the prettiest little baby in town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: lullaby bird commerce gift
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Randolph 359, "Mamma, Mamma, Have You Heard?" (1 short text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 196, "Swapping Songs" (4 text plus 2 excerpts, with most texts being "The Swapping Boy," but "E" and "F" are this song)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 196, "Swapping Songs" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes; the "A" version is "The Swapping Boy"; the "E" version is "Hush Little Baby")
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 100, "(Mama, Mama, don't say a word)" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 96, "Hush, Li'l' Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 234, "The Mocking Bird" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Peacock, p. 15, "Lullaby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #558, p. 228, "(Hush, little baby, don't say a word)"
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 113, "Mockin' Bird" (1 text, described as a parody, but it's basically this song except that eventually father gets so angry with all the disasters that he is likely to spank the boy)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, p. 164, "Hush, Little Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 61, "Hush, Little Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 224-225, "Mockingbird" (1 text, with some unusual verses; the ending may be a parody)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 409, "Hush Little Baby" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 322, 342, 389, "Hush Little Baby" (notes only)
OneTuneMore, p. 38, "Hush, Little Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #351, "Mother, mother, have you heard?" (1 text)
DT, HUSHLIL*
Roud #470
RECORDINGS:
Texas Gladden, "Hush, Baby, Don't You Cry" (AFS 5233 A4; on USTGladden01)
Mrs. Frank Tompkins, "Lullaby" (on PeacockCDROM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Say, Darling, Say" (lyrics, tune)
cf. "Mamma's Goin' to Buy Him a Little Lap Dog (Come Up Horsie)" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "I Would That I Were Where I Wish" (format)
cf. "Three Little Angels" (tune
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mockingbird Song
Papa's Going to Buy Me a Mockingbird
NOTES [104 words]: An Ozark version of this song ends "If that lookin-glass doesn't shine, Papa's going to shoot that beau of mine!" -- referring to a belief that mirrors only shone for chaste women.
Although this particular song seems to have become popular only recently, the form with progressive items is old; Gammer Gurton's Garland (1784), for instance, has a version of the item we index as "There Was a Man of Double Deed" beginning
A man of words and not of deeds
Is like a garden full of weeds;
And when the weeds begin to grow,
It's like a garden full of snow;
And when the snow begins to fall,
It's like a bird upon the wall.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SBoA164

Hush, Little Baby (II)

See Jesus Done Taken My Drifting Hand (File: Br3580)

Hush, Little Bonnie

See More Pretty Girls Than One (File: CSW192)

Hush, My Babe

See Hush, My Dear, Lie Still and Slumber (File: Grim100A)

Hush, My Dear, Lie Still and Slumber

DESCRIPTION: "Hush, my (dear/babe), lie still and slumber; Holy angels guard thy bed." "Soft and easy is thy cradle, Coarse and hard thy Savior lay, When his birthplace was a stable And his softest bed was hay." The singer grows angry about the treatment of Jesus
AUTHOR: Words: Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
EARLIEST DATE: reportedly written 1715
KEYWORDS: lullaby Jesus animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW) Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #75, "Lullaby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 100, "Hush, My Babe" (1 text)
Thomas-DevilsDitties,p. 79, "Hush, My Babe" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 119, "Watts' Cradle Hymn" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 133, "Hush, My Babe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8885
NOTES [39 words]: I found an online version of this that is fourteen stanzas long, and frankly not much good. This is much better as a short lullaby than as a long diatribe....
For more on Isaac Watts, see the notes to "O God, Our Help in Ages Past." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Grim100A

Hush! Here Comes a Whizz-Bang

DESCRIPTION: "Hush! here comes a whizz-bang (x2)! Now, you soldiers, get down those stairs, Down in your dugouts and say your prayers. Hush! here comes a whizz-bang, And it's making straight for you" and the listener will end up in No Man's Land if it hits
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier war injury
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 54, "Hush! Here comes a Whizz-Bang" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 71, "Hush! Here Comes a Whizz-Bang" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10527
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hush! Here Comes the Dream Man" (tune)
NOTES [63 words]: Whizz-bangs were small shells fired by field artillery. Unlike large shells, they were fired at short range and on a low trajectory, so there was none of the sound of a large shell coming in at terminal velocity (which was much slower than the speed of sound). Whizz-bang shells arrived quickly -- at most, a short whistle (the "whizz") and then the explosion (the "bang"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BrPa054B

Hushaby My Little Crumb

DESCRIPTION: "Hushaby, my little crumb, The sheep are far from home. The cows are to the far, far field, And won't be home till noon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall)
KEYWORDS: lullaby nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 44, "(A Cradle Song)" (1 fragment, 1 tune, filed with a group of songs under the general heading "Crowdy Crawn")
File: Gund044C

Hushabye (I)

See All the Pretty Little Horses (File: LxU002)

Hushie Baa, Ee-a-Baa

DESCRIPTION: Lullaby. The singer complains "tho' I'm nae your daddy, my wife she's your mammy, Oh wae's me she's gotten too much of her will"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: infidelity lullaby nonballad bastard children husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1559, "Hushie Baa, Ee-a-Baa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13508
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rock the Cradle, John" (theme)
cf. "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)" (theme)
File: GrD81559

Hustling Gamblers

See Little Maggie (File: CSW048)

Hut that's Upside Down, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer has travelled many places, but now is "anchored hard and fast in the hut that's upside down." He describes the wild behaviors there -- gambling, frantic shearing, and watching the cook beat a brownie or dance a highland fling
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: rambling sheep Australia cook
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 58-59, "The Hut that's Upside Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 62-63, "The Hut that's Upside Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads, pp 4-5, "The Hut That's Upside Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [95 words]: Thought to refer to a shed in Big Burrawang in New South Wales. Meredith and Anderson report that this shed was "so big that a wooden tramway ran around it to move the wool."
Edward E. Morris, A Dictionary of Austral English, 1898 (I use the 1972 Sydney University Press with a new foreword but no new content), p. 207, defines "Hut" as follows: "a cottage of a shepherd or a miner. The word is English but is especially common in Australia, and does not there connote squalor or meanness. The "Men's Hut' on a station is the building occupied by the male employees." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: MA058

Hyah, Rattler!

See Old Rattler (File: CNFM104)

Hymn of Jesus, The

DESCRIPTION: "Glory to thee, (Father, Logos, Charis, Spirit, etc)." "I would be saved and would save." "I would be loosed and would loose." "I am a way to thee, a wayfarer. Amen." The singer hymns to spirits in mostly heretical language
AUTHOR: unknown (English text based on G. R. S. Meads)
EARLIEST DATE: original probably composed in the second century, but not circulated traditionally
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, pp. 123-124, "The Leaves of Life" (1 text)
NOTES [830 words]: I should not be having to write an entry or notes on this song, because it should not have been included in any collection of English folk songs. It is not a song, it is not in English, it is not traditional -- it isn't even, properly speaking, Christian. But Bob Stewart included it in Where Is Saint George? as if it were of some significance to English tradition (and Gustav Holst turned it into a musical composition), so I guess we have to explain it -- and then savage it.
Stewart says of this merely that it is from the Leucian Acts.
Even the name cited by Stewart is wrong. The name "Leucian Acts" is commonly used to describe the "Acts of John," "Acts of Peter," "Acts of Paul" (including the story of Paul and Thecla, the oldest and most famous part of the whole mess), "Acts of Andrew," and the "Acts of Thomas." The title "Leucian Acts" is used because the books were traditionally attributed to one Leucius Charinus (Barnstone, p. 412). The original was clearly in Greek, although it was translated into Latin (James, introduction to the text).
This particular hymn comes from the Acts of John, chapters 94-95 in the James numbering. Goodspeed/Grant, p. 70, suggest that "Not long after the appearance of the romantic Acts of Paul (A.D. 160-170), some Docetist, probably in Asia, undertook to embody his views in an imaginative account of the wonders, discourses, and travels of John." Barnstone, p. 411, considers the "Acts of John" to predate even the "Acts of Paul." There is consensus that both are second century, and that all of the Leucian Acts, although they are by different authors, date from the second and third centuries. Clement of Alexandria appears to refer to one of the traditions in the work as being in existence in 189 C.E. (Goodspeed/Grant, p. 70).
Barnstone, p. 411, calls the "Acts of John" the "most clearly Gnostic" of the Leucian Acts. He suggests on p. 412 that the author of this work did use "Leucius" as his pen name.
The "Acts of John" never met with orthodox approval; Leo the Great condemned them in the fifth century and the Nicene Council of 787 ordered them burned (Barnstone, p. 411). The destruction was largely successful. An early catalog describes it as being 2500 standard lines long (Goodspeed/Grant, p. 70), but the extant material is only about 70% of that. Most of the losses seem to be from the beginning, but the surviving portions have had to be pieced together.
That the Acts of John is inclined to both the heresies of Gnosticism and Docetism is quite clear. Gnosticism (described on pp. 49-54 of Clifton) is not really a single heresy, but many; the common theme is that there is secret knowledge which is required for salvation. A typical version has a bunch of gods or archons or spirits or other tokens of a diseased mind, one of which, Sophia or Wisdom, decides to straighten out humans to save them. The Gnostics also tended to separate body and spirit/soul, with the body being purely evil. The tendency to condemn the body, and especially sex, is obvious in the Acts of John (this particular heresy often is called Encratitism).
Docetism (Clifton, p. 36) is from the Greek word meaning "appearance," or perhaps "perceived form." Docetists believed that the Jesus who suffered on the cross was not human, or part of the Godhead, but was merely an illusion. This heresy arose because some people were offended by the idea of God suffering -- but, of course, the idea vitiates the whole notion of Christianity. Gnosticism keeps coming back (Carl Jung was interested in it), but Docetism seems to be permanently dead. Both heresies were pernicious, Gnosticism because of its separatism, secrecy, and anti-inclusiveness, Docetism because its denial of the incarnation led to ignoring many of the moral teachings of Christianity.
Chadwick, p. 275, suggests that this piece began as "a Gnostic hymn intended to be chanted during a ritual dance." Goodspeed/Grant, p. 71, agrees that "This hymn, with its crude paradoxes... certainly reflects mystery forms of worship and Gnostic ideas."
The evidence is easy to see in Stewart's text, with its references to the Logos (λογος, Word), one of the key themes of Gnosticism, and also references to Spirit and Light. There are also references to the mystic numbers eight and twelve.
It's easy to see how Stewart, who is obsessed with the Kabbalah and the Tree of Life, loved this part! But it must be stressed: The "Acts of John" was an Eastern writing, Gnosticism an Eastern religion. The Latin West had a far simpler theology; even though the "Acts of John" was translated into Latin, this sort of thing never took hold there. Even if there were some closet Gnostics in Rome or somewhere, the whole silly business died out in the first millennium C.E. Even if Stewart is right about Kabbalistic influences on English folk song (which I strongly doubt), there is almost certainly no influence from the Leucian Acts, and this song had no influence on English hymnody. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: BS124

Hyn Horn

See Hind Horn [Child 17] (File: C017)

Hynd Horn

See Hind Horn [Child 17] (File: C017)

Hynde Chiel

See Alison and Willie [Child 256] (File: C256)

Hynde Etin

See Hind Etin [Child 41] (File: C041)

Hypocrite and the Concubine, The

DESCRIPTION: "Hypocrite and the concubine, Living among the swine, They run to God with the lips and tongue, And leave all the heart behind. Aunty, did you hear when Jesus rose? (x3), He rose and 'scend on high."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 70, "The Hypocrite and the Concubine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12029
NOTES [24 words]: A curious combination of images; there is no book in the King James Bible which contains both the word "hypocrite" and the word "concubine." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG070B

I Ain't A-Gonna Work a No Mo'!

DESCRIPTION: "I ain't a-gonna work a no mo'! (x2), Done an' work-ed till my hands got sore. I ain't a-gonna work a no mo!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 242, "I Ain't A-Gonna Work a No Mo'!" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 242, "I Ain't A-Gonna Work a N Mo'" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
File: Br3242

I Ain't Going t' Study War No More

See Down By the Riverside (Study War No More) (File: San480)

I Ain't Going To Die No More

DESCRIPTION: The singer says that nobody visited him on his death bed but they are all with him going to the graveyard. He wants someone to lower his pillow, "for I ain't going to die no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: burial death nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 190, "For I Ain't Goin' T' Die No Mo'" (1 text)
File: Parp190

I Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More

See Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More (File: R300)

I Ain't Got Nobody

See Took My Gal a-Walkin' (File: RcTMGAW)

I Ain't Got Time to Tarry

See Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal) (File: BAF904)

I Ain't Got Weary Yet

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I'se been wounded in this fight, Shot at sunrise, gassed at night, Outside o' that I feel all right, And I ain't got weary yet." Trench life is like "Using your head for a battering ram." With half the squad dead, "Being alive seems mighty damn odd."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes death injury
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 215-216, "I AIn't Got Weary Yet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11850 parody
File: NiMo215

I Ain't Gwine Study War No More

See Down By the Riverside (Study War No More) (File: San480)

I am a Bo's'n by My Trade

See Jack Williams [Laws L17] (File: LL17)

I Am a Bonnie Wee Lassie

DESCRIPTION: The singer says she's a nice plump girl who wants a man to cover her back who would kiss and caress her and call her his darling and let her sleep in his bosom
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 159, "I Am a Bonnie Wee Lassie" (1 text)
Roud #15114
NOTES [8 words]: Maybe this lost something sexual in translation. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2159

I Am a Brisk and Sprightly Lad

DESCRIPTION: "I am a brisk and sprightly lad, But just come home from sea, sir... A sailor's life for me, sir." "Yeo, yeo, yeo, Whilst the bosun pipes all hands With a yeo, yeo, yeo!" The sailor loves foreign ports, and promises to fight for the nation when attacked
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1792 (The Manchester Songster: Being a Collection of the Most Favorite Songs)
KEYWORDS: sailor battle money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XXII, pp. 34-35, "'I am a brisk and sprightly lad'" (1 text)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 138, "I Am a Brisk and Sprightly Lad" (1 text)
NOTES [105 words]: This is another of those sea-poems Shay seems to have dug up somewhere; I have not found it in tradition.
Jim Dixon pointed out the Manchester Songster printing; he also noted a sheet music fragment on Google Books that says that this was "Sung by Mrs. Jordan in the Spoil'd Child."
The boast about each man "hasten[ing] to his guns" would surely have sounded very strange to the sailors who fought in the Napoleonic era -- it is estimated that half of the men in Nelson's fleet were impressed, and more were quota men. And the pay in the Royal Navy was terrible, which was why they needed the press gang even in peacetime. - RBW.
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ShaSS138

I Am a Brisk Young Sailor

DESCRIPTION: A sailor for fourteen years falls in love with Nancy, a young chambermaid. If he were ten years younger he "would make myself more bolder and speak my mind more free." Abandoning hope he says he'll sail away forever. But maybe "my mind may alter"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: age love travel sailor separation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 67, "I Am a Brisk Young Sailor" (1 text)
Roud #1042
File: ReCi067

I Am a Coachman

DESCRIPTION: A coachman kisses, courts and lies with the women; "when I am tired I get up and ride." A blacksmith's delight "is in stopping of holes." A fisherman fished "for a boy but I did get a wench"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: sex work bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 68, "I Am a Coachman" (1 text)
Roud #1043
NOTES [85 words]: We can guess at the tune for Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle: the chorus is "Derry down, Down down derry down."
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle: "Probably incomplete, since the catalogue of trades, each with its metaphorical sexual significance, may be extended indefinitely.... ribald songs on similar lines are in current circulation."
For one "ribald song on similar lines" see broadside Bodleian, Harding B 11(1381), "Jack of All Trades" ("Oh! I am a drover I drive along the road"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844. - BS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: ReCi068

I Am a Done-Up Man

DESCRIPTION: "I am a done-up (hic) man, You'll agree with me ev'ry one (hic), Tis true I've seen the bright side of (hic) life (hic), But now I'm a poor old bum (hic)." The drunkard believes that, when he dies, Heaven turn him out, and Satan will reject him too
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: drink death devil
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 406, "I Am a Done-Up Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7683
File: R406

I Am a Friar of Orders Grey

DESCRIPTION: "I am a friar of orders grey, And down the valley I take my way, I pull not blackberry.... Good store of venison fills my scrip. My long bead-roll I merrily chant, Wherever I go no money I want." The friar lives a better life than baron or knight
AUTHOR: John O'Keeffe (1747-1833) (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (various Bodleian broadsides)
KEYWORDS: clergy food money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 167-168, "I am a friar of orders grey" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 348-349, "The Friar of Orders Grey"
Roud #13782
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 862, "Holy Friar," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 16(113b), "The holy friar," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Johnson Ballads 526, "The holy friar," E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Firth c.26(44), "The holy friar" J. Cadman and H. Andrews (Manchester/Leeds), 1850-1855; also Firth b.25(595/596), "The Holy Friar," W. Oroyno (Nottingham), n.d.; also Harding B 11(2992), "Holy Friar," unknown, n.d.; also Firth b.26(436), "The Holy Friar," Stephenson (Gateshead), 1821-1850; also Harding B 18(247), "Holy Friar, a humorous song," G. S. Harris (Philadelphia), n.d.
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Holy Friar
NOTES [95 words]: This strikes me as a real curiosity: A song about friars which was very popular in the broadside press -- at a time when the Catholic Church was still the subject of widespread distrust in England.
The Grey Friars were the Franciscans, whose rule was less strict than, say, the Benedictines or Carthusians. So it makes some sense that this merry monk was a Franciscan.
There is a piece, "The Friar of Orders Gray," in Percy's Reliques (Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 242-246). It is not this, though there might well be some cross-suggestion. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC167B

I Am a Funny Dutch Girl

See I Am a Pretty Little Dutch Girl (File: OpGa136)

I Am a Girl Guide

DESCRIPTION: "I am a Girl Guide dressed in blue, These are the actions I can do. Stand at ease, bend my knees, Salute to the King, bow to the Queen, Never turn my back on the Union Jack, Under the archway, One, two, three..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: clothes colors playparty royalty
FOUND IN: Britain New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 111, "(I am a girl guide dressed in blue)," "(Turn your back on the sailor Jack)" (2 texts)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 86, "(I'm a little girl guide)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 23, "(I am a girlguide dressed in blue)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, 3206, "I'm a Little Dutch Girl (I'm a Girl Guide)" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 62, "Salute to the Captain" (1 short text, that might be from "I Am a Girl Guide" or "I'm a Little Dutch Girl" or several other children's rhymes)
ADDITIONAL: J. C. Reid, _A Book of New Zealand_ (Collins National Anthologies), Collins, 1964, "Children's Games" ("I am a Girl Guide dressed in blue") (1 text_
Roud #19225
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm a Little Dutch Girl" (lyrics of some versions)
cf. "I'm a Girl Dressed in Green" (lyrics)
cf. "I'm a Little Brownie Dressed in Brown" (form)
File: SuSm111A

I Am a Girl of Constant Sorrow

See Girl of Constant Sorrow (File: FSWB128B)

I Am a Girlguide Dressed in Blue

See I Am a Girl Guide (File: SuSm111A)

I Am a Gold Lock

DESCRIPTION: Dialog, between a "lock" and a "key": the follower is to repeat everything the leader says, but with "key" for "lock." "I am a gold lock." "I am a gold key." "I am a silver lock." "I am a silver key." "I am a monk lock." "I am a monkey."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: wordplay trick animal | lock key monkey
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #662, pp. 260-261, "(I am a gold lock)"
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 169-170, "I Am a Gold Lock" (1 text)
Roud #19333
File: DCCR169

I Am a Great Complainer

DESCRIPTION: "I am a great complainer, that bears the name of Christ... I feel my faith declining...." The singer calls on Christ to repair (his) wavering faith and help (him) in (his) stumbling in a fast-moving world: "I am so full of folly, and have no time to pray"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1835 (Southern Harmony, according to Marilyn Kay Stulken, _Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship_, Fortress Press, 1981)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 647, "I Am a Great Complainer" (1 text)
Roud #7568
File: R647

I Am a Great Musician

See Musikanter (Ich Bin ein Muskanter) (File: ACSF316M)

I Am a Jolly Huntsman

DESCRIPTION: "I am a jolly huntman, My voice is shrill and clear, Well known to drive the stag." The singer rises to go hunting. The stag's weapons are no defense; the singer exults at his success, "o'erpaid for all our toil"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
KEYWORDS: hunting death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 346-347, "A Begging We Will Go" (2 texts, 1 tune; the first text is "A-Begging I Will Go," but the second text and the tune are "I Am a Jolly Huntsman")
Roud #30102
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Stag Chase
The Stag Chace
File: CPMIAAJH

I Am a Little Beggar-Girl

See I Am a Little Orphan Girl (File: AJRR204)

I Am a Little Dutch Girl (II)

See I Am a Pretty Little Dutch Girl (File: OpGa136)

I Am a Little Girl Just So High

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I am a little girl just so high. I can make doughnuts, I can make pie. I broke a platter right in two. Mama came to whip me, boo hoo hoo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Keystone Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food punishment mother | baking broken platter whipping
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #208, "I am a little girl just so high" (1 text)
File: AJRR208

I Am a Little Orphan Girl

DESCRIPTION: "I am a little orphan girl, My mother she is dead, My father is a drunkard, And won't give me no bread." She looks out to hear the organ and bless her mother's memory. "Her coffin shall be black, Six white angels at her back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas)
KEYWORDS: mother death drink father hardtimes orphan | coffin angel
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #204, "I am a little beggar-girl (orphan girl)" (1 text)
Roud #12943
File: AJRR204

I Am a Maid That Sleeps in Love

See The Maid in Sorrow (Short Jacket) [Laws N12] (File: LN12)

I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow

See Man of Constant Sorrow (File: CSW113)

I Am a Man of Honor

See A Man of Honor from Virginia Came (File: BuMa1049)

I Am a Newfoundlander

DESCRIPTION: "I am a Newfoundlander, I go out to the ice. I'm always in the best of ships.... The man I wish to sail with is Captain Harry Dawe." The Adventure sets out in 1906 and takes 20,000 seal. The singer tells of the voyage, the crew, and an injured Irishman
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff)
KEYWORDS: ship hunting moniker injury doctor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 89-90, "I Am a Newfoundlander" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #26538
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pride of Logy Bay" (tune)
NOTES [650 words]: The Adventure of this song is also mentioned in "The Sealer's Song (II)," and I suspect it is the Ad of "Captains and Ships." She was the first iron-clad sealer (Chafe, pp. 26, 31), and inaugurated a new, if brief, era in Newfoundland sealing, because the steel ships could pound through ice that their wooden sisters could not (Ryan-Ice, p. 187; Winsor, p. 29). She was built in Dundee in 1905, went to the ice for the first time in 1906 (as the song says), and was sold to Russia in 1916 (Ryan/Drake, p. 36). (Most of the steel sealers were disposed of or lost during World War I, and there was little attempt to replace them. They brought in more seals than the wooden ships, but they also cost more, and the sealing companies seem to have unofficially concluded that they just weren't worth it.)
Ryan-Last, pp. 20-21, quotes the Evening Telegram of February 2, 1906 concerning the ship:
"Yesterday a steamer was launched by the Dundee Shipbuilders Co., Ltd., which marks a distinct advance on any of these [earlier sealers], and built as it is for the sealing trade of St. John's, Newfoundland, seems not unlikely to be the forerunner of many vessels of a similar type. The S.S. Adventure, which name has been given to the boat, is especially constructed for ice navigation, but, unlike previous vessels for that trade, she is built completely of steel to Lloyd's highest class, and far in excess of their requirements, her stem, stern post, rudder and steam steering gear being fully twice the weight and power required for vessels of her size.... She is... 265 feet by 88 feet by 21 feet moulded depth, fitted with all the latest appliances for the rapid handling of cargo, and is lighted by electricity.... She will... [have] sufficient power to obtain a speed of twelve knots."
The singer claim that he's "always in the best of ship(s)" thus fits the actual situation; for the first few years of her service, the Adventure was the best ship in the sealing fleet; probably there wasn't a substantially better one until the Florizel was finished four years later.
(Ryan-Last, p. 21, adds after her big success in her first year, the old wooden ships tried harder to fight their way through the ice as well, resulting in the loss of two wooden ships in 1907 and three in 1908. Ironically, the Adventure was one of those sent out to rescue the damaged ships in 1908; WInsor, p. 29)
The Adventure had two slightly smaller sisters, the Bellaventure and the Bonaventure. The latter is mentioned in "Ballad of Captain Bob Bartlett, Arctic Explorer"; the former is almost certainly the "Bill" (i.e. "Belle") of "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)," and I believe they are the Belle and Bon of "Captains and Ships."
There were two Captains Henry Dawe; the one in this song, from Bay Roberts, is also mentioned in at least four other songs; see "The Sealer's Song (II)." Chafe, p. 31, agrees that he was a popular captain. He commanded the Adventure from 1906-1910, when he retired (Chafe, p. 90); Jacob Kean commanded the Adventure for the rest of her time as a sealer (Chafe, p. 98).
The second verse, which claims a haul of 20,000 seals, actually under-counts the Adventure's results in her first years; in 1906, she took 30,193 seals, then 24,522 in 1907 and 27,255 in 1908. She took 17,046 and 10,578 in her last two years under Dawe. The tenth verse, which claims 30,000 seals, is more accurate and implies that the song is from 1906.
The last verse appears to me to have floated in from something else, since it hints that the captain could be blamed for some problem, but I'm not sure from what.
There is a picture of the Adventure on p. 36 of Ryan/Drake and p. 187 of Ryan-Ice (the same picture, I believe), and one on p. 56 of Candow. Winsor has one on p. 29. Higgins, p. 21, has a picture of the Adventure, Bellaventure, and Bonaventure together in port. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: RySm089

I Am a Pilgrim

DESCRIPTION: "I am a pilgrim and a stranger Traveling through this wearisome land, I have a home in yonder city, And it's not made, not made by hand." The singer's family has gone before; the singer hopes to be made whole
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart-Songs)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 353, "I Am A Pilgrim" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 170-171, "I'm a Pilgrim" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, IAMPLGRM*
RECORDINGS:
Imperial Quartet, "I'm a Pilgrim, I'm a Stranger" (Victor 18199, 1917)
Silver Leaf Quartet, "I Am A Pilgrim" (OKeh 8594/ARC 6-12-63/Vocalion 04395, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tossed and Driven (The Poor Pilgrim)"
NOTES [79 words]: The Digital Tradition lists this as by Merle Travis. The Folksinger's Wordbook doesn't list an author. I haven't a clue -- but there are a lot of traditional lines in here. - RBW
I think the 1917 recording effectively washes out the claim of Merle Travis as sole author, although he certainly put the song into the form in which it's most commonly sung today. Sam Hinton learned a version in his childhood which is probably closer to the 1917 version than to Travis's. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: FSWB353B

I Am a Pilgrum

See Wayfaring Stranger (File: FSC077)

I Am a Poor Girl

See The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)

I Am a Poor Stranger

See Poor Stranger, The (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone) (File: R059)

I Am a Poor Wayfaring Pilgrim

See Wayfaring Stranger (File: FSC077)

I Am a Poor Widow

See The Rich Widow (File: Lins019)

I Am a Pretty Little Dutch Girl

DESCRIPTION: "I am a pretty little Dutch girl, As pretty as can be, All the boys [on the team/block] Go crazy/are stuck over me." "My boy friend's name is _, He comes from _(rhymes") He is described comically, and a story may be told.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Hansen)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond)) US(SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 136, "I Am a Pretty Little Dutch Girl" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #202, "I am a funny (pretty) Dutch girl" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Marian Hansen, "Children's Rhymes Accompanied by Gestures" in Western Folklore, Vol. VII, No. 1 (Jan 1948 (available online by JSTOR)), #13 pp. 52-53 ("I am a funny little Dutch girl") (1 text)
Lois Rather, "Circle Clap Chants" in Western Folklore, Vol. XVIII, No. 4 (Oct 1959 (available online by JSTOR)), #3 p. 294 ("Say, Say, Say, I'm a little Dutch girl") (1 text)
Roud #12986
RECORDINGS:
Catharine Potts and Judy Crawford, "I Am a Little Dutch Girl" (on ONEFowke01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bells are Ringing" (some lines: "First he gave me peaches")
cf. "My Boyfriend Gave Me An Apple" (some lines: "First he gave me peaches")
cf. "I Had the Scarlet Fever" (tune, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
NOTES [90 words]: There is another "Little Dutch Girl" rhyme with lines like "These are the things I do ... Salute to the captain, courtsy to the queen" (see, for example, Catherine Harris Ainsworth, "Jump Rope Verses around the United States" in Western Folklore, Vol. XX, No. 3 (Jul 1961 (available online by JSTOR)), #32 p. 183 ("I'm a little Dutch girl"); #83 p. 190 ("I went downtown to see Miss Brown") (2 texts)). - BS
Roud appears to combine this with "My Boyfriend Gave Me an Apple," and they do share lyrics, but I'd consider them separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OpGa136

I Am a Pretty Wench (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I am a pretty wench, And I come a great way hence, And sweethearts I can get none: But every dirty sow Can get sweethearts enow, And I, pretty wench, can get never a one."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammer Gurton's Garland)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 525, "I am a pretty wench" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #82, p. 84, "(I am a pretty wench)"
cf. VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 84, "The Ploughman" (1 text, 1 tune, not this song as printed, but the notes reveal that the informant's version began with a verse of this)
ADDITIONAL: Joseph Ritson, Gammer Gurton's Garland (London, 1810 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 23, ("I am a pretty wench") (1 text)
Roud #2538
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Condescencing Lass
Pretty Wench
File: BGMG082

I Am a Pretty Wench (II)

See The Ploughman (II) (File: VWL084)

I Am a Rambling Rowdy Boy

See Beam of Oak (Rambling Boy, Oh Willie) (File: LLab015)

I Am a Rich Widow

See The Rich Widow (File: Lins019)

I Am a River Driver

See The River-Driver's Lament (I Am a River Driver) (File: FowL69)

I Am a Rock

DESCRIPTION: "A winter's day In a deep and dark December, I am alone, I am a rock I am an island." The singer has guarded himself against feelings and relationships, because "And a rock feels no pain And an island never cries"
AUTHOR: Paul Simon
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (recording, Simon and Garfunkel)
KEYWORDS: nonballad loneliness
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 550, "I Am a Rock" (notes only)
NOTES [62 words]: I don't know if anyone talks about Paul Simon's "alienation period" or the like, but this and "Sounds of Silence" seem to fit a strong theme of isolation. Indeed, this sounds almost like a definition of schizoid personality disorder, the mental condition marked by emotional blunting and lack of desire to know others. I wonder if Simon knew someone with those traits. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF550J

I Am a Rover (I)

See The Rover (I) (File: ReSh083)

I Am a Rover (II)

DESCRIPTION: "See the clouds rolling on the way, See the stars shining so gay... And you'll know exactly why I'm free. I am a rover rolling along... I am a rover till the day I day." The singer has few friends -- but has found a friend that is true
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: friend travel campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 540, 543, 550, 552, "I Am a Rover" (notes only)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rover
File: ACSF540R

I Am a Roving Peddler

DESCRIPTION: The roving pedlar drives from town to town selling vegetables to women. He is "afraid they'll beat me down" haggling over the price. He "never had a failure, I always sold my crop." He loses his license and must be driven: "now I ride in style."
AUTHOR: Hughie O'Quinn (according to Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
KEYWORDS: travel commerce humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 13, pp. 103-107, "I Am a Roving Peddler" (1 text)
Roud #24297
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "I Am a Roving Peddler" (on NFJDowney01)
Hector MacIsaac and Jerome Downey, "The Peddler's Song" (on NFHMacIsaac01)
Hector MacIsaac and Emma MacIsaac, "Roving Peddler" (on NFHMacIsaac02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man)" [Laws H4] (tune and basis for some verses)
NOTES [16 words]: This is not a parody of "The Roving Gambler" but all listeners would recognize the parallels. - BS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: BeDo103

I Am a Soldier of Pancho Villa

See De Los Dorados de Pancho Villa (I Am a Soldier of Pancho Villa) (File: Grim117)

I Am a Texas Cowboy

See The Texas Cowboy (I) (File: TF08)

I Am a Union Woman

DESCRIPTION: The singer proclaims, "I am a union woman, Just as brave as I can be... And the bosses don't like me." She tells all to "join the C.I.O./N.M.U." She is called a Red and shot at for her activities; her husband denied work; but she still supports the union
AUTHOR: Words: Aunt Molly Jackson/Music: Traditional
EARLIEST DATE: 1930s (recorded by author)
KEYWORDS: work unemployment labor-movement
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 174-175, "I Am a Union Woman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 269-270, "I Am a Union Woman" (1 text)
Roud #16050
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "Join the C.I.O." (on NLCR09)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Which Side Are You On?" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Join the N. M. U.
Join the C. I. O.
NOTES [96 words]: The radical National Miners' Union (N.M.U.) attempted to organize miners in the 1930s, but were defeated by the mine owners after bitter and bloody conflicts. The United Mine Workers of America (U.M.W.), part of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (C.I.O.) succeeded a few years later, again after terrible struggle. The song was rewritten [it is based on "Which Side Are You On" - DGE] to suit the new organizing drive.
The note from DGE states that this was based on, "Which Side Are You On?," but this song may predate it. Both were based on a traditional hymn tune. - PJS
File: Arn174

I Am a Warrior

DESCRIPTION: I am a warrior I'm in da field I can sing and I can shout I can tell it all abroad That Jesus died for me When ah get over yonder in da happy Paradise When ah get over yonder in da field"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 55, "I Am a Warrior" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Elder-Charlottville text. - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: ElCh055

I Am a Wee Laddie, Hard, Hard Is My Fate

See Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs) (File: R061)

I Am a Wee Lassie

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains "how false was that young man that I loved so dear." He swore to be true. Now that Spring has returned "I'll go down to the green woods where the small birds do sing ... Where no one shall see me till I cry my fill"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry)
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection lyric
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, p. 109, "I Am a Wee Lassie" (1 text)
Roud #6542
File: HayU109

I Am a Wild Young Irish Boy [Laws L19]

DESCRIPTION: The Irish convict, trained as a sailor, flees the farm where he has been sent. He turns outlaw, but never robs the poor or kills without cause. Trapped by the police, he kills five and escapes. Only when he is dying does he let the police be tipped off
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959
KEYWORDS: sailor outlaw fight escape death
FOUND IN: US(MA) Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws L19, "I Am a Wild Young Irish Boy"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 270-272, "I Am a Wild Young Irish Boy' (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 573, YNGIRSHB
Roud #1907
File: LL19

I Am a Young Lassie Just Out o' My Teens

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "in the choice o' a sweetheart I displeased a' my friens." All her sweethearts have left her "but the young blackamore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad Black(s)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1347, "I Am a Young Lassie Just Out o' My Teens" (1 short text)
Roud #7228
NOTES [46 words]: The current description is based on the single Greig/Duncan7 verse.
Greig/Duncan7, specifically Greig not later than 1914, quoting Bell Robertson's Song Notes: "I got it about fifty-four or fifty-five [years ago] from a woman about mother's age with whom I was working." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71347

I Am a Young Maiden (If I Were a Blackbird)

DESCRIPTION: The girl has been courted by a sailor, but now is deserted. She wishes she were a blackbird so she could follow her love. She tells of how her parents' dislike caused her to love him the more. He promised to buy her ribbons, but now has left her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: separation courting love floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 38, "I Am a Young Maiden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H79, pp. 428-429, "If I Were A Blackbird" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 46, "If I Was a Blackbird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 170-171, "If I Was a Blackbird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 74, "If I Was a Blackbird" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 31, "If I Was a Blackbird" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 52, "The Blackbird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #47, "If I Were a Blackbird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 58-59, "The Blackbird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 119, "If I Were a Blackbird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 229, "If I Was a Blackbird" (1 text, 1 tune, with the genders reversed)
DT, (IFBLKBRD -- apparently a reworking of the song from a man's perspective) IFBLKBR2*
Roud #387
RECORDINGS:
Diddy Cook, "The Blackbird" (on Voice15)
Hanna O'Brien, "The Old Blackbird" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Blanche Wood, "I'm a Young Bonnie Lassie" (on FSB01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (lyrics)
NOTES [39 words]: Although this song is composed entirely of floating lyrics -- from "The Wagoner's Lad," "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be" and others -- this combination is sufficiently widespread that it must be considered a song in its own right - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: FSC38

I Am an Ancient Mariner

DESCRIPTION: "I am an ancient mariner, I've sailed o'er many a sea, I'm skipper of a little smack, She's called the Nancy Lee." They set sail. The captain's wife is open to the fact that he might never return. There is a storm. A dog rebels. A mermaid grabs him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 or earlier (collected from Jack Dass)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship dog storm mermaid/man humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-ea 139, "I Am an Ancient Mariner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1835
NOTES [42 words]: This is clearly a joke, and parodies a great many folk song themes. I have no doubt that it is composed, but I don't know who composed it. Palmer ropes in a number of alternate titles, including "The Walloping Window Blind." I think he's reaching. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: PaSe139

I Am an Auld Bachelor

See The Old Bachelor (I) (File: RcTOB)

I Am an Old Bachelor (The Sorrow of Marriage)

DESCRIPTION: "I am an old bachelor both ragged and lame, I just from County Cumberland came." He marries an old maid and at once faces trouble. She dresses well; he dresses poorly. He has to do the housework. He wishes he were dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Stout-FolkloreFromIowa)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage oldmaid hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 70, pp. 93-94, "The Sorrow of Marriage" (1 text)
Roud #4866
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Devilish Mary" [Laws Q4] (theme: wife dominating husband) and references there
File: Stou070

I Am Bound for the Promised Land

See Bound for the Promised Land (File: LxU099)

I Am from Ireland

See Icham of Irlaunde (The Irish Dancer; Good Sir I Pray Thee) (File: MsIcOIrl)

I Am Gaun to the Garret

DESCRIPTION: "My mither has three butter platies. Platies? Ay, platies... And she's nae ither dochters but me. But I maun gang tae the garret... Since there's nae bonnie laddie for me." After lamenting her fate, she at last reports that she is to marry a miller
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid courting dowry beauty marriage miller
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1381, "The Horsie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 58, "I Am Gaun to the Garret" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 66, "I am gaun to the garret" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #818
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [67 words]: This is fundamentally the same song as "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married," and both very possibly derive from a broadside "The Maiden's Sad Complaint for Want of a Husband." But this version ends with the girl getting married, and the other with her still an old maid. That's a sufficient change in the plot that I list the two separately, but there is clearly overlap. Roud unsurprisingly lumps them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Ord058

I Am Going Home on the Morning Train

See Morning Star (File: ElCh050A)

I Am Going to Heaven

DESCRIPTION: "I am going to Heaven (x3), (To see/I and) the bleeding lamb." "Come, my loving father, And don't you want to go? Come go with me to glory To see the bleeding lamb." Similarly with mother, brother(s), sister(s)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute); 1893 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 152, "Going to Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 92 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 533, "I Am Going to Heaven" (1 text)
Roud #11873
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Religion Is the Best of All" (lyrics)
NOTES [47 words]: The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "Going to Heaven" on page 92 (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 92. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Br3533

I Am Going to Join In This Army

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I am going to join in this army of my Lord, I am going to join in this army." Verses: "Takes a humble soul to join." "All Christians can join." "Preacher, help us to join."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 120, "I Am Goin' to Join in This Army" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 128 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #15253
File: Dett120

I Am Going Where the Blood Flows Stronger

DESCRIPTION: "I am going where the blood flows stronger (x2), Way over in the promised land." "I wonder where is my dear old mother?" "Who will rise and go to my father?" "I know those angels are having a good time, Eating of honey and drinking of wine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad wine
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 582, "I Am Going Where the Blood Flows Stronger" (1 text, with irregular lyrics that strongly hint two songs were combined)
Roud #11898
File: Br3582

I Am Growing Old and Gray

DESCRIPTION: The old man laments, "I am growing old and gray ev'ry year," and laments his loss of sexual power, as well as the ability to hold liquor. The women "ask for much more" every year, but he can no longer supply it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927
KEYWORDS: sex age bawdy
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 53-54, "I Am Growing Old and Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10140
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain" (tune) and reference there
cf. "When I Was Young and in My Prime" (theme)
File: EM053

I Am Lame and Cannot Dance

DESCRIPTION: "I am lame and cannot dance (x2), A water turtle bit me, bit me, bit me, A water turtle bit me and I can't dance!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
KEYWORDS: dancing disability | turtle
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 67, "(I am lame and cannot dance)" (1 text)
File: GFGW067B

I am my mamma's darlin' child

See Too Young to Marry (File: Br3107)

I Am Napoleon Bonaparte

See Napoleon's Farewell to Paris (File: GC089)

I Am Now a Poor Auld Man in Years

See When This Old Hat Was New (III) (File: GrD3541)

I Am of Ireland

See Icham of Irlaunde (The Irish Dancer; Good Sir I Pray Thee) (File: MsIcOIrl)

I Am On My Way

See Jacob's Ladder (I) (File: CW190A)

I Am On the Battlefield for My Lord

DESCRIPTION: Singer promises to serve the Lord "till I die." "I was just like you." "I heard a voice ... saying Christ has work for you." The singer left "friends and kindred" to roam crying "sinner come back home" Christ will "appoint my soul a place" by his throne.
AUTHOR: unknown (credited to Sylvana Bell and E. V. Banks in Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (sung by Rev. D.C. Rice on AAFM2)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Trinidad,Tobago)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 62, "On the Battle Field" (1 text, 1 tune)
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 42, "I'm On the Battlefield" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, "I Am on the Battlefield for My Lord" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Lorna McDaniel, "Memory Spirituals of the Ex-Slave American Soldiers in Trinidad's 'Company Villages'" in _Black Music Research Journal_, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Autumn 1994 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 142, "On the Battlefield" (1 text fragment) (1 tune)
Roud #21386
RECORDINGS:
Gullah Kinfolk, "On de Battlefiel" (on USSeaIsland04)
Sister Fleeta Mitchell, Rev. Nathaniel Mitchell and Lucy Barnes, "I Am On the Battlefield for My Lord" (2007, on "Art of Field Recording" Vol. 1, Dust to Dust CD DTD-08, recorded 1987 in Georgia)
Rev. D. C. Rice and his Sanctified Congregation, "I'm in the Battlefield for my Lord" (Vocalion 1262; on AAFM2)
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is based on the Rev. D. C. Rice recording. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ElCh062B

I Am Seekin' for a City (I Don't Feel No-ways Tired)

See I Don't Fee Weary (File: AWG070A)

I Am Sold and Going to Georgia

DESCRIPTION: "O! When shall we poor souls be free? When shall these slavery chains be broken? I am sold and going to Georgia, Will go go along with me." The singer has lost his wife and child. He bids farewell, and says, "Go sound the jubilee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953
KEYWORDS: slavery travel separation family
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 95-96, "I Am Sold and Going to Georgia" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 304, "I Am Sold and Going to Georgia" (1 text)
NOTES [26 words]: Greenway, for some reason, is convinced that this is of white origin. I suppose it is possible, but it clearly refers to the plight of the Black slave. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Grnw095

I Am Standing in the Shoes of John

DESCRIPTION: "I am standing in the shoes of John (x2), I am standing, I am standing, I am standing in the shoes of John." "If they fit me, I will wear them on...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 589, "I Am Standing in the Shoes of John" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 589, "I Am Standing in the Shoes of John" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11837
NOTES [74 words]: There is, of course, no Biblical reason to think that there was anything special about the shoes of either John the Baptist (who said he wasn't even worthy to untie Jesus's shoes) or John the Apostle. The reference is probably to the John of the Apocalypse anyway.
For what it's worth, the word rendered "shoe" in the King James Bible is typically rendered "sandal" in the newer translations, which presumably makes it easier to fit them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3589

I Am the Duke of Norfolk

See references under The Husbandman and the Servingman (File: K226)

I am the Master (Dusty Bluebells)

DESCRIPTION: Singing game: "In and out those dusty bluebells (x3), I am the master. Tip a little apple on my shoulder (x3), I am the master." "Tippety, tappety, on your shoulder (x3), I am the master" (Or, "A love my Master.")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H48a, p. 10, "I Am the Master" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 120-121, "In and Out Through the Darkie Bluebells" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 33, "(In and out the dusty bluebells)" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 98, "Dusty Bluebells" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 79, "(In and out the dusty bluebells)" (1 text)
Roud #13206
NOTES [27 words]: It appears Roud once classed some versions of this with "In and Out the Window/Marching Round the Levee." This appears to have changed, but I don't know when. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HHH048a

I Am the True Vine

DESCRIPTION: "I am the true vine (x3), My father is the husbandman." "I am in him and he's in me, My father is the husbandman, Every day he comforts me." "I know my Lord has set me free." "Look over yonder in the harvest field." "I know my Lord is kind and true."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Work)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad farming floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 23, #2 (1974), p, 22, "Lord, I'm the True Vine" (1 text, 1 tune, from Eddie Head)
Roud #12222
NOTES [80 words]: The Sing Out! and Work versions of this have hardly a word in common, except the chorus, but the pattern is so distinctive that I have no doubt they should be lumped. The mention of Jesus as the true vine and the Father as tender comes from John 15:1. (I note that, contrary to what some translations imply, the words for the vine itself and the farmer are not related; "vine" is Greek αμπελος, "ampelos"; the word used to describe the father is γεωργος, "georgos," "farmer.") - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: SOv23N2A

I Am Waiting on the Levee

DESCRIPTION: "I am waitin' on the levee, Waitin' for the steamboat to come down, I hope she's loaded pretty heavy, I hope she's loaded to the ground. I think I hear her whistle blowin'... It must be the Natchez or the Robert Lee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: racing ship river
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 30, 1870 - Race between the Natchez and the Robert E. Lee.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 57-58, "I Am Waitin' on the Levee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10019
NOTES [179 words]: The Natchez, built 1869, and the Lee, built 1866, were regular competitors on the Natchez/New Orleans run. In 1870, the two captains agreed to a race.
It wasn't an equal contest, though -- the Natchez (thought by many to have been the slightly faster boat) took an ordinary load of passengers and cargo; the Lee was stripped for the race and drove through a fogbank. The Lee won the race by seven hours -- six of which the Natchez spent waiting out the fog to protect her passengers' safety.
The race was famed in popular folklore (see, for instance, Botkin's Mississippi River Folklore, pp. 58-61), but it didn't really set any records; it was just a straight race. And, interestingly, true folk songs about it are rare. Wheeler's song is the first I've encountered to mention it, and it's only a fragment; the real subject might be something else. There appear to be at least five books about the event, though; Manly Wade Wellman's Fastest on the River the Great Steamboat Race Between the Natchez and the Robert E Lee appears to be the easiest to find. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: MWhee057

I an' Satan Had a Race

DESCRIPTION: "I and Satan had a race, hallelu, hallelu" (x2). "Win de race agin de course." "Satan tell me to my face." "He will break my kingdom down." "Jesus whisper in my heart." "Satan mount the iron gray." "Jesus mount the milk-white horse."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad racing horse
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 40, "I an' Satan Had a Race" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11993
File: AWG040

I Ask that Gal

DESCRIPTION: When the singer asks her to give him some, she tells him to wait until the 'taters are done. He can't wait, and forces himself on her, only to lament "the 'taters got burnt an' so did I."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex disease lament
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 133-134, "I Ask that Gal" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #11500
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Frog Went A-Courtin'" (tune)
NOTES [36 words]: Sung to the melody of "Frog Went A-Courtin'." - EC
This instinctively reminds me of the story of King Alfred and the Cakes. But it's not the same story, and I would be shocked at any evidence of literary dependence. - RBW
File: RL133

I Asked My Mother for Fifteen Cents

See Pounds, Shillings, and Pence (File: SuSm101B)

I Asked That Girl to Marry Me

DESCRIPTION: "I asked that girl to marry me, She said, "O, no! I'd rather be free." "I asked that girl to be my wife, She cut at me with an old case knife." "I asked... bride, She sat right down and cried and cried." "Till I thought to my soul my heart would melt."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Treat, in JAFL 52)
KEYWORDS: marriage rejection
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, p. 233, "I Asked That Girl to Marry Me (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Pearl Jacobs Borusky)
Roud #4220
File: PJB233

I Ate It

See As I Was Going Over London Bridge (The Dead Rat) (File: SuSm097A)

I Been a Bad, Bad Girl

DESCRIPTION: "I been a bad, bad girl, wouldn't treat nobody right (x2), They want to give me 35 years, some one wanted to take my life." She begs the judge not to execute her, and promises to reform. She is sorry and says she will listen to everyone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (collected from Ozella Jones)
KEYWORDS: crime punishment execution
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 364-366, "I Been a Bad, Bad Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15591
File: LoSi364

I Been a Miner

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

I Been Wukkin' on de Railroad

See I've Been Working on the Railroad (File: FSWB209)

I Believe for Every Drop of Rain that Falls

DESCRIPTION: "I believe for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows. I believe that somewhere in the darkest night, a candle glows." This and other things are why the singer believes
AUTHOR: Al Stillman, Ervin M Drake, Irwin Graham, Jimmy Shirl (source: various internet sites)
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (recording, Frankie Laine, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 539, "I Believe for Every Drop of Rain that Falls" (note only)
File: ACSF539R

I Believe This Dear Old Bible

DESCRIPTION: Sundry Bible stories told briefly and linked by the refrain, "I believe this dear old Bible from beginning to the end." Sample: "I believe that Father Adam was the first created man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 648, "I Believe This Dear Old Bible" (1 fragment)
Roud #7569
File: R648

I Belong to that Band

DESCRIPTION: "I never saw the like since I been born, People keep coming and the train done gone." "I belong to that band, Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, I belong to that band, Hallelujah." "Some come crippled and some come lame." "Clouds look heavy...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses train disability
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 583, "I Belong to that Band" (1 text); also 624, "Old Satan's Mad" (5 texts, of which the short "A" text is probably "Free at Last"; "B" is a variation on "Down By the Riverside (Study War No More)"; "C" has the "Old Satan's Mad" stanza but a "climbing Zion's walls" chorus; D" is an unidentifiable fragment perhaps related to "I Belong to that Band; and "E" is also a fragment, perhaps of "Free At Last")
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 87, "O I Believe in Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11900
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ten Stone" (lyric)
File: Br3583

I Bid You Goodnight (The Christian's Good-Night)

DESCRIPTION: Funeral hymn/spiritual, recognized by the chorus line, "And I bid you goodnight, goodnight, goodnight." The hymn form describes a farewell and the afterlife. Other versions encourage repentance or sound almost like a lullaby
AUTHOR: Probably Sarah Doudney (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (Doudney, Psalms of Life, according to Julian); traditional version probably 1965 (Spense and Pindar Family)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Funeral hymn/spiritual, recognized by the chorus line, "And I bid you goodnight, goodnight, goodnight." The hymn form describes a farewell and the afterlife. Other versions encourage repentance or sound almost like a lullaby, e.g. "Lay down my dear brother, Lay down and take your rest, I want you lay your head now upon your Saviour's breast, I love you, O but Jesus loves you the best, O I bid you good night, Lord, good night, Lord, good night"
KEYWORDS: death funeral religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US Britain(England(North)) West Indies(Bahamas,Jamaica)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
DT, BIDGNITE
ADDITIONAL: Olive Lewin, "Rock It Come Over" - The Folk Music of Jamaica (Barbados: The University of the West Indies Press, 2000), p. 134, "Sleep on Beloved" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hazel Felleman, Best Loved Poems of the American People, pp. 342-343, "The Christian's 'Good-Night'" (1 text)
ST DTbidgni (Full)
Roud #15632
RECORDINGS:
Men from Andros Island, "I Bid You Goodnight" (on LomaxCD1822-2)
Five Gospel Souls [pseud. for the Five Soul Stirrers] "Sleep On Darling Mother" (Ebony 137, rec. 1945)
Lonnie McIntorsh, "Sleep On, Mother, Sleep On" (Victor 21271, 1928)
Mound City Jubilee Quartette, "Sleep On, Darling Mother" (Decca 7158, 1936; rec. 1935)
Joseph Spence and the Pindar Family,"I Bid You Good Night" (1995, "The Music Never Stopped: Roots of the Grateful Dead," Shanachie CD 6014)
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, "Sleep On, Darling Mother" (Decca 8657, 1944; rec. 1943)
Lena Thompson, Lucy Scott, & Lucy Smith, "Sleep On" (on VaWork)
NOTES [544 words]: This song has an incredibly tangled history. Bob Bovee tells me that he found a 78 of this song: "It's by Lonnie McIntorsh with the title 'Sleep On, Mother, Sleep On' (Victor 21271). He's [a] black gospel singer with guitar recorded in Memphis in 1928."
A version credited to F. A. and J. E. Sankey appeared in the Cokesbury Worship Hymnal in 1928.
In 1936, Hazel Felleman's The Best Loved Poems of the American People (pp. 342-343) lists a version as by Sarah Doudney. This is probably the best attribution; according to John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 1590:
Sleep On, beloved, sleep and take thy rest. Sarah Doudney. [Death Anticipated.] Pub[lished] in her Ps[alms] of Life 1871, p. 76, in 7 st[anzas] of 3 l[ines], with the refrain, "Good night." It is entitled "The Christian's 'Good night,'" and is headed with the following sentence, "The early Christians were accustomed to bid their dying friends 'Good night!' so sure were they of awakening at the Resurrection morning."
(Perhaps Doudney wrote the lyrics, with the Sankeys adding a tune?)
And then there is the recording by Joseph Spence/Spense, with what amounts to only a single verse, applied to different relatives. It's hardly even the same song.
This hymn thoroughly deserves a detailed research project. Did the Sankeys write it, or just adapt it? Which versions of the song are traditional, and where? Did Spence create his version, or did it exist before him? I can't answer any of these questions from my library. - RBW
Spence's version is quite similar to another, collected in the Bahamas in 1935 by Alan Lomax; both include traditional Bahamian "rhyming" -- improvised verses over a sung or chanted background. And to another, found in Virginia in 1980 among crabpickers, who sang it as they worked.
It's also found in Yorkshire, and interestingly enough it is used there as a lowering-down song at funerals, just as it is in the Bahamas. - PJS
[The final words of the Long] Description [are] the first verse of the recording: " ... this version by the Pindar Family on a 1965 Nonesuch album called THE REAL BAHAMAS ... was very popular in folk circles because it featured performances by the legendary Bahamian guitarist and singer of sacred tunes, Joseph Spence (who was Jenny Pindar's brother)" (Blair Jackson, liner notes on "The Music Never Stopped: Roots of the Grateful Dead", p. 22, Shanachie CD 6014), 1995). The verse is repeated with "my dear brother" replaced by "brother Spence" or "brother Pindar." The end of the verse is sometimes sung over by the leader with lines like "Oh in the morning now early and soon," "Walking in Jerusalem just like John," "John said I saw the number," "these are the children that would not be good," and "Join the words that I saw the sign."
Compare this to Sankey #216, "I heard the voice of Jesus say, 'Come unto me and rest: Lay down, thy weary one, lay down Thy head upon my breast" (Ira D. Sankey, Sacred Songs and Solos (London: Collins, n.d.), #216, also known as "Hear the Voice of Jesus." Also "My Number Will Be Changed": "I heard the voice of Jesus say, 'Come unto me and rest, Lay down, you weary wand'rer, your head upon my breast." - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: DTbidgni

I Binged Avree

DESCRIPTION: Travellers' cant. Singer meets two men in a North Scotland lodging house. They get drunk and start a fight; he hits one, then flees. He buys an accordion with the money he has begged and goes to Ireland. He meets two Tinkers who ask why he left Scotland
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (recorded from Davie Stewart)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Travellers' cant. Singer takes to the road, heads for northern Scotland, far from home, where he meets two men in a lodging house. They get drunk and start a fight; he hits one, then flees. He goes into a music shop and buys an accordion with the money he has begged; he gets tea and two shillings from a woman whose man is away at work. She tells him he'd best get away; he goes to Ireland. There he meets two Irish Tinkers who ask why he left Scotland
KEYWORDS: homesickness fight violence rambling travel music Ireland Scotland foreignlanguage Gypsy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 344, "I Binged Avree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2159
File: K344

I Blamed My Mither and Never Anither

DESCRIPTION: "I blamed my mither and never anither" (x3) "For garin' me marry the carlin' [old woman]"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: age marriage mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1368, "I Blamed My Mither and Never Anither" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7240
NOTES [25 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan7 fragment.
Greig/Duncan7 quoting Greig not later than 1914: "J.B., Newburgh, forty years ago." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71368

I Bless the Lord, I'm Born to Die

DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "I bless the Lord, I'm born to die; Keep me from sinkin' down; I'm gwine to jedgment bye an' bye, Keep me from sinkin' down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 13, (no title) (1 fragment)
File: ScaNF013

I Bocht a Hennie

See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

I Bocht My Wife a Bow o' Maut

DESCRIPTION: I bought my wife a bowl of malt, "Hey, how, the girdin' o't," and asked her to make good ale of it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1868, "I Bocht My Wife a Bow o' Maut" (1 short text)
Roud #13582
File: GrD81868

I Bought Me a Rooster

See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

I Bought My Coat of a Tailor

DESCRIPTION: "I bought my coat of a tailor Who lived upon the street, I bought my shoes of a shoemaker To cover my naked feet." But the singer's breeches are worn to the point that they have holes and "are hardly fit to bear."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong)
KEYWORDS: clothes hardtimes | shoes coat breeches
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 255, "I Bought My Coat of a Tailor" (1 short text)
Roud #5253
NOTES [66 words]: Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong thinks this is a humorous piece: Someone spent money on a fancy coat while wearing breeches so ratted that the knees showed through. I wonder. The coat comes from a tailor "Who lived upon the street." Instead of a proper tailor, might this not be another poor person who gave away or sold a ragged coat? No way to tell until someone can find the original version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: NeDe255

I Bought My Wife Two Cows and a Steer

See Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now (File: C277RR)

I Bought Myself a Cock

See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

I Call In

See There's Somebody Under the Bed (File: AJRR551)

I Call In My Very Best Friend

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I call in my very best friend, And she is (x). (Here she comes, Knocking at the door), (One, two, three, four... or (One o'clock, two o'clock....)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (RItchie)
KEYWORDS: jumprope friend | counting
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #213, "I call in my very best friend" (1 text)
Roud #23731
File: AJRR213

I Called My Dogs

DESCRIPTION: "I called my dogs through the rye To get to see them run and try. Ho oggie, ho doggie, harpin, tarpin rusty gills... call all your dogs home." The singer calls the dogs through various types of ground to see how they will perform
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 4, "I Called My Dogs" (1 text)
File: MHAp004

I Came to This Country

See The Backwoodsman (The Green Mountain Boys) [Laws C19] (File: LC19)

I Came to This Country in 1865

See The Backwoodsman (The Green Mountain Boys) [Laws C19] (File: LC19)

I Can Buckle a Wheeler

See Levee Camp Holler (File: BMRF569)

I Can Do a Polka, I Can Do a Split

See (references under) Spanish Dancer (File: ZiZa051A)

I Can Drink an' No Be Drunk

DESCRIPTION: "I can drink and no be drunk An I can fight and no be slain I can kiss a bony lass [Greig/Duncan8: anither man's wife], And ay be welcome back again [Greig/Duncan8: to my ain]"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1759 (_Bremner's Collection of Scots Reels or Country Dancess_, according to Hecht-Herd)
KEYWORDS: courting fight drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 17, ("I can drink and no be drunk") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1719, "I Can Drink an' No Be Drunk" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hans Hecht, editor, Songs From David Herd's Manuscripts (Edinburgh, 1904), #69 pp. 183,308, ("I can drink and no be drunke") [Not yet indexed as Hecht-Herd 69]
Roud #13197
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Rantin' Laddie
NOTES [74 words]: Greig/Duncan8: "This is a floating verse that appears in [Greig/Duncan3] 347 'The Barnyards o' Delgaty' and also in Burns's 'Duncan Davison', Kinsley No. 202 [See James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #202, pp. 311-312, "Duncan Davison," specifically the last four lines]." I would have lumped it with "Barnyards" if I hadn't seen Hecht-Herd's standalone verse [quoted in the description]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD81719

I Can Forgive But Not Forget (Sweetheart, Farewell)

DESCRIPTION: "Sweetheart, farewell; at last we part. I leave you with an aching heart." The singer tells how (her?) lover scorned her. She says she loves him yet; "I can forgive but not forget." She thinks his false friends may prove untrue, and he will remember her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love separation betrayal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 166, "Farewell, Sweetheart" (1 text)
Roud #6579
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Forget You I Never May" (theme)
File: BrII166

I Can Sing a Rainbow

DESCRIPTION: "Red, and yellow, and pink and green Purple, and orange, and blue I can sing a rainbow, Sing a rainbow, Sing a rainbow, too." Hearers are told to "Listen with your eyes" and sing what they see
AUTHOR: Arthur Hamilton (source: mudcat.org thread "Chords Req: I Can Sing a Rainbow (Arthur Hamilton)")
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (recording by Peggy Lee, according to mudcat.org thread "Chords Req: I Can Sing a Rainbow (Arthur Hamilton)")
KEYWORDS: music colors nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 311, 441, "I Can Sing a Rainbow" (notes only)
File: ACSF311R

I Can Smoke a Pipe

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves the church, temple, bonnie lass, or can chew tobacco on a winter night, or is fit to serve the king. Then he can crack a biscuit, smoke a pipe and kiss a girl at night.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: courting food floatingverses playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 204, "I Love the New Kirk" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 73, "When I was a little boy My mammy kept me in" (2 texts; one of these is a fragment of Nicholson)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Craig Maclagan, The Games and Diversions of Argyleshire (London, 1900 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 79-80, ("Hullie go lee, go lee") (1 text, 1 tune)
James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1843 ("Digitized by Google")), #293 p. 164, ("When I was a little boy my mammy kept me in")
Roud #15093
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Queen Mary (Auld Maid's Lament)" (floating verse)
cf. "Sailor Lad" (floating verse)
cf. "The Tailor and the Sailor" (floating verse)
NOTES [217 words]: A verse from "Sailor Lad," Gomme 2.147-148 is common to the texts: "He daurna brack a biscuit, He daurna smoke a pipe; He daurna kiss a bonnie lass At ten o'clock at night." The verse is also in Nicholson, cited for "Queen Mary (Auld Maid's Lament)." The variable first verse fits neither Gomme nor Nicholson. Otherwise I would have lumped this with one of those. Effectively, I am lumping the rhymes that are one verse plus this floating verse because I haven't found another home for them.
In Greig/Duncan1 57A, "The Tailor and the Sailor," as part of her rave about her sailor, the singer says , "He'll turn her east and turn her west an north and south an a' And bids me aye keep up my heart tho' he be far awa He daerna brak a biscuit, he daurna smoke a pipe He daurna kiss a bonnie lass at ten o'clock at night."
Yet another example is in Richard Eddy, History of the Sixtieth Regiment New York State Volunteers (Philadelphia, 1864), pp. 122-123. The author writes a letter for "William, my contraband." At the end of the letter William adds rhyming couplets beginning "As green as de leaves of de willow tree, Winchester ladies is hard to please"; lines about marriage and death; "If Miss Carter will think of me, I nebber will be forgotten. I can handle a musket, I can smoke a pipe...." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2204

I Can Tell You're a Mormon

DESCRIPTION: "I can tell you're a Mormon by the clothes you wear, I can tell you're a Mormon by the color of your hair. You left your own country to marry a squaw. You're a Mormon, you're a Mormon, go back to Utah."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle)
KEYWORDS: clothes hair home marriage | Mormon Utah
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, p. 124, "I Can Tell You're a Mormon" (1 short text)
File: FSSS124A

I Can Whip the Scoundrel

DESCRIPTION: "The Yankees came to Baldwin, They came up in the rear, They thought they'd find old Abner, But Abner wasn't there." The singer declares he can "whip the scoundrel That stole old Abner's shoes." He is a prisoner but hopes to fight again
AUTHOR: (earliest form, "Billy Patterson," by Daniel Decatur Emmett)
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida); Emmett's song is from 1859
KEYWORDS: soldier Civilwar clothes floatingverses
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 1864 - The Olustee campaign
FOUND IN: US(MW, SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #7, "I Can Whip the Scoundrel" (1 text, incomplete, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 225-226, "I Can Whip the Scoundrel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5019
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "As I Went Down to Newbern" (lyrics, theme, subject?)
NOTES [4713 words]: I'm going to leave my initial notes below, because they apply to the song as it currently exists, but Carter C. has resolved the questions I had; his quite impressive research (along with many texts of the song) is available on Mudcat.org. He finds that both "As I Went Down to Newbern" and "I Can Whip the Scoundrel" are derived from an 1859 song, "Billy Patterson," by the famous Daniel Decatur Emmett, apparently first printed in 1863. This song was based on a joke from the 1830s, and obviously predates the American Civil War. Clearly many people took the core of the Emmett song and adapted it to a local incident. For more on the original, and its evolution, I refer you to the Mudcat thread "Origins: I Can Whip the Scoundrel'; my earlier notes about this particular version follow (now somewhat expanded) follow:
This song is clearly derived from the same original as "As I Went Down to Newbern." It's not clear which is the earlier, but "Newburn" almost certainly refers to the earlier event, so it is the more likely to be older.
Carter C. also resolved my biggest question, the meaning of the reference to "Abner." All this will be covered below; I just want to set the background.
The question is, what event does this song refer to? Silber suggests the 1864 Florida campaign which tried to divide southern Florida from the rest of the Confederacy -- an attack foiled at Baldwin, near Jacksonville. But this was a very obscure campaign, and the song doesn't have enough detail to really identify it. If correct, the reference is to the Battle of Olustee (Ocean Pond), Florida, February 20, 1864, in which a relatively large Union force commanded by General Truman Seymour attacked piecemeal and was repulsed in the only real battle fought on Florida soil (HTIECivilWar, p. 545). On the whole, this makes sense.
Florida's population at the time was small, and the coastline indefensible; the Union could take points on the coast at almost any time, and the Union took Fernandina, Jacksonville, and St. Augustine early in the war (Nulty, pp. 42-45). In fact, they took Jacksonville multiple times, and abandoned it, with the third occupation starting in March 1863 (Nulty, p. 50); one of the effects of all these occupations and de-occupations was to recruit Blacks into the Union army (Nulty, pp. 56-57).
The 1864 event was a complicated campaign. "By the end of 1863, there was sufficient reason for the Federal government to take an interest in Florida. It was a source of recruits for the black regiments in the Department of the South, it represented a major source of commissary supplies for the Confederacy, and the Confederacy [which was dependent on its railroads but had no ability to make new rails or engines] planned to move scarce rails from the area to more strategic locations. Additionally, there was a strong possibility that Florida [or at least the Florida peninsula] could be severed from the Confederacy and restored to the Union, and a port in Florida might be opened to alleviate both the local economy and enhance certain people in the right positions. Troops were available, transportation was available, and the area was vulnerable -- a minimum risk that had good prospect of returning a maximum gain" (Nulty, p 75). The goals, according to Boyd, p. 3, was to "provide an outlet for the products of the state, deprive Confederate armies outside Florida from supplies from the state, recruit Blacks, and take steps toward returning Florida to the Union." Given the lack of defenders, it should have been easy. All that was needed was a competent commander.
And so it was that area commander Quincy A. Gillmore on February 4, 1864 sent off Truman Seymour's force (a de facto division) for Florida (Nulty, p. 76).
The Federal force was strong, but its officers were dubious. Seymour, the expedition commander, was the only general officer, and his experience as a division commander was limited -- mostly he had taken charge when a senior officer was disabled. Even as a brigade comander, he had once gotten so disoriented and dazed as to have lost track of his entire brigade (SearsGates, p. 299). His brigade commanders were all inexperienced, and many of his troops were Black. The war showed that Black soldiers were just fine -- but their officers often weren't; they had a bad tendency to be men who had failed in other roles and took a job in a Black regiment to gain or keep an officer's ranking. And Seymour had so little transport that his men had to carry six days' rations (Nulty, pp. 76-77). Plus the troops had been reorganized just before the campaign (Boyd, pp. 4-5), so the officers generally didn't know their commands!
The invaders made a successful surprise landing at Jacksonville, which had been largely abandoned by its inhabitants after all those invasions and de-invasions (Nulty, pp. 81-82). Boyd, p. 4, suggests that not even Seymour knew where they were going until they were at sea; General Gillmore kept it secret. What is certain is that Seymour would be in charge of the troops that went out from Jacksonville.
Baldwin was a critical point; Florida had only three railroads, one a very short branch in the west that didn't connect to anything else in the state, the other two running from Tallahassee to Jacksonville (with Olustee being the next major stop east of Confederate commander Finnegan's base at Lake City, and Baldwin somewhat beyond that) and the other from the Gulf coast at Cedar Key to the Atlantic coast at Fernandina (Amelia Island). Very roughly, they were equivalent to modern Interstate Highway 10 for the east-west route and to US Highway 301 toward Gainesville and Floriay Highway 24 from there to Cedar Key. These two lines (neither of which connected to anything outside Florida) met at Baldwin. Thus, in 1864, Baldwin was the key to Florida's internal communications (Nulty, pp. 20-23). Olustee was a little to the west on the Tallahassee-Jacksonville rail.
The Federals had another advantage in addition to surprise. The Confederate commander in the area was Brigadier General Joseph Finegan, who was no soldier; he was a lawyer jumped up directly to the status of General by the Confederate government (Nulty, p. 19). He was placed in charge of East Florida (with headquarters in Lake City) in 1862, but he was not assigned any regular troops (Nulty, pp. 36-37). When the Union forced landed in Jackson, Finegan had just two regular battalions and a few odd companies, plus a little cavalry and artillery -- fewer than 1300 men, and those scattered (Nulty, p. 84). General P. G. T. Beauregard, who commanded the whole southeast coast, was scrambling to find troops and to locate an officer who could either command Finegan's forces or who could take over in Charleston so Beauregard, who was based there, could head to Florida (Nulty, p. 83).
Once landed, it took the Union forces until the afternoon of February 8 to get started, but Seymour finally sent out a strong column -- although it was not under Seymour but under one of his subordinates, Colonel Guy V. Henry. The first major force they encountered was the Second Florida Cavalry under Lt. Colonel Abner McCormick -- clearly the "Abner" of the song. Cavalry at this time functioned primarily as scouts, but McCormick failed utterly in this task; the Union column bypassed him to attack an artillery camp several miles away, capturing several guns but letting McCormack's troops escape (Nulty, pp. 86-88; Boyd, p. 5). I would assume this was when Abner's shoes were stolen; his 202 men (Nulty, p. 128) did not play a great part in the battle. (Either that, or the reference to his shoes refers in some obscure way to the capture of the guns.)
The Union forces didn't inflict many casualties, but they captured several artillery pieces, then pushed on to Baldwin (Nulty, pp. 89-92), where both General Seymour and General Gillmore joined the troops. At this point, the Union forces seemed to have won; they had captured their single most important objective and blocked both of Florida's two railroad lines.
After that, General Gillmore went back to Jacksonville, then to South Carolina, leaving General Seymour in charge of the advance (Nulty, pp. 96-97, 114). That may have been a mistake. Gillmore also turned passive, giving the Confederates time to deal with the situation (Nulty, p. 105). Gillmore apparently wanted to have the Federals fortify the region around Baldwin, thus controlling the eastern ends of the railroads. At the time Seymour took Baldwin, Finegan had just 490 infantry and 110 cavalry at Lake City, the logical next stop (Boyd, p. 8); Seymour could have swallowed him whole. But Seymour, despite saying he wanted to do more, waited a week, losing most of the benefits of surprise (Nulty, pp. 115-117)
The Confederates may have been weak and Finegan no soldier, but at least he started gathering troops. When the Federals backed off from a cavalry raid on Lake City, Finegan pushed forward from Lake City to Olustee, which he regarded as easier to defend (Boyd, p. 9). And, on February 8, the Confederates started to send troops from outstate -- although, because of their incomplete railroad network, it would take them about a week to arrive (Nulty, p. 93). The troops General Beauregard found were two Georgia brigades under Alfred H. Colquitt and Colonel George P. Harrison (Boyd, p. 12). They were pretty good troops -- Colquitt's brigade had been part of the Army of Northern Virginia (in D. H. Hill's division) until after Chancellorsville, when Robert E. Lee traded Colquitt's troops for the brigade of Junius Daniel (Freeman, volume II, p. 710; on p. 664, he suggests that this was because Robert E. Lee was dissatisfied with Colquitt's performance at Chancellorsville. Other scholars also seem to agree that Colquitt's performance had been inept. Yet the brigade had fought with grim heroism; at Antietam, for instance,the 6th Georgia -- of which Colquitt had been colonel -- "was all but wiped out. Of the 250 men it brought to the Cornfield [on the left at Antietam], 24 survived unhurt" (SearsLandscape, p. 211). I seem to recall reading that the regiment -- which would normally be commanded by a colonel -- was led by a lieutenant. Given a chance, they would hit the Federals hard.
(It is possible that Chancellorsville cost him his brigadier's star; Nulty consistently calls him a colonel at Olustee. However, Boatner, p. 166, says he was made brigadier general September 1, 1862, and every other source I've checked agrees that he was a brigadier. Promotions to general had to be approved by the Confederate congress, which sometimes did not act on the promotions, so Colquitt could have lost his promotion. But no other source mentions this. The reports I checked in OfficialRecords.I.35.2 call him a brigadier.)
The reinforcements arrived just in time (Nulty, pp. 121-122), and their 2000+ men gave Finegan the forces he needed to stand up to the Federals.
Nulty, p. 123, estimates 4600 Confederate infantrymen, with 12 cannon and fewer than 500 cavalry; the Federals he estimates to have had 5500 men and 16 cannon. Boyd, p. 16, also credits the Federals with 5500 men and 16 guns. Apparently the Federals had less firepower than that number implies, since a number had recently switched their weapons, meaning that some did not know how to use their pieces, and a number of the replacement rifles were defective (Boyd, p. 24).
Seymour, after sitting around for a week, suddenly got very active on February 20, 1864, heading west to make railroad operations even harder for the Confederates (Nulty, p. 124). He sent his cavalry ahead , but they didn't really scout; they just barged ahead with little attention to security (Nulty, p. 125) -- a sign, perhaps, of everyone's inexperience? Nulty, p. 213, concludes that Seymour moved "in the middle of enemy-occupied territory with little knowledge of the strength or location of the enemy and with inadequate logistic support" -- which seems to be true from everything I have read. The Confederates weren't doing much better as far as scouting was concerned; Abner McCormick's cavalry was sort of watching one flank, but McCormick wasn't even in charge the whole time (Nulty, p. 131). But the Confederates, being on the defensive, had less need for intelligence.
The battle started with leading elements of the Federal cavalry, and Barton's brigade, skirmishing with Colquitt's brigade, probably Finegan's best unit (Nulty, pp. 131-133, with map on p. 132; Boyd, pp. 17-18, with maps on pp. 19-21). FInegan assigned the field command to Colquitt (Boyd, p. 18) even as he sent more forces than just Colquitt's brigade to the battle site.
Neither side was ready for a fight, but it sounds as if the Confederates, who had their units in a relatively compact mass and were defending anyway, had the better of it. Boyd, p. 36, says "the entire Confederate force was quickly brought upon the field in fresh condition, while Seymour's columns, fatigued from a long march, were successively brought onto the field as individual brigades, and consequently for a great part of the action, each faced a numerically superior opponent." The Confederates routed part of the Federal advance guard and inflicted severe casualties on the rest (Nulty, pp. 137-145). Colquitt, who had field command (Nulty, p. 155), put reinforcements into line as they came up and advanced against the Federal vanguard (Nulty, pp. 148-155). Seymour, with his leading elements crushed, probably should have pulled back, built a defensive position, and tried to learn more about what was going on, but instead he just shoved more units into the fight piecemeal and let them get slaughtered. The Confederates came on until a shortage of ammunition forced them to halt (Nulty, p. 162). When they were finally resupplied, they apparently had the Union forces clumped together with the Confederates in a sort of a bowl around them (Nulty, p. 165).
The Union forces, badly beaten, retreated (and Seymour turned field command over to one of his subordinates, Colonel Barton; Boyd, p. 29. I find it hard to imagine what Seymour had to do that was more important than directing the retreat). Colquitt the cautious, despite having thoroughly wrecked the Union army, did not follow up his victory; it was not until the next day that a pursuit was organized (Nulty, p. 171). Nonetheless, Nulty, p. 209, attributes the Confederate success in the battle to Colquitt's management of the field. The consensus seems to be that General Finegan was overly cautious in following the Union forces (Nulty, p. 184).
Seymour probably could have rallied the troops at Baldwin and defended that key railroad junction, but instead burned the town and kept on going (Nulty, pp. 178-179); Boyd, p. 29, notes that the retreating Federals were at least careful to damage the railroad.
The irony is, the Federals promptly scraped up about four brigades of reinforcements (organization table on p. 189 of Nulty). All the brigades were small, but still, they roughly doubled the Federal force. Since the Confederates had taken casualties, too, Seymour once again had the forces to win the campaign he had so thoroughly muffed. But he showed no signs of interest in further action. The Federals settled down in Jacksonville; the Confederates refused to attack, although they did work on fortifications at Baldwin (Nulty, p. 201).
The most careful nineteenth century reckoning of losses (Phisterer, p. 215) concluded that Union forces at Olustee lost 193 killed, 1175 wounded, and 460 missing (total of 1828); the Confederates lost about 500. Boatner, p. 608, and Boyd, p. 30, say Seymour had 5115 effectives, and lists 203 killed, 1152 wounded, 506 missing, total of 1861 -- which Boatner regards as a loss rate of 36%. Nulty, p. 203, says 5115 Union soldiers fought, and 1335 were casualties, a casualty rate of 26.5%, On p. ix, claims that "by proportion of casualties to men engaged, was the third bloodiest defeat of the entire war for the Union" (on p. 203 he clarifies that the two bloodier battles were both in 1864: the combined Wilderness/Spottsylvania campaign and the June 14 Battle of Port Hudson. (There was, however, no battle at Port Hudson on June 14, 1864, according to Phisterer, p. 179; the date should be 1863, when Phisterer lists the "Second Assault... at Port Hudson, La.") Livermore, p. 74, also makes the casualty rate 26.5%, and is the likely source for some of those other figures. Livermore, p. 75, lists this the second-highest loss rate for any Union force in the war (behind, yes, Port Hudson) -- although noting that comparing small forces like that at Olustee with full-size armies is not fair; individual divisions in larger armies sometimes took higher casualties. Still, there is no question but that losses at Olustee were very high.
No matter which exact numbers you accept, Seymour had only ten regiments, although most of them had more than 500 men (Boyd, pp. 14-15; that was pretty strong for regiments at that stage of the war) so a loss of more than 1300 was definitely high, and if his losses were in excess of 1800, that would be simply staggering; one estimate I saw somewhere placed his losses at 40%.
And two of Seymour's regiments (54th Massachusetts and 1st North Carolina) were of "Colored" soldiers (Gannon, p. 45), so some of those missing troops would presumably have ended up back in slavery. Gannon, p. 45, says that the two Black regiments in fact covered the Union retreat, and did it in such a gallant way as to prevent a Union rout; p. 44 shows an engraving of the event, although I doubt its accuracy.
Boatner give Confederate losses as 934 killed and wounded out of about 5200 engaged, so their rate of loss was about half that of the Federals. Gannon, p. 43, says that Finegan had 93 killed, 847 wounded, 6 missing, which isn't quite the same figure, but it's close.
Seymour later tried to convince his bosses that he had earned some sort of success; he turned in a report claiming high Confederate losses and adding that "every report that is received goes to show that it has been for them one of the severest engagements of the war" (OfficialRecords.I.35.2, p. 3). It got him nowhere. On March 24, he was relieved of his command (OfficialRecords.I.35.2, p. 27) and on April 20 was ordered to a non-combat role (OfficialRecords.I.35.2, p. 62).
Nulty, p. 217, assigns some of the blame for the defeat to General Gillmore, the district commander, who failed to coordinate the actions of his department and so let the Confederates concentrate their forces; Gillmore also failed to oversee Seymour. But he assigns much more to Seymour: "General Seymour's blundering in allowing his forces to be committed piecemeal and defeated in detail (something he had done before in the abortive attack on Battery Wagner [in Charleston]) pretty well ended hopes for what could have been achieved. General Seymour was too limited in vision to have commanded the advance force of the Federal expedition.... His disregard for security while in the enemy's territory, his failure to develop reliable intelligence, his failure to appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of his own units, his inertia when his forces had the advantage, his too-rapid piecemeal commitment of his units into an unknown situation, and his contradictory statements and behavior within a short period of time were responsible fo the failure of what was potentially a low-cost, significant Union victory" (Nulty, pp. 216-217). I see no reason to disagree with any of this.
Seymour later tried to convince his bosses that he had earned some sort of success; he turned in a report claiming high Confederate losses and adding that "every report that is received goes to show that it has been for them one of the severest engagements of the war" (OfficialRecords.I.35.2, p. 3). It got him nowhere. On March 24, he was relieved of his command (OfficialRecords.I.35.2, p. 27) and on April 20 was ordered to a non-combat role (OfficialRecords.I.35.2, p. 62)
Despite the disaster, and the congressional investigation that followed, Seymour's career recovered -- after a time as a troop inspector, he returned to the Army of the Potomac later in 1864. He was demoted to brigade command, but that was probably just the side effect of the transfer, and he later (after being taken prisoner and exchanged) returned to division command, and was allowed to remain in the regular army after the war (WarnerBlue, pp. 432-433; Nulty, p. 217).
General Finegan's career doesn't seem to have been affected much, either. He was an unusual Confederate general, born in Ireland in 1814 and moved to Florida in the late 1830s. He became a planter and owned a lumber mill. He was a member of Florida's secession convention, and made a brigadier in April 1862.
Immediately after Olustee, when General Beauregard finally made it to Florida and looked things over, he certainly didn't act as if Finegan had just won a signal victory. He reorganized the local forces, taking most of Finegan's troops and giving them to other officers. Even a camp that had been named for Finegan was renamed (Nulty, p. 197). Clearly Beauregard felt that Finegan's performance had been poor. Before leaving the area on March 20, Beauregard put James Patton Anderson in charge of the Department of Florida (Nulty, p. 200. WarnerGray, p. 7, reports that Anderson, like Finegan, had been part of the Florida secession convention -- but his military record was far better, having commanded a brigade and division in the Army of Tennessee from Shiloh to Chattanooga).
Nulty's considered opinion of Finegan, pp. 217-218, is that he "received a great deal of credit for doing relatively little. One wonders how he was able to keep himself so busy so as not to appear on the battlefield until the Union forces were in full retreat. The failure to coordinate the efforts of the individual Confederate forces and immediately to pursue the defeated enemy rests on his shoulders..... Colonel (sic.) Colquitt, the real hero of Olustee, did an excellent job with the infantry but did not make enough use of the artillery and cavalry. General Seymour, given all his blunders, was fortunate in having General Finegan for an opponent." Boyd, p. 33, gives Finegan a little more credit, but also appears to think Colquitt deserves most of the credit. There is evidence (summarized by Boyd, p. 34) that several senior Confederate officers did not trust Finegan.
In 1864, after Olustee, some of the units that fought there returned to where they came from; others were formed into a brigade under Finegan (Boyd, p. 35). Finegan was sent to the Army of Northern Virginia in time for the Battle of Cold Harbour (WarnerGray, pp. 88-89, OfficialRecords.I.35.2, p. 485 prints the order, which is dated May 16, 1864), where his three regiments were joined with three regiments of the wounded Brigadier General Perry's brigade, with Finegan taking over the combined brigade (Furguson, pp. 96-97). The Florida units he took with him were joined with a handful of Florida regiments that were already in William Mahone's division to form a six regiment unit known as Finegan's Brigade (Ferguson, p. 273). His performance at Cold Harbor wsa not good; his brigade took 275 casualties at a battle in which most other units came out almost unscathed; there were some who thought he was drunk (Rhea, p. 384). Nonetheless, he stayed with the Army of Northern Virginia until March 1865, when he was sent back to Florida. After the war, he was involved in Florida politics and as a lawyer; he died in 1885 (Boatner, p. 279).
The whole business tends to get ignored in Civil War histories; it was a morale-booster for the Confederacy, but it didn't actually improve their position or hurt the Federals. Indeed, Nulty, p. ix, concludes that the Union campaign was, in outline, a success: "it came very close to severing Florida from the Confederacy, it forced the Confederacy to divert seventeen thousand men from a thinly manned defense of Charleston and Savannah, it delayed the critical reinforcement of the Southern Army of the Tennessee at a time when that army was fighting desperately to prevent the Union invasion of northwestern Georgia, it gave further proof of the ability of black soldiers to fight, and for a time it put a severe crimp in the subsistence supply lines that fed two Southern armies. In respect to the number of men the Union committed and the long-range ramifications of the expedition, the Federal expedition into Florida in 1862 was a success!"
The reference to "Abner" defeated me; the Confederate commander at Olustee was Joseph Finegan, and his two leading subordinates were Alfred H. Colquitt and George P. Harrison.
Morris also seems to connect the song with the Olustee campaign, saying that part of G. V. Henry's Fortieth Massachusetts Mounted Infantry entered Baldwin, Florida on February 9, 1864. But he offers no explanation for the mention of "Abner."
It turns out, though, that Carter C. has a likely explanation of that one. "Brigadier General George H. Gordon, USA, commanding District of Florida, commanding Union expedition on the St. Johns River, reconnoitered the vicinity of Palatka, reported no Confederates at Camp Finegan, and Southern forces in East Florida were: 'At Camp Milton, the Second Florida Cavalry, Colonel Abner H. McCormick, CSA, 600 men; Camp Milton and McGirt's Creek strongly fortified. At Baldwin, no troops, strong fortifications, two pieces of artillery.'"
Checking four miscellaneous references, I find no record of McCormick ever rising above the rank of colonel or of doing anything else of note. He certainly didn't impress his superiors; on March 11, he was called upon to explain his behavior to General Beauregard (OfficialRecords.I.35.2, p. 348), and on August 20, a report went to the Confederate Adjutant General himself, reporting that "Upon two occasions the cavalry, under Lieutenant-Colonel McCormick (Second Florida Cavalry), has been reported to me, reflecting no credit on the commander." His failure at Olustee is specifically mentioned (OfficialRecords.I.35.2, p. 614). The report does not explicitly call for his relief -- but lists officers who would be good replacements. The conclusion seems pretty clear.
Abner McCormick, if he was not party to the post-Olustee atrocities against Black soldiers, certainly wanted to be: "Lt. Col. A. H. McCormick of the Second Florida Cavalry made a speech to his men before the battle, claiming the blacks were there to rape and pillage and stating that he would take no prisoners" (Nulty, p. 210). And it is noteworthy that there were few prisoners from the "Colored" regiments; Finegan reported taking 150 wounded prisoners, but only three of them Black (Boyd, p. 32), even though it is clear that at least a quarter and probably more than a third of Seymour's force was Black!
There is one other recent book about Olustee, Greg Ahlgren, Olustee: America's Unfinished Civil War Battle, Canterbury House Publishing, 2018. Despite having a title that sounds like non-fiction, it is in fact a novel, so I have not read it. It does have an afterword about the history, which is unpaginated. It mentions that, starting in 1977, re-enactors have replayed Olustee -- but, Ahlgren notes, Black re-enactors are rarely involved. Ahlgren also cites two personal accounts of atrocities committed against the Black union soldiers. (Nulty also mentions Confederate officers insulting the body and memory of a white colonel who was killed while commanding a Black regiment; Nulty, p. 190).
Ahlgren also mentions an hypothesis that Truman Seymour's reckless actions arose from the fact that he was known to suffer from "melancholia" -- which he equates, too loosely, with bipolar disorder. Bipolar II disorder does result in excessive optimism during periods of hypomania, so it could explain Seymour's actions, but I'd need better evidence than a mention of melancholia to be confident that that is what Seymour experienced. Nonetheless John Hay also wrote of Seymour's mood swings (Nulty, p. 119). Since the changes in mood were fairly rapid, it is highly unlikely that they were bipolar disorder, but some sort of emotional problem seems not unlikely. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: SCWF225

I Can't Change It

DESCRIPTION: "One day I got a present from my old and faithful dad" -- a gold piece which proves bad He tries to be rid of it, but he can't get (ex)change it. His wife turns out to have a wooden leg; he can't change her. She has four daughters; he can't change them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Finger-FrontierBallads)
KEYWORDS: humorous gift father marriage wife disguise money children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 72-74, "(no title)" (1 text, t tune)
Roud #8828
NOTES [24 words]: Apparently this was intended to be funny. If the author had stopped with the first verse, it might have been. The rest is just prejudiced. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Fing072

I Can't Eat, I Can't Talk

See Got the Jake Leg Too (File: RcGtJLT)

I Can't Feel At Home In This World Any More

See This World Is Not My Home (File: Wa135)

I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the life of a rambler, commenting "I can't help but wonder where I'm bound." He sees worried people everywhere, he misses his former girlfriend and his buddy; he advises people who have homes to stay there
AUTHOR: Tom Paxton
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: rambling home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 52, "I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound" (1 text)
DT, WHERBOND*
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound
Can't Help But Wonder
NOTES [181 words]: Obviously this isn't a traditional song, and it probably never will become one. On the other hand, it has been sung so widely by pop/folk singers (themselves ramblers, and so perhaps unusually sympathetic to the song) that I have seen a number of bluegrass sources list it as traditional. It may be that the song belongs in the Index just to refute that claim. No other Paxton song seems to have had its origin so widely forgotten.
In his book The Honor of Your Company, p. 16, Paxton reports writing this song "around 1962." He add that "I've had countless people tell me they learned to play the guitar with this song. They always look a little confused when I tell them that the same was true for me."
I find it interesting that Tom Paxton has, as of this writing, five songs in the Index -- "The Marvelous Toy," "The Last Thing on My Mind," "My Ramblin' Boy," "Going to the Zoo," and "I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound" -- and all were written and recorded very early in his career. Nor have I seen any hints of any of his later songs matching those five in popularity. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: FSWB052

I Can't Sit Down

See Set Down, Servant (File: LxU105)

I Can't Stand the Fire

DESCRIPTION: "I can't stand the fire (dear sister), I can't stand the fire (O Lord), I can't stand the fire, While the Jordan roll so swift."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 42, "I Can't Stand the Fire" (1 short text which the author suspect is a fragment, 2 tunes)
Roud #11997
File: AWG042B

I Can't Stay Behind

DESCRIPTION: "I can't say behind, my Lord, I can't say behind." "There's room enough (x3) in the heaven, My Lord,.. I can't stay behind." "I been all around." "I've searched every room." "The angels singing, all around the throne." "My father call...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment); 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 6, "I Can't Stay Behind" (1 text with extensive notes on variants, 1 tune)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 3, pp. 22, 199-200, "Room In There" (1 text)
Roud #11857
NOTES [24 words]: Allen writes that "I Can't Stay Behind, My Lord" was used as a shout hymn on his plantation (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. xv). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: AWG006

I Can't Stay Here by Myself

See I Wish I Was a Little Bird (Nobody Cares for Me) (File: San338)

I Can't Stay In Egypt Lan'

See I Can't Stay In Egypt Land (File: Edwa028)

I Can't Stay In Egypt Land

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Can't stay away (3x), Lord, I can't stay in Egypt land." Verses include "Tomorrow morning, baptism day,""My gospel's going from shore to shore," and "I looked at my feet, my feet looked new ... I swear by God I was running too"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious floatingverses
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 28, "I Can't Stay In Egypt Lan'" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Lord's Riding All the Time" (theme: this world is Egypt)
NOTES [55 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. Each verse is a couplet, with "I cannot stay in the Egypt land" and "I can't stay in Egypt land" as the alternate lines to each couplet line. The verse not included in the description is "O sinne' man how can you stan'? ... My gospel goin' from shore to shore." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa028

I Canna Leave My Mither Yet

DESCRIPTION: Lizzie will not leave her mother "For nane can lo'e her like mysel'." Her lover asks her to go with him and herd sheep together. They would take her mother and "We baith will tend her fading years Amang the heathery hills o' Dee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: age courting travel farming dialog sheep mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 899A, "I Canna Leave My Mither Yet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6255
File: GrD4899A

I Cannot Be Your Sweetheart

DESCRIPTION: Singer asks his beloved to marry him. She refuses; she loves him, but is pledged to another. Ch.: "I cannot be your sweeheart, I cannot stay by your side, Another is patiently waiting, waiting to call me his bride, My heart it is almost broken,,,,"
AUTHOR: Abbie L. Ford (source: Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (copyright, according to Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer courts his beloved, asks her to marry him. She refuses, saying that though she loves him, she's promised to another. They part; he pines. Chorus: "I cannot be your sweeheart, I cannot stay by your side / Another is patiently waiting, waiting to call me his bride / My heart it is almost broken, your vows only add to my pain / I love you, sweetheart, I love you / Though we never meet again"
KEYWORDS: grief virtue courting love marriage promise rejection lover
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 44, "I Cannot Be Your Sweetheart" (1 text, 1 tune, plus mention of 2 more)
Roud #4964
RECORDINGS:
[Blind James] Howard & [Charles] Peak, "I Cannot Be Your Sweetheart" (Victor V-40189, 1930; rec. 1928; on KMM)
NOTES [23 words]: A classic plot, but apparently not a member of another song family. Nor could I find it in sheet music; possibly Howard or Peak wrote it. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: RcICBYSH

I Cannot Call Her Mother (The Marriage Rite is Over; The Stepmother)

DESCRIPTION: "The marriage rite is over," and the children have seen their father take a new wife. Their mother's picture is replaced by the pretty new girl's. The child "could not call her mother." She calls herself an orphan; "God gave us but one mother."
AUTHOR: Henry Harrison
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (date of composition)
KEYWORDS: family marriage mother father children stepmother orphan
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Randolph 726, "The Stepmother" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 79, "I Cannot Call Her Mother" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 298-299, "I Can Not Call Her Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 246-247, "The Stepmother" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #956, p. 65, "I Cannot Call Her Mother" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #6, p. 33, "I can not call her Mother" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 482, "The Stepmother" (source notes only)
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 201-202, "(The Stepmother)" (1 short text)
John Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1920_, self-published, 1918 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland site), p. 19, "I Cannot Call Her Mother" (1 text)
ST R726 (Partial)
Roud #2091
RECORDINGS:
Bradley Kincaid, "I Cannot Call Her Mother" (Supertone 9565, 1929; Champion 15968, 1930 [as Dan Hughey])
[Roy Harvey and the] North Carolina Ramblers "I Cannot Call Her Mother" (Silvertone 5181 [as The Three Kentucky Serenaders], 1927; Supertone 9246/Silvertone 8147, 1928)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "I Cannot Call Her Mother" (Columbia 15307-D, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blind Child" (theme)
File: R726

I Cannot Eat But Little Meat

See Jolly Good Ale and Old (Back and Sides Go Bare) (File: DTbcksid)

I Cannot Eat But Lyttyl Meat

See Jolly Good Ale and Old (Back and Sides Go Bare) (File: DTbcksid)

I Cannot Stay Here Baby

DESCRIPTION: "How can I stay here baby, when you treat me the way you do?" "... some other woman will care for me." "I don't want to marry, just want to be your man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (USMississippi01)
KEYWORDS: infidelity sex parting nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
James "Son Ford" Thomas, "I Cannot Stay Here Baby" (on USMississippi01)
NOTES [21 words]: The Thomas recording is an aab blues with the second a replaced by an instrumental interlude for all but the last verse. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcICSHBa

I Catch-a Da Plenty of Feesh

DESCRIPTION: "I sail over the ocean blue, I catch-a da plenty of feesh; The rain come down like hell, And the wind blow through my wheesk. Oh, Marian, my good compan, O Viva le Garibaldi! Viva, viva, viva l'Italiane!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: sailor work patriotic
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 409, "I Catch-a Da Plenty of Feesh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 29, "I Catch-a-da-Feesh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 31, "I Catch-a-da-Plenty of Feesh" (1 text)
SongsOfManyNations, "Italian Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 27)
NOTES [50 words]: Garibaldi was, of course, the soldier who (in a military sense) was most responsible for the unification of Italy. The mention presumably dates the song to the period around 1861 when Cavour (sometimes helped, and sometimes hindered, by Garibaldi) was unifying Italy under the Piedmont dynasty. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: San409

I Catch-a-da-Feesh

See I Catch-a Da Plenty of Feesh (File: San409)

I Caught a Hare

See One, Two, Three, Four, Five (File: OO2388)

I Come from Chink-a-China

See I Come from Chinka China (File: AJRR217)

I Come from Chinka China

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I come from Chinka China, My home is 'cross the sea. I do my daily laundry For fifty cents a week. Oh, Mary, Mary, Mary, you ought to be ashamed, To marry, marry, marry, A boy without a name."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Bluebells My Cockle Shells)
KEYWORDS: jumprope courting clothes marriage China | laundry
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #217, "I come from Chink-a-China" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 27, "(I come from Chinky China)" (1 text)
Roud #19438
File: AJRR217

I Come from Chinky China

See I Come from Chinka China (File: AJRR217)

I Come from Salem City

See Oh California (File: ShaSS114)

I Come to See Jennie

See Jenny Jones (Jennie Jo) (File: Lins026)

I Come to Tell You

DESCRIPTION: The singer comes "to tell you" she is going to preach in Jerusalem. "Some gonna believe me -- some gonna deceive me ... He will defend me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1994 (Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious | preaching
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, pp. 126-127, "I Come to Tell You" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Venus McIver, Brenton Jordan and The McIntosh County Shouters, "I Come to Tell You" (on McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts)
NOTES [28 words]: The description is from the Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree text.
The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree text and McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts track are "ring shout" songs. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RSBF126

I Come to the Garden Alone

See In the Garden (File: bdIthGar)

I Come Up Put uv Egypt

See Balm in Gilead (File: FSWB360A)

I Could'n Live Bedout de Flowers

DESCRIPTION: About southern living habits. "I could'n live bedout de flowers Ur fdat sweet magnolia tree. I could'n sleep where de mockin' bird Could'n sing he song to me." The singer claims he would "pine an' die on Boston beans, 'Caze possum is what we eat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: food home nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 442, "I Could'n Live Bedout de Flowers" (1 text)
Roud #11781
NOTES [13 words]: The editors of Brown say this is of minstrel origin, and it seems likely enough.
File: Br3442

I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray

DESCRIPTION: "Couldn't hear nobody pray, I couldn't hear nobody pray, Well, way down yonder by myself I couldn't hear nobody pray." "In the valley... On my knees... Callin' Jesus... So lonesome... In the mornin'... In the evenin'...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (recording, Fisk University Jubilee Quartette)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 202-203, App.X, "I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" (2 texts, 2 tunes; pp. 160-161 in the 1909 edition)
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (I), pp. 22-31, "Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" (1 text with variants, 1 tune with variants)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 246, "I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, pp. 24-25, "I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 51-52, "Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 351, "I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 59, "I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11949
RECORDINGS:
Emory University Glee Club, "Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" (Victor 20594, 1927)
Fisk University Jubilee Quartette, "I Couldn't Hear Nobody" (Victor 16448, 1909)
Fisk University Jubilee Singers, "Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" (Columbia A-1932, 1916); "I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" (on Fisk01)
Four Blues, "I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" (DeLuxe 1003, 1945)
Paramount Jubilee Singers, "I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" (Paramount 12070, 1923)
Southern Four, "I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" (Edison 50885, 1921)
Vaughan Quartet, "Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" (Vaughan 300, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wreck on the Highway" (words)
cf. "Settin' Down" (lyrics)
NOTES [15 words]: Not to be confused with "Wreck on the Highway," which uses a similar phrase in its chorus. -PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LoF246

I Couldn't Rest Contented, Until I Found the Lord

See Until I Found the Lord (File: KiWa254I)

I Couldn't Stay Away

See Way Down in Old Virginia (File: ScaNF225)

I Courted a Bonny Lass

See The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass) (File: K152)

I Courted an Old Man

See Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man (File: K207)

I Did Wrong to My Parents

See I'm a Man That Done Wrong to His Parents (File: R839)

I Didn't Hear Anybody Pray

See Wreck on the Highway (File: DTwreckh)

I Died My Petticoat Red

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

I do I do I tries to do

See Put on the Silver Slippers (File: Paap118)

I Do Love Sugar in My Coffee O

See Sugar in My Coffee (File: R565A)

I Do Not Choose to Run

DESCRIPTION: "The leading question of today is argued everywhere, About who'll be the lucky jay to fill the White House Chair." President Coolidge doesn't want to run for re-election: "I do not choose to run." Maybe not, but if he meets a hodag, then he'll surely run
AUTHOR: William T. Allen (Shan T. Boy)
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Kearney, The Hodag, according to Peterson)
KEYWORDS: humorous political animal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1920 - Calvin Coolidge elected vice-president under president Warren G. Harding
1923 - Coolidge becomes president when Harding dies
1924 - Coolidge elected president in his own right
1927 - Coolidge announces that he will not seek another term in 1928
1929 - Coolidge succeeded by Herbert Hoover
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: David C. Peterson, "Wisconsin Folksongs," chapter in _Badger History: Wisconsin Folklore_, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Volume XXV, Number 2, November 1973), pp. 63-64, "I do not choose to run" (1 text, 1 non-traditional tune)
ST WHBD063 (Partial)
NOTES [946 words]: This must be one of the last songs written by William T. Allen (Shan T. Boy), best known as the writer of "The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine" [Laws C2]; it refers to events of 1927 and 1928. Since Allen generally wrote his pieces to fit particular tunes, it is reasonable to assume that this was sung to some well-known traditional melody, but presumably Kearney, who took down the tune, did not see fit to record it. David Peterson, who reprinted it, therefore saw fit to set his own tune, but I see no reason why this tune should be used. When I looked at the words, I thought of "Auld Lang Syne," but that's just a wild guess.
Calvin Coolidge was no one in particular when he became the Republican vice presidential nominee; born in 1872, he had spent six years in the Massachusetts legislature, being Senate president 1914-1915. He had served two years as mayor of Northampton. He had been lieutenant governor of Massachusetts 1916-1918, then governor 1918-1920 (DeGregorio, pp. 451-452). He had been nominated for President in 1920, but was not considered a serious candidate. For some reason, after Harding had become the Presidential nominee, there was a stampede to make Coolidge his running mate (DeGregorio, p. 452). If Harding had finished out his term, Coolidge would likely have gone back to Massachusetts and gone back to being a nobody.
But Harding, of course, did not serve out his term, dying on August 2, 1923. Coolidge then became president.
There was no serious opposition to Coolidge's re-nomination in 1924, and he won 54% of the popular vote. That translated into 382 electoral votes, entitling Coolidge to a full term in the White House (DeGregorio, p. 455).
This was not entirely a source of pleasure for Coolidge. After his nomination for president, but before the election, his sixteen-year-old son Calvin Jr. died of a bacterial infection in his foot (Greenberg, p. 97). Coolidge admitted that he was never the same after that (Greenberg, p. 98); he would write in his autobiography, "the power and the glory of the presidency went with [Calvin Jr.]" (Greenberg, p. 99).
Still, Coolidge could have chosen to run for a second full term. There was, as yet, no term limit on the presidency, and little precedent. Most vice presidents who had succeeded to the office (Tyler, Fillmore, Johnson, Arthur) had not managed to win a full term; the one exception, Theodore Roosevelt, had served almost two terms and then retired, although he ran again in 1912. Coolidge was the first president to have succeeded to less than half a full term and then been elected in his own right. So it was not only legal for him to run for a second full term, it was at least arguable that it did not violate Washington's precedent of not serving a third term.
Coolidge, however, was not interested. He felt ten years in Washington was "too long" (Greenberg, p. 138). By 1927, he had decided not to run again. On August 2, 1927, four years to the day after Harding died, he released a laconic statement, "I do not choose to run for president in 1928" (Greenberg, p. 137). That of course provided the tag line for this song.
Even before he retired, Coolidge developed a habit of taking very long vacations. "As president he... took up fishing and skeet shooting" (DeGregorio, p. 450), and took trips from Washington to indulge these interests. In 1927, for instance, he spent a long time in South Dakota's Black Hills (Greenberg, pp. 135-136). And in 1928, he went fishing in northern Wisconsin.
And that, obviously, attracted the attention of William Allen. This song opens with a description of Coolidge's fishing expedition, then gives a description of the hodag, then talks of what Coolidge would do if he were to meet a hodag; he would surely choose to run from the fearsome beast.
Fearsome -- and fictitious. It's clearly fakelore.
"The Black Hodag (Bovinus spiritualis) was discovered by E. S. "Gene" Shephard, a former well-known timber cruiser of Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Its haunts were in the dense swamps of that region. According to its discoverer, this fearful beast fed on mud turtles, water snakes, and muskrats, but it did not disdain human flesh" (Gard/Sorden, p. 73).
"The most famous mythical creature in Wisconsin is the Hodag, a prehistoric creature resembling a dinosaur with the body of an ox and the tail of an alligator. Along its back were sharply pointed spines. Gene Shepherd of Rhinelander captured one at the turn of the century, using white bulldogs as bait, and exhibited it at county fairs.... [I]t is said the Smithsonian Institution was interested in this creature. Unfortunately, a fire destroyed the creature so the scientific world could not prove the Hodag's authenticity.... One question remains: If the Hodag was a hoax, why are there not more white bulldogs in northern Wisconsin today?" (Wyman, pp. 16-17).
The legend was quickly embellished -- e.g. it show up in Paul Bunyan tales (which are, of course, also fakelore). So we find this, e.g., on p. 85 of Barber/Riches: "Hodag[.] Ferocious man-eating animal, with formidable horns, large bulging eyes, claws and a line of sharp spikes which ran down the ridge of its back and long tail. It lived in dense swamps in Wisconsin. The hodag never lay lay down, but leant against a tree to sleep. It could only be captured by cutting deeply into the trunk of its favorite trees, and trapping it as it fell" (this trait perhaps lifted from Pliny's "Achlis").
William Allen lived in northern Wisconsin, and he worked in the lumber camps. So he would have known of the Hodag -- and would have known it was a hoax. So I truly don't know if he's satirizing Coolidge, or the hodag, or both. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.5
File: WHBD063

I Do Wonder Is My Mother on That Train

DESCRIPTION: "I do wonder is my mother on that train (x2). Train is a-comin' roun' de curve, an' she's strainin' ever' nerve, I do wonder...." Sinners are told of the arrival of the train in heaven and told they should behave better.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious train nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 586, "I Do Wonder Is My Mother on That Train" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 586, "I Do Wonder is My Mother on That Train" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11902
File: Br3586

I Don't Care If I Do

See I Don't Mind If I Do (File: MA263)

I Don't Care If I Never Wake Up (My Money Never Gives Out )

DESCRIPTION: Two nearly-identical minstrel songs about imagined wealth
AUTHOR: "I Don't Care If I Never Wake Up": Paul J. Knox / "My Money Never Gives Out": Irving Jones
EARLIEST DATE: "I Don't Care If I Never Wake Up": 1899 (sheet music) / "My Money Never Gives Out": 1900 (sheet music)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Two nearly-identical minstrel songs containing successive surreal images of imagined wealth: "There's a certain yellow joker lives around this town/Just as lazy as lazy can be." Early one morning he takes a pipe of dope, says, "I'm known as the ragtime millionaire ... I'll go back to bed ... I don't care if I never wake up ... There's nothing like livin' like a moneyed king, drinkin' from a silver cup ... I am worth a million in my dreams... I'm always flush, and My money never runs out/Rich food is a-makin' me stout." "I'm a-livin' good all the time/I don't drink no cheap wine." "When you got money it's a pleasant treat/Your only occupation is to sleep and eat." "I got everything that a king could wish, on-a-Fridays I eat fried goldfish.... I cleans my teeth with diamond dust/It wouldn't jar me if all he banks went bust."
KEYWORDS: drugs money
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Banjo Joe (pseud. For Gus Cannon), "My Money Never Runs Out" (Paramount 12604, c. 1927)
Arthur Collins, "My Money Never Gives Out" (CYL: Edison 7607, 1901)
Dom Flemons & Guy Davis, "My Money Never Gives Out" DixieFrog DFGCD 8771; on Protobilly) [Note: This is mostly drawn from the Cannon recording.]
Silas Leachman, "I Don't Care if I Never Wake Up" (Victor 795, 1901; on Protobilly)
NOTES [51 words]: "Protobilly" credits Gus Cannon with blending these two 1901 minstrel songs of "financial fantasy." They already overlapped so much that one is invariably tempted to imagine plagiarism, or "folk process" if you prefer. The result, in all the versions reissued on "Protobilly," is imagistic and surreal. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcIDCINW

I Don't Care If It Rains of Freezes

DESCRIPTION: "I don't care if it rains or freezes, I am safe in the arms of Jesus, I am Jesus's little lamb, Yes, by Jesus Christ, I am."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: religious derivative | irreverent
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 56, "(I don't care if it rains or freezes)" (1 short text)
Roud #22972
File: PKKB056C

I Don't Feel No-ways Tired

See I Don't Fee Weary (File: AWG070A)

I Don't Feel Weary

DESCRIPTION: "I don't feel weary and noways tired, O glory hallelujah. Just let me in the kingdom While the world is all on fire, O glory hallelujah." "Going to live with God forever." "And keep the ark a-moving."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 70, "I Don't Feel Weary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 36-37, "I Am Seekin' for a City (I Don't Feel No-ways Tired)" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 228-229 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #12028
File: AWG070A

I Don't Have To Worry About Where I Spend Eternity

DESCRIPTION: "I don't have to worry about where I spend eternity." "Jesus died in blood you see I'm so glad he included me." Jesus "claims the ocean," "master of every sea," "captain of every ship."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (USMississippi01)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Essie Mae Brooks, "I Don't Have to Worry Where I Spend Eternity" (2008, on "Sisters of the South," DixieFrog DFGCD 8649)
Church of God in Christ, "I Don't Have To Worry About Where I Spend Eternity" (on USMississippi01)
NOTES [133 words]: The format of this minor key hymn is similar to that of "Motherless Children": in some verses the first line -- "I don't have to worry about where I spend eternity" - -is repeated, followed by a rhyming couplet, and "I don't have to worry ...." For example,
Don't have to worry about where I spend eternity
Don't have to worry about where I spend eternity
Jesus died in blood can't you see
I'm so glad he included me
Don't have to worry about where I spend eternity
Verses that don't start with the title line have two rhyming couplets followed by the title line. - BS
I wonder if that line about Jesus "claims the ocean" should not be Jesus "calms the ocean"; in Matthew 14:22-33 and parallels, Jesus walks on the water during a storm on the sea, and when he enters the boat, the storm ends. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcIDHWSE

I Don't Know How We Made It Over

DESCRIPTION: "Lord, you know then, I don't know, you king, church, I don't know just how we made it over, Lord, thank you, Jesus, I don't know, you know it, Must have been the grace of God." The singer may be discouraged, but the Holy Spirit brings grace
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 148-150, "I Don't Know How We Made It Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16270
File: Rose148

I Don't Know What I'd Do Without the Lord

DESCRIPTION: The singer says even prayerful activities can't be done without the Lord's support. When the way is dim the Savior will make the path light. See notes for other examples.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (recording, Belmont Silvertone Jubilee Singers)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Belmont Silvertone Jubilee Singers, "I Don't Know What I'd Do Without the Lord" (Decca 7685, 1939)
Johnny Brown, "I Don't Know What I'd Do without the Lord" (on USFlorida01)
Testerina Primitive Baptist Church, "I Don't Know What I'd Do Without the Lord" (on USFlorida01)
NOTES [145 words]: For notes on the origin of the Primitive Baptist Church see "Did Christ o'er Sinners Weep?"
The verse format is [first line] (x2), [second line],"I don't know what I'd do without the Lord," where [second line] approximates an internal rhyme. So, Belmont Silvertone Jubilee Singers sing "I don't know what I'd do without the Lord, I don't know what I'd do without the Lord, On our knees as we're alone just trying to make heaven my home, I don't know what I'd do without my Lord." The Testerina Primitive Baptist Church makes [second line] "Well singing and praying every day trying to walk this narrow way" and has [first line] lined out as one of the following: "I don't know just what I'd do without the Lord" "I can't even (humble down / bow down / sing a song / testify / say my prayers) without the Lord" Johnny Brown makes the last line the same as [first line]. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcIDKWID

I Don't Know When Old Death's Gwine ter Call Me

DESCRIPTION: "I don't know when old death's gwine ter call me, He's ridin' every day. He don' let nobody stay. My heart is full of sorrow, my eyes is full of tears, Old death is gwine ter call me 'fore many more years."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 590, "I Don't Know When Old Death's Gwine ter Call Me" (1 fragment)
Roud #11903
NOTES [37 words]: Although the editors of Brown list this among the religious songs, and it certainly *could* be one of those laments-on-death-but-I'll-wait-for-Jesus type songs -- but there is no indication of such in the actual text. - RBW
File: Br3590

I Don't Know Why I Feel So Shy

DESCRIPTION: "I don't know why I look so shy Ev'ry time I look into my honey's eye. He's quite polite, and he treats me right.... I've been told that he thinks me cold." So she has to say, "I'll like a little loving now and then"! He asks her to marry; she agrees
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love courting humorous marriage
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 61, "I Don't Know Why I Feel So Shy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11325
File: Brne061

I Don't Know Why I Love Him

See Dark and Dreary Weather (File: R750)

I Don't Know Why She Married A Ward

See (notes and references under) Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (File: RcIKAOLW)

I Don't Let the Girls Worry My Mind

DESCRIPTION: "Little fish swim in the river, Big fish swim in the sea, But there ain't no use for the girls worrying me. Never was arrested, never paid a fine, Cause I don't let the girls worry my mind... I don't drink your wins, Cause I don't let the girls...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: love courting drink
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 733, "I Don't Let the Girls Worry My Mind" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [15 words]: The description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5733

I Don't Like a Nigger

DESCRIPTION: "I don't like a nigger, I'll be dinged if I do. Feet's so big Till he can't wear a shoe. Head like a hay-stack, Mouth like a frog's; Eats more bread than Forty Bull-dogs. Got de glory and honor! Praise de Jesus, to my dyin' land!...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: Black(s) discrimination Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 484, "I Don't Like a Nigger" (1 text)
Roud #11866
NOTES [65 words]: For some reason, the notes in Brown equate this with "I Don't Like No Railroad Man." I wonder if this isn't an error -- "I Don't Like No Railroad Man" is much more like "Don't Like a Rich White Man Nohow," which occurs a few entries earlier in Brown. This may be a white man's answer to the latter complaint -- but if so, it is a clearly inferior product. As well as much less justified. - RBW
File: Br3484

I Don't Like Navy Life

See Gee, But I Want to Go Home (File: LxU039)

I Don't Like No Railroad Man

DESCRIPTION: "I don't like no railroad man, Railroad man he'll kill you if he can, I don't like no railroad man." "I don't like no railroad boss, Railroad boss got a head like a hoss...." "I don't like no railroad fool, Railroad fool got a head like a mule...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: railroading nonballad floatingverses discrimination Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 326, "I Don't Like No Railroad Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 481, "Don't Like a Rich White Man Nohow" (1 short text)
Roud #11802 and 11865
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [131 words]: The similarity in lyrics between the Brown and Sandburg versions clearly make them the same, though Brown's is a clear reminiscence of the bitter era in the American South after the Civil War, when Jim Crow laws made life miserable for Blacks. The Brown lyrics are much more explicit:
Don't like a rich white man nohow (x2),
Head like a hoss, and he tries to be de boss,
An' I don't like a rich white man nohow.
Don't like a poor white man nohow (x2),
Head like a mule, an' he tries to act a fool....
An' I don't like a poor white man nohow.
The resulting texts, though almost entirely the same in form, have completely different feelings. I have to suspect Sandburg's text is a cleaned up version -- but it too is seemingly early, and it was indexed first, so I retain its title. - RBW
File: San326

I Don't Like to See Boys

See Things I Don't Like to See (File: Ow2E126)

I Don't Love Nobody

DESCRIPTION: "I love a nobody, nobody loves me, Ain't gonna get married, Live single and free, They're after my money, ain't after me, I love a nobody, nobody love me."
AUTHOR: original version by Lew Sully
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1896 (sheet music published)
KEYWORDS: love money
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 782, "I Love a Nobody" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 384-385, "I Love a Nobody" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 782)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 229, (no title) (1 fragment, possibly of this)
Roud #7414
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cotten, "I Don't Love Nobody" (on Cotten01)
George Gaskin, "I Don't Love Nobody" (Berliner 928Z/0928Z, 1896)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers "I Don't Love Nobody" (OKeh 45101, 1927)
Walter Morris, "Crazy Coon" (Columbia 15079-D, 1926)
Poplin Family, "I Don't Want to Get Married" (on Poplin01)
Riley Puckett "I Don't Love Nobody" (Columbia 150-D, 1924)
Hoke Rice & his Gang, "I Don't Love Nobody" (Brunswick 482, 1930)
Doc Roberts "I Don't Love Nobody" (Perfect 12929/Conqueror 8239, 1933)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers "I Don't Love Nobody" (Columbia 15123-D, 1927; rec. 1926)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Don't Want to Get Married
Duplin County Blues
I Ain't Got Nobody
NOTES [87 words]: Paul Stamler points out that this was a "popular string ragtime song in the 1920s," but I don't know whether that is the immediate source of Randolph's version, which was collected around that time.
Cohen speculates that this is derived from Lew Sully's 1899 song "I Don't Love Nobody," while admitting that that in turn may have been a reworking of something else. - RBW
And the date on the George Gaskin recording suggests it may have been. The chorus is often all that remains of the original, which was a "coon song." - PJS
File: R782

I Don't Love Old Satan

DESCRIPTION: "I don't love old Satan, Old Satan don't love me, And under the circumstances, Me and old Satan don't agree." "I'se gwine to Mount de Zion, My beautiful home." "I stepped in de water, And the water was cold; Got a free body, And I want a free soul."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious Devil nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 584, "I Don't Love Old Satan" (1 text plus an excerpt from 1 more, both from the same informant); also 595, "I'se Gwine Land on Dat Shore" (1 text, with a "I'se gwine land on dat shore" chorus, but not long enough to classify with anything else)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 584, "I Don't Love Old Satan" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11899
File: Br3584

I Don't Mean to Tell You Her Name (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "no lass can compare" with his "for innocence and native grace" but he won't tell her name. "The Lord and Squire" hope to win her but she loves the singer, and he won't tell her name.
AUTHOR: Thomas Hudson (lyrics), Robert Guylott (music) (source: Hudson)
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (Hudson)
KEYWORDS: courting love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 163-164, "I Don't Mean to Tell You Her Name" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 442)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Hudson, Comic Songs (London, 1826 (seventh collection, "Digitized by Google")), pp. 29-30, "I Don't Mean to Tell You Her Name" (1 text)
Roud #1271
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2590), "My Village Fair" or "I Don't Mean to Tell You Her Name" ("To my village fair no lass can compare"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(2490), "The Lovely Village Fair" or "I Don't Mean to Tell You Her Name"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. ""Oh! Breathe Not His Name" (theme of hidden name)
NOTES [108 words]: The original does not include the final verse, as in the Bodleian broadsides, in which the singer promises to reveal the name when they are married.
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1626), "I Don't Mean to Tell You Her Name" ("Where grow the sweetest of flowers"), unknown, no date; also Johnson Ballads 2627, "I Don't Mean to Tell You Her Name", and LOCSinging, as105820, "I Don't Mean to Tell You Her Name" ("Where grow the sweetest of flowers"), W. S. Fortey (London), no date, is a different song, possibly written to capitalize on the popularity of Hudson's original. Hudson's collections include complaints of, and warnings of prosecution for, piracy. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT163

I Don't Mind If I Do

DESCRIPTION: Various reminiscences about courting, all ending with something like, "Bedad, then, says I, I don't mind if I do." The singer comes courting, enters the house, takes a drink, kisses the girl, learns she has a dowry, and marries her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1885 (broadside Bodleian, Harding B 11(2164))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage
FOUND IN: Australia Canada(Mar) Ireland Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 328, "Joe Muggins" (1 text)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 58, "Joe Muggins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 263-264, "Oh, Bedad Then, Says I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 268-269, "I Don't Care If I Do" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 106-107,252, "Pat Murphy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 97-99, "Pat Murphy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 20, pp. 46-47,111,164, "Joe Higgins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #847
RECORDINGS:
John Maguire, "Joe Higgins" (on IRJMaguire01)
The McNulty Family, "I Don't Care If I Do" (on IRMcNulty-Night1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2164), "Joe Muggins"/"I Don't Care If I Do," ("If you listen to me I will sing you a song"), unknown (London), 1863-1885
File: MA263

I Don't Sing Like I Used to Sing

DESCRIPTION: "I don't sing like I used to sing, Jesus done changed, changed, changed Dis heart o' mine (x4). Jesus done changed this heart of mine." Similarly, "I don't pray like I used to pray," and also shout, talk, walk, moan, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 585, "I Don't Sing Like I Used to Sing" (1 text)
Roud #11901
File: Br3585

I Don't Think Much of You

DESCRIPTION: An entertainer sings embarassing or suggestive remarks about people in the room, each ending "I don't think much of you." He criticizes appearance or assumes the target to be simple-minded. The final verse usually claims "it's all in jest"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1855 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(396))
LONG DESCRIPTION: An entertainer sings embarassing or suggestive remarks about people in the room, each ending "I don't think much of you" The singer says I can "reckon you up with half an eye": "why didn't you wash your face?" ... no soap -- why not then make water do; a young man is buying plenty of drinks for a woman while he owes his washerwoman for last week's washing; the singer finds a pawn ticket in a pocket book and a bustle in a lady's shopping bag; a shabbily dressed man "thinks himself a swell"; some verses critique hats, shirts and other articles of clothing. Other verses are about simple-minded targets: "you made the pigs two wooden legs, for you broke the poor thing's two Because your pig would not lay eggs"; "you bought a cow to suck a calf, and set two fleas to fight"; you lit a carrot in a candlestick "to give light." The final verse usually claims "it's all in jest."
KEYWORDS: clothes humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 673, "I Don't Think Much of You" (3 fragments, 2 tunes)
Roud #1602
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(396), "I Don't Think Much of You" ("Ah! you may chaff and wink your eye, and laugh and make a rout"), E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Bodleian, Harding B 11(4003), Harding B 18(269), Firth b.26(385), "I Don't Think Much of You"
LOCSinging, as105830, "I Don't Think Much of You," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also sb20193a, "I Don't Think Much of You"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
There Is a Man Sittin' There
NOTES [118 words]: Greig/Duncan3 entries are fragments; The broadsides are the basis for the long description.
The broadsides are more varied than other sets of broadsides of one song than I have seen. Verses float among broadsides with words changing -- pigs vs hogs, flies vs fleas, .... Introductory verses may be entirely different and no two choruses, where there are choruses, are the same. Nevertheless, the broadsides have the same general format and do share lines, including the tag line, "I don't think much of you."
Broadside LOCSinging as105830: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3673

I Don't Want No More of Army Life

See Gee, But I Want to Go Home (File: LxU039)

I Don't Want No More of Navy Life

See Gee, But I Want to Go Home (File: LxU039)

I Don't Want Nobody Stumbling Over Me

DESCRIPTION: "I don't want (nobody / that liar / that gambler / that peace broker) stumbling over me, stumbling over me, stumbling over me. I don't want (nobody / ...) stumbling over me, That is why I pray so hard"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (VaWork)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious worksong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Creola Johnson, Audrey Davis and Group, "I Don't Want Nobody Stumbling Over Me" (on VaWork)
NOTES [27 words]: VaWork is a work song for shucking oysters. The first phrase is lined out and the workers join in singing. Each worker shucks to her own rhythm while singing. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcIDWNSO

I Don't Want to Be a Gambler

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I don't want to be a gambler, An' I'll tell you the reason why, My Lord, sittin' in his Kingdom, Got his eyes on me, God got his eyes on me...." "Oh, I don't want to be a lawyer, An' I'll tell you the reason why" "Oh, I don't want to be a drunkard"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: religious virtue nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 465, "I Don't Want to Be a Gambler" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: San465

I Don't Want to Be a Soldier

See I Don't Want to Join the Army (File: EM384)

I Don't Want to Die

See I Wanta Go Home (File: SBar017B)

I Don't Want to Join the Army

DESCRIPTION: "I don't want to be a soldier, I don't want to go to war, I'd rather stay at home, Around the streets to roam." Rather than join the army, the singer prefers to hang around Picadilly, "living off the earnings of a highborn ly-dee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous soldier
FOUND IN: Australia Canada US(MW,SW) New Zealand
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 384-386, "I Don't Want to Join the Army" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 67, "I Don't Want to be a Soldier" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p.66, "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier" (1 text, tune referenced)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 146-147, "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier" (1 text with variants, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 79-80, "I Don't Want to Join the Army" (1 text)
DT, JOINARMY*
Roud #10263
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On Sunday I Walk Out With a Soldier" (tune, according to Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
cf. "Come, My Lad, and Be a Soldier" (tune, according to Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
File: EM384

I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard

DESCRIPTION: Two girls were neighbors and close friends until "one day a quarrel came." The one tells the other "You can't play in our yard;" the other replies, "I don't want to play in your yard"; she will be sorry for all the fun she misses. Then they make up
AUTHOR: Words: Philip Wingate / Music: H. W. Petrie
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (sheet music by Petrie Music Company)
KEYWORDS: youth fight
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 92-94, "I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a copy of the sheet music on pp. 96-98)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 254-256, "I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 132-135, "I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1894 sheet music)
Margaret Bradford Boni, editor, _Songs of the Gilded Age_, with piano arrangements by Norman Lloyd and illustrations by Lucille Corcos, Golden Press, 1960, pp. 122-124, "I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16802
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "See, See, My Playmate" (theme, lyrics)
NOTES [37 words]: Reported by Spaeth to be "the most popular child's song of the [1890s]" other than the works of Charles K. Harris. It doesn't strike me as something children would sing, though; it's what adults think children would sing. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: SWM254

I Don't Want to Stay Here Any Longer

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Swing low, sweet chariot, Pray let me enter in, I don't want to stay here any longer." Verses: ""I had a little book and I read it through, I got my Jesus as well as you...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious floatingverses Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 38-39, "I Don't Want to Stay Here No Longer (The Danville Chariot)" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 183 in the 1874 edition)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (lyrics)
cf. "All My Trials" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [59 words]: Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses include floaters: "I've been to heaven and I've been tried, I've been to the river and I've been baptized" and "Some go to church to holler and shout, Before six months they're all turned out." Each verse couplet is followed by "I Don't Want to Stay Here Any Longer." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett038

I Don't Want You Go On And Leave Me

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I'm coming Lord"(3x), "And I don't want you to go on and leave me." The singer says he was lost in the wilderness, but the Lord called him, and Jesus saved his soul. He heard the mourner's cry and saved the soul sure to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious death Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 23, "I Don't Want You Go On And Leave Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Bart023

I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister

DESCRIPTION: "I don't want your millions, mister; I don't want your diamond ring; All I want is the right to work, Mister; Give me back my job again." The worker describes his toils that made the owner rich. But he doesn't need riches -- just food for his children
AUTHOR: Words: Jim Garland
EARLIEST DATE: 1938
KEYWORDS: unemployment hardtimes work
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 153, "I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 313, "I Don't Want Your Millions Mister" (1 text)
DT, MLLIONMR*
RECORDINGS:
Almanac Singers , "All I Want" (on Almanac04, PeteSeeger01)
Pete Seeger , "I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister" (on PeteSeeger39)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "East Virginia (Dark Hollow)" (tune & meter)
cf. "Greenback Dollar" (tune & meter)
File: LoF153

I Don't Work for a Living

DESCRIPTION: "I don't work for a living, I get along all right without, I don't toil all day, I suppose it's because I'm not built that way." The singer describes all the things he can accomplish if someone else does the work, and describes his relaxed way of living
AUTHOR: James Mullen & Edward Leroy Freeman
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Hobo Jack Turner)
KEYWORDS: work humorous unemployment
FOUND IN: Australia US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 142-143, "I Don't Work for a Living" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Frank Crumit, "I Don't Work for a Living" (Victor V-40214, 1930)
Walton Dalton, "I Don't Work for a Living" (Perfect 12574, 1930)
Jack Kaufman, "I Don't Work for a Living" (Broadway 8145, n.d. but c. 1930)
Frankie Marvin, "I Don't Work for a Living" (Brunswick 401, 1930); (Conqueror 7449/Romeo 1145 [both as Frankie Wallace], c. 1930)
Hobo Jack Turner [pseud. Ernest Hare], "I Don't Work for a Living" (Velvet Tone 2070-V, 1929)
Pete Wiggins, "I Don't Work for a Living" (OKeh 45412/Parlophone [UK] E-6357, 1930)
File: MCB142

I Drank a Drink

DESCRIPTION: A riddle: "I drank a drink, 'twas since the streen, I drank it from an earthen wall, Where never earthen it did fall, And through the red gold it did run, And in a garden this was done"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: riddle nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1631, "I Drank a Drink" (1 text)
Roud #13071
NOTES [145 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text.
Greig/Duncan8: .".. the solution may relate to an egg...." - BS
I rather doubt this, although my best guess (a fountain with copper pipes) isn't much good either. I suspect the guess about the egg is because the riddle mentions gold, and another well-known riddle refers to "golden treasure" inside an egg. (The "golden treasure" version is from the riddle game in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit (based on a nursery rhyme). But note that this is RED gold. I'm more reminded of one of the Exeter Book riddles about an oyster -- an oyster in a pond fed by a fountain, perhaps. Or perhaps I'm all wet.
Alternately: A bottle of wine wrapped in foil drunk amid flowers. (And if you think that's bad, remember that there is an Anglo-Saxon riddle for which the suggested answer is "a one-eyed seller of garlic.") - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81631

I Drank My Tay at Scatlan Brae

DESCRIPTION: "I drank my tay at Scatlan brae, I shoe't my horse at Biffey, I pu'd a wand in Benwal's yard, And ca'd him hyne [fee servant] to Bruxie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #30, p. 2, ("I drank my tay at Scatlan brae") (1 short text)
Greig/Duncan8 1907, "I Drank My Tay at Scatlan Brae" (1 short text)
Roud #13553
NOTES [35 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text.
Greig, 1908: "... He [another informant] calls them counting out rhymes. I call them just nonsense rhymes, which I learned in Buchan seventy years ago." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Grd81907

I Dream of Jeanie

See Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair (File: FSWB249)

I Dreamed As I Lay On My Bed

DESCRIPTION: "I dreamed as I lay on my bed of sweet slumber" that many came to the gate of heaven and were denied entrance by Peter. But a "Dixie Pilgrim" named Rastus Snow shows up in tattered clothes and doesn't even need to argue for admission; he clearly belongs
AUTHOR: Maurine Whipple (1903-1992) ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Whipple, The Giant Joshua)
KEYWORDS: dream religious clothes | heaven
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 269, "(I dreamed as I lay on my bed of sweet slumber)" (1 text)
Roud #10888
NOTES [36 words]: The only source for this seems to be Maurine Whipple's "The Great Joshua," regularly cited as one of the most significant Mormon novels. One would assume she wrote it, but no one seems to quite come out and say so. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GFGW269A

I Dreamed I Met Mother and Daddy

DESCRIPTION: "It seemed I had traveled for ages Through the valleys of shadow and night" when the singer comes to a bright place labeled "God's City of Light." He dreams he meets his mother and father. He will work hard to earn the right to meet them there
AUTHOR: Albert E. Brumley (1905-1977) (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 ("Charming Bells of Spring," according to Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
KEYWORDS: mother father death reunion religious dream
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 13, "I Dreamed I Met Mother and Daddy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V10143
RECORDINGS:
J. B. Whitmire's Blue Sky Trio, "I Dreamed I Met Mother And Daddy" (Montgomery Ward 7721)
NOTES [34 words]: I can't help but note a logical problem here: If the singer dreamed he met his mother and father, why should he assume that the dream was true? Perhaps he had a vision, but that's a different thing.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ABLL013

I Dreamed I Was Grandpa

DESCRIPTION: "Last night while I was fast asleep, Such fun it was for me, I dreamed that I was grandpa, And grandpa he was me." He walks down the street "too fast for him." He puts grandpa to bed with a candle.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk)
KEYWORDS: dream magic age family | grandfather
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 34, "I Dreamed I Was Grandpa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #19031
File: RSOF034

I Dreamed I Went to the U.N.

DESCRIPTION: "It was a dream, dream I had last night, I dream I went to the U.N. and set the whole nation right." The dreamer resolves the missile crisis. The President asks for his help, but the dreamer prefers to add black singers to help him run the Senate.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (recording, Louisiana Red)
KEYWORDS: dream political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1962 - October Missile Crisis. Revelation at the United Nations that Russian missiles are in Fidel Castro's Cuba is followed by a confrontation between the Soviet Union -- whose leader was Nikita Krushchev -- and the United States.
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi Fred McDowell and unidentified musician, "I Dreamed I Went to the U.N." (on USMississippi01)
Louisiana Red, "Red's Dream" (Roulette R-4469, 1962)
NOTES [172 words]: From David Evans's liner notes to USMississippi01: "'I Dreamed I Went to the U.N.' mentions several commercial blues recording artists of the 1960s and is based on a hit record of 1962 by Louisiana Red, but Red's own piece was based on an older recording by Big Bill Broonzy from the 1930s."
The description is based on the Louisiana Red and Fred McDowell tracks.
Evan's reference to a Broonzy recording is to "Big Bill Blues" (Paramount 12656, 1928): "My hair is rising my flesh begins to crawl, I had a dream last night another mule in my doggone stall; Some people said the Big Bill Blues ain't bad, Must not been them Big Bill Blues they had; I wonder what's the matter Papa Bill can't get no mail, The post office must be on fire mail man must undoubtedly be in jail; I can't be your wagon since you ain't going to be a mule, I can't fix up your black tradition I ain't going to be your doggone fool." That may be where Louisiana Red got the idea for "Red's Dream," but I think it's a stretch to make more of it than that. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcDIWTUN

I Dreamed Last Night of My True Love

See Locks and Bolts [Laws M13] (File: LM13)

I Dreamed of my True Lover

See Locks and Bolts [Laws M13] (File: LM13)

I Dreamed that My Horse Had Wings

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme: "I dreamed that my horse had wings And could fly, I jumped onto my horse And rode into the sky. The man in the moon was out that night, He laughed loud and long when I pranced into sight"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (La Salle, Play Activities for Elementary Schools, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: horse jumprope | moon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #218, "I dreamed that my horse had wings" (1 text)
NOTES [15 words]: Despite the citation in Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, I really doubt that this is traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR218

I Dreamt a Dream the Other Night

See Oh! Susanna (File: RJ19152)

I Dreamt I Had Died

See Tooraloo (Boy With No Shoes, All Tattered and Torn, I Dreamt I Had Died) (File: Gard014)

I Dreamt Last Night of My True Love

See Locks and Bolts [Laws M13] (File: LM13)

I Drew My Ship into the Harbour

See I Will Put My Ship In Order (File: Ord318)

I Dropped the Baby

DESCRIPTION: "I dropped the baby in the dirt, I asked the baby if it hurt, But all the little thing could say was, 'Waa, waa, waa.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (recording, Dorothy Howard)
KEYWORDS: humorous baby
FOUND IN: US(So)
Roud #14046
RECORDINGS:
Dorothy Howard, "I Dropped the Baby" (on USWarnerColl01)
File: RcIDtBab

I Dyed My Petticoat Red

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

I Eat My Peas with Honey

DESCRIPTION: "I eat my peas with honey, I've done it all my life. It makes my peas taste funny, But it keeps them on the knife."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: food humorous
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 130, "I eat my peas with honey" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, George W. Boswell, "Humor from the Kentucky Hills," Vol. XVII, No. 2 (Nov 1969), p. 74, "(I eat my peas with honey)" (1 text)
NOTES [27 words]: The NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal version does not list this as a song, but it seems to me that I've known this for decades, so I'm very tentatively including it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: NCF171EP

I Eat Worms

See Guess I'll Eat Some Worms (File: DTeatwor)

I Eight It

See As I Was Going Over London Bridge (The Dead Rat) (File: SuSm097A)

I Feel Like My Time AIn't Long

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, de hearse keep a-rollin' somebody to de graveyard (x3), O Lord, I feel like my time ain't long." "Oh, my mother outrun me, an' she gone on to glory." "Lord, I know I'll see that resurrection morning." Similar verses about death and going to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (collected from Vera Hall)
KEYWORDS: religious death nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 31-32, "I Feel Like My Time AIn't Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12317
File: LoSi031

I Feel So Good

DESCRIPTION: "I feel so good I'm gonna boogie." "I feel all right." "Old folks boogie ... No one can boogie like me and you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (USMississippi01)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
John Lee Hooker, "I Feel So Good (Pt. 1)" (Jewel 824, 1969)
Magic Sam Blues Band, "I Feel So Good (I Wanna Boogie)" (1968, on "West Side Soul," Delmark DS-615)
Lovey Williams, "I Feel So Good" (on USMississippi01)
NOTES [73 words]: According to the USMississippi01 liner notes, Lovey Williams learned this song from a record: "John Lee Hooker, I think he put that record out." Lovey Williams recorded "I Feel So Good" in 1967. I haven't found any recordings issued before that date. I've listed John Lee Hooker and Magic Sam recordings that came out soon after 1967. Both are long with scattered monolog and an occasional chorus, as in Lovey Williams's brief track. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcIFeSoG

I fell in love wi' a bonnie lass

See The Lass o' Bennochie (File: Ord438)

I Fight Mit Sigel

DESCRIPTION: "Dutch dialect" song, describing how a German immigrant came to the United States and worked, apparently with little success, at various occupations. Now he has given it up; "Dey dress me up in soldier clothes To go und fight mit Sigel"
AUTHOR: Words: F. Poole according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (The Double Quick Songster, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: humorous Civilwar foreigner
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 217, "I Fight Mit Sigel" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune, plus another fragment and tune which might be a chorus)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 210-211, "I Fight Mit Sigel" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 217A)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 78, p. 100, "I'm Going to Fight Mit SIegel" (1 text)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 325-326, "I Goes to Fight mit SIgel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1016, pp. 69-70, "I'm Going to Fight Mit Sigel" (13 references)
Dime-Song-Book #12, pp. 40-41, "I'm Going to Fight mit Siegel" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 222-223, "I Fights Mit Seigle" (1 text)
ST R217 (Partial)
Roud #4867
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Goes to Fight Mit Sigal [sic]
NOTES [483 words]: Franz Sigel (1824-1902), a German immigrant, was the leading German in the Union armies in the Civil War. His fame and influence brought many Germans to the colors.
William Riley Brooksher, Bloody Hill: The Civil War Battle of Wilson's Creek, Brassey's, 1993, pp. 107-108, offers this description: "Franz Sigel, a dark, humorous, nervous man, was a native of the Grand Duchy of Baden. Educated at the Karlsruhe Military Academy, he had had a successful career in the German army befre leaving it to play a significant role in the Revolution of 1848 against Prussia. When teh revolt collapsed, he fled to Switzerland and then to the United States. He obtained employment as a teacher and, at the beginning of the war, was teaching mathematics in St. Louis. With his military background, he was a natural for the force [that was being set up to maintain the Union cause in St. Louis]. Furthermore, he had great influence with the German-American population that flocked to his call, saying proudly, 'I fights mit Sigel.' ... [He] was once described as being an 'odd combination of ineptitude and ability.'" He also had an inflated sense of his own dignity and skill that kept him from recognizing his own failures and caused him to be a stickler for his "rights" -- which made it hard to employ him in a useful capacity.
Despite having had officer training in Germany, he proved a poor soldier; his performance at Wilson's Creek in 1861 contributed to the Union's loss of that battle, and his performance at Pea Ridge, though adequate, was hardly exceptional. Transferred to the east after that early 1862 battle, his troops were badly mauled by "Stonewall" Jackson, and his XI (German) Corps came to be the laughingstock of the Army of the Potomac even before Jackson routed it at Chancellorsville in May 1863.
Sigel had retired from active duty in February of 1863, but his political clout led to him being re-appointed in 1864. Sent to the Shenandoah Valley, his incompetence once again shone through. One wonders if the Germans were as ardent for him in 1864 as they had been in 1861.
Shelby Foote, The Civil War: A Narrative (Volume I: Fort Sumter to Perryville) (Random House, 1958), reports that the phrase "I fights mit Sigel" was popular after Pea Ridge, during the brief time when people might delude themselves into thinking Sigel was a competent soldier.
Cohen reports that this is a parody of an obscure piece "I Fights Mit Sigel," said to be by Grant P. Robinson and printed in Songs of the Soldiers in 1864. It can also be found in Hazel Felleman's The Best Loved Poems of the American People, pp. 439-440.
Alfred M. Williams, Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, p. 47, declares "I'm going to fight mit Siegel" was "extremely popular."
Roud seems to lump this with a completely unrelated piece, "Why Did They Dig Grandmother's Grave So Deep." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R217

I Fights Mit Seigle

See I Fight Mit Sigel (File: R217)

I Found a Horseshoe

DESCRIPTION: "I found a horseshoe, I found a horseshoe, I picked it up and nailed it to a door. And it was rusty and full of nail holes, Good luck 'twill bring you forevermore." "The man who owned the horse he lives in New York." "The horse... his name was Mike"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag; Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: horse nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 382-383, "I Found a Horseshoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harbin-Parodology, #20, p. 13, "I Found a Horseshoe" (1 text)
Roud #10077
File: San382

I Gave Her Cakes

DESCRIPTION: "I gave her cakes; I gave her ale, I gave her sack and sherry; I kist her once, I kist her twice, And we were wondrous merry." "I gave her beads and bracelets fine...." "Merry my heard, merry my cocks... Merry my hey down derry... we were wondrous merry."
AUTHOR: Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Scott); reported to have been composed 1690 (source: WIkipedia, as of Oct. 17. 2013)
KEYWORDS: courting love food drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 18-19, 'Catch" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [28 words]: This is a composed "catch," and has not been found in tradition that I know of, but it has been recorded by several "folk" performers, so I decided to include it. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: SESC018

I Gave Her Kisses One

See Kissing Song (II -- She Just Kept Kissing On) (File: Br3313)

I Gave McCann Me Can

DESCRIPTION: "I gave McCann me can To fetch a pint of stout." McCann returns saying the can is leaking. "McCann knew me can was new, I'd only had it a day or two, I'll put a hole in McCann For putting a hole in me can."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: drink fight humorous wordplay
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 96, "I gave McCann me can" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 45, "(My can was new my can was new)" (1 text)
Roud #25513 and 22993
NOTES [38 words]: Roud files the Kane text (which refers to "McCann") as #25513 and the Peirce version (which refers only to "my can") as #22993, but they look like the same item to me, with the differences being simply differences of hearing. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SUC096

I Gave My Love a Cherry

DESCRIPTION: The singer gave his love "a cherry without a stone... a chicken without a bone," etc. He is asked how these things are possible. The reply: "A cherry when it's blooming, it has no stone," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1430 (British Library, Sloane MS. 2593, "I have a yong suster")
KEYWORDS: riddle nonballad love gift MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland) Canada(Mar) US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES (59 citations):
Bronson (46), 18 versions given as an appendix to "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship"
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads (48), "Riddle Song" (5 versions: #1, #2a, #3, #7, #14, #16)
Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols #33, "(I haue a yong suster)" (1 text; (p. 39 has a photograph of the Sloane Manuscript text)
Randolph 123, "The Four Brothers" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 12, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (1 text plus mention of another, but it is nothing but riddles and not to be connected with Child #46)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 12, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes, all of which appear to be this song and not "Captain Wedderburn")
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 16 pp. 30-31, "I Gave My Love a Cherry (Captain Wedderburn's Courtship)" (1 text, 1 tune, which despite the second title consists solely of the riddles)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 230-231, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (1 text with no listed local title; it is nothing but riddles and not to be connected with Child #46)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 13A, "An Old Man's Courtship"; 116, "Perrie Merrie Dixi Domini" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 8, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune, with little except the riddles and no sign that it was ever part of the longer ballad) {Bronson's #15}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 299-315, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (3 texts plus two fragments, 5 tunes; the "I" and II" texts and tunes are "I Gave My Love a Cherry")
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 188, "Gifts From Over the Sea" (1 text plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune) {Bronson's #13}
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 144, "The Riddle Song" (3 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #7, #6, #5}
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 59, "The Riddle Song" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 73, "Pery Mery Winkle Domine" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 73, "I Will Give My Love an Apple" (1 text)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 5, "I Gave My Love a Cherry" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 88-89, "I Gave My Love a Cherry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wells-TheBalladTree, p. 175, "The Riddle Song" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7, imperfectly transposed}
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 25, "I Gave My Love a Cherry" (1 text)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 29, "The Riddle Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #11, "The Riddle Song" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 162-163, "I'll Give My Love an Apple" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #2a,2b}
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 166-167, "I'll Give My Love an Apple" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2a}
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 267-269, "Perrie, Merrie, Dixi, Domini" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 137, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (2 texts, but only the second belongs with this song)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 136-137, "I'll Give My Love an Apple" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 1, "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (3 texts, 3 tunes, of which the second, "The Riddle Song," and the third, "Piri-miri-dictum Domini," go with this piece)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 9-10, "I Will Give My Love an Apple" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 11, "I'll Give My Love an Apple" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 12, "I Will Give My Love an Apple" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 16, "Perry Merry Winkle Domone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 478, "I have four sisters beyond the sea" (3 texts plus a photo facing p. 388 of the text in the Sloane MS)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #270, pp. 162-163, "(My true love lives far from me)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 189, "(I had three little sisters across the sea)" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 41, "The Riddle Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 156-157, "The Riddle Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics 56, "(I Have a Yong Suster)" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 55-56, "Peri Meri Dixie Dominie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 194, "I'll Give My Love a Cherry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 72, "Riddle Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 408, "Riddle Song" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 25, "The Riddle" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Joseph D. Clark, "More North Carolina Riddles," Vol. IX, No. 1 (Jul 1961), p. 19, "The Riddle Song" (1 text, from a college student who said he learned it from his family, but I wonder if he learned it in school)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 96, 237, 238, 390, 445, "I Gave My Love a Cherry" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 152, "Riddle Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 42, "Riddle Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 65, "The Riddle Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 21, "The Riddle Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 20, "Riddle Song" (1 text)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 14, "Riddle Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RIDDLSNG RDDLSNG3* (GONORUSH*) PERIMERI*
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1303
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2174
ADDITIONAL: Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #192, p. 435, "I have a Young Sister" (1 text)
Rossell Hope Robbins, _Secular Lyrics of the XIVth and XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1952, #45, pp. 40-41, "My Young Sister" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #65, "I Have a Young Sister" (1 text); notes to #258 ("I have three presents from over the sea") (1 excerpt)
Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 393-394, "I Have Four Brothers" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 11
Roud #330 and 36
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "The Riddle Song" (on PeteSeeger18)
Tony Wales, "Piri-iri-igdum" (on TWales1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" [Child 46]
cf. "Riddles Wisely Expounded" [Child 1]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Have a Young Sister
Perri Merri Dictum, Domine
NOTES [726 words]: Certain scholars have seen this as a worn-down form of "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" [Child 46]. Since, however, it goes back at least to 1430, the dependency is if anything in the other direction. But there is no real reason to believe they are related in any but a casual way; riddle songs were popular for a long time. Still, because many scholars list versions of this song under "Captain Wedderburn," one should check both songs for complete references.
"Go No More A-Rushing" (DT GONORUSH) appears to be an Elizabethan prologue tacked on to the old song.
In modern English and in far eastern folklore, cherries are associated with sex. Whether that has any significance here I do not know.
Various scholars have tried to wring meaning out of the nonsense "Piri-miri-dictum Domini" refrain. The third and fourth words can become Latin (dictum=word and Domine of course is the word for "Lord"). I've not seen a convincing Latin explanation for "piri" and "miri," however.
On the other hand, some sources, e.g. the Opies, offer "Perrie merrie Dixie dominie." This suggests "peri mare," i.e. "around (the) sea" (Latin mar-e, not "mare"), which makes sense given the reference to the sister beyond the sea. But, note, this refrain isn't in the Sloane MS. version.
For more on the Sloane manuscript, which contains the original "I haue a ȝong suster / fer be-ȝondyn þe se / many be þe drowryis / þat che sente me" text, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115].
Robbins, in his notes on this text on pp. 240-241, cites several Middle English parallels to paradoxical riddles; although none of these seem to survive to this day, it would appear the genre was fairly well known. John Lydgate (for whom see the notes to "The London Lackpenny") wrote several poems of paradoxes (Pearsall, pp. 214-215); a few sample lines of "Ryme without Accord" will give the idea:
A leceh to thryve where none is sore ne sike, [A leach to thrive where none is sore nor sick]
An instrument of musyk withouten a sown, [An instrument of music without a sound]
A scorpion to be both mylde and meke, [A scorpion to be both mild and meek]
A cloyster man ever rennyng in the towne... [A cloister[ed] man ever running in/to the town].
There is a Middle English poem, "Parche Michi Domine," which occurs in seven manuscripts; it is #561 and #3714 in the Brown/Robbins Index of Middle English Verse." But it is described as an "allegory of the bird with four feathers." Rigg, p. 53, gives a couple of verses:
By a foreste syde walking as y went,
Dysport to take yn a morning
. . .
God grawnte vs all to se they blessyd face
That seyth Parce michi domine.
This poem is in stanzas of eight to twenty lines; I don't think it related, except that perhaps the refrain inspired something. - RBW
Re "cherries are associated with sex," see Barre Toelken, "Context and Meaning in the Anglo-American Ballad" in The Ballad and the Scholars: Approaches to Ballad Study (Los Angeles: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library University of California, 1986), pp. 37-38, in which Toelken reports hearing the song sung at a North Carolina family picnic as a dialog between "a young couple who were about to be married"; she sings "I gave my love a cherry...", he sings "I gave my love a chicken that had no bone," [and you can play out the rest of the dialog yourself] while the group at the picnic "exchanged knowing glances, nudges in the ribs, and suppressed looks of modesty surprised." Toelken continues, referring only to this context for the performance, "Each line is not only a potential reference to flowers, food, marriage, or family. In addition, we see in the sequence (cherry-egg[!?"chicken"=cock?]-ring-baby=virginity-impregnation-marriage-baby, the metaphor and its referent integrated by the couple's singing the last line together ["And a baby when it's making has no crying"]) a fairly accurate portrayal of a well-known courtship pattern in the Anglo-American world." - BS
Interestingly, the Sloane Manuscript, which has the first copy of the song, *does* contain a few other double-entendre pieces, such as "I Have a Gentle Cock," in which the cock is presented as a bird but also as... you know (see Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 72). But a much larger share of the contents are religious, so I am hesitant to try to dig too deeply for deliberate sexual messages. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: R123

I Gave My Love a Gay Gold Ring

See Hind Horn [Child 17] (File: C017)

I Give My Horn a Blow

See Whoop 'Em Up, Cindy (File: CSW196)

I Give Thee All (My Heart and Lute)

DESCRIPTION: "I give thee all -- I can no more -- Though poor the off'ring be; My heart and lute are all the store That I can bring to thee." "Though love and song may fail, alas! To keep life's clouds away, At least will let them lighter pass."
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Moore (1779-1852) / Music: Sir Henry Rowley Bishop
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (_The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore_, 1856 edition)
KEYWORDS: love music
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: [Thomas Moore], _The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore: A New Edition_, 1856 (available on Google Books), p. 345, "My Heart and Lute" (1 text)
NOTES [266 words]: I am including this on the thinnest of thin speculations. The poem "My Heart and Lute" is by Thomas Moore -- but it is not one of his more popular pieces. It is not found in the 1846 edition of Moore's Irish Melodies, and although Granger's Index to Poetry catalogs about a hundred Moore poems, this isn't one of them. I know of no traditional collections. Obviously it has been nearly forgotten.
But we know that this is the tune Lewis Carroll meant to use for the White Knight's Song ("Haddock's Eyes," etc.). Obviously Carroll knew it, and obviously he thought the Liddells knew it too. The context seems to imply that Carroll thought it a rather folk-like song. Given the importance of the White Knight's song, and the preceding discussion of names, I'm including the song because, even if it isn't traditional, it's IMPORTANT.
(Although the tune for Carroll's piece is this, Sidney Herbert Williams and Falconer Madan, revised and augmented by Roger Lancelyn Green, further revised by Denis Crutch, The Lewis Carroll Handbook (earlier editions titled A Handbook of the Literature of the Rev. C. L. Dodgson, 1932, 1961, 1970); Dawson Books, 1979, p. 313, say that the words are a distant paraphrase of Wordsworth's 1807 poem "Reolution and Independence, or the Leech-Gatherer," and that Dodgson had published an earlier version of the poem in 1856).
It is interesting that the White Knight claimed the tune as his own invention, although Alice at once knew it was not. It's almost as if Carroll anticipated the dubious copyright claims of early twentieth century songwriters.... - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: TTLGHadE

I Go to School

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I go to school, I sit upon a school, It is the rule, To learn my A, B, C...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2962 (Bluebells My Cockle Shells)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | school stool
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #219, "I go to school" (1 text)
Roud #20476
File: AJRR219

I Goes to Fight mit Sigel

See I Fight Mit Sigel (File: R217)

I Got a Bonnet Trimmed with Blue

DESCRIPTION: "I got a bonnet trimmed with blue Which I like to wear and so I do, Oh I do wear it when I can Oh when I go out with my man." The rest is all "chin music"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (Hinkson)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 14, ("Can you dance the polka? Yes I can") (1 fragment)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 70, "I Have a Bonnet Trimmed With Blue" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 98-99, "I've got a bonnet trimmed with blue" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 60-61, "I Got a Bonnet Trimmed with Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 442, "(I have a bonnet trimmed with blue)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Katharine (Tynan) Hinkson, "The Girls' Room" in Christabel R. Coleridge and Arthur Innes, editors, The Monthly Packet (London, 1897 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XCIII, pp. 227-228, ("I've got a bonnet trimmed with blue")
New Hampshire: a Guide to the Granite State (Boston, 1938 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol I, p. 118, ("Oh, I had a bonnet trimmed with blue") (1 text)
Roud #8212
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "I Have a Bonnet Trimmed With Blue" (on IRECronin01)
Mrs. Nellie Musseau, "I Got a Bonnet Trimmed with Blue" (on PeacockCDROM)
NOTES [238 words]: Hinkson's text has four verses. In the first, as usual, she'll wear her bonnet "to go to church with my young man." Then, her young man has another sweetheart, but the singer is still confident that everything will work out. They marry in the third verse and, in the fourth, after children, "seven years after, seven years gone, Take her and kiss her, and send her off home." Hinkson comments that "the last lines in this game are supposed to point to a popular belief that a marriage is dissoluble in seven years."
Most of Peacock's version is "chin music." Specifically, a text verse is "Oh da diddle la diddle la diddle la Da da diddle la da da da da Da da da da diddle la diddle la Da da diddle la da da da da."
Peacock explains "'Chin' or 'mouth' music is a vocal imitation of instrumental music and is used for dancing when a fiddle or accordion is not handy. Some singers ... become so proficient that they are often called upon even when instruments are available."
The New Hampshire text connects the polka to "Bonnet Trimmed with Blue": "The day of the polka is not over, and one still popular song, first sung years ago by the orchestra that perpetrated it (Goodnow's of East Sullivan), is as follows: 'Oh, I had a bonnet trimmed with blue. Why don't you wear it? So I do, And go to a ball with a handsome man.... Here's the way the polka begins, First your heel and then your toe, That's the way the polka goes.'" - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Pea060

I Got a Gal at the Head of the Holler

See Sourwood Mountain (lyric) (File: R417)

I Got a Gal in Baltimore

DESCRIPTION: "I got a gal in Baltimore, Street-car runs right by her door, Crazy baby a-settin' on the floor, Get your hair cut pompadour!" Play-party version, "She's the belle of Baltimore, She's got her name wrote on her door, And a 40 dollar carpet on the floor."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, The Georgia Crackers)
KEYWORDS: technology hair playparty home
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 452, "I Got a Gal in Baltimore" (1 fragment)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 70, "Baltimore" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 108-109, "I Got a Little Woman" (1 text, 1 tune, starting with "I got a little woman in Baltimore" and mixing in floating material about what the jay bird said to the crow)
Roud #7601
RECORDINGS:
Georgia Crackers "I've Got a Gal in Baltimore" (OKeh 45192, 1928; rec. 1927)
NOTES [122 words]: Randolph, taking a lead from Spaeth (in Read 'Em and Weep, p. 146 [Randolph prints 166 in error]), thinks this may be connected to "Ta-ra-ra boom-de-ay." The form suggests a connection to "Old Joe Clark" or a relative. But until we have more text to work with, any conclusions are shaky. - RBW
Well, here's a bit more [a second half-verse to the half-verse above]: "She don't wear no -- yes, she do/She don't wear no Sunday shoes." The tune is nothing like either "Old Joe Clark" or "Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay"; it's a string-ragtime sort of tune. - PJS
Which, however, still leaves us with only a single verse.... Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty has a clear playparty version with more words, but I suspect it came later. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: R452

I Got a Girl

DESCRIPTION: "I got a girl, she lives in town. She wrote me a letter, she's a comin' down." "Down the road and across the creek, I ain't had a letter since away last week." "I do red she ain't no fool, Tryin' to put a saddle on a hump-backed mule."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 448, " I Got a Girl, "" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 448, "I Got a Girl" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11791
NOTES [21 words]: Almost certainly a fragment of something more detailed -- but I've no idea what. - RBW
Ida Red? Pretty close to "I do red." - PJS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3448

I got a home in the Rock

See Home in that Rock (File: FSWB355A)

I Got a Hope in That Rock

See Home in that Rock (File: FSWB355A)

I Got a Key of De Kingdom

See I Got a Key to the Kingdom (File: Br3587)

I Got a Key to the Kingdom

DESCRIPTION: "Preacher, I got de key of de kingdom, De world can't do me no harm... Watch your secret keeper, Always bringin' you news, Tell a lie upon you And keep you all confuse'." The singer warns of false friends but doesn't think they matter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (cf. Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 587, "I Got a Key of De Kingdom" (1 text)
Roud #11829
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "This Is the Key of the Kingdom" (lyric)
File: Br3587

I Got a Letter from Jesus

DESCRIPTION: "I got a letter from Jesus, Ahah, ahah, I got a letter, I got a letter, I got a letter from Jesus, Mm--, mm--."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 487, "I Got a Letter from Jesus" (1 short text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I've a Letter from My Father" (theme)
File: San487

I Got a Little Woman

See I Got a Gal in Baltimore (File: R452)

I Got a Woman on Sourwood Mountain

See Sourwood Mountain (lyric) (File: R417)

I Got de Hezotation Stockings and de Hezotation Shoes

See Hesitation Blues (File: FSWB075)

I Got Drunk Again

See Oh, Once I Had a Fortune (File: R316)

I Got Mine

DESCRIPTION: The singer gets into all sorts of scrapes, getting out in some manner while maintaining "I got mine." Example: The police raid a craps game in which the singer is involved. He grabs the pot and successfully makes off.
AUTHOR: John Queen and Charles Cartwell
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (recording, Collins & Natus)
KEYWORDS: gambling chickens robbery trial escape trick
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 52, "I Got Mine" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 243, "I Got Mine" (1 partial text)
DT, IGOTMINE
Roud #7852
RECORDINGS:
Chris Bouchillon, "I Got Mine" (Columbia 15317-D, 1928)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "I Got Mine" (OKeh 40119, 1924)
The Four Aces, "I Got Mine" (BB-7548/Montgomery Ward M-7723, 1938)
Mississippi John Hurt, "I Got Mine" (on MJHurt05)
Bill Chitwood & Bud Landress, "I Got Mine" (Brunswick 2810/Silvertone 3049, c. 1925; rec. 1924)
[Arthur] Collins & [Joseph] Natus, "I Got Mine" (CYL: Edison 7889, 1901) (Monarch [Victor] 1297, 1902) (Climax [Columbia] 597, 1902; on Protobilly)
Fleming & Townsend, "Yes, I Got Mine" (Victor 23676, 1932)
Jenkins Family, "I Got Mine" (OKeh 40247, 1924)
John McGhee, "I Got Mine" (Gennett 6403, 1928)
Peg Moreland, "I Got Mine" (Victor 23510, 1930)
Jesse Oakley ,"I Got Mine" (Supertone 9256, 1928)
Frank Stokes "I Got Mine" (Victor V-38512, 1929; rec. 1928; on GoodForWhatAilsYou, Protobilly)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "I Got Mine" (Columbia 15134-D, 1927; rec. 1926)
Unknown baritone & tenor [probably Collins and Natus] "I Got Mine" (CYL: Standard 597, c. 1901) [this is probably from the same recording session as their Climax record]
NOTES [122 words]: The Digital Tradition footnotes claim that this is from McNeil's Southern Folk Ballads. This is incorrect; I have not been able to discover the source of the DT version. - RBW
Perhaps the DT transcription came from the Carson recording? Or, more likely, from one of the several revival performances of the song, such as Roy Bookbinder's. - PJS
Brown's text seems to be a racist version of the original (or other texts are cleaned up); the singer devotes his efforts to cheating "coons." - RBW
Looking at the sheet music on the American Memory website makes it clear that the other texts were cleaned up; this was originally a "coon song." It was recorded by a duo that was probably Collins & Natus, who specialized in "coon songs." - PJS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Gil243

I Got My Questionnairy

DESCRIPTION: "'Well I got my questionnairy, and it leads me to the war (x2), Well, I'm leavin', pretty baby, Child, can't do anything at all." "Uncle Sam ain't no woman, but he sure can take your man (x2), Boys, they got them in the service...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: war soldier separation infidelity love separation floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 137, "(I Got My Questionnairy)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DRAFTBLU*
RECORDINGS:
Robert Dennis, "Questionnaire Blues" (on USFlorida01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Draftee's Blues
Uncle Sam Blues
NOTES [139 words]: A revival version of this song, performed by the band Hot Tuna under the title of "Uncle Sam Blues," became popular during the Viet Nam war. -PJS
The blues form of the [Robert Dennis] USFlorida01 track is aab. The text may be summarized as follows:
I got my questionnairy ready and they need me in the war." "What you gonna do when they send your man to war? Drink muddy water sleep in a hollow log." "She's a mean mistreating mama and she don't mean me no good I'd be the same way if I could."
First verse is modified from Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup "Give Me a 32-20" (Bluebird B9019, 1942)
Second verse is shared with Blind Lemon Jefferson "Wartime Blues" (Paramount 12425, 1926)
Third verse is shared with Tampa Red "Mean Mistreater Blues" (Bluebird B5546, 1934) and Leroy Carr "Mean Mistreater Mama" (Columbia C30496, 1934) - BS, (RBW)
Last updated in version 4.2
File: CNFM137

I Got Shoes

See All God's Children Got Shoes (File: CNFM067A)

I Got to Lay In Yonder Graveyard

See Lonesome Valley (I) (File: Wa162)

I Got to Roll

DESCRIPTION: "Ham and eggs, pork and beans, I woulda et more, but the cook wasn't clean." "I got to roll, roll in a hurry, Make it on the side of the road." "If I'd-a known my Captain was blind... If I'd known my Captain was bad... If I'd known my Captain was mean..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: chaingang work hardtimes prison
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 390-391, "I Got to Roll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 292, "I Got to Roll" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GOTROLL*
Roud #6713
File: LoF292

I Got Wings

See All God's Children Got Shoes (File: CNFM067A)

I Grieve My Lord

See Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More (File: R300)

I Gwine T' Beat Dis Rice

See I'm Goin' to Beat This Rice (File: CNFM116B)

I Had a Banjo Made of Gold

See Troubled In My Mind (File: LoF102)

I Had a Black Man

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I had a (black) man, he was double-jointed, I kissed him, and made him/me disappointed. All right, (Hilda), I'll tell your mother, Kissing the black man round the corner, How many kisses did he give you? One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope mother | kiss corner double-jointed
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #220, "I had a black man, he was double-jointed" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #3, "(I've got a lad and he's double double-jointed)" (1 text)
Roud #19366
File: AJRR220

I Had a Bloke Down Hopping

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I had a bloke down Hopping, I had a bloke down Kent, I had a bloke down Pimlico, And this is what he sent: O Shillali-tee-i-o."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas)
KEYWORDS: jumprope gift
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #221, "I had a bloke down Hopping" (1 text)
Roud #22196
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I've a Laddie in America" (theme)
File: JRR221

I Had a Box of Chocolates

DESCRIPTION: "I had a box of chocolates, I left them on the shelf. Would you believe? Would you believe? It walked away itself. It might have been a fairy, It might have been a queen, It might have been a little girl All dressed in green."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: food theft royalty | chocolate
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 75, "(I had a box of chocolates)" (1 text)
Roud #38127
File: BAAI075

I Had a Dog as Skinny as a Rail

See I Had a Little Puppy (Pussy Willow, Hot Dog) (File: PHCFS068)

I Had a Dolly Dressed in Green

See Hector Protector (File: OO2207)

I Had a Handsome Fortune

See Oh, Once I Had a Fortune (File: R316)

I Had a Heart that Doted Once

DESCRIPTION: "I had a heart that doted once In passion's boundless pain, An' though the tyrant I abjured, I could not break his chain."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 616, "I Had a Heart that Doted Once" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7553
File: R616

I Had a Little Brother (I)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I had a little brother and his name was Johnny. He played in the meadow where the frogs croaked clear. He ran through the meadows with a song on his tongue, And he picked a few flowers for his mother. How many flowers did he gather?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Butler and Haley, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: brother animal flowers mother jumprope
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #223, "I had a little brother" (1 text)
File: AJRR223

I Had a Little Brother (II)

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

I Had a Little Brother, His Name Was Tim

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

I Had a Little Bubble Car in 1968

See I Had a Little Car (File: AJRR225)

I Had a Little Car

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I had a little car [or, A little bubble car], (in 1958/1968)/(license/number 38/48), Went around the cornerrrrr And slammed on the brake/into the gate/etc.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: technology disaster jumprope | car brake corner accident
FOUND IN: Britain(England) Canada(Ont,West) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #225, "I had a little car, in 1958" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 26, "(I had a little bubble car in 1968)" (1 text)
Roud #19224
File: AJRR225

I Had a Little Chicken Who Wouldn't Lay an Egg

See Turkey in the Straw (File: R274)

I Had a Little Cock

See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

I Had a Little Dolly, And I Loved Her Well

DESCRIPTION: "I had a little dolly, And I loved her well. She had rosy cheeks, And I called her Rosy Bell." The singer teaches it to curtsey, go to bed, etc. But then the doll is lost, leaving the singer crying. At last she finds it, but "she was tattered and torn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: separation | toy doll
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 68, "(I had a little dolly)" (1 text)
File: PKKB068A

I Had a Little Horse Whose Name Was Jack

DESCRIPTION: "I had a little horse whose name was Jack, Put him in the stable and he jumped through the crack."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: horse
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 176, "I Had a Little Horse Whose Name Was Jack" (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Had a Little Pony (I)"
cf. "I Had a Little Pony (II)" (lyrics)
cf. "I Had a Little Pony, His Name Was Dapple Grey" (lyrics)
NOTES [145 words]: The notes in Brown connect this with the English nursery rhyme, "I had a little pony, his name was Dapple Gray." This is possible -- but only that. - RBW
I don't see the connection either but Brown is refering to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 127, "I had a little pony" or--less likely--Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 223, "I had a little horse." [See also Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 12, 25, and especially Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #157, pp. 118-119, about dapple gray, and notes there. - RBW]
There seems a more complete version from Texas at the Real Live Preacher site in Finding the Man in the Picture Part One:
"I had a little dog, his name was Rover. He died all over except for his tail, and it turned over."
"I had a little mule, his name was Jack. I put him in the stable but he jumped through the crack." - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Br3176

I Had a Little Lairdie

DESCRIPTION: The singer had a little manikin/husband/lairdie. She dressed him, and sent him riding to town on her thumb (or he's no bigger than her thumb). She sent him to the garden for sage but found him kissing Madge in the kitchen.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Joseph Ritson, _Gammer Gurton's Garland: or, The Nursery Parnassus_, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonsense husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #161, p. 2, ("I had a little lairdie That sat upo' my thoom") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1563, "I Had a Little Lairdie" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 234, "I had a little husband" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #64, p. 70, "(I had a little husband)"
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 21, ("I got a little manikin, I set him on my thoomiken")
Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #104, p. 64, ("I gat a little mannikin, I set him on my thoomikin")
Roud #12962
NOTES [81 words]: The inimitable Katherine Elwes Thomas claims that the little husband was Philip II of Spain, one of whose four wives was Mary Tudor, the first reigning queen of England (1553-1558). It's certainly true that Philip II quickly abandoned Mary, but that seems an insufficient reason to link that event to this much later song.
Halliwell made the much more reasonable suggestion that this is part of the tale of Tom Thumb, and cites a Danish parallel. Still, even this is just speculation. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD81563

I had a little lairdie That sat upo' my thoom

See I Had a Little Lairdie (File: GrD81563)

I Had a Little Monkey (I)

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

I Had a Little Monkey (II)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I had a little monkey, I sent him to the country, I fed him on gingerbread. He jumped out the winder (window), and broke his little finger, And now my monkey's dead."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Butler and Haley, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope death animal food | monkey window gingerbread
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #227, "I Had a Little Monkey" (1 text)
File: AJRR227

I Had a Little Nut Tree

DESCRIPTION: "I had a little nutmeg, nothing would it bear But a silver nutmeg and a golden pear. The King of Spain's daughter came to visit me And all for the sake of my little nut tree." "Her dress was all of crimson.... She asked me for my nutmeg...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland); first printing appears to have been in one of the Tom Thumb songbooks (n.d. but c. 1790)
KEYWORDS: royalty food courting
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 210-211, "I Had a Little Nut Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 381, "I had a little nut tree" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #130, p. 106, "(I had a little nut tree)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 83, "I Had a Little Nut Tree" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 53, "I Had a Little Nut Tree" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #228, "I had a little nut tree" (1 text)
Roud #3749
NOTES [1028 words]: Folklorists, ever desperate for an event upon which to hang a song, have connected this to the visit of Juana (Joanna) of Castile (the future Juana the Mad, 1479-1555, queen of Castile from 1505), the mother of the future Emperor Charles V. Juana visited England in 1506 during the reign of Henry VII. Apparently, according to the Opies, this hypothesis was adopted in Edith Sitwell's 1946 Fanfare for Elizabeth, who pictures it being sung to the daughters of Henry VIII.
This has the sort of problems that usually arise when modern scholars try to over-explain a nursery rhyme. For starters, Juana's father Ferdinand of Aragon was not King of Spain; he was King of Aragon, and it was not until Juana succeeded him in 1516 that Spain was properly a united kingdom. (Though, in fairness, Ferdinand was regent of Castile after his wife's death, so one might loosely call him King of Spain.)
Problem #2 is the dating; there is no hint of the existence of the song at the time of Juana's visit (although see below on "I have a new garden").
Problem #3 is the word "nutmeg"; the nutmeg tree grows natively only in parts of the Molucca Islands. Europeans didn't even discover them until the late sixteenth century (see the notes to "Of All the Birds"), and they could not have been known in England at the time of Juana's visit. Possibly there was some word other than "nutmeg" used in the original version, or there was a meaning for "nutmeg" which has been so completely forgotten that it does not appear in dictionaries, but if so, what?
It's also worth noting that, even if you project this song back 250 years before the earliest known version, there is still no real reason to connect it to Juana. Why not connect it to, say, Catherine of Aragon, Juana's sister, who happened to marry the son of Henry VII? (Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, in fact does so.)
For that matter, Katherine Elwes Thomas (Thomas, pp. 206-208) connects this not with the Tudors but with the Stuarts; to her, this is about Charles I's visit, before he came to the throne, to the court of Spain to see his intended bride -- international diplomacy being what it was, he was to be married to a woman he had not seen. (Thomas, it should be noted, found far-fetched historical explanations for a vast number of nursery rhymes. I can't help but notice the irony that, in the one instance where a nursery rhyme has a relatively Thomas-like explanation, she produced a different historical fantasy to explain it.)
There is even a a strong indication that the idea of this song predates the Tudors. Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 72 (cf. Patterson, pp. 130-131), prints a much earlier piece which begins
I have a newe garden and new is begunne;
Swych another gardyn know I not under sunne.
In the myddis of my garden is a peryr set
And it wele none bere bern but a pere jenet.
The fayrest mayd of this toun preid me
For to gryffyn here a gryf of myn pery tre.
(Index of Middle English Verse #1302)
In other words,
I have a new garden, and new is begun;
Such another garden know I not under sun.
In the middle of my garden is a pear [tree] set,
And it will no pears bear but an early pear.
The fairest maid of this town prayed (=begged) me
For to graft her a graft/shoot of her pear tree.
Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 73, sees clear kinship of that poem to this, and I agree. And it comes from the Sloane Manuscript (British Library Sloane 2593, cited as MSSloane2593), from the fifteenth century, which also contains "I have a yong suster," the earliest version of "I Gave My Love a Cherry," and quite a few other pieces in the Index. For this manuscript, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 78, regards it as sort of a near-ballad that got deflected into a children's piece; that seems a little more speculative.
Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 73, observes that, in Chaucer's "Merchant's Tale," the two lovers go at it in a pear tree, and so suggests that pear trees were associated with sex.
In earlier editions, I questioned this, but it seems that there is evidence that pears (although perhaps not pear trees) had sexual associations. Karl Wentersdorf, on p. 129 of Patterson, describes several instances: Thibault's Li Romanz de la Poire describes a care where two people each take a bite of a pear and are irresistably attracted to each other. Wentersdorf also sees veiled English references in the romance King Alisaunder and the satire Mum and the Soothsegger.
The lines of Mum and the Soothsegger (904-905) are given by Barr as
Peris and plummes and pesecoddes grene,
That ladies lusty loken much after,
i.e.
Pears and plums and peascods green
That ladies lusty look out for
(I would note however that "lusty" need not mean "desirous of sex.") Barr's note on p 334 claims that "Pears are associated with female sexual appetite in a number of Middle English works" -- but cites only "The Merchant's Tale," the "I Have a New Garden" piece above, and a single line in Chaucer's "The Miller's Tale," comparing Alison to "the newe pere-jonette tree" (line 3248). So it sounds like everyone is citing the same list of references. There probably is an association between pears and sex, but not nearly as strong as that between, say, cherries and sex; I doubt that a mention of a pear automatically made people think of desire.
Whatever the origin of this item, it has inspired various imitations and parodies. Walter de la Mare, Come Hither, revised edition, 1928; #208, prints two under the collective title "Two Nut Trees." The first, credited to "Thomas Anon," simply adds a few lines. The second, by Edith Sitwell, is an independent poem about "The King of China's daughter," but clearly dependent upon this, because it also mentions nutmeg trees and the courting of the princess.
In the incidentals department: I learned this song somewhere along the line, I think from my mother, and my tune is not Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland's (and I know of no other printed traditional tune).
In 1945, Sheila Bishop wrote a short book A Silver Nutmeg and a Golden Pear. It's described as a story for children. I know nothing else about it, but it was clearly inspired by this. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Lins210

I Had a Little Poney, His Name Was Dapple Grey

DESCRIPTION: "I had a little pony, His name was Dapple Grey, I lent him to a lady To ride a mile away. She whipped him, she slashed him, She rode him through the mire, I would not lend my pony now For all the lady's hire."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell), with many undated editions in the decades immediately before that
KEYWORDS: horse commerce injury
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 142, "I had a little pony" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 127, "I had a little pony" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose, pp. 117-118 n. 30, "(I had a little pony)" (1 text, files as a possible variant on "I had a little hobby horse)
Roud #20056
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Had a Little Pony (I)"
cf. "I Had a Little Pony (II)" (lyrics)
cf. "I Had a Little Horse Whose Name Was Jack" (lyrics)
File: KSUC142A

I Had a Little Pony (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I had a little pony, I rode him down town. And ev'ry time I turned him round, Turn him on an acre ground! Boots and show-line come down, Lady show-line come down; Boots and show-line come down, Lady show-line come down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 184, (no title) (1 fragment)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Had a Little Horse Whose Name Was Jack"
cf. "I Had a Little Pony (II)"
cf. "Jenny" (lyrics)
File: ScNF184A

I Had a Little Pony (II)

DESCRIPTION: "I had a little (pony/mule), His name was Jack; I rid his tail To save his back." "The lightning roll, the thunder flash, And split my coat-tail clear to smash."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 184, (no title) (1 fragment, with only the first four lines); p. 185 (no title) (1 fragment, adding the "lightning roll" verse; I have a feeling those two floated together)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #231, "I had a mule, His name was Jack" (1 text)
Roud #16341
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Had a Little Horse Whose Name Was Jack"
cf. "I Had a Little Pony (I)"
cf. "I Had a Little Pony, His Name Was Dapple Grey" (lyrics)
cf. "Jenny" (lyrics)
NOTES [71 words]: This might be a variant on any of several things -- the Brown piece "I Had a Little Horse Whose Name Was Jack," which obviously hs the same first lines; the English folk poem "I had a little pony, his name was Dapple Gray" (for which see Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes, #127, and Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #157, pp. 118-119 and notes there); perhaps others. But all such links are just possibilities. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ScNF184B

I Had a Little Puppy (Pussy Willow, Hot Dog)

DESCRIPTION: Riddle-song, with a description of something (cat, dog, etc.) that actually describes something else. E.g., 'I had a little puppy, it had a stubby tail... you buy it at a butcher's shop" (describing a hot dog). Another version involves Pork Chops
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: wordplay riddle nonballad campsong food
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 68, "Pussy Willow" (1 text, tune described but not printed)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 95, 423, 444, "Pussy Willow"/"(a little pussy Whose coat was silver gray)/"I Had a Dog as Skinny as a Rail" (notes only)
Harbin-Parodology, #52, p. 19, "Pussy Willow" (1 text, tune referenced)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 112, "Pussy Song," "Little Pig," "Little Puppy" (3 texts, tune referenced)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 50, "Pussy Willow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 7, "I Know a Little Pussy"; "I Have a Little Puppy" (2 texts)
NOTES [65 words]: There are a whole class of songs of this sort. I learned "I had a little puppy" somewhere in an (obviously mis-spent) youth, and also heard "pussy willow" many years ago. Both use the same tune (or, rather, tune device: Each word in a line sung to a single note, with each line one note higher than the preceding). I imagine there are more of these things around. I'll just lump them here. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: PHCFS068

I Had a Little Pussy

See I Had a Little Puppy (Pussy Willow, Hot Dog) (File: PHCFS068)

I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song)

DESCRIPTION: The singer enjoys the company of various animals, e.g. "I had a little rooster by the barnyard gate, And that little rooster was my playmate, And that little rooster went Cock-a-doodle-doo...." And so forth, cumulatively, for various animals
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: animal cumulative nonballad farming humorous chickens sheep horse dog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland US(Ap,SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (37 citations):
Randolph 352, "I Bought Me a Rooster" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 290-291, "I Bought Me a Rooster" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 352A)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 126-129, "I Bought Me a Cat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 126, "Greenwood Trees" (1 fragment, 1 tune); p. 140, "Had a Little Rooster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 124, "Barnyard Song" (1 text plus3 excerpts and mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 124, "Barnyard Song" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #219, "The Farmyard" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 192, "The Farmyard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 6, "The Barnyard Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 284-285, "Here's Luck to All My Cocks and Hens" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 202)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 42, "Farmyard Song" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 297, "I Bought Myself a Cock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 66-67, "I Had a Little Cock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #115, "I Went to Market" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 164-165, "The Barnyard Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #138, "I Love My Rooster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #100, "The Cat Played Fiddie on My Fee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 156-157, "The Barnyard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 218, "The Farmyard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 78, "The Farmyard" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 117, "I Had a Little Cock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #60, "The Farm Yard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 77, "Bought a Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan8 1666, "I Bocht a Hennie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #159, p. 2, "I Haed a Hennie" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 230, "Fiddle-I-Fee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 171-174, "Fiddle-i-Fee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #48, "My Household" (1 short text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 387, "I Had a Rooster" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 21-24, "Bought Me a Cat" (1 text)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 13, "(I had a wee cock and I loved it well)" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Dan Patterson, "A Sheaf of North Carolina Folksongs," Vol. IV, No. 1 (Jul 1956), pp. 28, "I Had a Little Rooster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 392, "I had a rooster (cat) and my rooster pleased me" (notes only -- although they include some quite unusual variants)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 73, "Barnyard Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ROOSTR2 (I HAD A WEE COCK), ROOSTR3 (BOUGHT ME A CAT), ROOSTR4 (I HAD A ROOSTER), ROOSTR5 (LITTLE ROOSTER)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 31-32, "My Cock, Lily-Cock" ("I had a wee cock, and I loved it well, I fed my cock on yonder hill")
Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #15, pp. 18-19, ("I had a henny")
Roud #544
RECORDINGS:
George Blackman, "I Bought Myself a Cock" (on FSB10)
John Curtis, "Farmyard" (on NFMLeach)
Maud Long, "Fiddle-I-Fee" (AFS; on LC14)
Jamesie McCarthy, "Kerry Cock" (on IRClare01)
Marieo Perkins, "I Love My Rooster" (on JThomas01)
Pete Seeger, "Bought Me a Cat" (on PeteSeeger03, PeteSeegerCD03); "I Had a Rooster" (on PeteSeeger08, PeteSeegerCD02)
Asher Sizemore & Little Jimmie, "My Little Rooster" (Bluebird B-5495, 1934)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Le Marche des Animaux (The Animal Market)" (theme and structure)
File: R352

I Had a Little Sausage

See I Had a Sausage (File: AJRR229)

I Had a Little Shoe and It Was Blue

DESCRIPTION: "I had a little shoe and it was blue, It died last night at a quarter past two, I put it in a coffin, It fell through the bottom, My little shoe, dressed in blue"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: clothes death | shoe blue coffin
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 26, "(I had a little shoe and it was blue)" (1 text)
Roud #20059
File: PKKB026B

I Had a Little Sister Dressed in Pink

See My Little Sister Dressed In Pink (File: SuSm108B)

I Had a Mule

See I Had a Little Pony (II) (File: ScNF184B)

I Had a Sausage

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I had a sausage, A dear little sausage, I put it in the oven for my tea-tea-tea. I went out to play, And I heard the sausage say, 'Come in, little lassie, for your tea-tea-tea."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: food jumprope | sausage tea
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #229, "I had a little sausage" (1 text)
Roud #20157
File: AJRR229

I Had a Teddy Bear Dressed in Green

See Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Go Upstairs (File: RWTdBrTd)

I Had a Wee Cock and I Loved It Well

See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

I Had a Wife

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes how he got rid of his wife by chopping off her head. Without evidence, the killing is ruled an "act of providence." Listeners are advised to follow the singer's example
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: marriage violence homicide death wife humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 174, "I Had A Wife" (1 text)
DT, HADAWIFE
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "I Had a Wife" (on PeteSeeger02, PeteSeegerCD01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drunken Sailor" (tune)
cf. "Lanigan's Ball (II)" (first verse)
File: FSWB174B

I Had But Fifty Cents

DESCRIPTION: The singer takes a girl to the ball. He thinks, since she is so delicate, that it is safe to take her to a restaurant, even though he has but fifty cents. But she orders a huge meal. The singer, unable to pay, is beaten up by the restaurant staff
AUTHOR: Words: Billy Mortimer; Music: Dan Lewis
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (sheet music, with the title "Fifty Cents")
KEYWORDS: food money poverty courting
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Randolph 485, "I Had But Fifty Cents" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 141, "I Had But Fifty Cents" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, pp. 55-56, "Fifty Cents" (1 text)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 142, "Took My Girl to a Fancy Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 38-39, "I Had But Fifty Cents" (1 text, 1 tune)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 152-153, "FIfty Cents" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 121, "I Had But Fifty Cents" (1 text)
DT, FIFTYCNT*
Roud #2798
RECORDINGS:
Binkley Brothers' Dixie Clodhoppers, "When I Had But Fifty Cents" (Victor V-40129, 1929; rec. 1928)
Bill Chitwood & his Georgia Mountaineers, "I Had But Fifteen Cents" (OKeh 45131, 1927)
Otto Gray & his Cowboy Band, "I Had But Fifty Cents" (Vocalion 5256, c. 1928)
Jack Golding, "I Had But Fifty Cents" (Champion 16072 [as Jerry Ellis]/Supertone 9711 [as Jack Edwards], 1930)
Peg Moreland, "When I Had But Fifty Cents" (Victor V-40209, 1930)
Riley Puckett, "When I Had But Fifty Cents" (Columbia 15015-D, 1925; rec. 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bill Morgan and His Gal" (theme: the date that eats and drinks unbelievable quantities) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fifty Cents
NOTES [53 words]: A piece entitled "Fifty Cents," by Billy Mortimer and Dan Lewis, was published in 1881. Paul Stamler has verified that this is the same song. This is the text published, e.g., by Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo. There are songster versions which appear to be from the late 1870s, but they cannot be precisely dated. - PJS, RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: R485

I Had One Man

See One Man Shall Mow My Meadow (File: ShH100)

I Had the Scarlet Fever

DESCRIPTION: "I had the scarlet fever, I had it very bad." The singer is taken to the hospital and wants to be taken home. Doctor Glannister slides down the bannister and rips his pants, or Doctor Brown asks silly questions all around.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty doctor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 138, "I Had the Scarlet Fever" (3 texts)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Am a Pretty Little Dutch Girl" (tune, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
File: OpGa138

I Hae ae Bit Son

DESCRIPTION: "I hae ae bit son, my gallant young Donald, Although I had ten, they'd a' follow Glengarry." She toasts the men who follow Prince Charlie. (S)he will go to Lochiel and the other leaders, "For these are the men that would die for their Charlie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Early 19th Century (Hogg's "Border Garland"")
KEYWORDS: soldier separation Jacobite
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1720-1788 - Life of Charles Edward Stuart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie," the Young Pretender, eldest son of James Stuart the "Old Pretender"
Jul 23, 1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlie lands on Eriskay
Aug 19, 1745 - "Gathering of the Clans." Official raising of the standard at Glenfinnan
Apr 16, 1746 - Battle of Culloden Muir ends the 1745 Jacobite rebellion
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #29, p. 164, "I Hae ae Bit Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7287
File: RPG029

I Hae Been at a Far Awa' Weddin'

DESCRIPTION: The singer went to a wedding and danced with and kissed "a bonnie young lassie An' I hae ne'er been well sinsyne" If she would fancy him he would marry her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: love wedding dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1321, "I Hae Been at a Far Awa' Weddin'" (5 texts, 4 tunes)
Roud #7212
File: GrD71321

I Hae Layen Three Herrings a Sa't (I Cannot Come Every Day to Woo)

DESCRIPTION: A young man steps up to a girl and says, "If you'll love me, love me now." He says he has a home and lands and pays (two penny) rent. He can come courting only occasionally. He gives other monotonous details. The outcome of the courtship is not told
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1611 (_Melismata, Musical phansies ...._ according to Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: love courting farming money home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #5, pp. 173-175,245, "Wooing Song of a Yeoman of Kent's Son" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 373-374, "Wooing Song of a Yeoman of Kent's Sonne" (1 text)
ST BeCo373 (Partial)
Roud #8543
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Herring in Salt" (modified version)
cf. "The Clown's Courtship" (subject)
NOTES [60 words]: This is clearly the original that James Tytler rewrote as "A Herring in Salt"; I could argue for lumping them, since the two are very close in content. Steve Roud seems to be moving both songs, originally #8543 and #6138, to the latter number. But because this is a deliberate rewrite, I'm keeping them separate. Perhaps best to see both listings, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: BeCo373

I hae looked in the glass

See Noo I'm Just a Lassie in Want o' a Man (File: GrD81915)

I Haed a Henny

See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

I Hate That Train Called the M & O

DESCRIPTION: "I hate that train that they all call the M and O (x2), It took my baby away, and he ain't comin' back to me no more." Her man sticks his head out the window and says "I'm going away, baby." She wishes the train had not parted them
AUTHOR: unknown, but probably adapted by Lucille Bogan
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (recording, Lucille Bogan)
KEYWORDS: train separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 444-445, "I Hate That Train Called the M & O" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Lucille Bogan, "I Hate That Train Called the M. and O." (Banner 6-02--04/Oriole 6-02-04/Melotone 6-02-04/Perfect 6-02-04, 1936; rec. 1934)
File: LSRai444

I Have a Baby Brother

DESCRIPTION: "I have a baby brother, He's only two months old, He's such a little darling, He's worth his weight in gold, He smiles all day at nothing, He's a dimple on his cheek, I'm sure he'd say he loved me If only he could speak."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: baby
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 66, "(I have a baby brother)" (1 text)
NOTES [49 words]: I've never encountered this in print anywhere except in Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, and internet searches didn't turn up anything, and yet this sounds familiar to me. The version I head uses the "I Had a Little Puppy (Pussy Willow, Hot Dog)" tune: one note for each line, going up the scale. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PKKB066E

I Have a Bonnet Trimmed with Blue

See I Got a Bonnet Trimmed with Blue (File: Pea060)

I Have a Dog

DESCRIPTION: "I have a dog, I call him Pen; He's just as smart as lots of men. He goes with me to feed the cow...." "He will bound around, bark and yelp." ""He makes the cats walk the chalk, And it does seem he tries to talk... He can already say 'bow-wow-wow.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Mrs. L. S. Eams)
KEYWORDS: dog nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 226, "I Have a Dog" (1 text)
File: MHAp226

I Have a Father Gone to Glory (I Am Alone in this World)

DESCRIPTION: "I have a father gone to glory, I am alone in this world. I have a father gone to glory, I am alone.... Take me home, bless the Savior, take me home." Repeat with mother, sister, etc. with a conclusion that there is room in heaven for all.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Granville Gadsey)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad home
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 201-202, "I Have a Father Gone to Glory" (1 text)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #44, "I'm All Alone in This World" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 79, "I'm All Alone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4213, 3407, and 7519
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Other Bright Shore" (lyrics)
cf. "Some Have Fathers Gone to Glory" (lyrics)
NOTES [112 words]: Roud lumps this with "Where Is Old Elijah? (The Hebrew Children, The Promised Land)," which seems a bit strong, and also with "The Other Bright Shore" and other material. The link to "The Other Bright Shore" is obvious, but there are no shores of any sort in Henry's version, so I think they have to be separated. I do, however, think it is the same as Roberts-SangBranchSettlers's #44 and the Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle piece, although Roud assigns different numbers to all of them. Roberts lumps his piece with a piece in Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates. Which just shows how hard it is to classify all these "Life is lousy but I'M going to heaven" pieces. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: MHAp201

I Have a Father in My Native Land

DESCRIPTION: "I have a father in my native land, Oh, he's looking for me tonight, night, night, Oh, he's looking for me tonight." "He may look, he may look with his withering watery eyes, And it's oh, he may look to the bottom of the sea, sea, sea...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: sailor death father separation mourning
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 231, "I Have a Father in My Native Land" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 231, "I Have a Father in My Native Land" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "He Lies in the American Land" (theme)
File: Br3231

I Have a Gumboil

See I Have a Toothache (File: AJRR232)

I Have a Little Home to Go To

DESCRIPTION: "If I was a young man and had no home like you, I'd marry me a wife if she was the plague of my life, And have a little home to go to." "How can a young man stay at home when the girls all look so well?" The singer looks forward to settling down
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (High-OldOldFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home wife courting
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p 23, "I Have a Little Home to Go To" (1 text)
File: High023

I Have a Little Puppy

See I Had a Little Puppy (Pussy Willow, Hot Dog) (File: PHCFS068)

I Have a Loving Sister

DESCRIPTION: "I have a loving sister to be bap-per-tized (x3), Who loves a dying lamb." "Move along, move along, God give you wings to move along." Presumably repeated with brother, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 243, "I Have a Loving Sister" (1 short text)
Roud #18157
NOTES [37 words]: The image of Jesus as the Lamb of God is stated in John 1:29, and the Lamb is a major character in the Apocalypse (book of Revelation), starting in chapter 5, although there are no direct references to the "dying lamb." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: KiWa243

I Have a Sister, the Flower o' Manchester

DESCRIPTION: "I have a sister, the flower o' Manchester, I have a sister in the low counterie; I have gold and I have silver, Well rewarded will you be"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: money sister
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1792, "I Have a Sister, the Flower o' Manchester" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #12995
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81792

I Have a Sweetheart

See Give Me Your Heart (I Have a Sweetheart) (File: Brne012)

I Have a Toothache

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I have a toothache, A gumboil, a tummy-ache, A pain on my left side, a pimple on my bum/tongue." May have a continuation about the Queen of May.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Daiken)
KEYWORDS: disease jumprope | pain toothache
FOUND IN: Britain Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #232, "I have a tooth-ache" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 172, "I Have a Gumboil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #19326
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Have a Gumboil
File: AJRR232

I Have a Wife

See Smiggy Maglooral (File: OCon143)

I Have a Yong Suster

See I Gave My Love a Cherry
 (File: R123)

I Have a Young Sister

See I Gave My Love a Cherry
 (File: R123)

I Have Another Building

DESCRIPTION: "I know I have another building, I know it's not made with hands." "I haven't been to heaven, But I've been told, Not made with hands, That the streets are pearl and the gates are gold. 'Some of these mornings bright and fair, Going to meet my Jesus...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad home
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, pp. 61-62, "I Have Another Building" (1 text)
Roud #11959
NOTES [28 words]: Revelation 21:21 says that the gates of the New Jerusalem are of pearl and the streets are of gold; Work's version appears to recall this verse but have it backward. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: FSAN061A

I Have Been a Foster (The Old Forester)

DESCRIPTION: "I have been a foster (forester), long and many a day," but now he is laying down his bow. He will leave it on the greenwood bough, for he cannot shoot as he once did. Venus has left him behind; he can only watch as others find pleasure
AUTHOR: unknown (musical setting by Robert Cooper)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1700 (British Library, MS. Additional 31922)
KEYWORDS: age disability sex MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #465, pp. 313-314, "(Hange I wyl my nobyl bow vpon the grenewod bough)" (1 text)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 50, "I Have Been a Foster" (1 partial text, 1 tune -- the chorus only; it is not clear if it is this or the version that says the forester will not retire)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1303.5
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2176
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Additional 31922, folio 65
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Additional 6556, folio 53 (a short text, probably this)
Roud #V50090
NOTES [228 words]: This occurs complete in only one manuscript, which would ordinarily not be sufficient reason to include it in the Index -- especially as the manuscript containing it does not seem to contain any other demonstrably folk material. The manuscript is clearly of the sixteenth century (Greene says the first half of that century), containing as it does several pieces by Henry VIII. It also has several holly-and-ivy and greenwood pieces -- it almost makes me wonder if it isn't an attempt to fake a collection of rustic songs. (It includes musical notation as well as texts.)
But Wooldridge decided to include this piece in his collection (though I don't find it in Chappell), and Greene thinks the chorus, at least, is borrowed, perhaps from a folk song. It sounds that way to me, too. Plus Greene's #466/DIMEV #2175 (from the same manuscript) seems to be an answer, or perhaps a preface. And Greene's notes record another poem, not a carol but just as folky-looking, "I haue been a foster long and meney day."
So there is a lot going on here. I don't really think this is a folk song, but it's just folky enough that I decided to include it to let you make your own decisions
To this compare: Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics CXVI, p. 247, "(no title)" (1 short text that looks like an abbreviation of this; it is found in British Library MS. Additional 5665). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MSIHBAF

I Have Been a Wild Boy

See I'll Be a Good Boy; also Wild Rover No More (File: MuLa045)

I Have Been Redeemed

DESCRIPTION: "I have been redeemed, I know I have been redeemed, O hallelujah, I know I have been redeemed, O sinner, you better obey." "This world is not my home.... Oh, sinner, you better obey." "O, heaven is my home...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 84, "I Have Been Redeemed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16934
File: ChFRA084

I Have Finished Him a Letter

See Anna Lee (The Finished Letter) (File: R775)

I Have Four Brothers

See I Gave My Love a Cherry
 (File: R123)

I Have Four Sisters Beyond The Sea

See I Gave My Love a Cherry
 (File: R123)

I Have Long Since Been Learned

DESCRIPTION: "I have long since been leaned Dat de trumpets will be sounding... in dat day. Oh, sinner, where will you stand in dat day?" "He can able de blind to see... Jesus is knocking at de door." The singer describes heaven and resurrection.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 588, "I Have Long Since Been Learned" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 588, "I Have Long Since Been Learned" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11838
File: Br3588

I Have No Loving Mother Now (Oh, See My Father Layin' There)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, see my father layin' there (x3), I cannot stay here by myself." "Lord, I cannot stay here by myself (x2), When de wind blows east and de wind blows west, Lord I cannot...." "Oh, see my mother layin' there...." "Oh, see my brother layin' there...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad mother father
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
[Randolph 612, "I Have No Loving Mother Now" -- deleted in the second printing]
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 432-433, "I Have No Loving Mother Now" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 612)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 622, "Oh, See My Father Layin' There" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 664, 665, 666, "I Have No Mother Now" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Roud #11925
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "I Have No Loving Mother Now" (Victor C-20935, 1927; on KHarrell02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wish I Was a Little Bird (Nobody Cares for Me)" (lyrics)
NOTES [16 words]: This is a very amorphous song, recognized mostly by its form and its vaguely religious theme. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3622

I Have No Mother Now

See I Have No Loving Mother Now (Oh, See My Father Layin' There) (File: Br3622)

I Have No One to Love Me

See The Deep Blue Sea (I) (File: R794)

I Have No Pain, Dear Mother, Now

DESCRIPTION: "I have no pain, dear mother, now, But oh! I am so dry. Connect me to a brewery And leave me there to die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: mother drink death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 43, "I have no Pain, Dear Mother, Now" (1 text)
Roud #10556
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose" (tune)
File: BrPa043B

I Have Worked in the Woods

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes all the things he's done while working as a logger, including both work and recreation: logged, driven, danced, fought, sung and slept on the floor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 7, "I Have Worked in the Woods" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 12, "I Have Worked in the Woods" (1 text)
Roud #8868
File: Be007

I Hear from Heaven Today

DESCRIPTION: "Hurry on, my weary soul, and I heard from heaven today" (x2). "My sin is forgiven and my soul set free, And I heard from....." "A baby born in Bethlehem." :"The trumpet sound in the other bright land." "My name is called and I must go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 2, "I Heard from Heaven Today" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11862
File: AWG002B

I Hear Someone Whistling Around the House, I'm Sure

See The Whistling Thief (File: HHH710)

I Hear the Teacher

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme for revealing a birthday: "I hear the teacher tapping on the window, January, February... [birth month]. One, two, three.... [Birth day of month]. Monday, Tuesday... [Day of birth], One, two... [current age]."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: playparty jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 60, "I Hear the Teacher" (1 text)
Roud #19417
File: ZiZa060A

I Heard From Heaven To-day (Peter, Go Ring Dem Bells)

See Peter Go Ring Them Bells (File: Dett204)

I Heard Somebody Call My Name

See Little Bessie (File: MN2172)

I Heard the Angels Singin'

See Angels Singing Around My Bed (File: Parr029)

I Heard the Angels Singing

DESCRIPTION: "One morning soon (x3), I heard the angels singing. I believe, I believe, I do believe, I heard the angels singing. My soul King Jesus will revive." "Down on my knees (x3), I heard...." "I couldn't keep from crying" "One morning soon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 160, "I Heard the Angels Singing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16308
File: Arno160

I Heard the Preaching of the Elder

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I heard the preaching of the elder, Preaching the Word (x2), I heard the preaching of the elder Preaching the Word of God" Verses are about the length of Noah's flood, Jonah's stay with "the whale," and the singer's time praying
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 62, "I Heard the Preaching of the Elder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12223
NOTES [33 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "Preaching the Word of God."
The Biblical references are Genesis 6-8 and Jonah 1-2. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett062

I Heard the Reports of a Pistol

DESCRIPTION: "Well, I heard the reports of a pistol, whoa man, down the right-a-way.... Must a been my partner... tryin' a make a getaway. Whoe, they killed my partner...." A man serving a life term, he wishes he could escape, but warns others against trying
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recorded from J. B. Smith by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: death prison escape
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 155-157, "I Heard the Reports of a Pistol" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: JDM155

I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say

DESCRIPTION: "I heard the voice of Jesus say, 'Come unto me and rest' Lay down, thou weary one....'" The singer comes to Jesus weary and worn, and finds Jesus a resting place. Jesus freely gives living water and is the light of "this dark world."
AUTHOR: Words: Horatio Bonar
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Ira D. Sankey, Sacred Songs and Solos (London: Collins, n.d.), #216 ("I heard the voice of Jesus say") (1 text)
(no author listed), _Hymns Ancient and Modern_ (London: William Clowes and Sons, 1913), #257 p. 72, ("I heard the voice of Jesus say") (1 text)
Henry Date, Pentecostal Hymns Nos. 1 and 2 Combined (Chicago: Hope Publishing Company, 1894 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #120 p. 115, "My Sins Are Taken Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
William T Dargan, Lining Out the Word (Chicago: Center for Black Music Research, 2006), pp. 72-75, ("I heard the voice of Jesus say") (1 text, 1 tune) (transcribed by Dargan in Piedmont Georgia)
Roud #22461
RECORDINGS:
Leader Nurse and Little Flock Spiritual Baptist Church congregation, "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say" (on WITrinidadBaptistMusic01)
James Garfield Smalls, "Lining a Hymn/I Heard the Voice of Jesus" (on USSeaIsland03)
United Southern Prayer Band of Baltimore, Washington and Virginia, "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say" (on "African American Congregational Singing: Nineteenth-Century Roots, Wade in the Water, Vol. 2," Smithsonian/Folkways CD SF40073 (1994 (recorded 1989, 1992 by Bernice Johnson Reagon)))
Henry Williams, Henry Thomas, Margaret Wright, Edna Wright, "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
SAME TUNE:
Bright Crowns Laid Up ("I Heard the voice of Twiggins say") (Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, p. 21)
NOTES [409 words]: Although there are very few traditional collections of this (and those of a sort that I suspect were learned in churches), the tune was popular enough to inspire parodies, so I've included it in the Index.
According to John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 556, this was "Written at Kelso, and published in [Bonar's] Hy[mn]s Original and Selected, 1846, and in the first series of his Hymns of Faith & Hope, 1857, in 3 st[anzas] on 8 l[ines], and headed "The Voice from Galilee...." It has been rendered into Latin by Dr. Macgill in his Songs of the Christian Creed and Life, 1876, as "Loquentem exaudivi."
Julian, pp. 161-162, gives a capsule biography of Bonar, who was born in Edinburgh on December 19, 1808, and attended the University of Edinburgh. He became a member of the Free Church of Scotland after the split with the established church; eventually he became moderator of the Free Church's General Assembly. Julian lists 84 of his writings as in "common usage," but I recognize none of them. One item of his which is NOT in Julian's list is "Only Remembered," which will be better-know to folkies than most of his productions. I suspect the reason Julian does not include it is because it is explicitly heretical (see the notes to that song). Looking at Bonar's other titles, they also appear to contain some rather dubious theology. Which perhaps explains why he was such a big name in a breakaway denomination. - RBW
The recordings by James Garfield Smalls, The United Southern Prayer Band, and The Little Flock Spiritual Baptist Church all illustrate hymn "lining out." In "lining out," the leader tells the coming verse or line to be repeated by the congregation (as opposed to call and response, where the leader sings a line and the congregation responds with a standard line that remains constant throughout the song). Lined out hymns usually have a steady slow beat (see the transcription by Dargan) and are sung early in the service (as opposed to "shouts" which typically are fast and, if anything, gain speed, and are sung late in the service. Dargan has "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say" as one of the commonly lined out hymns in the Missionary Baptist (for example) repertory (Dargan, p. 27).
Also see The Methodist Hymn-Book (London: The Methodist Publishing House, 1954), #154 p. 61, ("I heard the voice of Jesus say") (1 text). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RCIHTVJS

I Heard the Yankees Yell

DESCRIPTION: "I heard the Yankees comin', I heard them give a yell, My feelings at that moment No human tongue can tell." The singer wonders if it is his time to die. He joined the army at sixteen and marched from North Carolina to the Rio Grande and the Rockies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Roberts/Agey-InThePine)
KEYWORDS: soldier travel fight
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #71, "I Heard the Yankees Yell" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [115 words]: This is a bit of a conundrum on several counts. The first few stanzas sound "The Battleship of Maine," minus the final line. The later verses remind me of "The Bravest Cowboy"; they might also be a "Texas Rangers" type. The whole thing sounds like a composite.
And then there is the fact that the singer fights the "Yankees," yet he is a North Carolinian who marches to the Rio Grande and the Rockies. The former sounds like the American Civil War; the latter sounds like the Mexican War. (There was a Confederate campaign in New Mexico, but it seems to have used all Texas troops.) So every indication is that this piece combines at least two, and maybe three, songs in its five verses. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RAInPi71

I Hope I'll J'ine the Band

See I Hope I'll Join the Band (Soon in the Morning) (File: R266)

I Hope I'll Join the Band (Soon in the Morning)

DESCRIPTION: Sundry verses about the pleasures of heaven ("Goin' to see my Jesus," "Meet our fathers there," "Lookin' over Jordan," etc.). Usual internal refrain is "Soon in the morning"; final chorus, "And I hope I'll join the band."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute); probably 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: music religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Randolph 266, "I Hope I'll J'ine the Band" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 227-228, "I Hope I'll J'ine the Band" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 266A)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 598, "I Wanter Jine de Ban'" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 598, "I Wanter Jine de Ban'" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 16-17, (no title) (1 text); also. p. 198, "Bullfrog" (1 text, 1 tune, with the chorus from here though the verses are about the frog)
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 95, "I Want to Join the Band" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 47, "Some of these Mornings" (1 text); pp. 63-64, "I Hope I'll Join the Band" (1 text)
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 6, "Soon in de Morning"; p. 28, "Gwine Ter Jine de Band" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 46-48, "Look Away (Some o' Dese Mornin's)" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 190-192 in the 1874 edition)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #13, "Going to Ride Up in the Chariot" (1 text)
ST R266 (Partial)
Roud #7816
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Going to Ride in Pharaoh's Chariot" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Blow, Gabriel, Blow" (lyrics)
NOTES [87 words]: This is one of those songs with extreme variations, especially between the Brown and Randolph versions (Brown's text has stanzas without repeats and doesn't use the "Soon in the morning" refrain). But the similarities are too great to split them.
The Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates text, which is the earliest, is perhaps even more problematic, since it's really just the chorus, and even that is slightly different from the others. But with so little text to go on, we can hardly split it from the others. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: R266

I Hopped up on the Gangway

DESCRIPTION: "I hopped up to the gangway and I hailed the picket boat" to head for Voller Street. He meets a girl -- but then her "fancy bloke" arrives. He is caught and put on trial; he is sent off to jail and suffers other penalties. He warns his hearers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor courting punishment money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 53, "I Hopped up on the Gangway" (1 text, with tune on p. 150)
File: Tawn038

I Jing-a-ling

See Old Yellow's Dead (File: Fus102)

I Just Arrived From Dublin

DESCRIPTION: Pat Murphy arrived from Dublin and attended a wedding. Lots of fine clothes, fine food food, drink, dancing and fighting. "They had cakes and wine and Irish spuds and ginger duds, Ham and jam and ginger beer and tea"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: wedding fight clothes dancing drink food party wine humorous moniker brawl
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30130
RECORDINGS:
Cyril O'Brien, "I Just Arrived From Dublin" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [65 words]: The first two lines of the chorus are quoted above, in the description. It continues: "Here we are boys, here again, here again, Here we are boys, here again, Irishmen are we." - BS
I don't find this in Johnny Burke's collected works, but I have a feeling he either wrote or made use of this, given the occasional similarities to "The Kelligrew's Soiree" and Burke's tendency to recycle. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3IJAfD

I Just Got Over in the Heavenly Land

DESCRIPTION: "Lord, I just got over (x3). (I) Just got over in the heavenly land." Old Satan mad and I am glad, Just got over.... He missed the soul he thought he had." "Mind, my sister, how you cross, Your foot might slip and your soul be lost."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad travel
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 239-240, "Just Got Over" (1 text)
Roud #11051
File: KiWa239J

I Keep My Dogs

See Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping (File: K249)

I Keep My Dogs and Ferrets, Too

See Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping (File: K249)

I Ken Something I'll No Tell

DESCRIPTION: The singer has a secret. All the lads/lasses are hiding but one. If he: he will have so-and-so and they will be married. If she: she has a baby in a dish-cloth; her lover goes to her father and is beaten.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage sex nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 174, "I Ken Something I'll No Tell" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 119, ("I ken something that I'll no tell")("I've found something that I'll no tell) (2 texts)
Roud #15526
NOTES [28 words]: Chambers: "... intended to convey an insinuation against the presumedly prettiest young maiden of the party, usually called 'the Flower' of her place of residence." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2174

I Ken Whaur I'm Goin'

DESCRIPTION: "I ken whaur I'm goin', But you're no comin' wi' me; I've a lad o' my ain, But ye daurnae tak' him frae me. He wears a tartan kilt, He wears it in the fashin; An' every time he turns aroon', You'l burst your sides wi' laughin'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes derivative humorous
FOUND IN: Bristain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice, #3, pp. 113-114, "I Ken Whaur I'm Goin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18663
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going)" (source song)
File: RPG003

I Knew by the Smoke

See The Woodpecker (I Knew by the Smoke) (File: HMHS167D)

I Knew It Was the Blood

DESCRIPTION: Verse format is [phrase] (x3) "One day as I was lost / He died upon the cross / I know it was the blood for me") [Phrase] includes "They led him to the judgment hall" "They whipped him with a purple cord" "They speared him in the side"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (recording by Sister Vera Copeland)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #10068
RECORDINGS:
Sister Vera Copeland, "I Know It Was the Blood" (on Great Gospel Performers Document Records DOCD-5463 (1996))
Ella Mae Wilson, Lillie B. Williams, and Richard Williams, "I Knew It Was the Blood" (on USFlorida01)
NOTES [245 words]: The description follows the USFLorida01 version. Typical [phrases] omitted from the description are "I knew it was the blood" and "I knew it was Jesus's blood."
The Copeland recording has [phrases] "I know it was the blood," "They crucified my Lord," "They nailed Him to the cross," "They pierced Him in His side," "The blood come streaking/trickling down," and "He never said a mumbling word."
The gospel that text follows most closely is the King James Gospel according to St John. Specifically John 18.28 "Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment," John 19.1-2 "Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. And the soldiers... put on him a purple robe" -- no canonical gospel mentions a purple cord [but Mark 15:17, 20, John 19:2, 5 all refer to the purple robe/cloak, and purple was the royal color, and Jesus was being mocked as the King of the Jews - RBW] -- and John 19.34 "But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side."
This hymn is not alone in following this tradition. Redfearn reports a hymn with a chorus "Redeemed! Redeemed! I've been washed in de blood of de Lamb" with the following verse: "They boun' my lord wid a purple cord, An' led him away to de judgment-hall. 'We caught de fellow," I Heard one say, An' dey whipped him till de break of day" (Susan Fort Redfearn, "Songs from Georgia" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 34, No. 131 (Jan-Mar 1921 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 121-123, "Joshuway"). - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcIKIWtB

I Know a Boarding-House

DESCRIPTION: "I know a boarding-house Not far away Where they have ham and eggs Three times a day." "Lord, how those boarders shout..." "Lord, how those boarders yell When they hear that dinner-bell!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology) for the "organ peeled potatoes" verse; 1938 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon) for the rest
KEYWORDS: food home humorous nonballad derivative campsong
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 68, "There is a boarding school" (1 short text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 58, "(There is a happy land)" (1 text)
Randolph 479, "I Know a Boarding-House" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 67, "("There is a happy land [boarding house?]" (1 fragment)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, "At the Boarding House Where I Live" (1 text, tune referenced); also p. 190, "While The Organ Pealed Potatoes" (1 text, tune referenced)
Harbin-Parodology, #69, p. 23, "While the Organ Peeled" (1 text); #116, p. 35, "Our Boarding House" (1 short text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 98, 168, 237, 285, "At the Boardinghouse Where I Lived"/"At the Boardinghouse"/"While the Organ Peeled Potatoes"/"Our Boarding House" (notes only)
DT, BORDHOUS* (HAPYLND2*)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 42, #2 (1997), p, 120, "Country Ham and Red Gravy" (1 text, 1 tune, a slightly cleaned-up transcription of the Dave Macon version)
Roud #7636
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "Country Ham and Red Gravy" (Bluebird 7951, 1938)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There Is a Happy Land" (tune, form)
cf. "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (tune)
cf. "The Barefoot Boy with Boots On" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [183 words]: This is one of those composite songs -- the key element is humorous verses to the tune of "Silver Threads." The most common verse -- shared with "The Barefoot Boy" -- is "while the organ pealed potatoes"; my father learned this from a substitute teacher in Detroit around 1941.
Dave Macon copyrighted his "Country Ham and Red Gravy" version of this song, which does indeed seem to be a rewrite (rather racist), but it's clearly from the same roots. Though he may have supplied the tune, also known as "New Five Cents."
Laura Ingalls Wilder printed a stanza of this in By the Shores of Silver Lake, chapter 4. If she actually heard it then, it would date the song from 1879. But, of course, she was writing half a century later, and her work is much fictionalized anyway, so that's not a very trustworthy date.
Not every version mentions the boarding house -- e.g. Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling's version seems to be a pure parody of "There Is a Happy Land." But it's about the food the singer gets stuck with, and the rest of the lyrics go here. I almost wonder if multiple songs were combined. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R479

I Know a Doctor

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I know a doctor, he knows me, What do you think he brought for tea?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas)
KEYWORDS: jumprope doctor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #233, "I know a doctor, he knows me" (1 text)
File: AJRR233

I Know a Lady

See I Know a Little Lady (File: AJRR234)

I Know a Little Feller

See He's Got the Money Too (File: R299)

I Know a Little Girl

DESCRIPTION: "I know a little girl, And she isn't very nice, Haw, haw, haw, haw, haw."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, p. 86, "I Know a Little Girl" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #16818
File: List086B

I Know a Little Lady

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I know a little lady, (but) her name is Miss/Sis. She went around the corner to buy some fish, She met a little fellow and she gave him a kiss. I know a little lady...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Journal of American Folklore, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | name fish kiss
FOUND IN: US(SW) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #234, "I know a little lady, but her name is miss" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 22, "(I know a lady)" (1 text)
Roud #29375
File: AJRR234

I Know a Little Pussy

See I Had a Little Puppy (Pussy Willow, Hot Dog) (File: PHCFS068)

I Know a Man

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I know a man, His name is Mister; He knows a lady nd her name is Miss!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Withers)
KEYWORDS: jumprope
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #235, "I know a man" (1 text)
File: AJRR235

I Know a Man Named Michael Finnegan

See Michael Finnegan (File: FSWB242B)

I Know a Place

DESCRIPTION: "I know a place where no one goes. There’s peace and quiet, beauty and repose. It’s hidden in a valley, beside a mountain stream,... Now I know that God made this place for me." It is a heaven to the singer, so "Now I know God made this world for me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious campsong nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 539, 550, 552, 560, "I Know a Place" (notes only)
File: ACSF539K

I Know a Scout

DESCRIPTION: Jumprope rhyme. "I know/love a Scout, He/who took me out, He gve me chips, To grease my lips... He takes me to the P-I-C-T-U-R-E-S."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Bluebells My Cockle Shells)
KEYWORDS: jumprope courting food | scout
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #237, "I know a Scout" (1 text)
Roud #20186
File: AJRR237

I Know a Washerwoman

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I know a washerwoman, she knows me, She invited me to tea, Guess what we had for supper -- Stinking fish and bread and butter."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food | tea washerwoman
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #238, "I know a washerwoman, she knows me" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #13, "(I know a washerwoman, she knows me)" (1 text)
Roud #32230
File: AJRR238

I know a wienie man

See Weenie Man (File: ACSF128W)

I Know a Woman

DESCRIPTION: "I know a woman And her name is Miss, And every Sunday morning She goes like this" or "...She does the splits"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: game
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 85, "(I know a woman)" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Spanish Dancer" (lyrics)
File: BAAI085B

I Know a Woman, She Lives in the Woods

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme derived from "The Cruel Mother" (!): "I know a woman. she live in the woods, [or, Three little children lived in the woods] Weela, weela, wila, I know a woman, she is no good, Down by the river Sida."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Folkways 8501)
KEYWORDS: jumprope children | woods
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, 239, "I know a woman, she live in the woods" (1 text)
File: ARR239

I Know I've Been Changed

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I Know I've Been Changed"(3x), "You know the angels in heaven done signed my name." Verse: "If you don't believe I've been redeemed", "Follow me down to that Jordan stream"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recording, Dixie Hummingbirds)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious | angel
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Dixie Humming Birds, "I Know I've Been Changed" (Peacock 1705, 1952)
Freddie Palmer and The McIntosh County Shouters, ("I Know I've Been Changed") (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation)
NOTES [50 words]: The description follows the McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation video.
The McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation version has "The angels in heaven done signed my name" as the response line for verse call lines.
The McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation video is a melisma spiritual performance. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcIKIBCh

I Know It Was the Blood (One Day When I Was Lost)

DESCRIPTION: "I know it was the blood (x3), I know it was the blood for me. One day when I was lost, Jesus died upon the cross. I know it was the blood for me." "It was my savior's blood." "The blood came streaming down." "He suffered, bled, and died."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1997 (Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit)
KEYWORDS: religious death Jesus
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, p. 56, "I Know It Was the Blood" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: WarSp056

I Know Moon-Rise

See I Know Moonlight (File: San451)

I Know Moonlight

DESCRIPTION: "I know moonlight, I know starlight, I lay this body down." "I walk in the moonlight, I walk in the starlight, I lay...." "I walk in the graveyard, I lay in my grave, I lay...." "I go to the judgment, In the evening of the day, When I lay this body down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment); 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious death burial nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, pp. 19-20, "Lay This Body Down" (1 text, 1 tune, both with variants)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 18, pp. 55,209-209, "I Know Moon-Rise" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 451, "I Know Moonlight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 611, "Mary Bowed" (1 short text, with a verse "I wonder where Sister Maryy's gone... She's gone to some new buryin' ground For to lay her feeble body down" and a second verse from "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks")
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 89, "Lay Dis Body Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 12, pp. 76-79, "Moonlight - Starlight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 209-210, "Lay This Body Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 577-578, "Lay Dis Body Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 322, "Lay This Body Down" (1 text)
DT, KNOWMOON*
Roud #11839
NOTES [9 words]: Parrish includes this among her "ring shout" songs. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: San451

I Know My Love

DESCRIPTION: "I know my love by his way of walking," his speech, his clothes. She laments, "If my love leaves me, what will I do?" She knows he is courting strange girls in Maradyke. He rejects her because of her lack of money
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (sung by David Hammond on "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland")
KEYWORDS: love courting abandonment poverty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 99, "I know my love by his way of walking" (1 fragment, which might be any of the songs which use this verse)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 143, "I Know My Love" (1 text)
DT, KNOWLOVE
Roud #60
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tavern in the Town" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Queen of Hearts"
NOTES [127 words]: Paul Stamler suggests that this is a version of "Tavern in the Town" (based on the stanza about the dancehouse in Maradyke, which is almost the same as in "Tavern"). I am more reminded of "Queen of Hearts." The first half-stanza, we might note, seems to exist independently of any plot at all, and is fairly popular.
The inevitable result: I list this as a separate song, with a lot of cross-references. Roud lumps it with "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" (Laws P25) -- which for him is a huge family, though Laws lists only a handful of songs in the group. - RBW
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "I Know My Love" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)) - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FSWB143

I Know Something I Won't Tell

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "I know something I won't tell: Three little rabbits in a peanut shell. One can sing and one can dance, One can make a pair of pants. O, U, T spells OUT goes she."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: animal dancing music clothes | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 27, "(I know something I won't tell)" (1 text)
File: WEMM027A

I Know the Lord Will Make a Way

DESCRIPTION: (("Yes he will, yes he will") (4x), "I know the Lord will make a way, Yes he will," rhyming couplet, "I know the Lord will make a way, Yes he will"). A couplet example: "I may not have a friend But he will go with me right to the end"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recording, Southern Gospel Singers (released 1945))
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
The Caravans, "I Know the Lord Will Make a Way" (States S-128, 1953)
Church of God In Christ, "I Know the Lord Will Make A Way (Yes He Will)" (on USMississippi01)
Southern Gospel Singers, "I Know the Lord Will Make a Way" (1996, on "1940s Vocal Groups," Document DOCD-5608)
Sister Ernestine Washington, "I Know the Lord Will Make a Way" (1996, on "Sister Ernestine Washington Vol. 2 (1954-c.1958)," Document DOCD-5620)
File: RcIKLWMW

I Know the Lord's Laid His Hands on Me

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I know the Lord (x3) has laid his hands on me (x2)." Verses: The singer has "been new born by the dying Lamb" and now walks "the narrow way." "I never felt such love before, Saying 'Go in peace and sin no more'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 207, "I Know the Lord's Laid His Hands on Me" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 166 in the 1909 edition)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 64, "I Know the Lord's Laid His Hands on Me" (1 text)
SongsOfManyNations, "I Know the Lord" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 56) (12th edition, p. 56)
Roud #11960
NOTES [174 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's and Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro's verses, every alternate line is "I know the Lord's laid his hands on me." - BS
The reference to sinning no more is presumably to "John 8:11" (a verse that is not an original part of the gospel of John but a later interpolation; the "John 8:11" numeration is that of the King James Bible, but these verses are found in other place in other manuscripts, and most early manuscripts omit "John 7:53-8:11" entirely). This is the story of the "Woman taken in adultery." After Jesus has said, "Let the one without sin cast the first stone" and her accusers had left, Jesus told the woman, "Go your way and sin no more."
None of this occurs in the Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro version. That refers more to direct salvation by Jesus. Both Jesus and Paul frequently cured by laying on of hands.
The reference to being drawn out of the miry clay is a close allusion to Psalm 40:2, "He has brought me up... out of the miry clay." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Dett207

I Know When I'm Going Home

DESCRIPTION: "Old Satan told me to my face, O yes, Lord, The God I seek I never find, O yes Lord. True believer, I know when I gwine home, True believer, I know when I gwine home, True believe, I know when I gwine home, I been afraid to die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 30, "I Know When I'm Going Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11984
File: AWG030A

I Know Where I'm Going

See Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going) (File: SBoA050)

I Know Where They Are

See The Old Barbed Wire (I Know Where They Are) (File: San442)

I Know Who Is Sick

See Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going) (File: SBoA050)

I Know You Rider

DESCRIPTION: "I know you rider, gonna miss me when I'm gone (x2), Gonna miss your li'l mama from rollin' in your arms." The singer sets out to find a man who will give her some "decent care." If she can't be her man's love, she won't be his dog. Many verses float
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: love separation abandonment abuse floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 196-197, "Woman Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 77, "I Know You Rider" (1 text)
DT, KNOWRIDR
Roud #15575
NOTES [28 words]: The Lomaxes claim to have gotten one verse of this from a female prisoner (location unidentified). No word of the source for the other ninety percent of their text. - RBW
File: LxA196

I Know You're Tired

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "Lay down a little while." The hymn leader sings "I know you tired." "Come from a distance." "Tedious was my journey." "Rocky was my road." "Ain't you got somebody gone." "Body, ain't you weary."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, pp. 30-31, "I Know You're Tired" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: CaCa030

I Lay Around the Old Jail House (John C. Britton)

DESCRIPTION: Perhaps a composite song: The singer complains of life in jail and of working in the coal mines. There follows a brief item about a raid or a race from "Manthus" to Cairo in which John C. Britton suffers a grave loss of men
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: prison mining work hardtimes racing war death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 364, "I Lay Around the Old Jail House (John C. Britton)" (1 text)
Roud #11734
NOTES [99 words]: It's not often that one encounters a song this confusing. The first four stanzas seem to be your standard prison/poverty song. Stanza 5 is a floater. Stanzas 6 and 7 are suspected of being from at least one and perhaps two other songs.
The editors of Brown suggest that the last stanzas might be a description of a Civil War raid. Possible, but if so, it's too small to have left a dent in the standard histories. But I rather doubt it. It looks to me like a race between two boats, the John C. Britton and the (Robert E.?) Lee, from Memphis to Cairo. The rest must be referred to the reader. - RBW
File: Br3364

I Learned about Horses from Her

DESCRIPTION: "You can gen'rally tell when they kick you And you know by the scar when they bite." The singer was bitten by his horse Agnes when he clinched her too tight; a horse threw him when he spurred her. Etc. "I learned about horses from her."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: soldier humorous animal derivative | learning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 68-71, "I Learned about Horses from Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #39236
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Learned about Horses from HIm" (theme)
Experience (I Learned About...)
NOTES [24 words]: This, and all the items in the cross-references, are clearly modelled after Kipling's poem "The Ladies" ("I Learned about Women from Her"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: NiM068

I Learned about Horses from Him

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the horses (and others) he has met in his life. Every incident ends with the rueful comment, "I learned about horses from him." There is a "horse," Conscience, he hasn't ridden; he expects hereafter to learn about that horse from Him
AUTHOR: George B. German
EARLIEST DATE: 1932
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse humorous gods derivative | learning
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 71, "I Learned about Horses from Him" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Learned about Horses from Her" (theme)
cf. "Experience (I Learned About...)" (theme, form)
NOTES [24 words]: This, and all the items in the cross-references, are clearly modelled after Kipling's poem "The Ladies" ("I Learned about Women from Her"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Ohr071

I Left Inverquhomery

DESCRIPTION: The singer "left Inverquhomery and gaed to New Deer To plunge in the bogs wi' a bull and a steer." The plough breaks in two and the oxen carry half away home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 380, "I Left Inverquhomery" (1 text)
Roud #5917
NOTES [55 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Auchmaliddie (380) is at coordinate (h4-5,v9) on that map [near New Deer, roughly 28 miles N of Aberdeen]; Inverquhomery (380,426) is at coordinate (h4-5,v0) on that map [roughly 26 miles N of Aberdeen] - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3380

I Left Ireland and Mother Because We Were Poor

See There's a Dear Spot in Ireland (File: HHH821)

I Left My German Home

See My Little German Home Across the Sea (File: R870)

I Lie in the American Land

See He Lies in the American Land (File: RcHLITAL)

I Like Coffee, I Like Tea (I)

See She Loves Coffee and I Love Tea (File: Br3091)

I Like Coffee, I Like Tea (II)

See I Went Down to My Grandpa's Farm (File: McIn109C)

I Like Little Pussy

See I Love Little Pussy (File: OO2427)

I Like Mountain Music

DESCRIPTION: A hula girl, or someone, travels to the Appalachians and finds (s)he likes what she hears: "I like mountain music, Good old mountain music, Played by a real hillbilly band."
AUTHOR: James Cavanaugh and Frank Weldon (source: Roy Acuff recording -- but this may just be the Acuff arrangement)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (recording, Roy Acuff)
KEYWORDS: travel music campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 293, "I Like Mountain Music" (notes only)
Roud #25743
RECORDINGS:
Ken, Chuck, & Jim, "I Like Mountain Music" (Champion 45131)
Norman Phelps and His Virginia Rounders, "I Like Mountain Music" (Decca 5252)
Wenatchee Mountaineers, "I Like Mountain Music" (Melotone 93041)
NOTES [52 words]: There were apparently a lot of recordings of this before Roy Acuff cut his version, including even some versions in children's cartoons. These may be the source of the camp song version -- but I can't date them. I don't trust the Acuff attribution because of that, but it's the only authorship claim I have. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF293I

I Like to Be There

DESCRIPTION: "I like to be there when the engine starts early in the morning; I like to sit me down at breakfast time, Just when the engine's roaring.... Then hurrah for the life of the factory While we're waiting for the judgment day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (MacColl)
KEYWORDS: technology work
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, p. 5, "I Like to Be There" (1 short text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Country Life" (form, lyrics)
NOTES [19 words]: This reminds me very strongly of "Country Life"; I'm fairly sure there is influence. But the tunes are different. - RBW
File: MacCS05

I Like to Catch Brass Rings on the Merry-Go-Round

DESCRIPTION: "I like to catch brass rings on the merry-go-round, The merry-go-round, that's me. Some like to play croquet, embroider or crochet, But I like participating my own way!": riding the merry-go-round. Really, riding the merry-go-round. Repeat the last line
AUTHOR: C Conrad; Al Dubin; A Silver (source: Jim Dixon)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, The Happiness Boys) (source: Jim Dixon)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 314, 513, "Merry Go Round"/"I like to catch brass rings on the merry go round" (notes only)
RECORDINGS:
Billy Jones and Ernest Hare (The Happiness Boys), "I Love To Catch Brass Rings, On a Merry-Go-Round" (Columbia 1245-D, 1927)
NOTES [148 words]: There appear to be at least three camp songs that are, or might be, called "Merry-Go-Round":
1. "I Like to Catch Brass Rings on the Merry-Go-Round," which is clearly the song Averill refers to on p. 513.
2. Seemingly an imitation of merry-go-round music: "Unh-ss-shh, unh-ss-ss, unh-ss-ss, Oom-pah-pah, oom-pah-pah, oom-pah-pah, Uh-tww-dle-dee, uh-twee-dle-dee, Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na."
3. A singing game on p. 8 of Tobitt-SkipToMyLou, which is said to be Swedish in origin and translated by Mary Wood Hinman: "Young maid, young maid, young maid, young maid dear Go get your had and parasol, the circus is here... Hop, hop, hop, the day it is so clear, For Andersen and Petersen and Lundstrom, my dear."
So a reference to a song "Merry-Go-Round" in a camp context might be any of these, and it's not entirely clear which one Averill means on p. 314, although it's probably this one. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF513I

I Likes a Drop of Good Beer

DESCRIPTION: "Come one and all, both great and small... And let us sing, 'Bless Billy the King, Who bated the tax upon beer." The singer praises his beer and is thankful for lower taxes. He praises those -- Queen Victoria, the Farmer's Board -- who help productiion
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876? (Raven)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1830-1837 - Reign of William IV ("Billy the King")
1830 - The Beerhouse Act lowers liquor taxes
1837-1902 - Reign of Queen VIctoria
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 90, "I Likes a Drop of Good Beer" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 241-242, "A Drop of Good Beer" (1 text)
Roud #1502
File: JRUI241

I Live Not Where I Love

DESCRIPTION: The girl laments that "I live not where I love." In flowery phrases she describes her fidelity. She hopes that she and her lover may be reunited/never part.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding 11(39))
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 70, "I Live Not Where I Love" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 325-326, "I Iive where I love" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 451-453, "I Live Not Where I Love" (1 excerpt in the notes, 1 tune; the text set to the tune is a different song though it has the same refrain)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 200, "I Live Not Where I Love" (1 fragment of text; the text and tune listed are not this piece)
cf. Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1787, "Must the absence of my mistresse"; ZN3048, "You loyal Lovers that are distant"
DT, NOTWHERE NOTWHER2
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 292
Roud #593
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(39), "I Live Not Where I Love" ("Come all you maids that live at a distance"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(1638), "I Live Not Where I Love"
NOTES [117 words]: On the basis of the ornate lines in the text ("All the world should be one religion, All living things should cease to die, If ever I prove false to my jewel Or any way my love deny"), it would seem likely that this piece began life as an art song. How far it made it into the traditional repertoire remains to be determined.
Someone somewhere claimed that the most likely antecedent was Martin Parker's 1740 piece, "A Paire of Turtle Doves." Whether this song is directly derived from Parker's piece, or has simply exchanged some lines, is hard to tell. But the Percy Folio version is older, and looks like the same song to me. Or at least the same impulse, perhaps with a new ending grafted on. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ChWI200

I Live Where I Love

See I Love Not Where I Love (File: ChWI200)

I Live with Great Sorrow

See Fowles in the Frith (File: MSFowFri)

I Lo'e the Lasses

DESCRIPTION: In the chorus the singer loves lasses "short or tall," "dark or fair," "bless them all." One verse about grannie, "wrinkles on her brow But once she was a bonnie bonnie lass"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1322, "I Lo'e the Lasses" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7213
File: GrD71322

I Long For To Get Married

See The Cherry Tree (File: MA169)

I Long to be Wedding

See The Old Maid's Song (File: R364)

I Long To See That Day

See Band of Gideon (The Milk-White Horses) (File: Dett056)

I Look Down duh Road

See I Look Down The Road (File: HPR284A)

I Look Down The Road

DESCRIPTION: Verses are four lines: a non-rhyming couplet repeated. For example, "(I looked down the road and the road so lonesome, Lord I've got to walk down that lonesome road)(x2)." See notes for other examples.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 284-285, "I Look Down duh Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [73 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect.
Verses include "And I looked in the grave and the grave is so watery, Lord I've got to lie in that watery grave"; "And I looked upon the mountain and the mountain is so high, Lord I've got to climb that mountain by myself"; "And all I want to know is that my sins are forgiven, And all I want to know is that my soul is set free." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR284A

I Looked O'er Yander

See Somebody's Dying Every Day (File: Edwa001)

I Lost My Lad

DESCRIPTION: "I lost my lad in the cairnie" or "an' I care-nae" "I'll get anither canary" or the lad is described with red cheeks: "I met him in the dance hall" or "in the shake-hand" The chorus line may be nonsense ("A ramshy-dasmshy-doo") or "Y-O-U"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: derivative playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West),Scotland(Bord,High))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 102, "I Lost My Lad" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #2075
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I've Lost My Love and I Kenna Weel Fu" (source for this derivative)
NOTES [19 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame makes the connection between this rhyme and "I've Lost My Love and I Kenna Weel Fu." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa102

I Lost My Mull and A' My Sneeshin'

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that he lost his snuff box and snuff while courting "a saucy quine." He can do without the girl [whore?] or snuff but wishes he had his snuff box again.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad drugs
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1405, "I Lost My Mull and A' My Sneeshin'" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Roud #7257
File: GrD71405

I Love a Girl, I Hate a Boy

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I love a girl, I hate a boy, I hate a girl, I love a boy, What's the (boy's) name I love/hate? A, B, C...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: jumprope love | hate girl boy
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #241, "I love a girl" (1 text)
File: AJRR241

I Love a Nobody

See I Don't Love Nobody (File: R782)

I Love Bill, I Love Larry

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I love Bill, I love Larry, I love Tom and Dick and Harry. I love boys, now, let me see, Which one will my boyfriend be? 1, 2, 3, 4...." (or A, B, C... ?).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (West Virginia Folklore, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope courting | boyfriend
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #242, "I love Bill, I love Larry" (1 text)
File: AJRR242

I Love Bobby, I Love Bill

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I love Bobby, I love Bill, Who do I love better still? A, B, C...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: jumprope love
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #113, "(I love Bobby, I love Bill)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #243, "I love Bobby, I love Bill" (1 text)
NOTES [54 words]: Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses cross-references this with "Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who)," but although it has the same sort of guessing game, the form seems distinct to me. Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes seems to agree, since he gives it its own number. If anything, it looks more like "I Love Bill, I Love Larry." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRV113

I Love But One

DESCRIPTION: "I am in love and that is true I love but one and that is you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1836, "I Love But One" (1 short text)
Roud #13603
NOTES [20 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text.
Greig/Duncan8: apparently a verse for a valentine or album. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81836

I Love Coffee, I Love Tea

See She Loves Coffee and I Love Tea (File: Br3091)

I Love Him Better

DESCRIPTION: "I love Him better every day." "Close by his side I will abide"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, pp. 55, 56, "I Love Him Better" (1 text, 2 tunes)
File: ElCh5556

I Love Little Pussy

DESCRIPTION: "I love little pussy, Her coat is so warm, And if I don't hurt her She'll do me no harm. So I'll not pull her tail, Nor drive her away, But pussy and I Very gently will play."
AUTHOR: sometimes attributed to Jane Taylor, according to the Opies
EARLIEST DATE: 1830 ("The Child's Song Book," according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 144, "I live little pussy, her coat is so warm" (1 short text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 427, "I Love Little Pussy" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #812, p. 302, "(I like little pussy)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 102, "I Love Little Pussy" (1 text)
Roud #12824
NOTES [55 words]: Even though there is no evidence that this is older than the early nineteenth century, the amazing Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp. 158-159, believes it is about Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, favorite of Elizabeth I at the end of the sixteenth century. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: OO2427

I Love Little Willie

DESCRIPTION: "I love Little Willie, I do, mama, I love Little Willie, But don't you tell Pa! For he wouldn't like it, you know, mama." Similarly: "He wrote me a letter," "He gave me a ring," "And now we are married," "We fuss and we scratch."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (Boit)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage trick father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North)) US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 307, "I Love Little Willie, I Do, Mamma" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 4 excerpts, and mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 307, "I Love Little Willie, I Do, Mamma" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Randolph 382, "I Love Little Willie" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 23, "I Love Little Willie" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 1-2, "I Love Little Willy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #84, "I Love Little Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 51, "I'm Going to Get Married" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 327, "I Love Little Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 478 ("I want to get married, I do, mama") (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Mellinger E. Henry, "Still More Ballads and Folk-Songs from the Southern Highlands," Vol. XLV, No. 175 (Jan 1932), #55 pp. 113-114, "I Love Little Willie" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Leah Rachel Clara Yoffie, "Three Generations of Children's Singing Games in St. Louis," Vol. LX, No. 235 (Jan 1947), #38 p. 33, ("I love little Johnny, I do, mamma") (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 234, 255, "I Love Little Willie" (notes only)
OneTuneMore, p. 47, "I Love Little Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Apthorp Boit, Eustis: A Novel (Boston, 1884 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 166, ("O I have a beau, mamma, mamma") (1 text)
Roud #3538
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Tom Sullivan, "I Love Little Willie" (on ONEFowke01)
SAME TUNE:
I Love My Union (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 128)
Eleckatricity and All (by Woody Guthrie) (Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 24-25)
NOTES [70 words]: Yoffie includes "I love little Johnny" among a group of songs she learned in St Louis between 1895 and 1900.
Boit has a black four-year old sing this song at a Churchill County [fictional? apparently in Georgia or Alabama] school "exhibition." - BS
Roud splits off Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle's "I'm Going to Get Married" as a separate song (#7512), but the only difference I can see is that it doesn't mention Willie. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R382

I Love Little Willie, I Do, Mamma

See I Love Little Willie (File: R382)

I Love Me So

DESCRIPTION: "I love myself, I love me so, I took myself to the picture show, I put my arms around myself, And hugged myself to death, by heck."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: love technology death humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 104, "I Love Me So" (1 text)
File: ZiZa104B

I Love My Jean

See Of A' the Airts the Wind Can Blaw (File: DSB01441)

I Love My Love (I) (As I Cam' Owre Yon High High Hill)

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a pretty girl, asks who her father is, asks where she lives, asks if she would marry. She is not overly enthusiastic. He bids farewell and hopes she will be kinder when he returns. In the chorus, he admits "But I love her yet...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection love floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #18, p. 1, ("As I cam' owre yon heich heich hill") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 964, "I Love My Love" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 129, "As I Cam' Owre Yon High High Hill" (1 text)
Roud #5548
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Seventeen Come Sunday" [Laws O17] (floating lyrics)
cf. "Trooper and Maid" [Child 299] (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Wanton Lad
NOTES [69 words]: So much of this piece is shared with "Seventeen Come Sunday" and "Trooper and Maid" (which themselves cross-fertilize) that it cannot be regarded as an independent song. But this ends with the woman rejecting the man, and also has that interesting chorus: But I love my love, and I love my love, And I love my love most dearly; My whole delight's in her bonnie face, And I long to have her near me." So we split. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord129

I Love my Love (II)

DESCRIPTION: "All my friends fell out with me/Because I kept my love's company." The singer must leave to go over the mountain because his fortune is low. "When I have gold she has her part/And when I have none she has my heart... And upon my honor I love her still."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer says "All my friends fell out with me/Because I kept my love's company." He must leave to go over the mountain because his fortune is low. "When I have gold she has her part/And when I have none she has my heart/And she gained it too with a free good will/And upon my honor I love her still." "The winter's past and summer's come/The trees are budding one by one/And when my true love chooses to stay/I'll stay with her till the break of day"
KEYWORDS: poverty courting love sex parting travel lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 190, "I Love my Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3612
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One I Love, Two I Love" (lyrics)
NOTES [87 words]: It's hard to distinguish this from the plethora of songs with similar themes. The verses "All my friends fell out with me..." and "Over the mountain I must go/Because my fortune is so low/With an aching heart and a troubled mind/For leaving my true love behind" are good delineators.
Jean Ritchie used most of the lyrics for her song "One I Love," changing the sex of the singer and adding the chorus "One I love; two, he loves/Three, he's true to me" [Said chorus now being indexed as "One I Love, Two I Love." - RBW] - PJS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ShAp190

I Love My Love (III)

See Nancy's Complaint in Bedlam (File: ShH41)

I Love My Love with an A

DESCRIPTION: "I love my love with an A, because he's A(greeable), I hate him because he's A---, He took me to the sign of the A---, And treated me with A---, His name is A---, and he lives in A---." Similarly through the rest of the letters of the alphabet.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England, according to Roger Lancelyn Green, "Lewis Carroll")
KEYWORDS: love wordplay playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #667, p. 264, "(I love my love with an A, because he's Agreeable)"
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 21, "I Spy, I Love My Love With An A" (description of game)
cf. Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 134-135, "A Carload of Alphabets" (1 text, not really this but working on the same principle)
Roud #20987
NOTES [164 words]: This probably isn't a song, since it's based on alliteration (meaning that the meter can suffer). But it is certainly ancient, and well-enough known that Lewis Carroll used it in the chapter "The Lion and the Unicorn" (itself named for a folk rhyme) in Through the Looking Glass. Alice uses the letter "H" and describes the White King's messenger Haigha.
Martin Gardner, in The Annotated Alice (pp. 279-280) refers the business back to Halliwell -- and notes a likely hidden wordplay, in that Alice was actually doing the "A" verse, because Haigha would probably have dropped the "H" in his name (i.e. it would be pronounced "ay-yore." Any resemblance to A. A. Milne is probably coincidence).
Incidentally, "Haigha" and "Hatta," although the names are applied to "Anglo-Saxon Messengers," are not Anglo-Saxon names. Some have wondered why Tenniel illustrated Haigha as the March Hare and Hatta as the Mad Hatter. Drop your r's and say "Hare" and "Hatter" and what do you get? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: BGMG667

I Love My Miner Lad

See Six Jolly Miners (File: K238)

I Love My Rooster

See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

I Love My Sailor Boy

DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears a girl declare, "Let my friends say what they will, I love my sailor boy." She praises his appearance and virtues. Her mother calls her foolish and bids her wed a "steady farmer's son." The girl disdains such a lover
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: love sailor mother farming floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 84-85, "I Love My Sailor Boy" (1 text)
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy (notes to #10, "The Shanty-boy and the Farmer's Son"), "I Love My Sailor Boy" (1 text)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra, preface to #10, "(I Love My Sailor Boy)" (1 text)
ST Rick203 (Partial)
Roud #9603
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Farmer and the Shanty Boy" (theme)
cf. "Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy" (lyrics)
cf. "Whistling at the Ploo" (theme)
cf. "Hearts of Gold" (theme)
NOTES [40 words]: This song is one of those items where every line has parallels elsewhere (especially in "Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy," but the parallels are truly to numerous to list). I'm not really sure it exists on its own. But when in doubt, we split. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Rick203

I Love My Sweetheart the Best

DESCRIPTION: "The sun was sinking slowly, Sinking in the west; I love all those pretty boys, But I love my sweetheart the best." The girl regrets ignoring mother's advice; boys have led her astray. She points out that mother is wise and a friend; men are deceivers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Kelly Harrell)
KEYWORDS: love mother betrayal
FOUND IN: US
ST RcILMSTB (Full)
Roud #13150
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "I Love My Sweetheart the Best" (Victor 20867, 1927; on KHarrell02)
NOTES [24 words]: I don't know Harrell's source for this -- but so much of his material is traditional that I have to think this is another traditional song. - RBW
File: RcILMSTB

I Love Nae Apples, I Love Nae Plums

DESCRIPTION: "I love nae apples, I love nae plums, I love nae young men that carry guns; But I love the cherry drops from the tree, And I love my ain love where'er he be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #177, p. 3, ("I love nae apples, I love nae plums") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1919, "I Love Nae Apples, I Love Nae Plums" (1 short text)
Roud #16135
NOTES [18 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
Is this a reworked "Do You Love an Apple?" - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD81919

I Love Old Ireland Still

DESCRIPTION: The singer wants to see "old Ireland once more free." Ireland would prosper if allowed "the wealth that lies beneath her soil." "Let friends all turn against me, let foes say what they will, My heart is with my country, I love old Ireland still."
AUTHOR: probably J.H. Woodhouse (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(4009)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 131, "I Love Old Ireland Still" (1 text)
Roud #V4332
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4009), "I Love Old Ireland Still", Howard & Co (London), n.d.
NOTES [19 words]: Broadside Bodleian, Harding B 11(4009): "Written, composed, and sung with tremendous success by J.H. Woodhouse." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: OCon131

I Love Sixpence

DESCRIPTION: "I love sixpence," spend a penny, lend a penny, and take fourpence home to the wife. The singer repeats the process with fourpence and twopence. With nothing left he says "I have nothing, I spend nothing, I love nothing better than my wife"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Ritson)
KEYWORDS: poverty humorous nonballad wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 90, "The Jolly Shilling" (2 texts) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 405)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 480, "I love sixpence, jolly little sixpence" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #113, pp. 93-95, "(I love sixpence, a jolly, jolly sixpence)"
Greig/Duncan3 572, "I've Got a Shilling" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 158-159, "The Jolly Shilling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 28-29, "Ive Got Sixpence" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 737-738, "O Dear Twelve Pence" (1 short text, 1 tune, which Chappell connects with his song although his text is different)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 293, 387, 395, "I've Got Sixpence" (notes only)
ADDITIONAL: Joseph Ritson, Gammer Gurton's Garland (London, 1810 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 40, "The Jolly Tester" ("I love sixpence, a jolly, jolly sixpence") (1 text)
Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 67, "I've a Jolly Sixpence" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, _A Guide to Australian Folklore_, Kangaroo Press, 2003, "(I've Got Sixpence)" (1 text, which is not explicitly said to be Australian)
Roud #1116
SAME TUNE:
Training for Brown ("I love my lager, jolly jolly lager, I love my lager when I drink it down") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 95)
Syx Mynet (see under "Tolkien Songs," FILE: JRRTSong)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Jolly Tester
The Shilling
NOTES [144 words]: The Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO text consolidates the two Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames texts, adds three verses but shows only one of the two choruses. - BS
The incomparable Katherine Elwes Thomas, in The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp. 42-43, claims this is about the English King Henry VII. This is not as instantly absurd as most of Thomas's explanations of nursery rhymes; Henry VII was notoriously tight with his money. But the first sixpence coin was not minted until 1551, from what I have read, in the reign of Henry VII's grandson Edward VI. There were no sixpences for Henry VII to love!
J. R. R. Tolkien reportedly translated this into Old English under the title "Syx Mynet" (see Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond, The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Reader's Guide, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, p. 968). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: OO2480

I Love the Blue Mountains

DESCRIPTION: Halyard shanty: "I love the blue mountains of Tennessee, that's the place for you and me." Singer is a former slave who was set free (in 1863), he's going back to Tennessee to get his wife and child (pickanniny) and then will quit sailing.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips)
KEYWORDS: shanty slave return family home
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 143-144, "I Love the Blue Mountains" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9147
NOTES [34 words]: Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips apparently attributed this to Black sailors. It strikes me as a little too "still longing for the old plantation"-ish for me to trust that claim without more data. - RBW
File: Harl143

I Love the Flowers

See Boomdeada (File: AverBoom)

I Love the Lord

DESCRIPTION: "I love the Lord, he heard my cries And pitied every groan, Long as I live, when troubles rise, I'll hasten to his throne." "I love the Lord, he bowed his ear, And chased my grief away..." "The Lord beheld me sore distressed, He bade my pains remove."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1997 (Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, p. 131, "I Love the Lord" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21571?
File: WarSp131

I Love the Mountains

See Boomdeada (File: AverBoom)

I Love to Go a-Wandering Down by the Chapel Door

DESCRIPTION: "I love to go a-wandering Down by the chapel door, An as I go I love to sing 'The Sash My Father Wore.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: music | church
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 59, "(I love to go a-wandering)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Happy Wanderer" (tune)
NOTES [10 words]: A Protestant challenge to Catholic children? I don't know. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PKKB059E

I Love to Tell the Story

DESCRIPTION: "I love to tell the story Of unseen things above, Of Jesus and his glory, Of Jesus and his love.... I love to tell the story, 'Twill be my theme in glory." The singer says repeatedly how it is "pleasant to repeat" the inspiration supplied by Jesus
AUTHOR: Words: [Arabella] Katherine Hankey (1834-1911) / Music: William Gustavus Fisher (1835-1912)
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (source: Johnson)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp, 186-187, "I Love to Tell the Story" (1 text, 1 tune)
Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 108-109, "I Love to Tell the Story" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17488
NOTES [260 words]: According to Morgan, Arabella Katherine Hankey's family came from the "Clapham Sect" that formed around anti-slavery agitator William Wilberforce. Marilyn Kay Stulken, Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship, Fortress Press, 1981, p. 430, describes her as an evangelical who at age 18 started a Bible school for girls; later, she would go on a trip to South Africa to carry an invalid brother home; in the process, she became involved in mission work.
Hankey suffered a prolonged illness in 1865-1866, and wrote a long poem, "The Old, Old Story," during her recovery. Several portions of this were later set to music; this part, with music published in 1869 by William G. Fischer, became the best known.
John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 483, says that Hankey is responsible for four significant hymns, "Advent tells us, Christ is near"; -"I love to tell the story, Of things unseen above"; "I saw Him leave His Father's throne," and "Tell me the old, old story." It appears that the second and fourth are both part of the long poem "The Old, Old Story," with #4 having been somewhat adapted for Ira Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos, and has been translated into German, Italian, Spanish, Welsh, and perhaps other languages by now.
William Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal, Broadman Press, 1976, pp. 104, 309, says that William G. Fischer (1835-1912), a bookbinder and later a music teacher, published the tune "Hankey" in Joyful Songs in 1869. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BdILtTtS

I Love You And I Can't Help It

DESCRIPTION: "I love you and I can't help it, fol dol day, fol dol day (x2)" "Oh my love you're too hard-hearted." "Oh my love I will call you honey." "If you do I will call you beeswax."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: dialog courting rejection humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 363, "I'm Going Away to Texas" (3 texts, 1 tune, but only the "B" text goes here; "A" is the true "I'm Going Away to Texas" and "C" is a "Quaker's Wooing" type)
Roud #6691
NOTES [26 words]: This may, as Randolph suggests, be a form of one or another of the courting-and-rejection songs -- but the verses which survive look independent to me. - RBW
File: R363B

I Love You Well

See My Dearest Dear (File: SKE40)

I Love You, Jamie

DESCRIPTION: The singer says she loves Jamie better than he loves her. She was foolish to fall in love with an Irish boy who "spoke braw Scotch, when he courted me." He said only death would part them and showed her "the hoose that we will dwell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad love
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #175, pp. 1-2, "The Foolish Young Girl"; #177, p. 3, ("I love you Jamie, I love you well") (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1168, "I Love You, Jamie" (2 texts)
Roud #60
NOTES [46 words]: Both Greig/Duncan6 texts are from Greig. The text of Greig/Duncan6 1168A is three verses of Greig #175, omitting the verses that float from "Tavern in the Town." The text of Greig/Duncan6 1168B from Greig #177 is a fragment of the first verse of "The Foolish Young Girl." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD51168

I Love-ed a Lass

DESCRIPTION: "I love-ed a lass, She prove-ed unkind, I'll sing you as arkard as ever I can, and I'll sing you as arkard as ever I can." "Her beautiful looks so enravished my mind, I'll sing you as arkard...." The rest is mostly nonsense verses about animal behavior
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Henry, collected from Samuel Harmon)
KEYWORDS: love humorous animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 20-22, "I Love-ed A Lass" (1 text)
Roud #4197
NOTES [43 words]: Looking at this, I have a very strong feeling that it's based on "Way Up on Clinch Mountain" or "Drunkard's Hiccups," with a lot of nonsense and floating material thrown at it. But with only one version known, and no access to the tune, I can't prove it. - RBW
File: MHAp020

I Loved a Lass

See The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass) (File: K152)

I Loved You Better Than You Knew

DESCRIPTION: "Our hands are clasped at last forever, Perhaps we'll never meet again, I loved you as I could no other, This parting fills my heart with pain." The singer rehearses all that she will suffer, demonstrating the theme "I loved you better than you knew."
AUTHOR: Johnny Carroll ((?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: love farewell betrayal rambling
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 738, "I Loved You Better Than You Knew" (1 text); also 755, "The Broken Heart" (the "A" text includes a stanza from this piece)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 493-495, "The Broken Heart" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 755A)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5693, "I Loved You Better Than You Knew" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #6434
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "I Loved You Better Than You Knew" (Victor 23835, 1933)
File: R738

I Made You Look

DESCRIPTION: "I made you look, I made you stare, I made the barber Cut your hair, He cut it long, He cut it short, He cut it with A knife and fork."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: hair | barber
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 18, "(I made you look)" (1 text)
Roud #20455
File: BAAI018B

I Married a Wife

DESCRIPTION: "I married a wife of late, To my unhappy fate, I took her for love, as fortune did prove, And not for the nearby estate." The singer opines, "all women are thus inclined... to a sad and dreary tongue" toward husbands. A quiet wife is better than a beauty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams)
KEYWORDS: marriage beauty courting warning
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #119, "I Married a Wife" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #2536
File: VWP119

I Married Me a Wife (I)

See The Holly Twig [Laws Q6] (File: LQ06)

I Maun Hae My Goon Made

DESCRIPTION: "I maun hae my goon made ... like ony ligger [camp-follower, per Greig/Duncan8], Side and wide about the tail An' jimp [close-fitting] for my body"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #159, p. 2, "I Maun Hae My Goon Made" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1626, "I Maun Hae My Goon Made" (1 text)
Roud #13074
File: GrD81626

I May Be Gone

See Oh, Lord, How Long (File: R615)

I Mean to Go to Heaven Anyhow

DESCRIPTION: "I mean to go to heaven anyhow... Jesus died, oh, he died on the cross, To set every sinner free." "You told mother when she was living... You would treat her chilluns good... But... you've driven us from your door."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: orphan hardtimes mother death Jesus religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 592, "I Mean to Go to Heaven Anyhow" (1 text)
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 304-305, "Anyhow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11905
File: Br3592

I Measure My Love to Show You

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

I Met a Handsome Lady

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a lady who invites him into her parlor and says nice things; he says she can send for the preacher, he'll be ready and have his shoes greased. The preacher says she is too young; all sit down to a supper of chicken and underdone turkey
AUTHOR: Unknown; some verses added by H. N. Dickens
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (recording by H. N. Dickens)
KEYWORDS: age courting marriage wedding food party bird chickens clergy lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #12644
RECORDINGS:
H. N. Dickens, "I Met a Handsome Lady" (on Stonemans01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cindy (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "Pig at Home in the Pen" (lyrics)
cf. "Roving Gambler" (lyrics)
NOTES [18 words]: A most disjointed song, and I can't tell whether it was used as a dance tune or not (but I suspect not). - PJS
File: RcIMAHaL

I Met a Possum in the Road

DESCRIPTION: "I met a possum in the road, 'Bre'r Possum, whar you gwine?' 'I bless my soul and thank my stars To sunt some muscadine.'" "I met a possum in the road, and 'shamed he looked to be. He stuck his tail between his legs And gave the road to me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 177, (no title) (1 fragments, perhaps floating or not the same song)
File: ScNF177A

I Met Her in the Garden Where the Praties Grow

See Garden Where the Praties Grow (File: San463)

I Must And Will Get Married (The Fit)

DESCRIPTION: Mother and daughter are talking. The daughter says, "I must and will get married; I'm in the notion now" (or "...the fit comes on me now"). Mother asks who she will marry; she names the (miller Sam). If he won't agree, she'll find another
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(4262))
KEYWORDS: marriage mother loneliness
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap,MW,NE,SE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 57, "Twas on an Easter Morning" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 128, "I Must and I Will Get Married" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 53, "I Must And Will Get Married" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 141, "The Fit's Come On Me Now" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 40-41, "The Fit Comes On Me Now" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 8, "The Fit Comes On Me Now" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 176-177, "The Fit Comes On Me Now" (1 short text, 1 tune; the text probably is not this, but the description of the song quotes the refrain "I must and will get marred, The fit's upon me now)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 27-28, "The Fit's Upon Me Now" (1 tune, the same as the preceding, so probably not related to this song but related to Chappell's text)
Roud #441
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4262)[some words illegible], "The Fit Comes on me Now" ("It was on Easter Monday, the spring time of the year"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(264), Harding B 11(1217), "The Fit Comes on me Now"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(048), "The Tid is on Me Now," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c.1855
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lolly-Too-Dum" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Fit Comes On Me Now
NOTES [21 words]: This song is thematically identical to "Lolly-Too-Dum," but the stanza form is different enough that I have separated them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: SKE53

I Must Away

See Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover) (File: Ord089)

I Must Live All Alone

DESCRIPTION: "As I was a-walking one morning by chance, I heard a maiden making her moan... Alas! I must live all alone, alone...." Asked why she is out, she says her home is a burden. At eleven, she had sweethearts; now she has none. She hopes her sailor returns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood)
KEYWORDS: love home separation sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 16-17, "I Must Live All Alone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #62, "As I Was A-walking" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1059
File: LEBC016

I Must See My Mother

See Ten Thousand Miles Away (On the Banks of Lonely River) (File: R697)

I Must Walk My Lonesome Valley

See Lonesome Valley (I) (File: Wa162)

I Need Another Witness

See Witness (File: RcWtnss1)

I Never Drink Behind the Bar

DESCRIPTION: "I once owned a fine saloon with mirrors on the wall... 'Good morning, Pete, they say to me... Oh, will you join?' "I must decline, For I'm behind the bar. I never drink behind the bar....'" Pete describes all the things he will do, but he won't drink
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (McSorley's Inflation)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. II, #83, pp. 10-12, "I Never Drink Behind the Bar" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Richard Moody, _Ned Harrigan: From Corlear's Hook to Herald Square_, Nelson Hall, 1980, after p. 54, "I Never Drink Beind he Bar" (a copy of the sheet music)
Edward Harrigan, _The Mulligans_, G. W. Dilingham, 1901, p. 81, "(no title)" (1 fragment, of the chorus, slightly different from the published sheet music)
Roud #38172
RECORDINGS:
Mick Moloney, "I Never Drink Behind the Bad" (on HarriganBrahamMaloney)
NOTES [339 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
Franceschina, p. 152: "Six new numbers were introduced in McSorley's Inflation, each receiving a 'heel and toe' accompaniment in the gallery, which indicted immediate audience approval. 'I Never Drink Behind the Bar, sung by Harrigan, assisted by John Wild and James Fox (in the supporting role of Major Wabble) was a patter story song with a schottische 'echo' chorus that proved quite popular with the crowd."
The drama "dealt with Peter McSorley (Harrigan), a tenement landlord and candidate for the local coronership. Ashamed of the successful poulty-stall run in Washington Market by his wife, Bridget (Tony Hart), McSorley attempts to destroy her seller's permit. Bridget hides the document in her mattress, which is subsequently taken away by a black politician, Rufus Rhubarb (John Wild), at McSorley's request. Bridget follows the mattress robber to his home, where a group of African Americans are assembled to hear the political platforms of McSorley and his opponent, Coroner Slab (Edward Burt). Bridget, with the help of the female constituency, manages to recapture the bed, and McSorley, who has been knocked out by Tom Tough (Michael Foley), a bruiser in the employ of Coroner Slab, decides against a political career and vows never again to try to interfere with his wife's poultry business."
Moody, p. 133, explains that "Dan Mulligan [hero of a whole series of Harrigan plays; see again the notes to "Babies on Our Block"] had been rechristened Peter McSorley to honor the saloon [McSorley's Saloon, later McSorley's Old Ale House, a landmark near where the play was performed] and to take account of Yeaman's absence from the company" [Annie Yeamans played Cordelia Mulligan, wife of Dan Mulligan, and her absence was temporary -- she was still visiting Harrigan in the last days of his life]. The play premiered November 27, 1882 (Moody, p. 132).
For another song from "McSorley's Inflation, see "McNally's Row of Flats." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: HaBrINDB

I Never Got Nothin' from Nobody No Time

DESCRIPTION: "I never go nothin' from nobody no time. I never gave nothin' to nobody no time. Until I get somethin' from somebody some time. I'll never give nothin' to nobody no time."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 22, "(I never got nothin' from nobody no time)" (1 text)
Roud #25483
NOTES [23 words]: Kane describes this as an autograph album verse. It has something of that feel, but I'm surprised at the dropping of the terminal g's. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC022

I Never Saw a Man Speak Like This Man

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Look at death (x2), She's traveling through the land (x2), For I never saw a man speak like this man." Verses include "I heard such rambling in the sky ... I thought my Lord was passing by"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: death Bible floatingverses nonballad religious Devil Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 33, "Never a Man Speak Like This Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [140 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. Verses are couplets, each line followed by "I never saw a man for to speak like this man."
Floating verses include "I wish old Satan would be still ... And let me do my Master's will" (as in Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories, "I Long To See That Day"), "Jacob's ladder must be long ... The angels shout from heaven down" (as in Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories "Look At Death," "Come Along Brother," and "Lord, Remember Me"(II)). See the notes to "Jacob's Dream" for the Jacob's ladder reference. - BS
The title appears to be a reference to John 7:46. The authorities had sent police to seize Jesus, and the police failed to take him. When they reported their failure, the authorities asked why they didn't take him, and the police answered, "Never man spake like this man." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa033

I Never Shall Forget

See The Day Columbus Landed Here (File: FJ178)

I Never Taul Them When

See The London Rover (File: GrD71483)

I Never Went to College

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I never went to college, I never went to school, But when it comes to boogie, I'm an educated fool. Hands up, toy, toy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Folkways 7009, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope dancing | college
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #246, "I never went to college" (1 text)
File: AJRR246

I Never Will Marry (II)

See I'll Not Marry at All (File: E072)

I Never Will Marry [Laws K17]

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a fair woman by the seashore. She (is reading a letter which) reveals that her lover is dead. The singer asks her to marry him. She vows she never will marry, and ensures it by drowning herself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd); Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd believes it derives from 'Captain Digby's Lament" of 1671
KEYWORDS: love death suicide
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws K17, "Down by the Sea Shore"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 167-168, "The Lover's Lament for her Sailor" (2 texts)
Randolph 84, "Down by the Sea-Shore" (2 texts plus 1 fragment and 1 excerpt, 2 tunes)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp.130-131, "The Maiden's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 74-75, "I Never Will Marry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 114, "I Never Will Marry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #32, "The Drowned Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan6 1244, "The Banks of the Bann" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 296, "My Love Is Gone"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 489, "My Love's Dead" (2 texts)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 29, "I Never Will Marry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 181, "I Never Will Marry" (1 text)
DT 405, CONSTLOV NEVMARRY* (FORSAKMM)
Roud #466
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "I Never Will Marry" (Montgomery Ward M-7356, c. 1935; Bluebird B-8350, 1940)
Texas Gladden w. Hobart Smith, "I'm Never to Marry" (Disc 6080, 1940s; on USTGladden01)
Pete Seeger, "I Never Will Marry" (on HootenannyCarnegie) (on PeteSeeger27)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Chowan River" (theme)
cf. "Oh! My Love's Dead" (lyrics; see NOTES)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Shells of the Ocean
NOTES [107 words]: Although most traditional collections of this are from the twentieth century, there are many related broadsides -- and it appears that there was a nineteenth century parody. Called "Oh! My Love's Dead," it appears on pp. 70-71 of Scott-EnglishSongBook, and is said to have words by Charles Sloman and to have been sung by Sam Cowell (for whom see the notes for "Billy Barlow (II)"). Cowell died in 1864, so that would seem to be an EARLIEST DATE for this song.
Roud lumps this in with the "standard" versions of Laws K17. But it is clearly a rewrite, and not traditional, so I would not list it as an actual version but rather a parody. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LK17

I Never Will Marry a Man Who Is Rich

See I'll Not Marry at All (File: E072)

I Never Will Turn Back Any More

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a boy I had a little mule That I always rode to Sunday School. Lord, I never will turn back any more." Humorous stanzas of religious life: The mule "got in an awful way"; the singer meets Satan in a meadow or runs into a hornet's nest
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious humorous floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 345, "I Never Will Turn Back Any More" (1 text)
Roud #11739
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Chased Old Satan Through the Door" (floating verses)
NOTES [31 words]: This reads like a humorous take on a church hymn; several of the verses float. It looks a lot like "Chased Old Satan Through the Door," but that seems to be built on a different hymn. - RBW
File: Br3345

I Often Think of Writing Home

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a California miner, often thinks of writing to his family, but seldom does; he's half a mind to tell them he's coming home. "For it keeps a man a-hunting round to keep up with the times And pen and ink is very scarce for people in the mines...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Put's Golden Songster)
KEYWORDS: homesickness loneliness poverty home separation travel mining hardtimes nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1848 - gold found in Sutter's Mill, California.
1849 - multitudes of easterners emigrate west, hoping to "make their pile"
FOUND IN: US(SW)
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "I Often Think of Writing Home" (on LEnglish02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Irish Molly-O" (tune)
File: RcIOTOWH

I Once Did Know a Farmer

See Treat My Daughter Kindly (The Little Farm) (File: R668)

I Once Did Love a Girl Named Sal

See The Pigs Did Squeal (I Once Did Love a Girl Named Sal) (File: TNY410)

I Once Had a Boy

See The Bonny Boy (I) (File: FSC037)

I Once Had a Granny

DESCRIPTION: "I once had a granny And songs she had many And there ne'er will be any Shall sing them so well." She sang as she baked "of lovers who parted ... Of soldiers and sailors Of tinkers and tailors ...." Before she died she bade the singer not to cry.
AUTHOR: Hugh Quinn (1884-1956) (source: Hammond-SongsOfBelfast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (_Rann Magazine_ Summer 1952, according Roud)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad family
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 17, "I Once Had a Granny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5109
File: Hamm017

I Once Had a Sweetheart

DESCRIPTION: "I once had a sweetheart but now I've none. He's gone to old Kentucky to never return." "I once was a snowbird but now I'm a lark"; she dreams of her sweetheart smiling at her, but it is not true. They will lock their love up and throw away the key.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 46, "I Once Had a Sweetheart" (1 text, t 1une)
Roud #11332
NOTES [45 words]: Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric notes the obvious initial similarity to "Green Grows the Laurel," but correctly notes that it diverges completely after that. I rather suspect that this was created by someone who had heard "Green Grows" -- but who remembered only a few scraps. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne046

I Once Had a True Love

DESCRIPTION: Singer bids adieu to Molly whose parents slight him for his "want of gear" He dreams she comes to him and says "it will not be long love, till our wedding day" Floating lines. But she is not here. "I'll think of you Molly when I am alone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: love rejection dream floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 153, "I Once Had a True Love" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "I Once Had a True Love" (on IRPTunney03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "If I Were a Fisher" (floating verses)
cf. "She Moved Through the Fair" (floating verses)
NOTES [109 words]: The "floating lines" include "if I was a fisher ... and my love was a salmon" and "if I was a blackbird and had wings to fly"; there are also lines that are more explicit than most floaters I have seen: "In a grove of green laurels I'd lay my love down And with my strong wings I would her surround" and "Since the notion has took me to make my own will Sure my own rod beats sorest and does hurt me still."
Tunney-StoneFiddle notes Tunney's hearing this song in 1960. He makes it "the original traditional song" behind Padraic Collum's "She Moved Through the Fair." Also see his comment on "My Young Love Said to Me" at "She Moved Through the Fair." - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: TSF153

I Once Had Plenty of Thyme

See In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme (File: R090)

I Once Knew a Little Girl

See The Rejected Lover [Laws P10] (File: LP10)

I Once Knew a Man

See S-A-V-E-D (File: FSWB349)

I Once Loved a Beautiful Lady

DESCRIPTION: Singer, unjustly jealous of his sweetheart, tells her "her love was untrue." He goes to her home to make up and propose, but finds she has died. He blames himself, and hopes for forgiveness and to see her again "in that bright happy land"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Carter Family recording)
KEYWORDS: grief jealousy courting accusation beauty death mourning lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #17335
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Why There's a Tear in My Eye" (on "The Carter Family 1930-1932," JSP Records JSP7701C CD (2010))
John Molloy, "I Once Loved a Beautiful Lady" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys, "The Old Man's Story" (1938, Bluebird B 7425, 2003, "Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys - The Monroe Brothers 1937-1938," JSP Records CD JSP7712B)
File: MunLIOLB

I Once Loved a Boy

See The Bonny Boy (I) (File: FSC037)

I Once Loved a Girl in Kilkenny

See Eileen, The Flower of Kilkenny (File: GrMa76)

I Once Loved a Lass (I)

See The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass) (File: K152)

I Once Loved a Lass (II)

See Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs); also The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass; also Farewell He (File: R061)

I Once Was a Carman in the Big Mountain Con

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas once in the saddle I used to go dashing... But ain't it a pity, I came to Butte City To work for Jim Brennan and now to my grave." He lists those he has worked with, praises Ireland, and will see it in his dreams. He curses the mines
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Western Folklore, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining work death separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 157, "I Once Was a Carman in the Big Mountain Con" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] (tune) and references there
File: LDC157

I Onct Was Young

DESCRIPTION: "I onct was young but now I'm old, Am blind, but yet I have a soul, That soul to save... Or else sink down to endless woe." "My threescore years is at an end." "I have three sons before me gone... By faith through prayer we'll win the day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: injury death religious
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 40-41, (no title) (1 text)
ST ScaSC040 (Partial)
Roud #8814
NOTES [33 words]: Reportedly composed by the uncle of Grandma Bell on his deathbed. There are quite a few hints of older songs, though; I suspect he adapted rather than wrote. And, yes, that's "onct" in the title. - RBW
File: ScaSC040

I Owe Ten Dollars to O'Grady

DESCRIPTION: "My coat was getting shabby, my pants were just as bad," so the singer visits the tailor O'Grady -- and fails to pay: "I owe ten dollars to O'Grady, and you'd think he had a mortgage on my life." The singer beats O'Grady when the tailor arrives to collect
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Finger-FrontierBallads)
KEYWORDS: clothes hardtimes money fight
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finger-FrontierBallads, p. 52, "I Owe Ten Dollars to O'Grady" (1 text)
Roud #8831
File: Fing052

I passed thoru a garden grene

See As I Went Through a Garden Green (Verbum Caro Factum Est) (File: MEaiwtgg)

I Picked My Banjo Too

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you sons of freedom, Come listen unto me...." "I used to be a rebel, I wandered from the Lord...." "The conflict between two parties, the gray coats and the blue, I volunteered for freedom, And picked my banjo too." But he then turns to Jesus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious music freedom soldier slave
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 594, "I Picked My Banjo Too" (1 text)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 175-177, (no title listed, but perhaps to be called "Rufus Mitchell") (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 180-181)
Roud #11904
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Southern Wagon (Confederate)" (lyrics, themes)
NOTES [114 words]: I have to suspect that this was composed in imitation of "The Southern Wagon," but I can't prove it.
It also shows signs of conflation: On the one hand, a slave who joins the Union armies (common and natural enough), on the other a banjo-picking sinner brought back to Christianity (and induced to give up the banjo). The problem with *that* is that almost all slaves were Christian -- and played the banjo anyway.
Frankly, the result looks like a modern banjo joke. And I'll also say that, instead of burning his banjo, the singer should have bashed that alleged preacher over the head with it. If he had to ruin the instrument, at least do something useful with it along the way. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Br3594

I Points to Mineself

See My Hand on My Head (Hand on my Heart, Nicky Nicky Nu) (File: ACSF285N)

I Promised the Lord

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I promised the Lord that I would hold out (x3) If he meet me in Galilee." Verses: Singer would meet Jesus in the air and asks for new wings if the old pair fails. Singer finds a resting place in Jesus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (USSeaIsland03)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Minnie Gracie Gadson, "I Promist de Lawd" (on USSeaIsland03)
NOTES [40 words]: In Mark 16:7 (followed by Matthew 28:7), the resurrected Jesus tells the women at the tomb to tell the disciples and Peter to meet him in Galilee. This is presumably a reference to that. The story is rather different in Luke and John. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: RcIPrdL

I Promist de Lawd

See I Promised the Lord (File: RcIPrdL)

I Put My Little Hand In

See Looby Lou (File: R554)

I Reckon You Know What I Mean

See The Trooper Watering His Nag (File: RL044)

I Remember My Young Days, For Younger I've Been

See The Muttonburn Stream (File: MorU010)

I Ride an Old Paint

DESCRIPTION: "I ride an old paint, I lead an old Dan/dam... Ride around, little dogies, ride around 'em slow...." Verses on various topics: The cowboy's travels, the strayed children of Old Bill Jones, the cowboy's hopes for his funeral
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse rambling funeral children
FOUND IN: US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 33-35, "I Ride an Old Paint" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 63(B), "Old Paint" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 12-13, "I Ride an Old Paint" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 260-261, "I Ride an Old Paint" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 857-858, "I Ride an Old Paint" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 126-129, "I Ride an Old Paint" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 85-87, "Ridin' Old Paint" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 378-379, "I Ride an Old Paint" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 25, "I Ride An Old Paint" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 106, "I Ride An Old Paint" (1 text)
DT, RIDEPNT*
Roud #915
RECORDINGS:
Almanac Singers, "I Ride an Old Paint" (General 5020B, 1941; on Almanac01, Almanac03, AlmanacCD1)
Harry Jackson, "I Ride an Old Paint" (on HJackson1)
Tex Ritter, "A-Ridin' Old Paint" (Conqueror 8144, 1933; on BackSaddle)
Pete Seeger, "I Ride an Old Paint" (on PeteSeeger17)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Goodbye, Old Paint"
File: LxU063B

I Ride My Little Horse

See The London Rover (File: GrD71483)

I Rock from Selma

DESCRIPTION: "I rock from Selma, ting tang, I'm a Georgia ruler, ting tang, I'm a Mobile gentelman, Susie-annah, Loan me de goar to drink water!" "Den all back-shuffle and clap yo' hands." "Come shuffle up, ladies, ting tang, Oh Miss Williams, ting tang."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 114, (no title) (1 short text)
NOTES [23 words]: This sounds like it's made up of floating verses -- but it isn't; none of the lyrics are familiar. So I guess it gets its own entry. - RBW
File: ScaNF114

I Rode My Little Horse

See The London Rover (File: GrD71483)

I saw a doge sethyng sowse

See (notes under) Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

I Saw a Little Bird

See Once I Saw a Little Bird (File: OO20046)

I Saw a Man at the Close of Day

See Drunkard's Doom (I), The (File: R306)

I Saw a Ship a-Sailing

See Ship a-Sailing, A (File: OBB104)

I Saw a Sight All In a Dream

DESCRIPTION: "I saw a sight all in a dream, There's things before I never saw;" the singer sees people following the Redeemer's path. A mother prays that her children be taken care of. Her life is a warning; "she is paid the debt we all must pay"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Roberts-SangBranchSettlers)
KEYWORDS: dream death mother family
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #36, "I Saw a Sight All In a Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3400
File: Robe036

I Saw a Sparrow

See Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

I Saw Esau

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas just about a year ago... I found a lass, but now, alas! I find that I have lost her." The singer repeatedly encounters her with her country cousin Esau. Chorus: "I saw Esau, he saw me, And she saw I saw Esau."
AUTHOR: unknown (Music attributed to Vincent Davies in Oliver Ditson & Co, The New Comic Songster, 1870)
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (The New Comic Songster; Dime-Song-Book #26)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection humorous wordplay
FOUND IN: US(MW) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 65, pp. 88-90, "I Saw Esau" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 201-202, "I Saw Esau" (1 text, 1 tune)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 61, "The Country Cousin, or, I saw Esau Kissing Kate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #26, pp. 16-17, "I Saw Esau Kissing Kate" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #255, "I saw Esau sawing wood" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 76, "I saw Esau" (1 short text, probably this)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #2, "(I Saw Esau)" (1 fragment)
Roud #4864
NOTES [54 words]: To this compare Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 202, "I Saw Esau." It's not the same song, but it's the same gimmick.
Roud seems to indicate that Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #6, "All in, a bottle of gin! All out, a bottle of stout" belongs here. But it's such a small fragment that I really can't tell. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Stou088

I saw Esau Kissing Kate

See I Saw Esau (File: Stou088)

I saw Esau Sawing Wood

See I Saw Esau (File: Stou088)

I Saw from the Beach

DESCRIPTION: "I saw from the beach, when the morning was shining, A bark o'er the waters came gloriously on." In the evening, "The bark was still there, but the waters were gone." So it is with life: spring passes and we are left "on the bleak shore alone."
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Moore-IrishMelodies-1846)
KEYWORDS: ship nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 153, "Give me back, give me back the wild freshness of morning" (1 text)
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, p. 199, "I Saw from the Beach" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 33, "I Saw from the Beach" (1 text)
Roud #25541
File: HMHS033A

I Saw the Beam in My Sister's Eye

DESCRIPTION: "I saw the beam in my sister's eye, Can't see the beam in mine. You'd better lef' your sister door; Go keep your own door clean." "And I had a mighty battle like Jacob of old." "I didn't intend to lef' 'em go Till Jesus bless my soul."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious fight
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, pp. 17-18, "I Saw the Beam in My Sister's Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11842
NOTES [45 words]: The first verse of this is a curious twist on Matt. 7:3f.=Luke 6:41f., in which Jesus warns of seeing a mote/speck in a brother's eye but ignoring the log/beam in one's own. The story of Jacob wrestling God or an angel and demanding a blessing is in Genesis 32:22-32. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG017

I Saw the Light

DESCRIPTION: "I wandered so aimless, my life filled with sin That I would not let my dear Savior in." The singer had wandered "aimless" and "Like a blind man" until Jesus came to him. Then, "I saw the light, no more darkness, no more night."
AUTHOR: Hank Williams (see notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (recording, Hank Williams; see notes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #48, "Praise the Lord, I Saw the Light" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3410
RECORDINGS:
Minnie Gracie Gadson, "I Saw De Light" (on USSeaIsland03)
Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys, "I Saw the Light" (on "Friends of Old Time Music -- The Folk Arrival 1961-1965," Smithsonian Folkways Recordings SFW CD 40160 (2006, recorded 1972))
Ola Belle Reed, "I Saw the Light" (on "Rising Sun Melodies," Smithsonian Folkways Recordings SFW CD 40202 (2010, recorded 1972))
NOTES [52 words]: The Hank Williams information is from Peter K. Siegel, Liner notes to "Friends of Old Time Music -- The Folk Arrival 1961-1965." - BS
It's interesting to note that the tune of the Roberts-SangBranchSettlers version, collected in 1955, already has a tune significantly unlike the versions of this I've heard. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcIStLi

I Saw the Light from Heaven (Dry Bones (I))

DESCRIPTION: "Enoch lived to be Three hundred and sixty-five And the Lord came down And took him up to heaven alive. I saw, I saw, I saw the light from heaven come shining all around." Other assorted Bible stories, such as the dry bones in the valley
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Bascom Lamar Lunsford)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5757, "Dry Bones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17922
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Dry Bones" (Brunswick 231, 1928; Brunswick 314, 1929; on AAFM2, BLLunsford01, Babylon)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ezekiel in the Valley" (theme)
cf. "Dem Bones" (theme)
cf. "Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again" (theme)
NOTES [68 words]: Among the incidents outlined here:
* Enoch's disappearance at age 365: Gen. 5:21-24
* Paul (and Silas) in prison during an earthquake: Acts 16:25-26
* Moses and the Burning Bush: Exodus 3:2ff.
* Dry bones walking: Ezek. 37:1-10
Other incidents, such as Eve's account of "Satan a-tempting me," are not directly Biblical (e.g. in Gen. 3:13, Eve blamed the Serpent for her behavior, but Satan is not named). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: RcISTLFH

I Saw the Lighthouse

DESCRIPTION: "I saw the light house amen, I saw the light house amen, I saw the light house, It cast a great light, I hope to live there amen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious | lighthouse
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
RECORDINGS:
Revival Zion pastor and congregation, "I Saw the Lighthouse" (on JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
NOTES [133 words]: The JamaicaFaithWorkPlay track begins like a "shout," with harmonies, fast beat, clapping and drums, but maintains the same tone and pace through out the three and a half minutes of repetition of the one verse, though the drumming varies without speeding up. In his liner notes to JamaicaFaithWorkPlay Roberts describes the track as a "chorus" "sung (as is usual) to drumming of European provenance but African flair." It would have helped if Roberts, either in his liner notes or in Black Music of Two Worlds (New York: Original Music, 1972) -- where he does analyze musical roots of Caribbean music (Black Music of Two Worlds, pp. 93-128) -- had explained the European roots he hears in the drumming on this track or in Jamaican music (see Black Music of Two Worlds, pp. 119-133) generally. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcIStLiH

I Saw the Pale Moon Shining on Mother's White Tombstone

DESCRIPTION: "I am a little orphan, My mother she is dead, My father is a drunkard and won't give me no bread." "I saw the pale moon shining on mother's white tombstone, The roses round it twining it's just like me." The child, with "no mother now," tells of her grief
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (recording, Betty Garland)
KEYWORDS: mother children orphan burial mourning grief
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Betty Garland, "I Saw the Pale Moon Shining on Mother's White Tombstone" (on BGarland01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Row Us Over the Tide" (subject)
cf. "Orphan's Lament (Two Little Children, Left Jim and I Alone)" (subject)
File: RcISPMSM

I Saw Three Ships

DESCRIPTION: (While sitting on a sunny bank,) the singer sees three ships arrive on Christmas. In the ship are (pretty girls) or Mary, (Joseph), and/or (Jesus). (They/all) (sing/whistle/rejoice) as they sail on to Bethlehem
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1666 ("As I sat on a sunny bank" version in Forbes's Cantus)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad ship
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,West),Wales) US(Ap,MW,SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 111, "As I Sat on a Sunny Bank" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 98, "As I Sat on a Sunny Bank, or I Saw Three Ships" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 147, "The Bells of Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 104, "I Saw Three Ships" (1 text)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 3, "Sunny Bank"; 18, "I Saw Three Ships" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 315, pp. 141-142, "Three Ships Came Sailing In" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 53, "I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 53, "I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 43, "I Saw Three Ships" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 152, "As I Sat on the Sunny Bank" (1 text)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 213-214, "I Saw Three Ships"; p. 255, "As I Sat under a Sycamore Tree" (2 texts)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 471, "I saw three ships come sailing by" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #331, pp. 180-181, "(I saw three ships come sailing by)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 252, "I Saw Three Ships" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 379, "I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, pp. 166-169, "I Saw Three Ships" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, pp. 56-59, "I Saw Three Ships" (1 text, 1 tune)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 112-113, "I Saw Three Ships" (1 text)
DT, ISAW3SHP*
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #35, "I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In" (1 text)
ST OBB104 (Full)
Roud #700
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "The Bells of Heaven" (on IRECronin01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce adds. 137(22), "The Sunny Bank," T. Bloomer (Birmingham), 1821-1827; also Harding B 7(38), Harding B 7(30), Harding B 7(37), Harding B 7(35), "As I Sat on a Sunny Bank" ("As I sat on a sunny bank")[some have no title]; Harding B 7(16), "The Sunny Bank"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Glasgow Ships" (some lines, but not the tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
As I Sat Under a Sycamore Tree
NOTES [787 words]: It probably need not be pointed out that there is no Biblical basis for this story, and that Bethlehem is nowhere near the ocean nor any body of water large enough for any kind of ship.
This makes it worthwhile to ask, Which version is older? There are secular and Christmas versions. The "Christmas" version is the one now widely sung, and the Combs version is a religious text -- but two of Gomme's three versions are secular. Similarly, the Opie version is set on New Year's day, and lists three pretty girls as passengers. On the other hand, several texts refer to "Our Savior Christ and His Lady." This sounds very Catholic -- and hence probably old -- to me.
(I do note that the new year at one time was held to take place on March 25, the day Jesus was conceived, but I don't see a hint of a connection in the song.)
Ian Bradley, in the Penguin Book of Carols, raises the question of why three ships are needed to bring two passengers -- in his version, Jesus and Mary. This is a logical question. One likely answer is that the original included Joseph as well, but he was later written out or accidentally dropped. Bradley, though, has a different explanation: That three ships sailed in because they were bearing the relics of the three Magi, or perhaps the Magi themselves. Of course, the Bible nowhere says that there were three Magi; it merely says that the Magi (unnumbered) brought three gifts. (For more on the number of Magi, see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)."
Another possibility is that there is one ship for the Father, one for the Son, and one for the Holy Spirit.
David C. Fowler, The Bible in Middle English Literature, University of Washington Press, 1984, p. 112, has a different explanation: "It is not clear at first glance why the VIrgin Mary and Christ should be sailing by ship into (landlocked) Bethehem on Christmas day, as the carol affirms. But the suggestion that the song originally celebrated Mary Magdalene's sea journey to Marseille seems to me quite likely." Fowler, p. 104, describes how, in the Golden Legend, Mary Magdalene (falsely conflated with Mary of Bethany), Lazarus and Martha (here treated as the Magdalene's siblings rather than as the siblings of Mary of Bethany), Martha's servant Marcella (the invented name of woman who allegedly called out "Blessed is the womb that bore you..."), SIdonius (the invented name of the man born blind of John, chapter 9), Saint Maximin (apparently created out of whole cloth), and others were put in a rudderless board for their Christian preaching, but instead of being lost, they were carried to Marseille, which they evangelized. After the Reformation, when these drug dreams were written out of Mary Magdalene's story, the song was shifted to Christmas.
Personally, I'd guess that three is simply an auspicious number. Sure, one ship could carry Jesus and his mother, but three ships gives him an escort -- with the other two ships representing the other two persons of the Trinity. As for how they sailed to Bethlehem -- hey, how many people in England knew you couldn't reach Bethlehem by sea? Being near the sea was the norm in England, so they transferred it to Bethlehem.
Or maybe they sailed to Bethelehem Hospital (Bedlam), to visit the idea who dreamed up that Mary Magdalene story. - RBW
Also see Calennig, "Sandy Banks" (on Callenig, "A Gower Garland," Wild Goose WGS 299 CD (2000)). The notes have it noted in Wales by Rev J.D. Davies in 1877. Just two ships here. - BS
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin has the form and "Christmas day in the morning" in common with "I Saw Three Ships" but has none of the usual lines.
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin: "The bells of heaven began to ring... The bells of hell began to blow... The gates of heaven were dressed in white... The gates of hell were dressed in black... I'll buy for you a little red book... I'll send you up to school to heaven...."
My inclination is to split OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin from the rest of Roud #700 but sources frequently refer to a 1794 Ritson citation in Scottish Songs that link the "bells of heaven" to "I Saw Three Ships." I don't have the 1794 edition but, from the 1869 edition: "[an] Aberdeen collection, printed in 1666, contains many songs of a much earlier period.... At the end of the same publications are three singular compositions ... which are conjectured to have been sung by peasants in the Christmas holidays before the Reformation; the music is a church chant [f: ... Our Lord harped, our lady sang, And all the bells of heaven they rang, On Christ's sunday at morn" (Ritson, Scottish Songs (Glasgow: Hugh Hopkins, 1869 ("Digitized by Google")) Vol. I p. 99). - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OBB104

I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing By

See I Saw Three Ships (File: OBB104)

I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In

See I Saw Three Ships (File: OBB104)

I Schust Came Over from Schermany (Germany)

DESCRIPTION: "I schust came over from Schermay, The country for to see." His brother, who keeps a beer saloon, told him to come. He is Hanna Johann and lives on sauerkraut. He meets a girl. Carlvoly (?) on the ship and offers to marry her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong)
KEYWORDS: emigration travel drink marriage Germany
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 256-257, "I Schust Came Over from Schermany" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5258
File: NeDe256

I Scream You Scream

DESCRIPTION: "I scream, you scream, We all scream for ice cream." Sometimes a jump-rope rhyme; sometimes a tongue-twister -- but probably most often a sales pitch
AUTHOR: Howard Johnson, Billy Moll, Robert King
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: food jumprope | ice cream scream
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 121, "I scream, you scream" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 120, "I scream, you scream" (1 short text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 96, "(I scream, you scream)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #256, "I scream" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #102, "(I scream)" (1 text)
Roud #19370
NOTES [48 words]: This was apparently an actual popular song, performed, e.g., by Jimmy Durante. Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 369, estimates that this was #7 song in America in February 1928. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: DCCR120F

I See A Form, I See a Face

See This Is Nae My Ain Lassie (File: GrD4714)

I see London, I See Stars

See I See Paris, I See France (File: SaKo119B)

I See Paris, I See France

DESCRIPTION: "I see Paris (London, New York), I see France, I see someone's underpants." Or, "I see a hole In someone's/the Lord Mayor's pants"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 119, "(I see London (Paris)" (1 text); compare the next item, "Teacher, teacher, I declare, I see someone's underwear"
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 81, "I See London" (1 text); compare p. 80, "Teacher, teacher, I declare, I see (someone's/your) underwear")
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 173, "I See Paris" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #257, "I see London, I see stars" (1 text)
Roud #38148
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Teacher, Teacher, I Declare" (subject of spotting someone's underwear)
NOTES [20 words]: Not a game, just a nasty rhyme -- but common enough that even I heard it on playgrounds, so I'm including it here. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SaKo119B

I See the Lightning Flashing

See No Never Alone (File: Ow2E165)

I See the Moon

DESCRIPTION: "I see the moon, the moon sees me, God bless the (moon/sailors) and God bless me." May continue, "Grace in the garden, grace in the hall, And the grace of God be on us all," which is also used as a table grace
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammer Gurton's Garland, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(MW) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 356, "I see the moon" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #425, p. 202, "(I see the moon, and the moon sees me)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 176, "I See the Moon" (3 texts)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 343, 443, "I See the Moon" (notes only)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #258, "I see the moon, and the moon sees me" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, third edition, 1928, notes to #444 ("I see the moon") (1 short text)
Roud #19690
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "I See the Moon" (Piotr-Archive #345, recorded 11/02/2022)
NOTES [67 words]: I believe I learned this, or the first line of it at least, somewhere in my youth, with a tune similar to the "Fiddle-I-Fee" versions of "I Had a Little Rooster." I know of no folk recordings, but that seems to imply some sort of tradition somewhere. And I have seen variants printed in non-folk sources.
Apparently there was a very popular recording issued some decades back, but I know no details. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGMG425

I See the Sign (Time Drawin' Nigh)

See Judgment Day Is Comin' (File: Br3606)

I See, Said the Blind Man

DESCRIPTION: "I see, said the blind man. You're a fool, said the dummy. I'll kick you, said the man with no legs."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: injury wordplay
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 66, "(I see, said the blind man)" (1 short text)
File: PKKB066A

I Sell't the Horse an' I Bocht a Coo

See The Swapping Boy (File: E093)

I Sent a Letter to My Love

See Atisket, Atasket (I Sent a Letter to My Love) (File: BAF806A)

I Sent My Brown Jug Downtown

See The Brown Jug (Bounce Around) (File: R534)

I Sent My Love a Letter

See Down in the Valley; also Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs) (File: R772)

I Shall Arise

See Hava Nashira (Come, Let's Be Singing) (File: ACSF443N)

I Shall Not Be Blue

See We Shall Not Be Moved (File: SBoA344)

I Shall Not Be Moved

DESCRIPTION: "I shall not, I shall not be moved/Just like a tree that's planted by the water/I shall not be moved". Other verses substitute "I'm sanctified and holy, I shall not be moved..." "I'm on my way to heaven..." etc..
AUTHOR: Alfred H. Ackley (1887-1960)? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Ackley, "Hymns for His Praise No. 2")
KEYWORDS: virtue floatingverses nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 596, "I Shall Not Be Blue" (2 texts)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp 221-222, "I Shall Not Be Moved" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 288-289, "I Shall Not Be Moved" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 240, "I Shall Not Be Moved" (1 text)
OneTuneMore, p. 58, "We Shall Not Be Moved" (1 short text, 1 tune, possibly a text of "I Shall Not Be Moved" with pronouns derived from "We Shall Not Be Moved"; since it is so short, it's hard to tell which it is derived from)
Roud #9134
RECORDINGS:
A. P. Carter Family, "I Shall Not Be Moved" (Acme DF-103, n.d. but prob. early 1950s)
Rev. Edward Clayborn, "I Shall Not Be Moved" (Vocalion 1243, 1929; rec. 1928)
Davis & Nelson, "I Shall Not Be Moved" (Paramount 3186/Broadway 8189/QRS 9023, 1930)
Jimmie Dickens, "I Shall Not Be Moved" (Columbia 21068, 1953; rec. 1952)
Dixie Reelers, "I Shall Not Be Moved" (Montgomery Ward M-7100, 1937; Bluebird B-7958, 1938; rec. 1936)
Folkmasters, "I Shall Not Be Moved" (on Fmst01)
Roosevelt Graves, "I Shall Not Be Moved" (Paramount 12974, 1930; rec. 1929; on StuffDreams1)
George Herod, "I Shall Not Be Moved" (on MuSouth07)
Harmonizing Four, "I Shall Not Be Moved" (Gotham G772, rec. early 1950s)
Harvesters, "I Shall Not Be Moved" (Columbia 41074, 1957)
I. C. Glee Club, "I Shall Not Be Moved" (OKeh 8872, 1931; rec. 1930)
Kentucky Holiness Singers, "I Will Not Be Removed" (Vocalion 5439; rec. 1930)
Frank & James McCravy, "I Shall Not Be Moved" (Brunswick 196, 1928; Brunswick 3784, 1928; Oriole 8103, c. 1932; rec. 1927) (Banner 32308, 1931)
Charley Patton, "I Shall Not Be Moved" (Paramount 12986, 1930; rec. 1929)
Rev. D. C. Rice & congregation "I Shall Not Be Removed" (Vocalion 1675, 1932; rec. 1929)
Joe & Emma Taggart, "I Will Not Be Removed" (Vocalion 1062, 1926)
Taskiana Four, "I Shall Not Be Moved" (Victor 20183, 1926)
Utica Jubilee Singers, "I Shall Not Be Moved" Victor 24113, 1932)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Shall Not Be Moved"
NOTES [173 words]: I include this hymn, common in African-American tradition, primarily because it formed the basis for the labor/civil rights anthem, "We Shall Not Be Moved." For the story of that song, see its entry. - PJS
As Paul says, it does have a place in tradition -- e.g. it is nearly the only pure hymn in Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan.
I no longer know what source attributes this to Alfred H. Ackley. It is not so attributed by hymnary.org, which calls it a spiritual -- but this might be by confusion with "We Shall Not Be Moved." On the other hand, if published in 1906, that would mean Ackley was just nineteen when it came out; he would not be ordained for eight more years. It doesn't seem much like his later style. I wonder if he arranged it and someone took him for the author.
W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 3, says that Alfred Ackley was a Presbyterian minister who was also a 'cellist who had trained at London's Royal Academy of Music. His most famous hymn is said to have been "He Lives."- RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcISNBM

I shall you tell a full good sport

See The Gossips' Meeting (File: MSGosMee)

I shall you tell this ilk night

See Saint Stephen, God's Knight (I shall you tell this ylke night) (File: MSSSGK)

I shall you tell this ylke night

See Saint Stephen, God's Knight (I shall you tell this ylke night) (File: MSSSGK)

I Shoo Shiwawa

DESCRIPTION: The boys on the football team love a girl. They ask how her father/boyfriend is. He died last night from eating raw fish. A player demonstrates how he died [Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame:"one girl falls into the other girl's arms"]
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: love death food playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 480, ("I know a little Dutch girl") (1 text)
NOTES [123 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "An amalgam of 'I Am a Pretty Little Dutch Girl', whose tune it uses, 'O Susie Anna' [for the name of the Dutch girl and chorus], and a quadruple 'Hi tiddley i ti' ending."
As David Rowan points out, the action in the Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame text also goes with another text, "I Shoo Shiwawa": "How was your boyfriend, all right? Down in the fish shop, last night. What did he die of? Raw fish. How did he die then? Like this....'" In this version the Dutch girl becomes an English girl, and her name changes from "Hi Susie Anna" to "I Shoo Shiwawa." (Source: David Rowan, "Have Children Really Forgotten How to Play?" at the DavidRowan site, reprinted from the (UK) Times Magazine, Saturday, May 21, 2005). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa480C

I Shot My Poor Teacher (With a Big Rubber Band)

DESCRIPTION: "On top of (something), All covered with (something), I shot my poor teacher With a (big) rubber band. I shot her with glory, I shot her with pride. I hardly could miss her; she's forty feet wide." The student describes harassing, killing, burying teacher
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975
KEYWORDS: humorous homicide abuse burial parody derivative
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 117, "New Teacher" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 93, "I Shot My Poor Teacher" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #16483
RECORDINGS:
Travis Johnson, "On Top of the Schoolhouse" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #514, recorded 03/08/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On Top of Old Smokey" (tune)
NOTES [24 words]: The proof that this is a folk song is that I've learned at least two versions in my life. It's just that few adults will admit to knowing it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: PHCFS093

I Should Worry, I Should Care

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I should worry, I should care, I should marry a millionaire.He should die, I should cry, Then I'd marry a richer guy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Journal of Health and Physical Education, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope marriage money death | millionaire
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #259, "I should worry, I should care" (1 text)
NOTES [11 words]: "The Wife of Bath's Prologue" expressed as a single verse.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR259

I Sing a Song of the Saints of God

DESCRIPTION: "I sing a song of the saints of God, Patient and brave and true, Who toiled and fought and lived and died For the Lord they loved and knew. And one was a doctor, and one was a queen..." and others worked other jobs. There are many of them alive today
AUTHOR: Words: Lesbia Scott (source: hymnary.org) / Music: "Grand Isle" by John H. Hopkins Jr.
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad worker
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Miriam "Mimi" Wright, "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God" (Piotr-Archive #298, recorded 10/10/2022)
NOTES [27 words]: My immediate reaction upon hearing this was that it was a Mormon hymn, but seemingly not; the earliest appearances seem to be in Episcopal and Methodist hymnals. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio298

I Sing of a Maiden that Is Makeless (Matchless, Mateless)

DESCRIPTION: "I sing of a maiden that is matchless/mateless, King of all kings To her son she chose." Jesus arrives as still as dew in April to his mother's bower. "Mother and mayden Was never none but she. Well may such a lady God's mother be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1430 (British Library -- Sloane MS. 2593)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad childbirth MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols #12, "(I syng of a mayden)" (1 text); there is a photo of the manuscript on p. 39
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, p. 6, "As Dew in April" (1 text)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics LIV, p. 107, "(no title)" (1 text)
Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics 38, "(no title)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1367
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2281
ADDITIONAL: E. K. Chambers, _English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages_, Oxford, 1945, 1947, p. 91 (no title)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #188, pp. 432-433, "I Sing of a Maiden" (1 text)
Douglas Gray, _The Oxford Book of Late Medieval Verse and Prose_, Oxford University Press, 1985, p. 161, "I SIng of a Maiden" (1 text)
Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, _Middle English Lyrics_, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974, p. 170, #170 (no title) (1 text)
Karen Saupe, editor, _Middle English Marian Lyrics_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1998, #13, p. 61, "(I syng of a myden)" (1 text)
R. T. Davies, editor, _Medieval English Lyrics: A Critical Anthology_, 1963, #66, p. 155, "I Sing of a Maiden" (1 text)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, p. 67, "(I syng of a maiden)" (1 text)
Carleton Brown, editor, _Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1939, #81, p. 119,"The Maiden Makeles" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 10
NOTES [930 words]: When I started adding Middle English texts to the Index, I for a very long time resisted including this -- although it is found in the extremely important MS. Sloane 2593, that is the only full text, which is not much attestation, and to me it looks like a church piece, not folk.
However, it is extremely well-known and liked -- e.g. Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols, p. 47, declares it "Quite possibly the greatest of all Middle English lyrics, a sophisticated, allusive, and engaging poem, which is both simple yet complex, affecting yet detached, reflective yet celebratory. Just as poems about the Nativity often encode Christ's passion, so this poem, so ostensibly about the Annunciation, encodes Christ's birth, which it identifies both in natural and scriptural imagery, and as a lover coming to his beloved." Many college English courses include it in their texts.
And there is a brief citation in a sermon of the period, which it has been claimed is evidence that it was widely known. I am far from sure I agree, but when in doubt, I index. The citation, according to the DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, is from Oxford, Bodleian Library Barlow 24, folio 188: "Mayde wyff and moder whas neuer but ye, Well may suche a Lady Goddys modyr be" -- an English text within a Latin sermon.
Also, the great scholar W. W. Greg saw similarities to a poem, "Nu þis fules singet hand maket hure blisse," which is found in MSCambridgeTrinity323: Cambridge University, Trinity College MS. 323, the manuscript which contains "Judas" [Child 23] (Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 67).
The full text of the Trinity MS. text can be found in Brown, #31 ("I Sing of One That is Matchless"), p. 55; it begins
Exemplum de beata virgine & gaudiis eius
Nu þis fules singet hand maket hure blisse
and þat gret up þringet and leued þe ris;
of on ic wille singen þat is makeles,
þe king of halle kinges to moder he hire ches. (5 additional stanzas.)
The crucial lines are the third and fourth of the above:
"Of one I will sing that is makeless/matchless,
The king of all kings to be his mother he chose."
The connection between the two pieces is affirmed by Fowler, p. 57, but he adds that this differs from that "in important ways. For example, the earlier lyric relates that the king of all king chose the Virgin as his mother, whereas this song represents Mary as choosing him to be her son, thus emphasizing the Virgi's vluntary acceptance of her role as mother of the Redeemer."
Obviously the mention of a matchless maiden is the same. Literary dependence seems likely to me, too, although I don't think it absolutely certain. Also, it is possible that both could get the image from a third source.
Fowler also calls it "an excellent illustration of the difficulty of classifying Middle English lyrics as either 'secular' or 'religious,'" pointing out on p. 58 that "We are told that He who approaches is her Son, and yet his approach is also that of a lover, as is delicately suggested by the dew imagery, which has amorous meaning in secular song [as in "The Foggy Dew'], as well as redemptive significance in biblical texts such as Isaiah 45:8." Fowler goes on to compare the structure of this to the "purely amorous" piece "I Have a Gentle Cock" (a piece I'd call just plain dirty; for discussion of it, see the notes to "The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father" [Child 248]).
In addition to printing the text, Luria and Hoffman inlude four papers about this piece (only a tiny fraction of the critical literature) by Thomas Jemielity and Stephen Manning, D. G. Halliburton, and Leo Spitzer (pp. 325-349).
Hirsh (following various others) suggests that the stillness mentioned repeatedly in this song is derived from Wisdom of Solomon (the supposed source of a lot of Christmas material that bears only the faintest relation to the claimed source). In this case, the allusion is to Wisdom 18:13-15, given in the New Revised Standard Version as:
[13] ...God's child [the Greek says "son"].
[14] For while gentle silence enveloped all things,
and night in its swift course was now half-gone,
[15] your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne...
Hirsh also mentions Isaiah 26:19 ("For your dew is a radiant dew") and Hosea 14:6 (actually 14:5, "I will be like the dew to Israel") as "a symbol for renewal and joy." One might perhaps add Judges 6:36-40, where Gideon asks God for two signs involving dew on a sheepskin.
(The link to Gideon came to me independently, but it apparently is old. John Lydgate's Marian poetry refers to Gideon's fleece, so the imagery is apparently well-known; Pearsall, p. 271, cites the lines of this poem that (when modernized) read "He came al so still There his mother was, As dew in April, That falleth on the grass" and says "The bush burnt with the fire of the Holy Ghost but was not consumed or touched; Gideon's fleece was wet with the dew of the Hoy Ghost... while the threshing floor of [Mary's] virginity remained dry and inviolate; Aaron's rod blossomed, though dry when it was put in the tabernacle.")
According to InterpretersDict, volume I, p. 839, "As a figure of speech, 'dew' represents abundant fruitfulness (Gen. 27:28), refreshment and renewing (Ps. 110:3, Hos. 145-H[ebrew] 14:6), what is beyond man's powers (Mic. 5:7-H[ebrew] 5:6), a silent coming (II Sam. 17:2), impermanence (Hos. 13:3), and exposure (Song of S. 5:2)." Obviously all but the last two fit with this poem.
The piece was set to music by Benjamin Britten.
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: MSISOAMa

I Sowed Some Seeds

DESCRIPTION: The singer courts his landlord's daughter: "being a stranger I fell in danger." "I sowed some seed, all in some grove ... [where] grows no green." The landlord's daughter must "reap the seed that I have sown." She has a son.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: sex childbirth pregnancy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 45, "I Sowed Some Seeds" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 72, "I Sowed Some Seeds" (1 text)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #70, "The Hostess's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune, yet another Baring-Gould bowdlerization, but I'm filing it here since this is the source and it isn't worth its own entry)
Roud #914
File: ReSh045

I Spied a Ship Sailin' on the Sea

See Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) AND Carrickfergus (File: K149)

I Spy, I Love My Love with an A

See I Love My Love with an A (File: BGMG667)

I Struck for Better Wages

DESCRIPTION: "I struck for better wages and they said I was a fool, And the crafty 'hagitator' merely used me as a tool." His children starve; they say it serves him right, because it hurts the economy -- except at election time, when the politicians pander
AUTHOR: unknown (one edition attributes it to "Kudyard Ripling")
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Auckland "New Zealand Herald," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: political New Zealand hardtimes strike
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 84, "I Struck for Better Wages" (1 text)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 84, "I Struck for Better Wages" (1 text, 1 tune)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 166, "(I Struck for Better Wages)" (1 excerpt)
File: BaRo084

I syng of a mayden That is makeles

See I Sing of a Maiden that Is Makeless (Matchless, Mateless) (File: MSISOAMa)

I syng of a myden

See I Sing of a Maiden that Is Makeless (Matchless, Mateless) (File: MSISOAMa)

I Tend the Leers for Seven Years

DESCRIPTION: "I tend the leers for seven years, And now I am the boss, I am the boss, I am the boss, I am the boss, you see." A song to tease a worker promoted to foreman. (Leers were annealing chambers in glassworks.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Nestler)
KEYWORDS: boss work
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), p. 110, "(no title)" (1 text)
File: Nest110A

I Thank You, Ma'am, Says Dan

See Thank You, Ma'am, Says Dan (File: HHH184)

I Think By This Time He's Forgot Her

See The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass) (File: K152)

I Think I'll Get Wed When the Roses is Red

DESCRIPTION: "I think I'll get wed When the roses is red, And the weather is lovely and dry. Hand in hand we will stand, At the altar we'll stand, At the altar united to be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (England)
KEYWORDS: marriage
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: George Allan England, _Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt_ (also published as _The Greatest Hunt in the World_), Doubleday, 1924, p. 233, "(no title)" (1 excerpt)
NOTES [49 words]: England describes this as a sentimental ballad, and everything else he cites in his book has been printed in some other folk collection, so I'm including it. But I don't recognize his fragment as part of anything else, so here it sits, awaiting, shall we say, union with the rest of its text. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: GAEV233

I Think They'd Be Fain that Wad Follow Wi' You

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that some girls have one or even two lads, but none will have him. He says he would make a good and loving match but even black Maggie "bade me be gone, for an aul' stoopid soo"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad bachelor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1389, "I Think They'd Be Fain that Wad Follow Wi' You" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7248
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Howes o' Glenorchy" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
File: GrD81389

I Think When I Read that Sweet Story of Old

DESCRIPTION: "I think when I read that sweet story of old, When Jesus was here among men, How He called little children as lambs to His fold, I should like to have been with them then." The singer thinks of Jesus calling children, and will try to join him in heaven
AUTHOR: Words: Jemima Luke (1813-1906) (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (source: hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus children
FOUND IN: US(NE)
Roud #27718
RECORDINGS:
Lorraine Hammond, "Sweet Story" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #691, recorded 10/01/2023)
NOTES [121 words]: Matthew 19:14 in the King James Version reads, "But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." To this compare Mark 10:14 ("Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God"); Luke 18:16 (identical, in the Greek, to Mark's version). Hence this song.
I doubt Jemima Luke would have known this, but the Greek noun for "children" used here is παιδιον (as opposed to, say, τεκνον, a more common word for children). It is more likely to refer to a very young child, or to a servant-child, than are the alternatives, so by implication Jesus is welcoming even the youngest, poorest, most lower-class children. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio691

I Think, I Think

See Inky Pinky (I Think, I Think) (File: SuSm091A)

I Tho't I Saw My Brothe'

See I Thought I Saw My Brother (File: Edwa014)

I Thought I Heard toe Old Man Say

See Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her (File: Doe089)

I Thought I Saw My Brother

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "It fit him very well (x2), He put on a starry crown, And it fit him very well." Verses: "I thought I saw my brother When he entered the bright kingdom." "Swing me chariot swing me All my trials with me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 14, "I Tho't I Saw My Brothe'" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [32 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. The first two lines of each verse are followed by two tag lines: "Put on the long white robe And it fit him very well." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa014

I Thought to the Bottom We Would Go

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls a voyage "with the skipper Of a god-damned Yankee clipper" in which "I thought to the bottom we would go." Leaving port with a large cargo of supplies and a few passengers (half of them whores), the crew narrowly averts disaster
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: ship storm hardtimes whore
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 97-98, "I Thought to the Bottom We Would Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [22 words]: I feel quite sure that this is a fragment of something else -- but the surviving portion is so damaged that I cannot tell what. - RBW
File: MCB097

I Tickled Nancy

DESCRIPTION: "I'm living in the city, but I like the country life." The singer recalls his happy past: "I'd tickle Nancy, and Nancy'd tickle me, Before we get married, some pleasure we'd see."
AUTHOR: unknown (but probably patched up by Uncle Dave Macon)
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (recorded by Uncle Dave Macon")
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: US
Roud #18323
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "I'll Tickle Nancy" (1935)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She Tickled Me" (theme)
NOTES [25 words]: This is similar enough to "She Tickled me" that I considered lumping them. But the divergences are also large, and I can't find a connecting link. - RBW
File: RcITckNa

I Told 'em Not to Grieve After Me

See Don't You Grieve After Me (I) (File: R257)

I Told Him Not to Grieve After Me

See Don't You Grieve After Me (I) (File: R257)

I Told Them That I Saw You

DESCRIPTION: The singer and girl of "Just Tell Them That You Saw Me" meet again. He tells her that her family "wants her to come home. Their hearts are breaking for you while far away to roam." She breaks down as she thinks of her aged mother and her childhood
AUTHOR: George M. Cohen
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: mother children separation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 125, "I Told Them That I Saw You" (1 text)
Roud #9599
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Just Tell Them That You Saw Me" (characters)
NOTES [20 words]: This is a direct sequel to Paul Dresser's "Just Tell Them That You Saw Me," though with even less place in tradition. - RBW
File: Dean125

I Took a Trip Around the World

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I took a trip around the world, And this is where I went: From (America) to (New Orleans); (New Orleans) to (Chicago), (Chicago) to...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Emrich and Korson, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #261, "I took trip around the world" (1 text)
File: AJRR261

I Traced Her Little Footprints in the Snow

See Footprints in the Snow (File: DTftprin)

I Truly Understand You Love Another Man

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses; "I wish to the lord I'd never been born," "Who's going to shoe your foot," "I'll never listen to what no other woman says...." Chorus: "I truly understand that you love another man/And your heart shall no longer be mine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, "Shortbuckle" Roark and family)
KEYWORDS: love floatingverses nonballad rejection
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 24-25, "I Truly Understand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 125-126, "I Truly Understand That You Love Some Other Man" (1 text, filed under Child #76 along with a "Pretty Little Foot" fragment and a text of "New River Train/Honey Babe)
ST CSW025 (Full)
Roud #49
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "I Truly Understand You Love Another Man" (on NLCR01, NLCRCD1)
Shortbuckle Roark and Family, "I Truly Understand You Love Another Man" (Victor V-40023, 1929; rec. 1928; on GoingDown, KMM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Long Lonesome Road" (floating lyrics)
File: CSW025

I Tuck Me Some Corn to the County Seat

DESCRIPTION: "I tuck me some corn to the county seat, Three bushel of corn, three bushel of wheat. The miller tuck fur his millin'-turn, Three bushel of corn, three bushel of wheat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: miller commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 179, "I Tuck Me Some Corn to the County Seat" (1 text)
Roud #6583
File: BrII179

I Ula-Used to Li-li-live in Yalla-larkie

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I ula-used to li-li-live in Yalla-larkie, Shalla-larkie, Yalla-lankie, Shalla-lankie, low. I ula-used to live... Shalla-lankie, go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: jumprope wordplay home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #262, "I ula-used to li-li-live in Yalla-larkie" (1 text)
File: AJRR262

I Used to Call Her Baby

DESCRIPTION: "My father was a widower and we lived all alone," so the young man goes out to court a girl. "I used to call her baby, She seemed like a baby to me." So he takes her home. "That's when I lost my Baby, for Dad had coin you see," so she marries the father
AUTHOR: Howard Johnson, Murray Roth, and Cliff Hess (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love courting betrayal father marriage
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Brian Hawkins, "I Used to Call Her Baby" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #711, recorded 10/11/2023)
NOTES [44 words]: Sort of a version of "I'm My Own Grandpa," with half the plot left out. But this song is almost three decades earlier.
The Brian Hawkins version drops much of the original song, but manages to retain all the essentials of the plot. It's probably funnier, too. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio711

I Used to Have a Father

DESCRIPTION: "I used to have a father who sat and talked to me, But now I have no father -- what pleasure do I see? I looked out of the window to hear the organ play And there I saw my father as in his grave he lay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (JAFL 45, from Harold Greene)
KEYWORDS: death father music
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 247, "I Used to Have a Father" (1 short text)
Roud #4194
File: MHAp247

I Used to Live in Landashire

See I Used to Play My Old Banjo (Yellow Banjo, I Used to Live in Lancashire) (File: DPio288)

I Used to Play My Old Banjo (Yellow Banjo, I Used to Live in Lancashire)

DESCRIPTION: Deedling song. "I u-loo-loosed to pi-li-lay my o-lo-lold banjo-lo-lo," i.e. "I used to play my old banjo, And play it on my knee." The singer takes it to the (closed?) banjo shop. The instrument may be repaired. The singer may live in Lancashire.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Mudcat thread "Yellow Banjo / Old Banjo / Banjo Song")
LONG DESCRIPTION: Deedling song. "I u-loo-loosed to pi-li-lay my o-lo-lold banjo-lo-lo," i.e. "I used to play my old banjo, And play it on my knee, But now the strings have broken so It's no more use to me." The singer takes it to the banjo shop, which may be closed, but eventually the instrument is repaired. The singer may live in Lancashire/Amsterdam/elsewhere. The deedling may be explained as the way the banjo sounds when played
KEYWORDS: music wordplay home | banjo deedling
FOUND IN: US(NE) Britain(England)
RECORDINGS:
Alessandra Delia-Lôbo, Cameo Delia, "Yellow Banjo" (Piotr-Archive #388, recorded 12/18/2022)
NOTES [111 words]: Although I haven't found this in any printed collection, perhaps because it's effectively impossible to transcribe in a way that will give an idea of what it sounds like, the Mudcat thread Yellow Banjo / Old Banjo / Banjo Song shows that very, very many people know it, with dramatic variations. And no one seems able to locate the original. It is clearly a traditional song.
It does strike me that, if the song is supposed to be imitating a banjo, it is surely a tenor or other plectrum banjo, not a five-string banjo played in either frailing or Scruggs style; the meter is wrong for the latter. Frankly, it sounds to me as if the instrument should be a mandolin. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio288

I Used to Work in Chicago

DESCRIPTION: The singer works in a succession of stores, asking female customers their desires, mistakenly fulfilling them and getting fired.
AUTHOR: see NOTES
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Holstein-Friesian World)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous clothes wordplay
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US(Ro,SW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 245-251, "I Used to Work in Chicago" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 277, "In Chicago"/"Department Store" (notes only)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 123, "I Used to Work in Chicago" (1 mention, from user nohrt4me2, posted September 28, 2021)
DT, CHCAGO*
ADDITIONAL: _Holstein-Friesian World_ magazine, Volume 18 (1921) (available on Google Books), p. 90, filed under "Smiles," "(I used to work in a Department store in Chicago)" (1 verse)
Roud #4837
RECORDINGS:
Sammy Kaye and His Orchestra, "I Used to Work in Chicago" (RCA Victor 20-2037, 1946)
Pearl Trio [Larry Vincent], "I Used to Work in Chicago" (Pearl 53-A, 1947)
Three Bits of Rhythm, "I Used to Work in Chicago" (Modern Music MM118, 1946)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Haben Aboo an a Banner"
cf. "The Jolly Tradesmen"
cf. "My Husband's a Mason" (theme)
NOTES [729 words]: Oscar Brand has claimed a copyright of some of the verses of this song current in oral tradition. - EC
Larry Vincent claimed to have written the basic song, and it certainly has his, er, style. But the Three Bits of Rhythm record predates his, and they claim authorship credit themselves. Who knows? -PJS
It looks to me as if the idea, at least, is older than any of them. A thread on Mudcat discussed this. Jonathan Lighter found a single verse from the National Lithographer in 1923; a user going by the name "and e" found a minor variation from the Dry Goods Merchants Trade Journal in 1922, then turned up the Holstein-Friesian World version from 1921:
I used to work in a Department store in Chicago.
I use to -- but I don't anymore.
I worked at the Hosiery counter.
I use to -- but I don't any more.
One day a lady wanted some garters
And I asked her what kind she wore,
She said rubber-and rubber I did.
I used to -- but I don't any more.
Lighter went on to point out that a particular version of this was "printed in at least seven U.S. newspapers in 1923, beginning with the Winston County Journal (Louisville, Miss.) on May 11." All of these lyrics were identical (and differed somewhat from those recorded by Oscar Brand).
These early versions don't seem to have been listed as being sung, but mudcat used "cnd" found the statement "The evening's favorite [song] was that famous carol, 'I Used to Work in Chicago'" in The Slip Stream [Supplement of the Casper Herald-Tribune], December 29th, 1943, p. 5. Atlanta Constitution columnist Harold Martin described in April 1945 an air force recruit who could sing 2,000 verses of the song, and it was also sung by post-war occupation forces (The Bradley Tech, November 15th, 1945, p. 5).
None of these sourced list a tune, but it would seem that it was sung. Of course, it's possible that it circulated both as a song and as a poem.
At least some versions were known to soldiers in World War II. cnd found it in Songs of the Century [Songbook of the 100th Bomb Group], which however does not list a tune (but this might mean it had its own tune) and Songbook of the Wild Hares, 1945 (no tune listed there either). Both are available on the Internet Archive.
Lighter then cataloged recordings from 1946-1947 by
Sammy Kaye and His Orchestra
Tin Ear Tanner and His Back Room Boys
Dusty Ward and His Arizona Waddies
Larry Vincent and His Look Out Boys
Three Bits of Rhythm
Poster "cnd" speculates "I'd wager the post-war proliferation was from soldiers who learned the song during WWII returning home, similar to Mademoiselle from Armentieres in the previous war. The song stuck around college fraternities and similar progenitors of bawdy songs (I saw it in a few college periodicals in the 1920s and 1930s, but none earlier than 1923), where they passed it down orally. Then, in war, soldiers, possibly from similar frats, or possibly just bored, sang them for each other, and then from there it took off." Given its presence in the World War II songbooks, this is likely.
Cnd also found an interview with Glenn Ohrlin in which he claimed to have learned the song in the late 1930s or very early 1940s. But the interview was made more than half a century later, so the memory is perhaps slightly dubious.
Ed Cray pointed out that the opening phrases of the tune are essentially "Malbrouck"/"We Won't Go Home Until Morning"/"The Bear Went Over the Mountain"/"Pig in the Parlor," although the final phrases are different. He observes that the line "I'll never go there any more" is similar to a line in "The Bowery," and that line also has a tune that is similar to that part of "The Bowery." Cray therefore suspects that the tune is basically "Malbrouck" with lines attracted to "The Bowery."
The Sammy Kaye version is credited to Larry Vincent and Sonny Skylar in the version found by Lighter, but to "Moe Jaffe, Louis Prima, and Larry Vincent" in the version found by "and e." "And e" also found a 1946 copyright claim attributing it to "Sunny Skylar," another to "L. Vincent, Moe Jaffe and Louis Prima," and another with "words by Jules BiHari." So odds are that all of these are attempts to claim something they borrowed from someone else.
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 277, says that this "occasionally is banned, because its verses can be risqué." "Can be"? Are there any verses that aren't? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: EM245

I Wad Rather a Garret

See Geordie's Courtship (I Wad Rather a Garret) (File: Ord204B)

I Wald Be Very Sorry

See Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)

I Walk the Road Again

DESCRIPTION: The singer is "a poor unlucky chap" and "very fond of rum." He has rambled far and wide, taking odd jobs here and there. Whenever things go bad, "I got up and hoisted my turkey and I walked the road again." (Now he hopes to find a job and settle down.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944
KEYWORDS: rambling work drink unemployment
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 178, "I Walk the Road Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC178 (Partial)
Roud #4602
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "From Ogemaw" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Feeing Time (II)" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I'll Hit the Road Again, Boys
NOTES [28 words]: Cazden, early in his career, attributed this to the father of his informant George Edwards (who probably did adapt the text somewhat), but later retracted the claim. - RBW
File: FSC178

I Walk with Sorrow

See Fowles in the Frith (File: MSFowFri)

I Wan' To Go To 'Evun

See I Want To Go To Heaven (File: Edwa037)

I Wandered by the Brookside

DESCRIPTION: Walking by the mill at night the only sound the singer hears is her heart beating. She waits to hear one footstep or word. Finally "a touch came from behind ... the beating of our own two hearts Was all the sound I heard"
AUTHOR: words: R.M. Milnes/music: A.B. Clark ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1848 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1848 440340)
KEYWORDS: courting love separation
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 35, "As I Wandered by the Brookside" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 301, "I Wandered By a Brookside" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #2/72, p. 23 and #2/64, p. 23, "I Wandered by the Brookside" (1 text)
Roud #2418
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(405), "As I Wandered by the Brookside," J. Cadman (Manchester), 1850-1855; also Firth b.27(524), Harding B 11(3526), "As I Wandered by the Brookside"; Harding B 11(3162), "I Wandered by the Brook Side"
LOCSheet, sm1848 440340, "I Wandered by the Brookside," Wm. Hall and Son (New York), 1848; also sm1848 440400, sm1875 08167, sm1880 15884, "I Wandered by the Brookside" (tune)
LOCSinging, as106450, "I Wandered by the Brookside," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as106440, "I Wandered by the Brookside"
NOTES [33 words]: Broadside LOCSinging as113120: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CrMa035

I Wandered by the Sea-Beat Shore

See Shells of the Ocean (I) (File: HeSo254)

I Wandered Today Up the Hill, Maggie (I)

See When You and I Were Young, Maggie (File: RJ19237)

I Wandered Today Up the Hill, Maggie (II)

See When You and I Were Young, Maggie (MIning Parody) (File: CASF564A)

I Wanna Play Piano in a Whorehouse

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells us of his preferred profession, noting that "carnal copulation is here to stay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986
KEYWORDS: work music bawdy whore
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 251-252, "I Wanna Play Piano in a Whorehouse" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PLAYPIAN*
Roud #27846
File: EM251

I want a die easy when I die

See I Want To Die Easy When I Die (File: Parp244)

I Want a Girl (Just Like the Girl)

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a boy my mother often said to me, Get married boy and see, how happy you will be, I have looked all over, but no girlie can I find" who is what he wants, because "I want a girl, just like the girl that married dear old Dad."
AUTHOR: Words: William Dillon / Music: Harry von Tilzer (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: mother courting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 345, "I Want a Girl" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 33, "I Want a Girl" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 28290 "I Want a Girl (Just like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad)"
DT, WANTGIRL*
NOTES [53 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 293, estimates that this was the fourth most popular song in America in 1911, peaking at #2 in November 1911 (#1 for the year being Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF345I

I Want a Nice Little Fellow

DESCRIPTION: The singer hopes for a rich, pleasant husband so she won't spend her whole life working. Johnny promises her wealth, but mother notes that her husband made the same promise and broke it. The girl promises to return if Johnny breaks his promise
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Kelly Harrell)
KEYWORDS: courting love money hardtimes mother children father betrayal abuse technology drink
FOUND IN: US
Roud #13154
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "I Want a Nice Little Fellow" (Victor 20867, 1927; on KHarrell02)
NOTES [45 words]: The reference to automobiles implies that this song is not much older than Harrell's recording. It also has a sort of a prohibitionist undertone. But it feels traditional. While I suspect it of being a composed song, I don't think Harrell learned it from sheet music. - RBW
File: RcIWANLF

I Want a Pretty Woman

DESCRIPTION: Call and response. Call is the singer saying he wants a pretty woman who can sell what he has grown. Response is a list of goods to be sold such as cane and corn.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage01)
KEYWORDS: commerce farming nonballad beauty
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Allen Lovelace and Henry Williams, "I Want a Pretty Woman" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
File: RcIWaPrW

I Want a Sled Load of Some Poles

DESCRIPTION: "I want a sled load of some poles To build my chimney higher, For when the fearful rains come on It drowns out all my fire." Similarly, the singer wants poles to fence his garden to keep his neighbor's hogs out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
KEYWORDS: home storm | poles hogs
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 72, "(I want a sled load of some poles)" (1 text)
File: GFGW072A

I Want a Teddy Bear

DESCRIPTION: Skipping rhyme/game. "I want a teddy bear, With blue eyes and curly hair, Up among the Eskimos, Having a game of dominoes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal
FOUND IN: New Zealand Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 105, "(I want a teddy bear)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #263, "I want a teddy bear" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Man's a Millionaire" (lyrics)
NOTES [24 words]: I initially lumped this with "My Man's a Millionaire," based on a lot of similar lyrics, but having seen more versions, I have split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SuSm105A

I Want Jesus to Walk With Me

DESCRIPTION: "I want Jesus to walk with me (x2), All along my pilgrim journey, I want Jesus to walk with me." "In my trials, Lord, walk with me (x2), When the shades of life are falling, Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me." "In my sorrows, Lord..." "In my troubles,"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1997 (Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 58-59, "I Want Jesus to Walk With Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21566
RECORDINGS:
Gullah Kinfolk, "Walk Wit' Me" (on USSeaIsland04)
Venus McIver, Brenton Jordan and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Walk With Me" (on McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts)
NOTES [10 words]: McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts is a "ring shout" song. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: WarSp053

I Want More Religion

DESCRIPTION: "I want more religion, Lord, I want more religion, Lord, I want more religion To help me unto God. Religion makes me happy And then I want to go To leave this world of sorrow and trouble here below. Fathers, aren't you happy, And don't you want to go...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death
FOUND IN: US(MA,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, p. 59, "I Want More Religion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7751
File: KPL059

I Want to Be a College Man

See Mmm, And a Little Bit More (File: Paro202)

I Want to Be a Cowboy

DESCRIPTION: "I want to be a cowboy and with the cowboys stand, Big spurs on my bootheels and a lasso in my hand." The singer desires life on the range, hopes to get drunk in Cheyenne, and expects to "rope the slant old heathen and yank them straight to hell."
AUTHOR: Words: D. J. O'Malley (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Miles City Stock Grower's Journal, April 7, 1894, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: cowboy drink derivative
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 79, pp. 173-174, "I Want to Be a Cowboy" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, p. 10, "I Want to Be a Cowboy" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 331, "I Want to Be a Cowboy" (1 text)
Roud #4977
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Want to Be an Angel" (source song, according to Welsch)
File: LPnd173

I want to be a friend of yours, mmm, and a little bit more

See Mmm, And a Little Bit More (File: Paro202)

I Want to Be a Mormon

DESCRIPTION: "I want to be a Mormon And live the Mormon shine (sic.) In the shade of a big cactus And drink sweet Dixie wine. The Mormons they are happy And contented all their lives, with a little patch of carrots And their houses full of wives."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: home marriage religious
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #213, "I Want to Be a Mormon" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #10898
NOTES [76 words]: Although apparently collected from a Mormon, I have to suspect this is in fact an anti-Mormon song, given that it refers to drinking (discouraged by the Mormons) and refers to the man having multiple wives. The song seems to view Mormonism as great fun (at least for the men); in fact, the Mormons had to work extremely hard to survive in Utah, and (for the obvious reason that men and women are about equally numerous) very few ever had multiple wives. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: Hubb213

I Want to Be an Angel

DESCRIPTION: "I want to be an angel And with the angels stand, A crown upon my forehead, A harp in my hand. Outshine the sun (x3), And that's Beulah land."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 233, "I Want to Be an Angel" (1 text)
Roud #18156
NOTES [27 words]: The name "Beulah," used in Isaiah 62:4, means "married"; it isn't really an appropriate name for a country, but this is not evident from the King James Version. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: KiWaBlGI

I Want to be Ready (Walk In Jerusalem)

See Walk in Jerusalem Just Like John (File: FSWB356A)

I Want to Be Somebody's Darling

See I'm Tired of Living Alone (File: Br3272)

I Want To Die A-Shouting

DESCRIPTION: Verse pattern is: (floating line), "I want to die a-shouting, I want to feel my Savior near, When soul and body's parting," (floating line) "I want to die a-shouting," (floating line) "I want to die a-shouting"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 12, "I Want To Die A-Shouting" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [74 words]: Floating lines include "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound" and "Am I a soldier of the cross."
The refrain may also be a floater. Specifically, The Camp Meeting Chorister (Philadelphia: W.A. Leary, 1844 ("Digitized by Inernet Archive")), #115 pp. 109-110, ("Oh! that I had some humble place") includes the lines "I want to live a Christian here; I want to die while shouting; I want to feel my Saviour near, When soul and body's parting." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart012A

I Want To Die Easy When I Die

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I want to die easy when I die, When I die When I die (x2), I want to die easy when I die Shout salvation as I fly, I want to die easy when I die, When I die" Verses, in the same pattern: "I want to see my mother (Jesus) when I die..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Johnson and Johnson)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 244, ("I want a die easy when I die") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, The Books of American Negro Spirituals (New York: Viking Press, 1969 (copyright 1925, 1926)), Book 2, pp. 46-49, "I Want To Die Easy When I Die" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16660
File: Parp244

I Want to Die Like Weeping Mary

DESCRIPTION: The leader starts "I want to die like weepin' Mary," and the response to that and all other lines is "'side my Jesus." The leader continues "side by side," "any way," "sit 'side"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (McIntosh1)
KEYWORDS: death Bible nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, p. 114-115, "I Want to Die Like Weepin' Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Lucille Holloway and the McIntosh County Shouters, "I Want to Die Like Weepin' Mary" (on McIntosh1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep" ("Mary weeping" theme)
NOTES [631 words]: The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree/McIntoshShouters-RingShoutSongs text and track is a "ring shout" song. - BS
Mary weeping is in John 20:11-12: "But Mary [Magdalene] stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain" (King James).
On the other hand, discounting the explicit reference to weeping, the reference could be to one of the other two Marys. At the crucifixion, "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene" (John 19:25, King James). So Ramey -- looking at "Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep" -- believes it is Mary the mother of Jesus who weeps (Lauri Ramey, "The Theology of the Lyric Tradition in SAfrican American Spirituals" in Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 70, No. 2 (Jun 2002 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 360).
There is no mention of either Mary's death in the Bible. What stories about that were current in the Sea Islands? - BS
The question of which Mary wept is complex. That Mary Magdalene did so in John 20 is clear, but often references to Mary weeping are to Mary of Bethany. In John 11, Mary mourns for her brother Lazarus, although the weeping is not explicit. Mary is explicitly said to be the woman who anointed Jesus's feet and wiped them with her hair (John 11:2; 12:1-8). To repeat, in John, she is not described as weeping, but there is a parallel in the Synoptic Gospels in which an UNNAMED woman anoints Jesus's feet at Bethany, and in Luke 7:38 this woman is said to weep, although this is not mentioned in Matthew or Mark. Thus the weeping sinner might be Mary of Bethany. Or might not, of course.
[To make matters worse, there is much dispute about how many women were at the foot of the cross, because the four gospels give different lists. All, of course, were considered saints, and all had legends told about them:
* Mary mother of Jesus (John 19:25): Taken up bodily into heaven.
* Mary Magdalene (Matthew 27:56, Mark 15:40f.; John 19:25): Equated (surely falsely) with Mary of Bethany, and often said to have gone with Martha and Lazarus of Bethany (in this legend, her brother and sister) to evangelize Provence, where she died after a long life of prayer. In the east, where the equation with Mary of Bethany was less clear, there is a legend she died in Ephesus
* Mary the mother of James and Joses/Joseph (Matthew 27:56, Mark 15:40, Luke 8:3): usually identified with one of the other Marys, so there are few explicit legends about her
* Mary the wife of Clopas (John 19:25; the grammar does not make it clear whether she is the sister of the Virgin Mary or someone else; the KJV spelling "Cleophas" is a textual corruption): Again, usually identified with one of the other Marys.
Matthew 17:56 says the mother of the sons of Zebedee was also there, but does not give her a name, unless she is also the mother of James and Joses. Mark 15:40 also lists Salome. Luke 24:10 lists Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary Mother of Jesus were the ones who came to the empty tomb.
The confusion all this causes was so much that one Coptic source twisted itself into knots trying to make all these Maries into one person by saying that her father had two names, and she was born in Magdala, and she was related to James; see M(ontague) R(hodes) James, The Apocryphal New Testament, Oxford, 1924 (references are to the edition of 1972 of the corrected edition of 1953), p. 87.
Bottom line: There were plenty of legends floating around from a very early date about how a weeping Mary died, but since they were non-Biblical, we cannot say if they are the legends the song refers to. - RBW]
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcIWDLWM

I Want to Die Like-a Lazarus Die

DESCRIPTION: "I want to die like-a Lazarus die, Die like-a Lazarus die, I want to die like-a Lazarus die, like-a Lazarus die, like-a Lazarus die." "Titty Rita die like-a Lazarus die...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious death nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 98, "I Want to Die Like-a Lazarus Die" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12055
NOTES [58 words]: There are two Lazaruses mentioned in the New Testament, and both die in ways which would probably be considered desirable. The first Lazarus, described in Luke 16:9ffff., is merely a character in a parable, but he dies and goes to "Abraham's bosom." The story of the second fills much of John 11, which tells how Jesus brought him back to life. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG098

I Want to Go Back to Georgia

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I want to go back to Georgia, And I want to go back to Georgia." Verses float: "The 'coon he hates a ringy tail." "The higher you'll climb the cherry tree." "I won't have you to save my life... But I can get a-plenty more, For 18 cents a dozen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Morris, Southern Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: travel home floatingverses courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #140, "I Want to Go Back to Georgia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5047
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss" (floating lyrics) and references there
File: Morr140

I Want to Go Home (I)

See No More Rain Fall for Wet You (File: AWG046A)

I Want to Go Home (II)

See I Wanta Go Home (File: SBar017B)

I Want To Go Home (III)

See No More Rain Fall for Wet You (File: AWG046A)

I Want to Go to Baltimore

DESCRIPTION: "I want to go to Baltimore, I want to go to France, I want to go to Baltimore To see the ladies dance."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: playparty travel dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 101, "I Want to Go to Baltimore" (1 fragment)
Roud #7902
NOTES [10 words]: Clearly a fragment of something, but it's not clear what. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Br3101

I Want To Go To Heaven

DESCRIPTION: "Give away Jordan (3x), I want to go to heaven to see my Lord." Verses include "Just let me put on my long white robe ... I'll march Jerusalem 'round and 'round"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 37, "I Wan' To Go To 'Evun" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [55 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. Verses are couplets, each line followed by "I want to go to heaven to see my Lord."
Floating verses include "I look'd over yonder; what I see? ... I see bright angels standing there," "The talles' tree in Paridise ... The Christians call it 'Tree of Life.'" - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa037

I Want To Go To Mexico

See I Won't Go to Macy's Any More (File: OpGap478)

I Want to Go to Morrow

DESCRIPTION: Singer sets out for the town of Morrow. He tries to buy a ticket to Morrow "and return tomorrow night." The agent says he should have gone to Morrow yesterday and back today, for "the train that goes to Morrow is a mile upon its way."
AUTHOR: Lew Sully
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (sheet music published)
KEYWORDS: questions train travel railroading humorous nonsense paradox
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 32-33, "To Morrow' (1 text)
DT, MORROW1
Roud #9554
RECORDINGS:
Dan W. Quinn, "I Want to Go to Morrow" (Improved Berliner 438, c. 1900; Victor [Monarch] 12, 1900)
Bert Shepard, "I Want to Go to Morrow" (Victor 899, 1901)
Harry Spencer, "How I Got to Morrow" (Columbia 855, 1902)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yuba Dam" (subject, such as it is, and general atmosphere)
NOTES [132 words]: Morrow, Ohio, said to be the subject of this song, is a small town just northeast of Cincinnati. - RBW
That may be, but according to the WPA guide for Kansas, the town of Morrowville "was named for its founder, Cal Morrow, State Senator (...). Until 1896 the town was called Morrow, but its name was changed to Morrowville after the railroad company had complained that its ticket agents were confused when travelers asked for 'a ticket to Morrow (tomorrow).'" Perfect timing for Lew Sully's song, published two years later. - PJS
You have me there. The only counterargument is, Why would enough people want to go to Morrow, Kansas for it to be a problem? - RBW
And, to be fair, the song does say, "There is a town called Morrow in the state of O-hi-o". Did the same thing happen twice? - PJS
File: DTmorrow

I Want To Go Where Jesus Is

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I Want to go where Jesus is," "To play upon the golden harp"(3x) Verse: "Jesus, my all, to heaven has gone, To play upon the golden harp, He whom I fix my hopes upon, To play upon the golden harp"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus music
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 13, "I Want To Go Where Jesus Is" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Bart013A

I Want to Make the Riffle

DESCRIPTION: "It was an old miner, pick upon his shoulder... 'I want to make the riffle, and I think I'll make it here.'" The miner describes twenty years of hunting, and all he hoped to do once he "made the riffle." He still hasn't, but he keeps drinking and trying
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (South Pass 1868: James Chisholm's Journal of the Wyoming Gold Rush, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest; presumably this means it existed by 1868)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 138, "I Want to Make the Riffle" (1 text)
File: LDC138

I Want to See Jesus (Bathe in the River)

DESCRIPTION: "I want to see Jesus in the morning -- Bathe in the river. I want to go to heaven -- Bathe in the river. Oh, chillun, get on board, Oh, chillun, get on board; Oh, Jesus is aboard, Oh, chillun, get aboard; Oh, preacher get on board."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Henry, from "the singing of Negroes at Skyland, Virginia")
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 192, "I Want to See Jesus" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Get On Board, Little Children" (lyrics)
NOTES [74 words]: This looks a lot like "Get On Board, Little Children," but with no tune, seemingly only the one text, and several lines quite unique, I think I have to keep them separate.
Henry records the second line as "Bathe in the River" (note the capitalization), implying the River Jordan and the washing away of sins. This is probably a correct interpretation, but I have avoided this usage since we do not know what the singers meant with certainty. - RBW
File: MHAp192

I Want to See My Wife

DESCRIPTION: The worker (on the rail line?) expresses his loneliness and frustration: "I want to see my wife and children, Bim!... Captain Walker, where in the world did you come from?... Captain, send me a cool drink of water...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: work worker hardtimes loneliness separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 94-95, (no title) (2 texts, probably partial, 1 tune)
File: CNFM094

I Want to Wake Up in the Morning

See Where the Morning Glories Grow (File: ACSF190W)

I Want to Wake Up in the Morning Where the Morning Glories Grow

See Where the Morning Glories Grow (File: ACSF190W)

I Want Two Wings

See Two Wings (File: IWan2Win)

I Want You All to Be There

DESCRIPTION: "When I get on the mountain top, I want you all to be there, And hear my wings go flippety-flop, I want you all to be there."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 455, "When I Get on Yonder Hill" (2 texts, but only the "B" fragment goes here)
Roud #911
NOTES [36 words]: Randolph, for no reason I can see, classifies this with "When I Get On Yonder Hill," a fragment of "Shule Agra." To me it looks like a fragment of a southern hymn, which was also the understanding of the informant. - RBW
File: R455

I Wanta Go Home

DESCRIPTION: "I wanta go home, I wanta go home, The bullets they whistle, the cannons they roar. I don't wanta go to the trenches no more. Ship me over the sea, Where the Allemand can't get at me: O, ny! I'm too young to die, I wanta go home!"
AUTHOR: parts by Gitz Rice? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: soldier homesickness home war
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 17, "I Wanta Go Home" (1 short text)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 55, "I Don't Want to Die" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 72, "I Want to Go Home" (1 text
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 181-182, "I want to go home" (1 text)
Roud #9613 and 10547
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gee, But I Want to Go Home" (theme, some words)
NOTES [91 words]: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver credits this to Gitz Rice and dates in 1915. Sheet music in the John Hopkins library shows that Lieutenant Gitz Rice did write a song "I Want to Go Home," with this approximate chorus -- but the Rice version has verses and a long chorus, whereas the traditional song does not use the Rice verses and instead converts the first part of the chorus into its own verse and has multiple verses of its own. I'd consider the result a different song. In the circumstances, I'm not entirely sure which version came first. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SBar017B

I Wanter Jine de Ban

See I Hope I'll Join the Band (Soon in the Morning) (File: R266)

I Was Born About Four Thousand Years Ago

See I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song) (File: R410)

I Was Born About Six Thousand Years Ago

See I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song) (File: R410)

I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song)

DESCRIPTION: "I was born about ten thousand years ago, And there's nothing in this world that I don't know." The singer boasts of his past accomplishments, e.g. watching Adam and Eve eat the apple (and eating the core); teaching Solomon to read....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913
KEYWORDS: humorous bragging lie Bible
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Randolph 410, "I Was Born About Four Thousand Years Ago" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 426, "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago" (2 texts plus a fragment and mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 426, "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago" (1 tune plus a text ringing)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 187, "The Historian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 101, "Four Thousand Years Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 14-15, "10,000 Years Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 330-331, "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #180, "I Was Born ABout Six Thousand Years Ago" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 10, "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 346-350, "The Highly Educated Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 69, "I'm the Man That Rode the Mule 'Round the World" (1 text, with a a final verse, and probably an extended introductory verse, by Charlie Poole)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 170, "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 26, "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 301, 302, 397-398, "I Was Born about Ten Thousand Years Ago" (notes only)
DT, (JUSTFACT) (BORN10K)
Roud #3127
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley & Tex Isley, "I'm The Man That Rode the Mule Around the World" (on Ashley01)
Dwight Butcher, "The Man That Rode a Mule Around the World" (Victor 23810, 1933)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "When Abraham and Isaac Rushed the Can" (OKeh 40181, 1924)
Cramer Brothers, "I Was Born Four Thousand Years Ago" (Broadway 757, c. 1927 [as "I Was Born 4000 Years Ago"]; Broadway 8059, c. 1932; rec. 1927)
Crockett's Kentucky Mountaineers "I Was Born 10,000 Years Ago" (Crown 3101/Homestead 23040/0Montgomery Ward M-3024 [as Harlan Miners Fiddlers]/Joe Davis 3506 [as Kentucky Mountaineers]/Varsity 5088 [as Hale's Kentucky Mountaineers], all c.1931)
Vernon Dalhart, "I'm the Man That Rode the Mule Around the World" (CYL: Edison 5278, n.d.)
Otto Gray & his Oklahoma Cowboys, "4000 Years Ago" (Vocalion 5479, rec. 1931)
Georgia Organ Grinders, "Four Thousand Years Ago" (Columbia 15445-D, 1929)
Kelly Harrell, "I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago" (OKeh 40486, 1925; on KHarrell01)
Bradley Kincaid, "Four Thousand Years Ago" (Gennett 6761/Champion 15687 [as Dan Hughey]/Supertone 9362, 1929; Superior 2656, 1931; Champion 45057 [as Dan Hughey], c. 1935)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Man That Rode the Mule Around the World" (Vocalion 5356, 1929)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "I Was Born Four Thousand Years Ago" (Brunswick 110/Vocalion 5028, 1927; Supertone S-2033, 1930)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "I'm the Man That Rode the Mule 'Round the World" (Columbia 15043-D, 1925, with an extended introductory verse by Poole; on CPoole04)
Pete Seeger, "I Was Born 10,000 Years Ago" (on PeteSeeger11)
Smoky Mountain Twins, "I Was Born 4000 Years Ago" (Conqueror 7065, 1928)
Dock Walsh, "Educated Man" (Columbia 15057-D, 1925)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Day Columbus Landed Here"
cf. "Sara Jane" (lyrics of some versions)
SAME TUNE:
I Wish I Were a... (File: ACSF228I)
How Do You Do? (File: ACSF301H)
NOTES [248 words]: It need hardly be stated that there is very little truth in this song (even if one accepts the Bible as literally true). I won't state examples; they would just bore you.
I do suspect that the "Ten Thousand Years" title is original, and "four thousand years" is a later correction by those who thought the braggart couldn't have been born before 4004 BCE. And "six thousand years ago" may be an adjustment by someone who knew Archbishop Ussher's 4004 date and did some subtraction. - RBW
Not to be confused with the bawdy "Three Thousand Years Ago". -PJS
The verse "She's my darling, she's my daisy, She's humpbacked and she's crazy... She's my freckled-faced consumptive Mary Ann" (sung as part of this song, e.g., by Charlie Poole) is also associated with "Hungry Hash House," and that's where I've listed it when it occurs on its own. It's not clear that Poole's piece belongs there, but for the moment I'm listing that song with this one because it fits better metrically.
Woody Guthrie took this idea and rewrote it as "The Great Historical Bum." This was one of his Columbia River songs; Greg Vandy with Daniel Person, 26 Songs in 30 Days: Woody Guthrie's Columbia River Songs and the Planned Promised Land in the Pacific Northwest, Sasquatch Books, 2016, p. xvi, shows one of Woody's typed copies; it ends "But Coulee Dam's th' biggest thing that Man has ever done." Someone (Chad Mitchell Trio? Milt Okun?) then combined the two. Talk about a strange sort of folk process. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R410

I Was Born in a Frying Pan

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I was born in a frying pan, Can you guess how old I am? One, two three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | frying pan counting
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #111, "(I was born in a frying pan)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #264, "I was born in a frying pan" (1 text)
Roud #19437
File: AJRV111

I Was Born in East Virginia

See East Virginia (Dark Hollow) (File: JRSF134)

I Was Born in Killarney

See I Wish They'd Do It Now (File: Gil111)

I Was Born in Pennsylvania

See Young Companions [Laws E15] (File: LE15)

I Was Born on the River

DESCRIPTION: "I was born on the river, and the river is my home, As long as I can carry a chain, I won't leave the river alone." The singer asks the Captain for money, describes how the Captain bosses the gang, and advises against gambling
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: work river boss gambling money hardtimes poverty
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 33-35, "I Wuz Borned on the Rivuh" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 118, "Woman, Woman, I See Yo' Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10007
NOTES [52 words]: The Wheeler text "Woman, Woman, I See Yo' Man" differs in from from "I Was Born on the River," but half its verses are found in the longer song. As is often the case in Wheeler's material, there is no good way to classify the result. I combine because, if I didn't, I'd have to list every piece in Wheeler separately.
File: MWHee033

I Was Born Under a Kind Star

See Personalia (File: KSUC174A)

I Was Chasing One-Elevens

DESCRIPTION: "I was chasing One-Elevens up at Angels 23 (x3) With my canopy so frosted that I couldn't bloody see. Glory, glory, what a hell of a way to die...." This and other tales of how an aircraft can be in grave danger while in flight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: death soldier technology
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 124-125, "I Was Chasing One-Elevens" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #29397
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune) and references there
cf. "He'll Never Fly Home Again" ("Glory, glory what a hell of a way to die" chorus) and references there
NOTES [545 words]: Although every problem mentioned in the Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear text is real, the details are sometimes a little inaccurate.
The "One-Eleven," as Hopkins says, was the Heinkel He 111 medium bomber. A strange-looking plane with two engines and a very large nose, "the first HE 111 was a graceful machine with elliptical wings and tail, secretly flown as a bomber but revealed to the world a year later as a civil airliner.... In February 1937 operations began with the Legion Kondor in Spain, with considerable success.... To a considerable degree the success of the early elliptical winged HE 111 bombers in Spain misled the Luftwaffe into considering that nothing could withstand the onslaught of their huge fleets of medium bombers" (Gunston, p. 400). But by the time of the Battle of Britain, "the He 111 was hacked down with ease, its only defence being its toughness and ability to come back after being shot to pieces. The inevitable result was that more and more defensive guns were added, needing a fifth or even a sixth crew-member. Coupled with incessant growth in equipment and armour the result was deteriorating , so that the record-breaker of 1936-1938 was the sitting duck of 1942-1945" (Gunston, p. 401).
Despite this, the Germans were unable to replace the Heinkel; they never developed a better alternative or a successful four-engined bomber. "By the middle of the war the He 111 was obsolescent, but the lack of success of its potential replacements... necessitated keeping it in production well into 1944" (Munson, p. 95).
It is just barely possible that an Allied fighter would encounter a Heinkel at "Angels 23" (23,000 feet), but it's not very likely; the plane's service ceiling was 25,500 feet, but it could not fly above 16,400 when fully loaded (Gunston, p. 396).
In the second verse, the flyer is flying at Angels 41 (41,000 feet) when a bunch of Messerschmitts come at him out of the sun. It's not clear what plane the singer is flying, but the opponent is presumably the Messerschmitt Bf-109, or just possibly the Messerschmitt Bf-110. But the altitude is a problem here. The Bf-110 had a service ceiling of 32,800 feet (Gunston, p. 224). Some Bf-109s could go higher than that (one reason they continued to be produced after the superior Focke-Wulf 190 came on the scene is that the FW 190 sometimes had trouble at high altitude), but the highest service ceiling listed on p. 218 is 41,000 feet, and only a tiny handful of Bf-109s could go that high; most had a ceiling of 38,500 or less. And to come at the pilot out of the sun probably means they came in at him from above
The Ju 88 of the last verse is the described by Hopkins as a twin-engined bomber, and it is true that it was designed as a medium bomber (Munson, p. 102). But "Parallel with the development of the Junkers Ju 88 as a medium bomber, the type was also being adapted to a variety of other roles, particularly those of night fighter, close support, and reconnaissance" (Munson, p. 103). So our pilot might have encountered the Ju 88 as a fighter. Once again the service ceiling is a little high; the song says the Ju 88 was at Angel 38 (38,000 feet), but the highest-flying Ju 88 reached only 36,000 feet, and most had ceiings below that (Gunston, p. 215). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hopk124

I Was Despised Because I Was Poor

See I'm Despised for Being Poor (File: Beld195)

I Was Drunk Last Night

DESCRIPTION: "I was drunk last night, my darlin', And drunk the night before, But if ever I get sober, I'll never get drunk any more. Beautiful light o'er the sea...." "An' now I'll gather the roses To twine in my long braided hair...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: drink courting nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 407, "I Was Drunk Last Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7681
RECORDINGS:
Red Patterson's Log Rollers, "I'll Never Get Drunk Any More" (Victor 20936, 1927)
Riley Puckett, "I'll Never Get Drunk Anymore" (Columbia 15063, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drunk Last Night" (initial line)
NOTES [103 words]: Rabdolph's verson is, in a way, impressive: In the space of twelve lines, it manages to invoke three songs: a "Never Get Drunk Any More" piece, the hymn "Beautiful Light," and something similar to "Wildwood Flower." Now all it needs is a stanza of a murder ballad to include every song-type known to humanity. - RBW
Not quite; it doesn't mention trains, trucks, prison, or mama. -PJS
"Trucks"? What do you think this is? A Nashville Nonsense Index? :-)
Note that this is a separate song from "Drunk Last Night," despite the similar opening. Some might lump them, given that this seems to be an almost-unique sport. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: R407

I Was Just Sixteen

DESCRIPTION: "I was just sixteen when I first started roving" the sinful world. He meets and leaves a pretty girl. They agreed to be true but she thinks "on the vows she broke." She commits suicide. At her funeral a letter arrives; "Willie fell from the yardarm"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: courting love parting death funeral suicide lover mistress mother sailor separation
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 102, "I Was Just Sixteen" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 720-721, "The Spanish Main" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 40, "The Spanish Main" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 349-353, "The Spanish Main (I Was Just Sixteen)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2296
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Ambrose Coombs, "The Spanish Main" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: GrMa102

I Was Not Half Worthy of You

See Douglas! Tender and True (File: HeSo084)

I Was Once a Sailor

DESCRIPTION: "Yes, I was once a sailor boy, I plowed the restless sea. I saw the sky look fair and glad And I felt proud and free." The sailor recalls his travels, but notes he made little profit. He now has a small farm and thinks his life is sweet
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Journal from the Florida)
KEYWORDS: sailor travel farming home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 66-67, "I Was Once a Sailor" (1 text)
Roud #2021
NOTES [20 words]: Huntington thinks this might be related to "The Faithful Sailor Boy" [Laws K13]. I don't see any signs of kinship. - RBW
File: SWMS067

I Was Once in a Dark and Lonesome Valley

DESCRIPTION: "I was once in a dark and lonesome valley, And Satan led with trouble on de way. But de devil tryin' hard to stop me, And dey laugh at me whatever dey hears me say." "Here's a light, chillun (x2), Here's a light where de angels led before us."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious Devil
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 599, "I Was Once in a Dark and Lonesome Valley" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 599, "I Was Once in a Dark and Lonesome Valley" (notes only)
Roud #11909
File: Br3599

I Was Only Seventeen

DESCRIPTION: "I was only seventeen When first I went to sea. I was shipwrecked off the coast of France" and is rescued by a woman -- who then starts taking off her clothes, and proves to be tattooed with a world map. Before he can investigate, "her old man came along"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor wreck disaster clothes derivative
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 68, "I Was Only Seventeen" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Let the Rest of the World Go By" (tune)
NOTES [69 words]: "Let the Rest of the World Go By," words by J. Keirn Brennan, music by Ernest Ball, was published in 1919 and a major hit in 1920 (Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 329, estimates that it was the #2 song in America that year). It makes me suspect this song predates World War II, though I can't prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Tawn051

I Was Out Walking

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

I Was Reared in Pennsylvania

See Young Companions [Laws E15] (File: LE15)

I Was Sitting on a Stile

See I'm Sitting on the Stile, Mary (The Irish Emigrant II) (File: Pea462)

I Was Standing on Pickets

See The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging) [Laws O33] (File: LO33)

I Was Standing on the Corner

See The County Jail (File: GC147)

I Was the Boy for Bewitching Them

DESCRIPTION: Mothers warn their daughters to beware of the singer, irresistable Teddy. He had few rivals and, when Pat Mooney just met his Shelah, Teddy "twigged" him. "Beauties no matter how cruel ... Melted like mud in a frost"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1809 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland); c.1815 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.26(452))
KEYWORDS: bragging rake
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, p. 122, "I Was the Boy for Bewitching Them" (1 fragment)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 196, "I Was the Boy for Bewitching Them" (1 text)
Roud #V17647
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(452), "I Was the Boy for Bewitching Them" ("I was the boy for bewitching 'em"), Todd and Son (Easingwold), c.1815; also Harding B 25(931), "I Was the Boy for Bewitching 'em "; Harding B 17(143a), "I Was the Boy, &c"; Harding B 28(128), "I Am the Boy for Bewitching Them"
NOTES [249 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland has a fragment not in the broadsides but which "was a favourite some thirty years ago [c.1809]." The tone fits the broadsides but the words parallel "My God, How the Money Rolls In":
My father he married a Quaker,
My aunt she made hay with a fork;
And my uncle's a great grand brogue-maker
In the beautiful city called Cork
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Firth b.26(452) is the basis for the description. The Croker fragment is quoted again in Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland by a Mr Windle "borrowing the words of an old song." (p. 162).
Croker's fragment is not in either Bodleian broadside. Maybe it does not belong here at all. Except for substituting father, aunt, and uncle for grandfather, uncle, and mither, it matches the first four lines of Greig/Duncan4 820, "My Grandfather Married a Quaker."
A note, Preliminary Finding List for Early Irish Tunes, at The Wrapper Band site says "I was the boy for bewitching 'em [Said to be from play, Matrimony, c 1804. Music by P. M. King. Song attributed to Kenny in US1 [The Universal Songster or Museum of Mirth, Vol. I,1825], p. 180]; CIR 49 [1808. Crosby's Irish Musical Repository]: The Boy for bewitching them; HIA 7 [One Hundred Irish Airs. New York: Pub. by P. M. Haverty]" Matrimony opened Nov 20, 1804, at Drury Lane "by James Kenny (librettist) and M.P. King (composer)," according to William J Burling [Version 1.2 copyright 3/7/2003] at Missouri State University site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: CrPS122

I Was Traveling Down the Bogan

DESCRIPTION: "I was traveling down the Bogan Where the scrub was thick and dence, With a thousand head of Tyson's From Queensland's 'Border fence'... With a score of barbed wire fences -- What a bloody spread (?) of iron bars"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger)
KEYWORDS: cattle travel
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 18, page headed "Ditty: The plains of"], "(no title)" (1 short text)
File: FaWIWTDB

I Was Walking through the Dockyard in a Panic

DESCRIPTION: "I was walking through the Dockyard in a panic, When I met a matelot old and grey... And this is what I heard him say, I wonder, yes I wonder, Has the Jaunty made a blunder?" "It's a shame to send me off to sea." The man wants to stay on shore duty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor navy derivative
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 43-44, "I Was Walking Through the Dockyard in a Panic" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wonder, Yes I Wonder" (tune)
File: Tawn027

I Wear My Pink Pajamas

DESCRIPTION: "I wear my pink pajamas in the summer when it's hot, I wear my woolen nightie in the winter when it's not, And sometimes in the springtime, and sometimes in the fall, I slip between the covers with nothing on at all. Glory, glory, what's it to ya?..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Cleveland [Ohio] Plain Dealer, May 23, 1913, according to Johathan Lighter)
KEYWORDS: clothes humorous derivative campsong
FOUND IN: US(MW) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 72, "I Wear My pink pyjamas in the summertime" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 34, "My Pink Pajamas" (2 texts, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 101, 167, 289, "I Wear My Pink Pajamas" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 40, "Pink Pajamas" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT, PINKPAJ
Roud #10311
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Pink Pajamas" (Piotr-Archive #377, recorded 12/07/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune) and references there
cf. "Oh, Sir Jasper" (lyrics)
cf. "The Merry Widow" (tune of Alice Kane's version)
NOTES [109 words]: Roud lumps this with "Oh, Sir Jasper." I don't.
Jonathan Lighter found three different pre-World War II versions in newspapers, the earliest being from 1913. This hints at oral transmission at quite an early date. The list so far:
Cleveland [Ohio] Plain Dealer, May 23, 1913, p. 14. (Essentially the same as the version in the description except that it's a "flannel nightie" in line two and the singer "creep(s)" between the covers in line four.)
[Little Rock] Arkansas Democrat, May 15, 1913, p. 6. The singer "dive(s)" between the covers.
Wilkes-Barre [Pennsylvania] Times-Leader, December 3, 1932, p. 20. A reference with only a partial text. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: PHCF034P

I Wear My Pink Pyjamas in the Summertime

See I Wear My Pink Pajamas (File: PHCF034P)

I Went Down the Lane to Buy a Penny Whistle

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I went down the lane to buy a penny whistle. A copper came by and pinched my penny whistle. I ask him for it back, he says he hasn't got it, Hi, hi, Curlywig, you've got it in your pocket."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas)
KEYWORDS: jumprope music theft police | pennywhistle
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #266, "I went down the lane to buy a penny whistle" (1 text)
Roud #20576
File: AJRR266

I Went Down to My Girl's House Last Night

DESCRIPTION: "I went down to my girl's house last night, She met me at the door. She knocked me in the head with a rolling pin And I ain't been back no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting abuse abandonment floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 451, "I Went Down to My Gul's House Last Night" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 451, "I Went Down to My Gul's House Last Night" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11785
NOTES [14 words]: Obviously this is a floating fragment. It's not clear what it's floated free of. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3451

I Went Down to My Grandpa's Farm

DESCRIPTION: "I went down to my grandpa's farm, I chased that billy goat around the barn. I love coffee, I love tea, How many kicks did he give me?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal food
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 109, "(I went down to my Grandpa's farm)" (1 short text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 126, "I Like Coffee, I Like Tea" (1 text, the second half of the McIntosh text)
File: McIn109C

I Went Down to My Gul's House Last Night

See I Went Down to My Girl's House Last Night (File: Br3451)

I Went Down to New Orleans (I)

DESCRIPTION: Discovered in bed with the daughter of the landlord and landlady, the rover has sex with the mother too, and violates the father with a brace of pistols.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous landlord seduction sex
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 105-106, "I Went Down to New Orleans" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O'Reilly's Daughter"
File: EM105

I Went Down to New Orleans (II)

See He's Got the Money Too (File: R299)

I Went Down to See Miss Lucy

See The Catfish (Banjo Sam) and the other songs in the notes there (File: Vr3182)

I Went Down to the Depot

See Jesse James (I) [Laws E1] (File: LE01)

I Went Down to the Lowground

DESCRIPTION: "I went down to the low ground To see about my farm; I ran upon a black snake With an ash cake under his arm. How come that snake don't die? How come that snake don't die?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 187, "I Went Down to the Lowground" (1 text)
Roud #15770
File: Br3187

I Went Down to the Sea

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I went down to the sea (river), I went down to the lake, I saw a fellow throw and break a plate. How many whip(pings) do you think he got?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: travel jumprope punishment | throw plate
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #267, "I went down to the sea" (1 text)
File: AJRR267

I Went Downtown

DESCRIPTION: "I went downtown To meet Miss Brown. She gave me a nickel, I bought me a pickle. The pickle was sour; I bought me a flower. The flower was red, I bought some thread." And so on, though various swaps, perhaps with a special act to be done at the end
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad commerce gift food
FOUND IN: US(MW) New Zealand
REFERENCES (3 citations):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 103-104, "(I went up town)" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 112, "(Mother Brown went to town)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #58, "(I went downtown)" (1 fragment)
Roud #19420
File: McIn103A

I Went Downtown to Meet Mrs. Brown

See Choo'n Gum (Chewing Gum; Chew, Chew, Chew; Bubblegum) (File: ACSF142C)

I Went Downtown to See Miss Brown

See Choo'n Gum (Chewing Gum; Chew, Chew, Chew; Bubblegum) (File: ACSF142C)

I Went Downtown to the Alligator Farm

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I went downtown to the alligator farm. I sat on the fence and the fence broke down The alligator bit me by the seat of the pants And made me do the hoochie-koochie dance."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: travel animal injury jumprope | alligator
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #61, "(I went downtown)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #270, "I went down town" (1 text)
NOTES [22 words]: No tune is indicated for this by Ainsworth, and I haven't seen other versions, but I strongly suspect it's "Turkey in the Straw."- RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRV061

I Went Home One Night

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

I Went Into Her Mother's House

See Locks and Bolts [Laws M13] (File: LM13)

I Went Into My Grandmother's Garden

DESCRIPTION: "I went into my father's/grandmother's garden/While going through the garden, I found a rusty/Irish farthing. I gave it to my mother To buy a baby brother" who may go to sea, or whom the singer may throw over the wall. Bbrother may catch 1, 2, 3, 4 fishes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: travel gardening money commerce mother brother sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 58, "(Going around the garden)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 178, "I went into my grandmother's garden" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #81, "(I went to my father's garden)" (1 text)
Roud #19301
NOTES [57 words]: Halliwell, who seems to have been the first to collect this, had it as a riddle, with the answer "A tobacco pipe" -- which I do not think a correct to the riddle as given. Nonetheless Beatrix Potter (who used several traditional riddles, especially in (The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin") used part of it in 1903's 'The Tailor of Gloucester." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI058A

I Went Into the House -- Just Like Me

See Just Like Me (File: Newe086)

I Went On Board the Ida

DESCRIPTION: "I went on board the Ida, I did not go to stay, I put my hand on the Yalla gal dress And the captain fainted away." "Champion Charles is my name"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes fishing ship shanty Black(s)
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 58, "I Went On Board the Ida" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [114 words]: Elder-Charlottville: "One of the commoner shanties heard among Tobago fishermen."
The verse structure -- but not the tune -- follows "Ain't Gonna Rain No More." Digital Tradition has "Old Napper Rise-1846 -The song is known as a minstrel song -- I went down to New Orleans / Didn't go to stay / Laid my head in a yellow gals lap / Yellow gal fainted away" at http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=16527 accessed June 26, 2015 (cf. Grandpa Jones, "Going Down Town" (King 772 B, 1949) for a more PC version showing that the lines survived in the U.S. as well: "Well, I ain't got long to stay / I ain't got long to stay / Laid my head in a pretty gal's lap / Pretty gal vanished away"). - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElCh058

I Went Out A-Hunting, Sir

See The Sally Buck (File: SKE70)

I Went to a Chinese Restaurant

DESCRIPTION: "I went to a Chinese restaurant, To buy a loaf of bread ... they wrapped it in a five pound note." The note said "My name is Alli, alli, Chickerlye chickerlye ... Chinese chopsticks, Indian chief says 'How!'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: food playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 143, "I Went to a Chinese Restaurant" (4 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Elizabeth Grugeon, "Gender Implications of Children's Playground Culture" in Peter Woods and Martyn Hammersley, editors, Gender and Ethnicity in Schools (1993 (copyrighted material limited preview "Digitized by Google")) #3 p. 32, ("I went to the Chinese Restaurant") (1 text)
Roud #20093
File: OpGa143

I Went to a River

See Went to the River (I) (File: R258)

I Went to Arkansas

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I went to Arkansas To buy myself a saw. I never saw so many saws As I saw in Arkansas."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Lady on the Mountain (I))
KEYWORDS: jumprope | Arkansas saw
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #142, "(I went to Arkansas)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #271, "I went to Arkansas" (1 text)
File: AJRV142

I Went to Atlanta

DESCRIPTION: "I went to Atlanta, Never been there befo'; White folks eat de apple, Nigger wait fo' co'." The singer finds similar unfairness when visiting Charleston, Raleigh, etc. Chorus: "Cath dat Suth'n, Grab dat train, Won't come back no mo'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes Black(s) discrimination
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 106, "I Went to Atlanta" (1 text)
File: Grnw106

I Went to Church Last Sunday

See Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)

I Went to Cincinnati

See Turkey in the Straw (File: R274)

I Went to Fulton Ferry

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I went to Fulton Ferry and I couldn't get across. I paid a half-dollar for an old blind horse. The horse wouldn't pull, I sold it for a bull. The bull wouldn't holler, so I sold it for a dollar." And so on, through more failed trades
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (New York Times Magazine, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope travel horse commerce
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #272, "I went to Fulton Ferry and I couldn't get across" (1 text)
NOTES [27 words]: A sort of combination of "Turkey in the Straw" lyrics with a "Swapping Boy" motif. Most of the lines have parallels elsewhere but the combination is unique. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR272

I Went To My Love's Window

See The Trip Over the Mountain (File: HHH161B)

I Went to My Sweetheart's House

DESCRIPTION: Stanzas of the form "I went to my sweetheart's house, I never was thar before, They sot me in the corner as still as a mouse, An' I ain't gwine thar no mo', mo', mo, An' I ain't gwine that no mo', my love, An' I ain't gwine that no mo'." Verses float
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses home animal courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 166-167, "I Went to My Sweetheart's House" (1 text)
ST ScaNF166 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Raccoon" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [32 words]: I thought seriously about filing this with "Raccoon"; they have that many stanzas in common. But some have floated in from other places, and the form is different, so I'm separating them. - RBW
File: ScaNF166

I Went to the Animal Fair

See Animal Fair (File: San348)

I Went to the Fair at Bonlaghy

DESCRIPTION: "I went to the fair at Bellaghy, I bought a wee swad of a pig, I got it up in my arms And danced 'The Swaggering Jig." In all contexts, man, pig, poorhouse inmates, passersby, flowers, whistle and/or dance the jig.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous commerce dancing
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H758, p. 23, "Bellaghy Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 151, "I Went to the Fair at Bonlaghy" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ST E151 (Partial)
Roud #5349
File: E151

I Went to the Hop-Joint

See The Hop-Joint (File: ScaNF090)

I Went to the Show, Saw Marilyn Monroe

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I went to the show; saw Marilyn Monroe. What was she wearing?" (Presumably has some sort of list of clothes or a way to spell them out.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope clothes | Marilyn Monroe
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #274, "I went to the show" (1 text)
File: AJRR274

I Went to the Woods

DESCRIPTION: "Shure I went to the woods where I heard a big drum. 'By the holy Saint Patrick,' says I, 'that's a drum.'" The Irishman complains about the land where he lives: Cold weather, girls always chewing gum, the dreadful smell of fermented cabbage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: food hardtimes
FOUND IN: Canada(West)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #51, "I Went to the Woods" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4563
NOTES [73 words]: Fowke describes this song as "somewhat indelicate." This refers primarily to the first verse, which on its face is about a woodpecker drilling for food, but which Fowke considers to have a secondary meaning.
Personally, I suspect the song is composite; the first verse is, well, either about a bird or about something that is describes as one but isn't -- but the rest is a straightforward gripe about a the place the Irishman lives. - RBW
File: FowL51

I Went Up on the Mountain Top

See Liza Jane (File: San132)

I Went Up the Hill, Down the Hill

See I've a Bike, a Fairy Bike (File: BAAI063)

I Went Upstairs to Make My Bed

See There Was an Old Woman and Her Name Was Pat (File: SuSm106A)

I Wet Upstairs to Pick Up a Pin

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I went upstairs to pick up a pin. I asked Mrs. (X) if (Y) was in. He may be in, he may be out, Tomorrow the wedding bells will shout! X, O, X, O...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Musick, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | visiting wedding bells
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #276, "I went upstairs to pick up a pin" (1 text)
File: AJRR276

I Whipped My Horse

DESCRIPTION: "I whipped my horse till I cut the blood (x3) And then I made him tread the mud." "I fed my horse in a poplar trough (x3) And there he caught the whooping cough." "Now my old horse is dead and gone (x3) But he left his jaw-bones ploughing the corn."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: animal nonsense nonballad horse death | whooping cough
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 219, "I Whipped My Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 71, "I Whipped My Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #61, "I Whipped My Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3627
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)"
cf. "Ox Driving Song" (floating lyrics)
File: SKE71

I Will Arise

See Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (I) (File: NEctfoeb)

I Will Arise and Go to Jesus

See Come, Ye Sinners (File: R623)

I Will Bow and Be Simple

DESCRIPTION: "I will bow and be simple, I will bow and be free, I will bow and be humble, Yea, bow like the willow tree." "I will bow, this is the token, I will wear the easy yoke, I will bow and will be broke, Yea, I'll fall upon that rock."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Mary Hazzard collection, according to Andrews)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Edward Deming Andrews, _The Gift to be Simple: Songs, Dances and Rituals of the American Shakers_, 1940 (references are to the 1962 Dover reprint), p. 113, "I Will Bow and Be Simple" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [89 words]: I have absolutely no evidence that this song is traditional; it is one of many Shaker songs on the theme of simplicity. But it has a beautiful melody that has caused it to be sung in the folk revival, so I have included it here.
The reference to the "easy yoke" is surely to Matthew 11:28-30: "Come to me, all who are tired and burdened, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke [ζυγον, zygon] upon you, and you will find rest for your souls [ψυχαις, psychais, i.e. psyches]. [30]. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: AndSh113

I Will Give My Love an Apple

See I Gave My Love a Cherry
 (File: R123)

I Will Give You a Red Dress

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

I Will Give You the Keys of Heaven

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

I Will Have the Whetstone

See (notes under) Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

I Will Lay You Down

See Muldoon, the Solid Man (File: Dean102)

I Will Love Thee Always

See Out In the Moonlight (I Will Love Thee Always) (File: R803)

I Will Not Marry a Farmer

See Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me) (File: R493)

I Will Overcome

See I'll Be All Right (File: RcIBeAlR)

I Will Pass My Shoe

DESCRIPTION: Game, involving passing shoes. "I will pass my shoe from me to you, to you, I will pass my shoe and give it all to you" (repeated). The shoe may be tapped as part of the game
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2002 (Derek Piotr Archive)
KEYWORDS: clothes nonballad game | shoe
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "I Will Pass My Shoe" (Piotr-Archive #283, recorded 10/03/2022)
File: DPio283

I Will Put My Ship In Order

DESCRIPTION: The singer puts his ship in order to sail to his true love. He arrives wet and tired, knocks at her window, and asks her to let him in. She delays (perhaps her parents are watching), and he leaves before she comes. She laments his departure
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: ship love reunion separation nightvisit betrayal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 35-36, "I Drew My Ship into the Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune, with a "ripest apples" floating verse)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #54, p. 1, "I Will Set My Good Ship in Order" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 792, "I Will Set My Ship in Order" (19 texts, 16 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 318-319, "I Will Set My Ship in Order" (1 text)
DT, SHIPORDR* SHIPORD2*
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 224-225, "I Will Put My Ship in Order" (1 tune)
Roud #402
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drowsy Sleeper" [Laws M4] (plot)
cf. "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover)" (lyrics, theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My True Love Johnnie
NOTES [264 words]: This song is about 80% identical with the piece I've titled "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover)"; the only differences are in the first verse (about the ship) and the ending (in this, the lover leaves; in the other, the girl arrives in time to admit him). Fragments could file with either song.
Some, including Roud, have identified this song with "The Drowsy Sleeper," and there is some justice to this; there may be cross-influence. Indeed, for a time I listed this as an alternate title of "Drowsy Sleeper." But we are splitters, and so the two are now separate. I think that's the proper decision anyway.
The last few verses of this song bear a resemblance to Song of Solomon 5:2-6, but that may be coincidence. - RBW
Greig/Duncan4: "Greig prints a composite version."
Christie [beware], "as sung by the Editor's grandfather," has a happy ending: "He turned him right and round so quickly, Says, 'Come with me, my lovely one, And we'll be wed, my own sweet lover, And let them talk when we are gone."
The Greig-Duncan4 texts at least have this parallel to "The Drowsy Sleeper": the lover -- at her window -- would have his lover ask her parents for her hand and she warns that neither will approve. The difference is that there is no danger: no silver dagger. Father, a merchant, is "in his bedroom writing, Busy with his merchandise; In his left pocket he holds a letter, And it speaks much of your dispraise" [he protests that any "dispraise" is unwarranted]; mother is sleeping and "sweet notes of love she will not hear" or "if I disturb her she'll be angry." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord318

I Will Rock You Wi' My Foot, Love

DESCRIPTION: "I will rock you wi' my foot, love, I will bind you wi' my hand; I'll gie you three locks o' my coal-black hair To be to you a cradle band"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: lullaby baby hair
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1558, "I Will Rock You Wi' My Foot, Love" (1 short text)
Roud #13507
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81558

I Will Sail the Salt Seas Over

DESCRIPTION: "I will sail the salt seas over And the Shannon after me, For your equal in Loch Ray love Is rare to be seen. I would rather than a horse And a bridle for to steer That I ne'er mentioned the name of Loch Ray la she sheer"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 102, "I Will Sail the Salt Seas Over" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #2776
NOTES [36 words]: The current description is all of the Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick fragment.
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick: "The spelling of the last line ["Loch Ray la she sheer"] may be incorrect." - BS
File: CrSNB102

I Will Set My Good Ship in Order

See I Will Put My Ship In Order (File: Ord318)

I Will Set My Ship In Order

See I Will Put My Ship In Order (File: Ord318)

I Will Take You Back Again, Kathleen

See I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen (File: RJ19083)

I Will Tell You My Troubles

DESCRIPTION: "I will tell you of my troubles, my ups and downs through life...." The singer complains about the life of a cowboy. Life is hard and lonely, and there is too much to do; the cows wander off even during the monotonous meals
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: work cowboy
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 25, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (7 texts, 2 tunes, with the "G" text going here)
Roud #11208
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
File: FCW025G

I Will Tell You of a Fellow

See Common Bill (File: R119)

I Wish I Been Dere (I Wish I Been There)

DESCRIPTION: "My mother, you follow Jesus, My sister, you follow Jesus, My brother, you follow Jesus, To fight until I die. U wish I been there yonder, To climb Jacob's ladder, I wish I been there yonder, To wear the starry crown."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment); 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 29, "I Wish I Been Dere" (1 text, 1 tune)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 20, p. 210, "The Baby Gone Home" (1 text)
Roud #11982
NOTES [46 words]: Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment's version is "... a funeral hymn for an infant, ... sung plaintively over and over, without variety of words": ("De little baby gone home"(3x) "For to climb up Jacob's ladder") ("I wish I'd been dar"(3x) "For to climb up Jacob's ladder") - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AAWG029A

I Wish I Could Pray

DESCRIPTION: "I wish I could pray like Mary Magdalene (x2), I wish I could pray (x2), I wish I could pray, Lord, like Mary Magdalene." "Teach me the way like Mary Magdalene." "Anybody here like Mary Magdalene." "Cast out seven devils like Mary Magdalene."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 19, "I Wish I Could Pray" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [312 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text.
King James Mark 16:9 has "Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils."
One line of Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories's text -- "Anybody here like Mary Mahg'alene" -- is like Booth's line -- "Is there anybody here like weeping Mary" - and shares the form of the title line of Work's and Barton-OldPlantationHymns's "Is there anybody here that loves my Jesus" (see the notes to "Is There Anybody Here"). The verse form is similar to Barton and Work but the tune and general theme is different. - BS
A number of notes here. First, Mark 16:9 is not part of the gospel of Mark (it's a later addition placed in footnotes or brackets in most modern translations). In most cases, Mark is the oldest gospel, from which Matthew and Luke derive material, but in the case of "Mark 16:9," the verse is a conflation of material in the other gospels -- the source of the statement that Jesus had cast seven demons out of Mary is Luke 8:2 and is never found in the proper gospel of Mark or in Matthew.
Note therefore that Mary never cast demons out of anyone. Jesus cast demons out of her (in other words, she suffered from a severe mental illness, very possibly schizophrenia, which Jesus was said to have cured).
The part about Mary praying is a confusion of Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany, who in John is combined with the woman who washed Jesus's feet with her hair. Mary, according to Luke 10, was spending her time with Jesus and praying while Martha was trying to serve. It is to be emphasized that we have no reason to believe Mary Magdalene -- that is, Mary of Magdala! -- was the same as Mary of Bethany, although the confusion is ancient. For more on the issue, see the notes to "I Want to Die Like Weeping Mary." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa019

I Wish I Had Never Known

See The Darling Boy (File: ReSh047)

I Wish I Had Someone to Call My Own

DESCRIPTION: "I wish I had someone to call my own; I wish I had someone to take my care." The singer lists all that he's tired of: coffee, tea, living, eating, sleeping, plus, "I"m so tired of livin' I don't know what to do; You're tired of me, an' I'm tired of you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 279, "I Wish I Had Someone to Call My Own" (1 text)
NOTES [2 words]: Get help. - RBW
File: ScaNF279

I Wish I Had Someone to Love Me (I)

See Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight (File: R746)

I Wish I Had Someone to Love Me (II)

See The Prisoner's Song (I) (File: FSC100)

I wish I was a Child again

See Died for Love (I); also The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: McST055)

I Wish I Was A Honasorarius

See I Wish I Was a Hynocereous (File: ACSF422)

I Wish I Was a Hynocereous

DESCRIPTION: "(I'm a/I wish I was a) (Hynocereous), a (Rhippopotamus), ha ha ha ha. But I'm not and I never can hope to be a H...,, a R... I'm a June Bug, I'm a beetle, I buzz and hit my head against a tree, ha ha ha ha." Repeat with tangled words
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (a Rutgers somgbook, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonsense bug nonballad campsong | hippopotamus rhinoceros June bug
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 422, 490, "I'm a Hilsararious, a Rippimatanemy"/"I'm a Hynocereous" (notes plus a partial text on p. 422)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Wish I Was A Honasorarius
I Wish I Were a Hineaserarious
NOTES [470 words]: This has to be a folk song; all of the handful of versions I found use different names for the critters. Clearly it was transmitted orally. When I encountered it under Averill's first title of "I'm a Hilsararious, a Rippimatanemy," I had no idea what the original was. But I think that title is actually wrong, because the other versions were all "I wish I were a(n) h...," not "I'm a(n) h...."
That still left the name of the actual critters. In addition to "Hilsararious," online versions offered "Honasorarius" and "Hineaserarious" and perhaps others I didn't locate, and at minimum "Rippimatanemy" and "Rippamatadame" for creature #2.
What was pretty clear is that those words were not just garbled in transmission; they had been fractured all along -- because the versions all agreed in garbling the last lines, and indeed in how they garbled them: The first time through, they are "I'm a June bug, I'm a beetle, I buzzed and hit." When the song is repeated, they are jumbled to give "I'm a bune jug, I'm a teeball, I (h)uzzed and bit."
Steve Gardham suggested that the critters should be insects, to go with the June Bug. Since butterflies are considered among the most beautiful insects, that suggested Rhopalocera (butterflies) as the "R" word. Gardham suggested Hymenoptera (wasps, bees, ants) as the other critter.
I had conjectured otherwise, trying to think of impressive critters whose names started with "H" and "R." This suggested Hippopotamus and Rhinoceros.
I then discovered Averill's second version. with no text but with the title ""I'm a Hynocereous." I think this proves my conjecture. "Hynocereous" (or "Hinocerous," as I would spell it), is clearly "Rhinoceros" with the "Rh" swapped with an H from Hippopotamus. So the second creature must be a Rhippopotamus.
So our first verse is
I wish I was a Hinocerous, a Rhippopotamus
ha ha ha ha.
But I'm not and I never can hope to be
A Hinocerous, a Rhippopotamus
I'm a June Bug, I'm a beetle,
I buzz and hit my head against a tree.
And the second verse is
I wish I was a Hinocerous, a Rhippopotamus
ha ha ha ha.
But I'm not and I never can hope to be
A Hinocerous, a Rhippopotamus
I'm a bune jug, I'm a teeball,
I huzzed and bit my head against a tree.
One might conjecture that there was once a first verse, now lost, which ran
I wish I was a Rhinoceros, a Hippopotamus
ha ha ha ha.
But I'm not and I never can hope to be
A Rhinoceros, a Hippopotamus
I'm a June Bug, I'm a beetle,
I buzz and hit my head against a tree.
This was then metathesized (the technical term for this sort of scramble is "metathesis") into the extant second verse, which became further confused when the first verse, and the key to the whole thing, was lost.
Curiously, the Google Books version of Averill omits the entire section containing Averill's first title. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF422

I Wish I Was a Little Bird (Nobody Cares for Me)

DESCRIPTION: "I wish I was a little bird, I'd fly up in a tree, I'd sit and sing my little sad song (spoken:) But I can't stay here by myself." "I wish I was a little fish, I'd swim way down in the sea, I'd sit and sing my little sad song, But I can't stay here..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: loneliness nonballad animal bird
FOUND IN: US(MA,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 489, "I Wish I Was a Little Bird" (1 text)
Randolph 722, "Nobody Cares for Me" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 188-190, "The Little Fish" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 338, "I Wish I Was a Little Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 85-86, "I Can't Stay Here by Myself" (1 text, 1 tune, filed under "Free Little Bird")
Roud #6357
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Have No Loving Mother Now (Oh, See My Father Layin' There)" (lyrics)
File: San338

I Wish I Was a Little Fish

DESCRIPTION: The singer wishes she could swim like a fish, like David Johnson. Johnson tried some long swim. "He swam just like a duck," he "got pluck," but "when everything were over I thought it were a failure"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage01)
KEYWORDS: sea sports ordeal nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Martha Saunders, "I Wish I Was a Little Fish" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
File: RcMSIWIW

I Wish I Was a Little Sparrow

See Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)

I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground

DESCRIPTION: "I wish I (was/were) a mole in the ground (x2), If I was a mole in the ground, I'd root that mountain down...." The singer complains of Kempy's expensive tastes and his troubles with drink and/or the law. He may wish to be other things.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal money hardtimes floatingverses dancetune
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 173, "Mole In the Ground" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 173, "Mole in the Ground" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 10-11, "I wish I wuz a Mole in the Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 240, "Mole in the Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 900-901, "I Wish I Wuz a Mole in the Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 167, "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 144, "(I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground)" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 152-153, "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 87-89, "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 394, "Mole In The Ground" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Forbes (transcriber), "Songs Collected by Mr. Bascom,'" Vol. XXV, No. 1 (May 1977 -- special issue for Bascom Lamar Lunsford), p. 22, "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WISHMOLE*
Roud #4957
RECORDINGS:
Green Bailey, "I Wish I Were A Mole In The Ground" (Gennett 6732/Conqueror 7255 [as Amos Baker], 1929; rec. 1928; on KMM)
Frank Bode, "Tempy" (on FBode1)
Chancey Bros., "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground" (on FolkVisions2)
Eugene Jemison, "Girls, Quit Your Rowdy Ways" (on Jem01)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground" (OKeh 40155, 1924); (Folkways FP 40, c. 1952); (Brunswick 219B, 1928; on AAFM3, BLLunsford01); (BLLunsford02, FMUSA) (LOC AAFS 102/AAFS L21)
Pete Seeger, "Mole in the Ground" (on PeteSeeger09, PeteSeegerCD02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Don't Like No Railroad Man" (floating lyrics)
cf. "My Last Gold Dollar" (floating lyrics)
cf. "New River Train" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "Oh, Honey, Where You Been So Long?" (lyrics)
File: BAF900

I Wish I Was a Mormonite

DESCRIPTION: "I wish I was a Mormonite and lived in Utah State, In the shadow of the Temple close beside its 'holy gate.'" He might see the Prophet. He might have fifty wives, though "I'd like to see the man Who'd bring another woman home to my wife, Sarah Ann"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (Pacific Song Book, according to Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle)
KEYWORDS: humorous wife fight | Mormon Brigham Young
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, p. 125, "I Wish I Was a Mormonite" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 209, "Wish I Was a Mormonite" (1 text)
File: FSSS125

I Wish I Was a Single Gal Again

See I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again (File: Wa126)

I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again

See I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again (File: Wa126)

I Wish I Was at Home

DESCRIPTION: "I'm marchin' down to Washington With a heavy load an' a rusty gun, An' I wish I was at home (x2). They carried me down to the navy yard, An' round me they placed a mounted guard, An' I wish I was at home (x2)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: home homesickness soldier
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 240, "I Wish I Was at Home" (1 text)
Roud #7710
File: R240

I Wish I Was in Dixie's Land

See Dixie (File: LxA531)

I Wish I Were a Furry Worm

DESCRIPTION: "I wish I were a furry worm, And had a furry tummy, I'd walk across a lollypop And make my tummy gummy" (yummy?).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: food | furry worm
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 48, "(I wish I were a furry worm)" (1 text)
Roud #19539
File: PKKB048B

I Wish I Were a Little....

See I Wish I Were a.... (File: ACSF228I)

I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again

DESCRIPTION: "When I was single, marriage I did crave. Now I am married, it's trouble to my grave. Lord, I wish I was a single girl again!" The wife complains of hard work in the kitchen, of poverty, of poor clothes, hungry children, and a husband who steals her money
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: husband wife marriage poverty
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 126, "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again" (1 text,1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 437, "When I Was Single" (1 text, with no letter designation; the lettered texts are all "I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male)")
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 28, "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" (3 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 28, "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" (2 tunes plus excerpts of text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #79, "I WIsh I Was Single Again" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune; the "A" text an tune is "I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male)" and the "B" fragment "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again")
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 97, pp. 150-151, "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 320-321, "The Single Girl" (1 text plus a fragment of "I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male)"; tune on p. 442)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 188, "Oh, I Wish I Were Single Again" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 86, "The Single Girl" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 35-36, "Single Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 12-13, "Single Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 209-210, "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 123-124, "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 55-56, "I Wish I Was a Single Gal Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 112, "If I Were a Single Girl Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, p. 171, "The Single Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 13(A), "When I Was Single (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 84, "Single Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 154-155, "When I Was Single" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 272-273, "Single Girl" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 59, "Single Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SNGLGRL3*
Roud #436
RECORDINGS:
Anne, Judy, & Zeke Canova, "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" (Brunswick 264, 1928)
Cousin Emmy [Cynthia May Carver], "I Wish I Was a Single Girl, Again" (Decca 24215, 1947)
Vernon Dalhart & Co., "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" (Edison 51610, 1925)
Sid Harkreader, "I Wish I Was A Single Girl Again" (Vocalion 15035, 1925)
Kelly Harrell, "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" (Victor 19563, 1925; on KHarrell01) (Victor 20242, 1926; on KHarrell01)
Roscoe Holcomb, "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again" [LP] or "Single Girl" [CD] (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Lulu Belle & Scotty, "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" (Conqueror 9189, 1938; Vocalion 04772, 1939)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Single Girl" (on NLCR14)
Frank Proffitt, "Single Girl" (on FProffitt01)
Riley Puckett ,"I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" (Bluebird B-8083, 1939)
Pete Seeger, "When I Was Single" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b)
Henry Whitter, "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again" (OKeh 40375, 1925)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wish I Were Single Again (II - Female)"
cf. "Single Girl, Married Girl"
cf. "Sorry the Day I Was Married"
cf. "When I Was Young (II)" (theme)
cf. "For Seven Long Years I've Been Married" (theme)
cf. "Married and Single Life" (subject)
NOTES [28 words]: Roud lumps "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again" and "Single Girl, Married Girl" (and perhaps others). Definitely a stretch, though the songs can easily cross-fertilize. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Wa126

I Wish I Were a WIttle Thuger Bun

See I Wish I Were a.... (File: ACSF228I)

I Wish I Were a....

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I wish I were a little bar of soap, bar of soap (x2). I would slippey and I’d slidey Over everybody’s hiney. I wish I were..." Similarly with other objects, e.g. a "little hunk of mud" that is "gooey" under a "shoey'; a little bit of orange, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, but see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #32, p. 15, "Lisping Song" (1 text, starting "I with I were a little fith [fish]," which Averill considers an ancestor of her song)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 226, "Oh, I Wish I Was A . . ." (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 111, 133, 134, 175, 228, 296-305, 346, 347, 348, 383, 431, 501, "I Wish I Were"/"I Wish I Were a Little...."/"I With I Were a Wittle Thuger Bun"/"I Wish" (and many other variant titles) (notes, with 5 texts on pp. 302-306, of which "B" is composite; bibliography on pp. 674-677)
Roud #15704 and 37844
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Auld Lang Syne" (tune suggested by Harbin) and references there
cf. "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song)" (primary tune, according to Averill)
cf. "I Wish I Wuz" (theme of peculiar things to wish to be)
NOTES [110 words]: Harbin-Parodology, in addition to its #32 which is clearly this, has a similar snippet: #1, p. 9, "I Wish I Wuz (Hobo Anthem)," which opens, "I wish't I wuz a little rock A-settin' on a hill, An' doin' nothin' all day long But jus' a-settin' still"; which is similar to Averill's "D" and "E" texts, the latter of which is the 1894 text cited as the earliest date. I'm not sure they're the same song, though Averill lumps them; the form is a bit different. If those "little rock" texts are split off (as I have done; see "I Wish I Wuz"), then the earliest text known to me is Harbin's "Lisping Song" from 1927, which is effectively identical to Averill's "C." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF228I

I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male)

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the happy days when he was single. He recalls marrying a wife, "the plague of my life." She died and was buried, so he went and married again, to find that he "wished for the old one again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin)
KEYWORDS: funeral marriage shrewishness wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar) Britain(England(North,South),Scotland(Aber),Wales) Ireland
REFERENCES (43 citations):
Randolph 365, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 329-331, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 365A)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 77, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 69, "When I Was a Young Man" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 34, "When I Was Single" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #130, "When I Was Single" (2 texts)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 111, "Once I Was Single" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 242)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 150, "O Then, O Then" (1 text)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 30, p. 38, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 204, "I Wished To Be Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan7 1292, "When I Was Single, Oh Then" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 105, "Again and again and again" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 19, "When I Was Single" (3 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 13 more, though most of the omitted texts are single stanzas)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 19, "When I Was Single" (2 tunes plus excerpts of text)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 75, "When I Was Single" (1 text)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 320-321, "The Single Girl" (1 text plus a fragment; the song is "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again," but the fragment is this)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 47-50, "I Wish I Was Single Again"; "I Wish I Were Single Again" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 56-58, "I Wish I Was SIngle Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 188, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 127, "When I Was Single" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #79, "I WIsh I Was Single Again" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune; the "A" text an tune is "I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male)" and the "B" fragment "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again")
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 437-439, "When I Was Single" (3 texts, plus a text of "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again")
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 16-17, "Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 85-86, "Oh Then" (1 text, in which the second wife apparently plans to hang the husband before she, like the first, falls sick)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 99-100, "When I Was Single" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 13-14, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 144-145, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 124-125, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 20-21, "My First And Last Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune, in which the second wife tries to hang the singer and he shoots her after being rescued; Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains thinks the singer may have made up this material.)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 47, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 215-217 , "When I Was Single" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 143, "When I Was Single" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 169-171, "When I Was Single" (1 text, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 177, pp. 181-182, "The Married Man" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 13(B), "When I Was Single (II)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 156-158, "When I Was Single" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 98, pp. 207-208, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, pp. 303-306, "(When I was a maid, O then! O then!)" (4 texts)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 71, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 274-275, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 276-277, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 172, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text)
DT, WISHSNGL
Roud #437
RECORDINGS:
Tom Edwards, "I Wished To Be Single Again" (on FSBFTX19)
Foster & James, "When I Was Single My Pockets Would Jingle" (Gennett 6434/Challenge 33014/Silvertone 8156 [as Jim Burke]/Supertone 9260 [as Jim Burke], 1928; rec. 1927)
Steve Gardham, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (Piotr-Archive #309, recorded 10/11/2022)
Frank Luther, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (Crown 3084, 1931)
Menhaden Fishermen, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (on USMenhaden01)
Riley Puckett, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (Columbia 15036-D, 1925) (Bluebird B-8066, 1939)
Arthur Tanner, "When I Was Single My Pockets Would Jingle" (Silvertone 3515, 1926)
Welby Toomey, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (Gennett 3202, 1926)
Tom Watson, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (Silvertone 3263, 1926)
Henry Whitter, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (OKeh 40375, 1925) (OKeh 45045, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Was Single (II)"
cf. "Poor Married Man" (theme)
cf. "Married and Single Life" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
Damn the Ever: Once Is Enough For Me ("I married a girl called Ann Steer, She had a face like a man on the Beer") (by Johnny Burke) (Johnny Burke, _Burke's Popular Songs_, self-published, 1929 (a PDF is available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. [15])
NOTES [91 words]: Characterized by a stanza format something like this:
When I was single, oh then,
When I was single, oh then,
When I was single, my money would jingle;
I wish I was single again.
Laura Ingalls Wilder, in By the Shores of Silver Lake (chapter 22) has a slightly different form, allegedly from 1880:
When I was young and single,
I could make the money jingle
And the world was well with me, O then!
The world went well with me then.
Steve Gardham believes it comes from the British music hall tradition. Makes sense to me, but I can't prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R365

I Wish I Were Single Again (II - Female)

DESCRIPTION: The wife complains of the troubles of matrimony. When first her husband courted her, all was kindness, but now it's nothing but work and care for the children and try to stay out of trouble. She says, "I hope I shall be hanged if I ever love again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph); the "Married Woman's Lament" versions are said to be from the nineteenth century
KEYWORDS: fight husband marriage
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 70, "How I Wish I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 69, pp. 92-93, "A Married Woman's Lament" (3 fragments, with "A" and "B" probably being "I Wish I Were Single Again (II - Female)" and "C" being perhaps "Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.)")
Randolph 366, "A Married Woman's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 26-27, "A Married Woman's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune, with the unrelated "The Sorrow of Marriage" in an appendix)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 40-41, "A Married Woman's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune, which McNeil says is from the nineteenth century)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #600, "When I was single I used a powder puff" (1 text)
DT, SNGLGRL2*
Roud #436
RECORDINGS:
Susan Brown, "I Wish I Was Single Again" (on HCargillFamily)
Margaret MacArthur, "Single Again" (on MMacArthur01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again"
cf. "Single Girl, Married Girl"
cf. "When I Was Young (II)" (theme)
cf. "For Seven Long Years I've Been Married" (theme)
cf. "I'm Satisfied (II)" (theme)
NOTES [35 words]: Characterized by a stanza format something like this:
Once I was single and lived at my ease,
But now I am married with a husband to please,
Four young children to maintain;
Oh how I wish I were single again! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: E070

I Wish I Were Where Ellen Lies

See Helen of Kirconnell (File: OBB152)

I Wish I Were Where Gadie Rins

See Where the Gadie Rins (I), (II), etc. (File: Ord347)

I Wish I Were Where Helen Lies

See Helen of Kirconnell (File: OBB152)

I Wish I Were Yon Red, Red Rose

See The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)

I Wish I Wuz

DESCRIPTION: "I wish't I was a little rock, A-settin' on a hill, An' doin' nothin' all day long But just a-setting still." The rock could rest for a million years. Or the singer may wish to be an orange squirting on shirts, or a fish that gets to swim without a suit
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: humorous animal bug clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harbin-Parodology, #1, p. 9, "I Wish I Wuz" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (tune)
cf. "I Wish I Were a...." (theme of peculiar things to wish to be)
File: HPar001

I Wish I Wuz a Mole in the Ground

See I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground (File: BAF900)

I Wish I'd Been Born a Boy

See I Wish That I'd Been Born a Boy (File: NeDe262)

I WIsh I'd Bought a Half a Pint and Stayed in the Wagon Yard

See Wish I'd Stayed in the Wagon Yard (File: RcWISIWY)

I Wish In Vain

See Tavern in the Town (File: ShH94)

I Wish My Captain Would Go Blind

DESCRIPTION: "1 wish my captain would go blind. Wouldn't go to work till half past nine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: curse worker
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 244, "I Wish My Captain Would Go Blind" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 244, "I Wish My Captain Would Go Blind" (1 tune plus the short text)
Roud #15775
File: Brow3244

I Wish My Granny Saw Ye

DESCRIPTION: Country lad Johnny Raw comes to town, where the girls giggle, "I wish my granny saw ye." He buys a girl a wedding dress; she laughs at him. A girl asks him to carry her baby; he consents. She disappears, and he is left to care for the child
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside Bodleian, Firth b.26(298))
KEYWORDS: clothes trick courting baby
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 395-396, "I Wish My Granny Saw Ye" (1 text)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 60-61, 150, "Johnny Raw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5614
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(298)=Harding B 11(1674), "I WIsh My Granny Saw Ye," H. Such (London), 1863-1885
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(120a), "I Wish My Grannie Saw Ye," unknown, 1880-1900
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Basket of Eggs" (plot) and references there
NOTES [48 words]: Although the general theme of a country boy who falls prey to city tricks occurs throughout this song, I have to suspect it is at least somewhat composite, with the girl-and-baby theme translated bodily into a newer framework.
Thanks to Jim Dixon for pointing out broadside sources. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Ord395B

I Wish My Love (Pitman's Love Song)

DESCRIPTION: Singer wishes his love were various objects: a cherry, a beeskep, an ewe, etc., so that he might make love to her. After some lovely metaphors, in the last verse he wishes she was a warm turd, and he was a "shitten flea," that he might light upon her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1834 (Sharp, The Bishopric Garland)
KEYWORDS: sex lyric nonballad scatological
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: [Cuthbert Sharp], _The Bishopric Garland, A Collection of Legends, Songs, Ballads, &c Belonging to the County of Durham_, 1834 (references are to the 1969 reprint), p. 65, "A Pitman's Love Song" (1 text)
Roud #8738
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "I Wish My Love" (on Lloyd2) = "I Wish, I Wish" (on Lloyd 3) [same recording, changed title]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Pitman's Love Song
NOTES [32 words]: Lloyd notes, "Rather to my own surprise I find myself too prudish to sing [the last verse], though I'm impressed by its intensity," but he reprints it in his book "Folk Song in England." - PJS
Last updated in version 3.1
File: RcIWML

I Wish My Love Was a Red Rose

See The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)

I Wish My Love Was In a Ditch

DESCRIPTION: "I wish my love was in a ditch, Without no clothing to her, With nettles up and down her back Because she was not truer." She had been involved with the singer and another; he claims her child was fathered by the other, and will not sleep with her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love marriage infidelity pregnancy
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 126, "I Wish My Love Was In a Ditch" (1 text)
ST BrII126 (Full)
Roud #6572
NOTES [39 words]: The editors of Brown suspect this is Scottish, but can cite no other texts (Jamieson has a piece "I Wish My Love Was In a Mire," found also as #41 in The Scot Musical Museum, but the parallels are thematic rather than verbal). - RBW
File: BrII126

I Wish That Girl Was Mine

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a little boy, Just eighteen inches high, How I'd hug and kiss those girls To see their mammas cry." "Oh, I wish that girl was mine (x2), The only tune that I can play Is 'I wish that girl was mine.'" Of courting, banjos, and last regrets(?)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting music
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 298, "I Wish That Girl Was Mine" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 298, "I Wish That Girl Was Mine" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #16859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Troubled In My Mind" (theme, floating lyrics)
NOTES [28 words]: This may be a variant of "Troubled In My Mind" or one of its relatives, but it has enough unique material (notably the first verse) that I tentatively separate it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3298

I Wish That I'd Been Born a Boy

DESCRIPTION: "I wish that I'd been born a boy, I really do, indeed, Then I might show the young men How in life I could succeed." She would show common sense rather than be a fop; she would pay her bills; she wouldn't hit women but rather other men who deserve it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (Henry de Marsan's New Comic and Sentimental Singer's Journal; also The "Little Brown Jug" Songster)
KEYWORDS: humorous cross-dressing fight
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 262, "I Wish I'd Been Born a Boy" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: _Henry de Marsan's New Comic and Sentimental Singer's Journal_, Number 19, 1871? (available on Google Books), p. 116, "I Wish That I'd Been Born a Boy" (1 text)
Roud #35882
NOTES [41 words]: I tagged this with the keyword "cross-dressing" not because the girl actually does so but because it's a sort of psychological cross-dressing song.
Most of the printings of this say it was sung by Alice Siedler, but they don't list an author. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: NeDe262

I Wish That You Were Dead, Goodman

DESCRIPTION: "There's six eggs in the pan, goodman (x2), there's one for you and twa for me, And three for (our John Hielandman)." The woman complains, and concludes, "I wish ye were dead, wi' a stone at your head, and I'd run awa wi' John Hielandman"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (Sharpe)
KEYWORDS: food love curse death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 695, "Oh, Gin Ye Were Deid, Goodman" (1 fragment)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H531, p. 506-507, "I Wish That You Were Dead, Goodman" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, EGGSMAN WISHDEAD
ST HHH531 (Full)
Roud #5884
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grow the Rashes" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
There's a Herrin' in the Pan
NOTES [47 words]: Murray Shoolbraid's notes in the Digital Tradition discuss possible bawdy connections of this song. Interestingly, though they are all extremely subtle, Gordeanna McCulloch has a text which seems to have cleaned them all up and converted them into a complaint against landlords. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: HHH531

I Wish the Night Was Saturday Night

See Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going) (File: SBoA050)

I Wish the Wars Were All Over

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets Polly milking her cow singing "I wish that the wars were all over." She is afraid her Billy will be killed in America. She rejects the singer's advances and says she'll dress as a sailor and fight "till the wars are all over"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1770s (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: love war separation cross-dressing America sailor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, pp. 129-130, "The Wars are All O'er" (1 text)
Roud #2036
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 302, "I Wish the Wars Were All Over" ("Down in the meadows where violets do grow"), J. Davenport (London), 1799-1800
File: OpGap129

I Wish There Was No Prisons

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "I only steal my belly to fill." Prison work is hard and makes him ill. He saw a girl with twins in a perambulator. He kissed one baby while he stole a potato from the other. "I wish there were no prisons. I do. Don't you?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (recording, George Spicer)
KEYWORDS: prison theft humorous nonballad baby twins
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 237-238, "I Wish There Weren't No Prisons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Finger-FrontierBallads, p. 90, "The Happy Crook" (1 short text, 1 tune, which seems a little more humorous than some of the other versions)
Roud #1708
RECORDINGS:
George Spicer, "I Wish There Was No Prisons" (on Voice14)
File: RcIWTWNP

I Wish There Weren't No Prisons

See I Wish There Was No Prisons (File: RcIWTWNP)

I Wish They'd Do It Now

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls how, when he was a child, the girls would run to kiss him, cuddle him, bathe him, etc. Unfortunately, he is grown and their attentions have ceased; he remarks, "I've got itches in my britches and I wish they'd do it now."
AUTHOR: E. Freeman Dixey? (author cited in the sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (sheet music for "Why Don't They Do It Now?" published)
KEYWORDS: courting youth loneliness humorous
FOUND IN: Australia US(MW,So) Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1447, "How I Wish They'd Do It Now" (1 fragment)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 16, pp. 20-21, 47, "I Wish They'd Do It Now" (2 texts, 1 tune, the second text being titled "The' Doesn't Do It Now")
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 81, "I Was Born in Killarney" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 82, "When I Was a Little Boy" (1 fragment, 1 tune, almost certainly this although short enough that it might have floated); 167, "When I Was a Little Boy" (1 text, 1 tune, which appears to open with part of "I Wish They'd Do It Now," includes floating verses which sometimes are found in "Lynchburg Town," and end with the "Saturday NIght My Wife Died" of "The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)" or similar)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 111-112, ""Why Don't They Do So Now?" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 186-189, "They were very very Good to Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DOITNOW*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 20, #5 (1971), pp. 16-17, "I Wish They'd Do It Now" (1 text, 1 tune, the Bob Davenport version)
Roud #1401
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Collins, "I Wish They'd Do It Now" (CYL: Edison 5412, c. 1898)
Steve Porter, "I Wish They'd Do It Now" (American Record Co. 031354, c. 1906)
Teddy Simmons, "I Wish They'd Do It Now" (CYL: Columbia 32895, c. 1906)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Smeller Song" (theme of a man who was popular as a boy but not now)
cf. "Three Acres and a Cow" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Three Acres and a Cow (File: PaPl021)
NOTES [171 words]: [The original of this is] from "C.P. Hyland's I Wish They'd Do It Now Songster" published in [New York City] in 1869 [Michael Cooney in Sing Out says 1879]. It was an American song. Not very good either, in the original, but the [folk] processed version was/is a gem. - MC
I've also seen the 1879 date for the Hyland songster, but note that there is 1865 sheet music.
Those wishing to see something like the original version (as I understand it), with only minimal folk processing, are referred to the Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2 text. It is indeed rather less than inspired. The tune we tend to hear nowadays is much like "The Wearing of the Green." - RBW
You think those words are insipid? You should see the ones from "Why Don't They Do It Now?" (1865) from which this song is clearly derived. Without seeing the words from the 1869 "I Wish They'd Do It Now Songster", I can't tell whether those were a folk-processing of "Why Don't They Do It Now?" or a parody, if the distinction can even be drawn. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Gil111

I Wish to My Lord I Was Single Again

DESCRIPTION: An aged, lame miser marries a twenty-one year old "silly young maid." He can't please her in speech, bed, or trying to help around the house. She scorns or beats him. He would be happy "if she should sicken and happen to die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Bod18614 Firth c.20(66))
KEYWORDS: age shrewishness infidelity marriage clothes dancing party sex rejection violence food ordeal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 246-248, "I Wish to My Lord I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 124, "I Wish to My Lord I Was Single Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17190
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod18614 Firth c.20(66), "Silly Young Maid" ("I am an old miser both aged and lame"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Bod5931 Harding B 17(285b), Bod11747 Harding B 11(3519A), Bod2429 Harding B 11(3842), Bod13966 Harding B 11(752), Bod20866 Harding B 20(18), Bod12593 Harding B 11(3520), "Silly Young Maid"
File: Ow2E124

I Wish, I Wish (I)

See Died for Love (I); also The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: McST055)

I WIsh, I Wish (II)

See Love Has Brought Me to Despair [Laws P25] (File: LP25)

I Wished to be Single Again

See I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male) (File: R365)

I With I Wath a Fith

See I Wish I Were a.... (File: ACSF228I)

I WIth I Were a Little Fith

See I Wish I Were a.... (File: ACSF228I)

I Won'er Wha'll Be My Man?

See references under I Wonder Wha'll Be My Man? (File: FVS262)

I Won't Be a Nun!

DESCRIPTION: "Now is it not a pity such a pretty girl as I Should be sent to a nunnery to pine away and die? But I won't be a nun... I'm so fond of pleasure that I cannot be a nun!" The girl is too fond of partying/men.The nuns couldn't handle a novice like her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Dime-Song-Book #32)
KEYWORDS: clergy party freedom
FOUND IN: US(NE,So) Britain
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 9-10, "I Won't Be a Nun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 266-267, "I Won't Be a Nun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 400, "I Won't Be a Nun!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 92, "I Won't Be a Nun" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #32, p. 27, "I Won't Be a Nun" (1 text)
DT, WONTNUN*
Roud #7630
File: R400

I Won't Be My Father's Jack

DESCRIPTION: "I won't be my father's jack, I won't be my (mother's/father's) (Jill/Gill), I will be the fiddler's wife And have music when I will. T'other little tune, T'other little tune, Prithee, love, play me T'other little tune."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1767 (Newberry, _Mother Goose's Melody_)
KEYWORDS: music courting father mother nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 257, "I won't be my father's Jack" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #40, p. 54, "(I won't be my Father's Jack)"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 451, "I Won't Be My Father's Jack" (notes only, connecting it with "Rose, Rose")
Roud #19706
NOTES [38 words]: I've never met this as a genuine traditional song, as opposed to a nursery rhyme, but I heard it sung *somewhere* (the version in my head sounds like Peter Paul & Mary, I'm sorry to say), so I'm putting it in just in case. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: BGMG040

I Won't Go to Macy's Any More

DESCRIPTION: "I won't/don't go to school/Granny's/Macy's any more, more, more, There's a big fat teacher/copper/policeman at the door, door, door" who takes me by the hair/collar and sits me in a chair/makes me pay a dollar...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Howard)
KEYWORDS: playparty hair police
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South)) US(MA,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 478, ("I'm not going to school any more, more, more") (2 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #279, "I won't go to Macy's anymore, more, more" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Dorothy Mills Howard, "The Rhythms of Ball-Bouncing and Ball-Bouncing Rhymes," Vol. LXII, No. 244 (Apr 1949), #6 p. 168 ("I won't go to Macy's any more, more, more") (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Mabel Hillery, Janie Hunter and her grandchildren, "I Want To Go To Mexico" (on JohnsIsland1)
NOTES [46 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame has "not going to school" as a clapping game and separates it on that basis from a ball-bounce "don't go to Grannie's" which derives from "I won't go to Macy's." Macy's, as Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame notes, is a famous department store in New York City. - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OpGap478

I Won't Marry (I)

See I'll Not Marry at All (File: E072)

I Won't Turn Back

DESCRIPTION: The chorus is one call line repeated three times with a tag line. The response to the call is "I won't turn back." The tag line is "To make my Leader ashamed (?)". Call lines are "Oh no, no," 'I'll sing/pray/march right on." There is a verse.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2017 (McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Freddie Palmer, Brenton Jordan and The McIntosh County Shouters, "I Won't Turn Back" (on McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" (verse)
NOTES [135 words]: The verse on McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts, sung by the leader, is "Dark was the night and cold was the ground, On which the Lord was laid, The sweat like drops of blood ran down, In agony he prayed." - BS
The story of the "bloody sweat" is in Luke 22:43-44. The verses are found in the King James Version, but their authority is very questionable. Although found in the large majority of witnesses, most of the earliest witnesses, including the very earliest of all, omit them (found in ℵ* D L Q 892, the vast majority of late Greek manusscripts, and almost all Latin translations, but omitted by P75 A B N R T W 0211 579 1071* f sinai-syriac sahidic; looking at the evidence, the likely explanation is that this was an insertion invented in the Latin west and only later added to Greek manuscripts). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcIWTuBa

I Wonder As I Wander

DESCRIPTION: "I wonder as I wander out under the sky How Jesus our savior did come for to die." Jesus comes for "poor ornery/ordinary people," is born to Mary in a "cow's stall," is celebrated in the skies; we are assured he could have had anything he wanted
AUTHOR: John Jacob Niles (?), based on at least one traditional stanza
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (sheet music); collected from tradition by 1940 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus childbirth poverty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 600, "I Wonder As I Wander" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 600, "I Wonder As I Wander" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #36, "I Wonder As I Wander" (1 text)
Roud #15015
NOTES [47 words]: Given that this song says that Jesus could have had anything he needed, I can't help but note an irony: In the entire Bible, Jesus really makes only one request *for himself*: "My father, if it is possible, take this cup from me" (Matt. 26:39, etc.)
The request was not granted. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3600

I Wonder If I'll Ever Reach Home

DESCRIPTION: "I looked down the road and I wondered... I wonder if I'll ever reach home." The singer buckles on his shoes and travels for a long time, wondering if he'll ever see King Jesus.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (USSeaIsland03)
KEYWORDS: home travel nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Rosa and Joseph Murray, "I Wunduh If I Ebbuh Reach Home" (on USSeaIsland03)
File: RcIWIIER

I Wonder Wha'll Be My Man?

DESCRIPTION: "A' kinds o' lads an' men I see, The youngest an' the auldest... I wonder wha'll be my man." The singer wonders about his work, where he is, how she will recognize him. She fears there might be none, and accuses him of keeping her waiting
AUTHOR: Edward Polin ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: courting oldmaid nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 262-263, "I Wonder Wha'll Be My Man" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 264-265, "I Wonder Wha'll Be My Wife" (1 text, clearly a male adaption of the preceding; Roud #13096)
Greig/Duncan7 1383, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "I Wonner Wha'll Be My Man" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 97, "I won'er wha'll be my man?" (1 text)
Roud #5571
File: FVS262

I Wonder Wha'll Be My Wife?

See references under I Wonder Wha'll Be My Man? (File: FVS262)

I Wonder What Is Keeping My True Love Tonight (Green Grass It Grows Bonny)

DESCRIPTION: Woman sings, "I wonder what is keeping my true love tonight?" He sings that he hasn't got anyone else, but he no longer loves her; he can't truly love a woman with two sweethearts. She warns other girls to beware false young men
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: infidelity love warning lover
FOUND IN: Ireland Scotland(Aber)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 157, "Green Grass It Grows Bonny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 87-88, "Green Grass It Grows Bonnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 187, "The Rose and the Thyme" (1 text, with the plot of this song but introductory stanzas from "Green Grows the Laurel")
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 38, "Green Grass it Grows Bonnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, KEEPLOVE
Roud #858
RECORDINGS:
Margaret McGarvey, "Green Grass It Grows Bonny" (on FSBFTX15)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)" (lyrics)
NOTES [59 words]: *She* should talk! - PJS
Oh, I don't know; they sound perfect for each other.
Interestingly, Ord-BothySongsAndBallads's text (which seems to mash together this song and "Green Grows the Laurel") doesn't mention the bit about the girl having two sweethearts. Neither does the version in the Digital Tradition, which, however, does not list a source. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: K157

I Wonder What's Adae wi' A' the Men!

See Betsy Bell (File: DTbetsyb)

I Wonder When I Shall Be Married

DESCRIPTION: "I wonder when I shall be married... For my beauty's beginning to (fail/fade)." The girl's parents would be happy to see her married; they offer a good dowry ("forty good shillings" and household furnishings) but there are as yet no takers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: age loneliness marriage dowry beauty clothes nonballad family oldmaid
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,NE,SE)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #16, pp. 157-158, "Old Maid's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 27, "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" (1 text)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 71, "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 104, "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" (1 text, 1 tune, probably derived from a Ritchie Family recording)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #78, "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 48, "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 180-182, "The Old Maid's Song" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 126, "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 14, "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 13, "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WHENMARI
Roud #818
RECORDINGS:
Jean & Edna Ritchie, "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" (on Ritchie03)
Roxana Robinson, "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" (Piotr-Archive #700, recorded 10/01/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Maid's Song (I)" and references there
cf. "O Gin That I Were Mairrit" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "I Am Gaun to the Garret" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [112 words]: This probably began as a British broadside, "The Maiden's Sad Complaint for Want of a Husband," and has a sister in this Index known as "I Am Gaun to the Garret". Even the American versions are often still quite British (note the forty shilling dowry!). But British versions often end with her finding a husband, so I'm listing this as a separate song.
Note that Cox's text is from Kentucky, not West Virginia -- and almost identical to the well-known Ritchie Family version. Also, Roxana Robinson, Derek Piotr's source, came from Pine Mountain, Kentucky, which says to me that most of the American versions probably derive from the same sources as the Ritchie version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CoxII16

I Wonder Where's the Gambler [Laws H22]

DESCRIPTION: The gambler spends all night at cards. In pain, he has to be helped home by friends. He is put to bed, and his mother asks the Lord to forgive him. The gambler says it is too late to pray. The chorus ends, "I wonder where he's gone" (i.e. Heaven or Hell)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: gambling death farewell Hell
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws H22, "I Wonder Where's the Gambler"
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 96-97, "I Wonder Where's the Gambler" (1 text)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 82-83, "The Gambler's Dying Words" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 152, "The Gambling Man" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes, but only the "A" fragment is this song; the "B" text is "Darling Corey")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 659, "I Wonder Where's the Gambling Man" (1 short text, 1 tune, presumably this)
DT 829, WHERGAMB
Roud #428
RECORDINGS:
Sid Harkreader, "The Gambler's Dying Words" (Broadway 8115, c. 1930)
Panhandle Pete [pseud. for Howard Nash], "The Gambler's Dying Words" (Decca 5599, 1938)
File: LH22

I Wonder Where's the Gambling Man

See I Wonder Where's the Gambler [Laws H22] (File: LH22)

I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now

DESCRIPTION: "I wonder who's kissing her now? Wonder who's teaching her how? Wonder who's looking into her eyes, breathing sighs an' telling lies? I wonder who's buyin' the wine, for the lips that I used to call mine? ... I wonder who's kissing her now?"
AUTHOR: Words: Will M. Hough and Frank R. Adams / Music: Joe Howard Harold Orlob (source: Gardner)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (sheet music published by Charles K. Harris )
KEYWORDS: love separation | kiss
FOUND IN:
Roud #22762
RECORDINGS:
Perry Como, "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now" (Decca 25078, 1947, with Ted Weems Orchestra) (Victor 20-2315-B, 1947, with Lloyd Shaffer and his Orchestra)
Brian Hawkins, "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #710, recorded 10/11/2023)
NOTES [82 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 285, estimates that this was the third most popular song in America in 1909, peaking at #1 in September of the year (the #1 song that year being "By the Light of the Silvery Moon"). It had another peak in 1949 (#2 in October of that year), presumably due to the Perry Como recording and, perhaps, the movie; a movie by this title was released in 1947. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcIWWKHN

I Wondered and I Wondered

DESCRIPTION: "I wondered and I wondered All the days of my life, Where you're goin', Mr. Mooney, To get yourself a wife, Where you're goin', where you're goin' To get yourself a wife."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad wife
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 315, "I Wondered and I Wondered" (1 short text)
Roud #21044
File: Br3315

I Wore a Tunic

DESCRIPTION: "I wore a tunic, dirty khaki tunic, And you wore civilian clothes, We fought and bled at Loos When you were on the booze, The booze that no one here knows. Oh, you were with the wenches While we were in the trenches...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes clothes drink
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 25-Oct 8, 1915 - Battle of Loos, in which the British Army (which for the first time has brought in many short-term volunteers) fails to break the German lines in a major offensive. British commander Sir John French afterward is replaced as British commander by Douglas Haig, which is about as disastrous a choice as making the offensive was
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 47, "I Wore a Tunic" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 75, "I Wore a Tunic" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10505
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wore a Tulip" (i.e. "When You Wore a Tulip"?) (tune) and references there
File: BrPa047B

I Wore My Pappy's Pants

DESCRIPTION: Parody of the hymn "Jerusalem": "I wore my Pappy's pants To the Easter Monday Ball, They were too long, So I rolled them up, And I heard the people call, 'He's a-losin' 'em! He's a-losin' 'em! He's a-losin' his Pappy's pants!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: humorous derivative clothes father
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 164, "I wore my Pappy's pants" (1 text)
Roud #25403
NOTES [142 words]: According to the notes in Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, this is based on "The Holy City," by Fred E. Weatherly (from whom see "Danny Boy") and Stephen Adams (1892). There isn't much relationship between the parody and the original; Weatherly's text reads
Last night I lay a-sleeping,
There came a dream so fair,
I stood in old Jerusalem
Beside the Temple there.
I heard the children singing,
And ever as they sang,
Methought the voice of angels
From heav'n in answer rang;
Jerusalem! Jerusalem!
Lift up your gates and sing,
Hosanna in the highest,
Hosanna to your King!
Adams's melody is interesting; the version I have is scored in D♭ (in which key it is almost unsingably high, but it lists versions in reasonable keys). It appears to be in the Lydian mode -- the G♭ notes are all marked as G natural, meaning the song is full of tritones.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC164B

I Worry My Heart Away for You

See I'm Wearing My Heart Away for You (File: Brne110)

I Would Be True

DESCRIPTION: "I would be true, for there are those who trust me; I would be pure, for there are those who care; I would be strong, for there is much to suffer; I would be brave, for there is much to dare (x2)." "I would be friend of all, the foe, the friendless"
AUTHOR: Words: Howard A. Walter (source: hymnary.org); tune "Peak" attributed to Joseph Yates Peek in Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (source: hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #417, p. 102, "I Would Be True" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 93, "I Would Be True" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 162-163, "I Would Be True" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 107, "I Would Be True" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 55, "I Would Be True" (1 text)
SongsOfManyNations, "I Would Be True" (1 text) (CC edition, p. 92)
NOTES [27 words]: An interesting "hymn," in that it has no religious references although it emphasizes Christian virtues. It's easy to see why it would become popular in camps. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF162I

I Would I Were in My Own Country

See A North Country Maid (File: LK43B)

I Would Like to Read (I Know I Would Like to Read)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I would" "like to read (x3) a sweet story of old" (4x). Verses: "Come on brother help me tell ... The story of King 'Manuel." "I just want to get up on the mountain top ... I'll praise my God and never stop."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 40-41, "I Would Like to Read (I Know I Would Like to Read)" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 148-149 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #15287
NOTES [25 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "Like to read a sweet story of old." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett040

I Would Not Be Alone

See The Song of the Southern Volunteers (File: SBoA221)

I Would Not Live Always

DESCRIPTION: The singer offers various reasons why "I would not live always:" "Since Jesus was laid there [in the tomb], I'll not fear its gloom." "Who would live always Away from his God?" The singer looks forward to the bliss of heaven
AUTHOR: William Augustus Muhlenberg
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (source: Julian)
KEYWORDS: religious death burial
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 630, "I Would Not Live Always" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7558
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ferrill, "I Would Not Live Always" (on CloseHomeMS)
NOTES [197 words]: The proper title of this hymn is "I Would Not Live Alway." According to John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 774, this was author Muhlenberg's first significant hymn, but there were many editions over the years "1st the Original; 2nd the version given in the Prayer B[oo]k Coll[ection, 1876; 3rd the author's revised version of 1859; and the 4th his rewritten text of 1871, the second of these being that known to the hymn-books."
Julian gives this biography of Muhlenberg (there is an umlaut over the u, incidentally):
D.D., so of Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg, and gradnson of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the patriarch of Lutheranism in America, was b[orn] in Philadelphia Sept 16, 1796. He graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1814. Entering Holy Orders in 1817, he was successively Assistant Rector of St. James's Lancaster, 1823; Rector of the CHurch of the Holy Communion, New York, 1843; St. Paul's College, Flushing (1828) [sic.; probably should be 1848]; St. Luke's Hospital, New York (1855); St. John's and Long Island (1865) were established by him. He d[ied] APril 6, 1877." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: R630

I Would That I Were Where I Wish

DESCRIPTION: "I would that I were where I wish, Out on the sea in a tombey dish, When the dish begins to fill, I wish I was on Mousehole Hill. When the hills begin to crack, I wish I was on daddy's back. When Daddy's' back begins to break... a-eating current cake."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Dean & Shaw)
KEYWORDS: father children food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 49, "(I would that I were where I wish)" (1 short text, probably an excerpt)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going)" (lyrics)
cf. "Hush, Little Baby" (format)
File: DeSa049D

I Wouldn't Go There Any More

DESCRIPTION: "Goin' to the bathin' house, Goin' to the kitchen, My foot slip an' I fell down, I wouldn' go there no mo'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad injury
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 119, ("Goin' to the bathing house") (1 fragment)
NOTES [222 words]: The description is the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands fragment. There are other fragments with the tag line "I won't go there any more." It's tempting to lump them all together but the evidence is too thin.
Here are a few examples: Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland (second series) (Paisley:Alexander Gardner, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 71-78, "The Hogg's Tub," a humorous courtship with a chorus, "The hogg's tub, the hogg's tub, The tub behind the door; She tumbled me into the hogg's tub, And I'll never go there any more"; that chorus is shared as a verse in John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax, American Ballads and Folk Songs (The Macmillan Company: New York, 1953), pp. 277-280, "Old Joe Clark," "I won't go down to old Joe's house, I've told you here before; He fed me in a hog-trough And I won't go there any more"; the first verse and chorus has a life of its own in The Book of Nursery Rhymes Complete (Philadelphia: Theodore Bliss & Co., 1846 ("Digitized by Google")), #116, ("It's once I courted as pretty a lass"); E.C. Perrow, "Songs and Rhymes from the South" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 28 No. 108 (Apr-Jun 1915), #45 p. 183, "Sally Ann," "I asked her if she loved me, She said she felt above me; Out the door she shoved me -- I won't go there any more." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr119A

I Wouldn't Have an Old Man

DESCRIPTION: The singer refuses to have any part of an old man. She contrasts old and young men: The old are "slobbery," bony, have too many cows to milk, and hog the covers; young men are well-dressed and can keep a girl warm
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Frank Crumit)
KEYWORDS: nonballad age rejection youth marriage
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 135, "I Wouldn't Have an Old Man" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 174, "An Old Man and a Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 174-176, "Shoo Flies, Don't Bother Me" (1 text, 1 tune, with the chorus of "Shoo Fly" and the verses of "I Wouldn't Have an Old Man")
Randolph 401, "Stand Back, Old Man, Get Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 17, "I Wouldn't Marry" (7 text (some short) plus 6 excerpts, 1 fragment, and mention of 5 more, of which "M," "N," and "R" belong here)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 17, "I Wouldn't Marry" (5 tunes plus excerpts of texts, of which "M" and "R" belong here)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 8-9, "Git Away, Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #78, "Go Way, Old Man" (2 texts)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 123, "Get Away Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 33-34, "Get Away, Old Man, Get Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 199, "Get Away, Old Man, Get Away!" (1 text)
DT, AWAOLDMN*
Roud #3719
RECORDINGS:
Frank Crumit, "Get Away, Old Man, Get Away" (Victor 20137-B, 1926)
Vernon Dalhart, "Get Away Old Man, Get Away" (Brunswick 123, 1927) (Pathe 32254, 1927) (Columbia 969-D, 1927) (Supertone 9228, 1928) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5321, n.d.)
Durium Dance Band w. Carson Robison & his Pioneers, "Get Away Old Man" (Durium [UK] EN-25, 1932)
Arthur Fields, "Get Away Old Man" (Broadway 8049, rec. 1927)
Mack Brothers, "Get Away, Old Man, Get Away" (Decca 5073, 1935)
Charlie Newman, "Get Away Old Man, Get Away" (OKeh 45095, 1927)
Chubby Parker, "Get Away Old Maids, Get Away" (Conqueror 7888, 1931; Montgomery Ward M-4945, 1936; on CrowTold02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man"
cf. "Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings)"
cf. "I Wouldn't Marry an Old Man"
NOTES [83 words]: I suspect this may be a clean version of "I Wouldn't Marry an Old Man," but Ed Cray did not equate the two, and who am I to argue? (It is worth noting that Roud doesn't seem to consider this a song in its own right).
Paul Stamler points out that this song also exists in a version which complains about women, sung by Chubby Parker, and wonders if we shouldn't do something about the title. But the majority of versions complain about men; I suspect the Parker text of being a deliberate rewrite. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: R401

I Wouldn't Leave My Little Wooden Hut for You

DESCRIPTION: "Once on a cannibal isle there dwelt a dark-eyed maid Lived all alone in her little log hut...." "A stranger" arrives and begs her to cross the sea with him. But she " wouldn't leave my little wooden hut for you." When cannibals arrive, he flees
AUTHOR: Tom Mellor and Charles Collins (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection cannibalism
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
Roud #2542
RECORDINGS:
Jo Elliott, "I Wouldn't Leave My Little Wooden Hut For You" (Piotr-Archive #40, recorded 07/21/2021)
Burt Shepard, "I Wouldn't Leave My Little Wooden Hut for You" (Gramophone Concert Records G.C.-3-2342)
NOTES [20 words]: Apparently first recorded and popularized by Daisy Dormer, but so far I haven't managed to find the record number. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcIWLLWH

I Wouldn't Marry

See I'll Not Marry at All (File: E072)

I Wouldn't Marry (II)

See For item #17 in Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3, see I Wouldn't Marry an Old Maid AND I'll Not Marry at All AND I Wouldn't Have an Old Man AND I Wouldn't Marry an Old Maid (File: Br3017)

I Wouldn't Marry an Old Maid

DESCRIPTION: "I wouldn't marry an old maid, Tell you the reason why...." Various reasons are offered, e.g. "Her neck is so long and stringy, I fear she'll never die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting oldmaid nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 17, "I Wouldn't Marry" (7 text (some short) plus 6 excerpts, 1 fragment, and mention of 5 more, of which ""B," part of "S," and the first stanza of "A" belong here)
File: Br3017

I Wouldn't Marry an Old Man

DESCRIPTION: The singer prefers a young to an old man for explicit sexual reasons.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy age marriage sex
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 334-335, "I Wouldn't Marry an Old Man" (2 texts, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man"
cf. "Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings)"
cf. "I Wouldn't Have an Old Man"
NOTES [81 words]: A male version, "I Wouldn't Marry an Old Maid," also exists. Necessarily, its verses differ from the female's; thus there may be two songs on the same theme with similar titles. Presumably the tunes will determine the question. In Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, the melody for the female version given is more often associated with "No Balls at All." - EC
I suspect this may be a bawdy version of "I Wouldn't Have an Old Man," but Ed did not equate the two, and who am I to argue? - RBW
File: RL334

I Wouldn't Mind Dying

DESCRIPTION: "I wouldn't mind dying, got to go by myself (x3), I wouldn't mind dying if dying was all." In the same pattern," Bye and bye we're going to see the King," "After death we're going to stand the test," "Ezekiel saw a wheel, a wheel in a wheel."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Johnson recording)
KEYWORDS: death Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 243, ("By an' by-e I'm goin' t' see the King") (1 text)
Roud #16077
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "I Wouldn't Mind Dying" (on "The Carter Family 1927-1934," JSP Records JSP7701D CD (2010))
Blind Willie Johnson, "Bye and Bye I'm Goin' To See the King" (on "Praise God I'm Satisfied," Yazoo CD 1058 (1989, recorded about 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel" (Ezekiel's wheel theme) and notes there
File: Parp243

I Wrote a Letter to My Love

See Atisket, Atasket (I Sent a Letter to My Love) (File: BAF806A)

I Wrote My Love a Letter

See Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs) (File: R061)

I Wunduh If I Ebbuh Reach Home

See I Wonder If I'll Ever Reach Home (File: RcIWIIER)

I Wuv a Wabbit

DESCRIPTION: "I wuv a wabbit, a cwazy cwazy wabbit Hop, hop, bunny, bunny (x2), Hop, hop, ho, ho, hop hop. " "He wuvs his cawwots, his cwazy cwazy cawwots Chew, chew, bunny, bunny..." "When I go to sweep at night, I kiss he, and he kiss I..."
AUTHOR: Milton Berle, Ervin Drake, Paul Martell (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (recording, Dick "Two Ton" Baker and His Music Makers)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 124, 262, "I Wuv a Wabbit" (notes only)
RECORDINGS:
Dick "Two Ton" Baker and His Music Makers, "I Wuv a Wabbit" (Mercury 7047, 1947)
NOTES [33 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 262, hears a "fragment" of "Frosty the Snowman" in this tune, but since "Wabbit" was published in 1947 and "Frosty" in 1950, the dependence, if any, is the other way. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF124I

I Wuz Borned on the Rivuh

See I Was Born on the River (File: MWHee033)

I Yield

DESCRIPTION: "Fathers, bear your cross, for it will only make you richer, For to enter into that bright kingdom, by and by. I yield, I yield, oh, how I love to yield, For to enter into that bright kingdom, by and by." Similarly with mothers, brothers, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 219, "I Yield" (1 text)
ST Fus219 (Partial)
Roud #16374
File: Fus219

I-Yi-Yi-Yi (Limericks)

DESCRIPTION: Marked by verses in the form of limericks, always bawdy. Most deal with sexual machinery, either human or mechanical. Some may have a chorus such as "Sing us another one, Just like the other one."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959
KEYWORDS: bawdy technology
FOUND IN: US(SW,So) Canada
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 216-223, "I-Yi-Yi-Yi" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 165-166, "Sing Us Another One" (1 text, 1 tune, very long and composite)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 161-170, "Sing Us Another One" (1 text, very long)
Roud #10247
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singers, "Limericks" (on Unexp1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cielito Lindo" (tune) and references there
cf. "Waltz Me Around Again Willie" (lyrics)
NOTES [57 words]: As will be seen from the cross-references, this piece has an assembled tune, and not all versions have the same melody. Nor are there any lyrics found consistently. It classifies as a single song more or less by default; in essence, it's a bunch of bawdy limericks, often with each verse telling of one sexual exploit of a man or woman. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM216

I.W.A. Strike, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is happy with Premier Joey Smallwood and life in Newfoundland in the 10 years since Confederation. The Americans and I.W.A. strikers cause trouble but Joey opposes them. The strike ends. The singer hopes the Liberals prevail.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: strike lumbering labor-movement Canada
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1959 - the [US-controlled] IWA (International Woodworkers of America [which split in 1987 into US and Canadian unions]) strikes the AND [Anglo-Newfoundland Development] company at Badger.
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 202-205, "The I.W.A. Strike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25324
RECORDINGS:
Clara Stevens, "The I.W.A. Strike" (on NFAGuigné01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loggers' Plight" (subject of the I. W. A. Strike)
NOTES [61 words]: "The Loggers' Plight" is about the same event. [See the entry on that song for more about the event; it is much more pro-Union. - RBW] "Confederation" refers to Confederation of Newfoundland with Canada in 1949. Joey Smallwood was not always so popular; see, for example, "Anti-Confederation Song (II)" before these events and "The Blow Below the Belt" afterwards. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Guig202

I'Anson's Racehorse

See Little Dun Dee (File: RcLiDuDe)

I'd Be a Violet

DESCRIPTION: "I'd be a violet, born in a bower, Roses and lilies by my side, Tra-la-la-la! Tra-la-la-la! And with my love would there abide."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook)
KEYWORDS: flowers love home nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook 14, "I'd Be a Violet" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #22144
NOTES [70 words]: Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 32, has a song, "I'd Rather be a Violet," which opens, "I'd rather be a violet, Born in the month of May, Warmed by the gentle sunbeams When everything is gay...." It is apparently by J. H. Eccles and Frederick Buckley. I wouldn't be surprised if it is related to this song, but I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't, either; other than the desire to be a violet, they have nothing in common. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BrGr014

I'd Like to Be a Friend of Yours

See Mmm, And a Little Bit More (File: Paro202)

I'd Like to Be in Texas for the Round Up in the Spring

See I'd Like to Be in Texas When They Roundup in the Spring (File: ArWo003)

I'd Like to Be in Texas When They Roundup in the Spring

DESCRIPTION: "In a lobby of a big hotel in New York town one day," a crow gathers to talk of the places where they have visited. One gray-haired man says, "I'd like to be in Texas when they round up in the spring"; he recalls the life of the cattlemen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (ArkansasWoodhopper)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 3-5, "I'd Like to Be in Texas for the Round Up in the Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11309
RECORDINGS:
Leon Chappelear, I'd Like To Be In Texas For The Round-Up In The Spring (Champion 45068)
NOTES [20 words]: Curiously, although the Arkansas Woodchopper included this in his book, it does not appear that he ever recorded it! - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: ArWo003

I'd Like to Find the Sergeant

DESCRIPTION: "I'd like to find the Sergeant who forgot to hook me up (x3), And I ain't gonna jump no more." The paratrooper catalogs all the people whose sloppiness left his parachute non-functional. "Glory, glory, what a hell of a way to die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: death soldier technology
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 123, "I'd Like to Find the Sergeant" (1 text, tune referenced)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, posts 24, 35, "(no title)" (1 mention of the "Oh cor blimey what a hell of a way to die" chorus, from user John5918, posted August 29, 2021; there are several songs which use this chorus but the only verse given is closest to this)
ST Hopk123 (Partial)
Roud #29391
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune) and references there
cf. "He'll Never Fly Home Again" ("Glory, glory what a hell of a way to die" chorus) and references there
cf. "He Ain't Gonna Jump No More" (subject of death by parachute)
File: Hopk123

I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing

DESCRIPTION: "I'd like to build the world a home And furnish it with love." "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony." "I'd like to buy the world coke." Originally a coca-cola jingle, re-arranged to become a plea for peace and cooperation
AUTHOR: Bill Backer, Roger Cook, Billy Davis, Roger Greenaway, based on the tune "True Love and Apple Pie" by Cook and Greenaway (source: wideopencountry.com)
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (recording, The New Seekers)
KEYWORDS: nonballad drugs campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 257, 547, "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" (notes only)
NOTES [17 words]: Good grief, did people REALLY sing this in camps? This is one of the nightmares of my tween years. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF257T

I'd Love To Be a Sailor

DESCRIPTION: "I love to be a sailor Sailing on the good ship Kangaroo." The singer thinks of a pretty girl he has courted forty years. It's not true that a sailor has a wife on every port, but "every sailor's wife has got a man on every ship"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: adultery courting infidelity marriage travel humorous nonballad lover wife sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18212
RECORDINGS:
Eddy Primroy, "I'd Love To Be a Sailor" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [33 words]: As I understand Eddy Primroy's singing, the title should be "I Love To Be a Sailor." Except for the last line of the chorus there is no connection to the song indexed as "The Good Ship Kangaroo." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcILtbaS

I'd Raither Be Married to Something

See No to be Married Ava (File: FVS308)

I'd Rather Be Dead

DESCRIPTION: "I rather be dead an' laid in de dirt Than to see my gal with her feelin's hurt." "I rather be dead an' laid in de sand Than to see my gal with another man." "I rather be dead an' laid in de ground Than to see my gal in anoder weddin' gown."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (White)
KEYWORDS: death jealousy burial
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 443, "I'd Rather Be Dead" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 443, "I'd Rather Be Dead" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11780
NOTES [25 words]: I suspect this is a fragment of something longer, in which the singer explains the reason for his jealousy. But I can't say what the longer piece is. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3443

I'd rather have a young man with an apple in his hand

See Blow the Fire, Blacksmith (File: WT305I)

I'd Rather Suck on a Lemon Drop

DESCRIPTION: "Oh I'd rather suck on a lemon drop Than to try my luck with a lollipop, 'Cause I always drop my lollipop And it gets all over icky. Oh it makes me sick how the way it smears... I've tried and tried, but never could find A lollipop that's halfway refined"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 268, "I'd Rather Suck on a Lemon Drop" (notes plus a short text on p. 268; the "F" version of "Lollypop" on p. 275 ends with this piece)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, "The Lollypop Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [31 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs hints that this is a response to "Lollypop" and sometimes sung with it. Which makes the Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook title interesting. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF268L

I'll Ask My Mother (And I'll Let You Know Next Sunday Afternoon)

DESCRIPTION: "A pretty little girl came courting me, Her name was Sarah Broome." When she asks the young man to marry, he says he will ask his mother and let her know. When she gives up on him, she asks for her tokens back, but always he asks his mother
AUTHOR: Harry Stanwood (source: New-Comic-Songster)
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (New-Comic-Songster)
KEYWORDS: love courting mother
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
New-Comic-Songster, p. 23, "I'll Ask My Mother (And I'll Let You Know Next Sunday Afternoon)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #21, p. 26, "I'll Ask my Mother" (1 text)
Roud #12611
NOTES [37 words]: Common in broadsides, rare in tradition, but there are just enough hints that it was transmitted orally that I've indexed it. I'm not surprised that it's rare, though, since both men and women are implicitly insulted. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: NCSIIMMo

I'll Awa Hame (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Noo, I'll no bide with ma granny nae mair (x2), She skelps me face an' she pu's ma hair, An' I'll no bide...." "I'll away hame tae ma mother I will... She keeps a wee shop... An' she sells a wee drappie...." (S)he will sing and rejoice on her way home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: home mother travel drink music derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 70, "I'll Awa Hame" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22220
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'll Awa Hame to My Mither I Will" (lyrics)
NOTES [40 words]: I seriously considered lumping this with "I'll Awa Hame to My Mither I Will"; obviously they share a lot of words. The plot here seems different enough to call them different songs, but it seems quite clear that this is derived from that. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Gath070

I'll Awa Hame (II)

See I'll Awa Hame to My Mither I Will (File: GrD4897)

I'll Awa Hame to My Mither I Will

DESCRIPTION: "I'll awa hame to my mither I will." Mother warns the singer against "the ways o young men" and "to shun ilk appearance o' ill" and so on. But "I'll meet ye next Friday at Mungo's maut mill" and "Be discreet be sincere an ye're welcome back still"
AUTHOR: Alexander Rodger (1784-1846) (source: Whitelaw)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous nonballad mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 897, "I'll Awa Hame to My Mither I Will," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "I'll Awa Hame to My Mither I Will" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 164, "I'll Awa' Hame" (1 text)
Roud #6140
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Laird o' Cockpen" (tune, per Whitelaw and Greig/Duncan4)
cf. "I'll Awa Hame (I)" (lyrics)
File: GrD4897

I'll Be a Good Boy

DESCRIPTION: The singer has spent his life sporting, robbing and drinking. He spends a year in jail until his rich uncle pays "my score" and, released, promises he will go home to his wife and get a job. As for his bad ways, "I'll be a good boy And do so no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin)
KEYWORDS: adultery prison punishment robbery freedom work dancing drink wife
FOUND IN: US(MW) Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 45, "I'll Be a Good Boy" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John A Lomax and Alan Lomax, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1938), pp. 161-163, "The Bad Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bob Bolton at Mudcat Cafe, "I Have Been a Wild Boy" ("Oh my father died and left me his estate") (1 text) [see Notes]
Roud #4274
NOTES [113 words]: The Lomax entry is a hybrid. Verses 4 through 6 are this song. Part of the rest is from "Logan County Jail" [Laws E17]. One verse is adapted from "Root Hog or Die" and I don't recognize the remaining verses.
Bob Bolton's thread on Mudcat Cafe says: "This is collected in the 1950s from Sally Sloane, a lovely old singer in New South Wales, Australia and, although a lot of Sally's songs came through her Irish grandmother, Sarah Alexander, this is clearly an English, indeed a London song." It's recurring line is "I've been a wild boy but I'll be so no more."
The sense of this song is close to "Wild Rover" with its recurring line "I never will play the wild rover no more." - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: MuLa045

I'll Be a Little Mormon

DESCRIPTION: "I'll be a little 'Mormon, And seek to know the ways Which God has taught his people In these, the latter days. By sacred revelation... He tells us how to follow The sacred road to Heaven" which was revealed to Joseph Smith and Brigham Young
AUTHOR: Words: L. G. Richards Music: J. Detton (source: Deseret Sunday School Song Book)
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Deseret Sunday School Song Book)
KEYWORDS: religious children | Mormon Joseph Smith
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 250, "(No title)" (1 text)
File: GFGW250

I'll Be a Sergeant

DESCRIPTION: "I'll be a sergeant, an orderly sergeant, I'll be a sergeant, on that just bet your life." The singer will make the other soldiers hate him, but the girls will love them all. He won't take orders from a girl. The singer then thinks about being a colonel
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (F. J. Child, War Songs for Freemen, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: soldier nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 204-206, "I'll Be a Sergeant" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: SCWF204

I'll Be All Right

DESCRIPTION: "I'll be all right, I'll be all right, I'll be all right someday/Deep in my heart, I do believe, I'll be all right some day". Similarly, "I'll be like Him...", "I'll overcome"
AUTHOR: Unknown, perhaps adapted from a song by Charles Tindley
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (recording, Rev. Gary Davis)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 208, "I Will Overcome" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Rev. Gary Davis, "I'll Be All Right Someday" (on GaryDavis02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Shall Overcome" (tune, structure, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Will Be All Right
NOTES [87 words]: Obviously, this song is a near-twin of "We Shall Overcome," and until recently I would have said that the latter was a minimal adaptation of this song. But the recent discovery that "We Will Overcome" was being sung as early as 1908, and in the context of a labor struggle at that, makes the question of ancestry more ambiguous. So I'll leave it up in the air, and simply give this song its own entry, separate from "We Shall Overcome," because of the drastically different social circumstances under which it is sung. - PJS
File: RcIBeAlR

I'll Be All Smiles Tonight

DESCRIPTION: The singer is carefully dressing and bedecking herself with flowers for a wedding -- the wedding of her false true love to another girl. She intends to put on a fine face: "Though my heart will break tomorrow, I'll be all smiles tonight."
AUTHOR: T. B. Ransom (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (sheet music published by T. B. Harms & Co.)
KEYWORDS: love wedding infidelity clothes
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE,So) Australia
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Randolph 812, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (2 texts)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 20, "All Smiles To Night" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 116, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (1 text plus an excerpt and mention of 7 more, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 138-140, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 691, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 269-270, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 32-34, 40-41, 174-175, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (2 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 479, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (source notes only)
ADDITIONAL: John Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1920_, self-published, 1918 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland site), p. 14, "I'll Be All Smiles To-Night, Love" (1 text)
Roud #3715
RECORDINGS:
Allen Bros. "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (Victor V-40210, 1930)
Carter Family, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (Bluebird B-5529, 1934; Montgomery Ward M-4497, c. 1934)
Chuck Wagon Gang, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (ARC 7-03-58/vocalion 03426/Conqueror 8963, 1937; rec. 1936)
Luther B. Clarke [Blue Ridge Highballers], "I'll Be All Smiles To-night Love" (Columbia 15069-D, 1926)
Frank Jenkins & his Pilot Mountaineers [Oscar Jenkins, Frank Jenkins, Ernest V. Stoneman], "I Will Be All Smiles Tonight" (Conqueror, unissued, 1929)
Jenkins & Whitworth, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (OKeh 45331, 1929)
Bradley Kincaid, "I Will Be All Smiles Tonight" (Supertone 9566, 1929)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner ("Mac & Bob"), "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (Brunswick 164, 1927)
Linda Parker & the Cumberland Ridge Runners, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (Conqueror 8164, 1933)
Reed Children, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (Columbia 15525-D, 1930; rec. 1928)
Kitty Wells, "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (RCA Victor 21-0333, 1950)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1698), "I'll be all Smiles to-night," H. Disley (London), 1860-1883
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "This Night We Part Forever"
NOTES [53 words]: The 1879 sheet music of this is dedicated to "Miss Carrie Dupignac, Brooklyn, N.Y." It is pitched in the key of D, which makes the highest note of the song an F#. I can't help but think that, if the jilted girl wanted to get back at the man, she had only to sing the song in the key written; those F#s will hurt.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R812

I'll Be Rested When the Roll Is Called

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I'll be rested when the roll is called"(2x), "I'll be rested and I'll head toward heaven, I'll be rested...." Verse: "No more shouting when the roll is called...." "Meet my mother when the roll is called...." "Meet my elder when the roll...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Graves)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN:
Roud #21793
RECORDINGS:
Blind Roosevelt Graves and Uaroy Graves, "I'll Be Rested (When the Roll Is Called)" (1992, "Blind Roosevelt Graves 1929-1936," Document Records CD DOCD-5105)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When That General Roll Is Called" (theme)
File: RcIBeRe

I'll Be Seventeen Come Sunday

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17]; also The Banks of Sweet Primroses (File: LO17)

I'll Be the Binder

See Reap, Boys, Reap (Cold Stormy Weather, Who'll Be the Binder?) (File: Newe022)

I'll Be the Reaper

See Reap, Boys, Reap (Cold Stormy Weather, Who'll Be the Binder?) (File: Newe022)

I'll Be There

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I'll be there" (3x), "When the last trumpet shall sound I'll be there." Verse: "If the mourners would believe When... The gift of life they would receive When..." "I never can forget the day When Jesus washed my sins away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns); 1893 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute) (see notes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 19, "I'll Be There" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 166, "When the General Roll Is Called (General Roll Call)" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 91 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder" (theme, some words)
NOTES [47 words]: The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "General Roll Call" on page 91 (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 91. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Bart019

I'll Be There in the Morning

See When That General Roll Is Called (File: Bart029A)

I'll Be There, Mary Dear

DESCRIPTION: A soldier bids farewell to his sweetheart, giving her a golden leaf to remember him by. He loses an arm in battle, but friends tell him him one arm is enough to hold her. When he returns home, however, he finds her dead and buried; he is heartbroken
AUTHOR: Words: Andrew Sterling / Music: Harry von Tilzer (1872-1946)
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: soldier death separation return grief love promise army war
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 84, "Goodbye Mary Dear" (1 text)
Roud #12394
RECORDINGS:
Richard Harold, "Mary Dear" (Columbia 15426-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Roy Harvey and the North Carolina Ramblers, "I'll Be There, Mary Dear" (Brunswick 234/Aurora 22032, 1928)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Goodbye, Mary Dear" (Columbis 14546-D, 1929)
NOTES [216 words]: The similarity to "The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee" is obvious, but the words and tune are different, and there are plot elements here that aren't in that song, so I separate them. Meanwhile, I'd give long odds this dates from just after the Civil War. - PJS
It's easy to see why Paul thinks so (I would have guessed the same thing had I not seen a recent article by Lyle Lofgren about the piece), but in fact this -- like "The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee" -- dates from soon after the Spanish-American War. (Lofgren points out that there is a reference to the soldier taking a "transport" back home, strengthening the ties to 1898.) Presumably the latter war re-inspired this sort of tear-jerker, even though the casualties were less than in the Civil War. Mostly because the war was shorter; the troops were often as ill-clothed, ill-fed, and ill-cared-for as they had been a third of a century earlier.
For some background on Harry von Tilzer, see the notes to "A Bird in a Gilded Cage." Andrew B. Sterling is best known for writing the words to "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis" and "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie"; also "On the Shores of Havana," "Strike Up the Band (Here Comes a Sailor)," "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown (What You Goin' to Do When the Rent Comes 'Round?)," and others. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: RcGoMaDe

I'll Be Waiting Up There

DESCRIPTION: "If you miss me from singing, And can't find me nowhere, Just come on up to sweet heaven, I'll be singing up there. "You can find me up there (x2), Just come on up to sweet heaven." "If you miss me from praying...." "If you miss me from shouting...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 247, "You Can Find Me Up There" (1 text)
Roud #18152
NOTES [55 words]: Although this does not seem to have been widely collected, it appears to me certain that this was the basis for the song "If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus," credited to Charles Neblett and famous for having been recorded by Pete Seeger. This hints that it was better known than the handful of collections would indicate. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: KiWa247

I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again

DESCRIPTION: The soldier must leave his sweetheart; as she pins a rose on his breast, he promises, "I'll be with you when the roses bloom again." He is killed in battle; and can only ask that the captain inform his sweetheart
AUTHOR: Will D. Cobb & Gus Edwards (sometimes listed as "Will Whitmore & Harry Hilliard")
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1901 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: soldier separation death flowers
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 123, "When the Roses Bloom Again" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 96, "When the Wild Roses Bloom Again Beside the River " (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 138-139, "When the Roses Bloom Again beside the River" (1 text)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 66, "When the Roses Bloom Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 39, "When the Roses Bloom Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST RcIBWYWt (Partial)
Roud #2871
RECORDINGS:
Elton Britt, "When the Roses Bloom Again" (Bluebird B-9000, 1942; ViDisc 44, 1943)
[Richard] Burnett & [Leonard] Rutherford, "I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again" (Columbia 15122-D, 1927; rec. 1926; on BurnRuth01, KMM)
Carver Boys, "I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again" (Paramount 3233/Broadway 8180 [as Cramer Boys], n.d.; rec. 1929)
Cross & McCartt, "When the Roses Bloom Again" (Columbia 15143-D, 1927)
Vernon Dalhart, "I'm Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again" (Columbia 15054-D, 1926; rec. 1925)
Delmore Brothers, "Till the Roses Bloom Again" (Bluebird B-7262/Montgomery Ward M-7321, 1937)
Paul Joines & Cliff Evans, "Budded Roses" (on Persis1)
Harry Macdonough, "I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again" (CYL: Edison 8276, 1903)
Blind Jack Mathis, "When the Roses Come Again" (Columbia 15344-D, 1929)
Lester McFarland & Robert A. Gardner, "When the Roses Bloom Again" (Brunswick 111/Vocalion 5027, 1927; Supertone S-2028, 1930)
Walter Scanlan "I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again" (Edison 52063, 1927)
Kilby Snow, "Budded Roses" (on KSnow1)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "When the Roses Bloom Again" (matrix # GEX 496-A recorded 1927 and issued 1927-1928 as: Herwin 17741, Gennett 6044 [as by Ernest V. Stoneman and his Graysen County Boys, Champion 1522 [as by Uncle Jim Seany], Challenge 244/Supertone 9255/Silvertone 5001/Silvertone 8155/Silvertone 25001 [as by Uncle Ben Hawkins]) (matrix #7224-1 recorded 1927 and issued as Banner 1993/Domino 3964/Regal 8324/Oriole 946 [as by Sim Harris], 1927; Homestead 16498 [as by Harris])
[Wilmer] Watts & [Frank] Wilson, "When the Roses Bloom Again" (Paramount 3006, 1927)
Weaver & Wiggins [pseud. for Wilmer Watts & Frank Wilson], "When the Roses Bloom Again" (Broadway 8112, c. 1931)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Soldier (Erin Far Away I)" [Laws J6] (plot) and references there
cf. "Little Sweetheart in the Spring" (theme)
cf. "Down Among the Budded Roses" (some lyrics)
cf. "When the Roses Bloom Again for the Bootlegger" (lyrics, tune)
SAME TUNE:
When the Roses Bloom Again for the Bootlegger (File: Morr045)
NOTES [149 words]: According to Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America (p. 315), Cobb & Edwards were also the authors of "Mamie," listed as "an outstanding hit of 1901."
This sounds like a Civil War song, but given the era when Cobb and Edwards worked together, one must assume it was inspired by the Spanish-American War.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 254, estimates that this was the sixth-most popular song in America in 1901, peaking at #1 in December 1901 (#1 for the year being "Dolly Grey"). - RBW
I place Joines & Evans's recording "Budded Roses" here, but with misgivings; for one thing, it makes no mention of the man being a soldier. But the story fits well enough that, for want of an alternative, I place it here. Ditto Snow, who probably learned his version from Charlie Poole. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RcIBWYWt

I'll Bid You Farewell

DESCRIPTION: "My brethren and sistern I'll bid you farewell, I'm sorry to leave you, I love you so well. All ye that love Jesus, the cross you must bear." The song describes Jesus's sufferings on the cross. All will meet in the resurrection
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Roberts/Agey-InThePine)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus separation death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #113, "I'll Bid You Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [85 words]: I suspect that, if I could figure out all the corruption sin the text ("sistern"? -- this is an acceptable plural in some dialects, going back to Middle English, but no one would write it that way!), this would prove to be familiar. But repeated searches at hymnary.org, using all the variations I could think of, produced nothing. I wonder, given the number of unique hymns in Roberts/Agey-InThePine, if there wasn't someone in that part of Kentucky churning out hymns that never spread outside the area. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RAInP113

I'll Build Me a Boat

DESCRIPTION: "I'll make me a boat and I'll down the river float... I'll see Mona, fair Mona, pretty Mona I'll see." Using his shirt for a sail, he arrives at Mona's -- but her four brothers break in, kill him, and throw him in the sea. She throws herself in after him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: homicide brother ship river love courting suicide drowning sea
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 499, "Raise a Ruckus Tonight" (4 texts, of which "A" is this piece)
Roud #10054
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Raise a Ruckus" (lyrics)
NOTES [115 words]: The editors of Brown, seemingly followed by Roud, threw this in with "Raise a Ruckus Tonight" because it contains that key line, and other hints (e.g. the girl's name Mona) that it is related to that song.
Related, but assuredly not a version. The overwhelming majority of the text is a murder ballad -- and, by the looks of it, a very old and possibly very good one that somehow was mixed up with "Raise a Ruckus." Unfortunately, it's short enough that it can't be identified by its lyrics -- and the plot doesn't exactly match any others I know. The murderous brothers are common -- but throwing the body in the sea certainly isn't, and the use of a shirt for a sail is most intriguing. - RBW
File: Br3499

I'll Build Myself a Galland Ship

See The Lowlands of Holland (File: R083)

I'll Cheer Up My Heart

DESCRIPTION: "As I was a-walking ae May morning... There I saw my faithless lover...." "Well, since he's gane, joy gang wi' him.... I'll never lay a' my love upon ane." She laments her lost love, who prefers a rich girl, but will not let the grief ruin her life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: courting farewell abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 177, "I'll Cheer Up My Heart" (1 text)
Roud #5563
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (subject) and references there
File: Ord177

I'll Do Anything Dear

DESCRIPTION: "I'll do anything, dear, that you tell me to. I won't do much for Mary, for Sarah, Sal, or Sue,But I'll do anything that you tell me to." "I'll do anything, dear, that ou tell me to. I won't do much for Nancy, Mary Jane, or Sue, But I'll do anything..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 18, "I'll Do Anything, Dear" (1 short text)
Roud #11385
File: Brne018

I'll Drink One (To Be a Good Companion, The Sussex Toast)

DESCRIPTION: "I'll drink one, if you'll drink two, And here's a lad that'll drink with you, And if you do as I have done, You'll be a good companion." Each verse adds a drink ("I'll drink two if you'll drink three, And here's a lad that will drink with thee," etc.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Sharp MS.)
KEYWORDS: nonballad drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 285, "To Be a Good Companion" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SUSSXTST*
Roud #885
File: K285

I'll Eat When I'm Hungry

See Rye Whiskey (File: R405)

I'll Find My Way

DESCRIPTION: "My baby's gone and she throwed me down I'm just a nuisance all over town But it don't matter what they say, I'll find my way." "She left me... wishing that I were dead." "Look like each moment will be my last." "A gypsy told me to make a change"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (recording, Tampa Red)
KEYWORDS: grief love rejection separation nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #29485
RECORDINGS:
Emmett Murray, "I'll Find My Way" (on USFlorida01)
Tampa Red, "I'll Find My Way" (Bluebird B5450, 1934)
File: RcIFiMY

I'll Fire Dis Trip

DESCRIPTION: "I'll fire dis trip an' I'll fire no mo', fire down below! (x2)" "Miss Nancy Bell, I wish you well, fire down below! (x2)" "De bullies' boy is Uncle Gable, fire down below! Bring on day wood while you be's able! Fire down below."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown); possibly first printed 1850 (see Notes)
KEYWORDS: ship work fire
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 222, "I'll Fire Dis Trip" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 222, "I'll Fire Dis Trip" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 115, "The Sailor Fireman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #813
NOTES [103 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas suggests that this may be the original Negro song from which the tune of the verses of both "Ho for California" and "Camptown Races" stemmed. He found it in Sternvall's Sang under Segel (1935) where the author cites a book called Nigger Melodies, being the only entire and complete work of Ethiopian songs extant; Cornish Lamport & Co., NY, 1850. I found references to the book in WorldCat and other indexes, but haven't actually laid eyes on it. - SL
Roud lumps this with "Fire Down Below." There are similar words, but it seems to me the words are different enough to split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Br3222

I'll Fly Away

DESCRIPTION: "Some glad morning, when this life is over, I'll fly away/To a home on God's celestial shore, I'll fly away" Cho: "I'll fly away, oh glory, I'll fly away/When I die, halleluiah bye and bye..." "Just a few more weary days and then...."
AUTHOR: A. E. Brumley
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (recording, Selah Jubilee Quartet); reportedly published in 1932, according to Morgan
KEYWORDS: resurrection death nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 139-141, "I'll Fly Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, p. 198, "I'll Fly Away" (1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, p. 41, "I'll Fly Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, IFLYAWAY*
Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 290-291, "I'll Fly Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18437
RECORDINGS:
Brown's Ferry Four, "I'll Fly Away" (King 785, 1949)
Rev. Gary Davis, "I'll Fly Away" (on GaryDavis2)
Artricia Gordon, Katrina Esocoff, "I'll Fly Away" (Piotr-Archive #374, recorded 11/26/2022)
Mississippi John Hurt, "I'll Fly Away" (on MJHurt05) (chorus only)
Lincoln Park Singers, "I'll Fly Away" (AFS 7043 B1, 1943)
Selah Jubilee Quartet, "I'll Fly Away" (Decca 7831, 1941)
Virginia Trio [Jim & Jesse McReynolds], "I'll Fly Away" (Kentucky 509, n.d.)
Dianne Ward-Hicks, "I'll Fly Away" (Very short fragment: Piotr-Archive #147, recorded 04/22/2022)
NOTES [119 words]: According to Morgan, Albert E. Brumley (1905-1977) was working in the cotton fields one hot day when he started thinking about flying away from the hard, hot work. (W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 54, is even more specific, saying he paraphrased a line from "The Prisoner's Song" to produce "Like a bird from prison walls has flown.") That eventually inspired this song, which reportedly was the first work of Brumley's to be published. It certainly seems to be his most popular production. His biography, published in 1990, was entitled I'll Fly Away: The Life Story of Alfred E. Brumley; it was written by Kay Hively and Brumley's son Albert E. Brumley Jr. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcIFlyA

I'll Gang Doon Tae Yonder Valley

See Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)

I'll Gar Our Gudeman Trow

DESCRIPTION: A wife tells how she'd control her husband: threaten to sell the ladle unless he'd buy her a side saddle; threaten to sulk again unless he gives her twelve gold rings; threaten again to die unless he hires valets for her. She sneers at other women
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (_The Ballad-Book_ [Not Sharpe] privately published in Edinburgh, according to Chambers)
KEYWORDS: bargaining bragging nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1310, "I'll Gar Our Gudeman Trow" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 43, "I'll Gar Our Gudeman" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 147-148, "I'll Gar our gudeman trow" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol I, p. 123, "I'll Gar Our Gudeman Trow"
Roud #1560
File: GrD71310

I'll Give My Love a Cherry

See I Gave My Love a Cherry
 (File: R123)

I'll Give to You a Paper of Pins

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

I'll Give You a Paper of Pins

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

I'll Give You My Love

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

I'll Give You One More As You Go

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes how his sweetheart sent him off, offering a final kiss: "I'll give you one more as you go." Her parents are less tolerant; they set the dog on him. As he departs, the father orders "Sic him, Towse, And give him one more as he goes."
AUTHOR: Ike Brown?
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording Carolina Buddies)
KEYWORDS: love courting family dog humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 376, "I'll Give You One More As You Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 308-309, "I'll Give You One More As You Go" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 376)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 697, "Just Give Him One More As He Goes" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #3755
RECORDINGS:
Carolina Buddies, "My Sweetheart is a Sly Little Miss" (Columbia 15641-D, 1930)
The Carter Family, "Give Him One More As He Goes"(Conqueror 9664, 1941; rec. 1940)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Just Going Down to the Gate" (general situation, a few words)
cf. "Nobody's Darling on Earth" (portions of tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sic Him, Towse
NOTES [57 words]: Cohen reports this was written by Ike Brown in 1884. - RBW
To my ears this is a (rather poor) parody of "I'm Just Going Down to the Gate." Many other songs collected by Randolph seem to have originated as commercial hillbilly 78s, and I'm confident that this one could, if it were possible, be traced back to the Carolina Buddies recording. -PJS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: R376

I'll Go Back to Dear St. George Again

DESCRIPTION: "When me and my partner we left town this morning, A beautiful nag did run. We got to the foot of the Meriton dugway, A friend unexpectedly did come." They ride together to Slappie's for win. Then they ride on. The singer says he will return to St. George
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: travel drink
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #232, "I'll Go Back to Dear St. George Again" (1 text, t tune)
Roud #10908
NOTES [12 words]: For Saint/St. George, see the notes on "Saint George and the Drag-On." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: Hubb232

I'll Go to Sea No More

See Dixie Brown [Laws D7] (File: LD07)

I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I'll hang my harp on a willow tree, I'm off to the wars again." The singer's love is to be wed to one of higher degree. For her sake he gave up soldiering and became a minstrel, but after her wedding he will resume soldiering, hoping to die in battle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1846 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: war infidelity wedding music harp
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE) Ireland Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1203, "I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 113-115, "I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 23, "Harp On a Willow" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H155, p. 366, "I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 56-57, "I'll Hang My Harp" (I text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 736, "Warrior's Grave" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1008, p. 69, "I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 18 and #4/64, p. 18, "I'll Hang my Harp on a Willow-Tree" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 278-279, "I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MN1113 (Full)
Roud #1444
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(134b), "I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow T[ree]" ("I'll hang my harp on a willow tree"), The Poet's box (Glasgow), 1851; also Firth b.26(282), Firth c.16(354), Harding B 11(2611), "I'll hang my harp on a willow tree"; Harding B 15(136a), Harding B 11(1701), Firth b.26(220), "I'll Hang My Harp on the Willow Tree"; Firth b.27(227), "I'll Hang Up My Harp on a Willow Tree"
LOCSinging, as201530, "I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also as105930, as105920, as105910, sb20215b, "I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brighidin Ban Mo Store" (theme)
NOTES [204 words]: The earliest references to this piece seem to be from American sheet music: A copy of c. 1846 was printed in Philadelphia with an arrangement credited to Leopold Meignen. In 1848/9 it was published in Louisville, Kentucky and credited to Wellington Guernsey. A 1909 American text is effectively identical to the Sam Henry text of 1926, but with a noticeably different tune. Given that the song was found both in Ulster by Henry and in England by Ord, one must suspect British origin, but the matter is uncertain.
Ord heard a report that the singer in this song was involved with Queen Victoria before her marriage (allegedly at 17, i.e. in 1836/37, shortly before she took the throne). There is no external confirmation of this, and does not match his text of the song, since in the text, the love has golden hair, and Victoria's hair was dark. Also, he speaks of fighting the Saracen -- but by Victoria's time, the Saracen was replaced by the Turk, and the English were generally supporting the Turks against Russia. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as201530: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MN1113

I'll Hang My Harp on a WIllow Tree (II)

See Tavern in the Town (File: ShH94)

I'll Have a New Life (In That Resurrection Morning)

DESCRIPTION: "(On/In) the resurrection morning, When the dead and Christ shall rise, I'll have a new body...." The singer gives thanks for a new home, a new life, and a body "raised in power, Ready to live in paradise."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (collected by Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains from Ruby Vass)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 91-92, "I'll Have a New Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4309
NOTES [128 words]: Roud lumps this with "We Shall Rise, Hallelujah," but while there may be some shared lyrics, I really don't think they're the same song.
The phrase "sown in weakness, raised in power" is from 1 Corinthians 15:43, which is sort of a hymn by Paul to the resurrection body.
The origin of this raises interesting questions. This really sounds to me like church hymn -- and, indeed, I have a Baptist hymnal, Soul-Stirring ongs and Hymns, which has a piece entitled "Hallelujah, We Shall Rise" and beginning "In the resurrection morning, When the trump of Go shall sound, We shall rise...." The tunes look fairly similar; the lyrics less so. I woner if this might not be another case of someone in the Vass family (probably John Daniel Vass) remaking an existing song. - RBW
File: Shel091

I'll Hear the Trumpet Sound

DESCRIPTION: "You may bury me in the east, You may bury me in the west, But I'll hear the trumpet sound In that morning." "Father Gabriel in that day, He'll take wings and fly away." Christians, preachers, and the singer will take wings at Judgment Day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (College Songs)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad burial
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, TRUMPSND*
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 57, "I'll Hear the Trumpet Sound" (1 text, 1 tune) / (the song is on p. 125 of the 1876 edition)
ST Cols057 (Partial)
Roud #15297
File: Cols057

I'll hire a horse and steal a gig

See Push the Business On (File: GrD81616)

I'll Hit the Road Again, Boys

See I Walk the Road Again (File: FSC178)

I'll Kiss Ye Yet, and I'll Clap Ye Yet

DESCRIPTION: "I'll kiss ye yet, and I'll clap ye yet, An' I lie at your bonny back an' hap ye yet; An' fan ye lie doon, I'll draw the curtains roon, An' I'll bless the bonny day I gat ye, yet"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 874, "I'll Kiss Ye Yet, and I'll Clap Ye Yet" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6229
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "To Daunton Me" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
cf. "Fat'll Mak a Bonny Lassie Blythe an' Glad?" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5) and references there
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4874

I'll Lay Ye Doon, Love

DESCRIPTION: "I'll lay ye doon, love, I'll treat ye decent... For surely he is an honest man." The singer walks out to hear two lovers talking. One, who has traveled far, must travel on, "But when I come back, love, I'll lay ye doon."
AUTHOR: (based on a song by Edward Harrigan, but heavily rewritten)
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Sing Out!)
KEYWORDS: love sex courting travel
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, LAYEDOON*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 23, #5 (1974), p, 17, "I'll Lay Ye Doon, Love" (1 text, 1 tune, with a few variant words, based on Jean Redpath's and Norman Kennedy's versions of a Jeannie Robertson original)
Roud #3355
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Muldoon, the Solid Man" (lyrics)
NOTES [32 words]: For what little we know about how this song changed from an American song sung by a stage Irishman to how it became a Scottish song of seduction, see the notes to "Muldoon, the Solid Man." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: DTlayedo

I'll Let You Know the Reason

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells a girl he has come to gain her love. He has left another for her. She should not think about riches, which she has and he wants and is the reason she slights him. He hopes she will not slight him the next time and that they'll marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection money nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #81, p. 2, "Milton"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 38, ("I'll let you know the reason") (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan4 829, "Milton of Aberdour" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
Roud #6247
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bogie Banks" (theme: rejecting the riches of Alexander)
NOTES [588 words]: None of the Greig or Greig/Duncan4 texts include "Milton" except in the title.
The alternate title "Alexander" refers to the singer's reference to the woman's money. "Don't fix your mind on riches love nor yet on world's gear Look back to Alexander and there you'll find it clear He conquered all this wide warld sat doon and wept full sore To think there was but ae warld and that he wad gain no more."
This song shares one verse and the general theme with Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H589, p. 344, "The Rejected Lover" but I don't see enough of a similarity to lump them together, as Roud does. - BS
The cliche that Alexander wept because there were no more worlds to conquer is somewhat deceptive. Alexander had succeeded his father Philip in 336, when Philip was assassinated (Savill, p. 7). Philip had nearly conquered Greece (Bosworth, p. 16), but his death caused chaos, with several claimants to the Macedonian throne coming forward. Alexander managed to take charge by swift movement, the details of which are lost to us (Bosworth, pp. 25-27). Alexander then re-crushed the Greek city-states, destroying Thebes and terrorizing the rest (Mahaffy, pp. 10-11). He then picked up his father's plans to attack the once-great but now badly-ruled Persian Empire (Bosworth, p. 17).
Alexander first met local Persian forces in battle at Granicus (Mahaffy, p. 15). He then met their main army at Issus (Mahaffy, pp. 20-23) where he captured most of the Persian Emperor Darius III Codomannus's family (Roger, pp. 287-291), turned aside to conquer the restive Persian province of Egypt (Bosworth, pp. 67-74), and finally and completely defeated those Darius III at Gaugamela in 331 B.C.E. (Rogers, pp. 317-325). Darius fled the field, and was assassinated in 330 (Rogers, pp. 341-342). Alexander then married his daughter and claimed the Persian Empire (Arrian/Selincourt, p. 353).
Theoretically Alexander already controlled the world's largest empire. But Persia had been a collection of provinces, mostly distinct in culture, language, and religion, which had been content under the relatively benign yoke of the earlier Persians, but who had grown restive under recent bad Emperors. Alexander had to reconquer much of this territory. He succeeded well enough, but it took time. Then he headed through what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan toward what is now India.
It was in 326, at the Hyphasis River (the modern Beas in the Punjab) that the conquests stopped. "Stories [of the peoples to the east] could not but whet Alexander's appetite for yet another adventure; but his men felt differently" (Arrian/Selincourt, p. 291). Arrian/Selincourt, pp. 291-297, describes Alexander's attempts to jolly the men along. He reduced some of the men to tears, but failed. He then tried to shame them into following him; that too failed, although more men cried. Finally he started for home (Arrian/Selincourt, pp. 298-299). He would die in 323, in Babylon (Mahaffy, pp. 37-41).
There is much evidence that, by the end, Alexander was not entirely sane. He demanded an extreme form of worship, the proskynesis, and killed men who had once been his friends (one of them, perhaps, his lover); Savil, pp. 81-88. By the end, he was asking to be treated as a god (Savill, p. 139, although she denies this is a sign of mental disturbance). So he may have cried over a lot of things. But he never actually cried that there *were* no more worlds to conquer; at most, he cried because he would not be allowed to conquer them. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: GrD4829

I'll Lie nae Mair My Lane

DESCRIPTION: Jean, at sixteen, sits by a dyke complaining that she'll soon be old and gray and would not lie alone. Her mother says she's too young. She names boy friends who were not serious. Robin overhears her, proposes, they marry and no more lie alone.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 989, "I'll Lie nae Mair My Lane" (1 text)
Roud #6729
File: GrD5989

I'll Live Till I Die

See Rye Whiskey; also The Rebel Soldier (File: R405)

I'll Make a Man of You

DESCRIPTION: "The army and the navy need attention..." but, says the singer, "I've an army and a navy of my own." "On Sunday I walk out with a soldier, On Monday I'm taken by a tar... if you'll only take the shilling, I'll make a man of every one of you"
AUTHOR: Words: Arthur Wimperis / Music: Herman FInck (source: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Revue, "The Passing Show," according to Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier love sex navy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 9-10, "I'll Make a Man of You" (1 text)
File: AWTBW009

I'll Meet You in the Evening

See Hot Corn, Cold Corn (I'll Meet You in the Evening) (File: R267)

I'll Name the Boy Dennis, Or No Name At All

DESCRIPTION: "I'm bothered, yes, I'm bothered, completely perplexed, I'm the father of a little boy, I'm not happy but I'm vexed." Everyone in his immense family wants to give the child a different name. He puts his foot down for the name Dennis.
AUTHOR: Words: Fred Hatfield / Music: J. Small
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (copyright on a sheet music arrangement by Jos. Schwenseck [?])
KEYWORDS: humorous baby wordplay
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 34-35, "Name the Boy Dennis Or No Name At All" (1 text)
Roud #6658
File: Dean034

I'll Ne'er Forget the Parting

See The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)

I'll Never Be Yours

See Banks of the Ohio [Laws F5]
 (File: LF05)

I'll Never Get Drunk Again

See Oh, Once I Had a Fortune (File: R316)

I'll Never Get Drunk Any More (I)

DESCRIPTION: "When I go out on Sunday, what pleasure do I see? For the girl I loved so dearly Has gone square back on me." "I'll never get drunk any more, any more... I'll lay my head on the barroom floor." The singer laments how drink has ruined him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink abandonment nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 36, "I'll Never Get Drunk Any More" (4 texts, all somewhat mixed; the "A" text is cited above, and the "B" text is probably from the same family; "C" and "D" are "Oh, Once I Had a Fortune")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore536, "I'll Never Get Drunk Any More" (1 text plus an excerpt)
Roud #4625
File: Br3036

I'll Never Get Drunk Any More (II)

See Oh, Once I Had a Fortune (File: R316)

I'll Never Get Drunk Any More (III)

DESCRIPTION: The singer "got frisky Over some poteen whisky," fell, cracked his skull and had his pocket picked. The landlady won't give a drunk credit. "A man that's fond of boozing, His cash goes daily oozing" He swears off drink and warns others to do the same.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: warning drink nonballad money theft
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 96-97, "I'll Never Get Drunk Any More!" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 70-71, "I'll Never Get Drunk Any More" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 268-269, "I'll Never Get Drunk Any More"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Won't Go Home Until Morning" (tune) and references there
cf. "Mall Brook" [i.e. "Malbrouk"] (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
File: CrPS096

I'll Never Leave Old Dixie Land Again

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a former slave, returns to Dixie and his beloved Dinah again, after having spent time living in Kansas. He says the weather there is enough to freeze him, and he misses his home, so he'll never leave old Dixie Land again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (recording, Bogue Ford)
KEYWORDS: homesickness loneliness love home return reunion separation slavery
FOUND IN: US(MW)
Roud #15470
RECORDINGS:
Bogue Ford, "I'll never leave old Dixie land again" (AFS 4211 A1, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
NOTES [29 words]: A minstrel-show song, without a doubt. Ford sings it in dialect.
A significant number of freed slaves did in fact settle in Kansas during the years after the Civil War. - PJS
File: RcINLODA

I'll Never Turn Back

See No More, My Lord (File: SBoA312)

I'll Never Turn Back No More

See No More, My Lord (File: SBoA312)

I'll Never Wear the Red Any More

See Jenny Jenkins (File: R453)

I'll Never, Never Marry the Blacksmith Lad

DESCRIPTION: The singer will never marry a blacksmith because he works at the smitty and his clothes are dirty. She'll never marry a weaver because he complains and cries for his bobbins. She'll marry the Carpenter who works with planks and she'll get the shavings.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: marriage rejection weaving work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 192, "I'll Never, Never Marry the Blacksmith Lad" (1 text)
Roud #21094
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me)" (theme: professional comparison) and references there
File: LyCr2192

I'll Not Marry at All

DESCRIPTION: The single woman proudly proclaims her intent to die an old maid. She reels off the defects of all sorts of men -- rich, poor, fat, lean, farmer, e.g. "I'll not marry a man that's rich, He'll get drunk and fall in the ditch, I'll not marry at all...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,Ro,So,SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 72, "Shab-i-da Ru-dy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 262-263, "I Wouldn't Marry" (2 texts)
Randolph 364, "The Old Maid's Song" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 218-219, "The Old Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #80, "I'll Not Marry at All" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 17, "I Wouldn't Marry" (7 text (some short) plus 6 excerpts, 1 fragment, and mention of 5 more, of which "H," "J," "O," and "P" apparently belong here)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 17, "I Wouldn't Marry" (5 tunes plus excerpts of texts, of which "H" and "O" belong here)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #80, "I'll Not Marry at All" (2 texts)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 56, "The Old Maid's Song" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 211-212, "I'll Not Marry at All" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 72, "The Old Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 91-92, "I'll Not Marry At All" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 26, "The Old Maid" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 173, "I Never Will Marry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 99, pp. 208-209, "I'll Not Marry at All" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 78, "I Won't Marry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 100, "I Never Will Marry a Man Who Is Rich" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 86-87, "I Never Will Marry a Man who is Rich" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NOTMARRY
Roud #2774
RECORDINGS:
Kentucky Thorobreds, "I'll Not Marry at All" (Paramount 3080, 1928; Broadway 8184 [as Old Smokey Twins], n.d.; rec. 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Maid's Song (I)" and references there
cf. "A Young Virgin" (theme)
cf. "The Song of the Southern Volunteers" (form)
cf. "Yon Bonnie Lad" (theme)
NOTES [92 words]: Linscott, or her informants, thought this Irish. She cites no evidence, and the collections seem to be all, or nearly all, from the United States and Canada.
The idea of a catalog of undesirable occupations can be traced all the way back to ancient Egypt, though there it was a young man being advised against them. The "Instruction of Duauf" consists of a father telling the son what's wrong with each job, e.g. a smith smells worse than fish roe. (The piece was apparently used to train scribes; the one form of employment it approves of is scribe.) - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: E072

I'll Not Marry You

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

I'll Owre Bogie

DESCRIPTION: The singer says she'll follow her love over Bogie, or anywhere. For example, "As I came by Strathbogie yetts Strathboggie's trees were green There I heard the drums to beat I'll owre Boggie wi' him"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love travel nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 869, "I'll Owre Bogie" (2 texts)
Roud #6245
NOTES [172 words]: The Bogie is a tributary of the Deveron River in Aberdeenshire. - BS
From The Illustrated Book of Scottish Songs from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century, (London, 1854 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 40: "To go 'ower Bogie' is a phrase that expresses in Scotland the same idea as that of running to Gretna Green in England. It is also used to express a marriage performed by a magistrate instead of a clergyman." [Re Gretna Green -- "a small village on the west coast in the south of Scotland": "Its main claim to fame are the Blacksmith's Shops, where many runaway marriages were performed. These began in 1753 when an Act of Parliament, Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act, was passed in England, which stated that if both parties to a marriage were not at least 21 years old, then consent to the marriage had to be given by the parents. This Act did not apply in Scotland where it was possible for boys to get married at 14 and girls at 12 years old with or without parental consent." (Source: Wikipedia article Gretna Green )] - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4869

I'll Remember You, Love, In My Prayers

See When the Curtains of Night Are Pinned Back (File: San259)

I'll Return, Mother Darling, to You

DESCRIPTION: "A mother was saying good-bye to her boy, Who was ready to start for the war." She asks if they are parting forever. He promises to return "When the roses of springtime are blooming." Eventually the boy returns and says he will never more part from her
AUTHOR: Words: Casper Nathan / Music: E. Clinton Keithley (1880-1955)
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (sheet music copyrighted)
KEYWORDS: war mother children separation reunion
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 113, "I'll Return, Mother Darling, to You" (1 text)
Roud #21719
NOTES [544 words]: The cover of the sheet music to this makes the mother look truly ancient; presumably the idea was to give the impression that the boy was her last son. Since the song was written in 1915, clearly the war is World War I. In a proper folk song, he probably would not have come back, but this item is too cheery to note the millions of casualties, or the many soldiers who came home blind, brain damaged, or missing one or more limbs.
Often not even the bodies returned home. John Keegan, The First World War, Alfred A. Knopf, 1999, pp. 421-422, notes, "Few Russian or Turkish soldiers were ever decently interred and many German and Austrian soldiers killed on the shifting battlefields of the Eastern Front imply returned to earth.... Of the British Empire's million dead, most killed in France and Belgium, the bodies of over 500,000 were never to be found or, if found, not identified. a similar proportion of the 1,700,000 French war dead had also disappeared."
Keegan, p. 423, "To the million dead of the British Empire and the 1,700,000 French dead, we must add 1,500,000 soldiers of the Habsburg Empire who did not return, two million Germans, 460,000 Italians, 1,700,000 Russians and many hundreds of thousands of Turks; their numbers were never counted.... Male mortality exceeded normal expectations, between 1914 and 1918, seven to eightfold in Britain, and tenfold in France, in which 17 per cent of those who served were killed.... [M]en who were between 19 and 22 when the ware broke out... were reduced by 35-37 per cent."
James L. Stokesbury, A Short History of World War I, Morrow, 1981, makes the figures even more grim. On p. 310, he calculates, "All the Allies together mobilized a total of just over 42 million men. They counted as casualties those who had been killed or died while in service, wounded, prisoners, and mising. The total of these was slightly more than 22 million, or about 52 percent.... Russia... had mobilized 12 million men and had 9,150,000 casualties, or 76 percent. The British Empire had mobilized 8,904,000 and suffered more than 3 million casualties, about 36%. Italy had 39 percent losses among her 5.5 million servicemen. France, by contrast, had put under arms half a million fewer than the British empire, 8,400,000, but had a far higher ratio of losses, over 6 million, or 73 percent, the highest of any of the surviving states." (Russia, of course, had collapsed under the strain, hence the distinction between non-survivors and survivors.) Stokesbury calculates American casualties as a relatively trivial 8%, and that on a relatively small force of 4,355,000 men.
Stokesbury, p. 310, "The Central Powers sacrificed as many men losing the war as the Allies did winning it. Of 23 million men mobilized they had 15 million casualties, 15 more than the Allies. Germany lost more than 7 million of her 11 million fighting men. The worst record for the entire war was Austria-Hungary's, for she mobilized 7,800,000 and lost 7 million of them, an astonishing 90 percent."
Stokesbury, p. 309, notes that the was was estimated to have cost $337,980,579,560 -- and that's in 1920 dollars!
Bottom line: A million and a half British mothers had to face either losing a son or having him come back permanently maimed. - RBW
File: Dean113A

I'll Rise When the Rooster Crows

DESCRIPTION: Disjointed, some floating verses: "Going up yonder gonna put on my robes, gonna put on my golden shoes." "Where the duck chews tobacco and the goose drinks wine" Chorus: "I'll rise when the rooster crows... down where the sugar cane grows"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Disjointed, some floating verses: "Going up yonder gonna put on my robes, gonna put on my golden shoes." "Where the duck chews tobacco and the goose drinks wine/The old hen cackles while the rooster keeps the time." "What you gonna do when the women all dead/Gonna stand in the corner with a hung-down head/If I had to marry I wouldn't marry for riches/Marry a big fat girl who couldn't wear my britches." Chorus: "I'll rise when the rooster crows...I'm going back south where the sun shines hot, oh, down where the sugar-cane grows"
KEYWORDS: marriage drink floatingverses nonballad chickens
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #17514
RECORDINGS:
Binkley Brothers' Dixie Clodhoppers, "I'll Rise When the Rooster Crows" (Victor V-40048, 1929; rec. 1928.)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Rise When the Rooster Crows" (Vocalion 5097/Vocalion 15321, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Devilish Mary" (floating verses)
cf. "Hopalong Peter" (floating verses)
cf. "Hen Cackle" (floating verses)
File: RcIRWTRC

I'll Sail My Ship Alone

DESCRIPTION: "We've been sweethearts for so long but now you say, 'We're through!'" "I'll sail my ship alone with all the dreams I own Drifting out across the ocean blue.... And when it starts to sink, then I'll blame you." He wishes she would hear his message
AUTHOR: Henry Bernard, Henry Thurston, Morrey Burns, Mann Lois (sources: musixmatch, Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Moon Mullican)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal ship
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Dale Borusky, "I'll Sail My Ship Alone" (Piotr-Archive #562, recorded 04/18/2023)
NOTES [93 words]: Dale Borusky had this from his grandmother, Pearl Jacobs Borusky. I find this interesting -- Borusky was of course alive in 1950 when this song was popular, but not particularly young; it wouldn't have been a "legacy" song for her. Just a little comment on the nature of tradition.
This was reportedly Moon Mullican's biggest hit (he was one of the four authors, under the name Morr(e)y Burns), and was widely recorded by country and pop artists -- Wikipedia lists recordings by Patsy Cline, Jerry Lee Lewis, Hank Williams, George Jones, and many others. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio562

I'll See You in the Fair

See Cloughmills Fair (File: HHH121)

I'll Sell My Hat, I'll Sell My Coat

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

I'll SIng to Ye a Story

See Four and Twenty Tailors (File: KinBB13)

I'll Sing You a Good Old Song Made by a Good Old Pate

See The Fine Ould Irish Gentleman (File: NCSFOIGe)

I'll Sing You a Song

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing you a song (that's not very long/the days are long) About a woodcock (or cuckoo) and a sparrow." A dog either burns its tail or bites the singer's ear and is to be hanged tomorrow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammer Gurton's Garland, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: execution nonballad bird dog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 177, "I'll Sing You a Song That's No Very Long" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 485, "I'll sing you a song" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #72, p. 80, "(I'll Sing You a Song)"; cf. #256, p. 159, ("I'll sing you a song")
Roud #15095
NOTES [103 words]: Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes: "Since this rhyme dates at least from the eighteenth century, the statement in the last line that the dog must be hanged on the morrow may be based on more than poetic fancy. The trial of animals and the judicial hanging of dogs, although uncommon, appears at one time to have been considered reasonable." - BS
The Baring-Goulds give examples of this phenomenon, noting that it applied particularly to animals which killed or maimed people. They fail to note that this is essentially a Biblical policy: A bull which fatally gored a person was to be stoned (Exodus 21:28). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OO2485

I'll Sing You a Song But It's All Tommyrot

See Tooraloo (Boy With No Shoes, All Tattered and Torn, I Dreamt I Had Died) (File: Gard014)

I'll Sing You a Song That's No Very Long

See I'll Sing You a Song (File: OO2485)

I'll Sing You One Ho!

See Green Grow the Rushes-O (The Twelve Apostles, Come and I Will Sing You) (File: ShH97)

I'll Sit Down and Write a Song

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

I'll Soon Be Done With the Troubles of the World

See Soon I Will Be Done (File: LoF244)

I'll Stick to Auld Style

DESCRIPTION: "I biggit a hoosie wi' divots and stanes, For to keep me sheltered frae the cauld wind and rains, But twa daft idle laddies, wha thocht it fine fun, Fell foul o't and ca'd it a' flat wi' the grun'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1769, "I'll Stick to Auld Style" (1 fragment)
Roud #13017
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81769

I'll Take This Glass into My Hands

DESCRIPTION: "I'll take this glass into my hands, and drink to all that's here; I cannot tell where we may be before another year. Some may wed, some may be dead, some may be lying low; Some may be lying on a foreign shore, and not know where to go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 565, "I'll Take This Glass into My Hands" (1 text)
Roud #6036
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Fortune Turns Her Wheel" (theme)
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 entry. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3565

I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen

DESCRIPTION: The singer promises to take Kathleen home across the ocean. He says that -- even though she has lost her looks and her voice is sad -- he still loves her as she loves him. Once home (in Ireland?), they will visit their old haunts
AUTHOR: Thomas P. Westendorf (1848?-1923)
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (sheet music published by John Church & Co. of Cincinnati)
KEYWORDS: home love travel
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 83-86, "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 107, "I Will Take You Back Again, Kathleen" (1 text)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 5-10, "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 259, "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 296, "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen"
DT, KTHLEN
ST RJ19083 (Full)
Roud #12907
RECORDINGS:
George Patrick "Paddy" Gibson, "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #43, recorded 07/21/2021)
Kaplan's Melodists w. Vernon Dalhart, voc. "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" (Edison 51666, 1925)
Bradley Kincaid, "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen" (Bluebird 5569, 1934)
Shannon Quartet, "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" (OKeh 40302, 1925)
Zack [Hurt] & Glenn [?], "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen" (OKeh 45240, 1928)
NOTES [142 words]: This song has produced a its own folklore (that it's traditional, that it was written in 1900, that the author's wife was named/nicknamed/renamed Kathleen, that it has something to do with Ireland, etc.). The facts, which rarely resemble the folklore, have been gathered in Richard S. Hill's article "Getting Kathleen Home Again" in the June 1948 issue of Notes, the journal of the Music Library Association.
Spaeth (History of American Popular Music) and Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. 288-289, summarize the facts as follows: Westerndorf's wife was named Jennie, not Kathleen; he was a Virginian then living in Indiana; and the song was supposedly inspired by something called "Barney, Take Me Home Again" by Westendorf's friend George W. Persley - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RJ19083

I'll Taste No More the Poisonous Cup

DESCRIPTION: "I'll taste no more the poisonous cup That brought on me destruction... But [by?] my vice sleeps one in a grave so fair, My lovely lovely Mary." They had lived happily, but "demon rum" overtook him; now she is dead and he hopes to join her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: drink death burial love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 338-339, "I'll Taste No More the Poisonous Cup" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #25984
File: HGam338

I'll Tell Ma When I Get Home

See I'll Tell My Ma (I) (File: MCB146)

I'll Tell Mother

See I'll Tell My Ma (I) (File: MCB146)

I'll Tell My Ma (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I'll tell my my when I go home, The boys won't leave the girls alone; Pulling their hair and breaking their combs...." In some texts, the story ends there; in others, the girl says, "But that's all right till I go home"; we are told of her true love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory); 1885 (parody, according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: courting hair fight
FOUND IN: Ireland Australia Britain(England(North)) Canada(Mar) West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H48e, p. 11, "I'll Tell My Ma" (1 fragment, consisting solely of the "I'll Tell My Ma" stanza, 2 tunes)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 146, "(Polka)" (1 fragment, consisting solely of the "I'll Tell My Ma" stanza, 1 tune)
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 117, "(When I go home I will tell me mumma)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 95, "I'll Tell Mother" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 26, "(I'll tell me ma, when I go home)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #277, "I'll tell Ma when I get home" (1 text, consisting solely of the "I'll Tell My Ma" stanza); #377, "My mother said I never should" (1 text, which opens with "My Mother Said (Gypsies in the Wood)" and concludes with part of "I'll Tell My Ma (I)"); #610, "The Wind and the rain and the wind blew high" (1 text, a middle verse of this)
Roud #2649
RECORDINGS:
Em Elliott, "I'll Tell My Ma When I Get Home" (on Elliotts01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wind (Rain, Rain, the Wind Does Blow)" (lyrics)
NOTES [155 words]: The Clancy Brothers version of this involves a girl, "the belle of Belfast city," setting her heart on a man. This doesn't seem to happen in many other versions I've seen, which are just the complaints about the boys teasing the girl, though it' s found, e.g., in Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling.
The question is, is this a conflate of "I'll Tell My Ma" with some other song (presumably "The Wind (Rain, Rain, the Wind Does Blow)," or is the Clancy version the original which broke in half? Roud lumps them, but I'm not sure that means much.
I eventually ended up splitting them, but I'm none too happy about the situation. - RBW
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "A ditty that was the rage in late Victorian times.... Two of the earliest recordings are parodies ... 1885 ... and ... c. 1900...."
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory's text makes a different point: "When I go home I will tell me mumma That the girls in Jamaica won't leave me alone." - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: MCB146

I'll Tell My Ma (II)

See The Wind (Rain, Rain, the Wind Does Blow) (File: RcRRtWDB)

I'll Tell Ye a Talie

DESCRIPTION: A tale about the colt and fillie? The singer goes to Ireland and sees a maiden chasing a cock that had stolen her comb. She [?] asks "Blue-breekies" whether he had seen her husband. Yes: he burnt a hole in his breeches, and what's that to you?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: travel hair Ireland humorous chickens horse clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1635, "I'll Tell Ye a Talie" (1 text)
Roud #13067
NOTES [164 words]: I have no idea what's going on here. That may be what the singer intends. "Blue-breekies" may refer to a [police?] uniform.
Roud and the notes to Greig/Duncan8 look to Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 27, ("There was a wee yowe") for a [closely?] related texts. The story lines, as far as I can tell, cross in a few places: the trip to Ireland, the burn, and mention of the "guidman." Here's what I think the Chambers text is about: A ewe looks at the moon and sees more wonders [?] than fifteen; it goes to Ireland and Aberdeen and returns home; the husband is herding, the pigs are inside, the wife supervising the girls making cheese; the cat is in the stall eating when a cinder burnt its nose and it cries "yeowe, yeowe, yeowe." - BS
Based just on the description, it sounds like a hidden-meaning tale of a man seducing a virgin, ans of her following him to try to get him to marry her. But why, then, the humor? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1635

I'll Tell You a Comical Story

DESCRIPTION: Neilus buys Thady's donkey for an old donkey and two quid. Thady will buy a motor (car?) with the money. Neilus tries to cancel the deal: his new donkey has smashed the stall door. They brawl. The singer is knocked out and so can't say how it all ends
AUTHOR: Michael O Tuama (George Curtin) (source: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: fight money humorous animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 71, "I'll Tell You a Comical Story" (1 text)
Roud #16246
File: OCC071

I'll Tell You a Story

DESCRIPTION: "I'll tell you a story About (Jack a Nory/Johnny Magory), Will I begin it? Yes! That's all that's in it." Or "...Nory, And now my story's begun, I'll tell you another, Of Jack and his brother, ANd now my story is done."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammer Gurton's Garland, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad wordplay
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 9, "Johnny Magory" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 260, "I'll Tell You a Story" (1 text)
Roud #19694
File: BAAI009C

I'll Tell You of a Fellow

See Common Bill (File: R119)

I'll Tell You What I Saw Last Night

See Wicked Polly [Laws H6] (File: LH06)

I'll Tell Your Daddy

DESCRIPTION: "John, John, John, I'll tell your daddy (x3), So early in the morning." "The blue-eyed girl is dead and gone (x3) So early in the morning."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 100, "I'll Tell Your Daddy" (1 text)
Roud #3595
NOTES [22 words]: The editors of Brown link this implicitly to "Going to Boston," but that appears to be on the basis solely of a floating verse. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Br3100

I'll Think On Thee, My Love

See Lash'd to the Helm (I'll Think On Thee, My Love) (File: SSSB193)

I'll Wear the Violets, Sweetheart

DESCRIPTION: "A lad was one day reading While the tears ran down his cheeks" as he reads a letter containing "violets from the dell." It asks him to wear them; he says he will do so though they will meet as strangers and/or are parted forever
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love separation flowers request
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 100, "I'll Wear the Violets, Sweetheart" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11391
File: Brne100

I'll Weave My Love a Garland

DESCRIPTION: "I'll weave my love a garland, He shall be dressed so fine, I'll set it round with roses... For I love my love, and I love my love Because my love loves me." The singer wishes she were an arrow, a fish, a reaper, that she might more easily find him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #92, "The Loyal Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; notes to #389, "I'll Overtake Thee" (1 text)
Roud #578
NOTES [201 words]: Roud lumps this with "Nancy's Complaint in Bedlam." They seem clearly distinct to me.
I have seen this listed as traditional. I suspect that means it's from an early literary source with no author listed, meaning that it is public domain but not traditional; I have found no field collections other than Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, which is always suspect. But I thought I'd better include it just in case....
One thing we can say is that the song is part of a very long chain of linked folksongs. The burden "I love my love, and I love my love Because my love loves me" is, e.g., common in "A Maid in Bedlam," and a slightly different form, "Come you not from Newcastle," dates back at least to the Percy folio. Sir George Ogle fiddled with the form in "Grammachree Molly" (in the Index as "Grammachree"). And all of those link to many other songs.
I also find, in Maud Karpeles, Folk Songs of Europe, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 93, a German song called "Sichelein Rauschen," "I Heard the Sound of a Sickle." which has many of the themes of this song. This strengthens my feeling that the English version is semi-literary, combining the "I love my love" burden with elements from the German. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: dlMC389A

I'll Write You a Letter

See The Last Letter (File: GrMa101)

I'm Little Piece of Tin

See Little Pile of Tin (File: LTCSLPoT)

I'm 'Enery the Eighth I Am

See I'm Henery the Eighth I Am (File: LTCDHen8)

I'm a Bold and Rambling Soldier

See The Rambling Soldier (File: ShH43)

I'm a Bow-Legged Chicken

See Tennessee Wig-Walk (File: OpGa128)

I'm a Boy from Ohingaiti

See I'm a Young Man from the Country (File: MHAp253)

I'm a Day too Young

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl and asks how old she is. She says, "I'm a day too young to be your bride ... to lay by your side." They have sex. "I found she was not a day too young" She asks when they will marry: never; "carry your big belly home to your mam"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: seduction rake youth
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1311, "Linkin' Owre the Lea" (5 fragments, 5 tunes)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 30, "I'm a Day Too Young" (1 text)
Roud #1003
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Broom
File: GrD71311

I'm a Decent Boy from Ireland

DESCRIPTION: The "decent boy" has been forced to roam. Brought up by good parents, he urges, "Be kind to your parents when their locks are turning gray... You'll never know their value till they lay beneath the soil."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971
KEYWORDS: age family poverty rambling
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 278-279, "I'm a Decent Boy from Ireland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9420
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't Leave Your Mother When Her Hair Turns Gray" (theme)
File: Doe278

I'm a Gentleman of Leisure, of Nobility and Pleasure

See Ball of Yarn (File: EM089)

I'm a Girl Dressed in Green

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme, perhaps derived from "I Am a Girl Guide." "I'm a girl dressed in green. My mother didn't want me, So she sent me to the Queen. The Queen she didn't want me, So she sent me to the King. The King said, Shut your eyes And count sixteen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: clothes royalty mother rejection jumprope
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, # 203, "I'm a Girl Dressed in Green" (1 text)
Roud #19225
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Am a Girl Guide" (lyrics)
File: AJRR203

I'm a Good Old Rebel

See The Good Old Rebel (The Song of the Rebel Soldier) (File: Wa193)

I'm a Hilsararious, a Rippimatanemy

See I Wish I Was a Hynocereous (File: ACSF422)

I'm a Hynocereous

See I Wish I Was a Hynocereous (File: ACSF422)

I'm a Little Acorn Brown (I'm a Nut)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a little acorn brown, Lying on the cold, cold ground, Everybody steps on me, That is why I'm cracked you see. I'm a nut (click, click)." "I can sing and I can dance, I wear ruffles on my... sorry, boys, guess again: I wear ruffles on my dress."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Camp Clavell and Girl Reserve Club Songs)
KEYWORDS: nonsense campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p 283, 345, "I'm a Little Acorn Brown" (notes only)
DT, IMANUT IMANUT2
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Nut Song
File: ACSF283I

I'm a Little Brownie Dressed in Brown

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I'm a little brownie dressed in brown, See my stocking fallin' down. Pick them up, pull them down, I'm a little brownie dressed in brown."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: clothes jumprope colors | brownie stockings
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #205, "I'm a little brownie dressed in brown" (1 text)
Roud #19225
NOTES [43 words]: Roud explicitly, and Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes implicitly, combine this with "I Am a Girl Guide," and the form is certainly similar, but this verse does not seem to appear with that song. It looks to me as if this was a deliberate put-down of the younger set. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR205

I'm a Little Dutch Girl

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a little Dutch girl, from over the sea." "I'm a little Dutch boy, from over the sea." "I hate you." "Why?" "You stole my necklace." "Here is." "We're getting married ... having babies ... getting older ... in our coffins ... up in heaven ... angels"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: courting wedding childbirth death playparty jumprope
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland(Hebr),Wales) Canada(Ont) US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 72, "I'm a Little Dutch Girl" (3 texts)
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, p. 78, "(no title)" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #18, "(I'm a little Dutch girl)"; #32, "(I'm a little Dutch girl)" (2 texts); also #83, "(I Went Downtown to See Miss Brown)" (1 text, which combines "Choo'n Gum (Chewing Gum; Chew, Chew, Chew; Bubblegum)" with "I'm a Little Dutch Girl")
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 62, "Salute to the Captain" (1 short text, that might be from "I Am a Girl Guide" or "I'm a Little Dutch Girl" or several other children's rhymes)
Roud #13205
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O du lieber Augustin" (tune, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame) [indexed under "Did You Ever See a Lassie?"]
cf. "Poor Jenny Is a-Weeping" (tune, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
cf. "I Am a Girl Guide" (lyrics of some versions)
NOTES [61 words]: The description is based on the Opie/Opie version. It appears the jump rope rhyme consistently goes in a different direction: "I'm a little Dutch girl, dressed in blue, Here are the things I like to do," which might (e.g.) include saluting the captain, king, or queen, as well as dancing, the splits, and (one suspects) a few things folklorists wouldn't take down. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: OpGa072

I'm a Little Dutch Girl All So Fat

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a little Dutch girl all so fat; I'm going to get married and what do you think of that? I'm not going to marry a butcher, with blood on his toes." Similarly baker, king, etc.; "I'm going to marry a Dutch boy who'll buy me a diamond ring"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: playparty marriage rejection
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 109, "(I'm a little Dutch girl all so fat)" (1 text)
NOTES [39 words]: McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks files this as a divination rhyme. It may derived from one of the other Dutch Girl rhymes, but it looks separate to me. It can be hard to be sure in the case of children's games.... - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: McIn109

I'm a Little Dutchman

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a little Dutchman, I drink beer. It makes my stomach stick way out here. How many barrels can I drink?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: playparty drink
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 109, "(I'm a Little Dutchman)" (1 short text)
File: McIn109B

I'm a Little Girl Guide

See I Am a Girl Guide (File: SuSm111A)

I'm a Little Sailor Boy Come from the Sea

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

I'm a Little Tea Pot

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a little teapot, short and stout, Here is my handle, here is my spout." The pot will "shout" when the tea is ready, at which time the tea can be poured out
AUTHOR: George H. Sanders and Clarence Z. Kelley (source: Dolby-OrangesAndLemons)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (date of composition, according to Dolby-OrangesAndLemons)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 1, "(I'm a Little Teapot") (1 short text, from user 2wonderY, posted August 28, 2021)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 161, "I'm a Little Teapot" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 513, "I'm a Little Teapot" (notes only)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 60, "Little Teapot" (1 text)
ST Dolb161 (Full)
Roud #20416
NOTES [55 words]: Given how recent this song is, it's not a surprise that this doesn't show up in any folk music collections. But, interestingly, the version I learned of this has significant differences from the version in Dolby-OrangesAndLemons (which is also longer than the version I know), so apparently it has undergone some folk processing. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Dolb161

I'm a Little Teapot

See I'm a Little Tea Pot (File: Dolb161)

I'm a Long Time Travelling Here Below

See When I Can Read My Titles Clear (Long Time Traveling) (File: DTlongti)

I'm a Man That Done Wrong to His Parents

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a man that's seen trouble and sorrow, Oh I once was light-hearted and gay, Not a dime in this world can I borrow Since my own I have squandered away." The singer tells how he wronged his parents. Now they despise him, and he must beg for shelter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes family father
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ro,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 160-161, "I'm a Man That's Done Wrong to My Parents" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 839, "I'm a Man That Done Wrong to His Parents" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #145, "I Did Wrong to My Parents" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: John Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1920_, self-published, 1918 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland site), p. 11, "I Am a Man That's Done Wrong to My Parents" (1 text)
Roud #1386
File: R839

I'm a Man That's Done Wrong to My Parents

See I'm a Man That Done Wrong to His Parents (File: R839)

I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day

See Jock Stewart (The Man You Don't Meet Every Day) (File: R476)

I'm a Minder

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a minder [i.e. miner], I'm a minder, In de col' ground, Lawd, Lawd, Lawd, Lawd."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: work mining
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 216, (no title) (1 fragment)
File: ScNF216B

I'm a Nachel-Bawn Reacher

See Natural Born Reacher (File: ScNF232B)

I'm a Nut

See I'm a Little Acorn Brown (I'm a Nut) (File: ACSF283I)

I'm a Pilgrim

See I Am a Pilgrim (File: FSWB353B)

I'm a Poor Old Chimney Sweeper

DESCRIPTION: "I am a poor old chimney sweeper, I have but one daughter and now I can't keep her. So since she has resolved to marry, Go choose you one and do not tarry." Once the girl has chosen her love, the couple is told to join hands, step over a broom, and be wed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage playparty work worker courting family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, p. 58=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 172-173, "I'm a Poor Chimney Sweeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 189, "Chimbley Sweeper" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Randolph 571, "The Chimney Swallow" (1 fragment)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 9, "Chimney-Sweeper (game song)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 84-85, "Chimney Sweeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 74-75, "The Chimney Sweeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, p. 64, "The Chimney Sweeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 6-7, "Chimney Sweep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7023
RECORDINGS:
Rebecca King Jones, "Chimbley Sweeper" [excerpt] (on USWarnerColl01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater" (tales of a chimney sweeper's family)
NOTES [222 words]: The Warners (on the basis of the television miniseries "Roots"!) credit jumping over a broom as a Black wedding ceremony. But I have also seen (in, I must admit, a science fiction story) what appears to be a British rhyme on the same subject.
Elsewhere, however, a "broomstick wedding" is one not given formal or clerical recognition. An example of this is in Dickens's Great Expectations, chapter 48: Wemick describes a couple as having been "married very young, over the broomstick (as they say)."
Eric Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English says that "to jump (over) the broomstick" is attested from the eighteenth century, and "hop the broomstick" and "marry over the broomstick" are known from the nineteenth; all are described as colloquial and obsolescent. All terms refer to a couple living together as man and wife without being (formally) married. The ceremony itself is a "broomstick wedding." Partridge compares "jump the besom" and "Westminster wedding." "Jump the Besom" apparently is attested c. 1700.
Randolph's text is shorter and rather different in tone from the Warners', but there are too many lyric similarities for me to separate them. Telling them from "Peter, Peter, Pumkin Eater" can also be tricky, since "Peter" often loses the name and becomes a tale of a chimney sweeper. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Wa189

I'm a Poor Unfortunate Miserable Man

See Someone Has Been There Before (File: Guig341)

I'm a Prentice Boy, My Name Is Bob

See My Master's Gun (I'm a Prentice Boy, My Name Is Bob) (File: PCL011)

I'm a Rambler, I'm a Gambler

See The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)

I'm a Roaring Son of the Comstock

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a roaring son of the Comstock, And I work in the Chollar Mine." The singer works hard, never has money, and even when dead, "I'll still be a son of the Comstock, And the devil knows it well!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Who Shot Maggie in the Freckle, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: drink mining devil
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 612, "I'm a Roaring Son of the Comstock" (1 text)
File: CAFS2612

I'm a Rover and Seldom Sober

DESCRIPTION: The singer is seldom sober but on a starless night he can find his way to his lover. He goes to her window. He is "drenched to the skin." She lets him in and they lie together until cock crow. Then he gets up because he must be early at the plow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (recording, Tom Newman)
KEYWORDS: lover drink nightvisit bird farming
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(ABer,Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #13, pp. 129-130, "I'm a Rover and Seldom Sober" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3135
RECORDINGS:
Davie Stewart, "I'm Often Drunk and I'm Seldom Sober" (on Voice13)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In" (two verses) and references there
NOTES [377 words]: Davie Stewart's version on Voice13 includes two verses that are standard for "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In": the singer goes to his true love's bedroom window and she complains that he is "depriving me of [or disturbing me from] my long night's rest"; he says he is her lover, "pray discover ... I'm soaking love, to the skin." Another argument for including this song with "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In" is Stewart's chorus -- "I'm often drunk and I'm seldom sober I'm a constant rover from town to town And when I'm dead and my days are over Oh, lay me down, my Molly Baun" -- which compares to the chorus in Kennedy 159, "A Health to All True-Lovers" and DT,IMAROVER* - "So I'm a rover and seldom sober I'm a rover of high degree It's when I'm drinking I'm always thinking How to gain my love's company" -- and Kennedy's song is, with the exception of that chorus, "Rise Up Quickly," without a doubt. Kennedy's chorus belongs to "I'm Often Drunk and Seldom Sober," an entirely different song.
So why haven't I put Stewart's song with "Rise Up Quickly"? His two verses -- he has only four altogether -- of meeting Molly Bann, and that last half of his chorus, are not "Rise Up Quickly..." though I could not argue too strongly with someone who insisted that those verses were incidental add-ons and that this must be "Rise Up Quickly." I haven't found the Molly Bann verses anyplace else, so I can't -- yet -- call this song a hybrid.
Then there are the other versions of "I'm a Rover, Seldom Sober," at Digital Tradition, including MacColl's DT,IMAROVER*; they, have no Molly Bann reference and are, without a doubt, "A Health to All True Lovers." DT, IMAROVER*, once included here, is now at "Rise Up Quickly." - BS
The Dubliners' various recordings of this song had a very large influence on the Irish folk scene of the 60's [and] 70's, perhaps particularly in non-Irish countries. Porter and Gower, in discussing Jeannie Robertson's Scottish version, report that some scholars have argued this song is a descendant of the revenant lover in "The Gray Cock" (Child 248), but surely modern singers (and certainly those from outside Irish or Scottish tradition) will be closer to what Porter and Gower call "the more earthbound idea of night visiting." - DGE
Last updated in version 5.3
File: DTimarov

I'm A Running For My Life

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a-running for my life (x2), If anybody ask you What's the matter with me, Just tellum I say-a, I'm a-running for my life." "I'm a-moaning for my life." "I'm a-praying for my life."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 249, "I'm A Running For My Life" (1 text)
Roud #18164
File: KiW249I

I'm a Saginaw Valley Man

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Solomon (Harmless/Levi), From this world both wide and wild, I'm a regular mule in harness, I'm a wildcard when I'm riled." "I'm a Buffalo Bill, by jingo! ... I'm not much on the lingo; I'm a Saginaw Valley man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan)
KEYWORDS: bragging nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, p. 121, "I'm a Saginaw Valley Man" (1 short text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 8, "I'm a Saginaw Valley Man" (1 short text)
Roud #6505
NOTES [42 words]: Beck says that one version of this gives the bad man's name as Solomon Levi. There is a song "My Name Is Solomon Levi" (Roud #15423; Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd #164), but it does not appear to be this although there may have been cross-fertilization. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BBun121

I'm a Soldier

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a soldier forward go, Let the dying sinner know, Jesus blood avail, Can never fail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1940 (Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 51, "I'm a Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ElCh051B

I'm a Soldier Bound for Glory

DESCRIPTION: Singer calls "all who love the Saviour" to "to arms": "Twas the Saviour's loving kindness" induced him to stay "in the fight," not "run away." "Here I raise my 'Ebenezer'" and at death's river "I mean to shout 'Salvation!' and go singing 'Glory' home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Booth)
KEYWORDS: battle nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 25, "I'm a Soldier Bound for Glory" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: William Booth, _Salvation Army Songs_ (Toronto: The Salvation Army Book Department, 1911 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #276 pp. 193-194, ("I'm a soldier bound for glory") (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (I)" ("Ebenezer" lyrics)
cf. "La Marseillaise" (tune)
NOTES [93 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "Women in Tobago washing their clothes in the rivers and streams have been heard singing this song in chorus."
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago has the first verse and a modified chorus.
Booth has "To arms, to arms ye brave! See, see the standard wave! March on, march on, the trumpet sounds, To victory or death."
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago has "Hark, hark The trumpet call (2x), March on, March on, I say march on, To victory or death (2x)" - BS
For the meaning of "Ebenezer," see the notes to "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo025

I'm a Soldier in the Army of the Lord

DESCRIPTION: Alternate responsive lines are "In the army of the Lord" and "In the army." Verses and chorus are a single call line repeated: "I'm a soldier," "I'll die in the army," "I'm fighting for my rights," "I don't mind dying," "I want a clean man"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Rev. J. M. Gates)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #12132
RECORDINGS:
Rev. J. M. Gates, "I'm A Soldier In The Army Of The Lord" (Victor 20851, 1926)
Peerless Four, "I'm a Soldier in the Army of the Lord" (on LomaxCD1708)
File: RcISIATL

I'm a Stranger Here

DESCRIPTION: "Ain't it hard to stumble When you got no place to fall? (x2) In this whole wide world I got no place at all. I'm a stranger here... I would go home, but... I'm a stranger here." The singer takes his mule -- all this baby left -- and seek a fair shake.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (collected from Louise Henson)
KEYWORDS: home abandonment hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 371-372, "I'm a Stranger Here" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 81, "I'm a Stranger Here" (1 text)
Roud #15589
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Worried Man Blues" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I'm Worried Now But I Won't Be Worried Long" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [50 words]: The Louise Henson version in Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry includes the well-known lines "I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long; It takes a worried man to sing a worried song," but the rest seems to be separate. Henson seems to have been fond of those words, including them in multiple songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: FSWB081C

I'm a Stranger In This Country

See When First Into this Country (File: SWMS195)

I'm a Stranger in this Country (The Darger Lad)

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a "darger loon" from a distant land, meets a "Scottish lass" in an alehouse. They drink. He takes her to his lodgings and they spend the night together. Next morning he leaves on the train as she cries on the station. At home he drinks her health
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: sex parting Scotland separation train
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 832, "The Darger Lad" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3388
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy McBeath, "I'm a Stranger in this Country" (on Voice15)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Indian Lass" (theme, verses) and references there
cf. "Little Mohee" [Laws H8] (theme, verses) and references there
NOTES [241 words]: Hall, notes to Voice15, translates the text "darger loon" as "day-labourer lad."
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 15" - 13.9.02: "It appears to be related to 'The Indian Lass,' a song collected by Frank Kidson - see Traditional Tunes (1891) pp.109-11." I'm convinced. Compare first verses:
Kidson's first version "from a person's singing in North Yorkshire":
As I was a walking on a far distant shore,
I went into an ale-house to spend half-an-hour;
And as I sat smoking beside of my glass,
By chance there came in a fine young Indian lass.
Jimmy McBeath's version on Voice15.
I'm a stranger in this country from a far distant land.
I went into an ale-house for half an hour to spend.
And as I sat a-drinking, a-musing in my glass,
Wha stepped in but an old Scottish lass.
Kidson, or his informant, has elided the sex -- which can be found in Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 51 -- but, at the end,
So early next morning we were going to sail;
This lovely young Indian on the beach did bewail;
I took off my hankercheif and wiped her eyes, --
"O, do not go leave me, my sailor," she cries.
which McBeath has as
It was early next morning I ran to catch the train.
I left my bonnie lassie in the station to remain.
In drawing out her handkercheif, the tears dropped fae her ee.
'Oh, dinna gang and leave me, my darger loon,' cried she.
Neither of Kidson's tunes, nor Creighton's, match McBeath's. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: RcIASITC

I'm a Tight Little Irishman

DESCRIPTION: "Tight Little Irishman" Larry O'Broom does well enough on his father's inheritance until he marries a wife, who abuses him and apparently bankrupts him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: marriage poverty shrewishness
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 144, "I'm a Tight Little Irishman" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ST E144 (Full)
Roud #5344
File: E144

I'm a wee Filory Man

See The Wee Falorie Man (File: Hamm013)

I'm a white man, and I drive mi motor car

See She Gets There Just the Same (Jim Crow Car) (File: DarNS355)

I'm a Workin' Chap

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a workin' chap, as you may see, You'll find an honest man in me." The singer is thrifty and industrious, for poor folks are "working life out to keep life in." The singer describes various poor people, and hopes listeners will not despise them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: work poverty clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 656, "I'm a Workin' Chap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 51-52, "I'm a Workin' Chap" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 35-36, "The working chap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5591
NOTES [16 words]: Roud links this song with "Tak It, Man, Tak It" as found in Ford, etc. I flatly don't see it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Ord051

I'm a Young Man

See I'm a Young Man from the Country (File: MHAp253)

I'm a Young Man from the Country

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a young man from the country... I'm a free and easy fellow, I need not tell my name. Oh, wouldn't you like to know me?" Town people try to trick him, but he knows his cab fares and all the tricks, and avoids the traps
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Charles John Martin, "Locals," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: travel trick
FOUND IN: US(Ap) Britain(England(South)) New Zealand
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #110, "I'm a Young Man from the Country" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 253, "I'm A Young Man from the Country" (1 text)
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 28-30, "The New Chum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 25, "I'm a Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 15 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 61, 238, "(I'm a Young Man Just from England") (1 text plus an excerpt); also p. 294, "(I'm a boy from Ohingaiti)" (1 text, a modified "rugby version" of 1893)
New-Comic-Songster, pp. 26-27, "I'm a Young Man from the Country" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #15, pp. 60-61, "I'm a Young Man from the Country" (1 text)
Roud #1510
NOTES [104 words]: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, and Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ attribute this to Charles John Martin, who published a New Zealand version in 1862. But what is clearly a version of the same piece, without the localization, was published in Beadle's Dime Song Book #15, just two years later, and in Oliver Ditson & Co, The New Comic Songster, from 1870. The two early printed versions lack attribution, but is clearly related to the both the American and New Zealand versions. Presumably there is an ancestor to all the versions somewhere; it might be worth an investigation. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MHAp253

I'm a Young Man Just from England

See I'm a Young Man from the Country (File: MHAp253)

I'm A-Goin' down This Road Feelin' Bad

See Going Down this Road Feeling Bad (File: LxU072)

I'm A-Leavin' Cheyenne

See Goodbye, Old Paint (File: LxU063A)

I'm a-Longin' for to Go This Road

DESCRIPTION: "Purtiest girl I ever saw since I come fro the west... I was loving her the best." "I'm a-longing for to go this road (x3), Down the courthouse road." She cries to see him coming, and faints and dies when he leaves. He laughs ever time she opens her mouth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Roberts-SangBranchSettlers)
KEYWORDS: humorous courting travel death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #75, "I'm a-Longin' for to Go This Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3430
File: Robe075

I'm a-Rolling

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I'm rolling (x3) through an unfriendly world (x2)."Verses: "O brothers (sisters, preachers) won't you help me (x3) in the service of the Lord")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute); 1893 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 186-187, "I'm a-Rolling" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 94 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
SongsOfManyNations, "I'm A-rolling" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 52)
Roud #15318
NOTES [61 words]: The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "I'm a rolling through an unfriendly world" on page 94, with the note "Fisk Jubilee Collection, by permission" (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 94. - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Dett186

I'm A-Trouble in de Mind (I'm A-Trouble in the Mind)

DESCRIPTION: "I am a-trouble in the mind (x2), I ask my Lord what I do, I am a-trouble in the mind (x2), What you doubt for? I'm a trouble in de mind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, pp. 30-31, "I Know When I'm Going Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 24, "Troubled in Mind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11984
NOTES [59 words]: This may, I suppose, have been inspired by the Biblical story of Jesus's mental anguish in the garden before his arrest (Mark 14:32f. and parallels; compare John 12:27, 13:21 and the probably interpolation of the "bloody sweat" in Luke 22:43-44). I doubt it, though; lots of people can be troubled in mind without needing a Bible setting to justify it. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: AWG030B

I'm A'Deen, Johnnie

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "First when I cam' to this toon, I was red an' white an' bonnie" but now she's "done for likin' Johnnie" She writes him a letter. [lost text] She would have her baby tell Johnnie he's the father.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: pregnancy nonballad separation father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1082, "I'm A'Deen, Johnnie" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6773
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going)" (lyrics)
File: GrD61082

I'm Afloat, I'm Afloat (The Rover of the Sea)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm afloat, I'm afloat, on he firce rolling tide, The ocean is my home and the barque is my bride." "I fear not the monarch I heed not the law." "Our flag of defiance still waves o'er the sea, Hurrah, boys, hurrah, boys, the rover is free."
AUTHOR: Words: Eliza Cook (1818-1889) / Music: Henry Russell (1812-1900)
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (sheet music, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor pirate ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 80-81, "The Rover of the Sea" (1 text)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 46, "I'm Afloat, I'm Afloat" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a broadside reprint on p. 146, #32 in the first edition which also includes on p. 76 a sheet music cover which is not in the revised edition)
Roud #2025
SAME TUNE:
The Song of the Trap (File: AnSt079)
Life of Loafer [Part 2] (by Charles R. Thatcher, in "Thatcher's Colonial Songster") (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 63-65)
NOTES [22 words]: For background on Eliza Cook, see the notes to "Grandmother's Chair." For background on Henry Russell, see "Cheer, Boys, Cheer (II)."
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FrPi046

I'm Alabama Bound

See Alabama Bound (II) (File: PSAFB044)

I'm All Alone

See I Have a Father Gone to Glory (I Am Alone in this World) (File: MHAp201)

I'm All Alone in this World

See I Have a Father Gone to Glory (I Am Alone in this World) (File: MHAp201)

I'm All Out an' Down

DESCRIPTION: "Honey-y-y, I'm all out an' down, Honey-y-y, I'm broke, babe, an' I ain't got a dime, Ev'ry good man gets in ha'd luck sometime, Don't they, baby?" Blues complaining of poverty, the noise made by women and hungry animals, work in the mud, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes poverty
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 307, "I'm All Out an' Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15203
File: LoF307

I'm Alone, All Alone (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I have no father (mother, sister, brother, sweetheart) in this world...Take me home, dear Saviour, take me home" Cho: "I'm alone all alone in this world...Take me home, dear Saviour take me home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recording, Ernest V. Stoneman)
KEYWORDS: loneliness nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Ernest V. Stoneman w. Mike Seeger, "I'm Alone, All Alone"; Ernest Stoneman and Eddie Stoneman, "I'm Alone, All Alone" (ARC, unissued, 1934)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Free Little Bird" (lyrics)
cf. "Shivering in the Cold" (theme)
NOTES [54 words]: My first thought, upon seeing Paul Stamler's description, was that this was religious version of "Free Little Bird." But it's a much simpler form, though there is likely some sort of dependence. It may also have something to do with "Shivering in the Cold," with which it shares some ideas and even an alternate title. - RBW
File: RcIAloAA

I'm Alone, All Alone (II)

See Shivering in the Cold (File: R327)

I'm An Irish Boy

See My Irish Jaunting Car (The Irish Boy) (File: HHH592)

I'm as free a little bird as I can be

See Free Little Bird (File: FSWB391A)

I'm Being Swallowed by a Boa Constrictor

DESCRIPTION: "I'm being swallowed by a boa constrictor (x3) And I don't like it very much." To various mild curses, the snake swallows various parts of the singer until, perhaps, the head is reached and the song ends
AUTHOR: Shel Silverstein
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (recording, Peter, Paul and Mommy)
KEYWORDS: humorous campsong animal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 110, 516, "I'm Being Swallowed by a Boa Constrictor" (notes only)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Boa Constrictor
File: ACSF516B

I'm Bidding Adieu

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a poor farmer from Tralee, must emigrate. "They say there's luck in a foreign land, there's health and wealth galore." "We'll toil both night and day" He will return "of course" and dance "on the good old barn floor"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: poverty emigration return Ireland nonballad dancing work
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 10, "I'm Bidding Adieu" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: McB1010

I'm Bound Away

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "For the sake of you, my lassie, I'm bound away, my lassie. For the sake of you, my lassie, I'm bound away." Only this one verse given by Hugill
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (C. F. Smith, _A Book of Shanties_)
KEYWORDS: shanty farewell
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 497, "I'm Bound Away" (1 excerpt, 1 tune, quoted from C.F. Smith) [AbEd, p. 365]
Roud #11254
File: Hugi497

I'm Bound Away for Canada (My Dear I'm Bound for Canaday)

See My Dear, I'm Bound for Canady (File: GrMa154)

I'm Bound for the Promised Land

See Bound for the Promised Land (File: LxU099)

I'm Bound For the Rio Grande

See Rio Grande (File: Doe064)

I'm Bound to Cross the Jordan

DESCRIPTION: "I'm boun' to cross the Jordan(x5), Hallelujah!" "Oh, brothers, won't you join me? Sisters, won't you join me? Sinners, won't you join me? For I'm bound to cross the Jordan, Hallelujah!" "Oh, my brother's over Jordan, My sister's...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 532, "I'm Boun' to Cross the Jordan" (1 text)
Roud #11872
File: Br3532

I'm Bound to Follow the Long Horn Cow

See I'm Bound to Follow the Longhorn Cows (File: LoF186)

I'm Bound to Follow the Longhorn Cows

DESCRIPTION: "I'm bound to follow the longhorn cows until I git too old. It's well I work for wages, boys, I git my pay in gold." The singer boasts of his skills as a cowboy. He describes the difficulties of stampedes. He hopes to save up money to be married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work bragging money gold loneliness love marriage
FOUND IN: US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 162-163, "I'm Bound to Follow the Long Horn Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 186, "I'm Bound to Follow the Longhorn Cows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 97, pp. 228-229, "The Jolly Cowboy" (1 text, much shorter than Lomax's)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 104, "The Lone Star Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 114, "Lone Star Trail" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 137, "The Lone Star Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 374-375, "Lone Star Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5765
RECORDINGS:
Ken Maynard, "The Lone Star Trail" (Columbia 2310-D, 1930; on AAFM3, WhenIWas1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Love the Name of Texas" (theme)
NOTES [167 words]: This song was featured in the film "The Wagon Master"; Ken Maynard is described as the "pioneer of cowboy singing stars" in the movies. - PJS
Guy Logsdon, on p. 52 of Scott B. Spencer, editor, The Ballad Collectors of North America, Scarecrow Press, 2012, agrees in part, "In the early 1930s, Ken Maynard, though lacking vocal skills, became the first 'reel' cowboy to sing in a motion picture, but Gene Autry was the singer for whom the genre was created." It is interesting to note that (as of this writing) the Ballad Index cites six Maynard recordings -- but three of them appear to have been unissued at the time!
If the texts printed by the Fifes are any indication, this piece can take on almost any form, and the incidents can take place in almost any order; the only line their texts have entirely in common is "My trade is cinches and saddles and ropes and bridle reins." And the Lomax text is again very different, with changes in all the verses, much new material, and a different order. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LoF186

I'm But a Peer and Misguided Man

DESCRIPTION: "I'm but a peer and misguided man, Wi' a reeky [made dark by smoke] hoose, and a rinnin' oot [overflowing] pan [commode?], A girnin' [snarling] geet [brat], and a wife to ban [curse]"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: poverty children wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1913, "I'm But a Peer and Misguided Man" (1 fragment)
Roud #13557
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81913

I'm Certain

DESCRIPTION: "Well I'm certain, I haven't got nothing, I never had nothing, I don't want nothing, 'cept you. I haven't seen nobody... If you love me, I'll love you, But if you want money... I shan't do, 'cause I haven't got nothing... I don't want nothing, 'cept you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2023 (Derek Piotr Archive)
KEYWORDS: love money courting
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Ben Luxon, "I'm Certain" (Piotr-Archive #666, recorded 09/17/2023)
NOTES [23 words]: Ben Luxon described this as Cornish. It can just barely be said to have a melody; it's more of a chant (Luxon called it a "patter song"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio666

I'm Crossing Jordan River

DESCRIPTION: "I'm crossing Jordan river, Lord I want my crown (x2)." "Oh when I'm crossing Jordan River, I want my crown." "Jordan river chilly and cold, The love of Jesus is in my soul." "Jordan river deep and wide, None can cross but the sanctified." And similarly
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: religious river nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 258-259, "I'm Crossing Jordan River" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" (floating lyrics)
File: CNFM258

I'm Deep In Love, My Mind Is Troubled

DESCRIPTION: "I'm deep in love, my mind is troubled, I know not where to wander to." The girl tells him he must stop drinking; he declares he will abandon women first. Many verses float: "I'll lay my head on a cask of brandy." "The oceans are wide, I cannot wade them"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: love drink rejection travel floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 260-261, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #6597
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Carrickfergus" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Peggy Gordon" (floating lyrics)
File: TNY260

I'm Despised for Being Poor

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell, false girl(s), I leave you In sorrow and in pain, My absence cannot grieve you, Soon you'll bear a stranger's name." He recalls courting the girl; though it grieves her, she has abandoned him for a rich stranger. He will enlist as a soldier
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: love courting betrayal money soldier
FOUND IN: US(So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp.194-195, "I'm Despised for Being Poor" (1 text)
Roud #7944
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Ghaney, "I'm Forsaken for Another" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Was Despised Because I Was Poor
NOTES [39 words]: Nearly every word of this has close parallels elsewhere, except for the final line of each verse, "I'm despised for being poor" (or variants). But since that's the key to the whole song, the result probably should stand on its own. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Beld195

I'm Dying for Someone to Love Me

DESCRIPTION: The girl reports "I am dying for someone to love me." Flirting and friendship are not enough; she wants the real thing. None of the local young men are up to the task. Mother calls her crazy, but the girl recalls that she was once much the same
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (The Wonderful Eight Book of Poetry and Song)
KEYWORDS: love loneliness family
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 373, "I'm Dying for Some One to Love Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 303-305, "I'm Dying for Someone to Love Me" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 373)
Roud #7620
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight" (lyrics)
NOTES [70 words]: Quite a few of the lyrics to this remind me of "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight" -- enough so that I suspect this may be a parody. But the thrust of the song is different.
The version in the "Wonderful Eight Book" is credited to W. F. Shaw, but Cohen notes that a song with this same title (not necessarily the same song) was copyrighted 1877.
Randolph's informant, Booth Cambell, thought he learned it around 1880. - RBW
File: R373

I'm Forsaken for Another

See I'm Despised for Being Poor (File: Beld195)

I'm From Over the Mountain

See The Trip Over the Mountain (File: HHH161B)

I'm Full

DESCRIPTION: "I'm full, absolutely full, But I know the country I was born in. My name is Jock McGraw And I dinna care a straw, For I've a wee bit drappie In the bottle for the mornin'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: drink
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 41, "I'm Full" (1 short text)
Roud #9609
File: SBar041

I'm Gaein in the Train

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going in a train, And you're not coming with me; I've got a lad of my own, and his name is Kilty Jimmy." "Jimmy wears a kilt, He wears it in a fashion, And every time he twirls it around, You cannot keep from laughing!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Montgomerie)
KEYWORDS: clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 153, "(I'm going in a train)" (1 text)
Roud #18663
NOTES [42 words]: Roud lumps this with something similar to "I Know Where I'm Going," and that certainly was what I thought of when I first read the piece. Still, the evidence is thin. I'm including it in the Index, hesitantly, and giving it its own entry, hesitantly. - RBW
File: MSNR153

I'm Gaun Some Wye

See Salmon Fishers (File: MSNR078)

I'm Gaun to the Wood

See Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid) (File: R079)

I'm Gaun to the Wood (I)

DESCRIPTION: Dialog between "bonny keen Nancy" and "silly coordy Willsie": Nancy: tomorrow is market day. Willsie: Maybe I have no silver. Nancy: Maybe I can lend you some. Willsie: Maybe I won't repay it. Nancy: Maybe I won't care.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: money dialog humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 811C, "I'm Gaun to the Wood" (1 text)
Roud #298
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Greeting Wilsie" (dialog format and characters)
cf. "I'm Goin' Away to Texas" (dialog format, characters and attitude)
File: GrD4811C

I'm Gaun to the Wood (II)

See Poor Greeting Wilsie (File: GrD4811A)

I'm Glad I Live in Wyoming

DESCRIPTION: "I'm glad I live in Wyoming, The glorious state of Wyoming, Oh! I'm glad I live in Wyoming, The best of all the states."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Little Brown Song Book for Wyoming, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: patriotic nonballad home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp 577-578, "I'm Glad I Live in Wyoming" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Won't Go Home Until Morning" (tune) and references there
File: CAFS2577

I'm Glad to be Me

See I'm Proud to be Me (File: ACSF547P)

I'm Goin' Away to Texas

DESCRIPTION: "I'm goin' away to Texas, Oh dear me...." "Just go on an' just keep a-goin'." "When I get there I'll write you a letter." "I don't want you nor none of your letters." "You'll be sorry for all this." "If I am, you never will know it." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: dialog husband wife separation rejection shrewishness
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 363, "I'm Going Away to Texas" (3 texts, 1 tune, but only the "A" text and tune really belong here; "B" is "I Love You And I Can't Help It" and "C" is perhaps "The Quaker's Courtship" )
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 327-329, "I'm Going Away to Texas" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 363A)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 248-250, "The Old Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 166, "I'm Going Away to Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Mrs. W. L. Deal, "I'm a Poor Old Bachelor"(7/16/53). The John Quincy Wolf Collection Ozark Folksongs, https://www.lyon.edu/songs/song/im-a-poor-old-bachelor -- accessed July 17, 2023
Roud #6691
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Gaun to the Wood" (dialog format, characters and attitude)
cf. "Poor Greeting Wilsie" (dialog format, characters and attitude)
cf. "Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid)" (dialog format, characters and attitude)
File: R363

I'm Goin' Back to Dixie

See I'se Gwine Back to Dixie (File: DTheartd)

I'm Goin' Back to Georgia

See The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)

I'm Goin' Back to Good Ol' Birmingham

DESCRIPTION: "I"m goin' back to good old Birmingham." "I went to the depot, I looked up on the bo'd (x3), It's good times here but it was better way up the road." "Asked the depot agent, What train must I ride?" "I'm goin' back to Florida where it's warm...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: railroading travel floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 198-199, "I'm GOin' Back to Good Ol' Birmingham" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #16274
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Leavin' Here, Don't Know Where I'm Goin'" (lyrics)
NOTES [46 words]: Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices's text (from Willie Hill) is short enough that it might be a free-floating fragment of some other lonesome train song, but it's too short to allow positive identification and appears to have some independent elements, so it gets its own entry. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Rose198

I'm Goin' Back to North Carolina

See My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains (File: Wa124)

I'm Goin' Down the River Befo' Long

See Chilly Winds (File: MWhee029)

I'm Goin' Down the Rivuh

See I'm Going Down the River (File: MWhee050)

I'm Goin' Down the Town (Dandy Jim)

See Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going) (File: SBoA050)

I'm Goin' Down This Road Feelin' Bad

See Going Down this Road Feeling Bad (File: LxU072)

I'm Goin' Down to Town

See Lynchburg Town (File: Wa181)

I'm Goin' to Beat This Rice

DESCRIPTION: "I'm goin' to beat this rice, Goin' to beat 'em so, Goin' to beat 'em till the husks come off, Ah hanh hanh!" "Goin' to cook this rice when I get through." "Goin' to eat my belly full."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: work food nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 116, (no title) (1 text)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 236, "I Gwine T' Beat Dis Rice" (1 text)
File: CNFM116B

I'm Goin' To Cross That Ocean By Mysel'

See I'm Going To Cross That Ocean By Myself (File: Parp187)

I'm Goin' to Pick my Banjo (Old Woman in the Garden)

DESCRIPTION: The singer watches his wife hoe the garden and cook while the lazy hound sits. He picks the banjo. The preacher tells him he'll never get to heaven; he repeats his refrain: "I'm goin' to pick my banjo... pick it while I can... right to the Promised Land."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: music clergy work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 125, "I'm Goin' to Pick my Banjo (or, Old Woman in the Garden)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa125 (Partial)
Roud #7478
RECORDINGS:
Frank Profffitt, "Old Woman in the Garden" (on USWarnerColl01)
File: Wa125

I'm Goin' to See My Jesus Soon

DESCRIPTION: "What a wonder in the moon (x3), I'm going to see my Jesus soon." "If you don't b'liev I've been redeemed... Then follow me down to Jordan's stream." "Jordan's stream so chilly and cold, I got Jesus in my soul." "Two big horses side by side."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 238, "I'm Goin' to See My Jesus Soon" (1 text)
Roud #18148
File: KiWa238M

I'm Going Away to Texas (II)

See The Quaker's Courtship (File: R362)

I'm Going Away to Texas (III)

See I Love You And I Can't Help It (File: R363B)

I'm Going Back Home

DESCRIPTION: Dialog: She is "... going back home where I know I get better care." He begs her not to go but she will not change her mind. He says "Day you leave me that's the day you'll die, Oh honey baby mama please don't go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: love request rejection home parting separation dialog nonballad lover
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Memphis Minnie and Joe McCoy, "I'm Going Back Home" (on StuffDreams1)
File: RcMMIGBH

I'm Going Down the Mobile Line

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going down the Mobile line (x2), I'm going down the line to see that girl of mine, I'm going down the mobile line."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: travel
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 746, "I'm Going Down the Mobile Line" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [17 words]: The current description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5746

I'm Going Down the River

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going down the river before long, Ba-baby..." "I know you're going to miss me when I'm gone." "Miss me from rollin' in your arms." "I think I heard the Joe Fowler blow." "She blowed like she ain't going to blow no more." And so forth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: river ship separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 50-51, "I'm Goin' Down the Rivuh" (1 text, 1 tune); also p. 29, "I'm Goin' Down the Rivuh Befo' Long" (1 text, 1 tune, a combination of this blues with "Chilly Winds"); also presumably pp. 46-50, "The Joe Fowler Blues" (1 text, 1 tune, with all of the lyrics found in this song; compare p. 116, "The Kate Adams," with many of the same lyrics) and pp. 114-115, "I'm Goin' Down the Rivuh, Baby" (1 text, 1 tune, with still another set of verses)
Roud #10004, etc.
NOTES [158 words]: According to Wheeler, the Joe Fowler was one of the large stable of boats built by the Fowler family for use on the Mississippi. Built in 1888, she burned in 1920. Her single-tone whistle was reportedly famous.
Like most pieces in Wheeler, her version of song is more blues than ballad, and consists mostly of words which could appear in any blues. But the reference to a specific boat hints that there might be something more complete out there somewhere.
It is possible that the "Joe Fowler Blues" is a separate song which was taken up entirely in the Wheeler text of "I'm Going Down the River" (after all, she has another "Going Down the River" text which swallowed part of "Chilly Winds" and still a third which is mostly about a man leaving home while boasting of his sexual prowess). But I know of no other versions to prove this, so for the moment they are combined. Roud splits them (10004, 10014, 10043), but they're all one-shots. - RBW
File: MWhee050

I'm Going Down This Road Feeling Bad

See Going Down this Road Feeling Bad (File: LxU072)

I'm Going Home (California Could Not Hold Me)

DESCRIPTION: "Well, no matter where I wandered I know I'll always Find a welcome at the end of every journey." "California could not hold me" despite its beauty. Neither could any other place. People call him a drifter, but he hopes someday to find his home
AUTHOR: Fred Geis (died 2009)
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Recording, "The Kingston Trio (Nick Bob John)")
KEYWORDS: rambling home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 550, "California Could Not Hold Me" (notes only)
NOTES [58 words]: The tune of this reportedly came from Gounod's opera "Faust." This caused it to be pulled from play, and apparently caused the Kingston Trio the loss of a chart-topper. I'm not sure why that would matter; since "Faust" premiered in 1859, it must have been out of copyright in 1964!
I really wonder how scouts got their hands on a suppressed song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF550E

I'm Going Home (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I sought my Lord In the wilderness (x3), I sought my Lord in the wilderness, For I'm a-going home. For I'm going home (x2), I'm just getting ready, For I'm going home." "I found free grace in the wilderness." "My father preaches in the wilderness."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 84, "I'm Going Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12042
File: AWG084

I'm Going Home (II)

See Homeward Bound (I) (File: Doe087)

I'm Going Home (Two Long Years)

DESCRIPTION: "Two long years have I been a-drivin'.... I'll hang my hammer upon the wall. I'm a-goin' home, I'm a-goin' home, I'm a-goin' home, Lord, I'm gonna leave these hills."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: home return
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 747, "I'm Going Home" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [28 words]: The current description is all of the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment, which Schinhan says was very difficult to transcribe and incomplete. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5747

I'm Going Home to Clo'

See Darling Cloe (File: Brne117)

I'm Going Home to Die No More

See The Road to Heaven (File: R600)

I'm Going to Be Married on Monday

See Next Monday Morning (File: ShH38)

I'm Going to be Married on Sunday

See Next Monday Morning (File: ShH38)

I'm Going to be Mother Today

DESCRIPTION: Singer's wife is ill so he cooks and watches the children: is mother. He cooks bacon, spills milk, the frying pan catches fire. The water boils over, he bumps his head and gets a black eye. He tells his wife "you can !!!!ing well do the cooking yourself"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (recording, Johnny Doughty)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad children wife food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
Roud #8093
RECORDINGS:
Johnny Doughty, "I'm Going to be Mother Today" (on Voice14)
File: RcIGTBMT

I'm Going To Beat This Rice

See I'm Goin' to Beat This Rice (File: CNFM116B)

I'm Going to Buy Me a Little Railroad

DESCRIPTION: "Well, I'm goin' to buy me a little railroad of my own, Ain't goin' to let nobody ride it but the chocolate to the bone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: railroading
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 240, (no title) (1 short text)
NOTES [46 words]: Scarborough explains this as a reference to the singer's love. My instinctive reaction, though, was that the piece is political: In a day when Blacks were denied equal access to transportation, they might want to have a railroad where *they* were the ones with the rights. - RBW
File: ScaNF240

I'm Going To Cross That Ocean By Myself

DESCRIPTION: The tag line to each verse is "I'm going to cross that ocean by myself." Singer must go "when my Lord calls me." In the lonesome valley by myself I'll weep like a willow and mourn like a dove. Mary should stop weeping and Thomas should stop doubting
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 157, ("I'm goin' to cross that ocean by mysel'") (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lonesome Valley (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "Hello Stranger" (lyrics)
NOTES [21 words]: In John 20:11, Mary Magdalene weeps at Jesus's sepulchre. John 20:21-29 is the source for [the tale of] "Doubting Thomas." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parp187

I'm Going To Cross the Sea

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going to cross the sea, my love, Oh how I hate to start, I'll shake your hand in a long farewell, And then we have to part." "Sift your meal and save your bran, There's gonna be a wedding down in Alabam." "Slice your bread and butter fine...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty separation food
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 587, "I'm Going To Cross the Sea" (1 text)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 40-42, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 52-55)
Roud #7674
NOTES [67 words]: Although there are many songs with similar lines, there is no reason I can see (based on Randolph's fragmentary text) to link this with any other "Going Cross the Sea" song.
Thomas's text is similar in scope: Three stanzas, sharing the first few lines with Randolph's and then being mostly floating. She does not list it as a playparty, rather as a chantey -- but her classifications are suspect. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R587

I'm Going to Do All I Can

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going to do all I can for my Lord (x2), I'm going to do alll I can, Till I can't do no more, I'm going to do all I can for my Lord." Similarly, "I'm going to pray all I can for my Lord," "I'm going to sing/mourn/love all I can for my Lord"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 109, "I'm Going to Do All I Can" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12073
File: FSAN109

I'm Going to Fight Mit SIegel

See I Fight Mit Sigel (File: R217)

I'm Going to Fight Mit Sigel

See I Fight Mit Sigel (File: R217)

I'm Going to Georgia

See On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)

I'm Going to Get Married (I)

See Next Monday Morning (File: ShH38)

I'm Going to Get Married (II)

See I Love Little Willie (File: R382)

I'm Going to Get Married Next Sunday

See Next Monday Morning (File: ShH38)

I'm Going to Join the Army

See The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging) [Laws O33] (File: LO33)

I'm Going to Leave Ol' Texas Now

See Going to Leave Old Texas (Old Texas, Texas Song, The Cowman's Lament) (File: FCW066E)

I'm Going to Leave Old Texas Now

See Going to Leave Old Texas (Old Texas, Texas Song, The Cowman's Lament) (File: FCW066E)

I'm Going to Ride in Pharaoh's Chariot

DESCRIPTION: "I'm goin' to ride in Pharaoh's chariot (x2), One of these days God knows that, I'm going to ride in Pharaoh's chariot One of these days." Similarly, "I'm goin' to cross the river of Jordan," "...walk the golden streets," "talk with Paul and Silas," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 591, "I'm Goin' to Ride in Pharaoh's Chariot" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 591, "I'm Goin' to Ride in Pharaoh's Chariot" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11906
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Hope I'll Join the Band (Soon in the Morning)" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Welcome Table (Streets of Glory, God's Going to Set This World on Fire)" (form)
NOTES [78 words]: The reference to riding in Pharaoh's chariot is presumably to Genesis 41:43, where Joseph, after being made viceroy of Egypt, is made to ride "in [Pharaoh's] second chariot." - RBW
Paul Stamler mentions the possibility that this is a version of the "Welcome Table" group. This is very possible, though we can't prove it without a tune. But the emphasis seems to be a little different. I am, for the moment, keeping them separate, though I'm far from sure. - RBW, (PJS)
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3591

I'm Going to Sing

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I'm going to sing, Going to sing (x3), all along the way (x2)." Verses are about battle, like "We want no cowards in our band that from their colors fly, We call for valiant hearted men Who're not afraid to die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious battle floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 27, "I'm Going to Sing" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: J.B.T. Marsh, The Story of the Jubilee Singers Including Their Songs (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1903 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #113 p. 278-279, "I'm Going to Sing All the Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12353
NOTES [23 words]: The description is based on the Barton-OldPlantationHymns text. "We want no cowards" floats here from "Hark! Listen to the Trumpeters." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart027A

I'm Going to Stand In My Back Door

DESCRIPTION: "I'se gwine to stan' I my back do', An' I'se gwine ter hab -- Let de Debbil blab! -- Dat gal wid de blue dress on. Oh, swing dat gal wid de blue dress on, Swing, you niggers, swing!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: home clothes love
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 231, (no title) (1 short text)
File: ScaNF231

I'm Going to Tell It

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going to tell it everywhere I go (x3), How Jesus bless' my soul." "One morning I was walking along, Jesus bless my soul, I heard a voice and saw no one, Jesus, bless...." "I went in the alley, didn't go to stay... My soul got happy I stayed all day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus travel nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 252-253, "I'm Going to Tell It" (1 text)
Roud #18173
NOTES [56 words]: The reference to "hearing a voice and seeing no one" is probably an allusion to the conversion of Saul: Acts 9:3-4 say that Saul saw a light and heard a voice; 9:7 says they "heard the voice but saw no one." Either it's that, or the singer had schizophrenia, the prototypical symptom of which is hearing voices without seeing a source. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: KiWa252I

I'm Going to the West

DESCRIPTION: "You say you will not go with me and turn your eyes away, You say that we can ne'er agree, no matter what I say, I'm going to the west." The singer will leave her in the land she loves; after three years together he will leave the mountains for the plains
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: love separation emigration
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 28, p. 28, "I'm Going to the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5113
NOTES [52 words]: Roud lumps this with "Going West." That song, however, is about a man cheerfully heading for the range. The only common element is the migration theme. Neither is this the song recorded by Connie Dover, although she knew the song and used some of the lyrics as the basis for her song "I Am Going to the West." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Arno028

I'm Going to Walk With Jesus By Myself

DESCRIPTION: Typical verse: "I'm going to walk with Jesus by myself, by myself" (2x), "I'm going walk with Jesus" (2x), "I'm going to walk with Jesus by myself." Other verses: "I'm going to talk with Jesus (see King Jesus, live with Jesus) by myself..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 30, "I'm Goin' To Walk With Jesus By Myself" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [25 words]: The pattern and tune of "I'm Going To Walk With Jesus By Myself" and "When the Chariot Comes" are close to "She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart030

I'm Going Up to London

See Nottamun Town (File: WB2006)

I'm Going Uptown

See Goin' to Have a Talk with the Chief of Police (File: CNFM098)

I'm Going Where My Troubles Will Be Over

See Little White Robe (File: RcLWRobe)

I'm Gonna Dig Myself a Hole

DESCRIPTION: "I'm gonna dig myself a hole, Move my baby way down underground, And when we come out Won't be no war around." Planes. Bombs. Russians in Afghanistan. "When war break out It's gonna be hell to pay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (USFlorida01)
KEYWORDS: war Russia nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Emmett Murray, "I'm Gonna Dig Myself a Hole" (on USFlorida01)
NOTES [31 words]: Although collected in 1980, and containing a reference to events of that era, I can't help but wonder if it isn't in fact a song from the bomb shelter era of a decade or two earlier. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcIGDMyH

I'm Gonna Lay Down My Life For My Lord

DESCRIPTION: "For my Lord (x3).""I'm going to lay down my life for my Lord." Verses: "My head got wet with midnight dew That morning star was shining too." and "When the gamblers (drunkards, liars) get together How can they gamble (drink, lie) like one another."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (LomaxCD1712)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Howard W. Odum, _Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes_, (reprint from _American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education_, July 1909, Vol.3 pp. 265-365 "Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 59, "Gwi' Lay Down My Life For My Lord" (1 text)
Roud #18289
RECORDINGS:
Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "I'm Gonna Lay Down My Life For My Lord" (on LomaxCD1712)
File: RcIGLDMY

I'm Gonna Sing When the Spirit Says Sing

See We're Gonna Move When The Spirit Says Move (File: FSWB305)

I'm Gwine Away to Georgia

DESCRIPTION: "I'm gwine away to Georgia, U'm gwine away to roam, U'm gwine away to Georgia, chile, Fer to make it my home." "The turkle dove is a hollerin' 'Cause he hears my sad cry, U'm gwine away to Georgia now Fer to live till I die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love home separation bird
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 449, "I'm Gwine Away to Georgia" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 449, "I'm Gwine Away to Georgia" (2 tunes, 1 text plus an excerpt)
Roud #413
NOTES [9 words]: Roud links this with "The Cuckoo." I've no idea why. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3449

I'm Gwine from the Cotton Fields

See Goin' from the Cotton Fields (File: Fus121)

I'm Gwine to Alabamy

DESCRIPTION: "I'm gwine to Alabamy, Oh, For to see my mammy, Ah!" "She went from Old Virginny And I'm her pickaninny." "She lives on the Tombigbee, I wish I had her with me." "Now I'm a good big nigger, I reckon I won't get bigger." "But I'd like to see my mammy..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: slave mother separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 89, "I'm Gwine to Alabamy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 904-905, "I'm Gwine to Alabamy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12047
File: BAF904A

I'm Henery the Eighth I Am

DESCRIPTION: "You don't know who you're lookin' at, now have a look at me I'm a bit of a nob I am, belong to royaltee." His wife has had eight husbands, all named Henry, so "I'm Henery the Eighth I am." He has various adventures as a pseudo-monarch
AUTHOR: Fred Murray and R. P. Weston (1878-1936) (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (year of composition, and sung by Harry Champion, according to Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: royalty humorous marriage campsong
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1509-1547 - Reign of Henry VIII of England
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, posts 118, 119, "(I'm 'Enery the Eighth I am" (2 fragments from users Tess_W and John5918, posted September 28, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 95, 415, "I'm Henry the Eighth" (notes only)
DT, HENERY8*
ST LTCDHen8 (Partial)
Roud #30028
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Henry the Eighth
NOTES [100 words]: Obviously a music hall song, but re-popularized in the 1960s by Herman's Hermits (in a version that dropped much of the text) and apparently fairly well known.
Of the songs in the Index, R. P. Weston was also responsible for "Rawtenstall Annual Fair," "Send Him a Cheerful Letter," and "Anne Boleyn (With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm)," all with Bert Lee, and "The Gypsy Warned Me," "Where Are the Lads of the Village Tonight?" and "Private Michael Cassidy" with others. Weston was also co-author of the fairly well-known "I've Got Rings on My Fingers" with Maurice Scott and Fred Barnes. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LTCDHen8

I'm Henry the Eighth

See I'm Henery the Eighth I Am (File: LTCDHen8)

I'm In Love with a Big Blue Frog

DESCRIPTION: "I'm in love with a big blue frog, A big blue frog loves me." Most of the song consists of explanations of why a relationship with a frog isn't as bad as you think
AUTHOR: Leslie Braunstein (source: mudcat.org thread "Lyr/Chords Req: I'm in Love with a Big Blue Frog"0
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Peter, Paul and Mary's "Album 1700")
KEYWORDS: animal love nonsense campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 234, "I'm In Love with a Big Blue Frog" (notes only)
NOTES [221 words]: The mudcat.org thread "Lyr/Chords Req: I'm in Love with a Big Blue Frog" explains this as a social satire: people are so stuck up that they'll accept being in love with a frog as long as it has an acceptable heritage and education. A token of this is, e.g, the highfalutin' spelling of "frog" as "phrog."
The nitpicker in me has to point out that that's not all that fancy a spelling anyway. The use of ph for f is, of course, a token of a word with Greek rather than Latin antecedents; Greek φ could have been taken across as "f," but for some reason the standard is to use ph instead.
But... the word "frog" (from Old English "frogga," which is Germanic) has no relationship to the Greek word for frog, βατραχος, batrachos (a word which, back in the days of Classical education, most scholars would know, since it occurs in Revelation 16:13 as a word for frog, and also repeatedly in the Greek translation of the Book of Exodus). So "φρογ" is pure nonsense; there is no such Greek word, according to Liddell and Scott's lexicon.. Nor is there a Greek word φρωγ. (Though, oddly enough, φρυνη means "toad." But that is a rare word; Liddell and Scott cite it only from Aristotle.)
Surely all of this would pass over the heads of children singing the song in camp, though! Presumably they are singing it for other reasons. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF240P

I'm In Love with a Tipperary Miss

DESCRIPTION: "I'm in love with a flip/slip of a tip-tip-typical Tipperary Miss... From the tip of her toes to the tip-tip-top of her nose I love her so. I'd like to just take her and squeeze her... But she's many miles away." He left Ireland, and is madly misses her
AUTHOR: Leo Curley, James M. Fulton, Fred J. Helf
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin); reportedly written 1907
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 154-155, "I'm in love with a Tipperarry Miss" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9065
RECORDINGS:
Lester A. Coffee, "I'm In Love with a Tipperary Miss" (AFS 08422 A02, 1946; in AMMEM)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Tipperary
NOTES [59 words]: The sheet music calls this "Tipperary (An Irish Love Song)." Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, Random House, 1948, p. 313, lists as J. Fred Helf's other major songs the unmemorable "Every Race Has a Flag but the Coon" and "In the House of Too Much Trouble" with Will A. Heelan. Spaeth does not mention Curley or Fulton at all. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet154

I'm in the Bottom

DESCRIPTION: Improvised cross-cutting song: "In the bottom, Oh Lordy now, wo, I'm in the bottom, Wo Lord." "I'm shovellin' dirt." "I'm gettin' tired." The singer complains about the captain, wishes for water, a doctor, rest; he begs for help from home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (collected from Johnny Jackson by Bruce Jackson)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes prison
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 215-217,"I'm in in the Bottom" (2 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES [82 words]: This is an interesting item: A piece of ephemera which happened to be recorded. Bruce Jackson reports that Johnny Jackson made up the song as he worked while Bruce was there. When Bruce returned, Johnny did not remember what he had done but said he could make up another song if need be. (Given the simplicity of the form, he probably could.)
It makes you wonder how many similar songs have been made up and vanished simply because there was no Bruce Jackson along with recording equipment. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM215

I'm In Trouble

DESCRIPTION: "I'm in trouble, Lord, I'm in trouble, I'm in trouble, Lord, about my grave. Sometimes I weep, sometimes I mourn, I'm in trouble about my grave, Sometimes I can't do neither one, I'm in trouble about my grave."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad burial
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 94, "I'm In Trouble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12049
File: AWG094A

I'm In Want of a Substitute

DESCRIPTION: "I'm in want of a substitute, Oh, show me the man who will Buckle up his armor and fight for Uncle Sam. I'm in want of a hero, with a heart so brave and true, Who will fight for his country and the red, white, and blue."
AUTHOR: George P. Holt?
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin); collected c. 1941
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 233-234, "I'm In Want of a Substitute" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2488, p. 168, "Wanted a Substitute" (2 references)
Roud #15676
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Wanted a Substitute
NOTES [55 words]: This appears to be a folk-processed version of "Wanted, a Substitute," a Civil War era song with words sometimes credited to George P. Holt and said to be to the tune of "Uncle Sam's Farm."
For background on the draft during the American Civil War, and the methods used to avoid it, see the notes to "How Are You, Conscript?" - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: Pet233B

I'm Just a Common Lumberhick (Bush LaPorte)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm just a common lumberhick, and I've made a pile ofjack." The singer complains about the job. He remembers his first boss, Bush LaPorte, then working for "Old Kelly" and for the "Oval Dish" and others -- and says to shoot any many who wants to log
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Bethke-AdirondackVoices)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, pp. 91-93, "I'm Just a Common Lumberhick (Bush LaPorte)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4721
File: BeAd091

I'm Just A-Going Over Jordon

See Wayfaring Stranger (File: FSC077)

I'm Just from the Fountain

DESCRIPTION: "I am just from the fountain, I'm just from the fountain, Lord, I'm just from the fountain that never runs dry, Oh fathers, I love Jesus, I love him, yes I do, Oh fathers, I love Jesus, and you must love him too." "Oh mothers, I love Jesus," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 636, "I'm Just from the Fountain" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7562
File: R636

I'm Just Going Down to the Gate

DESCRIPTION: Though the singer's sweetheart's parents think she is too young to marry, she's allowed to wander as far as the garden gate, where the two lovers meet regularly. Someday they will slip off to the parson's.
AUTHOR: Gus. Williams and Joseph P. Skelly
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (sheet music published)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer describes his sweetheart as a "sly little fairy"; though her parents are protective and think she's too young to marry, she's allowed to wander as far as the garden gate, where of course she meets him. They talk sweet nothings while the parents debate weighty matters inside; she tells them "there's no sign of a storm, and the night is so warm." Someday they will slip off to the parson's. Chorus: "I'll just go as far as the gate, dear ma...The moon is so bright, and it's such a fine night/I love to stand here by the gate"
KEYWORDS: age courting elopement marriage nonballad family lover
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
Roud #6407
RECORDINGS:
Sid Harkreader, "Only As Far As the Gate" (Paramount 3035, 1927)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Only As Far As the Gate Dear Ma" (Vocalion 15323, 1926)
Murphy Brothers Harp Band, "When Katie Comes Down to the Gate" (Champion 16455, 1932)
Piedmont Log Rollers, "My Sweetheart is a Shy Little Fairy" (Victor 21187, 1928; rec. 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'll Give You One More As You Go" (general situation, a few words)
NOTES [89 words]: Chris Valillo has documented that this was taught at a singing school in Badet, IL as early as 1884. I've used the title of the original song, although it has apparently not been used much in tradition.
A parody of this song (not a very good one) was variously called "I'll Give You One More As You Go" and "My Sweetheart is a Sly Little Miss." See the Index entry under the former title for a recording and a field collection. -PJS
For background on composer Joseph P. Skelly, see the notes to "The Old Rustic Bridge by the Mill" - RBW.
Last updated in version 4.4
File: RcJGDttG

I'm Just Going Over to Sandy's

DESCRIPTION: The singer is going to Sandy's: he'll be a "dandy" when he visits Agnes "with the bloom on her cheeks like the roses" The singer is frightened away when Agnes gets consumption, but he returns to her when "the bloom had returned to the rose"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2007 (but see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: disease courting love parting return reunion separation clothes farming logger
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
RECORDINGS:
Hector MacIsaac and Jerome Downey, "I'm Just Going Over to Sandy's" (on NFHMacIsaac01)
NOTES [69 words]: According to an unsigned review of the DVD at http://citizenfreak.com/titles/317538-macisaac-hector-a-man-you-don-t-meet-everyday, accessed February 20, 2015, "a tune written by a piper from Cape Breton some time in the 1930s. 'The first verse had been kicking around for years, but he (Jerome) added a few of his own.' The song remains one of MacIsaac's favourites." I don't know how much of this is Downey's. - BS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: RecIJGtS

I'm Leavin' Town (But I Sho Don't Wanna Go)

DESCRIPTION: Singer asks his lover "where you stayed last night ... hair all wrinkled and your clothes ain't fitting you right." He "could not keep from crying ... my rider, she done put me down." His mother said, "These women and whiskey done carried my child astray"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: infidelity love rejection drink floatingverses nonballad lover
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
William Harris, "I'm Leavin' Town (But I Sho Don't Wanna Go)" (on StuffDreams1)
NOTES [59 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought.
The Jessie Thomas title, "I'm Leavin' Town (But I Sho' Don't Want To Go)" has nothing to do with the lyrics. During a mid-track break there is a background conversation about leaving town. If the verses aren't all floaters, most of the lines are. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcILeTow

I'm Leaving Tipperary

DESCRIPTION: The singer is about to sail "across the broad Atlantic" on the "Dan O'Leary," "bound for New York City, boys, three thousand miles away." His portmanteau is packed with food. He bids all farewell. He will bring Mollie Burke when he is settled.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell food America Ireland friend
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1754, "My Good Ship Sails in Half-an-Hour" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 33, "Good-By, Mike, Good-By Pat" (1 text)
DT, GDBYMICK
ADDITIONAL: Michael D Morrissey, editor, Song and Story: An Anthology of Irish Folk Songs, (Aachen, 2001 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 82, "Goodbye, Mick"
Roud #3313
NOTES [126 words]: OConor includes the line "I'll take my trunk upon my back and walk to Castle Garden." For a discussion of Castle Gardens, the New York entry point for immigrants between 1845 and 1890, see "Castle Gardens" (I). - BS
Although all the (handful of) versions of this song I have seen say that the singer sails on the Dan O'Leary, I wonder if (assuming the song is historical) it should not be the John O'Leary, after the co-editor of the Irish People (lived 1830-1907). I have so far failed to locate either a ship or a man of significance named "Dan O'Leary." Of course, this depends on just when the song came into existence. But the ship is apparently a steamer which keeps a regular schedule; this strongly implies a late nneteenth century date. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD81754

I'm Lonely Since My Mother Died

See I'm Lonesome Since My Mother Died (File: GrMa181)

I'm Lonesome Since My Mother Died

DESCRIPTION: Mother dies and father remarries. My stepmother "beat me and she turned me out When I speaks of my mother dear." "If I could only call her back, Once more to sit down by her side, I would like her better than before; I'm lonesome since my mother died."
AUTHOR: Henry S. Thompson (1863) (source: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: grief death mourning lament mother stepmother youth
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) US(Ro)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 181, "I'm Lonesome Since My Mother Died" (1 text)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 239-240, "Lonely Since My Mother Died" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #94, "I'm Lonely Since My Mother Died" (1 text, which does not mention the father's remarriage)
Roud #6361
RECORDINGS:
Rebecca Bennett, "Lonely Since My Mother Died" (on NFAGuigné01)
Mrs. August Molloy, "I'm Lonely Since My Mother Died" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: GrMa181

I'm Looking at You

DESCRIPTION: Taunt or game: "I'm looking at you, Your eyes are blue, Your face is like a Kangaroo"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 17, "(I'm looking at you)" (1 text)
File: BAAI017E

I'm Looking Over My Dead Dog Rover

DESCRIPTION: Concerning the death of Rover, usually caused (inadvertently, one hopes) by the singer (e.g. by hitting Rover with a power mower). The text varies extremely, as does the cause of death; the only constant element seems to be the title line.
AUTHOR: unknown (tune "I"m Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover" by Henry MacGregor Woods and Mort Dixon, 1927, according to Edward Foote Gardner, _Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949_, Paragon House, 2000, p. 493)
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook)
KEYWORDS: dog animal death humorous parody campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 136, "I'm Looking Over My Dead Dog Rover" (2 texts, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 110, "I'm Looking Over My Dead Dog Rover" (notes only)
DT, DEADROVR
Roud #15720
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover" (tune)
NOTES [59 words]: I've never seen two versions of this song alike, and none of the printed versions matches my father's text. Looks to me like a genuine folk song, even if the plot is completely unfixed.
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 110, quotes a source who claims this was written by a Boy Scout staff member at a camp in Butler (Ohio?). Possible, but beyond proof. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: DTdeadro

I'm My Own Grandpa

DESCRIPTION: Singer marries a pretty widow; his father marries her red-haired daughter. By tortuous logic, the singer explains that this makes him his own grandfather. Chorus: "I'm my own grandpa...It seems funny, I know/But it really is so/I'm my own grandpa"
AUTHOR: Dwight Latham & Moe Jaffe
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (recordings, Grandpa Jones, Korn Kobblers); reportedly copyright 1947
KEYWORDS: marriage nonsense paradox family father mother
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, OWNGRNPA
Roud #10444
RECORDINGS:
Grandpa Jones, "I'm My Own Grandpa" (King 694, 1948)
Korn Kobblers, "I'm My Own Grandpaw" (MGM 10136, 1948)
Lonzo & Oscar, "I'm My Own Grandpa" (RCA Victor 20-2563, 1947)
Jim Prentice, "I'm My Own Grandpa" (Piotr-Archive #102, recorded 03/08/2022)
NOTES [675 words]: This is included because it seems to have begun passing into oral tradition [or at least universal folklore - RBW] -- certainly it appears often enough on the internet (in genealogy sites!) without attribution. The song is based on a short story by Mark Twain. - PJS
To make matters even more complicated, Fiddlin' John Carson's song "Papa's Billy Goat" (a version of what we index by its "urban" name of "Bill Grogan's Goat"), first recorded in 1923, concludes with this verse:
Then I acted an old fool, married me a widow,
And the widow had a daughter and her name was Maude;
Father being a widower married her daughter,
And now my daddy is my own son-in-law.
Obviously that isn't the whole burden of "I'm My Own Grandpa," but it's getting there, and Carson's version was popular enough that he was asked to re-record it twice.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 493, estimates that this was the fortieth most popular song in America in 1948, peaking at #11 in February 1948 (#1 for the year being Betty Peterson's and Borney Bergentine's "My Happiness").
Incidentally, Robert A. Heinlein eventually went this one better, and produced a story in which (by means of time travel and gender surgery) the main character became his own mother. And father. And, hence, grandmother and grandfather and.... (Wouldn't cloning have been easier?)
Not too surprisingly, that story ("All You Zombies," from 1959) mentions this song. It is, in a side note, the next-to-last short story Heinlein ever wrote (the last being "Searchlight," from 1962), and the last not associated with his "Future History" series.
Nor did Heinlein invent the conceit of a time-traveler who was his own parent. In the July 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction is a story by Frank Holby entitled "The Strange Case of the Missing Hero." A hero named Elliot Gallant had saved the world, then volunteered to ride a time machine. He was never seen again. A research firm eventually set out to find out his fate. The final sentence: "Elliot Gallant killed himself when he found out, with his great mind power, that he was his own father!"
Believe it or not, there is an actual bit of history which almost resembles this, except that it didn't quite come off. Christopher Allmand, Henry V, University of California Press, 1992, writes: "The year 1395 was to witness the first attempt to arrange [a marriage for Henry of Monmouth, the future Henry V]. His prospective bride was to be Marie, daughter of John IV, duke of Brittany, and his duchess, Joan. The plan fell through.... Yet the Breton link was not lost. In 1403 Henry's own father was to marry the duchess Joan, by then widowed. Thus the lady who might have become [Henry's] mother-in-law became his stepmother instead."
Again, not this exact plot -- but one can imagine getting to this plot from that one.
The attribution to Mark Twain appears to be an error, although an understandable one. Jim Dixon tracked down the source of the story. It's a snippet, "Very Closely Related," that begins, "Well, Sam, I'll tell you how it is. You see, I married a widow, and this widow had a daughter. Then my father, being a widower, married our daughter, so you see my father is my own son-in-law." The conclusion: "So that makes me my own grandfather, doesn't it?" This is from Melville De Lancey Landon et al, Wit and Humor of the Age: Comprising Wit, Humor, Pathos, Ridicule, Satires, Dialects, Puns, Conundrums, Riddles, Charades, Jokes and Magic... with the Philosophy of Wit and Humor, Huffman & Johnson, 1884 (available on Google Books). The gag is on p. 87.
It is not attributed, but since Mark Twain is the first listed contributor to the book (and the only one well known today), and since "Sam" is addressed in the tale, it's easy to see why people would think it came from Sam Clemens=Mark Twain.
Dixon and Jim Rolfs both think that Eli Perkins (another of the listed authors) is the most likely source of the gag. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DTowngrn

I'm Nae Awa

See Trooper and Maid [Child 299] (File: C299)

I'm nae awa' to bide awa'

See My Ain Kate (File: GrD2257)

I'm Never to Marry

See I Never Will Marry [Laws K17] (File: LK17)

I'm Nine Hundred Miles from My Home

See Nine Hundred Miles (File: LxU073)

I'm Ninety-Five

DESCRIPTION: "I'm ninety-five, I'm ninety-five, And to keep single I'll contrive." Men have tried to win the spinster's love, but she wants no children, nor deceitful-tongued men, nor flattering husbands. She warns against men who wink at you
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1854 (various Bodleian broadsides)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection age
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
New-Comic-Songster, pp. 48-49, "I'm Ninety-Five" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #21, pp. 32-33, "I'm Ninety-five" (1 text)
Roud #23116
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.16(7a)=Harding B 25(1409), Swindells (Mancheser), 1796-1853; also 2806 c.16(14)=Harding B 16(181c), "I'm Ninety-FIve, I'm Nnety-Five," G. Jacques (Manchester), c. 1850; also Harding B 11(4187), "I'm Ninety-Five," H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Firth b.26(492)=Harding B 11(533), W. R. Walker/B. Steward (Newcastle & Carlisle), n.d.; Firth b.26(73)=Harding B 11(1727), unknown, n.d.; Firth b.27(180)=Harding B 11(2811)=Johnson Ballads 2726=Johnson Ballads 3349, unknown, n.d.; Firth b.27(272), unknown, n.d.; Firth b.27(357), unknown, n.d.; Firth c.14(128)=Harding B 11(368), H. Such (London), 1863-1885
File: NCSIm95

I'm No' Comin' Oot the Noo

DESCRIPTION: "O a nice wee lass, a bonnie wee lass Is bonnie wee Jeannie McKay," but when she and the singer are to go out, her says "My mother's ta'en my claes tae the pawn... And I'm no comin' oot the new." In any situation, the singer pleads poverty and stays in
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (recording, the Stewarts of Blair)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes bug poverty humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
ST RcINCOtN (Partial)
Roud #5298
RECORDINGS:
Belle, Sheila, and Cathie Stewart, "I'm No' Comin' Oot the Noo" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
File: RcINCOtN

I'm Nobody's Darling on Earth

See Nobody's Darling on Earth (File: R723)

I'm not going away to stay away

See My Ain Kate (File: GrD2257)

I'm Not Myself At All

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I'm not myself at all, Molly dear, Molly dear." At confession the singer asked Father Taff for half a blessing because his other half belongs to Molly Brierly. The singer wants her to marry him before he disappears entirely.
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868)
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #4)
KEYWORDS: courting love humorous nonballad clergy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 22, "I'm Not Myself At All" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 42, "I'm Not Myself At All" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 30 and #4/64, p. 30, "I'm Not Myself At All" (1 text)
Roud #V8651
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(267), "I'Am Not Myself At All", H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860 [same as LOCSinging as201450]; also Harding B 11(3984), "I'm Not Myself At All"; Harding B 11(4325), "Molly Dear" or "I'm Not Myself At All"
LOCSinging, as201450, "I'am Not Myself At All", H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860 [same as Bodleian Harding B 18(267)]; also sb20205a, "I'am Not Myself At All"
NOTES [38 words]: Broadsides LOCSinging as201450 and Bodleian Harding B 18(267): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OCon022

I'm Now Twenty-Two

DESCRIPTION: The singer had a new suit, fancy tie and watch chain, and swaggered. He describes his oiled moustache, but mourns his "half-Buchan English." The girls reject him because he is not well read. He gives up vanity: "I'll try and put wisdom into my heid"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: vanity courting rejection clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 650, "I'm Now Twenty-Two" (1 text)
Roud #6079
NOTES [23 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "Got from an old lady [Mrs Taylor] at Rora, who says it was written by one Gibb, who resided at Longside, fifty years ago." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3650

I'm O'er Young to Marry Yet

See I'm Ower Young to Marry Yet (File: GrD4900)

I'm Off for California

DESCRIPTION: "Now, darkies gather round -- I got a thing to tell." "Oh, Jerusha! whose gwine to go? I'm gwine to California, so fotch along de hoe!" Letters from California are heavy with gold. The singer prepares to set out for the west
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (Cohen); probably published before 1859
KEYWORDS: gold travel derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 652-654, "I'm Off for California" (1 text plus a broadside print)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 16-17, "I'm Off for California" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1020, p. 70, "I'm Off for California" (3 references)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Susanna" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
File: CAFS652

I'm Often Drunk and I'm Seldom Sober

See I'm a Rover and Seldom Sober (File: DTimarov)

I'm Often Drunk and Seldom Sober

DESCRIPTION: Singer is seldom sober and "a rover in every degree," He says his lover is "as clever a woman as ever trod upon London ground." He wishes he were in Dublin or across the sea beyond lawyers' reach. She says her love is clever. They both love drink.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1831 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(894))
KEYWORDS: drink floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN:
Roud #3135
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(894), "I'm Often Drunk and Seldom Sober" ("Many cold winter nights I've travelled"), R. Walker (Norwich), 1780- 1830; also Harding B 25(893), Harding B 11(1731), "I'm Often Drunk, and Seldom Sober ("The sea is wide and I can't get over")
NOTES [10 words]: Description is from broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(1731). - BS
File: BdIODASS

I'm Old But I'm Awfully Tough

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes himself as a happy old gentleman whom the girls adore. Chorus consists mostly of laughing
AUTHOR: Cal Stewart?
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1900 (recording, Cal Stewart)
KEYWORDS: age humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: US
Roud #15460
RECORDINGS:
Andrew Keefe, "I'm Old But I'm Awfully Tough" (CYL: Edison 9152, 1905)
Cal Stewart - change reference to: (Columbia 22, 1901; Columbia A-299, 1909; rec. 1900) (Victor 659, 1901; Zonophone C-5321, n.d.) (Victor 16403, 1909; rec. 1907)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Laughing Song" (chorus)
NOTES [62 words]: This is a pop song, pure and simple, and I wouldn't include it in the Index, except that a massively folk-processed version of the song was collected in the 1970s from the Arkansas singer Tip McKinney (former member of Pope's Arkansas Mountaineers, who made 78s of traditional music in 1928). It's a classic example of a song moving from popular music into tradition. - PJS
File: RcIOBIAT

I'm On My Way

DESCRIPTION: "I'm on my way, and I won't turn back! I'm on my way, great God, I'm on my way." "I'm on my way to Canaan's land." "I ask my sister to go with me." "If she says no, I'll go alone." "I ask my boss to let me go." "If he says no, I'll go anyhow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: religious travel
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, "I'm On My Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 100, "I'm On My Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, p. 40, "I'm On My Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 302, "I'm On My Way" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 309, 391, "I'm on My Way to Freedom Land" (notes only)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Charles W. Joyner, "The Repertory of Nancy Jones as a Mirror of Culture in Scotland County," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), p. 94, "(I'm on my way, I'm on my way, To Canaan land, To Canaan land" (1 text)
Roud #16309
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "On My Way to Canaan's Land" (Bluebird B-8167, 1939)
Pete Seeger, "I'm On My Way" (on PeteSeeger04) (on PeteSeeger15) (on PeteSeeger26); "I'm On My Way to Canaan's Land" (on PeteSeeger44)
SAME TUNE:
I'm On My Way (RECORDING: Mamie Brown, Carleton Reece & Birmingham Movement Choir, on SingFreeCD; RECORDING: Alabama Christian Movement for Civil Rights Choir, on VoicesCiv)
File: Grnw100

I'm on My Way to Freedom Land

See I'm On My Way (File: Grnw100)

I'm on My Way to Georgy

See Chickens They Are Crowing (File: R541)

I'm Only a Poor Little Ewing

See A Poor Little Ewing (File: OpGap445)

I'm Ower Young to Marry Yet

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "I'm owre young to marry" and "lads, ... ye for me maun tarry." It would "be a sin" to take "me frae my mammy." She has had her own way: "None daur to contradict me yet." and "in truth I darena venture yet," Soon she will have to obey.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.14(69)); Burns's version is from 1788
KEYWORDS: marriage nonballad mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 900, "I'm Ower Young to Marry Yet" (1 fragment)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 123, "I'm Owre Young" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 40, "I'm O'er Young to Marry Yet" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #195, pp. 305-306, "I'm o'er young to Marry Yet" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1788)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #107, p. 110, "I'm o'er young to Marry Yet" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST GrD4900 (Partial)
Roud #6142
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(69), "I'm Owre Young to Marry Yet" ("I'm owre young, I'm owre young"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Love She's But a Lassie Yet" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
NOTES [30 words]: Whitelaw: "This is an old song, dressed up a little by Burns for Johnson's Museum." Whitelaw prints Burns's version. The description is based on broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.14(69). - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GrD4900

I'm Poor But a Gentleman Still

See Poor, But a Gentleman Still (File: FSC103)

I'm Proud to be Me

DESCRIPTION: "I'm proud to be me But I also see You're just as proud to be you." People see things differently. Live and let live, even though many hate those around them.
AUTHOR: Words: Hy Zaret / Music: Lou Singer
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 ("Little Songs on Big Subjects")
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 547-548, 552, "I'm Proud to be Me"/"I'm Glad to be Me" (notes only)
File: ACSF547P

I'm Sad and I'm Lonely

DESCRIPTION: "I'm sad and I'm lonely, My heart it will break. My sweetheart loves another; Lord I wish I were dead." The singer warns against the lies that young men tell, which are more numerous than "cross-ties on the railroad or stars in the skies."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: love separation lie desertion floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 243-245, "I'm Sad and I'm Lonely" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 167, "I'm Sad And I'm Lonely" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 84, "I'm Sad and I'm Lonely" (1 text)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 8, "Goin' to Georgia" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST San243 (Full)
Roud #414
RECORDINGS:
Eller Family, "I'm Goin' to Georgia" (on FolkVisions1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Troubled In My Mind" (floating lyrics)
cf. "On Top of Old Smokey" (floating lyrics)
cf. "A Warning to Girls" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [163 words]: This appears to be another of those collections of floating verses that has taken on some life of its own. - RBW
The Eller Family recording is actually a mishmosh of floating verses from here, "On Top of Old Smoky," "The Cuckoo" and, if I'm not mistaken, "Poor Ellen Smith." But I put it here because, well, why not? It has to go somewhere. - PJS
When I ran across the transcription in Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, I was preparing to file the Eller recording as its own song, because it is so composite and because the first verse (which is also the ninth and eleventh) is unusual in this context: "I'm goin' to Georgi', I'm goin' to roam, I'm goin' to Georgi', I'll make it my home." But the Eller song is, as Paul says, an incredibly composite mess. Since we filed it here once, we might as well do it again.
Roud files this with an extremely large group of floating-verse songs; I would (and did) divide the song farther, but I definitely sympathize with his decision.... - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: San243

I'm Satisfied (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer says she's "satisfied, tickled too" and "old enough to marry you." She says she's a "total shaker from navel down" and she'll "give my total" to whom she please. She's satisfied that that will bring him back.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt05)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage sex nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "I'm Satisfied" (on MJHurt05)
File: RcImSati

I'm Satisfied (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Once I was single and in my prime, Now I am married and have to walk a line, I'm satisfied, I'm satisfied!" She has two children, chores to do,not much food, a poor home; it's too much work, but still she sys, "I'm satisfied! I'm Satisfied."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs)
KEYWORDS: work marriage hardtimes husband
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 58, "I'm Satisfied" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3120
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wish I Were Single Again (II - Female)" (them) and references there
File: Rich058

I'm Satisfied With My Gal

See She Don't Wear No (File: Brne164)

I'm Scarce Sixteen Come Sunday

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)

I'm Seventeen 'gin Sunday

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)

I'm Seventeen Come Sunday

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)

I'm Seventy-Two Today

DESCRIPTION: "I'm seventy-two today, my boys; They say I'm growing old. I feel as young as I used to be; My heart is strong and bold." The old man says he can and will ride and court as well as ever (if perhaps a bit faster), and expects to enjoy the process
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: age courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 433, "I'm Seventy-Two Today" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 158, "Seventy-Two Today" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R433 (Full)
Roud #4387
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "If I Were As Young As I Used to Be (Uncle Joe)" (plot)
File: R433

I'm Shirley Temple

DESCRIPTION: "I'm Shirley Temple, the girl with curly hair, I've got two dimples, and wear me skirts up there; I'm not able to do the Betty Grable ... leg like nobody's business ... figure like Marilyn Monroe ... hair like Ginger Rogers... You should see Salome ..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty hair
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 120, "I'm Shirley Temple" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shirley Temple Takes a Bow" (subject of Shirley Temple)
cf. "Shirley Temple Walks Like This" (subject of Shirley Temple)
cf. "Charlie Chaplin Went to France" (mention of Shirley Temple in some versions)
NOTES [463 words]: "Shirley Jane Temple (born April 23, 1928) is an Academy Award-winning actress most famous for being an iconic American child actor of the 1930s, although she is also notable for her diplomatic career as an adult." (Source: Wikipedia article Shirley Temple ).
[Note that Temple later came to be known as Shirley Temple Black, and died in 2014. - RBW.]
Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe and Ginger Rogers are movie stars of the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's. Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "The fact that the names are meaningless to the players [in the seventies] is evident from the variations."
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "The Salome verse ... came into being when Maud Allan, clad in little more than pearls, was scandalizing London with her dance 'The Vision of Salome', first performed at the Palace Theater on 17 March 1908." See C.P. Vicarion [Christopher Logue], Count Palmiro Vicarion's Grand Grimoire of Bawdy Ballads and Limericks (1955 (copyrighted material limited preview "Digitized by Google")), #60 pp. 87-88, "Salome." - BS
To further clarify: In the New Testament, the daughter of Herodias (so Matthew 14:6; in Mark 6:22 some texts say "Herodias's daughter" but the best texts say "his [Herod's] daughter Herodias") danced before Herod Antipas, and so pleased him that he offered her anything she asked for -- and she asked for John the Baptist's head.
Nowhere in the New Testament do we learn the girl's name. But Josephus, Antiquities XVIII.136-137 (Loeb numbering) says that Herodias and Herod Philip (not the same as Philip the Tetrarch) had a daughter named Salome.
Josephus does not say that Salome danced before Herod Antipas or asked for John the Baptist's head. And Salome was not the daughter of Antipas, which would be required by the Markan account. But most people assume that it was Salome who did the dancing.
Neither does the New Testament say that the girl's dance was lewd. The Greek word ορχεομαι, "orcheomai" in fact is used of children's games elsewhere in the New Testament, and in classical Greek is also used of miming, and of jumping and bouncing around. Nonetheless the tradition is firm that Salome daughter of Herodias danced a lascivious dance before Herod Antipas and so induced him to offer her whatever she wanted. And, admittedly, it makes sense -- can you imagine someone getting that excited about a pantomime?
As a result, Salome has become the subject of very many portrayals centered around her behavior and lack of attire. The earliest of these were literary, but Richard Strauss composed an opera "Salome" in 1905, based on a book by Oscar Wilde (Benet, pp. 983-984). "The Dance of the Seven Veils" is often said to have been danced by Salome (see the Wikipedia entry).
For a bit more about Salome, see "Salome Was a Dancer." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OpGa120

I'm Sighing to Catch a Nice Beau

DESCRIPTION: "I'm sighing, I'm sighing, I'm sighing to catch a nice beau, And if I don't catch the fight fellow, My heart will be sad I know. I'm sighing ... And if I get the wrong fellow, My heart will be sad I know."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 84, "I'm Sighing to Catch a Nice Beau" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11322
File: Brne084

I'm Sitting by the Stile, Mary

See I'm Sitting on the Stile, Mary (The Irish Emigrant II) (File: Pea462)

I'm Sitting on the Stile, Mary (The Irish Emigrant II)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh I'm sitting on the stile, Mary, where we sat side by side." He thinks of their life together and the graveyard where he buried her "with your babe all on your breast." He promises not to forget her "in that land I'm going to"
AUTHOR: Words: Lady Helena Selina Blackwood Dufferin (1807-1867), Music: William R. Dempster (1843?)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(4048))
KEYWORDS: marriage emigration burial lament baby wife separation promise
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland US(MW) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Peacock, pp. 462-464, "I'm Sitting on the Stile, Mary" (1 text, 2 tunes)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 156, "The Irish Emigrant" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 604, "Irish Emigrant" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 81, "The Lament of the Irish Emigrant" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 133, "I Was Sitting on a Stile" (1 fragment, which the editors apparently regard as a part of this song -- though with only four lines, it's almost unfileable)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 250-252, "The Lament of the Irish Emigrant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 42, "I'm Sitting by the Stile, Mary" (1 short text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 37-38, "Irish Emigrant's Lament" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, pp. 64-65 and #5/64, pp. 63-64, "The Irish Emigrant's Lament" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 302-303, "The Lament of the Irish Emigrant"
Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #574, pp. 919-920, "Lament of the Irish Emigrant" (by bHelena Selina, Lady Dufferin)
ST Pea462 (Partial)
Roud #2661
RECORDINGS:
Nicholas Keough, "I'm Sitting on the Stile, Mary" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Mrs. Stephens, "Sitting on a Stile" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4048), "The Irish Emigrant" ("I'm sitting on the stile, Mary"), G. Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also 2806 c.14(195) View 4 of 5, Harding B 11(1773), Firth b.25(157), Johnson Ballads 1690, Firth b.27(499), Firth c.12(134), Harding B 11(2181), Firth c.26(135), Harding B 11(465), 2806 c.16(140), Harding B 11(1778), Harding B 11(1777), Firth b.25(303), Harding B 11(239), Harding B 26(270), Harding B 6(18), 2806 b.10(93), 2806 b.10(76), Harding B 20(74), Harding B 15(139a), Harding B 11(1776), "The Irish Emigrant"
LOCSinging, as107440, "Lament of the Irish Immigrant," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
Murray, Mu23-y4:016, "Irish Emigrant," John Ross (Newcastle), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70.(2a), "The Irish Emigrant," Robert McIntosh (Glasgow), c. 1875
SAME TUNE:
Parody on The Irish Emigrant (broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:068, "Parody on "The Irish Emigrant" ("I'm sitting on a rail Judy, Where oft across ye'd stride"), James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C)
Soldier's Sister ("I am sitting in our camp, sister," by J. Dyer, of the 104th Reg't P[ennsylvania] V[olunteers]) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 145)
When I Was in the Tombs ("I am standing in the cell, Dina") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 174)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Irish Emigrant's Lament
NOTES [466 words]: Not the song by William Kennedy.
GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site is one of many sources for the author of the words; Museum of the City of New York site refers to sheet music source for tunesmith.
Killeagh County Down site: The village of Killyleagh grew up around a fortified tower, built in the 12th century by a Norman knight, John de Courcy....Lady Helen Dufferin wrote the famous poem "The Lament of the Irish Emigrant" in the castle, It is still possible to visit Mary's Stile in the shadows of the Castle today.
Murray, Mu23-y1:068, "Parody on the Irish Emigrant," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C (the singer stays in Ireland, glad his wife has died)
Bodleian, Firth b.26(206), "Answer to the Irish Emigrant" ("I'm coming back to you, Mary, Australia's shores I find"), A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1845-1859; also Harding B 11(88), "Answer to the Irish Emigrant" (the singer returns from Australia)
LOCSinging, as107460, "Lament of the Irish Gold Hunter," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as107450, "Lament of the Irish Gold Hunter!!" (Tune: "I'm Sitting on the Stile, Mary"; the singer is digging for gold but expects to return to Ireland, if he survives "sitting on the stile, Mary, Away up in the mines")
LOCSinging, hc00011a, "Paddy's Lament" ("I'm sitthin on de sthile, Molly, wid a grape shot in my leg"), Charles Magnus (New York), 1864 (Tune: "I'm sitting on the stile &c."; attributed to John Ross Dix; the singer is fighting in America for the Union but hopes to return "when peace returns once more."
"A new set of lyrics to William Dempster's [tune for] 'Lament of the Irish Emigrant' changed the subject from an oppressed Irishman to a drunken one: [two verse text]." (source: Robert R Grimes, How Shall We Sing in a Foreign Land? (1996, Notre Dame), p. 56, quoting an 1849 issue of Boston Pilot.).
Broadside LOCSinging as107440 and LOCSinging as107460: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
There is some question about who wrote the music to this. Amsco's uncredited book The Library of Irish Music lists the tune as by G. Barker. But many of its attributions are inaccurate.
Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 285, accepts the attribution to Dempster and says of him, "Dempster (b. 1808), a British immigrant, played an active role in the musical life of New York as a singer of Scottish and English 'ballads' (popular songs)."
Finson reports that 1844 saw the publication of a response, "The Answer to the Lament of the Irish Emigrant," by John S. Murphy and T. Bissel, and another sequel by Miss S. C. Cobb and F. W. Paisley. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Pea462

I'm Sixteen Thousand Miles from Home

See Sixteen Thousand Miles from Home (File: MA067)

I'm So Glad My Time Have Come

DESCRIPTION: "I'm so glad my time have come, Around Sheman no more will I bum, The last bummin' I did I remember it still, With six long months I stayed in the cell." "Oh judge, oh judge, I liked to forget." Chorus: "I've tidied I rule, I've a rudulideer" (x2)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recorded from J. B. Smith by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes travel prison
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, p. 84, "I'm So Glad My Time Have Come" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [44 words]: Jackson suspects that the first stanza of this may be from a pop recording. This strikes me as reasonable, but I don't recognize it, and the song does not seem to occur in tradition elsewhere. I suspect the nonsense chorus started out as "I traveled the road...." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM084

I'm So Glad Today I'm Ready

DESCRIPTION: "I'm so glad today I'm ready, And my friends stand by my side, And he promised to go with me, Even to the day I died." The singer asks to be bruied "in the little graveyard" with his Bible. He has messages for mother and father wanting to see them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Roberts/Agey-InThePine)
KEYWORDS: death burial religious mother father
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #116, "I'm So Glad Today I'm Ready" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [114 words]: Personally, I'm so glad the singer is dead, so I don't have to listen to yet another monotonous hymn about meeting mother and father again....
Hymnary.org does not seem to have any versions of this hymn. I wonder, given the number of unique hymns in Roberts/Agey-InThePine, if there wasn't someone in that part of Kentucky churning out hymns that never spread outside the area.
The idea of being buried with one's Bible is interesting and rare; after the invention of printing, families often had Bibles, frequently handed down across generations, but until recently it wasn't very common for individuals to have one. I'd say that's an indication that the song is relatively new.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RAInP116

I'm So Glad Trouble Don't Last Alway

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I'm so glad trouble don't last always (x3), O my Lord, O my Lord, What shall I do?" Verses: "Christ told the blind man to go to the pool and bathe." "Christ told Nicodemus he must be born again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 235, "I'm So Glad Trouble Don't Last Alway" (1 text) (1 tune)
Roud #12231
NOTES [128 words]: Biblical references are King James John 9:1-7 ("And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth... And said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam ... He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.") and John 3:1-3 ("There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.... Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."). - BS
(To be sure, what Jesus actually told Nicodemus was that he had to be "born from above," and the King James Bible mistranslated it, but the songwriter wouldn't know that. There are other accounts in the Synoptic Gospels of Jesus giving the blind their sight, but none involve the blind man going to the pool. - RBW)
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett235

I'm Standing on a Solid Rock

DESCRIPTION: "I'm standin' on a solid Rock, and it won't give way (x3), Lord, I need you everywhere I go." "My mother says it's a solid Rock, and it won't give way." "My pastor says it's a solid Rock." "My deacon says it's solid rock."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 248, "I'm Standin' on a Solid Rock" (1 text)
Roud #18163
NOTES [46 words]: Peter (Πετρος, "petros") was "the rock" (Πετρα, "petra") was the Rock on which Jesus built his church (Matt. 16:8 and parallels), but I suspect this is actually an allusion to the story of the house built on rock which withstood flood and storm (Matt. 7:24-27 and parallels). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: KiWa238I

I'm Sticking to the Murphys

DESCRIPTION: "I'm sticking to the Murphys, I'll fight 'em till I die; I can't help spitting cotton Because I am so dry. You'll bust your lips with laughter; Stick to the pledge I must, But the more I drink cold water The more I'm belching dust."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Springfield News and Leader)
KEYWORDS: drink promise
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 340, "I'm Sticking to the Murphys" (1 text)
Roud #7811
NOTES [32 words]: The Murphy movement was a temperance program of the 1870s or so. Men signed a pledge to avoid alcohol (and to try to convince others to do the same), and were rewarded with a blue ribbon. - RBW
File: R340

I'm the King of the Castle

See King of the Castle (File: Newe111)

I'm the Man That Kin Raise So Long

See Alabama Bound (Waterbound II) (File: BMRF598)

I'm the Man That Rode the Mule 'Round the World

See I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song) (File: R410)

I'm the Man that Rote Ta Rarra Bumdia

See I'm the Man that Wrote Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay (File: R409)

I'm the Man that Wrote Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay

DESCRIPTION: "I am the Man that Wrote Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay, Promise me you won't give it away...." The singer was a poor showman until he produced the famous song. Now the police seek him, people throw brickbats, and not even Shakespeare can equal his claim
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: parody music
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 409, "I'm the Man that Wrote Ta Rarra Bumdia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7614
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ta-ra-ra Boom-der-e"
NOTES [14 words]: For the actual (uncertain) authorship of "Ta-ra-ra Boom-der-e," see that song. - RBW
File: R409

I'm the Monster of Loch Ness

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "I'm the monster of Loch Ness, My name you'll never guess. I can wave like a snake And do the hippy shake, I'm the monster of Loch Ness!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: monster jumprope | Loch Ness
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #210, "I'm the monster of Loch Ness" (1 text)
Roud #20191
File: AJRR210

I'm the Wee Filoree Man

See The Wee Falorie Man (File: Hamm013)

I'm Thine Over the Left

DESCRIPTION: "I'm thine in my gladness, I'm thine in my tears. My love it can change not with absence of years "(x2). Even a dungeon would be the singer's home were she with her lover. "But life has no beauty since of thee I'm bereft... I'm thine over the left."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #3)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, p. 235, 'I'm Thine Over the Left" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 20 and #3/62, p. 20, "Over the Left" (1 text)
Roud #4328
File: Neel235

I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes

See Broken Ties (I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes) (File: BrII156)

I'm Tired

DESCRIPTION: "I'm tired, so tired, My soul need resting" (3x). "I'm going to find myself a resting place"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (LomaxCD1708)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #17302
RECORDINGS:
Bright Light Quartett, "I'm Tired" (on LomaxCD1708)
File: RcImTire

I'm Tired of Living Alone

DESCRIPTION: "I'm tired of living alone. I went to the river, and I saw a pretty rose, I plucked it and called it my own. A rose will fade, and so will a maid; I'm tired of living alone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: flowers loneliness
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 272, "I'm Tired of Living Alone" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 272, (notes only due to a lost recording); 696, "I Want To Be Living Alone" (1 short text, 1 tune, which might be this or perhaps an "I Wish I Had Someone to Love Me" variant)
Roud #15744
NOTES [39 words]: No doubt a part of something longer and perhaps widely familiar. But I can't identify it from the stanza in Brown. Roud lumps Brown 272 and 696; I'm not sure that's right, but it's hard to see what else to do with the two fragments. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3272

I'm To Be Marrit in May

DESCRIPTION: "The win' at the window is rattlin', The sheep huddle close on the brae... But what care I for the weather, I'm happy's a queen a' the day... And I'm to be marrit in May." The girl praises her love Johnny and describes the joy she feels
AUTHOR: James M. Taylor
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: love marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 164, "I'm To Be Marrit in May" (1 text)
Roud #5559
NOTES [19 words]: Since Ord had this from the (reported) author, there is no real reason to think it exists in oral tradition. - RBW
File: Ord164

I'm Trabling Back to Georgia

DESCRIPTION: "I'se trabling back to Georgia, Dat good ole land to see, De place I left to wander, De day dat I was free." The ex-slave, now "getting old and weary," wants to go back to Georgia; to "live and die in Georgia, Dat's good enough for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Wehman broadside, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: home return slave travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 304-305, "I'm Trabling Back to Georgia" (1 text)
File: CAFS1304

I'm Travelling to the Grave

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I'm travelling to the grave (x3) For to lay this body down." Verses: "My massa (missis, brother, sister) died a-shouting, The last words he (she) said to me, Was about Jerusalem"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute); 1893 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 187, "I'm a-Trav'ling to the Grave" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 95 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
ADDITIONAL: J. B. T. Marsh, The Story of the Jubilee Singers (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1903 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #22 p. 180, "I'm a Trav'ling to the Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15242
NOTES [110 words]: The line "Whate'er we do, where'er we be, We're traveling to the grave" is from a hymn, ("Thee we adore, Eternal Name"), by Isaac Watts (James M. Winchell, An Arrangement of the Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D.D. (Boston: Lincoln & Edmonds, 1820 ("Digitized by Google")), #615).
The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "I'm a traveling to the grave" on page 95, with the note "Fisk Jubilee Collection, by permission" (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 95. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Dett187

I'm Troubled (I)

See Troubled In My Mind (File: LoF102)

I'm Troubled (II)

See Troubled In My Mind (II) (File: Dett236B)

I'm Troubled in Mind (I)

See Troubled In My Mind (File: LoF102)

I'm Troubled in Mind (II)

See Troubled In My Mind (II) (File: Dett236B)

I'm Very Very Well I'm Glad to Tell (Shore Cry)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm very very well I'm glad to tell, I fear no judge nor jailer... so list to the lees (lies?) of a sailor." "Ah, what a delight on a stormy night To sit beside a burning log, A-swapping tales of wondrous whales And drink a glass of grog."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Maorilander, according to Mike Harding, _When the Pakeha Sings of Home: A Source Guide to the Folk & Popular Songs of New Zealand_); reportedly collected in the 1920s by John Leebrick
KEYWORDS: whaler sailor drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 13, "Shore Cry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 48, "(Shore Cry)" (1 text with an unidentified added verse)
NOTES [58 words]: This is one of the several songs allegedly collected by John Leebrick although we know of them only through the publications of Neil Colquhoun. (For background on this, see the notes to "Davy Lowston") The history behind it was the subject of an article by Frank Fyfe, first published in Maorilander, parts 1-4 (1970-1971); I have not seen it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Garl048

I'm Waiting for Thee, Nellie

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Nellie, dear Nellie, I'm waiting for you, With the stars glimmering faintly away in the blue." Out on the sea, the sailor years for his love. He thinks he hears her coming. He hopes she will be true
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Journal of the Wayne Clifford)
KEYWORDS: love sailor nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 287-288, "Nellie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27511
File: HGam287

I'm Wearing My Heart Away for You

DESCRIPTION: "The bees are humming in the wild wods, love, The flowers their tiny heads bow low.... I'm wearing my heart away for you. It cries, 'My love will be true.'" The singer wonders where his love is, and whether she prefers another man.
AUTHOR: Charles K. Harris (source: Spaeith via Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (Spaeth via Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 167-168, "I Worry My Heart Away for You" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 110, "I'm Wearing My Heart Away for You" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11399
File: Brne110

I'm Wild about Horns

DESCRIPTION: "I'm wild about horns on automobiles that go wah ah ah ah ah ah ah ooga ooga! (x2), I used to own a funny little car that I got from a guy named Fred, And every-time I honked that horn, this is what it said..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: technology campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 236, 318, "I'm Wild about Horns" (notes only)
File: ACSF236H

I'm Workin on a Building

See I'm Working On a Building (File: JWW097)

I'm Working My Way Back Home

DESCRIPTION: If "the boat keep steppin'" and his back doesn't give out, the singer will get back to his woman in Memphis. "All that I crave fo' many a long day Is yo' lovin' when I git back." He urges the fireman to make speed, and describes the route the boat follows
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: river work love separation ship
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 13-14, "I'm Wukin' My Way Back Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 575, "I'm Wukin' My Way Back Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST BMRF575 (Full)
Roud #9991
File: BMRF575

I'm Working On a Building

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I'm working on a building (x3), For my lord (x2)." "It's a Holy Ghost building (x3), For my lord (x2)."Verses: If the singer were a liar (drunkard, preacher) he'd quit lying (quit drinking, keep preaching) and work on a building too
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Odum and Johnson)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 106-108, "I'm Workin' on a Building" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John W. Work, American Negro Songs (New York: Crown Publishers, 1940 (republished by Mineola: Dover Publications, 1998)), p. 97, "Workin' on the Building" (1 text, 1 tune)
Howard W. Odum and Guy B. Johnson, The Negro and his Songs (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1925 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 72, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #4276
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "I'm Working On a Building" (on "The Carter Family 1927-1934," JSP Records JSP7701E CD (2010))
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "For My Lord" (some lines, "working on a building" theme)
cf. "Working on the Building" ("working on a building" theme)
File: JWW097

I'm Working on the Building

See I'm Working On a Building (File: JWW097)

I'm Worried Now But I Won't Be Worried Long

DESCRIPTION: "Went to sleep, babe, last night in a snow-white feather bed, I woke up... with the blues all around my bed. I'm worried now...." The singer has no home and lives in a crooked world. He wishes his girl would not treat him like a dog. He will go to Waco
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (collected from Louise Henson)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes travel
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 373, "I'm Worried Now But I Won't Be Worried Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4753
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Worried Man Blues" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I'm a Stranger Here" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [50 words]: The Louise Henson version in Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry includes the lines "I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long," but the rest seems to be separate from the "Worried Man Blues" (although Roud lumps them). Henson seems to have been fond of those words, including them in multiple songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LoSi373

I'm Wukin' My Way Back Home

See I'm Working My Way Back Home (File: BMRF575)

I'm Yorkshire Though in London

See The Yorkshireman in London (File: GrD2298)

I'se A-Running

DESCRIPTION: The only intelligible words are the opening lyrics "I's a-runnin," and much of the melody is on a single tone; one suspects this is not really a song but rather a sort of working drone.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 748, "I's A-Running" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
File: BrS5748

I'se Gwine Back to Dixie

DESCRIPTION: Singer, having left Dixie, pines for the usual things: home, food, etc. He swore that if he left, he'd never return, but now "time has changed the old man, his head is bending low." "I'm going back to Dixie...I'm going where the orange blossoms grow...."
AUTHOR: Charles A. White
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (sheet music publication)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, having left Dixie, pines for the usual things: home, the old plantation, hominy, punkin, and red gravy. He says that, working on the farm and on the river, he swore that if he left, he'd never return, but now "time has changed the old man, his head is bending low" and his heart turns back to Dixie. Chorus: "I'm going back to Dixie...I'm going where the orange blossoms grow...My heart turns back to Dixie, and I must go"
KEYWORDS: age homesickness loneliness home return travel farming river work food nonballad family
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #120, "I'se Gwine Back to Dixie" (1 text)
DT, HEARTDIX
Roud #18324
RECORDINGS:
Leo Boswell, "My Heart's Turned Back to Dixie" (Columbia 15748-D, 1932)
Brilliant Quartet, "I'se Gwine Back to Dixie" (Berliner 860, rec. 1896; on Protobilly)
Climax Quartet, "Ise Gwine Back to Dixie" (Columbia [Climax] 753, 1902)
Greater New York Quartet, "I'se Gwine Back to Dixie" (CYL: Columbia 9010, c. 1898)
Haydn Quartet, "I'se Gwine Back to Dixie" (Berliner 024-N, rec. 1899; Victor 657, 1901) (Victor 4725, 1906; Victor 16104, 1908)
Leake County Revelers, "I'm Gwine Back to Dixie" (Columbia 15409-D, 1929)
Uncle Dave Macon & his Fruit Jar Drinkers, "I'se Gwine Back to Dixie" (Vocalion 5157, 1927; on Protobilly)
Peg Moreland, "Going Back to Dixie" (Victor 21653, 1928)
Grover Rann & Harry Ayers, "I'se Gwine Back to Dixie" (Columbia 15638-D, 1931; rec. 1930)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Gwine Back to Dixie
File: DTheartd

I'se Gwine Land on Dat Shore

See I Don't Love Old Satan (File: Br3584)

I'se the B'y that Builds the Boat

See I'ze the B'y that Builds the Boat (File: FJ116)

I've a Bike, a Fairy Bike

DESCRIPTION: "I've a bike, a fairy bike, I only got it last Saturday night, I went up the hill, Down the hill, Under the arch and a rainbow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: travel | bike bicycle rainbow
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, , p. 63, "(I've a bike" (1 text, with an excerpt on p. 62)
Roud #18986
File: BAAI063

I've a cherry, I've a chess

See Blawin' Willie Buck's Horn (File: GrD81640)

I've a Jolly Sixpence

See I Love Sixpence (File: OO2480)

I've a Lad in Edinburgh

DESCRIPTION: The singer claims to have a lad in Edinburgh, Sta'bogie, Musselburgh, Ardlogie, and more. "I'm in love wi' twenty, I could adore as many more ... Variety is charming"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1484, "I've a Lad in Edinburgh" (1 text)
Roud #7178
File: GrD71484

I've a Laddie in America

DESCRIPTION: "I've a laddie in America, I've a laddie in Dundee-i-ee-i-ee, I've a laddie in Australia, And he's coming back to marry me-i-ee-i-ee." He takes her to each, then leaves her "Wi' three bonnie bairnies on my knee-i-ee-i-ee." They need their father
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Buchan, 101 Scottish Songs, according to the Digital Tradition)
KEYWORDS: mother father separation abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, LADAMER
Roud #18316
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tavern in the Town" (tune) and references there
cf. "I Had a Bloke Down Hopping" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
I've a Sweetheart in America
File: DTladame

I've a Letter from My Father

DESCRIPTION: "I've a letter from my Father in my hand, I have read it and I know that it is grand, 'Twas writ across the sea and 'twas sent right here to me, And it tells me all the news that's in this land"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (collected from Dr. Sam Clark by Boswell)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 103, p. 158, "I've a Letter from My Father" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11023
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Got a Letter from Jesus" (theme)
File: BoWo103

I've a Long Time Heard

DESCRIPTION: "I've a long time heard the sun will be bleeding, The sun will be bleeding, the sun... I've a long... SInnere, where will you stand in that day?" "I've a long time heard the angels will be singing..." "Devils will be howling." "Sinners would be crying."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Journal of American Folklore 26)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad sin
FOUND IN: US(SE, So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #87, "Signs of Doom" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 71, "I've a Long Time Heard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5026
NOTES [144 words]: Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida says that this "bears close resemblance to a medieval metrical homily entitled 'The Signs of Doom.'" I am guessing that this is the homily "The SIgns of Doom," printed on pp. 148-157 of O. F. Emerson, A Middle English Reader, 1905; revised 1915 (I use the 1921 Macmillan hardcover). Emerson says (p. 289) "The 'Metrical Homily' here chosen is froma MS. preserved in the Library of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons at Edinburgh, though also found in at least five different MSS. in Cambridge, Oxford, and London." The Edinburgh collection was copied around 1330, and is in a northern form of Middle English. But that homily is 280+ lines long, and much of the imagery is from the Christian Apocalypse. A lot of the lines of the Florida version could just as well be from the song "Sinner Man." I strongly doubt dependence. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: CoCo071

I've a Pain in My Belly

DESCRIPTION: "'I've a pain in my belly,' says Doctor Kelly. 'Rub it with oil,' says Doctor Doyle. 'It's a very good cure,' says Doctor Moore. 'It is in my hat,' says Doctor Wyatt." Presumably this could continue indefinitely.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: disease doctor wordplay
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 170, "I've a pain in my belly" (1 text)
Roud #38144
File: BAAI170

I've a Sweetheart in America

See I've a Laddie in America (File: DTladame)

I've a Wee Dog That Barks at the Moon

DESCRIPTION: The singer says, My dog barks at the moon. Every bark gets him a pair of shoes (thrown?). Give him bread and cheese or he'll bark till you're done.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad dog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 166, "I've a Wee Dog That Barks at the Moon" (1 text)
Roud #15097
NOTES [96 words]: Roud cites a Montgomery example from Sandy Candy that starts "I had a wee dog, and he wouched at the mune." I have no more but if it goes like the following example then I think they are not related.
"WOUCH -- The same as bouch, a dog's bark. "I had a wee dog and he wouched at the moon, If my sang be na lang it's sooner dune." Auld say.
The which is frequently said by those unwilling to sing; they plead hoarseness, "or ill wi' the caul;" ...." (source: John MacTaggart, The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia (second edition) (London,1876 ("Digitized by Google"))), p. 481)
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2166

I've Always Been a Rambler

See The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)

I've Been a Foreign Lander

See Foreign Lander (File: JRSF064)

I've Been a Roving

See I've Been Roaming (File: ReSh046)

I've Been a Wild Boy

See Wild Rover No More (File: MA069)

I've Been a-List'ning All de Night Long

See King Jesus Is a Listening (File: Ow2E171)

I've Been All Around This World

See Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Been All Around This World) (File: R146)

I've Been Born Again

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I've been born again (been born again)"(2x) "hey, hey", Indeed I know (born again)," "born again (born again)" Verse: see Notes) ( "I believe (I've been born, ah)" "I've been born again (Born again)")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (USMississippi01)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
The Southland Hummingbirds, "I've Been Born Again" (on USMississippi01)
NOTES [73 words]: In the description the hymn is call and response with the responses in parentheses. For example, in "I've been born again (been born again)," the call is "I've been born again" and the response is "been born again."
The Southern Hummingbirds recording is one verse repeated many times with clapping. The liner notes has the verse "Went to the river to be baptized, Leave my burden and I feel all right.' I could not make out the verse. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcIvBeBA

I've Been Buked and I've Been Scorned

See Hell and Heaven (I've Been Buked and I've Been Scorned) (File: LxA588)

I've Been Faithful to You

DESCRIPTION: "Why did you turn from me, darling? Why all this coldness today?" The (girl) declares "I have been faithful to you," and asks why the other is false. Later he finds her body, holding tight to a note that reads "Love, I've been faithful to you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Henry, collected from Mary King)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 161-162, "I've Been Faithful to You" (1 text)
File: MSAp161

I've Been Roaming

DESCRIPTION: The singer has been "where the meadow dew is sweet," "O'er the rose and lilly fair," "Where the honey suckle creeps," "over hill, and over plain" and is returning with "pearls upon my feet," "With blossoms in my hair," ... "to my bower back again"
AUTHOR: George Sloane (1882-1949) (source: Thompson-APioneerSongster)
EARLIEST DATE: 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 16)
KEYWORDS: home return travel nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 42, "I've Been Roaming" (1 text)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 46, "I've Been a Roving" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #24, p. 57, "I've Been Roaming" (1 text)
Roud #2821
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 16, "I've Been Roaming" ("I've been roaming, I've been roaming"), J. Catnach (London), 1825; also Harding B 36(20)[includes tune and MIDI], Harding B 11(3005), Firth b.25(515), Firth b.26(479), Firth b.26(485), Firth b.27(457/458) View 2 of 4, Johnson Ballads 207, Harding B 17(141b), Harding B 17(142a), 2806 c.17(184), 2806 c.17(185), 2806 c.17(186), 2806 c.17(181), 2806 c.17(182), 2806 c.17(183), Johnson Ballads 270, Harding B 16(263a)[only two verses], "I've Been Roaming"
NOTES [22 words]: The first line of all but the last verse: "I've been roaming, I've been roaming"; the third line: "And I'm coming, and I'm coming" - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ReSh046

I've Been to Australia O

See I've Been to Australia, Oh! (File: FaE106)

I've Been to Australia-o

See I've Been to Australia, Oh! (File: FaE106)

I've Been to Australia, Oh!

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns, "So now my friends, take my advice, and never think to go Or you will rue the day you went to Australia-oh." While there, his wife, money, and clothes were stolen. Facing with high prices, he has to do manual labour. He hopes to go home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Old Bush Songs); Ron Edwards reportedly found a version dated 1862; Anderson estimates his broadside as c. 1854
KEYWORDS: Australia poverty work hardtimes emigration robbery
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 203-204, "I've Been to Australia O" (1 text)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 106-107, "I've Been to Australia, Oh!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 105-108, "I've Been to Australia-o" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Geoffrey C. Ingleton, _True Patriots All: or News from Early Australia as told in A Collection of Broadsides_ ("Garnered and Decorated" by Ingleton), Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1988, p. 258, "Iv'e Been To Australia O" (1 text, and yes, the headline is spelled "IV'E")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pommy's Lament" (theme)
File: FaE106

I've Been To Donovan's

DESCRIPTION: A week long party celebrates Donovan's and Kitty Maine's jubilee anniversary. "There must have been a thousand" from all over Ireland. Some are named. Piper's music, potatoes, and lots to drink from the sugar bowl.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: drink food music party Ireland humorous moniker husband wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18213
RECORDINGS:
Morris Houlihan, "I've Been To Donovan's" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcIBtDon

I've Been to France (Turn the Bowl Over)

DESCRIPTION: "I've been to (Plymouth/France/Holland/etc.) and I've been to (Dover); I have been rambling, boys, all the world over... Drink up your liquor and turn your (cup) over, Over and over and over and over"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Simpson)
KEYWORDS: drink travel nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tobitt-SkipToMyLou, p. 6, "Turn the Glasses Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, p. 130, "(I've bin to Plymouth and I've bin to Dover)" (1 text)
Roud #2854
File: Simps130

I've Been to See Miss Jenny-Mae-Jo

See Jenny Jones (Jennie Jo) (File: Lins026)

I've Been to the 'Bama and I Just Got Back

See I've Bin to the 'Bama and I Just Got Back (File: Be3498)

I've Been Toilin' at de Hill

See I've Been Toiling at the Hill (File: Dett226)

I've Been Toiling at the Hill

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I've been toiling at the hill so long (x3), And about to get to heaven at last." Verse: "O mother (father, sister, brother) ain't you glad (x3), And about to get to heaven at last"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 226-227, "I've Been Toilin' at de Hill" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 142-143 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #15276
File: Dett226

I've Been Working on the Railroad

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes working on the railroad "all the live-long day" and waiting for Dinah to blow the horn. He describes someone being "in the kitchen with Dinah, strumming on the old banjo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Carmina Princetonia)
KEYWORDS: railroading work courting
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 537-542, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 234, "Working on the Railroad" (1 text plus two unrelated fragments, probably of "Roll on the Ground (Big Ball's in Town)"; the "A" text is a jumble starting with this song but followed up by what is probably a "Song of All Songs" fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 234, "Working on the Railroad" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 248, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (1 text, with the first verse being this and the second being probably some sort of courting song)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 81, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 130, "Dinah" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 39, "I've Been Workin' on the Railroad" (1 short text, with just the first part)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 148, "I Been Wukkin' on de Railroad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 35-36, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 103, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (1 text, including some parody verses)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 209, "I've Been Working on the Railroad -- (The Eyes of Texas)"; p. 513, "Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah"
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 17, "(I've been workin' on the railroad)" (1 mention, from user TempleCat, posted August 28, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 126, 193, 235, 249, 277, "I've Been Working on the Railroad"/"DInah Won't You Blow Your Horn" (notes only)
Harbin-Parodology, #389, pp. 94-95, "I've Been Workin' on the Railroad" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 52, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 20, "Dinah" (1 text, a rare version that omits the "Railroad" verse)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 35, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (1 text)
DT, WORKRAIL
Roud #12606?
RECORDINGS:
Blankenship Family, "Working on the Railroad" (Victor 23583, 1931)
Nancy Finley, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #621, recorded 08/01/2023)
Art Mooney, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (Vogue R-713-32, n.d. but prob. 1930s)
Sandhills Sixteen, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (Victor 20905, 1927)
Pete Seeger, "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (on PeteSeeger21) (on PeteSeeger32)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Levee Song" (includes the text of this song)
SAME TUNE:
We've Enlisted in the Navy (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 151)
NOTES [199 words]: Although this is surely a composed song, Fuld cannot find any references to the "Railroad" verses prior to 1894 (when it was twice published as "The Levee Song," and in both instances associated with Princeton). No composer is listed in the extant materials.
The "Dinah" verses are dated by Fuld to the period before 1850. How they came together is a mystery; they don't fit all that well -- but as I've never heard the halves done separately (though Scarborough's and Shay's texts consist only of the first part, and the Cohen text, from the Blankenship family omits the"Dinah Won't You Blow" stanza, substituting something Cohen thinks is a school rouser), I keep them together here.
Cohen cites Theodore Raph as claiming the song became popular in 1881. But Cohen himself agrees with Fuld's 1894 date. Probably it will take a much more detailed study than any undertaken so far to finally settle the matter. - RBW
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "'Someone's in the House with Dinah' was sung by Ethiopian minstrels in the 1840s and 1850s, but with a different tune from that known today." - BS
Although this is already a composite song, "The Levee Song" takes it and makes it even more composite. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB209

I've bin to Plymouth and I've bin to Dover

See I've Been to France (Turn the Bowl Over) (File: Simps130)

I've Bin to the 'Bama and I Just Got Back

DESCRIPTION: "I've bin to the 'Bama and I just got back. I didn't bring no money but I brought the sack."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: money travel
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 498, "I've Bin to the 'Bama and I Just Got Back" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 498, I've Been to the 'Bama and I Just Got Back" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11765
NOTES [12 words]: Roud lumps this with the "Hesitation Blues." Tough to prove either way. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Be3498

I've Built Me a Neat Little Cot, Darling

See Kitty Tyrrell (File: R788)

I've Buried Three Husbands Already (Wherever There's a Goose There's a Gander)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh I buried three husbands already ... And now I am mostly all ready For another young son to come on." "Wherever there's a goose there's a gander." "The older the bow and the fiddle, The sweeter the tune it can play"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: age marriage death humorous nonballad husband
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #16725
RECORDINGS:
Mary Delaney, "I've Buried Three Husbands Already" (on IRTravellers01)
NOTES [9 words]: Did someone set the Wife of Bath's prologue to music? - RBW
File: RcIB3HA

I've Busted Broncs

DESCRIPTION: "I've busted broncos off an' on since first I struck their trail." He knows them very well. But there is one on Powder River -- only one -- that he can't bust. The animal was worthless, but it bucked so hard he could not ride it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (ArkansasWoodchopper)
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse injury
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 63-64, "The Bronk That Wouldn't Bust" (1 text, 1 tune, with the musical staves somewhat disarranged)
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, p. 37, "I've Busted Broncs" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink] "The Bronk That Wouldn't Bust" (Conqueror 7883)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Zebra Dun" (theme of the un-ridable horse) and references there
File: PRJL037

I've Discovered a Glorious Wrinkle

DESCRIPTION: "I've discovered a glorious wrinkle, Never wake for twenty years, Glorious glorious Rip Van Winkle, Never woke up for twenty years."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | sleep Rip Van Winkle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1819 - first publication of Washington Irving's short story "Rip Van Winkle"
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 162, "I've Discovered a Glorious Wrinkle" (1 short text)
Roud #25402
File: KSUC162B

I've Fun' a Bod's Nest

See Hunt the Wren (File: K078)

I've Got a Bonnet Trimmed with Blue

See I Got a Bonnet Trimmed with Blue (File: Pea060)

I've Got a Brother

DESCRIPTION: "Now I"ve got a brother... He bought some gunpowder last Fifth of November." The explosion (?) pushes mother and father out of the house. The singer's wife's chicken needs cleaining out. The singer's servant Isabella wears blue garters -- he's watched her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Gordon Hall Collection)
KEYWORDS: derivative technology food clothes
FOUND IN:
Roud #25935
RECORDINGS:
Steve Gardham, "Unknown Guy Fawkes Parody Song" (Piotr-Archive #307, recorded 10/11/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?" (tune) and references there
NOTES [60 words]: Steve Roud lumps this with "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be," of which it is clearly a parody, but I would consider it enough of a rewrite to call it its own song. I do feel as if there is one key verse missing from the handful of versions, though. Maybe something along the lines of how the singer keeps his eyes open and observes all sorts of things.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio307

I've Got a Brother in the Snow-White Fields

DESCRIPTION: "I've got a brother in the snow-white fields, Praying all night long. I want to go to Heaven when I die, Oh my Lawd (x2), I want to go to...." "I want to go to Heaven and I want to go right... dressed in white." "I want to go to heaven at my own expense."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious death brother nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 535, "I've Got a Brother in the Snow-White Fields" (1 text)
Roud #11822
File: Br3535

I've Got a Chorus

DESCRIPTION: "I've got a chorus I want you all to sing. It's a beautiful refrain, Let it go with might and main... And if you know what it's all about -- You know a lot more than me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad nonsense
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 22, page headed "this item was obviously...."], "(no title)" (1 short text)
File: FaWAGoCo

I've Got a Daughter

DESCRIPTION: "I've got a daughter, lives in the ocean" or "My girl's a corker, She's a New Yorker." The singer would "do anything to keep her alive" or "in style." "That's where all my money goes"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 123, "I've Got a Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 293, 388, "My Gal's a Corker" (notes only)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #370, "My girl's a corker" (1 text)
Roud #18313
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Girl's from USC" (a bawdy derivative of "My Girl's a 'Corker'")
NOTES [37 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "This cheerfully insulting song derives from the much-parodied American popular song 'My Girl's a "Corker," or The Race Track Girl', 1895, words by William Jerome and music by John Queen...." - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OpGa123

I've Got a Feeling

DESCRIPTION: "I've got a feeling ev'rything's gonna be all right, O (x3), Be all right, be all right, be all right." "Jesus already told me, ev'rything's gonna be all right. "The Holy Ghost has confirmed it, ev'rything's gonna be all right."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1997 (Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 142-144, "I've Got a Feeling" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: WarSp142

I've Got a Lad and he's Double Double-Jointed

See I Had a Black Man (File: AJRR220)

I've Got a Master and I Am His Man

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I've got a master and I am his man, Galloping steadily on, Oh, I've got a master and I am his man, I'll marry me a wife as soon as I can, With a higglety pigglety, gambling gay, Higglety pigglety, gambling gay, Galloping steadily on."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: servant work horse
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 148, "I've Got a Master and I Am His Man" (1 fragment)
Roud #15768
File: Br3148

I've Got a Mother Gone to Glory

See probably The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)

I've Got a Mother in de Heaven

See When My Blood Runs Chilly and Cold (File: LxU104)

I've Got a Motto

DESCRIPTION: "I've got a motto always merry and bright; Look around you and you will find Every cloud is silver-lined, The sun shines bright.... I've often said to myself, I've said, 'Cheer up, Coffee, you'll soon be dead.' It's a short life but a day one."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 284, "I've Got a Motto" (1 short text)
Roud #10933
File: Pet284

I've Got a Mule, Her Name Is Sal

See The Erie Canal (File: San171)

I've Got a Shilling

See I Love Sixpence (File: OO2480)

I've Got a Wheelbarrow

DESCRIPTION: "I've got a wheelbarrow and the front wheel goes round." Repeat until exhausted
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2021 (LibraryThingCampSongsThread)
KEYWORDS: nonballad technology
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 4, "I've got a wheelbarrow and the front wheel goes round" (1 short text, from user John5918, posted August 28, 2021)
File: LTCSIGWB

I've Got No Use for the Women

DESCRIPTION: "I've got no use for the women; A true one can never be found. They use a man for his money...." The singer tells how his partner killed a man who insulted his sweetheart's picture, and was himself killed and buried on the prairie.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Travis B. Hale)
KEYWORDS: death homicide revenge love burial
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 65, "I've Got No Use for the Women" (1 text, 1 tune)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 11-13, "I've Got Not No Use for the Women" (1 text)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 184-188, "I've Got No Use for the Women" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 434-435, "I've Got No Use for the Women" (1 text, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 46-48, "Bury Me Out on the Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4104
RECORDINGS:
Edward L. Crain, "Bury Me Out on the Prairie" (Crown 3239, 1932; Homestead 22991, c. 1932; Varsity 5043 [as Cowboy Rodgers, "Bury Me Out on the Lone Prairie"], n.d.; Montgomery Ward M-3019 [as Bob Star (The Texas Ranger)], "Bury Me Out on the Lone Prairie"). n.d.; rec. 1931; on MakeMe)
Crowder Brothers, "Got No Use for Women" (Conqueror 8943, 1937/Vocalion 03030, n.d./ARC 08-3-57, 1938; rec. 1936)
Vernon Dalhart, "Bury Me Out on the Prairie" (Conqueror 7729, 1931)
Delmore Brothers, "Oh Bury Me Out on the Prairie" (Montgomery Ward M-4060, 1933; Bluebird B-5338/Sunrise S-3419 1934; Montmogery Ward M-4458, c. 1934)
The Farm Hands, "Bury Me Out on the Prairie" (Paramount 3294, 1931)
Travis B. Hale, "Oh Bury Me Out on the Prairie" (Victor 20796, 1927)
Harry Jackson, "I Ain't Got No Use for the Women" (on HJackson1)
Bradley Kincaid, "Bury Me Out on the Prairie" (Silvertone 5187/Silvertone 8218/Supertone 9208, 1928) (Vocalion 5474, 1930; Conqueror 8091, 1933)
Ranch Boys, "Bury Me Out on the Prairie" (Decca 5341, 1937)
Carson Robison's Trio, "Oh Bury Me Out on the Prairie" (Broadway 4060, n.d.)
Roy Shaffer, "Bury Me Out on the Prairie" (Bluebird B-8213, 1939)
Tune Wranglers "I've Got No Use for the Women" (Bluebird B-7089, 1937)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl)" (lyrics)
cf. "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (lyrics)
NOTES [27 words]: What an excuse for not being able to find a girlfriend. - RBW
This uses more phrases from "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" than can be explained by coincidence. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FCW065

I've Got Sixpence

See I Love Sixpence (File: OO2480)

I've Got That Camp Fire Spirit up in My Head

See I've Got That Scouting Spirit (Girl Scout Spirit; I've Got That Camp Fire Spirit up in My Head) (File: ACSF249G)

I've Got That Scouting Spirit (Girl Scout Spirit; I've Got That Camp Fire Spirit up in My Head)

DESCRIPTION: "I've got that (Girl Scout/Scouting/Camp Fire) Spirit Up in my head, up in my head, up in my head. I've got that Girl Scout Spirit, Up in my head, up in my head to stay." "I've got that...Spirit Deep in my heart..." "...Down in my toes." "...All over me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 249, 516, "I've Got That Camp Fire Spirit Up In My Head" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 54, "I've Got That Scouting Spirit" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Joy in My Heart" (tune, according to BoyScoutSongbook1997)
File: ACSF249G

I've Got the Left Hind Foot of a Rabbit

See Things Are Comin' My Way (File: SOv26n2a)

I've Got the Left Hind Leg of a Rabbit

See Things Are Comin' My Way (File: SOv26n2a)

I've Just Come from Sydney

DESCRIPTION: "I've just come from Sydney across the range of mountains Where the nanny goats and the billy goats and the moo cows do dwell." He looks for his girl. Informed she has run off, he says he will wander by the sea and lay himself down and -- get up!
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: love separation elopement humorous
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 143, "I've Just Come from Sydney" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [26 words]: From the language, this sounds like a children's song; from the tone, it's clearly a gag. I suspect it's a parody of something, but I've no idea what. - RBW
File: PASB143

I've Just Got in Across the Plains

DESCRIPTION: "I've just got in across the plains, I'm poorer than a snail, My mules all died but poor old Chip." The singer tells of his terrible troubles on the way to California, and warns those who would follow that gold is hard to find
AUTHOR: John A. Stone ("Old Put")? Enuel Davis?
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1854 (Put's Golden Songster)
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes animal gold warning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 345-346, "I've Just Got in Across the Plains" ( 1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 46-47, "Arrival of the Greenhorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7775
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Emigrant from Pike" ("I've just arrived across the plains" lyric)
cf. "Jeanette and Jeanot" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Miner's Song
Arrival of the Greenhorn
NOTES [106 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety mentions that this was written "on the California Trail around 1850 by Enuel Davis," who contributed other complaints about the trail to California. But in context, it appears possible that Davis was the transcriber or publisher. At least, the earliest publication was in Put's Golden Songster.
Roud assigns the same number to "I've Just Got In Across the Plains" (originally titled "Arrival of the Greenhorn") and "Emigrant from Pike," which is understandable since they start with almost the same words and refer to the same sort of situation, but they are in fact separate songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Beld345

I've Lived in Service

DESCRIPTION: "I've lived in service seven long years, A fancy I took to a maid, sir." He would be happy to marry her -- but he sees their master take her to bed. Offered money to marry her, he takes the down payment and flees, leaving the girl behind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Vaughan Williams collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting servant bastard money trick escape adultery infidelity
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #37, "I've Lived in Service" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1483
File: PECS037

I've Lost My Love and I Kenna Weel Fu

DESCRIPTION: The singer says she has lost her love and "keena weel fu" [doesn't know how], but it would be childish to complain. Men are "as fickle as winter in sunshine an' shower." "The lossing o ane's the gainin o twa." He dares not return.
AUTHOR: James Hogg (1770-1835)
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (Hogg)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1147, "I've Lost My Love and I Kenna Weel Fu" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LOSTLOVE*
ADDITIONAL: James Hogg [writing as The Ettrick Shepherd], ("I hae lost my love, an' I dinna ken how") in _The Edinburgh Literary Journal_ (Edinburgh, 1829 ("Digitized by Google")), (No. 10, Jan 17, 1829) p. 141 (1 text)
Roud #2075
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O'er the Water to Charlie" (tune, per Greig/Duncan6)
cf. "I Lost My Lad" (a derivative game song)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I've Lost My Love, and I Carena
NOTES [80 words]: Hogg's poem takes the man's view. In James Hogg, Songs by The Ettrick Shepherd (Edinburgh, 1831 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 247-248, "I Hae Lost My Love," he subtitles the poem as "A bitter song against the women." Hogg describes women as "fickle as winter, in sunshine and shower, The hearts o' a' mankind beguiling.... Their ill faults I couldna tell ower in a day But their beauty's the warst thing about them! ... 'tis her that will bring this ill warld to an end...." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD61147

I've Lost My Rifle and Bayonet

DESCRIPTION: "I've lost my rifle and bayonet, I've lost my pull-through too, I've lost my disc and my puttees, I've lost my four-by-two. I've lost my housewife and hold-all, I've lost my button-stick too, I've lost my rations and greatcoat, Sergeant, what shall I do?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 66, "I've Lost My Rifle and Bayonet" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 53, "I've Lost My Rifle and My Bayonet" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10525
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Since I Lost You" (tune)
File: BrPa066A

I've Lost My Rifle and My Bayonet

See I've Lost My Rifle and Bayonet (File: BrPa066A)

I've Lost My Underwear

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I have lost my underwear, I don't care, I'll go bare, bye, bye blackbird.They were very close to me, tickly, Yee hee hee, bye bye blackbird. If you should ever come across them, would you please tell them that I lost them,,..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2004 (mudcat.org thread)
KEYWORDS: clothes humorous derivative campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 33, "Bye, Bye, Longjohns" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 101, 170, "(I've Lost My Underwear)" (notes only)
Roud #36107
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bye, Bye, Blackbird" (tune)
cf. "The Blackbird (VII)" (tune) and references there
File: ACSF101U

I've Nine Bairns and That's Nae Mony

DESCRIPTION: "I've nine bairns and that's nae mony And if I get anither ane I'm gaun tae ca him Johnnie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: nonballad children
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1453, "I've Nine Bairns and That's Nae Mony" (1 text)
Roud #7280
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan7 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71453

I've Only Been Down to the Club

DESCRIPTION: "Lasts night I was out rather late. It was only an innocent spree! My wife for my coming did wait, When sleeping I thought she would be." He stumbles but declares he isn't drunk. She is in a rage and threatens to leave him. He promises her (a new dress)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: drink fight husband wife
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 165-166, "I've Only Been Down to the Club" (1 text)
Roud #4941
File: SBar165

I've Rambled THis Country Both Earlye and Late

See I've Travelled This Country (Last Friday Evening) (File: Beld194)

I've Ranged, I've Roamed, and I've Traveled

DESCRIPTION: "I've ranged, I've roamed, and I've travelled, I've been a no-good they say." A spoiled child, he left his dear old mother for the city. A "painted lady" leads him to a poker game. He joined a robbery. He is imprisoned for shooting a guard. He will reform
AUTHOR: Jimmie Rodgers and Elsie MacWilliams (source: Bluebird recording)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Jimmie Rogers)
KEYWORDS: mother children home robbery homicide prison punishment betrayal
FOUND IN: US(So)
Roud #36311
RECORDINGS:
Jimmie Rodgers, "I've Ranged, I've Roamed, [and] I've Traveled" (Bluebird B5892=Montgomery Ward M-5013, 1929)
Richard Villmer, "I've Ranged, I've Roamed and I've Traveled" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #720, recorded 10/24/2023)
NOTES [125 words]: There appears to be disagreement about whether Rodgers's title for this was "I've Ranged, I've Roamed, and I've Traveled" or "I've Ranged, I've Roamed, I've Traveled" (adding or subtracting the word "and"). I've used the title under which the Bluebird 78 was issued.
I must say, the amount of trouble this kid got into in the space of a couple of days would be hard to replicate in the real world: He loses all his money in a poker game, is invited to go on a robbery, where a guard is shot and he is left to take the blame. But what gang of robbers would take someone with no experience on a robbery? Sure, he gave them someone on whom to pin the blame. But having an incompetent kid along would make it more likely that everyone would be caught. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcIRIRIT

I've Rode the Southern and the L & N

DESCRIPTION: Blues; singer says he's ridden the Southern & L&N railroads, has been treated badly, is a rambling man, and has found his "two blue eyes" at last. He has had to offer her his watch, his chain, and all he had before she would agree to marry him
AUTHOR: Possibly Homer Callahan, but since it's mostly floating verses...
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (recording, Homer Callahan)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage bargaining rambling train floatingverses
FOUND IN:
Roud #8589
RECORDINGS:
Callahan Brothers, "I've Rode the Southern and the L & N" (ARC 351011/Conqueror 8557, 1935; the ARC master was issued on Banner, Melotone, Romeo, Oriole and Perfect; some labels issued it under the name Homer Callahan)
Merle Lovell, "I Rode Southern, I Rode L & N" (AFS 4111 A1, 1940; on LC61)
NOTES [49 words]: The "L & N" was the Louisville & Nashville Railroad.
This barely qualifies as a ballad, but the narrative thread, though thin, is present, and while some of the floating verses come from Jimmie Rodgers via Homer Callahan, they've floated through enough places to become part of tradition. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcIRtSLN

I've Sair'd wi' Men

DESCRIPTION: "I've sairt wi' men that eased me well Wi' men that tried to skin." The singer names the places he has worked but "the like o' the Aucheddly My fit was never in"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 388, "I've Sair'd wi' Men" (1 text)
Roud #5922
File: GdC3388

I've Seen the Lightning Flashing

See No Never Alone (File: Ow2E165)

I've Travelled This Country (Last Friday Evening)

DESCRIPTION: "I've traveled this country both early and late; Hard has been my fortune and sad has been my fate." He comes to his love's home and sees her with another man. He gets drunk and/or questions her and wishes he were a fisherman and could catch her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal drink
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 194, "Last Friday Evening" (1 text)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, p. 333, "Lovely Polly" (1 text; tune on p. 447)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 143-144, "I've Rambled This Country Both Earlye and Late" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 164, "Pretty Polly" (1 fragment, 1 tune -- a single verse characteristic of this song although similar things are found in other songs as well)
Roud #1795
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "If I Were a Fisher" (floating lyrics) and references there
File: Beld194

I've Two or Three Strings To My Bow

DESCRIPTION: "I am a fair maiden forsaken, but I have a contented mind." Her love has forsaken him, but she does not intend to mourn; she has other options. She warns girls against men, and says she will "care no more for him than he cares for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1768 (Ramsey)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H70a+b, pp. 340-341, "I've Two or Three Strings To My Bow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4788
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (theme) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Frugal Maid
File: HHH070

I've Worked Eight Hours This Day

DESCRIPTION: "Little Tommy Hooligan He came home quite full again." He asks to be let in the locked door; Bridget will not let him in because "I've worked eight hours this day" and will not work more. A barber stops in the midst of a shave; he has worked eight hours
AUTHOR: Felix McGlennon (source: Sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood), but believed to be from c. 1890, when the eight hour movement wsa at its height
KEYWORDS: humorous work hair drink
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 93, "Little Tommy Hooligan" (1 text)
DT, EIGHTHRS*
Roud #37290
RECORDINGS:
Sandra Noble, "I've Worked Eight Hours This Day" (Piotr-Archive #207, recorded 07/13/2022)
File: KSUC093B

I'ze the B'y that Builds the Boat

DESCRIPTION: "I'ze the b'y that builds the boat, And I'ze the b'y that sails her; I'ze the b'y that catches the fish And takes 'em home to Liza." Stories of a Newfoundland life and diet -- and of the odd things that can happen at a Newfoundland party
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: nonballad ship sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) US(NE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 116-117, "I'se the B'y that Builds the Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 43, "I'se the B'y that Builds the Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, p. 64, "I's the B'y That Builds the Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "I'se The B'y" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 30 in the 3rd edition; p. 28 in the 4th; p. 27 in the 5th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 40-41, "I'se the B'y" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 20-21, "I'se the B'y that Builds the Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 78, "I'ze the Bye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 129, "I'se The B'y" (1 text)
England-HistoricNewfoundlandAndLabrador, p. 50, "I'se the B'y" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ISTHEBY*
Roud #4432
RECORDINGS:
Lloyd Soper and Bob McLeod, "I's the B'y That Builds the Boat" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [726 words]: Gordon Bok reports the following anecdote:
"A friend of mine came back from fishing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and he told me he was sitting in a bar in Cornerbrook when the fellow beside him punched him in the arm and said, 'How do you kill a Newfoundlander?'
"My friend says: 'I dunno.'
"The fellow says, 'You nail his boots to the floor and play "I'ze the B'y."'"
This is a very Newfoundland song, both in its geography and in its language. Fogo, Twillingate, and Moreton's Harbour are all small towns on the small islands north of Newfoundland itself -- Fogo on Fogo Island, Twililngate on South Twillingate Island just to the west, and Moreton's Harbour on New World Island just south of there. Bonavista might be Bonavista Bay, or the town of Bonavista on its shores, fifty or so miles to the southeast of the three towns.
The name "Twillingate," according to David J. Clarke, A History of the Isles: Twillingate, New World Island, Fogo Island and Change Islands, Newfoundland and Labrador, DJC, 2016, p. 11, is a distorted anglicized form of French "Toulinguet" (though the meaning of that word is itself uncertain, and might be Breton or even Basque; Clarke, p. 23) the area was explored by the French, and technically their property, until the eighteenth century. It is not certain when Twillingate was first settled, but by 1738, there were 184 people residing there -- 16 families plus supposedly 114 servants (Clarke, p. 27).
"Fogo" is thought to be derived from Portuguese "y del fuego," or "island of fire," although it is not clear just when the name came to be used for the island and town (Clarke, p. 129). Fogo is the name of both the island and its chief town, although Fogo Town has a harbour that is hard to enter due to rocks. But it provided good shelter once past that, which may be why the area was settled (Clarke, p. 145).
At the time when the western part of Newfoundland was still French, the northern islands fell within the French region, but Fogo and Twillingate were English from the start; they marked "the northern boundary of the English settlement in the early eighteenth century" (Clarke, p. 147, who notes on the same page that there were English settlers at Fogo by 1728 despite it being in French territory).
Fogo, Twillingate, and Moreton's Harbour were all the most important towns in their general vicinities, and hosts to many fishermen; Moreton's Harbour was also noteworthy for the production of small boats until the timber supplies ran out (Clarke, p. 111), although the population has declined sharply in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries (Clarke, p. 116). One might suggest, then, that our "b'y that builds the boat" is from there.
G. M. Story, W. J. Kirwin, and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, Dictionary of Newfoundland English, second edition with supplement, Breakwater Press, 1990, defines most of the special words of the song:
"Hip": "In dancing the lancers, to bump (one's partner) lightly on the hip" (p. 254, citing this song as an example).
A "flake" is "A platform built on poes and spread with boughs for drying cod-fish on the foreshore" (p. 187), i.e. it is a fish-drying platform. Hence it is covered with "sods and rinds": soil (possibly peat) and "The bark or cortex of a tree, specif. a 6-ft. (1.8 m) length of bark removed in one piece from a standing spruce or fir and used for various fishing and building purposes" (p. 411).
"Cake" is often a term for bread, especially hardtack (p. 79).
"Maggoty: "Of cod-fish, improperlly cured and infested with the larvae of blow-flies; spoiled, unsavory; freq. in names of small coves where fish are landed and offal discarded" (p. 319). For some reason, the quality of Newfoundland cod went down over the years, eventually becoming almost unsalable outside Newfoundland in the early twentieth century as the Newfoundlanders failed to dry it properly, so it might make sense that one of the Islanders would think the people of relatively "civilized" Bonavista would dry their cod badly.
"Gravel": could be "a pebble-strewn isthmus or sea-bottom" (p. 223) -- in other words, Liza being "up to her knees in gravel" means that she is in the water up to her knees.
Finally, "fish" in Newfoundland can generally be assumed to mean "codfish" unless otherwise specified; this is the *first* meaning on p. 176 of Story et al. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: FJ116

I'ze the Bye

See I'ze the B'y that Builds the Boat (File: FJ116)

Ibbity Bibbity

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope or counting-out rhyme. "Ibbity, bibbity, sibbity, sab,Ibbity, bibbity, canal boat, Dictionary (goes) down the ferry, Out goes you." Or, ...up the river, down the river, Out goes you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: wordplay ship jumprope | dictionary
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 15, "(Ibbity, bibbity, sibbity, Sam)"; p. 16, "(Ibbity, bibbity, sibbity, say)" (2 texts, the one on p. 16 longer than most texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #212, "Ibbity, bibbity, sibbity, sab" (1 text)
Roud #22938
File: ARR212

Ibbity Bibbity Shindo

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme? "Ibbity, bibbity, shindo, My mother was washing the window, The window it/got broke, My mother got soake(d), Ibbity, bibbity, shindo, My mother told me To take this one."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: nonsense mother | window counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 16, "(Ibbity, bibbity, shindo)" (1 text)
File: WEMM016

Ibbity, Bibbity, Sibbity, Sam

See Ibbity Bibbity (File: ARR212)

Ibbity, Bibbity, Sibbity, Say

See Ibbity Bibbity (File: ARR212)

Ibby Damsel

DESCRIPTION: "Some old Robin Down they call me/But I'm a weaver by my trade/In this fair berth, in which I'm dwelling/And Ibby Damsel my heart betrayed." Two succeeding verses praise Ibby Damsel's beauty, and note that "from her chamber I can't get free"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (collected from Rosie Hensley by Cecil Sharp)
KEYWORDS: captivity love betrayal beauty weaving
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 119, "Ibby Damsel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3635
NOTES [24 words]: A fragment, but it just avoids nonballad status by its hint of a narrative. There are no further notes on this song in Sharp's collection. - PJS
File: ShAp2119

Ice Bound Hunting Seals

DESCRIPTION: "The wind was still from the nor'east As we sat down to out humble feast" as the sealers talk of days gone by. They recall happier voyages; finally old "Garge" "Cried out, 'it's the "infarnal" steal -- that's what done it.'"
AUTHOR: probably James Murphy (1868-1931)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff)
KEYWORDS: hunting technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 67, "Ice Bound Hunting Seals" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V44841
NOTES [359 words]: A manuscript text, with no author cited, but thought to be the work of James Murphy.
The Newfoundland seal fishery went back very early in the colony's history, and the hunt was on such a large scale that it soon dramatically reduced the seal population. By the 1850s, the number of seals was falling fast, and the hunt was shifting from small ships to large. In the 1860s, even the large sailing vessels were pushed aside by steam-powered sealers. These took many more seals on a per-ship basis, but only a few dozen sailed each year, carrying crews numbering in the hundreds rather than the dozens. But, because the steamers were so few, many sealers were out of work -- and those who did work lived a very different life. This is presumably a grumble about the change.
The irony of it is, the steamers, because they could move without a wind to power them, were much less likely to get ice bound than the older sailing ships. But it still happened sometimes.
The song lists three captains, all by first name only: "Captain Mick," who is identified by Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff as Mick Fitzgerald, and Captains John and Dan, not identified. Ryan and Ryan/Drake have no mentions of any Captain Fitzgerald, but Chafe, p. 91, lists a Captain T. Fitzgerald who captained the steamer Mastiff in 1877, took only 700 seals, and never commanded another steamer. I suspect this is the "Mick" involved (if Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff are correct in saying his name was Fitzgerald); it was quite common for a successful captain of sailing sealers to try to make the transition to steam -- and fail and lose his job (Ryan, p. 221, or see the notes to "Captain Bill Ryan Left Terry Behind").
Captains John and Dan are, obviously, harder to identify, but a Captain John Hicks commanded the Mastiff in 1872, with only slightly better luck than Fitzgerald (Chafe, p. 91), a Captain John Winsor had a horrid trip in the Mastiff in 1886, and a captain John Dawe had little success in the Iceland in 1880. These seem to be the only steamer captains who are early enough to fit the song, but the three captains were, of course, primarily sailing captains. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm067

Ice Cream Soda, Delaware Punch

See Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who) (File: McIn110C)

Ice Cream Soda, Ginger Ale, Pop

See Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who) (File: McIn110C)

Ice Cream, Candy, Cake and Butter

See Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who) (File: McIn110C)

Ice Cream, Soda Water

See Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who) (File: McIn110C)

Ice Was Thin, The

See Three Little Girls A-Skating Went (File: R588)

Ice-cream a Penny a Lump

See Hokey Pokey (I) (File: GrD81573)

Ice-Cream Soda

See Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who) (File: McIn110C)

Ice-Floes, The

DESCRIPTION: The Eagle sails for the ice and sends out sealing parties. The crews find many animals. After several successful expeditions, the singer and colleagues are unable to find the ship. Some eventually find their way back, but 60 die
AUTHOR: E. J. Pratt
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Pratt, Here the Tides Flow)
KEYWORDS: storm disaster death hunting
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1950 - Scuttling of the SS Eagle, the last of the Newfoundland sealing steamers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 59-62, "The Ice-Floes" (1 text)
Roud #V44842
NOTES [1610 words]: Not traditional, not true, and not a song. As written, the poem cannot be set to music, and the event, while similar to some actual tragedies (see, e.g., the several "Greenland Disaster" songs for a similar tale), was made up by the author. Don't ask me what induced Ryan and Small to include it in their book.
Nonetheless the ship is, in a sense, real. There were two sealers named Eagle. One Eagle or the other is mentioned in "Sealer's Song (I)," "Captains and Ships," and "The Sealer's Song (II)"; also, I suspect, in Johnny Burke's "Trinity Cake (Mrs. Fogarty's Cake)," although the ship in that song is not explicitly described as a sealer. The first Eagle had been owned by the sealing/sailing firm of Bowring's from 1871 to 1893 (she was the first steamer owned by Bowring's, which came late to the steaming trend but eventually became the largest owner of steam sealers; Busch, p. 67), and had been considered successful. Her first commander was the famous William Jackman, for whom see "Captain William Jackman, A Newfoundland Hero." She had been lost while whaling in 1893 (Keir, p. 163). As a result, when Bowring's bought the Norwegian ship Sophie (built 1902) in 1904, they renamed her the Eagle (II) (Greene, p. 276; Squires, p. 12; Feltham, p. 46, says her original name was Sophia).
As built, she was 176 feet long, 418 tons (Chafe, p. 47, says 394 tons, but that may refer to her size before a 1908 rebuild), and had an engine generating 82 n.h.p. (Squires, p. 12) -- a relatively weak engine, but because she was also small, she was apparently regarded as good in the ice (Ryan-Last, p. 154). She wasn't nearly as good in the open sea, though, and Squires, p. 14, describes her as a coal hog. And, like most sealing steamers, she had no plumbing worthy of the name (Squires, p. 20), few other amenities, and -- when she went to the ice -- was overcrowded by a factor of eight or so (sealing expeditions usually carried about 200 men, but when the Eagle went to the Antarctic she carried just 28, and that was enough men to make her feel fairly full).
Arthur Jackman (the brother of William Jackman; for Arthur, see the notes to "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full") was the second Eagle's commander in 1904-1906 (Chafe, p. 99); her first season, in 1904, was a flop, but she went on to have significant success (Feltham, pp. 46-47), especially after a rebuilding in 1908 lengthened her bow (Ryan/Drake, p. 34), She served until 1949 (with a break in 1943) under eight different captains -- three members of the Kean family (for whom see "Captain Abram Kean," although Abram himself never commanded the Eagle) and five assorted others.
She also made history by being the first sealer to take an airplane to the ice to hunt seals (Ryan/Drake, p. 34, although I've also heard of the Neptune being involved in aviation), although it took quite a while to make a runway for her on the ice. She was also one of the first sealers to use wireless (Ryan-Ice, pp. 192-193).
Despite her early failures and her many captains -- and the fact that she went through three bows (needing a rebuild in 1908; Winsor, p. 39, and again after World War II) -- she was widely regarded as lucky by sealers (Ryan-Last, pp. 366-367).
In 1944-1945, she was part of a secret mission, "Operation Taberin," which was intended to build British bases in the Falklands and the Antarctic. According to Squires, p. 1, the British government felt that it needed to have sovereignty over the Antarctic Peninsula, and to maintain that sovereignty, needed an Antarctic colony. (This was mostly to keep pro-German Argentina from getting a foothold, according to Squires, p. 48 -- but the Germans had been active there; the armed merchant cruiser Pinguin had gone after the Norwegian whaling fleet in 1940/1941, and even the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer had gone south and assesed the situation; Kranke/Brennecke, p.181. The Americans had also been worried about German activity in Antarctica, and had built an expedition around another old sealer, the Bear; Burroughs, p. 95). A colonizing attempt in 1943 had failed because of ice, so the British government called on the one remaining sealing steamer (Squires, pp. 1-2) -- ships that had been designed for service in the Arctic ice. The Eagle was damaged on this mission; an iceberg took off her bowsprit and part of her bow even as another hit her side; she took so much water that the crew thought her doomed (Squires, pp. 84-86). She managed to survive, though, and was repaired in Port Stanley and sent home.
Nonetheless, she was pretty clearly worn out; Squires, p. 36, reports that "in every port we had visited, the ship had to have repairs." And so much seal residue had soaked into her timbers that she stank abominably when she reached warm waters and it started to air out. Even though she had been given her role because she was the last sealing steamer, it is noteworthy that another ship was sent to bring back the expedition (Squires, p. 101). I'm frankly surprised Bowring's took her back when she returned to Newfoundland. But they did. Briefly. She went to the ice in 1946-1949 under Captain Charles Kean -- and was the only sealer to go out in the first and last of those years. Another member of the Kean family had been captain of the first Newfoundland sealing steamer, the Wolf, in 1863, so there was a Kean in charge of a sealing steamer from beginning to end of the tradition! (Winsor, p. 28).
In 1950, the Eagle was the last survivor of the fleet of sealing steamers (at least if one excludes the Bear, which had served as a sealer but then became an arctic patrol vessel and lasted until 1963; Watson, pp. 180-181; Paine, p. 55; also most of Burroughs, especially pp. 34-85, 99-102; Burroughs, p. 99, says there had been a thought, in the late 1940s of turning the Bear back into a sealer, but it was too expensive). Despite being the last of her kind, the Eagle was scuttled at the end of her long service (O'Neill, p. 967) -- one newspaper account said she was "buried at sea" (Feltham, p. 49). Keir, who wrote the official history of her owner Bowring's, on p. 404 says that "at last she went down with all the dignity of an ancient Viking funeral." Although that song never says so, I'm pretty sure this is the event referred to in "Last of the Wooden Walls."
Winsor, p. 40, prints a long excerpt from the newspaper the Daily News, from which I will quote the first few sentences:
"Sealers from Cape St. John to Cape St. Mary's will learn with regret that Bowring Brothers, Ltd., have decided to scrap the S. S. Eagle. No more will the doughty ship 'punch her way' through the ice-floes of our coast in search of seals.
"Hundreds of Newfoundland sealers will think of the time when they got 'duff' from her galley; going down her 'side sticks' to take the young harps from the pans; the joy that was felt when the ship bore up with a bumper load of whitecoats...." If nothing else, all the verbiage shows how strongly Newfoundlanders felt about the seal hunt.
Ryan/Drake, p. 34, prints a photo of her from 1934. Feltham, p. 173, has a photo of her as she made her final voyage, as does Ryan/Drake, p. 81; O'Neill, p. 946, has a different photo of this voyage, with a comment that a few were enraged by this "wanton destruction" but that most did not care about the loss of the last wooden-walled sealer. On p. 967, O'Neill writes, "When she reached the Deeps a small crew set the Eagle on fire, her seacocks were opened, and the coverings knocked from scuttling holes that had been cut in the hull. The crew were taken off by pilot boat.... Another irreplaceable element in Newfoundland history was irrevocably lost." Important as she doubtless was historically (I certainly wish she had been saved and used as a museum), I doubt she was worth much as a sealer by then -- sealer Stephen Whitten recalled that "It wouldn't be worth the money to do her up to pass Canadian steamship inspection" (Ryan-Last, pp. 244-245; Newfoundland became part of Canada in 1949, so Canadian laws began to apply in the year she was scuttled). Winsor, p. 40, also has a photo of her sinking, with a photo of her in service on p. 39.
The fact that she lasted so long might explain this piece, though. E. J. Pratt wrote this after the last wooden sealers were gone; he used the name of the last of them for the subject of his poem. People in Newfoundland remembered her; Squires declared, "Her memory will endure forever" (Squires, p. 104), and I'm sure many Newfoundlanders felt the same way.
There was apparently another song about the Eagle, and captain Sid Hill, preserved in Hill's own family, that has never been printed; two verses are on p. 166 of Ryan-Last, and begin "Come all of you seal hunters and listen unto me, While I'll tell of the spring now in 1933."
Squires has many photos of the Eagle, although only the one on p. 104, which shows her as she is sinking, gives much idea of what she looked like.
Much as seal-hunting is despised today in most of the world, I really do think one of the old sealers should have been preserved. There were at least five candidates: the Terra Nova (which sailed more seas than any other), the Neptune (which took the most seals), the Ranger (which sailed the most voyages), the Bear (which did more duties than any other, though her career in Newfoundland was brief), or the Eagle. All were afloat in 1940, but only Eagle and Bear were left in 1945, so the Eagle was the best bet. But no one stepped up to save her. Even though I don't think this a good poem, I understand the sentiments. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: RySm059

Icham of Irlande

See Icham of Irlaunde (The Irish Dancer; Good Sir I Pray Thee) (File: MsIcOIrl)

Icham of Irlaunde (The Irish Dancer; Good Sir I Pray Thee)

DESCRIPTION: "Icham of Irlaunde, Ant of the hole lond Of Irlaunde. Gode sire, prey ich (you), For of saynte charite, Come and daunce wyt me In Irlaunde." "I am of Ireland, And of the holy land of Ireland. Good sir... Come and dance with me In Ireland."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1450 (Oxford, Bodleian Library Rawlinson D.913)
KEYWORDS: Ireland dancing nonballad MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics 37, "(I Am of Ireland)" (1 text)
Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols #22, "(Ich am of Irlaunde" (1 text, with a much-reduced photograph of the manuscript on page 75)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics p. 279, "(no title)" (1 text, included as a dance text rather than a "lyric")
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1008
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1647
ADDITIONAL: J. A. Burrow, _Essays on Medieval Literature_, Clarendon Press (Oxford), 1984, p. 24, "(Icham of Irlande") (1 text, part of a full transcription of this page of the Rawlinson manuscript)
Kenneth Sisam, editor, _Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose_, Oxford, 1925, p. 166, "The Irish Dancer' (1 text)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #67, p. 167, "The Irish Dancer" (1 text)
Rossell Hope Robbins, _Secular Lyrics of the XIVth and XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1952, p. 11, "The Irish Dancer" (1 text)
Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, _Middle English Lyrics_, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974, p. 132, #143 (no title) (1 text)
R. T. Davies, editor, _Medieval English Lyrics: A Critical Anthology_, 1963, #31, p. 99, "I Am from Ireland (1 text)
E. K. Chambers, _English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages_, Oxford, 1945, 1947, pp. 77-78, "(Icham of Irlaunde)" (1 text)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, p. 31, "(Icham of Irlaunde)" (1 text)
J. A. Burrow and Thorlac Turville-Petre, _A Book of Middle English_, second edition, 1996 (I use the 1999 Blackwell paperback edition), p. 236 (no title) (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRawlinsonD913}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson D.13 (Bodleian 13679), folio 1
NOTES [358 words]: Although no tune is preserved, several scholars (Chambers, Greene) are certain that this was sung, probably as a traditional song (Greene, p. xxxvi). Greene is further convinced that it can be divided into stanza and burden, even if all the other stanzas are lost. Wells, p. 493, declares it "perhaps the earliest English dance-song now extant." Chambers, p. 77, is a little more cautious, but says the surviving text "may be the beginning of a dance-song, with its refrain."
It is indexed on that basis, and because of the important manuscript containing it, Oxford, Bodleian Library Rawlinson D.913 (13679). That makes it one of the "Rawlinson lyrics," found on a single strip of parchment in Bodleian library MS. Rawlinson D.913. It has several short poems, in both English and French (Burrow/Turville-Petre, p. 235). Several of the other pieces also appear somewhat "folky"; Wells, p. 492, suggests that the page came from a minstrel's notebook.
This is the seventh piece in the book, by Wells's count; the eighth is the famous "Maiden in the Mor Lay (The Maid of the Moor)"; see that entry for more about the manuscript.
According to Sisam, p, 256, Ireland is called holy because it was "par excellence 'the land of the Saints.'"
John Speirs had a different take, which seems more real to me: "Ireland, the Isle of the Saints because earlier it had been the Isle of the Gods, is here sacred still perhaps in a pagan as well as a Christian sense. The dancer from across the sea -- from a sacred or magical other country -- is still perhaps essentially a faery or otherworld visitant. . . . Essentially, or symbollically, the dancer will stea away or abduct her partner" (quoted on p. 14 of Burrow).
Burrow himself (pp. 14-15) has a much more down-to-earth understanding: he suggests that this is in effect a game song, in carol form, and "Ireland" is the area in which the lead singer stands. The "holy land" is then explained by the fact that the carol singers encircle it in their dancing. But he suspects that the scribe of the Rawlinson Manuscript himself did not know what the poem was about, although he offers no evidence for this. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: MsIcOIrl

Ickety, Bickey, My Black Hen

See Higgledy Piggledy, My Black Hen (File: BGMG299)

Ickie Bickie Soda Cracker

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "Ickie Bbickie soda cracker, Ickie bickie boo, Ickie bickie soda cracker, Out goes you." (Or "Itsy bitsy soda cracker," or "Icker bicker soda cracker," etc.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: food | counting-out
FOUND IN: US(Ro,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 72, "Itsy Bitsy Boo," "Icky Bicky Soda Cracker"; p. 85, "Icky Backy" (3 texts; the second text on p. 72 combined this with a "My mother and your mother" verse))
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #133, "(My Mother and Your Mother)" (1 text, which begins with a verse that is probably "My Mother and Your Mother (I)" and ends with "Ickie Bickie Soda Cracker")
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 115, "Ocka, Bocka, soda crocka"; p. 117, "Icky, bicky, soda cricky" (1 text); compare p. 120, "Icky, bicky, cricky, tricky" (1 text); p. 121, "My mother, your mother" (1 text, which appears to combine this chorus with one or another "My Mother and Your Mother" verses)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 17, "(Ecka, decka, donie, crecka)" (1 text, which I suspect is a much-misheard versio of "Ickie Bickie...."); p. 19, "(Oka, bocca, stona crocka)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #3, "Acca, bacca" (1 text)
Roud #19443
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "1918 East Broadway" (lyrics in some versions)
File: ZiZa072C

Ickle Ockle Black Bottle

DESCRIPTION: "Ickle ockle black bottle, Ickle ockle out, If you come into my house, I will kick you out." Or "...bottle, Fishes in the sea, If you want a pretty maid, Please choose me." Or "...bottle, Ickle ockle out, O-U-T spells out, And out you must go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty wordplay
FOUND IN: Britain New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 238, "Ickle ockl, blue bockle" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 88, "(Ickle ockle black bottle)" (4 texts); p. 98, "(Ickle ockle black bottle)" (2 texts); there may also be relics of this among the texts on p. 95
Roud #20650
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric) and references there
NOTES [61 words]: NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Leonidas Betts, "Folk Speech from Kipling [North Carolina]," Vol. XIV, No. 2 (Nov. 1966), p. 40, has an interesting form beginning "Eeny, meeny, tipsy, teeny, Apple jack, John Sweeney" and proceeding for six more lines, then ending "O-U-T spells out, And out goes you"; this appears to be an unusual composite of several counting rhymes.
Last updated in version 4.4
File: SuSm088A

Ickle Ockle Blue Bockle

See Ickle Ockle Black Bottle (File: SuSm088A)

Icklety-Picklety

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Icklety-picklety, isia-lickerty, Boom ta-ra jib. Every man man in Chinatown ought to wear a wig. One, two, three, Out pops she, Icklety-picklety, isia-lickerty, Boom ta-ra-ra jig"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Bluebells My Cockle Shells, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonsense jumprope | Chinatown
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #216, "Icklety-Picklety" (1 text)
Roud #20482
NOTES [29 words]: I strongly suspect this originated as a jumble of other jump-rope or counting-out rhymes, but since Roud and Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes both make it a separate item, I do to. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR216

Icky Acky

DESCRIPTION: "Icky acky chew the baccy/tobaccy, Icky acky out."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty drugs
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 95, "(Icky acky chew the baccy_" (1 short text)
File: SuSm095A

Icky Backy

See Ickie Bickie Soda Cracker (File: ZiZa072C)

Icky, bicky, cricky, tricky

See (references under) Ickie Bickie Soda Cracker (File: ZiZa072C)

Icky, bicky, soda cricky

See Ickie Bickie Soda Cracker (File: ZiZa072C)

Icy Mountain

See My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains (File: Wa124)

Ida Ho

DESCRIPTION: "For her I'd leave Virginia, I'd leave my Mary Land, I'd part with Mrs. Sippi, That widow, fair and bland. I'd leave Louisa Anna, and other Annas, too." "I'd give them all the go-by And stick to Ida Ho." "I like her breezy manners And her honest ways."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Idaho Lore, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: home patriotic nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p 587, "Ida Ho" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The States Song (What Did Delaware?)" (device of using state songs as personal names)
File: CAFS2587

Ida Red (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Ida Red, Ida Red, I'm in love with Ida Red." Verses often concern Ida, but are frequently silly and exaggerated: "Ida Red, she ain't a fool, Bigger'n an elephant, stronger'n a mule."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Fiddlin' Powers & Family)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 442, "Ida Red" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #74, "Idy Red" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #128, "Ida Red" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 36, "Ida Red" (1 text)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 83, "Shootin' Creek" (1 text, with verses from this song but music and chorus from "Cripple Creek (I)")
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 14, "Ida Red" (1 text, 1 tune, somewhat removed from the standard version but too close to list as a separate song)
DT, IDARED
Roud #3429
RECORDINGS:
Dykes' Magic City Trio, "Ida Red" (Brunswick 125, 1927)
Stanley Hicks, "Down the Road" (on OldTrad2, FarMtns2)
Land Norris, "Ida Red" (OKeh 45006, 1925)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Shootin' Creek" (composite, with tune and chorus from "Cripple Creek (I); Columbia15286-D, 1928; on CPoole01, CPoole05)
Fiddlin' Powers & Family, "Ida Red" (Victor 19434, 1924)
Pete Steele, "Ida Red" (on PSteele01)
Riley Puckett, "Ida Red" (Columbia 15102-D, 1926)
Gid Tanner & the Skillet Lickers, "Ida Red" (Montgomery Ward M-4846, 1935)
"T" Texas Tyler, "Ida Red" (4-Star 1228, n.d. but post-World War II)
Wade Ward, "Ida Red" [instrumental] (on GraysonCarroll1)
Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, "Ida Red" (Vocalion 05079, 1939/Columbia 37725, 1947)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cripple Creek (I)" (floating verses)
NOTES [44 words]: Wheeler's version has the chorus, "Ida Red, I'm gettin' tired uv eatin' that shortnin' bread." Not enough reason to call it a separate song, to my mind -- though Roud, for once, appears to split (it's his #9992). Of course, he lumps this with "Ida Red (II)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R442

Ida Red (II)

DESCRIPTION: "I went down one day in a lope, Fool around till I stole a coat." In love with Ida Red, the singer turns criminal (against Ida's wishes). He winds up in prison, and she cannot raise his bail. He regrets his mistake, and looks forward to seeing Ida again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: love prison separation theft
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 110-111, "Ida Red" (1 text)
Roud #3429
NOTES [22 words]: This song is item dI23 in Laws's Appendix II.
Roud lumps this with Ida Red (I), which is a humorous item; this is a crime ballad. - RBW
File: LoA110

Ida Red (III)

DESCRIPTION: "Unprintable" song about Ida's exploits, with chorus something like "Ida Rad and Ida Blue, And I love Ida same as you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads)
KEYWORDS: bawdy courting
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 12, "Ida Red and Ida Blue" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cripple Creek (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [20 words]: Note that Roud lumps this with the other Ida Red songs. Expurgated nonballads are always a classification problem.... - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Sulz012

Ida Red and Ida Blue

See Ida Red (III) (File: Sulz012)

Idaho

See We're Coming, Arkansas (We're Coming, Idaho) (File: R343)

Idaho Cowboy Dance, An

See At a Cowboy Dance (File: FCW105)

Idaho, The

DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "She was laden with slates and heavy crates And was bound for New Orleans"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: sea ship wreck commerce
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 127, "The Idaho" (1 fragment)
NOTES [12 words]: Apparently not the Idaho that struck Coningmore Rock on June 1, 1878. - BS
File: Ran127D

Idol of His Party, The

See Le Dieu du Liberal (The Idol of His Party) (File: Macl10)

Idumea

See Am I Born to Die? (Idumea) (File: LoF125)

Idy Red

See Ida Red (I) (File: R442)

Idyl of the Plains

See The Cowboy (File: FCW028)

Ierne United

DESCRIPTION: "When Rome, by dividing, had conquered the world," Ireland, united, escaped. Eventually "our domestic dissensions let foreigners in.... our freedom was lost.... Let us firmly unite, and our covenant be, Together to fall, or together be free"
AUTHOR: Theobald Wolfe Tone (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1792 (according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 120, "Ierne United" (1 text)
NOTES [314 words]: The claim of this song is a half-truth: Ireland was never conquered, or even attacked, by Rome. But it wasn't because Ireland was united; it was because Ireland was *remote*. The Romans never finished conquering Britain, and had no harbors on her west coast; of course they didn't go after Ireland. But Ireland was not united at any time in its history prior to the Tudor conquest; there were always at least the four kingdoms of Leinster, Munster, Ulster, and Connaught, and those usually subdivided. A king like Brian Boru could say he ruled all as High King, but at best his authority resembled that of the modern British monarch: Respected, bowed to -- and utterly ignored.
Still, it is true that internal strife led to the English invasion: There was strife between Diarmat Mac Murchada (MacMurrough), king of Leinster, and Tigernan Ua Ruairk of Breifne/Breffni. There was also a conflict over who was High King of Ireland, which had lesser lords taking sides. In a complex multi-sided war, Diarmat was deprived of most of his power -- and sailed to England, where he offered to marry his daughter to Richard FitzGilbert de Clare, known as "Strongbow," the Earl of Pembroke.Pembroke invaded (1169, then in more force in 1170 as MacMurrough, successful in Leinster, decided to try for the High Kingship). King Henry II , who early in his reign had been granted a patent by the (English) Pope to straighten out the much-too-independent Irish church, later followed him to keep Strongbow under control (1172; Strongbow had become, in effect, King of Leinster when MacMurrough died, and Henry couldn't have that).
The Normans, by a combination of politics, marriage, and warfare, gradually took over eastern Ireland (see Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, A History of Ireland, pp. 58-73; Mike Cronin,A History of Ireland, pp. 11-15; Terry Golway, For the Cause of Liberty, p. 11). - RBW
File: Moyl120

If a Gumboil Could Boil Oil

DESCRIPTION: "If a gumboil could boil oil, How much oil would a gumboil boil, If a gumboil could boil oil."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 172, "If a Gumboil" (1 short text)
Roud #38107
File: BAAI172C

If a' Were Wrocht That's Ta'en in Hand

DESCRIPTION: If a' were wrocht that's ta'en in hand, And a' were peyed that's promised me, I'd gang again the gate I cam', And a better laddie I wad be"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 17, ("If a' were wrocht that's ta'en in hand") (1 fragment)
NOTES [7 words]: The description is all of the Greig text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Grg017

If All of the Raindrops

DESCRIPTION: "If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drop Oh what a rain it would be, I’d stand outside, with my mouth open wide Going “AA Aa-aa aa aa-aa aa aa-aa aa." Similarly if snowflakes were candy bars, if sunbeams were jellybeans, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (mudcat.org thread "Girl Scout songs - from the fading ditto sheets...")
KEYWORDS: food nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 280, "If All of the Raindrops" (notes only)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger et al, "If All the Raindrops" (on PeteSeeger11)
File: ACSF280I

If All the Raindrops

See If All of the Raindrops (File: ACSF280I)

If All the Seas Were One Sea

DESCRIPTION: "If all the seas were one sea, What a great sea that would be! If all the trees were one tree.... And if all the men... And if the great man took an axe, And cut down the great tree, And let it fall into the great sea, What a splish-splash that would be!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: sea nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 466, "If all the seas were one sea" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #92 n. 75, p. 92, "(If all the seas were one sea)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 31, "If All the Seas Were One Sea" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 67-68, "If All the Seas" (1 text)
Roud #19775
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "If All the World Were Paper"
NOTES [19 words]: It has been suggested that this is a parody of "ecclesiastical language." It doesn't feel like it to me, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: OO2466

If All the World Was Apple Pie

See If All the World Were Paper (File: OO2548)

If All the World Were Paper

DESCRIPTION: "If all the world were paper, And all the sea were ink, If all the trees were bread and cheese, What should we have to drink?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1641 (Wit's Recreations)
KEYWORDS: food drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 548, "If all the world were paper" (2 text plus many similar texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #106, p. 92, "(If all the world was apple-pie)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 31, "If All the World Were Paper" (1 text)
Roud #19693
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "If All the Seas Were One Sea"
NOTES [88 words]: This is the first verse of a poem published in Witt's Recreations in 1641, but it seems to have circulated independently. Many see connections with the church, and claim that it goes back to the eleventh or twelfth century. This is most unlikely, however, since paper was not available in England at that time; the only real writing material was parchment.
The version "If all the world was apple-pie" apparently originated with Gammer Gurton's Garland, and appears to be an error; why would anyone pair apple pie with ink? - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: OO2548

If But One Heart Be True

DESCRIPTION: "There's mony a freen wea' may meet in bright and prosperous days Who when adversity draws near their confidence betrays Yet hopefully and cheerfully our courage we'll renew If but one heart be true to us, if but one heart be true"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: nonballad friend
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 670, "If But One Heart Be True" (1 text)
Roud #6096
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. " Hard Up and Broken Down" (theme) and references there
cf. "Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime" (theme)
cf. "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (theme)
cf. "Up a Tree" (theme)
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 entry. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3670

If Ever I Cease to Love

DESCRIPTION: Singer's true love is perfect: "a modern Taglioni and Sims Reeves rolled into one." If he stops loving her, may these things happen: "little dogs wag their tails in front," "cows lay eggs and fowls yield milk," "we never have to pay Income Tax..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.21(153))
KEYWORDS: love nonballad parody
FOUND IN:
Roud #V6278
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.21(153), "If Ever I Cease to Love" ("In a house, in a square, in a quadrant"), The Poet's Box(Glasgow), 1871; also Firth b.27(343), "If Ever I Cease to Love"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "That the Stones of the Street May Turn Up the Pig's Feet" (subject and some text)
NOTES [177 words]: Broadside Bodleian Firth c.21(153) is the basis for the description.
A parody of the "if ever I prove false" theme floating among songs such as "When First Into this Country" and "I Live Not Where I Love." The parody is carried further by a broadside on drinking, to the tune of "If Ever I Cease to Love":
Bodleian, Firth c.16(407)[some lines illegible], "If Ever I Cease to Lush" ("I think its a sin, if ever there was one"), unknown, n.d. [but with a reference to the performers N.C. Bostock and Mark Alberts].
Maria Taglioni (1804-1884) was an Italian ballerina, most famous beginning in 1832; she retired in 1848 (source: "Maria Taglioni" in Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, Copyright (c) 2005). She is named as the quintessential dancer in other humorous broadsides; for example, see: NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(48a), "Newhaven Fishwife"; LOCSinging, sb30394a, "The Obstinate Girl."
John Sims Reeves (1818-1900) was an English opera singer who "made a great sensation" in 1848; he retired in 1891 (source: "John Sims Reeves" at the Wikipedia site). - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BdIEICTL

If Ever I Follow the Ships Again

See It's Me for the Inland Lakes (File: WGM085)

If Ever You Go to Kilkenny

DESCRIPTION: "If ever you'll go to Kilkenny Enquire for the Hole-in-the-Wall" for free or inexpensive food: the governor comes around with it in the morning. The singer was drunk there last Friday and the governor insisted he strip before entering.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: drink food nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #16989
RECORDINGS:
Mary Delaney, "If Ever You Go to Kilkenny" (on IRTravellers01)
NOTES [98 words]: Jim Carroll's notes to IRTravellers01: "'The Hole in the Wall' was, from the middle of the eighteenth century to 1850, one of Ireland's more renowned supper-houses.... There was another 'Hole in the Wall' in Kilkenny ... where, before the existence of the public market, farmers used to sell ... farm produce. It is quite possible that Mary's song refers to this latter location although her text gives the impression that the premises referred to was a prison." The notes also mention the first verse of a song, referring to the supper-house, that is very close to the first verse here. - BS
File: RcIEYGTK

If He'd Be a Buckaroo

DESCRIPTION: "If he'd be a buckaroo by his trade, I'd have him a hondo ready-made... He can scratch my hondo every night, WIth his ring ting tinny...." Similarly for other occupations: "If he'd be a preacher/sheepherder/sailor by his trade...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (collected from Blaine Stubblefield)
KEYWORDS: work worker love sex
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 249-250, "If He'd Be a Buckaroo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3586
File: LoSi249

If I Call You Mama

DESCRIPTION: When singer calls his lover she won't call back. She brags about her looks ("brick house") and she "hauls" (ashes) for "two high yellows." He asked her for "whisky" got "gasoline." He's going home to New Orleans.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: infidelity sex bragging farewell parting drink bawdy nonballad lover
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1919 - The Volstead Act estabishes prohibition of "intoxicating liquors" to carry out the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
1933 - The 21st amendment to the U.S. Constitution ends prohibition.
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Luke Jordan, "If I Call You Mama" (on StuffDreams1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Got the Jake Leg Too" (Prohibition alcohol surrogates) and references there
cf. "Clarksdale Moan" (Son House) (Prohibition alcohol surrogates)
cf. "Old Rub Alcohol Blues" (Dock Boggs) (Prohibition alcohol surrogates)
cf. "Canned Heat Blues" (Tommy Johnson) (Prohibition alcohol surrogates)
cf. "Alcohol and Jake Blues" (Tommy Johnson) (Prohibition alcohol surrogates)
NOTES [201 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought.
I assume "gasoline" was slang for poison in 1929 and not the alcoholic drink it is now. Or is this not about drink at all? Tommy Johnson sings "I'd asked (her) for water, (she) give me gasoline" ("Cool Drink of Water Blues" (Victor 21279, 1928)). See the rubbing alcohol (Son House and Dock Boggs), jake and canned heat (Tommy Johnson again) prohibition-time songs for poisonous whisky surrogates. As a market for ethanol, some gasoline-ethanol blends were sold during prohibition, so this may add to the already bitter sarcasm.
On the other hand, if the "gasoline" line started with Tommy Johnson, he claimed "that this song was based on an actual experience. He was walking along a railroad track and met a woman whom he asked for a drink of water. She gave him gasoline instead," and continued telling how the whole recording was based on a set of actual happenings, according to Evans. But, Evans continues, "This makes a nice story but it is almost certainly untrue or highly exaggerated." (David Evans, Big Road Blues (Boston: Da Capo Press, 1987), pp. 134-135). But, "sometimes a cigar...." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcIICYM

If I Can Just Make It In

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "If I can just make it in, If I can just make it in, I won't mind tribulations, If I can just make it in"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1992 (USPrayingBands01)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Benjamin Beckett leading Antioch African Methodist Episcopal Singing and Praying Band, "If I Can Just Make It In" (on USPrayingBands01)
NOTES [102 words]: The description follows the USPrayingBands01 text. One verse illustrates the form: "I feel my weakness every day, I don't mind if I can just make it in, Weakness tells me I must go away, I don't mind If I can just make it in."
The tripling of beats/minute from beginning to end of the USPrayingBands01 track is characteristic of "Sankey to shout" (The hymn is not from the Sankey hymn books).
According to the liner notes the bands march out of the church: "The march begins with a circular, counterclockwise march in the cross aisle of the church ..." so the similarity to a "ring shout" is not just aural. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcIICJMI

If I Can't Have You (I Dont Want Nobody Else)

DESCRIPTION: "If my heart beats better times it's all on account of you." "If I can't have you I don't want nobody else." "When I feel bad I'll tell you what I'll do. I won't stay long. I just want to have a little talk with you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (USChartersHeroes)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Henry Townsend, "If I Can't Have You (I Dont Want Nobody Else)" (on USChartersHeroes)
NOTES [18 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcIICHYI

If I Could Only Hear My Mother Pray Again

DESCRIPTION: "If I could only hear my mother pray again, If I could only hear her tender voice within, 'Twould mean so much to me, How happy I would be, If I could hear...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1)
KEYWORDS: mother religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 89-90, "If I Could Only Hear My Mother Pray Again" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7129
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff, "If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again" (Columbia 20684)
Glenn Bolick, "If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #212, recorded 08/15/2022)
McFarland & George Reneau, "If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again" (Oriole 1000)
Duane Terrell, "If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #126, recorded 04/17/2022)
Frances Turbyfill (Campbell), "If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #154, recorded 04/25/2022; barely audible)
File: BuMa089

If I Die a Railroad Man

DESCRIPTION: "They took John Henry to the steep hillside, He looked to the heaven above, He said, 'Take my hammer and wrap it in gold And give it to the girl I love." "If I die a railroad man, go bury me under the tie So I can hear old Number 4 As she goes rolling by"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: train railroading death nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 362-363, "If I Die a Railroad Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #30223
RECORDINGS:
Green Bailey, "If I Die a Railroad Man" (Gennett 6732/Champion 15652 [as Aaron Boyd]/Supertone 9320 [as Harvey Farr], 1929; rec. 1928; on KMM)
Tenneva Ramblers, "If I Die a Railroad Man" (Victor 21406, 1928)
File: San362

If I Die in Arkansas

DESCRIPTION: "If I die in Arkansas (x2), Ship my body to my mother-in-law." "If my mother refuses me, ship it to my paw." "If my paw refuses me, ship it to my girl." "If my girl refuses me, shove it in the sea, Where the fishes... make a fuss over me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording by Bill Atkins)
KEYWORDS: death corpse burial family rejection humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 351, "If I Die in Arkansas" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 495, "If I Die in Tennessee" (1 text)
Roud #7628
File: R351

If I Die in Tennessee

See If I Die in Arkansas (File: R351)

If I Got My Ticket, Can I Ride?

DESCRIPTION: "Lord, if I got my ticket, can I ride? (x3) Ride away to heaven that morning." The singer says Judgment Day is coming and asks the Lord to tell him if he lacks anything. "Jehovah" will send his angels to clean the world. The gospel train will be on time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from Jim Boyd and Percy Ridge)
KEYWORDS: religious death nonballad train
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 32-34, "If I Got My Ticket, Can I Ride?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15643
File: LoSi032

If I Had a Donkey

DESCRIPTION: "If I had a donkey that wouldn't go, Do you think I'd wallop him? No, no, no.... I'd put him in the barn and give him some corn, The best little donkey that ever was born." Some versions tell of cruelty to animals and Bill Burns getting in trouble for it
AUTHOR: unknown (modified version by Jacob Beuler)
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads); the Pitts broadside presumably was existence in the early nineteenth century (Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes); the Beuler version is from 1822
KEYWORDS: animal food warning trial
FOUND IN: Britain(England) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 141, "If I had a donkey that wouldn't go" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 142, "If I had a donkey that wouldn't go" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #830, p. 309, "(If I had a donkey, and he wouldn't go)"
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, pp. 76-77, "If I had a Donkey Wot Wouldn't Go" (1 text, based on the Beuler version)
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844_, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 121, "If I Had a Donkey WOt Wouldn't Go" (reprint of a Pitts broadside)
Roud #19735
NOTES [62 words]: According to the Opies, this began as a nursery rhyme with only a few lines. Jacob Beuler heard the rhyme, and, acknowledging their use, wrote a song about the effects of the 1822 British "Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act." I have no real evidence that the Beuler text is traditional, but I'm citing it here because everyone seems to cite the two pieces together. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: HenV076

If I Had a Donkey Wot Wouldn't Go

See If I Had a Donkey (File: HenV076)

If I Had a Hammer

DESCRIPTION: "If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning," to bring a warning and to create love between "all of my brothers." Similarly with bell and a song. And the singer has hammer, bell, and song: The hammer of justice, etc.
AUTHOR: Words: Lee Hays / Music: Pete Seeger
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (recording, The Weavers)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 550, "If I Had a Hammer" (notes only)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 1, #1 (1950), cover, "The Hammer Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Pete Seeger, _Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Musical Autobiography_, A SIng Out Publication, 1993, 1997, pp. 38-42, "The Hammer Song"/"If I Had a Hammer" (3 texts, 3 tunes, the original, the Peter, Paul and Mary version, and a version to be lined out, plus a Spanish translation)
NOTES [68 words]: According to Seeger's Where Have All the Flowers Gone, p. 38, The Weavers recorded this, but on a small label before they became popular, so they never really got much use out of it. Libby Glisser insisted on changing the line "(I'd hammer out) love between all of my brothers" to "...love between my brothers and my sisters," which Lee Hays opposed. I suspect it made the song more successful, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF550I

If I Had a Scolding Wife (I)

See Lucy Long (I) (File: R279)

If I Had A'Known

See Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)

If I Had As Many Wives

See Many, Many Stars Are in the Sky (File: Newe066M)

If I Had But a Thousand a Year

DESCRIPTION: Robin Ruff tells Gaffer Green, "If I had but a thousand a year... What a man I would be, And what sights I would see." Green tells him to be calm and determine what he would do. Green reminds him that everyone must die, and he should plan for it
AUTHOR: Henry Russell (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Dime-Song-Book #1)
KEYWORDS: nonballad warning money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
New-Comic-Songster, p. 9, "If I Had But a Thousand a Year" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 334-335, "Robin Ruff" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 8 and #1/64 p. 8, "A Thousand a Year" (1 text, followed on the next page by an "Answer to A Thousand a Year")
Roud #23101
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(355), "If I Had But a Thousand a Year," E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Harding B 11(4075), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Firth b.27(391)=Harding B 20(14), unknown, n. d.; also Firth c.26(18), "If I Had a Thousand a Year." J O. Bebbington/J. Beaumont (Manchester and Leeds), 1855-1858; also Harding B 11(1693), Ryle and Paul (London), 1838-1859; also Harding B 40(20), J. F. Nugent and Co (Dublin?), 1850-1899; 2806 c.14(4), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; 2806 c.16*(144)=Harding B 11(1692), J. Cadman (Manchester), 1850-1855
ALTERNATE TITLES:
If I Had a Thousand a Year
NOTES [11 words]: For background on Henry Russell, see "Cheer, Boys, Cheer (II)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: NCSIIHBT

If I Had It You Could Get It

DESCRIPTION: "I went right down to my old friend Joe," (to ask for money?), but Joe has none to spare. "If I had it, you could get it, But I am very sorry I haven't got it. For I am all in and down and out." The singer says he will hold his money if he ever gets more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: money poverty hardtimes begging
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 494, "If I Had It You Could Get It" (1 short text)
Roud #11761
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (lyrics)
File: Br494

If I Had My Way

See Samson and Delilah (File: LoF251)

If I Had the Gov'ner

DESCRIPTION: "If I had the gov'ner Where the gov'ner has me, Before daylight I'd set the gov'ner free. I begs you' gov'ner, Upon my soul: If you won't gimme a pardon, Won't you gimme a parole?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: prisoner request pardon
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 31, (no title) (1 short text)
NOTES [52 words]: Scarborough reports having gotten this from Texas governor Pat Neff, who heard it as the refrain of a song by a prisoner requesting help. I rather doubt this; it looks like a loose fragment of something else -- perhaps "Take This Hammer." But until something more definite emerges, it has to file separately. - RBW
File: ScaNF031

If I Had the Wings of a Turtledove

DESCRIPTION: "If I had the wings of a turtle dove (turtle dove) Back to (place name) I’d fly (I’d fly). There I would stay with the other girls (...). There I would stay till I die. Oo la la..." "If I had the wings of a caterpillar... I would stay till I drop dead"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: bird derivative campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 423-424, 540, "If I Had the Wings of a Turtledove" (notes only)
NOTES [25 words]: Obviously derived from "Botany Bay" or "The Prisoner's Song" or one of the songs that uses the title line, but it is pretty clearly a reworking. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF423T

If I Had Wings

DESCRIPTION: "If I had wings no one would ask me should I fly, The bird sings, no one asks why." Someday the singer will fly free. Others can't pretend to understand the singer. Don't ask if (s)he's happy
AUTHOR: Peter Yarrow and Sue Yardley
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Peter, Paul and Mary, Album 1700)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 547, "If I Had Wings" (notes only)
File: ACSF547Y

If I Live to Grow Old

DESCRIPTION: "If I lie to grow old... Let this be my fate in a fair country town." "May I govern my passions with absolute sway, And grow wiser and better as my strength wears away." He hopes for a good home, health, a good view, good books, good food, a good death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1685 (Playford, Theatre of Music, according to Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland)
KEYWORDS: death age nonballad virtue
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 300-302, "As I Grow Old" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp.460-461, "The Old Man's Song" (1 text)
ST BeCo460 (Partial)
Roud #2093
File: BeCo460

If I Lose, I Don't Care

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses; singer is clearly a rambler, but the song has no cohesion. "I can't walk/Neither can I talk/Just getting back from the state of old New York/One morning, just before day." Chorus: "If I lose, let me lose/I don't care how much I lose."
AUTHOR: credited to Tom Delaney
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Maggie Jones)
KEYWORDS: rambling gambling nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 187, "If I Lose, I Don't Care" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 75, "If I Lose, I Don't Care" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 284-285, "If I Lose, I Don't Care" (1 text)
DT, IFILOSE*
Roud #12399
RECORDINGS:
Maggie Jones, "If I Lose, Let Me Lose" (Columbia 14059-D, 1925)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "If I Lose, Let Me Lose" (Bluebird B-7471, 1938)
New Lost City Ramblers, "If I Lose, I Don't Care" (on NLCR05)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "If I Lose, I Don't Care" (Columbia 15215-D, 1927; on CPoole02 as "If I Lose, Let Me Lose")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Battleship of Maine" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "Joking Henry" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
If I Lose, Let Me Lose
Let Me Lose
File: CSW187

If I Lose, Let Me Lose

See If I Lose, I Don't Care (File: CSW187)

If I Was a Blackbird

See I Am a Young Maiden (If I Were a Blackbird) (File: FSC38)

If I Was a Fair Maid

DESCRIPTION: "If I was a fair maid... I'd marry a tailor before I'd marry any,... He'd sew, and I'd sew 'n' we'd all sew together." "I'd marry a sailor... we'd all sail...." "I'd marry a shoe-maker... we'd all sew." "I'd marry a carpenter... we'd all chip...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: marriage work nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 72, "If I Was a Fair Maid" (3 texts)
Roud #16247
File: OCC072

If I Was On Some Foggy Mountain Top

See Foggy Mountain Top (File: CSW042)

If I Was the Marrying Kind

See The Rugby Song (File: EM365)

If I Went Up To a Hill-Top

DESCRIPTION: "If I went up to a hill-top I will go down to Barbaree, Den madame, madame, come an' hol' dat dog I am gwine down to Barbaree." "If you fight me a golden sword I will fight you a silver one, Den madame ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Beckwith-Ballad)
KEYWORDS: fight violence travel dog
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Martha W Beckwith, "The English Ballad in Jamaica: a Note Upon the Origin of the Ballad Form" in _Publications of the Modern Language Association_ [PMLA], Vol. XXXIXI, No. 2 (Jun 1924 (available online by JSTOR)), #4, pp. 457, 474-475, "If I Went Up To a Hill-Top" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [96 words]: The tune of the first two lines -- If I went up to a hill top/ I will go down to Barbay -- which are repeated as the third and fourth lines, is close to "High Barbaree." On p. 457 Beckwith has the line as "I will go down to Barbaree." In the second verse, the gold/silver line is repeated swapping silver and gold. Beckwith has this as "a popular song based on ballad fragments, sung ... by Maroons ..."
As for "hol' dat dog," see the Bahamas song indexed as "The Faithless Widow (II)."
Neither Beckwith, nor the collector Helen Roberts, say what ballad they think this is. - BS
Last updated in version 3.8
File: MWBJa474

If I Were a Blackbird

See I Am a Young Maiden (If I Were a Blackbird) (File: FSC38)

If I Were a Cassowary

DESCRIPTION: "If I were a cassowary Living out in Timbuctoo, I would eat a missionary Coat and had and hymnbook too."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: bird home food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 23, "(If I were a Cassowary)" (1 text)
Roud #25350
NOTES [46 words]: Cassowaries are flightless birds that live in New Guinea, northeastern Australia, and nearby islands. They are not found in Timbuctoo. They are large (among the largest living birds), with substantial weaponry, so they occasionally do injure humans, but they do not eat them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC023B

If I Were a Fisher

DESCRIPTION: Composite of floating material: The singer goes to the garden to pick flowers. He wishes he were a fisher, to catch Molly, a salmon; he wishes he were a scholar. He would build Molly a castle. But he lost her by courting too slow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection flowers bird floatingverses
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H709, p. 348, "If I Were a Fisher"; H24a, pp. 248-349, "The Star of Benbradden" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 46, "Pretty Polly" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6873
RECORDINGS:
Betty Garland, "Lovin' Nancy" (on BGarland01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pretty Saro" (floating verses)
cf. "The Cuckoo" (floating verses)
cf. "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (floating verses)
cf. "The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass)" (floating verses)
cf. "On Top of Old Smokey" (floating verses)
cf. "As I Walked Out (I) (A New Broom Sweeps Clean)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I've Travelled This Country (Last Friday Evening)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I Once Had a True Love" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [101 words]: Another composite of floating verses; see the cross-references. Sam Henry's earlier text, "The Star of Benbradden," starts with an original verse, but the rest is the same as "If I Were a Fisher." Since they're both composites, I decided to lump them -- and use the "If I Were a Fisher" name as more memorable.
I tossed Betty Garland's "Lovely Nancy" here on the same principle; it's massively composite, in the "Pretty Saro/If I Were a Fisher" mold.
Creighton's single stanza is really just a floating verse, but it's a floating verse often found with this song; this is as good a home for it as any. - RBW
File: HHH709

If I Were a Merry Maid

DESCRIPTION: "If I were a merry maid, Which thank the Lord I'm not, sir, The kind of man I would wed Would be a Number One, sir." The woman describes what she would do were she married to each individual member of an artillery crew
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: courting sex marriage soldier nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 136-137, "If I Were a Merry Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #29427
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rugby Song" (form, theme)
NOTES [47 words]: "The Rugby Song" ("If I were the marrying kind") and "If I Were a Merry Maid" are clearly versions of the same song, rewritten for particular circumstances; I'd be seriously tempted to lump them. But they have separate Roud numbers, so I'll keep them separate for consistency. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Hopk136B

If I Were a Night Policeman

See On the Benches in the Park (File: KSUC023C)

If I Were a Single Girl Again

See I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again (File: Wa126)

If I Were As Young As I Used to Be (Uncle Joe)

DESCRIPTION: The singer is now (84/92); his black hair has turned gray, and youngsters call him "Uncle Joe." But he still feels young, and promises "If any girl here is in love with me, She'll find me as young as I used to be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1882
KEYWORDS: age humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,So,SW)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Randolph 434, "Uncle Joe" (1 texts, 1 tune, plus two fragments that might or might not belong with this song)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 337-338, "Uncle Joe" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 434A)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 45, "When I Was Young and In My Prime" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 150, "If I Were As Young As I Used to Be" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 215-216, "When I Was Young" (1 short text, 1 tune, probably this)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 179-180, "Uncle Joe" (1 text, 1 tune, missing the initial statement of age but otherwise clearly this)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 7-8, "Not So Young As I Used to Be" (1 text)
DT, UNCLEJOE
Roud #4377
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Seventy-Two Today" (plot)
File: R434

If I were back 'ome in 'Ampshire

See If I Were Back Home in Hampshire (File: CoSB296)

If I Were Back Home in Hampshire

DESCRIPTION: "If I were back 'ome in 'Ampshire, Where they birds do flock round I, I'd clap my 'hands an' laugh like buggery, An' all they birds would fly away." "I wonder where that blackbird be... 'E see I an' I see 'e an' I be after 'e...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: home England bird nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 296-297, "If I were back 'ome in 'Ampshire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16931
File: CoSB296

If I Were the Marrying Kind

See The Rugby Song (File: EM365)

If I'd As Much Money As I Could Spend

DESCRIPTION: "If I'd as much money as I could spend, I never would cry, 'Old chairs to mend.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Gammer Gurton's Garland)
KEYWORDS: commerce derivative
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 88, "If I'd as much money as I could spend" (1 text)
Roud #1335
NOTES [23 words]: Roud lumps this with "Chairs tp Men," which clearly inspired it, but I am not convinced they are of common origin, so I've split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC088B

If It Keep On A-Rainin'

DESCRIPTION: "If it keep on a-rainin' Can't make no time. If it keep on a-rainin' I'm goin' to Birmingham."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: travel work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 232, "If It Keep On A-Rainin'" (1 short text)
Roud #18176
File: KiWa232I

If Jack Were Only Here

See My Mother Was a Lady (File: LPnd217)

If Man Him Beðocte (Memorare Novissima Tua)

DESCRIPTION: "If man him biðocte, Inderlike and ofte, Wu arde is te fore From bedde te flore, Wu reufel is te flitte, from flore te pitte... I þene non sinne, Sulde his herte þinne." If one thought oft of the fall from bed to floor, from floor to pit, he would not sin
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1400 (various MSS.)
KEYWORDS: sin nonballad middleenglish
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1422, #4129
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2377, #6610
ADDITIONAL: Carleton Brown, editor, _English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1932, pp. 29-20, "Memorare Novissima Tua" (1 text) (IMEV #1422); cf. pp. 173-175 for variant stanzas
Siegfried Wenzel, _Preachers, Poets, and the Early English Lyric_, Princeton University Press, 1986, p. 163, "(no title)" (1 text) (IMEV #1422)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library Arundel 292, folio. 3 (IMEV #1422)
NOTES [250 words]: There are two major forms of this, the short and earlier, IMEV #1422 (1 manuscript) and the long and later, IMEV #4129, "Who-so him biþouete, inwardlich and ofte" (perhaps as many as 14 manuscripts). Both Brown and Wenzel are convinced that some of the variation between the versions is oral (Brown, p. 175: "A detailed comparison of all the texts makes it certain that the verses were not transmitted directly from scribe to scribe but must in most cases have been written down from memory. The number of surviving copies shows that the poem circulated widely." Wenzel, p. 163, "their textual variation as well as their structure of 'If... then' or 'Who... he' suggests strongly that they derive from an oral and native tradition."
I am not sure I agree, and I have no evidence that the piece was sung, but I include it on that basis.
Wenzel, p. 162, suggests that this is related to a piece in {MSGrimestone}, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 18.7.21, John de Grimestone's Commonplace Book, "But I me bethouhte" (IMEV #554/DIMEV #904). Possible, but no more. IMEV #3201/DIMEV #5009 and IMEV #3219/DIMEV #5043 also listed as perhaps related.
The Digital Index of Middle English Verse notes that most sources list two manuscript copies of its #2377 (IMEV #1422), but that one of the manuscripts, Erfurt, Stadtbibl., Erfurt Amplon Oct. 58 f. 139, cannot be found.
I am listing only the manuscript of the early, ten-line form; the others can be found in the DIMEV under #6610. RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: MSimhb

If my mother ask you for me, tell her I gone to Gallerleed

See Drinking of the Wine (File: Br3048)

If One Won't Another Will

See The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter [Laws H12] (File: LH12)

If Pretty Maids Could Sing

See Hares on the Mountain (File: ShH63)

If the River Was Whiskey

See Rye Whisky (File: R405)

If the Seaboard Train Wrecks I Got a Mule to Ride

See Alabama Bound (II) (File: PSAFB044)

If the Sergeant Steals Your Rum

DESCRIPTION: "If the sergeant steals your rum, never mind (x2), Though he's just a blood sot, Just let him take the lot, If the sergeant steals your rum...." "If old Jerry shells the trench, never mind.... Though the blessed sandbags fly, You have only once to die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier drink death derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 74-75, "If the Sergeant Steals Your Rum" (1 text, plus an excerpt of the original song "Though Your Heart May Ache a While, Never Mind")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Though Your Heart May Ache a White, Never Mind" (tune)
cf. "Never Mind (If the Antrim Strikes a Mine)" (tune)
NOTES [71 words]: The original song of which this is a parody, "Though Your Heart May Ache a While, Never Mind" (sometimes called "If Your Face Should Lose Its Smile, Never Mind") was written in 1913 by Harry Dent and Tom Goldburn. It is similar to the children's song "If You're Happy And You Know It."
The number of parody verses is quite high; there is a mudcat.org thread that collected quite a few, along with texts of the original song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW074

If This Book Should Chance to Roam

DESCRIPTION: "If this book should chance to roam, Box its ears and send it home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 238, (no title) (1 short text)
NOTES [16 words]: This sounds more like a bookplate than a song, but I index it in the absence of better data. - RBW
File: MHAp238C

If thou serue a lord of prys

See If Thou Serve a Lord of Price (For Service Is None Heritage) (File: MSITSLOP)

If Thou Serve a Lord of Price (For Service Is None Heritage)

DESCRIPTION: "Beware, squire, yeoman, and page, For service is no heritage." "If thou serve a lord of price, Be not too boisterous in thine service, Damn not thy soul in no wise." Weather and women and fortune change, so serve God and take heaven as heritage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1430 (British Library -- Sloane MS. 2593)
KEYWORDS: warning servant MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics CIV, p. 185, "(no title)" (1 text)
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #381, p. 255, "(If thou serue a lord of prys)" (2 texts)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1433
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2407
ADDITIONAL: Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #76, pp. 138-139, "(Bewar, sqwyer, yeman, and page)" (1 text)
R. T. Davies, editor, _Medieval English Lyrics: A Critical Anthology_, 1963, #65, pp. 154-155, "A warning to those who serve lords" (1 text)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #187, pp. 431-432, "Service is no Heritage" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 8
RELATED: The poem "In a chamber as I stood, There lordys were and Barenis bold"/"For Service Is None Heritage"
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1446
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2441
MANUSCRIPT: {MSHeege}, The Heege Manuscript, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 19.3.1, folio 91
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson poet. 36 (Bodleian 14520), folio 2
NOTES [346 words]: The attestation of this song by itself would not justify its inclusion in the Index; it is found in only one manuscript, although that one manuscript, British Library MS. Sloane 2593, is exceptionally important. However, Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics point out that three other poems or songs use the refrain "For servys ys none erytage" ("For service is no heritage"), for which see, e.g., the RELATED references, and it is quoted by Shakespeare as a proverb in "All's Well that Ends Well," I.iii.26. Greene-Selection calls it "one of the commonest and longest-lived of medieval proverbs," known even to Sir Walter Scott. He mentions a use in Hoccleve's The Regiment of Princes, line 841.
Greene also notes that the first lines of the second stanza are similar to a proverb recorded by John Ray in 1678, "Winter-weather and women's thoughts change oft."
Thus there is some sort of tradition about that line, at least. Since Sloane is the folkiest of the sources, I've indexed its text that uses the line.
The Shakespeare passage, as given in the Riverside Shakespeare, is spoken by Lavatch the clown, in conversation with the Countess and Rinaldo the Steward: "In Isbel's case and mine own. Service is no heritage, and I think I shall never have the blessing of God till I have issue a' my body, for they say barnes [bairns, children] are blessings."
The Hoccleve passage, as given on p. 63 of Thomas Hoccleve The Regiment of Princes, edited by Charles R. Blyth, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1999, is
"Service, I woot wel, is noon heritage;
When I am out of court anothir day,
As I moot whan upon me hastith age,
ANd that no lenger I laboure may,
Upon my poore cote [glossed as "cottage," not "coat"], it is no nay [it can't be denied],
I moot me draw [withdraw] and my fortune abyde,
And suffre storm after the mery tyde.... [etc. The passage also warns of the loss of friendship.]
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MSITSLOP

If thou serve a lord of prise

See If Thou Serve a Lord of Price (For Service Is None Heritage) (File: MSITSLOP)

If Uncle Sam's Determined

See Song of Mormon Defiance (File: Hubb235)

If We Have Earned the Right

DESCRIPTION: "If we have earned the right to eat this bread, Happy indeed are we, But if unmerited thou gives to us, May we more thankful be."
AUTHOR: W. H. Neidlinger (1863-1924) (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (ChansonsDeNotreChalet); reportedly from the Kent County Song Book
KEYWORDS: food nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 464, "If We Have Earned the Right" (notes only)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 5, "If We Have Earned the Right" (3 texts, English, French, and German; 1 tune)
NOTES [135 words]: Averill calls this the most popular song by W. H. Neidlinger, and in a way I suppose that is true, because it was the only one of his pieces which I could find in a modern scouting book. But the 61 citations Averill claims strikes me as excessive; I only found one reference that had it, and -- like most Neidlinger compositions -- I'd consider the text to be pretty awful. To give him his due, he set up a school for those with intellectual disabilities (so Averill; other sources say it was for "underachievers," which isn't the same thing), so his heart was in the right place. His brain, I think, was not so well located.
I would assume the German and French versions are by someone else, but no authors are listed in the books I've seen. ChansonsDeNotreChalet doesn't even list Neidlinger as the author. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF464E

If ye want to learn high farmin'

See Mains o' Boyndie (File: GrD3396)

If You Can Love Me

DESCRIPTION: "If you can love me, why not love me, While you have so many in Tennessee! By this you may be led, To think of me when I am dead."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Henry, from Mary King)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 232, (first of several "Fragments from Tennessee") (1 fragment)
NOTES [23 words]: Although the first line of this sounds "Green Grow the Lilacs"-ish, the form implies that it's something different. Don't ask me what. - RBW
File: MHAp232A

If You Chance to Wake at Midnight and Hear a Horse's Feet

See Smuggler's Song (Watch the Wall While the Gentlemen Go By) (File: HHH494n)

If You Don't Believe I'm Sinking

DESCRIPTION: "If you don't believe I'm sinking, just look what a hole I'm in. If you don't believe I love you, just look what a fool I've been. You made me love you and now your man have come, I'll see you later when I've got my gun."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love fight
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 447, "If You Don't Believe I'm Sinking" (2 fragments)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 447, "If You Don't Believe I'm Sinking" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Roud #11783
File: Br3447

If You Don't Give Us a Holiday

See The Twenty-Fourth of May (File: MaWip35)

If You Don't Want Me

DESCRIPTION: "If you don't want me, baby, Got to have me anyhow." The singer asks his woman what she has in mind and tells her "you can't quit me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt04)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad lover
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "If You Don't Want Me" (on MJHurt04; MJHurt05)
File: RcIYDWaM

If You Don't Want to Get in Trouble

See Let That Liar Alone (File: RcLTLA)

If You Gently Touch the Nettle

DESCRIPTION: "If you gently touch the nettle It will sting you for your pains. Grasp it like a man of mettle And it soft as silk remains."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: flowers | nettle
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 147, "If you gently touch the nettle" (1 short text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 66, "(If you gently touch the nettle)" (1 short text)
Roud #25398
File: KSUC147A

If You Get There Before I Do

DESCRIPTION: "If you get there before I do, all right, all right, Jesus will make it all right. Just tell them that I am coming too, all right, all right. If you get there before I do, all right, Just scratch a hole and pull me through, all right, all right."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 531, "If You Get There Before I Do" (1 fragment)
Roud #11821
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wade in the Water" (floating lyrics) and references there
NOTES [24 words]: The title line, of course, is common and floats (see the cross-references). But the chorus and form implies that this is a separate piece. - RBW
File: Br3531

If You Have the Toothache

DESCRIPTION: "If you have the toothache, And greetin' with the pain," the answer is not sweets, which cannot help. Instead, take a mouthful of water and castor oil "And put your arse upon the fire, Till it begins to boil."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2006 (Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather)
KEYWORDS: disease humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, p. 60, "(If You Have the Toothache)" (1 short text)
Roud #1496?
NOTES [44 words]: This is probably a Stewart Family composition, but Helen Creighton collected a song with the same title from Angelo Dornan of New Brunswick. They're probably different songs, but in the absence of more information, I have held off listing an author for this. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: SteQu061

If You Love God, Serve Him

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "If you love God, serve Him, Hallelujah! (Praise ye the Lord/Love and serve the Lord)" (2x). "Come, go to glory with me (Praise .../Love ...)"(2x). Verses: The singer was a sinner "on the road to hell" but the Father and Son redeemed his soul.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 8-9, "If You Love God, Serve Him (Love an' Serve de Lord)" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 178 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #15262
File: Dett008

If You Love Me Like I Love You

DESCRIPTION: "If you love me like I love you, No knife can cut our love in two."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 122, "(If you love me like I love you)" (1 text)
Roud #21828
File: SaKo122A

If You Love Me, Pop and Fly

DESCRIPTION: "If you love me, pop and fly, If you hate me, lie and die." (Or "If he hates me...., etc.) Said to be used as a form of divination when a chestnut is placed in a fire.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: love food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #400, p. 192, "(If you love me, pop and fly)"
ADDITIONAL: Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, p. 133, "(If he loves me, pop and fly)" (1 short text)
Roud #22178
File: Sim133

If You Meet a Woman in the Morning

DESCRIPTION: "If you meet a woman in the morning, Bow yo' head, buddy, bow yo' head." "When you hear that turkle-dove a-hollerin', Sign it's gwi' rain, buddy, sign it's gwi' rain." Other bird calls indicate other times: Whip-poor-will planting, screech owls cold
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: bird
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 446, "If You Meet a Woman in the Morning" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 446, "If You Meet a Woman in the Morning" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11792
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Swannanoa Tunnel" (form, lyrics)
NOTES [25 words]: The notes in Brown suggest a link to "Swannanoa Tunnel." The form is obviously the same. But this, at the very least, is used for other purposes. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3446

If You See My Mother

DESCRIPTION: "If you see my mother, partner, tell her pray for me, I got life on the river...." "They 'cuse me o' murder, Never harmed a man." The singer bemoans the hard work on the prison, and asks a dead man to lighten his burden
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (recorded from Mack Maze by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: homicide accusation lie prison hardtimes mother floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 79-80, "If You See My Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18889
NOTES [31 words]: Almost every word of this has a parallel in other songs (so many and so various that it seems hopeless even to try to cross-reference them all), but the combination seems to be unique. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: JDM079

If You Sneeze on Monday

DESCRIPTION: "(If you) sneeze on Monday, (you) sneeze for danger, Sneeze on Tuesday, kiss a stranger, Sneeze on Wednesday, sneeze for a letter... Sneeze on a Sunday, your safety seek, Or the devil will take you for the rest of the week."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: nonballad Devil warning
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #536, p. 219, "(If you sneeze on Monday, you sneeze for danger)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 47, "Sneeze on Monday" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, p. 269, "(no title)" (1 text, very different ("Sneeze on Monday, sneeze for news, Sneeze on Tuesday, new pair of shoes"), but obviously built about the same notion); p. 276, "(no title)" (1 text, again very different: "Sneeze on Monday for health, Tuesday for wealth....")
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 86-87, "(Sneeze on Monday, sneeze for danger)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Marjorie Rowling, _The Folklore of the Lake District_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 132, "(Sneeze on Monday, sneeze for danger") (1 text)
Roud #16325
File: Dolb047B

If You Stop to Think What Your Wages Will Be

See Mary's Son (File: KSUC171A)

If You Want a Bargain Handy

DESCRIPTION: Honest Sandy is the man to see for a bargain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1649, "If You Want a Bargain Handy" (1 short text)
Roud #13053
NOTES [17 words]: From the sound of this, there were used car salesmen even before there were used cars to sell.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81649

If You Want the Sergeant-Major

See The Old Barbed Wire (I Know Where They Are) (File: San442)

If You Want to Go A-courting

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

If You Want to Go to Heaven

See Talking Blues (File: LoF224)

If You Want to Know Where the Privates Are

See The Old Barbed Wire (I Know Where They Are) (File: San442)

If You Want to See the Captain

See The Old Barbed Wire (I Know Where They Are) (File: San442)

If You Were My True Love and I Were Your Beau

DESCRIPTION: "If you were my true love and I were your beau, I'd go to some big city, tell the whole world so." But she is not his true love. He will go to a waterfall and hear the birds sing. He has cried all his tears. The passing seasons will know he loves her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Roberts/Agey-InThePine)
KEYWORDS: love rejection bird | waterfall seasons
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #100, "If You Were My True Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16790
File: RAInP100

If You Were the Only Boche in the Trench

DESCRIPTION: "If you were the only Boche in the trench, And I had the only bomb, Nothing else would matter in the world today, I would blow you to eternity." The singer considers what a one-to-one combat would be like
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier war derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 73, "If You Were the Only Boche in the Trench" (1 short text plus an excerpt of the source song "If You Were the Only Girl in the World")
Roud #10930
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "If You Were the Only Girl in the World" (tune)
File: AWTBW073

If You Were The Only Girl in the World

DESCRIPTION: "If you were the only girl in the world, And I was the only boy, Nothing else would matter in the world today, We would go on loving the same old way, A Garden of Eden made just for two With nothing to mar our joy... If you were the only...."
AUTHOR: Words: Clifford Grey / Music: Nat D. Ayer
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (musical revue "The Bing Boys Are Here," according to Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, pp. 216-217, "(If You Were the Only Girl in the World)" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 73, "If You Were the Only Boche in the Trench" (1 short text plus an excerpt of the source song "If You Were the Only Girl in the World")
Roud #25963
SAME TUNE:
If You Were the Only Boche in the Trench (File: AWTBW073)
File: BrPa216C

If You Weren't So Ballymena

DESCRIPTION: "If you weren't so Ballymena, And you had some Ballymoney, You could buy a Ballycastle To be your Ballyhome."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: wordplay money home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 18-19, "(If You Weren't So Ballymena)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 41, "(If you weren't so Ballymena)" (1 text)
Roud #22981
File: KSUC018B

If You Will Walk With Me

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

If You'll Be M-I-N-E

See The Cannibal King Medley (File: OpGap453)

If You'll Only Let Liquor Alone

DESCRIPTION: The singer reminds her husband that he promised when they married "that you would leave liquor alone." Nevertheless, he breaks his vows "to your kind wife and baby at home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: promise drink baby husband wife betrayal lie marriage
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 90-92, "If You'll Only Let Liquor Alone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1951
File: IvNB90

If You're Able, Set the Table

See Mabel, Mabel (File: SuSm104A)

If You're Going Back to Blighty

DESCRIPTION: "If you're going back to Blighty, If you're going back to Town, If Traflgar Square, green the lions there, Shout, 'Hallo, hallo, London.' Give the man in blue a fiver, Kiss the girls, don't be afraid. Tell every Western Pet That she's not forgotten yet."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier return home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 39, "If You're Going Back to Blighty" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: John F. Tucker, _Johnny Get Your Gun: A Personal Narrative of the Somme, Ypres and Arras_, W. Kimber, 1978/Pen & Sword, 2015, p. 79, "(no title)" (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "If You're Going Back to Dixie" (tune, according to Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
File: AWTBW039

If You're Happy and You Know It

DESCRIPTION: "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands (x2), If you're happy and you know it, Then your face will really show it, If you're happy and you know it, clap your hand975" Similarly, "If you're happy and you know it, stamp your feet," etc.
AUTHOR: words: attributed to Alfred B. Smith (source: various internet sites)
EARLIEST DATE: allegedly written c. 1916; I heard it by 1974
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 301, 383, 422, 516, "If You're Happy and You Know It" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 16-17, "If You're Happy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #26585
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song)" (tune, according to Averill)
File: ACSF301I

If Your Gal Gets Mad

DESCRIPTION: "Ef yore gal gits mad an' tries to bully you (x2), Jes' take your automatic an' shoot her through an' through! (x2)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection homicide
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 275, (no title) (1 short text)
NOTES [43 words]: Needless to say, this method has not been shown to cause women to be come more amenable to men's wishes.
I suspect this may be the ending of a longer ballad in which the woman provokes the man until he shoots her, but I cannot recall seeing such a song. - RBW
File: ScNF275A

If Your Saddle Is Good and Tight

DESCRIPTION: "When a bunch of foaming mustangs Are a-chargin' 'round the corral... Don't you step into the saddle, Till you know she's good and tight." If you must face various dangers, the results are likely to be bad unless the saddle is tight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sires, Songs of the Open Range, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: cowboy warning | saddle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 388-389, "If Your Saddle Is Good and Tight" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LDC388

If Your Wife Is Run Down, Give Her Cod Liver Oil

See Cod Liver Oil (File: FSWB169A)

If-ika You-ika

DESCRIPTION: "If-ika you-ika can-ika swim-ika Li-ika my-ika son-ika John-ika, I-ika will-ika give-ika you-ika Bob-ika" (or, perhaps, "give-ika you-ika a shilling")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: wordplay money | swimming
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 172-173, "If-ika" (1 short text)
Roud #38131
NOTES [73 words]: A sort of a primitive code talk, obviously less effective than Pig Latin, but also easier. Of course, it's also more easily penetrated. A better trick would be to have more nonsense syllables -- e.g., in addition to "-ika," one might have "-awee," "-epa," "omeh," and "uda" (choose your consonants here), so that the song might begin "If-ika you-awee can-epa swim-omeh." That ought to give foreign spies something to think about.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI172D

II Wish I Were a Hineaserarious

See I Wish I Was a Hynocereous (File: ACSF422)

Ijzere Man, The (The Iron Man)

DESCRIPTION: Dutch. Capstan shanty. "In Hellevoetsluis daar staat een huis." There is a house in Hellevoetsluis where one can find Mr. Baggerman's daughters, whom he abuses. One escapes to church; the singer tells of the responses. The ship sails for America
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: shanty foreignlanguage abuse children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 96-97, "De Ijzere Man" (2 texts, Dutch & English, 1 tune)
File: HSoSe096

Ik Kwam Last Over Een Berg

DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. Dutch. "Ik kwam lest over een berg gegangen." The singer would like to... would like to... would like to drink" (the key word is given only in the final repetition). He drinks, is stripped, beds the landlord's daughter, gets paid off
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: shanty foreignlanguage drink money sex
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 172-173, "Ik Kwam Last Over Een Berg" (2 texts, Dutch & English, 1 tune)
NOTES [4 words]: In your dreams, sailor. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: HSoSe172

Ike Brown's Song

DESCRIPTION: "There is a few songsters, Their like could not be found, Who have been making a song Upon old Isaac C. Brown." The singer tells "how I tended my crops." He leaves home to "dredge the big canal." He describes other canal workers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes farming canal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 118, "Ike Brown's Song" (1 text)
ST ChFRA118 (Partial)
Roud #16942
NOTES [35 words]: As it stands, the song in Chappell is singularly incoherent; at first glance, it appears to borrow parts of at least three songs. But until we can find another Ike Brown song, we can't say much with certainty. - RBW
File: ChFRA118

Ikkamy, Dukkamy, Alligar Mole

DESCRIPTION: Nonsense counting-out rhyme. "Ikkamy, dukkamy, alligar mole, Dick slew alligar slum, Hukka pukka, Peter's gum -- Francis!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: nonsense | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 17, "(Ikknamy, dukkamy, alligar mole)" (1 text)
NOTES [21 words]: Something makes me think that this is in a code talk -- something like Pig Latin or Op Talk. But I don't know the system. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: WEMM017B

Iky Moses, King of the Jews

See Nebuchadnezzar's Wife (File: PalWa097)

Il Faut Aller en Guerre (To War We Must Go)

DESCRIPTION: French. "We must go to war / Drink, then we'll go.". Soldier, leaving for war, visits his sweetheart. He finds her weeping; he asks why she is weeping, and she tells him it's because he's leaving. He tells her it's true. "We must drink, and then go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage grief love war parting drink lover soldier
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 70, "Il faut aller en guerre (To War We Must Go)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
SAME TUNE:
For all its potential tragedy, this sounds more like a drinking song. - PJS
File: BerV070

Il Faut Voir Que Je Me Sauvais (So I Ran Away)

DESCRIPTION: French. A reaper says "Quelle chaleur!" The singer thinks it said "Here is the robber." He runs. A mill says "Tri que traque." He thinks it said "Catch him." He runs. A priest says "Dominus vobiscum." The singer thinks he said "Here he is." He runs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage humorous wordplay
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 62-63, "Il Faut Voir Que Je Me Sauvais" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Pea062

Ile B A Good Boy & Do So Nomore

See Wild Rover No More (File: MA069)

Ilka Blade o' Grass Keps Its Ain Drap o' Dew

DESCRIPTION: "What is't that gars ye hang your heid and quit the cheery sun?" The depressed listener is urged to cheer up; troubles are certain but can be overcome, and there is a place for everything: "Ilka blade o' grass keps its ain drap o' dew."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 385, "Ilka Blade o' Grass Keps Its Ain Drap o' Dew" (1 text)
Roud #5612
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, R.B.m.143(128), "Ilka Blade o' Grass Keps Its Ain Drap o' Dew," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
File: Ord385

Ilkley Moor Baht 'At

See On Ilkla Moor Bah T'at (File: K303)

Ill Fares the Family

DESCRIPTION: "A Woman's Rule should ... Only ... guide her household ... So long as ... Husband lasts or Reason. Ill fares the hapless family that shows A Cock that's silent, and a Hen that crows." What's worse: "Obedient Husbands, or commanding Wives"?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1671 (Ebsworth)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 305, "Ill Fares the Family" (1 text fragment) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 600)
ADDITIONAL: J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1891 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. VII Part 2 [Part 21], p. 294, ("A Woman's Rule shou'd be in such fashion") (1 text)
Roud #1343
NOTES [111 words]: Ebsworth dates the catch to 1671 ("set by John Hilton").
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames has lost the first four lines of the catch though, possibly, the catch was popularly shortened long before Williams heard it.
The Regent's Park & Primrose Hill in Literature and Music site quotes The Diary of Sylas Neville, 1767-1788 for June 23, 1767: "got to Marybourne Gardens to hear ... [glee] of 'The Silent Cock and hen that crows' and others performed with a few fireworks by Blanfield." While it would be more conclusive if the reference had been to "Ill fares the hapless family," it is interesting that the diarist did not refer to the catch as "A Woman's Rule."- BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT305D

Ill-Fated Persian, The

See The Persian's Crew [Laws D4] (File: LD04)

Ill-Fated Vernon, The

DESCRIPTION: "All you true-feeling Christians, I hope you will draw near, And hear my doleful story...." The Vernon, with six men aboard, sailed on October 25. A storm blew up (on Lake Michigan). The Vernon sank with 25 passengers. Other ships refused to help out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (collected from John W. Green by Walton; supposedly composed 1887/1888)
KEYWORDS: ship disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
October 1867 - the Vernon Wreck
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 176-177, "The Ill-Fated Vernon" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Roud #19833
NOTES [283 words]: Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors give only a brief account of this disaster, though they mention that it cost the lives of six men from Beaver Island. Benjamin J. Shelak, Shipwrecks of Lake Michigan, Trails Books, 2003, pp. 61-62, adds a number of details. The ship was new (about a year old), but though Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors say she was considered entirely seaworthy, she was said to have had high upperworks which, combined with her narrow beam, made her hard to handle in rough weather (she was 177 feet long, had a 26 foot beam, and was 18 feet deep).
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors and Shelak disagree about the date of the wreck; the former says October 25, 1887; the latter, October 28. Vernon says it had made a trip from Chicago to Cheboygan, Michigan, and was on its way back. The ship was in trouble by the time it passed Two Rivers, Wisconsin.
Reportedly the boat was overloaded. The number of people on board is unknown, but Shelak says it was between 36 and 41. At least some of the passengers and crew went into the water, but though other ships passed through the area and saw wreckage, none attempted to help. As a result, only one man -- a crewmember named Axel Stone -- survived; he was picked up two days after the sinking. Stone claimed to have told the captain that the ship was taking on water and suggested dropping cargo -- and was told off for it. The ship survived for some time after that, but went down around 3:00 a.m.
Stone reported that several ships came so close that he could make out the faces of those aboard, but they did nothing. Hence, presumably, the bitterness of this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM176

Illinois Gals

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Illsdown Fair

See Tom Pearce (Widdicombe Fair I) (File: K308)

Im-Hm

See Imph-m (File: Grg170c)

Imaginary Trouble

See The Crying Family (Imaginary Trouble) (File: Wa062)

Immigration

DESCRIPTION: "Now Jordan's land of promise is the burden of my song, Perhaps you've heard him lecture and blow about it strong." But the singer warns that it is a land of bad food, hard work, vermin, and thirst. He warns people not to come
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: Australia emigration warning food animal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 109-110, "Immigration" (1 text)
NOTES [39 words]: According to Patterson/Fahey/Seal, Mr. Jordan lectured in England in the 1860s about the benefits of Australian living. This song is the answer of someone who has been there. There is little evidence that it has gone into tradition. - RBW
File: PFS109

Immigration Song

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye sons of labor who wish to change your lot, Who've spunk enough to travel beyond your native cot." Listeners are urged to leave the cities and head for Kansas, where soil is good: "Come with us and settle in peerless Lane County."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Lane County Farmer (DIghton, Kansas), Feb, 20, 1891, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: home travel emigration
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 504, "Immigration Song" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 448, "Immigration Song" (1 text)
File: CAFS504A

Immortal Washington

DESCRIPTION: "Columbia's greatest glory Was her loved chief, fair Freedom's friend." Listeners are urged to respect and praise the (recently deceased?) Washington, and God is asked to "Receive into thy bosom Our virtuous hero -- Washington"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1836 (The American Songster)
KEYWORDS: patriotic death nonballad recitation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1732-1799 - Life of George Washington
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 59, "Immortal Washington" (2 texts, though only the first is from tradition)
Roud #5465
NOTES [86 words]: Almost makes you forget, in your nausea at such saccharine stuff, that Washington was a slaveowner who lost more battles than he won in his career.
I've tagged this with the "recitation" keyword because the only traditional text seems to be the badly garbled version in Cox. Even this is from manuscript, but certainly from memory (it contains too many senseless errors to be taken from print). There is no indication that it ever possessed a tune (it is hard to imagine a tune to this metrical pattern anyway). - RBW
File: JHCox059

Imperial Throne When Theodosius Held, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Imperial throne when Theodosius held In Palestine a holy hermit dwelled, Whose shining virtues and extensive fame The world astonished -- Zozimus was his name." (Possibly goes on to tell the tale of Mary of Egypt being found by Zozimus)
AUTHOR: "Dr. Coyle"? Michael J. Moran (Zozimus) ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (Memoir of the Great Original Zozimus)
KEYWORDS: royalty | hermit
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
379-395 - Reign of the Roman Emperor Theodosius I "the Great"
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 8, "The Imperial throne when Theodosius held" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Gulielmus Dubliniensis Humoriensis [Joseph Tully?], Memoir of the Great Original Zozimus (Michael Moran) (Dublin,1976 (reprint of the 1871 edition, which is available on Google Books)), pp. 11-16, "Zozimus's Great Recitation (The Life of Saint Mary of Egypt)" (1 text)
ST BAAI008B (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Finding of Moses" (another piece by Zozimus, with background on Zozimus)
NOTES [632 words]: There are several odd facts about this piece. Someone, somewhere (I've lost the reference), claimed that it was an Irish nursery rhyme. Brady, the only folk source I've seen that seems to quote the piece, seems to agree, and suggests that the performer Michael Moran took his name from the "Zozimus" of the rhyme. (For Moran/Zosimus/Zozimus, see the notes to "The Finding of Moses"). Supposedly it was one of Moran's most popular pieces, so people called him "Zosimus" after the poem. Boylan, p. 255, while he agrees that Michael Moran took his name from the poem, thinks Moran got it from "Dr. Coyle, Bishop of Raphoe." This is also the opinion of Humoriensis, p. 8. But then how did it become a folk rhyme? (If it did.)
Also, if the rhyme isn't from Coyle, how would an Irish folk rhyme know the names of Theodosius and (even more so) Zosimus? Might not Moran have originated the piece and caused it to gain whatever faint hint of traditionality it had?
When the Roman Emperor Diocletian abdicated in 305, the Roman Empire (which he had largely reassembled) started to fall apart again. Half a dozen claimants rose and ruled parts of the Empire before Constantine the Great reunited it in 324 and made Christianity the legal religion (Chadwick, pp. 121-132; Qualben, pp. 100-103). Diocletian's mistake had arguably been to appoint multiple successors, but Constantine did the same, and between his death in 337 and the end of the Constantide dynasty in 363, there was a lot of fighting (some dynastic, some theological, over the Arian heresy and others; Chadwick, pp. 136-145). But when Julian the Apostate died in 363, things really got bad. Again the Empire started to divide, between east and west. One of Julian's more successful successors, Valentinian I, had a daughter Galla. Theodosius married her, and became Emperor (Theodosius I) in 379, and for the last time reunited the Roman Empire. He reigned until 395, and was known as "Theodosius the Great." He earned that title in part because he managed to reunite the Roman Empire for the last time, and also because he finally determined that Catholic/Orthodox Christianity would be the religion of the Empire (which made the Church writers, who were writing the histories, favor him); the Arian heresy went into permanent decline and the Monophysite sects were weakened and mostly became local and isolated. But he also raised taxes to an almost intolerable level, and on other issues he was indecisive (Grant, pp 270-274).
He certainly did not save the Roman Empire. When he died, he split the Empire between Arcadius and Honorius, his sons by his first wife Aelia Flacilla, Arcadius ruling the east and Honorius the west. The east became what we now know as the Byzantine Empire, and survived for another thousand years and more; the western empire was gone within eighty years. There were two other Emperors Theodosius (one in the east from 408 to 450, who was the grandson of Theodosius I by Arcadius; Grant, p. 258), and another, much later, very briefly, also in the Byzantine Empire), but in the Latin West "Theodosius" would surely always mean Theodosius the Great. (Most of the above is summarized from Sinnigen/Boak, pp. 425-430, 513-514, 519.)
None of the various ancient people named Zosimus/Zozimus (for whom again see "The Finding of Moses") were really contemporary with Theodosius I, but the pope Zozimus would have lived his early years in the reign of Theodosius I, and was active during the reign of Theodosius II (although Theodosius II was an eastern emperor, and the Papacy was in the west). So although the Zozimus of the song is probably Zozimus the priest who received the confession of Mary of Egypt, it's easy to see how he was dated to the reign of Theodosius (Kelly, pp. 38-39; OxfordSaints, p. 558). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: BAAI008B

Imph-m

DESCRIPTION: In his youth the singer would defiantly say "Imph-m,": "ower dour to say Aye!" Later, he stole a kiss from Jean when she shook her head "no" but said "imph-m." Now his children taunt him the same way "sae I've gi'en ower the 'Imph-m', it's no a nice word"
AUTHOR: James Nicholson (1822-1897) (source: Ford)
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Nicholson)
KEYWORDS: courting children humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #170, pp. 1-2, "Im-Hm" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland [second series] (Paisley, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 218-219, "Imph-m" (1 text)
James Nicholson, Kilwuddie and Other Poems (Glasgow, 1863 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 146-148, "Imph-m" (1 text)
Roud #2858
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie Wee Window" (tune, per Ford); "Gee-wo-Neddy" (tune, per Nicholson)
File: Grg170c

Impossible Dream, The

DESCRIPTION: "To dream the impossible dream, To fight the unbeatable foe." The singer strives always to do what is best, "no matter how hopeless." Even if he fails, "The world will be better for this": that he strove "to reach the unreachable stars"
AUTHOR: Words: Joe Darion / Music: Mitch Leigh (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Musical, "Man of La Mancha")
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 556, "The Impossible Dream" (notes only)
DT, IMPOSDRM
NOTES [80 words]: There is a curious lack of agreement about the melody of this song. I was surprised to find this song in the camp repertoire, because I recalled the range making it very difficult to sing. Wanting to check this, I started searching around for sheet music. There seems to be agreement that it was written in the key of B♭. But some list the range as an octave and a third, some as an octave and a fourth (and my remembered version is more than that). Make of that what you may. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF556I

Improbability

See Things Impossible (File: GC158)

Impudent Barney O'Hea

See Barney O'Hea (File: OCon065)

Impudent Barney, None of Your Blarney

See Barney O'Hea (File: OCon065)

In 1795

See In Seventeen Ninety-Five (File: RcIn1795)

In 1845

See The Backwoodsman (The Green Mountain Boys) [Laws C19] (File: LC19)

In 1864

DESCRIPTION: "In eighteen-hundred-sixty-four, We started out to meet the poor; We left our families and our friends To help gather Israel in." 53 teams head for Mormon Country. They have trouble crossing the Platte; the locals oppose them. But they finally arrive
AUTHOR: Words: Barnard White (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Carter, Heart Throbs of the West, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: travel home | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 204, "In 1864" (1 text)
File: LDC204

In a Boxcar Around the World

DESCRIPTION: "I'm the man that rode the boxcar around the world, boys, it's a pleasure to me." The singer tells of travelling around the world a dozen times by train. He asks, when he dies, to be left aboard the train and allowed to "ride forevermore."
AUTHOR: Cliff Carlisle
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (recording and copyright by Cliff Carlisle)
KEYWORDS: train rambling death nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 397-399, "In a Boxcar Around the World" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Cliff Carlisle, "In a Box Car around the World" (Bluebird B-6438, 1936)
File: LSRai397

In a Cabin in the Woods

See Little Cabin in the Woods (File: ACSF112L)

In a Cottage by the Sea

See The Widow in the Cottage by the Sea (File: R702)

In a Fine Castle

DESCRIPTION: "In a fine castle Have you seen x?" "We are the prettiest." "We want one of you." "Which one do you want?" "We want y." "[Now] we want one of you." "We'll give you z." "He's too ugly." "We'll give you so-and-so" "That will do." "Bye bye"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: dialog playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 100, "In a Fine Castle" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OpGa100

In a Handy Four-Master

DESCRIPTION: "In a handy four-master I once took a trip, Hooray boys, heave 'er down, An' I though that I was aboard a good ship, Way down, laddies down." The sailor finds she is a "workhouse." Sailors are worked hard and the food is bad. He will not sail her again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (collected by Walton from Henry Ericksen)
KEYWORDS: ship hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 71-72, "In a Handy Four-Master" (1 text)
Roud #19891
File: WGM071

In a Little Village Churchyard

DESCRIPTION: "In the dear old village churchyard, I can see a mossy mound, Where my mother she is sleeping, In the cold and silent ground." He recalls the sad night his mother died, and her last words. He has no one to love him now that mother lies beneath the willow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills)
KEYWORDS: love mother death burial
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 130, "The Village Churchyard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 166, "The Village Churchyard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp.239-240, "Feathered Warblers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5423
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "In a Little Village Churchyard" (Decca 5386)
File: Gain130

In Amsterdam There Lived a Maid

See A-Rovin' (File: EM064)

In an' Out the Windah

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

In and Around Nashville

See In Kansas (File: EM049)

In and Out the Dusty Bluebells

See I am the Master (Dusty Bluebells) (File: HHH048a)

In and Out the Window

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

In and Out the Windows

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

In Arkansas

See In Kansas (File: EM049)

In Arthur's Court Tom Thumb Did Live

DESCRIPTION: "In Arthur's court Tom Thumb did live, a man of mickle might"; born when his father asked help of Merlin. His small size causes him many adventures. He sickens, and is too small for the doctor to treat. Arthur and his knights mourn him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1630 (edition printed by John Wright, according to Ritson)
KEYWORDS: childbirth magic disease death doctor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Joseph Ritson, _Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry_, second edition, William Pickering, 1833, pp. 109-131, "The Life and Death of Tom Thumbe" (1 text)
Roud #21162
NOTES [43 words]: Although Ritson thinks this older than the 1630 text (probably rewritten by an Elizabethan), I see little evidence of older wording, and I know of no evidence that it's genuinely traditional. I'm putting it in the Index mostly because Steve Roud indexed it. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: JRIACTT

In Bed with the Major

See The Major and the Weaver [Laws Q10] (File: LQ10)

In Bethlehem City

See A Virgin Most Pure (File: PBOC003)

In Bethlehem, that Fair City

DESCRIPTION: "In Bethlehem, in that fair city, A child was born of our Lady, Lord and prince that he should be." Many children were slain by Herod. Jesus shone even in Mary's body. "To bli God bring us all and some, Christe redemptor omnium."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Richard Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354, folio 165b)
KEYWORDS: religious childbirth death MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 120, "In Bethehem, That Fair City (1 text, 1 tune, very much modified)
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #21, pp. 14-16, "(no title)" (4 texts)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 50, 183-184,"To bliss God bring us all and some" (2 texts)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics LXXIV, p. 138, "(no title)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1471
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #2481
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #22, p. 12 "To Blys God Bryng us all & sum" (1 text)
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Mdieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #8, p. 61, "(To blis God bryng us all and su)" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 222
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 35
MANUSCRIPT: {MSCamTrinityO.3.58}, Cambridge, Trinity College MS. O.3.58, folio 1
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, University Library MS. Ee.1.12 [The James Ryman manuscript, 1492], folio 35
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Additional 31042 [the London Thornton Manuscript], folio 94 (a 1-verse fragment, probably this)
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Lincoln College MS. Lat 141, folio 3
ST MSIBitFC (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Coventry Carol" (subject of the Massacre of the Innocents) and references there
NOTES [446 words]: The Massacre of the Innocents, briefly alluded to here, is the subject of Matthew 2:1-18; for more background, see the notes to "The Innocents."
According to the notes in Greene, p. 357, "Of all the figures of speech which the Middle Ages applied to the Virgin Mary none is more prominent in the carols than the simile which likens the action of the Holy Spirit in causing her to conceive to the sun's shining on a glass, which penetrates it without injuring" -- a comparison going back to Augustine of Hippo
There is no proof that this piece is traditional, but there is good evidence that it was at least somewhat popular. The first is its inclusion in the Hill manuscript, which includes some folk pieces., and in Bodleian MS. Eng. poet e.1, which is thought to date from the fifteenth century and includes many popular pieces. And there are two other manuscript copies, Cambridge University MS. Ee.1.12 and Cambridge, Trinity College MS.O.3.58 (1230) -- the latter two having music, though apparently not the tune used by the Oxford Book of Carols. So this is definitely a song, not a poem, and there is fair reason to think it went into oral tradition.
Chambers, p. 96, has this to say of Cambridge MS. Ee.1.12: it is associated with "James Ryman, a Franciscan, whose house is unknown. Most of the manuscript is written by a scribe, and apparently corrected bythe author. Then comes a colophon, dated in 1492, 'Explicit liber ympnorum et canticorum, quem composuit frater Iacobus Ryman ordinis minorum'. The rest may be in Ryman's own hand.... In all, the collection contains 166 English and Latin items, of which 119 are English carols. As Dr. Greene points out, these amount to a quarter of the total number of carols surviving from dates up to 1550."
Chambers adds on p. 97 that Ryman's work is pedestrian and littered with favorite phrases: "he repeats himself indefinitely."
But very little of James (or Jacob) Ryman's work gives any hint of being traditional, or indeed of having circulated outside his one manuscript.
Which raises the question of whether this is by Ryman. Greene doubted it; so do I, given that Bodleian MS. Eng. poet e.1 very possibly precedes his earliest activity; even the Hill manuscript is only slightly later. Note that this is on folio 1 of the Ryman manuscript; it looks like an older outside carol slipped into his volume. Chambers, p. 97, admits the possibility, while pointing out that "it contains one of Ryman's favourite phrases." But this might be why it was slipped into the Ryman corpus!
For more about the famous anthology Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSIBitFC

In Bibberley Town

See The Beverly Maid and the Tinker (The Tinker Behind the Door) (File: Pea318)

In Blythe and Bonnie Fair Scotland

See The Paisley Officer (India's Burning Sands) [Laws N2] (File: LN02)

In Bohemia Hall

DESCRIPTION: "In Bohemia Hall, in Bohemia Hall, Where ev'ry man is king, In Bohemia Hall, in Bohemia Hall, We'll laugh, we'll drink, we'll sing, WIth a big stein on the table, we'll drink while we are able, And we don't give a damn for any old man In Bohemia Hall"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 220-221, "In Bohemia Hall" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #9550
File: SBar220

In Bohunkus, Tennessee

DESCRIPTION: The singer's father was responsible for cleaning up horse refuse in the streets of (Bohunkus). In the process, he once found "diamond(s) in the dung," which allowed the singer to pledge to the Beta (Theta Pi) fraternity
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Cray-EroticMuse)
KEYWORDS: scatological
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 354-356, "In Bohunkus, Tennessee" (4 texts, 1 tune; the "D" text is not obviously related to the other three)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" (tune) and references there
File: EM354

In Bonny Scotland

See The Paisley Officer (India's Burning Sands) [Laws N2] (File: LN02)

In Bright and Bonny Scotland

See The Paisley Officer (India's Burning Sands) [Laws N2] (File: LN02)

In Bright Mansions Above

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "In bright mansions above (x2), Lord I want to live up yonder, In bright mansions above." Verse: "My mother's (father's, sister's, Saviour's) gone to glory, I want to go there too, Lord, I want to live up yonder, In bright mansions above."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 42-43, "In Bright Mansions Above" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 124 in the 1901 edition)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 62, "In Bright Mansions Above" (1 text)
Roud #12074
NOTES [26 words]: Probably an allusion to John 14:2, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Dett042

In Bristol There Lived a Fair Maiden

See The Lover's Curse (Kellswater) (File: HHH442)

In Burnham Town

See The Man of Burningham Town (File: VWL068)

In Camden Town

DESCRIPTION: William seduces Polly. She becomes pregnant and asks that he marry her. He sends her home to her parents. "I'll not go home to my parents For to bring them to disgrace But I will go and drown myself Down in some secret place." He says he'll die with her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: seduction rejection pregnancy suicide drowning
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1155, "The Collier Lad" (4 texts)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 53, "In Camden Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 4, "False Hearted William" (1 text)
Roud #1414
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Collier's Sweetheart
File: CrSNB053

In Came That Rooster

DESCRIPTION: "We had some chickens, no eggs would they lay (x2), My wife said, 'honey, we're losin' money..." One day a rooster flew into the yard... They're laying eggs now, just like they used to,." The rooster catches other things off guard and makes them grow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (recording, Roxanne and Dan Keding)
KEYWORDS: chickens humorous campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 239, 416, "Rooster"/"Rooster Song" (notes only)
DT, ROOOSTER*
Roud #27633
ALTERNATE TITLES:
We Had Some Chickens
NOTES [48 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs doesn't identify this song beyond the name "Rooster," but it isn't the same as "I Had a Little Rooster," and p. 416 indicates that the rooster came into the yard, so I think it's this. Certainly it's a great song for camps; it's a fine song for improvisation. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF239I

In Cameltoon Once More

See Swansea Town (The Holy Ground) (File: Doe152)

In Camp with the Henrys

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you young fellows, and hear what I say... Eight years in the camps of the Henrys I've been, But the likes of this winter I've never yet seen." He goes from camp to camp. The life is hard. The cook, Old Martin, makes bad food and has a poor wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: logger food cook hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 113-114, "In Camp with the Henrys" (1 text)
File: EcSm113

In Canso Strait

See Canso Strait (File: Doe183)

In Carrickmacross and Crossmaglen

DESCRIPTION: "In Carrickmacross and Crossmaglen There are more rogues than honest men."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: thief
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 171, "In Carrickmacross and Crossmaglen" (1 short text)
Roud #25411
File: KSUC171C

In Castyle there Lived a Lady

See The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)

In Chicago

See I Used to Work in Chicago (File: EM245)

In Collon I Was Taken

See Michael Boylan (File: Zimm015)

In Come I, old Father Christmas

See Old Father Christmas (File: Simp157)

In Contempt

DESCRIPTION: "Build high, build wide your prison wall, That there may be room enough for all Who hold you in contempt." The song asks how the wardens can imprison people for their consciences, and says they can never lock up all who dissent
AUTHOR: Words: Aaron Kramer / Music: Betty Sanders
EARLIEST DATE: 1950
KEYWORDS: political nonballad prison
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 370-371, "In Contempt" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "In Contempt" (on PeteSeeger05)
File: SBoA370

In Cortachy Cottage

DESCRIPTION: "In Cortachy cottage there lives a young lassie, A lassie that I like wondrous fine"; she is beautiful and the singer wishes she were his. The singer first saw her by the Esk as the birds sang.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Harris manuscript)
KEYWORDS: love courting river
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 159, "In Cortachy Cottage" (1 short text)
Roud #18047
NOTES [25 words]: The current description is based on the Harris fragment. The piece is short enough that it could be a modified version of any number of other songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HLMM159

In Courtship There Lies Pleasure

See Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)

In Cupid's Court

DESCRIPTION: Fishing, the singer meets a maid. She asks if he is a stranger "brought up in Cupid's court ... an angler ... Or was it Cupid sent you here Young virgins to ensnare?" He asks her to marry, she agrees. "Instead of catching salmon He caught a prudent wife"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage fishing love beauty wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 52, "In Cupid's Court" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2731
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Bulger, "Trout and Salmon" (on MUNFLA-Leach)(note: continued over two cuts)
Grace Clergy, "In Cupid's Court" (on MRHCreighton)
NOTES [11 words]: Not to be confused with "Cupid's Garden" or variants thereon. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: CrMa052

In dat Great Gittin-Up Mornin'

See In that Great Gettin' Up Morning (File: LxU106)

In Dat Great Gittin' Up Mornin'

See In that Great Gettin' Up Morning (File: LxU106)

In Dat Great Gittin'-Up Mornin'

See In that Great Gettin' Up Morning (File: LxU106)

In Days When We Went Gipsying

See In Days When We Went Gypsying (File: SWMS220)

In Days When We Went Gypsying

DESCRIPTION: "In days when we went gypsing A long time ago, The lads and lasses in their best Were dressed from head to toe." The singer looks back on the gay times of his early life. (He wishes he were back under the old oak tree.)
AUTHOR: Edwin Ransford (1805-1876) (source: Bodleian note to broadside Harding B 11(808))
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: home travel nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 69, "In the Days We Went a-Gipsying" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 402)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 220-221, "In Days When We Went Gipsying" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1036, p. 71, "In the Days When We Went Gipsying" (1 reference)
Roud #1245
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(189), "The Days We Went a Gipsying" ("In the days we went a gipsying"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 11(808), " Days We Went a Gipsying "
LOCSinging, as201150, "In the Days When We Went Gipsying", J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as106190, sb20206a, sb20215a, as201160, "In the Days When We Went Gipsying"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
cf. "The Mormon Creed" (tune)
NOTES [33 words]: Broadside LOCSinging as201150: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SWMS220

In De Mornin'

See Ain't No Use Workin' So Hard (File: DarNS329)

In de Vinter Time

DESCRIPTION: "In de vinter, in de vinter-time, Ven de vin' blows on de vindow-pane, An' de vimmen, in de vaud'vil, Ride de veloc'pede in de vestibule,Ah, vimmins! Ah, mens!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Camp Clavell and Girl Reserve Club Songs)
KEYWORDS: nonsense campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 334, "In de Vinter Time" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p.132, 163, "In the Vintertime" (notes only)
Harbin-Parodology, #9, p. 10, "In the Vintertime" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT, VINTIME
NOTES [40 words]: The version of this in Harbin-Parodology is listed as being sung to "Ach du Lieber Augustin," and it fits it. Sandburg's version, the basis for the description, is only slightly different, but it requires some reciting to make it work. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: San334

In Defense of Polygamy

DESCRIPTION: "There's a lot of whisky bloats polluting our fair land, And they're here to see their country's laws enforced. Their pious hearts are filled with grief to see the Mormons sin"; they'll do what it takes to end polygamy, including separating men and women
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Text from 1933; tune from 1959 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: husband wife separation humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #246, "Governor Zane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 80-81, "In Defense of Polygamy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10835
File: Hubb246

In Dem Long, Hot Summer Days

See Old Rattler (File: CNFM104)

In Dessexshire As It Befell

See On Christmas Day It Happened So (File: PBB006)

In Doots

DESCRIPTION: "The snaw has been fa'in in the hale day lang." The singer doubts her lover will come tonight. Her father, mother and sister say he won't come. The collie hears him at the door. "I micht weel hae kent he wad be here the nicht"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love storm nightvisit family
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 797, "In Doots" (1 text)
Roud #6202
NOTES [82 words]: This is not the usual night visit song. The visitor, says mother, would not trudge "thro' drift for a kiss or twa," but the family seems well disposed toward the singer's "laddie." The difference is illustrated by a comparison with "This Is the Nicht My Johnnie Set"; in that song the waiting singer curses the collie for making noise when her lover "softly slips the ha' door"; here, "look at aul' collie, he's aff to the door His towsie tail waggin' a welcome kin": no softly slipping here. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4797

In Duckworth Street There Lived a Dame

DESCRIPTION: The singer courts an ugly woman on Duckworth Street. One night "I found her faithless she Fryin' sausages fer he." When he tells her "we must part ... With a fryin' pan she broke my head."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: infidelity sex bawdy humorous wordplay lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 287, "In Duckworth Street There Lived a Dame" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9969
RECORDINGS:
Howard Morry, "In Duckworth Street There Lived a Dame" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Rich Old Miser" [Laws Q7] (theme of being hit over the head with cookware)
cf. "A Week's Matrimony (A Week's Work)" (imagery)
cf. "Charming Sally Ann" (imagery)
NOTES [46 words]: If "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar" maybe there is no double entendre here about frying sausages. On the contrary, this seems a song in which the writer let the metaphor get away. Peacock points out that Duckworth Street is one of the main commercial streets in St John's. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea287

In Eighteen Hundred and Sixty

DESCRIPTION: "In eighteen hundred and sixty I used to go to see A pretty little gal in Georgy, How dearly she loved me, She wanted me to marry, Soon as the war was over, She said we'd live together Like chickens in the clover, Tr la la la la la...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 530, "In Eighteen Hundred and Sixty" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 114-115, "In Eighteen Hundred and Sixty" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #6616
File: R530

In Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-One

See Johnny Fill Up the Bowl (In Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-One) (File: R227)

In Eighteen-Forty-Five

See The Backwoodsman (The Green Mountain Boys) [Laws C19] (File: LC19)

In Eighteen-Forty-Nine

DESCRIPTION: "When I came to this country in 1849, I saw many a true love, but I never saw mine... I am a poor soldier and a long way from home." Floating verses of longing: "Farewell to my old father" "If... I could write a fine hand" "I wish I were a lark"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love separation courting family rambling floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 745, "In Eighteen-Forty-Nine" (2 texts, 2 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 48, pp. 164-165, "Pretty Saro" (1 text, beginning with stanzas from "In Eighteen-Forty-Nine" and ending with "Pretty Saro," plus mention of 1 more text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 9, "Pretty Saro" (2 fragments, 2 tunes; the first text is solely this; the second begins with the first verse of "In Eighteen-Forty-Nine" and continues with a verse of "Pretty Saro")
DT, CAME1865
Roud #417
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pretty Saro" (floating lyrics, tune)
cf. "The Rebel Soldier" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Farewell, Sweet Mary" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Backwoodsman (The Green Mountain Boys)" [Laws C19] (floating lyrics)
cf. "I Came to this Country in Eighteen Sixty-Five" (floating lyrics)
cf. "In Seventeen Ninety-Five" (lyrics)
cf. "Logging on Bear Fork" (lyrics)
cf. "When First To This Country (I)" ("When First Unto This Country" lyrics) and references there
NOTES [79 words]: This has so many floating stanzas (see the cross-references, and even that list is probably incomplete) that I'm not even sure, based on the fragments in Randolph, if this is a true song or just a sort of anthology.
Hudson's text of "Pretty Saro" mixes with this piece, and Randolph's texts also have lyrics from "Pretty Saro"; Roud lumps the songs. It's likely enough that there is a full-blown composite somewhere -- but I haven't seen it, and can't file it until I do. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: R745

In einem kiehlen Grunde (In Yonder Lovely Valley)

DESCRIPTION: German. "In einem kiehlen Grunde, Do schteht ein Miehlenrad. "A mill stands in the valley, where the singer's love lived. She gave him a ring; now her vow and the ring are broken. He wishes he were a minstrel, to sing his sorrows, or a knight, to fight
AUTHOR: Joseph von Eichendorff and Friedrich Gluck (source: Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends); reportedly composed 1814
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love abandonment ring
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 118-120, "In einem kiehlen Grunde (In Yonder Lovely Valley)" (1 German text plus poetic translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL118

In Fair London City

See Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser) [Laws N6] (File: LN06)

In Fir Tar Is

See Mairzy Doats (File: AJRV330)

In Former Times

DESCRIPTION: Now we drink swipes instead of good ale. Farmer's daughters used to spin but now "their fingers they're afraid to soil"; they play the piano instead of mop or broom. Farmer's used to ride a horse to the market or fair, but now it's to fox-hunting.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: vanity farming hunting drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 139, "In Former Times" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 358)
Roud #1262
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve" (theme) and references there
NOTES [24 words]: "swipes ... Brit: poor, thin, or spoiled beer" (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976) - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT139

In Forty-Six We Bade Adieu

See Mormon Battalion Song (II -- In Forty-Six We Bid Adieu), The (File: ChMS047)

In Freenship's Name

See Happy Friendship (File: McSc144)

In Frisco Bay (A Long Time Ago; Noah's Ark Shanty)

DESCRIPTION: Pulling shanty. "In Frisco Bay there lay three ships, To my way-ay-ay-o. And one of those ships was Noah's Old Ark, A long time ago." Up to 30 verses describing the ship, the animals and the conditions on the ark.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
KEYWORDS: shanty ship animal
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, LIV, p. 59, "In Frisco Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 66-67, "A Long Time Ago" (fragments quoted from Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 99-100, "A Long Time Ago" (1 text, version "C" of "A Long Time Ago") [AbEd, pp. 90-91]
DT, NOAHARK
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Long Time Ago" (partial chorus)
cf. "Old Uncle Noah" (subject) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Frisco Ship
NOTES [22 words]: Sometimes listed as a variant of "A Long Time Ago," but this has a distinct and (for a shanty) an unusually coherent story line. - SL
Last updated in version 3.5
File: Hugi099

In Good Old Colony Times

DESCRIPTION: Three rogues (king's sons? miller, weaver, and tailor?) "fell into mishaps / because they could not sing." Eventually they turn to robbery. "The miller drowned in his dam / the weaver was hung in his yarn, and the devil clapped his claws on the tailor..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1804 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 84)
KEYWORDS: robbery punishment death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (34 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 268-269, "The Three Rogues" (3 texts)
Randolph 112, "In the Good Old Colony Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 80, "The Three Rogues" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 189-190, "In the Good Old Colony Days" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 171-172, "The Three Rogues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 116, "The Three Rogues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 80, "The Three Sons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, "Three Roguish Chaps" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 307, "Three Scamping Rogues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 20-21, "King Arthur" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 194, "When Arthur Ruled This Land" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 384)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #31, "Good King Arthur" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #113, "Three Sons of Rogues" (2 texts, 1 tune, although the second text is short and could be something else)
Greig/Duncan3 704, "Oh the Miller He Stole Corn" (5 texts, 4 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 188, "The Three Rogues" (1 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 188, "The Three Rogues" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 108, "The Old King and His Three Sons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 63, "In Good Old Colony Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 14, "Three Roguish Chaps" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 1, "In Good Old Colony Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 116, pp. 234-235, "In Good Old Colony Times" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 166, "The Three Rogues" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 7-9, "The County of Kerry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 44, "Three Roguish Chaps" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, p. 103, "The Farmer's Three Sons" (2 fragments)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 213-214, "In Good Old Colony Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 157-158, "The Three Jolly Rogues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #12, p. 39, "Three Roguish Chaps" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 7, "Old Colony Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, p. 531, "Old Colony Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 48, "Good King Arthur" (1 short text, a floating fragment sometimes found with "Johnny Lad (I)" and sometimes with "In Good Old Colony Times")
DT, ROGUES3* ROGUES2* (ROGUES32)
ADDITIONAL: The Quaver; or Songster's Pocket Companion (London, 1844 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 287, "King Arthur Had Three Sons" (1 text)
Evelyn Foster Morneweck (Stephen Foster's niece), _Chronicles of Stephen Foster's Family_, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1944, ppp. 42-43, "The Three Rogues" (1 text, allegedly from Stephen Foster's father)
Roud #130
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "Three Sons of Rogues" (on Maynard1, Voice07)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 84, "The Miller, Weaver, and Little Tailor ("In good king Arthur's days")," Laurie and Whittle (London), 1804
LOCSheet, sm1878 07980, "Old Colony Times," John Church & Co. (Cincinnati), 1878 (tune)
LOCSinging, as104730, "Good Old Colony Times," L. Deming (Boston), n.d.
SAME TUNE:
Gin-Sling (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 21)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
King Arthur
Three Jolly Rogues
Three Jolly Rogues of Lynn
When Bold King Edward
King Arthur's Servants
In Good King Arthur's Days
When Arthur Ruled this Land
The Little Tailor Dick
The Miller's Sons
NOTES [200 words]: Botkin has a report that this was quoted by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to the Reichstag in 1888. Allegedly Bismarck learned it from a friend in 1832. I do not know how the latter could be verified, but it is certain that Bismarck knew the song. Lyle Lofgren forwarded to me a note from Eamonn Noonan, mentioning that Bismarck's recitation (which he dates to 1889) was recorded and has now been publicly released; there was actually a story about it in the New York Times.
One has to suspect that this has had a complex history of moving between the broadside press and the folk; how else can one explain its tendency to take on new settings, from King Arthur's court (very common in British settings) to the American colonies to "Lynne" (King's Lynn?).
The song is also quoted by Thomas Hardy in Under the Greenwood Tree (a single "King Arthur" stanza in chapter 2, "Honey-taking, and Afterwards," of Part IV, "Autumn"). And it apparently was known in Stephen Foster's family. - RBW
Broadside Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 84: "A much admired song sung by Mr Chas Johnston, & proper to be sung at all Musical Clubs." In this version "Three Sons of Whores were turn'd out of doors ...." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R112

In Halifax Town

See Love Has Brought Me to Despair [Laws P25] (File: LP25)

In High Germany

See High Germany (File: ShH56)

In His Faded Coat of Blue

See Faded Coat of Blue (File: HCW227)

In January Last

DESCRIPTION: "In January last, On Munnonday at morn, As I along the fields did pass," the singer meets a pretty girl. He asks to walk with her. She hopes he has "more breeding" than to go too far. He will not bother her if she is "contracted"; she says women are kind
AUTHOR: Thomas D'Urfey?
EARLIEST DATE: 1676 (D'Urfey's "The Fond Husband, or The Plotting Sisters, according to Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
KEYWORDS: courting travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 575-576, "In January Last" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 30-31, "In January Last" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Roud #8571
File: CPMInJaL

In Jersey City

See The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: LP24)

In Kansas

DESCRIPTION: A quatrain ballad, this describes the unseemly, unsanitary, unhealthy conditions and people in that state, at Yale, in Mobile, in Zamboanga or any other place disliked by the singer.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844, when a version of the song was published in New York City by Atwill. Said to date from a song about the Irish famines, "Over Here."
KEYWORDS: bawdy scatological humorous
FOUND IN: Australia Canada Britain(England) US(MA,MW,NE,So,SW) New Zealand
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 49-53, "In Kansas" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, pp. 37-38, "In Kansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 428-429, "Kansas" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph 344, "In Arkansas" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 280-282, "In Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 344A)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 265-267, "In Kansas" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 495-496, "In Kansas," "Potatoes They Grow Small (In Kansas)" (2 texts)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 53-54, "In Kansas" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 32, "In Kansas" (2 texts, 1 tune; the first belongs here, while the second is "Way Out West in Kansas")
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 204, "In Kansas" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 454, "In Kansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 212-213, "In Kansas" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 43, "In Kansas" (1 text)
ST EM049 (Partial)
Roud #4455
RECORDINGS:
Chubby Parker, "In Kansas" (Conqueror 7894, 1931)
Art Thieme, "In and Around Nashville" (on Thieme06)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small)" (tune & meter, floating lyrics)
cf. "Way Out West in Kansas" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The 'Taters They Grow Small
NOTES [160 words]: Cray and Legman have historical notes, disagreeing on the origin of the American bawdy song. - EC
Given that this appears to be a clear parody of "The Praties They Grow Small," but that the 1844 version precedes the worst of the potato blights, the song origins are indeed mysterious. One suspects that the 1844 text is not the "full version," but a predecessor (the more so as Kansas was beyond the usual settlement line in 1844).
Randolph reports that "several old-timers have told me that this piece was written by an Missourian named Beecham or Beecher, shortly after the Civil War." He does not believe the story, however, and certainly this can only refer to the local adaptation.
There is no clear dividing line between this and "The Praties They Grow Small"; there are versions of this piece that are short enough and clean enough to belong with either. But, as often happens, we must classify them separately because the extremes are so distinct. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: EM049

In Kerry Long Ago

DESCRIPTION: The singer thinks back to his "boyhood in Kerry long ago." He thinks about dances, and his girl friend Mary, nights listening to fairy stories and holding colleens "for to save them from the fairies."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: courting dancing nonballad youth
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 73, "In Kerry Long Ago" (3 texts)
Roud #9309
File: OCC073

In Leicester Square There Is a School

See There Is a School (File: AJRR249)

In Liverpool There Is a School

See There Is a School (File: AJRR249)

In London so Fair

DESCRIPTION: A girl goes to serve a lady whose son is a sea captain. They fall in love; when he must go to sea, he pledges to be true. She dresses as a man and enlists on his ship. He says she reminds him of his love. She reveals her identity and they are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: love sailor disguise cross-dressing marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H203, pp. 330-331, "The Sailor on the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 178, "Up in London Fair" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #2989
RECORDINGS:
Mary Ann Carolan, "In London So Fair" (on Voice02)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Ship that I Command
File: HHH203

In London There I Was Bent

See The London Lackpenny (File: BCom009)

In Lonely Belvedere

DESCRIPTION: "My love he was a fine young man ... he lies within his grave in lonely Belvedere. 'My curse upon you Major Grant,' in anger she did say. 'My curse upon you Bennett ... Was you that caused my sorrow In lonely Belvedere'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: homicide love burial soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 13, 1861 - the St. John's Riot
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 209, "In Lonely Belvedere" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 61-62, "Lonely Belvedere" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2725
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Riot in St. John's" (subject)
NOTES [64 words]: Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs: "[The singer] said that the young man was killed in a riot in Newfoundland between the Orangemen and Roman Catholics." This could refer to the Belvedere Cemetery in St John's, Newfoundland. - BS
Kenneth Goldstein believes this song refers to the 1861 St. John's riot which is also described in "The Riot in St. John's"; see that song for the details. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: CrMa209

In Low Germanie

DESCRIPTION: "As I sailed past Jura's isle, Among the waters lone, I heard a voice, a sweet low voice Atween a sigh and moan" as a girl with babes on her knee laments her husband fighting in Germany. Her brothers and her love have all been called away
AUTHOR: Allan Cunningham ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: love separation soldier war
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 360-361, "The Wars o' Germanie" (1 text)
Roud #5609
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "High Germany (I)" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "High Germany (II)" (theme)
NOTES [40 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads credits this to Allan Cunningham, and it's perfectly reasonable to assume Cunningham padded out a fragment of an existing song (probably "High Germany"). I do think there was that traditional fragment, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Ord360

In Manchester in Lancashire

See Mary Thompson (File: GrD2205)

In Marble Halls as White as Milk

See In Marble Walls as White as Milk (File: OO2199)

In Marble Walls as White as Milk

DESCRIPTION: Riddle: "In marble halls as white as milk, Lined with a skin as soft as silk, Within a fountain crystal-clear, a golden apple doth appear. No doors there are to this stronghold, Yet thieves break in and steal the gold." Answer: an egg.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell), with a manuscript version from around 1810, according to the Opies; Jack dates it to 1765 and _Mother Goose's Melody_
KEYWORDS: riddle nonballad food | egg
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 199, "In Marble Halls as White as Milk" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #673 note 7, p. 270, "(In Marble Halls as White as Milk)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 85, "In Marble Walls as White as Milk" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 185, "In Marble Walls As White As Milk" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 64, "(Within a fountain crystal clear)" (1 text)
NOTES [147 words]: Although this doesn't seem to be well known in folk circles today, it was famous enough in the last century that J. R. R. Tolkien indirectly testified that it was the basis for one of the riddles in The Hobbit. And Tolkien rewrote it in Old English; Tolkien's version opens "Meolchwitum sind marmanstane" and ends "saga hwæt ic hatte" -- "Say what I have." See J. R. R. Tolkien, The Annotated Hobbit, annotated by Douglas A. Anderson, second edition, Houghton Mifflin, 2002, pp. 123-125, n. 19.
According to Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond, The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Reader's Guide, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, that piece was published in the 1923 Leeds English School publication "A Northern Venture," in an article titled "Enigma Saxonica Nuper Inventa Duo" ("Two Saxon Riddles Newly Discovered"). The other riddle was a version of "Little Nancy Etticoat." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OO2199

In Measure Time We'll Row

DESCRIPTION: A song for rowing, listed as a round: "Then you'll see our oars with feathered spray, As they sparkle in the beam of day, In our little bark we glide, Swiftly o'er the silent tide... The warrior his heritage to restore... Oh, in measure time we'll row."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: river work
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 172-173, "In Measure Time We'll Row" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9432
File: Doe172

In Memorial of 77 Brave Newfoundland Sealers

DESCRIPTION: "Sad comes the news from o'er the sea, To fill our hearts with dread, To tell us that the ones we loved Are numbered with the dead." The poem briefly mentions their home lives, and hopes that God will make things well
AUTHOR: probably Johnny Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff), from an undated broadside probably contemporary with the event
KEYWORDS: death hunting disaster religious
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 31, 1914 - date of the disaster, according to the broadside
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 93, "In Memorial of 77 Brave Newfoundland Sealers" (1 text)
Roud #V44760
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)" (subject)
cf. Pat Maher, "The Story of the Sealing Vessel, The Newfoundland" (on NFMLeach)
cf. "The Newfoundland Disaster (II)" (subject)
NOTES [128 words]: This is one of those every-word-is-found-somewhere-else songs, but if there is an exact inspiration, I can't recall it. For background on the Newfoundland Disaster, see the notes to "The Newfoundland Disaster (1)."
I suspect this piece was written just days after the disaster, since it says that 77 sealers died. In fact the total was 78, but one of them died in hospital after being brought home from the ice. So some initial reports said 77.
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff say that this is probably the work of Johnny Burke (1851-1930), and certainly it is similar to other pieces Burke wrote, but it is not in the collection of Burke's poems published in 1981 by William J. Kirwin. For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm093

In Memoriam

DESCRIPTION: The supply boat has to stand by and watch Ocean Ranger sink. ODECO collects its eighty million from Lloyd's acknowledging no blame. The singer hopes the inquiry and "days when lives are sacrificed to corporate greed" end soon.
AUTHOR: Jim Payne
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: death sea disaster storm memorial
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 15, 1982 - The Ocean Ranger oil rig, 225 miles east of Cape Race, Newfoundland, sinks in a storm. All 84/86 are lost. NSDB: "It's said everyone in NF was related to, or knew, someone onboard" (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou, Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 55, "In Memoriam" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #30702
NOTES [1146 words]: Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou: "ODECO, or the Ocean Drilling and Exploration Company, is the American company that owned the Ocean Ranger."
For a detailed account of the disaster and its causes see Inviting Disaster: Lessons from the Edge of Technology by James R. Chiles (HarperBusiness paperback, 2002), pp. 18-36. While Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou sees the ballad as questioning the courage of the crew of the supply ship Seaforth Highlander, Chiles has them doing the best they could. - BS
The way I read Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou's notes, the song does not question the crew of the supply ship; rather, the song's author Jim Payne was offended that others had questioned the crew's actions, and wrote the song in part to defend them.
The problem at the heart of this song is probably deeper, going back to Newfoundland's desperate attempt to find something to base its economy on. It was founded on cod, of course, and then started making money off seals, then pulpwood. But the cod fishery declined, and no one wanted seals any more, and Newfoundland has only so many trees. So they started looking for another non-renewable resource, oil -- but perhaps moved too fast:
"The Newfoundland government and Ottawa locked horns on the question of jurisdiction over offshore oil, leading [Alfred Brian] Peckford [who became leader of the Progressive Conservatives in 1979 at the age of 37] to win a provincial general election in 1982 by campaigning against Ottawa's position.
"Although Newfoundland and Ottawa were antagonists in the battle over which order of government would have jurisdiction over offshore oil development, both rushed to foster exploration and exploitation in the context of the energy crisis and the federal National Energy Program of the 1970s. The desire on the part of the federal and provincial governments for rapid development benefited the major multinational corporations such as Mobil Oil that were involved in the search for oil off the east coast. The Newfoundland government's interest focused almost entirely on which jurisdiction would control the economic benefits of development, and, like the federal government, it paid little attention to the regulation of offshore workers' safety. The offshore oil industry, sadly, took on a more tragic significance for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1982. On Valentine's Day, a winter storm damaged and led to the sinking of the Ocean Ranger. All hand aboard the oil drilling rig lost their lives; fifty-six of the eighty-four crew members were Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.... Subsequent investigations, including a royal commission, concluded that the Ocean Ranger had been generally well built, although it was designed for, and tested in, the waters of the Gulf of Mexico -- a very different marine environment than the Grand Banks.... Worst of all, the workers who operated the Ocean Ranger did not fully understand how to operate the ballast controls during an emergency such as the storm that developed that February night. Having to abandon the rig, workers were without survival suits and found its lifeboats almost impossible to launch in the prevailing conditions. Although the royal commission that investigated the tragedy was unwilling to say that the Newfoundland government's local hiring preference had led the rig's operators to hire untrained workers, it suggested that hiring 'guidelines requiring a very rapid phase in of local residents can affect the overall level of safety of the drilling operations.'" (Cadigan, pp. 268-269).
Looker, p. 49, says that the Ocean Ranger was a 15,000 tonne steel oil rig. "The largest of three rigs in the area, the Ocean Ranger was operated by ODECO, a Louisiana engineering firm, under contract to Mobil Oil of Canada." Major, p. 437, says "The Ocean Ranger was billed as the largest semi-submersible rig, and unsinkable. The deck and drilling area were the size of two football fields. It towered thirty storeys. The upper hull rested on eight vertical columns, set in two immense pontoons each holding a dozen ballast chambers. From the corner columns ran twelve gigantic anchors holding the rig to the ocean floor." Just six years old, Smith, p. 161, suggests that no one really knew how to operate her ballast systems *because* she was considered unsinkable. And there were no written instructions for the systems (Smith, p. 163), and even the most experienced operator was only half-trained! (Smith, p. 165).
She was commanded by Clarence Hauss, who, after being on the job for just eight days, almost sank her on February 6. But his error in running the controls was fixed -- that time.
On February 14, the storm was so bad that they cut the Ocean Ranger loose from the ocean floor (Looker, p. 50). The storm also caused the standby ship, the Seaforth Highlander, to be blown away; instead of being within two miles, as was supposed to be the rule, she drifted at least seven miles away.
At 1:05 a.m. on February 15, the Ocean Ranger sent a signal requesting assistance. Their last signal, at 1:30 a.m., reported that the crew was going to their lifeboat stations. It has been speculated that the ballast control system had been broken by the storm (Andrieux, p. 164; Major, p. 437, reports this as fact, and Smith, p. 163, reports failures in the electrical system).
The Seaforth Highlander arrived at 2:00 a.m. to find a badly damaged lifeboat whose crew were desperately bailing her out (Looker, p. 51; Major, p. 438, thinks the others had been destroyed by their fall from the listing oil rig). Before the Highlander could rescue them, the boat capsized, possibly due to the weight of the survivors all moving to the side closest the ship. Conditions were so cold that the men could not grasp ropes to be rescued (Smith, p. 165). The Ocean Ranger itself disappeared from radar at 3:38 a.m. Only 22 bodies were recovered out of the 84 Smith, p. 165, says were aboard (56 of them Newfoundlanders).
Andrieux, p. 165, has a photo of the Ranger and a picture of one of her overturned rubber boats. Pp. 167-168 have photos of salvage operations which re-floated the wreck (this was not a repair attempt; it was a navigation hazard, so the platform was raised and dumped in deeper water; Andrieux, p. 169). Smith, p. 162, also has a photo of the rig, and on p. 164 shows the overturned boat.
The song said that insurance paid out $80 million. In fact the payment, according to Looker, p. 51, was $86 million, which was more than the depreciated value of the Ocean Ranger, causing many people to think that the excess should have gone to the families. But ODECO was not under legal obligation to do so, and in any case needed to buy a new oil rig. It sounds to me as if the real responsibility to the families rests with those who put so many untrained crewmen on the Ocean Ranger. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe055

In Memoriam of the poor Fishermen who lost their lives in the Dreadful Gale from Grimsby and Hull, Feb. 8 & 9, 1889

See Three Score and Ten (File: PaSe138)

In Mobile Bay Where I Was Born

See Roll the Cotton Down (File: Doe033)

In My Father's House

DESCRIPTION: "There ain't no liars there in my Father's house (x3), Oh, there's peace, peace everywhere." "There ain't no crapshooters there...." "There ain't no cardplayers there...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad virtue cards
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 483, "In My Father's House" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 119, "My Father's House" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "There'll Be Joy, Joy, Joy" (Bluebird B-5911/Montgomery Ward M-4547, 1935)
File: San483

In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments the loss of her thyme. She had spent her life making herself fair, only to find her thyme stolen by a sailor. Now "I gaze on the willow tree," and "I would I were clasped in my lover's arms fast, for 'tis he who has stolen my thyme"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: loneliness sailor seduction virginity gardening
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So) Britain(England(Lond,South,West)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 85-86, "I Once Had Plenty of Thyme" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 451)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 116D, "Flowers and Weeds" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #86, "The Red Running Rue" (1 text, 1 tune, although since Vaughan Williams took down only the first and last verses, it's not absolutely clear that the tune goes with this song)
Randolph 90, "Keep Your Garden Clean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 122-124, "Keep Your Garden Clean" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 90)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 272-273, "Keep Your Garden Clean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 28, "Once I Had Plenty of Thyme" (2 texts, 1 tune, although both texts are largely derived from "The Seeds of Love")
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 34, "The Sprig of Thyme" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #7, "The Sprig of Thyme" (1 text, 1 tune, with only the first verse really being this song, but with a full text in the notes)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 138, "The Green Willow Tree: or, Once I Had Plenty of Thyme" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 90, "A Warning Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 196-197, "Come All You Pretty Fair Maids" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 52, "Come All You Pretty Fair Maids" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 26, "When I Was in My Prime" (1 text, 1 tune, more like this than the other thyme songs, though it's long and has probably picked up some outside elements)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 98-99, "When I Was In My Prime" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, THYMEGAR THYMSEED (THYMTH2)
Roud #3
RECORDINGS:
Cyril Poacher, "Plenty of Thyme" (on Voice12)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2793), "Sprig of Thyme," J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1855-1858
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Seeds of Love"
cf. "Thyme, It Is a Precious Thing"
cf. "The Gowans are Gay"
cf. "Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme)"
NOTES [256 words]: In flower symbolism, thyme stood for virginity. For a catalog of some of the sundry flower symbols, see the notes to "The Broken-Hearted Gardener."
Thyme songs are almost impossible to tell apart, because of course the plot (someone seduces the girl) and the burden (let no man steal your thyme) are always identical. For the same reasons, verses float freely between them. So fragmentary versions are almost impossible to classify. Steve Roud seems to lump all of them.
The Digital Tradition has a version, "Rue and Thyme," which seems to have almost all the common elements. Whether it is the ancestor of the various thyme songs, or a gathering together of separate pieces, is not clear to me.
The first line here, "In my garden grew plenty of thyme," is diagnostic but sometimes absent. The thrust of the song is how hard the woman worked to make herself beautiful, only to spoil it by losing her virginity.
To show how difficult it is to classify all this, Randolph and Ritchie have texts of this called "Keep Your Garden Clean" which are pretty much the same except for the first verse. On the basis of that distinction, I filed Randolph' with "In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme" and Ritchie's with "Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme)."
Many, including Randolph, Ritchie, and Roud, simply lump the whole business as versions of "The Seeds of Love."
Child prints a text (additions and corrections to "The Gardener", p. 258 in Volume V of the Dover edition) which conflates this song, or something similar, with that ballad. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R090

In My Heart

See There's a Little Wheel a-Turning (File: Br3641)

In My Laddie's Company

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that her sailor with light brown hair has forsaken her. When she goes to bed she can't sleep "for thinking on my true love ... But he seldom minds on me." She wishes for a half-hour in his company.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad sailor hair
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1084, "In My Laddie's Company" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6774
File: GrD61084

In North America

DESCRIPTION: "Wine sparkles in our glasses, We have no debts to pay, We spend our time in pleasure In North America."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad money drink
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 196, "In North America" (1 fragment, seventh of seven "Quatrains on the War")
ST Fus196C (Full)
File: Fus196C

In Old Paul Bunyan's Camps

DESCRIPTION: "Have you heard about Paul Bunyan's camps, Where they used moon and stars for lamps?" There are ten thousand men. Paul's pants are made of wood. His daughter leaves the camp and is surprised to see a farmer and team. She brings them back in her apron
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan)
KEYWORDS: lumbering talltale humorous farming recitation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp 72-73, "In Old Paul Bunyan's Camps" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6525
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paul Bunyan" (subject) and references there
File: BBun072

In Old Pod-Auger Times

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing to you of the good old times When people were honest and true, Before their brains were rattled and crazed By everything strange and new." The singer grumbles about modern ways, and longs for "old pod-auger times"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1829-1837 - Presidency of Andrew Jackson
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 69-71, "In Old Pod-Auger Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 251-253, "In Old Pod-Auger Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PODAUGER*
ST FlBr069 (Partial)
Roud #3739
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve" (theme) and references there
cf. "The Old Pod Auger Days" (pod auger theme)
cf. "The Old Chesuncook Road" (pod auger theme, plus thoughts about the old days)
NOTES [228 words]: We really need a keyword "Whining-about-the-end-of-the-good-old-days." See the cross-references for similar songs.
The song lists the time of Andrew Jackson as the ideal, but I can't see anything in it that's specific to that era.
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland states that this comes from Comical Brown's Songs, after "Comical Brown," whom she describes as a nineteenth century solo performer. She gives no other details, however.
According to Young,p. 134, "pod auger days" or "pot auger days" refer to "a long time ago. From the era when fireplaces were used for cooking. A pot auger was an adjustable pot hanger which could raise and lower the pot over the fire to control the cooking temperature." StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 384, cite various American usages, the earliest in 1833 (i.e. just about the time Andrew Jackson was re-elected) and the last in Maine in 1887, but cite eight Newfoundland uses; it would appear that the term is still in use there, but probably not in the United States.
It was probably still in use in the Canadian Maritimes, or perhaps in New England, around the turn of the twentieth century, since Larry Gorman clearly knew this song, and understood it, basing his piece "The Old Pod Auger Days" on it. Roud lumps the two, and certainly the ideas are very similar, but since the Gorman song is a clear rewrite, I've split them.- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: FlBr069

In Old Virginny

See East Virginia (Dark Hollow) (File: JRSF134)

In Our Grandfathers' Days

DESCRIPTION: "A song now to please all my kind friends before me... I'm going to sing of our grandfather's days. In our grandfathers' days men were judged by merit...." Now money settles things. Clothes weren't so fancy, people gambled less, politicians were good men
AUTHOR: Tony Pastor (source: New-Comic-Songster)
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Dime-Song-Book #17)
KEYWORDS: nonballad hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #185, "In Our Grandfather's Days" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #17, pp. 52-53, "Our Grandfather's Days" (1 text); #34, p. 62, "Our Grandfather's Days" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, "Our Grandfathers' Days" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10924
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve" (theme) and references there
File: Hubb185

In Oxford City

See Oxford City [Laws P30] (File: LP30)

In Poland schteht en Haus (In Poland There Is a House)

DESCRIPTION: German. "In Poland schteht en Haus (x3), Joe Keiser piepa Polischen Haus." "in Poland there stands a house... Joe Kaiser's ??? house." "Who lives in the house?" ""A landlord lives in the house," helping a girl bring up a child who writes on the walls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad children home
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 90-91, "In Poland schteht en Haus (In Poland There Is a House)" (1 German text plus English translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [26 words]: The notes in Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends says that in Germany this functions as a game song, but I can find no references to it under this title. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: KPL089

In Praise o' Huntley

See Jock o' Rhynie (The Praise o' Huntley) (File: Ord338)

In Praise of Christmas

See Drive the Cold Winter Away (In Praise of Christmas) (File: Log293)

In Praise of John Magee

DESCRIPTION: John Magee finds no peace with his wife "So he says, 'I can auction you according to the law.'" The bidding is active and she goes to a farmer from Killarney for twenty-five shillings. "May the devil follow after her, the auctioneer did say"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness abandonment commerce humorous husband wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 12, "In Praise of John Magee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 36, pp. 90-91,122,170, "In Praise of John Magee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2899
RECORDINGS:
John Maguire, "In Praise of John Magee" (on IRJMaguire01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sale of a Wife" (subject)
cf. "The Scolding Wife (V)" (theme: sale of a wife)
cf. "Danny Sim's Sow" (theme: sale of a wife)
NOTES [72 words]: I don't believe this should be lumped with "Sale of a Wife." While they both have the auction they have no lines in common.
[It's interesting to note that both songs seem to be Irish, though; perhaps one inspired the other, and some editors lump them. - RBW]
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster: .".. such sales were quite common in England between 1750 and 1860." - BS
For background on wife-selling, see the notes to "Sale of a Wife." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: MorU012

In Praise of Seafaring Men, in Hope of Good Fortune

DESCRIPTION: "Who seeks the way to win renown, Or flies with wings of his desire... Let him his native soil eschew, Let him go range and seek a new." "I must abroad to try my lot." Hard work at home has no value. The singer recalls Jason and the Greeks going to Troy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (Halliwell, Early Naval Ballads of England, according to Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs), but probably from the late sixteenth century; see NOTES
KEYWORDS: sailor travel nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 4, "In Praise of Seafaring Men, in Hope of Good Fortune" (1 text)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads III, pp. 5-6, "In Praise of Seafaring Men, in Hope of Good Fortune" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2497, folio 47
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Another of Seafarers, describing Evil Fortune" (also found in Sloane 2497; they perhaps were intended to go together)
NOTES [989 words]: I know of no evidence that this piece is actually traditional. Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads says this is in MS. British Library Sloane 2497, folio 47. Since the British Library has not yet digitized this manuscript, I can't verify this directly.
From the little I can find out about the manuscript, based on the list of items in Scott, it seems a strange miscellany of poetry, history, and scientific works, plus deeds and contracts. Extracting the data from Scott as best I can, here are the contents:
-- Latin Grammar, De Figuris. 14th century Folio 1
-- W. Herbert, "Stanzas on a Brother's Death," 16th century, Folio 2
-- Rules and Examples in Arithmetic, 16th century. Folios 3-32b
-- Sir Edward Dyer, "My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is," 1592. Folio 27b
-- Bond to Richard Brown of Glocester from J. Hill, 1579. Folio 33
-- Epitaph in verse, 16th century. Folio 33
-- Thomas Jones, Merchant of Bristol. Power of Attorney to John More, 1592. Folio 33b
-- Edward Barston, Merchant, of Tewkesbury. Acknowledgment of his debt to R. Portman, 1592. Folio 34 [It appears this Richard Portman owned the manuscript. It includes other information about his trading, with poetry, but Scott does not list the folios that include Portman's records.]
-- Descriptions of ordnance, with drawings, 16th cent. Folios 38-44 b/Chemical receipts, processes, and experiments. Folios 41-44b
-- Francis Drake, orders for his forces, 1589. Folio 47
-- Sir John Norris, orders for his forces against Spain and Portugal, 1580. Folio 47.
-- Stanzas in praise of Seafaring Men (presumably refers to this item or the next item in Stone, or both), 16th century. Folio 48.
-- Queen Elizabeth I, Form of summons to abide the execution of the Royal Commission on a bill of complaint, 1592. Folio 48b
This hints to me that the manuscript was assembled from earlier booklets.
There is a notation at the end of the text, "Sir Richard Grinfilldes, farewell." Stone refers this to Sir Richard Grenville (who, to be sure, was contemporary with several of the items in Sloane 2497), and Palmer accepts this without question. I'm not convinced, although I don't deny the possibility.
According to Herman, p. 63, "Grenville was a hardy seaworthy Cornishman, son of the Richard Grenville who had gone down with the Mary Rose." He helped supply the fleet that fought the Spanish Armada, although he was not one of the captains who actually fought the Spanish fleet (Herman, p. 119). The Spanish came to call him "el gran corsario" (Herman, p. 138), presumably because of his many raids on them.
His own men weren't overly fond of him either: "'his own people hated him for his fierceness and spoke very hardly [harshly] of him'" (Rodger, p. 280). He does seem to have liked music; he "'was serve elaborately on silver and gold plate, by servants. Many musical instruments were played when he dined'" (Rodger, p. 320).
Jameson, p. 280, gives this biography of Grenville: "Grenville, Sir Richard (1540-1591), an English navigator, set out with seven vessels and 108 colonists for Carolina on a colonizing expedition for Sir Walter Raleigh in 1585. He landed the colonists are Roanoke Island, but they soon returned to England on account of the troubles with the Indians. In 1591, with only one ship, he attacked a Spanish fleet of fifty vessels and sunk four of them, but was mortally wounded." (According to Herman, p. 138, he had been off the Azores when the Spanish trapped him; he fought a "twenty-hour gun duel with fifteen enemy ships, which left the Revenge smashed and sinking and Grenville dying from multiple wounds.")
Grenville's was the first of two failures at Roanoke: "In April [1585]. [Sir Walter] Raleigh [who had been granted a royal patent for the area he labeled 'Virginia'] sent a seven-vessel fleet commanded by his cousin, Sir Richard Grenville, to establish an English colony in this new region. Grenville explored the Indian towns of Pamlico Sound before deciding to build an English settlement under Ralph Lane on Roanoke Island. Lane's men built a fort and dwellings on the island, where the remained for almost 11 months," exploring and seeking exploitable raw materials. They returned to England in 1586.
"In 1587 John White, an artist in the Grenville expedition of 1585-86, led approximately 150 men, women, and boys to establish a colony in Virginia under a charter from Raleigh. Reluctantly, White ordered the settlers to establish themselves in the town abandoned by Lane." On August 13, 1587, White's granddaughter Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the future United States, was born. White then sailed back to England to try to raise more support. "His departure marked the last known contact between the English and the famous 'lost colony.' When White returned three years later, he found no colonists and only the remains of the structures they had built" (PowellEncyclopedia, p. 983).
Ironically, Lane had left Roanoke (with Sir Francis Drake) just before Grenville returned to the island with supplies: "Apparently it was only a few days after Lane and Drake left when Sir Richard Grenville arrived with the long-expected supplies. If Lane had remained but this brief time longer, his colony might well might well have been England's first permanent American colony" (PowellHistory, p. 16). He left fifteen men behind -- enough to maintain the property but not to expand or improve it -- even though he had more men that he could have left. The fifteen were never seen again (PowellHistory, p. 17). This whole mess had arisen because Grenville had occupied his time in 1585 chasing Spanish ships -- and, in the process, wrecked the ship carrying most of the supplies for the colony (Herman, p. 152).
That wasn't Grenville's only attempt at founding a colony. In 1574, he had suggested founding a colony in Terra Australis, even though this southern continent hadn't been discovered; it was just an hypothesis! (Herman, p. 73). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: PaSe004

In Praise of the City of Mullingar

DESCRIPTION: "Ye may strain your muscles to brag of Brussels" or any other great city "But they're all far inferior" to Mullingar. The singer describes many scenes, the Royal Canal, the courthouse and workhouse, railway station, and finally "the beauteous females"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (_Songs and Fables_ by Professor W.J. Rankine, according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 87, "In Praise of the City of Mullingar" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [7 words]: Mullingar is in County Westmeath, Ireland. - BS
File: OLcM087

In Praise of the Glen

See Lovely Glenshesk (II) (File: HHH028a)

In Robin Hood's Churchyard

See Scarboro Sand (The Drowned Sailor) [Laws K18] (File: LK18)

In Rockley Firs

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a poacher, escapes from Rockley Firs but is caught at the tavern and taken to Marlborough jail. He stands trial. He apparently does time "in a dark cell" but "I am got free, I am not transported, you all may see"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: poaching prison punishment trial prisoner
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 123-124, "In Rockley Firs" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 268)
Roud #2341
File: WT123

In Savannah

DESCRIPTION: "'Neath the Southern skies there stands a humble cottage, 'Neath its roof sits a mother old and gray." The singer wishes to return to Savannah, embrace his mother, and care for her in her "declining years."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: love mother home return
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 107-108, "In Savannah" (1 text)
Roud #9576
File: Dean107

In Scotland Town Where I Was Born

See Hind Horn [Child 17] (File: C017)

In Seaport Town

See The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)

In Search of Silver and Gold

See Lord Lovel [Child 75] (File: C075)

In Selma, Alabama

DESCRIPTION: "We've got a rope that's a Berlin Wall, A Berlin Wall, (x2), Well, we've got a rope that's a... In Selma, Alabama." "Hate is a thing that's a Berlin Wall." "Ol' George Wallace helped to build that wall." "Love is the thing that will make it fall."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (COhen)
KEYWORDS: Black(s) discrimination political
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 333, "[In Selma, Alabama]" (1 text)
File: CAFS1333

In Seventeen Ninety-Five

DESCRIPTION: Singer comes into the country in 1795; considers himself lucky just to be alive. He knocks at a girl's door; she lets him in and says not to ramble any more. They marry and live happily, "And the stars sang a banjo tune/When she said that she'd be mine"
AUTHOR: unknown (additional words by Art Thieme)
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (learned by Art Thieme)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage emigration wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "In 1795" (on Thieme06)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In Eighteen Forty-Nine" ("In17XX/18XX I found myself quite lucky to be alive" lyrics) and references there
cf. "The Backwoodsman" (lyrics)
NOTES [43 words]: Thieme learned the first verse from Louis Marshall "Grandpa" Jones, added the second verse several years later. Despite a few similarities to "In Eighteen Forty-Nine," the song and its gestalt are sufficiently different that I've classified them separately. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: RcIn1795

In Sheffield Park

See The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: LP24)

In Smiling June the Roses Bloom

See The Champion of Coute Hill (File: LeBe018)

In Soho on Saturday Night

DESCRIPTION: "They tell us in Soho on Saturday night, Most ev'ry person you meet they are tight." The singer sees a woman fall into a sewer -- and get up to admit the dangers of drink. Various drunken Pittsburgers are listed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: drink warning
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 432-433, "In Soho on Saturday Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7755
File: KPL432

In Some Lady's Garden (I)

DESCRIPTION: "In some lady's fine brick house, In some lady's garden, You walk so high you can't get out, So fare you well, my darling." "Oh, swing a lady ump-tum, Swing a lady round, Swing a lady ump-tum, Promenade round."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: dancetune nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 114-115, "In Some Lady's Garden" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 270, "Swing a Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 74-75, "Brick House" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 26-27, "Swing the Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3649
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Do, Do, Pity My Case" (lyrics) and references there
File: ScNF114B

In Some Lady's Garden (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, somebody come and let me out of here, I'se in some lady's garden. I'll roll like a log if you let me out of here, I'se in...." "Oh, somebody come... I'll pant like a lizard if you let me out...." "I'll run like a rabbit." "I'll kick like a donkey."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: playparty captivity rescue animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 140, "In Some Lady's Garden" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Do, Do, Pity My Case" (lyrics) and references there
File: ScaNF140

In Some Lonesome Graveyard

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I hear a mighty moaning (x3), In some lonesome graveyard." Verses: "Mother (father, preacher) don't let your daughter (son, member) condemn you (x3), In some lonesome graveyard"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: burial death nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 46, pp. 193-195, "In Some Lonesome Graveyard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 234-237, "Ole Egyp'" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
NOTES [15 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Parr046

In Spin

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme, presumably for changing players: "In spin, Let (Judy) come in, Out, spout, Let (Judy) go out."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Evans, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #251, "In spin" (1 text)
File: AJRR251

In Springfield Mountain

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

In Steven's Green

See The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)

In Strichen You Know

See Forglen (Forglen You Know, Strichen's Plantins) (File: Ord079)

In Summer

See Robin Hood and the Monk [Child 119] (File: C119)

In Tarland Toon

DESCRIPTION: "In Tarland toon, near by Aboyne Bill Morrice doth abide"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1923, "In Tarland Toon" (1 fragment)
Roud #18048
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81923

In Tarrytown

See Died for Love (I); also The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: McST055)

In That Beautiful World on High (I Hope My Mother Will Be There)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Oh, I will be there, (x2) With palms of victory, crowns of glory you shall wear In that beautiful world on high." Verses: "I hope my mother (sister, brother) will be there That used to join with me in prayer"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 130, "In That Beautiful World on High (I Hope My Mother Will Be There)" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 218 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #15249
NOTES [50 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "In that beautiful world on high."
The "crown of glory" is from 1 Peter 5:5: "And when the Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away" (King James). - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett130

In That Eternal Day

DESCRIPTION: The singer says nobody had anything to say to him when he was in the world, but now, in the House of God everybody talks to him. "Carry me and bring me in that eternal day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: burial death nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 190, ("When I bin in de worl' bin a sin") (1 text)
File: Parp190A

In That Great Day

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Why are you running sinner," "I'm running from the fire"(2x). "In that great day." "O Israel"(3x). "In that great day." Verses have the same pattern as "O Israel...." See notes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 43, "In That Great Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: William Booth, Salvation Army Songs (London: The Salvation Army Book Department, 1911 ("Digitized bi Internet Archive")), #144 p. 100, "The Heavenly Music" ("We shall see the Judge descending On that great day") (1 text)
NOTES [52 words]: The description is based on the Barton-OldPlantationHymns text.
Booth and Barton-OldPlantationHymns verses include "Don't you hear your Savior calling," "Don't you hear the trumpet sounding," "We shall hear the thunder rolling," "We shall see our children coming," and "Don't you hear the saints a-shouting."- BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart043

In that Great Gettin' Up Morning

DESCRIPTION: "In that great gettin' up morning, Fare thee well, fare thee well...." Call and answer about the deeds of Gabriel (the Annunciation to Mary and the Last Trumpet). The refrain "Fare thee well" occurs throughout
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious resurrection
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 154-156, "In Dat Great Gittin'-Up Mornin'" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 235-237 in the 1874 edition)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 106, "Great Gittin' Up Mornin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 63-65, "In Dat Great Gittin' Up Mornin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 349, "Great Getting Up Morning" (1 text)
Roud #15228
RECORDINGS:
Four Dusty Travelers, "Great Gittin' Up Mornin'" (Columbia 14499, 1930; rec. 1929; on VocalQ2)
James Garfield Smalls, "In dat Great Gittin-Up Mornin'" (on USSeaIsland03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We've Come to Judgment" (lyrics)
File: LxU106

In That Morning

DESCRIPTION: Spiritual: "In that morning, what a beautiful morning that shall be... Everybody got to rise for your Master Jesus in that morning...." Chorus: "...rise for your Master Jesus in that morning"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 280-281, "In That Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 110-111, "In That Morning" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #3349
NOTES [61 words]: Surely a fragment of something else -- but given the amount of text, it's not clear what.
The Creighton and NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal texts don't have much in common apart from the words "In that morning," but they're both about That Morning, they're both religious, they're both joyful, and they are both fragmentary messes. Might as well stick them together. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: CrSe280

In That Old Field

See Throw Me Anywhere (File: Parr020)

In the Baggage Coach Ahead

See The Baggage Coach Ahead (File: R704)

In the Bar-Room (The Celebrated Working-Man)

DESCRIPTION: Singer boasts of his abilities as a coal miner, saying he can hew more coal than anyone in the region, and if anyone doubts him, they should check out his abilities -- "and haven't I often proved it in the bar-room (public bar)"
AUTHOR: Ed Foley
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (reported to have been sung by the author at the wedding of a niece in that year)
KEYWORDS: pride bragging drink mining work drink nonballad worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North)) US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 366-368, "A Celebrated Workingman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 46-47, "A Celebrated Working-Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CELEBWRK*
Roud #3486
RECORDINGS:
Jack & Reece Elliott, "In the Bar-Room (The Celebrated Working-Man)" (on Elliotts01)
Jack Elliott, "In the Bar-Room" (on Voice20)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Celebrated Working-Man" (on IronMuse1)
NOTES [83 words]: This song, written by an American anthracite miner, took up residence in the mining districts of northern England and entered the tradition almost instantaneously. For once we have an idea of the connection; apparently the person who carried it across the water was Yankee Jim Roberts, an anarchist miner from Kentucky who settled in Co. Durham and became a union activist. The song also became part of the tradition in its native Pennsylvania, and was collected there by the Archive of Folk Song. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: RcITBRCW

In the Bogie There Was a Tree

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

In the Dark Dark World

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "In the dark, dark world, There's a dark dark country, In the dark dark country, There's a dark dark wood. In the dark dark wood, There's a dark dark house. In the dark dark house There is... a man drying to mend a fuse!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: jumprope technology humorous | darkness wood house fuse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #252, "In the dark dark world" (1 text)
File: AJRR252

In the Days of '76

See The Days of Seventy-Six (File: LoF019)

In the Days of Old Rameses

DESCRIPTION: "In the days of old Rameses, are you on, are you on, They told the same thing... In the days of old Ramesis, that story had paresis...." The story sarcastically mentioned was told by Adam in Eden, by Joshua at Jericho, etc., and now is old and tired
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: nonballad Bible
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 202-203, "In the Days of Old Rameses" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [26 words]: Reported by Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag to be the theme song of the Whitechapel Club, "a group of thirsty intellectuals who were opposed to everything." - RBW
File: San202

In the Days We Went a-Gipsying

See In Days When We Went Gypsying (File: SWMS220)

In the Days when I Was Hard Up

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls how difficult life was when he faced poverty. He was scorned by family, and forced to all sorts of tricks to keep alive. He barely overcame the temptation to steal. His consolation was that he wore his ragged clothes honestly.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #5)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 99, "In the Days when I Was Hard Up" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1035, p. 71, "In the Days When I Was Hard Up" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 66 and #5/64, p 53, "In the Days when I was Hard Up" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Paul Robertson, "Ballads & Bytes: The Digitally Reproduced Folksong Collections of Dr. I. G. Greer and Dr. W. Amos Abrams" Vol. LV, No. 2 (Fall-Winter 2008), pp. 60-61, "Hard Up" (1 short text)
ST FSC099 (Partial)
Roud #4621
File: FSC099

In the Dense Woods

DESCRIPTION: The singer is lost and alone in the woods in a storm. He laments, "The cold wet ground must be my bed... The tempest howls, the rain descends. Oh Jesus, must my life here end?" After breathing his final prayers, he dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: death storm
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1860 - Death of James Fernald, said to be the hero of this song
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 243-245, "In the Dense Woods" (2 texts)
ST FO243 (Partial)
Roud #4686
File: FO243

In the Evening by the Moonlight (I)

DESCRIPTION: "In de ebening by de moonlight when de darkies work was over... Dat's de only time we had to spare.... Uncle Gabe would take de fiddle down...." "All dem happy times we used to hab, will ne'er return again... In de ebe'ning...."
AUTHOR: James A. Bland
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (sheet music published by Benj. W. Hitchcock of New York)
KEYWORDS: Black(s) nonballad fiddle music
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 87-90, "In the Evening by the Moonlight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 103-104, "In the Evening by the Moonlight" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 149, "A Medley" (1 text, 1 tune, starting with the chorus of "Sweet Adeline," then "The Old Oaken Bucket," "In the Evening by the Moonlight," "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown," and "Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground")
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 22-26, "In The Evening By The Moonlight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 43-44, "In the Evening by the Moonlight" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 187-188, "In the Evening by the Moonlight" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 250, "In The Evening By The Moonlight" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 193, 421,"In the Evening by the Moonlight" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 123, "In the Evening by the Moonlight" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST RJ19087 (Full)
Roud #9591
SAME TUNE:
In the Evening ("In the evening by the moonlight You can hear those Leaguers singing") (Harbin-Parodology, #243, p. 60)
NOTES [86 words]: James A. Bland (1854-1911), one of the leading songwriters of the 1870s, was a university-educated Black (born in New York) who spent many years in England. That he wrote songs about slaves and slavery days says more about the climate of the time than about his feelings about the institution. Even so, there is a slight dig at slavery in the remark that the time after supper was "de only time we had to spare, to hab a little fun."
Bland also wrote "[Oh, dem] Golden Slippers" and "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RJ19087

In the Evening by the Moonlight (II)

DESCRIPTION: "When you're coming from the firing line (x2), You can hear them huffling along; You can hear the Sergeant-Major calling, "Come along, boys! Get into some sort of line, Fill up the last blank file,"In the evening, by the moonlight, When you're coming...
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 48, "In the Evening by the Moonlight" (1 text)
Roud #10552
NOTES [23 words]: Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang don't list a tune for this, but presumably it is sung to "In the Evening by the Moonlight (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: BrPa048A

In the Garden

DESCRIPTION: "I come to the garden alone, While the dew is still on the roses, And the voice I hear, Falling on my ear, The Son of God discloses. And he walks with me...." The singer would stay and listen to the voices forever, "But he bids me go."
AUTHOR: C. Austin Miles (1868-1946)
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (published, according to Johnson)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 164, "And He walks with me and He talks with me" (1 fragment)
Harbin-Parodology, #297, p. 72, "In the Garden" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp, 188-189, "In the Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18447
RECORDINGS:
Lorraine Hammond, "In the Garden" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #692, recorded 10/01/2023)
Dorothy Robinson, "In the Garden" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #685, recorded 09/19/2023)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Come to the Garden Alone
NOTES [148 words]: According to William Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal, Broadman Press, 1976, p. 96, author C. Austin Miles was sitting in his darkroom, where he had photographic equipment and a camera. He chanced to open his Bible to John Chapter 20 (the resurrection, where Jesus meets Mary Magdalene). He had a vision in which he was part of the scene. Immediately after, he wrote the words to the poem, adding the tune a few hours after.
Reynolds, p. 381, says that Miles was born and died in New Jersey and trained in Pennsylvania as a pharmacist, but after writing his first song, he was hired by the company that published it and worked for them for the rest of his life. This appears to be his only song of any significance, and even it is not especially common.
Johnson dates the song to 1912; hymnary.org says 1913. This might just be the difference between composition and publication. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: bdIthGar

In the Good Old Colony Days

See In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)

In the Good Old Summertime

DESCRIPTION: "There's a time in each year that we always hold dear, Good old summertime." The singer recalls the happy days, "In the good old summertime (x2), Strolling through the shady lanes with that baby mine." He describes life as a child in summer
AUTHOR: Words: Ren Shields / Music: George Evans
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (sheet music by Howley, Haviland & Dresser)
KEYWORDS: nonballad courting
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 257, "In The Good Old Summertime" (1 text)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 191-194, "In the Good Old Summertime" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #166, "Good Old Summer Time" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 300, "In the Good Old Summertime"
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 98, "In the Good Old Summertime" (1 text, 1 tune, consisting solely of the chorus)
DT, OLSUMMER
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 157-160, "In the Good Old Summertime" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1902 sheet music)
Margaret Bradford Boni, editor, _Songs of the Gilded Age_, with piano arrangements by Norman Lloyd and illustrations by Lucille Corcos, Golden Press, 1960, pp. 116-118, "IN the Good Old Summertime" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17274
RECORDINGS:
Fran Hendrickson, "In the Good Old Summer Time" (Piotr-Archive #418, recorded 01/05/2023)
William H. Redmond, "In the Good Old Summertime" (CYL: Edison 8118, 1902)
SAME TUNE:
Coal Ship Song (III) (File: Tawn004)
In the Good Old Summertine Round the Opera House (File: KSUC136B)
The Good Old Keg of Wine (File: ChMS152)
Watermelon Time (Harbin-Parodology, #79, p. 24)
In the Good Old Picket Line (Song used in the "Bread and Roses" strike at Lawrence, MA in 1912; Bruce Watson, _Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and the Struggle for the American Dream_, Viking, 2005, pp. 88, 207)
NOTES [364 words]: This is another of those parlour songs whose chorus has entered tradition without reference to the verse. The result, however, seems popular enough to warrant inclusion here.
According to Thomas S. Hischak, The American Musical Theatre Song Encyclopedia (with a Foreword by Gerald Bordman), Greenwood Press, 1995, p. 163, this "is the popular favorite that opened the door for other songs about the seasons of the year. The memorable... number was heard in vaudeville at the turn of the century, but didn't catch on until Blache Ring sang it in The Defender (1902). Music publishers were reluctant to print the song, arguing that performers could only appropriately sing it three months out of the year. But once it was published it sold over a million copies of sheet music and a flood of seasonal songs followed." It went on to appear in other musicals; a 1904 show "The Good Old Summertime" was built around it.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 259, estimates that this was the second-most popular song in America in in 1902, reaching #1 in September of that year.
According to David A. Jasen, Tin Pan Alley: The Composers, the Songs, the Performers and their Times: The Golden Age of American Popular Music from 1886 to 1956, Primus, 1988, p, 61, this song is most associated with Blanche Ring (1877-1961), who had a part in its creation. "She and the two songwriters were having dinner at Coney Island. Evans looked around and said there was nothing like the good old summer time," and Shields picked up the phrase and wrote it down. When handed the lyrics, Evans practically hummed the tune on the spot." Ring's rendition proved so popular that the song had to be interpolated into the next several musical shows she took part in. Her singing helped create several other hits as well, including "I've Got Rings on My Fingers" and "Come, Josephine, in My Flying Machine."
"Come, Josephine" was not by Evans and Shields, but interestingly, they created what is said to have been the very first airship song, "Come Take a Trip in My Airship," in 1904 (Jasen, p. 65) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB257A

In the Good Old Summertine Round the Opera House

DESCRIPTION: "In the good old summertime, In the good old summertime, Strolling round the Opera House, Up to your knees in slime."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: derivative
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 136, "In the good old summertime" (1 short text)
Roud #17274
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In the Good Old Summertime" (tune)
File: KSUC136B

In the Highlands of Scotland There's Weeping You Know

DESCRIPTION: The singer notes weeping in the Highlands because the young men have been sent "where the maidens daurna go." She looks forward to her Donal's return and his kisses "unless some brighter beauty blinks blithe in his e'e."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love war separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1115, "In the Highlands of Scotland There's Weeping You Know" (1 text)
Roud #6831
File: GrD61115

In the Hills of Roane County

DESCRIPTION: Singer courts and marries; his wife's brother Tom stabs him. Three months later, he kills Tom. He's sentenced to life in prison. His family mourns; he tells prison friends that when they write home, "put one of my songs in your letter for me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (unissued recording, Andy Patterson)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer courts and marries; for unknown reasons, his wife's brother Tom stabs him. Three months later, he kills Tom. Tried, no one will speak up for him, and he's sentenced to life in prison. His mother weeps and his sister watches as his train departs; he now works in a prison foundry and awaits death, telling prison friends that when they write home, "put one of my songs in your letter for me"
KEYWORDS: grief courting love marriage fight violence farewell crime punishment prison revenge brother wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 37-38," Rome County" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 26, #2 (1977), p, 9, "Hills of Roane County" (1 text, 1 tune, the Wilma Lee Cooper version)
Roud #3387
RECORDINGS:
Blue Sky Boys, "In the Hills of Roane County" (Bluebird B-8693/Montgomery Ward M-8848, 1941; on ConstSor1; rec. 1940)
Jimmie Osborne, "Hills of Roane County" (King 1231, 1953)
Andy Patterson, "Willis Mabry (In the Hills of Rowan County" (unissued Gennett recording, 1929) (unissued Gennett recording, 1930 [as "Willie Mabery"])
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cruel Brother" (theme, sort of)
cf. "Roane County Strike at Harriman, Tennessee" (form)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rhone County Prison
Hills of Rome County
NOTES [144 words]: I could *swear* we did this one someplace else. - PJS
That happens to me all the time. The interesting thing, to me, is whether the song was known prior to the Blue Sky Boys recording. Roud has an interesting mention of a collection by Beck, possibly in the 1930s, but this does not seem to be well-documented or publicly available. [There are the unissued 1929 and 1930 recordings by Andy Patterson. -PJS] Wilma Lee Cooper does claim to have learned it from her family, which would predate the Blue Sky Boys recording if her memory is correct. Ditto for Almeda Riddle's version, which we note has been folk processed enough to get the name of the county "wrong."
In addition, Henry Garrett recorded (and probably wrote) "Roane County Strike at Harriman, Tennessee" in 1936, and it probably derived from this song. So that's more evidence that the song is older. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcItHoRC

In the Hive of Deseret

DESCRIPTION: "When the Saints first reached the mountains From off the desert plains... They swell'd their joyful strains." "Here we thrive in the hive, In the hive of Deseret." The land was barren when they arrived; now it is productive and the Mormons an example
AUTHOR: probably William Willes
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Willes, The Mountain Warbler)
KEYWORDS: travel home | Mormon bee hive
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 192-193, "In the Hive of Deseret'" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: William Willes, _The Mountain Warbler: Being a Collection of Original Songs and Recitations, by WIlliam Willes, with a Selection from Other writes, for the Use of Choirs, Sabbath Schools and Families_, Deseret News Book and Job Establishment, Salt Lake City, 1872 (available on Google Books), pp. 36-37, "(no title)" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bay of Biscay" (tune, according to Willes)
NOTES [125 words]: The reference to a "hive" is probably an allusion to bees, which were a symbol of Mormon Utah.
The "stone the builders Did scornfully reject" is an allusion to Psalm 118:22, "The stone that the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone," which is quoted in Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10, Luke 20:17.
Not everything in the Willes book is by Willes (and, we might add, it's texts only; no tunes are printed; despite its title, it's not what I would call a book for choirs!). Willes generally attributes poems written by others, and this has no attribution. On the other hand, he put a "W. W." after some of his own poems, and it doesn't have that, either. It's almost certainly by Willes, but perhaps one could argue that it has not been proved. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC192

In the Jailhouse Now

DESCRIPTION: Bill Campbell disregards warnings and keeps gambling; he's in the jailhouse now. Bill Austin tries to vote twice; he's in the jailhouse now. Singer meets a girl; after a spree, he finds her hand in his pocket. She's in the graveyard, he's in the jailhouse
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Whistler's Jug Band)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer's friend (Bill Campbell) disregards warnings and keeps gambling; he's in the jailhouse now. Another friend (Bill Austin) tries to vote twice (in the white folks' election); he's also in the jailhouse now. Singer meets a girl (Ivy); they go out and paint the town, but when it comes time to pay, he finds the girl's hand in his pocket. She's in the graveyard now, and he's in the jailhouse
KEYWORDS: captivity warning crime homicide prison punishment theft death gambling drink humorous prisoner thief
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #18801
RECORDINGS:
Pink Anderson, "He's in the Jailhouse Now" (on PinkAnd1)
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "In the Jailhouse Now" (Gennett 7036/Supertone 9570/Champion 15852 [as West Virginia Rail Splitter], 1930; Champion 45038. C. 1935)
Blind [Arthur] Blake, "He's in the Jailhouse Now" (Paramount 12565, 1927; Broadway 5053 [as Blind George Martin; as "He's in the Jailhouse"], n.d.)
Bill Bruner, "He's in the Jail House Now" (OKeh 45438, 1930)
Walter Dalton, "In the Jail House Now" (Perfect 12468, 1928)
John Dilleshaw, "She's in the Jailhouse Now" (recorded for OKeh, 1929, unissued)
Adelyne Hood, "He's On the Chain Gang Now" (Columbia 2158-D, 1930) (Oriole 1935, 1930)
Jim Jackson, "He's in the Jailhouse Now" (Vocalion, unissued, 1927) (Vocalion 1146, 1928)
Frankie Marvin, "In the Jailhouse Now" (Edison 20002, 1929) (Brunswick 248, 1928) (Cameo 8328/Conqueror 7164 [both as Frankie Wallace], 1928)
Earl McDonald's Original Louisville Jug Band, "She's In the Graveyard Now" (Columbia 14255-D, 1927; on Ruckus1)
Memphis Sheiks [pseud. for Memphis Jug Band], "He's in the Jailhouse Now" (Victor 23256, 1930; on GoodForWhatAilsYou)
Billy Mitchell, "In the Jailhouse Now" (Bluebird B-6651, 1936)
Jimmie Rodgers, "In the Jailhouse Now" (Victor 21245,1928; Bluebird B-5223, 1933; Montgomery Ward M-4721, c. 1935)
Whistler's Jug Band "Jail House Blues" (Gennet 5614, 1925; recorded 1924)
SAME TUNE:
Gene Autry, "In the Jailhouse Now No. 2" (Champion 16141, 1930; Montgomery Ward M-4975, 1936); "He's In the Jail House No. 2" (Banner 32082/Jewel 20035/Oriole 8035/Regal 10259/Romeo 5035/Perfect 12667/Conqueror 7708, 1931; Broadway 4062, n.d.; Piccadilly [UK] 872, 1932)
Frankie Marvin, "I'm in the Jailhouse Now - No. 2" (Crown 3026/Homestead 22992, 1930)
Jimmie Rodgers, "In the Jailhouse Now - No. 2" (Victor [US & Can.] 22523, 1930; Montgomery Ward M-4315, 1933; RCA Victor 20-6092, 1955)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
He's In That Jail House Now
NOTES [129 words]: I'm astonished we haven't indexed this song yet -- looking at the keyword list, it has every important ingredient except, perhaps, trains and Mama. While Jimmie Rodgers' version is probably the best-known, the song was also current in African-American tradition; a very different version was recorded by blues singer Luke Jordan. - PJS
I've encountered this phenomenon many times: Songs well-known in folk revival circles don't always have much currency in books. I don't know if it's lack of collections or lack of respect for the songs; perhaps it's something of each.
Jimmie Rodgers copyrighted his version in 1928, and he is sometimes listed as the author (e.g. on the hit version by Webb Pierce, Decca 299391, 1955), but the earlier recordings argue against this. - RBW, PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RcItJHN

In the Kingdom

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "In the kingdom (7x), In the kingdom today." Verse: "My mother (father, sister) has gone to journey away (x3), In the kingdom today"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 92-93, "In the Kingdom" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 108-109 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #11620
NOTES [19 words]: Roud lumps this with "'Way in the Kingdom (Aunt Susie)," but the contents are so different that I've split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Dett092

In the Land of Olden

See Land of Odin (File: ACSF309O)

In the Lonely Glens of Yarrow

See The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214] (File: C214)

In the Louisiana Lowlands

See Louisiana Lowlands (File: CrNS129)

In the Mansions Above

DESCRIPTION: "Good lord, in the mansions above, (x2), My Lord, I hope to meet my Jesus in the mansions above." "If you get there before I do..." "My lord, I've had many crosses and trials here below..." "Fight on, my brother, for the mansions above."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, pp. 59, "In the Mansions Above" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12019
NOTES [26 words]: Probably an allusion to John 14:2, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: AWG059

In the Men's Apartment

DESCRIPTION: "She does all her endeavor ...": if she finds the women in the men's apartment "she'll beat their backs wi her twa fists And tear their very hair"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: violence hair courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1906, "In the Men's Apartment" (1 fragment)
Roud #16885
File: Grd81906

In the Merry Month of June, Love

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that "times are nae wi' me love, as they hae been." He describes his love and says "surely ye've been very unconstant To change yer old love for any new." She says "you will have pleasure I would rather my old love than twenty new"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity beauty dialog nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 808, "In the Merry Month of June, Love" (1 text)
Roud #6209
NOTES [23 words]: This reminds me a bit of "Will Ye Gang, Love," as sung, e.g., by Archie Fisher. But I don't have enough data to know if they're linked. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD48098

In the Midst of Those Awful Mormons

DESCRIPTION: "Oh dear, I"m sad, I've got the blues, I've lately heard some dreadful news, I really tremble in my shoes, It's all about the Mormons." They are "the queerest set... They live in... Deseret." They obey Brigham Young in everything. They have many wives
AUTHOR: Words: William Willes? (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Willes, The Mountain Warbler)
KEYWORDS: husband wife home battle America children | Mormon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1801-1877 - Life of Brigham Young
1832 - Young becomes a Mormon
1844 - Young becomes leader of the Mormons
1847 - Mormon migration to Utah
1850 - Young made Governor of Utah territory. From 1857, however, the U.S. Government enforced various restrictions on the Mormons and their governor, mostly in response to polygamy
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, pp. 123-124, "In the Midst of Those Awful Mormons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #216, "Brigham Young II" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 220-222, "In the Midst of Those Awful Mormons" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: William Willes, _The Mountain Warbler: Being a Collection of Original Songs and Recitations, by WIlliam Willes, with a Selection from Other writes, for the Use of Choirs, Sabbath Schools and Families_, Deseret News Book and Job Establishment, Salt Lake City, 1872 (available on Google Books), pp. 49-50, "(no title)" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10900
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brigham Young (I)" (character of Brigham Young) and references there
cf. "The King of the Cannibal Islands" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
NOTES [104 words]: Not everything in the Willes book is by Willes (and, we might add, it's texts only; no tunes are printed; despite its title, it's not what I would call a book for choirs!). Willes generally attributes poems written by others, and this has no attribution. On the other hand, he put a "W. W." after some of his own poems, and it doesn't have that, either. It's almost certainly by Willes, but perhaps one could argue that it has not been proved.
This seems to be the most popular piece by Willes. Not that that's saying much; if the Mormons actually had divine inspiration, why did they let such an awful writer continue? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSSS123B

In the Month of October

See Moosehead Lake (File: LoF058)

In the Mormon Beds Out West

DESCRIPTION: "In the Mormon beds out West, There the concubines do rest While husbands visit Emily and Jane! Oh! how the babies do abound By the thousands all around While the husband now slips in to see Elaine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: humorous wife husband children
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #223, "In the Mormon Beds out West" (1 short text)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 175-176, "(In the Mormon beds out west" (1 fragment)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 264-265, "(In the Mormon beds out west)" (1 fragment)
Roud #10951
File: Hubb223

In the Morning

DESCRIPTION: "We're a 65-ton hooker, and we're jammed up in the Bight." Sailing her is hard; she may well sink. "And for two-pound-ten a month we have to go where duty calls. We can't be much worse off... whatever luck befalls In Kingdom-blanky-Glory in the morning."
AUTHOR: Marshall Nalder (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Sydney Bulletin, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: ship hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 132, "In the Morning" (1 text)
File: BaRo132

In the Morning (I)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Ride on (x3), King Emanuel, Don't you want to go to heaven in the morning." Verses: "Some of these mornings bright and fair, Take my flight right through the air." "You say your aiming for the skies, Why don't you stop telling lies."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 194, "Ride On" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 120-121 in the 1901 edition)
ADDITIONAL: Howard W. Odum, Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes, (reprint from American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, July 1909, Vol.3 pp. 265-365 "Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 66, "In the Morning" (1 text)
Roud #15271
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "King Emanuel (II)" (King Emanuel theme) and notes there
NOTES [65 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses every alternate line is "Don't you want to go to heaven in the morning."
The description follows Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute. Odum's chorus is "Won't you ride on Jesus, Ride on Jesus, ride on crowning King, For I want to go to heaven in the morning." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett194

In the Morning (II)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "In the morning (x2) When the dark clouds roll away (x2) I'll be praying with my mother, When...." "No more sorrow / crying / praying, When...." "I'll be happy in the morning, When...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (USFlorida01)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Ella Mae Wilson, Lillie B. Williams, and Richard Williams, "In the Morning" (on USFlorida01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Since I Laid My Burden Down" (tune)
cf. "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" (tune)
File: RcFloItM

In the Morning by the Bright Light

DESCRIPTION: "I'se gwine away by the light of the moon, Want all the children to follow me, I hope I'll meet you darkies soon, Oh, hally, hally hallelujah!..." Chorus: "In the morning, morning by the bright light Hear Gabriel blow his trumpet in the morning."
AUTHOR: James Bland
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (sheet music published by John F. Perry & Co. of Boston)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 304, "In the Morning by the Bright Light" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 569, "Going to Heaven by the Light of the Moon" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 569, "Going to Heaven by the Light of the Moon" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, pp. 22-23, "In the Morning by the Bright Light" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R304 (Partial)
Roud #7776
File: R304

In the Morning Don't You Hear the Trumpet Sound

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: ("In the morning"(2x) "Children? Yes my Lord? Don't you hear the trumpet sound" Verses are floating couplets with "Don't you hear the trumpet sound?" as tag. See notes for some floaters.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 26, p. 213, "In the Morning" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jerusalem Morning" (theme) and references there
NOTES [114 words]: The description is based on Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment. Higginson's floaters include "If I had died when I was young I never would had the race to run" and "A silver spade to dig my grave And a golden chain to let me down."
For a similar hymn see John Wesley Work, Folk Song of the American Negro (Nashville: Fisk University, 1915 ("Digitized by the Internet Archive")), pp. 60-61, "You May Bury Me In the East." The chorus is "In that morning How I long to go For to hear the trumpet sound In that morning" Verses are couplets -- like "In that dreadful judgment day We'll take wings and fly away" -- followed by the tag "For to hear the trumpet sound In that morning." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Hi026213

In the North Countrie

See The Penny Wager (File: McCST115)

In the Old Carolina State

See Darling Cloe (File: Brne117)

In the Pines

DESCRIPTION: Usually about a man whose girl has left him (on a train) (to meet another) ("in the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines, And I shivered the whole night through"). The girl, who rides the "longest train I ever saw," may die in a wreck
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: train separation loneliness love death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 491-502, "The Longest Train/In the Pines" (3 texts containing many floating verses, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 283, "In the Pines" (2 text plus a fragment; the "A" text, though very full, is damaged and probably mixed; the "B" text is mostly floating verses; "C" is only three lines, and may not belong here); also 297, "You Caused Me to Lose My Mind" (1 fragment, mostly of floating lyrics but with hints it goes here); also 301, "High-Topped Shoes" (2 texts, both mixed; "A" is mostly "Pretty Little Foot" with verses from "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" while "B" is a hash of "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down," "More Pretty Girls Than One," "In the Pines," and others)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 301, "High-Topped Shoes" (2 tunes plus text excerpts, of which "B" has verses of this song)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 283, "In the Pines, Where the Sun Never Shines" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 96, pp. 149-150, "The Longest Day I Ever Saw" (1 text, with two verses that appear to be from a hobo or perhaps a chain gang or prison song)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 203, "Black Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 32-33, "In the Pines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #104, "In the Pine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #61, "In the Pines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 290, "The Longest Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 231, (fifth of several "Fragments from Tennessee") (1 fragment, which might be this although it's too short to know)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 28, "Little Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 103 "In The Pines" (1 text)
DT, INPINES*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 26, #6 (1978), p, 5, "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" (1 text, 1 tune, the Lead Belly version)
Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 37, "Black Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3421
RECORDINGS:
Gerald Duncan et al, "In the Pines" (on MusOzarks01)
Roscoe Holcomb, "In the Pines" (on Holcomb1, HolcombCD1)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "To the Pines, to the Pines" (on BLLunsford01)
Marlow & Young [pseud. for Burnett & Rutherford] "Let Her Go, I'll Meet Her" (Champion 15691, 1929; on KMM)
Clayton McMichen's Wildcats, "In the Pines" (Decca 5448, 1937)
Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys, "In The Pines" (Bluebird B-8861, 1941); (Decca 28416, 1952)
Riley Puckett, "The Longest Train I Ever Saw" (Decca 5523, 1938) (Bluebird B-8104, 1939)
Lou Ella Robertson, "In the Pines" (Capitol 1706, 1951)
Texas Jim Robertson & the Panhandle Pushers, "In the Pines" (RCA Victor 20-2907, 1948)
Arthur Smith & his Dixieliners [or Arthur Smith Trio], "In the Pines" (Bluebird B-7943/Montomery Ward M-7686, 1938)
Pete Seeger, "Black Girl" (on PeteSeeger18) (on PeteSeeger43)
Tenneva Ramblers, "The Longest Train I Ever Saw" (Victor 20861, 1927)
Dock Walsh, "In the Pines" (Columbia 15094-D, 1926)
Ephraim Woodie & the Henpecked Husbands, "Last Gold Dollar" (Columbia 15564-D, 1930) [Filed here by Paul Stamler despite the title - RBW]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lonesome Road" (lyrics)
cf. "Old Alec Brown" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Where Did You Sleep Last Night?
NOTES [202 words]: This song became the basis of "Blue Diamond Mines" in the 1970s. -PJS
The elements in this song may vary widely, and it is best recognized by its form and the references to the pines. The plot described above is common but by no means universal.
Cohen briefly summarizes Judith McCulloh's Ph.D. dissertation ("In the Pines": The Melodic-Textual Identity of an American Lyric Folksong Cluster), which analyses over 150 texts she identified with this song. She seems to have identified three common textual motifs: "In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines" (118 texts), "The longest train I ever saw" (96 versions), and "(His/her) head was (found) on the driver's wheel, (His/her) body never was found." There is also a fairly characteristic tune. Still, the boundaries of this type are very vague; long versions almost always include very many floating verses and have no overall plot except perhaps a feeling of loneliness. - RBW
The Marlow & Young [Burnett & Rutherford] recording is a conglomerate of floating verses; I put it here because the one that floated from this song came first, but it could as easily go under, "Goodnight, Irene" -- it has the "Sometimes I live in the country" verse. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LoF290

In the Pit from Sin Set Free

DESCRIPTION: "In the pit from sin set free, Sudden death would glory be, That is why I sing with glee, Jesus saves." The miner, even as he struggles to bring up the coal, is thankful to Jesus.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: religious mining
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 27, "In the Pit from Sin Set Free" (1 text, 1 (non-traditional) tune)
ST Wa027 (Partial)
Roud #7467
NOTES [42 words]: The tune to the Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl recording was supplied by Sam Bayard, as the only one he knew to fit the words supplied by Benjamin S. Davies. The composite is not traditional, and the words may not be. - RBW
File: Wa027

In the Prison Cell I Sit

See Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! (File: RJ19214)

In the Shade I Lie and Ponder

DESCRIPTION: "In the shade I lie and ponder While the suns rays beat up yonder, My one wish is that I might wander this world till I die." " I shall seek valleys enchanted. With my close friends here beside me, and my God above to guide me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: rambling friend campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 540, "Ponder" (notes only)
NOTES [12 words]: At least one source apparently calls this (an?) "African Hiking Song." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF540P

In the Shade of the Old 'Arris Mill

DESCRIPTION: "In the shade of the old 'Arris mill, It's enough to make anyone ill, The reelin' is rotten and so is the cotton," but the owner still drives the doffers hard. They are poor and have bad clothes. They wish for Friday when they get paid and can go out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire)
KEYWORDS: derivative weaving hardtimes clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 78, "In the Shade of the Old 'Arris Mill" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree" (tune)
NOTES [39 words]: Although Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire does not say so explicitly (it says nothing at all about this song), the tune is "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree" -- or, rather, its chorus, which is the only part anyone remembers anyway. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: MHFL078

In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree (I)

DESCRIPTION: "The oriole was sweetly singing" over the lovers. Chorus: "In the shade of the old apple tree, Where the love in your eyes I could see... With a heart that is true, I'll be waiting for you, In the shade...." The girl dies and is buried under the tree
AUTHOR: Harry H. Williams and Egbert Van Alstyne (Source: Jon W. Finson, _The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song_, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 112)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love death burial
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 252, "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree" (notes only)
Roud #10242
RECORDINGS:
Milton Brown & His Musical Brownies, "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree" (Decca 5129)
Haydn Quartet (Harry Macdonough, vocalist), "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree" (Victor 4337, 1905)
Kentucky Thoroughbreds, "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree" (Broadway 8128)
Uncle Dave Macon, "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree" (Vocalion 5149)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maggie Jones" (parody of this piece)
cf. "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree" (parody of this piece)
cf. "Eve" (lyrics_
SAME TUNE:
In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree (II) (File: EM277)
'Neath the Crust of the Old Apple Pie (File: Paro093)
In the Shade of the Old 'Arris Mill (File: MHFL078)
So I Climbed Up the Old Apple Tree (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 146)
In the Shade of the Green Apple Tree (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 252)
In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree ("In the shade of the old apple tree Sat yount Tom and his sweetheart Marie") (Harbin-Parodology, #386, p. 94)
NOTES [60 words]: Roud lumps the Williams/van Alstyne original with the bawdy parody, but I would consider them clearly separate songs.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 269, estimates that this was the most popular song in America in 1905, peaking at #1 in April 1905. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: JWF112

In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree (II)

DESCRIPTION: A girl shows the singer her anatomy "in the shade of the old apple tree," and he makes the appropriate reply
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy parody
FOUND IN: US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 277-278, "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree" (2 texts)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 151, "In The Shade of the Old Apple Tree" (1 text)
Roud #10242
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree (I)" (tune) and references there
NOTES [20 words]: Roud lumps the Williams/van Alstyne original with the bawdy parody, but I would consider them clearly separate songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM277

In the Shadow of the Pines

See Shadow of the Pines (File: MN1135)

In the Streets of Laredo

See The Streets of Laredo [Laws B1] (File: LB01)

In the Summer of '60

See In the Summer of Sixty (File: LPnd189)

In the Summer of Sixty

DESCRIPTION: "In the summer of sixty as you very well know The excitements at Pike's Peak was then all the go." The singer buys a ranch, but a miner jumps his claim. He gets into a crooked card game, loses all his money, and flees the area
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Pound)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes gold poverty gambling cards
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 89, pp. 189-190, "In the Summer of Sixty" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 7-8, "In the Summer of '60" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 116-117, "In the Summer of Sixty" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 590-591, "In the Summer of Sixty" (1 text)
Roud #4978
File: LPnd189

In the Sweet By and By

See Sweet By and By (File: RJ19198)

In the Sweet Bye and Bye (I)

See Sweet By and By (File: RJ19198)

In the Sweet Bye and Bye (II)

See The Preacher and the Slave (File: San221)

In the Town of Oxford

See The Sheffield Apprentice [Laws O39] (File: LO39)

In the Township of Danville

See The Queenstown Mourner (In the Town of Danville) [Laws H14] (File: LH14)

In the Tunnel (I)

See The Harvard Student (The Pullman Train) (File: R391)

In the Tunnel (II)

See Run for Your Life (File: Colq056)

In the Vale of Abraham

DESCRIPTION: "In the vale of Abraham, Christ himself he made Adam." Adam is shown "the bliss of paradise" and the Tree of Knowledge. The fiend lures him to eat. He sees that he is naked, and is driven into the desert
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1430 (British Museum -- Sloane MS. 2593)
KEYWORDS: religious MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #336, p. 230, "In the Vale of Abraham" (1 text)
Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics 55, "(Now bethenk thee, gentilman)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1568
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2630
ADDITIONAL: Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #183, pp. 426-427, "Adam Driven from Eden" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 2
NOTES [372 words]: This piece occurs in only one manuscript, although the manuscript is a very important one (Sloane 2593, the "Sloane Lyrics"). Ordinarily that would not be enough reason to include the piece in the Index; there is no direct evidence that it is traditional.
There are some interesting indications, though, that -- although clearly a religious piece, and probably a carol -- it was not produced by the church.
For starters, it is set in "the vale of Abraham." If there is such a place in any Bible translation, I've never heard of it.
Second, it says that Christ -- not God, Christ -- created Adam. This may sound trivial, since orthodox doctrine says that God is three-in-one, but it has a strong whiff of several heresies about it.
Next, it says that the forbidden fruit was an apple. This is a widespread belief, but it is definitely not Biblical. There is a Hebrew word that is often rendered "apple" (although it's thought it might be an apricot or quince), but the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge *is not called by that term*; it's just a fruit, as anyone who reads Genesis will be able to tell (in the Vulgate text used in medieval England, the word is "fructus" -- e.g. Genesis 3:2).
The song says that "the fiend," not "the serpent," tempted Adam. Genesis says that it was the serpent, and only later was the serpent equated with the Devil. This equation would be accepted by the Church, but it doesn't come from Genesis, hinting that the song was written without reference to a Bible manuscript.
In the seventh stanza, Adam is mentioned as naked only *after* he eats the fruit. Greene suggests that this means that eating caused him to become naked. I don't think this necessarily so, but it's an interesting point.
But the key point is this: *Eve does not tempt Adam.* The fiend talks to Adam directly, and Adam, not Eve, eats the fruit. Eve is mentioned only obliquely, in verse 1; she has no part in the Fall. The medieval church was utterly misogynist; under no circumstances would they shift the blame from Eve to Adam. This is not a writing of the church, and would not have been accepted by the church. So I suspect it is "folk."
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MsItVoAb

In the Valley

DESCRIPTION: "I was in Judah's(?) land by God's (immortal) hand That Jesus Christ was born in the vally, In the valley, in the valley, That Jesus Christ was born in the valley." The early life of Jesus is recounted, and listeners advised to heed and rejoice
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Library of Congress recording)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 534, "In the Valley" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 534, "In the Valley" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Wells-TheBalladTree, p. 192, "In the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11874
NOTES [68 words]: This is a rather odd song; most of the early verses are based on the Biblical accounts of the Nativity in Matthew and Luke -- but the reference to "the valley" has no Biblical connection that I can see. Unless it refers to the Jordan valley, where John the Baptist, and presumably Jesus, began his ministry.
Jean Ritchie learned this song early in life, but forgot most of the words and composed new ones. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3534

In the Vintertime

See In de Vinter Time (File: San334)

In the Wilderness

See The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)

In the Woods There Stands a House

See Little Cabin in the Woods (File: ACSF112L)

In the Year of '39

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a young man in the year of '39," the singer served on the "famous ship" Cassoline. They go searching for other ships and encounter one much better armed, but fight her off even though only 18 of their own crew can still fight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
KEYWORDS: ship fight pirate
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 131, "In the Year of '39" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship of Revolution" (plot)
NOTES [25 words]: Yeah, right.
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors were unable to identify the ship or the event. I'm not going to try, because this is patent fiction. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LGo133

In This Field We Mus' Die

DESCRIPTION: We must die in this field. We shall die in that field. Born to die. We must die. My God says we must. Sure as you live, You're going to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, pp. 142-143, "In This Field We Mus' Die" (2 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Freddie Palmer, Brenton Jordan and The McIntosh County Shouters, "In the Field We Must Die" (on McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts)
NOTES [28 words]: The description is from the Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree texts.
The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree text and McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts track are "ring shout" songs. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RSBF142

In This Ring Stand a Lady Fair

See Sailing in the Boat (File: LoF013)

In This Ring You Stand So Fair

DESCRIPTION: "In this ring you stand so far, You look so sad and lonesome, Choose the one that you love best, And choose the one that's handsome." "Now you think you've done quite well, Go prove yourself, get married... And tell her that you love her."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains)
KEYWORDS: playparty love courting
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 22, "In This Ring You Stand So Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7894
NOTES [45 words]: Roud (who, as of this writing, had not indexed Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains) appears to lump this with "Getting Married (Hog and Hominy)." The themes are the same, but the form so different that I am splitting them until I see some intermediate forms. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Skea022

In This Time Christ Hath Us Sent

DESCRIPTION: "In this time Christ hath us sent, His own son to be present, To dwell with us in verament, God, that is our savior." He was born in an ox's stall. The shepherds came. The star shone. So "Man, be glad in hall and bower"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #27, pp. 19-20, "(no title)" (3 texts)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 47-48, "(Man, be glad in hall and bower)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1575
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2641
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book , Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #11, p. 7, "(Make we mery in hall & bowr)" (1 text, with an additional text on p. 170)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, p. 461
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 24
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Royal 20 A.I, folio 120
NOTES [84 words]: Although no longer found in tradition, it is foundin two very important manuscripts. It is in the Hill MS. (Balliol College, Oxford, 354) and in Sloane MS. 2593, an important collection which contains many folk songs. (The British Library Royal manuscript is less important and has only a few scraps of poetry). I am not sure this is a folk song, but its credentials are strong enough to tentatively include it.
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSITTCHS

In Town

DESCRIPTION: "Whee-oop! Whoop-ee! Does anyone find any flies on me?" The cowboy arrives in town with his check, having worked for six months on the trail. He can't find a girl who really wants him, so he intends to spend his money on drink.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: cowboy drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 416, "In Town" (1 text)
Roud #15582
File: LxA416

In Yorkshire City

See Oxford City [Laws P30] (File: LP30)

In Zepo Town

See The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)

Inconstant Lover (I), The

See The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)

Inconstant Lover (II), The

See On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)

Inconstant Lover (III), The

See The Broken Engagement (II -- We Have Met and We Have Parted) (File: Beld212)

Increase of Crime

DESCRIPTION: The singer says London's, or "the Union's," "great increase in crime" results from the rich hoarding gold while the poor are underpaid and hungry, and the police arrest the poor while letting the real criminal thrive.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1871 12156W)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer explains London's, or "the Union's," "great increase in crime." John Bull, or Uncle Sam, respectively, think it's a puzzle in spite of peace and "plenty of gold." Gold is stowed away "while the poor man with hunger may rot" Honest working girls turn to prostitution "when blood sucking firms barely give enough to ward off destitution." Police arrest the poor but "the law cannot touch" real criminals. The rich should "go and visit the homes of the poor... and list to the great voice of hunger But never more wonder at crime"
KEYWORDS: greed poverty crime commerce gold money work nonballad police political
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 43, "Increase of Crime" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #32, pp. 24-25, "The Increase of Crime" (1 text)
Roud #4271
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1905), "John Bull, Can You Wonder at Crime?" ("I've been thinking of late, I've been thinking"), H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Firth c.17(84), Harding B 11(1902), Harding B 11(1903), "John Bull, Can You Wonder at Crime[?][!]"
LOCSheet, sm1871 12156, "Increase of Crime" ("I've been thinking of late I've been thinking"), Zundel & Brand (Toledo), 1871 (1 text, 1 tune); also sm1872 01263, sm1872 07433, "Increase of Crime"
LOCSinging, as106770, "John Bull Can You Wonder at Crime" ("I've been thinking of late I've been thinking"), unknown, no date
PopMusicMTSU, 94-017 Goldstein ID 000320-BROAD, "Increase of Crime" ("I've been thinking of late I've been thinking"), A.W. Auner (Philadelphia), 1875
NOTES [16 words]: Broadsides Bodleian Harding B 11(1903) and LOCSinging as106770 appear to be the same edition. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: MuLa043

Incy Wincy Spider

See The Eensy Weensy Spider (File: BGMG579)

Indeed Pretty Polly

See No Sign of a Marriage [Laws P3] (File: LP03)

Independent Broom, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, say did you ever in years long gone by, When you bachelor's hall were so lonesomely keeping, To sweep with an old lopsided broom try?" For 24 years there has been no new broom (political party). "The broom Independent" will sweep the state
AUTHOR: Words: Luna E. (Mrs. J. T.) Kellie (1857-1940)
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Farmer's Alliance, September 6, 1890 edition, according to Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore)
KEYWORDS: poverty derivative political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 64-65, "The Independent Broom" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: Nebraska Folklore, Pamphlet Eighteen, "Farmers' Alliance Songs of the 1890's," Federal Writers' Project, 1938, p. 12, "The Independent Broom" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Star-Spangled Banner" (tune)
NOTES [34 words]: For background on Luna Kellie, see the notes to "Marching for Freedom." The reference to a "new broom" is to the foundation of the Populist/Farmers party in Nebraska; see again "Marching for Freedom." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: Wels064

India's Burning Sands

See The Paisley Officer (India's Burning Sands) [Laws N2] (File: LN02)

India's Burning Shore

See The Irish Patriot (File: Dib090)

India's Burning Shores

DESCRIPTION: "I stood beneath the lofty palms on India's burning shores" where the singer meets an old man who declares he is a native of Ireland. He was exiled in the aftermath of 1848. His wife and daughter were killed. The singer promises to take him home to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Beck-FolkloreOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion wife children death exile return
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 94-95, "India's Burning Shores" (1 text)
Roud #550
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Patriot" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [63 words]: Roud lumps this with "The Paisley Officer (India's Burning Sands)" [Laws N2]. But there is no similarity except for the title; that ballad is about a lover in disguise following her soldier to India; this is about an exile from Ireland wanting to go home. It appears to me that it is instead related to "The Irish Patriot," but I am not sure of the nature of the relationship. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: BeMe095

Indian Camp-Meeting Song

DESCRIPTION: "Pitch my tent on the camp ground And a-hu'em, and a hu'um! For to give the devil anotehr round, And a-hu'um, and a-hu'um! Yes, glory be to God, my soul's high; Leap for joy and let us fly, And a-hu'um, and a-hu'um!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Elsie Burnett)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 195, "Indian Camp-Meeting Song" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Few Days" (lyrics)
NOTES [48 words]: Clearly derived from "Few Days" (or, just possibly, the other way around), but equally clearly a different song. I have no idea why this is called an "Indian" song; presumably it's a reference to that "a-hu'um" lyric, but I rather doubt that is actually derived from any native dialect. - RBW
File: MHAp195

Indian Chief, The

DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "My curse upon the timber with the wood in which it grew, That built the Indian Chief to drown Tom Cannon and his crew"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 126, "The Indian Chief" (1 fragment)
Roud #20539
NOTES [54 words]: Before January 1, 1846 the Indian Chief was lost at Blackwater Bank, Wexford (source: Bourke in Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast v1, p. 61)
Ballads of "The Wreck of the Indian Chief," by Charles Steer and by Sir William Topaz McGonagall, are about a different wreck and rescue (January 8, 1881 in the English channel). - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran126A

Indian Children, The

DESCRIPTION: "Once upon this very ground, Indian children played around, Overhead the sky was blue, Underfoot the green grass grew." The children heard the birds, lived in huts, dressed in blankets. The singer wishes they were here so they could learn how to play
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (High-OldOldFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) nonballad home clothes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 6, "The Indian Children" (1 text)
Roud #15841
File: High006

Indian Counting

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme? "Een, teen, tether, fether, fip, Sather, lather, gother, dather, dix; Een-dix, teen-dix, tether-dix, fether-dix, bumpit, Een-bumpit, teen-bumpit, tether-bumpit, fether-bumpit, gig-it."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: nonsense | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 20, "Indian Counting" (1 text)
NOTES [39 words]: Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo gives this the title "Indian Counting" but says the words are Welsh numerals. If so, they have been pretty badly distorted. Welsh counting numbers begin un, dau, tri, pedwar, pump, chwech, saith, wyth.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: WEMM020A

Indian Fighters, The

See The Sioux Indians [Laws B11] (File: LB11)

Indian Ghost Dance and War, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Red Skins left their Agency, the Soldiers left their Post, All on the strength of an Indan tale about Messiah's ghost." The Indians think their Messiah can protect them from guns; it is not true. The soldiers defeat the Indians
AUTHOR: Words: W. H. Prather (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (14th annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) soldier war dream
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 261, "The Indian Ghost Dance and War" (1 text)
NOTES [142 words]: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 258, seems to say that this is about the Dakota war of 1890 led by Sitting Bull. I wonder, though, if the author wasn't either working from an earlier piece or confusing several stories. The idea that white man's guns couldn't pierce the properly pious Indians reminds me of the visions of Tecumseh's brother Tenskwatawa, "the prophet" that led to the Battle of Tippicanoe, and the bit about the Agency reminds me of another Dakota uprising, that in Minnesota in the 1860s, which came about because the United States government had forced the Dakota to be dependent on Indian Agency handouts -- and then hadn't shipped the handouts.
I should add that the general bigotry of the piece reminds me of... just about everything the Europeans have done to the first residents of the North American continent. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC261

Indian Girl, or Bright Alfarata, The

See The Blue Juniata (File: Hud083)

Indian Hunter (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh come with me in my light canoe While the sea is calm and the sky is blue, Come with me for I long to go To the isle where mango apples grow. Then come with me and give my love...." The hunter describes how he will care for the girl
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love travel home hunting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 781, "The Indian Hunter" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #2843
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gum Tree Canoe" (theme)
NOTES [67 words]: Randolph's text sounds like a cross between "Gum Tree Canoe" and Christopher Marlowe. Ick.
Randolph lists this as having words by Eliza Cook and Henry Russell, but it appears he had never seen the Cook/Russell song and was matching them by title. I am (fairly) sure that the Cook/Russell song is in fact the one indexed as "The Indian Hunter (III)" and that this is a separate song of unknown origin. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: R781

Indian Hunter (II), The

See White Man, Let Me Go (File: FJ032)

Indian Hunter (III), The

DESCRIPTION: "Why does the white man follow my path?" The white man has taken enough but wants more. "... [t]he white man wrongs the one Who never did harm to him"
AUTHOR: Eliza Cook (1818-1889) in 1837 (source: Thomson-Pioneer citing Spaeth,_A History of Popular Music in America_); tune by Henry Russell (source: Jon W. Finson, _The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song_, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 246)
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: greed lament nonballad Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 77, "The Indian Hunter" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1044, p. 71, "Indian Hunter No. 2" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 50 and #4/64, p. 50, "Indian Hunter" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Jon W. Finson, _The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song_, Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. 246-248 (1 partial text, 1 partial tune, plus notes)
Roud #2843
NOTES [94 words]: Finson's notes point out a genuine irony in this song: Cook's ode to the noble savage contrasts sharply with Russell's florid arrangement, which has similarities to Italian opera. Although even Cook's text views the Indian as an ineffective hunter-gatherer.
For background on Eliza Cook, see the notes to "Grandmother's Chair." For background on Henry Russell, see "Cheer, Boys, Cheer (II)."
I note that the Index has *two* "Indian Hunter" songs attributed by their editors to Cook and Russell. I'm pretty sure this is the one that is truly by Cook and Russell. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: TPS077

Indian Hymn

DESCRIPTION: Alone in the wood the singer looks to heaven; God looks down and says "Poor Indian never fear, I'm with you night and day." When he dies he'll go "above the sky" with no need of blanket or wigwam, "the better habitation share With Jesus good and kind"
AUTHOR: Rev. Silas Tertius Rand ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 171, "Indian Hymn" (1 text)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #58, "Indian Methodist Conversion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2729
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Indian Maid" (theme)
cf. "When I Go Up to Shinum Place" (theme)
NOTES [86 words]: Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs: "Apparently this was a hymn written by Rev. Silas Tertius Rand who ministered to the Micmac Indians."
See "When I Go Up to Shinum Place" for similar phrases. - BS
I'm far from convinced that Jane Gentry's "Indian Methodist Conversion" is the same song -- it's much simplified and turned into a repeat-with-variations which omits much of the text found in Creighton -- but Roud lumps them, so I'm putting it here. I note that it never mentions anything about Methodists or Methodism. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: CrMa171A

Indian Lament, The

See The Sioux Indians [Laws B11] (File: LB11)

Indian Lass, The

DESCRIPTION: At a foreign ale house the singer meets "a young Indian lass [from] a place near Orleans." She invites him home, offers him a drink and they spend the night. She begs him not to leave but he sails away and offers "a health to the young Indian lass!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1852 (broadside, Bodleian Harding Harding B 11(1759))
KEYWORDS: love sex farewell drink sailor Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Britain(England(Lond,North,South))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 51, "Young Indian Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 57, "The Indian Lass" (1 text)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 58, "The Young Spanish Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 346-348, "The Spanish Lass (The Young Spanish Lass; The Indian Lass)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 502, "Indian Lass" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 109-111, "The Indian Lass" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 24, "The Indian Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #29, "The Indian Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 23, "The Indian Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1045, p. 71, "The Indian Lass" (1 reference)
ST CrNS051 (Partial)
Roud #2326
RECORDINGS:
Lenora Stevens Biggin, "The Spanish Lass" (on NFAGuigné01)
John Hennessy, "The Barque In The Harbour" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1759), "Indian Lass" ("As I was wa[l]king on a far distant shore"), Samuel Russell (Birmingham), 1840-1851; also Harding B 11(1752), Harding B 11(1754), Firth c.12(279), Johnson Ballads 2288, Harding B 11(1756), Harding B 11(1757), Harding B 11(1758), Johnson Ballads 436, "The Indian Lass"
LOCSinging, sb20217b, "The Indian Lass," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Mohee" [Laws H8] (theme, some verses, and references there)
cf. "I'm a Stranger in this Country (The Darger Lad)" (theme, verses)
NOTES [171 words]: Tune for Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia is 4/4 and no relation to the "On Top of Old Smoky" waltz common for "The Little Mohee."
The known dates for the broadsides for "The Indian Lass" don't help decide which came first,: "The Indian Lass" or "The Little Mohee"; in any case, one is clearly a derivative of the other.
In all of these broadside versions except what is -- so far -- the earliest, [the text has] "She was born and brought up in a place near Orleans"; for Bodleian Harding B 11(1759) "She was born and brought up in the place New Orleans."- BS
For discussion of the relationship of this song to "The Little Mohee," see the entry on that song. I must admit, looking at this, that I wonder if "The Little Mohee" isn't older; this looks like a version of that crossed with "The Lakes of Ponchartrain." - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb20217b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CrNS051

Indian Methodist Conversion

See Indian Hymn (File: CrMa171A)

Indian Mohee, The

See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Indian Revelry

See Stand to Your Glasses, Steady (File: Hopk120A)

Indian Song, The

See The Sioux Indians [Laws B11] (File: LB11)

Indian Song: Ah, Pore Sinner

DESCRIPTION: "Ah, pore sinner, under the rock, Till the moon goes down in blood, You can hide yo'self on the mountain top, To hide your face from God. Um, ah, ta-alk about Jesus! Halle, halle, lu, there's glory in my soul."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 593, "Indian Song: Ah, Pore Sinner" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 593, "Indian Song: Ah, Pore Sinner" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 29, "Indian Song" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #11907 and 16312
File: Br3593

Indian Student, The

DESCRIPTION: "O Give me back my bended bow ... You took me from my native wild." The singer has studied the White's "ancient pages" but now "I long to see my native home." "I hate the antiquated halls; I hate the Grecian poet's song."
AUTHOR: "Mrs. L. L. D. J." (source: Finson)
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (source: Finson)
KEYWORDS: home separation lament nonballad Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 78, "The Indian Student" (1 text)
Flanders-ChapBook Flanders-VermontChapBook, pp. 6-9, "The Indian Student" (1 text, very different from Thompson's)
ADDITIONAL: Jon W. Finson, _The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song_, Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. 244-246 (1 partial text with partial tune)
Roud #2844
NOTES [86 words]: Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, says "The most explicit portrayal of the unadaptable Native American [which he regards as a common mid-nineteenth-century motif] appears in 'The Indian Student' (dedicated to Mrs. Mary Gentry, 1851) by 'Mrs. L. L. D. J.'" The composer used a minor tune to suggest a lament, and some Scottish feeling to the combination of words and tune, comparing it to "My Heart's in the Highlands." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: TPS078

Indian, Indian, Lived in a Tent

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme: "Indian, Indian, lived in a tent. Indian, Indian, never paid rent. She borrowed one, she borrowed two, And passed the rope over to YOU."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Withers, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #245, "Indian, Indian, lived in a tent" (1 text)
File: AJRR245

Indian's Death Song, The

DESCRIPTION: The Indian tells his captors "Begin, ye tormentors, your threats are in vain, For the son of Alknomook shall never complain." He tells how his valor hurt the white men. Death will free him of pain and take him "to the land where my father is gone."
AUTHOR: Mrs. John Hunter
EARLIEST DATE: 1790 (Atkinson); 1789 (The Philadelphia Songster, according to Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: death Indians(Am.) captivity punishment
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 75, "Alknomook" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 113, "Death Song" (1 text) (p. 95 in the 1919 edition)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 40, "The Indian's Death Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Atkinson, _The Banquet of Thalia_ (York, 1790 ("Digitized by Google"), p. 26, "Indian Death Song" (1 text)
Roud #11212
File: FCW040

Indian's Hymn, The

See A Soldier of the Cross (File: ChFRA086)

Indian's Lament, The

See An Old Indian (The Indian Song) (File: Wa030)

Indian's Revenge, The

See Young Strongbow (File: FlNG210)

Indian's Song

See An Old Indian (The Indian Song) (File: Wa030)

Indiana Hero, The

See Fuller and Warren [Laws F16] (File: LF16)

Indians' Farewell

DESCRIPTION: "When shall we all meet again? (x2) Oft shall glowing hope expire, Oft our wearied love retire, Oft shall death and sorrow reign, Ere we all shall meet again." Though the company is parted, and will in time grow old, they will meet again hereafter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad separation reunion
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 216, "Indians' Farewell" (1 text)
ST Fus216 (Partial)
Roud #16410
NOTES [20 words]: No, there is no hint in the text why Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands's informant called it "Indians' Farewell." - RBW
File: Fus216

Indifference

See A Rap At The Door (File: GrD4780)

Indygo Blue

DESCRIPTION: "Kind freens if ye listen a while tae me, I'll sing tae ye of a chap in Dundee.... The king ower the bairns was Indygo Blue." He is teased by children, harassed by adults. He breaks a lamp and is imprisoned for ten days, where they wash the blue off him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: prison commerce colors
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 51, "Indygo Blue" (1 text)
NOTES [67 words]: Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee explains that Indygo Blue sold blue camstone, Camstone/caumstone was a clay or a limestone with a large clay component, used to make pipes and hearth tiles. Normally such a material would be white; blue would be an impurity. It is not clear whether there was a natural source of blue camstone or if Indygo Blue added a blue (presumably indigo) to make it that color. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Gath051

Infantry, The

DESCRIPTION: "The infantry, the infantry with dirt behind their ears, They can whip their weight in wild cats and drink their weigh tin beers. The cavalry, the artillery, the lousy engineers, They couldn't lick the infantry in a hundred thousand years."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: soldier nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 29-30, "The Infantry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27866
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier" (tune & meter) and references there
File: NiM029

Infir Taris

See Mairzy Doats (File: AJRV330)

Ingle Angle, Silver Bangle

DESCRIPTION: "Ingle angle, silver bangle, Ingle angle out -- If you ha'e been where I ha'e been, You wouldn't ha'e been out."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 22, "(Ingle angle, silver bangle)" (1 text)
Roud #23014
File: PKKB022H

Inglewood Cocky, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas an Inglewood cocky of whom I've been told, Who died, it is said, on account of the cold." He divides his estate, in the form of assorted animals, among his children, and tells them to raise their children on "pumpkin and beer"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: father death lastwill
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 109, "The Inglewood Cocky (or, The New England Cocky)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 279-280, "The New England Cocky" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, p. 37, "The New England Cocky" (1 text)
DT, INGLCOCK*
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), p. 179, "The New England Cocky" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 278-279, "The New England Cocky" (1 text)
NOTES [51 words]: The title "New England" of course does not reter to the northeastern parts of the United States; Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition describe it as the region of New South Wales around Armidale and Tamworth.
For the origin of the term "Cocky," see the notes to "The Cockies of Bungaree." - RB
Last updated in version 5.2
File: PASB109

Ingo-Ango Fay

DESCRIPTION: "Go fay, go fay! Ingo-ango fay! Circle this house in a hoo-sal lay, In a ingo-ango fay. Go fay, go fay! Ingo-ango fay! Will hew my 'ligion away, Mimbi, kiki, joki lo, In a ingo-ango-fay!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: nonsense foreignlanguage nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 26, "Ingo-Ango Fay" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [50 words]: Scarborough says this "seems to be a combination of African and English." Apart from the fact that "African" isn't a language, the formulaic nature of the text implies that it is either nonsense or, just possibly, a code version of English. Without more text, though, we can't establish the latter. - RBW
File: ScaNF026

Initiation of a Brother, The

DESCRIPTION: "Welcome, brother, to our band; Welcome, brother, heart and hand; True, together we will stand, Or together fall. By brave Schomberg's martyr fame, By great William's glorious name, We are brethren still the same, Brethren one and all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: ritual nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 36, "Lines on the Initiation of a Brother" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [44 words]: The description is the complete text from Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark. - BS
William III is of course William of Orange, and Schomberg is General Schomberg, killed at theBattle of the Boyne. For additional background, see the notes to "The Battle of the Boyne (I)." - RBW
File: OrLa036

Injy-Rubber Overcoat

DESCRIPTION: "Injy rubber overcoat, hip-te-doo-den-doo (x3), Injy rubber overcoat, molasses candy shoe. Oh what's the matter Susan, Oh what's the matter, my dear? Oh what's the matter Susan? I'm goin' away to leave you."
AUTHOR: (chrous from Dan Emmett's "What's de Matter, Susy?")
EARLIEST DATE: 1919
KEYWORDS: nonballad clothes separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 254, "Injy-Rubber Overcoat" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7820
File: R254

Ink a Pink

See Inky Pinky (I Think, I Think) (File: SuSm091A)

Ink Stink

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "Ink, stink, bottle stopper, All out but popper, O-U-T spells out he goes"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 70, "Ink Stink" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric) and references there
cf. "Inky-Pinkie" (lyrics)
cf. "Inky Pinky" (lyrics)
File: ZiZa070A

Inky Dinky Derby Town

See The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Inky Pinky (I Think, I Think)

DESCRIPTION: "Ink pink, I smell a big stink, And it comes from Y-O-U." Or, "Inky pinky penny wink, Out goes she." Possibly related: "Inky pinky ponky, You're a dirty donkey."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 91, "(Inky pinky penny wink)"; "(Ink pink, I smell a big stink)" (2 short texts); there may be some related texts on p. 98; p. 131, "(Inky pinky ponky)" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 52, "(I think, I think)," "(Ink a pink)" (2 texts)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 34, "(Ink, a-bink, a bottle of ink)" (1 text, which might be any of the "Ink Pink/Stink")
Roud #19226
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ink Stink" (lyrics)
cf. "Inky-Pinkie" (lyrics)
NOTES [63 words]: There are several children's games which include an "ink pink" or "inky pinky" line, but none is clearly identifiable with this piece.
I am far from sure that Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo's "Ink, a-bink, a bottle of ink" goes with this one, but based on the way Roud classifies these pieces, it appears he would put it here, so I conform for clarity. But best check them all. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SuSm091A

Inky-Pinkie

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Inkie-pinkie skinny-ma-linkie, Andy-pandy-pandy... Over-drover, drover rover...." Or "Inkie-pinkie Sugarallie inke, One two three, Ice cream and jelly, A punch in the belly, One, two three."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: jumprope nonsense food | ice cream punch belly
FOUND IN: Briitain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #247, "Inkie-pinkie skinny-ma-linkie"; #248, "Inky pinkie" (2 texts)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ink Stink" (lyrics)
cf. "Inky Pinky (I Think, I Think)" (lyrics)
cf. "K-K-K-Katie" (tune of Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes #247)
File: AJRR247

Innishowen

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a resident of Magilligan, crosses Greencastle Ferry to live in Innishowen "where the purty girls go neat and trim in every degree." He describes the girl he loves. Assured of his character, she agrees to marry him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty home marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H209, pp. 465-466, "Innishowen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9458
NOTES [29 words]: Sam Henry reports that this is based on the actual story of John Smith of Magilligan. Given that the song seems to have had only very local currency, it may even be true. - RBW
File: HHH209

Inniskillen Dragoon, The

See Fare Ye Well, Enniskillen (The Inniskillen Dragoon) (File: E150)

Inniskilling Dragoon, The

See Fare Ye Well, Enniskillen (The Inniskillen Dragoon) (File: E150)

Innocent Hare, The

DESCRIPTION: Sportsmen and hounds hunt the hare; after searching, the game is found. She takes off running; the huntsman blows his horn; the hare is killed. The singer declares she has led them a noble run, drinks success to all sportsment and to the "innocent hare"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recorded from Mark Fuller & Luther Hills)
KEYWORDS: death hunting sports drink animal dog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 251, "The Innocent Hare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 280-281, "Sportsmen Arouse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1216
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hare of Kilgrain" (theme: fatal hare hunt)
cf. "The Granemore Hare" (theme: fatal hare hunt)
cf. "The White Hare" (theme: fatal hare hunt)
cf. "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)" (theme)
cf. "The Echoing Horn" (theme)
cf. "Joe Bowman" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sportsmen Arouse
Sportsmen Arise
File: K251

Innocent Prisoner, The

DESCRIPTION: "On a bright starry night sat two lovers." They discuss their plans for marriage, and part for the night. He does not return the next day; he is falsely arrested for stealing money from his work. When at last he is released, she is still waiting
AUTHOR: Bradley Kincaid?
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Bradley Kincaid songbook #3)
KEYWORDS: love separation punishment lie reunion prison
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 140-141, "The Innocent Prisoner" (1 text)
Roud #18137
File: MHAp140

Innocents, The

DESCRIPTION: A tale of the birth of Jesus. In the time of Octavian and Herod, Isaiah's prophesy comes true and the King of the Jews is born. Brutal Herod orders the children of Bethlehem slain. Jesus escapes, but there is great mourning in Bethlehem
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Oxford Book of Ballads)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious Bible execution death Jew
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
44 B.C.E. - Death of Julius Caesar brings Octavian to the front of Roman politics
37-4 B.C.E. - Reign of Herod the Great in Palestine
31 B.C.E. - Battle of Actium. Octavian gains sole control of Roman world
27 B.C.E. - Octavian named "Augustus" and declared "Princeps" by the Senate
6 B.C.E - Approximate date of the birth of Jesus
14 C.E. - Death of Octavian/Augustus
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 108, "The Innocents" (1 text)
ST OBB108 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Coventry Carol" (subject of the Massacre of the Innocents) and references there
NOTES [247 words]: Loosely based on the story of Herod and the Massacre of the Innocents in Matt. 2:1-18. For more on the Massacre, see the notes to "The Coventry Carol."
However, this is very obviously a literary production. It shows an apparent knowledge of Josephus (at least indirectly), since it refers to Herod as a "Paynim born" -- which is technically true (Herod was of Idumean/Edomite ancestry, and his grandfather had been converted, possibly forcibly, by the Maccabees) but rather unfair; Herod regarded himself as Jewish (see Peter Richardson, Herod: King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans, University of South Carolina Press, 1996, pp. 54-55, summing up information from Josephus, Strabo, and others).
Even more interesting is the reference to Octavian as Roman Emperor. It is true that Octavian was Roman Emperor when Jesus was born (so explicitly Luke 2:1, but we would have known it even without that reference). But the Bible refers only to "Caesar Augustus" (Καισαρος Αυγουστου, Kaisaros Augoustou; the Syriac, Armenian, and Georgian versions read "Augustus Caesar" instead). The name "Octavian" never occurs in the Bible. So the author either got the name from Josephus (though this is unlikely; Josephus usually says "Augustus" or "(Young) Caesar") or more likely from a Roman history. This effectively precludes the possibility of folk composition.
Overall, the language of the whole rather over-stylized business strikes me as probably being of the seventeenth century. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: OBB108

Inquisitive Lover, The

See Things Impossible (File: GC158)

Insa Ghaorthaidh Thuit

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "The poet laments his single status and wishes for female company."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage loneliness courting marriage lament nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 74, "Insa Ghaorthaidh Thuit" (2 texts)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC074

Inside the Pearly Gates

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Inside the pearly gates A mansion for me waits Will you my neighbor be Across the mystic sea Inside the pearly gates." The second and fourth line of each verse is "Inside the pearly gates." Friends have gone where we shall "live eternally"
AUTHOR: Myles Doss (source: Dyen, see notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (USFlorida01)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Florida-Alabama Progressive Seven-Shape-Note Singing Convention, "Inside the Pearly Gates" (on USFlorida01)
NOTES [20 words]: See Doris J. Dyen, "Looking Back/Looking Forward: Sacred Group-Singing Traditions," USFlorida01 liner notes, p. 181. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcIntPeG

Inside Those Red Plush Breeches

DESCRIPTION: "John Thomas was a servant tall," who kept warm "inside those red plush breeches." He is interested in Mary, who has an illegitimate child and is angry with John Thomas; she "laid for him a trap" and left him with clap "inside those red plush breeches"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: servant bastard sex seduction disease bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 85, "Inside Those Red Plush Breeches" (1 text)
Roud #10264
File: RuSoIRPB

Inspector, Inspector, Don't Take Me

See Policeman, Policeman, Don't Take Me (File: BAAI097C)

Inspiration (The Rowan County Teachers)

DESCRIPTION: "The Rowan County teachers Convened the other day... I thought I would attend... And watch our modern teachers." He describes the meeting in the courthouse, praises the teachers' abilities, and hopes they will continue to spread learning
AUTHOR: Words: Edgar Hamm
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 252-253, "Inspiration" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 252-253)
NOTES [102 words]: I can't say with certainty that this is the most trivial thing I've ever seen memorialized in song -- but, other than Edgar Hamm's other school song, "Welcome (to Lyda Messer Caudill)," I haven't a better candidate off the top of my head.
The claim that the Rowan County school superintendant Lyda Messer Caudill was descended from Mary Queen of Scots is certainly possible (the song being written some three and a half centuries after her death, she would have uncounted descendants) -- but since Mary had only one child, James VI and I, the link to the British royal line must be more recent than Mary Stuart. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa252A

Instruments, The (The Orchestra Song; Zur Feier, Die Geige)

DESCRIPTION: German; widely tramslated harmonic piece consisting of verses describing each instrument, sung over each other, e.g. "Die Geige, sie singt, sie jubelt und klingt" ="The violins they sing it, they sob it and swing it." With verses for much of the orchestra
AUTHOR: German version credited to Willy Geisler (1886-1952) (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (songbooks credited in mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req/Add: Orchestra Song - German Lyrics?")
KEYWORDS: music nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 315, 514, "The Instruments"/"Orchestra" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, pp. 82-83, "Quodlibet" (1 text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, pp. 56-57, "The Instruments" (2 texts, 1 English, 1 Italian; 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "The Instruments" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 28)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Musikanter (Ich Bin ein Muskanter)" (theme of describing instruments)
cf. "Johnny Schmoker" (theme of describing instruments)
NOTES [132 words]: The German lyrics of this are fairly fixed, but English translations vary widely and include many instruments. The mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req/Add: Orchestra Song - German Lyrics?" has verses for bassoon, clarinet, drum/kettledrum, horn, slide trombone, trumpet, tympani, violin. One person added 'cello and harp. It appears that most versions start with violin or fiddle. As well as German and English versions, there is a Spanish translation, and ChansonsDeNotreChalet gives it in Italian.
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 31, has a song called "Instruments," which it says is from Estonia, and its instruments are drum (which has the sound "drum"!), trumpet, and clarinet. I think it's probably a different song, so I haven't listed it in the references, but it's very clearly the same idea..- RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF315O

Inter Diabolus et Virgo

See Riddles Wisely Expounded [Child 1] (File: C001)

Internationale, The

DESCRIPTION: Communist anthem, translated into most major languages. English: "Arise, you pris'ners of starvation, Arise you wretched of the earth...." The workers are urged to rise up, throw off their chains and their overlords, and work toward a united human race
AUTHOR: Words: Eugene Pottier/Music: Pierre Degeyter
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Chants Revolutionnaires)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 297, "The Internationale" (1 (English) text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 303, "L'Internationale"
DT, INTERNAT*
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "L'Internationale, " [sung in French] (on PeteSeeger47)
NOTES [96 words]: Obviously not a "folk song" in the ordinary sense, and not as popular as it once was. But enough people have sung it at one time or another (in many languages, though the original is French) that it probably belongs here.
It was apparently widely sung during the 1912 Lawrence Strike (the "Bread and Roses Strike"), for which see "Bread and Roses."
Ironically, this song was not written for Communism as such but for the Paris Commune of 1871 -- a movement which failed miserably, had no influence on future French policy, and wasn't "Communist" in the Leninist sense anyway. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB297B

Interval Was Welcome Too, The

DESCRIPTION: "The interval was welcome too -- We at ice cream and Irish stew... At the foot-i-ball match Last Saturday." The ladies admire the game -- and the players
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: sports food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 83-84, "The interval was welcome too" (1 text)
Roud #25376
File: KSUC083C

Intery Mintery Cutery Corn

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme: "Intery, mintery, cutery, corn, Apple seed and briar thorn, Wire, briar, (or "wild briar") limber lock, FIve geese in a flock, SIt and sing by a spring, O-U-T and in again. Over yonder steep hill... Black finger, out of the game."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad food bird | counting-out
FOUND IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #87, "Intery Mintery" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 252, "Intery, Mintery, Cutery, Corn" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #632 n. 109, pp. 249-250, "(As I went up the brandy hill)"
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #149, "Counting Rhymes" (8 texts of the "One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann" type, 4 of "Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme)", 1 of "Intery Mintery Cutery Corn", 1 of "Alphabet Songs", 1 of "Monday's Child", and 20 miscellaneous rhymes)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 48, "Wire Briar"; p. 68, "One Flew Over"; p. 69, "Dirty Dishrag," "Wire Briar" (4 texts, although several have only the "Wire Briar" part with no "Intery Mintery...."); p. 69, "The Old Cuckoo's Nest" (1 text, combining the "Wire Briar" portion of "Intery Mintery Cutery Corn" with the "Some flew east" portion of "Charley Barley")
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 45, "Fingers on the Table" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 115, "Intery, mintery, cutery, corn"; "Intery, mintery, country corn"; p. 124, "Wire, briar, limberlock: (3 texts)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 14, "(Intery, mintery, cutery corn)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #253, "Intry mintry cutry corn" (1 text); compare #254, "Inty ninty tibbety fig" (1 text, all nonsense except the "out goes you" line; it might have been inspired by this)
Roud #19636 and 22840
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric) and references there
NOTES [98 words]: Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo calls this "fingers on the table" because the method used for counting-out involved players putting their index fingers on the table, with the rhyme used to pick one finger, which was then removed. The process repeated until only one player was left, who was "it." I doubt this was the actual method used; the Withers text is long enough to take about half a minute to recite. If you have, say, six players, two fingers each, that means five and a half minutes to choose an "it." That's just too long. I suspect the rhyme was used just once, not repeatedly. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OO2252

Intery, Mintery, Country Corn

See Intery Mintery Cutery Corn (File: OO2252)

Intery, Mintery, Cutery, Corn

See Intery Mintery Cutery Corn (File: OO2252)

Into the Air, Junior Birdmen

See Junior Birdmen (File: ACSF124J)

Intoxicated Rat, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer spills rum on the floor; rat licks it up, gets drunk and carries on. The cat comes out; the rat sobers up and runs back to his hole (or gets caught)
AUTHOR: probably Dorsey Dixon & Wade Mainer
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (recording, Dixon Brothers)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 234 "The Intoxicated Rat" (1 text)
DT, INTOXRAT
Roud #11257
RECORDINGS:
The Dixon Brothers, "Intoxicated Rat" (Bluebird B-6327/Montgomery Ward M-4823, 1936; Victor 27495, 1941)
Farley Holden & his Six Ice-Cold Papas, "Intoxicated Rat" (King 628, 1947)
Cisco Houston, "Drunken Rat" (Disc 5067, 1940s)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Intoxicated Rat" (on NLCR08)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Brown Mouse" (plot)
NOTES [35 words]: The first verse of this is apparently derived from "Four Nights Drunk," and the metre of the whole song implies that "Four Nights" may have been the source -- but it clearly has gone in its own direction. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB234

Intry Mintry Cutry Corn

See Intery Mintery Cutery Corn (File: OO2252)

Inty Minty Tibblety Fig

See Inty Ninty Tibbety Fig (File: WEMM015A)

Inty Ninty Tibbety Fig

DESCRIPTION: Nonsense counting-out rhyme. "Inty, minty/ninty, Tibblety, FIg, Deema, dima, doma, nig, Howchy, powchy, domi, nowchy, Hom, tom, tout, Olligo, bolligo, boo, Out goes YOU."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: nonsense | counting-out
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 15, "(Inty, minty, tibblety, fig)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #254, "Inty ninty tibbety fig" (1 text)
File: WEMM015A

Invasion Song, The

DESCRIPTION: 'Sad and dismal is the tale I now relate to you, 'Tis all about the cattlemen, Them and their murderous crew." Nate and Nick are "murdered by Frank Canton and his crew" as they defend the town of Buffalo. The singer tells how cattle raiders were repelled
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Western Folklore, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: cowboy homicide war outlaw
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1891-1892 - Peak of the "Johnson County War"
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 173-174, "Invasion Song" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp 574-575, "Invasion Song" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 415, "The Invasion Song" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Marilyn S. Johnson, _Violence in the West: The Johnson County Range War and the Ludlow Massacre: A Brief History with Documents_, Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009, pp. 80-81, "The Invasion Song" (1 text, from Burt)
Roud #4051
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blood-Stained Diary" (subject)
NOTES [194 words]: Burt-AmericanMurderBallads links this with an event she calls the Johnson County War, a conflict in Wyoming between honest herders and cattle rustlers. There are, apparently, conflicting versions of what happened; see Burt-AmericanMurderBallads for details, or see "The Blood-Stained Diary."
There are several books on the topic: Billy O'Neil, The Johnson County War; John W. Davis, Wyoming Range War: The Infamous Invasion of Johnson County; Jack R. Gage, The Johnson County War Is A Pack Of Lies: The Baron's Side AND The Johnson County War Ain't A Pack Of Lies: The Rustler's Side; D. F. Babar, The Longest Rope: The Truth About The Johnson County Cattle War; and Marilynn S. Johnson, Violence In The West: The Johnson County Range War And Ludlow Massacre: A Brief History With Documents. Other books sound as if they might be about it, but I can't be sure. Just those five titles, though, show clearly how controversial the topic is!
The form of the piece makes me think that it was inspired by "The Persian's Crew" [Laws D4]. But since that song has many different tunes, that is no clue as to the melody.
This is item dB40 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Burt173

Inverness-Shire

DESCRIPTION: "O as I came in by Inverness-shire, It was to view the brave Loch Ness, It was there I met wi' a fair young maiden...." The singer tries to induce her to marry. She says she had her chance years ago, and refused. He urges her to change her mind.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (recording, Belle Stewart)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
Roud #6856
RECORDINGS:
Belle Stewart, "Inverness-shire" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
NOTES [34 words]: This sounds like it ought to have a broken-token-and-reunion ending, but in the Stewart version at least, it ends with the girl rejecting the sailor and the sailor saying she should change her mind. - RBW
File: RcInvSh

Inverquhomery Ploughing Match, The

DESCRIPTION: The contestants appear before the match: Andrew Penny from Shannas, William Morris from Yokieshill, Alex Cheyne from Middletown. After an ellipsis "a social evening we had through, And parted all a happy crew"
AUTHOR: John Sim (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: contest farming moniker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #166, p. 2, ("And now three cheers to Andrew Penny") (1 excerpt)
Greig/Duncan3 426, "The Inverquhomery Ploughing Match" (1 excerpt)
Roud #5943
NOTES [88 words]: Greig: ." .. a newspaper cutting of a poetical account of a ploughing match held at Inverquhomery so long ago as 1867. It bears the name of John Sim, whom I take to be the individual to whom "Ah, Smiler lad," once given in this column was attributed. An extract will show the style of the piece." - BS
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Inverquhomery (380,426) is at coordinate (h4-5,v0) on that map [roughly 26 miles N of Aberdeen] - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3426

Invitation to a Wedding

See Wir Kommen Nicht Hergeritten (Invitation to a Wedding) (File: SaKo132)

Invitation to Festivity, I

See Make We Merry Both More and Less (File: OBC172)

Iomairibh eutrom ho ro (Row Lightly)

DESCRIPTION: In Scots Gaelic; "The milkmaid went to the seashore/And she did a thing that others would not do there/She gathered shell-fish at high tide there/And she broke her leg and cut her hand there." Chorus: "Row lightly, ho ro"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recording, Allan MacDonald)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage sea work injury worksong worker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Hebr))
RECORDINGS:
Allan MacDonald, "Iomairibh eutrom ho ro (Row Lightly)" (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743)
NOTES [11 words]: Why do I get the feeling something else happened to the milkmaid? - PJS
File: RcIEHR

Iounndrain-Mhara, An (Sea-Longing)

DESCRIPTION: Scots Gaelic. The singer laments being far from the sea, "For in the glen I am a stranger." She recalls her brother on the ocean, and asks where is the ship to carry her home. No joy can reach her far from the sea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides)
KEYWORDS: ship exile foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Hebr))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 11, "Fath Mo Mhulaid a Bhith Ann (Being Here Has Caused My Sorrow)" (1 text+English translation, 1 tune)
Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides II, pp. 225-229, "Sea-Longing (An Iounndrain-Mharra)" (1 text+English translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [45 words]: The Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland text of this is long and conveys better than anything I've seen the emptiness they say sea-folk feel away from the waves. The Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides text is shorter and more lyric, probably somewhat trimmed. - RBW
File: K011

Ipsey, Pipsey

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Ipsey, Pipsey, tell me true, Who shall I be married to? A, B, C...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: marriage jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 64, "Ipsey, Pipsey" (1 text)
File: ZiZa064A

Ipsy Gypsy

See Gypsy, Gypsy, Lived in a Tent (File: AJRR164)

Irchard of Taunton Dean

See Richard (Irchard) of Taunton Dean (File: RcIOTD)

Ireland Must Be Heaven, For My Mother Came from There

DESCRIPTION: "I've often heard my daddy peak of Ireland's lakes and dells. The place must be like heaven if it's half like what he tells." As proof he offers the fact that his mother was an angel, and she came from Ireland
AUTHOR: Words: Joe McCarthy & Howard Johnson / Music: Fred Fisher
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: Ireland home
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 9, "Ireland Must Be Heaven, For My Mother Came from There" (1 text)
Roud #5493
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Little Bit of Heaven" (theme)
NOTES [145 words]: This was apparently one of the major hits of 1916, the year it was published, though Dean seems to be the only traditional performer to have learned it.
According to Jasen, pp. 124-125, composer Fred Fisher (1875-1942) was also responsible for the tunes, and sometimes lyrics as well, for such hits as "Come, Josephine, in My Flying Machine," "Peg o' My Heart," "Fifty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong," and "Chicago [that toddlin' town]." Jasen claimes his biggest hit was "Dardanella," for which he wrote just the words, and which I've never heard of.
Williams, pp. 216-217, says that this song was eventually featured in the movie "Oh You Beautiful Doll."
Gardner, p. 312, estimates that this was the ninth most popular song in America in 1916, peaking at #2 in November 1916 (#1 for the year being Gus Kahn, Tony Jackson, and Egbert van Alstyne's "Pretty Baby"). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Dean009

Ireland's Glory

DESCRIPTION: In 1776 "we were lazy and slavish," "Our woman were sluts and their husbands all slovens" and "The King was a god." But "Our peasants grew smart," "We could look at a King without much admiration" and "From a nation of slaves we've emerg'd into glory"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1783 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: pride nonballad patriotic royalty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 3, "Ireland's Glory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 11, "Ireland's Glory" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [675 words]: The complete title of Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion's text is "Ireland's Glory" or "A Comparative View of Ireland, in the Years 1776 and 1783."
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 36: "Street ballads we were used then [1724 and 1725] as a form of protest by the Anglo-Irish "garrison," but this protest was not so much nationalism as the reaction of planters merely demanding the same rights as were enjoyed by the people of Britain. A spirit of independence awoke among the Anglo-Irish when a Volunteer army was raised, in 1779, to check a possible invasion from the combined forces of France, Spain and Holland. Martial enthusiasm extended to the Catholic population. Eventually some 80,000 men were in arms. With the example of the revolution achieved by their "fellow subjects" in America, they became conscious of their force and began to claim the removal of economic disabilities, (song [Zimmermann] 2). They enforced freedom of trade in 1780 and legislative independence in 1782. Songs reflected the increased feeling of self-confidence, (song [Zimmermann] 3)."
The text states
But great was the change in the year seventy-seven.
We then were inspired by a spark sent from heaven.
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 speculates that the Battle of Saratoga may have been that spark. - BS
Possibly, but there were plenty of events in Ireland which might have inspired it. For example, 1778 saw the repeal of most of the anti-Popery act of 1704, giving Catholics much greater land and worship rights (see Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, A History of Ireland, pp. 183-184); I believe this was proposed in 1777. The same period saw the rise of the Volunteers, which included Catholics; Terry Golway, For the Cause of Liberty, p. 51, reports that there were 40,000 armed Volunteers by 1778, and Mike Cronin, A History of Ireland, p. 99, says there were 80,000 two years later. Cronin, p. 98, mentions much other legislation passed in the late 1770s. Obviously this was largely in response to the American rebellion, but any of these several events might have helped inspire the song. (See the notes to "The Song of the Volunteers.")
1782 was indeed the year of Irish semi-independence, as Grattan's Parliament gave Ireland what would later be called "Home Rule." The economy also improved.
(We should note that Ireland had had a parliament before that, but had had very little real power. For one thing, the British had held absolute veto power on legislation through a trick known as Poynings's Law, which had hobbled the parliament since 1494. Plus the British parliament retained the right to deal with Irish surpluses -- see, e.g., Cronin, p. 95. And, until Lord Townshend changed the rules in 1767, parliaments were elected for the life of the monarch, which of course made it completely unresponsive to events; see Cronin, p. 96).
The old Irish parliament had to be absolutely unified to accomplish anything, and even then, the British could find ways to get around their legislation. Grattan's more independent parliament changed that.
There were, sadly, three problems. One was that the parliament and electorate were still Protestant. The second was that England still controlled Irish trade -- and still had a veto under Poynings's Law.
And third, while it was an independent parliament, it wasn't a particularly representative parliament. As in England, there were many "rotten" boroughs. Robert Kee, in The Most Distressful Country (volume I of The Green Flag), p. 36, notes that "once the independence of the Irish parliament had been technically granted, the English government's hold over it was actually tightened by its systematic ever-increasing outlay of Crown patronage in Ireland."
Gradually Irish optimism turned to disillusionment, ending in the 1798 rebellion and the Act of Union. The truly sad part is, Grattan's Parliament *did* represent progress, and the biggest single concession England made until the 1920s. Had Ireland been a little more patient, a century of violence could perhaps have been saved. - RBW
File: Zimm003

Ireland's Liberty Tree

DESCRIPTION: A tree has been planted in Ireland ... 'Tis called 'Ireland's Liberty-Tree!'" Protect the tree. Emmet, Fitzgerald and Grattan died in its defence. Sheil and O'Connell forsee freedom. "Heaven will surely protect those Who guard Ireland's Liberty-Tree!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: second half 19C? (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 67, "Ireland's Liberty Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [287 words]: Robert Emmet (1780-1803) "Irish nationalist rebel leader. He led an abortive rebellion against British rule in 1803 and was captured and executed." (source: "Robert Emmet" at the Wikipedia site)
Lord Edward Fitzgerald (1763-1798) Irish revolutionary. "As a member of the United Irishmen, he helped organize the Irish Rebellion of 1798 against British rule in Ireland." He was arrested and died of his wounds in Newgate prison. (source: "Lord Edward Fitzgerald" at the Wikipedia site)
Henry Grattan (1746-1820) Lead the campaign leading, in 1782, to an Irish parliament in Dublin. He advocated Catholic emancipation in 1793. He opposed Union, which ended the Irish Parliament in 1801. In the English House of Commons he continued supporting Catholic emancipation. (source: "Henry Gratton: 1746-1820" in The Age of George III at the Web of English History site)
Richard Lalor Sheil (1791-1851) Was instrumental in the 1828 election of the "Liberator," Daniel O'Connell, over Vesey Fitzgerald. He himself served in Parliament for eighteen years. (source: "Richard Lalor Sheil" by M.J. Flaherty in The Catholic Encyclopedia at the New Advent site.)
Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847) tried to convince the British to reform administration of Ireland and was the leading figure on behalf of Catholic Emancipation. - BS
For Emmet, see also "Bold Robert Emmet." Fitzgerald is the subject of "Edward (III) (Edward Fitzgerald)." Grattan role is covered in the notes to "Ireland's Glory." And Daniel O'Connell is the subject of a vast array of songs; see the notes and references under "Daniel O'Connell (I)."
For other songs about the Tree of Liberty, and some discussion of its origin, see the notes to "The Tree of Liberty." - RBW
File: Zimm067

Irene

See Goodnight Irene (File: LoF315)

Irene, Goodnight

See Goodnight Irene (File: LoF315)

Irish Ain't Much, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the Irish ain't much (x2), But they're gosh-darned better Than the gosh-darned Dutch. Be aisy, Mary Anne (x2), You never seen a Dutchman Could lick an Irishman."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong)
KEYWORDS: fight | Irish German Dutch prejudice
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 253, "The Irish Ain't Much" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5285
File: NeDe253

Irish Barber, The

See The Love-of-God Shave (Lather and Shave) [Laws Q15] (File: LQ15)

Irish Boy and the Priest, The

DESCRIPTION: A son of Catholic father and Protestant mother prefers Protestantism. Father takes him to confession. The priest explains that all Catholics pay their confessor except the Pope who prays directly to God at no charge. The boy decides to do the same.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: money religious father clergy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 29, "The Irish Boy and the Priest" (1 text)
NOTES [82 words]: Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark prints no music for this entry but has no comment as to whether or not it was sung. The text is rhymed couplets. - BS
There is something rather curious about this, in that the Catholic church generally does not recognize marriages made by other denomination, and also expects children of Catholic marriages to be brought up Catholic. Both parents are expected to agree to this. So -- clever as is the conceit of this song -- it would not often happen in practice. - RBW
File: OrLa029

Irish Boy, The

See My Irish Jaunting Car (The Irish Boy) (File: HHH592)

Irish Colleen, The

DESCRIPTION: A party of four girls, from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland each toasts her own land and national flower. "Though the flowers all resemble there's a vast gulf between The rose, leek, and thistle, and the Irish colleen"
AUTHOR: W. C. Robey
EARLIEST DATE: before 1885 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.28(10a/b) View 2 of 8)
KEYWORDS: party wine England Ireland Scotland nonballad patriotic flowers
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 366-368, "The Irish Colleen" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
ST Pea366 (Partial)
Roud #6459
RECORDINGS:
Mike Kent, "The Irish Colleen" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Jack Mooney, "The Irish Colleen" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Patrick W Nash, "The Irish Colleen" (on PeacockCDROM)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(10a/b) View 2 of 8, "The Irish Colleen," R. March and Co. (London), 1877-1884
NOTES [58 words]: The authorship claim is from the broadside: "Written and composed by W.C. Robey Sung by Miss Lizzie Howard Music, Francis, Day & Hunter, London, W."
Library of Congress American Memory 19th century song sheets collection lists 13 different songs, not including this one, attributed to W. C. Robey and published in New York between 1882 and 1884. - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Pea366

Irish Dancer, The

See Icham of Irlaunde (The Irish Dancer; Good Sir I Pray Thee) (File: MsIcOIrl)

Irish Dragoons, The

See Martinmas Time (File: DTmartin)

Irish Emigrant (I), The

See Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go) (File: Doe062)

Irish Emigrant (II), The

See I'm Sitting on the Stile, Mary (The Irish Emigrant II) (File: Pea462)

Irish Emigrant's Lament (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "I never will forget the sorrows of that day," when the singer sailed from home. He knows he will miss the land, the friends, "the trusty heart [of the girl] I once could call my own." He will eat strangers' bread, and feel their scorn, and wish for home
AUTHOR: William Kennedy
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation farewell
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H235, p. 203, "The Shamrock Sod No More" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 69, "The Shamrock Sod No More" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 352-353, "The Irish Emigrant's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST HHH235 (Full)
Roud #2747
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Emigrant (I)" (subject)
NOTES [64 words]: William Kennedy, a contemporary of William Motherwell, is reported by Ord-BothySongsAndBallads to have been one of the Whistle-Binkie poets. For a composed song, even one composed a century before, it's amazing how much variation there is, in both text and tune, in the Henry and Ord versions (the former in G major, the latter listed as being in F major but apparently in D minor). - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: HHH235

Irish Emigrant's Lament (II)

See I'm Sitting on the Stile, Mary (The Irish Emigrant II) (File: Pea462)

Irish Familie, The

See The Irish Family (File: K275)

Irish Family, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes his family: "Me father had a horse/And me mother she'd a mare... So we'd a ride from father's horse/And a gallop from mother's mare." Cho: "So the more we have to drink/And the merrier we shall be/For we all do belong/To an Irish family"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Sharp mss.)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer describes life in his family: "Me father had a horse/And me mother she'd a mare/Sister Susie had a rabbit/And Johnny he'd a hare/So we'd a ride from father's horse/And a gallop from mother's mare/We'd a pie from Susie's rabbit/And a course from Johnny's hare." Successive verses follow the same pattern of ownership and use. Chorus: "So the more we have to drink/And the merrier we shall be/For we all do belong/To an Irish (happy) familie"
KEYWORDS: farming drink food nonballad animal bird bug horse sheep brother family father mother sister
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 7, "Song of Stock" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 275, "The Irish Familie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 70, "My Father Kept a Horse" (1 text)
DT, HAPFAMLY
Roud #850
RECORDINGS:
Harold Covill, "The Happy Family" (on FSB10)
Jasper Smith, "Father Had A Knife" (on Voice11)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My Father Had a Horse
NOTES [58 words]: It's worth noting that although the song was collected twice under the name of "The Irish Family," it's never been found in Ireland. - PJS
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland claims that this tune is "similar" to "Click Go the Shears." There are certainly points of contact, but it's not close enough (in my opinion) to list them as the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: K275

Irish Free State, The

DESCRIPTION: "I went to see David, to London to David, and what did he do? He gave me a Free State, a nice little Free State, A Free State that's bound up with Red, White, and Blue." The singer rejects any British influence and demands freedom from the crown
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Galvin)
KEYWORDS: Ireland freedom
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec. 6, 1921 - Negotiations for the Irish Treaty concluded. (It will be accepted by a bare majority of the Irish government, with the minority, including President de Valera, demanding more)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 71-72, "The Irish Free State" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, IRSHFREE*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ash Grove" (tune)
NOTES [1749 words]: In the aftermath of the 1916 Dublin Rising, Irish opinion was strongly divided about what came next. Had the British responded with concessions, Ireland might still be part of the Commonwealth. But it was World War I, and the British in any case have never been good at understanding the needs of their colonies. Gradually, the quiet Irish hostility turned to open warfare.
The result was mass rebellion and mass reprisal (for this, see e.g. "The Bold Black and Tan" and "General Michael Collins"). Eventually, the British had to make a decision: They could either make peace through genocide or they could negotiate. Give them this much credit: They decided to treat with the provisional Irish government.
The "David" of the song is David Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister at the time. The Irish negotiators were a divided group; the two most distinguished were Arthur Griffith, who simply wanted peace and self-determination, and Michael Collins, the de facto head of the guerrilla army, who was much more determined to have independence.
Notably missing was Eamon de Valera, who was head of the Irish government insofar as it existed. He had named his arch-rival Collins, who didn't want the job, to the commission, but de Valera was unwilling to go himself. Coogan, p. 228, says that that was the "worst single decision of de Valera's life, for himself and for Ireland." (And that, frankly, is saying a lot, because de Valera made quite a few irrational choices.)
The negotiators were stuck; de Valera's behavior meant that they ended up with divided opinions and no real list of demands. (According to Coogan, p. 230, de Valera eventually admitted to deliberately creating a delegation he expected to deadlock: Griffith the moderate, Collins the fire-breather who was nonetheless a realist, Erskine Childers the extremist.) In the end, the deal they worked out involved withdrawal of British forces from Ireland, and complete internal self-government; the only limitations were in defense and external affairs, and those very limited. They also got their way on trade relations with England.
It was a great deal by rational standards. But not by de Valera standards. The Treaty contained two objectionable provisions: Ulster -- which had already been granted a separate government (Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, p. 285) -- was given the right to remain British (a boundary commission was promised, but it never did its work; the British refused to set it up with Ireland in conflict, and other attempts to a solution were halted by intransigence either in Dublin or Ulster; in any case, Lloyd George had made irreconcilable informal promises about it to the Ulster and Nationalist Irish), and Ireland was to become a Dominion, with internal autonomy but still formally under the British crown.
For more on the evolution of this problem, see especially "A Loyal Song Against Home Rule."
Kee, pp. 156-157, defines the internal Irish problem pretty well, in my view: As long as there was no serious hope of an Irish republic, the rebels (Fenians, Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, Volunteers) didn't have to resolve their differences. Now, though....
As Kee says, "There had always been moderates and extremists in the movement though the difference had been fairly efficiently concealed. More important: there had always been realists and fantasists and this difference was now revealed clearly for the first time as some of the toughest of the extremists in the past -- Commandants of the IRA like MacEoin, of Ballinalee, and Mulcahy the Chief of Staff -- followed Collins, the toughest of them all, in support of the Treaty." He notes, sadly, that it was the often the widows and family who were the worst fantasists: The mother of Padraic Pearse, the widow of Tom Clarke, the sister of Terence MacSwiney.
The Ulster question was an ironic one in that the compromise it produced sounded good and was unworkable. The Ulster Unionists had initially wanted all nine counties of Ulster; had they had their way, Ireland might well be united now (if still highly uncomfortable), because Ulster would have had a Catholic majority. On the other hand, some of the British, including Winston Churchill, had been willing to give away Ulster (see, e.g., Coogan, p. 334); they knew it would bring more trouble than it was worth. But they couldn't simply hand Ulster to the Irish; parliament wouldn't stand for it and the Ulster Unionists would fight (Randolph Churchill, the father of Winston, had said, "Ulster will fight; Ulster will be right"; Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, p. 273).
The temporary compromise -- a six county Ulster still part of Britain -- might have been adjusted had Ireland been organized enough for further negotiations (a boundary commission, religious protections, some self-government). Or Michael Collins, who had had thoughts of conquering Ulster, might have pulled another rabbit out of his hat. But Collins died, the Irish Civil War came, and further negotiations had to wait until after Ulster Protestants and Catholics had hunkered down and come to hate each other.
In the interim, the British has insisted on maintaining Ulster as a six-county unit (rather than ceding the two Catholic counties while retaining the four Protestant areas). Even so, Ulster actually was a safer place for both Catholics and Protestants during the twenty years after the Treaty was accepted than was the Irish Republic. In any case, Britain and the provisional Irish government were both willing to try to solve Ulster; this was not the final cause of Ireland's war.
The worst of it was, if Ireland had not descended into war, the problem might have solved itself. The boundary commission, if done properly, would have left Ulster with only about four and a half counties -- and would quite possible have split off (London)derry, the second city of the province. Almost everyone agreed that this rump would be economically unviable (indeed, a lot of people thought the six counties unviable); they would be forced in time to turn to Ireland. That question was never to be resolved.
The idea of Dominion status, and the loyalty to the crown it required, proved the bigger sticking point at the time; de Valera was only one of many who refused to acknowledge any ties to Britain (de Valera in fact resigned his Presidency). It was only words -- they were supposed to pledge fealty to the King, but they didn't have to *act* on that fealty -- but, to the Irish radicals, they were fighting words.
Kee, p. 150, says that the real problem in the negotiations with Britain was that the issues of Crown and Partition somehow came to be linked, which forced the outcome. His opinion is that, with more "give" on each side, Ireland could have been more strongly linked to the crown while being kept united. For the majority of the Irish people, this would probably have been a better solution. It's less clear that it would have satisfied the radical nationalists.
Given the course the negotiations had taked, the commissioners insisted that the deal they brought home was the most Britain would offer -- and they were probably right; Lloyd George's government, after all the disasters it had faced, was shaky and could not afford to look any weaker than it already did. A bare majority of Irish leaders accepted this, and on January 7, 1922 the Irish Dail voted (by 64 votes to 57) to accept the treaty. The population was almost certainly much more heavily in favor, since opponents of Sinn Fein generally had not dared to run in the election which had created this Dail.
If there were defects in the Treaty, one may lay much of the blame on the Irish government. It gave its negotiators plenipotentiary powers, but never told them what to ask for, and then tried to change the results. De Valera's conduct was particularly suspect -- he had hinted that he would accept dominion status, but when the commissioners came back with something that was essentially that, he condemned it out of hand.
The result was a civil war which lasted until 1923. It took two new constitutions, a split within Sinn Fein, the founding of the Fianna Fail and Sine Gael parties, sundry assassinations (including that of Collins), and many restrictive government measures to bring political stability to Ireland.
This even though the people clearly supported the Treaty and the Free State; they wanted an end to war. (Kee makes the valid point, p. 158, that the IRB and other militants hadn't paid any attention to the people's wishes until that point; there was no logical reason why they should start now.) Younger (pp. 313-314) gives vote totals for the election which follows (which was largely a referendum on the treaty): "pro-Treaty panel candidates gained 239,193 votes of a total of 620,283 votes cast [39%]; anti-treaty panel candidates... polled 133,864 [22%]; and Labour, Independents and Farmers won between them 247,226 votes [40%]."
Coogan, p. 329, notes that this election cost both the de Valera and Collins factions in parliament, but the former much more heavily: "Certainly the result was a severe blow to the de Valera faction which held only thirty-six seats, a loss of twenty-two. The Collins/Griffith party won fifty-eight seats, a loss of eight, but which taken with the pro-Treaty Labour Party's seventeen seats, the Farmers' Party's seven, the six independents, and the four Unionists represented a solid pro-Treaty majority."
Still, the government that was elected was fragile, and there had already been some shooting. It would get worse.
"King George and Queen Mary" are, of course, George V of England and his wife Mary of Teck, to whom, under the Treaty, the Irish still owed technical allegiance.
The term "Free State" is an interesting one. The Irish were pushing for the establishment of the "Saorstat Eireann." That's usually translated as the "Republic of Ireland," and of course the more vehement Irish nationalists called themselves "Republicans."
The British, however, proposed to translate it as "Free State" (Coogan, p. 263). This little bit of wordplay solved a major problem on the British side while technically giving the Irish what they wanted. At least, what the Irish-speaking ones wanted. Evidently not all that the Anglophones (which were, of course, all of them) wanted.
Although Galvin lists no author for this piece, it definitely looks contemporary with the events described; it appears that someone is putting words in the mouth of either Collins or Griffith. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.8
File: PGa071

Irish Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: (The singer meets a girl by the river, lamenting her love gone to America). (She describes the pain of love.) (She) wishes she were far away with her love, or were a butterfly or a nightingale or a rose to be with her lover
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2654))
KEYWORDS: love separation bird loneliness floatingverses
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MW,SE,So,SW) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (27 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 292-293, "The Irish Girl" (3 texts)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 60-65, "The Irish GIrl or The New Irish GIrl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 246-247, "As I Walked Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #48, p. 2, "The Irish Girl"; #59, p. 2, "The Irish Girl"; #61, p. 2, "The Irish Girl" (3 text plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan5 946, "The Irish Girl" (9 texts plus a single stanza on p. 595, 5 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H711, pp. 234-235, "The Manchester Angel" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment with no beginning)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 2, "The New Irish Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 131, "The Irish Girl" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 131, "The Irish Girl" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #223, "That Irish Girl" (1 text)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 21, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (The "F" text in the appendix appears to be this, though heavily mixed with floating stanzas)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 159-161, "The Irish Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 90, "The Irish Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 46, "The Irish Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 180, "The Irish Girl" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 3 tunes, but the "A" text is from the Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly)/"Handsome Molly" family; "B" and "C" are single-verse fragments which may or may not be this song)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 44, "The Irish Girl" (1 text, 1 tune, a confused and conflate mix of this song and "Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly)")
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 48, "The Irish Girl" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 109, "Molly Bawn" (1 short text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 98, "The Lament" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 195-198, "Pretty Polly" (2 texts, 2 tunes, even more infected by floating material than most songs of this group, but it appears to be this piece)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 81, "My Irish Polly" (1 text, 1 tune, a long but very confused and mixed version)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 46, "Ruby Were Her Lips" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 15, "The Irish Girl" (1 text)
Green-OnlyAMiner-RecordedCoalMiningSongs, p. 230, "The Irish Girl" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 116, "The Irish Girl" (1 text)
DT, IRISHGRL* IRISHGR2*
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 47,"The Irish Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #308
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "I Wish My Love Was a Red Rose" (on IRRCinnamond02)
James McDermott, "Let the Wind Blow High or Low" (on IRHardySons)
Walter Pardon, "Let the Wind Blow High or Low" (on Voice10)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2654), "The New Irish Girl," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 25(1341), "The New Irish Girl"
LOCSinging, as106240, "The Irish Girl," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as106250, "The Irish Girl"
Murray, Mu23-y1:025, "The Irish Girl," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(065), "The Irish Girl," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c.1875
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line" (lyrics)
cf. "Bonny Tavern Green" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Lover's Resolution" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Wish I Were Yon Red, Red Rose
The Blue Cuckoo (the singer's name on IRHardySons)
NOTES [436 words]: This mostly-lyric piece easily degrades and easily mixes. Sedley and Sharp both had versions which mixed with "Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly)"; iit is often hard to guess which song Roud will include a particular version with Sharp compounded the problem by tacking on verses from another version. And because the song is so lyric, it often loses parts (e.g. the Henry text has lost the first verses which describe the whole motivation). What tends to survive is the handful of "I wish I were" lyrics, e.g.
I wish I were a butterfly, I would light on my love's breast.
I wish I were a linnet, I would sing my love to rest.
I wish I were a nightingale, I'd sit and sing so clear,
I wish I were a red, red rose... and (he) to be the gardener.
Based on the contents, this could well be a degenerate fragment of "Erin's Flowery Vale (The Irish Girl's Lament)" [Laws O29]; at least some versions of this scattershot song seem to presuppose the situation described in that. But Laws ignores all the various versions of this song he should have known (e.g. Sharp, Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, Brown). It must therefore be assumed that he either separates them or that he thinks these versions too lyric to include in his list. In any case, we've separated them. - RBW
Some clarity is provided for this confusing song by the LOCSinging broadsides as106250 and as106250. Their description, omitting floating verses and floating themes, is: The singer meets an expensively dressed Irish girl, crying and tearing her hair. Her lover has left and she won't follow. The lover says "I was of some noble blood and she of low degree." Her lover still loves her.
All of the broadsides I have seen include the floating verse "I wish I was in Dublin town [or Manchester, or Monaghan], and sitting on the grass, With a bottle of whiskey in my hand and on my knee a lass, We'd call for liquors merrily, pay before we go, And fold thee in my arms let the winds blow high or low."
Among the floating verses is this by Walter Pardon on Voice10, connecting to "The Manchester Angel" version:
I wish I were in Manchester, a-sitting on the grass
With a bottle of whisky in my hand and upon my knee a lass.
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "The Irish Girl" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)).
Broadside LOCSinging as106240: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: HHH711

Irish Girl's Lament, The

See Erin's Flowery Vale (The Irish Girl's Lament) [Laws O29] (File: LO29)

Irish Girl's Opinion, An

DESCRIPTION: "An Irish girl, and proud of it, a word I'd like to say... Paddy fights for England.... Then give to him old Ireland." No longer are Irishmen hung for wearing of the green, thanks to Dan O'Connell.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1775-1847 - Life of Daniel O'Connell
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 66, "An Irish Girl's Opinion" (1 text)
Roud #V5153
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2942), "An Irish Girl's Opinion", unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
File: OCon066

Irish Harvestmen's Triumph, The

DESCRIPTION: Irishmen that "reap the English harvest" should be prepared to fight "with John Bull and his crew." Irish harvestmen beat some Englishmen and go to look for work. At a railway line they fight navvies and beat them with bricks, stones, scythes, and hooks.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1860 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: fight harvest drink England Ireland patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 66, "A New Song on the Irish Harvest Men's Triumph Over the English" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 104, "John Bull and His Crew" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13468
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 2235a, "The Irish Harvests Triumph Over the English ," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 c.8(223), "The Irish Harvestmen's Triumph" [title spelled "Thriump"]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boys of Old Erin the Green" (subject)
NOTES [191 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion's variant last verse and other comment identifying the "holy priest" as Father Maguire are both illustrated by Bodleian broadside 2806 c.8(223).
The navvies were British railway workers [see Coleman, Terry The Railway Navvies:A History of the Men Who Made the Railways (BCA, 1972)]
Zimmermann guesses at the tune: "The final words of the last stanzas suggest "The Shamrock Shore," Joyce, No. 415." Creighton's tune, with an Angelo Dornan fragment, is probably a better bet. - BS
The name "John Bull" as a symbol for England or the English comes from John Arbuthnot's 1712 satire The History of John Bull, and does not represent a real person. (It's interesting to note that "The Roast Beef of Old England" by Richard Leveridge [c. 1670-1758] was an anthem of the Royal Navy.)
Dornan's fragment ("Be sure you're well provided for With comrades stout and true, For you'll have to fight both day and night With John Bull and his crew") initially made me think of a navy song -- a boast to the French, perhaps, during the Napoleonic Wars. Which just shows how hard it can be to identify what songs are about. - RBW
File: CrSNB104

Irish Jaunting Car, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, my name is Larry Doolin, I'm a native of the soil." The singer offers a day's diversion in his red-and-green jaunting car. He claims the Queen enjoyed his car, and the Lord Lieutenant recommended it. Others have enjoyed it a well
AUTHOR: unknown (New-Comic-Songster says "Composed by Valentine Vousden)
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (Universal Irish Songster)
KEYWORDS: royalty travel
FOUND IN: US(MW) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 42-43, "Do you want a car, Your Honour" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 115-116, "The Irish Jaunting Car" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, pp. 42-43, "The Irish Jaunting Car" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #6, p. 29, "The Irish Jaunting Car" (1 text)
Roud #5497
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES [39 words]: Not to be confused with Sam Henry's "My Irish Jaunting Car (The Irish Boy)."
Although I have not (yet) found a copy of this reliably dated before 1884, it must be older, since Harry McCarthy used the tune for "The Bonnie Blue Flag." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Dean115B

Irish Jubilee, The

DESCRIPTION: "A short while ago An Irishman named Doherty Was elected to the Senate By a very large majority." This is cause for a tremendous party, described in loving and silly detail, e.g. those invited included "Old men, young men, Girls who were not men at all."
AUTHOR: Words: James Thornton / Music: Charles Lawler
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: party humorous political
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Randolph 472, "The Irish Jubilee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 363-366, "The Irish Jubilee" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 472)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp.286-288, "Irish Jubilee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 80, pp. 101-102, "The Irish Jubilee" (1 text)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 160-162,247, "Irish Jubilee" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 225-228, "The Irish Jubilee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 49, "The Irish Jubilee" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 166, "The Irish Jubilee" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "The Wanigan Songbook" by Isabel J. Ebert, pp. 215-216, "Irish Jubilee" (1 text, sung by Emory DeNoyer)
Roud #2916
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Auld Lang Syne" (tune for final half-verse)
cf. "The Kelligrews Soiree"
cf. "O'Dooley's First Five O'Clock Tea" (theme)
cf. "Gilhooly's Dinner Party" (theme)
NOTES [87 words]: William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, pp. 144-145, implies that this is about a real event: "'The Irish Jubilee' (1890) describes a massive wingding to celebrate the rise of a local Tammany politico. When Doherty is elected to the Senate, he decides to celebrate. He throws a banquet, sending out invitations in twenty different languages." I can't find a record of a New York Senator named Doherty. There may have been a state senator by that name, to be sure. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: R472

Irish Laborer, An

DESCRIPTION: Singer is an Irish laborer, willing to work but told "No Irish wanted here". He retains his pride, praising the Irish for their generosity and their willingness to fight for America. He asks Americans to welcome the Irish.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: emigration discrimination Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 84, "An Irish Laborer" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 123, "Irish Labourer" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, IRSHLABR*
Roud #1137
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "No Irish Need Apply" (subject)
cf. "The Honest Irish Lad" (subject)
cf. "There Is Na Luck About the House" (tune)
NOTES [59 words]: The potato famine of 1845 brought millions of Irish emigrants to America; they were often resented by nativists and segments of the American labor movement.
This is clearly related to "No Irish Need Apply," sharing a few lines, but as it consists mostly of praise and exhortations, and lacks the narrative of that song, I've classified it separately. - PJS
File: Be084

Irish Lady, The

See A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.) [Laws P9] (File: LP09)

Irish Lullaby

See Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, That's an Irish Lullaby (File: DTlullby)

Irish Mail Robber, The [Laws L15]

DESCRIPTION: The Irish youth turns bad despite his father's warnings. To support his wild habits, he turns to crime and is at last convicted of mail robbery. He is sentenced to transportation for nine years, forcing him to leave his father and sweetheart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
KEYWORDS: father crime robbery separation transportation punishment
FOUND IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws L15, "The Irish Mail Robber"
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 140-141, "The Irish Mail Robber" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 164, "A Prisoner for Life" (4 texts, 3 tunes, but only the "A" text is this piece)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 76-77, "A Prisoner for Life" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 164A)
DT 424, IRSHMAIL*
Roud #1905
File: LL15

Irish Mollie-O

See My Irish Molly-O (File: FSC062)

Irish Molly-O

See My Irish Molly-O (File: FSC062)

Irish Molly, O

See My Irish Molly-O (File: FSC062)

Irish Mother's Lament, An

DESCRIPTION: The Irish mother nurses her child and laments for her dead husband, "Won't you come back to your fond wife's arms? Have you no care for your sweet babe's charms?" She says she has no friends and no hope; "Cushla mavourneen, why did you die?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love death children father mother abandonment mourning
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H600, pp. 140-141, "An Irish Mother's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9448
File: HHH600

Irish New Policeman, The

See The New Policeman (File: GrD1750)

Irish Paddy

DESCRIPTION: An Irishman says the Irish always supported the English in battle: "The Irishman was never behind With his bayonet by his side Pat have often turned the tide And helped build the honour of old England." Yet "with England somehow we never can agree"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: war England Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30121
RECORDINGS:
Pat Critch, "Irish Paddy" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [50 words]: This obviously sounds like an Irish song. But the population of Newfoundland was about half English Protestants, half Irish Catholics. So it would make sense in a Newfoundland context too -- perhaps even more than in Ireland, because the people of Newfoundland often supported Britain in its wars. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Ml3IrPad

Irish Patriot, The

DESCRIPTION: "On Africa's burning shore" an old Irishman says an English lord killed his wife and baby because he would not join the rebels. In the army in Africa, he kills the lord and hides. The singer takes the old man home; he is buried near his wife and baby
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: age homicide revenge return escape help Africa Ireland patriotic soldier baby wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 90-91, "The Irish Emigrant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 142-144, "The Irish Patriot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 18, "The Irish Patriot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12486
RECORDINGS:
Tom Murphy and Minnie Murphy, "India's Burning Shore" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "India's Burning Shores" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [561 words]: The singer considers the old man "a true [Irish] patriot" although his crime was killing an English lord who wanted him to "join the rebel horde." I suspect that a broadside source for this ballad might have a different story.
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick begins "As I strayed below those lofty paths on India's burning shore, A-listening to a tiger's howl or a savage lion's roar." India, rather than Africa [see Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland], is the place to find tigers. On the other hand, even Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick has the action taking place in Africa: "And to fulfill the oath I took I revenged on him to be, I sailed in that same ship with him to the coast of Cape Colony. When I arrived at Capetown, I was chosen for to be Lieutenant in the army, his lone bodyguard to be." Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick makes more sense with the problem coming up when "that cruel rebellion came and we were forced to go To fight for home and liberty with a [hated Saxon foe]." However, the []-bracketed words were inserted by Ives.
Ives says that this song "doesn't show up much (only twice, in fact) in published collections, [but] is very much a part of the old lumbercamp tradition." Ives's two other sources are Edward D Ives, Folksongs from Maine, 1965, 18, "The Irish Patriot" (collected 1962) and Horace P Beck, The Folklore of Maine, 1957, pp 93-95. Ives notes "that the song seems to have been reasonably popular in the lumbercamps" (p. 81). [Ives apparently did not know] Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland.
Re "tigers" in Africa: From Captain James Riley, Sufferings in Africa, 2000 edition of book published in 1817, an account of the ordeal of Riley and his crew in North Africa in 1815: "... near watering places: some tigers also now and then made their appearance. Such is the great western desart, or Zahahrah...." p. 298. Is Captain Riley referring to leopards or other desert cats? Is "tiger" a generic term for "dangerous cat"? If so, how common was that usage? - BS
"Tiger" did indeed originally mean, broadly speaking, any big feline that isn't a lion. The word originated in Greek (τιγρις, "tigris,"), and seems to have come into use only around the time of Alexander (e.g. Aristotle uses it); it is possible that the first actual tiger to be seen in Europe was sent by Alexander's successors. This word then passed through Latin to Old French to English. There was apparently a time when leopards were thought to be hybrids of lions and something else, so "tiger" was the word for a non-lion bred in captivity. It does seem as if its use in this song is anachronistic. On the other hand, lions and tigers can interbreed (to produce ligers and tigrons).... - RBW
Re "Tiger" in tales and songs about Africa:
In her introduction to Jekyll's Jamaican Song and Story, Alice Werner writes: "Mr Jekyll thinks 'Tiger' is a substitute for 'Lion' [in Afro-Jamaican tales], but it seems equally possible that 'Leopard' is meant. All over South Africa, leopards are called 'tigers' by Dutch, English, and Germans, just as hyenas are called 'wolves,' and bustards 'peacocks' (paauw). 'Tiger' is used in the same sense in German Kamerun, and probably elsewhere in West Africa" (Walter Jekyll, Jamaican Song and Story (New York: Dover Publications, 1966 (reprint of David Nutt publication, 1907)), p.xxxviii). - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Dib090

Irish Peasant Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer thinks about widow Brown's daughter. She crosses the Atlantic to send money home. Her dying wish is that a letter be written to her mother and brother at home. Singer in Ireland thinks of "the lily of the mountain furze that withers far away"
AUTHOR: probably Charles Joseph Kickham (1825-1882)
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (Duncathail)
KEYWORDS: emigration dying hardtimes Ireland separation money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 126, "The Irish Peasant Girl" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Duncathail (pseud)., _Street Ballads, Popular Poetry, and Household Songs of Ireland_, McGlashan & Gill, 1865 (avaialble on Google Books), p. 66, "The Irish Peasant GIrl" (1 text)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 261-262, 502, "The Irish Peasant Girl"
Roud #5687
RECORDINGS:
Tommy McGrath, "She Lived Beside the Anner" (on Voice04)
NOTES [106 words]: O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland has the author as John Banim (1798-1842), who wrote "Aileen," "Soggarth Aroon," "The Reconciliation," "The Irish Maiden's Song," and "The Irish Mother in the Penal Days." Sparling makes Kickham the author and is supported in that by the article "Charles Joseph Kickham" at the New Advent site Catholic Encyclopedia. The first line is "She lived beside the Anner at the foot of Slievenamon"; Catholic Encyclopedia notes that the same was true of Kickham. - BS
Colum's An Anthology of Irish Verse also credits it to Kickham. For more on him, see the notes to "Patrick Sheehan" [Laws J11]. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: RcTIrPGi

Irish Rebel Spy, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the city of Mialco, near the county of Leone There lived a comely maiden ... And the proper name she goes by is the Irish Rebel Spy." Her brother and true love die as Fenians. She outwits detectives, steals a horse, and warns the Fenians.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: rebellion trick Ireland patriotic
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 76, "The Irish Rebel Spy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi076 (Partial)
Roud #9178
RECORDINGS:
Marge Steiner, "The Irish Rebel Spy" (on Steiner01)
NOTES [291 words]: I have no idea what the names of city and county, in the first line, should be. Roud quotes a first line from a Fowke sound recording as "In the county of Malonta(?) in the city of Malone." - BS
Since a song approving of the Fenians is unlikely to have originated in Canada (the Fenians, after all, wanted to attack Canada!), we must assume the song is of Irish origin. There is no Irish county with no name anything like either Leone or Malone. My wild, wild guess is that the name is an error for "Athlone" -- not a county, but a well-known city, and one in the county of Roscommon, which isn't very singable.
The other name defeats me. Not too far from Athlone, but in Westmeath, is the town of Moate; I can't come up with anything closer. But I don't really believe it.
The other possibility would be to make the county "Mayo." In that case, the best emendation I can come up with is "In the city of Ballina in the county of Mayo." In this case, the song might be connected, somehow, with the activities of Michael Davitt (1846-1905), whose family had been evicted from their home in Mayo in 1852. Having lost an arm in a factory accident, and brutally treated as a prisoner, he returned to Mayo in 1879, and was in prison again by 1881. But he doesn't fit the song very well. More likely it arises from the Fenian uprising (read: fiasco) of 1867.
The one historical figure we can identify with certainty is James Stephens (1824-1901), a participant in the rebellion of 1848 and the founder of the Fenians in 1858, for whom see "James Stephens, the Gallant Fenian Boy." But he abandoned the movement in 1866, shortly before the Fenian rebellion. He was treated with scorn thereafter.
All in all, a very confusing, and confused, piece, this. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: MaWi076

Irish Recruit, The

See The Kerry Recruit [Laws J8] (File: LJ08)

Irish Refugee, The (Poor Pat Must Emigrate)

DESCRIPTION: Leaving Ireland. "We have fought for England's queen ... why should we be so oppressed?" I'm going to America "for there is bread." "If ever again I see this land I hope it will be with a Fenian band, So God be with old Ireland, poor Pat must emigrate!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1884 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3100))
KEYWORDS: emigration hardtimes America Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 53, "The Irish Refugee" (1 text); pp. 106-107, "Poor Pat Must Emigrate" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #`060, p. 72, "The Irish Refugee, or Poor Pat Must Emigrate" (1 reference)
Roud #2558
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3100), "Poor Pat Must Emigrate", H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Harding B 11(3101), Harding B 11(3102), "Pat Must Emigrate"; 2806 b.10(79), Harding B 26(515), "Poor Pat Must Emigrate"; Harding B 18(297), "The Irish Refugee" or "Poor Pat Must Emigrate"; Harding B 19(78), "Irish Patt Must Emigrate "
SAME TUNE:
Podgee and Rhu [i.e. Paudeen Rhu] (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 18(297))
Apple Potatoes (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 19(78))
Apple Praties (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(515))
NOTES [28 words]: The famine year of 1848 is sometimes stated as 1854.
As for the tune it may be that there are a number of songs on "the latest travels of the raking Paudheen Rhu." - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: OCon053

Irish Rover, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and six We set sail from the coal quay of Cork." The ship, with too many masts, too strange a crew, and too unusual a cargo, sinks on its own improbabilities; only the singer is left to tell the tall tale
AUTHOR: Joseph Mary Crofts? (see notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors); possibly written 1911
KEYWORDS: sailor ship talltale humorous disaster wreck
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 142, "The Irish Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, IRSHROVR*
Roud #4379
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Katey of Lochgoil" (theme)
NOTES [74 words]: Widely regarded as traditional, and certainly popular with traditional singers, but there seem to be no early collections. Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors bring together evidence that it was written by J. M. Crofts around 1911, and that this J. M. Crofts was Joseph Mary Crofts of Dublin, born around 1887. This seems to be the best evidence we have, but it is very tentative. No one seems to have produced a broadside or early publication. - RBW
File: DTirshro

Irish Sailor Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: "'My parents raised me tenderly, I being their only joy, When my first stroll I took to roam,' Cried the Irish sailor b'y" The captain and eleven of a crew of twenty four survive a ship wreck and land in St Peter's, Newfoundland
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor disaster death
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 128, "The Irish Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6347
RECORDINGS:
Pattie Maher, "The Irish Sailor Boy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: GrMa128

Irish Schoolmaster, The

DESCRIPTION: The Irish Schoolmaster teaches children how to behave, and information both true and false: "Come here, my boy, Hold up your head and look like a gentleman, sir. Now tell me who Napoleon was...." "Napoleon was king of France before the revolution"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: humorous Napoleon | school
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 67, "Oh, Rob Roy was a tailor bold, King of the Cannibal Islands" (1 text)
Roud #13120
File: LSUC067A

Irish Serenade, An

See Oh Molly, I Can't Say That You're Honest (File: HHH082)

Irish Shore, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer wasted his youth on gambling and fast women. In London he spent his money on women and went to China. Now he is going home. "My rambling's oer, I'll hae a wife.... by pious works of sweet contemplation I'll end my days on the Highland shore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(69))
KEYWORDS: sex rambling return gambling China
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 534, "The Highland Shore" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5897
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(69)[some words illegible], "The Irish Shore" ("You curious searchers of each narration"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also 2806 b.10(180), "Irish Shore"; Harding B 17(280a), 2806 b.10(211), Harding B 25(1756), Harding B 11(3471), Harding B 11(246), Harding B 11(247), Harding B 11(560), Harding B 11(561), 2806 c.18(283), "[The] Shamrock Shore"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ye Curious Sages
NOTES [81 words]: This singer blames all his misfortunes on women. In his youth "women's pleasures I freely tasted Which makes me wander thro' foreign clime." In London he sees "madams and crowds of lasses ... But do believe me their painted faces Are to ensnare us poor wanton slaves They hae nae love in their lewd embraces And we're all fools to their jilting ways." He condemns women of every country he has seen: "your gaudy dresses I do despise ... Wi' your surly looks and your greasy faces." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3534

Irish Sixty-Ninth, The

DESCRIPTION: A song telling the story of the 69th regiment, "The Irish Sixty-Ninth." The training of the regiment is described, then its long career in the Peninsula, at Antietam, Fair Oaks, Glendale, and perhaps Gettysburg
AUTHOR: M. Fay? (The Johnson broadside is "Dedicated to the Sixty-ninth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, by M. Fay")
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (recorded from John Galusha)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 14, "The Irish Sixty-Ninth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #705, p. 46, "Gallant Pennsylvania 69th, Irish Volunteers" (1 reference)
ST Wa014 (Full)
Roud #7455
RECORDINGS:
"Yankee" John Galusha, "The Irish 69th" [excerpt] (on USWarnerColl01)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, (no number), "Gallant Pennsylvania 69th, Irish Volunteers ("To Erin's sons of hill and plain, come listen to my feeble strain"), J. H. Johnson (Philadelphia), 1863
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "McKenna's Dream" (tune)
NOTES [4507 words]: Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 175-176, prints a song "The Gallant 69th" (Roud #V41521), sung by Ned Harrigan and Tony Hart and written by Harrigan and David Braham (for whom see "Babies on Our Block"). I formerly filed it with this song, but it is not the same piece and probably did not go into tradition.
My initial notes on this song contained a great deal of sleuthing to determine what it was about. Then I found what is clearly this song in Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 46. The entry is titled "Gallant Pennsylvania 69th, Irish Volunteers," and begins "To Erin's sons of hill and plain, come listen to my feeble strain." The air is listed as "McKenney's Dream," which is surely "McKenna's Dream." That eliminates the need for much of the reasoning below, but I'll leave it anyway....
The very name "The Irish Sixty-Ninth" immediately brings to mind the 69th New York regiment, a famous unit of the equally famous "Irish Brigade" that saw service through the entire Civil War. (For more about that unit, see the notes to "By the Hush.") Williams, p. 43, reports that there were "dozens of ballads relating to the exploits of the Sixty-Ninth Regiment," although few of these became traditional, and Wolf has many songs about a "69th regiment" (more on this below), most of them probably about the 69th NY.
There was also an "Irish Ninth," the Massachusetts Ninth Regiment (Pfanz, p. 154), but apart from the fact that it would take a significant rewrite to get from a phrase such as "famous Irish Ninth" to "Irish Sixty-Ninth," this regiment doesn't seem to have gotten much press.
However, the unit in the song is said to have been commanded by "Colonel Owens," and the song refers several times to Philadelphia. Thus the 69th NY is not meant, nor the Massachusetts Ninth; we must look to the 69th Pennsylvania.
This regiment is not as famous (and it certainly didn't suffer the extreme -- 90% -- casualties faced by the 69th NY), but it was mustered in in August 1861 (as in the song; the 69th NY mustered in in September) and its original commander was Col. (later Brig. Gen.) Joshua T. Owen (Boatner, p. 614; HuntMidAtlantic, p. 14). It was very Irish -- "so much so that next to the national colors was displayed the emerald flag of Ireland rather than the usual regimental flag" (Sears, p. 448). And it was a Philadelphia regiment -- in fact it was a member of what later came to be called the "Philadelphia Brigade."
It is ironic to note that this Philadelphia formation was originally known as the "3rd California"; the Philadelphia Brigade had been raised at the instance of California Senator James MacDougal, who paid for the arms of the "1st California," later the 71st Pennsylvania, and was commanded by another Western Senator, Edward D. Baker, a friend of Abraham Lincoln's who had spent time in California and who now represented Oregon (and had turned down a general's commission so that he could stay in the Senate while still commanding his regiment as a Colonel! -- Foote, p. 105). But on October 21, 1861, Baker was killed at the battle of Ball's Bluff, and the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th California became the 71st, 72nd, 69th, and 106th Pennsylvania (HTIECivilWar, p. 580. There was no 4th California; it had been planned to be an artillery/cavalry unit, but was never formed; Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 13). The 69th Pennsylvania was the only Irish formation in the brigade.
It is not coincidence that it became the 69th regiment; the original plan was to renumber the 3rd California the 68th Pennsylvania. Colonel Owen, however, "formally requested it to be designated the 69th Pennsylvania as a way of linking 'the two Irish regiments of the Empire and Key-Stone States" -- i.e. the 69th New York and 69th Pennsylvania (Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 42).
The 69th PA fought in most of the battles in the east, starting with the fiasco at Ball's Bluff (happily, it was not one of the regiments directly involved, and suffered no real casualties), and was hit hard at Antietam but went through Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville relatively unscathed (HTIECivilWar, pp. 580-581). It was one of the regiments that received Pickett's Charge on July 3, 1863 at Gettysburg (Sears, pp. 436-437; possibly referred to in stanza 6, though this could refer to the Battle of Fair Oaks; Sears, p. 469, adds that the 69th took roughly 47% casualties in facing the charge, the highest loss rate of any of the regiment involved). That was the last great fight for the Philadelphia Brigade; some of the units mustered out in 1864, and the 69th was merged with other units although it officially remained on the books until the end of the war (HTIECivilWar, p. 581).
There are at least two books about the Philadelphia Brigade. The modern volume is Gottfried's. The older one is Charles H. Banes, History of the Philadelphia Brigade: Sixty-Ninth, Seventy-First, Seventy-Second, and One Hundred and Sixth Pennsylvania Volunteers, J. B. Lippincott & Co, Philadelphia, 1876; the latter is available on Google Books, and includes (pp. 295-300) a depressingly long list of those killed in action. There is also a rather silly volume that the survivors of the brigade published long after the war, after a posthumous publication of Frank Haskell's notes on the Battle of Gettysburg, which roused the indignation of the brigade's survivors and inspired them to, quite frankly, protest too much. Gottfried-Brigades, p. 151, concludes:
"While the 69th Pennsylvania and the 106th Pennsylvania had performed superbly during the battle, the behavior of the brigade's other two regiments was suspect. The cloud of doubt about the brigade's effectiveness would follow it through the remainder of the war."
If there were only one version of this song, I might suggest that the name "Irish Sixty-Ninth" arose by confusion out of the World War I regiment with that nickname, in which Joyce Kilmer ("I think that I shall never see A poem as lovely as a tree") served and died. There was in fact a pop song about that regiment ("The Fighting Sixty-Ninth," by Anna L. Hamilton). However, with multiple versions, all clearly Civil War, this does not seem possible.
Among the other references in the song:
"It was in August, sixty-one, When Colonel Owens took command": The 2nd and 3rd California were indeed formed in August 1861, although the 3rd did not reach full strength until a couple of months later (Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 13).
"In February, sixty-two... To Washington we went straight way, And sailed in steamers down the bay": In February and March, the Philadelphia Brigade marched around quite a bit as it prepared for the Peninsular Campaign. On March 28, the 69th boarded the Champion to head for the Peninsula. (Gottfried-Philadelphia, pp. 56-57).
"To land at Fort Monroe": Fort Monroe, at the end of the Virginia Peninsula, was starting point of the Peninsular Campaign.
"At Hampton then we camped around, Until brave Little Mac came down": "Little Mac" is Gen. George McClellan, who commanded the Army of the Potomac for most of 1862 and directed the Peninsula Campaign. Hampton is a plantation in the Peninsula about two miles from Fort Monroe (Map on p. 61 of Gottfried-Philadelphia). Around this time, the brigade saw General McClellan as they prepared to move out for Yorktown (Gottfried-Philadelphia, p 58).
Yorktown: besieged in the Peninsula Campaign (Apr. 5-May 4, 1862). The Confederates evacuated it just before the Federal assault was to begin (Boatner, p. 953).
"From Yorktown then we sailed away, And landed at West Point next day": After the Yorktown debacle, McClellan wanted to send troops by boat around the Confederate army. The Philadelphia Brigade was one of those sent up the York River to Eltham Landing (Gottfried-Philadelphia, pp. 68-69). Eltham Landing and West Point are both located around the place where the Pamunkey and Mattaponi Rivers join to form the York River, a few dozen miles above Yorktown; West Point is more often mentioned in the histories, because McClellan made it a base, but they're really the same place.
"Then double quick away we went, Along the river we were sent To drive the rebels back we meant, No man fell out of line": As McClellan approached Richmond, he put part of his army on the left bank of the Chickahominy River and part on the right. The Chickahominy was a big enough river to form a major obstacle, and bridges were few. Joseph E. Johnston, the Confederate commander, knew that he was outnumbered heavily, and decided to attack the smaller half of the Federal army and defeat it in detail. The result was the Battle of Fair Oaks/Seven Pines, the first major battle of the Peninsula Campaign (May 31-June 1, 1862).
Abominable staff work caused the attack to fail (with Johnston wounded in the fight, meaning that Robert E. Lee took charge of the Confederate army), but the two Federal corps that came under attack had a very bad time for a while. Sumner's II Corps, which contained the Philadelphia Brigade, was eventually sent across the river -- over a bridge that seemed in imminent danger of collapse -- to help rescue the beleaguered troops (Gottfried-Philadelphia, pp. 71-75). Happily, the brigade's losses at this time were light (Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 78).
"Pickett's guns": One way or another, this is out of place; it looks to me as if the next three verses have been disordered. This is possibly a reference to Gettysburg, where the 69th faced Pickett's Charge, but even if you ignore the fact that this would be very much out of place, no other event in the song takes place after the end of 1862, so I think that likely out. Another possibility is the Battle of Williamsburg, after the Confederate retreat from Yorktown; where Pickett was actively involved (Freeman, vol. I, p. 178) and did well enough to be regarded as "distinctly promising" (Freeman, vol. I, p. 192). A third possibility is at Fair Oaks/Seven Pines, where Pickett "increased the reputation he had gained at Williamburg" (Freeman, vol. I, p. 243). But I think the most likely explanation is that the reference is to the fight at Glendale during the Seven Days (more on this below).
"Then on Antietam's field again, We boldly faced the iron rain. Some of our boys upon the plain They found a bloody grave": Antietam was fought in Maryland, Sept. 17, 1862, to repel Robert E. Lee's invasion of that state. The battle did indeed allow McClellan "to send the ragged rebels back Across Potomac's waves" -- but it was a terrible battle and the 69th's part of it neither particularly useful nor particularly glorious. Merely -- as the song implies -- bloody.
McClellan had already sent two corps, Hooker's I Corps and Mansfield's XII Corps, to attack the Confederate left. The Confederates had held, barely, injuring Hooker and killing Mansfield (Palfrey, pp. 72-82). That made it the turn of Sumner's II Corps, which included the Philadelphia Brigade. Sumner was given his order late, and had never seen the ground; he simply sent his divisions forward, without any preparation at all -- the first division into battle, Sedgwick's, wasn't even properly formed to attack (Palfrey, pp. 82-84). The Philadelphia Brigade was part of Sedgwick's division, and paid for it. The Confederates had not planned an ambush, but they could hardly have managed a better one had they tried. Sedgwick's three brigades found themselves in a pocket surrounded by ten Confederate brigades (Murfin, p. 231). Sedgwick's division was shot to pieces without accomplishing anything. The official reckoning is that Sedgwick lost 2255 men killed, wounded, or missing (Palfrey, p. 90) -- meaning that its casualties were on the order of 50%. Sedgwick himself was wounded three times. The Philadelphia Brigade suffered slightly less than the other brigades of the division, but it still took 568 casualties (Gotfried-Philadelphia, p. 120).
Sedgwick's injury affected the 69th. He was out for many months, and when he came back, it was as commander of the Sixth Corps, not of his old division. As a result, Oliver O. Howard, who had been leading the Philadelphia Brigade, was given command of the division (Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 123.) And that meant the Philadelphia Brigade needed a commander. Colonel Owen of the 69th was promoted Brigadier General as a result, to date from November 29, 1863; the Senate did not confirm that appointment and it expired March 4, 1863, but he was reappointed on March 30, and this time, the Senate agreed (Phisterer, p. 281, although the name is misspelled "Owens"). As a result, Lt. Colonel Dennis O'Kane was promoted Colonel of the 69th as of December 1, 1862 (HuntMidAtlantic, pp. 14, 129).
O'Kane is clearly the officer referred to in the verse that begins "O'Keen, our colonel, nobly stood." This stanza offers more evidence that the song was written in late 1862 or early 1863, because O'Kane was mortally wounded on July 3 at Gettysburg and died the next day (HuntMidAtlantic, p. 129); there is no mention of this or of his successor.
"Fairoaks:" an inexplicable reference at this place in the song. If it points to Fair Oaks/Seven Pines, mentioned above, it is out of sequence, since Fair Oaks took place long before Antietan; if it refers to the Fair Oaks battle of October 1864, the 69th PA was not present and the results were in any case unfortunate for the Federals. The likely explanation is that the reference is to Fair Oaks, and this half-verse is out of place.
"Had picket fighting night and day": If we assume that this statement refers to the period immediately after the Battle of Fair Oaks, this is a good description of what happened in this period. From June 6 to June 27, the Philadelphia Brigade fought eight minor engagements with the Confederates (Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 80), and the pickets were in conflict even more often.
"Where other regiments they fell back": "When the II Corps [which contained the 69th Pennsylvania] reached Savage Station [early in the Seven Days' Battles], General Heintzelman [commanding the III Corps] ordered his men to continue their retreat toward the White Oak Swamp. General Sumner [commanding II Corps] later bluntly described this movement... 'When the enemy appeared on the Williambsurg road I could not imagine why General Heintzelman did ot attack him, and not till some time afterward did I learn, to my utter amazement, that General Heintzelman had left the field and retreated with his whole corps'" (Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 85). I'm not sure that this action is what the song refers to, because the Seven Days involved a lot of retrograde movements, but this is a reasonable fit.
"We stood as at Glendale." I'll speculate that this should be "We stood STILL at Glendale." Glendale (also known as White Oak Swamp) was one of the Seven Days' Battles, fought June 20, 1862 at the end of the Peninsula Campaign. Glendale was a road crossing that the Army of the Potomac needed to hold as it transferred its base from West Point to the James River, and the Confederates tried a converging attack to smash the Federals holding the position.
The Confederate attack was badly coordinated, but the Philadelphia Brigade was at the heart of the defence, and the 69th Pennsylvania was in direct conflict with Pickett's Brigade (the map on p. 92 of Gottfried-Philadelphia makes this clear); General Sumner of the II Corps at this time called the 69th "one of the best regiments in my corps" (Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 93). The 69th fought against A. P. Hill's division, including notably Pickett's brigade, which is why I suspect the mention of "Pickett's guns" above is a reference to Glendale. Indeed, some of Pickett's troops had captured several Federal cannon, and were about to turn them on the Union forces, when a charge by the 69th drove them away (Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 93), so the reference to "Pickett's guns" is particularly appropriate here.
The 69th, and the Federals, did manage to hold on at Glendale, but just barely (Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 95); after holding the line, the Union forces continued their retreat. But the 69th's conduct was exemplary and deserves its mention.
"O'Keen, our colonel, nobly stood Where the grass was turning red with blood": O'Kane was colonel of the regiment at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. The regiment was hit hard at both Fredericksburg and Gettysburg (it served at Chancellorsville but took no casualties; Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 146).
But there are two arguments for Fredericksburg. First, whichever battle it refers to, it's the last one in the song. If the song were written after Fredericksburg, it would make sense to refer only to that battle, whereas if it were written after one of the other battles, it would make sense that all the remaining battles would be mentioned. Plus Fredericksburg fits: The II Corps made a completely useless advance on the Confederates that accomplished nothing at all (Gottfried-Philadelphia pp. 130-134). The brigade took some unfair criticism, but Owen's report said that it took 265 casualties (Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 135). That's less than other brigades in the division, but that merely means that they had the sense to go to ground sooner rather than be slaughtered.
After Fredericksburg, the regiment was the one at dead center of Pickett's Charge, although this seems to be after the song was written. It was hit so hard that it lost Colonel O'Kane killed, Lt. Colonel Tschudy mortally wounded, and Major Duffy wounded; Captain William Davis ended up commanding the regiment (Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 174). A regiment was supposed to have at least 800 men (although few Union regiments had more than 400 when they went into Pennsylvania); the 69th had only 115 in the ranks after Gettysburg (Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 115); the whole brigade had only 660, and was commanded by a lieutenant colonel rather than a brigadier. The four regiments, which would normally be commanded by colonels, were commanded by one lieutenant colonel, one major, and two captains (Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 183).
The history of the 69th, and the Philadelphia Brigade, after Gettysburg was rather sad. It took part in the early phases of Grant's final campaign against Richmond, but mostly without much distinction. With so many of the officers dead or promoted, and most of the best of the enlisted men also gone, the brigade was no longer a very effective unit. Often the men showed a significant willingness to attack enemy entrenchments (which, to be sure, was simply smart). In 1864, division commander John Gibbon pressed charges against General Owen. No court was ever convened (Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 218), but General Grant considered him ineffective enough that he recommended that Owen no longer serve. Lincoln approved (Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 219), and Owen was mustered out of the service July 18, 1864 (Phisterer, p. 281).
The enlistments of the Philadelphia Brigade expired in 1864. The government at this time was making desperate attempts to get soldiers to re-enlist, but very few members of the 71st (Baker's old regiment) were willing; it was mustered out on July 2, 1864 (Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 219). The rest of the brigade served until the army moved to attack Petersburg -- where it met disaster. Most of the 106th regiment, and four companies of the 69th, were captured there (Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 223; on p. 226, he notes that the 106th had only thirty men left with the colors), as were many individual soldiers from the 72nd. Although the brigade had been in an untenable position, its performance had been very bad, and on June 26, the brigade was broken up -- to the men's intense disatisfaction (Gottfried-Philadelphia, pp. 225-226). The terms of the 72nd and 106th expired soon after, and they were mustered out (Gottfried-Phladelphia, p. 226). That left the 69th as the last unit of the famous brigade still in service -- it had re-enlisted en masse, meaning that it was entitled to retain its regimental number and honors. (A few companies of the 106th were also retained, as a battalion rather than a regiment; the 69th and the 106th battalion served all the way to Appomattox, and were disbanded on July 1 and June 30, 1865, respectively; Gottfried-Philadelphia, p. 228).
Gottfried-Philadelphia's conclusion (p. 230) is that "Few can argue that the 69th['s] activities at Glendale and Gettysburg cause it to be considered the finest fighting unit in the brigade." On p. 234, Gottfried-Philadelphia lists the fate of the men of the unit: 7.1% were killed or mortally wounded. 7.2% died (presumably mostly of disease). 14% deserted. 22.5% were discharged before the end of their term. 9.1% were wounded at the time their term ended. 1.9% were in prison. 0.2% were missing. 3.1% were transferred to another unit. 9.9% had an "other" fate. Only 24.9% were around to be mustered out with the unit at the end of its term. This shows in the number of soldiers present over the years (listed on p. 232 of Gottfried-Philadelphia): 952 at the beginning of 1862. 726 at the time of Yorktown. 486 after Antietam. 408 after Fredericksburg. 344 were present at Gettysburg. There were only 324 present at the end of 1863. And it went downhill from there.
It will be evident that John Galusha's version of this song is disordered in the final verses. The broadside has six stanzas of eight long lines. Yankee John's version has stanzas of eight short lines. So one of the broadside's stanzas is equivalent to two of Galusha's. In other words, the broadside had twelve stanzas; Yankee John had nine. And Yankee John had scrambled the stanzas, and half-stanzas, that he remembered. My tentative conclusion was that Yankee John's text should be re-ordered 1A/1B, 2A/2B, 3A/3B, 4A/4B, 5A/7A, 5B/7B, 6A/6B, 8A/8B, 9A/9B. This is roughly correct when compared with the broadside, although I was wrong to reverse 7A and 5B (for reasons given below). The following list shows the correct order, along with the first part of each half-stanza. Half-stanzas that Galusha remembered are given their stanza numbers in his text (e.g. "1B" would be the second half of his first stanza); half-stanzas that Yankee John forgot are shown in [brackets] and not numbered.
[To Erin's sons of hill and plain, come listen to my feeble strain]
[I'll sing you of our long campaign, through Summer's sun and Winter's rain]
1A. It was in August sixty-one, that Colonel Owen took command
1B. He drilled us every day we rose, to learn us how to thresh our foes
2A. In February sixty-two, when passing in a grand review,
2B. To Washington we went straightway, and sailed in steamers down the Bay
3A. At Hampton then we camp'd around, until brave little Mac came down
3B. Where there we work'd both night and day, and drove the rebel hordes away
4A. From Yorktown then we sailed away, and landed at West Point next day
4B. And there we stopped three weeks or more, until we heard the cannons roar
5A. Then double quick away we went, across the river we were sent
5B. There Philadelphia's adopted sons, bravely supported Rickett's guns,
7A. At Fair Oaks then long weeks we lay, and Picket fighting night and day,
7B. And in the seven days going back, on bloody fields we left our track,
[Where horse and foot retreat that day, all bleeding from that dreadful fray]
[And when our bullets were all spent, three cheers we for the Union sent]
6A. And on Antietam field again we boldly faced the Iron rain
6B. Where our brave General, Little Mac, made boasting Lee to clear the track
[At Fredericksburg our old brigade, with Owens, who never was afraid]
[And though the bullets flew around, we drove the grey coats from the town]
8A. Next day upon the battle field, old veterans they were forced to yield,
8B. The cannons blazing shot and shell, 'twas like the gaping jaws of hell,
9A. O'Kane, our Colonel, nobly stood, where the grass was turning red with blood
9B. Though many got a bloody shroud, as Philadelphia's sons we are proud,
Note that Yankee John's stanza 5B had a major error, "Pickett's" for "Rickett's," which changes the meaning of the verse very much. Pickett was a Confederate general, James B. Ricketts (at the time of the song) a Union artillery captain. At First Bull Run, he commanded Company I of the 1st U.S. Artillery (McDonald, p. 194), where he was wounded and captured. He was not exchanged until 1862, when he was made a brigadier and given an infantry brigade; he later rose to division command (Boatner, p. 699). But since no regular army officer was promoted to replace him, Company I could still be called Ricketts' in the Peninsula, even though it was commanded by Lt. Edmund Kirby. And Company I was in the same division as the Philadelphia Brigade, so they fought together.
As outlined above, if "Pickett" had been meant by Yankee John's source, the reference was probably to Glendale -- but in the original, it's a reference to Fair Oaks.
For some reason, 69th Regiments seem to have been very popular in Civil War broadsides. Wolf, p. 31, includes "The Departure of the 69th Volunteers" (I'm not sure which regiment this refers to); p. 46 has "The Gallant Pennsylvania 69th, Irish Volunteers" and "The Galland 69th" by Harrigan and Braham; p. 47 offers "The Gallant 69th No. 8" and "The Gallant 69th" (not sure about the regiment in the latter three); p. 50 is "Glorious 69th!" (not clear which regiment this is, but it was printed at least five times); p. 79 gives "The Jolly 69th" (which we can only say is an Irish regiment); p. 89 is "Long Live the Sixty-Ninth" (which doesn't say if the regiment is Irish). Page 135 offers the "Return of the 69th" by John Flanagan. Page 142 gives us "69th Regiment, No. 4"; there is no way to tell which regiment is involved. On page 158 is "To the Glorious 69th!" ("These noble sons of Erin, who to this country came"); again, it's not clear which regiment is meant. On p. 168 are "War Song of the New-York 69th Regiment" and "War Song No 2 of the 69th Regiment." Page 171 has "Welcome Our Gallant 69th," which doesn't give a clue as the regiment but is to the interesting tune "Marshal Ney."
Pages 134-135 have the "Return of Gen. Corcoran of the Glorious 69th," referring to the 69th New York Militia, not the 69th Pennsylvania or the "regular" 69th New York, and popular enough to have been printed three times -- although some of that may have been due to Corcoran himself; an Irish exile with a record of fighting against the British in the 1840s; the 69th Militia had existed before the war, and Corcoran had gotten in trouble for refusing to take part in a salute to the Prince of Wales, but he was restored to his regiment at the start of the war because he was so popular (Craughwell, p. 9).
On p. 142, there is alo a song "The 69th Brigade," beginning "My true love, William, to the war he is gone." Civil War brigades weren't numbered (except as "first brigade, second division, third corps" or the like), so this is presumably another reference to a sixty-ninth regiment, although there is no clue which.- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Wa014

Irish Soldier and the English Lady, The

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

Irish Soldier Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: "At a cottage door one winter night as the snow lay on the ground," a soldier and his mother bid a tearful farewell as he prepares to leave. He dies in battle, and sends a last message bidding farewell to his mother and to Ireland
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: soldier mother separation death Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H678, p. 89, "The Irish Soldier Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22061
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Bulger, "Irish Soldier Boy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Faithful Sailor Boy" [Laws K13]
NOTES [42 words]: This is so close to "The Faithful Sailor Boy" that it seems almost certain that one is derived from the other; initially I lumped them. Now that we have two versions of this, we've split them, but it's still best to see that song as well as this. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HHH678

Irish Song

DESCRIPTION: "Water! Water! Holy Water! Sprinkle the Catholics one by one. We'll bring them to battle, Their communes to rattle, And make them lie under the Protestant drum. Bible, Bible, Holy Bible, We'll read to the Catholics.... Three cheers for King William...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: religious battle royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1689-1702 - Reign of William III of Orange as King of England
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #241, "Irish Song" (1 short text)
Roud #5001
NOTES [63 words]: Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida connects this bit of invective with the Battle of the Boyne (for which see, e.g., "The Battle of the Boyne (I)"). This is likely enough, but all that is really certain is that it should be associated with the reign of King William III, which was spent mostly in fighting Louis XIV, James VII and II, and other Catholics in Ireland and the continent. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: Morr241

Irish Song (Oh, Go to Old Ireland)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, go to old Ireland and there you will know How many it takes to milk an old ewe, It's two to her head and two to her hams...." The houses there are full of fleas "big enough for to crack corn." So "Pull down your cap, Paddy... And wish you were dead"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong)
KEYWORDS: food work Ireland bug animal
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 251-252, "Irish Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4838
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Washerwoman" (tune and meter)
cf. "Irishman's Shanty" (tune, subject)
cf. "The Railroad Corral" (tune and references for the "Irish Washerwoman" tune)
NOTES [27 words]: Steve Roud lumps this with "Irishman's Shanty," with which it shares both tune and theme, but there don't seem to be any words in common, so I've split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: NeDe251

Irish Song (The Gay Wedding)

DESCRIPTION: "It's of a gay weeding, As you soon shall hear, Got up in good style, And it ain't far from here." "Three hundred gay fellows That day marched along, All with their great cudgels." "You'd think them the locusts From the Egyptian plains...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: wedding humorous dancing foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, p. 107, "Irish Song" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 170, "The Gay Wedding" (1 text)
Roud #23383
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blythesome Bridal" (theme) and references there
NOTES [131 words]: Supposedly this had a Gaelic chorus (hence the "foreignlanguage" keyword), but neither Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks nor Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine preserved it. I would not be surprised if this is a variant of one of the other riotous wedding songs, but Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks's four stanzas are not enough to identify it as such.
The reference to locusts in Egypt is clearly to Exodus 10:1-20, where a plague of locusts descends upon Egypt. The reference "like the wild devils Let loose from their chains" is not quite as certain, but I strongly suspect it is a reference to the Gerasene demoniac of Mark 5:1-13 and parallels -- a man who was so heavily possessed that he would break any chain placed upon him until Jesus cast out the demons. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Gray107

Irish Spree, The

DESCRIPTION: The boys and girls go to Patsy Murphy's restaurant. A fight starts followed by a fire. A policeman has his head split. Soldiers are called, 16 are dead: warrants are issued for murder and robbery. "I set sail for Australia in the morning"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: violence homicide drink fire police transportation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 80, "The Irish Spree" (1 text)
Roud #V15031
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1796), "The Irish Spree", unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 11(1979), "The Irish Spree"
File: OCon080A

Irish Stranger, The

DESCRIPTION: "I ne'er shall return to Hibernia's bowers.... It grieves me to ponder On the wrongs of thy injured isle... America might yield me some shelter from pain, I'm only lamenting whilst here I remain For the joys that I'll never see more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1240))
KEYWORDS: emigration hardtimes America Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 111-112, "The Irish Stranger" (1 text)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 59, "The Irish Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1629
RECORDINGS:
John M. Curtis, "The Irish Stranger" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1240), "Irish Stranger", J. Catnach (Durham), 1813-1838; also 2806 b.11(219), Harding B 16(334b), Harding B 11(1797), Harding B 11(1631), Harding B 11(1657), Harding B 11(1241), "[The] Irish Stranger"
NOTES [28 words]: Bodleian, 2806 c.17(179),"Irish Stranger" or "Joys That Are Gone", W. Armstrong (Liverpool),1820-1824 may be the earliest for this ballad at Bodleian but is illegible. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: OCon111A

Irish Transport, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the county of Limerick, near the town of Ramshorn," the singer was born, but "I could not behave," so he is transported. He would think himself free despite his chains were his Polly with him. When his sentence is over, he will return to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1852 (Bodleian broadside Firth b.26(184))
KEYWORDS: love separation transportation return
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 108-109, "The Irish Transport" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 194, "The Irish Transport" (1 text, with a tune on p. 567)
Roud #21203
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(184), S. Russell (Birmingham), 1840-1851; also Firth b.25(504), "The Irish Transport," W. Jackson and Son (Birmingham), c. 1860; also Firth b.34(260)=Harding B 11(3269), "Irish Transport," E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854
File: AnFa108

Irish Trot

DESCRIPTION: ""Hands all round in the Irish trot (x3), A long time ago." "Promenade in the Irish trot." "Rights and lefts in the Irish trot." "Trot, trot, trot, that pretty little trot." "Had an old Negro and his name was Sam." (In one text, Sam steals a ham.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Owens, Swing and Turn, according to Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty)
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing food theft
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #123, "Irish Trot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 116, "Irish Trot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5036
File: Morr123

Irish Wake, The [Laws Q18]

DESCRIPTION: Pat Malone, being "pressed for ready cash," decides to fake death to collect his life insurance. All goes well until the wake and funeral; he thinks they cost too much. At last, shortly before he is buried, realizing the consequences, he gives up the sham
AUTHOR: probably, per Levy song sheet, Words: Harry C. Clide / Music: Jas. J. Sweeney
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Levy song sheet is from 1895)
KEYWORDS: death funeral trick
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,Ro,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws Q18, "The Irish Wake"
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 6, pp. 79-82, "Pat Malone Forgot That He Was Dead" (1 text)
Randolph 473, "The Irish Wake" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 366-368, "The Irish Wake" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 473A)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 121, "Pat Malone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 300-302, "Pat Malone Forgot That He Was Dead" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #169, "When Pat Malone Forgot that He Was Dead" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 148-149, "Pat Malone" (1 text)
DT 529, PATFORGT*
Roud #1008
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "Pat Malone Forgot That He Was Dead" (on NFJDowney01)
Lawrence Older, "Pat Malone" (on LOlder01)
Dan W. Quinn, "Pat Malone Forgot That He Was Dead" (CYL: Columbia Concert 5048, n.d.)
BROADSIDES:
Levy, "Pat Malone Forgot That He Was Dead," Petrie Music Company (New York), 1895, (1 text, 1 tune), accessed February 15, 2015, Courtesy of the Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music, The Sheridan Libraries, The Johns Hopkins University at http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Finnegan's Wake" [Laws Q17]
cf. "The Fine Ould Irish Gentleman" (theme of a man who seems dead until the wake)
cf. "The Humble Beggar" (theme of a dead man leaving his coffin)
NOTES [80 words]: Laws lists this among the ballads of British origin, but cites no references. Cohen speculates that it is actually an American stage song. Given that it's been collected only on this side of the water (as best I can tell, and the Roud list supports this), I strongly suspect Cohen is right. - RBW
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong has the Levy song sheet [a reduced reproduction on p. 82 - RBW] and notes that Downey's version is subtly different but clearly the same song. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: LQ18

Irish Wedding, The

DESCRIPTION: "Sure won't you hear what roaring cheer was spread at Paddy's wedding, O?" All the boys and girls are named, there is music, food, dancing and drink. No fights! "Decadorous we'll have, says Father Quipes." A grand time is had by all.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: wedding humorous dancing drink food music party moniker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 57-58, "The Irish Wedding" (1 text)
Roud #17123
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(926), "The Irish Wedding", unknown, n.d.
File: OCon057

Irishman (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a new emigrant wandering in New Jersey, comes across "an oasis" -- the home of an old Irishman. They stop and talk; the old man asks about all the places he left behind long ago
AUTHOR: James O'Kane
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: rambling emigration homesickness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H712, pp. 221-222, "The Irishman" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH712

Irishman (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "The savage loves his native shore," so the Irish love Erin. Who a friend or foe can meet So generous as an Irishman?" He is warm-hearted, honest, forgiving, generous, open, honorable and fearless. "If the field of fame be lost It won't be by an Irishman"
AUTHOR: James Orr
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 871)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 119, "The Irishman" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 91, "The Irishman" (1 text)
Roud #17109
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 871, "The Irishman" ("The savage loves his native shore"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 18(294), Harding B 16(115a), 2806 c.8(153), "The Irishman"
SAME TUNE:
Vive La (broadside Bodleian 2806 c.8(153))
File: OCon119

Irishman, The

DESCRIPTION: An Irishman arrives in America and sees many new things. He thinks a ship's anchor is an axe for a giant. A parrot singing "God Save the Queen" makes him think it a person; he would kill it were it not wearing green. He tries to hatch a pumpkin. Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: humorous emigration bird
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 59, pp. 268-270, "The Irishman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10109
File: Loga059

Irishman's Christening, An

DESCRIPTION: The parson mistakenly christened the singer with whisky: "it made me a sot." At his marriage he pulls out whisky instead of the ring. Were he dead in the ground where "no whisky is found" would he "call out from his grave to be christened again?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: childbirth death drink humorous clergy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 71-73, "An Irishman's Christening" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 270-271, "An Irishman's Christening"
File: CPS071

Irishman's Farewell to his Country, The (The Shamrock Shore IV)

DESCRIPTION: Farewell, dear Erin's native shore, For here I cannot stay." The singer is leaving for America. "As our ship she lies at anchor, boys, Now ready for to sail." He bids farewell to friends, parents, grandfather.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell sea ship America Ireland nonballad friend family
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 88, "The Shamrock Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1455
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry and Michael Gorman, "Farewell, My Own Fair Native Land" (on Voice04)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.8(157), "The Irishman's Farewell to his Country," Haly (Cork), 19C; also 2806 c.8(121), "The Irishman's Farewell to his Country"; 2806 b.10(89), "The Irishman's Farewell to his Native Land"
File: OLcM088

Irishman's Gold Mine, The

See The Irishman's Goldmine (File: MA276A)

Irishman's Goldmine, The

DESCRIPTION: An Irishman comes to Australia and to look for gold. He innocently trusts to a man who points to a "gold" patch. The Irish boy sets to digging as the ants swarm out onto his skin -- and start biting. He concludes that gold *is* the root of evil
AUTHOR: Duke Tritton (source: Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback)
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback)
KEYWORDS: gold bug Australia injury
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, pp. 62-63, "The Irishman's Gold Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 276-277, "The Irishman's Goldmine" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA276A

Irishman's Lumber Song

See The Monkey Turned Barber [Laws Q14] (File: LQ14)

Irishman's Shanty

DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever hear of an Irishman's shanty Where water was scarce and whiskey was plenty? A two-legged stool and a table to match A stick in the door instead of a latch?"
AUTHOR: George W. Osborn
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (New-Comic-Songster)
KEYWORDS: poverty drink humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 109, "Irishman's Shanty" (1 fragment)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 118-119, "The Irishman's Shanty" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #243, "The Irishman's Shanty" (1 short text)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 59, "The Irishman's Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 64-65, "Irish Woe" (1 short text, 1 tune, possibly this although it's hard to be sure)
Dime-Song-Book #2/72, p. 33 and #2/64, p. 33, "The Irishman's Shanty" (1 text)
Roud #4838
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(295), "The Irishman's Shanty," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878 [same as LOCSinging sb20211b]; also Harding B 18(296), "The Irishman's Shanty"
LOCSinging, sb20211b, "The Irishman's shanty," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878 [same as Bodleian Harding B 18(295)]; also as106270, as106280, as201680, "The Irishman's shanty"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Washerwoman" (tune and meter)
cf. "Irish Song (Oh, Go to Old Ireland)" (tune, subject)
cf. "The Railroad Corral" (tune and references for the "Irish Washerwoman" tune)
cf. "The Old Country Party" (tune)
NOTES [67 words]: Steve Roud lumps this with Jennie Devlin's "Irish Song," with which it shares both tune and theme, but there don't seem to be any words in common, so I've split them. - RBW
Broadsides LOCSinging sb20211b and Bodleian Harding B 18(295): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: GrMa109

Irishman's Shave

See The Love-of-God Shave (Lather and Shave) [Laws Q15] (File: LQ15)

Irishman's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Sure it's just about ten years ago, as near as I can tell" when the singer set out for Australia. On arrival, he gets drunk and spends most of his money -- but finds a job and is quickly promoted; he's married and happy -- and recalls his warm welcome
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback)
KEYWORDS: immigration drink worker home
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, pp. 90-91, "The Irishman's Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shearing at Castlereigh" (tune, according to Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback)
File: TrMe090

Irishman's Toast, The

DESCRIPTION: 'Don't call me weak-minded. Perchance I should sing Of the dearest old spot upon earth." The singer recalls all the places of home: the cabin, the church, the school. The old folk are gone, but "Here's to the land of the shamrock so green"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: home death separation drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 207, "An Irishman's Toast" (1 text)
Roud #V15097
File: HMHS207A

Irishmen All

DESCRIPTION: "Townsmen and countrymen we're Irishmen all." "Faithful to Erin we answer her call ... True-hearted Irishmen Irishmen all." "Ready are we as our fathers before us To strike for our glory we're Irishmen all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: war Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30131
RECORDINGS:
Leo Martin, "Irishmen All" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [92 words]: This obviously sounds like an Irish song. But the population of Newfoundland was about half English Protestants, half Irish Catholics. So it would make sense in a Newfoundland context too -- perhaps even more than in Ireland, because the people of Newfoundland often supported Britain in its wars. The mention of "Townsmen and countrymen" is perhaps reminiscent of Newfoundland's division into "townies" (residents of St. John's) and "baymen" (everyone else).
For a song about the problems between baymen and townies, see "Mussels in the Corner." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: ML3IriAl

Irishtown Crew, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the first day of April, I'll never forget, / The Irishtown boys at Ratigan's met. / They filled up their glasses and swore solemnly / That that very day they'd go out on a spree!" The rest of the song is devoted to the participants and their antics
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: drink moniker
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 15, "The Irishtown Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa015 (Partial)
Roud #7466
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Campbell the Rover" (tune & meter)
File: Wa015

Iron Door, The [Laws M15]

DESCRIPTION: When the rich girl falls in love with a poor boy, her father locks her in a iron-doored prison. Her lover breaks in and sneaks her out (in men's clothing), but they meet her father. The boy prepares to die, but the father gives in
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.18(240))
KEYWORDS: love prison escape mercy father
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,Lond),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf) US(NE)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws M15, "The Iron Door"
Greig/Duncan5 1003, "Mary and her Servant Man" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 220-221, "Her Servant Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 610, "Twas of a Damsel Fair and Handsome" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #104, "The Young Servant Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 38-39, "The Young Servant Man or The Two Affectionale Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #69, "The Daughter in the Dungeon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H668, pp. 444-445, "Love Laughs at Locksmiths" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 61, "The Young Serving Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 100-101, "Mary Ann" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 161, "The Iron Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 17-19, "Mountain Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 590-591, "Since Love Can Enter an Iron Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 84, "Since Love Can Enter an Iron Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 54, "Since Love Can Enter an Iron Door" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT 580, IRONDOOR
Roud #539
RECORDINGS:
Lily Cook, "The Iron Door" (on FSBFTX15)
Mrs. Thomas Walters, "Since Love Can Enter an Iron Door" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.18(240), "Mary Ann and Her Servant Man" ("It's of a damsel both fair and handsome"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(2338), 2806 b.11(22), "Mary Ann and Her Servant Man"; Harding B 11(2339), "Mary Ann, and Her Servan [sic] Man"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Locks and Bolts" [Laws M13] (theme: girl locked away by father) and references there
cf. "cf. "Behind the Cold Iron Door" (themes: girl locked away by father, iron door)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Daughter in the Dungeon
Since Love Can Enter an Iron Door
NOTES [62 words]: I'm sure it's not related, but it's interesting to note that Johannes Gutenberg (yes, that Gutenberg) was once involved with a girl named Ennelin zur Yserin Thüre (in modern German, Annalein zur Eiseren Tür, or Little Anna of the Iron Door). Ennelin, or her mother, was apparently after him for breach of promise of marriage. (Source: John Man, Gutenberg, pp. 57-59). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LM15

Iron Horse (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Come Hielandman, come Lowlandman... I'll tell you how I got atween Dundee and Perth, man, I gaed upon an iron road -- a rail they did it ca'...." The singer tells of his ride, the conductor, the demand for a fare. He says he will use his feet hereafter
AUTHOR: Charles Balfour ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: train technology humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, p. 19, "The iron horse" (1 text (conflate), 1 tune)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 158-160, "The Iron Horse" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #12, p. 2, "The Iron Horse" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 291, "The Iron Horse" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 67, "The Iron Horse" (1 text, 2 tunes)
DT, IRONHORS*
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 47-48, "The Iron Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5834
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Greenock Railway" (theme: country folk ride the railroad)
NOTES [89 words]: Greig/Duncan2 quoting Kerr, Kerr's "Cornkisters" (Bothy Ballads) as Sung and Recorded by Willie Kemp (Glasgow, 1950): "'The Iron Horse,' according to Ford, was written by Charles Balfour, for many years stationmaster at Glencarse between Dundee and Perth. It was first sung in public at a festival of railway servants held in Perth in 1848, and has since then attained wide popularity." - BS
Ford in fact knew Balfour, but his other attributions are sometimes so shaky that I'm putting a question mark on the claim of authorship. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: FVS158

Iron Horse (II -- Utah version)

DESCRIPTION: "Th' iron horse draweth nigh, With his smoke nostril high, Eating fire as if grazing." It takes much work to build its trail. In Salt Lake City they rejoice as it approaches. "May the iron horse and Mormons Always right every wrong."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (Bee-Hive Songster, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: technology railroading
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #245, "The Iron Horse" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 92-94, "The Utah Iron Horse" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 97-98, "The Iron Horse" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 72-73, "The Iron Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 272, "The Iron Horse" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 599-600, "The (Utah) Iron Horse" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, p. 319, "Utah Iron Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8597
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Caerfilly March" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
NOTES [76 words]: Cheney admits uncertainty about whether his two texts are the same. My temptation would be to consider them different. But Roud lumps them, and they're certainly about the same event, so it does no great harm to list them together.
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest claims the tune is "Caerfilly March." I would presume this should be the "Caerphilly March," which is seemingly (based on internet searches) also known as "Ymdaith Caerfilli." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CAFS2599

Iron Merrimac

DESCRIPTION: The Merrimac starts from Norfolk to "make an end of Yankee Doodle Dandy-O." After sinking the Cumberland, the Merrimac confronts the Monitor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (recording, Judge Learned Hand)
KEYWORDS: battle Civilwar navy war ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 8, 1862 - U.S. frigates Congress and Cumberland sunk by the CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimac). The Minnesota runs aground; had not the Monitor arrived the next day, the Merrimac would have sunk that ship also
FOUND IN: US(MA)
Roud #4767
RECORDINGS:
Judge Learned Hand, "Iron Merrimac" (AFS, 1942; on LCTreas)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Constitution and the Guerriere" [Laws A6] (lyrics, structure, tune)
cf. "The Cumberland" [Laws A26] (subject)
cf. "The Cumberland Crew" [Laws A18] (subject) and references there
NOTES [48 words]: This song is a rewrite of "The Constituion and the Guerriere"; however, as it describes a different battle, with different ships, half a century later, I've given it a separate entry. - PJS
For the historical background on this battle, see the notes to "The Cumberland Crew" [Laws A18]. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcIroMer

Iron Mountain Baby, The

DESCRIPTION: "I have a song I would like to sing, It's awful, and it's true, About a babe thrown from a train By a mother, I know not who." The injured child is found by Bill Helm, and cared for. The singer warns people to beware of judgment
AUTHOR: J. T. Barton
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety); probably written 1902
KEYWORDS: train abandonment orphan
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 14, 1902 - Discovery of the baby later to be known as William Moses Gould Helm
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 419-420, "The Iron Mountain Baby" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 379-380, "The Iron Mountain Baby" (1 text)
Roud #4162
RECORDINGS:
Johnny Iron, "Iron Mountain Baby Song" (Local Artists RC6-1B, n.d., prob. early 1950s)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Preacher (Hick's Farewell)" (tune)
NOTES [100 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety reports that J. T. Barton wrote this song to help support the infant it commemorates. One can but hope the parents were better at caring for children than was Barton at crafting lyrics.
Barton said that this piece was printed and sold, so there may be a broadsheet copy somewhere, but no one seems to have found one. It really is a lousy piece of poetry, as well as being obnoxiously moralizing; one suspects that it was preserved only by people who personally remembered the story or the sales pitch.
This is item dH43 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Beld419

Iron Ore by 'Fifty-Four

DESCRIPTION: "Come, ladies and gentlemen, listen to me, I'll sing you a song of our north Counteree... Bound north to Ungava for rich iron ore In July, nineteen fifty-four." The building of a railroad into Labrador, and the four years of work involved, are described
AUTHOR: Words: Alan Mills
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: work technology Canada
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 215-217, "'Iron Ore by Fifty-Four" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Red Iron Ore" [Laws D9] (tune)
File: FMB215

Iroquois Lullaby (Ho, Ho, Watanay)

DESCRIPTION: Iroquois: "Ho, ho, Watanay (x3), Ki-yo-ki-na, ki-yo-ki-na." SIngable translation: "Sleep, sleep, little one (x3), Now go to sleep, now go to sleep" -- but it is also said that the text is just meaningless vocables
AUTHOR: unknown (English translation by Alan Mills)
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) lullaby nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Queb)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 2-3, "An Iroquois Lullabye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, p. 13, "Iroquois Lullabye" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hey Hey Wataney
File: FMB002

Irrawaddy, The

DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "The curse upon Crossgadden, likewise his robbing crew; They robbed the Irrawaddy and the John R Skiddy, too"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: sea ship wreck commerce theft shore
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 1, 1850 - "... Captain Shipley the master of the _John R Skiddy_ ... sailed his vessel ashore on Glascarrick beach .... he described the locals as 'the most abandoned set of villains that he had encountered'. They pillaged the wreck and anything brought ashore in defiance of both coastguard and police" (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 49)
Oct 13, 1856 - "... the _Irrawady_ was wrecked opposite Cahore Point on the Blackwater Bank. A fleet of local fishing boats was organised by the local coast-guards and rescued the crew and passengers.... The teak from her hull was used to form the pews at Ballyragget Church" (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 69)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 127, "The Irrawaddy" (1 text)
Roud #20541
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Mayflower" (theme of wreckers) and references there
NOTES [119 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: "The 'John R Skiddy' had 430 passengers aboard, all of whom were saved. When the 'Irrawaddy' ran aground ... between four hundred and five hundred people ... boarded the vessel and carried away a large quantity of goods from her.... The coast-guards, evidently, had a hand in the looting for Mr Crossgadden was a coast-guard."
It may be unusual on the Irish coast, but not elsewhere, for coastal inhabitants to consider the cargo and ship remains among wreckage to be a fair source of enrichment. See, for example, "The Old Mayflower" from Newfoundland and "Mariposa" from Labrador. On the other hand see Ranson's "The Middlesex Flora" for similar activity on the Wexford coast. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Ran127A

Irreverence

DESCRIPTION: "The Batsman is my shepherd, I shall not crash. He maketh me to land on flat runways. He bringeth me in off rough waters, He restoreth my confidence.... He attacheth my hook to the wire. My deck space runneth over."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: technology humorous derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 107, "Irreverence" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lord Is My Shepherd (Psalm 23)" (musical version of the psalm being parodied here)
NOTES [106 words]: For the "batsman," who guided carrier pilots to safe landings, see "A-25."
This is, of course, a parody of Psalm 23, but it appears to be incomplete -- either Tawney didn't collect the whole thing or the typesetters missed the ending. After "My deck space runneth over" (derived from "My cup runneth over") should be a line parodying "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." Perhaps it was something like, "Surely armorers and fuel techs shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell on the deck of the Ark Royal [or other carrier] forever." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Tawn079

Irthing Water Hounds, The

DESCRIPTION: October 11, 1873, hounds from Irthing Water are on a fox hunt. Finally "the celebrated Mowdie" finds a fox in a hole. A terrier flushes Reynard and his trail flushes a vixen. Both foxes are killed. "Drink success to the Irthing lads"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (recording, Willie Scott)
KEYWORDS: death hunting animal dog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 118-119, 155, "Irthing Water Foxhounds" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Willie Scott, "The Irthing Water Hounds," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1953.254,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 14 September 2013 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/66326/1
Roud #5692
RECORDINGS:
Willie Scott, "The Irthing Water Hounds" (on Voice18)
NOTES [6 words]: River Irthing is in Northumberland. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: RcIrtWaH

Is It Really Worth the While?

See The Morning After (File: Dean131)

Is the Story True

DESCRIPTION: "Seagull, gentle seagull, Soaring in the blue, Stop and tell me really, Is the story true?" Did the seagulls save the Mormons from a plague of crickets? Yes, it is true, the gulls were sent by heaven to save their crops -- and the Mormons themselves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: bird farming | miracle crickets seagulls
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 78-79, "Is the Story True?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10834
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sea Gulls and Crickets" (story of the Crickets and Gulls)
NOTES [15 words]: For background on the Gulls and Crickets, see the notes to "Sea Gulls and Crickets." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS078

Is There Anybody Here

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Is there anybody here that loves my Jesus? Anybody here that loves my Lord, I want to know if you love my Jesus, I want to know if you love my Lord." Other verses float.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious death Jesus floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 21, "Anybody Here?" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John W. Work, American Negro Songs (New York: Crown Publishers, 1940 (republished by Mineola: Dover Publications, 1998)), p. 206, "Is There Anybody Here" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10435
NOTES [129 words]: The description is based on the Barton-OldPlantationHymns text.
Barton-OldPlantationHymns's and Work's floating verses include "This world's a wilderness of woe So let us all to glory go," "When I was blind and could not see King Jesus brought the light to me," "What kind of shoes are those you wear That you may walk upon the air," "I do believe without a doubt That a Christian has a right to shout," ....
The line "Is there anybody here" -- for example, "Is there anybody here like Weeping Mary" -- start's each Booth verse, but the form of the remaining lines is different from Barton-OldPlantationHymns and Work (William Booth, Salvation Army Songs (London: The Salvation Army Book Department, 1911 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #70 p. 48, "Weeping Mary")). - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart021

Is There for Honest Poverty

See A Man's A Man For A' That (File: FSWB297A)

Is This Not the Land of Beulah?

DESCRIPTION: "I am dwelling on a mountain, Where the golden sunlight gleams...." "Is not this the land of Beulah? Blessed, blessed land of light; Where the flowers bloom forever, And the sun is always bright?" The crosses of life are not heavy; the reward is great
AUTHOR: Words: possibly William Hunter and/or Harriet Warner Re Qua / Music: probably J. W. Dadmun (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Gems of Gospel Song, as shown at hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad | Beulah
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Glenn, Shirley Glenn, "Is Not This the Land of Beulah?" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #191, recorded 06/06/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dwelling in Beulah Land" (lyrics)
NOTES [116 words]: The name "Beulah," used in Isaiah 62:4, means "married"; it isn't really an appropriate name for a country, but this is not evident from the King James Version. For more background on the usage of the name, see the notes to "Beulah Land (I)." - RBW
This shares a number of lines with "Dwelling in Beulah Land," e.g. "I am dwelling on a mountain" and "I am drinking at the fountain." There are too many such lines for coincidence to be likely, yet the overall similarity is rather slight; it doesn't appear either song was a copy of the other. Rather, "Is This Not the Land of Beulah?" -- which appears to be the older of the two -- was probably a minor inspiration for "Dwelling in Beulah Land." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio191

Is Your Lamps Gone Out

DESCRIPTION: "Is your lamps gone out? (x2), Oh, what you going to do in Egypt When your lamps gone out?" "If you get there before I do, O what you going to do... When your lamps gone out?" "The tallest tree in paradise..." "The Christians call it the tree of life..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (field recording, unknown artists)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 75-77, "Is Yo' Lamps Gone Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10025
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "Is Your Lamps Gone Out?" (on Thieme06)
Unknown artists, "When Yo' Lamp's Gone Out" (AFS CYL-11-1, 1933)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wade in the Water" (floating lyrics) and references there
cf. "All My Trials" (lyrics)
cf. "Tell All the World, John" (lyrics)
cf. ""Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [118 words]: Almost all of this, except the chorus "Oh, what you going to do in Egypt When your lamps gone out," is paralleled in "All My Trials," and also in "Tell All the World, John." It is not clear to me which inspired the others. - RBW
From the ... verse "Come on sister and follow me/I will show you the man who set me free," it has been theorized that this may have been an Underground Railroad song. I don't think so, but it's worth mentioning. Thieme also suggests that "Egypt" may be a reference to the area of southern Illinois near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, known to boatmen as "Egypt" or "Little Egypt." The probable collection of this song in Texas makes that problematical. - PJS
File: MWhee075

Isabeau S'y Promène (Isabel)

DESCRIPTION: French: Isabel goes walking by the sea side. She meets a sailor who sings sweetly to her. She joins him on his boat, but then grieves because she has lost her gold ring. He dives three times to try to find it; the third/hundredth time he does not come up.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (E. Gagnon, Chansons Populaires du Canada)
KEYWORDS: courting ship death drowning ring foreignlanguage grief
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US(MW,NE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 515-517, "La Danae" (2 texts, French & English, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 154-155, "La Danae" (2 texts, French & English, 1 tune)
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 20, "Isabeau se promene (Isabeau Went a-Strolling)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune); also p. 89, "Mon joli coeur de rosier (Little Rosebud Fair)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 297-300, "Isabeau S'y Promene (Isabel)" (2 texts (1 French, 1 English), 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 121-123, "Sur le Bord de L'ile (By the Edge of the Sea)" (1 French text plus singable translation, 1 tune)
DT, ISABEAU
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 74-75, "Isabeau s'y Promène" (One day Isabel Wandered)" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Isabeau S'y Promeneau" (on PeteSeeger29)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jolie Fleur de Rosier (Lovely Flower of the Rose-Tree)" (plot)
cf. "The Lady of Carlisle" [Laws O25] (theme)
NOTES [18 words]: Reported by Scott to be sung in France, Quebec, and Louisiana, though his version is from New Brunswick. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: SBoA297

Isabeau se promene

See Isabeau S'y Promene (Isabel) (File: SBoA297)

Isabella

DESCRIPTION: "Last night when we parted I left you broken hearted ... I saw your young man Isabella." "Who will you have?" "You" "Come to church" "Kneel down" "Say your prayers" "Stand up" "Sing a hymn" "Come back" "Kiss" "Shake hands" "Say good-bye" "Farewell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Thoyts)
KEYWORDS: courting parting playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 35, "Isabella" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Charles E. Seaman in Frederic William Weaver and Charles Herbert Mayo, editors, Notes and Queries for Somerset and Dorset (Sherbourne, 1895 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. IV, pp. 265-266, (Mar. 5, 1895) "[Query ]216. Singing Game," ("Isabella, Isabella, Isabella, so fair") (1 text)
Emma Elizabeth Thoyts, "Old Berkshire School-Games" in The Antiquary (London, 1893 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XXVII, Game #1, p. 193, "Isabella" (1 text)
E.J. Ladbury, "Scraps of English Folklore, VIII. Worcestershire" in Folklore, Vol. XXXV, No. 3 (Sep 1924 (available online by JSTOR)), #18 pp. 269-270 "Isabella" (1 text)
File: OpGa035

Ish Tish, Tash Tish

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "Ish tish, tash tish, What color do you wish?" The child pointed to names a color; the letters in the color name are used to finish counting out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: colors | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 33, "(Ish tish, tash tish)" (1 text)
File: WEMM033B

Ish, Fish, Codfish

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "Ish, fish, codfish, How many fish are in your golden dish?" (Presumably someone names a number, which is then used to finish the counting-out)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: food | counting-out fish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 17, "(Ish, fish, codfish)" (1 short text)
File: WEMM017A

Island Jacobite Song, An

See The Silver Whistle (File: K009)

Island of My Desire

DESCRIPTION: "Oh island of my desire, in memory you live for me. You shine like a beacon fire in a far off western sea." The singer remembers the sights, and " I think of the days gone by... I think of the starry nights that may never come again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 539, "Island of My Desire" (notes only)
File: ACSF539I

Island of Sorrows

See She is Far From the Land (File: BrdSHFfL)

Island Unknown, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer has led a reckless life; leaving home, he joins the US Navy. His ship is wrecked in a storm. The lone survivor, he makes his way to a desert island. Resigned to death, he writes his life story, hopes his body will be found, and bids farewell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Eck Robertson)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer says he has led a reckless life; leaving home, true love and parents, he joins the "jolly band" (of the US Navy). He sails, while they (and he) lament. After three weeks, his ship is wrecked in a storm. The lone survivor, he clings to wreckage, and makes his way to a desert island where no one has been before. Resigning himself to death, he writes his life story in a diary, and hopes his body will someday be found; he bids farewell to his loved ones
KEYWORDS: grief homesickness farewell parting separation travel death sea ship disaster storm wreck family lover sailor
FOUND IN: US(So)
Roud #17557
RECORDINGS:
Eck Robertson & Family, "The Island Unknown - Parts 1 & 2" (Victor 40166, 1929; on ConstSor1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "William and Harriet" [Laws M7] (some plot parallels)
NOTES [57 words]: The parallel with "William and Harriet" is obvious: a desert island, starvation, death. But the circumstances of his leaving home are different, and he is traveling alone when shipwrecked rather than with his sweetheart. Those are enough differences for me to classify this as a separate ballad -- but see the cross-reference nonetheless. - PJS
File: RcIslUnk

Island(s) of Jamaica, The

See The Gallant Brigantine [Laws D25] (File: LD25)

Islaside

DESCRIPTION: "Until that I return again To walk on Islaside"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: return
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1810, "Islaside" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81810

Isle de France, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the sun went down, and the moon advanced When the convict came to the Isle de France." The Irish convict was on his way home when a storm cast him ashore on the Isle. A letter from the queen sets the convict free
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Manifold; broadside printed probably c. 1890)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A convict is shipwrecked on the Isle of France; he had been sentenced to seven years' transportation (for unruly behavior), and was on his way home when his ship, the "Shamrock Green," foundered. Cast up on the island, he is offered sustenance and comfort by the Coast Guard, who sends a sympathetic letter to the Queen. The convict is pardoned; he blesses the Coast Guard and wishes success to the Isle of France
KEYWORDS: royalty ship wreck rescue freedom transportation captivity crime punishment mercy pardon wreck Australia France prisoner
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England(South),Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 93, "The Isle of France" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 28, "Isle of France" (1 text)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 24-25, "The Isle de France" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #12, "The Isle of France" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 426-427, "The Isle of France" (1 text, with a tune on p. 601)
Roud #1575
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.1270(009), "The Isle of France," unknown, n.d.
NOTES [240 words]: The Isle de France mentioned here is not the Parisian region of France (the old crownlands of the French king), but (in the Australian version; the British versions may refer to one of the Channel Islands) the island of Mauritius.
The island was originally colonized by the Dutch (from 1638; they discovered it in 1507), then taken over by the French in 1721. The British occupied it in 1810, and renamed it Mauritius at about the same time. It became an independent member of the Commonwealth in 1968.
Mauritius was not a true prison colony, but it was uninhabited when the Dutch occupied it. The French brought in slaves from Africa to grow sugar. The British abolished slavery in 1834, but this left them with a need for workers, whom they imported primarily from India. Thus Mauritius was sort of a guarded colony even though it was not a destination for prisoners.
Manifold believes the Queen of the song to be Victoria, making the "Isle de France" of the song an anacronism. But it is at least possible that a non-ruling queen could have expedited the convict's appeal.
Alternately, it occurs to me that Ile-de-France has been the name of a number of French ships. Perhaps the name is a corruption of a version in which the sailor was rescued by a ship called Ile-de-France? - RBW
Perhaps it's not surprising, given our field of study, that we lack the keyword "kindness," but that is without question the subject of this ballad. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PASB024

Isle o' Holt

See Hieland Laddie (File: Doe050)

Isle of Beauty, Fare Thee Well

DESCRIPTION: "Shades of ev'ning close not o'er us, Leave our lonely bark a while, Morn, alas, will not restore us, Yonder dim and distant isle." The singer thinks of the places at home as he paces the deck; absence will make the heart grow fonder
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1844 (Bodleian broadsides)
KEYWORDS: home separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 14, "Isle of Beauty, Fare Thee Well" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 59 and #3/62, pp. 62-63, "Isle of Beauty" (1 text)
Roud #2553
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1809)= Johnson Ballads 872, "Isle of beauty fare thee well," J. Pitts (London( 1819-1844; also Harding B 18(302), "Isle of beauty fare thee well," H. de Marsan (New York), c. 1860; also Firth c.19(227)=Harding B 11(493), Harding B 11(491)=Harding B 11(492), "Isle of beauty fare-thee-well," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 11(1969)=Johnson Ballads 662=Johnson Ballads 663, "Isle of beauty," C. Paul (London), n.d.; also Firth b.25(257), "Isle of beauty," J. Forth (Pocklington), n.d.; also Firth b.25(595/596)=Firth b.34(212), "Isle of beauty," W. Ordoyno (Nottingham), n.d.; also Harding B 15(280a), "Shades of evening," E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Harding B 11(1103), "Isle of beauty," unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 11(2740), "Isle of beauty!" J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(313)=Johnson Ballads 1864, "Isle of beauty," J. O. Babbington/J. Beaumont (Manchester and Leeds), 1855-1858; also Harding B 11(3250)=Johnson Ballads 690=Johnson Ballads 690A, "Isle of beauty," C. Paul (London), n.d.; also Harding B 11(709), "Isle of beauty," W. McCall (Liverpool), 1857-1877; also Firth b.27(136), "Isle of beauty," unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 16(115c), "Isle of Beauty," Swingells (Manchester), 1796-1853; also Johnson Ballads 2584, "Isle of Beauty," unknown, n.d.; also 2806 b.9(279), "Isle of Beauty" (unknown, n.d.)
File: HMHS014A

Isle of Doagh (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is leaving Isle of Doagh "to taste the cup of freedom in Americay." He thinks about the island and the school "where my childhood days I spent." "It will break my heart full sore to part with my comrades one and all."
AUTHOR: Willie "Jack" McLaughlin (source: McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: emigration America Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 41, "The Isle of Doagh" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [20 words]: Isle of Doagh is in Donegal.
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen: the song was written around 1910. - BS
File: McB1041

Isle of Doagh (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is leaving Isle of Doagh for a foreign land. He recalls when he first arrived and how surprised he was to find it so lovely. He is sad to leave it now.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: emigration lyric home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 42, "The Isle of Doagh" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [5 words]: Isle of Doagh is in Donegal. - BS
File: McB1042

Isle of France, The

See The Isle de France (File: PASB024)

Isle of Fugi

DESCRIPTION: "Then I'm bound for the Isle of Fugi; Fugi, Fugi; Then I'm bound for the Isle of Fugi; And from there to Tennessee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: nonballad shanty
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 29, "Isle of Fugi" (1 text)
Roud #9417
NOTES [66 words]: Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia: Smith's comment is "Well-known shanty for general work." Fowke notes that Hugill suggests "Fiji" may be meant. - BS
Since we're talking about Pacific destinations anyway, how about "Fuji," which would mean Japan? (Japan also has a city "Fukui," for that matter.) There is also an anchorage off the Philippines known as "Fuga." - RBW
File: SmHa029

Isle of Man Shore, The (The Quay of Dundocken; The Desolate Widow) [Laws K7]

DESCRIPTION: The singer and her family set out for Liverpool. A storm strikes; the passengers abandon the ship. The boats are swamped; Willie sees his wife (the singer) ashore, but is lost trying to save his father. The singer and her children must turn to begging
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: ship storm family begging shore travel drowning sea wreck baby father husband wife
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws K7, "The Isle of Man Shore (The Quay of Dundocken; The Desolate Widow)"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 104, "The Quay of Dundocken" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 486-487, "Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 89-91, "The Desolate Widow" (1 text)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 106-107, "The Quays of Belfast" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 242-243, "The Isle of Man Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 818,ISLEMAN
Roud #525
RECORDINGS:
Kate McCarthy, "The Wild Shore" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: LK07

Isle of Mohea, The

See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Isle of Saint Helena, The

See Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)

Isle of St. Helena, The

See Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)

Isle of Wight

See Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy (File: E153D)

Israelites Shouting

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I wonder where's my sister, She's gone away to stay, Got hidden behind God's altar, She'll be gone till judgment day. Goodbye, the Israelites shoutin' in the heaven...." Remaining verses describe the departure of other family members
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Rich Amerson)
KEYWORDS: death religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 71, "Israelites Shouting" (partial text); pp. 248-249, "Israelites Shouting" (1 tune, partial text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 336-337, "(Israelites Shouting)" (1 text)
Roud #16362
RECORDINGS:
Rich Amerson, "Israelites Shouting" (on NFMAla4)
NOTES [27 words]: Although the title immediately makes me think of the fall of Jericho, there is no clear evidence of that in the song; the shouting seems simply to be joyous. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: CNFM071

It befel at martynmas

See Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon [Child 178] (File: C178)

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

DESCRIPTION: "It came upon a midnight clear, That glorious song of old": Angels bring the word of "Peace on the earth, goo will to men." People are told to rest and listen to the angels. Someday the whole world will join the song
AUTHOR: Words: E. H Sears (1810-1876) / Music: Richard Storrs Willis (also sometimes sung to a tune by Sir Arthur Sullivan)
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 ("Christian Register," according to Julian); reportedly written 1849
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #208, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 98, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 42, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 308, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear"
Roud #24746
NOTES [123 words]: John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 1036, says that Edmund Hamilton Sears was born and died in Massachusetts, and was a Unitarian pastor. He published five books and sundry hymns, most of them published in Sermons and Songs of the Christian Life. Julian lists three significant Sears hymns: this one (the only one I recall hearing), "Calm on the Listening Ear of Night," and "Ho, Ye That Rest Beneath the Rock."
I seem to recall reading idea that Jesus was born at midnight is said to come from a passage in the apocryphal/deuterocanonical book Wisdom of Solomon, about the λογος/word coming down at midnight, but I cannot trace the memory. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: JMSo208

It Can't Be Done

DESCRIPTION: "Now folks never say that I am the best.... You can't hit a ball with the bat of an eye, Don't try it, 'cause it can't be done. You can't take a goose and make gooseberry pie, Don't try it, 'cause it can't be done." Other impossibilities are listed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (ArkansasWoodchopper)
KEYWORDS: nonballad warning humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 51-53, "It Can't Be Done" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16983
RECORDINGS:
Pie Plant Pete [pseud. for Claude Moye], "Don't Try It, It Can't Be Done" (Conqueror 8446)
Riley Puckett, "Don't Try It For It Can't Be Done" (Columbia 15392-D)
File: ArWo051

It Fell Aboot the Mart'mas Time

See Martinmas Time (File: DTmartin)

It Fell About the Martinmas Time

See Martinmas Time (File: DTmartin)

It Hurts Me Too

See When Things Go Wrong with You (File: FSWB078)

It is Not the Cold Wind

DESCRIPTION: "It is not the cold wind that makes me tremble" but the singer's love for a false man who left her for a new sweetheart. "But after evening there comes a morning, And after morning a sunny day, And after false love there comes a true love"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity love nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, p. 38, "It is Not the Cold Wind" (1 text)
Roud #6528
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (theme) and references there
File: HayU038

It Is Not the White Swan that Floats on the Lake

DESCRIPTION: "It is not the white swan that floats on the lake"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1800, "It Is Not the White Swan that Floats on the Lake" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81800

It Is of a Rich Lady

See The Jolly Young Sailor and the Beautiful Queen [Laws O13] (File: LO13)

It Isn't Any Trouble Just to S-M-I-L-E

See S-M-I-L-E (File: ACSF125S)

It Makes a Long-Time Man Feel Bad

DESCRIPTION: "It makes a long-time man feel bad... When he can't-a get a letter... from home." There's a wreck out on the road somewhere...." "Captain George, don't you drive me all the time...." "Hattie Belle, don't you cry about a dime...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947
KEYWORDS: prison chaingang loneliness
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 291, "It Makes a Long-Time Man Feel Bad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 77-78, "Make a Longtime Man Feel Bad" (2 short texts, both beginning "Roberta, let your hair grow long"; 1 tune); pp. 123-126, "Sure Make a Man Feel Bad" (1 text, 1 tune; Jackson apparently considers this a separate song, but it shares many lyrics with "Long-Time Man" and much of the rest is floating or improvised verses)
Roud #15968
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alberta, Let Your Hair Hang Low" (lyrics)
File: LoF291

It Pays to Advertise

See Advertise (It Pays to Advertise) (File: DTadverf)

It Rained a Mist

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

It Rained, It Mist

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

It Rains and It Hails

See Reap, Boys, Reap (Cold Stormy Weather, Who'll Be the Binder?) (File: Newe022)

It Rains, It Hails

See Reap, Boys, Reap (Cold Stormy Weather, Who'll Be the Binder?) (File: Newe022)

It Rains, It Hails and Snows and Blows

See Let Me In This Ae Nicht (File: DTaenich)

It Snows And It Blows (Sudden Departure)

DESCRIPTION: "It snows and it blows, and it cuts off my nose, So play, little girl, let me in; I'll light my pipe, and warm my toes, And then I'll be gone again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty travel injury storm
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #60, "Sudden Departure" (1 short text)
File: Newel060

It Takes A Girl to Fool You Every Time

See notes under The Warranty Deed (The Wealthy Old Maid) [Laws H24] (File: LH24)

It Was a Lover and His Lass

DESCRIPTION: "It was a lover and his lass With a hey and a ho and a hey nonnie no." "In spring time (x3), the only pretty ring time, When the birds do sing... Sweet lovers ove the spring." The song alludes to courting in the rye, but there is little real plot.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1600 (Morley's "The First Book of Ayres or Little Short Songs")
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 2-4-205, "It Was a Lover and His Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 114-115, "It Was a Lover and His Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 263-264, "A Lover and His Lass" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 155, "It Was A Lover And His Lass" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Norman Ault, _Elizabethan Lyrics From the Original Texts_, pp. 290-291, "It Was a Lover and His Lass" (1 text)
DT, LOVERLAS
NOTES [93 words]: This is quoted by Shakespeare in "As You Like It" (Act V, Scene III, lines 13-30 or so). I'm far from convinced it's traditional; it was obviously a popular piece of Shakespeare's time -- and is attributed to Shakespeare, e.g., in Palgrave's Golden Treasury (item XI). But it shows up in enough songbooks that I decided to include it.
Morley, who in 1600 first published the lyrics, in 1599 published a tune called "O Mistress Mine" in The First Book of Consort Lessons. It is generally assumed, but cannot be proved, that they are to be connected. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: FSWB155B

It Was a Mayde of Brenten Arse

DESCRIPTION: "It was a maid of brenten arse, She rode to mill upon a horse, Yet was she mayden never the worse." She asks the miller not to hurt her back as she lays upon a sack. The maid returns often to the mill -- and the miller's two millstones
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1550 (Kele)
KEYWORDS: miller sex bawdy MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #460, p. 311, "(It was a mayde of brenten arse)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1641.5
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2759
ADDITIONAL: Edward Bliss Reed, editor, _Christmas Carols Printed in the Sixteenth Century: Including Kele's Cristmas carolles newely Inprynted_, Harvard University Press, 1932, pp. 36-37 ([18-19), "(Synge Dyllum dyllum dyllum dyllum)" (1 text)
ST STIWMBA (Full)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid Gaed to the Mill," (theme: a miller trading work for sex) and references there
NOTES [248 words]: There is no direct evidence that this is traditional, but it seems to be the earliest case of song involving a miller trading work for sex, which is perhaps worth including just on that basis.
And it's just possible that it was traditional, or at least popular. Most of the songs in Richard Kele's Christmas Carolles Newely Inprynted are genuinely religious, or even if secular, are at least clean (e.g. it includes "The Boar's Head Carol"). Not this, obviously! Why would Kele have included this piece (and the next one, about a friar groping a nun), which so breaks the mood, if it weren't something that would drive sales? It can't even be argued that it was included to fill out a page, since it spans two pages.
If it is not traditional, one wonders if it might not be by Robert Copland (for whom see the notes to "Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly" [Child 116]). The title page lists only Kele as the printer, but the DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse says that Copland printed it, and it certainly looks like Copland's work, although the typeface doesn't quite match Copland's standard Textura. But it is known that Kele often employed other printers, including Copland's successor William Copland, to do his typesetting.
And Copland wrote poetry, and often it was pretty lowbrow (see both "Jil of Brentford's Testimony" and "The Hye Way to the Spyttell Hous"). This frankly looks pretty Copland-like to me, although it's better than a lot of his work. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: STIWMBA

It Was a Mouse

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

It Was A' For Our Rightful' King

DESCRIPTION: "It was a' for our rightfu' king We left fair Scotland's strand; It was a' for our rightfu' king We e'er saw Irish land...." "Now a' is done that men can do, And a' is done in vain." The defeated soldier must leave his love and go into exile
AUTHOR: Robert Burns?
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: Jacobites soldier separation exile
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1685-1688 - Reign of James II (James VII of Scotland), the last Catholic king of Britain
1688 - Glorious Revolution overthrows James II in favor of his Protestant daughter Mary II and her husband and first cousin William III of Orange
Mar 12, 1689 - James arrives in Ireland and begins, very hesitantly, to organize its defense.
April-July, 1689 - Siege of Londonderry. James's forces fail to capture the Protestant stronghold, leaving Ireland still "in play" for William
August, 1689 - Marshal Schomberg brings the first of William's troops to Ireland. James continues to be passive, allowing more troops to reinforce them
March, 1690 - James receives reinforcements from France but still does nothing
June 14, 1690 - William lands in Ireland
July 1, 1690 - Battle of the Boyne. William III crushes the Irish army of James, at once securing his throne and the rule of Ireland. Irish resistance continues for about another year, but Ireland east of the Shannon is his; James flees the country, and many of his followers also depart into exile, to become the "Wild Geese" of Irish legend
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 15, "It Was A' For Our Rightfu' King" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #589, p. 694-695, "It was a' for our rightfu' king" (1 text, 1 tune, from the Scots Musical Museum)
Charles Sullivan, ed., Ireland in Poetry, p. 89, "The Farewell" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #196, "The Farewell" (1 text)
Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol I, p. 124, "It Was A' For Our Rightfu' King"
ST SMM5IWAF (Full)
Roud #5789
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mally Stewart" (tune)
NOTES [228 words]: Was this song written by Burns or collected by him?
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1: "This song is tradtionally said to have been written by Captain Ogilvie, related to the house of Inverquharity, who was with King James in his Irish expedition, and was in the battle of the Boyne." - BS
It appears very likely that Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) knew some form of this piece as a very young man. One of his earliest poems, written while he was still a schoolboy, is called "The Two Brothers," and the opening is quite similar to "The Twa Brothers" [Child 49]; it begins
There were two brothers at Twyford school,
And when they had left the place,
It was, "Will ye learn Greek and Latin?
Or will ye run me a race?
Or will ye go up to yonder bridge,
And there will we angle for dace?"
Later verses are more reminiscent of "Edward" [Child 13] or "Lizzie Wan" [Child 51]:
"Oh what bait's that upon your hook,
Dear brother, tell to me?"
"It is my younger brother," he cried,
"Oh woe and dole is me?"
[ ... ]
"And when will you come back again,
My brother, tell to me?"
"When chub is good for human food,
And that will never be!"
The final verse might be from "It Was A' For Our Rightful' King" or similar:
She turned herself right round about,
And her heart brake into three,
Said, "One of the two will be wet through and through,
And 'tother'll be late for his tea."- RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: SMM5IWAF

It Was at the Town of Caylen

DESCRIPTION: "It was at the town of Caylen this gelding we sold" then we stole a gallon of wine from Thomas Grant. "I and two more were condemned to the rope. But I led a scheme and the prison we broke."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: theft trial escape
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 101, "It Was at the Town of Caylen" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #2775
NOTES [41 words]: The current description is based on the Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick fragment.
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick: "If the music is any guide, this song in which the hero overcomes his difficulties must be a cheerful one." - BS
File: CrSNB101

It Was Christmas Day in the Workhouse

See Christmas Day in the Workhouse (File: BrPa064A)

It Was Daylight the Next Morning

See Nelson's Fame, and England's Glory (File: GrD1146)

It Was Early Early All In the Spring

See Early, Early in the Spring [Laws M1] (File: LM01)

It Was Early One Cold Winter's Morning

DESCRIPTION: Singer sees a woman "with an infant baby in her arms all through the frost and snow." She blames her father and mother for turning their back on her, and the girl that stole her lover. She prays and "they both lay down and died"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: infidelity death ordeal storm baby father lover mother
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #175
RECORDINGS:
Theresa White, "It Was Early One Cold Winter's Morning" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Three Perished in the Snow [Laws G32]" (theme)
cf. "Hush-oh-bye Baby" (theme)
File: RcIWEOCW

It Was Early One Monday Morning

See William and Nancy I (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I) [Laws N8] (File: LN08)

It Was Not for the Diamond Ring

DESCRIPTION: The singer met a man with land, diamond ring, and "noble name" at a dance. She loved him and he promised to marry. He will marry "some smiling dame Of lineage like tae thine" She wishes he had passed her by.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: infidelity love promise nonballad nobility ring
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1186, "It Was Not for the Diamond Ring" (1 text)
Roud #6809
File: GrD61186

It Was One Summer Morning

See The Summer Morning (The White/Blue/Green Cockade) (File: StoR068)

It Wasna My Fortune to Get Her

See The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass) (File: K152)

It Wasna Sae

DESCRIPTION: These days we have only stumbling horses that falter in the bog but our cows can do that work. These days our farmers "are grown sae big Wi' thrashin' mills and a', It wasna sae in my young days When the ploomen thresh the straw"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming technology humorous nonballad animal horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 444, "It Wasna Sae" (1 text)
Roud #5956
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve" (theme: Whining about the good old days)
File: GdR3444

It's a Cold Frosty Morning

DESCRIPTION: On a cold frosty morning a farmer, drinking cider, complains that he lost his lover: "where shall I find her?" "She's standing by your side," looking like a bride. He should hug and kiss her and call her his own. "Then she'll marry you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage farming drink nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 19, pp. 102-103, "It's Cold Frosty Mornin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7889
NOTES [52 words]: The Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text shares the "cold frosty morning" with a number of courting and action game songs. See, for example, "Round About the Punch Bowl," "A Young Lady Sat Down to Sleep," "Jingo Ring," "Three Dukes," "On a Cold Frosty Morning," and "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr019

It's a Good Time to Get Acquainted

DESCRIPTION: "It's a good time to get acquainted, It's a good time to know, Who is sitting close to you, And to smile and say Hello. Goodbye, lonesome feeling, Farewell glassy stare, Here's my hand, my name is (something), So put your hand right there."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #410, p. 101, "It's a Good Time" (1 text, tune referenced)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 114, "Get Acquainted" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 249, "It's a Good Time to Get Acquainted" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "It's a Long, Long" Way to Tipperary" (tune) and references there
File: ACSF249I

It's a Long Road to Freedom

DESCRIPTION: "It's a long road to freedom, a-winding steep and high, But when you walk in love,,, the miles fly by." The singer walks by the sea, or at dawn, or with a friend, and there is hope, but even so, "every moment held its sting"
AUTHOR: Miriam Therese Winter
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (source: Hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 548, 550, "It's a Long Road to Freedom" (notes only)
File: ACSF548R

It's a Long Way Down to the Soup Line

DESCRIPTION: "Bill Brown came a thousand miles to work on Frisco Fair, All the papers said a million men were wanted there." But he couldn't find a job, and concludes, "It's a long way down to the soup line." If the Fair moves, then the sharks singing this chorus
AUTHOR: Words: Joe Hill / Music: "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary"
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (various I.W. W. publications, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement travel work derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 521, "It's a Long Way Down to the Soup Line" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: (Barrie Stavis and Frank Harmon, editors), _The Songs of Joe Hill_, 1960, now reprinted in the Oak Archives series, pp. 34-35, "It's a Long Way Down to the Soupline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gibbs M. Smith, _Joe Hill_, 1969 (I use the 1984 Peregrine Smith Books edition), pp. 30, 260, "It's a Long Way Down to the Soupline" (1 text, tune referenced)
William M. Adler, _The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon_, Bloomsbury Press, 2011, p. 266-267, "(It's a Long Way Down to the Soup Line" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary" (tune) and references there
File: LDC521

It's a Long Way from Amphioxus

See (notes under) It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary (File: DTtiprar)

It's a Long Way to Ballywalter

DESCRIPTION: "It's a long way to Ballywalter, It's a long way to go, It's a long way to Ballywalter, Sweetest place I know. Goodbye, rotten Belfast, Farewell, Shaftsbury Square, It's a long, long way to Ballywalter, But my heart's right there."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: home derivative
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 54, "It's a Long Way to Ballywalter"
Roud #37300
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary" (tune)
NOTES [14 words]: Kane does not explicitly say that this is sung to "Tipperary." But it patently is. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC054

It's a Long Way to Tipperary

See It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary (File: DTtiprar)

It's a Long, Long Way to Capture Villa

DESCRIPTION: "It's a long long way to capture Villa It's a long way to go, It's a long way across the border Where the dirty greasers grow; So it's goodbye to dear old Broadway, Hello Mexico. It's a long, long way to capture Villa, But that's where we'll go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Lewis, Along the Rio Grande," according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: political derivative Mexico | Pancho Villa
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1877-1923 - life of Francisco "Pancho" Villa
1911 - Mexican Revolution begins
1915 - Villa defeated by Venustiano Carranza, causing him to turn outlaw
1916 - Villa raids the U.S., causing the U. S. to launch punitive raids in response, with John J. Pershing in charge
1920 - Death of Carranza. Villa pardoned by new Mexican government
1923 - Villa assassinated
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 293, "It's a Long, Long Way to Capture Villa" (1 short text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary" (tune) and references there
File: DTtipCav

It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary

DESCRIPTION: Of an Irishman who comes to London then is called back home by his sweetheart. Know mostly for the chorus: "It's a long way to Tipperary, It's a long way to go, It's a long way to Tipperary, to the sweetest girl I know. Goodbye, Piccadilly...."
AUTHOR: Jack Judge (and Harry Williams?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: love separation return
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(SE) Canada
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 22-23, "Tipperary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 27-28, "It's a Long Wat to Tipperary" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #21, "Tipperary" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 177, "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 308-309, "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 188, 249, "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" (notes only)
DT, TIPRARY*
Roud #11235
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Long Way to Tipperary" (OKeh 45077, 1927; rec. 1926)
Frank Hutchison, "Long Way To Tipperary" (Okeh 45089, 1927)
John & Emery McClung "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary" (Brunswick 136, 1927)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" (Columbia 15249-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
SAME TUNE:
It's a Good Time to Get Acquainted (File: ACSF149I)
It's a Long Way to Ballywalter (File: KSUC054)
The Harvest War Song (File: LDC498)
It's a Long, Long Way to Capture Villa (File: LDC293)
It's a Long Way Down to the Soup Line (File: LDC521)
It's a Long Way from Amphioxus (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 68-69; DT, AMPHIOXU*)
It's a Long Way down to the Breadline [Rewrite of the Joe Hill song "It's a Long Way Down to the Soup Line" by Charles Ashleigh] (Barrie Stavis and Frank Harmon, editors, _The Songs of Joe Hill_, 1960, now reprinted in the Oak Archives series, pp. 35-36)
The Pawnshop (adapted by Dominic Behan?) (Behan-IrelandSings #70/p. 104)
Prohibition Tipperary ("It's a short way to prohibition, It's a short way to go") (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 33)
Long Trail ("It's a long trail we're going over, It's a long trail to go") (Harbin-Parodology, #239, p. 60)
Waiting for Breakfast ("It's a long time to wait for breakfast") (Harbin-Parodology, #276, p. 67)
It's a Good Thing to Be a Christian (Harbin-Parodology, #418, p. 102)
NOTES [280 words]: The folklore about this song is, if anything, better than the song itself (which, apart from the tune of the chorus, is banal). Jack Judge came into a town on New Year's night and claimed he could write a song then and there. Challenged, he wrote "Tipperary."
Harry Williams was (like Judge) a vaudeville performer, although Reginald Nettel, Seven Centuries of Popular Song, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 222, says that he was crippled and the son of a Warwickshire innkeeper. The legend says that Judge owed Williams money, and offered this song in payment of the debt.
It is, of course, no longer possible to verify this. What is certain is that the song became immensely popular in the First World War, though more for the chorus (many, many Tommies came from London, after all) than the plot. Nettel, pp. 221-222, in fact says that the song's initial popularity had faded by the time the war came, and it was more popular at home than among the troops. The troops often shouted down someone who started to sing "Tipperary," according to Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 308, estimates that this was the second most popular song in America in 1915, peaking at #1 in January 1915 (#1 for the year being J. Keirn Brennan and Ernest Ball's "A Little Bit of Heaven").
I am sorely tempted to list "It's a Long Way from Amphioxus" as a separate traditional song. It doesn't seem to have been collected in the "field," but why would it? Lancelets (amphioxus) live in the sea. The song is pretty definitely traditional in science labs.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: DTtiprar

It's a Rosebud in June

See Rosebud in June (File: ShH93)

It's a Rough Road to Georgia

See On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)

It's a Shame to Whip Your Wife on Sunday

DESCRIPTION: "It's a shame to whip your wife on Sunday/When you've got Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday...." Subsequent verses "It's a shame to play cards on Sunday...." "It's a shame to get drunk on Sunday."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Fiddlin' John Carson)
KEYWORDS: abuse gambling drink humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 78, "It's A Shame to Whip Your Wife on Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 22, "Ain't It a Shame" (1 text)
DT, AINTSHAM
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 27, "Ain't It a Shame" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17576
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "It's A Shame To Whip Your Wife On Sunday" (Okeh 45122, 1927)
New Lost City Ramblers, "It's a Shame to Whip Your Wife on Sunday" (on NLCR12)
Pete Seeger, "Ain't It a Shame" (on PeteSeeger32)
NOTES [52 words]: Some joke. -PJS
I have to suspect this is funnier in concert than in print. (It would be hard for it to be LESS funny, after all.)
The version in the Folksinger's wordbook omits the crucial first verse, but I don't think it actually circulated in that form; I think it's just a case of political correctness. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: CSW078

It's a Small World After All

DESCRIPTION: Song written for an amusement park ride, insisting that "there's so much that we share" that we should be aware that "it's a small, small world" even though it is a world of both laugher and tears
AUTHOR: Richard & Robert Sherman (source: americansongwriter.com)
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (date of composition, according to americansongwriter.com)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 257, 314, 547, "It's a Small World" (notes only)
NOTES [54 words]: This is sometimes cited as the most-played song in the world. Possibly true in a technical sense -- because it is on an endless loop for the Small World ride at Disneyland. Thus, yes, it is played more than a hundred thousand times in a year, which exceeds the airplay for any other song. But it's hardly true airplay. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF257I

It's Advertised in Boston

See Blow Ye Winds in the Morning (File: LxU044)

It's After Six O'Clock

DESCRIPTION: "It's after six o'clock After seven and weary After eight o'clock And then I'll see my dearie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 806, "It's After Six O'Clock" (1 fragment)
Roud #6207
NOTES [48 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 text. - BS
Possibly related to the item underlying Burns's "Ay waukin O"? The meter fits, and the idea is similar; the chorus of the Burns song is "Ay waukin O, Waukin still and weary; Sleep I can get nane, For thinking on my Dearie." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4806

It's All Night Long

DESCRIPTION: "Of all the animals in this world, I'd rather be a squirrel, I'd climb up on a telephone pole And peep all over the world. It's all night long. It's all night long."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 170, "It's All Night Long" (1 text)
NOTES [24 words]: This song may be a version of one of the other "All Night Long" pieces, but I haven't seen the verse anywhere else, so it lists separately. - RBW
File: Br3170

It's Almost Day

DESCRIPTION: "Chickens crow for midnight and it's almost day (x2)" ""Christmas is a-coming and it's almost day." "Santa Claus is coming...." "Turkey's in the oven...." "I thought I heard my mother say...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (recording, Lead Belly)
KEYWORDS: Christmas food nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 373, "It's Almost Day" (1 text)
Roud #11655
NOTES [33 words]: This is about as silly as a song can be -- but the tune is good, and it's easy to improvise six-syllable lines with no rhyme for any occasion. There may even be some ballad-like versions out there. - RBW
File: FSWB373A

It's Almost Done

See Almost Done (File: LxU094)

It's away! Outward the swinging fo'c'sles reel

See Beneath the Barber Pole (File: Hopk034)

It's Braw Sailin' on the Sea

DESCRIPTION: "There cam a letter late yestreen, Our ship maun sail in the morn." The girl gives back his ring, declaring, "Tak that, my bonnie lad, For I hae changed my mind." The song is largely comparisons: "It's braw sailing on the sea, It's better drinkin' wine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love sailor separation betrayal ring
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #129, p. 1, "It's Braw Sailin' on the Sea" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1217, "It's Braw Sailin' on the Sea" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 203, "It's Braw Sailin' on the Sea" (1 text)
Roud #5537
File: Ord203

It's But a Man

DESCRIPTION: The singer, long past her twenties, cannot stop thinking about marriage "wi a'thing I need but -- a man." She makes a case that she would be a good catch and she will never give up.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer, long past her twenties, cannot stop thinking about marriage "wi a'thing I need but -- a man" A gypsy fortold she would marry "a dark haired lad." She's "weel eneuch aff" and thrifty and a good cook and housekeeper: the marriage would be "nae cost ava to my man." She admits "I'm nae very bonny" nor dainty "but he'll get a' the bigger a bargain." Men talk politics, and such -- "stuff I can ne'er understand" -- but they don't ask the question "will ye hae me for a man." Her "lassie companions they mock me ... 'But never give up' is my motto.... my weel baited line I'll aye dangle Until I at length hook a man"
KEYWORDS: nonballad oldmaid
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1384, "It's But a Man" (1 text)
Roud #7245
File: GrD81384

It's Down in Old Ireland

DESCRIPTION: The singer was born in Limerick. In spite of his mother's pleading he "carried on with my wicked career." He marries and takes up highway robbery to care for her, is convicted and transported for seven years. Women are deceitful but he'd have no other
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: prison robbery transportation mother wife Ireland
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 161, "It's Down in Old Ireland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #490
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wild and Wicked Youth" [Laws L12] (theme)
cf. "Salisbury Plain" (theme)
NOTES [52 words]: Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs includes this verse partly floated to/from "Old Kimball" (as sung by Texas Gladden):
Now ofttimes I've wondered how women loves man,
And more times I've wondered how men can love them,
For robbing by night and a-planning by day
Which caused me behind this prison walls for to lay. - BS
File: CrMa161

It's Down Where the Water Runs Muddy

See The Lover's Curse (Kellswater) (File: HHH442)

It's Forty Long Miles I've Travelled This Day

See Love Let Me In (Forty Long Miles; It Rains, It Hails) (File: LLab048)

It's Funny When You Feel that Way

DESCRIPTION: The singer says, "when first I fell in love ... I felt as though I'd tumbled into honey And somebody had left me all their money." She rejects him, then accepts his advance and her father gives his permission to wed. "I long to hear the wedding bells"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1873 14066)
KEYWORDS: courting love wedding father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1901, "Isn't It Funny When You Feel That Way" (1 fragment)
Roud #3693
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.16(103), "It's Funny When You Feel that Way" ("I sha'nt forget how queer I felt"), T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899; also Firth b.27(261), "It's Funny When You Feel that Way"
LOCSheet, sm1873 14066, "It's Funny When You Feel that Way," G. D. Russell & Co. (Boston), 1873 (tune)

File: GrD81901

It's Gettin' Late over in the Evening

See It's Getting Late in the Evening (File: CNFM065)

It's Getting Late in the Evening

DESCRIPTION: "Lord, it's gettin' late over in the evenin'... The sun most down." The singer asks that John not seal his book until the singer's name is entered. The Spirit seals the book. The singer warns sinners against their ways and prepares to depart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Rich Amerson)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 65-66, "(It's Gettin' Late over in the Evening)" (1 text); pp. 234-235, "It's Getting Late in the Evening" (1 tune, partial text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 330-331, "(It's Getting Latie in the Evening" (1 text)
Roud #10967
RECORDINGS:
Rich Amerson, "It's Getting Late in the Evening" (on NFMAla4)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John the Revelator" (theme)
NOTES [78 words]: The theme of sealed and unsealed books is not uncommon in the Bible; we see several instances in the Revelation to John, often based on hints in the prophets (e.g. Ezek. 2:9-10).
The Book of Life is mentioned in Rev. 20:12. There is also the scroll sealed with seven seals of Rev. 5-8 (note that the scroll was the ancient form of a book). A second, "little" scroll occurs in Chapter 10. Chapter 7 describes another sort of seal -- the "sealing" of God's servants. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: CNFM065

It's Going to be a Long Winter

DESCRIPTION: "It’s going to be a long winter, And what will the birdie do then? The poor thing? He’ll fly to the barn, to keep himself warm And tuck his head under his wing. The poor thing." The bird will stay dry in spring, swim in summer, etc.
AUTHOR: Katy Reid-Naiman? (artist who recorded it on "Sing the Cold Winter Away"; no songwriting credit listed)
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Reid-Naiman, "Sing the Cold Winter Away")
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 384, 419, "It's Going To Be a Long Winter" (notes only)
File: ACSF384I

It's Good fuh Hab Some Patience

DESCRIPTION: "It's good fuh hab some patience, patience, patience, It's good fuh hab some patience, Fuh ter wait upon de Lawd." "My brudder, won't you rise en' go wid me (x3), Fuh ter wait upon de Lawd." "My sister...." "My fader...." "My mudder...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 597, "It's Good fuh Hab Some Patience" (1 text)
Roud #11910
File: Br3597

It's Hard on We Po' Farmers

DESCRIPTION: "Work all week and don't make enough Pay my board and buy my snuff, It's hard (x3) on we po' farmers." The farmer works all week for fifteen cents. All he has in the pot is peas and an old jawbone.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (collected from Lemuel Jones)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes farming money work food
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 281, "It's Hard on We Po' Farmers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6709
NOTES [33 words]: One verse of this, "Work all week in the noonday sun, Fifteen cents when Saturday come," is found in the bluegrass/modern old-time country song "Lazy John," but the connection is not clear to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LoSi281

It's Hard to Leave You, Sweet Love

See Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove) (File: Wa097)

It's Jesus That Keeps Me Alive

DESCRIPTION: "Well, he's all over me and he keeps me alive (x3), Well, it's Jesus that keeps me alive." Cho: "Well, it's Jesus, it's Jesus that keeps me alive (x4)." "And he feeds me when I'm hungry and he keeps me alive." "And he clothes me." "He's all in my heart"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 181, "It's Jesus That Keeps Me Alive" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16304
File: Arno181

It's Lookin' fer Railroad Bill

See Railroad Bill [Laws I13] (File: LI13)

It's Me for the Inland Lakes

DESCRIPTION: "If ever I follow the ships again, To gather my spuds and cakes, I'll not be working a deep-sea hack,, It's me for the inland Lakes." The singer says that sailors on lakers live in better conditions, make short runs, and get better pay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from Captain Walkingthaw by Walton)
KEYWORDS: sailor work
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont) US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Walton/Grimm/Murdoch, pp. 85-86, "It's Me for the Inland Lakes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 26, "(no title)" (two stanzas following an entry titled "Great Lakes Limericks")
Roud #15922
File: WGM085

It's Me, O Lord

See Standing in the Need of Prayer (File: FSWB350A)

it's Me, O Lord, Standing in the Need of Prayer

See Standing in the Need of Prayer (File: FSWB350A)

It's Me, Oh Lord

See Standing in the Need of Prayer (File: FSWB350A)

It's Mony's the Race That I Have Run

DESCRIPTION: The singer thinks of ending a courtship. If s/he "had wings like a dove ... I would go and see my love Which makes one dull this evening"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1090, "It's Mony's the Race That I Have Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6828
File: GrD61090

It's My Delight of a Shiny Night

See The Lincolnshire Poacher (File: K259)

It's No Business of Mine

DESCRIPTION: The singer, while proclaiming "Of course it's no business of mine," criticises the girls who are "after the fellow that's got the cash," the "temperate" men who "wouldn't touch whisky" but have red noses "caused by the cold," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting drink money accusation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 392, "It's No Business of Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7616
NOTES [49 words]: Oliver Ditson & Co, The New Comic Songster, 1870 (indexed as New-Comic-Songster; p. 28), has a piece "Of Course It's No Business of Mine," which is very similar in its idea, but since they seem to have no actual words in common except the "No Business of Mine" line, I have not listed it here. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: R392

It's Not 'Oppin' Over 'Edges that 'Urts the 'Orse's 'Ooves

DESCRIPTION: "It's not 'oppin over 'edges that 'urts the 'orse's 'ooves, It's the 'ammer, 'ammer, 'ammer on the 'ard 'igh road, from 'Armstead 'Eath to 'Ighgate."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: horse injury
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 143, "It's not 'oppin over 'edges that 'urts the 'orse's 'ooves" (1 short text)
Roud #25536
NOTES [43 words]: Fowke's note to Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood mention a similar piece from 1856, but I'm not sure they are truly related; the problem of maintaining horses' hooves became much more acute in the nineteenth century as more roads were macadamized. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC143C

It's Not the House That Makes a Home

DESCRIPTION: A boy tells a poor girl "you can't play with us because you're so poor" and "you don't live in a mansion like us." She says love, not the house, makes a home. He grows up and sails the seas to find a home with "love that lives inside"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: poverty love home travel children
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18249
RECORDINGS:
Winifred O'Driscoll, "Your Home" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcINHTMH

It's of a Farmer

See The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)

It's of a Pretty Fair Maid

See The Undaunted Female (The Box Upon Her Head; The Staffordshire Maid; The Maid and the Robber) [Laws L3] (File: LL03)

It's of an Old Couple

See The Poor Old Couple (File: BGMG821)

It's oft in my love's arms my love to him I've told

See The Back o' Rarey's Hill (The Jilted Lover) (File: Ord156)

It's Oh That My Christening Robe

DESCRIPTION: "It's oh that my christening robe my winding sheet had been That ever I was born to sae muckle grief and woe Sae fare ye weel my bonnie lad for I must go"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: grief courting nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1172, "It's Oh That My Christening Robe" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #6815
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan6 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD51172

It's Once I Courted As Pretty a Lass

See Hog-tub, The (File: OO2298)

It's Raining And It's Hailing

See Reap, Boys, Reap (Cold Stormy Weather, Who'll Be the Binder?) (File: Newe022)

It's Raining Here

DESCRIPTION: "It's raining here, storming on the deep blue sea (x2) Ain't no black-headed mama Can make a fool out of me." "Now I can see a train coming...." "Talk about trouble, that's all I've ever known." The singer, despite poverty, will not sing the blues
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: poverty separation train
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 508, "It's Raining Here" (1 text)
Roud #11810
File: Br3508

It's Raining, It's Pouring

DESCRIPTION: "It's raining, it's pouring, The old man is snoring. (He) bumped his head and he went to bed And he couldn't get up in the morning."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW) New Zealand
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 133, "(It's raining, it's pouring)" (1 text)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, p. 88, "It's Raining" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 227, "It's Raining, It's Pouring" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 166, "It's Raining, It's Pouring" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 118, "It's raining, it's pouring" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #6, "(It's Raining, It's Pouring)" (1 text)
Roud #16814
SAME TUNE:
It's raining it's pouring, the old man's snoring, Thunder and lightning stop life being boring (Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 291)
NOTES [22 words]: Another of those things I learned too far back to remember and without really wanting to learn. Makes it a folk song in my book. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: PHCF227b

It's Seven Long Years

DESCRIPTION: Willie the sailor is gone seven years with no letter to Nancy. She regrets "it was my trembling hand deceived you, Caused my youthful tongue to lie." She dreams "Willie was landed safe on shore" but wakes to reality, "stark despair to reign supreme"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: grief love separation dream sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 59, "It's Seven Long Years" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB059 (Partial)
Roud #2757
File: CrSNB059

It's Spring Time on Earth

See The Drunkard's Lone Child (File: R309)

It's the Fashion

DESCRIPTION: "When a poor man asks for bread, or a place to lay his head, He will get a kick instead. That's the fashion. But a poodle dog they keep...." Most want to be in fashion, but the singer hopes to "stay clear of that fashion" -- until heavenly robes are in
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: clothes dog warning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 133, "It's the Fashion" (1 text plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Roud #11341
File: Brne133

It's the Same the Whole World Over

See She Was Poor But She Was Honest (I) (File: EM128)

It's the Sime the 'Ole World Over (I)

See She Was Poor But She Was Honest (I) (File: EM128)

It's the Sime the 'Ole World Over (II)

DESCRIPTION: "'Ave you 'eard of SallyCarter, Who should 'ave been Joe Johnsing's wife? First 'e gets 'er into trou-bell, Then he ups and tikes a knife." She says she will marry him; he kills her. "An' now 'e's... Passing laws in England's name" while the poor suffer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: homicide rejection sex
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 58, "It's the Sime the 'Ole World Over II" (1 text)
Roud #9621
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She Was Poor But She Was Honest (I)" (form)
NOTES [72 words]: Since Shay's version seems to be unique, and there are many variations on the basic form of "She Was Poor But She Was Honest (I)," Roud lumps this with that song, based on Shay's title. But Shay's piece has a completely different plot, about murder, and never uses either the "She Was Poor But She Was Honest" line or "It's the same the whole world over"; I would consider them separate songs which (probably) use the same tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: SBar058

It's the Syme the Whole World Over

See She Was Poor But She Was Honest (I) (File: EM128)

It's Time for Us to Leave Her

See Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her (File: Doe089)

It's Time I Was a Bride

DESCRIPTION: "I'd like mighty well to change my name And share another's home." The woman is of marriageable age, and tired of being alone. "But he must be a soldier, A veteran of the wars, One who has fought for southern rights Beneath the Stars and Bars."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar patriotic oldmaid marriage
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 241, "It's Time I Was a Bride" (1 text)
Roud #7711
NOTES [27 words]: I can't help but suspect that this song is an old piece about a girl who misses a man. Someone then tacked on the final stanza to give it a Confederate twist. - RBW
File: R241

It's Very Kind of Teacher

DESCRIPTION: "It's very kind o Teacher To take such pains with me. I'll show her how attentive And obedient I can be. And I won't be a Dunce, No, I won't be a Dunce; I am so fond of learning That I cannot be a dunce."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | teacher
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 57, "It's very kind of teacher" (1 text)
Roud #25488
NOTES [68 words]: You really have to wonder what sort of child would remember THIS. When I read the first few lines, I expected the second half to be some way in which the student took revenge on the teacher. Not as given by Kane -- but it's interesting that there is a change in form in the middle. The first four lines are in standard ballad 4343 form, the last four seem to shift to 3333. A combination of two sources? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC057A

It's Your Auld Wife and My Auld Wife

DESCRIPTION: "It's your auld wife and my auld wife Gaed oot to gaither snaw; Says your auld wife to my auld wife Wid ye gie my [...] a claw"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: bawdy nonballad wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1448, "It's Your Auld Wife and My Auld Wife" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7276
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan7 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71448

Italian Fisherman

See I Catch-a Da Plenty of Feesh (File: San409)

Italy

See Going Across the Sea (File: RcItaly)

Itisket

See Atisket, Atasket (I Sent a Letter to My Love) (File: BAF806A)

Itisket, Itasket

See Atisket, Atasket (I Sent a Letter to My Love) (File: BAF806A)

Its G-L-O-R-Y to Know I'm S-A-V-E-D

See S-A-V-E-D (File: FSWB349)

Its of a Farmer All in This Town

See The Suffolk Miracle [Child 272] (File: C272)

Itsa Bitsa Tootsa La

DESCRIPTION: Nonsense counting-out rhyme. "Itsa, bits, tootsa, la, Falla-melinka, linka, la, Falla-malu, falla-mila, Falla-melinka, linka, la."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: nonsense | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 15, "(Itsa, bitsa, tootsa, la)" (1 text)
File: WEMM015B

Itsy Bitsy Boo

See Ickie Bickie Soda Cracker (File: ZiZa072C)

Itsy Bitsy Spider

See The Eensy Weensy Spider (File: BGMG579)

Ivan Skavinsky Scavar

See Abdul the Bulbul Emir (II) (File: EM210)

Ivan Skavinsky Skevar

See Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I) (File: LxA341)

Ivan Skizavitsky Skivar

See Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I) (File: LxA341)

Ivan Skizavitzky Skivar

See Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I) (File: LxA341)

J. B. Marcum (A Kentucky Feud Song) [Laws E19]

DESCRIPTION: Curt Jett shoots J. B. Markham dead in the courthouse. Judge Jim Harkis allegedly tries to prevent a conviction by fixing the jury; this fails when the case is transferred to another county. Jett and accomplice Thomas White end up in prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Ted Chestnut)
KEYWORDS: homicide trial prison feud
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1903 - Murder of J. B. Markham/Marcam in Breathitt County, Kentucky
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws E19, "J. B. Marcum (A Kentucky Feud Song)"
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 60, pp. 159-160, "J. B. Marcum" (1 text)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 249-251, (no title) (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 259, "J. B. Marcum" (1 text)
DT 773, JBMARCUM
Roud #692
RECORDINGS:
Ted Chestnut [as Chesnut], "The Death of J. B. Marcum" (Gennett 6513/Champion 15524 [as Cal Turner], 1928)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner ("Mac & Bob"), "The Murder of J. B. Markham" (Brunswick 305, 1929; Supertone S-2035, 1930; rec. 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesse James (I)" [Laws E1] (tune & meter)
NOTES [535 words]: Laws dates the events in this song to 1905, and this was cited in the earlier editions of this Index, but that appears to be an error -- perhaps one of the many typos in Laws.
According to Rice, p. 40, "The worst disorder in Breathitt County, known as the Hargis-Cocrell-Marcum-Callahan feud, had its origins in a political contest in which fusion candidates accused County Judge James Hargis and Sheriff Ed Callahan of stealing the election. Violent disputes resulted in warrents for the arrest of Hargis and John B. Markcum, an attorney for the fusionists." The arresting officer was the town marshal of Jackson, Kentucky, Tom Cockrell; Hargis claimed that Cockrell and his brother James would have killed him had not Sheriff Callahan stopped it. Accusatins flew; "Cockrell killed Ben Hargis, a brother of the judge, in a blind tiger saloon in Jackson. Cockrell gained strong support from Marcum, who volunteered to defend him, and Dr. D. B. Cox, Jackson's most prominent citizen."
Another member of the Cockrel/Marcum faction, Jerry Cardwell, then killed John "Tige" Hargis, although investigation seemed to show that Hargis started the fight.
One can perhaps understand why Hargis sought a bodyguard. But it proved, to put it mildly, too zealous: "assassins cut down Dr. Cox, James Cockrell, and Marcum, whose death occured in fromt of the courthouse, with Hargis and Callahan watching from a store across the street. For fifteen minutes Marcum lay bleeding before anyone summoned up the courage to attend him."
This was enough to get Hargis and Callahan charged with murder, but they were acquitted. "Hargis, whose near-absolute power in Breathitt County and gubernatorial connections seemed to give him immunity from punishment in Kentucky, was killed by his own son in 1908, and Callahan was shot from ambush in 1912" (Rice, pp. 40-41).
KentuckyEncyclopedia, p. 406, files the events uner the "Hargis-Cockrill Feud" and says it lasted from 1901 to 1912, so the Marcum murder was a relatively early event. (Although Marcum's uncle Bill Strong had been murdered as early as 1899). The contested election which caused the feud took place in 1901. KentuckyEncyclopedia gives these death dates:
* B. D. Cox: April 13, 1902
* Jim Cockrill: April 13, 1903
* J. B. Marcum: May 4, 1903
* James F. Hargis: February 6, 1908
* Edward Callahan: May 4, 1912
Supposedly more than thirty people were killed in the course of the feud.
KentuckyEncyclopedia, p. 406, says that Hargis was born October 13, 1862, and began his career as the owner of a large general store. "His political skills made him one of the kingmakers during the Music Hall gubernatorial convention of 1899," a three-way contest marked by manipulation of delegates and occasional violent demonstrations; (KentuckyEncyclopedia, pp. 666-667) . The election of 1901 sounds as if it might have involved more Hargis manipulation. Beauchamp "Beach" Hargis, who killed J. F. Hargis, was his father's only son; KentuckyEncyclopedia claims that the murder was "not entirely unrelated" to the feud.
KentuckyEncyclopedia recommends as a reference for this Bloody Breathitt's Feuds by E. L. Noble (1944), but I have been unable to locate a copy of this book. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: LE19

J. C. Holmes Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Listen, people, if you want to hear A story about a brave engineer, J. C. Holmes was the rider's name...." Floating verses about Holmes, the people who want to ride his trains, the freight he wants to carry, the rails he'd like to ride
AUTHOR: Gus Horsley (but based on older materials)
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Bessie Smith)
KEYWORDS: nonballad railroading floatingverses
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 163-165, "J. C. Homes Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Casey Jones (I)" [Laws G1] (form, lyrics)
NOTES [108 words]: I suffered for quite a while trying to decide whether to list this as its own song or as a by-blow of "Casey Jones." Formally, I probably should have done the latter; the amount of original material in this song is almost nil. It's simply a fixup of the blues ballad version of Casey Jones/Joseph Mikel/Jay Gould's Daughter (which already constitute an almost impossible mess to untangle).
I finally decided to keep this separate because it appears "J. C. Holmes" is a sport: It split off from the main "Casey" stock, but did not go into tradition in any recognizable form. Neither does it seem to have further influenced the "Casey" tradition. - RBW
File: LSRa163

J. P. Morgan

See Bill Morgan and His Gal (File: RcBMAHG)

J. R. Birchell

See The Murder of F. C. Benwell [Laws E26] (File: LE26)

J. V. Johnson

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on a gloomy Sunday night, When Johnson thought he was all right, A hundred hearts of an angry mob Did disobey the laws of God." A mob opens his cell and takes him out to hang him. He bids farewell and wonders what will happen to his soul
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Brundage);
KEYWORDS: homicide execution death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 27, 1905 - Guinn Johnson is murdered, probably by his sister's husband J. V. Johnson
Apr 16, 1906 - J. V. Johnson is tried for the murder. The jury cannot reach a verdict (11 are for conviction on a charge of second degree murder; one is for acquittal); a mistrial is declared. A second trial is scheduled for July
May 27/28, 1906 - A mob takes J. V. Johnson from prison and hung from a pine tree; the body is shot repeatedly after the hanging (source: Baker)
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Bruce E. Baker, "North Carolina Lynching Ballads," essay in W. Fitzhugh Brundage, _Under Sentence of Death: Lynching in the South_, University of North Carolina Press, 1997, pp. 233-234, "J. V. Johnson" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Emma Hartsell" [Laws F34] (tune and form, according to Baker, who however does not print a tune)
NOTES [115 words]: Baker, p. 244 n. 19, says this was collected only once, from Novella Caudle Carpenter, Peachtree, North Carolina, in 1966. There is very little additional information available about it; I don't trust the history very much. But it is treated as traditional, so I'm including it. Baker thinks it is based on "Emma Hartsell," which is also about a North Carolina murder. The events took place in and around Morven, North Carolina, which is just north of the South Carolina border roughly ESE of Charlottesville. Concord, where Hartsell was murdered eight years before the events of this ballad, is not too far from Charlottesville, so Emma's song could well have reached Morven by then. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: BrJVJohn

J'ai fait une maitresse

See Les Metamorphoses (Metamorphoses) (File: Pea788)

J'ai Tant d'Enfants a Marier (I Have So Many Maids to Wed)

DESCRIPTION: French. Dance. Singer says he has so many young women to marry, he doesn't know how to manage. He implores one woman to dance, and gives instructions on how to do it. In the dance, a gentleman in the center of the circle chooses one woman to embrace/kiss
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
KEYWORDS: courting dancing dancetune nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Que), France
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 44, "J'ai tant d'enfants a marier (I Have So Many Maids to Wed)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [52 words]: The lack of equivalency between the French texts and the English translations in "Folk Songs of Vincennes" is particularly acute in this example. - PJS
[For example, in Paul's original description, which I had to shorten, the French version has the man choose a woman to embrace; in the English, he kisses her. - RBW]
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BerV044

J'ai Tant Danse (I've Danced So Much)

DESCRIPTION: French. Singer has ripped the sole from her shoe dancing. A shepherd lad pays for the repair. The shepherd says they should marry in a month. She would rather wait a year. ch.: "Dansons, ma berger', joliment! / Quelle plancher en rompe!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
LONG DESCRIPTION: French. Singer, a shepherdess, says she's danced so much, she's ripped the sole from her shoe. A shepherd lad offers to find her a cobbler and pays for the repair. The shepherd says they should go find a priest and marry in a month. The girl replies that a month isn't enough; she'd rather wait a year. ch.: "Dansons, ma berger', joliment! / Quelle plancher en rompe!" (Dance, my shepherdess, nicely, until the floor breaks (or resounds))
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting love marriage clothes humorous shepherd
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Que) France
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 56, "J'ai tant danse! (I've Danced So Much)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
File: BerV056

J'ai Trouve une Maitresse (I Found a Young Sweetheart)

DESCRIPTION: French. Singer meets a girl of 15 and falls in love. He asks her to love him; he'll wait until she's old enough. She says he won't have to wait long, and that her parents wish her never to wed. She, or he, regrets that a girl might never meet a lover
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage age grief courting love family father mother lover
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 78, "Ja'i Trouve une Maitresse (The Young Sweetheart)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
File: BerV078

J'avais une Vieille Grand-Mere (Grandmother Complains)

DESCRIPTION: "I had a very old grandmother, jig-a-don-dain', jig-a-don-de." The grandmother weeps all the time; asked why, she replies that she's weeping for her husband, who has been eaten by wolves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
KEYWORDS: age grief death mourning animal husband
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 34, "J'avais une vieille grand'mere (Grandmother Complains)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [80 words]: Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes says this is a torn-away fragment of a longer ballad about "a shepherdess whom her suitor found weeping because her sheep had wandered away from her. The young swain played on his pipe and at the strains of his music the sheep came back and began to make merry, except for an old ewe who was disconsolate. When asked by a lamb why she was grieving, she replied, 'I am weeping over the death of your grandfather wo has been eaten by the wolves.'" - PJS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BerV034

Ja, Ja, Ja!

DESCRIPTION: Shanty, aimed at sailors whose native language is not English. The chorus runs, "Ja, Ja, Ja!"; the rest may be deliberate gibberish or slurs on those who say "Ja" for "Yes" or talk of the usual sailor-ashore themes of drinking and chasing women
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: shanty foreigner
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 86, "Ja, Ja, Ja!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 504-505, "Yaw, Yaw, Yaw!" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 372-373]
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 116-117, "Yaw, Yaw, Yaw!" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doe086 (Full)
Roud #8236
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rollin' Home by the Silvery Moon" (similar tune)
File: Doe086

Jack and Gill

See Jack and Gill (File: BGMG058)

Jack and His Brooms

See Green Broom (File: ShH49)

Jack and His Kind Master

See Jackie and Mossy (File: RL293)

Jack and His Stepdame

See notes under Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (II) (File: OO2507)

Jack and Jill

DESCRIPTION: "Jack and Jill went up the hill To fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown, And Jill came tumbling after." "Up Jack got, and home did trot, As fast as he could caper, He went to bed to mend his head, With vinegar and brown paper."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1767 (Newbery, "Mother Goose's Melody") (source: Devlin & others)
KEYWORDS: injury
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 254, "Jack and Jill went up the hill" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #48, pp. 58-59, "(Jack and Gill)"; also a reproduction of a chapbook edition of c. 1820 facing p. 58
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 86, "Jack and Jill" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 68, "Jack and Jill" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 40, "Jack and Jill" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 277, "Jack and Gill" (1 text, 1 tune, with just the one verse from this song; the other seven I would guess to be a modern addition)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #281, "Jack and Jill went up the hill" (1 excerpt, which Abrahams cites as the only jump-rope version of this rhyme)
ADDITIONAL: Sabine Baring-Gould, _Curious Myths of the Middle Ages_, "New Edition," 1894 (references are to the 2005 Dover paperback reprint), pp. 112-113, "(Jack and Jill)" (1 short text)
Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, pp. 30-31, "Jack and Gill" (a combination of "Jack and Jill," "Old Mother Hubbard," and "Mother, May I Go to Swim," with a "Never Get Drunk" chorus)
Tim Devlin, _Cracking Humpty Dumpty: An Investigative Trail of Favorite Nursery Rhymes_, Susak Press, 2022, pp. 63-69, "Jack and Jill" (1 text plus many variants and alternate sources)
Roud #10266
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack and Jill (II)" (form)
NOTES [1275 words]: In line with her standard attempts to make mountains out of nursery rhymes, Katherine Elwes Thomas thought that this song was about Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (d. 1530) "and his coadjutor, Bishop Tarbes" (Thomas, p. 91). As usual, no one who has not been drinking some very unusual Kool-Aid will take Thomas seriously.
Baring-Gould referred it back to the Scandinavian Eddas, with Hjuki and Bil being children with a pole and bucket who were placed in the sky (Baring-Gould, pp. 112-113; it appears to be pp. 200-202 or so in the original printing). Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel reports a story that it's about the execution of Louix XVI and Marie Antoinette (which has the disadvantage of having taken place after Newberry published the piece!).
Devlin, p. 66, says that Elizabeth Knowles referred it to two tax collectors in the time of Henry VII, Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley. That Henry VII collected high taxes is certainly true, and that Empson and Dudley were deeply implicated is true: "Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley, who had served Henry VII's money-gathering and law-enforcement so assiduously, and whose unreasonable and extort doings noble men grudged, mean men kicked, poor men lamented, preachers openly at Paul's Cross and other places exclaimed, rebuked and detested" were cast aside at the accession of Henry VIII (Scarisbrick, pp. 11-12).
"Just why Empson and Dudley were singled out from other similar agents of Henry VII's government we shall probably never know with any assurance. They were both arrested, presumably by Henry VIII's or the council's orders, and confined to the Tower. Indicted at the Guildhall on charges of constructive treason, Dudley on 16 July [1510] was found guilty and sentenced, and was returned to the Tower to await execution, which was to be delayed until 17 August 1510, when Empson, tried and executed at Northampton, was also executed. The charge of treason was palpably fictitious, and great difficulty must have been experienced in finding justification for the execution, which may have been the reason for the long delay. The possibilities of an act of attainder were explored but faded in the parliament. That both were guilty of harsh acts, some of them corrupt, and that both were efficient and ruthless agents of Henry VII's policies and behests need not be doubted. Both therefore were unpopular. They were, indeed, singularly well suited for the role of scapegoats, on whom 'were to be focused all the popular discontent with the old regime'. The reputation of the old king had to be preserved... Their fall was 'deliberately contrived by the Crown'" (Chrimes, pp. 316-317). But they were never high-ranked -- both were mere knights, not barons; they did not climb high, though they certainly fell hard.
Devlin's preferred explanation for this (pp. 67-69) derives from Albert Mason Stevens, who suggested that the rhyme goes back to the reign of King John (1199-1216). In 1205, Hubert Walter, who had been Archbishop of Canterbury since 1189, died (Warren, p. 160). This was the height of the Investiture Controversy, with popes and monarchs fighting over who got to appoint bishops. The monks on the spot initially nominated their prior Reginald of Canterbury and sent him to the Pope (Warren, p. 161). But John wanted John de Gray, his secretary, to have the post. John had already procured the title Bishop of Norwich for de Gray in 1200 (Warren, p. 160). It appears that the Bishops of England also thought they should have had a say in who became archbishop. So everybody sent delegations to Pope Innocent III (Warren, pp. 161-162. The account above, I should add, is oversimplified -- e.g. it omits how John pressured the monks of Canterbury to withdraw their nomination of Reginald).
Pope Innocent canceled everything and called for a new election, and got a split decision: Some of the monks of Canterbury wanted Reginald, some John de Gray (Warren, p. 162). Innocent, "A man born to rule, uniting exceptional gifts of intellect and character with determination, flexibility, rare skill in handling men, and also humaneness" (Kelly, p. 186), cut the Gordian Knot and gave the post to Stephen Langton -- a man who was one of the greatest scholars of the age (he devised the modern system of chapters in the Bible) who was English by birth. But he was no friend of John's, and had been away from England for some time; John refused to recognize him (Warren, p. 163). Innocent responded by excommunicating John and placing England under interdict in 1209; John finally submitted in 1213 (Kelly, p. 187) and Langton became archbishop.
The evidence that "Jack and Jill" is about this is that Jack and Jill went to "fetch a pail of water," and John de Gray and supporters had tried to go to Rome to "fetch the pallium of Walter" -- that is, the pallium (archepiscopal token of authority) that had belonged to Hubert Walter. The ingenuity of this explanation is obvious.
The difficulty is equally obvious: King John didn't speak English. Innocent III didn't speak English. I don't know with certainty, but I doubt John de Gray spoke English. They certainly didn't speak Modern English, because it didn't exist then! "Pail" is an English word, but the Old English form was "pægel" (Onions, p. 641) and this would likely have been the form still used in John's time. "Fetch" doesn't appear to have been an early thirteenth century form, either, and the equivalent would have been two syllables (cf. Onions, p. 352). So we have to assume that someone made up a rhyme that didn't scan in Middle English, which somehow stayed alive for more than half a millennium, getting modernized along the way, without it being noticed. It strikes me as highly unlikely.
To sum up: If anyone has found an explanation involving historical people that is a serious possibility, I haven't seen it.
Lewis Spence, according to Devlin, p. 64, thinks that climbing the hill to get water implies a ritual of some sort -- a magic spring or the like; that seems a little more likely. Others have suggested the two had a tryst.
Another of Albert Jack's hypothesis was that the song involved alcohol (Devlin, pp. 66-67) -- a jack is of course a drinking cup and a gill a fluid measure. The idea was linked to a wine tax in the time of Charles I. There was a seventeenth century wine tax -- but it was in the reign of Charles II; parliament granted it in 1670, to expire in 1678 (Miller, p. 85). The earlier tax, cited by Devlin, did exist (it's usually called the Malt Tax), and was imposed in 1644... sort of. This was the period of Charles I's civil wars with Parliament, and by 1644, the conflict was military, with the autocrat Charles refusing to accept Parliament's long-recognized right to control taxation and the Long Parliament (which ran from 1640 to 1660) mostly trying to run the country and put down the king. While I can imagine someone writing a jingle about the Malt Tax, I can't imagine it not making some sort of reference to the two sides in the Civil War, since they had their separate taxes. So I think we can cross this one out.
Devlin mentions that an early printing came with a woodcut of two men, and so thinks that Gill was not a woman (Devlin, p. 65). I don't think this follows; as anyone who has studied the early English printing industry knows, most printers had a modest selection of woodcuts, and when they printed something, they usually used the least inappropriate one rather than commission a new one. And the name "Gill" is used for a woman at least as early as the Wakefield "Second Shepherd's Play" of the fifteenth century; Gill is the wife of the dishonest shepherd Mak. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: BGMG058

Jack and Jill (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Jack and Jill went up the hill To fetch a pail of water, Jill came down with half a crown, But not for fetching water."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 84, "Jack and Jill" (1 text)
Roud #10266
NOTES [27 words]: Steve Roud lumps this with the regular "Jack and Jill," from which it is patently derived -- but it is also patently a deliberate travesty, so I split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RuSoJanJ

Jack and Joe

DESCRIPTION: Jack and Joe set sail to seek their fortunes. Jack is quickly successful. As he prepares to go home, Joe ask him to "Give my love to Nellie, Jack, Kiss her once for me." When Joe at last heads home, he finds that Jack has married Nellie
AUTHOR: William B. Gray (died 1932)
EARLIEST DATE: 1894
KEYWORDS: love work exile return infidelity marriage
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Randolph 813, "Jack and Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 116-118, "Jack and Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 76, "Give My Love to Nell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 274, "Jack and Joe" (3 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 10 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 274, "Jack and Joe" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #29, "Jack and Joe" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 135, "Jack and Joe" (1 text)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 126-127, "Jack and Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #87, "Give My Love to Nell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 199-201, "Jack and Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 101, "Jack and Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 244-245, "Jack and Joe or Jack and Nell" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 67-68, "Jack and Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #46, "Jack and Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 206-208, "Jack and Joe (Give My Love to Nell)" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #782
RECORDINGS:
John A. Bivens, "Jack and Joe" (on HandMeDown1)
Blue Ridge Mountain Singers, "Give My Love to Nell" (Columbia 15580-D, 1930)
Roy Harvey & the North Carolina Ramblers, "Give My Love to Nell" (Paramount 3065/Broadway 8080, rec. 1927)
Bradley Kincaid, "Give My Love to Nell" (Supertone 9350, 1929) (Brunswick 403, 1930)
[Asa] Martin & [Doc] Roberts, "Give My Love to Nellie, Jack" (Conqueror 7745 [as Asa Martin]/Banner 32246/Perfect 12744, 1931)
David Miller, "Give My Love to Nell, Jack" (Champion 15502 [as Oran Campbell]/Challenge 392 [as Don Kutter], 1928)
E. R. Nance Singers, "Jack and Joe" (ARC, unissued, 1930)
Mrs. J. O'Driscoll, "Jack and Joe" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Riley Puckett, "Jack and Joe" (Columbia 15139-D, 1927)
George Reneau, "Jack and Joe" (Vocalion 15182, 1926)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Jack and Joe" (OKeh 40408, 1925)
NOTES [45 words]: The author, William B. Gray, is also responsible for "She's More to Be Pitied Than Censured." - RBW
One of Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's texts is a couple of verses from a version included by Ryan in Ryan's Favourites: Old Songs of Newfoundland. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R813

Jack and Nancy

See Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor) [Laws K40] (File: LK40)

Jack and Nell

See Jack and Joe (File: R813)

Jack and the Dancing Maid

See Led I the Dance on a Midsummer's Day (Jack and the Dancing Maid) (File: GrEE096)

Jack and Tom

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a North-countrie man, in Redesdale born... And two such lads to my house never com' As them two lads called Jack and Tom." The two decide to set out to sea. They visit various inns along the way. But both die overseas
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland)
KEYWORDS: drink sailor death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 415-416, "Jack and Tom" (1 text)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 126-127, "Jack and Tom" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR126 (Partial)
Roud #3157
NOTES [60 words]: Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland opines that this pertains to the visit of the future Charles I and the Duke of Buckingham to Spain in 1623. I don't believe it, but if you want background on that escapade, see the notes to "A Carrion Crow" and even "A Horse Named Bill," which has also been linked to Charles and Buckingham. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: StoR126

Jack Barry

DESCRIPTION: Commodore Barry in Alliance meets the British Sibyl. "We fought them till our cannon brought the British ensign down." Alliance captures Sibyl and returns with their prize to Philadelphia.
AUTHOR: William Collins (1838-?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: battle navy war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 10, 1783 - John Barry on board Alliance defeats "Sybille" in the last battle of the Revolutionary war (source: _The Father of the American Navy_ by Richard M. Reilly in "The Journal of American History," 1907, quoted on Jeffrey C Weaver's New River Notes site)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 80, "Jack Barry" (1 text)
Roud #7348
NOTES [279 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: "In searching for the songs of the Wexford coast I was very anxious to find something in ballad form about the Tacumshane man who was the founder of the American Navy. [This ballad is] attributed to William Collins, the Irish-American poet." - BS
John Barry (1745-1803) did not actually found the American navy, though he was its senior officer when he died. (Not admiral, we note; the American navy did not have its first admiral until the Civil War.)
Born in Tacumshane, he moved to Philadelphia in 1760, and was given his first ship, the Lexington, in 1776. He commanded the Alliance from 1780-1782, though she did not make her first voyage under his command until 1781. Peace with Britain came in January 1783, but with communications so slow, neither Barry nor the commander of the 28-gun Sybil knew of it, and so fought their battle during peacetime. The battle is usually dated March 10, but I've seen a source dating in March 11.
The Alliance (36 guns), built in 1777, was initially named Hancock but renamed when the French allied with the American revolutionaries. Her early career was not distinguished; Captain Pierre Landais seemed to have more interest in attacking his commander John Paul Jones than in fighting the British (at one point, he is thought to have deliberately rammed the Bonhomme Richard). He was eventually relieved, commandeered what had been his own ship, and was imprisoned by his crew.
Alliance itself was paid off in 1785, the last ship in the American navy at the time. When the navy was revived a few years later, Barry became the commander of its first major ship, the United States. - RBW
File: Ran080

Jack Be Nimble

DESCRIPTION: "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over The candlestick."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell); c. 1815 (Douce MS., according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: New Zealand US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, "(Jack, be nimble)" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 255, "Jack Be Nimble" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #411, p. 194, "(Jack be nimble)" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 90, "Jack Be Nimble" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 71, "Jack Be Nimble" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 44, "Jack Be Nimble" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #282 "Jack be nimble" (1 text)
Roud #13902
NOTES [76 words]: Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p, 59, connects this (as well as "This Is the House That Jack Built") with the Jack Horner of "Little Jack Horner," fame, whom she contends made off with a property deed in the time of Henry VIII (see "Little Jack Horner" for this possibility). Given that the only connection between the two appears to be the word "Jack," this must be regarded as dubious. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OO2255

Jack Combs

DESCRIPTION: "As I passed by where Jack Combs was murdered, As I passed by there so early one day, I spied a cold corpse wrapped up in fine linen." The victim (?) discusses his burial and says "For I have been murdered and you know they've done wrong"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967
KEYWORDS: cowboy homicide burial
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 49B, p. 180, "Jack Combs" (1 text)
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XIII, pp. 148-190 (29-30), "Cow Boy's Lament" (22 texts, 7 tunes, the "M" text being in fact a version of this piece)
Roud #2
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] (tune & meter, lyrics) and references there.
NOTES [40 words]: This is almost certainly a localized form of "The Streets of Laredo" (itself an adaption of "The Unfortunate Rake") -- but the focus is different (note the last line, "and you know THEY'VE done wrong"), so it deserves a separate listing. - RBW
File: CW180

Jack Dolden

See The Wild Colonial Boy [Laws L20] (File: LL20)

Jack Donahoo

See Jack Donahue [Laws L22] (File: LL22)

Jack Donahue [Laws L22]

DESCRIPTION: Irish highwayman Jack Donahue, transported for life, soon escapes prison and returns to his trade. After a hair-raising career, he is confronted by a gang of police and shot after inflicting several casualties upon the constables
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1830 (Sydney Gazette, Sept. 7. 1830, according to Ingleton)
KEYWORDS: transportation crime death prison
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 1, 1830 - Jack Donahue, formerly of Dublin (transported 1823), is killed by police near Sydney. He was 23. None of the police were injured in the battle
FOUND IN: US(MW,So,SW) Canada(Mar) Australia Ireland
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Laws L22, "Jack Donahue"
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 103, pp. 241-242, "Jack Donahoo" (1 text)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 104-106, "Bold Jack Donahue" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 123, "Jack Donahue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 97-98, "Bold Jack Donahue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 119-121, "Bold Jack Donahoe"(1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 9, "Jack Donahue" (1 text, 1 tune, the latter fitted by Scott from "The Banks of the Condamine")
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 44-45, "Bold Jack Donahue" (1 text)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 76A, "Bold Jack O'Donohoe" (1 text)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 21, pp. 47-49,111,165, "Bold Jack Donohue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 99, "Bold Jack Donohue" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 59, "Bold Jack Donahue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 82-83, "Bold Jack Donahue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 71, pp. 158-159, "Jack Donahoo" (1 text)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 48-49, "Bold Jack Donahue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 69-72, "Bold Jack Donahoo" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 111-113, "Jack Donahue" (1 text -- the Lomax "Cowboy Songs" version)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 198, "Bold Jack Donahue" (1 text)
DT 428, DONAHUE DONAHU2*
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 163-164, "Bold Jack Donahue" (1 text)
A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, pp. 117-118, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text, clearly mixing "The Wild Colonial Boy" [Laws L20] and "Jack Donahue" [Laws L22])
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), p. 268, "Bold Jack Donahoe" (1 text)
Lyn Innes, _Ned Kelly: Icon of Modern Culture_, Helm Information Ltd., 2008, pp. 83-84, "Bold Jack Donahoe" (1 text)
Geoffrey C. Ingleton, _True Patriots All: or News from Early Australia as told in A Collection of Broadsides_ ("Garnered and Decorated" by Ingleton), Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1988, p. 130, "(no title)" (1 text, listed as a "copy of the verses," on a broadside that is primarily an announcement of the "Death of the Bushranger, bold JACK DONAHOE")
Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 199; "Bold Jack O'Donoghue" (1 text, with a tune on p. 569)
Roud #611
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Bold Jack Donahue" (on JGreenway01)
A. L. Lloyd, "Bold Jack Donahue" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd08)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Bold Jack Donahue" (on NLCR05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wild Colonial Boy" [Laws L20]
cf. "Bold Jack Donahoe" (subject)
cf. "Jack Donahue and His Gang" (subject)
NOTES [1237 words]: John Greenway believes this ballad to be the ancestor of "The Wild Colonial Boy" (see the notes on that song). He is not alone; EncyAust, p. 158, declares, "The song 'A Wild Colonial Boy,' based on his [Donahue's] exploits, was banned." Nunn, p. 76, says that it was "Bold Jack Donahue" which was banned and then, when underground, became "The Wild Colonial Boy." On the other hand, it looks to me as if Greenway's version is a mixture of "Bold Jack Donahoe" and "The Wild Colonial Boy." And the fact that "The Wild Colonial Boy" is widely known outside Australia hints that it did not originate there.
This piece mixes frequently with the other Donahue ballad, "Bold Jack Donahoe." The key element to distinguishing them appears to be that the other song describes Donahue's desertion by his companions at the time of his fatal fight. This song does not mention the companions.
(Exception: The Lomax text in "Cowboy Songs" mentions the companions, but in very debased form. It might be another of the Lomaxes' deliberately muddied versions. But Laws files it here, so I do the same.)
Hughes, p. 126, notes that Jack Donahue was not the first bushranger -- in Van Diemen's Land, in fact, they existed from the start, because the only means the colony survived was by hunting kangaroos, which meant that the convicts were armed. But the Tasmanian bushrangers, even though they all but controlled the island, left little if any ballad record.
Bushranging came much later to Australia proper, and Jack Donahue was the first truly memorable example. Hughes, p. 237, declares that "'Bold Jack' was a short, freckled, blond-haired, blue-eyed Irishman named John Donohoe (1806-1830), sentenced to life transportation in Dublin in 1823." The sourde of this might be the Sydney Gazette of June 8, 1830, which reported Donohue as a "Native of Dublin, twenty-three years of age, five feet four inches in height, brown freckled complexion, flaxen hair, blue eyes, and has a scar under the left nostril" (quoted in Manifold, p. 26).
Arriving in Australia 1825, he was assigned to work for a settler named John Pagan, acted up, spent time on a road gang, was assigned again, and took to the bush (Hughes, pp. 237-238; Manifold, p. 26).
Donahue's crime in Australia was robbing bullock teams; at this time (December 1827), he had companions Kilroy and Smith (Hughes, p. 128). All three were taken; they were sentenced to be hung in March 1828. "Kilroy and Smith duly swung" (Hughes, p. 238, though Nunn, p. 16, gives the date as 1832), but Donahue escaped. The price on his head eventually reached a hundred pounds (Hughes, p. 239).
In this time "he carried on a successful career of highway robbery (that is to say, at something over subsistence level) for another two years; for the first part of the time with one associate, Walmsley or Underwood, and for the latter part with two, Walmsley and Webber. He does not appear to have worked with Macnamara, though it was believed at the time that he did" (Manifold, p. 26). Manifold adds that Donahue and associated worked on foot, not horseback, and "showed decency to women and children as well as to settlers who were known as goo masters.... Landowners and big-wigs were his main victims, with storekeepers and teamsters in second place." In the winter of 1830 Donahue was wounded but survived.
When the police caught him near Bringelly, Donahue cursed them and tried to fight, but was shot in the head (not the heart!) by a trooper named Muggleston or some similar name (Hughes, p. 240; Manifold, p. 28, offers the names "Mugglestone" and "Mucklestone"). His confederate Walmsley would later turn informer, and led police to some thirty settlers who had traded with him.
According to Nunn, p. 76, Donohue was only 21 at the time of his death, which would mean he was barely in his teens at the time of his transportation (but recall that Hughes, p. 237, gives his birth year as 1806, making him 23 or 24 when he died and 16 or 17 when first convicted). Nunn adds that the Underwood Gang, to which Donohue belonged, operated in the vicinity of "Campbelltown, Liverpool, Penrith, and Liberty Plains for nearly twelve years" [i.e. 1820-1832]. On p. 16, Nunn reports that Webber was also killed in 1830, and Underwood in 1832.
Prior to his death, Donohue seems to have been less noteworthy than his companions. Boxall refers to him only once, on pp. 55-56, calling him "Johnny Donahue," listing him as a member of the Underwood gang, and briefly mentioning that he was killed by "Maggleton." Nunn, p. 16, also calls him a member of the Underwood gang, though conflating his time with Underwood, Webber, and Walmsley with his earlier exploits with Kilroy and Smith.
Nunn, p. 76, reports that Donohue was known as "The Stripper" but was "less violent than most bushrangers, gallant to women and had a sense of humour enough to make him a popular hero." He does not cite the source for this data. But Hughes, p. 240, seems to agree: "If Donohoe had been a sadist, a rapist or a baby-killed like Mark Jeffries in Van Diemen's Land, the outpouring of popular emotion that coalesced in the Donohoe ballads would not have occurred. But Australians admired flashness; most of them disliked Governor Darling and took great glee in seeing his authority ridiculed by this elusive bushranger." As a result, we are told that, in addition to songs, there were other memorabilia, including a series of clay pipes which allegedly showed Bold Jack's head, complete with bullet hole, released less than a month after his death (Hughes, p. 240).
About his companions, Manifold, p. 28, says, "Both were caught later, Walmsley in January 1831 and Webbe in June. Both offered to give information in return for pardon, and there appears to have been public information in their favour. Walmsley's offer was accepted; Webber was hanged. You will notice that their offer puts them outside the pale of ballad-sympathies. Walmsley's information led to the arrest of dozens of 'few-acres settlers' for 'receiving,' six of whom were condemned to fourteen years' transportation to a penal colony, e.g. Moreton Bay. Four of the condemned were adolescent colonials, two were elderly transports."
Ironically, Donahue was the only famous bushranger of the transportation era. All the other "big names," such as Ben Hall and Ned Kelly, came later. This is somewhat surprising, given that Clark, p. 71, states that the bushrangers "were recruited in the main from absconding Irish convicts." Clark also thinks there was an element of Catholic/Protestant tension in their behavior, although I have seen little sign of this in the ballads.
Donohue did become the subject of standard outlaw legends; according to Davey/Seal, p. 90, he was (said to be) courteous to women, never robbed 'the poor' (in this case the convict and ex-convict population), was heroically daring, and 'died game'."
Compare Manifold, pp. 24-25: "It may be chance that links so many of these early ballads around the name of a single hero, Jack Donahue. It may, on the other hand, be seen as the outcome of a natural process, the addition of a catalyst to the right ingredients. The ingredients are: a language rapidly becoming common, a common hatred of The System, a common habit of clandestinity in singing "the treason-songs" and of picking them up by ear rather than from print. The catalyst is a ballad-hero, and Donahue was precisely that."- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: LL22

Jack Donahue and His Gang

DESCRIPTION: "If Ireland lies groaning, a hand at her through, Which foreigners have from the recreants bought, Forget not the lessons our fathers have taught... Be brave and true." The singer, exiled, will still fight for Ireland. He reveals he is (Jack?) Donahue
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (Innes)
KEYWORDS: emigration transportation Ireland patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Lyn Innes, _Ned Kelly: Icon of Modern Culture_, Helm Information Ltd., 2008, p. 84, "Jack Dohahue and His Gang" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack Donahue" [Laws L22]
cf. "Bold Jack Donahoe" (subject)
NOTES [74 words]: Innes says that this is an "early ballad, no doubt known to the Kellys" (i.e. Ned Kelly and his gang), but cites no source, and I've never seen it elsewhere. And what traditional ballad would use the word "recreant"? What's more, although the Kellys tried to portray an image of Irish nationalism, there doesn't seem to be much of that in the history of Jack Donahue. I've included this in the Index, but I don't really think it traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Innes084

Jack Dowling

See The Wild Colonial Boy [Laws L20] (File: LL20)

Jack Frazier

See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Jack Gardner's Crew

DESCRIPTION: Jack Gardner is the lumber camp's "champion boy of the day." When in town, the loggers (?) find themselves in a barroom fight. Thanks to Gardner, the loggers are victorious. Gardner moves on to still greater fighting triumphs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: logger fight
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 7, "Jack Gardner's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JACKGARD*
Roud #4617
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cumberland Crew" [Laws A18] (tune & meter)
File: FSC007

Jack Haggarty

See Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl) [Laws C25] (File: LC25)

Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl) [Laws C25]

DESCRIPTION: Jack Haggerty has reformed his behavior to be a fit husband for the blacksmith's daughter. Following his long absence at work, she jilts him. He blames her mother, but gives up on women in general
AUTHOR: Dan McGinnis
EARLIEST DATE: 1872
KEYWORDS: courting virtue separation love work
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,So) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Laws C25, "Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl)"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 245-246, "Jack Haggerty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 260, "Jack Haggerty" (1 text)
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 1, "Jack Haggerty's Flat River Girl" (3 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 1, "Jack Haggerty's Flat River Girl" (3 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 140, "Flat River Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 108, "Jack Haggerty" (1 text plus an excerpt and mention of 4 more, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 214-217, "Jack Haggerty or The Flat River Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 124-125, "Jack Haggerty" (1 text)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 262-263, "Jack Haggerty's Flat River Girl" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 6, "The Flat River Raftsman" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, pp. 72-73, "Jack Haggerty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 218-219, "Jack Haggarty" (1 text)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #63, "Jack Haggerty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 421, "Jack Haggerty" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 392-393, "Flat River Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 566-567, "Jack Haggerty, or the Flat River Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 50, "The Flat River Girl" (6 texts, 1 tune)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 182-188, "The Flat River Girl" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 50, "The Flat River Girl" (5 texts, 2 tunes); 51, "The Cowboy's Flat River Girl" (1 text)
DT 607, FLATRVR*
Roud #642
RECORDINGS:
John Leahy, "Jack Haggerty" (on Lumber01)
John Norman, "Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl)" (AFS, 1938; on LC56)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Harry Bale (Dale, Bail, Bell)" [Laws C13] (tune)
cf. "I've Got No Use for the Women" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Platte River Girl
The Salt Creek Girl
NOTES [1326 words]: While this is usually a lumberjack's song, Beck reports a cowboy version from Texas. [That's the text "The Cowboy's Flat River Girl - RBW.] - PJS
The song is actually a sort of a gag; see the report Geraldine J. Chickering (summarized by Laws, NAB pp. 58-59). The full article, "The Original of a Ballad," is now available on the Internet Archive; it's in Modern Language Notes volume L (or, as the Archive puts it, Modern-Language-Notes-Voll-L; the text was very badly scanned and contains numerous errors, but still has details not in Laws), November 1935. The key portion of Laws's summary is as follows:
In 1872 Anna Tucker was the belle of Greenville, Michigan, a town "almost on the banks of the Flat River." Her fiancé, George Mercer, was made foreman of the lumber camp where Jack Haggerty and Dan McGinnis worked. Jealous that such a young man had been placed over him, Dan composed this ballad. He used Jack's name in it, although "Anna had never paid any special attention to Haggerty." Furthermore, "McGinnis did not know Anna Tucker but knew that she was Mercer's fiancée and used this song as a means of hurting him."
Chickering's informants said that Haggerty was about 19 at the time (and that he wasn't bright enough to have written the song).
Supposedly the key source for this was Anna Tucker's brother-in-law, Joseph L. Kitzmiller, who had married Mary Tucker, Anna's younger sister, in 1873.
One might still be inclined to doubt this story -- Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, for instance, found a Greenville in Maine and located the song there. She also knew a report that the song was by Larry Gorman; this of course is just legend. More significantly, Rickaby had earlier investigated in the Flat River area of Michigan, where he reported that every singer claimed to have known Haggerty (whom he reports to have died c. 1915 -- obviously quite possible if he was a young man in 1872), giving additional details about the man's career. But there are plenty of claims by singers to have met people in songs who demonstrably never existed, so that doesn't mean much, and, interestingly, Rickaby failed to uncover McGinnis's involvement in the song.
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, p. 182, reports that Anne Tucker's family (and presumably Anne's husband George Mercer) disliked the song, but "In time the family aversion wore away, and Anne herself is said to have sung it to her Canadian friends." Unfortunately, this information is at third hand or worse.
So can we trust any of Chickering's report, which is based entirely on interviews with informants and not on historical research?
My conclusion is a (very slightly tentative) yes, because some of these people show up in the census, although census records from Greenville, Michigan are confusing. In the 1860 census, there is an "Ann Tucker" who is listed as born in 1854. But in the 1870 census, there is an ANNA, not ANNE, Tucker, who was born in 1856, not 1854. And, in the 1880 census, as Anna Mercer, she is listed as born in 1855. My assumption would be that the census taker guessed at her age in one year or another, or that the forms are hard to read. (I can't check this in detail because you have to pay for full access to the records.)
There is no Jane Tucker living in Greenville in 1860 or 1870. Both reports include a Sarah Tucker, however, confirming Chickering's statement that Anna's mother was named Sarah, not Jane. Sarah was born 1835 according to the 1860 census, in 1834 according to the 1870 record.
There were two John Tuckers in Greenville in 1860 and 1870, one born 1830 (1860 census) or 1828 (1870) and one 1859 (both reports); presumably the one born in 1828 is Anna's father, and the one born in 1859 is the one Chickering called Anna's brother. Since he was said to be three years younger than Anna, this is secondary evidence that the correct date for Anna's birth was 1856.
Mary Tucker, presumably the sister of Anna who married Kitzmiller, was born in 1858 according to both the 1860 and 1870 reports.
George Mercer apparently had not arrived in Greenville in time for the 1860 or 1870 censuses, but he is listed in the 1880 census, which says he was born in 1846. He and Anna seem to have had two children by then, "Nuie Mercer," born 1877, and Willie G. Mercer, born 1879. Willie Mercer is presumably the William Mercer to whom Chickering spoke; "Nuie Mercer" is probably a mis-reading or mis-hearing of "Nora Mercer," who according to Chickering later became Mrs. Nora Nichols and also remembered the story.
Mary Kitzmiller (the former Mary Tucker) also shows up in the 1880 census of Greenville, although this time, Mary is listed as born in 1857. J. L. Kitzmiller, presumably her husband Joseph who was Chickering's informant, is listed as being born in 1852 (which matches up with an age of 83 in 1935). The record also shows children John (born 1875) and Mary (born 1876).
The 1890 census is not online as if this writing, but Anna Mercer no longer lived in Greenville in 1900. Chickering does not have any details about Anna's later life other than the mention of her two children.
Bottom line: Census records confirm all the Tucker relationships reported by Chickering.
This doesn't mean that the census records confirm everything, which is why there is still some doubt. There was no John, James, or Jack Haggerty in the 1860 or 1870 census in Montcalm County (which contains Greenville). Nor can I find Dan McGinnis in any census, but of course "McGinnis" might have a different spelling. I looked at every name in Greenville without finding him, but I couldn't search every name in all of Montcalm County, let alone all of Michigan. Plus, of course, lumbermen moved around a lot. I also checked John W. Dasef, History of Montcalm County Michigan: Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume 1, E. P. Bowen, 1916 (I use the 2019 Facsimile Publisher reprint); the index does not list any of the principals, and there is no mention of any of them in the chapter on Greenville. I do find a "Big Head McGinness" credited by E. C. Beck's informant with writing the song "Paddy Hart," which has some of the same sort of classical allusions as this song, and whose description sounds a big like the Dan McGinnis Chickering's informants described. So there is some very tenuous secondary evidence that there was a song-writing McGinnis in the Michigan woods in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.
So there is still some residual doubt, but certainly Chickering's tale seems the likeliest explanation for the origin of this song.
Greenville is, as you might guess, a town on the Flat River, which runs mostly north to south and joins the Grand River a little east of Grand Rapids. Greenville itself is about thirty miles northeast of Grand Rapids.
Greenville, according to Wikipedia, was founded in 1844 by John Green, who built a sawmill there. That was normal for Michigan towns; according to Bruce Catton, Michigan, A History, 1972, 1976 (I use the 1984 Norton edition), p. 83, "It was not the timber that pulled the early settlers.... The forest was looked upon as an encumbrance, rather than an asset. When a new town was founded, one of the first buildings to be put up (provided water power was available...) was a sawmill.... The lumber had no cash value"; they built the sawmill to do something with the wood that they cleared to make fields. That was starting to change by the time Green founded his town, though. The town was platted in 1853, incorporated in 1867. And the town was on a railroad as well as a river, so it was easy to ship wood products. So it is no surprise to find lumber camps in the area in the 1870s.
A 1940 field recording by Dan Grant of Bryan, Wisconsin, from the Helene Stratman-Thomas collection and available on the University of Wisconsin-Madison library web site, puts this to the tune of "Vilikens and his Dinah." It sounds strange -- the tune is much too cheerful for the words! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LC25

Jack Haggerty's Flat River Girl

See Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl) [Laws C25] (File: LC25)

Jack Hall

See Sam Hall (Jack Hall) [Laws L5] (File: LL05)

Jack Hinks

DESCRIPTION: Jack Hinks is described by the singer as a sailor with heroic qualities who is never short of money or fun and is successful with women. The singer finds himself and others wrecked on the rocks but Jack manages to save himself.
AUTHOR: Johnnie Quigley
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: sailor wreck rescue talltale
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 131, "Jack Hinks" (1 text)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Jack Hinks" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 9 in the 2nd edition, p. 9 in the 3rd, p. 57 in the 4th, p. 28 in the 5th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 30-31, "John Hinks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 14-15-, "Jack Hinks" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), Burke's Ballads , no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 63, "Jack Hinks" (1 text, credited to Quigley even though it's in a Burke songbook!)
Roud #4431
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "John Hinks" (on NFOBlondahl01,NFOBlondahl05)
SAME TUNE:
Why DIdn't Ya Say So Before ("One night reelin' gar sure I went to a play") (by Johnny Burke) (Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 58) (Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #96, p. 139)
NOTES [51 words]: The song has a typical formulaic introduction where the singer asks the Muses to come to the aid of the "poor bard" which shows the humble attitude of the singer found in many songs from Newfoundland. - SH
Or maybe an imitation of Homer?
For more on authot Quigley, see the notes to "Quigley and PIcco." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy09

Jack Horner

See Little Jack Horner (File: BGMG050)

Jack in London City

See Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor) [Laws K40] (File: LK40)

Jack Is Every Inch a Sailor

DESCRIPTION: "Jack is every inch a sailor; He'd see a pretty girl and hail 'er. He'd vow his love will never fail 'er, Then go sailing with his heart still free." All the girls come running when Jack is in town, all hoping to win his heart, but he will not settle down
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Frank Crumit)
KEYWORDS: sailor courting sex
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 84, "Jack Is Every Inch a Sailor" (1 text)
Roud #4541
RECORDINGS:
Frank Crumit, "Jack Is Every Inch a Sailor" (Victor 21668, 1928)
NOTES [56 words]: This should not be confused with "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor," which has a similar first line and a some similarities in form and tune. The other song is a tall tale about a sailor who won a battle with a whale. - RBW
Although this song concerns Jack and the ladies, it's still clean -- but we have a hint that it was once bawdy. - PJS
File: FSWB084B

Jack Johnston the Cobbler

See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Jack Lane's Adieu

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell, sweet America, dear Mary, adieu, Can the gales be auspicious that bears me from you?" He will love her however far away. All parts of the ship remind him of her. He hopes for a speedy return during the watches of the night.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (New York Folklore Quarterly), from the journal of Henry CLay Murdock, who went to sea in 1840
KEYWORDS: love separation sailor
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 31-32, "Jack Lane's Adieu" (1 text)
NOTES [29 words]: The name "Jack Lane" is not used in the song; presumably the title was in the Murdock manuscript. But the New York Folklore article never explains its significance if any. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: NYFL031

Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7]

DESCRIPTION: A rich girl loves a soldier/sailor; her father does not, and has the boy pressed to Germany. She disguises herself and enlists under the name (Jackie Monroe). When her lover is wounded, she nurses him. She reveals her identity; they are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1818 (Garret, _Merrie Book of Garlands_)
KEYWORDS: love cross-dressing disguise injury medicine marriage
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So) Britain(Scotland) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (35 citations):
Laws N7, "Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany)"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #45, pp. 1-2, "Jack Munro" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 171, "Jack Munro" (8 texts, 6 tunes); Greig/Duncan1 172, "Jackie Went A-Sailing" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 171-177, "Jack Munro" (5 texts)
Randolph 42, "Men's Clothes I Will Put On" (Of Randolph's six texts, only two -- "C", with melody, and "F" -- belong with this piece; "A" and probably "D" are variants of "The Banks of the Nile"; "B" and "E" may be "Banks of the Nile" or "William and Nancy I")
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 50-51, "Jack the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 35, "Jack Went A-Sailing" (2 texts plus fragments, 3 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 59, "The Wealthy Merchant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 139, "Jack Munro" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 143, "Johnny's Gone A-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 180-181, "Johnny's Gone A-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 99, "Jack Monro" (2 texts plus 1 fragment and 1 excerpt)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 88, "Jack Munro" (4 excerpts, 4 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 59, "Jacke Went A-Sailing" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #189, "Jackie Frazier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 34, pp. 147-148, "The Wars of Germany" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 82, "Jackie Frazier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. "203-210, The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (4 texts, which despite Scarborough's title are all this song; local titles are "Jackaroe," "Jacky Freasher," "Jackie Frazier," "Jackie Frazier"; 1 tune on p. 410)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #26, "Ellen Smith" (1 text, 1 tune, which begins with a few verses of an Ellen Smith ballad -- probably "Ellen Smith" [Laws F11] based on the tune -- and follows it with a scrap of a sweetheart-going-to-war-with her lover ballad, which I think is "Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany)" [Laws N7])
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 37, "Jackie Fraisure" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 152, "Sing Lay the Lily Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 38, "Jackaro" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 85-86, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune, which Bush incorrectly lists as a version of "Polly Oliver (Pretty Polly)" [Laws N14], which may have supplied a few words, especially at the beginning)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 65, "Jack Went A-Sailing" (20 texts, 20 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 32, "Jack Went a-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #28, "Jack Went a-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 53-54, "Jackie Frazier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 170-172, "Lily Munro" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 82, "Lily Munroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 98, "Jackie Fraisure" (3 texts)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 30-31, "Across the Rocky Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune -- a rewritten and expanded version by Roscoe Holcomb)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 82-83, "Jackie's Gone A-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 74-76, "Jack the Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 121-123, "Jack Monroe" (1 text)
DT 331, JACKROE* JACKROE2 JACKSAIL* JCKSAIL2* ACROSRCK*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 23, #2 (1974), p, 16, "Lilly Munroe" (1 text, 1 tune, the Uncle Eck Dunford version)
Roud #268
RECORDINGS:
Pearl Jacobus Borusky, "Sing Lay, Sing Lay the Lily Low" (AFS 4172 B, 1940; in AMMEM)
George Davis, "Love of Polly and Jack Monroe" (on GeorgeDavis01)
Sarah Hawkes, "Ho Lilly Ho" (on Persis1)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Across the Rocky Mountain" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Doug Wallin, "Jackaro" (on Wallins1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(152), "Jack Munro," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 25(934), Harding B 11(392), Johnson Ballads 2086, Harding B 11(1835), "Jack Munro"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jolly Plowboy (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy)" [Laws M24]
cf. "Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser)" [Laws N6]
cf. "William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I)" [Laws N8]
cf. "The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II)" [Laws N9]
cf. "High Germany ()"
cf. "The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging)" [Laws O33]
cf. "The London Heiress (The Brisk and Lively Lad)"
cf. "The Bonnie Lass o' Benachie" (plot)
cf. "The Chatham Merchant" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bold Munro
Pretty Polly
NOTES [79 words]: The Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook version, from Kentuckian Roscoe Holcomb, shares some words with "The Girl I Left Behind." - PJS
The version in Fife and Fife, "Roving Cowboy," at first glance bears no relationship with this piece, since it lacks the ending about the girl rescuing the young man. However, the earlier verses are clearly "Across the Rocky Mountains," which is evidently a version of this song. "Roving Cowboy" has simply lost the ending. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LN07

Jack Munro

See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Jack o' Diamonds

See Rye Whisky (File: R405)

Jack O'Donohoe

See Bold Jack Donahoe (File: MA063)

Jack of Diamonds (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Jack o' diamonds, jack o' diamonds, Jack o' diamonds is a hard card to find." "Say, whenever I gets in jail, Jack o' diamonds goes my bail." The singer vows to get even for being worked too hard. He admits to losing his money to Jack o' diamonds
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: gambling cards hardtimes work chaingang
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 279-280, "Jack o' Diamonds" (1 text, 1 tune, with a final verse probably from a "Lula" song)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 303-305, "Jack o' Diamonds" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rye Whiskey" (lyrics)
NOTES [37 words]: This is pretty definitely related to the "Jack of Diamonds" versions of "Rye Whiskey," but the direction is different enough that I decided to split them. But fragmentary texts might well have been filed with that song. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: ScaNF280

Jack of Diamonds (II)

See Rye Whisky (File: R405)

Jack of Tar, The

See The Saucy Sailor (Jack and Jolly Tar II) [Laws K38] (File: LK38)

Jack Power

See Bushranger Jack Power (File: Beat269)

Jack Reilly

See Riley's Farewell (Riley to America; John Riley) [Laws M8] (File: LM08)

Jack Return'd from Sea

See Jack Returned from Sea (File: AshS090i)

Jack Returned from Sea

DESCRIPTION: "Here I am, poor Jack, Come home a long voyage from sea... Many droll sights I have seen, But I wish the wars was over." The singer describes some of the hard struggles he has faced. He repeats his wish for peace, but will continue to fight if needed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton-RealSailorSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor navy war battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #90 insert, "Jack Return'd from Sea" (1 text)
ST AshS090i (Partial)
Roud #22807
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(116d), "Jack returned from sea" ("Here I am poor Jack"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; Firth b.25(235)=Harding B 11(369), "Poor Jack," W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle), 1832-1842; also Harding B 11(1528), "Here I am poor Jack," J. Harkness (Preson), 1840-1866; Firth c.12(308), "Poor Jack," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; Harding B 11(2639), H. Such, London; Harding B 28(87), "Poor Jack," unknown, n.d.; Harding B 25(942), "A new song. Jack returned from sea," unknown, n.d.
File: AshS090i

Jack Riley

See John (George) Riley (I) [Laws N36] AND John (George) Riley II [Laws N37] (File: LN36)

Jack Robinson

DESCRIPTION: Robinson lands in Portsmouth with "prize money." He recognizes the alehouse landlady to be Polly. He shows her the handkerchief she had given him. She says she married when someone told her he had died. "He was off before you could say Jack Robinson"
AUTHOR: Thomas Hudson (1791-1844)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Firth c.13(200))
KEYWORDS: return farewell sailor gold promise reunion marriage
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #168, p. 2, "Jack Robinson" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 40, "Jack Robson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #97, "Jack Robinson" (1 text)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XXXVI, pp. 52-53, "Jack Robinson" (1 text)
ST CrNS040 (Partial)
Roud #1794
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.13(200), "Jack Robinson," T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 11(1847), Harding B 17(143b), Harding B 11(52), Johnson Ballads 2587, Harding B 16(117a), Harding B 11(51), Johnson Ballads fol. 132 [barely legible], Firth c.13(199), Harding B 11(53), "Jack Robinson"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brave Marin" (Brave Sailor) (theme)
cf. "Le Jeune Militaire" (The Young Soldier) (theme)
SAME TUNE:
The College Hornpipe (per broadsides Bodleian Firth c.13(200), Bodleian Harding B 16(117a), Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 132, Bodleian Harding B 11(53))
The Heart of a True British Oak, or The College Hornpipe (per broadside Bodleian Firth c.13(199))
NOTES [227 words]: Jack Robinson shares this theme with the (older?) French ballads: the sailor/soldier returns after a long absence, stops at an inn, recognizes the hostess as his sweetheart/wife, and leaves when she explains that she has married because he had been reported dead.
The attribution is from the wordorigins site explaining "faster than you can say Jack Robinson":"there was a very popular song by Thomas Hudson in the early 19th century that told the story of a sailor of that name who returns to find his lady married to another. Given the date, it is obviously not the origin."
A description -- posted by the bookseller Olde Musick & Cokery Books, Hobart, Australia, on the Abebooks site -- of The Spider & the Fly and A Frog He Would a Wooing Go by Thomas Hudson and W Wilson: "The composer/singer Thomas Hudson (1791-1844) was one of the stars of the very early music hall/supper clubs and indeed for many years ran his own theatrical tavern near Covent Garden and is considered one of the original constituents that developed into the music hall . He published his songs yearly from 1818-31 and his most notable were Jack Robinson The Lively Flea and of course The Spider & the Fly written in the 1830s and most famously sung by Henry Russell. Here coupled with A Frog He would a Wooing Go made notable by amongst others the famous clown Grimaldi in 1837." - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: CrNS040

Jack Robson

See Jack Robinson (File: CrNS040)

Jack Rock Song

DESCRIPTION: "Well there's a little to used to strike, you see, Made by elves in a hollow tree... But if you're a scab you're made a big mistake." The "jack rock" of the unions is "more dangerous than a loaded gun." The singer says to respect the union
AUTHOR: Elaine Purkey
EARLIEST DATE: 1993 (Cohen)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement nonballad strike
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1989 - Pittston Coal strike. The use of "jack rocks" to flatten tires was a noteworthy feature of the strike
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 229-230, "Jack Rock Song" (1 text)
File: CAFS1229

Jack Rogers

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you tender Christians, I hope you will lend ear... For the murder of Mr. Swanton I am condemned to die." "My name it is Jack Rogers, my name I'll never deny." Drunk, he assaults Swanton in the street, flees, is captured, and is condemned to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud); 19C (Wolf)
KEYWORDS: homicide drink gallows-confession fight trial punishment execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 17, 1857 - A drunken James Rodgers kills John Swanston in an unpremeditated fight (source: Cohen)
Nov 12, 1858 - Execution of Rodgers
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 50-51, "Jack Rogers" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 108-111, "The Lamentation of James Rodgers" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1212, p. 83, "Lamentation of James Rodgers" (1 reference)
Roud #9557
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charles Guiteau" [Laws E11] (form & meter) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Confession of Jack Rodgers
NOTES [57 words]: Although the earliest dated version of this appears to be Dean-FlyingCloud's, it was certainly composed in the nineteenth century; Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 83, lists a broadside, "Lamentation of James Rodgers," which is surely this. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: Dean050

Jack Sell Your Fiddle

DESCRIPTION: "'Jack, sell your fiddle and buy your wife a gown.' 'I wouldn't sell my fiddle for all the wives in town.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Gammer Gurton's Garland)
KEYWORDS: music fiddle commerce
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 104, "Jack, sell your fiddle and buy your wife a gown" (1 short text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 267, "John, come sell thy fiddle" (1 text, filed under "Jacky, come give me thy fiddle")
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #91, p. 86, "(John, come sell thy fiddle)"
Roud #19623
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rattlin' Roarin' Willie" (lyrics)
NOTES [63 words]: There is disagreement over whether this is the original of "Rattlin' Roarin' Willie" or the reverse. Another interesting question is whether the earliest form has Jack/John sell his fiddle or give it away. My guess would be that "Jack/John come sell thy fiddle" is the earliest, because this could produce both "Rattlin' Roarin' Willie" and "John come give me thy fiddle." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC104A

Jack Sheppard [Laws L6]

DESCRIPTION: Jack Sheppard, the apprentice of carpenter William Woods, is scorned by his master's daughter. After marrying two (!) women, he seeks to rob Woods, is captured, but is freed by an accomplice. Imprisoned, he escapes again, but is at last taken and hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: courting robbery outlaw execution apprentice
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1724 - execution of Jack Sheppard
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws L6, "Jack Sheppard"
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 127, "Jack Sheppard" (1 text)
DT 568, JCKSHEPP
Roud #1903
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nix My Dolly Pals Fake Away" (subject)
NOTES [374 words]: There are a number of Jack Sheppard broadsides, including song collections, in the Bodleian catalog, but I don't find this song; see, for example, the eight songs headed "Jack Sheppard's Songs" [Bodleian, Harding B 11(1841),..., unknown, n.d.]. There is no question, though, that Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 127 is Laws L6: it is Laws's only reference. - BS
Nor does it seem to have turned up in tradition anywhere else; one wonders why Laws listed it as a current traditional song rather than relegating it to the list of doubtful songs.
Sheppard was a real person; according to Benet, p. 1023, he was born c. 1701 to a carpenter in Smithfield. He turned highwayman at a young age.
By 1724 he was captured; he twice escaped from Newgate, but was caught again and executed in that year. Such was his fame that, according to Sharpe, p. 84, his gaolers earned hundreds of pounds by granting admission to see him.
Daniel Defoe wrote a romance about him (titled, naturally, Jack Sheppard) in the year of his execution, and W. H. Ainsworth -- the man who created the legend of Dick Turpin and Black Bess (see the notes to "My Bonny Black Bess (II) (Poor Black Bess; Dick Turpin's Ride)" [Laws L9]) -- also wrote about him in 1839 (Sharpe, p. 161). This book was very successful, and spawned a flurry of Sheppard publications and plays (Sharpe, p. 162).
Even more notably, according to Brumwell/Speck, p. 149, the character Macheath in Gay's "Beggar's Opera" is a "thinly veiled portrait" of Sheppard. Which means (according to Wikipedia) that Sheppard is the ultimate inspiration for Brecht and Weill's Macheath, or "Mackie Messer"/"Mack the Knife."
W. Harrison Ainsworth, the historical falsifier responsible for giving us Black Bess and Turpin's Ride, also cranked out a book, "Jack Sheppard: A Romance." Those looking for something which might have a scintilla of truth in it might be interested rather in Christopher Hibbert's "The road to Tyburn: the story of Jack Sheppard and the eighteenth-century London underworld."
Anderson, p. 75, prints a piece. "Jack Sheppard the Second or the Sweep's Escape from Newgate." Obviously it was inspired by the historical Sheppard, but I have no idea if the songs have any relation. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: LL06

Jack Simpson the Sailor

DESCRIPTION: Jack Simpson and his captain both have beautiful young wives. When the Captain sees Jack's wife, he promises to pay her and promote Jack. She agrees. When Jack finds out, he tricks his way into the Captain's clothes and bed. He then fines the captain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Beck-FolkloreOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: trick clothes infidelity money wife husband sailor humorous
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 186-188, "Jack Simpson the Sailor" (1 text)
Roud #4724
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher's Daughter" (theme: sex and disguise by darkness)
cf. "Kiss Me in the Dark" (theme: sex and disguise by darkness)
cf. "Jack Simpson the Sailor" (theme: sex and disguise by darkness)
cf. "Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor) [Laws K40]" (theme: sex and disguise by darkness)
File: BeMe186

Jack Sprat

DESCRIPTION: "Jack Sprat could eat no fat, His wife could eat no lean, And so between the two of them They licked the platter clean."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1639 (John Clarke's _Paroemiologia Anglo-Latina_, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: food husband wife
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 264, "Jack Sprat could eat no fat" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #52, p. 63, "(Jack Sprat)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 93, "Jack Sprat" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 72, "Jack Sprat" (1 text)
Roud #19479
NOTES [193 words]: This is probably only a nursery *rhyme*, and not a nursery *song*, and so properly does not belong in the Index. But Tony and Irene Saletan recorded it as part of their version of "Hail to Britannia" (which includes many nursery rhymes), so I decided to play it safe and include it.
The Baring-Goulds and the Opies believe that the hero of this song was initially the dwarf "Jack Prat."
Katherine Elwes Thomas, who proves that scholars can produce tall tales as well as any entertainer, believes that this refers to Charles I of England (executed 1649) and his Catholic wife Henrietta Maria of France (died 1666). The events she attributes to some of Charles's early troubles with his parliaments; see The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 209.
Even that is perhaps more sane than the story in Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, who has a story which refers this to the imprisonment of King Richard I and the attempts in England to raise his enormous ransom, which "licked the platter clean." Of course, RIchard I reigned 1189-1199, which was still early in the Middle English period; the rhyme could not have been composed then. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: BGMG052

Jack Tar (I) [Laws K39]

DESCRIPTION: Jack newly paid off from sea, enters an inn and calls for a party. All goes well until his money is spent, whereupon the landlady bids him to leave. Jack starts a brawl, but the watch at last persuades him to return to sea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton-RealSailorSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor party fight poverty
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Britain(England(Lond,South)) US(MA,NE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws K39, "Jack Tar"
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 78, "Flash Gals of the Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #81, "Jack Tar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 168-169, "Jack Tar" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #48, "Jack's Disaster" (1 text)
DT 743, JACKTAR1* JACKTAR2
Roud #919
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "Jack Tar on Shore" (on LastDays)
Jim Doherty, "When the Shantyboy Comes Down" (on Lumber01 -- a version in which the sailor becomes a logger)
Walter Pardon, "Jack Tar Ashore" (on Voice02)
Thomas Williams, "When a Sailor Comes On Shore" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: LK39

Jack Tar (II)

See The Saucy Sailor (Jack and Jolly Tar II) [Laws K38] (File: LK38)

Jack Tar (III) (Come Brave Honest Jack Tar)

DESCRIPTION: "Come brave hones Jack Tar, once more will you venture? Press warrants they are out...." The captain promises good treatment. The sailor says that he beat back the press gang, and will not submit to all the abuse of naval service
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Firth)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes rejection
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 58, "Jack Tar" (1 text)
Roud #V23361
File: PaSe058

Jack Tar's Frolic

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you sailor boys That delights in sailors' noise." Jack comes ashore with money and goes to an inn. The landlord's daughter serves him drink. When his money is used up, he's told to leave and takes ship to the Indies or somewhere
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2021 (Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors), but from a manuscript c. 1842
KEYWORDS: sailor drink money gold
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 30, "Jack Tar's Frolic" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down!" (plot)
File: LaGo030

Jack the Guinea Pig

DESCRIPTION: "When the anchor's weigh'd and the ship's unmoored, And the landmen lag behind, sir, The sailor... prays for a wind, sir!" The singer compares sailors, who brave every danger, with landsmen who get sick, go below, and despair at sea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Shay)
KEYWORDS: sailor bragging humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 132-135, "Jack the Guinea Pig" (1 text)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XXXVII, pp. 54-55, "Jack the Guinea-Pig" (1 text)
NOTES [23 words]: I could imagine sailors singing this, since it certainly flatters their courage, but based on the evidence, I rather doubt they did. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ShaSS132

Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor) [Laws K40]

DESCRIPTION: Jack overhears a girl tell her lover that she will lower a string from her window to let him find her. Jack comes to her window early and enjoys the girl's charms until morning when she realizes the truth. Having had his romp, he returns gaily to his ship
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: sailor love trick sex bawdy humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(South)) US(MW,NE,Ro)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws K40, "Jack the Jolly Tar (I)"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 50, "Tarry Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 288-290, "Jack the Jolly Tar" (1 texts, 3 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 38, "Jack in London City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 63, "Jolly Jack Tar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 168-169, "Do Me Ama" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, pp. 46-447, "The Substitute" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #54, "Jack and Nancy" (1 text)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2, pp. 82-86, "Jack, the Jolly Tar" (2 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 132, "Jack, the Jolly Tar" (1 text, 1 tune_
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 16-17, "Doo Me Ama" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 54-55, "Jack the Jolly Tar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, pp. 24-25, "Jack went up to London city" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 260-261, "The Squire's Lost Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 84, "Jack the Jolly Tar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 101-102, "Jack the Jolly Tar" (1 text)
DT 416, DUMIAMA*
Roud #511
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Alvina Coles, "Jack the Jolly Tar" (on PeacockCDROM)
George Maynard, "Jack the Jolly Tar-O" (on Maynard1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 22(169)[some words illegible], "The Merchant's Courtship to the Brazier's Daughter," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Glasgerion" [Child 67] (theme)
cf. "The Butcher's Daughter" (theme: sex and disguise by darkness)
cf. "Kiss Me in the Dark" (theme: sex and disguise by darkness)
cf. "Jack Simpson the Sailor" (theme: sex and disguise by darkness)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dumiama
The Merchant's Courtship to the Brazier's Daughter
NOTES [362 words]: In several versions, including [the Penguin text and the Copper text], the story ends: Jack offers to steal away quietly; the lady tells him not to stray too far for "I never will part from my jolly Jack Tar." - PJS
The first instance of this motif in English-language folklore appears to go back to none other than Shakespeare: according to a story in the diary of John Manningham, it came during a performance of Richard III.
A lady in the audience sent a note to Richard Burbage, who played Richard, inviting him to her bed. Shakespeare got wind of it, and he, rather than Burbage, enjoyed her charms. When Burbage arrived, Shakespeare allegedly said, "William the Conqueror was before Richard III."
Hey, I didn't say I believed it.
For an account of this, see Jeremy Potter, Good King Richard? An Account of Richard III and His Reputation, 1983 (I use the 1989 Constable edition), p. 154.
If that connection isn't enough, there is also a link of sorts with Chaucer's "Miller's Tale." That too involves a trick to get the hero into bed, but so different a trick as to make a connection most unlikely. However, it is sometimes claimed that one of Chaucer's sources was an Italian tale eventually published by Masuccio Salernitano (although in 1476, so more than a quarter of a century after the Miller's Tale). In this account, according to Thomas W. Ross, editor, A Variorum Edition of the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Volume II, Part 3, The Miller's Tale, University of Oklahoma Press, 1983, p. 5, a carpenter has a young wife, Viola, and some trickery involving one lover scaring off another. Still not a very close parallel, I agree. It strikes me more as evidence of how a certain type of person enjoys tales of cuckoldry. The same page tells of a Flemish parallel which is closer; a priest tries to sneak in with a girl by saying, in effect, "You know who I am." And that seems to be early enough to have been known to Chaucer. But Chaucer doesn't seem to have known the Flemish dialect, and he did know Italian.
The notes in Flanders connect this with "Glasgerion" (Child 67).All we can say is, the theme is somewhat similar, but they're different songs.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LK40

Jack the Little Scot

See Johnie Scot [Child 99] (File: C099)

Jack the Painter

DESCRIPTION: "At the mouth of Portsmouth Harbour, where the old chain ferry plied, Some say a spirit hangs in chains...." Jack the Painter set Portsmouth Yard ablaze, was taken and executed, and sailors put his bones in a sack, "but the dockyard's working yet"
AUTHOR: Brian Hooper (source: Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire)
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship fire death execution drink
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1752 - birth of future pyromaniac James Aitkin, the subject of this song (source: Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 66-67, "Jack the Painter" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BrHa066

Jack the Plowboy

See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

Jack the Rabbit

See Can'cha Line 'Em (File: LxU078)

Jack the Sailor (I)

See The Sailor and the Tailor [Laws P4] (File: LP04)

Jack the Sailor (II)

See Will You Wed with a Tarry Sailor? [Laws K37] (File: LK37)

Jack the Sailor (III)

See Quare Bungo Rye (File: Log416)

Jack the Sailor (The Tarry Sailor III)

DESCRIPTION: "So late it was one Saturday night, on the quayside I was walking, There I beheld a pretty maid, to her father she was talking." When he asks her to marry, her fathers says no. He demonstrates that he is wealthy; the father relents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Vaughan Williams)
KEYWORDS: sailor love courting money father marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #64, "The Tarry Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 44-45, "Jack, the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 73, "The Tarry Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1454
File: VWP064

Jack the Sailor Boy

See Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: LK43)

Jack the Soldier

See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Jack Was A Sailor On Board A Whaler

DESCRIPTION: Before Jack goes whaling, a friend asks that he repay a debt. Jack says, "When my ship comes in... you'll get your tin." The ship is lost in a gale. When Jack returns he is asked for the money. Jack says, "When my ship comes in... you'll get your tin."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
KEYWORDS: rescue money sea ship storm wreck sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30314
RECORDINGS:
Caroline Brennan, "Jack Was A Sailor On Board A Whaler" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
File: ITMAJWSW

Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor

DESCRIPTION: "Jack was every inch a sailor... He was born upon the bright blue sea." Having been brought up as a whaler, one day Jack is swept overboard and swallowed by a whale. He escapes by pulling the whale inside out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: talltale sea humorous whaler
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 125, "Jack was Ev'ry Inch a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 40-41, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 13 in the 2nd edition; p. 33 in the 3rd; p. 29 in the 4th; p. 29 in the 5th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 56, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 4-5, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 84, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (1 text)
England-HistoricNewfoundlandAndLabrador, p. 63, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, EVRYINCH
Roud #4541
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (on NFOBlondahl01,NFOBlondahl05)
Eddy Primroy, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ambletown" (occasional floating lyrics)
cf. "Paddy and the Whale" (theme)
cf. "The Catfish" (Banjo Sam) (fish story)
NOTES [57 words]: This is almost certainly a cleaned-up bawdy song. - PJS
The versions I know all seem more in the Paul Bunyan vein -- extraordinary exaggerations. (But maybe I don't have imagination enough.) I suspect Paul is referring to "Jack Is Every Inch a Sailor," which is similar only in its first line and metrical form, and which IS sexual in theme. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: FJ040

Jack Went A-Sailing

See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Jack Went up to London City

See Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor) [Laws K40] (File: LK40)

Jack Williams [Laws L17]

DESCRIPTION: Jack Williams, a boatman, meets a fine young girl. He turns to robbery to support her. He is captured and sent to prison; she scorns him, saying "I hate thievish company." He is sentenced (to transportation/execution) (but escapes and vows to avoid women)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916
KEYWORDS: crime prison trial transportation courting
FOUND IN: US(MW) Britain(England) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws L17, "Jack Williams"
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 538, "Boatman" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 114, "Jack Williams" (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 62, "Jack Williams" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 136, "Jack Williams" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 67, pp. 152-153, "Jack Williams" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 112-113, "Jack Williams" (1 text)
DT 572, JCKWLLM
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, p. 232, "I am a Bo's'n by My Trade (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Pearl Jacobs Borusky)
Roud #1906
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(223), "The Boatman" ("I am a boatman by my trade, Jack Williams is my name"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also 2806 c.17(48), "The Boatman"; Harding B 11(351), Harding B 11(734), Harding B 25(229), Harding B 11(1414), "The Boatsman"; Harding B 25(949), "Jack Williams, the Boatman"; Harding B 11(3265), "Jack Williams the Boatswain," Harding B 11(978), Harding B 20(268), Harding B 28(241), Harding B 11(1850), "Jack Williams"
File: LL17

Jack Wrack

See Dixie Brown [Laws D7] (File: LD07)

Jack-a-Maria

See Aunt Maria (File: BSoF705A)

Jack-a-Needle

DESCRIPTION: "Jack needle, Jack needle, I work with my needle And when I get married 'tis apples I'll buy" or "how happy I'll be." The singer will sit in a garden and whistle to a girl to come. "Last night when we parted, I was nigh broken hearted"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (Hinkson)
KEYWORDS: playparty marriage courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 94, "Jack-a-Needle" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Katharine (Tynan) Hinkson, "The Girls' Room" in Christabel R. Coleridge and Arthur Innes, editors, The Monthly Packet (London, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XCII, p. 585, ("Jack needle, Jack needle")
Roud #22350
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jack Beetle
File: OpGa094

Jack-All-Alone

See The Shirt and the Apron [Laws K42] (File: LK42)

Jack, Boy, Ho, Boy

See Ding, Dong, Bell (File: OO2134)

Jack, Jack Sat on a Tack

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "Jack, Jack, sat on a tack, And went to bed with a sore back. O-U-T, and out goes he."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: injury | counting-out tack bed
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 38, "(Jack, Jack, sat on a tack)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Stella, Stella Dressed in Black" (lyric of sitting on a tack)
File: WEMM038A

Jack's Disaster

See Jack Tar (I) [Laws K39] (File: LK39)

Jack's House

See William a Trimbletoe (File: Skea018)

Jackaroe

See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Jackaroo, The

See Jimmy Sago, Jackeroo (File: MA130)

Jacket So Blue, The (The Bonnet o' Blue)

DESCRIPTION: The girl sees a (soldier/sailor) marching past and falls in love. She meets him and offers to buy his discharge; he replies that he already has a girl at home. She asks for a portrait to console her; this at least is granted
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1806
KEYWORDS: love courting soldier clothes separation
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE,So) Ireland Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 212-214, "The Bonnet o' Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #105, pp. 1-2, "The Bonnet o' Blue" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 992, "The Bonnet o' Blue" (10 texts, 7 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 295-296, "The Bonnet o' Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 118-119, "The Bonny Scotch Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 43, "The Jacket So Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 217-218, "Jacket So Blue" (1 text)
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 112-115, "The Jacket So Blue" (1 text, from a broadside, probably the same as one of the Bodleian broadsides although the information is not enough to be sure)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 105, "The Jacket of Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 301, "The Wagoners" (1 text, fragmentary and localized to make the soldier a wagoner)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 121, "Jacket So Blue, or A Company of Boatmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 101-106, "Bonnet o' Blue" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H644, p. 367, "The Bonnet sae Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 275-277, "The Bonnet of Blue" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 42, "His Jacket Was Blue" (1 text, 1 tune); 43, "His Jacket Was Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 174-175, "His Jacket Was Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 209-211, "The Jacket So Blue (Bonnet So Blue)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC43 (Full)
Roud #819
RECORDINGS:
Nathan Hatt, "His Jacket Was Blue" (on NovaScotia1)
Raymond Noseworthy, "Jacket of Blue" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(393), "Bonnet So Blue" ("In Liverpool town in fair Lancashire"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 25(251), Harding B 28(160), Harding B 11(4088), Harding B 28(104), Firth c.14(187) , Firth c.14(188), Firth c.14(190), Harding B 11(2653), "Bonnet So Blue"; 2806 c.17(52), Harding B 11(392), "Bonnet So Blue" ("At Kingston upon Woolwich, a town near Yorkshire")
LOCSinging, as101360, "Bonnet So Blue" ("In Liverpool town, in fair Lancashire"), L. Deming (Boston), 19C; also as101360, "Jacket So Blue" ("A ship's crew of sailors as you shall now hear")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Manchester Angel" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My Bonnie Scotch Laddie
Down in Yon Green Valley
The Bonnie Scotch Laddie and His Bonnet o' Blue
NOTES [53 words]: Broadside LOCSinging as101360 includes both a "troop of soldiers ... from Scotland" version ("Bonnet So Blue") and a "crew of sailors ... from Greenwich" version ("Jacket So Blue"). These correspond to Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 42 and Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 43, respectively. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: FSC43

Jackets Green, The

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a maiden young and fair on the pleasant banks of the Lee," the girl loved young Donal in his jacket green. Donal serves under Sarsfield in the fight against the English and is slain. The singer urges Irish women to love only Irish patriots
AUTHOR: Michael Seanlan
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (for USBallinsloeFair, according to site irishtune.info, Irish Traditional Music Tune Index: Alan Ng's Tunography, ref. Ng #2612)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1690 - Battle of the Boyne. William III crushes the Irish army of James, at once securing his throne and the rule of Ireland
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 97-98, "The Jackets Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 38-39, "The Jacket Green" (1 text, tune on pp. 20-21)
Roud #9520
RECORDINGS:
The McNulty Family, "The Jackets Green" (on IRMcNulty-Night1)
John Sheridan, "The Jackets Green" (on USBallinsloeFair)

BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 3214, "The Jacket Green," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 c.7(38)[some words illegible], "The Jacket Green"
LOCSinging, as106510[barely legible], "The Jacket Green," unknown, 19C
NOTES [90 words]: Patrick Sarsfield, made Earl of Lucan by James II, was one of the Irish cavalry commanders.
After Aughrim (for which see "After Aughrim's Great Disaster"), he defended Limerick, but seeing that his cause was hopeless, he made a treaty with William III and surrendered. (This was not a betrayal of the Irish cause; Sarsfield gained significant concessions, including religious tolerance, in return for ending Irish resistance.) - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as106510 looks like the Bodleian Brereton broadsides but all are difficult to read. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: PGa097

Jackfish, The

See The Catfish (Banjo Sam) (File: Vr3182)

Jackie and Mossy

DESCRIPTION: Jack and his master compare endowments; Jack is much better equipped. The "old woman," hearing of this, declares that a mouse has run up her "belly-gut" and that she needs help. Jack "lays her on the ground." She releases a mouse from her sleeve
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1770, as published in Frisky Songster (London or Dublin, 1770, reprinted 1802) [according to G. Legman]
LONG DESCRIPTION: When a mouse runs into the private parts of a farmer's wife, the farmer is forced to call upon Jackie the farmhand to use his much longer "root" to pry the rodent out. In older versions, Jackie makes the farmer agree to double his wages before he will consent to have sex with the wife, and when the woman has been sexually satisfied, she lets the mouse out of her sleeve.
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous farming wife animal
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 293-295, "Jackie and Mossy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, pp. 44-46, "Jack and His Kind Master" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11226
File: RL293

Jackie Fraisure

See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Jackie Frazer

See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Jackie Jackie

DESCRIPTION: "Jackie Jackie was a smart young fellow... Yet he sat by the river of his people Underneath a great gum tree." Jackie's ancestral life is described. It is pointed out that the whites took this away, substituting liquor and gambling
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: Australia discrimination
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 147, "Jackie Jackie" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [30 words]: "Jackie" is, of course, white slang for an Australian aborigine. The song is surprisingly balanced in its outlook -- probably because it is believed to be of aboriginal origin. - RBW
File: MA147

Jackie Rover

See Haselbury Girl, The (The Maid of Tottenham, The Aylesbury Girl) (File: K176)

Jackie Tar

See Jacky Tar With His Trousers On (File: Ord324)

Jackie Went A-Sailing

See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Jackie with the Leg

See Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant [Child 282] (File: C282)

Jackie's Gone A-Sailing

See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Jackison and Dickison

See The Three Butchers (Dixon and Johnson) [Laws L4] (File: LL04)

Jackson

See Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)

Jackson and Jane

DESCRIPTION: Jane is Hugh Jackson's grey mare. She is challenged to win the steeplechase cup at Cootehill a third time. The odds were ten to four against her. Half way around the jockey tells her that her opponents "are not yet in view." Jane wins easily.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: horse gambling racing
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 43, "Jackson and Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2913
NOTES [39 words]: Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster: The singer tells Morton that "Jackson owned a linen-spinning mill in Ballybay, Co Monaghan, though he doesn't know in what period." - BS
It makes me think of "Creeping Jane," though I'm not sure why. - RBW
File: MorU043

Jackson County

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Jackson, our County, we greet thee, And sing with sweet Freedom's refrain, While the echoes o'er valley and hillside Resound with our county's high fame." It's by the Father of Waters , and named for General (Andrew) Jackson
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 22-23, "Jackson County" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #14052
NOTES [82 words]: McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks says this is sung to "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean." I'd have guessed "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean." Admittedly both odd tunes for an inland state....
Jackson county is in southern Illinois, on the east bank of the Mississippi, explaining the reference to the Father of Waters. This means that the reference to Egypt must be to the region of Illinois around Cairo (known locally as "Egypt"), not to the nation around the Nile RIver. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: McIn022

Jackson County Jail

See Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail) [Laws E17] (File: LE17)

Jackson's Victory

DESCRIPTION: "Come, all you brave Americans, don't let us disagree." The singer says that the "free sons of America" are never afraid. They came to New Orleans with Jackson and defeat the British. "We'll show the British Grenadiers that Uncle Sam is free."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (Cohen); probably published by 1837
KEYWORDS: war patriotic battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 8, 1815 - Battle of New Orleans. Although a peace had already been signed, word had not yet reached Louisiana, which Pakenham sought to invade. Andrew Jackson's backwoodsmen easily repulsed Pakenham's force; the British commander was killed in the battle.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 341-342, "Jackson's Victory" (1 text)
Roud #V29199
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of New Orleans" [Laws A7] and references there
NOTES [62 words]: For background on the Battle of New Orleans (which this song describes with a mixture of accuracy and inaccuracy), see the notes to "The Battle of New Orleans" [Laws A7].
Looking at the song, I wonder a little if it wasn't intended to support one of Andrew Jackson's political campaigns. Jackson was an exrremely controversial figure, but it asks people not to disagree. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CAFS1341

Jacksons

DESCRIPTION: "As we started out from Nariel one early morn in spring," the group stops at "Jacksons on the road to Omeo." They have a wild spree, spend their money, and have to head home. The singer declares that he will not return to Jacksons
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: drink money rambling
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 272-272, "Jacksons" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lazy Harry's (Five Miles from Gundagai)" (plot, lyrics, portions of tune)
NOTES [29 words]: When I read this, I thought it was a version of "Lazy Harry's," but Meredith et al consider it distinct though clearly related. So it gets its own listing. Just barely. - RBW
File: MCB271

Jacky Give My Thy Fiddle

See Jack Sell Your Fiddle (File: KSUC104A)

Jacky Me Lad

DESCRIPTION: Progressive rhymed chant: "Oh, Jacky me lad, he loved his dad, He put him in a peer flad [sic]; The peer flad it was so thick They put him in the bacon click; The bacon click it was so fat, They put him in old grand-dad's hat...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense humorous
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 60, "Jacky Me Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA060A

Jacky Tar

See Come Ashore Jackie Tar (File: GrD1060)

Jacky Tar With His Trousers On

DESCRIPTION: After Jack sets out for sea, his love mourns. Even after peace is proclaimed, he is slow to return. At last he returns "with his trousers on." She greets him with joy. He tells of his far voyages. He promises he will travel no more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(130a))
KEYWORDS: sailor separation reunion
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 52-53, "Jacky Tar" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 324-325, "Jacky Tar" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 59, "Jackie Tar" (4 texts)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 65, "Jackie Tar" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Ord324 (Partial)
Roud #5603
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.13(279), "Jack Tar with his Trowsers On" ("When Jack had pull'd the oar, and the boat was gone"), W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle), c.1840; also Firth c.12(162), "Jackie Tar"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(130a), "Jackie Tar," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1855
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come Ashore Jackie Tar" (some verses)
NOTES [64 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads lists the tune for this piece as the "Jack Tar Hornpipe." The NLScotland broadside has the economically interesting tune "I'd Rather Have a Guinea than a One Pound Note." Logan-APedlarsPack calls the tune by the more familiar title of "The Sailor's Hornpipe." But, since none actually prints a tune, we can't tell if this is the usual "Sailor's Hornpipe." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Ord324

Jacky-Jacky

DESCRIPTION: "Jacky-Jacky was a smart young fellow, Full of fun and energy." Jacky hunts in the wild till the white men come and fence the land. The white give government handouts until money runs short, then try to give the land back to Jacky instead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: Australia discrimination money
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 94-95, "Jacky-Jacky" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, _A Guide to Australian Folklore_, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 162, "Jacky-Jacky" (1 partial text)
NOTES [32 words]: Presumably based on some particular incident in the long sad history of Aboriginal relations in Australia, but the details are vague enough that I can't tell what it refers to in particular. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: PASB094

Jacob the Pilgrim

See As Jacob with Travel Was Weary One Day (File: RAInP112)

Jacob's Dream (Jacob's Ladder IV)

DESCRIPTION: "Jacob dreamt he seed a ladder, Climbing up the sky, Angels going up and down it, Climb up, children, climb." "Climb up, ye little children, Climb up, ye older people, Climb up to the sky. Go up in six and sevens, Climb up, children, climb."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 536, "Jacob's Ladder" (3 texts; this is the short "A" text)
Roud #2286
NOTES [26 words]: In Gen. 28:12, Jacob dreams of a "ladder" (ramp/stairway) from earth with its top "reaching to heaven, and the angels of God climbing up and down it." - RBW
File: Br3536

Jacob's Ladder (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I am (we are) climbing Jacob's ladder... And I won't be troubled any more. As soon as my feet strikes Zion's walls, I won't be troubled any more." "Goin' to see my father/mother/sister/brother in the kingdom...." Alternate end: "Soldiers of the cross."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 118, "We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder (Jacob's Ladder)" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 118 in the 1901 edition)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 536, "Jacob's Ladder" (3 texts, but only the "B" text could be this, and even it might be something else)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 536, "Jacob's Ladder" 3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 320, p. 190, "Jacob's Ladder" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 235, "Jacob's Ladder" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a union/liberal parody)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 204, "Hide Thou Me" (1 text, probably a mix, with the form of "Rock of Ages (II -- Hide Me Over Rock of Ages" but verses from "Jacob's Ladder"); p. 213, "I Am On My Way" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 212, "Jacob's Ladder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #56, "Jacob's Ladder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 358, "Jacob's Ladder" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Elsie Clews Parsons, "Spirituals and Other Folklore from the Bahamas," Vol. 41, No. 162 (Oct-Dec 1928), Anthems: Cat Island #24 p. 463, ("Oh gwine ter climb up Jacob ladder") (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 51, 175, 400, 402, 515, "Jacob's Ladder" (notes only)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 72, "Jacob's Ladder" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 97, "Jacob's Ladder" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 29, "Jacob's Ladder" (1 text, 1 tune)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 19, "Jacob's Ladder" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JACOBLDR*
Roud #2286
RECORDINGS:
Armstrong & Highley, "Climbing Jacob's Ladder" (Paramount 3291, 1932)
Chumbler Family, "Jacob's Ladder" (Columbia 15481-D, 1929)
Maddox Bros. & Rose, "We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder" (4-Star 1473, n.d. but post-WWII)
Frank & James McCravy, "Jacob's Ladder" (Victor 21188, 1928) (OKeh 45128, 1927) (Brunswick 192, 1928)
Pete Seeger, "Jacob's Ladder" (on HootenannyCarnegie) (on PeteSeeger47) (on PeteSeeger26)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't You Weep After Me" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Jacob's Ladder (V)" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "As Jacob with Travel Was Weary One Day" (subject, tune)
NOTES [26 words]: In Gen. 28:12, Jacob dreams of a "ladder" (ramp/stairway) from earth with its top "reaching to heaven, and the angels of God climbing up and down it." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CW190A

Jacob's Ladder (II)

See Don't You Weep After Me (File: R262)

Jacob's Ladder (III)

See Welcome Table (Streets of Glory, God's Going to Set This World on Fire) (File: San478)

Jacob's Ladder (IV)

See Jacob's Dream (Jacob's Ladder IV) (File: Br3536)

Jacob's Ladder (V)

DESCRIPTION: "I want to climb up Jacob's ladder, Jacob's ladder, O Jacob's ladder, I want to climb up Jacob's ladder, But I can't climb it till I make my peace with the Lord." "O praise ye the Lord, I'll praise him till I die... And sing Jerusalem."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 96, "Jacob's Ladder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2286
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jacob's Ladder (I)" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [108 words]: In Gen. 28:12, Jacob dreams of a "ladder" (ramp/stairway) from earth with its top "reaching to heaven, and the angels of God climbing up and down it."
Roud and others have lumped this with the common "Jacob's Ladder (I)," which is the commonly-known "Jacon's Ladder." Obviously they share a theme, But there are very few words in common except "climb" and "Jacob's Ladder," and the tune of this is not the "Jacob's Ladder" tune I know. It's perfectly possible that the same image could have inspired two songs, or that one inspired but was not the actual source of the other. Certainly they strike me as distinct songs *now*. So I split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG096

Jaeger Gik At Jage, En (A Hunter Went Out Hunting)

DESCRIPTION: Norwegian or Swedish pumping shanty. Translation: "A hunter went out a-hunting (2x) out in the woods so green. Chorus: Hali, halo, hali, halo, We sail and we pull (2x). Further verses were supposedly too obscene to print.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (L.A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty hunting
FOUND IN: Sweden Norway
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 505-507, "En Jaeger Gik At Jage" (3 texts-Norwegian & English, 2 tunes)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Keeper" (general feeling)
NOTES [22 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas makes note that this shanty was originally a hunting song, though doesn't give a specific reference. - SL
File: Hugi505A

Jail Down Careira, The

DESCRIPTION: Call and response. The singer tells about "de jail down Careira Where dey try me fo' murder" and what he wants to happen in his absence ("A want a Chinese mama To drive me Lincoln Zephyr"). The response is "De jail, de jail, de jail down Careira"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: crime homicide prison humorous nonballad Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 15, "The Jail Down Careira" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [19 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "Careira is the name of a convict island off the North-Western coast of Trinidad." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo015

Jailer's Daughter, The

See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Jak and His Stepdame

See notes under Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (II) (File: OO2507)

Jak and his Stepdame, and of the Frere

See notes under Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (II) (File: OO2507)

Jake and Roanie

DESCRIPTION: Jake and Roanie spot (a) steer and give chase; it lures them into a gulley and they are thrown by their horses. Forced to flee the steer, Roanie climbs a tree while Jake heads for a cave. Jake keeps popping out; there is a bear in the cave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse animal humorous
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 46, "Jake and Roanie" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Ohr046

Jal Along

DESCRIPTION: Travellers' cant. Singer tells her girl to walk along; they hope to find a good house to beg food or cash from in exchange for matches. They've drunk up all their money in champagne
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 or 1966 (collected from Caroline Hughes)
KEYWORDS: poverty drink begging foreignlanguage children Gypsy
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 128, "Jal Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [40 words]: According to Caroline Hughes, in the old days Travellers would make matches, sell them, buy champagne and get drunk. After recovering, they'd have no money left for food. The song is macaronic, incorporating cant and English. "Jal" = walk. - PJS
File: McCST128

Jam at Garby's Rock, The

See The Jam on Gerry's Rock [Laws C1] (File: LC01)

Jam at Gerry's Rock, The

See The Jam on Gerry's Rock [Laws C1] (File: LC01)

Jam on Gary's Rock, The

See The Jam on Gerry's Rock [Laws C1] (File: LC01)

Jam on Gerrion's Rock, The

See The Jam on Gerry's Rock [Laws C1] (File: LC01)

Jam on Gerry's Rock, The [Laws C1]

DESCRIPTION: Young Monroe and his crew do not wish to work on Sunday, but when a log jam forms, they turn out. The jam breaks and all are cast into the water, with foreman Monroe being drowned. In some accounts, his sweetheart dies for love and is buried with him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Maine Sportsman, according to Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: logger death drowning lumbering
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,NW,SE) Britain(Scotland) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont,Que)
REFERENCES (60 citations):
Laws C1, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #132, pp. 1-2, "The Lumbering Boys" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 230, "The Lumbering Boys" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 238-239, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock"; pp. 239-240, "The Jam on Jerry's Rock" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 111-113, "Young Monroe at Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 180-182, Young Monroe at Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 213, "The Jam at Gerry's Rock" (3 texts)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #52, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 164, "The Jam at Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 267-268, "The Jam at Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 102, "The Jam at Gerry's Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 57, "The Jam on Gary's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 163, "Young Monroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 752-753, "The Jam at Garby's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 153, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (2 texts)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 33-35,247, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 26-29, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 23, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #27, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 409, "The Jam at Gerry's Rock" (2 texts)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 82-90, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (4 texts), plus an essay, "The Pursuit of a Ballad Myth," on pp. 176-198
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 260-262, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 44-46, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 4, "The Jam at Gerry's Rock" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, pp. 64-65, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 259-260, "Garian's Rock" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 86-88, "The Canadian Shanty Boys, or The Jam at Gerry's Rocks" (1 text) (2 texts on pp. 72-76 in the 1919 edition)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 16, "The Jam on Gerrion's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 51, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 126-130, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 69, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 152-153, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks (The Foreman John Monroe or Young Monroe)" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 51, "The Jam at Gerry's Rock" (2 texts plus mention of 2 more)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #7, pp. 137-138, "The Jam at Gerry's Rock" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 32-35, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #50, "The Brak at Jerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 2, "Gerry's Rocks" (2 texts plus 2 fragments, 4 tunes)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 2, "Gerry's Rocks" (2 texts plus 2 fragments, 4 tunes)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 25-26, "Young Munroe" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 92-93, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 109, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 3 more, 2 tunes)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 217-220, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 771-773, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 164-166, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 345-346, "The Log Jam at Hughey's Rock" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 418, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 78-79, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 394-395, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 175-178, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 50, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 448-450, "Gerry's Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 847-849, "Gerry's Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 240, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 122-123, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 127-128, "The Jam on Jerry's Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 176-178, "The Jam on Jerry's Rock" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 101 "Jam on Jerry's Rocks" (1 text)
DT 600, JAMGERR1* JAMGERR2*
ADDITIONAL: Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden, _Wisconsin Lore: Antics and Anecdotes of Wisconsin People and Places_, Wisconsin House, 1962, p. 64, "The Log Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (1 text, presumably from Wisconsin although no source is listed)
James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "The Wanigan Songbook" by Isabel J. Ebert, pp. 206-208, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Emory DeNoyer)
Roud #256
RECORDINGS:
Tom Brandon, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (on Lumber01)
Warde Ford, "Foreman Monroe / Young Monroe" (AFS 4214 A1, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell) (on USWolfRiver)
Marie Hare, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (on MRMHare01)
Mike Kent, "Jam on Jerry's Rock" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Nicolas Keough, "The Jam at Garby's Rock" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Jim Kirkpatrick, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (AFS, 1948; on LC56)
Bill McBride, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (AFS, 1938; on LC56)
Pete Seeger, "Jam on Jerry's Rocks" (on PeteSeeger02, PeteSeegerCD01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Death of Harry Bradford" [Laws C12] (plot, tune)
cf. "'Twas on the Napanee" (plot)
cf. "The Loss of the Antelope" (tune)
cf. "The Wreck of the Asia" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
To Cent Coal ("Oh, the bosses' tricks of '76 Have met with some success") (Foner, p. 197)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Death of Young Monroe
Garbey's Rock
Foreman Young Monroe
NOTES [1111 words]: Although this is probably the best-known of all lumbering ballads, its origins have never beensuccessfully traced. Various sources have been claimed:
* Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. xv-xvi, met a Mr. Reid who claimed his brother was part of the crew involved in the accident. Gerry's Rock was on the Penobscot River in Maine, just above Mawatum. Reportedly jams were common there until the rock was blown up. A Mr. Perkins corroborated aspects of this story. They claimed the song was composed communally. Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks does not give a date for his conversations, although both men apparently lived in the area of Orono, Maine.
The attribution to Maine is accepted by Gardner and Chickering; they do not report any Michigan tradition about the origin of the song. Cox also accepts this account, and has no local lore about its origin.
A problem with the Maine attributions is that both Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks texts mention Monroe's love coming from Saginaw town. Googling, I managed to find one reference to "Saginaw, Maine," but it is on no atlas or geographical dictionary. If there was such a place, it was no more than a flyspeck -- at most a village, never a town. Saginaw in Michigan is a town, a river, and a country.
* Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, p. 217, was told by Samuel Young of North Anson, Maine that Gerry's, or Gerrish, Rocks are on the Kennebec River above "The Forks." Linscott's text has "Sagmor Town," and suggests that the original may have been Saguenay, a river in Quebec. This is a reasonable conjecture but would be much better for evidence. We do find "Saguenay" in Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast -- but the Leach text is not particularly good (it is short, has several obvious errors, and converts the girl usually known as "Clara" to "Mary"). Nor does Leach have a local story of how the song came about.
* Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy says that all his informants assigned it to Canada or (more commonly) Michigan -- although the name "Saginaw" could have influenced this.
* Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods, while declaring it the best-known lumbering song in Ontario, has no local traditions about it.
* Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 177, says it came from Maine to Michigan; on p. 193 they conclude the author was Canadian (on the latter point, I think her evidence clearly inadequate, although Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman seems to have accepted it.). Eckstorm, after extensive research, concluded that there was a Gerry's Rock on the East Branch of the Penobscot River but could not link the event to an actual event. This research is summarized by Laws on pp. 59-60 of Native American Balladry.
Korson, Pennsylvania Songs and Legends, pp. 345-346, has a version in which the site is Hughey's Rock who came from "Young Woman's Town," but there is no indication of where these might be.
Eckstorn and Barry would later mention a location near Loganville on the St. John in Nova Scotia.
* Beck and Holbrook (cited by Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman and Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer) claim a Garry's Rock on the Tittabawasee River -- which just happens to be a tributary of Michigan's Saginaw River; the nearest town is Edensville. Holbrook also reported a Garion's Rock in Ontario.
There seems to be a general sense that the song comes from the 1860s. This does not preclude a setting near Saginaw, Michigan. According to Bruce Catton, Michigan: A History, Norton, 1976, 1984, Saginaw was a well-established town by then. There was a trading post there before 1819 (Catton, p. 69), and fort was built there in 1822 (Catton, p. 72), although quickly abandoned. By the 1830s Saginaw was established (Catton, p. 113) and becoming a "sawmill principality" (Catton, p. 103). Catton also makes the interesting note on p. 103 that so many Maine loggers came to the Michigan woods that they named a town "Bangor," after the Maine settlement of the same name.
With respect to this dating, I would note that the song is often sung to a tune related to "Peter Amberley" [Laws C27], which is based on an event reliably dates to the early 1880s.
If you put a gun to my head and forced me to guess, the fact that the song is so common argues that it is early, and that argues for Maine or eastern Canada. This still leaves a problem with place names, though. The Penobscot and Kennebec both flow into the Atlantic. The Saguenay flows into the Saint Lawrence in Quebec, flowing almost due east from Lake Saint John to reach the larger river at Tadoussac. This is far to the north of the Maine rivers, on the wrong side of the Saint Lawrence, which at this point has entered its estuary and is over a dozen miles wide. A girl from the Saguenay is not at all likely to be alone on the Penobscot or the Kennebec. Thus it is impossible to make all the data fit a Maine setting.
It does seem possible that we might learn something from studying local variants. An obvious place to start is the name of the dead girl. Breaking this down by name and the state or province in which informants lived, I find the following (among others):
-- Clara Dennison: Dean-FlyingCloud (MN), Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin (WI), Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy A (MN)
-- Clara of Denville Town: Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors (MI?)
-- Clara Fenton: Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods B (Que)
-- Clara Vernon: Beck (ME?), Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks A (ME?), Cox (WV), Eckstorm/Smyth A (ME?), B (ME)
-- Clara Verner: Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods A (Ont)
-- Clara Jenness: Eckstorm/Smyth C (ME)
-- Clara [no last name]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi (N.B.), Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan (MI), Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer B (NY)
-- Clary Benson: Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl (NY)
-- Clary Wells: Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer A (NY)
-- Mary [no last name]: Leach (Labr)
-- Miss [no first name] Clark: Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag (OR? from James Stevens), Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks B (ME?), Linscott (ME), Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy B (WI)
-- Miss Carro (no other name): Eckstorm/Smyth D (ME, but a messy version)
This is only a small sampling of versions, but there appears to be a "Clara Dennison" group from the Upper Midwest, and a "Clara Vernon" group from Maine. Further investigation, adding in perhaps the tune, and the name of the nearby town/river, might allow us to construct enough of a stemma to learn something. - RBW
In tradition, "Gerry" is pronounced with s hard G - PJS (Well, sometimes. - RBW)
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LC01

Jam on Jerry's Rock, The

See The Jam on Gerry's Rock [Laws C1] (File: LC01)

Jamaica Farewell

DESCRIPTION: "Down away where the nights are gay and the sun shines daily on the mountaintop, I took a trip on a sailing ship, and when I reached Jamaica I made a stop." He is sad to leave because he has to "leave a little girl in Kingston town"
AUTHOR: Lord Burgess
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (recording, Harry Belafonte)
KEYWORDS: love separation travel Caribbean
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 543, "Jamaica Farewell" (notes only)
DT, JAMAICFW
NOTES [181 words]: Of the many pop songs Averill lists as popular enough to be indexed, this one is perhaps the one most widely perceived as folk; a good many people seem to think it is traditional. But it's by "Lord Burgess" (Irving Louis Burgie, 1924-2019), who provided a good bit of material to Harry Belafonte (this, a version of the "Banana Boat Song," "Island in the Sun," and probably others less well known).
It was a strange working relationship. According to Milton Okun (as told to Richard Sparks), Along the Cherry Lane: Tales from the Life of Music Industry Legend Milton Okun, Classical Music Today, 2011, pp. 58-65, Burgie was responsible for writing (or, in some cases such as "Banana Boat Song (Day-O)," probably rewriting) most of Harry Belafonte's calypso songs, and Belafonte regularly took a songwriting credit and half the royalties. Milt Okun convinced Burgie to claim his own rights. The caution in this is that Okun ended up publishing the Burgie songs, so he perhaps had an interest in increasing Burgie's share of the royalties, plus he had personal disputes with Belafonte. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ACSF543J

Jamaica Girl

See The Gallant Brigantine [Laws D25] (File: LD25)

Jamais de la Vie

DESCRIPTION: French, supposedly between a soldier trying to learn to swear in French and a French woman who speaks "clean" French: "Ou peut dire 'vache sepagnole?' Jamais de la vie [Not on their life]. On peut dire 'tu sal chemeu?' Jamais...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage dialog soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 184-187, "Jamais de la Vie" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: NiMo184

Jamboree

See Whip Jamboree (Whup Jamboree) (File: Br3230)

James A. Garfield

See Charles Guiteau [Laws E11] (File: LE11)

James and A

DESCRIPTION: "James and A, it cannot be, Although you know so well," he cannot kiss her now; Grandma says it's wrong. He should not be sad. They will be married soon, and he can kiss her then. Or perhaps he can kiss her now after all....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love courting humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 60, "James and A" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #11326
File: Brne060

James and Flora (Flora and Jim, The United Lovers)

DESCRIPTION: Flora asks James to leave sailing. He won't. She breaks a ring and gives half to him. She dresses as a sailor and follows him until he is discharged. She tells the captain the story. The captain gives them gold to get married.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.12(254))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage ring promise cross-dressing sea ship brokentoken lover sailor money reunion disguise
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 190-191, "Flora and Jim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, p. 67, "James and Flora or The United Lovers" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp.22-23, "True Lovers Bold" (1 text, 1 tune, from separate sources)
Roud #1701
RECORDINGS:
Alphonse Sutton, "Young Flora" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(254), "James and Flora," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Harding B 11(3887), "James and Flora"; Firth b.26(446), "James and Flora" or "The United Lovers"; 2806 c.15(60)[some illegible words], Firth c.12(256), "James and Flora United"
Murray, Mu23-y2:048, "James and Flora" unknown (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser)" [Laws N6] (plot)
File: Pea190

James Bird [Laws A5]

DESCRIPTION: James Bird leaves his family to join Perry's fleet on Lake Erie. In the battle, he fights valiantly, continuing to serve even after being wounded. Later, however, he tells his parents that he is to be executed for desertion.
AUTHOR: James Miner
EARLIEST DATE: 1814 (newspaper, "The Gleaner")
KEYWORDS: execution war battle navy | James Bird Oliver Hazard Perry Lake Erie
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 10, 1813 - Battle of Lake Erie. The Americans under Perry defeat the British.
Oct 1814 - Execution of James Bird for desertion while on guard duty
FOUND IN: US(All) Canada
REFERENCES (30 citations):
Laws A5, "James Bird"
Thompson-APioneerSongster 52, "James Bird" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 164-165, "James Bird" (1 text) (pp. 141-143 in the 1919 edition)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 345-347, "(James Bird)" (1 text)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 166-168, "James Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 104-107, "James Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 118, "James Bird" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 228-229, "James Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 296-297, "James Bird" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 18-21, "James Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 134-135, "James Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 9, "The Kingston Volunteers" (1 text, 1 tune, much more heavily "folk processed" than most other texts)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 17, "James Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 38-41, "James Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 41, pp. 93-97, "James Bird" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 62, "James Bird" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 221, "James Bird" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 273, "James Bird" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 130, "James Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #153, "James Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 38, "James Bird" (1 tune, partial text)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 38, "James Bird" (1 tune, partial text)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 183-184, "(James Bird)" (1 excerpted text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 140, "James Bird" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 97-99, "James Bird" (1 text, with the tune listed as "The Tempest")
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 140-142, "James Bird" (1 text, 1 tune on p. 201)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 158-159, "James Bird" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 479, "James Bird" (source notes only)
DT 361, JAMEBIRD*
ADDITIONAL: MacEdward Leach and Henry Glassie, _A Guide for Collectiors of Oral Traditions and Folk Cultural Material in Pennsylvania_, Pennsylvania historical and Museum Commission, 1973, pp. 32-34, "James Bird" (1 text)
ST LA05 (Full)
Roud #2204
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "James Bird" (on GreatLakes1)
John W. Green, "James Bird" (1938; on WaltonSailors; the text printed in Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors does not list an informant, but is similar to Green's version, except that it is fuller; the tunes are not entirely the same)
Warde Ford, "James Bird" [fragment] (AFS 4202 A1, 4202 A2, 1938; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Mike Roark, "Lake Erie" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as100590, "Mournful Tragedy of James Bird" ("Sons of freedom, listen to me, and ye daughters too, give ear"), L. Deming (Boston), no date
VonWalthour, CDDrive>b>b(5),"Mournful Tragedy of James Bird" ("Sons of freedom, listen to me, and ye daughters too, give ear"), L. Deming (Boston), no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Fifer" (tune)
cf. "The Battle of Lake Erie" (subject: The Battle of Lake Erie)
cf. "The Battle of Erie -- 1813" (subject: The Battle of Lake Erie)
SAME TUNE:
The Dying Fifer (File: BrII227)
NOTES [2058 words]: The American victory on Lake Erie was something of a surprise due to the inexperience of the U.S. forces. To that point, the Americans had done very badly on the Canadian frontier (see the notes to "Brave General Brock [Laws A22]" and "The Battle of Queenston Heights"). If the Americans were to have any hope of reversing things, command of the waters of Lakes Erie and Ontario seemed crucial.
To make matters worse, both sides were concentrating most of their forces on Lake Ontario, which was downstream, easier to reach, and and has more people in the area. The naval force the British sent to Lake Erie, for instance, consisted of only about two dozen men headed by a 27-year-old Lieutenant named Robert Heriot Barclay (Borneman, p. 121) -- who was, however, a veteran of Trafalgar, and who had lost an arm in later fighting. If nothing else, he was aggressive.
The commander of the American fleet was a 27-year-old Master Commandant (a rank later retitled "Commander") named Oliver Hazard Perry, who had accepted the Lakes command (considered a step down from the blue-water navy) in order to at least see some action (Mahon, p. 166). He was a friend of the James Lawrence who had recently died on the U.S.S. Chesapeake (see the notes to "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (I)" [Laws J20]). Perry would try to emulate Lawrence's spirit; fortunately he did not emulate Lawrence's inept tactics.
Perry initially suffered one major disadvantage: His base was in Presque Isle Bay, by what is now Erie, Pennsylvania -- a good place to build a ship, but there was a bar in the harbor mouth which was too shallow to get his biggest ships out. Barclay blockaded the harbor entrance; had Perry tried to take his big ships out in those circumstances, they would surely have been destroyed and would have blocked the passage as well. But Barclay at the end of July 1813 briefly sailed away, and the Americans managed to get their ships out (Borneman, pp. 123-125; Hickey, p. 131; Mahon, p. 170; Pratt, p. 86, opines that the British, who had not yet completed their flagship Detroit, thought the American fleet too large to fight, but most others think it was a supply problem or the like. Mahon mentions a folktale that Barclay went to a dinner in Dover). The Americans would settle at Put-In Bay, near the western end of Lake Erie, not far from the British base at Amherstberg (Mahon, p. 170).
That may have been the decisive move of the campaign. Rather than the blockader, Barclay was now the blockaded. He had the single biggest ship on the lake, the Detroit, but it was not finished until mid-August, by which time the American blockade had made it impossible for the British to bring in big guns. The Detroit ended up armed rather haphazardly, using the few guns at hand (taken from a land fort; Mahon, p. 171); according to Hickey, p. 132, most of them had to be fired by shooting a pistol over the fire-hole (Mahon, p. 176, blames this on bad matches, but the result is the same). The next-best British ship, the Queen Charlotte, had almost no long guns -- that is, it was hard for her to hurt enemy ships at a distance. To add to Barclay's problems, he had to supply not only his own ships but the sundry army troops and Indians in the vicinity (Hickey, p. 132).
The Americans had their own problems. The main force of their fleet consisted of the two brand-new brigs (these were the two ships that had been so hard to get out of Presque Isle Bay), the Lawrence (named for James Lawrence) and the Niagara, both armed mostly with short-range carronades . He also had a medium-sized vessel, the Caledonia; the rest of his fleet was small schooners with only a few guns.
The fleets that fought at Lake Erie were probably about equal in practical strength. The American fleet had ten ships to six for the British (so most sources; Mahon, p. 169, credits the Americans with only nine and gives numbers of guns I haven't seen elsewhere), but in ships larger than gunboats, the British had four and the Americans three. Worse, none of the Americans vessels had ever served as warships before, nor even had much of the way of a shakedown (all the British ships, except the Detroit, had at least spend time maneuvering on Lake Erie), and the crews were inexperienced. And the American vessels were badly undermanned; it had initially been thought Perry would need about 740 crewmen, but apparently he decided to sail with only about 500 (Borneman, pp. 123, 125; Mahon, p. 169, says he had 490) -- and many of these were landsmen from General Harrison's army (Hickey, p. 132).
Barclay too had to put soldiers on his ships (Mahon, p. 169; p. 176 cites a British enquiry which claims there were no more than ten experienced seamen on each ship), but only Mahon seems to think this seriously handicapped him.
According to Mahon, the American vessels had a combined broadside of 896 pounds, the British 459 -- though Mahon has a tendency to magnify American competence, and no other source mentions quite such a discrepancy.
The battle was a rather disorderly affair. Perry had the advantage of the wind gauge, letting him choose the time and distance of the fight (Hickey, p. 132); but Perry used that to change his fleet arrangements once he saw Barclay's fleet. In the confusion that followed, the two biggest British ships, the Detroit and the Queen Charlotte, both turned on American flagship Lawrence, while the Niagara (commanded by Jesse Duncan Elliot, formerly Perry's superior; Borneman, p. 125) stayed in its place far back in the line rather than doing something about Queen Charlotte. As a result, the Lawrence would be crippled and out of the fight (Borneman, p. 128; Hickey, p. 133, reports that her crew suffered 80% casualties).
Perry eventually decided to leave the Lawrence (which would suffer about two-thirds of the American casualties in the battle; Borneman, p. 132) and head for the Niagara. Even though his ship was being destroyed (she was still floating, but dismasted and unmaneuverable and incapable of firing a proper broadside) and his crew slaughtered, he forbid his former flagship to surrender (Ratigan, p. 172). Sure, he might cause many more men to die -- but what was that compared with his reputation?
Barclay, meanwhile, had been wounded; he ordered his men to try to sink the boat in which Perry was fleeing, but then had to be taken below. And Perry got lucky. Queen Charlotte had lost her captain and the next two officers in command (Mahon, pp. 175-176), and Barclay was disabled on the Detroit (which had itself suffered badly at the hands of Lawrence), and the two mis-handled British ships ran afoul of each other. Niagara was able to cross the T of the other two ships, and Elliot (who had left the Niagara when Perry came aboard) brought up several smaller American ships to attack the other side, and the four smaller British ships were unable to stop him. Queen Charlotte struck her colors, then Detroit (Borneman, p. 132), and the other four British ships apparently preferred to give in rather than fight or flee (to be sure, Niagara, a square-rigged ship, should have been faster than the schooners and could probably have sunk most of them).
The fate of the British ships varied; that of the Detroit was particularly absurd. There was apparently in this period a habit of loading a boat with innocent animals and sending it over Niagara Falls (Ratigan, p. 179). The Detroit was one ship so used; Ratigan, p. 181 reports that her sacrifice ended the appalling practice; "that is the last record of such a fresh-water Roman holiday."
Perry's announcement of the battle result is famous; he reported to General William Henry Harrison, "We have met the enemy and they are ours."
This was fortunate for Harrison (one of many lousy American generals of 1812; with the military academy still new, most of the generals were political picks -- see Mahon, p. 103, which lists the four Major Generals, including Harrison, appointed in early 1813; all were old and well-connected. It says something that, relative to his peers, Harrison was a *good* general; the others were basically disasters). Perry's win would profoundly help Harrison's career, since it made it possible to retake Detroit and advance into Canada.
Harrison had already suffered badly at the hands of British commander Henry Proctor, who defeated pieces of Harrison's army in detail. After Lake Erie, with his supply lines in danger, Proctor should have fallen back, but waited too long, then let his Indian allies talk him into battle at Moravian Town on the Thames River (about half way between modern Windsor and London, Ontario). And his forces were not very strong -- perhaps 800 regulars and 500 Indians, most of whom had been on short rations (Hickey, p. 137; Mahon, pp. 182-183). The Americans charged, and Proctor's thin line was broken; his surviving European troops were sent reeling back, and many of the Indians, including the brilliant Tecumseh, were killed (Borneman, pp. 158-161).
Harrison, though he couldn't advance much farther, had secured Detroit, and that, combined with his treacherous slaughter at Tippicanoe, would later make him President.
Richard Mentor Johnson, who had trained up an elite cavalry unit (nearly every Kentucky regiment was mounted, but only Johnson's were allowed to take their horses into Canada; Mahon, pp. 181-182) and led the charge that won the battle and took part in the slaughter of the Indians, would eventually end up in a presidential race against Harrison in 1836; he was Martin Van Buren's vice presidential candidate, with the absurd campaign slogan "Rumpsey dumpsey, Rumpsey dumpsey, Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh" (Morison, p. 454. Johnson almost certainly did not personally kill Tecumseh, but no one knew who had -- his body was reportedly never found, though Hickey, p. 139, talks of soldiers bringing home Tecumseh relics). As a result, Johnson was able to make at least an informal claim to have killed the Indian leader.
So strange was the 1836 election -- which featured three Whig candidates plus Democrat Martin Van Buren -- that, though Van Buren was elected directly by the electoral college, the college did not settle on a Vice President and the matter was settled in the Senate, where the Democratic majority naturally picked Johnson over the leading Whig candidate. I can't help but wonder if -- no matter what people said -- Johnson's non-election was because of his opinions on race. His first wife was said to have been half-black, and was actually one of his slaves, and the woman who may have been his third was also black; Widmer, pp. 119-120).
There is a broadside ballad about the Battle of Lake Erie, called "Perry's Victory" or something similar. Ratigan, p. 175, reports, "Considering the ratio of population, the ballad of Perry's victory outsold any popular recording of today. It was still a prime favorite at county fairs and other festivals half a century later." But it seems to have left no hold on tradition.
There are few other monuments to the campaign, either. Lake Erie was the first and only true naval battle of the War of 1812 (as opposed to single-ship combats or the combined arms battle of Plattsburg), and because it was a complete victory, there was no real need for further fighting. And, because a ship on the Upper Lakes could not be sent over Niagara Falls or otherwise reach the lower lakes, there was no other practical use for the ships, Lawrence, badly battered, was not preserved; Niagara, after Americans and British reached an agreement to disarm the lakes, was scuttled in Misery Bay (Varhols, p. 44). The cold fresh water preserved her, and she was eventually raised -- but the Niagara sailing now is a replica reassembled based on the raised ship (Varhola, pp. 45-46).
James Bird seems to have been a fairly typical American soldier of the period: Brave, but completely impervious to discipline. After joining the army, he transferred to the marines to escape the regimentation of army life. He showed great courage at the Battle of Lake Erie, but hated the tedium of garrison work, neglected his duties, and was court-martialed and executed at Erie, Pennsylvania. - RBW
Broadsides LOCSinging as100590 and VonWalthour CDDrive>b>b(5) appear to be the same edition. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LA05

James Campbell

See Bonnie George Campbell [Child 210] (File: C210)

James Connolly

DESCRIPTION: "Where O where is our James Connolly? Where O where is that galland man? He's gone to organize the Union." Conolly's Union and a citizen army fight for freedom, but he is wounded, imprisoned, and killed; Ireland buries and mourns him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Galvin)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion death labor-movement prison execution IRA
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1916 - Execution of James Connolly, Irish patriot, union leader, and socialist
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 99-100, "James Connolly" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JMCONNLY (JIMCON -- probably a sequel to the oter, but not part of the original poem)
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 82-83, "James Connolly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12495
NOTES [757 words]: James Connolly (1868-1916) was one of the first labor organizers in Ireland as well as one of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising. As such, he has had many biographers. The newest work, as of this writing, is Ruth Dudley Edwards, The Seven: The Lives and Legacies of the Founding Fathers of the Irish Republic, Oneworld Books, 2016; it covers all seven of the leaders (Thomas J. Clarke, Sean MacDiarmada, Eamonn Ceannt, Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, Joseph Plunkett, and Connolly), but at 370 pages, it has substantial information on all of them.
Connolly was not, properly speaking, Irish; he was born in Scotland and raised in a poor Edinburgh slum (Edwards, p. 207). By the age of twelve, he was working; at fourteen, he lied about his age and joined the British army (Edwards, p. 208). He spent the years from 1882 to 1889 serving in Ireland, and it seems to have captured him -- even though he spent very little time learning to understand the Irish.
Certainly it didn't instill any loyalty in him; he deserted in 1899 (Edwards, p. 209); this may have been due to love, disloyalty, or the fact that his regiment was due to be sent to India.
Not surprisingly for someone of his background, he was interested in Marxism and believed that Ireland's political freedom was linked to the strength of her labor movement. He picked up many of his ideas from John Leslie, who was secretary of the Scottish Socialist Federation (Edwards, p. 212). He remained a very poor man, working to collect refuse in Glasgow -- and lost even that job in the winter of 1894-1895 (Edwards, p. 216). In 1896, his friends raised the money to let him move to Dublin -- where he ended up in an even poorer slum than in Scotland, and where he didn't even fit in with Irish culture (Edwards, p. 217). He was so poor that, by the time he was 28, he had suffered so badly from starvation that he could no longer work as a day laborer (Edwards, p. 220). Strident and opinionated, and outspoken in his support for the Boers against Britain, he did much to make himself unemployable in any non-manual occupation (Edwards, p. 223). In 1893, having spent seven years in Dublin, he gave up and went to the United States (Edward, pp. 220-221).
He didn't have much better luck in America; he still couldn't keep a job, and his oldest daughter died of burns (Edwards, p. 227).
In 1913, Connolly and James Larkin (1876-1947, for whom see "Jim Larkin, R.I.P.") organized a great strike against the United Tramway Company. It eventually spread to most of Ireland, but some political blundering cost them support in Britain, and the strike fizzled in 1914. Larkin fled to America, not to return until 1923, leaving Connolly as Ireland's leading labor figure.
Incidentally, the reference to a "citizen army" is probably not a reference to the 1916 rebels. according to Robert Kee, The Bold Fenian Men, being Volume II of The Green Flag, p. 199, "A so-called 'Irish Citizen Army' was officially formed on 23 November 1913 (in reaction to an army crackdown on August 21).
By 1916, Connolly was leading rebels in Dublin; he commanded the assault on that city's GPO which ended with Padraic Pearse proclaiming the Irish Republic. Connolly was one of the signers of the proclamation. But less than a week later (April 29), Connolly was directing his forces to surrender to the overwhelming British forces.
(It should be noted that the failure of the rebellion was expected, at least by Pearse and some of his associates. In a way, they didn't even want to succeed. They thought Irish independence could only be achieved by a sort of mystic sacrifice -- and set out to make it. Their timing was bad, as well; with millions of British troops fighting in France, Britain had to end the rebellion with all possible speed -- i.e. with great brutality.)
In the process of the fighting, Connolly received an ankle wound which turned gangrenous. He was executed on May 12, 1916, already so ill that he had to be strapped into a chair to be shot. He had had to be taken to the site of the execution in an ambulance (see Robert Kee, Ourselves Alone, being volume III of The Green Flag, p. 6).
Kee also notes (p. 57) that Connolly's influence lasted after his death. The Dail -- the Sinn Fein congress elected in 1918 had as one of its early acts "the unanimous adoption of a so-called Democratic Programme containing vague socialistic phrases which claimed to emanate from 'our first President, Padraic Pearse,' but were more truly an acknowldegement to the memory of Connolly." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: PGa099

James Ervin [Laws J15]

DESCRIPTION: The singer enlists in the British Army, but deserts because he is worked too hard. Helped by his sweetheart, he escapes, fights off his pursuers, and takes up shoemaking. Discovered and taken, he again escapes, proud of his ability to outfight the English
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (broadside cited by The Colonial Music Institute)
KEYWORDS: soldier desertion prison escape
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 26, 1798 - Beginning of the Wexford rebellion
May 27, 1798 - The Wexford rebels under Father John Murphy defeat the North Cork militia
June 5, 1798 - The Wexford rebels attack the small garrison (about 1400 men, many militia) at New Ross, but are repelled
June 21, 1798 - The rebel stronghold a Vinegar Hill is taken, and the Wexford rebellion effectively ended
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Mar) Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws J15, "James Ervin"
Greig/Duncan1 82, "The Belfast Shoemaker" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 25, "The Bold Belfast Shoemaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 79, "The Bold Belfast Shoemaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 92, "James Ervin" (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 116, "On the Eighth Day of November' (1 text, 1 tune) (The first stanza of this version goes with "Saint Clair's Defeat," but the last two verses come from "James Ervin")
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 83, "Rambling Shoemaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 93, "Bold Irvine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 246-247, "The Rambling Royal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #173, p. 13, "The Bold Shoemaker" (1 reference)
DT 766, BLFSTSHO* JAMERVIN
Roud #982
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.18(24), "Belfast Shoe-maker," J. Jennings (London), 1790-1840; also 2806 c.15(252), "The Belfast Shoe-maker!"; Harding B 25(167), "Belfast Shoemaker!"; Firth c.14(130), "Bold James Irvine"
LOCSinging, sb10038a, "The Bold Shoemaker," H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860; also as101350, "The Bold Shoemaker"
SAME TUNE:
What You Will (per broadside Bodleian Firth c.14(130))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Deserter
NOTES [465 words]: Daithi Sproule has a version of this ballad in which James Erwin is one of Father Murphy's Irish rebels; so also the Digital Tradition text BLFSTSHO. The latter is said to be the OLochlain version; it's similar but not identical to Sproule's. For information about this phase of Irish history, see the notes to "Boulavogie," "Father Murphy (I)," and the references cited there. - RBW
Re the Father Murphy connection: the following is from OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 25/Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 79. O Lochlainn has it from a broadside.
I next joined Father Murphy as you will quickly hear
And many a battle did I fight with his brave Shelmaliers.
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Bold Belfast Shoemaker" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998)) - BS
The whole piece is rather peculiar in its incompleteness; one can understand an Irishman boasting of some of it, but how could someone at New Ross not admit it was a defeat, and how did the singer escape from Vinegar Hill?
Some parts make sense: There were, for instance, many Irish youths serving in the British army in 1798; with land scarce, it was hard for them to make a living otherwise. And quite a few deserted in 1798, and some did indeed serve with Father Murphy.
Lord Mountjoy was a British militia commander who had actually been popular with his Irish soldiers. But he was killed at New Ross, perrhaps while trying to reason with the Irish.
New Ross itself was not a victory for the Irish, though it should have been. The rebels fought their way into town, and seemed to have the militia defeated -- but, having fought like regular soldiers to that point, their command arrangements broke down and they ended up fleeing the town. From that point, the tide of the Wexford rebellion began to ebb.
There is also the interesting problem of what "Orangemen" were doing in Wexford. The Orangemen were a well-known Belfast group who fought against the Catholic defenders, so a man from Belfast would doubtless know them -- but there were no Orangemen in the south; the handful of Protestants were Anglican landowners.
Chapelizod was the site where the English forces in Dublin kept their artillery. There were, naturally, soldiers there, many of them Irish. The United Irishmen, after their leadership was captured, hoped to grab it. The mention of the site may be a confused recollection of this -- but it definitely seems confused. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb10038a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LJ15

James Grant [Child 197]

DESCRIPTION: James Grant is besieged; he tells his attackers, the folk of Ballindalloch, that he has no quarrel with them. Despite this, he is forced to the hills
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: feud fight escape
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1628 - John Grant of Carron killed by John Grant of Ballindalloch
1630 - James Grant of Carron, the uncle of John Grant, takes revenge on Ballindalloch and turns outlaw. The authorities authorize Clan Chattan to bring him to justice, and later others, but none could catch him. In 1639 Grant made peace with the king
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Child 197, "James Grant" (1 text)
Roud #3918
NOTES [55 words]: This ballad exists only in a fragment -- so brief that it is hard to be certain that it pertains to the events described, let alone which phase of the chase is mentioned. Child's notes say just about all there is to say about the piece.
How much of it is tradition and how much Peter Buchan cannot be determined at this date. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: C197

James Harris

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

James Hatley [Child 244]

DESCRIPTION: (Hatley) is accused of stealing the king's jewels, though (Fenwick) is in fact the thief. One of the king's children convinces the king to let Hatley fight for his honor; (Hatley/the prince) kills Fenwick. Hatley is made a high official
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: nobility royalty thief lie fight accusation help
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 244, "James Hatley" (3 texts)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 606-608, "James Hatley" (1 text)
DT, JHATLEY
Roud #4022
NOTES [45 words]: This more-than-usually-romantic ballad seems to have no basis in fact. The negotiations surrounding Hatley's release remind me strongly of "Hughie Grame" [Child 191], though there seems to be no actual relationship, and of course the context and outcome are different. - RBW
File: C244

James Herries

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

James Kennedy

DESCRIPTION: James Kennedy goes to visit his sweetheart; he comes to the Moyola and, unable to swim, is swept away. None is brave enough to rescue him. His parents wonder why he was visiting Moyola on the Sabbath. His fiancee is told they will meet at his grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love river drowning death
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H633, p. 147, "James Kennedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #189
NOTES [29 words]: Roud treats this as a variant of Laws Q33, "The Lake of Cool Finn (Willie Leonard)." But this song is explicit: Kennedy could not swim. "Cool Finn" lacks any such theme. - RBW
File: H633

James MacDonald [Laws P38]

DESCRIPTION: James promises his pregnant sweetheart Annie that he will marry her, and bids her meet him secretly. When he has her alone he attacks her and flees. She is found the next day and lives just long enough to tell what happened. James is sentenced to death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan2); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 19(109))
KEYWORDS: homicide execution pregnancy betrayal
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws P38, "James MacDonald"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #137, p. 2, "The Longford Murderer" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 204, "The Longford Murderer" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 477-479, "The Longford Murder" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H37, pp. 485-486, "[Pat O'Brien]" (1 fragment in the notes, tune referenced)
Peacock, pp. 622-623, "The Murder of Ann O'Brien" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 21, "James McDonald" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 6, "The St. Albans Murder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 71-73, "James MacDonald" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 15, "James MacDonald" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 515, JIMMACD*
Roud #1412
RECORDINGS:
George Carew, "Mary Brien" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Theresa White, "The Murder of Ann O'Brien" (on NFMLeach); "Ann O'Brien" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(109), "James M'Donald, Who Was Executed in Longford for the Murder of Anne O'Brien," W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 c.15(230), "James M'Donald, Who Was Executed in Longford for the Murder of Anne O'Brien"; 2806 c.15(309)[some lines illegible], "James M'Donnell"
Murray, Mu23-y1:079 "James M'Donnell," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John T. Williams"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Logford Murder
The Murderer Repaid
NOTES [181 words]: Yet another John T Williams gallows-confession type: Peacock includes a fragment "My name is James MacDonald, from life I must now part, For murdering of young Ann O'Brien I'm sorry to the heart; I hope the Lord will pardon me all on the Judgement Day, And when I'm on the gallows, good Christians for me pray."
The Peacock fragment is the last verse of the Murray broadside. It is also the fragment quoted in Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople from the Houston collection [see Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople, p. 485], the only significant difference being that the murderer's name is [mis]stated as Pat O'Brien; the note to "Henry, the Sailor Boy," referring to the tune printed for that song, is that "almost all the [Irish] murder ballads [including 'Pat O'Brien'] were composed to it." [In so far as they can be read, the Bodleian broadsides have the last verse but omit the last line.]
Leach (notes to NFMLeach) believes "that the murder took place in Longford Co. Ireland, and that, as was customary, a broadside was published at the time." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LP38

James Magee (McKee)

DESCRIPTION: The singer, sentenced to New South Wales, gives his name as James Magee. An orphan brought up by his grandmother, his aunt brings charges against him to gain his inheritance. He laments for his wife and children, and curses the aunt
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: crime accusation trial punishment transportation separation family
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H136, p. 125, "James Magee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 40, "James Magee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 51, pp. 146-147,175, "James Magee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 212-213, "James McGee (James MaGee)" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #2492
NOTES [239 words]: [The] Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster text makes this a religious conflict. The aunt "married an Orangeman"; the last verse is
Once I had a well furnished house no room could it afford,
To enter in an Orangeman, when he'd be on record,
But if a Ribbonman would call that way, well treated he would be,
Ah but now there does not dwell a man where dwelt young James Magee.
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster: "No doubt, especially since the famine, land and the possession of it has been to the Irish what cocaine must be to the drug-addict. The more he got the more he wanted. No doubt avarice got the better of many and they used the politico-religious situation for their own gain."
Zimmermann p. 19: "In some parts of Ulster, Protestant and Catholic tenants were mingled and contended for the land; the peasantry was thus divided into two camps, each having its oath-bound association. This led to a sort of religious war. At the end of the eighteenth century the Catholic "Defenders" were opposed to the Protestant "Peep o'Day Boys" or "Orangemen." The "Defenders" were succeeded by the "Ribbonmen," (song [Zimmermann] 39).
One of Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's texts is a couple of verses from a Nova Scotia version collected by Grover. - BS
Sean O'Boyle lists this as the same tune as "Henry Joy (McCracken)." The two are indeed nearly identical in meter, but I would not call them the same, though they are close. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HHH136

James McGee

See James Magee (McKee) (File: HHH136)

James McKee

See James Magee (McKee) (File: HHH136)

James Munks's Confession

DESCRIPTION: Munks tells the story of how he turned from his parents' good ways. He killed Reuben Guile, took his horse and money, hid his body, and fled. Captured and taken, he has been sentenced to die. He now reveals details of the murder
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution robbery
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 113, "James Munks's Confession" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 64-65, "(No title)" (1 text, breaking off in the middle)
ST E113 (Full)
Roud #4100
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dE40 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: E113

James o' Broodies

See Johnie Cock [Child 114] (File: C114)

James Phalen

See James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC07)

James Reilly

See John (George) Riley (II) [Laws N37] (File: LN37)

James Stephens, the Gallant Fenian Boy

DESCRIPTION: James Stephens is born in Marble City, wounded at 16 fighting in Killenaule, wounded at Ballingarry, subject of a mock funeral as he sails, in disguise, to Paris, imprisoned on testimony of "Nagle the informer," escapes and is not caught again, and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion betrayal prison escape disguise trick death France Ireland memorial patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 2, 1901 - James Stephens (1825-1901) dies in Dublin
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 3, "James Stephens, the Gallant Fenian Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Escape of James Stephens" (subject)
NOTES [795 words]: The Fenians were an organization devoted to freeing Ireland. The organization was founded in 1858 by James Stephens, who in that year began to coordinate with O'Donovan Rossa's Phoenix Society (for whom and for which see "Rossa's Farewell to Erin").
Stephens himself was quite the character: He was involved in the attempted revolution of 1848 (OxfordCompanion, p. 525), which of course was a complete fiasco. He was reported dead at the time (Golway, p. 122), and he did leave the country, but finally -- like many other Irishmen -- deciding that he couldn't stay away, returning to Ireland in 1856 (Kee, p. 7).
He seems to have been quite moody, and his return home depressed him; there seemed little hope of reviving Irish nationalism (Golway, p. 125). He set out on a walking tour to verify this for himself, and estimated that he walked three thousand miles in 1856 (Kee, p. 8).
Based on his accounts of the trip, one suspects that the real reason for his change of heart was simply the improved attitude that comes with exercise; he found little encouragement (Golway, p. 126). Despite the seemingly-poor prospects, he decided to found an independence organization. One of the groups he founded would become the Irish Republican Brotherhood (Golway, p. 128), of which much would be heard in the next half century.
Technically, the term "Fenian" should refer to the American society founded by Stephens. Stephens went to the United States in late 1858 on a fundraising tour, returning in 1859 with very little money -- but having set up an organization led by John O'Mahoney and known as the Fenians (a name given by O'Mahoney, who was more attracted to Gaelic than Stephens). Although it's O'Mahoney's term for O'Mahoney's organization, it came to be used of both the American and Irish societies (Golway, p. 129)..
The Fenian Society quickly spread; and by 1865 was getting close to the point of rebellion. Unfortunately, it suffered the usual batch of informers. The British government felt the need to suppress the Irish version in 1865. Their newspaper The Irish People closed down, and many leaders arrested. Stephens managed to remain free for two months, but he too was taken eventually (OxfordCompanion, p. 526).
What followed was arguably the high point of the Fenian movement: Stephens was rescued from prison. Kee, p. 26, observes that "[s]ometimes it seems that all the bungling during these years was on the Fenian side. But the escape was a masterly achievement."
Indeed, it upset the British, who went after the leaders of the rescue with vigor. Their capture of Captain Thomas Kelly, a leader of the rescuers and later declared shadow head of the Irish Republic, led to the affair of the Manchester Martyrs, for which see "The Smashing of the Van (I)."
Unfortunately, his time in prison had changed Stephens; he no longer had the nerve to take aggressive action. Plus the American version of the movement, which provided much of its money and energy had split into two halves, led by John O'Mahony and Thomas Sweeney. Stephens had closer ties to O'Mahony (they had lived together in poverty in Paris while studying politics; Golway, p. 124), but both groups disagreed with him on methods (Kee, pp. 26-28), and both would be involved in madcap invasions of Canada (see "A Fenian Song(I)"). The group had promised to rebel by the end of 1865, but Stephens managed to postpone that. In response, he was forced out of the leadership (Kee, p. 31).
His followers carried on, but that pretty well killed the group as an active set of rebels; their attempt at an Irish rebellion failed in 1867. They spent many more years trying various stunts in America; some were very showy, and others somewhat deadly; none helped the cause of Irish independence.
Stephens himself spent more than twenty years in exile before returning to Dublin in 1891, where he spent the last decade of his life generally ignoring politics (OxfordCompanion, p. 526).
Kee says of Stephens (pp. 8-9) that "he lacked almost all the qualities of a great revolutionary leader, being jealous and boastful, capable of small-mindedness and untruthful at least to the point of self-deception," but credits him with "an extraordinary capacity for organization and work." (Among his organizational methods was a cell system in which hardly anyone knew anyone else, so that informers couldn't betray much; Golway, p. 129. He also avoided recruiting the upper classes, meaning he had fewer members capable of detailed planning but also fewer capable of being paralyzed by doubts.) It is probably his strength at an organizer that allowed the Fenians to survive a series of failures that would have caused any normal organization to curl up and die of embarrassment at its utter ineptitude. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: OLcM003

James Telfer of the Fair Dodhead

See Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead [Child 190] (File: C190)

James the Ross

See Sir James the Ross (File: C213A)

James Wayland

See James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC07)

James Whaland

See James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC07)

James Whalen [Laws C7]

DESCRIPTION: Jim Whalen is told by his foreman to help clear a logjam. When the jam breaks, he is thrown into the rapids and drowned.
AUTHOR: John Smith (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: logger death drowning lumbering
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws C7, "James Whalen"
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 122-124, "George Whalen" (1 text)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 243-244, "Whalen's Fate (George Whalen)"
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 3, "Jim Whalen" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 3, "Jim Whalen" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 110, "James Wayland" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 82-83, "Jim Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #31, "Jimmy Whelan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 25, "Jimmy Whelan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 39-41, "James Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 49, "Jimmy Whelan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 389, "James Whaland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 53, "James Whalen" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 138-139, "Jimmie Whalen" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 78, "Jimmie Whalen" (1 text)
DT 601, JMMYWHEL*
ADDITIONAL: Walter Havinghurst, _Upper Mississippi: A Wilderness Saga_, Farrar & Rinehart, 1937, 1944, p. 228, "(Swan Swanson)" (1 fragment, clearly this, with the source unidentified but with a character name seemingly not found elsewhere)
Roud #638
RECORDINGS:
Emerson Woodcock, "Jimmie Whelan" (on Lumber01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lost Jimmie Whalen" [Laws C8] (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
James Phalen
NOTES [186 words]: Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy reports this to be based on an actual incident, in which James Phalen (so spelled; pronounced Whalen) died at "King's Chute" on the Mississippi River. (That's the Canadian Mississippi, a tributary of the Ottawa). Rickaby's informant, Cristopher Forbes, is the source of the claim that John Smith of Lanark wrote the song.
The date of the event is uncertain; Rickaby states it was in 1878, but Fowke quotes Phalen's grand-niece to the effect that the date was 1876. One of Beck's informants agreed that it was on the Matawaski (the Canadian Mississippi), but thought the date was around 1882.
There is one other sidelight to this, the significance of which I do not know. The song "Mickey Free," about logging in northwestern Wisconsin, claims that the singer "held me own with Whalen." This song is believed to have been written 1878. Is it the same Whalen? There were, of course, loggers from Canada in the Wisconsin woods in that period, and "James Whalen" eventually was known in the area, but would they have been treating such a recent event as legendary? I don't know. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LC07

Jamestown Flood, The

See The Johnstown Flood [Laws G14] (File: LG14)

Jamestown Homeward Bound, The

DESCRIPTION: Forecastle song. Verses describe voyages to the Mediterranean and wishes for home. Chorus ends "So fill out sails with the favoring gales and with shipmates all around. We'll give three cheers for our Starry flag and the Jamestown homeward bound."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen)
KEYWORDS: foc's'le sailor home travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 133-134, "The Jamestown Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 47-48, "The Nassau Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JAMETOWN*
Roud #4700
NOTES [210 words]: [According to Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, the] vessel referred to here is *not* the Confederate gunboat Jamestown, but a sloop of war built in 1844. She was lent by the US government to a relief organization and sailed from Boston to Cork in March, 1847 loaded with food and supplies to help the victims of the famine in Ireland. - SL
That voyage to Ireland, which Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen claims is the ship's only claim to fame, is not mentioned in her version. I must admit that I am not convinced that the song is about the Jamestown; it could merely be about a ship with its homeport there.
The above was written before Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang was published. The Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang version is clearly the same song (same first line, and it uses Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen's chorus as its last verse), but it never mentions Jamestown in any way; it's based in Nassau (or, perhaps, names the ship the Nassau; that seems to be Huntington's opinion). So I think we must file it as a generic song which was once particularized to Jamestown and once to Nassau.
Huntington notes that a ship Nassau was destroyed by a Confederate vessel in 1865, but there is no proof that it's the same ship. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Colc133

Jamestown, Virginia

See Here We Come (Jamestown, Virginia) (File: Newe179)

Jamie and Jeanie

DESCRIPTION: Jeanie asks why Jamie looks so sad. He replies that she danced with three other men at the ball. She asserts it means nothing; when he remains doubtful, she gives back his ring. He offers it again, and they reconcile
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection dancing ring
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 39-40, "Jeannie and Jamie"; #50, p. 2, "Jeannie and Jamie" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan4 848, "Jeannie and Jamie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 108-109, "Jamie and Jeanie -- A Duet" (1 text)
Roud #3952
NOTES [35 words]: This has all the hallmarks of a composed piece: Ornateness, stupidity, and non-folk idiom. But Ord and Grieg both collected it, so here it is.
I'm not betting anything on the success of that marriage, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord108a

Jamie and Mary

See The Faithful Rambler (Jamie and Mary, Love's Parting) (File: HHH825)

Jamie and Nancy

DESCRIPTION: Jamie and Nancy meet; she reports that her parents "had proved severe." He tells her that she is always welcome to him. She dreams Jamie is slain, and sets out to find him. When she does, they agree to marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love father mother separation dream reunion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H738, p. 478, "Jamie and Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9056
NOTES [29 words]: I have to think there is something missing in this song -- presumably something which parts the two lovers. But until another version turns up, we can hardly reconstruct it. - RBW
File: HHH738

Jamie and Nancy of Yarmouth

See Nancy of Yarmouth (Jemmy and Nancy; The Barbadoes Lady) [Laws M38] (File: LM38)

Jamie Broon

DESCRIPTION: Jeems Broon goes to the hiring fair at Turra Toon to work at the Hilton farm. Six were hired but "five o' them did leave Jeems Broon"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 390, "Jamie Broon" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #5923
NOTES [64 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "James Brown and his son, of the same name, farmed at Hilton of Culsh in the parish of New Deer (see map) from the 1850s to the 1890s."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Hilton of Culsh (390) is at coordinate (h4,v9) on that map [near New Deer, roughly 28 miles N of Aberdeen] - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GdR390

Jamie Douglas [Child 204]

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments that her happy marriage to Lord James Douglas has been ruined by accusations made by (Blackwood). She tries to convince her husband that she is true. He will not be convinced, and sends her away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: marriage separation lie infidelity
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Child 204, "Jamie Douglas" (17 texts)
Bronson 204, "Jamie Douglas" (8 versions including "Waly, Waly")
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 204, "Jamie Douglas" (2 versions: #1, #5, although #1 is "Waly, Waly")
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 133-140, "The Marchioness of Douglas" (1 text, extremely composite, partly this but with "Waly, Waly" verses and probably a good deal else)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 50, "Jamie Douglas" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 113, "Jamie Douglas" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 136-138, "Jamie Douglas" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 469-474, "Jamie Douglas" (notes and scattered stanzas, plus a text of "Waly Waly" and a part of Child A)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 546-551, "Jamie Douglas (3 texts, but the third is "Waly Waly")
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 101, "Jamie Douglas" (2 texts, but the second is "Waly Waly")
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 87, "Jamie Douglas" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: William Motherwell, Minstrelsy: Ancient and Modern (Glasgow, 1827 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Appendix pp. v-ix, #III "Lord Jamie Douglas" (1 text)
Roud #87
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" (lyrics)
cf. "Arthur's Seat" (lyrics: one verse)
NOTES [195 words]: Although based on actual events, the stress of this song seems rather different from the history outlined by Child. That this song is akin to "Waly, Waly" is beyond doubt; too many of the lyrics of the former show up in the latter. "Waly, Waly" has, however, achieved a life of its own (despite the near-compete loss of plot), and so is listed separately.
Most scholars think this the older song, but there are those who hold out for the influence passing the other way -- i.e. that verses from "Waly Waly" have entered "Jamie Douglas." David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 274, suggest that "it is tempting to suppse that the 'fragment' of 'Jamie Douglas' (204M) is an effort to construct a 'heroic ballad' out of the folksong 'Waly, Waly,' which had been published earlier in Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany." - RBW
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1's ending is like Child 204N: Jamie Douglas takes the children and goes to the singer's father's house after he had "hanged the Blakemoor The verey place where he told the lie." For the complete text behind Child 204N see the Motherwell reference above. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: C204

Jamie Foyers

DESCRIPTION: During the Peninsular War, volunteers from Wellington's army led by militiaman Foyers storm Blucher's castle in Spain. Foyers is wounded. He asks a comrade to tell his father of his death, recalls his home life, then dies. All mourn him as he is buried.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: grief request battle violence war farewell death dying funeral mourning Spain lament father soldier Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1812 - siege of Burgos during the Peninsular War
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 18-20, "Young Jamie Foyers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #139, pp. 1-2, "Young Jamie Foyers" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 106, "Jamie Foyers" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 294-295, "Young Jamie Foyers" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 84, "Jamie Foyers" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 38-39, "Jamie Foyers" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 71, "Jamie Foyer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 32-34, "Young Jimmy Foulger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 103, "Jimmy Folier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 199-201, "Young Jamie Foyers" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JAMFOYE2 JAMEFOYR*
Roud #1941
RECORDINGS:
Sheila Stewart, "Young Jimmy Foyers" (on Voice08)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(7), "Jamie Foyers" ("Far distant, far distant, lies Scotia the brave"), unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.14(195) View 4 of 5, "Young Jamie Foyers"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(080), "Jamie Foyers," unknown, c. 1875
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of the Nile" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jamie Fires
NOTES [301 words]: To quote MacColl & Seeger, "The Duke of Wellington's investment of Marshal Marmont's French forces and the retreat which followed were not particularly bloody by modern standards -- a mere 10,000 or so died. Wellington gained an earldom and a Perthshire militiaman gained an epitaph which is still sung round the campfires of travelling people." Note that Blucher, an enemy of Napoleon, is here described as his ally. - PJS
That seems to be a peculiarity of the John MacDonald's version, though; neither Ford nor Ord-BothySongsAndBallads have such a reference. Ford, who reports collecting the song c. 1870, reports a newspaper item listing John MacNeill as author.
Burgos, almost due north of Madrid and about two-thirds of the way from there to the ocean, is not one of the great cities of Spain, but it lies in a gap in the mountains and thus guards the most direct path between France and Madrid. As long as Napoleon's enemies held Burgos, most of Spain (except the Ebro valley and cities such as Zaragosa and Barcelona) were safe, and as long as France held it, she could operate armies in Spain freely.
Early in the Peninsular War, Napoleon directed several campaigns toward Burgos, and later on, it became one of the chief Coalition objectives. Capture Burgos, and the French garrisons in Spain would be cut off from reinforcements.
Wellington besieged Burgos in September and October of 1812, but -- despite the indirect implication of the song -- did *not* capture it; he abandoned the siege as a relief army approached. - RBW
Greig: "A man of the name of John M'Neill has been mentioned as the author of 'Young Jamie Foyers.'"
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 8" - 1.3.03: "Some authorities cite one James MacNeil as a possible author for the song." - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: McCST084

Jamie frae Dundee

DESCRIPTION: "I canno' like ye, gentle sir, although a laird ye be...." "I'se gang wi Jamie frae Dundee, To cheer the lanesome way." "The laverock mounts to hail the morn, The lint-white swell her throat, But neither are sae sweet, sae clear, As Jamie's tuneful note."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1796 (McFayden); 1866 (Whitelaw) according to Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: love separation bird music
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 59, "Jamie frae Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Dundee Lassie
File: Gath059

Jamie Judge (or, Bonshee River)

See Jimmie Judd (The Beau Shai River) [Laws C4] (File: LC04)

Jamie Raeburn (Caledonia)

DESCRIPTION: "My name is (Jamie Raeburn), in Glasgow I was born." Convicted (of a crime he did not commit), he has been sentenced to transportation. He bids farewell to family, sweetheart, and his beloved home in Caledonia. He hopes to return when free
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.14(19))
KEYWORDS: transportation separation farewell Scotland
FOUND IN: Australia Ireland Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 243-244, "Jamie Raeburn's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan8 1535, "Jamie Raeburn" (17 texts, 12 tunes)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #36, pp. 1-2, "Jamie Raeburn" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 357-358, "Jamie Raeburn's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #62, "John Raeburn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 85-86, "Caledonia"; 245-246, "Caledonio" (2 texts, 2 tunea)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H151, p. 124, "Jamie Raeburn's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 43, "Jimmy Leeburn" (1 text, 1 tune)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 47-48, 150, "Jimmy Raeburn" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 94, "Jamie Raeburn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 90-91,"Farewell to Caledonia" (1 text)
DT, JIMRAEBN
ADDITIONAL: Norman Buchan, "Folk and Protest," article in Edward J. Cowan, editor, _The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History_ 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition), pp. 160-161, "(Jamie Raeburn)" (1 text)
Willie Scott, "Jamie Raeburn," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1970.179,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 14 September 2013 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/89112/1
Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 476-477, "Jamie Raeburn" (1 text, with a tune on p. 607)
Roud #600
RECORDINGS:
Daisy Chapman, "Jimmy Raeburn" (on SCDChapman01)
Tom Scott, "Jimmy Raeburn" (on Borders1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(19), "James Raeburn," unknown, n.d.
Murray, Mu23-y1:106, "Jamie Raeburn" James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(75a), "Jamie Raeburn," unknown, c.1875; also RB.m.143(121) "Jamie Raeburn," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Plains of Waterloo" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Farewell Ye Hills and Glens o' Caledonia
Mary Hepburn
The Convict's Farewell
NOTES [269 words]: Ford claims that this is based on an actual incident c. 1840, though the details he offers are scant. - RBW
Charters says this has been traced to "a penny broadsheet published in the 1840s," but offers no further details. - PJS
It [may be] possible to date broadside Bodleian 2806 c.14(19) from its note to the ballad shared on the broadside with "James Raeburn." Specifically, for "The Lament of Andrew Brown," there is a note that Brown "is at present lying under Sentence of Death in Forfar Jail for the Murder of Captain Greig [Creig?], on board the Nymph [illegible; perhaps "while"?] on her passage from Montrose to London"; the broadside itself dates the crime as September 6 and the execution January 31.
[Therefore we can conclude that the date of the broadside] is January 1866 based on the note for "The Lament of Andrew Brown." Specifically, Brown was tried January 8, 1866 in Edinburgh, and sentenced January 10 to be executed January 31. ["Murder at Sea," The Times of London, Tuesday, Jan 11, 1866; pg. 12; Issue 25392; Start column: D. (Copyright 2002 The Gale Group)] - BS
On the other hand, Norman Buchan, "Folk and Protest," published in Edward J. Cowan, editor, The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition), says on p. 160, "We know that an early nineteenth-century (approximately 1820) broadsheet ballad, 'Jamie Raeburn,' sold a hundred thousand copies!" (Buchan also adds the snide comment that "Incidentally the normal sign of a bad song is that it calls Scotland 'Caledonia.' 'Jame Raeburn' is the exception that proves the rule!") - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MA085

Jamie Raeburn's Farewell

See Jamie Raeburn (Caledonia) (File: MA085)

Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead [Child 190]

DESCRIPTION: The Captain of Bewcastle raids the Fair Dodhead. Jamie Telfer, the victim, races about the countryside in search of assistance. Some refuse, but he gathers enough friends to fight the raiders. The avengers suffer casualties, but Bewcastle is defeated
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: violence robbery revenge help
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 190, "Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead" (1 text)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 65, 151, "Jamie Telfer o the Fair Dodheid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 362-365, "James Telfer of the Fair Dodhead" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 141, "Jamie Telfer in the Fair Dodhead" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 67, "Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead" (1 text)
Roud #3364
NOTES [145 words]: Child lists several speculations about this song (derived mostly from Scott, who is the only source for this piece). These tie it, very tentatively, to an event of 1582, at which time Bewcastle was a well-known haunt of robbers and sundry criminals. All of this, however, must be treated as little more than speculation. Nor is there any real evidence that the piece is traditional. - RBW
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen is a 3-verse fragment corresponding to Scott's verses 23, 26, and 27 (T.F. Henderson, editor, Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1902 ("digitized by Google")) vol. II, pp. 1-13, "Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead"; Minstrelsy's is the only version for Child 190, but the Sargent and Kittredge one-volume edition uses another text which has no verse corresponding to Wille Scott's second. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: C190

Jamie, Lovely Jamie

See The Plains of Baltimore (File: Wa005)

Jamie's Aye Kin'

DESCRIPTION: Jamie's always kind. Willie's sour and sullen. Liking Jamie and mocking Willie "brings muckle sorrow to oor toon for noo and ever mair"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1856, "Jamie's Aye Kin'" (1 short text)
Roud #13592
NOTES [61 words]: Greig/Duncan8 quoting Bell Robertson, who was -- apparently -- not the source: "This was one of mother's but ... everyone sung it." - BS
I have, very tentatively, added the keyword Jacobite because, while there is absolutely nothing explicitly Jacobite in the song, consider what it says: The town likes Jamie (James) and mocks Willie (William) and suffers for it. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81856

Jamie's Braw Claes

DESCRIPTION: The singer's son Jamie volunteered; "it wasna for fechtin' but jist for the claes." He struts in his uniform. Grannie thinks his obsession "it's a' far past jokin'" If the French blades would cut his buttocks he would not be so proud of his clothes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: vanity clothes humorous nonballad soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 651, "Jamie's Braw Claes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6080
File: GrD3651

Jamie's on the Stormy Sea

DESCRIPTION: "Ere the twilight bat was flitting, in the sunset at her knitting, Sang a lonely maiden... Fitful rose the tender chorus, 'Jamie's on the stormy sea.'" The singer listens to the girl praying -- and at last steps out and reveals himself as Jamie
AUTHOR: Bernard Covert
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Journal from the _Euphrasia_)
KEYWORDS: sailor love separation reunion
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1851, "Jamie's On the Stormy Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H78, p. 484, "Jamie's on the Stormy Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 34-36, "Jamie's on the Stormy Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 189, "Jamie's on the Stormy Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 41, "Jamie's on the Stormy Sea" (1 text)
Roud #2067
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(311), "Jamie's On the Stormy Sea" ("E'eer the twilight bat was fletting"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860
LOCSheet, sm1850 482040, "Jamie's On the Stormy Sea," Oliver Ditson (Boston), 1850 (tune)
LOCSinging, as201800, "Jamie's On the Stormy Sea" ("E'eer the twilight bat was fletting"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860; also as201810, "Jamie's On the Stormy Sea" [still De Marsan; same first line misspelling]
NOTES [226 words]: At least he didn't dress up to trick her into thinking he was someone else. - RBW
The text of the surviving fragment at Greig/Duncan8 may be instructive; in its two verse entirety: "Fitful cam her tender chorus Jamie's on the stormy sea." "Weep nae mair sweet I am Jamie."
There is a similar, but not quite so "literary," song at LOCSinging, as101390, "Bonnie Jamie" ("The twilight hour is stealing, The day is dying fast ... But my bonnie, bonnie Jamie Has crossed the stormy sea."), J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as200410, sb10028b, "Bonnie Jamie." However, Jamie has not yet returned from the war by the end of this song. These broadsides, all issued by John Andrews or its successor, Henry De Marsan, include statements to the following effect: "By James Robinson. Respectfully dedicated to my friend, Sergeant Wheeler, U.S.A. This beautiful Song was composed by Mr. James Robinson, the Author of several of our most popular ballads. It is intended for a companion to Annie Laurie, and the same Air."
Broadsides Bodleian Harding B 18(311), LOCSinging as201800 and LOCSinging as201800: J. Andrews and H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadsides LOCSinging as201800 and Bodleian Harding B 18(311) are duplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HHH078

Jan's Courtship

See Roger's Courtship (File: HHH520)

Jane and Louisa

DESCRIPTION: "Jane and Louisa will soon come home, darling... Out of the beautiful garden." "Then I will like you to pick a rose, darling... Out of..." "Then I will like you to waltz with me, darling... Into...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica,St Vincent)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, p. 90, "Jane and Louisa" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Martha Warren Beckwith and Helen Roberts, _Folk-Games of Jamaica_ (Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1922 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #63 pp. 73-75, "Jane and Louisa" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [64 words]: Abrahams says "Tinnego" and "Jane and Louisa" seem to be the most popular of S.t Vincent ring games among the blackfish whalers. For other examples of West Indies ring games see "There's a Brown Girl in the Ring" and "Go Down Emmanuel Road"
In "Jane and Louisa," the first line of the verse is sung three times with slight variations, followed by "Out of/Into the beautiful garden." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS90

Jane and Matilda Roll

DESCRIPTION: "Jane and Matilda roll"(3x). "They roll on the ny-ah." "Matilda I know my dump dump road." "Roll Matilda, she big, they got big brat." "Matilda Jane hey they got it."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
KEYWORDS: nonballad baby
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
RECORDINGS:
Alfred McLerty, "Jane and Matilda Roll" (on JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
NOTES [98 words]: In his liner notes to JamaicaFaithWorkPlay Roberts writes, that "Jane and Matilda Roll" is a song "for nine-night, the last night of the traditional wakes that are still important social and musical occasions in rural Jamaica.... 'Jane and Matilda Roll' is typical of the mildly bawdy humor of the nine-nights and Jamaica life in general." The current description is the way I hear the JamaicaFaithWorkPlay recording; obviously I can't make head nor tail of what I hear and so can't appreciate the "mildly bawdy humor." I would appreciate any more informed rewrite of that description. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcJaMaRo

Jane Jenkins

See Jenny Jenkins (File: R453)

Jane McCrea

DESCRIPTION: "It was in brilliant autumn time When the army of the north... and its riflemen came forth." General Burgoyne finds the Americans waiting at Bennington and elsewhere. In the fights that follow, "hapless Jane McCrea" falls an innocent victim
AUTHOR: "Frank Forrester" (William Henry Herbert, 1807-1858) (Source: Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: battle war death recitation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1753 - Birth of Jane McCrea
Jul 27, 1777 - Death and scalping of Jane McCrea near Fort Edward, New York, during the Saratoga campaign (source: William L. Stone, _Ballads and Poems Relating to the Burgoyne Campaign_)
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 328-333, "(no title)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: William L. Stone, _Ballads and Poems Relating to the Burgoyne Campaign_, 1893 (I use the 1970 Kennikat Press reissue), pp. 186-193, "Jane McCrea" (1 text)
Roud #6600
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fate of John Burgoyne" (subject: the Saratoga campaign) and notes there
NOTES [45 words]: Stone, pp. 128-207, has a brief biography of Jane McCrea, a civilian casualty of the Saratoga campaign, and eight different poems about her, several of them very long and mostly quite dense. I suspect she deserved better, both of fate and of authors writing about her. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: TNY328

Jane Shore

DESCRIPTION: Jane Shore, "that was beloved of a king," laments her fate. She had come to the attention of Edward IV, who loved her long but died young. Now she is at the mercy of his successor Richard III, who harries her relentlessly
AUTHOR: Thomas Deloney?
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy); reference in the Stationer's Register in 1603, but no copy recovered; a song called "Jane Shore" was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: love royalty death prison adultery
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1461-1470 AND 1471-1483 - Reign of Edward IV
1483-1485 - Reign of Richard III
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 263-273, "Jane Shore" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 259-264, "The Lamentation of Jane Shore" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1391, "If Rosamund that was so fair"
cf. Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2929, "Why should we boast of Lais and his Knights"
Roud #V5428
NOTES [1155 words]: The date of this is a little obscure. The events of the song would seem to date it to the period 1483-1485, but there are certainly no surviving prints from that era. Rollins, #1272, p. 110, from December 14, 1624, is entitled "Jane Shore," but we cannot prove that it is this song. Rollins, #1273, p. 110, according to Rollins, is the "If Rosamund that was so fair" ballad, since a copy survives in the Roxburgh Ballad, but it is very late, being dated March 1, 1675. From that same day comes "The woofull lamentcon of Jane Shore," Rollins #2986, p. 256.
On June 11, 1603, William White registered "Ye Lamentacon of mistres Jane Shore" (Rollins, #1452, p. 127); it is not the same as the "If Rosamund" ballad, opening "Listen, faire ladies, vnto my misery." Clearly Jane was remembered, though it's not obvious why.
Jane Shore, the wife of a London merchant, seems to have been the last great love of King Edward IV's life (though Edward IV was truly prodigal with his energies). She is said to have been charming as well as beautiful, but this simply meant that she was feared as having too much influence over the king.
Seward-Roses makes Jane Shore one of his main "viewpoint characters." According to Seward, Jane was born around 1450 (though in another of his books, Seward-Richard, p. 203, he says she "must have been in her early forties in 1483"; this, it appears to me, places her birth impossibly early). She was born "Elizabeth Lambert" (this based on recent research linking Mistress Shore with Mistress Lambert; I don't know if it is universally accepted).
Williamson, p. 42, suggests that she was called "Jane" rather than "Elizabeth" or a diminutive of the latter either to avoid confusion with the Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, or as a sort of "bed name," as actresses take stage names to protect their privacy. If the latter, it clearly didn't work too well. Ashdown-Hill, p. 166, has a different explanation: since she was generally called "Mistress Shore," after her first husband's name, "by the sixteenth century her real first name seems to have been completely forgotten, and in 1609, when Beaumont and Fletcher produced their play, Knight of the Burning Pestle, they could find no record of it, so they invented Jane Shore to give the character a name on stage." The difficulty with the latter explanation is that it obviously fails to explain the 1603 Stationer's Register reference to Jane Shore.
Elizabeth Lambert's father John Lambert was a London alderman. This is about all we can derive from ordinary records. Most of the rest of what we know about Elizabeth "Jane" Lambert Shore comes from Thomas More's The History of Richard III. This is an extremely controversial source, and one containing many errors of fact, but since Shore was still alive when it was written, it may perhaps have some value here. I'm referring to the text of More printed in NortonAnth, which supplies More's description of Jane and no other part of the history (perhaps because the editors didn't want to have to deal with all the arguments about this history).
Jane's surname, it is generally accepted, came from her husband William Shore, a successful mercer who was probably at least ten years older than his wife (Seward-Roses, p. 88). They were divorced in 1476 (Seward-Roses, pp. 225-231; More, in the first of the three long paragraphs of the account in NorthonAnth, says merely that "her husband dwelled not with her," adding in his second paragraph that she was "very well married, saving somewhat too soon").
Then she took up with Edward IV. Edward was an incredibly lusty liege (I know of no complete count of his bastards, but there must have been a lot of them); at one point he boasted of three mistresses at once, "one the merriest, one the wiliest, and one the holiest harlot in his realm" (paragraph 2 of More in NortonAnth). Jane Shore, according to More, was the first of these; in her "the King therefore took special pleasure. For many he had, but her he loved" (More, paragraph 2; cf. Cheetham, p. 205, which punctuates the passage rather differently).
When Edward IV died, his friend Lord Hastings seems to have become involved with Mistress Shore, but Richard III soon had Hastings executed. From that time on, Shore had no protector. (It can't have helped that Hastings apparently used Shore as a go-between to Elizabeth Woodville, the Queen of Edward IV, who was Richard's strongest enemy; see Jenkins, pp. 162-163.) The Marquess of Dorset, Elizabeth Woodville's son by her first marriage and hence Edward IV's stepson, apparently wanted her too (Seward-Roses, p. 269), but as an obvious enemy of Richard III, he had no influence.
Richard's persecution of Jane was severe and probably unfair ("he spoiled her of all that she ever had, above the value of two or three thousand marks, and sent her body to prison.... [H]e caused the Bishop of London to put her to open penance, going before the cross in procession upon a Sunday with a taper in her hand" -- so More, paragraph 1; the carrying of a taper was the standard punishment of a harlot). Rather puritanical himself, and (despite Shakespeare) seemingly devoted to Edward IV, Richard seems to have blamed Shore for much of Edward's dissipation, which resulted in Edward's death at about 40. Nonetheless, as Williamson, p. 72, points out, this was a light penalty if, as some have argued, he thought her guilty of treason by being a go-between between Hastings and the dowager Queen Elizabeth Woodville.
Jenkins, p. 166, reports that "on a Sunday, wearing nothing but her kirtle, she was led barefoot through the streets, a taper in her hand. More... says that first she was very pale but the gaze of the crowds made her blush, and 'she went so fair and lovely, her great shame won her much praise among those that were more amorous of her body than concerned for her soul." (The cynical part of me can't help but note that More's presumed source, Bishop Morton of Ely, was a celibate Catholics. Just who was doing the lusting here?)
After the fall of Richard III, she took one Thomas Lynom (listed by Seward-Roses, p. 16, as Richard's solicitor) as her second husband. According to Williamson, p. 73, Richard actually wrote a letter approving this match, although the message expressed surprise and tried to talk Lynom out of it.
Jane Shore apparently did become a byword for beauty, although probably more for reasons of chronology than because she was in fact exceptionally good-looking; see the notes to "Robin Hood and Maid Marian" [Child 150].
It is not likely that this or any other Jane Shore ballad went into tradition, but there seem to have been enough of them that they deserve an entry here. The main reference is to the "If Rosamund that was so fair" text sometimes listed as by Thomas Deloney (who, however, gets a lot of semi-traditional material attributed to him); the cross-references are to other Jane Shore pieces. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: Percy263

Jane, Jane

DESCRIPTION: "Hey, hey, Jane, Jane, My Lordy, Lord, Jane, Jane, I'm gonna buy, Jane, Jane, Three mocking birds, Jane, Jane, One a-for to whistle...." "I'm gonna buy... Three hunting dogs... Three muley cows... Three little blue birds...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: bird playparty nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 392, "Jane, Jane" (1 text)
File: FSWB392A

Jane, Jane, Your Singing's Productive of Pain

DESCRIPTION: "Jane, Jane, your singing's productive of pain, It jars like the brake of a train, It rattles like hailstones and rain. Your vocal vagaries have killed the canaries, Oh, Jane, Jane, Jane!" "O Wind from the South Blow some mud in the mouth of Jane..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: music bird | insult singing
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 155, "Jane, Jane, your singing's productive of pain" (1 text)
Roud #25546
NOTES [109 words]: It appears that some form of this was known to G. K. Chesterton. At least, trying to find out something about it, I found this in an online edition of Chesterton's "Sidelights on New London and Newer York And Other Essays" (1932):
"They had a grotesque energy that has hardly been heard since the Elizabethans, as in that beautiful but forgotten lyric in which a young lady named Jane is told that her 'vocal vagaries have killed the canaries and druv the gas back to the main' -- an image of startling force, as is the wild appeal of the poet in an echo of the Song of Solomon:
O Wind from the South
Blow some mud in the mouth
Of Jane, Jane, Jane."
- RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC155A

Janet

See Lady Maisry [Child 65] (File: C065)

Janet and Tam Blain

See Tam Lin [Child 39] (File: C039)

Janet Jamieson

DESCRIPTION: Listeners are warned of the sad fate of Janet Jamieson. A rich hunter sees the beautiful girl and begs her to come with him. At last he convinces her -- but a week later casts her out. She wanders alone, then dies. He is killed in Hindustan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction betrayal abandonment death soldier exile warning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #116, p. 1, "Janet Jamieson" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1152, "Janet Jamieson" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 470-471, "Janet Jamieson" (1 text)
Roud #5623
NOTES [21 words]: This song has the curious characteristic of being a warning song that doesn't really warn against any particular action. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord470

Janet She Cam' Doon the Gait

DESCRIPTION: "Janet she cam' doon the gait To borrow elaeven eggs fae Pate Her muckle tappit hen to set The cock was but a gawpie [Greig/Duncan8: fool]"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: chickens
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1881, "Janet She Cam' Doon the Gait" (1 fragment)
Roud #13574
NOTES [119 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
Considering the fragment we have I would have thought the cock more likely to be a capon, either literally or figuratively. - BS
Several versions of "The Baffled Knight" [Child 112], mostly Scottish in my experience, have verses about unproductive chickens. The Digital Tradition version, for instance, has one which reads
There is a cock in our father's barn, he never trod a hen
He flies about and flaps his wings, I think you're one of them.
Another one talked about a "likely hen... That clucked and clucked and clucked again But neer an egg would lay." This probably isn't related, but it would seem this was a rather common concern in Scotland. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81881

Janey Ferguson

See The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)

Janey Mac

DESCRIPTION: "Janey Mac, My shirt is black, What'll I do for Sunday? Go to bed, And cover your head, And don't get up Till Monday."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: clothes colors | bed
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 171, "Janey Mac" (1 text)
Roud #19356
NOTES [20 words]: I wonder if this isn't a worn-down by-blow of "Mary Mack (I)," but the ending is different enough that I split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI171

Janey on the Moor

See Janie of the Moor [Laws N34] (File: LN34)

Janie of the Moor [Laws N34]

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets Janie and proposes marriage. She says that she has promised to remain true to her love Dennis Ryan/Riley. He pulls out Dennis's ring and says he has died in battle. She faints; she revives when he reveals that he is Dennis
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1862 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3134))
KEYWORDS: courting brokentoken
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 20, 1854 - Battle of Alma (Crimean War). The Anglo/French/Turkish forces win an expensive victory over the Russians
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Laws N34, "Janie of the Moor"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 89, "Jennie on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 125, "Janie on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan5 1050, "Jeannie on the Moor" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H107, p. 320, "Jennie of the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople, p. 235, "Sweet Jenny of the Moor" (1 fragment)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 70-71, "Sweet Jinny on the Moor" (1 text)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 61, "Janey on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 66, "Janie on the Moor" (2 texts)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 96, "Dennis Ryan" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 58, "Sweet Jenny of the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors,p. 143, "Jenny of the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2271, p. 153, "Sweet Jenny of the Moor" (1 reference)
DT 461, JANEMOOR
Roud #581
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Peter Mushrow, "Fair Jenny on the Moor" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3134), "Sweet Jenny of the Moor," E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1855-1861; also Firth b.25(286), "Sweet Jenny of the Moor"; Harding B 16(336a), Firth c.12(287), Harding B 11(1864), Harding B 11(1865), "Jenny of the Moor"
LOCSinging, as203560, "Sweet Jenny of the Moor," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also sb40502a, Firth b.25(177), "Sweet Jenny of the Moor"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there, especially N29
NOTES [172 words]: The texts seem rather uncertain as to the battle in which Dennis didn't get himself killed. The Sam Henry text mentions Alma, a battle of the Crimean War. Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia's Nova Scotia text mentions "Vendons Town"; I cannot find this in either the history or the atlas, unless it is an error for something such as Vendome. - RBW
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland has Dennis "fighting with the allied boys" while Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast has it "in a battle of Nor Amerikay." Some of the Bodleian broadsides simply mention "while in the war while fighting" but others -- as well as the America Singing copies -- do refer to "fighting at the Alma." Since I can't definitely date a "while in the war" broadside before the Crimean War I can't say which is the older version.
Broadside LOCSinging as203560: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LN34

Janie on the Moore

See Janie of the Moor [Laws N34] (File: LN34)

Janie Sharp Ballet, The

DESCRIPTION: After leaving "sin's way" at 16, Janie Sharp made friends with all she met, but at 18 "by criminal beast her journey ceased." The singer theorizes about her last hours, thinking she warned the murderer, was killed, and taken to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi)
KEYWORDS: homicide rape
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 68, pp. 194-195, "The Janie Sharp Ballet" (1 text)
Roud #4115
NOTES [109 words]: Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi reports, "Some thenty-five or thirty years ago [i.e. c. 1910] a young girl named Janie Sharp was brutally murdered in the Rural Hill neighbourhood near French Camp. Her former lover, Swinton Permenter, was charged with the murder and was prosecuted on circumstantial evidence, but was not convicted."
Hudson also comments that is was "A poor composition, perhaps, at the outset," and hardly improved by some years of garbling. I'd have to agree; the result is at once poor in style, weak in detail, and monotonous in its description of Janie's hypothesized transport to heaven.
This is item dF43 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Hud068

January, February, March

DESCRIPTION: "January, February, March, Stiffen your whiskers with starch"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: hair | calendar whiskers starch
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 28, "(January, February, March)" (1 short text)
Roud #20698
File: PKKB048J

Jarvis the Coachman

DESCRIPTION: Jarvis the coachman is hired at night by some men to go to a gibbet where a man is hanging. They hoist Jarvis up the gibbet to release, they say, the hanging man, but steal Jarvis's horses and coach and leave him hanging. Finally Jarvis is rescued
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.18(158))
KEYWORDS: robbery rescue trick execution
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 258-259, "Jarvis the Coachman" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 359)
Roud #1312
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.18(158)[some words clipped], "Jarvis the Coachman's Happy Deliverance from the Gibbet" ("O my name is Jarvis, well known") , J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Johnson Ballads 2590, Harding B 16(117b), "Jarvis the Coachman's Happy Deliverance from the Gibbet"
NOTES [19 words]: The last two lines of most verses: "But, had I known their design, The Devil should have drove them, not me." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT258

Jawbone Song, The

DESCRIPTION: ""Dance all night with a bottle in my hand/Just 'fore day give the fiddler a dram." "Jawbone walk and jawbone talk/Jawbone eat with a knife and fork" "My old Miss is mad at me, Cause I wouldn't live in Tennessee" 'I laid that jawbone on the fence...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: music marriage nonballad nonsense floatingverses dancetune
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 259, "The Jawbone Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 222-223, "The Jawbone Song" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 259)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 103, (no title) (1 fragment, without the chorus); also p. 103, "Dweley" (1 text, a collection of floating verses including one from this song, one from "Crawdad," and others); also p. 104, "Lula Gal" (1 text, 1 tune, at least partly this song though the chorus appears to be something else)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 246, "Give the Fiddler a Dram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 120, "The Jawbone Song" (2 texts, 1 tune; one verse of "B" appears to come from something else)
Roud #7728 and 3657
RECORDINGS:
Carter Bros. & Son, "Old Joe Bone," "Give the Fiddler a Dram" (both on OKeh 45289, 1929; "Old Joe Bone" on StuffDreams2)
Willie Chapman, "Jaw Bone" [instrumental] (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Crazy Hillbillies Band, "Danced All Night with a Bottle in My Hand" (OKeh 45575, 1934)
Clayton McMichen & his Georgia Wildcats, "Give the Fiddler a Dram" (Joe Davis 3510, n.d.)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Old Joe Bone" (on NLCR13, NLCRCD2)
Pope's Arkansas Mountaineers, "Jaw Bone" (Victor 21577, 1928)
Stripling Brothers, "Dance All Night with a Bottle In My Hand" (Vocalion 5395, 1930)
Gid Tanner & Riley Puckett, "Alabama Gal Give the Fiddler a Dram" (Columbia 119-D, 1924)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Dance All Night with a Bottle in your Hand" (Columbia 15108-D, 1926)
Tennessee Ramblers, "Give the Fiddlers a Dram" (Vocalion 5363, 1929)
Tweedy Brothers, "Dance All Night with a Bottle in your Hand" (Supertone 9174, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Yellow's Dead" (chorus format)
NOTES [127 words]: I'm including versions of "Give the Fiddler a Dram/Dance All Night With a Bottle In Your Hand" here, because many of them share the same tune and several verses. A case could be made for splitting as well, but in practice the two branches of the family are hard to distinguish. - PJS
This is an instance where, unusually, Roud does not lump; "Jawbone" is Roud #7728 and "Give the Fiddler a Dram" is #3657. But Paul has heard far more of the 78 recordings than I have. My initial description of "Jawbone" was as follows:
"My old Miss is mad at me, Cause I wouldn't live in Tennessee, Wah-jaw-bone to my jangle lang, An' a wah-jaw-bone to my jangle lang." "I laid that jawbone on the fence, An' I ain't seen that jawbone since. Wah-jaw-bone to my jangle lang...." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: R259

Jay Gould's Daughter

See Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)

Jay Legg

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you true brave river boys... We've lost one of our river boys, And the one we love so well." His wife shoots Jay on a Friday night. His boy asks his mother why she did it. She says it was an accident. She is imprisoned even so
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (collected from Maggie Hammons Parker, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: death homicide husband wife children
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 10, 1904 - Shooting of Jay Legg by his wife Sarah Ann. She will be convicted of murder, but the conviction will be overturned on appeal
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 51-54, "The Murder of Jay Legg" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 219-220, "Jay Legg" (1 text)
Roud #7030
NOTES [162 words]: The Historical Note is based on information in Cohen. Records from the 1900 U. S. census list James R. Legg as being born April 1879 in West Virginia and living at that time in the Buffalo District of Clay County, West Virginia (which is along the Elk River). His wife Sara A. Legg was born December 1880, also in West Virginia. (A record at FamilySearch.org says her married name was Sarah Ann Dickey.) The census taker estimated they were married in 1899, even though they had a daughter, Dona J. Legg, born June 1898. Records at FamilySearch.org indicate another child, John Sherren Legg, who presumably was born after the 1900 census recorded the family. FamilySearch.org concurs that Jay Legg died in 1904 but lists his birth date as 1878 (this sort of confusion occurs in a lot of census records, when the census-taker simply recorded the person's age at the time of recording, not the date of birth).
FamilySearch.org says that Sarah Ann Dickey lived until 1975. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: CAFS1219

Jay-Bird Song or Chant, The

See Jaybird Died With the Whooping Cough (File: Br3153A)

Jaybird Died With the Whooping Cough

DESCRIPTION: "Jaybird died with the whoopingcough, Sparrow died with the colic, On came a frog with a fiddle on his back, Inquiring the way to the frolic." Other verses tell other stories about the lives of other birds, or perhaps predators or other animals
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: bird death disease nonballad | blue jay whooping cough
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 153, "The Jaybird" (4 short texts, of which "B" and "C" are this piece; "D" is "The Jaybird"; "A" mixes the two)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 187, "Jaybird Died With the Whooping Cough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 105, "Jaybird" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #19, p. 13, "The Jay-Bird Song or Chant" (1 short text, which looks like it was inspired by this although only a fragment)
Roud #748
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Buckeye Jim" (lyrics)
cf. "Old Cow Died of Whooping Cough" (theme)
NOTES [43 words]: Internet sources report that whooping cough is a human disease which cannot be transmitted to and from animals (let alone birds), but that there are conditions which can result in a mammal coughing in a similar way. I've never heard a bird cough, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Br3153A

Jaybird Sitting on a HIckory Limb

DESCRIPTION: ""A jaybird sitting on a hickory limb, All around over to Jordan, I upped with a rock and hit him on the shin, Oh, Jerusalem!" "Shine on, shine on, All across over to Jordan, Shine on, shine on, Oh, Jerusalem!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad injury bird
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 182, "Jaybird Sitting on a Hickory Limb" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #4618
NOTES [50 words]: Roud files this with "Jim Along Josie." It is certainly composed of elements common in other songs, but I don't see that particular link. I'm filing it separately until a clear source comes along; it's probably a couple of fragments that Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric's informant accidentally lumped. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne182

Jaybird Up a Simmon Tree

See Bile Them Cabbage Down (File: LoF269)

Jaybird, The

DESCRIPTION: Songs about the exploits about the jaybird and how it cheekily survives, e.g. "The jaybird a-setting of a swinging limb, He winked at me and I winked at him, He laugh at me when my gun 'crack.' It kick me on the flat o' my back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Talley)
KEYWORDS: bird humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 153, "The Jaybird" (4 short texts, of which ""D" is this piece; "B" and "C" are "Jaybird Died With the Whooping Cough; "A" mixes the two)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 190-191, (no title) (2 fragments, the first having the verse of "The Jaybird" and the chorus of "The Blue-Tail Fly" [Laws I19])
NOTES [53 words]: Although I doubt the author of this song knew this, jays are a member of the bird family corvidae -- crows, ravens, magpies, jays. This is generally considered the most intelligent group of birds, although jays (which are not social birds) don't seem to me to be nearly as clever as the highly social crows and ravens.
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Br3153B

Jaybird's Altar, The (I've Been to the East)

DESCRIPTION: "I've been to the east, I've been to the west, I've been to the jaybird's altar, But the prettiest girl I ever seen Was Temmie Slinkard's daughter."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (JAFL 24)
KEYWORDS: courting travel
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 574, "The Jaybird's Altar" (1 text)
Roud #7664
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailor Laddie (I)" (lyrics)
File: R574

Jaybirds Gave a Concert Free

DESCRIPTION: "Jaybirds gave a concert free, Up in the boughs of a maple tree, Ha ha ha." If there is any more, it has been lost.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: bird music
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 186, "Jaybirds Gave a Concert Free" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #11371
File: Brne186

Je Caresserai La Belle Par Amitie

DESCRIPTION: French. "J'ai fait une belle trois jours (x3), mais c'est pas longtemps." The singer found his love three days ago, and will visit her Monday. If she turns into a trout, nightingale, etc., he will become a fisherman, etc. to pursue her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from Elida Hofpauir)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation magic
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 184-187, "Je Caresserai La Belle Par Amitie" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Twa Magicians" [Child 44] (theme of transformations) and references there
File: LoS184

Je Donneraies Versailles

See Aupres De Ma Blonde (File: FSWB329A)

Jealous Brother, The (The Jealous Lover)

DESCRIPTION: When Mary "dressed herself in men's attire" to meet Jimmie, he mistakes her for his brother whom, he assumed, had been "to enjoy my dear." He shoots Mary. When he realizes Mary is dying he shoots himself, saying "be ye ware of jealousy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: jealousy courting homicide suicide cross-dressing
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 103, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2706
File: CrMa103

Jealous Brothers

See The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)

Jealous Husband Outwitted, The

DESCRIPTION: A (hosier) from Leicester has "a handsome witty wife," but he does not trust her, and threatens to set her aside. She disguises herself as the devil, and with the help of two boys, frightens him so much that he never dares mistreat her again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869
KEYWORDS: husband wife trick disguise Devil
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 385-387, "The Jealous Husband Outwitted" (1 text)
DT 452, KATEHRN3*
ST Log385 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kate and Her Horns" [Laws N22] (plot)
cf. "The Lawyer and Nell" (plot)
NOTES [64 words]: The Digital Tradition editors consider this to be a version of Laws N22, "Kate and Her Horns." There is the obvious similarity that both involve the woman disguising herself as the Devil. However, the motivation (in "Kate," the woman is betrayed BEFORE marriage), method, and ending all differ. This song may have been inspired by Laws N22 (or vice versa), but they are not the same. - RBW
File: Log385

Jealous Lover (I), The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C]

DESCRIPTION: The jealous lover lures (Florella/Pearl Bryan) into the woods with the promise that they will discuss wedding plans. Once there, he stabs her. When captured, he is imprisoned for life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: homicide prison jealousy death lover
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 1, 1896 - Discovery of the headless body of Pearl Bryan, killed along with her unborn child by Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling, near Fort Thomas, Kentucky
1901 - Murder of Ella Maude "Nellie" Cropsey, presumably by her former lover Jim Wilcox
FOUND IN: US(All) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (52 citations):
Laws F1, "The Jealous Lover (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 324-330, "Florella (The Jealous Love)" (2 full texts plus 7 fragments which may be this piece and references to 9 others, 2 tunes)
Randolph 138, "The Jealous Lover" (7 texts plus 3 excerpts, 4 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 158-161, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 138A)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 104, "The Murdered Girl" (8 texts, 2 tunes; the D and E texts apparently belong here)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 21, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text plus an excerpts and mention of 2 more, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 310-313, "Florella" (1 text, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 158-161, "Pearl Bryant" (2 texts, 1 tune, the first a "Pearl Bryan" type, the second being a general "Florella" type)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 146, "Sweet Fair Ella" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 67, "Fair Florella" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 287-288, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, pp. 53-54, "Pearl Bryan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 250, "Florella (The Jealous Lover)" (5 texts plus 7 excerpts, 2 framents, and mention of 9 more; Laws places the "A", "B", "C" (apparently), "H," and "L" texts with F1A and "U" with F1B)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 250, "Florella (The Jealous Lover)" (8 excerpts, 8 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 64, "Nell Cropsey, IV" (1 text plus 2 fradments, 2 tunes, apparently a local adaption to the Nell Cropsey story, for which see Nell Cropsey (I); Chappell's seem to be the only known versions of this adaption)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #35, "The Jealous Lover" (3 texts, 1 tune; the "A" and "B" texts appear to be "The Jealous Lover (II)"; the "C" text is the "Pearl Bryan" type of "The Jealous Lover (I) [Laws F1 A/BC])
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 65-66, "Edward" (1 text, probably this although it has at least hints of the "Willow Garden" versions of "Rose Connolly")
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 109, "Pearl Bryant" (1 short text, probably this though it is not long enough to be certain)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 15, "Fair Ellen" (1 text, t tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 78-79, "Floella" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 251, "Fair Ellen" (1 fragment, probably of this family though it's too short to tell)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 100-102, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 72-73, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #31, "The Jealous Lover" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 46, "Florella" (3 texts plus mention of 3 more, all of the F1A type though Laws does not list them); 61, "Pearl Bryan" (3 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 3 more; 1 tune; the "C" text is this piece (of the F1B group) while "B" are Laws F2 and Anne B. Cohen considers "A" to be a mix off Laws F2 and "Pearl Bryan (V)")
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 59-60, "The Fair Flo-ella" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 77-79, "Fair Florella" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 388-389, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text plus an excerpt)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 60-62, "Lorilla or Down In That Lonely Valley" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 180, "Florella" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 632-633, "Sweet Florella" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 31, "(Pearl Bryan)" (1 stanza)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 787-789, "Fair Florella or The Jealous Lover" (2 texts)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 85-87, "Pearl Bryan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 203, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 63D, pp. 174-175, "Pearl Bryan" (1 text)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 137-138, "[Fair Ellen]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 29-31, "Fair Florella/Pearl Bryan" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 43, pp. 101-102, "The Jealous Lover"; pp. 102-103, "The Weeping Willow" (2 texts, of which the first is "The Jealous Lover (II)" but the second could well be this)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 38, "The Jealous Lover" (5 texts plus mentions of three more; of these, Laws identifies D and E as this song, belonging to the Pearl Bryan group)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #5A-B, pp. 130-132, "The Jealous Lover," "Blue-Eyed Ellen" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune; the "A" fragment might be this or "The Jealous Lover (II)"; the "B" text is probably the latter)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 132-134, "Pearl Bryan" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 34-38, "Pearl Bryan" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #53, "The Jealous Lover"; #54, "Pearl Bryan" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 145-146, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 197-198, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W Amos Abrams, "Della Adams Bostic: Sweet Singer of Old Songs," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), pp. 139-140, "Nellie Crospie" (sic.) (1 text, some of the lyrics so different that I considered filing it as a separate song, but parts appear to be this)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Brenda Joyce Quillin, "Nell Cropsey Died -- But How?", Vol. 22, No. 2 (May 1974), pp. 50-51, "(Look down in the low green valley)" (1 text)
DT, JLSLOVR2*
ADDITIONAL: Anne B. Cohen, _Poor Pearl, Poor Girl!: The Murdered-Girl Stereotype in Ballad and Newspaper_, Publications of the American Folklore Society, Memoir Series, Volume 58, University of Texas Press, 1973, pp. 55-57, "Pearl Bryan II" (1 composite text, intended to include all common stanzas from the Pearl Bryan group of this song)
Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 204, "(The Jealous Lover)" (1 text)
Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 399-402, "Pearl Bryant" (1 text)
Roud #500
RECORDINGS:
[Richard] Burnett & Leonard Rutherford, "Pearl Bryan" (Columbia 15113-D, 1927; rec. 1926; on BurnRuth01, KMM)
Isabel Etheridge, "Nellie Cropsey" (on OBanks1)
Eugene Jemison, "Fair Florilla" (on Jem01)
David Miller, "Sweet Floetta" [Floella?] (Champion 15413, 1928/ Conqueror 7839, 1931)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lily of the West"
cf. "Pearl Bryan I" [Laws F2]
cf. "Pearl Bryan III" [Laws F3]
cf. "Pearl Bryan IV"
cf. "Nell Cropsey (I)" (subject of some versions) and references there
cf. "The Jealous Lover (II)" (subject, words, tune, everything else)
SAME TUNE:
The Philadelphia Lawyer (by Woody Guthrie) (File: Grnw283)
[The Drew Murder] (Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi, no number or title, pp. 233-234)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lone, Lone Valley
Down in a Lone Valley
The Love Valley
NOTES [584 words]: The antecedents and relationships of this ballad are immensely complex, and cannot be described here. There are many related pieces.
There is some debate over whether the ballad is in fact a "native American" piece. Although most of its present forms are uniquely American, Barry points to a connection with the British piece, "The Murder of Betty Smith." For this song, see e.g. the broadside NLScotland, L.C.Fol.73(126), "Murder of Betty Smith," Robert McIntosh (Glasgow), c.1850.
(Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety also mentions a possible connection to T. H. Bayley's "She Never Blamed Him." This seems a stretch even in the versions where the girl forgives the murderer.)
Given the number of similar songs, the reader is advised to check references under Laws F2, Laws F3, "The Jealous Lover II," etc.
Fuller details on the story of Pearl Bryan may be found in the entry on Pearl Bryan (I) [Laws F2].
Laws breaks this ballad up into three subgroups. F1A is "The Jealous Lover" (Florella, Floella, Blue-Eyed Ella, etc.); F1B is the Pearl Bryan group; F1C is the Nell Cropsey song. I decided to list all three subgroups here, however, as they differ in very little except names.
The "Pearl Bryan" versions of this song (Laws F1B) are told from other Pearl Bryan songs by a first verse similar to this:
Way down in yonder valley
There the violets fade and bloom,
There lies our own Pearl Bryan
In a cold and lonesome tomb.
For background on the Pearl Bryan murder see the notes to "Pearl Bryan (I)" [Laws F2]. Although Laws called this "Pearl Bryan II," Anne B. Cohen, Poor Pearl, Poor Girl!: The Murdered-Girl Stereotype in Ballad and Newspaper, Publications of the American Folklore Society, Memoir Series, Volume 58, University of Texas Press, 1973, p. 55, says that this is by far the most popular Pearl Bryan songs; of her 135 collected versions, which she believe represent six different songs, almost half -- 65 of 135 -- are this one.
There are a number of "Jealous Lover" texts which Laws did NOT include with this piece, many of which are filed under "The Jealous Lover (II). The best guess I can make, based on what Laws did and didn't include, is that this song does not feature the girl forgiving her murderer; in "The Jealous Lover (II)," she does. I initially split them on this basis; I'm not sure I'd do it now. - RBW
Peacock is another who believes "this is an American ballad freely based on an English broadside and a sentimental English song by T.H. Bayly called She Never Blamed Him [sic], written in the 1820's and widely popular during the American Civil War." You can read the lyrics of "She Never Blam'd Him, Never," by Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1829), on the Library of Congress American Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets site, digital id as203280. Judge the likelihood for yourself.
Here's a description of "She Never Blam'd Him, Never": He visits and she receives him, vainly trying "to look the same." Though she was dying, only losing him made "her sweet voice ... faulter." She never blamed him for luring her "from the isle where she was born" into "the cold world's cruel scorn." He leaves and "she heard the bugle's sound... and strangers found her Cold and lifeless on the ground."
In any case, T.H. Bayly's name has appeared in this index in connection with other songs [sometimes as Bayley]. What kind of poet writes songs that do pass into tradition? You can find out more about him and his songs in Andrew Lang's Essays in Little - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LF01

Jealous Lover (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The jealous lover takes his girlfriend down to the woods. (She grows weary, and asks to return home.) He (tells her she will never return home, and) stabs her. With her dying breath she forgives him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Kelly Harrell)
KEYWORDS: homicide jealousy
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 104, "The Jealous Lover" (8 texts, 2 tunes, but only the F, G, and H texts belong with this ballad; the others all go with the other ballads listed in the cross-references)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 36, p. 50, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 313-315, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 179-180, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 47, "Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 62, pp. 185-187, "The Jealous Love" (2 texts plus mention of 8 more)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #35, "The Jealous Lover" (3 texts, 1 tune; the "A" and "B" texts appear to be "The Jealous Lover (II)"; the "C" text is the "Pearl Bryan" type of "The Jealous Lover (I) [Laws F1 A/BC])
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs 47, "The Lone Green Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 43, pp. 101-102, "The Jealous Lover"; pp. 102-103, "The Weeping Willow" (2 texts, of which the first is this but the second is short and could well be Laws F1)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 38, "The Jealous Lover" (5 texts plus mentions of three more; of these, Laws identifies D and E as "The Jealous Lover (I)"; since he does not catalog the other three, it appears they belong here)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #5A-B, pp. 130-132, "The Jealous Lover," "Blue-Eyed Ellen" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune; the "A" fragment might be this or "The Jealous Lover (I)"; the "B" text is probably this song)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 51-52, "Shady Valley (The Jealous Lover)" (1 text)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 30-31, "Blue Eyed Ellen or The Jealous Lover of Lone Green Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 206-207, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 121-122, "Blue-Eyed Ellen, or The Jealous Lover of Lone Green Valley" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 122, "Come, Emily" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 104, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 198-199, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, liste by the editor as "The Jealous Lover (I) but belonging here by the criteria outlined below)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 32, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 626, JLSLOVER*
Roud #500
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Jealous Lover of Lone Green Valley" (Brunswick 143, 1927; Supertone S-2012, 1930)
Mrs. Mary Dunphy, "A Jealous Lover" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Kelly Harrell, "Blue Eyed Ella" (OKeh 7010, 1925; on KHarrell01)
Eddy Primroy, "Jealous Lover" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Posey Rorrer and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Blue Eyed Eller" (Edison, unissued, 1928)
Theresa White, "Jealous Lover" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jealous Lover (I), The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II)" [Laws F1A, B, C]
cf. "The Banks of the Ohio" [LawsF5]
cf. "The Wexford Girl" [Laws P35]
NOTES [104 words]: Given the number of similar songs, the reader is advised to check references under Laws F1, Laws F2, Laws F3, etc.
The element that most clearly distinguishes this from "The Jealous Lover (I)" is that the girl forgives the murderer. At least, that's my guess, based on the "Jealous Lover" texts Laws does not catalog.
I agree, it's a mess; Laws accuses students of persistently confusing his F1 and F2, but gives no method for distinguishing them, and does not treat this close relative at all! If it were me, I'd lump the Jealous Lover songs; even if they originated separately, they trade verses at an incredible rate. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: E104

Jealous Lover (III), The

See Oxford City [Laws P30] (File: LP30)

Jealous Lover (IV), The

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Jealous Lover (V), The

See The Jealous Brother (The Jealous Lover) (File: CrMa103)

Jealous Lover (VI), The

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Jealous Lover of Lone Green Valley, The

See The Jealous Lover (II) (File: E104)

Jealous Sister, The

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Jealous Woman, The

See An Sgeir-Mhara (The Sea-Tangle, The Jealous Woman) (File: K003)

Jealousy

See Oxford City [Laws P30] (File: LP30)

Jean and Caledonia

See Caledonia (III -- Jean and Caledonia) (File: FVS237)

Jean and Her Sailor Lad

DESCRIPTION: Jean loves a sailor but he leaves for sea without marrying. When he returns she shuns him, saying she's being courted by a tailor, a ploughman, and a farmer. The sailor ridicules those professions and said he'd go to sea again. She calls him back.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: love reunion separation sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 58, "Jean and Her Sailor Lad" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #5811
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sailor Lad
There Was a Lass
NOTES [67 words]: Greig/Duncan1: "Learnt in Culsalmond fifty years ago. Noted December 1906."
The comparison with other professions is similar to other songs that compare professions. The sailor says "What can your silly tailor do But sit an shoo a cloot When I can go to my high top-mast An turn my ship aboot" and "What can your silly farmer do ...." so she decides "I'll tak the sailor lad An let the fairmer be." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD1058

Jean Chivas

DESCRIPTION: Jean Chivas lives at Blackton, "And a' the ill deen here aboot Jean Chivas gets the blame" "She's into a coach wi' her ain true love, And awa' to Porter Fair"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 729, "Jean Chivas" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6162
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bell Hendry (I)" (tune?, per Greig/Duncan4, and text)
cf. "Bell Hendry (II)" (tune?, per Greig/Duncan4, and text)
NOTES [58 words]: Greig/Duncan4 and Roud split "Jean Chivas" from "Bell Hendry" though its first verse is close to Greig/Duncan4 728D and its fragmentary verse is close to two lines of Greig/Duncan4 728C. The name, obviously, is changed from Bell Hendry to Jean Chivas. Locations are changed respectively from Fraserburgh and Marnin Fair to Blackton and Porter Fair. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4729

Jean Dalgarno

DESCRIPTION: "Miss Jean Dalgarno she was there A maid sae primp an' slim And fa think ye gaed hame wi' her But Arnot's shoudin sin"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: dancing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 624, "Jean Dalgarno" (1 fragment)
Roud #6064
NOTES [51 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 fragment.
The following songs are all one or two verses or fragments with a verse beginning "[so-and-so he/she] was there": "Mary Glennie," "Jean Dalgarno," "The Singing Class" and "The Auchnairy Ball." Should two or more be considered the same song? - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3624

Jean Findlater's Loon

DESCRIPTION: Jean's husband died leaving her with a son Jock who was always in trouble. At 17 he grew responsible but was thrown in jail ten days for mischief making. He joins the Life Guards, fights bravely at Waterloo, is promoted, and supports Jean handsomely.
AUTHOR: William Anderson (1802-1867) (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (_The Aberdeenshire Lintie_)
KEYWORDS: battle death farming husband children soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast 173, p. 1, "Jean Findlater's Loun" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 662, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Jean Findlater's Loon" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: The Aberdeenshire Lintie (Aberdeen, 1854 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 82-84, "Jean Findlater's Loun"
Roud #6089
File: Gr3662

Jean Francois de Nantes

See Boney (File: Doe006)

Jean o' Bannermill

DESCRIPTION: "But if ever I return again, As I do hope I will, I'll marry thee my dearest dear, Dear Jean o' Bannermill"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: love parting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1324, "Jean o' Bannermill" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7214
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan7 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71324

Jean o' Lona

DESCRIPTION: Jockie: Let me go; I'll be back before long to you and Lona. Jeannie: You may meet some other maid who will make you stop loving me. Jockie: "O but Jeannie wha will then Lead me doon the flowery glen"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: love parting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1325, "Jean o' Lona" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #7215
File: GrD71325

Jean of Ballinagarvey

DESCRIPTION: "The first place that I saw my love was Ballymoney town... " He describes "lovely Jean's" beauty, and says that all the young men love her. He wishes he had riches to share with her. He says he will do his best to win her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H822, p. 239, "Jean of Ballinagarvery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9475
File: HHH822

Jean Pirie

DESCRIPTION: The singer says it's not many days that he asked his mother "if she saw I was growin' a man." His legs and arms are too long for his breeches and coat. He stands "over sixty nine inches in hicht, And my wecht was a creelfu' o' stanes"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (_People's Journal_, according to Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: clothes nonballad youth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 653, "Jean Pirie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6082
NOTES [53 words]: Greig/Duncan3 may be a fragment. The editors do not explain the title. - BS
"Pirie" is sometimes used as an alternate spelling of "peerie," "small." So the title may mean "little Jean." Or "peerie" might mean "cunning, sly," in which case it is something like "Tricky Jean," and he's after something (like a girl?). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3653

Jean Was Fair and Jean Was Fat

DESCRIPTION: "Jean was fair And Jean was fat, She wore her hair below her had. Now what do you think of that? Fal-de-didle-dide."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: clothes hair
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 63, "(Jean was fair)" (1 text)
File: PKKB063B

Jean, Jean Had a Machine

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Jean, Jean made/had a machine, Joe, Joe, made it go, Frank, Frank, turned the crank, Out came his mother and gave him a spank, Turned him over the river bank."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (North Star Folk News, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: technology mother jumprope
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #283, "Jean, Jean Made a Machine" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 35, "(Rich, Rich, fell in the ditch)" (1 text; the following verse, "Frank, Frank, turned the crank" may be a sequel to that or might belong with this or might float)
Roud #29505
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Winnie the Witch" (lyrics)
File: AJRR283

Jean, Jean Made a Machine

See Jean, Jean Had a Machine (File: AJRR283)

Jean, Jean, Dressed in Green

See Cinderella Dressed in Yellow (File: CarMM079)

Jeanette

See Jeanette and Jeannot (File: SWMS245)

Jeanette and Jeannot

DESCRIPTION: "You are going far away from your poor Jeanette. There is no one left to love me now and you too may soon forget." The singer laments her lover's departure to be a soldier. She wishes she had the power to end war
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Jefferys (?? Jefferies (?) / Music: Charles William Glover (1806-1863)
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (performance advertisements); 1849 (Journal from the Euphrasia, according to Huntington)
KEYWORDS: love separation soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(MA)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 245-246, "Genette and Genoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 102, "Jeannette and Jeaunot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 163, "Jeanette" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 62-63, "Jeannette and Jeannot"; "Jeannot and Jeannette" (2 texts) (pp. 51-52 in the 1919 edition)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1086, p. 74, "Jeannette and Jeannot" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 58 and #3/62, p. 57 "Jeanette and Jeannot" (1 text, followed on the same page by "The Answer" to the song)
ST SWMS245 (Partial)
Roud #391
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1850 481050, "Jeanette and Jeannot" or "The Conscript's Departure," A. Fiot (Philadelphia), 1850 (text and tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry and Mary Ann (Henry the Sailor Boy)" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Firth c.12(284))
SAME TUNE:
I've Just Got in Across the Plains (File: Beld345)
The Gold Digger's Lament (File: LDC091)
California As It Is (File: LDC100)
The Mormon Car (File: LDC238)
How Sheridan Whipped Longstreet (by John Ross Dix) ("It was just before the day break, that this famous fight began") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 62; N.B. Sheridan fought Early, not Longstreet, in the Shenandoah campaign of 1864)
The Northern Girl's Song ("You are marching to the field -- to the field of dreadful fray") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 110)
Valentine & Julia ("My Julia dear, my dear wife, I'm going to the war," "written by Chas. A. Clark for Valentine L*** of Duryee's Zouaves") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 164)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Conscript's Departure
NOTES [336 words]: Huntington's notes attribute this to Charles Glover and Charles Jeffries, and date it to the late eighteenth century. This led to a dating error in earlier versions of the Index (pointed out to me by Martin Graebe, who gave me much of the information in this entry). But it seems there is much more to say.
My sources do not agree on whether the (co-)author's last name was "Jeffreys," "Jefferys," "Jeffries," or "Jefferies." His poetry was not a great success; I have located only two other poems by him. One is a response to this, "Jeannot's Answer" (for which see Hazel Felleman The Best Loved Poems of the American People, which also contains a full text of "Jeannette and Jannot") and "We Have Lived and Loved Together" (also in Felleman). The contemporary advertisements found by Graebe spell the name "Jefferys."
Charles William Glover, the author of the tune, is easier to trace; he is also credited with the tune of "The Rose of Tralee" and possibly "Kitty Tyrrell." He seems to have been a moderately successful violinist and author of show tunes.
Graebe tells me that the 1847-1848 advertisements for this piece mention "three related songs which they grouped as 'Songs of a Conscript':"
* Jeannette's Song -- "You are going far away, far away, from poor Jeanette" (Roud #391)
* Jeannot's Song -- "Cheer up, cheer up, my own Jeannette" (Roud #13856)
* Jeanette and Jeannot, Duet -- "From the field of fight returning" (Roud #V6807), also known as The Soldier's Return
"One advert claimed 'From the Palace to the cottage, these songs will force their way everywhere; they are just the thing for a world-wide popularity.'"
There are mysterious hints that there was a "Jeanette and Jeannot" song before Glover wrote his tune, which may have been the source of Huntington's date, but I cannot point to anything concrete. - RBW, MG
Broadside Bodleian, Firth b.26(472), "Answer to Jeannette and Jeannot" ("Cheer up, cheer up my own Jeannette"), J. Wilson (Bideford), n.d. is [another version of the] sequel. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SWMS245

Jeanie Shaw

See Bonnie Jeanie Shaw (File: Ord344)

Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair

DESCRIPTION: "I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair, Borne, like a vapor, on a summer's air." The singer praises her voice, her "day-dawn smile," etc., but sadly concludes, that he is "never more to find her where the bright waters flow."
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (sheet music by Firth, Pond & Co.)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 100, "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 249, "Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, p. 53, "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" (1 text)
OneTuneMore, pp. 8-9, "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 311-312, "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair"
Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 23, "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" (1 text)
DT, JEANBRWN
Roud #38034
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Dream of Jeanie
NOTES [410 words]: Jeanie was Foster's wife, Jane McDowell Foster. Had she known the uses to which her image would be put (from hair advertisements in the 1860s to idiotic television shows a century later), I can only think she would have filed for pre-emptive divorce. (As it was, the marriage was deeply troubled.)
Legman regards "Jeanie" as an adaption (he calls it plagiarism) of "To Daunton Me," found in the Scots Musical Museum (#182). But Legman often saw kinship that others do not see; Fuld says there is "no similarity between the two songs," and I have to agree that I see no points of contact between either the text or the tune. According to Howard, p. 241, if Foster was plagiarizing anyone, it was himself; the first part of the tune of "Jeanie" is quite close to "Willie We Have Missed You," which Foster (based on his working notebook) had written slightly earlier. It appears from the notebook that Foster wrote "Jeanie" while he and his wife were separated (although Morneweck, p. 451, claims it comes from one of their reconciliations), and it seems not unlikely that he wrote it because he missed her. Howard comments that it is "one of Stephen's very few successful love songs"; otherwise, Howard suggests, Foster didn't write very well about love.
Spaeth, p. 116, says of this song, "Jeanie is the song that America discovered during those incredibly dull months when radio decided that it could get along without copyrighted music. Before that it had been considered a choice bit of rather obscure Fosteriana."
TaylorEtAl, p. 111, points out that many Foster songs have a heroine whose name was a variation on Jeanie: this song, "Little Jenny Dow," "Jenny's Coming O'er the Green," "Jenny June." Could all these be tributes to Foster's wife? It wouldn't surprise me; in "Little Jenny Dow," even the last name is reminiscent of Jane's family name McDowell.
Morneweck, pp. 451-452, says that Morrison Foster, Stephen's brother, never used the name "Jeanie" of the song. "It was always 'Jennie with the Light Brown Hair,' and Jennie you will find in Stephen Foster's original manuscript book. Jane was not called Jeanie by her family, but was often addressed by the affectionate diminutive, Jennie. It is more likely that the publishers suggested to Stephen that he change it to the more euphonious and romantic Jeanie, as more appealing to public taste. But Jennie it was to Stephen, and Jennie it was to his brother Mit [i.e. Morrison]."- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB249

Jeannie and Davie

DESCRIPTION: Dialog between Davie and Jeannie. Davie: what were you thinking when you moved to my bed: "was ye tired lyin' yer lane?" Jeannie: "'Twas a' for love o' you, But I see my folly noo, It's caused me sair to rue"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: love sex dialog nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1308, "Jeannie and Davie" (1 text)
Roud #7204
File: GrD71308

Jeannie and Jamie

See Jamie and Jeanie (File: Ord108a)

Jeannie Johnston

DESCRIPTION: "There's a nice little girl lives down yonder lane." The singer would have Jane/Jeannie Johnston go with him.
AUTHOR: words by Harry Hunter, music by Walter Redmond (source: Greig/Duncan8)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1625, "Jeannie Johnston" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13005
File: GrD81625

Jeannie o' Planteenie

DESCRIPTION: Dialog. Jean, dressed as a man, asks Jamie, the shepherd, about his plans to marry. He has promised to marry someone. She encourages him to play the field. He is shocked. She reveals herself. They kiss, marry, and have "peace and plenty"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Christie)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Dialog. Stranger asks directions to Traquair. Shepherd asks what he's been about. Stranger: I've had my fill of kisses. Shepherd: I'm afraid you've left someone mourning. Stranger, changing the subject: are you married? Shepherd: No but there's one "to whom I did promise To wed her as soon as my stock I'd get free." Stranger: "Ye're foolish to bind to a woman." Shepherd: "I likit her aye since we were at ta school." Stranger: I'm in no mind to marry. I visited one girl at night when her mother was away and took her to bed. Shepherd: Curse you for that. Stranger: Why? She'd pass as a maiden with any other. Shepherd: You both deserve beating with a hazel stick. Stranger, satisfied, reveals herself as Jean. Shepherd Jamie: "Grant me a' the kisses ye have got to spare" Both: "Now we are wedded and married together"
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage cross-dressing dialog shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 167, "Jeannie o' Planteenie" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 142-143, "Jeannie o' Planteenie" (1 tune)
Roud #5829
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jamie and Jeannie
The Shepherd
The Hills o' Traquair
NOTES [46 words]: Is it just me, or does this *really* sound like a stage dialog? - RBW
Christie: "As far as the Editor has discovered through old people, "Jeannie o' Planteenie" was sung in Buchan, and, doubtless, in other parts of Scotland, during the last half of the last century [18C]." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD167

Jeannie on the Moor

See Janie of the Moor [Laws N34] (File: LN34)

Jeannie's Bawbee (Your Plack and My Plack)

DESCRIPTION: "Your plack and my plack (x3), And Je(a)nnie's bawbee." "We'll put them in the pint stoup, Pint stoup, pint stoup, We'll put them in the pint stoup, And join all three." "And that was all my Jenny had... was a bawbee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: money nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1873, "Jeannie's Bawbee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 67, "(Your plack and my plack)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, p. 204, "Jenny's Bawbie"
Roud #13579
NOTES [51 words]: Here's at least one case where the song surviving to be recorded in Greig/Duncan8 reaches beyond a Boswell rewrite. This is not at all [Alexander Boswell], Songs Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (Edinburgh, 1803 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 8-10, "Jenny's Bawbee" ("I met four chaps yon birks amang") - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: MSNR067

Jeannot and Jeannette

See Jeanette and Jeannot (File: SWMS245)

Jed Hobson

See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Jeff Davis

See The Southern Wagon (Union) (File: JHCox070)

Jeff Davis Rode a White Horse (Jeff Davis is a Gentleman)

DESCRIPTION: "Jeff Davis Rode a White Horse, Lincoln rode a mule, Jeff Davis was a gentleman, Lincoln was a fool." May be attached to floating sorts of lyrics about courting, traveling, food, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: political Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 387, "Jeff Davis Rode a White Horse" (1 fragment)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, p. 74, (no titles) (1 short text)
Roud #8813
File: Br3387

Jeff Davis's Ball

DESCRIPTION: "Far down in the South there lived Jeff Davis, He swindled his friends till they haven't a pound" and chooses secession to cure his ills. Lee invadea the north and is repulsed. Many surrender rather than have to "leave their cards at Jeff Davis's ball."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar dancing humorous soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 1-3, 1863 - Battle of Gettysburg. Robert E. Lee and his corps commanders Longstreet, Ewell, and A. P. Hill (all mentioned in the song) invade Pennsylvania and are defeated
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 260-361, "Jeff Davis's Ball" (1 text)
Roud #6601
File: TNY360B

Jeff in Petticoats

DESCRIPTION: Jefferson Davis realizes he is in danger of capture by Union troops, and decides to dress in women's clothes to escape. The Union troops scorn him, saying, "Oh! Jeffy D. You 'flow'r of chivalree... Your empire's but a tinclad skirt...."
AUTHOR: Words: George Cooper / Music: Henry Tucker
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (sheet music published by William Pond, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: cross-dressing disguise escape Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 2, 1865 - Robert E. Lee evacuates Richmond. The Confederate government flees
April 8, 1865 - Lee's surrender
May 10, 1865 - Capture of Jefferson Davis
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 343-345, "Jeff in Petticoats" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1100, p. 75, "Jeff in Petticoats" (1 references)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 151-154, "Jeff in Petticoats" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 11-12, "Jeff in Petticoats" (1 partial text)
Dime-Song-Book #16, pp. 38-39, "Jeff. in Petticoats" (1 text)
DT, JEFFPETT*
Roud #V16142
NOTES [156 words]: According to Jefferson Davis's account, he was wearing a shawl his wife had given him for warmth when he was captured by Union troops as he fled the collapse of the Confederacy. Union troops claimed he was trying to disguise himself as a woman. Although Davis's account is likely true, sarcastic Unionist songwriters could hardly leave it at that.
The notes in Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar say the words to this are by Henry Tucker and the words by George Cooper, but the sheet music I have seen reverses that -- and Cooper was a lyricist and Tucker a composer, so I'm quite sure the sheet music is right.
This song was not a great success, as far as I can tell, but in 1869, Tucker and Cooper (who had started his career penning words for Stephen Foster, without writing anything any good) produced "Sweet Genevieve," which was a distinct success. Tucker also wrote the tune for "When This Cruel War Is Over (Weeping Sad and Lonely." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Gil011

Jefferson and Liberty

DESCRIPTION: Campaign song for Thomas Jefferson, to the tune of a reel: "The gloomy night before us flies, The reign of terror now is o'er; Its gags, inquisitors and spies, Its hordes of harpies are no more. Rejoice, Columbia's sons... For Jefferson and liberty"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1801-1809 - Presidency of Thomas Jefferson
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 207-209, "Jefferson and Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 117, "Jefferson and Liberty" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 100-101, "Jefferson and Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 165, "Jefferson and LIberty" (1 text)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 38-39, "Jefferson and Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 340, "Jefferson and Liberty" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 42-43, "Jefferson and Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 292, "Jefferson And Liberty" (1 text)
DT, JEFFLIB*
Roud #4668
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Jefferson and Liberty" (on PeteSeeger05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Adams and Liberty" (concept)
cf. "Lincoln and Liberty" (concept)
SAME TUNE:
Song Sung on the Fourth of July ("Fair Independence wakes the song, Ye sons of Freedom join the lay") (Foner, pp. 9-10)
Harrison and Liberty ("From Mississippi's utmost shore") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p. 90)
NOTES [220 words]: The Jeffersonian ideal was a nation of small, independent farmers; this is alluded to in one of the verses. The "reign of terror" refers to the Alien and Sedition Acts, two pieces of Federalist policy designed to control dissent. Both passed in 1798; the former gave the President the power to arbitrarily expel foreigners while the latter made it illegal to speak against the federal government (!). Jefferson made good on his promises after the election; all victims of the Acts were freed.
Having finally sat down to read all dozen verses of this wordy piece, I must admit that listeners would probably have wanted liberty in the form of forcing the singer to just shut *up.*
Although most versions of this that I've heard list it as being to a Virginia Reel (perhaps "The Gobby-O"), the sheet music described on p. 1 of Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941 describes the first known printing as by N. G[orien] Dufief of Philadelphia. Printed in 1802, it is described as "A new song. To the air of Jefferson's March. The words by Michael Fortune."
Also, Lawrence, in addition to a fairly normal "Jefferson and Liberty" text on p. 165, on p. 163, has a song entitled "Jefferson and Liberty" which does not appear to be the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: SBoA100

Jehovah, Hallelujah

DESCRIPTION: "Jehovah, Hallelujah, the Lord will provide (x2)." "The foxes have a hole, and the birdies have a nest, The Son of Man he dunno where to lay the weary head."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus home nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 2, "Jehovah, Hallelujah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11861
NOTES [175 words]: The phrase "The Lord will provide" is proverbial, but with an interesting twist. In Genesis 22, Abraham is commanded by God to sacrifice his only (legitimate) son Isaac. Abraham takes the boy to the land of Moriah, where Isaac asks, "Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham answers, "God will provide." (Note the use of the word God, not Yahweh=The Lord). But as Abraham is about to murder his son, God intervenes and tells Abraham to sacrifice a ram he finds trapped instead. Abraham therefore names that place "Yahweh-Yireh," "Yahweh will provide," which in modern English versions is rendered "The Lord will provide."
The King James version, however, does not render the verse this way, reading instead, "And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh, as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen." Thus the first verse of this song seems to be based on a mixture of the King James rendering and an accurate rendering.
The second verse, about foxes having holes, derives from Matthew 8:20=Luke 9:58. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG002A

Jekkel Walls

DESCRIPTION: "When Jekkel walls fell down, It's no difference whar I stand... Dere's someone always ready To point de finger of scorn at me." The singer says he will "soon end at home." The singer wants others to celebrate as he celebrates in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 601, "Jekkel Walls" (1 text)
Roud #11911
NOTES [31 words]: The name "Jekkel" for "Jericho" (cf. Joshua 6) is new to me -- but we find "Shorty" Love, the informant in this case, using the same pronunciation in "Christ Was a Weary Traveler." - RBW
File: Br3601

Jellon Graeme

See Jellon Grame [Child 90] (File: C090)

Jellon Grame [Child 90]

DESCRIPTION: (Jellon Grame) murders the woman he claims to love (because she carries his child and he fears discovery/because she loves another whose child she carries). (He/her sister) raises the boy. He later reveals the murder to the boy, who kills him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: love pregnancy homicide revenge
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Child 90, "Jellon Grame" (4 texts)
Bronson 90, "Jellon Grame" (1 version)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 224-226, "Jellon Grame and Little Flower" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 121-124, "Gil Ingram" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 198, "Jellon Graeme" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 27, pp. 207-213, "Jellon Grame" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 284-286, "Jellon Grame" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 196-197, "Jellon Grame" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 49, "Jellon Grame" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 55, "Jellon Grame" (1 text)
DT 90, JELGRAEM
Roud #58
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fause Foodrage" [Child 89] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jellon Graeme
NOTES [104 words]: Davis seems to have no doubts about the authenticity of his text, the lone representative outside Scotland of a ballad with only the weakest roots in tradition even there -- this even though, as he himself admits, it has a surprising similarity to Child A. Well, if he won't question it, I will. I'm not saying it's a fake -- but I wouldn't be surprised if it were influenced by print.
David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 323, questions the authenticity of the whole ballad; he thinks it was made up by Anna Gordon Brown, influenced by Lady Wardlow's "Hardyknute." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: C090

Jellon Grame and Little Flower

See Jellon Grame [Child 90] (File: C090)

Jelly in the Dish

See Jelly on the Plate (File: AJRR284)

Jelly on a Plate

See Jelly on the Plate (File: AJRR284)

Jelly on the Plate

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Jelly on the plate (in the dish, in the bowl), Jelly on the plate, Wiggle waggle, wiggle waggle, Jelly on the plate." Other verses may refer to sausage in the pan, money on the floor, robbers in the house
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Withers)
KEYWORDS: food jumprope | jelly dish plate bowl
FOUND IN: US(MA,SW) Canada Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 86, "(Jelly on a plate)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 22, "(Jelly on a plate)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #284, "Jelly in the dish (bowl) (plate)" (1 text)
Roud #18314
File: AJRR284

Jelly-Cake

DESCRIPTION: "As I was walking near the lake/garden gate, I met a little rattlesnake; He ate so much of jelly-cake He made his little belly ache."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: food animal disease | snake indigestion
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 108, "Jelly-Cake" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 42, "(As I went by the garden gate)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #23, "As I was walking by the lake" (1 text)
File: ZiZa108B

Jem of Aberdeen

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves to rove in summer with "bonnie Jem o' Aberdeen." "Wi' joy I leave my father's cot Wi' ilka sport of glen or green ... to share the jumble lot" with Jem
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1791 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 21(55))
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 758, "Jem of Aberdeen" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6132
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 21(55), "Jem of Aberdeen" ("The tuneful lav'rocks cheer the grove"), J. Evans (London), 1791; also Johnson Ballads fol. 8 View 1 of 2, Johnson Ballads fol. 28, "Jem of Aberdeen"
NOTES [35 words]: The second verse of the Greig/Duncan4 texts is not in the Bodleian broadsides. It is the only verse with final line different from "Wi'/Of bonnie Jem o' Aberdeen"; specifically, "Oh James is always wooing me." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4758

Jemima's Goat

DESCRIPTION: Jemima lives in Port aux Basques but roams about raiding cabbage patches. When she raids Jim Bruiser's garden, Jim sends the bill to Mr. Britten for damages. Jemima asks Britten to hide her, else Bruiser will have her put in jail.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: rambling prison punishment food humorous animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18215
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Peter Mushrow, "Jemima's Goat" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [27 words]: I believe the title should be "Jemima Goat," or just "Jemima," though you don't learn till almost the end of the song that Jemima is, in fact, Mr. Britten's goat. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcJemiGo

Jemmy and Nancy

See Nancy of Yarmouth (Jemmy and Nancy; The Barbadoes Lady) [Laws M38] (File: LM38)

Jemmy Joneson's Whurry

DESCRIPTION: "Whei cowers biv the chimley reek, Begox! it's all a horney, For thro' the world aw wisht to keek... Aw thowt aw'd myek a voyage to Shiels Iv Jemmy Joneson's whurry." The singer tells of the various sights along the trip
AUTHOR: Thomas Thompson
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland); Thompson died 1816
KEYWORDS: ship travel
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 46-47, "Jemmy Johnson's Wherry" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR046 (Partial)
Roud #3061
NOTES [29 words]: Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland calls this song by two different names: The first page labels the vessel a "wherry"; all other references are to a "whurry." - RBW
File: StoR046

Jemmy O'Brien

DESCRIPTION: Jemmy O'Brien destroyed patriots. "With his dagger ... would he slaughter The husband, the wife, and the daughter." "The braggart he is now pulled down And all the great lawyers of the Crown Could not save poor Jemmy O'Brien!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (McCall's _In the Shadow of St Patrick's_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: execution political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 166, "Jemmy O'Brien" (1 fragment)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jemmy O'Brien's Minuet" (subject)
cf. "The Major" (characters)
NOTES [29 words]: Given its date, this sounds rather like a warning to those who opposed Irish independence. For the background, see the notes to "Jemmy O'Brien's Minuet" and "The Major." - RBW
File: Moyl166

Jemmy O'Brien's Minuet

DESCRIPTION: "De night before Jemmy was stretch'd" "de corps of informers and spies" commiserates with him and wonder that the Major can't save such a loyalist. The hangman finds him imagining the ghosts of his victims and their wives and orphans. He is hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (_Paddy's Resource or the Harp of Erin_(Dublin), according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: execution humorous nonballad political recitation ghost
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 166, "Jemmy O'Brien's Minuet" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jemmy O'Brien" (subject)
cf. "The Major" (characters)
cf. "The Night before Larry was Stretched" (tune)
NOTES [90 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 has his text from Dublin Paddy's Resource: a spoken narrative interspersed with verses sung to "De night before Larry was stretched" and "Welcome, welcome brother debtor." The complete heading is "Jemmy O'Brien's Minuet as performed At de Sheriff's Ridotto, No. 1, Green street."
For more on the relationship between Jemmy O'Brien and Town Major Sirr see the notes to "The Major." Jemmy O'Brien appears as an informer in "The Croppy Boy" [Laws J14] and as an incidental character in "Hevey's Mare." - BS
File: Moyl166A

Jenkin Jenkins

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Jenkin Jenkins, I'm a fireboss of renown, At three o'clock each morning I make my usual round." He searches the mine for gas hazards. He warns the mine bosses of problems in their areas, and tells the miners to work
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining warning work
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp.61-62, "Jenkin Jenkins" (1 text)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 376-377, "Jenkin Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7718
File: KPL376

Jennie Ferguson

See The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)

Jennie Jenkins

See Jenny Jenkins (File: R453)

Jennie of the Moore

See Janie of the Moor [Laws N34] (File: LN34)

Jennie on the Moore

See Janie of the Moor [Laws N34] (File: LN34)

Jennie P. King, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer "shipped in Tonawanda Some timber for to bring, From Toledo at a dollar a day On the barque the Jennie P. King." The singer describes the very mixed crew, Americans and Italians and Canadians and others. The voyage ends in Buffalo
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from Norman MacIvor by Walton)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship travel foreigner horse
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 137-139, "The Jennie P. King" (1 composite text)
Roud #19881
File: WGM137

Jennie Put the Kettle On

See Molly Put the Kettle On (Polly Put the Kettle On) (File: DarNS256)

Jennie, the Flower of Kildare

DESCRIPTION: "I am dreaming of Erin tonight and the little white cot by the sea, Where Jennie, my darling, now dwells...." The singer misses her, and is sure she is waiting for him; he hopes soon to return to Ireland to see her
AUTHOR: Words: Frank Dumont / Music: James E. Stewart
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: separation reunion love Ireland
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 81, "Jennie, the Flower of Kildare" (1 text)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 45, "Jennie, the Flower of Kildare" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1104, p. 75, "Jennie, the Flower of Kildare" (1 reference)
Roud #5767
NOTES [231 words]: Although not common in tradition, this song seems to have been popular in the 1870s; the American Memory collection at the Library of Congress has three different sheet music settings from 1873-1875, and the third one is a "transcrption" -- which generally means "a stolen version rearranged a little so we can get a cut of someone else's royalties."
Frank Dumont, according to Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, p. 91, reports, "Frank Dumont, originally a member of the Carncross [minstrel] company, eventually took charge of Philadelphia's Eleventh Street Opera House, which holds the record for continuous production of minstrel shows in America. Practically every star of black-face appeared there at some time in his career. Dumont himself was a versatile singer, author and compose, contributing much material to the shows of his day."
Douglas Gilbert, Lost Chords, p. 130, says of Dumont that he was "a sprightly writer of skits and lyrics. He wrote The Book Agent, a filthy vaudeville afterpiece that slopped around the dumps and slabs like stale beer. From it Charles Hoyt derived the immensely successful family farce, The Parlor Match.... Dumont wrote, too, the amazing song called 'The Aesthetic Girl; or Too Utterly Utter" -- amazing not only because it is one of the extremely few satirical songs of the '80s but also because it is clever...." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dean071

Jennifer Gentle

See Riddles Wisely Expounded [Child 1] (File: C001)

Jenny

DESCRIPTION: "I had a little mule, her name was Jenny, When I bought that mule she cost me plenty. But I sold that mule for one little penny, And now I have neither the penny nor Jenny."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: horse money
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 103, "Jenny" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Had a Little Pony (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "I Had a Little Pony (II)" (lyrics)
NOTES [56 words]: I don't know if it is significant, but a female donkey is called a "jenny." However, when a female donkey mates with a male horse, the result is not a mule but a "hinny"; a mule has a female horse for a mother and a male horse for a father. So this might be a sort of nonsense that only mule-breeders would be likely to appreciate. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ZiZa103C

Jenny Crack Corn

See The Blue-Tail Fly [Laws I19] (File: LI19)

Jenny Dang the Weaver

DESCRIPTION: "At Willie's wedding on the green ... At ilka country dance or reel," Jock the weaver insists on dancing with Jenny. Between dances he "cackled like a clockin hen," so she hits him. He proposes. She tells the fool not to annoy her and hits him (again?)
AUTHOR: Alexander Boswell (1775-1822) (source: Whitelaw)
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Boswell)
KEYWORDS: courting wedding rejection weaving dancing humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 15, ("Jenny dang, dang, dang") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan4 911, "Jenny Dang the Weaver" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 219, "Jenny Dang the Weaver" (1 text)
DT, JENNYDNG*
ADDITIONAL: [Alexander Boswell], Songs Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (Edinburgh, 1803 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 11-12, "Jenny Dang the Weaver" ("At Willie's wedding o' the green") [see note]
Roud #2595
NOTES [105 words]: Boswell prints each song with the title "Song" and, under that -- as if the title -- the name of the tune. This song is printed with the apparent title "Jenny Dang the Weaver." Apparently, Boswell was adapting an old song with that tune to new words.
Herd has a song with this name but a text that in no way fits the title. Is there an error? If so is it in the title or the text? (See David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, pp. 58-59, "Jenny Dang the Weaver"). The tune far predates Boswell's text; is Herd's text just some song set to the tune? - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD4911

Jenny Dear

See Nancy (I) [Laws P11] (File: LP11)

Jenny Get Your Hoe Cake Done

See Jinny Get Your Hoecake Done (File: Fus158C)

Jenny Go Gentle

See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Jenny Jane

See Jenny Jenkins (File: R453)

Jenny Jenkins

DESCRIPTION: The young man/men try to invite Jenny to the dance by asking her what color she will wear: "Will you wear the (red), O ne'er, o ne'er, o, Will you wear the red, Jenny Jenkins?" She objects to most colors, but at last may agree to one of them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823
KEYWORDS: dancing questions courting rejection clothes colors
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (29 citations):
Randolph 453, "I'll Never Wear the Red Any More" (1 fragment, related to if not part of this song)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 132-135, "Jennie Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 85, "Jenny Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 165, "Jennie Jenkins" (3 texts plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 69, "Jennie Jenkins" (2 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 69, "Jennie Jenkins" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 18-19, "Jinnie Jinkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp. 240-241, "Jennie Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 43, "Rover Jenny Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #76, "Jenny Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 129-130, "Jennie Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 164-167, "Jennie Jenkins," "Jane Jenkins" (2 texts plus some odds and ends, 1 tune; one of the texts is from the Green Mountain Songster)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 299-300, "Will You Wear the Red? or Jennie Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 260, "Will You Wear Red?" (1 frgment, 1 tune)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #71, "Jennie Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 39, pp. 69-71, "Jilly Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 206-207, "Jenny Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 118-119, "Jenny Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 16-18, "Jennie Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune, plus some verses from "Jenny Jones (Jennie Jo)" or some such)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 15, "Jennie Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 65, "Will You Wear Red?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 58, p. 259, "(Jennie Jenkins)" (1 fragment)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 48-49, "Jenny Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 11, "Jenny Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 346, "Jenny Jenkins" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 37, "Jennie Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, "Jennie Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 39, "Jennie Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JJENKINS JJENKIN2
Roud #731
RECORDINGS:
E. C. & Orna Ball, "Jennie Jenkins" (AFS 8, 1941; on LC02 [the latter listed as by Mr & Mrs. Estil C. Ball])
Warde Ford, "Jinnie Jenkins" (AFS 4198 B4, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Jinnie Jenkins" (Folkways FP 40, c. 1952) (on BLLunsford02)
Margaret MacArthur, "Jenny Jenkins" (on MMacArthur01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Jennie Jenkins" (on NLCR10)
Frank Proffitt, "Julie Jenkins" (on Proffitt03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hey Bonnie May, wi' Yer True Lovers Gay" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jillie Jenkins
NOTES [154 words]: Often used as a courting game. The boy will ask the girl if she will wear a particular color. She is required to answer in rhyme (e.g. "Will you wear the blue... No, I won't wear the blue, for the color isn't true"). If she fails, she must kiss the boy or, perhaps, go to the dance with him.
This has been known to produce some rather strange rhymes -- "I won't wear purple; it's the color of a turtle"; "Orange I won't wear -- and it rhymes, so there!" "Oh, what do you care If I just go bare?" - RBW
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGames: "And at some time, long ago, a song-writer in America turned it ['Jenny Jones'] into the song 'Jennie Jenkins.'" - BS
This is of course possible; certainly "Jenny Jenkins" appears to be primarily if not exclusively American. But given that "Jenny Jenkins" is attested at least as early as "Jenny Jones," I don't think we can be absolutely assured that the dependence is in the direction given. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: R453

Jenny Jo

See Jenny Jones (Jennie Jo) (File: Lins026)

Jenny Jones (Jennie Jo)

DESCRIPTION: "We've come to see (Miss) (Jenny/Ginnie/Jennia) (Jones/Jan), Miss Jenny Jones, Miss Jenny Jones, We've come to see... And how is she today?" Mother answers she is busy/sick/dead. The discuss what color she shall wear
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Robert Chambers, _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty disease courting children colors
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Ont) Ireland West Indies(Jamaica) New Zealand
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1597, "Georgina" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 77, "Jinny Jan" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 26-30, "Jennia Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 20, "Jenny Jo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 76, "Jinny Jo" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #121, "Miss Jennie Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 58, "Jenny Jones" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #11, "Miss Jennia Jones" (1 text plus excerpts); #174, "Miss Jenny Jones" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 132-133, "Miss Jennie O. Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 111, "Water My Flowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 508, "Jennie Jones" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 226, "I've Been to See Miss Jenny-Mae-Jo" (1 text)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 16-18, "Jennie Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune, plus some verses from "Jenny Jones (Jennie Jo)" or some such)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 27-28, "(We've come to see Jenny Jones, Jenny Jones)" (1 text plus variants)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Jean Olive Heck, "Folk Poetry and Folk Criticism, as Illustrated by Cincinnati Children in Their Singing Games and Their Thoughts about These Games," Vol. XL, No. 155 (Jan 1927), #7 pp. 11-12 ("We come to see Miss Jennia Jones") (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, F.W. Waugh, "Canadian Folk-Lore from Ontario," Vol. XXXI, No. 119 (Jan 1918), #633 pp. 50-51 ("We come to see Miss Jenny Ann Jones") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Martha Warren Beckwith and Helen Roberts, _Folk-Games of Jamaica_ (Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1922 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #36 pp. 45-46, "I Come to See Jennie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olive Lewin, "Rock It Come Over" - The Folk Music of Jamaica (Barbados: The University of the West Indies Press, 2000), pp. 67-68, "I Come to See Janie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olive Lewin, Forty Folk Songs of Jamaica (Washington: General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, 1973), pp. 49-51, "Come to See Janie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1047
RECORDINGS:
Janie Hunter and her children, "Water My Flowers" (BeenStorm1)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jinny Jan
Ginny Jones
Jenny Ann Jones
We've Come to See Miss Jennie Jones
NOTES [114 words]: Newell and Linscott both trace the name of this song to "Jennie Jo," a title which survives in Scotland. Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, whose version describes Jennia's death and is a discussion of the clothes in which she shall be buried, ends with Jennia coming to life and trying to snatch one of the audience, who then becomes her mother for the next round of the game.
Paul Stamler asks if, given the catalog of colors mentioned in the song, it might not be somehow connected with "Jenny Jenkins." I see his point, but this song feels very different somehow -- in this song, our heroine is never even seen. Sort of Jenny Jenkins meets the mother in "The Lass of Roch Royal." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Lins026

Jenny Marshall's Candy O

DESCRIPTION: "When going along the Nethergate, There's naught can be so handy o As drapping in to get a stick of Jenny Marshall's candy, O." The candy is not expensive. Men and women both come to buy it
AUTHOR: Robert Leighton (1822-1869) (source: Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Martin, Dundee Worthies, according to Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 47, "Jenny Marshall's Candy O" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Gath047

Jenny Nettles

DESCRIPTION: Have you seen Jenny Nettles coming from the market, baggage on her back, wages in her lap, and baby under her arm? The singer meets her singing to her baby, Robin Rattle's bastard. To flee the grief and mocking, she seeks Robin to put it under his arm.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1733 (Ramsay)
KEYWORDS: grief sex nonballad bastard
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1725, "Jeanie Nettle" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, p. 60, "Jenny Nettles"
Allan Ramsay, The Poems of Allan Ramsay (Paisley, 1877 (reprint of 1800 edition) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, #85 pp. 218-219, "Jenny Nettles"
Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scots Sangs (in three vols) (London, 1733 (ninth edition) ("Digitized by Google")), p. 194, "Jenny Nettles"
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume I, #52, p. 53, "Jenny Nettles" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST GrD81725 (Partial)
Roud #2581
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(115), "Robin Rattle's Bastard" ("Saw ye Jenny Nettles"), William Anderson (Paisley), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(001), "Robin Rattle's Bastard," William Anderson (Paisley), c.1852
NOTES [156 words]: The description follows Herd's version. Ramsay adds a verse shaming Robin Rattle and saying "without mair debate o't," take home your baby and make Jenny happy. The broadside form is Ramsay's.
Broadsides NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(001) and Bodleian 2806 c.14(115) are duplicates.
.".. in the middle of a moor near Kilgour, is the grave of Jenny Nettles, who has given name to a lively Scotch air and an old song, beginning, 'Saw ye Jennie Nettles coming through the market.' The unfortunate heroine was a native of Falkland, and famed for her great beauty. When Rob Roy took possession of Falkland after the battle of Sheriffmuir [1715], one of his soldiers courted Jenny and then deserted her, and she, in a fit of despair, hanged herself on a tree at the side of the road, about half-way between Falkland and Strathmigle." (source: The History and Scenery of Fife and Kinross (Edinburgh, 1875 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 108-109) - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: GrD81725

Jenny of the Moor

See Janie of the Moor [Laws N34] (File: LN34)

Jenny Penny

DESCRIPTION: Insults in rhyme to those who are skinny. "Jenny penny, Stick, stenny, Cry old bobtail, Skinny old Jenny."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 130, (Jenny penny)" (1 short text)
File: SuSm130B

Jenny Saviour, The

DESCRIPTION: Francis Kenny ships on Jenny Saviour "to fish the banks of Newfoundland." Near Sable Island he is swept overboard in a gale. The crew see him drown: "it was too rough to lower a boat for his young life to save"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: drowning fishing sea ship storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 115, "The Jenny Saviour" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB115 (Partial)
Roud #2783
NOTES [20 words]: Sable Island, Nova Scotia, about 23 miles long, is about 110 miles, at its nearest point, from the Nova Scotia coast. - BS
File: CrSNB115

Jenny Wren

See Little Jenny Wren (File: DCCR041B)

Jenny Wren Bride

DESCRIPTION: "I've just come away from the wedding... I'll never forget the relations I met When I married by Jenny Wren bride." The family gives the bride gifts liberated from the dockyards where they work. Some in the pews hint at too-close relations with the bride
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor wedding marriage derivative theft
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 72-73, "Jenny Wren Bride" (1 text, tune referenced)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 175-176, "Jenny Wren Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brand-BawdySeaSong 10, "Jinny Wren Bride" (1 text)
Roud #8345
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean" (tune)
File: Tawn056

Jenny's Bawbee

See Jeannie's Bawbee (Your Plack and My Plack) (File: MSNR067)

Jerdan

See Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel (I) (File: R305)

Jeremiah of Bartibogue

DESCRIPTION: Jeremiah from Bartibogue gets a job at Billy Muirhead's saw-mill in Chatham. He dresses "to the tip of fashion" He takes up politics, unsuccessfully. He is "forced to leave Chatham" and falls "to this low station, Cooking for Casey on Sprigman's Hill"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: vanity clothes work humorous political cook
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 24, "Jeremiah of Bartibogue" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi024 (Partial)
Roud #9190
NOTES [130 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "The official spelling of this river and settlement is Bartibog, but the old inhabitants spell it Bartibogue, and it is so pronounced." - BS
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi also note that, while the author of this is unknown, it "resembled Martin Sullivan's productions." Sullivan also wrote "The Bluebird."
The song lists Jeremiah as supporting Peter Mitchell. Mitchell was a New Brunswick legislator who became a Father of Confederation, so presumably the song was written in the second half of the nineteenth century. Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi, p. 35, claims that the following jingle comes from the period 1880-1890:
Michael Adams tall and thin,
He's the man you can't put in.
Peter Mitchell short and stout,
He's the man you can't put out. - RBW
File: MaWi024

Jerry Ryan

DESCRIPTION: "Now all you young men who go chopping, ... I was working With that foreman, well known Jerry Ryan." Work is scarce, so the boys go logging in Bishop's Falls. The price is low for scrub spruce; the charge exorbitant for saw, board, and doctor fees.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 3rd edition)
KEYWORDS: lumbering ordeal hardtimes logger
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Peacock, pp. 748-749, "Gerry Ryan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Foreman, Well Known Jerry Ryan" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 68 in the 3rd edition
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 58, "Jerry Ryan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 118, "The Foreman, Well-Known Jerry Ryan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4414
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Twin Lakes" (theme)
File: Doyl3068

Jerry the Mule

See Timber (Jerry the Mule) (File: FSWB130B)

Jerry, Go and Ile that Car [Laws H30]

DESCRIPTION: Larry Sullivan has spent forty years maintaining the railroads; he is proud of the state of the tracks and of never having had a wreck. As he lies dying, he asks to be buried by the tracks. His last words are, "Jerry, go and ile that car."
AUTHOR: (credited by Loomis to "Riley the Bum")
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (article by Charles F. Loomis with Arthur G. Wells)
KEYWORDS: train death work
FOUND IN: US(MW,So,SW)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws H30, "Jerry, Go and Ile that Car"
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 543-546, "Jerry, Go Ile That Car" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 26-27, "Jerry, Go Oil the Car" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 445-446, "The Old Section Boss" (1 text, very defective)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 360-361, "Jerry, Go an' Ile That Car" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 216, "Jerry, Go and Ile that Car" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 441, "Jerry, Go and Ile That Car" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 691, JERRYILE
Roud #2192
RECORDINGS:
Warde H. Ford, "Jerry, will you ile that car" [fragment] (AFS 4215 B2, 1939; on LC61, in AMMEM/Cowell)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Jerry, Go Ile That Car" (Victor 21521, 1928; on RRinFS) (on GrowOn3, ClassRR [as "Jerry. Go and Oil That Car"])
Art Thieme, "Jerry, Go & Oil That Car" (on Thieme06)
NOTES [113 words]: Cohen's detailed examination of this song notes the earliest publication, by Loomis in 1904, which has been repeatedly reprinted, often without acknowledgment (e.g. by Lomax in Cowboy Songs). Loomis concluded, after much research, that the song was written in 1881 by "Riley the Bum," who could not otherwise be identified.
Despite the fact that very many of the texts now in circulation derive from Loomis, the handful of independent texts are just that -- independent, often with very different "feel." The description above is basically of the Loomis version.
Interestingly, the name Larry (O')Sullivan seems to be nearly constant, even as the song shifts around him. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: LH30

Jerry, Go Ile That Car

See Jerry, Go and Ile that Car [Laws H30] (File: LH30)

Jerry, Go Oil the Car

See Jerry, Go and Ile that Car [Laws H30] (File: LH30)

Jerry's Account of a Junket

DESCRIPTION: "Did y'ever go to a 'Junket,' A thing very common of late.... Then the boys and the girls meet together...." The poem describes the music and the games they play, and describes how very late it runs as the young people court
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1825 (Lincoln _Intelligencer_, according to Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
KEYWORDS: party courting music dancing nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster pp. 265-269, "Jerry's Account of a Junket" (1 text)
ST FlNG265 (Partial)
File: FlNG265

Jersey Boy

DESCRIPTION: "Jersey Boy, 'tis you I call, Invitation free to all, The road is wide, the pathway clear, Jersey Boy, come volunteer. Apple cider, ginger beer, Christmas comes but once a year. The road is wide, the pathway clear, Jersey boy, come volunteer."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford-PlayPartyInIndiana)
KEYWORDS: playparty food drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, p. 61=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, p. 230, "Jersey Boy" (1 text)
Roud #7898
File: Wolf061A

Jersey City

See The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: LP24)

Jersey-Blue Handkerchief

DESCRIPTION: Isabella, the "Maid of Cooper's Creek ... was courted by a Jerseyman -- she longed to be his bride." He leaves her for one "far prettier" She is left broken hearted at Billy Cooper's "vith a Jersey-blue handkerchief tied under her chin"
AUTHOR: S. S. Sanford (Source: Wolf)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1879 (broadside, LOCSinging sb20228b)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity love abandonment clothes parody
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1111, p. 76, "Jersey-Blue Handkerchief" (2 references)
Roud #V7830
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(659), "Jersey-Blue Handkerchief" ("Come all you vifes and maidens, and attention give to me"), H. De Marsan (New York) , 1864-1878
LOCSinging, sb20228b, "Jersey-Blue Handkerchief," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonny Blue Handkerchief" (basis for parody)
NOTES [82 words]: This is a parody of "The Bonny Blue Handkerchief," complete with "foreign" accent (for example, "vifes and maidens," "vith a Jersey-blue handkerchief," "'Tis ob the Maid," and so on).
Broadsides LOCSinging sb20228b and Bodleian Harding B 18(659): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadsides LOCSinging sb20228b and Bodleian Harding B 18(659) are duplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BdJeBlHa

Jerusalem Cuckoo

See The Donkey (File: RcThDonk)

Jerusalem Moan

See Don't You Hear Jerusalem Mourn? (File: RcDYHJM)

Jerusalem Morning (Sweet Turtle Dove)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Jerusalem morning (x2) by the light, Don't you hear Gabriel's trumpet in that morning." Verses: a member took his/her seat, Wants all the members to follow." "Sweet turtle dove sings so sweet, Muddy the water, so deep."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 164-165, "Sweet Turtle Dove, or Jerusalem Mornin'" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 240-241 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #15227
NOTES [186 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every verse ends "And we had a little meeting in the morning, To hear Gabriel's trumpet sound."
While [the New Testament] says "at the last trump ... the trumpet shall sound" (1 Corinthians 15:52 (King James)), I don't know that Gabriel is blowing it. [Indeed, the Bible never says so, but the non-canonical book(s) of Enoch make much of Gabriel, and he became important in tradition; see George Arthur Buttrick et al, editor], The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, four volumes, 1962 (a fifth supplementary volume was published later), volume II, p. 333). I don't know the source of the legend that Gabriel will sound the last trumpet, but it is widespread. - RBW]
I also don't understand the turtle dove reference in this context; maybe it is about Jeremiah's statement (8:7), forseeing the fall of Judah: "Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times: and the turtle (dove) and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people knoweth not the judgment of the Lord" (King James). - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett164

Jerusalem Mourn

See Don't You Hear Jerusalem Mourn? (File: RcDYHJM)

Jerusalem, My Happy Home (Long Sought Home)

DESCRIPTION: "Jerusalem, my happy home, When shall I come to thee?" (Or "Oh how I long for thee.") The glories of the heavenly city are described, and the people to be found there listed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Ault); version from c. 1601 in "The Song of Mary"
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #92, "Long Sought Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Norman Ault, _Elizabethan Lyrics From the Original Texts_, pp. 325-328, "Jerusalem, My Happy Home" (1 text)
John Julian, editor, _A Dictionary of Hymnology_, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), pp. 580-583, "Jerusalem, my happy home" (with portions of at least six texts, notably "A Song Mad (sic.) by F: B: P. To the tune of Diana ["Hierusalem my happie home"]; excerpts from "W. Prid's hymn on The New Jerusalem [excerpt, "Psalme of Zion. 'O Mothere deare Hierusalem'"]; a Rawlinson broadside {"Jerusalem, my happy home"], a text from William Burkitt, and one from Williams & Boden)
Roud #5053
NOTES [560 words]: This is one of those pieces with a very difficult history. The printing in A Song of Mary dates probably from 1601, and is anonymous; there is a different version in British Museum Add. MS. 15225, dated paleographically to around 1600. This latter is signed "F. B. P," or just possibly "J. B. P.," which perhaps refers to a presbyter, or perhaps a "pater" (father=priest, if the original is Catholic) with the initials F. B. or J. B. (see John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 1656, who notes that the initials J. B. have been thought to be those of one John Brereley, properly known as Lawrence Anderton, but a closer examination of the manuscript seems to confirm the reading "F. B. P."). This is probably earlier than the Song of Mary text, since it has 104 lines, to 76 in the Song of Mary version.
It has been claimed that the text is loosely based on St. Augustine. Since no one cites an actual *passage* in Augustine, this is hard to prove. (We should note that Augustine is one of the people listed as being found in heaven in the text, so he probably isn't responsible for that part of the poem!) It is true that the sprawling W. Prid text (176 lines), some of the added material is from Augustine, and some, according to Julian, a bad paraphrase of the Song of Songs. This does not mean that the original is Augustinian.
The images of Jerusalem itself are largely from the Apocalypse -- e.g. the buildings of precious stones (Rev. 21:19f.), the gates of pearl (Rev. 21:21), the streets of gold (also 21:21).
Most of the characters in the song are Biblical (David; "Our Lady"; [Mary] Magdalen; Simeon, for whom see Luke 2:25 and following; Zachary=Zacharias, for whom see esp. Luke 1:67 and following), but Ambrose is Bishop Ambrose of Milan, who lived in the time of the emperor Theodosius the Great (died 395), and Augustine (who is not really someone you'd want to meet, the stuck-up predestinarian prig) slightly later.
The original poem, of eighteen or so stanzas, is really rather pedestrian, and few anthologies print it in full. But the first few verses are popular.
Popular enough, in fact, to have been heavily adapted, and from there the waters get muddy. The song appears in the Sacred Harp hymnals, in very short and adapted form, as "Long Sought Home." The Original Sacred Harp, in fact, attributes it to "Francis Baker Priest, about 1750," (note the initials F.B.P.) which tells you how much its attributions are worth! Similarly, the Primitive Baptist Hymnal credits it to Cowper. The music is credited, both in the Sacred Harp and the Christian Harmony, to William Bobo (1865). For more on the question of authorship, see Julian, pp. 580-583, who devotes four pages of small print to the question.
Julian, p. 1574, mentions a Latin translation, "O domus, Hierusalem! beata," and a rewrite with the title "Jerusalem, my glorious home."
Julian also mentions another hymn with the title "Jerusalem! My happy home," which is also of dubious authorship. But since it does not appear to have been traditional, let's not get into its history....
According to William Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal, Broadman Press, 1976, p. 120, the tune the Baptists use for this is "Sweet Land of Rest," which was adapted by Annabel Morris Buchanan. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: NrecJMHH

Jervis Bay, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was a bleak November morning With a convoy underway, When they sighted a German raider From the tops of the Jervis Bay." The little Jervis Bay goes into action against the German. "On her decks lay dead and dying," but the convoy is saved
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1984 (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: navy battle death sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov. 5 - 1940 - The sinking of the Jervis Bay
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 150, "The Jervis Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy 65, "The Jervis Bay" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #16876
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Suvla Bay" (tune, according to Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
NOTES [4303 words]: The Jervis Bay was originally a liner -- although not a fast one; her top speed was just 15 knots. She was built in 1922 for the Australian Commonwealth Line, running between Australia and Britain. She went through several owners over the next decade and a half (Paine, p. 273). One of five sisters (Duskin/Segman, p. 60), she was 549 feet long and listed as 13,839 tons (Duskin/Segman, p. 61). She had room for 732 steerage passengers and substantial cargo space (Duskin/Segman, p. 61). Despite the changes in ownership, she mostly did the same work: three round trips per year between Australia and Britain (Duskin/Segman, p. 63).
In 1939, she was taken over by the British government to serve as an armed merchant cruiser; she was fitted with eight 6" guns (Paine, p. 274) -- an armament that would put her at the low end of the light cruiser range, but a light cruiser would have had at least some armor and would have been at least twice as fast. Plus, according to Zetterling/Tamelander, p. 42, the guns were 40 years old, so they can't have been accurate or easy to serve. (Duskin/Segman, p. 63, says that the oldest of the seven guns was from 1895 and had been used in the Boer War! Almost certainly the rifling was ruined, so they wouldn't fire accurately (Edwards, p. 16). Initially guns and gunners were given no protection at all; later they were fitted with light splinter shields. Because they could not be elevated much, their range was short, and there was no fire control for them.) She was simply not fit to serve as a warship -- but the British were so short of escort craft in the early years of World War II that she was one of about fifty vessels converted to be armed merchant cruisers (Duskin/Segman, p. 59).
The refit that made her into a pseudo-warship increased her displacement to 14,164 tons, most of the weight ballast needed to keep her stable after all the changes (Duskin/Segman, p. 61). Although some of her new crew were navy men, a great many were from her civilian crew given positions in the navy reserve (Edwards, p.18, says that 97 of her new crew of 212 had served on her in her days as a liner, and another 36 were merchant seamen from other ships. These transfers included her chief engineer and most of her watch-standing officers, although not her captain or executive officer). Her first commander after the conversion was H. G. Harris, a retired officer called back to service (Duskin/Segman, p. 64).
Her first few weeks of service were not auspicious; she had a series of accidents, including one in which she collided with the ancient escorting destroyer Sabre (Duskin/Segman, p. 65).
Her first voyages in her new role saw her escort convoys to Freetown, Sierra Leone (Duskin/Segman, p. 69). In February 1940, Captain Harris was forced to give up his ship because of illness (Duskin/Segman, p. 70).Thus it was that Edward Stephen Fogarty Fegen (1891-1940), the son of a vice admiral, took over the ship on April 1, 1940 with the acting rank of Captain (Duskin/Segman, pp. 70-71. His permanent rank was Commander; Edwards, p. 84, etc.). He was a veteran of World War I; one of the ships he had served on, the Amphion, had been sunk under him (Duskin/Segman, p. 73). His previous job had been as executive officer of HMS Emerald (Duskin/Segman, pp. 75-76, although they incorrectly call the Emerald a heavy cruiser; according to Whitley, pp. 81-83, she was a light cruiser of World War I vintage of such marginal worth that even the British, whose navy was always too small for its tasks in this period, periodically put her in reserve.) Fegen seems to have been very private, unmarried and with no know close friends (Duskin/Segman, p. 77).
Not long after Fegen's assumption of command, the Jervis Bay stopped sailing from Freetown; on April 30, 1940, she arrived in Bermuda to serve as an escort in convoys from the Caribbean to Halifax and/or Newfoundland (Duskin/Segman, p. 79). On July 22, having finished the voyage north, she went to Saint John, New Brunswick, for a refit. On September 7, she set out for Halifax to begin North Atlantic convoy work; her first trip began September 9 (Duskin/Segman, p. 80). She ran several escort runs before her final voyage (Duskin/Segman, p. 80).
The Jervis Bay's last voyage was as the escort of a convoy of some three dozen merchant ships with even less combat ability than Jervis Bay (many ships in the convoy had "defensive" weapons, but under the rules of international law, these could only be fitted behind the bridge -- and they were mostly small weapons anyway; Edwards,p.12). It was officially listed as a fast convoy (HX 84; a slow convoy would have an "SC" code instead of "HX"), but its top speed was just nine knots. That means that it took about two week to cross the Atlantic -- and, at this stage of the war, long-range antisubmarine escorts were so few that convoys had escorting destroyers or corvettes for only part of their trip; they had two destroyers as escorts for the first part of the run, but they turned back after a few days, and it would not have more destroyer cover until it was within about three days of Britain (Duskin/Segman, p. 92). The Jervis Bay was there to cover the portion of the convoy route for which no real warship was available (Kemp. p. 16.)
The commodore of the convoy was a retired navy officer, Rear Admiral H. B. Maltby (Duskin/Segman, p. 86; Kranke/Brenneck, p. 51, incorrectly calls him "Mantby" and wrongly states that he went down with the Jervis Bay; in fact Maltby was on another ship and survived). Fegen had apparently served under Maltby in World War I (Edwards, p. 17). On the one hand, it must have been encouraging for Fegen to have an experienced navy man in charge of the ships and navigation; on the other, one wonders how well Maltby understood the civilian captain of his own ship. But if Fegen had a good commodore commanding his convoy, his own crew had been weakened right before the voyage: Fegen lost his executive officer, J. A. P. Blackburn, when the latter was promoted to command his own ship. It was a significant loss for Fegen (Duskin/Segman, p. 89), since Blackburn had trained the crew and knew the ship far better than Fegen. Whether it made any real difference I can't guess, but much of the praise given to Fegen probably reflects at least as much on Blackburn.
In all, Convoy HX 84 consisted of 38 merchant ships. 29 of them sailing from Canada and nine from Bermuda (the latter group having joined the convoy en route). Most of them (25) were British, but 13 bore other flags. The largest was 16,698 tons. Between them, they carried more than 200,000 tons of cargo, including 126.500 tons of petroleum products (most of it, of course, in the tankers -- 11 of them), 42,000 tons of steel, plus food, wood, chemicals, and other odds and ends (Edwards, p. 10; Duskin/Segman, p. 92). They were arranged in nine columns, mostly of four ships each, although columns 3 and 4 had five ships. The Jervis Bay sailed at the front, in a wide alley between columns 4 and 5 (a chart of this is on p. 91 of Duskin/Segman). One ship had engine trouble and fell far behind, so there were 37 ships when disaster hit (Duskin/Segman, pp. 93-94).
The convoy was about halfway between Newfoundland and the British Isles when the events in this song took place (there is a map on p. 125 of Koop/Schmolke; Duskin/Segman, pp. 204-205, gives a map of the German ship's whole voyage). The Admiral Scheer had entered the North Atlantic via the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland and sailed south (Koop/Schmolke, p. 124). As soon as the weather permitted, she set her scout plane searching, and on November 5, it spotted Convoy HX 84 (Duskin/Segman, pp. 95-96. The watch on one merchant vessel reportedly heard an aircraft, but the word does not seem to have passed about).
The song is wrong to say that the Jervis Bay encountered a battleship. The Admiral Scheer was the second of the so-called "pocket battleships" -- ships which Germany originally called "armored ships" and later re-classified as cruisers (Worth, p. 51). But they were extremely heavy cruisers (for a description, see "The Sinking of the Graf Spee") -- their secondary armament was as heavy as the Jervis Bay's main armament, and the Admiral Scheer was about ten knots faster, as well.
Captain Krancke discusses the interesting decision he had to make: move to attack as quickly as possible, and fight the convoy in the dark, or wait and attack it in daylight but risk it being reinforced or escaping. He chose the former (Kranke/Brennecke, pp. 36-37). It was probably the right choice based on his limited information, but it would make the ships harder to pursue.
The convoy should have had warning; as the Scheer sailed to intercept HX 84, it encountered a fast banana boat, the Mopan. The Mopan had time to signal, and was under orders to do so, but the captain didn't signal until it was too late. It meant that the Scheer let her crew abandon her before sinking her (Duskin/Segman, pp. 98-100, with a photo of the Mopan being sunk on p. 101; Edwards, pp. 28-31), but it meant that HX 84 had no inkling that the German ship was coming.
The various books give different times for when the Scheer reached the convoy, but this seems to be because it happened in the mid-Atlantic and everyone was logging different time zones. What is certain is that the first ship in the convoy to spot the Scheer located the German vessel about half an hour before sunset -- meaning that it would be full dark in about an hour (Duskin/Segman, p. 108, identifies the spotting as from the Rangitiki; Edwards, p. 36, says it was the Briarwood). It seems to have taken Fegen and Co. more than half an hour to examine the ship themselves, and they initially misidentified it as a British warship. About fifty minutes after the sighting, Fegen caught on and sounded action stations (Duskin/Segman, p. 108). He also sent a blinker message the ship, looking for a recognition signal (Duskin/Segman, p. 111; Edwards, p. 37). Captain Kranke of the Scheer of course didn't know the counter-signal.
The Jervis Bay was actually slightly larger, in terms of tonnage, than the Scheer. But that size just made her bigger target. For the Jervis Bay to fight the Scheer was simply suicide (six inch guns could hurt a pocket battleship, but they couldn't sink her) -- but if someone didn't fight, most of the convoy would be destroyed. Ironically, the Jervis Bay, since it was one of the faster ships, would likely have been one of the few survivors. But that wasn't her job.
Fegen sent off two signals, one a radio message to the British Navy asking for help and one a flag signal telling the convoy to "prepare to scatter" (Duskin/Segman, p. 112; Edwards, p. 39). Then Fegen ordered the Jervis Bay to attack while the convoy scattered. It was hopeless, but by going straight for the Admiral Scheer, and keeping his ship between the Scheer and the convoy, he would buy time.
A little time. Fegen went straight for the Scheer, because he needed to get within the range of his antique weapons, but it also made him an easier target for the Germans (although coming straight on would at least mean that the Germans wouldn't have the whole side of the ship to aim at). He started firing while still beyond the range of his guns, perhaps to get the gunners' thoughts off what was to come (Edwards, p. 41).
The Scheer had no such problems. Most observers thought that they managed their first hit on just their third salvo (Duskin/Segman, p. 115), though Captain Krancke thought it took longer (Kranke/Brennecke, p.47). That first hit was in the bridge area, and Fegen was one of those injured -- his left arm almost torn off, and his leg injured (Kranke/Brennecke, p.49, says that it was his leg, not his arm, that was gone, but I would assume the British accounts were right!). The wounds were clearly mortal, but he had them dressed, propped himself against a wall, and fought on (Duskin/Segman, p. 117; Edwards, pp. 42-44; von der Porten, p. 139, the latter probably derived from Kranke/Brennecke, p. 49). The wireless was out, so the ship could no longer communicate (Duskin/Segman. p. 117). The ship's steering broke down, but the crew worked desperately to control her, and Fegen ordered Jervis Bay onward, apparently trying to ram (Edwards, pp. 42-43).
Within fifteen minutes, the Jervis Bay had lost power. Accounts differ on what happened to Fegen (Edwards, p. 45, who does not commit to, or even list, all the stories told); one claims dragged himself to one of the guns when it was no longer possible to command from the ruined bridge (von der Porten, p. 139), another that he apparently fell dead on the deck while trying to find a place to control the ship (Duskin/Segman, p. 128). It was the executive officer who gave the order to abandon ship, but he died in the water (Edwards, pp. 45, though on p. 99 the story sounds a little different; Duskin/Segman, p. 138, says that this was about an hour after the battle began).
The Jervis Bay continued to slow the Scheer down even after she was disabled; she had been packed with empty barrels in a deliberate attempt to keep her afloat even if badly damaged, and these did their job well enough that it took a couple of hours for her to actually sink, and the Germans spent a lot of time worrying about what she was up to rather than chasing the convoy (Duskin/Segman, p. 133). It bought time.
A little time. But even that little time -- von der Porten, p. 139, and Edwards, p. 45, estimate it was 22 minutes -- helped. The convoy had time to scatter, firing off smoke screens as they went (Duskin/Segman, p. 114, although there was much confusion as they tried to make their 40 degree turn to starboard and separate. There were many near-collisions (Duskin/Segman, p. 118), which probably slowed the scattering.
The Jervis Bay's lifeboats had all been ruined in the fight (Duskin/Segman, p. 152). There were a few floats and rafts, but to use them, most of the men had to go into the water -- and it was November in the North Atlantic (Duskin/Segman, pp. 153-155; Edwards, pp. 99-102). Many who survived the attack on the ship must have been killed by the frigid sea. In the end, 190 of the Jervis Bay's 259 crew, including Fegen, were dead (so Paine, p. 274; Zetterling/Tamelander,p. 44, says that there were 65 survivors. Based on the rescue memorandum reproduced on p. 173 of Duskin/Segman, 68 men were rescued but three did not survive. That reduces the discrepancy to one, which might be Fegen. Duskin/Segman, pp.225-231, lists all who served on the ship on her final voyage, with their fates).
Although the Jervis Bay did no direct damage to the Scheer, the fight did cause the German ship some problems. The recoil from one of the 11" salvoes broke the German radar, which made it harder for the convoy to track the ships in the dark (Duskin/Segman, p. 119). There was other minor damage from recoil and maneuvering (e.g. Kranke/Brennecke, p. 65, mentions how unsecured inks in the administrative center had gone flying and caused a multicolored mess!). The storm and all the other problems had so damaged her floatplane that it took a very long time to put back in commission (Kranke/Brennecke, p. 110), affecting her ability to find targets.And the Scheer pumped 335 shells into the Jervis Bay and others -- a third of her total supply (Edwards, p. 47), which if nothing else meant she would have to go home sooner because she was out of ammunition. And the other ships scared the Scheer more than they should have; Captain Krancke thought, falsely, that some of them had six inch guns (Kranke/Brennecke, p.46, which shows that he maintained this view even after the war).
The damage to the Scheer's radar was important in what followed. The Germans had no way to locate ships except by eye -- and most of the British ships were able to make smoke, and it was dark. Kranke and Co. couldn't see much except the Jervis Bay, burning away because the British hadn't removed her wooden furnishings. And the British, in addition to scattering in all directions, tried other tricks -- e.g. a tanker, the Delphinula, managed to fake a fire which caused the Scheer to think she was doomed, and so escaped; Duskin/Segman, p. 139; Edwards, p.59).
Still, the Scheer caught up with the 7900 ton Maidan and sank her with all hands; she was carrying steel and other metals and went down quickly (Duskin/Segman, pp. 141-142; Edwards, p. 63). The next to go was the 5200 ton Trewellard, also carrying metals (metals, being dense, didn't take up much space, so ships carrying them had all their cargo weight in a small area; this made them unstable, hard to maneuver and easy to sink); most of her crew at least managed to abandon ship (Duskin/Segman, pp. 142-143; Edwards, pp. 65-66). The 5225 ton Kenbane Head, a slow mover carrying general cargo, went next (Duskin/Segman, pp. 147-148; Edwards, pp. 67-71).
The Scheer's fourth victim was the 10000 ton Beaverford, carrying food, metals, chemicals, and wood. Edwards, p. 80, claims that this ship took over as the protector of convoy, and claims on p. 81 that "For more than four hours the Beaverford held the Scheer at bay." (It sounds as if Edwards got his idea from a 1944 newspaper article that claimed the Beaverford fought for fully five hours; reprinted on pp. 82-83 of Edwards.) This simply cannot be right; the Scheer wasn't in the area that long! Presumably this arises from time zone confusion that plagues the whole saga. Kranke/Brennecke, pp. 57-58, mentions sinking the Beaverford -- one of the few ships it mentions by name -- but the engagement sounds very brief, and on p. 57 says that the whole battle was only three hours old when the Beaverford went down, so the fight with the Beaverford must have taken less than that! Kranke/Brennecke, p. 56, says, and Edwards and Duskin/Segman, p 149, agree, that the Scheer had so much trouble finishing her off that eventually the Germans torpedoed her. But our only knowledge of what happened aboard the Beaverford came from her radio reports; there were no survivors. And the chart of the Scheer's track on p. 145 of Duskin/Segman shows that the Beaverford went down just an hour after the Kenbane Head; there simply wasn't time for a four hour fight.
Still, Krancke seems to have thought that he had spent enough time in the area after sinking the Beaverford; he didn't want to stick around until the British caught up to him (Edwards, p. 85), It had been about three and a half hours (I think) since the first distress calls had gone out, meaning that any battleship within about 75 miles, or a cruiser within 100, could show up at any moment. And he couldn't fight a battleship, and even a cruiser could hurt him badly or track him, as the case of the Graf Spee had shown. As it turned out, there were no British ships within hundreds of miles, but Krancke couldn't know that, and without radar, he might not spot an enemy until shells were falling on him. And the British certainly started hunting him quickly; by midnight, the battlecruisers Hood and Repulse (the two ships best equipped to deal with pocket battleships) and many other ships were raising steam (Duskin/Segman, p. 177. Unfortunately, they hurried to sea so quickly that they hadn't fully fueled and soon had to turn back, and there was confusion about where they were sent and should be set; Duskin/Segman, p. 179)
So Krancke prepared to leave the area -- and, on his way away, encountered the 5000 ton Fresno City, carrying grain, and sank her fairly routinely, then left the area to rendezvous with his supply ship (Duskin/Segman, pp. 150-151; Edwards, pp. 87-89).
In all, the British lost five ships totaling about 33,000 tons (Koop/Schmolke, p. 125), plus of course the Jervis Bay. Others, like the tanker San Demetrio (Duskin/Segman, p. 143-146), were damaged in passing but not destroyed (her crew abandoned her but some were washed back to where she was and managed to bring her to port in a story almost as epic as the Jervis Bay's; Duskin/Segman, pp. 185-199). The Germans thought they had sunk nine ships totaling 86,000 tons (Edwards, p.93-95). The Germans error on ships isn't too extreme -- they thought they had sunk two tankers which actually survived, and apparently thought they had another freighter; the error on tonnage is much worse, but of course they were estimating by eye in the dark.
Fegen was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross (Paine, p. 274; Edwards, p. 84, prints the text of the citation. Duskin/Segman, p. 210, says that King George VI himself suggested the award, and on pp. 212-213, lists other awards given to members of the crew).
Even his opponent paid him high praise, writing, "he had the authentic Nelson touch. He was a man with such authority over his men that they were prepared to follow him to certain death in a hopeless fight and carry out his orders to the last" (Kranke/Brennecke, p. 49).
That Fegen was brave is obvious. I'm not so sure he was smart. If he had recognized his fix sooner, he could have maneuvered more effectively, and perhaps forced the Germans to split their fire. The pocket battleships were not good at this, because of the way their gun directors were laid out; this had been one of the Graf Spee's problems in her final battle. Much of Edwards's book is devoted to a claim that one of the convoy ships, the Beaverford, although armed with little more than popguns, fought off the Scheer for hours before being sunk. Most if not all of the other ships of the convoy also had a "defensive" 4" gun on their sterns (Edwards, p. 56). If the Jervis Bay and the Beaverford had coordinated, perhaps with some of the other ships, might the Scheer have been held even longer? It's certainly possible.
It doesn't matter to Fegen's legend, of course.
Ironically, although losses to convoy HX84 were relatively light, the fear of the Scheer caused a panic in the British government, which began frantically postponing and rerouting convoys (Duskin/Segman, p. 180). The delays this imposed may have caused more problems than the mere losses from HX84.
The survivors of the Jervis Bay were rescued by the Swedish freighter Stureholm (Zetterling/Tamelander, p. 44), which was another member of HX84 but which, rather than fleeing, decided it had to come to the rescue, carefully watching the Scheer to avoid being attacked (Edwards, pp. 102-103). It a long and dangerous process given the number of survivors and the size of the Swedish ship (the crew of which was too small even to have a doctor or any sort of medical person -- even though many of the survivors needed one; Duskin/Segman, p. 170. She was only 4575 tons). It took about ten hours for everyone to be rescued (Duskin/Segman, p. 174) -- tough for men exposed to the elements of the North Atlantic! They were in bad enough shape that the Strureholm decided to take them back to Halifax (Duskin/Segman, p. 174).
Two other ships, the Gloucester City and Mount Tagetus, rescued survivors from other ships in the convoy -- 101 in all, apart from those saved on the Jervis Bay; 168 merchant sailors were lost (Duskin/Segman, pp. 184, 216-219).
The heroism of the Jervis Bay evidently became quite well-known; Tawney says he found five versions of this song, making it among the best-known songs in his collection.
This wasn't the end of the Scheer's cruise; the pocket battleships had very long range, plus she had a supply ship with both fuel and ammunition. She in fact made it all the way to Madagascar (there is a map on p. 43 of Zetterling/Tamelander). She caught her next victim. the Port Hobart, on November 24 (Edwards. pp. 96-97), but there would be no more dramas like that of Convoy HX84; she mostly caught single ships. There were ten all told (Duskin/Segman, p. 201). From start to finish, the Scheer's voyage lasted 161 days (Duskin/Segman, p. 203)
Theodor Krancke, who commanded the Scheer (Becker, p. 204), was promoted to admiral not long after -- although he was given the unenviable assignment of being the navy's liaison to Hitler, which is not a job I would want! (Particularly since Krancke seems to have been a relatively humane man; he treated the crews of enemy ships well even when they weren't Europeans; see, e.g., Kranke/Brennecke, pp. 97-99 -- though on p. 103 he talks about the Indians' "subservience" to white men). He also was awarded the Knight's Cross (Duskin/Segman, p. 202). The entire crew was given the Iron Cross (Duskin/Segman, p. 206). But the Scheer would never again go on a significant voyage as a result of German caution about risking their ships after the loss of the Bismark. She was sunk at her moorings in Kiel by an Allied bombing raid on April 9, 1945 (Duskin/Segman, pp. 208-209; Paine, p. 5).
The song doesn't have many details, but what there are are mostly accurate: the Jervis Bay was "only a merchant cruiser"; she fought the Scheer; she was commanded by Captain Fegen; the convoy was ordered to scatter. The song is wrong in calling the Scheer a battleship, but this is an understandable shorthand for the (misleading) designation of the Germans cruisers of this type as "pocket battleships." And the Jervis Bay did steam out to attack the Scheer, leaving her position in the middle of the convoy to interpose herself between the other ships and the Scheer. On the other hand, the song is flatly wrong in saying that British shells hit the German. And many versions misdate the event to September rather than November, although Tawney printed a version that had the month right. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: PaSe150

Jesous Ahatonhia

See The Huron Carol (Jesous Ahatonia) (File: FJ130)

Jesse Cole

DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "To one and all both great and small, the story I'll unfold/It makes me sad to think about the doom of Jesse Cole"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: grief death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 195, "Jesse Cole" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3615
NOTES [49 words]: The text reprinted in the "Description" field is all that Sharp printed. - PJS
It's probably just coincidence, but it occurs to me that the maiden name of Jesse James's mother was Zerelda Cole. Could this somehow be tied in with the Jesse James legend? It's a low probability, to be sure.... - RBW
File: ShAp2195

Jesse James (I) [Laws E1]

DESCRIPTION: Jesse James's career is briefly described, with praise given to his (alleged) acts of charity. The story of James's murder is then told, focusing on the treachery of Robert Ford, "the dirty little coward that shot 'Mister Howard.'"
AUTHOR: unknown (many versions claim to be written by Billy Gashade)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Comic and Sentimental Songs)
KEYWORDS: outlaw death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 4, 1882 - Shooting of Jesse James (then in semi-retirement under the name of Howard) by Robert Ford, a relative and a former member of his gang tempted by the $10,000 reward
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,So,SE)
REFERENCES (44 citations):
Laws E1, Jesse James (I)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 97-116, "Jesse James" (2 texts, 1 tune, plus sundry excerpts from various Jesse James songs and copies of two sheet music covers)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 401-404, "Jesse James" (3 texts, of which only the first is this song)
Randolph 132, "Jesse James" (6 texts plus an excerpt, 6 tunes, but Laws refers the B version to Laws E2; the excerpt "C" may also go there)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 146-148, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 132F)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 243, "Jesse James" (4 texts plus 3 excerpts and mention of 3 more; of these, the "A" and "B" texts are certainly this, and probably "G" also though it has wandered far; "I" is "Jesse James (II)")
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 11-13, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 243, "Jesse James" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 112, "Jesse James" (1 fragment, placed here by Laws although it's not typical of the type)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp. 218-219, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 99, pp. 235-237, "Jesse James" (2 texts plus a fragment and mention of 3 more; the "B" text and "C" fragment are Laws E1; the "A" text is Laws E2)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 167, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 112-116, "Jessie James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 78-80, "Jessie James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Finger-FrontierBallads, p. 57, "Jesse James" (a copy of a Wehman broadside); pp. 58-59, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 17-18, "Jesse James" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 58-59, "Jesse James" (1 fragment, 1 tune, probably this)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 196-197, "Jesse James' (1 text, 1 tune, much removed from the common versions and with a chorus derived from "John Brown's Body")
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 139, "Jesse James" (1 short text without a chorus plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 87, pp. 109-110, "Jesse James" 1 text plus 3 fragments)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 37-40, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 154-157, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 753-755, "Jesse James" (3 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 148-149, "Jesse James" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 377, "Jesse James" (2 texts, but only the first is this ballad; Laws lists the second as Jesse James III, dE44)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 374-375, "I Went Down to the Depot" (1 text, 1 tune, heavily folk processed); 420-421, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 80, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 183, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune, which Laws places here but which is noticeably different from most other texts of this type)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 128-131, "Jesse James" (2 texts, 1 tune, but only the first is this ballad; the second is Jesse James II, Laws E2)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 191-192, "(Jesse James)" (1 excerpt)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 93, "Jesse James" (5 texts, 2 tunes, of which the "A" and "B" texts are Laws E1 and the others are distinct)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 168-173, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 64, pp. 145-146, "Jesse James"; p. 146, "Jesse James" (2 texts)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 44, "Jesse James" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 370-372 "Jesse James" (1 text plus a sheet music cover of a different Jesse James song)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 42-43, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 36, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 190-191, "Jesse James" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 273, "Jesse James" (1 text)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 192, "Jesse James" (1 reminiscence, with just enough text to make it clar that it is this song)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 202, "Jesse James" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, p. 188-189, "Jesse James" (1 text)
DT 619, JESSJAME*
ADDITIONAL: R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 279-280, "The Death of Jesse James" (1 text, from Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, offered as a parallel to the Robin Hood legend)
Roud #2240
RECORDINGS:
Bentley Ball, "Jesse James" (Columbia A3085, 1920)
Bill Bender (The Happy Cowboy), "Jesse James" (Asch 410-2/Stinson 410-2/Varsity 5141, n.d., rec. 1939)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Jesse James" (OKeh 45139, 1927)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Jesse James" (OKeh 40155, 1924) (LOC AAFS 97/AAFS L20)
Ken Maynard, "Jesse James" (1930, unissued; on RoughWays1)
Harry McClintock, "Jesse James" (Victor 21420, 1928; on WhenIWas2)
Clayton McMichen's Georgia Wildcats, "Jesse James" (Decca 5710, 1939)
Riley Puckett, "Jesse James" (Columbia 15033-D, 1925)
George Reneau, "Jesse James" (Vocalion 14897, 1924)
Almeda Riddle, "Jesse James" [fragment] (on LomaxCD1705)
Pete Seeger, "Jesse James" (on PeteSeeger16)
Ernest Thompson, "Jesse James" (Columbia 145-D, 1924)
Marc Williams, "Jesse James" (Brunswick 269, 1928)
Fields Ward, Glen Smith & Wade Ward, "Jesse James" (on HalfCen1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesse James (II)" [Laws E2]
cf. "Jesse James (III)"
cf. "The Death of Jesse James"
cf. "Jesse James (IV)"
cf. "Jesse James (VI -- 'I Wonder Where My Poor Old Jesse's Gone')"
cf. "J. B. Marcum (A Kentucky Feud Song)" [Laws E19] (tune & meter)
cf. "Cooper Milton" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Jesus Christ (by Woody Guthrie) (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 301-302; DT, JESUSCHR)
Ballad of Medgar Evers (RECORDING, SNCC Freedom Singers, on VoicesCiv)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Oh, People Ain't You Sorry
NOTES [230 words]: It should probably be noted that Jesse James (1847-1882) wasn't as nice a person as this song depicts. He began his career with Quantrill's raiders (today we would say "terrorists"), and his behavior never improved much except that he eventually began to seek a more permanent residence.
"Thomas Howard" was the name used by James when he settled down in Saint Joseph, Missouri. It was not a "retirement name"; he was still committing robberies when he died.
The "Billy Gashade" mentioned in some texts as the author is unknown (the name "Billy Lashade" occurs in the 1887 songster text, for which see Cohen-LongSteelRail).
This version is the "standard" Jesse James song, usually beginning "Jesse James was a lad who killed many a man, He robbed the Glendale train." The usual chorus runs, "(Poor) Jesse had a wife to mourn for his life, Three children, they were brave. But the dirty little coward who shot Mister Howard Has laid Jesse James in his grave."
For full background on Frank and Jesse James, see the notes to "Jesse James (III)," the James song which has perhaps the strongest factual basis. - RBW
In 1955 I heard a Black man in Harlem -- in his eighties I believe -- who sang the standard verses to Jesse James with this chorus: "Oh Jesse, goodbye Jesse, Farewell Jesse James, I'm going round the bend and expect to come again, To see Jesse James in his grave." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LE01

Jesse James (II) [Laws E2]

DESCRIPTION: The song starts with an account of James's robbery of the Pittsfield bank. The account of the murder is circumstantial and unflattering. James is planning a robbery; he knocks down his wife's picture; Robert Ford shoots him in the back
AUTHOR: Words: Roger Lewis? Music: F. Henri Klickmann?
EARLIEST DATE: 1911
KEYWORDS: outlaw robbery death marriage
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 4, 1882 - Shooting of Jesse James (then in semi-retirement under the name of Howard) by Robert Ford, a relative and a former member of his gang tempted by the $10,000 reward
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So,SE) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws E2, "Jesse James II"
Randolph 132, "Jesse James" (of Randolph's 6 texts plus 1 excerpt, Laws considers only Randolph's "B" text and tune to belong to E2, though the excerpt "C" is apparently also part of it)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 243, "Jesse James" (4 texts plus 3 excerpts and mention of 3 more; of these, only "I" is this song; "A," "B," and probably "G" are "Jesse James (I)")
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 99, pp. 235-237, "Jesse James" (2 texts plus a fragment and mention of 3 more; the "A" text is Laws E2; the "B" text and "C" fragment are Laws E1)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 128-131, "Jesse James" (2 texts, 1 tune, but only the second text, to the tune of Casey Jones, is this ballad; the first text and tune is Jesse James I, Laws E1)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 56-58, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 192-193, "(Jessey James)" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 93, "Jesse James" (5 texts, 2 tunes; this is the "D" text)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 130-131, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 60-65, "Jesse James" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 93, "Jesse James" (5 texts, 2 tunes, of which the "C" text is Laws E2 and the others are distinct)
DT 620, JESSJAM3*
Roud #2241
RECORDINGS:
Frank Luther, "The Death of Jesse James" (Conqueror 7377, 1929)
George Reneau [actually sung by Gene Austin], (Vocalion 14897, 1924; on RoughWays2)
The Vagabonds, "The Death of Jesse James" (Montgomery Ward M-4443, 1934)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesse James (I)" [Laws E1] and references there
NOTES [209 words]: Much more even-handed than the commonly-found Jesse James ballad, this song shows James as he really was: A robber whose deeds caused people in their homes to "shake with fright" when they heard of them.
Cohen and McNeil both report that this piece was copyrighted on April 3, 1911 by Klickmann and Lewis, then on May 15 by Will Rossiter. McNeil believes the Klickman/Lewis claim of authorship to be legitimate; Norm Cohen (more probably in my opinion) thinks they cashed in on an existing piece. The Klickman/Lewis words can be sung to the tune of "Casey Jones," and the text been collected with that melody, although that is not the tune indicated in the original sheet music. McNeil gives a third melody as well.
Laws lists the characteristic opening verse/chorus of this song as:
Now people may forget a lot of famous names
But every nook and corner knows of Jesse James.
They used to read about him in their homes at night;
When the wind blew down the chimney they would shake with fright.
However, it appears that the most characteristic first line is "Way down in Missouri lived a bold bad man."
For full background on Frank and Jesse James, see the notes to "Jesse James (III)," the James song which has perhaps the strongest factual basis. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: LE02

Jesse James (III)

DESCRIPTION: Jesse's home life is described: "His mother she was elderly; his father was a preacher." Bob Ford, described as an inept train robber, is shown in consultation with the governor. Ford kills James, but is shot by a drunken cowboy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: outlaw death betrayal family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 4, 1882 - Shooting of Jesse James (then in semi-retirement under the name of Howard) by Robert Ford, a relative and a former member of his gang tempted by the $10,000 reward
1892 - Robert Ford is killed in a barroom brawl in Creede, Colorado
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 401-404, "Jesse James" (3 texts, of which only the third is this song)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 377, "Jesse James" (2 texts, but only the second is this ballad; the first is "Jesse James (I)" [Laws E1])
ADDITIONAL: William A. Settle, Jr., _Jesse James Was His Name_ (Bison Books edition, 1977), [used as a key to the Table of Contents and quoted at the head of each chapter]
ST FR379 (Partial)
Roud #7819
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesse James (I)" [Laws E1] and references there
NOTES [7579 words]: This ballad includes several accurate details of James's life not found in most of the other Jesse James songs: The fact that his mother had her arm blown off (by Pinkertons in 1875); "Governor C"=Governor Crittenden; and the fact that Robert Ford also died by gunfire.
The amount of literature on the James Gang astonishes me; it appears that at least four allegedly serious books were published just in the period 1980-2000, with many more before that. Many of these, however, appear to be pretty bad. A few -- Settle and Yeatman -- strike me as far more reliable than the vast mass; they have been my main sources for what follows.
The James Boys certainly were not born to be criminals; Yeatman, pp. 25-27, gives a rather impressive family history. Their father, Robert Salee James (c. 1818-1850) was the son of a Virginia Baptist minister, John W. James (Brant, p. 4). John James died when Robert was nine, and he and his siblings moved in with their older sister, the newly-married Mary James Mimms (Brant, p. 5). Mary Mimms was the mother of the future wife of Jesse James.
Robert Salee James, despite being an orphan, managed an impressive education. He earned a B.A. in classics in 1843, and picked up a Masters in 1848. His library was not overly large, but in addition to theology, Latin, and Greek, it included volumes on mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, and philosophy (Settle, p. 7). In 1841, he married 16-year-old Zerelda Cole, who was blessed with a fairly substantial inheritance. (In case you're wondering -- no, the name Zerelda is *not* Biblical. It appears to be a family name in the Cole family, though I've seen no explanation of how it arose.) The young couple moved to Clay County, Missouri, in 1842. Family tradition said it was love at first sight (so Jesse James Jr. on p. 8 of Dellinger).
Their residence in Clay County is significant. It's just east of Kansas City (the county seat is Liberty), and the settlers were mostly from border slave states like Tennessee. At the time of Lincoln's election in 1860, over a quarter of the residents of the county were slaves; clearly it was an area happy with slavery (Yeatman, p. 29). Indeed, one of the James stepfathers was a slaveowner (Yeatman, pp. 27-28), as was Robert James himself (Settle, p. 7).
After arriving in Missouri, Robert James became pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church, which during his time there grew to have several hundred members. He also farmed 275 acres; according to DAB, volume V, p. 585, this was his main source of income. But, for some reason, he decided to follow the gold rush to California, leaving his family behind. He died of "fever" on August 18, 1850 at Hangtown, California.
It is curious to note that Zerelda Cole was Catholic (DAB, vol. V, p. 585). Might this explain why Robert James eventually left?
From that time on, things were traumatic for the James boys, Alexander Franklin ("Frank"), born 1843, and Jesse Woodson, born 1847. (They had a sister Susan, born just before Robert went west.) Jesse had apparently been truly bothered when his father went away (so Jesse Jr. on p. 9 of Dellinger), and his mother's second and third marriages can't have helped; in 1852, she took the elderly Benjamin Simms as a second husband, but they separated and he died soon after (Brant, pp. 14-15; Settle, p. 8). Her third husband, Dr. Reuben Samuel, whom she married in 1855 (or 1857, so DAB, volume V, p. 585), was the second slave owner among her husbands. Samuel and Zerelda would eventually have four children: Archie (of whom more below), John, Sallie, and Fannie (Brant, p. 8; Settle, p. 9).
When the Civil War came, Frank promptly joined the Confederate side, being part of the force (one hesitates, at that stage of the war, to call it an army) of General Sterling Price (1809-1867), for whom see, e.g. "Sterling Price." He was one of Price's rabble-in-arms (or, often, rabble-wishing-for-the-arms-they-didn't-have) at Wilson's Creek (for which see e.g. "The War in Missouri in '61" and "Jolly Union Boys"). Later that year, he came down with measles, was captured by Union troops, and was paroled (Yeatman, p. 32; Settle, p. 20).
It's at this point that the James story starts to get genuinely ugly. Frank apparently took an oath to the Union in 1862. But Clay County was part of the area raided by both sides. Frank, even though he had sworn to support the Union, joined Quantrill's Raiders (for whom see the notes to "Charlie Quantrell" as well as "The Call of Quantrell," "Quantrell," etc.), probably in 1863 (Yeatman, p. 35; Settle, p. 21-23, is not sure of the date though he notes that Cole Younger was in the band by the spring of 1862 and Jim Younger was acting as a guerrilla by 1864).
In May 1863, Frank managed to upgrade himself from oathbreaker to terrorist; in an ambush near Richfield, Missouri, he was part of an ambush in which a Lt. Graffenstein was killed after surrendering (Yeatman, p. 36). On August 7, Frank committed his first true robbery (Yeatman, p. 41). Meanwhile, the Federals were looking for Frank -- and they visited the James/Samuel home, with results hardly likely to endear them to the family. They beat up Jesse (who may already have been serving as a Confederate spy, and who some time during this period managed to shoot the end off one of his fingers; Settle, p. 31, suggests a date of June 1864, though accounts vary of how he lost it. According to Brant, the injury earned Jesse the nickname "Dingus," because he referred to the weapon that injured him as the "dodd-dingus pistol" he had ever used). Even more extremely, they half-hanged Dr. Samuel, perhaps as many as four times (Settle, p. 26); his voice was apparently affected for the rest of his life (Yeatman, p. 39). (Wellman, p. 54, claims it was his relatives who cut him down, but this seems highly unlikely; if the troops wanted to hang him, wouldn't they stick around for a few minutes to make sure he died?)
By 1864, when Jesse joined the Quantrill Gang (Yeatman, p. 50), the band were effectively out of Confederate control, preferring bushwhacking in Kansas and Missouri to regular service in Texas (Yeatman, p. 49). Not even Quantrill controlled most of them any more. Their recruiting methods were also irregular; while Frank was properly a member of the Confederate forces, it appears Jesse joined the terrorists entirely as a freelance (Yeatman, p. 52). That's not because of his youth; by 1864, the Confederates were happy to have 17-year-olds in the military. But Jesse chose to be an irregular.
He certainly was quick to get in trouble. In an early raid, Jesse was shot through the chest, apparently while stealing a saddle (Yeatman, p. 53), though the claim was later made that he was fighting the Yankees.
By the end of the war, the irregulars were robbing trains; at Centralia they captured, looted, and destroyed a train of the North Missouri Railroad, killing two dozen Union soldiers who were aboard on furlough (Yeatman, p. 55). The James Boys were probably not present for this (Brant, p. 35, allows the possibility that Jesse was there, but as usual his evidence is thin), but they must have heard about it. And the James boys *were* present when a rescue party was slaughtered; many of the bodies of the rescuers were deliberately mutilated (scalped, beaten, and worse; Yeatman, p. 56).
By 1864, the entire James/Samuels clan was in exile -- Dr. Samuels evicted from his home (Yeatman, p. 62), Jesse James with ruffians under "Arch" Clement who were somewhere around Texas, having proved too rough even for Quantrill (Yeatman, pp. 73-74), and Frank James with Quantrill, who headed for Kentucky with the remainder of his force (Yeatman, p. 65). By 1865, the Federals were on Quantrill's heels; many of the guerillas were being killed, captured, or left behind when they lost their horses Yeatman, (pp. 66-68); Quantrill himself was mortally wounded on May 10 (Yeatman, p. 71).
The Clement gang, including Jesse, was meanwhile attacking Kingsville, Missouri, burning, looting, and murdering (Yeatman, pp. 73-74). Somewhat later, with the war clearly lost, Jesse suffered another bullet wound (reportedly making a spectacular escape before passing out; Settle, pp. 30-31; Wellman, p. 66); while still on his sickbed, he was paroled May 21, 1865 (Yeatman, pp. 76-77).
The wound kept him bedridden for months (Settle, p. 31); there were times when he was expected to die. The twice-injured lung apparently troubled him for the rest of his life (Yeatman, p. 95, on the basis of a statement by Cole Younger). During his recovery, he was cared for by his aunt and uncle, and became secretly engaged to their daughter Zerelda ("Zee") Mimms (Settle, p. 34; Wellman, p. 67, says that they fell in love but does not claim they became engaged).
Frank James (who had apparently acquired the nickname "Buck" during the war) was finally forced to surrender, along with other Quantrill survivors, on July 26, 1865, by which time Quantrill had been dead seven weeks. They might have come in earlier, had not some members of the band raped a woman; the authorities demanded they find the perpetrators (Yeatman, pp. 80-81). Still, Settle, p. 32, notes that neither Frank nor Jesse was considered in any way noteworthy in 1865.
Yeatman speculates that the guerrilla fighting in Missouri (the most bitter in all the Civil War) left the two brothers suffering from post-traumatic stress (Yeatman, p. 104); like a number of other veterans (e.g. Tom Dula), they, or at least Jesse, seem to have come home intending to return to normal life (Yeatman, p. 91). For four years, they lived at home (Settle, p. 32), but there are hints that they occasionally vanished for a few days, and they lived in an area much affected by lawlessness. Their whereabouts in the period 1869-1874 are almost impossible to trace (Yeatman, p. 99), but they came to be famous as robbers in this period.
On February 13, 1866 occurred the robbery of the bank of Liberty, Missouri, which resulted in the loss of some $60,000 and cost a bystander his life; it was said to be the first daylight bank robbery in peacetime (O'Neal, p. 167; Settle, p. 34; Wellman, p. 69; Yeatman, pp. 85-86; Dellinger, pp. 23-25, gives a detailed account by T. J. Stiles).
Later folklore would connect this with the James Boys, and Wellman accepts this without question (in fact, he is already calling Jesse the head of the gang, on pp. 69, 73, even though such evidence as we have of the James/Younger gang does not seem to imply that there was a head). Although the Liberty bank is close to the James home, there is no real evidence that either the Jameses or the Youngers were involved. Wellman's link to the event is that the Boys had sometimes ridden through the town shooting off pistols, as if to establish their willingness to be wild (pp. 69-71). Scaring the tellers into turning over the money sounds logical -- until you realize that the robbers never used their names during the Liberty robbery. How can men whose identities aren't known have a reputation? And, since there were reportedly ten robbers (Wellman, p. 73), it would seem as if someone in the vicinity could have identified them had they been locals and done something to make themselves identifiable.
(Note: I'm not saying the Jameses and Youngers weren't involved. I'm saying it cannot be proved, and can't even be stated as a likelihood. It is merely a possibility.)
Several other robberies took place in the same area over the next few years (Settle, pp. 34-36). Some were more successful than others; none were connected with the Jameses, though some reportedly involved ex-Quantrill men. There is a stronger connection with the March 20, 1868 robbery of the Russellville, Kentucky bank; the James friend Cole Younger was probably part of this (Yeatman, pp. 93-95), and Settle, p. 38, notes that on the day of the robbery, the James Boys were reportedly suffering from "war wounds" -- which would make a lot more sense if the wounds in fact had a recent cause.
On December 7, 1869 came the robbery of the Davies County Savings Association in Gallatin, Missouri -- one of the robberies famously tied to the Jameses (Wellman, p. 81, says without question that the James Brothers and Cole Younger did it, with circumstantial details, but these of course are unverified.) Captain John W. Sheets, one of the bank owners, was shot to death during the attack (Settle, p. 38; Wellman offers the theory that he was killed because he resembled S. P. Cox, responsible for the death of the guerilla "Bloody Bill" Anderson). At least two robbers were involved; one was said to resemble Frank James. The evidence was thin, but a posse turned up to arrest the James brothers, who would prove to have no real alibi.
Apparently not willing to risk arrest, Frank and Jesse fled the Samuels farm on horseback (Settle, pp. 39-40; Yeatman, pp. 95-97). Eventually a price of several thousand dollars would be put on their heads. Soon after, a paper published a letter allegedly from Jesse, denying any crime but saying it was impossible to get a fair trial in Missouri (Settle, p. 41). There would be many more such letters in coming years. Most, however, appeared in papers associated with John Newman Edwards, who also published articles allegedly clearing members of the gang (Settle, pp. 51-52).
A later letter, signed "Jack Shepherd, Dick Turpin, Claude Duval" (after three famous English highwaymen) promised to pay the medical expenses of a girl hurt in the course of a robbery, and denied that the participants were thieves; they preferred the term "robber." This letter (Yeatman, p. 105; cf. Settle, p. 46) seems to be almost the sole foundation for the claim that the Jameses gave to the poor.
In 1873, robbers derailed and robbed a train in Adair, Iowa; the engineer was killed in the wreck. Again we cannot show that the Jameses were involved, but the method of removing rails and piling debris on the track fits their mode of operation (Yeatman, pp. 106-108). Settle, p. 47, observes that the gang did not invent this particular dirty trick, but it was to become a James/Younger signature. This particular robbery brought in about $2000. Descriptions of the robbers, an their behavior, caused Jesse to be called the head of the gang for the first time (Settle, p. 48). The robbery was considered important enough that the Pinkertons would be called in (Settle, p. 58).
1874 finally brings us back to relatively firm history, as both Jesse and Frank were married in that year (Wellman, p. 87). Jesse finally married his cousin "Zee" Mimms, nine years after they had become engaged, on April 24, 1874. The Methodist Reverend William James, uncle to both Jesse and Zee, agreed to marry them after trying and failing to talk Jesse out of his violent lifestyle (Yeatman, p. 119)
Frank married later that year, to Annie (Anna?) Ralston, who had earned a degree in science and literature in 1872. Ralston's father was a Unionist from Ireland; her parents reportedly were horrified to learn that she had eloped with such an outlaw (Yeatman, pp. 120-121). The Ralstons learned of it only indirectly (Annie's letter to her parents said only that she had eloped), and once they did so, they kept it secret from the community as much as possible (Settle, p. 42).
By the 1870s, with Missouri still feeling the after-effects of the Civil War, the various outlaws roaming the state were becoming a political issue; the legislature took various ineffectual steps to try to halt the depredations. The Pinkertons received another call (Yeatman, pp. 111-114) after another train robbery, at Gads Hill in 1874. (No, I'm not making that up; apparently Missouri has such a place as well as England; Settle, p. 49; Wellman, p. 86.) This was another robbery where the perpetrators could not absolutely be identified -- one Jim Reed confessed to it on his deathbed (Yeatman, p. 138) and denied the James Boys were there -- but it was widely credited to the brothers. And it is apparently certain that the Jameses were working with the three surviving Younger brothers (Cole, Jim, and Bob) by that time.
Unfortunately, the Pinkertons called in to deal with the problem were not up to the task; they didn't catch anyone, and a young agent named John W. Whicher was soon killed (Settle, pp. 59-60). Two other agents died trying to capture the Younger brothers, though they succeeded in killing John Younger (Settle, p. 60; Wellman, pp. 90-92, gives a dramatized version of the incident. Pp. 92-94 dramatizes the death of Whicher).
The detective agency would add another tragic page to the James story: on January 28, 1875, the Pinkertons (or someone; Yeatman, Wellman, and Brant are certain it was the detectives; Settle is not) firebombed the Samuels home, in the belief that Frank and Jesse were there. (According to Brant, p., 134, the explosion could be heard three miles away, and much of the house caught fire. Yeatman and Settle give no hints of major pyrotechnics. Wellman, pp. 96-98, has a rather pathetic account of what occurred, but also thinks it a relatively small explosive, possibly a Civil War grenade though he thinks it an iron flare.
But the bombers did not catch their men. Instead, they killed Archie Peyton Samuel, the half-brother of Jesse and Frank (whose age is variously listed as eight [Brant, Wellman], nine [Settle] and 13 [Yeatman]). In addition, a shell fragment hit Mrs. Samuel on the right wrist, shattering it and forcing the amputation of her hand (Yeatman, pp. 134-137; Settle, p. 76. Brant, of course, says that her hand was "blown off," and Wellman says it was "torn off"). A grand jury eventually filed murder charges against Pinkerton and certain of his employees, not all named (Yeatman, p. 143). The charges were dismissed in 1877 (Settle, p. 80), mostly on the grounds that the case was not being actively pursued and the charges were stale.
The firebombing clearly disturbed the family. Dr. and Mrs. Samuels eventually tried to sell their property, but found no takers (Yeatman, pp. 149-150; Settle, pp. 86-101). And Jesse and Zee, who by this time was pregnant, moved to Nashville in early 1875. Jesse used the name "John Davis Howard" (which we will of course see again); Zee became "Josie." At the time, Mr. Howard listed his occupation as "wheat speculator," though he often vanished for weeks at a time. During this period, Jesse apparently was trying to kill Allan Pinkerton (Yeatman, p. 151) -- but the result was rather Hamlet-like: He wanted Pinkerton to know and suffer, and he never had a chance to kill Pinkerton in such circumstances. If Jesse didn't get Pinkerton, the gang may still have committed murder: Daniel Askew, a neighbor of the Samuels family who may have helped the Pinkertons, was shot to death in April 1875 (Settle, p. 85). Most attribute the murder to the Jameses, though there was speculation the Pinkertons did it to silence a potential witness against them (Settle, p. 86).
In an interesting twist, Jesse also published several letters boasting (lying) about his whereabouts and activities. What is intriguing is that they contain many more errors of grammar, spelling, and punctuation than the earlier letters he had supposedly published in the Edwards papers -- as if two different men had written them. If originals of any of these alleged letters survived, no one bothered to mention them.
In 1875, Zee gave birth to Jesse Edward James, publicly known as "Tim Howard"; he would answer to the nickname "Tim" all his life. (Yeatman, p. 161). There seems to be some dispute about the exact date; Settle, p. 129, says December 31; Yeatman, p. 161, has August 31.
At this time, the first known James associate was captured alive. Tim Webb, who had recently taken part in a robbery in Huntington, West Virginia, was taken into custody, and though there is no evidence the Jameses or Youngers took part in this robbery (Settle, p. 87), Webb probably knew where Jesse was living in hiding. So Jesse and Zee moved to Baltimore for about a year (Yeatman, p. 162); Frank also spent some time there. But in 1876, the two returned to Missouri, leaving their wives behind (Yeatman, p. 164).
In Missouri, they met the Youngers, and for some reason decided to try a raid on Minnesota. On arriving in the state, they scouted various banks, according to Cole Younger, they eventually picked the bank in Northfield in part because former Union general and Mississippi carpetbagger governor Adelbert Ames was associated with the place, and the infamous general Benjamin "Beast" Butler (for whom see, e.g., "Hold On, Abraham") apparently had money there (Yeatman, p. 171; Settle, p. 95).
For the story of the disastrous Northfield raid itself, see the notes to "Cole Younger" [Laws E3]. Frank and Jesse were said to have been injured in the fracas (Settle, p. 98; cf. Brant, p. 179, who says that Frank's hand was crushed in the vault door), but it didn't slow them down; they were the only two of the eight robbers involved to escape police. (Settle, p. 96, notes that, to this time, police still didn't have a reliable description of either brother, and indeed, Huntington, p. 50fff., describes occasions on which the pursuers actually encountered the robbers but did not recognize or succeed in capturing them.) After separating from the Youngers, Frank and Jesse managed to reach the South Dakota border about ten days after the raid (Yeatman, p. 183).
(Lyle Lofgren tells me that the town of Garretson, South Dakota, on the Minnesota border northeast of Sioux Falls, has a "Jesse James's Leap," or some such thing, which Jesse is alleged to have ridden his horse across. Lyle adds that he thinks it too wide for any horse, and what are the odds that Jesse would have tried it on an unfamiliar horse? In any case, the testimony of Dick Liddil -- reported by William H. Wallace on p. 119 of Dellinger -- was that they left Minnesota in a wagon, with one driving and the injured brother carried in the back.)
The brothers apparently decided that that was enough outlawry for a lifetime. Soon after that, they and their families found new homes and tried, at least for a while, to live quietly.
Frank apparently settled in Nashville. He seems to have used the name Ben J. Woodson. He reportedly worked very hard as a sharecropper, except perhaps for a brief time when he suffered from malaria (Yeatman, p. 202).
Jesse, still using the name "John Davis Howard," chose a more rural setting, in Humphries County some distance to the west. He didn't draw much attention except for owning a very fast horse, occasionally showing great skill with a pistol, and sometimes acting a little paranoid (Yeatman, pp. 196-197). Around this time, Zee gave birth to twin boys, Gould and Montgomery, who however died soon afterward (Yeatman, p. 201; Settle, p. 132). On February 8, 1878, Frank's wife Annie bore Robert Franklin James. In one of the strangest twists of the James saga, he was apparently called "Mary" as a baby (Yeatman, p. 203). Settle, p. 132, reports that Zee nursed Robert when Annie proved unable to produce enough milk.
Both Frank and Jesse were gamblers, but it appears Jesse wasn't nearly as good at it; he lost a lot, and also suffered from lawsuits over his financial dealings, and at least once bounced a check (Yeatman, p. 204). In December 1878, he moved again (Yeatman, p. 205). In 1879, it was his turn to suffer malaria (Yeatman, p. 207). In July of that year, his daughter Mary was born (Yeatman, p. 211; Settle, p. 129). This was Jesse's last child; note, therefore, that (contrary to most versions of "Jesse James (I)" [Laws E1], he did *not* have three children when he died).
At about this time, Jesse seems to have decided it was time to return to outlawry. Frank, from what we can tell, just wanted to be left alone. (Reconstruction had ended with the disputed Hayes/Tildren election of 1876, and sympathy for unreconstructed rebels was less.) Frank in the years around 1880 was apparently deliberately courting friendships with pillars of the local community (Yeatman, p. 228), presumably to have character witnesses if he needed them.
Yeatman, p. 213, based on later testimony of Dick Liddil (cf. Settle, p. 148) says that Jesse's new gang consisted of his cousin Wood Hite (Robert Woodson Hite, a cousin of Jesse's whose family still lived in Kentucky), Ed Miller (the brother of Clell Miller who had been killed in the Northfield raid), Tucker Bassham, Bill Ryan, and Dick Liddil (this is the spelling of William H. Wallace, who on p. 117 of Dellinger claimed to have known him well; Settle, Yeatman, and even Brant also use this spelling; others have used "Liddell" or other forms). This gang in October 1879 robbed a train at Glendale (the one James robbery celebrated in song in which Frank played no part; Settle, pp. 133, 148). The take from this robbery, apart from non-negotiable securities, was about $6000 (Settle, p. 102).
Late in 1879, a report circulated that Jesse was dead (Settle, pp. 103-104). It was, of course, false.
Somewhat later, Tucker Bassham was arrested. It appears Jesse and Ed Miller rode off (to silence him?). Miller never returned; it is speculated that Jesse killed him (Yeatman, p. 218). On September 3, 1880, Jesse robbed a stagecoach in showy fashion, apparently trying to imitate the famous English highwaymen (and incidentally picking up some loot which would be found in his home after his death); other robberies followed (Yeatman, pp. 219-220).
In early 1881, Frank and Jesse were again briefly scared out of their homes; they went briefly to Alabama (Yeatman, pp. 229-230). This was fateful, because Jesse became aware of the large crew working on the Muscle Shoals canal. In March, he took Bill Ryan and Wood Hite and robbed the man carrying the workers' pay (Yeatman, pp. 233-234). The total haul was over $5000.
On March 25, Bill Ryan got drunk and turned rowdy. He was taken into custody carrying about $1400 and four firearms. Although he refused, upon being taken, to tell authorities anything, Frank, Jesse, and Dick Liddil concluded that they must again leave home. Frank would later confess to despair at "again becom[ing] a wanderer" (Yeatman, p. 240).
This is another vague period in the history of the James Boys; Jesse ended up in Kansas City using the name J. T. Jackson (Yeatman, p. 248), but witnesses disagree about where Frank was; he said he never went that far west, and stayed clean in this period (Yeatman, p. 260), but others claim he was part of the gang that, on July 16, 1881, attacked a train near Gallatin. Jesse, Dick Liddil, and Clarence and Wood Hite were very likely present. Two men including the conductor were killed; the total haul was about $700 (Yeatman, p. 249).
In the period around 1870, the press was split about outlaws. By 1880, it was more strongly against their depredations. Missouri governor Thomas T. Crittenden (1832-1909) had been elected in 1880 in part on a promise to settle the James Gang. (The Missouri Republican platform ha actually attacked the Democrats for failing to do what "a Republican state" had done, referring to Minnesota's prosecution of the Youngers; Settle, p. 106.) The law didn't permit him to set a price on their heads, but he induced the railroads and other businesses to offer a total of $50,000 for the members of the gang. For Jesse and Frank, the reward was $5000 each for their capture (if taken alive) and another $5000 upon conviction (Settle, p. 110; Yeatman, p. 252).
On September 7, 1881, a train was robbed at the "Blue Cut" curve. Along with the usual crew of Jesse, Clarence and Wood Hite, Dick Liddil, and perhaps Frank, there was a new recruit named Charlie Ford (Yeatman, pp. 253-254). Since the safe contained only about $400, the outlaws beat the express messenger, then robbed the passengers as well (Settle, pp. 111-112).
Bob Ford's first association with the gang seems to have been part of a robbery with brother Charlie, Dick Liddil, and Wood Hite; Jesse reportedly was not part of the crew (Yeatman, p. 261).
About this time, former gang member Tucker Bassham, sentenced to ten years, was offered full pardon in return for cooperation. He helped convict Bill Ryan, then fled the area; no doubt the fact that his home was burned added to his desire to depart. On September 28, 1881, Ryan was sentenced to 25 years (Settle, pp. 113-144; Yeatman, pp. 257-258).
Things finally started to come apart when the gang suffered from internal dissent. A young widow named Sarah Norris Peck had married the old widower George Hite, the father of Wood and Clarence. It appears the Hite children never liked her, and vice versa; eventually, she swore out a warrant against Wood Hite. The police captured Wood, but he escaped. However, when Wood met Dick Liddil, and Bob and Charlie Ford, Wood quarreled with Liddil (possibly over the affections of one Martha Bolton; Settle, p. 116). In the fight that followed, Liddil was hurt and Hite killed, reportedly by Bob Ford as he was shooting at Liddil (O'Neal, p. 143; Yeatman, pp. 261-262). Hite, recall, was Jesse's first cousin, so the Fords and Liddil now had reason to fear the leader of their former gang.
Liddil would surrender to authorities January 24, 1882, with promises of immunity if he could bring in the rest of the gang (Settle, p. 116) -- but the event was kept out of the papers to avoid rousing Jesse's suspicions. Clarence Hite, suffering from the tuberculosis which would kill him in 1883, and afraid of being caught, followed Liddil on February 11 (Settle, p. 117; Yeatman, p. 266). Thus, of the post-Younger Frank-and-Jesse-James Gang, only Frank and Jesse were still free; of the gang which followed that, which was really Jesse's alone, Jesse was the only one left. Nor could he turn to Frank any more; Frank had decided to leave the west, possibly forever. In October 1881, he and his family, after visiting various spots in Virginia and North Carolina (trying to find a place that was safe, prosperous, and not troubled by disease), settled in Lynchburg, Virginia; he used the name "James Warren" (Yeatman, p. 263).
Jesse wasn't done with crime. On November 9, 1881, he went to St. Joseph, Missouri; he would settle at 1318 Lafayette Street. Jesse's companion on his first visit to the town was Charlie Ford. It was to be a short-lived but fateful partnership.
Ford family patriarch James Thomas Ford had been born in 1820 in Virginia; he moved back and forth from Missouri to Virginia several times (Yeatman, p. 264). He was in Missouri at the start of the Civil War, but moved back to Virginia in 1862; his son Bob was a newborn at the time. An older brother of Charlie and Bob, John Ford, would fight for the Confederacy with Mosby's Rangers (Yeatman, p. 265).
Around 1869, the Ford family returned to Missouri. Bob and Charlie apparently were introduced to Jesse in 1881 by Ed Miller. Charlie, as noted above, was the first to join the James Gang. But Jesse soon asked Charlie to recruit another man for his diminished gang, and Charlie recruited Bob (Yeatman, p. 267).
Bob was soon in touch with the authorities; he apparently didn't like Jesse's management (he is reported to have said that Jesse was "dead" as a gang leader; Yeatman, p. 265). Bob Ford met with Governor Crittenden on January 13, 1882 in Kansas City; he reports that he was offered $10,000 dead or alive for Jesse (and the same for Frank). Frank was out of reach, but Jesse was available.
The motivations of the Ford Brothers are rather unclear at this point. When word finally slipped out that Liddil had been taken, they may have feared that Jesse would try to get rid of them, too. Yeatman says Jesse and the Fords were tending their horses when Jesse said he was too hot and took off his coat; he apparently also took off his gun belt. He turned his back to brush off some pictures, and the Fords pulled out their pistols. Bob apparently fired first; he hit Jesse in the back of the head (Yeatman, p. 269).
Settle's account is more like the traditional one of Jesse climbing a chair to hang a picture -- a detail found in a report from the Kansas City Daily Journal printed in p. 163 of Dellinger -- and mentions only Bob drawing his gun (p. 117). The Daily Journal story also said that the Fords had stayed with Jesse for a week (hence the mention in the song that Bob Ford "slept in Jesse's bed") before catching him unarmed -- and they weren't willing to face him when armed (Dellinger, p. 165).
In a detail that seems too good to be true, Fetherling, p. 147, says that the sampler Jesse was straightening read "In God We Trust."
Brant's account (pp. 224-225) also mentions the chair, claiming that the Fords became suspicious when Jesse took off his guns, which Brant claims he never did. Whatever the exact events (for which, of course, we have only the accounts of the two brothers), Jesse was dead by gunshot. When Zee arrived, Charlie claimed it was an accident -- but he and Bob quickly headed off to report to the authorities.
Some people were not convinced that the body was really Jesse's, but his mother and wife, and several others, attested to it -- and many relics of his robberies were found in his home (Settle, p. 1180.
Jesse's relics quickly became highly sought-after items; if eBay had existed in 1882, the Samuels would have been set for life. The owner of the house Jesse was renting did a fine business giving tours, though the visitors did much damage carving off souvenirs (Settle, p. 127). Jesse was initially buried on the family farm, apparently to protect his body; later he was moved to the family plot -- and his grave monument soon chiseled away by more relic-hunters (Settle, p. 166).
After Jesse's death, the Fords claimed that Governor Crittenden had offered the reward for Jesse dead or alive; Crittenden of course claimed he had demanded the capture of the Jameses (Yeatman, p. 271). According to Settle, it is still not known what money was paid to whom. Crittenden's role remains ambiguous -- he encouraged the betrayal of Jesse, but ended up treating Frank with tender loving care.
The Fords ended up facing murder charges, first for Jesse, then for Wood Hite, whose body was exhumed (Yeatman, p. 272). On April 17, 1882, Bob and Charlie pled guilty to the murder of Jesse. Sentenced to death, they were pardoned by Crittenden (Settle, p. 1189). They eventually were acquitted in the death of Hite (Yeatman, p. 275).
In October of that year, after complicated but obscure negotiations probably involving Crittenden, assorted prosecutors, and James apologist John Newman Edwards, Frank James finally turned himself in (Settle, pp. 130-131; Yeatman, p. 279). It took some time to decide on charges, since the statute of limitations had passed for many of his crimes. Eventually he was charged with a murder at Gallatin. The result was circus-like. A newspaper ascerbically remarked that it wasn't clear if Frank had surrendered to the State of Missouri or Missouri to Frank (Settle, p. 134).
There were few left to testify against Frank. Clarence Hite was dead. Bill Ryan had given no testimony against Frank. The Fords had not worked with him. The charges against him were mostly for crimes committed after Northfield, so the Youngers could not testify even if they wanted to. That left only Dick Liddil, who by this time was on trial in Alabama. And he was claiming he had not taken any part in Frank's crimes, which (it appears to me) would make his testimony hearsay. Authorities tried to award him clemency to get the real truth out of him; President Chester A. Arthur refused (Settle, pp. 137-138). The main case had to be tried in an opera house to provide seats for spectators (Settle, p. 139). Liddil was the only real witness. The jury needed less than four hours to reach a not guilty verdict.
It was then decided that Liddil's testimony could not be used further, since he was a felon, and the other Missouri charges dropped (Settle, p. 150). Frank then was sent to Alabama for the Muscle Shoals robbery. Again it was just Liddil's word, and Frank had an alibi; he was again found not guilty (Settle, pp. 152-153). On February 21, 1885, the last of the charges based on Missouri crimes was dropped (Yeatman, p. 289). There was still the matter of the Northfield robbery, but no one from Minnesota was pursuing the matter. Frank was free.
It is interesting to note that Crittenden failed of renomination in 1884, partly because of the James affair (Settle, p. 154; Fetherling, p. 147).
Frank seems to have stayed straight for the rest of his life. He moved to Dallas in 1887 and became a successful salesman for a time, then turned to other odd jobs. Eventually he was turned down for a patronage job he thought he deserved as a token of his reform (Settle, p. 163; Yeatman, p. 299), after which he went into acting. In 1903, he and Cole Younger (now out of jail and given a conditional pardon) opened a Wild West show that was named after them. It was to be surrounded by controversy and quarrels among the performers; at one point even Cole and Frank were indicted, though they got off by noting that they did not own, manage, or bankroll the show; they were simply paid performers lending their names to the production. When matters grew too troublesome, the two quit the show (Yeatman, pp. 302-311).
By that time, Frank's political disillusionment was so extreme that he publicly declared himself a Republican (generally regarded as unthinkable for a Confederate veteran) on August 20, 1904 (Settle, p. 164; Yeatman, p. 311); he would in time come out in favor of women's suffrage (Yeatman, p. 318). In 1907 he bought farm in Fletcher, Oklahoma (Yeatman, p. 314). After stepfather Reuben Samuels died in 1908 in a mental hospital, suffering some sort of dementia, and Zerelda Samuels died February 10, 1911 (Yeatman, p. 317), Frank inherited the Samuels farm and turned it into a tourist attraction. It has served that function for much of the time since, though different owners have devoted different degrees of attention to it.
Frank never really told his story; once, when asked about his past, he said, "I neither affirm nor deny.... If I admitted that those stories were true, people would say, 'There's the greatest scoundrel unhung,' and if I denied 'em they'd say, 'There's the greatest liar on earth,' so I just say nothing" (Yeatman, p. 319). He died February 18, 1915, the next to last of the Northfield robbers; Cole Younger, the last, would die in 1916.
Frank was certainly the most fortunate of the gang. The Youngers served long terms in prison; Bob died there, and Jim committed suicide after his release; Cole had some modest success as a showman. The other Northfield raiders were dead. Wood Hite was dead. Clarence Hite died of tuberculosis (there were surprisingly many TB cases among the James Gang; one suspects someone carried the disease. Probably Jesse, given his lung problems. And the fact that several of them were related may have meant that they had the same genetic lack of immunity).
Charlie Ford also suffered from tuberculosis, and he apparently became addicted to morphine as a result; he killed himself on May 4, 1884 (Yeatman, p. 291; Fetherling, p. 148). One suspects that this is the main reason why the Jesse James songs mention Bob and not Charlie.
Bob Ford wandered around the west, trying a short stint as a police officer before taking to saloon-keeping. He was at his third of these, in Creede, Colorado, when a man named Ed Kelly (Ed O. Kelly? Ed O'Kelly?) shot him on June 8, 1892 (Yeatman, p. 292). Ironically, Kelly himself would be shot to death in 1904 in Oklahoma City.
Jesse's wife Zee died on November 13, 1900 (Yeatman, p. 296). There were various imposters over the years -- a fake Zee arose as early as 1885, when Zee was obviously still around. A later Zee apparently was credited with charismatic gifts! (Yeatman, p. 297). There were also an assortment of fake Jesses over the years, including one John James in 1931 (easily discredited). One J. Frank Dalton was still making a claim as late as 1950, more than a century after Jesse's birth. (Fans of science fiction will be chagrined to note that the infamous Raymond F. Palmer, responsible for Amazing Stories in its worst years, helped to promote this legend, mentioning it in a radio conversation; see Yeatman, pp. 328-333). A fake Frank arose while Frank was still alive (Settle, p. 164).
That was typical of the stories about the James Family: No lie was too outlandish to be told. The rumors that Jesse had not been assassinated were not really put to rest until the end of the twentieth century. In the 1990s, an autopsy showed that the body buried as Jesse James had bullets in the right places to be Jesse, and the mitochondrial DNA was properly matched to several of his relatives. Brant, p. 266, calls this proof that the body was Jesse's. The scientists quoted by Yeatman, pp. 371-376, in fact repeatedly denied that the matter was proved, but the evidence was "consistent" with the conclusion that it was. Under the circumstances, the probability is extremely high.
Even before tabloid journalism, the robbers seem to have been tabloid fodder. StarTribune published a famous photo of the bodies of Clell Miller and Bill Stiles after the Northfield raid. The text claims that the photographer sold 50,000 copies of the photo (which would imply he earned about $8,000 for that one photo). There were also wild stories told of what happened to Miller's body -- supposedly it ended up in the office of Dr. Henry Wheeler, who as a young man was credited with shooting Miller. This, of course, has never been proved.
Jesse Jr. eventually studied law, and at one point became involved in a divorce proceeding and custody battle with his wife; they managed to reconcile, but he had a nervous breakdown in 1924 and was never really the same afterward. He died in 1951 (Yeatman, p. 320).
Mary James Barr died March 11, 1935 (Yeatman, p. 321). Anne Ralston James died in July of 1944 (Yeatman, p. 326), seventy years after she married Frank.
Books about the James Gang were beginning to appear even in their lifetimes, though the amount of fiction included was astonishing. Yeatman, p. 223, tells of one book that described a cave carefully fitted out as a hideout, with a stove, a panelled ceiling, beds, and stalls for horses. The Youngers were subject of a book published 1875 (Settle, p. 180); this book, by Augustus P. Appier, was reprinted as late as 1955 despite being highly inaccurate. The first book to include the Jameses seems to have been Noted Guerilla by none other than John Newman Edwards; this 1877 book included many outlaws in addition to the James Brothers, but the James and Younger brothers were prominent. The James/Younger Gang was the sole subject of a book by J. A. Dacus in 1880; Settle, p. 184, notes 16 editions of this book.
Even Frank Triplett's biography, which was assembled after some contact with the Samuels family, was cobbled together hastily after Jesse's death and contained a lot of false reports from the newspapers (Settle, p. 192; Yeatman, p. 275); if the family had any influence on it, it came in the form of the strong sympathy Triplett's book shows the Jameses. The various chapbooks about the Jameses were of course pure fiction. It appears that trash of this sort was still being written in the mid-twentieth century -- Dellinger, p. 40, quotes an acount that seems, e.g., to invent a new Younger brother!
Settle, p. 197, says that the first relatively sober history was not published until 1926 -- and even it veered too far toward the dramatic. (This book was by Robertus Love, and an excerpt is on pp. 197-204 of Dellinger. And it is indeed pretty wild -- the excerpt in Dellinger shows him talking, .e.g., about Jesse James's ghost.) To this day, there are books being published treating Jesse as an unreconstructed Confederate rather than a plain and simple robber. The fact that Jesse worked mostly in former slave states, and shot quite a few Southerners, makes no difference.
Wellman, p. 69, quotes William H. Wallace, himself a resident of the area: "The usual defence of the outlaws [that it was forced upon them by the North]... is overwhelmed by the evidence. Every bank robbed by them during the fifteen years of their career[,] with possibly two exceptions, belonged to Southern men.... The truth is, too, that the persons killed in these bank robberies were Southerners. We had as well admit the truth -- they robbed for money, not for revenge."
Compare also Wellman, p. 88, also from Wallace: "the charge [has been] made hundreds of times that the Southern people of Missouri endorsed the depredations of these outlaws and were opposed to their being overthrown. This is absolutely untrue. Especially has it been charged that the ex-Confederates of Missouri... endorsed the conduct of the James Boys. Precisely the opposite is true."
Jo Frances James (daughter of Jesse Junior) once sold a manuscript to Hollywood, which supposedly underlay the Tyrone Power/Henry Fonda film "Jesse James." But Jo Frances said of the result, "I don't know what happened to the history part of it. It seems to me the story was fiction from beginning to end.... About the only connection it had with fact was that there once was a man named James and he did ride a horse" (Yeatman, pp. 326-327). That strikes me as a pretty good last word on the whole legend..- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: FR379

Jesse James (IV)

DESCRIPTION: "You've heard of heroes brave in all their glory...." These heroes are contrasted with James, who "joined the bad guerrillas," robbed banks, "invented robbing trains," avoided the Pinkertons -- and finally was shot by Robert Ford
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: outlaw death train betrayal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 4, 1882 - Shooting of Jesse James (then in semi-retirement under the name of Howard) by Robert Ford, a relative and a former member of his gang tempted by the $10,000 reward
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 93, "Jesse James" (5 texts, 2 tunes; this is the "E" text)
Roud #11225
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesse James (I)" [Laws E1] and references there
NOTES [25 words]: For full background on Frank and Jesse James, see the notes to "Jesse James (III)," the James song which has perhaps the strongest factual basis. - RBW
File: FCW093E

Jesse James (VI -- "I Wonder Where My Poor Old Jesse's Gone")

DESCRIPTION: Jesse James song recognized by the chorus, "Oh I wonder where my poor old Jesse's gone... I will meet him in that land where I've never been before." Jesse is killed by Robert Ford; his life is recalled
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (The Golden Ring)
KEYWORDS: outlaw death betrayal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 4, 1882 - Shooting of Jesse James (then in semi-retirement under the name of Howard) by Robert Ford, a relative and a former member of his gang tempted by the $10,000 reward
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 187-188, "Jesse James" (1 text)
DT, JESSJAM1
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesse James (I)" [Laws E1] and references there
NOTES [61 words]: I don't know if this version is actually traditional; the Golden Ring text is collated, and I believe someone (Mitchell Trio?) attributed it to Paul Clayton. I've never seen a pure dyed-in-the-wool text from tradition.
For full background on Frank and Jesse James, see the notes to "Jesse James (III)," the James song which has perhaps the strongest factual basis. - RBW
File: DarNS188

Jesse James (VII - "Jesse James Was a Bandit Bold")

DESCRIPTION: Jesse and Frank James come to town with ponies for sale. While there, they attend a ball, and have great success with the girls. The local men try to attack them, but Jesse and Frank out-fight them and escape to Mexico
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (University Missourian)
KEYWORDS: outlaw dancing escape
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 401-404, "Jesse James" (3 texts, of which only the second, called "A Missouri Ballad" in the original publication, is this song)
Roud #2242
NOTES [32 words]: This is item dE44 in Laws's Appendix II.
For full background on Frank and Jesse James, see the notes to "Jesse James (III)," the James song which has perhaps the strongest factual basis. - RBW
File: Beld419b

Jesse James (VIII -- "Poor old Jesse, AIn't You Sorry?)

DESCRIPTION: "Jesse James was a man who wore a hat with a little band, There lays Jesse James in his grave. Poor old Jesse, ain't you sorry? (x3)." "Jesse James was a spy, and they shot him on the sly. How they killed Jesse James was a shame. Poor old Jesse..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: outlaw death clothes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #47, "Jesse James" (1 text)
Roud #2240
NOTES [95 words]: Roud lumps this with "Jesse James (I)" [Laws E1], probaby because the first line is somewhat similar. But that line won't scan to the same tune, and the rest of the lyrics are different. Laws does not include the Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida text with "Jesse James (I)," and I fully agree that they are separate. Morris's fragment appears unique, although it was probably inspired by, or confused with, the better-known song.
For full background on Frank and Jesse James, see the notes to "Jesse James (III)," the James song which has perhaps the strongest factual basis. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: Morr047

Jessey James

See Jesse James (II) [Laws E2] (File: LE02)

Jessie and Jimmie

See The Sons of Liberty [Laws J13] (File: LJ13)

Jessie at the Railway Bar

See Jessie, the Belle at the Bar (File: R051)

Jessie Munroe [Laws P40]

DESCRIPTION: Johnny is entranced by Jessie and asks her too marry, offering her houses and land. She says that his holdings are poor and he unattractive. Johnny returns to Betty, less attractive but more faithful
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: courting beauty virtue
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws P40, "Jessie Munroe"
Peacock, pp. 291-292, "Jessie Munro" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 78, "Jessie Munroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 72-73, "Jessie Munro" (3 texts, 1 tune)
DT 517, JESSMUNR
Roud #1807
RECORDINGS:
George Decker, "Jessie Munro" (on PeacockCDROM)
File: LP40

Jessie o' Dundee

DESCRIPTION: The singer returns from the war to the banks of the Tay. He courts Jessie but her father discovers them "beneath the shade." She declares she would leave Dundee with the singer. Her father takes them to be married "this night"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love marriage father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 985, "Jessie o' Dundee" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #6734
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sweet Jessie o' Dundee
NOTES [24 words]: Greig/Duncan5 quoting Duncan: "Alexander Mackay from Al. Murray, blacksmith, Balquharn, about twenty-six years ago. Noted 13th March 1907." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5985

Jessie of Ballington Brae

See Bessie of Ballington Brae [Laws P28] (File: LP28)

Jessie of Old Rayne

DESCRIPTION: The singer is "on the main An' sailin wi' a heart deprived O' Jessie o' Old Rayne." He will miss the places "where I hae spent my youthfu' days" and Newton's woods where he used to meet Jessie. They parted "in hopes to meet again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: love emigration farewell parting Scotland separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1523, "Jessie of Old Rayne" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #21189
NOTES [73 words]: Greig/Duncan8: "Learnt in Rayne sixty years ago. Noted September 1906."
"Rayne is a parish, which lies in Aberdeenshire Council Area, some 7 miles (12 km) northwest of Inverurie and 12 miles (19 km) south of Turriff in Aberdeenshire." (Source: Gazetteer for Scotland site).
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3": Newton is at coordinate (h3,v6-7) on that map [roughly 23 miles NW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81523

Jessie the Flower of Dunblane

DESCRIPTION: "The sun has gone down on lofty Ben Lomond, And left the red clouds to preside o'er the scene" as the singer "muses" on "sweet Jessie the flower of Dunblane." The singer praises her beauty and modesty; he would love her even if he had high station
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Tannahill
EARLIEST DATE: 1833 (Journal of the Lotos)
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad beauty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 294, "Jessy, the Flower O'Dunblane" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 266-267, "Jessie the Flower of Dunblane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #10, p. 46, "Jessie, the Flower o' Dumblane" (1 text)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 173-183, "Jessie, the Flower o' Dunblane" (1 text)
Roud #15024
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jessie Flower of Dunblane
The Flower of Dunblane
NOTES [52 words]: Although some writers have tried to claim this is about a particular woman, Ford-SongHistories dismisses them all, probably correctly -- because, according to him, Robert Tannahill hadn't even been to Dunblane; supposedly this was an attempt to wipe out the memory of a much coarser song, "Rob o' Dunblane." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HGam266

Jessie, the Belle at the Bar

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees Jessie working at the railroad bar. He courts her. Though warned that she is fickle, he offers to wed; she accepts -- then runs off with the costly wedding dress and marries a newspaper publisher
AUTHOR: G. Ware
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Dime-Song-Book #19)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(MA,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 754, "Jessie at the Railway Bar" (2 texts)
Randolph 51, "Courting Jessie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 169, "Pretty Jessie of the Railway Bar" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 80-81, "The Trainman's Song" (1 text) (pp. 66-67 in the 1919 edition)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 70-72, "(Jessie, the Belle at the Bar)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #19, p. 62-64, "Jessie, the Belle at the Bar" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 479, "Jessie at the Railway Bar" (source notes only)
Roud #3265
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(121b), "Jessie at the Railway Bar," unknown (probably Glasgow), 1884
NOTES [40 words]: The commentary for broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(121b) states "the location of the railway station in 'Jessie at the Railway Bar' occasionally varies, with one version placing the events in Moorgate station rather than Brighton station." - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R051

Jessie, the Flower o' Dumblane

See Jessie the Flower of Dunblane (File: HGam266)

Jessy, the Flower O'Dunblane

See Jessie the Flower of Dunblane (File: HGam266)

Jest Talkin'

See Talking Blues (File: LoF224)

Jesu was Born in Bethlehem Judea

DESCRIPTION: "Jesus was born in Bethlehem (of) Jude(a), All of a maiden, thus findeth we." The steward bids Herod to come and see. The magi come. Herod orders the children of Israel slain. Jesus flees to Egypt. Herod dies and goes to hell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Fifteenth century (MSS. Sloane 2593, Porkington 10)
KEYWORDS: religious death travel warning MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #124, pp. 80-82, "(no title)" (2 texts)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1785
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2944
ADDITIONAL: Carleton Brown, editor, _Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1939, #87, pp. 124-125,"The Journey of the Three Kings" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 14
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPorkington10}, Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS. Porkington 10, folio 198
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Saint Stephen and Herod" [Child 22] (theme of the steward telling Herod of Jesus"
NOTES [299 words]: This song is no longer found in tradition, of course, but there are several reasons to include it. First, it is found in two very important manuscripts: Sloane 2593, which is among the most important of all medieval manuscripts, and Porkington 10, which is not quite as important but is still a major source of texts. That's not quite enough, on its own, to say we should cite the piece, but the differences between the two pieces are quite noteworthy. Apart from many verbal differences, from trivial to quite significant, the two sometimes contain different stanzas:
- Only Porkington has a steward come to Herod to tell of the coming of Jesus
- Only Sloane mentions the star guiding the magi
- Only Sloane mentions the magi meeting Herod
- Only Porkington has an angel tell the Holy Family to flee Herod and guide them to Egypt
But it's the first of those points that is, to me, the clincher. There is no mention in the Bible of a Steward telling Herod of the birth of Jesus. Herod learns of it from the Magi (Matthew 2:1-11; there is no other Biblical reference to the story). The relevant part of the text in Porkington is brief but clear:
The stuarde whas bolde off that countre
And bade Errod shollde com and see
i.e.
The steward was bold of that country
And bade Herod should come and see.
In other words, this version knows at least a bit of the story told in "Saint Stephen and Herod" [Child 22] -- a tale not found elsewhere. (It is perhaps a little ironic that Sloane 2593 is the source for "Saint Stephen and Herod," but it's the manuscript of this song which does not contain the incident!) if that important bit of folklore isn't enough reason to index this song, I don't know what is.
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSJWBIBJ

Jesus and Joses

See notes under The Bitter Withy (File: L689)

Jesus At Thy Command

DESCRIPTION: "Jesus at Thy command I launch into the deep And leave my native land Where sin lulls all asleep." Singer trusts Christ to save him and asks for a heavenly wind to take him to a heavenly port.
AUTHOR: Augustus Montague Toplady (1740-1778)
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (see note quoting William Allen)
KEYWORDS: religious sea ship ship nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
Roud #12925
RECORDINGS:
Frank Verrill, "Jesus At Thy Command" (on Voice02)
NOTES [167 words]: Re: The London Missionary Society: "The first missionary party, consisting of over thirty persons, sailed down the Thames in the ship 'Duff' on the 10th August, 1796, singing, 'Jesus at Thy command we launch into the deep.'" (source: The History of Revivals of Religion by William Allen, "Chapter I - The History of Revivals of Religion - Part III," at The New Revival Library site)
"['Jesus At Thy Command'] is in the Primitive Methodist Hymnal of 1889 and was written by Augustustas[sic] Montigue Toplady." (source: The Veteran "traditional folk music label" site). - BS
Augustus Montague Toplady is most famous for writing the words to "Rock of Ages (I)"; for his history, see the notes to that song.
He is credited with two volumes of religious lyrics. Nonetheless Granger's Index to Poetry lists only seven of his works which made it into their voluminous database (and it appears that two of those are actually alternate names for "Rock of Ages"). This is not one of the works they cite. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcJeATCo

Jesus Been Here

DESCRIPTION: "Jesus been here, been here, bless my soul, and gone, Jesus been here, been here, Oh the Lord pass by"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 26, "Jesus Bin Hyere" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [12 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa026

Jesus Bin Hyere

See Jesus Been Here (File: Edwa026)

Jesus Blessed My Soul and Gone

DESCRIPTION: My Jesus has been here, Jesus blessed my soul and gone. Sister, where were you When the Lord was passing by.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 130, "(Oh my Jesus bin yer)" (1 text)
NOTES [84 words]: Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands's singer said the same song was called an anthem on Eleuthera in the Bahamas.
Odum and Johnson have the lines "For my Lord done been here Done bless my soul an' gone away" in "I Don't Care for Riches" (Howard W. Odum and Guy B. Johnson, The Negro and his Songs (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1925 ("Digitized by Internet Archive"), pp. 108-109). That song has a different point to make, though the shared lines probably have a common origin. - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parp130b

Jesus Born in Bethany

See Christ Was Born in Bethlehem (File: MA189)

Jesus Born in Bethlehem

See Christ Was Born in Bethlehem (File: MA189)

Jesus Born in Galilee

See Christ Was Born in Bethlehem (File: MA189)

Jesus Borned in Bethlea

See Christ Was Born in Bethlehem (File: MA189)

Jesus Christ I Want to Find

DESCRIPTION: "Jesus Christ I want to find; Pray tell me where he is, 'Cause him alone can ease my mind And give my conscience peace." "Tell me which way my redeemer's gone." The singer describes how to recognize Jesus, and is thanked for his lecture
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 602, "Jesus Christ I Want to Find" (1 text)
Roud #11913
File: Br3602

Jesus Done Taken My Drifting Hand

DESCRIPTION: "Hush, little baby, and don't you cry; Yo' mudder an' fader is bo'n to die! Jesus done taken my driftin' han'. Good Lord, Lord, Lord! Over de hills bright shinin' lan'." "Mind out, Sister, how you step on de cross...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 580, "Hush, Little Baby" (1 text)
Roud #11896
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All My Trials" (floating lyrics) and references there
File: Br3580

Jesus Goin' to Make Up Mah Dyin' Bed

See Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dyin' Bed (Tone the Bell Easy) (File: LxA605)

Jesus Goin' to Make Up My Dyin' Bed

See Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dyin' Bed (Tone the Bell Easy) (File: LxA605)

Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dyin' Bed (Tone the Bell Easy)

DESCRIPTION: "When you hear dat I'se a-dyin', I don' want nobody to mo'n... Well, well, well, tone de bell easy, Jesus gonna make up my dyin' bed. The singer recounts Jesus's death, prays that Jesus be with him, and remembers the faith of his dead mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Blind Willie Johnson)
KEYWORDS: Jesus death farewell religious burial nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 80-81, "Jesus Goin' to Make Up Ma Dyin' Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 170, "Jesus GOin' to Make up My Dyin' Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 605-608, "Tone de Bell Easy" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 41, pp. 178-179, "Jesus Gon Tuh Make Up My Dyin' Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TONEBELL
ADDITIONAL: John W. Work, American Negro Songs (New York: Crown Publishers, 1940 (republished by Mineola: Dover Publications, 1998)), pp. 112-113, "Jesus Goin' To Make Up My Dying Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10975 and 15557
RECORDINGS:
Blind Willie Johnson, "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed" (Columbia 14276-D, 1927; on BWJ01, BWJ02, StuffDreams2) ((on "Praise God I'm Satisfied," Yazoo CD 1058 (1989))
Jubilee Gospel Team, "Lower My Dying Head" (QRS, 1928; on Babylon)
Norfolk Jubilee Quartet, "Jesus Is Making Up My Dying Bed" (on "Norfolk Jazz and Jubilee Quartets Vol. 6 (1937-1940)," Document Records DOCD-5386 (1995, recorded 1938))
Charley Patton, "Jesus is a Dying-Bed Maker" (Paramount 12986, 1930; rec. 1929)
Dock Reed, "Jesus Goin' to Make Up My Dyin' Bed" (on NFMAla2)
Horace Sprott, "Jesus Going to Make Up My Dying Bed" (on MuSouth04)
Unknown artists, "Jesus Goin' Make Up My Dyin' Bed" (AFS CYL-5-8, 1933)
NOTES [45 words]: Josh White sings a much, much simpler version of this song, with the same chorus and some of the same verses. The Lomaxes admit that their very long (fourteen stanza) version is composite. I can't really tell how much comes from tradition and how much they mortared in. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: LxA605

Jesus Heal' the Sick

See Jesus Healed the Sick (File: Edwa012)

Jesus Healed the Sick

DESCRIPTION: Jesus healed the sick, blind, and crippled. He rolled the stone from his grave. He gave Lazarus and Peter, "commishun to fly"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 12, "Jesus Heal' the Sick" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [127 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. The line "an' he gave them commishun to fly" is sung five times and may be a response to called lines "'E roll the stone from over the grave," "Bow low," "Brother Lazarus" and "Simon Peter." - BS
I'm reminded of the story of Simon Magus and Peter in the heretical Acts of Peter (a story which has no Biblical basis at all; Simon Magus, in Acts, did deeds of power -- but repented when he was bawled out for trying to buy the Holy Spirit). Peter and Simon had a miracles contest, and one of Simon's miracles was to fly. Peter's counter-miracle was to shoot him down. I doubt anyone who knew this song would have known the "Acts of Peter," but perhaps it says something about how people think. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa012

Jesus Is a Rock

DESCRIPTION: "Jesus is a rock in a wearied land, In a wearied land, in a wearied land... A shelter in a time of storm, in a time of storms." "He is whom I fix my hopes upon, A narrow way till in my view...."
AUTHOR: Probably W. E. Penn (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Henry, from Hettie Twiggs)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus mother storm
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 657, "Jesus Is a Rock" (1 fragment)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 193, "Jesus is a Rock" (1 text)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 37, pp. 161-163, "My God Is a Rock In a Weary Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7580
RECORDINGS:
Peter Davis and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Rock In the Weary Land" (on LomaxCD1712, recorded 1959)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My God is a Rock in a Weary Land
NOTES [124 words]: This reminds me somewhat of "My Father's Gone to View That Land," but Randolph's fragment doesn't seem to have any actual words in common with that piece.
Henry's fragment is rather different in form ("Jesus is a rock in a whirly wind, A shelter in the time of storm, Hope my mother will be there, A shelter in the time of storm," repeated with other family members replacing "Mother," but the overall similarity is clear.
W. E. Penn (1832-1895) published a song "There Is a Rock in a Weary Land" in Harvest Bells No. 3 in 1887. I assume this is derived from that, although presumably there has been some processing along the way.
Laura Ingalls Wilder quotes a snatch of this in The Long WInter, chapter 13, "We'll Weather the Blast." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: R657

Jesus Is the Light

DESCRIPTION: "Jesus is the light, the light of the world (x2), He shines all round us, both night and day, Jesus is the light of the world." "Har ye, say the angels, Jesus is the light of the world."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 246, "Jesus is the Light" (1 short text)
Roud #18154
NOTES [70 words]: John 1:9 reads something like "The true light [φως, "phos"], which enlightens [φωτιζω, "photizo"] everyone, was entering the world (κοσμος, "kosmos")" -- referring to the Logos, but by implication to Jesus. John 8:12 has Jesus declare, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life" (again using φως for "light" and κοσμος for "world/cosmos/universe"). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: KiWa246J

Jesus Isn't Coming Here to Die No More

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "He ain't coming here to die no more (x2)." Verses: "Virgin Mary had one son, The cruel Jews had him hung." "Hallelujah to the Lamb Jesus died for every man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 103, "But He Ain't Comin' Here t' Die No Mo' (Jesus Ain't Comin' Here t' Die No Mo')" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 151 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #15224
NOTES [71 words]: The remaining verses in Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute follow the pattern: "He died for" x, "He died for" y, conclusion. For example, "He died for the blind, He died for the lame, He bore the pain and all the blame."
The Biblical reference is John 1:29: John the Baptist sees Jesus coming and says, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (King James). - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett103

Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross

See Near the Cross (File: RcJKMNtC)

Jesus Lover of My Soul

DESCRIPTION: Original hymn: "Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to thy bosom fly." Parody: "Jesus, lover of my soul, Set me on top of telegraph pole. When the pole begins to break, Take me down for Jesus's sake."
AUTHOR: Original words: Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
EARLIEST DATE: 1740 (Wesley _Hymns and Sacred Poems_, according to Julian); parody collected 1919
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) West Indies(Bahamas,Trinidad)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 226-227, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 347, "Jesus Lover of My Soul" (1 short text, the "telegraph pole" form)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 347, "Jesus Lover of My Soul" (1 tune plus a text excerpt, the "telegraph pole" form)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 205, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" (1 text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Elsie Clews Parsons, "Spirituals and Other Folklore from the Bahamas," Vol. 41, No. 162 (Oct-Dec 1928), Anthems: Rum Cay #1 p. 463, ("Jesus lover of my soul") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Melville J. Herskovits and Frances S. Herskovits, _Trinidad Village_ (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947), pp. 211-212, "Jesus Lover of My Soul" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ira D. Sankey, _Sacred Songs and Solos: Twelve Hundred Hymns_ (London: Marshall Morgan & Scott Ltd, 1921? ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #227, ("Jesus, lover of my soul") (1 text)
William Henry Monk, _Hymns Ancient and Modern_ (London: Novello and Co., 1861 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #179, ("Jesu, Lover of my soul") (1 text) (1 tune)
Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 41, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" (1 text, 1 tune, credited to John B. Dykes)
Roud #5432
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "Jesus Lover of My Soul" (Vocalion 5316, 1929; on CGospel1)
Rambling Rangers, "Jesus Lover of My Soul" (Vocalion 04628, 1939)
Henry Williams, Henry Thomas, Allan Lovelace and George Roberts, "Jesus Lover of My Soul" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
SAME TUNE:
Sugar Bowl ("Jesus, lover of my soul, Lead me to the sugar bowl") (Solomon-ZickaryZan, p.112)
Table Grace: Thou of Life the Fountain Head (Harbin-Parodology, #304, p. 73; Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 127)
NOTES [1240 words]: The Charles Wesley lyric seems to be very popular in churches; the Sacred Harp has it to the tune "Martin" (listed as by S[imeon] B[utler] Marsh, 1798-1875); I have seen a Baptist hymnal with both that tune (listed there as "Marsh") and the tune "Refuge" (by Joseph P. Holbrook). A Lutheran hymnal has the Marsh tune (called "Martyn"); Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills also calls his tune "Martyn." And a Methodist hymnal reveals two versions, one to "Martyn" and one called "Hollingside" by John Bacchus Dykes (1823-1876). These two also appear in the 1926 Lutheran publication The Parish School Hymnal. McKim, p. 215, lists Presbyterians as singing it to Joseph Parry's tune "Aberystwyth." My best guess is that the Dykes tune is the only one written for these lyrics.
It appears that the tunes "Martin/Martyn" and "Marsh" are the same; according to Reynolds, pp. 123, "Martyn" was written by Simeon B. Marsh in 1834 (supposedly while on horseback in New York). He used it as a tune for John Newton's "Mary at Her Savior's Tomb"; it was fitted to these words soon after and appeared in Sacred Songs for Family and Social Worship.
Marsh (according to Reynolds, p. 368) seems to have been a natural musician; having first attended a singing school in 1814, by 1817 he was teaching one. A Presbyterian layman, he lived in New York state his entire live, and became a newspaper editor in 1837.
However, I have yet to find any of these texts in tradition. The "telegraph pole" parody, by contrast, *is* from tradition, though it's not clear how widespread it is. - RBW
You wanted it from tradition? Uncle Dave Macon! - PJS
Charles Wesley (1707-1788) was the eighteenth child of Reverend Samuel Wesley and his mother Susanna(h) (Johnson, p. 38, spells the name "Susanna," Willson, p. 540, "Susannah"). His older brother (who was Wesley child #15) was of course John Wesley, the founder of Methodism.
According to Willson, p. 540, Susannah Wesley "was a woman of deep personal religion and of inflexible will," who offered little tenderness but who drove her children to be both industrious and intellectually gifted. In John Wesley she created a rather inflexible zealot, but "Charles, the author of many famous hymns, was gentler and more poetic."
Both brothers went to Oxford (Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 557); Charles earned his B.A. in 1730 and his M.A. in 1733. Both brothers went to the American colonies in 1735, but Charles quickly returned home due to ill health In 1749, he married Sarah Gwynne, a singer who accompanied him on his travels and helped popularize his songs. They had two surviving sons, who also proved musically gifted.
It was John Wesley, not Charles, who had a conversion experience when he encountered the Moravian Brotherhood (Charles too met with them, according to Johnson, p.38, but did not have quite the same effect on him). It was this which led John, originally a strict Anglican high churchman, to begin to change his approach (Willson, p. 540). Charles did have a major spiritual experience, and had it before John (Rudin, p. 12), but it didn't so much change his religious approach as simply make him more religiously active.
It is interesting to wonder how much difference John Wesley would have made without Charles. Kunitz/Haycraft:, p. 557, declare that Charles shared with John "much of the labor, though little of the fame, of [founding Methodism]. Except that, as he declared, he was born to be a follower and his brother to be a leader. Charles'[s] part in the movement was as active as, and often more stable than, that of John. His greatest distinction is that he was not only the 'poet of the Revival,' but also the most prolific hymn writer of all time. He wrote over 6500 hymns."
Properly, we should say hymn texts; he rarely if ever produced an original tune, and many of his texts are in fact sung to multiple melodies. Examples of that phenomenon in the Index are filed under "Am I Born to Die? (Idumea)," "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" (yes, really -- not everyone uses the Mendelssohn tune),"A Charge to Keep," and apparently "And Must I Be to Judgment Brought?" He may also have been responsible for the original of "You've Got to Be a Lover of the Lord."
According to Julian, p. 590, this was "1st pub[lished] in the Wesley Hy[mn]s and Sac[red] Poems, 1740, in 5 st[anzas] of 8 l[ines], and headed 'In Temptations.'"
Julian adds, on p. 591, "Many charming accounts of the origin of this hymn are extant, but unfortunately some would add, they have no foundation in fact. The most that we can say is that it was written shortly after the great spiritual change which the author underwent in 1738; and that it was published within a few months of the official date (1739) which is given as the founding of Methodism. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the struggles, and dangers with lawless men, in after years. Nor with a dove driven to Wesley's bosom by a hawk, nor with a sea-bird driven to the same shelter by a pitiless storm."
The text has been heavily modified over the years -- Julian lists dozens of significant ones. Julian, p. 590, helps to explain why: "The opening stanza of this hymn has given rise to questions which have resulted in more than twenty different readings of the first four lines. The first difficulty is the term Lover as applied to our Lord. From an early date this tender expression was felt by many to be beneath the solemn dignity of a hymn addressed to the Divine Being. Attempts have been made to increase the reverence of the opening line by the sacrifice of its pathos and poetry. The result was "Jesu, Refuge of my soul," a reading which is still widely adopted; "Jesus, Savior of my soul," and "Father, Refuge of my soul." Wesley's reading, however, has high sanction. In the WIsdom of Solomon, xi.26, we read: "But Thou sparest all for they are Thine, O Lord, Thou Lover of souls."
Julian also notes that "The second difficulty was in [lines] 3, 4," which originally read "While the nearer waters roll, While the tempest is still high." For some reason, this bothered enough editors that Julian lists 17 different changes.
According to McKim, p. 215, despite the fact that this is regarded as perhaps the best Wesley hymn, it did not appear in the official Methodist hymnal until nine years after Wesley's death. - RBW
The Parsons text follows the first four lines of the hymn (through "While the tempest still is high") but then goes on, "leave me not alone" and "when trouble taky you, shine! When frien' forsaky you all de way, Cyas' yer eyes on Jesus. Shine, shine, shine!"
Also see The Methodist Hymn-Book (London: The Methodist Publishing House, 1954), #179, ("Jesu, Lover of my soul") (1 text, 1 tune).
The following note -- from the description of a Trinidad Spiritual Baptist ritual -- by Herskovits did not, as far as I know, have this performance in mind, but describes perfectly what happens on the WITrinidadVillage01 recording, and on the text cited above: "At this time, too, the 'jazzing' of a Sankey hymn at an actual service was first heard -- the people here carrying the melodic line sung slightly faster, while the song-leader and a few others ornamented it with harmonized 'ram-bam-bam, bam, bam, ram-a-bam,' simulating drums and making the song irresistable to patting feet, and hand-clapping" (Herskovits and Herskovits, p. 220). Incidentally, the tune on WITrinidadVillage01 follows Monk closely. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: Br3347

Jesus Loves Me

DESCRIPTION: "I am so glad that my father's in heaven, Wonderful words in the book he has given. Oh, wonderful things in the Bible I see, But this is the greatest, that Jesus loves me." "I am so glad that Jesus loves me." Even if the singer "wanders away," he is loved
AUTHOR: Philip P. Bliss (1838-1876) (source: Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford)
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford)
KEYWORDS: love religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 225, "Jesus Loves Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9135
SAME TUNE:
Chiefy Loves Me (File: Tawn014)
NOTES [14 words]: For more on Philip Paul Bliss, see the notes to "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: JoLun225

Jesus Loves Me This I Know

DESCRIPTION: "Jesus loves me—this I know, For the Bible tells me so: Little ones to him belong,— They are weak, but he is strong." "Jesus loves me—he who died...." "Jesus loves me—loves me still...." "Jesus loves me—he will stay...."
AUTHOR: Words: Anna Bartlett Warner (1827?–1915) / Usual Music: William B. Bradbury (1816-1868) (sources: hymnary.org, Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (included in "Say and Seal" by Anna Warner's sister Susan Warner)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: US
Roud #14040
RECORDINGS:
Bob Livingston, "Jesus Loves Me" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #244, recorded 09/11/2022)
Dorothy Robinson, "Jesus Loves Me" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #686, recorded 09/19/2023)
NOTES [41 words]: According to Wikipedia, the common chorus to this, "Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes, Jesus Loves me," was added by William B. Bradbury when he set the tune.
For background on William B. Bradbury, see the notes to "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio686

Jesus Met the Woman at the Well

DESCRIPTION: Jesus meets a (Samaritan) woman as she comes to draw water, and tells her "everything [she] has ever done." She proclaims him a prophet, and announces the news in the town
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (recorded by the Selah Jubilee Quartet)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 59-60, "(Jesus Met the Woman at the Well)" (1 text plus a fragment); p. 252, "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well" (1 tune, partial text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 325, "(no title)" (1 text); pp. 348-349, "(When Jesus Met the Woman at the Well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21781
RECORDINGS:
Pilgrim Travelers, "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well" (Specialty 329, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid and the Palmer" [Child 21] (subject)
cf. "See the Woman at the Well" (subject)
cf. "Lift Him Up That's All" (subject)
NOTES [11 words]: For the story of Jesus and the Woman of Samaria, see John 4:5-26 - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CNFM059

Jesus Never Come in the Morning

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Jesus never come in the morning, Neither in the heat of the day, But come in the cool of the evening And wash my sins away." The singer warns against riches, looks forward to the end of the war, and is willing to die for God
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 72-73, "Jesus Nevuh Come in the Mornin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10023
File: MWhee072

Jesus Nevuh Come in the Mornin'

See Jesus Never Come in the Morning (File: MWhee072)

Jesus on the Water-Side

DESCRIPTION: "Heaven bell a-ring, I know the road (x3), Jesus sitting on the water-side." "Do come along, do let us go (x3), Jesus sitting on the water-side."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, pp. 28-29, "Jesus on the Water-Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11978
File: AWG028

Jesus on the Waters

See A Little Ship Was on the Sea (File: GrD81756)

Jesus Says Go

DESCRIPTION: Singer is told that if he wants to be converted he should pray. He does, until his heart melts, then "my hands was tied, my feet was bound...." Cho: "Jesus says go -- I'll go with you/Preach the gospel and I'll preach with you...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recorded by Mississippi Jubliee Singers)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer is told that if he wants to be converted he should pray. He does, until his heart melts, then "my hands was tied, my feet was bound/The elements opened and the Lord come down/The voice I heard sounds so sweet/The love run out at the sole of my feet" Cho: "Jesus says go -- I'll go with you/Preach the gospel and I'll preach with you/Lord if I go, tell me what to say/For they won't believe on me"
KEYWORDS: ordeal religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #6984
RECORDINGS:
Dillard Chandler, "Jesus Says Go" (on Chandler01, DarkHoll)
Heavenly Gospel Singers, "You Go and I'll Go With You" (on Bluebird B-6928, 1937)
George Herod, "Lord, When I Was a Sinner" (on MuSouth07)
Mississippi Jubliee Singers, "Jesus Said If You Go I'll Go" (on Paramount 12495, 1927)
Sparkling Four Quartette, "They Won't Believe in Me" (on OKeh 8741, 1929)
Cas Wallin, "The Preacher's Song" (on FarMtns3)
NOTES [89 words]: Cas Wallin said that this song was often sung by members of Holiness churches. Mary Sands, one of Cecil Sharp's most valuable ballad sources (and an ancestor of Wallin), claimed to have written it; the fact that it was also collected in 1954 from George Herod, an African-American from near Scott Station, Alabama, and recorded in 1927 by the Mississippi Jubilee Singers, makes this unlikely although not impossible. - PJS
One suspects that this is another instance of the informant saying "written" when we would say "written out." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: RcJeSaGo

Jesus Says, "You Goes and I Goes Wid You"

DESCRIPTION: Jesus says, "You goes and I goes wid you; Preach de gospel and I'll preach wid you." The singer asks Jesus to tell him what to say. After some back-and-forth, the singer reports, "De elements opened and de Lawd come down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 603, "Jesus Says, 'You Goes and I Goes Wid You" (1 text)
Roud #11912
NOTES [26 words]: This starts with elements of the commissioning of the Twelve (Matthew 10, and parallels; Matt. 28:19-20), but the ending is pure apocalyptic imagination. - RBW
File: Br3603

Jesus Set Poor Sinners Free

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Way down in the valley Who will rise and go with me You've heard talk of Jesus Who set poor sinners free." The verse is a line sung 3 times and the tag "Jesus set poor sinners free": "We'll run and never tire." "I can't stand the fire."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 12, p. 205, "Down In the Valley" (1 text)
File: HiOtJSPS

Jesus Setta Me Free

DESCRIPTION: "Let's go and tell it on the mountains (x3), Jesus setta me free." "It's come on everybody in the marvelous light, Jesus setta me free, Where the yoke is easy and the burden is light, Jesus setta me free." "Let's go and tell it on the mountains...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Forbes)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 100, "Jesus Setta Me Free" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ChFRA100 (Full)
Roud #16941
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Go Tell It on the Mountain (I -- Christmas)" (lyrics)
cf. "Go Tell It on the Mountain (II -- Freedom)" (lyrics)
File: ChFRA100

Jesus Walked in Galilee

See Christ Was Born in Bethlehem (File: MA189)

Jesus Was a Working Man

See Ballad of the Carpenter (File: CrAG30B)

Jesus With Us

DESCRIPTION: "He has been with us, Jesus, He's still with us, Jesus, He will be with us, Jesus, Be with us to the end"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 21, p. 210, "Jesus With Us" (1 text)
File: RcJeWiUs

Jesus, Hear Our Prayer

DESCRIPTION: "Jesus, hear our prayer, For thy children care, When we sleep, protect and bless us, With thy pardon now refresh us, Leave thy peace divine with us, We are thine."
AUTHOR: Words: Count Nicholas L. ZInzendorf / Music: Adam Drese (source: Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory)
EARLIEST DATE: 1819 (source: Hymnary.org; presumably the German is older)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, p. 28, "Jesus, Hear Our Prayer" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [134 words]: Salt offers not the faintest evidence that this is traditional; she includes it because there were Moravians in Ohio, and they might have sung it.
John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), [volume II], p. 1301 says Count Zinzendorf was born in Dresden in 1700, and gained a license to preach at Tübingen in 1734. He died in 1760. His biography is said to fill eight volumes.
He has been called the "second founder" of Moravianism. He supposedly wrote his first hymn at age 12, and produced more than 2000 before he died.
Of the twenty listed by Julian as being relatively widespread, I don't recognize any. This particular piece, based on the publications listed at Hymnary.org, seems to have been known only to Moravians. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Salt028

Jesus, Won't You Come B'm-By?

DESCRIPTION: "You ride dat horse, You call him Macaroni; Jesus, won't you come b'm-by? You ride him in de mornin' And you ride him in de evenin'; Jesus, won't you come b'm-by? De Lord knows de world's gwine to end up...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious horse nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 60, "Jesus, Won't You Come By-and-bye?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 469, "Jesus, Won't You Come B'm-By?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 11, (no title) (1 fragment, a single stanza that might be this)
Roud #12021
File: San469

Jesus, Won't You Come By-and-Bye?

See Jesus, Won't You Come B'm-By? (File: San469)

Jet Plane

See Leaving on a Jet Plane (File: ACSF551J)

Jeune Fille Sans Amant, La (The Young Girl Without a Lover)

DESCRIPTION: French. A girl says she must have a lover. Mother says wait; go to the convent. The girl wants to go to a lover. Mother says here's money to get to the convent; the girl says with that money I will buy myself a man. You will be sorry, says the mother.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage sex warning dialog humorous lover mother
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 293-294, "La Jeune Fille Sans Amant" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle" (theme)
File: Pea293

Jeune Fille si Amoureuse, La (The Girl So In Love)

DESCRIPTION: French. A girl says she must have a lover. Her mother sends her to a convent. At the convent a Brother consoles her. A Sister says that the Father would marry them. The girl says that her lover is not here but is a slave among the barbarians.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage captivity love separation lover sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 525-526, "La Jeune Fille si Amoureuse" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Belfast Sailor" (theme)
File: Pea525

Jeune Militaire, Le (The Young Soldier)

DESCRIPTION: French. After years in the army a soldier stops at an inn. The hostess cries; she recognizes him as her husband. He asks why she has more children. She had reports that he had died and so remarried. He asks about her husband. She gives him gold to leave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage marriage reunion children wife soldier adultery
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 59, "Le Jeune Militaire" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best, "Le Jeune Militaire" (on NFABest01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brave Marin" (theme)
cf. "Jack Robinson" (theme)
NOTES [25 words]: [According to] Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou, "Le Jeune Militaire" is a version of "Brave Marin"; while the themes are very close the words are not. - BS
File: LeBe059

Jew Lady, The

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Jew's Daughter, The

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Jew's Garden, The

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Jeweled Ring, The

See Hind Horn [Child 17] (File: C017)

Jeweler's Daughter, The

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Jewels (When He Cometh)

DESCRIPTION: "When he cometh, when he cometh To make up his jewels, All his jewels, precious jewels, His loved and his own." They are like "stars of the morning His bright crown adorning. They will be gathered. "Little children... are the jewels"
AUTHOR: William Cushing (1823-1902) (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (source: hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad children
FOUND IN: US(NE)
RECORDINGS:
Esther Loizeaux den Breems, "Jewels (When He Cometh)" (Piotr-Archive #375, recorded 12/06/2022); (Piotr-Archive #447, recorded 01/25/2023)
File: DPio375

Jewish Lady, The

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Jiffery, James, and John

See Old Man's Three Sons (Jeffery, James, and John) (File: BGNG262)

Jigger, Rigger, Bumbo

See Ole Marse John (File: LoF271)

Jilly Jenkins

See Jenny Jenkins (File: R453)

Jilson Setters's Blind Song

DESCRIPTION: "In sorrow and sadness I'm destined to roam, Distracted and forsaken I wander alone." The singer hears the birds and feels the breezes but cannot see nature or people. He prays God to take him to heaven "where the blind may all see."
AUTHOR: Jilson Setters (James W. Day)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: injury hardtimes music rambling
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 181-183, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 184-187)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blind Fiddler" (theme) and references there
File: ThBa181

Jilson Setters's C.I.O. Song

DESCRIPTION: "I am going to tell you people, Perhaps you do not know, We all should work together And protect the C.I.O." The singer urges men to "stick together And defend the union plan." He points out that laborers do all the work
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 244-245, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, p. 245)
File: ThBa244A

Jilson Setters's Courting Song

DESCRIPTION: "It was all in the month of winter, I arrived by wagon to this place; I chanced to meet with a youthful lady...." He courts the girl and asks her to come away; her mother refuses and he is forced to depart; he hopes to meet the listeners in heaven
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: courting rambling rejection
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 184-185, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, p. 188-189)
NOTES [45 words]: Said to be built around a Riley ballad, though it's not clear which one.
Setters told Thomas that he used this song to make his wife jealous so she would court him. I wonder, though -- according to Thomas, it was his wife Rhuhamie who urged him to sing it to Thomas. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa184

Jilson Setters's Indian Song

DESCRIPTION: "In an early day folks crossed the sea To explore the Indians' land." The Indians befriend the Whites; "Little did the Indian think They would spoil his hunting ground." "The white man done the Indian wrong"; they go to war -- but lose for lack of guns
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) hunting exploration war technology
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 186-187, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 189-191)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Logan's Lament" (theme) and references there
NOTES [24 words]: Although this doesn't seem to be very anthropoligically correct, it is quite sympathetic to the Indians -- rather surprising for the time. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa186

Jilted Lover, The

See The Back o' Rarey's Hill (The Jilted Lover) (File: Ord156)

Jim Along Jo

See Jim Along Josie (File: R575)

Jim Along Josey

See Jim Along Josie (File: R575)

Jim Along Josie

DESCRIPTION: Originally a blackface minstrel piece, now often reduced to odd lyrics held together by the refrain, "Hey jim-along, jim-along Josie; Hey jim-along, jim along Jo." Sample verse: "Any pretty girl that wants a beau, Just fall in the arms of Jim Along Joe"
AUTHOR: Edward Harper? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (sheet music, according to Dichter/Shapiro, p. 52)
KEYWORDS: nonsense lyric playparty campsong
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,So)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Randolph 575, "Jim Along Josie" (1 text plus a fragment)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 266-267, "Old Jay Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 145-146, "Old Jay Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 180, "Git Along Josie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 213, "Jim-a-long, Joe" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 105, "Jam A-long, Josey" (1 text, 1 tune); also probably p. 106 (no title), (1 text, using this chorus in some instances; the verses include the terrapin and the toad, "My ole missus promise me When she die she set me free," "You get there before I do....")
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 117, "Jim Along Jo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 427, "Jim Along Jo" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 103-104, "Jim Along Josey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 146, 151, 152, 234, 239, 495, 528, "A Jogging Along"/"Jim along Josie" (notes only)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, p. 4, "A-Jogging Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 66, "A-Jogging Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "A-jogging Along" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 8) (12th edition, p. 41)
OneTuneMore, p. 21, "A-jogging Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4618
RECORDINGS:
Coon Creek Girls, "Jim Along Josie" (Songs from Renfro Valley - Bell, mx. 2002, n.d., postwar)
Lawrence Older, "Jim Along Josie" (on LOlder01)
Pete Seeger, "Jim Along Josie" (on PeteSeeger3, PeteSeegerCD03)
Tom Smith, "Hey, Get Along, Josie" (on USWarnerColl01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of the Arkansas" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
New Comic Song ("Come listen to me and I'll sing you a song") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p. 59)
NOTES [144 words]: Spaeth suggests that this is a minstrel tune, and he's probably right. He suggests that it was written by Edward Harper, who presented it in his 1838 play "The Free Nigger of New York." Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994 also credits it to Harper, but dates it to 1840.
But it has entered oral tradition -- though perhaps in a filed-down form; Spaeth's text has a four-line verse while the traditional forms often use two-line stanzas. The choruses are the same.
According to the report in Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 52, this is "As sung by Mr. John N. Smith. Arranged for the Piano Forte by An Eminent Professor." No composer is listed. The music was published by Firth & Hall. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R575

Jim and Me

DESCRIPTION: Singer says that he and his old friend Jim used to be sinners, smokers and drinkers, but that God has saved them, and their money is now spent on their families. "What our God has done for us/He's done for Jim and me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (unissued recording, Kentucky Thorobreds)
KEYWORDS: virtue sin drink religious family gods
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
Roud #7381
RECORDINGS:
Garner Brothers, "Jim and Me" (JGS 20088, n.d.)
Kentucky Thorobreds, "Jim and Me" (Paramount, unissued, rec. 1927)
Preston & Hobart Smith, "Jim and Me" (on LomaxCD1704)
NOTES [6 words]: Again fragmentary, but a narrative. - PJS
File: RcJaM

Jim Blake

DESCRIPTION: "'Jim Blake, your wife is dying,' came over the wires tonight." Railroad engineer Blake wires back that he is coming. But his train is wrecked, "derailed by an open switch." Blake's last message to his wife says they'll meet in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (_Railroad Man's Magazine_, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: train wreck disaster death husband wife
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 332-337, "Jim Blake's Message" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 209, "Jim Blake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 139-140, "Jim Blake" (1 text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 182-183, "The Midnight Express" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 479, "Jim Blake" (source notes only)
Roud #3531
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "Jim Blake's Message" (Decca 5467, 1935)
Vernon Dalhart, "Jim Blake" (Brunswick 173, 1927); "Jim Blake the Engineer" (Columbia 15192-D [as Al Craver], 1927)
Leonard Molloy, "Jim Blake" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: GC479b

Jim Blake's Message

See Jim Blake (File: GC479b)

Jim Bludso of the Prairie Belle

See Jim Bludsoe (File: Pet240)

Jim Bludsoe

DESCRIPTION: Jim Bludso(e) was foul-mouthed, keeping more than one girl (wife?), and often found near a fight. But he is a good man underneath. When the Prairie Belle catches fire, he keeps the engine running long enough that every passenger lives although he dies
AUTHOR: John Hay (1838-1905)
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (Pike County Ballads; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: death ship disaster fire
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 240-241, "Jim Bludsoe" (1 text)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp. 94-96, "Jim Bludso" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Martin Gardner, editor, _Famous Poems from Bygone Days_, Dover, 1995, pp. 85-87, "Jim Bludso of the Prairie Belle" (1 text)
Michael R. Turner, _Victorian Parlour Poetry: An Annotated Anthology_, 1967, 1969 (page references are to the 1992 Dover edition), pp. 167-168, "Jim Bludso of the Prairie Belle" (1 text)
ST Pet240 (Partial)
Roud #9087
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Grouchy Bill" (theme of a dead rescuer)
cf. "John Maynard" (theme of a heroic crewman on a burning ship)
NOTES [498 words]: Some readers may have heard this sung rather than recited, perhaps by Cathy Barton and Dave Para, but all tunes are modern (e.g. Para supplied the melody for the Barton/Para recording). It is properly a poem -- probably the best-known work of John (Milton) Hay, a sort of a latter-day Chaucer in that he was both statesman and poet.
Jameson, p. 298, sums up the early part of Hay's career as follows: he was "born in 1838, was assistant secretary to President Lincoln in 1861. He served several months in the Civil War, and from 1865 to 1867 was secretary of legation to Paris, charge d'affairs at Vienna until 1868, and secretary at Madrid until 1870. He became associated with the New York Tribune, and from 1879 to 1881 was First Assistant Secretary of State. He is widely known for his dialect sketches and poems, and for Nicolay and Hay's life of Lincoln."
Nicolay is John Nicolay, Lincoln's other private secretary; it was he who convinced Lincoln to hire Hay in 1861 (CDAB, p. 415). Their joint work, published 1890, was Abraham Lincoln: A History (Boatner, p. 388); it ran to ten volumes (Hart, p. 358).
Hay's literary output was modest: "He is known for his Pike County Ballads... (1871), frontier poems in dialect, and The Breadwinners (1884), a novel published anonymously" (Benet, p. 486). CDAB, p. 416, described the latter as "a satirical novel which attacked labor unions and defended economic individualism." This poem is from Pike County Ballads, and is based on the story of an actual engineer named Oliver Fairchild (Benet, p. 560).
Julian, p. 1646, reports that Hay was "an office bearer in the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant, Washington, D.C." Julian adds that several of his poems have come into use as hymns: "From Sinai's Cloud of Darkness," "Lord, from Far-Severed Climes We Come," and "Not in Dumb Resignation." They don't sound very singable to me....
Sources cannot seem to agree on whether the original poem called the hero "Jim Bludso" or "Jim Bludsoe."
Hart, p. 358, describes Pike County Ballads as "dialect poems about the Illinois frontier"; Hay himself had been born in Indiana and headed west. His other well-known poem is "Little Breeches."
According to Hofstadter, p. 164, it was Hay who described the Spanish-American conflict of 1898 as "our splendid little war," which both tells you about his imperialist tendencies and shows that he never spent much time among the troops.
In 1898, Hay was appointed Secretary of State, during the McKinley administration (CDAB, p. 416), and held the post into the Theodore Roosevelt administration (Morison, p. 818) until his death in 1905. In that post, he created the Open Door Policy with China (Morison, p. 807) and helped negotiate the treaties which allowed for the building of the Panama Canal (Boatner, p. 388; Morison,pp. 824-825) as well as promptly recognizing the independence of Panama (Morison, p. 825).
Tyler Dennett wrote a biography of Hay in the 1930s; I have not seen it. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: Pet240

Jim Bobo's Fatal Ride

DESCRIPTION: "Jim Bobo rode a safety wheel, He rode with all his might." "The wheel was built for only one... But he had often made the run With two or sometimes three." When riding with Little Willie, he crashes. The child survives but Bobo is killed
AUTHOR: D.H.H. ? (initials found on the earliest copy)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Nashville Banner, according to Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee); 1949 (collected from J. B. Lasater by Boswell)
KEYWORDS: death technology children
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1842 - birth of James Bobo
1890? - Birth of the girl "Little" Willie Pelham (who lived until at least 1973)
Aug 15, 1894 - Death of Bobo while riding with Pelham
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 59, pp. 97-99, "Jim Bobo's Fatal Ride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11024
NOTES [32 words]: According to Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee, there were two tunes used for this song: "The Blind Child" and "Home Sweet Home." Wolfe chose to print the "Home Sweet Home" version. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BoWo059

Jim Brooks

DESCRIPTION: "What became of Jim Brooks, did you ask me?" The singer doesn't know, but thinks he is in a land without logs or snow. When the child of a logger wants to see the trees being cut, a log falls toward him. Jim saves the boy but dies himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan)
KEYWORDS: logger rescue death children
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 162-164, "Jim Brooks" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 88, "Jim Brooks" (1 text)
Roud #6512
File: BBun162

Jim Clancy

DESCRIPTION: "To Bangor City last year I came" and went to work in the Water Works along with "my friend Jim Clancy." He goes to Brewer, is offered a (drugged?) drink, loses his "stamps," is arrested and sentenced to making bricks. He warns against "lay-down punch"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: drink warning prison
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 131-132, "Jim Clancy" (1 text)
Roud #4158
NOTES [75 words]: This is item dH38 in Laws's Appendix II.
Gordon Bok recorded a version of this on his album "In the Kind Land." Bok explains that "stamps" are hob-nailed boots, the lack of which makes river work impossible.
Bok attributes his version to Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine (which seems to be the only collected text), yet Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine has no tune, and Bok sings it. Possibly the tune is Bok's own, but he does not claim copyright. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EkSm131

Jim Crack Corn

See The Blue-Tail Fly [Laws I19] (File: LI19)

Jim Crow (I)

See Hop High Ladies (Uncle Joe) (File: R252)

Jim Crow (II)

See Jump Jim Crow (File: Gilb018)

Jim Crow Car

See She Gets There Just the Same (Jim Crow Car) (File: DarNS355)

Jim Fisk [Laws F18]

DESCRIPTION: Jim Fisk, though a rich and fine man, still remembers the poor and gives aid to many at the time of the Chicago fire. Fisk is shot by Edward Stokes (his rival for a girl); the singer is afraid that Stokes's wealth will allow him to win his freedom
AUTHOR: William J. Scanlon ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: homicide trial money
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 6, 1872 - Edward Stokes shoots Jim Fisk, "his rival for... the actress Josie Mansfield." Stokes (who, despite the song, was not rich) spent four years in prison for manslaughter
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws F18, "Jim Fisk"
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 90-96, "Jim Fisk" (2 texts, 1 tune, plus a copy of the cover of the sheet music)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 111-113, "Jim Fisk Song" (1 text plus a copy of the sheet music cover)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 415-416, "Jim Fisk" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 30-31, "Jim Fisk" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 187-188, "Stokes's Verdict" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 207, "Jim Fisk" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 213-215, "Jim Fisk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, p. 75, "Jim Fiske" (1 fragment, linked to this mostly on the strength of the line "He never went back on the poor.")
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 49-50, "(no title)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #137, "Jim Fisk" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 416-419, "Jim Fisk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions,pp.195-197, "Jim FIsk, Jr." (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 550-552, "Jim Fisk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 101-102, "Jim Fisk or He Never Went Back on the Poor" (1 text)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 191, "Jim Fisk" (1 reminiscence)
DT 631, STOVRDCT*
Roud #2215
NOTES [927 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety calls "Jubilee Jim" Fisk (1834-1872) "Jay Gould's fellow bandit in Wall Street." Which is quite a statement, give that Gould was "a man whose name, it was said, was spoken by decent people only after sprinkling disinfectant" (Graff, pp. 25-26).
The description is apt but incomplete. Fisk, unlike Gould, was largely a showman -- DAB, volume III, p. 414, notes that after his very brief schooling and a couple of minor jobs, he took employment as "salesman with his father's 'traveling emporium,' which he later purchased and operated himself, graciously admitting his father to his employ." He also managed supply contracts during the Civil War for a place called Jordan and Marsh (Klein, p. 84).
Bunting, p. 96, describes him this way: "Fisk was a preposterous figure, a kind of caricature of what he believed the world would admire and envy. Ostentatious, self-indulgent, promiscuous (he would be gunned down, many years later, by the husband of a woman he was seeing), a militia 'colonel' in the war and, by his own authority, admiral of a steamship line."
Economic conditions at the end of the Civil War hurt his business, but by 1866 he had founded the brokerage firm of Fisk & Belden.
It was after this that he started working with Jay Gould (and also a former boss, Daniel Drew, the so-called "Erie Ring"; Klein, p. 86) to wrest control of the Erie Railroad from Cornelius Vanderbilt. His actions in this regard, according to Adams, pp. 218-219, were patently immoral -- although apparently technically legal because enough state legislators had been bribed that they changed the rules. In the conflict, Fisk and friends printed up ten million dollars of fake Erie stock, which they sold at discount (according to Klein, p. 84, to Vanderbilt himself!), and started buying up real stock. Thus they ended up with both control of the company *and* a lot of money. They also issued what appear to have been a series of margin calls, resulting in a stock market crash.
Gould and Fisk weren't done. After the War, the goal of the Grant administration was to restore the nation to the gold standard, getting rid of greenbacks (Bunting, p. 95). Gould and Fisk realized that, if they could learn in advance how much gold the Treasury would release at its regular auctions, they could manipulate the price. So they worked to try to get this information (Bunting, pp. 95-96) -- what we would now call "insider trading."
There wasn't even honor among thieves; having gotten that far, they cut Drew out of the business to increase their cut of the profits (Klein, p. 86).
As a matter of fact, they failed to get what they wanted, resulting in the "Black Friday" gold crash of September 24, 1869 (Bunting, pp. 97-98), with the result that "'the business of the whole country was paralyzed for weeks' and the 'foundations of business morality' shaken" (Adams, p. 219). DAB, Volume III, p. 515, says that Fisk went on to repudiate many of his contracts, leaving the blame at the door of his "responsible partner" Belden.
Later in 1872, with Fisk dead, Gould was forced out of the Erie -- although, with a net worth estimated at about 25 million dollars, that didn't stop him from working more financial mischief (Klein, p. 87
It's hard for me to see any real difference between Fisk's business practices and those of his contemporary robber barons, except that -- unlike many speculators -- he did try to appeal to the public (he has been called "the most opulent of the robber barons"). According to Gilbert-LostChords, he sent supplies to help the survivors of the Chicago Fire (October 8, 1871).
DAB, Volume III, p. 515, says that he kept "numerous mistresses" in addition to his wife Lucy D. Moore (whom he had married in 1855), but that Josie Mansfield (an actress, according to Klein, p. 85) was his favorite. Stokes shot Fisk partly over Mansfield and partly over a business quarrel. It is ironic that it is Fisk's murder, rarely mentioned in the histories, that gained him a place in oral tradition.
Fisk's assassin, Stokes, died in 1901, reportedly having spent his last years in neurotic fear of Fisk's ghost (e.g. Stokes would only sleep in lighted rooms).
There is a twentieth century biography, W. A. Swanberg, Jim Fisk: The Career of an Improbable Rascal, Scribner's, 1974. I have not read it. Other relevant books are John Steele Gordon, The Scarlet Woman of Wall Street: Jay Gould, Jim Fisk, Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Erie Railway Wars, and the Birth of Wall Street; Keneth D. Ackerman, The Gold Ring: Jim Fisk, Jay Gould, and Black Friday, 1869; and H. W. Brands, The Murder of Jim Fisk for the Love of Josie Mansfield: A Tragedy of the Gilded Age (American Portraits).
Much additional information can be found in Cohen, who notes incidentally that the recorded versions of this song are generally much shorter than the original "Stokes' Verdict" text.
Botkin, apparently quoting Barry, claims there are three Jim Fisk songs. This one (which exists in many variants, but is recognized by the fact that most stanzas end with the word "poor") is said to be the "most popular" -- and is, as of this writing, the only one I have encountered.
Spaeth mentions this song several times, noting on p. 217 both the fact that this song was attributed to William J. Scanlon (whom he calls a typical composer of the era) and the difficulty with this attribution: The first sheet music, published in 1874, has the initials "J. S.," rather than "W. J. S.," and Scanlon in any case was only 15 at the time. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LF18

Jim Fiske

See Jim Fisk [Laws F18] (File: LF18)

Jim Greene of Tennessee

DESCRIPTION: "Jim Green was supposed to be The bravest man in Tennessee." When the circus comes to town, offering $100 to someone who leads the lion, Jim turns it down, Greene declares that he doesn't need eduction to determine, "I ain't gonne lead no lions around."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (collected from Dr. Edward J. Rees by Boswell; the gimmick is older)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous money
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 52, pp. 89-90, "Jim Greene of Tennessee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11026
File: BosWo052

Jim Haggerty's Story

DESCRIPTION: The speaker and his companion go down to town, where the companion will confront a man hired to kill him. They enter the bar. The hired gun's girlfriend begs him not to shoot; the other is her father. But both men draw and fire and are killed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: death father family homicide
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 135-136, "Jim Haggerty's Story" (1 text)
Roud #15550
NOTES [31 words]: While this may be legitimate folklore (it has rather a tall tale feel), there is no evidence that it was ever a song, or traveled in the same traditional circles as ordinary folk songs. - RBW
File: LxA135

Jim Harris

DESCRIPTION: Famous captain Jim Harris, in Ronald P out of St Kyran's, runs down the Irene anchored in Paradise Sound. "It's all right when the wheel goes up, till it turns for to come down And you might make that same mistake as Jim Harris in Paradise Sound."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: sea ship crash
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 60, "Jim Harris" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #26486
NOTES [41 words]: St Kyran's and Paradise Sound are in Placentia Bay, west of the Avalon Peninsula and on the south coast of Newfoundland. The song places the incident on May 31, 1934. It appears neither ship was lethally damaged and there was no loss of life. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LeVe060

Jim Hatfield's Boy

DESCRIPTION: "You're sending me for life, judge, For killing Bill McCoy, But maybe you don't know, Judge, that I'm Jim Hatfield's boy." The singer, unnamed, describes the history of the Hatfield/McCoy feud and his need for revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: feud death mother children revenge trial judge punishment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1880 - Beginning of the Hatfield/McCoy feud
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 13-16, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 27-30)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 248, "(Jim Hatfield's Son)" (1 excerpt)
ST ThBdM013 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Death of Fan McCoy" (subject) and references there
NOTES [12 words]: For details on the Hatfield/McCoy feud, see "The Death of Fan McCoy." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBdM013

Jim Jones at Botany Bay

DESCRIPTION: The singer, Jim Jones, is taken, tried, and sentenced to transportation. En route, his ship is attacked by pirates, but the crew holds them off. Arriving in Australia, Jones vows to escape, join the bushrangers, and get revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Old Pioneering Days in the Sunny South)
KEYWORDS: outlaw poaching trial transportation pirate
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 96, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (1 text)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 50-52, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (1 text)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 28-29, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 8-9, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 12-13, "Jim Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 11-12, "Jim Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 46-46, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, p. 3, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 161-163, "Jim Jones" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 264-265, "Jim Jones" (1 text)
ST PBB096 (Partial)
Roud #5478
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Jack Donahoe" (tune) and references there
NOTES [116 words]: John S. Manifold, Who Wrote the Ballads? Notes on Australian Folksong, Australasian Book Society, 1964, p. 29, says of this song, "the tune to which 'Jim Jones' is sung is Irish, but the words carry none of the political references so common in Irish ballads, and the hero himself comes from England. Since [Jack] Donahue is mentioned as being alive and famous, we might not be far wrong in dating the 'original' of this ballad to 1829 or 1830 -- close, in fact, to the date at which one Jim Jones joined with William Swallow in seizing the colonial brig Cyprus in Recherche Bay! It is just remotely possible that this Jones may have been the original individual composer of this ballad." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: PBB096

Jim Larkin, R.I.P.

DESCRIPTION: Jim Larkin fought the Peelers in 1913 and "was treated to the batons by the Forces of the Crown." "The worker is a freeman now by his persevering fight." "R.I.P"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 ("Sold in the streets of Dublin the day of James Larkin's funeral," according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: strike violence labor-movement Ireland memorial death police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 30, 1947 - "James Larkin died in his sleep." (source: _James Larkin_ on the Spartacus Educational site)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 20, "Jim Larkin, R.I.P" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [1101 words]: Larkin founded the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union in 1909.
"By 1913 so many Dublin workers had joined the IT&GWU that employers refused to employ unionised workers, resulting in the infamous Dublin Lock-Out when over 100,000 workers were sacked and many more refused admittance to their workplace for over eight months. After the Lock-Out the IT&GWU was firmly established."
From 1914 to 1920 he organized workers in New York, and Larkin founded the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union in 1909.
"By 1913 so many Dublin workers had joined the IT&GWU that employers refused to employ unionised workers, resulting in the infamous Dublin Lock-Out when over 100,000 workers were sacked and many more refused admittance to their workplace for over eight months. After the Lock-Out the IT&GWU was firmly established."
From 1914 to 1920 he organised workers in New York and was jailed until 1923 for "criminal syndicalism." He returned to Ireland and established the Worker's Union. He was later elected to the Dublin City Council and Dail Eireann. (source: Searc's Web Guide to 20th Century Ireland - James Larkin (1876-1947)). - BS
That Dublin workers needed organization around the turn of the twentieth century is hardly to be denied. According to Golway, p. 207, prior to the activities of Larkin, "nearly half of all annual deaths [in Dublin] took place in workhouses, asylums, and prisons"; he points out that many workers were putting in seventy hour weeks to earn pay equivalent to what we would now call only about half of the "poverty line."
Similarly Kee, p. 195): "The poverty and squalor of much of Dublin in the early years of the twentieth century appalled all who encountered it. A government report issued in 1914 assessed that of a Dublin population of 304,000, some 194,000, or about sixty-three percent, could be reckoned 'working classes'. The majority of these working classes lived in tenement houses, almost half of them with no more than one room to each family. Thirty-seven per cent of the entire working class of Dublin lived at a density of more than six persons per room; fourteen per cent in houses declared 'unfit for human habitation.'"
Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, pp. 262-263, report that "Dublin had one of the most underfed, worst-housed, and badly paid populations in Europe. Twenty-one thousand families lived in single-room tenements. The death-rate at birth of 27.6 per 1,000 was higher than any other city in Europe (with Moscow second to Dublin)." They report on p. 263 that Marx, Engels, and Lenin all thought Ireland a very likely place for the Communist Revolution to begin. (They were, of course, wrong -- there was a revolution, but not that kind of revolution.)
Larkin's troubles with the British police were not entirely related to his union activities, though. Born in Liverpool in 1874, he stowed away for America in 1893 and was deported back to Britain. Becoming a dockworker, he was forced to join a union in 1901 -- and soon became so pro-Union that he was fired and became an organizer (Edwards, p. 111 note). He did not settle in Ireland until 1906/1907, when James Sexton (head of the National Union of Dock Labourers) sent him to Belfast to organize the dock workers there.
Larkin was a fine choice for the role. According to O'Connor, pp. 54-55, "Larkin was a remarkable orator and journalist who could lift the people from their knees woth a brilliant phrase. He had a voice that could carry across a prairie, and a towering, crag-like presence. His quivering face... became the symbol of hope to the downtrodden and hungry masses who listened to him."
Larkin did manage to bring many of the workers into a union, leading them on strike late in 1907. The strike turned violent, though some of the police sided with Larkin. With the union going bankrupt, Sexton settled without Larkin's agreement. Larkin therefore broke away from Sexton's group to form the IT&GWU in 1908.
Socialist in principles, Larkin was associated with James Connolly (1868-1916; for more on him, see "James Connolly") in the United Tramway Company strike. This turned into a lockout as William Martin Murphy, who was responsible for management bargaining, set out to destroy Larkin (Townshend, p. 48; O'Connor, pp. 55-56).
Larkin, who had spent a few weeks in prison before the government relented (Townshend, p. 49), rose to fine heights of oratory (when the Catholic hierarchy opposed his union, he declared, "They cannot frighten me with hell. Better to be in hell with Dante and Davitt than to be in heaven with [Ulster leader Edward] Carson and Murphy"; see O'Connor, p. 57). But strikers were starving, and the government blocked all attempts to help them (O'Connor, p. 56). Larkin fled Ireland after the strike fizzled in 1914 -- while Connolly stayed, and was one of the instigators of the Easter Rising. Larkin of course went to America, where he was imprisoned during a "Red Scare" in 1916 (O'Connor, p. 55).
Larkin came back to Ireland in 1923, to find that his own Union -- which was about twenty times as big as when he left home -- had no leadership place for him. He founded a socialist political party; though he eventually joined the Labour Party, he spent most of the rest of his life feuding with his old associates. Still, he was remembered by the people as a founder of the union movement.
Regarding his relations with other leaders, Kee writes (p. 198), "Subsequent dramatic events... have had the effect of making Connolly seem the major labour figure in twentieth-century Irish history.... But the fact that Connolly was to be cut off in his prime and win a martyr's crown in 1916, while Larkin, accidentally missing the heroics, was to live on to 1948 through years of Irish disillusion, political quarrelling, and personal identification with Soviet Communism, should not blind one historically to the other fact that it was Larkin who first effectively brought the old incoherent national emotions into Irish twentieth-century labour relations."
The song's description of fighting the Peelers in 1913 appears to be a reference to events of August 31, 1913. Larkin had been arrested for seditious libel on August 28, but was released on bail. He was supposed to speak in Dublin on August 31. He appeared in disguise, but it was clear it was him. Once the crowd started cheering him, the police attacked the crowd, resulting in one death and many injuries (O'Connor, p. 56).
This is not the only song about Larkin and 1913; Harte, pp. 32-33, prints a piece, "Dublin City, 1913" by Donagh McDonagh, which covers events of 1913 to 1916. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.0
File: OLcM020

Jim O'Lynn

DESCRIPTION: Jim O'Lynn "does everything bad" and has to consider whether to change this thing or that. He is drunk and must decide on a double: that "will do." He quarrels with Charles over swapping shirts: that "won't do." Challenge the Devil? That "will do"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: drink clothes derivative humorous nonballad Devil
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 214-216, "Jim O'Lynn" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #25325
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn)"
NOTES [84 words]: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's texts are a "Brian O'Lynn" derivative. The "Jim O'Lynn" tag line -- restricted to "'It will do yes it will do' said Jim O'Lynn, 'It will do'" or "'It won't do no it won't do' said Jim O'Lynn, 'It won't do'" -- is enough out of the way of the original that I have chosen not to "lump" the two songs.
One of Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's texts is three verses of a Newfoundland version collected by John Widdowson and Herbert Halpert. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Guig214

Jim Porter's Shanty Song

See The Lumber Camp Song (File: Doe210)

Jim Ross Song, The

DESCRIPTION: Ross, "an elderly gent" courts Mary Ann, "the pride of Dundas," offering "houses and lands" because he has little money. She agrees to marry but does not appear for the wedding. She explains why she changed her mind [the song breaks here].
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: age courting wedding rejection
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 112-113, "The Jim Ross Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12459
NOTES [11 words]: Dundas is near the east coast of Kings, Prince Edward Island. - BS
File: Dib112

Jim Strainer Blues

DESCRIPTION: Jim Strainer tells Lula that if he catches her with Willie he'll kill her. Singer follows Lula to the burying ground. Jim Strainer has killed her, on the ballroom [barroom?] floor. Willie is sentenced to 15 years; Jim Strainer gets 99, and cries
AUTHOR: possibly Will Shade
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Memphis Jug Band)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Jim Strainer tells Lula that if he catches her with Willie he'll kill her. Singer tells the hearse driver to roll slowly, so he can see Lula one more time. He follows her to the burying ground and watches as they ease her down. Jim Strainer has killed her, on the ballroom [barroom?] floor. Willie is sentenced to 15 years; Jim Strainer gets 99, and cries
KEYWORDS: grief jealousy love warning violence crime homicide prison punishment trial burial death mourning lover
FOUND IN: US
Roud #12289
RECORDINGS:
Memphis Jug Band, "Jim Strainer Blues" (Victor 23421, 1933; rec. 1930; on StuffDreams1)
File: RcJiStBl

Jim the Roper

DESCRIPTION: "The dug him a grave at the set of the sun, His riding was over, his roping was done." The cowboys bury Jim, and return to "their cabins, deserted and lorn." "No sound save the Yellowstone dashing a-foam." Jim's ghost is seen be the rive
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Larkin-SingingCowboy)
KEYWORDS: death burial cowboy ghost
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 164-165, "Jim the Roper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5764
File: Lark164

Jim Whalen

See James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC07)

Jim-a-long, Joe

See Jim Along Josie (File: R575)

Jim, the Carman Lad

See Jim, the Carter Lad (File: FSC096)

Jim, the Carter Lad

DESCRIPTION: The carter/driver reports on his happy life: "Crack, crack, goes my whip, I whistle and I sing, I sit upon my wagon, I'm as happy as a king." He ignores bad weather, recalls being trained by his father, and tells of courting his sweetheart in the cart
AUTHOR: E. H. Harding?
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Oliver Ditson & Co, The New Comic Songster)
KEYWORDS: work travel courting
FOUND IN: US(MA) Ireland Britain(England(North,South,West),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #99, p. 1, "Jim the Carter Lad" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 457, "Jim the Carter Lad" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 96, "The Stage Coach Driver's Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 244-245, "Jim the Carter Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 611, "Jim the Carter Lad" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 228, "Jim, the Carter Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 68-69, "Jimmy the Carter's Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #20, "Joe the Carrier's Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H171, p. 40, "Jim, the Carman Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 14, "Jim the Carter Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #25, p. 13, "Jim, the Carter Lad" (1 text)
DT, JIMCART*
Roud #1080
RECORDINGS:
Jack Goodfellow, "Jim The Carter Lad" (on FSB3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (lyrics)
File: FSC096

Jimmie and Nancy

See Nancy of Yarmouth (Jemmy and Nancy; The Barbadoes Lady) [Laws M38] (File: LM38)

Jimmie Brown the Newsboy

DESCRIPTION: Singer, Jimmie Brown, the newsboy of the town, wears no hat or shoes, and is cold and hungry. [He wanders from place to place.] He tells of his drunkard father, who has abandoned the family. His mother says he will "sell the gospel news" in heaven
AUTHOR: Almost certainly Will S. Hays
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (published by J. L. Peters)
KEYWORDS: poverty travel abandonment work drink father worker
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, JIMBROWN
Roud #4996
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Jimmie Brown, the Newsboy" (Victor 23554, 1931; Montgomery Ward M-5027, 1936; rec. 1929)
Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs & the Foggy Mountain Boys, "Jimmie Brown, the Newsboy" (Columbia 20830, 1951)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Jim the Newsboy" (plot)
cf. "Poor Little Joe" (The Dying Newsboy)
NOTES [125 words]: Almost no one lists a composer for this song, but the Harry Fox Agency has two separate listings. One is for A. P. Carter, the other is for Jimmy Rodgers and George Vaughan. I'm inclined to believe the former, since I've found no evidence Rodgers ever recorded the song, but on the other hand he seems to have collaborated with Vaughan on at least one other song. - PJS
Jane Voss and Hoyle Osborne point out, however, that there is sheet music from 1875 copyrighted by Will S. Hays. And it sounds like a Hays composition. I'm all but certain that that attribution is the correct one. The others were just putting their names on a public domain song.
For background on newsboys in New York, see the notes to "Poor Little Joe (The Dying Newsboy)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcJBtNew

Jimmie Crack Corn

See The Blue-Tail Fly [Laws I19] (File: LI19)

Jimmie Jones

See Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)

Jimmie Jot

See Jimmie Judd (The Beau Shai River) [Laws C4] (File: LC04)

Jimmie Judd (The Beau Shai River) [Laws C4]

DESCRIPTION: Jimmie tries to break a logjam and is drowned. His badly cut up body is recovered the next day. He is mourned by sweetheart, family, and fellow workers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: logger death drowning
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws C4, "Jimmie Judd (The Beau Shai River)"
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 18, "Jamie Judge (or, Bonshee River)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 73, "Jamie Judge" (1 text)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 55, "The Beau Shai River" (2 texts, one entitled "Jimmie Jot")
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 82, "The Beau Shai River" (2 texts)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 112, "Jimmie Judd" (1 fragmentary text)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #29, "Jimmy Judge" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
DT 680, JIMJUDGE
Roud #636
NOTES [31 words]: Fowke quotes Gravelle to the effect that James Angus Dudge was born in Quebec in 1846, but Gravelle can only speculate about the date of his death; he suspects the date was c. 1866. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: LC04

Jimmie Rendal

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Jimmie Sutton

See Old Jimmy Sutton (File: RcOJiSu)

Jimmie Tucker

See The Chisholm Trail (II) (File: EM186)

Jimmie Whalen (I)

See Lost Jimmie Whalen [Laws C8] (File: LC08)

Jimmie Whalen (II)

See James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC07)

Jimmie Whalen's Girl

See Lost Jimmie Whalen [Laws C8]; also James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC08)

Jimmie-Ma-Riley-Oh!

See Jimmy My Riley (File: Br3195)

Jimmy

See On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)

Jimmy and Diana

See Vilikens and His Dinah [LawsM31A/B] (File: LM31)

Jimmy and his Own True Love [Laws O30]

DESCRIPTION: Jimmy and Annie are out walking one fine day just before he sets sail. She bids him farewell and gives him a diamond ring as a token of her love. He promises to return to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1841 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.18(276))
KEYWORDS: courting sea farewell ring
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws O30, "Jimmy and his Own True Love"
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 44, "Jimmy and His Own True Love" (1 text)
DT 485, JIMMTRUE
Roud #660
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.18(276), "Sailor and his Truelove," J. Jennings (London), 1790-1840; also Firth c.12(147), Harding B 17(266b), "[The] Sailor and his Truelove"; Firth c.12(149) , "Jemmy's Farewell" ("As a sailor and his true love one morning in May")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jimmy and Nancy (III)" (plot)
File: LO30

Jimmy and I Will Get Married

See The Lover's Curse (Kellswater) (File: HHH442)

Jimmy and Nancy (I)

See Nancy of Yarmouth (Jemmy and Nancy; The Barbadoes Lady) [Laws M38] (File: LM38)

Jimmy and Nancy (II)

See A Seaman and His Love (The Welcome Sailor) [Laws N29] (File: LN29)

Jimmy and Nancy (III)

DESCRIPTION: A sailor tells his true love "It is all for your sweet sake I am bound to cross the ocean." Her mother and father are against them but she will not turn against him. He promises to be true. They kiss and part; she wishes him well.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: love separation dialog lover sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, pp. 528-529, "Jimmy and Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 52, "Jimmy and Nancy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #660
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "Jimmy and Nancy" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jimmy and his Own True Love" [Laws O30] (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jimmy and Nancy the Departure
Lisbon
NOTES [179 words]: Roud lumps this with Laws O30, "Jimmy and his Own True Love." It's a difficult question, since the only field collection of O30 in Laws is from Mackenzie. But the Mackenzie version revolves around the giving of the ring. Until and unless I see the broadsides Laws cites, I'm keeping them separate.
In addition, it appears that at least one version of this song is entitled "Lisbon," a title usually reserved for "William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I)" [Laws N8]. Laws did not know any of the Newfoundland collections cited for this song. Again, we separate, because this has no cross-dressing theme or promise by the girl to come with him. - RBW
This is not
Bodleian, Harding B 12(155), "William and Nancy's Parting" ("Come all you pretty maidens that have a mind to go"), Burbage and Stretton (Nottingham), 1797-1807; also Johnson Ballads 1597, Harding B 11(1999), Harding B 25(2062), Johnson Ballads 1059, 2806 c.18(336), Firth c.12(172), "William and Nancy's Parting"
or
Bodleian, 2806 c.18(332), "William and Nancy's Farewell," unknown, n.d. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Pea528

Jimmy and Nancy (IV)

See Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)

Jimmy and Nancy (V)

See Beautiful Nancy (File: AshS056)

Jimmy and Nancy on the Sea

See William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I) [Laws N8] (File: LN08)

Jimmy Bell's in Town

DESCRIPTION: "Jimmy Bell's in town, Lordy, walkin' round, He got greenbacks enough, sweet babe, to make a man a suit." Bell preaches a sermon, warning of the dangers of hell; "All them sisters sittin' in the back corner Cryin' Jimmy Bell my man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: clergy nonballad Hell
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 75, "Jimmy Bell's in Town" (1 text, probably partial)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 340-341, "(no title)" (1 text)
File: CNFM075

Jimmy Bruisse's Pig

DESCRIPTION: Bruisse builds a sty for his new pig. One night the pig escapes. When no one can find the pig Bruisse reports it stolen to the rangers. The pig is found by a brook. If Bruisse hears the song he may send the rangers after the singer.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: escape accusation humorous animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18216
RECORDINGS:
Ernest Poole, "Jimmy Bruisse's Pig" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcJiBrPi

Jimmy Burse

DESCRIPTION: "I saw the undertakers leavin' With a casket in the hearse... The remains of Jimmy Burse." Burse goes out to transport a convict in his car, but is shot by the prisoner York. Burse is buried; the singer hopes he will find justice
AUTHOR: unknown (but very possibly by someone in the Vass family)
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (collected by Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains from Ruby Vass, who had a manuscript dated 1937)
KEYWORDS: prison homicide escape technology burial
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1932 - Murder of taxi driver Jim Burrus. Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains prints a newspaper chronology of the saga.
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 70-71, "Jimmy Burse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7323
File: Sel070

Jimmy Caldwell

DESCRIPTION: "Good morning, dear daughter and sister... father, I learn you've been courted by Jimmy Caldwell, Dear daughter, dear daughter, we love you very dearly."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 331, "Jimmy Caldwell" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6654
File: BrS4331

Jimmy Crack Corn

See The Blue-Tail Fly [Laws I19] (File: LI19)

Jimmy Folier

See Jamie Foyers (File: McCST084)

Jimmy Hughes's Feastio

DESCRIPTION: "Come, let us all to Georgetown go .. At Jimmy Hughes's feastio"; 100 are expected but only 30 show up. "The Senator arose with pride ...My son shall run the countrio. They turned him down, my darling boy, They did not know his worthio"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: rejection food party humorous political
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 12-13, "Jimmy Hughes's Feastio" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12484
NOTES [53 words]: Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland: "When Senator J.J. Hughes received his appointment to the Senate he wanted his son to replace him as the local Member but his son was not nominated. A Testimonial dinner was held for the Senator in Georgetown but very few people showed up. It was written circa 1930." - BS
File: Din012

Jimmy Judge

See Jimmie Judd (The Beau Shai River) [Laws C4] (File: LC04)

Jimmy Kerrigan's Confession

DESCRIPTION: "You know I am that squealer that they talk so much about... So please in kindness listen to Jimmy Kerrigan." He fought for the Union in the Civil War. He was talked into committing murder. He turned informant. He bids hearers not to drink, and departs
AUTHOR: allegedly James Kerrigan (c. 1845-1898)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: homicide mining trial warning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 1845-1898 - Life of James Kerrigan
1875-1878 - The end of the Long Strike and the cases against the Molly Maguires
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 257-259, "Jimmy Kerrigan's Confession" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32] (subject: the Long Strike and the Molly Maguires) and references there
NOTES [2042 words]: Korson says that this was created by James Kerrigan and printed in a Mauch Chunk newspaper. (Mauch Chunk is the town now known as Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.) The latter I assume is true; the former I would take with many grains of salt. In any case, there is no evidence that it is traditional. But with almost all mining songs being from the Molly Maguire side, it's probably good to have at least one balancing piece.
For the Molly Maguire saga, see the notes to "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32], the song from the period with the best claim to be traditional.
To summarize briefly, in the aftermath of the failed "Long Strike," the rate of murders in the anthracite region had gone up. Most were attributed to the shadowy "Molly Maguires," who were thought to be using terrorism to improve their working conditions. The Pinkerton agency infiltrated James McParlan(d), who is mentioned in this song, into the Mollies. When the alleged Mollies were put on trial, McParlan was the key witness against them. But the prosecution could hardly hope to convict based on the evidence of one man, and a man with a personal axe to grind (and, as it turned out, a very fuzzy relationship with truth). They had to seek out other witnesses to corroborate at least part of McParland's testimony.
Muff Lawler was one of these, but the single most important informant, or "squealer," was James Kerrigan, who (unlike Lawler) had been a very active participant in the killing. Kenny, p. 292, has this capsule biography: "Kerrigan, James 'Powder Keg.' Informer. AOH [Ancient Order of Hibernians] bodymaster in Tamaqua, Schuylkill County. Born near Tuscarora, Schuylkill County, about 1845. Served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Worked at the Alaska collieries, Tamaqua. Self-confessed participant in the assassinations of Benjamin Yost and John P. Jones. Appeared as a chief witness for the prosecution in the trials of James Carroll et al, Alexander Campbell, John Kehoe et al, John "Yellow Jack" Donahue, James McDonnell, and Charles Sharp. Was never tried for his own part in the killings of Yost and Jones. Lived after the trials in exile in Richmond, Pennsylvania under the name of his wife's family. Died in Manchester, Virginia, on October 1, 1898."
According to Riffenburgh, p. 85, he was barely five feet tall, making him highly recognizable (a fact that mattered in identifying him in court cases). Someone who saw him described "his shrewd, cunning eyes, his small stature and the uneasy, fidgety motion of his body" (Riffenburgh, p. 115).
The nickname "Powderkeg" wasn't just because he had an explosive personality (although it sounds as if he did); it is reported that, during his mining days, he had asked a group of colleagues to make room for him by a fire on a cold day. No one moved. He responded by grabbing a keg of powder and putting it into the fire. When everyone fled, he took it out -- and had the fire to himself (Riffenburgh, p. 116).
Kenny, p. 216, says that he was being held in solitary confinement during the trial of Paddy Doyle (one of the subjects of another piece printed by Korson, "The Doom of Campbell, Kelly and Doyle," and the purported author of Korson's "Doyle's Pastime on St. Patrick's Day" and "Michael J. Doyle"). The lawyers for the other defendants were doing nothing to defend him, so Kerrigan decided to look out for Number 1 (Riffenburgh, p. 116).
"Just before Doyle's conviction, Kerrigan apparently decided to confess, and he told his story of how the Yost and Jones murders were connected, implicating Thomas Duffy, James Roarity, Hugh McGehan, Alexander Campbell, and James Carroll in the plot, along with Doyle and Kelly. As the bodymaster of the Tamaqua division of the AOH, Kerrigan freely admitted his own role in the killings of Yost and Jones. After turning informer he testified in several trials and was evidently promised immunity in return, as he never stood trial for any crime" (Kenny, p. 216). His confession would result in several additional arrests; the newspapers thought it clear that someone had turned informant, although it was some time before they knew who (Riffenburgh, p. 117). According to the testimony of McParlan the spy, at least, Kerrigan had been the one to plan the murder of Benjamin Yost -- he had even shown McParlan the gun (Riffenburgh, p. 89).
According to Kenny, Kerrigan's confession appeared in the April 6, 1875 Philadelphia Inquirer. On p. 219, Kenny describes Kerrigan as the primary corroborator of the claims of McParlan. On p. 229, in discussing the trials (which resulted in many convictions and twenty executions), he says "The most notorious of these informers were Daniel Kelly ["Kelly the Bum," a known liar] and Jimmy Kerrigan, whose characters and backgrounds ought to have called their evidence into serious question."
On p. 230 of Kenny, we learn that "Jimmy Kerrigan's own wife denounced him as a liar and a traitor; she called him a 'dirty little rat' from the witness stand, and she refused to visit him in prison." Bimba, pp. 95-96, prints some of her court testimony, given under cross-examination, in which, when asked why she did not care for him in this period, she declared "because he picked innocent men to suffer for his crime." Of course, she might not have known the truth. But she certainly didn't like her own husband (they eventually reconciled, but what choice did she have in the 1870s?).
According to Riffenburgh, pp. 128-129, it was actually his act of informing that turned her against him -- but that statement was extracted from her by a lawyer in court, so I am far from sure I believe it.
In at least one case, the trial of Thomas Duffy (the subject of "Thomas Duffy," which see), Kerrigan was the only substantial witness against him (Kenny, p. 231; Riffenburgh, p. 145).
One can perhaps understand why Kerrigan turned informer. I'm deeply troubled by the fact that his testimony was taken so seriously. It almost makes me believe that this "Confession" might be legitimate, simply because no one else had any sympathy for him. It is a sad commentary on American justice that he received no punishment at all. Turning informant should perhaps have saved his neck -- but I'd at least hope he would have been put away for a decade or two. But the coal companies owned the justice system in the anthracite region, and they didn't care who they punished -- if anything, they may have preferred to have justice be imperfect, to keep everyone else in fear.
Kerrigan is also mentioned in "The Doom of Campbell, Kelly and Doyle" and "Hugh McGeehan."
Miscellaneous references in the song:
"Carroll, Donahue, and Campbell"; "Alex Campbell": James Carroll (c. 1837-1877) was the AOH secretary in Tamaqua. He kept a saloon at Tamaqua at which the murder of Yost was planned. He was hung at Pottsville on June 21, 1877. John "Yellow Jack" Donahue was AOH bodymaster at Tuscarora. Convicted of multiple crimes, he was hung on June 32 at Mauch Chunk. Alexander Campbell (1833-1877) was born in Donegal and migrated in 1868; after a brief period in the mines, he opened a hotel which he later turned over to Carroll when he moved to Summit Hill and started a new business. An AOH treasurer, he was hung on June 21 at Mauch Chunk (All data from Kenny, pp. 289-290). Campbell is one of the characters in "The Doom of Campbell, Kelly and Doyle." There are sketches of Carroll and Duffy in Kenny's photos section after p. 164.
"Summit Hill": The town where Alexander Campbell ran a tavern. But if the song is correct that Yost's murder was planned at Carroll's saloon (which the song says), then the reference should be to Tamaqua. Furthermore, Yost was murdered in Tamaqua (Kenny, p. 194). To be sure, the two towns are right next to each other, so it's a trivial distinction.
"Young Kelly and Michael Doyle": The other two characters n "The Doom of Campbell, Kelly, and Doyle." Kenny, p. 292, has little to say of Edward Kelly except that he was born at Mount Laffee, PA, and hanged at Mauch Chunk on June 21, 1877. See above for the list of the three songs about Doyle; they have more information about him. According to Kenny, p. 291, there were actually two Michael Doyles in the AOH, but the one presumably meant was born in Mount Laffee and hanged at Mauch Chunk on June 21 for the murder of John P. Jones. There are sketches of Doyle and Kelly in Kenny's photos section after p. 164.
"The hated Jones": This is the aforementioned John P. Jones. Riffenburgh, p. 88 calls him a "Welsh 'inside boss'" who had blacklisted several miners; not surprisingly, they wanted revenge -- and were willing to kill to get it. (It is noteworthy that McParlan knew about this murder before it happened, and although he tried to take it over to prevent it, he didn't blow his cover and didn't actually try to stop it.) Jones knew he was in trouble, and avoided his home for weeks (Riffenburgh, p. 99), but he was shot, supposedly by Kelly and Doyle, on September 3, 1875 (date from Kenny, p. 8). The song is correct in saying that the initial plan to murder Jones was put on hold, but the plot was revived. There is a sketch of Jones in Kenny's photos section after p. 164.
"Jerry Kane": Jeremiah Kane, according to Kenny, p. 291, was AOH bodymaster for Mount Laffee. He eventually was accused of complicity in another murder, but fled the coal country and was never caught. Doyle and Kelly were members of the Mount Laffee AOH lodge, so it makes sense that Kane would have recruited Kelly.
"James McParlan": The Pinkerton who infiltrated the Mollies. Rather than explain his whole part in this, I'll just refer you to the notes to "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E25]. He was also important in the Harry Orchard case, for which see "Harry Orchard."
"Tom Fisher and Kehoe": Tom Fisher (1837-1878) was born in Donegal and emigrated in 1849. Worked in the mines at Summit Hill before becoming a hotel owner there. Involved in both the AOH and in Democratic politics, he was hanged at Mauch Chunk on May 28, 1878" (Kenny, p. 291).
John Kehoe (1837-1878), known as "Jack," is an altogether more significant story, because he was alleged to be the Molly-in-chief -- the "King of the Molly Maguires" (Kenny, p. 292). Born in Wicklow in 1837, and emigrated in 1850, at the end of the famines. Married Mary Ann O'Donnell in 1866. Worked as a miner, then -- like many senior AOH officials -- became a tavern-keeper, in his case in 1870. He was charged with roles in several murders and hanged at Pottsville on December 18, 1878. There is a sketch of Kehoe in Kenny's photos section after p. 164.
Kehoe was certainly important in the Irish community: "Intelligent, driven, and uncommonly successful for an Irish immigrant miner -- he reportedly purchased Hibernian House for the large sum of $3,500 -- Kehoe soon became a leader of the Irish community in Girardville, where he was twice elected high constable, was the bodymaster for the local lodage of the AOH, and in 1874 was elected the AOH's Schuylkill County delegate" (Riffenburgh, p. 57). He had been against the Civil War and had not served (Riffenburgh, p. 56). Thus he would have been a logical leader of an organization of disgruntled Irishmen. That is, of course, not the same as saying that he took part in or ordered assassinations! As Kenny points out on p. 222, he was clearly associated with the AOH, and McParlan and the Pinkertons based much of their case against the Molly Maguires on a claim that the AOH and the Mollies were the same (a claim which was probably false), so they really needed to nail Kehoe to make the rest of their cases credible. Kenny concludes on p. 227 that "It is difficult to imagine how, under normal conditions, a guilty verdict could have been reached in this case." But the Molly Maguire trials mostly took place in kangaroo courts, and so Kehoe was convicted and hanged, not because he was guilty (although I will not say that he was clearly innocent; the evidence just isn't decisive) but because Gowen, McParlan, and the Pinkertons needed him to be guilty to justify all their other acts against Irish workers.
Kenny's photo section has a photo of Kerrigan as well, though it apparently did not appear until several decades after these events. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP257

Jimmy Leeburn

See Jamie Raeburn (Caledonia) (File: MA085)

Jimmy Loud

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Jimmy Mo Veela Sthore (Jimmy, My Thousand Treasures)

DESCRIPTION: The singer misses Jimmy, who "travels the wide world o'er" on a quest for wealth. Her parents "never do give me ease." They want her to marry someone rich. She would go to the woods where no one will tease her and stay there until Jimmy returns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: courting separation money father mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 28A, "Jimmy Mo Veela Sthore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9782
File: OLcM028A

Jimmy Murphy

DESCRIPTION: "On the banks of Kilkenny... Is Joe Jimmy Murphy Who is lost and forsaken." "Tomorrow he will ride... through the city." "Tomorrow he will hang; But it's not for sheep-stealing But for courting a pretty girl By the name of Moll Figen"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: death execution playparty courting
FOUND IN: US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 291, "Joe Jimmy Murphy" (1 text)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 119, "Little Jimmy Murphy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7951
NOTES [264 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety calls his text "possibly a game song, but certainly originally a song about a hanging, and evidently Irish." To me, his version looks like a serious song that took on a game-song chorus. - RBW
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 has "the serious song." From the description of Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, I think the "game song" is close enough to Moylan that the songs should be kept together. [Perhaps more decisive is the fact that Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's text seems to be nearly unique, though it has wandered far from the Irish roots. - RBW] Here is some more of Moylan
We gathered our pikes and flintlocks and green branches
And into old Wexford we soon were advancing.
Chorus: Skinny-ma-link, killy-ma-jo, whiskey, frisky too-ra-loo
Rank-a-diddle-i-doe, ding-doora-lie-o.
We fought through New Ross, Vinegar Hill and through Gorey
But it was the boys of the Cork Militia that deprived us of glory.
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Luke Cheevers, "Little Jimmy Murphy" (on "The Croppy's Complaint," Craft Recordings CRCD03 (1998); Terry Moylan notes)
Moylan: "This unusual piece appeared in the Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society in 1913. The note to the song says that it was heard by the informant being sung by a street-singer in Liverpool in 1830." - BS
For the battles of New Ross, Gorey, etc., see the notes to "Father Murphy (I)" and the various cross-references there. - RBW
File: Beld291

Jimmy My Riley

DESCRIPTION: "Jimmy-my-Riley was a grand old rascal, Jimmy-my-Riley ho (x2)." "Pick it up and shuck it up and throw it over yonder." "The cows in the old field hornin' Jimmy Riley." "The mules in the old field kickin' Jimmy Riley."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad food work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 195, "Jimmy My Riley" (1 text)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 188, "Jimmie-Ma-Riley-Oh!" (1 short text); Scarborough has another stanza which she files here though it looks to me as if it might be a much-debased version of "Reuben Ranzo" or something like that
Roud #11570
NOTES [26 words]: As often happens with items like this, the Borwn and Scarborough verses don't have quite the same format. But the chorus line seems enough reason to lump. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Br3195

Jimmy Randal

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Jimmy Randolph

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Jimmy Random My Son

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Jimmy Ransome

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Jimmy Rose

DESCRIPTION: "Jimmy Rose he went to town (x3) To 'commodate the ladies." "Fare ye well, ye ladies all (x3), God Almighty bless you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Wyeth); 1855-1860 (see Notes re Wyeth)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 100, "Jimmy Rose" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, p. 211, "Jimmy Rose" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Allen Wyeth, _With Sabre and Scalpel_ (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1914 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 62, "Jimmie Rose" (1 text)
ST SBoA211 (Full)
Roud #11596
NOTES [28 words]: Wyeth learned "Jimmie Rose" from the slave that taught him to make and play the banjo, in Tennessee, around 1855-1856. Wyeth sang and played the song for Scarborough. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: SBoA211

Jimmy Sago, Jackaroo

See Jimmy Sago, Jackeroo (File: MA130)

Jimmy Sago, Jackeroo

DESCRIPTION: "If you want a situation and you'd like to know the plan To get on a station... Pack up the old portmanteau and label it Paroo, with a name that's aristocratic -- Jimmy Sago, Jackeroo." The song details how the "aristocratic" name can bring benefits
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson, _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: Australia work animal
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 130-131, "Jimmy Sago, Jackeroo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 161-162, "The Jackaroo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 114-115, "Jimmy Sago, Jackaroo" (1 text)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, p. 86, "Jimmy Sago, Jackaroo" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 189-190, "Jimmy Sago, Jackeroo" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 281-282, "Jimmy Sago, Jackeroo" (1 text)
Roud #8394
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Green" (tune, according to Wannan)
NOTES [315 words]: According to Patterson/Fahey/Seal, a Jackaroo was a young man working on a station to gain experience -- in effect, an apprentice. Naturally he was teased and held in low esteem.
The spelling is uncertain (Jackaroo/Jackeroo), as is the origin; Learmonth, article on "Jackeroo" (their spelling) says that the "origin is uncertain, most probably a coined Aus.-ouning word based on a 'Jacky Raw', but an Aboriginal origin is also claimed." It adds that a female parallel, "Jillaroo," dates from the twentieth century.
Morris, p. 215, is another who prefers "Jackaroo" (where were all you people when I first entered this song?), and defines the word as a noun, "a name for a Colonial Experience (q.v.), a young man fresh from England, learning squatting.... Compare the American 'tenderfoot...." The word is generally supposed to be a corruption (in imitation of the word Kangaroo) of the name 'Johnny Raw.'" The first citation is from 1880: W. Senior, "Travel and Trout," p. 19. The noun eventually became a verb, "to jackaroo," as well.
Ramson, p. 330, spells the word "Jackeroo," and says that it originally meant "A white man living beyond the bounds of close settlement," but lists this sense as obsolete and gives a second definition similar to that in Morris.
Manifold, who also spells it "Jackaroo," says on p. 86 that "jackaroos... were usually educated young men studying the art and mystery of station management; sometimes they included a 'colonial-experiencer' or 'pommy jackaroo.'" On p. 87, after listing a few songs he thinks came from jackaroos, says, "The jackaroo, as you see, likes to think of himself as a full-fledged stockman or bushman; if he does a single small job of droving he fancies himself a drover; it is undignified to be a mere jackaroo."
Manifold, pp. 94-95, was told by an informant that this is derived from "Hot Ashphalt," i.e. "The Hot Ash-Pelt." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: MA130

Jimmy Taylor, Oh

See Little Fight in Mexico (File: R549)

Jimmy the Carter's Lad

See Jim, the Carter Lad (File: FSC096)

Jimmy Walsh and Stephen

See Two Jinkers (File: Doy11)

Jimmy Whelan

See Lost Jimmie Whalen [Laws C8]; also James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC08)

Jine 'Em

DESCRIPTION: "On Sunday mornin' I seek my Lord, Jine 'em, jine 'em oh! Oh jine 'em, believer, jine 'em so, Jine 'em, jine 'em oh." "Join, brethren, join us O... In Jesus's name we sing and pray"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 21, "Jine 'Em" (1 short text with a possible variant, 1 tune)
Roud #11972
File: AWG021A

Jingar Ring

See Jingo Ring (Merry-Ma-Tanzie, Around the Ring) (File: Fus173)

Jinger Blue

See Ginger Blue (File: R298)

Jingle at the Window (Tideo)

DESCRIPTION: Playparty. "Jingle at the window, (tideo/dideo)....' "Pass one window, tideo...." Pass two windows, tideo...." "You swing heads... I swing feet... Ain't dat nice... walkin' on de ice."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (JAFL 24)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 96-97=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 197-198, "Tideo" (1 text, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 66, "Ti-De-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 525, "Jingle at the Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 160, "Tideo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 208, "Tideo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 115-116, "Dance Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 134, "Tideo" (1 text, with two verses of "Tideo" and one probably from "Go In and Out the Window")
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, pp. 38-39, "Die-Lee-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 118, "Jingle at the Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3597
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jumbo" (lyrics)
NOTES [42 words]: For the possible relationship of this to "Sugar in My Coffee," see the notes to that song.
Scarborough's version of this has stanzas twice as long (eight lines) as Randolph's, but presumably this is just the usual story of half the tune being lost. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: R525

Jingle Bells

DESCRIPTION: In praise of sleighing in the snow. Taking his "one horse open sleigh," the singer courts Miss Fanny Bright. Even a brief detour into a snowbank does not deter his ardor. The singer urges others to get a horse and sleigh and go courting
AUTHOR: James Pierpont (1822-1893)
EARLIEST DATE: 1857
KEYWORDS: horse nonballad courting
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 276-277, "Jingle Bells" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 93-96, "Jingle Bells Or the One horse open Sleigh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Krythe-SamplerOfAmericanSongs (16), pp. 219-220, "Jingle Bells" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 376, "Jingle Bells" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 94-96, "Jingle Bells, or The One Horse Open Sleigh" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 148-149, "Jingle, Bells" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 313+, "Jingle Bells"
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 27, "Jingle, Bells" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 29, "Jingle Bells" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JNGLBLL*
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 70, "Jingle, Bells" (1 text, 1 tune) (pp. 18-19 of part 3 of the 1876 edition)
Roud #25804
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pony Song" (approximate tune, theme, and some words)
cf. "Tittler's Jam" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Shotgun Shells ("Jingle bells, shotgun shells, Rabbits on the run") (Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 113)
Jingle Bells (New Zealand parodies) (Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 298-299)
Ginger Ale ("Ginger ale, ginger ale, ginger all the way") (Harbin-Parodology, , #129, p. 40)
Jingle Bells/camp version ("Mr. ---, Mr. ---, Listen while we sing") (Harbin-Parodology, #156, p. 44)
GInger Up ("Ginger up, ginger up, Never wear a frown") (Harbin-Parodology, #226, p. 58; Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 125)
Summer Camp ("Summer camp, summer camp, echo it afar") (Harbin-Parodology, #252, p. 62)
NOTES [174 words]: According to a big of folklore which I have not attempted to check, Pierpont wrote this while living in Florida. Hm.
Ken Emerson, Doo-Dah! Stephen Foster and the Rise of American Popular Culture, Da Capo, 1997?, p. 10, says that the phrase "bells on bob-tail ring" was condensed from the "Bet my money on de bob-tail nag" of Stephen Foster's "Camptown Races."
Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 47, says that James Pierpont was the son of a Unitarian minister and the uncle of J. Pierpont Morgan.
This became popular in the nineteenth century, but it also had some success in twentieth century recordings. Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 456, estimates that this was the fifteenth most popular song in America in December 1941 (apparently the hot recording was by Glenn Miller), and there was another successful recording in December 1951. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RJ19093

Jingle-Berry Tea

DESCRIPTION: "Buck-skin moccasin tow-headed Bill, Once went a-courtin' up on the hill, The first one he courted was a pretty gal to see, Set right down to Jingleberry tea."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: drink
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 416, "Jingleberry Tea" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7613
NOTES [63 words]: Randolph informs us that "This is a fragment of a ribald song popular in the [1870s], and is said to have been brought west from Tennessee." However, he fails to give us enough additional detail to identify the song.
He also knew an informant who suggested the name be changed to "sassifras," on the grounds that "It's ag'in the law to print words like jingle-berry in a book." - RBW
File: R416

Jingo Ring (Merry-Ma-Tanzie, Around the Ring)

DESCRIPTION: "Here we go around the ring; Choose you one while we do sing; Choose the one that you love best, And she will come at your request." "Now you've got her, and I wish you much joy, You are my son and childish joy... Kiss her quick, and that will do."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1825 (John Jamieson's _Scottish Dictionary, Supplement_, according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,SE) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) New Zealand
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1580, "The Merry Ma Tanzie" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #152, p. 2, "Jingar Ring" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 200, "The Tansey" (1 text)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 173, "Around the Ring" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 27, "Merry-ma-tansie" (5 texts)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #170, "Marriage" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 546, "Here We Go in a Ring" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 65, "(Here we go round the jing-a-ring" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 25, "(Here we go round a jinga-ring)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 131-135, "The Merry-Ma-Tanzie" (2 texts)
ST Fus173 (Full)
Roud #12970
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lipto" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Guinea Gold Ring
NOTES [57 words]: Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 200 seems to be the same game described by Chambers and Gomme1.369-373 (cf., Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 p. liii) but the "plot" is different: The "young Ladie" has a baby "belongs to Merrie man Tansey"; she wraps it in a dish towel and lays it on a nettle bush an dance a Merrie man Tansey." - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Fus173

Jinkin' You, Jockie Lad

See Jinkin' You, Johnnie Lad (File: FVS045)

Jinkin' You, Johnnie Lad

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, ken ye my love Johnnie, he lives doon on yonder lea, and he's lookin', and he's joukin', and he's aye watchin' me." The singer describes her deep fondness for (Johnnie/Jockie), and looks forward to a happy life despite his poverty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 45-47, "Jinkin' You, Jockie Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan4 756, "Johnnie Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 67, "Johnnie Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JOHNLAD
Roud #6131
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Johnny Lad" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
File: FVS045

Jinnie Jinkins

See Jenny Jenkins (File: R453)

Jinny Get Your Hoecake Done

DESCRIPTION: Fiddler's mnemonic for a moderately well-known tune: "Jinny, get your hoecake done, my love, Jinny, get your hoecake done; Jinny, get your hoecake done, my love, Jinny, get your hoecake done."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: dancetune nonballad food
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 158, "The Hoe-Cake" (eighth of 12 single-stanza jigs) (1 short text)
ST Fus158C (Full)
Roud #16825
NOTES [94 words]: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 51, list among their "Illustrated Negro Minstrel Songs (Of the 'Jim Crow' Type)" a piece, "Jenny Get Your Hoe Cake Done," published by Firth & Hall in 1840. The sheet music describes it as "The Celebrated Banjo Song, As sung with Great Applause at the Broadway Circus, N. Y., by J. W. Sweeney." Presumably that was the original source for the fiddle tune, but I do not know whether either the text or the tune is the same as modern versions. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Fus158C

Jinny Git Around

See Going to See My True Love (Jenny Get Around) (File: JRSF192)

Jinny Go Round and Around

DESCRIPTION: "Where did you get your whisky? Where did you get your dram?.... Down in Rockingham. Cho: Jinny go round an' around (x3) Way down in Rockingham." The remaining verses may give reasons why the singer will not marry or describe river life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage drink dancing playparty floatingverses river
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 272, "Jinny Go Round and Around" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 233-234, "Jinny Go Round and Round" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 272)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 389, "The Privates Eat the Middlin'" (1 fragment, probably a Civil War adaption of this piece)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 589, "[Number Ninety-Nine]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 711, "Where'd You Get Yo' Whisky?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 121-122, "(Number Ninety-nine)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 24-25, "Master Had a Bran' New Coat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R272 (Full)
Roud #836 (etc.)
RECORDINGS:
Earl Johnson & His Dixie Entertainers, "I Get My Whiskey From Rockingham" (Okeh 45183, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cindy (I)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "A Railroader for Me (Soldier Boy for Me)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Way Down in Rockingham
Rockingham Cindy
NOTES [133 words]: This is an extremely problematic piece, recognized by the "Where did you get your whiskey" stanza. The rest is no unity, but the results are too fragmentary to classify as separate songs.
Almost all of these lyrics of some versions show up in one or another version of the "Cindy/Jubilee" family, but the chorus is different, so I've separated them. The Botkin Mississippi River piece (compare Courlander's) is almost equally remote from both "Cindy" and "Jinny," but not worth another entry, so I file it here.
Paul Stamler notes another piece, "Rockingham Cindy"; I suspect that to be a variant of this one.
The chorus "Jinny go round..." does not appear in all versions; I don't know if it is an addition to the Randolph text or if it dropped out of the usual versions sung by old-time singers. - RBW
File: R272

Jinny Go Up

DESCRIPTION: "Jinny go up, Jinny go down, Jinny go all around the town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: travel
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 13, "Jinny Go Up" (1 short text)
Roud #38159
File: BAAI013A

Jinny Jan

See Jenny Jones (Jennie Jo) (File: Lins026)

Jinny Jenkins

See Jenny Jenkins (File: R453)

Jinny Jo

See Jenny Jones (Jennie Jo) (File: Lins026)

Jinny on the Telephone

See Tilly on the Telephone (File: BAAI077B)

Jinny Wren Bride

See Jenny Wren Bride (File: Tawn056)

Joan and John Blount

See Get Up and Bar the Door [Child 275] (File: C275)

Joan o' Grinfield!

See The Four-Loom Weaver (File: DTfourlo)

Joan Sanderson (The Cushion Dance)

DESCRIPTION: "'This dance it will no further go.' 'I pray you, (Sir), Why say you so?' 'Because (Joan Sanderson) will not come too.' 'She must come too, and she shall come too... whether she will or no.' 'Welcome, Joan Sanderson.' Prankum, Prankum is a fine dance."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
KEYWORDS: dancing rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 5, "Joan Sanderson or The Cushion Dance" (1 text, 1 tune, plus dance instructions)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 153-157, "The Cushion Dance" (2 tunes, with references to the text)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 287-288, "Joan Sanderson, or The Cushion Dance" (1 tune)
Roud #19195
File: Gund005

Joan's Ale Is Good

See When Jones's Ale Was New (File: Doe168)

Joan's Ale Is New

See When Jones's Ale Was New (File: Doe168)

Joan's Ale Was New

See When Jones's Ale Was New (File: Doe168)

Joaquin, the Horse-Thief

See The Song of Joaquin (Wakken) (File: GC135)

Job (I)

See Come All You Worthy Christian Men (File: ShH91)

Job (II)

See Job, Job (File: CNFM225)

Job, Job

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Job, Job, good Lord, Tell me how you feel, good Lord." Sundry Biblical incidents are narrated: Pilate's wife and her dream of Jesus, Joshua stopping the sun, etc. Verses are very long, with variable numbers of lines
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, collected from Vera Hall and Dock Reed)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 14-16, "Job" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 53-56, "(Job, Job)" (1 text); pp. 225-226, "Job, Job" (1 tune, partial text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 316-318, "(no title)" (1 text); pp. 344-345, "Job, Job" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10964
RECORDINGS:
Rich Amerson, "Job Job" (on NFMAla4)
Dock Reed & Vera Hall Ward, "Job Job" (on NFMAla5) (on ReedWard01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Swing Low" (a few lines)
NOTES [116 words]: The account of Joshua stopping the sun is found in Joshua 10:12-13. Pilate's wife's dream is found in Matthew 27:19 (only; the other gospels have no hint of the story, although all have Pilate being relatively favorable to Jesus. Catholic folklore had a lot to say about Pilate and his wife, but that surely was not known to the singers of this song). Methuselah's death at the age of 969 is in Genesis 5:27 (although the Greek translation gives different ages for the patriarchs). Allusions to the book of Job include:
* The death of Job's servants (Job 1:15-17)
* The death of Job's children (Job 1:19)
* "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CNFM225

Jobal Hunter, The

See Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Jock and Meg

See The Week After the Fair (I) (Jock and Meg) (File: GrD3585)

Jock Geddes

See Jock Gheddes and the Soo (File: RcJGatSo)

Jock Geddes and the Soo

See Jock Gheddes and the Soo (File: RcJGatSo)

Jock Gheddes and the Soo

DESCRIPTION: Jock's mother warned him to "Come hame sober" but Jock "as usual soon forgot." Arriving home he falls in a dung hill where a sow, liking the smell, licks his mouth. Jock wakes, "spat for near an hour," has the pig killed, and has not had whisky since.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous animal death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 573, "Jock Geddes" (1 text)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 104-105, 154, "Jock Geddes and the Soo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5130
RECORDINGS:
Willie Scott, "Jock Gheddes and the Soo" (on Voice13)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Courtin' in the Stable (The Workin' Steer)" (plot)
cf. "Doran's Ass [Laws Q19]" (plot)
File: RcJGatSo

Jock Hamilton

DESCRIPTION: Duke Hamilton bet five hundred guineas he can go through London singing but not speaking. Though thrown in jail he does not speak. The bailiff's daughter tries but only gets a gold ring. He wins the bet and the bailiff's daughter by singing.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: ring prison gambling music wager
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 324, "Jock Hamilton" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #5869
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Dashing Young Lad from Buckingham" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Duke Hamilton
Lord Hamilton
NOTES [91 words]: The chorus, which is the Duke's song, is .".. Tey ey addlety, Tey ey addlety tam; ... Eetify addlety, Tey ey addlety tam." Since "He's won her by singin' song, He's won her by Eetify addlety, Tey ey addlety tam" this seems a case of bawdy words replaced by nonsense sounds (as in Blind Blake's explicit "I wish someone would tell me what 'diddie wa diddie' means"; also see "The Chandler's Wife" and "Jack the Jolly Tar" [Laws K40]).
As closely as this song's plot agrees with "A Dashing Young Lad from Buckingham" the two songs share no text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2324

Jock Hawk

DESCRIPTION: "One night I into Glesga went To spend my penny fee, Twas then a girl gave consent To bear me company." They go to a tavern. A crowd of sailors comes in -- then are called away. Jock is left to pay the entire bill. He warns others of the trick
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: drink money trick sailor warning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 295, "Jock Hawk" (10 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 278-279, "Jock Hawk's Adventures in Glasgow" (1 text)
Roud #2311
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jock Hack
One Day I Up to Glasgow Went
File: Ord278

Jock o Hazeldean

See John of Hazelgreen [Child 293] (File: C293)

Jock o the Side [Child 187]

DESCRIPTION: Jock o the Side has been taken prisoner in a raid. His neighbors hope to ransom him, but (Hobie Noble/The Laird's Jock) will free him with five men. They make their way to Jock's prison, break down the doors and perform other feats, and bring Jock away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy Folio)
KEYWORDS: borderballad prisoner escape rescue
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber)) US(MA)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Child 187, "Jock o the Side" (4 texts)
Bronson 187, "Jock o the Side" (4 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 187, "Jock o the Side" (2 versions: #1, #3)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 203-209, "John a Side" (1 text)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 36-41, "Jock o' the Syde" (1 text)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 145-147, "Jock o' the Side" (1 text, 1 tune) {Compare Bronson's #3, a variant of the same tune but with different text}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 69-73, "Jock of the Side" (1 text, 1 tune) {tune is Bronson's #4; text is from a different source}
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 246, "Jock o' the Side" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 138, "Jock o' the Side" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 191, "Bold Dickie and Bold Archie" (1 text, 1 tune, primarily Child 188 but possibly with elements of 187)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 379-381, "Jock o' the Side" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 25, "Jock o' the Side" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 238-240, "Jock O' The Side" (fragments of text with a prose interludes describing what happens; possibly a version derived from print)
DT (187/188), JOCKSIDE JOHNWEBB*? BOLDARCH*?
ADDITIONAL: Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 118-122, "Jock o' the Side" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 254
Roud #82
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hobie Noble" [Child 189] (characters)
cf. "Archie o Cawfield" [Child 188] (plot)
NOTES [308 words]: Jock o' the Side (Side is a region in Liddesdale) was a well-known thief and raider of the 1560s. - SF
It is interesting to note that (apart from Jock himself), the characters in this drama are completely unfixed; in one version, Robin Hood's companion Much the miller's son is one of the raiders (and not a very bold one). Another version features Hobie Noble, from the ballad of the same name [Child 189].
It is not entirely clear whether Jock was historical or not; Child briefly notices a few mentions of him outside this song but also speculates that his story was a loose retelling of the tale of Kinmont Willie. This evidence is perhaps stronger than Child hints. James Reed, The Border Ballads, University of London/The Athlone Press, 1975, pp. 53-56, quotes a poem by Sir RIchard Maitland, a sixteenth century judge, which is a list of Liddesdale outlaws. A stanza on p. 54 runs,
He is weil kend, John of the Syde;
A greater theif did never ryde.
He never tyres
For to brek byris;
Ouir muir and myris
Ouir guide ane gyde.
On p. 57, Reed says, "There is some evidence for the existence of John of the Side, apart from Maitland's commemorative stanza; R. B. Armstrong prints two bonds in which John Armstrong of the Syde is a party, dated 1562 and 1563. He also appears, or at least the name appears, first about 1550 in a list of marauders against whom complaint was made to the Bishop of Carlisle 'presently after' queen Mary Stuart's departure for France. 'Syid' is marked on Blaue's map of Liddesdale of 1590."
It's a fairly convincing list, but it's at least possible that he was simply legendary -- perhaps a threat to children, the way the Black Douglas became in Britain or Jesse James in America, even after the latter two were dead. Of course, Douglas and James were real, but there are instances of such bogies who were not. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: C187

Jock o' Hazel Green

See John of Hazelgreen [Child 293] (File: C293)

Jock o' Rhynie (II)

See Rhynie (File: RcRhynie)

Jock o' Rhynie (The Praise o' Huntley)

DESCRIPTION: "I've been abroad, I've been at hame... But noo I've come to Huntley." The singer escapes his parents and sets out to earn his fee. His parents offer no support. After working with Mr. Stephen and Jock o' Huntley, he vows to be "mair wiser."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: work farming father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #146, p. 3, "The Praise o' Huntly"; #145, p. 2, ("I stepped about at liberty, Till Jock o' Rhynie fell in wi' me") (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 349, "The Praise o' Huntly" (8 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 338-339, "In Praise o' Huntley" (1 text)
Roud #3943
NOTES [53 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Huntly (349) is at coordinate (h4,v5-6) on that map [roughly 34 miles WNW of Aberdeen]; Mains of Rhynie (348,349) is at coordinate (h2-3,v5) on that map [roughly 31 miles WNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord338

Jock o' the Syde

See Jock o the Side [Child 187] (File: C187)

Jock of Hazelgreen

See John of Hazelgreen [Child 293] (File: C293)

Jock of the Side

See Jock o the Side [Child 187] (File: C187)

Jock Robb

DESCRIPTION: "My mailison's [curse is] on ye, Jock Robb"; you built your house next to mine and taught my children "to bob." "My blessing gae wi' ye, Jock Robb"; when you come you make us happy and "gar our blithe bottoms play bob!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (Sharpe)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad children curse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1779, "Jock Robb" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, A Ballad Book (Edinburgh, 1891, reprint of 1824 edition), Vol I, #11 p. 35, "The Fiddler's Benison"
Roud #12989
NOTES [104 words]: What is "bob"? I'm guessing "dancing." - BS
Attested Scots meanings of the verb "to bob"/"to bab," according to Alexander Warrack, The Scots Dialect Dictionary, Waverly Books, 2000, p. 25, include "to bob" (a nice circular definition, that), "to move up and down quickly," "to dance," "to pop in and out," "to curtsey," and "to move quickly." Thus "to bob" probably does mean "to dance" in this case -- something the Presbyterian church certainly would not like. But the noun "bab" also means "gossip," so although Warrack does not list this as a verb sense. I would not absolutely rule out the meaning "to gossip." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81779

Jock Scott

DESCRIPTION: Jock recalls the first time he saw Mary, whose beauty ensnared him. He takes a job with her father, and wins her heart. They plan to flee. Her father follows and drags her away. When they try again, he is accused of forgery. He hopes to win free
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love courting servant father punishment trick
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #81, pp. 1-2, "Jock Scott"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 12-13, "Jock Scott" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan6 1096, "Jock Scott" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 448-450, "Jock Scott" (1 text)
Roud #5620
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Connors" [Laws M5] (plot)
cf. "Erin's Lovely Home" [Laws M6] (plot)
cf. "William Riley's Courtship [Laws M9]" (plot)
cf. "Jock Scott" (plot)
cf. "The Footboy" (plot)
cf. "Nairn's River Banks" (tune, per Greig/Duncan6)
File: Ord448

Jock Sheep

DESCRIPTION: A lady asks a knight not to lie with her "for spoilin' o' my goun." She asks that he take her to her father's castle first. Once there she shuts the door in his face. Disguised as a lady in labor the knight lures her out and rapes her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Jock Sheep, a knight, and a lady set a tryst but she asks him not to lie with her "for spoilin' o' my goun." She asks that he take her to her father's castle where "ye shall hae your wills o' me." Once there she shuts the door in his face. Then she taunts him by comparing him to a marigold, and impotent cock and impotent stallion. He disguises himself as a lady in labor in the wood. When his lady goes to "her" aid she finds Jock. He rapes her, repeating her taunts. She asks that "sin you've taen your wills o' me You may conduct me hame." He does.
KEYWORDS: seduction escape trick knight rape disguise
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook V, pp. 17-21, "Jock Sheep" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 302, "Jock Sheep" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
DT JOCKSHEP
Roud #5862
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Baffled Knight [Child 112]" (plot)
cf. "The Broomfield Hill [Child 43]" (first verse)
cf. "Errol on the Green" (tune, according to Greig/Duncan2)
cf. "The Three Butchers (Dixon and Johnson) [Laws L4]" (motif: "damsel in distress" as lure)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Whistle o' Yer Thoom
NOTES [241 words]: Child notes to 112, "The Baffled Knight": "There is a Scottish ballad in which the tables are turned upon the maid in the conclusion. This being of comparatively recent, and not of popular, but of low literary origin, cannot be admitted here. It can be found in Kinloch's Ballad Book, 'Jock Sheep,' p. 16, and the Kinloch MSS, I, 229, communicated by James Beattie, Mearnsshire. Other versions are, in the Campbell MSS, 'Dernie Hughie,' II, 233; 'Jock Sheep, or, The Maiden Outwitted,' Buchan MSS, I, 155."
The first verse of Kinloch matches "The Broomfield Hill," Child 43A and Child 43C, which sets a different tone than Child 112: here Jock and the lady set the tryst; in Child 112 (as in other Child 43 versions) the meeting is not planned. What is not clear here is why the lady changes her mind; the lady's dilemna described in "The Broomfield Hill" is not stated here.
The version of Child 112 closest to "Jock Sheep" is version D.b. The taunts -- the marigold, impotent cock and shy stallion -- are only in that version of Child 112. In other versions of "Jock Sheep" references to an impotent bull and ram are added to the list (for example, Greig-Duncan).
The non-fragmentary text from Greig/Duncan2 preserves the "Jock Sheep" characteristic of taking its first verse from Child 43, "The Broomfield Hill." Greig/Duncan2 notes that "Jock Sheep," as a result, had "formerly been treated in print as versions of this ballad [Child 43]." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: C112A

Jock Stewart (The Man You Don't Meet Every Day)

DESCRIPTION: (Jock Stewart) invites the company to enjoy his generosity. "So be easy and free when you're drinking with me; I'm a man you don't meet every day" The singer may talk of his well-built hut, his hunting trips, or whatever people discuss in pubs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: drink hunting friend
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland US(So) Australia Canada(Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #17, pp. 139-140, "Jock Stewart" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 476, "The Man You Don't Meet Every Day" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 161-162, 286, "A Man You Don't Meet Every Day" (2 texts, 2 tunes, heavily localized)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 47, "A Man You Don't Meet Every Day" (1 text, 1 tune; the man is "Pat" and grows his "own spuds"; the changes are almost enough to make it a separate song)
DT, JSTEWART*
ADDITIONAL: Chris Wright, "'Forgotten Broadsides and the Song Tradition of the Scots Travellers" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, pp. 101-102, "(Jock Stewart)" (1 text plus a text of "The Man You Don't Meet Every Day")
Roud #975
RECORDINGS:
Hector MacIsaac and Jerome Downey, "A Man You Don't Meet Every Day" (on NFHMacIsaac01)
Cyril O'Brien, "I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Cornelius O'Sullivan, "I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day" (Victor 79126, late 1920s-early 1930s)
Belle, Sheila, and Cathie Stewart, "Jock Stewart" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bound to Australia" (meter, floating lyrics)
cf. "The First of the Emigrants" (tune, meter, chorus)
cf. "The Hard Working Miner" (tune, form)
SAME TUNE:
The Hard Working Miner (File: DThrdwrk)
NOTES [125 words]: Chris Wright, in his "Forgotten Broadsides" article, observes that the chorus of this forms part of the chorus of the music hall song "The Man You Don't Meet Every Day," an undated broadside of which seems to have been printed before 1900. Wright discusses the relationship between the two; he seems to think the most likely explanation is that "Jock Stewart" borrowed the chorus and built a song around it. The minimal evidence available, however, would also suit the possibility that the music hall song borrowed two lines of "Jock Stewart." There is nothing else in common between the two.
Roud lumps the two songs. I frankly disagree, but on the other hand, I'm not sure it's worth separating them, given the problem of classifying fragments. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: R476

Jock Stewart the Factor

DESCRIPTION: "Jock Stewart the factor, Sae weel he did thrive, Afore he'd kiss his ain wife He'd kiss ither five"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: infidelity nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1440, "Jock Stewart the Factor" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7271
NOTES [13 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan7 text excluding the chorus. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71440

Jock t' Leg and the Merry Merchant

See Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant [Child 282] (File: C282)

Jock Tamson's Tripe

DESCRIPTION: On his wedding night Jock comes home drunk, goes to his tripe can in the dark, and eats one of the caps his mother had washed and put in the can. He gets sick and, to everyone's amazement, vomits a clean cap instead of tripe.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: wedding clothes drink food humorous mother disease
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 286, "Jock Tamson's Tripe" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Roud #5835
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jock Tamson
File: GrD2286

Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant [Child 282]

DESCRIPTION: A "merry merchant" comes to a tavern and finds himself in a series of contests with (a disguised) Jock the Leg. They set out together, and Jock demands the merchant's pack. The merchant fights him off, then six of his men as well; they declare friendship
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: robbery outlaw fight
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Child 282, "Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant" (1 text)
Bronson 282, "Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant" (7 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 282, "Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant" (3 versions: #2, #5, #6)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #35, p. 1, "Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 263, "Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant" (6 texts, 5 tunes) {A=Bronson's #2, B=#6, C=#1, D=#5, E=#3}
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 59, "Jock t' Leg and the Merry Merchant" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 94, "Jackie with the Leg" (1 text)
DT, JOCKLEG*
Roud #3856
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" [Child 132] (plot)
NOTES [442 words]: Child observes that this is essentially a Robin Hood ballad with the names changed. One wonders if it might not be a Scottish redaction of "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood." - RBW
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 94 is different from the other versions I've seen, including Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1. Usually Jock blows his horn and has his men appear. Although the agreement had been that each man should blow his horn ["Give me a blast o my little wee horn, And I'll give you another"] the merchant never gets his turn [why not?]. In Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 the merchant does take his turn: "he blew louds blasts three And a hundred and fiftie gude bay dogs Cam linking our the lee"; the merchant tells Jock that the dogs are for Jock's men and he himself will take on Jock. The day goes poorly for Jock's men, at least: "The bay dogs fed on human flesh It was a waeful day." Child says of the ballad in its more common form that it, "but for names (and Jock the Leg is only a thin shrouding for Little John), might have gone with the Robin Hood ballads." Buchan, in Child's source, assumes that Jock the Leg is Little John [see Peter Buchan, Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1875 (reprint of 1828 edition)), Vol II, pp. 313-314]. While in the Robin Hood contest ballads the cycle hero can be given a good battle his defeat does not take these proportions. In this case the two combatants do not end as friends and the merchant leaves defiantly: "I'll hae nane o thy free discharge But I'll travel land and sea." Is this what "Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant" originally looked like? Or, is this a parody of the original ballad? Or should it have an entry all its own?
[It sounds to me like a variation on the Friar Tuck legend, as found in Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar [Child 123], in which Robin and Tuck both call for help -- Robin from his band, Tuck from his dogs. Possibly the Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 text is a composite of Child 282 with Child 123, attracted by the Robin Hood parallels mentioned by Child. I'd like to see at least one other such version before splitting them, though. - RBW]
"Jock the Leg, the usual name for a pocket-knife, is a corruption of Jacques de Liege, the tradesman who supplied Scotland with cutlery in the days of the Guises" [P.C.B, "How Lord P became our Rector," in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, (London, 1863 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. LXVIII, July 1863, p. 51]. [Mary of Guise was married to James V of Scotland in 1538, became regent over her daughter -Mary Queen of Scots - in 1554, and died in 1560.] - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: C282

Jockey and Jenny

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Jockey courted Jenny in the height of spring... Oh, Jocky would give anything that Jenny's heart could win." He asks a relative for advice and is told that single life is best; married life is costly. It is not clear if they marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Gardiner collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #34, "Jockey and Jenny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1556
NOTES [39 words]: This song was collected twice, but both times from the same informant, and he remembered only three and a half verses. So we know the set-up of the song, but not the ending: Did the two marry, or did Jockey get talked out of it? - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: VWP034

Jockey Hat and Feather

DESCRIPTION: "As I was walking out one day A-thinking of the weather I saw a pair of roguish eyes 'Neath a hat and feather." The girl asks how the singer likes her hat. He likes it (or her?) very much. She leaves; he misses her, and dreams of the hat
AUTHOR: Fred Wilson and W. H. Brockway
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Dime-Song-Book #9)
KEYWORDS: clothes dream loneliness separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 490, "Jockey Hat and Feather" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 59, "Jockey Hat and Feather" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1120, p. 76, "The Jockey Hat and Feather" (5 references)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 20, "Jockey Hat and Feather" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 15, "Jockey Hat and Feather" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7586
NOTES [97 words]: Spaeth (A History of Popular Music in America, p. 173) says that this was "one of a large group of songs [in the 1860s] that discussed details of feminine attire," but mentions only this and "Tassels on Her Boots" -- both of which appear in New-Comic-Songster, though I don't know if that's significant.
According to the broadside descriptions on p. 76 of Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, this was sung by Ben Cotton and by "W. N. Smith, the great bone-player, of Bailey's Circus." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R490

Jockey to the Fair

DESCRIPTION: Jocky puts on his Sunday suit and goes to Jenny's house, wakes her by tapping at the window. Jenny says, "Everyone's asleep or out: are you going to hold to your vows?" He says yes. They run off to the Fair and get married. Returning, they bless the day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 16(118d))
KEYWORDS: love clothes elopement marriage courting sex promise family
FOUND IN: US(Ap) Canada(Mar) Britain(England(South,West), Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 465-467, "Jockey to the Fair" (1 text)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 90-92, "Jockey to the Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 170-171, "Jocky to the Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 94, pp. 146-147, "Jocko to the Fair" (1 text, 1utne)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 711-713, "With Jockey to the Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3344
RECORDINGS:
Edmund Henneberry, "Jocky to the Fair" (on NovaScotia1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(118d), "Jocky and Jennys Trip to the Fair," J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 16(119a), Firth b.26(244), Harding B 11(1884), "Jocky and Jenny's Trip to the Fair"; Firth c.19(152), Firth b.26(407), Harding B 11(1886), Firth b.26(372), Harding B 25(972), Harding B 28(64), "Jockey to the Fair"; 2806 c.16(62), "Jockey and Jenny"; Harding B 21(13), "Trip to the Fair"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
With Jockey to the Fair
NOTES [60 words]: There's also a fiddle tune, "Jockey to the Fair", to which these words can be sung. As for the keyword "sex" -- it's not mentioned in the song, but you can believe what you like. - PJS
For another version see Robert Bell, editor, [The Project Gutenberg EBook (1996) of] Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England (1857), "Jockey to the Fair" - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: CrSe170

Jockey's Escape from Dundee

DESCRIPTION: "Where got thou the haver-meal bannock? Blind Bubby, canst thou not see?" Singer Jock has gotten the minister's daughter of Dundee pregnant; the minister demands he marry her. Jock is not interested in marriage; he asks Sandy to help him escape
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1719 (Pills to Purge Melancholy, according to Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: sex pregnancy abandonment clergy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 28, "Jockey's Escape from Dundee" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonnie Dundee (II)" (opening lines)
File: Gath028

Jockey's Lament, The

See Alec Robertson (II) (File: MA146)

Jockey's Lamentation

See O'er the Hills and Far Away (I) (File: Arn017)

Jockie and the Fair Maid

See Branded Lambs [Laws O9] (File: LO09)

Jocko to the Fair

See Jockey to the Fair (File: CrSe170)

Jocky and his Owsen

DESCRIPTION: "Twa afore ane, Three afore five [the order in which oxen are yoked] ... An' Jocky at the last; Jenny and her five kye Fullin' in fast"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Gregor, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland, according to Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 430, "Jocky and his Owsen" (1 text)
Roud #5946
NOTES [22 words]: Greig/Duncan3 quotes a more complete version on p. 639 from Gregor, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland (1881). - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3430

Jocky Said to Jeanie

DESCRIPTION: "Jocky said to Jeanie, wilt thou do't? Ne'er a fit, quo' Jeannie, for my tocher good." She says her dowry is too good for such as him. He says he has gold, gear, and land. She consents: "Ye're welcomer to tak me than to let me be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1724 (Ramsay)
KEYWORDS: love courting dowry
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 823, "Jocky's Proposal" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 22, "Jocky Said to Jinnie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 145, "Jocky Said to Jenny" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany (Edinburgh: Thomas Ruddiman, 1724 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 141-142, "For the Love of Jean" ("Jocky said to Jeany, Jeany, wilt thou do't?") (1 text)
ST CrNS022 (Full)
Roud #1792
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jocky Said to Jeany
NOTES [112 words]: Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong: "This was an old song even in Ramsay's days, as it was marked with a Z in the first volume of his Miscellany. The title there given to it is 'For the love of Jean,' ...." The "Z, old songs" is in Ramsay's Table of Contents.
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia heard this song in Gaelic and French as well as English and always to the same tune. - BS
My feeling is that Creighton's version was a local adaption. Her tune (in 2/4 and with a range of only a fourth) bears no resemblance to that, e.g., in the Scots Musical Museum (in 3/2 and with a full octave range). My guess would be that a Gaelic drone went into French and English. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: CrNS022

Jocky Said to Jeany

See Jocky Said to Jeanie (File: CrNS022)

Jocky Said to Jinnie

See Jocky Said to Jeanie (File: CrNS022)

Jocky to the Fair

See Jockey to the Fair (File: CrSe170)

Jocky's Proposal

See Jocky Said to Jeanie (File: CrNS022)

Jody Chant

See Sound Off (Cadence Count, Jody Chant) (File: LoF317)

Joe and Mary

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you young people, A story I will tell, About a fair young maiden." Mary goes on a morning walk and meets Joe, who asks to walk her home -- then grabs her and beats her to death. He then jumps into the river and kills himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5)
KEYWORDS: courting river death homicide suicide
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 45-47, "Joe and Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7054
File: BWV5045

Joe Bowers [Laws B14]

DESCRIPTION: Joe Bowers leaves for California to raise money to marry Sally. Returning home, he is irritated to find that she has married another, a red-haired man, and has a red-haired baby
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 ("Johnson's Original Comic Songs")
KEYWORDS: travel marriage infidelity settler
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,So,SE,SW)
REFERENCES (37 citations):
Laws B14, "Joe Bowers"
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 98-99, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 185-187, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 55-57, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 341-343, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, apparently a collation of four versions, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 366, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Randolph 187, "Joe Bowers" (3 texts plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 190-193, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 187D with the tune re-transcribed)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 25-26, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 258, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 258, "Joe Bowers" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 70, pp. 197-198, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #160, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 155, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 132-133, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 107-109, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, p. 23, "The Disappointment of Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 751-752, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 48-50, "The Man That I Look Our For"; "Joe Bowers" (2 texts; the first is a rewrite with all the names changed and a few other alterations, but it's clearly the same song) (p. 39 in the 1919 edition)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 431, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 63, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 102, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 421-423, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 174, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 12, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 96-97, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 88, pp. 186-188, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 50, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #24A-B, pp. 186-187, "Joe Bowers" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 46-48, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 63, "Joe Bowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 286-287, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1121, p. 76, "Joe Bowers" (1 reference)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 171-172, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 207, "Joe Bowers" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 480, "Joe Bowers" (source notes only)
DT 381, JOBOWERS*
Roud #2806
RECORDINGS:
Bill Bender (The Happy Cowboy), "Joe Bowers" (Varsity 5130, n.d.; rec. 1939)
Loman D. Cansler, "Joe Bowers" (on Cansler1)
Logan English, "Joe Bowers" (on LEnglish02)
Jean Ritchie, "Joe Bowers" (on Ritchie03)
Pete Seeger, "Joe Bowers" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II)" [Laws H1] (tune)
cf. "Bebe Hung One On Us" (plot)
SAME TUNE:
The Ghost of the Peanut Stand (File: CrSNB070)
The 2nd N.Y. Fire-Zouaves (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 139)
NOTES [113 words]: Various suggestions have been put forward regarding the author of this song; Laws quotes Louise Pound's attribution to John A. Stone (Old Put). Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads and Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest advocate John Woodward. The Lomaxes mention the Johnson of "Johnson's Original Comic Songs." Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety alludes to Merwin's attribution to Frank Swift. I suspect the matter can no longer be settled.
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2 says that the Missouri legislature once considered putting up a monument to Joe Bowers. I suspect this is more folklore than fact; in any case, no monument was made. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LB14

Joe Bowman

DESCRIPTION: Singer and friends meet hunt-master Joe Bowman at dawn; they go out in search of game, and flush a fox. He runs swiftly and cleverly, but is killed in the end. All gather around the fire and drink.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (recorded from John Dalton)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer and friends meet hunt-master Joe Bowman at dawn; they go out in search of game, and flush a fox. He runs swiftly and cleverly, but is killed in the end. All gather around the fire and drink. Chorus: "When the fire's on the hearth and the good cheer abounds/We'll sing to Joe Bowman and the Uilswater hounds/For we ne'er shall forget how he woke us at dawn/With the crack of his whip and the sound of his horn"
KEYWORDS: death hunting drink animal worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 252, "Joe Bowman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1858
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Reynard ('A Good Many Gentlemen')" (theme)
cf. "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)" (theme)
cf. "The Innocent Hare" (theme)
cf. "The Echoing Horn" (theme)
NOTES [67 words]: Joe Bowman (1851-1940) was a well-known and well-liked character in the Lake District; he hunted the Uilswater foxhounds for forty years. - PJS
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland claims there are "many" songs about Bowman -- but cites only one, which he does not quote, and cites only his own recording of "Joe Bowman." One thinks Kennedy, as so often, has been a bit on the overenthusiastic side. - RBW
File: K252

Joe Brady

DESCRIPTION: "I am a bold undaunted youth and Joe Brady is my name." Two policemen stop him as a "Fenian Blade." James Carey has betrayed him for the Phoenix Park murders. Bystanders cry out on his behalf. Many are proud of Carey's victims
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Behan-IrelandSings)
KEYWORDS: execution homicide trial Ireland political mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Behan-IrelandSings, #34, "Joe Brady" (1 text, 1 tune, probably modified)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Phoenix Park Tragedy" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders) and references there
NOTES [56 words]: Behan-IrelandSings calls this traditional, although I can find no other versions. Still, songs about the Phoenix Park events are numerous; this looks like a song that could have been built out of floating components. Or perhaps Behan himself took the text of something (perhaps "Peggy o' Greenlaw") and rewrote it for his own purposes. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Beha034

Joe Brady and Dan Curley

DESCRIPTION: The singer claims that Joe Brady and Daniel Curley are innocent of Burke's murder but that the informer Carey, a confessed killer is free: "Carey is more guilty than any of the rest ... the daggers which had done the deed he broke them into bits"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: betrayal execution homicide trial political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Chronology of the Phoenix Park murders (source: primarily Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, pp. 62, 63, 281-286.)
May 6, 1882 - Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and the Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke are murdered by a group calling themselves "The Invincible Society."
January 1883 - twenty seven men are arrested.
James Carey, one of the leaders in the murders, turns Queen's evidence.
Six men are condemned to death, four are executed (Joseph Brady is hanged May 14, 1883; Daniel Curley is hanged on May 18, 1883), others are "sentenced to penal servitude," and Carey is freed and goes to South Africa.
July 29, 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell kills Carey on board the "Melrose Castle" sailing from Cape Town to Durban.
Dec 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell is convicted of the murder of James Carey and executed in London (per Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 84, "Lamentable Lines on Joe Brady and Dan Curley" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Phoenix Park Tragedy" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders) and references there
NOTES [128 words]: For broadsides on the same subject see
Bodleian, Harding B 14(186), "Lines on the trial & sentence of Joe Brady and Dew Curly and others for the Phoenix park murder" ("All in high and low station who dwell in this nation," unknown, n.d.
Bodleian, Harding B 40(6), "Lines written on the execution of Joe. Brady ("Good christians all on you I call to hear my lamentation"), J.F. Nugent and Co.? (Dublin?),1850-1899; I could not download the image for verification.
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 62: "The Phoenix Park murders and their judicial sequels struck the popular imagination and were a gold-mine for ballad-writers: some thirty songs were issued on this subject, which was the last great cause to be so extensively commented upon in broadside ballads." - BS
File: Zimm084

Joe Brook

DESCRIPTION: The singer leaves Grey Rapids in October 1924 and takes the train for Deersdale to go logging with Coughlan on Joe Brook. The crew has men from every country. Key men in the crew are named.
AUTHOR: Frank O'Hara
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: lumbering moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 77-80, "Joe Brook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 174-175, "Joe Brook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 25, "The Joe Brook Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST IvNB077 (Partial)
Roud #1948
NOTES [28 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: The song "describes life at Coughlan's Camp in a lumber operation for Geo. Burchill & Sons of South Nelson" near the Miramichi River. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: IvNB077

Joe Fowler Blues, The

See I'm Going Down the River (File: MWhee050)

Joe Higgins

See I Don't Mind If I Do (File: MA263)

Joe Hill

DESCRIPTION: The singer "dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night, Alive as you and me." He points out that Hill is dead. Hill replies, "I never died." The singer describes the details of Hill's death; Hill answers, "What they forgot to kill Went on to organize."
AUTHOR: Words: Alfred Hayes/Music: Earl Robinson
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (music copyright; the words are older)
KEYWORDS: death dream labor-movement lastwill
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1879-1915 - Life of Joel Emmanuel Hagglund, known as "Joe Hillstrom" or "Joe Hill."
1902 - Hill emigrates to the United States
Jan 10, 1914 - The Salt Lake City robbery/murder for which Joe Hill was arrested
Nov 19, 1915 - Execution of Joe Hill for the murder
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 175, "Joe Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 95, "(Joe Hill)" (1 fragment)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 48, "Joe Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JOEHILL
ADDITIONAL: Sam Richards, "The Joe Hill Legend in Britain," essay in Archie Green, editor, _Songs about Work: Essays in Occupational Culture for Richard A. Reuss_, Folklore Institute, Indiana University, 1993, pp. 316-331 (1 full text plus excerpts and fragments, 1 tune0
Gibbs M. Smith, _Joe Hill_, 1969 (I use the 1984 Peregrine Smith Books edition), pp. 194-195, "(no title)" (1 text)
Kenneth Lougee, _Pie in the Sky: How Joe Hill's Lawyers Lost His Case, Got Him Shot, and Were Disbarred_, iUniverse, 2011, pp. xi-xii, "(no title)" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Joe Hill" (on PeteSeeger39) (on PeteSeeger48)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Joe Hill's Last Will" (subject of Joe Hill)
cf. "Joe Hillstrom" (subject of Joe Hill)
SAME TUNE:
I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night (by Billy Bragg)
NOTES [7036 words]: Lori Elaine Taylor wrote an essay, "Joe Hill Incorporated: We Own Our Past," which appeared in Green. It details the history of this song. According to p. 26,
* Alfred Hayes's poem was first published in New Masses and then in a Communist anthology, Proletarian Literature in the United States.
* Hayes gave a copy of the poem to Earl Robinson in 1936. Robinson set it to music to supply a song for a "Joe Hill campfire" that evening.
* The song spread across the country that summer.
* Reportedly Alfred Hayes "avoided association with the song throughout his life," but Robinson was proud of it; he recorded it in 1941, and had earlier played piano on Michael Loring's recording. The song became even more popular after Paul Robeson recorded it.
Earl Robinson, shortly before his death, counted translations of the song in twelve languages.
Not all parts of the song are accurate, even if one believes Hill was falsely convicted. The line "the copper bosses killed you, Joe," for instance, is said to refer to the mine owners who opposed a Western Federation of Miners strike in Bingham, Utah in 1912. But Hill and the I. W. W. had little to do with this, and the mine owners had little reason to care about Hill (Smith, p. 117).
Taylor suggests, on p. 33 of Green, that it is this song more than anything else that accounts for the Joe Hill legend. Another part of the legend is due to Big Bill Haywood. Hill, according to Taylor, wrote to Haywood, "Don't waste any time mourning -- organize!" Haywood shortened this to the memorable "Don't Mourn -- Organize!" -- which proved a brilliant slogan.
Green's book also contains the Sam Richards essay "The Joe Hill Legend in Britain" mentioned as an "Additional" entry above. It supplies evidence that this piece has actually gone into oral tradition -- and adds on p. 320 that this song about Hill is more popular than any of Hill's own songs except perhaps "The Preacher and the Slave." Richards in fact believes (p. 326) that this may be the most popular labor song in Britain today.
Richards mentions on pp. 320-321 that Paul Robeson premiered his version of the song in 1947 in Salt Lake City itself. That must have been something to see....
The innocence of Joel Emmanuel Hägglund, "Joe Hill," is such an article of faith in the folk community that it was stated as fact in the earlier editions of this index. The I. W. W. regarded it as a frame-up from the first (Smith, p. 122). This even though the sources containing this song knew so little about the case that different sources gave different dates for Hill's execution!
An honest assessment has to admit uncertainty. Facts are sadly few -- indeed, little is known of Hill's dozen years of freedom in the United States; even before his death, he was legendary enough that he is said to have been part of far more labor actions than any man could possibly have participated in. Hill did not encourage intimacy; one man who knew Hill relatively well said that "Joe was a most reticent cuss. To drag anything biographical out of Joe was a man size job; the guy just wasn't a fluent talker" (Smith, p. 43). Nor was he universally regarded as honest; "Haywire Mac" McClintock called him a "plain crook" and thought him willing to shoot a company man (Smith, p. 54).
And, based on the evidence, it sounds as if he did get into a lot of fights. apparently the Utah authorities found that he had "scars on neck, face, nose, chest, shoulder, forearm, [and] hand" (Rosemont, p. 40). Many of those were acquired in Salt Lake City (we know that he suffered chest, face, and hand injuries there), but at least some wounds were probably older.
Born Joel Hägglund in 1879 in Sweden, he was a violinist from the age of eight. He lost his father in that year, leaving the family very poor. Hill seems to have been obsessed with music (Adler, p. 101), but was irreverent from an early age; his worst school subjects were religious (Adler, p. 102). When his mother died in 1902, the family sold the house, with some children staying in Sweden and some departing. Joel and a brother migrated to America, where Joel worked as a common laborer (Adler, pp. 29-30). Although his first stop in the New World was New York, he soon headed west (Adler, p. 31).
Interestingly, although skilled on violin, guitar, and piano, and with some ability on organ and accordion (Smith, p. 44), and perhaps banjo as well (Rosemont, p. 43), songwriting does not seem to have been easy for Hill (Adler, pp. 206-207), perhaps because he was working in a foreign language. Smith, pp. 38-39, prints several of his non-Union songs (one of which may have been sold commercially); they frankly are not very good. Nonetheless his superior labor songwriting skill seems to have been acknowledged instantly (Smith, p. 19).
Once in America, Hill rambled -- but probably not as much as the tales about him imply (Lefebvre, pp. 57-58; Rosemont, pp. 45-46, claims he was in New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, one of the Dakotas, Spokane, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Pedro, Fresno, Baja California, British Columbia, and probably Alaska and Hawaii. How he is supposed to have obtained transportation to the latter is left as an exercise for the reader).
Presumably he worked at least some of the time, but records of this are few. Lougee, p. 2, located him under the name Joseph Hillstrom in the 1910 US census, working at a hardware store in Saint Paul, Minnesota. (Although I note that there were *two* Joseph Hillstroms in the first ward of Saint Paul, Minnesota in the 1910 census, with ages ten years apart; I suspect Hill was counted twice, in two different census tracts, which hints that he might have been homeless.) All that is really certain is that he early on joined the I. W. W. (Industrial Workers of the World, a socialist union), and became their best and most important songwriter. The I. W .W. song "The Preacher and the Slave" appeared in the Little Red Songbook in 1911 (Smith, p. 20), although it did not have Hill's name attached at that time.
He is said to have been "six feet tall, slim, with dark blue eyes and dark brown hair" (Rosemont, p. 45).
If Hill's history is mysterious, the story of his trial and execution is frankly troubling.
What is known is that Hill was in Utah starting in 1913, supporting a strike against the Utah Construction Co. (Foner, pp. 16-17, although Lougee, pp. 7-8, says that the evidence for this comes from much later and doubts its validity) and staying with some friends he had earlier met in California (Adler, p. 209, etc.). He apparently worked for a while upon arrival, but lost his job due to illness (Smith, p. 63). The Utah government reacted strongly to the UCC strike, attacking the strikers and limiting their right to speak and demonstrate (Foner, pp. 17-18, although Lougee, p. 8, claims Salt Lake City showed no bias against the strikers). Little wonder that Hill wanted to play a part! -- although Smith, p. 63, and Lefebvre, p. 60, say that he was just passing through on his way to Chicago; Adler, p. 27, believes that, having just gotten out of prison in Los Angeles, he wanted a new start somewhere else.
On the evening of January 10, 1914, perhaps a little before 10:00 p.m. (Foner, p. 18; Lefebvre, pp. 59-60), a murder took place at a grocery store in Salt Lake City. John G. Morrison and his son Arling were slain. Arling, according to Morrison's surviving son Merlin (the only witness, whom Lougee, p. 3, says was twelve years old), appeared to have shot one of the attackers (although Merlin said he did not hear Arling fire; Lougee, p. 3). The killers left without actually taking anything.
The police thought the case was a revenge killing -- Morrison, who had briefly been a police officer (Adler, p. 44), had fought off robbers twice in the previous dozen years (Foner, p. 19; Adler, p. 47). And Merlin Morrison reported that the killers had shouted "We've got you now" upon entering the store (Adler, p. 53).
Hill later turned up at a doctor's with a bullet hole in his chest (Lefebvre, p. 60). It was a clean injury; the bullet had entered the chest cavity and passed through (meaning that it could not be placed in evidence when the trial came -- although its absence was possibly significant). Hill offered no real explanation, saying that the fault was as much his as the other man's (Foner, p. 34). The doctor, Frank McHugh, treated and released him. Later, McHugh said that Hill had told him that he had been shot by a friend who believed Hill had insulted his wife (Smith, p. 64).
(It is fascinating to note that Dr. McHugh much later said Hill confessed to the crimes -- Adler, p. 76; Smith, p. 75, notes several inconsistencies in the revised tale -- but McHugh did not testify to this in court, only in a letter written decades later.)
Hill did throw away a gun at this time; he would never explain why (Foner, p. 21). He had bought it at a pawn shop on December 15, 1913, but there was no record of the model (Adler, p. 259), so Hill could not prove that the gun was not the murder weapon.
The doctor's practice was at least two miles from the crime scene, and possibly as much as five or six; the contemporary reports of the distance varied (Foner, p. 20n; Adler, p. 70, says five miles but cites no sources; Smith, p. 78, says 4.9 miles while saying that the streets have been renumbered, which perhaps explains the disagreement). The distance is significant, because a man in Hill's condition after he was shot probably could not have walked five miles to seek help (Foner, p. 41). Also, Hill did not seek treatment until about an hour and a half after the robbery (Foner, p. 20) -- a long wait for someone with a chest wound!
On the other hand, the Dr. McHugh whom Hill visited was a known socialist (Adler, p. 217), so Hill might have felt that he would be more sympathetic. And Adler believes that McHugh did not report on Hill's injury until a reward had been announced in the Morrison case (Adler, p. 216).
Hill's injury meant that, when the police looked for a killer, they found Hill with an injury that fit the description, and he had no alibi. As Smith says on p. 78, "In short, the entire police case seems to have been based on the fact that Joe Hill received a gunshot wound on the same night as the murder." And Hill did have a police record in California (contrary to Rosemont, p. 106), although the only charge resulting in a conviction was "vagrancy," i.e. being unemployed and a socialist.
Still, the California conviction plus the injury make it clear that arresting Hill was not unreasonable; how many guys were there in 1914 Salt Lake City (the city of the conservative, law-abiding Mormons) with bullet wounds in their chests? Perhaps only one other: "Frank Z. Wilson," who is Adler's candidate for the real criminal (Adler, p. 23; he is also mentioned by Rosemont, p. 106, although with little circumstantial detail). Wilson had no known connection with the murder victim Morrison, but this could be because he was never investigated. He was in the right place, according to Adler, p. 57 -- and he even resembled Hill (Adler, p. 69).
Rosemont, p. 106, claims that the chest injury is not evidence against Hill. This isn't really right; it clearly was reason to suspect Hill's involvement. It was not, however, proof.
Hill was taken into custody three days after the murder (Foner, p. 21), having been drugged by the doctor (Adler, p. 70). The problem wasn't really the arrest (although Hill was shot in the hand in the process, and later claimed police brutality; Foner, p. 22; Adler, p. 87, notes that he was still feeling the effects of his wounds when arraigned a week later); it was what followed. Lougee, p. xiii, lists several acts which would be considered violations of Hill's constitutional rights today: he "was unrepresented at arraignment and at the preliminary hearing. Today, the government would provide him with a public defender. The police questioned him at length without giving him the Miranda warnings [against self-incrimination]. His lodging place was searched without a proper warrant."
Hill was charged with first degree murder in the case of John Morrison (Foner, p. 24); the murder of Arling Morrison was attributed to an unknown accomplice (Adler, p. 4). Unfortunately, the transcript of this preliminary hearing is missing (Adler, p. 225); we can only reconstruct it from news stories (Smith, p. 79). But the only witness to the crime, Merlin Morrison, could not identify Hill (Foner, p. 23), and there were no other witnesses in position to testify (Foner, p. 30). It appears that Hill did not object to having the witnesses hear each others' testimony (Adler, p. 225), which of course allowed their testimony to influence each other.
Nonetheless, a Mrs. Phoebe Seeley eventually convinced herself that she had seen Hill near the murder scene (Foner, p. 31). Such eyewitness testimony is generally quite weak, and Hill's lawyers eventually got her to concede that she wasn't entirely sure (Smith, p. 88), but it would be important in this case.
The trial began on June 10, 1914 (according to Foner, p. 28) or June 17, 1914 (according Smith, p. 83, and Lefebvre). Hill claimed throughout that the trial was fixed, and certainly he was guilty in the eyes of the public (Foner, p. 27). This is very likely true, but some charges made by Hill supporters -- that Utah was anti-immigrant, and that the jury pool was rigged -- seem to be false. Lougee, pp. 45-46, points out that Mormonism is an international religion, with missions to foreign countries, and very many Mormons married non-Americans and lived with them in Utah. And Lougee, p. 49, lists five members of the Hill jury who were working class, and implies there were others. The jury may well have been tainted by religion, history, and news reports, but it was not deliberately stacked.
Accidentally stacked it may have been -- and that is the fault of Hill's lawyers. Lougee, p. 78, argues that they so propagandized the jury that the judge sometimes cut off questioning. And Hill's lawyers did not do a good job of examining the jurors -- and so used up their preemptory challenges and wanted more (Lougee, p. 79). And one of the men they let through was stunning (one of the first jurors seated, so they certainly could have challenged him): eventual jury foreman Joseph Smith Kimball. It's little wonder that Kimball became foreman of a jury that had eight Mormons on it; Kimball (born 1851) was the son of Heber C. Kimball, a big name in Mormonisn -- "the second most important apostle in the Utah period." Prescinda Huntington Kimball, Joseph Kimball's mother, had actually been one of Joseph Smith's earliest wives before Smith was murdered and she married Kimball. The younger Kimball was about as close to the Mormon hierarchy as you could get -- and he was a wealthy man with significant corporate interests (Lougee, pp. 79-81). In other words, he was just the sort of person the IWW wanted to overthrow.
Hill was at first defended, pro bono, by an out-of-state attorney, E. C. MacDougall (Foner, p. 24; Adler, p. 228, says that he appeared at the jail and volunteered his services). But Hill dramatically and angrily fired his defense part-way through the trial (Adler p. 238; Smith, pp. 85-86, quotes the court record; Lougee, p. 101, reports that Hill said, "There are three lawyers in this courtroom, and they're all trying to convict me. That's two lawyers too many"). It was probably a mistake (Foner, p. 36). Hill felt that the lawyers had been too gentle to teenage Merlin Morrison, the key witness against Hill. The lawyers' argument, which sounds entirely reasonable to me, is that they did not want Morrison to break down, which would surely influence the jury (Adler, pp. 237-238). But their gentle questioning concealed what appear to have been significant inconsistencies in Merlin's testimony. Neither of Hill's options were good; he wasn't competent to defend himself, but Lougee agrees that his lawyers weren't doing their jobs!
Hill just didn't know how to handle his case. Lougee, p. 68, reminds us that being a defense attorney often involves understanding the local culture and working with it, and "It is impossible to find a more difficult client for Salt Lake City than Joe Hill."
Foner, p. 28, offers significant exculpatory evidence. First, no bullet could be found at the site of the robbery which could have caused Hill's injury (significant, since the bullet had passed through Hill's body; wherever Hill was shot, the bullet should have been there) and the fact that there was no blood found where Hill was alleged to have been shot. Which, of course, still leaves the question of where Hill had been on the night of the robbery.
Things went downhill fast once Hill got rid of his lawyers -- in part because the judge was clearly prejudiced against him and allowed the prosecution undue liberties (Lefebvre, p. 61). Hill, a non-lawyer, didn't know when to protest -- and when his lawyers (who had been retained by the judge to advise him) tried to help out, Hill continued to attack them (Adler, p. 242). No evidence could be presented to directly connect Hill with the murder. The whole case consisted of Merlin Morrison's testimony about the robbery, including a statement that one of the attackers was shot; Mrs. Seeley's testimony that she thought she had seen him there, and a trail of blood that could not even be shown to be human or contemporary with the shooting.
Foner, pp. 37-38, sums up Hill's defense under six heads:
* That many others fit the vague description of the murderer
* That Hill was shot with a steel bullet, and Arling Morrison's weapon fired lead bullets (a strong point if true, but the evidence is weak; according to Adler, p. 257, it was based on the testimony of one doctor long after the shooting. The judge did not allow the testimony; Smith, p. 95.)
* That it was not possible that Hill had been shot by Arling Morrison because of the nature and location of the wound
* That if Morrison had shot anyone (a point for which the only evidence was Merlin Morrison's testimony and the fact that one chamber of the gun was empty), the bullet must still be in the man's body (since it was never found; Smith, p. 97, says that six bullets were located in the investigation and none matched Morrison's gun), and the bullet used to shoot Hill had exited his body
* That the gun Hill carried could not have inflicted the wounds found on the Morrisons (a weak point, since Hill had thrown away the gun)
* That the police had tried to influence the witnesses against Hill
There was also the point that, while there was an empty chamber in Morrison's gun, the police expert who claimed it had recently been fired could not in fact have known, because it was smokeless powder; also, the Salt Lake police practice was to leave one chamber empty, so Morrison might have done the same (Adler, p. 249).
The defense also raised the point that Hill had no motive for murder (Adler, p. 250).
The first point is strong. The rest of the points are convincing if true -- but all look like attacks on the witnesses or the police, which would make them less likely to be accepted in a law-and-order state. Plus the judge suppressed some of the supporting evidence for these claims -- at least in the view of Foner (pp. 38-39). Lougee, p. xv, agrees that the judge suppressed evidence, but in the case of the argument about the steel bullet, says that the doctor did not make his determination about the wound until the time of the court case, making his testimony anything but reliable; the judge exercised appropriate discretion.
And this was a time when almost all government was anti-labor -- Lougee, p. 24, says that "There never was a strike in the era that was not met by an injunction against organization by a federal court," often backed by arrests of leaders and intimidation of workers. On p. 31, Lougee lists several instances of labor leaders sentenced to death for crimes they assuredly did not commit: "The Haymarket martyrs were guilty of nothing more than language. Ettor and Giovanitti were guilty of nothing. Tom Mooney was beyond doubt innocent." If the state could execute innocent men, why not a man who might, just possibly, have been guilty? Plus, again, this is Utah, and Hill was a radical outsider.In the circumstances, is it any surprise that Hill was convicted and sentenced to die?
Lougee, p. 98, says of the trial, "It is impossible to exaggerate how badly this case was handled at trial, but it was badly handled within the rules of trial procedure. The blame for this result rests not upon the 'copper bosses,' the Mormon Church, the judicial system, or any other conspiracy. It cannot be blame on the prosecutor or the judge. In sum, [lawyers] MacDougall and Scott sealed Joe Hill's fate, and they did it to their client and themselves."
It took the jury parts of two days to reach a verdict of first degree murder (Foner, p. 45). The verdict was announced on June 27, 1914. On July 8, Judge Ritchie sentenced him to death. Offered the choice of hanging or a firing squad, Hill chose to be shot (Foner, p. 49). The judge ordered the execution for September 4 -- but then granted a stay pending a hearing on a new trial.
The decision caused a series of labor protests (Foner, p. 52), although I suspect they just made the citizens of Utah more determined. On September 1, Judge Ritchie denied the request for a new trial (Foner, p. 55), leaving few options but an appeal to Utah's Supreme Court. This failed to gain Hill any relief (Foner, p. 57; Adler, pp. 282-283; both charge the court with many errors of fact). The decision came down on July 3, 1915 (Adler, p. 282); Hill's delayed execution was rescheduled for October 1, 1915 (Foner, p. 62).
Lougee, p. 126, points out that the grounds for appeal were weak. In effect, the Hill's lawyer was arguing that the jury had accepted false testimony -- but the legal standard was that "the jury was the sole decision-maker when it comes to credibility." Lougee quotes a judge to the effect that, whenever such arguments appear in court, the judge sighs a sigh of relief because the judge can ignore whatever is said. The lawyer has no case. Hill's jury may have been wrong; Hill's jury certainly made its decision based on inadequate information, but there was no grounds for an overrule. Even though Hill's supporters were shocked, Lougee, p. 128, declares that this was the proper result based on the rules of the time, and the same thing would happen today.
Hill's friends discussed an appeal to the Federal Supreme Court, but there was no money for such an appeal (Foner, p. 62). I doubt there was much point anyway; Edward Douglas White's court had recently shown its conservative leanings in the Leo Frank case (see the notes to "Mary Phagan" [Laws F20]. The Frank case was actually mentioned in Hill's appeal for clemency, according to Foner, pp. 66-67, but not on legal grounds).
If anything, the court would have become more conservative in the months since the Frank case as the pro-business, anti-minority, anti-defendants rights Judge James Clark McReynolds (appointed 1914) strengthened the conservative alignment that eventually became "the four horsemen" (Hall, pp. 542-543). Hill's lawyer also suggested that there was no basis for the Federal court to intervene (Adler, p. 285). Hill didn't want to make the effort in any case, so his supporters instead turned to the Utah Board of Pardons.
One of those convinced that Hill should die was the governor of Utah, who was one of five members of the Board of Pardons (the others being the state attorney general and the justices of the Supreme Court who had already condemned Hill; Adler, p. 286). So the various calls for clemency and a new trial (including one from the Swedish embassy; Foner, p. 69) were denied. Even an appeal from President Wilson brought only a brief stay (Foner, p. 78); a later appeal by Wilson earned the president a harsh rejoinder from Governor Spry. The local newspapers were firm in their rejection of Wilson's request (it is perhaps worth noting that Utah was one of only two states to have cast its electoral votes for Taft in the three-way election of 1912 that put Wilson in the White House).
Perhaps more to the point, Hill continued to be stubborn. "New trial or bust," he declared (Adler, p. 287). But the only grounds for a new trial would be new evidence, and the only new evidence would be Hill telling how he got shot and who did it. And he still refused (Lougee, p. 129). Functionally, Hill condemned himself. And so the days passed until his execution. Governor Spry received death threats and privately hired Pinkertons as guards, but publicly declared that he would not give in (Adler, p. 299). Clearly he felt no qualms about the death penalty!
Hill's last messages of course became famous -- the "Last Will" that began "My will is easy to decide" (supposedly handed to a guard at 10:00 p.m. the night before his death; Smith, p. 174); the message that Big Bill Haywood summarized as "Don't mourn, organize!"; the farewell to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn that ended "I have lived like a rebel and I shall die like a rebel" (Foner, p. 96). Little wonder that he became a legend. (For the "Last Will" and its history, see "Joe Hill's Last Will.")
He did put up a brief resistance when the guards came to take him before the firing squad, but stopped when reminded that he had said he would die like a man (Smith, pp. 175-177).
Hill was executed on November 19, 1915. He did not wish to have a minister present (Adler, p. 323). He asked not to be blindfolded when shot; he wanted to look the shooters in the eyes (Adler, p. 324, although Rosemont, p. 137, claims he was blindfolded). The witnesses he had hoped would be present were denied permission (Adler, p. 331; Smith, p. 177). Rather than let the executioner give the order, Hill shouted "fire!" himself (Adler, p. 333).
He had written that he didn't "want to be caught dead in Utah" (the line was in a letter to Bill Haywood that also had the quote about not mourning but organizing; Smith, p. 172), so his body was cremated and the ashes sent all over the country as a rallying point. There were even special Joe Hill's Ashes envelopes printed up -- which sounds utterly macabre to me, but Rosemont, p. 148, reproduces one. At the top, it reads ASHES. Below it is picture of Hill, then the text JOE HILL MURDERED BY THE CAPITALIST CLASS NOVEMBER 19TH, 1915. DISTRIBUTED BY (with a place to fill in a name).
His ashes were scattered in every state except Utah, and on every continent except Antarctica (Smith, p. 188; Rosemont, p. 147 omits Europe from the list (!) but adds New Zealand).
We might note that, although Hill never ceased to maintain that he had been shot in a fight over a woman, neither the woman nor the shooter ever came forward, not even in a testimonial while dying or after death -- at least publicly. As we shall see, Adler thinks there is a private account. And the same prejudicial incompetence that let the court convict Hill based on insufficient evidence also leaves those who seek to prove his innocence with very little to work with.
Lefebvre, p. 62, sums up the whole case pretty well: "Whether Hill was guilty of murder or not, he clearly did not receive a fair trial, one that might have credibly determined the truth."
Lougee blames a lot of this on Hill's lawyers. On p. xix, he call's Hill's first lawyer Ernest MacDougall "sincere but incompetent and says that Frank B. Scott, who assisted him, "venal and incompetent." On p. 60, Lougee argues that MacDougall was not legally qualified to handle a capital case; a lawyer in such a case should previously have served as an assistant on a death penalty case, which MacDougall had not done. And the lawyer who took over at the end Judge Orin Hilton, "was disbarred by the Utah Supreme Court in 1916."
Lougee, p. 25, adds that MacDougall spent part of his time in court making socialist speeches, which didn't help Hill's cause. Lougee, pp. 57-59, has a summary of MacDougall's career. In appears he was born around 1879. There is no record of him going to law school, although he was admitted to the bar in Michigan in 1901. He seems to have wandered from state to state peddling his skills; the 1910 census lists him in Kansas, but as a schoolteacher, not a lawyer. In 1913, he was living in a Wyoming poor house. On p. 58, Lougee records that in 1914 he managed to free a young woman who had been wrongfully committed to an asylum, but "There is no other record of him doing significant legal work prior to the Hill case." He was based in Wyoming, not Utah, at the time of the Hill trial; he had enrolled with the Utah Supreme Court as a lawyer just six days before Hill went before the judge. He dabbled in politics, as a socialist, got nowhere, went back to Kansas, then Chicago, and had only a minor legal practice. The last record of him is from a book (not about Hill) that he published in 1936.
Assistant lawyer Scott was worse. Lougee, p. 60, says that he came from Canada. He had been in Salt Lake City since 1905, but had called himself a patent attorney."Joe Hill called him a 'shyster.' Joe Hill was right. Frank Scott had a terrible business reputation." Lougee describes what appears to be repeated criminal fraud.
The two did not ask to be paid to defend Hill, but that also meant that they had no money to investigate evidence or dig up exculpatory information (Lougee, p. 61). With Hill unwilling to tell them what actually happened, this gave them little to work with except inconsistencies in the prosecution -- which they did not use effectively.
Lougee, p. 108-109, says that MacDougall challenged Hill's sanity -- but did not present an insanity defense; Scott claimed that Hill said he would testify but changed his mind -- which is important, because Lougee thinks it means that Hill *never told his lawyers* what he was doing on the night of the murder. This is obviously quite a significant point in our attempts to determine what actually happened. But Lougee also concludes that Scott lied about the case.
The lawyer brought in for Hill's appeal, Orin Hilton (commonly known as "Judge Hilton" because he had been a county judge for a time) was "the most important labor lawyer of the era" (Lougee, p. 112) -- which is odd, because in his personal politics he was conservative (Lougee, p. 111). But he had found a legal niche, and most of the time, he was successful in defending labor cases. The problem in the Hill case is that he came in too late. He was responsible only for the appeals, and he had never taken an appellate case before and never took one again (Lougee, p. 124). He was brilliant at working with a jury, but appeals cases were based more on a sound grasp of the law and legal procedure, and that was not one of Hilton's strengths. Plus he made enemies in the Mormon church (Lougee, pp. 124-125). He might well have been able to save Hill in the initial trial. But overturning Hill's conviction took other skills. He failed, and after failing, he started railing against the system (Lougee, p. 109), which probably made things worse.
The lawyers in labor cases, according to Lougee, pp. 34-35, were under conflicting pressures: one to defend their clients, the other to make the case for organized labor. "Successful defense could be done and was done but often at the expense of disappointing the labor movement. It is not surprising that the most successful lawyers, Darrow and Hilton, exercised independent judgment" (Lougee, p. 34). But Darrow did not represent Hill, and Hilton was not involved until too late. Lougrr, p. 76, concludes that, if Hill were on trial today, it would take much longer to apply the death penalty, and a good lawyer could probably have gotten him a new trial on the bases of "a significant ineffective assistance of counsel motion, followed by federal habeas proceedings."
Lougee says that after all the appeals failed, lawyer Hilton, presumably in an attempt to improve his reputation, started blaming everything on the Mormons (Lougee, pp. 134-135). Lougee thinks this unfair, and I incline to think the same. The Latter-Day Saints were and are very conservative, and Utah an extreme law-and-order state, but there is no hint the church was involved in convicting Hill. The main result of Hilton's spouting off was that he was disbarred in Utah, although he was eventually reinstated in 1924 after he, in effect, recanted (Lougee, pp. 140-141).
Hilton wasn't the only one who doesn't seem to want to face the truth. Smith's is the only account I read that seemed to have an open mind. I visited Amazon.com in trying to find good additional sources to allow further research. The reader reviews were absolutely useless -- clearly most of them had already decided their opinions, and they reviewed the books positively or negatively based on what *they* think happened.
A mild example of this occurs in Sing Out! magazine, volume 27, number 5 (1979), p. 39, which mentions the attempt, on the hundredth anniversary of Hill's birth, to win him a pardon. It mentions the holdup, and it mention's Hill's bullet wound. It does not mention the eyewitness testimony that one of the robbers was injured, nor does it describe how feeble Hill's alibi was, nor does it describe his feeble attempts to represent himself. Thus, while it never quite says that Hill was innocent, it makes the case against him appear much weaker than it actually was.
Foner, it seems to me, is equally one-sided. (Lougee, p. xi, reminds us that Foner, although a reputable historian, made his living for a Communist press.) He gives very few details about the robbery, attacks the prosecution's case in the trial without ever explaining Hill's wound, never considers the evidence against him, and spends most of his book detailing the relatively unimportant course of the appeals. He doesn't want the truth; he wants Hill's conviction set aside. His last paragraph (p. 108) says that Salt Lake City should erect a statue to Hill and declares "We never forget" -- hardly the statement of an unbiased reporter. As a result, while he does a good job of showing that Hill's trial was unfair, I do not think he proves Hill to be innocent.
Rosemont is even more extreme -- so much so that I hesitated to trust even his description of Hill's appearance. Lougee doesn't even admit his book's existence, and I was sore tempted to do the same.
I will admit to having a lot of trouble with Hill's defenders. They tend to be so passionately pro-Hill as to seem unreliable. Of course, that is not actual proof of anything....
The Richards essay cited above lists several books about Hill's life and trials. Richards himself thinks that Hill's conviction was on "very slender circumstantial evidence." (We should note that circumstantial evidence is now known to be generally more reliable than eyewitness evidence. The weak point in the evidence, if anything, is the eyewitness testimony to what went on during the fatal robbery.) Ralph Chaplin published an account that was largely hearsay. Wallace Stegner felt Hill to be guilty (although he admitted that Utah did not prove its case; Smith, p. 200). Foner of course was certain Hill never had a fair trial. Rosemont, p. 104, declared that "It was for the 'crime' of belonging to the IWW that Hill was tried and convicted," ignoring the fact that a murder had been done and that Hill seemed a better candidate for the murderer than anyone else the police found.
Gibbs Smith wrote a balanced book, but Lougee, p. xiii, declares that he didn't understand the law.
There matters stood as of 2010. In 2011, the situation changed, as several folkies note below: - RBW
A new biography, William Adler's The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times and Legacy of Joe Hill (Bloomsbury, 2011), reaches the conclusion that Hill was probably innocent; the author has unearthed a letter written by Hill's girlfriend Hilda Erickson, saying that Hill told her he'd been shot by the girlfriend's former fiancee. Adler concludes that the probable killer of the grocer and his son was a career criminal named Magnus Olson (who physically resembled Hill). - PJS
Stephen Reynolds reports further on this book:
"For anyone who may not yet have seen the publicity, a new book, The Man Who Never Died, by William Adler, just published by Bloomsbury, offers at last an explanation of Joe Hill's wound, the only real evidence against him. Mr Adler discovered a letter written in 1949 by Hilda Erickson, who as a young woman in 1914 had just recently broken her engagement to one Otto Appelquist because she had become enamored of Joe Hill. According to her, Appelquist had shot Joe in retaliation. And why did Joe Hill not testify when he had a good explanation for his wound? Adler suggests that he wanted to protect Hilda Erickson from scandal. It was a different age a century ago, and her prospects would certainly have been dimmed by association with the lurid publicity surrounding the trial, no matter how little her responsibility for any of the violent events.
"Who then did commit the murders? Adler believes that it was a notorious armed robber, Frank Z. Wilson, who was arrested on the night of the murders in the neighborhood where they occurred, walking outside without an overcoat (in January) and carrying a bloody handkerchief. Wilson repeatedly lied to the police when interrogated, and was the original suspect, but was soon released for reasons never explained. (He was later implicated in the Valentine's Day Massacre.)"
The Appelquist/Hill incident is fascinating, because they were living in the same house -- indeed, sharing the same cot -- as well as courting the same woman. Hilda Erickson was only 20 at the time of the fight between Hill and Appelquist (Adler, p. 74). Somehow, until the quarrel, Appelquist and Hill had stayed on decent terms (indeed, the police thought Appelquist was the other man at Morrison's grocery; Adler, pp. 82-83); afterward, when the doctor brought Hill home, they necessarily expelled Appelquist from his cot, and he soon stormed out "to look for work" in the middle of the night (Adler, p. 75).
It should be kept in mind that Erickson did not witness the shooting of Hill; she reported what Hill told her had happened. But it is noteworthy that she was one of Hill's pallbearers, and that she visited him frequently in the county jail. Why, then, did she not testify on his behalf if she had something to say? There was actually press speculation that she could provide an alibi (Smith, p. 89).
Adler, having found Hill's alibi (which would at minimum have saved his life; Adler, p. 23), asks a follow-up question: Why did Hill insist on dying? Even during the trial, Hill's own lawyers found his refusal to really defend himself strange (Smith, p. 93). Adler's answer (pp. 23-24) is in effect that Hill wanted to be a martyr, to strengthen the IWW. He perhaps half-succeeded: he became a martyr to the left -- but hardly to society as a whole, or even to today's unions. And the I. W. W. he fought so hard for, although it technically still exists, was rendered almost impotent by government action in 1917 (Adler, pp. 342-347). Could Hill have done better had he lived? Who can say?
(I will admit that I think Adler has missed something: Hill sounds as if he suffered from depressive episodes (which would also explain his occasional crankiness). This suggests a fair chance that he suffered from bipolar II disorder -- not a rare thing among highly creative people. An even better explanation might be that he suffered from a touch of autism. This would make him less willing to fight with all his ability, and would explain some of his fatalism -- and his desire to die with his eyes open. That, too, would explain his depression (official statistics state that least 40% of autistics are depressive, and the experts I talk to would place the rate even higher), the stubbornness, and the substantial talents that he never really managed to harness. It would also explain why lawyer MacDougall thought him deranged.
The major caution to accepting Adler's proposed alibi is Adler's attitude. He is clearly very pro-labor and pro-Hill. This does not make his evidence wrong. But his analysis will be less than perfectly balanced. The data really needs to be examined by other scholars before we permit him the final word.
The bottom line question: Was Hill guilty? It's surprisingly hard to tell. Lougee, p. ix, says that "For the past ninety years, pundits have argued guilt or innocence, a project not sustainable by either law or history" -- in other words, the facts aren't there. Reading Lefebvre's version of accounts made me think there was strong reason to think him the murderer. Foner, since he refused to take on the issue, did nothing to alleviate those suspicions. Having read Adler, I now strongly incline to think Hill was innocent. But I am not certain, and Smith's balanced book did little to resolve the matter either way. Adler's data really needs to be sifted -- and, even then, there is likely to be a slight doubt, simply because the crime investigation and the trial, which should have discovered the truth, instead did their best to conceal it from posterity.
I would say that there were sufficient grounds to investigate and arrest Hill. Adler has done what the defense failed to do and offered an alternative explanation for the known facts. If this were all we knew, we would surely have to render a "Scotch verdict" of "Not proven" and let Hill go free. But that doesn't mean he was actually innocent. We just don't know. And, after more than a century, there is no possibility that we can find out.
Although Hill had little contact with Sweden after coming to America, and does not seem to have produced Swedish songs, his native land has commemorated him much more than America has. In 1971, a movie "Joe Hill" was produced (based on what I do not know), and in 1979 Sweden issued a commemorative stamp (Rosemont, p. 76); there is also a Joe Hill museum in his home town of Gävle. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Arn175

Joe Hill's Last Will

DESCRIPTION: "My will is easy to decide, For there is nothing to divide; My kin don't need to weep and moan...." "My body? Oh! if I could choose, I would to ashes it reduce...." ""This is my last and final will, Good luck to all of you, Joe Hill."
AUTHOR: Words; Joe Hill
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (execution of Joe Hill)
KEYWORDS: execution death lastwill nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1879-1915 - Life of Joel Emmanuel Hagglund, known as "Joe Hillstrom" or "Joe Hill."
1902 - Hill emigrates to the United States
Jan 10, 1914 - The Salt Lake City robbery/murder for which Joe Hill was arrested
Nov 19, 1915 - Execution of Joe Hill for the murder
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
DT, JOHIWILL*
ADDITIONAL: (Barrie Stavis and Frank Harmon, editors), _The Songs of Joe Hill_, 1960, now reprinted in the Oak Archives series, p. 46, "My Last Will" (1 text)
William M. Adler, _The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon_, Bloomsbury Press, 2011, p. 338, "(My Last Will)" (1 text) plus a photo of the original manuscript on p. 337
Gibbs M. Smith, _Joe Hill_, 1969 (I use the 1984 Peregrine Smith Books edition), p. 259, "Joe Hill's Last Will" (1 text)
Franklin Rosemont, _Joe Hill: The IWW & the Making of a Revolutionary Workingclass Counterculture_, Charles H. Kerr, 2002, p. 143, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #30773
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Joe Hillstrom" (subject of Joe Hill)
cf. "Joe Hill" (subject of Joe Hill) and notes there
NOTES [155 words]: Not a traditional song (not a song at all in its original form), but sufficiently well-known that I thought it needed to be included here. The tune commonly heard was set by Ethel Raim decades after Hill's death, but according to Franklin Rosemont, Joe Hill: The IWW & the Making of a Revolutionary Workingclass Counterculture, Charles H. Kerr, 2002, p. 144, several other tunes have also been used.
For the life of Joe Hill, see "Joe Hill."
Photos of the sheet of paper on which Hill wrote these words are relatively easy to find on the web; I found four simply by looking at the images associated with the search terms "Joe Hill's Last Will." No two look alike; it is clear that, after a century, the paper is no longer in good shape, and different lighting techniques and such were used to try to improve the image. Most were still rather hard to read. There is a cleaned-up black-and-white facsimile on p. 132 of Rosemont. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: DTJoHill

Joe Hillstrom

DESCRIPTION: "On January Tenth, 1914, Two men fixed some masks of red handkerchiefs" and when to rob the "Temple and South Street Store." Two Morrisons die; one of the robbers is shot. Joe Hill, who has a bullet wound, is arrested and executed for the murder
AUTHOR: Words: Woody Guthrie
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (recording, Woody Guthrie, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement robbery execution trial | Joe Hill
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1879-1915 - Life of Joel Emmanuel Hagglund, known as "Joe Hillstrom" or "Joe Hill."
1902 - Hill emigrates to the United States
Jan 10, 1914 - The Salt Lake City robbery/murder for which Joe Hill was arrested
Nov 19, 1915 - Execution of Joe Hill for the murder
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 551-552, "Joe Hillstrom" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Joe Hill's Last Will" (subject of Joe Hill)
cf. "Joe Hill" (subject of Joe Hill) and notes there
NOTES [79 words]: For background on the life of Joe Hill, see the notes to "Joe Hill."
Woody's song is mostly correct on the facts, including Joe Hill's somewhat irrational behavior in ignoring his lawyers, refusing to supply an alibi, and insisting on what he called a "fair trial." I think Woody under-played Hill's erratic and self-defeating behavior, and of course Woody is very pro-Hill, but it's not a bad summary. On the other hand, it's not one of Woody's better bits of poetry.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC551

Joe Jimmy Murphy

See Jimmy Murphy (File: Beld291)

Joe Livermore

DESCRIPTION: Joe Livermore captains Columbia from Eastport. "When we got to Eastport it was on the lucky day, Each man took his chest and no longer would stay, If we can't do no better boys, we'll stay on the shore And we'll never go to sea with old Joe Livermore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: ordeal sailor ship
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 124, "Joe Livermore" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS124 (Partial)
Roud #1826
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Derry Down" (tune) and references there
NOTES [58 words]: The tune as given by Creighton doesn't quite match any version of the Derry Down tune I know, but that is clearly the basis for the piece; looking at the lyrics, I suspect this is derived from "Red Iron Ore." The similarity is great enough that I instantly felt I had met this song before, even though (to the best of my knowledge) I haven't. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: CrNS124

Joe Magarac

DESCRIPTION: "I'll tell you about a steel man, Joe Magarac, that's the man." "He was sired in the mountains by red iron ore... Raised in a furnace...." His shoulders are huge, he can lift a half a ton, he can stir steel with his hands. Listeners are urged to see him
AUTHOR: Jacob A. Evanson (source: Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: talltale technology nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 442-443, "Joe Magarac" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [15 words]: Probably not traditional, but I've indexed everything else in Korson, so here it is.... - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: KPL442

Joe Maybe

See Tom Pearce (Widdicombe Fair) (File: K308)

Joe Muggins

See I Don't Mind If I Do (File: MA263)

Joe Slinsworth

See Joe Stiner (Joe Slinsworth) (File: R219)

Joe Steinberg

See Joe Stiner (Joe Slinsworth) (File: R219)

Joe Stiner (Joe Slinsworth)

DESCRIPTION: The singer, (Joe Stiner), has apparently recently arrived in the West when he is induced to join the army. After various adventures under General Lyon, the army he is with is defeated and he flees back to Saint Louis, vowing not to fight again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar foreigner battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 10, 1861 - Battle of Wilson's Creek
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 362-363, "Joe Slinsworth" (1 text)
Randolph 219, "Joe Stiner" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 223, "(Joe Steinberg)" (1 fragment)
Roud #3592
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jolly Union Boys" and references there (concerning Battle of Wilson's Creek)
NOTES [298 words]: This song describes, with fair accuracy, the campaigns of Captain (later General) Nathaniel Lyon in 1861. The action takes place in Missouri, which was the northernmost of all slave states. Although a minority favored secession, most Missourians probably wanted to stay with the Union.
Governor Jackson, however, was not one of them. Having the machinery of state government at his back, he moved to take Missouri from the Union.
The Union governor, John C. Frémont, did little to prevent him, so Lyon, with the political support of Frank Blair, Jr., set out to circumvent him. Lyon captured the Missouri arsenal, then took Camp Jackson from Confederate General Frost. He then drove the Confederates in rout from Rolla.
Then Lyon made his mistake. He decided to risk his 5000 men against 10000 Confederates in a surprise attack. This might have worked (especially as Confederate generals Price and McCulloch hated each other), but Lyon's outflanking force (led by the inept Franz Sigel -- the Siegel of the song) was routed with small loss to the enemy.
The Confederates were now warned, and had a better than five-to-two numerical edge. Even so, the remnants of Lyon's little army held on all day, until their commander was killed. The senior surviving officer, Major (later General) Curtis, ordered a retreat.
Wilson's Creek was not really a costly battle by later standards; the forces involved were small, and so badly trained that they were almost unable to inflict casualties. But the campaign had been a hard one (it succeeded, all by itself, in preserving most of Missouri for the Union); it would not be surprising if a few soldiers refused ever to return to the army.
For more details on events in this period of the Civil War, see the notes to "The War in Missouri in '61." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: R219

Joe the Carrier's Lad

See Jim, the Carter Lad (File: FSC096)

Joe Turner

DESCRIPTION: "They tell me Joe Turner he done come (or "done come and gone") (x2), Got my man and gone." "He come with forty links of chain (x2), Got my man and gone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (copyright, W. C. Handy)
KEYWORDS: separation police
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 241, "Joe Turner" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 137, (no title) (1 fragment)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 265, (no title) (1 fragment), followed by p. 266, (Joe Turner Blues) (1 text, the Handy version)
Handy/Silverman-BluesAnAnthology, p. 104-107, "Joe Turner Blues" (1 text, 1 tune, extremely heavily adapted; the original tune, with a single verse, appears on page 17)
DT, JOETURNR*
Roud #17007
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Joe Turner" (on MJHurt04)
Ed Young and Hobart Smith, "Joe Turner" (on LomaxCD1708)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Going Down the River for Long
NOTES [223 words]: Courlander reports that this was based on an incident on 1892, when a flood cost a number of people their livelihood. A storekeeper named Turner (though not Joe Turner) anonymously supplied their needs until he died, whereupon the gifts stopped.
It should be noted, however, that this does not match Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag's song at all, though it has the same lyrics as Courlander's fragment. Presumably Courlander's source adapted an older song to a local need. In support of this, we note that Handy/Silverman, though dating the song to the same time, regard Turner (actually Joe Tourney, brother of the governor of Tennessee) as the leader of a chain gang.
Scarborough tells a variant on the same story: Joe Turner was the brother of one-time Tennessee governor Pete Turner, and seems to have been an enforcer of Jim Crow laws, grabbing Blacks seemingly at random and subjecting them to prosecution in kangaroo courts.
The notes in Handy/Silverman regard this as the archetypal folk blues -- perhaps even the ancestor of the entire genre. The former statement may arguably be true; the latter I must seriously doubt. It seems more like the ancestor of the popular blues. Handy, according to Scarborough, admitted to using the traditional piece and supressing Turner the corrupt policeman and turning him into a missing lover. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: San241

Joe Williams

DESCRIPTION: "My name it is Joe Williams, my age is 21, I came out to this country a ramblin' son-of-a-gun...." "I went to town.... On Fifth Avenue I met a pretty lass, I introduced her to my elick, and I shoved it up her ass." His reward is a venereal disease
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1976 (recorded by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: derivative disease whore
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 32, pp. 182-185, "Joe Williams" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10096
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier (I)" (tune) and references there.
File: Logs032

Joe, Joe, Broke His Toe

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Joe, Joe, broke his toe, Riding on a buffalo. When he came back, he broke his back, Riding on a jumping jack."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Fargo Forum, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: injury animal | buffalo
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #285, "Joe, Joe, broke his toe" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Betty, Betty Stubbed Her Toe" (form)
NOTES [32 words]: I would probably have lumped this with "Betty, Betty Stubbed Her Toe," but Abrahams split them. Abrahams seems to imply that this was called "Stella, Stella," but gives no indication why. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR285

Joe's Got a Head Like a Ping-Pong Ball

DESCRIPTION: "(Joe's/Papa's/I've/X) got a head like a ping-pong ball (x3), Ping-pong ping-pong ball. Joe's got a head like a ping-pong ping-pong ping-pong ping-pong ping-pong ball (x2)." The rest, if there is any, may talk about William Tell and or Rossini
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 152-153, "Joe's Got a Head Like a Ping-Pong Ball" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 166, 310, "Harry Has a Head like a Ping Pong Ball" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. Gioachino Rossini's "William Tell Overture" ("The Lone Ranger" theme) (tune)
NOTES [86 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs notes that almost all versions of this have different names (presumably to tease someone). I have to wonder if Garrison Keillor didn't have something to do with the William Tell/Rossini part in the Pankake text.
Nigel Parsons, on the mudcat.org thread "Lyr Add: I've got a head like a ping-pong ball," says that his source produced a second verse by reversing the words "ping" and "pong," resulting in "massive confusion." I'll bet. But it surely makes the song much more interesting. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF166H

Joe's Train Journey

DESCRIPTION: "Freed from gaol Joe Pawelka came, Riding a wagon, the longest goods train." He hides beneath the wagon tarp. Bells warn of his presence. Barefoot, he jumps off the train. "Standing, he's tall, after all, hard the fall, bounce a ball, Off the wall O!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: train prisoner escape
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1909 - Joe Pawelka marries Hannah Wilson (probably the "Harriet" of "Skip to Me"). After less than half a year, they separate; Pawelka attempts suicide and refuses to leave her alone. Discovered in possession of stolen property, he escapes from prison twice (the second time on Mar 23, 1910). Pawelka then tries again to reconcile with his wife. Other crimes follow. Captured again Apr 17, 1919, he is convicted of various crimes but soon escapes for a final time and is never seen again (source: Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 65, "Joe's Train Journey" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Skip to Me" (subject of Joe Pawelka)
cf. "Ruahine Run" (subject of Joe Pawelka)
NOTES [27 words]: It appears there is a book about this fellow: Des Swain, Pawelka, Moana Press, 1989. But I have been unable to locate a copy outside New Zealand to check it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: COl2066

Joel Baker

DESCRIPTION: "Come all young lovers far and near, A dismal story you shall hear, A young man did in Alsted dwell," but Joel Baker's beloved prefers another man and scorns him. Baker shoots himself. The girl marries her love.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (Green Mountain Songster, according to Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
KEYWORDS: love suicide marriage
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 46-48, "Joel Baker" (1 text)
Flanders-ChapBook Flanders-VermontChapBook, pp. 30-33, "Joel Baker" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 12-13, "Joel Baker" (1 text)
Roud #4656
File: CA1012

Joey Long's Goat

See Bill Grogan's Goat (File: SRW141)

Jog Along Till Shearing

DESCRIPTION: "The truth, it's in my song so clear Without a word of gammon: The swagmen travel all the year Waiting for the lambin'." The shearers work when they must, drink when they can, and scratch along until the next shearing season begins
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (collected from Joe Cashmere)
KEYWORDS: sheep rambling Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 86-87, "Jog Along Till Shearing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 181-183, "Jog Along Till Shearing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 142-143, "Jog Along 'til Shearing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 190-191, "Jog Along Till Shearing" (1 text)
DT, JOGSHEAR*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bow Wow Wow" (tune) and references there
cf. "The Big Gun Shearer" (plot)
File: MA086

Jog On, Jog On

See Sir Francis Drake, or Eighty-Eight (File: PaSe007)

Jogging Along, A

See Jim Along Josie (File: R575)

Joggle Along

See Wild Oats (Turn, Young Man; Joggle Along) (File: Br3065)

Joh-Woh-Wonny

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

Johanna Shay

DESCRIPTION: "In the Emerald Isle so far from here across the deep blue sea, There live a maid that I love dear...." He praises Johanna's beauty and fidelity. The birds' song remind him of her. He hopes she will soon become Mrs. O'Day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 106-107, "Johanna Shay" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 124-125, "Johanna Shay" (1 text)
Roud #9575
File: Dean106

John

DESCRIPTION: Chorus is "Sinner you're lying ... Sinners have no end." Verses have John reject Satan for baptizing, Jesus turning water to wine, Mary has a baby in Betlehem, and the singer -- drowning in River Jordan -- saved by Jesus and the Holy Ghost.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (LomaxCD1712)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious Jesus floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
John Davis and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "John" (on LomaxCD1712)
NOTES [102 words]: The reference for Jesus turning water to wine at the Cana wedding is John 2:1-10. Jesus's birth in Bethlehem is in Matthew 2:1 and Luke 2:6. [There is, however, no Biblical reference to anyone drowning in the Jordan; indeed, apart from a few references to the Egyptians drowning in the Red Sea/Sea of Reeds, the only mentions of drowning in the Bible are metaphorical. - RBW]
The LomaxCD1712 recording includes the verse "Some say John was a Baptist Some say John was a Jew, I say John was a preacher And the Bible says so too." That verse floats and can be found in "Lonesome Valley" (I), among other songs. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcJDJohn

John (George) Riley (I) [Laws N36]

DESCRIPTION: A stranger urges a girl to forget her lover; she will not. He tells her that Riley had been aboard his ship, and that Riley had been killed in battle with the French. She is distressed; he reveals that he is Riley and will never again leave her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Shield's _Songs and Ballads in use in the Province of Ulster...1845_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815) +1818 (William Garret, _Right Choyse and Merrie Book of Garlands_)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation marriage disguise reunion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 12, 1782 - The Battle of Port Royal
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,SE) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws N36, "John (George) Riley I"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #138, pp. 2-3, "George Rylie"; #148, p. 2, "George Rylie" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan5 1039, "George Riley" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 20-21, "George Reily" (1 fragment, 1 tune, heavily padded out by Linscott to a full ballad; based on the actual text Linscott collected, it is not clear if it is Laws N36 or N37 or something else)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 82, "George Reilly" (8 texts, 8 tunes, many of them too short to classify, but it appears that C is Laws N36 while A B D E F G H are Laws N37)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 15, "George Reily" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 215-216, "Jack Riley/George Reilly" (1 text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 39, "George Reilly" (1 text)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 187-189, "John Riley" (1 text plus a broadside print, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 37, "George Riley" (2 texts, although Laws assigns only the A text to this ballad; the B text, which is fairly short, might go with this or N37)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 95, "George Reilly" (1 text plus mention of 2 more; Laws's citations are far from clear, since he cites the same page reference under both N36 and N37, but Cox's printed text is clearly this piece; presumably he thinks one of the unprinted texts to be N37)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #37, "John Riley II" (1 text, which Hubbard thinks is "The Banks of Claudy" but which features this plot and the name of Riley)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 9, "George Reilly Who Fought at Port Royal Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 150-152, "George Reily" (1 text)
DT 592, JREILLY6
Roud #267
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The New-Slain Knight" [Child 263]
cf. "The Banks of Brandywine" [Laws H28]
cf. "The Blooming Bright Star of Belle Isle" [Laws H29]
cf. "Willie and Mary (Mary and Willie; Little Mary; The Sailor's Bride)" [Laws N28]
cf. "A Seaman and His Love (The Welcome Sailor)" [Laws N29]
cf. "William Hall (The Brisk Young Farmer)" [Laws N30]
cf. "The Plains of Waterloo (I)" [Laws N32]
cf. "Lovely Nancy (I)" [Laws N33]
cf. "Janie of the Moore" [Laws N34]
cf. "The Dark-Eyed Sailor (Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor)" [Laws N35]
cf. "John (George) Riley (II)" [Laws N37]
cf. "The Mantle So Green" [Laws N38]
cf. "MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe)" [Laws N39]
cf. "The Banks of Claudy" [Laws N40]
cf. "The Lady of the Lake (The Banks of Clyde II)" [Laws N41]
cf. "Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token)" [Laws N42] (one of the most common of the ballads of this sort, often known as "John Riley")
cf. "Blackbirds and Thrushes (I)"
cf. "As Broad as I was Walking"
cf. "Come All Ye False Lovers"
cf. "Skerry's Blue-Eyed Jane"
cf. "The Banks of the Clyde"
cf. "The Banks of the Dee (II)"
cf. "Lurgan Town (I)"
cf. "The Banks of the Inverness"
cf. "Cairn-o'-Mount"
cf. "Drumallachie"
cf. "Down by the Seaside" (part of plot, lyrics)
cf. "Yon Green Valley" (lyrics)
cf. "Bleacher Lassie o' Kelvinhaugh"
cf. "The Lass of Swansea Town (Swansea Barracks)"
cf. "The Soldier's Return"
cf. "Billy Ma Hone"
cf. "Mary of Sweet Belfast Town"
cf. "As I Was Walking Down In Yon Valley" (plot)
cf. "The Plains of Waterloo" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
George Riley
John Riley
Johnnie Riley
NOTES [765 words]: It can be very hard to tell "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] from "John (George) Riley (II)" [Laws N37]; both involve separated lovers, both involve Riley, and both have him come back in disguise to test the girl. Almost every other element can fall out. Sharp unquestionably mixed versions together, as can be seen from the citation, and Laws seems to think Cox did so also. The lyrics seem occasionally to mix as well. Laws gives prototype verses and plot summaries but does not describe how to distinguish the two, especially in fragmentary cases.
Looking at the versions, it seems that the description of Riley's death in battle is characteristic of Laws N36.
Characteristic of Laws N37 are the girl's statement that, having lost her chance to marry Riley, she will live single, plus the call for her to go to Pennsylvania. Failing that, N37 seems almost always to begin with an "As I Walked Out" stanza, e.g.
As I walked out one mornin' early,
To take the cool an' pleasant air,
There I saw a beautiful creature,
She appeared to me like lilies fair.
(Randolph's #56A)
As I walked out one summer's morning
To view and take the pleasant air,
I saw a girl, and a comely fair one,
She appeared to me some lily fair.
(Sharp's #82A)
As I walked out one morning early
To view the fields, to take the air,
It was there I spied a calm-eyed damsel,
And she was like the lily fair.
(Flanders and Brown, pp. 135-136).
The openings of Laws N36 are less consistent, but usually don't resemble this. Here, for instance, is the opening verse of N36 as found in Greig/Duncan volume 5, #1039A
George Rylie they do call my love, a lad both neat and trim,
He's manly in proportion, there's few could equal him;
Wi' his curly locks and ringlets, coming over his shoulders rare,
His skin for whiteness far excels the fragrant lilies fair.
Note that the either song can call the man either John or George Riley, although "George" seems more characteristic of N36 and "John" of N37.
The theme of a lover coming in disguise and testing his love is ancient; there is a version in Ovid's Metamorphoses (VII.685 and following). Cephalus doubts Procris, and (disguised by the goddess Diana) comes to her and tries to get her to be unfaithful to him. She utterly rejects his advances.
In that case, however, the ending is not happy. Although they are reunited, and happy for a time, she eventually starts to doubt him (prompted perhaps by his earlier doubts?). She follows him as he goes hunting, and he -- hearing a rustling in the leaves -- kills her with a cast of his javelin.
Even older, of course, is the version in the Odyssey. - RBW
See the notes to "The Plains of Waterloo (I)" [Laws N32] for Mackenzie's discussion of Laws N36 as source for "The Mantle So Green" [Laws N38] and "The Plains of Waterloo (I)" [Laws N32].
[On April 12, 1782], Admiral George Brydges Rodney defeated the French Admiral the Count De Grasse at the Battle of the Saintes in the Caribbean and brought the captured French ships into Fort Royal. (source} Moylan; George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney at the Wikipedia site). [See also Arthur Herman, To Rule the Waves, pp. 316-318; Herman notes that Rodney pioneered the attack from the leeward side, assuring that the French could not escape him by running; Herman also considers the battle to have re-established British naval dominance, which was not broken even in the Napoleonic Wars. - RBW]
Both Laws and Moylan make fight the battle between Rodney and De Grasse. Laws has Reiley serving on Belflew; Moylan makes it Balflour. Moylan notes "The Formidable was Admiral Rodney's own vessel. The Barfleur was the ship which captured de Grasse's flagship, the Ville de Paris." - BS
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana's version also mentions the Rodney/De Grasse battle; the ship in his text is the Belle Flower, though the date is April 10. Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio has the date right; the ship is the Belflew. Cox also lists the Belflew (and has the April 12 date); presumably their agreement was the basis for the name in Laws.
For more on Rodney, see the notes to "Rodney's Glory." - RBW
Thompson-APioneerSongster and Greig/Duncan5 1039B also refer to the Battle of Port Royal. Greig, who has the same text as Greig/Duncan 1039A, refers to an April Battle of Port Said against the French, with the captains's names lost, but I don't find any record of such a battle; Wikipedia has Port Said not being founded until 1859 in connection with the beginning of construction of the Suez Canal ("Port Said" according to Wikipedia, accessed August 12, 2012). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LN36

John (George) Riley (II) [Laws N37]

DESCRIPTION: A stranger urges a girl to marry him; she replies that, having lost her chance to marry Riley, she intends to live single. He tries again, asking her to come to (Pennsylvania); she refuses. At last he reveals that he is Riley, and offers to marry her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1817 (The New American Songster)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation marriage disguise
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Ireland Britain(England)
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Laws N37, "John (George) Riley II"
Randolph 56, "John Riley" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 93, "John Reilly" (1 text, presumably this song though Laws does not list it under any Riley ballad)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 93, "John Reilley" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 82, "George Reilly" (8 texts, 8 tunes, many of them too short to classify, but it appears that C is Laws N36 while A B D E F G H are Laws N37)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #29, "John (George) Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 267-270, "Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor" (3 texts; the second, "The Sailor," with tune on p. 427, is this song; the first, "Young Willie's Return, or The Token," with tune on pp. 426-427, is "The Dark-Eyed Sailor (Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor)" [Laws N35]; the third, "Billy Ma Hone," with tune on p. 427, seems to be its own song)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 104-105, "The Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 135-136, "John Reilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 34, "John Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 95, "John RIley" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 82-83, "Young John Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 168-170, "John Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 79, "John Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 210-211, "[John Riley]" (1 text, 1 tune, sufficiently abbreviated that the plot does not allow us to say which Riley ballad it is, but the first verse implies it goes here)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 95, "George Reilly" (1 text plus mention of 2 more; Laws is difficult to interpret on this point, but it appears he means one of Cox's un-printed texts to go here while the printed text in N36)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #38, "John Riley II" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #36, "John Riley I" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H826, p. 309, "James Reilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 149, "John Riley" (1 text)
DT, JREILLY2
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844_, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 118, "Young Riley" (reprint of a Pitts broadside with a confused ending)
Roud #267
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "John Riley" (on PeteSeeger02, PeteSeegerCD01) (on PeteSeeger29); "Johnny Riley" (on PeteSeeger40)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. esp. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
George Riley
John Riley
Johnnie Riley
NOTES [71 words]: The characteristic first verse of this particular Riley ballad runs something like
As I walked out one summer's morning
To take the fine and pleasant air,
There I spied a most beautiful damsel,
She appeared to me like lilies fair.
For more discussion on how to tell Laws N36 from Laws N37, see the discussion under "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36]. - RBW
The first two Seeger recordings have distinctly different tunes. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LN37

John a Side

See Jock o the Side [Child 187] (File: C187)

John and Mary

See The Country Courtship (File: K127)

John and Mary, Up in a Tree

See Sitting in a Tree (K-I-S-S-I-N-G, First Comes Love, Dick and Jane) (File: CarMF81A)

John Anderson, My Jo (I)

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells how, when she first saw John, he was young, handsome, and her first love; now his hair is white, but she loves him still. They've climbed the hill together and must now totter down, but they'll go hand in hand and "sleep together at the foot"
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1790 (Caledonian Pocket Companion)
KEYWORDS: love age death hair
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Heart-Songs, pp. 378-379, "John Anderson, My Jo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 37 and #5/64, p. 37, "John Anderson, My Jo, John" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 141, "John Anderson, My Jo (I)"
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 198-204, "John Anderson, My Jo" (multiple texts, of both "John Anderson" (I) and (II), plus derivatives and relatives)
DT, JOHNAND3*
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #302, p. 419, "John Anderson My Jo" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1790)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #260, p. 269, "John Anderson my Jo" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSWB141B (Full)
Roud #16967
RECORDINGS:
Henry Burr, "John Anderson, My Jo" (Victor 4557, 1906; rec. 1905; Victor 16213, 1909; rec. 1908)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 12[some words illegible], "John Anderson My Jo" ("John Anderson, my jo, John, when we were first acquent")[2 verses], J. Catnach (London), 1829; also Firth b.25(600/601) View 1 of 2, Firth b.28(25a) View 1 of 2, Firth b.25(295), "John Anderson My Jo" [2 verses]; Firth c.14(21), "John Anderson My Jo" [6 verses]; Firth b.27(271), Johnson Ballads 528, Harding B 11(1894), "John Anderson, My Jo" [7 verses]; Harding B 11(487), "John Anderson My Joe[sic] ("John Anderson, my jo, John, when nature first began)" [5 verses]
Bodleian, Harding B 45(17) View 3 of 3, "John Anderson My Joe[sic], John" ("John Anderson, my jo, John, I wonder what you mean"), unknown, no date; also Harding B 11(439), "John Anderson, my jo"
LOCSheet, sm1836 370070, "John Anderson my Jo John" ("John Anderson, my jo, John, when nature first began)," George Endicott (New York), 1836 (tune)
LOCSinging, sb20240a, "John Anderson, my Jo"("John Anderson, my jo, John, When we were first acquent"), J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Anderson, My Jo, John"
cf. "Johnny Bull, My Jo, John" (tune)
cf. "Cruiskeen Lawn" (tune)
cf. "John Barleycorn, My Jo" (temperance parody)
cf. "Wae Be to that Weary Drink, John Anderson, My Jo" (temperance derivative)
NOTES [359 words]: This sounds like a version of "John Anderson, My Jo, John" that's been so thoroughly bowdlerized that nothing remains but the aging motif. The overall mood of the two songs is so different that I've split them. - PJS
This is actually the Burns rewrite, published in the Scots Musical Museum (and fairly often reprinted, e.g. in Palgrave's Golden Treasury, item CXCVII). Apparently Burns didn't dare publish the bawdy original, but liked the feeling of ths song. The tune was reportedly from the Caledonian Pocket Companion.
Those who want to see an even stranger rewrite should examine "John Barleycorn, My Jo, John" (Logan, pp. 221-222), a parody in which grain is the singer's love. Another broadside parody is "My Bonnie Meg, My Jo" [NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(105), "My Bonnie Meg, My Jo," unknown, c. 1875], which deals with a man's problems with an elderly shrew of a wife.
NLScotland L.C.Fol.60(15b), "John Anderson, My Jo (A New Reading)," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890, is also a raspy dialog between husband and wife, in which they decide to go to bed and fight another day; it is probably a rewrite of the Burns version, though there might be some bawdry from the traditional version. - RBW
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 45(17) italicizes Burns's two verses among its total of eight verses; Harding B 11(439) has the same arrangement without the italics. This eight verse version, beginning "John Anderson, my jo, John, I wonder what you mean" seems the basis for the temperance song "Wae Be to That Weary Drink, John Anderson, My Jo" ("John Anderson, my jo, John, I wonder what you mean"; Digital Tradition's JOHNAND5). The first verse at least of this version seems to belong to "John Anderson, My Jo, John," viz.,
John Anderson, my jo, John, I wonder what you mean
To rise so soon in the morning, and sit up so late at e'en.
Ye'll blear out a' your e'en, John, and why should you do so,
Gang sooner to your bed at e'en, John Anderson, my jo.
Broadside LOCSinging sb20240a: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB141B

John Anderson, My Jo, John

DESCRIPTION: Singer upbraids her lover for rising so early and coming to bed so late, tells him he's aging and risking being cuckolded. She describes his attributes fairly explicitly, and her own, saying "'Tis all for your conveniency/John Anderson, my jo"
AUTHOR: Attributed to Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: age marriage sex husband bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 131-133, "John Anderson My Jo" (1 text, short and probably bowdlerized; Percy's first and final editions have some differences)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XXIV, pp. 64-65, "John Anderson My Jo" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 155 "John Anderson, My Jo (II)"
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 198-204, "John Anderson, My Jo" (multiple texts, of both "John Anderson" (I) and (II), plus derivatives and relatives)
DT, JOHNAND*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Anderson, My Jo (I)"
cf. "Johnny Bull, My Jo, John" (tune)
cf. "Cruiskeen Lawn" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
John Anderson, My Jo (I) (File: FSWB141B)
Johnny Bull, My Jo, John (File: SBoA118)
Dundee Jail (File: Gath071)
When Old Mauch Chunk Was Young (File: KMMP035)
John Chinaman, My Jo (File: LDC301)
John Chinaman, My Jo (Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, pp. 147-148; Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 88; apparently this was sometimes used as part of a longer piece, "McLachlan in Court," which used several tunes)
John Bull's Epistle (Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 172-174)
O Jimmy Fisk, My Jo, Jim (fragment in Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 91)
New Song ("James Madison my Joe, Jim, I wonder what you mean") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 220)
John Adams' son, my jo, John (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 239)
Johnny the Broker ("O Johhny Q., my Jo, John, your father sought a crown") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 240)
The Black Lettered List ("John Quincy John my Joe, John") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 240)
Bank Melody ("Nick Biddle, O! my auld Nick, When we were first acquent, The Bank had full five years to run") (Foner, p. 30)
John Williamson, My Jo, John (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, pp. 186-188, with a reproduction of a broadside facing p. 37)
Why Awa' So Lang at Nicht ("John, Anderson, my Jo, John") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 178)
Will and Kate ("Now, Kate, fully forty years ha'e flown") (The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany, p. 215)
Oh, Matty Van, My Jo, Mat (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p.74)
John Conington, my jo, John (A squib describing the boring lecture habits of Oxford Latin professor John Conington (1826-1869), quoted by Charles Dodgson ("Lewis Carroll") in his diary for Dec. 9, 1864; see Edward Wakeling, editor, _Lewis Carroll's Diaries: The Private Journals of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson_, Volume 5, September 1864 to January 1868, Lewis Carroll Society, 1999, p. 28)
NOTES [118 words]: It's clear that "John Anderson, My Jo (I)" is a thoroughly bowdlerized version of this song, but their mood is so different that I've split them. - PJS
And properly; Burns reportedly had to clean it us to make the song singable in polite society.
There is still a third version, the Digital Tradition's JOHNAND5, which is a temperance song.
Burns may have had his hand in some versions even of the bawdy text, but it is not all his; the "official" version, in the Scots Musical Museum (filed in the Index as "John Anderson, My Jo (I)") is entirely Burns's work.
According to Ford-SongHistories, p. 198, "The original John Anderson was, according to tradition, the town piper of Kelso, and a bit of a wag." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB155A

John Appleby

DESCRIPTION: John Appleby drinks with the women in the alehouse; his wife Joan drinks with the men in the tavern. At home John throws a mutton shoulder at Joan; she throws a plate. To end the quarrel they open a barrel of home-brew and invite all the neighbors.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (broadside, Johnson Ballads fol. 75)
KEYWORDS: fight drink husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 132-133, "John Appleby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 225-226, "John Appleby" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 92)
Roud #1292
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 75, "John Appleby" ("John Appleby was a mans name, and he liv'd near the sign of the kettle"), Laurie and Whittle (London), 1805
NOTES [62 words]: Broadside Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 75 says "a whimsical ballad sung by Mr Fawcett."
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs: "This is not improbably a political song, directed against Oliver Cromwell; Kent produced many squibs upon him in which, besides being called a brewer, he was frequently described as a drunkard, together with his wife, who was nicknamed Joan." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BrMa132

John Atkins (The Drunkard's Warning)

DESCRIPTION: "Poor drunkards, poor drunkards, take warning by me, The fruits of transgression behold now I see." John Atkins, when drunk, slew his "dear companion." His family and friends are left weeping. He regrets his acts and warns against drink
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Henry, from Mrs. William Franklin)
KEYWORDS: drink warning execution homicide
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 115, "John Atkins" (1 text)
Roud #4191
File: MHAp115

John B. Sails, The

DESCRIPTION: A description of a horrible journey on the "sloop John B." Refrain: "Let me go home! I want to go home; I feel so break-up, I want to go home." Among the problems on the voyage: A drunken first mate who is arrested for robbery and a cook who won't
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor hardtimes cook Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 22-23, "The John B. Sails" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 280, "The John B.'s Sails" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 93, "John B. Sails" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 55, 289, "Sloop John B" (notes only)
DT, WRKJOHNB
Roud #15634
RECORDINGS:
Rex Allen, "Wreck of the John B" (Mercury 5573, 1951)
Blind Blake Higgs, "John B Sail (Wreck of the John B.)" (on WIHIGGS01)
Cleveland Simmons Group: "Histe Up the John B. Sail" (AAFS 418 B2, 1935; on LomaxCD1822-2)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sloop John B.
The Wreck of the John B.
NOTES [40 words]: Although I have yet to encounter a version of this song actually describing the sinking of the John B., the craft is said to lie at the bottom of Governor's Harbor in Nassau, where its remains are considered almost a historic monument. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: San022

John Barbour

See Willie o Winsbury [Child 100] (File: C100)

John Barleycorn (I)

DESCRIPTION: John Barleycorn is proclaimed dead but springs to life when the rain/dew falls on him. At midsummer he grows a beard; then men with scythes cut him, bind him to a cart, wheel him to a barn, and brew him into beer. The last verse praises his merits
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1787 (Burns Commonplace Book, according to Dick); before 1787 (according to Jamieson; see notes); a probable version was registered in 2455
KEYWORDS: resurrection death magic drink derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(MA,NE) Canada(Ont,Queb) Ireland
REFERENCES (32 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #15, pp. 120-122, "Sir John Barleycorn" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 300-301, "Sir John Barleycorn" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 84, "John Barleycorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 88, "John Barleycorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 246-247, "John Barleycorn" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 503)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 276, "John Barleycorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 56-57, "John Barleycorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 216-217, "John Barleycorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 404, "John Barleycorn" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 48-49, "John Barleycorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 30-31, "John Barleycorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #116, "John Barleycorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 3-4, "John Barleycorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire 9, "John Barleycorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 8-9, "John Barleycorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #14, "Sir John Barleycorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #97, "John Barleycorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 89, "The Barley Corn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 13,13A, pp. 32,105,160-32,105,160-162, "John Barleygrain" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 156, "Sir John Barleycorn" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 559, "John Barleycorn" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 101, "John Barleycorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 46-48, "John Barleycorn" (1 text plus some excerpts, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 259-265, "John Barleycorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 1, "The Barley Grain for Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 38, "The Barley Grain for Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 292-294, "The Barley Corn" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 284-285, "John Barleycorn" (1 text)
Behan-IrelandSings, #89, "Three Farmers from the North" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN282, "As I went through the North Country"
DT, JBARLEY* BARLEY1
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #23, pp. 22-24, "John Barleycorn. A Ballad" (1 text, from before 1784)
Roud #164
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Barley Grain for Me" (on Abbott1)
Austin Flanagan, "The Barley Grain" (on Voice14)
Haxey Hood singers and customers at "The King's Arms," Haxey, Lincs. "John Barleycorn" (on FieldTrip1)
Fred Jordan, "John Barleycorn" (on Voice13)
A. L. Lloyd, "John Barleycorn" (on Lloyd3, Lloyd5, Lloyd12)
Pete Seeger & O. J. Abbott, "Barley Grain" (on Newport59/60)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(83a), "A pleasant new ballad to sing ev'ning and morn, of the bloody murder of sir John Barley corn"; also Johnson Ballads 1408[many illegible words], "Sir John Barleycorn"("There was three knights came from the north"), W. Jackson and Son (Birmingham), 1842-1855; Harding B 11(1189), Harding B 15(386b), Johnson Ballads 2847[some illegible words], "Sir John Barleycorn"; 2806 b.9(38), "The Barley Corn"
LOCSinging, as100660, "The Barley Corn," P. Brereton (Dublin), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Barleycorn's a Hero Bold" (theme)
cf. "Allan o Maut (I) (Why should not Allan Honoured Be)" (theme: the tale of brewing)
cf. "Allan o Maut (II) (How Mault Deals With Every Man)" (theme: the tale of brewing)
cf. "Allan o Maut (III)" (theme: the tale of brewing)
cf. "John Barleycorn (II) (The Little Barleycorn)" (theme: the tale of brewing)
cf. "John Barleycorn (III) (The Bloody Murder of Sir John Barleycorn)" (theme: the tale of brewing)
NOTES [1709 words]: Burns: "This is partly composed on the plan of an old song known by the same name." - BS
MacColl & Seeger speculate that "John Barleycorn" was derived from the Scots ballad "Allan-a-Maut," found in the Bannatyne manuscript, 1568; its theme is similar. - PJS
Of course, the legend of the eternal grain is old -- as is the legend of the dying-and-resurrected God. Jesus, obviously, is the prototype of this, but there is also the Greek Persephone legend and others.
Incidentally, when Prohibition was passed in the United States, John Barleycorn was given a bonus funeral, beyond the annual supply. The February 2005 issue of American History magazine showed an actual tombstone:
In Memoriam
John Barleycorn
Born B.C.
Died Jan. 16, 1920
Resurrection?
There are also broadsides commemorating his death, e.g. NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(099), "A Hue and Cry After Sir John Barleycorn," unknown, after 1720. The notes to the broadside state that this was made in response to Robert Walpole's 1725 imposition of the malt tax -- but, in context, it seems likely that the idea was lifted from an early form of this song.
Rollins, p. 213, # 2455, lists a December 14, 1624 registration of a piece "Sir John Barleycorne," but gives no other details. - RBW
The Bodleian broadside Douce Ballads 3(83a) appears to be older than the other broadsides. Unfortunately, Bodleian has neither the printer nor date estimate. The tune is noted as "Shall I lye beyond thee."
Broadside LOCSinging as100660 appears to be the same as Bodleian 2806 b.9(38) printed by P. Brereton (Dublin).
The following comments are from the Ballad-L archives regarding Fowke's version: On 14 Aug 2007 Pete Wood noted, "I was surprised to find so few versions in North America.... Fowke ... has one called 'The Barley Grain for me' and starting 'There were three men went to Derouaghta', which is the only version I know where 3 men went instead of came, and the place they are going to sounds Irish. The title is also the tag line for one of the best known Irish versions. It was collected from OJ Abbott." John Moulden replied (16 Aug 2007), "Agreed -- Derouaghta is clearly Drogheda, Co Louth, about 30 miles north of Dublin -- Abbott sang many Irish and Irish located songs."
Burns's text is in the oral tradition. Hear, for example, Stanley Robertson's "John Barleycorn" on "Travellers' Tales - Volume 2" Kyloe 101 CD (2002).
Jamieson printed six songs about the culture, production and effect of English beer. They each have an entry in the Index: Allan o Maut (I-III) and John Barleycorn (I-III). "The first [Allan o Maut (I)] is good classical Scotish; the second [Allan o Maut (III)] is modern Scotish, and very popular in the north-east of Scotland, as is also the third [John Barleycorn (I)]; the fourth [Allan o Maut (II)] and fifth [John Barleycorn (III)] are English; and the latter, at least has been popular, as one now and then hears scraps of it among the peasants in different parts of England; but whether it was unskillfully amplified from the third, or the third happily abridged from it, does not now seem easy to be determined. The present writer is rather inclined to the latter opinion; and it is certainly very much improved in the abridgment; although both the improvement and abridgement were probably casual rather than intentional, and owing more to default of memory than to superiority of genius" (Jamieson2 pp.231-232). After having "written out" his work on the five songs "for the press" Jamieson came across Roxburghe 1.214-215 (John Barleycorn (II)). He added it "as it contains some ideas, which are found in the Scottish Sir John Barleycorn [III], and in none of the others that he has seen" (Jamieson2 pp. 258-260). Actually, Jamieson omitted part 2 of John Barleycorn (II), but those 64 lines seem not to have had an effect outside that broadside.
Dick discusses the set in his discussion of Robert Burns's adaptation of "John Barleycorn (I)" but cites Jamieson's analysis without comment (Dick p. 487).
Dixon writes,"The West-country ballad of Sir John Barleycorn is very ancient, and being the only version which has ever been sung at English merry-makings and country feasts, can certainly set up a better claim to antiquity than any of the three ballads on the same subject to be found in Evans's [Evans1 and Evans4: Allan o Maut (II), John Barleycorn (III) and John Barleycorn (II)]. Our west-country version bears the greatest resemblance to [John Barleycorn (II)], but it is very dissimilar to any of the three" (p. 120).
Jamieson printed his John Barleycorn (I) "from his own recollection, as he learned it in Morayshire when he was a boy, and before the Poems of Burns were published" (Jamieson2 p. 240). Excluding the last eight lines - which Jamieson added - his John Barleycorn (I) has 44 lines; 17 lines are shared with John Barleycorn (III) and 6 are shared with part 1 of John Barleycorn (II) (Jamieson2 pp. 240-243).
Specifically, with the line numbers from John Barleycorn (III) (Pepys 1.470) and (II) (Roxburghe 1.214-215) shown in parentheses:
.. From John Barleycorn (III)
03(023) And they have sworn a solemn oath
04(024) John Barleycorn shall die
05(029) They've ta'en a plough and plough'd him down,
06(034) Put clods upon his head;
..
08(036) John Barleycorn was dead
..
10(038) And showers began to fall;
..
12(040) Which did surprise them all
..
14(046) And he grew pale and wan;
15(044) John Barleycorn has got a beard
16(048) Like any other man
17(049) They've ta'en a hook, that was full sharp,
..
19(064) And they've bound him intill a corn cart,
20(063) Like a thief for the gallow-tree.
21(073) They've ta'en twa sticks, that were full stout
22(074/076) And sore they beat his bones;
23(099) The miller used him worse than that,
24(100) And ground him between two stones
.. From John Barleycorn (II)
37(037) He'll gar the huntsman shoot his dog
..
39(054) He'll gar a maiden dance stark naked
..
41(015) He'll change a man into a boy,
42(016) A boy into an ass;
43(013) He'll change your gold into silver,
44(014) And your silver into brass.
Dixon's "west-country" John Barleycorn (I) has 52 lines; 24 lines are shared with John Barleycorn (III) and 12 are shared with part 1 of John Barleycorn (II) [Dixon #15 pp. 120-122].
Specifically, with the line numbers from John Barleycorn (III) (Pepys 1.470) and (II) (Roxburghe 1.214-215) shown in parentheses:
.. From John Barleycorn (III)
02(022) Their victory to try
03(023) And they have taken a solemn oath,
04(024) Poor Barleycorn should die
05(029) They took a plough and ploughed him in,
06(033/034) And harrowed clods o0n his head;
07(023) And then they took a solemn oath,
08(036) Poor Barleycorn was dead
09(037) There he lay sleeping in the ground,
10(038) Till rain from the sky did fall;
..
12(040) And so amazed them all
13(041) There he remained till Midsummer,
14(046) And looked both pale and wan;
15(044) Then Barleycorn he got a beard,
16(048) And so became a man.
..
18(051) To cut him off at the knee
..
21(061) Then they sent men with pitchforks strong
22(062) To pierce him through the heart,
..
24(064) They bound him to a cart.
..
27(071) And so they fetched him out again,
28(072) And laid him on the floor.
29(073) Then they sent men with holly clubs,
30(074/076) To beat the flesh from his bones;
31(099) But the miller served him worse than that,
32(100) For he ground him between two stones
.. From John Barleycorn (II)
34(010) That was ever sown on land;
..
36(012) By the turning of your hand
37(015) It will make a boy into a man,
38(016) And a man into an ass;
39(013) It will change your gold into silver,
40(014) And your silver into brass.
41(037) It will make the huntsman hunt the fox,
42(038) That never wound his horn;
43(039) It will bring the tinker to the stocks,
..
45(053) It will make the maids stark naked dance,
..
47(055) It will help them to a job by chance,-
48(056) Well done, Barleycorn!
[See the Index entry for John Barleycorn (III) regarding line numbering across versions; at this time there is only one version of John Barleycorn (II).]
Wood re-examines Jamieson's six songs and adds a seventh, indexed here as "John Barleycorn's a Hero Bold" which, he writes, "was composed in the mid nineteenth century" (Wood p. 445). Wood doesn't offer support for that date but I have no text I can date before 1859. In any case, that song was probably created after Jamieson's and Dixon's analyses. Wood writes that each of the seven family members can be parsed into at most three parts:
"Part A concerns the growth, harvesting, and processing of the plant,
Part B the brewing process, and
Part C the effects of beer on people" (Wood p. 439).
Wood's Figure 3 builds a "'timeline' of the ancestors of 'John Barleycorn' but it does not show "parts." Perhaps he would have shown that as follows [%: not included in Figure 3]:
Allan o Maut (I) [1568] A,C
Allan o Maut (II) [1601-c1690] C
John Barleycorn (III) [1624-1700] A,B,C
John Barleycorn (I) [1784-] A,B,C
John Barleycorn (II) [1658] C
%Allan o Maut (III) [1790?-1806] A
%John Barleycorn is a Hero Bold [1859-c1890] A,C
Wood examines Jamieson's statement, quoted above, that he cannot easily determine whether John Barleycorn (III) was created from John Barleycorn (I), or the reverse, though he was "rather inclined to the latter opinion." He concludes that there is no question but that Jamieson's inclination was correct. We need to cut Jamieson some slack here. He included the text of John Barleycorn (II) at the last minute without, apparently, looking at its own connection to the John Barleycorn (I) text. Had he taken the time, as Dixon did after him, he would have seen that the John Barleycorn (I) texts incorporated abridgments of both John Barleycorn (III) and John Barleycorn (II). At that point, I believe, he would have been as forceful as Wood about what was sender and what was receiver of text lines. (On the other hand, Wood's Figure 3 "timeline" does not show John Barleycorn II as a source for John Barleycorn III. Wood's Figures 4 and 5 show only how John Barloeycorn (I) affects early versions of John Barleycorn (I)). - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: ShH84

John Barleycorn (II) (The Little Barleycorn)

DESCRIPTION: Barleycorn is the greatest of alchemists and the best medicine. It drives away fear and grief. It works wonders. "Theres life in it... Take your liquor and doe not spare.... let no man takt in scorne, That I the vertues do proclaime."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1618-1658 (Roxburghe 1.214-215)
LONG DESCRIPTION: [Part 1] A cup of Barleycorn will show you the truth, evening, morning, and Christmas too. He is the best of alchemists and he can change you faster than hocus-pocus: he changes your gold to silver and silver to brass; he can change a boy into a man, and a man into an ass. The poor man that hangs Barleycorn's sign at his shop will become rich, and those who patronize his shop may become poor. He leaves the lawyer speechless, makes an old man older, makes young women dance naked with strangers. But it can make a man jealous of his wife and curse the crescent moon for making the horns sign to taunt him. But there is life in the cup: drink it. [Part 2] In moderation, ale is the best medicine to cure illness. It makes fear disappear, makes time pass, makes the weeping widow laugh and "incline to pleasure," and makes an old man put away his cane. It makes the drinker think he is as good as any man, and good enough for any woman. Young girls "fall and rise again the quicker." It has the power "to change our nature." Don't scorn the singer who proclaims its virtues.
KEYWORDS: drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Robert Jamieson, Popular Ballads and Songs (Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co, 1806 ("Digitized by Google"))")), Vol.II, pp. 258-260, "The Little Barly-Corne" (1 text)
William Chappell, The Roxburghe Ballads (Hertford: The Ballad Society, 1874 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol.II, pp. 29-31, "The Little Barly-Corne" (1 text)
Thomas Evans and R.H. Evans, Old Ballads Historical and Narrative (London: R.H. Evans, 1810 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. I, #37 pp. 156-161, "The Little Barley-Corn" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
EngBdsdBA 30154, BritLib Roxburghe 1.214-215, "The Little Barly-Corne" ("Come, and doe not musing stand, if thou the truth discerne"), E.B. (London), 1618-1658
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Barleycorn (I)" (theme: the tale of brewing) and references there
cf. "Stingo," i.e. "Mowing the Barley (Cold and Raw)" (tune)
NOTES [78 words]: I know of only one version of this song. I have included the additional references, and especially Jamieson -- who is analyzing Alan o' Maut and John Barleycorn songs -- for their notes.
John Barleycorn (II) is different in tone than the three Allan o' Maut songs and John Barleycorn (III). Here he is not an antagonist. There are no challengers against him. He is presented as a master alchemist ands a cure for physical and mental ailments, taken in moderation. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
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John Barleycorn (III) (The Bloody Murder of Sir John Barleycorn)

DESCRIPTION: John Barleycorn fights and defeats two nobles. For revenge they bury him. When he is reborn the following year they cut him down, torture him, and drink his blood. His relative pays back his killers leaving them unconscious in the mire.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1646? (Roxburghe 1.343)
LONG DESCRIPTION: John Barleycorn fights and defeats two nobles. They would have him killed for revenge. They bury -- that is, plant -- him and celebrate his death. However, after the spring rains he sprouts -- which frightens them -- and, by midsummer, he becomes a man again and grows a beard. They would try to kill him again. Men cut him down with hooks and sickles, bind him into stacks, beat him with holly clubs, sift him, steep him in fat and then lay him out to dry. Then they dry him again in a kiln, crush him in a mill, apply yeast and tunn him in a barrel. Finally they set a tap to the barrel and drain every drop of his blood, and that does kill him. His relative, John Goodale, pays back his killers, leaving them bloody and unconscious in the mire, so they can not even remember what they had done. The singer blesses the good wives that brew good ale from John Barleycorn's injury but damns the eyes of those that overwater their ale.
KEYWORDS: battle nobility burial drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Robert Jamieson, Popular Ballads and Songs (Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co, 1806 ("Digitized by Google"))), Vol.II, pp. 251-258, "Sir John Barleycorn" (1 text)
William Chappell, The Roxburghe Ballads (Hertford: The Ballad Society, 1874 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol.II, pp. 373-378, "A pleasant new Ballad to sing both Even and Morne, Of the bloody Murther of Sir John Barley-corne" (1 text)
Thomas Evans and R.H. Evans, Old Ballads Historical and Narrative (London: R.H. Evans, 1810 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. IV, #34 pp. 214-220, "Sir John Barley-Corn" (1 text) [John Wright: Printing dates: 1634–-1658, per Street Literature Printers' register at http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudBSPrinters/PR494, accessed 19 Nov 2013]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(83a), "A pleasant new ballad to sing ev'ning and morn, of The Bloody Murder of Sir John Barley corn" ("As I went through the North country"), unknown, no date, accessed 13 Nov 2013.
EngBdsdBA 20199, Pepys 4.126, "A pleasant new Ballad to sing both Euen and Morne, Of the bloody murther of Sir John Barley-corne" ("As I went through the North Country"), H.G[osson] (London), 1601-1640?, accessed 20 Nov 2013.
EngBdsdBA 20220, Pepys 1.470, "A pleasant new Ballad to sing both Euen and Morne Of the bloody murther of Sir John Barley-corne" ("As I went through the North Country"), J Clarke, W Thackeray and T Passinger (London), 1684-1686, accessed 17 Nov 2013.
EngBdsdBA 30234, BritLib Roxburghe 1.343, "A Pleasant New Ballad to sing Even and morne, Of the Bloody murther of Sir John Barley-corne." ("As I went through the North Countrey I heard a merry meeting"), John Wright, 1602-1646?[see Notes re the dates], accessed 19 Nov 2013.
EngBdsdBA 31895, UGlasgowLib Euing 281, "A Pleasant new Ballad, to sing Evening and Morn, Of the bloody Murder of Sir John Barlycorn" ("As I went through the North Country I heard a merry meeting"), unknown 1641-1700?, accessed 17 Nov 2013.
EngBdsdBA 31896, UGlasgowLib Euing 282, "A Pleasant New Ballad to sing Evening and morn, Of the Bloody murder of Sir John Barley-corn." ("As I went through the North Country I heard a merry meeting"), F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright and T. Clarke (London), 1674-1679?, accessed 17 Nov 2013.
EngBdsdBA 31897, UGlasgowLib Euing 283, "A Pleasant New Ballad On Sir John Barley-Corn" ("As I went through the North Country I heard a merry meeting"), unknown 1670-1700?, accessed 17 Nov 2013.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Barleycorn (I)" (theme: the tale of brewing) and references there
cf. "Shall I Lye Beyond Thee" (tune)
NOTES [580 words]: Wood makes more sense of the battle at the beginning of the song than I can: "[John Barleycorn (III)] has four knights, three of whom, Sir Richard Beere, Sir Thomas Good Ale, and Sir William White Wine, swear to kill the fourth, Sir John Barleycorn. This has a clear logic: all of them need 'dead' barley for their creation, assuming the wine is barley wine of course" [Peter Wood, "John Barleycorn: The Evolution of a Folk-Song Family," Folk Music Journal, Vol. 8, No. 4, 2004, pp. 450-451.].
Chappell is a duplicate of Roxburghe 1.343. The imprint is, according to Evans and the EBBA citation: "London printed for John Wright and are to be sold at his shop in Guilt-spurre street at the signe of the Bible." When I look at the imprint I cannot tell whether the name is Iohn or John. You will see that that is significant.
The EBBA estimate of the date for Roxburghe 1.343 is "1602-1646?" I posted a request to the Tradsong group for information on John Wright at that address. On 20-21 November 2013, Steve Gardham replied: "There were at least 2 John Wrights, father and son printing at that address. It must be JW the elder who died in 1658. The younger goes on to 1690 at least. The spelling you have of the address I have items recorded 1624 to 27. I have notes of his printing from 1605 onwards but the first reference to that address I have is 1624. Also some printings give the J in an I format so we get IW c1628-32. Most of my dates come from Roxburghe and Pepys and are based on political pieces which are often dated or can easily be ascribed a rough date. ...[T]o be safe I add in a few qualifiers. The 1624-7 dates don't mean that this address wasn't being used in this spelling before or after these, only that these are dates I have evidence for, likewise 1628-32." As a best bet I am using dates 1624-1628?.
There are three sets of texts.
Pepys 4.126 (1601-1640) and Roxburghe 1.343 (1624-1628?) seems to be the oldest set.
The newest set is Euing 281 (1641-1700?), Euing 282 (1674-1679?), Euing 283 (1670-1700?), Douce Ballads 3(83a) and Pepys 1.470 (1684-1686).
From the its content, Evans (1634-1658) seems to have been printed between the other sets.
Jamieson, who is analyzing Alan o' Maut and John Barleycorn songs notes where his source, Pepys 1.470, text varies significantly from Pepys 1.426; Jamieson seems imperfectly transcribed (for example, he his lines 9-10 and 92 seem to be from Pepys 1.426).
All of the sets are 136 lines, like the older set of Allan o Maut (II), with which this song, John Barleycorn (III) was frequently printed. However, where the variations between older and newer sets of Allan o Maut (II) often covered up to eight lines, the differences in John Barleycorn (III) were usually just one or two words in a line, or, perhaps, the sequence of words in a line.
Here are is an example from John Barleycorn lines 93-94.
---
Oldest set illustrated by Pepys 4.126.
The Malt-man swore that he should die
his body he would burne.
---
Newest set illustrated by Pepys 1.470.
The Mault-man likewise vows his death,
his body should be sure.
---
Evans splits the difference:
The mault-man likewise vows his death,
his body he would burn.
---
A warning regarding Evans's transcriptions, from Chappell (writing about John Barleycorn (II)): "Evans reprinted from it [Roxburghe], but carelessly, as usual" (William Chappell, The Roxburghe Ballads (Hertford: The Ballad Society, 1874 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol.II, p. 28). - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: BdJB3MJ

John Barleycorn, My Jo

DESCRIPTION: The singer addresses John Barleycorn. "You rob me of my money John which ought to pay my bills." You go disguised "as Mr Porter." I take my first drink in the morning "before that I get up" Preachers preach against him: "on you we'll turn our backs"
AUTHOR: George Barron (source: Greig/Duncan3)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink derivative nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 601, "John Barleycorn, My Jo" (1 text)
Roud #6051
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Anderson, My Jo (I)" (form)
cf. "John Anderson, My Jo, John" (form)
cf. "Wae Be to that Weary Drink, John Anderson, My Jo" (another temperance derivative of "John Anderson")
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John Barleycorn
File: GrD3601

John Barleycorn's a Hero Bold

DESCRIPTION: Singer praises Barleycorn; his robes are rich and green, his head speared with prickly beard; when stricken down, he uses his blood for England's good. Chorus: "Hey John Barleycorn/Ho John Barleycorn/Old and young thy praise has sung/John Barleycorn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859-1860 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 13(13)) [see Notes]
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer praises John Barleycorn for his heroic qualities; his robes are rich and green, his head speared with prickly beard; when stricken down, he uses his blood for England's good. All, great and small, find his aid valuable -- he "makes weak men strong and old ones young and all men brave and bold". The singer praises ale, scorning all other drinks. Chorus: "Hey John Barleycorn/Ho John Barleycorn/Old and young thy praise has sung/John Barleycorn"
KEYWORDS: age drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 277, "John Barleycorn's a Hero Bold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 227-229, "Hey! John Barleycorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2141
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 20(81), "John Barleycorn" ("John Berleycorn [sic] is a hero bold"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 13(13), Harding B 11(1509), Harding B 11(3188), Firth b.26(301), Firth b.26(302), Harding B 15(150a), "John Barleycorn"
LOCSinging, as111460, "John Barleycorn," W.S. Fortey (London), no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Barleycorn (I)" (theme: the tale of brewing) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hey John Barleycorn
NOTES [614 words]: Although this shares subject matter and a few words with "John Barleycorn", it lacks the explicit death-and-resurrection plot of the latter, so I split them. - PJS
More interesting to me is the extreme similarity between the Ford and Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland versions. The only substantial difference might be a mishearing on Kennedy's part: He transcribes the near-nonsense "fit nigh to serve the queen" for Ford's "fit knight to serve the queen." There are other differences, but they are such as might arise simply in a singer's minor variations between sessions. I have to think there is literary dependence. - RBW
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 13(13) prints "The Great Fight Between Tom Sayers and Bob Brettle" alongside "John Barleycorn." That establishes the likely printing date within a seven month period between Sayers's fights [see the Index entry for "The Great Fight Between Tom Sayers and Bob Brettle"].
The 1840-1866 date estimate at the Bodleian site for Harkness's Harding B 20(81)) seems their standard for all Harkness broadsides.
I agree with the PJS and RBW comments.
Steve Roud's Street Literature Printers' Register for Harkness (PR79) has dates of 1841 to at least 1882 (https://www.vwml.org/search?q=PR79&collectionfilter=RoudBSPrinters;RoudStreetLit&is=1n, accessed July 15, 2023).
To this point we have listed eight different texts: Ford, Kennedy, and six Bodleian broadsides. No two texts are identical: not even the three Such texts, Harding B 15(1509), Firth b.26(301), and Firth b.26(302). For all the similarity between Ford and Kennedy, noted by RBW, there are more differences -- as counted below -- between those two texts than any other pair. It is not surprising -- considering the dates recorded -- that the Ford text is "closer to" each broadside than is the Kennedy text. But here's the point, supporting RBW: every one of the differences among all the texts are either typographical choices or "are such as might arise simply in a singer's minor variations between sessions." Every text has four eight-line stanzas and a chorus. Across all the texts I count 30 differences, all minor:
16 substitution of one or two words (for example: "true English cheer" vs "the English cheer"; "his head is speared" vs "his head is spread")
3 added noise words (for example: "true English cheer" vs "for true English cheer")
3 collective singular vs plural predicate (for example: "that make too free" vs. "That makes too free")
2 contraction (for example: "his head is speared" vs "his head is spear'd")
2 singular vs plural noun (for example: "in potent draught of wine" vs "in potent draughts of wine")
2 possessive vs plural (for example: "gives warmth to nature's cold" and "gives warmth to natures cold")
2 mis-spelling (for example: "John Barleycorn" vs "John Berleycorn")
My point is to emphasize how minor the differences are between the printed and collected texts.
As for PJS's point that few lines or phrases are shared between "John Barleycorn's a Hero Bold" and "John Barleycorn (I)" or its predecessors, I find only two shared pieces of text.
The title and first line are shared with a verse added by Robert Burns to "John Barleycorn" (III):
l.50 John Barleycorn was a hero bold
l.51 Of noble enterprise
James C Dick, The Songs of Robert Burns (London: Henry Frowde, 1903), #332 pp. 314-315, "There Was Three Kings Into the East"
The phrase "goodly beard" [as opposed to "prickly beard"] is only at l.15 of Bodleian Harding B 15(1509) of this song and l.44 of all our examples to date of "John Barleycorn" (I) [see, for example, Pepys 1.426].
Broadsides LOCSinging as111460 and Bodleian Harding B 11(3188) are duplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: K277

John Barleygrain

See John Barleycorn (I) (File: ShH84)

John Barlow

See Willie o Winsbury [Child 100] (File: C100)

John Brown (I)

See The Happy Land of Canaan (File: R226)

John Brown (II)

See What's Your Name? (File: SaKo120B)

John Brown Had a Little Indian

See Ten Little Indians (John Brown Had a Little Indian) (File: R594)

John Brown Had a Little Injun

See Ten Little Indians (John Brown Had a Little Indian) (File: R594)

John Brown Song, The

See John Brown's Body (File: Doe072b)

John Brown's Baby

See John Brown's Body (File: Doe072b)

John Brown's Body

DESCRIPTION: In stirring cadences, the story of anti-slavery zealot John Brown's death is told: "John Brown's body lies a-mould'ring in his grave (x3); his soul goes marching on." "He captured Harper's Ferry with his nineteen men so true...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (Huntington)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar Black(s) death execution memorial burial rebellion slavery
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1800 - Birth of John Brown
October 16-18, 1859 - John Brown and 20 others (fifteen of them, including Brown's three sons, are white) attack the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, hoping to gather the weapons needed for a slave rebellion. Forces led by Robert E. Lee soon attack the rebels; only Brown and four others live to be captured and placed on trial
Dec 2, 1859 - Hanging of John Brown at Charlestown, Virginia
FOUND IN: US(SE,MA) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (27 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 378, "John Brown's Body" (1 text, mixed, plus two of the offshoot "Hang (John Brown/Jeff Davis) from a Sour Apple Tree")
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 72-73, "John Brown's Body" (1 text, 1 tune -- a curious sailor's version that mentions Brown only peripherally and replaces the "His soul goes marching on" with "Then it's hip, hip, hip, hurrah!")
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 442-443, "John Brown's Body" (1 text plus fragments of a German version, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 23, "John Brown's Body"; p. 24, "The John Brown Song" (2 texts, tune referenced)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, p. 40, "John Brown's Body" (1 text, tune referenced)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 158-160, "John Brown" (1 text, slightly modified by Huntington, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 37, "John Brown's Body" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 528-529, "John Brown's Body" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 214-215, "John Brown's Body" (1 text plus some variant stanzas and an early sheet music print)
Heart-Songs, p. 313, "John Brown's Body" (2 texts, tune indirectly referenced)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 84-85, "John Brown's Body" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 62, "John Brown's Body" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 305, "John Brown's Body" (1 text)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 357, "John Brown" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of an 1861 broadside)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1127, p. 77, "John Brown Song" (9 references); #1128, p. 77, "John Brown Song" (1 reference, which supposedly is sung to the Hallelujah Chorus and is by H. H. Brownell)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 131, "Battle Hymn of the Republic (Say, Brothers, Will You Meet Us? -- John Brown -- Glory Hallelujah -- John Brown's Baby Had a Cold upon His Chest")
Greig/Duncan8 1629, "John Brown's Snapsack" (1 short text -- see note)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 220, "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (2 texts (the second being "John Brown's Body"), 1 tune)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 40, "John Brown's Baby" ("John Brown's baby's got a pimple on his (...), The poor kid can't sit down") (1 short text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 73, "Glory Hallelujah or John Brown's Body" (1 text which it credits to Charles Sprague Hall plus a rewrite by Ednah Dean Proctor)
Harbin-Parodology, #412, p. 101, "John Brown's Baby" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 124, "John Brown's Baby" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 10, "John Brown's Baby" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 130, 167, 394-395, "John Brown's Body"/"John Brown's Baby" (notes only)
DT, JOHNBRWN*
ADDITIONAL: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, pp. 111-112, catalogs early sheet music printings of "Glory Hallelujah" songs
Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 31, "John Brown's Body" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #771
RECORDINGS:
J. W. Myers, "John Brown's Body" (Victor A-824, c. 1901)
Pete Seeger, "John Brown's Body" (on PeteSeeger24) (on PeteSeeger28) (on PeteSeeger29)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (tune & meter)
cf. "Marching On" (tune & meter)
cf. "Solidarity Forever" (tune)
cf. "Marching Song of the First Arkansas" (tune)
cf. "James Brown" (tune)
cf. "On to Washington" (tune)
cf. "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Burning of the School" (tune)
cf. "The Bulldog on the Bank" (tune)
cf. "Pass Around the Bottle (As We Go Marching Home)" (tune)
cf. "The President's Proclamation" (tune)
cf. "A Song of the Times (III)" (tune)
cf. "Flying Fortresses" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Battle Hymn of the Republic (File: RJ19022)
Solidarity Forever (File: SBoA282)
The Bulldog on the Bank (File: FSWB399B)
Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Burning of the School (File: PHCFS100)
The President's Proclamation (File: CSWF025)
A Song of the Times (III) (File: Wels072)
We'll Set the Children Free (File: BaRo112)
They Were Only Playing Leap-Frog (File: BrPa046)
The Squatters on the Flinders (File: ScCol036)
Flying Fortresses (File: Hopk062)
He'll Never Fly Home Again (File: Hopk118)
He AIn't Gonna Jump No More (File: Hopk122)
I'd Like to Find the Sergeant (File: Hopk123)
I Was Chasing One-Elevens (File: Hopk124)
I Wear My Pink Pajamas (File: PHCF034P)
Tongue Twister Song (One Flea Fly Flew; A Flea and a Fly) (File: ACSF167T)
Little Peter Rabbit (File:ACSF168L)
Mary Ann McCarthy (File: ACSF168C)
Oh, Sir Jasper (File: ACSF178J)
She Waded in the Water (File: ACSF168S)
John Brown's Flivver (File: Paro131)
Glory, Glory, How Peculiar (File: DPio379)
Mine Eyes Have Seen the Horror of the Ending of the Term" (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 101)
On to Washington ("We're headed straight for Washington with leaders brave and true") (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 62; Foner, p. 253)
James Brown ("James Brown's body toils along the rocky road, James Brown's body bends beneath a crushing load") (by E. R. Place) (Foner, p. 221; Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p.p. 38-39)
Chicken Sandwich (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 11)
Glory, Glory, Pork Superior (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 21)
The Bulldog and the Bullfrog (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 47)
The Bugs Marched Down the Aisle (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 154)
She Waded in the Water (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 209)
Birmingham's My Home (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 245)
Oh, Ay Liff in Minneapolis (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 246)
Ellsworth's Body Lies Mouldering in the Grave (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 38)
Glory Hallelujah No. 2 (at least two of these, one beginning "Our Soldiers, now are marching to'ard the south," another, "Brave McClellan is our leader now") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 51)
Union Emotions (""Oh! we'll hang Wendell Phillips to a sour apple-tree," by John C. Cross) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 162)
Jubilate ("Old College rises where free winds sport her will, Dear Alma Mater, standing half way up the hill") (by Guy K. Cleveland [class of 18]50) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 11)
Ode ("All the fullness of the summer bids us stay among the flowers") (by Albert Bryant, [class of 18]62) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 42)
Jubilee Song ("Come, jolly classmates, raise the song of jubilee") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 63)
Victory ("Hail! happy Juniors, let us banish care tonight") (by C. W. Brown, [class of 18]68) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 64)
O'er Hill and Dale ("O'er hill and dale and valley, over ocean's wave-washed strands") (by S. P. Sturgis) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 113)
The Girls of Ithaca ("I had kissed the buxom Buckeye, I had squeezed tie Esquimaux") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 114)
("Old Joe Clark") (composite version of "Old Joe Clark" and a parody of this song, listed as "Old Joe Clark") (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 149)
The Grange Is Marching On ("In olden times the Farmer's life was filled with endless toil") (by A. P. Knapp) (Albert P. Knapp, _Grange Songster_, 1915, p. 12)
Grange Peace Song ("The farmers in their Granges have acclaimed the 'Prince of Peace'") (by Mortimer Whitehead) (Albert P. Knapp, _Grange Songster_, 1915, pp. 18-19)
What We Want ("We want to see reform go marching right along") (by B. M. Lawrence, M.D.) (Foner, p. 113)
A Centennial Wail ("I have a song to sing to you, to the tune of old John Brown") (by Robert W. Hume) (Foner, p. 122)
Down with the Money King ("The Greenback labor boys, both with speeches and with song") (Foner, p. 138)
Battle Hymn of the Wronged ("We have seen the reaper toiling in the heat of summer sun, We have seen his children needy when the harvesting was done") (by Hamlin Garland) (Foner, p. 310)
Battle Hymn of the Proletariat ("We are lining up for battle; we are arming for the fray; We've unsheathed the sword for action; naught can stop us, naught can stay") (by Stanislaus Cullen)
The March of the Workers ("What is this, the sound and rumor! what is this that all men hear?") (Foner, p. 323)
Once More, Ye True Republicans (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 9)
Rallying Song ("Once again we're ralying, our country all unite") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 10)
White Ribbon Rally Song ("From the homeland to the farland [sic.], From the captive to the throng") (by Frances B. Damon) (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 22)
Help Us Win the Vote ("We have heard a song of triumph, it has rolled from shore to shore") (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 25)
The Nation's Going Dry ("We have got them out of Georgia, and we've got them out of Maine") (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 31)
The Liquor Traffic Goes ("Oh, comrades in this conflict of the right against the wrong") (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 32)
To the Joy Bringer ("You've smiled when days were sunny and You've smiled when days were gray") (Harbin-Parodology, #161, p. 46)
Booster, Booster ("Booster, booster, be a booster! Yell and holler like you uster") (Harbin-Parodology, #163, p. 46)
Peace Hymn ("The bud that Spring-time nurtures with its shower and its sun") (Dime-Song-Book #29, p. 38)
NOTES [1372 words]: The well-known tune of this piece, "Say, Brothers, Will You Meet Us," is often credited to William Steffe, but I know of no absolute proof of this -- Stulken, p. 389, says that Steffe (died 1911) claimed in the 1880s to have written it in 1855 or 1856 -- but he offered no evidence. It has been suggested that the tune is derived from Stephen C. Foster's "Ellen Bayne," but the resemblance is slight and "Ellen Bayne" was not widely known (see TaylorEtAl, p. 27; according to Milligan, p. 80, Foster himself thought his tune was the inspiration for "John Brown's Body").
The "John Brown" words were composed within months of the anti-slavery crusader's death, and had spread throughout the Union by the early stages of the Civil War. (Note that Huntington has a version from 1861!) - RBW
John Uhlemann reports that the tune has been traced from a 17th century Swedish Lutheran hymnal, and that it has also entered folk tradition in Hungary, presumably independently of its American associations. - PJS
I have seen it argued that the "John Brown" of the song was not the abolitionist but an obscure American soldier (Irwin Silber describes him as "Sergeant John Brown, a Scotsman, a member of the Second Battalion, Boston Light Infantry Volunteer Militia," who later joined the Twelfth Massachusetts). I suppose this is possible -- but everyone interpreted it to mean the fanatic who captured Harper's Ferry.
The verse about hanging Jeff Davis on a sour apple tree has a curious parallel. Dime-Song-Book #16, p. 13, is "The 'Sour Apple Tree,'" with the chours, "The Yankee boys have caught him, The traitor, old Jeff D.! I wonder if they'll hang him On the 'Sour Apple Tree!'" Does that precede or follow the John Brown verse? I have no idea. - RBW
Greig/Duncan8 is a fragment about John Brown's possessions -- "John Brown's snapsack number ninety nine" and "John Brown's stocking is darned in the heels" -- with the tag line "As we go marching on." Duncan is quoted: "The ordinary song, or rather the parody, supposed to refer to the queen's John Brown." Prince Albert died in 1861. This John Brown was a servant of Queen Victoria, whom she befriended in the decade after Albert's death. "The Queen's friendship with Brown caused resentment among her family and courtiers, and stories spread in society, and were published in foreign newspapers, that the Queen had secretly married Brown. References to 'Mrs Brown', meaning the Queen, were common at society dinner tables in London." (Source: Jasper Ridley, "Victoria r. 1837-1901" in The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England, ed. Fraser (London, 1975), p. 305). If Duncan is right, and this is a parody, this version should probably be split. - BS
I was indeed sorely tempted to split. If another version turns up with clear references to Victoria's John Brown, I certainly will.
Victoria married Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1819-1861) in 1840. He was not well-liked at the time, being suspected of being "on the make" (see the notes to "The Wheels of the World"). But in fact he served England well as a diplomat -- e.g. his last significant act was to prevent a possible war with the United States in 1861 over the "Trent" affair (when the captain of the U.S.S. Trent had stopped a British ship and taken Confederate diplomats off of it); his exertions in this affair may have contributed to his death (Marshall, pp. 153-154). And Victoria doted upon him; when he died, she assumed mourning, and wore it for the rest of her life. She insisted on the construction of many monuments (Marshall, pp. 157-158), and had the room where he died preserved exactly as it had been at the time (Marshall, pp. 146-148). She largely withdrew from public view, as well, and was roundly criticized for her lack of involvement in public business, which lasted for about a decade; Marshall titles the chapter about her life in 1861-1865 "The Bitter Years."
The man largely credited with breaking her out of her funk is John Brown, "who was blunt and honest but caring," according to Ashley, p. 692. She had known him before Albert's death, when he cared for her horses in the Highlands. There her life had been relatively informal, so she had known him better than most of her other servants (Marshall, p. 168). But it was not Victoria who summoned Brown to be with her in England; it was others concerned with her behavior (Marshall, p. 169). It worked: She started to come out of her funk.
Victoria had a strong tendency to lean on one particular person -- Lord Melbourne (people had also called her "Mrs. Melbourne" for a time; Marshall, p. 170), or Albert, or someone. In a sense, Brown took that role. He accompanied her everywhere, and she started quoting his advice widely, as she had done with Albert and others (Longford, p. 323), and eventually made him an esquire and more than tripled his salary in the course of just three years (Longford, p. 326). Little wonder that the family began to resent him (Marshall, p. 169).
At the time, people suspected that the relationship was more serious than it probably was; by 1866 we see the the newspapers sometimes sarcastically calling Victoria "Mrs. Brown" (Longford, p. 327) -- or accusing them of a sexual relationship without benefit of marriage (Marshall, p. 170).
As Ellis puts it, "Victoria was a woman who needed a man. Melbourne, Uncle Leopold, Wellington, Disraeli were all public figures to whom she could give her personal trust. In this time of private withdrawal she turned to Brown, one of the two ghillies who had looked after her and Albert, a handsome intelligent Scot with a blunt manner, a (well-managed) fondness for whisky, and a strong chin. He went everywhere with her, conspicuously dressed as a Highlander.... His privileged status caused resentment in her household, and wild rumors were started that she had married him." There were even proposals to abolish the monarchy, so reclusive was the Queen and so peculiar her treatment of Brown.
It all faded out in the 1870s -- Victoria, it is true, continued to depend on Brown, but she began to play a more public role again (Longford, p. 345, declares that "All the Queen's troubles went back to the same source: her seclusion), and other tragedies made her seem much more human. There was even talk of him marrying someone else, although it does not appear that a marriage actually happened (Longford, pp. 332-333).
There is absolutely no substantial evidence of a sexual relationship, let along a marriage. Indeed, Marshall, p. 199, believes that it was not just Brown who drew Victoria out of her isolation; it was also Disraeli, who knew how to flatter her (the ultimate example being his work to make her Empress of India). In any case, Brown died in 1883 (giving a rather short window for the composition of a song about him). Longford, p. 333, also declared that a marriage with a commoner was completely out of Victoria's character, and adds evidence from her private writings that she stayed faithful to Albert all her life.
Interestingly, Morris, p. 440, reports that Victoria's "attachment to her Indian clerk, the Munshi, who succeeded the ghillie John Brown in her affections, edged toward the scandalous." But it's hard to believe that really amounted to anything; Victoria was by this time in her sixties and about as wide as she was tall.
There are also the various parodies, "John Brown's baby had a cold upon his chest... And they rubbed it with camphorated/mentholated oil" (which goes back at least to Harbin-Parodology of 1927 and is cited in Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 167, 393) or the Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang version, "John Brown's baby's got a pimple on his -- shush!... The poor kid can't sit down." These are clearly derivative, but they are so often sung alongside the regular verses that I don't think they can really be considered separate songs.
It is interesting to note that this seems to be a popular melody for what Averill calls "decremental songs," where the same verse is repeated with omission of a word or two. Both "John Brown's Flivver," "Little Peter Rabbit," and "Oh, Sir Jasper" are all decremental songs based on this melody, and apparently the "John Brown's Baby" verse was also decremented. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: Doe072b

John Brown's Flivver

DESCRIPTION: "John Brown's Flivver/Ford/Chevy had a puncture in its tire (x3), And he patched it up with chewing gum." "Then he pumped it full of air (x3), When he patched it up with chewing gum"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: technology nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 115, "John Brown's Ford" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #131, p. 40, "John Brown's Flivver" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 167, 257, 262, 393, "John Brown's Flivver" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John Brown's Ford
John Brown's Chevy
Old Mister Ford
NOTES [46 words]: Harbin and Averill call tis a "decemental song," that is, one in which words are gradually dropped. For instance, Harbin says to omit "Ford" and show a person cranking a car. Perhaps this helps explain the uncertainty about whether it's a Ford, Chevy, or anonymous flivver. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Paro131

John Brown's Ford

See John Brown's Flivver (File: Paro131)

John Bruce

See John Bruce o the Forenit (File: DBuch67)

John Bruce o the Forenit

DESCRIPTION: "At Martinmas term I gaed to the fair... I feed wi' a mannie to ca' his third pair, They ca' him John Bruse o' the (Fornit/Corner)." The song starts with a recitation of the poor conditions, then lists the folk found there -- including the pretty daughter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work moniker hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #133, p. 1, "John Bruce" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 372, "John Bruce o' the Fornet" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 67, "John Bruce o the Forenit" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 229-230, "John Bruce o' the Corner" (1 text)
Roud #3937
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John Bruce o' the Fornit
Jockey Bruce o' the Fornet
John Bruce
NOTES [36 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; South Fornet (372) is at coordinate (h1,v8) on that map [roughly 11 miles W of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: DBuch67

John Bruce o' the Corner

See John Bruce o the Forenit (File: DBuch67)

John Bruce o' the Fornet

See John Bruce o the Forenit (File: DBuch67)

John Buchan, Blacksmith

DESCRIPTION: "Dear John, my plough is come to hand" begins a letter to the blacksmith praising his work. "Her every joint is so exact ..." It makes the ox-team so fast "neighbors swear they are grown fat." Love to your family and "kind wishes to my Will"
AUTHOR: William Lillie (source: Greig/Duncan3)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 462, "John Buchan, Blacksmith" (1 text)
Roud #5965
File: GrD3462

John Bull and His Crew

See The Irish Harvestmen's Triumph (File: CrSNB104)

John Bull Lives In England

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "John Bull lives in England, Taffy lives in Wales. Sandy lives in Scotland where there is all the girls. Paddy lives in Ireland as ev'rebody knows. There never was a coward where the little shamrock grows."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong home
FOUND IN: Sweden Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 453-454, "John Bull" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13694
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paddy Magee's Dream" (theme of national comparison)
NOTES [67 words]: The Swedish shanty book Sang under Segel had the only previous printed version of this, but Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas seems to think that it originated in England and migrated to Sweden. - SL
I think this is true at least of the words (though I don't know if they migrated to Sweden). Steve Roud collected a version of the text, and there are rather similar nursery rhymes floating about. - RBW
File: Hugi452

John Bull, Can You Wonder at Crime

See Increase of Crime (File: MuLa043)

John Burke

DESCRIPTION: "Bad luck attend you Percy wherever you may be. You would not assist my Johnny for he's drownded ... in the flurry off Kerry Bay." His true love comes to the funeral "dressed in her rich robes" and they bid "adieu to Johnny as we all marched away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: death funeral disaster lament lover mother sister clothes
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, pp. 467-468, "John Burke" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: George Allan England, _Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt_ (also published as _The Greatest Hunt in the World_), Doubleday, 1924, pp. 131-132, "Johnny Burke" (1 text)
ST Pea467 (Partial)
Roud #9791
RECORDINGS:
Joshua Osborne, "John Burke" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [245 words]: Peacock notes "I was unable to find any reference to this lament in the Irish collections at my disposal." Burke's name and "Bad luck attend you" seem Irish enough, but maybe it's not Irish. There's a Kerry Bay near Gairloch in northwest Scotland across the Minch from the Outer Hebrides. The ballad mentions a "far field of glory on the leeward shore"; what war is this about? - BS
The prevailing winds in Britain are generally from the west (northwest in summer, southwest in winter). So the windward shore is Britain, the leeward the Hebrides, or Ireland -- or, just possibly, North America. It's hard to imagine a battle in the Hebrides that would be commemorated in an English song. And Kerry is on the southwest coast of Ireland. So "Kerry Bay" might be Dingle Bay, or just possibly Bantry Bay (which is just south of modern County Kerry, but in the same general area).
The most noteworthy battle in County Kerry proper was probably Callan (1261), but that is surely too early. So my guess (and it's just a guess) is that this refers to 1796 and the Bantry Bay landing, for which see "The Shan Van Voght." This fits on other grounds, since Hoche's Bantry Bay fleet had suffered badly from a storm (December 1796) and did not attempt to land.
But someone who wants to figure out this song really needs to look at England's version as well as Peacock's. It's not so clearly Irish, and the place is "Courage Bay." I can't find a Courage Bay on Google Maps, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Pea467

John Came Home

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

John Carter (John Cutter)

DESCRIPTION: On the Caroline, bound from Queenstown (Cobh, Ireland?) to Boston, first mate John Cutter murders four, including captain John Dwyer. Cutter, subdued by the crew and "mad raving," dies from his wounds. "May the Lord have mercy... for their poor souls"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: homicide death sea ship sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30133
RECORDINGS:
Pat Curtis, "John Carter" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Frank Knox, "John Cutter" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3JohCa

John Cherokee

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Refrain: "Alabama John Cherokee, Way-aye-yah! Alabama John Cherokee." Slave who keeps running away is caught and put on board a ship, from which he escapes again. He's put in chains, and finally starves to death in the hold.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917
KEYWORDS: shanty slave escape Indians(Am.) ghost
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 103, "John Cherokee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 439, "Alabama" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd,p. 330]
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "John Cherokee" is in Part 3, 7/28/1917.
Roud #4693
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Alabama John Cherokee
NOTES [29 words]: Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen and Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas both state this is definitely of Negro origin, probably introduced to seaman by slaves stowing cotton. - SL
File: Hugi439

John Chinaman

DESCRIPTION: "John Chinaman, John Chinaman, But five short years ago, I welcomed you from Canton, John -- But I wish I hadn't though." The singer complains that the Chinaman is dishonest and a thief who wants nothing but gold
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Appleton's California Songster, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: accusation immigration | Chinese racist
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 299, "John Chinaman" (1 text)
Roud #V42592
File: LDC299

John Chinaman, My Jo

DESCRIPTION: "John Chinaman, my jo, John, You're coming precious fast." More and more Chinese come with each ship. The miners drive the Chinese away. They have changed their diet. The singer tells the Chinese "Don't abuse the freedom you enjoy"
AUTHOR: Words: J. W. Conner (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (Conner's Irish Song Book, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: immigration warning mining | Chinese racist
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 301, "John Chinaman, My Jo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V42592
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Anderson, My Jo, John" (tune) and references there
NOTES [72 words]: Charles Thatcher also wrote a piece, "John Chinaman, My Jo"; it is clearly unrelated, opening
John Chinaman, my jo, John!
Oh, what can you be at?
To stay there in Victoria,
It strikes me you're a flat.
Both share a dislike of the Chinese immigrants, though.
As for the idea of the Chinese being "free" upon arriving in America -- they were free to be spat upon, perhaps. Certainly not free to be equal to "regular" Americans.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC301

John Chinaman's Appeal

DESCRIPTION: "American, now mind my song, If you would hear me sing, And I will tell you of the wrong" that happened to the Chinese immigrant. He nearly starved on the way. He was punished for eating a dog. He has been attacked. America is dangerous. He is leaving
AUTHOR: Words: Mart Taylor (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Taylor, The Gold Digger's Songbook, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: immigration hardtimes fight food dog | Chinese
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 302, "John Chinaman's Appeal" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #V57981
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Umbrella Courtship" (tune)
NOTES [47 words]: Unlike most songs of the gold rush era, this one is actually sympathetic to the Chinese immigrant, or at least to his sufferings, although it's still racist enough to use a bunch of gibberish and pretend it's Chinese. And it still clearly implies that the Chinese should stay away. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC302

John Chinaman's Marriage

DESCRIPTION: "Good people all, give ear, I pray... I'm giving you, in a song, The married life of poor Ching Chong." Having mined enough gold, he seeks a wife. He finally marries "Cock-eyed Fan" from Hangtown. But she does not like his life and soon abandons him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (Conner's Irish Song Book, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: immigration marriage abandonment | Chinese racist
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 303, "John Chinaman's Marriage" (1 text)
Roud #27781
File: LDC303

John Cook Had a Little Grey Mare

DESCRIPTION: "John Cook had a little grey mare, Hee, haw, hum, Her back stood up and her bones were bare, Hee, haw, hum." He rides up Shooter's Bank and Shooter's Hill, as the mare suffers, falls down, and makes her will
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Gammer Gurton's Garland, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: horse injury lastwill | bridle and saddle on shelf
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 276, "John Cook had a little grey mare" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #114, p. 95, "(John Cook had a little grey mare)"
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 83, "John Cook" (1 text)
Roud #5418
NOTES [15 words]: Widely believed to go back to the time of Elizabeth I, but I haven't seen absolute proof. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: OO20276

John Crow Say

DESCRIPTION: Call-response. The call is a single line beginning "John Crow say"; the response is "can't work, can't work on Sunday," both repeated. The chorus is "Think I'll tell a lie, kill your scrawny cow"(2x), then the call line and response.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
KEYWORDS: lie humorous nonballad worksong bird
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, Mango Time - Folk Songs of Jamaica (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), p. 54, "John Crow Say" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Valerie Walker, "John Crow Say I'm Wan' Decent Woman" (on JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
NOTES [127 words]: John Crow -- the turkey vulture -- is a character in Jamaican Annancy stories (see, for example, Walter Jekyll, Jamaican Song and Story (New York: Dover Publications, 1966 (reprint of 1907 edition)), #43 pp. 132-135, #46 pp. 140-142), "vainer and less ingenious than Anansi the spider" (Roberts liner notes to JamaicaFaithWorkPlay). [Anansi is the eponymous spider trickster of West Indian and Ashanti (West African) 'Anansi stories.']
Dexter and Taylor have this as a work song.
Call lines include "John Crow say": "I want a decent woman," "I'm a decent 'somebody'," "I'm a dry land tourist" and "I'm studying to be a teacher." These lines and the current description have been "translated" with some help from the Jamaican glossary in Dexter and Taylor. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcJoCrSa

John Dameray

DESCRIPTION: Shanty, with chorus, "John come down the backstay... John Dameray." The singer's mother urges him to come home; he decides to do so, for he has "no money and no clothes." He vows, "From sea I will keep clear, and live by selling beer"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893
KEYWORDS: shanty drink poverty homesickness
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 8-9, "John Dameray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 272-273, "John Dameray," "Johnny, Come Down the Backstay" (2 texts, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 201-202]
ST Doe008 (Partial)
Roud #9439
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John Damaray
File: Doe008

John Dolan

DESCRIPTION: Fiddler's mnemonic. "John Dolan he dreamt that Jon Durgan was dead, And John Durgan he dreamt that John Dolan was dead." (repeat). "Ti iddle di iddle de umpty do" (x4)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5)
KEYWORDS: nonballad death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 10-11, "John Dolan" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7050
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "McTavish Is Dead" (theme of two people both being dead)
NOTES [39 words]: Like "McTavish Is Dead," with which it shares a concept, this is apparently primarily a fiddler's mnemonic. I strongly suspect one was suggested by the other, with "McTavish" being the more likely source since it's better-known. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BWV5010

John Done Saw that Number

DESCRIPTION: "John done saw that number, Way in the middle of the air." John the Baptist's preaching is summarized, and his baptism of Jesus described. The descent of the spirit on Jesus concludes the song.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Rev. Moses Mason)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible Jesus
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 16-21, "John Done Saw That Number" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 61-64, (no title) (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 327-329, "(no title)" (2 texts)
Roud #11843
RECORDINGS:
Rev. Moses Mason, "John the Baptist" (Paramount 12702A, 1928; on AAFM2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel"
cf. "John Saw the Holy Number" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Wasn't That a Wonder" (some shared themes)
NOTES [239 words]: The feel of this is much like "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel," but the plot is purely New Testament (and the form argues that it is not the same as "John Saw the Holy Number," despite the similarity in first lines). The allusions include (where possible, I quote the text of Mark as the most primitive):
"John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance..." Mark 1:4; compare Matt. 3:1, Luke 3:2
"As it is written in the prophet Isaiah ["Esaias" in the song and the King James Bible]...
'The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
"Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight."'" - Mark 1:2-3; cf. Matt. 3:3, Luke 3:4, John 1:23
"Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather girdle about his waist." - Mark 1:6; cf. Matt. 3:4
"In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan." - Mark 1:9; cf. Matt. 3:13, (Luke 3:21)
"John would have prevented him, saying, 'I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? But Jesus answered him, 'Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.'" - Matt. 3:14-15
"And just as [Jesus] was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn open and the Spirit descending like a dove on him." - Mark 1:10; cf. Matt. 3:16, Luke 3:22, (John 1:32)
"The Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the Wilderness... [the Temptation]" - Matt. 4:1-11; cf. (Mark 1:12-13), Luke 4:1-13. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: CNFM061C

John Doolan

See The Wild Colonial Boy [Laws L20] (File: LL20)

John Dory [Child 284]

DESCRIPTION: John Dory gets a horse and sets out for Paris. There he meets King John. He offers to bring King John "all the churles in merie England" in return for a pardon. Dory is overtaken by one Nicholl of Cornwall, who takes him prisoner after a sharp battle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (Ravenscroft, Deuteromelia)
KEYWORDS: ship royalty pardon battle foreigner
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1350-1364 - Reign of John II of France (the only French king named John who lived during the Hundred Years' War)
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Child 284, "John Dory" (1 text)
Bronson 284, "John Dory" (7 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 284, "John Dory" (4 versions: #1a, #1b, #1e, #2)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 1, "John Dory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 1, "John Dory" (1 text, 1 tune; from Chappell; #1 in the first edition)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 133, "John Dory" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 67-68, "John Dory" (1 text plus excerpts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1c}
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 93-96, "John Dory" (1 text, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #1d, #3, #1c}
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 197-199, "John Dory" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed_, _Selections from the Works of Thomas Ravenscroft; A Musical Composer of the Time of King James the First_, Roxburgh Club, 1822, (available on Google Books) No. IX/p. 8, "The Courteous Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _Selections from the Works of Thomas Ravenscroft; A Musical Composer of the Time of King James the First_, Roxburgh Club, 1822, (available on Google Books) No. I/p. 1, "John Dory" (1 text, 1 tune)
C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 16, "John Dory" (1 text)
ST C284 (Full)
Roud #249
NOTES [180 words]: In addition to the citation from Ravenscroft, we find a reference to this song in Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle; Act II, scene iv, line 35 reads, "Would I had gone to Paris with John Dory" (so Wine, p. 327; KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, who does not number the scenes, makes it Act II, line 247 on p. 92; KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, makes it Act II, line 241 on p. 45). (For more on "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," see the notes to "Three Merry Men.")
Fowler, p. 32, points out that Child's presentation somewhat misrepresents Ravenscroft's tune, in which all the lines are repeated, i.e.
As it fell on a holy-day (As it fell on a holy-day), holy-day,
And upon a holy tide-a (And upon a holy-tide-a), tide-a,
John Dory bought him an ambling nag (John Dory bought him an ambling nag), ambling nag....
There is a fish, Latin name Zeus astralis, informally known as the "John Dory." It is apparently carnivorous, approaching its prey cautiously and colored so as to resemble seaweed. I do not know if the name is in any way connected with this song. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C284

John Fergusson's Crew

DESCRIPTION: "There once was a man In Howland did dwell; His name was John Fergusson...." His lumber camp is small. The food is so bad the loggers claimed the butter moved. Tthe cooks are no good. Several men are lost. The camp is known by "the pork rind on the door"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: logger hardtimes food cook moniker
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 28-29, "John Fergusson's Crew" (1 text)
File: Gr029

John Fox

DESCRIPTION: John Fox is caught stealing a hen. Expecting death, he makes his confession: his father was a thief; he steals to support his wife's appetite; he stole lambs before being caught. If you marry such a wife "train her wi' the rod. Use her to nae delicacies"
AUTHOR: Sawney Riddell (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: warning theft humorous animal chickens sheep father wife abuse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #103, p. 1, "John Fox" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 498, "John Fox" (1 text)
Roud #5984
NOTES [59 words]: Greig notes that the author, who is also the man who owned the stolen lambs in the song, must have written it "in the earlier part of last [19th] century, when the depredations of the fox had to be reckoned with. The song begins "There lives a man into this place, John Fox it is his name, And o' a' the ill deen hereaboot John Fox he gets the blame." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3498

John Francois

See Boney (File: Doe006)

John Funston [Laws F23]

DESCRIPTION: Young, handsome John Funston robs and murders William Cartmell. Although an innocent man is first held, Funston spends money too freely; he is captured and condemned to die. His family claims his body from two doctors who want it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Gordon collection)
KEYWORDS: homicide robbery execution corpse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 9, 1825 - John Funston murders William Cartmell
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws F23, "John Funston"
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 119, "John Funston" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gtimrd pp. 89-90, "John Funston" (1 text)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 81-82, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 401-402, "John Funston" (1 text)
DT 756, JONFUNST
Roud #2261
File: LF23

John Garner's Cattle Herd

DESCRIPTION: "Come, all you old-timers, and listen to my song... When we with old Joe Garner drove a beef herd up the trail." They had 2000 cattle and good cowboys, but the cows stampede and they are told they must bear the loss. The singer calls Garner a cattle thief
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy theft hardtimes trick
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 84-86, "John Garner's Cattle Herd" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 370-371, "John Garner's Trail Herd" (1 text)
Roud #4036
NOTES [7 words]: This is item dB29 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ThLo084

John Garner's Trail Herd

See John Garner's Cattle Herd (File: ThLo084)

John Gilbert

DESCRIPTION: "John Gilbert was a bushranger of terrible renown, For sticking lots of people up and shooting others down." He concludes he should be trying for bigger things, and holds up the town of Canowindra. Little is done to stop his depradations
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: robbery Australia outlaw
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1866 - Death of John Gilbert
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 128-129, "John Gilbert" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9120
NOTES [25 words]: For brief background on John Gilbert, a member of the famous Gardiner/Hall gang of bushrangers, see the notes to "Frank Gardiner" and "Ben Hall." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AnSt128

John Gilbert is de Boat

DESCRIPTION: "John Gilbert is de boat, di-de-o... Runnin' in the Cincinnati trade." Description of the boat's travels, her cargo, the crew. "You see dat boat a-comin', she's comin' round de bend, An' when she gits in, She'll be loaded down again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: ship travel commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 276, "John Gilbert is de Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 43-46, "John Gilbert" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 574, "John Gilbert" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10012
NOTES [46 words]: Botkin reports (following Wheeler), "The John Gilbert ran from Cincinnati to Florence, Alabama. She was built in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1881, and was named for Captain John Gilbert, of Evansville, Indiana, president of the Ohio and Tennessee River Packet Company." - RBW
File: LoF276

John Gilman Want Tobacco

See Ain't Gonna Rain No More (File: R557)

John Grumlie

See Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)

John Gunn

DESCRIPTION: John Gun, the singer, says his men have robbed many a purse of gold. They stole merchant goods in a market near Inverurie. He names those who gave him trouble and have been or will be repaid. He has been set free from jail and "must go abroad"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: prison robbery exile
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 256, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "John Gunn" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan2 256, "John Gunn" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5849
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "For A' That and A' That" (tune, according to Greig/Duncan2)
NOTES [60 words]: Greig/Duncan2: "[The singer] states that John Gunn was a well known robber in the north." "[Another singer] got it about '51 or '52 from a man who had been in the Turruff [sic] district." Maybe Turriff is meant. Greig/Duncan3 has a map of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3"; Turriff is at coordinate (v5,h8) on that map [roughly 31 miles NNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2256

John Hardie

See John Hardy [Laws I2] (File: LI02)

John Hardy [Laws I2]

DESCRIPTION: John Hardy, a "desperate boy... who carried a (gun) every day," threatens to kill any man who wins his money. Finally he does lose his money and shoots the other. Hardy flees, but before he can leave the state he is taken, tried, and hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1909 (JAFL22)
KEYWORDS: homicide gambling execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 19, 1894 - Execution (in Welch, WV) of one John Hardy, convicted for committing murder during a gambling fight
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Laws I2, "John Hardy"
Randolph 163, "John Hardy" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 244, "John Hardy" (3 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 244, "John Hardy" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 103, "John Henry" (1 short text, which despite the title appears to have two "John Hardy" verses and only one of "John Henry")
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #42, "John Hardie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 759-761, "John Hardy" (2 texts)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 393, "John Hardy" (2 texts)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #30, "John Hardy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 85, "John Hardy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 141, "John Hardy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 124-126, "John Harty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 50, "John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 142, "John Hardy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 246, "John Hardy" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 54, "John Hardy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 35, "John Hardy" (9 text, some of John Henry, some of John Hardy, some mixed: A is John Hardy with a John Henry second verse, B, C, and G are John Hardy with a John Henry opening verse, D, F, and I are pure John Hardy, E is John Hardy with material from John Henry and a "Pretty Little Foot" song, H is John Henry)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 114-115, "John Hardy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 52-53, "John Hardy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #67, "John Hardy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 50-52, "John Hardy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 87, "John Hardy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 217-218, "John Hardy" (1 text)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 179, "(John Hardy)" (1 fragment)
Cray-AshGrove, pp. 7-8, "John Hardy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 235-236, "John Hardy" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 197, "John Hardy" (1 text)
DT 656, JOHNHARD
Roud #3262
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley, "Old John Hardy" (Columbia 15654-D, 1931; rec. Apr. 14, 1930; on Ashley04)
Dock Boggs, "John Hardy" (on Boggs3, BoggsCD1)
Ted Boyd, "John Hardy" (on FarMtns1)
Carter Family, "John Hardy Was a Desperate Little Man" (Victor V-40190, 1930; Zonophone [UK] 4294, n.d.; rec. 1928; Bluebird B-6033/Montgomery Ward M-4741, 1935; on AAFM1)
Eva Davis, "John Hardy" (Columbia 167-D, 1924; Harmony 5097-H, n.d.; Velvet Tone 7036-V, n.d.; Diva 6010-G [as Eva David], c. 1930)
Buell Kazee, "John Hardy" (Brunswick 144, 1927; on BefBlues1, ConstSor1) (on Kazee01)
Leadbelly, "John Hardy" (Musicraft 311. 1945)
Frank Proffitt, "John Hardy" (on Proffitt03)
J. W. Russell, "John Hardy" (AFS 3163 A3, 1936)
Mike Seeger, "John Hardy" (on MSeeger01)
Pete Seeger, "John Hardy" (on PeteSeeger16) (on PeteSeeger27)
Ernest Stoneman, "John Hardy" (OKeh 7011, 1925); "Justin Winfield" [Ernest Stoneman, Willie Stoneman, and the Sweet Brothers], "John Hardy" (Gennett 6619, 1928; on RoughWays1)
Dan Tate, "John Hardy" (on FarMtns1)
Fields Ward, Glen Smith & Wade Ward, "John Hardy" (on HalfCen1)
Walter Williams, "John Hardy" (AFS, 1937; on KMM)
SAME TUNE:
Tom Joad (File: LDC499)
NOTES [619 words]: Cox prints a copy of the execution notice for John Hardy, who was convicted of first degree murder. He follows this with assorted personal reminiscences about Hardy. Unfortunately, the texts he quotes are very confused (most include John Henry verses among the stanzas about John Hardy), and one has to suspect that the reminiscences are also confused.
We also note that Sharp was finding North Carolina texts of the song only 20 years after the murder -- a surprisingly quick diffusion. I was initially tempted to wonder if Cox's John Hardy is indeed THE John Hardy.
I think these doubts can now be set aside. John Garst, who has done so much for John Henry scholarship, has also turned his attention to John Hardy, as has Norm Cohen.
Garst found the following:
"Census records report a John Hardy who was born in Virginia and who was 13 years old in 1880, when he lived in Glade Springs, Washington County, Virginia, with his parents, Miles and Malinda Hardy. If this is the John Hardy who was hanged in 1894, then he would have been about 27 years old, an age that fits some eyewitness descriptions.
"According to the Wheeling Daily Register of January 20, 1894, the trouble over the craps game was a pretext for Hardy to kill Thomas Drews. 'Both were enamoured of the same woman, and the latter proving the more favored lover, incurred Hardy's envy.' There was testimony to the effect that Hardy enlisted a confederate, Webb Gudger, who was also tried in connection with the crime.
Cohen and Garst both examined the data in Richard Ramella, "John Hardy: The Man and the Song," (Goldenseal 18, Spring 1992). Garst notes the following from that source:
"'Hardy's cohort Webb Gudger was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. After serving four years in the state penitentiary, he returned to McDowell County and later died in a railroad work accident near Elkhorn.' Gudger hid behind a rock during the game of craps and had agreed to shoot Drews if Hardy failed to do so.
"Hardy and Gudger were captured at the same time, a few days after the killing."
Ramella also states, "...Hardy's mother attempted to pay bail, but bail was not allowed for persons accused of capital offenses. There were possibly two other women connected with Hardy, his wife and a woman friend."
Garst has now established with high probability the existence of the wife, quoting the following news clip:
"Shot From Ambush.
"HUNTINGTON, W. Va., April 16.--
'Mrs. Mary Hardy was shot from ambush fifty miles south of this city last Saturday night while on her way home, by an unknown assassin. Her husband, John Hardy, was hanged in McDowell county several months ago. She was a desperate character."
Garst also found data on Gudger from the 1880 census:
Name: Webb Gudger
Home in 1880: Old Fort, McDowell, North Carolina
Age: 19
Estimated birth year: abt 1861
Birthplace: North Carolina
Occupation: Prisoner - Raleigh
Marital Status: Single
Race: Mulatto
Gender: Male
Garst observes that "his 'occupation' as a prisoner, at age 19, makes him a pretty good candidate" for Hardy's co-conspirator.
It all adds up to a pretty convincing case.
Other details: The shooting took place in Elkhorn, which at some time in the past was known as Shawnee Camp (see Richard Polenberg: Hear My Sad Story: The True Tales That Inspired Stagolee, John Henry, and Other Traditional American Folk Songs, Cornell University Press, 2015, p. 122); some versions say that Hardy killed a man "in Shawnee town" or similar. Both Hardy and his victim were Black. The trial records, although not the execution order, are missing. But the execution certainly happened; Polenberg, p. 126, has a photo of Hardy on the gallows shortly before he was hung. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LI02

John Hardy Was a Desperate Little Man

See John Hardy [Laws I2] (File: LI02)

John Harty

See John Hardy [Laws I2] (File: LI02)

John He Baptized Jesus

DESCRIPTION: "John he baptized Jesus; 'Twas all through his command. The Holy Bible tells us That John was a righteous man. Little children, our lodging's here tonight (x3), I know you by your little garments. Our lodging's here tonight."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 604, "John He Baptized Jesus" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 604, "John, He Baptized Jesus" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11914
NOTES [9 words]: Unquestionably a composite. But of what elements? - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3604

John Henry [Laws I1]

DESCRIPTION: The boss of a railroad crew has brought in a steam drill. John Henry, the best driver in the gang, vows he will never be outclassed by the machine. In a contest between the two, Henry is victorious (in most versions), but dies of the exertion
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (JAFL)
KEYWORDS: train work death technology railroading worker
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (46 citations):
Laws I1, "John Henry"
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 61-89, "John Henry" (2 texts plus many excerpts and a copy of the Blankenship broadside, 2 tunes)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 327-328, "John Henry Blues" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 270, "John Henry" (2 texts plus 5 fragments, 1 excerpt, and mention of 1 more, but only the "A" text, plus probably the "C" fragment, is this song; the fragments are of "Take This Hammer," "Swannanoah Tunnel," etc.)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 270, "John Henry" (7 excerpts, 7 tunes, of which "A," "A(1)," and perhaps "C" appear to be "John Henry"; "E," "G," and "J" appear to be "Take This Hammer," and "H" appears to be "Swannanoa Tunnel")
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 32-33, "John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 103, "John Henry" (1 short text, which despite the title appears to have two "John Hardy" verses and only one of "John Henry")
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #99, "John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 188-189, "John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 756-759, "John Henry" (2 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 168-169, "John Henry" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 383, "John Henry" (6 texts, but only three are true versions of "John Henry"; the rest appear to be variants of "Take this Hammer")
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 109, "John Henry" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 150-153, "John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 24-25, "John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 81, pp. 164-165, "John Henry (The Steel-Driving Man)" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 74, "John Henry" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 258-261, "John Henry" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 298, "John Henry-I"; 299, "John Henry-II" (2 texts, 2 tunes, the first containing a large portion of "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me/Been All Around This World" or a relative)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 3-10, "John Henry" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 233-237, "John Henry" (2 texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 240-241, "[John Henry]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 52 "Gonna Die With My Hammer In My Hand (John Henry)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 243, "John Henry" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 111, "John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 748, "The Death of John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune -- a strange version, sung, and partly spoken, by Dave Macon. It starts with the death and funeral, then goes back to the familiar story)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 111-115, "(John Henry)" (1 text); pp. 280-285, "John Henry" (3 tunes, partial texts); also pp. 137-138, "(John Henry)" (1 text, with a fragment of the plot of "John Henry" but many lyrics from "Take This Hammer")
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 35, "John Hardy" (9 text, some of John Henry, some of John Hardy, some mixed: A is John Hardy with a John Henry second verse, B, C, and G are John Hardy with a John Henry opening verse, D, F, and I are pure John Hardy, E is John Hardy with material from John Henry and a "Pretty Little Foot" song, H is John Henry)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 53-55, "John Henry" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 112-113, "John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 55-56, "John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a folktale version)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #66, "John Henry" (2 texts, 2 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 48-49, "John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 27-28, "John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 230-234, "John Henry" (3 texts plus a text of "Take This Hammer")
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 82, "John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 107, "John Henry" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 170, "John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 123, "John Henry" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 70, "John Henry" (1 excerpt, from user Tess_W, posted September 1, 2021)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 122-126, "John Henry" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 459, "John Henry" (notes only)
DT 317, JHNHENRY* JOHNHENR
ADDITIONAL: Zora Neale Hurston, _Mules and Men_ (New York,1990 (paperback edition of 1935 original)), pp. 251-255, "John Henry" (with tune)
Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962,, p. 31, "John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune, adaptedy by Lead Belly)
Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 383-392, "[The John Henry Epic]" (1 text plus some related pieces, 1 tune)
Roud #790
RECORDINGS:
Rich Amerson, "John Henry" (on NFMAla3)
DeFord Bailey, "John Henry" (Victor 23336, 1932/Victor 23831, 1933; rec. 1928)
James "Iron Head" Baker, "Little John Henry" (AFS 202 A1, 1934) (AFS 1853 B1, 1853 B2, 1937)
Dock Boggs, "John Henry" (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1)
Big Bill Broonzy, "John Henry" (on Broonzy01)
Callahan Brothers, "John Henry" (Decca 5998, 1941; Decca 46104, 1947)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "John Henry Blues" (OKeh 7004, 1924)
Bill Cornett ,"John Henry" (on MMOKCD)
Bill & Jean Davis, "John Henry" (on CloseHomeMS)
(Joe) Evans & (Arthur) McClain, "John Henry Blues" (Oriole 8080/Perfect 181/Romeo 5080/Conqueror 7876, all 1931; on BefBlues3)
Fruit Jar Guzzlers, "Steel Driving Man" (Paramount 3121/Broadway 8199, 1928; on TimesAint03)
G. B. Grayson and Henry Whitter, "John Henry the Steel Driving Man" (Gennett, unissued, 1927)
Woody Guthrie, "John Henry" (Stinson 628, mid-1940s)
Woody Guthrie & Cisco Houston, "John Henry" (onWoodyFolk, ClassRR)
Willie Hamilton, "John Henry" (on HandMeDown1)
Vera Hall, "John Henry" (AFS 1320 A2, 1937) [Note: Dixon/Godrich/Rye also identifies this AFS number with a Vera Hall recording of "Po' Laz'us"; one of them is clearly in error, but I don't know which - PJS]
Sid Harkreader, "John Henry" (Broadway 8114, c. 1930)
Sid Hemphill, "John Henry" (on LomaxCD1700)
Doc Hopkins, "John Henry" (Radio 1411, n.d.)
Furry Lewis, "John Henry" (on FLewis01, DownHome)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers, "John Henry Blues" (OKeh 45101, 1927; on TimesAint02, ConstSor1, StuffDreams2)
Buell Kazee, "John Henry" (on Kazee01)
Ed Lewis, "John Henry" (on LomaxCD1705)
Furry Lewis, "John Henry (The Steel Driving Man), parts 1 & 2" (Vocalion 1474, 1930; rec. 1929; part 1 on USChartersHeroes)
Uncle Dave Macon, "The Death of John Henry" (Vocalion 5096=Vocalion 15320, 1926) (Brunswick 112, 1927; Brunswick 80091, n.d., Coral MH-174; probably the same recording as the preceding)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "John Henry was a Little Boy" (Bluebird B-6629, 1936); "John Henry" (King 550, 1946)
Earl McCoy, Alfred Meng & Clem Garner, "John Henry" (Columbia 15622-D, 1930)
J. J. Neece, Cleve & V. L. Sutphin, "John Henry" (on CloseHomeMS)
New Lost City Ramblers, "John Henry" (on NLCR05)
George Pegram, "John Henry" (on ClassOT)
Virgil Perkins & Jack Sims, "John Henry" (on FMUSA, AmSkBa)
Leslie Riddle, "John Henry" (on CloseHomeMS)
Mike Seeger, "The Death of John Henry" (on MSeeger02)
Pete Seeger, "John Henry" (on PeteSeeger05) (on PeteSeeger16) (on PeteSeeger47) (on PeteSeeger23)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "John Henry" (Edison 51869, 1926) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5194, 1926)
Glen Stoneman, George Stoneman & James Lindsay, "John Henry" [instrumental] (on LomaxCD1702)
Gid Tanner & Riley Puckett, "John Henry" (Columbia 15019-D, 1924; Silvertone 3262, 1926 [as Gibbs & Watson])
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "John Henry" (Columbia 15142-D, 1927)
Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, "John Henry" (on ClassAfrAm)
Henry Thomas, "John Henry" (Vocalion 1094, 1927)
Welby Toomey, "Death of John Henry" (Champion 15198/Silvertone 5002, 1927)
Willie Turner, "John Henry" (on NFMAla6)
Doc Watson, Gaither Carlton & Arnold Watson, "John Henry" (on WatsonAshley01)
Williamson Bros. & Curry, "Gonna Die With My Hammer In My Hand" (OKeh 45127, 1927; on AAFM1, TimesAin't3)
Martin Young & Corbett Grigsby, "John Henry" [instrumental] (on MMOKCD)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Take This Hammer" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Shelton Brothers, "New John Henry Blues" (Decca 5173, 1936)
NOTES [1167 words]: The popularity of this song is shown by its influence on other songs: Not only is John Henry's hammer mentioned in "Take this Hammer" and relatives, but it also inspired W. C. Handy's "John Henry Blues." Quite a record for a song which came into existence only well into the railroad age.
The bibliography of this song is huge, and no attempt is made to reproduce it here. In 1983, when Brett Williams published John Henry: A Bio-Bibliography (Greenwood Press), the bibliography was 13 pages long (though some of the books in the "Background" section are pretty irrelevant). But it lists 13 films about John Henry, and a page and a half of printed works inspired by him -- how many folk songs have such a legacy?
And, of course, more has been published since.
The first two major scholarly books on the topic were Guy B. Johnson, John Henry: Tracking Down a Negro Legend, 1929, and Louis Chappell, John Henry: A Folk-Lore Study, 1933. Both were attempts to find "the real John Henry." And both eventually turned to West Virginia's Big Bend Tunnel, on the Chesapeake and Ohio (C & O) line -- by far the most common location cited in versions of the ballad. In that case, the contest took place in the early 1870s.
More recently, Scott Nelson's book 2006 book Steel Drivin' Man offered the suggestion that John Henry was John William Henry, a prisoner in the Virginia State Penitentiary, leased to C & O to work at Lewis Tunnel. His body was returned to Pen for burial near the white workhouse there.
The most detailed detective work, however, has been done by John Garst, who has comparied the versions of the song with local traditions about John and such external testimony of witnesses as he can find. (He also looked over this note to make sure I didn't misrepresent him, and made extremely valuable suggestions. And I do mean *extremely* valuable; this is not a perfunctory thanks. He corrected several errors, and amplified points which I had missed. Any remaining errors are of course mine.) He has published an initial version of his findings in "Chasing John Henry in Alabama and Mississippi," Tributaries: Journal of the Alabama Folklife Association, Issue No. 5, 2002, 92-129, and an updated (but necessarily short and minimally documented) version in the Old Time Herald, Volume 11, #10 (April-May 2009), pp. 14-23.
His conclusions are in stark contrast to what has gone before. He argues that
* The John Henry story took place near Leeds, Alabama, in the Dunnavant Valley, near Oak Tunnel, in the vicinity of Coosa and Oak Mountains (which are two miles apart).
* That the "Captain" of the song is Fred Dabney (born 1835), who was entitled to be called Captain; he had served at that rank in the Confederate Army. He worked for the C & W railroad -- he was the chief engineer and responsible for building the line through the Dunnavant Valley
* That John Henry was perhaps (John) Henry Dabney, born c. 1850 -- possibly a slave on the Dabney family plantation, or possibly Henry, slave to Captain Dabney's father, Augustine "Gus" Dabney, a lawyer in Raymond, Mississippi. John Garst tells me that the plantation was owned by Captain Dabney's uncle, Thomas Dabney. In 1860, Thomas owned 154 slaves, while Gus owned eight, one of whom we know by name, Henry. Gus's Henry was a teenager during the Civil War, "just the right age to have been John Henry."
* That the wife in the song may have been Margaret Foston, whom he married in 1869. According to John Garst, "This depends on the assumption that the Henry Dabney of Copiah County in the 1870 and 1880 censuses was John Henry. The data suggest that the census Henry and the slave Henry could be the same person, and that makes a tidy story, but that is conjecture. What we have are three separate items that we can interpret as overlapping: (1) Spencer's testimony that he was John Henry Dabney, (2) Letitia Dabney's testimony about the slave boy Henry in her (and Captain Dabney's) family, (3) census and marriage records for Henry Dabney of Copiah County, Mississippi (1870 and 1880)."
* That the most likely date for the contest is Tuesday, September 20, 1887
* That John Henry may be one of the first people buried (in an unmarked grave) at Sand Ridge cemetery, about two miles from the C & W line.
What we unfortunately still lack is, obviously, John Henry's grave -- and also external evidence of a contest with a steam drill (though even here, Dunnavant has a better case, since steam drills apparently were not used on the Big Bend Tunnel. John Garst tells me that "We know that Coosa Tunnel was bored using Ingersoll steam drills. The case for Big Bend rests on the possibility, for which there is testimony, that a steam drill was tried out there against John Henry. The use of steam drills in boring Big Bend is therefore not required for the Big Bend theory."). These are the sorts of things that, of course, do not show up in census records or the like.
The Old-Time Herald article by itself is not entirely convincing -- too much of the evidence has to be offered in extremely condensed form. John Garst has said himself that it is too short to document the material he has -- and his postings to the Ballad-L mailing list demonstrate this conclusively: He has more than is in the OTH article. We can only hope that he will someday be able to publish in full form -- including not only his conclusions but his source data. (Most notably, I think he needs a textual analysis of the versions of the song "John Henry," attempting to isolate what is original and what a later accretion.)
(Since the above was written, Garst has published one more article, "John Henry and the Reverend Bayes," Missouri Folklore Society Journal, Volume 27-28 (cover date 2005-200, but published 2015), pp. pp. 98-123. In this article, he begins to take on the issue of how the song was transmitted. In this, he attempts to re-create the two key tools of textual criticism, "transcriptional probability" and "intrinsic probability." For someone attempting to create a discipline from scratch, he does fairly well, but unfortunately, there has been much work done in the field that he is not aware of and that would have made his presentation -- and his foray into Bayesian probabilities -- more complete and relevant.)
With all that scholarly caution, however, I must add that I think John Garst has by now presented a very compelling case. I was never persuaded by earlier arguments about John Henry's existence. I now incline to think he was real. I look forward to John's full-length publication of his data.
John Henry's career which ends with him dying "with his hammer in his hand" may have been partly inspired by real people. Robert Napier, a key figure in the history of Scottish steamships, came from a family of blacksmiths and liked to declare that he was BORN with a hammer in his hand; see Stephen Fox, Transatlantic: Samuel Cunard, Isumbard Brunel, and the Great Atlantic Steamships, Harper Collins, 2003, p. 33. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LI01

John Henry Blues

See John Henry [Laws I1] (File: LI01)

John Henry Hammer Song, The

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

John Hinks

See Jack Hinks (File: Doy09)

John Hobbs

DESCRIPTION: "A jolly shoemaker, John Hobbs, John Hobbs... He married Jane Carter... But he caught a Tartar." "He tied a rope to her... To Smithfield he brought her... But nobody bought her." All the men are trying to sell their wives, so he hangs himself on the rope
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Raven)
KEYWORDS: wife husband marriage commerce death suicide humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, p. 144, "John Hobbs" (1 text)
Roud #21966
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sale of a Wife" (theme) and references there
File: JRUI144

John Hopper's Hill

See John Whipple's Mill (File: FSC171)

John J. Curtis [Laws G29]

DESCRIPTION: John J. Curtis, a coal miner, is trapped in an avalanche of coal after setting a dynamite explosion. When he succeeds in lighting a match, he discovers he is blind. He asks his listeners for kindness
AUTHOR: Joseph Gallagher
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: mining begging injury
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1888 - John Curtis, age 28, is blinded in a mine in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. He made his living thereafter by singing and selling broadsides of this song, made for him by Joseph Gallagher
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws G29, "John J. Curtis"
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 201-202, "John J. Curtis" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 391-393, "John J. Curtis" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 711, JJCURTIS JOHNCURT
Roud #7724
File: LG29

John Jacob Guggenheimer Smith

See John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt (File: FSWB240B)

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt

DESCRIPTION: "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt His name is my name too. Wherever we go out, The people always shout, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt. Da da da da da da da."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 240, "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 199, "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 149, "(John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt)" (1 short text, from user Crypto-Willobie, posted October 27, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 130, 152, 175, 285, 289, 414, 415, 424, "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt"/'John Jacob Guggenheimer Smith" (notes only)
Harbin-Parodology, #40, pp. 16-17, "John Jacob Guggenheimer Smith" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 37, "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JJJSCHM*
ST FSWB240B (Full)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "John Jacob Jinglehaimer Schmitt" (on PeteSeeger11)
NOTES [74 words]: The Wikipedia page for this song ("John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt") suggests that there is "some evidence" that this song arose in the vaudeville era, perhaps in ethnic comedy. It offers no evidence for this, however -- not even a footnote. I wouldn't call it evidence; I'd call it a hypothesis. More definite is the fact that it was being sung by various scout troops by the 1930s. These probably were the main reason it became widespread. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB240B

John James O'Hara

DESCRIPTION: John James O'Hara from Tara and Mickey McNamara from Mayo "are famous Irishmen no matter where they go." Now "we're returning back to dear old Erin's Isle"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: return Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 54, "John James O'Hara" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 63, "(John James O'Hara)" (1 text)
Roud #19472
ALTERNATE TITLES:
O'Hara From Tara, McNamara From Mayo
NOTES [74 words]: This sounds to me as if O'Hara and McNamara were musical performers who went to the United States. There was a John O'Hara responsible for a 1941 musical, "Pal Joey" (see Gilbert, LostChords, p. 353; the songs were by Rodgers and Hart, no less); with so little background from Tunney's song, I doubt we can tell if they are the same. It doesn't seem very likely -- for one thing, it's too recent. I can't find any candidates for McNamara. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: TSF054

John Jasper

DESCRIPTION: "John Jasper was a man, as you all do understand, And he preach-ed to de people with a vengeance... And he preache'ed to de people dat de sun do move." Concerning the power of the preaching of Jasper
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious clergy
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1812-1901 - LIfe of John Jasper, originally a slave, who became a preacher in 1839 after a conversion experience and often preached a sermon, "De Sun Do Move"
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 605, "John Jasper" (1 text plus a fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 605, "John Jasper" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11915
File: Br3605

John Kanaka

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "John Kanaka-naka, too-li-ay." The sailors describe how they will "work tomorrow but no work today!" Some details of their trip around the horn on a Yankee ship are given
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: sailor shanty work
FOUND IN: West Indies(Barbados) US(NE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 288-289, "John Kanaka" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p.212]
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 94-95, "John Kanaka" (1 tet, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 50-51, "John Kanaka" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 219, "(No title)" (1 short text, which lacks the chorus but has the same first line as the Maine version of this song; it is too short to classify otherwise)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 210, "Too-Li-Aye" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 72-73, "A Yankee Ship, and a Yankee Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JONKANAK*
Roud #8238
NOTES [190 words]: "Kanaka" was a term applied to Hawaiian men. Whether this song is referring to that or to "Canucks" (French-Canadians) is obscure. - PJS
The term is used in Australia for Polynesians in general, especially those who worked in the Queensland sugar plantations. (It is said to mean simply "man.") I have to suspect that the song originally referred to the Polynesians, though of course northern sailors might have thought it meant Canucks.
Edward E. Morris, A Dictionary of Austral English, 1898 (I use the 1972 Sydney University Press with a new foreword but no new content), p. 229, defines it as "n. and adj. a labourer from the South Sea Islands, working in Queensland sugar-plantations. The word is Hawaaian (Sandwich Islands)." The first use of the word in Hawaii is dated to 1794.
The version in Heart-Songs, "A Yankee Ship, and a Yankee Crew," is implicitly lumped here by Roud. I'm far from sure I agree -- "John Kanaka" is not mentioned, and the chorus form is different -- but I'll file it here to let you think about it. But I used the Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine version as the earliest date, because it's certainly this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: FaE050

John Kooner song

See Juba (File: BSoF708)

John Kuner song

See Juba (File: BSoF708)

John Ladner

DESCRIPTION: John Ladner leaves PEI to find work in Saint John. Failing that, he goes to Maine and works six years in Madison. Thanksgiving morning he is crushed by logs he is rolling to a stream to be floated to the mill. Doctors cannot save him. He dies at 23.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: death lumbering memorial
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 29, 1900 - probable date of the death of John Ladner (see NOTE)
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 40-41, "John Ladner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 60-61,248, "John Ladner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 13-17,80, "John Ladner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 26, "John Ladner" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Din040 (Partial)
Roud #4061
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Peter Amberley [Laws C27]" (plot)
NOTES [81 words]: This song is item dC40 in Laws's Appendix II.
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland have a report that the grave "is in the Victoria West, P.E.I. Cemetery and it was dated circa 1895."
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland: "John Ladner, 33, of Victoria West was killed in a logging accident in Madison, Maine, on Thanksgiving Day, November 29, 1900." - BS
Manny and Wilson note a version which dates the accident to 1884. One must suspect confusion with something else - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: Din040

John Lewis

See Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise) [Laws F4] AND Naomi Wise [Laws F31] (File: LF04)

John Lovie

DESCRIPTION: A man loves his maid servant. His mother is opposed. She becomes pregnant. He poisons her. Her mother asks for an examination and the doctors find arsenic. The man is tried but guilt was not proven. "We'll leave him to Heaven's just judgement at last"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: homicide trial pregnancy poison mother servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 206, "John Lovie" (1 text)
Roud #5836
NOTES [131 words]: Greig/Duncan2 quotes an account of the trial from Bruce, The Black Kalendar of Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1854). Margaret Mackessar died August 14, 1827. John Lovie was tried and a "Not Proven" verdict returned. - BS
Emily Lyle, Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, p. 106, comments briefly on two "arsenic ballads" in the Greig/Duncan collection, "John Lovie" and "The Wife o' Gateside." She points out that Scots juries were allowed three verdicts, Guilty, Not Guilty, and Not Proven -- the latter of these allowing the accused to go free but saying that there was a significant probability of guilt. In both cases, apparently, the use of arsenic was demonstrated but it could not be shown who poisoned the dead person. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD2206

John MacAnanty's Courtship (The Fairy King)

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees MacAnanty courting a pretty girl, promising to make her his queen. She says she is too poor, and her parents and friends would be angry. He says they can sail around the world and return in a night, and that he has found no other like her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Joyce)
KEYWORDS: love courting magic beauty rejection
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H56, p. 354, "John MacAnanty's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6875
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Fairy King's Courtship
File: HHH056

John Malone

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going with Captain Murphy ... There's nothing to be had by us in this neglected Isle ... The Irishman that stays at home must wear the Union brand ... I'm sailing for Columbia's shore; may God send fair the wind ... pray for John Malone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell sea ship America patriotic Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 81, "John Malone" (1 text)
Roud #20549
File: Ran081

John Marshall

DESCRIPTION: "We're glad to see you, John Marshall, my boy, So fresh from the chisel of Rogers. Go take your stand on the monument there Along with the other old codgers." The singer tells Marshall of all that has gone wrong since his death.
AUTHOR: Innes Randolph?
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: America judge political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1801-1835 - John Marshall serves as Chief Justice of the United States
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 236, "John Marshall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7709
NOTES [167 words]: This song came out of the post-Civil War reconstruction of Virginia, when the southern states were still treated as occupied territory. The song portrays a state held in subjection, against what the singer views as the requirements of the constitution.
In defense of the Radical Republicans -- who put Virginia in this suppressed condition -- it should be pointed out that their view was that the Confederate states, by withdrawing from the Union, had committed governmental suicide and had therefore to be recreated.
John Marshall (1755-1835), of Virginia, was not the first Chief Justice of the United States, but he was the first great head of the judiciary. At the very beginning of his term (1803, in the case "Marbury vs. Madison") he established the principle of "judicial review," i.e. that the Supreme Court was the ultimate guardian and interpreter of the Constitution. Although not explicit in the Constitution, this capacity is one of the chief regulators of the U.S. balance of power. - RBW
File: R236

John Martin, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye jolly fishermen a-going to the ice, Beware of the John Martin and don't go in her twice." Skipper Nick Ash is cruel; he throws the singer's teapot overboard and makes the crew work ever harder. They still gather many seal.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Murphy, Songs Sung by Old Time Sealers of Many Years Ago)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship hardtimes work
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 20-21, "The Song of the John Martin (1)," "The John Martin (2)" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, editor, _Songs Sung by Old-TIme Sealers of Many Years Ago_, James Murphy Publishing, 1925 (PDF available from Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 6, "SOng of the 'John Martin'" (1 text)
Shannon Ryan, _The Ice Hunters: A History of Newfoundland Sealing to 1914_, Breakwater Books, 1994, p. 263, "[The Song of] The John Martin" (1 excerpt)
ST RySm020 (Partial)
Roud #12524
NOTES [277 words]: Doyle, who published this song in his 1927 edition, claims it was written by "in 1845 by Stephen Reardon of Perry's Cove," but the earlier publication by Murphy does not list an author. Doyle also says the John Martin was captained by John Bransfield, who is not mentioned in the song. The sources claim the song was written in the 1840s. I have no information about skipper Nick Ash, but Francis Ash commanded the sealing steamer Lion 1872-1880, then the Bear in 1881-1882 and the Kite in 1886-1888 (Levi George Chafe, Chafe's Sealing Book: A History of the Newfoundland Sealfishery from the Earliest Available Records Down To and Including the Voyage of 1923, third edition, Trade Printers and Publishers, Ltd., 1923 (PDF scan available from Memorial University of Newfoundland), p. 87). I would assume he was Nick Ash's son; Newfoundland sealing captains tended toward dynasties.
Shannon Ryan, The Ice Hunters: A History of Newfoundland Sealing to 1914, Breakwater Books, 1994, p. 280 n. 193, says that a ship John Martin sailed from Carbonear or Harbour Grace to the seal hunt on several occasions in the 1850s, most often commanded by a Captain Taylor, and notes that (contrary to Doyle), Captain Bransfield commanded several sealing ships in the 1840s, but not the John Martin. On the other hand, this does not preclude the possibility that he commanded the John Martin during the months when she was not sealing.
The John Martin was credited with helping rescue the crew of the Mary Francis when she was wrecked in 1849 (Ryan, pp. 293-294).
I have a note, the origin of which I cannot trace, that the John Martin was lost in 1859. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: RySm020

John Maynard

DESCRIPTION: "It was on Lake Erie's broad expanse one bright midsummer's day" that the Ocean Queen catches fire. The captain orders her to make for the nearest shore. Helmsman John Maynard holds her on course even though he dies in the flames
AUTHOR: Horatio Alger Jr. (source: Grand'ther Baldwin's Thanksgiving)
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (Grand'ther Baldwin's Thanksgiving)
KEYWORDS: death ship disaster fire
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 106-107, "John Maynard" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Horatio Anger, Jr., _Grand'ther Baldwin's Thanksgiving: with Other Ballads and Poems_, Loring (Boston), 1875 (available on Google Books), pp. 45-50, "John Maynard" (1 text)
Roud #15894
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jim Bluedsoe" (theme of a heroic crewman on a burning ship)
NOTES [152 words]: Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors claim that this is based on an actual event of August 9, 1841, in which the steamer Eriecaught fire and Augustus Fuller brought her to shore but died on the way. Given how many changes took place in the story, I would hardly consider the song to be "based on" anything other than folklore, but maybe it could be said to be "inspired by" that event.
This appeared just four years after John Hay published "Jim Bludsoe," which is almost identical in plot although with a slightly different emphasis. I wonder if that wasn't as much of an inspiration as the 1841 disaster.
Yes, this is the Horatio Alger who was responsible for "Horatio Alger stories." He obviously wrote enough poetry to publish a book of it (although it's only 125 pages in rather large type). This, however, is the only poem of his which was reprinted enough to have an entry in Granger's Index to Poetry - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LaGo106

John McBride's Brigade

DESCRIPTION: "In far-off Africa to-day the English fly dismayed Before the flag of green and gold born by McBride's Brigade." The Irish Brigade fights with Kruger against the English in Transvaal. "Remember '98". The flag will fly with McBride on Ireland's soil.
AUTHOR: (published by Arthur Griffith)
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (_United Irishman_, April 7 edition)
KEYWORDS: army war Africa Ireland patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 92, "John McBride's Brigade" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Green (I)" (tune) and references there
NOTES [812 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: The United Irishman claimed the ballad "is being sung throughout Mayo" in 1900. "John McBride had become a major in the Boer army after forming an Irish Brigade in South Africa. He stood as a candidate for Mayo in the election of 1900, but was not elected. He was sentenced to death and shot after the rising of 1916."
For more information about McBride's Brigade and the Irish support for the Boers see the book review of MacBride's Brigade by Donald McCracken at the Republican Sinn Fein site. - BS
The reference is evidently to the second Boer War (the 1899-1902 conflict people usually think of when one mentions the Boer War). The first war (1880-1881) was almost more of a demonstration, in which the Transvaal and Orange Free State won something approximating what the Irish would have called Home Rule: they ran their internal affairs but let Britain handle foreign policy.
The second war was very complicated: The Boers had discovered gold, which the British wanted; on the other hand, the Boers were treating the Black natives even worse than the British.
But there was a lot more to it. The Boers of course wanted independence -- and, after the disastrous stunt known as the Jameson Raid (a private attempt in 1895 to control the Boers, but widely viewed as inspired by the British government), Kaiser Wilhelm II sent a telegram of support to Paul Kruger (1825-1904), the most important Boer leader. What should have been a colonial affair became an international incident.
The Boers were initially very successful, forcing the British to bring in a real army to suppress them. Many of these troops, ironically, were Irish; see "South Down Militia" for one of their songs. But, since the Boers were fighting the British, naturally a lot of Irish radicals supported the Boers.
It should be noted, however, that the two "Irish Brigades" which fought with the Boers were not from Ireland; they were locals. There was a pro-Boer movement in Ireland, but few men enlisted.
One of the Irish Brigades was insignificant; organized by a "Colonel" Lynch, it existed for only a few months, did not fight, and had few even of South African Irishmen (Kee, p. 148.)
The other Irish force was more significant. It even had an Irish-born Irishman: John MacBride (1865-1916). Upon his arrival, he was commissioned major, making him the second-in-command behind "Colonel" John Blake (an American emigrant to Africa who did at least have West Point training; Belfield, p. 23); MacBride did command for a time when Blake was wounded.
Kee, p. 149, notes that MacBride's brigade "played, by comparison with those Irishmen in the British army, a totally insignificant part in the war. It existed only for one year, from September 1899 to September 1900, when it was disbbanded by the Boers and the men gave themselves up to the Portugese frontier post at Kamati."
Townshend, p. 10, observes that the "aid of a few hundred Irish miners was probably less valuable as military than as moral support to the Afrikaners."
MacBride would estimate that his unit suffered 30% casualties -- yet, according to Kee, it lost only about 80 men, of whom 17 were killed. This implies that the "brigade" had an actual strength of 300-350 men, making it not a brigade but an understrength battalion. Presumably it was called a brigade because, well, there were lots of Irish Brigades. At least it makes it less unreasonable to have a major in command.
MacBride continued to find trouble even after coming home. In early 1900, he was nominated for parliament in a South Mayo by-election -- but was crushed by 2401 votes to 427 (Kee, p. 149).
This song may have been written in connection with that election, though it wasn't published until some weeks too late. Kee, who cites it on page 149, isn't clear on whether future Irish president Arthur Griffith -- at that time considered to be a rather militant nationalist, though he would come to be much more conservative -- wrote the piece or just published it.
MacBride in 1903 married the famous nationalist Maud Gonne; their son Sean was a major force in the IRA and in Irish politics after the Civil War.
MacBride did not participate in the planning of the 1916 rebellion (according to Foy/Barton, p. 89, the leaders "did not trust him to keep a secret"), but he joined the fighting "at the last moment" (Golway, p. 240), and was executed on May 5, 1916. It will tell you something about Maud Gonne that she divorced MacBride after their son was born, then adopted his name only after his execution. To be sure, Golway, p. 204, calls him "a boor, often drunk and menacing"; Yeats would call him "a drunken, vainglorious lout" (Foy/Barton, p. 89).
If this song was indeed published in 1900, it was written at a time when the Boers seemed to be well on their way to expelling the British. The tide would soon turn. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: Zimm092

John McGoldrick and the Quaker's Daughter

DESCRIPTION: John McGoldrick loves a Quaker's daughter. Her father opposes McGoldrick and frames him to hang as a radical. The girl gets the jailer and turnkey drunk. The couple escape and are captured. They are freed on the friendly testimony and marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (Sparling)
KEYWORDS: love marriage manhunt prison escape freedom father
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 98, "John McGoldrick and the Quaker's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 319-320, 512, "John M'Goldrick's Trial for the Quaker's Daughter"
Roud #3047
File: OLoc098

John McKeown and Margaret Deans

DESCRIPTION: "John McKeown and Margaret Deans, they were a matchless pair." As they sneak out, shortly before their wedding, she asks him to pick flowers. He trips and nearly falls off a cliff. She comes to his aid, falls over herself, and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting flowers death
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H129, pp. 141-142, "John McKeown and Margaret Deans" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9447
NOTES [42 words]: This really sounds like it ought to have a moral at the end (though "don't sneak out to pick flowers on a clifftop" sounds a little strong). It's just that sort of banal-tragic song. There is no hint of such a conclusion in the Henry text, though. - RBW
File: HHH129

John Mitchel

DESCRIPTION: "I am a true-born Irishman, John Mitchell is my name... I laboured hard both day and night to free my native land." He is taken, claiming he committed no crime except loving Ireland. He is transported to Bermuda, but hopes a free Ireland will remember him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1848 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion punishment transportation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 27, 1848 - John Mitchel is "kidnapped, and carried off from Dublin, in chains, as a convicted 'Felon'." (source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, quoting Jon Mitchel's _Jail Journal_)
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar) US(MW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, p. 45, "John Mitchel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H179a, pp. 125-126, "John Mitchel's Farewell to His Countrymen" (1 text, 1 tune); H179b, pp. 126-127, "John Mitchell (b)" (1 text, tune referenced)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 27, "John Mitchel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 59, "Mitchel's Address" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 92-93, "John Mitchell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 36, "John Mitchell" (1 text)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 217-220, "John Mitchell (Mitchell's Address)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 356-357, "John Mitchell's Address" (1 text, with a tune on p. 594)
Roud #5163
RECORDINGS:
"Pops" Johnny Connors, "John Mitchel" (on IRTravellers01)
The McNulty Family, "John Mitchell" (on IRMcNulty-Night1)
Jim Rice, "John Mitchel" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2467), "Mitchells Address," E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Harding B 11(1908), 2806 b.10(55), Harding B 15(205a) , "John Mitchell's Address"
LOCSinging, as108900, "Mitchell's Address," Taylor (Bethnal Green), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Granua's Lament for the Loss of her Blackbird Mitchel the Irish Patriot" (subject: John Mitchel)
cf. "The Wee Duck (The Duck from Drummuck)" (subject: John Mitchel)
NOTES [924 words]: John Mitchel (1815-1875) was one of the leading literary lights of the Young Ireland movement of the early-to-mid nineteenth century -- a movement which at the start was generally peaceful and liberal, but earnest in its appeal for better conditions.
Mitchel came to prominence in 1847 when he founded the journal The United Irishman. This came in the aftermath of the potato famines. (For the background on the Rebellion and the Blight, see the notes on "Skibbereen.") Until that time, Irish nationalism, led by Daniel O'Connell (for whom see "Daniel O'Connell (I)"), had been relatively cautious and had worked in a constitutional framework. There were disagreements -- the Young Ireland party, which published The Nation, was a little more radical than O'Connell.
The famines changed that. O'Connell, the pure constitutionalist, was unable to get help from Britain, and then died. Some Irish stayed true to his memory, but the crisis was so severe that many took a harder line. The Nation was one such, but they didn't really have a coherent strategy. That left room for a true radical: Mitchel.
Not only did he found a publication, he also founded United Irish Society. And he used is paper to publish tactical articles on how to fight oppressors.
It is interesting to note that many later leaders were inspired by Mitchel, but they viewed him very differently; some regarded him as a peaceful reformer, others as a fighter for Irish rights at any cost. (In the song, he campaigns for "Repeal," i.e. repeal of the Union with Great Britain; this was the slogan of O'Connell, and supporters of Repeal were generally peaceful.) According to Robert Kee (The Most Distressful Country, being Volume I of The Green Flag, p. 262), though, even such militants as Meagher (for whom see "The Escape of Meagher") tried to talk him into more peaceful methods.
Kee's comment on the situation (p. 263) seems to me to sum up the disastrous situation pretty well: Young Ireland and Mitchel "can be seen doing the wrong thing when no right thing was discernable. Cautious and sensible as was the main group, audacious as was Mitchel, both were utterly ineffectual. Mitchel was anxious to provoke a climax as quickly as possible. The others... continued to 'bide their time.' What they were really waiting for was a miracle." What they got was a fizzle.
In 1848, almost all of Europe was afire, with revolts in Italy, the Habsburg Empire, France. Few of the revolts were very successful; the Habsburgs, e.g. changed Emperors but not policies, and France got rid of Louis Philippe but soon replaced him with Napoleon III. And, unfortunately for the Irish, Britain was one of the few countries not so afflicted; she had the leisure to crush the abortive rising easily.
Not that it was a serious revolt; a more moderate man, William Smith O'Brien, eventually was pushed to try to raise a mob, but the whole thing ended with a scuffle in a cabbage patch; see the notes to "The Shan Van Voght (1848)."
Mitchel by then was out of circulation. He, Meagher, and Smith O'Brien had all been arrested early in 1848. Meagher and Smith O'Brien were released when the juries in their cases deadlocked (Kee, p. 268). But Mitchel, the most extreme, was convicted May 26 of "treason-felony," and sentenced the next day to fourteen years' transportation.
Despite the song, Mitchel and most of the other leaders of the rebellion ended up in Australia, not Bermuda.
[John Mitchel was indeed exiled to Bermuda in 1848 and subsequently moved to Cape Colony and finally to Van Dieman's Land (source: "John Mitchel of Newry" by John McCullagh (2003) on The Newry Journal site). - BS]
We should note, though, that he suffered far less in Bermuda than most. Although he was taken from Dublin in chains, from the time he went aboard ship he was in "minimum security" -- no shackles, no beating, and, when he arrived in Bermuda, no work ashore; he was allowed to stay aboard the convict hulk. (According to Kee, p. 269, the House of Commons actually inquired into why he was treated so well.)
Ironically, Mitchel was from a Protestant family, as was Smith O'Brien.
Lest someone claim that Mitchel was a man of true liberal principles, it should be noted that, after transportation to Van Dieman's Land, he escaped to the United States, where he edited various journals. And used those journals to advocate slavery -- in fact, according to Allan Nevins, The Emergence of Lincoln: Douglas, Buchanan, and Party Chaos 1857-1859 (Scribner's, 1950), p. 438, Mitchel in fact produced something called the "honest human flesh program," His plan was to re-open the African slave trade, so as to drive the price of slaves so low that everyone could afford one.
Kee, p. 269, also reports that Mitchel approved of flogging prisoners. I'd love to hear him explain how he would reconcile that with the Golden Rule -- or even with his own relatively kind treatment.
This seems to be the only one of many John Mitchel songs to have established itself in tradition, but there were quite a few others. Looking at just those printed by Hugh Anderson in Farewell to Judges and Juries, there were:
-- Granua's Lament for the Loss of her Blackbird Mitchel the Irish Patriot [in the Index]
-- Trial & Sentence of Mitchell
-- John Mitchell's Address
-- Mrs. Mitchel's Lament for Her Husband
-- Mitchell's Farewell to Ireland
-- John Mitchell's Adieu to the Land of His Birth
-- Lamentation on Mitchell
-- John Mitchel's Escape
-- John Mitchel, Irish Patriot and Exile
-- John Mitchell's Return - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PGa045

John Mitchel's Farewell to His Countrymen

See John Mitchel (File: PGa045)

John Mitchell

See John Mitchel (File: PGa045)

John Morgan

DESCRIPTION: "The Baptists think they're a mighty big bug, But behind the door you'll find a jug. John Morgan! Till I die, I'll feed my niggers on chicken pie!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 432, "John Morgan" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune)
Roud #7609
File: R432

John Morgan, Where You Been?

DESCRIPTION: "Says I, 'John Morgan, where you been?' (x2) 'Down on the Ohio a-tryin' to swim.' Says I, 'John Morgan, where's your hoss?' Says he, 'I lost it swimmin' across.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle questions horse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 2-26, 1863 - John Hunt Morgan's Ohio Raid (which also saw him operate in Kentucky and Indiana)
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 66, (no title) (1 short text) (OakEd, p. 77)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "How Are You, John Morgan?" (subject)
NOTES [89 words]: Presumably a reference to confederate general John Hunt Morgan (1825-1864), perhaps the raid-happiest soldier in the western armies. In July 1863, he took a picked force on a raid into Kentucky. Although his superior Braxton Bragg had ordered him not to cross the Ohio, he did so on July 7, and continued chasing around until he and the remnants of his command were captured on July 26. Morgan would later escape, but this was his last major exploit, and he was killed in 1864.
For more about him, see "How Are You, John Morgan?" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa066

John Morrissey and the Black

See Morrissey and the Black [Laws H19] (File: LH19)

John o Badenyond

See John of Badenyon (File: FVS51)

John o' Arnha's Adventures

DESCRIPTION: John, the singer, compares his honest self to Robin Hood and Rob Roy, who pilfered and destroyed. He describes his daring feats since leaving "the botching trade." "Not only men, but monsters too ... scampered off when I cried 'Boo! I'm John o' Arnha'!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1824 (Bowick)
LONG DESCRIPTION: John, the singer, compares his honest self to Robin Hood and Rob Roy, who pilfered and destroyed. He describes his daring feats since leaving "the botching trade" [mending clothes]. He broiled potatoes in Etna's flames, boiled whale blubber in Davis Straits, rode dragons and "chased red meteors round the moon. He slew ten thousand scores of crocodiles and snakes, "held a griffin by the mane, and galloped through the air" Finally he defeated warlocks, witches, ghosts, and "the Kelpie" at "the Pon'age Pool" "Not only men, but monsters too ... scampered off when I cried 'Boo! I'm John o' Arnha'!"
KEYWORDS: bragging fight travel supernatural talltale monster ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1702, "Jock o' Arnha'" (1 text fragment, 1 tune fragment)
ADDITIONAL: James Bowick, John Lee, and Others, Montrose Characters: Past and Present (Montrose, 1880 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 115-117, "John o' Arnha's Adventures"
Roud #13522
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot" (tune, per Bowick)
NOTES [450 words]: "John O' Arnha'" is a long poem by George Beattie (1786-1823). See George Beattie, John O' Arna': A Tale to Which are Added The Murderit Mynstrell and Other Poems (1857,London, 9th Edition digitized by Google) pp. 7-51. According to Bowick [p. 113] the first version was published in Montrose Review in 1815 and expanded by Beattie after that. "Subsequent to the publication of the poem of "John o' Arnha'," the following song - which is a good summary of John's stories -- also appeared in the columns of the [Montrose] Review, and was a long favourite at the convivial companies of the period" (source: Bowick, p. 115). While we don't have an author for the song it was apparently among a collection from the Montrose Review published by the Montrose Review editor, John Bowick, in 1824.
Bowick, pp. 113-114: "The hero of the tale was John Finlay, one of the Burgh Officers, who, coming from Arnhall, a locality near Edzell, received the sobriquet of 'John o' Arnha'.' John had a wonderful opinion of his own importance, and, when speaking of himself, was in the custom of seriously relating extraordinary tales of his own prowess and hair-breadth escapes in foreign lands, though it was known that he rarely, if ever, crossed the boundaries of Forfarshire. John's eccentricity and unbelievable tales suggested to Mr Beattie the composition of his racy and comical story."
Beattie, in his preface -- pp. xiv-xv -- gives some background information: "The Hero himself is drawn from a living original in this neighborhood, already well known to fame. As to the second personage, the Water Kelpie, whose only ambition is, and has been, for centuries past, to wollow in the Ponage Pool, and take the benighted and well-worn traveller off the hands of the treacherous Spunkie, to plunge him in a watery grave, -- good breeding, or court etiquette, could not be expected to emananet from such a quarter. As to the 'grewsome' appearance of the Ghosts, poor fellows, no blame attaches to them -- it was none of their doings.... the Ponage Pool, on the North-esk ... [is] the well-known rendezvous of the Water Kelpie ... [an object] of terror to the superstitious, and of more than ordinary interest to those who may at times take delight in amusing their minds with the traditionary legends of this part of the country."
The Greig/Duncan8 four-word fragment - "Brave Jock o' Arnha!" - compares to the last line of the fourth verse of Bowick. Greig/Duncan's six-note tune fragment are at least close to the last line of the tune of "Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot."
Greig/Duncan8: "Remembered by Archibald Knowles as a song of his father's and very old. It was a story of impossible feats." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81702

John o' Badenyon

See John of Badenyon (File: FVS51)

John o' Badenyon (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Where now the trees are budding green and flowers bloom on the lea" the singer used to meet her false lover and later met John o' Badenyon. John taught her to sing "to soothe my heart" and play the pipe he gave her before he died. She often returns.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love bequest rejection death music
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 763a, "John o' Badenyon" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland [first series] (Paisley,1899), pp. 52-54, "John o' Badenyon"
Roud #13169
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John of Badenyon (I)" (theme) and notes there
NOTES [75 words]: In his 1899 edition Ford includes both "John o' Badenyon (I)" and "John o' Badenyon (II)." Ford writes, "Whether [these verses] are older or later than Skinner's time, no one living may be able to tell." Skinner is the author of "John o' Badenyon" (I) in which the singer "tuned his pipe to John o' Badenyon" after having left a girl "cold as stone," and, again, after disappointments in politics, philosophy, and vain "hope for happiness below." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4763A

John o' Badenyon (III)

DESCRIPTION: "... frae an honest canty sang by canty honest John We've named this handsome residence the town o' Badenyon." Here, "nane are better served than he wha serves himsel'." For example, the best gown is one you spin yourself.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 763b, "John o' Badenyon" (1 text)
Roud #2592
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John of Badenyon (I)" (theme) and notes there
cf. "John o' Badenyon" (II) (theme) and notes there
NOTES [53 words]: This song counts on the hearer's knowledge of either "John of Badenyon (I)" or "John o' Badenyon" (II) to draw the moral. Ford, referring to the first song says "what suits best with the moral of the song is a simple, solitary amusement, such as playing a tune on the pipes, which is wholly within one's own power." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4763B

John o' Grinfelt

See The Four-Loom Weaver (File: DTfourlo)

John O'Grinfilt's Ramble

See Jone o' Greenfield's Ramble (File: BeCo432)

John O'Neil

DESCRIPTION: April 15, 1904, John O'Neil and John Butler "left their homes a-shooting for to go." They don't return and there is a search. Their dogs and guns are found. "The dreadful truth was known they're in the ocean drowned" "God's ways they are mysterious"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: death drowning hunting sea family youth dog
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30134
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Coombs, "John O'Neil" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3JoONe

John of Badenyon (I)

DESCRIPTION: "When first I came to be a man, of twenty years or so, I thought myself a handsome youth, and fain the world would know." The young man wanders, meeting girls and getting in trouble; after each disappointment, he "tuned my pipe to John o' Badenyon"
AUTHOR: John Skinner (1721-1807)
EARLIEST DATE: 1806 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: rambling youth courting hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 51-55, "John o' Badenyon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 75-76, "John o' Badenyon" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John Skinner, Songs and Poems (Peterhead, 1859), pp. 63-66, "John o' Badenyon"
Roud #2592
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Thomas Nicholson" (theme) and references there
cf. "John o' Badenyon" (II) (theme) and notes there
cf. "John o' Badenyon" (III) (theme) and notes there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John o Badenyond
NOTES [107 words]: Ford is unable to explain "John of Badenyon," suggesting such possibilities as a mournful tune or a relative of the author. Personally, I suspect a figure of folklore who had a sad and difficult life.
John Wilkes (1725-1797) and John Horne Tooke (1736-1812), whom the singer professes to have followed, were radicals who fought for liberal causes. Both were arrested and imprisoned at one time or another, as were some of their followers. Wilkes was, in fact, elected to Parliament from Middlesex (producing the slogan "Wilkes and Liberty") but barred from serving.
For background on author John Skinner, see the notes to "Tullochgorum." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FVS51

John of Hazelgreen [Child 293]

DESCRIPTION: A lady is weeping for John of Hazelgreen, whom she is not permitted to marry. She is offered marriage to another; this is little to her liking. By some means or other she meets Hazelgreen, and they are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: elopement love marriage separation
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Child 293, "John of Hazelgreen" (5 texts)
Bronson 293, "John of Hazelgreen" (29 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 293, "John of Hazelgreen" (3 versions: #1, #12, #16
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 284-287, "Jock of Hazelgreen" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 22, "Jock o' Hazeldean" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1029, "Jock o' Hazel Green" (3 fragments, two of them on p. 624)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 117, "Johnie of Hazelgreen" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 43, "John of Hazelgreen" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5a}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 369-371, "Willie of Hazel Green" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #27}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 237-238, "Young Johnny of Hazelgreen" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #25}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland4, pp. 281-284, "John of Hazelgreen" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #25}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 49, "John of Hazelgreen" (7 texts plus 2 fragments; the J text appears to have print influence; 3 tunes entitled "John o' the Hazelgreen," "John of Hazelgreen"; 1 more version mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #3, #26, #2}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 45, pp. 350-355, "John of Hazelgreen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 333, "Jock O' Hazeldean" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #176, "John of Hazelgreen" (1 fragment, which is properly "Jock o' Hazeldeen")
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 58A, "Jock o' Hazeldean"; 58B, "John of Hazelgreen" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 225-227, "John of Hazelgreen" (2 short texts, with local titles "John over the Hazel Green"; 2 tunes on pp. 415-416) {Bronson's #8, #7}
Peacock, pp. 537-538, "Johnny from Hazelgreen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 674-678, "John of Hazelgreen" (3 texts)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 143, "John of Hazelgreen" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 91-92, "John of Hazelgreen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 63, "John of Hazelgreen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 95-96, "John of Hazelgreen" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 282-285, "Jock o' Hazeldean" (1 text plus many excerpts of possible source texts)
DT 293, JOCKHZLD* JOCKHZL2*
Roud #250
RECORDINGS:
Henry Burr, "Jock o'Hazeldean" (Victor 5519, 1908; Victor 16220, 1909; Victor 16041, 1916)
BROADSIDES:
Firth b.26(534), "Hazle Green" ("As I walked one evening all for to take the air"), Webb and Millington (Leeds), n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nancy Dawson" (plot)
cf. "Lady Jean" (plot)
cf. "Parody on Jock o' Hazeldean" (parody)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jock o Hazeldean
John over the Hazel Green
Jock o Hazledean
NOTES [166 words]: Rewritten by Sir Walter Scott as "Jock o Hazeldean" -- a poem which has become perhaps more popular than the original ballad, and which is included in many poetic works (e.g. it is item CCXXVII in Palgrave's Golden Treasury).
Scholars since Child have debated the extent to which the Scott text (said to take only a single stanza from the traditional song) is influenced or has influenced tradition. One thing appears certain: The Scott text and some of the traditional versions are related (e.g. Davis's "J" is about 85% identical to the corresponding stanzas of Scott's text). Either the Scott text used more than the single stanza claimed, or his text has influenced tradition. - RBW
Broadside Bodleian Firth b.26(534) is a shortened version of the story.
There are broadsides of Scott's text. For example, Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 30, "Jock o' Hazel Dean" ("Why weep ye by the tide lady?"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 26(290), 2806 c.14(45), "Jock o' Hazel Dean"n. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: C293

John on the Island, I Hear Him Groan

DESCRIPTION: "John on the island, I hear him groan." John says, "Eli, I can't stand. Eli ee ee ay Lord." "John went to heaven and I am glad"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: ordeal Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 11, pp. 74-79, "Eli Ah Can't Stan'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, pp. 150-151, "John on the Island, I Hear Him Groan" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Lawrence McKiver and the McIntosh County Shouters, "John on the Island, I Hear Him Groan" (on McIntosh1)
Freddie Palmer and The McIntosh County Shouters, "John on the Island and I Heard Him Groan" (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation)
Willis Proctor and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Eli, You Can't Stand" (on LomaxCD1712, recorded 1959)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, They Put John on the Island" (theme) and references there
NOTES [129 words]: The introduction to the McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation video has John as a slave whom the other slaves can hear.
The Parrish text, Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree/McIntoshShouters-RingShoutSongs text and track, and LomaxCD1712 tracks are "ring shout" songs. The McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation video shows the shout. - BS
There are no details about John's tribulations on the island of Patmos at Revelation 1:9, or elsewhere, in the Bible. What stories about that were current in the Sea Islands? - BS
Nonetheless John was in exile. The usual legend is that he had been working in Ephesus and was forced to go to Patmos because of the persecution of Domitian. So he need not have been suffering torture on Patmos; he might simply have been lonely or homesick. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Parr074

John Park He Had Nar' One

See The Sealer's Ball (File: Pea094)

John Paul Jones

See Paul Jones's Victory [Laws A4] (File: LA04)

John Peel (I)

See D'ye Ken John Peel? (File: FSWB208)

John Peel (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Do ye ken John Peel With his (??) of steel, And his (??) of brass, and his celluloid ass, Do ye ken John Peel, With his (??) of steel, And it all comes out in the morning."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: derivative bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 84, "John Peel" (1 short text)
Roud #10265
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "D'ye Ken John Peel?" (tune, form)
NOTES [28 words]: Celluloid was first used in 1856, which gives us an earliest possible date for this item, but I'd guess it's newer. Although I have no idea what the missing words are. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RuSoJohP

John Prott and His Man (I)

DESCRIPTION: John Prott and his man go to the market. John buys and sells until he comes to his last coin. "If ye be an honest man, Stan' to that"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (Gregor)
KEYWORDS: commerce money nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #21, p. 3, ("John Prott and his man") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1639, "John Prott" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Walter Gregor, "Children's Amusements" in The Folk-Lore Journal, Vol. IV, No. 2 (1886 (available online by JSTOR Public Library Collection)), #3 pp. 140-142 "John Prott and his Man" (10 texts)
Roud #13065
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Prott Your Wedders is Fat" (character?)
cf. "John Prott and His Man (II)" (character?)
File: GrD81639

John Prott and His Man (II)

DESCRIPTION: "John Prott and his man Streve aboot the parritch pan; Ere the parritch pan was gotten Johnnie Callum's heid was broken"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: violence nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #23, p. 2, ("John Pratt and his man") (1 short text)
Roud #13065
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Prott Your Wedders is Fat" (character?)
cf. "John Prott and His Man (I)" (character?)
NOTES [9 words]: The current description is all of the Greig text. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Grg023b

John Prott Your Wedders is Fat

DESCRIPTION: "John Prott, your wedders is fat, And we hae you to thank for that; For their heads and their horns Ye'll get them doon amo' the thorns; And for the 'oo that wis on their skin, We gae't oor wives to spin"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #23, p. 2, ("John Prott, your wedders is fat") (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Prott and His Man (I)" (character?)
cf. "John Prott and His Man (II)" (character?)
NOTES [9 words]: The current description is all of the Greig text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Grg023a

John R. Birchal

See The Murder of F. C. Benwell [Laws E26] (File: LE26)

John Raeburn

See Jamie Raeburn (Caledonia) (File: MA085)

John Randolph

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

John Reilly

See Riley's Farewell (Riley to America; John Riley) [Laws M8] (File: LM08)

John Reilly (II)

DESCRIPTION: "John Reilly's always dry." His mother warned him that "all the other Reilly boys Had died of whisky drouth" so now he spends his money on Bass's ale "by the pail" and Dublin stout, whisky, gin and wine. As soon as he wakes "he slips out for a bucket."
AUTHOR: (based on a song by Edward Harrigan, but heavily rewritten)
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (The Mulligan Guards' Nominee)
KEYWORDS: warning drink wine humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 102-103, 153, "John Reilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Compare: Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #55, pp. 205-207, "John Riley's Always Dry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21750
NOTES [285 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
According to Franceschina, p. 134, "The Mulligan Guards' SIlver Wedding" opened on February 21, 1881. It was the eighth and last in the saga of Mulligan Guard plays. Cordelia Mulligan, wife of series hero Dan Mulligan, rents out apartments to a wide, and wild, variety of tenants. I don't really understand Franceschina's plot summaries, but it features one of the most beloved of the Mulligan scenes, in which Cordelia Mulligan, about to celebrate twenty-five years of marriage to Dan, instead discovers what she thinks is a love letter to him, and prepares a melodramatic suicide by drinking rat poison. Or, at least, she thinks it's rat poison, but is actually strong brandy that Dan has relabeled to keep people from drinking it. So Cordelia sobs out her will while getting drunker. It was a favorite scene of all Harrigan's dramas -- although Harrigan got the bones of it from Annie Yeamans, who played Cordelia (Moody, pp. 104-106).
The gimmick also occurs in "Cordelia's Aspirations"; see the notes to "My Dad's Dinner Pail."
The song "John Riley's Always Dry" is sung by Dan Mulligan, and is "a bright drinking song -- part stately gavotte, part Irish jig -- trading on easily digestible ascending scales" (Franceschina, p. 135).
Harrigan was fond of the stereotype of the heavy-drinking Irishman; in the play "Reilly and the Four Hundred," a character named McGuinness drinks so much that, "when he turns on the gas, he is blown back out of town" (Williams, p. 150). This might be based on Harrigan's own experience; in his early years, he had toured with several performers who were excessively fond of the bottle. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: McSc102

John Reilly the Sailor Lad

See Riley's Farewell (Riley to America; John Riley) [Laws M8] (File: LM08)

John Returned from the Sea

See Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)

John Riley

See John (George) Riley (I) [Laws N36] AND John (George) Riley II [Laws N37] (File: LN36)

John Riley (III)

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

John Riley's Always Dry

See John Reilly (II) (File: McSc102)

John Riley's Farewell

See Riley's Farewell (Riley to America; John Riley) [Laws M8] (File: LM08)

John Roberts

See The Drowning of John Roberts [Laws C3] (File: LC03)

John Robertson

DESCRIPTION: When Joe comes to the camp to seek work to help his sick mother, John Robertson trains the boy to be a talented lumberjack. But one day Joe chops a tree with a bad core; Robertson is mortally hurt saving Joe.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
LONG DESCRIPTION: John Robertson is an experienced lumberjack. When a greenhorn comes to camp, seeking work to help his sick mother, Robertson persuades the foreman to take him on, then takes the greenhorn under his wing. The young man, Joe, becomes a talented lumberjack, but one day he chops a tree with a rotten core. The tree falls on him; Robertson pushes him out of the way, but is fatally injured. Dying, he tells Joe that he's "glad 'twas me, not you" because of the sick mother (who recovers)
KEYWORDS: lumbering logger work friend family mother death dying disease apprentice
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 57, "John Robertson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 168-172, "John Robertson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 72, "John Robertson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs,p. 13, "John Robertson" (1 text, 1 tune, probably shortened to eliminate the unhappy ending)
Roud #4062
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dC41 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be057

John Roger the Miller

See The Gray Mare [Laws P8] (File: LP08)

John Roger, The Miller

See The Gray Mare [Laws P8] (File: LP08)

John Ross

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the night that I was married, oh... Up rose John Ross and Cyrus Hewes And stood at my bedstead," demanding that he go logging with them. He misses his Mary but goes. He hopes to go back to Katahdin, to his wife, and to everyone there
AUTHOR: Dan Golden
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: marriage separation logger work
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 80-82, "John Ross" (1 text); pp. 133-139, "(How Dan Golden Made Up a New Song)" (1 text plus many quotes from "Lowlands of Holland" versions that Eckstorm and Smyth consider Golden's inspiration)
Roud #7091
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Katahdin Green" (lyrics)
NOTES [20 words]: For John Ross and Cyrus Hewes, see also the Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine version of "Louie Sands and Jim McGee." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm080

John Saw de Hundred and Forty-Four Thousand

See probably The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)

John Saw the Holy Number

DESCRIPTION: "John saw the holy number, Sitting on the golden altar." "Fishman Peter, fish no more, fish no more, fish no more, Fishman Peter, fish no more, Sitting on the golden altar." "Weeping Mary, weep no more...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 538, "John Saw the Holy Number" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 538, "John Saw the Holy Number" (notes only)
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, pp. 16-17, "John, John, of the Holy Order" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune); p. 77, "The Golden Altar" (1 text, tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 63, "John Saw" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 196 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #11843
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Done Saw that Number" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [153 words]: The notes in Brown explain, "The chorus apparently refers to John 7:4: 'And I heard the number of them that were sealed; and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand."
This is a mess. First, this isn't John 7:4; it's Revelation 7:4. And there is no hint that they were sitting on a golden altar -- though in 8:3 they apparently worship before it. But in that case, the holy number is probably seven for the seven angels. Or so it appears to me.
Of course, the whole thing may be moot; the first Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates text, which is probably the oldest, of course makes it a Holy ORDER, and John a member, and that makes perfect sense. But note that Brown's text and Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates's "Golden Altar" version both make it a "Holy Number."
It may appear, from the title line, that this is the same as "John Done Saw that Number," but the form is distinct. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3538

John Says to John

DESCRIPTION: "John says to John, 'How much are your geese?' John says to John, 'Twenty cents apiece.' John says to John, 'That's too dear.' John says to John, 'Get out of here!'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: commerce bird money | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 30, "(John says to John)" (1 text)
File: WEMM030A

John Sell Your Fiddle

See Jack Sell Your Fiddle (File: KSUC104A)

John Singleton [Laws C15]

DESCRIPTION: Singleton, chief sawyer in a lumber mill, is killed by the sawmill's machinery. His body is sent home to be buried.
AUTHOR: John Morrison?
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: logger death technology lumbering
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws C15, "John Singleton"
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 62, "John Singleton" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 73, "John Singgleton" (1 text)
DT 837, JONSINGL
Roud #2223
NOTES [62 words]: Laws quotes Beck to the effect that the song was by "John Morrison," but Paul Stamler observes that Beck spells the name "Morison." Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps, however, spells it "Morrison." Chances are that Dave D. Smith, who made the attribution, did not spell out the name, and Back and Laws used different spellings. Either that, or it's a typo in Beck's 1941 book. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: LC15

John Smith A. B.

DESCRIPTION: "When the southern gale is blowing hard, And the watch are all on the topsail yard, When five come down where six went up," John Smith is missing, "drowned in latitude fifty-three." "They steal his rags and his bags and bed" as they try to reach home
AUTHOR: Words: D. H. Rogers? (source: Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Sydney Bulletin, according to Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry); supposedly field collected 1969
KEYWORDS: sailor death storm
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 12, "John Smith A. B." (1 text, 1 modern tune) (p. 6 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 44-45, "(John Smith A. B." (1 partial text)
RECORDINGS:
Neal Conquhoun, "John Smith A. B." (on NZSongYngCntry)
File: Colq006

John Smith My Fellow Fine

DESCRIPTION: "John Smith, fellow fine, Can you shoe this horse of mine? Ay, sir, and that I can, As well as ony man. There's a nail upon the tae, To make the pony climb the brae; There's a nail upon the heel... There's a horsie well shod."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan8); c. 1843 (Only True Mother Goose Melodies, according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: horse nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1565, "John Smith" (2 texts)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #121, p. 2, ("John Smith, a fallow fine") (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 445, "Robert Barnes Fellow Fine" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose, p. 33, note 31, "(Robert Barnes Fellow Fine)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 26, "(John Smith, fellow fine)" (1 text)
Roud #12964
File: SNR026

John Smith, a Fallow Fine

See John Smith My Fellow Fine (File: SNR026)

John Sold the Cow Well

See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

John Styles and Susan Cutter

DESCRIPTION: John and Susan are popping corn. At last "said she, 'John Styles, it's three o'clock, I'm dying of digestion; Instead of always popping that old corn, Why don't you pop the question?'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: humorous food courting
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 155, "John Styles and Susan Cutter" (1 text+additional composed verses; tune referenced)
ST FSC155 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Gray Goose (Lookit Yonder)" (tune)
NOTES [27 words]: Cazden et al note that this piece is sung to the tune of "The Old Gray Goose (Lookit Yonder)," and was sung continuously with it; the two might form one ballad. - RBW
File: FSC155

John Sullivan (The Moncton Tragedy)

DESCRIPTION: Sullivan kills a widow and her son, takes her cash, and sets the house afire. A daughter survives and blames Sullivan. He flees to Calais, is caught, brought back, tried, convicted and condemned to hang on Friday, March 12.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: execution homicide robbery trial gallows-confession
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 57-58, "John Sullivan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 35, "The Moncton Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Dib057 (Partial)
Roud #9267
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sullivan Murder
The Meadow Brook Tragedy
The Dutcher Murder
NOTES [47 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "This sordid crime took place in mid-September, 1896, at Meadow Brook, eight miles from Moncton, New Brunswick."
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi note to "The Moncton Tragedy" has more details about the murder and trial, including further references. - BS
File: Dib057

John T. Scopes Trial, The

DESCRIPTION: "All the folks in Tennessee are faithful as can be, And they know the Bible teaches what is right," and they gloat over Mr. Scopes, "who found only grief." The conclusion: "The old religion's better after all."
AUTHOR: Carson J. Robison
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: religious trial punishment | Scopes Trial evolution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1925 - The Scopes Trial. Rather than get inflammatory, I'll let you look this one up on your own.
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 70-71, "The Scopes Trial" (1 short text, in which "Scopes" becomes "Cope"; 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 278-279, "The John T. Scopes Trial" (1 text)
Roud #7126
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The John T. Scopes Trial" (Columbia 15037-D, rec. Jul 10, 1925)
Charlie Oaks, "The John T. Scopes Trial" (Vocalion 15094)
NOTES [106 words]: It's times like this we need keyword "illogic" and "pandering." Cohen notes the interesting fact that Carson J. Robison wrote this and Vernon Dalhart recorded it BEFORE the trial ended! Of course, the only thing the Scopes trial proved is that logic and facts don't always prevail in a court of law, so who needed the outcome?
In a fascinating footnote, the "B" side of the Charlie Oaks recording was "The Death of William Jennings Bryan." It is also interesting to note that, when Bryan ran for President in 1896, his opponent in the Scopes Trial, Clarence Darrow, was one of those who encouraged the Populist party to support him. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: CAFS1278

John T. Williams

See The Rebel's Escape [Laws A19] (File: LA19)

John Tamson

DESCRIPTION: One night John Tamson "had an amour wi' Boatie Jamie's servant lass which raised an unco clamour." "Johnnie's deeds are ill, he likes but little licht"; that's why he courts at night.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting nightvisit rake servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 777, "John Tamson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6193
File: GrD4777

John the Baptist

See John Done Saw that Number (File: CNFM061C)

John the Boy, Hello

See The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)

John the Revelator

DESCRIPTION: "My Lord called John while he was a-writing... Oh, John, John" "Who's that writing? John the Revelator." The song describes what and how John wrote: The book of "Revelations," "The book of Seven Seals," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Blind Willie Johnson)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 22-23, "John Was A-Writin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 252, "John the Revelator" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 72, "John the Revelator" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 66, "(John the Revelator)" (partial text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 331-332, "(John the Revelator)" (1 text)
Roud #6701
RECORDINGS:
Belleville A Cappella Choir, "John the Revelator" (on LomaxCD1708)
Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet, "John, the Revelator" (Bluebird B-7631, 1938; Montgomery Ward M-7912, 1939; Victor 20-2073, 1946; rec. 1938)
Blind Willie Johnson, "John the Revelator" (Columbia 14530D, 1930; on AAFM2, BWJ03)
Spiritual Four Quartet, "John the Revelator" (AFS 5160 B1, 5163 A1, 1941; on in AMMEM/FortValley)
Trumpeteers, "John de Revelator" (Score 5012, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Adam in the Garden Pinning Leaves" (theme)
cf. "It's Getting Late in the Evening" (theme)
NOTES [333 words]: For the record, it is the "Book of Revelation," or properly the "Revelation to John" (Greek αποκαλυψις Ιωαννου, Apokalypsis Ioannou), not the "Book of Revelations."
The book does not say which John wrote it. Tradition has it that John the Apostle wrote the Apocalypse. However, it is patently obvious that the same man cannot have written on the one hand the Gospel and Letters of John and on the other the Apocalypse. The Gospel is in simple but clear and even, in a way, highly stylized Greek, easy to translate. The Apocalypse is in poor Greek, by someone whose native language was pretty definitely Aramaic -- but it clearly uses all the big words it can muster.
Of course, there is no direct evidence that the Apostle John wrote either the Gospel or the Letters of John. So it's possible that he wrote the Apocalypse.
In recent decades, J. Massyngberde Ford, (Revelation, being volume 38 of the Anchor Bible, Doubleday, 1975, pp. 26-33, 55, etc.) has suggested that the Apocalypse is in fact a Jewish production with a few Christian additions, consisting of the first three chapters, a few verses at the end, and one or two internal assertions. In this case, he suggests that the work was by, or from the school of, John the Baptist. His case that the Apocalypse is a non-Christian work, while not absolutely decisive, is very strong (there are very few explicitly Christian references in chapters 4-21 of the Apocalypse). I'm less convinced that we can really attribute it to John the Baptist.
Of course, that cannot have been known to the author of this song. On the evidence, he did not even know the widespread Christian tradition that John dictated the gospel to Prochorus (known in the Bible only from Acts 6:5, but there is a biography of John, written in the fifth century according to the Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, which claims to be by Prochorus, and very many Byzantine copies of the Gospel contain illustrations showing John the Apostle dictating to Prochorus). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LoF252

John Thompson's Hill

See John Whipple's Mill (File: FSC171)

John Thomson and the Turk [Child 266]

DESCRIPTION: John Thomson is fighting the Turks when his wife appears. She then sets off and willingly joins the household of Violentrie. When Thomson learns she is missing, he finds her in the Turk's home. He attacks the Turk, burns his castle, and hangs his wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1801
KEYWORDS: love separation war fight foreigner punishment disguise trick
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 266, "John Thomson and the Turk" (2 texts)
Bronson 266, "John Thomson and the Turk" (1 version)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 91-95, "The Trooper and the Turk" (1 text)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland4, pp. 45-49, "John Thomson and the Turk" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 149-151, "John Thomson and the Turk" (1 text)
DT 266, TROOPTRK
Roud #110
NOTES [39 words]: According to Mary Ellen Brown, Child's Unfinished Masterpiece: The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, University of Illinois Press, 2011, p. 137, Child once referred to this as "an extremely curious (though very bad) ballad. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: C266

John Was A-Writin'

See John the Revelator (File: LoF252)

John Webber

See Billy Broke Locks (The Escape of Old John Webb) (File: LoF004)

John Whipple's Mill

DESCRIPTION: The singer, goes to work in (John Whipple's) mill and finds himself in a race. He vows to "keep up if I did myself kill." After work, he goes out, fills his pipe, and relaxes. The men are made to work hard but the singer intends to stay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: work contest
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 171, "John Whipple's Mill" (4 fragments, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 69-71, "John Hopper's Hill" (1 text) (pp. 56-58 in the 1919 edition)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #50, "Shanelly's Mill" (1 text, tune referenced)
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 4, "John Thompson's Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC171 (Partial)
Roud #3675
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John Harper's Hill
Trickeyside Hill
NOTES [81 words]: Roud equates this song with item dC54, "Shanel's Mill," in Laws's Appendix II. But he does not cite the one reference in Laws (NYFQ 11); I cannot verify the connection. Fowke, however, accepts the equation, so here we lump them.
More surprising is that Laws did not notice all the other texts that seem to go together, whether they include the NYFQ song or not. Clearly the family is large enough to deserve its own Laws number. On the other hand, the details seem to vary a lot. - RBW.
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FSC171

John Yetman

DESCRIPTION: "... a hero brave from St. Mary's Bay, John Yetman was his name" who spent many years fishing alone in his dory. A Yankee captain shoots Yetman but is taken by Newfoundlanders, tried, convicted and sentenced to 15 years at hard labor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports; ]MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: homicide trial punishment fishing sea ship memorial
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "John Yetman" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 34 in the 3rd edition
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 71, "John Yetman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 221-223, "John Yetman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7299
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "John Yetman" (on NFOBlondahl02, NFOBlondahl03)
Mrs. T. Ghaney, "Young Yetman" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: Doyl3034

John, Come Kiss Me Now

DESCRIPTION: "John, come kiss me now (x3) And make no more ado." Alternate form: "John, come kis me now, now, now, O John come kiss me now! John come kiss me by and bye, And make nae mair ado."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: tune said to daite to 1609 (Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 147-148, "John, Come Kiss Me Now" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 268-269, "John, Come Kiss Me Now" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
DT, JOHNKISS* (the Burns version)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #343, pp. 476-477, "John come kiss me now.." (1 text, 1 tune, from 1792)
Roud #5521
NOTES [148 words]: Roud links this with Randolph's "Come and Kiss Me, Robin." Possible, but I need a lot more evidence. Which may be hard to come by. Chappell/Woodridge states that only the first stanza survived. This is probably because it was indelicate. Burns had two additional stanzas, but how much of that is Burns and how much is traditional I do not know.
Although the song has survived poorly (apart from the Burns version, the only references seem to be in Herd and Chappell), it was apparently popular in its time. According to Edward J. Cowan, "Calvinism and the Survival of Folk," printed in Cowan: Edward J. Cowan, editor, The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition), p. 37, this was transformed into a "godly" version which began:
The Lord thy God, I am,
That John dois (sic.) thee call,
Johne representit man
Be grace celestiall. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ChW2269

John, Get Up and Light the Fire

See Baby's Got a Tooth (File: PKKB058B)

John, John

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Talk about John but you will see John, Aye John (x2)." Verses: "When I get to Heaven going to walk around, Angel in Heaven can't order me down." "When I get to Heaven going to sit and tell Argue with the Father and chatter with the Son"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 31, pp. 145-147, "John, John" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [119 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. In Parrish's text each verse line is followed by "Aye John."
Parrish's "Argue with the Father and chatter with the Son" is in Odum's "Dar's No One Lak' Jesus" (Howard W. Odum, Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes, (reprint from American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, July 1909, Vol.3 pp. 265-365 "Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 60-61), Redfearn's "Better Live Humble," and Barton's "I'll Be There" (Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 19). Barton writes, "'Argue,' as here employed, does not mean dispute, but only to converse learnedly; and 'chatter' does not imply frivolity, but only familiarity." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr031

John, John Crow

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Every Sunday mornin', John, John Crow. When I go a-courtin', John, John Crow." Rhyming verses on courting, working, and eating. Written in dialect.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (William Cullen Bryant; see Notes)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong courting
FOUND IN: US West Indies(Barbados)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 199-200, "John, John Crow" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: William Cullen Bryant, "Letter XI. The Interior of South Carolina" in _Letters of a Traveller_, 2nd edition (1850 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 86, ("John, John Crow") (1 text)
Roud #9171
NOTES [132 words]: Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips's brief notes say this is a Barbadian negro shanty for unloading cargo. - SL
Bryant's letter is dated March 29, 1843. He has this as a plantation corn-shucking song that "represents the various animals of the woods as belonging to some profession or trade. For example --
De cooter [terrapin] is de boatman...
De red-bird is de soger ...
De mocking-bird de lawyer ...
De alligater sawyer."
John Crow is most likely a crow but, if this song was originally from the West Indies then "John Crow" could as well be a black or turkey vulture, both of which are common in the east and one or other of which were common on different Caribbean islands. See, for example, "Chi-Chi Bud," "Cudelia Brown," "Hol' Yuh' Han'," "Wheel and Turn Me," and "Oh, Mr. Corbeau." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Harl199

John, John, of the Holy Order

See John Saw the Holy Number (File: Br3538)

John, John, the Water Man

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "John, John, de water man, The fire man below, boy" repeated. The shantyman sings "I went down to Gila Point To hear master Sheila blow." "Break oar, break oar, Me master can' buy more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: work sea shanty
FOUND IN: West Indies(Nevis)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 49-50, "John, John, the Water Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: AWIS049

Johnie Armstrang

See Johnie Armstrong [Child 169] (File: C169)

Johnie Armstrong [Child 169]

DESCRIPTION: Johnie Armstrong "had nither lands nor rents," but "kept eight score men in his hall" by raiding. The king summons Armstrong to court. Armstrong comes; the king orders his execution. Armstrong instead dies fighting. His young son vows revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1658; a song with this name was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: outlaw royalty punishment execution battle death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1530 - James V of Scotland puts down the Armstrongs
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber,Hebr))
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Child 169, "Johnie Armstrong" (3 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #6, #7}
Bronson 169, "Johnie Armstrong" (10 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 169, "Jhnnie Armstong" (2 versions: #3, #7)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 31-36, "Johnie Armstrang" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution,pp. 331-334, "John Armstong's Last Good-night" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 56-61, "Johnnie Armstrong" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 475-477, "Johnie Armstrong" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 240, "Johnie Armstrong" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 89, "Johnie Armstrong" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 127-129+329, "Johnie Armstrong" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 106, "Johnie Armstrong" (1 text)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 153-158, "Johnie Armstrong" (1 text, from "The Charms of Melody" rather than tradition)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 355-358, "Johnie Armstrang"; pp. 358-359, "Johnnie Armstrong's Last Goodnight" (2 texts)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 22, "Johnie Armstrong" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 101-103, "Johnie Armstrong" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1503, "Is there never a man in all Scotland"
DT 169, JARMSTR1 JARMSTR2
ADDITIONAL: Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 74-78 "Johnnie Armstrong" (1 text, 1 tune) {the text is Child's C, which goes with Bronson's #3, but the tune looks more like Bronson's #2}
Roud #76
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, S.302.b.2(064), "John Armstrong's Last Farewell," unknown, after 1700
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Parting Glass" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Fare Thou Well Bonny Gilt Knock Hall (per broadside NLScotland, S.302.b.2(064))
NOTES [430 words]: Several English texts claim that Armstrong lived in Westmoreland, and raided the Scots. This is, of course, not true; he was a Scot. But neither side had much use for such an outlaw.
Magnusson, p. 303, summarizes the story of "an expedition which King James V made in 1530, when he descended in force on the lawless debatable border lands of the West Marches, which had been the cause of endless contention between Scotland and England. His main target was the notorious border reiver (raider) Johnnie Armstrong of Gilknockie... [T]he Armstrongs of Liddesdale had been a law unto themselves for many years; they were said to have boasted that they acknowledged the authority of neither the King of Scots nor the King of England.
"[This ballad] claims that the king enticed Armstrong to a peace-meeting at Caerlenrig with fifty unarmed followers and then broke his word by having them arrested... Johnnie Armstrong and most of his accomplices were taken otside and summarily hanged. Half a dozen were spared."
Magnusson adds that the incident became the subject of an award-winning 1965 play, John Arden's "Armstrong's Last Goodnight: An Exercise in Diplomacy."
Similarly, Perry, p. 206, "After he had expelled teh Douglasses and confiscated Tantallon, the young King of Scots [James V] set about restoring law and order.... The King captured and hanged the notorious outlaw Johnny Armstrong, who for years had terrorized villagers on both sides of the Border, swearing he recognized neither the King of England nor the King of Scotland."
James V took care of Johnny Armstrong, but not the Armstrongs as a whole; in the next reign, Mary Stewart had to send the Earl of Bothwell to try to suppress them -- and they nearly killed him (Stedall, pp. 158-159).
Izaak Walton's Compeat Angler refers to this tune (Chapter II), although in a strange list mixing folk songs ("Johnny Armstrong," "Chevy Chase") and art songs ("As at Noon Dulcina Rested," "Phyllida Flouts Me"). According Chambers, p. 181, the Complaynt of Scotland mentions a "Ihonne ermstrangis dance," which might well refer to the same Johnie Armstrong but probably is not the same song. For the Complaynt of Scotland citation, Complaynt, p. lxxxix.
Rollins, p. 113, has two seventeenth century citations, the first of which might be and the second of which almost certainly is this: #1300, "John Armstrongs last good night, &c.," March 26, 1658, Francis Grove; and #1301, "John Armsestrongs last good night," March 1, 1675, no printer listed, but linked to this song beause it's in Roxburghe Ballads VI, 604. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C169

Johnie Cock [Child 114]

DESCRIPTION: Johnie, despite his mother's advice, goes out to hunt the king's deer. He brings the deer down, but is betrayed by a passer-by. Seven foresters attack him; he kills all but one (and wounds that one), but is himself mortally wounded
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1780 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: hunting fight death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber,Bord,High)) US(MA,SE,So) Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Child 114, "Johnie Cock" (13 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Bronson 114, "Johnie Cock" (16 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 114, "Johnie Cock" (4 versions: #1, #3a, #4, #9)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 161-166, "Johnie of Braidislee" (1 text)
Dixon-ScottishTraditionalVersionsOfAncientBallads XVI, pp. 77-81, "Johnnie o' Cocklesmuir" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 72-77, "Johnnie Brod" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 124-128, "Johnnie o' Cocklesmuir" (1 text, with the peculiar trait of having a happy ending)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #33, p. 1, "Johnnie o' Braidiesley" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 250, "Johnnie o' Braidisleys" (16 texts, 8 tunes) {A=Bronson's #9, B=#7, C=#8, D=#10, E (tune)=#11, F=#15, G=#6}
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 467-469, "Johnnie o' Cocklesmuir" (1 text)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #16, pp. 136-138, "Johnnie the Brime (Johnnie Cock, Child 114)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #13}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 29, "Johnie Cock" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 32, "James o' Broodies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 65-67, "Johnie Cock" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 324-332, "Johnie Cock" (4 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 127-129, "Johnie Cock" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 233, "Johnie Cock" (2 texts)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 405-407, "Johnie of Breadislee";p. 407, "Johnie of Braidisbank" (2 texts)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 21-25, "Johnnie of Cockerslee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 136, "Johnnie of Cockerslee" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 174, "Johny Cock" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 41, "Johnie Cock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 123-126+328, "Johnie Cock" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 108, "Johnie Cock" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 28, "Johnie Cock" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 207-210, "Johnnie Cock" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 83-86, "Johnie Cock" (1 text)
DT 114, BRAIDSLY
Roud #69
RECORDINGS:
Chris Miles, "Johnny O'Braidesley" (Piotr-Archive #549, recorded 03/14/2023)
John Strachan, "Johnie Cock" (on FSB5) {Bronson's #12}
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Johnnie o' Braidesley
Fair John and the Seven Foresters
Jock o' Brawdiesley
Johnnie o' Cocklesmuir
Johnnie Naughton
NOTES [730 words]: The motif of one man fighting and defeating seven adversaries is almost a commonplace (see "Earl Brand," Child #7, and "Erlinton," Child #8, as examples). But this one has an interesting parallel to the French Song of Roland (especially in Motherwell's long text, Child's F):
Like Roland, Johnie sets out freely, despite cautions; like Roland, he is defeated and mortally wounded but defeats his attackers, whose few survivors flee; like Roland, he sends a message of his need only when it is too late; like Roland, he is given great honor after his death.
I do not mean to imply literary dependence; I doubt there is any. The actual plots are extremely different. But there is that same feeling: Just as Roland, even when he does something really stupid, is so heroic about it that his enemies cannot touch him (Roland's actual cause of death was blowing his horn so hard that he bursts several blood vessels), so too Johnny -- the poacher -- goes out against his mother's warning and fights off a vastly superior enemy, leaving all dead, wounded, or in flight. But he dies because he has fought too hard.
The flip side is, Johnny -- assuming he hunted in a royal forest, which is the obvious assumption here -- violates no fewer than three major provisions of the forest laws. (For this information, I am working from Charles R. Young, The Royal Forests of Medieval England, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1979):
1. He hunted the "dun deer." Forest law protected the red deer, fallow deer, roe deer, and boar (Young, p. 4).
2. He carried a bow in the forest, The use of bow and arrows was banned in the forest (Young, p. 28).
3. He hunted with dogs. Dogs were allowed in the forest only if they were "lawed" -- that is, had their foretoes clipped, which made it impossible for them to hunt deer (Young, p. 41).
Although Young does not cite an instance exactly parallel to this song, it is generally believable; according to Young, p. 81, "The routine work of protecting the forest and dealing with violators fell to these foresters, and the job could be dangerous when the violator of the forest law was an illegal hunter armed with bow and arrows for taking venison. Foresters were sometimes killed or wounded under these circumstances while attempting to make arrests."
What is more, after 1293 foresters were entitled to use deadly force against those put up armed resistance too them, and were not required to answer to royal justices for homicide (Young, p. 106). Thus the action of this song was legal, assuming Johnie resisted -- as it appears he did. On the other hand, it also sounds as if the foresters were not going to give him a chance to submit to arrest. And, with no witnesses, how could he protect himself except by fighting?
This might also explain the old man who betrays Johnny. One of the problems with the forest law was that a man who discovered a dead deer was often treated as its killer and punished. As Young points out on p. 107, this generated a "climate of fear." If the witness did not turn in Johnny, then he himself might become the victim. A difficult situation at best.
The number of foresters in this song seems high (Young, p. 84, notes that even in the large forest of Sherwood the local bailiwicks had at most "a riding forester, two foot foresters, and some boys"), but as Young notes on p. 83, "Some foresters found it profitable to burden their bailiwicks with an unnecessary number of subordinates who paid for the privilege and then attempted to collect additional money from their victims." Thus it may be that there is significant fault on both sides of this conflict: On the one hand, a poacher; on the other, a bunch of bounty hunters.
Chid himself, while musing on where to put this ballad in his collection, observed that this is "One of the prettiest of all ballads"; see Mary Ellen Brown, Child's Unfinished Masterpiece: The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, University of Illinois Press, 2011, p. 120. - RBW
Three and seven are common "folk" numbers -- seven often simply standing for "many" or "too many." Historically, the "old man's" plight (squeal or die) is certainly pertinent -- but just as pertinent is the role of "betrayal": on the one hand underlining Johnie's lawlessness, while on the other hand also underlining the dirty-dealing of the authorities through the "too-many-against-one" metaphor . - DGE
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C114

Johnie Lad and His Braw Baiver

See Cock Your Beaver (File: MSNR112)

Johnie Miller of Glenlee

DESCRIPTION: The singer, Johnnie Miller, says his belly is his god. He can eat rams as if they were rabbits. His belly's so big he can't kiss girls and he is "unfit for the pleasure of Venous" When he dies they'll say he died a glutton and drunkard, which he is.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: greed drink food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 70, "Johnie Miller of Glenlee" (1 text)
Roud #3866
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of the Dee" (tune, per Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
NOTES [35 words]: Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1, p. ix: Authorship ascribed to James Boswell and Isabel Pagan, or Robert Trotter. For a text attributed to Isabel Pagan (c.1741-1821) see "The Songs of Isabel Pagan" site. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr170

Johnie of Braidisbank

See Johnie Cock [Child 114] (File: C114)

Johnie of Breadislee

See Johnie Cock [Child 114] (File: C114)

Johnie of Hazelgreen

See John of Hazelgreen [Child 293] (File: C293)

Johnie Over the Ocean

See Johnny on the Ocean (File: DoDW385)

Johnie Scot [Child 99]

DESCRIPTION: Johnny, serving at the English court, gets the king's daughter with child. He goes back to Scotland and sends for her; she sends word she is imprisoned. He comes with 500 men, fights the king's champion, and gains his lady.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783/1799 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: royalty pregnancy prison rescue battle love
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(Ap,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Child 99, "Johnie Scot" (20 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #10, #11}
Bronson 99, "Johnie Scot" (12 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 99, "Johnis Scot" (v3 ersions: #10, #11, #12)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 90-97, "Jack the Little Scot" (2 parallel texts plus a photo of the badly-transcribed tune; also two reconstructed tunes on p. 263)
Greig/Duncan5 1013, "Love Johnnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 82, "Johnie Scott"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 136, "Johnie Scott"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 179, "Johnnie Scott" (3 texts)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 213-224, "Johny Scot" (2 texts plus 1 fragments and sundry quotations, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #5, #1}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 28, "Young Johnny Scott" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 45-55, "Johnssy Scot" (3 texts, the first being from "The Green Mountain Songster"; 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 101-104, "Johnny Scott" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 15-17, "Johnie Scot" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 303-308, "Johnie Scot" (2 texts)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 29, "Johnie Scot" (3 texts, 3 tunes){Bronson's #2, #12, #4}
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #14, :Johnny Scott (Johnnie Scot)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 19, "Johnie Scot" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's #10}
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H736, p. 489, "Johnny Scot" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 99, JSCOTT1* JSCOTT2*
Roud #63
RECORDINGS:
Mary Baylon, "Johnny Scott" (on IREarlyBallads)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1921), "Johnny Scot," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lang Johnny More" [Child 251] (plot)
cf. "Locks and Bolts" [Laws M13] (theme: girl locked away by father) and references there
NOTES [82 words]: Although reasonably well-known in Scotland, and also well represented in North America, there seem to be no English versions of this song. Which is probably not too surprising, since it clearly glorifies the Scots (though at least an English princess is worth marrying!), and of course nothing like this ever happened to a royal Englishwoman. There were members of the English royal family who married Scots (e.g. Joan Beaufort, Margaret Tudor), but those marriages were definitely planned! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: C099

Johnnie and Molly (I)

See Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)

Johnnie and Nancy

See William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I) [Laws N8] (File: LN08)

Johnnie Armstrong

See Johnie Armstrong [Child 169] (File: C169)

Johnnie Armstrong's Last Goodnight

See Johnie Armstrong [Child 169] (File: C169)

Johnnie Bought a Ham

See Mary Mack (I) (File: CNFM158B)

Johnnie Brod

See Johnie Cock [Child 114] (File: C114)

Johnnie Cooper

DESCRIPTION: John Cooper comes home to find his wife's lover, a brewer, hidden as a pig. When John threatens to slaughter and eat the "pig" the brewer emerges and offers John enough gold and silver to retire if he were spared. He wishes his wife and her lover well.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1733 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(267b))
LONG DESCRIPTION: John Cooper was offered a day's work by the brewer, who ran to bed John's wife. Having forgotten his tools John returned home to find his wife had hidden the brewer as a pig in a vat. When John threatened to take an arm or leg off the "pig" the brewer, who "thought he should die by the Cooper," emerged and offered John "the keys of my silver and gold" to spare him. John wished his wife and the brewer well "for they've made a rich man o' John Cooper" so that he could retire from working.
KEYWORDS: adultery bargaining hiding gold husband lover wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1433, "Johnnie Cooper" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #7357
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(267b), ("Attend my masters, and listen well"), Norris, T. (London), 1711-1732; also Harding B 1(43), "The Cooper of Norfolk" or "A Jest of a Brewer and a Cooper's Wife"
NOTES [180 words]: "The Cooper of Norfolk" broadside preserves sheath and knife symbolism as in "Leesome Brand" [Child 15] and "Sheath and Knife" [Child 16] ("But she had a Trick which in some Wives are rife, She still kept a Sheath to another Man's Knife."
Child's view (Vol. V, p. 486) has "sheath and knife for mother and child" [(T579.1, "Sheath and knife as analogy for mother and unborn child"), Motif-Index of Folk-Literature revised and enlarged by Stith Thompson, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1955)]. Child 16B is a clearer case for the sense of "The Cooper of Norfolk" but regarding a dead lover: "'It's I hae broken my little pen-knife That I loed dearer than my life.' ... 'It's no for the knife that my tears doun run, But it's a' for the case that my knife was kept in.'"
Wurzbach and Salz, in their rework of Thompson's analysis of Child, mention both ballads but do not consider a 'sheath and knife' motif, or T579.1, at all (Natascha Wurzbach and Simone M Salz, translator Gayna Walls, Motif Index of the Child Corpus: the Englsih and Scottish Popular Ballad (1995)). - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71433

Johnnie Cope

DESCRIPTION: "Cope sent a letter frae Dunbar, Said, 'Charlie, meet me, an ye daur, And I'll learn ye the art o' war." Prince Charles accepts the challenge; Cope makes sure his horse is ready to fly. Quickly defeated, Cope is the first to escape to (Dunbar/Berwick)
AUTHOR: Adam Skirving?
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (_Scots Musical Museum_ #234)
KEYWORDS: Jacobites battle abandonment humorous royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 21, 1745 - Battle of Prestonpans. Bonnie Prince Charlie's Highland army routs the first real Hannoverian force it encounters
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 58, "Johnny Cope"; Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 59, "Johnny Cope" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 129, "Johnnie Cope" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 125, "Johnny Cope" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 24, "Johnny Cope" (1 text, 1 tune)
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 47-49, "Johnny Cope" (1 tune)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 227-232, "Johnnie Cope" (1 text plus an excerpt of "Tranent Muir")
DT, JOHNCOPE* JOHNCOP2*
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, Burns: editor, Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #297, pp. 413-415, "Johnie Cope" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1790)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #234, pp. 242-243, "Johnie Cope" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kenneth Norman MacDonald, "The Gesto Collection of Highland Music," 1895 (reprinted 1997 by Llanerch Publishers), pp. 95-96, "Hey! Johnny Cope" (1 tune)
Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 135, "(no title)" (1 text, probably imcomplete)
Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 207-208, "Johnnie Cope" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2315
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(139), "Johnny Cope" ("Cope sent a letter frae Dunbar"), W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle), 1832-1842; also Harding B 11(138), 2806 c.16(120), Johnson Ballads 3189, 2806 d.31(7), Firth b.28(26b), Harding B 20(82), "Johnny Cope"
Murray, Mu23-y1:119, "Johnny Cope," unknown, unknown
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tranent Muir" (subject: the Battle of Presonpans) and references there
cf. "The Barns o' Beneuchies" (tune)
cf. "The Frostit Corn" (tune)
cf. "The Buchan Turnpike" (tune)
cf. "Riel Sits In His Chamber o' State (The Marching Song; Capture of For Garry, or Riel's Retreat)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Barns o' Beneuchies (File: Ord231)
The Frostit Corn (File: GrD3436)
The Buchan Turnpike (File: GrD3460)
Riel Sits In His Chamber o' State (The Marching Song; Capture of Fort Garry, or Riel's Retreat) (File: Macl07)
The Roon-Moo'ed Spade (File: Gath008)
Jemmie Forrest (broadside NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(106), "Jemmie Forrest," unknown, 1842?; same broadside as L.C.Fol.74(219a), ABS.10.203.01(151))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hey Johnnie Cope
NOTES [637 words]: This song, with its slanging lyrics and sprightly tune, is extremely well known (the first two histories of the Forty-Five Rebellion I checked both title their chapters on Prestonpans "Hey Johnnie Cope"), but traditional collections are few and far between. It seems to have survived mostly in texts that borrow the tune. (Were people afraid to sing it?)
The song is not as accurate as might be desired. The two armies at Prestonpahs, although both desired battle, almost blundered into each other. Tactics were minimal; the Jacobites -- having made the one sound strategic move of the battle by making a night march through a swamp into the loyalist rear -- took the field, charged, and routed the army of Lieutenant-General John Cope.
This is not as surprising as it sounds. Cope's army was in most respects inferior. Although theoretically composed of "regulars," in fact the troops were mostly raw. Nor were the units cohesive; it was a company from here and a battalion from there; officers and units had not worked together.
And the army was small. Reid, p. 32, offers evidence implying that the Hannoverian army was only about 2000 strong. It had a few artillery pieces, mostly in rather bad state -- but with no one except two officers to man them, and no ammunition, they played little part in the battle.
Nor is there evidence that Cope (1688-1760) was a coward; his courageous conduct at Dettingen (1743) had earned him a knighthood. If he had a problem, it was lack of brains, not of courage. He assuredly tried to stem the rout. But the disaster was too complete.
The versions I've heard of the song can't seem to agree whether he fled to Berwick or Dunbar. Magnusson, p. 594, reports that "Cope and his aide-de-camp could do nothing but gallop of southwards to Lauder and Coldstream and on to the safety of Berwick-upon-Tweed next day. Here, it is alleged (incorrectly), he had the humiliation of being the first general ever to bring to his superiors the news of his own defeat."
Cope was "examined" by a board -- in effect, a court martial. But Magnusson, p. 594, notes that their verdict on Prestonpans was that Cope "did his Duty as an Officer, both before, at, and after the Action: and that his personal Behavior was without Reproach."
The image in the song of Charles drawing his sword to lead his men in battle is almost true. According to McLynn, p. 151, Charles wanted to lead from the front at Prestonpans (a rather Charles-ish thing to do really; he was a far better man-on-horseback than actual general). And he did address his army -- his speech supposedly ended, "Gentlemen, I have thrown away the scabbard; with God's help I will make you a free and happy people." But his officers forced him to stay in the rear.
I can't help but note one great irony. In the British army, according to Baynes/Laffin, p. 105, "Johnnie Cope" is used to sound reveille for a number of Scottish regiments. Among them: The Black Watch, which had soldiers on the losing side at Prestonpans.
For another song on Prestonpans, with a similar take but some different details, see "Tranent Muir." Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario, p. 174, follows Ford-SongHistories in attributing both Prestonpans songs to one Adam Skirving (1718-1803), but offers no evidence that I can see. Of course, it might be that Skirving wanted his composition kept quiet in order to stay out of trouble. But this still leaves the question of why he wrote two well-known Prestonpans songs and, seemingly, nothing else that has endured. - RBW
The Burns version is Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 58. The Bodleian and Murray broadsides are Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 59.
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2: "Both sets of 'Johnie Cope' are taken from Gilchrist's collection -- a work in two volumes, published lately...." - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: DTjohnco

Johnnie Gallacher

See Johnny Gallagher (Pat Reilly) (File: Pea469)

Johnnie Gave Me Apples

See My Boyfriend Gave Me An Apple (File: Hamm011)

Johnnie Ha

See Archie o Cawfield [Child 188] (File: C188)

Johnnie Had a Gun

DESCRIPTION: "Johnnie/Tommy had a gun, And the gun was loaded. Johnny pulled the trigger And the gun exploded."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: disaster | gun explosion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 65, "Johnnie had a gun" (1 text)
Roud #19003
File: BAAI065D

Johnnie Johnson's Ta'en a Notion

See Johnny Todd (File: FSWB174A)

Johnnie Lad

See Johnny Lad (File: Log443)

Johnnie Made a Touchdown

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Johnnie made a touchdown, Johnnie made a basketball, Johnnie made an OUT."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Evans, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope sports
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #288, "Johnnie Made a Touchdown" (1 text)
File: AJRR288

Johnnie o' Braidesley

See Johnie Cock [Child 114] (File: C114)

Johnnie o' Cocklesmuir

See Johnie Cock [Child 114] (File: C114)

Johnnie O'Rogers

See Jolly Old Roger (File: R496)

Johnnie of Cockerslee

See Johnie Cock [Child 114] (File: C114)

Johnnie Sangster

DESCRIPTION: A harvest song about binding sheaves and Johnnie Sangster the bandster. The first part of the song is apparently sung by Johnnie or one of his companions; the end is sung by a girl who wants to marry Johnnie.
AUTHOR: possibly William Scott of Fetterangus (1785-?) (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work harvest
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #3, p. 2, "Johnny Sangster"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 46, "Johnnie Sangster" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 407, "Johnny Sangster" (6 texts, 3 tunes)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 69, "Johnnie Sangster" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 265-266, "Johnnie Sangster" (1 text)
ST DBuch69 (Full)
Roud #2164
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny Lad" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
NOTES [49 words]: Ewan MacColl's version of this is sung to a Lydian melody -- the only such I can recall in traditional Scottish music. This is not universal; Ord-BothySongsAndBallads's melody is generally quite close to MacColl's, but with that Lydian (sharpened) fourth reduced to an ordinary Ionian fourth. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: DBuch69

Johnnie Shears a Hairst

DESCRIPTION: The singer says she and Johhny cut the harvest together. "Johnnie hisna a wife An' I'll win hame to guide him"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting harvest nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1346, "Johnnie Shears a Hairst" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7227
NOTES [21 words]: The current description is based on the single Greig/Duncan7 verse. - BS
Possibly related to Burns's "Robin Shure in Hairst"? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71346

Johnnie the Brime

See Johnie Cock [Child 114] (File: C114)

Johnnie Troy

See Johnny Troy [Laws L21] (File: LL21)

Johnnie, My Man

See Farewell to Whisky (Johnny My Man) (File: K272)

Johnnie, Wontcha Ramble

See Johnny, Won't You Ramble (File: LoF275)

Johnnie's Got His Jean, O

See The Birken Tree (File: FVS088)

Johnnie's Gray Breeks

DESCRIPTION: When the singer was 17 she loved handsome Johnny and made him fine grey breeches. Now she would make him breeches of patches "for a' the ill he's done me." Though he's left her with a baby she hopes he'll come back.
AUTHOR: William Tytler(?) (source: Greig/Duncan7)
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: clothes nonballad baby rake
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1279, "Johnnie's Gray Breeks" (1 text plus 7 fragments, 4 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 446-447, "Johnnie's Grey Breeks" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, pp. 335-336, "Johnie's Gray Breeks"
Roud #7141
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I'll Clout My Johnnie's Grey Breaks
NOTES [115 words]: The description follows Greig/Duncan7 1279A; the other Greig/Duncan7 texts are fragments.
The story in Chambers and Whitelay has no mention of a baby or desertion. The fine breeches the singer made for Johnny "when the lad was in his prime" are threadbare now and she works to keep them patched. If she had time she would make him a new pair." There are so many shared lines that I consider these two versions of the same song.
Whitelaw: "We cannot give the original version of the song, some of which might be considered rather coarse for 'modern ears polite,' but we give a modified set of it, which is still of considerable antiquity, and used to be popular at our country firesides." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD71279

Johnnie's Nae a Gentleman

See Johnny Lad (File: Log443)

Johnny

See The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging) [Laws O33] (File: LO33)

Johnny and Betsy

See Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid) [Laws M20] (File: LM20)

Johnny and Jane

DESCRIPTION: "Johnny and Jane had a falling out; Johnny run Jane right outta sight." She promises to come; he beats and runs her naked around town. She's sentenced to Moundsville (VA) jail. She escapes. Refrain: "Johnny don't allow no lowdown hanging around."
AUTHOR: Frank Hutchison
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recording, Martin & Roberts)
KEYWORDS: fight abuse prison escape humorous lover
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 59, "Johnny and Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JOHNJANE*
RECORDINGS:
[Asa] Martin & [Doc] Roberts, "Low Down Hanging Around" (Conqueror 8207-B, 1933)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. ""Mama Don't 'Low" (lyrics)
cf. "Salty Dog" (tune)
File: CSW059

Johnny and Mary

DESCRIPTION: "Down the burn and thro' the mead, His golden locks wav'd o'er his brow, Johnnie, liltin', tuned his reed, And Mary wiped her bonnie mou'." The poor but handsome couple find happiness and treasure in each other's company
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 272-273, "Johnnie and Mary" (1 text)
Roud #8498
NOTES [74 words]: This is either incredibly bawdy or incredibly dumb. I'm betting on the latter.
Ford reports that it is from Bickerstaffe's 1762 opera "Love in a Village." The obscurity of this work is shown by the fact that I checked eight different reference works (six devoted solely to classical music) without finding a single reference to opera or composer. For more on the very confusing story of Bickerstaffe, see the notes to "The Miller of Dee." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: FVS272

Johnny and Mollie (II)

See On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)

Johnny and Molly (I)

DESCRIPTION: Johnny invites Molly to go to a grove for "serious talk" and "a sweet commodious walk." She won't be seduced. He says he had no such idea and asks her to marry: he'll plow and she'll milk the cows
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 16(337b))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage seduction farming dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 55-57, "Through the Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1682
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(337b), "Johnny and Molly" ("As thro' the groves young Johnny did pass"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Johnson Ballads 2599, "Johnny and Molly"
File: KiTu055

Johnny and Molly (II)

See Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)

Johnny and Old Mr. Henly

See Will the Weaver [Laws Q9] (File: LQ09)

Johnny and the Highwayman

See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

Johnny and the Landlady

See Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)

Johnny Appleseed Grace

DESCRIPTION: The speaker declares that "the Lord is good to me" for supplying "the sun and the rain and the apple seed."
AUTHOR: Kim Gannon and Walter Kent (source: various Internet sites)
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Disney movie "Melody Time," according to various Internet sources)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad religious campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 52, 105, 539, "Johnny Appleseed Grace" (notes only)
Roud #26661
NOTES [102 words]: It's ironic to note that Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman, c. 1775-1847), though his work brought him fame and praise, in fact was introducing non-native species in many areas, and hence damaging the environment.
I doubt this is traditional (though the usual low-quality Internet sources often call it so; some label it a nursery rhyme, which it patently is not), In my experience, it's more of an organizing tool in church camps, sung to settle people down so they can get ready to do something real. But Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs mentions so many collections (70) that I have, with misgivings, indexed it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF052A

Johnny Appleseed's Song

DESCRIPTION: "I love to plant a little seed Whose fruit I never see; Some hungry strange it will feed, When it becomes a tree." "I love to sing a little song... And round me see the children throng." "So I can never lonely be." "The tree will tell my deed"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Allsopp)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad travel children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 272, (no title) (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johhny Appleseed Grace" (subject)
NOTES [89 words]: Checking Granger's Index to Poetry, I find half a dozen "Johnny Appleseed" songs, none of which are this piece. The way Allsopp presents the poem, it might be traditional, so I've indexed it -- though I suspect it's just Allsopp not documenting sources.
Whether the poem actually goes back to John Chapman (c. 1775-1847) is obviously open to doubt.
It's ironic to note that Johnny Appleseed, though his work brought him fame and praise, in fact was introducing non-native species in many areas, and hence damaging the environment. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FORA272

Johnny Barbour

See Willie o Winsbury [Child 100] (File: C100)

Johnny Bathin

See Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)

Johnny Blunt

See Get Up and Bar the Door [Child 275] (File: C275)

Johnny Bobeens

See The Swapping Boy (File: E093)

Johnny Boker (I)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: " Do, my Johnny Boker (Booker/Poker), do!" Often with lyrics about the sailor's girl (Sally) or about the abuse inflicted by the Captain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Robinson)
KEYWORDS: shanty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Mar,Newf) West Indies
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 9, "Johnny Boker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 44, "Johnny Boker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 97-98, "Johnny Boker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 289-290, "Johnny Bowker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XL, p. 45, "Johnny Bowker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 106, "Johnny Boker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, p. 141, "Johnny Boker" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 168, "Jolly Poker" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, p. 54, "'Jolly Poker' and 'Haul on the Bowline'" (1 short text, 1 tune, with one verse of each of the two songs)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #27, "Johnny Boker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 4-6, "Do My Jolly Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 28, "Johnny Boker" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 86, "Johnny Boker" (1 text)
DT, JONBOKER*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Johnny Boker" is in Part 1, 7/14/1917
George Allan England, _Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt_ (also published as _The Greatest Hunt in the World_), Doubleday, 1924, p. 44, "(Johnny Boker)" (1 short text)
Roud #353
RECORDINGS:
Capt. Leighton Robinson, "Johnny Boker" (AFS, 1951; on LC26)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Johnny Polka
Johnny Poker
NOTES [98 words]: A blackface piece of the same name is also known, and is felt by some to be the original, but the relationship between the two is difficult to determine precisely.
According to Ron Young, Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador, Downhome Publishing Inc., 2006, p. 227, in Newfoundland, this wasn't just a sea shanty; it was also used as a hauling shanty for hauling HOUSES from one place to another -- a relatively common occurrence in Newfoundland, where houses were usually small, had no cellars, and were often kept for a very long time because building new ones was so expensive. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Doe009a

Johnny Booker (Mister Booger)

DESCRIPTION: About the troubles experienced by a teamster/sailor along the way: A broken yoke, a stalled cart, etc. Chorus something like "Do, Johnny Booker, oh do, do me do, Do, Johnny Booker, oh do" or "So walk a Johnny Booger to help that nigger...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Wyeth); 1855-1860 (see Notes re Wyeth)
KEYWORDS: work travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So) Britain(England(North,South))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 268, "Mister Booger" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 100, "(Johnny Booker)" (1 fragment, 1 tune, probably this although it's short enough that it might be "Johnny Boker (I)")
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 258, "Knock John Booker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 194, "Johnny Booker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #91, "Do Johnny Booger" (1 text, 1 tune, an incredible mess with the chorus and some words from "Johnny Booker (Mister Booger)," an ending which is from "Run, Nigger, Run," and a number of verses perhaps from "Old Dan Tucker")
DT, JNBOOKER
ADDITIONAL: John Allen Wyeth, _With Sabre and Scalpel_ (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1914 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), "Johnny Booker," p. 63 (1 verse)
Roud #3441
RECORDINGS:
Gus Cannon, "Old John Booker, You Call That Gone" (on AmSkBa, DownHome)
Bill Chitwood & Bud Landress, "Johnny, Get Your Gun" (Brunswick 2883, 1925)
Cousin Emmy [Cynthia May Carver], "Johnny Booker" (Decca 24214, 1947; on CrowTold01)
Jack Elliott, "Old Johnnie Booker" (on Elliotts01)
Earl Johnson & his Clodhoppers, "Johnnie Get Your Gun" (OKeh 45171, 1927)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Old Johnny Booker Won't Do" (on NLCR17, NLCRCD2)
Walter "Kid Smith, "Old Johnny Bucker Wouldn't Do" (Gennett 6825/Supertone 9407 [as Jerry Jordon, "Old Johnny Bucker Won't Do"], 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)" (lyrics)
cf. "Went to the River (I)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [134 words]: "Johnny Booker" includes key verses from "Poor Old Man": "Said an old man come riding by/Said, young man, your mule's gonna die/If he dies I'll tan his skin/If he lives I'll ride him again." This probably entered minstrel tradition via African-American sailors -- or entered the shanty tradition from minstrel shows.
The Chitwood-Landress recording is a bit of a conundrum: it doesn't include most of the canonical mule verses, nor the canonical chorus, but the tune and gestalt are the same. I classify it as a proto-Johnny Booker, and assign it the earliest date, but note its peculiarities; it may be a Chitwood-Landress composition, built on the skeleton of this song. - PJS
Wyeth learned "Johnny Booker" from slaves in Tennessee, around 1855-1856. Wyeth sang and played the song for Scarborough. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R268

Johnny Bowker

See Old Johnny Booger (File: RcOlJoBo)

Johnny Brown

See This Pretty Girl of Mine (File: GrD81572)

Johnny Bull

See Heenan and Sayers [Laws H20] (File: LH20)

Johnny Bull, Irishman, and Scotchman

See Paddy Magee's Dream (File: OCon099)

Johnny Bull, My Jo, John

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Johnny Bull, my jo John, I wonder what you mean, Are you on foreign conquest bent, or what ambitious scheme?" The Americans warn their "brother" (England) that their invasions have failed. John is advised to "remain on your fast-anchored isle."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: war patriotic political derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 10, 1813 - Battle of Lake Erie. The Americans under Perry defeat the British.
Aug 24, 1814 - A British force under Robert Ross captures Washington, D.C. after brushing aside the incompetent defenders. (Madison's administration had already fled). Two days later the British leave for Baltimore.
Jan 8, 1815 - Battle of New Orleans. Although a peace had already been signed, word had not yet reached Louisiana, which British General Pakenham sought to invade. Andrew Jackson's backwoodsmen easily repulse Pakenham.
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 118-120, "Johnny Bull, My Jo, John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 291, "Johnny Bull, My Jo, John" (1 text)
DT, JOHNAND4*
Roud #V35010
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Anderson, My Jo, John" (tune)
NOTES [92 words]: A broadside from the War of 1812, based on Burns's "John Anderson My Jo, John." This tune seems to have been very popular for political songs at the time; Huntington (pp. 172-174) has another such song, "John Bull's Epistle" (which we might subtitle "Colly Strong").
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 112, has another piece, "Ode to John Bull, Esq.," which begins, "John Bull, Esq., my jo John," which obviously is built on the same idea, but it's listed as by William McMenaman of the 29th Pennsylvania Volunteers, so it's a completely separate item. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: SBoA118

Johnny Burke

See John Burke (File: Pea467)

Johnny Cake

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Johnny Carroll's Camp

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes details of life in a lumber camp.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Bill McBride)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 13, "Johnny Carroll's Camp" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, "Johnny Carroll's Camp" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 20, "Johnny Carroll's Camp" (1 text)
Roud #6516
RECORDINGS:
Bill McBride, "Johnny Carroll's Camp" (AFS, 1938; on LC56)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" and references there
NOTES [23 words]: There is an entire genre of songs describing life in a lumber camp and the characters to be found there; check the cross-references. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be013

Johnny Come a Long Time

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are "Johnny come a long time." Verse lines are "Run along my Lulu," "Run home my Lulu," and "Johnny is your master"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 23, pp. 124-125, "Johnny Come a Long Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [79 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. This looks to me like a distant relative of "Tommy's Gone to Hilo," though Parrish knows shanties -- having a section of them in her book -- but doesn't call this one of them. In fact, she includes no information about the use of this song. Another argument against mine is that Parrish's tune is quick while Hugill says "Tommy's Gone to Hilo" was sung in a "slow and lethargic way." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr023

Johnny Come Down to Hilo

See Johnny Walk Along to Hilo (File: Doe072a)

Johnny Come Down With a Hilo

See Johnny Walk Along to Hilo (File: Doe072a)

Johnny Come to Hilo

See Johnny Walk Along to Hilo (File: Doe072a)

Johnny Comes Down to Hilo

See Johnny Walk Along to Hilo (File: Doe072a)

Johnny Coughlin

See Johnny Gallagher (Pat Reilly) (File: Pea469)

Johnny Cuckoo

DESCRIPTION: "Here comes old Johnny Cuckoo ... What did you come for ... I come for be a soldier ... You look too black and dirty ... I'm just as clean as you are On a dark and stormy night."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Bessie Jones, et al)
KEYWORDS: storm dialog nonballad playparty soldier
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #21730
RECORDINGS:
Janie Hunter and her children, "Johnny Cuckoo" (on BeenStorm1)
Bessie Jones, George Cohen, Jerry Harris, Leola Harris, Emma Lee, Viola McQueen, Ruth Ozell. "Johnny Cuckoo," St Simons Island October 1959, ref=T926R05, https://archive.culturalequity.org/field-work/southern-us-1959-and-1960/st-simons-island-i-1059/johnny-cuckoo -- accessed July 17, 2023
NOTES [95 words]: The Bessie Jones, et al, recording verses follow the pattern: "Here comes old Johnny Cuckoo / Cuckoo, cuckoo, / Here comes old Johnny Cuckoo / On a cold and stormy night." The current description is based on this text.
The BeenStorm1 song has a different form ("Is one Johnny Cuckoo / On a rainy day my darling / Is one Johnny Cuckoo / On a bright and starry night") and different tune.
Both Sea Island versions start slowly, pick up speed and end with syncopated clapping. The tempo speed-up and syncopated clapping is like what you hear on many Sea Island hymns.- BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RcBJoJCu

Johnny Dhu

See The Little Beggerman (Johnny Dhu) (File: K345)

Johnny DIals

See Johnny Doyle [Laws M2] (File: LM02)

Johnny Doyle (II)

See The Wild Mustard River (Johnny Stile) [Laws C5] (File: LC05)

Johnny Doyle [Laws M2]

DESCRIPTION: Johnny and his sweetheart plan to elope, but the girl's servant reveals the plan. The girl is taken and forced to wed another. She becomes sick to death. The mother relents and offers to send for Johnny, but it is too late; the girl bids farewell and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1857 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.18(85))
KEYWORDS: elopement love marriage death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (30 citations):
Laws M2, "Johnny Doyle"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #102, p. 1, "Johnny Doyle" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1020, "Johnny Doyle" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Randolph 87, "Johnny Doyle" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 80-81, Johnny Doyle"" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 87A)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 83, "Johnny Doyle" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #30, Johnny Dials" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 44, pp. 159-160, "Johnny Doyle" (1 text)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 9, "Johnny Doyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 248-250, "Johnny Doyle" (1 text, locally titled "Johnny Dile"; tune on pp. 421-422)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 46-47, "Johnny Doyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 73, "Johnny Doyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 15, "The Lost Johnny Doyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills, "Johnny Doyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 279-285, "Johnny Doyle" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 248-250, "Johnny Doyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 81, "Young Johnnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H137, pp. 431-432, "Johnny Doyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 35, "Johnny Doyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 129, "Johnny Doyle" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #178, "Johnny Doyle" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #24, "Johnny Doyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 687-690, "Johnny Doyle" (2 texts, 3 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 16, "Johnny Doyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 67, "Johnny Doyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 17-19,80, "Johnny Doyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 34, "Johnny Doyle" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 16, "Johnny Doyle" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1138, p. 78, "Johnny Doyle" (2 references)
DT 430, JONDOYLE*
Roud #455
RECORDINGS:
Jim Bennett, "Johnny Doyle" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Raymond Noseworthy, "Johnny Doyle" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Burzilla Wallin, "Johnny Doyle" (on OldLove [as "Johnny Dial (Doyle)"], DarkHoll)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.18(85), "Johnny Doyle" ("There's one thing that grieves me and that I must confess"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1857; also Firth c.18(84), Firth b.25(291), Harding B 11(1911), "Johnny Doyle" ("I am a fair maiden what's crossed in love"); Harding B 18(324), "Johnny Doyle!" [same as LOCSinging as201890]
LOCSinging, as201890, "Johnny Doyle!," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864 [same as Bodleian Harding B 18(324) ]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie" [Child 239] (plot)
SAME TUNE:
The Heart That Can Feel for a Suffering Maiden (per broadside Bodleian Firth c.18(85))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Johnny Dial
Johnny Dye
It's of a Tender Maiden
NOTES [96 words]: Not to be confused with "Johnny Doyle II," a variant of Laws C5, "The Wild Mustard River (Johnny Stile)." Flanders, in Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, included this song based on the thematic similarity to "Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie" -- but Coffin's notes confess "Certaimly 'Johnny Doyle' has little but its basic motif in common with Child 239." - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as201890: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LM02

Johnny Dunlay

DESCRIPTION: Johnny Dunlay meets the singer "by the side of Aymer's haunted hall." They part and he rides to battle. The "fair Saxon soldiers" ambush him. He kills the Saxon leader. She curses the traitor who shot Johnny by Aymer's hall. He dies in her arms.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting battle betrayal death lover soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 471-472, "Johnny Dunlay" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea471 (Partial)
Roud #6457
File: Pea471

Johnny Faa

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Johnny Faa, the Gypsy Laddie

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Johnny Fell Down in the Bucket

DESCRIPTION: "Johnny fell down the bucket, The bucket fell down the well, His wife cut the rope... And Johnny fell down into -- (nonsense chorus)." "Johnny was walking in Hades, As meek and calm as a lamb, She stepped on a red-hot poker, And said, Well, I'll be --"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: humorous Hell wordplay
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 420, "Johnny Fell Down the Bucket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7631
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hallelujah"
NOTES [40 words]: Like "Hallelujah" or "Hopalong Peter," this is one of those "hidden word" songs -- the verse leads you to expect the last word, which is usually not fit for polite company. But instead of saying the word, it breaks off into the chorus. - RBW
File: R420

Johnny Fill Up the Bowl (In Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-One)

DESCRIPTION: "In Eighteen Hundred and Sixty One, Hurrah, Hurrah (or "Skiball" or "Football" or some such)... The great rebellion is begun, and we'll all drink stone blind, Johnny, fill up the bowl." A catalog of the events of the Civil War
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Sheet music "For Bales" published by Blackmar & Co, New Orleans)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar fight army rebellion war death freedom slavery
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 12, 1861 - Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter, opening the Civil War
Sept 23, 1862 - Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation published (to be formalized Jan. 1, 1863)
Apr 9, 1865 - Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia surrenders
May 13, 1865 - General Edmund Kirby Smith surrenders all remaining Confederate forces
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Randolph 227, "In Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-One" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 222, "In Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-One" (1 text)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 10, "The Three Ravens" (the two texts in the appendix are this song)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 54, (no title) (1 text, though the chorus line is "When Johnny Comes Marching Home") (OakEd, p. 65)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 241-242, "Johnny, Fill Up the Bowl" (1 text)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 213, "Abe Lincoln Went to Washington" (1 text, tune referenced); also p. 214, "For Bales" (1 text, which appears to be a parody of a parody)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1139, p. 78, "Johnny, Fill Up the Bowl" (14 references); also #1140, p. 78, "Johnny, Fill Up the Bowl!" ("Jeff. Davis is a stupid Fool") (3 references); #1141, p. 78, "Johny Fill Up the Bowl. New Version" (1 reference)
DT, ABEWASH* FORBALES*
Roud #6673
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "In 1861" (on Thieme02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (tune) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
For Bales
Football
NOTES [152 words]: For what little can be said about the disputed ancestry of this tune, see the entry on "When Johnny Comes Marching Home."
Davis for some reason thinks this song a parody of "The Three Ravens." He offers no explanation. It's not the tunes of his versions, which are not given.
There is another song titled "Johnny Fill Up the Bowl," beginning "Abram Lincoln, what yer 'bout," which was popular in the Civil War era; Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 78, lists 14 broadside prints. Wolf also lists three broadside of this, a "New Version" beginning "Up Freeman, up and volunteer," and a version of "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye." Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 397, prints an Auner broadside beginning, "Abram Lindoln, what yer 'bout? Hurrah! hurrah! Stop this war: for it's all played out...." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R227

Johnny Fool

See Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

Johnny from Hazelgreen

See John of Hazelgreen [Child 293] (File: C293)

Johnny Gallagher (Pat Reilly)

DESCRIPTION: Johnny takes the bounty to join the army and a shilling to buy ribbons for his sweetheart or cockade. He complains of his cruel stepmother, his uncle "the ruin and downfall of me," and his father -- or recruiting sergeant -- who never "learnt me a trade"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1912))
KEYWORDS: farewell father mother stepmother soldier recruiting
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf,Ont) Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 80, "Johnnie Gallacher" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 469-470, "Johnny Coughlin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 17, "Johnny Gallagher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 5, "Johnny Gallagher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H574, p. 80, "Pat Reilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea469 (Partial)
Roud #920
RECORDINGS:
William Stevens, "Johnny Coughlin" (on PeacockCDROM)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1912), "Johnny Golicher" ("As I was walking through Newry one day"), H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Firth c.14(119), Firth b.25(358), Firth c.14(120), "Johnny Golicher"; 2806 c.15(312), "Johnnie Gallocher"; 2806 c.15(263), "Johnny Gallacher"; Harding B 17(147b), "Johnny Gallocher"; 2806 c.15(242), Firth c.14(121), Firth c.26(208)[some lines illegible], 2806 c.15(311), "Johnny Gallagher"; 2806 c.15(312), "Johnnie Gallocher"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Johnnie Glacher
NOTES [16 words]: Also see Planxty, "Pat Reilly" (on Planxty, "The Well Below the Valley," Shanachie 79010 (1979)) - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Pea469

Johnny Gave Me Apples

See My Boyfriend Gave Me An Apple (File: Hamm011)

Johnny German [Laws N43]

DESCRIPTION: A sailor meets a girl who tells him she is sad because of her lover's long absence. When he hears that Johnny is her lover, he tells her Johnny died months before. She takes to her bed; he reveals himself as Johnny
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: sailor separation reunion
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws N43, "Johnny German"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 155-156, "Johnny German" (1 text)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 16, "Johnny German" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 23, "The Rainbow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 241, "Johnny German" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H156, p. 315, "Johnny Jarmin/The Rainbow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 97, "Johnny Germany" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 94, "Johnny German" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 94, "Johnny German" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 81, "Johnny German" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 181, "Johnny German" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 55, "Johnny German" (1 text plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 65, "Johnny German" (1 text)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 179-181, "Johnny Jarmanie" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 467, JONGERMN
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 79-80, "Johnny German" (1 text)
Roud #557
File: LN43

Johnny Germany

See Johnny German [Laws N43] (File: LN43)

Johnny Get Your Gun (I)

DESCRIPTION: "One evenin' in de month of May, Johnny get your gun, get your gun, I met old Peter on the way... Moses wept and Abram cried... Satan's coming don't you hide." Johnny is advised to get his gun and fight Satan "to get to Heaven in de good ole way"
AUTHOR: F. Belasco (Monroe H. Rosenfeld)
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (Source: Jon W. Finson, _The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song_, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 220)
KEYWORDS: Devil nonballad fight religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 97-101, "Johnny Get Your Gun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 113-114, "Johnny, Get Your Gun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 200-202, "Johnny Get Your Gun" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 313, "Johnny Get Your Gun"
Roud #V7520
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny Get Your Gun (II)" (chorus, tune)
cf. "Over There (George M. Cohan Song)" (lyrics)
NOTES [83 words]: This piece does not really belong in a folk song catalog; the song in its original form does not seem to have gone into oral tradition. Rather, pieces of the complex whole survived. There is a nonsense version ("Johnny Get Your Gun (II)"), and the "dance" which concluded the piece provided the tune for George M. Cohan's "Over There" (published in 1917, and very popular in the World War I era).
For background on Monroe H. Rosenfeld, see the notes to "Those Wedding Bells Shall Not Ring Out!" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RJ19097

Johnny Get Your Gun (II)

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses, mostly to do with guns and animals: "Johnny got his gun, the gun was loaded/Johnny pulled the trigger and the gun exploded." Chorus: "Johnny get your gun, get your gun, get your gun/Johnny get your gun, I say."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Bill Chitwood & Bud Landress)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Floating verses, mostly having to do with guns and animals: "Johnny got his gun, the gun was loaded/Johnny pulled the trigger and the gun exploded"; "Johnny got his gun, says turn me loose/Shot a crow and hit an old goose/Crow went caw, the duck went quack/Ought to seen the goose balling the jack." Plus the perennial "My ol' Johnny was a great ol' man/Washed his face in a frying pan/Combed his hair in a wagon wheel/Died with a toothache in his heel." Chorus: "Johnny get your gun, get your gun, get your gun/Johnny get your gun, I say."
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad nonsense floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 198, "Johnny, Get Your Gun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11610
RECORDINGS:
Bill Chitwood & Bud Landress, "Johnny, Get Your Gun" (Brunswick 2883, 1925)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers, "Johnnie Get Your Gun" (OKeh 45171, 1927)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Johnny, Get Your Gun" (on NLCR10)
Fate Norris & his Playboys "Johnnie Get Your Gun" (Columbia 15435-D, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny, Get Your Gun (I)" (chorus, tune, structure)
cf. "Old Dan Tucker" (floating lyrics)
File: CSW198

Johnny Get Your Oatcake Done

See Whip Jamboree (Whup Jamboree) (File: Br3230)

Johnny Grey

DESCRIPTION: A bailiff and soldiers arrive at Johnny's door, announcing, 'Johnny, the court has a warrant for you." He is to be transported, but takes up his gun and fights. Johnny is killed, but he slays bailiff and captain first. Listeners are urged to fight also
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: soldier death rebellion transportation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 37-38, "Johnny Grey" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: PGa037

Johnny Harte

DESCRIPTION: A rich farmer's daughter falls in love with Harte, a poor soldier. Her parents complain to his colonel, who threatens to send Harte away. He answers boldly. The colonel is impressed and offers him promotion. The parents consent to the marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.14(207))
KEYWORDS: love soldier courting father mother
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H106, pp. 443-444, "Johnnie Hart" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 88, "Johnny Harte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 32, pp. 84-85,119,169, "Johnny Harte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2929
RECORDINGS:
James Halpin, "Johnny Harte" (on Voice15, IRHardySons)
Jack Kehoe, "The Old Colonel" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.14(207), "Johnny Hart," W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867; also Harding B 26(298), Harding B 19(94)[a few illegible words], "Johnny Hart"
NOTES [62 words]: At the time this song probably originated, it was still possible for soldiers to gain commissions in the British army by purchase (the practice was not abolished until 1871). An ambitious soldier might marry to gain the money to earn a commission, which would make him socially acceptable (more so, anyway). One wonders if that might not be related to what happened here. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HHH106

Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

Johnny Holmes

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you jolly lumbermen, Wherever you may be.... It's of a jolly barber Which I am going to tell." The barber has worked for many lumber camps. The man somehow becomes rich enough to build two houses. The singer describes his looks and bad behavior
AUTHOR: probably at least partly the work of Jack McGinnis/McGuinness
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: logger hair
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 44-48, "Johnny Holmes" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 103-107, "The Little Barber" (1 text)
Ives-LarryGorman, p. 152, "(The Little Barber)" (1 excerpt, included because Larry Gorman apparently claimed it once although Ives agrees it is not his)
Roud #25208
File: Gray044

Johnny Is Gone for a Soldier

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

Johnny Is Mad

DESCRIPTION: "Johnny is mad and I am glad, And I know what will please him, A (bottle of wine to make him shine/bottle of ink to make him stink/drink), and (Mary Jones) to squeeze him."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad drink love courting
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 119, "(Johnny's mad and I am glad)" (2 texts)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 83, "Johnny's Mad"; p. 107, "Pretty Little Boy" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 546, "Mary's Mad" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7777
NOTES [45 words]: Roud lumps this with "The Devil Is Mad" family, and I'll allow that it might come from the same roots, but this feels sufficiently different to me that I have split them.
The one on p. 107 of Solomon-ZickaryZan feels as if it might be a floating "Weevily Wheat" verse. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SaKo119A

Johnny Is My Darling

DESCRIPTION: "Johnny is my darling, my darling, my darling, Johnny is my darling, the Union Volunteer." The girl extols the virtues of Johnny, who marched through town to save the Union. She hopes he will return as "Cupid's volunteer." Tune: "Charlie Is My Darling."
AUTHOR: Words: Father Reed
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (broadside, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar courting soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 209-210, "Johnny Is My Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, p. 11, "Johnny Is My Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #12, p. 37, "Johnny is my Darling" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Is My Darling" (tune)
File: SCW11

Johnny Jarmanie

See Johnny German [Laws N43] (File: LN43)

Johnny Jarmin

See Johnny German [Laws N43] (File: LN43)

Johnny Jiggamy

See Gently, Johnny, My Jingalo (File: ShH65)

Johnny Johnstone

See Johnny Todd (File: FSWB174A)

Johnny Jump Up

DESCRIPTION: Beer is sold out; the singer tries cider. Never again. Falling-down drunk after a quart, he fights a policeman. A man on crutches dances and a friend goes to the mad house after cider. A corpse at a wake asks to take a quart for admission to Heaven.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: drink talltale
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 72-73, "Johnny Jump Up" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [27 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "The title of the song is the name of a cider made in Clonmell and well known for its potency, due to being stored in whiskey barrels." - BS
File: OCan072

Johnny Kiss Yer Auntie

DESCRIPTION: Aunt Bell doted on Jock Macfarlan -- only she could call him Johnny -- and comforted him when, as a boy, a gander stole his bannock and, later, when Biddy Cameron rejected his proposal. She wisely told him his proposal would be accepted eventually.
AUTHOR: George Bruce Thompson (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #138, p. 2, "Johnny Kiss Yer Auntie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 905, "Johnny Kiss Yer Auntie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6257
File: GrD4905

Johnny Lad (I)

DESCRIPTION: Sundry verses about Johnny, biblical themes, King Arthur, and Scottish politics, with refrain "And wi you, and wi you, And wi you, Johnny lad, I'd drink the buckles o my sheen Wi you, Johnny lad."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (quoted in Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: wife commerce Bible talltale royalty food humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Bronson 279, "The Jolly Beggar" (37 versions, but #21 is a fragment of "Johnny Lad")
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 443-445, "Johnny Lad" (1 text)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 45-47, "Jinkin' You, Jockie Lad" (a fragment of this song is quoted in the notes to that)
Greig/Duncan4 755, "Johnnie's Nae a Gentleman" (6 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 168-169, "Johnnie Lad" (1 text)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 62-63, "Johnnie Lad" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 48, "Good King Arthur" (1 short text, a floating fragment sometimes found with "Johnny Lad (I)" and sometimes with "In Good Old Colony Times")
ST Log443 (Full)
Roud #2587
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "When Good King Arthur Ruled This Land" (Piotr-Archive #320, recorded 10/26/2022)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.11(7), "Johnny, Lad," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There Was a Man of Thessaly" (lyrics)
NOTES [982 words]: The account of Samson fighting with "cuddie's jaws" is in Judges 15:15-16. There is, of course, no Biblical basis for the statement that he "focht a score of battles wearing crimson flannel drawers." While Samson spent most of his life battling the Philistines (mostly by accident), the clothing hardly fits an Israelite of the time.
The story of the Queen playing "fitba' with the lads on Glesga green" is unhistorical; by the time football/soccer became a major sport, Scotland's queen was a German lady living in England -- who, in any case, had no power to order an arbitrary arrest.
The story of King Arthur buying/stealing barley-meal to make pudding seems to have been imported from a nursery rhyme (known to Halliwell; see Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #207, p. 144, "(When good King Arthur ruled this land)." Roud seems to lump these verses with "In Good Old Colony Times"; this strikes me as an extreme stretch. The Judy Cook recording has only this part of the song, so it might be a version of the nursery rhyme.
The man of Ninevah (Thessaly, Bablyon) who scratched out his eyes is unbiblical. But it may be the oldest part of the song, and may have originated independently. The lines appear, in rather different form, in Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book Volume II (c. 1744); others appear in the second edition of Gammer Gurton's Garland or The Nursery Parnassus (c. 1799). These verses can be found in Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #28, p. 40, ["There was a Man so Wise"].
These verses seem to have provoked a great deal of discussion. Katherine Elwes Thomas, who never met a tall tale she didn't blow all out of proportion, connects this to the career of Dr. Henry Sacherevell (died 1724), who for a time was forbidden from preaching, then restored to favour. Thomas, pp. 21-22, reports, 'The learned member of Magdalen College, Oxford, was the man so 'wondrous wise' who, in preaching one famous sermon, on August 15. 1709, at Derby, and another, on November 5th of the same year, at St. Paul's before the Aldermen and Lord Mayor of London, literally 'jumped into a bramble bush and scratched out both his eyes.'" The minor problem with this statement is that he did *not* literally scratch out his eyes!
Sacheverell had been invited to preach by the Lord Mayor, who was a Tory. "Sacheverell's sermon, 'The Perils of False Brethren both in Church and State,' was a thinly veiled attack upon the government, the Revolution settlement, and -- by implication -- the Hanoverian succession [that five years later would make George I king]. Sacheverell's audacity was quickly compounded by that of the lord mayor, who published the sermon: so great was the public demand that an astounding 40,000 copies were printed The government, hoping to silence its clerical enemies, impeached Sacheverell for high crimes, apparently with the queen's [Queen Anne's] approval" (Gregg, p. 298).
The result was the "Sacheverell Riots" (OxfordCompanion, p. 830). His only real punishment was to be suspended from preaching for three years (Biddle, p. 165), and his sermon burned. Even his conviction had been by the slender margin of 69-52. Gregg, p. 307, suggests that the real purpose of Sacheverell's supporters was to strengthen their hands for the next parliamentary election -- and it worked; the Tories had a good election. But this did not bother Queen Anne, who had been rather tired of her old government anyway. "Within a month of the conclusion of the trial, shortly after Parliament was prorogued, the Queen dismissed the Marquis of Kent and gave the Lord Chamberlain's staff to Shrewsbury. The change of ministers had begun" (Biddle, p. 166) Sacheverell, however, faded into obscurity thereafter.
Thomas's notes cite the parliamentary records about Sacheverell but offer no reason to link these verses to him. To bolster her claim, Thomas claims the verses are a Jacobite song, but Thomas offers no evidence for that, either; it's Scottish, but outside the Highlands, Scotland was not overwhelmingly Jacobite.
It has also been argued that this verse was known to Shakespeare; in Twelfth Night, act II, scene III, line 79 (Riverside lineation), Sir Toby sings "There dwelt a man in Babylon, lady, lady." But this is more likely from a broadside known as "The Ballad of Constant Susanna" (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2467), which is of course from the deuterocanonical additions to the Book of Daniel (Daniel chapter 13 in Catholic Bibles; it even begins "There was a man living in Babylon").
At least one version known to Rimbault (according to the Opies) made it King Stephen, not King Arthur, who was the thieving king. This is an interesting variant, because Stephen (reigned 1135-1154) had arguably stolen the kingdom from his cousin Matilda/Maud, the only surviving legitimate child of King Henry I. Henry had made his barons swear to support Matilda, but the barons preferred a king to a queen, and chose Stephen. The result was a reign marked by civil war and unrest. Not all sources consider Stephen to have stolen the kingdom -- but many did. - RBW
See Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 11 for the King Arthur lines cited above by RBW. Opie also mentions "There was a man of Nineveh" or Thessaly, etc (Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 497) as being "similarly embodied" in "Johnny Lad" (I).
Also see Robin Hall and Jimmie MacGregor, "Johnny Lad" (on Robin Hall and Jimmie MacGregor, "Two Heids are Better than Yin!," Monitor MF 365 LP (1962)). From the liner notes: "A few years ago, this was probably the most popular song of the folk revival in Scotland. Since then, endless dozens of verses have been added on themes historical, political, satirical, and nonsensical." - BS
(E.g. it includes the verse about the king being in the counting-house from "Sing a Song of Sixpence," although the verse has been dated as early as the sixteenth century.)
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: Log443

Johnny Lad (II)

See Jinkin' You, Johnnie Lad (File: FVS045)

Johnny Lowre

DESCRIPTION: "Of a' the lads in Tinwald toun... There never was sae droll a loon As bonnie Johnnie Lowrie." The singer describes the ways she visits Johnnie (e.g. "I took the flax unto the mill, My jewel follow'd after still"). They marry and are happy though poor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 193-196, "Bonnie Johnnie Lowrie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13112
File: FVS193

Johnny Macree

DESCRIPTION: "The days are short and the nights are long And the wind is nipping cold," but Johnny Macree is never down. "It will all come right by tomorrow night." If he doesn't have shoes, he still has his feet; he never stops whistling
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes music
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 256, "Johnny Macree" (1 text)
Roud #13620
File: PHCF256

Johnny Maloney

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme or taunt. "Johnny Maloney, Stick stick stony, High balla, O dalla, Johnny Maloney." Or "Annie cum banny, Tee alligo kanny, Tee-legged, tie-legged, bow-legged Annie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Butler and haley, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope nonsense
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #16, "Annie cum banny"; #290, "Johnny Maloney" (2 texts)
NOTES [36 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes links these two, for no reason I can see except that they are both nonsense and both from Butler and Haley, but since both seem to be unique and neither means anything, I'm lumping them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR290

Johnny McCardner

See Courting the Widow's Daughter (Hard Times) [Laws H25] (File: LH25)

Johnny McEldoo

DESCRIPTION: McEldoo and friends are on a drinking spree. They stop at Swann's for food and McEldoo eats everything in sight. McEldoo thinks the bill too high and starts a fight. The police arrive and march the boys away. The boys pay the bill and go home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario)
KEYWORDS: fight drink food humorous police brawl
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 33, "The Spree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3390
RECORDINGS:
Tom Brandon, "The Spree" (on ONEFowke01)
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Johnny McEldoo" (on IRClancyMakem01)
Jimmy McBeath, "Johnny McIndoe" (on Voice14)
NOTES [23 words]: Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario, p. 179, suggests that this is originally a music hall song, but cannot point to a source. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: RcJoMcEl

Johnny Murphy

See The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine [Laws C2] (File: LC02)

Johnny My Honey

DESCRIPTION: "O Johnny my honey he's gotten some money." The singer says "he's bonnie and braw he's the flow'r o them a" She's been in France, Spain, England, and Ireland "but there's nae ane sae bonnie." Besides, "his hair has a nat'ral curl an a"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting hair nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 757, "Johnny My Honey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6177
NOTES [8 words]: cf. "The Lass o' Glenshee" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4757

Johnny My Man

See Farewell to Whisky (Johnny My Man) (File: K272)

Johnny O Dutchman

DESCRIPTION: Johnny goes to plow and falls off the horse. He tells his wife he will sell the horse. She would give the horse another chance. They go fishing, the wagon turns over and horse and fish are lost. "Next time I ride you I'll ride the gray mare"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest)
KEYWORDS: farming fishing humorous horse wife
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 161, "Johnny O Dutchman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21115
NOTES [20 words]: Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest song has a few "old Dutchman" dialog words: "ven he fell off" and "vagon". - BS
Last updated in version 3.3
File: MooSW161

Johnny on the Ocean

DESCRIPTION: Singing game. "Johnny on the ocean, Johnny on the sea, Johnny broke a milk bottle, And blamed it on me, I told Ma, Ma told Pa, Johnny got a whipping, Ha, ha, ha, How many whippings d he get?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Dorson)
KEYWORDS: playparty punishment mother father sea jumprope | counting
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 100, "(Johnny over the ocean)" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 224, "Johnny over the Ocean" (1 text)
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, pp. 77-78, "(no title)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 102, "Bobby" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #7, "(Johnie over the ocean)"; #20, "(Down by the ocean)"; #36, "(Cross the river, cross the sea)"; #47, "Johnny on the ocean)"; #60, "(Johnnny over the ocean)"; #87, "(Johnny over the ocean)"; #106, "(Down by the river, Down by the sea)"; #122, "(Down by the river, Down by the sea)"; #138, "(Down by the river, Down by the sea)" (8 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 126, "My brother (sister) broke a bottle" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #291, "Johnny on (over) the ocean" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Joan McCaskill, collector), "Rope-Skipping Games", Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 10, "(Johnnie on the ocean)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, p. 385, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Roud #19067
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie over the Ocean" (lyrics)
File: DoDW385

Johnny over the Ocean

See Johnny on the Ocean (File: DoDW385)

Johnny Randal

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Johnny Randall

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Johnny Randolph

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Johnny Raw

See I Wish My Granny Saw Ye (File: Ord395B)

Johnny Riley

See Riley's Farewell (Riley to America; John Riley) [Laws M8] (File: LM08)

Johnny Riley (III)

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Johnny Rogers

See Nelly the Milkmaid (File: RL169)

Johnny Sands [Laws Q3]

DESCRIPTION: Johnny says he is tired of life and asks his wife to help him drown. She is to tie his hands and push him into the river. As she comes running down the slope, he steps aside and falls in. When she calls for help, he points out that she has tied his hands
AUTHOR: unknown (claimed by John Sinclair in an 1842 broadside)
EARLIEST DATE: 1842
KEYWORDS: suicide trick death river drowning
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Ireland Britain(England(South,West),Scotland) Canada(West)
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Laws Q3, "Johnny Sands"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 237-239, "Johnny Sands" (2 texts, but only the first text, "A", is this piece; there are references to 4 more, probably this but some might be "Marrowbones")
Randolph 754, "Johnny Sands" (2 texts, 2 tunes, but the "B" text goes with "Marrowbones" [Laws Q2])
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 181, "Johnny Sands" (1 text plus excerpts from 2 more and mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 181, "Johhny Sands" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #197, "Johnny Sands" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 71, pp. 198-199, "Johnny Sands" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 51, "Johnny Sands" (1 text plus an excerpt and mention of 1 more; 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 49, pp. 65-68, "Johnny Sands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 175-176, "Johnny Sands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 13-14, "The Drowning Lady (The Witch Song)" (1 fragment, 1 tune, which might be either "Marrowbones" or "Johnnie Sands")
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 159-160, "Johnny Sands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 29, "Johnnie Sands" (1 text)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 26, "Johnny Sands" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 54, "Johnny Sands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan2 319, "Johnnie Sands" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 93, "Johnny Sands" (1 text)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin, pp. 204-205, "Jonnie Sands" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 451, "Johnny Sands" (1 text)
Hamer-GreenGroves, p. 39, "Johnny Sands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 222-223, "Johnny Sands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 99, "Johnny Sands" (1 text)
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, pp. 36-37, "Johnny Sands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 575-576, "Johnny Sands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 48, pp. 114-115, "Johnny Sands"; pp. 115-116, "Johnny Sands" (2 texts)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #120, "Johnny Sands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 158-160, "Johnny Sands" (1 text, 1 tune)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 57, "Johnny Sands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 42-43, "Johnny Sands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #6, p. 10, "Johnny Sands" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 480, "Johnny Sands" (source notes only)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Joseph S. Hufham, "The End of Patty Haig," Vol. XXIX, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 1981), p. 109-111, "(There was a man named Johnny Sands)" (1 short text, coupled with a folktale on about how the two quarreled over a treasure in the river)
DT 344, MARBONE4
Roud #184
RECORDINGS:
Grace Carr, "Johnny Sands" (on Saskatch01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marrowbones" [Laws Q2]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Johnny Vands
NOTES [43 words]: A number of editors confuse "Johnny Sands" [Laws Q3] and "Marrowbones" [Laws Q2]. They obviously have thematic similarity, and probably have exchanged parts. But the "gimmick" is different in each case; there seems no doubt that they are now separate songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LQ03

Johnny Schmoker

DESCRIPTION: German. A musician tells Johnny Schmoker about all the instruments he can play: "Johnny Schmoker, Johnny Schmoker, Ich kann spielen... Ich kann spiel mein kline Drummel, Rub a dub a dub, dis ist mein Drummel." Similarly for other instruments
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (The Silver Lute, edited by George F. Root)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage music nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #12, p. 22, "Johnny Schmoker" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #406, p. 100, "Johnny Schmoker" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 316, "Johnny Schmoker" (notes only)
Roud #2475
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Instruments (The Orchestra Song; Zur Feier, Die Geige)" (theme of describing instruments)
cf. "Musikanter (Ich Bin ein Muskanter)" (theme of describing instruments)
NOTES [82 words]: Although this is usually sung in German even in the United States (the George F. Root publication, the Dime-Song-Book #12 text, and an early De Marsan broadside are all in German), there is an English version, which is why it has a Roud number. But I've seen no evidence that the English version has been transmitted, whereas the German is not hard to find.
It is possible that this song is really addressed not to "Johnny Schmoker" but to the reader; "schmöker(n)" is a verb for reading. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Paro406

Johnny Scott

See Johnie Scot [Child 99] (File: C099)

Johnny Shall Have A New Bonnet

See Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be? (File: FSWB150B)

Johnny Shaw's a Decent Chap

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Johnny Shaw's a decent chap, an' he wants tae marry me, An' tho' he's only a cairter chiel, he's fourteen bob you see." Mother warns, "Ye'll never be a lady aff his fourteen bob." Still, the girl expects to be happy "when he's in a steady job"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: love mother warning money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 43, "Johnny Shaw's a Decent Chap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22213
File: Gath043

Johnny Siddon

See The Collier Lad (Lament for John Sneddon/Siddon) (File: HHH110)

Johnny Smoker

See Johnny Schmoker (File: Paro406)

Johnny Stiles

See The Wild Mustard River (Johnny Stile) [Laws C5] (File: LC05)

Johnny the Ploughboy

See Queen of the May (File: SWMS190)

Johnny the Sailor

See Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)

Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36]

DESCRIPTION: Johnny comes from sea and asks the innkeeper for a bed and the chance to see her daughter (Molly). Neither is granted. He reveals that his last trip made him rich; the innkeeper offers him all he asked. He ignores the offer; he will go where he is wanted
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian, Harding B 25(1124))
KEYWORDS: sea money courting greed landlord sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (38 citations):
Laws K36, "Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 160-162, "Green Beds" (2 texts plus reference to 1 more)
Randolph 53, "Johnny the Sailor" (3 texts plus 2 excerpts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 70-72, "Johnny the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 53A)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 32, "The Green Bed" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 24, "The Green Beds" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 49, "Captain John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 150-151, "Green Beds" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 211-213, "(The Down Bed)" (1 text plus an excerpt of an older version)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 108, "Green Beds" (2 texts plus 2 excerpts and mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 108, "Green Beds" (5 excerpts, 5 tunes)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 42, pp. 156-158, "Young Johnny" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 93, "Young Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 85-86, "Young Johnnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 62-64, "Young Johnnie" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 31, "Young Johnny" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 430-431, "Jackson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 58, "The Green Bed" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #26, "The Green Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #115, p. 2, "The Brisk Young Sailor Lad" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 48, "Johnny and the Landlady" (6 texts, 3 tunes)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 48-49, "The Green Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #13, "The Green Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 97, "The Green Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, pp. 40-41, "A Story, A Story" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 271, "John Returned from the Sea" (1 text)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #91, "The Green Bed" (1 text, 1 tune, shortened)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #10, "The Green Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H779, p. 54, "The Sailor in the Alehouse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 170-171, "The Sailor's Return (Green Beds)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 124, "Young Johnny" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 93, "Green Beds" (2 texts, 1 tune); "The Liverpool Landlady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 8, "Johnny the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #47, "A Comical Dialog between an Honest Sailor and a Deluding Landlady, etc." (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 142, "Jackson" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Uncle Pat Fry: Yadkin County Minstrel or The Blind Balladeer of East Bend," Vol. XVI, No. 3 (Nov 1968), pp. 159-160, "Young Johnny" (1 text)
DT 323, JACKBEDS* JACKBED2*
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, pp. 243-244, "Young Johnny He Has Landed" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Pearl Jacobs Borusky)
Roud #276
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Johnny" (AFS 4200 A1, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell); "Young Johnny" (on USWolfRiver)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1124), "Liverpool Landlady," T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 11(2177), Harding B 11(2178), Firth c.13(178), Firth c.13(177), "Liverpool Landlady"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wild Rover No More" (plot)
cf. "The Saucy Sailor (Jack and Jolly Tar II) [Laws K38]"
cf. "Sweet William of Plymouth" (theme: poor sailor returning wealthy, is rejected by sweetheart's parents who think him still poor)
cf. "Snapoo" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jack Tar
I'll Tell You of a Story
The Sailor
NOTES [143 words]: Laws's numeration of the ballad subfamily known as "Jackson" is confused. In Native American Balladry he lists it as an American song, with no known relatives, and numbers it as dH40. However, in British Broadsides, he lists it as a version of "Johnny the Sailor." The latter identification is clearly correct, even though Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag describes his text as a "survivor of the years of the War with Mexico."
Palmer explains the "Green Bed" as an emergency lodging that might be made up by a boarding house -- a temporary bed filled with greenery (hence the name). Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, however, claims it as being an especially fine lodging, perhaps including a bundling companion (even, perhaps, the landlord's daughter).
To be sure, a fine bed might still be filled with green vegetation rather than, say, moldy old hay. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LK36

Johnny the Sailor Boy

See Johnny Todd (File: FSWB174A)

Johnny the Troller

See The Sailor and the Tailor [Laws P4] (File: LP04)

Johnny Todd

DESCRIPTION: Johnny Todd ships out, leaving his sweetheart in Liverpool. She meets another sailor, who offers to marry her. She accepts; Todd returns to find his love married. The moral: "Do not leave your love like Johnny/Marry her before you go"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: infidelity marriage warning travel return sailor
FOUND IN: US(NE) Ireland Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1583, "Johnny Johnstone" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 9, "Johnny Todd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 103-104, "Johnny Todd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 23, "Johnny the Sailor Boy" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 174, "Johnny Todd" (1 text)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 106, "(Johnnie Johnson's ta'en a notion)" (1 text)
DT, JOHNTODD*
Roud #1102
RECORDINGS:
Bob Roberts, "Johnny Todd" (on LastDays)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sandy Murray
NOTES [74 words]: I include the cross-reference because the verses in which the rival sailor courts the lady seem to be lifted from a broken-token song such as "John Riley (I)". - PJS
Interestingly, the Montgomerie text also has this bit, so it appears to be genuinely traditional.
The group Ossian has recorded a version of this in which Johnny Todd returns to his girl. They admit, however, to having rewritten the ending. To my mind, it doesn't add much.... - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: FSWB174A

Johnny Troy [Laws L21]

DESCRIPTION: Irishman Troy, a convicted robber, is sent to Australia. He and his fellow convicts escape as they are being taken ashore. Troy turns robber, but steals only from the rich, giving to the poor and transportees. At last he is taken and hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan )
KEYWORDS: robbery transportation prison execution
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws L21, "Johnny Troy"
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 134, "Johnny Troy" (1 text)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 88, "Johnnie Troy" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 246-249, "Johnnie Troy" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 96, "Johnnie Troy" (1 text)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 47-49, "Johnny Troy" (1 text)
DT 574, JOHNTROY
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 215, "Johnny Troy" (1 text, with a tune on p. 572)
Roud #3703
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Johnny Try
File: LL21

Johnny Verbeck

See Dunderbeck (File: R488)

Johnny Walk Along to Hilo

DESCRIPTION: Shanty, with chorus, "Johnny walk along to Hilo, Oh, poor old man, Oh, wake her, oh, shake, her, Oh, wake that gal with the blue dress on!" The verses usually consist of a scattering of lines from assorted Black and minstrel songs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (William Cullen Bryant; see Notes)
KEYWORDS: shanty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE) West Indies
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 72, "Johnny Walk Along to Hilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 102, "Johnny Come Down to Hilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 266-268, "Johnny Come Down to Hilo," "The Gal With the Blue Dress" (3 texts, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 196-197]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XVI, p. 19, "O Johnny Come to Hilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 60-61, "Johnny Come Down to Hilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 483-485, "Johnny Come Down to Hilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #24, "O Johnny Come to Hilo" (1 text, which appears to mix the chorus of "Johnny Walk Along to Hilo" with words from "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)")
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #4, "Johnny Come Down to Hilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 4,98-99, "Johnny Come Down With a Hilo" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 784, "When Johnnie Comes Down to Hilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brand-BawdySeaSong 7[A], "Johnnie Come Down the Hilo" (1 text)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 32, "Johnny Comes Down to Hilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 37, "Johnny Come Down to Hilo" (1 text)
DT, JOHNHILO*
ADDITIONAL: William Cullen Bryant, "Letter XI. The Interior of South Carolina" in _Letters of a Traveller_, 2nd edition (1850 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 85-86, ("Johnny come down de hollow" (1 text)
Roud #650
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Johnny Come Down to Hilo" (on PeteSeeger04)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Uncle Ned" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Johnny Come Down the Backstay
Johnny Come to Hilo
Shake Her, Johnny, Shake Her!
NOTES [164 words]: Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman says of this song that it was "doubtless invented by colored shellbacks, but [was] just as popular with whites" -- and indeed, Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman's version is in white dialect while Lomax has a Black text. Even more interestingly, they don't have any lyrics in common except the chorus -- Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman's only lyric is from "Uncle Ned," which the Lomax version does not quote. - RBW
Bryant heard "Johnny Come Down de Hollow" at a South Carolina plantation corn-shucking. He writes that it "was set to a singularly wild and plaintive air, which some of our musicians would do well to reduce to notation." The response to each line is "Oh hollow!" The call lines are "Johnny come down de hollow," "De nigger-trader got me," "De speculator bought me," "I'm sold for silver dollars," "Boys, go catch de pony," "Bring him round de corner," "I'm going away to Georgia" and "Boys, good-by forever." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Doe072a

Johnny Was a Baptist

DESCRIPTION: "Johnny was a Baptist, O yes, Johnny was a Baptist, O yes, Johnny was a Baptist, Baptist, Baptist, Johnny was a Baptist, O yes." "He baptized Jesus, O yes." "Crying, Lord have mercy, O yes." "Sign J on your ticket, O yes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 540, "Johnny Was a Baptist" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 540, "Johnny Was a Baptist" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11876
File: Br3540

Johnny Wetbread

DESCRIPTION: "In the dirty end of Dirty Lane There lived a cobbler, Dick McClane, He wore a coat of the old king's reign (or "His wife was in the old king's reign"), And so did Johnny Wetbread." The cobbler serves in the yeomen; his wife is an orangewoman
AUTHOR: Michael J. Moran (Zozimus) (source: Brady-AllInAllIn)
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: game clothes royalty wife | cobbler dirt
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 7-8, "Johhny Wetbread"; p. 8, "At the dirty end of Dirty Lane" (1 text)
Roud #38113
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Finding of Moses" (another piece by Zozimus, plus background on Zozimus)
cf. "The Imperial Throne When Theodorus Held" (another piece by Zozimus)
NOTES [148 words]: Brady attributes this to "Zozimus" (Michael J. Moran), for whom see the notes to "The Finding of Moses." Brady has a story that "Johnny Wetbread" was a real person who actually wetted crusts in a fountain before eating them, but I wonder if Moran didn't hear some reference to "Johnny Whitbread" or "Johnny White Bread" and riff on that. Or perhaps he heard a fragment and turned it into a fuller song.
If Zozimus did originate this, then the "old king" must have been either George III (reigned 1760-1820), George IV (1820-1830), or William IV (1830-1837), probably one of the latter two, since Victoria was queen from 1837 until Moran's death. If it was George III, then the reference might ultimately be to Samuel Whitbread (1720-1896), a brewer and MP known to George III, or Samuel Whitbread Jr. (1764-1815), a later politician, but that's a lot of speculation based on very little. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI007A

Johnny Will You Marry Me

DESCRIPTION: "Johnny will you marry me and take me out a danger?" "I won't marry you because you are a stranger." "Why didn't you tell me that before you told O'Farrell?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (for USBallinsloeFair, according to site irishtune.info, Irish Traditional Music Tune Index: Alan Ng's Tunography, ref. Ng #2618)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection dialog nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Murty Rabbett and Dan Sullivan, "Johnny Will You Marry Me" (on USBallinsloeFair)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Standard on the Braes o' Mar" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Johnny Won't You Marry Me
Love Will You Marry Me
Love Won't You Marry Me
File: RcJWYMM

Johnny, Come Down the Backstay

See John Dameray (File: Doe008)

Johnny, Come-A-Long

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Johnny, Johnny, John, come a-long, come a-long (2X)" Nonsensical verses, with Johnny playing with his gun and playing hide n' seek with the ladies. Long chorus begins: "Down by the sea where the watermelons grow, back to my home I shall not go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty nonsense
FOUND IN: Britain Germany US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 285-286, "Johnny Come-A-Long"
NOTES [52 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas called this a "runaway chorus," possibly referring to the fast pace of the tune and words, and says that it was a popular sea shore song in America. It is in fact, so quick and full of syllables that I think it would be difficult to sing while doing anything but sitting down. - SL
File: Hugi285

Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye

DESCRIPTION: The girl meets her Johnny returned from the wars. She can barely recognize him; he has lost arms, legs, and eyes. She tells him "With your drums and guns and guns and drum, the enemy nearly slew ye... O, Johnny, I hardly knew ye."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.10(218))
KEYWORDS: soldier disability injury war
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 94, "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 329-330, "Johnny, I Hardly Knew You" (1 text, tune referenced)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 212, "Johnny, I hardly knew ye" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 92-93, "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 388-389, "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" (1 text)
Behan-IrelandSings, #35, "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Yeh" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 109-111, "Johnny I Hardly Knew You" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1142, p. 78, "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" (1 reference)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, pp. 278-279, "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 271-274, "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" (1 text plus excerpts from 3 parodies)
Charles Sullivan, ed., Ireland in Poetry, p. 90, "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye (1 text)
Roud #3137
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Johnny I Hardly Knew You" (on IRClancyMakem02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(218), "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" ("While going the road to sweet Athy"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also 2806 c.8(265), Firth c.26(233), "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye"; Harding B 26(297), 2806 b.9(118)[some illegible words],"Johney I hardly knew ye"[inconsistent spelling throughout]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (tune) and references there
cf. "The Wars of America" (plot)
NOTES [130 words]: Scholars continue to argue whether "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" or the cheerful "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" is the original. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," by Patrick S. Gilmore, can be firmly dated to the beginning of the Civil War, while "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" does not appear until slightly later (reportedly 1869, though the earliest date I've been able to verify is 1885).
There is also a very early print, "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye," beginning "When on the road to Switarthy, ahoo! ahoo!," for which see Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 78. The date for this does not appear to be known.
For further details, see the entry on "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: PBB094

Johnny, I Hardly Knew Yeh

See Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye (File: PBB094)

Johnny, I Hardly Knew You

See Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye (File: PBB094)

Johnny, Johnny, What's the Price of Geese?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope or counting-out rhyme. "Johnny, Johnny, what's the price of geese? Johnny, Johnny, fifty cents apiece, Johnny, Johnny, that's too dear, Johnny, Johnny, get out of here."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Journal of American Folklore, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope commerce bird | goose price
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #289, "Johnny, Johnny, what's the price of geese?" (1 text)
File: AJRR289

Johnny, Lovely Johnny

DESCRIPTION: Annie complains that Johnny had promised to marry her when they courted in her father's garden in County Tyrone. Johnny says "it was all but a jest ... I never intended for to make you my wife." She says she will kiss him if he ever returns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (IRPTunney01)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction sex lie promise separation nonballad lover rake infidelity abandonment
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 14, "Lovely Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5168
RECORDINGS:
Mary Ann Haynes, "Lovely Johnny" (on Voice01)
Paddy Tunney, "Johnny, Lovely Johnny" (on IRPTunney01) (on Voice15)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The High Walls of Derry
File: RcJoLoJo

Johnny, Oh Johnny

DESCRIPTION: "Johnny, oh Johnny, you are my darling, Like a rose that grows in the garden...." The girl's father offers her wealth to marry another; he mother scorns her for wanting Johnny. She intends to follow Johnny anyway, and bids her family farewell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love separation father mother money
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 14, "Willie, Oh, Willie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 277-278, "Johnny, Oh, Johnny" (1 text)
Roud #5715 and 11382
RECORDINGS:
Pete Steele, "Johnny O Johnny" (AFS, 1938; on KMM)
NOTES [14 words]: A commonplace theme, but this doesn't look quite like any of the other versions. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: DarNS277

Johnny, Oh, Johnny

See The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging) [Laws O33] (File: LO33)

Johnny, Won't You Ramble

DESCRIPTION: "Well, I went down to Helltown To see the Devil chain down. Johnny, won't you ramble, Hoe, hoe, hoe!" The singer tells how the masters plan to make the slaves work harder. The slave offers money to avoid a whipping; master would "rather hear you holler"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from "Lightning," David Tippen, and others by Lomax; first printed 1941 in Our Singing Country; Tippen may also have recorded it for the Lomaxes in 1933)
KEYWORDS: slave work prison hardtimes abuse
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 400-402, "Johnny, Won't You Ramble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 275, "Johnny, Won't You Ramble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 128-130, "Jolly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 96, "Johnnie, Wontcha Ramble" (1 text)
Roud #6708
File: LoF275

Johnny's Dead

DESCRIPTION: "It was on the banks of the Humbolt That old Johny fell... Oh, we gathered round old Johny, Old John Wethered, And we buried old Johny, 'Cause he was DEAD." He left a family to hunt gold. He suffered many ills. But, mostly, he was DEAD
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (E Clampus Vitus, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: gold travel death humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 49-50, "Johnny's Dead" (1 text)
NOTES [19 words]: This really feels like it should have been a camp song, but it's not clear to me that it was ever a song at all. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC049

Johnny's Gone for a Soldier

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

Johnny's Gone to Hilo

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "If I should die and be buried at sea, A mermaid's sweetheart I would be. Johnny's gone to Hilo! Heelo! Hilo! My Johnny's gone, what shall I do? Johnny's gone to Hilo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956
KEYWORDS: shanty mermaid/man sailor death separation
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, p. 157, "Johnny's Gone to Hilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #481
NOTES [34 words]: Possibly a fragment of another Hilo shanty, though the form is unusual -- but the text is so short that I can't identify the original. It is not (based on its form) a version of "Tommy's Gone to Hilo." - RBW
File: Cha157

Johnny's Home Sick in the Bed

See Uncle John is Sick Abed (File: LIWUJISA)

Johnny's It, Caught a Fit

DESCRIPTION: "(X) is it, And caught/got a fit, And don't know how To get out of/over it."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 78, "Caught a Fit" (1 text)
File: ZiZa078A

Johnny's Mad

See Johnny Is Mad (File: SaKo119A)

Johnny's The Lad I Love

See The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)

Johnson

See The Three Butchers (Dixon and Johnson) [Laws L4] (File: LL04)

Johnson Boys

DESCRIPTION: "I hear the Johnson boys a-coming, Singing and a-hollering and shooting off their guns." A list of exploits of the minimally civilized Johnson Boys, who shoot, court, wash, farm, and fiddle in extravagant ways (but don't know how to court)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: talltale family humorous
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 338, "Johnson Boys" (2 text plus mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 338, "Johnson Boys" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 129, "Johnson Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 5, "Johnson Boys" (1 text)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, p. 56, "Johnson Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #52, "The Johnson Boys" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 115, "Johnson Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 170, "The Johnson Boys" (1 text)
DT, JHNSNBOY* JHNSNBY2*
Roud #6676
RECORDINGS:
Grant Brothers, "Johnson Boys" (Columbia 15460, 1929; rec. 1928)
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters [or John Hopkins], "Johnson Boys" (Brunswick 179, 1927)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Johnson Boys" (on NLCR03)
Frank Proffitt, "Johnson Boys" (on Proffitt03, ClassBanj) (on USWarnerColl01)
Guy Wolff, "Johnson Boys" (Piotr-Archive #421, recorded 01/08/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnson Boys (II)"
cf. "Aunt Sal's Song (The Man Who Didn't Know How to Court)" (theme)
File: Wa129

Johnson Boys (II)

DESCRIPTION: Description of the Johnson boys, who were boys of honor and DID know how to court; song describes their heroic service to the Confederacy as scouts: "When the Yankees saw them coming, They throw down their guns and hide."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: Civilwar family soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 155, "Johnson Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnson Boys"
NOTES [30 words]: This is an anti-parody, I guess -- a serious takeoff on a song that was originally humorous. - PJS
And if it describes actual people, I have been unable to determine who they are. - RBW
File: CSW155

Johnson Had an Old Gray Mule

See The Old Gray Mule (Johnson's Mule) (File: LPns213)

Johnson's Ale

See When Jones's Ale Was New (File: Doe168)

Johnson's Motor Car

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets another Irish rebel, with orders to go to Dunbar. They decide to requisition the car driven by Doctor Johnson. They send a message urgently calling for his services, then ambush him. They promise to return the car when Ireland is free
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: IRA rebellion technology travel
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 320, "Johnson's Motor Car" (1 text)
DT, JHNMTR
Roud #4833
NOTES [81 words]: It probably says something about the state of Anglo-Irish relations that a tale of deception, intrigue, and highway robbery, all in support of terrorism, is regarded as humorous.
It is certainly true that cars were highly valued in the period of the Irish quest for independence. Calton Younger, in Ireland's Civil War, tells a story on page 376 of a doctor who had a car -- and deliberately disabled it to prevent theft, before recommissioning it briefly to help Free State leaders. - RBW
File: FSWB320A

Johnson's Mule

See The Old Gray Mule (Johnson's Mule) (File: LPns213)

Johnsons Had a Baby, The

DESCRIPTION: "Johnsons had a baby, They called him Tiny Tim, They put him in a bath tub To see if he could swim." He eats a bar of soap. A doctor and nurse are called and a lady with an alligator purse or a big black hearse.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: playparty baby doctor jumprope mother disease wordplay | bathtub soap alligator purse hearse swimming
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(MW,NE,Ro,So) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 147, "The Johnsons Had a Baby" (1 text)
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, pp. 79, "(no title)" (1 text)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 102-103, "(I had a little monkey)," "(Mother, mother, I am ill)" (2 texts)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 224-225, "Mother, Mother" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 110, "(Mother, Mother, I feel ill)," "(Granny, Granny, I am ill)" (2 texts)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 14, "("Mother, mother, I feel ill)" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 213, "Jump Rope Rhyme" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, pp. 57-58, "Tiny Tim" (1 text); p. 61, "Momma, Momma"; "Quick, Quick, Quick"; "Will I Die?"; p. 63, "Alligator Purse";p. 103, "Tim" (5 texts)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #4, "(Had a little duck, His name was Tony Pim)"; #35, "(I had a little monkey dressed in red)"; #68, "(Had a little Teddy bear, His name was Tiny Tim)"; #90, "(Minnie, Minnie Ha Ha)"; #107, "(Mother, Mother, I am ill)"; #123, "(Mother, Mother, I am sick)" ; #127, "(Mother, Mother, I feel sick)"; #130, "(I had a little brother, His name was Tim)" (7 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 61-62, "My Monkey" (1 text); p. 125, "Mother, Mother, I Feel Sick" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 82, "(Mother, Mother, I feel sick)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 26, "(Granny, Granny, I am sick)" (1 short text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #224, "I had a little brother"; #353, "Mother, mother, I am ill (sick)" (2 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #77, "(Mother, Mother, I Am Ill)" (1 text, with the first few lines of this song although the ending is different)
Roud #13502 and 4835
RECORDINGS:
Travis Johnson, "Miss Susie" (Piotr-Archive #515, recorded 03/08/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Am a Pretty Little Dutch Girl" (tune, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
cf. "Oh Dear Mother" (some lines: "Doctor, doctor will I die?")
NOTES [187 words]: See Sandburg, American Songbag pp .378-379 and the other "Bang Away, Lulu (I)" songs, Roud #8349. I think this is too much a game song to be lumped with bawdy #8349 (even so innocent a version as Sandburg's). - BS
And I agree, and have filed accordingly. Roud also files some of the lyrics in McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks with Roud #4835. The whole thing is a mess. Although the "Johnsons had a baby" text often includes the "Mother, mother, I am ill" bit (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore give this as:"Mother, mother, I am ill, Call the doctor from over the hill. In comes the doctor, In comes the nurse, In comes the lady With the alligator purse"), it also circulates separately. I wonder if they aren't separate pieces that combined.
We use the title "The Johnsons Had a Baby" because the Opies do, but it's a very bad name, since it is very rare. Whereas Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes lists fifty sources for "Mother, Mother, I am Sick" types. It's pretty clear that is more common.
Gershon Legman thought the "alligator purse" might be derived from a fairy in Lucretia P. Haley's The Peterkin Papers. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OpGa147

Johnston Mooney and O'Brien

DESCRIPTION: "Johnston Mooney and O'Brien Bought a horse for one and nine. When the horse began to kick, Johnson Mooney bought a stick. When the stick began to wear, Johnston Mooney began to swear...." Eventually he ends up in hell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: horse commerce Hell
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 67, "(Johnston Mooney and O'Brien)" (1 text)
Roud #19250
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nebuchadnezzar's Wife" (form)
NOTES [38 words]: Roud lumps this with "Nebuchadnezzar's Wife." The theme is similar (including ending up in hell in some versions), but so many lines are different that I would consider it to be, or at least to have become, a separate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ABBI067A

Johnston's Army Episode

See Mormon Army Song (File: CAFS2602)

Johnston's Hotel

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes conditions at "Johnston's Hotel," which smells like corn-flakes; one is sent there by the magistrate Langley. Policemen who scout for boarders are described; all boarders are required to clean up the park and do other odd jobs all day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer sarcastically describes conditions at "Johnston's Hotel," which smells like corn-flakes; one is sent there by the magistrate Langley. The furnishings and carpets are praised, while the beefsteak must be cut with a sword. Some policemen who are scouting for boarders are described; all boarders are required to clean up the park and do other odd jobs all day
KEYWORDS: prison punishment drink humorous moniker nonballad prisoner food
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1920s-1950: Dalton Johnston serves as governor
Late 1940s: Langley retires as magistrate
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
Roud #4819
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Tom Sullivan, "Johnston's Hotel" (on Ontario1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "The Mountjoy Hotel" (subject, tune)
cf. "The Banks of the Don" (subject, lyrics)
NOTES [90 words]: "Johnston's Hotel" is actually the Peterborough County Jail on the banks of the Otonabee River, just across from the Quaker Oats plant. While the resemblance to "The Banks of the Don" is patent, it's a separate song. Edith Fowke met the self-declared author, who said he wrote it in the 1930s (although he clearly derived its tune from "The Mountjoy Hotel" and some lyrics from "The Banks of the Don"). As the author had been an inmate of the establishment at the time of composition, she thought it prudent not to reveal his identity. - PJS
File: RcJohHot

Johnstown Flood (I), The [Laws G14]

DESCRIPTION: A distraught father tells a stranger about his share of the Johnstown tragedy. He, his wife, and his children had sought shelter from the flood in the upper part of the house, but the waters tore them from his grasp. He was rescued, but his family died
AUTHOR: Joseph Flynn (source: 1889 broadside by Wehman)
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (copyright on Wehman broadside)
KEYWORDS: flood death family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 31, 1889 - The Great Flood in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, kills about 2500 people
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws G14, "The Johnstown Flood"
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 61, pp. 135-138, "The Jamestown Flood" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 153-155, "The Johnstown Flood" (1 text plus a broadside print)
DT 825, JAMESFLD
Roud #3254
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Johnstown Flood (II)" (subject)
NOTES [4032 words]: There have been many histories of the Johnstown Flood. One of the more recent is McCullough, one of the first works of this noteworthy historian, which provided the outline of what follows. I have since augmented it where possible, especially from O'Connor.
Johnstown is about sixty miles from Pittsburg, almost due east, on the line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Interestingly, it is not on one of Pennsylvania's major rivers; the stream which caused the flood was the Little Conemaugh River, which joins Stony Creek (or "the Stony Creek," as the locals called it) at Johnstown to become the Conemaugh River, which eventually becomes part of the Kiskiminetas River, which flows into the Allegheny. McCullough, p. 24, describes both the Little Conemaugh and Stony Creek as fast but not particularly large. Stony Creek, because it was deeper, was considered the more dangerous at the time.
Johnstown was a fast-growing town; according to McCullough, p. 23, it had tripled in size in less than three decades. The reason was industrialization; Johnstown made steel and steel products such as plows and rails. It was a logical site for industry, with coal, iron, and limestone (O'Connor, p. 15). It reportedly was home to the nation's first Bessemer steel mill (O'Connor, p. 16). It can't have been a very comfortable place to live, with all the pollution and the noise and the cheap company houses, but it was doing well. At least for the company bosses.
Even in normal years, Johnstown was prone to flooding; about one spring in four saw water in the streets (O'Connor, p. 14). It probably didn't help that the local industries had narrowed the two rivers above their confluence, and even more below (O'Connor, p. 67).
What turned flooding to catastrophe was a man-made lake. A few miles above Johnstown on the Little Conemaugh was the hamlet of South Fork, where South Fork Creek joined the Little Conemaugh. A bit more than a mile above the town on South Fork Creek was a great dam, built some forty years before to create a lake variously called the Western Reservoir or the Old Reservoir or Lake Conemaugh.
The dam itself, made of earth, was sometimes called Three Mile Dam -- which was not very accurate (it apparently was a reference to the size of the lake behind it, but exaggerated). Still, it was an impressive structure, some 72 feet high and more than 900 wide. It was about 279 feet thick at the base. O'Connor, p. 29, says that it was the world's largest earthenwork dam. It had some stone at the base, and an outer casing of rip-rap, but based on O'Connor' numbers, it appears it was about 90% dirt. And the water usually was within six or seven feet of the top (McCullough, pp. 39-41). The total area of the lake was about 450 acres. The surface level was some 450 feet above Johnstown (so McCullough; O'Connor, p. 30, says 404 feet).
The building of the reservoir was one of those things that give government projects a bad name. The Pennsylvania legislature in 1836 had approved $30,000 to build a reservoir, according to McCullough; O'Connor, p. 32, says $10,000. The final cost, though, was $240,000. Worse, according to McCullough, p. 50, "two years after it was finished the whole thing would be obsolete and of no use whatsoever."
The whole thing was a boondoggle. Pennsylvania was jealous of New York's Erie Canal and wanted its own water transport system, even though that meant running a canal across the mountains! The idea was to haul barges over the passes using railroads. According to O'Connor, p. 31, the canal boats were actually assembled and disassembled as they went from canal to being carried on the train. It all worked, more or less, but it needed more water than was reliably available. So the Conemaugh was dammed to supply a steady flow of water in the summer (McCullough, p. 52).
Unfortunately, the whole project was a money pit, and construction was halted at times because the state of Pennsylvania couldn't come up with the cash. And this even though the South Fork dam was built of earth rather than rock because it was cheap to hire people to move dirt. The thing was finally completed in 1852 (O'Connor, p. 32).
Then the Pennsylvania Railroad finished laying track across the state. The big fancy canal system, which couldn't possibly compete on price with the railroads, instantly lost any purpose, and within two years, Pennsylvania was trying to sell it -- and found no buyers. Finally the Pennsylvania Railroad itself bought the canal -- not for the canal itself but for the land it rested on. They paid a low price -- and, naturally, stopped doing any work on the canals and on the useless (to them) dam maintaining the Western Reservoir (McCullough, p. 54); they had acquired the dam only because it was part of a package deal (O'Connor, p. 31).
Not long after, on June 10, 1862, the dam failed for the first time (McCullough, p. 54). The surviving records aren't really good enough to indicate why (O'Connor, p. 33, thinks the culvert under the dam collapsed). The result was a 200-foot-wide, 50-foot-deep gap in the dam.
The break was finally repaired in 1879. The repairs were, however, rather casual; it appears that little work was done on the dam's foundations (which had been undermined by the first break), and the pipes which relieved pressure, which had failed, were not replaced. The goal, after all, was not to control water flow; it was simply to built a country club for rich men who wanted to fish and breath clear air (McCullough, pp. 56-57). They may not even have wanted to replace the pipes -- that would allow the fish to escape (O'Connor, p. 43).
The club got the dam for almost nothing -- $2000, according to O'Connor, pp. 33-34 -- and fixed it with anything that came to hand, including leaves, sand, and tree stumps (O'Connor, p. 37). This flotsam apparently was not even rammed down (O'Connor, p. 42).
The locals were somewhat worried -- the regular spring floods, which had been a problem from the start, were growing worse each year as the rivers were more tightly channeled and deforestation increased runoff (McCullough, pp. 64-65). But there were enough people who thought the town was safe to make it impossible for the worriers to do anything about a reservoir outside their jurisdiction. A manager of the local ironworks at one point sent an engineer to look things over, and he sent a dire report -- but the club owners refused to pay any attention (McCullough, pp. 73-74; O'Connor, p. 39) even though the ironworks offered to help pay the costs (McCullough, p. 75).
The dam, in fact, had been rendered even more vulnerable than the engineer had noticed: The top had been lowered to allow a two-lane road across the top, meaning that the spillway to relieve pressure on the dam were barely below the dam's new crest (and the great danger to an earth dam was that water would go over the top and erode the soil). The spillway itself had had bars installed to keep fish from escaping -- but which also meant that the spillway could easily be blocked by rubbish. It is also likely (though not certain), that the vulnerable center of the dam sagged below the edges. McCullough, p. 76, concludes that, at the center, the top of the dam was only four feet higher than the spillway.
Conclusion: Any serious rise in the water level, unless water was released in an orderly way, would result in the overtopping and destruction of the dam. And, because the pipes at the bottom had been removed, there was no possible way to release water. Not only was the dam a disaster waiting to happen, it was a disaster that couldn't even be repaired, because the lake could not be lowered because all the drainage pipes and such had been destroyed! (McCullough, p. 77).
McCullough, p. 41, estimates the weight of the water at 20 million tons. That's 18 million cubic meters, or 18 thousand million litres, or 5 thousand million gallons. (O'Connor, p. 43, agrees with the figure of 20,000,000 tons but computes this as 4.5 thousand million gallons.)
The flood was the result of a very major storm, first observed in Kansas and Nebraska on May 28, 1889 (O'Connor, p. 11). The next day, it dumped rain from Kansas to Michigan and Indiana. Then it arrived in Pennsylvania on May 30 (O'Connor, p. 12).
It wasn't just Johnstown; there were floods throughout the state, including in Williamsport and along the Juniata River (Shank, pp. 19-22). But Johnstown was more or less dead center.
To make matters worse, it had been a wet spring, and most wetlands in the area were saturated (O'Connor, p. 12). There was no place for additional water to go except straight into the rivers. And the storm was described as the worst storm ever recorded in the western parts of that state. In the Johnstown area, rainfall totals were usually in the six to eight inch range, though Pittsburg suffered only an inch and a half of rain (McCullough, pp. 21-22).
Johnstown was already starting to fill with water before the dam went out (McCullough, p. 79); by the second day of the downpour, the flood was higher than even the previous 1887 record (McCullough, p. 82). At least one landslide had been reported in the town (O'Connor, p. 50); others had affected the railroad in the area. The ironworks closed down due to flooding. Some people left town, but others, with strong houses or on slightly higher ground, stayed behind.
It appears that, at some point, a message was telegraphed to the townspeople saying the dam was in danger, but the text has been lost and it is not clear just what it said; in any case, it does not appear to have changed people's behavior much, perhaps because similar messages had been sent in the past (McCullough, p. 87; O'Connor, p. 63). A rider also took a message (O'Connor, p. 80), and there were attempts to telephone Johnstown, but many of the lines were down (McCullough, p. 93). Plus the Western Union telegraph office was flooding (O'Connor, p. 61).
The dam was now so full that it could not be ignored; workers were reportedly trying to cut a new spillway and to raise the central weak point (McCullough, p. 90). But the second spillway would have to be cut through rocky ground (O'Connor, p. 77), and there were only so many workmen; it was too late. An attempt to clear the original spillway, now largely blocked by debris, also failed (O'Connor, p. 76). By about noon, water started going over the top of the dam, and there were leaks lower down as well (McCullough, p. 95; O'Connor, p. 51, implies that leaks had begun some days earlier).
At 1:52 on May 31, a message went out that water was going over the top of the dam. Word that the dam was in the process of failing reached Johnstown around 2:45 (McCullough, pp. 96-97). It appears that, by 3:00, workmen were refusing to do any more work on the dam itself and were simply trying to clear the spillways. Then, at 3:10, the whole thing crumbled (McCullough, p. 100).
Estimates of how long it took the lake to drain ranged from about half an hour to forty-five minutes (O'Connor, pp. 80-81). Taking even the longest estimate and the lowest estimate for the content of the lake, that means roughly one hundred million gallons of water per minutes, or a million and a half gallons per second! This makes the total amount of water flowing at any given moment roughly equal to Niagara Falls (McCullough, p. 102; Internet sources give Niagara Falls a flow rate of about 750,000 gallons per second but peaking higher). The crest was said to be forty feet high (O'Connor, p. 83).
The first place to be affected by the flood was the town of South Fork, where the first casualties occurred (McCullough, p. 105). But the town was mostly on hillsides above the valley of South Fork Creek. The deluge wrecked a bridge and a low-lying mill, but most of the town survived. Johnstown, nine miles away in a straight line but thirteen along the course of the river, would not fare so well, nor would the hamlets in between.
Unfortunately, there was a great bend in the Little Conemaugh a couple of miles below South Fork, and a great railroad viaduct cutting across it. The wreck of this viaduct, plus the miscellaneous refuse picked up along the way, seem to have temporarily blocked the flow of the flood, allowing it to build up another big pressure head (McCullough, pp. 107-109). The village of Mineral Point was next to feel the flood; it was nearly destroyed, though only 16 people were reported killed (McCullough, p. 111; O'Connor, p. 84). There was quite a tangle as trains in the area had to be halted or re-routed (and places had to be found to put them while the lines were repaired and trains diverted). McCullough, p. 122, says that at least 23 train occupants died, in part because the train's crews did little to warn the passengers that they might need to flee.
Then it was the turn of the towns of East Conemaugh and Franklin, which were largely flooded and saw at least 28 people killed. Then the flood reached Woodvale, a relatively new town of about 1000 people. It had no warning at all, and was almost completely submerged. 250 houses were destroyed, and 314 people listed as killed (McCullough, p. 127). Supposedly only a few walls were left standing of the whole town (O'Connor, p. 93). It was still only about an hour since the dam had broken.
Finally the flood reached Johnstown -- by now carrying much heavy debris as well as water. The best guess is that the crest arrived in the town at 4:07 p.m., and took ten minutes to pass through the town (McCullough, p. 147; O'Connor, p. 95, says it came at 4:10 p.m.). Slowed slightly by the wash up the valley of Stony Creek, the flood built another dam of debris at a bridge below the town, which later caught fire (McCullough, p. 149). The bridge stood firm -- indeed, it was still in service carrying rail traffic when O'Connor wrote his book (O'Connor, p. 123). As a result, most of the wreckage of Johnstown and the other villages piled up there.
Hundreds of people were trapped in the debris pile, many of them still alive; it is estimated that only about 80 died in the debris prior to the fire (McCullough, p. 173). Reportedly some 300 bodies were burned (O'Connor, p. 124), meaning that only about a quarter were dead when the fire started. The debris would eventually have to be dynamited to clear the river (McCullough, pp. 227-228).
But even once the fires died down and the waters ran downstream, the ordeal was not over. Probably in excess of 5000 people huddled on the hills above Johnstown (McCullough, p. 184; O'Connor's estimates are higher), many of them ill or injured, with their homes destroyed in the valley below. And the weather at the time was bitterly cold (McCullough, p. 197). Plus the gas and power were out -- there was fear of a gas explosion (O'Connor, p. 146).
To make things even harder, at a time when many desperately needed medical help, six of Johnstown's 35 doctors were dead (O'Connor, p. 146). Even those who survived had seen their offices and supplies washed away.
The locals eventually decided to hold a town meeting to appoint a "dictator" to try to manage emergency operations (McCullough, p. 189). At first, there wasn't even enough paper to take notes about the descriptions and properties of the dead bodies (McCullough, p. 192). There were so many curiosity seekers that eventually a system of passes had to be set up so that the militia could keep out those who did not belong (O'Connor, p. 197).
Lurid initial newspaper reports claimed ten thousand dead (McCullough, p. 203); one went so far as to claim 15,000 dead (O'Connor, p. 166).
McCullough, p. 193, notes that there was never an exact count of the dead; he lists 2209 as the "official" total (and gives this full catalog in an appendix) -- though he notes (p. 196) that two bodies were not recovered until 1906; it was obviously impossible to come up with an absolutely correct count. O'Connor, p. 200, cites 2205 as the "lowest official estimate" and 2287 as the highest. Shank, p.24, thinks the total dead were around 3000. Of the bodies recovered, 663 would never be identified (McCullough, p. 194), in some cases because of decapitation by debris or burns so severe that features could not be made out. Plus many bodies were not discovered until they decomposed beyond recognition. (This probably explains Shank's high number of dead; he combined the known corpses with 900+ missing to get 3000, not realizing that most of the missing were probably among the unidentifiable corpses.)
The total population of the Conemaugh valley was believed to be about 23,000, so a tenth of the population was killed. The rate for Johnstown itself was higher, though only slightly.
Nearly 400 children under age ten were killed, and 98 lost both parents. Hundreds more lost one parent (McCullough, p. 195).
The song's account of a family literally torn apart by the flood, with most of them dying, seems to be artificial, but many such things did happen. The largest part of O'Connor's chapter "The Flood Strikes" consists of such tales -- for example, the account on pp. 110-111 of the Fenn family. Mrs. Fenn saw her husband killed in the street. She and her seven children ended up on the roof when their home was destroyed. One by one the children were lost; only Mrs. Fenn survived.
Newspaper coverage of the event was constant -- O'Connor, p. 163, declares, "The editors of the nation's daily newspapers quickly seized upon the Johnstown flood as the biggest news break since Appomattox." (Ironic, given that most modern histories don't even mention it!) Coverage however was poor, simply because communications were so bad. O'Connor, p. 176, notes instances of newspapers lifting descriptions of the flood from George Elliot's The Mill on the Floss and even a book by the reforming novelist Charles Reade. It wasn't until June 3 that Western Union had enough wire strung to carry all the traffic (O'Connor, p. 177).
A number of stories accused foreigners of looting or even worse crimes; curiously, a number of these stories were reported from places that did not even exist (O'Connor, p. 188). However, O'Connor in p. 193 concludes that most of the instances of crime were committed by those who came from outside to take advantage of, or just to see, the chaos.
Relief efforts began quickly, naturally enough, and often raised quite a bit of money (McCullough, p. 199; on p. 225, he notes contributions totalling over $3,700,000, and that's in 1889 dollars! O'Connor's figure, on p. 247, is 17 million. Many relief supplies were sent as well, although some of them were of extremely poor quality, according to O'Connor, p. 212. The flip side is, Benet, p. 566, lists the damage at ten million dollars). And there was flooding in many areas beyond Johnstown (O'Connor, p. 200), so it was hard to bring in supplies.
There was at the time no organization really devoted to emergency relief -- no FEMA, and while the Red Cross existed, it was still fairly new and didn't have standard procedures yet; Clara Barton -- although by now 68 years old -- herself would lead the trek to Johnstown (O'Connor, p. 205). It would be the largest operation in Red Cross history to this time (McCullough, p. 231).
It would be several days before the Pennsylvania militia showed up (McCullough, p. 202). O'Connor, p. 204, says that a full regiment of 600 men arrived on June 5. That's a big force at a time when the army numbered in the tens of thousands -- but they needed time to set up, and in the interim, there was a lot of crime and mismanagement. Often volunteers would just wander into the Conemaugh valley and, having no idea what to do, simply added to the burdens of those who were doing their best. Still others showed up to work -- but got drunk and caused trouble at night (O'Connor, p. 194), resulting in the establishment of a temporary nail (O'Connor, p. 195).
Fears of epidemics were felt as far away as Pittsburg (after all, the waters of the flood flowed into the Allegheny river); eventually men were assigned to try to clean up the river (McCullough, p. 209). They hauled, sawed, chopped, and eventually dynamited the great heap of flotsam trapped at the bridge (O'Connor, pp. 218-219) -- a process which caused secondary damage (O'Connor, p. 220). It was not until August 22 that the rivers were entirely clear.
In a small stroke of luck, the weather was cold and wet for more than a week after the disaster. It made everyone miserable, but it also helped prevent disease and decay (McCullough, p. 229). There was only one relatively minor outbreak of typhoid, which killed 40 and sickened 421 others (O'Connor, p. 224).
In the aftermath, attention naturally turned to the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, the maintainers of the dam. There were of course engineers who had publicly stated their concerns about its construction. The newspapers had a field day with this, though often exaggerating the engineers' reports (McCullough, pp. 242-249). Some members of the club did contribute to the relief funds -- the Carnegie Company gave $10,000, e.g. (McCullough, p. 255), but many club members did not give, and the club as a whole offered nothing. Nor were their officers making public statements (O'Connor, p. 226).
Lawsuits eventually began to be filed, but there was a limit on what this could yield -- after deducting a mortgage, the club had assets of only about $15,000 (McCullough, p. 257). The members had more, of course, but the whole principle of a corporation is limited stockholder liability.
There are few records of the actual trials, since transcripts were not kept (McCullough, p. 258), but in the end the club was not held liable. McCullough speculates that the great wealth and power of the club's members helped them.
Plus the great downpour was clearly natural. The only real fault was in the construction of the dam, and only a few officers would have known about that.
McCullough seems to consider the officers guilty, and I would too, but they too got off. The people of Johnstown were apparently bitter (McCullough, p. 264), but they were helpless. Perhaps they derived some small consolation from the fact that the flood, while it didn't destroy the club (except for the dam and the lake), did cause it to shut down (McCullough, p. 264); there wasn't much point in a fishing club with nowhere to fish!
Johnstown would be rebuilt, and the iron mills came back; there were soon jobs for all the remaining workers. But its prosperity seems to have been damaged; the town has only about 30,000 residents now (more than in 1889, but not as much as its pre-flood population growth would suggest). The steelworks would again be flooded as early as 1891 (O'Connor, p. 244), and a major flood took place in 1936 (Shank, p. 43, says that the water was actually higher in 1936 -- which was a year of record floods in Pennsylvania -- but destruction and death far less). The fact that there was no single great release of water was a great help in 1936 (O'Connor, p. 246). Still, power and telephones went out, and a third of area residents lost their homes, although only two dozen died. This finally promoted a real flood control project (O'Connor, p. 282), which spared the city from damage in the major floods of 1972 (Shank, p. 65), but there was another fairly major flood in 1977, according to Merriam Webster's Geographical Dictionary, though none to compare with 1889.
It is little surprise that the event produced songs; it was the biggest news of the day, and McCullough, p. 204, notes that a Pittsburg newspaper actually had to reduce the size of its pages to have enough paper to meet the demand. (Ironically, much of what they published was fiction, such as accounts of a messenger named Peyton who tried to warn people of the flood.)
Laws believes this song to be too literary to be a purely folk composition; he suspects it of having been originally printed in a newspaper. This even though several papers loudly proclaimed that no such poems should be written! (O'Connor, p. 240). McCullough, p. 221, mentions poems written about the event. A popular piece of 1889 was "The Johnstown Flood" of Joe Flynn; I haven't seen a copy to compare. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: LG14

Johnstown Flood (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "On a balmy day in May, When nature held full sway." "Now the cry of distress rings from east to west." "Like Paul Revere of old Came a rider brave and bold," but the hearers ignored him. Many drowned, and many bodies were burned in the resulting fire
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: flood death fire warning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 31, 1889 - The Great Flood in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, kills about 2500 people
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 456-459, "The Johnstown Flood" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Johnstown Flood (I)" [Laws G14] (subject)
NOTES [35 words]: Roud lumps this song with the better-known "The Johnstown Flood (I)" (which see for historical references). But Laws does not list Korson's text with his #G14, and they appear to be different songs to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: KPL456

Join the Angel Band

DESCRIPTION: "If you look up the road you see father Mosey, join the angel band" (x2). "Do, father Mosey, gader your army." "O do mo' soul gader together." "O do join 'em, join 'em for Jesus." "Sister Mary, stan' up for Jesus." "Daddy Peter set out for Jesus"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 39, "Join the Angel Band" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10432
File: AWG039

Join the British Army

See The Lass o' Killiecrankie (File: GrD4736)

Join the C.I.O.

See I Am a Union Woman (File: Arn174)

Joking Henry

DESCRIPTION: Joke and Henry are asleep on the railroad track when Joke gets hit by a brickbat. Joke says he'll henceforth sleep with a pistol, and with one eye open, and threatens the man who hit him; he thinks he may have seen the perpetrator going over a fence
AUTHOR: Credited to G. B. Grayson
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Grayson & Whitter)
KEYWORDS: violence
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Joking Henry" (Victor V40038, 1929; rec. 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "If I Lose, I Don't Care" (tune)
cf. "Battleship of Maine" (tune)
cf. "White House Blues (II)" (tune)
cf. "The Cannonball" (tune)
NOTES [43 words]: About as minimal a plot as you can get, but here it is. Clearly the record people misheard the title; it should be, "Joke and Henry". - PJS
Just speculation, but -- could "Joke" be Grayson, the alleged composer, and Henry be Henry Whitter, his accompanist? - RBW
File: RcJokHen

Jolie Blonde

DESCRIPTION: Cajun French. "Jolie Blonde, 'gardez donc, quoi t'as fait...." The singer accuses his "pretty blonde" of running off with someone else, and asks what future he can have. He declares that he will find another pretty blonde -- then asks her to come back
AUTHOR: Amadee and/or Cleoma Breaux
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Amadee Breaux et al)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 351, "Ma Blonde Est Partie (Jolie Blonde)" (1 text)
File: CAFS1351

Jolie Fleur de Rosier (Lovely Flower of the Rose-Tree)

DESCRIPTION: French. Singer's father's golden keys have fallen into the sea; she'll marry whoever retrieves them. A "galant" dives in, but the keys begin to ring out; on his second dive, he drowns. Someone (her father?) curses all young women, for the galant is dead.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage grief promise death drowning tasks sea
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 72, "Jolie fleur de rosier (O Lovely Budding Rose-Tree)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Isabeau S'y Promene (Isabel)" (plot)
cf. "The Lady of Carlisle" [Laws O25] (theme)
NOTES [46 words]: While the plot is clearly related to "Isabeau S'y Promene", the protagonists are different enough that I split them. You should check that out, though. - PJS
And also "The Lady of Carlisle" [Laws O25] and its variants -- essentially the same plot, but with a happy ending. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BerV072

Jolly

See Johnny, Won't You Ramble (File: LoF275)

Jolly Abbot, The

See King John and the Bishop [Child 45] (File: C045)

Jolly Bachelor, The

See Stern Old Bachelor (File: R481)

Jolly Baker, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a jolly baker, and I bake my bread brown...I've got the biggest rolling pin of any man in the town." A girl asks him to buy her a gown. She arrives with her "chemise up before." The baker lays her in many places, then boasts of other conquests
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: cook sex bawdy wordplay
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 57, pp. 261-264, "The Jolly Baker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10107
NOTES [53 words]: Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging notes a curious shift in this song: The first part is a double-entendre song, the end merely a series of sexual boasts. The strong impression is that the result is composite. But the first half seems to be unique, an the second too generic to identify, so I file it as one piece. - RBW
File: Logs057

Jolly Barber Lad, The

DESCRIPTION: A lady sends for a barber to come and curl her hair. He comes to the door; the lady says to send him up, for "My husband he's a yeoman, and I might as well have no man." She pays the barber; now he goes to shave her, but never takes his razor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (collected from John MacDonald)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A young lady sends for a jolly barber lad to come and curl her hair; he goes to "shave the lady, don't you know what I mean?" He comes to the door; the maidservant answers, and the lady says to send him up, for "My husband he's a yeoman, and I might as well have no man/He's just like a lady when he goes to bed with me." After the job is finished, she gives the young barber a sovereign and a crown; now he always goes to shave her, but he never takes his razor
KEYWORDS: infidelity sex wife husband work worker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 37, "The Jolly Barber Lad" (1 tune, 1 text)
Roud #2515
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Chandler's Wife" (theme)
cf. "The Coachman's Whip" (theme)
cf. "The Farm Servant (Rap-Tap-Tap" (theme)
cf. "My Husband's Got No Courage in Him" (theme)
cf. "Fogan MacAleer" (see notes)
NOTES [52 words]: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland re "Fogan MacAleer" makes "The Jolly Barber Lad" Lawrence Doyle's "model" for "Fogan MacAleer." Was "The Jolly Barber Lad" ever current in the Canadian Maritimes? Roud #2515 refers to a tape-recording from Ontario of "There Was a Jolly Barber and He Lived in Aberdeen." - BS
File: CcCST037

Jolly Beggar (II)

See The Gaberlunzie Man [Child 279A] (File: C279A)

Jolly Beggar, The [Child 279]

DESCRIPTION: A beggar asks lodging. He is admitted to the house, but wants more than his beggar's fare. Receiving much of what he asks, he at last receives the daughter of the house into his cloak. He then reveals that he is a nobleman; (perhaps he marries the girl)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 [Herd]
KEYWORDS: begging courting escape money sex nobility mother children
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Ireland US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Child 279, "The Jolly Beggar" (3 texts)
Bronson 279, "The Jolly Beggar" (37 versions, but #21 is a fragment of "Johnny Lad" and #28 is "Davy Faa (Remember the Barley Straw)"; it is likely that several of the other texts also belong with other songs.)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 279, "The Jolly Beggar" (6 versions: #1, #6, #13, #15, #17, #36)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #30, p. 2, "The Jolly Beggar" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 274, "The Jolly Beggar" (10 texts, 7 tunes) {A=Bronson's #8, B=#20, C=#18, D=#14, E or G=#7}
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #21, pp. 147-149, "The Beggar Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 108, "The Ragged Beggar Man" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 475-476, "The Jolly Beggar" (1 songster text)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 47-48, "Hind Horn" (1 short text, properly titled "The Jolly Beggar," which might be "Hind Horn" [Shild #17] or "The Jolly Beggar" [Child #279] or a mix; 1 tune) {Bronson's #18}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 223-225, "Hind Horn" (1 short text, properly titled "The Jolly Beggar," which might be "Hind Horn" [Shild #17] or "The Jolly Beggar" [Child #279] or a mix; 1 tune) {Bronson's #18}
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 9-12, "The Jolly Beggar" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Randolph 37, "The Jolly Beggar" (1 short text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H183, p. 268, "The Rambling Suiler" (1 text, 1 tune, in which the visitor is not a nobleman but the colonel of a visiting headquarters; there might be a bit of "Pretty Peggy-O" mixed in)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 18, "The Jolly Beggar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 41, pp. 328-332, "The Jolly Beggar" (1 fragment, which Davis believes to be this song but which in fact could be almost anything)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #14, pp. 61-63, "The Jolly Beggar" (1 text, but not from West Virginia) {Bronson's #2}
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2500, "There was a jovial Begger-man"
DT 279, BEGGAR1* BEGGAR2 BEGGAR3* BEGGR4* BEGGAR5* BEGGAR6
ADDITIONAL: ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #266, pp. 274-275, "The Jolly Beggar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #118
RECORDINGS:
Jeannie Robertson, "The Jolly Beggar" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #6}
Lucy Stewart, "The Beggar King" (on LStewart1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.13(1), "The Jolly Beggar" ("There was a jolly beggar and a begging he had been"), unknown, n.d.; also Firth c.26(57)[some lines illegible], Firth c.26(57), "Was a Jolly Beggerman"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gaberlunzie Man" [Child 279A]
cf. "The Beggar-Laddie" [Child 280]
cf. "The Tinker"
cf. "The Pedlar"
cf. "The Shepherd's Song (III)"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
He Wadna Lie in Barn
The Beggar Man
NOTES [629 words]: Although this ballad is associated in tradition with James V of Scotland, there is no evidence that he ever courted in a manner such as this. James V in fact married a noble foreign lady, Mary of Guise-Lorraine. The basis for the song may be the fact that he was a fairly lusty liege; according to Stanley B. R. Poole, Royal Mysteries and Pretenders, Barnes & Noble, 1993, p. 36, he was thought to have had as many as nine illegitimate children. It was in fact James V's father James IV who seems to have spent time incognito among the common people (Jackie Cosh, The King with the Iron Belt: The Life of King James IV of Scotland, JC Publications, 2018, p. 53).
There actually is a sort-of-similar situation in British history; when the future King George II, in seeking a wife, "raised the possibility of marrying Caroline [of Ansbach], his father insisted his son should meet her first, and suggested that he do so in disguise, so that he could make an honest assessment of her person and character. In 1705, George obediently travelled to Ansbach, where he was presented to an unsuspecting Caroline as a Hanoverian nobleman. He was smitten at their very first meeting. As intemperate in passion as in so much else, George insisted for the rest of his life that he had fallen in love with Caroline the moment he saw her" (Janice Hadlow, A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III, Henry Holt, 2014 (published in Britain by William Collins as The Strangest Family), p. 30). However, the ending is somewhat different: "Without declaring himself, [George] hurried back to Hanover, and urged his father to open negotiations for her hand." The two soon married and had eight children.
However, it is hard to believe that that was the inspiration for this song, since the earliest versions of "The Gaberlunzie Man" date from no later than 1724, before George II even came to the throne.
Child draws a distinction between this and "The Gaberlunzie Man" (which he calls "The Gaberlunyie-Man" -- and, indeed, his texts are metrically distinct ("Gaberlunzie Man" uses eight-line stanzas with four feet per line; "The Jolly Beggar" typically has the standard four-line 4-3-4-3 stanza). In addition, his "Gaberlunyie-Man" lacks the ending. However, both songs occur in tradition and have so heavily cross-fertilized that it is often not possible to distinguish.
If there is a distinction to be drawn, it is probably in the form of the ending. In "The Jolly Beggar," the beggar sleeps with the girl and then reveals his status the next morning (perhaps abandoning her); in "The Gaberlunzie Man," he lures the girl away (as opposed to sleeping with her on the spot), and only later returns and reveals his wealth.
Due to the degree of cross-fertilization of these ballads, one should be sure to check both songs to find all versions. - RBW
See the Bruce Olson note at "The Juggler"; Bruce sees "The Juggler" as a sequel to "The Jolly Beggar."
Of the Bodleian broadsides listed, "Was a Jolly Beggerman" lacks the usual ending. - BS
William Bernard McCarthy, in the article "'Barbara Allen' and 'The Gypsy Laddie': Single-Rhyme Ballads in the Child Corpus," printed on pp. 143-154 of Thomas A. McKean, editor, The Flowering Thorn: International Ballad Studies, Utah State University Press, 2003, makes the interesting observation that there are only two ballads in the Child collection -- "The Jolly Beggar" [Child 279]/"The Gaberlunzie Man" [Child 279A] and "The Beggar-Laddie" [Child 280], which are known to cross-fertilize, which normally use the rhyme scheme aaab, with the same b rhyme in all the verses. This is an extremely common form in medieval carols (there are hundreds of such in R. L. Greene's collection); I have no idea if this is significant. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C279

Jolly Best Lad

See Wrap Me Up in my Tarpaulin Jacket (File: FR439)

Jolly Boatman

See The Boatsman and the Chest [Laws Q8] (File: LQ08)

Jolly Boatsman, The

See Blow the Candle Out [Laws P17] (File: LP17)

Jolly Boatswain, The

See The Boatsman and the Chest [Laws Q8] (File: LQ08)

Jolly Burglar Boy, The

See The Old Maid and the Burglar [Laws H23] (File: LH23)

Jolly Butchermen, The

See The Three Butchers (Dixon and Johnson) [Laws L4] (File: LL04)

Jolly Cowboy (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "My lover, he is a cowboy, he's brave and kind and true"; when he comes home, the two meet joyfully and the boy talks about his life on the trail. She says they will marry when he returns; he is quoted as promising to quit herding when he marries
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: love cowboy work separation reunion promise marriage
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 86-88, "The Jolly Cowboy" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, p. 209-210, "The Jolly Cowboy" (1 text)
DT, JOLLCWBY*
Roud #4482
NOTES [46 words]: In print, with quotation marks to indicate who is saying what, this song makes sense, though even in print, the transitions seem abrupt. In song, without such helps, it strikes me as hard to comprehend. I wonder if it isn't composite -- after all, it was published by Lomax. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Saffe209

Jolly Cowboy (II), The

See Come All Ye Lonesome Cowboys (File: R189)

Jolly Cowboy (III), The

See I'm Bound to Follow the Longhorn Cows (File: LoF186)

Jolly Drover

DESCRIPTION: "In olden times before the war, There came a jolly drover," who visits the Black Horse Tavern and asks the "Bound-out girl" who attends him if she will marry him. He has lands and wealth, but she loves him in any case. They wed. That was long ago
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Maher, Historic Dover, according to Nestler); supposedly written c. 1840
KEYWORDS: love courting money marriage
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 89-90 "The Jolly Drover" (1 text)
File: Nset089

Jolly Farmer (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The farmer sings about the joys of farming, even as a renter, and drinking with friends. "Here I am king so I'll dance, drink and sing, Let no man appear as a stranger, But show me the ass That refuses his glass And I'll order him hay in a manger"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1831 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 16(88a))
KEYWORDS: farming drink flowers food nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 30, "The Jolly Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1603
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(88a), "The Farmer" ("Come each jolly fellow"), R. Walker (Norwich), 1780-1830; also 2806 c.8(171), Harding B 25(622), Harding B 11(1150), Johnson Ballads 822 [illegible lines], "The Farmer[!]"
File: OLoc030

Jolly Farmer (II), The

See The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20] (File: LN20)

Jolly Farmer's Son, The

See The Young Farmer's Offer (File: HHH776)

Jolly Fellow, The

See Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl (File: FSWB229A)

Jolly Fellows That Follow the Plough

See All Jolly Fellows That Handles the Plough (File: K241)

Jolly Fellows Who Follow the Plough, The

See All Jolly Fellows That Handles the Plough (File: K241)

Jolly Fine Song, Jolly Well Sung

DESCRIPTION: "Jolly fine song, jolly well sung, Jolly fine company, every one. If you think you can beat it, You're welcome to try, But always remember The singer is dry."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: music drink
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 66, "(Jolly fine song, jolly well sung)" (1 text)
File: PKKB066F

Jolly Fisherman (I)

DESCRIPTION: With a storm coming up, Captain Williams of Veronia sends a dory after halibut. Oars are lost and a buoy line parts. To save the dory, they cast halibut oil on the water and bale with their sou'westers until they are picked up next morning by Veronia.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: rescue fishing sea ship storm sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 125, "Jolly Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS125 (Partial)
Roud #1827
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dD47 in Laws's Appendix II. - BS
File: CrNS125

Jolly Fisherman (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer says he is a fisherman, and "Fish just like men I've often caught -- crabs, gudgeon, poor John Codfish." He compares various sorts of people to various fish --- e.g. "false friends to eels" and the lawyer like a pike striking
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: work fishing nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H639, p. 59, "The Jolly Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13361
NOTES [16 words]: Sam Henry claimed this was once a popular song around 1800, but gives no supporting evidence. - RBW
File: HHH639

Jolly Fishermen

DESCRIPTION: "There come two (or three) jolly fishermen, Who've just come from the sea." "They cast their nets into the sea, And a jolly old fish caught they."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Wollaston and Crampton)
KEYWORDS: fishing playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 108, "Three Jolly Fishermen" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Mary A. Wollaston and C. Ward Crampton, The Song Play Book (New York, 1922 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 20, "Three Jolly Fishermen" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [12 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame refers to a close version from before 1850. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa108

Jolly Good Ale and Old (Back and Sides Go Bare)

DESCRIPTION: With chorus, "Back and sides go bare, go bare, Both hand and feet go cold...." The singer laments his sad state: "I cannot eat but little meat, My stomach is not good." He discusses his lack of clothing. But he, and his wife, revive for ale.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1575 (Gammer Gurton's Needle)
KEYWORDS: drink clothes hardtimes MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics CXXXIII, pp, 229-231, "(no title)" (1 text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 43-44, "Back and Side Go Bare, Go Bare!" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 190-192, "Jolly Good Ale and Old" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 72-73, "I Cannot Eat But Little Meat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic, p. 94, "(I cannot eat but lyttyl meat)" (1 tune, partial text, connected to "John Dory" [Child 284])
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #554.5
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #907
DT BACK&SID*
MANUSCRIPT: London, Victoria and Albert Museum, National Art Library Dyce 25.F.40 (MS Dyce 45),folios 23-25
ADDITIONAL: (author unknown), edited by Charles Whitworth, _Gammer Gurton's Needle_, New Mermaids, 1984 (as part of _Three Sixteenth-Century Comedies_); second edition (separately published), W. W. Norton, 1997, pp. 17-18, "(no title)" (1 text)
John Gassner, editor, _Medieval and Tudor Drama_, 1963, 1987 (references are to the undated Applause Books paperback), has Gammer Gurton's Needle on pp. 346-402; this song, which opens Act II, is on pp. 356-357.
Norman Ault, _Elizabethan Lyrics From the Original Texts_, pp. 41-42, "Of Jolly Good Ale and Old" (1 text)
Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, pp. 49-50, "(no title)" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: Source: London, Victoria and Albert Museum, National Art Library MS. Dyce 25.F.40 (Dyce 45), folio 23
Roud #V7039
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Let the Back and Sides Go Bare" (chorus)
NOTES [889 words]: The books which print this often give very confusing notes about its origins. The earlier Ballad Index notes followed this in error.
The basic fact is this:
The earliest surviving printing is in Gammer Gurton's Needle, which was printed by Thomas Colwell in 1575. There is a facsimile on p. 1 of GammerGurtonsNeedle/Whitworth. The play is attributed only to "Mr. S., Master of Arts."
In Gammer Gurton's Needle, at least as we have it, the song appears at the very beginning of Act II, with the prefatory note, "First a Song." (GammerGurtonsNeedle/Whitworth, pp. 17-18). No singer is indicated; it's just dropped into the middle of the text. There are four stanzas and chorus, and the singer's wife is named "Tib" in the third verse -- significant, because Tib is a character in the play, being the maid to Gammer Gurton.
Which would seem straightforward enough -- except that, in 1562/1563, Thomas Colwell was licensed to print a piece, "Dyccon of Bedlam" (GammerGurtonsNeedle/Whitworth:, pp. xi-xii). The main character in Gammer Gurton's Needle is "Diccon, the Bedlam." Thus it is almost certain that this 1562 entry is for an earlier version of Gammer Gurton's Needle. Whether it was never printed, or all copies have been lost, we do not know; all we can say is that no copy of an earlier edition survives. (Colwell doesn't seem to have been a very noteworthy printer; none of my histories of printing mention him. It is not a good piece of typesetting, and uses mostly very primitive typefaces; I would easily have believed it to be fifty or more years older than it was)
The play Gammer Gurton's Needle has been attributed to William Stevenson, and hence he is sometimes listed as the author of the song. The STC, for instance (#23263, p. 541), attributes the play to him. But this is only a chain of inference. To repeat, the play is attributed only to "Mr. S." The title page also says that the drama was played "not longe ago in Christes College." So scholars went searching for a "Mr. S." who was at Christ's College, Cambridge at the appropriate time. Henry Bradley found that a "Sir Stevenson" was a producer of plays at the college in 1559/1560. He was a Bachelor of Arts in 1550-1553, and a Master of Arts in 1559/1560 (he was likely away from the college during Mary Tudor's reign, 1553-1558). He left the college in 1561 to take a prebend at Durham Cathedral, and died in 1575 (GammerGurtonsNeedle/Whitworth, pp. xii-xiii).
Thus Stevenson is by far the best candidate for the person responsible for presenting the play (so, e.g., Garnett/Gosse, volume II, p. 163, though they also mention attributions to John Bridges, bishop of Oxford from 1603 (died 1618) and to John Still, Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1593 (died 1608); on p. 153 they quote two stanzas and declare the attribution to Still "not likely").
But certain cautions are indicated even for the attribution to Stevenson. First, we have to assume that Gammer Gurton's Needle is indeed the same as Dyccon of Bedlam and that the statement that the play was recently presented goes back to the vanished printing of the latter play, because Stevenson couldn't have presented anything at Christ's College any time close to 1575! This is a reasonable but not certain assumption. Second, it assumes that Stevenson was author as well as presenter of the play, for which we have no evidence at all -- the STC shows no works by Stevenson except this. The bottom line is, Stevenson is the only reasonable candidate we have, but we cannot prove that he was the author. And even if he wrote Gammer Gurton's Needle, that's not proof that he wrote this song.
That's particularly true because there are variant forms. The four verse version of Gammer Gurton's Needle is also that of Ault and Nettel. But the version in the Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics and HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray has eight stanzas and gives the wife's name as Kit. It appears this is the version from the Dyce manuscript, which Alexander Dyce published in his 1843 volume The Poetical Works of John Skelton (died 1529). It does not appear that the poem itself is by Skelton. Its inclusion in the Dyce manuscript is rather odd, since most of the other material in the manuscript is religious. No one seems to have a date for the manuscript, but the fact that the Digital Index of Middle English Verse includes the song implies that they think it earlier than 1500. All of this is sufficiently speculative that I've stuck with 1575 as the "Earliest Date."
At least the song is relatively relevant to Gammer Gurton's Needle; the plot of the play revolves the loss of the needle, which is needed to sew up the clothes of Gammer Gurton's servant Hodge; if the needle is not found, Hodge will soon find that his back and sides will be bare!
Thomas, p. 9, says there are "numerous references to an early inclusion of certain" nursery rhymes in Gammer Gurton's Needle, nursery rhymes that she herself admits are not in the printed text. But she does not document the source that claims the rhymes were in Gammer Gurton's Needle.
The "back and sides go bare" chorus seems to have been quite popular; in this index, see also "Let the Back and Sides Go Bare." Granger's Index to Poetry, if I read it right, cites six different poems with this first line. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: DTbcksid

Jolly Good Song

DESCRIPTION: "A jolly good song and jolly well sung, And jolly good company everyone; And if you can beat it you're welcome to try, But always remember the singer is dry." "Give the old bounder some beer." "O half a pint of Burton, Wouldn't hurt 'un, I'm certain."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Simpson)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, p. 121, "(A jolly good song and jolly well sung)" (1 text)
Roud #1224
File: Sim121

Jolly Gos-Hawk, The

See Jolly Old Hawk (File: K298)

Jolly Goss-Hawk (I), The

See The Gay Goshawk [Child 96] (File: C096)

Jolly Goss-Hawk (II), The

See Jolly Old Hawk (File: K298)

Jolly Grinder, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a jolly grinder Once lived by the river Don. He worked and sang from morn till night, And sometimes he worked none." The grinder rails against teetotalers, informing them, "Attend to your work if you've ought to do And don't interfere with me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Raven)
KEYWORDS: drink work
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, JOLLGRND*
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, p. 154, "The Jolly Grinders" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Miller of Dee" (tune)
cf. "These Temperance Folks" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
The Miller of Dee (File: K229A)
NOTES [28 words]: This is quite obviously an answer to, and parody of, "The Miller of Dee," providing a somewhat sarcastic response to the (really rather tame) moralizing of that song. - RBW
File: DTjollgr

Jolly Grinders, The

See The Jolly Grinder (File: DTjollgr)

Jolly Harper, The

See The Lochmaben Harper [Child 192] (File: C192)

Jolly Harrin', The

See The Red Herring (File: VWL086)

Jolly Highwayman, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's of a jolly highwayman, likewise a noted rover, I drove my parents almost wild when first I went a-roving." The first man he robs yields two hundred guineas. But when he robs his second man, in Covent Garden, he is captured and will soon be hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Purslow-TheConstantLovers)
KEYWORDS: robbery prison execution
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 50, "The Jolly HIghwayman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1553
File: PCL050

Jolly Irishman, The

DESCRIPTION: "O Mother, O Mother, I'll tell you if I can, I rambled this world over with my jolly Irishman. I rambled and I jangled, and I rambled over town, No one could I find but my jolly Irishman." "He hugged her and he kissed her" and tells her to tell her mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Southern Folklore Quarterly 8)
KEYWORDS: love courting mother travel
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #237, "The Jolly Irishman" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5046
NOTES [41 words]: This is probably a version of something or other -- perhaps "True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man)" -- but it's short enough that it's hard to be sure, so both Roud and I list it as a separate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: Morr0237

Jolly is the Miller (I)

See The Miller Boy (Jolly is the Miller I) (File: R518)

Jolly Jack

See Will You Wed with a Tarry Sailor? [Laws K37] (File: LK37)

Jolly Jack Tar

See Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor) [Laws K40] (File: LK40)

Jolly Jack the Sailor

DESCRIPTION: "It's Jolly Jack the sailor on board of a man-o'war" returns after seven years and takes the train to Lincolnshire to see his sweetheart. "Won't she jump for joy when she hears the news Jack has come home from sea" "We will set the bells a-ringing"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (recording, George Ling)
KEYWORDS: love wedding war return reunion sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
Roud #1785
RECORDINGS:
George Ling, "Jolly Jack the Sailor" (on Voice12)
File: RcJoJaSa

Jolly Joe the Collier's Son

DESCRIPTION: "I am Jolly Joe the poor collier's son, Near Chester town I dwell." Joe courted several girls but loves Rachel. He sees Rachel with Jack. He fights Jack and is winning when Rachel begs him to stop and says she will marry him -- but he finds no happiness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (collected from Henry Lee, according to Raven)
KEYWORDS: mining courting love rejection fight marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 59-60. "Jolly Joe the Collier's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 66-67, "Jolly Joe the Collier's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 29-30, "Jolly Joe the Collier's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jon Raven, _The Folklore and Songs of the Black Country Colliers_, Broadside, 1990, pp. 17-18, "Jolly Joe the Collier's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roy Palmer, "'Birmingham Broadsides and Oral Tradition" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, pp. 505`, "Jolly Joe the Collier's Son" (1 text)
Roud #1129
File: JRVI066

Jolly Lumbermen, The

See Canaday-I-O/Michigan-I-O/Colley's Run I-O [Laws C17] (File: LC17)

Jolly Miller (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a miller, says "I care for nobody, no not I, and nobody cares for me." His back is bent with work; his mill has strange new machinery, but he's content with a drop of whisky. He has engaged with Dr. Ramsey, the landlord, and does his bidding
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: work drink nonballad miller worker technology
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(North,Lond)) US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #41, p. 1, "The Miller o' Straloch"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 28-29, "The Miller of Straloch" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan3 452, "The Miller o' Straloch" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 271, "The Jolly Miller" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 220-221, "The Jolly Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 229, "The Jolly Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 352, "There was a jolly miller once" (1 text fragment)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #124, p. 103, "(There was a jolly miller once)"
DT, JOLMILLR
Roud #503
RECORDINGS:
John Strachan, "The Jolly Miller" (on FSB3)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(449), "Their [sic] was a jolly miller" [error in title, not in text], J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), c.1850; also Harding B 11(450), "Their [sic] was a jolly miller" [error in title, not in text]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Miller of Dee" (refrain, subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Wee Millar
Willie Stroth
NOTES [76 words]: The Baring-Goulds report that this song, "a favorite of Sir Walter Scott's," was included in Bickerstaffe's 1762 opera "Love in a Village." They also say that it may have been based on the owner of the Dee Mill in Chester, which dated back to around the Conquest but burned down in 1895.
All of these references, however, may be to "The Miller of Dee"; the Baring-Gould fragment is only a single stanza. See Ben Schwartz's note on "The Miller of Dee." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: K229M

Jolly Miller (II), The

See The Miller Boy (Jolly is the Miller I) (File: R518)

Jolly Neighbor

DESCRIPTION: "A man who has some good peanuts, And giveth his neighbor none" will in turn be given no peanuts when his own run out. "Oh, won't it be joyful... when his good peanuts are gone." Similarly, he will have no joy when he is out of soda crackers or shortcake
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad revenge
FOUND IN: US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 62, "The man who has plenty of good tobacco" (1 text)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 71, "Jolly Neighbor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 4, "Peanut Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5116 and 25496
File: Arno071

Jolly Old Hawk

DESCRIPTION: "Jolly (old hawk/goshawk) and his wings were grey." Cumulative song: The singer asks who will win his love, and recites the animals he gave as gifts: One hawk, two birds, three cocks (or a three-thistle cock), four pigs (or a four-hoofed pig), etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: cumulative love animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 298, "The Jolly Gos-Hawk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 51, "Jolly Old Hawk" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 78, "Jolly Old Hawk" (1 text)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #71, "The Jolly Goss-hawk" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JOLLHAWK
Roud #1048
File: K298

Jolly Old Jim

DESCRIPTION: "No man is no neater and trim Like a prince at the wheel Wit a heart full o' steel Tis the driver they call Uncle Jim." Jolly Jim is 75 and from Trepassey. "All the friends of the crowd they all feel proud He'll ne'er make his journey alone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: nonballad friend
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30135
RECORDINGS:
Leo Martin, "Jolly Old Jim" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3JoOJi

Jolly Old Roger

DESCRIPTION: "Oh there never was yet a boy or man Who better could mend a kettle or pan, A bucket, a dipper, a skillet or can, Than jolly old Roger the tinker man." Roger lives in New Amsterdam; the song describes the funny old man
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Flanders and Brown)
KEYWORDS: tinker work
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Randolph 496, "Roger the Tinker Man" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 74, "Johnnie O'Rogers" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 171-173, "Jolly Old Roger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 222-224, "Jolly Old Roger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 111, "Tinker Man" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, pp. 14-15, "Jolly Old Roger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, pp. 60-61, "Jolly Old Roger" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 480, "Jolly Old Roger" (source notes only)
ST R496 (Partial)
Roud #3733
File: R496

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

DESCRIPTION: "Jolly old Saint Nicholas, lend your ear this way." The child says Christmas is close and wants to know what Santa will bring. Her will be the shortest stocking. She talks of what others want, but "My little brain isn't very bright," so "Choose for me"
AUTHOR: Words: Emily Huntington Miller / Music: James R. Murray (source: Hymns and Carols of Christmas web site)
EARLIEST DATE: Words: 1865 (The Little Corporal Magazine) / Music: 1874 (source: The Hymns and Carols of Christmas site)
KEYWORDS: Christmas gift request
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 44, "As for me, my little brain isn't very bright" (1 text)
Roud #25486
File: KSUC044

Jolly Pedlar, The

DESCRIPTION: A pedlar meers a beggar wife and asks if she had a man. She suggests he get a job, or try "lasses on Cheapside." He says he had fine tools which she might try. She does. If you meet him "your maidenhead will go"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: sex bragging bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1778, "The Jolly Pedlar" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #13002
File: GrD81778

Jolly Pilote, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I am a jolly pilote, I land like a galloping goose, My motor barks like a Ki-yo-te," Soldiiers in the trenches face dange, but "the jolly pilote has to die." The Fokkers will kill him. He wishes he were a Kiwi (ground officer). Mama warned him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: technology war death mother pilot
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 177-180, "The Jolly Pilote" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27890
File: NiMo177

Jolly Pinder of Wakefield, The [Child 124]

DESCRIPTION: "Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John" trespass on the fields guarded by the Jolly Pinder. The Pinder challenges them; they fight. The Pinder holds off all three. Robin offers the Pinder a place in his band. The Pinder agrees to come once his present job is done
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1663 (garland; there is a Stationer's Register entry for "Robin Hood and the Pinder of Wakefield" from 1558)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood fight
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Child 124, "The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield" (2 texts)
Bronson 124, "The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield" (2 versions)
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 117-119, "The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield, with Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 32-36, "Robin Hood and the Pindar of Wakefield" (1 fragment)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 365-366, "The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 393-394, "Robin Hood and the Pinder of Wakefield" (1 excerpt, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2, although he is pretty dubious about it}
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN16, "In Wakefield there lives a jolly pinder"
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 63-67, "Robin Hood and the Pinder of Wakefield 1"; pp. 68-70, "Robin Hood and the Pinder of Wakefield 2" (2 texts, the first being much longer than the garland text and probably edited; the second is close to the garlands)
R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 147-149, "The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield"( 2 texts, from a broadside and the Percy folio)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 469-475, "The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield" (1 text, conflated from the Garland and Percy versions)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 13
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," items 10A and 10B
Roud #3981
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Wood 402(42), "The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield," F. Coles (London), 1658-1664; also Douce Ballads 3(118a), "Robin Hood and the jolly pinder of Wakefield"; Wood 401(61), "The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield: with Robin Hood, Scarlet, and Iohn"
NOTES [776 words]: A pinder was an official charged with preventing trespassing and gathering strayed/lost/stolen livestock. This was a particularly significant task in towns which had open rather than enclosed fields. The pinder would also be responsible for caring for the livestock while ownership was determined, so the job could become fairly complicated.
For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Although Child has only one ballad of the Pinder, the content of the Forresters manuscript implies that there were two (Knight, p. 62). The two ballads have the same plot, but the texts are of dramatically different lengths; the Forresters text preserves both, with Child's version corresponding to the shorter. The two Forresters texts are so close in plot that they must derive from the same material, but it is clear that there was substantial rewriting involved; the longer Forresters text is probably a rewrite, almost from scratch, of the shorter.
There is also a play, "George-a-Greene the Pinner of Wakefield," about this incident; it was published in 1599, according to Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 236. Knight, p. 62, seems convinced that it was written by Robert Green(e) (1558-1592), but Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 236, says that several plays were falsely printed under Green's name and allow only a possibility that this is one of his works. Child, who mentions the play in his headnotes, does not even refer to an author. NewCentury, p. 514, says, "ascribed to Green but without much evidence [is] George-a-Greene, the Pinner of Wakefield." Benet does not mention the "Pinner" at all in its entry on Greene.
STC has several "George á Greene" references, one of which is surely to the play:
#12212, p. 269, "A pleasant conceyted comedie of George a Greene, the pinner of Wakefield," printed by S. Stafford for C. Burby, 1599 and registered April 1, 1595. A note on p. 271, under Greene, says that this piece is sometimes attributed to Robert Greene, but the STC itself does not so attribute it
#12213, p. 269, "The Pinder of Wakefield," plrinted by G. P[urslowe[ for E. Blackamoore, 1632; entered 4 February of that year.
To be sure, it hardly matters who wrote the play; the key point is that the play -- and hence, presumably, this story -- was in existence before 1600, as was some ballad on the subject, as shown by the Stationer's Register entry, although we do not know whether it is this ballad or another. Rollins, p. 113, #1308 is an entry from March 1, 1675 for "The jolly Pinder of Wakefeild" (sic.); no printer is listed. Rollins, p. 182, #2089 is "The Pinder of Wakefeild being the mad merry history of George Green the lusty Pinder of the North &c." printed February 4, 1632 by Edward Blackmore; Rollins thinks this actually a book although registered as a ballad. Rollins, p. 244, #2829, has "A ballett of Wakefylde and agreene", printed 1557-1558 by "Jno Wally, Mrs. Toy"; Rollins speculates that this is another edition of this piece.
At minimum, this entry proves that the connection of Robin Hood and a Pinder of Wakefield is early.
It is interesting to observe that the longer Forresters text of the "Pinder" calls the pinder "George a Green," as in the play (Knight, p. 63).
There actually was a George Green who was a Wakefield Pindar, according to Weinreb/Hibbert, p. 599. Having moved to London, he built in 1517 a building at 328 Gray's Inn Road. This came to be called the "Pindar of Wakefield," and in the time of Weinreb/Hibbert, it hosted "a regular 'Old Time Music-Hall'."
Fully half the Robin Hood ballads in the Child collection (numbers (121 -- the earliest and most basic example of the type), 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, (133), (134), (135), (136), (137), (150)) share all or part of the theme of a stranger meeting and defeating Robin, and being invited to join his band. Most of these are late, but it makes one wonder if Robin ever won a battle.
Bronson notes that his two tunes for this song are both associated with Rimbault, whose handling of other Robin Hood melodies was, at best, cavalier.
There are other mysteries associated with the piece, which survives only in very defective forms. Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #816, p. 304, notes a stanza which does not seem to appear in the canonical texts:
The hart he loves the high wood,
The hare she loves the hill;
The knight he loves his bright sword,
The lady loves her will. - RBW
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 206, "The hart he loves the high wood" (1 text) dates the song quoted above in Baring-Gould-Mother Goose to "a late-fifteenth century commonplace book from Broome Hall, Norfolk." - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: C124

Jolly Plough Boy, The

See The Nutting Girl (File: K186)

Jolly Ploughboy (II), The

See The Jolly Plowboy (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy) [Laws M24] (File: LM24)

Jolly Ploughboy, The

See Come All You Jolly Ploughboys (Here's April, Here's May; The Two Brothers) (File: BuDa033)

Jolly Ploughboy, The (The Merry Plowboy, The Scarlet and the Blue)

DESCRIPTION: "I (am/was) a jolly ploughboy and I plowed the fields all day," but one day the singer has had enough and sets out to join the (British Army/IRA/other). He will not miss the farm. He will miss his girl but hopes to marry her. The army will conquer or die
AUTHOR: supposedly John J. Blockley (source: Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recording by the Watersons)
KEYWORDS: farming soldier rambling love separation IRA
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North)) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 32, pp. 40-41, "The Jolly Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 16-18, "The Merry Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Behan-IrelandSings, #51, "The Merry Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune, heavily modified)
DT, JOLLPLO3 DUBLNGRN DBLGRN (the Behan version)
Roud #163
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Warwickshire R. H. A.
Off to Dublin in the Green (localized version claimed by Dominic Behan)
NOTES [182 words]: Gardham-EastRidingSongster cited A. L. Lloyd to the effect that this was written by John J. Blockley in the 1870s and popularized by Harrigan and Hart. Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs also mentions the attribution to Blockley.
However, Steve Gardham has since concluded, "I no longer think this information bears any weight. I have spent 40 years trying to find the origins of this song. Not a whisper. I'm pretty certain it has no connection with Blockley and although Harrigan and Hart sang a different song with a similar title 'The Blue and the Grey' I don't believe it connects with our song here. There are several songs with the title 'The Scarlet and the Blue' but alas none of them turn out to be our song here. I'm afraid it seems to be yet another Bertism!" (i.e. one of A. L. Lloyd's peculiar ideas).
Parts of this are easily verified. The Harrigan/Hart song "The Blue and the Gray" is in Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #7, pp. 26-29. It is emphatically not this song; it begins "America, my jewel, We sing most cheerfully, Your troubles now are ended...." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Beha051

Jolly Ploughman Lad, The

DESCRIPTION: "The jolly jolly ploughman lad goes whistling o'er the lea." He "whistles a' the day ... And he trysts his bonnie lassie Jean." They marry. He still whistles and "bairnies play at hide and seek." When old they live happily among their grown children
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: age love marriage farming children
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 414, "The Jolly Ploughman Lad" (1 text)
Roud #5936
File: GrD3414

Jolly Plowboy, The (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy) [Laws M24]

DESCRIPTION: A plowboy and a rich girl fall in love. When the girl's father finds out, he sends a press gang for the boy. The girl dresses in men's clothes and rows out to her lover's ship. She bribes the captain to return her lover
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1808 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 12(155))
KEYWORDS: love pressgang cross-dressing reprieve
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland,England(Lond,South,West)) Ireland
REFERENCES (26 citations):
Laws M24, "The Jolly Plowboy (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy)"
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 284-286, "The Jolly Plowbow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #117, pp. 1-2, "The Jolly Ploughboy" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 170, "The Jolly Ploughboy" (14 texts, 13 tunes)
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 208-209, "The Pretty Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 49, "Bonny Labouring Boy" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 5, "Pretty Ploughing Boy" (1 text)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 38, "The Pretty Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #94, "The Pretty Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #102, "The Pretty Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #59, "The Simple Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #73, "The Pretty Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 103, "Little Plowing Boy" (1 text plus a fragment)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 71, "The Little Plowing Boy" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 59, "The Simple Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 140, "The Pretty Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 233-234, "The Jolly Plowboy" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H105, pp. 331-332, "The Jolly Plowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 176-178, "The Jolly Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 224-225, "The Pretty Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 46, "The Simple Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 45, "The Jolly Ploughboy" (1 text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 2-3, "(O, Jock the jolly plow boy" (1 fragment, 1 tune, possibly this)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 167, "The Simple Ploughboy" (1 text)
DT 584, JOLLPLOW (BRSKLIVE -- listed as Laws A15, but this is impossible; it appears to be this song with some odd verses about the boy being wounded)
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 151, "The Pretty Plough Boy" (reproduction of a broadside page with "The Pretty Plough Boy," "The Spotted Cow," and "Canadian Boat Song")
Roud #186
RECORDINGS:
Daisy Chapman, "The Jolly Ploughboy" (on SCDChapman01)
Harry Cox, "The Pretty Ploughboy" (on Voice02)
Mrs. Mary Ann Galpin, "The Pretty Ploughboy" (on PeacockCDROM)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 12(155), "The Pretty Plough Boy," Burbage and Stretton (Nottingham), 1797-1807; also Harding B 11(3164), Firth c.12(288), Harding B 11(1400), 2806 c.17(335)[some words illegible], Firth b.25(108), Harding B 12(135), "The Pretty Plough Boy"; Harding B 25(1506)[almost entirely illegible], "Plough Boy"; Johnson Ballads 1403, Johnson Ballads 1450, "[The] Pretty Ploughboy"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cawsand Bay" (plot)
cf. "Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser)" [Laws N6]
cf. "Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany)" [Laws N7]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Poor Ploughboy
The Hills o' Traquair
NOTES [36 words]: Bunting (Edward Bunting, The Ancient Music of Ireland (Mineola, 2000 (reprint of 1840 Dublin edition)), #23, "The Jolly Ploughman") only prints a first verse; it shares three lines with many versions of this song. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LM24

Jolly Poker

See Johnny Boker (I) (File: Doe009a)

Jolly Puddlers, The

DESCRIPTION: "They want to stop our puddling, as many of you know, Contractors say that of our slush there is an overflow," but this would cause trouble in Bendigo. The singers claim that digging in the stream banks is all that keeps the local economy going
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel)
KEYWORDS: mining river hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 39-40, "The Jolly Puddlers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-GoldrushSongster, pp. 32-33, "The Jolly Puddlers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, pp. 48-49, "The Jolly Puddlers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 35-36, "The Jolly Puddlers" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jolly Waggoner" (tune)
NOTES [232 words]: Bruce Moore, Gold! Gold! Gold! A Dictionary of the Nineteenth-century Australian Gold Rushes, Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 117, defines a "puddler" as "A person engaged in puddling for gold" (no surprise there), and "to puddle" as "To work (clayey gold-bearing material) with water in a tub so as to separate out the gold from the other material." Moore quotes a different Thatcher song in connection with the practice.
Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, pp. 47-49, clarifies that puddling was a method for extracting gold based on placing large amounts of dirt in a special puddling tub and running a lot of water through it. The gold would settle out; the sludge, from which the gold had been extracted, was washed away -- and polluted the area around the puddling machinery. This led to demands for a solution, and attempts to collect a fee for puddling. Hence Thatcher's song.
It should be noted that there were two ways to puddle, one by machine (a "puddling machine," naturally) and one by hand, with a "puddling tub" (Moore, p. 118). The former allowed the work to proceed much more efficiently, and seems to have been the basis for the complaint in this song, since the "machines" are mentioned several times.
For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AnSo039

Jolly Raftsman O, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am sixteen, I do confess, I'm sure I am no older O, I place my mind, it never shall move, It's on a jolly raftsman, O." She praises his work and calls him "brave as Alexander," though someone (her mother?) wants her to marry a freeholder
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: love logger courting mother
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #58, "The Jolly Raftsman O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 51, "The Jolly Raftsman O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 31, "The Jolly Raftsman O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2318
RECORDINGS:
Mrs A. Fraser, "The Jolly Raftsman O" (on ONEFowke01)
NOTES [67 words]: No particular storyline here, a short (three verses) love song wherein the singer repeatedly states her conviction to wait for and marry her jolly raftsman. [Fowke's source was] Mrs. A. Fraser of Lancaster, Ontario, who said she learned it from her mother.
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario, p. 179, suggests that the tune is originally Gaelic; she bases this on the pattern of stresses. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: FowL58

Jolly Ranger, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a jovial/jolly ranger, I fear no kind of danger, To sorrow I'm a stranger, And so let mirth abound." The singer recalls leaving home and going to London, where he was treated as a bumpkin. He visited other towns. Now he is home and intends to stay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood)
KEYWORDS: home travel rambling rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 100-101, "Travel the Country Round" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1067
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Jovial Ranger
File: LEBC100

Jolly Reapers

See Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man) (File: R127)

Jolly Red Herring, The

See The Red Herring (File: VWL086)

Jolly Rovin' Tar

See Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down! (File: Wa071)

Jolly Roving Tar (II), The

See Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down! (File: Wa071)

Jolly Roving Tar [Laws O27]

DESCRIPTION: Susan fondly recalls her sailor love. She sets out to ensure that her father's ships are well equipped for his sake. Finally she bids farewell to the local ladies and sets out to follow her "jolly roving tar."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 16(119c))
KEYWORDS: sailor parting rambling reunion
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Ireland US(NE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws O27, "Jolly Roving Tar"
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H670, p. 293, "The Jolly Roving Tar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, p. 178, "Jolly Roving Tar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 12, "Jolly Roving Tar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 89, "The Jolly Roving Tar" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 744, JOLROVTR
Roud #913
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(119c), "The Jolly Roving Tar," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.13(77), 2806 c.16(242), Harding B 11(859), Harding B 11(860), Harding B 26(302), Harding B 11(3444), Firth c.13(78), "The Jolly Roving Tar"
NOTES [100 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(302), "The Jolly Roving Tar ("As I roved out one evening in the pleasant month of May"), Haly (Cork), 19C, while undated, dates itself by its last add-on verse: "So now these lines are at an end the truth I will unfold Young Susan she got married to her young sailor bold With him she faced the Russians and feared no wound or scar, But now she lives contented with her jolly roving tar." - BS
[To clarify, the above verse probably implies a Crimean War date. But it could well be a late add-on -- note that there were few battles between British and Russian navies. - RBW]
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LO27

Jolly Sailor (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "A lady born of birth and fame, To Greenwich town for pleasure came," where she sees a handsome sailor. She asks him why he remains single. He is too poor to marry. She says she will provide for him. He agrees to marry her; they settle in Kent
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton-RealSailorSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor love poverty marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #59, "The Jolly Sailor; or, The Lady of Greenwich" (1 text)
Roud #952
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 4(48), "The jolly sailor. Or the Lady of Greenwich," unknown, n.d.
File: AshS059i

Jolly Sailor (II), The

See Bristol City (File: Grg032a)

Jolly Sailor (III), The

See The Lowlands of Holland (File: R083)

Jolly Sailor (IV), The

See The Silk Merchant's Daughter [Laws N10] (File: LN10)

Jolly Sailor Boys, The

See Jolly Sailors (I) (File: OpGa039)

Jolly Sailor's True Description of a Man-of-War, The

DESCRIPTION: "When first on board of a man of war We go, whether by press or enter," the new sailors are teased by the ship's old hands. The singer details life on the ship, describes going to sea, waxes sarcastic about some aboard, and toasts his friends
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Firth)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship pressgang hardtimes drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 49, "The Jolly Sailor's True Description of a Man-of-War" (1 text)
Roud #V30565
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(450), "The Jolly Sailor's True Description of a Man-of-War,," unknown, n.d.
File: PaSe049

Jolly Sailor's Wedding, The

DESCRIPTION: "Give me service to the young man That lives in the town below"; the girl promises to go with Jamie whether her mother agrees of not. Her mother says that he might die in the wars. When the mother sees the girl is determined, she gives her 500 pounds
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton-RealSailorSongs)
KEYWORDS: love courting sailor mother money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #72 insert, "The Jolly Sailor's Wedding" (1 text)
Roud #23088
File: AshS072i

Jolly Sailors (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I am a jolly rover [or sailor boy(s)], Just lately come on shore. I spent my time in jubilee [or money on a moonlight night] as I have done before" "... march all round ... Until I come to a pretty, pretty girl, And I'll kiss her kneeling down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (Ravenscroft's _Deuteromelia_, according to _Sea Songs and Ballads_)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) Canada(Ont) US(MW,NE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 39, "Jolly Sailors" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #58, "Three Jolly Sailors" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 46, "The Jolly Sailor Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Goldy M. Hamilton, "The Play-Party in Northeast Missouri," Vol. XXVII, No. 105 (Oct 1950), #15 p.295, "Jolly Rover" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Katherine H. Wintemberg and W.J. Wintemberg, "Folk-Lore from Grey County, Ontario," Vol. XXXI, No. 119 (Jan 1918), #336 p. 111, "Here Come Two Jolly Jovers" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Leah Rachel Clara Yoffie, "Three Generations of Children's Singing Games in St. Louis," Vol. LX, No. 235 (Jan 1947), #13 p. 20 ("Here comes a crowd of jolly sailor boys") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Sea Songs and Ballads by [Charles] Dibdin and Others (London, 1863 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 185, "The Mariner's Glee" ("We be three poor mariners") "From 'Deuteromelia; or, the Second Part of Musick's Melodie,' &c. 1609." (1 text)
G.F. Northall, English Folk-Rhymes (London, 1892 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 369, ("Here comes four jolly sailor boys") ("Here's three jolly, jolly sailor boys") (2 texts)
ST OpGa039 (Full)
Roud #12441
NOTES [62 words]: For additional information on Deuteromelia, with the text of "We be three poor mariners," see Thomas Oliphant, La Musa Madgrigalesca (London, 1837 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 242-251. - BS
The Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors makes this a counting song: "Here comes one jolly, jolly sailor boy." "Here come two jolly, jolly sailor boys." There is no other change. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: OpGa039

Jolly Sailors (II), The

See Jolly Sailors Bold (I) (File: Mack095)

Jolly Sailors Bold (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer ridicules farmers on land and compares their easy life with the dangers faced by sailors. But "we'll sail into all parts of the world ... And we'll bring home all prizes ... We spend our money freely, And go to sea for more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: bragging farming sea ship ordeal nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(England(South)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 95, "Jolly Sailors Bold" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 70, "Poor Jolly Sailor Lads" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 3, "The Jolly Sailors" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3289 and 1664
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids of Simcoe (Ontario)" (theme)
cf. "Ye Gentlemen of England (I)" [Laws K2]
cf. "Dixie Brown" [Laws D7] (lyrics)
NOTES [221 words]: Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia: "The source of this song, and of a great many similar ones, is the famous broadside 'Ye Gentlemen of England, or When the Stormy Winds Do Blow,' composed by Martin Parker, and first issued about 1635."
This is a sailor's version of "Maids of Simcoe" (it has the same Roud number). It is also "Ye Gentlemen of England (I)" [Laws K2], but without a disaster of any kind.
See, for the Mackenzie "source," broadside Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(167b), "Neptune's Raging Fury" or "The Gallant Seaman's Sufferings" ("You gentlemen of England, that live at home at ease"), C. Brown (London), 1695-1707, by Martin Parker. - BS
Roud splits the British and Canadian versions of this song (the English "Poor Jolly Sailor Lads" being #1664 and the Canadian "Jolly Sailors Bold" #3289), but I think that he simply didn't note the similarities; both often open with a call to read what is written rather than hearing what is sung; both compare farmers and sailors, to the detriment of the former; both end with the sailors spending their money and going back to sea. I call that the same song.
Although I grant it's amorphous. The Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors text (which Roud had not filed when this was written) has a first verse so different that I almost filed it as a separate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Mack095

Jolly Sailors Bold (II)

See Pretty Nancy of London (Jolly Sailors Bold) (File: R078)

Jolly Scotch Robbers, The

See Henry Martyn [Child 250] AND Sir Andrew Barton [Child 167] (File: C250)

Jolly Shanty Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer boasts of being a jolly (and jauntily dressed, if ragged) shanty boy, to whom women are always attracted. He sings, "For I don't care for rich or poor/I'm not for strife and grief/I'm ragged, fat and lousy, and/As tough as Spanish beef."
AUTHOR: John A. Stone ("Old Put") ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Put's Golden Songster, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: bragging lumbering work logger poverty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 21, "The Jolly Shanty Boy" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 31-32, "The Jolly Shanty Boy" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 1, pp. 11-12, "The Jolly Shanty Boy" (1 text)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #54, "The Gatineau Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 135, "The Happy Miner" (1 text)
ST Be021 (Partial)
Roud #4351
RECORDINGS:
O.J. Abbott, "The Jolly Shanty Boy" (on ONEFowke01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Get in a Weaving Way" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
NOTES [33 words]: This is a rather amorphous family, with both mining and shanty versions. The earliest version appears to be the Put's Golden Songster text, but I wouldn't bet too much on that being the original. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Be021

Jolly Shepherd Wat, The

See Jolly Wat (File: OBB103)

Jolly Shilling, The

See I Love Sixpence (File: OO2480)

Jolly Soldier, The

See The Rambling Soldier (File: ShH43)

Jolly Sportsman, The

DESCRIPTION: A girl seduced by a sportsman names her baby Maidenhead. She puts the baby and some cherries in a hamper. She meets another sportsman who offers to buy her hamper and her maidenhead. She refuses to return his money when all he gets is the hamper.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1828 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(206))
KEYWORDS: sex bargaining trick humorous baby wordplay rake
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 306, "The Sportsboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5863
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(206), "The Jolly Sportsman" ("It's of a jolly sportsman was hunting o'er the lawn"), W. Wright (Birmingham), 1820-1827; also Harding B 11(4150), Harding B 25(1003), "The Jolly Sportsman"
File: Gr2306

Jolly Stage Driver, The

See The Jolly Young Sailor and the Beautiful Queen [Laws O13] (File: LO13)

Jolly Tar

See Hearts of Oak (II -- A New Sea Song) (File: AshS085i)

Jolly Tester, The

See I Love Sixpence (File: OO2480)

Jolly Thrasher, The

See Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man) (File: R127)

Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man)

DESCRIPTION: The rich man asks the poor man how he can support such a large family with so many young children. The poor man answers, "I make my living by the sweat of my brow." In some texts the rich man gives him some sort of reward for all his hard work
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1685 (broadside); 1792 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: dialog work poverty
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,NE,SE,So) Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Randolph 127, "Poor Man, Poor Man" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 58, "The Thresherman" (1 text)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #21A-B, pp. 85-88, "Poor Man, O Poor Man," "There Was a Rich Englishman" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, p. 32, "Jolly Reapers" (1 fragment, 1 tune; possibly this although it's too short to really tell)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 253, "The Jolly Thresher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 68-69, "The Thresher and the Squire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 138, "The Nobleman and the Thresher" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 336)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 274-275, "The Labourer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 118-119, "The Nobleman and Thrasher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #23, "The Jolly Thresherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 146, "The Jolly Thresher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 80, "The Poor Man" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 92, "The Jolly Thresher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 156-159, "Poor Man's Song," "The Labourer" (2 texts, the second being the Green Mountain Songster version)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H622, p. 44, "The Jolly Thresher"; H117, pp. 44-45, "As the King Went A-Hunting" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Greig/Duncan3 437, "The Thresherman" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 48-49, "The Hedger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #20, pp. 148-151, "The Nobleman's Generous Kindness" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 318-320, "The Nobleman's Generous Kindness" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, G.L. Kittredge, editor, "Ballads and Songs," Vol. XXX, No. 117 (Jul-Sep 1917), pp. 353-355 "The Jolly Thresherman" (1 text)
DT, POORMAN*
ADDITIONAL: J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1891 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. VII Part 2 [Part 21], pp. 328-330, "The Noble-Man's Generous Kindness" or "The Country Man's Unexpected Happiness" (1 text)
Roud #19
RECORDINGS:
Harry Holman, "There Was a Poor Thresherman" (on Voice20)
Eleazar Tillett, "The Jolly Thresher" (on USWarnerColl01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(311b), "Squire and Thrasher" ("A nobleman liv'd in a village of late"), W. Jackson and Son (Birmingham), 1839-1855; also Harding B 15(312a), "The Squire and Thrasher"; Harding B 16(258b), "The Squire and Thrsherman" [sic]
NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(040), "The Noble Man's Generous Kindness" or "The Country-Man's Unexpected Happiness," unknown, 1701
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Thresherman (and the Squire)
NOTES [10 words]: Ebsworth dates his text, a P. Brooksby broadside, 1685-1688. - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: R127

Jolly Tinker (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The tinker comes to town to mend the pots. He observes that "A tinker never marries, has a girl in every town...." "I've never stored much gold, but I have a lot to spend." "My life is wild and free, and I do not seek renown. I'm just a jolly tinker..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: work sex rambling
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 72, "The Jolly Tinker" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JOLITNK2*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tinker"
NOTES [65 words]: Tinkers had a reputation for wantonness, and a large bawdy repertoire built up around them. It is often difficult to decide if the songs are related or not. Since this song is "clean" and "The Tinker" is dirty, I decided to separate them. But I'm not confident about it.
Warner for some reason links this with Laws F24, "The Peddlar and His Wife" -- but that is a song about a murder! - RBW
File: Wa072

Jolly Tinker (II), The

See The Tinker (File: EM029)

Jolly Tinker (III), The

DESCRIPTION: A London lady tells a tinker she has kettles to mend. He asks if there are holes that need blocking; they fall to work. She bangs a pan "to let the servants know that he was hard at work." Refrain: "And I'll be bound she had (he could, they did, etc.)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recorded from Billy Dickeson)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A London lady, desiring the company of a tinker, writes and tells him she has kettles to mend. He comes, asking if there are any rusty holes that need blocking; she leads him to the bedroom and they fall to work on the feather-bed. She picks up a pan and he bangs it "to let the servants know that he was hard at work"; she pays him, saying they'll have another round. Refrain: "And I'll be bound she had (he could, they did, etc.)"
KEYWORDS: sex work bawdy tinker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland),Ireland(South)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 177, "The Jolly Tinker" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JOLLTNK4* JOLLTNK3
Roud #863
RECORDINGS:
Thomas Moran, "The Jolly Tinker" (on FSB02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tinker" (plot)
File: K177

Jolly Toper, The

See My Name Is Dick Bradley (File: CoMo057)

Jolly Union Boys, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you jolly Union boys. To you the truth I'll tell, Concerning Governor Jackson Who I know very well." A curious and compressed account of events in Missouri from the beginning of the Civil War to the Battle of Pea Ridge
AUTHOR: B. Locke?
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: Civilwar political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 10, 1861 - Battle of Wilson's Creek
Mar 7-8, 1862 - Battle of Pea Ridge/Elkhorn Tavern
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 242, "The Jolly Union Boys" (1 text)
Roud #3598
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Joe Stiner" (concerning Battle of Wilson's Creek)
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die (Confederate Version)" (concerning Battle of Wilson's Creek)
cf. "Sterling Price" (concerning Battle of Wilson's Creek)
cf. "The War in Missouri in '61" (concerning Battle of Wilson's Creek)
NOTES [579 words]: Trying to describe the complex events in Missouri at the beginning of the Civil War is almost impossible; for an inadequate summary, see the notes to "The War in Missouri in '61."
Suffice it here to say that both Union and Confederacy sought to control Missouri (though Unionists were probably the majority in the state), but that the Union efforts were somewhat more efficient and succeeded in the end.
The key players mentioned in the song are:
Governor (Claiborne) Jackson -- The governor of Missouri in 1861, he tried to seize the Federal arsenal to bring the state into the Confederacy. He was thwarted primarily by the efforts of Captain (later General) Nathaniel Lyon. Jackson did, as noted, manage to walk off with a large part of the state's cash reserves.
Thomas Price -- A Missouri congressmen and Unionist, one of those who helped organize against Jackson.
Harney -- William S. Harney. A regular army Brigadier, he was the Federal officer in charge in St. Louis when the war broke out. Rather sympathetic to the Confederacy, his behavior was so lethargic that Congressman Frank Blair maneuvered his ouster and gave most of his powers to General Lyon.
"Billy" Frost -- Daniel M. Frost. Appointed by Governor Jackson to seize the Federal arsenal, he instead fell into Lyon's hands. He was later exchanged and served in the Confederate armies, but his failure in 1861 badly hurt the Confederate cause in Missouri.
"A lion" -- Obviously a reference to General Lyon, the bulwark of the Federal forces until his death at Wilson's Creek.
"McCulla brought up artillery" -- refers to General Benjamin McCulloch, who was Confederate commander at Wilson's Creek (sort of; he led the Arkansas troops. The Missouri troops were under Sterling Price. Price actually had a higher rank -- he was a Major General, McCulloch only a Brigadier -- but McCulloch had a commission from Jefferson Davis, whereas Price's was a local rank, and finally Price decided to accept his orders rather than leave their armies to be defeated in detail. But the two never worked together well).
At Wilson's Creek, Lyon (outnumbered two to one) tried an enveloping attack, with Sigel's brigade arriving from a different direction. Sigel's troops fell apart after coming briefly under fire, and Lyon's remaining troops had to face a heavy assault from the Confederates. The Federals held on all morning -- the southerners had almost no training as soldiers -- but retreated when Lyon was killed.
Sigel -- Franz Sigel, who kept getting commands because German immigrants respected him, but who never did much with his troops. At Carthage (July 5, 1861) he fled without a fight; at Wilson's Creek his troops fell apart. Only at Pea Ridge was his performance respectable.
"a little old Creek bottom" -- the battlefield at Wilson's Creek. Each side lost about 1200 men (of some 5500 Federals and 11,500 Confederates engaged).
Price #2 -- Sterling Price, Confederate commander of Missouri troops. Leader of half the troops at Wilson's Creek (see under McCulloch).
"It done for old Ben" -- Ben McCulloch was killed at Pea Ridge (Arkansas) in 1862. At this battle, a strong Confederate force under Earl Van Dorn was unable to dislodge a weaker Union force. This finally dashed Confederate hopes in Missouri.
For more on the Battle of Pea Ridge (one of the more important battles of the war, though it doesn't get much ink), see the notes to "The Battle of Elkhorn Tavern or The Pea Ridge Battle" [Laws A12]. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: R242

Jolly Vaquero, The

DESCRIPTION: "The jolly vaquero is up with the sun And quick in the saddle is he" who easily handles a steer. He is good at riding and roping in all weather. "Oh, who wouldn't envy a life like this, Of the cowboy, wild and free!" "A cowboy's life for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Cheyenne Weekly Leader and Stock Journal, August 23, 1883, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 337, "The Jolly Vaquero" (1 text)
File: LDC337

Jolly Waggoner, The

See The Jolly Wagoner (File: K230)

Jolly Wagoner, The

DESCRIPTION: "When first I went a-wagonin', a-wagonin' I did go, I filled my parents' hearts full of sorrow, grief and woe." The singer recalls being rained on, seeing birds in summer, driving hard roads in the winter. He rejoices to reach home and wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Dixon)
KEYWORDS: home travel wife hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 428-4229, "The Jolly Waggoner" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 157, "The Jolly Waggoner" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 454)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 230, "The Jolly Waggoner" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 27, "The Jolly Waggoner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pamer-ECS, #16, "The Jolly Waggoner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #98, "The Jolly Waggoner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 309-310, "The Jolly Waggoner" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Bell, editor, Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England (London, 1857 ("Digitized by Google)), pp. 208-209, "The Jolly Waggoner" (1 text)
Roud #1088
NOTES [118 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland lists a number of earlier versions of this song -- but much of his text is floating-type material, and he is known to lump completely unrelated songs. So I have not listed any of the versions in his bibliography; most are probably this piece, but chances are that at least a few are not. And I don't know which. - RBW
The Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text is, with very minor changes, the same as Bell's text.
Kennedy reports this in both James Henry Dixon, Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England (London, 1846) and Bell (1857). I don't find it in Dixon; if I'm right rather than just sloppy, Bell found this and did not crib it from Dixon. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: K230

Jolly Wat

DESCRIPTION: Jolly Wat, a shepherd, sits on a hill and plays his pipes. He is awakened by an angel announcing the birth of Jesus. He finds the baby and offers him all he has. Mary and Joseph send him back to his flocks with their blessing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Richard Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #78, p. 49, "(The sheperd vpon a hill he satt)" (1 text)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 99-102, "The Jolly Shepherd Wat" (1 text)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics LXVII, p. 127-129, "(no title)" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 103, "Jolly Wat" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3460
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #5459.4
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #30, pp. 16-18, "[The Jolly Shepherd Wat]" (1 text)
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #16, pp. 69-71, "(Can I not syng but hoy)" (1 text)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #252, p. 528, "The Jolly Shepherd Wat" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 224
ST OBB103 (Partial)
NOTES [377 words]: The tale of the shepherds visiting the new-born Jesus is found in the Bible in Luke 2:8-20. Greene, p. 196, declares, "The carol of Wat is justly famous for its gaiety and realism. Its similarity in conception and tone to the shepherd scenes in the mystery plays is striking." Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 154-155, also sees similarity to the mystery plays, where the shepherds offer humble gifts such as a pipe (the musical type, not for smoking), a hat, and mittens; in the carol, it is a pipe, scrip, tar-box, and skirt. Greene suggests, based on several small clues in the language, that this probably originated in Yorkshire or somewhere else in the north of England.
Given the age and place of origin of the piece, we should not automatically assume that "Joly"="Jolly" means "happy" or "cheerful"; there is a good chance that it means "active" or "energetic."
David R. Parker, The Commonplace Book in Tudor London: An Examination of BL MSS Egerton 1995, Harley 2252, Lansdowne 762, and Oxford Balliol College MS354, University Press of America, 1998, on p. 76 says that this is one of three shepherd carols in this part of Richard Hill's manuscript, adding:
"Of the three... 'Joly Wat' most closely follows the image of the rustic. In the same way that the Second Shepherd's Pageant uses homely imagery to make Christ's nativity more accessible and affecting, 'Joly Wat' uses a convincingly realistic portrayal of Wat's appearance and life to draw the medieval listener (for this was almost certainly a song) into the story. Wat is introduced lying upon his hill, his tabard and pipe by his side, and his dog tied to his belt. When he sees the Star of Bethlehem (which here is 'rede as blod'), he makes his farewell to man and beast alike ('Dog, kepe well my shep fro þe corn') and runs to Bethlehem so quickly that 'he swet: he had gon faster than a pace." He offers his gifts to the Christ Child: "my skrype, my tarbox, & my skyrte," homely gifts not unlike the tennis balls offered by the shepherds in the Second Shepherd's Pageant. This method of tying the common man to a significant religious event is completely appealing to Richard Hill, much of whose book is devoted to finding texts that help him make sense of his faith." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: OBB103

Jolly Young Ploughman Lad, The

DESCRIPTION: "The jolly young ploughman lad Goes whistlin' o'er the lea; There's nane in a' the country roon Has a heart sae blythe and free." He loves "bonnie lassie Jean" and "Jeanie lo'es the winsome laddie That ca's the cairt and ploo"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: courting love farming
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast, "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 29, ("The jolly young ploughman lad") (1 text)
NOTES [251 words]: Greig's text is only one verse. That may be a fragment. It is tempting just to assign it to Laws M24, "The Jolly Ploughboy," who sometimes "went whistling on his plough" [Peacock] or went "Ploughing on the lea" [Karpeles]. This ploughboy had a lover but, in Greig's one verse, he and Jean are "blythe and free" with no sign of an unhappy father. The words don't match well enough with any of the versions I've seen of Laws M24 to include this there.
It is not (now) the same song as "The Flaxen Headed Ploughboy" by John O'Keeffe (see, for example, Bodleian broadside Harding B 15(240a), "The Plough Boy" ("A flaxen headed cow-boy") ," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844)). That ploughboy also "whistled o'er the lee" but led an apparently loveless life as he progressed from cow-boy to plough boy, footman, butler, steward, and on by nefarious means, ... a Peer ... until he became "so great a man ... You'll forget the little Plough Boy That whistled o'er the lee." Maybe Greig's text is a derivative of "The Flaxen Headed Ploughboy." Compare it to this parody: "The Flaxen-headed Ploughboy Comes whistling o'er the Lea; To those who don't like whistling A nuisance he must be" (Punch, or The London Charivari (London, December 21, 1872 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. LXII, p. 256), and this derivative: "O Flaxen-headed Ploughman A whistling o'er the lee, Oh, do you not know how, man, I've ever loved thee!" (Punch, or The London Charivari (London, April 1, 1893 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. CIV, p. 153). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Grg029

Jolly Young Sailor and His Beautiful Queen, The

See The Jolly Young Sailor and the Beautiful Queen [Laws O13] (File: LO13)

Jolly Young Sailor and the Beautiful Queen, The [Laws O13]

DESCRIPTION: A rich girl has turned down many suitors, but becomes entranced when a (sailor) wanders by. She urges him to stay (ashore) and marry a rich girl. He doesn't want to give up his rambling ways, but finally consents when she offers him her hand and wealth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage rambling money sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US(MA,NE,NW,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws O13, "The Jolly Young Sailor and the Beautiful Queen"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 298-299, "The Jolly Young Sailor and the Beautiful Queen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 30, "The Jolly Stage Driver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 64-65, "The Jovial Sailor & His Beautiful Queen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 188-189, "The Journeyman Tailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H620, p. 476, "The Journeyman Tailor" (1 text, 1 tune [text incorrectly states that this is Laws B6, but the notes give the correct Laws number])
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 66, "William the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 90, "The Journeyman Tailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 179-183, "Jovial Young Sailor" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 582-583, "The Sailor and the Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 33, "The Jolly Young Sailor and His Beautiful Queen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 73, "Bound Down to Derry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 38, "It Is of a Rich Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 53, "Jovial Young Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 476, SAILQUEN
Roud #671
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Brisk Jolly Sailor
File: LO13

Jolly Young Sailor Boy

See The Bonny Sailor Boy [Laws M22] (File: LM22)

Jonah

See Jonah and the Whale (IV) (File: R286)

Jonah and the Whale (II)

See Hide Away (Jonah and the Whale) (File: R286)

Jonah and the Whale (III)

See Jonah and the Whale (Living Humble) (File: Br3346)

Jonah and the Whale (IV)

DESCRIPTION: "In the Bible we are told of a prophet who was called To a city that was steeped in awful sin." Jonah is swallowed by the fish. Chorus: "Over there, over there, In that land so bright and fair, Oh, he'll tell me all about it over there."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious warning animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 133, "Jonah" (1 text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 101, pp. 155-156, "Jonah and the Whale" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hide Away (Jonah and the Whale)" (stanza form and subject) and references there
NOTES [36 words]: The form of this is enough like "Hide Away (Jonah and the Whale)" that -- despite the many, many songs about Jonah -- I suspect common origin. Most likely this humorless piece is the original of that funny song. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BoWo101

Jonah and the Whale (Living Humble)

DESCRIPTION: The story of Jonah in song, recognized by the chorus, "Living humble, humble, humble, Living humble all your days" or "Humble, humble, humble my soul." Unlike most Jonah songs, this appears to be "straight"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 11901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute); 1893 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible whale
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 346, "Jonah and the Whale" (6 text and/or fragments, but only the "A" and "B" texts, both short, are this piece; "C" is "Hide Away" and "D"-"F" are "Who Did Swallow Jonah?")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 346 "Jonah and the Whale" (3 tunes plus text excerpts, of which "A" is this piece)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 12-13, "Live Humble (Glory and Honor)" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 87 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
Roud #15215
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hide Away (Jonah and the Whale)" (subject) and references there
cf. "Going to Live Humble To the Lord" (chorus: "Live humble ....")
NOTES [47 words]: The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "Glory and Honor" on page 87 (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 87. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Br3346

Jonah and the Whale (V), The

See The Old Fish Song (File: CSW124)

Jonah Fishing for a Whale

DESCRIPTION: "Cheer up, cheer up, my lively lads, Don't let your spirits fall; For Jonah's down in Sampson pond A-fishin' for a whale." "And when he ain't a-whaling, He's at some other fun, Down in the swamp a-cuttin' reeds To string his whales upon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: fishing
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 184, "Jonah Fishing for a Whale" (1 text)
NOTES [36 words]: Needless to say, this has nothing to do with the Biblical account of Jonah and the fish. Frankly, it sounds like a bunch of kids making fun of a poor foolish kid who doesn't know what a whale is or how to catch one. - RBW
File: Br3184

Jonathan Joseph... Timothy Pack

See Too Much of a Name (File: GrMa170)

Jonathan Smith

DESCRIPTION: "Three hundred years ago, so runs the ancient tale," lived Jonathan Smith. He fought many enemies, spurned luxury, had his encounter with Pocahontas, and showed that "it pays to be handsome as well as brave."
AUTHOR: Karl N. Llewellyn
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Llewellyn, Put In His Thumb)
KEYWORDS: soldier love Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 124-126, "Jonathan Smith" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [23 words]: Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks claim to have found a version of this in oral tradition. But it is essentially a composed song. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: CoBr124

Jonathan, Joseph, Jeremiah

See Too Much of a Name (File: GrMa170)

Jonathan's Courtship

DESCRIPTION: "A merry tale I will rehears As ever you did hear." Father gives Jonathan a suit, Mother gives him advice, and they send him off to court Sary. Her parents leave them alone. He courts her uncomfortably. She throws water on him. He heads home without her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Flanders-ChapBook Flanders-VermontChapBook)
KEYWORDS: humorous courting clergy father mother rejection
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders-ChapBook Flanders-VermontChapBook, pp. 16-21, "Jonathan's Courtship" (1 text)
Roud #4673
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Quaker's Courtship" (general tone and plot)
File: FlaCh16

Jone o' Greenfield's Ramble

DESCRIPTION: "Says Jone to his wife, on a hot summer's day, I'm resolved i' Greenfield no longer to stay." He intends to go to "Owdham" and be a soldier and fight the French. Husband and wife and others discuss their poverty; he bids farewell
AUTHOR: Joseph Lees? (source: Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland); Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire believes it was written in 1805
KEYWORDS: husband wife separation soldier hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #27, pp. 216-218,250, "Jone o' Greenfield's Ramble" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 432-434, "Jone o' Greenfield's Ramble" (1 text)
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, pp. 38-39, "John O'Grinfilt's Ramble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 21-23, "John of Greenfield" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST BeCo432 (Partial)
Roud #1460
NOTES [47 words]: Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 103, has a long paragraph about the authorship of this, but it consists mostly of denials of claims made at one time or another for various people. Harding concludes that Joseph Lees wrote it in 1805, but gives no evidence for this assertion. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BeCo432

Jone o' Grinfield

See The Four-Loom Weaver (File: DTfourlo)

Jones Boys (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh the Jones Boys! They built a mill on the side of a hill, And they worked all night and they worked all say But they couldn't make that gosh-darn sawmill pay."
AUTHOR: Probably Millet Salter
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: technology logger commerce
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 27, "The Jones Boys - I" (1 fragment, 1 tune); cf. also the fragment on p. 15
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 183-184, "The Jones Boys" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 24, "The Jones Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4528
RECORDINGS:
Nick Underhill, "The Jones Boys" (on Miramichi1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jones Boys (II)" (lyrics, people)
NOTES [198 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "John Jones, father of the Jones boys, came out from Camborne, Cornwall, in 1840 .... [The] Jones family moved up to a brook flowing into the Nor'West Miramichi, which then took the name of Jones's Brook. There John Jones built a grist mill to serve the community, and raised a family of ten children. John Senior died in 1866, and his sons, James and John Junior took over the business, James managing the grist mill, and John a sawmill near by."
Are Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 27 [this song] and Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 28 [The Jones Boys - II] the same song? There is no question but that the entire Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 27 text is part of the Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 28 chorus. Wilson's comment on Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 27: "[The tune] slightly resembles the beginning of the chorus of Mr Underhill's complete version [Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 28]. However, this fragment has apparently been in circulation for several generations. The late Lord Beaverbrook knew it as a child in Miramichi. It is unusual to find a fragment assuming its own personality and coexisting with a complete version in the same area." - BS
File: FMB183

Jones Boys (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The two Jones Boys each "owned a mill in the side of a hill.... They worked all night and they worked all day But they couldn't make the gosh-darned saw-mill pay." The song goes through the seasons. The singer hopes to work for them again in the spring.
AUTHOR: probably James Barry of Derby Junction (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: commerce lumbering hardtimes work
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 28, "The Jones Boys - II" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi028 (Partial)
RECORDINGS:
Nick Underhill, "The Jones Boys" (on Miramichi1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jones Boys (I)" (lyrics, people)
NOTES [197 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "John Jones, father of the Jones boys, came out from Camborne, Cornwall, in 1840 .... [The] Jones family moved up to a brook flowing into the Nor'West Miramichi, which then took the name of Jones's Brook. There John Jones built a grist mill to serve the community, and raised a family of ten children. John Senior died in 1866, and his sons, James and John Junior took over the business, James managing the grist mill, and John a sawmill near by."
Are Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 27 [The Jones Boys (I)] and Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 28 [this piece] the same song? There is no question but that the entire Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 27 text is part of the Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 28 chorus. Wilson's comment on Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 27: "[The tune] slightly resembles the beginning of the chorus of Mr Underhill's complete version [Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 28]. However, this fragment has apparently been in circulation for several generations. The late Lord Beaverbrook knew it as a child in Miramichi. It is unusual to find a fragment assuming its own personality and coexisting with a complete version in the same area." - BS
File: MaWi028

Jones! Oh Jones

DESCRIPTION: Singer's friend Jones "took my woman and left this town." If Jones doesn't bring her back he will kill Jones. He will get a gattling gun, ambulance and undertaker, and he has a doctor who wants to buy the body. Other women -- Sue, Minnie, May -- won't do.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Blind Blake Higgs: see WIHIGGS01)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity love warning homicide friend lover
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Jones! Oh Jones" (on WIHIGGS01)
File: RcJoOhJo

Jones's Ale

See When Jones's Ale Was New (File: Doe168)

Jones's Ghost

DESCRIPTION: "Come list ye doctors all to me, For Jones's ghost I truly be.... I am that slaughtered, mangled man." Murderer Jones accuses Doctors Thorp and French of violating their promises to care for his body and threatens them with punishment after death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads); reportedly published c. 1880
KEYWORDS: homicide execution punishment doctor corpse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
August 1838 - Joshua Jones murders his wife
May 29, 1839 - Execution of Jones
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 20-21, "Jones's Ghost" (1 text)
NOTES [125 words]: According to Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, after Joshua Jones was convicted of murder, he sold his body to Dr. Amos French, adding the stipulation that French care for his child and also try to bring him back to life.
The former condition was fulfilled. French naturally failed to revive Jones, and eventually stripped the flesh from his bones; he wanted a skeleton for his own use. This poem arose out of public protest at what appears, from the records in Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, to have been a perfectly legal behavior on French's part. (The desire for a skeleton was natural for a doctor; see the notes to "The Black Cook.")
There is no evidence that the poem ever entered tradition; it was printed in a newspaper, and it's really very bad. - RBW
File: Burt020

Jonestown Blues

DESCRIPTION: Singer leaves Lula for Jonestown where the "browns did make me frown." He decides that Jonestown is "too small a burg for me." He goes to Memphis, where he got "good whisky" and "my good girl laid me down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Gus Cannon)
KEYWORDS: sex rambling drink
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Banjo Joe (Gus Cannon, with Blind Blake), "Jonestown Blues" (Paramount 12588,1927; on USChartersHeroes)
Cannon's Jug Stompers, "Jonestown Blues" (Victor V38629,1929)
NOTES [33 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated and the last line completes the thought.
The description follows the Jug Stompers recording, which has a shorter story than Cannon's first recording. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcJontnB

Jonnie Sands

See Johnny Sands (File: LQ03)

Jordan Am a Hard Road to Trabbel

See Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel (I) (File: R305)

Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel

DESCRIPTION: About the difficulties of getting to heaven. Chorus: "(So) take off your overcoats and roll up your sleeves; Jordan am a hard road to travel (x2) I believe." The original contains assorted political references to the 1850s.
AUTHOR: Music: Daniel D. Emmett/Words: T. F. Briggs?
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: religious travel nonsense political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1842 - Webster-Ashburton Treaty settles the boundary between Britain (Canada) and the states of Massachussets and Maine
1846 - Oregon Treaty settles the boundary dispute between the U.S. and Britain (Canada). Minor uncertainties were settled by arbitration in 1872.
1852-1870 - Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) Emperor of France
1853-1857 - Presidency of Franklin Pierce
FOUND IN: US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph 305, "The Other Side of Jordan" (1 text)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 63, "Jerdan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1155-1159, p. 79, "Jordan Is a Hard Road to Travel" plus parodies No. 3-No. 6 (there is no No. 2) (5 references, all based on this song although it's not clear which are actual versions)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, pp. 42-43 and and #3/62, pp. 42-43, "The Other Side of Jordan"; "Jordan is a Hard Road to Travel" (2 texts, both appearing somewhat modified)
Heart-Songs, pp. 136-137, "Jordan Am a Hard Road to Trabbel" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JRDNHRD*
Roud #2103
RECORDINGS:
Harry C. Browne, "Jordan Am A Hard Road to Travel" (Columbia A-2255, 1917; rec. 1916)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel" (on McClintock01) (on McClintock02)
Riley Puckett, "On the Other Side of Jordan" (Columbia 15374-D, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Richmond Is a Hard Road to Travel"
cf. "Jordan is a Hard Road To Travel (II)" (words, music)
cf. "Ain't No Bugs on Me" (words)
cf. "Pull Off Your Old Coat" (lyrics)
cf. "Conestoga on the Jordan Road" (parody)
cf. "The People Are A-Coming" (parody)
cf. "Old Pike" (form; probable parody)
SAME TUNE:
Richmond is a Hard Road to Travel (File: RcRIHRTT)
Conestoga is a Hard Road to Travel (File: KPL249)
Jordan Is a Hard Road to Travel (II) (File: CSW188)
A Trip to Salmon (File: LDC118)
Rail-road Song (by Jacob P. Weaver) (Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 43)
Jordan Is a Hard Road to Travel #3-#6 (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 79)
My Gum a Rubber Boots ("Go it rubber boots and save my pantalets") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 103)
Frank Pierce's solilioquiy ("Of all the tricks that have been played of late") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 332)
The People Are A-Coming (File: TNY363)
NOTES [110 words]: Napoleon III (1808-1873), the son of Napoleon Bonaparte's brother Louis, was chosen President of France in 1848, then in 1852 (the same year Franklin Pierce was elected President) upgraded himself to Emperor.
The "fish question" is slightly less clear; the settlement which ended the War of 1812 and the diplomacy which followed did not provide American fishermen with all the rights they wanted in Canadian waters -- but this was a perennial problem which was not solved until 1910. In addition, there were some disputes over the Columbia River (which in the complex logic of diplomacy gave the U.S. its claim to Oregon), and hence presumably its salmon. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R305

Jordan Is a Hard Road to Travel

See Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel (I) (File: R305)

Jordan Is a Hard Road to Travel (II)

DESCRIPTION: Uncle Dave Macon gives his opinions about automobiles, evangelists, Henry Ford, and other matters. Chorus is "Haul [take] off your overcoat, roll up your sleeves/Jordan is a hard road to travel I believe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: technology humorous nonballad derivative
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 188-189, "Other Side of Jordan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 55, "The Other Side of Jordan" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "Jordan is a Hard Road to Travel" (Vocalion 5153, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. ""Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel" (words, music)
cf. "Richmond is a Hard Road to Travel"
NOTES [46 words]: Uncle Dave Macon, who had little good to say about automobiles, ran a horse-and-wagon drayage business.
Although this song derives its chorus and structure from "Jordan am a Hard Road to Travel," in Uncle Dave's hands it becomes a completely different song from Dan Emmett's. - PJS
File: CSW188

Jordan's Mills

DESCRIPTION: "Jordan's (Jerdan's) mills a-grinding, Jordan's a-hay; Jordan's mills a-griding, Jordan's a-hay." "Built without nail or hammer." "Runs without water or wind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 68, "Jordan's Mills" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12026
NOTES [52 words]: There are no explicit religious references in this, except to Jordan (and even that might be to a town in the south named Jordan, or a miller named Jordan), but the fact that the mills were not built by hand, and don't need water or wind, imply a religious song. I've no idea what it's supposed to mean, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG068B

Jordan's River I'm Bound to Cross

See One More River to Cross (File: R294)

Jordan's Stormy Banks

See Bound for the Promised Land (File: LxU099)

Joseph and Mary

See The Cherry-Tree Carol [Child #54] (File: C054)

Joseph and Mary (Joseph Being an Aged Man, Joseph an Aged Man Truly)

DESCRIPTION: "Joseph being an aged man truly, He married a virgin fair and free," who is told by the Angel Gabriel that she will bear a child. When Joseph finds out, he asks what is going on. He learns the truth in a dream. Eventually Jesus is born.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1675 (Bodleian, 4o Rawl. 566(168))
KEYWORDS: carol Jesus religious age
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 5-27, "Joseph Being an Aged Man" (1 text)
Roud #2115
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 4o Rawl. 566(168), "A most excellent ballad of Joseph the carpenter, and the sacred Virgin Mary" ("Joseph an aged man truely"), F. Coles/T. Vere/J. Wright (London), 1663-1674
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cherry-Tree Carol" [Child 54]
NOTES [36 words]: This song is largely based on Matthew's account of the birth of Jesus, but the feeling is rather like the Cherry-Tree Carol, of which it might possibly be a forerunner; for background, see the note on that song. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: Rick025

Joseph Being an Aged Man

See Joseph and Mary (Joseph Being an Aged Man, Joseph an Aged Man Truly) (File: Rick025)

Joseph Looney

DESCRIPTION: Joseph Looney, dying, tells his family not to grieve, for God has called him and he is prepared to go. He tells them to trust in and follow Jesus, so that they will meet him in heaven
AUTHOR: Elihu Gray
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (recording, Ollie Gilbert)
KEYWORDS: death dying religious family
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #12366
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Gilbert, "Joseph Looney" (on LomaxCD1704)
NOTES [25 words]: This song was said to have been made by Elihu Gray from the deathbed speech of his neighbor. - PJS
And the result is actually traditional? Yikes. - RBW
File: RcJLoon

Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16]

DESCRIPTION: Engineer Joseph Mikel is determined to remain on schedule. As a result, he runs too fast to avoid a collision with another train. The result was disastrous: "Some were crippled and some were lame, But the six-wheel driver had to bear the blame"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1923 (AbbotSwan)
KEYWORDS: train wreck disaster crash
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1836-1892 - Life of Jay Gould. He made his fortune in railroads, largely by stock manipulation, and was worth an estimated $100,000,000 when he died
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws I16, "Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16]"
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 385-389, "Milwaukee Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 317, "Joseph Mica" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 364-365, "Jay Gould's Daughter and On the Charlie So Long" (2 texts, 1 tune); 368-369, "Mama, Have You Heard the News" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 104-107, "The Boston Burglar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 81-82, "The Boston Burglar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 36-42, "Casey Jones," "The Wreck of the Six Wheel Driver," "Ol' John Brown," "Charley Snyder" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 238, (no title) (1 fragment, beginning "Jay Gooze said befo' he died); p. 247, (no title) (a fragment beginning "Great big tie an' little bitty man, Lay it on if it breaks him down"; the form appears to be a member of this family); p. 250, (no title) (1 short text, about "Joseph Mica")
Abbot/Swan-8Negro 8, "Vanderbilt's Daughter (A Railroad Song)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 64, "Kassie Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 114-115, "Jay Gould's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 456, "Been on the Cholly So Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 209-213, "Casey Jones"; "Casey Jones"; "Kassie Jones" (3 text, with the first two belonging here and the third being the full "Kassie Jones" text of Furry Lewis)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 103 "Jay Gould's Daughter" (1 text)
DT 791, JOEMICA JGOULD1
Roud #3247
RECORDINGS:
Furry Lewis, "Kassie Jones, Parts 1 & 2" (Victor 21664A&B, 1928; on AAFM1; Part 1 is on BefBlues3); "Kassie Jones" (on ClassRR)
Roy Harvey & the North Carolina Ramblers, "Milwaukee Blues" (Supertone 2626, early 1930s)
Mississippi John Hurt, "Casey Jones" (on MJHurt05)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Milwaukee Blues" (on NLCREP1)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Milwaukee Blues" (Columbia 15688-D, 1931, rec. 1930; on CPoole03, GoingDown, StuffDreams2)
Pete Seeger, "Jay Gould's Daughter" (on PeteSeeger16, ClassRR)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Casey Jones (I)" [Laws G1] (plot)
cf. "Ben Dewberry's Final Run" (lyrics)
cf. "Little John Henry"
cf. "On the Road Again" (floating verses)
cf. "Crow Wing Drive" (lyrics)
NOTES [354 words]: Laws says of this piece, "I have included 'Joseph Mica' not so much to establish its identity as a distinct ballad [as opposed to being a relative of 'Casey Jones'] as to emphasize the extreme instability and confusion which are characteristic of Negro balladry."
To put this in simpler terms, Laws has broken "Casey Jones" up into two ballads. The full forms are filed with G1; the fragments file here. How one establishes the dividing line is not clear; the "hero" of "Joseph Mica" may well be Casey Jones.
To make matters worse, Laws has garbled the entry and the information about Lomax and Sandburg. I did the best I could, but one should check "Casey Jones (I)" for additional versions.
To top it all off, Laws distinguishes "Jay Gould's Daughter" as a separate song (dI25), but ALSO files it here; given the things Laws files under "Joseph Mica" and their fragmentary state, I consider his distinction hopeless, or at least incomprehensible, and file those texts here. - RBW
I don't think it's hopeless at all to separate out "Jay Gould's Daughter/Milwaukee Blues" from "Joseph Mica". If it has a wreck in it, it's Mica; if it doesn't, it's Gould. - PJS
It should be noted that Furry Lewis' "Kassie Jones" is a fragmentary stream-of-consciousness incorporating a single verse from "Casey Jones" and many floating verses, including a couple from "On the Road Again." (Which is why I filed it here - RBW.) - PJS
Note: I *still* think we should split off, "Jay Gould's Daughter" from the other songs. - PJS
Actually, I do, too, but it's a messy enough situation that I don't want to depart from Laws.
The correct answer, ultimately, is to have some system for filing floating fragments -- somehow there needs to be a way to track everything with the "Pretty Little Foot" verses, and the "Jay Gould" fragment, and so forth. A suggestion for the next generation Ballad Index, I suppose.
For a little more about Gould, see the notes to "Jim Fisk" [Laws F18], a song which has no boundary issues.
Paul Stamler points out that inflation calculators equate Gould's $100,000,000 net worth to about three billion 2020 dollars. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LI16

Joseph Tuck

DESCRIPTION: Joseph Tuck, a tailor's son, a rover for 25 years, has decided to settle down. "I'm barber, blacksmith, parish clerk, man-midwife to the ladies" and many other occupations. Besides, he sells everything and hopes you "purchase at my shop"
AUTHOR: William Finlay (1792-1847) (source: Whistle-Binkie)
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (_Whistle-Binkie_)
KEYWORDS: commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1687, "Tammy Tuck" (3 fragments, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1160, p. 79, "Joseph Tuck" (1 reference)
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Rodger, editor, Whistle-Binkie, Second Series (Glasgow, 1842), pp. 44-45, "Joseph Tuck"
Roud #13030
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(152a), "Joseph Tuck" ("I'm Joseph Tuck, the tailor's son"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1850
LOCSinging, sb20251b, "Joseph Tuck" ("I am Joseph Tuck, the tailor's son, a poor but honest blade, sirs"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(084), "Joseph Tuck" ("I'm Joseph Tuck, the tailor's son"), unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Mither Ment My Auld Breeks" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Harding B 17(152a))
cf. "Bow Wow Wow" (tune, per broadside LOCSinging sb20251b)
NOTES [116 words]: This is in counterpoint to "Dublin Jack of All Trades," who does everything in sequence. Joseph Tuck does it all, and sells everything, at the same time.
Re the tune attributed by broadside LOCSinging sb20251b: note that the Greig/Duncan8 chorus of "Joseph Tuck" is "Bow wow wow Fal al di ral di radi Bow wow wow." Whistle-Binkie has it as "Bow, wow, wow, ri tum te edi." The broadsides hint at the chorus but do not print all of it, indicating -- I suppose -- that the chorus is already well known.
Broadside LOCSinging sb20251b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: OpOx087

Joseph Was an Old Man

See The Cherry-Tree Carol [Child #54] (File: C054)

Joseph Watt

DESCRIPTION: At Christmas Joseph Watt shoots and wounds a moor hen; she becomes pregnant. At the poacher's court in a church he defends himself for only shooting one hen. The chick is born and killed. He pays fifteen shillings for the funeral.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex poaching punishment childbirth bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #7, p. 2, ("Jamie Riddel is my name)" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan7 1426, "The Bonnie Muirhen" (5 texts, 2 tunes, excluding 1426Ab which is a fragment of "The Muir Hen")
Roud #2944
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Muir Hen" (muir hen as sex symbol)
NOTES [44 words]: The story of the poacher is a thin disguise for a story of seduction or rape and pregnancy. Note that at the "poacher's court" he stand's "before the holy band" and the minister, with ten elders, says, "Young man ye may think shame For meddlin wi forbidden game." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD71426

Josephus and Bohunkus

See Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead) (File: R428)

Josh John

DESCRIPTION: "You have wandered away from your Josh, John... And the spot where you stand And your home in the flowery land, The waves of an ocean dash." John has cut off his pigtail. He has no wife. He's left his "national god." He is worse off than at home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Johnson's New Comic Songs No. 2., according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: immigration hair | Chinese racist
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest
Roud #V57987
File: LDC300

Joshua Fit de Battle ob Jerico

See Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho (File: LxU110)

Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho

DESCRIPTION: Joshua comes to Jericho, orders the horns to blow, and sacks it after the walls fall down. Chorus: "Joshua (fit/fought) the battle of Jericho... And the walls came a-tumbling down"
AUTHOR: unknown (the Online 78 rpm Discography for the 1922 Paramount recording shows Jay Roberts as the author, but there is apparently no further evidence)
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (recording, Harrod's Jubilee Singers)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious battle
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 110, "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 45-46, "(Joshua)" (partial text)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 37, "Joshua Fought The Battle Of Jericho" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 304, "Joshua Fit de Battle ob Jerico" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, p. 37, "Joshua Fit de Battle ob Jericho" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 303, "Joshua Fought The Battle Of Jericho" (1 text)
DT, BATJERCO
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 310, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #10074
RECORDINGS:
Cotton Pickers Quartet, "Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho" (OKeh 8878, 1931)
Delta Rhythm Boys, "Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho" (Decca 25019, c. 1950)
Dixie Jubilee Singers, "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" (Columbia 14329-D, 1928)
Eureka Jubilee Singers, "Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho" (Sharon X-507, n.d.)
Hall Johnson Choir, "Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho" [medley with "Walk Together Chillun"] (Victor 4460, 1940)
Harrod's Jubilee Singers, "Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho" (Paramount 12116, rec. 1922)
Nazarene Congregational Church Choir, "Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho" (Herschel Gold Seal 2016, c. 1927)
Paul Robeson w. Lawrence Brown, "Joshua Fit de Battle ob Jericho" (Victor 19743, 1925)
Pete Seeger, "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" (on PeteSeeger04) (on PeteSeeger23)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Slavery Chain Done Broke at Last" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Slavery Chain Done Broke at Last (File: SCW41)
NOTES [25 words]: The siege of Jericho takes up most of the sixth chapter of Joshua, with the fall of the city's walls, and the city itself, being detailed in 6:15f. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: LxU110

Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho

See Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho (File: LxU110)

Joshua Stevens

DESCRIPTION: "From Squawky Hill two Indians came, To Bennett's Creek to hunt for game...." "Come, solemn muse, assist my song... To sing of Stephens, lately fell...." "The Indian shot him in the side." After his body is found, wife, children, neighbors mourn
AUTHOR: M. Tymeson?
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide family mourning Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 131-133, "(Joshua Stevens)" (1 text)
File: Burt131

Josie

See Frankie and Albert [Laws I3] (File: LI03)

Journey of the Three Kings (I), The

See Wolle Ye Iheren of Twelte Day (File: Bro13039)

Journey of the Three Kings (II), The

See Jesu was born in Bethlehem Judea (File: MSJWBIBJ)

Journeying Song for the Pioneers to the Mountains, A

DESCRIPTION: "The time of winter now is o'er, There's verdure on the plains," so the Mormons will continue their journey to Zion. The "go to choice and goodly lands" which "Will yield us wine and oil," and will be safe from Gentiles "who thirst to shed our blood"
AUTHOR: Eliza R. Snow (1804-1887) (source: Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
KEYWORDS: travel home food | Mormons
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 255-256, "A Journeying Song for the Pioneers to the Mountains" (1 excerpt)
NOTES [69 words]: For background on Eliza R. Snow, see the notes to "Mormon Battalion Song (I)."
This is a rather odd song in its promise of "wine and oil." Grapes, and wine, were indeed hallmarks of the Promised Land in the Hebrew Bible (see, e.g. Deut. 32:14 and its talk of fine wine, or Num. 13:23, with the great cluster of grapes the spies brought back to the Israelite camp) -- but Mormons weren't supposed to drink alcohol! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GFGW255B

Journeyman Tailor, The

See The Jolly Young Sailor and the Beautiful Queen [Laws O13] (File: LO13)

Journeyman, The

See The Roving Gambler [Laws H4] (File: LH04)

Jovial Beggar, The

See A-Begging I Will Go (File: K217)

Jovial Hunter of Bromsgrove, The

See Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Jovial Monk Am I, A

DESCRIPTION: "A jovial monk am I, Contented with my lot, The world without my gates I flout, Nor care for it one jot.... A contended mind is a blessing kind." Even as a monk, he can enjoy jokes and laughter, so he advises making the best of life
AUTHOR: from "La Poupée" (The Doll), with French libretto be Maurice Ordoneau and music by Edmond Audran; English translation by Arthur Sturgess (source: British Musical Theatre section of "The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive" web site)
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (French version); 1897 (English version)
KEYWORDS: clergy | philosophy contentment
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 166-167, "A jovial monk am I" (1 text)
Roud #25405
NOTES [127 words]: According to the British Musical Theatre web site, in "La Poupée," this was sung by Father Maxime; it is song 18, sung in Act II, Scene 2. Additional details can be found at the Wikipedia entry for "La Poupée." It apparently originated in a story by E. T. A. Hoffmann, about a monk who would earn an inheritance if he would marry by the age of 21. He wished to have the money for his monastery, so he set up a scheme to marry an android (called a "doll" in the musical) which a dollmaker would create to fool the uncle who offered the inheritance. But the android was not ready, so the dollmaker's daughter instead married the monk without him knowing. (Curiously, no one seems to explain what happened to the monk and the daughter once they were married.) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC166A

Jovial Ranger, The

See The Jolly Ranger (File: LEBC100)

Jovial Sailor & His Beautiful Queen, The

See The Jolly Young Sailor and the Beautiful Queen [Laws O13] (File: LO13)

Jovial Tinker, The

See When Jones's Ale Was New (File: Doe168)

Jovial Young Sailor

See The Jolly Young Sailor and the Beautiful Queen [Laws O13] (File: LO13)

Jowl, Jowl and Listen, Lad

DESCRIPTION: "Jowl, jowl and listen, lad, And hear that coal face working, There's many a marra missing, lad, Because he wadn't listen, lad." "Me fayther always used to say, Pit wark's mair than' hewing, Ye've got to coax the coal alang...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Raven)
KEYWORDS: work mining
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, p. 93, "Jowl, Jowl and Listen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3191
File: JRVI093

Joy After Sorrow

DESCRIPTION: "A soldier/sailor walked in the field" and seduces a maid he finds raking hay. She has a son and "curst the hour" she went with him. When he hears about that "they married were and she blessed the day she went with him and left the hay"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: marriage seduction sex childbirth pregnancy farming sailor soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 40, "Haymaking Courtship" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #92, "Raking the Hay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #855
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 22(133)[most lines truncated, some lines illegible], "Joy After Sorrow" ("A sailor walking in the fields"), unknown, no date
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Raking the Hay
File: ReSh040

Joy Is Like the Rain

DESCRIPTION: "I saw raindrops on my window, Joy is like the rain. Laughter runs across my pain, Slips away and comes again, Joy is like...." "I saw clouds upon a mountain...." "I saw Christ in wind and thunder... Christ asleep within my boat, Whipped by wind"
AUTHOR: Miriam Therese Winter (source: mudcat.org thread "Catholic 'Folk Mass' Music")
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: ship religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 196, 539, "Joy Is Like the Rain" (notes only)
File: ACFS196J

Joy to the World

DESCRIPTION: "Joy to the world, the Lord is come; Let earth receive her king...." The world is told to hymn to God to rejoice in the arrival of Jesus, who brings love, joy, wonder
AUTHOR: Words: Isaac Watts (1674-1748). Music: Lowell Mason (based partly on phrases from Handel's "Messiah")
EARLIEST DATE: 1719 (Watts, "The Psalms of David"; music published 1837)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Christmas
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 231-232, "Joy to the World!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 258, "Joy to the World" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 169, "Joy to the World" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 375, "Joy To The World" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 314, "Joy to the World"
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 97, "Joy to the World" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 48, "Joy to the World" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JOYWORLD
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 37 (cf. also pp. 34-36), "Joy to the World" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #43, "Joy to the World" (1 text)
Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 24-25, "Joy to the World" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #23690
NOTES [359 words]: Alleged to be derived loosely from the final verses of Psalm 98. If so, it is a *very* free adaption. Apparently that is no one's fault in particular; it has been steadily adapted over the years, with each adaption making is less like the original source. And Watts himself admitted that he was adapting the texts to "imitate" the Psalms "in the language of the New Testament."
Julian, p. 607, says this about the evolution of the text:
First published in [Watts's] Psalms of David, &c., 1719, in 4 st[anzas] of 4 l[ines], as the 2nd p[ar]t of his version of Psalm 98. T. Cotterill gave, in the 1st edition of his Sel[ection of Psalms & Hymns for Public and Private Use], 1810, a much altered version of the text, which was repeated in the authorized ed[ition] of 1820 with the repetition of st[anza] i as st[anza] v. This arrangement is known by st[anza] ii, which reads, "Ye saints, rejoice, the Savior reigns," &c. Bickersteth's arrangement in his Christian Psalmody, 1833, is also in 5 st[anzas]; but the added stanza (iii.) is from Watt's version of the first part of the same Psalm. In addition there are also the following: (1) "The Lord is come; leat heaven rejoice," ... and (2) "Joy to the world, the Lord is nigh...." It has also been translated into several languages, including Latin, in R. Bingham's Hymno. Christ. Lat., 1870, "Laetitia in mundo! Dominus nam venit Iesus!"
For more on Isaac Watts, see the notes to "O God, Our Help in Ages Past."
McKim, p. 46, suggests the tune was "adapted from two tunes" by Handel. Reynolds, p. 128, says that "Antioch appeared in Lowell Mason's Modern Psalmist (Boston, 1839) with the indication that it is 'from Handel....' Henry L. Mason... datees the tune as having been written in 1836. The first four notes of the tune are identical with the opening notes of the chorus 'Lift up your heads,' and the notes sung to 'and heaven and nature sing' are like the introduction to the tenor recitative 'Comfort Ye My People,' both from Handel's Messiah. Mason's association of the tune with Handel thus seems to be, as Haeussler says, 'gaining a maximum of fiction from a minimum of fact." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB375A

Joys of Mary, The

See The Seven Joys of Mary (File: FO211)

Joys Seven

See The Seven Joys of Mary (File: FO211)

Ju Tang Ju (Utang)

DESCRIPTION: "Ring up four , ju tang ju (or "Jew string jew," etc.), Ring up four in a ju tang ju." "Right and left...." "Do se do...." "Once and a half...." "Swing that gal...." "Back to your partner..." "Circle four...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Texas Folklore Society, according to Randolph)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 576, "Ju Tang Ju" (2 texts)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 195, "U-Tan-U" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #122, "Shoo-Da" (1 short text)
Roud #7665
NOTES [52 words]: Roud lumps Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida's "Shoo-Da" with the "Ju Tang Ju" songs of Randolph and Botkin and others. I'm far from convinced -- the words don't scan the same way -- but since I know of no other versions of the Morris piece, and it's short and hard to identify anyway, I've gone ahead and lumped them. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: R576

Juanita (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Juanita, I must leave you, I have come to say farewell." She says that, if he loves her, he will never leave her. He claims he didn't think she would get so involved. The next morning, he is found dead with her dagger in his heart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: love betrayal homicide abandonment corpse
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 51, "Juanita" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 35, pp. 195-199, "Juanita" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11210
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She Said She Was Only Flirting" (theme)
NOTES [79 words]: "What we have here is a failure to communicate." - PJS
The middle stanzas of this piece are almost identical in meaning (except with genders reversed) to "She Said She Was Only Flirting," though the wording is somewhat different. The endings, however, are completely different.
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging mentions the minor but interesting fact that Juanita Brooks, the great historian of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, was named after the heroine of this song. - RBW
File: FCW051

Juanita (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Soft o'er the fountain, Ling'ring falls the southern moon, Far o'er the muntain Breaks the day too soon." THe singer begs, "Nita! Juanita! Ask my soul if we should part!" "Leg me linger by thy side! Nita! Juanita! Be my own fair bride!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Dime-Song-Book #9)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 159-160, "Juanita (Waneta)" (1 text) (pp. 137-138 in the 1919 edition)
Heart-Songs, p. 371, "Juanita" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 127, "Juanita" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 54, "Juanita" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #315, p. 76, "Juanita" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, pp. 22-23, "Juanita" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, pp. 20-21, "Juanita" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 31, "Juanita" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14074
File: HMHS127B

Juba

DESCRIPTION: A dance and patting song: "Juba, Juba, Juba up 'n' Juba down, Juba all aroun' the town." "Juba jump, Juba sing, Juba cut that pigeon wing. Juba kick off this old shoe, Juba dance that Jubilo." Variations, as one might expect, are extreme
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1838 (William B. Smith; see Notes)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad food
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Randolph 263, "Dinky" (1 short text, 1 tune, which Randolph believes to be this piece; in any case, it's too short to really deserve a separate entry)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 201, "Round It Up a Heap It Up" (a "Juba" fragment follows the main text)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 98-99, "Juba" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 116, "Juba Dis an' Juba Dat" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 708, "Juba" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 192, "(Juba)" (1 text)
Handy/Silverman-BluesAnAnthology, p. 53, "Juba" (1 text, 1 tune; notes on p. 204)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 96, [no title] (1 fragment, filed under "Uncle Bud")
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Richard Walser, "His Worship the John Kuner" Vol. XIX, No. 4 (Nov 1971), p. 164-165, 167, 168-169, "(My massa am a white man, juba!"); "(Christmas comes but once a year)"; "(Haw low, here we go!)"; "(Run, Jinnie, run! I'm gwine away)" (4 short texts, the first two clearly linked by the refrain "Christmas comes but once a year," the latter two the refrain "Ha! Lo! Here we go"; the first having the refrain "Juba!"; the third and inked only by the fact that they are "John Kunner" refrains)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Richard Walser, "His Worship the John Kuner" Vol. XLVII, No. 2 (Midwinter 2000), p. 97-110 (a re-typeset reprint of Walser's article in volume XIX, easier to read but with the same song fragments), followed by Linda Wertwein, "John Kooner - Revisited," pp. 111-118 (with additional information about John Koonering but no additional song texts)
ADDITIONAL: John Allen Wyeth, _With Sabre and Scalpel_ (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1914 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")),"Juba," p. 62 (1 verse)
William B. Smith, "The Persimmon Tree and the Beer Dance" in _The Farmers' Register_, Vol. 6 (available on Google Books), p. 60, "(Juber up and Juber down)" (1 text)
Thomas W. Talley, Negro Folk Rhymes (New York: Macmillan Company, 1922 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), p. 9, "Juba" (1 text)
Roud #5748
RECORDINGS:
Lee Wallin, "Juba" ((on OldLove, DarkHoll [as "Juba This"])
NOTES [306 words]: Described in Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, 1855. (Pp.252-253 in the Dover Reprint edition of 1936). Also fully described in Step It Down (Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes,1971: Harper & Row. pp. 27-30.)
"Juba" often refers to the patting pattern rather than the words. The words may contain disguised complaints about the treatment of Black people.
Some of the words -- without the "patting" -- were used as a "dandling rhyme" in my family, in Oklahoma, at least as early as 1909. - SHi
According to SIng Out!, Volume 40, #3 (1995/1996), pp. 80-81, "juba" was slave food (apparently a corruption of "giblets"). A "yellow cat" is said to be a white. Bessie Smith's version, transcribed in that issue, was mostly about the bad food given to the slaves. The issue includes a detailed analysis of how Smith patted out the song.
Richard Walser, in the NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal article, connects this with a custom he calls "John Kunnering," which he claims to have seen in Nevis in the West Indies, although they didn't use the name "John Kunner." This might be worth of a more detailed examination; I'm just lumping two of Walser's texts here because of the word "Juba!" Walser claims other John Kunner songs, here filed as "Young Gal Go Round the Corner," "Old Beau Bill," and "Oh poor Cooner Johns." - RBW
Wyeth learned "Juba" from the slave that tought him to make and play the banjo, in Tennessee, around 1855-1856. Wyeth sang and played the song for Scarborough. It's Wyeth who told Scarborough that "Old Aunt Kate was elaborated from Juba" (p. 99). - BS
The William B. Smith text, published in 1838, refers to a plantation dance "some years" before. He describes the patting and, to some degree, the dance. His chorus is "Hoe corn, hill tobacco, Get over double trouble, Juber boys, Juber." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BSoF708

Juba Dis an' Juba Dat

See Juba (File: BSoF708)

Juberlane

DESCRIPTION: The singing of the birds reminds the singer of the days (s)he spent listening to the birds in Juberlane. She wishes she were home, "But miles and miles divide me, and duty here hath tied me/" She wishes she had wings to fly home
AUTHOR: Nellie Crowley (Corrigan)
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: bird homesickness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H507, pp. 213-214, "Juberlane" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH507

Jubilate Deo

DESCRIPTION: "Jubilate Deo, Jubilate Deo, (H)allelujah."
AUTHOR: Michael Praetorius (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1607 (Musarum Sioniarum, no. 16, according to WIkipedia)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 443, 446, "Jubilate Deo" (notes only)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 19, "Jubilate Deo" (1 short text, 1 tune)
DT, JUBDEO*
NOTES [480 words]: Considered to be a setting of the opening verse of Psalm 100 (in the Latin Vulgate, it's actually Psalm 99:2), although, interestingly, it arguably has the words wrong. The Hebrew unquestionably reads
"Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth." (No "alleluiah," note.) There is no textual variation in the verse in the major Hebrew witnesses.
The LXX Greek translation also has
"Make a joyful noise" (αλαλαξατε)
but the manuscripts disagree about whether the noise is made to the Lord (ΚΩ, κυριω) or to God (ΘΩ, θεω) -- a change of just one letter as usually written in Greek. The oldest and generally best manuscripts (including the two oldest of all, B and A, plus the Vatican manuscript 55) have "the Lord," agreeing with the Hebrew, but several important manuscripts, including the fifth century fragment 1219 and the sixth century text R (which that was clearly written in the Latin West since it transliterates the Greek into Latin letters!), have "God."
Jerome, who translated the Latin Vulgate, actually translated the Psalms twice, once from the Greek (which was the Bible of the early Christian church) and then, as he became a better Hebrew scholar, from the Hebrew.
The best Latin versions of both Jerome's translation from the Greek LXX and the one from the Hebrew have this verse as
Iubilate Domino omnia terra
That is,
Make a joyful noise to (the) Lord, all (the) earth.
However, many manuscripts read
Iubilate Deo omnia terra
That is,
Make a joyful noise to God, all (the) earth.
(Thus they preserve the confusion also seen in the Greek.)
In the rendering from the Hebrew, of the dozen or so most important Latin manuscripts, fully six (A C I K S Σ) read "God" rather than "the Lord," but the official Clementine Catholic version of 1582 reads "the Lord." In the rendering from the Greek, only two important manuscripts (H I) read "God" -- but, in this case, the Clementine Vulgate also has "God." Thus the Catholic Church, for nearly 400 years starting in 1592, had it both ways.
Thus, if this text is based on Psalm 99/100 at all, it is almost certainly based on the (inaccurate) Clementine edition of the Greek version of Psalm 99/100.
Of course, it's a perfectly good piece of Latin if you're simply willing to ignore that alleged connection to the Psalms.
For what it's worth, the title of Psalm 100 in the Book of Common Prayer is "Jubilate Deo," even though my (American) edition of the psalm reads "O be joyful in the LORD."
According to Mitchell Dahood, Psalms II, being volume 17 of the Anchor Bible, Doubleday, 1968, p. 371, Psalm 100 is "A hymn sung at the solemn entry into the court of the temple, probably in connection with a thanksgiving ceremony." The note in the New Jerusalem Bible the most scholarly Catholic edition, says "It was perhaps recited on entering the sanctuary to offer communion sacrifices; see L[eviticus] 7:11-12." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF443J

Jubilee

DESCRIPTION: "It's all out on the old railroad, All out on the sea... Swing and turn, jubilee, Live and learn, Jubilee." Unrelated stanzas about courting: "Hardest work I ever done was working on a farm, Easiest work I ever done was in my true love's arms." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains)
KEYWORDS: love courting work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 11, "Jubilee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 231, (no title) (1 fragment, possibly of this)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 15-16, "(Swing and Turn Jubilee" (1 text)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, pp. 36-37, "Jubilee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 122, "Jubilee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 40, "Jubilee" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, pp. 70-71, "Jubilee" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JUBLEE
Roud #7403
RECORDINGS:
Jean Ritchie, Doc Watson & Roger Sprung, "Jubilee" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchiteWatsonCD1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Up and Down the Railroad Track" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Crow, Black Chicken" (words)
File: LoF122

Jubilee Guild, The

DESCRIPTION: Canadian McLellan and two other "girls from St John's ... go out to Burnt Islands and start our Jubilee Guild." They have elections, find a place "old felt hats, house slippers we will make."
AUTHOR: Arthur Keeping
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: work clothes
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 66-67, "The Jubilee Guild" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9947
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Keeping, "The Jubilee Guild" (on PeacockCDROM)
NOTES [54 words]: [According to Peacock,] "The Jubilee Guild is a women's organization in St John's, formed in 1935 as a service club to give instruction in handicrafts, domestic science, home nursing, and so forth, to women of the outports."
Burnt Islands is about 12 miles east of Port aux Basques, at the southwest corner of Newfoundland. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea066

Jubilee in the Morning

DESCRIPTION: The leader calls on everyone to shout because "My God brought you liberty." It doesn't matter what you call me -- Sunday Christian, Monday devil -- "so long as Jesus love me." Shout "Jubilee" in the morning and evening.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (McIntosh1)
KEYWORDS: freedom nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, pp. 107-109, "Jubilee" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Lawrence McKiver and the McIntosh County Shouters, "Jubilee" (on McIntosh1)
Freddie Palmer and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Jubilee" (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation)
Freddie Palmer, Brenton Jordan and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Jubilee" (on McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts)
Doretha Skipper and the McIntosh County Shouters, "Jubilee in the Morning" (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutOnsiteVideo)

NOTES [180 words]: The description follows the leader's lines. The responses to alternate lines are "Jubilee, Jubilee" and "My Lord, Jubilee."
That "It doesn't matter what you call me -- Sunday Christian, Monday devil -- 'So long as Jesus love me'" is a recurring expectation of slander in hymns, as in "You may talk about me just as you please, Lord bless the name, Lord bless the name, I'll talk about you when I git on my knees, Lord bless the name, Lord bless the name.
Art Rosenbaum's liner notes to McIntosh1 note that Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands's "My Soul Rock in Jubilee" is a similar shout song.
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree and McIntoshShouters-RingShoutSongs are the same rendition.
The McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation and McIntoshShouters-RingShoutOnsiteVideo videos show the shout.
Deming has the following verse from Mississippi: "Good-bye, everybody; I don't care what yer call me; Yer may call me long-tongue liar. But I's going to Zion. Halleloo!" (Clarence Deming, By-Ways of Nature and Life (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1884 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 374). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcJubitM

Jubilo

See Kingdom Coming (The Year of Jubilo) (File: R230)

Judas [Child 23]

DESCRIPTION: "Hit wes upon a Scere Þorsday þat vre Louerd aros." Judas is sent on an errand to Jerusalem by Jesus. As he goes out, he is cheated (by his sister!) of thirty pieces of silver. He therefore betrays Jesus to get his money back.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1300 (ms. Cambridge Trinity College B 14.39, f. 34a, also sometimes called ms. Trinity Cambridge 323)
KEYWORDS: Jesus betrayal MiddleEnglish
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 6, 30 C.E. - most likely date for the arrest of Jesus (the crucifixion took place the following day)
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Child 23, "Judas" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 108-109, "Judas" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 56, "Judas" (1 text plus interlinear modern English translation)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 97, "Judas" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 126-127, "Judas" (1 text, even more "adapted" [read "messed up"] than the others in this anthology)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 16, "Judas" (3 texts, 2 tunes, of which only the first could possibly be this ballad, and even it looks suspicious)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1649
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2768
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth Sisam, editor, _Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose_ Oxford, 1925, pp. 168-169, "Judas" (with notes on pp. 256-258). This is now considered the best transcription of the original manuscript, replacing Skeat's transcription quoted by Child.
Carleton Brown, editor, _English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1932, p. 38, "The Bargain of Judas" (1 text)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #30, p. 54, "Judas" (1 text)
Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, _Middle English Lyrics_, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974 pp, 196-197, #203 (no title) (1 text)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, pp. 51-52, "(no titlle)" (1 text)
DT 23, JUDAS
MANUSCRIPT: {MSCambridgeTrinity323}, Cambridge University, Trinity College MS. 323, folio 32
Roud #3964
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Edward the Martyr" (another candidate for "Earliest English Ballad")
cf. "Sir Aldingar" [Child 59] (another candidate for "Earliest English Ballad")
cf. "Merie Sungen the Muneches Bennen Ely (Merry Sang the Monks of Ely)" (another candidate for "Earliest English Ballad")
cf. "Mirie It Is While Sumer Ylast (Merry It Is While Summer Lasts)"" (another candidate for "Earliest English Ballad")
cf. "Wolle Ye Iheren of Twelte Day"" (another candidate for "Earliest English Ballad")
cf. "The Cursed Dancers of Colbeck"" (another candidate for "Earliest English Ballad")
cf. "My Heart Is Woe (When That My Sweet Son Was Thirty Winter Old)" (themes)
cf. "Judas and Jesus" (listed by Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles as a version of this ballad)
cf. "Oh, Judy, Oh Judy" (listed by Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles as a version of this ballad)
NOTES [3468 words]: Many scholars have made attempts to locate "the earliest English Ballad." Some examples of such claims are "Edward the Martyr" and "Merie Sungen the Muneches Bennen Ely (Merry Sang the Monks of Ely)." Richard Faques (Fawkes) has been credited with publishing the earliest extant printed ballad, Skelton's "A Ballade of the Scottish King" (only surviving copy is in the British Library, 1513?) -- but, of course, the author of that is known, and it never went into tradition, and there are certainly ballads that are older despite being printed later (and "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117] was almost certainly printed earlier, if you want a Child Ballad that was printed before Skelton's piece; it's just that the "Gest" is a romance, not a ballad). So there are many candidates for the title of "oldest ballad." This is F. J. Child's candidate -- and, while his is not the last word, "Judas" certainly has a better claim than any of the other songs mentioned.
The use of the word "ballad" is little help, because a mention of a "ballad" might well mean a French ballade, a form quite common in the fourteenth century. There are however some references to ballads which seem to be to popular pieces. The alliterative poem Mum and the Soothsegger is probably from 1409-1410 (Barr, p. 23); the manuscript containing it, British Library MS. Additional 41666, was probably copied between 1450 and 1475 (Barr, p. 22), and was first brought to light in 1928. The story is a sort of political argument between Mum, who stay quiet in the case of royal malfeasance, and a Soothsegger (soothsayer, which in this case means one who speaks truth -- in particular, truth to power) about the right way to deal with a misbehaving king (almost certainly Henry IV). Near the end of the surviving poem (the ending is lost, and perhaps the beginning as well), the narrator finds a collection of writings and is assessing them; lines 1343-1345 (Barr, p. 186) tell us that
Now forto conseille the king unknytte I a bagge
Where many a pryue poyse is preynnted withynne
Yn bokes vnbredid in balade-wise made
That is,
Now so as to advise the king I opened a bag
Where many a private verse is written within
In books un-opened, made in ballad-style.
Given that we know that political ballads would start to circulate within a century, it seems likely that this is a reference to political ballads of c. 1400, although no such works have survived.
The betrayal of Jesus by Judas is told in Matt. 26:14-16, 47f.; Mark 14:10-11, 43f.; Luke 22:3-6, 47f.; compare also John 13:2, 27, 18:2f. The story of Judas betraying Jesus for thirty pieces of silver is found only in Matt. 26:15, with the sequel in 27:3-10 (Matthew's story is based on Zech. 11:12-13, which also mentions thirty pieces of silver, although in a completely different context). The notion of Judas as treasurer and thief occurs only in John 12:4-6, (13:29).
The manuscript containing this piece is known by two catalog numbers, Trinity College (Cambridge) 323 and Trinity College (Cambridge) B 14.39. The former is the number in the continuous manuscript catalog (the newer catalog; Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 48); the latter in the classified catalog; the prefix "B" places it among the theological manuscripts (as opposed to "R" for historical manuscripts or "O" for manuscripts from the Gale collection; JamesMSS, p. vii). The volume as now bound seems to contain two separate manuscript books, both on vellum (Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 49). Several different hands were involved; more on this below.
According to Woolf, p. 373, the manuscript is one of the two oldest containing Middle English religious lyrics. She describes it as containing "a substantial number of lyrics on death, three Body and Soul poems, one on the Signs of Death... a surprisingly large collection of lyrics addressed to the Virgin... a poem on the five joys... and the much-copied Passion lyric, 'Wose se[th]e on rode'. These verses form part of a collection of preaching-notes, mainly in Latin." Despite being written in several hands, Wenzel also considers it a preacher's notebook (Wenzel, p. 8; cf. Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 50).
The handwriting is revealing. It uses Old English thorn (þ, later written "y") for "th," but there is no sign of eth (ð) or yogh (ȝ). Eth was going out of use by this time, but yogh was alive and well. And the style, although it has some accommodations to English hands (e.g. in the use of W), looks more like contemporary Latin hands than English secular writing. I think this is a scribe who was trained first to write Latin. Carlton Brown implicitly agrees, thinking the manuscript the product of a religious house and tentatively suggesting the Dominicans, although David Jeffrey argued for the Franciscans (Severs/Hartung, volume 6, p. 1759).
In its final form, it must be after 1253, since it has an epitaph (in Latin) for Robert Grossteste, who died in that year (Severs/Hartung, volume 6, p. 1759).
At least one other piece in the book, "Wolle Ye Iheren of Twelte Day," probably qualifies as a carol; it's just possible that "On Leome Is in this World Ilist" was one also, although likely this was just a classification error.
Even though this piece exists only in the Trinity College manuscript, it should not be assumed that Child's transcription is authoritative. The text in Child's volume 1 was printed without reference to the manuscript, which had been temporarily lost (according to JamesMSS, p. 438, "It had been accidentally removed from Cambridge [in 1863] among the books belonging to a former Fellow who was ceasing to reside in College, and the box in which it had been packed remained unopened until his death"). The book was returned in 1896.
As a result, Child's original publication, a reprint of a printed edition, contains many orthographic inaccuracies (e.g. concerning u/v, i/j, and the use of th rather than the runic thorn þ -- as well as seven conjectural emendations replacing s with h). It also omitted the duplicated lines at lines 8, 25, 30. (Lines that are actually somewhat debatable; the lines are written just once but marked ".ii." -- a symbol thought to mean they should be repeated; Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 49. I think this understanding is correct; the manuscript uses large initials and hanging indents for the start of each couplet, but the lines marked .ii. disturb this pattern, which would be restored if those lines were doubled. On the other hand, David C. Fowler on p. 1761 of Severs/Hartung believes that .ii. does not mean to repeat the line but to repeat the melody to create a three-line stanza with the second strain of the melody sung twice -- a suggestion going back to Skeat.) Also, the manuscript was written with imperfect word divisions (the words are divided, but I'd guess they weren't divided in the source, plus the spaces between words are small enough that it's sometimes hard to tell if a space was intended). In addition, although the manuscript is well-written in a well-defined hand, the script is sometimes unclear. And finally, the copyist may not have been perfectly familiar with the dialect of the original.
Child later printed a corrected version, giving the readings of the manuscript verbatim (as read by Skeat). However, modern ballad scholars have almost always followed at least one of the imperfections of Child's original text (omitting duplicated lines, modifying the thorns, exchanging u and v, using Child's h instead of s, etc.)
Scholars should keep in mind that even Child's corrected text, so badly reproduced by later scholars, is open to reinterpretation. Sisam, pp. 168-169, prints a text which differs in hundreds of particulars from Child's original version. It shows several differences even from Child and Skeat's manuscript collation:
* five places where the editors break words differently,
* Sisam says that in line 22 "Crist" was originally written by the scribe but then marked for erasure. This MAY indicate comparison of two texts of the ballad. But the mark Sisam thinks indicates text to be deleted is only a SINGLE mark, where most scribes would have used two (dots above at least two letters of "CST," not just one above "C"), so instead of an erasure mark, it might be a mistake.
* Sisam also considers line 27 to be intact; Child implies it is defective.
* two major variants (in line 6 Sisam reads "cunesman" for "tunesman"; in line 16, "top" for "cop")
(If you are wondering how anyone could confuse a "c" with a "t," recall that we are talking about a thirteenth or early fourteenth century manuscript. At that time, the letter "c" was written much as it is now -- but a "t" looked a bit like a lower-case Greek tau, 𝜏: It was a circular stroke, like a "c," with a horizontal line at the top. There were also forms of script in which both looked much like a modern cursive "a." For samples, see Thompson, pp. 474-479 and especially Moorman, pp. 27-29. Many other letters of the time have strong horizontal strokes as well, so it can be hard to tell, say, "ht" from "hc." In a manuscript with few word divisions, this can cause much difficulty. When I look at the scans, though, it appears clear to me that Sisam is right about line 6. Line 16 could go either way. For those who read German, there is a 1973 book by Karl Reichl, Religiose Dichtung im englishen Hochmittelalter: Untersuchung und Edition der Handschrift B.14.39 des Trinity College in Cambridge. Good luck finding a copy; I can't even find full bibliographic information).
Axton's version of the text, reprinted by Boklund-Lagopolou, agrees with Sisam in reading "cunesman" in line 6 and "top" in line 16. BrownC, p. 38, has "cunesman" in line 6, "top" in line 16 (which he numbers line 17). Boklund-Lagopolou accepts an emendation proposed by BrownC in line 27, adding "freke" to correct the line that Child thought defective (BrownC, p. 184, attributes the conjecture to Child, even though Child didn't print it!)
If you want to see the manuscript yourself, you can try https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/manuscripts/uv/view.php?n=B.14.39&n=B.14.39#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-1974%2C-275%2C7780%2C5486 (checked August 11, 2023) or google "trinity manuscript B.14.39"; as of this writing, the link headed "B.14.39-40 - James Catalogue" will take you to a scan. Go to f033v-f034r; it's on the right-hand page (that is, 034r). (Incidentally note that the left and right pages are in different hands and use different inks, with "Judas" in much better condition than the material on folio 33v. BrownC, p. 184, is of the opinion that "Judas" is not complete, which raises the question of whether the next page was written before "Judas," and the ballad cut off because there was no room for the conclusion.)
Chambers, p. 151, believes "Mr. Kenneth Sisam's transliteration... seems more precise than Child's." Chambers therefore reprints Sisam's text. Chambers also notes that the "piece seems to be written in a mixture of septenar and Alexandrine [16-syllable] lines, of which there are other thirteenth century examples." There are indeed quite a few romances which can't seem to decide how many syllables belong in a line, but it's obviously a rare thing in a ballad. (Of course, some of that may be textual corruption. Or, as one of the web pages I read while searching for a facsimile suggested, "Judas" as we have it may be an abridgment of a longer version, which might have had a more regular meter.) Wells, p. 312, describes it as "a fragment of 33 verses [i.e. lines] of six or seven stresses in couplets." But my natural inclination, looking at Sisam's text, was to interpret the lines as having four feet of three syllables rather than six or seven of two syllables -- four stresses per line, not six. (Which also makes it more ballad-like.)
Sisam's notes (pp. 256-258) are twice as long as the ballad itself; they are well worth consulting, as they give much more background information than Child.
Chambers, p. 153, thinks the ending so abrupt that he suspects the last part of the poem may have been lost. He also questions whether "it can properly be regarded as a ballad"; he strongly questions its "popular" nature. (As do I.)
Chambers finds another piece of a similar style in the "Judas" manuscript, concerning Twelfth Night, which was roughed out by the scribe before being written; he speculates that the scribe may have been the author of the Twelfth Night item -- and hence perhaps of "Judas" as well. (I originally thought Chambers was referring to the "Story of Herod and the Magi," which looks like a folk poem; it begins "Wolle ye iheren of twelte day." However, it appears based on comments by Friedman, p. 15, that the reference is actually to the piece indexed as "On Leome Is in this World Ilist") According to Wells, p. 408, it is "styled by its editor 'a thirteenth-century literary imitation of a popular ballad,' consisting of 80 four-stress lines normally abababab written as 40 long lines." Observe that, although it seemingly is not a folk ballad, its existence implies that this was a format to imitate.
I mention this possibility about the authorship of "Judas," but it strikes me as unlikely. There are several reasons for this. According to a passage I found in the Google Books edition of Elaine M. Treharne, Old and Middle English c.890-c.1400: an anthology (p. 406?), perhaps as many as five scribes worked on the manuscript, which contains works in Latin and Anglo-Norman French as well as Middle English. JamesMSS himself indicates clearly that multiple hands were involved, although he does not say how many; if anything, the estimate of five seems low. The number of lines per page varies substantially, and there are even a few cases of different numbers of columns per page! Many of the pieces in the manuscript cannot have been composed by the scribe, since the 40 or so English items include the well-known "Say Me, Wight in the Broom," which exists in another copy, and "When the Turuf Is Thy Tour" ["When the turf is your tower"], a translation of a Latin poem on death. What are the odds that four or more scribes would copy older works while the fifth added his own poems?
Trehame also says that the language of the book "may point to an origin in West Worcestershire," which strikes me as a little too strong a localization. It also seems to contradict Skeat's opinion (JamesMSS, p. 439) that the scribe was a Norman, although Normans of course were found in various places in England. The manuscript itself is a vellum codex, rather small (7.125"x5.375"), which has been bound with a later (XIV/XV century) manuscript, MS Trinity 324 (or B.14.40). Trinity 324 seems far less significant; an online catalog (http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/mwm/browse?type=ms&id=11) says it contains "very little English." The small size may indicate a volume intended for private use.
JamesMSS, p. 443, says that "Judas" (his item #17 in the manuscript) is in the same hand as his item #4, "The Life of St. Margaret." The items which precede and follow are in different hands. The Judas scribe, in James's opinion, also wrote the following:
* JamesMSS's #5, a poem in French and English, "Ihesu crist le fiȝ marie cil ke tut le munde fist."
* JamesMSS's #6, a poem in French and Latin, with some of the Latin in red, "Seinte mari moder milde mater saluatoris."
* JamesMSS's #13, in part, about two dozen short notes, mostly English poems of three to twelve lines although portions are in Latin. "Say Me, Wight in the Broom" is one of these, but apparently not by the "Judas" scribe.
The contents of the book are very much a jumble. If there is an overall plan, it is not evident. Perhaps it is just a collection of loose sheets from a monastery. Although some of the other pieces might be "folk" (one is listed as the "Hymn of the Five Joys"; another has been dubbed "Look on Me with Thy Sweet Eyes"; there is also the famous "I Sing of a Maiden"), they do not look to be truly ballad-like.
Turning to the content of the poem itself -- the Bible gives very little family information about Judas (or any of the apostles). Matthew, Mark, and Luke have nothing at all about Judas's background except the name Iscariot. John, however, sometimes times refers to him as "Judas of Simon Iscariot" (i.e. Judas [son] of Simon Iscariot); so John 6:71, 13:12 (13:26 seems to have "Judas, [son] of Simon, Iscariot", although there is great variation in the manuscripts at this point).
The meaning of "Iscariot" is unknown. The best conjecture (BrownR, p. 298) is that it is a transliteration of Hebrew "ish Q(e)riyyot," "man of Kerioth." Indeed, we find some manuscripts calling him so -- in John 6:71, although the vast majority of manuscripts, including the great Vatican codex and the two early manuscripts P66 and P75, call him "Iskariot," the Codex Sinaiticus and the Koridethi Codex call him "Judas from Kerioth." Even more interesting is the reading of the Codex Bezae, which calls him "Judas Skarioth." In John 12:4, it is Bezae which calls him Judas from Kerioth; so also in 13:2, 13:26; in 14:22, which refers to the "other" Judas, Bezae has "Judas, not the [one] from Kerioth" where other manuscripts read "Judas not (the) Iscariot." In Mark 3:19, for "Iscarioth," Bezae has "Skarioth"; in the parallels in Matthew 3:4 and 6:16, Bezae again has "Skarioth." And so forth (data from Aland). Moffatt actually went so far as to translate "from Kerioth" in the early editions of his "New Translation" (so, e.g. John 6:71; Moffatt, p. 511), although he later revised this.
Even if Judas Iscariot is Judas from Kerioth, it is not certain where that town is; BrownR (following many earlier commentators) thinks the town is Kerioth in Judah, but Westcott, p. 112, suggests that it should be Kerioth-Hezron. (Note that "Kiriath" is the Hebrew word for "town" or "city," so "Kiriath-Baal," e.g., is "Baal's Town," so if Kerioth is an error for "Kiriath" -- quite possible when one recalls that Hebrew was written without vowels -- then there would be dozens if not hundreds of Kiriath/Kerioths in Judea.)
Because Judas, according to John, is the son of Simon, and Mark 14:3 says that the feast where the sinful woman washed Jesus's feet with her hair was at the home of Simon the Leper, and John 12:3 makes the woman involved Mary sister of Lazarus, one scholar speculated that Judas was the older brother of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha (BrownR, p. 448). This would presumably mean that it was either Mary or Martha who stole the cash Judas had earlier stolen in this ballad!
Axton thought the piece should be connected to the legendary life of Saint Judas as found in the South English Legendary, thought to be from the thirteenth century (Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 52). Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 57, tentatively suggests that the whole story of the poem might be connected with legends that Judas engaged in incest with his mother, the idea being that Judas, in the poem, had an incestuous relationship with his sister.
Fowler, p. 82, has a softer version of this, apparently first suggested by Dronke, that the "sister" is actually Judas's mistress.
Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 58, points out that betrayal of a loyalty for money would have seemed particularly horrendous to those accustomed to feudal relations, which is true -- although, by the time this poem was written, the transition to "bastard feudalism" was at least getting started, and in "bastard feudalism," it was normal to sell your loyalty to the highest bidder.
None of this is particularly useful, but it shows that speculation about Judas began quite early -- Sinaiticus is from the fourth century, Bezae probably from the fifth, and some of these variants are supported by translations which may have been made earlier still. Later legends are common; see the list on pp. 201-202 of Simpson/Roud. So it is little surprise to see a piece such as this arise. But there seems to be no other source for this tale of Judas and his sister.
I do add, however, an apocryphal New Testaement story, the "Story of Joseph of Arimathaea," the oldest manuscript of which is from the twelfth century (JamesNT, p. 161), making it roughly contemporary with this piece. This doesn't mention a sister of Judas -- but it says that Judas was the nephew of Caiaphas, and hired to spy on Jesus from the start (JamesNT, pp. 161-162) -- and that it was Sarra, the daughter of Caiaphas, who accused Jesus of claiming he could destroy the Temple (JamesNT, p. 162). So while Judas didn't have a sneaky sister, he did have a sneaky first cousin, who might loosely be called his sister.
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles claims that his informant ("Mayberry Thomas," of Tennessee) had seen this piece in broadsheets, but there is no evidence of this, and many scholars hold that Niles made up his text 16A based on the old British text. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: C023

Judas and Jesus

DESCRIPTION: "Judas 'trayed Jesus, and Jesus hung the cross, Yes, Judas 'trayed Jesus, what a loss, what a loss!" On the night of the last supper, Jesus tells Judas he will betray him for money; Peter will betray him, but not for money
AUTHOR: unknown ("collected" by John Jacob Niles)
EARLIEST DATE: 1961
KEYWORDS: Jesus betrayal death money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 16B, "Judas and Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune, which Niles considers part of Child 23, but this is clearly not the case)
NOTES [74 words]: All the gospels agree that Judas betrayed Jesus, but only Matthew (16:14f.) states directly that money was the reason (although John 12:6 calls Judas a thief, and implies that this was the motive for his treachery).
All four gospels agree that Peter betrayed Jesus out of fear (cf. Mark 14:66-72, etc.). They also agree that Jesus foretold his death repeatedly, although only in John do we find Jesus implicating his betrayer (John 13:21-30) - RBW
File: Niles16B

Judas Was a Deceitful Man

DESCRIPTION: Judas betrays "a most innocent man" for thirty pieces of silver. He hangs himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: betrayal Bible floatingverses nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 247, ("O Judyas he wuz a 'ceitful man") (1 text)
NOTES [99 words]: Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands's first verse floats from "Home In the Rock": "Judas was a deceitful man He betrayed the innocent Lamb." - BS
Although all four Gospels agree that Judas betrayed Jesus, the details here are all from Matthew. Only Matthew says that the authorities gave Judas thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:1, 27:3, which are based on a very twisted interpretation of Zechariah 11:15). Similarly, only Matthew (27:5) says that Judas hanged himself; the gospels of Mark and John do not mention his fate, and Acts 1:18 describes him dying of a loathsome disease. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parp247

Judge and Jury, The

See The Prisoner at the Bar (The Judge and Jury) (File: R828)

Judge Martin Duffy

See Old Judge Duffy (File: MN2051)

Judged by the Company One Keeps

See The Pig Got Up and Slowly Walked Away (File: RcPGUSWA)

Judgment (Judgment Day Is a-Rollin' Around)

See Judgment Day is Rolling Around (File: R598)

Judgment Day Is Comin'

DESCRIPTION: "Judgment day is comin', Time is drawin' near. Don't you hear God callin' you?" God calls with thunder and lightning. The singer is on his way to heaven.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 606, "Judgment Day Is Comin', "" (1 text)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 44, pp. 185-187, "Aye Lord, Time Is Drawin' Nigh"; p. 188, ("Loose horse in the valley") (2 texts, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, p. 137-139, "Time Drawin' Nigh (I See the Sign)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11916
RECORDINGS:
Lawrence McIver and the McIntosh County Shouters, "I See the Sign (Time Drawin' Nigh)" (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutOnsiteVideo)
Henry Morrison, Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Sign of Judgment" (on LomaxCD1712, recorded 1959)
Freddie Palmer and The McIntosh County Shouters, "I See the Sign" (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation)
Nathan Palmer and the McIntosh County Shouters, "Time Drawin' Nigh" (on McIntosh1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Judgment Day is Rolling Around" (theme)
NOTES [39 words]: The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree/McIntoshShouters-RingShoutSongs text and track and LomaxCD1712 tracks are "ring shout" songs. The McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation and McIntoshShouters-RingShoutOnsiteVideo videos show the shout.- BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Br3606

Judgment Day is Rolling Around

DESCRIPTION: "Got a good old mother in the heaven, my Lord, how I long to go there too (x2)." "King Jesus a-settin' in the heaven, my Lord." "Big camp meetin' in the heaven, my Lord." Chorus: "Judgment, judgment, judgment day is rollin' around... How I long to go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 158-159, "Judgment (Judgment Day Is a-Rollin' Around)" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 206-207 in the 1874 edition)
Randolph 598, "Judgment Day is Rolling Around" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7551
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Judgment Day Is Comin'" (theme)
File: R598

Judgment, The (Invitation Song)

DESCRIPTION: Dialog: "Come. think on death and judgment; Your time is almost spent; You've been a sinner; 'Tis time that you repent." The other answers that he'll repent when he's old. The first singer points out that death might come tonight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from John Oliver)
KEYWORDS: dialog warning Hell death sin
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 206-209, "The Judgment" (1 text)
Roud #17091
NOTES [52 words]: This song seems to be inspired by the parable of the Rich Fool (Luke12:16-20), though the only words that are actually Biblical seem to be "Remember thy Creator while in the bloom of youth" (Ecclesiastes 12:1), and even that is slightly paraphrased. There might be a little of "Wicked Polly" in there, too. - RBW
File: MHAp206

Judiano

See Poor Lucy Anna (File: Hugi378)

Judie My Whiskey Tickler

DESCRIPTION: "Judie, my whiskey tickler, Judie, you debbil, you bother me so. Woe! Woe! Woe! Like a red-hot potato you are all aglow." "By faith, you are elegant in form and face, You walk with such stately magnificent grace...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 35, "Judie My Whiskey Tickler" (1 text)
Roud #7857
NOTES [21 words]: Described in the notes to Brown as a college drinking song from the 1830s. Which just shows that some things don't change. - RBW
File: Br3035

Judy Callaghan's Answer to Barney Bralligan

See Barney Brallaghan (File: OCon045)

Judy Drownded

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: Everyone says Judy drowned but she's [been rescued and is] safe in bed. Her mother asks about cocoas found under the bed; Judy intended them for her lover, who did not come.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: courting rescue river lover mother
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 40-42, "Judy Drownded" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time - Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), p. 56, "Judy Drowned" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jim Morse, Folk Songs of the Caribbean (New York: Bantam Books, 1958), pp. 88-89, "Judy Drownded" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Judy Drownded" (on WIEConnor01)
NOTES [54 words]: Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica: "This song originated in St Mary, when a young girl, Judy, who was washing clothes in the river, was carried downstream by the current. Onlookers (also washing clothes) rushed to her home, loudly calling out, Judy drownded!' [sic] Only to discover that she had been rescued and was safe in bed." - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: JaMu040

Judy MacCarthy of Fishamble Lane

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes to Fishamble Lane in search of sausages when he is stopped by the sight of "a fair one ... Judy MacCarthy ... "one eye was a swivel, Her nose it was smutty, her hands not too clean." She is broiling a devil which he detests. He leaves.
AUTHOR: Toleken (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: food humorous parody cook
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 159-160, "Judy MacCarthy of Fishamble Lane" (1 text)
NOTES [148 words]: Fishamble Lane (Liberty Street) is in Cork "where salmon, drisheens, and beefsteaks are cooked best" (quoted from "Cork's Own Town" by Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland). In this case, I assume a "devil" to be some highly seasoned meat. - BS
Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (fifth edition, 1961) offers as the #5 meaning of "devil" "A grilled chop or steak seasoned with mustard and occ. with cayenne.... Grose, 2nd ed., defines it as a broiled turkey-gizzard duly seasoned and adds, 'From being hot in the mouth'."
Mr. Toleken (which seems to be the only name recorded for him) is also co-author of the somewhat better-known "Saint Patrick Was a Gentleman."
I must say that it sounds as if the singer here might be intended to be English: he evidently looks down on the Irish and doesn't like spicy food. If that isn't a nineteenth century Englishman, what is? - RBW
File: CrPS159

Judy McCarty

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets Judy McCarty at Donnybrook fair , asks her to dance, falls in love and she agrees to marry. They go to a party that night, sleep together, marry next day; 12 months later have "a pair of twins as like their dad As ever soup's like broth"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1884 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1696))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage sex childbirth humorous twins
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 18, "Judy McCarty" (1 text)
Roud #V20679
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1696), "Judy M'Carty", H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Harding B 11(1946), 2806 b.11(34), Firth c.26(37), Firth c.14(219), "Judy Mc.Carty"
File: OCon018

Jug hot en Loch, Der (The Jug Has a Hole)

See There's a Hole in the Bucket (File: DTholebc)

Jug of Punch, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer (hears a thrush singing "A jug of punch"; he too) describes the pleasures of drink: "What more pleasure could a boy desire Than to sit him down by a roaring fire, And on his knee a tidy wench And in his hand a jug of punch."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1897
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 278, "The Jug of Punch" (1 text+ 1 in appendix, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H490, p. 48, "The Jug of Punch" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 154, "Jug of Punch" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 95, "Mush a Doody" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 230, "The Jug Of Punch" (1 text)
DT, JUGPUNCH* JUGPUN2
Roud #1808
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "A Jug of Punch" (on IRClancyMakem01); "The Jug of Punch" (on IRClancyMakem02)
A. L. Lloyd, "A Jug of Punch" (on Lloyd5, Lloyd12)
Margaret Loughram & Edward Quinn, "The Jug of Punch" (on FSB3)
Pete Seeger, "Jug of Punch" (on PeteSeeger27)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.27(162), "The Jug of Punch" ("As I was sated in my room"), unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 11(1949), Harding B 25(1013), "Jug of Punch" ("'Twas on the 24th of June")
NOTES [72 words]: Creighton-NovaScotia['s] first verse seems like a floater but I know no other source
There was an old woman, she had na bairns,
She took the punch jug in her arms,
And she sang, "Mush-a-lula boo,
Will you ne'er be empty till I be fu'. - BS
I don't recognize it earlier, but I wonder if it might not be a separate song which has picked up a single "Jug of Punch" verse. Unless another version surfaces, we probably will never know. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: K278

Jug of This, A

See Ye Mariners All (File: VWL103)

Juggler and the Baron's Daughter, The

See Here Beside Dwells a Rich Baron's Daughter (The Juggler) (File: MSHBDRBD)

Juggler, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells her father and mother that her juggler "is an angel" and she goes with him. They ride on his "gold steed" made of stone. In the morning she sees her lover he has one eye. She decides to go home and take his magic horse but finds it gone.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: seduction return trick horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1401, "The Juggler" (1 text)
Roud #7255
NOTES [244 words]: Greig/Duncan7 quoting Bell Robertson [1841-1922]: "This one I got from Janet Taylor when a child learning to read. I never could get any more of it or find anyone who had ever heard it or off it. It is very old."
In this story nothing is what it seems. This "angel"/juggler/beggar [see the note below], at least, seems to have "the power to cloud men's minds." Is there magic or fairy business here? A suspicious verse, considering the numbers and the horse, runs "There were four-and-twenty jugglers Led the lady to the ha', And as many bonnie boys Led his steed to the sta'"
Bruce Olson on his site, at "Some Old Songs, A Personal Choice," makes the Greig/Duncan7 text a sequel to "The Jolly Beggar" [Child 279]. In that ballad, to repeat its description in this index, "A beggar asks lodging. He is admitted to the house, but wants more than his beggar's fare. Receiving much of what he asks, he at last receives the daughter of the house into his cloak. He then reveals that he is a nobleman; (perhaps he marries the girl)." Here is Bruce Olson's commentary on "The Juggler": "A sequel to this ballad I've seen only in 'The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection', VII, #1401, 'The Juggler' (Gaberlunzie from ghibarlain). In the sequel, the young woman decides to go with him, but four-and-twenty jugglers (ghiberlain = beggar/ gaberlunzie) lead her back to the house. But by the time she gets back to the stable there's just a piece of pea-straw tied to the wa'," - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71401

Juice of the Forbidden Fruit, The

DESCRIPTION: A story of all the people who drank: "And ever since then all manner of men... Will drink the juice of the forbidden fruit." Henry Ward Beecher is among those accused of tippling, and the drinking habits of many notorious figures are outlined
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: drink political
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 441, "The Juice of the Forbidden Fruit" (1 text)
Randolph 403, "The Juice of the Forbidden Fruit" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 340-342, "The Juice of the Forbidden Fruit" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 403B)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #142, "Juice of the Forbidden Fruit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3533
RECORDINGS:
Neil Morris, "The Juice of the Forbidden Fruit" (on LomaxCD1706)
NOTES [185 words]: Among the various figures accused in this song of drinking are:
* Henry Ward Beecher - Congregational minister who campaigned against slavery
* Cleveland and Blaine - The Democratic and Republican presidential candidates of 1884. It was not an attractive campaign; Blaine was (regarded as) corrupt and Cleveland had an illegitimate child
* Ben Butler - Politician turned Civil War general turned politician again. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives for most of the period 1866-1879, and became Governor of Massachusetts in 1883. In 1884 he ran, unsuccessfully, for a presidential nomination
* Frank James - The brother of Jesse
* Charles and Bob Ford - Friends, relatives, and betrayers of Jesse James
* Oscar Wilde - the author/playwright
* Grant - Ulysses S. Grant, widely accused of being a drunkard although he apparently did not drink during the Civil War itself or during his presidency. He had, however, drunk enough before the war that he was pushed out of the army
On the evidence, it would appear that Randolph's "B" version, at least, was crafted during the 1884 Presidential election. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R403

Juley

See Walkalong, Miss Susiana Brown (File: Hugi391)

Julia

DESCRIPTION: Norwegian shanty. Chorus: "Julia! Julia! hop-ra-sa!" Hugill gives only one verse, which translates "A sailor's greatest pleasure, is Julia! Julia! Beloved of girls so dear..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Laura A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_, according to Hugill)
KEYWORDS: shanty foreignlanguage love
FOUND IN: Norway
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 392-393, "Julia" (2 texts, Norwegian and English, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 105, "Julia" (2 short texts, Norwegian and English, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Upidee, Upidah" (similar tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Julia Hopsasa
File: Hugi392

Julia Glover

See Julia Grover (Miss Julie Ann Glover) (File: Lins224)

Julia Grover (Miss Julie Ann Glover)

DESCRIPTION: "As I was goin' to the mill one day, I met Miss Julia on the way, She 'spressed a wish that she might ride.... Sit down there, Miss Julia Grover, Play on your banjo, I'm your lover....." She gets in; the oxen start; the cart tips; she attacks him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: courting travel
FOUND IN: US(NE,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 410, "Miss Julie Ann Glover" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 410, "Miss Julie Ann Glover" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #83, "Julia Glover" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 224-225, "Julia Grover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3734
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Julie Ann Grover
File: Lins224

Julian's Death

DESCRIPTION: Julian, an Indian slave who ran away and killed John Rogers when Rogers tried to stop him, makes his confession: "The prisoner owns his bloody act, And saith the sentence... Was passed on him impartially." He narrates his sins
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) slave escape homicide punishment gallows-confession
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1732 - "Julian" tries to escape from his owner, Major Quincy of Brigewater, Massachusetts. Tracked by John Rogers, Julian finally killed his pursuer, but was captured and executed
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 150-152, (no titles) (excerpts from two pieces about Julian)
NOTES [26 words]: Reading this account, I find my sympathies all with Julian. I have to think this is even more removed from the slave's last words than the usual goodnight. - RBW
File: Burt150

Juliana

DESCRIPTION: "Juliana ... You say you never been there." "You say you been for water. You bring a little daughter." "Ah goin' to tell you mother."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: accusation childbirth nonballad baby
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 10, "Juliana" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [59 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "'Juliana' is a song about a wayward girl whose conduct is condemned by the singers.... Juliana returns from the well or river for water but brings back a daughter instead. She has not told the truth about where she has been and the burden of the song is concerned with the reason as to why she said she's 'never been there.'" - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo010

Julie

DESCRIPTION: "Julie, hear me whan I call you, Julie won't hear me." "B'lieve I'll go to Dallas, Got to see my Julie, Oh my Lordy." " Raise 'em up together." "Better get the sergeant." "My feet is gettin' itchy." "Child's gettin' hungry." "Rattler can't hold me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (collected from W. D. Alexander by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: prison love separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 231-233, "Julie" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [53 words]: Jackson believes that singer W. D. Alexander adapted this to his own situation, and it seems likely enough. However, most of the verses here are singles lines repeated three times, with no need for a rhyme, so any convict could have made it his own. We thus cannot really say whether Alexander originated the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM231

Julie Ann Grover

See Julia Grover (Miss Julie Ann Glover) (File: Lins224)

Julie Ann Johnson

DESCRIPTION: "O Julie Ann Johnson, oho! (x2)." "Gwineter catch dat train, boys, oho! (x2)" "Gwineter fin' Julie, oho! (x2)" "She gone to Dallas, oho! (x2)" "Gwineter hug my Julie, oho! (x2)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: love separation courting travel
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 244-245, "Julie Ann Johnson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 9, "July Ann Johnson" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 67, "Julie Ann Johnson" 1 text, 1 tune)
ST LxA244 (Full)
Roud #11604
NOTES [60 words]: The Lomaxes note that "Lead Belly... made it doubtful whether this was a dance tune or a work chant." Whether and to what extent Leadbelly reworked this is unclear.
Knowing the Lomaxes, I initially lumped this with "Julia Grover (Miss Julie Ann Glover)." I still wonder if there isn't some cross-fertilization. But that has rather more narrative than this. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: LxA244

Julie Plante, The

See The Wreck of the Julie Plante (File: FJ174)

Julius Hannig's Wedding

DESCRIPTION: "Now white folks, your attention, and I'll sing you a song About Julius Hannig's wedding... He's been a-getting married now for six or seven years But he couldn't get the girl's consent...." When she agrees, he has a wild party despite the laws
AUTHOR: Rube Jolley (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage drink humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 158-159, "Julius Hannig's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10869
File: ChMS158

July Ann Johnson

See Julie Ann Johnson (File: LxA244)

July Drive, The

DESCRIPTION: "Shout loud the praise of Newfoundland our gallant volunteers... lost their lives to save the flag." "Their regiment full 800 strong were foremost in the fight ... They marched up to the German lines." "In that drive they lost their lives"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: battle war death nonballad patriotic soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 1, 1916 - Battle of Beaumont Hamel, at which the Newfoundland Regiment was slaughtered
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30136
RECORDINGS:
John Bulger, "The July Drive" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Soldier (III)" (subject of Newfoundlanders dying in World War I)
cf. "Soldier's Last Letter" (subject of Newfoundlanders dying in World War I)
cf. "The Valley of Kilbride" (subject of Beaumont Hamel)
NOTES [301 words]: Sean T. Cadigan, Newfoundland and Labrador: A History, University of Toronto Press, 2009, pp. 187-188, describes the battle of Beaumont Hamel:
"The Newfoundland Regiment acquitted itself well through many of the toughest battles of the war. It fought the Turks at Gallipoli and the Germans in the muddy trenches of France in the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916.... Allied command assigned the regiment a leading role by asking it to capture an area in the vicinity of Beaumont Hamel, behind the German front line. On 1 July 1916, about 810 officers and men of the Newfoundland Regiment went over the top against the Germans.... Within minutes the regiment was nearly annihilated. Only two officers and 95 of the men of the regiment answered roll call the next day. Fifteen officers and 95 other men lay dead on the field, while 16 officers and 479 men were wounded. One officer and 114 soldiers were missing somewhere among the mud, blood, craters, spent shells and barbed wire. The attack was a military disaster.
"Almost everyone in St. John's lost a family member or friend at Beaumont Hamel.... The myth of Beaumont Hamel quickly emerged, 'emphasizing bravery, determination, imperial loyalty, Christian devotion, and immortal achievement' on the part of the Newfoundland Regiment."
St John Chadwick, Newfoundland: Island Into Province, Cambridge University Press, 1967, p. 126, gives slightly different numbers, but the distinction hardly matters:
"Of 5,482 [Newfoundland] men who went overseas, close on 1,500 were killed, 2,314 wounded and 234 decorated or mentioned in dispatches. The massacre at Beaumont Hamel remains, even today, a proud, sad memory to sacrifice. On 1 July 1916 753 Newfoundlanders went into action there. Next morning only 68 were left to answer the roll-call." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3JulDr

July! July!

DESCRIPTION: "July, July, I long to see the twentieth of July, And if I live to see July, I'll go home to come no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 112-113, "July! July!" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: NCF162J

Jumbo

DESCRIPTION: "Here comes Jumbo through the window, through the window, Here comes Jumbo through the window, Hail, Columbia, ho!" "You kin tell who 'tis by the rattle o' the window...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 90, "Jumbo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3597
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jingle at the Window (Tideo)" (lyrics)
NOTES [28 words]: Roud lumps this with "Jingle at the Window (Tideo)," and it is obvious that they share many words. But the form is different enough that I tentatively split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Rich090

Jumbo (Mama Sent Me to the Spring)

DESCRIPTION: "Mama sent me to the spring, Told me not to stay. I fell in love with a pretty little boy And stayed till Christmas day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting nonsense
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 142, "Mama Sent Me to the Spring" (1 text)
Roud #4245
NOTES [95 words]: The notes in Brown say that the fragment cited is part of a Kentucky song called "Jumbo." I suspect it's part of a singing game -- but since "Jumbo" apparently is not in any accessible collection, I can't do anything with my suspicions except complain that the editors should have given more details.
The Carter Family text of "Fond of Chewing Gum" contains a stanza very like this one, but that text is full of other intrusions, so it's not clear that they should be identified; none of the other texts of "Chewing Gum" (e.g. those in Randolph) include the stanza. - RBW
File: BrII142

Jumbo Said to Alice

DESCRIPTION: "Jumbo said to Alice, 'I love you.' Alice said to Jumbo, 'I don’t believe you do. For if you truly love as you say you do, You wouldn’t go to America and leave me in the zoo.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: love animal rejection separation | elephant zoo
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1882 - the London Zoo sells its elephant named "Jumbo" to P. T. Barnum
1885 - death of Jumbo as a result of a railroad accident. It was estimated that he was 24
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 99, "Jumbo said to Alice, 'I love you'" (1 text)
Roud #25381
NOTES [66 words]: Yes, the elephant in this song is apparently real -- in fact, Wikipedia has an article on Jumbo.
This little item was quoted in Life magazine in the August 20, 1956, issue, but the copy I saw was not readable enough for me to examine the context. It had only the one verse quoted by Alice Kane, however. The same was true of every other copy I found on the web, and none listed an author. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC099C

Jumbo the Elephant

DESCRIPTION: "Oh have you seen the elephant? is all the people's cry, The great and mighty elephant who stands so broad and high." The song describes its daily diet (a ton of hay, plus lemonade, plus rye). The people are amazed at the creature
AUTHOR: Words: F. H. Evans / Music: J. A. Snow
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: nonballad animal
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 278, "Jumbo the Elephant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4452
NOTES [121 words]: Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin includes three songs from the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin. He does not offer a reason for including them in a book of folk songs; all are composed and two of the three give no evidence of having existed in tradition. This is the one slight exception; based on the information in Roud, it appears there was one traditional collection printed in the Journal of American Folklore 36 in 1923.
Jumbo the Elephant apparently was a sensation, however; P. T. Barnum imported the animal and showed it around the U. S. in the 1880s (see Zachary Karabell, Chester Alan Arthur [a volume in the American Presidents series edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.], Times Books, 2004, p. 90). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet278

Jump and Miss, Jump and Miss

See Miss, Miss (File: ZiZa048M)

Jump Her, Juberju

See The Bigler's Crew [Laws D8] (File: LD08)

Jump in the Line

DESCRIPTION: Dance directions: "Jump in the line... When you jump in the line Rock your body on time... rock your body... from regular to the tempo In case you feel the sensation Jump in the air and come down with my motion."
AUTHOR: Aldwyn Roberts ("Lord Kitchener")
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (_Victory Calypsos_ according to John Cowley); 1952 (Blind Blake Higgs: see WIHIGGS01)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas,Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Laurel Aitken, "Shake" (1966, Ska Beat 45 rpm JB.236, 2014, on Laurel Aitken UK Singles Volume 7," Pressure Drop MP3, 2014))
Harry Belafonte, "Jump in the Line (Shake Senora)" (1961, on "Belafonte - Jump Up Calypso," RCA Victor LPM/LSP-2388)
Blind Blake Higgs, "Jump in the Line" (on WIHIGGS01)
Woody Herman and the New Third Herd, "Jump in the Line" (1952-1953, on Mars 45/78 rpm M45-200, 2012, "Woody Herman The Legendary Third Herd - The Mars Years vol 1 1952-1953," Soul Trade Music MP3, 2012)
Lord Flea, "Shake Shake Sonora" (1957, on "Swingin' Calypsos - Lord Flea and his Calypsonians," Capitol Records T-842 LP)
Lord Invader, "Labor Day" (on 1955, "Calypso With The Lord Invader and Trinidad Carribean Orchestra," Smithsonian Folkways 6914, 2000, "Lord Invader, Calypso in New York," Smithsonian Folkways CD SFW 40454 [recorded c. 1948 per John Cowley, SFW 40454 liner notes, p. 17])
Joseph Spence, "Jump in the Line" (1959, on "Joseph Spence - The Complete Folkways Recordings 1958," Folkways FS 3844, 2004, Smithsonian Folkways CD SF 40066 (reissue of 1959 and Folkways FS 3847, 1964))
Pitbull, "Shake Senora Remix" (2011, on "Planet Pit," J Records 88697-69060-2)
NOTES [17 words]: Notes on "Hold 'im Joe" and "Jump in the Line" will be included in a future version of the Index. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcJuITL

Jump Jim Crow

DESCRIPTION: Disconnected verses about a rambler's exploits, held together by the chorus "I wheel about I twist about I do just so, Every time I turn about I jump Jim Crow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (pubished by E. Riley; Dichter/Shapiro, p. 52, estimate the publication date as c. 1829; Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, p. 30, dates it c. 1832)
KEYWORDS: nonballad dancing dancetune floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1627, "Jim Crow" (1 text)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 126-127, "Jim Crow", (no title), "Jump Jim Crow" (1 text plus two fragments, 1 tune; the full text lacks the chorus, while the fragments consist mostly of the chorus)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 121, "Jump Jim Crow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 18, "Jim Crow" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 21-30, "Jim Crow" (1 text, very full)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 274, "Twist about, turn about, jump Jim Crow" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, plate 12 shows a sheet music cover of "The Original Jim Crow"
ST Gilb018 (Partial)
Roud #12442
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 115, "Jim Crow," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 15(149a), Firth b.34(154), Harding B 11(1472), Harding B 11(1877), "Jim Crow"
LOCSinging, as106690, "Jim Crow," L. Deming (Boston), 19C; also as106700, "Jim Crow complete in 150 verses"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hop High Ladies (Uncle Joe)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [684 words]: Said to have been originated by Thomas D. Rice, who allegedly watched a negro sing and dance the refrain and imitated it. This proved so successful that Rice spent the rest of his life as "Jim Crow" Rice, using the song as his primary attraction. Milligan, pp. 39-40, summarizes an account given by Robert P. Nevin in 1867:
Rice observed one day in Cincinnati a negro stage-driver singing the song:
Turn about and wheel about, and do jist so,
And every time I turn about, I jump Jim Crow,
and conceived the idea that the song and character behind the footlights might tickle the fance of the public as much as the sprig of shillallah and the red nose then popular among light comedians.
He did not have an opportunity to test the idea until the following autumn, when he was playing in Pittsburgh. The theatre, located on Fifth Street, is described as "an upretending structure, rudely built of boards and of moderate proportions, but sufficient to satisfy the taste and secure the comfort of the few who dared to face the consequences and lend their patronage t an establishment under the ban of the Scotch-Irish Calvinists." According to Nevin, Rice obtained his costume from a negro in attendance at Griffith's Hotel on Wood Street, named Cuff, who won a precarious living by letting out his open mouth as a mark for boys to pitch pennies in at three paces, and by carrying passengers' trunks from steamboats to hotels. The negro accompanied Rice to the theatre one evening and loaned his costume, for a brief period, to the service of art....
Rice's appearance, with blackened face, clad in a ragged old coat, a forlornly dilapidated pair of shoes composed equally of patches and places for patches, a coarse straw hat in a melancholy condition of rent and collapse, and a black wooly wig, created a sensation which was greatly heightened by the rendition of the "Jim Crow" song and dance. But the success of the occasion was made doubly sure when the negro, hearing the whistle of a steamboat approaching Monongahela Wharf, and fearing loss of both business and prestige among his associates, rushed half-clad onto the stage and demanded his clothes....
"The next day the song of 'Jim Crow' was on everybody's lips.... The tune was written down and provided with piano accompaniment by W. C. Peters, a music dealer with a shop on Market Street, Pittsburg. The music was reproduced on stone with an elaborately embellished title-page by John Newton, being the first specimen of lithography ever executed in Pittsburg."
Finson, pp. 162-163, quotes a similar version by Clara Fisher Maeder, who describes him as "not much of an actor, but a very industrious young man and a good mimic," and says that it was her own mother who suggested that Rice take up a career as a blackface novelty act. Finson shows Rice's costume (illustration 5.1, following p. 176); it largely matches the description above.
Finson, p. 163, adds that Rice (1806-1860) "himself authored much of his role('writing and playing negro pieces'), relying on a certain talent for imitation to sustain an illusion. He hailed from a northern, urban background likemay of his successor, and was less concerned with authenticity than with assuming the mask of the folkloric. In fact, the humor of Rice's sharade depended precisely on the spectator's knowledge of his disguise...."
"The character of Jim Crow comes straight out of Jacksonian populaism, and he shares many virtues with the wetern hero whose famous battlefield (out side of New Orleans "wher dey kill'd Packenham") he visits early in the song. Jackson, a westerner, was protrayed as a simple 'ploughman,' one of 'nature's noblemen....'"
Rice would later create another blackface character, "Gombo Chaff," with his own song to the tune of "Bow Wow Wow," according to Finson, p. 168.
The Opies believe that it was through Rice's performances that "Jim Crow" came to be a name (usually derogatory) for Blacks.
According to Dichter/Shapiro, p. 52, the original sheet music was published by E. Riley and labelled "Mr. T. Rice As the Original Jim Crow." No composer is listed. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: Gilb018

Jump Jim Crow (II)

See Hop High Ladies (Uncle Joe) (File: R252)

Jump Little Nag Tail

DESCRIPTION: Game related to one called "Buck Buck," in which children ride others' childrens backs and try to avoid being thrown off. "Jump, little nag tail, one, two, three (x3), Off! Off! Off!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty horse
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 193, "(Jump, little nag tail, one, two, three)" (1 text)
File: SuSm193

Jump Over the Garden Wall

DESCRIPTION: "Just jump over the garden wall, Dear little girlie to me. I've been lonely a long long time And the wall's not hard to climb, You just jump up and you just jump down; I'll not let you fall"; if she comes, they will marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: love courting | wall
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 101-102, "Just jump over the garden wall" (1 text)
Roud #32571
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Over the Garden Wall" (theme)
NOTES [36 words]: Fowke claims that this is a version of Hunter and Fox's "Over the Garden Wall." Certainly the themes are similar -- enough so that one might well have inspired the other. But I do not think they are the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC101A

Jump Over the Sea

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Jump over the ocean, Jump under the sea, Jump in the sea and down, Jump over the sea."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: sea jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #292, "Jump over the sea" (1 text)
File: AJRR292

Jump Rope Rhyme (X Had a Baby)

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

Jump Skills

DESCRIPTION: Complicated jump-rope test: "Jump once and run out, Jump twice and run out," and so up to five, then "High waters six times, Low waters seven times," then hop, then close one eye, then both, then cross feet 11 and 12 times
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: nonballad jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 56, "Jump Skills" (1 text)
File: ZiZa056B

Jump, Isabel, Slide Water

DESCRIPTION: "Jump, Isabel, slide water, Ho, my aunty, ho; Jump, Isabel, slide water, Ho, my aunty, ho." "'Where's you gwine?' I says to her... She answers back, 'I's gwine to church.'" "I wash my shirts, I neber rench 'um," "We jump in de boat, an' away we go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: clothes family travel ship
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #28, "Jump, Isabel, Slide Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5012
File: Morr028

Jumpin' Judy

DESCRIPTION: "Jumpin Judy, Jumpin Judy (x3) Was a mighty fine gal (or: All over this world)" The singer describes prison life, and the hope for escape. He hopes the guards will stop abusing him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 82-84, "Jumpin' Judy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 392-394, "Drive It On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 289, "Jumpin' Judy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JUMPJUDY*
Roud #6712
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Midnight Special"
cf. "Take This Hammer"
NOTES [52 words]: The version of this song in Folk Songs of North America looks like a version of "The Midnight Special"; that in American Ballads and Folk Songs rather resembles "Take This Hammer." Lead Belly sang a version which seems unrelated to either. I leave it to the reader to draw conclusions about the Lomax texts. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LoF289

June Come You No Married

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells a single woman, "June come you' no married. If August come an' you no' married You no' go married again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: marriage warning nonballad oldmaid
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 21, "June Come You No Married" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ElTo021

June Month Is a Hard Month

DESCRIPTION: June is a hard month. What are you going to do? Pull off your coat and go to work. Each line ends "Jerusalem Jerusalem" or "O Zion O Zion," depending on the singer.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 245, "What y'u gwine t' do fo' June month? Jerusalem Jerusalem"; "You mus' pray ha'd -- June a ha'd month" (2 texts)
File: Parp245

Jungle Mammy Song

DESCRIPTION: "Ah yah, tair um bam, boo wah, Kee lay zee day, Nic o lay, mah lun dee. Nic o lay ah poot a way, Nic o lay ah wah mee-- Ah yah, tair um bam, boo wah, Kee lay zee day, Nic o lay, mah lun dee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: nonsense nonballad lullaby
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 455, "Jungle Mammy Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: San455

Junior Birdman

See Junior Birdmen (File: ACSF124J)

Junior Birdmen

DESCRIPTION: "Up in/into the air, junior birdmen, Into the air, upside down; Into the air, junior birdmen... And when you see all those birdmen With their shiny wings of tin, Then you will know the junior birdmen Have sent their boxtops in!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (used in a movie, according to Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: technology campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p, 211, "Junior Birdman" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 123, 265, 318, 319, 385, 513, "Junior Birdsmen" (notes, with an unusual stanza on p. 385)
DT, INTOAIR2
Roud #15440
NOTES [77 words]: This apparently originated in the "Junior Birdmen of America" organization, founded in the 1930s to encourage young people to become involved in aviation. (There is a Wikipedia article about it, "Junior Birdmen"). You wouldn't think such a jingle would become traditional, but it is associated with the "junior birdman" finger-mask. I suspect that it is the chance to make the funny face, not dubious virtues of the song itself, which have kept the song alive. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF124J

Juniper Tree, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh sister Phoebe, how merry we were The night we sat under the juniper tree...." "So put this hat on, it will keep your head warm, And take a sweet kiss, it will do you no harm." Phoebe and/or the boy are encouraged to get married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting clothes
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 80-81=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 186-187, "Old Sister Phoebe" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 71-73, "Sister Phoebe"; pp. 138-139, "Old Sister Phoebe" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 63-64, "Oh Sister Phoebe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 540, "The Juniper Tree" (5 texts, 1 tune; the "D" text may be a parody)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 151, pp. 298-299, "Under the Juniper Tree" (1 text)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 29A-B, "Under the Juniper Tree" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 9, "Sister Phoebe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 122-123, "The Juniper Tree"; pp. 124-125, "The Juniper Tree" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #129, "Old Sister Phoebe" (1 text, 1 text)
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 96, "Mother Phoebe" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Martha Warren Beckwith and Helen Roberts, _Folk-Games of Jamaica_ (Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1922 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #48 p. 59, "Old Mother Fibbie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #4507
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fare You Well, Sister Phoebe" (tune, in Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana's version)
NOTES [110 words]: A kising game, according to Ritchie, though a few texts are slightly fuller.
It is interesting to note that the two usually sit courting under a *juniper* tree (although in Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, it's a green apple tree). According to Peter MacInnis, Poisons (originally published as The Killer Bean of Calabar and Other Stories), 2004 (I use the 2005 Arcade paperback), p. 97, the oil of the Juniperus sabina is an abortifacient, the juniper berries were sometimes thought to end pregnancies. So making out while under a juniper might be thought to prevent pregnancy -- although apparently not all junipers make the particular chemical involved. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: R540

Juniper Tree, The (The Wicked Stepmother, The Rose Tree)

DESCRIPTION: A boy is murdered by his stepmother. She feeds the body to his father and (half-)sister. The boy comes back to life as a bird, and gains revenge on his stepmother (giving gifts to his family in the process). He is restored to humanity
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956
KEYWORDS: stepmother homicide death bird revenge recitation
FOUND IN: US(Ap) Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 47-50, "The Wicked Stepmother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, pp. 138-142, "Aippley and Orangey" (1 text, in which both children are girls but the rest essentially the same)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #141, "My Mammy Killed Me" (1 text, much reduced -- the storyteller wouldn't give the whole version -- and without music, but with the key "My mother killed me" stanza)
NOTES [451 words]: This tale is widely known -- reported by Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs to be known in England, Ireland, Australia, northwestern Europe, and the southern U.S. As "Von dem Machandelboom" it is #47 in the Grimm collection (from Philipp Otto Runge, printed 1812; it is in Pomeranian dialect. According to Tatar, p. 158, Runge reworked it and supplied the dialect to make it seem more "folkloric"). As, however, the bird's accusation against his stepmother is generally sung, it perhaps deserves a place in this Index.
Partial parallels are fairly common; see, for instance, the following from Briggs, volume I,
-- p. 283, "The Golden Cup"
-- pp. 378-379, "The Little Bird"
-- p. 414, "The Milk-White Dog"
-- pp. 441-443, "Orange and Lemon"
-- pp. 472-473, "The Rose Tree" (also in Jacobs, pp. 15-19, who had it from Henderson's Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties and who also compares it to "Orange and Lemon")
-- pp. 473-474, "Rosy"
In her notes to "The Little Bird," Briggs affirms that the tale is widely distributed and declares "The Juniper Tree" to be the best-known version. "The Juniper Tree" is Grimm #47, and its chorus was quoted by Goethe in "Faust," according to Jacobs, p. 234.
Is it significant that the tree is a juniper? Alexander, p. 152, notes that "There were many other traditions both Christian and pagan emphasizing the juniper's protective role"; it was used, e.g., to help the elderly. It was also said to have guarded the baby Jesus. Tatar, p. 158, notes the many medicinal uses to which the tree is put, which hints that it was chosen as a healing tree.
But the most important mention of the juniper in English folklore is in fact an error. In 1 Kings 19, the prophet Elijah is fleeing from Queen Jezebel of Israel, and in 19:4-5 the King James Bible says that he rested under a "juniper tree" -- a translation probably derived from the Latin Vulgate, which renders "iuniperum." InterpretersDict, volume II, p. 1027, flatly declares the King James rendering a "mistaken translation'; the reference is to the broom tree, and it is so rendered in the Revised Standard and New Revised Standard versions.
J. R. R. Tolkien, who definitely knew his folktales, refers to the tale's "beauty and horror" and its "exquisite and tragic beginning" (see Tatar, p. 158) -- but also notes that what stayed with him about this tale was its remoteness in time and place (Tolkien, p. 31). An interesting observation about such a well-known tale.
The horrid motif of a parent eating his child's body is surprisingly widespread. The obvious example is the Greek tale of Thyestes and Atreus, but apparently it also occurs in the Norse tale of Hlothskvitha and Volundarkvitha (Einarsson, p. 35). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.5
File: Cha047

Just a Closer Walk with Thee

DESCRIPTION: "Just a closer walk with thee, Grant it, Jesus, if you please." The singer prays to be closer to Jesus, to be strengthened in the face of work and trouble, and to be taken home upon dying
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (recording, Selah Jubilee Quartet)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 129, "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 148-149, "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" (1 text, 1 tune, listed as adapted by Kenneth Morris)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 357, "Just A Closer Walk With Thee" (1 text)
DT, CLOSEWLK*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 167, "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15986
RECORDINGS:
Eureka Brass Band, "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" [instrumental version] (on MuSouth10)
Red Foley, "Just A Closer Walk With Thee" (Decca 14505, 1949)
Lacy Colored Gospel Singers, "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" (Sacred 296, n.d.)
Selah Jubilee Quartet, "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" (Decca 7872, 1941)
Smith's Jubilee Singers, "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" (Sterling 1503, n.d.)
File: FSWB357A

Just a Little Tack in the Shingle of Your Roof

DESCRIPTION: "Just a little tack in the shingle of your roof (x3), To hold your house together." "Come on bak and stay with me... Make your little house what it ought to be." "Just a little nail in the plank of your wall, To hold your house together...."
AUTHOR: Harold Finster
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 232, "Just a Little Tack in the Shingle of Your Roof" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16256
NOTES [92 words]: I was tempted to give this the keyword "religious, " because it really feels like it was inspired by the warnings Jesus gave to be prepared/alert/awake when the Lord comes (see, for instance, Matthew 24:42, 25:13, Mark 13:37), Throw in the House Built Upon Rock (Matthew 7:24-27) and you get a feeling rather like this song.
But while I imagine Harold Finster used the song to tell a moral, it has no actual Biblical language -- it doesn't even mention God. So I do not list it among the religious songs; it could be sung simply as advice. Maybe. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Rose232

Just a Poor Lumberjack

DESCRIPTION: Recitation. A youth pushes a drunken lumberjack into the gutter. Another lumberjack saves a child from a fire, but dies in the process. A third dies in the woods. All are mourned with the chorus, "'Twas only a poor old lumberjack"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Recitation. A drunken lumberjack is pushed into the gutter by a posh youth; a stranger warns the youth not to make wisecracks, or he'll get the same treatment. Another lumberjack saves a child from a fire, but dies in the process. A third, unknown, dies in the woods. All are mourned with the chorus, "'Twas only a poor old lumberjack."
KEYWORDS: lumbering logger warning fight rescue death work recitation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 64, "Just a Poor Lumberjack" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 113, "Just a Poor Lumberjack" (1 text)
Roud #8846
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Only a Miner (The Hard-Working Miner)" [Laws G33] (theme)
NOTES [32 words]: Pieces like this are easy to deride as mawkish melodrama, but they contain a spine of self-respect among men who were often ill-treated by the "respectable" society whose needs they supplied. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be064

Just a Wee Doch-an-Dorris

DESCRIPTION: "Just a wee doch-and-dorris, Just a wee drap that's a', Just a wee doch-an-dorris Before we gang awa'. There's a wee wifie waitin' With a wee bairn or two: For if you can say It's a braw brecht, Moonlecht necht: er' a' recht, that's a'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (England, Vikings of the Ice)
KEYWORDS: home wife children nonballad
FOUND IN: US Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 36, "Just a Wee Doch-an-Dorris" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: George Allan England, _Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt_ (also published as _The Greatest Hunt in the World_), Doubleday, 1924, pp. 117-118, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #9638
SAME TUNE:
Plum and Apple (File: BrPa059B)
NOTES [44 words]: George Allan England places his version of this in the mouth of Abram Kean (for whom see "Captain Abram Kean"), the Newfoundland sealing captain who distrusted everything except his employers and their rendering plants. A stranger source I can hardly imagine. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: SBar036A

Just After the Battle, Mother

See After the Battle Mother (File: MuLa003)

Just Anything

See Anything (I) (File: R449)

Just As I Am

DESCRIPTION: "Just as I am, without one plea, But that thy blood was shed for me... O lamb of God, I come, I come." "Just as I am, and waiting not, To rid my soul of one dark blot." "Just as I am, though tossed about....."
AUTHOR: Words: Charlotte Elliott (1789-1871) / Music: William B. Bradbury (1816-1868)
EARLIEST DATE: 1834 (source: Johnson)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Heart-Songs, p. 77, "Just As I Am" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 163, "Just As I Am" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V36124
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Alligood, "Just as I Am" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #266, recorded 09/26/2022)
Artricia Gordon, Katrina Esocoff, "Just as I Am" (Piotr-Archive #373, recorded 11/26/2022)
NOTES [182 words]: For background on William B. Bradbury, see the notes to "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us."
According to Johnson, p. 162, Charlotte Elliott "in 1821... fell seriously ill and remained an invalid until she passed away fifty years later." Her basic problem seems to have been fatigue. One suspects that might have influenced the first line of this song, first published in The Invalid's Hymn-Book (one of her four hymn-books, obviously influenced by her physical condition).
According to John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 328, "Her hymns number about 150, a large percentage of which are in C. U. The finest and most widely known of these are, 'Just as I am,' and 'My God, my Father, while I stray.' Her verse is characterized by tenderness of feeling, plaintive simplicity, deep devotion, and perfect rhythm. For those in sickness and sorrow she has sung as few others have." Julian lists 24 of her other hymns as being still occasionally used. I personally didn't recognize any of those titles. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcJuAIA

Just As I Was Going Away

See Braes of Strathblane (File: McCST053)

Just as the Sun Went Down

DESCRIPTION: "After the din of a battle roar, Just at the close of day," two soldiers lay dying. Each olds a lock of hair, one gray, one brown -- one is from mother, the other a lover. Both breathe final prayers and die "Just as the sun went down."
AUTHOR: Lyn Udall (source: Spaeth)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Spaeth, Weep Some More, My Lady)
KEYWORDS: soldier mother lover death
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 95, pp. 119-121, "Just As the Sun Went Down" (4 texts plus a fragment)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 257-258, "Just As the Sun Went Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #2, "(I Saw Esau)" (1 fragment)
Roud #4873
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Last Fierce Charge" [Laws A17] (theme of two farewells to mother and lover)
SAME TUNE:
After a Shaft Pay Day ("After the roar of a shaft pay night, Just at the break of day") (by Henry Carey) (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, p. 53)
NOTES [36 words]: This is so similar to "The Last Fierce Charge" that I have to suspect literary dependence. This is probably the weaker song, though; it lacks the highly effective device of each soldier asking the other's help. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Stou095

Just As the Tide Is Flowing

See Just As the Tide Was Flowing (File: GrMa066)

Just As the Tide was A-Flowing

See Just As the Tide Was Flowing (File: GrMa066)

Just As the Tide Was Flowing

DESCRIPTION: A sailor and girl stop "Beneath the shade and branches round, What they done there will never be known So long as the tides are flowing." She gives him gold. He goes to the alehouse and drinks "to the girl that never said no" or spent it on other girls.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3634))
KEYWORDS: courting lover sailor gold
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North,South)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 615, "Just As the Tide Is Flowing"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 616, "Just As the Tide Is Flowing" (2 texts)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 108-109, "Just As the Tide Was Flowing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #59, "Just As the Tide Was Flowing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 66, "Down Where the Tide Was Flowing" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #30, "Just As the Tide Was a-Flowing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1105
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "Just As the Tide Was A-Flowing" (on Voice12)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3634), "Just As the Tide Was Flowing," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(1951), Harding B 11(1952), "Just As the Tide Was Flowing"; Johnson Ballads 1837, "Tide is Flowing"; Firth c.12(274), "Just As the Tide is Flowing"
File: GrMa066

Just As Well Get Ready

DESCRIPTION: Just as well to get ready, you got to die" (2x) "May be today or tomorrow, You can't tell the minute or the hour, Just as well...." "Sinner get ready...." "Just as well to love your enemies...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (McTell)
KEYWORDS: death religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
Roud #12327
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "You Got To Get Ready" (on MJHurt05)
Blind Willie McTell, "Just As Well Get Ready, You Got To Die" (on USWMcTell01)
File: RdJAWGRe

Just As Well Get Ready, You Got To Die

See Just As Well Get Ready (File: RdJAWGRe)

Just Because (You Think You're So Pretty)

DESCRIPTION: "Just because you think you're so pretty, And just because your momma thinks you're hot... You've caused me to spend all my money... Well, I'm telling you, Baby, I'm through with you." When she's lonesome, he won't pay the bills. He won't be Santa Claus
AUTHOR: Sydny Robin, Joe Shelton, Bob Shelton (source: www.lyrics.com)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Nelstone's Hawaiians)
KEYWORDS: love rejection separation money
FOUND IN:
Roud #17859
RECORDINGS:
Hackberry Ramblers, "Just Because" (Bluebird B6069, 1935)
Fran Hendrickson, "Just Because" (Piotr-Archive #290, recorded 10/07/2022)
Lone Star Cowboys, "Just Because" (Bluebird B6052, 1935; rec. 1933)
Nelstone's Hawaiians, "Just Because" (Victor V40273, 1930; rec. 1929)
Prairie Ramblers, "Just Because" (ARC 5-11-51, 1935)
Shelton Brothers, "Just Because" (Decca 5100, 1935)
NOTES [148 words]: Wow, there were a lot of bitter country musicians in the 1930s....
This song inspired at least two sequels, "Answer to 'Just Because'" and "Just Because #3," by 1940; because it's not always possible to tell which is which, I've cut off the list of 78s with the year 1935, when the first sequel appeared. The song certainly continued to be recorded after that -- by Elvis Presley among others, as well as Les Paul very early in his career.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 293, estimates that this was the fiftieth most popular song in America in 1948, peaking at #13 in June 1948 (#1 for the year being "My Happiness"); it appears this popularity was due mostly to a recording by Frankie Yankovic.
Despite all those recordings, actual traditional collections seem to be very few. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio290

Just Before the Battle, Mother

DESCRIPTION: "Just before the battle, Mother, I am thinking most of you.... Farewell, mother, you may never Press me to your heart again But O, you'll not forget me, Mother, If I'm numbered with the slain." The singer will be true to the cause despite missing Mother
AUTHOR: George F. Root
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: war battle Civilwar mother nonballad
FOUND IN: US Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Root-StoryOfAMusicalLife-GeorgeFRoot, pp. 243-245, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 102-105, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 151-153, "Just Before the Battle Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 12-13, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 230-231, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 74, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (1 text)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 7, "Just Before the Battle Mother" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 117-118, 'Just Before the Battle, Mother" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 118-119, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (1 text)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, p. 118, "Just Behind the Battle, Mother" (1 text, a parody)
Heart-Songs,pp. 370-371, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1174, pp.. 80-81, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (14 references)
Dime-Song-Book #12, p. 14, "Just before the Battle, Mother" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 280, "Just Before The Battle, Mother" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 81-82, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (1 text)
DT, JSTBATTL* (JSTBATT2)
ADDITIONAL: Wehman's Song Book [of 148 Songs] No. 59 (New York, n.d. (digitized by Internet Archive)), p. 7, "Just Before the Battle Mother" (1 text) [see notes re source]
ST RJ19102 (Full)
Roud #4263
RECORDINGS:
James Doherty, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (Edison 51109, 1923)
Arthur Fields, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (Grey Gull 4201/Radiex 4201, 1928)
Liberty Quartet, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (Emerson 943, 1912)
Monroe Quartet, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (OKeh 45133, 1927)
J. W. Myers, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (CYL: Columbia 32433, c. 1904)
Will Oakland, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (CYL: Edison 297, c. 1897) (CYL: Edison [BA] 1516, 1912)
Charlie Oaks, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (Vocalion 15345, 1926) (Vocalion 5112, 1927)
Ellen Emma Power, "Just Before the Battle Mother" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Scotty the Drifter (The Singing Cowboy) [pseud. for Benny Borg], "Just Before the Battle Mother" (Decca 5143, 1935)
Unidentified tenor, "Just Before the Battle Mother" (Busy Bee A-55, c. 1906)
Wheeler & Ballard "Just Before the Battle, Mother" (Resona 75074, 1920)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1953), "Just Before the Battle Mother" ("Just before the battle mother"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also 2806 b.10(122), 2806 b.9(14), 2806 c.8(284), 2806 c.8(228), Harding B 11(1905), Harding B 11(1954), Firth c.14(265), 2806 c.14(27), "Just Before the Battle Mother"
LOCSinging, hc00023b, "Just Before the Battle, Mother" ("Just before the battle, mother"), Charles Magnus (Chicago), no date; also cw103180, cw103170, "Just Before the Battle, Mother"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell, Mother" (tune)
cf. "The Boys of Sanpete County" [Laws B26] (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Parody on Just Before the Battle (by Eugene T Johnson) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 124)
Union All Along the Line ("The crisis darkly looms before us, Our chains are being tighter drawn") (Foner, p. 163)
Spring Would Be (Harbin-Parodology, #34, p. 16)
NOTES [512 words]: [Earlier versions of the Ballad Index dated] George F. Root's famous Civil War song to "1862." Several websites show PDFs of the "original" sheet music dating it to 1862.
However...
A close, close look at these images shows a date of "1872." Since the song was indeed sung during the Civil War, this must be either a later edition or a typographical error.
Other secondary sources give the date of the song's appearance as "1864."
The mystery may be settled by P. H. Carder's meticulous biography, George F. Root, Civil War Songwriter (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008). On p. 222 Carder specifies, with mention [of] publishers' plate numbers, a publication by Root & Cady (Chicago) in the latter months of 1863. 
In far-off Utah, Miss Julia Young of the Deseret Musical Association had performed the song in concert as early as Dec. 16, 1863 (The Deseret News, March 2, 1864, p. 178).  I find various newspaper printings of the lyrics beginning with the Gallipolis [Ohio] Journal, May 5, 1864.
That suggests that Eugene F. Johnston's popular parody, "Skedaddling Song" (beginning "Just before the battle, mother,/ I was drinking mountain dew") is likely to have appeared some time in 1864. - JL
Root-StoryOfAMusicalLife-GeorgeFRoot, p. 136, writes of this song, "As I have said, when anything happened that could be voiced in a song, or when the heart of the nation was moved by particular circumstances or conditions caused by the war, I wrote what I thought would then express the emotions of the soldiers or the people. Picturing the conditions and thoughts of the soldier on the eve of an engagement, I wrote 'Just before the battle, mother' and 'WIthin the sound of the enemy's guns.'"
Regarding Wehman's Collection Norm Cohen writes, "Songbook #6 was undated, but most likely 1884-5." Each page except the first is headed Wehman's Universal Songster. The first page is undated but states, "Published Quarterly -- January, April, July and October. Norm Cohen's Finding List... has WE29, Universal Songster as "monthly serial ... [beginning] 1881 (Norm Cohen, A Finding List of American Secular Songsters Published Between 1860 and 1899 (Murfreesboro: Middle Tennessee State University), p. 150).
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin's text adds a final verse beginning "Leaning on the merit mother Of the one who went before." English broadsides Bodleian Harding B 11(1953) and 2806 b.10(122) add two verses from "The Battle Cry of Freedom" beginning "Yes we'll rally round the flag boys." - BS
According to E. Lawrence Abel, Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861-1865, Stackpole, 2000, pp. 196-197, this song was popular with both north and south, but it was not published in the Confederacy until 1865, when J. W. Davies & Sons came out with an edition. This omitted George F. Root's name, presumably because he was so well-known as a Northern songwriter. There were a few changes in the words, only one of which had any real significance: "Tell the traitors, IF around you" instead of "Tell the traitors ALL around you." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RJ19102

Just Before the Drawing, Sweetheart

DESCRIPTION: "Just before the drawing sweetheart, I am waiting for a claim, Way out here in Dewey County, Way out here upon the plain." He talks of his homestead. The drawing for land comes soon; if he wins a plot, he will bring her there in a prairie schooner
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (PIerre Weekly Free Press, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: home commerce gambling love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 485, "Just Before the Drawing, Sweetheart" (1 text)
File: CAFS2485

Just Beyond the River

See Near the Cross (File: RcJKMNtC)

Just Forty Years Ago

See Twenty Years Ago (Forty Years Ago) (File: R869)

Just from Dawson (Deadwood on the Hills)

DESCRIPTION: "A Dawson City miner lay dying in the ice." The miner tells his comrade to send him back to "Deadwood in the hills" (of South Dakota), where there is as much gold (i.e. not much) and it is warmer. He dies and freezes solid; they send his body home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 ([Denver] "Miners' Magazine," November 1901, quoting the "Deadwood Pioneer," according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: death mining gold humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1898 - Yukon gold rush
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 132-133, "The Klondike Miner" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 440-441, "Just from Dawson" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 126-127, "Just from Dawson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 675, "Just from Dawson" (1 text)
Roud #9585
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cremation of Sam McGee" (theme)
cf. "Bingen on the Rhine" (tune)
NOTES [163 words]: As usual, the Lomax version of this presents problems. They actually attribute it (to F. A. and Edith H. Brewer), but there is no information about these two. And the Lomaxes did not scruple to rewrite pieces in this book. So we can hardly know the relationship between the Lomax text (set in Dawson and with the miner coming from Deadwood) and the Dean-FlyingCloud text (set in the Klondike and with the miner wishing to go to Gibbons on the Platte). There seem to be no other traditional texts. All we can say with certainty is that Dean's text is older. Plus it mentions a less-famous place. (Gibbon, Nebraska is indeed near the Platte, about halfway between Kearney and Grand Isle, but its population is numbered in the low thousands even today; Deadwood, though only slightly more populous, was famous as the site of an 1870s gold rush).
The oldest version of all, though, which is reprinted by Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, is a Dawson/Deadwood version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LxA440

Just Give Him One More As He Goes

See I'll Give You One More As You Go (File: R376)

Just Got Over

See I Just Got Over in the Heavenly Land (File: KiWa239J)

Just Jump Over the Garden Wall

See Jump Over the Garden Wall (File: KSUC101A)

Just Kick the Dust over my Coffin

DESCRIPTION: "Just kick the dust over my coffin, Say, 'There lies a jovial young lad'; Pile the earth upon my carcass, Then carve on the stone at my head, Oh ain't it a wonderful story That love will kill a man dead." Singer says not to bawl; tell his love he is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death burial love humorous
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 40, "Just Kick the Dust over my Coffin" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 40, "Just Kick the Dust over my Coffin" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #7861
NOTES [23 words]: I can't recall many humorous first-person died-for-love songs -- but this, if the two-stanza fragment in Brown is an indication, is one. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3040

Just Let this Be a Warning to Wife-stealers

See A Warning to Wife-Stealers (File: ChMS176F)

Just Like Me

DESCRIPTION: "I went up one pair of stairs. Just like me. There was a monkey. Just like me. I one'd it. I two'd it. I three'd it...." And so on, to "I ate [eight, eighted] it." Or "I went into the house, Just like me, I went upstairs, just..." ending with the monkey
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: animal food playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 51, "I went into the house, -- Just like me" (1 text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #86, "Catches" (3 texts, but only the first is this)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 106, "Just Like Me" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 170, "just Like Me"; "The Old Dead Horse" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #87, "(I Went Up One Pair of Stairs)" (1 text)
Roud #20098
NOTES [52 words]: Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes's second text is about a dead horse, not stairs: "I saw an old dead horse. I one it; I saw an old dead horse. I two it...." But the gimmick is the same; I'm sure it belongs here. In fact, it almost looks as if Delamar's two texts are separated portions of the same rhyme. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Newe086

Just Like the Ivy

DESCRIPTION: An old garden wall is covered in ivy. An old man talks to a young woman. He says, "Some day you'll be forgetting me." She says, "When you grow older I'll be constant and true Just like the ivy [clinging to the wall], I'll cling to you."
AUTHOR: A. J. Mills and Harry Castling (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (source: sheet music)
KEYWORDS: age love dialog nonballad youth
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 77, "Just Like the Ivy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16228
NOTES [17 words]: Thanks to Dr. Ortwin Knorr for pointing out the sheet music with the authorship and date information. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: OCC077

Just Now

DESCRIPTION: "Sanctify me (x5), Just now (x3), Sanctify me." "Good religion...." "Come to Jesus...." Presumably any reigious sentiment that is four syllables long can be used.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates), where it is said to have been recorded 25 years earlier
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 67, "Just Now" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12023
File: AWG067A

Just One Girl

DESCRIPTION: "I'm in love with a sweet little girlie, only one, only one...." "Just one girl (x2), There are others, I know, but they're not my Pearl... I'll be happy forever with just one girl." He says that, though poor, they are of age to marry and will be happy
AUTHOR: Words: Karl Kennett / Music: Lyn Udall
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: love marriage
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 789, "Just One Girl" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 146-147, "Just One Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 256-257, "Just One Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 252, "Just One Girl Waltz" (1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Margaret Bradford Boni, editor, _Songs of the Gilded Age_, with piano arrangements by Norman Lloyd and illustrations by Lucille Corcos, Golden Press, 1960, pp. 68-70, "Just One GIrl" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R789 (Partial)
Roud #7419
File: R789

Just Over In the Glory Land

See Over In the Glory Land (File: RcOitGlL)

Just Plain Folks

DESCRIPTION: "To a mansion in the city came a couple old and gray To meet their son who left them long ago." The son, now rich, greets them coldly; the father says, "We're just plain folks, your mother and me." They leave him to his life; they are too ordinary for him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Arkansas Woodchopper)
KEYWORDS: family age separation reunion
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 862, "Just Plain Folks" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 180-181, "Just Plain Folks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7533
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "Just Plain Folks" (Conqueror 7881, 1931)
File: R862

Just Remember Pearl Harbor

DESCRIPTION: "Wasn't that an awful time at Pearl Harbor? What a time, what a time... When the Japs came passing by, Three thousand lost their lives." The bombings of the ships are mentioned, and the singer says, like Moses, the Americans won't give up
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: battle war death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
December 7, 1941 - Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor damages most of the battleships of the U. S. Pacific Fleet
December 8, 1941 - Japanese attack the Philippines and other Pacific targets
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 241, "Just Remember Pearl Harbor" (1 text)
Roud #6624
NOTES [202 words]: This is a very strange piece, in that nearly every line is reminiscent of some traditional song or other (notably "Wasn't That a Mighty Time," but also "The Titanic (I - It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down)" [Laws D24] and "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" and others). But it doesn't seem to scan to any of them, or much of anything else for that matter.
The song was collected from schoolchildren apparently in 1943; is it possible that they or one of their teachers assembled it? It might explain the style of the piece.
It's hard to say how much after Pearl Harbor this song was written; there are no real dated items except the attack itself. The only person mentioned is Douglas MacArthur, and this is confusing. It does not mention his successful Pacific campaign. But neither does it mention his badly mismanaged defense of the Philippines, in which he let his entire air force be destroyed on the ground, and instead of retiring his inadequate garrison to Bataan at first opportunity, at first tried to slug it out with the Japanese, leaving him with neither the troops nor the supplies to defend himself.
There was a 1942 popular song, "Remember Pearl Harbor," by Don Reid and Sammy Kay. This is not it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BrII241

Just Tell Them That You Saw Me

DESCRIPTION: "While strolling down the street one even, alone on pleasure bent," the singer sees a girl he knew at home. He offers to take a message home. She begs him to merely "tell them that you saw me"; she hopes to improve her pitiful condition before going home
AUTHOR: Paul Dresser (1857-1906)
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (sheet music by Howly, Haviland & Co.)
KEYWORDS: home hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p, 124, "Just Tell Them That You Saw Me" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 46, pp. 63-64, "Just Tell Them THat You Saw Me" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 153, "just Tell Them That You Saw Me" (1 text plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 201-202, "Just Tell Them You Saw Me" (1 tune, partial text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 166-169, "Just Tell Them That You Saw Me" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1895 sheet music)
Margaret Bradford Boni, editor, _Songs of the Gilded Age_, with piano arrangements by Norman Lloyd and illustrations by Lucille Corcos, Golden Press, 1960, pp. 113-115, "Just Tell Them That You Saw Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Dean124 (Partial)
Roud #3528
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "Just Tell Them That You Saw Me" (Vocalion 5100, Vocalion 15324, rec. Apr. 16, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Told Them That I Saw You" (characters)
cf. "Oyster Stew" (parody)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Madge
The Wayward Girl
NOTES [75 words]: For the story of Paul Dresser, see the notes to "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away."
This idea seems to have been somewhat popular in the nineteenth century -- e.g. it seems to have been the basis for Dante Gabriel Rossetti's (unfinished) painting and associated poem "Found." There were many novels on the "Fallen Woman" theme, in which the woman often became a prostitute; Hardy's 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles" is perhaps the best-known of these.- RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Dean124

Just to Make a Change in Business

See We Need a Change in Business All Around (File: BBun235)

Just Tread on the Tail of Me Coat

DESCRIPTION: The singer went to school to learn reading, writing -- and fighting. "I've licked all the Murphys an' Finnegans, And all the McCarthys afloat, If you're wanting a fight and a fraction, Just tread on the tail of me coat." He uses his fist to regain love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #5)
KEYWORDS: fight clothes love rejection
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) Canada
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 474, "Just Tread on the Tail of Me Coat" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 108, pp. 136-138, "Mush, Mush, Mush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 3, "Tread on the Tail of Me Coat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 78-79, "The Tail iv Me Coat" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 56 and #5/64, p. 56, "The Tail iv Me Coat" (1 text)
Roud #4879
RECORDINGS:
John A. McLellan, "Mush Mush" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yip Yip Yip Tooraliaddy" (tune)
NOTES [48 words]: The 3/4 tune given by Randolph is quite close to (the verse of) "Rosin the Beau," leading me to initially suspect that it was a parody of that song. O. J. Abbott's tune was also in triple time. But Stout-FolkloreFromIowa's tune is in 4/4, so my speculation appears to have been wrong. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R474

Jut Gannon

DESCRIPTION: Jut Gannon is told to drive a mule team, so he does. The rest of the song consists of descriptions of other lumber-woods characters and short anecdotes about them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work animal moniker humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 71, "Jut Gannon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 228-230, "Jut Gannon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 116, "Jut Gannon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6497
NOTES [33 words]: The "moniker song" consists mostly of listing the names of one's compatriots, and perhaps telling humorous vignettes about each; it's common among lumberjacks, hoboes, and probably other groups. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be071

Jute Mill Song, The (Ten and Nine)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, dear me, the mill's gaen fast, And we pure shifters cannae get nae rest." The millers work hard for their "ten and nine" -- their small pay. The singer complains that "the world is ill divided -- them that work the hardest are the least provisded."
AUTHOR: Mary Brookbank
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (MacColl, "The Singing Island")
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes weaving technology
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 38, "The Jute Mill Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JUTEMIL*
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, p. 136, "The Jute Mill Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2585
File: JRVI136

K Is for Kathleen

See (game with lyrics filed under) What'll I Do with the Baby-O (File: R565)

K-i-s-s-i-n-g

See Sitting in a Tree (K-I-S-S-I-N-G, First Comes Love, Dick and Jane) (File: CarMF81A)

K.C. Moan

DESCRIPTION: Song fragment, with two floating verses: "I thought I heard that K.C. when she blowed/She blowed like my woman's on board" and "When I get back on that K.C. road/Gonna love my baby like I never loved before"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Andrew and Jim Baxter)
KEYWORDS: separation railroading nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 406-412, "KC Railroad/KC Moan" (3 texts plus a mass of fragments, 1 tune)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 102, "K.C. Moan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 242, (no title) (1 short text)
Roud #4958
RECORDINGS:
Andrew and Jim Baxter, "Kansas City Railroad Blues" (Victor 20962, 1927)
Memphis Jug Band, "K. C. Moan" (Victor 38558A, 1929; on AAFM3, BefBlues2)
Riley Puckett, "Kansas City Railroad" (Bluebird B5471, 1934/Montgomery Ward M-7042 [probably as "K. C. Railroad"]
George Walburn and Emmett Hethcox, "K.C. Railroad" (OKeh 45004); probably also "Kansas City Railroad Blues" (OKeh 45178)
[Jess] Young's Tenesee Band, "The Old K.C." (Columbia 15431-D, 1929)
NOTES [169 words]: The verses are vocal interludes in what is basically a slow dance tune, although they sound like they might well have originated in a work song. And, although it's located in Tennessee, Memphis is hardly part of Appalachia. Its music is more closely connected with the Mississippi delta region. - PJS
This sng shows, better than almost anything, the loose form of blues songs. Cohen's three versions all have roughly the same first verse: "Thought I/ought to hear that (old/lovin') KC blow... Blowed like she never blowed before/no more." But one of his versions goes on to include much of "Goin' down this road feelin' bad," plus the "Chilly winds" verse, a second is about a man rejected by a woman, and the third has verses about the KC train straining every nerve. It's one of those cases where there simply is no way to tell just where one song stops and another starts.
Cohen's three texts are at least held together by a common melody, but he notes that the Walburn/Hethcox recording has a different tune. - RBW
File: ADR102

K26 Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "K26 is a bloody fine boat, Her casing's painted white, She works her crew through the day And half the bleeding night."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy work
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 111, "The K26 Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More" (tune)
NOTES [232 words]: Wragg, p. 215, says that the K class of submarines were built starting in 1916. Seventeen were built during World War I. They seem to have been clumsy boats; Wragg lists none lost in enemy action but three lost to collisions (two of them with each other) and one foundered. More were finished after the war; K26 was the last.
Bagnasco, p. 23, says "The K Class were large boats, characterized by a high surface speed of 24 knots. This was achieved by the adoption of 10,000shp steam turbines. The fourteen units of the class were built so as to have a uniform group of boats that would be capable, because of their speed, of direct cooperation with the surface units of the Grand Fleet.
"However, various difficulties, such as lack of effective means of communication with surface ships, caused the project to be abandoned. The considerable length of these boats (338 ft (103m)) made them very difficult to maneuver when submerged. Consequently, it was very risky to take advantage of the high underwater speeds that could be achieved during the first fifteen minutes of submersion, using residual boiler pressure."
As a result, although some submarines older than the K class served in World War II, the K class had all been removed from commission by the time of World War II. Which makes it quite surprising that there was anyone still singing this song when Tawney was collecting. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn111A

Kafoozalem (I)

DESCRIPTION: Kafoozalem is the daughter of a Turk "who did the Prophet's holy work." A westerner, Sam, loves her and tries to steal her away. The father discovers the plot and has them strangled
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love foreigner death homicide
FOUND IN: US Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan5 1008, "Kafoozelum" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 131-132, "Kafoozalem" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 122-123, "Kafoozelum" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST SRW131 (Full)
Roud #10135
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kathusalem (Kafoozelum) (I)"
cf. "Laidy Maisry' [Child 65] (plot)
NOTES [51 words]: Greig/Duncan5: "It is unclear from the verse collected whether this is the broadside/music-hall song about the attempted elopement with the Daughter of the Babo or a version nearer to the bawdy song of the harlot of Jerusalem." I have to go by the chorus: "Oh oh Kafoozelum, the daughter of the Babo." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: SRW131

Kafoozelum

See Kafoozalem (I) (File: SRW131)

Kafoozelum (I)

See Kathusalem (Kafoozelum) (II) (File: EM204)

Kafusalem

See Kathusalem (Kafoozelum) (II) (File: EM204)

Kail

DESCRIPTION: We get cold kail [cabbage], then hot kail, then kail with kail, then "we got kail after that again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: food humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1715, "Kail" (1 text)
Roud #13139
File: GrD81715

Kaimos tou Metanasti, O (The Immigrant's Heartbreak)

DESCRIPTION: Greek. "Pheugo, glukeia, (x3), manoula mou." "I depart, sweet one (x3), mother of mine." The singer hopes that neither his nor his mother's heart will break. He is going to America to earn money, but wonders what good it will do given his mother's sorrow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends); reportedly learned 1920
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage emigration hardtimes mother separation
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 439-440, "O Kaimos tou Metanasti (The Immigrant's Heartbreak)" (1 Greek text plus non-poetic English translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL439

Kaiser and the Hindenberger

DESCRIPTION: "Well the Kaiser said to the Hindenberger, Let's go to the fighting line." They want to conquer Europe. They order submarine warfare. The Kaiser promises Wilson to repay the losses, but the Americans go to war. The Kaiser gets heart disease
AUTHOR: Jim Couch (source: Roberts-SangBranchSettlers)
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Roberts-SangBranchSettlers); probably written 1918
KEYWORDS: humorous war technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #33, "Kaiser and the Hindenberger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3397
NOTES [51 words]: Paul von Hindenburg, the general referred to in this song, was the official commander of German forces by the end of World War I (and became president of Germany in 1925), but it was Erich Ludendorff who planned most of his campaigns, so the references to Hindenberg in this song are a little deceiving. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Robe033

Kaiser Bill Went Up the Hill

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Kaiser Bill went up the hill, To see if the war was over; General French got out of his trench And kicked him into Dover. He say if the bone man come, Stick your bayonet up his bum."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Opie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: war royalty jumprope | Kaiser Bill Wilhelm II Sir John French trench Dover
FOUND IN: Britain(England) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #293, "Kaiser Bill went up the hill" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 181, "Kaiser Bill" (1 very short text)
Roud #10798
NOTES [139 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes makes the obvious observation that "Kaiser Bill" is the British Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1949; ascended 1888, abdicated 1918). He fails to realize that "General French" is Sir John French (1852-1925), who commanded the British Expeditionary Force in 1914 and stayed in command of the British army in France until December 1915, when his inability to work well with the French or to come up with any original ideas caused him to be replaced by Sir Douglas Haig (who was no more original and even more prone to ordering bloodbaths, but at least was better at working with others).
Whether the mention of French -- and the fact that the rhyme approves of him -- means we can date the song to 1914-1915 (or, even more specifically, to 1914, before French's incompetence in his job became evident) I do not know. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR293

Kaiser's Dream, The

DESCRIPTION: Kaiser dreams "nations great and small all bowing down to him." So he plans a war against Belgium, France, Russia, England and Americay. But the nations fight back. "They've driven us from Paris." "I've made a grand mistake"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: war dream death humorous patriotic
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, pp. 47-50, "The Kaiser's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 224-227, "The Kaiser's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25336 and 26678
File: Guig224

Kanab Tragedy

See The Recent Kanab Tragedy (File: Burt243)

Kangaroo, The

See Carrion Crow (File: LoF072)

Kansas

See In Kansas (File: EM049)

Kansas Boys

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Kansas City Blues

DESCRIPTION: "River is deep and the river is wide, Gal I love is on the other side. I'm gonna move to Kansas City... Move, honey babe, where they don't 'low you." Miscellaneous verses about women, prostitution (?), drugs, loneliness, the girl the singer loves....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, "Red" Willie Smith)
KEYWORDS: drugs love whore travel home
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 77, "Kansas City Blues" (1 text)
DT, KCBLES*
Roud #15481
RECORDINGS:
"Red" Willie Smith, "Kansas City Blues" (on NFMAla1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ohio River, She's So Deep and Wide" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [17 words]: This song also became popular in jazz circles, after being popularized by Joe Turner and others. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FSWB077C

Kansas City Railroad

See K.C. Moan (File: ADR102)

Kansas Cyclone

DESCRIPTION: Singer used to own a ranch but he's now working as a cowboy; a "twisting cyclone" (tornado) has destroyed his farm and killed his family and herd. He's now punching cows to pay off the mortgage and "payin' for the cattle that the cyclone blew away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Henry, from Grif Crawford)
KEYWORDS: home death farming work disaster storm animal children wife family cowboy worker
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 90, "Cyclone Blues" (1 short text, with no mention of Kansas but the same plot)
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "The Kansas Cyclone" (on Thieme02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shady Grove" (tune)
File: RcKansCy

Kansas Emigrant's Song

DESCRIPTION: "We crossed the prairies as of old The pilgrims crossed the sea, To make the West as they the East The Homestead of the free." The singers will make the Bible "our van," and will plant and subdue the prairie
AUTHOR: Words: John Greenleaf Whittier (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Kirwin Chief, accordng to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: home travel farming
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 498, "Kansas Emigrant's Song" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 443-444, "The Kansas Emigrant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V60799
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Auld Lang Syne" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
File: CAFS2498

Kansas Farmer's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come, listen to a granger, you soft-headed stranger.... I left a good farm, and, meaning no harm, I emigrated my family to this Kansas frontier." Now he is in poverty. He vows to leave and head for Boston
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Dighton [Kansas] Journal, Jan. 28, 1892, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: farming hardtimes warning
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 499, "The Kansas Farmer's Lament" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 470-471, "The Kansas Farmer's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: CAFS2502

Kansas Fool, The

DESCRIPTION: "We have the land to raise the wheat, And everything that's good to eat." "Oh, Kansas fool (x2), The banker makes of you a tool.... But twelve cent corn gives me alarm And makes me want to sell my farm." The singer complains of hard times and bankers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Alliance and Labor Songster, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: home derivative farming
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 499, "Kansas Fool" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 476-477, "The Kansas Fool" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4899
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beulah Land" (tune, form) and references there
NOTES [18 words]: Roud lumps a great many "Beulah Land" parodies under his #4899, but this seems clearly a distinct item. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CAFS2500

Kansas Jayhawker Song

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a Jayhawker girl from a Jayhawker state, I wear Jayhawker flowers with Jayhawker grace." "For the Jayhawker girls and the Jayhawker boys All find a warm heart in the old home tonight." The Jayhawkers love their home despite its bad weather
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore); said to have been in existence in 1898
KEYWORDS: home clothes farming
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 142-143, "Kansas Jayhawker Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 450-451, "Kansas Jayhawker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4898
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There'll Be a Hot Time (In the Old Town Tonight)" (tune) and references there
File: SaKo142

Kansas Land (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I've reached the land of corn and wheat... I bought my land from Uncle Sam, And now I'm happy as I clam." The singer has animals of good ancestry. He has been in Kansas for a long time, but now increased population is squeezing him out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (collected from Grace Philbrook, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: home derivative farming
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 499, "Kansas Land" (1 text plus an excerpt from "Beulah Land")
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 143-144, "Kansas Land" (1 text, which could either be a "Dakota Land" version rewritten for Kansas or a "Kansas Land" version with the references to the government removed)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 462, "Kansas Land, I"; p. 463, "Kansas Land, II" (2 texts, tune referenced; although the two are clearly not identical, they equally clearly go back to the same source)
Roud #4899
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beulah Land" (tune, form) and references there
cf. "Dakota Land" (form, plus the subject of problems living in the West)
NOTES [18 words]: Roud lumps a great many "Beulah Land" parodies under his #4899, but this seems clearly a distinct item. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CAFS2499

Kansas Land (II)

See Dakota Land (File: San280)

Kansas Line, The

See A Soldier from Missouri [Laws A16] (File: LA16)

Karo Song

DESCRIPTION: Floating-verse song, with chorus "Oh, hear my true love weeping, Oh, hear my true love sigh, I was gwinging down to Karo town, Down there to live and die." Verses about Old Master's habits, the possum up the 'simmon tree, and courting Miss Sallie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: courting floatingverses love
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 170-171, "Karo Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 119, ("Went to see my Sally") (1 fragment)
Roud #3444
NOTES [68 words]: Roud lumps this with the "Lynchburg Town" family, based on little more that I can see than a line in the chorus. There is hardly a word in the piece that isn't paralleled elsewhere, but the chorus seems relatively unique.
Scarborough thinks the Karo of the title is Cuero ("Cwaro"), Texas, but given the composite nature of the piece, I think the reference -- as in most folk songs -- is to Cairo, Illinois. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: ScaNF170

Kassie Jones

See Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)

Katahdin Green

DESCRIPTION: "Katahdin is a pretty place" full of pretty girls; "You'd think it was some nightingale When they begin to sing." There are fish and skipping lambs. The singer hopes John Ross's lumber company comes. The singer and friends will drink and toast Katahdin
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: logger fishing drink
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 76-78, "Katahdin Green" (4 texts)
Roud #7089
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Ross" (lyrics)
File: EcSm076

Kate A Stor

See The Christmas Letter (File: RcChrLet)

Kate Adams, The

See notes under I'm Going Down the River (File: MWhee050)

Kate and Her Horns [Laws N22]

DESCRIPTION: Kate's intended husband suddenly jilts her for a rich girl. Kate obtains a cow's hide and horns, and meets her lover disguised as the devil. This "devil" threatens him if he does not return to Kate. He does; she reveals the truth as their child is born
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster); a broadside exists from c. 1690)
KEYWORDS: courting trick marriage Devil childbirth
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws N22, "Kate and Her Horns"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 231-232, "Kate and her Horns" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 125, "Kate and Her Horns" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 25, "Kate and her Horns" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 413-416, "Kate and Her Horns" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 70, "The Clothier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 159, "Kate and the Cowhide" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 101, pp. 137-138, "Kate and the Clothier" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #51, "Kate and the Cowhide" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 184-186, "Kate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 132, "Kate and Her Horns" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 145-147, "Kate and Her Horns" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN3130, "You that in merriment delight"
DT 452, KATEHORN* KATEHRN2*
ADDITIONAL: J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VIII Part 2 [Part 24], pp. 430-431, "Crafty Kate of Colchester" or "The False-Hearted Clothier Frighted into Good Manners" ("You that in merriment delight, pray listen now to what I write") (1 text) [(J. Butler (Worcester), no date]
Roud #555
RECORDINGS:
Carmen McCord Hicks, "Kate and the Cowhide" (Piotr-Archive #473, recorded 01/29/2023)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(15b), "Crafty Kate of Colchester" or "The False-Hearted Clothier Frighted into Good Manners" ("You that in merriment delight") [almost entirely illegible], J. White (Newcastle), 1711-1769
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jealous Husband Outwitted" (plot)
cf. "The Lawyer and Nell" (plot)
cf. "Maurice Kelly" (gimmick)
SAME TUNE:
The Jealous Lover or The Languishing Swain [per Ebsworth's broadside]
File: LN22

Kate and the Clothier

See Kate and Her Horns [Laws N22] (File: LN22)

Kate and the Cowhide

See Kate and Her Horns [Laws N22] (File: LN22)

Kate Dalrymple

DESCRIPTION: Kate Dalrymple is an old maid. Her "gruesome and grim" face defend her from wooers. When she inherits a friend's estate she has many wooers but marries Willie Speedyspool the weaver, whom she had always favored.
AUTHOR: William Watt (1792-1859) (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (Ross)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage bequest money weaving humorous oldmaid
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #177, p. 1, "Kate Dalrymple" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland [second series] (Paisley, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 19-21, "Kate Dalrymple" (1 text)
J Ross, editor, The Book of Scottish Poems (Edinburgh, 1878 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 757, "Kate Dalrymple" (1 text)
Roud #6287
File: Grg177k

Kate from Branch, The

DESCRIPTION: Kate out of Branch, at anchor five miles out, is run down at night by Royalist, "an English man-o'-war that's bound for St John's town" The crew is lost and one body is found drifting, and the news and body taken to his parents at Salmonier
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: burial death sea ship crash grief drowning fishing wreck father mother
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 64, "The Kate from Branch" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18218
RECORDINGS:
Mike Kent, "Kate O'Branch" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Leonard Molloy, "Kate O'Branch" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mrs. Ryan, "The Kate of Branch" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [178 words]: On her recording, Mrs. Ryan puts the date of the wreck before 1850.
The outports named, Branch, St Mary's, and Salmonier, are around St Mary's Bay on the south shore of the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland. I cannot find any record of the sinking.
The following information is quoted by permission from Michael Phillips (see the Maritime History site by Michael Phillips and Jane Phillips): "I include the career and list of captains for the first three Royalists in my sailing ship history and none of them visited Canada. The most likely candidate is number four which was a wooden, single screw, steam sloop, with sails, which was launched in December 1861 and broken up in 1875. She spent 1863-67 and 1868-72 on the North American and West Indies station with Cdr. Nelson '65-'66 and Cdr. Jones '68-'69.... [According to the Navy Lists] no officer named Butler ever served in Royalist, the only name that could sound vaguely similar is Cdr. Bateman who commanded her in the 1870s after Jones.... The fifth Royalist, 1883-1923, served in Africa and Australia." - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: LeBe064

Kate Kearney

DESCRIPTION: Kate Kearney lives on the banks of Killarney. "Fatal's the glance of Kate Kearney; For that eye is so modestly beaming... Beware of her smile... And who dares inhale her sigh's spicy gale, must die by the breath of Kate Kearney"
AUTHOR: Charles Lever (1806-1872)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1843 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(431)); Jon W. Finson, _The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song_, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 276, dates it c. 1835
KEYWORDS: courting beauty nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 17, "Kate Kearney" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1175, p. 81, "Kate Kearney" (1 reference)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 107, "Kate Kearney" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 20 and #1/64 p. 20, "Kate Kearney" (1 text, plus an "Answer to Kate Kearney)
Roud #V1171
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(431), "Kate Kearney", W. & T. Fordyce (Newcastle), 1832-1842; also Harding B 11(1960), Harding B 11(1966), 2806 b.11(173), Harding B 28(150), Harding B 11(2067), Harding B 11(430), Firth b.25(142), Harding B 11(1961), Harding B 11(1963) [torn], Harding B 11(1958), Johnson Ballads fol. 113, "Kate Kearney"
SAME TUNE:
The Lord of Barrandwon, part 2 ("Oh, did you not hear of John Harney? I don't think he comes from Killarney.") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p, 58; Anderson-GoldrushSongster, p. 56)
NOTES [196 words]: O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland makes the attribution [to Charles Lever]. Kate Kearney is a character in Lever's Lord Kilgobbin published as a serial in 1870-1872 (source: The University of Adelaide ebooks site). That would mean he created the character in song no later than 1842, 28 years before the serial was published. - BS
Hazel Felleman's The Best Loved Poems of the American People, p. 12, attributes this to Sady Morgan. I have found no other references to this author. The Amsco publication The Library of Irish Music lists the words as by "Lady Morgan" (which obviously is a variant of the same thing), with "The Beardless Boy" as tune. Still, the attribution to Lever seems much stronger.
There is another broadside heroine named Kate Kearney (see broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:156, "Kate Kearney with the Silver Eye," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C); the song is not the same, but whether it inspired Lever, or was inspired by him, I cannot tell. Maybe *that* was written by Lady Sady Morgan?
There was yet another pop song, "Kate Kearney," words by J. Everett Fay, music by James B. Oliver, but it's from 1904, so it's clearly not a source for this song! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OCon017

Kate Murray

DESCRIPTION: The singer is in love with Kate Murray, "a warm lively girl with the love in her eye." He describes her as beautiful with a heart "as pure as the heart of a saint; Oh, you'll not find a colyeen so lovely as she From Ballinacargy to Donaghadee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry)
KEYWORDS: love beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, p. 79, "Kate Murray" (1 text)
Roud #6539
NOTES [15 words]: Ballinacargy is in County Westmeath, Leinster. Donaghadee is in County Down, Ulster. - BS.
File: HayU079

Kate O'Branch, The

See The Kate from Branch (File: LeBe064)

Kate O'Donahue

See Let Mr. McGuire Sit Down (File: RcLMMSD)

Kate of Ballinamore

DESCRIPTION: Kate's father threatens to kill the singer rather than have him marry Kate. Kate recommends he enlist to escape; besides, "I'd like to be a brave young soldier's bride." He joins the Ninety-Eights and gets a letter that she has married a farmer's son.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (recording, Geordie Hanna)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity soldier father
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #5172
RECORDINGS:
Geordie Hanna, "Kate of Ballinamore" (on Voice06)
File: RcKOBall

Kate of Branch, The

See The Kate from Branch (File: LeBe064)

Kate of Coleraine

DESCRIPTION: "The maidens of France may be graceful and merry, And stately and loving the damsels of Spain, But match me, in either, the daughters of Derry," especially Kate of Coleraine. The singer praises her looks at length, and hopes no unworthy man will court her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: beauty nonballad courting
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H684, p. 231, "Kate of Coleraine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7983
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kitty of Coleraine" (tune)
NOTES [27 words]: WIth its limping form and its references Kate perhaps being courted by a "helot" or "zealot," I think this must be a composed song, but I don't know by whom. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: HHH684

Kate of Glenkeen

DESCRIPTION: "By the banks of the Barrow residing Are girls of dark raven hair," but the queen of them all is Kate of Glenkeen. The singer describes her purity, her beauty, her fleetness of foot. He will meet her by the light of the starts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H41, pp. 231-232, "Kate of Glenkeen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7984
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Green Shore" [Laws Q27] (tune)
NOTES [94 words]: Sam Henry had no tune for this piece, so he set it to a traditional item he calls "Captain Black." This is equated with "She's a Daughter of Daniel O'Connell," i.e. presumably "Erin's Green Shore."
The tune, however, is curious, ending on the second rather than the tonic (or else it is in Dorian, and starts on the minor seventh, but it sounds as major to me). I've encountered three tunes for "Erin's Green Shore," only one of which (Connie Dover's; she doesn't list her source) has any real similarity to Henry's tune -- and they are by no means identical. - RBW
File: HHH041

Kate's Big Shirt

DESCRIPTION: Saturday night "Kate stopped up to iron her clothes" and "Tom stopped up for company." He asks "Kate does that big shirt belong to you?" It does. They strip and climb in the shirt together, but can't get out when they try. (They end up happily married.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: clothes bawdy humorous wordplay marriage
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 313, "The Shirt" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 69-70, "Kate's Big Shirt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, pp. 139-140, "The Big Shirt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5866
RECORDINGS:
George Decker, "Kate's Big Shirt" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Great Big Sea Hove in Long Beach" (tune)
NOTES [124 words]: Perhaps Greig/Duncan2 and Peacock should be split. Peacock's informant said his song, recorded in 1959, was local to Fortune (Newfoundland) and the tune makes that plausible. Given the Greig/Duncan2 text, which shares a story but few lines with Peacock, it seems to me more likely that Peacock is a badly remembered version recast into a familiar musical format. Greig/Duncan2 records no tune but the format would not fit "A Great Big Sea Hove in Long Beach." - BS
The version in Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection appears to go with Peacock, and gives a full version in which the girl's parents hear the young couple crashing around in the shirt and force them to marry. This might be an attempt to put a clean ending on a bawdy song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Pea069

Katey of Lochgoil

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on the year Eleventy-nine, And March the fortieth day, That Katey of Lochgoil, my boys, To sea she'll bore away." The singer vows he will not sail again after strange voyage with "Tonald More an' Tugald More, Shon Tamson an' Shon Roy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1857 (The Universal Comic Songbook)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship talltale humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 241-243, "Katey of Lochgoil" (1 text)
Roud #13088
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Rover" (theme)
NOTES [31 words]: Sort of a Scottish version of "The Irish Rover." There are no lyrics in common, but the feeling is identical.
Thanks to Jim Dixon for pointing out the Universal Comic Songbook version. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: FVS241

Kath'rine Jaffray

See Katharine Jaffray [Child 221] (File: C221)

Kathaleen Ny-Houlahan

See Caitilin Ni Uallachain (Cathaleen Ni Houlihan) (File: SBoA094)

Katharine Jaffray [Child 221]

DESCRIPTION: Squire courts farmer's daughter; father forbids her to see him. She is to be wed to another. He invades the wedding. The bride's brother challenges him; he says he comes in friendship and asks to kiss the bride. He takes her away from the hall
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802
KEYWORDS: wedding nobility trick elopement disguise clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (26 citations):
Child 221, "Katharine Jaffray" (12 texts)
Bronson 221, "Katharine Jaffray" (11 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 221, "Katharine Jaffray" (5 versions: #1, #5, #6, #10, #11)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 299-305, "Katherine Janfarie" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 31-35, "Lochinvar"; pp. 97-100, "Kathrine Jaffrey" (2 texts, in the first of which -- despite the title -- the hero is called Lochnavar)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #104, pp. 1-2, "Katherine Jaffray"; #156, pp. 1-2, "Katherine Jaffray"; #105, p. 3, "Katherine Jaffray" (1 text plus 3 fragments)
Greig/Duncan5 1024, "Katherine Jaffray" (4 texts plus 2 fragments on pp. 622-623, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 66, "Young Lochinvar's Courtship" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 108, "The Edinburgh Lord and the Country Maid" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 400-406, "The Squire of Edinburgh Town" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 261-268, "The Squire of Eninboroughtown" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 141-144, "Katharine Jaffray" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 39, "Katharine Jaffray" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 44, "Kath'rine Jaffray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 79-83, "Katharine Jaffray" (2 texts plus 1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 11, "Katharine Jaffray" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Peacock, pp. 200-201, "Hembrick Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 20, "The Green Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 578-579, "Katherine Jaffray" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 271, "Katharine Jaffray" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 88, "Katharine Johnstone" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 16, "The Green Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 263-264+357-358, "Katharine Jaffray" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 63-64, "Katherine Janfarie"; pp. 64-65, "Catharine Johnstone" (2 texts)
DT 221, LOCHNGAR* LOCHNGR2* (the latter listed in some versions as Child 211)
ADDITIONAL: William & Susan Platt, _Folktales of the Scottish Border_, published 1919 as _Stories of the Scottish Border_, republished by Senate Press, 1999, pp. 102-107, "Katharine Janfarie," "Lochinvar" (1 text plus the Walter Scott poem)
ST C221 (Full)
Roud #93
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Bennett, "Hembrick Town" (on PeacockCDROM)
Nora Cleary, "The Green Wedding" (on Voice06)
Cecilia Costello, "The Green Wedding (Catharine Jaffray)" (on FSBBAL2)
Thomas Moran, "The Green Wedding (Catharine Jaffray)" (on FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #11}
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2364), "The Squire of Edinburgh!," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also 2806 c.11(72), "The Squire of Edinburgh!"; 2806 c.15(151), 2806 b.9(233), "The Squire of Edinburgh Town"
SAME TUNE:
The Bold Engineer ("O bully George B. has come from the west" [referring to George B. McClellan, and set to the tune of "Young Lockinvar" (sic.)]) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 187)
Clearing the Kitchen and White House ("Old Tippecanoe has come out of the West") (Harrison campaign song, to the tune of "Young Lochinvar") (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p. 61)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lochingar
Lochnagar
Katherine Jeffreys
NOTES [247 words]: This is the inspiration for Walter Scott's poem "Young Lochinvar." - PJS, RBW
For the latter poem widely-reprinted poem (24 citations in Granger's Index to Poetry -- though most of the anthologies are the type which never contain anything else with folk roots), see e.g. Iona & Peter Opie, The Oxford Book of Narrative Verse, pp. 160-161. The poem, according to the Opies, was rewritten to fit into the book Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field, where he needed the hero to carry his bride north.
Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth place "The Squire of Edinburgh Town" among the secondary ballads -- those derived from but not identical to the Child Ballads. Child himself seems to have thought that "Squire" was a rewrite of "Katherine Jaffray." But Bronson (and Roud) lump them, and given the amount of common material and the lack of individual identity in "Squire," it seems to me proper to do the same. - RBW
Greig/Duncan5 quoting Duncan: "Child printed twelve versions of this; yet our two chief ones have no close correspondence with any of them. [B] is on the whole nearest to Buchan's version; yet not only does it omit a good many of his stanzas and put things differently, but it includes details that he does not have.... [A], though briefer, is quite an independent form, complete in itself. Though it frequently recalls other versions, it does not coincide throughout, even in a general way, with any one, many of its points being quite distinct, even in whole stanzas...." - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: C221

Katharine Janfarie

See Katharine Jaffray [Child 221] (File: C221)

Katharine Johns(t)on(e)

See Katharine Jaffray [Child 221] (File: C221)

Katherine Janfarie

See Katharine Jaffray [Child 221] (File: C221)

Kathleen

DESCRIPTION: "There was a lord in Ireland, A lord of high degree," whose second wife abuses his daughter Kathleen and exiles her. A page promises to bring Kathleen back. He finds the beautiful girl, brings her home, and marries her
AUTHOR: John Greenleaf Whittier (Source: Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Margaret Smith's Journal..., according to Flanders)
KEYWORDS: stepmother father abuse exile reunion servant
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 41-43, "Kathleen" (1 text, 1 tune, much reduced from Whittier's original)
Roud #4655
File: FNG041

Kathleen Casey

DESCRIPTION: Kathleen Casey is buried in county Clare. Her lover had promised to be true but did not go to the wedding. No one knows where he went. She died before six months passed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: wedding betrayal death Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 45, "Kathleen Casey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V16002
File: McB1045

Kathleen Mavourneen

DESCRIPTION: "Kathleen Mavourneen! The gray dawn is breaking, The horn of the hunter is heard on the hill." The singer bids Kathleen to awake, as they must soon part. "It may be for years and it may be forever" before he can return to her and Ireland
AUTHOR: Words: "Crawford" (see notes) / Music: Frederick William Nicholls Crouch (1808-1896)
EARLIEST DATE: 1838 (British publication, according to Williams; published 1840 in the United States)
KEYWORDS: love separation parting exile
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 252-253, "Kathleen Mavourneen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 253, "Kathleen Mavourneen" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #2/72, p. 26 and #2/64, p. 26, "Kathleen Mavourneen" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 376-378, "Kathleen Mavourneen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #90, "Kathleen Mavourneen" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 36, "Kathleen Mavourneen" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1177, p. 81, "Kathleen Mavourneen" (1 reference)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 192-197, "Kathleen Mavourneen" (1 text)
DT, KMAVOURN*
ADDITIONAL: Manus O'Conor, Irish Com-All-Ye's (New York, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 86, "Kathleen Mavourneen" (1 text)
ST FSWB253C (Full)
Roud #13858
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:069, "Kathleen Mavourneen," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.1269(178a), "Kathleen Mavourneen," Robert M'Intosh (Glasgow), 1849
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dermot Astore" (characters)
SAME TUNE:
The birth-place of wit, and the home of hospitality, Ireland (per broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:069)
Wife of My Bosom ("Wife of my bosom, the midnight hangs o'er me") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 179)
NOTES [243 words]: According to Williams p. 34, "Mavourneen" is a popular word in Irish song because it comes from Irish Gaelic "mo mhuirnín," "my sweetheart."
Although most sources credit the words of this to Anne Barry Crawford, a fairly well-known poet, apparently the original reference was only to "(Mrs.) Crawford," and Williams, p. 41, says that it is not clear whether that was Annie Barry Crawford or to Frederick Crouch's wife, formerly Julie Crawford. Ford-SongHistories, p. 192, states unequivocally that it was Julia Crawford, who, he says, contributed a great deal to the Metropolitan Magazine.
According to Williams, p. 41, composer "Crouch did not prosper in England, and in 1849 he came to America, where he fared even worse, his best songs having already been pirated by American publishers [there was no copyright agreement between the U. S. and Britain at this time]. After serving as a trumpeter in the Confederate Army, he was virtually forgotten. Born in Wiltshire in 1808, the son of a cellist and music tutor to William IV, Crouch died in Portland, Maine, in 1896."
The song's name has become proverbial. NewZealandDictionary, p. 141, offers this definition:
Kathleen Mavourneen
1. Obs[olete]. Formerly, an indefinite prison sentence (especially under the 'habitual criminal' legislation); occasionally, prisoners undergoing such a sentence.
2. In transferred use, anything which may extend into the undefined future; occasionally, a long delay. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB253C

Kathleen O'Moore

DESCRIPTION: "My love, still I think that I see her once more, But alas! she has left me her loss to deplore... My Kathleen O'Moore." He describes her beauty, and how even a vicious cow loved her. She died of a chill. Now the robin watches her grave from its nest
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: love death separation beauty bird
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 160, "Kathleeon O'Moore" (1 text)
Roud #13859
File: HMHS160A

Kathrine Jaffrey

See Katharine Jaffray [Child 221] (File: C221)

Kathusalem (Kafoozelum) (II)

DESCRIPTION: Kathusalem, the harlot of Jerusalem, has anal sex with a priest, and expels him in explosive fashion.
AUTHOR: "S. Oxon"
EARLIEST DATE: 1866, when it was published by Frederick Blume in New York City as the satirical "Kafoozelum," and credited to "S. Oxon."
KEYWORDS: bawdy parody clergy sex whore
FOUND IN: Australia Canada Britain(England) US(MA,SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 204-210, "Kathusalem" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 75-78, "The Harlot of Jerusalem" (1 text)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 171, "Kafusalem" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, KAFOOZLM*
Roud #10135
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kafoozelum (I)"
cf. "Peter and Paul" (form)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Daughter of the Rabbi
NOTES [27 words]: This approximate plot also shows up in a "Strawberry Roam" variant, but I'm not sure it is traditional; see the notes to "The Castration of the Strawberry Roan." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM204

Kathy Fiscus

DESCRIPTION: "On April the eighth, the year forty-nine, Death claimed a little child so pure and so kind." Kathy Fiscus falls down a dry well. Workers try to dig her out, but she is dead when found. The singer "know[s] Kathy is happy up there with God now."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (collected by Paul Clayton)
KEYWORDS: death children
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 8, 1949 - Kathy Fiscus falls down a well pipe. She dies before she can be rescued
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 670, "The Death of Kathy Fiscus" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 224-225, "Kathy Fiscus" (1 text)
Roud #18065
RECORDINGS:
Possibly related recordings: Jimmie Osborne, "The Death of Little Kathy Fiscus" (King 788, 1949)
NOTES [182 words]: Kathy Fiscus was only three years old when she had her tragedy.
There are at least two books about Kathy Fiscus: Patricia Ann Stockale, Kathy Fiscus: San Marino, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2010 (this is only 76 pages, and illustrated) and William Deverell, Kathy Fiscus: A Tragedy That Transfixed the Nation, Angel City Press, 2021 (still short, but it sounds like a serious book).
This is a case where tradition is muddy. Kathy Fiscus died in 1949, and several songs were recorded about the event. This one, well-known in bluegrass circles, seems to have been the most popular. It seems likely that Paul Clayton's informant, Lily Maggard, learned the song from radio play or a phonograph recording. Does that qualify as traditional?
There is a sidelight on this tragedy: According to National Public Radio's "On the Media" program, broadcast October 2010, the Kathy Fiscus story was the first significance of widespread television news coverage of one of these Human Interest Tragedies. Obviously they have now become a staple substitute for real news and analysis. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DarNS224

Katie an' the Jim Lee Had a Little Race

See Katie and the Jim Lee Had a Race (File: MWhee018)

Katie and the Jim Lee Had a Race

DESCRIPTION: "Katie and the Jim Lee had a little race, Katie throwed water in the Jim Lee's face, (Oh babe)." The singer describes boats on the river and wishes he had a better life (or income, or woman, or whatever else seems worth complaining about)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: racing ship river gambling floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 19-20, "Katie an' the Jim Lee Had a Little Race" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 55-56, "Katie an' the Jim Lee Had a Race" (1 text, 1 tune); also perhaps p. 22, "Vicksburg Round the Bend" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9996
RECORDINGS:
Jazz Gillum, Memphis Slim & Arbee Stidham, "The Race of the Jim Lee and Katy Adam" (on ClassAfrAm)
NOTES [116 words]: Wheeler does not give an exact date for this race, but most of the boats involved were active around 1890. The "Katie" is probably the Kate Adams (second of that name), built in 1873. The Kate Adams set a record for the trip from Helena, Arkansas to Memphis, so it is reasonable to see her taking part in (and winning) a race.
The key verse about their race seems to float (though I've only seen it in Wheeler); her "Vicksburg Round the Bend" is a mish-mash: The first stanza is generic, with different cities being used; the second is standard blues, the third is found also in "What Does the Deep Sea Say," the fourth is from "Captain Jim Rees and the Katie," and the fifth is from this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: MWhee018

Katie Bairdie

DESCRIPTION: "Katie Bairdie had a coo, Black and white about the mou, Wasna that a dainty coo, Dance, Katie Bairdie." "Katie Bairdie had a hen, cackled but and cakled ben...." "Katie Bairdie had a cock...." "Katie Bairdie had a grice...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (Mactaggart, under the title "Dolly Beardie," according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: animal dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1657, "Katie Bairdie" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #154, p. 2, ("Dolly Bairdie hid a coo") (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 98, "Charley Warlie had a cow" (3 texts)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 92, "(Katie Beardie had a cow)" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #76, "Willy Foster" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, KITBEARD
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 35, "Katie Beardie"
Roud #8945
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whistle Owre the Lave O't" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
cf. "Kitsy Katsy Had a Canoe" (1 text)
NOTES [115 words]: The Opies note various references in pre-nineteenth century sources to a rhyme about "Kette Bairdie" or "Katherine Bairdie," but none of these seem to have an associated text, so I have not cited them. It is possible that they refer to other songs than this.
A "grice" is a pig, usually a young pig, often a suckling pig. - RBW
Chambers: "There is tolerable proof that this song dates from at least the beginning of the seventeenth century. 'Katherine Beardie' is the name affixed to an air in a manuscript musical collection which belonged to the Scottish poet, Sir William Mure of Rowallan, and which, there is good reason to believe, was written by him between the years 1612 and 1628." - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MSNR092

Katie Beardie Had a Coo

See Katie Bairdie (File: MSNR092)

Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going)

DESCRIPTION: "When first I came to the town, They called me the roving jewel; Now they've changed my name; They call me Katie Cruel." The ending varies; the girl sets her heart on someone, but she may or may not get him and he may or may not rule over her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1611 (quoted by Beaumont & Fletcher)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: US(NE) Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #138, pp. 1-2, "The Leaboy's Lassie"; #140, pp. 2-3, "The Leaboy's Lassie"; #143, p. 3, "The Lea-boy's Lassie"; #145, p. 2, "The Leaboy's Lassie (2 texts plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan4 725, "The Leaboy's Lassie," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "The Leaboy's Lassie" (10 texts plus a fragment, 7 tunes)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 33, "Aye for Saturday Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 98, "I know where I'm goin'"; "I'm goin' down the town" (2 short texts)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 44, "(I know who is sick)"; p. 47, "(High for Saturday night) (2 texts)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 123-124, "Regimental Song," "Katie Cruel" (2 short texts, the first one having lost all references to Katie, the Leeboy, or any other proper noun)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 225-227, "Katy Cruel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 50-52, "Katie Cruel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 109, "I Know Where I'm Going" (1 text, 1 tune, probably influenced by popular recordings)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 153, "I Know Where I'm Going" (1 text); p. 194 ,"Katy Cruel" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 345, "I Know Where I'm Going" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "I Know Where I'm Goin'" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 20)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #278, "I wish the night was Saturday night" (1 short text); also perhaps #567, "O Tonight is Saturday night" (1 fragment)
DT, KATYCRUL KNOWHERE* LEABOYSL* LICHTBOB
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 267, "I Know Where I'm Going" (1 text)
Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, pp. 148-149, "(Aye for Saturday night, Sunday is a-coming)" (1 text)
Roud #1645 and 5701
RECORDINGS:
Patricia Campbell, "Handsome Winsome Johnny" (Piotr-Archive #240, recorded 09/05/2022); (Piotr-Archive #248, recorded 09/11/2022)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(610), "Fancy Lad" ("When first I came to town"), C. Croshaw (York), 1814-1850; also 2806 c.17(123), "Fancy Lad"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Ken Whaur I'm Goin'" (parody)
cf. "The Hexhamshire Lass" (lyrics)
cf. "Aye Wauking, O" (some verses)
cf. " I'm A'Deen, Johnnie" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "I Would That I Were Where I Wish" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lichtbob's Lassie
The Ploughboy's Lassie
Lingboo's Lammie
Rob's Lassie
NOTES [624 words]: The forms and endings of this song are extremely diverse, although I've only heard three tunes, two of them clearly related. I might be tempted to break the piece up into separate entries, except that there is simply no way to draw the boundaries.
Paul Stamler observes, "I think ['I Know Where I'm Going'] may need its own entry, being as how it's only overlap with 'Katie Cruel' is the 'I know where I'm going' verse. On the other hand, it's a distinct nonballad, so maybe not." As usual, there is truth in this; the two basic families are "Katie Cruel" and "Leaboy's Lassie" (the latter clearly the forerunner of "I Know Where I'm Going"). However, there is much more in common between these two than just the "I know where...." verse.
My guess is that the original is Scottish, but I could well be wrong. Don Duncan points out a broadside, "A New Song, Called Harry Newell," which is clearly a form of the same thing and printed probably in the eighteenth or early nineteenth century. It is English or Irish, not Scottish.
Child alluded to this piece in his appendix of fragments, quoting a stanza from Beaumont and Fletcher's "Knight of the Burning Pestle," Act II, Scene viiii (lines 509-512 in KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, or lines 501-504 in KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, which mark acts but not scenes):
She cares not for her daddy,
Nor she cares not for her mammy;
For she is, she is, she is, she is
My lord of Lowgrave's lassy.
(This, incidentally, is the part of the play densest in traditional song; in my edition -- Wine, p. 335; KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, p. 102; KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, p. 56 -- five songs are quoted in the space of thirty lines. For more on "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," see the notes to "Three Merry Men.")
Based on the date, this may well be very close to the original of this piece.
There is another little fragment in Act I (lines 414-415 according to KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, p. 79; KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, p. 32, makes it lines 409-410; in Wine, p. 318, it's Act I, scene iv, lines 118-119):
But yet, or ere you part, O cruel,
Kiss me, kiss me, sweeting, mine own dear jewel.
No one seems to connect that fragment with this song -- KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, p. 176, says it's from the chorus of "Wilt thou, unkind, thus reave me" in John Dowland's 1597 "The First Booke of Songes or Ayres," which isn't anything like any "Katie Cruel" tune I've ever heard -- but I wonder if it might not have gotten mixed with this song somehow.
On the other hand, Sisam, #206, pp. 455-456, begins, "Some men sayen that I am blac; It is a colour for my prow. There I love ther is no lac; I may not be so white as thou. Blac is a colour that is good -- So say I and many mo: Blac is my hat, blac is my hood, Blac is al that longeth therto." Probably not the same song, but with interesting similarities.
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland claims it "is a marching song used by the American troops in the Revolutionary War" (compare the Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads title). But she was ignorant of most of the other versions.
Ritson printed the chorus, "O that I was where I would be, Then would I be where I am not, But where I am I must be, And where I would be I cannot," in Gammer Gurton's Garland, 1784 (see Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #80, p. 82; see also Ben Schwartz's note below). - RBW
One chorus is the same as Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 246, "Oh that I were I would be" (earliest date in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes is 1784).
Greig/Duncan4: "Light Bobs were light infantrymen formerly part of the fighting establishment of all foot regiments but in the mid-nineteenth century re-grouped to form light infantry regiments." - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: SBoA050

Katie Dear

See The Silver Dagger (I) [Laws G21] (File: LG21)

Katie Dorey

See Katie Morey [Laws N24] (File: LN24)

Katie Lee and Willie Gray

DESCRIPTION: "Two brown heads with glossy curls... Little boy and girl were they, Katie Lee and Willie Gray." The pretty boy and girl are described. As they grew up, they fell/stayed in love and married; now she rocks a cradle where once she carried a basket
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Dime-Song-Book #14)
KEYWORDS: love marriage family
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #14, pp. 46-47, "Katie Lee and Willie Gray" (1 text)
Randolph 773, "Katie Lee and Willie Gray" (1 text)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 220-221, "Katie Lee and Willie Gray" (1 text)
ST R773 (Partial)
Roud #5255
NOTES [45 words]: Randolph's informant reported that this comes from the Hutchinson family. Felleman's The Best Loved Poems of the American People lists attributions to Josie R. Hunt and J. H. Pixley, but Felleman's attributions are too unreliable for me to list them as the authors. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R773

Katie Maury

See Katie Morey [Laws N24] (File: LN24)

Katie Monie

DESCRIPTION: "Ho, ho, ho, Charming Katie Monie; Ho, ho, ho, For charming Katie Monie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 739, "Katie Monie" (1 fragment)
Roud #6171
NOTES [33 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 fragment. - BS
Perhaps a fragment of "Katie Morey" [Laws N24]? Pure speculation, I hasten to add, given the impossibly short Greig/Duncan text. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: GrD4739

Katie Morey [Laws N24]

DESCRIPTION: The singer tries to seduce Katie. He lures her into the woods and threatens to kill her if she will not submit. She seems to consent, but warns the youth to climb a tree until her father passes. She then insults him and runs away, leaving him far behind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: seduction bargaining trick escape rape
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws N24, "Katie Morey"
Bronson 112, "The Baffled Knight" (40 versions) -- but #26-33 (his Appendix A) are "The New-Mown Hay," which may be separate, and #34-#39 (his Appendix B) are "Katie Morey" [Laws N24] which is certainly separate
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 19, "The Baffled Knight" (1 text, 1 tune, listed as Child #112 but clearly this piece) {Bronson's #39}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 89-99, "The Baffled Knight" (5 texts, but the "A" text is from "The Charms of Melody" rather than tradition and "B-I" through "B-IV" are "Katie Morey" rather than "The Baffled Knight" [Child 112])
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 115, "Katie Morey" (2 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #34, #37, #35}
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 161, "Kitty O'Noory" (1expurgated text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #36}
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II, pp. 594-597, "Katey Morey" (5 texts)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp. 203-204, "Tumble Di I Dye Ding Dye A (Katy Morey)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 129, "Katey Morey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 3, "Katie Mora" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 411-413, "Katie Mora" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 122-124, "Katy Dorey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 110-112, "Kitty O'Morey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 52, "Katie Morey" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #34}
DT (112), KATYMORY*
Roud #674
RECORDINGS:
Betty Garland, "Katy Dory" (on BGarland01)
Bobby McMillon, "Katie Morey" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #30, recorded 03/11/2021; Piotr claims it is this song, but the recording is so noisy that I literally could not make out the words)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Baffled Knight" [Child 112]
cf. "As I Walked Out Into Her Hall" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Katie Dorie
Miss Kitty O'Horey
The Shrewd Maiden
NOTES [114 words]: Authorities differ on whether this ballad, in either its polite or bawdy versions, is related to "The Baffled Knight" (Child 112). - EC
As the notes to Bronson show, though, it is sometimes lumped with that ballad (e.g. by Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio). As always, readers are advised to check entries under Child #112 for completeness. I unhesitatingly agree with Laws in considering them separate. - RBW
At least for Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio and Thompson-APioneerSongster, the singer reconsiders Katie's virtues after he is fooled, she consents to marry him, and they live happily "in love and passion." - BS
So also in the Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LN24

Katie-O

See Twenty-One (File: HHH033)

Katie, Dear

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Katie, I'm Bound for the Sea

DESCRIPTION: A sailor leaves his sweetheart and promises "When I'm sleeping in my watch down below I'll wander back to Katie in my dreams." Finally, "we have reached our distant port." Sailors "drink a health to the girl they adore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: love parting separation travel sea ship sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30137
RECORDINGS:
Albert DeWitt, "Katie, I'm Bound for the Sea" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Jim Rice, "Katie, I'm Bound for the Sea" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [6 words]: Dewitt only has the first verse. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Ml3KIBfS

Katie's Secret

DESCRIPTION: "Last night I was weeping along, mother...." "Then Willie came down to the gate." "So out in the moonlight we wandered." Willie "called me his darling, his bride." Now she rejoices, gathering sweet roses and wondering "if ever Any were so happy as we."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Dime-Song-Book #8)
KEYWORDS: love courting family
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro,So) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 215, "Katie's Secret" (1 text plus reference to 1 more)
Randolph 778, "Katie's Secret" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 92, pp. 198-199, "Katie's Secret"; pp. 199-200, "The Hawthorne Tree" (2 texts)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 174, "Katie's Secret" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #68, "Katie's Secret" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 51, pp. 69-70, "The Hawthorne Tree" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 11, "Katie's Secret" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 480, "Katie's Secret" (source notes only)
Roud #4381
RECORDINGS:
Lotys Murrin, "Willie and Kate" (on ONEFowke01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Weeping Katie
File: R778

Katrina

See Hans and Katrina (File: LeHe182)

Katty Avourneen

See Barney and Katie (File: LO21)

Katy Avourneen

See Barney and Katie (File: LO21)

Katy Cline

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, who has not seen (Katy Cline/Kitty Clyde)? She lives at the foot of the hill In a shy little nook by the babbling brook That carries her father's old mill." He wishes he were a fish to be caught on her hook, a bee who could take honey from her, etc.
AUTHOR: probably L.V.H. Crosby (source: broadside LOCSheet sm1853 700580)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1853 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1853 700580; sheet music crediting "Kitty Clyde" to Crosby was published by T. Hough of Syracuse in 1853)
KEYWORDS: love courting bird floatingverses fishing
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,SE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 198, "Kitty Clyde" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 198, "Kitty Clyde (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 93, pp. 145-146, "Take Me Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 8-9, "Kitty Kline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 28, "Kitty Clyde" (1 text plus an excerpt from a songster, 1 tune)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 38-39, "Kitty Clyde" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 119, "Kitty Clyde" (1 text) (p. 100 in the 1919 edition)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1197, pp. 82-83, "Kitty Clyde" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 11 and #1/64 p. 11, "Kitty Clyde" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook 149, "Katy Cline" (1 text)
Roud #3768
RECORDINGS:
Cranford & Thompson, "Katy Cline" (Champion 45061/Supertone 2594, c. 1935)
R. C. Hedrich, "Kitty Kline" (AAFS 3763 B2)
Horace Helms, "Katy Kline (Katie Kline)" (on HandMeDown1)
Grandpa Jones, "Kitty Clyde" (King 772, 1949)
Vester Jones, "Katy Cline" (on GraysonCarroll1)
Monroe Brothers, "Katy Cline" (Bluebird B-6960, 1937)
Piper's Gap Ramblers, "Katie Kline" (OKeh, unissued, 1927)
Skyland Scotty, "Sweet Kitty Clyde" (Conqueror 8307, 1934)
Ernest Stoneman, "Katy Cline" (Gennett 3381, 1926/Challenge 151, 1927/Herwin 75528), "Katie Kline" (OKeh 45065, 1926)
Fields Ward & Bogtrotter Band, "Katy Kline" (AAFS 1360 B1)
Alice Williams, "Kitty Kline" (AAFS 1012 A3)
Ganos Williams & Ben Platt, "Kitty Kline" (AAFS 1014 B1)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1853 700580, "Kitty Clyde," T. Hough (New York), 1853; also sm1853 531340, sm1853 540350, sm1853 710030, sm1883 24133, "Kitty Clyde" (tune)
LOCSinging, sb20258b, "Kitty Clyde," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also as107290, as107300, "Kitty Clyde"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Free Little Bird" (floating verses)
cf. "Take Me Home, Poor Julia" (floating verses)
NOTES [262 words]: "Kitty Clyde" should not be confused with "Sweet Kitty of the Clyde."
Here are two "answers" in broadside form (at least one by the same author):
Bodleian, Harding B 18(491), "Willie Gray" or "Answer to Kitty Clyde" ("Oh! who has not seen Willie Gray "), H. De Marsan (New York) , 1864-1878
LOCSinging, as204070, "Willie Gray" or "Answer to Kitty Clyde," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1715), "Minnie Clyde" ("Oh, long I've sung of sweet Kitty Clyde"), H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Harding B 11(2431), "Minnie, Kitty Clyde's Sister"
LOCSheet, sm1857 610600, "Minnie Clyde," Oliver Ditson (Boston), 1857; also sm1885 04360, "Minnie Clyde" (tune) (words and music by L.V.H. Crosby) [Also Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1436, p. 97, "Minnie Clyde, Kitty Clyde's Sister" (1 reference) - RBW]
Broadsides LOCSinging as204070 and Bodleian Harding B 18(491) are duplicates.
Broadsides Harding B 18(491), LOCSinging as204070 and LOCSinging sb20258b : H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
There is also "The Grave of Kitty Clyde," Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 15.
Silber's version of this song is mysterious: Is it a collection of floating verses (from "Free Little Bird" and other courting songs), or is it a love ballad that has been so chopped down as to lose all meaning? I can't tell. Some of the verses remind me of some vague memories, so I suspect the latter -- but until I can remember details, I can't really say. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB149

Katy Cruel

See Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going) (File: SBoA050)

Katy Did

DESCRIPTION: "Tell me, pretty little elven/elf, in your cottage green, Have you seen my Katy pass this way since yestere'en? Sid she have a stranger with her...?" "Yes, she did, Katy did, Katy did, she did, she didn't, Katy did, Katy didn't, Katy did, she did."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love rejection questions
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 2, "Katy Did" (2 short texts, 2 tunes, plus mention of 1 more)
Roud #11377
NOTES [158 words]: Dime-Song-Book #13, p. 8, has a song, "Katy did, Katy, didn't," which begins
Katy had an ancient lover,
Oh, his head was white as snow;
He was worth a mint of money,
Katy didn't love him though.
Katy did, Katy didn't,
Katy did, Katy didn't,
Katy did, Katy didn't,
Katy didn't, she didn't, I know.
The father tries to may Katy to the rich old man; she begs and pleads against it, and manages to marry "the little elf." The words are listed as by Helen Corwin Fisher and the music by "Mrs. Parkhurst"; it was published by Horace Waters. Clearly it is related to this song (very likely its inspiration), but equally clearly it has been rewritten. Roud files it as #V18789.
There is yet another song with the title "Katy Did, Katy Didn't," by George Brown; it does not appear related. And Frank Loesser and Hoagie Carmichael also had a "Katy Did, Katy Didn't" song, obviously too late to be this song; it's from a cartoon, "Mr. Bug Goes to Town." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Brne002

Katy Dorey

See Katie Morey [Laws N24] (File: LN24)

Katy Wells

See Kitty Wells (File: MN2166)

Katy's Letter

DESCRIPTION: "Och girls, did you ever hear, I wrote my love a letter, And although he cannot read, I thought 'twas all the better." The words don't matter; he knows she loves him faithfully. She hasn't received an answer, but he knows he loves her faithfully
AUTHOR: Helen Selina Blackwoon, Lady Dufferin (1807-1867) (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Dime-Song-Book #12)
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 130-131, "Katy's Letter" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 100-101, "Katey's Letter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #12, pp. 48-49, "Katy's Letter" (1 text)
Roud #12901
NOTES [19 words]: Heart-Songs appears to attribute both words and music of this to Lady Dufferin, but she usually wrote only words. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HeSo100

Kauri Scow

DESCRIPTION: "Kauri scow, kauri scow, with your breaker-bustin' prow, Rollin' into Hokianga from the Tasman now." The singer asks what the scow carries. The business she does supplie "Money for my mortgage, money for my tax! For my tax!"
AUTHOR: Words: Joe Charles
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (Charles, Black Billy Tea); reportedly "collected" 1959
KEYWORDS: ship nonballad money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 20, "Kauri Scow" (1 text, 1 modern tune)
ADDITIONAL: Joe Charles, _Black Billy Tea: New Zealand Ballads_, Whitcoulls Publishers, 1981, p. 78, "Kauri Scow" (1 text)
File: Col2020

KC Moan

See K.C. Moan (File: ADR102)

KC Railroad

See K.C. Moan (File: ADR102)

Ke Clop

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Ke clop, ke clop, ke clop, ke clop, A hundred times before we stop, And if we trip (as trip we may), We'll try again some other day. One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Butler and Haley, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #294, "Ke clop, ke clop, ke clop, ke clop" (1 text)
NOTES [27 words]: My gut instinct strongly suggests to me that the first line of this should really be Clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop... as of a horse walking to... wherever. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR294

Keach i the Creel, The [Child 281]

DESCRIPTION: A clerk and a girl wish to keep company, but she cannot escape her parents' home. He plans to to meet her by going down the chimney in a creel The suspicious mother enters the room and is pulled up in the creel, then dropped by the startled rope-puller
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: courting father mother elopement nightvisit humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Ireland US(MA,NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Child 281, "The Keach i the Creel" (4 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Bronson 281, "The Keach i the Creel" (38 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 281, "The Keach in the Creel" (5 versions: #1, #4, #14, #33, #35)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #13, pp. 112-116,243, "The Keach I’ the Creel" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 295-297, "The Keach i' the Creel" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 317, "The Wee Toon Clerk" (20 texts, 15 tunes) {C=Bronson's #7, E=#38, F=#11, G=#10, H=#9, I=#18, J=#32, M=#2, N=#3, O=#31, P=#33}
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 25, "The Auld Wife and the Peat Creel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 336-339, "The Keach i' the Creel" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #5, #6}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland4, pp. 136-138, "The Keach i' the Creel" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 277-280, "The Wee Toun Clerk" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #13}
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 22-23, "The Keach i' the Creel" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #4}
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 133, "The Little Scotch Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H201, pp. 265-266, "The Ride in the Creel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 64, "The Ride in the Creel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 92-93, "The Cetch in the Creel" (1 text)
Kinloch-TheBalladBook XVII, pp. 61-63, "The Covering Blue" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 35-36, "Keach I' the Creel" (1 text)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, ππ. 19-20, "The keach in the creel" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1, although Bronson and MacColl list different sources}
DT 281, KEACHCRL*
Roud #120
RECORDINGS:
Michael Gallagher, "The Keach in the Creel" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #36, with the title "Hurroo-Ri-Ah"}
Jamsie McCarthy, "Coochie Coochie Coo Go Way" (on Voice15)
Larry Mulligan, "The Creel" (on IREarlyBallads)
SAME TUNE:
Moody to the Rescue (File: FowM005)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Cunning Clerk
The Wife and the Creel
The Rock in the Same Auld Creel
NOTES [58 words]: Kinloch's "The Covering Blue" omit the ride in the creel, but is obviously the same song (and Child included it as his "D" text). Thus, though most of the humor of the piece comes when the clerk hauls the auld woman up the chimney, the key point is the nightvisiting theme. - RBW
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads is Child's source for text 281A. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: C281

Kearney's Glen

DESCRIPTION: The singer alludes to poets who have praised other places; he will praise Kearney's Glen. He urges visitors to come in spring, to see the flowers, hear the birds, watch the young people. There is also a holy old altar. The singer asks God's blessing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H715, pp. 166-167, "Kearney's Glen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13478
File: HHH715

Keating Town

DESCRIPTION: "Whoever comes to this curst place, Starvation waits him here. This is not fit for man or beast, Or birds of prey, I swear."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes food
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, "Keating Town" (1 fragment) (p. 155 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #15006
NOTES [192 words]: It's not clear to me why Shoemaker calls this "Keating Town"; as you can see, there are no geographic references in his fragment. There is no obvious reason why Keating, Pennsylvania would be infertile; the town is at the junction of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River and Sinnamahoning Creek, so there is water, and the photographs show it as green from the air.
It may not have been so in the past, however. According to Susan Q. Stranahan, Susquehanna: River of Dreams, John Hopkins University Press, 1993, pp. 153-154, the Sinnamahoning was an area once heavily logged, leading to extensive erosion and silting-up, and it was also in a coal mining area, which meant that the runoff was highly acidic and polluted. The Keating area was probably heavily affected in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
It's interesting that it's only about ten miles downstream from Sinnamahoning, Pennsylvania, which gets thoroughly smeared in another piece in Shoemaker, "All Is Vanity, Saith the Preacher." Maybe it's just that the Sinnamahoning area had some anonymous local equivalent of Larry Gorman who would give vent to sarcasm about anything he saw.. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Shoe216A

Kee-Chee

See A Wooney Cooney Cha a Wooney (File: ACSF147A)

Keel Row, The

DESCRIPTION: "As I came through Sandgate, through Sandgate, through Sandgate, As I came through Sandgate... I heard a lassie sing, 'Weel may the keel row... That my laddi'es in.'" The singer wishes good luck to the boat and success to handsome Johnnie aboard it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Cromek)
KEYWORDS: love ship sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 29, "Merry May the Keel Row" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 137, "Merry May the Keel Row" (1 text)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 41-42, "The Keel Row" (1 short text plus a modern rewrite, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan4 771, "The Keel Rowe" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 721-722, "The Keel Row" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic, p. 185, "The Keel Row" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 68, "The Keel Row" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, KEELROW*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #99, p.62, "Weel May the Keel Row"
Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol I, pp. 10-11, "Merry May the Keel Rowe"
R. H. Cromek, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, (London, 1810), pp. 154-155, "Merrie May the Keel Rowe"
[Cuthbert Sharp], _The Bishopric Garland, A Collection of Legends, Songs, Ballads, &c Belonging to the County of Durham_, 1834 (references are to the 1969 reprint), p. 56, "The Keel Row" (1 short text, 1 tune on p. 85)
T. Thompson, J Shield, W. Midford, H. Robson, and others, _A Collection of Songs, Comic, Satirical, and Descriptive, Chiefly in the Newcastle Dialect: And Illustrative of the Language and Manners of the Common People on the Banks of the Tyne and Neighbourhood_, (John Marshall, Newcastle, 1827), p. 5, "Weel May the Keel Row" (1 short text plus a "New Keel Row" by Thomas Thompson)
Roud #3059
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(878), Harding B 11(1978), "The Keel Row" ("As I came through the Cannon-gate"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 11(1355), Johnson Ballads 1093, Johnson Ballads fol. 12 [some illegible words], 2806 c.14(42), "The Keel Row"; Firth b.27(10), "Weel May the Keel Row"
LOCSheet, sm1882 03470, "Weel May the Keel Row," Carl Prufer (Boston), 1882; also sm1883 19633, "The Keel Row" (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sandgate Lass's Lament" (subject: Sandgate women and Keelmen)
cf. "Cushie Butterfleld" (subject: Sandgate and Keelmen, as well as the line "Weel may the keel row that ma laddie's in")
SAME TUNE:
Well May the World Go (by Pete Seeger) (DT, WORLDGO; Sing Out! magazine, Volume 23 Issue 1, p. 21)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Song of the Keelman Lass
NOTES [298 words]: The Bodleian note to most of the broadsides states "Subject: Newcastle (England)."
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2: "It is a well known song and air. The verses given here are copied from Cromek's Remains." The first line is "As I came down the Cano'gate" which agrees substantially with the Bodleian broadsides (though the broadsides vary somewhat from both Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 and the description above in the rest of their lines).
The LOCSheet references refer to Sandgate rather than Cannon-gate.
Like the LOCSheet text, Greig/Duncan4 refers to Sandgate rather than Cannon-gate. Greig/Duncan4, quoting Bell Robertson, Greig's informant, says "'Keels' are boats; 'Keelmen' lads who work them on the river; 'Sandgate' a road by Tyneside." The first line of broadside Bodleian Harding B 25(1019), "The Keelman's Complaint" ("Come, all ye brave fellows that belong the coal trade"), J. Marshall (Newcastle), 1810-1831, by Jeremiah Knox, explains a bit more.
Chambers: "This seems, from the allusions, to have been the ditty of some one of the Jacobite ladies of Canongate of Edinburgh, regarding either Prince Charles Stuart himself, or one of his adherants."
"Cromek died [1812] shortly after the issue [1810] of Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, which was mostly written by Cunningham, though palmed upon Cromek as recovered antiques." (source: J. Ross, The Book of Scottish Poems: Ancient and Modern, (Edinburgh, Edinburgh Publishing Co, 1878), "Allan Cunningham 1784-1842," p. 738; other sources agree). Hogg's comments make it seem as though his specific text -- and Chambers's -- being from Cromek may be suspect but the song itself is traditional. - BS
Thanks to Daniel G. Axtell for pointing out the connection to Pete Seeger's "Well May the World Go." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: StoR041

Keemo Kimo

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Keemo-Kimo

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Keenly Lode, The

DESCRIPTION: "Old Uncle Pengerric a Captain was, A dowser shrewd was he" who found the "keenly lode." A company is set up at great cost to mine it. They dig -- and find only a dead horse and its shoe. Uncle Pengerric declares it's not his fault -- but leaves town
AUTHOR: mostly Sabine Baring-Gould (source: Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: mining humorous travel trick | dowsing
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #46, "The Keenly Lode" (1 text, 1 tune, the text mostly rewritten)
Roud #6909
File: BGSW046

Keep A-Inchin' Along

DESCRIPTION: "Keep a-inchin' along... Jesus will come by 'n by." "'Twas inch by inch I saved my soul." The singer makes plans for heaven, and for the festivities that will attend the arrival. "Ever since my Lord set me free, This old world's been a hell to me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: religious freedom nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, pp. 66-67, "Keep-A-Inching Along"; pp. 119-120, "(no title) (2 texts)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 239, "Keep A-Inchin' Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp 249-250, "Keep Inchin' Along" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 488-492, "Ezekiel, You and Me" (1 heavily composite text, 1 composite tune; the first verse is "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel," the second is from "Keep A-Inchin' Along," the third is "Standing in the Need of Prayer," the fourth is "Chilly Water" [Roud #15312], the last probably derived from "Sowing on the Mountain")
Roud #11947
File: LoF239

Keep Away from the Blood-Strained Banders

See The Blood-Strained Banders (File: LxSi025)

Keep in de Middle Ob de Road

DESCRIPTION: "I hear the angels calling .... the road is rough and it's hard to walk.... Keep in de middle ob de road, den, chil'ren.... Don't you look to de right, Don't you look to de left, But keep in de middle ob de road"
AUTHOR: William S. Hays (1837-1907)
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1878 11057)
KEYWORDS: religious worksong nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 32, "Walking in de Middle of de Road" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 58, "Keep in de Middle ob de Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9413
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1878 11057, "Keep in de Middle ob de Road," Geo. D. Newhall & Co. (Cincinnati), 1878 (tune)
NOTES [48 words]: Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia: The fragment is part of the chorus and part of a verse. "'Heard this song sung by darkies at Philadelphia, digging pitch ... from the Brigintine Hamelin.' ... It is hardly a shanty but still a work song heard on ships." - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: SmHa032

Keep Inchin' Along

See Keep A-Inchin' Along (File: LoF239)

Keep It Boiling

See Keep the Kettle Boiling (File: AJRV016)

Keep It Dark

DESCRIPTION: "I am gwine to tell you some very queer news, But keep it dark, keep it dark." The singer describes various things which happened secretly: A fight between him and his wife, a fight with the Indians, the illumination supplied by the electric light
AUTHOR: Words: Fred Wilson / Music: E. M. Hall ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) technology
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 504, "Keep It Dark" (1 text)
Roud #7590
NOTES [28 words]: Randolph says this is printed in "Sam MacFlinn's Great Clown Songster." I suspect the version there must make more sense than Randolph's version. Anyone have a copy? - RBW
File: R504

Keep It Small

DESCRIPTION: "I don't want the multinationals, I don't want them here at all"; the singer would rather New Zealand were "green and fertile" and would avoid large investments; "keep it small." The singer hopes to continue to work in a small industry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (according to Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: worker nonballad New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 120-121, "Keep It Small" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier" (tune)
NOTES [49 words]: Cleveland lists this as anonymous and hence a folk song. I don't believe it for a moment. (Oh, it may be from an anonymous singer at a protest rally. That doesn't mean it has gone into oral tradition.) But since Cleveland pretends it's a folk song, I index it. And get sarcastic in the notes. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Clev120

Keep Me From Sinking Down

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Oh Lord, Oh my Lord, Oh, my good Lord, Keep me from sinking down." Verse: "I tell you what I mean to do, Keep me from sinking down, I mean to go to heaven to, Keep me from sinking down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, App.XII, "Keep Me From Sinkin' Down" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 245 in the 1874 edition)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 50, "Keep Me From Sinking Down" (1 text)
Roud #11642
File: DettA245

Keep Me Knockin' (You Can't Come In)

DESCRIPTION: "Keep on knockin' and you can't come in." "Door bell ringin' and you can't come in." "Come on baby won't you let me in." "Told you man and you can't come in." "Just before day and the rooster crow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt04)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Keep Me Knockin' (You Can't Come In)" (on MJHurt04)
NOTES [72 words]: Hurt's version is so fragmented that I can't tell whether his inspiration came from Little Richard's or something earlier. Hurt's verses are one line, sometimes repeated, against the guitar melody, and he never sings the tag line (Bob Call-James Wiggins's (1928), Louis Jordan's (1939), and Little Richard's (1957) are all, more or less, "Come back tomorrow night and try again"; Lil Johnson's (1935) is "Bet you better let me be"). - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: RcKMKYCC

Keep Moving

See Fingers and Thumbs (File: WT079)

Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy

DESCRIPTION: Non-ballad, in which the singer displays his interest in food and drink and his lack of interest in work. Verses vary widely; the song is recognized primarily by the line "(Gonna) keep my skillet (good and) greasy all the time."
AUTHOR: (Credited to Uncle Dave Macon on the Henry Whitter recording)
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: nonballad drink food
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 122, "Gonna Keep My Skillet Greasy" (1 text, 1 tune, plus assorted excerpts not collected by the Warners)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #104, "Sandy's Mill" (1 fragment, 1 tune, linked to "Sandy's Mill" by the title and a few of the words but to "Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy" by the tune)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 98-99, "Mandy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 157 "Keep My Skillet Good And Greasy" (1 text)
DT, SKILLTGR SKILLTG2*
Roud #7479
RECORDINGS:
Doc Watson & Ralph Rinzler, "Skillet Good and Greasy" (on Ashley02, WatsonAshley01)
John Henry Howard, "Gonna Keep My Skillet Good & Greasy" (Gennett 3124, 1925)
Mississippi John Hurt, "Pay Day" (on MJHurt04)
Uncle Dave Macon "I'll Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy" (Vocalion 14848, 1924) (Bluebird B-5873, 1935)
Pete Seeger, "Skillet Good and Greasy" (on PeteSeeger02, PeteSeegerCD01)
Henry Whitter, "Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy" (OKeh 40296, 1925; rec. 1924)
File: Wa122

Keep On a-Walking (Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round)

DESCRIPTION: "Ain't gonna let nobody, Lordy, Turn me 'round (x3)... Keep on a-walking, Keep on a-talking, Marchin' on to freedom land." Similarly "Ain't gonna let no jailhouse... Turn me round," etc. Versions may refer to local events
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (source tune recorded by Jimmie Davis in 1936)
KEYWORDS: discrimination political nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 374-375, "Keep On a-Walkin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 303, "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round" (1 text)
cf. Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 234, "Don't Turn Around" (1 text, probably a union adaption of this song)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round" (on Selma)
SNCC Freedom Singers, "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around" (on SingFreeCD ) (on VoicesCiv)
SAME TUNE:
Jimmie Davis "I Ain't Gonna Let Ol' Satan Turn Me Round" (Decca 5235, 1936)
NOTES [55 words]: This song, an activist hymn from the civil rights and labor movements, was clearly adapted from "I Ain't Gonna Let Ol' Satan Turn Me Round." Jimmie Davis recorded that song; in view of the later adaptation, it's ironic that his second successful run for governor was on a racist platform, pledging resistance to integration. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: SBoA374

Keep on the Sunny Side

DESCRIPTION: "There's a dark and a troubled side of life, There's a bright and a sunny side too"; even when one faces trouble, one should "Keep on the sunny side of life... It will help us every day." Troubles will eventually pass if one remains hopeful
AUTHOR: Words: Ada Blenklorn / Music: J. Howard Entwhistle (source: McNeil, editor, _Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Young People' Hymnal #2, according to McNeil)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 45, "Keep On the Sunny Side of Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SUNSIDE
Roud #10082
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "Keep on the Sunny Side" (Victor 21434) (Bluebird 5006) (Conqueror 8692)
The A. P. Carter Family, "Keep on the Sunny Side" (Acme 996)
Mac Wiseman, "Keep on the Sunny Side" (Dot 1224)
NOTES [180 words]: The Digital Tradition lists this as by "A.P. Carter and Gary Garett," but of course A. P. Carter claimed copyright on everything the Carter Family sang except things where he could expect to be sued over the claim. I don't know with certainty if Entwhistle wrote the common tune, but I'm pretty sure Blenklorn wrote the (banal) words. (Note: Earlier editions of the index spelled both names wrong, based on Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley. I've now corrected them to match W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 68, since Brumley's book has repeatedly proved inaccurate.)
Steve Roud appears to lump this with "The Happy Sunny Side of Life," a song very well known in bluegrass circles (where its harmonies, which often put the melody in the lower rather than the higher voice, are much appreciated), but it is a separate song; hymnary.org reports that it was written by Tillit S. Teddlie in 1918.
There was also a 1906 pop song, "Keep on the Sunny Side" (words by Jack Drislane, music by Theodore F. Morse). It too is a separate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ABLT045

Keep the Ark A-Moving

DESCRIPTION: "Now, fathers, if you're willing, We'll keep the ark a-moving, And we'll pass over Jurdan by and by" (x3). "Where the streets is paved with gold, And the gates is set with pearl, And we'll pass...." "Now, mothers/brothers/etc., if you're willing...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad travel
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, p. 61, "Keep the Ark A-Moving" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7753
File: KPL061

Keep the Camp Fire Burning

See Keep the Campfire Burning (File: ACSF337K)

Keep the Campfire Burning

DESCRIPTION: "Keep the campfire burning While our thoughts are turning To the stories, songs, and yells, the long day's fun. Warm red embers gleaming, Stars o'erhead are beaming, Plan tomorrow's big new joys Till the day is done."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings)
KEYWORDS: fire nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 337, "Keep the Camp Fire Burning" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 93, "Keep the Campfire Burning" (1 text, tune referenced)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 52, "Keep the Campfire Burning"" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Keep the Home Fires Burning" (tune)
File: ACSF337K

Keep the Home Fires Burning

DESCRIPTION: "They were summoned from the hillside, They were called in from the glen, And the country found them ready At the stirring call for men." The new volunteers ask, "Keep the home fires burning... Though the boys are far away... Till the boys come home."
AUTHOR: Words: Lena Guibert Fort / Music: Ivor Novello (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: patriotic home soldier
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 185, "Keep the home fires burning" (1 text)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 215, "(no title)" (1 text, which includes only the chorus)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 17-18, "Keep the Home Fires Burning" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #22, "Keep the Home Fires Burning" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 178, "Keep the Home Fires Burning" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 313, 337-338, "Keep the Home Fires Burning" (notes only)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 316-317, "Keep the Home Fires Burning"
Roud #25763
SAME TUNE:
Keep the Campfire Burning (File: ACSF337K)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Till the Boys Come Home
NOTES [149 words]: According to Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, the proper name of the lyricist of this piece is "Lena Guillbertford." I don't know which name is original; possibly this was distorted in one or another version of the sheet music to make it easier to use.
This is often known as "Till the Boys Come Home." John Hay wrote a poem, "When the Boys Come Home," with music by Oley Speaks, beginning "There's a happy time coming when the boys come home." It is, obviously, not this piece.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, pp. 312, 316, estimates that this was the forty-fourth most popular song in America in 1916, peaking at #14 in March1916 (#1 for the year being Gus Kahn, Tony Jackson, and Egbert van Alstyne's "Pretty Baby") and returning to #7 in October 1917 after America joined the war. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BrPa215

Keep the Kettle Boiling

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Keep the kettle boiling, (be on time/don't be late, pour it out/On the glimmer), (If you don't, you won't get your dinner), (Cadbury's chocolates are the best), (one, two, three, four.....)" The lyrics vary extremely
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: food jumprope | kettle
FOUND IN: US(NE) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #16, "(Keep the kettle boiling)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #295, "Keep the kettle boiling" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 76, "(Keep it boiling)" (2 texts); p. 79, "(Keep the kettle boiling)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 22, "(Keep the kettle boiling)" (1 text)
Roud #19427
NOTES [60 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes suggests this is a variant of "Molly Put the Kettle On (Polly Put the Kettle On)," and seems to lump it, but I'd consider it separate although perhaps inspired by, or broken off from, that song.
The variation is extreme. I'm far from sure these are all the same song, but Roud lumps them and it seems pointless to split infinitely. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AJRV016

Keep the Working Man Down

See You Can't Keep a Shantyboy Down (File: FowL62)

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Hold on member/my dear sister, hold on, Keep your eyes on that prize, Hold on." Verse: "Sometime I up, sometime I down, Keep your eyes on that prize, hold on"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 195, "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Keep Your Hand on the Plow" (structure, similar tune, some words)
NOTES [60 words]: The current description is based on the Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight text.
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight: "When Guy first spent time on Johns Island and sang a version of 'Keep Your Hand on the Plow,' which he had learned from Pete Seeger in the 1950s, Mrs. Wine said, 'Oh, I know a different echo to that,' and sang, 'Keep your eyes on the prize.'" - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: CarCa195

Keep Your Garden Clean (I)

See In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme (File: R090)

Keep Your Garden Clean (II)

See Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme) (File: FSWB163)

Keep Your Hand on the Plow

DESCRIPTION: Various events from scripture intended to encourage the troubled: Paul and Silas in jail, Jesus washing the disciples feet, Mary's chain. Chorus: "Hold on, hold on, Keep your hand on the plow, hold on."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious prison
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 111, "Keep Your Hand on the Plow" (1 text, 1 tune, plus the modern parody "United Nations Make a Chain")
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 44-45, "Keep Your Hands on that Plow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 209, "Hold On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 54-55, "Hold On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, pp. 38-39, "Hold On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 362, "Hold On" (1 text)
DT, HANDPLOW*
Roud #10075
RECORDINGS:
Hall Johnson Negro Choir, "Keep Yo' Hand on the Plow, Hold On" (Victor 36020, 1930)
Montgomery Improvement Association High School Trio, "Keep Your Hand On That Plow" (on SingFreeCD). (Note: though this is a civil rights movement adaptation of the song, it has not yet metamorphosed into "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize," so it is indexed here. -PJS)
Pete Seeger with Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon, Big Bill Broonzy, Bill McAdoo, "Hold On" (on PeteSeeger15)
Pete Seeger, "Hold On" (on Selma) (on PeteSeeger44) (on PeteSeeger48) (on PeteSeeger27)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Keep Your Hand upon the Chariot"
cf. "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" (song from the civil rights movement, adapted from "Keep Your Hand on the Plow")
SAME TUNE:
Keep Your Eyes on the Prize (RECORDING: Charles Jones & Cordell Reagon, on SingFreeCD; RECORDING: Unidentified singers, on SingFreeCD)
NOTES [30 words]: Paul and Silas's stay in prison is related in Acts 16:19-40. The footwashing is described in John 13:1-11. Mary's chain is apocryphal, perhaps a free extrapolation on Luke 2:35. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: LxU111

Keep Your Hand upon the Chariot

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, you better run (x3), 'for the train done gone, Oh, keep your hand upon the chariot And your eyes upon the prize." "For the preacher's comin' an' he preach so bold, For her preach salvation from out of his soul, Oh, keep your hand upon the chariot"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious train nonballad clergy
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 256, "Keep Yore Hand upon the Chariot" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Keep Your Hand on the Plow"
File: ScNF256A

Keep Your Hands on that Plow

See Keep Your Hand on the Plow (File: LxU111)

Keep Your Hat On

See Old Uncle Noah (File: E075)

Keep Your Head Down, Allemand

DESCRIPTION: "Keep your head down, Allemand (x2), Last night, in the pale moonlight, We saw you, we saw you, You were mending broken wire, When we opened rapid fire, If you want to see your father in that Fatherland, keep your head down, Allemand."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier derivative warning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 23, "Keep Your Head Down, Alleyman" (1 short text, plus an excerpt from the source song "Hold Your Hand Out, Naughty Boy")
Roud #10579
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hold Your Hand Out, Naughty Boy" (tune)
File: AWTBW023

Keep Your Head Down, Alleyman

See Keep Your Head Down, Allemand (File: AWTBW023)

Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning

DESCRIPTION: "Keep your lamp trimmed and burning (x3) For this world is almost gone" "Brother, don't you get (a-)worried (x3) For this world is almost gone." "Sister, don't stop prayin'..." "Preacher, don't stop preachin'..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Bible
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 7, p. 203, "This World Almost Done" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 361, "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning" (1 text)
Roud #10433
RECORDINGS:
Blind Willie Johnson & Angeline Johnson, "Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning" (Columbia 14425-D, 1929; rec. 1928; on BWJ01, BWJ02)
Fred McDowell, "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning" (on LomaxCD1703)
NOTES [92 words]: The need to keep your lamp trimmed and burning refers to the parable in Matthew 25:1-13 usually called the "Wise and Foolish Virgins" [or sometimes the Ten Bridesmaids - RBW]. See the notes to "The Ten Virgins." Also see, for example, H.R. Christie, The Christian Church Hymnal (Cincinnati: The Standard Publishing Company, 1906 ("Digitized by Internet Archive") #423 p. 319, "I'll Be Ready," verse 4, "Even should the Lord tarry till midnight so late, I'll be ready to go; With lamp trimmed and burning will patiently wait, I'll be ready to go." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB361

Keep Your Saddle Tight

DESCRIPTION: The singer advises the mustang rider, "Don't step into that saddle Till you know that it's good and tight." He also notes, "Of all the crazy critters... A woman is the worst one." He therefore gives the same advice about women....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Carl T. Sprague)
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 88, "Keep Your Saddle Tight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18459
File: Ohr088

Keep-A-Inching Along

See Keep A-Inchin' Along (File: LoF239)

Keeper of the Eddystone Light, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer's father, the keeper of the Eddystone Light, had three children by a mermaid. Now he is gone (deserted? eaten by cannibals?). The boy meets his mother, who asks of her children; they live the troubled lives of half-humans
AUTHOR: J. London (source: 1866 sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (sheet music; said to have been performed by Arthur Lloyd)
KEYWORDS: humorous father mother mermaid/man animal reunion
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 7, "Keeper of the Eddystone Light" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 120, "The Keeper of the Eddystone Light" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 27, "Eddystone Light" (1 text)
DT, EDDYSTON* EDDYNORE* (ASTERLT*)
ADDITIONAL: Mike Palmer, _Eddystone: The Finger of Light_, 1998 (I use the 2205 Seafarer Books edition), p. 129, "The Eddystone Light" (1 text, of a very modern version)
Roud #22257
RECORDINGS:
Sue Armstrong, "The Eddystone Light" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #681, recorded 09/19/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Caviar Comes from Virgin Sturgeon" (theme)
NOTES [3180 words]: For many years, Trinity House was responsible for navigation aids around England (Palmer, pp. 2-4), but for a long time, there wasn't a lot they could really do except supply pilot books and the like. Eventually they started creating actual beacons.
There had been a few small lighthouses built on the English coast by the 1690s (Nancollas, p. 19), but there had never been an attempt to build one on a rock or a point at sea. Indeed, there were no rock lighthouses anywhere in northwest Europe (Nancollas, p. 18).
Eddystone, according to Nancollas, p. 18, is a dangerous reef ("twenty-three rust-red rocks") about nine and a half miles off the coast of Devon. They are thirteen to fourteen miles south-southwest of Plymouth -- then and now, one of the biggest ports on England's south coast; with the establishment of the British Naval Dockyard at Plymouth in the 1690s, the Eddystone rocks were a major safety problem, and navigation aids became even more important. (It occurs to me that the Eddystone reef could well have been a residence for the sort of mermaid who deliberately lured sailors to their doom: Low, wet, and unreachable by land, so good mermaid habitat, and incredibly deadly. Maybe the mermaid of the song was already resident when the Eddystone lighthouse was built -- perhaps even trying to subvert his work.)
The name "Eddystone" was apparently appropriate; the chart on p. xi of Palmer shows that there were in fact eddies among the rocks of the reef. Nor could a ship guard itself by taking soundings; in most directions from the rocks, the water depth was a fairly steady 10 fathoms or so until one was within about a tenth of a mile of the rocks -- too close to safely stop.
The Eddystone rocks were also a horrible place to build anything: small and low, workmen could not set up a camp or sleep on the rocks, and could not stay there at all in bad weather; they had to go home at night, and work when conditions permitted.
The extant Eddystone Lights are famous for representing a revolutionary design. The second was the first lighthouse designed as a smooth cylinder -- important because it would help the lighthouse survive heavy seas and storms. Most later lighthouses, of course, have followed this design.
The tower and stump that are currently on the rocks weren't the first try at an Eddystone Light, though. here were in fact four different Eddystone Lighthouses, according to Uden/Cooper, pp. 136-137:
- The first, begun by Winstanley in 1696 and first lighted in 1698 (Nancollas, p. 20); by 1699 it had been raised to 100 feet high. It was very fancy, but it wasn't really very strong; it was destroyed in 1703. The first and second phases of this are sometimes considered different lighthouses.
- The second was built by John Rudyerd in 1709 and lasted until 1755, when it was destroyed by fire from its own lanterns.
- The third was the first one made entirely of stone; it was designed by John Smeaton and begun in 1797. It stood for 120 years, although it went out of use before that, and the base of it still stands near the fourth lighthouse.
- The fourth lighthouse, which still stands, was built by James Douglass starting in 1878; the light is 135 feet above the average water level, and went into service in 1882.
If you go to Google Maps and search for "Eddystone Lighthouse," there are dozens of photos of lighthouse #4 and the base of #3, plus a few scans of images of #1. No one seems to care about #2.
The idea of building an Eddystone Light was first raised in the early 1690s. An attempt was made to hire a fellow named William Whitfield to build a lighthouse early in that decade; but Trinity House would not offer enough in the way of fees, and negotiations broke down (Nancollas, p. 19; this is vastly oversimplified, based on Palmer, but the bottom line is, it didn't happen). It was not until a showman named Henry Winstanley offered to take on the task that construction got underway.
Astoundingly, it seems Winstanley took the job before he had even been out in a boat to look at the Eddystone rocks (Palmer, pp. 11-12), which makes me wonder why anyone took him seriously.
Perhaps they shouldn't have. Winstanley was more a builder of spectacles than a true architect (Nancollas, p. 20) -- e.g. his home was also a sort of fun house museum of odd gadgets such as chairs that would trap you or catapult you somewhere (Palmer, p. 10). The lighthouse was an extremely elaborate construction -- Palmer has drawings of it on pp. 15-19 as well as on his cover. It had many jagged edges and outcroppings; frankly, it looks like a tourist attraction! After it survived its first winter in 1698, Winstanley patched it up, made it taller, and strengthened it. But not enough. A gale -- the "Great Storm of 1703," thought by many to be the strongest storm to have hit England to that time -- destroyed it (and killed Winstanley and his crew as they tried to reach it and save it) in 1703 (Nancollas, p. 21). No sign of Winstanley and his men was ever found, and the lighthouse was so thoroughly destroyed that only a few pieces of debris could even be identified as part of it (Palmer, p. 22). Nonetheless he was remembered; the poet Jean Ingelow, responsible for "Seven Times One (The Song of Seven)," wrote a tribute to him many centuries later.
The effects of the lighthouse's ruin were felt immediately; the very day after the light went down, the Winchelsea was lost on the rocks (Palmer, p. 26)
In 1706, Trinity House tried again, giving a 99-year lease to Captain John Lovet(t), who hired John Rudyerd/Rudyard to design the light (Nancollas, p. 22). Rudyerd designed a smooth circular base of stone -- the key aspect of the Eddystone design: don't give the sea something to attack! Stone was used for part of the height, covered with wood, but toward the top, it was basically a wood structure, which meant that naval construction methods could be used (Palmer, p. 32; p. 36 shows a cutaway diagram). It was placed in service in 1708 (Palmer, p. 37), though there were lots of problems with ownership over the next few years (Palmer, pp. 41-47).
Initially there were two keepers serving at the lighthouse at any given time; this was later raised to three. Pay, in the 1720s, was £25 per year (Palmer. p. 51). An ongoing problem was that it was often impossible to supply the lighthouse because of wind and wave; one keeper actually died there, and no one knew for weeks, or was able to bring home the body, because no supply ship could get to the light (Palmer, pp. 50-53).
The use of wood made the structure somewhat flexible, which helped it withstand the wind and wave. But it meant that the wood had to be constantly maintained and replaced (Nancollas, p. 23; according to Palmer, p. 51, there was a sort of worm that continually attacked the structure, and on one occasion, almost half the wood near the bottom was torn off; Palmer, p. 53). And... it meant that the lighthouse was flammable. Given that it was at sea, this perhaps didn't seem like a major issue, but on December 2, 1755, after giving almost half a century of service, it caught fire and burned.
(This gave rise to another tragedy: an aged lighthouse-keeper, a man named Hall, was looking up when a lump of melted lead hit him in the face and went down his throat. He died of it, though apparently he lived long enough to tell the tale -- and the lead blob has been preserved to prove it. Nancollas, pp. 23-24.)
John Smeaton, the designer of lighthouse #3, was a very different type from his predecessors, a man whose very life was devoted to civil engineering and gadgetry (Nancollas, p. 24). Even as a boy, he had been designing gadgets and scientific instruments; his inventions were so clever that they won him the Royal Society's Gold Medal (Palmer, p. 66). He also turned out to be a good boss, working out careful contracts with his employees and treating them well (Palmer, pp. 68-70).
Everyone local thought he needed to built the new Eddystone of wood, as Rudyerd had done. Smeaton disagreed (Palmer, pp. 66-67). His design was, I would say, sheer genius -- stone, but not standard rectangular blocks such as everyone else used. Rather, he would cut the stone in interlocking hourglass shapes (Palmer, p. 99, has a photos of some of the surviving examples at the foot of Smeaton's tower). It had no outcroppings, and the whole thing had a gradual taper, which he compared to tree trunks (Nancollas, pp. 25-26; Palmer, p. 68). This made it extremely mechanically solid; there were no rough edges for the wind or waves to grab, and because of the interlocking structure, nothing that could be battered in unless the wave hit with enough force to crush the entire wall. It was simple but brilliant, and deserved all the notoriety it garnered. Smeaton also had the idea of setting up an accommodation ship anchored near the site so that the men wouldn't have to make trips to and from land every day -- trips which often took five hours each way. He also set up two teams of workmen so that one could work ashore while the other was at work on the rock (Palmer, p. 71).
He and his men carved the gneiss of one of the Eddystone rocks enough that they could start laying their granite blocks -- first partial circles, then, starting at the sixth layer, full circles, with stones all the way to the center, making a completely solid base. Marble dowels made sure that each layer was firmly fixed to that above and below it.
Once they reached the fifteenth course, they left the interior hollow, to allow an entrance and narrow upward stair. Eventually they reached the small inhabited area of the lighthouse, with the light above that (Nancollas, p. 27). Smeaton himself set the finial at the top of the tower, and it was first lit on October 16, 1759 (Nancollas, p. 27).
So accurate had been his engineering that, when he measured the tower's angle from the vertical upon completion of the courses of the tower proper, the deviation was just one-eighth of an inch over a fall of 49 and a half feet (Palmer, p. 83) -- in other words, one part in 4752!
"Smeaton's tower was the most influential and all other rock lighthouses surviving today follow his essential principles. Against the wild contours of the reef had been placed a new type of building, made of precisely carved, interlocking stones, stamping order on disorder, laying a pioneering set of foundations" (Nancollas, p. 27).
No wonder that, even a century later, the Eddystone was still *the* lighthouse to talk about.
I haven't found a list of all the Eddystone keepers (I suspect that not all of them are known), but the first three were Henry Carter, Henry Edwards, and John Hatherley (Palmer, p. 91).
The fact that Smeaton's tower stood for many decades does not mean that it went unmodified. The early candle lights could be seen, at best, for about five miles. By 1807, they were superseded. Gradually, new kinds of lights, reflectors, even Fresnel lenses were installed (Palmer, pp. 93-95). But they were all installed in the same cage atop the lighthouse.
This period also saw the light adopt its final color scheme of alternating red and white stripes (Palmer, p. 95); it had had paint schemes before that, but none had "stuck."
Given the date of its appearance, it would appear this song refers to the third lighthouse, but we should perhaps continue the story. Smeaton's lighthouse held up well for three-quarters of a century or so, but at the end of that time, it was noticed that it seemed to shake more in wind and storm than it used to. It wasn't that the tower was unsound -- the rock it rested on was crumbling; inspectors found it wearing away, and the tower starting to be undermined (Palmer, p. 97). Clearly it could not stand forever (Nancollas, p. 155). This led to an interesting disagreement: All agreed that a new lighthouse was needed, but the locals wanted to preserve the old one, while Trinity House just wanted to knock it down and get it out of the way. The eventual compromise was that the locals raised money to take down the old lighthouse and rebuild it on land. They took down roughly the top two-thirds (the part that people could enter) and rebuilt on Plymouth Hoe (Nancollas, p. 156; Palmer, p. 97, who on p. 98 adds that it is close enough to the coast that it still can be used as a navigational landmark on clear days, though it is no longer lit. Palmer has a photo on p. 142). The stump of the tower remains on the reef, still quite solid and visible to those who come close. The new Eddystone, designed by James Douglass and put in service in 1882 (Nancollas, pp. 159-160), is on the rock nearby (whether it's the same rock or different to some extent depends on the tide).
James Douglass's father Nicholas worked as an engineer for Trinity House (Palmer, p. 101), and his brother also was a lighthouse engineer (indeed, the whole family had worked to build, although they had not designed, the Bishop Rock lighthouse; Palmer, pp. 102-103), so one might say that lighthouse design was in James's blood. He had already been Resident Engineer responsible for building the Smalls lighthouse in Wales and the Wolf Rock lighthouse (Palmer, p. 103).
Building the lighthouse was easier because of new technology -- they were able to smooth the gneiss with compressed-air drills and sulfuric acid and build a cofferdam around the new site and use pumps to keep it dry, which let them build more easily and set the base closer to the water surface (Palmer, pp. 105-106) -- there would be no undercutting this lighthouse! They also had access to steam power from their auxiliary boats for their equipment (Palmer, p. 108), which made it much easier, e.g., to lift the stones (which weight 5000-6500 pounds) used for the lighthouse.
The design was clever in several ways. The bottom 25 and a half feet of the tower were solid stone, but there was a double taper above that, so that the outside of the tower narrowed while the inner hollow got slightly wider toward the top. This meant that the lower walls were 8 feet six inches thick, but the upper walls "just" two feet three inches (Palmer, p. 113). This gave additional structural strength throughout. The tower's interior contained a large fresh water tank and, above it, nine rooms, one above the other, each 14 feed in diameter (Palmer, p. 114). The bottom six were functional rooms -- the tower entrance, store room, coal room, store room, crane room, oil room. Above these were the "living room"/kitchen and "bed room," plus, just below the light, the "service room" (Palmer, p. 115; I can't help but note that this left three men trying to get along in a living space totaling about 300 square feet, or about a third the size of the smallest American homes). Supplies were generally brought up by winch rather than carried by hand. Sometimes even the staff went up and down by winch (Palmer, p. 114).
It was a much bigger structure than Smeaton's, finished in 1881, with the formal lighting ceremony on May 18, 1882 (Palmer, p. 112, though he says on p. 120 that Smeaton's beacon was turned off on February 3). It was, note, a rotating beacon, with a system of weights to help the light-keeper, but as initially set up, the keeper still had to turn a winch all night to keep it going (Palmer, p. 118).
Douglas even managed to finish it under-budget -- it cost less than £60,000, and his estimate had been £78,000. It was also done without anyone being killed or seriously injured (Palmer, p. 119). No wonder that, in an absurd irony, they hired him to take down Smeaton's old tower and rebuild it on land!
The new lighthouse had more modern technology than Smeaton's -- e.g. it used lenses to focus its light, and a modern foghorn -- but at a distance it looked much the same in form, at least as originally built, though it was much larger. The base is 44 feet in diameter, with the light 133 feet above high water (Palmer, p. 108). (It has of course experienced modernization, and at least one of those modernizations, in which a helipad was built on the top in 1980 -- Palmer, p. 125 -- really spoiled its looks as far as I'm concerned.) It still stands today, even though GPS navigation is causing lighthouses to be taken out of service. And there is no longer a Keeper; Eddystone was converted to automatic operation as early as 1982, making it the first rock lighthouse to lose its on-site staff (Nancollas, p. 165; Palmer, p. 125).
The song seems to have had a curious history. The earliest version I know apart from the sheet music is in a Harvard songbook from 1889, and it closely resembles "The Man at the Nore" as learned by Cyril Tawney from fellow sailors (the chorus runs "A jolly story lightly told, How the winds they blew and the waves they rolled, Down at the bottom of the deep blue sea You'll find the proof of my veracity." This fits the "Man at the Nore" tune but cannot be sung to the "Yo Ho Ho" melody that is more often printed today. The verses also match "The Man at the Nore").
[Credit to Malcolm Douglas and John Patrick for digging up the sheet music and Harvard songster.]
But "The Man at the Nore" is now very rare, despite an excellent tune. Most people know the "Yo ho ho!" version, perhaps because it was popularized by Burl Ives. This version is among the most-parodied songs of all time. I know of "The Keeper of the London Zoo," "The Keeper of the Asteroid Light," and I've heard hints of others.
Is it possible that one of the two basic versions is a deliberate rewrite of the other? Collections in tradition are few (apart from Tawney's), making it a bit unlikely that such drastic changes came about due simply to oral transmission.
Richard Dyer-Bennet has been credited with creating the final verse of the common version ("The phosphorus flashed in her seaweed hair..." -- bad science, incidentally, since there is almost no free phosphorus in the ocean; it's a necessary chemical for life, but not very common; every atom finds a home in some creature's DNA. Many ocean creatures are, of course, phosphorescent -- but not due to phosphorus).
Despite its rarity in tradition, this song seems to have inspired a handful of fictional books, including Amelia Smith, Eddystone Light, Split Rock Books, 2014; at least one illustrated edition of the song; and Michael Rough's 1823 (?) poem "The Eddystone Lighthouse."
More serious books about the building of the various lighthouses include Palmer (cited here) ;Adam Hart-Davis, Henry Winstanley and the Eddystone Light, The History Press, 2002; Fred Majdalany, The Eddystone Light or The Red Rocks of Eddystone: The Story of the Eddystone Lighthouse, 1959 (American Edition, Houghton Mifflin, 1960); Emma Marshall, The First Light on the Eddystone, Seeley and Co., 1894; R. M. Ballantyne, The Story of the Rock: The Eddystone Lighthouse (I don't know who first published this, but it's old enough that there are several scan-and-print-on-demand editions); there is also Me Father Was the Keeper: John Smeaton and the Eddystone Light, which doesn't seem to list an author. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: PBB120

Keeper of the Game (I), The

See Captain Wedderburn's Courtship [Child 46] (File: C046)

Keeper of the Game (II), The

See The Cruel Brother [Child 11] (File: C011)

Keeper Would A-Hunting Go, The

See The Keeper (File: ShH79)

Keeper, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Keeper would a-hunting go." Keeper goes hunting for a doe. In some versions he chases several unsuccessfully.
AUTHOR: Joseph Martin? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd); reportedly written in the 1680s (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 134, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 79, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 52, "The Keeper" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle, pp. 289-290, "The Keeper" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #6, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #113, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune, completely rewritten)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #111, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 680, "The Keeper" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 59, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 338, "The Keeper" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 231, 309, "341, The Keeper" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 74-75, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 64, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 21, "The Keeper" (1 text)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 19, "The Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 97, "The Keeper" (1 text)
DT, KEEPERGO*
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p.147, "(The Keeper)" (1 text)
Roud #1519
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, Dennis Cook, "The Keeper" (Piotr-Archive #269, recorded 09/27/2022)
Pete Seeger, "The Keeper and the Doe" (on PeteSeeger09, PeteSeegerCD02) (on PeteSeeger18)
Erica Warnock, Derek Piotr, "The Keeper" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #460, recorded 01/26/2023, with much prompting by Piotr and very poor pitch)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "En Jaeger Gik At Jage (A Hunter Went Out Hunting)" (general feeling)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Keeper Would A-Hunting Go
Warwickshire
NOTES [194 words]: Most of the song consists of back-and-forth singing of the chorus between two singers. B.J. Orton thinks there is a sexual or magical subtext to this song. I doubt it, myself. -PJS
I have to disagree with Paul; at least one text refers to the Keeper kissing a doe, and another doe "[running] away in a young man's heart." There is surely some sort of hidden meaning. Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd says that their original was "very gross" and required extensive rewriting, though Baring-Gould's standard of morality strikes me as equally perverse. The real question is, how far did Sharp and Baring-Gould separately bowdlerize what they found? Based on Palmer, the original was basically clean, but highly suggestive. Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams reports that the Sharp version was sung in the schools in his bowdlerized version. Palmer says that the original was a late seventeenth century broadside "The Huntsman's Delight or The Forester's Pleasure" by Joseph Martin.
Interesting that such a piece would become extremely popular in school and camp songbooks. I suppose it's because of the chance for a musical "conversation." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ShH79

Keepers and Poachers

DESCRIPTION: Singer and others are poaching when 12 keepers are seen. They decide to fight; in the course of battle, young William Taylor is taken. In court, he's told his life will be spared if he names his companions; he refuses, vowing to "die for them all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (collected by Cecil Sharp)
KEYWORDS: fight bargaining crime execution poaching punishment trial hunting bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 254, "Keepers and Poachers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #23, "Keepers and Poachers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 34, "William Taylor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #851
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "William Taylor" (on Maynard1, Voice18)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Poacher's Fate" [Laws L14] (subject)
cf. "The Bold Poachers" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bold William Taylor
NOTES [31 words]: This should not be confused with the "Bold William Taylor" [i.e. "William Taylor" [Laws N11] - RBW] whose girlfriend dresses as a man and shoots him (in "William Taylor" [Laws N11]). - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: K254

Keepit sheep, keepit swine

See Blawin' Willie Buck's Horn (File: GrD81640)

Keg of Brandy

See Peggy Gordon (File: Gil127)

Keiller's Jam

See Tittler's Jam (File: OpGa088)

Keith and Hiles Line, The

DESCRIPTION: Description of life in a lumber-camp. A train arrives with "four hundred 'bohunks'" to work at the camp. Singer sings about the foreman and other loggers, and complains about the food; he longs to travel to the West, where he'll find a haystack to rest in
AUTHOR: Possibly Jerome Ford, father of singer Warde Ford, and his friend Kimball
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (USWolfRiver)
KEYWORDS: work lumbering worker food moniker | foreman
FOUND IN: US(MW)
Roud #5751
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "The Keith and Hiles Line" (1 text, 1 tune; on USWolfRiver)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES [20 words]: In this case 'bohunks' supposedly refers to pick-and-shovel men or track-layers, rather than being an ethnic slur. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcHKeHiL

Kelley's Irish Brigade

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you that hold communion With southern Confederates bold." The singer tells how Union soldiers came to Missouri, but were routed by Kelley's brigade. He recalls their troubles in Ireland, and hopes for states rights
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar political
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 355-356, "Kelley's Irish Brigade" (1 text)
DT, KELLBRIG (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's text, mistakenly said to come from Randolph)
Roud #7768
NOTES [192 words]: This is a really, really strange piece. Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety notes that there are Union broadsides of Kelley's Irish Brigade. And the Union *did* have an Irish Brigade commanded by Col. Patrick Kelly; this unit, organized by General Meagher, was in fact, one of the most famous units in the Army of the Potomac. (For some background on this unit, see the notes to "By the Hush.")
If the spelling "Kelley" be accepted, there was also a union general Benjamin Franklin Kelley, who commanded troops (though seemingly not an Irish Brigade) in West Virginia.
But why adapt it to the Confederacy (which is what Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety suggests happened, and I can see no grounds for argument)? And why to Missouri?
The only general officer in the Confederacy named Kelly was John Herbert Kelly (1840-1864), and he *did* serve in Missouri in 1861 -- but he was only a captain at the time. By the time he achieved a brigadier's star in late 1863, he was in Braxton Bragg's army, and he commanded cavalry, not infantry, so he couldn't have led an Irish brigade. The song simply doesn't make sense. - RBW
File: Beld355B

Kelligrews Soiree, The

DESCRIPTION: "You may talk of... anything you choose, But it couldn't hold a snuff-box to the spree at Kelligrews." A thoroughly exaggerated account: "There was birch rine, tar twine, cherry wine, and turpentine," and so forth, ad nauseum.
AUTHOR: John Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 2nd edition)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad party dancing
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 110-112, "The Kelligrews Soiree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 35, "The Kelligrews Soiree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 25-26, "The Kelligrews Soiree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Kelligrew's Soiree" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 16-17 in the 2nd edition; pp. 36-37 in the 3rd; pp. 32-33 in the 4th; pp. 46-47 in the 5th
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 11-13, "Kelligrew's Soiree" (1 text, 1 tune)
England-HistoricNewfoundlandAndLabrador, pp. 56-57, "The Kelligrew's Soiree" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, KSOIREE
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #19, pp. 34-35, "The Kelligrews Soiree" (1 text)
Johnny Burke, _Burke's Popular Songs_, self-published, 1929 (a PDF is available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. [19], "The Kelligrews Soiree" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 22 "The Kelligrews' Soiree" (1 text)
Johnny Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1926_, self-published, 1926 (PDF copy avallable on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), [no page number], "The Kelligrews Soiree" (1 text)
Roud #4430
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "The Kelligrews Soiree" (on NFOBlondahl01)
Clare O'Driscoll, "Kelligrew's Soiree" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Jubilee"
cf. "Finnegan's Wake" [Laws Q17]
SAME TUNE:
The Teapots at the Fire (File: Blon027)
The Wreck of the Torhamvan, The (The Wreck of the Toravan) (File: ML3Tormha)
Mary Joe Slip on Your Bloomers for the Blueberries Now Are Ripe (by Johnny Burke) (Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #49, pp. 78-79) (Johnny Burke, _Burke's Popular Songs_, self-published, 1929 (a PDF is available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. [4]) (Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 44)
Lindbergh's Flight ("Oh, from Roosevelt's field last Friday morn A plucky Yankee boy") (by Johnny Burke) (Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #49, pp. 78-79)
Baby Show in the Park (by Johnny Burke) (Johnny Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1926_, self-published, 1926 (PDF copy avallable on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), [no page number])
Casey Taking the Census ("Sure they put me on the census, For to go and take the town") (by Johnny Burke) (Johnny Burke, _Burke's Popular Songs_, self-published, 1929 (a PDF is available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. [5]) (Johnny Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1926_, self-published, 1926 (PDF copy avallable on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), [no page number]) (Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 22) (Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #57, p. 90)
Nafco Railings ("If you want to get a railing that is pleasing to the sight") (by "A. C. W."?) (Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 60)
NOTES [1277 words]: Kelligrews is a small village southwest of St. John's, Newfoundland. - RBW
Is this a cleaned-up version of "The Ball at Kerrimuir"? -PJS
Based on form, it is not. (It's not all that cleaned up, either; while there are no explicit sexual references, there are all sorts of hints, plus references to drunkenness, sodden clergy, and the like.) Fowke and Johnston believe it to be based on "The Irish Jubilee," and the stanzaic form implies they are right. Of course, there are all sorts of songs on the theme of the Ultimate Uproarious Party.
StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 504, hint that this might actually be based, in part, on a real event of 1900. They cite an article from the [St. John's] Daily News: "The Kelligrews Soiree. The S U F held a very enjoyable dance at their hall at Kelligrews on Easter Monday night... 15 couples." It is their belief that Burke puublished his poem c. 1904, so the gap in time is not too large.
Johnny Burke (1851-1930) lived his entire life in St. John's, Newfoundland (DictNewfLabrador, p. 38, entry on "John Burke"); O'Neil, p. 384, says that he was probably born at 10 King's Road in that town -- the home of his father, also named John Burke. His father was a sealing captain (which no doubt explains why Burke wrote many poems about sealing), who was said to have been "very successful." John Burke senior was lost when the Nautilus sank on January 1, 1865; one of his sons, William, was killed at the same time, leaving his wife Sarah, daughter Annie, and sons Johnny Jr. and Alexander (Murphy, p. 152).
Johnny Burke himself in all sorts of small business ventures, evidently without success since he kept changing jobs. But he was primarily a publisher and seller of broadside ballads, as well as a playwright (see "Cotton's Patch (I)" for a description of one of his plays). DictNewfLabrador says that "He would send the place up simply by his appearance on stage, for he was straight-faced, short and chubby, with a voluminous mustache and a slow, shuffling step."
To that description compare Murphy, p. 149, "As Johnny walked out from the wings, with the slow, short, scuffling gait so characteristic of him, adjusted his hard hat, and cracked a joke or two in his own droll manner, he needed no second-hand humor or straining for effect.... For Johnny was a born comedian with a gravity equal to Mark Twain's, and his very appearance was enough to ensure laughter."
Colton, p. 22, declares, "Burke possessed an uncanny ability to capture in verse something of the essence of Newfoundland life, from minute descriptions of local events (often parodic or satirical) [observe his many songs about the sealing fleet going out - RBW] to epic tales of tragedy and heroism, all told from the perspective of an insider who was as much part of Newfoundland society as the varied aspects of that society he chronicled." Colton, p. 23: "According to [ J. H.] Devine, 'the advent of a new Burke Ballad was as eagerly greeted by the public as the best seller ... is today. Boys sold them throughout the city....' Burke's songs remain immensely popular in rural Newfoundland today (arguably more so than in his native St. John's), where they have merged with traditional songs to become seamlessly integrated into the vernacular popular culture.... Despite the enduring legacy of his songs, Burke himself remains an elusive figure."
Major, p. 276: "He had an insatiable appetite for the theatrical, producing talent shows and musical comedies, writing and acting in numerous 'entertainments.' Best of all, he composed send-ups of local events, satirical ballads that have become one of the cornerstones of Newfoundland's rich musical heritage. He was a bowler-hatted troubadour at the height of his comedic talents during a golden age of local concerts, between the Great Fire of 1892 and the start of the First World War. With his own press he ran off his compositions as broadsides and 'slips.' Sold on street corners for pennies, they were often more talked about than the event himself."
O'Neill, pp. 385-386, says "He and the sister with whom he lived resembled nothing so much as two characters out of Dickens. In the age of melodians, when people made their own entertainment, there were few homes in St. John's where the works of Burke were not known, loved, and sung." But he also had musical comedies presented in theaters: "The Battle of Foxtrap" was based on an attempt to drive a railroad through Fox Trap on Conception Bay; "The Runaway Girl from Fogo" was a parody of the operetta "The Runaway Girl"; "The Topsail Geisha: A Story of the Wash House" was a take-off on Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Geisha"; his last musical comedy, "Cotton's Patch," produced the two songs of that name found in the Index.
O'Neill, p. 385, tells of him setting up a gramophone to play wax cylinders and draw people to buy his broadsheets. O'Neill concludes of these writing, "He poked gentle fun and might be considered more of a funster than a satirist." He died at 62 Prescott Street, his business location for many years.
It sounds as if it was "The Battle of Foxtrap" that made his reputation. This was based on an incident in 1880, when the people of Foxtrap, fearing what the railroad would do to their town, threatened the (Canadian) surveyors who were trying to lay out a route. In the end, Judge D. W. Prowse had a small force of policemen threaten the crowd. The result was mostly peaceful (Harding, pp. 18-21).
"But the next year a St. John's clerk cum poet, singer, actor and playwright, Johnnie Burke, achieved a brief moment of fame when he wrote a musical comedy based on the incident. Its topicality, as well as its music, brazenly stolen from the established tunes of the time, were more than enough to ensure that when it opened on February 2, 1881, at the Total Abstinence Hall, The Battle of Foxtrap would be a roaring success on the St. John's stage" (Harding, p. 21).
According to Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou, p. 8, there is a biography of him, James D. Higgins, The Bard of Prescott Street, 1970. I have yet to find any other source that acknowledges the existence of this book.
Most of his songsters contain a very high number of ads for local businesses, as well as public notices from the Newfoundland government (including regular ones from Henry W. Le Messurier, author of "We'll Rant and We'll Roar"/"The Ryans and Pittmans," in his capacity as a customs official). It sort of makes me wonder if Burke drummed up business by threatening to write satirical songs about those who didn't support him....
"The Kelligrew's Soiree" is pretty definitely his most popular song, but at least a dozen of his pieces, and probably more, are in the Index (many pieces have been attributed to him which cannot be proved to be his).
At least some of this is based on real people. According to O'Neill, p. 375, "Caroline Bowdin was never seen in public but that he was covered from head to toe in bows of bright-coloured ribbons. She married a fellow of her own mental stature named Flipper Smith, and the two were immortalized by Johnny Burke in a verse of his famous song 'The Kelligrew's Soiree:' Jim Brine, Din Ryan, Flipper Smith and Caroline, I tell you boys we had a time...."
Johnny Burke wrote another piece, "The Wedding Cake at Betsy's Marriage in Fogo," that seems like a combination of, or practice for, "Trinity Cake" and "The Kelligrew's Soiree"; it's about a wedding cake, but the list of improbable ingredients is very like "Kelligrew's Soiree." - RBW
While Doyle3 reports the song was sung in New York in 1938, GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site shows that the author died in 1930. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: FJ110

Kellswater

See The Lover's Curse (Kellswater) (File: HHH442)

Kelly and the Ghost

See Maurice Kelly (File: GrMa078)

Kelly Gang Were Strong, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the Kelly gang were strong, And bent on doing wrong, In spite of Captain Standish and his men... And when they cross the border, They'll find bobbies all in order To beat them at the same old game."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: outlaw Australia police
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 28, "The Kelly Gang Were Strong" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kelly Gang" (subject)
cf. "Ye Sons of Australia" (subject)
cf. "Kelly Song (Farewell Dan and Edward Kelly)" (subject)
cf. "Kelly Was Their Captain" (subject)
cf. "Ballad of the Kelly Gang" (subject)
cf. "Stringybark Creek" (subject)
cf. "My Name is Edward Kelly" (subject)
NOTES [17 words]: This uses a tune reportedly similar to the music hall piece, "Strolling Down the Old Kent Road." - RBW
File: MCH028

Kelly Gang, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come, all young men with feeling! With regret I must unfold, I have a tale to tell of men Whose hearts are stout and bold." The song praises the Kelly gang for their stand against odds of fifty to one. Kate Kelly is praised for warning the gang
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: outlaw Australia
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1855 - Birth of Ned Kelly
1880 - Execution of Kelly. His last words are reported to have been "Such is life."
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 248-249, "The Kelly Gang" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Kelly Gang" (on Lloyd2, Lloyd4)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kelly Was Their Captain" (subject) and notes and references there
NOTES [35 words]: Edward "Ned" Kelly and his gang are perhaps the most famous of all Australian bushrangers. For some anecdotes of his life, in addition to the cross-referenced songs, see the notes to "Kelly Was Their Captain." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: MA248

Kelly of Killann

See Kelly, the Boy from Killane (File: PGa033)

Kelly Song (Farewell Dan and Edward Kelly)

DESCRIPTION: Fragment of a ballad about the Kelly gang: "Farewell Dan and Edward Kelly, Farewell Hart and Steve Byrne too, With the poor your memory liveth; Those who blame you are but few."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953
KEYWORDS: outlaw Australia
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1855 - Birth of Ned Kelly
1880 - Execution of Kelly. His last words are reported to have been "Such is life."
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 28, "Kelly Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 93-94, "(Farewell Dan and Edward Kelly" (1 text, apparently collected as a sort of appendix to "My Name is Edward Kelly")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kelly Was Their Captain" (subject) and notes and references there
NOTES [36 words]: Edward "Ned" Kelly and his gang are perhaps the most famous of all Australian bushrangers. For some anecdotes of his life, in addition to the cross-referenced songs, see the notes to "Kelly Was Their Captain." - RBW

Last updated in version 2.6
File: MA028

Kelly the Pirate (I) [Laws K31]

DESCRIPTION: (Captain Cooper's ship Stag) meets Kelly's pirate ship. Kelly reminds the pirates that defeat means hanging, but this is not enough. The British ship sinks the pirate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadsides, Bodleian Harding B 28(162), Harding B 25(1022))
KEYWORDS: pirate fight death
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws K31, "Kelly the Pirate I"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 43, "Kelly the Pirate" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 81A, "Kelly the Pirate" (1 text)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 151, "Kelly the Pirate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 66, "Kelly the Pirate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp.178-179, "Version of Kelly The Pirate" (1 text, from a broadside rather than tradition)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 22, "Kelly the Pirate (I)" (1 text, 1 tune; from different sources; #22 in the first edition)
DT 565, KELLPIR
Roud #529
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "Kelly the Pirate" (on Abbott1)
David Slaunwhite, "Kelly the Pirate" (on MRHCreighton)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(162), "Kelly the Pirate," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 25(1022), "Kelly the Pirate" ("Come listen awhile and give ear to my song"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool) , 1820-1824
NOTES [279 words]: Several pirates named Kelly/Kelley are known from the late seventeenth century, notably James Kelley, an associate of Captain Kidd hanged in 1701. But their circumstances do not seem to match this song.
There is also a significant problem in the form of the "Kelly the Pirate" version sung by David Slaunwhite and printed in Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs. It is an open question whether it is the same as Laws K31.
Ben Schwartz writes,"Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs: 'Novia Scotia place names have been substituted for those in the old English song.... it has undergone many changes in the course of oral transmission.' It is barely recognizable as the same ballad as Greenleaf/Mansfield 43."
But Paul Stamler writes independently, "The plot of this song [the Slaunwhite version] is extremely confused, and the point of view seems to shift in the last verse, but it's clear enough that I'm pretty sure it isn't one of the two 'Kelly the Pirate' songs listed elsewhere in the Index."
Laws does not seem to have known of Slaunwhite's recording. Roud lumps them. It may well be that Slaunwhite's version is composite, mixing "Kelly the Pirate (I)" with something else. I'm sticking it here, for now, since it seems to be a one-shot. That could easily change if more versions show up.
Roud also seems to have had some trouble deciding which versions go with which Kelly the Pirate song. Laws gives "Come all ye jolly tarsmen, come listen to my song" as the standard opening line of K31; "Our Admiral gave orders on the same day" is the opening of K32. The latter looks like it was popularized by the Forget Me Not Songster. This one also seems to have emerged from broadsides. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LK31

Kelly the Pirate (II) [Laws K32]

DESCRIPTION: A British warship is commanded to guard merchant vessels. The warship meets Bold Kelly, who refuses to surrender. The pirate ship is taken and Kelly sent to prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: pirate sea battle prison
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws K32, "Kelly the Pirate II"
Greig/Duncan1 46, "Kelly the Pirate" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 846-847, "Kelly the Pirate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 81B, 81C, "Kelly the Pirate" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 23, "Kelly the Pirate (II)" (1 text, 1 tune; from different sources; #23 in the first edition)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, p. 75, "Kelly the Pirate" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 177-178, "Kelly, the Pirate" (1 text)
DT 566, KELPIR2 KELPIR3
Roud #1625
NOTES [90 words]: Several pirates named Kelly/Kelley are known from the late seventeenth century, notably James Kelley, an associate of Captain Kidd hanged in 1701. But their circumstances do not seem to match this song.
Roud seems to have had some trouble deciding which versions go with which Kelly the Pirate song. Laws gives "Come all ye jolly tarsmen, come listen to my song" as the standard opening line of K31; "Our Admiral gave orders on the same day" is the opening of K32. The latter looks like it was popularized by the Forget Me Not Songster. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LK32

Kelly Was Their Captain

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of the "famous outlaw band that roamed this country round. Ned Kelly was their captain...." Ordered arrested by the governor of Victoria, Kelly took to the bush. After long eluding the police, he was betrayed by Aaron Sherritt and taken
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia)
KEYWORDS: outlaw Australia betrayal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 1855 - Birth of Ned Kelly
1880 - Execution of Kelly. His last words are reported to have been "Such is life."
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 203-204, "Kelly Was Their Captain" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 46-47, "Kelly Was Their Captain" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 20-21, "Kelly Was Their Captain" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kelly Gang" (subject)
cf. "Ye Sons of Australia" (subject)
cf. "Kelly Song (Farewell Dan and Edward Kelly)" (subject)
cf. "My Name is Edward Kelly" (subject)
cf. "Ballad of the Kelly Gang" (subject)
cf. "Stringybark Creek" (subject)
cf. "The Kelly Gang Were Strong" (subject)
cf. "The Hat Ned Kelly Wore" (subject)
NOTES [4007 words]: Edward "Ned" Kelly and his gang are perhaps the most famous of all Australian bushrangers. Their history is not as pretty as the songs would imply. Clark, pp. 175-177, gives this account of their famous fight at Stringybark Creek and its aftermath:
"[F]our policemen, Kennedy, Lonigan, Scanlon, and McIntyre, set out from Mansfield in north-eastern Victoria to capture Ned Kelly, Joe Byrne, Dan Kelly, and Steve Hart, for horse and cattle stealing. On 26 October 1878, when the police confronted the bushrangers on Stringybark Creek, Ned Kelly shot and killed Kennedy, Lonigan, and Scanlon. McIntyre escaped to Mansfield to give the alarm....
"From the day of the outrage a legend began to grow among... [those] who, like Ned, had tried but failed to make a living by lawful means in that hard and bitter country. It was said that Ned, like Robin Hood, was battling only to deprive the rich of their wealth and give it to the poor. So the man who killed three constables was apotheosized into a folk hero....
"After Ned and his gang robbed the National Bank of Benalla in December 1878, and the Bank of New South Wales at Jerlilderie... he boasted that his men had never harmed a woman or robbed a poor man. But by one of those ironies in human affairs it was one of the little men whom he had befriended who brought him down. In June 1880 the gang occupied the hotel at Glenrowan....
"Ned... had conceived the mad plan of destroying a train bringing the police and black-trackers to hunt for him. The gang tore up a stretch of track shortly before the train on which the police were travelling was due. While Ned and the other members of the gang were preparing a ghastly wake for their victims, a schoolteacher slipped into the hotel and stopped the train in time. The police surrounded the hotel and set fire to it. Steve Hart, Dan Kelly, and Joe Byrne were burnt to death, but Ned, mad as ever, put on his homemade armour and shot it out with the police till a bullet brought him down. He was brought to Melbourne, tried, and hanged on 11 November 1880, when, according to legend, his last words were 'Such is life.'" (According to Davey/Seal, p. 243, however, if he said any such thing, the actual words were "I suppose it had to come to this," but when Joseph Furphy wrote a book "Such Is Life," it firmly fixed those words in tradition).
Kelly was not, of course, the last Australian outlaw, but he really did prove to be the "last of the bushrangers" (Boxall, p. 345); indeed, Boxall suggests on p. 353 that this is a key reason for his fame: by his time, bushranging was rare.
Innes, p. 4, suggests that he had a "deep consciousness of an Irish history of oppression," and that he was more conscious, if not of politics, at least of his place in history -- a sort of deliberate showman, perhaps even modeling himself on Robert Emmet (Innes, p. 32). His Jerilderie Letter certainly sounded Irish nationalist themes, as well as advocating generosity to the poor (Innes, p. 26).
He was just 25 years old when he was executed. According to Nunn, p. 143, his father John Kelly (born 1820) was a transportee who arrived in Australia in 1842; his mother Ellen Quinn had come to Australia with her parents in 1841. Ned was born at Wallan in some time between 1854 and 1856 (Davey/Seal, p. 168, and Innes, p. 15, say 1854/1855, but the record sheet printed on p. 20 of Innes says 1856); Jim Kelly followed in 1856 (?), and Ned's future companion in crime Dan Kelly was born in 1861 (Boxall, p. 354).
The family moved around a lot, and intermarried with some rather shady characters (Nunn, pp. 145-146). Father John Kelly had been set free in 1848, but in 1865, was sentenced to hard labor for stealing cattle, and died the next year (Innes, p. 9), possibly in part as a result of the time in prison, leaving Ellen Quinn Kelly with seven children and Ned, just twelve years old, the oldest boy (Innes, p. 16). The family moved to Greta in 1868 (the family residence there being mentioned in "Farewell to Greta," which refers to the place, not to a woman). It was not until 1892 that Ellen Kelly was finally able to purchase the land, which shows how severe the family's tribulations were in their first years on the property.
Kelly probably had some education (Innes, p. 15, says he earned fourth grade certification in reading and writing, but failed grammar and geography; on. p. 45, Innes prints a letter supposedly written in his own hand), but in prison, he did not sign his name, using a mark and having it witnessed (Nunn, p. 146). (I will speculate that he had gotten out of the habit of writing; his longest message, the Jerilderie Letter, was copied down by Joe Byrne, probably because Byrne wrote a beautiful hand shown on p. 54 of Innes -- though the punctuation and orthography are "far from conventional"; Innes, p. 51.)
At first, he was not an obvious criminal; by the time he was ten, he had saved another boy from drowning (Innes, p. 15). But he apparently took to crime at a very early age, coming to the attention of the courts while still in his early teens, or perhaps even younger (Nunn, pp. 148-150, although Manifold, p. 68, suggests that the attention was unfair).
Supposedly he "apprenticed" to bushranger Harry Power (real name: Henry Johnston, and possibly the subject of "Bushranger Jack Power") in 1868/1869 (Innes, pp. 9, 17). Power dumped him soon after, saying he was a coward (Innes, p. 17) -- but the worst part of Power's teaching had taken hold. Kelly was first brought up on charges of assault in 1869, but acquitted because the accusers weren't regarded as credible (I can't help but think that prejudice may have been involved -- the man Kelly attacked was Chinese). In 1870, he was was charged with being an accomplice of Power but released when the witnesses could not identify him (Boxall, p. 354; Innes, p. 10), but he received his first sentence of hard labor later in that year (Innes, pp. 10, 17). In 1871, convicted of stealing a horse, he was sentenced to a three year term (Innes, pp. 17-18). During this time, his mother Ellen took up with a 23-year-old named George King, by whom she promptly became pregnant. They were married early in 1874 (Innes, p. 18).
Apparently Ned made a brief attempt at reform at this time (Nunn, p. 152), engaging in honest work for three years and using boxing as an outlet for his temper (Innes, p. 18).
In 1877, Kelly was taken by police for being drunk and assaulting (or at least insulting) an officer (Nunn, p. 153). He was offered the choice of a three pound fine or three months in prison (Nunn, p. 154). But he promptly escaped.
Nunn, p. 154, quotes a police report which says that the "wholesale system of cattle duffing [changing brands] was carried out extensively. This appears to have culminated in the disturbance at Greta when Constable [Alexander] Fitzpatrick went out to serve a warrant on Dan Kelly for horse stealing." Another version has him courting Ned's sister Kate (Innes, p. 21) -- although Manifold, p. 69, says he was "mauling" her. Clearly there are no objective reports of events. What happened next isn't entirely clear (one version, on p. 356 of Boxall, has the Kellys feeding Fitzpatrick dinner and then assaulting him; Innes, p. 21, says Fitzpatrick decided to arrest Dan Kelly and was assaulted by Ned; Manifold, p. 69, says they shot Fitzpatrick then bandaged him up and fed him dinner), but Fitzpatrick ended up with a bullet wound which he blamed on Ned Kelly -- although he also said that the Kellys treated his injury (Nunn, pp. 154-155; Boxall, p. 357). The Kelly story was that Ned wasn't even there at the time, and didn't find out until he returned to Greta (Innes, p. 21).
Davey/Seal, p. 112, say that Fitzpatrick "allegedly attempted to molest Ned Kelly's sisters in the family home. Ned Kelly (probably) shot Fitzpatrick in the wrist, an act that precipitated the gaoling of Kelly's mother Ellen." Innes, p. 21, says that Ned and Dan Kelly offered to give themselves up in return for releasing their mother, but nothing came of that. (According to Innes, p. 10, Ellen Kelly -- who had a three month old baby -- was sentenced to three years' hard labor.) Several Kelly associates ended up on trial as being accessories to attempted murder, although Fitzpatrick's was the only testimony against them (and Innes, p. 21, says he was known to be a woman chaser who drank a lot). Ned and Dan Kelly apparently then went to the bush (Nunn, p. 158; Innes, p. 10).
Their gang, like many gangs of bushrangers, was very young. Nunn, p. 161, says that at the time when Ned Kelly's age was 23 and Dan Kelly was 17, the third member of the gang, Steve Hart, "a local lad from Wangaratta," was not quite 18 and already a convicted horse thief, and Joe Byrne was a fatherless young man of 21.
The fight at Stringybark followed. According to Nunn, p. 161, the police were not wearing uniforms, although it is not clear how this affected the outcome. Innes, p. 22, says that McIntyre was captured and told to persuade Kennedy and Scanlon to give in, but the Kellys shot the latter two anyway, after which McIntyre snatched Kelly's horse and fled. Nunn, p. 168, notes that the dead policemen's pockets were cleaned out, presumably by the Kelly Gang, after they died.
Ned Kelly claimed all the shooting was in self-defense (Innes, p. 23; apparently he frequently tried to justify his crimes -- see in particular the Jerilderie letter below; there was also a letter, the "Cameron Letter," to MP David Cameron; Innes, p. 24, with the full text transcribed on pp. 46-50 of Innes). But what mattered is that they had killed three policemen. Rewards went up for the men dead or alive. The pursuit that followed reportedly cost some 50,000 pounds (Nunn, p. 171).
The gang lived mostly in the bush, eventually moving to New South Wales, but there are reports of visits to family and a safe house at Greta (Nunn, p. 171). These visits presumably are at the heart of the song "Farewell to Greta." At first, they mostly lived off the locals, but after a couple of years, they robbed a small bank at Euroa, making off with about 2200 pounds (Innes, p. 25; Nunn, p. 175, says 2400 pounds; Boxall, p. 362, makes it 1942 pounds plus loose gold -- and tells of how they tricked the banker into letting them into the bank after hours). Innes, p. 26, suggests that the fact that the Kellys did not hurt anyone during the robbery was one reason why the public supported them.
This caused the price on each robber's head to be raised to £1000 (Nunn, p. 176 -- an interesting economic decision, when you think about it, since it was more than the value of what they had taken). It also resulted in a new commander being placed in charge of the hunt, and new laws and procedures put in place to capture criminals. A number of Kelly relatives and friends were placed in custody as a result (Nunn, pp. 176-178). Later, when New South Wales joined Victoria in placing a price on their heads, the reward rose to £2000 per man (Innes, p. 29).
In February 1879 they raided the bank at Jerilderie, capturing the two local constables and using their uniforms as a disguise (Nunn, p. 179; Boxall, pp. 365-366; Davey/Seal, p. 168). Having cut the telegraph wires, the outlaws occupied the town for three days (Boxall, p. 369), but robbed only the bank. This brought them more than 2000 pounds in cash (Boxall, p. 368). Kelly also tried to get a proclamation printed; this 56-page, 8000 word self-justification came to be known as the "Jerilderie letter." According to Boxall, p. 370, "It was a long, rambling statement, in some parts quite incoherent, and much of it false" (but Boxhall would not have known the whole letter, since it was not published in full, from the original, until the manuscript was donated to a library in 2000; Innes, p. 27. Earlier publications were partial and based on a police copy). There is dispute about whether Kelly composed it, or Joe Byrne, or both (Innes, p. 27), but there seems little doubt that the 56-page document represents Kelly's (somewhat incoherent) views fairly accurately.
For eighteen months, the police never came close to them. (Innes, p. 42, cites an opinion that this was because they were native-born Australians, who understood living in the bush -- and that this was a major reason why the locals did not turn them in: the Australian population supported members of, in effect, their tribe against the British outsiders.) But neither could the gang stop the authorities from harassing their families. So, in early 1880, "Ned Kelly began to plan for a more effective and dramatic challenge to the authorities" (Innes, p. 29).
Apparently the gang at this time decided to adopt armor to stop bullets (Nunn, p. 183). "In March 1880, farmers began to report the theft of their ploughshares," which became the basis for the armor (Innes, pp. 29-30). Nunn, p. 142, has a picture of Kelly's armor. It would be pretty useless for a knight -- it looks like three pieces of tin plate wrapped into a cylinder and riveted. It would certainly restrict the wearer's movements, and I doubt it could stop a round from a serious weapon. Boxall, p. 380, says that Kelly "looked like a tall, stout man with a nail can over his head" while wearing it; he adds on p. 381 that it weighed 97 pounds. There are dents in it which would seem to imply that it kept several pistol balls from penetrating, and one newspaper report claimed that, when bullets hit it, he laughed and tapped his breast to show his scorn for their weapons (Innes, p. 40). However, it also slowed the men down, made it harder for them to shoot -- and made it harder to escape if a gang member were shot in the arm or leg (Innes, p. 33).
As the war with the police escalated, the Kelly Gang became more violent. Nunn, p. 185, suggests that the strain of maintaining himself in the bush began to tell on Kelly after this. On June 26, 1880, the gang came out of the bush and used hostages as they attacked and executed an alleged informer Aaron She(r)ritt (Nunn, p. 185; Innes, p. 30), the one-time brother-in-law of Joe Byrne (Boxall, pp. 373-374).
The motivation behind his final plan cannot be known, but it was both complex and fragile (Nunn, p. 186). The general idea was to lure in a police gang by executing Sheritt and tearing up a railroad track (Innes, p. 30, thinks the gang executed Sherritt to draw the police to the area and the goal of damaging the track was to derail the police train, but others think that the rail-breaking was also supposed to draw official attention). Breaking the rail proved harder than anticipated; the gang was unable to break up the track themselves, and had to take platelayers prisoner and demand their aid (Nunn, p. 186). This meant that their schedule was badly off, plus many people knew about their acts (Nunn, p. 188).
They were forced to keep a great many hostages at the Glenrowan Inn. The goal of the operation is believed to have been specifically to fight the police (Manifold, p. 72 -- although Ned would later claim he wanted to capture the police and exchange prisoners; Innes, p. 30). But the police superintendent Hare had been warned -- a policeman had hidden for many hours, then escaped to report what was going on; later, one of the hostages managed to convince the gang to let him go (Thomas Curnow said he wanted to tell his wife, who was sick, that he was all right; Innes, p. 60; Manifold, p. 73, claims he wanted to put his family to bed). He was able to warn the police of the damaged track (Innes, p. 32). Hare had his men surrounding the Glenrowan hotel as the Kelly Gang armed itself (Nunn, p. 193). Hare himself was at the forefront of the attack and took a wound in the right hand which forced him out of the battle (Innes, p. 33, claims he was hit by Ned Kelly's very first shot)..
The battle was long, and there were civilian as well as police and gang casualties, including the son of the innkeeper (Boxall, p. 380); the police shot into the building before figuring out where the Kellys were (Innes, p. 33). Those who still idolize the Kelly Gang might want to take note of their behavior at this time: Even once they were surrounded, so that keeping prisoners did nothing to keep their position secret, they still kept the locals as hostages rather than let them go free.
The details of what happened next are not entirely clear. Nunn, p. 197 and Boxall, p. 381 seem to think Ned Kelly was outside when the attack came, while the other three gang members were guarding their prisoners; Innes, p. 33, thinks that all four outlaws, realizing they were about to be attacked, turned off all the lights and came outside. But only Kelly went far from the inn. Early in the morning, Kelly, in his armor, attacked the police line from the rear. His armor does seem to have saved him from any fatal wounds, but it also slowed him down. He took wounds in the left leg, the arms, and perhaps other places (Nunn, p. 197; Boxall, p. 381).
Eventually, perhaps around 10:00 a.m., the police ceased firing and allowed ten minutes for the gang's hostages to leave or escape (Nunn, p. 199). Dan Kelly and Steve Byrne apparently allowed them to go (Innes, p. 34). Most did indeed flee; they were ordered to lie down, were examined to make sure they weren't outlaws, and were allowed through the police lines.
Five hours later, the police set fire to the building (Nunn, p. 199, although Davey/Seal, p. 168, says that gunfire ended the action). A large crowd had gathered by then, including two of Kelly's sisters (Innes, p. 34). Joe Byrne, Steve Hart, and Dan Kelly are all believed to have died in the blaze -- at least, three bodies were found, and a Catholic priest who went in before the fires completely burned the building thought they were those of the three outlaws (Nunn, p. 199; Innes, p. 64. The priest, Matthew Gibney, seems to have been a good man; Innes reports that he condemned the indiscriminate police violence and served native Australians as well as Europeans). After the fire, the bodies believed to be those of Hart and Dan Kelly were found to be burned beyond recognition and were buried without an inquest; Byrne (whose body had been hauled out by the priest; Boxall, p. 382) was buried, unclaimed by family (Nunn, p. 200).
It has been speculated, based on the positions of their burned bodies, that Hart and Dan Kelly killed themselves or each other rather than surrender (Boxall, p. 382;Manifold, p. 73). It was initially thought that Ned Kelly would die of his wounds -- his sisters came to bid him farewell, and he was given last rites (Innes, p. 34), but he survived to go to trial.
Ned Kelly's trial began on October 28 (Nunn, p. 202), following a preliminary hearing on August 6 (Innes, p. 35). There were two counts, for the murders of constables Lonigan and Scanlon. The second was never tried as the first resulted in a death sentence. The description of the trial in Nunn sounds completely unfair -- except for testimony from Constable McIntyre, it was all hearsay evidence. Innes, p. 35, suggests that his defense lawyer (who was hired by the family) was incompetent, and adds that Kelly was not allowed to testify (and objected to his lawyer's actions) -- but it's hard to believe there was any doubt about Kelly's guilt. The trial took only two days. The judge promptly sentenced Kelly to death.
Nunn, p. 205, says that were appeals for a change of sentence, based partly on legal grounds (the judge had refused to allow for the possibility of a conviction for manslaughter; the only options given the jury were conviction for murder or acquittal) and partly on a growing opposition to capital punishment (Innes, p. 36, says that more than 32,000 Victorians signed petitions for his pardon). Neither made any difference. Neither did a visit from his mother, who was herself still in prison.
Kelly was executed on November 11, 1880. He was given the sacraments by the very same priest who had baptized him a quarter of a century earlier (Innes, p. 36). Although folklore records his last words as "Such is life," and Innes, p. 37, supports this, Nunn, p. 205, gives his final statement as "Ah well, I suppose it had to come to this."
There was extended acrimony after Kelly's death, as various people sought reward money and investigations looked into police actions. Several reforms were instituted as a result (Nunn, pp. 205-210). In the aftermath, the bushranging impulse finally seemed to die (Nunn, p. 213). There were still robbers, of course, but they didn't go to the bush and they didn't have popular support.
The amount of folklore about Kelly is immense; Beatty, p. 123, cites Clive Turnbull as saying Kelly is Australia's only folk hero. Some examples:
(From Wannan, p. 21): When Kelly was sentenced to death, he was reputed to have told Sir Edmund Barry, the judge who sentenced him, "When I go to the Great Beyond, I will see you there." (Ward, p. 76, reports the words as "Yes, I will meet you there.") Less than a month after Kelly was executed (Innes says twelve days; others say three weeks), Barry died of pneumonia.
Nunn, p. 154, claims that when Kelly made his escape in 1877, he encountered officer Lonigan, who tried to stop the escape. Kelly declared, "I've never killed a man yet, Lonigan, but if I ever do, so help me God, you'll be the first." And Lonigan was indeed his first victim, and Kelly was hanged for it.
Davey/Seal, p. 231, say that Aaron Sherritt, mentioned in the ballad was a "Close sympathizer of the Kelly gang of bushrangers, murdered by Joe Byrne, once his best friend, on 26 June 1880 as a prelude to the Glenrowan Station incident. The gang suspected Sherritt, probably correctly, of being a double agent."
Often the folklore overwhelms the facts -- Boxall (p. 538, etc.) calls Lonigan, the constable Kelly killed, "Lonergan," and refers to Joe Byrne as "Joe Byrnes" (p. 360, etc.) or once "Joe Brynes" (p. 373). There were rumors that Dan or Ned somehow survived (one story even claims that Dan went to the gallows for Ned; that one presumably deriving from someone who read too much Dickens); there were also fears that James Kelly would revive the gang, but after his release from prison in 1881, he apparently kept his nose clean (Innes, pp. 143-144)
Kelly has also become part of Australian language. Ward, p. 75, observes the common phrase "As game as Ned Kelly," and points out that the name "Glenrowan" still has great influence.
The first stage show about Kelly apparently premiered less than two weeks after his death, featuring his sister Kate and brother Jim (Innes, p. 37). Many more would follow. The first printed account of Ned Kelly, The Ironclad Australian Bushranger, followed within months (Innes, pp. 75-76). Those who know the history of, say, the Jesse James legend can probably guess how much of it was factual: The words "Ned" and "Kelly" and not much else. The first movie about him appeared in 1906; "The Story of the Kelly Gang" is said to have been the first feature film made in Australia, although most of it has not survived (Innes, p. 111).
Kelly obviously became a byword in Australia, but the story seems also to have made it to New Zealand; NewZealandDictionary, p. 178, cites the phrases "the cheek of Ned Kelly," "(as) dead as Ned Kelly," and "(as) game as Ned Kelly," meaning respectively "very cheeky," "undeniably dead," and "very game or courageous."
Innes has photos of Ned Kelly on pp. 14 (apparently a mug shot) and 18, plus his death mask on p. 80, as well as his rap sheet on p. 20. There is a photo of police commander Hare on p. 101; excerpts of Hare's tendentious account of what happened are on pp. 102-107. Hare was born in South Africa and came to Australia in 1852, hunting for gold; when that failed, he used influence to gain a police job, and before hunting the Kellys, he had tracked down Ned Kelly's mentor Harry Power. He had also convinced Aaron Sherritt to inform on the Kellys. He may not have been a very good man, but he seems to have been effective. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: MA203

Kelly, the Boy from Killane

DESCRIPTION: "What's the news? What's the news? O my bold Shelmalier...." The singer is told how the rebels of Wexford, led by Kelly and others, at first triumphed over the British -- but at last were defeated and Wexford "stript naked, hung high on a cross."
AUTHOR: Words: P. J. McCall (1861-1919)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (IRClancyMakem03)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Ireland death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 5, 1798 - Battle of New Ross, in which a large force of United Irishmen overwhelm General Johnson's defenders but abandon the burning town, converting victory to defeat
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 33-34, "Kelly, the Boy from Killane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 72, "Kelly of Killann" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, KELLYKIL*
Roud #16908
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Kelly the Boy from Killane" (on IRClancyMakem03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Father Murphy (I)" (subject of Father Murphy) and references there
cf. "Bagenal Harvey's Farewell" (subject of Bagenal Harvey) and references there
NOTES [591 words]: This is one of those songs that sadly ignores the inept handling of the Wexford rebel army.
By early June, with Enniscorthy and Wexford in Rebel hands (the former captured by Father John Murphy's forces on May 28, the latter abandoned by loyalists on May 30 after the Battle of Three Rocks, for which see "Sweet County Wexford"), the rebels were moving generally from Wexford north toward County Wicklow; could they capture Arklow and Wicklow in that county, the road to Dublin would be wide open (hence the line that they marched "from the south toward the north").
Other rebel forces, though, were trying to expand from Wexford into Kilkenny to the west and Waterford to the southwest.
The thing stopping them was the garrison of Major General Henry Johnson at New Ross. The Irish commander, Bagenal Harvey -- who was Protestant despite being a United Irishman -- determined to clear out the garrison.
Unfortunately, Harvey -- called "Brave Harvey" in the song -- had no military training, and it showed. He ordered an ill-coordinated attach, exercised no control over the battle, made no real use of his captured artillery, and was unable to rally his troops when they fled.
John Kelly's part in the battle was brief. Harvey ordered him and his 800 men from Bantry to clear some loyalist outposts. They instead went straight for the Three Bullet Gate to New Ross. (The gate came to be known as "The Grim Gap of Death.") They broke in, but Kelly was wounded in the thigh and disabled. His troops continued on against orders, ran into the defenders and their artillery, were routed -- and fled the town, dragging undefeated soldiers with them. The notes on the Clancy Brothers "Irish Songs of Rebellion" record say Kelly was executed after the battle, though of course they don't cite a source.
Robert Kee, in The Most Distressful Country (being Volume I of The Green Flag), p. 118, doesn't mention Kelly's death either. According to him, "a young United Irish colonel, who led the first rebel assault, was John Kelly, a blacksmith from Killan (sic.). He was to become the hero of a popular ballad... when these bloody events acquired the rather fusty veneer appropriate to the drawing-room heroics of purely political warfare."
Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 114, says that Kelly was recovering from his wounds in Wexford when the British caught him and hanged him on Wexford bridge. No source for that statement either.
Despite Kelly's mismanaged thrust, the United Irish might still have won the battle (indeed, they almost did), but when their last push petered out, there was no reserve, which cost them the battle; the flight of Kelly's forces thus contributed greatly to the defeat.
As the song implies, wounded and defeated United men, if found, were killed on the field; this was sadly not unusual for the period. Harvey himself, who apparently had not wanted his command, gave it up and headed back into Wexford. He was eventually caught and executed.
Let no one say that the atrocities were one-sided, however. The United men burned much of New Ross deliberately. What is more, while the battle was shaping up, a force of United guards burned alive an estimated 90 loyalists, including women and children, in Scullabogue. This was in response to an unsubstantiated (and false) report of loyalist atrocities at New Ross. (For more information on this, see the notes to "Father Murphy (II) (The Wexford Men of '98).")
East and West Shelmalier were holdings in County Wexford. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: PGa033

Kelly's Lamentation (The Deserter)

DESCRIPTION: Kelly quarrels with his parents and leaves home. On his way to a hiring fair, he meets a sergeant, who buys his drinks and tells him he has enlisted. His parents cannot buy his freedom. Kelly deserts and returns home, but soon takes sick and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (JIFSS)
KEYWORDS: home family soldier money drink desertion escape disease death
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H223, pp. 83-84, "The Deserter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2405
File: HHH223

Kellyburn Braes

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Kellys, The

See Ys Sons of Australia (File: MA099)

Kelvin's Purling Stream

DESCRIPTION: "The summer time being in tis prime, The weather calm and clear, I left that town called Portadown." The singer travels to Glasgow, telling Kelvin's stream of his troubles. He promises never to "forget the girl I love Who lives near Lurgan Braes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: home travel love separation river
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 345-346, "Kelvin's Purling Stream" (1 text)
Roud #3947
File: Ord345

Kemo Kimo

DESCRIPTION: Non-ballad. Some texts have brief stories (e.g. about "darkies" ten feet tall and too big for their beds), but the basic characteristic is the nonsense refrain pattern: sing song kitty kitchie kimeo / kemo kimo, Delaware, me hi me ho and in comes Sally...
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (Christy & Wood, _New Song Book_)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (38 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 361, "Little Brown Frog" (1 text)
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 82-83, "Keemo-Kimo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 282, "There Was an Old Frog" (2 texts plus an excerpt and a fragment, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 239-241, "There Was an Old Frog" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 282A)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 86, "There Was a Frog" (1 fragment, 1 tune, probably this)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 494-499, "The Frog's Courtship" (7 texts in 3 groups, 2 tunes; several of the texts are short, and IB at least appears to be "Kemo Kimo")
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 120, "The Frog's Courtship" (3 texts in the appendix to this song)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 120, "The Frog's Courtship" (11 tunes, 3 of them from the "Kemo Kimo" appendices, plus text excerpts)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 244-248, "The Frog He Went A-Courting" (3 texts; the third, with local title "The Gentleman Frog" and tune on pp. 420-421, is probably this piece the first two texts are "Frog Went A-Courting")
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 156-157, "Cree-Mo-Cri-Mo-Dorro-Wah" (1 text plus a fragent, 1 tune); also p. 201 (no title) (1 fragment); also p. 285, "Keemo Kimo" (1 text, the Christy/Wood version)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 221, "The Frog in the Well" (2 texts plus 2 fragments or excerpts, 4 tunes); 242, "The Opossum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 1, "Farm Life Song" (1 text); p. 230, "The Frog and the Mouse" (1 fragment, probably this)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 98-99, "Beaver Creek" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 67, "Bandyrowe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 102, "Ky-rum" (1 fragment, 1 tune, consisting only of the chorus, but it appears to be this)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 30-31, "Viggy Mitchy Kimeo" (1 text, 1 tune, which appear to combine a "Kemo Kimo" chorus and one or two verses with a single verse from "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)")
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, p. 78, "There Was a Toad" (1 short text, 1 tune); the other two texts, pp. 74-75, "Froggie"; pp. 76-77, "Froggy Went a-Courtin'" are "Frog Went A-Courting")
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 23, "Nonsense Song No. 2" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 139-140, "Way Down South Where I Was Born" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 78, "Keemo-Kimo" (3 fragments)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 45, "The Opossum" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 22, pp. 30-31, "The Frog and the Mouse" (1 text plus a fragment, the text being a "Frog Went A-Courting" version with a "kemo kimo" chorus, the fragment being simply a "Kemo Kimo" chorus that might be anything including this song); 23, pp. 31-32, "The Frog in the Well" (2 short texts)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 204-206, "Frog in the Well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sturgis/Hughes-SongsFromTheHillsOfVermont, pp. 26-29, "The Frog in the Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 11-12, "(There was a frog lived in a well)" (1 text, with a complete 'Frog Went A-Courting" text but a "Kemo Kimo" chorus)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 163, "Strim-Stram Pally" (1 fragment, entirely nonsense, but which, by its context and its form appears to be this)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 267-268, "SIng SOng Kitty, Won't You Ki-me-o?" (1 text)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 132-133, "Frog in the Well"; p. 135, "Get to Bed" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 84, "Kitty Alone and I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 68, "The Bull Frog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1198, p. 83, "Kitty Kimo" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 64 and #3/62, p. 48, "Kitty Kimo" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #69, pp. 77-79, "(There was a frog liv'd in a well)" (a complex composite with a short version of "Frog Went A-Courting" plus enough auxiliary verses to make an almost complete "Kemo Kimo" text)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 193, "(There dwelt a puddy in a well)" (1 text, very long, containing a full "Frog Went A-Courting" version plus sundry "Kemo Kimo" type verses)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 66, "(Haram, skarum, stand a barum)" (1 fragment, of pure nonsense, which looks like it might be this but is really beyond identification)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p.45, "(Cowmaneery, kilt me keery)" (1 short text, a nonsense rhyme which could be anything but which Steve Roud files here)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 42, "Polly Won't You Try Me O" (1 fragmentary text)
DT, FRGCORT3* KEMOKIMO PUDDYWL2
Roud #16 and 715
RECORDINGS:
Lawrence Older, "Frog in the Spring" (on LOlder01)
Prairie Ramblers, "Beaver Creek" (c. 1935; on CrowTold02)
Brenda Riddle, "Froggie Went A-Courtin'" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #262, recorded 09/19/2022 -- too short to identify, but it sounds more like this than a true "Frog Went A-Courting" version; I wouldn't have filed it except that it's from a member of Almeda Riddle's family)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Carrion Crow/A Kangaroo Sat on an Oak"
cf. "Raccoon" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Frog Went A-Courting" (floating lyrics, theme)
cf. "One Fine Day" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sing Song Kitty
NOTES [307 words]: There is a songsheeet on the American Memory website which credits authorship to Charles White and states that the song was regularly sung by Dan Emmett; unfortunately, it is undated. - PJS
There were at least two broadsides of this version, "Kitty Kimo" ("Dar was a frog lived in a spring"), one by Andrews and one by De Marsan; see Wolf, p. 83.
Several of the collected texts, such as Lawrence Older's "Frog in the Spring," have lyrics reminiscent of "Frog Went A-Courting," raising the possibility that this is a sort of a by-blow of that song, and some including Roud lump them. I've sometimes listed texts under both songs.
The notes in Brown, in fact, state that this piece is a minstrel adaption created by Sam Cowell some time around 1850. (On this topic, see the notes to "Billy Barlow (II)"). Cohen accepts this attribution, though Christy and Wood claim that theirs is "the only authentic version." It mentions the frog only briefly in the third stanza, and in a way not at all reminiscent of "Frog Went A-Courting."
These sundry minstrel songs, however, have little plot and are really just thematic verses about animals. It appears that the two combined by mixture, rather than separated as a result of pieces breaking off. As a result, I classify them separately from "Frog...," with the understanding that this is a classification of the extremes. One should check the cross-references for related songs.
Lena Bourne Fish's version, collected by the Warners in 1941, has the extraordinary property of using only three notes of the major scale: Do re mi.
Roud separates the Ritchie "Bandyrowe" texts into its own number (#7402). The difference, though, is only one of name (apart from the two verses Jean Ritchie made up); her version is a fairly pure example of the "Kitty Alone" type, and I classify it here accordingly. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R282

Kemp Owyne [Child 34]

DESCRIPTION: When her mother dies, Isabel's father marries a vile woman who abuses and enchants her till Kemp Owyne shall rescue her. Owyne comes and sees a hideous beast. Despite her appearance, despite threats, he kisses her three times and restores her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783/1799 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: shape-changing magic separation love rescue stepmother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Child 34, "Kemp Owyne" (3 texts)
Bronson 34, "Kemp Owyne" (1 version)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 34, "Kempion" (1 version)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 168-173, "Kempion" (2 parallel texts plus a photo of the badly-transcribed tune; also a reconstructed tune on p. 278)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 126-128, "Kemp Owyne" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 22-24, "Kemp Owyne" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 13, "Kemp Owyne" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 21, "Kemp Owyne" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 26, "Kemp Owyne" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 280-282+359, "Kemp Owyne" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 26, "Kemp Owyne" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 33, "Kemp Owyne" (1 text)
DT 34, KEMPOWYN KEMPOWN2*
Roud #3912
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Kempion
NOTES [374 words]: "Kemp Owyne" means "Owen the Champion"; he appears in some of the medieval grail romances. (We should probably note that "Kemp" is not really a Welsh term, however; Rowling, p. 18, reports that it is from Old English "Cempa," and observes that "Owen" is a Celtic version of the name "Hugh." So, if you translate back enough, "Kemp Owyne" is arguably "Sir Hugh.")
There were a number of Welsh heroes named Owen/Owain (LindahlEtAl, p. 306), the most important being Owain ab Urien, the one-time ruler of Rheged, described by Taliesin as defending his kingdom from Saxon invaders. He became the hero of much poetry, eventually entering the Arthurian corpus (LindahlEtAl, p. 307).
Child claims the plot of this is from an Icelandic saga, but for once his citations are sufficiently vague that I am not certain what he is referring to. The most famous Owen is surely the hero of the Welsh romance of Owain ("The Lady/Countess of the Fountain"), found in (although not properly part of) the Mabinogion; that tale is believed to be from the thirteenth century (Lacy, p. 412); he would appear as "Yvain" in Chretien's romance of the same name.
The story also eventually produced an English romance version, "Ywain and Gawain." This is evidently a modified translation of Chretien's version of the story, reducing the total length to about 60% of Chretien's original (Mills, p. xi).
It is interesting to see him here restoring a woman, since in "Owain" the hero himself develops amnesia and has to be restored by magic. Also, the Owyne of "Owain" has pity on a dangerous beast -- in this case, a lion, and not a transformed animal, but there is a certain similarity.
Given the relative obscurity of the English version (only one manuscript; Mills, p. xii), I wonder if the author of this ballad didn't hear the story of Owein in some form, and remember the name and a few details but not the general plot, and filled it out from the Scandinavian version Child points out.
For a good deal more on magical transformation and restoration by love, sex, or kissing, see the notes to "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" [Child 31].
Child prints "The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs" as an appendix to this ballad, and later added a second version in his addenda. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.2
File: C034

Kemp, Kemp My Johnnie Soutar

DESCRIPTION: "Kemp, kemp my Johnnie Soutar, An' ye sall get my shoon, There wattit wi ried on ilka side, An' giltit wi goud aboon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Harris manuscript)
KEYWORDS: clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 160, "Kemp, kemp my Johnnie Soutar" (1 fragment)
Roud #18046
NOTES [17 words]: The current text is all of the Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris fragment. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HLMM160

Kempion

See Kemp Owyne [Child 34] (File: C034)

Kempy Kay [Child 33]

DESCRIPTION: A hideous maiden is courted by a deformed suitor. The grotesqueness of each is described in Rabelaisian detail. They exchange disgusting gifts, and the match is made.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous marriage gift
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 33, "Kempy Kay" (7 texts)
Bronson 33, "Kempy Kay" (2 versions)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 298-299, "Kempy Kay" (1 text)
Kinloch-TheBalladBook XI, pp. 40-44, "Kempy Kaye" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1505, "Kempy Kay" (2 texts plus a single verse on p. 541)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 46, "Kempy Kay" (1 text)
DT 33, KEMPYKAY
Roud #32
ALTERNATE TITLES:
King Knapperty
Knip Knap
The Slattern
NOTES [202 words]: Child mentions, without favor, the idea that Kempy Kay is the Kay/Kei/Cei/Ceu of Arthurian legend. I would not go so far as to call the connection obvious or certain, but it makes some sense. Although Kei gets mostly favorable mention in the Welsh Mabinogion, he is "shrewd but cruel... and an advocate of courtly etiquette" (Lacy, p. 260). It has been suggested, based on the magical powers he shows in the Mabinogion and other Welsh myth, that he is a semi-rationalized god, perhaps of war (Monaghan, p. 269). "First mentioned in such early sources as Poem XXXI of the Black Book [of Carmarthen]... he is from the beginning characterized as a slightly churlish retainer" (Moorman/Moorman, p. 76). Later he became a full-blown boor, and an "eternal loser" (Geritsen & van Melle, p. 155). It feels to me a bit like all those tales of powerful but deformed people whose retainers buttered them up for fear of telling them the truth, which would fit with the ill-favored hero of this song. Furthermore, one French tale, Girart d'Amiens's Escanor, makes him a bashful lover (Lacy, p. 260). Kay was also boastful, which might tempt him to assume the title "Kemp(e) Cei," "Kei the champion," which he bears here. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.5
File: C033

Ken Ye Na Our Lass Bess

DESCRIPTION: Do you know Bess? Between her thighs/big toes she has a magpie's/crow's nest. Do you know Tam? He's on a three-footed stool, climbing up to the nest. He broke all the eggs "an' the white's ran down her thie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 154, "O Saw Ye Our Lass Bess" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Burns and George Ross Roy, The Merry Muses of Caledonia (Original Edition) (1911 (first printed in 1799; see 1999 edition published by University of South Carolina Press)) ("Digitized by Microsoft")), p. 94, "Ken Ye Na Our Lass Bess" (1 text)
Roud #15110
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Auld Sir Symon" (tune, per _Merry Muses_)
NOTES [32 words]: A note in the 1911 (but not 1999) edition of Merry Muses: "An old song."
Cf. Cray (1972) "The Wayward Boy," p. 37 and "Christopher Columbo," p. 115: "the white of an egg ran down her leg." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2154

Kennebec Bite, The

See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

Kennedy Men, The

DESCRIPTION: "The northernmost part of bonnie Queensland Is held in possession by stout heard and hand; 'Twas settled by us... known... as the Kennedy Men." Dalrymple explored the area. They fought off their "foes." They hope all will be well now in Bowen
AUTHOR: George Loyou (source: Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads)
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 72-73, "The Kennedy Men" (1 text)
Roud #27783
NOTES [111 words]: According to Andrew and Nancy Learmonth, Encyclopedia of Australia, 2nd edition, Warne & Co, 1973, p. 72, the town of Bowen "Lies on Port Denison, a fine natural harbour in the NW of Edgecumbe Bay.. Deceloped as an outlet for the N of Q[ueenslan]d, it soffuers from a more rugged immediate hinterland than Townsville... the port is declining with the concentration of bulk sugar at Mackay and Townsville."
There is a good Wikipedia entry on Bowen, which shows that it is still a relatively small town (about ten thousand people), and makes it clear that this song exaggerates the resistance of the natives to Dalrymple's exploratory party from the Spitfire. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: StKF072

Kenneth Cameron

DESCRIPTION: Reading and McRae are breaking a logjam when their boat washes away and they are left on the logs. Kenneth Cameron volunteers to go to their assistance. After strenuous efforts, all drown
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: logger death drowning ship river
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 34-III, (third of three "Fragments of Shanty Songs") (1 fragment)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 34-III (third of three "Fragments of Shanty Songs" (1 fragment)
ST Rick131 (Partial)
Roud #8899
File: Rick131

Kenneth Shephard

DESCRIPTION: Shepherd's liquor smuggling is uncovered by Bonne Bay customs. He sails his schooner away, though it had been under guard. The police find and arrest him at home in Brig Bay. He is sentenced to nine months, "paid a few dollars and only spent three"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: crime prison punishment trial sea ship drink police
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 230-232, "Kenneth Shephard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9977
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Shepherd" (character)
NOTES [14 words]: Not the song indexed as "Captain Shepherd," but apparently about the same smuggler. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Guig230

Kenny Madland

DESCRIPTION: "The great master has called From heaven above To take Kenny Madland, A cowboy we all loved." The poet recalls Madland's "fun-loving ways and quick little smiles," expects him to ride well in Heaven, and regards his death as "Heaven's own gain"
AUTHOR: Lois Green
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 ("Buckboard" magazine)
KEYWORDS: death cowboy recitation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1950 - Death of Kenny Madland when his horse fell on him
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 37, "Kenny Madland" (1 text)
File: Ohr037

Kenny Wagner [Laws E7]

DESCRIPTION: Kenny Wagner kills a sheriff in Mississippi and heads for Tennessee, where he is captured. He escapes, but is again taken (this time by a female sheriff). He is imprisoned for life, and is offered as an example to potential lawbreakers
AUTHOR: unknown (see notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, "Al Craver" (Vernon Dalhart))
KEYWORDS: homicide escape prison punishment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 19, 1926 - Kenny Carl Wagner gives himself up to a female sheriff in Texarkana, TX (source: Cohen)
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws E7, "Kenny Wagner"
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 105, pp. 243-244, "Kenny Wagner" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 83,, "Kinnie Wagner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 338, "Kenny Wagner" (1 text)\
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #51, "Kenny Wagner" (1 text, 1 tune, which Roberts identifies as Laws E7, "Kenny Wagner," but which has the opening stanza of Laws E8, "Kenny Wagner's Surrender"; possibly the two have mixed but if it is filed under one song it should probably be Laws E8)
DT 778, KENWAGNR
Roud #978
RECORDINGS:
Al Craver [pseud. for Vernon Dalhart], "Kinnie Wagner" (Columbia 15065-D, 1926)
Warde Ford, "Texas Canyon" (AFS 4206 A3, 1938; tr. in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kenny Wagner's Surrender" [Laws E8] (plot)
NOTES [200 words]: Evidently [this song] entered oral tradition quickly -- only a few years after Jenkins's recording, the name of the song has changed and so has the locale. The female sheriff, however, remains constant. - PJS
Hudson, who is the primary source for printed texts of both Kenny Wagner ballads, gives some details about his career but no dates. The notes in Brown (presumably from Hudson) calls Wagner simply a bad man of the 1920s. He notes that both songs were in circulation c. 1928; Wagner was apparently still alive at the time Hudson published in 1936.
Hudson was not aware of the authorship of the Kenny Wagner ballads. Laws cites D. K. Wilgus to the effect that Andrew Jenkins composed them both. Certainly Jenkins composed "Kenny Wagner's Surrender [Laws E8]. However, Norm Cohen attributes "Kenny Wagner" to Carson J. Robison -- reasonable, given that Vernon Dalhart recorded it.
Yet "Kenny Wagner's Surrender" says, "I am sure you have heard my story From the Kenny Wagner song." Given that Jenkins wrote the "Surrender" within three months of the events, could he have known of the other song if it were by Robison? And would he have referred to someone else's song? An interesting mystery. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LE07

Kenny Wagner's Surrender [Laws E8]

DESCRIPTION: Kenny Wagner has killed three men, including a Mississippi sheriff. Captured in Tennessee, he escapes but is retaken and sentenced to life
AUTHOR: Andrew Jenkins
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recordings, Vernon Dalhart, Ernest Stoneman)
KEYWORDS: homicide escape prison punishment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 19, 1926 - Kenny Carl Wagner gives himsefl up to a female sheriff in Texarkana, TX (source: Cohen)
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws E8, "Kenny Wagner's Surrender"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 245, "Kenny Wagner's Surrender" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 245, "Kenny Wagner's Surrender" (1 excerpt, 1 tune, not the same as the text in Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 67-68, "Kinnie Wagner Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #40, "Kenny Wagner's Surrender" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 106, pp. 245-246, "Kenny Wagner's Surrender" (1 text)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #51, "Kenny Wagner" (1 text, 1 tune, which Roberts identifies as Laws E7, "Kenny Wagner," but which has the opening stanza of Laws E8, "Kenny Wagner's Surrender"; possibly the two have mixed but if it is filed under one song it should probably be Laws E8)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 216-217, "(Kenny Wagner's Surrender)" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 338-339, "Kinnie Wagner's Surrender" (1 text)
DT 779, KENWAGSR
Roud #979
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Kennie Wagner's Surrender" (Columbia 15098-D [as Al Craver] [as "Kinnie Wagner's Surrender"], 1926) (Edison 52020, 1927)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Kenny Wagner's Surrender" (matrix # GEX 495-A recorded 1927 and issued 1927-1928 as: Herwin 75535, Gennett 6044 [as by Ernest V. Stoneman and his Graysen County Boys], Champion 1522 [as by Uncle Jim Seany], Silvertone 5004/Silvertone 25004 [as by Uncle Ben Hawkins])
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kenny Wagner" [Laws E7] (plot)
NOTES [43 words]: For the minimal background Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi supplies for this song, see the notes to "Kenny Wagner" [Laws E7]. This is evidently a semi-sequel to "Kenny Wagner"; it refers to that song and adds more details but is told in the first person. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LE08

Kentucky Bootlegger

See Moonshine (File: Wa131)

Kentucky Moonshiner

See Moonshiner (File: San142)

Kerry Boatman, The

See Carrickfergus (File: San323)

Kerry Dance

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! the days of the Kerry dancing, oh! the ring of the piper's tune." The singer recalls the days of his youth, the summer night dances in the glen, old friends and Peggy, left behind. If he returns and "she has not resigned me" he'll stay with Peggy.
AUTHOR: Words: James Lyman Molloy (1837-1909)
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (copyright); printed 1880 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1880 07527)
KEYWORDS: courting separation dancing music lyric nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 46, "Kerry Dance" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 176-178, "Kerry Dance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 317-318, "The Kerry Dance"
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 532-533, "The Kerry Dance" (1 text)
Roud #40232
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1880 07527, "Kerry Dance", Oliver Ditson (Boston), 1880; also sm1880 19158, sm1881 09435, sm1882 09656, sm1882 22365, sm1883 19631,s m1884 10781, sm1885 23600, "[The] Kerry Dance" (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dancing in Glenroan (Rinnceoiri Ghleann Ruain)" (theme)
NOTES [58 words]: Copyright date 1879 (source: Santa Cruz Public Libraries site sheet music collection); source for Molloy's birth date and date of death: Public Domain Music site [same dates found in Hoagland - RBW]). - BS
According to [no author listed], The Library of Irish Music, Amsco, 1998, the music for this is "based on 'The Cuckoo' by Margaret Casson." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OCon046

Kerry Eagle

DESCRIPTION: O'Connell is the Kerry Eagle. His career is reviewed: elected MP for Clare, united Ireland for Emancipation, pursued Repeal until his death, killed D'Esterre, and died far from home. His heart remains in Rome but his body is buried in Glasnevin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: death Ireland memorial patriotic political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 55, "Kerry Eagle" (1 text)
Roud #V4894
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(429), "The Kerry Eagle," E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also 2806 b.10(30), 2806 b.10(21), Harding B 40(3), Harding B 11(1986), 2806 c.15(28)[barely legible], Firth c.26(288), Harding B 19(63), Firth b.27(279)[last two lines missing], Harding B 11(1984), Harding B 11(1985), Firth b.27(278)[some words illegible], Harding B 26(308)[some words illegible], "[The] Kerry Eagle"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Green Linnet" (subject: O'Connell's death)
cf. "Erin's King (Daniel Is No More)" (subject: O'Connell's death)
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
NOTES [193 words]: O'Connell (1775-1847) was born in County Kerry. O'Connell was elected MP from County Clare in 1828 (cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (1828)) (- BS)."1829 saw Catholic 'emancipation,' allowing them every political right open to Protestants of equivalent position" (- RBW). O'Connell led the movement of 1840-1843 to repeal the act that joined Ireland and Great Britain as the United Kingdom (cf. "Glorious Repeal Meeting Held at Tara Hill" and "The Meeting of Tara"). Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "D'Esterre, an Alderman of the Dublin Corporation, challenged O'Connell to a duel, and was killed, 1st February, 1815" (p. 235); "O'Connell died at Genoa, on his way to Rome, 15th May, 1847." (p. 233) "In accordance with his wish his heart was brought to Rome and his body to Ireland. His funeral was of enormous dimensions, and since his death a splendid statue has been erected to his memory in Dublin and a round tower placed over his remains in Glasnevin" (source: "Daniel O'Connell" by E.A. D'Alton in The Catholic Encyclopedia on the New Advent site. - BS
For additional notes on O'Connell's last months, see the notes to "Erin's King (Daniel Is No More)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Zimm055

Kerry Eviction, The

DESCRIPTION: Old McMahon in Kerry can't pay the rent and the agent, with soldiers and police, comes to evict him. To no avail, he asks that the children not be turned out in the snow and that he be given a week or two to pay. McMahon, evicted, dies in the snow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1880's? (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness greed poverty death farming storm Ireland hardtimes children police soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 87, "A New Song Entitled the Kerry Eviction" (1 text)
NOTES [78 words]: This bit of brutality is a little extreme, in that evictions rarely happened in such unfortunate circumstances. But "rarely" is not the same as "never"; for about a century, English landlords had near-complete control over their Irish tenants, and did evict them for little reason or none. It was not until the nineteenth century that the English started supplying tenants' rights -- and the Land League (for which see "The Bold Tenant Farmer") helped support them. - RBW
File: Zimm087

Kerry Recruit, The [Laws J8]

DESCRIPTION: A Kerry lad enlists in the army and is introduced to the wonders of coats, guns, and horses. In some accounts he spends a quiet term in the service; in others, he loses a leg in the Crimea and returns home to live off his pension
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1849 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1454))
KEYWORDS: war soldier humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1853-1856 - Crimean War (Britain and France actively at war with Russia 1854-1855)
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW) Canada(Mar,Ont) Ireland Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws J8, "The True Paddy's Song (The Kerry Recruit)"
Greig/Duncan1 79, "The Irish Recruit" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 189, "Irish Soldier" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 11, "[The Kerry Recruit]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 225-227, "The True Paddy's Son" (1 text)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 145-147, "The True Paddy's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 477, "'Twas Nine Years Ago" (1 text, rather eroded with time -- e.g. the soldier runs without losing a leg)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 73, "Nine Years a Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 162, "Pat and the War"; p. 163, "Paddy Enlisted" (2 texts, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 95-96, "The Kerry Recruit" (1 text)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 1, "The Kerry Recruit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 42, "The Kerry Recruit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 154-157, "The Kerry Recruit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 200-201, "The True Paddy's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 274, "The Kerry Recruit" (1 text)
DT 393, KERRYRCT
Roud #520
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1454), "Paddy's Ramble" ("About nine years ago, I was digging of land"), J. Kendrew (York), 1803-1848; also Harding B 25(1456), Harding B 28(218), "Paddy's Ramble"; Harding B 19(83), 2806 b.9(240), Firth c.14(115), "The Kerry Recruit"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Felix the Soldier" (theme)
cf. "Mrs. McGrath" (theme)
cf. "The Boy on the Land" (hints of plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Listing of the Spademan
Paddy Turned Soldier
NOTES [325 words]: The fullest version of this song I have seen includes explicit references to several events in the Crimean War:
"Balaclave" - The city of Balaclava, which gave its name to the battle of October 25, 1854
Alma - The river by which the British and French landed, and where the first battle of the Allied war with the Russians was fought on September 20, 1854
"Innerman" = Inkerman, a town on the Chernaya River which gave its name to the final field battle of the war (November 5, 1854)
Redan - One of the major defensive works around Sevastopol, assaulted by the British on June 18, 1855. The British suffered 25% casualties in the attack, and their French allies to the north did no better. From that time onward, the Allies settled down to besiege Sevastopol rather than trying to take it by storm. - RBW
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland's version refers to "Vinegar Hill" (Irish convicts break out of Castle Hill Barracks in New South Wales, trying to reach Sydney harbor to seize ships and escape to Ireland, March 5, 1804. Source: Holyrood NSW site re 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Vinegar Hill) and "Ballinamuck" (Humbert with the French and Irish are defeated on September 8, 1798. Source: Irish Cultural Society of the Garden City Area site re The Battle of Ballinamuck). So, Kerry Recruit, whose "father and mother were two Kerry men," has been fighting the Irish around the world. "Now war is all over and peace is come in, I'm paid all my wages, and God save the King! I'm nine years in glory, and glad it's not ten, And now I'm back diggin' praties agin."
Of the Bodleian broadsides the "Paddy's Rambles" versions are pre-Crimean war and are in line with O'Conor; the "Kerry's Recruit" versions refer to the Crimean War.
For a study of the history of this and related songs see Roly Brown, Glimpses into the 19th Century Broadside Ballad Trade No. 5: The Kerry Recruit, 2003 at the Musical Traditions site among the articles. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LJ08

Kettle Smock, The

See The Courting Coat (File: RcWMPBO)

Kevin Barry

DESCRIPTION: Eighteen-year-old Kevin Barry is hung, "another martyr for old Ireland, another murder for the crown." Despite torture, he will not betray his comrades. (Family and friends bid farewell.) (Barry asks to be shot as a soldier, but is hanged as a rebel)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 1, 1920 - Execution of Kevin Barry
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 42-43, "Kevin Barry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 218, "Kevin Barry" (1 text)
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 67-68, "Kevin Barry" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 49, "Kevin Barry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 324, "Kevin Barry" (1 text)
DT, KEVBARRY*
Roud #3014
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Kevin Barry" (on IRClancyMakem03)
Michael Murphy and Francis O'Brien, "Kevin Barry" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Pete Seeger, "Kevin Barry" (on PeteSeeger11) (on HootenannyCarnegie)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shall My Soul Pass Through Ireland" (tune)
cf. "Rolling Home (I)" (tune)
NOTES [485 words]: Patrick Galvin reports that "Kevin Barry, an eighteen-year-old student, [was] the first Irish patriot to be hanged in Ireland since Robert Emmet 117 years before. His death precipitated scores of his fellow-students into the I.R.A...."
Robert Kee's statement (Kee, pp. 122-123) gives him a slightly different distinction: "the first British execution of an Irishman in the post-war period."
Golway, p. 258, has a photo of Barry (who looks like any other schoolkid), and gives a less biased report than Galvin. Given a good education, he still tried to join a nationalist organization at the age of 13. At 17, he could no longer be restrained from joining the Voluneers.
On September 20, 1920, Barry -- now 18 and in his first year of studying medicine -- was called upon to take part in a hijacking. The rebels desperately needed weapons (a perennial problem in Ireland, dating back to the rebellions against the Tudors; Hayes-McCoy, p. 111, reports that it then took six head of cattle to buy a single musket! Rifles were cheaper in the twentieth century, but they were also, according to Townshend, p. 45, a fetish item for Irish volunteers of the time). To gain arms, a band of Volunteers set out to stop a British army truck. The Irish had only one gun, but somehow one of the British soldiers ended up being shot and killed. (Hoylan, p. 14, says that *six* died.) Barry's comrades fled; he was captured.
Threatened with death, though apparently suffering nothing worse than arm-twisting, Barry refused to give any information about his comrades. He was subjected to a military trial on October 20, and executed November 1. We observe that, though Barry died as a rebel, he was, by modern legal standards, guilty of murder (though not premeditated murder).
Of course, if they'd hung everyone guilty of that sort of murder in 1920 Ireland, the country would have been depopulated.
Coogan, p. 154, notes that the British cabinet actually considered clemency but could find no grounds. There are said to have been five thousand people praying outside his prison at the end.
Kee makes the interesting point that Barry's death "made a considerable impact on public opinion. By contrast the fact the the soldier he had shot was as young as himself made virtually none" (p. 123). Boylan, p. 14, says, "The making of the supreme sacrifice by a youth of eighteen aroused widespread feellng, and scores of his fellow-students joined the IRA that day. His execution was condemned by J. J. Thomas in the House of Commons."
There is at least one other Barry poem, "Kevin Barry" (by Terence Ward), for which see Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 751-752.
There is also a 1989 biography, Kevin Barry, by Donal O'Donovan. Which mostly shows the power of songs like this; if Barry had lived in America a century later, he would probably be considered a "gang member." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: San042

Keweenaw Light, The

DESCRIPTION: "I have traveled this country from the Keweenaw headlands... Far away from my home, strange places to see." "And the stars they shine bright on the south shore tonight... i dreams could come true, I'd still be there with you On the banks of cold water"
AUTHOR: Craig Johnson (1953-2009) (source: All the various folk albums containing the song!)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Thieme03)
KEYWORDS: love separation railroading | Great Lakes stars autumn leaves
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, KEEWANAW*
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Keweenaw Light" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #383, recorded 12/14/2022)
Art Thieme, "The Keweenaw Light" (on Thieme03)
NOTES [48 words]: Almost certainly not a folk song, although it has proved exceptionally popular among revival singers, especially those based on or near the Great Lakes (e.g. I know of recordings by performers from Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota's Iron Range, just up the slope from Lake Superior). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DTKeewa

Key Hole in the Door, The

See The Keyhole in the Door (File: EM116)

Key to the Kingdom, The

See This Is the Key of the Kingdom (File: CHit483)

Keyhole in the Door, The

DESCRIPTION: Through a keyhole, the narrator spies upon a woman preparing for bed until the light is extinguished and "I knew the show was over." He tells "men of science" that "A telescope is nothing to a keyhole in the door."
AUTHOR: Attributed to Eugene Field
EARLIEST DATE: 1879
KEYWORDS: hiding clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(MW,Ro,SE,So,SW) Canada(Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 116-119, "The Keyhole in the Door" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 538-544, "The Keyhole in the Door" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 294, "The Keyhole in the Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #75, "Keyhole in the Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 17-18, "Key Hole in the Door" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 315-317, "The Keyhole in the Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 11, "The Keyhole in the Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 82-84, "The Keyhole in the Door" (1 text)
Brand-BawdySeaSong 11, "Keyhole in the Door" (1 text)
DT, KEYDOOR KEYDOOR2*
Roud #2099
RECORDINGS:
Jimmie Davis, "The Keyhole in the Door" (Bluebird B-5156/Electra-Disc 2055/Sunrise S-3237, 1933; Montgomery Ward M-4449, 1934)
Raymond Noseworthy, "The Keyhole in the Door" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Holland Puckett, "The Keyhole in the Door" (Challenge 328 [as by Harvey Watson]/Gennett 6271/Silvertone 5064, 25064, 8153, 1927/Supertone 9254 [as by Si Puckett; issued 1928])
Jim Wilson, "The Keyhole in the Door" (on Voice07)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Whummil Bore" [Child 27] (plot)
NOTES [27 words]: In Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, Legman offers substantial notes on the relationship or lack of relationship of this song to "The Whummil Bore" (Child 27). - EC
Last updated in version 6.6
File: EM116

Keys of Canterbury, The

DESCRIPTION: The young man comes to the girl and offers her his love or other gifts if she will marry him. She scornfully refuses. After several similar exchanges, he typically offers his MONEY. She accepts. He withdraws the offer: "You love my money but... not me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: bargaining courting rejection money dialog
FOUND IN: US(All) Britain(England(All),Scotland) Canada(Mar,Newf) West Indies(Jamaica) Ireland
REFERENCES (73 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 507-509, "A Paper of Pins" (3 texts)
Randolph 354, "The Paper of Pins" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 293-295, "The Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 354A)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 138-139, Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 39, "The Keys of Heaven" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 177, "A Paper of Pins" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 146, "The Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 27, p. 42, "A Paper of Pins" (1 text)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 192-195, "Paper of Pins" (2 texts, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 87-89, "Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 160-161, "Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 20-23, "I'll Give to You a Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 1, "A Paper of Pins" (1 text plus 5 excerpts and mention of 7 more); 2, "Madam, Will You Walk" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 1, "A Paper of Pins" (3 tunes plus excerpts of text); 2, "Madam, Will You Walk?" (2 tunes plus excerpts of text); 692, "I'll Give You My Love" (1 tune without a text, which Schinhan thinks might go here)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #223, "Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 131, pp. 276-277, ""Paper of Pins (1 text plus mention of 11 more)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 125, "A Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 52, "Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 299-304, "A Paper of Pins" (4 texts, 2 tunes on pp. 435-436)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 184-186, "A Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #67, "Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 160-161, "Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, pp. 2-3, "Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 82-83, "The Lovers' Quarrel" (1 text); pp. 152-153, "I Will Give You a Red Dress" (1 text)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 11, "I'll Give You a Paper of Pins" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 12-13, "Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 52-53, "The Keys to Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #198, "A Paper of Pins" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 22-23, "A Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 70-71, "The Keys of Heaven"; pp. 116-118, "I'll Not Marry You" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 92, "The Keys of Heaven" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 66, "The Keys of Canterbury"; 67, "My Man John" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 66, "The Keys of Canterbury" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 54, "The Keys of Heaven" (2 texts)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 79, "The Keys of Heaven" (2 texts)
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 80, "The Little Row of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 80-821, "If You Will Walk With Me" (2 texts) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 317; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO We 383, "If Thou Wilt Walk With Me")
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 401, "If You Will Walk With Me" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #74, "The Keys of My Heart" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 46-47, "No, Sir! No!" (1 text, 1 tune, with the "No sir" refrain of "No, John, No" but the plot of "The Keys of Canterbury," including the "Keys of my heart" ending; it almost certainly combined the two songs)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 32-33, "I Will Give You the Keys of Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, pp. 26-27, "The Keys of Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 12, "The Keys of My Heart" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire 10, "The Lusby Plough Play - Trio" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 15, p. 19, "The Keys of Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #22, "Blue Muslin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #34, "Madam, Will You Walk?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 102, "Will you accept of the keys of my chest?" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 110-112, "Will You Marry?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 71, "(I'll give to you a paper of pins)" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #286, pp. 166-167, "(Oh, madam, I will give you the keys of Canterbury)"
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #5, "I'll Give to You a Paper of Pins" (3 texts plus excerpts, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan4 825, "A Pennyworth o' Preens" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 41, "The Deil's Courtship" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 24, "I'll Give to You a Paper of Pins" (5 texts)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 88, "(I'll gie you a pennyworth o preens)" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 11-13, "The Keys of Canterbury" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 262-263, "The Silver Pin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 323-324, "Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 135, "Madam, Will You Walk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 111, pp. 226-228, "Paper of Pins" (1 text)
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 21, "Tacoma and the Old-Witch Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Dan Patterson, "A Sheaf of North Carolina Folksongs," Vol. IV, No. 1 (Jul 1956), pp. 29-30, "I'm a Little Sailor Boy Come from the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 346, "Paper of Pins" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 294, "I'll Give to You a Paper of Pins"
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 139-140, "Will You Marry Me?" (1 text, modified; see NOTES)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 523, "Paper of Pins" (notes only)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 8, "Paper of Pins" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PAPERPIN*
ADDITIONAL: James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1846 ("Digitized by Google")),#534 pp. 229-230, "The Keys of Canterbury" (1 text)
Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 61-62, "The Tempted Lady" ("I'll gie you a pennyworth o' preens")
"Rhymes of the Nursery" in Robert Chambers, Selected Writings of Robert Chambers (Edinburgh, 1847 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 213-214, "The Tempted Lady" ("I'll gie you a pennyworth o' preens") (1 text)
E. H. Rudkin, "Lincolnshire Plough Plays" in Folklore, Vol. L, No. 1 (Mar 1939 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 89-90 ("Madam, I've got gold and silver") (1 text)
ST R354 (Full)
Roud #573
RECORDINGS:
Linda Brown & Donnie Stewart, "Paper of Pins" (on JThomas01)
Lottie Chapman, "Madam Will You Walk" (on FSBFTX13)
Johnny Doughty, "Will You Marry Me?" (on Voice12)
Bradley Kincaid, "A Paper of Pins" (Gennett 6856/Supertone 9402, 1929; on CrowTold02)
Ray Napier & Margaret Winters, "Keys of Canterbury" (on JThomas01)
Joshua Osborne, "A Paper of Pins" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Nicola "Aunt Nicky" Pritchard (Turbyfill), "Paper of Pins" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #26, recorded 11/28/2020)
Vass Family, "Paper of Pins" (Decca 5425, 1937)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "No, John, No" (plot)
cf. "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)"
cf. "The Courting Case" (theme)
cf. "The Lover's Quarrel" (plot, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Madam I Present You With Six Rows of Pins
Blue Muslin
I Will Give You The Keys of Heaven
If You Will Walk With Me
O Madam I Will Give to Thee
The Little Row of Pins
NOTES [717 words]: Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 12" - 11.9.02: "Although versions of 'Will You Marry Me?' only appeared at the beginning of the 19th century ... it would seem certain that the song is based on an earlier pattern, namely the Elizabethan Stage Jig, a short dialogue song and dance performed by two or three characters."
The Rudkin text is an example of a song of courting, rejection, and, in this case acceptance, inserted into a mummers' "wooing" or "plough" play. For other examples and some discussion see "Sweet Moll." - BS
[In both of Sharp's versions], the lady accepts something and that's that. In "Keys of Canterbury" after rejecting various riches, she accepts a "broidered silken gownd," presumably a wedding gown, and the song ends there. In "My Man John", which also includes a servant who advises his master on how best to court the lady, she rejects all material things but accepts "the keys of my heart." - PJS
In the Chambers text the woman rejects the offer of "the half o' Bristol town," but accepts "the hale o' Bristol town." The script ends with the comment: "And aff he flew wi' her! Noo, lasses, ye see ye maun aye mind that." - BS
Halliwell says about his text line, "Oh, madam, I will give you a pair of shoes of cork," "this proves the song was not later than the era of chopines, or high cork shoes." This would be the 1400s to 1600s -- an Act of Parliament of 1670 made the wearing of high-heeled shoes -- among other things -- by a woman subject to "the penalty of the laws now in force against witchcraft, sorcery, and such like misdemeanors." (source: the Platform Diva site). See also Child 173I, "Mary Hamilton": "When she gaed up the Tolbooth stairs, The corks frae her heels did flee." - BS
Although this certainly began as a true song, Linscott reports it as a singing game, adding "It was usually played by the girls alone, as it did not contain enough action for the boys." - RBW
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory's "Tacoma and the Old-Witch Girl" is classified by Jekyll as an "Annancy" story. It is a cante fable following the Ashanti (West African) tradition: (Note that an "old-witch" is simply, "a person of either sex possessed of supernatural powers, not necessarily old in years"; Jekyll, p. 18). Tacoma would marry the old-witch girl, but she "don't want a husband as yet." Tacoma borrows fancy clothes and gold watch and chain, and loads a fine coach with presents. "An' this time Tacoma didn' know the gal was a old-witch, an' ... the gal really know everything" Tacoma planned. He gets to her yard and sings "I will make you have a present of a nice gold watch ... If you'll only be my true lover," and she answers "No, no, dear, not for all your gold watch...." Tacoma repeats his song for a silk dress, silver bangle, gold egg, grey horse, "An the gal say to Tacoma: 'No, for I want the best thing which you have.'" Tacoma can't guess what that might be, "An' the gal say if Tacoma find out she will marry him." "An' Tacoma guess an' guess until he made the gal a promise that he will give [her] the key of his heart." They marry.
Broadwood notes that the song in Jekyll's "Tacoma and the Old-Witch Girl" is like "'The Keys of Heaven' in English County Songs, 'Blue Muslin' in Songs of the West, and 'Madam I will gi'e you,' etc., in Journal of the Folk-Song Society, No. 7" [English songs now classified as Roud #573] (Lucy E. Broadwood, "English Airs and Motifs in Jamaica" in Walter Jekyll, Jamaican Song and Story (New York: Dover Publications, 1966 (Reprint of David Nutt, 1907)), #21, p. 287, "Tacoma and the Old Witch Girl"). - BS
The connection to "The Keys of Canterbury" is indeed obvious, but I can't help but be reminded also of the "what do women want?" motif that is the key to Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Tale" and Gower's "Tale of Florent" and "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" [Child 31]; for extensive background on that motif, see the notes to Child 31
The Morgan/Green-RugbySongs text "Will You Marry Me?" is an explicit request for the girl to take off her knickers in return for cash; it has clearly been rewritten. But it is equally clearly this (the chorus still says "Will you marry me?" and it ends with rejection). Steve Roud gives it its own number, #10235, but I am lumping them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R354

Keys of Heaven, The

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

Keys of My Heart, The

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

Keys to Heaven, The

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

Ki-Ma-Dearie

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Ki-Wi Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh we don't have to fight like the infantry, Shoot like artillery, Ride like the cavalry, Oh we don't have to fly over Germany, We are the Ki-wi-wi."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: soldier nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 164-167, "The Ki-Wi Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10568
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "God Help Kaiser Bill" (tune, lyrics)
NOTES [34 words]: According to Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, the Kiwis of this song are not New Zealanders but rather non-flying aviation officers, who thus had some of the safest posts among Allied soldiers. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: NiMo164

Kicker, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, here's to the kicker whose liver is wrong, Whose bile has leaked into his veins...." The "kicker's" myriad ailments are described, but we are assured that he could be "in good health, who takes care of himself By using St. Joseph's Liver Regulator"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (manuscript copy)
KEYWORDS: medicine disease trick nonballad commerce
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 505, "The Kicker" (1 text)
Roud #7591
File: R505

Kickin' Maude

See Whoa Mule (The Kickin' Mule) (File: LoF231)

Kicking Mule, The

See Whoa Mule (The Kickin' Mule) (File: LoF231)

Kid, The

DESCRIPTION: Recitation. Big Ed, a teamster, adopts a boy from town. A chain breaks Ed's spine; the boy drives him back; he dies on the way. The boy pushes on; he is killed by being thrown from the sledge. The narrator learns he's telling the story to the boy's father
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Recitation. Big Ed, a teamster, comes back from town with a boy he has adopted. He teaches the boy the ways of the woods. One day a chain breaks Ed's spine; the boy drives him back, but he dies on the way. The boy doesn't notice, and pushes on; the narrator watches as he, too, is killed by being thrown from the sledge. The narrator discovers, at the end, that he's telling the story to the boy's father
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger death recitation father
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 58, "The Kid" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 89, "The Kid" (1 text)
Roud #4058
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dC37 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be058

Kid's Fight, The

DESCRIPTION: "Us two was pals, the Kid and me"; they were the same size, and practiced boxing together. Different managers sign them. Both take performing names. They are surprised when they meet in the ring. The singer, without wanting to, kills his friend
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: death fight
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 96-99, "The Kid's FIght" (1 text)
Roud #9628
File: SBar096

Kidd from Timaru

DESCRIPTION: "he boys aboard the transport were busy talking 'fight'" and talking of what they would do when one interrupts "I'm Kidd from Timaru." He performs valiantly at Gaba Tepe and is wounded saving the captain. He (and Timaru) will be heard from again
AUTHOR: Barrie Marschel (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, but reportedly popular in World War I)
KEYWORDS: soldier war injury bragging home
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 114-115, "Kidd from Timaru" (1 text)
File: BaRo114

Kidd's Lament

See Captain Kidd [Laws K35] (File: LK35)

Kidder Cole

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets Kidder Cole at a dance, wants to dance but she dances with Charlie Wright. He goes to another dance; she still won't dance (because he's drunk). He visits her; she cold-shoulders him; he vows he'll dance with her yet, and praises her beauty
AUTHOR: Felix Eugene Ally?
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Bascom Lamar Lunsford)
KEYWORDS: jealousy courting love beauty dancing drink
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 48-49, "Kidder Cole" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9131
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Kidder Cole" (Brunswick 230, 1928; on Cornshuckers1)
NOTES [27 words]: According to Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, this is about real people, and Kidder Cole and Felix Alley were both still alive in 1929. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: RcKidCo

Kielder Hunt, The

DESCRIPTION: Description of field trials at Kielder; owners and dogs are listed, and the dogs run a fox to earth. The singer drinks a toast to the "gallant sportsmen a'." Chorus: "Hark away! Hark away! O'er the bonnie hills of Kielder/Hark away"
AUTHOR: James Armstrong (source: Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 18" - 15.9.02)
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (in _Wannie Blossoms_, according to Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 18" - 15.9.02)
KEYWORDS: hunting drink moniker animal dog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 112-113, 154, "The Kielder Hunt" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Willie Scott, "The Kielder Hunt," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1973.024,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 14 September 2013 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/89837/1
Roud #5126
RECORDINGS:
Will & Sandy Scott, "The Kielder Hunt" (on Borders1)
Willie Scott, "The Kielder Hunt" (on Voice18)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)" (subject, phrase)
NOTES [34 words]: There's actually little in common between this song and "Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!)"; I include the cross-reference only because of the "Hark away" phrase, and to differentiate them. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: RcKielHu

Kiethen Hairst, The

DESCRIPTION: The harvest crew are described by name, task, and characteristics. "The truth I mean to tell We always got the best of meat And plenty of hame brewed ale." "Although the weather it was wet We all got on with glee"
AUTHOR: James Trail (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work moniker nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #7, pp. 1, "The Kiethen Hairst" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 410, "The Kiethen Hairst" (1 text)
Roud #5394
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hairst o' Rettie" (subject: harvest crew moniker song) and references there
cf. "The Boghead Crew" (subject: harvest crew moniker song)
cf. "The Ardlaw Crew" (subject: harvest crew moniker song)
cf. "The Northessie Crew" (subject: harvest crew moniker song)
NOTES [75 words]: The song has the same happy tone about the harvest work as "The Boghead Crew" by the same author.
Greig/Duncan3 dates the harvest: "The hairst began on Keithen's lands The 17th of September In the year of 1872 As we may well remember."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Keithen (410) is at coordinate (h4-5,v8) on that map [roughly 27 miles NNW of Aberdeen] - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3410

Kilamakrankie

See Killy Kranky (File: JRSF111)

Kilby Jail

See The Prisoner's Song (I) (File: FSC100)

Kildallan Brown Red, The

DESCRIPTION: At Monaghan the Kildallan bird defeated a Piley from Leitrim that had previously won at Drumreilly. The Piley "brought our Kildallan bird down" first. When the Kildallan recovered he killed the Piley and "shocked the whole County Leitrim"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (IRHardySons)
KEYWORDS: fight death gambling chickens
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #5669
RECORDINGS:
James and Paddy Halpin, "The Kildallan Brown Red" (on IRHardySons)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cock-Fight" (theme)
cf. "The Follom Brown-Red" (theme)
File: RcKiBrRe

Kilkenny Cats

DESCRIPTION: "There once were two cats of Kilkenny, Each thought there was one cat too many, So they fought and they fit And they scratched and they bit, Till, excepting their nails, and the tips of their tails, Instead of two cats, there weren't any."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose)
KEYWORDS: fight animal | cat Kilkenny
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #835, p. 315, "(There once were two cats of Kilkenny)"
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 84, "Two Cats of Kilkenny" (1 text)
NOTES [93 words]: I don't know if the poem of the Kiklenny Cats is traditional, but the legend certainly is, so I thought I should include this item.
According to David Pickering's The Cassell Dictionary of Folklore, there are at least two explanations offered for this legend. One is that, in Norman times, there were rival English and Irish towns in Kilkenny, which naturally were in competition. Another bases it on a story of two cats who had their tails tied together by soldiers during the 1798 rebellion. I can't say that I find either explanation very convincing. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: BGMG835

Kilkenny Louse House

DESCRIPTION: Singer goes to Carrick-on-Suir looking for a place to sleep. He is taken to Buck St John's place on Cook Lane. When the lights were out he has to fight the bugs. The slaughter is described. The band plays The Dead March. Beware Buck St John's place.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recording, Tommy McGrath and Gemma McGrath)
KEYWORDS: battle poverty hardtimes bug
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #9228
RECORDINGS:
Mary Delaney, "The Kilkenny Louse House" (on IRTravellers01)
Tommy McGrath and Gemma McGrath, "Burke's Engine" (on Voice07)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm No' Comin' Oot the Noo" (theme)
NOTES [72 words]: Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 7" - 1.3.03: "Burke's Engine" on Voice07 is a version of "Kilkenny Louse House"; "the compilers mis-heard the name of the proprietor, one Buck St John, and transliterated it as 'Burke's Engine'." Taking the Musical Traditions statement as gospel I am using "Kilkenny Louse House" as the name of the piece. The description is based on the Voice07 text. - BS
File: RcKiLoHo

Kill It Kid

DESCRIPTION: Verses about the dancing, cars, women from all over, and the night life "in Miami on old Sixth Avenue." The tag line is "kill it kid, Kill it kid."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (USWMcTell01)
KEYWORDS: courting dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #17668
RECORDINGS:
Blind Willie McTell, "Kill-It-Kid Rag" (on USWMcTell01)
File: RcKIKiR

Kill or Cure

DESCRIPTION: The singer, "a roving Irish boy," marries Kitty O'Shaughnessy. She gets sick. He makes a bargain with the doctor: "kill or cure for twenty pounds." She dies. The doctor wants his money but he didn't cure her, won't admit he killed her, and doesn't collect
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.14(191))
KEYWORDS: bargaining death humorous wife doctor money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 40, "Kill or Cure" (1 text)
Roud #V5035
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.14(191), "Kill or Cure" or "Katty O'Shaughnessy", H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Firth b.25(160), "Katty O'Shaughnessy" or "Kill or Cure"; Harding B 11(1988), "Kill or Cure"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Seven" (theme)
File: OCon040

Kill-It-Kid Rag

See Kill It Kid (File: RcKIKiR)

Killafole Boasters

DESCRIPTION: The huntsmen around Newtown have a hunt for hare. The hounds are named as well as the landmarks passed. The local hunters succeed. The Killafole Boasters only follow false trails and "may go home with shame, And never come back for to hunt us again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (recording, Jimmy Halpin)
KEYWORDS: death hunting animal dog moniker Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #12922
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy Halpin, "Killafole Boasters" (on Voice18)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fair of Rosslea" (subject: competitive hare hunt from the huntsman's point of view)
cf. "The Huntsman's Horn" (subject: competitive hare hunt from the huntsman's point of view)
NOTES [124 words]: The hunt takes place in the area around Lough Erne, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.
Hall, notes to Voice18: "In Co. Fermaanagh, the average hunt club of small-town working men and small farmers is loosely organized and meets monthly in a pub to plan the month's fixtures, some of which might be in competition with another club." Hall goes on to discuss attitudes toward individual hares ("they divert the attention of the dogs if there seems any chance of a hare being killed") and foxes ("they might even take a gun out on a fox-hunting day"). "After a good meeting they might gather in a pub and sing about hunting."
Tunney-StoneFiddle p. 84: "'No good sportsman would shoot a hare; it is for coursing only', we were often told...." - BS
File: RcKilBoa

Killaloe (Teaching French in Killaloe)

DESCRIPTION: "Now I happened to be born just the time they cut the corn" near Killaloe when a "Frenchy m'sieu" came "To instruct us in the game of Parlez-vous." "You may talk about Descary, Napoleou Bonaparty"; the singer learned about it in Killaloe
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage humorous | learning French
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 64, "Now I happened to be born just the time they cut the corn" (1 text, of three verses with descriptions of others)
Roud #37091
File: KSUC064A

Killarney

DESCRIPTION: "By Killarney's lakes and fells" the singer describes "that Eden of the West; Beauty's home, Killarney": "Innisfallen's ruined shrine... Castle Lough and Glenna Bay, Mountains Tore and Eagle's Nest." Sights that "charm the eye," "each sound a harmony"
AUTHOR: probably Edmund Falconer (Edmund O'Rourke) (see Notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (The Song Wave)
KEYWORDS: lyric nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 81, "Killarney" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 138-139, "Killarney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #93, "Killarney" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 125-126, "Killarney" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 188, "Killarney" (notes only)
ADDITIONAL: H. S. Perkins, H, J. Danforth, and E. V. DeGraff, _The Song Wave_, American Book Company, 1882, pp. 131-133, "Killarney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 123-25, "Killarney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V27198
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.26(71), "Killarney", T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899; also Harding B 12(207), 2806 c.16(219), "Killarney"
NOTES [304 words]: This is credited to Edmund Falconer in Ralph L. Woods's A Second Treasury of the Familiar." Waites & Hunter, based apparently on early sheet music, says the words are by Edmund Falconer and music by Michael William Balfe, This is also the acount of Williams, p. 47. The uncredited book The Library of Irish Music (published by Amsco music) credits Balfe with the music and attributes the words to Edmund O'Rourke . The earliest version I have found of the music, the 1882 version in The Song Wave, credits the music to M. W. Balfe but lists no source for the lyrics. Granger's Index to Poetry says that Edmund Falconer was another name for Edmund O'Rourke, and this is confirmed by O'Rourke's Wikipedia entry. This is the only poem or song of Falconer's listed in the very large Granger's database.
Wikipedia also credits O'Rourke (1814-1879), an Irish actor, theater manager, and writer, with writing this song. This attribution thus seems fairly firm.
Michael William Balfe (1808-1870) was an Irish-born violinist and opera singer who later began producing his own operas and eventually retired in England (where he had migrated in 1823; he also studied for a time in Italy). Waites & Hunter all him "the foremost composer of his day, winning a degree of popularity that was rivalled onbly by Arthur Sullivan later int he century." His best-known work was the opera "The Bohemian Girl." Neither Wikipedia nor Balfe's entry in Scholes (p. 71) nor Balfe's entry in Gilder (p. 26) mentions this piece among his compositions.
Williams, p. 47, says "Michael William Balfe... was born in Dublin and in his day was one of the most successful composers for the theater in Europe. Falconer, whose real name was Edmund O'Rourke, was an actor/playwright. 'Killarny' was originally used in his melodrama Peep O'Day."- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon081

Kille Kille Wash Wash (Gilly Gilly Wash Wash; Hail to Our Wigwam; Okoboji Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Gilly, Gilly, Gilly, Gilly, Wash, Wash, Wash, Wash, Kiya! Kiya! Kiya! Kiya!" Repeat as desired. "Hail to our wigwam, Oh, hail to our wigwam."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #191, "Okoboji Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 148, 150-151, 288, 289, "Kille Kille Wash Wash"/"Kille Kille" (notes only)
OneTuneMore, p. 53, "Killy, Killy" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [52 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs gives this the title "Kille Kille Wash Wash," but diligent searching has failed to produce anything with that title. I'm guessing it's the song I found as "Gilly Gilly Wash Wash," on the grounds that what else would it be? But I'm using Averill's title because she's published it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF148K

Killeavy's Pride

See The Pride of Newry Town (File: HHH190)

Killeevy's Pride

See The Pride of Newry Town (File: HHH190)

Killer, The

See Dobie Bill (Dobe Bill, The Killer) (File: LxA403)

Killiebank Braes

DESCRIPTION: The singer, out one evening on Killiebank Braes, meets Nancy who was "seeking the kye." She rejects his offer to accompany her, so he "grasped her and kissed her, and squeezed and caressed her." She tells him to leave and "whuppit me lugs weel."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection violence farming rake
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 108-109, 154, "Killiebank Braes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21749
File: McSc108

Killiecrankie (I)

See Killy Kranky (File: JRSF111)

Killiecrankie (II)

See The Braes o' Killiecrankie (battle song) (File: MBra173)

Killin' in the Gap, The (Stevie Allen)

DESCRIPTION: "It was on a Sunday night and the moon was shining bright, Stevie Allen held his baby in his lap." The child is sick (?); Allen says he will ride to the doctor despite his enemies. The baby dies; Allen's horse returns riderless
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: children death feud horse disease
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 21-22, "The Killin' in the Gap" (1 text) (OakEd, p. 35)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. " Bonnie George Campbell" [Child 210] (theme)
NOTES [16 words]: Thomas indicates no tune for this, but it looks like "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa021

Killing the Deer and the Wild Buffalo

See The Sioux Indians [Laws B11] (File: LB11)

Killy Killy

See Kille Kille Wash Wash (Gilly Gilly Wash Wash; Hail to Our Wigwam) (File: ACSF148K)

Killy Kranky

DESCRIPTION: "Killy Krankie is my song, Sing and dance it all day long, From my elbow to my wrist, Then we do the double twist." "Broke my arm, I broke my arm, a-swinging pretty Nancy." The dancers are encouraged into other difficult positions
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1790 (Johnson's Museum #292, according to Dick)
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 27, 1689 - Battle of Killiecrankie
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 19, "Killiecrankie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 478, "Killiecrankie" (1 text)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, p. 61=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, p. 175, "Kilamakrankie" (1 text)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 111-112, "[Killy Kranky]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 4, "Killy Kranky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 54, pp. 170-171, "Killiecrankie" (1 text)
DT, KILCRNK2*
ADDITIONAL: James C Dick, The Songs of Robert Burns (London: Henry Frowde, 1903 ("Digitized by Microsoft")),#300 p. 282, "Where Hae Ye Been Sae Braw, Lad?"
Roud #2572
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sad Condition" (lyrics)
cf. "Three Miles to Corry" (tune, per Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1)
cf. "The Girl of Killy Kranky" (another song turning the word "Killiecrankie" to another use)
NOTES [616 words]: Despite the Ritchie spelling, which I assume will be the best-known form of this piece, is no doubt in my mind that the title of this song derives from the battle of Killiecrankie (1689). But her words have obviously wandered far, and the tune does not match either of the two I know as "Killiecrankie."
Ritchie says that this "was both a game and a song and not much of either one. The players sang the song while they 'wound the grapevine,' ... all of which Uncle Jason [from whom she learned the song] avowed was just a good excuse to get their arms around each other."
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi's text (with no tune) doesn't appear to be a playparty, and clearly derives from a Scots original, but appears confused ("I've fought on land and I've fought on sea, At home I've fought my auntie O"?!). I'm still looking for an intact version of this song.
The Battle of Killiecrankie effectively ended the fight in Scotland on behalf of James II in the Glorious Revolution.
Dundee (John Graham of Claverhouse, first Viscount Dundee, 1648-1689) had had a bad reputation in Scotland until that time for his persecution of Covenanters, and was known as "Black John Graham." But, absent another royalist leader, he was "recycled" as "Bonnie Dundee" (I owe that word "recycled," which is a brilliant description of what happened, to Thomson, p. 81)
Claverhouse led a small Jacobite army in an attack on Williamite forces led by General Hugh Mackay. The Jacobite cause was entirely dependent on Dundee, but he fought in the front line of the battle (he had to prove his courage, and promised that, if he won, he would not join the fray again). The Jacobites won, but Dundee was killed, and that was that. The more so as the victory was not decisive; Mackay kept his forces together, and their losses were not extreme.
Underwood, pp. 378-379, states that Dundee had a vision before the battle, seemingly of a mortally wounded man calling the general to the field of Killiecrankie. Supposedly, every July 27, a red haze can be seen by some (but not all) over the battlefield; this is linked to Dundee's vision. Alexander, p. 134, also reports the vision to Claverhouse, and suggests it might have tempted him to avoid battle, but when Mackay approached, he fought.
(If you think this sounds very much like the story of Duncan Campbell at Ticonderoga -- yes, it does. For the Campbell legend, in addition to Richard Nardin's "The Piper's Refrain," see Borneman, pp. 136-137. Of course, the whole idea of a portent declaring "Meet me at X" goes back to Plutarch's life of Brutus; in section 36, Brutus's "evil spirit" declares that he will meet Brutus at Philippi; p. 255 in Plutarch/Scott-Kilvert. And then Shakespeare got his hands on it -- it's in "Julius Caesar,' Act IV, scene iii -- and from then on, it was pretty much a universal myth.)
Peculiarly, I recently heard a classical recording of the tune "Killiecrankie" (definitely the same melody as that recorded by Archie Fisher and others as a Jacobite tune) which claimed that it came from c. 1600, i.e. well *before* the battle. I have been unable to determine the source of this claim. But I also have heard a classical type call the piece "Gillycrankie" (not sure about the spelling, but the first consonant was pretty definitely a "G"), so what do they know?- RBW
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 478, "Killiecrankie" for two texts that Roud assigns #2572. The second is listed above, with Dick and Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1, since it shares a verse with Hudson and another very close to Ritchie. Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong note for this version: "This is a fragment of an old song furbished up by Burns for Johnson's Museum." - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.4
File: JRSF111

Killy's Den

DESCRIPTION: Blythe and happy was I" meeting Mary "among the flowers of Killy's Den." The singer meets her walking by the mill and "gently led her up the glen." "At ilka kiss she dropped a tear, We parted soon to meet again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (dated manuscript, according to Greig-Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting flowers
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 710, "Killy's Den" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6150
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Spanish Lady" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Amongst the Flowers o' Kylieden
File: GrD4710

Killyclare (Carrowclare; The Maid of Carrowclare)

DESCRIPTION: The singer deliberately spies on a couple courting under the moon. The boy says he is sailing to America. The girl fears the local women will cause him to forget her. He promises never to forget her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H169, pp. 298-299, "The Maid of Carrowclare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2939
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "Killyclare" (on Voice04, IREButcher01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Flowery Vale (The Irish Girl's Lament)" [Laws O29] (plot) and references there
NOTES [26 words]: I notice that the guy doesn't promise to be true -- just to remember.
"Luna" is the Latin name for the moon. Its use seems to indicate a literary origin. - RBW
File: HHH298

Kilnamartyra Exile, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer left Ireland for America for "love of money." After twelve years travelling from Alabama to the Rockies "black misfortune followed me" "Age has overtaken me and youth has long forsaken me." He will always fondly remember Kilnamartyra.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration separation hardtimes America Ireland age
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 74-75, "The Kilnamartyra Exile" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [42 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "This well-known song of the exile from Kilnamartyra in West Cork was sung for us by Sean O Se. Sean said it was written around the turn of the century by John Brown, a soldier who eventually became a John of God lay-brother." - BS
File: OCan074

Kilrane Boys, The

DESCRIPTION: April 13, 1844: thirteen "matchless youths" -- all named -- leave Wexford's Quay "bound for Buenos Aires, the land of liberty." "Foul British laws are the whole cause of our going far away ... with one for Dan O'Connell they boldly sailed away."
AUTHOR: Walter McCormack of the Bing, Kilrane
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell sea ship
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 74-75, "The Kilrane Boys" (1 text)
Roud #20555
NOTES [46 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: "A centenary celebration was held in Kilrane on April 11th, 1944, to honor the memory of the emigrants, when the cart, which brought some of the emigrants into Wexford, was drawn into the procession." The thirteen are twelve men and a bride. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran074

Kilruddery Hunt, The

DESCRIPTION: An early December morning the hunters, horses, and dogs "rode from Kilruddery, to try for a fox." The huntsmen and dogs are named. Reynard is "unkennelled" and the route is traced. The fox is killed after a five hour chase. The hunters party until night.
AUTHOR: Thomas Mozeen and Owen Bray (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland and _The Fiddler's Companion_ )
EARLIEST DATE: 1762 (probably written 1744, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: hunting drink party moniker animal dog horse
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 204-215, "The Kilruddery Hunt" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shelah na Guiragh" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
NOTES [181 words]: The song says the hunt began at 5 in the morning, December 5, 1744. Among the places named, Kilruddery, County Wicklow, is near Bray, ten or fifteen miles down the coast from Dublin.
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "Called, by Ritson, 'The Irish Hunt,' and printed by him in the second volume of his collection of English Songs (ed. Park. 1813, p.184).... Mr. Walker ... informed Ritson that ''The Irish Hunt' was written by T Mozeen. It appeared in a collection of 'Miscellaneous Essays,' which he published by subscription in 1762.... Mozeen entitles the song ... 'A Description of a Fox Chase that happened in the County of Dublin with the Earl of Meath's Hounds.'"
"'The Kilruddery Hunt,' was written to this air ["Celia O'Gara (Sighile ni Ghadharadh)"] in 1744 by Thomas Mozeen and Owen Bray of Loughlinstown, Co. Dublin. It soon became enormously popular, according to Grattan Flood (1906), and was called by Ritson 'The Irish Hunt' (who incorrectly ascribed it to St. Leger)[until he corrected that error]." (source: Andrew Kuntz, The Fiddler's Companion Copyright 1996-2006) - BS
File: CrPS204

Kilties in the Crimea, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Kilties are the lads for me, They're aye the foremost on a spree." The singer praises the Highland soldiers, and recounts their exploits in the Crimea, mentioning Alma, Sir Colin Campbell, and several Highland regiments
AUTHOR: John Lorimer
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (date of composition)
KEYWORDS: soldier Scotland battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1853-1856 - Crimean War (Britain and France actively at war with Russia 1854-1855)
Sept 20, 1854 - Battle of Alma
Oct 25, 1854 - Battle of Balaclava
Nov 5, 1854 - Battle of Inkerman clears the way for the siege of Sevastopol (the city fell in the fall of 1855)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 223-227, "The Kilties in the Crimea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13083
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Heights of Alma (I)" [Laws J10] (subject) and references there
cf. "Grand Conversation on Sebastopol Arose (II)" (subject)
NOTES [538 words]: Among the various references in this song:
* The Royal Forty-Twa: The famous "Black Watch," which earned battle honours for Alma and Sevastopol. For more of its history, see the notes to "Wha Saw the Forty-Second." I can't help but add that this famous regiment, which held together despite service in the Crimea and the Sudan and so many other failures, has in the early twenty-first century been amalgamated into a "Super Scottish Regiment." The reason? People won't join because they refuse to go to Iraq.
* Alma: Battle of Alma. For history of this particular campaign, see "The Heights of Alma (I)"
* Sir Colin: Colin Campbell (1792-1863), commander of the Highland Brigade. He may have been the best soldier -- certainly the best brigade commander! -- in the British army at this time, but he was not a nobleman (he wasn't knighted until 1849) and wasn't rich, and so did not receive and could not buy the promotions he deserved.
According to Farwell, p. 110, Campbell was "born Colin Macliver in 1792, the son of a carpenter. He was educated by his uncle, a soldier named John Campbell." His uncle (his mother's brother) also managed to secure him a commission, though it was under the name Campbell. And so the young man became Colin Campbell. His early service was in the Peninsular Campaign, where he earned promotion to captain by merit -- and stalled. According to Thomson, p. 128, he was "invalided home in 1813. He recovered but by 1837 -- a bachelor in his late forties -- he was still only a colonel on garrison duty. Though recognized... 'as the best administrator and soldier since Wellington' he could not buy promotion and had to earn it." He gained much useful experience in Asia, but was still only a colonel when he resigned his command and went on half pay in 1853.
He was called back to duty for the Crimean War, and promoted Major General (the equivalent of a modern brigadier). His Highlanders made the key push at the Battle of Alma, and they blunted the initial charge at Balaclava. It will tell you something about the officers in the Crimea that, according to Palmer, p. 250, he was ony of only two senior officers in the Crimea to do anything to improve their reputations afterward.
Having done much to win the Crimean War, he was appointed to command the Indian Army at the time of the 1857 rebellion. It was he who finally relieved Lucknow (Farwell, p. 112), the key event in the supression of the rebellion. He was rewarded with a peerage; according Oxford Companion, p. 157, becoming Lord Clyde in 1858. That's not really much of a compliment, considering how many awful soldiers were ennobled by the British over the years, but in his case, it was richly deserved.
This is not the only song about Campbell; he is mentioned in several Crimean War songs, and Firth, p. 330, prints a song called "General Campbell" about his work in India.
* Ninety-Third: Another Highland regiment (93rd Highlanders, now the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders), with battle honours for Alma, Balaclava, and Sebastopol. It was the Ninety-third, more than any other regiment, which halted the Russian charge on Balaclava.
* Balaclava: For the history of this incredible botch, see "The Famous Light Brigade." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 3.5
File: FVS224

Kinakusten

DESCRIPTION: Swedish/English pidgin. Hauling shanty. "Fran Canton till Macao, Fran Hong King o Luliao, The sodgers and sailors de sjungit hennes lore." "I no like you-hu, You no like me-hee, You all belong to sodgers, You no belong to me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: shanty foreignlanguage courting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 187, "Kinakusten" (1 dialect text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Das Sampanmadchen (The Sampan Maiden)" (general feeling)
NOTES [61 words]: Hugill claims this song is in Swedish/English pidgin, but looking at the text, I incline to think it is a deliberate mangling of English intended to sound like a pidgin. Frankly, it reminds me of the sort of stuff that turns up in musicals like "South Pacific" and "The King and I" where Americans are supposedly communicating with locals who have limited English. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: HSoSe187

Kincaider's Song, The

See The Kinkaiders (File: San278)

Kind Fortune

DESCRIPTION: A drummer proposes marriage to a maiden. She rejects him because her father "is a captain of honour and fame" and she would not "bind myself down to slav'ry." He threatens suicide. She relents. They elope. Her outraged father gives them an annual income
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1826 (broadside, Harding B 17(285a))
KEYWORDS: elopement soldier father money marriage suicide
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 74, "Kind Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 27, "The Drummer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #178, p. 2, "O Hard Fortune" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 86, "Oh! Hard Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST KaNew074 (Partial)
Roud #2302
RECORDINGS:
Martin Gorman, "The Little Drummer" (on Voice01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(285a), "The Silly Drummer," Angus (Newcastle), 1774-1825; also Firth c.14(305), Harding B 25(677), "The Fortunate Drummer"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hard Times
O Bad Fortune
NOTES [98 words]: Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland omits the broadside touch of the father's money after the elopement; we are left to believe that she is left to "follow the drum."
Grieg Folk-Song of the North-East, CLXXVIII p.2, "O Hard Fortune," adds the following elements to the beginning of the story: A company of soldiers is playing and a drummer among them falls in love with a beautiful lady. He asks his captain what he should do since "for love I must die." His captain advises him to tell her. The plot described in DESCRIPTION continues.
Martin Gorman's version on Voice01 follows Grieg. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: KaNew074

Kind Friends and Companions

See A Health to the Company (Come All My Old Comrades) (File: CrSe222)

Kind Miss

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) AND The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: E098)

Kind Old Husband

See My Good Old Man (File: R426)

Kind Sir

See The Courting Case (File: R361)

Kind Sir, I See You've Come Again

See The Courting Case (File: R361)

Kind, King and Gentle Is She

DESCRIPTION: "Kind, kind and gentle is she, Kind is my Mary, The tender blossom on the tree Could not compare with (my) Mary." She is both beautiful and kind. Do not fall for a "haughty lass."
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: love courting warning
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p 30, "Kind, kind and gentle is she" (1 text)
Roud #25362
NOTES [78 words]: Fowke credits this to T. Richardson. The New York sheet music by Hewitt & Jacques, however, credits it to Gabriel H. Barbour (words) and W.C. Peters (music); it was sung by "Mr. Dempster" and dedicated to "Miss Mary Wood." Every sheet music copy I saw was of the Barbour/Peters version; I do not know where Fowke found her information. And since the sheet music is undated (perhaps to pretend to be older than the Richardson version?), I can't really give it a date. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC030A

Kinderhoos, Kass, Kalhoun, or Klay

See Campaign for General Smith (File: ChMS033)

Kinding Wood (My Name is Dinah from South Carolina)

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Dinah From South Carolina And I'm selling kindling wood to get along." "If you don't believe me, come down to see me, For I'm selling kindling wood to get along." "And won't you buy some, Oh won't you buy some."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 324, "Kindling Wood" (3 short texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 324, "Kindling Wood" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #15888
NOTES [33 words]: This reads like a street cry, but how many street cries are there from South Carolina? It may be a fragment of a longer ballad, perhaps of an orphan child -- but if so, it has not been located. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3324

King and Miller of Mansfield, The

See King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth [Child 273] (File: C273)

King and the Bishop, The

See King John and the Bishop [Child 45] (File: C045)

King and the Countryman, The

See The King and the West Countryman (File: BeCo430)

King and the Northern Man, The

See The King and the West Countryman (File: BeCo430)

King and the West Countryman, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was an old chap in the west country" abused by a lawyer. He seeks the king to find justice. He gives the king a shilling for services. The king gives him ten pounds. The old man wouldn't have paid so much had he known the king was so well-off.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, which claims a broadside edition from 1640)
KEYWORDS: royalty lawyer humorous money
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 430-432, "The King and the Countryman" (1 text)
ST BeCo430 (Partial)
Roud #18844
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The King and the Northern Man
File: BeCo430

King Arthur

See In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)

King Arthur and King Cornwall [Child 30]

DESCRIPTION: King Arthur, disguised, goes to King Cornwall's castle, where Cornwall boasts how he is better than Arthur.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: royalty disguise bragging magic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 30, "King Arthur and King Cornwall" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 59-73, "King Arthur and King Cornwall" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 18, "King Arthur and King Cornwall (A Fragment)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #638
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1043
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Hahn, editor, _Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1995), pp. 419-436, "King Arthur and King Cornwall" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 24
Roud #3965
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "King Arthur's Death" (subject: Percy Folio texts about King Arthur)
NOTES [7526 words]: According to Fowler, p. 158 n. 25, this is one of eighteen ballads in the Child collection found only in the Percy Folio -- and, sadly, that sole copy is defective at many points. Nor is there any real hope of recovering another copy; this is clearly a metrical romance, not a ballad. Unless it, like many of the romances (e.g. "King Orfeo") produced a ballad parallel, there is no reason to think this was ever in oral tradition. We don't have even an approximation of the original story, and must reconstruct first the tale, and then the history behind it, as best we can.
It isn't easy. If Arthur existed at all, he lived in one of the most ill-documented periods in history. We know that the Romans conquered southern Britain in the first century C.E. We know that the Roman administration ended in the early fifth century -- leaving a people probably somewhat Romanized (although still speaking Celtic languages) but with little ability to defend themselves. We know that the name "Arthur" is, or at least could be, Roman; Lucius ARTORIUS Castus led a legion in Britain during the Roman era (Brengle, p. 326; Brengle, p. 334, says this would become "Arthyr" in Welsh).
And we know that, by the fifth century, German-speaking invaders were arriving in England, and that they had driven the inhabitants back to Cornwall and Wales and the north of Britain by about the seventh century But we have almost no information about how these events came about.
Davies, p. 58, says that archaeological evidence indicates that conquests by the German invaders seem to have largely stopped between 500 and 550. If this is accurate, then perhaps something happened toward the beginning of that period to slow them down. (We need to be cautious, however; MorrisJ, pp. 30-31, notes that the post-Roman Britons left almost nothing in the way of datable artifacts. Thus we can only date when Saxons artifacts first appear. Since many Saxon artifacts come from burials, their front line might be well in advance of their known artifacts.)
We have only one contemporary written source, the monk Gildas. He is in general very ill-informed; he doesn't even seem to have known that the Romans abandoned Britain in 410 (MorrisJ, p. 36). Lacy, p. 234, is about as generous as is possible in declaring that Gildas "is a source of history but not primarily a historian." What value he has is mostly for events in his own lifetime -- and he is not very specific about when he lived! There are a few statements about his life from later chronicles (Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 217), but they were compiled some 500 years after his time and are unlikely to have any accurate data. And there is a good chance that his writing are corrupted; the earliest copy of his book, in British Library MS. Cotton Vitellius A.VI, is from the tenth century (Brown, p. 7), about four hundred years after he wrote.
Some time in the sixth century, Gildas wrote a bitter complaint about how the moral decline of the British (the book is actually sometimes called a "Liber querulus" or "Book of Complaints"; Jenkins, p. 22 or "grumbling book"; Cofghlan, p. 9), which led to their suffering, and in the course of which he let slip -- almost it seems by accident -- some historical facts, including a very brief description of the siege of Mount Badon. Badon, it appears, was the single most important event in this hazy period, and we will come back to it.
Anderson, p. 42, declares that Gildas is "the earliest piece of Anglo-Latin prose to have any particular importance" -- but adds that it is a "dreary Latin chronicle whose importance is chiefly negative, in that it says nothing concerning King Arthur." It also contains numerous errors of fact, such as misdating Hadrian's wall by centuries. (Gildas admits to using "foreign sources," according to Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 219; they suggest that this is one reason for his inaccuracies. They also suggest that we may not have his complete history; what remains may be only some sort of epitome.)
To make matters worse, Gildas never tells us who was the British commander at Badon (CHEL1, p. 247); the one name he mentions around this time is Ambrosius (Alcock, p. 28), but there is no clear reason to connect Ambrosius with the battle, let alone assume he led the British forces. This would seem to be a blow to the hypothesis that Arthur commanded at Badon -- except that *no* British leaders are mentioned, so Gildas may be simply ignoring them as beneath his notice (CHEL1, p. 247).
We do find a mention of Arthur, seemingly as an already-legendary figure, in the Welsh epic Y Gododdin, which refers to one of its characters as "no Arthur." The epic is sometimes dated to the sixth century, but the Arthur reference may be an interpolation (LindahlEtAl:, p. 21).
The first serious attempt to put Gildas in historical context was made by the Venerable Bede. His account states that, in the fifth century, a British kinglet named Vortigern invited a few German mercenaries into his service to deal with local disturbances (Bede/LL I.15, p. 55). The visitors liked it so much that they went home and brought back a whole invading force (Bede/LL, I.15, p. 56). The date of this is debated -- Bede's estimate was was around 449, but German sources imply a date not far from when the Roman legion left in 410 (MorrisJ, p. 40). The effect is not. The Britons -- who until a few decades earlier had relied upon Roman legions for security -- were soon routed and in retreat. Nowhere in this rather brief account does Bede mention Arthur.
There are two problems here. One is Bede's use of Gildas, and the other is Gildas himself.
MorrisJ states, p. 39, that "Before 597, Bede is a secondary writer," and Alcock, p. 90, is convinced that Gildas is Bede's source. There are clear literary signs that Bede had Gildas before him. On the other hand, Bede adds details -- it appears to me that Bede had another source as well, even if it is only oral tradition. But Bede no more mentions Arthur than did Gildas.
This is not proof of anything ("absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"), but it is indicative. Garnett/Gosse, volume I, p. 35, declare that "Bede is little more than a compiler; his life of St. Cuthbert convicts him of gross credulity... [but he was] the first scholar of his day." He had access to the large libraries at Wearmouth and Jarrow, perhaps the best in Britain at the time. If he does not mention Arthur, it is a strong indication that Arthur was not known in Britain in his time. Similarly, if the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was begun at the instigation of Alfred the Great and became the standard source for English history from that time on, does not mention either Badon or Arthur, they cannot have been well-known in the late ninth and early tenth. (Skene, p. 51, thinks this is because Arthur was a northern character and the Chronicle concerned with the south, but the Chronicle used portions of Bede's northern material.)
To be sure, Gerald of Wales, writing in the twelfth century, had an explanation for why Gildas didn't mention Arthur: supposedly Arthur had killed Gildas's brother. (Gerald/Thorpe, p. 259). But he gives no source for this information, and there is absolutely nothing to support it. Gerald is, however, one of our earliest sources for the spread of the Arthurian legend, since it is he who reports on the exhumation of Arthur and Guinivere's alleged grave at Glastonbury (Gerald/Thorpe, pp. 280-288). He also offers the detail, not found elsewhere, that Guinivere was his *second* wife, and mentions that there were ten wounds on the body, all but one healed (Hole, p. 54).
But Gerald is a late source who gives us little that is useful except for his strange account of the excavation. And our other sources disagree with the account of the excavation on almost every point (Alcock, pp. 73-74). The whole thing may have been a fake anyway -- particularly since the grave marker called Arthur a king, which he almost certainly was not (Jenkins, p. 86).
(The whole Glastonbury thing may have been cooked up by none other than Henry II; supposedly a letter circulated at this time, purporting to be from Arthur, flattering Henry II but telling him to give up his control of Brittany; Owen, p. 39. Obviously if Arthur was dead, the letter was a fake. So the Glastonbury business was useful to Henry; Jenkins, p. 84. Glastonbury perhaps went along because they had suffered a disastrous fire some years earlier and needed to raise money; Jenkins, pp. 84-85. Henry also arranged for the Bretons to have a prince named Arthur: Henry's son Geoffrey's posthumous son Arthur was Duke of Brittany -- but Henry ruled the place; Jenkins, p. 84. Thus the Glastonbury excavation probably tells us nothing about Arthur himself, but a lot about Arthurian legends in the reign of Henry II -- clearly people in the twelfth century believed Arthur had been active in the Glastonbury area; Alcock, p. 75.)
(Ironically, if Henry II tried to play down Arthur, his great-grandson Edward I seems to have tried to use the Glastonbury relics to bolster his throne; LindahlEtAl, p. 22.)
Alcock, p. 100, implies another explanation why Gildas might suppress Arthur -- he suggests that Ambrosius was an orthodox Christian, while Vortigern followed the Pelagian heresy. If Arthur was also a Pelagian, Gildas might have ignored him. This is just barely on the ragged edge of possibility -- Pelagianism (for which see the notes to "Only Remembered") was a genuine heresy, but it never produced a schism. It was strong in Britain, which was the home of Pelagius -- but we have no sign that it continued to grow in the fifth century. And it had no separate rituals, so you couldn't tell if someone was Pelagian by looking at him. I mention this mostly to show how little detail we have about this period.
Can we trust Bede's interpretation of Gildas? The historicity of Vortigern is much debated -- Alcock, p. 103, notes that in the British dialects, the name means something like "High Chief," meaning that Vortigern may have been a title, not a personal name. In that case, there might be multiple Vortigerns. The whole story of the invitation of the Saxons might well be folklore. The fact that they arrived and quickly began to overrun southern Britain is, however, beyond question. (If they hadn't, this NOTE would not be written in the English language!)
Our other most noteworthy source is the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," which is the single most important record for pre-Norman England but which was started by Alfred the Great in the late ninth century. It is not contemporary with the Saxon conquest-- not by centuries -- but it was assembled by pulling together every source available. There are several manuscripts of the Chronicle, kept at different locations, and they include different material -- but the general story they give is the same.
According to the Chronicle, it was in 448 (Swanton, p. 12) or 449 (Swanton, p. 13) that Vortigern invited in the Saxons. In 455, their leaders Hengist and Horsa turned on Vortigern. Horsa was killed, and Aesc took his place (Swanton, p. 13). By 465, they were fighting the Welsh (Swanton, pp. 13, 14). Vortigern is mentioned only once in the Chronicle, Ambrosius not at all, and there is no reference to Badon.
The best guess is that the Chronicle's information is largely from Bede, and Bede's information, from Gildas, making the Chronicle a tertiary source. This is fairly important, because the date of the Saxon invasions affects what is possible. If the 449 date is correct, then Ambrosius and the hypothetical Arthur must have been nearly contemporary. But if we accept MorrisJ's date for the Saxon invasion, then we have thirty or forty extra years to play with -- and MorrisJ uses them to hypothesize that Arthur was Ambrosius's successor (MorrisJ, p. 43). Badon was fought late in the fifth century, and stopped the Saxons until after 550.
Of course, this is pure reconstruction, with no documentary support. I would consider very litle to be certain, but would trust Gildas at least this far: The Britons found a savior of sorts in Ambrosius Aurelianus, a man of Roman descent, who finally organized them to fight the Saxons (Bede/LL, I.16, pp. 57). A victory he won at Mount Badon (Badon Hill in Bede/LL) gave the Britons a temporary respite (Bede/LL, I.16, pp. 58).
It was not until some three centuries after Gildas that Arthur enters the tale -- and in the form of a "missing link" as mysterious as Arthur himself. It is a writing attributed to one "Nennius," although we really know nothing about him (indeed, a few of the copies attribute it to Gildas, not Nennius; CHEL1, p. 71. He was apparently from North Wales, with birth name Nynniaw; CHEL1, p. 246). Nor is his work coherent; he says that he simply made "a heap" of the historical sources he found (MorrisJ, p. 37), although he also claims some original work (CHEL1, p. 246).
To add to the problem, the work exists in several dozen copies, and some of these seem to have been modified by later hands (Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 375). CHEL1, p. 70, declares that we don't have any complete copies of "Nennius" -- and even if we did, it would be secondhand material. And, as with Gildas, the copies are late; the earliest extant manuscript, British Library MS Harley 3859, dates from around 1100 (Brown, p. 7).
It is suggested that "Nennius" finished his work in south Wales in or around 826 (Geoffrey/Evans/Dunn, p. ix). "Nennius" seems to have had a significant source for Northumbria not otherwise known, and some saints' legends and scraps, but it is hard to assess his Arthurian source. The best guess is that he rewrote and expanded the few scraps of old material from Gildas and Bede, and perhaps mixed in a little Welsh folklore (the first Welsh account of Arthur is found in the Black Book of Carmarthen, written probably in the period 1150-1200; Malory/Rhys, p. xii), to give a much fuller account. WaceLawman, p. xxii, outlines Nennius as follows (I've shortened their summary even further; there is a rather different outline on p. 70 of CHEL1)
1. Germanic invaders arrive under Hengist and Horsa
2. Conflict between Britons and Saxons. Saxons kill many Britons, often by treachery
3. Vortigern, who brought in the Saxons, died in flames (attacked not by the Saxons but by Ambrosius; Jenkins, p. 24).
4. Ambrosius becomes King of Britain
5. Arthur campaigns against the Saxons, fighting twelve battles ending with the Battle of Badon
Curiously, Arthur just appears in this account; as the translators of WaceLawman say, he has "no parents, no queen, no throne, no overseas conquests -- and no death." Almost a British Melchizedek. And Davies, p. 48, observes that "where it is possible to prove the correctness of Nennius's material [which isn't often], it is clear that his ignorance was monumental." Alcock, p. 34, observes that no source analysis has been done on the relevant sections of his work (and, frankly, I suspect it cannot succeed, given the state of the materials.) But at last we have a mention of Arthur as a leader who fought the Saxons to a halt.
It is noteworthy that Nennius's account says that Arthur "carried the image of the Holy Virgin Mary on his shoulders" (CHEL1, p. 246), i.e. presumably on his shield (the Welsh words are spelled the same way; Skene, pp. 54-55, CHEL1, p. 248n2). This is interesting because extreme Mariolatreia was a later phenomenon.
On the other hand, he is not called a king (Hole, p. 40).
For a translation of "Nennius," see Brengle, pp. 5-6. The list of Arthur's battles is from chapter 56.
Nennius has two other mentions of Arthur. one referring to his dog Cabal, the other to the tomb of his son Amr (Brengle, p. 326; the text of these references, from chapter 73 of Nennius, is given on p. 6). Neither reference has any real use or significance.
Is it possible that "Nennius" is correct? That there was an Arthur who fought off the Saxons? If Nennius's tale were all we had, we would probably say no. Except for one other early source which mentions Badon. It is very short but at least not wrapped in mystery.
This work is preserved in only a single manuscript, British Library Harleian 3859 (Alcock, p. 29, although he disliked the catalog number on the grounds that several manuscripts were bound within this cover; he prefers to call the one he cares about the "British Historical Miscellany." His explanation seems to be almost deliberately confused -- perhaps to conceal how very thin the evidence is.)
The source consists of two lines in an Easter Table -- a catalog of the yearly dates of Easter, to which a sentence or two is sometimes appended telling of events in a particular year. This particular Easter Table covers 533 years (Alcock, p. 39), but in a singularly incomplete form; it appears that it was being transcribed from an older document, and that it was never finished. For example, the numbers of the years were never filled in (it is reasonable to guess that they were to be written in another color). The dates of some of the events listed can be determined from other sources, and this allows us to establish an approximate chronology, with perhaps a year or two of error.
The Easter Table extends to about the year 955 (Alcock, p. 48; CHEL1, p. 248n1 says 954 or 955), presumably meaning it was assembled after that time, but it is assumed that it garnered materials from early chronicles. This table, incomplete as it is, contains two statements (in Latin). One, for the year 518 (Alcock) or 516 (CHEL1) says that Arthur in that year won the Battle of Badon carrying a cross on his shoulders. The other, for the year 539 (Alcock) or 537 (CHEL1) or perhaps 542 (Hole, p. 40, who also mentions the dates of 537 and 539), refers to the strife of Camlann in which Arthur and Medraut (Modred?) died (Alcock, p. 45).
Interestingly, the Camlann conflict is called a "gueith" -- a Welsh rather than a Latin word (Alcock, p. 49; cf. Malory/Rhys, p. x). Badon was listed as a "bellum," the ordinary Latin word for battle. Alcock, pp. 49-50, doubts that this makes the Camlann entry an interpolation, although it looks suspicious to me.
More interesting is the fact pointed out on p 341 of Brengle, that the annal does not say that Arthur and Medraut were fighting each other, merely that they died at the same battle. The idea that Arthur and Mordred were in conflict cannot be shown to be older than Geoffrey of Monmouth.
In any case, those two sources are *it*. The sum total of our references to Arthur before he appears as a legendary figure in Welsh myths. "Nennius," written three centuries after the fact, and the Easter Table, incompletely copied perhaps five centuries after the fact. Both credit Arthur with winning the Battle of Badon (which seems, based on Gildas, to have been historical, although Ambrosius may have been the general) and seem to imply a victory by Christian Britons against the Saxons. Nennius, to be sure, has much more to say, but there is no reason to trust it.
The Easter Table, it should be noted, never says that Medraut/Modred was Arthur's son. We do find in Nennius a statement that Arthur killed his son Anwr -- but also a statement that attempts to measure Anwr's grave never produces the same number twice (Jenkins, p. 35; this should give you a clue how much Nennius is worth).
(We might note that, although the story that Arthur fought Modred does show up in the Welsh stories of the Mabinogion, the relevant tale -- "The Dream of Rhonabwy" -- makes "Medrawd" the nephew, not the son, of Arthur; Mabinogion/Gantz, p. 181.)
Neither does the Easter table link Arthur and Ambrosius. Insofar as there is a link at all, it too comes from Nennius, who considered Ambrosius a young prophet (Jenkins, p. 53). The obvious supposition, since our various sources credit Arthur and Ambrosius with the same victories, is that Arthur and Ambrosius are names for the same shadowy person. William of Malmesbury, writing in the early twelfth century, would have us believe that Arthur was Ambrosius's assistant and, apparently, chief general -- while adding that most popular tales about him were false (Hole, p. 45). Malmesbury, according to Hole, p. 50, was the last historian to have access to valid tradition -- "the last writer who presents [Arthur], however slightly, as he must have been." (We might note that even Malmesbury said that Arthur's grave site was unknown, leading to the legend that he would return; Hole, p. 51). But Geoffrey of Monmouth combined Ambrosius with a Welsh seer named Merddin, and thus created Merlin Ambrosius, separate from Arthur (Jenkins, p. 53). And thus was a legend born.
Little can be said about the area of Arthur's activity. Alcock, p. 62, shows a list of possible locations for Nennius's 12 battles. He shows six locations for Badon, ranging from the south coast to the region between the Humber and the Wash. Camlann he shows near the future Scottish border, although elsewhere he seems to imply a Cornish location. Alcock, pp. 58-66, engages in a great deal of special pleading to argue that Nennius's account *might* be accurate -- but none of it proves that it *is* accurate. On pp. 72-73, he brings forth some Welsh evidence of uncertain date -- but which at best simply attests to a belief among people in the period before Nennius that Arthur existed.
So vague is all this that William of Malmesbury was already lamenting that legend has displaced genuine history! (LindahlEtAl, p. 21).
Alcock's conclusion on p. 89 is that "[W]e have discovered acceptable evidence that Arthur was a renowned British soldier, more probably a great commander than a King. His battles were fought principally in the first part of the sixth century AD or perhaps around the turn of the fifth and sixth centuries." Malory/Rhys, p. ix, backs this by suggesting that Arthur bore the title dux bellorum, the Roman commander of battles -- although this obviously requires that he be a Roman rather than a Celt. Ashley, p. 24, summarizes, "About 500 a chieftain named Arthur, converted by later chroniclers into the legendary King Arthur of the Round Table, won a resounding victory at Mount Badon, of which the location is unknown. Arthur may have been a cavalry leader and the battle may have been fought upon the Upper Thames. If this was so, it was the last contest fought in the afterglow of Roman Britain. Though resistance continued in western England and in Wales for many years, the battle of Mount Badon was the last considerable defeat inflicted upon the pervasive Anglo-Saxons."
I personally think the evidence insufficient to support even these conclusions, but we can take this as, perhaps, the maximum amount of actual historical data and proceed from there. Alcock spends many more pages sifting records for tiny clues that might give us additional information. Frankly, this strikes me as utterly pointless in studying Arthur (although very interesting for the history of Britain); none of it contributed to the later tales.
Whatever the truth about Arthur, his legend in the years after the Saxon conquest was certainly the property of the Welsh -- who were, after all, the survivors of the British people smashed by the Anglo-Saxon invaders. And yet, the great early bards do not mention him -- there is no mention of Arthur in Taliesin, Aneirin, or Llywarch Hen (CHEL1, p. 249. This even though Taliesin is actually listed once as a member of Arthur's court in the tale of Culhwych and Olwen; CHEL1, p. 255). Nor do the four branches of the Mabinogion proper mention him (CHEL1, p. 252).
On the other hand, Brengle, p. 327, says that he *is* found in Anierin: "There follows what may well be one of the most convincing pieces of evidence for a historical Arthur. The Welsh elegy Gododdodin, attributed to the late sixth century poet Anierin, has been pretty well proved to be genuine and to date, at least in its original form, from around 600. In lines 1241-2 of Ifor Williams's edition it is said of a certain hero that 'he glutted(?) black ravens on the rampart of the city, though he was not Arthur.'" In other words, by Anierin's time, Arthur already had a great reputation. To me, that seems more likely evidence of his early place in myth than history, but your mileage may vary.
We do find that some of the later tales informally called part of the Mabinogion are set in the court of Arthur -- although Arthur himself is rarely a major character, and the supporting cast is very different from the later legend; we have Gwenhwyvar (Guinevere) and Kei (Sir Kay), and Bedwyr perhaps became Sir Bedivere, but there is no Lancelot (a French name, of course, although Jenkins, p. 79, mentions Welsh Lluch Llauynnauc and Irish Lugh Lamhfada as possible sources), and Gawain, if he exists at all, is Gwalchmai (Mabinogion/Gantz, p. 30).
(We might add that Lancelot became popular enough that Chaucer mentions women's liking for him in the Nun's Priest's Tale: ll. 3212-3213, Chaucer/Benson, p. 258: "the book of Launcelot de Lake, That wommen holde in ful greet reverence;" cf. CHEL1, p. 270. Does the failure to mention Lancelot mean this tale predates Chaucer? I wouldn't bet on it.)
CHEL1, p. 256, suggests that the Arthur legend really grew up in Brittany, and that it was the Bretons who spread the idea to the French. But, on the evidence, the legend was mostly Celtic, and very incomplete, as late as 1100.
It was Geoffrey of Monmouth who changed that, with his Historia Britonum, The History of (the Kings of) Britain, published in parts starting around 1135. Geoffrey -- a cleric who seems to have spend very little time on clerical work (Geoffrey/Evans/Dunn, p. xv; Tyerman, p. 152) lived near the Welsh border, and was probably Welsh himself (although WaceLawman, p. xxiii, argues that he is Breton, which connects with the suggestion on p. viii on Malory/Rhys and in CHEL1 that some of the late tales are Breton). It has been suggested that he, or his father, was named Arthur, which might explain his interest in the legend (CHEL1, p. 257; this may derive from his statement, quoted on p. 154, that he was "Galfridus Arturus," rendered as "Geoffrey the Arthur man").
Geoffrey almost impishly warned serious historians to stay away from the material he would retail, claiming it was beyond their expertise (CHEL1, p. 257). He claimed to have a "British book" which he used as a basis for his work (Geoffrey/Evans/Dunn, xviii). It seems clear, however, that there was no such book (even Geoffrey/Evans/Dunn, p. xviii, admit that he doesn't seem to have taken this source "with tremendous seriousness"; Hole, p. 46, points out that no one else ever saw this book). What he really did was take the Welsh legends, plus a few brief Latin chronicles, and massively rewrite and expand them. It was Geoffrey, e.g., who created the story that Arthur was the child of Uther Pendragon on the wife of the Duke of Cornwall (Jenkins, p. 54). His was the first real step in creating the modern legend of King Arthur.
Even the introduction to Geoffrey/Evans/Dunn, p. xxiii, which is naturally inclined to be relatively charitable, admits, "We are to turn to the Historia, then, feeling that we are to read not a chronicle, but a romance of early British history... [by an author who] handled his material with interest and ingenuity. What he has done for Arthurian romance is absolutely clear. He raised a national hero, already the center of legend and myth, to the rank of an imperial monarch...."
Certainly much of what Geoffrey wrote sounds more like myth; Brengle, p. 340, mentions several tales somewhat similar to the story of Arthur's fathering by a man in the disguise of the wife's husband, of which the myth of Jupiter and Alcmene may be the best-known. The same page mentions that Uther, the name of Arthur's father, may be derived from Welsh "uthr," "terrible."
Tyerman, p. 152, while admitting that Geoffrey claimed a British source, declares flatly that "There is no evidence this was true."
CHEL1, p. 258, speculates that Geoffrey's fiction was designed to glorify all the various lands in the Angevin Empire of Henry II: "It... provide[d] a hero in whom Norman and Saxon, Welshman and Breton, could take common pride." The difficulty is that Geoffrey wrote before Henry II created that empire; there was no prospect at all that Brittany (e.g.) would come under English rule.
Geoffrey's cosmopolitan attitude might, however, explain why the further development of the legend took place mostly outside Britain. "[Geoffrey's] history was at once denounced by sober historians as 'a shameless lie,' and Geoffrey himself could not have believed very much of it. But it made interesting reading, and became incredibly popular -- CHEL1, p. 261, counts more than fifty copies just in the British Library and the Bodleian. (To put this in perspective, there are only about eighty copies known even of the Canterbury Tales, and my quick count puts 35 of those in the British Library and the Bodleian.) It was soon worked over into Welsh, English, and French" (Newcomer, p. 37). The French translation was Wace's (who also adapted and expanded freely), from perhaps around 1155-1160 (WaceLawman, p. xix; CHEL1, p. 264, notes that Layamon said it was dedicated to Eleanor of Aquitaine, which fits chronologically). It was Wace who gave us the Round Table (Jenkins, p. 66).
(Students of folk song will be interested to note that the Arthurian legends inform us about the origin of carols: "The first mention of a carole appears to be in the Anglo-Norman Wace's account, about 1155, of King Arthur's wedding. Here the women carolent and the men behourdent, 'jesting' while they watch the performance"; Chambers, p. 66.)
The next stages of the legend evolved mostly in France, where Chretien de Troyes produced the figure of Lancelot (Jenkins, p. 77, although she seems to think he had some history prior to Chretien; on p. 80, Jenkins makes it sound as if Chretien's big contribution was the love affair between Lancelot and Guinevere). This was followed by the "Vulgate Cycle" -- the anonymous romances also known as the "Prose Lancelot," consisting of "Lancelot," "The Quest of the Holy Grail," and "The Death of King Arthur" (VulgateDeath/Cable, p. 10). Finally Malory took the whole mess and worked it into the (almost) coherent tale that we hear today.
It is worth noting that relatively little of this development happened in England (after all, Arthur was a Celt fighting the invading Saxons; Layamon was first English-language author to really cover Arthur; Jenkins, p. 67). Of few English works on Arthur, very little was the direct result of tradition, and none of it (as best we can tell) influenced this song -- although CHEL1, pp. 265-266, notes how Layamon emphasized Arthur's magical abilities, which obviously form an important element of this tale. From the time of Geoffrey on, the story of Arthur was a tale of court bards, not of the folk.
We do note that the British tradition did develop somewhat differently from the French; in the Vulgate Cycle, it is Gawain who pushes Arthur into the disastrous war on Lancelot which lets Modred take over (VulgateDeath/Cable, p. 12), whereas in England at the time we still find Gawain as the almost-perfect hero of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and many other romances (CHEL1, p. 269; CHEL1, p. 271, even suggests that he was the original hero of the Grail legend); in the Green Knight, for instance, Lancelot is mentioned only casually (line 553).
Brooke's conclusion (pp. 191-192) is perhaps typical: "Arthur probably existed, and was a leader in the British revival and reconquest of some part of England about the year 500. But for centuries his legend grew slowly; and it was only in the twelfth century that he came to join Charlemagne and Alexander the Great as the supreme legendary monarch of European literature. His fame grew up, like so many of the legends which flourished in the twelfth century, in the Celtic lands. Its early history is quite obscure. But Arthur was made respectable very largely by the daring inventions of Geoffrey of Monmouth"
Most Englishmen apparently knew it was garbage. William of Newburgh, half a century after Geoffrey, declared "everything this man wrote about Arthur and his successors, and indeed his predecessors... was made up" (MorrisM, p. 163). Gerald of Wales gave his opinion in a passage about a sick man allegedly tormented by demons (Gerald/Thorpe, p. 117-118): When a copy of the Gospel of John was placed on the sick man's lap, the demons fled -- but if "the gospel were afterward removed and... [Geoffrey's book] put there in its place, just to see what would happen, the demons would alight all over his body, and on the book, too, staying there longer than usual and being even more demanding." Somehow, this did not stop Geoffrey from being accepted and even amplified on the continent.
There is one interesting point about Geoffrey: He seems to base the final, fatal battle of Camlann in Cornwall (Geoffrey/Evans/Dunn, p. xxi. This is by contrast to the map on p. 62 of Alcock, which locates in near Hadrian's Wall). This is another hint at a conflict between Arthur and the "King of Cornwall." Layamon also places Camlann in Cornwall (Jenkins, p. 69).
It is also Geoffrey who linked the "Medraut" of the Easter Table with "Modred" the nephew of Arthur (Geoffrey/Evans/Dunn, p. xxiii); as Alcock notes on p. 99, the Easter Table "does not tell us where or why Camlann was fought. It tells us nothing about Medraut, and it is only in the light of later tradition that we identify Medraut with 'Modred' and assume that Arthur and Medraut fought on opposite sides."
So how did we get from this legend to "King Arthur and King Cornwall"? This involves further guesswork. We can of course assume that the composer of the song knew a fairly developed Arthur legend (although it is striking that he seems to base Arthur's kingdom in Brittany, not Britain; Hahn, p. 419) -- but what did he use as the basis for his plot? Obviously the fact that the poem is incomplete makes this hard to determine.
The motivating theme of the ballad is commonplace -- who has not heard "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" from the Grimm version of "Snow White."? And the theme of a king boasting of his greatness and then being brought low is familiar all the way back to the tale of Nebuchadnezzar's humbling in Daniel 4 (note the line in Daniel 4:30 -- "Isn't this great Babylon, which I have built by my great power as a royal residence and for my majestic glory"). Daniel's version dates back to c. 165 B.C.E., and there are earlier tales in other languages (which of course would not have been known to the author of this ballad). Plus Jesus more than once speaks of ways in which the over-proud were humbled.
I also think it interesting that the original source for the Arthur legends is Welsh mythology, and the "Tale of Culhwch and Olwen" in the Mabinogion involves Arthur's court in a set of prodigies somewhat similar to this. And "Culhwch and Olwen" is the part of the Mabinogion considered most free of French influence (Geoffrey/Evans/Dunn, p. xiii). Fowler, p. 160, also compares the "proud porter" of "King Arthur and King Cornwall" to the equivalent character in "Culhwch."
Most interesting is the fact, noted by Mabinogion/Gantz, p. 134, that the first part of "Culhwch" lists 39 incredible tasks assigned to Culhwch and his companions, with only about half fulfilled and the fulfillment of only two described in detail. Parry/Shipley, p. 1004, offers a possible explanation for this, stating that early Welsh prose tales did not have fixed form -- just a plot outline, with only the verse portions (if there were any) to be memorized verbatim. He believes "Culhwich" an example of a tale which has been only partially preserved -- an incomplete example of the form. If so, what else might have been in a "pure" form? (We have only two copies of "Culhwch," and one of those incomplete.) It could indeed have been a tale of boasts....
It is fairly clear that this song is not directly tied to the historical tradition started by Geoffrey of Monmouth, since that had Arthur conceived in Cornwall. While Geoffrey's account might hint at a conflict between Arthur's realm and the realm of Cornwall, Arthur could hardly be unaware of the Cornish realm. What's more,in Geoffrey's tale, Arthur was conceived by magic; it was not the Cornish who were enchanters.
Child, however, connects this with the legend of Charlemagne's Journey to Jerusalem. Similarly, Lacy, p. 316, says that the piece "bears comparison with the Old French Pelerinage de Charlemagne" -- but offers no details. Child has a description of the Pelerinage; I will summarize mine from Oinas just to give an independent source.
"The Pelerinage de Charlemagne (Charlemagne's Pilgrimage) is one of the most interesting early chansons de geste in the Cycle of the King. The poem, which is generally dated at the beginning of the twelfth century, survived only in one relatively late manuscript which has been lost since 1879. Fortunately, copies were made.... The work is relatively short (870 verses) and seems to be a parody of the epic genre. It is in alexandrines rather than the customary dectasyllables" (Oinas, p. 202).
Charlemagne is told by his wife that Hugo, ruler of Greece and Constantinople, is said to be more majestic than Charlemagne himself. Nettled by this, Charlemagne goes first to Jerusalem (where the patriarch gives him many strong relics). He then goes to Constantinople, where Hugo entertains him in an enchanted palace, When they go to bed after a feast, Charlemagne's men boast to one another of the incredible feats they can perform. A spy reveals their boasts to Hugo, who demands they fulfil their boasts. They manage to do so -- with supernatural help. Hugo then gives Charlemagne a crown, and the Franks believe Charlemagne wears it more fittingly than Hugo. Charlemagne goes home, and his wife asks forgiveness.
This is, of course, not historical. The Byzantine Emperors of this period were indeed wealthier and more civilized than the Franks, but none of them were named "Hugo" or anything like it. The Byzantine Emperors in the period after Charlemagne was crowned Emperor were Irene (797-802), Nicephoros I (802-811), Stauracius (811), Michael I (811-813), and Leo V (813-820) (ChambersDict, p. 146). It will surely be evident that this was an unsettled time in Byzantine history; it would have been difficult for any of these Emperors to host Charlemagne in style.
To be sure, Charlemagne's Pilgrimage could not have come after he became Emperor in 800 -- because the tale mentions Roland, and Oliver, and Archbishop Turpin. This means that the visit to the East must have taken place before 778, when Roland died at Roncesvalles.
But an early date poses a different problem -- because Charlemagne, while King of the Franks, was not in the period before Roncesvalles considered the equal of the Emperor of Byzantium -- who, after all, had supervision of the Holy Places, even if they were actually in Islamic hands. The Byzantine Emperor was an *emperor*; Charlemagne in 778 was the strongest king in western Christendom, but only a King, and only the second of his dynasty, and even possibly illegitimate (Thorpe, p. 4).
Of course, the bottom line is, the mention of Oliver proves that the "Pilgrimage" had to be written after the Song of Roland, so the chronology is probably beyond straightening out.
The simple fact is that Charlemagne did not make such a voyage to the east -- although he did have good relations with the Byzantines (Thorpe, pp 70-71). And he did go on several pilgrimages. It's just that they were pilgrimages to Rome, not the Holy Land.
Owen, p. 27, suggests that the "Pilgrimage" was in fact written in the late twelfth century, after the disastrous Second Crusade (which accomplished nothing except to kill a lot of Europeans and damage the Crusading kingdoms in the east). Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine -- who had less than harmonious relations -- had gone to the east in the 1140s, and came back ready to divorce. Owen coments, "The whole story is a burlesque, and I am not the first to see in it a possily wry comment on Louis's crusade and a dig at the king's marital insecurity...." This cannot be proved, but if true, it makes it reasonable that the story would be inaccurate -- it wasn't a story of Charlemagne, except by projection (using the Song of Roland as a base); little wonder if, three and a half centuries after the fact, it got some details wrong!
Of course, this might cause us to wonder if there might have been a still earlier Pilgrimage epic which inspired Charlemagne's Pilgrimage.
It should also be noted that there was interchange between Welsh and French romance in the period when the French were building the Arthurian legend. The Welsh, according to Parry/Shipley, p. 1005, had versions of "The Song of Roland" and "The Pilgrimage of Charlemagne," among others. But tales of Charlemagne -- and Roland and his betrayer Ganelon -- were widespread; Roland/Butler, p. xix, points out that Chaucer refers to a traitor as "a very Ganelon," and Dante mentions Roland's horn, and the Song of Roland itself was translated into German and Icelandic and Italian and beyond (Roland/Butler, p. xviii).
The boasting which brings Charlemagne and his companions so much trouble is certainly not particular to the Pilgrimage of Charlemagne; we find it also in the Song of Roland, and indeed the "gab" is apparently a characteristic of French tales (Roland/Terry, p. xix). Consider, too, Thor and Loki's contest with the giants in Norse myth.
Nor is the common element of the spy necessarily a link. The same trick is also found in the Tristan story (Beroul/Fedrick, p. 16). Indeed, Beroul's version of Tristan (the earliest version, from about 1150 according to CHEL1, p. 273) more nearly resembles "King Arthur and King Cornwall" than does the Charlemagne story -- in the latter, the spy is merely a spy, while in Beroul, the spy is a magic-working dwarf, like the Billy Blin' of "King Arthur." To be sure, the Tristan romance, despite its British setting, seems no more native to England than tales of Charlemagne -- but it was much more widely known than the tale of Charlemagne's Pilgrimage.
In terms of setting, "King Arthur and King Cornwall" again stands closer to the legends than the Charlemagne story. Cornwall, unlike Hugo of Byzantium, is a pagan -- and a user of magic, like the giants in the Thor myth.
Competition between Arthur's knights and those of Cornwall is also known -- even in Malory, book IX, chapter XXXVII, we find Arthur's knights jousting with those of King Mark of Cornwall (Malory/Rhys, p. 357). Of course this is a later graft from the Tristan legend (CHEL1, pp. 272-273), and no one jousted in the time of the real Arthur, but it shows that such tales did float about. CHEL1, p. 273, points out that Tristan first appears as "Drystan son ot Tallwych" in an early Welsh poem, where he is a relative and servant of March [=Mark] ab Meirchion. So the conflict between Mark of Cornwall and the Arthurian court has ancient roots.
There also seems to have been a Welsh tradition of Arthur being imprisoned, somewhere -- but a late tradition, which was grafted onto a Welsh triad seemingly after its composition (Lacey, p. 566).
In one sense, the song is logical: Cornwall was the last part of England proper to come under English dominance (with the curious side-note that, according to Mabinogion/Gantz, p. 177, Arthur's court seems to be based in Cornwall in several tales, including "Culhwch and Olwen.") Egbert, King of Wessex (died 839) is often credited with conquering Cornwall in 815 (OxfordCompanion, p. 338), but the area retained its own culture and some measure of independence; it did not become a Norman earldom until c. 1140 (OxfordCompanion, p. 247), then a dukedom from 1337, although frequently held by the crown from that time on. Thus a King Arthur who actually ruled what is now England would have had, other than the small kingdoms of Wales and Scotland, only one actual neighbor in England, and that would be Cornwall -- although there is no evidence that Cornwall ever had its own King.
Bottom line: "King Arthur and King Cornwall" is obviously derived from the same sorts of legends as "The Pilgrimage of Charlemagne" -- but until and unless we find more of the romance, I do not think we can assume direct literary dependence.
There does appear to be a different sort of dependence in that the hero of "King Arthur" is Sir Bredbeddle (Hahn, p. 420). Despite his improbable name, this fellow appears in another Arthurian romance, "The Greene Knight." This is the inferior version of the tale of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" found in the Percy Folio; Bredbeddle is the Green Knight of the tale. The fact that there are two tales in the Percy Folio involving him, and no mentions elsewhere, makes one wonder if someone didn't write a Bredbeddle cycle which survives only in the folio. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: C030

King Arthur Had Three Sons

See In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)

King Arthur was King William's Son

See King William was King James's Son (File: R543)

King Arthur's Death

DESCRIPTION: "On Trinity Monday in the morn, This sore batteyle was doomed to be." Arthur and Mordred meet in battle, with both hosts effectively destroyed. Mordred is killed, Arthur mortally wounded, Excalibur is tossed back into the lake, all that Malory stuff
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy MS.)
KEYWORDS: royalty battle death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 497-507, "Kinge Arthurs Death" (1 fragment)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 27-39, "King Arthur's Death" (2 texts, one a fragment from the Percy folio and the other Percy's "improved" text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 108-116, "King Arthur's Death" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 178
ST BeCo108 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "King Arthur and King Cornwall" [Child 30] (subject: Percy Folio texts about King Arthur)
NOTES [33 words]: For background on the King Arthur legend, see the notes to "King Arthur and King Cornwall "[Child 30]. The whole piece is much too Malory-esque to be traditional; clearly it is a minstrel piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: BeCo108

King Caesar (King Seenie)

DESCRIPTION: "King-seenie, one, to, three, You're the very man for me. Keep him quiet, Hold him down, Pat him thrice upon the crown, Blackball, blackball, One, two three, (Joseph Jackson), You are he."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty royalty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 81-82, "(King-seenie, one, two, three)" (1 text plus extensive discussion and a few words of what may or may not be the same game)
File: SuSm081

King Canna Swagger, A

See Beggars and Ballad Singers (File: GrD3486)

King Charles the First He Walked and He Talked

See Notes under Every Lady In This Land (File: KSUC031B)

King Cotton

DESCRIPTION: "See how the lint flies out over the oorland, See how the smoke to the valley clings... This is the valley where Cotton is King." The factory "hooter" runs lives. The people are starving and have no sleep. "Many must work that the few might prosper"
AUTHOR: Mike Harding (source: Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire)
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes technology | cotton
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 42, "King Cotton" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [96 words]: This is not a traditional song; Mike Harding wrote it. For the most part I have omitted the songs in Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire that are by modern authors. However, I have an old Topic album on which it was recorded without attribution. I don't know if the singers didn't know the singer, or if they just didn't supply the copyright data, but I thought I should include the song here just so that people who have that album will know the correct authorship of the song, with its highly unusual tune (which repeatedly uses the tritone rather than an ordinary note "fa"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: MHFL042

King Daniel

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

King David (I)

DESCRIPTION: "King David was (good lord) that shepherd boy, Didn't he kill Goliath (good lord) and he shout for joy. Well the tallest tree in Paradise them Christians called it their tree of life, Little David play on your harp...." And other floating verses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Courlander)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad fight music
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 346-348, "King David" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10966
File: CoAA346

King David (II)

See Little David, Play on Your Harp (File: CNFM046)

King David had a Pleasant Dream [Laws O16]

DESCRIPTION: A soldier asks for a kiss. The girl refuses; her mother has told her to avoid soldiers. He replies with the story of David, who began as a shepherd but ended as a king and the killer of Goliath. The girl decides to kiss him after all
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: soldier courting Bible royalty
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws O16, "King David had a Pleasant Dream"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p 170, "King David had a Pleasant Dream" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 175, "The Slighted Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 478, KNGDAVID
Roud #988
File: LO16

King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth [Child 273]

DESCRIPTION: The King goes out a-riding and meets the Tanner. The Tanner gives abrupt answers to the King's questions. The King tries to exchange horses; again the Tanner wants no part of the deal. Finally the King gives the Tanner a gift/pension
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy) (likely entered in the Stationer's Register in 1589; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: royalty contest disguise trick gift money horse MiddleEnglish
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1154-1189 - Reign of King Henry II
1399-1413 - Reign of King Henry IV
1461-1470 AND 1471-1483 - Reign of King Edward IV
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Ireland Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (36 citations):
Child 273, "King Edward IV and a Tanner of Tamworth" (4 texts -- though three of them are appendices)
Bronson 273, "King Edward IV and a Tanner of Tamworth" (3 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 273, "King Edward IV and a Tanner of Tamworth" (1 version: #1)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 147-157, "Kinge & Miller" (1 text, of "King Henry the Second and the Miller of Mansfield")
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 92-100, "King Edward IV. And Tanner of Tamworth"; III, pp. 178-188, "The King and Miller of Mansfield" (2 texts)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques LXIV, p. 109, "The King and Miller of Mansfield" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, ppp. 169-170, "The King and the Miler of Mansfield" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 649-653, "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 73, "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 297-305, "King Henry the Second and the Miller of Mansfield" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1472, "In summer time when leaves grow green"
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #4168
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #6691
cf. Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #12, pp. 109-112,243, "King James I and the Tinkler" (1 text)
cf. Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 292-295, "King James I. and the Tinkler" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Geordie Robertson, “The King and the Tinker”. School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1954.091, Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/68909?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023
Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 437-438, "The King and the Tanner" (1 summarized text)
Joseph Ritson, _Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry_, second edition, William Pickering, 1833, pp. 57-67, "The King and the Barker" (1 text)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, pp. 110-116, "(The King and the Barker)" (1 text, derived from Child but with emendations to the stanza order)
MANUSCRIPT: {MsRichardCalle}, Cambridge, Cambridge University Library MS. Ee.4.35 (Part I), folio 19 ("The King and the Barker")
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 237 ("Kinge and Miller," i.e. "King Henry the Second and the Miller of Mansfield")
RELATED: (Romances)
RELATED: King Edward and the Hermit (only one copy, incomplete):
George Shuffelton, editor, _Codex Ashmole 61: A Compilation of Popular Middle English Verse_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2008, pp. 401-413, "King Edward and the Hermit" (1 text, of 521 lines, incomplete where the manuscript breaks off)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1764
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2918
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 61 (Bodleian 6922), folios 157-161
RELATED: King Edward and the Shepherd:
Walter Hoyt French and Charles Brockway Hale, _Middle English Metrical Romances_, Prentice-Hall, 1930, pp. 949-985, "King Edward and the Shepherd" (1 text, of 1090 lines)
ADDITIONAL: Melissa M. Furrow, _Ten Bourdes_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2013, pp. 145-186, "King Edward and the Shepherd" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #988
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1616
MANUSCRIPT: {MSCambridgeFf5.48}, Cambridge, University Library, MS. Ff.5.48, folio 40
RELATED: John the Reeve
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 550-594, "John de Reeve" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 358 ("John de Reeve")
Roud #248
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1153B[some lines illegible], "King James and the Tinker” ("And now to be brief, let's pass over the rest”), C. Sheppard (London), 1796; also Douce Ballads 3(136a)[almost entirely illegible], Douce Ballads 3(126b), "King James and the Tinker"
NOTES [2088 words]: Child's intro to 273 breaks this out with a footnote of sources. Bronson 273.1, at least, is this. Child seems not to have wanted to create a set of "the king meets x" [poems] like "Robin Hood meets x." Maidment's version is slightly different but clearly the same song (James Maidment, Scotish Ballads and Songs (Edinburgh,1859 ("Digitized by Google")) pp.92-97, "The King and the Tinkler" (1 text)).
This song was certainly sung [see the Geordie Robertson version]. At least, in Robert Anderson's "The Clay Daubin" are the lines "Cried Davie, 'Shek hains, and nae mair on't/I's sing ye a bit of a sang'/He lilted 'The King and the Tinker,'/And Wally struck up 'Robin Hood,'/Dick Mingins tried 'Hooly and Fairly,'/And Martha 'The Babe o' the Wood;'" (Sidney Gilfin, editor, The Songs and Ballads of Cumberland (London,1866 ("Digitized by Google"). 359), and "The Farmer's Son" is set to "King James and the Tinker" (The Myrtle and the Vine (London,1803 ("Digitized by Google") Vol. II, pp. 110-111). Joyce even has something that might be considered a parody, beginning "I bridled my nag and away I did ride/Till I came to an alehouse hard by a town side,/There I saw three gentlemen throwing at dice/And they took me to be some noble knight" (PW Joyce, Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (Dublin, 1909 ("Digitized by MIcrosoft") #60, pp. 32-33, "I Bridled My Nag" (1 text, 1 tune)). - BS
As Ben hints, this seems to be a generic king-meets-commoner type, with Child lumping the versions based on their thematic elements rather than common lyrics. It is a common plot; Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 109, tells of hearing a similar Greek tale of Napoleon and a charcoal burner around the turn of the twenty-first century. Furrow prints three "Kings and Commoners" romances/bourdes/fabliaux, and mentions a fourth. She argues that two of them, at least, go back to Geraldus Cambrensis's Speculum Ecclesiae of the 1200s, on the basis that they all involve the King learning a nonsense drinking ritual. I'm not sure this follows -- after all, there are plenty of clubs and lodges that have their odd passwords! to this day -- but there may well be a common folktale behind them all. "The King in Disguise" is Thomson motif K1812.
The king mentioned in this ballad varies. Child's primary text simply calls the king "Edward." Of the three texts in the appendices, the first gives no name. The second goes under the title "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth," but in the text the King is simply called "Edward." The third text (from the Percy folio, but not the version printed in the Reliques) is "King Henry II and the Miller of Mansefield," but again no name is given in the text itself. The records of 1564 also mention a printing of "The story of Kynge Henry IIIJth and the Tanner of Tamowthe." The Dixon/Bell version speaks of "King Jamie."
One suspects that Child picked the "Tanner of Tamworth" type as a "ballad" and relegated the others to appendices because the "Tanner" uses the standard ballad stanza form and the others generally don't (Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 109).
Chambers, p. 153, notes that there is a large class of "King and Subject narratives," most of which Child ignores. Chambers adds that this particular piece is "a late and much abridged version of The King and the Barker." Fowler, p. 85, suggests that the various texts Child prints give us "the rare opportunity of observing the transformation of a minstrel narrative into a popular ballad"; he considers "The King and the Barker" and the 1596 "Historie, betweene King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth" to be "metrical tales" while Child's main text is a ballad. Fowler also suggests that the text of "The King and the Barker" is disordered; he would move stanzas 30-33 to after stanza 54.
There are quite a few items in the Stationer's Register which might (or might not) be versions of this:
- "A merry songe of a kinge and a shepherd," Richard Jones, Sept. 23, 1578 (Rollins, #1354, p. 117)
- "A merie songe of the king and the tanner," Edward White, August 1, 1586 (Rollins, #1360, p. 118)
- "A merye pleasant and delectable history betwene kinge Edward the IIIJth and a Tanner of Tamworthe," William White, October 6, 1600 (Rollins, #1745, p. 151; this was apparently registered as a book and as a ballad, i.e. a short piece; cf. STC #7504 below)
- "Another of the king and the Tanner," Jno. Trundle, December 9, 1615 (Rollins, #1361, p. 118)
- "King and shepperd," December 14, 1624 (Rollins, #1358, p. 118; said to being "An elder time there was of yore"; cf. STC #7505 below)
- "King and Tanner," December 14, 1624 (Rollins, #1362, p. 118; cf. STC #7505 below)
- "King and Miller," March 1, 1675 (Rollins, #1355, p. 118; said to begin "Henry our Royal King, would ride a Hunting")
- "A pleasant new ballad of King Edward the fourth & a tanner of Tamworth," March 1, 1675 (Rolllins #1366, p. 118)
- "A pleasant new ballad of King Henry the second & the miller of Mansfield," March 1, 1675 (Rollins #1367, p. 118)
The Short Title Catalog (STC) lists several editions, not all of which can be made to correspond to the above:
- "A merrie, pleasant and delectable historie between K. Edward the fourth and a tanner of Tamworth," J. Danter, 1596; "Entered to Griffith 1564-1565" (STC #7503, p. 167)
- Another edition of "A merrie, pleasant and delectable historie," W. White, 1613, "entered 6 Oc[tober] 1600 by consent of widow Danter" (i.e. this is Rollins #1360) (STC #7504, p. 167)
- "A pleasant new ballad betweene King Edward the fourth and a tanner of Tamworth," A. Mathews, 1625?; "Ent[ered] to T. Pavier a[nd] ballad partners, 14 De[cember] 1624" (STC #7505, p. 167; cf. Rollins #1358, 1362)
- "A pleasant new ballad of the miller of Mansfield in Sherwood and of King Henry II," E. Wright, 1625? "Ent[ered] to T. Pavier a[nd] ballad partners, 14 De[cember] 1624" (STC #17262, p. 389)
The theme has been generally titled "The King and the Subject," and goes back to medieval times -- there are versions in Richard Calle's manuscript (Cambridge University Library MS. Ee.4.35), written before 1500; in the manuscript of "Robin Hood and the Monk" (Cambridge University Library MS. Ff.5.48), also from before 1500; and others. I strongly suspect it began as a romance, not a ballad.
I also suspect that the various versions given by Child and others are not a single entity -- they are not derived from a single original. Rather, the plot circulated (perhaps in a romance) and everyone applied it to particular circumstances and kings. Technically, this probably means that we should split the versions -- except that that is really more work than it is worth.
Out of all this, can we determine the original king? Henry II seems to be the earliest cited, and James (number uncertain but perhaps as late as James VI and I) the last.
Of the most common candidates, Henry II was engaged in constant wars with France. Henry IV was an usurper who had to deal with periodic rebellions. And Edward IV lived during the Wars of the Roses. None of them had the petty cash to give the sorts of rewards mentioned here. Henry IV, in particular, had no money at all.
What I suspect to be the earliest mention of the song does not list a name. According to Holt, p. 140, one Robert Langham heard an entertainment in July 1575 when Queen Elizabeth visited the Earl of Leicester's palace of Kenilworth; among the pieces perforrned was "The King and the Tanner." We can't prove that that is this song, but it seems likely.
No matter which king we choose, there is no historical record of an event such as this. There is at least some verisimilitude in assigning the piece to Edward IV. Edward was a hunter (most English kings were), but could be easily distracted by those he came across. The story is that he met his wife Elizabeth Woodville this way; she had been left a landless widow by the Wars of the Roses, and she deliberately stationed herself along his route to beg him for help (Lofts, p. 81).
Sadly for the legend, Ross, pp. 85-86, declares that "No one knows when Edward first met and became enamored of Elizabeth [Woodville or Wydeville, his future Queen]." The sources are assembled by Dockray, pp. 40-49, and most have little to say except that the two were secretly married, with almost no witnesses except her family, in May 1464. Kendall, p. 60, suspects that he had first seen her in passing in 1461 -- almost as if he had met his wife in the way described in this ballad. Edward actually kept the marriage secret for four months, possibly because he knew it was so far beneath his dignity to marry a woman who was English rather than a foreign princess, and one who was in addition a widow, a mother, a Lancastrian (her former husband had died fighting against Edward in 1461), several years older than her husband, and the daughter of a mere knight (Lander, pp. 104-105; Dockray, pp. 40-41, who notes that all these things made her an "unsuitable" consort).
Ross, p. 87, remarks that "Edward's motives for this remarkable misalliance remain a matter for awestruck speculation," and notes that it "ultimately contributed largely to the downfall of the Yorkist dynasty." For all the speculation about the reasons, it is clear that, ultimately, it was a love match (or, at least, a lust match). Edward may have thought he had reasons other than physical, but there seems little doubt that it caused his contemporaries to think him impulsive (in the time of Richard III, there would be charges that he had been bewitched).
In addition, Edward was a friendly, cheerful man who could easily be involved in games such as this. He was also a forgiving man, less likely than many kings to punish someone he met merely for being surly. Ross, p. 52, refers to his "natural generosity" -- even in his treatment of known traitors. Ross, p. 10, also quotes Dominic Mancini regarding his character: "Edward was of a gentle nature and cheerful aspect." Ross, p. 122, notes how Edward even ignored evidence of treason; when the Earl of Warwick began conspiring against him, "His easy-going nature, persistent optimism, and confidence in his personal harm prevented him from taking a hard and suspicious line."
Edward was also the sort of figure about whom legends easily arose. Even by Plantagenet standards, he was unusually handsome; Ross, p. 10, tells us that "His good looks were universally acclaimed by his contemporaries.... Even his sharpest contemporary critic, Philippe de Commynes, who met him twice, repeatedly praises his fine appearance: 'He was a very handsome prince, and tall... I do not remember ever having seem a more handsome prince.'"
On the other hand, if we assume this is truly about Edward IV, we probably have to abandon Tamworth as a setting. Ross, p. 271, notes that "The more distant parts of his realm saw him but rarely," and adds that his visits to the north of England were "infrequent." He was there before he became King, but after that, it was mostly in times of crisis -- at the Battle of Towton, or during the Earl of Warwick's rebellion. He went as far north as Nottingham in 1475 and again in 1476, and visited Pontrefract and York in 1478, but Tamworth, near modern Birmingham, seems to have been too far west to earn a visit in times of peace.
Henry II was also a relatively reasonable king to whom to assign the tale -- indeed, if you set aside the fact that his native language was French and he spent much of his time in France, he's perhaps an even better candidate than Edward IV. By all accounts, he was incredibly restless and always traveling -- supposedly he never sat down except to eat! (Barber, p. 56). And he loved hunting; it was his favorite pastime. It was not unusual for him to stay out so late that there was no returning home; one courtier wrote of his expeditions, "After wandering some tree or four miles in an unknown wood, and often in the dark, we thought ourselves lucky if we stumbled on some filthy little hovel. There was often a sharp and bitter argument about a mere hut, and swords were drawn for possession of a lodging that pigs would have shunned" (Barber, p. 57). And he ws "accessible... to the meanest of his subjects" (Barber, p. 58).
Rimbault gave Chappell a tune for the "Miller of Mansfield" text, and then printed it himself, but Bronson notes that the manuscript Rimbault claimed to have it from seems to have disappeared. Since other Rimbault "sources" are equally un-findable, one wonders if Rimbault might not have created the tune himself. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C273

King Edwards

DESCRIPTION: "There never was a king so great, but love cause him to abdicate. Ch: Love, love alone, cause King Edwards to leave the t'rone (repeat)." Verses sung in first person as Edward explains reasons for abdicating and marrying Wallace Simpson.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (recording by The Caresser)
KEYWORDS: shanty love royalty marriage
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1936 - Abdication of Edward VIII and his marriage to Wallis Simpson
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 186-187, "King Edwards" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Colc186 (Partial)
Roud #4707
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Love, Love Alone" (on WIHIGGS01)
The Caresser [Rufus Callender], "Edward the VIII" (1999, on "Roosevelt in Trinidad," Rounder CD 1142 [recorded 1937])
Duke of Iron [Cecil Anderdson], Lord Invader[Rupert Grant], Macbeth the Great[Patrick McDonald], and Gerald Clark and the Band, "Edward VIII" (1999, on Calypso at Midnight," Rounder CD 11661-1840-2 [recorded 1946])
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Edward's Abdication" (theme of Edward VIII)
cf. "Baby It Must Be Love" (subject, form of some lines)
NOTES [605 words]: I don't have a copy of Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, but based on the description of "Edward's Abdication" I'd say that even though they are covering the same subject, these are two different songs. [Yes, they are. And this is pretty definitely the better one. - RBW] Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen gives a tune for the chorus but says that the verses were song in a droning monotone. The chorus tune, by the way, is not "House Carpenter," which was the tune supposed for "Edward's Abdication."
Brought back from the West Indies by a Prof. Samuel E. Morison, and said to have been sung by Negro boatmen in Basse Terre, St. Kitts. - SL
Morison is, of course, the great American historian who was particularly involved in naval history. I believe he published this in one of his own books also, though I don't know which one; I'm sure I've seen the text before.
For additional information on Edward VIII and his marriage, see the notes to "Edward's Abdication." This song in addition mentions the Duke of York, Edward's brother, who became George VI (reigned 1936-1952). Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947) was Conservative Prime Minister 1923-1924, 1924-1929, and 1935-1937. The Abdication Crisis of 1936 was in some ways his finest hour; by consulting with the royal family, his own party, the opposition, and the Dominions, he found an answer everyone could accept. He resigned immediately after, leaving the post to Neville Chamberlain -- and you *know* how that turned out....
To tell this from "Edward's Abdication," consider the first few lines of text:
King Edwards:
Love, love alone, Cause King Edwards to leave the t'rone
Love, love alone, Cause King Edwards to leave the t'rone.
Edward's Abdication:
Come hearken good friends to this story so tre
Of a lord of high degree;
Concerning the love of this bonny young prince.
The King of his own countree. - RBW
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen writes, "That folk-song is still being made and sung is evidenced by the following comment on current events [viz., "King Edwards"] which was brought back from the West Indies last winter [1937-1938] by Professor Samuel E. Morison .... The song was sung by a Negro boatman in Basse Terre, St. Kitts. The air to the chorus was furnished by another member of Professor Morrison's party..." [p. 186]. Fast work indeed, especially if Hill is correct and this song was crafted and recorded in New York in 1937: "The large metropolitan dailies reported the doings at the [Village] Vanguard [a folksinger-friendly night club in Greenwich Village] as the calypsonians, especially the New York-based singers, created songs for American audiences.... Another popular song in America was 'Edward VIII,' recorded by Caresser at the same session [February 16, 1937]" (Donald R. Hill, Calypso Calaloo (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993), pp. 162-163). Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen's tune is close to Caresser's and the text leaves out some of Caresser's verses, and adds none. It is interesting to see how some of Caresser's lines, that could use clarification for me, have been changed by either the singer or the recorder. For example, where I hear Caresser singing
They could take my throne they could take my crown/ But leave me and Miss Simpson renoun'
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen has
They may take my crown they may have my tr'one/ But leave Mistress Simpson and me alone
On the other hand, I think Caresser sings
I'm sorry my mother is going to grieve/ But I cannot help, I'm bound to leave.
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen has
I'm sorry to make my mother grieve/ But just the same I'm bound to believe.
- BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Colc186

King Emanuel (I)

DESCRIPTION: "O my king Emanuel, my Emanuel above, Sing the glory to my King Emanuel. If you want to walk the golden street, and you join the golden band, Sing glory be to my King Emanuel." The singer tells of the joys of heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 26, "King Emanuel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11979
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "King Emanuel (II)" (theme)
NOTES [70 words]: Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates spell the name in this song "Emanuel" (one "m"), and I have followed this even though it has no scriptural basis; in the King James rendering of Isaiah 7:14, 8:8, it's "Immanuel," and in Matthew 1:23 we find "Emmanuel." Nor is Emmanuel ever called a king, though this usage is understandable since in Matthew 1:23 (though not the uses in Isaiah) it is taken to refer to Jesus. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWG026

King Emanuel (II)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "King Emanuel is a mighty Emanuel, I call my Jesus King Emanuel." Verses: "Steady a little while, I will tell you what my Lord done for me" "He plucked my feet out of the miry clay, He set them on the firm Rock of Age"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 147, "King Emanuel" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 197 in the 1874 edition)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 68, "King Emanuel" (1 text)
Roud #12075
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "King Emanuel (I)" (theme)
cf. "In the Morning" (King Emanuel theme)
NOTES [125 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "I call my Jesus King Emanuel." - BS
The reference here is no doubt to Matthew 1:23, referring to the virgin who will bear a son and call him "Emmanuel." This is, however, a citation of Isaiah 7:14, "behold, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him 'Immanuel'" (which means "God Is With Us"). Thus the name is properly "Immanuel," not "Em(m)anuel," and "is a mighty Emanual" means "is a mighty God is with us," which makes nonsense -- and the whole quotation in Matthew is a Greek mistranslation anyway, using "virgin" for the Hebrew word meaning "young woman," because Matthew was trying to make a point. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Dett147

King enjoyes his own again, The

See When the King Enjoys His Own Again (File: ChWI214)

King Estmere [Child 60]

DESCRIPTION: King Estmere, aided by his brother Adler Younge, seeks to wed the daughter of King Adland. He wins her troth; at threat of losing her to rival (heathen) king of Spain, he attends the wedding in guise of a harper, kills his rival, and wins the bride.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage disguise trick royalty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 60, "King Estmere" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 600-607, "King Estmere" (2 texts, by necessity from Percy's Reliques rather than the Percy Folio)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 85-98, "King Estmere" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 41, "King Estmere" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 270-279+358-359, "King Estmere" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Iona & Peter Opie, The Oxford Book of Narrative Verse, pp. 100-108, "King Estmere" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 249 [the pages containing this piece are now missing and cannot be checked, so we have only Percy's unreliable transcription]
Roud #3970
NOTES [525 words]: According to Fowler, p. 158 n. 25, this is one of eighteen ballads in the Child collection found only in the Percy Folio. As a result, this ballad does not exist in any proper copy. Although it was originally found in the Percy manuscript, Percy himself tore it out (apparently to give to the printer or someone, but not until he had rewritten it in his pompous style (Groom, pp. 231, 46), and the pages have been lost. Thus the only reference is the text printed in the Reliques -- and, from Percy's comments and his patently false claim to have another copy, it seems clear that he touched that up somewhere. Nor do Percy's two editions agree entirely.
The Opies, Wilson, p. 131, and Chambers, p. 181, all note an item mentioned in The Complaynt of Scotland (1549), "quhou the king of est mure land mareit the kyngis docher of vest mure land." Possibly the same story -- but who knows? Murray's introduction to the Compaynt (Complaynt, p. lxxvi) mentions the possibiity but is not sure. The title does seem to imply that "Estmere" is the "East Moor" -- i.e. the lands east of the West Moor, or Westmoreland. Which would be Northumberland or maybe Durham. Of course, neither Northumberland nor Durham had a King -- Northumbria had an Earl, until the county was upgraded to a Dukedom, and Durham was governed primarily by its bishop.
Unless one is prepared to go back to Anglo-Saxon times, anyway, and assume that King Estmere is the king of the nation of Northumbria (effectively destroyed around 850 C.E. by the Vikings). In which case Adland/Westmoor is the Kingdom of Strathclyde. But, of course, there was no nation of Spain back then; indeed, the Iberian Peninsula was still under Islamic rule....
The Percy Folio has another piece, "Kinge Adler" (Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 296-300) which Hales and Furnival suggest may be about Estmere's brother, since Adler was a character in "King Estmere." But, of course, we must reckon with the fact that Percy rewrote "King Estmere"; for all we know, Percy brought in Adler from "King Adler."
Shippey, p. 52, says that the philologist Sophus Bugge related this to the Old Norse saga Hervarar Saga -- which might be of interest because Christopher Tolkien, the son of J. R. R. Tolkien, edited and translated the saga as The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise in 1960. This link would be of great scholarly interest if true, but we can never be certain, because we don't know how much of the ballad as we have it is traditional and how much is Percy (and, even if we had the Percy Folio original, we know that it in its turn contained a lot of rewritten ballads and chopped-down romances).
The idea of king-as-minstrel has a long pedigree in English, going back to the romance of "Sir Orfeo" and the related ballad "King Orfeo" [Child 19]. The King in Disguise is also an ancient idea (Thompson motif K1812); see the notes to "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth" [Child 273]. The combination of the king disguised as a minstrel is perhaps not so ancient, but "Prince Disguised as Minstrel" is Thompson R24.2; clearly there is precedent for the idea. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C060

King George IV's Visit to Edinburgh

DESCRIPTION: The singer's friend Pate has come to say King George has come to visit Holyrood. They think of going to see him but decide not to risk the crowd and cold but rather to stay at home, drink some more, and toast the king from home.
AUTHOR: William Lillie (source: Greig/Duncan1)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: travel drink Scotland royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 138, "King George IV's Visit to Edinburgh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5819
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The King's Visit
NOTES [179 words]: Greig/Duncan1: "This visit took place in August 1822." "Holyrood is the royal palace in Edinburgh"[p. 532]. - BS
The history of the joint monarchs of Great Britain was one of ignoring Scotland as much as possible. Once James I went to London, he tried to avoid ever going to Edinburgh. Charles I went to Scotland only when he had to. Charles II spent more time there when he was trying to gain the crown, but ignored it after he was restored. William III and Anne and the first three Georges all avoided a country which was far less willing to acknowledge them than was England.
The coming of George IV was therefore a fairly significant event. Commenting on the aftermath of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion, Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, Blood Royal: The Illustrious House of Hanover (Doubleday, 1980), p. 63, remarks that "it was the English, above all George IV, who suddenly decided that the Jacobites had been wrong, but very definitely romantic." He was actually painted wearing a tartan, and started the habit of visiting Scotland that Victoria so happily followed. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1138

King Henrie the Fifth's Conquest

See King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164] (File: C164)

King Henry [Child 32]

DESCRIPTION: King Henry goes hunting and encounters a hideous woman. For courtesy he salutes her, only to find her making incredible demands -- first the flesh of his animals, and finally that he sleep with her. He does, to find her transformed into a beautiful woman
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783/1799 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: courting sex shape-changing royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Child 32, "King Henry" (1 text)
Bronson 32, "King Henry" (1 version)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 32, "King Henry" (1 version)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 174-179, "King Henry" (2 parallel texts plus a photo of the badly-transcribed tune; also a reconstructed tune on p. 280)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 124-126, "King Henry" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 16, "King Henry" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 4, "King Henry" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's {#1})
DT 32, KINGHENR*
Roud #3967
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Marriage of Sir Gawaine" [Child 31] (theme of the loathly woman)
NOTES [18 words]: For a discussion of the Loathly Woman theme, see the notes to "The Marriage of Sir Gawaine" [Child 31]. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: C032

King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164] --- Part 01

DESCRIPTION: The English king sends to the French king a reminder of tribute due. The French king says our king is too young to be a threat and sends tennis balls instead. Our king takes an army, excluding married men and widows' sons, and succeeds against the French
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1028)); many undated manuscript copies predate this [for example, Bodleian Harding B 1(38)], and D'Urfey had something similar
KEYWORDS: war royalty battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1413 - Accession of Henry V
1415 - Henry V attacks France, captures Harfleur, and wins the Battle of Agincourt
1415-1421 - Continuing campaigns in France
1421 - Henry marries Catherine (the youngest daughter of Charles VI "the Mad," the king of France) and is declared the heir of France
1422 - Death of Henry V
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,NE,SE)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Child 164, "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" (1 text, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #6, #1}
Bronson 164, "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" (10 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 164, "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" (1 version: #1)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 597-599, "King Henry V, his Conquest of France" (1 text, not from the Percy Folio)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #1, pp. 52-56,241, "King Henrie the Fifth's Conquest" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 151-154, "King Henry FIfth's Conquest" (1 text)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 60-62, "Henry V and the King of France" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 139-141, "As The King lay musin on his bed" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 145-148, "King Henry the Fifth's Conquest of France" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2 a/b, although the three transcriptions are all slightly different musically}
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 192-195, "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2a}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 43-45, "King Henry V's Conquest of France" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 463-466, "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" (2 texts)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 115-116, "King Henry Fifth and the King of France" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 46-48, "King Henry the Fifth's Conquest of France" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 49, "King Henry Fith's Conquest of France" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN305, "As our King lay musing on his bed"
DT 164, HENRYV*
Roud #251
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1028), "King Henry the Fifth's Conquest of France" ("As our king lay musing upon his bed"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 1(38), "King Henry V. his Conquest of France"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Agincourt Carol" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Fency King and the English King
Henry's Tribute
The Tennis Balls
NOTES [302 words]: The career of Henry V marked the high point, for the English, of the Hundred Years' War. That war, fought between England and France with some participation by other countries, was a long, incredibly complex business (as you'd expect for a war that lasted from 1437 to 1453 -- though with many long periods of truce).
Because this is so complicated, I ended up with what is (as of this writing) the third-longest entry in the Ballad Index. I have therefore broken it up into the following sections, divided among four different entries in the Ballad Index. which you can search for if you don't want to read the whole thing. These aren't really chapters; the note is meant to be read continuously. But it may help you to find the part you most want.
Contents:
*** Included in this entry:*
* Full References for the song
* Bibliography
*** Included in the Entry "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164]" --- Part 02 (File Number Link C164A):*
* The Causes of the War
* The Reign of Edward III
* Strengths and Weaknesses of France and England
*** Included in the Entry "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164]" --- Part 03 (File Number Link C164B):*
* Edward III, Sluys, Crecy, Poitiers, and Bretigny
* The Failure of Bretigny; Richard II and Henry IV
*** Included in the Entry "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164]" --- Part 04 (File Number Link C164C):*
* The Reign of Henry V
* 1415: Harfleur and Agincourt
* The Second Invasion and Troyes: Henry the Heir of France
* The Death of Henry V and the Regency of Bedford
* Orleans
*** Included in the Entry "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164]" --- Part 05 (File Number Link C164D):*
* The Death of Bedford and the Loss of France
* England After the Wars: the Overthrow of Lancaster
* The Historical Content of the Ballad
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: C164

King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164] --- Part 02

DESCRIPTION: Continuation of the notes to "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" [Child 164]. Entry continues in "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164]" --- Part 03 (File Number C164B)
Last updated in version 4.2
NOTES [6403 words]: THE CAUSES OF THE WAR
The Hundred Years' War started with a dispute over land. Under Henry II (reigned 1154-1189), England had controlled most of western France: Henry had inherited Normandy from his great-grandfather William the Conqueror; Anjou, Maine, and Touraine from his father Geoffrey of Anjou; and had gained Acquitaine (Guyenne and other lands) by marrying its Duchess Eleanor. He would also manage to gain working control of Brittany by marrying one of his sons to the heiress. (For a map of all this, see e.g. Ashley-Kings, p. 519.)
Over the next century and a half, those possessions were nibbled away by the French government. A large part of the problem was that, while the English King was the Duke or Count of the French territories, he still owed homage to the King of France for them. Petty nobles were always appealing to the French government for redress, and the French king often seized the land as a result. The English were usually unable to reclaim the land.
Sometimes the French captured more than just a border strip. In 1204, they recaptured the whole Duchy of Normandy in one great campaign (Harvey, p. 82). It was King John who lost the Duchy, and people said it was because he was too involved with his young wife Isabella of Angouleme -- but the real problem was that John's older brother Richard had left England bankrupt with his crusades and his temper and his ransom after he had been captured by the Austrians.
John tends to get blamed for a lot of things, these days I think mostly because of his role in the Robin Hood legends, and there is no question that he was a very violent man. Most monarchs of the time were. Many historians still condemn him as a disaster. But it seems to me that the balance has shifted somewhat: He was no worse than other kings of the time, merely much more unlucky -- his brother had left him with a lot of enemies and a lot of problems, and no money to deal with them.
Still, John's reign left England so weak that the French actually invaded -- at the time John's son Henry III was crowned, there was "no organized government, no exchequer, no royal seal. London and half the shires were held by Louis of France and the baronial rebels" (Powicke, p. 1).
Amazingly, the death of John brought most of the barons (who the year before had forced the Magna Carta upon him) back to the side of the new king. A major victory for the English at Lincoln (Powicke, pp. 9-11) and a series of smaller engagements freed England of the French invaders.
But an England distracted by invasion could hardly counter-attack in France. The French had invaded England before completing the conquest of the English territory in Gascony, but even after they were driven out of Britain, they continued to nibble away at the English property in the south of France. This continued through the reign of John's son Henry III (reigned 1216-1272). Henry III in 1258 agreed to the Treaty of Paris, (negotiated, ironically, by his baronial opponents; Davis, pp. 200-201) in which he formally gave up his claim to Normandy, Anjou, and other northern territories, in return for being confirmed in Guyenne; he even picked up a few additional districts at the borders (Perroy, p. 61). The treaty, however, did not cause the French to stop nibbling.
The next king, the energetic Edward I (reigned 1272-1307) tried to turn things around. He stayed at peace with France for two decades (Wilkinson, p. 98), but French lawyers continued to press claims against the English domain (Wilkinson, p. 99). And, in 1294, the French king declared all English territory in France forfeit.
Edward was far the better soldier of the two monarchs; had he been fighting only the French, he might have been able to regain the territory directly (since it is believed the Gascons for the most part preferred English to French rule). But he was already fighting Wales, and the situation with Scotland was also heating up. He simply didn't have the resources to pull off all the things he was trying (Prestwich, p. 18, notes that he never found the money to complete Beaumaris Castle in Wales, and at one point apparently resorted to paying his masons with leather coin-shaped IOUs because he had not the ready coin to pay them). The three-way wars, and perhaps Edward's increasing age, seems to have left him far less able to deal with problems after about 1290 (Prestwich, pp. 26-27).
The English might have lost their foothold in France completely had not the French been badly beaten at Courtrai by the Flemings in 1302. This gave Edward the strength to negotiate things back to the situation as it had been before the confiscation (Wilkinson, pp. 101-102). Still, that left the English with only a rather precarious hold on their southern territory. (And would cause the future King Edward III to be "conditioned" to fighting with France over his holdings there; Ormrod, p. 17.)
And then came the disastrous Edward II. Most of us will know him for losing the Battle of Bannockburn, or for being deposed in 1327, but he also oversaw the loss of additional land in France. By the time his son Edward III took the throne, English possessions in France amounted to little more than a coastal strip from Bordeaux to Bayonne. (And even that had been confiscated again a few years before, and once again given back.) As Sedgwick notes on p. 23, this was only about an eighth of the original Angevin dominion. It's not really fair to blame Edward II for all the English problems -- Edward I's biggest single defect was his financial incompetence (Prestwich, p. 41), and he left the problem for Edward II to solve -- but he failed utterly to improve the situation, and he faced baronial revolts throughout his reign (Prestwich, pp. 83-85, etc.); these can only have weakened the crown.
THE REIGN OF EDWARD III
Edward III came to power in two uncomfortable stages. After the most recent French takeover of Guyenne, Edward II had sent his wife Isabel (called the "she wolf of France"on p. 17 of Sedgwick, though Shakespeare saved that name for Margaret of Anjou, who deserved it even more; cf. 3 Henry VI I.iv.111) and his son to try to negotiate with their cousin Philip. But by letting her take their son, Edward II had given Isabel the key player in the English political situation. She scorned her husband, and the fact that she had her son meant that could stay in France until Edward II was put aside -- or she could start her own conspiracy (Prestwich, p. 96). She chose the latter, strengthening her hand by marrying Edward to Philippa of Hainault; soldiers from the Low Countries enabled her to invade England.
In 1326, when Edward III was fourteen, his mother and her lover Roger Mortimer made their move (Prestwich, p. 97). Edward II failed to respond in any useful way, and was deposed in early 1327 (Prestwich, p. 98). He was killed later in the year (Perroy, pp. 58-59). Edward III was now theoretically king, but his mother and Mortimer ran things -- with great brutality, and without much success; their attempts to fight Scotland, e.g., resulted in an unfavorable treaty in 1328 (Ormrod, p. 14).
In 1330, Edward rebelled III against his own mother, killing Mortimer and taking power into his own hands. He found himself in a very interesting situation. For one thing, he could make a very strong case that he should be King of France. France had no real succession law at this time; Perroy, p. 71, notes that for more than three centuries, every King had had sons to succeed him, so none had been needed -- the crown just naturally passed to the King's son (who often was crowned before his father died).
But that suddenly changed. The old king Philip IV "the Fair" (i.e. "Handsome," not "Just" or "Unbiased"), who had died in 1314, had had three sons. Louis X had died in 1316. He left a posthumous son who died within days and an infant daughter Joan who was set aside (Perroy, p. 72, seems to think that Joan of Navarre would have had a better chance of succeeding had it not been for the brief life of John the Posthumous, since there would have been no chance for people to sit around waiting to decide what to expect). This established the precedent that a woman could not succeed to the throne, but it should be noted that it did not inherently mean that they could not transmit the crown; there was as yet no precedent that said that, since a woman could not take the throne, her son could not either (Neillands, p. 35). Louis's brother Philip V, who perhaps used the time between the old king's death and the baby's birth to improve his position, reigned 1316-1322. There had been some dissatisfaction when he succeeded (Perroy, p. 73), but when he died, leaving only daughters, the throne apparently went to his brother Charles without serious protest. Charles IV reigned 1322-1328 and left one daughter and a pregnant wife (Perroy, p. 74). The child was a daughter, and based on the recent precedents, was set aside.
In better times, the Pope might have intervened at this point. But the Papacy was under the French thumb. Philip the Fair had actually called a Pope to stand before a church council (Renouard, p. 13), and since 1305 the Popes had resided at Avignon, and were all French (Renouard, p. 15). Not all Avignon popes were entirely worthless, as is sometimes claimed; Urban V would eventually be sainted (Renouard, p. 55). But the French king definitely was in a position to pressure them (Dante, in fact, called the early popes of this period the French king's "whore"; Saunders, p. 35. Another wit of the time called Avignon a "bawdy house"; Sedgwick, p. 22. On pp. 123-124, Saunders notes an instance where Urban V was forced to deny Edward III's son Edmund a dispensation to marry a rather distant cousin because the French feared the match). It was not until 1365, when England and France were theoretically at peace, that the Pope decided to go back to Rome (Renouard, p. 58), and it didn't arrive until 1367, and even then, much of the administration was left in Avignon (Renouard, p. 60).
It is deeply ironic that this Papal ineffectiveness came about because the Pope elected in 1305, Clement V, was a Gascon who truly wanted peace between France and England; Renouard, p. 20. But Clement V -- who had helped arrange the marriage of Edward II to Isabella of France; Renouard, p. 21 -- died in 1314. And his successor, though he thought about returning to Rome, was comfortable in Avignon and feared the political situation in Italy (Renouard, pp. 27-28). (This was the political situation underlying Dante's Divine Comedy, which, if you study Dante, you will know was extremely unsettled).
The next Pope, Benedict XII, decided it was time to build a palace in Avignon (Renouard, p. 41), and the Pope after that, Clement VI, built an even fancier dwelling, and that was that. For much of the war, there simply was no impartial pope to mediate. Benedict XII was still Pope when the Hundred Years' War started, and though Renouard declares he had "fundamental good sense," few of the other authors I've read think much of him. And Innocent VI, who succeeded Clement VI in 1352, had so many burdens due to demands by the cardinals and the poverty caused by Clement VI's excesses that he could do nothing (Renouard, p. 49).
This was the situation when Charles IV died. With his daughter out of the running, there were three candidates left for the crown of France. One was Isabel, the sister of Louis X, Philip V, and Charles IV -- or, if the French insisted on a male king but would allow succession in the female line, her son Edward III. A second possibility was Count Philip of Evreuex, who was himself of the French royal family (he was the son of Philip the Fair's younger half-brother Louis) and who by this time had married Joan of Navarre, the daughter of Louis X (in later centuries, they might have been proclaimed joint monarchs, like William and Mary or Ferdinand and Isabella, but that apparently never occurred to anyone). The third candidate was Philip of Valois, the son of Philip the Fair's full brother Charles of Valois and hence the first cousin of the three recently deceased royal brothers (Perroy, p. 74).
Perroy notes that Philip of Valois, already the regent of France, was an adult, of known competence and no great moral disqualifications, and he was the senior prince to be descended from Philip III entirely in male line. In contrast, Isabel (who had shown up in France in 1325 with her lover Mortimer) was regarded as an appalling degenerate; Edward her son was still very young; and Philip of Evreuex was also young and also had a questionable character.
It was an odd situation. If one ignored Joan, the daughter of Louis X (which everyone did, since she was only a little more than twelve years old and at this time had no supporters though she did became Queen of Navarre; in any case, she had *already* been passed over), then under English law, which permitted succession in the female line; Isabel was the rightful Queen of France and Edward her heir.
(I can't help but note one irony: Edward, who was trying to gain the throne of France via the female line, in England converted a number of earldoms so that they succeeded in male line only; Tuck, p. 152).
The French, however, managed to dig up a law -- the so-called "Salic Law" -- that said that the throne of France could only be passed on through a male line (no one really believed this law was relevant, but the French didn't want an English king, and to they used what came to hand).
(We might note that Joan of Navarre ended up with a really raw deal. Apart from being the legitimate Queen of France, she was Queen of Navarre, Countess of Champagne, and overlord of Brie. She was eventually allowed to succeed in Navarre, but only after the French monarchy had enjoyed its revenue for some time, and she never got the French counties, since they were traded off for lesser lands; Perroy, pp. 80-81. In the end, this was to hurt the Valois monarch, since the heirs of Navarre would often side with the English; Joan's son Charles the Bad was truly a thorn in the French side until finally suppressed; Perroy, pp. 127-129.)
Guerard, p. 100, sums up what happened after Charles IV died: "For the third time the king had no son. The rule adopted in 1316 was applied: women could not inherit the throne, nor transmit rights which never were theirs. So a cousin of the late three kings, Philip of Valois, received the crown instead of their nephew, soon to be Edward III of England. The decision was neither absurd nor inevitable. Authority was still linked with leadership in battle, but on the other hand, women, like Eleanor [of Acquitaine], had been suffered to inherit vast feudal domains. To give this practice the prestige of antiquity, it was later called 'the Salic Law." But the French royal house had forgotten for many centuries that there ever were Salian Franks." (So much so that I've head the name "Salic Law" linked with laws governing salt. Butler, p. 14, goes so far as to declare the whole thing an invention).
Perroy, p. 71, notes that every other fief in France could pass in female line, and that the French even had rules for how female vassals could meet military obligations to their feudal overlords. But he adds that the French nobility universally accepted the accession of Philip of Valois (p. 76).
Keen, p. 245, thinks that the fact that Edward III was still a minor was significant; the French didn't want an underage King.
(Incidentally, there is a folkloric twist to the tale of the deaths of the last French kings of the Capetian line, according to Barker, pp. 12-13 and Doherty, pp. 57-58. Philip IV had plundered the Knights Templar, on the grounds that they were no longer defending the Temple, long lost to the Saracens -- accurate as far as it went, but it should have been the Pope's decision. Philip seized their rich treasury, and covered it up with confessions under torture. He eventually had the Grand Master of the Temple, Jacques de Molay, burned as a relapsed heretic -- relapsed because he denied a confession given under torture! De Molay cursed the Pope, Philip, and Philip's descendents. The Pope and Philip of course died, and Philip's male line died out, and the female lines never regained the throne of France.)
Despite his disappointment, Edward might have accepted the French decision regarding the kingship if he had been treated fairly -- in his early weakness, he actually paid homage to Philip VI in 1329 for his territory in Guyenne (Seward, p. 24). For a time, Edward even considered going on crusade with Philip (Perroy, p. 88). Perroy, pp. 84-85, sums up the situation in 1330 as follows: "So it had taken no more than three years for the diplomacy of the Valois, again, employing all the [bullying] methods used by the last Capetians and covering all the tracks already beaten by them, to win a victory of the highest importance over their Gascon vassal. Edward's homage at Amiens, and his subsequent declaration which put it on the same footing as liege homage, would seem to have set aside the dynastic pretensions of the Plantagenets forever. Beaten in every round of this close conflict, Edward was back in a position more humiliating than ever in relation to his suzerain. Acquitaine remained diminished by a partial occupation and weakened by the greater subjection of its duke to the French monarchy."
Several false moves changed Edward's attitude toward Philip. Edward had taken all he was going to take in France. He had unwillingly offered homage, but he had his own terms -- he wanted to keep what he had; no more French nibbling at the border! The French had never really restored what they took from Edward II in 1325, leaving Guyenne far too small to be defensible. But Philip not only kept up the pressure, he even opened up a sort of second front by demanding that the Scots would be part of any peace (Perroy, pp. 87-88). Edward, who was as tired of fighting the Scots as he was of being cheated by the French, was in the process of trying to put Edward Balliol on the Scots throne (Ormrod, p. 18), and he wanted a free hand against them.
Edward, tired of shooting at a moving target, promptly started working on building a coalition against France. Parliament voted him subsidies for war in 1336 (Perroy, p. 91). Negotiations were still going on, mediated by the Pope, but the Pope was trying so hard to prevent war that he actually made it harder for the participants to address the real issues. Perroy, p. 90, says that "From December 1334 onwards, the policy of Benedict XII ended by precipitating the conflict which it aimed at avoiding." The crisis of 1336 came about because it appeared that Philip would be sending reinforcements to Scotland, now in desperate straits in its war against Edward.
A peaceful resolution became impossible in 1337; in that year, the French once again declared Guyenne forfeit to the French crown (Seward, p. 35; Ashley-GB, p. 130; Barker, p. 12). Perroy, p. 66, suspects this may have been simply another dodge used by the French to bring the English to heel; after all, it had worked twice before in the reigns of the last two kings! But, Perroy notes, both Edward I and Edward II had been distracted. What the French had really accomplished was to convince the English that they wanted to retake Guyenne. And Edward III didn't have to take this as tamely as his predecessors; he was not distracted, as Edward I had been in 1294, or facing revolt, as Edward II had in 1324. Edward therefore declared war on his first cousin once removed.
The war which followed was not expected to last long (indeed, both parties thought they had ended it in 1360). They didn't even get down to serious fighting immediately. In this whole first phase of the war, there were only three major battles.
Although Hundred Years War is generally held to have lasted 116 years (1337-1453), the serious periods of combat were only 1337-1360, 1414-1436, and 1449-1453. The reign of Richard II (1377-1399) and the early years of Henry IV (1399-1413) were especially quiet. Some have proposed to split the war into three conflicts, called something like the "Crecy War" (1337-1460), the "Agincourt War" (1415-1422), and the "Reconquest." There is some validity to this (especially since 1453 did not actually end the English attempts to invade -- Edward IV and Henry VIII also mounted invasions). But the whole conflict from 1337 to 1453 was all about the same two issues: Who would control Gascony, and what would be the English King's relationship with the French. Edward III, in starting the war, probably wanted simply to get full control of Gascony, without having to answer to the French king.
Interestingly, though Edward had earlier stopped treated Philip as King of France (Perroy, p. 93), it wasn't until 1340 that Edward formally claimed the throne of France -- presumably partly as a bargaining chip, but mostly to make it possible for the Flemish to ally with him (Burne, p. 51). The cities of Flanders officially acknowledged the French King as their suzerain, so rebelling against Philip would have caused them to be punished by the Church. But once Edward claimed to be King of France, the Flemish could acknowledge *him* and be free from those sanctions. Of course, they would still have to face French wrath if the French won....
Edward probably never expected to become the actual King of France; indeed, when he dictated something approaching a victor's peace in 1360, he asked for far less. But he had made his claim (and the Kings of England would in fact continue to call themselves Kings of France for centuries), and that started a chain of events that would take half a century to work out.
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND
The French actually had one advantage over what they had had in the time of Edward I: France was a more united country, meaning that the French could bring more pressure to bear. And France had a far larger population base than England -- at least three times the total population (Perroy, p. 51). Even more important, it had greater financial resources, meaning a greater ability to pay an army (Edward III, who had to keep his army together long enough to gather, invade, fight, and come home, repeatedly went bankrupt, and even drove his bankers bankrupt; Seward, p. 33. Renouard, p. 44, notes that between 1342 and 1346, the majority of Florentine banking firms -- the source of credit to all of Europe -- crashed. England's population was large enough to supply plenty of soldiers, but unless Edward could pay them, they wouldn't fight. It is interesting, though futile, to speculate how much of the economic crisis of 1348-1350 was due to the Black Death and how much due to the collapse of international credit).
But Edward III had at least *six* advantages over his grandfather for the contest with the French.
One of them was, in fact, the result of Edward I's own campaigns. Wales was now firmly in English hands. There was no possibility at all that Edward III would be seriously distracted by the Welsh -- indeed, he would have some Welshmen in the armies he took to France, and derived at least a little revenue from Wales.
Second, Edward did not have to worry too much about the Scots. He had loosed Edward Balliol upon them as a shadow king, causing several years of civil war (Magnusson, pp. 197-198). When the Scots had invaded England in 1333, Edward III faced then in his first great battle, at Halidon Hill. It was a complete English victory (Magnusson, pp. 198-199), which in fact set the pattern for the later battles of Crecy and Agincourt. Scotland was devastated. They did not manage another serious attack on the English until Neville's Cross in 1346. And even in 1346, Edward III didn't even have to show up in the north.
Third, the French, though they had money, found it almost impossible to collect. Their tax system was incoherent. The French monarchy had spent years devaluing its coinage, making it almost impossible to value or spend. By the time of the Agincourt campaigns, it was little more than pot metal (Perroy observes on p. 127 that the currency was devalued 70% in *just six years* after Crecy! Butler, p. 44, says that there were 64 devaluations under Philip VI, 104 under Jean II, and 41 under Charles V, though how this is possible is beyond me, and adds on p. 62 that there were times when no one would accept *any* money because they didn't know what the coins would be worth. Prestwich, p. 170, notes that one of the things Edward III had promised if he became King of France was a stable currency).
The British, though they too had trouble raising money, at least had a meaningful coinage which did not decline significantly over the years (Perroy, p. 124, argues that lack of finances was the chief reason the war lasted so long: Both sides had more big ideas than they had cash); Perroy, p. 56, says that "after a century of exhausting war [the pound] had not been devalued by more than 20 per cent." (The English did, however, play around with the French coinage -- Butler, p. 44 -- though some of this is the fault of Burgundians.)
Fourth, Edward had a new way of raising armies, and new tactics for the army raised. The new tactic was the chevauchee, the plundering raid (Seward, p. 28). It was the ancestor of Sherman's March to the Sea: A fast-moving force doing as much destruction as possible. (Walsingham summed up one of Edward III's chevauchees with the Caesaresque, "Cepit, spoliavit, combussit" -- "he came, he despoiled, he burned"; Sedgwick, p. 36.) It could inflict extreme economic damage and spread great misery, though it could not defeat an enemy outright. He also had the contract ("indenture") system for raising troops.
Historians have called indentures the most significant military development of the Middle Ages (Burne, p. 31). In the old days, the King called on his retainers to bring out their servants for brief military service (a system that went back to Anglo-Saxon times); the result was often to bring out a useless, unarmed rabble -- villages would often send the men for whom they had the least use (Prestwich, pp. 63-66). Edward I had first experimented with paying soldiers to serve, and by the time Edward III took the throne, this was the standard method. It cost dearly -- it was the single biggest reason why Edward III was constantly broke -- but it brought in solid armies. They were also more disciplined, according to Burne, p. 35; a man who has to give satisfaction if he wants to be paid has to obey orders. It was not a true standing army (the French would in fact invent that later in the war), but it was closer to a professional army than anything which had existed to that time (Featherstone, p. 36).
Plus, because declines in the power of the aristocracy and the failure of some families, Edward was able to appoint more "professional" commanders -- Prestwich, p. 190, notes that Edward was able to appoint his own Marshal and Constable of England, instead of having the offices handed down by heredity. The French, by contrast, still had hereditary high officers. It is unlikely that they could have employed men such as the brilliant knights Thomas Dagworth, John Chandos, and Walter Mauny in such high posts as Edward did.
Edward also could call out men the French would never have dared to employ. Many of his soldiers were convicts given conditional pardons in return for service (Prestwich, p. 193). John Hawkwood himself was seemingly one of these; in 1350-1351, we find records of him brutally attacking a man, and soon after he was charged with stealing a horse (Saunders, p. 46). A Frenchman guilty of the sorts of crimes these men committed would likely have deserted. An Englishman in France would be less likely to do so, since he was far from home -- and even if he did desert, he would probably start preying on the French, making him a de facto ally even if not part of the army.
Fifth, Edward had the sympathy of the people of the Low Countries, many of whom were technically subject to the French but whose industries depended on English wool. Edward was to use this as something of an economic lever, selling wool to the counties that were on his side and denying it to the pro-French areas (Perroy, p. 95). This proved a mixed blessing, however, since it put the English wool production system into a severe recession -- and Edward depended on that revenue.
Edward's biggest advantage, in any case, was the longbow.
Oh, Edward I had had longbowmen, too, but not as many (indeed, the Welsh invented the longbow, so they potentially had the advantage against him -- except they never used it). By Edward III's time, practice with the bow was mandatory for the lower classes. So Edward III could assemble much larger, better armies of bowmen.
Today we tend to sneer at any weapon of the pre-firearms era. We should not. The longbow (and oriental composite bow) were the best weapons known to man until the mid-nineteenth century, when the Minie bullet made relatively rapid-fire rifled guns possible. (Indeed, Featherstone, p. 177, lists several authors who argued the English should give up arquebuses and other early firearms and return to longbows. On pp. 189-191, he actually details a case of a longbow being used in World War II!) A longbow, in the hands of a trained archer, had a greater range than a smoothbore musket, and greater accuracy than a musket, and a higher rate of fire than a musket -- a brilliant musketeer might get off five shots in two minutes, and the average would have been somewhat less than four. In two minutes, a truly excellent archer could get off more than a dozen arrows.
Prestwich, p. 70, describes the bow as follows: "[T]he classic longbow was two ells in length, or about seven feet six inches... was the thickness of four thumbs, and fired a 'clotharrow' a yard long.... It is likely that the heaviest bows had a range of up to four hundred yards, though real accuracy was unlikely beyond two hundred. A rate of fire of ten flights per minute was possible; a constantly reiterated simile of fourteenth century chroniclers is that arrows fell like snow on the battlefield; but, unlike snow, arrows produced a terrifying noise." It has been estimated that perhaps half a million arrows were shot at Crecy (Saunders, p. 3). We don't know just how much time the archers spent firing at that battle, but if we assume 20 French charges (higher than any estimate I've seen), and that the attackers were in range for four minutes per charge (which is also mathematically high), that would mean that, during the charges, a hundred arrows landing per second. Even if all they did was stick up in the dirt, they would he a fair obstacle to the attackers!
Burne, p. 28, gives slightly different statistics: "The longbow could be discharged six times a minute: It had an effective range of 250 yards and an extreme range of about 350 yards." Featherstone, p. 40, gives identical numbers, but elsewhere claims that there are instances on record of a bowshot travelling a third of a mile, although these were unaimed shafts fired solely for distance. (And I frankly don't believe it. Saunders, p. 62, says that trained twentieth century archers "achieved a range of 180-200 yards," though to be sure they did not grow up with the bow.)
Seward, p. 53, says bowmen "could shoot ten or even twelve [arrows] a minute, literally darkening the sky, and had a fighting range of over 150 yards with a plate-armour-piercing range of about sixty." This agrees with Wagner, p. 17, who claims a firing rate of up to twelve arrows per minute, with a range of 150-200 yards, armor-piercing range of sixty, and a draw weight of 80-100 pounds. Barker, p. 88, states that the bows of the period had an astonishing pull of 150-160 pounds, giving them a range of about 240 yards, though Featherstone, p. 61, claims the standard pull was 100 pounds. Jarman, pp. 73-74, makes perhaps the most extreme claim: that the bow could pierce chain mail at 275 yards! Ross, p. 111, believes the "effective" range to have been 165 yards with a rate of fire of 10-12 arrows per minute.
Some of this variation is because of technological advances over the years; Neillands, p. 202, suggests that the longbow used late in the war had a greater draw than the early bows (dubious, I think), and that it used a better "armor-piercing" arrowhead (probably true).
Some of those range citations may actually be inspired by Shakespeare; in Henry IV, Part 2, Act III, scene ii, about line 45, Shallow claims that an archer named "Double" could shoot direct fire to a range of 280-290 yards, while implying a normal archer could shoot 240 yards. Of course, any data on anything taken from Shakespeare should be viewed with extreme suspicion. All of this is hard to prove, since no longbows of the Agincourt era have survived, according to Featherstone, p. 59. Bows eventually wore out, after all -- plus, since the best bows were made of imported yew, the supply was somewhat limited; Featherstone, p. 62. The Yorkist kings, in fact, passed laws forcing importers to bring them bowstaves; Featherstone, p. 64.
Other differences in the figures may be attributed partly to the fact that different archers had different abilities, plus the fact that an arrow can be fired on either a straight or a falling trajectory, with the latter having much greater range but far less accuracy. Also there was the question of how much damage it was supposed to do when it arrived. Though national feeling also seems to have caused different assessments -- the one French historian I've studied, Perroy, claims on p. 97 that the longbow was not especially accurate and that it had a rate of fire only three times that of a crossbow. Prestwich, p. 198, says by contrast that the longbow could fire five times as fast. Featherstone says it fired four times as fast.
Different arrows may also play a part; Barker, p. 86, notes that there were two standard types of arrows in use by the time of Agincourt. One had a longer shaft of a lightweight wood, with a leafed or barbed head that was hard to extract; the other, designed to penetrate plate, had a shorter, lighter arrow with a "bodkin point" that was extremely sharp, with a narrow point, for maximum penetration. Barker states that this sort of arrow could pierce plate at 150 yards, though it will be evident that it would not be as stable in flight and so was less likely to hit. Featherstone, p. 48, quotes a contemporary account which describes a sheaf of arrows as containing two-thirds heavy and one-third light shafts; the latter of course did less damage but could be fired farther.
A clothyard arrow could go six inches into the flesh, and the barbed head made extraction difficult (Saunders, pp. 4-5). Such wounds were very difficult to treat using fourteenth century techniques.
To put this in perspective: Keegan, p. 95, estimates that a knight on a trained destrier could charge at 12 to 15 miles per hour. Let's use 15. That's 26400 yards per hour, or 440 yards per minute. If a bowman could begin firing at 150 yards, and could fire eight arrows per minute, then he could get off three arrows while the knight was charging him, and the last one at least could pierce armor. If he could keep calm, he could certainly stop any individual knight charging him -- and, because bowmen could stand closer together than knights on horseback, there would typically be two to four archers firing at each horseman. The longbow was about as close as the fourteenth century came to a terror weapon -- especially against horsemen; although a clothyard arrow could not at long range penetrate plate mail (which was becoming common by the time of Crecy, and was almost universally used by the time of Agincourt), it could bring down a horse, and if a charging horse fell, it was just about sure to knock out the rider as well. And, in the crush, a man who fell to the ground was likely to suffocate or be killed by the pressure (Saunders, p. 3).
Edward III seems to have made his archers even more effective by mounting them. They still fought on foot, just like his knights -- but they were mobile while on campaign. This gave him much more operational flexibility.
And the longbow was exclusively English. The French had none. They did have archers -- crossbowmen. A crossbow was in many ways an easier weapon than a longbow; it gave the arrow a higher initial velocity than a longbow, so a crossbowman could aim straight at the target; no fancy training about angles-of-flight needed. That higher velocity also meant that it had somewhat longer range in the hands of a true expert. But it took the better part of a minute to crank it up to prepare to fire the thing. (Seward, p. 55, says that an expert could fire four quarrels per minute. It would have taken an exceptional expert; Barker is more nearly correct when she says on p. 87 that the standard was two shots per minute -- after all, the thing had to be loaded, then aimed. A good longbowman could load and aim in one gesture. Plus crossbows were heavy and complex enough to break down fairly frequently. A longbow, being just a well-shaped piece of wood and a string, didn't have nearly as many parts that could go wrong, though it did need maintenance to retain its strength.)
A crossbowman faced with longbowmen would rarely get off a first shot; he almost never got off a second shot. And while a crossbowman didn't require as much training as a longbowman, he required some, so the French couldn't just overwhelm the English with numbers. On a man-for-man basis, longbowmen remained the most deadly soldiers in the world until the nineteenth century. (Well, apart from artillerymen, anyway.) The English lost the Hundred Years War primarily because the French eventually managed to develop a useful individual firearm. It didn't make French men-at-arms equal to English longbowmen -- but it was easy enough to use that the French could finally give all their soldiers a weapon that could hit at a distance. The English could not match that; a good longbowman had to be trained from birth (Burne, p. 220n, claims that one can still see the marks on some church walls where archers sharpened their arrows on their way to Sunday archery practice), and needed to be physically strong as well.
Last updated in version 4.2
File: C164A

King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164] --- Part 03

DESCRIPTION: Continuation of the notes to "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" [Child 164]. Entry continues in "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164]" --- Part 04 (File Number C164C)
Last updated in version 4.2
NOTES [12199 words]: EDWARD III, SLUYS, CRECY, POITIERS, AND BRETIGNY
Edward III's war, as mentioned, involved three major battles. He had hoped for more, but the first phase of the war, from 1337-1341, was a complete failure on land. Edward and his Flemish allies were constantly chasing around in Flanders and northern France, but they accomplished little. The French usually had an army in the vicinity, but it consistently refused to fight -- e.g. Burne, p. 45, notes an instance early in the war where French and English armies were only twelve miles apart, but the French avoided battle; on pp. 47-49 we hear of the French and English actually coming to a battlefield, but the French still refusing to fight -- and the English couldn't go on the offensive because all their allies quit.
Gradually Edward started trusting more in his own nation and less in the allies. By 1341, his grand coalition in Flanders had dissolved and he had lost his appointment in the Holy Roman Empire (Burne, p. 63). Meanwhile, Edward was firing his ministers at home because they hadn't come up with the money he needed to keep paying off his allies. (Perroy, p. 96, remarks, "In May 1337, th[e English] set up at Valenciennes a regular market for alliances, which were bought for hard cash. It cost a great deal, for the princes of the Empire were grasping." Buying them off in fact drove Edward to bankruptcy and destroyed his bankers -- Edward's third son was called John of Gaunt because he was born in Ghent (=Gaunt). And he was born there, rather than in England, because Edward had had to leave his wife in Ghent as security for what he owed the various lords in the low countries; Perroy, p. 105.)
So high were the taxes that they must have severely damaged the English economy (Ormrod, p. 20, details the exactions made in this period -- and on p. 22 notes that Edward still spent more than he was able to collect). The French were planning invasion, and had they managed it, I suspect an exhausted England would have fallen. Ormrod, p. 24, compares the situation in 1340 to that under Edward II, implying that he thinks Edward III was in danger of deposition. In 1344, a parliament called for an end to the war, though they covered it by asking that the end be by "battle or an honorable peace" (Sedgwick, p. 28).
Yet Edward actually did better on his own than when he had with the support of the Flemish. The first big fight of the war was the naval battle of Sluys, in 1340. The English fleet attacked the fleets of their enemies at anchor off Flanders, inflicting tremendous damage and ending the threat of a French invasion (Seward, pp. 43-46; Burne believes that the English captured 190 ships, though there are no accurate estimates of casualties). The French still had enough ships to raid England, but England was now clearly stronger at sea. Edward then took the army that had won at Sluys into the Low Countries -- where it accomplished nothing. Perroy, p. 113, comments that "the period of great enterprises seemed over." On the face of it, Edward had lost the Hundred Years War after only three years.
Luckily for him, he managed to find a way to redirect the war. A succession crisis in the County of Brittany let England open a new front (Ormrod p. 26, calls this the "provincial strategy" -- ironically, something rather like it would be used against the English when they were on the defensive). When Duke John III died, the French recognized his niece Joan as heir (Burne, p. 66). This was proper under English law, since Joan was the son of John's younger full brother. The English responded by supporting John, the half-brother of the dead Duke (Burne, p. 67, notes the irony that the French followed the English law of inheritance, while the English supported the candidate who was the heir if women were excluded -- thus reversing their positions with regard to the throne of France).
Joan, who in addition to being female was apparently not physically sound (she was called "Joan the Lame"; Perroy, p. 114), could not entirely control the duchy. Brittany ended up in chaos -- the civil war became deadly serious in 1342 -- and the English were able to exploit to their own ends (Prestwich, p. 174). It didn't really do much to damage the French monarchy, but it let the English practice their tactics at a price they could afford.
By 1345, Edward was planning a fight on many fronts (Ormrod, p. 26). The French tried to counter by inciting the Scots to attack England -- but Edward III didn't let that distract him. The 1346 campaigns opened on the already active battlefields of Brittany and Guyenne, where his deputies Sir Thomas Dagworth and Henry Earl of Lancaster (often called the Earl of Derby at this time, because his father was still alive and held the Lancastrian titlewhen the campaign began) had been perfecting the English tactics for archers and men-at-arms. Derby in particular was absolutely brilliant, winning several battles against extreme odds and regaining much land for the English (Burne, pp. 101-117; he adds on page 128 that Derby should be considered one of England's great captains and laments that he is nearly forgotten).
Those campaigns offered a real opening for Edward III, because the French sent all their troops to defend those fronts (Burne, p. 120). The rest of the country was almost undefended. So Edward III in 1346 mounted the first all-English invasion of the war -- and did it amphibiously, landing on the almost-undefended coast of Normandy (Prestwich, p. 176). This was a brilliant success, since Edward had no opposition in Normandy but the French response lessened the pressure on other fronts.
Edward did a massive amount of damage to the Norman countryside (Sedgwick, pp. 35-37). He sacked Caen (Prestwich, p. 177), which had been at peace for so long that its defences were almost useless (Sumption, p. 507) but which nonetheless defied him because part of it was protected by rivers and a castle (Burne, pp. 144-145). He made a feint at Paris itself (Seward, p. 60; Burne, p. 150, thinks that this was forced upon him because he had to get across the Seine, and the one major crossing-place near his path, at Rouen, was too strongly defended, so he had to go upstream. He then rebuilt a bridge under the French noses by distracting them with small raids; Burne, p. 152). It was this army which beat the French decisively at Crecy, and which went on to capture Calais.
At first glance, the English seemed to be in great danger at Crecy. They were far from their bases, and had had much difficulty crossing the Seine and the Somme (Seward, p. 60). His army was nearly worn out, and needed rest. This was probably why Edward fought at Crecy rather than continuing to Flanders (Seward, p. 61), though Sedgwick, pp. 44-45, quotes Froissart's explanation that Crecy was in Ponthieu, a territory which belonged to Edward; supposedly Edward didn't want the French invading it..
Seward, p. 61, estimates that the English at this time had about 11,000 men -- 7000 archers, 2000 men-at-arms, and 2000 others. Sumption, p. 497, estimates that the ships which took his army to France had a capacity of 7,000 to 10,000, and believes that over half were archers. Perroy, also based on the ship capacity, argued for 8,000 riders (including both men-at-arms and mounted archers) plus 2,000 infantry. Burne, p. 138, agrees with Seward's figure of 2000 men-at-arms but estimates the whole invasion force at 15,000; on p. 167 he gives the even more amazing figure of 16,500 (neither of which I find credible, even though he uses shipping capacity as a cross-check); allowing for losses along the way, he argues for 12,000 to 13,000 Englishmen at Crecy (p. 170).
Sedgwick, p. 33, by estimating the size of the entourage of the "typical" nobleman, thinks Edward started with 20,000 men, and on p. 47 says he had 18,900 at Crecy. On p. 284 he lists some other historians' estimates: 18,900 or 19,000 or even 25,000 -- but these are patently impossible; there would have been no way to feed them; clearly these people were paying too much attention to Froissart.
We have very little knowledge of French numbers, since of course no fleet transported it and it was not a contract army in the same way as the English. One French historian, according to Burne, p. 186, actually estimated that they were fewer than the English (i.e. not even 9000 men). But just the casualty count makes this extremely unlikely, and almost every other authority accepts that the French had superior numbers; the only question is *how* superior. Burne himself, p. 176, admits he is guessing when he gives its numbers at 40,000; he seems more confident in estimating that it outnumbered the English by three to one or more. Seward, p. 63, estimates the French army at about 30,000, of whom 20,000 were men-at-arms. Sedgwick, p. 50, again has the highest total, guessing 30,000 to 60,000. However, these forces straggled up during the battle, so it would never have been possible for the French to attack with their entire strength.
Edward had chosen an excellent position, on a slight rise, with a wood and small river to guard his right flank. And the French, it appears, would have had to march all the way across his front to attack his left flank, so that was probably safe too, at least in practice, though the only defensive feature was a small hamlet.
That French straggling added to their troubles. King Philip wanted to halt, sort out the troops, and attack the next day (Burne, p. 177). But the army was restless, and were coming up so fast that the ones in the rear were pushing forward the soldiers who had arrived first; finally, around evening, he gave the order to attack.
First to go in were the French (properly Genoese) crossbowmen -- who promptly learned that an army of longbowmen could demolish an army of crossbowmen. Especially since the situation meant that they had to deploy and then change the angle of their line before attacking -- a difficult maneuver indeed under the circumstances (Burne, p. 178). To top it all off, their shields and most of their bolts were still with the baggage, so they were short of ammunition (Barber, p. 66), and their bowstrings may have been wet (Sedgwick, pp. 52-53).
Seward, p. 63, speculates that the crossbowmen may have been routed within a minute. And their rout caused the first line of French chivalry to charge (Burne, p. 180, thinks the knights thought the crossbowmen cowards, and were actually attacking their own troops), and the horsemen were just as thoroughly massacred.
In the end, the French knights may have mounted as many as fifteen charges (Seward, p. 66; Burne, p. 177), lasting well into the night. Unfortunately for them, the charges were not continuous, letting the English gather the arrows needed to halt the next attack (Burne, p. 182). One did make it among the English men-at-arms, forcing the young Prince Edward and his guard to fight, but most were broken up by the archers.
The blind king of Bohemia was killed (in an extreme case of chivalric stupidity, he had insisted on charging the English even though he couldn't see them!), and Philip of France suffered an arrow wound and lost a horse. The French army was all but destroyed -- Burne, p. 181, says 1500 knights were lost just on the part of the line in front of the Prince of Wales and reports on p. 184 that the English army claimed to have found 1542 bodies of knights and men-at-arms; he makes what he admits is a very rough estimate of 10,000 "communes" killed. Seward, p. 67, seems to be following these figures; he guesses French losses at more than 10,000, including 1,500 lords and knights. Perroy, p. 119, gives no numbers and names only a few names but says that the "flower of the French nobility" was destroyed.
As Sedgwick says on p. 56, "The victory was won by the English archers, but the primal cause was the disorder in the French army, for French bravery was as conspicuous as ever."
Burne, p. 183, and Sedgwick, pp. 56-57, observe that King Philip had lost his brother, his brother-in-law, and his nephew.
(Crecy incidentally is considered to be the first battle at which artillery was used, though it is not thought to have made any real difference; Burne, p. 28; rates of fire were low and accuracy was pitiful. Barker, p. 90, notes that, as late as Agincourt, a gunner who managed to hit three targets in the course of a day was suspected of having made a pact with the devil!)
The biggest effect of Crecy was to show that the English, who until then had not been considered very good soldiers, were now some of the best in the world. The longbow had completely changed the military equation. Some historians have argued that Edward should have attacked Paris at that time -- but, as Burne, p. 205, points out, Edward probably did not realize the completeness of his victory, and in any case was running out of supplies; he needed to get back in touch with his fleet (though Burne, pp. 206-207, also argues that Edward should have tried to capture Paris). But not even Edward III had that much daring. Hence the decision to head for the coast and besiege Calais.
The moral effect of Crecy was quickly seen. The French in early 1347 brought up a relieving army -- but were afraid to fight another battle (Prestwich, pp. 178-179; Perroy, p. 120, says that Philip of Valois "seemed to have lost all energy"; Burne, pp. 214-215, says that Philip assembled 50,000 men but messed up his negotiations with the Flemings and then stuck himself in a strategically untenable spot and had to retreat). Calais was strong enough that Saul, p. 9, estimates that half the English nobles and knights eventually took part in the siege, and even so, the defenders held out until 1347. But Edward had the answer to the usual problems of a siege; he built a town for his own soldiers, to keep them safe from disease (Burne, p. 210). Calais eventually had to capitulate, with the entire French population being forced to leave, replaced by English settlers (Seward, p. 70). Calais would remain in English hands for more than two centuries -- indeed, for a full century after every other French possession was lost.
In the aftermath, Edward III would found the famous Order of the Garter, mostly of veterans of Crecy (Sedgwick, pp. 78-79, though he omits the rather tawdry story of why it was given the name it did -- most accounts say that Edward III picked up a garter dropped by Joan "the Fair Maid of Kent," and when questioned about why he was so quick to pick up a garter from a woman not his wife, said "Hone suit qui mal y pense," which is usually translated, rather loosely, "Evil to the one whom evil thinks." Joan seems to have had quite a collection of suitors, according to Sedgwick, p. 82, and others; the Earl of Salisbury and Sir Thomas Holland fought over her; the Black Prince married her after Holland died, and supposedly Edward III wanted her himself). The order endures to this day, and is still considered one of the most exclusive orders of knighthood.
The French in 1347 tried to plan a counterattack (Perroy, p. 121). They prepared an army, and also induced the Scots to attack northern England. That proved a fiasco; Edward didn't even have to send a senior noble to fight them. The Scots were defeated at Neville's Cross, and King David was captured in the process (Burne, p. 218; Seward, p. 69; Magnusson, pp. 202-204). The Scots, for almost a decade, were out of the war.
Before the French could come into action, the Black Death struck, reducing the population of both France and England dramatically. In France, both the King's wife and the dauphin's wife died. The English royal family fared better -- Edward III and all of his sons lived. But one of his daughters died, and so of course did many ordinary people (Sedgwick, p. 86). That, and lack of money, meant that the English could do little for the next few years. The French in turn were incapacitated by the plague, lack of money -- and the death of Philip of Valois in 1450. (Seward, p. 74, and Perroy, p. 107, make the ironic note that, despite being accounted a failure, Philip had actually enlarged France -- though he lost some ground in the west, he managed to gain much in the east.)
The Plague hit both countries hard; lands went vacant, buildings fell into decay, food production dropped. The governments on both sides of the channel saw their tax revenues decline dramatically. But England recovered somewhat faster -- with its lower population, it may have suffered less in the first place, and it also had the advantage that there were no "Free Companies" of brigands ("routiers") laying the nation waste (Perroy, p. 123; Seward, p. 105).
The war was quiet from 1350 to about 1355 (Seward, p. 78, though Burne, p. 224 notes that there were plenty of skirmishes; he points out on p. 230 that Sir Thomas Dagworth was killed at this time and on pp. 233-234 mentions English attempts to add to their property around Calais; it's just that there were no major campaigns). There was even a provisional peace made in 1354 (one which, amazingly, gave the English more than they would gain in 1360; Perroy, p. 129). But it collapsed when the French realized what they were giving up, and by the mid-1350s, the English were again leading armies in France. 1355 was supposed to bring a three-front campaign (Burne, p. 246), but the front in Normandy collapsed when Charles the Bad of Navarre changed sides. Edward III's campaign from Calais was aborted by a Scottish raid which caused him to return home (Burne, p. 248. Edward went on to pillage Edinburgh -- the so-called "Burnt Candlemass"; Burne, p. 250 -- but that brought him no closer to defeating France).
That left the southern army, led by Edward the Black Prince, the son of Edward III, which defeated another French army at Poitiers. This campaign followed a raid that took the Prince's forces almost to the Mediterranean (Burne, pp. 252-254). The Prince wanted to mount another such raid -- but, this time, the French were actually prepared to fight, and they also controlled his path by blocking river crossings (Burne, p. 278). Poitiers was a much, much closer thing than Crecy -- the French thought they had the Prince trapped, and were so sure of victory that they refused the Prince's offer of the release of prisoners, return of castles, and a promise that the he would not fight in France for seven years (Prestwich, p. 181; Seward, pp. 87-88).
As usual, the French seem to have had an overwhelming superiority in numbers; Seward, p. 86, estimates that the French had some three times the 6000 or so soldiers in the English army, and that the Prince didn't have a high enough proportion of archers (or, at least, they did not have enough arrows to fight as long as needed; this seems to be what Burne is saying on p. 302, followed by Featherstone on p. 129, though Burne's figures on p. 313 imply that the number of bowmen was very small -- perhaps based on Baker's chronicle, which credited the English with 4000 men-at-arms, 2000 archers, and 1500 others; Sedgwick, p. 296. Froissart also says 7500 men, but with mor archers). Burne, p. 298 and repeated in more detail on pp. 313-314, has similar numbers: 6000 English, 20,000 French. Featherstone, p. 126, agrees with the figure of 20,000 for the French, and credits the English with 6000, of whom only 2000 were archers. Sedgwick, who has a bad tendency to follow the exaggerated chronicles of the time, suggests on p. 122 that the English had 7,000-8,000 men, and on p. 126 suggests that the French had at least a three to one edge.
There is much about Poitiers that is confusing, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that we have twenty or so near-contemporary sources (Burne, p. 310). The available records disagree on what was going on -- was the Prince trying to fight, or to escape? (Burne, pp. 280-281). Burne, p. 285, thinks he wanted to fight, and had been maneuvering to prevent two French forces from joining against him. Arguing against this is the fact that the Prince probably knew by this time that reinforcements led by the Duke of Lancaster could not join him, so he would be more heavily outnumbered than he expected.
Burne, pp. 290-291, seems to split the difference: The Prince stayed in position to fight, but sent his baggage train away so that he could rapidly head for Bordeaux if the French declined to attack him. This, I must say, seems an extremely risky strategy. Sedgwick, p. 133, has a variation on this which seems a little more sensible: The English expected the French to attack but were afraid they might instead try an encirclement. The English sent enough forces to the rear to give him some protection against this.
Seward, pp. 88-91 thinks that the English were trying to retreat from the field, and the French, surprised by this, launched the part of their forward division (he thinks they had four divisions in all) in an attempt to halt their escape. Its disorganized charge was halted, and the rest of the division failed to do much damage in the chaos as the main English force returned to the field. The second division was barely turned back. The third French division, that of Orleans, simply dodged the battle. (Sedgwick, p. 142, doesn't acknowledge that there was such a group.)
That left the final French division, led by the King himself. It was perhaps slow to come into action due to Orleans's misbehavior (Sedgwick, p. 142, thinks it was positioned much too far from the leading divisions.) Still, it outnumbered the remaining English, and it was fresh, but a tiny English reserve showed up at just the right time and put the French in panic. (Burne, p. 306, thinks the exhausted English actually *attacked* at this stage, though it's hard to imagine them having the strength for it. Reading the flowery speeches quoted on p. 144 of Sedgwick, my guess is that the English simply moved forward as the French came on, to assure the French did not have the advantage of momentum.) King Jean himself tried to hold his division together -- and, as a result, was captured. As an individual, he had fought very hard; as a general, he had been a disaster. (Perroy, p. 125, says that when Jean had come to the throne, he had "given proof of nothing but gallantry and military incompetence." Attaining the crown did little to change that.)
It is interesting to note that the French historian, Perroy, devotes only two paragraphs to the battle (pp. 130-131), and attributes the English victory to "stratagems unworthy of knights" (meaning that they took advantage of the terrain). Even more than Crecy, the loss at Poitiers seemed to really *bother* the French. Perhaps it is because, as Sedgwick says on p. 127, "this French army was very similar to that at Crecy, a mob of gentlemen who fought with brilliant valor and dazzling stupidity."
Featherstone, p. 134, concludes that 2500 French were killed, 2000 captured, and 4000 wounded. Seward, p. 93, reports that the French had lost 2500 men-at-arms, and that 17 counts were captured. Sedgwick says that the King, a younger son, 17 counts, and "unnumbered barons" were taken. Neillands, p. 131, claims the king, one son, 17 "great lords" and a hundred knights, although he also says that there were 13 counts and five viscounts captured, plus 2000 armored men killed. The government was in ruins, with the Estates refusing to grant taxes unless there were reforms (Perroy, p. 133) -- which, however, were implemented in a fairly arbitrary fashion. (Keen, p. 251, goes so far as to suggest that France was on the verge of coming apart, and was saved only by a peasant revolt that so frightened the nobility that they decided to keep working with the monarchy.) The Dauphin was being "terrorized" by rival factions (Perroy, p. 134), and the peasantry was revolting (Perroy, p. 135).
In that situation, the French had little choice but to negotiate. They made a dramatic offer: A large ransom for Jean (so large that Jean would be accused of selling his daughter on the marriage market to raise it; Saunders, pp, 118-119). All of Acquitaine (not just Guyenne) turned over to the English in full sovereignty -- in other words, it would be *theirs*, not a holding they had from the King of France. Plus other territories -- said to total a third of France.
Edward III blew it. The ransom was slow in coming, and Edward was the one who declared the provisional agreement violated (Perroy, p. 137). He made one last try, diplomatic and military, to gain the French throne in 1359 (Prestwich, p. 182; Burne, p. 334, notes that his destination was Rheims, where French kings were crowned).
The French, having survived Philip of Valois and now being stuck with his even worse son Jean, the former Duke of Normandy, might arguably have been better off had they taken the deal. But the army Edward led in 1359, even though it may have been the largest he ever assembled (Burne, p. 331, says it was the largest army to leave England prior to 1513) got bogged down in unsuccessful sieges, and was plagued by bad weather (Burne, p. 345). Saunders, p. 23, says that "Black Monday" was so bad that knights were actually electrocuted on their horses by lightning. One report has it that the storm was so severe that it caused Edward to make a vow that he would accept terms of peace in gratitude for surviving it.
Edward started out the 1359-1360 campaign on his best behavior, but ended up getting so disgusted that he turned the thing into a chevauchee (Burne, p. 343). This had its usual lack of effect; the whole thing was a fiasco. But the French sent negotiators even as Edward started to pull back (Burne, p. 345), perhaps fearing that the English King had another trick up his sleeve. The English, who obviously didn't, agreed to go back to the bargaining table (Perroy, pp. 138-139; Seward, pp. 98-99; Burne, p. 347, speculates that there was already an agreement made in secret but that the French were not willing to announce it while one of their cities was under siege).
The result was the Treaty of Bretigny, which was settled in 1360. It gave the English rather less than the proposal of 1358. They would get a reduced but still large ransom for King Jean, and would be given all of Aquitaine in full sovereignty. In return, Edward III would renounce the French throne.
(Note: Some, including Perroy, call the final treaty the "Treaty of Calais," since that was where it was formally ratified, using the name "Treaty of Bretigny" only for the preliminary draft. But the changes in the broad outlines are too small to make it worthwhile to differentiate -- e.g. Burne, p. 348, mentions the "Treaty of Calais" only in a two-line footnote. Unfortunately for England, one change in the details proved substantial: the renunciation of titles was postponed for a time. Neillands, p. 159, says that the final terms were that the two kings would renounce their claims -- the English claim to the throne of France and the French claim to Aquitaine -- only after November 1361 or after the French handed over the territory they were supposed to release. Curry, p. 66, thinks Edward made this change to assure that all the treaties were handed over. It was a mistake; the French would never formally renounce their control over Aquitaine. Because of glitches in the hand-over, the terms for the renunciations were never met -- meaning that the French could argue that the whole thing never came into force. It probably wouldn't have mattered had King Jean lived longer -- he was stupidly honest, and would surely have done what he said he would do. But he died in captivity in 1364, and his much sneakier, smarter son took charge; Neillands, p. 160.)
THE FAILURE OF BRETIGNY; RICHARD II AND HENRY IV
Ironically, although the French at once started turning land over to the English, the victorious Peace of Bretigny almost immediately resulted in a turn for the worse for the English. The single biggest reason was probably money. England had "won" the war, but even with the extra revenue that brought it, she was financially exhausted. They never saw most of the money from Jean's ransom; after months in luxurious captivity (he actually grew fat while in England; Saunders, p. 24), he was set free to raise it, could not get his people to pay it, and had one of the hostages he had given escape to visit his young wife. This was a technical violation of the treaty, and caused Edward to ask a slight modification of the treaty. The Estates balked, and Jean went back into English custody, where he died in 1364, at the age of about 45 (Perroy, p. 142), perhaps of partying too much (Seward, p. 200).
The English leaders, meanwhile, were starting to wear out. Edward III at the time of Bretigny was pushing fifty, and though he was still competing at tournaments as late as 1359 (Prestwich, p. 205), he was starting to lose his energy; by the time he died in 1377, he was a non-entity even though he was still only 65 (Ashley-Great, p. 134). When the French used a legal quibble to claim that the treaty need not be fully implemented, he was stuck (Barker, p. 15; Perroy, p. 116, claims that the French had not the right to concede sovereignty of Acquitaine, but this argument is silly; it would make us all pretenders to be king of somewhere).
Edward's younger sons, such as John of Gaunt, were not particularly good leaders (Prestwich, p. 189). Sir Thomas Dagworth had been killed a decade earlier. Henry of Derby and Lancaster died in 1361. Sir John Chandos was killed in 1369 (Seward, p. 111) or 1370 (Saunders, p. 4, who tells an embarrassing tale of him slipping on ice as he got off his horse and being killed; compare Sedgwick, pp. 269-270, who says he suffered the fatal blow as a result of being blind on one side from an earlier war injury).
Plus England was still suffering the after-effects of the Black Death. There were still more than enough men to fight France (French booty was all over England, and the money from ransoming French prisoners had made many a low-born man rich, according to Prestwich, pp. 202-203; attacking France seems to have attracted men the way gold rushes attracted prospectors a few hundred years later), but they weren't as restless, simply because there was now enough land for all.
An attempt by the English to open a second front by gaining a foothold in Italy promptly failed; Edward III's second son Lionel was married to 13-year-old Violante Visconte in 1368 (Saunders, pp. 133-135), but died in October that year, causing the potential alliance to unravel (Saunders, pp. 136-137. There were no children of the marriage.)
To top it all off, the Black Prince, who should have been in his prime, was ruined -- he had engaged on an expensive campaign to restore king Pedro the Cruel to the throne of Castile. This, like the attempt to gain a foothold in Italy via Lionel, was almost a proxy war between England and France, but the English expended far more troops and money -- and wasted them, because they demanded so many concessions from their side of the conflict that Pedro's government was unable to hold together (Prestwich, p. 183).
The Black Prince won a great battle at Najera in 1367, and Pedro was temporarily restored -- but Pedro was so vicious that he was soon re-expelled (Perroy, p. 156, says that Pedro was "intelligent, brave, and self-assertive, but so brutal that he estranged most of his subjects" -- and this in an age when brutality was the norm, not the exception! Pedro lasted only two years after that, being murdered in March 1369; Neillands, p. 166; Perroy, p. 157).
Pedro obviously could not pay the costs of the campaign (about all he paid was a large ruby which became part of the British Crown Jewels; Jarman, p. 52), which left the Black Prince to pay for it from the revenue of Acquitaine -- and it bankrupted him (Seward, p. 107; Perroy, p. 159; Sedgwick, p. 261, says that he had to dismiss his army unpaid, causing them to go raiding in France, disturbing the peace with French, and adds on pp. 262-263 that he ended up imposing extreme taxation).
The cost of the invasion was not just cash. It cost lives as well. The English army, which should have been guarding the French frontier, had been devastated by disease.
The Prince himself came back with some sort of bug; according to Saul, p. 10, it started with dysentery, but he never recovered; Sedgwick, p. 22, mentions the suggestion that it was dropsy, i.e. an edema, but does not describe the source of the excess water. Sedgwick, p. 284, mentions frequent haemorrhages. By 1370, he had to be carried on campaign in a litter (Seward, p. 112). He was so weak that he went home to England in 1371 (Sedgwick, p. 273), and though he recovered a little, he only once, very briefly, was able to go on campaign again (Sedgwick, p. 275), and that expedition never arrived due to bad weather (Seward, p. 114).
The Prince left the war in France to his less effective brother John of Gaunt, who was not a good enough general to win on his own account and was too unpopular to be able to help someone else fight. Prince Edward died in 1376, a year before his father (Seward, p. 108). That meant that Edward III's heir was his grandson, Richard II, who was still a boy; the Black Prince had married relatively late, and Richard was his second son -- the elder boy, Edward, had died young (Sedgwick, p. 272) -- so Richard II was only ten when he succeeded.
It would have been a wonderful time for the Pope to step in to end the war, but there still wasn't much the Papacy could do to control the situation. In the aftermath of the Anglo-French peace of 1360, the routiers who had previously raided western and northern France turned their attention to Provence (Saunders, p. 30) and even Avignon (Renouard, p. 52), causing perhaps as much trouble as the political unrest in Italy, but by that time, the Papacy was settled in Avignon. (The "Great Company," which would come to dominate Italy, formed seemingly spontaneously in late 1360; Saunders, p. 30. It went on to attack Avignon; Saunders, p. 48. There were suggestions that Edward III encouraged this rather than take such scoundrels back to England.) The Papacy remained under French influence during the period when the consequences of Bretigny were worked out.
Meanwhile, the French changed their approach. There was unrest in Paris (Guerard, p. 103), which convinced the Dauphin, the future Charles V, that things could not continue as they were.
The death of Jean II died helped tremendously. The French from that time decided that there would be no more big battles for them! Charles V, physically weak and inclined to intellectual rather than physical pursuits, could hardly hope to lead an army anyway -- Seward, p. 103, notes that he was called "Charles the Wise," but the title was meant in the sense of "Charles the Learned" or "Charles the Bookish." Perroy, p. 132, says he was "worthless as a soldier" and had fled the field at Poitiers -- slightly ironic in that Perroy had said earlier that King Jean should have done the same. Saunders, p. 147, describes him as "handsome, but thin and pallid, weakened by an obscure illness that left him easily exhausted"; she speculates that he suffered from arsenic poisoning, perhaps based on the fact that his hair and nails fell out in 1360.
When the Pope called a crusade, Charles ignored him -- "all his efforts were bent on not fulfilling his obligations under the treaty of Bretigny" (Renouard, p. 56). But if Charles could not lead, he could organize an army, and get the royal finances into better shape (Seward, p. 109) -- far more important than mere generalship.
Similarly Bertrand du Guesclin, the new Constable of France, had proved a poor general in the Castilian campaign; Perroy, pp. 148-149, declares him a "mediocre captain, incapable of winning a battle or being successful in a siege of any scope," but admits that the new French King Charles V "found [in him] a fitting leader for the commonplace tasks which alone remained within [France's] power."
Du Guesclin did manage to get many of the "routiers," or independent raiders, out of France -- but he did that by luring them to the war in Spain; Perroy, p. 156. Others left for Italy -- it is noteworthy that Sir John Hawkwood, who later became a very strong force in Italian politics, went to Italy in 1361 (Saunders, p. xvii). Keegan, p. 80, refers to this time as the "Duguesclin war" and calls it a "Fabian" policy (a word also used by Seward, p. 110): Avoid battle, take a weak little property here and there, eventually putting a strong point under enough pressure that it had to give in. There was no "glory" in it -- but there was no risk of a major defeat, and it slowly but steadily undercut the English position.
The war officially resumed in 1369 (Prestwich, p. 184) when the French started again hearing complaints from Gascon nobles against the English administration (Seward, p. 110. The opportunity was the extreme taxation the Black Prince had inflicted after Najera, and the fact that the Treaty of Bretigny hadn't been formally carried out gave them an excuse; Neillands, p. 167. Perroy, p. 160, thinks that Charles V felt "embarrassment and hesitation" when the nobles of Acquitaine appealed to him, but the English historians pretty consistently disagree, and certainly Charles V was not slow to take advantage. Even Perroy admits that Charles kept his plans very secret until he could spring his trap). In that same year, Edward III again started claiming the title King of France (Saunders, p. 147).
And, yet again, the Pope was unable to act as a moderator -- Urban V, who had tried to move back to Rome in 1367 (Saunders, p. 109, says that France, and King Charles V, were "appalled"), headed back to Avignon in 1370 to try to deal with the situation, and died there three months later (Saunders, pp. 152-153), before he had any chance to influence things (Renouard, p. 61. Urban almost certainly intended to return to Rome if possible, but he didn't live long enough, and because he died outside Italy, the Italians felt betrayed). And, without his energy, the papal entourage again set up camp in Avignon, under French influence. The next Pope, Gregory XI, was held in Avignon for years by the renewed war (Renouard, p. 64). Having condoned a massacre to rebuild his power (Saunders, pp. 216-221), he finally returned to Rome in 1377 -- and died there just over a year later (Renouard, p. 66).
Nearly everything else was turning to French advantage, too. In 1366, the French had paid enough of King Jean's ransom that most of the major hostages went free (Perroy, p. 158). To be sure, some were supposed to come back if the ransom payments halted -- but the English no longer had any hold on them. And, in fact, the hostages never went back into custody once the money stopped.
Even this cheating proved an advantage to the French government. Charles V cut off the money to England -- but, because he hadn't actually paid off the ransom, he was able to continue the taxes which had been levied to raise the ransom! -- Perroy, p. 162.
And England was in a bad state in 1369. The plague was back, and horrible weather caused severe shortages of food (Saunders, p. 149. There would be several famines in the mid-1370s also; Saunders, p. 195). There was no way Edward could raise a major army at the time. He couldn't even induce the Free Companies of routiers back from Italy; Hawkwood and others found the pickings there too rich (Saunders, pp. 149-150. Saunders thinks Edward III wanted Hawkwood to stay in Italy to distract the Pope, but this is hard to believe -- if he wanted to distract the Pope, he'd go to Avignon!).
Early in the period, the English at least found a way to punish the French for their betrayal -- they would more regularly "wage the chevauchee." This was an early version of the "scorched earth campaign" such as William T. Sherman would use in marching across Georgia. An English band would set out to bring fire and sword to as large an area of France as possible. This had been a part of the English policy from the beginning (the army that won at Poitiers had set out expecting simply to wage the chevauchee). Now it was the main strategy. Since the French would not fight, there was little danger to the English, and they did the French economy significant harm. But there was no winning the war that way. And, eventually, even raiding proved economically difficult for the English.
By the time Edward III died in 1377 (Seward, p. 116), English possessions in Gascony were about the same as they had been fifty years earlier, when Edward came to the throne: the coastal strip from Bordeaux to Bayonne (Prestwich, p. 184). Strategically, their situation may even have been worse, since the French had driven a salient into the middle of the coastal strip (Perroy, p. 165; Seward, p. 115), so Bordeaux and Bayonne were no longer mutually supporting. The allies of the English also lost control of most of Brittany. In 1377, the Forty Years War (the name it might have been given had not Henry V come along) looked like a strategic draw, despite the fact that the English had won all the major battles and had gained Calais.
As Prestwich says on pp. 186-187, "The reversal of English fortunes in Edward III's declining years was almost as remarkable as the earlier successes. The lack of firm direction by the ageing king was revealed in a want of coherent planning. The earlier grand strategies of simultaneous attacks from various fronts had been abandoned in favour of what appeared to be aimless raids, often launched too late in the year to do much damage." In 1376, the so-called "Good Parliament" tried for reforms, but the Black Prince died before it ended (Sedgwick, p. 283), and Edward III was senile, and little could be done to rescue the decrepit government.
Ormrod, p. 10, notes that "Edward III is now often seen as a rather second-rate ruler, stubborn and selfish in his foreign ambition, weak and yielding in his domestic policies." There is much truth in this; Edward III did little to strengthen the government of his nation (and his grandson would pay for it). But he did start a tradition -- of chivalry, and of expansionism. We may call this bad. But it clearly inspired Henry V.
The Crecy war had one noteworthy effect which is rarely mentioned in the military histories: To make the whole thing work, Edward III needed the consent of the people being taxed to pay for it. Edward consulted regularly with his nobles -- thus forming the first true parliaments. Ormrod, pp. 193-194, counts 48 parliaments in Edward's fifty year reign, and another nine quasi-parliamentary councils.
Edward's assemblies were a far cry from the modern form of parliamentary government (few, according to Ormrod, lasted more than a month, and 17 lasted ten or fewer days; some were only four days long), but they were a major step. England, and England alone, has had parliamentary government ever since -- with the result that descendants of Edward III still sit on the English throne, two centuries and more after the last descendent of the Valois were set aside in France. The fact that England had a strong parliament also made it easier for Henry V to assemble his armies in 1415. The government was still stronger than parliament -- OxfordCompanion, p. 426, notes that the reforms of the Good Parliament (which lasted an amazingly long 73 days) were overturned within about a year -- but it was a step in the right direction.
For fifty years -- from shortly after 1360 to 1413, during the latter part of the reign of Edward III and the whole reigns of Richard II (1377-1399) and Henry IV (1399-1413), the English made no serious attempt to defeat the French. Perroy, p. 169, seems to imply that they would have lost all of Guyenne in 1377 had not John Neville of Raby won enough small successes to make the French temporarily stop spending money on reconquest. But the biggest factor in English Guyenne's survival was probably the death of Charles V, leaving a 12-year-old Charles VI as king (Neillands, pp. 171-172). Charles VI was not competent, and Richard II was initially a minor also, plus he wasn't aggressive.
Richard II, in fact, wanted to end the French conflict altogether; he raised no armies, floated offers to turn Guyenne over to the French if they would allow an English duke to rule it (Saul, p. 211, who notes that Richard made John of Gaunt Duke of Aquitaine, though of course when Gaunt's son Henry IV ascended, that eliminated the whole idea since the Duke of Aquitaine was once again King of England), and made noises about supporting the French Pope during the schism (though Saul, p. 232, notes that this was really dependent on a peace with France). Richard and his government also refused to give any serious help to the anti-French forces in Flanders, meaning that these firm (if only intermittently effective) English allies were brought under French domination (Saul, pp. 138-140). Plus, in the early 1390s, he and the French negotiated for years, and according to Saul, p. 218, no one really even knows why the negotiations finally failed.
It's easy to see why Richard wanted out: The French came very close to winning the war in the first few years of his reign, attacking Calais,picking up more land in Gascony, and heavily raiding the English south coast (Saul, pp. 33-34, though on p. 208 he argues that Richard's real reason was that he wanted to go on crusade. Possible, but the idea of Richard II on a crusade strikes me as pretty scary -- for the other crusaders).
By the mid-1380s, the situation was so bad that England was afraid of an all-out invasion. Perroy, p. 191, has no explanation for what happened next: "For some obscure reasons, the expedition was called off. Was the adventure found to be too risky, the strength available too small? Or did Philip [of Burgundy] put on a costly act simply to frighten England, and was he satisfied when he obtained the reopening of the wool trade between England and Flanders? We do not know." (Saul's explanation, p. 156, is that the French lacked the money to put their armada to sea.
Whatever the explanation, it was lucky for England that the invasion was cancelled; Richard's government had little real plan to fight it (Seward, pp. 133-134). In the whole reign, there were no great land battles, and only one major sea battle, in which the Earl of Arundel defeated a larger French convoy in early 1387 (Saul, p. 168). Even this was minor enough that I have never seen the battle given a name.
The boy-king's council at first didn't even have money from parliament to fight the threat (Saul, p. 47, notes that there were *six* parliaments in the first four years of Richard's reign, most of which voted money, but somehow the cash never accomplished anything). And when they tried to mount a counter-offensive, it was late and accomplished nothing except to show that England was short on quality generals at this time (Saul, pp. 35-36). Their one major success in the early period was taking over Cherbourg, but the English obtained that by diplomacy with Charles of Navarre, not by conquest (Saul, p. 41).
Taxes in these early years were so heavy (Saul, p. 56) and Richard II's administration was so inefficient, that he in fact faced the first great peasant revolt in English history, Wat Tyler's rebellion (Ashley-Great, pp. 146-147. It is interesting to note that there were only two really major peasant revolts in English history -- Tyler's of 1381 and Jack Cade's of 1450 -- and both came during the Hundred Years War, and both came at a time when the English were clearly losing and desperate to try to fight back. Of the two, Tyler's was the more dangerous, and came about when attempts to evade an exorbitant poll tax failed; Saul, p. 57. The common people, with their population still much reduced by the Black Death, simply couldn't pay what was asked; Saul, p. 60). Perroy also blames Lollard agitation (p. 182), but Perroy (who after all was French and seems to have little knowledge of non-Catholic faiths) didn't understand Wycliff or Lollardy; the revolt did have some "communist" elements, but they almost certainly were not Lollards.
The 14-year-old King Richard did much to calm and control Tyler's rebels -- but the rebellion's failure just meant that the abuses which caused the rebellion went unchecked. Indeed, Richard had temporized during the negotiations (Saul, pp. 67-69), and it led to a reign of terror and perhaps was a foreshadowing of what Richard would become. Richard never did manage to promote meaningful reforms; it's doubtful that he ever realized how messed-up his government was. (To be fair, when the Lords Appellant forcibly took charge in the late 1380s, they proved just as incompetent. But not even having control taken out of his hands knocked any sense into Richard.)
Richard's only attempt at a foreign adventure was two visits to Ireland, which were part invasion and part progress to awe the locals. Even there, he didn't want much responsibility; his main goal in the first was to create a palatine territory for his favorite Robert de Vere (Saul, p. 274). His response to the French invasions was to seek a truce. This was agreed to in 1389, and Richard held to it for the rest of his life (Seward, p. 138), doing his best to negotiate a lasting peace (Perroy, p. 198). To calm tensions, he gave away Brest and Cherbourg, leaving England with only Calais in northern France and the remnants of Guyenne in the south. This was the period when the king tried to give Guyenne to his uncle John of Gaunt, in effect washing his hands of the whole area.
Richard eventually married as his second wife a daughter of the French king (Seward, p. 139, Barker, pp. 15-16) -- though Isabella of France was only a quarter of his age (she was six when the French offered the marriage; Saul, p. 226), and pre-pubescent even when he died; they of course left no children. After Richard's deposition and death, Henry IV used her as a bargaining chip against France (Perroy, p. 214), but in 1400 allowed her to go back to France, where she remarried at 16 and died in childbirth at 19 (Barker, p. 17). It seems Richard and his government tried to secure a true treaty with France, but couldn't come up with a deal that both the French government and the English parliament would accept -- but, in return for the French marriage, they did secure a 28 year truce, which in many ways was better than a peace since it didn't cause the sort of wranglings over precise interpretations that had spoiled earlier treaties (Saul, p. 227). In practice, the truce lasted less than two decades -- but Richard was long gone by them.
Shortly before Richard's first truce, John of Gaunt's son Henry of Bolingbroke's wife, Mary de Bohun, bore her first surviving son, Henry. (There had apparently been an earlier pregnancy resulting in a boy who died at birth, perhaps because the mother was so young -- only 11 or 12, according to Allmand, p. 8.) A record from the reign of Henry VI documents his birth near Monmouth (Allmand, p. 7), so he was called "Henry of Monmouth."
The young man was a member of the royal family, but with half a dozen people senior to him (including Richard II, who as yet was too young for anyone to know that he would die childless; Allmand, p. 8). No one realized that the young man would be particularly significant(Jarman, p. 32), so the date of his birth is not firmly known (Earle, p. 12). Allmand notes that references to his age make it possible that it was 1386 or 1387. The likely dates are August 9 or September 16. Allmand notes that his parents were in Monmouth in 1386, and so favors that year; the majority of other sources I have checked seem to prefer 1387 (e.g. Jarman, p. 32 says September 16 1387).
Mary de Bohun died in 1394, at the age of 24, bearing her sixth child (Earle, p. 12; Allmand, p. 9). She ended up with four sons and two daughters -- seemingly a fine flock, but three of the boys (Henry, the eldest; Thomas, the second, and John, the third) would die well before the age of fifty, and neither Thomas, nor John, nor Humphrey (the fourth boy) would leave a legitimate child.
Henry was considered significant enough that a marriage into the ducal house of Brittany was considered in 1395 (Allmand, p. 10), but this fell through -- and, in an "I'm My Own Grandpa" touch, Henry IV later married the girl's mother.
(Shakespeare fans please note: Although Shakespeare made Henry V and Harry "Hotspur" Percy contemporaries, Hotspur was a generation older. In 1388, just a year or two after Henry's birth, Hotspur -- already a young adult -- would command at the Battle of Otterburn. Hotspur was killed in 1403, a seasoned veteran of about forty, at a time when Henry of Monmouth was still in his mid teens. Allmand, p. 19, in fact notes that, initially, Hostspur was appointed to lead the council that managed Wales for the young Prince!)
Perroy, p. 255, declares that Henry was "the first King of England [since the Norman conquest, presumably] who had some English blood in his veins." This is not quite true -- Henry II and all succeeding kings were descended from Saint Margaret of Scotland, the sister of Edgar the Atheling, the last scion of the dynasty of Wessex who was briefly chosen King after the Battle of Hastings. And Richard II's mother was Joan "the Fair Maid of Kent." Still, Perroy is right in that Mary de Bohun brought some blood of the English nobility into the family. This meant that Henry was culturally English, even if his ancestry was mostly from Normandy and other European monarchies.
Prince Harry was born soon after a "changing of the guard." The late 1370s was a bad period for deaths of kings and noble. Just one year after Edward III died in 1377, Pope Gregory XI, who had taken the Papacy back to Rome, followed him into the grave (Renouard, p. 66).
If the Papacy had been a poor peacemaker during its stay in Avignon, things now became far worse. Gregory had done a terrible job of managing Italian affairs; most of the Papal States had rebelled (Saunders, pp. 206-207) and Italy was almost completely out of control. The 16 cardinals who met to choose Gregory's successor were besieged by a Roman mob which wanted an Italian Pope (Renouard, p. 68). They chose an Italian -- but one who promptly made himself disliked by many; Urban VI, according to Renouard, p. 69, "showed himself to be coarse, rude and tactless to an extraordinary degree." The disgusted French cardinals declared the election invalid and chose another Pope, Clement VII. The result was the "Great Schism" (not to be confused with the real Great Schism of 1054 which split Orthodoxy from Catholicism; this one simply split Catholic Christianity, without producing any doctrinal differences).
It is ironic to note that Clement VII, whose election was certainly more irregular, had probably more and stronger supporters (Renouard, p. 69). Being the "French" Pope had clear advantages; he certainly had more revenue (Renouard, p. 73), though both Papal pretenders came in with empty treasuries. The split lasted through the next several reigns (Saul, pp. 84-85; Seward, p. 123). France and England naturally supported rival Popes, so there was now no available mediator. It would be difficult even to call in a third party, since one side or the other would claim the mediator supported the wrong Pope. The Schism, for instance, killed plans for Richard II to marry an Italian noblewoman (Saul, p. 84. We might note that Geoffrey Chaucer had been one of the negotiators who set up the preliminary arrangements). It was not until 1415, at the Council of Constance, that a real attempt was made to heal the schism, and even that did not convince the deposed Benedict XIII, who claimed the Papal title until his death in 1422 (Renouard, p. 78). The last successors of this anti-Papal line were not put aside until 1431 (Renouard, pp. 136-137).
If the English managed to retain some land in Guyenne in the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV, it was only because the French were distracted. The French constable du Guesclin was killed in 1380, and three months later Charles V died (Seward, p. 125). Charles was only in his early forties, but of course he had always been sickly. He had still done a brilliant job of reviving France after the disastrous reign of his father (Perroy, p. 145).
Charles V made perhaps only two mistakes: On his deathbed, he bankrupted his son's government by abolishing the hated hearth tax (Perroy, p. 174). And he started the process which created the mighty Dukedom of Burgundy (Perroy, p. 148) -- though, to be fair, his only other real alternative was to give a smaller Duchy of Burgundy to Charles the Bad of Navarre, who had been fighting him off and on for years. Charles the Bad had been cheated many times -- he should have been king of France! -- but this final insult led him into a rebellion which at last ended his pretensions. And Edward III, who felt bound by his treaty with France, was unable to intervene; Perroy, pp. 151-152. Charles V's diplomacy had the peculiar effect of making a Flemish heiress wife of two consecutive Dukes of Burgundy -- and of founding the dynasty which nearly overthrew France.
Most English historians seem to be amazed that the French did not win the war in the period immediately after Charles's death. The Frenchman Perroy, p. 177, has a different take: "During his sixteen years' reign, at once healing and exhausting, Charles V had accomplished a great task: the destruction of the Treaty of Calais [=Bretigny], which was the master-thought of this persistent and crafty man. But he had rekindled the war, and his slender resources did not enable him to end it. The dilemma in which he had placed the kingdom was not removed by his death. Unable to win the war, France was forced to continue it, without hope of a definite success.... By fits and starts the two countries had outrun their strength. Neither one nor the other could achieve a decision." He notes on p. 189 that tax revolts continued even after the hearth tax was abolished.
In addition, the death of Charles V turned loose the royal dukes, many of whom spent their strength on ventures irrelevant to the reconquest of France -- several, e.g., started meddling in Italy (Perroy, pp. 204-205).
Charles V was succeeded by Charles VI, who went mad in 1392 (Neillands, p. 186) (he actually killed four of his own attendants before being restrained; Seward, p. 143. This is based on Book IV, section 44 of Froissart's Chronicles, though much of it is corroborated elsewhere). The disease was at first intermittent (Perroy, p. 194), but the problem became worse and worse over time. His genes for madness would, in time, come close to destroying both France and England.
(I really wish we could go back and do genetic testing on the family of Charles VI -- among them Henry VI of England, who went catatonic in the 1450s, leading to the first Yorkist protectorate and then to the first battle of Saint Albans when he recovered [Wilkinson, p. 176]; Henry VII, the majority of whose children died young and whose uncle Jasper was childless; Henry VIII; who left no legitimate grandchildren and whose partners suffered many miscarriages; and Henry's sister Margaret Tudor, who managed to bear an heir to the King of Scotland but later suffered her own miscarriage; according to Griffiths, p. 61, there are also indications that Charles's daughter Catherine, the mother of Henry VI, suffered some sort of mental illness in her later years.)
(Seward, p. 144, suggests that Charles VI's problem was porphyria, which is often said to be the disease that afflicted George III of England; this is probably based on the fact that Charles suffered his first bout on a bright, hot day -- Earle, p. 79 -- and light and heat can bring on porphyria. Charles also had the sort of delusions typical of porphyria; Jarman, p. 24, says that he was "a gibbering figurehead who sat unwashed in a threadbare palace convinced that he was made of glass and would shatter at a touch"; compare Gillingham, p. 75. But I must admit that I think there is more involved; though Charles VI does sound very much like a victim of porphyria, too many of Charles VI's descendents had problems which do not fit the disease. And while porphyria produces delusions, so too does schizophrenia -- and it has active and passive phases. In the passive phase, the sufferer is not delusional but is usually less capable than before the illness first struck. What's more, schizophrenia usually comes on in adolescence or early adulthood, which fits.)
Nor were the Charles VI's sons able to help; the first two Dauphins died young (Seward, p. 179), and the third, the future Charles VII (Jean Darc's Dauphin, Charles the Well-Served) was still young (born 1399) and completely lacking in energy.
With the King unable to rule, the reign of Charles VI turned France over to the factions led by his relatives. Guerard, p. 105, describes the situation this way: "Charles VI (1380-1422) was a child of twelve showing but little promise. Power fell to his uncles, the dukes of Anjou, Berry, Burgundy, and Bourbon. The royal system, as organized under Philip the Fair, was still so precarious and so ill-understood, it had proved so oppressive and at time[s] so incompetent, that there was a demand for... a complete return to feudal custom.... [T]he royal dukes proceeded to ransack the treasury for ambitious purposes of their own, Naturally, the bourgeois counselors of Charles the Wise, contemptuously called the Marmousets, were dismissed.
"In 1389, on attaining his majority, the young king thanked his uncles and recalled the Marmousets. But three years later, Charles VI, whose frail wits had not been able to stand a mad pace of pleasure, went insane; and, although he had lucid moments, he was unfit to rule for the remaining thirty years of his life."
And his cousins weren't that much better -- the Duke of Burgundy was reckless, and his son John of Nevers, the future John the Fearless, who succeeded him in 1404 (Neillands, p. 194), was worse -- he was simply rash. He insisted on crusading against the Turks -- and was captured by Sultan Bayezid at Nicopolis in 1396, and had to be ransomed (at a very high price) by the taxpayers of Burgundy and France (Neillands, p. 187). Just three years after succeeding to the Dukedom, John the Nut-Case would start a civil war in France by assassinating the Duke of Orleans (Neillands, p. 196).
Throw in the monetary crises in France, and the French government was unable to accomplish much for the next several decades. Even without the hearth tax, the burden on the peasants was very high, partly due to the potmetal currency (Perroy, p. 189) but mostly due to the fact that different factions, when they came to power, had to bring in their own office-holders, and scoop up every cent of cash to pay them (Perroy, pp. 222-224). In effect, the population was paying for two governments rather than one, and neither one any good.
(There were some curious parallels between England and France in this period. Both were ruled by underage kings, neither of whom was very effective. Both had trouble with uncles and councils. Richard II at least didn't leave any children with genes for madness; he seems to have left no children either legitimate or illegitimate, and no extramarital affairs; Saul, p. 94. Though he does seem to have loved his wife Anne of Bohemia genuinely; her death was very hard on him. The problem with Richard's otherwise exemplary sexual conduct was that he left no heir -- which in turn led to the succession quarrels which occupied England, off and on, for a century.)
It is interesting to note that the precipitating event for Richard II's deposition was his treatment of Henry of Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV, whom Richard exiled. Yet Richard kept the young Henry of Monmouth at his court and treated him well; Earle, p. 31 -- though he also took him to Ireland during the invasion of that country (Allmand, p. 14), just possibly as a hostage.
Richard II, in the late 1380s, had been brought to heel by the "Lords Appellant" -- Humphrey of Gloucester, Richard's uncle; the Earl of Arundel; the Earl of Warwick, the Mowbray Earl of Nottingham (later Duke of Norfolk), and Henry of Bolingbroke. The latter two eventually came over to Richard's side, and the former three were eliminated in the 1390s (though Goodman, p. 186, argues that they had created a precedent for opposing a monarch which came back into play in 1399.) Then Nottingham/Norfolk and Bolingbroke had a falling-out. It came to the point where they were about to hold a trial by combat in 1398 -- when Richard stepped in and exiled *both*, even though at least one of them was certainly on Richard's side (Allmand, p. 11).
Mowbray, who was banished for life, would die in exile. Not Bolingbroke. Initially his exile was supposed to be temporary -- but when, in early 1399, Bolingbroke's father John of Gaunt died, Richard II made the exile permanent (Allmand, pp. 11-12), probably so Richard could take over the Duchy of Lancaster that Bolingbroke should have inherited.
Richard seemed completely oblivious to his danger. He actually went to Ireland with an army to try to settle the messy situation there. Bolingbroke invaded England in Richard's absence -- and quickly gained enough support to overthrow the King (Allmand, p. 13, though on p. 14 he describes how it was made legally to appear an abdication).
Even without his treatment of Bolingbroke, it's possible that Richard would have eventually been deposed anyway, because he was clearly attempting to create an absolute monarchy. Indeed, a semi-divine monarchy; Perroy, p. 200, notes that Richard actually petitioned the Pope to canonize his great-grandfather Edward II (who, no matter how badly he was mistreated by his subordinates, was no saint!). But Bolingbroke's invasion meant that the crown went to the House of Lancaster, rather than to the youth of the Mortimer family who was Richard's proper heir (at least if succession in the female line was allowed in England -- which it was generally agreed that it was). The key effect of Bolingbroke's invasion was to make Henry of Bolingbroke into King Henry IV, and to make his son Henry of Monmouth, the future Henry V, the Prince of Wales.
Allmand, p. 15, makes an interesting point here: "Richard [II] might be said to have destroyed himself, politically at least. None the less there remained the uncomfortable fact that the new king's de facto possession of the throne was his only true claim to power. He might be the head of by far the richest family in England.... [y]et his possession of the throne of England had stemmed from a decision to use force to secure it. Early on the young man whose right to the title 'Prince of Wales' depended on his acceptance, albeit tacit, of his father's usurpation had learned that a legal claim was always rendered stronger if military might was there to support it. As his father had done in England in 1399, so the future Henry V would do in France some twenty years later."
Henry of Monmouth quickly became a major landowner: As heir to the throne, he became Prince of Wales (a title which still meant something in 1399 -- Henry would spend much of his father's reign fighting Owen Glendower and other Welsh rebels), Duke of Cornwall, and Earl of Chester. Those titles were standard for the king's heir. But Henry IV also made him Duke of Lancaster and Duke of Aquitaine (Allmand, pp. 16-17). This at once gave Prince Harry a lot of responsibility and an interest in the French conflict.
It is ironic to note that, in 1406 when Parliament officially acted on the succession, it officially declared that "heirs general" could succeed to the English throne -- that is, that females counted in the succession. Thus Henry IV, whose claim to the throne -- insofar as it was not rule by conquest -- was due to being Richard II's heir male (Tuck, p. 221), declared that the succession should not be by heirs male! (Allmand, ppp. 30-31) -- an irony already noted in the time of Edward III, when Edward had converted many earldoms to succeed in male line but sought the crown of France due to his descent in female line (Tuck, p. 152).
In France, by this time, the leading contenders for power were the Dukes of Burgundy, the first of whom (Philip the Bold) was the uncle of Charles VI, and the Dukes of Orleans, the first of whom was the king's brother. The Queen, who had much influence, initially supported the Burgundian faction, but when Philip of Burgundy died in 1404 and was succeeded by his son John the Fearless (Seward,p. 148), Isabel instead gave her attention to the Orleans faction (so much so that she was accused, possibly accurately, of sharing his bed). The rivalry soon became war to the knife; John the Fearless assassinated Orleans in 1407 (Guerard, p. 106; Perroy, pp. 226-227).
The assassination was twice fortunate for the English, since Orleans, though not a very good soldier, had been pushing back the English in Guyenne; his death may have saved the remaining English territory (Barker, p. 17; Seward, p. 145), and Henry IV (who was always broke because of the rebellions against him; Seward, p. 144) had no means to fight back. The French became particularly hostile to the English after the deposition of Richard II in 1399 -- since Richard was married to a French princess, and had not pursued the war, his overthrow was regarded as a hostile act (Ashley-Stuart, p. 35. The French were about the only ones who still liked him -- Seward, p. 142, comments that Richard had become "almost insanely tyrannical" and notes that he had very little support from the barons at the end).
Even better for the English, from the time Orleans was assassinated, France was split into two factions, the Burgundians and the Armagnacs (the latter named for the Count of Armagnac, whose daughter would marry the son of Orleans a few years after the assassination). The mad king of course could not intervene, so there was nothing to keep the factions from each others' throats. The Burgundians took control of Paris in 1409 (Barker, p. 18), but it did not last. The Armagnacs drove them out -- only to spoil their prospects by inaugurating a reign of terror (Barker, p. 60, notes an instance of the Armagnacs slaughtering a city full of their own supporters, and doing so with great cruelty). Even when the government managed to produce useful legislation, the power of the factions meant that it could not be enforced (Perroy, p. 229).
Talk about an opportunity for an outsider! The English did not intervene at first, partly because Henry IV was still not secure on the throne (Perroy, p. 213, notes that at one point Henry IV actually tried to rewrite history to make his ancestor, the younger brother of Edward I, an older brother, since that would strengthen Henry's claim; seemingly to support this argument, Henry halted the regular maintenance King Edward I had ordered for his tomb; Hutchinson, p. 54), partly because the king was in poor physical condition (suffering from an undiagnosed by extremely debilitating disease; Earle, p. 69) and partly because they couldn't figure out which French faction would offer the better deal (Barker, p. 19).
It is possible that this issue caused some friction between Henry the father and Henry the son; both, according to Allmand, p. 48, wanted to regain the large Acquitaine promised by the Treaty of Bretigny, but the son probably wanted a more activist policy. Indeed, two English forces landed in 1411 and 1412 -- and supported different sides in the French struggle, first Burgundy in 1411 and then the Armagnacs in 1412 (Perroy, pp. 230-231; Wagner, pp. 18-19; Allmand, p. 54, thinks that the 1411 intervention was arranged by Prince Henry, while the 1412 intervention was set up by Henry IV when the Armagnacs offered far better terms. Given-Wilson, p. 503, also thinks that the Armagnacs made an offer too good for Henry IV to refuse, while the younger Henry was more worried about how much trouble Burgundy could cause to the English if they went against him).
As it turned out, the English invasion helped to force the French factions into a very temporary alliance, leaving the English with little reward for their expenses, although it did manage to strengthen the English position in Guyenne (Given-Wilson, pp. 509-512).
This seems to have led to a distinct coolness between father and son. Henry IV, perhaps with the support of parliament, dismissed his entire council, including the prince (Allmand, pp. 50-51). There was talk that the prince might be disowned entirely, with his younger brother Thomas of Clarence being declared heir to the throne (Clarence, not the prince, was given command of the 1412 intervention in France). It appears two factions were forming: Henry IV and his second son Thomas, and Prince Henry and his half-uncles the Beauforts. From 1411, the Prince's faction was entirely out of power (Allmand, p. 53).
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File: C164B

King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164] --- Part 04

DESCRIPTION: Continuation of the notes to "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" [Child 164]. Entry concludes in "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164]" --- Part 05 (File Number C164D)
Last updated in version 4.2
NOTES [15566 words]: THE REIGN OF HENRY V
Then Henry IV died in 1413, and Henry of Monmouth, now Henry V, decided to play for bigger stakes. The rebellions that had plagued Henry IV were mostly quiet (Earle, pp. 101-104, notes that there were 17 higher nobles in England at the time Henry V succeeded, and 14 of them were adult and physically fit, and all 14 fought for Henry in France at some time or another. Incidentally, we should remind people that Shakespeare is not to be trusted *at all* on this count. Plays such as Henry V are not nearly as false as, say, the Henry VI trilogy or Richard III, but Jarman, p. 64, looks at the list of leaders Shakespeare claimed were at Agincourt and finds that half of them were not. Shakespeare here at least had contact with reality -- but not much). The British economy had largely recovered from the Black Death and the exactions of Edward III and the inefficiency of Richard II. The exchequer was empty (Barker, p. 24) -- but how better to fill it than with foreign loot?
Henry V is often portrayed as a humorless crusader, and there is no question but that he was single-minded in his pursuit what he considered his "rights" in France. Ashley-Great, p. 155, describes him as "much more like Oliver Cromwell than the chivalrous Tudor hero of Shakespeare's plays"; he quotes other historians who called Henry a fanatic and a bigot. Tuck, p. 245, calls him self-righteous. Earle, p. 99, while admitting his rigid orthodoxy, thinks he wanted to reform the papacy -- but offers no specifics.
What we can say specifically is that Henry watched heretics being burned (the burning of alleged Lollards, many of whom were probably not heretics but political enemies -- Rubin, pp. 188-190 -- had been introduced under Henry IV; Rubin, p. 187), and that Henry V once sent a friend (Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham), whose opinions were slightly theologically shaky, to the stake (Earle, p. 99, though Oldcastle escaped custody just long enough to be taken and burned by a churchman without Henry himself being present; Earle, p. 101. Royle, p. 74, says that Oldcastle's opinions on the Pope and on transubstantiation were heretical, but there were multiple Popes at this time, and while transubstantiation had become official doctrine two hundred years earlier at the Fourth Lateran Council -- Christie-Murray, p. 99 -- it wasn't strongly established. A less bigoted king would surely have understood the difference between a questioner and a true heretic).
Once, when burning a heretic, John Badby, he had the fellow pulled out of the fire, asked him to repent -- and, when Badby refused, had the fires re-lit (Royle, pp. 65-66). Seward, p. 164, mentions "Ruthless authority and cold cruelty," says he was "puritanical," and speaks of "brutal single-mindedness."
Perroy, who of course writes from a French perspective, refers to his "hypocritical devoutness, the duplicity of his conduct, his pretence of defending right and redressing wrongs when he sought solely to satisfy his ambitions, [and] the cruelty of his revenge" (p. 235). This strikes me as a little exaggerated -- I don't think Henry was a hypocrite; I think he was badly messed up emotionally. But the effect is the same. It was eventually costly, too -- as Allmand notes on p. 438, since Henry said his victories were God's will, his successors could hardly negotiate with the French, since that was against Henry's version of God's desires.
Henry was well-educated, speaking and writing English, French, and Latin. There is some dispute over whether he had a lighter side. He certainly owned a harp (Earle, p. 28), and is believed to have been able to play it; he supposedly took one with him to France (Barker, p. 26); he also took an 18 minstrels along (Barker, p. 134). Jarman, p. 38, claims he also played cithera and gittern, without listing a source.
But the claim that he read Chaucer is somewhat dubious. It is true that one of the sixteen surviving substantial manuscripts of Chaucer's Troylus and Criseyde (Pierpont Morgan Library MS. M 817) is imprinted with his arms as Prince of Wales. But this does not prove that he read it; his grandfather John of Gaunt was one of Chaucer's patrons, so the family may have handed him a copy whether he wanted it or not. (There was a strong literary tradition in the family. Henry IV also seems to have supported Chaucer, and he definitely supported John Gower, who dedicated an edition of the Confessio Amantis to him; Goodman, p. 156. Henry IV passed his love of books on to his fourth son Humphrey, one of the greatest collectors of the era -- he named his illegitimate daughter Antigone (Griffiths, p. 98), which I find fascinating -- but we do not find much evidence of Henry V as patron of literature.)
What's more, Mauldwyn Mills, in the introduction to the Everyman edition of Troylus and Criseyde, which is based on the Morgan manuscript, notes that it contains a significant number of uncorrected errors (Troylus and Criseyde, Everyman; original edition 1953; revised edition, 2000; p. xxxv). Despite its very early date (one of the two earliest manuscripts, written within a dozen years of Chaucer's death), most critical editions do not use it as a copy text. The strong sense I get, in reading the notes, is that it was too poorly corrected to be a copy that was actually regularly read. Also, it is thought by many to have been taken from a not-final draft of the book, and would Henry V have accepted that if he really cared about the volume?
It should be remembered that this period was relatively impoverished in the arts. The reigns of Edward III and Richard II had been graced by Chaucer, Langland, the Gawain-poet, and John Gower. The era of the Lancastrian kings had nothing -- the only author from this period you're likely to have encountered is Sir Thomas Malory. I checked three literary anthologies, and in poetry, all skipped directly from Chaucer (died 1400) to Skelton (born c. 1460). Several books on literary history comment sourly on how barren the fifteenth century was. If Henry V patronized any writers, they certainly weren't worth what he spent on them.
Allmand, p. 42, notes that Thomas Chaucer (the son of Geoffrey) was three times speaker of parliament (1407, 1410, 1411), and thinks that this is a sign that Henry of Monmouth had great power and support in parliament, because Allmand thinks Chaucer was Henry's ally. But these three parliaments were during Henry IV's reign; I see no reason to think either Chaucer was a close ally of Henry V as opposed to Henry IV.
Henry was clearly physically tough; Barker, pp. 31-32, describes how he had taken an arrow in the face in one of his Welsh campaigns as Prince of Wales, it was said that it penetrated six inches into his head, and required extraordinary surgery to extract. (I can't recall anyone ever saying so, but I wonder if perhaps he may not have suffered minor brain damage resulting in his emotional rigidity.)
It was during the Welsh campaigns that he apparently got to know many of his later associates, such as the Earl of Warwick and the John Talbot, later to be known as "Old Talbot." Of course, he also got to know John Oldcastle, whom he would burn as a heretic (Allmand, p. 32).
The reports of a misspent youth are largely false, according to Barker, p. 43; she declares that they "acquired a veneer of historicity because they were taken up by Shakespeare" -- but of course the amount of actual history in Shakespeare is only slightly greater than the amount of quantum chromodynamics. (My guess is that the stories arose from the conflicts between Henry IV and Henry V before the latter's death; Barker, p. 21, reports that the younger Henry may have feared being disinherited by his father, and Earle, p. 69, observes that parties started forming about King and Prince as early as 1406. To be fair, Earle, p. 86, thinks it is "quite clear that there was some truth in [Henry's] reputation [for wildness]."
Jarman, p. 31, declares that "Although such Shakespearean stories as that of young Hal strking Judge Gascoigne... or Stowe's chronicle depicting him 'mugging' London citizens by night in company with his friends can largely be discounted, he evidently led something of a playboy life before his accession." But what was the usual evidence of wild escapades? Illegitimate children. And Earle, p. 87, admits that Henry "left no bastards from a riotous youth," though were are told that he "followed the services of Venus as well as Mars." Yet it is unlikely that Henry was infertile; once he married, he quickly got his wife pregnant. Even Earle confesses, "For details readers will have to join Shakespeare in using their imagination."
It is interesting to note that a French observer, who saw Henry and his brother Thomas of Clarence just before the start of the Agincourt campaign, Clarence looked like a soldier -- but Henry gave the impression of being a priest (Allmand, p. 438).
Henry V seems to have been unusually good at handling money; Barker, p. 102, reports an instance of him actually auditing some of his own books (Allmand, p. 2, implies that he was the first king before Henry VII to do so), and also notes on p. 114 that he actually kept detailed records of the men serving under him, which was largely unheard of at the time; Earle, p. 127, notes his careful attention to collecting his share of ransoms for prisoners taken by his subordinates. These were skills he perhaps learned by having to survive in penury during the poverty-stricken administration of his father (Barker, p. 34).
Henry V succeeded his father in 1413. He instantly turned things around in England. His father had never been secure on the throne. Henry V was in complete control within months. He also managed to get more money out of parliament than any other king of the time -- perhaps in history (Barker, pp. 104-105; Seward, p. 156; Earle, p. 105, quotes Stubbs as saying Henry's ability to raise money from parliament was "little less than miraculous."). Like many kings before him, he had to resort to forced loans -- but he was careful to borrow against money he new he would receive in the next tax year, and the loans were promptly repaid (Barker, pp. 108-110). He also offered many of the crown jewels as security to some of the nobility (Earle, p. 111; Jarman, p. 51, says that the need to pay retainers was so extreme that at least one crown was broken up by a subordinate).
The strength of the English economy probably helped. Henry came at a very fortunate time: The country had largely recovered from the Black Death, but the population had still not reached pre-plague levels, so the productivity of the land was not eroded by the relative overpopulation of the early fourteenth century (Earle, p. 96). And Henry had not engaged in the mass giveaway of crown properties which would bankrupt his son Henry VI.
Plus Henry knew where the power lay. Henry IV had tried to ally with the "men of lesser rank," according to Allmand, p. 62. This was not a very successful strategy in the fifteenth century; Richard III also tried to build a faction of common people plus a few nobles, and it failed spectacularly. Henry V would rely on the great lords such as the Earl of Warwick and the Earl of Salisbury.
Having put his country, and his army, on a firm financial footing, he sent envoys to Paris demanding "his" property in France. The best guess (Ashley-Great, p. 156) is that he wanted to regain Normandy and all of Acquitaine. (The English still controlled perhaps a third of the latter, none of the former). He also wanted to marry a French princess so there would be no more nibbling (Barker, p. 71). He asked for even more than that: The hand of Catherine, plus a close approximation of full empire of his great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Henry II, two and a half centuries earlier: Aquitaine, Normandy, Anjou, Touraine, Poitou, Maine, and Ponthieu (Barker, p. 121). The French, naturally, were not interested -- and probably didn't think that England, which had been weak for half a century, could pose any threat. Jarman, p. 47, reports that the French ambassadors went so far as to declare him not the rightful king of England -- though I doubt that any sane negotiator would try such a ploy.
And Henry's military reputation was not established; despite much campaigning in Wales, he could be called an inexperienced general, since most of his time had been spent on sieges and controlling hostile territory (Earle, pp. 64-65). At the time he took the throne, he had been involved in only one pitched battle (Earle, pp. 58-60), and he was not in command. The battle was at Shrewsbury, in 1403; it was part of the civil war that year between Henry IV and rebels led by the Earl of Northumberland, his son Hotspur, Owen Glendower, and members of the Mortimer faction. Henry IV attacked Hotspur, and won a very close battle, and since that put him between the Welsh and Northumbrian factions, that particular rebellion was over. Henry V was to fight only one more pitched battle in his career -- at Agincourt. Everything else was sieges.
Henry very quickly proved those who doubted him wrong. He reached an agreement with Brittany (Barker, p. 63), resulting in a reduction of the piracy which had distracted the two countries for years (Allmand, p. 69), and also giving him a clear supply line from England to France. He also leashed the Scots -- he had in his custody both the new young king James I and the son of the regent Albany (Barker, p. 73). This meant that, if Albany tried anything, Henry could punish his son, but if the Scots tried to overthrow Albany to bring back James, he had control of James and could sic the younger Albany, who was third in line for the throne behind James and his father, on them. Scotland was unable to do anything except the usual border raids (and Albany the elder frankly seems to have liked it that way). By 1415, Henry had largely managed to negotiate an end even to those; he left the border entirely in the hands of the northerners (Barker, pp. 76-78).
Soon after, he crushed a revolt on behalf of the Mortimers, the proper heirs of Richard II (Barker, pp. 78-81). There was now no threat to him from within the British Isles. In the long term, the main effect of all this was to eliminate Richard of Cambridge, the younger brother of the Duke of York, whose son was Richard, the father of the future Edward IV and Richard III. The significance of the execution was that it made the infant Richard the heir to the York dukedom should his uncle die. And young Richard would in time become the Mortimer heir -- a pedigree which could spell trouble if Henry V's line ever failed.
Allmand, pp. 76-77, thinks Cambridge may have been the ringleader, perhaps because he had been given an earldom but not enough endowed land to sustain it. He also suggests that the trials proceeded illegally -- an interesting perspective on Henry's management of the country.
For a time, Henry V continued to negotiate with France, but prepared for war -- indeed, he told London officials to prepare to invade well before the French had made their final offer (Barker, p. 70). He even induced the church to muster their clergy to see who could fight (Barker, p. 128). Henry probably meant them to suppress heresy -- he was offensively orthodox (he was quite happy burning Lollard "heretics," according to Earle, p. 29 -- ironic for the grandson of John of Gaunt, who had had Lollard tendencies, and actually arrested his own stepmother on a charge of witchcraft, according to Rubin, p. 212). But they could also serve as a sort of national guard in the event of a French invasion.
Henry also seems to have tried to hire the most professional specialists he could -- e.g. he imported gunners from Germany (Barker, p. 132). Although he did ban one other sort of specialist -- he banned prostitutes (Jarmin, pp. 79-80, and Neillands, p. 207, say that he ordered whores who approached the camp to have their left arms broken). He also tried to ban swearing. In an army!
In 1415 Henry appointed his brother John to have charge of England (it is interesting to note that John was the third brother; the second brother, Thomas of Clarence, was given no power and left out of Henry's will -- Barker, pp. 140-141 -- even though he was then heir to the throne and was brought along on the Agincourt expedition. Barker strongly suspects there was no love lost between the brothers!). Henry told his soldiers to wear the Cross of Saint George as a sort of token of recognition atop their ordinary livery (Barker, p. 131), then set sail for Normandy.
Supposedly he needed 1500 ships to transport his army (Barker, p. 147), though of course they were mostly quite small -- and he probably had two to three horses for every man (Jarman, p. 72, estimates 25,000 horses), calling for much greater carrying capacity. It took them three days to make their landing, but they got ashore unopposed (Barker, p. 157). After a brief period of looting, Henry got the army back under control -- and, from then on, discipline was strict (Barker, p. 163; on p. 240, she reports an incident of a man being hanged for stealing a cheap but theoretically holy object from a church). The soldiers doubtless grumbled, but they probably fought better.
This may have been an indication that Henry V really did want to take control of France. He didn't want to damage a country he regarded as "his." We'll never know.
1415: HARFLEUR AND AGINCOURT
The first English objective was the port of Harfleur at the mouth of the Seine -- at that time, before its harbor silted up, a very strategic point. (It had been used as a staging point for raids on England; Barker, p. 168, and was used for attacks on English shipping; Allmand, p. 67. It was at the time the most important port in Normandy, according to Allmand, p. 79, and of course could control traffic to Rouen and Paris.) Undermanned until the French managed to sneak in reinforcements (Barker, pp. 172-173), it nonetheless possessed extremely strong defences on both land and sea sides.
Those strong defences nearly led to disaster for the English. The siege was one of the first to really depend on artillery -- but it was still a long, difficult operation, taking most of a month. That was at least ten days longer than Henry expected (Barker, p. 180). During that time, much of the army came down with bloody dysentery (Barker, p. 181). Casualties were extremely heavy -- probably about a third of their numbers (Ashley-Great, p. 156). Among them was one of the king's best friends, the Bishop of Norwich (Barker, pp. 183-184). It is rather frightening to wonder what might have happened had the English been held before the town much longer. It might perhaps have happened -- the town eventually surrendered, but details are rather lacking; Barker, pp. 191-193, thinks that perhaps the town's residents quit fighting, undercutting the still-determined garrison. It appears the garrison reached a deal with Henry, agreeing to give in if the French government had not sent an army by a certain date. And, of course, the government did nothing (Barker, pp. 193-195).
Henry was severe with the garrison, humiliating them and berating them for fighting against their lawful King (Jarman, p. 109). It was not the last time he would take such a high-handed approach. He also reportedly expelled the aged and the crippled, allowing only the healthy and prosperous to stay (Jarman, p. 111), assuming of cource they accepted him as King.
Losses from disease were so severe (Allmand, p. 80, cites a chronicler who claimed 5000 Englishmen were afflicted, though the source blames the disease on eating unripe fruit. Jarman, p. 106, believes over 2000 men were lost, which seems the minimum possible) that Henry decided not to undertake an additional major offensive that year (Barker, p. 197. Allmand, p. 84, argues that Henry had never had a plan beyond taking Harfleur but intended to respond to conditions when the town fell, though Jarman, p. 114, believes he had considered an attack on Rouen or Paris or a drive toward Guyenne).
Most of Henry's advisors apparently thought he should go directly home (Seward, p. 161). Henry wasn't willing to give up quite that easily -- he still wanted to at least wage a chevauchee. But he decided on a short one, choosing the shortest route to Calais and safety. Even that was a difficult maneuver to undertake in October (the exact date they left Harfleur is somewhat uncertain, due to inconsistent information in the chronicles. Barker, pp. 214-218, says that every date from October 6 to 9 is possible, but thinks the most likely is October 8. This is also the date given by Keegan, p. 82). And the French had been roused from their torpor by the fall of Harfleur (Barker, p. 231).
The French of course had a decision to make: They could try to retake Harfleur, or attack Henry, or split their forces and do both. The experienced military officials apparently favored the former, but most of the nobility, their pride stung, felt that Henry had to be punished. The decision was to pursue him (Jarman, p. 123).
Neillands, p. 214, notes that Henry at this time was marching across the land where, half a millenium later, an even bigger and more useless battle would be fought -- the Battle of the Somme. The French almost managed to cut off the English by blocking the passage of the Somme. The famous ford of Blanchetaque which Edward III had used was blocked off (Barker, p. 220; Jarman, p. 129). Other crossings were either guarded or were unusable because the bridges had been destroyed (Jarman, p. 131). Some of the junior officers argued for going back to Harfleur rather than hunt for a crossing they might not find (Jarman, p. 129), but the King ignored the suggestion. Henry had to go far upstream before he found a crossing point (Allmand, p. 86), while the army grew increasingly tired and sick and short of supplies. Henry was so rushed that he made no attempts at taking seriously defended towns along the way. Even so, it looked for a time as if the French might trap him.
In fact, they *did* trap him (Seward, p. 163). There is some question about whether Henry's forces were mounted (Seward, p. 163, thinks the archers were on foot, but given how fast they moved, it seems likely that Henry's entire army was mounted), but heavy rain slowed them down. Henry had made it across the Somme -- the biggest single obstacle in his way -- but it took him far out of his way, and on October 24, when the English army was only two or three marches from Calais and safety (the field of Agincourt is in what we would now call Belgium, not France -- in fact, it's near the great World War I battlefields of the Somme; Jarman p. 178), the French army arrived (Keegan, p. 82). They stood between Henry and Calais, and even if Henry had had the provisions to make it back to Harfleur (which he didn't), they could have hit him in rear. All the French had to do was win the battle, and Henry V and his pretensions would be one with every other pretender in history.
And the French had a substantial superiority in numbers -- so much so that Barker, p. 268, reports that they sent some soldiers home! Keegan, p. 88, believes that Henry had perhaps 5000 archers and a thousand men-at-arms (knights, squires, and others who wore armor and carried short-range weapons); this is also the figure in Featherstone, p. 145, and Allmand, p. 88. Barker, p. 218, suggests 5000 archers, 900 men-at-arms, and unknown but numerous others such as surgeons, heralds, and chaplains -- though many of them were so sick with dysentery that they had had to cut the seats out of their clothing to reduce the fouling (Barker, p. 276). Rubin, p. 218, implicitly supports the figure of 5000 archers and 900 men at arms.
Numbers for the French are far less certain, with English chroniclers coming up with numbers on the order of 60,000; one managed to suggest 150,000 (Barker, p. 263). French estimates were smaller, but no one offered a figure of fewer than 8000, with most guesses far larger; they went as high as 50,000. Keegan suggests 25,000, most of them men-at-arms, some with horses, some not. Barker, after listing the evidence, seems to prefer the figure of 36,000, based on the contemporary estimate of Jehan Waurin (which is the most detailed account). Rubin, p. 218, suggests the French army was "almost three times larger" -- i.e. probably 15,000-17,000 soldiers. Certainly there were plenty of nobles -- four royal dukes (with a fifth on his way), a dozen counts, and "innumerable lords" (Barker, p. 264). Allmand, p. 88, believes the English were outnumbered three or four to one, giving the French probably on the order of 20,000 soldiers. It also probably had the edge in artillery (Allmand, p. 89, thinks the English had no artillery at all, and this seems logical -- Henry had had artillery at Harfleur, but he was using siege guns, too big to carry in the field).
What they didn't have was a real commander (Barker, p. 251; Seward, p. 165). Charles VI and the dauphin were not present, and there was no real boss appointed in their place. Both the Marshall and Constable of France were present, but they couldn't really control their juniors, especially since many of those men stood higher in the feudal hierarchy (Barker, p. 261; Allmand, p. 90, notes that the Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and Alencon -- all of whom had been allied with Henry IV in 1412! -- were young men in favor of fighting as soon as possible).
To top it all off, every high lord wanted to be in on the fight, so most of them ended up in the front line, leaving their troops leaderless (Barker, p. 266).
In accordance with the standards of the time, there was one last parley before the battle. What happened is uncertain. French chroniclers have claimed Henry found the French host daunting, and offered to give back all his gains if allowed to avoid battle (Barker, pp. 273-274; Jarman, p. 150; Seward, p. 163, though this sounds suspiciously like the story of the Black Prince at Poitiers). If Henry made the offer, it is certain that the French, believing in their numbers, refused, or demanded impossible terms (Jarman's version is that they demanded Henry renounce the crown of France), and the battle became certain (Earle, pp. 137-128). The French may even have tried to insult the English at the final parley; one of the commissioners was a man who had been an English prisoner and had broken parole (Barker, p. 273).
Having lost the chance for peace, Henry refused to show any sign of fear, declaring that he would not allow himself to be captured and ransomed (Jarman, p. 156); he would win or he would die in the field (Barker, p. 257). With a leader like that, there was no question of command structure on the English side! (Allmand, p. 90).
Henry is also supposed to have addressed his troops before the battle (Jarman, p. 156). Of course, with a line at least half a mile long, already in formation, the majority could not hear a word he said. Presumably this is just another instance of chroniclers putting their words in his mouth. Similarly, there are a few reports of Saint George (England's patron saint) being seen over the field. This probably says more about the chroniclers than conditions during the battle.
It is interesting to note that Henry defied convention to a significant extent in organizing his forces -- no doubt thereby avoiding the command problems the French experienced. He had enough high nobility that he could have placed an earl in charge of each division, but he chose to entrust the left wing to Lord Camoys (Barker, p. 261). Henry himself commanded the center (though he also fought in line himself; Seward, p. 168, reports that a French knight actually damaged the crown he wore upon his helmet). The right was entrusted to the Duke of York, the senior noble to die in the battle (supposedly of suffocation when he fell over, since he was very heavy; Earle, p. 143; Featherstone, p. 151; Jarman, p. 175, calls him "fat and scheming", though Barker, p. 303, declares this a "Tudor invention," and I suspect this is correct -- the Tudors wanted to discredit anyone associated with the House of York).
Seward, p. 169, reports that the other high casualties were the Earl of Suffolk and half a dozen knights. There were, of course, many wounded, including the King's younger brother the Duke of Gloucester. The wound was said to be "in the hammes," which makes me wonder if this might not have had something to do with his childlessness. Of course, his three older brothers combined to have one child between them, so maybe not.
Although Earle, p. 137, says that the field of Agincourt was "almost perfect for the formality of a medieval battle," Henry had chosen what was, for him just about an ideal position (Jarman, p. 140). (There is a map on p 83 of Keegan , one on p. 147 of Featherstone, and another in Seward, p. 165, a fourth on Jarman, p. 159. These differ substantially -- Seward's map shows a much larger field than Keegan's and has the axis of the field, and hence the French attack, coming from northwest to southeast; Featherstone agrees with this construction. Seward's narrative, interestingly, says that the French were directly north of the English. Keegan, whom I would normally consider more reliable, shows the field pointing from northeast to southwest. Jarman's map is almost straight north to south, but angles slightly northeast-southwest. But all agree on the basic formations, and in all of them, the French are the to the north, the English to the south).
It is said that Henry ordered the army to be very quiet on the night before the battle. It is not clear what his reason was; perhaps he wanted to confuse the French or make them think the English weaker or more demoralized than they were. He seems to have succeeded (Jarman, p. 146).
Henry picked a field that was narrow enough that he could extend his line all the way across it (though wide enough that he was left with only a single line; Barker, p. 260). There was no reserve except a few dozen men guarding the baggage (Barker, p. 271; Earle, p. 139; Featherstone, p. 146), but the field had forest on either side and the towns of Azincourt/Agincourt and Tramecourt beyond the woods. This meant the French could not attack his flanks -- men-at-arms, whether mounted or not, simply weren't mobile enough to go through the woods. The only way the French could attack him was by charging down the field in the face of his arrow fire. And, with the ground so muddy from the recent rain, any attack, whether on foot or on horseback, would proceed very slowly (Barker, p. 259).
The French did not cooperate. Unlike the wars of the previous century, they did not immediately charge the English. Impetuous charges had cost them at Crecy, so they decided not to risk it. After all, to this point the longbow had served mostly at a defensive weapon. If they didn't attack, what could Henry do except try to retreat -- which would give the French the opportunity to attack with the English at a disadvantage. As a result, both sides spent several hours adjusting their lines and preparing (Barker, p. 254).
Henry outsmarted the French. After waiting long enough to be sure they would not advance (Keegan, p. 89), he ordered his army to move forward (Allmand, p. 91, estimates they moved forward 700 yards) so that they were just barely within longbow range of the French, and had his archers start firing (Earle, p. 141). They probably did not injure many knights at that range, but they irritated them and hurt their horses (Keegan, p. 94). The French should perhaps have tried a cavalry charge during Henry's advance (Barker, p. 279), but they didn't, and so blew perhaps their last chance to win the battle. No doubt the disorganization of their large force, and the fact that all the commanders had come to the front, contributed to the tactical ineptitude (Barker, p. 279).
(There was a little luck for the English, we should note: Although Agincourt was fought on a rather cold day, it was not raining, as it had been earlier in the campaign; the archers could string their bows. What would have happened had the French caught the English in a rainstorm would have been altogether another matter -- though they might have been unable to *reach* the English in the mud.)
The English archers each carried a stake, which they set in front of them to slow attacking horses. Featherstone, p. 148, says that this was a new technique invented for the Agincourt war (though this seems a bit odd, since even the French were mostly fighting dismounted by this time). It has usually been assumed that they set up a line of stakes all across the front, but Keegan, pp. 91-92, notes that this fence would have been so thick (he estimates the stakes would have been five inches apart) that the English themselves could not maneuver around the line. He suggests that they were in a checkerboard, one stake in front of each archer whether in the front rank or farther back. This would have interfered with the movement of horsemen but not the dismounted archers. This makes sense but cannot be proved.
It should be remembered that the English knights by this time always fought dismounted. Sure, they had horses, and they still practiced with the lance, at least sometimes (even half a century later, tournaments and jousting were popular), but they fought their actual battles on foot. Thus, Agincourt was essentially a contest of mounted French knights against archers and armored footmen. It is true that most of the French also fought dismounted -- but the mounted men often pushed the others forward. The French forces were so jammed together that it actually slowed their advance and reduced their effectiveness -- problems the mud made even worse (Allmand, pp. 92-93).
At least one French charge, probably the first, did reach the English line (Earle, p. 141). But it was uncoordinated and under-strength (Barker, p. 280), and the mud again cost the French: Their men-at-arms were almost immobile in their armor, but the English bowmen could move about and come to the aid of their armored comrades (Seward, p. 167). It is likely that relatively few of the dismounted Frenchmen died from arrows (which rarely penetrated at long range); they died of exhaustion or drowning in mud or falling and being unable to rise and being killed while helpless. The only way they could have avoided this was by charging on horseback -- but the longbows had no trouble killing the horses.
The bottom line was a complete disaster for the French: Nearly their only success was that some robbers had managed to lift much of Henry's personal possessions from the baggage (Barker, p. 295), but that was no help. The English had about 300 losses (Seward, p. 169); Seward guesses French casualties at 10,000. This may be high, but we have little to go on; we can't even count graves (the bodies mostly went in mass graves, and these have not been firmly identified; Barker, p. 317). Rubin, p. 218, says the English lost 500, the French 7000, with more losses from suffocation as the soldiers were buried in mud than from arrow fire.
All this from a battle that lasted only about three hours (Jarman, p. 175).
Our information on the French nobility is more definite: Casualties were three dukes, seven counts, and 120 barons. (In an irony that would become sharper over the next decade, the list included the Duke of Brabant and the Count of Nevers, brothers of the Duke of Burgundy, even though there was no Burgundian contingent in the army; Barker, p. 308.) The French would never again dare fight Henry V in an open battle (Earle, p. 148).
Many of the French dead were never identified, leaving a large number of widows who never knew their husbands' fates (Barker, pp. 312-313).
The local gentry, according to Barker, p. 306, was particularly hard-hit; Agincourt village itself lost Renaud, sire d'Azincourt, and the other nearby village, Tramecourt, lost Jean and Renaud de Tramecourt. This loss of so many locals made further resistance to Henry just about impossible at this time, and (according to Barker, p. 364) made the 1417-1419 conquest of Normandy much easier.
So deeply did the battle embed itself into English consciousness that to be "with King Harry on St. Crispin's day" was still a metaphor for being in the thick of battle half a millennium later. (Of course, the fact that this similar to a Shakespeare quote probably helped.)
The English committed one unquestioned atrocity, though Barker, p. 289, considers it "the only [action] possible" and Jarman, p. 174, justifies it as "a case of medieval expediency." Even after the battle, the French outnumbered the English, and when Henry thought they were about to attack him again, he ordered his prisoners killed; he felt he needed their guards in the line (Seward, p. 168; Earle, p. 142; Keegan, pp. 108-111, discusses the matter but argues at the end that it was not carried out on a large scale and suggests that Henry was simply trying to scare the prisoners to keep them out of mischief; Allmand, p. 95, also thinks the massacre exaggerated). This was definitely against the rules at the time, and many troops refused to do it (though probably out of desire for ransoms rather than higher motives). Only the most noble captives were spared -- supposedly the Duke of Brabant was one of those murdered because he had worn a servant's armor rather than his own fancier equipment (Neillands, p. 220).
One report, unconfirmed, is that Henry forced the most noble of his captives to wait on him at his meal that night (Barker, p. 321; Jarman, p. 178; according to Neillands, p. 221, he even required this of wounded men). It's hard to know what to make of this. It obviously would make the captives resent him, perhaps making them less likely to acknowledge him -- but it would also emphasize their vassal status. And it certainly fits Henry's extreme view of his own importance. Barker, p. 322, nonetheless thinks the story untrue.
Agincourt is almost always held up as the high point of Henry's campaigns; the Agincourt Carol, for instance, was composed about it. But, as Seward, p. 170, points out, it was really just an incident in another chevauchee. Perroy (admittedly prejudiced on this point) dismisses it in a couple of sentences on page 239, and declares that "the campaign of Agincourt meant nothing decisive." This is exaggerated -- if nothing else, it meant that Parliament voted Henry a huge subsidy to finance future campaigns (Barker, p. 341), which was a big deal indeed. Also, since the Constable of France had been killed, a new Constable was needed -- and the man appointed was Bernard d'Armagnac (Allmand, p. 102), making the conflict between Burgundians and Armagnacs more bitter.
Still, it is true that, despite Agincourt, Henry so far had made no real progress on conquering France (apart from Harfleur). The next two years were relatively quiet, though the French would try and fail to retake Harfleur (Allmand, pp. 102-103), with the English winning a minor battle in the field outside the city in early 1416 (Neillands, pp. 223-224). In 1416-1417, Henry's ships gained naval superiority in the channel (Seward, p. 171); control of Harfleur definitely helped with this (Allmand, p. 99. Allmand, pp. 106-107, calls this battle "the most telling" naval conflict of the Hundred Years' War, but most sources brush it off in a few words). The papal schism healed. Henry managed to gain theoretical recognition as King of France (though no military help) from the Emperor (Perroy, p. 240; Allmand, pp. 104-105 notes that Sigismund made a long and very expensive visit) But Henry made no major moves until 1417.
THE SECOND INVASION AND TROYES: HENRY THE HEIR OF FRANCE
The political situation in this period was very fluid. Originally, Henry seems to have had no deal with Burgundy. He invaded and fought at Agincourt on his own -- though there were few Burgundians in the defeated French army. But the Burgundians, having seen their enemies slaughtered, occupied Paris and killed every Armagnac they could find (Guerard, p. 106). Eventually they made peace gestures to the Armagnacs -- and then, in 1419, the Armagnacs assassinated John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy (Allmand, p. 135; Earle, p. 172; Seward, p. 180). For one act of petty revenge, they opened France to a joint English/Burgundian conquest. It came to be said that the English entered France through the hole in John's skull (Butler, p. xiii; Earle, p. 177).
Henry by then was invading Normandy. His second campaign began in 1417 (Seward, p. 171). Allmand, p. 113, thinks the forces involved were slightly smaller than in the Agincourt campaign, but in practice it was probably a stronger force because it didn't suffer as badly from disease. Their first stop was Caen, Normandy's second city. (Allmand, p. 116, hints that Henry might have been trying to set up a separate Norman administration, since Rouen was too strong to capture at this time, and Caen was easier to support from the sea.) Caen had been heavily fortified since Edward III had attacked it (Earle, p. 157), but apparently the walls were not designed to resist artillery (Earle, p. 158). Henry took the town by assault on September 4, and stayed in Normandy over the winter, capturing Bayeux, Argentan, Alencon, Falais, Cherbourg, and other towns (Allmand, p. 120; Seward, p. 173).
By 1418, Henry was besieging Rouen, which was the hardest operation he had attempted so far; the citizens had gathered much food and also destroyed anything the English could use outside the walls (Allmand, p. 123). It was a brutal siege -- when the garrison expelled useless mouths, Henry, being the sort of man he was, would not let them pass through his lines, but left them outside the walls of the city to starve (Allmand, pp. 124-125, who declared that he had not put them there; this by contrast to Edward III, who had allowed the refugees expelled from Calais during the siege of that town go free; Sedgwick, p. 63). He also staged a mock battle to raise the hopes of the besieged, and perhaps lure them out of the walls (Allmand, p. 124). The city surrendered in early 1419 (Seward, pp. 175-177). That gave him control of effectively all of Normandy.
Unfortunately for him, he could not really colonize it, as he had hoped to; while England was prosperous due to the Black Death, it no longer had surplus population eager to leave home (Seward, p. 178). Henry supplied such colonists as he could, but the Normans remained mostly French -- even the government, although organized as a separate province entirely independently of the old French system (Perroy, p. 249), consisted mostly of Normans, with only a few thousand English troops and a few dozen English officials. The only effects of Henry's colonization was to cause a number of English lords to become French landowners -- a fact which would make it much harder to make peace when the time came; the English lords didn't want to lose their lands! (Tuck, p. 244).
The war was affecting England significantly by this time; it appears no troops were sent to Henry in 1419 (Allmand, p. 130). Still, with the French unwilling to fight, Henry had no trouble conquering more and more territory: Every time he started a siege, he had a local superiority in numbers, and the garrison never had help from outside. (Henry may not have realized that they were afraid of him, but he certainly knew that Armagnacs and Burgundians were so bitter against each other than they would never be able to turn against him; Earle, p. 150.)
It was in 1419 that negotiations started again. Henry apparently saw his future wife Katherine for the first time in that year. At this stage, it appears that Henry was demanding, at minimum, a marriage to Katherine, money, and Normany and a large Acquitaine in full sovreignty (Allmand, pp. 131-132). These conditions remained unacceptable to the French. So Henry went back to trying to take the whole country. By the end of the year, his raiders were appearing outside Paris and the French court had retreated to Troyes (Allmand, p. 134). The French were trying to heal their divisions, but it was very hard; there was too much bad blood.
Then came the murder John the Fearless of Burgundy mentioned above. It's hard to believe the dauphin was really responsible for this, since he was only sixteen (Neillands, p. 229). But, suddenly, the dauphin was discredited, the talks between the two French factions ended, and there was no chance of peace between the Burgundian and Armagnac factions. Allmand, pp. 136-137, thinks that this is the point at which Henry decided unequivocally that he would try to become King of France.
Guerard, p. 108, points out that there was no really inherent reason why the crowns of England and France could not be united. The monarchs had intermarried many times. It was only in the last few decades that the English kings had ceased to speak French as their native language (though, as Perroy comments with a rather French disdain on p. 60, it was "a peculiarly bastard dialect of that language, Anglo-Norman, full of English words and queer twists"); they might easily have gone back to speaking French. Dual monarchies had managed in the past to combine into single nations, though it would be more common in the future (think Great Britain, made up of England and Scotland, or Spain, made up of Castile and Aragon). England itself had incorporated Wales as recently as the time of Henry V's great-great-great-grandfather Edward I, and England itself been built up from smaller nations in the century and a half before the Norman Conquest.
To be sure, Perroy, p. 248, declares that "the 'dual monarchy' was doomed to failure." But Perroy -- who, after all, wrote during the German occupation of France -- has as his one fault an extreme aversion to the idea of enemies on French soil. The fact was, the French didn't have much resistance left, and would find it hard to develop any as long as the Armagnacs and Burgundians remains more hostile to each other than they were to the English.
Certainly the Armagnac court was powerless. The mad king Charles VI had lost several sons, but there was still one left, the future Charles VII. It might, however, be possible to have him declared illegitimate. (Given the behavior of his mother Isabeau of Bavaria, who went along with the story, it might even be true; certainly it was believable, because she had probably had the Duke of Orleans at least into her bed, and maybe others.) That meant that one of the daughters of Charles VI was arguably the heir (so much for the Salic Law). The eldest daughter had already been married to Richard II, but she was now dead. Some of her younger sisters were also married, but the youngest, Katherine, was still available (Perroy, p. 243; Allmand, p. 68, notes that Henry had been negotiating for her hand as early as the beginning of his reign, though balancing that off by discussing a Burgundian wife as well.).
By 1420, the French government was forced to negotiate. And, in the negotiations, Henry gained more than he had probably ever dreamed possible: He became heir to the Kingdom of France (Seward, p. 182. Curry, pp. 103-107, makes the interesting point that this represented, in effect, an abandonment of his claim to be hereditary king of France -- since he was Charles VI's heir, he was not king in his own right!). He would marry Katherine, the youngest daughter of Charles VI; the Dauphin was disowned and declared a bastard by his own mother (according to Earle, pp. 191-193, she needed some persuading -- apparently she never actually declared her son illegitimate, and certainly never said who was the father (Neillands, p. 243) -- but eventually agreed to his abandonment when it was clear she had no other choice, and as a result the Dauphin almost decided to give up his throne).
It was agreed that Henry would follow Charles VI on the throne (Earle, p. 191, thinks that this clause was inserted so that the Duke of Burgundy, who of course was deeply involved in the negotiations, would not be guilty of deposing his own king). Henry would have to conquer the rest of France, but at the rate things were going, it seemed perfectly possible; after all, most of the north was in his hands, and the fighting there was almost over. Burgundy was on his side. Paris would take *anything* in preference to a return of the Armagnacs (Earle, p. 190). And Henry was already acting as regent (Perroy, p. 243). The English king looked unstoppable.
Formally, it was not a union of the two nations of France and England; it was simply a Union of the Crowns (Allmand, p. 149), such as happened when James VI of Scotland became James I of England. The French would keep their national identity. (I would love to know what the fallback plan was should Henry have died without heirs. Allmand, p. 150, says that Henry's English heirs were supposed to be heirs of France also, but they weren't married to French princesses!)
The whole agreement, which took eight months to negotiate (Butler, p. xiii), was known as the Treaty of Troyes. Henry ratified the treaty at Troyes on May 20-21, 1420 (Earle, pp. 193-194; Butler, p. xiv), though it was not until September 1 that he formally entered Paris, along with Charles VI (who by now was barely able to ride a horse) and Duke Philip of Burgundy (Seward, p. 183; Earle, p. 196; Butler, p. xv).
The Troyes agreement is usually called a "Treaty," which is the same term as is used for Bretigny. But as Allmand notes on p. 145, it was really quite different. Troyes was a victor's peace, negotiated less by the French government than by the Burgundians, and the meeting at Troyes was not a negotiation but simply a ratification. (Some Frenchmen would in fact claim that it was improperly agreed to; Allmand, p. 149. But all the forms were followed; technically, it was the French, not the English, who violated the treaty.)
It is interesting to note that Troyes gave France a written constitution for the first time (Butler, p. 2). Naturally it was thrown out when the Lancastrian dynasty was expelled. Perroy, p. 247, declares that it contained flaws of "both form and substance," which is doubtless true (the French at this time were much better lawyers than the English, as the Treaty of Bretigny had shown) -- but it was a deal between conquered and conqueror; in practical terms, it was an agreement by which Henry would govern France; it might well have worked had he survived.
Troyes was a substantial accomplishment, because potentially Henry would actually merge the two countries. Edward III had probably not contemplated that (Perroy, p. 209, thinks Edward would have given France to one of his younger sons after his death, re-separating the crowns, though this strikes me as highly unlikely. Earle, p. 190, declares that Henry was specifically after a "personal union of the two crowns").
On the other hand, Allmand, p. 441, concludes that Troyes was a mistake on Henry's part. He bit off more than England could chew -- and as a result, England eventually lost not just the throne of France but even the English territories in Guyenne. Allmand admits that any settlement would have eventually been challenged, but thinks that Henry would have been more realistic to take only Normandy and an enlarged Guyenne -- in other words, the territories he initially demanded. In other words, success corrupted him.
It will tell you what sort of person Henry was that, only two days after his marriage, he rode back to war (Earle, p. 194; Butler, p. xiv). (I have to insert a side note here, which is rather curious. Henry, as we see, quickly left his wife. Later, he would take no part in her English coronation; Allmand, p. 157. Nor would she be present when he died; Allmand, p. 175. Yet she quickly became pregnant. After Henry's death, she would take Owen Tudor as a secret lover -- possibly a secret husband as well, but this was never proved. Given the seeming sterility of Henry's three brothers, is it possible that she cuckolded her husband? I have never seen this discussed elsewhere; here is yet another instance where DNA testing would be interesting. There was a rumor -- Wagner, p. 46, states it as a fact -- that she had an affair with Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset -- who outlived her and so could have fathered the children. What makes that interesting is the fact that, if true, then "Edmund Tudor," the father of Henry VII, was in fact a Beaufort and the first cousin of his wife Margaret Beaufort -- and Henry VII would have been personally illegitimate, because his parents could not have married without a Papal dispensation. Wagner regards this as unlikely, though; he thinks the affair took place before the Tudor children were born.)
(On the other hand, I wonder a little if Margaret Beaufort was herself a Beaufort. Her father, John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, was an incompetent fool; Wagner, pp. 48-49, shows how his defects cost the English in France. But Margaret was a brilliant schemer whose plans, if they did not always succeed, certainly always made sense. A more different father and daughter would be hard to imagine.)
Pro-Tudor authors say that Katherine Valois married Owen Tudor; anti-Tudor authors raise doubts -- no actual proof of the marriage was ever offered (Cheetham, pp. 132-133). Clearly she would have liked to marry him -- but this likely would not have been allowed; because of the 1428 rumour that she wanted to marry the Duke of Somerset Parliament passed a law requiring those close to the throne to gain permission to marry (Neillands, p. 254).
Ironically, the English suffered the first real bad news of Henry's career soon after his marriage, when his brother Thomas of Clarence, the heir to the throne, was killed in an impetuous and useless skirmish at Bauge in 1421 (Seward, pp. 185-186; Butler, p. xv. It's easy to understand why he was doing it, though -- Earle, p. 165, notes how Henry during the Normandy campaign "subcontracted" conquest to his lords, granting them French land if they could conquer it. Allmand, p. 159, also notes that Clarence was upset because "he had not yet won honor in battle"; he had missed Agincourt due to illness).
Clarence was clearly overconfident; he learned that enemies were in his vicinity the day before Easter, and rather than fight on Easter (which Henry surely would not have approved) or wait two days, he decided to fight with the handful of his troops on hand. They weren't enough; not only was Clarence killed, but also Lord Roos, and two earls captured; the Earl of Salisbury (Henry's best subordinate) was able to get the remaining troops out (Neillands, pp. 233-234), but even if you ignore the death of Clarence, it was clear that the English had lost a battle. Bauge, apart from costing some hard-to-replace troops, did little to change the strategic situation -- but it boosted the morale of the French, meaning that Henry's grip on the country was much weakened; the local lords who had submitted to him started to change their minds. Henry had to hurry back to France to redress the situation (Earle, p. 200-204; Perroy, p. 268).
Later in that year, at Windsor, Queen Katherine bore the child who was to be sole heir to the thrones of France and England, the future Henry VI (Seward, p. 187). It was a significant boost to English morale (Allmand, p. 167), but father and son would never know each other. French towns continued to hold out for the Dauphin, and Henry V was growing increasingly cruel in his methods -- e.g. he hanged the entire garrison of Rougemont (Seward, p. 186). Toward the end of the year, he began the siege of the well-fortified town of Meaux.
It took almost half a year, and once again much of the English army was afflicted by disease. Among them King Henry himself. By the summer of 1422, he could no longer ride a horse and had to be carried on a litter (Earle, p. 212). Still, it looked as if the Dauphinists were on the brink of defeat and France and England on the verge of union. Unfortunately for the world, which was doomed to see another three and a half centuries of conflict between Britain and France, several things went wrong.
For starters, Henry V died.
THE DEATH OF HENRY V AND THE REGENCY OF BEDFORD
It is likely the cause of death was the dysentary Henry contracted at the siege of Meaux (Butler, p. xvi, and Jarman, p. 187, specifically mentions amoebic dysentary, although Allmand, p. 173, says that the precise cause of death cannot be determined), though he managed to take the town (Seward, p. 188). By the time he made it back to Paris, it was clear that he would not survive. He became the first English king since Richard I in 1199 to die outside England, meaning that he could not give final directions to his English council (Allmand, p. 173). And he had not lived long enough to succeed to the throne of France; Charles VI was still alive (though he would not live much longer, dying two months later after a reign of 42 years; Barker, p. xvii. According to Neillands, p. 236, "not a single peer of France followed the sad old king to his rest. Only the Duke of Bedford was there, representing his lord, the infant Henry VI").
Henry from his deathbed made arrangements for the government of England and France, appointing his irresponsible youngest brother Humphrey of Gloucester to head a conciliar English government (Perroy, p. 268) and the more reliable John of Bedford to be regent of France (though Bedford was supposed to offer to the job of the Duke of Burgundy. Burgundy turned it down; Butler, p. xvi; Perroy, pp. 269-270). Henry then died, at the age of 35, on August 31, 1422 (Earle, p. 213). His heir, who was now Henry VI of England, was nine months old.
Lyon, p. 134 n. 1, makes the interesting note that, even though Henry VI was utterly unlike his father, and even though his mother later took up with another man, no one ever questioned Henry the younger's legitimacy. An interesting point....
I frankly suspect that the death of Henry V was good. He was getting power-mad, and vengeful. At the siege of Meaux, e.g., he demanded -- and got -- the execution of a French trumpeter who had razzed him (Allmand, p. 168). This was not the action of a chivalrous king of France; it was the act of a petty tyrant. It is frightening to think what he might have been like in another twenty years. But it left the question of whether his achievements could stand in other hands.
Had Henry conquered France? No. He had taken over the government, but only the regions north of the Loire acknowledged him, and not all of those. And only the Burgundian alliance made it all possible. Perroy, p. 249, considers that France was actually divided into three parts at this time: Lancastrian France, Anglo-Burgundian France, and Dauphinist France -- and Lancastrian France, the only area from which the English could really gather revenue, was very small (Perroy, p. 253); it really consisted of little more than Normandy.
As Wolffe says on p. 26, "Henry V, in claiming the French crown and then dying, undefeated and unspotted by failure, with the necessary conquest of France half achieved, left behind him a glorious legend, but a task impossible to fulfill."
Perroy, p. 267, suggests that, at this time, the English should have gone all-out to try to catch the Dauphin, even though it would have meant raiding deep into unconquered territory and risking being trapped. Clearly it would have ended the war one way or another. Henry V might have managed it. Bedford, with half a country to hold together without the prestige of kingship, didn't risk it; he tried to slowly bring more and more territory under his control.
Still, the English had control of Paris through the Burgundians (and even, to a large extent, the support of the Parisians, who wanted an end to civil war above all else; Perroy, p. 247. The English garrison was only about a hundred men, according to Butler, p. 27 -- far too few even to stop a riot if on had started). The English had direct control of Normandy, and portions of Guyenne; and Henry VI could at least claim to be a descendant of the beloved French monarch Saint Louis on both his father's and mother's side (something English propaganda made much of; Rubin, p. 225); given enough additional troops and money, Bedford might be able to complete the conquest of France. The death of Henry did not immediately end the war; indeed, for a short time, the English continued to win. It was almost all due to Bedford, the Regent of France. "It was soon clear to all that there was no better person to carry on the task left by the late King Henry. Lacking his brother's harshness (and his religious fanaticism), John of Bedford possessed to the full King Henry's flair for diplomacy and his strong sense of justice. To these he added a sincere desire to establish enlightened government in France" (Butler, p. 5).
In 1423, Bedford managed to forge an agreement between England, Burgundy, and Brittany (Seward, p. 196). To cement this, he married Anne, the favorite sister of the Duke of Burgundy (Butler, pp. 19-20), though she is said to have been rather ugly. (They apparently became very fond of each other even so, though the marriage was childless; Burgundy did not desert the alliance until she died.) If the agreement had been maintained, it would almost certainly have been the end of France. Also in 1423, the brilliant Earl of Salisbury, who had saved the English forces after Bauge, won a medium-sized battle at Cravant (Butler, pp. 24-25; Seward, pp. 196-198;based on the description on p. 240 of Neillands, it was one of the few times the English successfully took the offensive against a French army), which prevented a French counter-offensive and showed that English tactics could be used by someone other than the dead King.
The French made one last attempt at an offensive in 1424. A large number of Scots had come to join the French armies (Butler, p. 33), and they wanted to fight, and were apparently causing trouble while they waited to do so (Perroy, p. 263). Bedford assembled what was surely the largest army he had ever led. In the confrontation which followed, the Scots wanted to fight, the French did not (Butler, p. 35). The Scots would have been well advised to listen.
Bedford and Salisbury met the French at Verneuil. As usual, the English were outnumbered (two to one, according to Butler, p. 39; on p. 40 he estimates English numbers at eight or nine thousand, French numbers at fifteen to seventeen thousand). It was a much closer thing that Agincourt -- the French managed to get into Bedford's baggage train, and also managed to attack part of his army before the archers had managed to fully dig in their defensive stakes (Butler, p. 38). Much of the long battle consisted of direct battle between the men-at-arms on each side. Yet, somehow, the English drove off the French wing, and then turned to encircle the Scots, who had earlier rejected quarter and were given none (Butler, p. 39). Although a very near-run thing, it ended with a complete victory for the English. This eliminated the last real army of the Dauphin (Seward, pp. 198-201; Perroy, p. 272) and left him too poor to field another (Butler, p. 40). It also caused tension between the French and the Scots; they would not actually fight together for many years after that (Seward, p. 202; Neillands, p. 243).
Of course, being free of the Scots wasn't entirely bad news for the French; they lost a lot of tough fighters -- but also very stubborn fighters who didn't like strategic thinking. The Earl of Buchan had been the Dauphin's constable (and hence field commander), because the Dauphin didn't want to favor a French faction (Neillands, pp. 246-247) -- but he hadn't really done much for the cause.
Verneuil finally made Normandy safe from French raids (Tuck, p. 266), and freed the English to start working their way down through Maine. And it proved that Henry V wasn't absolutely necessary for the English to win. Except -- it was the last great English victory of the war.
Interestingly, the newest book I've seen on the subject, Butler's, argues on pp. 41-42 that the English might have won the war if, in 1424 after Verneuil, they had gone straight after the French court-in-exile at Bourges. This is similar to Perroy's suggestion that they should have gone after Charles VII in 1420. Similarly Neillands, p. 232: Henry should have marched all out after the Dauphin the moment Troyes became official. In hindsight, this sounds logical. But Henry could not know that he would die in two years. It could be argued that his odds of getting killed were worse *on that trip* than in two years. Better to let people get used to Troyes and then go for the kill. It probably would have worked, if Henry had lived.
On the other hand, that all-out campaign might have been the last real chance for a clear-cut English victory -- the Dauphin might well have been ready to give in.
The English didn't try. Probably they didn't realize how close the Dauphin was to defeat, and they recalled what had happened after Clarence had been killed. A defeat when pursuing the Dauphin would probably have meant the end of Lancastrian France. Better to continue the slow round of sieges and incremental gains. The problem was, of course, that it gave the French time to rebuild. The failure to follow up Verneuil did not automatically mean that the English would be defeated, but it did mean that the long, costly occupation had to continue -- and the money had to come from somewhere.
Which in turn meant that Verneuil was a hollow victory. France had been devastated (Seward, p. 194, comments that "Lancastrian France eventually became a wilderness laid waste by its garrisons, by deserters, by [robbers], and by Dauphinist raiders"), and England was broke (Perroy, p. 255). There was so little silver in Lancastrian France that it was almost impossible even to strike coins (Butler, pp. 40-41). Bedford would never get another chance for a knockout blow -- he couldn't afford to raise a big enough army. Normandy, which had to provide most of the money for England's war, was not up to the task -- Perroy, p. 257, notes that Bedford summoned the Norman Estates more than twenty times in thirteen years, but there was only so much that could be collected. Perroy, p. 262, estimates the revenue available in Dauphinist France to have been five times that which could be raised in Normandy.
Paris in particular was troublesome. The citizens were not rebellious, exactly, since they didn't want the Armagnacs back, but their enthusiasm was limited. Bedford used circus stunts to try to keep the citizens of Paris happy (Butler, p. 51, tells of a contest in which four blind men were engaged to try to kill a pig using hammers), but it couldn't hide the high taxes. Worse, the Parisians were often starving; bad harvests and brigands made it very hard to acquire food (cf. e.g. Butler, pp. 65-68, 142-143. Almost every year of his history brings similar reports).
And it was proving difficult to keep the Duke of Burgundy, on whom everything depended, happy. Part of it was Burgundy's difficult personality; he "was a crafty, conniving Prince. It is hard to see why history has endowed him with the name 'the Good....' [N]othing so harms a prince as a talent for being too clever by half. Nobody trusted him; he stood only for himself; and in the end his lack of loyalty to any other cause or principle led to the ruin of his house" (Neillands, p. 237).
To be sure, the English provoked Burgundy on occasion. In 1424, Humphrey of Gloucester married the Jacqueline, Countess of Hainault, who had first been dubiously married to the Duke of Brabant (Wolffe, pp, 38-39; Tuck, p. 262), then fled to England in 1421 (Neillands, p. 249) and gotten even more dubiously divorced (knowing she couldn't get a divorce from the regular pope, she had gone to an anti-Pope; Perroy, pp. 270-271). Gloucester, who now claimed her lands, led a private expedition into the low countries (Barker, p. 19; Butler, p. 45; Seward, p. 202), which were in the Burgundian sphere of influence. By doing so, he angered a lot of people and distracted the English war effort; Bedford had to spend the period from 1425 to 1427 in England trying to calm things down and raise money and troops (Butler, p. 55). Bedford managed to pick up a little money, but few troops, and meanwhile, the war languished.
(To top it all off, the expedition was a failure and the Countess of Hainault walked out on Gloucester; Perroy, p. 271; Butler, p. 47, points out that Gloucester's disaster was good news for Bedford, since it meant he didn't have to directly intervene militarily. Gloucester, to add to the absurdity of it all, ended up marrying Eleanor Cohbam, who had been one of Jacqueline's ladies-in-waiting; Tuck, p. 263. In the end, Burgundy took over Hainault, so it was all loss from the English standpoint; Neillands, p. 249.)
In one of life's little ironies, Humphrey apparently had two illegitimate children by Eleanor before their marriage (Neillands, p. 278), but they had no children after their marriage, which meant that the hopeless Henry VI was the only legitimate offspring of the entire House of Lancaster.
The French, meanwhile, had finally found a decent general in Dunois, the Bastard of Orleans, who made his name beginning in 1427. More would be heard from him later.
ORLEANS
Simple economics meant that the war would soon slow down. The question was whether the English could win before the collapse. They would find out at Orleans.
Butler, p. 4, calls Orleans the "real center" of Dauphinist France, though the actual government was carried on elsewhere. If Orleans it fell, it might well cripple the Dauphinists. The Earl of Salisbury, the best English general, therefore pressed hard to attack the city. Bedford finally gave in, even though he had wanted to campaign in Anjou (Butler, p. 78; Curry, pp. 110-111, suggests that the government in England had authorized this by ordering troops directly to Salisbury rather than putting them under Bedford's control; Wagner, p. 217, tells an un-proved story of the Duke of Burgundy hitting on Salisbury's wife, causing Salisbury to want a campaign that Burgundy opposed).
It wasn't going to be easy for the English, who had only a small army. Orleans was too large for the besiegers to encircle, and too strong to take by assault (Seward, pp. 209-210). Myers, p. 124, calls it "a travesty of a siege." Still, Salisbury was a genius, who if he could not invest the town was at least cutting off the roads and river passages which led to it (Butler, pp. 78-81; Neillands, p. 255). Many think he might have taken the city had he lived. But some sort of artillery, fired "at a venture" (as 1 Kings would put it), injured him fatally (Myers, p. 275; Butler, p. 81, says it was fired by a child, and Neillands, p. 255, claims it was fired by accident!); Salisbury died October 27, 1428, and was replaced by the Earl of Suffolk (so Butler, p. 82, and Seward; Wilkinson, p. 261, says it was Lord Talbot; but Talbot was merely the most famous of the junior officers there and, if we are to believe Butler, p. 82, the one who caused the most fear among the defenders. It appears Talbot eventually took charge -- Neillands, p. 257 -- but that was later). Suffolk simply sat down to grind out the fight.
(If you want a picture of what Suffolk was like, consider this: When the French attacked Suffolk's army at Jargeau, and Suffolk was captured, he thought it so unbecoming to be captured by a mere squire that he insisted upon knighting him on the spot, even though he was an enemy; Butler, p. 98.)
One attempt to break the siege was defeated by Sir John Fastolfe at the so-called "Battle of the Herrings" (so-called because French artillery damaged the casks containing English Lenten provisions; Featherstone, p, 162 calls it the "Battle of Rouvray," but no one else uses that title), but that just meant the siege dragged on (Butler, pp. 86-87).
Guerard calls Orleans the Verdun, or the Stalingrad, of the Hundred Years War (p. 109). And it was at Orleans that Jean Darc appeared.
The lack of troops meant that the English perimeter around the city was insufficiently manned (Perroy, p. 283); it might be better to call it a blockade. But even that was loose, since Suffolk had put most of his men into "winter quarters," pulling back his outposts (Neillands, p. 257; Butler, p. 82); food could still get in at times -- especially by river, since Suffolk had not done anything to block off the Loire (Butler, p. 94). And Bedford and Burgundy had a disagreement at this time, resulting in Burgundy pulling his troops out of the siege and from the supply routes leading to it (Butler, pp. 88-89). As a result, those inside the walls were not only more numerous but often in better health than those outside. Perroy, p. 275, thinks the city still would have fallen eventually, but the English historians mostly disagree. Especially since Talbot wasn't a good siege commander; he was incredibly aggressive in the field, but when subtlety and detail work was called for, he wasn't at his best -- hence, perhaps, the porous encirclement. The porous encirclement also lead Jean Darc enter the city on April 30, 1429 (Seward, p. 212; Neillands, p. 258, says she had reached the vicinity on March 6). And Bedford had no hope of bringing in reinforcements, due to lack of money -- he was already being forced to cut his officials' pay (Butler, p. 91), a problem made worse by significant English casualties during an Armagnac raid toward Paris.
Jean Darc, or Joan of Ark, will always be controversial -- in part because we know so little about her. A peasant girl from Domremy, we don't even know the year she was born; Wilkinson, p. 261, says "probably in 1412." Butler, p. 96, mentions the sort-of-traditional date of January 4, 1412, but admits uncertainty; Neillands, p. 253, without hesitation says she was born January 6, 1412. Perroy, p. 282, says her career began when she was between 16 and 20, which would allow birth dates between 1409 and 1413. Seward, p. 213, says her visions began when she was about 17, before her public career, implying a birth date of perhaps 1411. Keen, p. 257, seems to place her first visions much earlier, "just after the treaty of Troyes," which would hint that the hormonal changed caused by menarche might have caused them.
Her first communication to the English was a letter to Bedford, dated March 22, 1429, calling on the English to withdraw from France or suffer divine punishment (Butler, p. 93).
A modern presented with a list of her behaviors would almost certainly describe her as a schizophrenic (and schizophrenia, we note, tends to manifest itself some time between the ages of fifteen and 25 -- in other words, just when Jean's visions became intense); even Perroy, whose attitude on this is not very rational, admits on p. 282 that "In our skeptical days people would be inclined to regard Joan as mad, mentally deficient, visionary, or even bogus. Her contemporaries simply wondered whether she was sent by God or the devil." Butler, while seeming to have a lot of respect for her, on p. 93 calls her letter "highly illiterate." In due time, the English would burn her as a heretic; the French would revere her as a saint. The English were surely wrong; she was an orthodox Catholic. I'm not convinced the French are right, either; she was a nut case. But she had the right message for France. As Guerard comments on p. 109, "For posterity she imparted a mystic prestige to the cause of that sorry personage Charles VII."
And, after she arrived, the English siege of Orleans -- managed by relatively weak officers and conducted by insufficient forces -- failed. It wasn't exactly that Jean Darc had worked magic -- even Guerard, with a Frenchman's inflated opinion of her, admits that "the material and moral aid brought by Joan was sufficient to turn the tide" (p. 111). Wilkinson, p. 260, says that moderns have "magnified... [her] contemporary significance." Perroy, p. 283, concedes, She knew nothing of the art of war, and thought that abstaining from oaths and brothels was enough to ensure victory for the soldiers." (The claim that she died a virgin seems to have been true; Butler, p. 138.) At least one of her suggestions, if carried out, might have led to the fall of Orleans, since it would have given the English an easy chance to capture a major supply convoy (Butler, p. 94). It was captains, such as Dunois, who led the actual fighting, often refusing to accept her suggestions."She never actually commanded the army; her role was more that of a living standard, charging recklessly at the head of the troops. Indeed, her only tactic was the charge, her only policy a relentless determination to attack the English..." (Neillands, pp. 252-253).
Despite Jean's manifest failings, somehow, her presence was sufficient. A raid on the English fortifications captured a key strong point, and the English were no longer in position to guard all the entrances to the city (Butler, pp. 95-96).
On May 8, 1429, the English gave up the siege of Orleans (Seward, pp. 216-219). They tried to get the French to come out and fight. The French refused (Neillands, p. 260), and Talbot and the English were out of ideas.
Jean went on to have Charles VII formally crowned at Rheims, at last giving France a legitimist King. The English responded by finally crowning the seven-year-old Henry VI in England (Butler, p. 119), though it was not until 1431 that they sent him across the channel to be crowned King of France (Butler, p. 148, who notes on p. 149 that this was the first time he ever met his maternal grandmother).
Unfortunately, Rheims -- the place where French Kings were crowned -- was in Dauphinist hands. Henry VI was crowned King of France in Paris -- which was not considered an official coronation; Perroy, p. 287. (Perroy, p. 285, gives the crowning of Charles VII a mystic significance which it clearly did not have, but it definitely improved the anti-English position.)
To make matters worse, Henry's coronation was done in English style, apparently by Cardinal Beaufort rather than a French prelate (Butler, p. 150). The French naturally considered this a significant insult. Plus the whole banquet and celebration was completely mishandled, losing a chance to make the Parisians like their new monarch; he came off as ungenerous and inept (Butler, pp. 150-153). Admittedly the Lancastrian government was broke -- but, at this stage, they really needed to invest in keeping Paris happy, and they didn't.
The French found much encouragement in the fact that the Dauphin was now, finally, King,
They actually chased the English army as it left Orleans. When they caught up with Lord Talbot (who really didn't know how to manage anything except a direct attack) and Sir John Fastolfe at Patay, Jean pushed her soldiers into a quick attack, which proved a significant success; Talbot and several others were captured, though Fastolfe managed to keep a portion of the English army intact (Butler, pp. 103-104; Neillands, p. 261). Fastolfe's heroics didn't change the fact that the French had finally won a victory in the field. Bedford himself would later report that "These blows were caused in great part by that limb of the fiend called Pucelle, or the Maid, who used false enchantments and sorcery" (Neillands, p. 263).
In one sense, Orleans, and Patay, and even the crowning of Charles VII was not decisive. The English expansion had been stopped, but they still controlled almost everything they had before, including Paris.
Jean wanted to change that; her next goal was Paris (Butler, p. 113). She failed in an assault (Seward, p. 221; Perroy, p. 285), and a crossbowman put a bolt in her thigh (Butler, p. 114). She lived, but her reputation for invincibility was broken -- she had apparently declared that the attackers would enter Paris that day, and of course they didn't (Butler, p. 115). She had actually weakened Lancastrian hold on the metropolis (the English turned it and other territories over to the Burgundians, and the suburbs became even more subject to raiders; Butler, pp. 119-120), but that wasn't even close to capturing the city.
But every bit of land that went into Burgundy's hands gave them less reason to stick with the English (Neillands, p. 264); as long as they kept what they had gained, they didn't care if they held it of the English or the French. The Burgundians by now were negotiating with the Dauphinists. But Charles VII was not yet willing to make sufficient concessions, and the negotiations broke down (Butler, p. 121).
Somewhat later, Jean was captured by the Burgundians (Perroy, p. 286; Seward, p. 219; Butler, p. 130, says she was wearing a "gorgeous gold and scarlet surcoat" when she was hauled from her horse, implying that she wasn't exactly dressing in poverty as was generally expected of prophets). She was turned over to the English (Perroy, p. 287, says she was sold by John of Luxembourg for 10,000 livres; Butler, p. 133, notes that the need to have her in custody was so urgent that the government actually had to get English gold for it).
Once in English hands, she was accused of heresy. The English did not invent these charges; apparently the University of Paris -- which was entirely French -- was the first to bring charges against her. Butler, pp. 131-132, thinks it was because they were "deeply suspicious of the female sex" and thought her behavior unnatural -- plus it was an era of visionaries, and far too many of those visionaries were women (Saunders, pp. 140-141, lists several examples, though a lot of these, like Catherine of Siena, sound to me more like manifestations of obsessive-compulsive disorder than anything else. Some probably did see visions, though; on the other side of the English Channel, and without the crazy rituals, think of Julian of Norwich). In the end, though, it appears Jean was called a witch less because she heard voices than because she cut her hair in a man's style and dressed like a man (cf. Perroy, p. 282; Rubin, p. 228) and rode astride a horse (cf. Butler, p. 138). Had she not engaged in those allegedly-masculine behaviors, she might simply have been called a nut.
The English subjected her to the sort of abuse inflicted on all suspected heretics (Seward, p. 219; Perroy, p. 288, notes that "[t]he cruelty of the procedure shocks our conscience as modern men. But it was simply that of the Inquisition, which was daily applied, without offending anyone, to any number of poor wretches..."). And she was only one uneducated girl trying to defend herself against legions of canon lawyers. The trial is popularly treated as a farce, but even Perroy, p. 288, admits that the judges had not "sold their consciences"; they were simply prelates who accepted the English cause. Naturally the court convicted her.
The English may not have been too happy, though -- the court did not condemn her to death out of hand. She confessed, and was sentenced to life imprisonment (Perroy, p. 289). But Jean, certainly foolish and very probably mentally disturbed, could not hold to the terms she had agreed to. Only a week after her confession, she was declared to have relapsed. Two days later, on May 30, 1431, she was shown to the crowd in Rouen, still dressed in men's clothing (Butler, p. 143, though it is not clear whether that was her idea or her captors'). After the display and some preaching, she was burned at the stake in Rouen, perhaps not yet twenty years old.
(A French-dominated re-trial in 1456 would overturn her conviction. Again Perroy, p. 280, is forced to admit that this tribunal "tried to prove too much"; already legend was displacing fact. It will tell you something about contemporary politics that her visions were considered by the English as evidence of heresy, by the French as evidence of inspiration, rather either regarding them as being evidence of mental disturbance. And don't even get me started on the fact that she was canonized centuries later -- what was canonized was not Jean Darc, peasant girl who crowned Charles VII, but Joan of Arc, pious fiction hardly even "based on a true story.")
(Incidentally, this was not the only time a woman was burned during the English occupation. Butler, p. 7, observes that Bedford had a woman in Paris burned after she took part in a conspiracy to remove English control of Paris. Butler regards Bedford's tendency toward excessive punishment as one of his few faults. More significant for our opinion of Jean is the burning of a woman named Pieronne, who claimed to have conversed directly with God; Butler, p. 136. Even though she claimed to do much the same thing that Jean Darc did, but in slightly more explicit form, no one has canonized her....)
Guerard, p. 112: "[Jean] was burned in the Old Market Place, at Rouen, on May 30, 1431, with the name of Jesus on her lips. Charles VII had not stirred a finger to save her; the Holy Chrism had made a king of him, but not a man."
Little wonder that Charles was nicknamed "the Well-Served." In himself, he was almost helpless -- "Stunted, knock-kneed, blank-faced, epileptic and suspicious," according to Earle, p. 180. Seward, pp. 214-215, tells that his court included a Satanist who was also a child-murderer, and the king himself suffered from phobias and dabbled in astrology and similar foolishness. At this time, he was almost as useless as his younger contemporary Henry VI of England. But, somehow, France eventually rallied around him.
The tide might have turned even without Jean. Bedford managed by 1431 to recapture all ground lost in 1429-1430 (Seward, p. 221; Butler, p. 105, observes that "During the seven weeks following this calamity for the English and their allies, the Duke of Bedford acted with extraordinary judgment and energy" and adds on p. 134 that 12 fortresses were taken just in the first half of 1430). They even took the brigand captain La Hire soon after Jean was burned -- something taken as a sign that she had not been divinely inspired (Butler, p. 144). Somewhat later the Earl of Warwick captured another major leader, Poton de Xantrailles (Butler, p. 146).
Had the economy been stronger, or the fields more fertile, the war might have been won. But it was the Little Ice Age; the English had nothing to spare, and Paris was starving and ready to give up on Lancaster (Seward, p. 222), and the Burgundians -- the only ones who were actually profiting from all this -- were wavering. And Jean has "forced the French military and political class out of a sense of inevitable defeat" (Rubin, p. 228). Charles VII still refused to fight the English in the field (Butler, p. 108), but as Charles V's reconquest of Acquitaine had shown, there were more ways to win a war than with set-piece battles.
Ironically, the French tried to develop a new Jean in the form of "William the Shepherd," whom Butler, p. 145, calls a "poor idiot." He didn't amount to much (the English captured him, displayed him to the Parisians, and caused him to disappear; Butler, p. 148) -- but he didn't need to. The tide was turning. Even Charles VII was starting to devote some energy to ruling (though Keen, p. 257, considers this due to the influence of a mistress).
1432 was a very bad year for the English. As usual, Paris was starving. The French actually made a raid on Lancastrian Rouen, though it failed spectacularly (Butler, pp. 1156-157). A difficult fight at Lagny was regarded as a moral defeat for the invaders, and Seward, p. 225, thinks that Bedford may have damaged his health. Later in the year, his wife, Anne of Burgundy, died in an epidemic of some kind, though she was only 28 (Butler, pp. 161-162) -- weakening the tie between the English and Burgundians, since the Duke of Burgundy was very fond of his sister. It probably also worsened relations with the Parisians, since the Duchess was popular there (Butler, pp. 43, 162).
In practical terms, her death may well have spelled the end of Lancastrian France, because Burgundy had been talking covertly with Charles VII for some time. With Anne gone, Burgundy lost his chief link to the Lancastrians.
And, as with the Treaty of Bretigny, the English were out-lawyered. Burgundy's chancellor pointed out that, under the Treaty of Troyes, Henry V was supposed to succeed Charles VI -- but the treaty did not say that he could transmit the succession if he died before Charles (Neillands, p. 268), which of course was what happened. So Burgundy had a useful excuse if he chose to change sides.
The English government was going bankrupt; a detailed audit in 1433 (the first one known to us) showed that revenues were not sufficient to handle even ordinary expenses, let alone the cost of war. King Henry was actually placed in a monastery for a time to reduce expenses (Wolffe, pp. 73-74). We don't know how much this really influenced his later behavior (more than one person has suggested it would have been better had he stayed there), but it was certain that his expenses would go up as he married and built his own household. Under existing financial arrangements, there was simply no way for England to pay for the ongoing war. (At one point, they actually resorted to hiring alchemists to try to get them to turn base metals into gold! -- Griffiths, p. 787.)
In 1433, Bedford rather hastily remarried, to Jacquetta of Luxembourg, daughter of the Count of St. Pol (Butler, p. 166). She was 17 and very pretty (her children by her second husband, the Woodville clan, were among the most beautiful people in England, and her daughter Elizabeth Woodville would snag the future King Edward IV with her looks). Bedford and his wife had no children in their brief time together, and it may have caused further problems for the Anglo-Burgundian alliance, since Philip of Burgundy didn't want the English to increase their influence in the Low Countries (Butler, pp. 166-167). To add to his problems, the English parliament was starting to question the conduct of the war (Butler, p. 168). Admittedly it was going badly -- but they were the ones who failed to supply either adequate troops to win or adequate money for Bedford to finish it off with soldiers from the continet. In the end, Parliament in effect asked Bedford to act as regent for both France and England (Butler, p. 170), which inevitably meant that he would devote less attention to France.
By 1434, Bedford's younger brother Humphrey of Gloucester was offering to take over the war. His proposals, when examined, amounted to very little (Butler, pp. 174-175), But no one else had a better idea. As usual, nothing much was done.
Not surprisingly, the English position continued to decay. There was a rising in Normandy in 1434 (Butler, p. 176), and the garrisons in Paris were going unpaid. Yet when Philip of Burgundy suggested negotiations, Bedford unwisely turned the idea down. In 1435, as Burgundy applied more pressure, the parties actually held peace negotiations -- but they went nowhere (Butler, p. 181). Bedford apparently participated only because he was pressured by Burgundy (Butler, p. 182). He seems to have hoped the French government would fall apart due to lack of money. According to Perroy, p. 294, the best offer Bedford was willing to make to Charles VII was in effect to let him keep what he still held if he would acknowledge English overlordship. This offer was understandably rejected. It is true that,when the English gave up on the talks, the French tried to get them back -- but they really didn't need to. They were winning.
In February 1435, Bedford left Paris (Butler, p. 182) -- for the last time, as it turned out (Seward, p. 230). Soon after, a force under the Earl of Arundel was destroyed while fighting raiders in Normandy, and Arundel suffered a fatal injury from a cannonball -- a foretaste of events in 1453 (Butler, p. 183). The French meanwhile were building works they would use to besiege Paris.
The English still might have salvaged something had they been willing to compromise; Burgundy worked hard to bring this about (Butler, pp. 185-186). But Burgundy was going to have peace no matter what. The moment the peace talks failed, the Burgundians turned about and agreed to the Treaty of Arras, reconciling them to the French monarchy (Myers, pp. 124-125; Perroy, pp. 292-294, Butler, p. 187). In the long run, it was a disastrous move for Burgundy (Seward, p. 234) -- Louis XI would swallow the French portions of it in the 1480s when the male line of dukes failed. But the Burgundian dukes had a record of not thinking very clearly; Perroy, p. 291, suggests that Duke Philip thought he could dominate Charles VII and the French monarchy. He was wrong, but before he realized it, he had rendered the English position impossible. He also blew the chance to create an independent Burgundy, though he gained a great deal of (temporary) power in France itself (Perroy, p. 295). To top it all off, Charles VII never implemented many of his promises to Burgundy (Perroy, p. 332).
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File: C164C

King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164] --- Part 05

DESCRIPTION: Conclusion of the notes to "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" [Child 164].
Last updated in version 4.2
NOTES [6317 words]: THE DEATH OF BEDFORD AND THE LOSS OF FRANCE
Bedford had blown any chance of keeping a position in France, and he seemed to know it, for he seemed to fall into despair. He would not live to see Lancastrian France destroyed. Bedford died on September 14 at Rouen (and was buried there, one of the few great English nobles buried in France); Seward, p. 231. According to Butler, p. 187, so deep was his despair that he literally turned his face to the wall and died. He was only about 46. His only offspring was a bastard son; he left most of his property to the monarchy (Butler, p. 188).
Just eleven days after Bedford's death, on September 25, Burgundy formally broke the alliance with England and announced his agreement with the French (Neillands, p. 270). As early as 1436, Burgundy was attacking the English position around Calais, although that invasion failed completely; had it not been for the demands of politics at home that prevented the English from following up, the Burgundians might have paid dearly for their temerity (Neillands, p. 271).
The English, minus Bedford, quickly discovered how important the Regent had been at controlling their hotheads. The Burgundians were willing to stay at peace with the English, but the English insisted on treating them as enemies from this time forward (Butler, p. 190). This may well have been the young King Henry's idea -- his first serious foray into government (Wolffe, pp. 80-83). Naturally this made their problems worse. A few of the wiser English leaders, such as Cardinal Beaufort, gave in and started thinking about a real peace (Butler, p. 191). They had very little time.
Paris was already in a panic by late 1435 (Butler, p. 191). They sent to the government in England, which scraped up a few troops but did not get them moving in time; they seem to have promptly disbanded (Butler, p. 192).
In 1436, the French captured some small ports in Normandy (Butler, p. 195). Lord Talbot, realizing that Paris could not be held, seems to have withdrawn most of his inadequate force before the French surrounded the town (Butler, p. 196). That left the city commander, Lord Willoughby, with only a token defensive force when the French began their blockade. Even this was whittled down as the garrison was pushed into raids on areas outside the walls, and some of the raiders were captured . Although several bishops wanted to fight on, the townsfolk proved unwilling to defend the walls of Paris (Butler, pp. 200-201), and the English garrison was overwhelmed on April 13. Happily, there was no sack of the city (Butler, p. 203, though he notes on p. 204 that Charles VII would not be so gentle in future), and the besiegers even brought in food.
Lord Willoughby and his troops took refuge in the citadel, but soon had to retreat to Rouen (Seward, p. 235). This hardly brought peace to France -- the war had loosed many brigands who continued to destroy the countryside (Perroy, p. 303) -- but it meant that English revenues fell even more. Seward, p. 234, suggests that some in England were wise enough to realize that they could not win, and would have been willing to settle for Normandy and Guyenne in full sovereignty. But, as usual, there was a war party which made such a settlement impossible. They deluded themselves mostly by looking at the success of Lord Talbot, who actually managed a raid on Paris in 1437 (Butler, pp. 207-208). In November 1437, Charles VII was able to enter Paris (Neillands, p. 272), and by 1438, the French government had returned there (Neillands, p. 273).
By this time, Henry VI was old enough that he might have been able to influence things. But he was about as unlike his fearsome father as it was possible to be. Although Wolffe, p. 83, describes him as formulating a belligerent policy, he is forced to admit that Henry was "no practical soldier." Wilkinson, p. 257, declares, "[N]o earlier monarch after Ethelred the Unready had been so lacking in the attributes necessary in a medieval king.... Henry VI had only scholarly learning, piety, and good intentions to commend him at a moment in history that demanded heroic virtues, the capacity for great decisions, and inflexibility of purpose." He could not run a war; he couldn't even run his own court! As Ross says on p. 21, "Unfortunately, comments on Henry's character by people writing before the Yorkist usurpation of 1461 are few and meagre, but they lend some support to the notion that he was indeed a man of limited mental capacity who was too much influenced by those around him."
We do know that, by the time he was in his mid-twenties, arrangements were being made to control his impulses -- a set of measures were taken to reduce the amount of crown property he gave away and to ensure that, if he must give it away, he at least did not give it away to more than one person! (Wolffe, p. 114. Griffiths, p. 365, notes cases where Henry granted the same estate to two different people *on consecutive days*, another where he granted the same property to two sworn enemies, and a number of cases where clauses were written into grants saying they were only effective if Henry hadn't granted the land already!). And when he did grant a property or an office in an effective way, he often granted it to someone with no local ties, who therefore was not effective in managing local affairs (Griffiths, p. 334). Even in England, anarchy was increasing.
The one attempt at something constructive in this period was the release of the French Duke of Orleans, who had been captured all the way back at Agincourt. The Burgundians ransomed him, and the English agreed to release him if he would try to win a peace settlement (Neillands, p. 277), but that accomplished absolutely nothing.
From then on, the war in France was all rearguard action: A few chevauchees, a few raids and sieges, the latter led mostly by Lord Talbot, who was turning into "Old Talbot" -- a legendary figure in England but one who lost the only major battles he led (Seward, p. 236-237). The Earl of Warwick, the last of Henry V's great officers, died in 1439 (Seward, p. 239). Various officials were put in charge in France in the next dozen years, including the Duke of York and the Earl of Somerset. York, assisted by Talbot, managed to mostly hold his ground; the English held off attacks on Normandy and Guyenne in 1441 and 1442 (Seward, pp. 240-241). But York was spending his own money to do it (Rubin, p. 271; Lander, p. 29, prints evidence that by 1446 York was owed over 38,000 pounds); it was not something that could last long. And Somerset was a disaster who took a large force to France and accomplished nothing except to bring the government closer to bankruptcy (Seward, p. 242).
It was not yet a civil war in England, but with Bedford dead and Henry VI unable to control the factions, things were moving that way. On one side was Henry V's last brother, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, who favored escalating the French war though he had no real plan for how to do so. On the other was Henry's half-uncle, Cardinal Beaufort. Beaufort was more realistic (although he had a crazy idea of a crusade against the Hussites while the French war was still going on; Tuck, p. 269); Gloucester had more popularity with the commons. Beaufort had control of the court (he had given the crown so much money that he very nearly owned the place; Tuck, p. 262), but could do little with it.
So bitter was the hatred that Humphrey in the 1420s had accused Beaufort of treason (Butler, p. 63). Bedford had soothed that over -- but with him gone, things got much, much worse. In the early 1440s, Humphrey's latest wife Eleanor Cobham (who had replaced Jacqueline of Hainault) was convicted of witchcraft by the Beaufort party (Wilkinson, p. 265). In 1447, they arrested Humphrey himself, and he died in custody (Gillingham, p. 60). Gillingham thinks he died of a stroke (which was the report of one contemporary chronicler), but most contemporaries apparently regarded it as murder, and in this they are followed by Wilkinson, p. 266. Rubin, p. 231, says the death took place in "mysterious circumstances."
Gloucester's death produced a real political crisis, since he was heir to the throne. With him dead, and Henry VI still childless, who was heir? Henry VI was the only true "Lancastrian" Plantagenet alive. For the first time, the question of a Beaufort succession had to be faced (Perroy, p. 336, thinks their leader, Somerset, "might aim at the succession to the King"). The Beauforts were partially legitimized descendents of John of Gaunt, Henry VI's great-grandfather; if they were fully legitimized, they were the heirs to the throne in male line. But if they were not considered legitimate, then the Duke of York was heir in male line (Lander, p. 34), and actually senior to the Lancastrians in female line. In 1450, a motion was made in parliament to have York declared Henry VI's heir. The court responded by having the petitioner arrested (Rubin, p. 272; Wilkinson, p. 278). There is much dispute over the extent of York's ambitions, and his abilities (Ross-Wars, p. 28, thinks he had "little capacity or inclination to seek and win support from his fellow-noblemen or from the wider public," while admitting that he tried to provide honest government while regent) -- but it is certain that he was a better leader than Henry VI or his wife Margaret (anyone would be), and that he had been utterly mistreated by the government.
The court party, being so weak, had repeatedly tried to buy support with grants of titles and annuities; by the 1450s, due in no small part to massive grants of land to new peers (Gillingham, p. 56), Henry VI's government had revenues of less than 30,000 pounds per year, household expenses of 24,000, and a debt of 400,000 (Myers, p. 126; based on Gillingham, pp. 66-67, more than 10% of this was owed to the Duke of York alone!). With no money available to pay soldiers, naturally garrisons dwindled to almost nothing. Lancastrian France was a hollow shell.
In 1444, the Earl of Suffolk (who took charge of the court party when Cardinal Beaufort retired from his public role) tried to negotiate a peace. So bad was the English situation, and so incompetent was Suffolk, that in return for a royal marriage (Henry VI to the utterly disastrous Margaret of Anjou) and a two year truce, he had to agree to the surrender of the county of Maine (Seward, p. 244; Myers, p. 126, says that Margaret had to talk Henry into giving up Maine; Gillingham, p. 57, suggests that Henry VI made the concession on his own to assert his independence and in a sort of Munich-like attempt at peace through weakness; Wilkinson, p. 271, points out that Henry himself wrote a 1445 letter agreeing to the surrender). Other than the brief truce, Margaret brought no dowry at all (Gillingham, p. 59) -- indeed, she had to be given land in Lancashire to pay her expenses (Rubin, p. 231).
(The above, at least, is the English view. Perroy, pp. 310-311, says that it was only a ten month truce with an option for an extension, and thinks that it was a good deal for both sides, because the marriage of Henry and Margaret was a "promising prospect." Promising it was -- but only for the French.)
In one sense, the surrender was realistic: The English had to give up some lands. The mere fact that they were treating with Charles VII shows that they had abandoned hope of ruling France. But I have to agree with the anti-Margaret faction: they should at least have gotten value for what they gave up! Gillingham, p. 56, oberves that they still had a strong position: Guyenne, Calais, Normandy, much of Anjou, and Maine -- the latter well fortified for the defence of Normandy. They were giving up the key to this position -- and all they got for it was a truce too short to do any good, and a Queen who would cause England to fight the Wars of the Roses starting just 11 years later.
To make matters worse, the French used the truce to improve their situation, even as the English sat and twiddled their thumbs. After most past truces, the French soldiers had been cut loose to become brigands, weakening the economy even as it ruined the army. Charles VII cleverly took the best of the soldiers into his peacetime army, strengthening his forces for the next showdown and avoiding the unpopularity the soldiers would have caused in the countryside (Perroy, p. 304). It meant taxes stayed high -- but the centralized French government no longer worried about that.
Margaret was now the real ruler of England, through her husband, but she was "a domineering and uncompromising woman. She had no understanding of English traditions and not much more of English politics, and was soon hated by the plebs as representing an unpopular policy in both foresight and domestic affairs" (Wilkinson, p. 270). Her primary ally was Somerset, the leading Beaufort -- in other words, with Humphrey of Gloucester dead, he probably though of himself as Henry VI's heir unless Margaret bore a child (Gillingham, p. 68). Little wonder there were court conflicts!
Even Perroy, pp. 335-336, admits "Margaret of Anjou was a foreigner, ambitious, active, and intense, and she knew nothing about English affairs. Brought up in the kingdom of France, where no one opposed the royal authority, she wanted to rule without the counsel of the barons and the advice of Parliament.... French at heart, she stood for peace [with France] and did nothing to wrestle from the Valois the provinces recently lost by England.... This was another source of her unpopularity, since public opinion unanimously demanded revenge for these defeats, though it was unready to bear the cost of a fresh war. The more isolated she felt, the more enthusiastically Margaret committed herself to the party that had put her on the throne. This was the clan of the Beauforts... led by Someset, vanquished at Caen but now Constable and all-powerful counselor."
The French meanwhile were building a true standing army (Seward, p. 247; Perroy, p. 300; Keen, pp. 257-258 credits this to the "great ordinance of 1439") -- not even Henry V had really had that, though he had controlled his forces well enough that he might as well have. But lesser English lords had only their household troops -- tough as any regulars, to be sure, but not as numerous. Charles VII also managed to gain control over revenues -- he now simply set the tax rates, and the people had to pay (Perroy, p. 302. I can't help but wonder if the people who fought against the English knew what they were getting themselves into).
In 1449 the French moved on Normandy, given an excuse by some sharp dealings involving the surrender of Maine (Gillingham, p. 61; Perroy, p. 317, notes the extreme folly of the situation, in which allies of Somerset attacked the pro-French Duchy of Brittany). At once, the English house of cards collapsed (Seward, p. 248). Within three months, Rouen was under siege -- and the townsfolk admitted the French, forcing the English back into the citadel. Somerset, who had distributed his forces into penny-packet garrisons that the French could easily swallow, promptly had to surrender -- and to leave Talbot, the last noteworthy English general, in French hands (Seward, p. 249).
The English finally managed to scrape up a few reinforcements in 1450, led by a mere knight, Sir Thomas Kyriell -- and one who, although he had long served in Normandy, had also been accused of financial misbehavior (Griffiths, p. 506). These blundered into battle at a small town called Formigny (Guerard, p. 113) on April 15, 1450. As usual, estimates of their number vary; Perroy, p. 318 suggests that there were 5000 from England and 2000 from the remaining Norman garrisons, but most sources seem to give estimates in the 4000-4500 range. Featherstone, pp. 168-169, suggests 4000 men but makes it even weaker in practice, since there were only 1500 archers, and a few hundred men-at-arms, meaning that half the army was billmen -- surely the weakest type of soldier for this sort of fight.
What is certain is that the English were decisively defeated; supposedly the French counted over 3700 dead. Perroy, p. 319, says that English casualties, killed, wounded, and captured, were "nearly 5000." Featherstone, p. 171, declares that 80% of the English army was killed. Griffiths, p. 520, says 900 were captured and 2300 killed. Kyriell himself was among those captured (Seward, pp. 250-251. In an ironic footnote, although Kyriell suffered no immediate consequences at home, he would later be executed by the army of Queen Margaret, who had hung him out to dry; Griffiths, p. 872)
The English position thereafter was hopeless. Bayeux was taken on May 16 (Griffiths, pp. 520-521). Caen fell on June 24. On August 12, 1450 -- supposedly one year to the day after the campaign started (Perroy, p. 319) -- Cherbourg surrendered (Seward, p. 252). English Normandy -- the territory Henry V had apparently wanted above all else -- was gone.
The government by then was completely bankrupt; the officers of state were going unpaid (Rubin, p. 65). By 1449, parliament was forced to disown the debt, saying that loan repayments could not be guaranteed (Griffiths, p. 394) -- which obviously meant that no new loans could be raised. There was no possibility of mounting a major counterattack.
Suffolk, who had the support of Queen Margaret, was made a Duke in 1448, but so great was the unrest that Parliament impeached him (Wilkinson, p. 275; Lander, p. 38, notes that most of the charges were false or exaggerated, but in any case the real crime was making such a bad agreement with France). Henry VI tried to save him by exiling him, but before he could escape the country, he was murdered in 1450 (Gillingham, p, 63; OxfordCompanion, p. 758; Seward, pp. 254-255). Two others who had large roles in Henry's government were killed at about the same time (Wilkinson, pp. 273-274; Lander, p. 35). The disaster also led to Jack Cade's rebellion, which didn't really accomplish much but which scared a lot of people. So pig-headed was the court party that the de facto role of Prime Minister now went to Somerset, who had been in charge of the loss of Normandy (Perroy, p. 319).
The popular resentment didn't change the situation. In 1451-1453, the French threw the English out of Guyenne, which they had ruled since 1154. The initial occupation took only a few months in 1451 (Seward, pp. 256-257). It needn't have been final; the Guyennese actually preferred remote English rule to direct French control, and the imported French officials proved harsh masters (Perroy, p. 320). When the English scraped together an army in 1452, Bordeaux rebelled and admitted them (Seward, p. 258); much of the rest of the province followed.
But the general the English sent, "Old Talbot," while a genius in leading raids, was not a great commander at set-piece battles, and was now very old (Perroy, p. 321, says over eighty, though most sources say he was in his seventies; OxfordCompanion, p. 173, says he was 65). He couldn't even fight in person -- as a condition for his most recent release from French captivity, he had sworn an oath to never again wear armor against the French (Neillands, p. 283. For once, the English out-lawyered the French: Talbot led the English army, but in civilian dress). And the French had finally found a new weapon to combat the longbow: Artillery. Guns let them destroy Talbot and his troops at Castillon on July 17, 1453 (Myers, p. 127; Perroy, p. 321; Ros, p. 122; Keen, p. 255, calls it the battle of "Chastillon") when Talbot impetuously tried to attack the French artillery park head-on (Seward, pp. 260-262) and without examining the position (OxfordCompanion, p. 173).
The castles and towns of Guyenne promptly gave in to the French. Bordeaux, the last, surrendered only three months after Castillon (Seward, p. 262). This time, they were treated as conquered territory, and suffered badly (Perroy, p. 321). But there was no going back. As Perroy says, the great fief of Acquitaine, and the Angevin Empire, was gone.
The Hundred Years' War was over. It was "the final, though as yet unbelievable, severance of England from the last remnants of the continental empire of Henry II" (Harvey, p. 190). Except for Calais, which the English held for another century, the invaders had been driven from France. Henry V's "conquest" was lost at a time when he would still have been alive had he lived out a normal life (he would have been 66).
No peace treaty was ever signed, and England's Edward IV actually invaded France at one point, to be bought off with a subsidy (Perroy, p. 347). Henry VIII would would fight in France as well, from 1512-1524. Perroy, p. 348, sums it up: "As late as 1487 there was talk of a possible English landing in Guienne.... But to pursue our story further would be playing on words. Though no peace ratified its results, the Hundred Years' War was long since over. It was true that Calais did not become French again until 1553 and that for centuries longer the English sovereigns continued to bear the empty title of King of France. But these were belated survivals of no importance. When the Burgundian State was dismembered, a fresh factor in the history of Europe relegated the old Anglo-French dispute to the background" (because England no longer had an ally within France).
ENGLAND AFTER THE WARS: THE OVERTHROW OF LANCASTER
Even Calais would have been lost much sooner had Henry V's dynasty endured longer; when Margaret of Anjou fled to France in 1462, she promised to turn the town over to Louis XI in return for help (Perroy, p. 344).
But Margaret could not fulfill her promise, because she never regained power; the loss of France was to deal the Lancastrians a fatal blow. The response in France to the end of the war was an attempt to rehabilitate Jean Darc (Perroy, p. 323). The response in England was to seek a scapegoat. Suffolk had not been enough of a sacrifice. It might have been better if Henry VI had put Somerset out of the government. Lander thinks that Somerset, unlike Suffolk, was honest (p. 44). That doesn't mean the populace trusted him, however. But even had Henry wanted to change ministers, he could not -- because he went catatonic (Gillingham, pp. 74-75).
The cause is unknown; Wolffe, pp. 271-272 n. 13, observes that we have almost no actual data about the King's illness. What we do have could fit depressive stupor, schizophrenic stupor, or an organic brain disease -- but, since Henry apparently recovered eventually, the latter two are difficult. It would have to be a severe case of depression to knock him out for more than a year, though.
Margaret and Somerset tried to cover up Henry's madness (they didn't formally make arrangements until the Chancellor died, leaving the government incapable of functioning; Wolffe, p. 279), but eventually their enemy the Duke of York was appointed Protector. Somerset went into the Tower, but he was not executed, and York has "made an effort to rule the country with the help of a fairly broad-based council and administration" (Gillingham, p. 84). There might have been peace -- if nothing had changed.
But "If Henry's insanity had been a tragedy, his recovery was a national disaster" (Gillingham, p. 84, quoting an unnamed source). The Protectorate seems to have been set up on the understanding that it might last for a very long time -- one of the provisions allowed that the new-born Prince Edward would have the option to assume the Protectorate once he was old enough! (Wolffe, p. 280). But he came out of his trance a few months later -- to an extent. Henry, though again capable of speech, was no longer fit to rule -- Ross, p. 52, calls him a "useful political vegetable"; on p. 118, Ross notes that Henry was taken prisoner *three times* during the Wars of the Roses; no other pretender to the throne was captured with such ease. Lyon, p. 137, says that "Had Henry's mental incapacity been permanent, the consequences might have been less disastrous, since the spells of torpor alternating with periods of lucidity provided the perfect context for the consolidation of factional politics.
Wolffe, pp. 338-339, suggests that, during his half decade of Yorkist imprisonment in the 1460s, he did nothing at all -- it was almost as if he did not exist).
Once Henry was able to mke the motions of Kingship, Somerset and Margaret again took charge -- and immediately turned on York, his allies the Nevilles, and others who had opposed their narrow government. York and the Nevilles, who clearly needed to defend themselves, took to arms. The first major fight of the Wars of the Roses, the First Battle of Saint Albans, took place in 1455, only a year after Henry recovered from his madness.
It wasn't a big battle -- Lander, p. 53, thinks only sixty men died. But it set a pattern for the Wars of the Roses: That few soldiers were killed but many leaders disposed of. St. Albans finally got rid of Somerset, who was executed on the field (Gillingham, p. 89). The Yorkists, for the moment, were still willing to accept Henry VI as king (Lander, p. 55; Gillingham, p. 90, thinks Somerset was killed because "York and the Nevilles had therefore pushed themselves into a position where they could either depose the king or kill the king's [councilors]"; these were the only possible ways to reform the government. And they remained loyal to the King).
There followed four years of relative peace in which the Yorkists exercised greater control over the biddable King Henry (Ross, p. 32). But it was fragile -- Margaret of Anjou was still around, and she would not accept anything she viewed as an infringement on her rights. After a few months of relatively non-partison government (Wolffe, p. 302, thinks Henry realized his own incapacity and tried to form a unity council), Margaret asserted herself -- Wolffe, pp. 302-303 goes so far as to suggest she kidnapped her own husband!
Ross, pp. 37-40, discusses several reasons why the situation flew so far out of control, including economic difficulties and a large number of local feuds -- but ultimately it was that a weak king was ruled by a partisan wife. Wolffe, p. 312, considers the government completely ineffective starting in 1456 -- it had no ability to control the kingdom or breaches of the peace. Margaret in June 1459 called something that was almost a parliament -- but she excluded York, the Nevilles, and York's allies such as the Bourchiers (Gillingham, p. 102); the Yorkists expected to be indicted (Ross, p. 37). At this point, though York still hesitated to claim the throne, true peace became impossible. Later in 1459, Margaret scattered the Yorkist princes, and seemed to have won a complete victory (Gillingham, p. 105); the Yorkists fled to Ireland and Calais.
It is ironic to note that Charles VII of France thus found himself strongly backing Henry VI (Dockray, p. 54), the king with whom he had contested his own throne and territory for more than thirty years! But Margaret managed to blow her advantages by her abominable behavior. In 1459 the so-called "parliament of devils," which she dominated, passed 27 bills of attainder (Gillingham, p. 106), condemning among others the Duke of York, his sons the Earls of March and Rutland, and the Neville Earls of Warwick and Salisbury. For the Yorkists, it was now win or die.
And Margaret was unable to consolidate her position, because the government was once again bankrupt (Gillingham, p. 108). And her generals and admirals were completely inept; Warwick apparently sailed right past the superior fleet of the Duke of Exeter to invade (Gillingham, pp. 109-110). He captured King Henry (but not Margaret) at the Battle of Northampton (Gillingham, p. 114).
It appears the Yorkists hadn't really worked out what came next. Warwick probably still hoped to rule through King Henry. But the Duke of York himself came to Parliament and, somewhat hesitantly, claimed the throne (Gillingham, pp. 116-117; Ross, pp. 47-49). The uncommitted Lords, though they were tired of the Lancastrian regime, were not ready to go that far. Eventually a compromise was reached: Henry VI would retain his throne (presumably with a new ministry), but York was declared Henry's heir, and York's heirs after him (Gillingham, p. 117). It was a logical compromise; York might never take the throne (since he was about a decade older than Henry), but it did restore the rightful line.
It also meant that Margaret of Anjou's son Edward was cut out of the succession. That she would never allow. It was she, not the Yorkists, who really ramped up the Wars of the Roses.
The Wars, though they resulted in the overthrow at one time or another of four different kings, were ultimately struggles between noble factions over who would rule England (Perroy, pp. 338-339). The first monarch to go was Henry VI, who was overthrown in 1461. The single biggest reason for his downfall was surely the loss of the territories in France -- and the behavior of the Frenchwoman, Margaret. Henry was not captured until 1464 (to spend the next half dozen years in the Tower), but he hardly mattered anyway; it was Margaret who was fighting -- less on behalf of her husband than on behalf of her disinherited son.
In 1470-1471, an attempt was made to bring Henry VI back, but it was made by a coalition of allies who distrusted each other utterly (Dockray, p. 66). The Earl of Warwick, who organized the "re-adaption," had to try to keep everyone happy, and seemingly failed (Dockray, p. 68). When the displaced King Edward IV invaded, the Lancastrian government lost the two battles of Barnet (where Warwick was killed) and Tewkesbury (where Edward the son of Henry VI was killed) and the regime collapsed (Wilkinson, p. 293). In the aftermath, Henry VI was executed. The Lancastrian line was extinct; all of Henry V's other close relatives were dead by then. Henry V's brothers had all died without issue -- Clarence in 1421, Bedford in 1435, Gloucester in 1447. The closest surviving relations of the Lancastrian kings were the Beaufort family, the descendents of the illegitimate half-brothers of Henry IV. The future King Henry VII was descended from that line, but it took a lot of luck....
It is true that, when King Edward IV invaded France in the 1470s, he implicity invoked the memory of Henry V -- but one of his parliaments declared Henry V "late in ded and not in right Kyng of Englond" (Allmand, p. 432). But Henry was already becoming a legend in the sixteenth century, as shown by books such as Fabyan's Chronicle (whose author died in 1513) and Edward Hall's 1547 "history" (Allmand, p. 434) -- a work containing far more propaganda than genuine history. And Shakespeare, of course, strengthened this unhistorical legend (so much so that authors such as Jarman seem to have bought into it almost completely).
Even Allmand, p. 443, concludes, "A careful consideration of his whole achievement reveals much regarding Henry's stature both as man and king. From it he emerges as a ruler whose already high reputation is not only maintained but enhanced." But, on the previous page, he had admitted a more troubling truth: "He therefore passed on to his son an inheritance which may justly be termed 'damnosa hereditas.'''
Henry VII would later try to have Henry VI declared a saint. Many English citizens certainly revered him as such. A long list of miracles was compiled (Wolffe, pp. 351-354). These were the typical sorts of coincidences ascribed to saints at the time -- e.g. a ship escaped pirates because they called on Henry's name (oh, plus the wind came up). It is actually possible that Henry would have been canonized had it not been for Henry VIII's break with Rome (Wolffe, p. 355). But, as Wolffe points out on p. 356, Henry may have been saintly, but he was lousy at his work. And Francis Bacon pointed out that "the pope had to make a distinction between saints and fools if the honor was not to be cheapened" (Wolffe, p. 355). Henry VI was a failure, and his failure more than offset his father's success.
For the aftermath of the Agincourt War, see especially the notes to "The Children in the Wood" (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34].
THE HISTORICAL CONTENT OF THE BALLAD
As far as historical accuracy is concerned, this ballad ranks pretty near the bottom. Child's single short text (collated, to be sure, from multiple broadsides) appears to be late, and has few details. And most of those are wrong:
"A tribute that was due from France Had not been paid for so long a time." The French did not owe tribute to the English under any reckoning. They had agreed to a ransom for John II -- but had been unable to pay (Henry V at the start of his reign apparently claimed arrears of 1.6 million ecus; Allmand, p. 68), so John II had gone back into English custody. He died there, so there were no arrears on the ransom. Of course Henry could claim to be overlord of France, and due its revenues -- but the fact that the song recognizes a king of France (since Henry sends to him) means that, in the song, that claim is not being made.
"Your master's young and of tender years." Henry V in 1413 was about 26 years old. Charles VI of France was about 45, but he had been intermittently insane for two decades, and his children were all younger than Henry (Barker, p. 69); the future Charles VII was only ten years old. There was no one in France in position to insult Henry's intelligence or experience.
"Three tennis-balls." The story about the tennis balls is widely told (including in some old chronicles; Shakespeare has it from Holinshed, according to Jarman, p. 47, and Allmand, p. 427, says it was mentioned by Audeley early in the reign of Henry VI), but there is no real reason to believe it true. As mentioned above, the then-Dauphin (not Charles VII but an older brother) was a decade younger than Henry and could hardly taunt the English king about his youth (and, to repeat, King Charles was insane and couldn't order such a thing). Some have suspected that this incident derives from a story of Darius III of Persia and Alexander the Great: Darius sent Alexander children's toys. Barker and Jarman in fact note that Henry continued to negotiate for some time after the alleged incident, which would be quite unlikely had the incident actually happened. There is one report that Henry's ambassadors were given tennis balls in their own persons (Neillands, p. 205), but it is unconfirmed and isn't the same thing anyway.
Allmand, noting that the story is very widespread, thinks it unlikely that the tale is pure fiction, but suggests (p. 71) that someone in France *discussed* such a move and was overheard by an English envoy, who then blew the idea out of proportion. He says, "The most telling and most contemporary account, that of John Strecche, canon of Kenilworth, written probably soon after Henry's death, records the Frenchmen's pride and arrogance, and, as an illustration of this, that they would send Henry balls with which to play and cushions upon which to lie, the implication clearly being that the king was too much inclined to love his creature comforts and too inexperienced in war to do any harm."
In any case, it wasn't modern lawn tennis back in the fifteenth century; lawn tennis is a nineteenth century invention, based only very loosely on the older game of Court Tennis (or Royal Tennis, or Real Tennis). As a matter of fact, it was not until the late 1420s, according to Butler, p. 73, that the French first saw it played with a racquet -- until then, players used their hands. Though the sport seems to have been reasonably well-established on both sides of the Atlantic; Dockray, pp. 55, tells of a top tennis player being executed for political reasons in the 1460s.
"Recruit me Cheshire and Lancashire, and Derby Hills... No marryd man nor no widow's son...." There is no evidence for a special callup of the counties cited, and the claim of exemptions is impossible; we know that married lords, and sons of widows, fought at Agincourt. If there is a basis for it at all, it may have been suggested by the fact that Henry was Duke of Lancaster and Earl of Chester. Or, perhaps, it may have derived from an earlier event in Henry's career; Allmand, p. 18, refers to a time when Henry, as Prince of Wales, led troops from Cheshire to fight against Scotland. The bit about married men and orphans may just be based on the Bible's restrictions on having such men fight.
I will offer one wild speculation: The Stanley family, who eventually became Kings of Man and Earls of Derby, began its rise under Sir John Stanley, who had recruited a Cheshire guard for Richard II in the late 1390s, then gained in power in the area under the early Lancastrians (Bennett, p. 75). The Stanleys spent the next century gradually increasing in power -- and becoming a by-word for trimming. We also know that they had a fairly efficient propaganda machine which churned out a number of songs ("The Ballad of Bosworth Field" certainly comes from one of their supporters, and "The Song of the Lady Bessy" likely does as well; see the notes to "The Children in the Wood" (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34]). Since the Stanleys would have been responsible for recruiting Cheshire and Derby in this era, might this be from another of their propaganda songs?
"The first shot that the Frenchmen gave, they killd our Englishmen so free; We killed ten thousand of the French." The ten thousand figure may actually be accurate, but note that the English, not the French, fired the first arrows at Agincourt.
"And the finest flower that is in all France, To the Rose of England I will give free." The French did eventually agree to marry the princess Katherine to Henry V -- but not until well after Agincourt. The English did not even march on Paris at that time. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: C164D

King Henry III and the Archbishop of Canterbury

See King John and the Bishop [Child 45] (File: C045)

King Henry the Second and the Miller of Mansfield, The

See King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth [Child 273] (File: C273)

King Henry V and the King of France

See King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164] (File: C164)

King Henry V, his Conquest of France

See King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164] (File: C164)

King Henry V's Conquest of France

See King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164] (File: C164)

King Henry, My Son

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

King Henry's Murder

DESCRIPTION: "To Edinburgh about vi houris at morne," the singer hears "ane bonny boy" moaning about the death of "ane king." The boy says that "Bloody Bothwell hath brought our King to beir," to flatter "Dalilay" (i.e. Queen Mary), who is like Clytemnestra
AUTHOR: Robert Lekprevick? (source: Bingham)
EARLIEST DATE: 1567 (published, according to Bingham)
KEYWORDS: royalty death homicide
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: James Maidment, _Scottish Ballads and Songs, Historical and Traditionary_ Volume 2, W, Patterson, 1868, pp. 12-15, "King Henry's Murder" (1 text)
Caroline Bingham, _Darnley: A Life of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, Consort of Mary Queen of Scots_, 1995; I use the 1997 Phoenix paperback, pp. 203-207, "Ane ballat declaring the nobill and gude inclinatioun of our king" (extensive excerpts with translation)
Roud #V35703
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Hamilton [Child 173]" (subject of Mary Stewart)
NOTES [181 words]: I include this piece not because it's traditional -- it clearly isn't -- but because it was printed by Maidment, but with much unacknowledged modernization. This doesn't affect the meaning, but it gives a very false presentation of the text. So this entry is mostly to point you to a more correct text.
Maidment cites the source as State Papers Scotland, volume 13, #47, or Calendar volume 1 p. 248. However, Bingham cites it as Public Records Office SP/52/13 #47.
I should add that the poem is basically false. First off, it is universally agreed that Darnley, although a good courtier and a very handsome man before syphilis ruined his looks (the reason he was at Kirk o Field to be assassinated was because he was recovering from the disease), was scum. Second, while Earl Bothwell was surely a major player in his murder, it has not been established that Queen Mary had anything to do with it. This is probably propaganda by the anti-Mary side. For more details, see the notes to "Mary Hamilton" [Child 173].
Note that this oh-so-learned-sounding song mis-spells Clytemnestra. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BdKiHeMu

King Herod and the Cock

See The Carnal and the Crane [Child 55] (File: C055)

King Horn

See references under Hind Horn [Child 17] (File: C017)

King James and Brown [Child 180]

DESCRIPTION: Douglas comes to attack the King. The ruler is saved by Brown. Brown convinces the king to pardon Douglas; Douglas reacts by attacking Edinborough. Brown once again defeats the renegade Earl; for this and other services, King James makes him an earl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: royalty nobility fight rescue
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1567 - James VI, who is only a year old, becomes King of Scotland after the forced deposition of his mother Mary Stewart
April 7, 1571 - hanging of James Hamilton, Archbishop of Saint Andrews, whom Child believes to the the Bishop of Saint Andrews whom Brown defeated
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 180, "King James and Brown" (1 text, with appendix "The King of Scots and Andrew Browne")
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 135-141, "Kinge James & Browne" (1 text); volume II, pp. 265-268, "Bishoppe & Browne" (1 fragment, of the text Child puts in the appendix)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 221-225, "King of Scots and Andrew Brown" (1 text, not from the folio manuscript even though the folio includes part of the piece; note that this is the piece Child puts in the appendix, not the main text, though both are from the Percy folio)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XXVII, p. 67, "King of Scots and Andrew Brown" (1 partial text, 1 tune, the version in Child's appendix)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine p. 467, "King James and Brown" (notes plus a modified partial text from Child)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 58
Roud #4009
NOTES [362 words]: Even by ballad standards, this is singularly inaccurate. While there was much intrigue during the reign of James VI (who had no close relatives and so was in danger of being overthrown by a not-so-distant relative), no one such as Brown existed. Child's notes are probably sufficient to explain the ballad on the hypothesis that King James is James Vi.
There is a little part of me that wonders, though, if it *is* about James VI. The surviving text in the Percy Folio never names the king. The title calls him "King James," but even if that is correct, there were six kings of Scotland named James, running continuously from James I to James VI except for the interruption by Mary Queen of Scots. And there were always Earls of Douglas, who were always powers in the land, and St. Andrews always had a bishop, and a lot of them made trouble. This text would fit about as well, or as badly, in the reigns of most of the Jameses. I have no specific alternative to propose; I just think we should be careful about automatically assuming that Child's explanation is actually the correct one.
According to David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 158 n. 25, this is one of eighteen ballads in the Child collection found only in the Percy Folio -- and, despite various hints that it has been found in America, Fowler's statement appears to be correct.
The one other possible mention is a ballad licensed May 30, 1581 by Yarrath James, titled "A ballad declaring the Treasonne Conspired againste the kinge of Scottes"; see Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), #525, p. 51.
The text of this that Child prints in his appendix is reported to be by William Elderton, and the Percy Folio version may well be derived from that. Albert B. Friedman, The Ballad Revival, University of Chicago Press, 1961, p. 30, calls likely author William Elderton "the cleverest of Elizabethan broadside-writers." For more on Elderton, see the notes to "Mary Ambree." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: C180

King James I and the Tinkler

See King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth [Child 273] (File: C273)

King Jesus Is a Listening

DESCRIPTION: Jesus listens all night (day) to hear some sinner pray. I've been converted, my soul is anchored in Jesus and the Devil can do me no harm. Gospel train is coming, rumbling through the land: get ready. John the Baptist was a preacher.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 170, "I've Been a-List'ning All de Night Long" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 247 in the 1874 edition)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 171-172, "I've Been Listenin' All Day Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Bryant's Jubilee Quartet/Quintette, "King Jesus Is Listening" (on Bryant's Jubilee Quartet/Quintette Vol. 1 (1928-1931) Document Records DOCD-5437 (1996))
Goodwill Male Chorus, "King Jesus Is A-Listening" (1937)(on "Black Vocal Groups Vol. 5 (1923-1941), Document Records DOCD-5553(1997))
Rust College Quartet "King Jesus Is a Listening" (1927-1928) (on "Vocal Quartets Vol. 5 M/NB/)/R (1924-1928), Document Records DOCD-5541 (1997))
Virginia Female Jubilee Singers, "King Jesus Is a Listening" (1921) (on "The Earliest Negro Vocal Groups Vol. 4 (1921-1924)," Document Records DOCD-5531 (1997))
NOTES [92 words]: This shares in the following floater: "Some say that John the Baptist Was nothin' but a Jew, But the Holy Bible tells us That John was a preacher too" (see "Wait on the Lord," Randolph 622 and Monroe Brothers' "You've Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley" indexed here as "Lonesome Valley (I)," and "Roll Jordan Roll" by Topsy Chapman in the movie "12 Years a Slave"). It is consistent in the text and recordings I have heard.
The recordings, but not Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, shares "The gospel train is coming...." with "Get on Board Little Children" - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Ow2E171

King Jesus Will Be Mine

DESCRIPTION: "When the moon (sun) went down in the purple stream, purple stream, When the stars refused to shine, When every star that disappeared, King Jesus will be mine, King Jesus will be mine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 11, "When de Moon Went Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, A. E. Perkins, "Negro Spiriruals from the Far South," Vol. 35, No. 137 (Jul-Sep 1922), #2 p. 224, "King Jesus Will Be Mine" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Howard W. Odum, Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes, (reprint from American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, July 1909, Vol.3 pp. 265-365 "Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 43-44, "Free, Free My Lord" (2 fragments)
Roud #19206
NOTES [195 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text.
Both Odum and Perkins print only one verse of a longer song. Both texts are similar. Perkins's is "When the sun go down in a purple stream, purple stream, And the sun refuse (Odum has "forbear") to shine, And every star shall disappear, King Jesus will be mine." Odum was clarifying a verse he had collected but thought mangled: "The moon come down like a piper's stem, The sun 'fuse to shine, An' ev'ry star disappear, King Jesus set me free." Of his informants, Odum writes, "none of them could explain what it meant." In any case, Odum prints a current (1909) version of the song indexed here as "Free, free, My Lord."
The "purple stream" is cited in a number of early 19th century hymn books. The 1830 edition of The Camp-Meeting Chorister ("Digitized by Internet Archive") Hymn #261, ("Prest, my soul, with future prospect") has "The moon has dropt her silver radiance, And dissolves in purple streams." Also, William Dossey, The Choice (Philadelphia: Charles De Silver & Sons, 1833 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #16, ("He dies, the mighty Saviour dies! The purple streams run down"). - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Edwa011

King John

See King John and the Bishop [Child 45] (File: C045)

King John and the Abbot of Canterbury

See King John and the Bishop [Child 45] (File: C045)

King John and the Bishop [Child 45]

DESCRIPTION: King John tells the (bishop of Canterbury) he must answer the King's questions or die. The bishop, unable to answer, turns to a shepherd (his brother?). The answers are so clever the king rewards the shepherd and pardons both (makes the shepherd bishop)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1695 (broadside); "King Henry and the Archbishop of Canterbury" is from the sixteenth century or earlier
KEYWORDS: questions help riddle royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1199-1216 - Reign of King John
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(MW,MA,NE,NW,Ro)
REFERENCES (31 citations):
Child 45, "King John and the Bishop" (2 texts)
Bronson 45, "King John and the Bishop" (15 versions plus 1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 45, "King John and the Bishop" (4 versions: #1, #4, #7, #15)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 508-514, "Kinge John & Bishoppe" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 198-200, "King John" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 281, "The Jolly Abbot" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 303-312, "King John and the Abbot of Canterbury" (2 texts, one from the Percy folio and one as printed in the _Reliques_)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XXXII, p. 73, "K[ing] John and the Abbot of Canterbury" (1 partial text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 305-309, King John and the Abbot of Canterbury" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 348-353,"Derry Down" (1 text, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #8, #3}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine p. 445, "King John and the Bishop" (brief notes only)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 111-112, "The King's Three Questions" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 200-203, "The King's Three Questions" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11; note that Bronson has the wrong date in his headnotes}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 280-298, "King John and the Bishop" (5 texts plus 2 fragments, 3 tunes; the texts are listed A1, A2, B1, B2, B3, C, D, because A1 and A2 were both ultimately derived from the same singer through different informants and B1, B2, B3 are from the same informant at different times) {A1=Bronson's #11}
Thompson-APioneerSongster 1, "The Bishop of Canterbury" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 155, "King John and the Bishop" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #5, "King John and the Bishop" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 154-158, "King John and the Bishop" (1 text)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 28, "King John and the Abbot of Canterbury" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 2, "King John and the Bishop" (1 text: Newfoundland story related by theme to the ballad)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 172, "King John and the Abbot of Canterbury" (1 text)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 9-13, "King John and the Abbot of Canterbury" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 19, "King John and the Bishop" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1364, "I'le tell you a story, a story anon"
DT 45, KJONCANT*
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1346
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2251
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 423-424, "King John and the Abbot of Canterbury" (1 text, a folktale close enough to this song as to strongly imply common origin)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, pp. 118-123, "(King John and the Bishop)" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Corpus Christi College MS. 255, folio 101 ("A tale of Henry þe 3 and þe Archbishop of Canterbury")
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, p. 184
Roud #302
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "The Bishop of Canterbury" (AFS 4196A, 1938; tr.; on LC57, in AMMEM/Cowell) {Bronson's #4}
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Derry Down" (tune of some versions) and references there
SAME TUNE:
The Shaking of the Sheets (Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 228-229; British Library Add. MS. 15225; entered in the Stationer's Register for John Awdelay 1568/9; Playford, The Dancing Master, 1651; rec. by The Baltimore Consort on The Ladye's Delight)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The King and the Bishop
NOTES [1332 words]: Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, p. 186, makes the astounding claim that this is "supposed to be of Oriental origin and a fragment of Coptic folklore." He offers no evidence.
King John did not have a good relationship with the Catholic Church; he refused, e.g., to accept Stephen Langton, the Pope's choice for Archbishop of Canterbury (Warren, pp. 161-163). From 1208 to 1213 England was placed under Interdict by the Pope. John responded by removing bishops from their offices -- and taking away their mistresses (though he allowed them pensions). The historical story bears only the slightest similarity to the tale in the ballad, however, which may also have been influenced by the war of wills between John's father Henry II and Thomas Becket.
The one thing that is certain is that John (reigned 1199-1216) always had a horrid relationship with the church. McLynn, p. 78, says that his early upbringing in Fontrevrault abbey "seems to have turned him violently against the Christian religion," adding that John collected works of theology so he could read them and mock them.
It is also of note that, while his father and brother promised to take part in the Third Crusade (his father Henry II did not live, but of course Richard went), John never took a crusading vow, and never went to the Orient (McLynn, p. 110). The flip side of this is, this was partly in obedience to his father -- and there had been an earlier offer to make John King of Jerusalem, and John had been forced to turn this down because his father reasoned, correctly, that the Crusader State was too internally weak to hold up to serious attack (Warren, pp. 32-33).
McLynn, p. 29, says that "John was notable for quasi-autistic tendencies, and he always seemed to have a grudge against the world." It is noteworthy that older parents are more likely to have autistic children -- and John was born when his mother was at least 41 and very likely 44 or even 45. However, I don't buy the "quasi-autistic" bit -- people with autism generally don't have a grudge against the world; they have problems understanding it! (This is not to say that John didn't have autism; I wouldn't be surprised if he did. But I don't trust McLynn's evidence.) John had a strong streak of low humor, which indeed cost him badly in Ireland (Warren, p. 36), and while there are people with autism who have nasty senses of humor (the author John Elder Robison springs to mind), my experience (as someone with autism myself) is that that is rare. It strikes me as much more reasonable to assume that John, as the last of many children, had a lot of grudges.
More likely is McLynn's conjecture on p. 94 that John suffered from bipolar disorder, or perhaps simply clinical depression. This would explain his occasional tendency to sit on his hands in the case of trouble (e.g. when Normandy was falling; Warren, p. 99). It would also explain his tendency to extreme anger.
And he was a typical Plantagenet in his violent rages (Warren, p. 2); this was simply the way the family worked. Markale, p. 68, brands him "almost a lunatic," but his father and brothers were equally capable of fury; it's just that they were wiser in their use of their anger. Warren, p. 47, in comparing John to his three older brothers claims, that John as king "was to show a grasp of political realities that eluded the young Henry, more fierce determination than ever Geoffrey could boast of, as sure a strategic sense as Richard displayed and a knowledge of government to which the heroic crusader never even aspired." His real fault, in Warren's view, was a lack of forgiveness -- he was always kicking people while they were down, causing them to become permanent enemies. Certainly that was true of his relations with the Church! *That*, if we continue the abnormal psychology, sounds more like a personality disorder than anything else.
Even McLynn, who considers John a very bad king, admits that although John "lacked his brother [Richard]'s military genius he had wider interests. He had more administrative ability, a greater sense of the art of the possible, was more cunning and devious. In time he also turned himself into an above average general. Infinitely more complex than Richard... John was in many ways a psychological oddity.... Yet one should not exaggerate John's unique qualities. Although he was well known to imitate his father by biting and gnawing his fingers in rage... this was a general, shared Angevin characteristic" (p. 94).
Bronson notes that the song has been in constant contact with broadside prints, and doubts that any of the versions arose entirely from traditional stock. Several of the broadsides list the tune as "The Shaking of the Sheets"; see the "Same Tune" reference.
Briggs, volume A.2, pp. 410-411, has a folktale, "The Independent Bishop," on much the same theme; in it, the king is George and the bishop is Bishop of Winchester. Which George is not specified. The tale originally comes from Herefordshire; see Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 177-178. Briggs also has a tale, "The Story of the Miller," on volume A.2, pp. 485-487, which has some parallels but is not as close. And is very bad, from a science standpoint, but I'll spare you the analysis of that....
The Norwegian tale of "The Parson and the Sexton" (AMNorwegian, pp. 15-16) also bears strong similarities to this. A Parson is forever driving about and forcing others off the road -- until he runs across the King. The Monarch not only forces him off the road but demands that the Parson come to answer his questions. The Parson, frightened, calls on the Sexton to deal with the King. The Sexton successfully answers "How far is it from east to west," "How much do you think I'm worth," and "What am I thinking just now." The answer to the last is, "You're thinking I'm the parson, but I'm the sexton." The king proceeds to make him the Parson, which has interesting implications if you like recursive stories.
There is a problem with what is probably the earliest English version of the tale, which Brown/Robbins call "King Henry III and the Archbishop of Canterbury." The primary publication, by Roberta Cornelius in 1931, says that it is in MS. Corpus Christi College (Oxford) folio 101; she says that the manuscript should be dated 1550-1570. Fowler, p. 25, accepts the identification and the dating. In volume 6 of Severs/Hartung, pp. 1775-1776, Fowler gives a puzzling description: "The earliest version of King John and the Bishop... was discovered by Carlton Brown in this manuscript of miscellaneous items from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.The contents are various and do not concern us, since they do not constitute a single collection. Our ballad occurs at folio 105 by the manuscript numbering, but still bears an earlier pagination 416-417 from the (unknown) collection to which it originally belonged. Expert opinion dates this leaf around 1550-70.... The text has 166 lines in riming couplets and is not divided into stanzas. There is some evidence of memorial transmission... but nothing to indicate that a melody was ever attached to this early text."
This certainly sounds substantial, but Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 118, cannot find the piece in that manuscript and says that Cornelius's description does not fit the manuscript with this number. Boklund-Lagopolou nonetheless reprints the Cornelius version (adding a very strange stanza division); perhaps Cornelius mis-identified the manuscript. Child does not mention this version.
Despite Boklund-Lagopolou, DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse accepts the Cornelius citation although it says the piece is on folio 105, not 101. (Possibly the manuscript is mis-foliated? This happens a lot. Either that or four folios have been lost since it was foliated. That's not rare either.) The DIMEV, and the IMEV before it, listed no other pieces in this manuscript, which would seem to confirm the Severs/Hartung statement that the rest of it is much later.. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: C045

King Knapperty

See Kempy Kay [Child 33] (File: C033)

King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

King Malcolm and Sir Colvin

DESCRIPTION: Sir Colvin falls ill for love of the king's daughter Jean; she attends him but won't have him unless he vanquishes an elvish knight defending Elrick's hill. He defeats the knight, bringing its hand and rings as proof. Colvin and Jean marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Motherwell) (a fragment from Buchan); 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: courting disease royalty knight battle marriage derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 61 appendix, "King Malcolm and Sir Colvin" (1 text)
Bronson 61, "Sir Cawline" (1 version: Bronson's #2}
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 123-124, "King Malcom and Sir Colvin" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter Buchan, Aqncient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland (Edinburgh: W&D Laing, 1828 ("Digitized by "), Vol. II, pp. 6-10, 306, "King Malcolm and Sir Colvin" (1 text)
William Motherwell, Minstrelsy: Ancient and Modern (Glasgow: John Wylie, 1827 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), p. lxvi footnote, "King Malcolm and Sir Colvine" (1 text fragment)
Roud #479
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sir Cawline" [Child 61] (source, some lines, plot)
NOTES [125 words]: The justification for splitting this from Child 61 is that Child relegated "King Malcolm and Sir Colvin" to an Appendix, rather than considering it a version. Otherwise, there is no more reason to separate them than there is to separate "Sir Lionel" [Child 18] and "Old Bangum." In both cases, as Bronson points out in his discussion of "Sir Cawline," the complexities of the source are reduced to its central incident in the derivative. All copies I have seen for this text, including Motherwell's and Christie's [W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh:David Douglas, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 18-19, "King Malcolm and Sir Colvin" (1 text, 1 tune)], are taken from Bronson's manuscript. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: C061App

King o' Spain's Daughter, The

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

King of England Went to France, The

DESCRIPTION: Skipping rhyme: "The King of England went to France, To teach the children how to dance, This is how he taught them Heel, toe, over you go, Bow to the Queen, Salute to the King, Turn your back to the Kaiser."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2006 (Young)
KEYWORDS: playparty royalty
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Ron Young, _Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador_, Downhome Publishing Inc., 2006, p. 260, "(The King of England went to France)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Chaplin Went to France" (lyrics)
File: DNL260

King of France, The

See The Noble Duke of York (File: FSWB390B)

King of Kings

See He Is King of Kings (File: Dett146)

King of Rifles, The

See Three Dukes (File: R551)

King of Rome, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the West End of Derby lives a working man, He says, 'I can’t fly but my pigeons can.'" In 1913, Charlie Hudson's pigeon "The King of Rome" is sent for a race in Italy, then finds its way home to him
AUTHOR: Dave Sudbury (source: mainlynorfolk.info)
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (date of composition, according to mainlynorfolk.info)
KEYWORDS: bird racing
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Daniel Hands, "The King of Rome" (Piotr-Archive #84, recorded 09/17/2021)
NOTES [58 words]: This is a modern composed song, and the Piotr recording seems to have been made in a pub. I'll believe this is traditional when someone shows me a true field collection. If you want more information about the song, see its page at mainlynorfolk.info; regardless of whether it is a good song or a bad, it's here against my criteria for inclusion. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcTKioRo

King of Scots and Andrew Brown

See (references under) King James and Brown [Child 180] (File: C180)

KIng of the Barbarees (King of the Barbican, Will You Surrender, Queen of Babylon)

DESCRIPTION: "Will you surrender, Will you surrender, To the King of the Barbarees?" "We won't surrender... To the King of the Barbarees." "I'll go and complain..." "We'll break down the tower...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty home royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(England) New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 40-41, "(Surrender the tower)" (1 text)
Roud #12863
File: SuSm040

King of the Cannibal Islands, The

DESCRIPTION: Sometimes a ballad about castaways marrying the daughter of the King of the Cannibal Islands, but often degenerates into a quatrain-ballad about the odd events on the islands. The use of the title phrase is characteristic.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Hodgson's Royal Song Book, p. 4); before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 36(10) View 2 of 2)
KEYWORDS: humorous cannibalism royalty
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 195, "The King of the Cannibal Islands" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 40, "The King of the Cannibal Islands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 3, "King of the Cannibal Islands" (1 text)
Roud #15695
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 36(10) View 2 of 2, "The King of the Cannibal Islands," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Johnson Ballads 536, Harding B 11(322), Harding B 11(1997), Firth c.17(312), Harding B 11(1496), Harding B 11(2830), "[The] King of the Cannibal Islands"
NLScotland, R.B.m.143(147), "The King of the Cannibal Islands," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1858
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf."The Settler's Lament (The Beautiful Land of Australia)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Settler's Lament (The Beautiful Land of Australia) (File: PFS101)
Whalers' Rhymes (File: BaRo017)
When I Went Off to Prospect (File: LDC109)
The Mormon King (File: LDC214)
In the Midst of Those Awful Mormons (File: FSSS123B)
The Cohabs (File: Hub222)
Hoke Pokee Wonkee Fum (per broadside, NLScotland, R.B.m.143(147)); to this compare "Rex Anthropophagae Insulae" (Lating for "[The] King of [the] Cannibal Islands," by A. V. P., "with chorus in the vernacular: -- Hokee pokee winkee wung") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 88)
Song of a Strike (Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 84-85)
Jeff Davis or The King of the Southern Dominions (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 75)
The Mormon King (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 99)
The Sinking of the Pirate Alabama by the U. S. Gunboat "Kearsarge," Captain Winslow, June 19, 1864 ("I sing the doom and dark career," by Silas S. Steele) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 142)
Uncle Sam's Boys ("New songs of late, we've had a score," by H. Angelo) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 161)
Boating Song ("Oh when I cut paternal ties, And College Hill first blessed my eyes") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 95)
The Settlement of Rhode Island ("Did you ever hear the story told Of Roger Williams, the preacher bold") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 96)
Amherst, Our Queen ("Come gather round, good spirits true") (by C. Kittredge, [class of 18]62) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 47)
Going Kangarooing ("I'll tell you of a jolly spree, The other day some two or three With one another did agree To go out Kangarooing") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 45; Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 75-76)
The Indian Empire ("To this Colony it's a longish run, So now I'll give you a bit of fun") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, pp. 155-157)
Australian Humbug ("If attentive ears you'll yield to me, From our present colonial history") (by "Mr. Mulholand") (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 163-165)
Dick Briggs from Australia ("Dick Briggs a wealthy farmer's son To England lately took a run, To see his friends and have some fun; He'd been five year in Australia") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Hoskins/Thatcher-LifeOnTheGoldfields, p. 53)
NOTES [479 words]: This doesn't show up in folk songbooks much, but it seems to me that I heard it somewhere in my youth; I suspect it qualifies as a children's folk song. At least, I'm putting it here on that assumption. - RBW
From the commentary for broadside NLScotland RB.m.143(147): "This ballad was written at a high-point of British Imperialism, and is a telling illustration of the superior attitudes which popularly existed among both those Brits who settled abroad, in countries such as Africa, and also among the broadside-buying public back in Scotland. As with another broadside in the National Library of Scotland's collection, 'The Queen of Otaheite', the 'natives' are portrayed as bigamous cannibals, with little regard for Western ways." - BS
This even though most places referred to as "Cannibal Islands" were in fact under European control by the time the song was written (under the above assumption). The etymology of "Cannibal" in Robert Hendrickson, The Ocean Almanac, Doubleday, 1984, pp. 118-119, derives the name "Cannibal" from "Carib," "Inhabitant of the Caribbean," a formation going back to Columbus -- although cannibals if anything were more common in the Aztec areas of Mexico, as well as in the South Seas (recall how Captain Cook died; also the fact that kuru, the laughing sickness, the first known prion disease, spread by eating infected brain tissue -- and was found only in the South Seas).
Most of these places were at one time or another called "Cannibal Islands" -- although hardly any of them had an actual king. It was more common to eat one's enemies than one's subjects (the latter is obviously inefficient -- you run out of subjects fast that way), so cannibalism tends to imply a nearby external enemy. - RBW
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes re 227, "Hokey, pokey, whisky, thum": Evidently derived from "King of the Cannibal Islands" by A.W. Humphreys. See broadside [Note however that the NLScotland broadside of 1858 states that the tune comes from "Hokee Pokee Wonkee Fum"] - BS
Jim Holder points out to us that Herman Melville mentions this song in chapter 1 of his 1846 tale Typee. It probably should not surprise us that Melville was interested in cannibalism; according to A. B. C. Whipple, Yankee Whalers in the South Seas, Doubleday & Company, 1954, pp. 41-45, Melville was fascinated by the story of the whaleship Essex, which was fatally damaged by a whale, forcing the men into the boats, with instances of cannibalism taking place on both surviving boats. This story underlies Moby Dick. Typee has its own link to cannibalism; it is largely autobiographical, about Melville's own travels in the South Pacific -- in which he actually jumped ship on an island allegedly inhabited by cannibals (Whipple, pp. 46-48). - (RBW)
Thanks to Jim Dixon for pointing out the 1827 printing in Hodgson's Royal Song Book. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PHCFS195

King of the Castle

DESCRIPTION: "I, William of the Wastle, Am now in my castle, And a' the dogs in the town Winna gae me gang down." Or, more simply, "I'm king of the castle, you're the little rascal."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1680 (FLetcher, The Perfect Politician, according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: playparty home
FOUND IN: US Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #111, "Defence of the Castle" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 287, "I'm the king of the castle" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #76 n. 20, pp. 81-82, "(I'm the King of the Castle)"
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 35, "King of the Castle" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke, _Red Rover, Red Rover: Children's Games Played in Canada_, p. 72, "King of the Castle" (a description of the game without text)
Roud #19815
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sic a Wife as Willie Had (Willie Wastle)" (character?)
NOTES [45 words]: We played this as a game when I was young, using the "I'm king of the castle, you're the little rascal" form. The idea was to dislodge the castle-keeper from the designated castle. I cannot remember what rules, if any, there were for how one went about doing that. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Newe111

King of the Fairies, The

DESCRIPTION: "A wee, wee man came to our toon en', Fiddledum, faddledum, fee, fee, fee," singing the men from their work despite his huge feet and mouth, odd clothes, very long arms, etc. He holds a dance, then frightens them; he becomes king of the fairies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: dancing talltale music
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 166-167, "The King of the Fairies (Nursery Song)" (1 text)
Roud #5561
File: Ord166

King of the Jews

See Nebuchadnezzar's Wife (File: PalWa097)

King Oh King

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "King O King Died for me, Heaven was made for the first and last, No man looks like me." Second and fourth line of each verse is "No man looks like me." First and third lines are a rhyming couplet; see Notes for examples.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 260-261, "King Oh King" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All My Trials" ("If Religion" verse) and references there
NOTES [65 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect.
Verse couplets include "If religion was something that money could buy, The rich would live and the poor would die." "Some come crippled and some come lame, Some come walking in Jesus's name." "It rained forty days and it rained forty nights, It makes your garment fit you right." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR260A

King Orfeo [Child 19]

DESCRIPTION: The wife of (King) Orfeo, perhaps in a fit of madness, flees from him and his court. Orfeo sets out to find her. Encountering her under guard in a high hall, he plays his pipes so well that his wife is returned to him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1880
KEYWORDS: music magic separation madness royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Hebr))
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Child 19, "King Orfeo" (1 text)
Bronson 19, "King Orfeo" (1 version plus 1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 19, "King Orfeo" (2 versions: #1, #2)
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 11, pp. 79-80, "King Orfeo," comments only
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 15, "King Orfeo (A Shetland Ballad)" (1 text)
DT 19, KNGORFEO*
ADDITIONAL: Emily Lyle, _Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition_, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, pp. 63-65, article "King Orpheus" (2 texts in parallel, 1 tune)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, pp. 141-142, "(King Orfeo)" (1 text)
RELATED: Versions of the Romance "Sir Orfeo" --
A. J. Bliss, editor, _Sir Orfeo_, second edition, Oxford University Press, 1966, pp. 2-57, "Sir Orfeo" (3 texts, the texts of the three extant manuscripts, presenting a somewhat confusing set of parallel versions)
J. A. Burrow and Thorlac Turville-Petre, _A Book of Middle English_, second edition, 1996 (I cite the 1999 Blackwell paperback edition), pp. 112-131, "Sir Orfeo" (1 text, of 604 lines)
Boris Ford, editor, _The Age of Chaucer_ (The Pelican Guide to English Literature, Volume 1), Pelican, 1954, 1959, pp. 271-287, "Sir Orfeo" (1 text, of 580 lines although it says it is based on Sisam)
A. C. Gibbs, editor, _Middle English Romances_, York Medieval Texts, Northwestern University Press, 1966, pp. 84-103, "Sir Orfeo," of 590 lines, primarily from Auchinlek with expansions from Harley)
Anne Laskaya and Eve Salisbury, _The Middle English Breton Lays_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2001. Much of the material in this book is also available online), pp. 15-59, "Sir Orfeo" (1 text, of 604 lines, primarily from Auchinlek with expansions from Harley)
Thomas C. Rumble, editor, _The Breton Lays in Middle English_, 1964 (I use the 1967 Wayne State University paperback edition which corrects a few errors in the original printing), pp. 207-226, "Kyng Orfew" (1 text, of 604 lines, seemingly based on Ashmole 61)
Donald B. Sands, editor, _Middle English Verse Romances_, Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1966, pp. 185-200, "Sir Orfeo" (1 text, of 580 lines)
George Shuffelton, editor, _Codex Ashmole 61: A Compilation of Popular Middle English Verse_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2008, pp. 386-399 (1 text, of 603 lines, obviously based on Ashmole 61)
Stephen H. A. Shepherd, _Middle English Romance: A Norton Critical Edition_, Norton, 1995, pp. 174-190, "Sir Orfeo" (1 text, of 604 lines, primarily from Auchinlek with expansions from various sources)
Kenneth Sisam, editor, _Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose_, Oxford, 1925, pp. 13-31, "Sir Orfeo" (1 text, of 604 lines, primarily from Auchinlek with expansions from Harley)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #37, p. 76-98, "Sir Orfeo" (1 text, of 605 lines, primarily from Auchinlek with expansions from Harley; presumably the same as SIsam's 1925 text)
Robert D. Stevick, editor, _Five Middle English Narratives_, Bobbs-Merrill, 1967, pp. 3-26, "Sir Orfeo" (1 txt, of 604 lines, based mostly on Auchinleck and Bliss's suggestions)
Modernized poetic version: J. R. R. Tolkien, translator, _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight * Pearl * Sir Orfeo_, with an introduction (and perhaps some light editing) by Christopher Tolkien, 1975 (I use the 1988 Ballantine edition), pp. 133-148, "Sir Orfeo"
Modernied prose version: Roger Sherman Loomis and Laura Hibbard Loomis, editors (and translators), _Medieval Romances_, 1957 (I use the undated Modern Library paperback), pp. 311-323, "Sir Orfeo"
Walter Hoyt French and Charles Brockway Hale, _Middle English Metrical Romances_, Prentice-Hall, 1930, pp. 323-341, "Sir Orfeo" (1 text, nominally of 602 lines, based mostly on Auchinlek with insertions from the others)
(No author), _The Auchinleck Manuscript: National Library of Scotland Advocates' MS. 19.2.1_, with an introduction by Derek Pearsall and I. C. Cunningham, The Scolar Press, 1977, (photographic reproduction of the manuscript), folios 299a-303ra, (no title, as the first 25 or so lines have been lost)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3868
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #6172
MANUSCRIPT: {MSAuchinleck}, The Auchinleck Manuscript, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 19.2.1, folios 299a-303r
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 61 (Bodleian 6922), folios 151-156
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS, Harley 3810, Part I, folio 1
RELATED: Versions of the Romance "King Orphius" --
Rhiannon Purdie, _Shorter Scottish Medieval Romances: Florimond of Albany, Sir Colling the Knight, King Orphius, Roswall and Lillian_, Scottish Text Society, Fifth Sieries, No. 11, 2013, pp. 113-123, "King Orphius" (2 incomplete texts, one from NRS MS RH 13/35 and one from the David Laing papers)
MANUSCRIPT: Edinburgh, National Records of Scotland [NRS], MS. RH13/15, folio 10
Roud #136
RECORDINGS:
Kenneth Roper, "Scowan Erla Græ (King Orfeo)" (Piotr-Archive #215, recorded 08/17/2022 -- a version so complete that one must suspect regular refernce to print)
John Stickle, "King Orfeo" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
NOTES [5341 words]: For a detailed analysis of the history of this ballad, see now Robert B. Waltz, Romancing the Ballad: How Orpheus the Minstrel became King Orfeo, Loomis House Press, 2013. (Shameless self-promotion -- but I don't get any royalties, so I'm not out to sell more books....) For additional bibliography, see Rice, pp. 481-501 (which lists 22 different editions plus articles, although many of the editions aren't very good).
Loosely based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Euridice. (In which Orpheus's beloved wife Euridice is accidentally killed. Orpheus the minstrel goes to Hades, and plays so beautifully that even Hades, who has no pity, shows pity, and says that Orpheus can bring Euridice back to life with him. But Hades sets a condition: Orpheus must not look back until they are above the ground. Just as he reaches the surface, he looks back, and she is lost forever.) Observe, however, that "King Orfeo" has a happy endings: Orfeo and the Euridice figure are successfully reunited. In what follows, I shall use "Orfeo" to refer to all texts, including "King Orfeo," that have the happy ending, and "Orpheus" to refer to the original tragic version.
The happy ending is also found in may be (almost certainly is) the direct source of this piece, the Middle English romance "Sir Orfeo." Another possible source is the parallel but independent Scottish romance, "King Orphius," which is similar in plot as far as we can tell; Lyle, p. 66. Lyle thinks it the direct source of the ballad, as does Purdie, p. 26, but the evidence is slight. The main reason given by Purdie, p. 27, is that the Scottish romance and the ballad both call Orfeo's wife "Isabel." That name, however, occurs only once in the extant text of "King Orphius" (line 80 -- a line that isn't found in the Laing text; see the text on pp. 116-117 and the Index of Names on p. 280 of Purdie). I would counter-argue that "Orpheus" is based in Portugal ("Portingale") (Purdie, p. 218), which does not at all match "King Orfeo."
Much of this essay is devoted to the two romances because, as shown in Romancing the Ballad, "King Orfeo" must be derived from a romance of the "Sir Orpheo"/"King Orphius" type; it cannot go back to the Orpheus legend.
The relationship between the two romances is complex. Since Romancing the Ballad was published, another copy of "King Orphius" has been recognized by Purdie (p. 45); a transcription of this second manuscript is found in the mostly-uncatalogued papers of David Laing. That text plus the fragment in National Records of Scotland MS. RH13/35 combine to give us more information about "King Orphius," although both are fragmentary and MS. RH13/35 is terribly decayed; despite much preservation work, it is hard to read.
The obvious thought is that "Sir Orfeo" and "King Orphius" are English and Scots versions of the same romance. The difficulty -- as was noted by Marion Stewart, who discovered "King Orphius" -- is that "Sir Orfeo" and "King Orphius," although they are very close in theme, share "[not] even a single recognizable shared line" (Purdie, p. 25). On its face, this would make literary dependence difficult. But the two texts of "King Orphius," although closer to each other than to "Sir Orfeo," also show major differences between themselves (Purdie, p. 46), implying much oral transmission. Or, perhaps, a major rewrite. There is also much divergence in the copies of "Sir Orfeo."
On the other hand, Burrow/Turville-Petre, p. 113, thinks that both "Sir Orfeo" and the Scottish piece are translations of the same original, possibly the "Lai d'Orphey," a French musical piece referred to in romances but now lost. But if this were so, why isn't there more common text? To sum up, something is very strange about the two romances, and given the fragmentary state of "King Orphius," we may never be able to tell what.
It should be noted that if the date of the Laing manuscript is correct, it is two and a half centuries more recent than the Auchinleck copy of "Sir Orfeo." The National Records of Scotland copy is also from the 1580s (specifically 1586), according to Purdie, p. 47. Having a later manuscript date does not preclude priority of composition, but the strong evidence is nonetheless that "King Orphius" is a newer romance than "Sir Orfeo." Given the difference in dates, I don't think the difference in texts between "Orfeo" and "Orphus" means all that much. Despite Lyle et al, I rather suspect that "King Orphius" is a Scottish rewrite of "Sir Orfeo," or of a memory of "Sir Orfeo." "King Orphius" may be the direct ancestor of the song "King Orfeo," but "Sir Orfeo" is also an ancestor of the ballad.
Summary: I would not go so far as to claim that the ballad is derived from either romance, although my analysis in Romancing the Ballad demonstrates that "Sir Orfeo" (and so, probably "King Orphius" also) came before "King Orfeo."
As a footnote to that, Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 142, claims a Swedish analogue to "King Orfeo" called "Harpan's Kraft"; I have not seen it, but given that the hero has a different name and the heroine is stolen by a river spirit, not the King of Faerie, I wouldn't place too much weight on the links -- it certainly can't be the source of "King Orfeo."
The change to a happy ending is not the only alteration in "Orfeo." Shippey-Road, p. 63, reminds us that Orfeo is trying to overcome the forces of Faërie/Elfland, not Hell (there may be a link with "Thomas Rymer" [Child 37] or something like it; more on this in the Excursus on Faërie and Elfland), and that Orfeo's honor as well as his music plays a role in "Orfeo," whereas it's all about the music in "Orpheus."
Incidentally, the ballad should perhaps be referred to under the title "Sir Orfeo," like the romance; Lyle, p. 61, points out that the name of the ballad was supplied by Child based on one version of the Middle English romance. Lyle refers to the song as "King Orpheus" after a Scottish version (also known as "Orpheus King of Portugal") after a title mentioned in the Complaynt of Scotland of c. 1550; Lyle, p. 66. Purdie seems to think that the Complaynt of Scotland reference is to "King Orphius." But, as with much in the Complaynt, there is no way for us to know.
The interesting question is how "Sir Orfeo" evolved the ending it did. Of the 50-odd Middle English romances, "Orfeo" is generally considered the best not by Chaucer or the Gawain-Poet or derived from the work of Marie of France ("Sir Orfeo," like the works of Marie, is considered a "Breton Lei"; Bennett/Gray, p. 138). CHEL1, pp. 294-295, for instance, declares that "The best [of the romances] in English are Sir Orfeo and Sir Launfal. The first of these, which is the story of Orpheus, is proof of what can be done by mere form[;] the classical fable is completely taken over, and turned into a fairy tale; hardly anything is left to it except what it owes to the Breton form of thought and expression." Sands, pp. 186-187 says that "few narrative poems conceal artfulness under disarming artlessness so well." Similarly Bennett/Gray comment that "Of all the English verse romances, Sir Orfeo is the one that in grace and charm, lightness and neatness, comes closest to the twelfth century lays of Marie de France, and to her conception of... the goodness... of love" (p. 138).
The story of Orpheus was known in the Middle Ages, from Virgil's Georgics (Book four, roughly lines 450-550 -- the very end of the book) and from Ovid's Metamorphoses (Book X, about lines 1-100) -- indeed, it seems to have been better known from Latin than Greek sources. The tale also occurs in the writings of Boethius, much philosophized (Loomis, p. 311; Burrow/Turville-Petre, p. 112), and Alfred the Great had translated Boethius into Old English (and Chaucer would put parts of it into Middle English, the "Boece"). But those accounts are clearly classical in their settings, and don't have the happy ending; it's not clear how the tale was converted to a romance, or how the ending changed into the form of the romances. If the original was indeed French, it's definitely lost (Sands, p. 185).
We do find allusions to a similar story in the writings of Walter Map (Bennett/Gray, p. 140, who however think this may be a Celtic tale; Bliss, p. xxxiii, is convinced that Map's story has already been influenced by the Orpheus legend, because in other stories, the kidnapped person is taken to a land of the living, but in Map's story, the victim is described as truly dead). Perhaps it was the combining of the Celtic and Orpheus stories which gave us the happy ending. There is a French mention of the story being told by an Irish bard (Loomis, p. 312). Certainly the piece has been thoroughly adapted to a medieval setting (Bennett/Gray, p. 143; Loomis, p. 313, notes that the Thrace of the Greek account has been transformed into Winchester! -- although that statement occurs only in Auchinleck, line 50; Bliss pp. 6-7. It is probably a gloss in Auchinleck).
"Sir Orfeo" is now found in three MSS, with the earliest and best, the Auchinleck MS., from about 1330; the others, Harley 3810 and Ashmole 61, are of the fifteenth century (Sisam, p. 13). The differences between the versions are sometimes very substantial; Harley 3810 in particular is so different as to make one suspect that it has been edited. Derek Pearsall, on p. 30 of Brewer, suggests that it is an instance of "regression into oral tradition," which Pearsall also sees in the short romances in the Percy Folio (which often seem to have been cut down from a longer romance. Harley, however, has not been cut down to anything like the same degree as the Percy romances).
It has been suggested that the Auchinleck manuscript may have been used by Chaucer (Sands, p. 185), although I personally doubt it. It is sometimes suggested that another romance in that manuscript, the "Lay Le Friene," is by the same author (Sands, p. 185; this is partly because the beginning of "Lay Le Friene" is quoted in the non-Auchinleck manuscripts of "Sir Orfeo." The "Lay Le Friene," although a Breton Lei, should not be confused with Marie of France's Lei "Le Fresne," even though both are on the same theme).
Anderson, p. 136, mentions a further speculation (praising the poet while he is at it): "The author of Sir Launfal is by tradition the same shadowy Thomas Chestre to whom was attributed the Middle English Tristan. Sir Orfeo, believed by some to be also the work of Chestre, is a beautiful and sensitive retelling of the pathetic tale of Orpheus and Eurydice."
The Orfeo poem is #3868 in the Brown and Robbins Middle English Index.
The language of "Sir Orfeo" appears to be SW English but with some northern forms, perhaps introduced by a northern copyist; the whole is perhaps from a French or Breton original, and the translation perhaps is from the fourteenth century (Sisam, p. 13; Loomis, p. 313; Bliss, p. lii, refers specifically to the "Westminster-Middlesex dialect").
The complete edition of "Sir Orfeo" was published by A. J. Bliss in 1954; the second edition, cited in the references, came out in 1966. This edition cited all three manuscripts separately, and is considered definitive -- but it presents the three manuscripts separately and does not make any attempt to reconstruct the original text, instead making the peculiar comment (Bliss, p. xv) that "no critical text is possible; we can do better than to accept the text of A[uchinleck] as it stands." This frankly shows a complete misunderstanding of the role of a textual critic, but it means that there is still need of a critically edited text.
A semi-critical text of the romance (604 lines), based on Auchinleck, is available in Sisam, pp. 14-31. Unfortunately, it is not glossed (though the book has a complete glossary by J. R. R. Tolkien). A glossed version (580 lines) is available in Sands, pp. 187-200. Tolkien-Orfeo, pp. 133-148, prepared a modernized verse version following the same lineation as Sisam (though it is not just a crib; it's a true translation, which was published posthumously; it uses almost none of the language of the original).
The alternate version of "Sir Orfeo" found in manuscript Ashmole 61, under the name "King Orfew," was published (with a facsimile of the first page of the manuscript) on pp. 206-226 of Rumble. Rumble's presentation might cause us to think it's an independent romance from Auchinleck (that was my first thought), but it is in fact just a less pure version of the tale.
Although "Sir Orfeo" is probably a sufficient source for this ballad, Lyle thinks she finds other materials which might have gone into the mix. On p. 67, she mentions the romance of "Guy of Warwick" -- another item with a theme of visiting the underworld. Lyle is right that this is an unusual theme in romance. But with Vergil and Ovid and Homer all telling tales of visits to the underworld, I don't really think it necessary to ring in "Guy." Especially since the Orpheus legend seems to have been popular in Britain; in addition to the two romances and the ballad, Robert Henryson wrote an Orpheus poem (Lyle, p. 75). And the only thing "Guy of Warwick" could have taught the author of "Sir Orfeo" is that long-winded romances are hideous.
Lyle, p. 71, also notes thematic links to the Tristan legend, and to the Orpheus tale as found in Lefevre's Recueil des Hystoires Troyennes." The latter link is made particularly complicated by the fact that the Recueil was translated by Caxton, who then (in order to put it in more people's hands) printed it -- the first English printed book. If the Recueil is an influence, is it from a French source, or did an English writer know Caxton? (The difficulty with the latter hypothesis, of course, is that Caxton lived after the Auchinleck MS. was written. But it might have influenced the later stages of the transmission).
A scholar named Whitney Stokes suggested that the types of music played by Orfeo -- the notes of joy, of noy, and the gabber reel -- are related to the "sleep music," "sad music," and "joyful music" of an early Irish poem, "The Second Battle of Moytura" (Bliss, p. lvii). To which I can only say that the types of music aren't the same, the sounds of the words aren't the same, and there is no reason to connect an Irish (as opposed to Breton) source with Orfeo.
Several other ballads also derive loosely or from Middle English romance, or from the legends that underly it, examples being:
* "Hind Horn" [Child 17], from "King Horn" (3 MSS., including Cambridge Gg.4.27.2, which also contains "Floris and Blancheflour")
* "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" [Child 31], from "The Weddynge of Sir Gawe and Dame Ragnell" (1 defective MS, Bodleian MS Rawlinson C 86)
* "Blancheflour and Jellyflorice" [Child 300], from "Floris and Blancheflour" (4 MSS, including Cambridge Gg.4.27.2, which also contains "King Horn," and the Auchinlek MS, which also contains "Sir Orfeo")
EXCURSUS: Faërie and Elfland
There are multiple ballads which refer to a place which seems, on its face, to be neither our world, nor heaven, nor hell. These ballads are:
-- King Orfeo [Child 19]
-- Thomas Rymer [Child 37]
-- Tam Lin [Child 39]
-- The Queen of Elfan's Nourice [Child 40]
In "King Orfeo," the place is called "Faërie" or something like that; in the others, it's "Elfland" or some such. The question is, Are they the same?
By origin, they of course are not. "Elfland" is the land of the elves/Ælfs -- (a)elf being a word found in almost all early Germanic languages (Old English, Middle Low German, Middle High German, Middle Dutch, Old Norse, Old Saxon) for some sort of supernatural being (Onions, p. 306). Line 112 of Beowulf, for instance, refers to "eotenas ond ylfe ond orc-neas" -- ettins and elves and (something -- no one can agree on what orc-neas mean, though it gave J. R. R. Tolkien the word "orc"; cf. Shippey-Author, p. 88, who suggests it means "demon-corpses"). I find no early references to "Elfland," but if there is going to be a land of Elves, what else do you call it? The word "elf" is common enough that there is little point in chasing all the early uses; it even became a common element in early English names.
"Faërie" is different -- the word is, without question, French by origin, from Old French faerie, faierie (modern French féerie; Onions, p. 343). It is not really the land of "fairies" as now imagined (i.e. small, delicate, magical, probably-winged things; Tolkien-Fairypp. 5-7 is caustic about this usage). The first cited English mention of Fairy/Faërie, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is c. 1330 -- in other words, the Auchinleck manuscript of "Sir Orfeo"! Line 283, as given in Auchinleck, reads "Þe king o fairy wiþ his rout" -- "The King of Faërie with his hunting-band." Harley 3810, line 273, has "kyng of fayré"; Ashmole 61, line 289, "king off fary" (Bliss, pp. 26-27), but it's clearly the same place in all three texts, even if they spell it differently.
But if the word "Faërie" was slow to appear, it quickly became established. By the end of the fourteenth century, we find it several times, in contexts which connect it with romances, although not necessarily this romance. John Gower's "Confessio Amantis," book V, line 7073, speaks of a young man who made himself up to impress the young girls and appeared "as he were of faierie" (Gower/McCaulay, volume 3, p. 146; cf. Tolkien-Fairy, p. 8).
At the ending of the romance "Sir Launfal," we read that the hero, "That noble knight of the Rounde Table, Was take in to Fairie" (lines 1035-1036; Sands, p. 232). "Sir Laundal" is interesting because, although an Arthurian romance, it has significant similarities to the True Thomas tale. Launfal falls in love with the daughter of the King of Faërie, Dame Tryamore, and refuses the advances of all the ladies of Arthur's court, including Queen Guinivere. He insists that he has a lady who is fairer than any of them -- and is ordered to produce her, because Tryamore has shown herself only to him. At the last minute, she shows up to prove her point, casts a spell which blinds Guinivere, and they take off to her home in Faërie. Once a year, Launfal and his steed can be seen riding by. (Summary includes only the key details from the longer summary on pp. 131-132 of Wells; there was a lot more going on).
The poem claims to be by Thomas Chestre; his date is unknown, but the only manuscript copy is from the early fifteenth century; some have suggested a date c. 1380, the time of the Peasants' Revolt (Laskaya/Salisbury, p. 201; Sands, p. 201 -- yes, the same page in both!), which would make it more recent than "Sir Orfeo" and about contemporary with Gower and Chaucer, although some scholars have placed it half a century or so earlier (Wells, p. 131). It is based, probably at one remove, on the romance ""Lanval" by Marie de France; in Marie's text, the lady takes him to Avalon/Avalun (Marie/Burgess/Busby, p. 81). In the intermediate Middle English romance "Sir Landevale", which is widely thought to be how Chestre learned the story, the lady takes Landevale to "Amylyone" (Laskaya/Salisbury, p. 436), which is presumably an error for Avalon; perhaps Chestre guessed at the meaning.
The most popular Middle English poem not by Chaucer, "Piers Plowman," refers to Faërie at the very beginning. The narrator is wandering in the Malvern Hills in May when
Me befel a ferly, of fairie me thoughte
I.e.
A wonder befell me, I thought it of Faërie (Line 6).
Soon after, he saw the famous "Fair Field of Folk." This is the reading of the "A" text, the earliest complete version; Langland/Knott/Fowler, p. 67. William Langland (or whatever the author's name was; we don't know) later revised and dramatically expanded this "A" text to produce what is known as the "B" text; Line 6 remained unchanged (Langland/Schmidt, p. 1). Later, Langland (or someone) produced a third revision, "C." In this, he revised the line away, referring simply to something "marvelous"; Langland/Salter/Pearsall, p. 61. This is typical of the revisions in the "C" text, which is widely regarded as inferior to "B"; it is much more orthodox, restrained, and dull. But it hardly matters that Langland deleted his reference to Faërie; he may not have wanted to admitting to knowing of it, but he clearly did!
There is a possible reference to Faërie in "Sir Gawain and the Grene Knight," line 240:
Forþi for fantoum and fayryȝe þe folk þere hit demed (Tolkien/Gordon, p. 7; it's the ninth line of the eleventh stanza)
but the interpretation of this line is very uncertain; Tolkien himself (Tolkien-Orfeo, p. 26) renders "wherefore a phantom and fay-magic folk there thought it"; Marie Boroff refers to Fairie; Brian Stone translated as "Fairyland"; Burton Raffel calls the green knight the product of "witchcraft"; James L. Rosenberg paraphrases around it; Cawley and Anderson's edition does not gloss it. It's not really clear whether the reference is to Faërie or just to fairies.
In Chaucer's "Merchant's Tale," we read:
Pluto, that is kyng of Fayerye,
And many a lady in his compaignye" (lines 2227-2228; Chaucer/Benson, p. 166). A little lower down, line 2316, Pluto's wife (whose name Proserpyna appears in line 2229) declares, "'And I,' quod she, a queene of Fayerye!'" (Chaucer/Benson, p. 167). (They are planning to interfere with the action: Old man January has gone blind, and his young wife May is about to have sex with her lover Damian; Pluto will give January back his sight -- but Proserpina will provide her with an excuse for what she is doing. Pluto, knowing he will be thwarted, declares that he will nonetheless fulfill his promise -- lines 2310-2315; Chaucer/Benson, p. 167. It's not exactly the King fulfilling his rash promise to free Euridice, but it has a similar feeling.)
This is a use that has extreme relevance in the Orfeo story. Pluto/Hades was, of course, the king of the underworld in the original Greek/Latin story of Orpheus -- but only in "Sir Orfeo" and its analogs is the underworld king made into the King of Faërie. That Chaucer makes Pluto the king of Faërie, as well as the underworld, is a strong hint of knowledge of the Orfeo legend.
This is the more significant because we explicitly know that Chaucer knew the original Orpheus legend; he refers to Orpheus several times:
-- The Book of the Duchess, line 569: "Ne Orpheus, god of melodye" (Chaucer/Benson, p. 337).
-- The House of Fame, lines 1201-1203: "There herde I pleyen on an harpe, That sowned bothe wel and sharpe, Orpheus ful craftely" (Chaucer/Benson, p. 362).
-- "The Merchant's Tale," lines 1715-1716: "That Orpheus, ne of Thebes Amphioun, Ne maden nevere swich a melodye" (Chaucer/Benson, p. 160).
-- Troilus and Criseyde, book IV, line 791: "As Orpheus and Erudice, his feere [mate]" (Chaucer/Benson, p. 548).
-- Chaucer actually translated Boethius's story of Orpheus and Euridice in Boece. Book III, Metrum 12 (Chaucer/Benson, p. 439) is the story of Orpeus; the third sentence reads "The poete of Trace, Orpheus, that whilome hadde ryghte greet sorwe for the deth of his wyf...." The second paragraph, in Chaucer/Benson's orthography, opens, "He wente hym to the houses of helle."
Chaucer would also have known of Orpheus from Ovid, but in Ovid, Pluto was king of the underworld -- of hell, as in Boethius. Yes Chaucer makes Pluto king of Faërie!
Chaucer has several other references to Faërie. In "Sir Thopas" 802-803 we read of "The countree of Fairye / So wilde," and lines 814-816 read "Heere is the queene of Fayerye [note the different spelling!] / With harpe and pipe and symphonye, Dwellynge in this place" (Chaucer/Benson, p. 214). There is a final mention of Faërie in line 96 of the "Squire's Tale," referring to Gawain "Though he were comen ayeyn out of Fairye" (Chaucer/Benson, p. 170), implying that he has somehow gone from earth to there. (This has provoked a lot of discussion among scholars, because while the French analogs of Gawain have associations with Faërie, the English ones generally don't; Chaucer/Baker, p. 149. But that isn't very relevant here -- except, perhaps, that the Wife of Bath, who mentions Elves, tells a Loathly Lady tale sometimes associated with Gawain.)
Chaucer also knew about elves. The Wife of Bath, in fact, speaks of Fairies (not Faërie) and Elves in the same sentence; in the time of "Kyng Arthour," we are told that
Al was this land fulfild of fairye (859)
The elf queene with hir joly compaignye (860; ms. Gg omits "joly")
Daunced ful ofte in many a grene mede.... (861; mss. Cp La Pw "withouten" for "ful ofte")
But now kan no man se none elves mo, (864; mss. Gg He omit "none")
For now the grete cheritee and prayers (865; ms. Gg omits "grete")
Of lymytours and othere holy freres... (866; mss.Cp La Pw "poure" for "holy"; He omits)
This maketh that there been no fairyes (872)
For ther as wont to walken was an elf (873; there are many variations in this line, but not very important)
The walketh now the lymytour hymself... (874)
Wommen may go saufly up and down (878; many mss. "go now" or "now go")
There is noon oother incubus but he (880) (Chaucer/Allen/Fisher, pp. 305-306).
In other words, in King Arthur's time,
All this land (was) full of fairie(s);
The elf queen with her jolly company
Danced full often on many a green mead.
But now no one can see elves any more,
Because now the great charity and prayes
Of limiters and other holy friars ["limiters" being a rare word but thought to be a cleric of some sort who walked bounds and kept out aliens]
This makes it as if there had been no fairies
For where the elves once were wont to walk,
Now there walks the limiter himself.
Women may go safely up and down;
There is no incubus but he [=the friar].
In other words, it was a lot more fun when fairies and elves were around to provide, shall we say, "service"; now, the only people who will service the women are the friars themselves.
Even more noteworthy is another Sir Thopas reference (lines 787-799; Chaucer/Benson, p. 214), Sir Thopas dreams that "An elf-queene shal my lemman be (788)... An elf-queene wil I love, ywis (790), For in this world no wooman is (791) Worthy to be my make [mate] (792)... Alle other wommen I forsake (794), And to an elf-queene I me take (795)." He sets out seeking "An elf-queene for t'espye" (799). Thus Sir Thopas seems not only to know of elves but seeks one -- reminiscent of the tales of True Thomas. And where does he go to find her? Why, "Fairye" -- that's the reference to line 802 we mentioned above.
Chaucer in fact refers to *himself* as elvish -- when the Host calls on Chaucer the Pilgrim to tell a tale, the host says Chaucer is round at the waist, a poppet (doll), with a womanish face;
He semeth elvysh by his contenaunce,
For unto no wight dooth he daliaunce (lines 704-705; Chaucer/Benson, p. 213), i.e.
He [Chaucer] seem elvish in appearance,
For with no person does he converse.
In other words, Chaucer the pilgrim is a pudgy, un-masculine-looking man who keeps to himself. Chaucer-the-pilgrim is not Chaucer-the-person, but one suspects this part of the description has some basis in reality.
Chaucer, Gower, and Langland all worked in the late fourteenth century, and Thomas Chestre probably also worked in that century. Thus the name "Faërie" must have been widely known then (if anything, better-known than now -- after all, Chestre actually changed a reference to Avalon to one to Faërie; obviously he thought it made things clearer!).So at that time, at least, the English presumably knew both the native term "Elf" and the foreign "Faërie." But that does nothing to clarify the relationship.
Both Elfland and Faërie are a third place, neither heaven nor hell nor, presumably this world. in the romance of Thomas the Rhymer, this is explicitly said of Elfland; the roads to heaven and hell are pointed out (that to heaven being narrow and difficult, that to hell being wide, and that to Elfland being "bonny"; cf. Tolkien-Fairy, p. 5). It's not as obvious of Faërie in "Sir Orfeo," but it is certainly a separate place from heaven or hell, and it is clearly not earthly -- In "Sir Orfeo," the faêrie-folk need a special crossing-place (the ympe tree) to cross into this world (this is not made as explicit for Elfland).
On the other hand, Elfland, although not part of Hell, owes it tribute; this shows up in the Thomas legend, where the Devil periodically audits the folk of Elfland, and it's the whole point of "Tam Lin" -- somebody (it was supposed to be Tam) has to be given as an offering to hell. There is no such explicit debt recorded on the part of Faërie.
In all three ballads, the ruler of Elfland seems to be its queen. In Faërie, at least as found in "Sir Orfeo," the ruler is the king (but there isn't much sign of Faërie royalty in most of the other sources).
It occurs to me that Elfland and Faërie might be mirror conjugates -- that is, in cases where there are two choices, they are opposites, although the same in other ways. So, e.g., both are "third places," but at the crossroads on the road between Heaven and Hell, one is to the left and the other is to the right. One is ruled by a king, the other by a queen. One might have winter while the other is in summer, and so forth. This would certainly be an interesting mythological concept -- but since we never get insight into both at once, it seems most unlikely.
What is noteworthy is that we never seem to see detailed Faërie and Elfland references at the same time. Possibly it really is just a matter of French versus English sources, or maybe, if a poet wanted at King, then Faërie was invoked, otherwise Elfland. We really don't have the data to say. The only source to combine them is Chaucer, and that in "Sir Thopas," which is a spoof, not a true example of mythology.
On the other hand, J. R. R. Tolkien, who by the time he wrote "Smith of Wootton Major" (his one story that actually takes place, in part, in Faërie) had been thinking about Faërie for thirty years, considered both the language and the folklore. In the story says that there were Elvish folk in Faërie, and the King of Faërie uses the name human "Alf" (=Elf), though he is not explicitly said to be an elf. (In Tolkien's notes on the story, though, he is called an elf.) Tolkien has a very interesting trait in this story: When someone who accepts its existence refers to it, Tolkien spells it "Faery"; when one of the worldly non-believers uses the word, it is spelled "fairy." In "Smith," Faërie has both King and Queen, both important though not together -- and both seem to be better people than the King in "Sir Orfeo" or the Queen in "Tam Lin."
Tolkien also used the word Faërie once in the Middle-Earth cycle, in chapter 8 of The Hobbit, where it refers to the Undying Lands where the elves migrated (Tolkien/Anderson, p. 219, with the statement that the word is used only here in the book being on p. 218 n. 20. Tolkien had in fact originally called his elves "Fairies," but abandoned the name for having too much baggage). Observe that the Undying Lands are just that -- the elves there don't die -- but just like Faërie they are not heaven or hell, and they are no accessible to humans! (Incidentally, in that same chapter, the wood-elves have their forest circles, and they dance there then vanish if one approaches; cf. Tolkien/Anderson, p. 204. Which is a motif Chaucer used in the "Wife of Bath's Tale," when the knight, desperately seeking answers, sees a fairy circle, and approaches, and finds only the Loathly Lady (Chaucer/Benson, p. 118, lines 989-999; Chaucer/Allen/Fisher, p. 244, notes to lines 989-996, says that this scene of the Fairy Ring is not in any analog of the Wife's tale).
It is interesting to see how "Elfland" has evolved in later lore. In two of the three Elfland ballads, the Elves are explicitly leaching off earth (using Tam as a sacrifice; borrowing a human wet-nurse). Hard to see how we got from that to Tennyson's "horns of Elfland faintly blowing," which are clearly worth pursuing -- but that is not relevant. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C019

King Orpheus

See King Orfeo [Child 19] (File: C019)

King Orphius

See (notes under) King Orfeo [Child 19] (File: C019)

King Pharim

See The Carnal and the Crane [Child 55] (File: C055)

King Richard was King George's Son

See King William was King James's Son (File: R543)

King Roger

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas but t'other night after dark'ning, we sat o'er a blazing turf fire." Little Roger wishes he were a king. The singer asks what he would do as king. He wants good food, victory over France, an end to work -- and forgets it when he burns his finger
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Anderson (1770-1833), according to Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams
EARLIEST DATE: 1808 (Anderson)
KEYWORDS: humorous royalty food commerce war animal dog clergy clothes money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #11, "King Roger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1535
File: VWP011

King Shall Enjoy His Own Again, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer claims he can forsee the future as well as Booker: "all things will be well When the king shall enjoy his own again"; else "the times will never mend, ... the wars will never cease, ... rejoice will never I again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1745 (Denis Hempson, according to Bunting)
KEYWORDS: royalty nonballad political Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 1, "The King Shall Enjoy His Own Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. When the King Enjoys His Own Again (tune) and references there
NOTES [522 words]: Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1: "What Booker doth prognosticate" refers to a man of Charles I's time who "went about prognosticating the downfall of the king and popery, which were terms synonymous at that day." [A slightly exaggerated statement, since Charles I was a genuine Anglican. But he was a very high-church Anglican. The downfall of Charles I meant that religious services got rid of a lot of ritual and costume and repetition and flummery. - RBW]
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1: "It is with particular pleasure that I am enabled to restore to the public the original words of the most famous and most popular air ever heard of in this country; although, at the same time, it must be confessed, that it does not appear to have been originally a Scottish air, though many a Scottish ditty has been made to it.... It was invented at first to support the declining cause of the royal martyr, Charles I.; and served afterwards, with more success, to keep up the spirits of the cavaliers, and promote the restoration of his son; an event it was employed to celebrate all over the kingdom.... [The lines,] 'Full forty years this royal crown Has been his father's and his own.' ... fixes the date of the song to 1643...." [James VI and I, the first Stuart king of England and the father of Charles I, succeeded Elizabeth I on the English throne in 1603. - RBW]
Of the harper Denis Hempson, "[in] his second trip to Scotland, in the year 1745 ... being at Edinburgh when Charley the Pretender was there, he was called into the great hall to play ... the tune called for was, 'The king shall enjoy his own again:' he sung here part of the words following: 'I hope to see the day When Whigs shall run away, And the king shall enjoy his own again.'" (source: Edward Bunting, The Ancient Music of Ireland (Mineola, 2000 (reprint of 1840 Dublin edition)), p. 75.) The words quoted by Bunting are not part of Hogg's "original" text, but the pattern matches Hogg's text. As Hogg points out the song had many versions; the air "appears to have had an influence on the popular mind quite unequalled by any thing of the kind ever before known. Nothing can be a better proof of this than the strenuous endeavors of the Whigs to enlist it on their own side," and he follows with a Whig version (p. 156).
The following note from Kate Van Winkle Keller, partner in The Colonial Music Institute, is quoted with her permission.
"You'll find the early history of this tune in Simpson's British Broadside Ballad & its Music [(New Brunswick, 1966)], 764-768. It was heavily used in the 1680s and 90s for political songs in England and faded out by the 1720s. It did persist here and there into the early 19th century and was revived in the 20th century as a candidate for the supposed "World Turned upside Down" tune beat by the British drums after Yorktown. It has been heavily reprinted in reenactor's books and is played by revival fife and drum corps.
I find Hogg's claim a bit on the extreme side, thinking about all the other beautiful Scots song that abound in songbooks of the 1745-1800 period, many of them with Jacobite leanings." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Hogg1001

King Solomon's Temple

See The Building of Solomon's Temple [Laws Q39] (File: LQ39)

King Stephen Was a Worthy Peer

See The Old Cloak (File: OBB170)

King Takes the Queen, The

DESCRIPTION: "The King will take the Queen, But the Queen will take the knave, And since we're in good company, More liquor let us have. Here's to you, Tom Brown, and to you me jolly soul." As cards take cards, so each reminds the singer of a happy life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(96))
KEYWORDS: drink cards nonballad game
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 283, "Tam Broon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan3 571, "Tam Broon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 159-160, "The Card Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 64-66, "Tam Brown" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 70 and #4/64, p. 21, "Tom Brown" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 232, "Tom Brown" (1 text)
Roud #884
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(96), "Tom Brown" ("The deuce take the cards, for they give me the gripes"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838
LOCSinging, sb40522a, "Tom Brown" ("The King will take the Queen"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860
ALTERNATE TITLES:
With All My Heart
The Card Song
The Cards
The Two Beats the One
NOTES [42 words]: Tunney-StoneFiddle has the song in a Mummers' Play.
Broadside LOCSinging sb40522a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB232

King William and King James

DESCRIPTION: James vows to take London. William is sorry so many of James's army will be slain. James's general goes down. Don't be dismayed, he says, at losing a commander; his son will lead. William offers friendship to the defeated Scots: end this awful slaughter.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest)
KEYWORDS: battle Ireland royalty rebellion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1685-1688 - Reign of James II (James VII of Scotland), the last Catholic king of Britain
1688 - Glorious Revolution overthrows James II in favour of his Protestant daughter Mary II and her husband and first cousin William III of Orange
Mar 12, 1689 - James arrives in Ireland and begins, very hesitantly, to organize its defense.
August, 1689 - Marshal Schomberg brings the first of William's troops to Ireland. James continues to be passive, allowing more troops to reinforce them
March, 1690 - James receives reinforcements from France but still does nothing
June 14, 1690 - William lands in Ireland
July 1, 1690 - Battle of the Boyne. William III crushes the Irish army of James, at once securing his throne and the rule of Ireland. Irish resistance continues for about another year, but Ireland east of the Shannon is his, and the opposition is doomed.
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 64B, "King William and King James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #795
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boyne Water (I)" (story and references there)
cf. "The Boyne Water (II)" (story)
NOTES [298 words]: Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest shares little with the other Orange texts on the battle but the little it shares is worth noting.
First, the story should be: William is wounded but is not seriously, but Schomberg, commanding William's forces, is killed; at that point William says to his Orange troops, "be not dismay'd For the losing of one commander, For God will be our king this day, And I'll be general under" (Bodleian broadside Harding B 11(186)). Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest reverses the story, having James saying "Fight on brave boys; don't be discouraged For the loss of me as commander... Today my son shall be your king, He'll be your gentle commander."
Second, Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest has William say "Let's be good friends forevermore, And quit this awful slaughter." I have found only one other of the Boyne Water texts that mentions the "slaughter" and, as it happens, that one verse text has William say "don't be dismayed on losing a commander": the American text reported by Korson and included in the notes to "The Boyne Water" (I). Maybe Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest and Korson share a source. - BS
There appear to be a few other confusions as well. James of course hoped to return to London if he won the Battle of the Boyne, but for the moment, the best he could probably hope for was to take Dublin. So either the name of the town is wrong or the battle is wrong. And James's son the Old Pretender was still a babe in arms, unable to lead in his father's place. This song is clearly badly damaged, and from what Ben says, I suspect it was damaged before it showed up in the U.S., but with the mess getting worse in America where no one except the Irish remembered the Glorious Revolution. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: MooSW64B

King William and the Keeper

DESCRIPTION: King William disguises himself as a poacher. He's caught by the keepers, who tell him no one may hunt this ground without leave of King William. He attempts to bribe the keepers, but they refuse (and beat him). He reveals himself and praises their loyalty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1676 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: virtue crime poaching hunting royalty money disguise
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1688-1702 - Reign of William III (ruling 1688-1694 with his wife Mary II)
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 116, "King William and the Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #853
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood" [Child 151] (theme)
cf. "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth" [Child 273] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Suit of Russet Grey
The Loyal Forester or Royal Pastime
NOTES [180 words]: [MacColl and Seeger write,] "Following the return of William III from his Irish campaigns, London balladmongers would appear to have been fully employed in creating an acceptable popular image for Ebsworth's 'saturnine' monarch. Old tales and ballads were refurbished with William represented as a roistering updated Prince Hal, consorting with sailors, farmers, shepherds and foresters." One hopes he carried adequate identification. - PJS
Few such songs seem to have survived in tradition, for which we should perhaps be thankful. I wonder how many merged with the songs allegedly about James V of Scotland, (falsely) famous for the time he allegedly spent in disguise among his people?
Incidentally, there is little evidence that William III had any such "popular" tastes. It would have been difficult for him; he was "puny in stature and incurably asthmatic" (OxfordCompanion, p. 985; I read a claim somewhere that his problem was tuberculosis). Clark, p. 179, calls him a "masterful man, preferring subordinates to advisors." Not the sort to go out among the common people! - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: McCST116

King William Was King George's Son

See King William was King James's Son (File: R543)

King William was King James's Son

DESCRIPTION: "King William was King James's Son, Upon the royal race he run, Upon his breast he wore a star, (That points the way to the ocean far)." "Now this couple are married together... You must be kind, you must be good, And help your wife in kindling wood."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (31 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1571, "King William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 78, "King William was King George's son" (1 text)
Randolph 543, "King William was King James's Son" (15 texts, mostly short, 2 tunes; the "C" and "D" texts might be "Oats and Beans and Barley Grow")
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 402-403, "King William Was King James's Son" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 543A)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 126-127, "King William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 133, "King William Was King James's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, pp. 522-524, "King William Was King Jame's Son," "King William Was King George's Son" (2 short texts, 2 tunes)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 142, pp. 289-290, "King William" (1 text plus mention of at least five others)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 27, "King William" (1 text, 1 tune); 28, "King William" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #134, "King William Was King David's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 91, "King William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 65-66, "King William Was King George's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 9, "King William (game song)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 8-9, "King William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 101, "King William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. ,188-189 "King William Was King George's Son" (1 text)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 199-200, "King William Was King James's Son" (2 short texts)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 62-63, "King William Was King Jamie's Son" (2 texts, 2 tunes)=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 218-219, "King William Was King Jamie's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #17, "King Arthur was King William's Son" (1 text, 1 tune); #177, "King William Was King George's Son" (3 texts)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 291-292, "King Arthur Was King William's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, "King William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 100, "King William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 18, "King William" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 432, "King William was King James's Son" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Charles W. Joyner, "The Repertory of Nancy Jones as a Mirror of Culture in Scotland County," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), p. 92, "King Richard was King George's son" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, p. 246, "King William Was King James's Son (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Mrs. M. G. Jabobs)
MacEdward Leach and Henry Glassie, _A Guide for Collectiors of Oral Traditions and Folk Cultural Material in Pennsylvania_, Pennsylvania historical and Museum Commission, 1973, p. 40, "King WIlliam" (1 text)
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 181-182, "The White Cockade" (1 text, translated from the Gaelic with some lines surely inspired by this; the rest is not the usual "White Cockade." I rather suspect two-way translation)
Ron Young, _Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador_, Downhome Publishing Inc., 2006, p. 233, "(King William Was King George's Son)" (1 text, a kisssing game)
Aubrey M. Tizzard, _On Sloping Ground Reminiscences of Outport Life In Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland_ (edited by J. D. A. Widdowson), Breakwater Books, 1984, p. 127, "(King William Was King George's Son)" (1 text, described as a ring game)
Patrick Pickett, project editor, _A History: Town of Fogo, Newfoundland_, Seaside Retired Citizens Club, 1992, p. 108, "(King William was King George's son" (1 text, seemingly a kissing game)
ST R543 (Full)
Roud #4203
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oats and Beans and Barley Grow" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The White Cockade"
cf. "Silly Old Man" (some lines)
cf. "See This Pretty Little Girl of Mine" (theme)
NOTES [443 words]: Norm Cohen says succinctly of the Randolph version, "The title of the song is not true."
To clarify: There are no specific references in this song to which king is meant, but there has never been an actual case, in England or Scotland (or any other country, to my knowledge) of a King William who was the son of a King James. The closest thing to a parallel would be William III and Mary II; William III was the nephew, son-in-law, and deposer of James II.
Paul Stamler recalls a song "King William was King George's Son," and of course this is the title in Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads; Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren also lists this as a variant reading. This is more possible (King William IV, reigned 1830-1837, was the son of George the III and the younger brother of George IV) -- but William IV was a dissolute, childless king who would hardly inspire a song of praise.
Another known combination of father and son in the song is King Charles son of James (possible for James I and Charles I).
Gomme has two texts with William son of David, the same combination is found in Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida; England never had a King David. Scotland did, but neither was succeeded by a William. David II Bruce died without legitimate offspring. David I was succeeded by his grandson Malcolm IV "the Maiden." When Malcolm died, he was succeeded by his brother William the Lion. This is therefore the closest example of a William-and-David in British history.
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal has "King Richard was King George's son." Again, that never happened; Richard I was the son of Henry II; Richard II was not the son of any king (Richard succeeded his grandfather), but his father was Edward the Black Prince and the Black Prince was the son of Edward III; Richard III's father was Richard Duke of York, who also never became king. And it is now a tradition that Britain will never have a King Richard -- and George I did not become king until more than 200 years after the death of Richard III, when the tradition was created. So that's perhaps the most untrue of all the versions.
It has been claimed that this is a war recruiting song, but of Randolph's fifteen versions, only one (H, "This old slouch hat you must put on To follow the man with the fife and drum") supports this conclusion, and while Newell's text #177 gives hints of a soldier's life, it's directed to a young woman! The Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads version appears to be just a singing game, as do many of the others.
Newell tied his first text (#27) to the Swedish tale of Folke Algotson, but if so, there has been a lot of evolution along the way. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R543

King William Was King Jamie's Son

See King William was King James's Son (File: R543)

King William, Duke Shambo

See The Boyne Water (II) (File: PGa014)

King William's Son

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

King William's Troops

DESCRIPTION: "Open the gates as high as the sky" or "as wide as wide"; let "Victoria's," "victorious" or "King William's" troops, or "King George's horses" by, or "let King George go through with his bride." It's too dark to see how to thread the tailor's needle.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Child and Leslie)
KEYWORDS: playparty royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, pp. 37-39, ("Open the Gates") (2 texts)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #151, "Open the Gates" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: [Lydia Maria] Child and [Eliza] Leslie, The Little Girl's Own Book (Edinburgh, 1847 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 35, "King William's Troops" ("Open the gates sky high") (1 text)
G.F. Northall, English Folk-Rhymes (London, 1892 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 397, ("Open the gates as wide as the sky") (1 text)
J.B. Partridge, "The Game of 'Thread the Needle' and Custom of Church Clipping" in Folklore, Vol. XXIII, No. 2 (Jun 1912 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 202 ("Open the gates as high as the sky") (Worcestershire) (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Thread the Needle" (game) and references there
NOTES [33 words]: This is one of the "Thread the Needle" game sets of texts. - BS
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren calls it a variation of "London Bridge." But it certainly seems to have gone its own way! - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: OpGap37A

King's Daughter Fair, The

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

King's Daughter, The

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

King's Daughters, The

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood, The [Child 151]

DESCRIPTION: King Richard, impressed by Robin's reputation, seeks him. Disguised as an abbot who is the king's messenger, he hears Robin's declarations of loyalty to king and of spite to clergy. Well treated for the king's sake, he reveals himself and pardons Robin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1777; c. 1670 (Forresters Manuscript)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood royalty disguise clergy
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1189-1199 - Reign of King Richard I
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 151, "The King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood" (1 text)
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 217-223, "The King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 108-116, "Robin Hood and the King, or, Robins Death" (1 text, the central portion being largely the same as the garland text printed by Child, but with an introductory stanza plus a long ending describing how Robin was murdered)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item 17
Roud #3993
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "King William and the Keeper" (theme)
NOTES [487 words]: Robin Hood is often portrayed as a loyal servant of King Richard I against his vile brother John. However, it should be noted that Richard was a rotten king (especially for England, where he spent only six months of his ten year reign -- and used those six months solely to gather money). Richard was rash, brutal, and often too abrupt in decision-making -- Runciman, p. 75, sums him up as follows, "He was a bad son, a bad husband and a bad king, but a gallant and splendid soldier."
What's more, John never really rebelled against him -- he merely tried to overturn the already rather shaky government Richard had left behind when he went on crusade, from which John probably did not expect Richard to return (Warren, pp. 40-43). To be sure, he tried to keep Richard in bondage when he was captured in Germany (Warren, pp, 43-45), but when Richard returned, John eventually came to Richard and begged forgiveness -- which was granted (Warren, p. 46), as would hardly have been likely had John been a true rebel.
The gimmick of a king in disguise is of course far older than the song itself. In the Bible, King Ahab tried it in the wars with Syria (1 Kings 22:29-37) -- but it didn't work, he ended up being killed by an arrow shot "at a venture," i.e. at random.
In English tradition, we in fact find a story of King Alfred the Great of Wessex sneaking into the Viking camp in the guise of an entertainer to spy out their plans (Hindley, pp. 192-193). This is, however, a late anecdote -- and even if King Alfred would take such a risk, and even if he had the musical skills to pull it off (unlikely), there is the non-trivial problem that Old English and Old Norse, while related, were distinct languages by this time; a Norse army would not be likely to want to hear an English singer.
It is interesting that it is certain that Richard I, the supposed king in this song, definitely did use disguise as he tried to sneak through Germany on his way home from the Crusade (Gillingham, pp. 223-224). I also read, somewhere, a report that, after his return from the Crusade, he disguised himself to recapture Nottingham. The attempt to sneak across Germany was, however, a complete failure; Richard was captured and held for ransom.
The account of Richard's incognito travels may have suggested this song, but it should be noted that Richard I can hardly be the king of the original Robin Hood legend, because the longbow was not used in Richard's time. Thus this song appears to be recent, after legend had re-dated Robin to the time of Richard I -- one might almost suspect that this is a portion of the "Gest of Robyn Hode" (which features King Edward disguising himself as a clergyman to meet Robin) rewritten to involve King Richard.. For background on the legend, including much speculation on which king actually reigned when the legend took its basic shape, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: C151

King's Dochter Jean, The

See Willie o Winsbury [Child 100] (File: C100)

King's Dochter Lady Jean, The [Child 52]

DESCRIPTION: The king's daughter goes to the wood, where a man meets her and rapes her. After he is through, they exchange names. He is her brother came back from the sea! She stabs herself. She is carried home and dies. When he sees her body, he dies in her arms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: royalty incest rape suicide
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(MA)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 52, "The King's Dochter Lady Jean" (4 texts)
Bronson 52, "The King's Dochter Lady Jean" (5 versions plus 2 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 52, "The King's Dochter Lady Jean" (3 versions: #1, #1.1, #3)
Greig/Duncan7 1395, "Fair Rosie Ann" (7 texts, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #3, B=#4, C=#5}
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 36, "Lady Jean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 152-154, "The King's Dochter Lady Jean" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 52, KINGDAUJ KNGDAU2
Roud #39
RECORDINGS:
Sara Cleveland, "Queen Jane" (on SCleveland01) {Bronson's #1.1 in addenda}
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf "The Bonnie Hind" [Child 50] (plot)
cf. "Sheath and Knife" [Child 16] (plot, lyrics)
cf. "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie" [Child 14] (plot)
cf. "Lizie Wan" [Child 51] (theme)
NOTES [79 words]: On the scientific evidence that brothers and sisters raised apart are particularly likely to fall in love, and some further speculation as to why, see the notes to "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14]."
For the links Emily Lyle sees between this ballad and "Tam Lin" [Child 39], see Emily Lyle, Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, pp. 123-126, or the brief summary in the notes on "Tam Lin." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C052

King's Horses, the King's Men, The

DESCRIPTION: "The King's horses, the King's men, They've all gone ashore and they're bagging off again." The dress up for leave, "Every time they get their pay Slap another pusher in the family way"; they're "About as handy as a matelot with a can of paint."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor travel derivative
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 51, "The King's Horses, the King's Men" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "King's Horses" (tune)
File: Tawn036

King's Land, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm on the King's land, The King's not at home! The King's gone to Boston, To buy his wife a comb."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: royalty commerce home playparty
FOUND IN: US(NE,MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 30-31, "King's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 90, "The King's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14049
NOTES [25 words]: Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland describes this as being derived from an ancient game, "King of Cantland"; I can't find any records of such a thing. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Lins030

King's Mountain

See Battle of King's Mountain (File: CAFS1293)

King's Navy, The

DESCRIPTION: "We don't want to march with the infantry, Ride with the cavalry, shoot with the artillery, We don't want to fly over Germany, We're in the King's Navy." Or, "We don't have to march with the infantry, ride with the cavalry... We're in the Swiss Navy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Carl E. Zander and Wes H. Klusman, Camp Songs)
KEYWORDS: navy nonballad war campsong
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 63, "The King's Navy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 123, 164, 236, 519, 549, "Swiss Navy" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 46, "The King's Nivy" (1 text, tune referenced)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 7, "The King's Nivy" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT, KINGNAVY
Roud #29412
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)" (tune)
NOTES [52 words]: The two versions of this, "The King's Navy" and "The Swiss Navy," are fairly distinct, and there isn't much evidence to prove which is older -- but I'd guess "The King's Navy" is the original; if "The Swiss Navy" were the earliest form, it probably wouldn't have been changed, because the joke is too good. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Hopk063

King's Nivy, The

See The King's Navy (File: Hopk063)

King's Seven Daughters, The

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

King's Three Questions, The

See King John and the Bishop [Child 45] (File: C045)

Kingdom a-Comin'

See Kingdom Coming (The Year of Jubilo) (File: R230)

Kingdom Coming (The Year of Jubilo)

DESCRIPTION: "Say, darkeys, hab you seen de massa, Wid de muff-stash on his face, Go long the road some time dis mornin' Like he gwine to leab de place?" The slaves exult that the coming of Union soldiers is chasing Master away, leaving them free (and free to rejoice)
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (sheet music published by Root & Cady and published by S. Brainard's Sons)
KEYWORDS: slave slavery Civilwar freedom
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work, pp. 161-164, "Kingdom Coming" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Randolph 230, "The Year of Jubelo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 11, "Jubilo" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 232, "Kingdom Coming" (3 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 232, "Kingdom Coming" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #49, "Kingdom a-Comin'" (1 text, 1 tune, very heavily folk processed in both text and tune)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 106-109, "Kingdom Coming" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 392, "Kingdom Coming" (1 text plus a copy of the sheet music cover)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 317-319, "Kingdom Coming (Year of Jubilo)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 92-93, "Kingdom Coming" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 114-115, "Kingdom Coming" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 104, "The Year of Jubalo" (1 text)
Cray-AshGrove, p. 28, "KIngdom Coming" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 100-101, "Kingdom Coming" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1188, p. 82, "Kingdom Coming" (12 references)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 120-122, "Kingdom Coming (Year of Jubilo)" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 39-40, "Kingdom Coming" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 152-153, "Kingdom Coming" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 18, "Jubilo" (1 fragment, tune referenced); p. 61, "The Year of Jubilo" (1 text, 1 tune, completely sanitized, even though the text on p. 18 is closer to the original)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 12, "Jubilo" (1 fragment); p. 23, "The Year of Jubilo" (1 text, the sanitized version)
DT, YRJUBILO*
ST R230 (Full)
Roud #778
RECORDINGS:
Sam Connor, "Massa Run Away" (instrumental), on OldTrad1, FarMtns1)
Frank Jenkins & his Pilot Mountaineers [Oscar Jenkins, Frank Jenkins, Ernest V. Stoneman], "In the Year of Jubilo" (Conqueror, unissued, 1929)
Chubby Parker, "The Year of Jublio" (Conqueror 7897, 1931)
Pete Seeger, "Kingdom Coming" (on PeteSeeger28)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Babylon Is Falling" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Wandering Willie (File: CAFS2484)
The Pauper's Cowhides (File: Wels067)
Capture of Sally Davis ("O Ladies, have you seen Jeff Davis) (cited in Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 18)
The Draft I a Coming ("Say, Gents, hab you seen de enrolling officer?") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 34)
Jubal E. ("Oh, Gray backs, did you see Old Early, with his Beef steak colored face," by John L. Zieber) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 79)
Old Time ("Say, Classmates, have you seen a yagger WIth a gray beard on his chin") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 124)
Song of the Bolt ("Oh! Freshmen, have you got done laughing At the Doctor's sad mistake") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 120)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Massa's Gone Away
NOTES [831 words]: This was (according to some source I have now lost -- perhaps Jackson?) the first song by Henry Clay Work (1832-1884) to be published. Work was a fervent abolitionist; his father had been jailed for his activities with the underground railroad. One day the younger Work showed up at Root and Cady. George F. Root described him as "a quiet and rather solemn-looking young man, poorly clad," but was astonished by the song he brought along.
"Kingdom Coming" was taken up by the Christy Minstrels in 1862, and soon became a runaway bestseller. Work's career was off to a fine start.
The "Year of Jubilo," according to Finson, p. 211, is dialect for "Year of Jubilee," the English name for the the time, every fifty years, when slaves were freed (see, e.g., Leviticus 25:10 -- though the Year of Jubilee had many functions other than freeing slaves, and was mostly about Hebrew slaves anyway).
In a rather hilarious twist, the polemic War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy (1904?) publishes this as "The Contraband," along with an explanation of how slaves loved their masters! Work's name, naturally, is omitted; it is offered as "A song of Mississippi negros in the Vicksburg campaign."
I have never seen an explanation of how this song originated, but there is an incident which might have played a tangential role, and which happened fairly early. In 1862, in the western theater of the war, Confederate commander Albert Sydney Johnston had played a vast game of bluff, occupying a line in Kentucky and northern Tennessee with forces he knew to be inadequate to the task. After U. S. Grant broke the center of his line by capturing Forts Henry and Donelson, Johnston had no choice but to move the rest of his lines sharply south (Harpers, p. 240). In the process, he had to abandon his main supply base at Nashville (February 24, 1862; CivilWarAlmanac, pp. 86-87). Because Johnston had been told by the local commander that Donelson would hold, he was forced into a surprisingly disorganized retreat (Harpers, pp. 240-241)
When Federal troops entered Nashville, a reporter went to one of the leading hotels and pounded on the door. According to Foote, p. 217, "He kept on ringing, with the persistency of a tired and hungry man within reach of food and a clean bed. At last he was rewarded. A Negro swung the door ajar and stood there smiling broadly. 'Massa done gone souf,' he said, still grinning."
What's more, there *was* "a smoke way up de ribber" at that time. It came from two Confederate gunboats being burned (Foote, p. 216) -- but the civilians could hardly know that, and they *did* know that Federal gunboats had been responsible for the capture of Fort Henry and had attacked (though they had been repelled at) Fort Donelson.
The song does seem to have had some vogue among ex-Slaves. Bishop/Chester, p. 94, tells of what the 2nd Minnesota Regiment experienced in the period after the Battle of Shiloh: "As we approached Athens, [Tennessee,] we got a mail from the north, and in it someone received a copy of the song, then just published, called 'Kingdom Comin'.' Adjutant S. P. Jennison sang it in camp... while the men of the regiment joined in as they learned the chorus, and a crowd off black faces grinning with delight surrounded them, taking in the spirit of the words and music so appropriate to the situation at the time. In a day or two, everybody knew and was singing it, and the darkies would have a circus over it every evening, keeping the song going with original and grotesque variations...."
Root, pp. 137-138, tells of how this song came to be published: "One day early in the war a quiet and rather solemn-looking young man, poorly clad, was sent up to my room from the store with a song for me to examine. I looked at it and then at him in astonishment. It was 'Kingdom Coming,' -- elegant in manuscript, full of bright, good sense and comical situations in its 'darky' dialect -- the words fitting the melody almost as aptly and neatly as Gilbert fits Sulliavan -- the melody decidedly good and taking, and the whole exactly suited to the times. 'Did you write this -- words and music?" I asked. A gentle 'Yes' was the answer. 'What is your business, if I may enquire?' 'I am a printer.' 'Would you rather write music than set type?' 'Yes.' 'Well, if this is a specimen of what you can do, I think you may give up the printing business. He liked the idea very much, and an arrangement with us [i.e. Root and Cady, the publishers] was soon made. He needed some musical help that I could give him, and we needed such songs as he could write. The connection, which continued some years, proved very profitable both to him and to us. This was Henry C. Work.... Mr. Work was a slow, pains-taking writer [at least by comparison to Root, who often talks of dashing off a song in minutes], being from one to three weeks upon a song; but when the work was done it was like a piece of fine mosaic, especially in the fitting of words to music." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: R230

Kinge Arthurs Death

See King Arthur's Death (File: BeCo108)

kinge enjoys his righs againe, The

See When the King Enjoys His Own Again (File: ChWI214)

Kinge James and Browne

See King James and Brown [Child 180] (File: C180)

Kinge John and Bishoppe

See King John and the Bishop [Child 45] (File: C045)

Kinghorn Ferry

DESCRIPTION: Soldiers take a pedlar through Kinghorn Ferry streets. He says he would be forced to be a soldier in Flanders. The women plead unsuccessfully for his release. They disarm, beat and drive the soldiers to sea and save the pedlar. Sailors laugh.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan2); there is a broadside dated 1701
KEYWORDS: army soldier battle rescue humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #169, p. 1, "Kinghorn Ferry" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 238, "Kinghorn Ferry" (1 text)
Roud #5842
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(009), "The Lasses of Kinghorn" ("All Gentlemen and Cavaliers that doth delight in sport"), unknown, 1701
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Clavers and his Highland Men" (tune, per broadside NLScotland Ry.III.a.10(009))
NOTES [266 words]: There is a passing reference to King William: the leader of the women, "General" Paterson, says "Had it not been for King William's sake, we'd drowned them [the soldiers] in the Sea." Greig: "'King William' may be William IV. [1830-1837], in which case the ballad would take us back to the Thirties of last [19th] century. But the style of the piece seems older than this, and though it carries us back to the end of the 17th century, I am inclined to think that the Monarch referred to must be William III [1688-1702]. This view gains confirmation from the reference which the packman makes to the wars on the Continent. Further, the heroism of the women and their readiness to handle weapons is in keeping with the spirit of those days as illustrated by many another contemporary ballad."
Eoin Shalloo, Curator, Rare Book Collections, National Library of Scotland, explains the 1701 probable date of publication as follows (quoted with permission): "I think the date 1701 has been assigned to this broadside from a number of reference sources. The Wing Short Title Catalogue (no.466c) gives the date as [1700?] and our working copy of H.G. Aldis, A list of books printed in Scotland before 1700 (ref. 3978.5) also uses the same date. Whoever compiled the entry for the broadside website probably used the date from our online catalogue which came from Wing. Where Wing got the date from I don't know. It is possible from looking at the item that is could have been printed retrospectively 20 or 30 years later, but it would have had more relevance if printed closer to the time of the action." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2238

Kingman Mills

DESCRIPTION: "James S. Richardon and George E. Clark, a company so they say, They own a mill in Skunksville; they run it night and day." It is a steam mill in Kingman. Most of the verses describe the mill's employees
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Beck-FolkloreOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: moniker work
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 265-265, "Kingman Mills" (1 text)
Roud #4730
File: BeMe265

Kings and Queens

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Kings and Queens and partners two All dressed up in royal blue. One, two, How do you do? I do very well, With a house to mysel', A door and a bell and a coconut shell, One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: royalty clothes jumprope colors | royal blue door bell coconut shell counting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #296, "Kings and Queens" (1 text)
File: AJRR296

Kings of Orient

See We Three Kings (Kings of Orient) (File: OBC195)

Kings, The

DESCRIPTION: "A nicht short syne some buirdly [stalwart] chiels [young men] fu' pawky [crafty] o' their braws Forgaithered owre a mutchkin stoup [1/4-pint cask] to straught [straighten] some ancient thraws [twists]"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: royalty drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1874, "The Kings" (1 fragment)
Roud #13580
NOTES [51 words]: Greig/Duncan8 quoting a Charles Murray letter to Duncan: "... I can't remember seeing it in print ever. It begins: Recit[ative].[Text]. The Kings get up one after the other and sing their case to well known tunes. There are about 160 lines...."
The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81874

Kingston Volunteers, The

See James Bird [Laws A5] (File: LA05)

Kinkaiders, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells us that the "place I like the best" is "the sand hills, O the sand hills, The place Kinkaiders make their home." He praises the corn, melons, cows, etc., and gives thanks "for the homestead law he made, This noble Moses P. Kinkaid."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915
KEYWORDS: home farming
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1903-1919 - Term of Congressman Moses P. Kinkaid, who introduced the homestead law which was so widely praised in Nebraska
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 278-279, "The Kinkaiders" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 85, p. 184, "The Kinkaiders" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, p. 56, "The Kinkaider's Song" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 490, "The Kincaiders Song" (1 text)
Roud #4982
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree)" (tune) and references there
NOTES [100 words]: Pound reports, "Moses P. Kinkaid was congressman of the sixth congressional distict [of Nebraska], 1903-1919. He was the introducer of a bill for 640-acre homesteads known as the 'Kinkaid Homestead Law.'"
Also known as the "Kinkaid Home Act," and passed in 1904, the Act applied originally only to unsettled areas of Nebraska, and granted the land in return for five years residence and $800 in improvement. It was extended in 1909.
Given that the song was collected while Kincaid (the correct spelling, according to Cohen) was still in office, one wonders if this might not be a campaign song. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: San278

Kinmont Willie [Child 186]

DESCRIPTION: Kinmont Willie, a notorious raider, comes to the border under a truce, with few men at his back, and is treacherously taken by a large force under Lord Scroop and others. He is imprisoned as a raider, but finally rescued
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: betrayal prison rescue borderballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 13, 1596 - Rescue of William Armstrong of Kinmouth (Kinmont Willie) from the castle at Carlisle
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Child 186, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
Bronson 186, "Kinmont Willie" (1 version)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 54-59, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 504-509, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 370-374, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 137, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 56, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 116-122+327-328, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 108-114, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
DT, KINMWILL
ADDITIONAL: Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (Edinburgh: Longman and Rees, 1803 ("Digitizede by Microsoft"), Vol. I, pp. 129-154, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 111-116, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
Roud #4013
NOTES [251 words]: Kinmont Willie was a real person, and he caused a major border incident at a time when James VI of Scotland was really trying to stay on good terms with Elizabeth I of England, since he wanted to succeed her.
According to Rosalind Mitchison, A History of Scotland (second edition), p. 158, "In 1597 [her date; Child's extensive note says 1596] there was the international incident of Kinmont Willie. The English broke Border law by capturing him at a day of truce, and refused from personal animosity to the Scottish Warden, Buccleuch, to hand him back. Buccleuch then rescued him from Carlisle castle. The subsequent outbreak of diplomatic huffiness was resolved by a joint English and Scottish commission."
This was typical of the problems of the time: The governments wanted peace, but the borderers wanted to keep on looting.
This was probably traditional at one time -- there are other folktales about Kinmont Willie -- but the only surviving text is that printed by Walter Scott, and he admitted to emending it. One suspects that he did more than amend it; it probably has nearly as much Scott as genuine Scot ballad in it....
There is a relatively recent book on the topic, Halbert J. Boyd, Kinmont Willie, Grant & Murray, 1934. But it has no footnotes, no index, no introduction, and only a half-page list of references. I honestly don't even know if it's fiction or non-fiction! (I'd guess fiction, though, because of the amount of quoted dialog. In practice it is certainly fictionalized.) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: C186

Kinnie Wagner Song

See Kenny Wagner's Surrender [Laws E8] (File: LE08)

Kinnie Wagner's Surrender

See Kenny Wagner's Surrender [Laws E8] (File: LE08)

Kinsale versus Mallow

DESCRIPTION: The singer's answer to Paddy. "What could bewitch you, to sing ... the praise of Kinsale?" The only commerce of Kinsale is fish. The spa at Mallow beats that at Kinsale. No king would ever have sight of the Kinsale hotel. "I'll stay here in Mallow"
AUTHOR: John Lander (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (Haly broadside, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: commerce fishing humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 218-220, "Kinsale versus Mallow" (1 text)
NOTES [76 words]: Kinsale and Mallow are in County Cork.
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "This satirical song ["The Praise of Kinsale"], with the subsequent reply to it ["Kinsale versus Mallow"], are given from a broadside purchased by the Editor in 1831, at the shop of Haly, a ballad printer in Hanover Street, Cork. The were respectively entitled, 'Paddy Farrell, of Kinsale, to his Friend at Mallow;' and 'Answer of Thady Mullowny, of Mallow, to Paddy Farrell, Kinsale.'" - BS
File: CrPS218

Kintey Coy at Samsonville

DESCRIPTION: Tales of Old Abey Kelder's bar. The clientele is reported to have "kintey coyed and raised the devil; I bet they thought their heads was level." The behavior of various bar patrons is briefly described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: drink moniker
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 162, "Kintey Coy at Samsonville" (1 text)
ST FSC162 (Partial)
File: FSC162

Kintyre Love Song, A

DESCRIPTION: "Like the violets in spring, like the lark on the wing... so sweet is she." The singer uses similar imagery to illustrate that "so fair is she," "so kind is she," "so dear is she."
AUTHOR: Words: James Hamish Dall Mactaggart
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H195, p. 234, "A Kintyre Love Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9468
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ned of the Hill" (tune)
File: HHH195

Kipawa Stream, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a roving shantyboy -- the pinewoods is my home, Like every other fellow, from camp to camp I roam." The singer recalls his years of work on the rivers, noting "My muscle is my fortune." He wishes he could have revenge on the Indians
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger drink Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #63, "The Kipawa Stream" (1 text)
Roud #4557
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Manistee River Song"
cf. "Boardman River Song"
NOTES [40 words]: Although the final stanza of this song seeks revenge on the Indians, the singer gave no reason for wanting such revenge. It may be that this is a leftover from one of the various other versions of this song (see the cross-references). - RBW
File: FowL63

Kirn Song

DESCRIPTION: "Robbie Burns, altho' he be dead ... could handle the ploo"; he enjoyed himself at the harvest celebration. "Some drink to ladies, and some drink to lairds, But here is to the farmers wi' their big corn yards"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: farming drink party
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #8, p. 2, ("There's Robbie Burns, although he is dead") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 633, "Kirn Song" (1 text)
Roud #6067
File: GrD3633

Kirtle Gaol

See County Jail (II) (File: Mack148)

Kisander

DESCRIPTION: Call-response. Calls: "(Come on, come on/Mama, mama), Come tell me your (sir/funny/last/bad) name." "Me tell when you walk when you talk." Response: "O Kisander, Kisander"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
KEYWORDS: nonballad worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: John Storm Roberts, _Black Music of Two Worlds_ (New York: Original Music, 1972), p. 125, ("Show me your true name, Kisander") (1 fragment)
RECORDINGS:
unknown, "Kisander" (on JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
NOTES [392 words]: John Storm Roberts, Black Music of Two Worlds p. 125: "This [digging work song] was obviously at one time a play-party song and may in the first instance have come from an Anancy story. [Anansi is the eponymous spider trickster of West Indian and Ashanti (West African) 'Anansi stories.'] The chorus 'Kisander' is the name of a cat who appears in some old stories. The song itself sounds as though it began as a word game in which participants had to find new adjectives for the phrases."
Where I hear "sir name" Roberts hears "secret name." Secret names are appropriate where Anancy stories are told. For example, in the Annancy story "Devil's Honey Dram," "An' there was no one know the [Devil's mother's] name except Mr. Annancy.... An' the woman name is Matilda." Annancy uses her name to cast a spell and put her to sleep (Walter Jekyll, Jamaican Song and Story (New York: Dover Publications, 1966 (Reprint of David Nutt, 1907)) #22 pp. 68-70). Hidden names are common enough throughout religion, folk-tales and ballads.
Another of Roberts's points is that this song reminds him of a play-party song. Gomme has a number of games where players with a secret name are to be revealed. See, for example, Alice Bertha Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland (London: David Nutt, 1894 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), vol. 1: "How Many Miles to Babylon" ("Gates of Babylon," pp. 236-237), "Merry-ma-tansa" (pp. 369-376), and "Namers and Guessers" (p. 409).
In his liner notes Roberts writes, "Kisander contains one rarity: the slow introduction used by this group with many of their worksongs. They called it a 'bobbin.'" In Black Music of Two Worlds p. 124, Roberts writes "The communal nature was strongly underlined in the case of some digging songs I collected.... They were preceded by a very slow, richly harmonized passage, which the diggers called a 'bobbin' and which they sang all standing together before work began, almost like an invocational hymn." I can make out a few words of the "bobbin" sung before "Kisander" begins: "Ay-yah, ay-yah, ah-yah, We remember that day, Ay, When we go down ... We remember that day We go far away ...." As for the term "bobbin," Roberts notes that when Jekyll uses the term in Jamaican Song and Story he refers to the response part of call-and-response Jamaican worksongs. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcKisand

Kishmul's Galley

See Beinn a' Cheathaich (File: K002)

Kiss in the Morning Early, A

DESCRIPTION: A maid goes to her cobbler "for her kiss in the morning early." They plan to marry. He gives her a fancy pair of shoes. She goes home and tells her father "I've got me a man." He wonders who but guesses it is only the cobbler when he sees the shoes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: courting father clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 75, "A Kiss in the Morning Early" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3807
NOTES [36 words]: Roud lumps this with "The Shoemaker's Kiss" which is also about relations between a girl and a shoemaker -- but the latter involves a pregnancy, on which basis we split them (at least until I find linking versions). - RBW
File: OLcM075

Kiss Me Goodnight, Sergeant-Major

DESCRIPTION: "Private Jones came home one night, full of beer and very tight," embraces his seargeant, and begs, "Kiss me good-night, Sergeant-Major, Tuck me in my little wooden bed. We all love you, Sergeant-Major, when we hear you bawling, 'Show a leg!'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier drink humorous
FOUND IN: Canada Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 78-79, "Kiss Me Good-night, Sergeant-Major" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16962
RECORDINGS:
Christine Mary C. Morris, "Kiss Me Goodnight, Sergeant Major" (Extremely short fragment: Piotr-Archive #37, recorded 07/20/2021)
File: Hopk078B

Kiss Me in the Dark

DESCRIPTION: To save her reputation, Sally tells sailor William she will only kiss him in the dark. The captain hears and goes in William's place. William and Sally marry three months later. She has a baby six months after that. The captain is godfather. Sally smiles
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1852 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.12(271))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage sex pregnancy trick sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #118, "Young William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2535
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(271), "Kiss Me in the Dark" ("Young William was a sailor a handsome roving boy"), S. Russell (Birmingham), 1840-1851; also Firth c.12(272), Firth b.34(160),2806 c.16(211), "Kiss Me in the Dark"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Irish Molly" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Firth c.12(271))
cf. "The Butcher's Daughter" (theme: sex and disguise by darkness)
cf. "Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor)" [Laws K40] (theme: sex and disguise by darkness)
cf. "Jack Simpson the Sailor" (theme: sex and disguise by darkness)
cf. "The Frolicksome Farmer" (theme: the hazards of sex in the dark)
File: BrdKMitD

Kiss Me Quick

See Kiss Me Quick and Go (File: HaGr072)

Kiss Me Quick and Go

DESCRIPTION: "The other night as I was sparking sweet Tarlina Spray," the two talk and cuddle at length until her parents hear. She urges him, "Kiss me quick and go." They regularly meet; he is repeatedly driven off; even when he asks to wed, she say, "Kiss me quick"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Dime-Song-Book #1)
KEYWORDS: courting father abuse humorous marriage food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hamer-GreenGroves, p. 72, "Kiss Me Quick" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 62-63, "Kiss Me Quick, and Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 14 and #1/64 p. 14, "Kiss Me Quick and Go" (1 text)
Roud #1153
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2572)=Johnson Ballads 433=Johnson Ballads 434=Firth b.34(161) [semi-legible)], ""Kiss Me Quick,", W. S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; also Harding B 11(2007)=2806 b.11(242), "Kiss Me Quick," H. Such (London), 1863-1885
File: HaGr072

Kiss Me, Oh, I Like It

DESCRIPTION: "One morning rather dark as I strolled through the park, I met with a blushing young maid." They find their way beneath the trees, where she proclaims, "Kiss me, oh, I like it, Kiss me again, it's nice.... You are a dear, and no one is near....."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (recorded from Edith Perrin)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN:
Roud #16398
RECORDINGS:
Edith Perrin, "Kiss Me, Oh, I Like It" [fragment] (on USWarnerColl01)
File: RcKMOILI

Kissing

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks how she can be happy when "the bonny young lad I love so dearly He is banished quite out of my company." Kissing is foolish and brings "poor lovers into sin." Nevertheless, she wishes she were in his arms.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: grief love separation nonballad lover
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople, p. 233, "(It's how can I be merry and free)" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Sam Richards and Tish Stubbs, editors, _The English Folksinger_ (Glasgow, 1979), pp. 118,121, "Kissing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3458
NOTES [32 words]: Richards and Stubbs text is from the same manuscript as Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople and adds the tune.
The final line, "I'd care not whether I sink or swim," floats from "Waly, Waly." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: ReSh233

Kissing in the Dark

DESCRIPTION: "For lang I courted Jeannie... And whan she cam to see me, I wad kiss her in the dark." One night when she is away, he sneaks in and accidentally kisses her mother. This causes the mother to give consent to their marriage, and her money when she dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love courting humorous mother nightvisit
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #102, p. 2, "Kissin' In the Dark" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 915, "Kissin' In the Dark" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 97-98, "Kissin' in the Dark" (1 text)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 139-140, 156, "Kissin in the Dark" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Dark, the Dark
NOTES [29 words]: George Cooper wrote a text, "Kissing in the Dark," that was set to music by Stephen C. Foster. This isn't it; like most of Foster's late work with Cooper, it went nowhere. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Ord097

Kissing Is a Crime

DESCRIPTION: "I know a little girl and I want her for my wife. She's pretty and sweet, neat little feet, and never been kissed in her life." When he kisses her, she says, "kissing is a crime.
I'll not kiss you any more -- until next time." Somehow they keep kissing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love humorous rejection
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 59, "Kissing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11327
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "Kissing Is a Crime" (Romeo 6-05053)
File: Brne059

Kissing Song (I)

DESCRIPTION: The loving young man "hangs all around the cabin door," kissing the girl "for (his/her) mother and her sister and her brother Till her Daddy comes...." Daddy threatens to shoot him; the girl objects. They continue courting much to the old folks' delight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: love courting father family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 374, "A Young Man's Love" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 305-307, "A Young Man's Love" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 374C)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 160-161, "Everybody's Got a Finger in the Pie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #86, When a Fellow Falls in Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 140-142, "The Kissing Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, KISSNG
ADDITIONAL: Lewis Winfield Moody, "Everybody's Got a Finger in the Pie" (7/21/1941). University of Wisconsin Digital Collections https://asset.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/PGZ2EBD5DZFZD8J/R/file-0dd4a.pdf#page=1, accessed 7/15/2023 [pdf available with text and tune]
Roud #3642
RECORDINGS:
Chubby Parker, "The Kissing Song" (Conqueror 7891, 1931)
Thomas Williams, "Turtle Dove" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [61 words]: According to Cohen, this song was copyrighted by Billy Carter in 1882 as "Kissing on the Sly." This should not be confused with another "Kissing on the Sly" song, by G. H. Marsden and H. Watkins, which begins "His manly whiskers swept her cheek, She uttered no reply"; this is found in Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 130-131, but shows no sign of being traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R374

Kissing Song (II -- She Just Kept Kissing On)

DESCRIPTION: "I gave her kisses one, kisses one (x2), I gave her kisses one, And she said 'twas well begun, So we kept kissing on, kissing on." Similarly, "Kisses two... She said that would not do...." and so on, up to perhaps "ten... begin again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 313, "Kissing Song" (1 text plus a fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 313, "Kissing Song" (1 tuns plus a text excerpt)
Roud #4388
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "She Just Kept Kissing On" (Victor V-40095, 1929; on KHarrell02)
Mrs. Hartley Minifie, "I Gave Her Kisses One" (on ONEFowke01)
SAME TUNE:
Howdy Do, Everybody (Harbin-Parodology, #153, p. 45)
NOTES [27 words]: The editors of Brown link this with the other "Kissing Song" found in Randolph. This is perverse -- this is a counting song, Randolph's a genuine courting song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Br3313

Kissing's No Sin (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Some say kissing's a sin, but I think it's nane ava, For kissing has been in the world When there was but only twa." The singer points to all those who have engaged in kissing, noting that it must be lawful if lawyers do it, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook XXIX, pp. 86-88, "The Mautman" (1 text, containing at least a fragment of this)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 18, "Kissin's no sin" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #2579
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mautman" (lyrics)
cf. "The Hog-tub" (lyrics)
cf. "The Song of Temptation" (theme of the antiquity of sexual relations)
NOTES [76 words]: This is, quite simply, a tangle. This consists of two parts: "Some say that kissing's a sin" and "If it wasna lawful...." The former is shared with "The Mautman," which adds a story about a mautman demanding his pay; the latter is shared with "The Hog-tub," which adds a Mother Goose rhyme, "Once I courted a pretty lass." How all these grafts came together I don't know; the combination found in this song seems most logical, but what does that prove? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: RcKiNoSi

Kissing's No Sin (II)

See The Mautman (File: KinBB29)

Kitardine

DESCRIPTION: "One night ... Some rambling thoughts came in my mind And caused me for to roam." The singer leaves his girl, takes the train from Kitardine to the lumber camp, and takes a job as a cook. At season's end he signs on to help take the lumber to Bangor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: courting farewell lumbering
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 42-43, "Kitardine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12473
NOTES [12 words]: Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland: Kitardine is in Maine. - BS
File: Dib042

Kitchey Coo

See Bill Wiseman (File: Doyl3014)

Kitchey-Coo

See Bill Wiseman (File: Doyl3014)

Kitchie-Boy, The [Child 252]

DESCRIPTION: A lady reveals her love to a kitchen boy. He begs her not to make it known; her father would kill him. She sends him over the sea; he rebuffs a lady's advances. He returns home in disguise and convinces the father to let him marry his daughter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: love separation nobility servant disguise marriage reunion return
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 252, "The Kitchie-Boy" (5 texts)
Bronson 252, "The Kitchie-Boy" (3 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 252, "The Kitchie-Boy" (1 version: #2)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 112-115, "The Kitchen Boy/The Kitchie Boy" (2 texts)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 231-234, "Bonny Foot-Boy" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1048, "The Kitchie Boy" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 616-621, "The Kitchie-Boy" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 25, "The Kitchie-Boy" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 13-16, "Earl Richard's Daughter" (1 text)
Roud #105
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Matt Hyland" (plot)
cf. "Richie Story" [Child 232] (plot)
cf. "The Prince of Morocco (The Sailor Boy II)" [Laws N18] (plot)
cf. "Hind Horn" [Child 17] (lyrics)
NOTES [92 words]: Child views this as a "modern 'adaption' of 'King Horn'" (i.e. "Hind Horn," Child 17), from which it derives some stanzas. The plot, however, is by no means identical, sharing elements with a number of other ballads. David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 324, regards it as Anna Gordon Brown's rewrite of "Young Beichan" [Child 53]. - RBW
Greig/Duncan5 1048C has a connection with "King Horn" not in any of Child's texts: the hero reveals himself by dropping the ring in the lady's wine cup. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: C252

Kite Abandoned in White Bay, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye rambling sailor boys And hearken please to me And hear what fishermen endure...." The Kite sets out with the sealing fleet, but her slow speed causes her to be left behind. 22 crew leave her to go home and seek better work
AUTHOR: probably Johnny Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff)
KEYWORDS: ship hunting abandonment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1902 - the jamming and near-abandonment of the "Kite"
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 103, "The 'Kite' Abandoned in White Bay" (1 text)
Roud #V44650
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of Newfoundland (II)" (tune)
NOTES [904 words]: This apparently comes from a manuscript with no indication of author, date, or tune. Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff say that this is probably the work of Johnny Burke (1851-1930), and certainly it is similar to other pieces Burke wrote (he had several other songs that started with a "come-all-ye" line), but it is not in the collection of Burke's poems published in 1981 by William J. Kirwin. For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree."
Looking at the form and certain of the words, I think it effectively certain that "The Banks of Newfoundland (II)" was the author's model. (And Burke often used existing songs as a basis for his own.)
The Kite was one of the most-mentioned vessels in sealing songs; there are references to her in "Sealer's Song (I)," "Captains and Ships," "Success to the Hardy Sealers," "Ballad of Bob Bartlett, Arctic Explorer," "The 'Kite' Abandoned in White Bay," and "Success to Every Man."
The Kite was built in Germany in 1873, apparently originally being called the Norwegen (Greene, p. 272), and became a Newfoundland vessel in 1877. She was part of the seal hunt every year from 1877 to 1914. She then performed other duties until her final voyage in 1918. (Feltham, p. 78). She was smaller than most sealers, and with only a 50 horsepower engine, couldn't do much in heavy ice (Feltham, p. 79; Greene, p. 54, calls her "the prettiest yacht-like thing imaginable when in the Ice" but admits that she had "toy engines"; Ryan-Last, p. 68, quotes a Bowring's employee as saying "She was so small they used to say the Kite had to stop to blow her whistle"). That perhaps contributed to some ill fortune for her; in 1902, for instance, she got stuck for almost a month, causing the crew to form a plan to walk home, resulting in newspaper claims of a mutiny. At minimum, the captain put the men on reduced rations, and they eventually demanded the right to walk home. Captain Daniel Green gave them two days' rations and let them go (Feltham, p. 81). I assume the 1902 "jam" was the inspiration for this piece, although Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff do not say so.
She also got stuck in 1905 -- although that year, with Joe Kean in command, she found herself in position to take in an unusually large haul of seals (Feltham, p. 82). She rarely had much luck in the years after that; she was just too small and too weak. In 1908, her stern was damaged by ice (Winsor, p. 49). In 1913, she couldn't even get a full crew because the ice made it impossible to get into port -- she ended up with more stowaways than men properly hired! (Ryan-Ice, p. 196; WInsor, p. 49, says she had only eleven sealers aboard). She took only 1280 seals that year, and her captain Fred Yetman -- a first time skipper -- was not given another ship after that (Chafe, p. 96).
After the difficult 1914 sealing season, she did not go to the ice in 1915-1917 (Chafe, p. 101), but returned in 1918 (I'd guess this was because so many steel ships had been withdrawn from service that the sealing firms needed to bring back every ship they could find). She was wrecked on the Gaspé coast on August 17, 1918 (Greene, p. 272; Winsor, p. 49; Feltham, p. 83, gives the date as August 12) while on charter for other duties (Ryan-Last, p. 68).
I'm guessing that her small size meant that few officers wanted to serve on her if they had any other option; Feltham, p. 84, counts 21 different captains who had charge of her in her 39 years on the ice. Only William Knee -- the captain listed for her in "Sealer's Song (I)" -- commanded her for as many as five years in a row, though Dan Green had charge of her for six years in all: 1894-1897 and 1902-1903.
She had one brush with fame: in 1891, she took Robert Peary on what was supposed to be an expedition to Greenland. At one point, her rudder hit ice, and tore her helm out of the helmsmens' hands. Peary was thrown against a wall and his leg broken. Amazingly, Peary apparently was willing to be picked up by the same ship a year later (Keir, p. 172).
In 1901, she was the first command of Robert Bartlett (Feltham, p. 80; for Bartlett see "Captain Bob Bartlett"), who, since he later commanded the ships that took Peary toward the North Pole, was probably the most famous sealing captain outside Newfoundland. He didn't have much luck with her, though, He got her stuck in the ice once, grounded her once, and had her hit bottom one other time (Horwood, p. 182). And, after all that, he took only 8034 seals -- her best total in five years, but less than half of what she had taken under William Knee in her first year (Chafe, p. 101). Perhaps it's no surprise that Bartlett didn't get a command the next year! (Chafe, p. 87).
Few other famous captains seem to have been willing to take on such a feeble ship, but, as mentioned above, Joseph Kean of the famous Kean clan (for which see "Captain Abram Kean") had her in 1905 (Chafe, p. 101; she was only his second command, according to Chafe, p. 93, but he still managed to take 20% more seals than Bartlett), and Baxter Barbour (for whom see "The Nimrod's Song") commanded her in 1908 (Feltham, p. 83).
For another story of the Kite, see "Uncle Bill Teller."
There is a photo of the Kite on p. 174 of Feltham; it's a very muddy image, but even in that, it's clear that her sails were far more important to her than her coal-burning engine. Winsor has a better photo on p. 49. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: RySm103

Kitsy Katsy Had a Canoe

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Kitsy Katsy had a canoe, It was yellow, black, and blue, Open the gates and let it rhough, Dance Kitsy Katsy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Bluebells My Cockle Shells)
KEYWORDS: colors dancing jumprope | canoe
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #297, "Kitsy Katsy had a canoe" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Katie Bairdie"
NOTES [22 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes believes this derived from "Katie Bairdie," and it certainly looks likely, but I know of no absolute proof. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR297

Kitt Hath Lost Her Key

DESCRIPTION: "Kit hath lost her key, her key...." "Kit she wept; I asked by so, That se made all thys moan... My key is lost and gone." She seeks it at St. Sithe. "In bower she was With some that were not kind." The singer says goodbye and will pray she finds her key
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1562 (London, British Library, MS. Royal App. 58; Stationer's Register [see NOTES])
KEYWORDS: sex virginity abandonment seduction MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #458, p. 310, "(Kytt she wept; I axyde why soo)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1824.8
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3005
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Royal App. 58, folio 6
NOTES [587 words]: Note that this is not the "Kitt Hath Lost Her Key" recorded by Ed McCurdy.
There is no hint of this song in modern tradition, our records of it consist of a single Middle English manuscript plus a probable Stationer's Register entry. And the one manuscript is not a carol manuscript -- although it does contain the famous "Westron Wind," and a copy of "This Endris Night," and a piece with a "Downbery down" refrain, and several other love poems. It is dated to the first quarter of the sixteenth century. Several scribes were involved.
There is music (tenor part only).
There is also a Stationer's Register entry, given by Rollins, #1388, p. 120, as "Kyt hath loste hyr keye," printed by Jno. Tisdale in 1561/1562.
So why include it in the Index? For starters, it is generally thought to be a carol (the DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse calls it an "erotic carol"). It is in ballad meter at a time when that was relatively rare. And Greene, p. 449, reports that there is a sequel, although I have not seen it (it is said to be from after 1562 and to use a different verse form); this implies either widespread popularity or significant longevity.
Frankly, it just feels like a folk song to me. Am I sure? Of course not. But when in doubt, I index it.
Greene, p. 449, says that "St. Sithe/Sythe" is St. Zita of Lucca, who was the patron saint of serving maids, and that a key was one of her emblems.
OxfordSaints, pp. 557-558, gives Zita's dates as 1218-1272, and says she was a domestic servant of a single family from age 12 until her death. She suffered much persecution when young, but eventually gained respect for her devotion. Miracles were reported around her, such as angels baking loaves for her while she was in a trance.
Interestingly, although her cult arose not long after her death, she wasn't granted any official status until the fifteenth century and did not gain a place in the martyrology until 1748. Thus this song must have been written before she was formally a saint.
OxfordSaints adds that "Her popular cult had already spread to other countries in the later Middle Ages, testified by chapels in her honour as far afield as Palermo and Ely. In England, where merchants from Lucca had introduced her cult, she was known as Sitha and was invoked by housewives and domestic servants, especially when they lost their keys or were in danger from rivers or crossing bridges. She occurs in mural paintings... and on rood screens.... But her cult seems to have been usually unofficial. No churches were dedicated to her, although St. Benet Shorehog (London), which had a chapel of St. Zita, was commonly known as St. Sithes.... Her feast on April 27 is found in some calendars, mainly from Lincolnshire."
WatkinsSaints, pp. 254-255, differs on her dates, listing them as 1218-1278, but agrees she went into service at 12. Her family was evidently pious; a sister was a nun and an uncle a hermit. "She attended church daily and regarded her employment as her Christian vocation, though Zita upset her employers by giving away food from the household store to the poor and destitute. In time, her evident goodness persuaded them of the value of her presence in the household.
"Zita was allowed to arrange her housework around visits to the sick and those in prison. Her good deeds and heavenly visions became public knowledge and she was visited by both poor and rich."
Thus Kit *might* have lost her position, or even an actual key, but it seems much more likely that the key she lost was her virginity. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: MsKHLHK

Kitten in the Wheat, The

DESCRIPTION: "A sab-cat and a Wobbly band, A rebel song or two, And we'll show the parasite Just what a cat can do." The Wobblies work and say "All for one and one for all." They warn against throwing the Wobblies into prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement prison
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 321-322, "The Kitten in the Wheat" (1 text)
NOTES [52 words]: According to Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, a "sab-cat was the symbol of sabotage," so this song threatens sabotage against those who threaten the Wobblies too strongly. This was one of the handful of songs not in the Little Red Songbooks that John Neuhaus intended to add to his collection of Wobbly songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GFGW321

Kitten Is Under the Sod, The

DESCRIPTION: "The kitten is under the sod, the sod, The kitten is under the sod."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal burial
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 179, "The Kitten Is Under the Sod" (1 short text)
File: Br3179

Kittie of Coleraine

See Kitty of Coleraine (File: OCon044B)

Kittie Wells

See Kitty Wells (File: MN2166)

Kitty Alone (I)

See Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

Kitty Alone (II)

See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Kitty Alone and I

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Kitty Brewster

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls Kitty Brewster's tavern where you could have her good ale and argue politics at the fireplace in winter. Now she has died and the tavern is gone and so are "the chaps wha ance at Kitty's shrine Pour'd their libations votive"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: death drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 554, "Kitty Brewster" (1 text)
Roud #6029
NOTES [36 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Kittybrewster (554) is at coordinate (h1,v9) on that map [roughly 2 miles NW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3554

Kitty Cain't You Come Along Too?

See Raccoon (File: R260)

Kitty Clyde

See Katy Cline (File: FSWB149)

Kitty Grause

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, 'twas over on Hof Hogan one day, down by the riverside," the singer sees Kitty Grause arrive on a steamship. Although she is watching for a lover, he tries to talk to her. She threatens to punch him out. Her lover arrives and takes her away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: courting beauty reunion violence
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 46-47, "Kitty Grause" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9086
NOTES [209 words]: There seems to be only version of this, from Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, which makes it hard to reconstruct the history of the song. The one specific reference is to the "Douglas Steamboat Line." I have never heard of such a line, and a search of my library (checking both books on the North Atlantic passenger service and on Great Lakes shipping) did not reveal anything. Internet searches revealed no line of steamships which served North America, although there seems to have been such a line in Asia for a time.
My speculation -- and it is only that -- is that "Douglas" refers not to the line but to its destination. I suspect the song refers to Douglas County, Wisconsin, the county which contains the town of Superior. This would fit with steamers, and emigrants, and a river (the St. Louis River). Admittedly Douglas County is far from Hancock, Wisconsin, where this song was collected; Hancock is in the middle of the state, a bit south of Wisconsin Rapids and due west of Manitowoc. It's slightly closer to Lake Michigan than Lake Superior -- but only slightly. The nearest major river is the Wisconsin, and even it is some miles away, and the Wisconsin isn't really navigable that far upstream. So any conclusion is really just a guess. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet046B

Kitty Gray

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a girl and courts her "For she looked like an angel although she was poor." Her widowed mother consents to the marriage "as by flattery and deception I won Kitty Gray." But when she realizes his deception, she and the baby die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "One morning as through the village churchyard I did stray," the singer sees a girl and courts her "For she looked like an angel although she was poor." Her widowed mother consents to the marriage "as by flattery and deception I won Kitty Gray." But when she realizes his deception, she and the baby dies
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty death children money trick
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 32, "Kitty Gray" (1 text)
ST GC032 (Partial)
Roud #3692
File: GC032

Kitty Kimo

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Kitty Kline

See Katy Cline (File: FSWB149)

Kitty Kline (II)

See Little Birdie (File: R676)

Kitty Maury

See As I Walked Out Into Her Hall (File: DPio471)

Kitty O'Morey

See Katie Morey [Laws N24] (File: LN24)

Kitty O'Noory

See Katie Morey [Laws N24] (File: LN24)

Kitty of Coleraine

DESCRIPTION: "As beautiful Kitty one morning was tripping" she sees the singer, stumbles, breaks her pitcher and spills its milk. He comforts her. "She vowed for such pleasure she'd break it again." Soon after not an unbroken pitcher could be found in Coleraine
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1809 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 10(8))
KEYWORDS: sex humorous food
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MA)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 44, "Kitty of Coleraine" (1 text)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, p. 67, "Kitty of Coleraine" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 79, "Kittie of Coleraine" (1 text) (pp. 65-66 in the 1919 edition)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 480, "Kitty of Coleraine" (source notes only)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 467, "Kitty of Coleraine" (1 text)
Roud #6534
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 10(8), "Kitty of Colerain", Laurie & Whittle (London), 1809; also Firth b.25(262), 2806 c.15(262), 2806 c.17(209), Harding B 28(149), "Kitty of Colerain"; 2806 b.11(176), Firth c.26(216), Harding B 25(1033), Harding B 12(49), "Kitty of Coleraine"; Harding B 28(265), "Kitty of Colerein"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Spotted Cow" (theme)
cf. "Blackberry Grove" (theme)
cf. "Three Maidens to Milking Did Go" (theme)
cf. "Kate of Coleraine" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Kate of Coleraine (File: HHH684)
NOTES [95 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 10(8) imprint: "Publish'd Apr. 4, 1809, by Laurie & Whittle, 53, Fleet Street, London. Sung with unbounded applause by John Johnstone, Esq of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, amongst his convivial friends in Ireland." - BS
The editors of Granger's Index to Poetry list this as "wr[ongly] at[tributed] to Charles Dawson Shanley." Hoagland, at least, follows this incorrect attribution (giving Shanley's dates as 1811-1875, which obviously demonstrates why he couldn't have written a song published in 1809), though she admits some doubts. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OCon044B

Kitty Tyrrell

DESCRIPTION: The singer comes to the girl, describing all he has to offer if she will marry. He concludes "Your silence I'll take for consent... Now all that I have is your own. This week you may be Kitty Tyrrell; Next week you'll be Mistress Malone."
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Jefferys (?) / Music: Charles William Glover (1806-1863) (?)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1860 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2430))
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage home
FOUND IN: US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 788, "I've Built Me a Neat Little Cot, Darling" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 12, "Kitty Tyrrell" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 420-421, "Kitty Tyrrell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 35, "Kitty Tyrrell" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 61 and #4/64, p. 61, "Kitty Tyrrell" (1 text)
Roud #13790
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2430), "Kitty Tyrrell", Ryle and Co (London), 1845-1859; also Harding B 11(708), Harding B 18(333), Harding B 11(858), Harding B 11(3976), Harding B 11(2011), "Kitty Tyrrell"; Firth b.26(102), Firth c.26(154), "Kitty Tyrell"; Firth b.25(82), "Kitty Tyrrel"
SAME TUNE:
By-and-By ("Times are bad, there's no denying, 'Tis difficult on now to rub") (by Charles R. Thatcher, in "Thatcher's Colonial Songster") (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 58-59; Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 41-42)
NOTES [13 words]: O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland attributes the words to [Samuel] Lover - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R788

Kitty Wells

DESCRIPTION: "You ask what makes this darky weep." The singer weeps to remember Kitty Wells. The two were planning their wedding when she died
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858
KEYWORDS: courting death nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 411, "Kitty Wells" (1 text plus mention of 12 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 411, "Kitty Wells" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 57-59, "Kitty Wells" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 92, "Kitty Wells" (2 texts plus an excerpt)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 125-126, "Kitty Wells" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 60, pp. 80-83, "Kitty Wells" (4 texts)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 223-225, "Kitty Wells" (2 texts)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 166-168, "Kitty Wells" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 185-186, "Kittie Wells" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #69, "Kitty Wells" (1 text plus a fragment)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 145-148, "Kitty Wells" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #62, "Kitty Wells" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 78, "Kitty Wells" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 94, p. 202, "Kitty Wells" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 127, "Kitty Wells" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 141, "Kitty Wells" (1 text) (pp. 119-120 in the 1919 edition)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1199, p. 83, "Kitty Wells" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 9, "Kitty Wells" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 480, "Kitty Wells" (source notes only)
ST MN2166 (Full)
Roud #2748
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Kitty Wells" (Victor 20058, 1926)
Sid Harkreader, "Kitty Wells" (Paramount 3043, 1927)
The Hillbillies, "Kitty Wells" (Vocalion 5018/Vocalion 5019, c. 1926)
Doc Hopkins, "Kitty Wells" (Decca 5983, 1941)
Bradley Kincaid, "Sweet Kitty Wells" (Champion 15502 [as Dan Hughey]/Gennett 6363/Silvertone 5187/Silvertone 8218/Supertone 9208, 1928; rec. 1927)
Pickard Family, "Kitty Wells" (Columbia 15141-D, 1927); (Conqueror 7517, 1930)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Kitty Wells" (Okeh 45048, 1926) (Edison 51994, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5341, 1927)
Virginia Ramblers, "Kitty Wells" (OKeh, unissued, 1929)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(110b), "Kitty Wells," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Kate Wells
Katy Wells
NOTES [215 words]: This piece was repeatedly published in the mid-nineteenth century. The earliest copy (1858) credits it to Charles E. Atherton; the same publisher in 1861 issued an "authorized" edition as by T. Brigham Bishop. A third copy, from 1860, credits the piece to Thomas Sloan, Jr.
From the notes in Cox, it appears that this began life as a dialect song, but many of the texts (including Cox's own) are now in ordinary English.
The song became sufficiently well known that, according to Grant Uden and Richard Cooper, A Dictionary of British Ships and Seamen, 1980 (I use the 1981 St. Martin's Press edition), p. 250, any Royal Navy seaman named Wells was automatically given the nickname "Kitty."
Obviously it is not about the country singer "Kitty Wells," who wasn't born until 1919. But, according to W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, pp. 421-422, the singer was given her stage name as a result of this song. Born Muriel Ellen Deason in 1919, she married Jonnie Wright in 1937, and they performed together, later bringing Jack Anglin into the act. A few years later, Wright started calling his wife by the stage name "Kitty Wells." She didn't attract much attention -- until 1952, when she recorded "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MN2166

Kitty, Kitty Casket

See Atisket, Atasket (I Sent a Letter to My Love) (File: BAF806A)

Kitty, the Wicklow Girl

DESCRIPTION: "God bless you all, I just came out to have a little chat, I am Irish sure, but that's no sin, I'm a rollicking merry Pat." The singer claims great success with girls, but wants only Kitty. He describes the happy process of courting her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 68,, "Kitty, the Wicklow Girl" (1 text)
Roud #5498
File: Dean068A

Klondike Gold Rush, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh come to the place where they strike it rich, Come where the treasure lies hid, Where your hat full of mud is a five pound note.... Klondike, Klondike, Label your luggage for Klondike." The singer tells the poor folks about easy wealth in Klondike
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959
KEYWORDS: gold mining nonballad money
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1896 - George Carmack and his companions discover gold near the Klondike River. By 1898 there were so many prospectors (an estimated 25,000) in the area that the Mounties turned back anyone not carrying a year's worth of supplies
FOUND IN: Canada(West)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 186-188, "The Klondike Gold Rush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4527
NOTES [35 words]: Fowke collected this song in British Columbia, but believed it was written by an Englishman (it refers to a "five pound note" and a "quid," although Canada went to dollars in 1858, even before Confederation). - RBW
File: FMB186

Klondiker's Return, The

DESCRIPTION: "From the field of gold I come, Sweet Marie, Will you kiss me welcome home, Love, to thee?" The singer comes home starved, sick, and poor. He says that she will recognize him once he has been fed up and regained his strength
AUTHOR: C. Curtis?
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Klondike Nugget, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: work mining separation return reunion food gold
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 678-679, "The Klondiker's Return" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Marie" (tune) and references there
File: CAFS2678

Knave, The

See The Rogue (File: RL187)

Knaves Will Be Knaves

See The Rogue (File: RL187)

Knee-bone

See Kneebone Bend (File: Parr013)

Kneebone Bend

DESCRIPTION: "Kneebone hear God call you." "Kneebone, what's the matter?" "Kneebone in the wilderness." "kneebone in the valley." "Kneebone bend to save my soul."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 13, pp. 80-84, "Knee-bone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, p. 127-129, "Kneebone Bend" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21456
RECORDINGS:
Joe Armstrong, John Davis and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Knee-Bone" (on LomaxCD1713) (recorded 1959)
Doretha Skipper and the McIntosh County Shouters, "Kneebone Bend" (on McIntosh1)
Odessa Young and the McIntosh County Shouters, "Kneebone Bend" (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutOnsiteVideo)
NOTES [101 words]: Art Rosenbaum's liner notes to McIntosh1, quoting the lead singer, Lawrence McKiver: "... when they first come over from Africa over here... So they would sing this song, 'Kneebone in the wilderness -- kneebone in the valley,' they was prayin' at the time, that's why they say 'kneebone bend.' They was bendin' down, they was prayin', they would say, 'Kneebone bend to save my soul,' they was prayin', understand?" (p. 6).
The Parrish text and Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree/McIntoshShouters-RingShoutSongs text and track are "ring shout" songs. The McIntoshShouters-RingShoutOnsiteVideo video show the shout. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Parr013

Knees Up Mary Muffet

DESCRIPTION: "Knees up Mary Muffet ... Mary Brown ... Mary Macaroni, Take your partner's hand." Swing her ...
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 83, "Knees Up Mary Muffet" (2 texts, 1 tune)
File: OpGa083

Knees Up, Mother Brown

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, knees up, Mother Brown, Knees up, Mother Brown, Come along, dearie, let it go, Ee-I-Ee-I-Ee-I-O, It's your bloomin' birthday, Let's wake up all the town, So, knees up, knees up, Don't get the breeze up, Knees up, Mother Brown."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 17, "Knees Up, Mother Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 78, "(Knees up, Mother Brown)" (1 short text, from user John5918, posted September 19, 2021)
ST Hopk017A (Partial)
Roud #24984
NOTES [70 words]: I heard a YouTube clip that had a "Knees Up, Mother Brown" segment in it, which made it appear that it was a music hall song, but I haven't seen a printed version.
This often includes a segment,
Oh my, what a rotten song, what a rotten song, what a rotten song
Oh my, what a rotten song, and what a rotten singer too-oo-oo...
which sometimes floats, but I'm filing it here because this seems to be the place it started. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Hopk017A

Knicht o' Archerdale, The

See Proud Lady Margaret [Child 47] (File: C047)

Knick Knack

See This Old Man (File: FSWB390C)

Knickerbocker Line, The

DESCRIPTION: The earliest versions seem to involve a man who became involved with a seamstress who later stole his watch. In the U.S. this plot seems to have disappeared, replaced by sundry nonsense. The references to the Knickerbocker Line seems diagnostic
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (but Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills, p. 550, points to a probable parody from 1859)
KEYWORDS: nonsense robbery courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,West),Scotland(Aber,High)) US(MA) Australia
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 323, "The Knickerbocker Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 146, "The Knickerbocker Line" (2 texts, 2 tunes, plus a text of a published antecedant)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 195, "The Knickerbocker Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
REFERENCES:
ADDITIONAL: John MacShannon,"Knickerbocker Line," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1962.062,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/12560?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023
Lucy Stewart, "Jeannie's Aa the Go," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1960.141,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/54685?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023
ST K323 (Partial)
Roud #2149
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Great Northern Line" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Dogger Bank" (tune, chorus, meter, and references there)
NOTES [94 words]: Greig/Duncan6 1102F is labelled "The Knickerboker Line" [sic] for no apparent reason. It is [correctly] included among the entries for Greig/Duncan6 1102, "Blow Ye Winds, Ay Oh" in "Ten Thousand Miles Away."
See the discussion of the second chorus of Sam Larner's song at "The Dogger Bank."
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills p.548: "On this we can be quite definite. The Knickerbocker Line ran in New York City on a known route. Its mode of conveyance was a horse-drawn omnibus. Its heyday was reached in 1859, when the song about it was written." - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: K323

Knife and a Fork, A

See New York (File: ZiZa103E)

Knife and Fork (I)

See New York (File: ZiZa103E)

Knife and Fork (II)

See Lay the Cloth (File: AJRR299)

Knife in the Window, The

See Creeping and Crawling (File: RL033)

Knife-and-Scissors Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "In Southampton's former days, When grandma was a maid... Every other Friday came a man... It was Pedlar Jack, the knife-and-scissors man." He travels over great distances. His work sharpening knives amuses children and helps their elders
AUTHOR: Graham Penny (source: Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire)
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire)
KEYWORDS: work technology travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 69-71, "The Knife-and-Scissors Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BrHa069

Knight and a Lady Bride, A

See The Wife of Usher's Well [Child 79] (File: C079)

Knight and the Labourman's Daughter, The

See The Laboring Man's Daughter (The Knight's Dream) (File: K132)

Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter, The [Child 110]

DESCRIPTION: A knight, drunk, lies with a shepherd's daughter. She goes to the king's castle and calls for justice. With the king's help, she finds the culprit. The king orders the knight to marry her; he laments his fate. (She reveals that she is richer than he.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Percy); title mentioned 1656 (stationer's register; tune from "The Dancing Master," 1652)
KEYWORDS: marriage betrayal trial royalty seduction rape knight
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) US(NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Child 110, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (16 texts)
Bronson 110, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (24 versions+5 in addenda, though the last three are variants on each other and of dubious authenticity)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 110, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (7 versions: #2, #4, #8, #11, #14, #16, #17.1)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 76-80, "The Knight, and Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques, XLVIII, p. 94, ""The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter" (1 partial text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #22c}
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 193-198, "Earl Richard" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1465, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Earl Richard" (7 texts, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #20, B=#15, C=#16}
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 102-103, "The Shepherd's Daughter" (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 126) (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 19-21, "The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 19, "Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #31, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 31, "The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 17-18, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 15, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 230-232, "Sir William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 315-320, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (2 texts)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 150, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 3, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 17, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 40, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 32, "The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 185-186, "The Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 126-127, "The Shepher's Daughter" (1 excerpt, 1 tune) {Bronson's #22c}
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 289, "The Shepherd's Daughter" (1 tune, called "Parson Upon Dorothy" in Chappell's sources) {Bronson's #22c}
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 280-283, "Earl Richard" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 59-62, "The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2533, "There was a Shepherd's daughter"
DT 110, SHEPDAU * SHEPDAU2 SHEPDAU3* SHEPDAU4* SHEPDAU5*
Roud #67
RECORDINGS:
James Decker, "Sir William" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Lizzie Higgins, "The Forester" (on Voice06) (on LHiggins01)
John Strachan, "The Royal Forester (The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #17.1 in addenda}
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Haselbury Girl, The (The Maid of Tottenham, The Aylesbury Girl)"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Knight William and the Shepherd's Daughter
The Shepherd's Daughter and the King
Eywillian
The Marigool
The Earl o' Stafford's Daughter
NOTES [417 words]: Regarding the date, Rollins, #173, p. 23, has this entry: "beautiful shepherdesse of Arcadia &c. (May 15, 1656, ii. 58, Wm. Gilbertson [Beg. 'There was a Shepherd's daughter,' R[oxburghe] B[allads] III, 449; Child, No. 110.....]"
What might be a fragment of this ballad is found in (John Fletcher and) Francis Beaumont's 1611 play "The Knight of the Burning Pestle", Act II. It's Act II, scene viii, lines 57-60 in Wine (p. 335); KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, which does not mark scenes, makes it Act II, lines 492-495 (p. 101, with possible music on pp. 178-179); in KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, p. 55, makes it Act II, lines 484-487:
He set her on a milk-white steed,
And himself upon a gray;
He never turned his face again
But he bore her quite away.
(For more on "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," see the notes to "Three Merry Men.")
Of course, it might be a fragment of "Lady Isabel" or "The Baffled Knight" or several other ballads as well. KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, pp.178-179, mentions Child 110 and "The Douglas Tragedy" (but falsely calls "The Douglas Tragedy" Child 10 rather than Child 7).
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife also thinks Fletcher quoted the song in "The Pilgrim" from 1621 (a statement also supported by David Atkinson in his essay "Was There Really a 'Mass Extinction of Old Ballads'?") -- though it should be noted that the "Knight of the Burning Pestle" is thought by many to be by Beaumont alone, not Beaumont and Fletcher, so we have no reason to think Fletcher knew or cared for the song.
Lynn M. Wollstadt, "Repainting the Lion: 'The Wife of Bath's Tale' and A Traditional British Ballad," article on pp. 199-212 of Passmore/Carter, notes the similarities of this song to the Loathly Lady tales (e.g. "The Marriage of Sir Gawain," "Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnall," Gower's "Tale of Florent," and Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Tale"). She notes particularly a connection to the Wife of Bath's Tale in that both that story and this ballad begin with a rape which results in a quest for redress and ends with the rapist getting a happier ending that he deserves. But I would argue that the result is different; in the Wife's tale, the knight gets *a different wife than the woman he raped*. In this ballad, it is the raped woman who seeks out her rapist and ends up marrying him. The motifs are largely the same; the actual plot is very different. - RBW
For a discussion of the cursing verses in Child 110E see " Lady Margaret and Sweet Willie." - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: C110

Knight in Green, The

DESCRIPTION: A knight pledges a fortune to win a beautiful girl. To raise this money he must borrow from a Jew, offering his own flesh as collateral. When the bill comes, he cannot pay, and flees. And on it goes, till they all live happily ever after
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 4(17)) [but see Collier, below, which purports to be a collection of "Broadside Black-Letter Ballads Printed in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries"]
KEYWORDS: bargaining courting exile poverty reprieve Jew
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 184-191, "Night in Green" (sic) (1 text)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 5, "The Night in Green" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter Buchan, Gleanings of Scarce Old Ballads (London, 1825 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 105-112, 197-198, "The Northern Lord and Cruel Jew" (1 text)
J. Payne Collier, Broadside Black-Letter Ballads Printed in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (London,1868 ("Digitized by Microsoft"), pp. 48-56,"The Northern Lord" (1 text)
ST FO184 (Partial)
Roud #303
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 4(17), "The Northern Lord"("A noble lord of high renown"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 4(16) [missing penultimate 4 lines], Vet. A3 b.43(14), "The Northern Lord"
NOTES [131 words]: The theme here was, of course, used in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice." The text here shows no direct knowledge of that play, but the two probably derive from a common ancestor.
The notes in Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland state that there is a broadside version in the Folger Shakespeate Library. Unfortunately, they give no other details.
It's worth noting that this very long item comes from manuscript, not singing. And, yes, the title listed by Flanders is "Night," not "Knight." So too Thompson. I find myself suspecting that both versions take their title from a broadside with that error. - RBW
This is a tale type ATU 890, "a pound of flesh" [see Hans-Jorg Uther, The Types of International Folktales, Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 2004, Vol. I, pp. 514-515]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.8
File: FO184

Knight of Liddesdale, The [Child 160]

DESCRIPTION: Only one stanza extant: "The Countesse of Douglas out of her boure she came, And loudly there did she call: 'It is for the Lord of Liddesdale That I let all these tears downe fall.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: (1833, assuming it existed [see NOTES])
KEYWORDS: death mourning nobility
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1353 - Assassination of William Douglas, "The Knight of Liddesdale," by his relative Lord William Douglas
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Child 160, "The Knight of Liddesdale" (0 texts!)
Roud #3999
NOTES [1228 words]: Child apparently included this ballad in his collection "on speculation"; Scott's "Minstrelsy" claimed there were "fragments" still current in his time. Child, however, had only one stanza, and nothing more has been recovered since.
Child has extensive notes on the Knight of Liddesdale, who is the probable subject of this ballad. William Douglas, who was known as the Knight of Liddesdale, was active during the reign of David Bruce, the son of Robert Bruce (for some details on the complicated Scottish succession of this period, see the notes to "The Lord of Lorn and the False Steward" [Child 271]).
David Bruce had come to the Scottish throne as a child of five, and soon after, the English were invading; the English King Edward III (reigned 1327-1377) was promoting Edward Balliol as King of Scotland. This was, in a way, proper, since Edward Balliol was the son of John Balliol, who was the rightful heir of Scotland's King Alexander III. But the Balliol claim had been abdicated, and Edward III was promoting Edward Balliol solely to gain control of Scotland).
According to Brown, p. 36, "William Douglas of Lothian was a third cousin of the Lords of Douglas [i.e. the great Lord James Douglas who had fought at Robert Bruce's side and carried the king's heart after Bruce's death]. He had none of their lands and status, holding only scattered manors in Lothian. He was, though, a man with the ambition and ability to see in the war a chance to emulate the rise of his kinsman. In a career characterized by war and murder and ending in his own violent death, William Douglas, known as 'the knight of Liddesdale', would contribute to both the later strengths and weaknesses of the Douglas family."
In this period, there was much conflict between the Balliol adherents and the loyalists who supported David Bruce's claim. This conflict did not really end until Edward III started the Hundred Years' War with France and started sending his troops to France rather than Scotland. The Balliol forces were then pushed out of Scotland. Naturally there was much opportunity for various people to pick up lands at the expense of their neighbors. The Knight of Liddesdale was one of the staunchest defenders of the Bruce legacy (Fry/Fry, p. 85).
Brown, p. 36: "Before 1334 [the year after his distant cousin Archibald 'the Tyneman' was defeated at Halidon Hill, throwing Scotland into chaos], William Douglas of Lothian had been a minor figure in Scottish politics.... By 1341, though, he was among the most powerful magnates in the kingdom."
He had been captured at Halidon Hill but by 1334 was back in action, joining the resistance forces led by John Randolph, Earl of Moray. When Randolph was captured, Douglas started operating on his own, and was one of the leading loyalist guerilla fighters, his career culminating in a the capture of Edinburgh in 1341 (Brown, pp. 36-37). Two of his brothers were killed in the course of his battles (Brown, p. 38).
Some of William's rise was due to royal grants, but not much (Brown, p. 39). His dealings in this period were, according to Boardman, p. 162, "somewhat dubious." He initially gained his property by capturing territory from the English, or by convincing owners who could not defend their property to give him control over it. Starting from 1339, however, he started to receive the property of pro-English owners who were pushed aside. It was out of this that he picked up the title Lord of Liddesdale, trading it for his nominal earldom of Atholl that was too far from his base (Brown, p. 40).
He didn't always fight on behalf of King David II; when the King appointed a strong sheriff of Teviotdale, threatening William's authority, he overthrew the sheriff and allied himself with Robert the Steward against the King, forcing David to condone his rebellion (Brown, pp. 42-43). Having made his peace with the king, he joined the army that was heavily defeated at Neville's Cross in 1346; like David II, he was captured (Brown, p. 43).
Making things even more complicated was the slaughter of the Douglases. James Lord Douglas was killed in 1330, and his son William in 1333, leaving only his illegitimate son Archibald "the Grim" to carry on that line. James's brother Archibald "the Tyneman" left only one son. A third brother, Hugh "the Dull," was still alive, but not very active, and apparently Liddesdale worked hard to keep him from marrying and leaving heirs (Brown, p. 41). So there were a lot of Douglas properties with uncertain owners. With Liddesdale in English custody, the opportunity arose for the other William Douglas, the son of Archibald "the Tyneman," to put in a claim (Brown, p. 43). Ironically, Liddesdale was the other William's guardian and godfather, but he hardly exercised the duties of that role! The two William Douglases fought for influence, with Liddesdale periodically getting furloughs from custody to keep up the fight. Finally Liddesdale transferred his allegiance to the English in return for his freedom (Brown, pp. 44-45); his goal, of course was to regain his influence at the borders.
He probably should have stayed in custody. The two William Douglases continued to negotiate -- but in August 1353, Liddesdale was ambushed and assassinated in Ettrick Forest. It can't be proved that the other William was responsible, but it seems clear that either he or one of his allies arranged it (Brown, p. 46). The surviving William became "the" Douglas, claiming most of the family inheritance including the lordship of Liddesdale. In 1354, even though William had killed King David's vassal Liddesdale, David made him Lord of Liddesdale. In 1358, David went even further and created him the first Earl of Douglas (Brown, op. 49). He lived until 1384; his son the Second Earl would be the Douglas of the Battle of Otterburn (for which see "The Hunting of the Cheviot" [Child 162]).
Liddesdale did leave a daughter, Mary, who lived until 1367 (Brown, p. 32) though she died without issue. (Being an heiress might have made it harder to negotiate a proper marriage for her.) But Liddesdale's main legacy was probably the creation of the border fiefdom which his murderer in effect inherited. In addition, Liddesdale has made Archibald Douglas, "Archibald the Grim," the illegitimate son of "Good Sir James" Douglas (Robert Bruce's Douglas), into a significant man. After the death of James, the second earl of Douglas, at Otterburn, Archibald -- although only the first cousin once removed of of the second earl, and illegitimate to boot -- was made the Third Earl; the line of the "Black Douglases" were descended from him (Brown, p. 53. The "Red Douglases," the Earls of Angus, descended from George, the illegitimate half-brother of James the second earl; the Douglases of Dalkeith from Liddesdale's nephew James lord of Dalkeith.
We can't say much about this song, but since it seems to refer to Liddesdale's death, the possibility cannot be ruled out that the song at least mentions the complicated question of his successor (which Child does not elaborate) -- or of Douglas's dealings to obtain his fief in 1342.
When Earl Douglas died at Otterburn in 1388, it caused yet another squabble over the inheritance (since there was a major factional struggle in Scotland at the time); eventually much of the the property went to Douglas of Dalkeith, Liddesdale's nephew. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: C160

Knight Templar's Dream, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer dreams of the burning bush. He picks up the fiery serpent and it becomes a rod which he takes to Jerusalem. He sees the knights of Malta. He is enlisted "to fight for Christian Liberty." He travels to Ararat and Enoch's temple before he wakes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (broadside, NLScotland L.C.1270(010))
KEYWORDS: dream ritual religious
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 130-131, "The Knight Templar's Dream" (1 text)
Roud #21138
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.21(38), "The Knight Templar's dream," unknown, no date
NLScotland, L.C.1270(010), "The Knight Templar's Dream," James Kay (Glasgow), c.1845
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Brilliant Light" (subject)
cf. "The Grand Mystic Order" (subject)
cf. "Sons of Levi (Knights of Malta)" (style)
cf. "The Grand Templar's Song" (subject)
cf. "The Blackman's Dream" (subject)
NOTES [199 words]: Zimmermann, p.303 fn. 39: "Some of those who founded the first Orange Lodges were 'unwarranted' Freemasons, and both institutions had much in common in the early nineteenth century. Other Protestant organizations ... were also the themes of allegorical songs which appeared, along with masonic texts, in Orange collections." - BS
Moses and the burning bush are found in Exodus, chapter three. Exodus 4 mentions the rod which became a serpent, and vice versa -- but this serpent is not fiery, though it swallowed other serpents (Exodus 7:12). We meet fiery serpents in Numbers 21:6-9, where Moses makes a bronze serpent to combat a plague of serpents. (Note that it's not the same rod!) This fiery serpent did end up in Jerusalem, because King Hezekiah later destroyed it (2 Kings 18:4); the people were worshiping it. But Moses didn't take it to Jerusalem; Moses was dead before the Israelites conquered Canaan. It cannot have been taken to Jerusalem before the time of David.
Enoch's Temple is even more curious. Enoch was notable in that he "walked with God," but there is no evidence that he built a Temple. Even if he had, it would, in the Biblical view, have been destroyed in the Flood. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BrdKnTeD

Knight William and the Shepherd's Daughter

See The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter [Child 110] (File: C110)

Knight's Dream, The

See The Laboring Man's Daughter (The Knight's Dream) (File: K132)

Knight's Ghost, The [Child 265]

DESCRIPTION: The lady comes to the seashore to meet her lord from sea; the sailors tell her he is slain. She gets them drunk and locks them away. Asleep in her room, the knight comes to her and tells her to release the sailors, then tells parts of her future
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: death sailor prison dream ghost reprieve knight
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 265, "The Knight's Ghost" (1 text)
Bronson 265, "The Knight's Ghost" (1 version)
Roud #3889
NOTES [68 words]: Child says of this piece that it "has not a perceptible globule of old blood in it," and he may be right (Bronson's comment is that it is "pointless") -- but its only real defect is that the knight returns in a dream rather than his ghost walking to rescue his sailors from their unfair treatment. The ending is, in a way, realistic; the lady will live a normal life rather than pining away with grief. - RBW
File: C265

Knights of Malta

See Sons of Levi (Knights of Malta) (File: HHH146)

Knights of Spain

See Three Brothers from Spain (Knights of Spain, We Are Three Jews) (File: BGMG633)

Knobby Hall

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, his name was (K)nobby Hall, Knobby Hall (x2), Oh, his name was Knobby Hall, and he only had one ball." Hall stabbed his wife. The rest of his career is modeled on "Sam Hall," but with names and places vulgarized
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: scatological derivative death homicide punishment
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 80-81, "Knobby Hall" (1 text)
Roud #369
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sam Hall (Jack Hall)" [Laws L5] (tune)
NOTES [38 words]: Roud lumps this with "Sam Hall," from which it patently derives, and it is true that most of this song is a variant of that one. But it has a sort of obscene prologue which is clearly a rewrite, so I have kept them separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RuSoKnoH

Knock a Man Down

See Blow the Man Down (File: Doe017)

Knock John Booker

See Johnny Booker (Mister Booger) (File: R268)

Knock the Cymbals

DESCRIPTION: "Knock the cymbals, do oh do (x3), Oh law, Susie gal." "Balance to the first." "Left ban crosses." "Right hand back." "All promenade."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Owens, Swing and Turn, according to Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad music
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 128, "Knock the Cymbals" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7901
File: Spurg128

Knock the Knocker

See Brow Bender (File: PKKB018H)

Knocklayde

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing of a mountain, the pride of the north...." The singer describes the great summit of Knocklayde. It would take a surveyor to measure it. It is made of limestone, and supports good grass. The singer will stay there and enjoy its beauties
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H509, p. 168, "Knocklayde" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13481
NOTES [42 words]: I think this is the only geological folk song I've ever encountered.
Knocklayde probably would not inspire non-Irish very much. A short distance south of Ballycastle (on the very northern coast of Ulster), it rises only 517 meters above sea level. - RBW
File: HHH509

Knot of Blue and Gray, A

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells why she wears upon her breast both blue and gray. She says that she had two brothers; one fought and died for the north, the other for the south -- "But the same sun shines on both their graves"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (recording, Loman D. Cansler)
KEYWORDS: grief army Civilwar war death mourning brother
FOUND IN: US(So)
Roud #31898
RECORDINGS:
Loman D. Cansler, "A Knot of Blue and Gray" (on Cansler1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Green (I)" (tune) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Blue and Gray
NOTES [185 words]: This song, apart from being ridiculously schmaltzy [Not necessarily schmaltzy if sung well. See Barton & Para's version, for example. - PJS], has real historical problems. The oldest version is in the Dabney papers (Dabney Family Papers, MSS 9852, Box 21, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library), and in it, the southern brother "rode with Stonewall and his men," while the northern brother "followed Sherman's march, Triumphant to the sea."
The problem is, Jackson was not a cavalry general. And the number of battle casualties on Sherman's March to the Sea could be counted on one's fingers. One has to suspect the author just plugged in some familiar names.
The Duke University collection has a text which eliminates the reference to Stonewall Jackson and credits the music to T. Brigham Bishop. Since Bishop's name appears on at least two other pieces ("Kitty Wells" and "Shoo Fly") which he almost certainly did not write, one suspects, in Paul Stamler's words, "an early-day Lomax in action." Particularly since the Cansler version is sung to "The Wearing of the Green." - RBW, PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcAKOBAG

Knot Was Tied and the Supper Was Set, The

DESCRIPTION: "Young lassie" marries "Auld Daddy." "Bedding-time cam' hither." She asks, "are we to lie thegither." She gets undressed, gets into bed, and tells him to sleep "yon" and "gie room"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: age marriage sex husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1363, "The Knot Was Tied, and the Supper Was Set" (1 text)
Roud #7239
File: GrD71363

Knots of May

See Gathering Nuts in May (File: R561)

Knox's Farewell

DESCRIPTION: The singer (Sam Knox) now must leave the land where he long wandered; he will seek his fortune overseas. He bids his parents not to grieve, bids farewell to the land and his friends, and asks that he be remembered
AUTHOR: Words: Samuel Knox/Music set by Sam Henry
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H49, p. 200, "Knox's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH049

Knoxville Girl, The

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Kock, De (The Cook)

DESCRIPTION: German shanty. Verses made up of short phrases, the cook describing himself, his habits, the meals he prepares. No chorus, but a pull on "seggt he" (says he) after each phrase. "Yellow peas, sez he. Cook for me, sez he. Keep them stirred, sez he," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (L.A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty cook food
FOUND IN: Germany
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 537-539, "De Kock" (3 texts, German & English, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 175, "De Kock" (2 texts, German & English, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In Berlin Sagt 'Er" (tune)
File: Hugi537

Kola Run, The

DESCRIPTION: "Now gather round, you stroppy Jacks who serve the peacetime Andrew... While I tell you a tale of the Kola run, a yarn of the Russian convoys." He served on a destroyer he called the "Horrible" in 1942. With great struggle, they bring the convoy to Russia
AUTHOR: D. S. Goodbrand (source: Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (according to Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes Russia navy
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 31, 1942 - Battle of the Barents Sea
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 152, "The Kola Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Unfortunate Miss Bailey' (tune)
cf. "Russian Convoy Escort's Song" (subject of convoys to Russia in World War II)
cf. "The 23rd Flotilla" (subject: the hard life of convoy escorts) and references theref
NOTES [3071 words]: Palmer offers absolutely no evidence that this song is traditional. That said, it does refer to a battle well worth remembering.
Service on the convoys to Russia was one of the hardest sorts of duties a sailor could face; the men called the passage "the Gateway to Hell" (Pearce, p. 17). It was very cold and the seas usually very bad; also, in winter, there was almost no light. I'm not sure it was actually more uncomfortable on shipboard than service in the tropical Pacific, where un-ventilated ships turned into ovens -- but a man lost overboard would die very quickly, often before he could be rescued. In the wet and cold, it was not safe to touch anything on the outside of the ship with one's bare hands lest one freeze to it (Pearson, pp. 23-24). And the convoys, because of the arctic ice, perforce had to sail fairly close to Norway, which was in German hands, making them subject to endless attacks.
The convoys' destinations were Murmansk and/or Archangel (the latter sometimes closed by ice), which were hardly more comfortable than the open sea; sailors who arrived there, or in the naval bases nearby in the Kola Inlet or White Sea, found a complete absence of recreational facilities even if you ignore the fact that everyone there spoke Russian (Pearson, pp. 22-24).
Because the singer calls the ship the (H)orrible, one might guess that the ship involved was one of the British "H" class of destroyers, Hasty, Havock, Hereward, Hero, Hostile, Hotspur, Hunter, Hyperion, a class of ships built in 1935-1936. Most of these ships operated in northern waters early in the war, but that was before Russia became a combatant; they were in the Mediterranean in 1942 (Whitley-Destroyers, pp. 109-110), so none of them can be the ship involved.
Palmer's dialect transcription of the ship as "Orrible," not "Horrible" is a key clue: She was a member of the "O" class, not the "H" class. Which fits with Palmer's report that the author served on the Obdurate. The Obdurate and the others of the "O" class were build 1940-1942: Onslow, Obdurate, Obedient, Offa, Onslaught, Opportune, Oribi, Orwell (Whitley-Destroyers, p. 124). These were in fact, by destroyer standards, fairly nice ships (1610 tons, which was pretty good-sized for a design created pre-war) -- but no destroyer would ever be comfortable on the Russian run.
The ships of the "O" class, unlike the "H's," did indeed serve in northern waters in 1942 (Whitley-Destroyers, p. 125).
Although listed as sisters, they weren't quite. They were supposed to be armed with 4.7" guns -- but, due to a shortage of weaponry, Obdurate and several of the others were armed with 4" guns that had been made during World War I, although Orwell had proper 4.7" weapons (Pope, p. 158).
There had been a number of convoys to North Russia. The early ones had mostly made it without loss, but one, PQ17, had been ordered to scatter to avoid the German heavy ships, and had been slaughtered (Pearson, pp. 11-14). The sailors on the convoys knew that they faced great potential danger.
At the end of 1942 Onslow, Obdurate, Obedient, Oribi and Orwell, plus another destroyer, Achates, and some lesser escorts, were assigned to escort Russian convoy JW51B of 14 cargo ships (Koop/Schmolke, p. 55); according to Pope, pp. 23fff., four of the merchant ships, including the Commodore's, were British, nine American, and one Panamanian. Most of these ships were not in the best shape; according to Pearson, pp. 34-35, all but two had needed some sort of maintenance when they arrived at Loch Ewe to join the convoy. The convoy lost one of its escorts, the destroyer Bulldog, before the trip even started; her brand-new captain insisted on sailing her straight through a storm, and she ended up too damaged to make the voyage (Pearson, p. 36). The Oribi ended up separated from the other escorts due to a bad gyrocompass, so she had no part in the battle (Pearson, p. 51).
The "B" designation came about because it was regarded as a half-convoy; JW51A had sailed December 18, JW51B on December 22; Pope, p. 68, who adds on p. 70 that JW51A made it to Murmansk without loss.
Despite its small size, Pope, p. 26, lists JW51B as carrying more than 2000 trucks, 202 tanks, 120 aircraft, a lot of refined fuel of various sorts, and other supplies. It was a very slow convoy, making just six knots in practice (Pearce, p. 200); according to Pearson, p. 37, they were so slow that it caused the escorting destroyers real problems to stay with the convoy!). And it was hit by a bad storm on the way north, messing up its formation and scattering the ships as well as the escorts. Nor had the escorts been with the convoy long, to learn the abilities and quirks of the ships and their captains; a different group of escorts had been with the convoy for the first part of the voyage, with the Obdurate group taking over east of Iceland to save fuel (Pope, pp. 27, 71, with a map on p. 110). Even the escort's commander was new; the officer in charge, Captain Robert St. Vincent "Rupert" Sherbrooke, although an old sea dog (he was descended from John Jervis, who became Earl St. Vincent), had been in command for only a month (Pope, p. 82). Other than Achates, his destroyers were also mostly new and relatively untested, and their commanders, including Lieutenant Commander C. E. L. Sclater of Obdurate, mostly relatively junior and new to command (Pope, p. 96). The convoy could hardly have been more vulnerable to attack.
Nor was it able to keeps its passage secret; U-354 spotted it fairly early in its mission and passed word on to Berlin (Pearce, p. 201). The submarine also took several shots at the convoy, but obtained no hits and suffered some (ineffective) attacks from the escorts, including Obdurate (Pope, pp. 125-127).
The fight that resulted from the submarine's report, the Battle of the Barents Sea, was probably the northernmost significant battle of the war, taking place between 72 and 74 degrees north -- to the north of North Cape at the tip of Norway (map on p. 204 of Pearce). There is every reason to agree with Palmer that this is the battle referred to in the song.
Once the convoy had been spotted, the Germans planned an interception, "Operation Regenbogen." It was then that the trouble began for the German command, as various people, from Hitler on down, interfered with local control in such a way as to make victory much harder. The Germans had a heavy force in northern waters, including the the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and the pocket battleship Lützow, plus destroyers, many of which had heavier guns than their British counterparts -- although their performance at sea was somewhat inferior as a result (Pearson, pp. 124-125). And the two British light cruisers assigned to help out, Sheffield and Jamaica under Admiral Robert Burnett, were far away because the weather had delayed the convoy (Pearce, p. 202). The only luck the British had was the cautious German tactics. The Germans had divided their forces -- the goal being to have one cruiser distract the escort while the other attacked the convoy; also, by having two forces searching, the Germans increased the odds of finding it. But both attacking forces were cautious, and they did not coordinate well. (The caution was ultimately Hitler's fault; he was inherently anxious about naval matters, and all the admirals between him and Admiral Kummetz, who commanded the task force, passed down cautionary messages in order to cover their rear ends if something went wrong. The effect was to scare Kummetz into being excessively passive; Pope, pp. 143-144.)
The plan also perhaps placed too much burden on Captain Rudolf Stange of the Lützow, who was new to his command -- and who had been surprised before the operation by some sketchy orders to use the upcoming battle as a chance to break out into the Atlantic as a commerce raider, for which he had not been prepared (Pearson, p. 56); this part of the operation never came off.
In broad outline, the plan was the the Germans to send out two forces, one to pass north of the convoy, one to the south, with the Hipper, which was faster, leading the northern force which had farther to go. The Hipper would then push the convoy south onto the heavier guns of the Lûtzow (Pearson, pp. 31.33, with a diagram on p. 32).
Things initially went according to plan; the Hipper reached the convoy first. With the British cruisers about fifty miles away, the British destroyers alone had to try to hold off the German heavy cruiser, which all by itself outgunned all the escorts near it. It was the Obdurate which first spotted the German destroyers. Sherbrooke ordered her to investigate; there was concern that there might be Russia forces in the area (Pope, pp. 72-73). As soon as the signals were passed (by blinker, via multi-ship relay, to avoid breaking radio silence), Obdurate sailed toward the unidentified ships, flashed an identity request -- and was fired upon (Pope, p. 155). The battle was on.
To avoid using up their few torpedoes, the only weapons that could seriously threaten the Hipper, the destroyers were forced to make bluff torpedo attacks to hold the Germans off. Onslow, the leader and the most heavily armed, couldn't even fire all her 4.7" guns; two of the four were frozen up (Pope, p. 183). But she and the other ships could act like they were attacking. The bluff, and three minor shell hits by Onslow on Hipper, worried the hypercautious Germans (Pearce, pp. 206-208), who were under strong orders from Hitler not to risk damage. It was still hard on the British. Onslow, the flagship, was the first to come under fire; she took four hits, leaving her effectively unable to fight, with two guns wrecked and severe damage to her hull (Pope, p. 188; there is a diagram of the hits on pp. 190-191); the hits also started fires (Pope, p. 194). Captain Robert Sherbrooke, the commander of the escort, was badly injured and permanently disfigured, losing the use of one eye (Pearce, pp. 208-209). But the Hipper backed off. Only to turn around and come back. Again the destroyers had to hold her off; in the process of two encounters with Hipper, Achates was so badly damaged that she had to be abandoned (Pearce, p. 210) and lost her captain and most of her other senior officers (Pope, p. 209). Obedient, Orwell, and Obdurate, now under Lt. Commander David Kinloch of Obedient as the senior officer (Pope, p. 206), again scared the Hipper off, but the German cruiser found and destroyed the tiny minesweeper Bramble as she turned away (Pearce, p. 211).
In the confused fighting,Obedient suffered shrapnel damage, temporarily knocking out her radio aerials, so Sclater of the Obdurate took charge until Obedient could rig jury antennae. (Pope, p. 213) -- if being in charge of two destroyers can really be considered being in command! During this time, with Obdurate leading the line, she suffered several near-misses that resulted in splinter damage (Pope, p. 237) -- a tough time for the sailors aboard her, obviously, but she was one of the luckier destroyers.
As this was happening, the Lützow with six 11" guns, arrived. There were few ships in position to fight her. But she was even more cautious than the Hipper, firing a few shots but then retreating. In practical terms, she did nothing except scare the convoy. Pope, p. 205, says, "Ironically, [Admiral] Kummetz's plan had worked perfectly: the Hipper had drawn off escorts to the north of the convoy; the convoy had turned south and run, unprotected, into the Lützow... only the Lützow had not fired a shot." As the British destroyers came about to face her, the Hipper came back, damaging Obedient and straddling Obdurate, causing substantial damage and casualties; of the British destroyers, only Orwell was still intact and Obedient and Obdurate still able to fight (Pearce, p. 211). By this stage, the Germans were in position to slaughter both convoy and escort.
But, once again, they didn't. Hipper and Lützow didn't even coordinate their attacks. And then, in effect, the cavalry arrived. The two British cruisers, Sheffield and Jamaica, under Admiral Burnett, were able to join the battle; coming from the opposite direction from the convoy. The Hipper never even spotted them until she was hit by four shells from Sheffield (so Pearce, p. 212, Pope, p. 227, thinks three of the four were from Jamaica) -- amazing shooting, given that the British cruisers were so iced-up that they couldn't even use their gun directors (Pope, p. 222). The two cruisers hit the Hipper so hard that she was never fully repaired (Whitley-Cruisers:, p. 61). As the Hipper hid behind a smoke screen, the British cruisers also took out the German destroyer Eckholdt, which hesitated to attack because it couldn't tell whether the cruisers were British or German (Pope, p. 232) and was lost with all hands (Becker, p. 289; Pope, p. 244, says that no one even saw her sink, although there is a possibility that she blew up). That battle took long enough that the damaged Hipper escaped (Pearce, p. 213). This time, the Germans did not come back.
As a result, all of the convoy merchant ships made it through. Onslow was too badly damaged to fight, and she had many injured, so she was ordered to proceed, as fast as she could in her damaged condition, to seek repairs and radio home to explain what was going on (Pope, pp. 246-247; the rest of the convoy was still maintaining radio silence).
The Obdurate's battle was over, too, and her damage relatively slight -- but she still had a rather harrowing experience ahead of her. The survivors of Achates had been taken aboard the trawler Northern Gem but that ship had no doctor. (There were two trawlers, Northern Gem and Vizalma, in the escort; being of minimal fighting value, they became the de facto rescue ships of the convoy; Pearson, p. 33.) Eventually the Obdurate's surgeon, Maurice Hood, was sent over on a rope -- a very difficult transfer given the sea conditions, and one that caused both ships to take some minor damage. After that, the battle was really and truly over.
The convoy made it into the Kola Inlet; a few of the merchant ships had trouble there (notably, the Panamanian Ballot ran aground), but although the Ballot had to be abandoned, her cargo was saved, so the entire convoy load arrived.
In terms of losses, it was close to a wash, or perhaps a slight victory for the Germans; each side had lost a destroyer (the German destroyer being the stronger of the two by a significant margin), but the British had also lost the smaller Bramble. The damage to Hipper probably roughly balances out the damage to the other British destroyers (notably Onslow). But the British had gotten the convoy through, so the battle pretty definitely qualifies as a British strategic victory, although it probably shouldn't have been. Koop/Schmolke, p. 56, calls the German operational orders overly cautious, the dispositions ineffective, and the whole affair a "fiasco." Pearce concludes, pp. 213-214, that the German commander, Admiral Kummetz, "should have had things all his own way, but Sherbrooke with his few destroyers had bluffed him from start to finish and sent him off smarting. While Sherbrooke's forces had suffered casualties, they had fought a courageous and gallant action against a vastly superior enemy force and had saved the convoy from utter destruction."
The result was a Victoria Cross for Sherbrooke -- who deserved it, I think, but who declared it "a tribute to the force in general" (Pearce, p. 215). Sherbrooke eventually went on to be promoted to Rear Admiral (Pearson, p. 113). And when the Onslow, which had been patched up but not fully repaired in Russia and which had lost 17 dead and 23 wounded (a third of her complement) arrived back in Scapa Flow, she was officially ordered to tour the ships present to be cheered (Pope, p. 286).
The results on the German side were even more dramatic. Hitler, who had personally approved the operation, expected big things -- but, for days, heard nothing except a report from the British side (the result of a combination of radio silence, cut communications cables, a change in codes at the end of the month for which a new cipher key had not been sent to the northern forces, and strange atmospheric conditions, Pope, pp. 278-279; Pearson, pp. 105-106). The longer it took to hear reports, the more upset Hitler became. (Plus it gave Hermann Göring more time to abuse the navy, which he regarded as a rival; Pearson, p. 106).
And what Hitler finally heard about was a non-victory. Being Hitler, he exploded -- and not at Admiral Kummetz, nor at Captain Stange of the Lützow, but at the fleet itself, declaring the ships "utterly useless," and ordering Grand Admiral Raeder to dispose of them (Pope, pp. 272-273). Raeder -- who was tired of being abused -- quit (Becker, p. 293). Hitler replaced him with Admiral Dönitz, who had commanded the submarine force (Becker, p. 294). Dönitz had to argue hard to keep Hitler from scrapping the entire surface fleet -- in the end, a few old ships went, but the Tirpitz and the Scharnhorst, the two strongest ships, were saved, and they retained their status as a "fleet in being" (Pope, p. 304).
It's not clear how the war would have been different had Raeder stayed, but it surely would have been different somehow. Even though the ships were spared, they rarely went out to battle. The British did not know until after the war, and the men of Onslow and Obdurate may never really have known, but they had changed the war. "It is perhaps unnecessary to add that even if [Sherbrooke] and his men had known at the time what was at stake they could not have fought more bravely or skilfully" (Pope, p. 309).
There is a photo of Captain Sherbrooke on p. 83 of Pearson; p. 84 shows HMS Onslow and has a closeup of some of the damage she suffered; p. 85 shows German Admiral Kummetz; p. 86 shows the Admiral Hipper; p. 89 shows HMS Obedient; the same page has a phoro of Admiral Burnett; p. 90 shows HMS Sheffield and Jamaica; p. 91 shows HMS Achates; p. 92 HMS Bramble.
HMS Obdurate has a Wikipedia page, but as of this writing, it is not very full. There is a much fuller article on the Battle of the Barents Sea. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: PsSea152

Kom Till Mig Pa Lordaag Kvall, A

See A Kom Till Mig Pa Lordag Kvall (Come to Me on Saturday Night) (File: Hugi427)

Kom Till Mig Pa Lordag Kvall, A (Come to Me on Saturday Night)

DESCRIPTION: Swedish hauling song. Chorus: "Viktoria, Viktoria! Kirre-verre-vipp-bom! Hurra sa!" Printed verses have rhymes about drinking, Hugill says there were 18 verses he couldn't print.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty worksong
FOUND IN: Sweden
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 427-428, "A Kom Till Mig Pa Lordag Kvall " (2 texts, Swedish & English, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 93, "A Kom Till Mig Pa Lordaag Kvall" (2 texts, Swedish & English, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
cf. "Halarvisa" (similar chorus)
NOTES [74 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas says the unprintable verses of this shanty are identical to a Chinese song which refers to the "18 points of feeling." They are quoted in Sang under Segel. - SL
(The text in Hugill-SongsOfTheSea gives the title as "A Kom Till Mig Pa Lordaag Kvall," but the printed text is "A Kom Till Mig Pa Lordag Kvall" (the difference being in the word "Lorda(a)g." The spelling with one a is apparently the correct one. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hugi427

Kookaburra

DESCRIPTION: "Kookaburra sits in an old gum tree, Merry merry king of the bush is he, Laugh, kookaburra, laugh, kookaburra, Gay your life must be."
AUTHOR: Marion Sinclair (1896-1988) (Source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, , Davey/Seal, WIkipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (date of composition, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad food campsong
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 119-121, 130, 133, 134, 175, 346, 347, 348, 432, 438, 447, 500-501, 528, "Kookaburra" (notes, with 3 texts on pp. 119-121; bibliography on pp. 650-654)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 413, "Kookaburra" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 148, "Kookaburra" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 38, "Kookaburra" (1 text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 57, "Kookaburra" (1 short text plus a German translation; 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Kookaburra" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 44) (12th edition, p. 38)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 5, "Kookaburra" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, _A Guide to Australian Folklore_, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 201, "(Kookaburra)" (1 short text)
Roud #36114
NOTES [191 words]: Although all seem to agree that Marion Sinclair was responsible for the first verse of this, most other verses are probably by others. E.g. the version I seem to remember learning, which resembles those in Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, mentions the kookaburra eating up gumdrops. But gum trees (eucalyptus), although they emit a resin called gum drops, do not produce the sort of gumdrops eaten by humans! (Or by kookaburras, in fact.) Such verses are surely American.
According to Andrew and Nancy Learmonth, Encyclopedia of Australia, 2nd edition, Warne & Co, 1973, p. 296, "Kookaburra, Laughing Jackass, or Great Brown Kingfisher is "The world's largest kingfisher... well-known from its chattering call like mocking human laughter." It is native to eastern Australia but was introduced into the west and Tasmania, so most Australians would know it. Like most kingfishers, it eats crabs and small fish, but also insects and small land mammals, birds, and reptiles -- so while it lives among eucalyptus, it does not use them for food. "It is off-white, with brown back, eye-bar and black-bared tail, with a flash of pale blue on the wing." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB413B

Kriegie Ballad, The

DESCRIPTION: "Yes, this is the place that we took, sir, And landed right into the bag, Right outside the town of Tobruk, sir." The soldiers fought in North Africa all the way to Brindisi. Taken captive by the Italians, he is suffering from poor clothes and food
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Garioch
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs)
KEYWORDS: war soldier prisoner food hardtimes clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 223-225, "The Kriegie Ballad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10516
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Botany Bay (I)" (tune)
NOTES [153 words]: At the start of World War II, the Italians controlled Libya, and looked to take Egypt. The British sent forces to fight back, and smashed the Italians. So Hitler sent Rommel and the Africa Korps to prop up the Italians. The result was several years of seesaw battles, mostly in the region from Tobruk to Benghazi. The Germans were the core of the Axis forces -- but by themselves they simply didn't have enough troops to fight the British, and even if troops had been available (they weren't, because the Germans were fighting Russia), it would have been hard to get them across the Mediterranean because of the British Navy. So although we usually think of the British fighting the Germans, there were always Italians on hand -- they were the bulk of the infantry, and took a lot of the prisoners. And the Italians couldn't even supply their own troops, let alone British prisoners. Hence, presumably, this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: DalC223

Kuaotunu's All the Go

DESCRIPTION: "Kuaotunu's all the go, Kuaotunu! Kuaotunu! We'll step it out both heel and tow, For golden Kuaotunu!" People come to visit the gold fields and have sundry adventures, often arguing over claims. The song concludes with three cheers for Kuaotunu
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Auckland "New Zealand Observer," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: New Zealand gold mining
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 69, "(no title)" (1 excerpted text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tullochgorum" (tune)
File: BaRo069

Kuckuck (Cuckoo)

See The Cuckoo (II) (Camp Song) (File: ACSF145X)

Kum Ba Yah

See Kum By Yah (File: FSWB368D)

Kum By Yah

DESCRIPTION: You know the drill: "Kum by yah, my Lord, kum by yah (x3), Oh, Lord, Kum by yah." "Someone's crying, Lord..." "Someone's singing, Lord..." "Someone's praying, Lord...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Augustine T. Smythe et al, The Carolina Low Country, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 63-72, 133, 134, 144, 175, 200, 215, 238, 313, 346, 347, 348, 431, 500, 501, 520, 551, "Kumbaya" (notes plus 2 texts on pp. 70-72; bibliography on pp. 645-649)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, pp. 70-71, "Kum Ba Yah" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 108-109, "Kum Ba Yah" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a "Scout Law Version")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 368, "Kum Ba Yah" (1 text)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 19, "Come By Here - Kum Ba Yah" (1 text, 1 tune, which despite the title uses the words "Kum By Yah")
RECORDINGS:
Willie Peacock, "Come By Yah (Kumbaya)" (on VoicesCiv)
Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry, "Kum Ba Yah" (on SeegerTerry)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come By Here" (form)
NOTES [248 words]: Although almost the prototypical camp song, and certainly a folk song in that right, genuine field collections seem to be few and far between. - RBW
But an early field recording, cited by Steven Winick, makes clear that the song was present among the Gullah people of the sea islands off the coasts of Georgia and the Carolinas; the title is "Come By Here" in Gullah dialect. - PJS
Indeed so. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 63-70, has a discussion of the song, its origins, and the folklore about its origins. It was apparently collected and printed in the 1920s to help support the surviving people of the region, whose dialect and culture was being affected by migration, and to help preserve the dialect. This version, from the Society for the Preservation of Spirituals. Lynn Rohrbach, collector and publisher of play-parties, handed it off to publishers who put it into camp songbooks, and passed it to Pete Seeger in the 1950s, and very little could stop it then.
The origin seems to have been quickly forgotten; as a result, people started claiming it was Korean, or Angolan ("Angola" likely being a mis-hearing of "Gullah," and one that gained authority by association with Pete Seeger), or that it was written by Marvin Frey (who, however, was too young to have produced a version in the 1920s). I don't think there can be any doubt that it was originally Gullah, and genuinely traditional, but that most of its popularity has been driven by revival singers and songbooks. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB368D

Kumala Vista

See Flee Fly Flo (File: OpGa115)

Kumara Volunteers' Song

DESCRIPTION: "Now all you larrikin volunteers, Just listen a while to me, But don't you get frightened If the Russians cross the sea." Having beaten them at Crimean, we can beat them again "If they come up the Taramakau." Volunteer militia are urged to drill
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Christchurch "Press," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: Russia New Zealand battle soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1885 - Russian War Scare (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 72, "Kumara Volunteers' Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bow Wow Wow" (tune) and references there
cf. "The Russian Scare" (subject of the Russian War Scare)
File: BaRo072

Kumbaya

See Kum By Yah (File: FSWB368D)

Ky-rum

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Kye's Gane to the Sillar Wode, The

See Hush-a-ba Birdie, Croon (File: LyCr2125)

Kyle's Flowery Braes

See Laurel Hill (File: HHH008)

Kytt hathe lost hur key, hur key

See Kitt Hath Lost Her Key (File: MsKHLHK)

Kytt she wept; I axyde why soo

See Kit Hath Lost Her Key (File: MsKHLHK)

L'amant a la Fenetre de sa Maitresse (The Lover at his Mistress's Window)

DESCRIPTION: French. The singer returned from war and knocked at his mistress's door. Her father and mother are in their bed, and they have barred the door and have the keys. She opens the window to her bedroom.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting love sex return father lover mother nightvisit
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 493-494, "L'amant a la Fenetre de sa Maitresse" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Cyril Robin, "L'amant a la Fenetre de sa Maitresse" (on PeacockCDROM)
File: Pea493

L'il Liza Jane

See Li'l Liza Jane (File: FSWB037)

L'Internationale

See The Internationale (File: FSWB297B)

La Courte Paille

See Courte Paille, La (File: FMB041)

La Cucaracha

See Cucaracha, La (File: San289)

La Gaie-Annee

See Guillannee, La (La Gui-Annee) (File: BMRF584)

La Gui-Annee

See Guillannee, La (La Gui-Annee) (File: BMRF584)

La Guignolee

See Guillannee, La (La Gui-Annee) (File: BMRF584)

La Guillannee

See Guillannee, La (La Gui-Annee) (File: BMRF584)

La La La Chick A La Le-O

DESCRIPTION: Nonsense chorus opens "O La la la chick a la le-o, Ta la la la chick...." Verse: "I am going to marry just who I please, La la la chick... I know I will marry if he'll marry me, La la la chick...." She wants Johnny Green; he's off to war, but is returning
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation reunion
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 42-43, "La La La Chick A La Le-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12592
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Chick-a-li-lee-lo
NOTES [14 words]: Abrahams for some reason regards this as a version of "Bobby Shaftoe." I don't. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Abrr042

La Pique

See The Flash Frigate (La Pique) (File: ShaSS178)

La Roi Victor

DESCRIPTION: The singer watches La Roi Victor go away and come back with a big foot woman.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 47, "La Roi Victor" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [32 words]: Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 17, classifies this as "drum dance music." - BS
Is it significant that this name could be interpreted as "The victorious king"? I don't know. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: EldC047A

La Rose Blanche (The White Rose)

See Rose Blanche, La (The White Rose) (File: FMB118)

La, La, My Baby

DESCRIPTION: "La, la, my baby, your cradle I'll rock, I've undressed you all, except one little sock. La, la, my baby, now close your blue eyes, La, la, my baby, oh how the time flies"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: lullaby baby clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1557, "La, La, My Baby" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #13506
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81557

Laboring Man's Daughter, The (The Knight's Dream)

DESCRIPTION: A nobleman dreams of a beautiful girl. After seven years' searching he finds her, a poor laboring-man's daughter. He tells her he has seen her only in a dream, but is confident she will not deny him. He takes out a ring and proposes. (They happily marry)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Sharp, JFSS)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A nobleman's son dreams of "the beautiful-est girl in the nation." After seven years' searching he finds her, a poor laboring-man's daughter. He tells her he has only seen her once, as she lay by him in a dream, but he is confident she will not deny him. She asks what is his desire, that he's so afraid of denial; "Although I am poor, no scorn I'll endure/Do not put me under any such trial." He takes out a ring and proposes. (She worries that his parents will look down on her; he replies that they are both dead, and his friends will not object. They marry and are happy)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage ring travel dream nobility worker beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,North)) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 132, "The Labouring Man's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 540-541, "The Knight and the Labourman's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST K132 (Partial)
Roud #595
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Queen Among the Heather" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Knight and Labourman's Daughter
NOTES [19 words]: I'm not certain "A Cornish Young Man" is the same song, but Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland lumps it in. - PJS
File: K132

Labors of True Lovers

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Labour Boroo, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams he is at the "Labour Borue." Everyone is polite; they offer a seat, brandy, a smoke, money for the asking, and a taxi home; his wife welcomes him. His wife wakes him. He screams. She asks if his worthless self had had a nightmare.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: work unemployment dream husband wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 25, "The Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, pp. 46-47, "The Labour Boroo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2886
NOTES [46 words]: Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster: "N.E. Ireland has always been the 'industrialized' sector of the country.... When a man is unemployed he faces what for many is a humiliating half-life of 'signing on at the Employment Exchange', otherwise known as the Labour Bureau (Borue)." - BS
File: MorU025

Labourer, The

See Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man) (File: R127)

Labouring Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "You Englishmen of each degree, One moment listen unto me, From day to day you all may see, The poor are frown on by degrees." England cannot succeed without the labouring man. They fought off Napoleon. But now they face poor wages and starvation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Lucy Broadwood collection; also Hill, "Wiltshire Folk Songs and Carols")
KEYWORDS: worker battle hardtimes Napoleon
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #26, "The Labouring Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #6, "The Labouring Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 51-52, "The Labouring Man" (1 text, 1 tune, from different informants)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 8-9, "The Labouring Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1156
File: PECS026

Labouring Man's Daughter, The

See The Laboring Man's Daughter (The Knight's Dream) (File: K132)

Labrador

DESCRIPTION: The crew on the schooner Carey catch bait in Conception Bay and cash in at Holyrood. They hear fishing is exceptional on the Labrador. They fight bad weather to get there, are poorly equipped, and fare badly.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 138-139, "Labrador" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9965
RECORDINGS:
Kenneth Pink, "Labrador" (on PeacockCDROM)
File: Pea138

Labrador Rose

DESCRIPTION: Singer walks out in summer and sees "a wild rose growing there on the mountain." "There's nothing around to compare with her beauty." "Labrador Rose... For the rest of my life I will stay here beside you."
AUTHOR: Dick Gardiner (according to Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong and "Songs of Labrador")
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
KEYWORDS: love beauty
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 1, pp. 59-60, "Labrador Rose" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Songs of Labrador (Northwest River: Labrador East Integrated School Board, 1982), pp. 109-110, "Labrador Rose" (1 text) (1 tune)
Roud #24331
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "Labrador Rose" (on NFJDowney01)
Hector MacIsaac and Jerome Downey, "Labrador Rose" (on NFHMacIsaac01)
File: BeDo059

Lace Tell

DESCRIPTION: "Nineteen long lines hanging over my door, The faster I work I will shorten my score... For after tomorrow comes my wedding day... Six pretty maidens so neat and clean Shall dance at my wedding...." Stream of consciousness lyrics used while making lace
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Hamer-GreenGroves)
KEYWORDS: work wedding clothes money mother father abuse music
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hamer-GreenGroves, p. 30, "Lace Tell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1144
File: HaGr030

Lachen

DESCRIPTION: German. "Lachen, lachen, lachen, lachen Kommt der Sommer über das Feld, über das Feld kommt der Sommer, ha ha ha! Lachen über das Feld!" "Laughing comes the summer over the field."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 141, "Lachen" (notes only)
File: ACSF141L

Lachlan Tigers, The

DESCRIPTION: The shearers wait eagerly for the shift to begin: "At his gate each shearer stood as the whistle loudly blew...." The expert shearers set out to be the fastest, while the boss tries to make sure they shear the sheep completely.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Stewart & Keesing, _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: sheep work Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 136-137, "The Lachlan Tigers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 32-33, "The Lachlan Tigers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 178-180, "At the Gate Each Shearer Stood" (1 text)
DT, LCHLNTIG*
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Lachlan Tigers" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd08)
NOTES [63 words]: The region along the Lachlan river is one of Australia's best sheep-raising areas. Naturally, it attracted the best shearers, who came to be known as the "Lachlan Tigers."
Jackie Howe holds the all-time (and probably unsurpassable) record of 328 sheep sheared in an eight hour day; hence the remark in the song "There's never been a better board since Jackie Howe expired." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FaE136

Lackagh Bawn

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears Dan complain to Kate's father: Kate forsook him for a farmer in Lackagh Bawn. The father and Kate just laugh. Singer proposes he and Dan fight the farmer, or consider other girls. Dan agrees: "they won't be laughing, I'll let them see"
AUTHOR: Sean O Tuama (Johnny Nora Aodha) (source: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection farming fishing
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 79, "Lackagh Bawn" (1 text)
Roud #16248
File: OCC079

Lad and a Lass, A

See No Sign of a Marriage [Laws P3] (File: LP03)

Lad at the Laird's o' Drum, The

DESCRIPTION: "Haud awa ye ill-faur'd carle, And coort nae mair at me, For I've a lad at the Laird's o' Drum, And a bonnie lad is he."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 750, "The Lad at the Laird's o' Drum" (1 text)
Roud #6176
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4750

Lad in the Scotch Brigade, The (The Banks of the Clyde)

DESCRIPTION: Geordie and Jean meet on the banks of the Clyde. She tries to dissuade him from "going to fight for his queen." She gives him a lock of her hair. In the battle a bullet "buried that dear lock of hair in his heart." Jean and his mother comfort each other.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois)
KEYWORDS: courting army battle separation death lover soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf,West) US(MW) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 133, "The Banks of the Clyde" (1 text, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, p. 155, "The Soldier's Farewell" (1 short text)
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, p. 251, "(The Lad in the Scotch Brigade)" (1 text)
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 26, "On the Banks of the Clyde" (1 text, 1 tune, which appears to mix "The Lad in the Scotch Brigade (The Banks of the Clyde)" with "The Bad Girl's Lament, (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime)" [Laws Q26])
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 19, "(On the banks of the stream stood a lad and his lassie)" (1 fragment)
ST LLab133 (Partial)
Roud #1784
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Maggie Luby, "Geordie (On the Banks of the Clyde)" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Jack Swain, "The Banks of the Clyde" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2032), "The Lad in the Scotch Brigade" or "The Burning Plains of Egypt" ("On the banks of the Clyde stood a lass [sic] and a lassie"), unknown, n.d.
NLScotland, RB.m.143(125), "The Scotch Brigade," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1880-1900
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fair Town of Greenock" (theme)
cf. "The Paisley Officer (India's Burning Sands)" [Laws N2] (theme)
NOTES [562 words]: This ballad is reported in What We Sang Down on the Farm: A Forgotten Manuscript on Western Canadian Singing Traditions by David A.E. Spelling in Canadian Journal for Traditional Music (1985). The article includes an anonymous undated manuscript collected in Alberta by Dr. Robert E. Gard in the 1940s. The author of that manuscript recalls that "our favourite war song was 'The Lad in the Scotch Brigade,' a product of the war in Egypt and the Soudan." The manuscript then summarizes the ballad and includes the chorus from the broadside omitted in the Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast version.
The Alberta source, in placing the war "in Egypt and the Soudan" was probably imagining it to be about the recent (1884-1885 and 1896-1898) wars against the Dervish Empire. The ballad does not name the battle at which the hero is killed but refers only to "the great victory." In those "river wars" the "great victory" was the Battle of Omdurman, September 2, 1898. However, one of Roud's sources for #1784, as "The Scotch Brigade," was Delaney's Song Book No.1 published in 1892, before the second Dervish war. Too bad: the Scotch Brigade -- the 94th Regiment of Foot -- was in the second war against the Dervish Empire. It does not seem that the Scotch Brigade was in Egypt at any other time. You can find a history of the Scottish Brigade at the Dungarvan Museum site Historical Articles - BS
Peter Power-Hynes sends the following, which perhaps helps explain the situation (very slightly edited for formatting, but the words are all his):
"After the Peninsular Wars against Napoleon the 94th effectively became an Irish Regiment by being 'depoted' in Ireland in various towns from the 1820s right up to 1922 (disbandment) with the exception of a few engagements abroad.
"Following the Cardwell Reforms in 1880 after the 'Zulu Wars' the 94th became the 2nd B[attalio]n The Connaught Rangers. The First Bn was the old 88th Foot the original Connaught Rangers who by a sheer coincidence had served with the 94th in General Picton's 3rd Light Div[ision] in the Peninsula.
"About 20 men from the 2nd Bn Connaught Rangers (formerly 94th) volunteered for service on the Gordon Relief Expedition to the Sudan 1884 and were engaged as Camel Mounted Infantry. Their toughest fight was as part of the Square at the Battle of Abu Klea (wells).
"About 100 men of the old 94th had prev[iously] served in Egypt in the 1882 Campaign attached to the old 18th Royal Irish Regiment (from Clonmel, County Tipperary.)
In Armagh town where I was born
all free from debt and danger
till one O'Connor enlisted me
to be a Connaught Ranger
"Prior to the Zulu Wars the 94th were depoted at Armagh and they were nicknamed 'The Gallant Armaghs.' Many of the Officers still appeared to be from traditional Scottish Families like Lieut Col Anstruther who commanded them in South Africa and unfortunately got himself killed at Bronkhurst Spruit in December 1880. Prior to that ambush by the Boers, the Band of the 94th were singing,
Kiss me, mother, kiss your darling
"Its a bit ironic and sad that generally speaking the Irish don't rate the 94th as Irish and the Scottish don't rate them as a real Scottish Regiment after the Napoleonic Wars."
For more on the Gordon relief expedition and the Sudan campaigns, see "Andy McElroe"; also "Hector MacDonald" and "Annie Dear, Good-Bye." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LLab133

Lad o' Paton's Mill, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer says, in the chorus, "I'll awa wi' my doggie ... Through the frost and snow." She says "Maybe I'll be married yet To the lad o' Paton's Mill." "Paton's Mill's a bonny mill"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad dog miller
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 769, "The Lad o' Paton's Mill" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6187
NOTES [51 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quoting Duncan: "The 'Paton's Mill' is obviously of Alloa or Tillycoultry. No more remembered [by Mrs Gillespie], but the theme of the song is the young lady meeting a Paton when out airing her 'doggie' -- for the purpose.... partly taken, in air and words, from 'Maybe I'll be Married Yet.'" - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4769

Lad o' Shuttlehowe, The

DESCRIPTION: Joseph would visit his girl at night. She is asleep when he arrives but her baby wakes her father. Joseph wishes the father a good evening and asks if he would take snuff. The father would accept "in decent hours." Joseph wishes "guid morning" and leaves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: nightvisit baby father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 779, "The Lad o' Shuttlehowe" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #6194
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnnie's Nae a Gentleman" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
cf. "The Battle of Harlaw" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hey the Lad the Bonnie Lad
NOTES [44 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quoting Duncan: "The heroine was the late Mrs Watt, Affath, when a young woman at home at Burnthill, Bonnykelly; 'the bonny lad' being the late Joseph MacBoyle, Shittlehowe; the farmer her father, Mr Ironside. The incident said to be an actual one." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4779

Lad That I Was Last Wi', The

DESCRIPTION: Molly, pregnant, mourns that she "quite undone will be, Gin I dinna get the bonny lad that I was last wi'." He overhears her and says he loves her. They marry and are happy. Advice: maids, bide your time and "you'll enjoy your true love"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love marriage pregnancy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 979, "The Lad That I Was Last Wi'" (11 texts, 9 tunes)
Roud #6732
File: GrD5979

Lad that Never Kissed a Lass, The

DESCRIPTION: "The lad that never kissed a lass is nae the lad for me ... For my bonnie laddie's kissed twa-three"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1624, "The Lad that Never Kissed a Lass" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13004
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81624

Lad That's Far Awa, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer's sweetheart is a sailor "banished by the law To go owre the seas and far awa." Her mother wants her "to marry a man of high degree." She imagines him returned and will not forsake him for "rings, jewels and 'a." In one version he does return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: love return separation transportation mother sailor money exile
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #129, pp. 1-2, "The Lad That's Far Awa'" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 61, "The Lad That's Far Awa" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 12-13, "I Love Him Still Though He's Far Awa'" (1 tune)
Roud #5812
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mine Ain Love" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sailor Lad
NOTES [22 words]: Christie's text has enough lines in common with the Greig/Duncan texts to show that the song itself existed in some form in 1876. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD1061

Lad Wha Hauds the Ploo, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's some wha like a country life while others prefer the toon," but "there's nae a blyther lad" than the ploughboy. He whistles in all weather with few holidays "but he's aye happy wi' his lot." He can work and talk with a girl at the same time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad courting work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 419, "The Lad Wha Hauds the Ploo" (1 text)
Roud #5938
File: GrD3419

Lad Wi' The Tartan Plaidie, The

See The Tartan Plaidy (O My Bonnie Highland Laddie) (File: BrAPS495)

Ladd Y the Dance a Myssomur Day

See Led I the Dance on a Midsummer's Day (Jack and the Dancing Maid) (File: GrEE096)

Laddie Frae the North, The

See There Cam a Laddie Frae the North (File: Ord103)

Laddie That Handles the Ploo, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises the plowmen and farmers who provide others with food. He lists other occupations, and notes how much they are needed -- but none of them could survive "Gin it werena for the bonnie laddie that handles the ploo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming worker food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #107, p. 1, "The Laddie that Handles the Ploo"; #160, p. 2, "The Laddie that Handles the Ploo" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 449, "The Laddie that Handles the Ploo" (10 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 81, "The Bonnie Lad That Handles the Plough" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 34, "The bonnie lad that handles the plough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2170
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Farmer is the Man" (theme)
cf. "The Praise of Ploughmen" (theme)
cf. "Come All You Jolly Ploughboys" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Success and Flourish
Trades
Health to the Farmers
Tradesman's Song
File: Ord081

Laddie Wi' the Tarry Trews, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is a woman, probably a mill worker, who wants to be taken from the mill by a sailor. She describes him, "a sailor wi' a rolling eye," rowing on the ocean and sailing across the sea. He says he would take her from the mill.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad sailor technology
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 56, "The Laddie Wi' the Tarry Trews" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #5809
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "No More Shall I Work in the Factory" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Mill
A Sailor
NOTES [90 words]: The Greig/Duncan1 entries are all fragments. Two share the verse "He bade me aye cheer up my heart An' he bade me nae be dull He bade me aye cheer up my heart An' he'd tak me frae the mull." All three texts refer briefly to sailors: "And the laddie wi' the tarry trews, Is aye the lad for me," "A sailor wi' a rolling eye I'd lay my life to be his wife," and "And the sailor wi' the curly kep, Oh he's the lad for me."
Greig/Duncan1: .".. millgirls' song - usually sung as they marched home in groups after the day's work (about 1850)." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1056

Ladie Beltrees and Her Bonnie Lads

DESCRIPTION: Matthew Orr goes to Glasgow to see Lady Beltrees. She hides from him "ahint the bed." Her friends/servants(?) say "she wasna in." Doesn't she remember when "I kissed thee in thy bed" and she said she liked him better than Johnny Blair or Ned Davidson?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: sex nonballad lover
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 145, "Ladie Beltrees and Her Bonnie Lads" (1 text)
Roud #15126
NOTES [78 words]: Lady Beltrees is Mary Pollock, born c.1661, and married to Robert Sempill of Beltrees in 1678. Patterson prints the song without being able to identify the other characters named, except to say "it would appear that Ladie Beltrees was somewhat of a gallant." We know she married unhappily after Sempill died sometime between 1707 and 1711 (source: James Paterson, The Poems of the Sempills of Beltrees (Edinburgh, 1849 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. lxxx-lxxxiii). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2145

Ladie Calee

DESCRIPTION: Lady Calee, up the shore, down the quay, one foot in and one foot out, "Linkum learie round about"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 202, "Ladie Calee" (1 text)
Roud #5032
NOTES [106 words]: The description translates the Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 text.
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 says "'Ladie Calee' may be compared with a circle game called 'Hinkumbooby' in Chambers Rhymes 1870 pp. 137-9 which includes lines like the last two here." In that, Lyle is agreeing with Roud who lumps this with 'Looby Lou,' which is where I have added Chambers. "Ladie Callee" ends "Ane fyt in an ane fyt out Linkum learie round about," as compared to "A' feet in, and nae feet out, Hinkumbooby round about." It's the first two lines of "Lady Calee" that don't fit for me: "Ladie Calee Up the shore and doun the Quey." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2202

Ladie Who Lived in the West, The

See The Wife of Usher's Well [Child 79] (File: C079)

Ladies and Gentlemen (I)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Children too, There's a little white girl Going looking for you... Two years old, going on three, Wear my dresses up to my knee. Sister has a boyfriend... Walks in the parlor And turns out the lights"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Keystone Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope courting | sister boyfriend light
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #300, "Ladies and Gentlemen" (1 text)
Roud #19961
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Sister's Got a Boyfriend" (lyrics)
cf. "Two Years Old, Going On Three" (lyrics)
NOTES [48 words]: This includes almost the entire text of "My Sister's Got a Boyfriend"; I would be inclined to lump them. But Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes and Roud split them, so I have done so also. This also includes the lyrics of "Two Year Old, Going On Three"; it seems to be good at swallowing things! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR300

Ladies and Gentlemen (II)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Ladies and gentlemen, To tell you the facts, I lost my britches On the railroad tracks. They flew so high Into the sky They didn't come back Till the Fourth of July."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according toAbrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope talltale clothes railroading
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #301, "Ladies and gentlemen" (1 text)
File: AJRR301

Ladies I Have Goldensilver

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) AND No, John, No (File: E098)

Ladies in the Dinin' Room

See Ladies in the Dining Room (File: LxSi070)

Ladies in the Dining Room

DESCRIPTION: "Ladies in the dining room, Sitting by the fire, Lost her slipper and she fell down, Raise your foot up higher." "(All the way the ring goes round)/(Choose the one the ring goes round), Choose the one with money, Choose the one they call X...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Crockett)
KEYWORDS: playparty home clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 70, "Ladies in the Dinin' Room" (1 text, 1 tune)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 119, ("Choose in the girl with the rosy cheeks") (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, pp. 509-510, "Lady in the Dining Room" (1 short text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Dolores N. Crockett, "Children's Rhymes from Michigan," Vol. 44, No. 171 (Jan-Mar 1931), #3 p. 116, ("Fly to the East") (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Leah Rachel Clara Yoffie, "Three Generations of Children's Singing Games in St. Louis," Vol. 60, No. 2351 (Jan-Mar 1947 ), #54, pp. 44-45, ("Walking down the green grass") (1 text)
Roud #15656
ALTERNATE TITLES:
All the Way Round
NOTES [231 words]: The second verse from Lomax is "Choose the one the ring goes round, Choose the one with money, Choose the one they call Annie Lee, Kiss your darling honey."
Yonnie's game song is "Walking down the green grass I was ashamed to go, My right foot slipped and I fell down I was ashamed to go. Court that girl with the coal black hair, Court that girl with the money, Court that girl with the coal black hair, And kiss her, call her honey." Yonnie thinks her St. Louis game song "may be a merging of the old 'Walking up the Green Grass' and the Negro song "Ladies in the Dining Room." There's also a line from "I Wouldn't Go There Any More.""
The second verse of Lomax and Yoffie, modified, is all there is of Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands and Crockett. Parrish has, "Choose in the girl with the rosy cheeks, Choose in the boy with the money, Choose in the girl with the coal-black eye, Choose her an' call her honey." Crockett has, "Fly to the East Fly to the Wes,t Fly to the one's got money. Fly to the one that you love best Kiss her and call her honey."
This seems as good a place as any to index Parrish and Crockett, although the verse floats to other songs. In "Charley He's a Good Old Man" (indexed here as "Weevily Wheat") Kelly Harrell sings, "Some folks marry for good looks, Some of them for money, But I'm going to marry a country boy, Kiss him and call him honey." - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: LxSi070

Ladies o' Cheapside, The

DESCRIPTION: "He tauld me to keep up my heart and modify my pride ... And I might try the Justice Port, the ladies o' Cheapside"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1441, "The Ladies o' Cheapside" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7272
NOTES [95 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan7 fragment excluding the chorus.
Justice Port was one of the lockable gates to Aberdeen until 1787 (source: "Historic gates to the city" at the site for Leopard, The Magazine for North-East Scotland). Is that the reference here? There's a Cheapside in London, Belfast and Glasgow; any in Aberdeen?
A note from Steve Gardham to Ballad-L: "Practically everywhere in Britain had a Cheapside. it would have been originally the side of the market where the cheapest or chap goods were sold and the chapmen congregated." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71441

Ladies to the Center

DESCRIPTION: "Ladies to the center and a ding dong ding, Gents to the center and form a ring, Mile and a quarter round this ring, Meet your partner, balance and swing."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (JAFL 27)
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 577, "Ladies to the Center" (1 fragment)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 104, "Gents to the Center" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7666
File: R577

Ladies' Orange Lodges O!, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Orange cause is booming strong, Since ladies joined the Order." "They crowd round William's banner." Throughout England they "lilt their Orange ditties" and "work against those who love the night, And hate the British Empire."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1895 (Graham-TheOrangeSongster)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Graham-TheOrangeSongster, p. 19, "The Ladies' Orange Lodges O!" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [63 words]: The Loyal Institution of Orange Ladies of England is a section of the Loyal Orange Institution of England. "Ladies Lodges have been a part of the Orange family since the middle of the nineteeth century, with Lodges meeting in different locations, mainly in the Lancashire area ...." (source: "The Orange Ladies of England" at the Grand Orange Lodges of England [GOLE] site). - BS
File: Grah019

Ladle Song, The

See A Rich Old Miser [Laws Q7] (File: LQ07)

Lads of High Renown

See The Poacher's Fate [Laws L14] (File: LL14)

Lads of Kilkenny, The

See The Boys of Kilkenny (File: Ocon044)

Lads of Wamphrey, The [Child 184]

DESCRIPTION: The Johnstones raid the stable of the Crichtons. William, nicknamed Galliard, the Johnstone leader, by mistake rides off on a blind horse. He is captured and hanged. His nephew gathers a gang which drives the Crichtons from their land
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1791
KEYWORDS: feud battle execution revenge
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 184, "The Lads of Wamphrey" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 392-394, "The Lads of Wamphray" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 495-497, "The Lads of Wamphrey" (1 text)
Roud #4011
File: C184

Lads that was Reared Among the Heather, The

DESCRIPTION: Girls: the best men are "the lads that was reared in the heather"; the best dances are in the barn, not the hall, with the lads ...; the best ship builders, the best soldiers and the best poets are the lads....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (recording, Willie Scott)
KEYWORDS: bragging commerce dancing nonballad soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 70-71, 151, "The Lads That Were Reared Amang Heather" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5127
RECORDINGS:
Willie Scott, "The Lads that was Reared Among the Heather" (on Voice05)
File: RcLTRATH

Lads That Were Reared Amang Heather, The

See The Lads that was Reared Among the Heather (File: RcLTRATH)

Lady Alice [Child 85]

DESCRIPTION: Lady Alice sees a beautiful corpse being carried by and learns it is her lover. She bids the bearers leave it; she will herself be dead by the next evening. They are buried apart but roses from his grave grow to reach her breast until severed by a priest.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810
KEYWORDS: death corpse love burial flowers
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (44 citations):
Child 85, "Lady Alice" (4 texts)
Bronson 85, "George Collins (Lady Alice)" (43 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 85, "George Collins (Lady Alice)" (6 versions: #2, #18, #24, #26, #29, #34)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, p. 347, "Lady Alice" (1 text)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 54-56, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune, apparently composite)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 25 "Giles Collins" (6 short texts, 6 tunes){Bronson's #13, #15, #14, #28, #5, #42}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 452-453, "Lady Alice" (notes plus a text derived from Child C)
Peacock, pp. 738-739, "Young Collins Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 12, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 85, "George Collins" (1 text)
Randolph 22, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #27}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 25, "Lady Alice" (7 texts apart from the appendix, 5 tunes entitled "Johnny Collins," "George Collins"; 10 more versions mentioned in Appendix A)
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 26, pp. 199-206, "Lady Alice" (3 texts plus a fragment, 4 tunes -- but the fourth, fragmentary, text and tune could as well be "Fare You Well, My Own True Love" or something similar) {Bronson's #41, #32, #31, #29, #2}
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 28, "Lady Alice" (8 texts plus 2 excerpts, a fragment, and mentions of 4 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 28, "Lady Alice" (9 excerpts, 9 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 14, "Georgie Collins" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #18}
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, #IX, pp. 142-143, "Lady Alice (Giles Collins)" (1 text)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 40, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 256-257, "George Giles" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #162, "Lady Alice" (3 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #26, #20}
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 16, pp. 107-111, "Lady Alice" (4 texts)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 7, "George Collum" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronsons' #9}
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 73-74, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 25, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 4, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 47, "George Collins" (1 short text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 76, "George Collins" (1 short text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 17-18, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 117-122, "Lady Alice," with individual texts titled "George Collins," "George Collins," (no title), "George Collins," (no title), "George Allien" (4 texts plus 2 excerpts, 4 tunes on pp. 393-394) {Bronson's #22, #19, #1, #11}
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 154, "Lady Alice" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 96, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 37, "Lady Alice" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 246-247, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 32, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 17, "Lady Alice" (5 texts)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 94-95, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 59-60, "Young Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #22, "George Collins," "The Dying Hobo," "George Collins" (2 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune; the first text is clearly "Lady Alice" [Child 85], the second seems to mix that with "The Dying Hobo" [Laws H3], the final fragment is too short to know)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 21, "Young Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 62-63, "Lady Alice" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 151, "George Collins" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Virgil L. Sturgill, "The Lost Ballad of George Collins" Vol. IV, No. 1 (Jul 1956), pp. 31-33, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 85, GEOCLLNS* GEOCOL2 GEOCLLN3
ADDITIONAL: Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, pp. 125-127, "Giles Collins" (1 text)
ST C085 (Full)
Roud #147
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "George Collins" (Paramount 3222, 1930; rec. 1929)
Dixon Brothers, "Story of George Collins" (Montgomery Ward M-7580, 1938)
Shirley Glenn, Charlie Glenn, Derek Piotr, "George Collins" (Piotr-Archive #188, recorded 06/06/2022)
Henry Griffin, "George Collins" (on HandMeDown2)
Spud Gravely, "George Allen" (on Persis1)
Roy Harvey & the North Carolina Ramblers, "George Collins" (Brunswick 250, 1928; on ConstSor1)
Kelly Harrell, "The Dying Hobo" (Victor 20527, 1926; on KHarrell01 -- a rather strange version combining the first verse of "The Dying Hobo" with a plot, taken from "George Collins," of a girl mourning her dead lover) {Bronson's #30}
Dick Justice, "One Cold December Day" (Brunswick 367, 1929 -- like the Harrell recording, this starts with a "Dying Hobo" verse, then parallels "George Collins")
Amy Michels, "George Collins" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #156, recorded 05/10/2022)
New Lost City Ramblers, "George Collins" (on NLCR02)
Frank Proffitt, "George Collins" (on Proffitt03)
Riley Puckett, "George Collins" (Montgomery Ward M-4551, 1934)
Rick Ward, "George Collins" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #133, recorded 04/18/2022)
Enos White, "George Collins" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1, Voice03)
Henry Whitter, "George Collins" (OKeh 45081, 1927, rec. 1926) (Broadway 8024, c. 1931); Henry Whitter & Fiddler Joe [Samuels], "George Collins" (OKeh, unissued, 1926)
Miriam "Mimi" Wright, "George Collins" (Piotr-Archive #355, recorded 11/09/2022)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Earl Colvin
Young Collins
George Coleman
Dame Alice was Sitting on Widow's Walk
George Collum
George Promer
NOTES [727 words]: A number of scholars (including Coffin and Lloyd, with some support from Bronson) believe that "Lady Alice" is a fragment of a larger ballad (called "George Collins" or the like). The first half is found in "Clerk Colville" [Child 42]; "Lady Alice" forms the second half. Lloyd writes, "Either these are two separate songs which have been combined to form George Collins or (which seems more likely) they are two fragments of the completer ballad."
Paul Stamler provides this description of the composite ballad:
George Collins, out walking, kisses a pretty maid, who warns him he won't live long. He kisses her, goes home and dies. His lover kisses his corpse goodbye; she dies too. In the last verse, it's said that six pretty maids died in one night for his sake. Many have interpreted the "pretty maid" as a water-fairy whom Collins has been trysting with; when she finds he's been betrothed, she gives him a poisoned kiss. - RBW, PJS
The supernatural explanation seems reasonable. But sudden death transmitted by a kiss -- has no one suggested communicable disease?
The ballad is found throughout western Europe, including a manuscript poem from Germany dated c. 1310. - PJS
[For discussions of the question of whether this is one ballad], see Barbara Craster in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society 2:4 (15) (1910) pp. 106-109 (comparisons) and in Coffin, Brit. Trad. Ballad in N. America (1977 edn.) p. 51 and pp. 86-88, 241 - JM
[Ewan] MacColl in The Long Harvest... feels there is little left to doubt and combines them. He cites S. P. Bayard, "No two ballads in English are more closely allied." Harbison Parker gives much detail and together, says MacColl, "make an almost watertight for the two Child ballads as springing from one and the same source. - AS
In general I have followed the policy of listing "George Collins" versions here, without further notes, as the "Lady Alice" portion is more integral to the story.
Bob Stewart, who thinks everything goes back to ancient legend, says on p. 127 that "the plot is almost identical to a tale told of the Daghdha (The Good God), one of the leaders of the Tuatha De Danaan. He met with a woman on the ancient feast day of Samhain... who was standing astride a river.... He made love to her, and she identified herself as being the Goddess of fate and slaughter, who was believed to appear before a battle washing the bodies of those doomed to die." This is indeed an attested story of the Daghdha (although not one of the better-known ones; only one of the four other sources I checked repeated it), and I see the thematic link, but I would hardly call it "almost identical"; the odds of dependence are slight. - RBW
A curious thing is that Sharp calls the ballad "Giles Collins", but the protagonist is "George" in 5 of his 6 examples, and "Charles" in the sixth.
Again this [Silber's version] is fragmentary; George Collins, driving home, is taken sick and dies. His Nell opens his coffin to kiss him goodbye, then laments his passing. That's it; nothing else happens. Nothing to connect it to Lady A. except George's name. Arghh. - PJS
J. R. R. Tolkien fans may be interested to note that Tolkien's fascinating modern recreation of a Breton Lay, "The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun" (which I think his best writing other than The Lord of the Rings, although it did not reach book form until decades after his death) also involves commerce with a non-human magic-worker; Itroun is barren, so her husband Aotrou seeks out a "Corrigan" to find obtain a potion to make her fertile. The Corrigan agrees but says she will not name her price until the children are born. Once they are, she appears to Aotrou and demands that he make love to her. He refuses; she says that he will die shortly. He does, and Itroun dies soon after. It was suggested by Jessica Yates that Tolkien "wanted to write a version of the 'Clerk Colvill' story about a young man and a water nymph [and] was intrigued by the translations he found of the analogous Breton 'Lord Nann' ballad [found in Child]." (See Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond, The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Reader's Guide, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, p. 487). This hypothesis does not seem to have attracted much support, but it is not unlikely that Tolkien -- who knew a lot about folklore -- was aware of the Clerk Colville/Lady Alice story. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C085

Lady and Her Apprentice Boy

See The Apprentice Boy [Laws M12] (File: LM12)

Lady and Laddie

DESCRIPTION: "A lady loved a laddie" but is married to an old man who "told her love was wicked And she'd love her God instead." She feeds him a potion to make him blind and brings in her man in clerical dress. He "Gave the lady absolution On a bench along the wall."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963? (Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection)
KEYWORDS: lover age husband wife trick clergy sex adultery
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, pp. 43-44, "Lady and Laddie" (1 text)
File: Grim044

Lady and Prentice, The

See The Apprentice Boy [Laws M12] (File: LM12)

Lady and Sailor

See Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser) [Laws N6] (File: LN06)

Lady and the Bullock Driver, The

DESCRIPTION: "A squatter who lived Bathurst way, And owned a magnificent station" visits Sydney and meets a girl. When married, and take a ride with a bullock driver. The squatter demands the driver use good language. They get stuck because he can't curse his team
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Thatcher, Life on the Goldfields)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage humorous travel cattle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 13-14, "The Lady and the Bullock Driver" (1 text, from the "Colonial Minstrel")
Hoskins/Thatcher-LifeOnTheGoldfields, pp. 37-38, "The Lady and the Bullock Driver" (1 text, tune referenced); p. 150, "The Lady and the Bullock Driver" (1 tune, partial text)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 58-60, "The Lady and the Bullock Driver" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drops of Brandy" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Colonial Courtship (File: AnSt063)
Colonial Curiosities ("How fond all the people are here Of forming a little collection Of curious colonial things") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, p. 37, from "Thatcher's Colonial Songster"; Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 20)
Colonial Education ("Oh, what a discussion there's been, On the subject of State Education") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 32)
The Natural History of the Loafer (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, p. 88, from "Thatcher's Colonial Songster")
That'll Tell You About Emigration ("What a curious country this is, And what changes it's now undergoing") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Anderson-GoldrushSongster, p. 78; Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 45-47)
What Shall I Sing? ("What a row you kick up to be sure, I really don't mean to abuse you.") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 67)
NOTES [29 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: AnSo058

Lady and the Crocodile

DESCRIPTION: "She sailed away on a sunny summer day on the back of a crocodile." She says it is tame and takes him down the Nile, but "At the end of the ride, the lady was inside and the smile was on the crocodile."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: animal river death campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 110, 236, 291, 511, "Lady and the Crocodile"/"Crocodile" (notes only)
Roud #4579
NOTES [36 words]: Although verifiable collections in tradition are few, Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 110, reports so many versions (51) that I thought I had to include it here. Apparently it was recorded by Barney the Dinosaur. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF110L

Lady and the Dragoon, The

See The Bold Soldier [Laws M27] (File: LM27)

Lady and the Farmer's Son, The [Laws O40]

DESCRIPTION: A wealthy lady wants a youth to marry her, but he is pledged to one of the lady's servants. The lady brings her maid on a boat trip and throws her into the sea. She winds up in prison; the young man goes mad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (The Complete Pocket Songbook)
KEYWORDS: homicide drowning prison servant courting money
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws O40, "The Lady and the Farmer's Son"
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 170-171, "The Lady and the Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 490, FARMSON*
ADDITIONAL: Eliphalet Mason, _The Complete Pocket Song Book_, Andrew Wright (Northampton, MA), 1802 (available on Internet Archive), pp 43-46, "The Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #994
NOTES [38 words]: This is so close to Sharp's "Handsome Sally" that Paul Stamler lumped them. But Laws and Roud distinguish them, so I tentatively do the same.
Thanks to Michael Taft for pointing out the 1802 Complete Pocket Songbook edition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LO40

Lady and the Glove, The

See The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20] (File: LN20)

Lady and the Gypsy, The

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Lady and the Sailor, The

See Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser) [Laws N6] (File: LN06)

Lady and the Shepherd, The

See The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214] (File: C214)

Lady and the Soldier, The

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

Lady Anne

DESCRIPTION: Lady Anne bids false Sir William farewell as he goes to war. One day she sees three boys playing ball and is asked to choose one. She would clothe the naked boy who has been with them one year. The boy reveals he is her son murdered and buried by a nurse
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: homicide pregnancy adultery childbirth burial children accusation supernatural ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 20 Appendix, "Lady Anne" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 194, "Lady Anne" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 197-198, "Lady Anne" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (Edinburgh: Longman and Rees, 1803 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), second edition, Vol. III, pp. 261-263, "Lady Anne" (1 text)
Roud #9
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Cruel Mother
NOTES [137 words]: The following plot elements are shared with Child 20: a woman murders a baby and continues her life as if the baby had never been born; after some time she sees a boy playing and says that if he were hers she'd dress him in finery; she is told he was hers.
Why is the baby murdered? In Child 20 it is to avoid exposure at the lady's wedding. Here it appears that Lady Anne had an affair in Sir William's absence and was avoiding exposure at his return. The nurse (midwife?) murders, or at least buries, the baby after it is stabbed to death. - BS
This raises the interesting question of why Sir William is called false when it was Lady Anne who had the affair. Had he had his own dalliance before leaving, or did she suspect he would while he was gone? Was she trying to get back at him? Just some points to ponder.... - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD194

Lady Anne Bothwell's Balow

See Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament (File: GrD81560)

Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament

DESCRIPTION: The singer sings a lullaby to her baby son. She recalls how his father seduced and left her. She fantasizes about his death on the battlefield. She mourns for herself and the baby "Born to sustain thy mother's shame ... a bastard's name"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1626-1627 (according to Ebsworth); else c.1650 (Percy folio); see comments by Chambers and Ebsworth on earlier "fountain-heads."
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer sings a lullaby to her baby son. She would have him smile but "not as thy father did To cozen maids ... cruel he Cares neither for his babe nor me." "I was too cred'lous at first To yield thee all a maiden durst." He is away at the wars; perhaps "blessing thee." She fantasizes that he "lies smother'd in his wounds, Repeating, as he pants for air, My name ... she'll forgive, though not forget." She would bind his wounds with her smock and make it his winding sheet; "how happy I had been If he had ne'er been wrapt therein" In days to come "God grant thee patience ... Born to sustain thy mother's shame ... a bastard's name"
KEYWORDS: grief seduction lie promise war separation lament lullaby nonballad baby lover mistress
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume III, pp. 515-523, "Balowe" (3 texts: John Gamble's MS Book 1649; Elizabeth Rogers, _Virginal Book_, Additional Manuscript 10337, 1658 ["dated 1658, but the copy may have been taken some few years after"; c. 1650, for _Reliques_ from the Folio, before being "corrected by another [copy] in Allan Ramsay's _Miscellany_, and of course, touched up by Percy himself without notice, Scottified throughout" (p. 515).)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 118-121, "Lady Ann Bothwell's Lament" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 141, "Balou, My Boy, Lie Still and Sleip" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1560, "Baloo My Boy, Lie Still and Sleep" (1 fragment)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 209-213, "Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XXVI, p. 66, "Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: J. Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (1888, Hertford (digitized by Microsoft)), Vol VI Part 3, pp. 578-579,"The New Balow; or, a Wenche's Lamentation for the loss of her Sweetheart, he having left her with a Babe to play her, being the Fruits of her Folly" ("Balow, my Babe, weep not for me") (1 text)
Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scots Sangs (in three vols) (London, 1760 (twelfth edition) ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 120-123, "Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament" ("Balow, my boy, lie still and sleep") (1 text)
James Watson, editor, A Choice Collection of Comic and Serious Scots Poems Part III (London, 1711 (reprinted as part 3 of Watson's Choice Collection of Comic and Serious Scots Poems (Glasgow 1869)) ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 79-82, "Lady Anne Bothwell's Balow" ("Balow, my Boy, ly still and sleep") (1 text)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #130, pp. 135-136, "Lady Bothwell's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Robert Chambers, The Scottish Ballads (Edinburgh, 1829 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 118-121, "Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament" (2 texts, including Ramsay's)
Thomas Evans and R.H. Evans, Old Ballads, Historical and Narrative (London, 1810 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. I, #67 pp. 259-263, "The New Balow; or A Wenches Lamentation for the loss of her Sweetheart: he having left her a babe to play with, being the fruits of her folly" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 518
ST GrD81560 (Partial)
Roud #2864
NOTES [1783 words]: Hales and Furnivall print the texts "without Percy's tawdry touches....[as] Percy found it.... we must make the date about 1650.... The dialect of the copier seems to have been Lancashire.... " (V.I, pp. xi-xiii: Furnivall's "Forewords").
The first version dating at least to 1606 (according to Chambers 1829) is two verses that share sentiments but no lines with any of the later versions: "Peace wayward barne Oh cease thy moan" Your wayward daddy is gone and won't return. She is sure "how like the dad Would be the lad In time to make fond maydens glad." Daddy being gone does not appear again until Ramsay.
Ebsworth prints the two verses that Chambers dates to 1606 but proposes a 1593-1594 eight verse text as "the fountain-head of all the Balloo rivulets." The tone of that text fits but no line is shared by the later texts. See J. Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (1888, Hertford (digitized by Microsoft)), Vol VI Part 3, p. 580, "A Sweet Lullabie" ("Come, little babe, come silly soule") (1 text).
The likely sequence of the clearly recognizable texts is Gamble (1649), Rogers (1658), Percy-folio (c.1650), Evans (c.1650 [1626-1627?: see Ebsworth below]), Watson (1711) and Ramsay (1760). Each of these six texts is clearly different from the others, chiefly in added or deleted verses. After Ramsay many anthologists use his version. See, for example,
* Francis James Child, editor, The English and Scottish Ballads (Boston, 1866 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. IV, pp. 123-131
* David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (facsimile of (Edinburgh,1776) with an "Appendix ... containing the pieces substituted in the 1791 reprint for those omitted of the 1776 edition, &c.") ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol I, pp. 65-68
* William Edmonstoune Aytoun, The Ballads of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1861 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, pp. 49-52
* Chambers.
* Percy "corrected" his Reliques version by reference to Ramsay.
Gamble's version has six verses. The four common to later versions complain of her lover's "sugar'd words" and that "cruel he Cares neither for my babe nor me"; she is afraid the son will "cozen maids ... For in thine eye his [father's] look I see The tempting look that ruined me"; she hopes "never a woman after me [would] Submit" to him. This is a difficult verse to accomodate for the later versions that have her lover dead. One verse is dropped by Rogers and shared only with Percy and Evans: she still loves her lover. One verse is shared only with Rogers: from now on I, "sweare all others to forbear ... and sleepe securely hart alone."
Rogers's version has four verses, all common to Gamble.
Percy-folio's version has seven verses. Four common to later versions are shared with Gamble, as well as the one shared with Gamble and Evans. Two verses are unique to Percy: she tells the baby to "be loyal to thy lover trew"; her baby "will comfort me when care do grieve." [A line, "corrected" by Percy following Ramsay, is in verse 6: "thy cruel father is gane," which would have been significant if in the folio version.]
Evans's version has fifteen verses. Besides the four from Gamble and one added by Percy-folio, it shares seven verses with Watson and Ramsay: her lover may be or is dead -- perhaps God "revenging me hath stopt his breath"; if she could hear him "repeating as he pants for breath Her name ... what woman's heart ... Would not forget the greatest wrong?"; then she would wrap him in linen -- her smock if necessary -- for a winding sheet; "thy father dead ... Preferr'd the wars to me and thee"; the baby must live witb "A mother's fault, a father's shame, A hapless state, a bastard's name." Here and later death is symbolized by pig/boar/swine: "but now, perhaps, thy curse and mine Make him eat acorns with the swine." "Three verses are unique to Evans: she would have the baby "follow not His faithless steps who thee begot; she is afraid that when he is grown he will disdain her; she blames herself "But most of all my own two eyes."
Note that Ebsworth prints Evans and gives it a date of 1626-1627. If Evans pre-dates Gamble, Rogers and Percy-folio then it effectively becomes our earliest text and those "later" three texts are just interesting examples of texts that have lost verses.
[The 1626-1627 date is, I think, from the Stationer's Register. Rollins has the following entry as his #162, p. 21: "Balloe my Babe (?June 19, 1627, IV, 181, Marg. Trundle) [=? The New Balow; Or, a Wenche's Lamentation for the loss of her Sweetheart, beg. 'Balow, my Babe, weep not for me,' [Chappell,] R[oxburghe] B[allads] VI, 577; [Hales & Furnival] P[ercy] F[olio] III. 515; Harl. MS. 791, f. 62, etc." MS. Harley 791 is described as "A folio composite volume of state tracts and miscellaneous verse and prose, in various hands, 69 leaves, in modern half-morocco gilt." Includes among other things Sir Walter Raleigh, Speech on the Scaffold; a poem by William Herbert; a poem by Donne; works by Richard Corbett, Ben Johnson, John Grange, Francis Bacon. The sundry contents are mostly dated around the 1620s. - RBW]
Watson's version has thirteen verses: four from Gamble, seven from Evans and two that it shares with Ramsay. These two verses cause Chappell (cited by Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry) to ask, "Can any one believe that such lines were written by or for any lady of rank?" One complains that she "must now needs be a nurse ... sweet orphan, take the pap"; the other complains that she had been promised "That I no maintenance should want." I suppose that Chappell is saying that no "lady of rank" would have to worry about nursing her baby, nor about who would provide the next meal. Watson's version has another significant attribute: it is the first time the name "Lady Anne Bothwell" is associated with the story. No version mentions anyone's name. As we shall see, there is a timing problem if Anne Bothwell is really the subject.
Ramsay's version has one significant change: the phrase "thy father dead" becomes "thy father fled" Now the battlefield image of her finding, forgiving and burying her wounded lover becomes a daydream fantasy. Ramsay has kept the "Lady Anne Bothwell" title and resolved the problem Watson introduced: Anne Bothwell's lover died long after the baby was born. The description follows Ramsay.
Chambers (1829): "'Lady Anne Bothwell' was no other than the Honourable Anna Bothwell, daughter of Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney at the Reformation .... This young lady, who is said to have possessed great beauty, was betrayed into a disgraceful connexion by the Honourable Sir Alexander Erskine, third son of John, seventh Earl of Mar .... As ... there arises a presumption, considering the age of the parties, that the unhappy circumstance which occasioned the lament took place early in the seventeenth century. This, indeed, is set almost beyond a question by the occurrence of a poem, apparently the first edition of Miss Bothwell's Lament, in a publication of the year 1606, 'The Northern Lass, or the Nest of Fools.' [1606 text] As to the ultimate fate of Miss Bothwell, it is unfortunately out of the editor's power to say any thing. That of her faithless lover happens to be better known. ... When the religious troubles broke out in Scotland, Sir Alexander ... was prevailed upon by the Covenanters to undertake the command of one of their regiments .... Ten days after the date of ... letter [1640] the colonel was blown up .... It was the general sentiment of the time, and long a traditionary notion in his family, that he came to this dreadful end, on account of his treatment of the unhappy lady who indites the Lament; she having probably died before that time of a broken heart."
In 1847 Chambers reported the apparent next appearance of the text. "The song is an evidence of the public interest excited by the affair: a fragment of it [the same verses Chambers printed in 1829] found its way into an English play of the day, Broom's comedy of the Northern Lass (1632). This is somewhat different from any of the stanzas in the common versions of the ballad. (source: Robert Chambers, Traditions of Edinburgh (1847, Edinburgh ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 91-93).
So, at the end, the lament fits the story. But, does the lament have anything to do with the story? Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II quotes Chappell's notes to Percy Folio to the effect that:
* The tune and ballad are "alluded to by several of our early [16th century] dramatists" [and so may predate the supposed parties].
* In mid 17th century "Baloo was so popular a subject that it was printed as a street ballad with additional stanzas ...[the Evans text]."
* "The particular honour of having been the 'wench' in question was first claimed for 'Lady Anne Bothwell' ... by Watson in Edinburgh in 1711." Chappell doubts that any of the Lady Anne's in the Bothwell family were involved. [At this point it's worth noting again that none of the parties are named in any version.]
* Of two verses added by Watson's text, and kept by Ramsay's, Chappell asks, "Can any one believe that such lines were written by or for any lady of rank?"
Chambers (1847): "The only error in the setting down of the song, was in calling it *Lady* Anne Bothwell's Lament, as the heroine had no pretension to a term implying noble rank.."
The association of pigs with death, in Evans, Watson, and Ramsey, is an old one. Graves notes that pigs "feed on corpse-flesh," pig is "the beast sacred to the Death-goddess," and "the boar is the beast of death" (source: Robert Graves, The White Goddess (1970, New York), pp. 222, 229, 210). The connection is also made in "Lord Thomas Stuart" [Child 259]: "'I dreamed a dream ... That our chamber was full of swine An our bed full of blood.'" - BS
To add to all the complications, the play "The Knight of the Burning Pestle,' by Francis Beaumont (and John Fletcher) has this line:
Citizen: ... "You musicians, play Baloo!"
(On p. 336 of Wine, this is Act II, scene viii, line 106; in KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, p. 103, and KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, p. 57, it's Interlude II, which follows Act II, line 8. It's part of the section where the "Citizens" who have taken over the play make demands on how the play proceed.) KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, p. 103 note, suggests that this is a reference to "Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament"; if so, that pushes the date back to at least 1613, when the play was printed, and probably to 1607, when it is believed to have been produced. But that's a lot of speculation based on a single word! (For more on "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," see the notes to "Three Merry Men.") - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: GrD81560

Lady Beltrees

See Hey Bonnie Laddie, Mount and Go (File: GrD71361)

Lady Bessy

See (references under) The Battle of Bosworth Field (File: BdTBOBoF)

Lady Connolly

DESCRIPTION: Rebellion begins May 18, 1798. Lord Carhampton "burned our holy altars, and Dunboyne town also." Lady Connolly, "may her soul rest in glory, while Lord Carhampton's sent to hell." We'll keep Carhampton agitated until the French come, then we'll skin him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1970 (Healy's _Mercier Book of Old Irish Street Ballads Vol. 2_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion death France Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 51, "Lady Connolly" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [232 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "Lady Louisa Connolly was the wife of Tom Connolly of Castletown House. She was the aunt of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and visited him in his cell in Newgate Prison a couple of hours before his death.... The Earl of Carhampton, of Luttrelstown House, was the Commander-in-Chief in 1795 and was responsible for the dragooning of Ulster in response to the outbreak of Defenderism. He was universally feared and hated...." - BS
According to Thomas Pakenham, The Year of Liberty, pp. 235-238, Lady Connolly did very little except write a rather pathetic account of Edward Fitzgerald's last hours (for Fitzgerald, see the notes to "Edward (III) (Edward Fitzgerald)"), which nonetheless made clear that the British had not mistreated him once he was in custody. Her position may have been somewhat equivocal; she was the aunt of Fitzgerald -- but she was also the wife of Tom Connolly, the commander of the Derry militia (Pakenham, p. 48).
Carhampton I think may be the Lord Lieutenant, John Jeffreys Pratt, second earl of Camden. He was appointed in 1795, and lasted until after the 1798 rebellion, when he was fired (Canning privately wrote that he had been rendered useless for anything) but promoted to marquis. I can't find any source that calls him "Carhampton," but there is no one else who seems to fit. Certainly the Irish did completely bamboozle him. - RBW
File: Moyl051

Lady Diamond [Child 269]

DESCRIPTION: The king's daughter Lady (Daisy) is with child by a kitchen boy. The king has the boy killed and a token (his heart) sent to Lady Daisy. She dies for love (prompting the king's deep regret)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (Sharpe)
KEYWORDS: royalty execution pregnancy death bastard
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Child 269, "Lady Diamond" (5 texts)
Bronson 269, "Lady Diamond" (4 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 269, "Lady Diamond" (3 versions: #2, #3, #4)
Dixon-ScottishTraditionalVersionsOfAncientBallads XIV, pp. 71-72, "Ladye Diamond" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 35-36, "Lady Dysmond" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #162, p. 3, "Lady Dysie" (1 text fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1224, "Lady Dysie" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 635-636, "Lady Diamond" (1 text, correctly titled but erroneously numbered as Child 264)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 37, "Lady Diamond" (1 text)
DT 269, LADYDIAM* LADYDIA2
Roud #112
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Willie o Winsbury" [Child 100] (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lady Daisy
Eliza's Bowers
NOTES [725 words]: [A. L. Lloyd writes,] "Boccaccio re-tells [this story] in his tale of Ghismonda and Guiscardo, and in later years it was made into a play in England and elsewhere. Versified into a ballad, it was widely known throughout Western Europe and Scandinavia." - PJS
The link to Boccaccio was noted long before Lloyd; Child mentions it and many non-English analogies, and the link to the Decameron goes back at least to Dixon.
The tale is the first story of the fourth day, told by Fiammetta. In outline, the Decameron account is precisely "Lady Diamond," but there are also substantial differences. In "Lady Diamond," the girl is pregnant and the father forces the truth out of her; in Boccaccio, she is already a widow and her father discovers the truth accidentally; in "Lady Diamond," she dies for love, whereas in the Decameron, she takes poison, and the Italian tale ends with the king's repentance, something rare in the ballad.
With all that said, it's hard to doubt that the two spring from the same sources -- the image of the man's heart in a cup is hard to forget! Indeed, it seems likely that Boccaccio started the whole string of incident.
However, Child reports, ""The ballad is one of a large number of repetitions of Boccaccio's tale of Guisardo and Ghismonda, Decamerone, VI, 1. This tale was translated in Painter's Palace of Pleasure, 1566... and became the foundation of various English poems and plays." The implicit claim that Painter is the source of the English versions is in error; it was not the earliest English text by a third of a century.In 1532, Wynkyn de Worde had published "Guystarde and Sygysmonde" (Erler, p. 35). The blurb to this read:
Here foloweth the amerous hystory of Gustarde and Sygysmonde
and of theyr dolorous deth by her father
newly trāslated out of laten in to englysshe by Wyllȳ Walter seruant to syr Henry Marney knyght chanuceler of (the) duchy of Lancastre
The ending tells us
Thus endeth the amorous hystory of Guystarde and Sygysmonde. Imprinted at London in Fletestrete [Fleet Street] at the sygne of the Sonne [Sign of the Sun] by Wynkyn de Worde. In the yere of our lorde .M.CCCCC.xxxij
(Erler, p. 149).
Very little is known of William Walter, according to Erler, p. 154, but he is believed to have translated the text not from Boccaccio but from the Italian version by Leonardo Bruni. Walter very likely worked a decade or more before his piece was published, since Henry Marney died in 1523.
What is certain is that Walter did not edit the piece for the press; that task was undertaken by Robert Copland, a printer who often worked with, and had probably been apprenticed to, de Worde. Copland added a 28-line prologue, a 21-line introduction, and 98 lines of miscellaneous interruptions. (Reprinted on pp. 149-154 of Erler, but trust me, they have all the poetic merit of those "young girls, take warning" interjections in American old-time recordings -- i. e. less than none.) Francis, pp. 15-16, notes many of these editions: "In presenting this story, Copland gets so carried away that he interrupts it at several points to interpolate verses of his own. He does not neglect the opportunity either for some moralising verses by way of introduction," comparing "folysshe Guystarde" and "unwyse Sysysmonde" to Pyramus and "young wanton Thysbe." "He then successively castigates Fortune, for allowing Tancred himself to be the discoverer of 'theyr secret besynesse', pays tribute to the 'consauncy in loue of Sygysmonde', and finally berates Tancred 'in executying tyranny'."
So much for how authors of the time felt about the story.
What is certain, and needs no Boccaccio to tell it, is that a man who got a nobleman's daughter pregnant could expect no mercy. These daughters were intended to cement marriage alliances, and anyone who got them pregnant reduced their value in the marriage market. The punishments could be savage. For instance, Prestwich, p. 109, notes that the French King Philip IV flayed alive the knights who had had affairs with his daughters. By that standard, the king in this song was arguably merciful.
The delivery of a murdered man's heart is also well-attested. Doherty, p. 187, quotes a letter stating that, after the murder of Edward II, his heart (and head) were delivered to his wife Isabella -- although, in this case, she wanted them as proof of his death. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: C269

Lady Dundee's Lament

DESCRIPTION: "I little thought that waefu' day I bade farewel to thee," that they were their last words, "an' we sud never meet again." He had told her not to mourn, telling her that his heart was given to king, country, and her. But he earned "a hero's death"
AUTHOR: Lady John Scott (Alicia Ann Spottiswoode) (source: Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: separation death mourning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 12, "Lady Dundee's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Gath012

Lady Dysie

See Lady Diamond [Child 269] (File: C269)

Lady Dysmond

See Lady Diamond [Child 269] (File: C269)

Lady Elgin, The

See Lost on the Lady Elgin (File: R692)

Lady Elspat [Child 247]

DESCRIPTION: Lady Elspat and Sweet William plan a tryst, but Elspat's brother's page reports to her mother. The mother takes the boy to court on a charge of robbery. The judge concludes that his only crime is being relatively poor, and frees William to wed Elspat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783/1799 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: courting trial reprieve
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 247, "Lady Elspat" (1 text, 2 tunes, but Bronson says the tunes are not proper to the text)
Bronson 247, "Lady Elspat" (2 versions)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 132-135 "Lady Elspat" (2 parallel texts plus a photo of the badly-transcribed tune; also a reconstructed tune on p. 270 and an alternate tune on p. 271)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 185-186, "Lady Elspat" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 86, "Lady Elspat" (1 text)
ST C247 (Partial)
Roud #4023
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial)" [Laws M10] (plot)
cf. "Mary Acklin (The Squire's Young Daughter)" [Laws M16] (plot)
File: C247

Lady Fair (I)

See The Suffolk Miracle [Child 272] (File: C272)

Lady Fair (II), A

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Lady Flower

See The Bold Soldier [Laws M27] (File: LM27)

Lady Franklin, The

See Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9] (File: LK09)

Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9] -- Part 01

DESCRIPTION: A sailor has a dream (. He hears Lady Franklin) telling of the loss of her husband, who disappeared in Baffin's Bay as he sought the Northwest Passage. He never returned, and is presumed dead, but Lady Franklin would give a great fortune to be certain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (Journal of the Morning Light); broadside versions probably date from the period 1850-1853
KEYWORDS: sailor wife death exploration Eskimo
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1845-1847 - Sir John Franklin's final expedition
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Britain(Scotland) Ireland US(NE)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Laws K9, "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream)"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 145-147, "Lady Franklin's Lament" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 158-159, "Franklin's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 154-156, "The Franklin Expedition" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H815, p. 103, "Franklin the Brave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 178-179, "Lady Franklin's Lament for Her Husband" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #86, p. 2, "Lady Franklin's Lament" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 16, "Lady Franklin's Lament" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #14, "Franklin's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune, with the text mostly made from broadsides)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 151, "The Franklin Expedition" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 65-66, "Franklin In Search of the North-West Passage" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 145, "Franklin and His Ship's Crew"; p. 146, "Franklin and His Bold Crew" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 97, "Franklin and His Bold Crew" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 112, "Lady Franklin's Lament for her Husband" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 68-69, "The Fate of Franklin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 672-673, "The Lady Franklin" (1 text)
DT 401, LADYFRAN* LADYFRN2 LADYFRN3
ADDITIONAL: "On Shanties," article in E(neas) S(weetland) Dallas, editor, _Once a Week_, New Series, Number 31, August 1, 1868 (published by Bradbury and Evans and available on Google Books), p. 93, "Lady Franklin's Lament" ("'Tis not long since, a ship of fame") (1 excerpt)
Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 155, "Sir J. Franklin And His Crews" (reproduction of a broadside page)
Roud #487
RECORDINGS:
Steve Gardham, "Lady Franklin's Lament" (Piotr-Archive #344, recorded 11/02/2022)
Pat Maher, "Franklin" (on NFMLeach)
Alphonse Sutton, "Franklin" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y2:005, "Lady Franklin's Lament for her Husband," unknown, 19C [there is a hand-written date of "1851" on the sheet, but this appears to be a later addition; the text itself says it has been seven years since Franklin sailed, making the year at least 1852]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Croppy Boy (I)" [Laws J14] (tune)
cf. "Callino Casturame (Colleen Og a Store; Cailin O Chois tSiure; Happy 'Tis, Thou Blind, for Thee)" (tune?)
cf. "McCaffery (McCassery)" (tune)
cf. "Bold Adventures of Captain Ross" (subject: the Northwest Passage)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lord Franklin
NOTES [281 words]: This song is the chief musical relic of one of the saddest events in the history of arctic exploration: The last failed attempt in the nineteenth century to sail the "Northwest Passage" from the Atlantic to the Pacific north of Canada.
Curiously, it was not a particularly popular subject in popular culture until recently (Woodman, p. xxi, notes an explosion of novels on the theme starting in 1974, plus a "Doctor Who" episode). Most of its popularity in the 1840s and 1850s lay in broadsides, but most of the results were terrible (for an example of just how bad they can be, see "A Ballad of Sir John Franklin," in Sandler, pp. 96-98). It appears that none of these products survived in tradition -- except this song, which has proved enduringly popular.
Unfortunately, the song ends in the middle of the story, with an unsolved mystery. Most books about the Franklin Expedition simply describe the quest for the Northwest Passage, Franklin's part in it -- and then the quest to discover what happened to Franklin. I'm going to try to do it from the standpoint of the song, telling the history of the quests for the passage, then discussing Franklin, then looking what the song has to say on the subject -- and only then talking of the search for and fate of Franklin. It's not a very coherent story this way, but it avoids "cheating." If you want a more orderly exposition, try one of the books listed in the bibliography (I'd recommend Delgado or Fleming-Barrow).
The bibliography below is partially annotated, to tell you which books cover which events. For the rest of the story, see "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9]" -- Part 02, Part 03, and Part 04. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LK09

Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9] -- Part 02

DESCRIPTION: Continuation of the notes to "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9]" [Laws K9]. -- Part 01. The account is continued in Part 03.
Last updated in version 6.7
NOTES [6639 words]: The quest for the Northwest Passage began because the sea trip from Europe to Asia was so long -- going eastward, it required ships to not only sail the length of Eurasia but, in the period before thfe opening of the Suez Canal, also south around the Cape of Good Hope. The westward route was also long, and required making the dreadful trip around Cape Horn, which is perpetually stormy. Mariners desperately wanted a shorter, safer route. For that reason, the Northwest Passage had been a goal of mariners since Martin Frobisher in the sixteenth century (McGhee, pp. 23fff.) -- but, at that time, the Little Ice Age almost certainly made it impossible.
As the climate warmed, and as ships improved, chances became better. There was actually a case of a ship apparently making it through from west to east, although no one aboard survived; the Octavius had been frozen in off Alaska in 1762, but was found off Greenland in 1775 (Hendrickson, pp. 166-167). Plus, despite centuries of failures, people became more willing to look. For most of the eighteenth century, apart from a naval expedition around 1740 (Williams-Delusion, pp. 62-108), the area of the Passage had been in the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company, a closed group with no willingness to spend money on speculations or on anything that might affect their business (Williams-Delusion, p. 49fff. Their employees at one time were given instructions to give no cooperation at all to Passage expeditions -- which, in practice, meant that they interfered with them; Williams-Delusion, pp. 142-143).
Then came Napoleon. Since it was only the Navy that kept the French from invading England, the Navy had to expand; it ended up roughly four times bigger in 1812 than it had been 25 years earlier. (This had dramatic side effects, such as the Nore and Spithead mutinies; see "Poor Parker" for background.)
Following the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy was dramatically reduced; some 90% of Navy officers were on "half pay" -- i.e. still on the books, but with no commands. In effect, they were in reserve -- and, often, going slowly bankrupt; Fleming-Barrow, pp. 2-3. The search for the Northwest Passage was in part an attempt to find something for them to do. With so many officers available, it is no surprise that many exploratory voyages, to all parts of the world, were ordered. Britain ruled the waves; now it wanted to know just what waves it ruled.
Some of these exploratory voyages were successful, but those to the Northwest Passage all failed, and most resulted in much privation and some death -- Cookman, pp. 221-222, examines eight Passage attempts between 1819 and 1836: Three under Parry, two under Franklin, one under John Ross, and two under Back. 15 men died out of a total force of about 450 embarked. His list is not comprehensive -- e.g. Williams-Delusion, pp. 18-32, documents the early eighteenth century expedition of James Knight, which was lost without any survivors from two ships and a crew numbering in dozens. (It is strange to note that no serious attempts were made to find Knight, even though the approximate site of his disappearance was known. Recent expeditions have discovered his ships and winter camp, but no records and almost no bodies; the best guess is that, like the Franklin expedition a century and a quarter later, Knight's men left their ships and vanished in the wilderness; Williams-Delusion, pp. 32-45.)
But most of these were relatively small attempts. Franklin's 1845 expedition was organized on a massive scale.
Someone compared the quest for the Northwest Passage to the 1960s Apollo lunar program. In terms of cost, the comparison is ridiculous, but in a way, it's accurate: The quest pushed the limits of nineteenth century technology. It is unfortunate that the Admiralty tried to hurry the Franklin expedition due to budget constraints. (Lambert, p. 145, also notes that an international agreement on magnetic cooperation ended at the end of 1845, so it was important to try to get the expedition done in that year. But I'm not convinced that is significant.) This meant that the officers had little time to train for their tasks, according to Lambert, p. 154. Franklin himself wasted much time in a political controversy over his previous appointment in Tasmania (Lambert, p. 159).
(The irony is that Woodman, p. 3, says that the Franklin Search was the largest manhunt in history and cost 760,000 pounds. A little more investment up front would surely have paid off!)
The comparison with NASA is instructive. NASA's lunar expeditions were preceded by every possible test -- three generations of manned hardware (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo), plus much detailed exploration (Ranger, Surveyor, Lunar Orbiter). Even so, there were disasters (Apollo 1) and near-disasters (Apollo 13). The Franklin expedition had no such preparations. No one tried to finish off the maps of the relevant area; no one tested the new equipment in Franklin's ships. The massive expedition thus became a massive disaster.
John Franklin, the leader of the expedition, was born on April 16, 1786; he joined the Royal Navy in 1801. His early career was distinguished; he fought as a junior officer at Copenhagen and Trafalgar -- in both cases, aboard heavily engaged ships, the Polyphemus at Copenhagen (Beardsley, p. 6-7) and aboard the Bellerophon, which would later bear Napoleon into exile, at Trafalgar (Beardsley, pp. 22-23, says that he was the signal midshipman who took down Nelson's "England expects every man" message); the noise was so great as to cause permanent damage to his hearing (Wilkinson, pp. 117-118; Beardsley, p. 26, adds that a quarter of Bellerophon's crew were casualties, including her captain. Franklin's behavior was highly praised, but it didn't earn him promotion, perhaps as a result). Although he came through Trafalgar unscathed, he would be wounded during an attack on New Orleans in the War of 1812 (Beardsley, p. 32).
This set the tone for his career -- whatever his faults, he was certainly brave enough (Brandt, p. 19, declares that "No other word but intrepid will do for him").
Franklin then became a noted explorer. In his late teens, as a midshipman, he helped chart portions of the south Pacific -- and faced a shipwreck and his first experience of starvation when the accompanying ship, rather than try to rescue the survivors, sailed off on its own (Beardsley, pp. 14-15). In 1818, as lieutenant in command of the of the Trent, he was part of David Buchan's failed push from Spitzbergen toward the North Pole, narrowly surviving the encroachments of the ice (Fleming-Barrow, pp. 53-55, speaks of a "hair-raising series of near disasters"). The next year, on foot rather than by ship, he explored the north coast of Canada between Point Turnaround and the Coppermine River -- an expedition that nearly caused his death, and resulted in charges of cannibalism and murder, though by men who were separated from Franklin at the time.
Berton, p. 70, accuses Franklin of "ignor[ing] common sense," but also admits that his orders were faulty and the mission funding was inadequate. Fleming-Barrow, p. 125, says more charitably that he was "ordered to hitch-hike through a war zone into a wilderness," being forced to beg assistance from the Hudson's Bay and North West Companies, which at this time were engaged in a small-scale war of raids; they had no time for a Royal Navy interloper. The supplies they made available were too few and, in at least one important instance, spoiled (Brant, p. 105).
Lambert, p. 31, also makes the point that "As a career navy officer Franklin had neither training for nor experience of overland travel." And Lambert, p. 33, adds that Franklin kept his men moving when they should have given up and died. Brant, p. 92, says, "[H]e was in fact a beggar, in no position to demand anything [of the companies]. And this rank amateur of the north was trying to do what only two other white men, Hearne and Mackenzie, had ever done, reach the Arctic Ocean across the barren lands, above the tree line, and come back alive."
It would not be the last time John Barrow, the Second Secretary of the Admiralty who dreamed up most of these projects (one of Britain's "first pure civil servants," according to Brandt, p. 41, for whom Point Barrow, Alaska is named; Savours, p. 39), sent Franklin on a mission that was not adequately prepared.
At least Franklin could learn (Lambert, p, 33, says he "never made the same mistake twice"). In 1825 he went on another expedition in northern Canada. This one charted the coastal region from the Coppermine River to the Mackenzie, and this time, his planning for the expedition was better; Fleming-Barrow, p. 173, says he allowed "little scope for failure." There were no casualties.
This expedition also showed how good Franklin was at charming people; at one time he had in his camp Englishmen, Gaelic-speaking Scots, Canadians, Inuit, and four different tribes of non-Inuit Indians, but there were no fights (Savours, p. 88). Almost the only problem was a failure of two of their three chronometers (Savours, p. 89), making some of their maps ever so slightly inaccurate, but hardly Franklin's fault!
He earned real scientific recognition as a result, especially for the magnetic data he gathered. (Brant, p. 37, notes that at the beginning of his career, no one even knew for certainty that there was only one north magnetic pole!) He was not really a scientist, in that he did not analyze his data or try to construct models to explain it. But Lambert, p. 35, notes that he was known and respected by such men as Michael Faraday, Charles Lyell (the geologist whose research showed that the earth was old, giving Charles Darwin the time he needed for evolution to work), and John Herschel (the son of the discoverer of Neptune). He would later supply substantial aid to the great naturalist Joseph Hooker while both were in Tasmania (Lambert, pp. 131-132; Alexander, p. 109, says Hooker attributed this to Jane Franklin).
The period after the second arctic expedition was, in many ways, the highlight of his career. Never again would he have such a happy result while on duty. Franklin was knighted for his work (Fleming-Barrow, p. 175; Savours, p. 102, says this happened in 1829. We should note that the song's title "Lord Franklin" is not correct; he was neither an admiral nor a peer. His highest title was "Sir John Franklin," and his wife was Lady Franklin -- not Lady Jane Franklin). Nor was he ever to achieve the rank of admiral; that depended on when older admirals retired, and by the time a slot opened in 1852 (Lambert, pp. 46, 279), Franklin was dead -- although no one knew it at the time.
Incidentally, the 1825 expedition split into two smaller parties once it reached the coast, with Franklin going west and the other party going east. One of Franklin's most important subordinates in the eastern group, Dr. John Richardson, apparently felt that they explored enough coast to have mapped the Northwest Passage (Savours, p. 99). This was almost true; the upper coast of Canada was mapped -- except for the Boothia Peninsula and the water route between it and Victoria Island. It could be said with fair confidence that there was a water route; between what James Clark Ross, Parry, and Richardson had found, that much seemed certain. But that did not show how a ship could travel it. So Richardson (properly, to my mind) was not given the reward for finding the passage.
Although Franklin's career seemed jinxed by this time, he was very lucky in love: His two wives were both beautiful, forthright, and highly intelligent. (Neatby, p. 57, makes the interesting comment that "Both his first and second brides found themselves in the role, very unusual for a wife, of having to curb rather than stimulate the religious fervour of the male half of the household"; Franklin had an evangelistic temperament.) His first, Eleanor Ann Porden, gave him his only child, a daughter, but died of tuberculosis six days after he set out on the second arctic expedition. Moss, p. 15, thinks it an unhappy marriage, and Brandt, pp. 143-145, notes that their correspondence was rather stiff and shows signs of disagreement -- but much of this seems to be a case of conforming to the conventions of the time. Whatever it was like, it left him a widower with a very young daughter.
Fortunately for him (although perhaps not for his daughter), he had another string for his bow. On his return, he married the former Jane Griffin in 1828 (Savours, p. 167). He had already named a spot in Canada "Griffin Point," according to Brandt, p. 231, and called on her family very soon after he returned from that trip. Sadly, we know little about their courtship; he had little to say about it, and she (or someone) destroyed her account of their meeting and some later records as well (McGooganFranklin, p. 57).
Lady Jane Griffin Franklin, 1791-1875, would prove one of the most determined women of the nineteenth century. The second daughter of a wealthy silk and gold merchant (Brandt, p. 232), she was beautiful if short, and reportedly kept her looks into her thirties. She was also well-educated, especially for a woman of the period, and loved to travel even before she met Franklin (Brandt, p. 232-233). Alexander, p. viii, declares that "From an early age she wanted to live life to the full, doing and seeing everything she could. She never turned down an opportunity, whether it was to climb a mountain, spear a shark, dally with a charming man, or... investigate a coal mine -- even if it meant being wet, muddy, bent double and worn out. Probably the most travelled woman of her time, she made long, adventurous trips to every continent except Antarctica. The range of her activities in her seven years in Australia was unique, from starting a scientific society to building a Greek temple in the buch and founding an agricultural settlement."
In school, she excelled at reading, French, and history, was less capable in mathematics, and disliked that staple of the era, sewing (Alexander, p. 3). Alexander thinks Jane, who lost her mother at a young age, was a tomboy; I wonder if she wasn't autistic (note that I do not consider autism a handicap; it is simply a difference).
It has been said that Franklin's wives were smarter than he was. Very likely true -- but at least he was a man enough to let them be the brilliant women they were. (McGooganFranklin, p. 68, makes the interesting observation that, at a time when men were usually and by default given absolute control of their wives' dowry, even if they died childless, Franklin signed an agreement with Eleanor Porden's father, and apparently had an informal understanding with Jane Franklin's father, letting his wives control their money -- part of the reason for Eleanor Franklin's dispute with her stepmother, no doubt.) The fact that Jane Griffin accepted his proposal is most intriguing, given that she had rejected many earlier suitors (Alexander, pp. 10-11; Brandt, p. 231; McGooganFranklin, p. 38, counts at least six). It helped his finances very much, since she brought some ten thousand pounds to the marriage (Brandt, p. 233).
It was one of several signs of his kindness and generosity: "He was sympathetic and unselfish. Some other Arctic captains of the period gave offense by trying to take credit for scientific work done by their junior officers. Franklin held that officers whose reputation was established should, as much as possible, withdraw in favor of younger men who had yet to make their way" (Neatby, p. 57, who points out, e.g., that Franklin gave full credit to a younger colleague for meteorological work which in fact had been done by both Franklin and his junior officer).
Today, Lady Franklin is known mostly for her quest for her husband, but if things had turned out differently, or if she had lived a century or so later, things might have been very different: She wanted to learn, study, and work; Berton, p. 138, sourly remarked on her room in Tasmania that it was "'more like a museum or menagerie than the boudoir of a lady,' being cluttered with stuffed birds, aboriginal weapons, geological specimens, and fossils." She also travelled to the Middle East, and even learned some Arabic -- studying it while in company with a much younger missionary but without her husband! At least once, someone thought they must be married because they were so close (Alexander, p. 42; McGooganFranklin, pp. 122-125 notes that other Europeans definitely looked askance at that). I can't help but think, had she been born in the twentieth century, she would have made a good Education Secretary -- but it's easy to see why she was regarded as scandalous at the time.
(Franklin also inspired real loyalty from his subordinates. John Hepburn, who had served with him as early as 1818, and also lived through the disastrous first land expedition, still cared for his commander enough to volunteer, when in his early sixties, for one of the Franklin searches; Savours, p. 241.)
Curiously, the Franklins voluntarily spent much time apart early in their marriage (Alexander, p. 36). It was only after his disappearance that Lady Franklin became fanatical about his fate.
Having made those three exploratory voyages, Franklin went back to more normal sea duties for about a decade, serving for a time in the Mediterranean and earning the famous Franklin Medal from William IV for services done on behalf of the Greek government (Brandt, pp. 234-236. While he was at it, he saw many Greek historical sites -- and sneered at Lord Elgin's desecration of the Parthenon).
After a few years of frequent separation, in which Lady Franklin added extensively to her diaries and Franklin added slightly to his resume, they were left looking for another job for him. Explorers were not wanted at the time, and the navy still had lots of excess officers. It took him a while before he was given an offer he thought worthwhile -- and it was one for which he really wasn't competent. Having turned down a job as lieutenant governor of Antigua (Alexander, p. 50), Franklin was soon after offered the same post in Van Diemen's land (now Tasmania) -- which, despite the title, made him the on-the-scene head of state (Beardsley, pp. 150-151). He would be only the second governor in the penal colony's history (Beardsley, p. 155). The Franklins set out in August 1836 (Alexander, p. 51).
From 1837-1843 Franklin served as governor of Van Diemen's Land, bringing much relief after the dreadful leadership of George Arthur -- Franklin, in a brutal age, was gentle enough that he trembled when seamen were flogged (Beardsley, p. 148n.), and one of his subordinates on one of the Canadian expeditions told of him refusing to kill a mosquito that landed on him (Fleming-Barrow, p. 129. Lambert, p. 47, notes that when he served in the Mediterranean, his ship was known as "Franklin's Paradise" because he so rarely resorted to the lash. While there, he did some fossil digging and visited Mycenae and other classical sites.) HIs own wife recorded, "Sir John's sensitiveness is beyond conception" (McGooganFranklin, p. 184).
Franklin's goal, according to Lambert, pp. 98-103, was to build a civil society out of Tasmania's convict system, and expected transportation to stop. (Transportation to Australia proper was stopped at this time -- but the Tasmanian officialdom was getting rich off convicts and made sure Franklin's request to halt forced migrations was set aside. Ironically, they used some of Lady Franklin's arguments against transportation to show why it should continue; McGooganFranklin, pp. 226-227.) Franklin even tried to learn about the few surviving Tasmanian natives, though it was far too late to help them. (This makes an interesting contrast to his contempt for the voyageurs he hired for his first arctic expedition, described on pp. 140-141 of Brandt. Perhaps he suffered a bit of arctic madness -- a topic to be discussed more below.)
As part of his scientific work, Franklin helped rescue the expedition of Dumont d'Urville (Lambert, p. 116); if the expedition is now remembered mostly for being mentioned in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, it was a big deal at the time. He also founded what would become the Royal Society of Tasmania, attempted to found a university (Lambert, p. 111, although the school failed once he left), and made some efforts to treat prisoners humanely (Wilkinson, p. 128; Cookman, pp. 26-27).
Frankly, he was just what the colony needed -- except that he didn't have the deviousness to outmaneuver the local officials. Brandt, p. 293, suggests that as a naval officer he was used to being obeyed, not to negotiating with his subordinates. And his civilized attitude was resented by the local establishment; they quarreled with him constantly, and still more with Lady Jane Franklin. Lambert, p. 99, thinks that Jane Franklin's actions were in part due to Franklin's own deafness; she talked a lot to make sure that he knew what was going on. Alexander, p. 177, implies that Jane meddled because Franklin was in over his head. Either way, her role made a bad impression -- e.g. one of his senior subordinates griped about the "petticoat influence."
MSmith, p. 86-87, sums up Franklin's time in Tasmania this way: "Van Diemen's Land was an unpleasant, half-forgotten penal colony on the fringe of the Empire. Over 17,000 of the island's population of 42,000 were shackled convicts and many of the free citizens were former prisoners.... To Franklin and his feisty, strong-willed wife, Lady Jane Franklin, it was a hellhole. To round things off, almost everyone in the suffocating, reactionary frontier community disliked the Franklins, who were regarded as outsiders and dangerous liberals. Lady Franklin, an assured, unconventional woman in her late forties, simply grated... They found her aggressive and disconcertingly radical, especially when she defied convention by straying into unwelcome areas, such as her attempts to improve the island's mediocre schools....
"John Franklin was a square peg in a round hole. He was a genial and inoffensive man who had very little in common with the hostile colonialists or the wretched convicts and often found himself at the mercy of the wily civil servants in the Colonial Office." Indeed, Lambert, p. 137 etc., reports that they schemed directly against him to feather their own nests. Ironically, Franklin's predecessor, George Arthur, who had largely encouraged their deeds, ended up losing a lot of money due to their behavior and came to shun them (Lambert, p. 138).
Alexander, p. 172, observes that George Arthur had controlled the factions under him with an iron hand. Franklin, much gentler, was appreciated by the ordinary citizens, but he simply couldn't control the power centers in the hierarchy. Even Jane Franklin thought he wasn't tough enough for the job (Alexander, p. 173) -- although Jane Franklin's answer to almost everything seems to have been "more punishment." Genius though she was, she was also quite brutal.
The politics of all this were so complex that after reading two different accounts of it I still couldn't make sense of it, but local officials headed to London with complaints, and circulated at least one scurrilous, only partly true private book insulting the Franklins (McGooganFranklin, pp. 254-256), but it is certain that the local power brokers went over his head to the Colonial Office. Franklin eventually was recalled from Tasmania in mild disgrace (many of the lies about him had been printed in English papers; McGooganFranklin, p. 260. He wasn't even told that a new governor was being sent until half a day before the new governor occupied the governor's mansion; Alexander, p. 199). Franklin was so irked by what happened that he eventually wrote a 157 page book about it, which he had privately published and distributed (Alexander, p. 204; Beardsley, pp. 181-182; McGooganFranklin, p. 268, adds that Lady Franklin didn't want him to publish but ghost wrote it when he insisted).
It is reported that thousands of non-government officials showed up to cheer him off; Brandt, p. 294. Indeed, Alexander says that it was "Hobart's largest crowd so far." Lambert, p. 139, says that his tenure would later be recalled as "the golden days of Tasmania." The people of Tasmania would later contribute 1700 pounds to the search for Franklin; Berton, p. 140. This out of a relatively impoverished free population numbered in the tens of thousands. As a result, the Tasmania Islands in the Arctic are named for the Tasmanian people; Savours, p. 168. Later, the government erected a statue to him -- the only governor so honored, according to Lambert, p. 295. Clearly the people appreciated him; it was the officialdom that didn't. But, when Franklin got back to England, he again needed a job.
And, after years of ignoring the Arctic, the Royal Navy was getting interested again. It was clear the Passage would never be commercially useful with nineteenth century ships -- but Admiralty Second Secretary Barrow, who had sent out all those other missions of exploration, was in his eighties, and knew he wouldn't be around much longer; he wanted the Passage to finish off his career.
Williams-Labyrinth, p. 167, compares Barrow's attitude to that of the First World War generals who, in the face of all evidence, somehow thought that "one more push" would break the enemy's lines. Even Franklin, whose optimism was almost limitless, seems to have thought Barrow's dreams of open water were hopelessly optimistic (Williams-Labyrinth, p. 175, quotes a note of Franklin's that seems to say he doesn't believe in open sea even though Barrow "will have it").
(How hard has it been to make it through the passage? Cookman, p. 197, counted only seven successful trips through the passage as of 2000 -- though Savours, pp. 326-328, has a list of 49 passages from 1906 to 1990, with the rate increasing steadily over the years. But most of these are icebreakers or small boats. It appears, until around 2000, the passage was *still* not commercially viable -- MacInnis-Land, p. 121, notes that in his first two years of hunting for the Breadalbane, there were only seven days of suitable weather, and Edinger, pp. 263-264, describes the attempt of the icebreaker/tanker Manhattan, which made it through the passage carrying a symbolic barrel of oil but sustained heavy damage in the process; the attempt was not repeated.)
(That has changed even in the years since this article was first written, however, due to global warming; a few years ago I heard a report of a group of people canoeing the Northwest Passage in a single year. Williams-Delusion, p. xix, notes that the St Roch II in 2000 made it through the passage in a month, without ever being halted by ice! And StarTrib reports that, in 2009, the Northeast Passage was first navigated commercially. The Northeast Passage is much more open than the Northwest Passage, so it is easier find a path, but it is -- or used to be -- almost as icy. Climate change has made it much more accessible.)
(Also, the difficulty of the Northwest Passage does not mean that there is no traffic up there; oil has been discovered in the Arctic Archipelago, so ships are frequently going in and out, and there are several icebreakers on regular arctic duty. It's just that they don't take the Passage; they go out the same way they came in.)
Once the Passage expedition was chartered -- and thrown together hastily to get it on the present budget -- someone had to run it. Usually a commander was lined up before an expedition was organized. Not this time.
There was no question about who the first choice would have been (Brandt, p. 291): Captain James Clark Ross was the greatest Arctic explorer then alive. He had served on Passage expeditions with his uncle John Ross and with William Edward Parry; he had discovered the North Magnetic Pole, and he was just back from the most successful Antarctic expedition ever made. There was no man alive who knew more about arctic exploration.
But he ruled himself out. Part of the reason was that he had not fully recovered from the Antarctic expedition; in addition, he had said he had promised his wife and father-in-law that the southern expedition would be his last. (Fleming-Barrow, p. 351; Lambert, p. 145; MSmith, pp. 76, 137-138).
The next choice would be Ross's former commander William Edward Parry, whose 1819 Passage attempt had come closer to success than any before or since (Delgado, pp. 58-64), and who had followed it with two other, less successful attempts at the Passage and an 1827 attempt at the North Pole which failed but which set a new "Farthest North" record that would stand for fifty years (Berton, p. 637). But Parry was now 54 and not interested (MSmith, p. 138).
With those two out of the running, there was no really obvious choice left. The leaders in Arctic experience were Franklin and Captain F.R.M. Crozier; each had drawbacks. Crozier had less seniority; though an intelligent self-made man, had never held an independent command. And, somehow, he never seemed to gain any recognition or fame (MSmith, p. 132).
To be sure, his paper credentials were excellent. Born in Banbridge, Ireland (MSmith, pp. 6-7), he was of an Ulster Presbyterian family (the family home, now known as Crozier House, still stands). He was born around September 17, 1796. His family joined the (Anglican) Church of Ireland in the aftermath of the 1798 rebellion (MSmith, p. 10).
Francis himself had joined the navy in 1810, at the age of 13 -- an unusual choice, since most of the other members of his family were solicitors. He served as a midshipman on the Fury during Edward Parry's 1821 expedition to Hudson Bay, where he became friends with his future commander, James Clark Ross (MSmith, p. 29). He was also part of Parry's 1824 Passage expedition which ended in the loss of H.M.S. Fury (MSmith, p. 51). He was made lieutenant in 1826, and in that capacity he joined Parry's 1827 North Pole quest, and commanded Hecla while Parry was away trying (and failing miserably) to sledge across the polar ice (MSmith, p. 59).
But then -- nothing. Crozier was a lieutenant on half-pay (i.e. without an actual posting) for most of the next seven years (MSmith, pp. 66-67), though he did briefly serve on an expedition sent to rescue some whalers (MSmith, pp. 71-73); if nothing else, that earned him a promotion to Commander (MSmith, p. 74). In 1839, James Clark Ross asked him to be second-in-command of the expedition he was taking to the Antarctic, and it was Crozier who did most of the work of organizing this highly successful expedition (MSmith, p. 78). But, of course, the credit went mostly to Ross.
It was probably small consolation to be elected a member of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1827 (MSmith, p. 67). Crozier has a lunar crater named after him, close to the Mare Fecundatis, between it and the Mare Nectaris, close to Columbo Crater. It's a small crater, though, barely visible on most maps. Nor is it located anywhere near either pole, unlike Amundsen Crater (which is right at the South Pole) or Scott Crater (and why Scott should get a bigger crater than Crozier is beyond me, except that he had a great P.R. machine) or Nansen crater near the North Lunar Pole. In time, he even was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society -- a major tribute to his scientific work (MSmith, p. 145), which apparently included making improvements to the instrument known as a dipping needle (Beardsley, p. 192).
But he seems to have lacked self-confidence (MSmith, p. 29). And -- he was a victim of unrequited love. His history in that regard was strange and sad. MSmith, pp. 75-76, tells of hints that he was attracted to the poetess Jean Ingelow (1820-1897), very well known in her time but now remembered, if at all, only for "High Tide on the Coast of Lancashire" and perhaps "Seven Times One." The former (Ingelow, p.111) is in a stilted, slightly archaizing dialect, apparently referring to a disaster in 1571; the latter (Ingelow, p. 126) is a child's self-description at age seven -- with the curious lines, "I am old, so old, I can write a letter; My birthday lessons are done; The lambs play always, they know no better; They are only one times one." That perhaps hints at a fear of premature age.... It is now in the index (as "Seven Times One (The Song of Seven)"); Alice Kane remembered it from her girlhood.
Ingelow was less than half Crozier's age at the time they met, and nothing ever came of it -- but, strangely enough, she would never marry, and some of her poetry refers to loving a sailor lost at sea (e.g. "A Sea Song," Ingelow, p. 141, calls, "Come over, come home, Through the salt foam, My sailor, my sailor boy..."). An 1869 tale, "Mopsa the Fairy," tells of a boy who meets Mopsa, a young fairy, then watches "as she grows until she is older than he." They are then forced to part (Zipes, p. 247). This again sounds a bit like a tale of a lost sailor.
It wasn't Crozier's last odd romantic attachment. His may have been one of the strangest love triangles of all time. The woman he had fallen in love with was Sophia Cracroft, Franklin's niece (Cookman, p. 54; Savours, p. 177; MSmith, pp. 87-88, says she was the daughter of Franklin's younger sister Isabella and Thomas Cracroft, and was known as "Sophy." Her father died in 1824, when she was nine, and Franklin, and later Jane Franklin, watched over her from that time.).
Sophy Cracroft, after she grew up, served as a general assistant to Lady Jane Franklin. She met Crozier in Van Diemen's Land, when Franklin was Governor there; Crozier and James Clark Ross twice stopped there during their Antarctic voyage. Crozier promptly fell in love with her. Sophy, who apparently was quite flirtatious, was not interested at all in Crozier, calling him "a horrid radical and an indifferent speller" (! -- MSmith, p. 89).
Cracroft apparently had many suitors on her line, none of whom interested her, because she wanted James Clark Ross (Alexander, p. 166; McGooganFranklin, p. 209; the whole thing sounds like a bad soap opera). Smith seems to think Crozier proposed to her at least twice, once while in Hobart (MSmith, p. 95) and once in 1844 after he and she had returned to England (MSmith, p. 133); on the latter occasion, she reportedly told him that she would not be a captain's wife, and she turned down another naval officer, Owen Stanley, as well (Alexander, p. 205). (This turned out not to be smart, since eventually the men stopped calling and she ended up working for Jane Franklin until Jane died; Alexander, pp. 211-212. One clairvoyant, consulted during the Franklin search, told Cracroft that one of the ship captains was always longing for her; Alexander, p. 216, thinks that this means that Crozier's feelings were widely known and Cracroft had regrets, and I grant that the first of these seems likely.)
Crozier apparently didn't hold her feelings against Ross (they continued to serve well together, and Crozier kept writing to Ross after the expedition ended -- indeed, Crozier lived with Ross and his wife in the last month before the Passage expedition; MSmith, p. 152), nor seemingly against Franklin, but he continued to carry a torch for her. (Interestingly, Cracroft never did marry. She stayed with Jane Franklin to the end of the former's life, and would take possession of her papers after her death. Cracroft, who by the end was almost Jane's shadow, was also the single largest beneficiary of Jane's will, with Jane leaving a relatively limited amount to her stepdaughter's family; McGooganFranklin, p 417. McGooganFranklin, p. 421, shows Sophy taking care of Jane's agenda to commemorate Leopold McClintock even after Jane's death.) In the course of the Antarctic expedition, Crozier was finally promoted to Captain (MSmith, p. 119). Crozier and Ross also selected the site of the future Port Stanley, the only significant town in the Falkland Islands (MSmith, p. 122).
All this seems to have left Crozier depressed. Jane Franklin and Ross both worried about him (MSmith, p. 134). He ended up taking a leave of absence from the Navy to try to get his feelings straightened out (MSmith, p. 135). When the possibility of the Passage expedition came up, he declared "I am not equal to the hardship" (MSmith, p. 140), and turned down the command (Fleming-Barrow, p. 366).
His decision to turn down the command may not really have been his choice; as a self-educated Ulster Presbyterian, he had no political clout, and would likely have been rejected anyway by political hacks (Sandler, p. 72); he would, as we shall see, accompany the party as second-in-command.
MSmith, p. 141, calls his acceptance of the post "the worst of all decisions," but I can't see why this is so; Crozier's depression would have made him a poor commander -- and it sounds as if it got worse as the expedition went along; his last letter, written to the Rosses, declares he is "sadly lonely"; he sounds like a man on the brink of a breakdown; it is quoted on MSmith, pp. 162-163 and on pp. 276-277 of Williams-Labyrinth. He praises Franklin's kindness but desperately misses James Clark Ross. But he had shown his skill as an executive officer.
John Franklin, though more willing to command the Passage expedition, and more socially acceptable (Moss, p. 137, calls him "securely part of the establishment," which he was not -- hence his problems getting a job! -- but he was an establishment type), had a very different, and probably worse, set of drawbacks. He was elderly, very overweight, not a strong physical specimen (Sandler, p. 32, says that he had had circulation problems even when in his twenties, although Brandt, p. 234, says that he did not start putting on weight until his enforced idleness after his marriage. But he ended up weighing over 200 pounds despite being only five feet, six inches tall.), and though he had long before explored northern Canada, he had not been part of any previous naval expedition to the Passage.
But he wanted the job. Most naval officers his age were ready to retire (he said himself that "the Admiralty might be 'disposed to take my age and Crozier's [the latter was 51] together and reckon is a somewhat heavy amount"; Williams-Labyrinth, p. 170), but he wanted to redeem his reputation (Brandt, p. 292). Told he was too old, he admitted that he was too feeble for a walking edition, but pointed out that it he was sound enough to walk the decks of a ship (Brandt, p. 300).
There was apparently another candidate, one John Lort Stokes (Battersby, p. 155). But he had no arctic credentials. Franklin was the only Arctic veteran available, so he was appointed to command even though many simply didn't think him up to the task (Beattie, p. 36; Fleming-Barrow, pp. 366-368; on the other hand, Lambert, p. 60, thinks he was "the best man for the job").
Franklin's last expedition was mounted in 1845, with the explorer acting as commodore commanding two ships (the reinforced bomb ships H.M.S. Erebus and H.M.S. Terror). Not a single man ever returned (MSmith, p. 164). It has been argued that they must have found the Northwest Passage. But it is certain they could not travel it. Their fate would not be learned for many years, and even now, much about it is unknown.
By the late 1840s, the world was growing very concerned about the Expedition. They had been given supplies for three years -- enough that they would probably last four. (When they set out, the ships had been so full that even Franklin's cabin had been filled with canned goods; Lambert, p. 162) But that time was about up, and nothing had been heard. A vast effort was mounted to try to learn the expedition's fate.
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LK09A

Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9] -- Part 03

DESCRIPTION: Continuation of the notes to "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9]" [Laws K9]. -- Part 02. The account is concluded in Part 04.
Last updated in version 6.7
NOTES [8189 words]: Looking at the fuller versions of this song, including the Murray broadside and the 1861 Morning Light text printed by Huntington (which says "It is seven long years" since Franklin set sail), we observe that the texts detail rescue attempts but do not recount the fate of Franklin's crew. I think it nearly certain that the piece originated in this period -- probably in broadsides of 1850-1851, when almost nothing was known and before it became clear that McClintock and Rae and McClure and Collinson, not Austin and Ross and Grinnell, were the most important of the searchers. Additional evidence comes from the fact that no version of the song seems to mention Captain William Kennedy, who seems to have been Jane's favorite (McGooganFranklin, pp. 306-311); despite an extreme lack of sea experience, he led expeditions for her in 1851-1852 and 1853 (Alexander, p. 215) but not in 1850 or earlier.
It is possible that the Murray broadside is the original of the piece; it looks like a partial adaption of another lost-sailor song (in it, Lady Franklin is seen wandering by the Humber looking for her husband!). Nearly every other version, though, is shorter and frankly better; I suspect that there is at least one other deliberate recension standing between the Murray text and the large majority of traditional versions.
This song is surprisingly accurate in its details (another indication that it is contemporary), though later texts have mangled some names badly -- e.g. I can't imagine who captains Hogg(s) and Winslow might be (Mirsky, pp. 322-324, lists all Franklin search parties; neither name is mentioned, nor anything that sounds similar). Some examples of correct references in one or another text:
% "I dreamed a dream, yes I thought it true" (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongsA, B; Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick; Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumbermanI, II; Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong; Greig/DuncanA; Greig/DuncanB; Henry; Huntington; Murray; VaughanW; Lane/Gosbee; Cohen "I had a dream I hope it's not true"): The idea of a sailor seeing Franklin in a dream is not just fiction; one W. Parker Snow had dreamed of finding Franklin near the North Magnetic Pole (which was about right; the Pole at that time was on the western side of the Boothia Peninsula, the expedition passed quite close to it shortly before Franklin's death. Had rescuers gone straight there at the first opportunity, they might have rescued some of his men, would almost certainly have learned his fate sooner, and might even have saved one of the ships. To be sure, it didn't take much psychic ability to guess he was there, since magnetic exploration was one of the expedition's goals; Lambert, p. 142).
Parker's dreams seem to have arisen in his youth as the result of a head injury (Watson, p. 110) -- in other words, it was psychosis, not psychic powers. He had paid a high price for them, too. In his time in the Navy, he had been savagely punished in a way reminiscent of "Captain James (The Captain's Apprentice)." He had bad eyesight, difficulties in speech, and went into fugues -- presumably additional effects of his early beating.
(There were a lot of funny coincidences like this to the tale. When James Clark Ross explored the region he called Prince William Land, he named two capes he could see in the distance "Cape Franklin" and "Cape Jane Franklin." It was near those capes that the Franklin expedition was trapped, and that Franklin died.)
Snow, who had support from Lady Franklin, joined one of the searches as a result of his dream (Berton, p. 174, etc.; Watson, p. 111), though he was of no other significance to the search for Franklin -- when he wanted to explore the region where Franklin died, his commander refused (Watson, pp. 118-119). He later ended up having a major row with the later explorer Charles Francis Hall about a book they both wrote, but that is another story (Sandler, p. 269; Berton, p. 370).
Lady Jane Franklin, to her discredit, tried consulting spiritualists to seek her husband (MSmith, pp. 203-205), starting with one Ellen Dawson (Brandt, p. 323). Dawson seems to have pointed to the right place in the Arctic, and to have correctly stated that there were portraits of two women (Victoria and Lady Franklin) in Franklin's cabin -- but nothing came of it. And Dawson also said Franklin was alive when he had been dead for several years (Brandt, p. 323. Watson, pp. 95-98, has details of what this Dawson said -- and it frankly sounds like the usual case of the medium pulling information out of the client and making it sound like psychic revelations).
Lady Jane consulted a couple of other spiritualists, apparently believing at least one (Watson, pp. 99-101), and another turned up later claiming to have had accurate visions but not revealing them until after the details of the expedition's loss had been published (Brandt, p. 324). In fact, the claim used place names that hadn't even been awarded yet!
In 1998, a fellow named B. J. Rule, who said he was a descendent of Franklin, published a book in which he claimed Franklin came to him by various spiritual means to tell his story. I haven't seen this book; no doubt it explains why Franklin couldn't be bothered to visit any else in spirit in the hundred and fifty years he had been dead.
There is a yet a fourth spiritual link in the Franklin story, making you wonder how anyone could call this an enlightened period: Elisha Kent Kane, who tried to reach the North Pole while pretending to search for Franklin, was involved with a "spiritualist" named Margaret Fox; her ability as a "spirit rapper," according to Berton, p. 237, was "the mould from which all future mediums were fashioned." Berton's claims that no one tried to communicate with the dead are patently false (note that Saul is reported to have brought up the shade of the Prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel 28!) but Fox perhaps did found the modern industry of making a *profession* of lying to fools stupid enough to listen to them. Supposedly Kane tried to get her out of this business, but still, he was attracted to her.
% "In Baffin's Bay where the whale fish blow..." (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongsB; Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumbermanII; Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong; Greig/DuncanB; Henry; Huntington; Murray; VaughanW; Colcord "...where the right whale blows"; Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumbermanI, Lane/Gosbee "...where the cold wind blows"; Cohen "where the white whale blows"): The Northwest Passage does begin from Baffin Bay -- up the Davis Strait, into the Bay, through Lancaster Sound (which separates Baffin and Devon Islands) and Barrow Strait (between Somerset Island on the south and Devon and Cornwallis Islands on the north), with several alternatives from there (the straight path is through Viscount Melville Sound and McClure Strait, but these are almost always blocked by ice (after Parry was blocked by ice in the 1820s, no one even tried McClure Strait until the Manhattan in the 1960s -- Keating, p. 109 -- and even that ship and its icebreakers eventually gave up); the best route for small boats is south through Peel Sound, passing to the east of Prince of Wales and King William Islands, and then west along the north coast of the Canadian mainland). On July 28, 1845, in Baffin Bay, the Franklin Expedition was seen for the last time by Europeans; they met the whalers Enterprise and Prince of Wales before heading into Lancaster Sound.
(Whalers, we should add, did most of the original exploring of these northern regions; indeed, it was the report of a whaler, William Scoresby, that the ice was melting in the north, that helped encourage the British voyages of exploration after the Napoleonic Wars; see Berton, pp. 24-26. Whales, and hence whalers, are common in far northern and southern latitudes, because that's where the food is -- cold water holds more dissolved oxygen than warm.)
% "a ship of fame" (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongsA, B; Huntington; Lane/Gosbee; Cohen "this ship of fame")/"Two ships of fame" (Greig/DuncanB; Murray; VaughanW)/"Three ships of fame" (Henry)/"Those ships of fame" (Colcord): Franklin's expedition of course consisted only of two ships, Erebus and Terror, but they had initially had the supply ship Barretto Junior along; it turned back before they went on the ice. In addition, H.M.S. Rattler, famous for being an early screw steamer, accompanied them as they left England; Cookman, p. 74. Some versions say he had only two ships anyway.
It is ironic to note that the skipper of the Barretto Junior was among the first to call for a rescue expedition (Lambert, p. 182), but the mere fact that he had been the last to talk to Franklin at length carried no weight at all; most sources don't even mention his concerns.
The two ships that went to the ice were indeed famous, given their Antarctic adventures with James Clark Ross; Mt. Erebus and Mt. Terror in Antarctica are named for them. Terror also participated in the bombardment of Fort McHenry that gave rise to "The Star-Spangled Banner"; as a bomb ship, she would have been responsible for at least some of the "bombs bursting in air." Since Terror had been part of George Back's arctic expedition of 1836, and both had been to the Antarctic with James Clark Ross, they were already adapted for arctic service, and were selected because they would need relatively little modification.
Indeed, according to Lambert, p. 134, the Franklin expedition to the passage was intended as a complement to the Ross expedition, involving a quick visit to the north magnetic pole to go with Ross's mapping of the southern pole; the idea (Lambert, p. 142) was to take measurements with more accurate data than Ross had had at the time of his earlier visit to the northern pole. Terrestrial magnetism at this time was a science of observation, not experiment (Brandt, p. 285, quotes the astronomer John Herschel on this point); the theorists desperately wanted more data. The expedition was also interested in biology; Franklin told his subordinate FitzJames that they should study "everything from a flea to a whale" (Beardsly, p. 200).
But this is where 1840s technology became a problem. Bombs were immensely strong; no ships in use were better designed to withstand the pressure of the ice; they had been used for exploration as early as Middleton's expedition a century earlier (Williams-Delusion, pp. 62-64; Williams-Labyrinth, p. 101).
But bombs -- tubby, heavy, low-riding vessels -- were probably the slowest class of ships in the navy, and the modifications for Arctic service, which added to their weight and put them lower in the water, made them slower still. Almost painfully slow. Terror was particularly bad (during the Antarctic expedition, Ross in Erebus often had to shorten sail to let Crozier's ship catch up; MSmith, p. 84). Terror even before her refit was capable of only nine knots before the wind and five when close-hauled (Cookman, p. 74). Those figures probably fell by a third as refitted for arctic service.
It was hoped that steam might provide the answer -- Franklin himself said that the benefits of steam were "incalculable" (Williams-Labyrinth, p. 268). The two ships had revolutionary engines -- removable screw propellers powered by locomotive engines -- but the supply of coal was finite (only enough for twelve days' steaming, according to Hutchinson, p. 56) and could not be replaced, and the engines developed only a few dozen horsepower anyway. Ideally, they didn't even want to leave the screws in place, as they slowed the ships. (Fortunately, they could be removed from inside the ship -- no diving needed!) This was the result of Barrow's hurrying the expedition along; the Admiralty had little time to fit engines more suited to the actual ships.
And locomotive engines had a tradition in steamships -- the first iron steamboat had been powered by a locomotive engine (Fox, p. 142). Even the idea of transatlantic steamships was new; the first such was the Great Western, which had been designed in the 1830s and sailed in 1838 (Fox, pp. 74-80). But she was a paddlewheeler, which was clearly unsuitable for work in icy waters. So there was little practical experience to guide those who rebuilt the ships; they worked with the materials at hand. The result was that their engines gave them a speed of only about four knots (Cookman, p. 41; MSmith, p. 149, notes that Terror even on her test run under steam reached only four knots, implying that she would be slower still in field conditions). They were so weak that Captain Crozier, at least, thought they weren't worth the bother (Potter, p. 61).
Franklin's Erebus and Terror were not the first ships to use steam power in the Arctic -- Victory, sailed by John Ross in 1829, also used steam. But Ross supposedly hadn't told the people who had designed the engine how it would be used (Stein, p. 10,) and Ross found the engine so useless in arctic conditions that he actually yanked it out of his ship in 1830! (Fleming-Barrow, p. 283; Edinger, p. 33, mentions the curious fact that Ross didn't just toss the engine overboard, but carefully disassembled it and had it carried to a beach nearly a mile away. This was nice for historians -- Delgado, p. 91, shows a photo of some of the parts still by the seaside -- but a rather pointless burden for the crew. Ross's adventures inspired at least one song, "The Bold Adventures of Captain Ross," found in C. H. Firth, Publications of the Navy Records Society , 1907, p. 331, available in Google Books, though this shows some pretty substantial errors).
Steam technology had improved since then -- notably in the replacement of paddlewheels with screw propellers -- but steam engines were still not mass-produced; each had its own peculiar characteristics. And Cookman argues that the engines used coal that the expedition needed for heating. Erebus and Terror would be slow to make the passage even under ideal circumstances -- and ideal conditions never happen in the Arctic, and the ships were very unhandy if there were a need for fast maneuvering.
John Ross argued strongly that an Arctic expedition should use smaller, more nimble ships -- but no one listened to him. Lambert, p. 160, argues that small ships could not have done the magnetic studies that helped justify the voyage.
There was another drawback to the steam engines: They were not interchangeable. It had been settled policy for decades to send two nearly-identical vessels on exploring missions (Savours, p. 115; Williams-Labyrinth, p. 214); this meant that they could sail the same passages, move at the same speed, and exchange parts at need -- plus, if one ship sank, its crew would be able to fit on the other. Indeed, Erebus and Terror were close to identical as originally built. But there was no way they could swap engine parts. We have no reason to think it mattered -- but, with the fragmentary information we have, we can't prove it didn't, either.
Plus engine installation took up most of the preparation time allotted for the mission (Lambert, p. 156). This left less time to prepare the crew -- and, indeed, to recruit them, since the officers were worrying about what was being done to their ships! (It is fascinating to note that the first rescue ships did not have steam technology; Wallace, p. 83. This was mostly the result of their hasty mounting.)
Plus all that iron in the hold made magnetic measurements much more difficult (Lambert, p. 156). This may indicate some confusion of the mission -- was it scientific or exploratory?
Another side-effect of the hasty throwing-together of the expedition was the lack of a backup plan. Voyages to the Arctic *did* end in disaster -- as Ross's Victory expedition had shown; given supplies for only a year and a half, they spent four years on the ice, surviving only because of the caches left on Fury Beach years before by Parry. Ross had known about them, and planned all along to use those supplies -- though hardly intending to use them to survive two extra winters! (For details on how Victory was trapped, see Edinger, pp. 123-128; for her abandonment, pp. 170-177.) Franklin had no such emergency cache, and no backup route home -- and, like Ross, his ships would be iced in for more than one winter.
"Captain Brown" (Huntington): No idea
"Brave imbil" (Huntington): No idea
"Captain Hogg" (Henry): No idea
"Doctor Tate" (Lane/Gosbee): No idea
"Captain Kelly of Sedgwick town" (Lane/Gosbee): I'm guessing this is an error for Captain Henry Kellet (1806-1875), part of the expeditions of 1848 and 1852, who failed to find Franklin but did rescue McClure and the crew of the Investigator; more on this below
"Brave Winslow" (Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumbermanII): Error for "Granville" or someone else
"Captain Perry of high renown" (Colcord; Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongsB "Crumswell Perry/Penny of fiery renown"; Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumbermanII "Brave Parry"; Greig/DuncanB "Penny of much renown"; Greig/DuncanC "Penny of much renown"; Henry "Captain Parry of high renown"; Huntington "perry of high renown"). [See also "Captain Penny."]: Not one of Franklin's officers; Captain F. R. M. Crozier commanded the Terror, which had also been his ship during Ross's Antarctic expedition, while the slightly newer and larger Erebus was under the immediate direction of Commander James FitzJames.
The choice of FitzJames, who had never been to the Arctic, was interesting. Battersby, p. 7, notes that he hid his family, and on pp. 23-27 concludes that FitzJames was illegitimate -- obviously a bar to promotion.
Yet he was so promising (Battersby, p. 43, notes that even as a teenager he was fluent in three languages and skilled in mathematics) and so well-versed in current technology that Secretary Barrow had thought about giving him command of the expedition (at least, that's the usual explanation for Barrow's favor toward him, an explanation which Battersby, p. 186, says goes back to Sir Clements Markham, whom he accuses of making it up; Battersby's own explanation involves an unknown favor Fitzjames had done for Barrow's son). But Fitzjames was considered too young at 33 (Sandler, p. 72; Cookman, pp. 55-57); MSmith, p. 138, is scathing about this nomination, which he thinks naked favoritism by Barrow, but none of the other authors seem to have thought him unfit, although Lambert observes his lack of magnetic experience -- but argues on p. 158 that Franklin, who was good at delegating authority, would be able to cover for that.
Instead, Fitzjames was given the post of Commander aboard Erebus, where Franklin flew his flag -- making him, in effect, her captain, since Franklin would be commanding the whole expedition.
"Captain Perry" refers rather to the aforementioned William Edward Parry (1790-1855), an explorer active mostly from 1819-1825 -- and one of the best in terms of ground covered and casualties avoided; his first voyage had discovered Barrow Strait and Viscount Melville Sound and made it farther west than any expedition for more than thirty years. He, like James Clark Ross, had been offered command of the Franklin expedition -- and turned it down; he was long since done with adventure.
% "Captain Ross" (Colcord; Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumbermanII; Greig/DuncanB; Greig/DuncanC; Henry ; Huntington; Murray; VaughanW): Either John Ross or his nephew James Clark Ross. The elder Ross, who led expeditions in 1818 and then commanded the aforementioned Victory expedition of 1829 (the primary subject of Edinger), had harmed the quest for the Passage by erroneously stating that Lancaster Sound was a closed inlet.
John Ross's four-year second expedition (1829-1833 -- the one that resulted in him tossing his steam engine on the beach) learned survival techniques that the Franklin expedition ignored to its cost -- but also produced a distorted map of King William Island, with what proved fatal consequences (Delgado, p. 93; Fleming-Barrow, p. 288; Mirsky, pp. 132-133; a copy is on p. 247 of Brandt and p. 238 of Williams-Labyrinth. Ross's map is very hard to read at this scale, but the map on p. 273 of Williams-Labyrinth makes it clear exactly what Franklin thought he had to deal with).
At 72, John Ross led an expedition to find Franklin in 1850 -- but found nothing, and came back with a third-hand report from Greenland that the entire Franklin party was dead. That was, in fact, true, but the details of the report were entirely wrong, and were (properly) ignored. Indeed, other interviews with the same source found that Ross had gotten the story all wrong (Brandt, p. 330). Lady Franklin bitterly remarked that, if she could have done so, she would have put after her name in the subscription list for Ross's expedition, "with a deep sense of gratitude to Sir John Ross for murdering her husband" (Edinger, p. 249). Nonetheless, the Admiralty sent more expeditions; they just didn't send Ross. He died in 1856.
Ross the younger, who had served under his uncle and under Parry, commanded Erebus and Terror on their Antarctic expedition (1839-1843), making many discoveries including the Ross Sea and Ross Ice Shelf (which were named for him). Though Ross had refused to command the Passage expedition of 1845 (in part because he had an irrational dislike of steamers; Stein, p. 12), he took a turn hunting for his friends Franklin and Crozier in 1848-1849 (and broke his health in the process).
% "Captain Austin"/"Captain Osborn." Many versions have one of these names; few have both, making it likely that they are confused (Greig/DuncanB "Captain Austin of Scarborough town"; Murray, VaughanW: "Captain Austen of Scarbro' town"; Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongsB "Captain Osborne/Hobson of Scobrun town"; Colcord: "Captain Osborne of Scarbury town"; Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumbermanII "Captain Osborne of Scarborough Town"; Lane/Gosbee "Captain Osburn of high renown"): either Sherard Osborne of the Pioneer or, more likely, Horatio T. Austin of HMS Resolute, one of the search vessels. A man of great experience and courage (Sandler, p. 115), he nonetheless proved a not very inspiring leader. Lambert, p. 198, says he was "a skillful and human leader, but his party found little more than scraps because they were looking in the wrong places." Clements Markham, a midshipman on the expedition, describes him as small and stout, an advocate of steam, a "great talker," "genial and warm-hearted," "fond of detail," and having "wide knowledge, though he was a little narrow in his views. But for managing the internal economy of an expedition... he was admirable" (Savours, p. 205).
Alternately, Osborn was one of Austin's subordinates at this time. Neatby, p. 121, says that it was "Osborn's destiny to add colour to the search both by making history and writing it. He was no orthodox officer.... He was antipathetic to the Establishment" although he doesn't seem to have caused too much trouble at this time.
(The error "Hobson" of Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongsB is interesting, because it was Lieutenant William Hobson who actually discovered the Franklin message; McClintock, pp. 189-193. But he was a lieutenant, not a captain, and he wasn't even that at the time this song was written.)
Austin had been to the Arctic almost thirty years before, on Parry's third expedition that resulted in the loss of H.M.S. Fury; he was now too old and heavy to lead searches, so his role had to be organizational (Williams-Labyrinth, p. 287).
Austin and Erasmus Ommaney of Assistance were the first to find any traces of the Franklin expedition, in the form of discarded supplies on Devon Island, and later three graves and other artifacts on the peninsula known as Beechey Island (Berton, p. 180). (The three graves were later excavated and autopsied, to much publicity; James Taylor actually wrote a song about the corpse of one of the men, John Torrington; Potter, p. 13.) But they did not learn the expedition's fate (and met public scorn on their return home in 1851); curiously, although there were three cairns in and near Beechey (see map on p. 70 of Woodman), all three were empty of documents.
Having concluded that Franklin could not be west of Lancaster Sound, and could not have turned south because Peel Sound was blocked, Austin and Co. turned north into Jones Sound, where Franklin never ventured (Savours, p. 211), so naturally they found nothing else. The very fact that the Austin expedition's early return is not mentioned in the earliest known broadside hints that it dates from before they made it back. Austin would not serve in the Arctic after his first mission, and spent the last years of his career in what amounted to desk jobs (Sandler, p. 252). Indeed, there was an Admiralty inquiry into the (lack of) results of the expedition (Lambert, p. 215). And Lambert, p. 202, says the narratives of the expeditions were very exciting, but the song makes no hint of this.
"[Captain] and as many's the more" (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongsB has this name twice): Given its context and the timing, this might be an error for "Captain Austin," but it might refer to Sherard Osborne, who as a lieutenant commanded the Intrepid during Austin's expedition and also served under Edward Belcher during the expedition of 1852-1854. Osborn was arrested by Belcher for arguing about the commander's plans -- but it wasn't held against him, because Belcher's expedition was a disaster. Osborne later wrote a book called Stray leaves from an Arctic journal (Savours, p. 206).
(Arresting a subordinate was by no means unusual for Belcher. Savours, pp. 243-245, devotes three pages to a history of his arguments with junior officers. On p. 245, she cites a source describing which tells how Belcher *habitually* court-martialed his officers at the end of a voyage! Lambert, p. 230, quotes an admiral who told him, "A skilful navigator and a clever seaman you may be, but a great officer you can never be, with that narrow mind." His own men wrote graffiti calling him a pirate; Lubbock, p. 355)
All that can be said in defence of Belcher is that few men died on his watch. Otherwise, his expedition was an unmitigated disaster, learning nothing useful and resulting in the loss of four ships. And not to the ice -- Belcher (who had indicated little interest in the Arctic) after two years decided he had had enough, and despite the arguments of his subordinates abandoned four of his five ships, even though they were still intact. Berton, p. 244, calls him "one of... the most detested figures in the Royal Navy" and Sandler summarizes his actions as a "disgraceful performance"; p. 253. Belcher of course faced a court-martial, which concluded that his actions fell within his discretion, but they gave him back his sword "in stony silence" (Sandler, p. 145). By contrast, his subordinate Kellett was openly praised when his sword was returned (Brandt, p. 361).
It is ironic to note that Belcher was the one Canadian among the exploring leaders -- he came from Nova Scotia (Wallace, p. 164).
Belcher was deprived of all future commands -- and his subordinate Osborn promoted for his actions (Mirsky, p. 153; Lambert, p. 246). Indeed, Osborn would campaign for expeditions to the Pole long after the Admiralty had decided to stop wasting ships and men on the Arctic.
(It was, incidentally, during Belcher's expedition that the supply ship Breadalbane was sunk off Beechey Island; MacInnis-Land, p. 38. The search for the Breadalbane was the subject of MacInnis's book; the ship was and is the northernmost known shipwreck. The ordeal of the ship shows the problems or operating in the Arctic. Erebus and Terror, despite a year and a half trapped in the ice, stayed afloat until abandoned, showing the strength of bomb ships. The unreinforced Breadalbane was not supposed to enter the ice -- but you can't avoid ice in the Arctic. Off Beechey Island, she was "nipped" by ice and sank in 15 minutes; MacInnis-Land, p. 116. Had the rest of Belcher's expedition not been based there, the entire crew would probably have been lost.)
% "[Captain] Penny" (VaughanW; Murray: "Penny of much reuown" (sic.)): [See also "Captain Perry."] Presumably captain William Penny, an experienced whaler based in Aberdeen (Lubbock, p. 51). In 1847, unable to find whales in the usual places, he had poked around in Lancaster Sound, and looked for Franklin while he was at it, making him in a sense the first man to look for Franklin (Watson, p. 64-65). His son would later command the Polynia, the ship which gave rise to "The Old Polina"; the elder Penny had supervised her construction (Lubbock, p. 52). Lady Franklin managed to convince ("con" might be a better word) the Admiralty into sending this veteran arctic sailor on a search expedition in 1850-1851, but he didn't find much (Berton, p. 171); he was sent into Jones Sound (north of Lancaster Sound, and far away from the path Franklin had been ordered to follow; (Berton, p. 173). It was closed by ice, so he headed for Lancaster Sound, but that left him among all the other search vessels. His men were the first to find the traces on Beechey Island (Sandler, p. 115), but they would have been found soon anyway.
He then wanted to head north up Wellington Channel -- he headed back to England to argue for this and was turned down (Brandt, pp. 337-338), but even had this been permitted, that wouldn't have found Franklin either. Franklin had indeed gone up Wellington Channel and around Cornwallis Island, but he didn't stay there. (Franklin's orders seem to have been somewhat contradictory -- the instructions to try Wellington Channel were written in a different hand from the other parts; Wallace , p. 50.) Berton thinks that if Penny had had his way, it might have caused the search to be directed in a better direction (pp. 190-191), but I can't see how.
Penny ended up in a dispute with Austin, and went back to whaling after his one experience with the navy (Simpson, p. 264). He ended up getting a lot of blame from the naval board (Watson, pp. 120-121). Watson thinks this was because of navy prejudice and arguments he had with Captain Austin, but it seems that Penny simply could not communicate in writing (Williams-Labyrinth, p. 195); the fact that he is mentioned here is an argument that the song was written before the results of the Austin/Penny expedition were known.
% "Brave Granville" (Colcord; Murray; Greig/DuncanC; VaughanW ; Greig/DuncanB "Gravel"): Probably an error for Henry Grinnell, an American trader who was convinced by Lady Franklin to support the search. He paid for (but did not accompany) two expeditions; neither accomplished much except to make Elisha Kent Kane briefly famous for surviving a disaster he largely caused. The other possibility would be that it is the Hull whaling captain John Gravill, who was fairly well known at this time (Lubbock, pp. 349-350, tells of him having a near-disaster in the Arctic in 1849) but who was not involved in the Franklin search that I know of.
% "With a hundred seamen he sailed away" (Cohen; Colcord; Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongsB; Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumbermanI, II; Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong; Greig/DuncanC; Henry; Huntington; VaughanW; Lane/Gosbee; Murray "...seamen with hearts so bold"; Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongsA "five hundred seamen"): Franklin's force initially totalled 134 men, one of the largest forces ever sent on an exploratory voyage; interestingly, Captain Crozier, Franklin's second in command, thought that there were too many men on his ship (Hutchinson, p. 82). But he would have reduced the crew by only about two to four men.
Not all the men went to the Arctic. Five were sent home sick before the ships entered Lancaster Sound and were the only survivors. Three of those initial losses were significant: the sailmaker from Terror and the armorers (gunmakers) from both Erebus and Terror (McClintock, p. 231). The loss of the latter would make hunting for provisions much harder (and fresh food was the only way to get the Vitamin C to avoid scurvy, and 1840s guns needed a lot of maintenance); the loss of the former meant that the two ships -- never speedy, as we saw above -- might end up even slower
It's perhaps worth reminding moderns, who never face scurvy, how deadly it was at the time. It affects the connective tissue especially, meaning that scars reopen; it also causes blood vessels to leak, resulting in bruises where there has been no trauma; it leaves men weak and gasping for breath, and kills when blood vessels in the brain rupture (Sobel, p. 14). For years, it had ruined crews on long voyages, opening old wounds, causing joint pains, eventually resulting in the loss of teeth as the jaws swelled up; it also affected the mind, so the victims did not realize how bad the problem was.
Scurvy is prevented by Vitamin C, but that is found primarily in fresh vegetables, and also to an extent in fresh meat (especially organ meat). Crews on sea voyages had none such, and the symptoms usually started to occur in four to six months. This is because crews lived mostly on biscuit and salt meat (as late as the Franklin search, the daily diet for sledgers consisted of 3/4 of a pound of salted meat and bacon, a pound of biscuits, a drib of many-year-old potatoes, and chocolate and tea; Savours, p. 263). By the time of the Franklin expedition, the use of lemon juice (frequently called "lime juice") was common -- but the juice loses potency over time.
Another curious fact about the expedition is that, though the crew was hand-picked, it had very little useful experience (MSmith notes that the Admiralty had given responsibility for choosing the crew to FitzJames -- ordinarily it would have been Crozier's job -- and blames him for botching it, even accusing FitzJames of "nauseous whiff of patronage"; p. 146. This was unfortunate in at least one way: It meant that the depressive Crozier had no close friends aboard the expedition; MSmith, p. 155). Apart from Franklin and Crozier, the only commissioned officer who had been to the arctic was Lt. Graham Gore of the Erebus (Fleming-Barrow, p. 373) -- and his experience was slight; he had been on George Back's disastrous expedition on the Terror, which would have taught him a lot about shipwreck but little about arctic survival. Plus he, like Franklin, would die fairly early on. Crozier was the only officer on the expedition to know about wintering in the arctic on a ship.
The crewmen were better. On paper, only about half a dozen sailors had arctic experience (Cookman, p. 61) -- but some of those who did had very extensive backgrounds indeed. Thomas Blanky, who had been first mate on John Ross's harrowing four-year expedition of 1829-1833 (Edinger, p. 244), meaning that he had more experience of wintering in the arctic than any man alive other than James Clark Ross, would go on to be Terror's Ice Master (cf. Savours, p. 127). One of the surgeons had been on whaling voyages; there was a whaling captain who served as an Ice Master (Savours, p. 178). Even the men who had not been to the Arctic -- who were the large majority -- were mostly veterans with good records.
% "To the frozen ocean in the month of May" (Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong; Shepard "As through the frozen seas they pushed"): The expedition left the Thames on May 19, 1845, to arrive in Baffin Bay in June There was little point in arriving before June due to the ice, though a departure date a few weeks earlier might have allowed the expedition to make it a little farther before their first winter. At least in a normal year, though 1845 was more than usually icy (MSmith, p. 163).
Even if the ice had permitted, a departure date earlier than mid-May was impossible due to the rush with which the expedition was put together. In any case, it appears that there was ice in Barrow Straight in the first year of the Franklin expedition, causing them to make a useless circuit of Cornwallis Island before settling down to winter at Beechey Island. So to start earlier in 1845 would have done no good at all. The really strange part is that the expedition seems to have left no records on Beechey Island -- just empty cans and a few other artifacts and the three graves.
The phrase "the frozen ocean" predates this song; it is said to have been used in the early nineteenth century in a description of an attempt at the Northeast Passage (Mancall, p. 237).
% "Seven long years" (Cohen; Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongsB; Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumbermanI; Murray; Henry; Huntington; Lane/Gosbee; Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong omits "long"; Greig/DuncanB "a long time, seven years have passed"; Greig/DuncanC "since that time seven years have passed"); This would make the date of the broadside c. 1852; note that in Shepard the event is dated *nine* years ago, and it says that "At length sad tidings of this brave band Have reached the shores of their native land." The Shepard broadside, which has relatively few of the common words, appears to be a rewrite after John Rae brought in his report.
% "On mountains of ice their ship was drove" (Colcord ; Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongsA; Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumbermanI; Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong; Greig/DuncanB; Greig/DuncanC; Huntington; Murray; VaughanW ; Shepard "their ships by blocks of ice were crushed"; Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongsB "on mountains of Fife"; Cohen "on mount'nous icebergs"; Lane/Gosbee "with mountains of ice where their ship was stove): The phrase "mountains of ice" predates this song; Abacuk Pricket used it in his description of Henry Hudson's 1610 expedition (Mancall, p. 97), and it appears John Barrow used the wording in the period leading up the the nineteenth century explorations (Williams-Labyrinth, p. 172).
And certainly there was plenty of ice on Franklin's route. The whole Northwest Passage is around 70 degrees north; as early as 1631, Luke Foxe had proved that there was no passage south of the Arctic Circle (at least in his own mind, although some of his subordinates were dubious; Williams-Labyrinth, p. 64), and this was confirmed by explorations of the west side of Hudson Bay done in the eighteenth century.
Despite stories by men such as Juan de Fuca, the "Straits of Anian" (an easy Northwest Passage with at most a short stretch in the Arctic) had been definitively cast from the map by Samuel Hearne, who in 1771 (in the company with a party of natives) reached the mouth of the Coppermine River and became the first European to view the seas of the Arctic Archipelago. His journey proved that northern Canada was very large and contained no straights or sounds or passages (Williams-Delusion, pp. 231-233). The passage, such as it was, is all in the Arctic.
(Hearne, incidentally, was forced to witness a massacre along the way, and his sad retelling of the tale would much later inspire Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"; McGooganHearne, pp. 1-3.)
Much of the Passage, including Lancaster Sound, is well north even of the Arctic Circle. Even in summer, the waters are never entirely free of ice; in winter, they all freeze over, and it's a matter of luck which ones thaw out in any given spring. (It took some time to realize this; there was a hypothesis in the nineteenth century that sea water never froze -- Williams-Labyrinth, p. 133. Ridiculous as this sounds to us, it should be remembered that this was a time when artificial refrigeration did not exist.)
Every arctic expedition at some point found itself frozen in, and those which handled their ships badly would see them crushed by the ice. Franklin was neither the first nor the last to come to grief this way, though severe weather in 1847 probably sealed the expedition's fate. (Beattie, p. 128, notes that ice cores show that "the Franklin era was climactically one of the least favorable [i.e. coldest and iciest] periods in 700 years." The climatologists are not absolutely sure of this -- according to Potter, p. 190, there is a five year margin of error about in the core studies -- but MSmith, p. 179, Walpole, p. 146, and Woodman, p. 292, mention an Inuit report that "there was no summer between two winters" in the time the ships were trapped in the ice, which seems like good supporting evidence.)
The history of ships in the passage shows how deadly the ice could be. Parry's H.M.S. Fury was lost to it on his third expedition. The ice had trapped John Ross's Victory, forcing him to abandon the ship. Terror herself had nearly been wrecked in George Back's expedition of 1833-1835 -- the ice "once hurled his battered vessel forty feet up the side of a cliff" (Berton, p. 130); the ship wallowed back across the Atlantic and had to be beached on the Irish coast. Breadalbane, mentioned above, lasted only a few days in the Arctic. And H.M.S. Investigator never escaped Mercy Bay after being trapped in the Franklin search -- it was found, largely intact, in the bay in 2010 (Stein, p. 250), although so far only limited archaeological work has been done at the site.
"Only the Eskimo in his skin canoe Was the only one to ever come through": The Inuit did indeed use skin kayaks, and they did know the paths through the ice -- and, as it turned out, saw some of the Franklin refugees. They had saved John Ross's 1829 expedition, which would have perished due to starvation and scurvy without them. But not every European commander had the diplomatic skills or wisdom to work with them (no one prior to Charles Frances Hall in the 1860s really tried to make friends with them), and no one bothered to talk to them about Franklin until John Rae in 1854. One of them drew a map for Hall that -- it now appears -- shows the site of one of the wrecks, but no one at the time was able to interpret it (Watson, p. 298). Worse, there were very few competent Inuit interpreters a the time, so even when they were asked, the results were riddled with errors of translation and understanding (Walpole, p. 147). This failure, combined with very poor record-keeping and what we would now call archaeological work (a very large fraction of Walpole is devoted to nitpicky, almost unreadable reports about problems with the provenance of artifacts; a good example is p. 183, which shows that we can't even always identify the surviving artifacts with the expedition they came from, let alone where they were collected on that expedition), severely handicapped later attempts to figure out what happened.
In any case, Franklin had too many men for the Inuit to be able to provide useful supplies; the natives travelled in small bands and were barely able to feed themselves even so.
% "For my long-lost Franklin I'd cross the main": Lady Franklin did not physically participate in many searches (Sandler, p. 86, says that she volunteered to join John Richardson's search, only to be politely rejected; Watson, p. 75, says that she tried to lead an expedition), but she did in fact go to the Americas during the hunt, and during the great push starting in 1850, she was hovering around the edges of the search.
% "Ten thousand pounds would I freely give" (Cohen; Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumbermanII; Greig/DuncanC; Henry; Huntington; Murray; Shepard; Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongsB "one hundred pounds"; Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, Lane/Gosbee "five hundred pounds"): When Franklin had been gone for three years, the Admiralty offered 100 guineas for word of him -- and Lady Franklin 2000 pounds (Williams-Labyrinth, p. 279).
Brandt, p. 320, says that by about 1849 Lady Franklin was offering a thousand pounds of her own money to any whaler who found her husband. She later raised this to three thousand pounds (Brandt, p. 322). McGooganFranklin, p. 349, claims that by 1856 she had spent 35,000 pounds on the search. He is including others' contributions in that (and I frankly don't believe that total in any case), but there is no question but that she gave it her all. Fortunately for her, she often was able to gain free lodging and assistance on her travels because of her fame and sorrows. But she eventually had to cut off charities and others whom she had assisted, and for her last expedition, ended up selling property in Australia (Alexander, p. 241; Beardsley, p. 222); all her money went to feed her obsession with her husband (Beardsley, p. 217).
The official rewards also increased for a time. The Admiralty for a while was offering twenty thousand pounds for anyone who could rescue the Franklin expedition (Williams-Labyrinth, p. 286), and half that for definitive word of Franklin's fate, but eventually dropped it, though John Rae did manage to collect (McGoogan-Rae, p. 242). Lambert, p. 250, says that Rae was publicly blamed for the bad news of cannibalism he brought back, even though he believes that the officials privately accepted it; "As an outsider, a man of trade and the wild frontier, he could be hung out to dry to serve official ends, and paid off later." Brandt, p. 369, describes how the British public simply refused to accept the truth -- as McGooganRae, p. 234, observes, the British had to be able to claim moral superiority over natives to justify their colonial policies. Lady Franklin, who of course was outraged, enlisted Charles Dickens to support her cause. And Dickens, who was liberal in most things but a racist with a prejudice against native peoples, went along and leveled charges against the Inuit; McGooganRae, pp. 223-226.
Rae had the account of cannibalism second-hand from the Inuit, but Schwatka's 1876 expedition supplied direct evidence (Walpole, p. 99), and more has arisen since.
McClintock's final expedition, which found the key evidence telling of the expedition's fate, was relatively small mostly because of Lady Franklin's need to keep costs down (Berton, pp. 317-318): it consisted of one small ship, with the officers serving as volunteers. The exact amount she spent is unknown -- I've seen estimates as low as 3,000 pounds and as high as 35,000 (so Berton, p. 333, although that total probably includes contributions from others) -- but it was substantial.
As noted above, Berton, pp. 202-203, and Brandt, p. 233, say that Lady Franklin brought ten thousand pounds to their marriage, and that part of the estate was one of the things he left her in his will. Thus, if she did spend ten thousand pounds, it was the entirety of her own money. On the other hand, there is every indication that she spent more than her own money; Franklin had left his first wife's dowry to his daughter Eleanor, and she quarreled with her stepmother -- not even telling Jane Franklin about her upcoming marriage (Watson, p. 106) after she and Jane had disagreed about the marriage and the way to search for Franklin (Alexander, pp. 230-231) -- arguing that Lady Franklin had wasted her estate.
She was probably right; Jane Franklin had power of attorney over her husband's estate (Alexander, p. 231) -- but only as long as he was alive and on an expedition, so the longer Jane refused to admit that John was dead, the longer she hung on to an inheritance that should have been Eleanor's. (In fact Jane outlived Eleanor, who died at age 36; Alexander, p. 245.) She also opened the will without telling her stepdaughter -- and found that it did not give her the inheritance she wanted (Alexander, p. 233); it followed the normal rules of inheritance, meaning the legacy would go to Eleanor (McGooganFranklin, p. 320). And, while this was going on, she granted Eleanor only 200 pounds per year of the 600 per year her inheritance called for (Alexander, p. 232), leaving Eleanor and her husband John Philip Gell (who had 200 pounds a year of his own; McGooganFranklin, p. 294) barely middle class. To be sure, Eleanor Franklin and Lady Franklin had had strained relations for decades; if Jane Franklin was not a deliberately cruel stepmother, she was certainly not a kind one, and Sophia Cracroft, who would know better than most, said that Eleanor hated her stepmother; Beardsley, p. 153.
The quarrel was so bad that it ended up in the papers (Alexander, pp. 234-235), and Jane for a time would not see Eleanor and her husband (Alexander, p. 236).
Lady Franklin had devoted so much money to the quest that her rich father in 1851 cut her out of his will to keep her from wasting more money (Brandt, p. 326; McGooganFranklin, p. 322).
Sophia herself had had something of a quarrel with the Franklins after their return fromTasmania had to go live with her mother; for the disagreement, see Alexander, p. 205. Sophia and Jane reconciled four years later (Alexander, p. 211). The point is, Lady Franklin could be abrasive, and the main reason was her obsessions.
Lady Franklin's dedication did do some slight good for feminism: She would be the first woman to be given the Patron Medal of the Royal Geographic Society.
As we see, the original version of the song ended before the fate of Franklin was known. So what happened to him? See the next part....
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LK09B

Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9] -- Part 04

DESCRIPTION: Conclusion of the notes to "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9]" [Laws K9]. -- Part 03
Last updated in version 6.7
NOTES [9784 words]: The Fate of Franklin: What Happened After the First Draft of This Song
From what was learned later, we know that Franlin's ships were caught on the ice; eventually they were abandoned and wrecked (this was verified both by Inuit accounts and by wreckage; Collinson found some as far away as Dease Strait, some ten degrees west of where the ships went down; Savours, p. 233), but the men were unable to reach civilization.
Bad maps probably played a role. The Northwest Passage can be thought of as proceeding from Baffin Bay in four stages: The first is Lancaster Sound, then the Barrow Straight. The obvious third stage was the straight path through Viscount Melville Sound (which runs north of Victoria Island). This path, however, is usually frozen and useless; Parry had made it part way on his first voyage, but no one every sailed the full path. The more practical alternative was to head around the east and south sides of Victoria Island. No matter what the third stage, the fourth stage would be due west to the Beaufort Sea and out the Bering Strait.
The first, second, and fourth parts were known, but no one had even mapped a route for the third stage. It was known, e.g., that there was a straight path to the south of Victoria Island, but no one knew how to get make the southern connection past Victoria Island from Barrow Straight.
Franklin's first attempt at finding the third stage was an unfruitful exploration of Cornwallis Island; this led nowhere. Franklin then properly headed south through Peel Sound and past Prince of Wales island, just to the west of the Boothia Peninsula.
The question then was whether to pass east or west of King William Island, which lies in the area between the Boothia Peninsula and Victoria Island. Lambert, p. 149, suggests that the route south through Peel Sound was taken not because it was the way to the Passage but as an attempt to reach the north magnetic pole, because Franklin would have thought Peel Sound a dead end. This is dubious; it was the area by King William Island that was thought to be closed off.
As they approached King William Island, Franklin had to make a guess. And the charts he had were not only incomplete but inaccurate. John Ross had drawn a map of the area, based on his nephew James Clark Ross's explorations, which closed off the eastern passage around King William Island (which, in any case, was narrow and shallow; it would have been hard to navigate -- MSmith, p. 171). Ross even called the area "Poctes Bay," implying that he *knew* it was blocked by land. (This wasn't the only time Ross added thing to a map that he didn't know were there; he actually added islands to the Clarence Islands so he could name them after sponsors; McGooganFranklin, p. 135.) Apparently Franklin even wrote to James Clark Ross saying that he knew he could not pass that way (Lambert, p. 164). In fact, the strait east of King William Island was the only way to make the Passage.
(To add to the irony, an expedition under George Back had intended to map the relevant area while searching for John Ross, but when Ross was found, the expedition was redirected and the map never completed -- to Franklin's cost.)
Another error seemed to imply a useful passage further west which did not exist. (Lest we criticize, the Arctic Archipelago -- called the "District of Franklin" when they were still part of the Northwest Territories -- is among the hardest places on earth to map; I have an atlas from 1967 which still contains significant errors, such as showing Borden and Mackenzie King islands as one. Brant, p. 32, notes that this region was not fully mapped until the mid-twentieth century, and that mostly by air.)
Given that misinformation, Franklin chose to steer west of King William Island. That route, while short in air distance, is exposed to pack ice coming down McClintock Channel. While technically ocean, the route almost never thaws -- there is so much ice that it periodically throws floes high up on King William Island (Fleming-Barrow, p. 288; MSmith, pp. 170-171, quotes James Clark Ross's observations of the ice on the island). Franklin seems to have entered it at one of the few times when it was partly open. His ships were frozen on the ice for almost two years before they were finally abandoned.
Franklin did not live long enough to know the worst. He died, of unknown but probably natural causes, aboard Erebus on June 11, 1847; his body has not been found. His loss shouldn't have been fatal -- after all, that left the veteran F. R. M. Crozier in command.
But the loss of their paunchy admiral seemed to take something out of the expedition. Crozier, though an intelligent self-made man, had never held an independent command (Lambert, p. 338). And, somehow, he never seemed to gain any recognition (MSmith, p. 132). Plus, though reportedly respected by his crews, he is said to have been a strict disciplinarian (MSmith, p. 97) and probably was not loved.
His mental state wasn't the best, either. Crozier told the wife of another officer that he didn't expect to return alive from the Franklin Expedition (MSmith, p. 156). His last letters hint strongly at depression (Cookman, p. 54), and Lady Franklin wrote that he "seemed... ill and dispirited when he left" (Savours, p. 192). He felt, with some justice, that his record should have earned him more recognition than he had been given. Bitter and pessimistic, he was hardly the man to save a bad situation.
After being frozen off King William Island for two winters, Crozier finally abandoned the ships and tried to head back to a possible rendezvous point by the Great Fish River (now the Back River). Lambert, pp. 340-342, thinks he did not expect to succeed but had to try something. Lambert, p. 341, adds that neither Crozier nor his second in command FitzJames made any personal statement in their last record, which to him indicates that they had no hope -- but which could indicate they expected to survive.
But there would be no rescue ships at the Great Fish River , and indications are that the crew broke up into smaller groups, all of which died.
Several bodies have been found which seem to come from the Franklin Expedition -- and which show obvious signs of cannibalism (Lambert, p. 347, noting that evidence of cannibalism was found in the nineteenth century by Schwatka, and perhaps McClintock as well, as well as by twentieth century explorers, and that Rae and Schwatka and Hall all heard Inuit stories of it. Potter, p. 33, notes that modern examinations of the bones strengthen these conclusions. Lambert, p. 348, says that the only actual question is whether the men died before being eaten, or if they were killed for their flesh. This even though Rae's tales of cannibalism were formally written out of the story by authors such as Clements Markham; Lambert, p. 326, in effect declares Markham's works historical fiction.)
The last written record of the expedition comes from the spring of 1848, as they abandoned the ships, although most of the men certainly lived somewhat longer.
In 2014, explorers finally found the wreckage of one of the ships, identified as Erebus, somewhat to the south of where it was abandoned but right along the course of the ice drift (Potter, p. 112, declares that it is "exactly where the Inuit said it would be," although the Inuit records are sufficiently contradictory that this may be exaggerated). It is in surprisingly good shape although the stern has been crushed (image on p. 168 of Hutchinson). In September 2016, it was announced that the Terror had been found about forty miles to the north, actually along the coast of King William Island (Watson, p. 334, etc.). It has even entered by a remotely operated vehicle; it is in even better shape. What's more, it is in a rather sheltered bay, making it unlikely that it drifted there; it is easier to assume that it was sailed there some time after the hips were abandoned. In a strange coincidence, McClintock had named the site "Terror Bay" a century and a half before the ship was found (Watson, p. 335).
Interestingly, Terror is near a part of the coast where Franklin relics have been found (see the map on p. xvi of Watson), but it is not clear if there is a direct connection. The finds may yet reveal more about the expedition, but as of this writing, no one has announced anything particularly useful. Watson's book, which is about the exploration, has relatively little information about the expedition itself; it's all about the ships. (It does say, p, 313, that the search for Franklin's ships did help to chart the waters of the arctic, in particular the depths of the channels.)
Inuit accounts imply that one of the ships sank before the other, and that the surviving ship had men on it after the other sank, implying either that the crew did not leave it or that they came back. The wreckage seems to support this to an extent (Woodman, p. xvii, says that "validates the long-known Inuit traditions); although Erebus is in good shape for a shipwreck, it looks like it actually did sink. Terror, by contrast, seems to have been very carefully buttoned up -- abandoned but not given up for lost (Watson, pp. 329-331); one of the searchers said it would probably float if it were raised and pumped out! So neither ship seems to have been wrecked, as the Inuit claimed, and yet they became separated, and one of them ended up in a place where there are Franklin relics. Neither one is anywhere near where the ships were said to have been trapped in the ice.
This raises the obvious question of whether the Victory Point record was in fact properly descriptive. Did Crozier abandon when Erebus was damaged and not want to admit to it? Did the ships separate? Did the men leave the ships and then come back, as Woodman suggested (Potter, p. 177, etc.; Woodman, pp. 6-7; he thinks they went out to hunt in 1848 and intended to return)? In particular, did they abandon the ships, fail in their expedition, and return to find Erebus wrecked but Terror able to sail? And did they then sail it to Terror bay? Finding the ships has raised more questions than it has answered.
Franklin's problem, perhaps, could ultimately be put down to "bad luck" -- i.e. lack of actual genius; his 1819 expedition had ended in disaster through minor errors in what we would now call "staff work," and that is perhaps part of what happened here: When he needed to be inspired, he instead got bogged down, wasting time circling Cornwallis Island, failing to leave cairns to mark his progress (or building cairns but leaving no records in them; see, e.g., Savours, p. 292), and then dying before he could rectify his mistake.
(Most books seem to take a position that is either strongly pro- or anti-Franklin. I must admit that I find this hard. Of the men most qualified to know -- Parry, James Clark Ross, and Crozier -- all initially approved of his appointment; although Crozier became depressed, he had written to Ross somewhat earlier expressing his approval of Franklin; Savours, p. 178. Reading the passages from Franklin's notes compiled by Savours, pp. 169-177, it appears he was wiser about the Arctic than his superiors. And yet -- he *did* fail. My best guess is that he was a better-than-average commander for the task -- but that the task, given the weather conditions in the late 1840s, needed someone who was better than better-than-average.)
(Lambert, p. 350, would view it another way: "Franklin was neither a bungler nor an explorer. An inspirational leader, the noblest of public men, he made important contributions to polar navigation and magnetic science.... He did not 'discover' the North West Passage -- instead he discovered that Hell can be found in the hearts of men, in Van Diemen's land rather than in the high Arctic.")
All this was reconstructed from the findings of the expeditions sent to look for Franklin. There were many (Beattie, pp. 262-263, list some 17 ships sent out by 1850, plus some land expeditions; Delgado, p. 149, says that 32 expeditions were mounted from 1847 to 1859), but the initial searches were rather a failure; although the ships charted some new territory, few discovered anything and several managed to come to grief themselves.
Lady Franklin did not get any useful word until 1854. At that time, John Rae -- who wasn't even searching for Franklin; he was exploring the Boothia Peninsula for the Hudson's Bay Company (it was he who finally proved that King William Land was King William Island; Brandt, p. 366) -- met sundry Inuit (Savours, pp. 270-272) who had collected a few relics (including the Franklin Medal) and had also seen a company of perhaps forty white men struggling south in the snow. The Europeans had starved to death (Savours, p. 273), and the Inuit had collected the relics.
Rae had hoped to proceed north, into the area where we know Franklin's men died, but there was too much ice that year (Brandt, p. 341). So his knowledge was second- and third-hand (the first man he heard the story from had not seen Franklin's sailors or the places they died, but had traded for and was wearing a British officer's cap; Watson, pp. 152-155) -- but Rae had the artifacts, and why would the Inuit lie?
An 1855 land expedition led by James Anderson and James Stewart found some additional artifacts in the area of Montreal Island, but was unable to converse with the Inuit and so couldn't add much to the story.
While that located the expedition in the waters west of the Boothia Peninsula -- an area that no one had bothered to search, though Lady Franklin had urged it -- it left at least two-thirds of the men unaccounted for, though Franklin on the evidence was surely one of the casualties. The Admiralty was satisfied; it closed the books (Cookman, pp. 1-2, prints the preliminary Admiralty order to pay off the men's widows after a certain date if no word was heard. This was before Rae reported; obviously his report just made it final).
The Navy declared the seamen dead (Moss, p. 140, says that this is good, since it started the pension process, but pensions cost the Navy far less than regular wages), passed out a few knighthoods, and sent its fleet to fight in the Crimean War (where the British forces suffered more wastage than they ever did in Lancaster Sound, and for even less use. The Northwest Passage expeditions not only charted new ground, but they made biological, geological, and anthropological discoveries, though hardly enough to justify the lives they cost).
Brandt, p. 343, points out that, with steam becoming an efficient means of transportation and the Suez Canal complete, China and India were now only two weeks' steaming from Britain. So the Passage had lost any commercial significance. No one really cared any more.
Lady Franklin wasn't satisfied -- after all, this meant that Franklin was officially dead, which meant, given his will, that she lost control of the family finances (McGooganFranklin, p. 326). But from now on, she was on her own. She stuffily refused to take her pension and set out to organize things on her own (Watson, p. 156). She would finally learn her husband's fate in 1859.
In 1857, Lady Franklin had chartered a last expedition, under Francis McClintock. Because Lady Franklin was short of money, they had only a single small ship, the Fox, a 177 ton topsail schooner, formerly a yacht, with auxiliary steam (Savours, p. 284) that she bought for two thousand pounds (Watson, p. 162). It had to be crammed to the bilges to hold all the men and supplies (Savours, p. 285; Watson, p. 163) -- but they finally went to the right place, searching (mostly by sledge) around King William Island and the Boothia Peninsula. They also talked to the Inuit. And McClintock, unlike most of the other searchers, understood sledging and the ice, which made him a better explorer (e.g. Lambert, p. 279).
During their search, they found skeletons, more relics -- and two of the expedition's summary reports (Franklin had had orders to leave reports, sealed against water, at regular intervals, though only a handful were ever found, most from very early in the expedition; in effect, we have only one document of the last stages. The problem may have been that the records were supposed to be dropped into the sea, so that they could be used to evaluate currents as well as trace the expedition's fate; Brandt, p. 305).
It was Lieutenant William Hobson who found the writings (Lambert, p. 280, who says on p. 281 that McClintock assigned Hobson that territory to help him earn promotion) in two cairns on King William Island. The copies originally dropped in the two cairns were the same, but one of them -- the so-called "Victory Point Record" after the place where it was found -- later had a long appendix added on the same sheet of paper (for details of the finding, see e.g. Sandler, pp. 182-185, plus of course McClintock, pp. 190-192).
The first report, from May 28, 1847, was optimistic. The expedition, after wasting most of 1845 circling Cornwallis Island, had spent the winter of 1845-1846 at Beechey Island. Once the ice broke up the next spring, Franklin had headed south, spending the winter of 1846-1847 off King William Island. At the time the report was written, the ships were still stuck there. Nonetheless, there seemed to be hope.
The second report, from (probably) April 25, 1848, was a grim addendum written in the margins of the first; the ships had been ice-locked by very cold weather for more than a year and a half. Both Franklin's subordinate captains, Crozier and FitzJames, were alive to sign the report, putting their names upside-down at the top of the sheet below a very cramped summary (McClintock, p. 193, believed that the note was written by FitzJames himself, save the last words which were by Crozier; he does not give reasons for this, but Savours, p. 292; Lambert, p. 280; Williams-Labyrinth, p. 34; Woodman, p. 92, and most others accept it. The expedition commander was supposed to write the official summary; Franklin had signed the one report found from the very first days of the expedition; Potter, pp. 37-38. FitzJames, as the #2 of Franklin's ship, might therefore take his place were Franklin ill. Wallace, p. 61, thinks the first message, however, was by Graham Gore. The surviving record seems to have been altered, as well as having the addendum added by Crozier and FitzJames -- but the quality of reproductions I've seen are not good enough to make it clear who did it).
Franklin could hardly have written the second note in any case. By the time it was written, Franklin had been dead for ten months, and a total of two dozen men -- 20% of the expedition's total -- had been lost. There seemed no way to escape by sea. On April 22, Crozier wrote that someone -- the report doesn't say who -- would "start tomorrow... for Back's Fish River." The usual assumption was that the 105 survivors abandoned the ships and head for the mainland.
The 1848 report did not tell the fate of the last survivors, of course. Most think they simply tried for the mainland and failed to make it. But David Woodman speculated that they wanted to hunt and fish at the river to restore their strength, then return to the ships (Delgado, p. 163). This would explain why there were relics found at so many places -- and also why the one ship's boat that was located was found on a sledge heading *north* (Savours, p. 296). On this theory, some of the crew may have lived until 1851 or 1852 -- and could have been rescued had anyone looked in the right place (Williams-Labyrinth, p. 355). But they were never seen again by Europeans.
They may have made severe mistakes in planning this last stage -- McClintock found they took a lot of junk, such as books and silverware, with them, though it has been argued that they simply emptied the ships (perhaps of materials not needed for the final part of the voyage, or perhaps to keep them available should the ships sink). And Woodman, p. 114, argues that the surviving materials in some cases show careful planning -- e.g. the one surviving medicine chest is full of materials likely to be needed on a long land journey. Nor did the men leave the trail of discarded materials that usually is found in a disastrous retreat;they left cairns and graves, but no discarded materials (Woodman, p. 116).
Nonetheless, they may not have been in shape to travel. Their sledges were ill-designed and heavy. It is little surprise that most died along the trek. It appears that quite a few simply dropped as they walked, and died where they fell (Beattie, pp. 80-81). Then, too, the evidence of cannibalism is overwhelming (Rae observed it at once -- Savours, p. 273 -- and others later confirmed it), in the form bones carved by knives and often scattered in a completely unnatural way (Delgado, p. 168; Sandler, pp. 150-151; Cookman offers additional details on pp. 176, 178, then proceeds on p. 184 to accuse Crozier of killing living men to feed the others. Of course, the only evidence of that is Cookman's dreams).
The Inuit would indicate that, after Erebus and Terror were abandoned, one sank and one was crushed by ice (Sandler, p. 180). The recent discovery of the shipwrecks supports this at least in part. In a sad irony, the two ended up drifting with the ice toward the place the men actually wanted to go (Watson, p. 193; the map on p. xvi of Watson shows Terror in a bay on the south side of King William Island, at a place where Franklin relics were found, and Erebus actually off the Adelaide Peninsula on the Canadian mainland, not far from a site on the Klutschach Peninsula where relics were also found). From there they could have followed Amundsen's route to Alaska and escape. Although abandoning ship was a reasonable choice, Crozier should either have done it earlier or waited until the drift had taken him south.
The nature of the abandonment, and of the surviving relics, led Woodman to the conclusion that the Victory Point record was not the last word (Woodman, p. 119); the ships were unloaded and left, but that the men returned to them for a time. I did not believe this before the discovery of the ships; now, I incline to think that this is true.
The crew's strange behavior in these final months led to speculation that the men were slowly losing their minds. Much would be made of this in the next century -- perhaps by over-reaction to the idolization of Franklin in Victorian times. As Lambert notes on p. 286, McClintock's book was in print for half a century (and was reprinted in the twenty-first century), and it helped shape Franklin scholarship for a long time. And the government set up a memorial to Franklin at Lady Franklin's urging -- but "from concept to motto the monument was a lie, one that made Jane the widow of 'a great explorer'" (Lambert, p. 295).
It is an irony of the search for Franklin that it finally *did* find the Northwest Passage; explorers from the west, led by Robert McClure, discovered McClure and Prince of Wales Straits and followed each far enough to sight Melville Sound and Parry's Winter Harbour (where that explorer had wintered in 1820), "forging the last link." (It was Franklin's friend John Richardson who first said the that Franklin's party "forged the last link of the Northwest Passage with their lives." Richardson's piece was included in the Encyclopedia Britannica, so the phrase became a commonplace; Lambert, p. 260). Both McClure's routes, however, were blocked by ice and unusable (and are close enough to the arctic pack that they rarely open).
McClure managed to sledge to Winter Harbor, the westernmost point reached by any expedition from the east, but he and his ship Investigator did not come through -- and indeed blundered around so much that the ship was lost. Having first risked a winter in open ice (Mirsky, p. 145), McClure the next year entered a cul-de-sac he called "Mercy Bay," where the ship was trapped (Berton, pp. 228-232). He probably should not even have tried for that second round of exploration, since many of his provisions had been lost or spoiled (Williams-Labyrinth, p. 302), and Mercy Bay was so open to the local ice currents that it was not until 2007 that it was ever seen to be ice-free (Stein, p. 249), but McClure wasn't the type to abandon a hope of fame just because it was the only sensible thing to do....
Shortly before they were found, McClure engaged in a brazen attempt to send more than half of his crew to their deaths so that the remainder (the strongest) would have a better chance to survive (Sandler, pp. 131-132; details on pp. 199-201 of Stein). If the ship's doctor is to be believed, the men knew what McClure was up to; he had to use the marines to enforce his decisions (Stein, pp. 201-202). Fortunately, they were found before he managed to execute his plan.
As Lambert comments on p. 228, "McClure's single-minded ambition wrecked the careful planning, limited the science, and destroyed any chance of completing the tasks" of the mission. It is noteworthy that his every act was in defiance of his orders -- he even technically mutinied to get away from his superior officer Richard Collinson. He also took a dangerous, largely unknown, route through the Aleutians to assure he arrived in the Arctic before Collinson (Brandt, p. 348). Even his officers seem to have disapproved of his conduct (Williams-Labyrinth, p. 298), and from the very beginning he was intent on undercutting and humiliating his second-in-command (Stein, p. 29).
Even when McClure's crew was rescued by sledges from ships in the east, he tried to leave his sick crew on his ship, so he could try to claim the prize money for making it through the passage (Stein, p. 218) -- but he couldn't convince the crew to do it (Berton, p. 248). McGooganRae, p. 261, says he "demonstrat[ed] a pathological passion to 'complete' a Northwest Passage at any cost." Fleming-Barrow, p. 405, calls his behavior at this time "a little mad," which may be an understatement; three of his crew were already dead, all had scurvy, and clearly they weren't strong enough to sail the vessel, but McClure tried to trick his superior into forcing them to stay with his ship.
He also pushed his crew to abandon the journals which would have documented his behavior (Savours, p. 222; Stein, p. 213, describes how he wrote this orders to pretend he was safeguarding the records). Some survived to show how badly he managed things (Williams-Labyrinth, p. 308), but Stein, p. 254, finds several cases where there is a gap at just the time when McClure's conduct was at its worst; it is as if they have been censored.
In the end, he had to be ordered to abandon his ship, even though it was clear that she could not be rescued; this little maneuver let him maintain that he had not lost his ship and that he had discovered the Northwest Passage (Stein, pp. 222-223). In writing all this up, he very carefully glossed over the five men who had died, and the others who were injured or ill, because of his vainglory (Stein, p. 227; Stein, p. 237, adds that several who survived probably had their lives shortened by their privations). What's more, he maneuvered it so that Henry Kellett and his men, who had rescued McClure and covered just about as much of the passage as McClure and Company, were left out of all the rewards (Wallace, pp. 138-139).
Wallace, pp. 97-98, observes that there are substantial similarities between the stories of the Franklin and McClure expeditions, and that the ending also would probably have been the same (a total loss) if McClure had been in the Passage alone; he and his crew only survived because all the other searchers were there also.
The only thing I can think of in McClure's defense is that he had lost a fortune through being disinherited at age twelve (Wallace, p. 93). This perhaps explains his obsession with success, but it certainly doesn't justify his methods!
What it came down to was that McClure's crew made the passage (from west to east) -- but no ship did. In the end, the eastern expeditions returned east, and the one surviving ship that had gone in from the west went back west, without their vessels meeting. Lambert, p. 244, suggests that the Admiralty accepted McClure's absurd claim of navigating the Passage just so they could shut down the Arctic mission and stop wasting time and money. But they also promoted McClure to captain (Stein, p. 228), so they don't seem to have really appreciated how badly he had performed. And they awarded 10,000 pounds for the discovery of the passage, including 5,000 to McClure (by comparison, his senior officers got 271 pounds, six shillings, four pence; able seamen were given 29 pounds, one shilling, five pence; Stein, p. 240).
On top of it all, Stein, p. 234, argues that McClure set things up to hand out medals to the sailors who had proved most loyal to him, not those who had done the best service. His wife was not so easily fooled; he blamed her, not himself, but he said that "I can never meet her again" (Stein, p. 235). Knighted in 1855, he commanded the Esk in the Second China War -- and was notorious for the extreme punishments he inflicted on his sailors. He was not given another command, although he was promoted rear admiral after he left the service (Stein, pp. 242-243).
Captain Richard Collinson, McClure's nominal boss, also discovered a passage (Delgado, p. 133), approximating that later used by Amundsen, and he did some good science while he was at it (Lambert, pp. 228-229). He also did a good job of keeping his crew alive; only six died, and none of them of specifically arctic problems, in a five year voyage (Neatby, p. 223). Indeed, he only flogged two crewmen in the entire time (Neatby, p. 222). He fought with his officers, but there isn't much doubt that he handled the Arctic better than any other explorer. Amundsen would later say that Collinson would get far too little credit for what he did; Savours, p. 307. A naval authority, Admiral Sir George Richards, declared is "the most remarkable [arctic voyage] of them all" (Neatby, p. 220). All that was needed after that was for someone to actually sail the passage it. (Although, if Collinson had tried, he might have gotten into real trouble, because his conflicts with his officers were so intense that they all were under arrest by the time he was done; Williams-Labyrinth, p. 314; Stein, p. 238; he might not have been able to navigate the narrow channels safely. An odd outcome, given that Wallace, p. 93, says that he was one of the "most magnanimous" of arctic explorers).
Collinson might well have learned the fate of Franklin, too, except that his interpreter had sailed with McClure, so he couldn't talk to the Inuit (Lambert, p. 229; Williams-Labyrinth, p. 313; Neatby, p. 223; Stein, p. 44; Neatby, p. 160, explains that McClure's ship had a cabin ready for him, and Collinson's didn't, so Collinson let the interpreter, Johan August Miertsching, start the voyage with McClure. Collinson meant to get him back, but McClure deliberately avoided making a rendezvous). Because of McClure's trick, Collinson didn't learn anything, but he was the only one in position to find out.
Poor Collinson gained little credit for his work, in part because McClure made it home first and in part because Collinson didn't actually follow the passage; according to Brandt, p. 362, the Admiralty never gave him another command. (According to Neatby, p. 226, he didn't try for one, given the way the Admiralty treated him. Given that they also mistreated Kellett and his men, the crews who rescued McClure -- Neatby, p. 228 -- I think Collinson had a point.) Lambert also suggests, pp. 237-238, that the Admiralty by that time wanted to suppress any mention of the Arctic. Yet, as his brother noted in editing his journals, he "demonstrated practically that it is navigable for ships" (quoted by Savours, p. 231) -- that is, Collinson, though he mapped only a small part of the Passage, was the first to sail a ship through large portions of it.
Ultimately, it was Collinson, not McClure or Franklin or anyone else, who proved that it was possible to get a ship through the Passage. Collinson also was the one who analyzed the Franklin reports found by McClintock and showed that Ross's erroneous map of King William (Is)land probably led Franklin to make his final mistake of passing west of that island (Lambert, p. 282).
It has been speculated that the sledging expedition of Graham Gore that left the "Victory Point Record," the one surviving record of the expedition (and the rarely-mentioned "Gore Point Record" that duplicates part of it), mapped Rae Straight and the other waterways that completed the passage, and that his report, when he got back to the ships, earned him a promotion to commander -- and caused Franklin to die of shock, since Franklin died just a few days after Gore placed the Victory Point document (Wallace, p. 61). This is barely possible, but completely beyond proof. It is noteworthy that Franklin did not sign the Victory Point Record, and that the word "commanding" had been crossed out, hinting that Franklin was already ill, or something, at the time the record was sealed (Woodman, p. 94). What's more, the practice was to solder the messages into their containers (Woodman, p. 95), which makes it interesting that it had been opened, an appendix added, and then left again. (And it was not re-soldered -- Woodman, p. 112 -- whether due to lack of time or equipment is not clear.)
It was not until 1903-1906 that Amundsen in the Gjoa made the actual passage from Baffin Bay to Beaufort Sea -- and even he didn't take the Lancaster/Melville/McClure route, but turned south from the Barrow Strait to take the route east and south of King William Island and then south of Victoria Island -- in effect combining the first part of Franklin's path with the main part of Collinson's.
Finally, in 1944, Larsen made it through the icy Lancaster/Melville passage. (Amazing to realize that, now, there are actual settlements -- Resolute and Grise Fjord, among others -- north of that route. Though Wilkinson, p. 78, notes an interesting point about Resolute: It is mostly a military base and airfield, designed to watch the Pole -- and it was supposed to be set up at Parry's Winter Harbor. But there was too much ice to get there, so they set up on Cornwallis Island instead. Winter Harbor ended up being the place where the first Arctic oil drilling began, though -- Wilkinson, p. 99.)
On January 25, 2011, I had the privilege to hear a talk by Roger Swanson, who sailed the passage in a boat called Cloud Nine in 2007 (a schooner-rigged sailing vessel with an auxiliary engine, built 1975), and afterward to talk for a few minutes with his wife Gaynelle Templin. For their trip, they had dramatic advantages over Franklin. For starters, they had better foods and knowledge of nutrition. Also, there are now enough settlements in the Canadian Arctic that they were able to refuel along the way. Plus they had radio -- and satellite-derived ice charts which allowed them to plan their route. And, even so, they had failed in previous attempts at the passage in 1994 and 2005; in the latter case, they had to be rescued by an icebreaker which happened to be nearby.
Theirs was the first American sailing vessel to cross the passage from east to west. It is their opinion that, even today, a sailing vessel without auxiliary power cannot make the passage. And that means that Franklin's ships, with their weak engines and limited coal supplies, could not make it either.
Nonetheless, the ice from Melville Sound to the Beaufort Sea opened completely in 2007 (Brandt, pp. 4-5), and we're seeing Russians taking tours in icebreakers (Brandt, p. 31). The passage is likely to be commercially viable soon. We're already seeing contests between Americans, Russians, and Canadians over who owns the land -- some recent Franklin exploration, including underwater searches for his ships, has been done by the Canadians in their attempts to stake their claim to the Passage territories (Brandt, pp. 8-9).
But why did the expedition fail to make it home? Why did they make the strange decisions they did, and why weren't they able to make it home? The ships could not make it through, but why did not the men come back? Crozier and company were far from anywhere when they abandoned ship, but they should still have had enough supplies to make it to one or another Hudson Bay Company outpost.
This is the second Great Mystery of the Franklin Expedition -- the one that endures to this day.
The obvious answer is, Scurvy, or vitamin C deficiency (cf. MSmith, p. 174, who estimates that the disease would have turned serious just about when Franklin died). As noted above, this had been the constant companion of long sea voyages for as long a men could remember; it nearly ruined Magellan's first circumnavigation of the globe.
Franklin's crews of course were given the standard rations of lemon juice -- but the standard ration is not by itself enough to prevent scurvy. On most ships, this doesn't matter; the crews get at least some fresh food. Not in the Arctic, though! And Vitamin C has an unfortunate tendency to degrade when exposed to light and air, so a dose of lemon juice that might have prevented scurvy in 1845 would have been too weak to do much good in 1847. Plus, Sherard Osborn noted that no canned materials were found among any of the relics found along King William Island. Although the survivors almost certainly had provisions left when they left the ships, they were likely in the form of salt meat and biscuits, which had no vitamin C at all (Savours, p. 297).
What's more, scurvy affects both the mind and the body; a man too badly afflicted might make the sort of strange decisions Crozier and his surviving officers are accused of having made. Williams-Labyrinth, pp. 354-355, thinks it the main explanation for what happened; so does Woodman, p. 100, who elsewhere notes that the Inuit descriptions of the men they saw fit men who suffered from scurvy.
Yet many deny the possibility of scurvy (e.g. Fleming-Barrow, p. 416 thinks it killed too quickly). And the one skeleton from the Franklin expedition properly examined (originally thought to be Lieutenant Henry Le Vesconte, but isotope analysis makes this impossible; the best bet now is surgeon Harry Goodsir; Potter, pp. 28-30) shows no evidence of scurvy (Potter, pp. 30-31). The flip side is, one of the few Inuit reports about the survivors says that their mouths were dry, bleeding, and black -- a good fit for scurvy.
Owen Beattie had another hypothesis. In 1984 and 1986, he autopsied the bodies of the first Franklin men to die (the three buried on Beechey Island in the first winter). He found extremely high levels of lead. He also looked at bones of the skeletons found along the path of the Franklin Expedition. He found strong evidence of scurvy (Beattie, p. 16) -- and more lead.
Emsley-Molecules, pp. 218-219, explains why lead is so dangerous: It interferes with the manufacture of hemoglobin, and causes the buildup of a precursor chemical. The intestines are heavily affected; there is also a high likelihood of fluid on the brain. Beattie's theory is that the men were driven mad by lead poisoning, which would explain their erratic behavior, and of course would make them less able to bear the privations of an arctic journey.
This would also explain the scriptural references on the graves of two of the three men on Beechey: "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways" and "Choose ye this day whom you will serve" (Williams-Labyrinth, p. 190; the quotes are from Haggai 1:5 or 1:7 and Joshua 24:15). Williams considers these to be rather strange and ominous quotes, perhaps indicating some sort of mental defect, but I don't really see it.
Beattie states clearly in his work that lead did not kill the three men he autopsied on Beechey, though it may have weakened them and left them vulnerable to other illnesses. Nonetheless, the lead theory has been widely repeated, often without even Beattie's cautions -- e.g. Emsley-Molecules, p. 217, blames the deaths on Beechey, and the failure of the Franklin expedition, solely on lead.
Emsley-Elements, p. 302, gives the measured opinion, "Lead may not have caused the deaths of the members of the expedition but it must have seriously weakened them and there is evidence that they also suffered from scurvy.... Whatever happened, the members of that ill-fated expedition certainly suffered from lead poisoning."
But while the lead theory has become popular, the evidence is far from complete -- Beattie examined only a handful of bodies, and only the three from Beechey Island were intact. And even if lead poisoning caused some of the other deaths, we cannot be sure if these men were typical.
If anything, the evidence for lead poisoning is stronger in the search expeditions -- e.g. nearly everyone in James Clark Ross's 1848 rescue crew came down sick for extended periods, and their problem does not appear to have been scurvy (Sandler, p. 93); it has all the hallmarks of lead affecting the digestion. (On the other hand, Lambert, p. 188, notes that the crew of this expedition was not carefully chosen, and their provisions may have been poor due to the problems of Irish famine relief; the real problem may just have been that it was an improperly-mounted expedition. James Ross had refused even to consider taking a steamship; Lambert, p. 185.)
Against the lead theory may be set the fact that the last message, written and signed by Crozier and FitzJames, seems largely coherent and reasonable. The men were debilitated, but not entirely mad. Berton, p. 146, mentions the lead theory but says flatly that "the main cause of death was clearly scurvy." MSmith, p. 181, and Lambert, p. 340, note that Crozier's decision to abandon the ships in April 1848 was rational: although the weather would be warmer later on, this was the best time to travel across the ice, which would still be firm after the winter. The decision may have been wrong, but it was probably the best Crozier could have done in the circumstances.
Watson, the most recent writer on the subject as of when I write, says on p. 48, "In the twenty-first century, scientists ruled out the suggestion that any of the metal ingested during the sailors' Arctic voyage had a significant impact." Woodman, p. xix, is less definitive but also says that the scientific evidence is against lead as the major cause of the disaster. Also, a study published in 2018 (which I have not seen, so I can't cite it) says that studies of the hair of one of the bodies on King William Island gives strong evidence that lead was not the culprit, because the body was showing LESS lead in his hair toward the end of his life. The best evidence is that the men's high lead levels were typical of people living at the time.
In any case, there is the question of where the lead came from. It is widely believed that it came from their food. It is not absolutely certain, as is widely stated, that the lead came from their canned goods. Lead was surprisingly common at this time -- "sugar of lead" (lead acetate) was still used as a sweetener (MacInnis-Poison, p. 53), and yellow lead as a food dye, and red lead was added to snuff and used to color Gloucester cheese (MacInnis-Poison, p. 45). And Watson, p. 18, says that the desalination apparatus in the ships used lead pipes; many people today suspect that the lead came from their water. (Not that it matters; what matters is if it affected them.)
Still, about a third of the provisions supplied to the Franklin Expedition came from canned food -- in tin cans sealed with lead. And yet, other expeditions also sailed with lead-sealed cans, and survived. Indeed, thirty-some years later, the Jeannette expedition suffered from lead poisoning (in the form of stomach cramps) -- and they identified the condition and corrected it (Guttridge, p. 158; or see "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay" for more on the Jeannette).
Still, canning was a new technology in 1845 -- the first version was developed by a Frenchman, Nicolas Appert, shortly before 1800 (Satin, p. 122). His method worked well, but it was based on glass bottles, which were fragile. What was wanted was a metal can. But this required experimentation -- because no one knew why Appert's method worked. Although the first British patent was granted in 1811, people were still tinkering with the techniques. The contract to supply the Franklin Expedition was so large that most canners had backed out. One who did not was Stephan Goldner -- who submitted by far the lowest bid.
Cookman, whose book is mostly about canning, portrays Goldner as the extreme villain of the piece, deliberately cheating the Admiralty. This need not follow -- all that is quite clear that Goldner was not up to the job he had contracted for. He was supposed to supply a variety of provisions -- canned vegetables, meats, soups -- mostly in small cans. He delivered almost nothing by the contract date, and was allowed to substitute large cans (cheaper and faster to manufacture) at the last moment (Satin, pp. 132-133, probably summarizing Cookman).
By the end of the 1850s, it would become clear that Goldner's methods simply didn't work. The hypothesis at the time was that oxygen caused spoilage (Satin, p. 125), which led to misunderstanding of how canning worked. The real problem was that Goldner did not cook the contents of the cans (especially the larger cans, which had a higher volume-to-surface-area ratio) sufficiently. Plus he didn't solder them tightly enough; the contents, in addition to being saturated with lead, very often rotted in the cans, or in some instances burst.
Franklin's wasn't the only expedition troubled by bad canned goods; both the McClure and Collinson parties found that much they had carried was rotten (Williams-Labyrinth, p. 313).
Cookman thinks that Goldner probably adulterated what he shipped, as well; since he was canning in the spring, there would have been few fresh vegetables, and little fatted meat, available. Between the inferior ingredients, the inadequate cooking, and the undeniably unsanitary conditions in Goldner's factory, the canned goods would almost certainly have been breeding grounds for bacteria. Including botulism bacteria.
Williams-Labyrinth, p. 367, offers some indirect support for this: Amundson, half a century after the Franklin expedition, talked to some Inuit who reported that their forebears had eaten canned goods presumably from Franklin's ships -- and some had become ill and some had died. But had they eaten from sealed cans, or from canned goods that had been opened and spoiled?
In any case, is this a quality control problem or deliberate cheating? Cookman thinks the latter -- but it appears that some contemporary Goldner products had proved acceptable (Beattie, p. 65), and that Goldner had given satisfaction in the past (Beattie, p. 45). And Cookman is demonstrably wrong in one charge against Goldner (p. 87, where Goldner, correctly, argued that round cans are structurally more sound than square. Goldner's explanation is imprecise, so Cookman calls it a lie even though the gist of it is true).
But deciding that Goldner was evil allowed Cookman to evolve a vision of the expedition which makes Franklin and Company look much better: At every stage their behavior was rational. They just kept dying of food-borne illnesses. The idea is old: as early as Austin's expedition, Captain Ommaney, counting the number of tins left on Beechey Island, thought that some of Franklin's food might have been bad. The only problem with Cookman's version it is that it's about 10% facts (the facts being Goldner's problems, the large number of cans in the camp on Beechey Island, and the known places where Franklin artifacts were found) and 90% Cookman -- and Cookman's writing tends to substitute speculation for fact; his history of the expedition often includes descriptions of events no one witnessed or could reconstruct from the available data (e.g. he actually tells us, p. 95, which hatches were bolted on Franklin's ships during the winter).
Still, MSmith, p. 150, mentions the botulism theory with some approval. Satin, who knows more about food chemistry, however says on p. 136 that "Although this premise is theoretically possible, it is unlikely." He points out on p. 137 that at least some of the canned products would have been consumed on the trip from England to the Davis Straight -- but no one died in that time. This argues that Goldner's cans were not directly poisoned.
That Goldner's products were inferior is certain; there were many complaints in the years after the Franklin expedition, and eventually the Admiralty imposed such stringent conditions on him that he appears to have been driven out of business. Even if his products weren't filled with lead or fatal bacteria, many of the cans probably contained spoiled food.
This would fit Beattie's autopsy of Marine Private William Braine, who was very tall for the period (about 6 feet/180 cm.) but utterly emaciated (about 40 kg/90 pounds); botulism frequently affects the digestion first, and other forms of food poisoning target the digestion even more.
In this regard, the Admiralty's decision to fit out a large expedition was probably largely to blame: The ships were modernized and up-to-date -- but, with so many hands, the crew could not possibly pick up enough food locally to significantly supplement their diets. (Indeed, it appears they didn't have anyone trained as a hunter.) They had to rely on provisions taken from England -- which, whether lead-contaminated or not, whether poison or not, whether vermin-infested or not, lacked Vitamin C and were guaranteed to produce scurvy.
It seems to me that all the individual theories have contradictions. If the problem were lead alone, then there was enough food, so why cannibalism? If it were scurvy alone, again, why cannibalism? If it were botulism alone, then why were there so few deaths on Beechey Island? Hundreds of cans were discarded, yet only three men died, at least one of them primarily of tuberculosis. Even when the men abandoned the ships, the casualties were still only in the dozens. Goldner's cans may have been filled with junk, but at most a tiny fraction could have contained actual toxins. And if there were no toxins, then Cookman's diatribe against Goldner has no point.
One thing I note is that very many Arctic expeditions -- e.g. those of Kane, Hall, and Greely, for which see "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay," and the Karluk voyage, for which see "Captain Bob Bartlett" -- ended in madness and insubordination. Keating, p. 44, refers to "Arctic madness" as early as the time of Henry Hudson.
It probably started even earlier than that. Martin Frobisher, the first man to seek the Northwest Passage, came to blows with some of his captains during his third voyage to Baffin Bay (McGhee, pp. 143-145). Henry Hudson's crew set him adrift in Hudson's bay because he would not abandon the weaker members of the party (Mirsky, pp. 62-63; WoodmanR, pp. 36-40, thinks that the madness was actually Hudson's, not his men's, but either way, someone was nuts).
Williams-Labyrinth, p. 67, describes quarrels between Luke Foxe and his subordinates as the reached the far north. Williams-Delusion, pp. 16-17, tells of exploring parties sent by the Hudson's Bay Company in which men -- often the leaders -- lost their minds; in a later expedition, two ship captains ended up quarrelling over something as trivial as who distributed ptarmigan brought in by Indians (Williams-Delusion, p. 173), and the officers were accusing each other of plotting murder (Williams-Delusion, p. 175).
Thomas Collinson, who edited the journals of his brother Richard Collinson, confessed "there appears to be something in that particular service... that stirs up the bile and promotes bitter feelings" (Berton, p. 296). Thomas Simpson, who explored part of the Arctic shore, died in the north either by suicide or as a result of an attack by his men because he was so harsh (Wallace, p. 43). Berton concludes on pp. 392-393, "The history of Arctic exploration is riddled with irrational decisions and events."
The Arctic brought out the worst in men, and not just because of hunger and scurvy. Noah Hayes, who was on Charles Francis Hall's 1871 expedition, wrote "I believe that no man can retain the use of his faculties through one long [Arctic] night" (quoted in Fleming-North, p. 145).
That there was an Arctic disorder seems clear. I've not seen any writing fully explaining it, though -- seasonal affective disorder might play a part (the Inuit actually had a name for that; they called it "perlerorneq"; MSmith, p. 175) , but it hardly seems sufficient. Woodman, p. 113, calls it "arctic sickness" and quotes another source that calls it "arctic scurvy"; they agree that it was more than just scurvy, although they don't know why. Besides, Joseph-Elzear Bernier still found it striking his men in the twentieth century, when they had electric lighting (Williams-Labyrinth, pp. 370-371; he describes his men as depressed). Perhaps SAD plus incipient vitamin deficiency? Or calcium deficiency? In Robert Peary's later expedition, his Inuit were sometimes attacked by a disease called piblokto, which produced vicious and erratic behavior; it is now thought to be caused by lack of calcium (see Fleming-North, p. 359). Reading the accounts of Dr. Frederick A. Cook's arctic quest, I thought his behavior evidence of some sort of mental disturbance, and Bryce, p. 844, quotes another source who had the same thought.
Lambert, p. 339, declares "arctic scurvy" to be "a more complex phenomenon" than ordinary scurvy, suggesting that other vitamin deficiencies were involved. Williams-Labyrinth, p. 78, suggests that men in the arctic drank more to keep warm (or at least to feel warmer), and this might make the effects worse.
Whatever the "arctic madness" was, who is to say it didn't affect the Franklin expedition?
The books I've consulted all seem quite certain about their hypotheses. But it appears that, barring additional evidence, we simply cannot be sure. It is true that occasional relics continue to turn up, but they don't tell us much. Barring some other written record -- and, after 150 years, such a record is unlikely to be found -- we will remain as uncertain as the author of this song.
Probably the best conclusion is Satin's (p. 136), that scurvy, disease, malnutrition, and lead all played a part. Similarly, Lambert, p. 343, suggests a combination of factors: Mostly scurvy, a little seasonal affective disorder, some lead, plus despair and other dietary deficiencies (although on 345 he declares, "Faced with ample evidence that the men died of scurvy and starvation there is no need for speculation"). No one item was fatal. Together, they were.
Lambert, p. 345, makes another point: That, at the time the ships were abandoned, nine officers had already died, leaving only six officers still alive -- hardly enough to control the men and navigate their routes.
It's pretty useless at this stage to assign blame, but it's worth noting that not everyone thinks Franklin entirely at fault for the disaster. His reputation has had a curious history -- the British at first treated him as a near-saint. Then came the reaction in which he was treated as a fool. Now there are various attempts to vindicate him. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. A wiser man would probably have done better with the materials he had at hand, but it was not Franklin who designed the expedition. That was done by John Barrow, the Admiralty Second Secretary. Cookman, p. 204, blames Barrow explicitly; Fleming-Barrow implies it repeatedly. Ironic, then, that I have never seen a version of this song which mentions Barrow.
Moss, p. 221, suggests that the Franklin Expedition inspired The Hunting of the Snark to Lewis Carroll. I grant some faint similarities, but the differences are tremendous -- and it should be remembered that Carroll told us how the Snark came to be, and it was composed from the last line backward, with no hint of which way the plot would go.
Still, the Franklin search did inspire a lot of poetry, although this seems to be the only traditional song. Tennyson's epitaph for his kinsman can be seen on the Franklin monument. A few snippets of some of the others can be found on pp. 394-395 of Brandt, and Alexander, p. 244, has a rather pathetic short piece.
For the later fates of some Franklin searchers, who then turned to North Pole exploration, see "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay."
It's interesting to note that the Fox, which discovered the fate of the Franklin Expedition, herself became the subject of a sort of hunt. After her work under McClintock, she spent decades running supplied around Greenland, ran aground and was abandoned in 1912, broke up in 1940, and was recently explored by archaeologists (DelgadoHunter, p. 188).
Nor were the members of the Franklin expedition, nor even those who sought her in the nineteenth century, the last casualties of the passage. Martin Bergmann, who was helping to coordinate Canada's search for Franklin's ships in the twenty-first century, died in 2011 when the plane he was riding crashed while trying to land at Resolute (Watson, pp. 304-305). The Arctic still holds her secrets close....
Watson, p. 288, never mentions this song, but he does say that singing Stan Rogers's "Northwest Passage" has become a "required ritual" for arctic archaeologists. - RBW
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland states that 151C is a different song from 151A and 151B. The text is
We sailed away down Baffin Bay,
Where the nights and days were one;
And the Huskimaw in his skin canoe,
That was the only living soul.
The ice-king came with his eyes aflame,
Perched on our noble crew,
And his chilly breath was cold as death,
It pierced our warm hearts through.
- BS
It is noteworthy that Laws does not list that song with this piece, and most of the lines quoted above are not normally found in "Lady Franklin's Lament." The reference to Eskimos, however, *is* found in other Franklin versions, so (given the rarity of this version), I'm still lumping the songs for the moment.
Incidentally, though the word "Huskimaw" for "Eskimo" seems to be extinct today, it was common enough in the past that it gave rise to the name "husky" for arctic dogs. (Thanks to J. V. Arkle and Lyle Lofgren for bringing this to my attention.) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LK09C

Lady Franklin's Lament for Her Husband

See Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9] (File: LK09)

Lady Gay (I)

See The Wife of Usher's Well [Child 79] (File: C079)

Lady Greensleeves

See Greensleeves (File: ChWI239)

Lady in the Boat, A

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme: "A lady in the boat With a red petticoat And her name is... MISS!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Journal of Genetic Psychology, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: ship clothes jumprope derivative | name
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #303, "A Lady in the boat" (1 text)
NOTES [37 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes says that this "resembles a riddle whose referent is 'the clitoris.'" Which raises the obvious suspicion that some child heard the riddle, didn't understand it, and made it into a jump-rope game. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR303

Lady in the Dining Room

See Ladies in the Dining Room (File: LxSi070)

Lady In The East, The

See There Was a Lady in the East (File: Pea726)

Lady in the Tight Skirt

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Lady in the tight skirt Can't do this, Lady in the tight skirt, Can't do this," and repeat indefinitely
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: clothes jumprope
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #304, "Lady in the tight skirt" (1 text)
Roud #20152
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Spanish Dancer" (lyrics)
NOTES [32 words]: To me, this feels as if it might be a fragment of "Spanish Dancer" (e.g. the "Dolly Dimple can't do this" variant), but Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes and Roud both separate them, so I do so also. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR304

Lady Isabel [Child 261]

DESCRIPTION: Isabel's stepmother accuses Isabel of being "her father's whore," and tries to have her drink (poisoned) wine. At church; her mother advises her to take the poison. She bids farewell to her servants, drinks the poison, and dies. The stepmother goes mad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1818 (Glenbuchat Ballads)
KEYWORDS: death stepmother poison homicide mother wine sex father incest
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 261, "Lady Isabel" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 109-112, "Burd Isbell" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 633-635, "Lady Isabel" (1 text)
Roud #3884
NOTES [99 words]: Something seems to be wrong with this ballad; there are too many loose ends. While the stepmother's actions are perhaps understandable (she thinks Isabel's father pays more attention to his daughter than his new wife), Isabel's love beyond the sea appears for only one stanza, her mother's behavior is inexplicable, and Isabel is much too passive. Presumably something has been lost.
Given that one version calls the wonan "Burd Isabel," I'm going to wildly speculate that one of the missing items is a pregnancy; for this, see the notes to "Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane" [Child 28]. - RBW- RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C261

Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4]

DESCRIPTION: A knight woos a lady. He will marry her if she runs away with him. He leads her to the seashore and threatens to drown/kill her as he has killed others before. She makes him turn his back and kills him instead. She bribes her parrot to keep her secret
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: elopement homicide seduction bird lie
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland) US(All) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Ireland Australia; analogues in Poland, Germany, France, Scandinavia, Netherlands
REFERENCES (100 citations):
Child 4, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (8 texts)
Bronson 4, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (144 versions plus 2 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 4, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (16 versions: #28, #30, #40, #56, #61, #67, #81, #83, #95, #98, #101, #106, #124, #127, #130, #135)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 206-210, "May Collean" (1 text)
Dixon-ScottishTraditionalVersionsOfAncientBallads XI, pp. 63-65, "The Water o' Wearie's Well" (1 text, plus an "Outlandish Knight" text on pp. 101-104 in the notes)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #5, pp. 74-77,242-243, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 142-144, "The Water o' Wearie's Well"; pp. 281-284, "The Outlandish Knight" (2 texts)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 122-125, "Wearies Wells/Wearie's Wells" (2 texts)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 159-161, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 504)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 48-50, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 26-29,172, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 2 tunes)
OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire 11, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 50-51, "The Outlandish Knight (The Dappledy Grey)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #127, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #106, pp. 1-2, "May Colvin" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 225, "May Colvin" (2 texts)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 34, "May Colyean" (1 text)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 130-131, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #29}
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 164-165, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #58, "The False-Hearted Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 53-56, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 81-83, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp.14-34, "The False-Hearted Knight" (8 texts plus a fragment, 6 tunes; the "B" text is probably mixed as it starts with first person verses from the false knight) {Bronson's #50, #22, #35, #81, #5, #13}
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 30-32, "The Six Kings' Daughters" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #107}
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 190-192, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #130}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 4-7, "The False-Hearted Knight"; pp. 109-111, "The Castle by the Sea"; pp. 129-131, "The Outlandish Knight" (3 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #138 ,#57, #141}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 82-123, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (14 text plus 5 fragments, 12 tunes; the "C" and "D" texts have scraps from "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" [Child 105], and the "J" fragment also appears to be mixed) {A=Bronson's #138, E=#141, F=#130, I=#60, N=#57}
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 115-117, "The False Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 5-16, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (8 texts plus variants)
Randolph 2, "Pretty Polly Ann" (4 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #121, C=#86, E=#131}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 16-18, "Pretty Polly Ann" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 2A) {Bronson's #121}
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 10-11, "Willie Came Over the Ocean" (1 text)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 54-55, "Billy Came over the Main White Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #132}
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #1, "The King's Daugter Fair" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 8, "Lady Isabell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 2, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (4 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #49, #89}
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 3, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (3 texts, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 266-269, "SIx Kings' Daughters" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 1, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knightl" (1 text plus a fragment and mention of 1 more, 1 tune) {Bronson's #92}
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 199-200, "Six Kings' Daughters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 3, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (17 texts plus 2 fragments, 7 tunes entitled 'Pretty Polly," "The Nine King's Daughters," "The Seven King's Daughters," "The False-Hearted Knight," "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight"; 9 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) { {Bronson's #103, #146, #23, #104, #2, #19, #24}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 4, pp. 16-25, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (3 texts, including one reconstructed, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 2, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (7 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 2, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (6 excerpts, 6 tunes, although it is not absolutely clear from some of the texts are this song)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 2, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (2 fragments)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, #I, pp. 97-100, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (2 texts)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #145, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #77}
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 1, pp. 61-66, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (3 texts plus a fragment)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 10, "The King's Seven Daughters" (1 text, 1 tune) {same informant and a very similar text to Bronson's #124, although the transcription is very different}; 11, "Pretty Polly" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #98}
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 1, pp. 1-4, "The King's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune) [supposedly from the same informant as Bronson's #14, but neither the text nor the tune is the same}
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 43-45, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #120}
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 127-128, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (1 short text, apparently without a local title, consisting mostly of the ending with little of the initial seduction)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 2-9, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (4 texts plus 3 fragments, 4 tunes) {Bronson's #74, #44, #42, #43}
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 1, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #73}
Peacock, pp. 206-207, "The King's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 40, "The Dapherd Grey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 1, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 1, "Pretty Polly" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #61}
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 53, "The Gates of Ivory (Doors of Ivory)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 72-76, "Doors of Ivory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 53-59, ""Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (3 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 15-20, "May Collin and the Knight" (1 text)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 82, "Six Kings Daughters" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #109}
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 143-145, "The Seventh Sister" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 2-3, "False Sir John" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #102, which has two fewer verses and transcribes the tune rather differently}
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 34-36, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #76}
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 6-10, "Pretty Polly" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 8, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight"; 10, "May Colvin" (2 texts)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 10, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (2 texts)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 41, "The Castle by the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 12, "Lady Isobel and the Elf-Knight" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 11, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #28a}
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 4, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (3 texts, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's#96}
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 3 "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (10 texts, 10 tunes) {Bronson's #110, #106, #9, #111, #116, #99, #118, #100, #135, #55}
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 4, "The Outlandish Knight (Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (1 text, 1 tune, somewhat edited and expanded) {Bronson's #99}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 9, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #28}
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 60-61, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #64}
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 80-81, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #39, though Bronson has a different title and no text}
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H163, pp. 413-414, "The King o' Spain's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 13, "The Parrot Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 8, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #44}
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 28 ,"Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 42, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 32, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 1, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (9 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #126}
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #IA-B, pp. 5-9, "The False Sir John," "Six Kings' Daughters (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #128, #127}
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 90-93, "The False-Hearted Knight and the Pretty Carol Lynn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 6-7, "The Six King's Daughters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #4, "The King's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 2, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 27-30, "May Colvin" (2 texts)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 75-78, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 188, "Lady Isabel And The Elf Knight" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 23-26, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (2 texts)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN975, "Go fetch me some of your father's gold" (said to be combined from several Child ballads)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Uncle Pat Fry: Yadkin County Minstrel or The Blind Balladeer of East Bend," Vol. XVI, No. 3 (Nov 1968), pp. 157-159, "The Seventh King's Daughter" (1 text)
DT 4, OUTKNGHT* ELFKNGHT* WILLWTRE* KNGSPAIN* FLSESIRJ
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; notes to #427, ("The Water o' Wearie's Well") (1 text)
Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 390-393, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leslie Shepard, _John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844_, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 38, "The Outlandish Knight" (reprint of a Pitts broadside)
Roud #21
RECORDINGS:
Jumbo Brightwell, "The False-Hearted Knight" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
Bill Cassidy, "Pretty Polly" (on IRTravellers01)
Kitty Cassidy, "Along the North Strand" (on IRCassidyFamily01)
Lena Bourne Fish, "Castle by the Sea" [excerpt] (on USWarnerColl01)
Mary Anne Haynes, "The Young Officer" (on Voice11)
Fred Jordan, "The Outlandish Knight (Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight)" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1) (on FJordan01, HiddenE)
Sam Larner, "The Outlandish Knight" (on SLarner01)
Corney McDaid, "False Lover John" (on IREarlyBallads)
Jean Ritchie, "False Sir John" (on JRitchie01) {Bronson's #102}
Clara Hawks Tracy, "Pretty Polly, or The False-Hearted Knight (on USWolfRiver)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 244, "The Outlandish Knight" ("An outlandish knight came from the north lands"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.21(15), Firth c.21(16), 2806 c.17(323), Firth c.26(230), Harding B 11(2886), Harding B 11(2887), Harding B 11(2889), Harding B 11(2890), Harding B 11(2891), "[The] Outlandish Knight"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fair Eleanor (II)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
King of Spain's Daughter
Lady Ishbel and Her Parrot
King William's Son
The Courting of Aramalee
May Colvin
An Outlandish Rover
The Highway Robber
The Old Beau
Halewijn
The Seventh King's Daughter
Pretty Cold Rain
Sweet William
The Six Fair Maids
The Hinges of Ivory
The Prating Parrot
NOTES [773 words]: Many hypotheses have been offered as to the origin of this ballad (closely connected with the Franko-Dutch tale of Halwijn; Entwistle, p. xiii, mentions as parallels "Rico Franco," "Frere Renaud," "Ulinger," and "the original Dutch Halewijn"). The most widely known is Bugge's theory that this is a corrupt form of the tale of Judith, found in the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books of the Bible.
It should be noted, however, that the only actual parallel between Judith and Lady Isabel is that both end with the bad guy being killed by the heroine. (Some of the European parallels are closer, but we're talking about the English ballad.) Among the substantial differences between the tales:
Judith was a beautiful widow (Judith 8:2-4, 7) who was tricking (Judith 8:32-34) the invading general Holofernes (who, we might note, is clearly fictional -- the whole book of Judith is patently unhistorical, as is shown by its reference in 1:1 to Nebuchadnezzar who ruled the Assyrians from Ninevah. Nebuchadnezzar was a Chaldean of Babylon, and his father had in fact destroyed Ninevah before Nebuchadnezzar took the throne). Unlike the tale of Judith, in "Lady Isabel" the man tricks the inexperienced girl.
Judith was trying to save her people; the girl in this song is just trying to save her skin.
Judith cut off Holofernes's head with his own sword (Judith 13:6-8). The girl in this song of course threw her betrayer off a cliff.
A comprehensive study of the origins of this piece is offered by Holger Olof Nygard in "Ballad Source Study: Child Ballad No. 4 as Exemplar" (first printed in the Journal of American Folklore, LXV, 1952; see Leach/Coffin, pp. 189- 203). Nygard concludes that none of the theories of origin is accurate, and I heartily agree. This piece stands on its own.
Shippey, p. 58, based on the mention of an "Elf Knight," suggests that the song arises because the Knight uses the elvish power of "glamour" to enchant the girl and overwhelm her defenses. An interesting point, but such applies only if the knight is an "elf knight," and he is often an "outlandish knight" or simply a knight from elsewhere. Of course, if he had been an elf knight in the original, then that could have been enough to establishthe plot.
Underwood, p. 383, associates this song with Lendalfoot in Ayreshire, and claims that "mysterious shrill cries and strangely fading screams are still heard there." One has to suspect that this is one of those legends that arose after the song. - RBW
MacColl & Seeger cite a German broadside, c. 1550. - PJS
Of course, most of the alleged parallels to this piece (few of which are *truly* parallel) are in German and Scandinavian literature. As a matter of fact. a brief item in Sing Out!, Volume 29, #1, p. 10, suggests that the story runs the other way -- that is, that a German folktale derives from this song. In this tale, a man makes a deal with the devil that makes him (or his music) irresistible to women. The devil's price is that the fiend will get every twelfth soul the man catches. The man ravishes and kills eleven women, but when he attempts to take the twelfth, she or her brother (or her brother in disguise, or something) manages to kill the murderer instead. As the murderer dies, a voice is heard on the wind, "The twelfth soul is mine."
Note that the trick of asking a brief delay before the murder, and using the time to prevent it, also occurs in many versions of the Bluebeard legend.
Child's notes on this ballad are so long that I may have missed the discussion, but a parallel that strikes me as closer than most of these is with the tale of Custace (Constance), as told in Nicolas of Trivet's history (which formed the basis of Chaucer's "Man of Law's Tale"). She had a long list of adventures, in one of which she survived a potential attacker; "It may be, as Trivet suggested, that she was more clever than strong as she crept up behind the lustful servant and pushed him into the sea" (Corsa, pp. 131-132 ).
In a letter referring to the popularity of this piece, Child himself commented that he was "at work on the everlasting ballad of May Colvin, which from its universal distribution takes more time than any half dozen"; see Brown, p. 103. - RBW
See "The Twa Sisters" [Child 10] discussion of Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory's "King Daniel" and "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" [Child 81] discussion of "Matty Gru," for Caribbean examples of the parrot introduced as messenger in other Child ballads.
Also collected and sung by Kevin Mitchell, "False Lover John" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C004

Lady Isabella's Tragedy

DESCRIPTION: Isabella's envious step-mother bargains with the cook to kill Isabella. He does and bakes her into a mince pie. The scullion-boy, a witness, tells her father. Step-mother is burned at the stake. Cook is boiled in lead. Scullion-boy becomes heir.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1667 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 1(111a))
KEYWORDS: execution homicide cannibalism father stepmother cook
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 7, "The Cruel Stepmother" (1 text)
GlanbuchatBallads, pp. 145-145, "The Cruel Stepmother" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 155-158, "The Lady Isabella's Tragedy" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1888 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. VI Part 3 [Part 18], pp. 650-652, "The Lady Isabella's Tragedy" or "The Step-Mother's Cruelty" (1 text)
Thomas Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (London, 1887 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III, #14 pp. 155-158, "Lady Isabella's Tragedy" (1 text)
John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 302-305, "Lady Isabella's Tragedy" (1 text)
Roud #3853
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(111a), "The Lady Isabella's Tragedy" or "The Stepmothers Cruelty" ("There was a lord of worthy fame"), Elizabeth Andrews (London), 1664-1666; also Wood E 25(54), Douce Ballads 2(142b), "The Lady Isabella's Tragedy" or "The Step Mothers Cruelty"; Harding B 5(6), "The Lady Isabella's Tragedy" or "The Step Mother Cruelty; Douce Ballads 2(142b), Douce Ballads 3(60a), "The Lady Isabella's Tragedy" or "The Step-Mother's Cruelty"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lady's Fall" (tune, per Pepys Collection)
cf. "Fair Rosamond" or "Chivy Chase[sic]" (tune, per broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 1(111a))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Step-Mother's Cruelty
NOTES [235 words]: Percy: "This ballad is given from an old black-letter copy in the Pepys Collection, collated with another in the British Museum, H. 263, folio. It is there intitled, 'The Lady Isabella's Tragedy, of the Step-Mother's Cruelty .... To the tune of, The Lady's Fall.'" Child (Francis James Child, English and Scottish Ballads (Boston, 1860) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III, pp. 366-368, "Lady Isabella's Tragedy" (1 text)) quotes Percy's statement and adds, "The copy in Durfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy, v.53, is nearly verbatim the same."
Ebsworth adds "Their Lamentation," four verses describing the confession and execution of the master-cook and step-mother. "Now let their deaths a warning be to all that hear this song."
Ebsworth dates the Roxburghe text from a broadside to "c.1672."
"Cannibalism" is planned but not realized. Father comes home and asks that his daughter carve the meat. Stepmother says that the daughter "into some nunnery she is gone." The stepmother then tells the father to "sit downe to meat." The scullion-boy says, "If now you will your daughter see, My lord, cut up that pye: Wherein her fleshe is minced small and parched with the fire." - BS
The similarity to the story of Atreus, Thyestes, and the children of Thyestes is obvious; I have to suspect literary dependence. This may explain Child's sarcastic remark that this is "the silliest ballad that was ever made." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: LyCr107

Lady Ishbel and Her Parrot

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Lady Jane (I)

See Fair Annie [Child 62] (File: C062)

Lady Jane (II)

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

Lady Jean (I)

DESCRIPTION: Jean's parents arrange her wedding to Lord Dacre. Jean sends for Umphreville, her lover, to rescue her. Dacre is greeted by Jean's parents. The priest prepares for the ceremony. Dacre finds Jean has eloped with Umphreville. Her parents rage and mourn.
AUTHOR: Robert White (source: Whitelaw and Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (_The Local Historian's Table Book for Northumberland and Durham_, according to Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast and Whitelaw)
KEYWORDS: elopement love wedding rescue father mother sister
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #156, p. 1, "Otterburn" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1027, "Otterburn" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 67-68, "Lady Jean" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry ... with [an anonymous] Supplement (Porter & Coates, Philadelphia, 1876), pp. 520-522, "Lady Jean"
Roud #6305
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John of Hazelgreen" [Child 293] (plot)
cf. "Nancy Dawson" (plot)
NOTES [218 words]: We learn the story by a dialog between Lady Jean and her confidant and sister, Ellen.
The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry ... adds an Addenda, edited anonymously (obviously not Percy (1729-1811) since it includes references to Richardson's 1842-1846 The Local Historian's Table Book of Remarkable Occurences ...)
Greig: "Our version of this ballad has been communicated by Miss B.I. Fowlie, Methlick, who learned it from her mother. I find that it was written by Robert White, and appeared originally in 'The Local Historian's Table Book for Northumberland and Durham' (1842) [Moses Aaron Richardson, The Local Historian's Table Book of Remarkable Occurences ... connected with the counties of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland and Durham, (Newcastle-upon-Tyne,1842-1846)].... Miss Fowlie's copy of the ballad represents the version that has begun to be traditional. Comparing it with the original, we find that while some verses have dropped out, changes in the text are few and unimportant - a fact that indicates an accuracy of memory much above the average."
The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry ...: "Who the author of this Ballad is, I know not: it appeared in Richardson's Table Book, with the initials R.W. appended to it."
Whitelaw has the author as Robert White, confirming Greig. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD1027

Lady Jean (II)

See The King's Dochter Lady Jean [Child 52] (File: C052)

Lady Keith's Lament

See When the King Comes O'er the Water (Lady Keith's Lament) (File: Hogg1027)

Lady Leroy, The [Laws N5]

DESCRIPTION: A girl and her lover want to escape her father. She disguises herself and buys the Lady Leroy from her father. The father sends a ship to intercept them, but the girl captures her father's ship and sends it home. She and her lover continue on their way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1895 (JAFL8)
KEYWORDS: love escape disguise ship
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,So) Canada(Newf,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Laws N5, "The Lady Leroy"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 180-182, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 58, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 72-73, "Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune) (pp. 60-61 in the 1919 edition)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 399-400, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 137-138, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 92-93, "Fair Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 33-34, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 63, "Lady Leroy" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 24, pp. 32-33, "Lady Leroy" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 118, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 155, "Sally and Her Lover, or Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H214, pp. 445-446, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 111, "The Lady Uri" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 208-209, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 25, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 39, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 440, LADYLROY LADYLRO2
Roud #1889
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Lady Leroy" (AFS 4205 B1 and 4205 A2 [last verse], 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell); "The Fair Captive [wrong title, fragment]" (AFS 4205 A2, 1938; in AMMEM/Cowell)
NOTES [79 words]: The LC recordings are a bit of a mess. The one identified as "The Fair Captive" has numbers listed as AFS 4205 A1 and A2, but clicking on any of the audio links brings down only A2, which is definitely "Lady Leroy" or a fragment thereof. The listing under "The Lady Leroy," on the other hand, has a full version, 4205 B1, plus the same fragment, which is really the last verse of "The Lady Leroy." "The Fair Captive" is actually recorded, in full, on AFS 4201 B1. Got that? - PJS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LN05

Lady Lived on the Muirland Hills, A

See The Widow of Westmoreland's Daughter (File: DTwidwst)

Lady Locket

See Lucy Locket (I) (File: OpOx312)

Lady Maisery

See Lady Maisry [Child 65] (File: C065)

Lady Maisry (II)

See Mother, Mother, Make My Bed (File: VWL071)

Lady Maisry [Child 65]

DESCRIPTION: The Scottish heroine loves an English lord above all Scots. Her family, learning of her love and (in most versions) her pregnancy, prepare to burn her. She sends tokens to her love, but she has been burnt before he can arrive. (He takes bitter vengeance)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783/1799 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: love separation death hate hardheartedness family execution revenge suicide
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Child 65, "Lady Maisry" (11 texts)
Bronson 65, "Lady Maisry" (13 versions, though some of these are really "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed")
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 65, "Lady Maisry" (3 versions: #1#8, #12)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 152-159, "Lady Maisery" (2 parallel texts plus a photo of the badly-transcribed tune; also a reconstructed tune on p. 275)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 448-449, "Lady Maisry" (notes only)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 117-119, "Bonnie Susie Cleland" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #3, "Bonnie Susie Cleland" (1 fragment, 1 tune, with extra text from other versions) {Bronson's #3, although Bronson doesn't have all the padding)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 16, "Lady Maisry" (2 fragments, the first probably this but the second is only the verse of the messenger boy swimming the river; I suspect it's actually from "Little Musgrave," or "Mother, Mother," or "Lord Lovell," or some other such source)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 17 "Lady Maisry" (2 texts, 2 tunes){Bronson's #13, #12}
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 10, "Lady Maisry" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 2, "Lady Maisry" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 208-213, "Lady Maisry" (2 texts)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 74, "Lady Maisry" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 214-216, "Lady Maisry" (1 text)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 5, "Bonnie Susie Cleland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 73, "Lady Maisry" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 40, "Janet (Lady Maisry)" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 26, "Lady Maisry" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the second is short, and appears to be a mixed text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 218-222+352, "Lady Maisry" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 11, "Lady Maisry", 29, "Lady Maisry" (2 texts, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's #1}
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, p.. 37-41, "Lady Mazrey" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 138, "The Burning o' Lady Marjorie" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 294-295, "Bonnie Susie Cleland" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 63-66, "Lady Maisry" (1 text)
DT 65, SCLELAND* LMAISRY *
Roud #45
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Stolen Bride" (plot)
cf. "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" (lyrics)
cf. "Kafoozalem (I)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sweet Maisry
Lord Dillard and Lady Flora
NOTES [487 words]: Bronson, Scarborough, Roud (initially) and probably others, have filed "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" with "Lady Maisry," but that ballad (composed largely of floating elements) lacks key plot elements, notably the reasons for, and fact of, the girl's condemnation and death. It appears to be a separate song, though perhaps composed on the fragments of this song.
Interestingly, it appears that every text Bronson has of "Mother, Mother" is part of his "C" tune group, and every text in the "C" group is either "Mother, Mother" or is too short to allow identification.
I also somewhat question the placing of "Bonnie Susie Cleland" with the other versions of "Lady Maisry." The plot is the same, but the form is very different, and Bronson places the two "Susie Cleland" tunes in a separate group from all the others (his "B"). It all feels like a deliberate rewrite to me. It has been suggested that William Motherwell might have produced "Susie Cleland." On the other hand, Fowler, pp. 206-307, seems to suggest that Anna Gordon Brown of Falkland produced "Lady Maisry" -- which raises at least the possibility that "Susie" is the original and "Maisry" the rewrite.
The tale of a father murdering his daughter for some reason or other goes back in western folklore at least to Agamemnon and Iphigenia. Even earlier is the Biblical tale of Jephthah sacrificing his only daughter in fulfillment of a vow (Judges 11:30-40). There have been attempts to link this to folk tales or nature religions (InterpretersDict, volume II, p. 821; AbingdonComm, p. 368, and HastingsDict, pp.. 431-432, all compare it to the "weeping for Tammuz" of Ezekiel 8:14), although all such parallels seem like a bit of a stretch to me.
These tales share a theme of a father killing a daughter but very little in the way of motivation -- both Agamemnon's and Jephthah's daughters were sacrificed.. A better parallel, because it is a punishment rather than a sacrifice, may be afforded by the case of Saint Barbara. Barbara supposedly lived in the fourth century, and was a very pretty girl -- but she was a Christian among pagans. The details of the story vary, but they agree that she was executed for her faith, with her father being the one who actually struck the fatal blow (DictSaints, p. 27). The year supposedly was 306, the place Heliopolis in Egypt (Haziltt, p. 26). Her feast day is December 4.
The improbability of the whole story is shown by the fact that the father was slain by lightning moments later -- a detail which "Susie Cleland" quite properly omits. As far as I know, the story is pure fiction; at least, checking half a dozen histories of the Christian church did not turn up a single reference to the tale of Saint Barbara. It may bear some relation to the well-known folk tale of "Rapunzel" (Tatar, p. 105).
Another motivated version is Chaucer's "Physician's Tale," in which Virginia is killed to preserve her virtue. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: C065

Lady Margaret (I)

See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Lady Margaret (II)

See Sweet William's Ghost [Child 77] (File: C077)

Lady Margaret (III)

See Tam Lin [Child 39] (File: C039)

Lady Margaret (IV)

See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Lady Margaret and King William

See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Lady Margaret and Lord William

See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Lady Margaret and Sweet William (I)

See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Lady Margaret and Sweet William (II)

See Sweet William's Ghost [Child 77] (File: C077)

Lady Margaret and Sweit Willie

DESCRIPTION: Willie rapes Lady Margaret. He asks her to marry. She warns him not to press the issue. He persists and tells of his riches, including his ships. She curses his riches and would have him drown on his ship. Her curses are realized and he drowns.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Willie follows and rapes Lady Margaret. He asks her to marry. She rejects the offer and warns him not to press the issue. He lists his inventory of riches: a dozen cows that have not calved, a dozen ewes that haven't lambed, a dozen mares that haven't foaled, a dozen mills that have never failed, and a dozen ships upon the sea. He asks her to marry. She curses his cows to never calve, his ewes to never lamb, his mares to cast their foals, his mills to fail, and his ships to "rock and row and tumble ye in the sea." She says again that, having taken her maidenhead "ye'd better let it be." His cows never calve, ewes never lamb, mares cast their foals, mills fail, his ships "rock and row and drounit him in the sea" because he took her maidenhead and would not "let it be."
KEYWORDS: rape rejection warning punishment drowning curse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 103, "Lady Margaret and Sweit Willie" (1 text)
Roud #67
NOTES [606 words]: Lyle classifies Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 #103, "Lady Margaret and Sweit William" as Child 110. Only Child 110E [see Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 p. xxxiv], from Buchan's "Earl Richard, the Queen's Brother" comes close and only in the part of Child 110 preceeding the rape [Peter Buchan, Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1875 (reprint of 1828 edition)), Vol II, pp. 81-91, "Earl Richard, the Queen's Brother"; compare this to Vol II, pp. 91-102, "Earl Lithgow," a more typical Child 110 text; see the note on p. 318 explaining that "the two [versions] which are given here [are] from the recitation of very old people"].
Judge for yourself.
"Earl Richard ..." LONG DESCRIPTION: Earl Richard meets a woman "with towers of gold upon her head" and offers "my bonnie ship to get your maidenhead." She says "I wish your bonnie ship rent and rise and drown you in the sea" because no ship could mend her lost maidenhead; he says a lost maidenhead is not so great a loss. He offers her his twenty-four mills; she repeats her curse on his ship [she should have cursed his mills]. He offers -- in turn -- twenty-four cows "all calved in a day," twenty-four steeds "all foaled in a year" and as much gold as they can carry. She repeats the curse on his ship [rather than on the cows and horses] and spurns his gold. Then he says, he'll have her without the gold, and he rapes her. [Here any similarity ends and the usual Child 110 tale continues: she asks his name, she recognizes that it is Richard, he rides away, she follows him, crosses a stream by magic, follows him to the castle and pleads her case before the queen; the queen's brother Richard is forced to marry her. He cries in bed but becomes happy when he learns that she is "the king o' Scotland's fair dochter."] Her curse is never realized.
A note from Steve Gardham in this regard: "['Earl Richard'] has nothing in common with genuine versions of 110. Buchan was notorious for fabricating ballads particularly in ABNS. Nicol of Strichen is no more trustworthy. As far as I can see Buchan could easily have fabricated his version from the obviously genuine piece in Crawfurd and other versions of 110. Child was quite rightly highly suspicious of Buchan's later publications. There are no surviving manuscripts as such. All that survives is 'finished' material ready for publication -- no field notes and precious few attributions."
Are there similar curses, realized or not? Greig-Duncan2 215BB, "The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow" includes the verse "Oh father dear, ye ha'e twenty kye Calfies a' te follow And I wish you as much good o' them As I got o' my marrow"; we don't know if this curse is realized, but it may not have begun as a curse. The only similar verse in Child is in 214E,F,G and H -- "Take hame your oxen, tak home your kye, They've bred to me great sorrow; I wish they had all now gone mad First when they came to Yarrow" -- indicating only that they may have been the cause of the dispute. - BS
There are somewhat similar-sounding curses in the Bible, such as Jotham's curse on Abimelech (Joshua 9) and Elisha's curse on the children who teased him (2 Kings 2:23-24). Both those curses were effective. We also have two instances of rape followed by effective retribution (Shechem's rape of Dinah, in Genesis 24, and Amnon's rape of Tamar, in 2 Samuel 13). Neither of those involves the girl cursing, however. Still, the idea of active curses seems to be very old -- it has been hypothesize that some of the very oldest artifacts found in cities are "curse tablets," used in a sort of voodoo against an enemy. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LcCr2103

Lady Margot and Love Henry

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Lady Margot and Sweet Willie

See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Lady Mary (II)

See The Lady's Fall (File: Perc3139)

Lady Mary (The Sad Song)

DESCRIPTION: "He came from his palace grand And he came to my cottage door... But I was nothing to him, Though he was the world to me." She desperately loved him; now he is dead, but she has no excuse for mourning. She wonders if, in heaven, he will still ignore her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (collected by Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: death love beauty
FOUND IN: US(Ao,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 77-79, "Palace Grand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 698, "The Sad Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 522-524, "The Sad Song" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 698)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 202-203, "Lady Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LADYMARY*
Roud #6358
RECORDINGS:
Bud Skidmore, "The Sad Song" (Columbia 15761-D, 1932)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Met, 'Twas In a Crowd"
NOTES [70 words]: This has been quite popular in the folk revival; it appears that most if not all of these versions derive from the May Kennedy McCord collected by Randolph and Hunter; she also gave it to Evelyn Beers. Bush's printing also derives from McCord. Thus although there are a few other versions of the song known (from Owens and Sandburg), if you've heard this song, the version you know almost certainly comes from McCord. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: R698

Lady Mary Ann (by Robert Burns)

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

Lady Mazrey

See Lady Maisry [Child 65] (File: C065)

Lady Moon, Lady Moon, Sailing Up So High

DESCRIPTION: "Lady Moon, Lady Moon, Sailing up so high, Drop down to Baby From out yonder sky, Babykin, Babykin, far down below, I hear you calling, I hear you calling, I hear you calling, But I cannot go"
AUTHOR: Kate Kellogg (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Wiggins and Smith, _Pinafore Palace_, according to Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: baby | moon
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 138-139, "Lady Moon, Lady Moon" (1 text)
Roud #25451
File: KSUC138D

Lady Moon, Lady Moon, Where Are You Roving?

DESCRIPTION: "Lady Moon, Lady Moon, where are you roving? Over the sea. Lady Moon, Lady Moon, who are you loving? All that love me."
AUTHOR: Richard Monkton Miles (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: love | moon
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 138, "Lady Moon, Lady Moon, where are you roving?" (1 fragment)
Roud #25391
File: KSUC138A

Lady Near New York Town, The

See The Suffolk Miracle [Child 272] (File: C272)

Lady O Gight, The

See Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)

Lady o' Livingstone, The

See Fair Mary of Wallington [Child 91] (File: C091)

Lady o' the Dainty Doonby, The

See The Dainty Doonby (File: K179)

Lady of Arngosk, The [Child 224]

DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "The Highlandmen has a' come down... They've stowen away the bonny lass, The Lady of Arngosk." They dress her in her silken gown, and the Highland leader draws his sword and bids her come. They tie her hands, but she scorns them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (Sharpe)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection clothes abduction
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Child 224, "The Lady of Arngosk" (1 text)
Roud #4019
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Eppie Morrie" [Child 223] (plot)
NOTES [76 words]: Child's notes to this are about twelve times as long as the actual three-stanza text (the only fragment recovered, and likely the only one which ever will be recovered), and give the apparent background to the song. The lyrics itself are so fragmentary, however, that they could well be a minor adaption of some similar piece such as "Eppie Morrie" [Child 223]. For actual historical examples of events similar to this, see the notes to "Eppie Morrie." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C224

Lady of Carlisle, The [Laws O25]

DESCRIPTION: Two brothers court a lady. Unable to choose between them, she decides to find out who is braver. She throws her fan into a den of lions and says she will marry whoever recovers it. The sea captain does so; she offers herself as the prize
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1807 (various broadside, National Library of Ireland I 39988b4: Belfast 1807-1837 2, according to John Moulden)
KEYWORDS: contest courting clothes marriage animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(So)) Ireland
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Laws O25, "The Lady of Carlisle"
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 207-208, "In Castyle there Lived a Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 67-70, "The Lion's Den" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 36, "Lady of Carlisle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 66, "The Bold Lieutenant" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 66-68, "The Lion's Den" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #40, "Brave Lieutenant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H474, pp. 488-489, "The Glove and the Lions" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 49, "London City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 36, "The Bold Lieutenant" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 43, "Lion's Den" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 34-35, "The Lady's Fan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 22, "The Lady's Fan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 133, "The Lion's Den" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #68, pp. 1-2, "The Lions' Den" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1056, "The Lions' Den" (15 texts, 10 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 393-394, "The Lion's Den" (1 text)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #42, pp. 188-189, "Carrbridge Castle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 89, "The Glove" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 89, "The Glove" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 29, pp. 139-141, "The Faithful Lover, or The Hero Rewarded" (1 text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 59, "The Lady's Fan" (1 text)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #54, "The Bold Lieutenant" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 146, "Lady Of Carlisle" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 130-131, "Carolina Lady" (1 text)
DT 335, LDYCRLIL* LDYCRL2*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 22, #5 (1973), p, 4, "The Carolina Lady" (1 text, 1 tune, the Dillard Chandler version)
W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 126-127, "The Lion's Den" (1 tune)
Roud #396
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "The Fan" (on IREButcher01)
Dillard Chandler, "Carolina Lady" (on Chandler01, DarkHoll)
Teresa Maguire, "The Lion's Den" (on FSB8) (on FSBFTX13)
Basil May, "Lady of Carlisle" (LC-1587/AAFS 1702, rec. 1937)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Lady of Carlisle" (on NLCR03, NLCR12, NLCRCD1) (on NLCR16)
Cyril O'Brien, "In St. Giles There Dwelled a Lady" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Pete Seeger, "Down in Carlisle" (on PeteSeeger16)
Doug Wallin, "The Bold Lieutenant" (on Wallins1)
Doug & Berzilla Wallin, "The Carlisle Lady" (on FarMtns3)
Thomas Williams, "Lady Who Threw Her Glove" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(327a), "The Faithful Lover" or "The Hero Rewarded," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth c.19(28)[some words illegible], "The Faithful Lover" or "The Hero Rewarded"; Harding B 28(187), "Faithful Lover" ("Near to St. James's there lived a lady"); Harding B 17(167b), "The Lions' Den"; Firth c.13(35) View 1 of 2, "The Bold Lieutenant in the Lions' Den"; Harding B 16(29a), "Bold Lieutenant"
LOCSinging, as102520, "The Faithful Lover" or "The Hero Rewarded," J. Catnach (London), 19C
Murray, Mu23-y1:087, "The Bold Lieutenant in the Lion's Den," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Was Young I Was Well Beloved" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
cf. "Jolie Fleur de Rosier (Lovely Flower of the Rose-Tree)" (theme)
cf. "Isabeau S'y Promene (Isabel)" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
In Roslyn Isles There Lived a Lady
Two Brothers in the Army
NOTES [420 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland notes, "Lions were kept at the Tower of London from the time of Henry III [reigned 1216-1272] until 1834." Sam Henry dates this to an actual event in the reign of Francis (I? -- reigned 1515-1547) of France. This is more probable than most of these derivations (how many people in the world are that silly?), but as usual, it cannot be proved.
The notes in Brown posit a different original, claiming (following Barry?) that it originated in Spain, spread to France and Italy, and inspired Schiller ("Der Handschuh"), Browning, and Leigh Hunt ("The Glove and the Lions"). Belden (The Vulgar Ballad, p. 6) thinks he finds traces of a broadside published between 1814 and 1834. Again, proof is lacking.
Leigh Hunt (who is remembered mostly for nauseating generations of schoolchildrem with "Abou Ben Adhem") gives a rather different ending to the story in "The Glove and the Lions." As given in [no author listed], The Household Treasury of English Song, T. Nelson and Sons, 1872, pp. 180-181, Hunt's poem begins
King Francis was a hearty king, and loved a royal sport;
And one day, as his lions strove, sat looking on the court:
The nobles filled the benches round, the ladies by their side,
And 'mongst them Count de Lorge, with one he hoped to make his bride.
And truly 'twas a gallant thing to see that crowning show --
Valor and love, and a king above, and the royal beasts below.
The poem goes on to describe the raving of the lions. De Lorge's "beauteous, lively dame" declared that he is "as brave as brave can be," and would do anything to show his love for her. So:
She dropped her glove to prove his love -- then looked on him and smiled;
He bowed, and in a moment leaped among the lions wild:
The leap was quick, return was quick; he soon regained his place,
Then threw the glove, but not with love, right in the lady's face.
"Well done!" cried Francis; "bravely done!" and he rose from where he sat:
"No love," quoth he, "but vanity, sets love a task like that!"
More information can be found in Martin Gardner, editor, Famous Poems from Bygone Days, Dover, 1995, pp. 98-99. - RBW
Christie's version ends "It was not long until the king got notice That two of his lions had been slain; Yet he was not at all displeased, But gave him honour for the same. He advanced him from a first Lieutenant, And made him Admiral of the Blue, And soon this lady and he were married; This lets one see what love can do." Has anyone besides Christie ever reported anything like this? - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LO25

Lady of Dun, The

DESCRIPTION: A harper comes to a castle. His playing wakes the lady. She orders him thrown into the sea. Afterwards, she can no longer sleep, and dies in terror, seeing always his eyes and foam-flecked beard.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: homicide death drowning dream harp
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 188, "The Lady of Dun" (1 text)
Roud #5840
NOTES [189 words]: The Greig/Duncan2 text is fragmentary but Greig reconstructed the plot as follows [the square brackets] bracket what we know from the actual text:
before st. 1, 'A harper came to the castle and his playing awoke the lady.'
[st. 1: "The owner's heart was as hard as stane, And the lady's heart was harder I ween."]
before st. 2, 'She orders him to be thrown into the den.'
[st. 2: "Harping at this time in the morn, Is sure a thing that cannot be borne."]
'A girl pleads for him' before st.3,
[st. 3: the girl is described]
[st. 4: The lady calls the girl senseless and has the harper thrown into the sea for waking her.]
and at the end, 'They obeyed her behests. He sunk in the deep, but the lady could never mair sleep, and died in terror, seeing always his eyes and foam-flecked beard.'"
Robertson, quoted by Greig/Duncan2, tells that Greig at first "thought it was an attempt to make an imitation of an old ballad but after studying it thought it had been from an older ballad but we never got any light on it." How did Greig come up with his patches?
In any case, this augmented text is the basis for the description. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2188

Lady of Greenwich, The

See The Jolly Sailor (I) (File: AshS059i)

Lady of the Lake, The (The Banks of Clyde II) [Laws N41]

DESCRIPTION: The singer walks up to a girl and asks her why she is weeping. She says that the Lady of the Lake, carrying her true love, was wrecked off Newfoundland. He tells her that Willie is dead, and gives her his last message, but then reveals that he is Willie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan5); c.1850 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.16(54))
KEYWORDS: love death wreck ship disguise
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 11, 1833 - The "Lady of the Lake" strikes an iceberg off Newfoundland and sinks, taking with her most of her passengers
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland US(NE)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws N41, "The Lady of the Lake (The Banks of Clyde)"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #88, pp. 2-3, "The Lady of the Lake" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1045, "The Lady of the Lake" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 302-303, "The Lady of the Lake" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H765, pp. 312-313, "The Lady of the Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 928-930, "Liza Gray" (1 texts, 2 tunes)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 67, "The Lady of the Lake" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 220-221, "The Lady of the Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 466, LADYLAKE
Roud #1886
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "Liza Gray" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
George Finlay, "Lady of the Lake" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.16(54), "The Lady of the Lake," G. Jacques (Manchester), c.1850; also Firth b.27(297), Firth c.12(230), "The Lady of the Lake"
Murray, Mu23-y3:010, "The Lady of the Lake," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Lady of the Lake" (subject) and notes there
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
cf. "The Wreck of the Lady Shearbrooke" (plot)
cf. "Thomas and Nancy" [Laws K15] (theme)
NOTES [38 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: "Total saved 34; perished 197; total 234" with a list of those saved, including Captain Grant and at least one William. - BS
For more details on the casualties, see "The Loss of the Lady of the Lake." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LN41

Lady of the Land (Here's a Poor Widow)

DESCRIPTION: "Here comes a poor (woman/widow) from (Babylon/baby-land/Sandy Land), WIth three small children in her hand. One can brew, the other can bake, The other can make a pretty round cake.... Pray, ma'am, will you take one in?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: cook children poverty playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland) Ireland US(MA) West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1598, "The Widow of Sandilands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 19, "Here's a Poor Widow from Sandy Row" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 105-106, "The Old Woman from Sandy Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 77-78, "Here's an Old Woman from Sandy Land" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 16, "Widow from Babylon" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #641, p. 256, "(Here comes a poor woman from baby-land)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 85, "(Here's a poor widow from Sandisland)" (1 text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #8, "The Widow with Daughters to Marry" (2 texts plus excerpts); #185, "The Old Woman from Barbary" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1842 ("Digitized by Google")), #204 p. 116, ("Here comes a poor woman from baby-land") (1 fragment)
Martha Warren Beckwith and Helen Roberts, _Folk-Games of Jamaica_ (Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1922 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #37 pp. 46-48, "Here Is a Lady from Barbaree" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #12975
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Now You Are Married I Wish You Joy" (one verse: "Now you are married I wish you well")
NOTES [160 words]: Halliwell's fragment is the verse "Here comes a poor woman from baby-land, With three small children in her hand: One can brew, the other can bake, The other can make a pretty round cake." He comments, "I believe the following is only a portion of a dialog, but I have not been able to recover it." - BS
I have a very strange suggestion, which may be completely irrelevant, but it looks as if this might be relative to a shanty. "On Shanties," article in E(neas) S(weetland) Dallas, editor, Once a Week, New Series, Number 31, August 1, 1868 (published by Bradbury and Evans and available on Google Books), p. 92, refers to a song "All you Ladies now on Land,"
Have you got, lady, a daughter so fine,
Slapandergosheka,
That is fit for a sailor that has crossed the line,
Slapandergosheka, etc.
Which sort of seems like a cross between this and "Mademoiselle from Armentières." I won't claim to be sure they're related, but I thought I would mention it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BGMG641

Lady of York, The

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

Lady Ogalbie

See The Bonnie House o Airlie [Child 199] (File: C199)

Lady on the Mountain (I)

DESCRIPTION: Game or jump rope rhyme. "On the mountain top stands a lady, Who she is I do not know. All she wants is gold and silver, All she wants is a brand new beau (or "ice cream cone"). O, come in, my Sally dear, And out I shall go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: jumprope courting money
FOUND IN: US(Ro) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 36, "Lady on the Mountain"; cf. 87, "Spanish Lady" (7 texts, 3 tunes)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #140, "(On the mountain top stands a lady)" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 102-105, "Stands a Lady" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 23, "(On the mountain stands a lady)" (1 text)
Roud #2603
RECORDINGS:
Patricia Campbell, "On a Mountain" (Piotr-Archive #227, recorded 09/05/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)" (lyrics)
NOTES [59 words]: This is almost certainly descended from "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)," but it seems to exist on its own, and it's a game, not a love song. And any counting is for jumping or skipping. So Roud splits it off, and I agree. But because the opening lyrics are indistinguishable, you'd better see both songs to be sure to get all versions. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: AJRV140

Lady on the Mountain (II)

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) (File: E098)

Lady That Went to Church, The

See Skin and Bones (The Skin and Bones Lady) (File: R069)

Lady Turned Serving-Man, The

See The Famous Flower of Serving-Men [Child 106] (File: C106)

Lady Uri, The

See The Lady Leroy [Laws N5] (File: LN05)

Lady Washington

DESCRIPTION: Lady Washington has travelled near the front looking for George. He is at the van "where the battle path began" looking after his men. She asks the gods to bring him safely home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: love army battle separation dialog nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 45, "Lady Washington" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 340, "Lady Washington" (1 text)
Roud #2823
NOTES [61 words]: Although this is titled "Lady Washington," the name "Washington" is not used in the text for either the husband or the wife; his name is merely "George" and she is unnamed. For all we can prove, it could refer to George II, grandfather of George III, who was the last English king to lead troops in battle. Certainly there were plenty of soldiers named George! - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: TPS045

Lady Washington's Lamentation

DESCRIPTION: "When Columbia's brave sons sought my hero to lead them... I rejoiced at his honors." The singer recalls Washington's war service and his political successes. Now he "Has forsaken us." She laments his passing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (Green Mountain Songster); probably in print by 1800
KEYWORDS: death separation wife war rebellion political mourning nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 190-192, "Lady Washington's Lamentation" (1 text)
File: FlNG190

Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, The

See Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (File: RcIKAOLW)

Lady-bug, Lady-bug, Fly Away Home

See Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home (File: MSNR15)

Lady, Lady in the Land

See Every Lady In This Land (File: KSUC031B)

Lady, Lady, at the Gate

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Lady, lady, at the gate, Eating cherries from a plate, How many cherries did she eat...." The player jumping counts the jumps
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: nonballad food jumprope
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 106, "(Lady, lady, at the gate)" (1 short text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #305, "Lady, lady at the gate" (1 text)
Roud #19295
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door"" (eating cherries motif)
NOTES [36 words]: Roud lumps "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door" and "Lady Lady at the Gate"; Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes splits them. I could argue either way, but I initially filed them separately, so I am retaining that. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: McIn106A

Lady, Lady, Drop Your Purse

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Lady, lady, dropyour purse/baby/handkerchief. Lady, lady, pick it up."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas, acording to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #306, "Lady, lady, drop your handkerchief (baby, purse)" (1 text)
Roud #19238
NOTES [33 words]: Roud files this with the large family that includes "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Go Upstairs." Obviously both have the theme of instructing someone in what to do, but this really seems different to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ARR306

Lady's Fall, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns listeners against sex before marriage. A lady becomes pregnant by her love, who deserts her. Once the babe is born, she dies, only to have her lover kill himself with sadness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy); probably from the early seventeenth century or earlier (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: love sex pregnancy childbirth family death infidelity burial
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 246-252, "Ladyes Fall" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 139-145, "The Lady's Fall" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 244-248, "A Lamentable Ballad of the Lady's Fall" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 101-105, "Lady Mary" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1753, "Mark well my heavy doleful Tale"
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 268
Roud #22133
NOTES [99 words]: Hales believes this to be by the same author as "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34].
There are two seventeenth century references to a piece that is likely this in the Stationer's Register (see Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard)):
- Rollins #1394, p. 120, "The Ladies Fall," registered by William White June 11, 1603.
- Rollins #1395, p. 121, "Ladies Fall," registered December 14, 1624. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Perc3139

Lady's Fan, The

See The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)

Lady's Waiting Man, The

DESCRIPTION: A beautiful girl falls in love with her father's servant-man who waits on table. She faints and when she recovers asks "in the kitchen carry me." When he brings her "dainties" she kisses him and professes her love. He is happy to wait on her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: love beauty servant
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 545-546, "The Lady's Waiting Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6460
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "The Lady's Waiting Man" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea545

Ladybird, Ladybird

See Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home (File: MSNR15)

Ladybird, Ladybird, Drop Your Purse

See Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Go Upstairs (File: RWTdBrTd)

Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home

DESCRIPTION: "Ladybug/Ladybird, Ladybug/Ladybird, Fly away home, Your house is on fire, Your children do roam." The extended version may instruct the insect to go to Flanders or elsewhere, and fly to the singer's love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: bug home fire
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #467, p. 209, "(Lady Bird, Lady Bird)" (a short version in the text with a long addedum in the notes)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 297, "Ladybird, Ladybird" (1 text)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 15, "Ladybird" (1 very full text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 120, "(Lady-bug, lady-bug, fly away home)" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 95, "Ladybird, Ladybird" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 104, "Ladybird, Ladybird" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 16, "Ladybug"; p. 130, "Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home" (2 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #302, "Lady bug, lady bug, fly away home" (1 short text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 243, (no title) (1 short text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Foster West, "Folklore of a Mountain Childhood," Vol. XVI, No. 3 (Nov 1968), p. 169, "Doodlebug, doodlebug, get a cup of coffee" (1 text); article reprinted (with text reset) in Vol. LII, No. 3 (Nov 1968), p. 11-12
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Joseph D. Clark, "North Carolina Popular Beliefs and Superstitions," Vol. XVIII, No. 1 (Jan 1970 Special Issue), p. 59 [#1499], "Doodlebug, doodlebug, get a cup of coffee" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #164, "(Ladybird, Ladybird, fly away home)" (1 text)
Roud #16215
NOTES [244 words]: Although most if not all of us think of this as a song about a bug, the second half of Opie's version is interesting (the Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore is similar): All the ladybug's children are gone except "little Ann(e), And she has crept under the warming pan."
The moment I saw that, I couldn't help but think of the Glorious Revolution of 1689 and the Hannoverian Succession of 1714. In 1689, it was alleged that James the Old Pretender had been snuck into the Queen's birth chamber in a warming pan, and had the boy been accepted as legitimate, then Anne, the last of the Stuarts, would never have been Queen.
What's more, the first known mention of this item, from Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book, is from a period within living memory of the Hannoverian Succession.
I grant that it is almost certainly coincidence. But it's an interesting coincidence. Most of the political meanings assigned to nursery rhymes are based on completely undemonstrable equivalents and hidden names. Here, the names are not hidden.
Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 281, also suggests this is about James and his family, with Mary of Modena, the second wife of James II (i.e. not the mother of Anne), being the Lady Bird. This probably argues against my hypothesis, since anything Thomas believed is likely to be insane.
Another story, related by Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, is that it is a charm against witches. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: MSNR15

Ladybug, Ladybug, Turn Around

See Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Go Upstairs (File: RWTdBrTd)

Ladye Bessiye

See (references under) The Battle of Bosworth Field (File: BdTBOBoF)

Ladye Diamond

See Lady Diamond [Child 269] (File: C269)

Ladyo' Arngosk, The

See Rob Roy [Child 225] (File: C225)

Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs, The

DESCRIPTION: When the king returns from traveling, his daughter welcomes him. A lord calls her very fair; her stepmother turns her to a worm. Child Wynd arrives and, with difficulty, transforms her back. He turns the queen into a toad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (Bell); Child estimates the date of the "Hagg Worm" version as c. 1775
KEYWORDS: animal magic royalty jealousy beauty father stepmother revenge
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 34 Appendix, "The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs" (1 text plus a "more popular" version, "The Hagg Worm," in the addenda to volume IV)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 180-181, "The Laidley Worm" (1 slightly defective text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Joseph Jacobs, collector, _English Fairy Tales_, originally published 1890; revised edition 1898 (I use the 1967 Dover paperback reprint), pp. 183-187, "The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh" (a prose retelling)
ST C034A (Partial)
Roud #3176
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kemp Owyne" [Child 34]
NOTES [550 words]: Child prints this ballad as an appendix to #34, "Kemp Owyne." There are, however, just enough known versions of the "Laidley Worm" (including Stokoe's, with a tune of uncertain origin) that we split them. Child was probably confused by the Victorian reworking by a Rev. Lamb, who Victorianized the legend and produced what must have looked like a fake (Simpson, p. 59). And Walter Scott, who had a version, didn't bother to print it. It must have looked very artificial to Child, but Simpson offers evidence that the story, at least, was known in Northumberland.
Alexander, p. 158, describes this as the "most enduring" of the many tales told about Bamborough. He says that "the Spindlestone [was] a natural rock towering close to the castle."
According to Simpson, p. 60, a local rock, "which is said to be that to which the hero tethered his horse, can still be seen, but the worm's cave has been destroyed in the course of quarreying. At one time in the nineteenth century, a trough was pointed out... as being that from which the worm drank its daily ration of milk; writing in the 1860's, William Henderson noted that local girls were frightened of meeting a venomous toad which was believed to haunt thebeach bear Bamburgh Castle, thinking that it would magically ruin their beauty."
The reference to a King based in, or at least leaving his daughter in, Bamborough (Bamburgh), is puzzling; being near the Scots border (but never in Scotland), it is a rather unsafe place; in any case, few Kings of England spent much time in the north, except in cases such as that of Henry VI when he was a fugitive. If, then, we assume a King who campaigned in Scotland, had daughters, and had a second wife, the obvious choice is Edward I (reigned 1272-1307). Which seems awfully early.... Plus it leaves the hopeless Edward II as the man who is trying to rescue the girl.
The theme of a beautiful daughter and jealous stepmother and a transformation is of course commonplace, with the best known version being "Snow White" (which is from the Grimm collection: #53, Schneewittchen, printed 1812, from the Hassenpflug family).
Simpson, p. 79, notes the curious fact that dragons seem to have been widely reputed to like milk -- even though almost all representation make them reptilian, not mammalian. A fondness for milk violates most of the laws of biology. But then, so do dragons....
Jacobs, p. 256, comments, "There is certainly something Celtic about the Laidly being and the deliverance kiss, as Mr. Nott, as pointed out, Academy, April 30, 1892, and Miss Weston has shown the connection in her Legend of Sir Gawain, p. 49. Indeed, may not Owein be identical with Gawain?" The connection Jacobs refers to is to "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" [Child 31], or to its relative "The Wedding of Sir Gawen and Dame Ragnall." In the "Laidly Worm," Child Wynd recalls his sister by kissing her; in "The Marriage of Sir Gawain," Gawain turns Dame Ragnall beautiful by agreeing to love her.
Another possible link is with the well-known romance of "Libeaus Desconus" or "The Fair Unknown" (Ritson/Goldsmid, p. 35); they are probably referring to the so-called "fearsome kiss" in which the hero kisses a serpent, thus freeing her from an enchantment and causing her to become a beautiful woman (Lupack, p. 318). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 3.3
File: C034A

Laidley Worm, The

See The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs (File: C034A)

Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea, The [Child 36]

DESCRIPTION: The singer's mother died when he was seven, and his stepmother enchanted him into a "laily worm" and his sister into a "machrel." When their father learns the truth, he forces her to restore the children, then burns her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802/3 (Skene ms.)
KEYWORDS: family father children stepmother magic shape-changing rescue monster
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 36, "The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 14, "The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 20, "The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea" (1 text)
DT 36, LAIDLEYW
ADDITIONAL: Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, p. 127, "The Lailly Worm" (1 text)
Roud #3968
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Allison Gross" [Child 35] (theme)
NOTES [28 words]: Child's text is badly and multiply defective, but the lack of materials makes restoration well-nigh impossible. Child's conjectures as to what is missing seem apt. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C036

Laird o Cockpen, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Laird o Cockpen, he's proud and he's great... He wanted a wife his braw hoose tae keep...." He comes to court the noble but poor Jean, who at first turns him down (but is sometimes expanded so that she thinks of his wealth and chooses to wed him)
AUTHOR: Adapted by Caroline Oliphaunt, Lady Nairne (1766-1845)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1821
KEYWORDS: courting marriage money nobility
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 355-359, "The Laird of Cockpen" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 448, "The Laird o' Cockpen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 184-191, "The Laird of Cockpen" (1 text plus Ferrier's addition and a text of "When She Cam' Ben She Bobbit")
DT, COCKLAIR*
ADDITIONAL: Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #333, pp. 563-564, "The Laird o' Cockpen" (by Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne)
Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, pp. 116-117, "The Laird of Cockpen" (1 text)
ST Log355 (Full)
Roud #2859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Squire and the Gipsy" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
The Wife o' Denside (File: Gath009)
Tipperty's Jean (File: Ord283)
Parody on Laird o' Cockpen (Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(103), "Parody on Laird o' Cockpen" ("The Laird o Cockpen he's puir and he's duddy"), unknown, c. 1875)
New Year (Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(104), "The New Year" ("And now we're to enter another New Year, When little is thought on but whiskey and beer"), unknown, c. 1875)
The Laird of D--mm-- (broadside NLScotland, ABS.10.203.01(102), "The Laird of D--mm--e," unknown, c. 1835)
"Incompetence of Politicians" (Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(6a), [no title] ("Oh! hae ye heard o' an unprincipled squad"), unknown, n.d.)
NOTES [282 words]: According to Alfred M. Williams, Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, p. 115-116, Lady Nairne wrote this, "it is said, to supply proper words to the gay old air of When She cam ben, She bobbit, which being interpreted, means that when she came into the front of the house, she curtsied."
Ford-SongHistories, p. 184, mentions that various people attributed this to Sir Alexander Boswell (son of the biographer) and to a Miss Ferrier, but has no doubt that Lady Nairne wrote it. Ford things that Nairne had it via Burns, who had expurgated the song for the Scots Musical Museum without producing a very good song.
The expansion in which the girl changes her mind is attributed by Ford-SongHistories, p. 186, to Susan Ferrier rather than Lady Nairne.
Ford-SongHistories, p. 189, says that the "real" Laird of Cockpen was a man named Mark Carse, who was a companion of King Charles II in his exile during the Commonwealth period (1649-1660). However, I checked five histories of the era of Charles II (G. N. Clark, The Later Stuarts 1660-1714, corrected edition, Oxford, 1944; Godfrey Davies, The Early Stuarts: 1603-1660 (Oxford, 1937); Antonia Fraser, Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration (British title King Charles II), 1979 (I use the 1980 Delta paperback); Ronald Hutton, Charles II: King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Clarendon Press/Oxford University Press, 1989; John Miller, James II, 1978, 1989 (I use the 2000 Yale English Monarchs paperback edition with a new introduction by the author)) without finding a reference to either Carse or someone with the title Cockpen. I strongly suggest that that tale is just folklore. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Log355

Laird o Drum, The [Child 236]

DESCRIPTION: The Laird o Drum, instead of wooing a noble lady, chooses to court a poor working girl. All his relatives oppose this, but he notes that the girl is willing to work; instead of costing him money (as his previous wife did), she will help him earn it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Skene ms.; cf. Herd 1776)
KEYWORDS: courting poverty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1665-1710 - Life of Margaret Coutts, second wife of Alexander Irvine of Drum (previously married, in 1643, to Mary Gordon of Huntley. Drum died in 1687)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Child 236, "The Laird o Drum" (6 texts)
Bronson 236, "The Laird o Drum" (26 versions+1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads236, "The Laird o Drum" (2 versions: #5, #23)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #46, pp. 1-2, "The Laird o' Drum" (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan4 835, "The Laird o' Drum" (24 texts, 16 tunes)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #40, pp. 184-186, "The Laird o' Drum," (1 text, 1 tune)
Dixon-ScottishTraditionalVersionsOfAncientBallads VIII, pp. 53-56, "The Laird o' Drum" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 183-184, "The Laird o' Drum" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 300-303, "The Laird of Drum" (1 text with variants, 1 tune) {Bronson's #26}
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 28, "The Laird O'Drum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 4-9, "The Laird o' Drum" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 136-138, "Laird of Drum" (1 text)
DT 236, LAIRDDRM*
Roud #247
RECORDINGS:
Lucy Stewart, "The Laird o' Drum" (on FSBBAL2) (on LStewart1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Muldoon, the Solid Man" (tune, as sung by Jeannie Robertson)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Canna Wash
NOTES [126 words]: Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads is from George R Kinloch, Ancient Scottish Ballads (London: Longman Rees Orme Brown & Green, 1827 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), pp. 199-205, "Laird of Drum," "obtained from recitation," and is quoted extensively in Child's notes to 236A.
Bodleian, 2806 c.11(7), "The Laird o' Drum" ("The laird o' Drum is a hunting gane"), unknown, n.d. could not be downloaded and verified. - BS
Porter and Gower note that Jeannie Robertson used the tune of an "Irish-American music hall song with the title, "Muldoon, the solid Man," for several of her songs, including "Laird o Drum." Some 6 of Roud's 23 "Muldoon" variants attributed to his number 3355 appear to actually be Robertson and Stewart family versions of "Laird o Drum." - DGE
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C236

Laird o Logie, The [Child 182]

DESCRIPTION: (Logie) is in prison awaiting death; Margaret would save him. She petitions the King; he will not free Logie for all the gold in Scotland. (The queen/Margaret) (steals tokens from the King) and orders that Logie be freed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: prison escape trick nobility love mercy help
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Child 182, "The Laird o Logie" (5 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 182, "The Laird o Logie" (3 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 182, "The Laird o Logie" (3 versions: #1, #2, #3)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 71-75, "The Laird o' Logie" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 32-37, "Young Logie" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #75, pp. 1-2, "Young Logie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 247, "The Young Laird o' Logie" (3 texts)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 493-495, "The Laird o Logie" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, "The Laird o Logie" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 108-110, "The Laird of Logie" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: William & Susan Platt, _Folktales of the Scottish Border_, published 1919 as _Stories of the Scottish Border_, republished by Senate Press, 1999, pp. 197-199, "The Laird o Logie" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #422, "The Laird o' Logie" (1 text)
Roud #81
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Gallant Laird o' Young Logie
Young Logie
NOTES [57 words]: In 1591, the Earl of Bothwell tried to capture King James VI of Scotland, and James Weymis of Logie was implicated in the plot. One of Queen Anne's maids, Margaret, loved him; she forged an order to have him questioned, and used it to help him escape. James's anger was appeased by the Queen, and he pardoned Logie, who then married Margaret - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: C182

Laird o Roslin's Daughter, The

See Captain Wedderburn's Courtship [Child 46] (File: C046)

Laird o Udny, The

See Let Me In This Ae Nicht (File: DTaenich)

Laird o Windy Wa's, The

See Let Me In This Ae Nicht (File: DTaenich)

Laird o' Aboyne, The

See The Earl of Aboyne [Child 235] (File: C235)

Laird o' Drum (II), The

See Queen Among the Heather (File: K141)

Laird o' Grant, The

DESCRIPTION: Laird of Grant goes to a home, disguised as a haughty beggar, intending to win a daughter of the house. Her parents would have the beggar dismissed but the girl would feed him. They would have her stay home. She would go with Laird of Grant.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: courting disguise begging father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 276, "The Laird o' Grant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5853
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Beggar Man
NOTES [38 words]: Greig/Duncan2 assumes that the original version has the daughter ride off with the beggar after she would feed him and before they would have her stay home. That might explain how she recognizes the beggar as Laird o' Grant. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2276

Laird o' Kelty, The

See The Parks o' Keltie (File: GrD71487)

Laird o' Lauderdale, The

DESCRIPTION: "One night, they parting, lingered long together in the dell." The Lord of Lauderdale finds his son with a girl and shuts him away. She contrives his escape through a ball hidden in a bannock. They are married. The father relents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
KEYWORDS: love nobility separation reunion trick father rescue
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 205-206, "The Laird o' Lauderdale" (1 very fragmentary text, 1 tune)
Roud #4667
File: FlNG205

Laird o' Leys, (The)

See The Baron o Leys [Child 241] (File: C241)

Laird o' Musselburgh Toon, The

DESCRIPTION: The drunken laird gave the bellman a crown to offer "a hundred marks Scots" to anyone who would let him "gae thro' this vault to Edinburgh toon"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: money drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1927, "The Laird o' Musselburgh Toon" (1 fragment)
Roud #13036
NOTES [43 words]: Musselburgh is near Edinburgh. - BS
Note that a mark was two-thirds of a pound, but a Scots pound was only a fraction of an English pound. A hundred Scots marks was not a trivial sum, but neither was it as large as this would be if it were English money. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81927

Laird o' the Dainty Doonby, The

See The Dainty Doonby (File: K179)

Laird o' the Denty Dounby, The

See The Dainty Doonby (File: K179)

Laird o' Windywa's, The

See Let Me In This Ae Nicht (File: DTaenich)

Laird of Daintie Bye, The

See The Dainty Doonby (File: K179)

Laird of Dalziel's Leman, The

DESCRIPTION: Dialog between father and daughter. The father laments, "Dool and wae's me, Jenny (x2), That e'er I lived to see that we Dalziel's leman should be." The daughter protests that he swept her off her feet, and points to her son
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (sent by James Hunter to Furnival, according to Lyle)
KEYWORDS: sex father children bastard
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Emily Lyle, _Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition_, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, pp, 220-221, "[The Laird of Dalziel's Leman]" (1 text, a very defective version partially recalled by James Hunter)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Will Ye Gang Awa'? (Huntingtower)" [Laws O23] (tune, according to Hunter)
File: AdLaDaLe

Laird of Drum, The

See The Laird o Drum [Child 236] (File: C236)

Laird of Johnstone and Miss Jean Macdowall

See The Collier Laddie (File: Ord040A)

Laird of Ochiltree Walls, The

See The Broom of Cowdenknows [Child 217] (File: C217)

Laird of Ochiltree, The

See The Broom of Cowdenknows [Child 217] (File: C217)

Laird of the Denty Doon Bye, The

See The Dainty Doonby (File: K179)

Laird of Wariston, The [Child 194]

DESCRIPTION: Wariston (accuses his wife of adultery and) strikes her. She avenges herself by killing him with the help of a servant. Lady Wariston is arrested and condemned. (She begs the King to lessen her sentence to beheading. He wishes she did not have to die.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: homicide revenge adultery accusation punishment execution nobility royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 5, 1600 - Execution of the former Jean Livingston, Lady Wariston (according to Birrell)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 194, "The Laird of Wariston" (3 texts)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 114-117, "The Laird of Waristoun" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 528-533, "The Laird of Wariston" (2 texts)
DT 194, WARSTON
Roud #3876
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Laird of Woodhouslie" (plot)
NOTES [411 words]: Child reports that this event is historical, but the judicial records of Lady Wariston's trial are lost. This ballad is therefore the only evidence of the motive for her murder of her husband.
This certainly appears to be a folk ballad, but it also appears to be extinct. Child knew three texts, all damaged, and the song has not been collected since. Ewan MacColl has a tune for it, but it's nearly certain that it came out of his own head. (Or, more correctly, is a modification of a tune for another ballad -- e.g. it's much like the tune I know for "The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow.")
Child treats this as one ballad, and given its lack of survival in tradition, there is no reason to break it up into two entries -- but I think it likely that it is in fact *two* ballads, one represented by Child's A and B texts and the third by his C text.
There are several reasons for this. The forms of the stanzas are different (though we might note that A and B also differ from each other). There are only a few common words, and most of them commonplace ("O Wariston, I wad that ye wad sink for sin").
Most crucial, though, is the complete difference in motive. In the A/B text, Wariston strikes his wife over a trivial quarrel. In C, however, Lady Wariston is a child bride (her age is given as fifteen at the time of her marriage; the real Lady Wariston seems to have been about nineteen). Shortly after their marriage, Wariston goes to sea; before he returns a year later, she bears a child.
Upon his return, Wariston accuses his lady of adultery and casts her out. The murder is her retaliation.
Steve Gardham has an explanation for the peculiarities of at least the C version, which is Peter Buchan's: it's Buchan's own work. Steve wrote on Mudcat: "Peter's text (Child C) is a typical Buchan concoction, in at least 2 ways, it is as usual more than twice as long as any other version, and the girl's age is lowered as in many of Peter's concoctions.... If you need further convincing, there is some typical Buchan shite, the dreaming of his brother's death in stanza 12, some archaic language, e.g., sts 6/17, stanzas 24 and 26 rubbish, stanza 27 filched from Kitchie Boy, as is Peter's wont, and the final stanza is certainly not of tradition. Also, only in Peter's version does she having a child out of wedlock occur, likewise only in Peter's version is the nurse responsible for his murder. It has PB written all over it, like many another of his concoctions." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: C194

Laird of Waristoun, The

See The Laird of Wariston [Child 194] (File: C194)

Laird of Woodhouslie, The

DESCRIPTION: When Lady Woodhouslie calls on a minstrel to praise Salton, Lord Woodhouslie becomes jealous. The lady, in fear, conspires with her nurse to poison him. The murder is detected and she is condemned to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1818 (Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads)
KEYWORDS: husband wife jealousy music homicide poison warning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 85-88, "The Laird of Woodhouslie" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Laird of Wariston" [Child 194] (plot)
File: GlenB085

Laird's Wedding, The

See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

Lake Chemo

DESCRIPTION: "I left old Lake Chemo a long way behind me, With many a tear back to Oldtown I came" -- but he would like to go back; fish and drink were there in abundance, and he had a good time with friends and girls. He will head back as soon as he can
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: fishing drink home travel return
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 69-71, "Lake Chemo" (1 text)
Roud #7087
NOTES [22 words]: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine claim this as a local song to the Bangor, Maine area, very popular there but not known elsewhere. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm069

Lake Erie

See James Bird [Laws A5] (File: LA05)

Lake Huron's Rock-Bound Shore

See The Persian's Crew [Laws D4] (File: LD04)

Lake Huron's Rockbound Shore

See The Persian's Crew [Laws D4] (File: LD04)

Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33]

DESCRIPTION: Willie Leonard and a friend visit Lake Cool Finn. Willie dives in first, and swims to an island, but warns his friend not to follow, warning of "deep and false water...." When Willie tries to swim back, he vanishes (to fairyland?). He is mourned by many
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873
KEYWORDS: death drowning
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE,S) Ireland Britain(England(West),Scotland) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Laws Q33, "The Lake of Cool Finn"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #114, p. 1, "The Loch o' Shilin" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 228, "The Loch o' Shilin" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 732-733, "Willie Leonard or the Lake of Cool Finn" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 72, "The Lakes of Col Flynn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 32-34, "The Lakes of Cool Fin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #230, "The Lake of Coalfin" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 324, "The Lakes of Shallin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 295, "Lakes of Cold Finn" (1 text)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #120, "The Lakes of Cold Finn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H176, p. 146, "Willie Lennox" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 168, "The Lakes of Coolfin" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 35, "The Lake of Coolfin" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 44, "Johnny Bathin" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 15-16, "Lakes of Cold Finn" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 185, "'Twas Early One Morning" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 480, "The Lakes of Cold Finn" (source notes only)
DT 541, LKCOLFIN* LKCOLFI2*
Roud #189
RECORDINGS:
Amy Birch, "Royal Comrade" (on Voice11)
Din Dobbin, "Lake of Coll Finn" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Patsy Flynn, "Willie Leonard" (on IRHardySons)
Tom Lenihan, "The Lake of Coolfin" (on IRTLenihan01)
Mary Reynolds, "The Lakes of Shallin" (on FSB7)
Cathie Stewart, "The Lakes of Shillin" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
Scan Tester, "The Lakes of Coalflin" (on Voice03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(260), "The Lakes of Cold Finn," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 20(88), "The Lakes of Cold Finn"; 2806 b.11(31), Firth b.26(168), Harding B 11(1376), "Willie Leonard"
LOCSinging, as107400, "The Lakes of Cold Finn," unknown, 19C
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Billy Henry
NOTES [31 words]: The Loch o' Shilin versions expand on the mother "tearing her hair" by adding father and sweetheart. Greig comments that his version was sung to the tune of "Villikens and his Dinah." - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LQ33

Lake of Coolfin, The

See Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)

Lake of Ponchartrain, The [Laws H9]

DESCRIPTION: A young man (Union soldier?), lost in the south, is taken in by a Creole girl. He asks her to marry; she cannot, for she is promised to another who is far away (at sea?). He promises to remember her always
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Pound)
KEYWORDS: courting separation promise
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,So) Ireland Canada(Mar,Ont,West)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws H9, "The Lake of Ponchartrain"
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 147-148, "The Lake of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 48-49, "The Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 882, "The Ponsaw Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 42, "Creole Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 46-48, "On the Lake of the Poncho Plains" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 134, "On the Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 55, pp. 127-128, "The Creole Girl" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 45, "The Lake of Ponchartrain" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 67, pp. 90-91, "The Creole GIrl" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 137, "On the Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 78, "The Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H619, pp. 373-374, "The Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 342, "The Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text)
DT 649, PONTCHAR PONCHAR2 PONCHAR3 PONCHAR4
Roud #1836
RECORDINGS:
Sarah Ann Bartley, "Lakes of Ponchartraine" (on Saskatch01)
Walter Coon, "Creole Girls" (Superior 2521, 1930)
Frances Perry, "On the Lakes of Ponchartrain" (AFS, 1946; on LC55)
Pie Plant Pete [pseud. for Claude Moye], "The Lake of Ponchartrain" (Supertone 9717, 1930) (Perfect 5-10-14/Melotone 5-10-14, 1935; rec. 1934)
Art Thieme, "The Lake of Ponchartrain" (on Thieme05)
Mrs. William Towns, "Lakes of Ponsereetain" (on ONEFowke01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lakes of the Ponchartrain
File: LH09

Lake of the Caogama, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, now we're leaving home, me boys, to Ottawa we're goin', Expectin' yo be hired, and yet we do not know." The singer hires with Tom Patterson, and spends his time in a comfortless shanty eating bad food. He misses the girls and looks forward to leaving
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger work lumbering hardtimes
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #24, "The Lake of the Caogama" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 21, "The Lake of the Caogama" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4534
NOTES [22 words]: Typical shantyboy complaint song. Lake Caogama (pronounced keg-a-ma) was a lumber camp on the northern shore of the Ottawa River. - SL
File: FowL24

Lake of the Dismal Swamp

DESCRIPTION: A man plans to meet his dead love at the Lake of the Dismal Swamp where she paddles her canoe all night long. He doesn't return but the two of them are often seen at midnight paddling their white canoe.
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Moore)
KEYWORDS: love death America lover ghost
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 21, "The Dismal Swamp" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1209, p. 83, "The Lake of the Dismal Swamp" (2 references)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Moore, The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore Complete in One Volume (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1845 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 107-108, "The Lake of the Dismal Swamp" ("They made her a grave, too cold and damp") (1 text)
ST BrE1021 (Full)
Roud #24154
NOTES [222 words]: Moore, p. 107: "Written at Norfolk, in Virginia. Norfolk, it must be owned, presents an unfavourable specimen of America.... At the time when we arrived the yellow fever had not yet disappeared, and every odour that assaulted us in the streets very strongly accounted for its visitation." Moore quotes an anonymous source as introduction: "They tell of a young man, who lost his mind upon the death of a girl he loved, and who, suddenly disappearing from his friends, was never afterwards heard of. As he had frequently said, in his ravings, that the girl was not dead, but gone to the Dismal Swamp, it is supposed that he had wandered into that drear wilderness, and had died of hunger, or been lost in some of its dreadful morasses." In his preface to "Poems Relating to America," Moore concludes that, "few have now the leisure to read such trifles, and I most sincerely regret that I have had the leisure to write them."
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 is close to Moore's original but omits verses 5 through 7 and, in each verse, repeats the fifth line. - BS
According to Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 83, there were at least two mid-nineteenth century broadsides of this piece, which may have helped it enter tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: BrE1021

Lakes of Coalfin, The

See Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)

Lakes of Cold Finn

See Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)

Lakes of Cool Fin, The

See Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)

Lakes of Ponsereetain

See The Lake of Ponchartrain [Laws H9] (File: LH09)

Lakes of Shillin, The

See Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)

Lakes of the Ponchartrain, The

See The Lake of Ponchartrain [Laws H9] (File: LH09)

Laky Ship With Her Anchor Down, A

DESCRIPTION: "A laky/leaky hip with her anchor down, her anchor down, her anchor down, A laky ship with her anchor down, Hurrah, my boys, hurrah!" "We're loaded with sugar and rum, my boys, and rum, my boys...." For the launching of the seine fleet
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Hamilton-Jenkins, Cornwall and its People, according to Deane/Shaw)
KEYWORDS: fishing ship drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 78, "(A laky ship with her anchor down)" (1 short text)
File: DesSh078

Lamachree and Megrum

DESCRIPTION: Each verse describes a farm hand experience. For example, "I there got buttered bread and cheese An oil to keep my shoon in grease." or "Betty Barbour was fu' keen, She had twa bonnie blinkin' e'en"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #4, p. 1, "Lamachree and Megrum"; #6, p. 2, "Lamachree and Megrum"; #8, p. 2, "Lamachree and Megrum"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 71-72, "Lamachree and Megrum" (2 texts plus 2 fragments, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan3 398, "Lamachree and Megrum" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #2873
NOTES [225 words]: Greig notes that "Mains o' Culsh" is sung to the tune of "Lamachree and Megrum"; on the other hand, Greig/Duncan3 398C includes three verses that belong to, or at least are central to, "Mains o' Culsh." The MacColl version - "learned from print (Miscellanea of the Rymour Club of Edinburgh)" -- is very close to Greig/Duncan 398C minus these three verses (on Ewan MacColl with Peggy Seeger and Alf Edwards, "Bothy Ballads of Scotland," Folkways Records FW 8759 LP (1961)).
Greig/Duncan3's five versions of "Lamachree and Megrum" include twenty-five verses, rhymed couplets, only one verse is repeated, and that only once: "I gaed up to Aberdour, I got lasses three or four." Greig #4 states that "Sometimes a ploughman song deals with a series of places at which the singer is understood to have served. 'Lamachree and Megrum' may be given as an example." "Lamachree and Megrum" seems a disconnected set of verses in the nature of a military cadence call.
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Auchtydure (398) is at coordinate (h4-5,v0-1) on that map [roughly 25 miles N of Aberdeen].
Greig #6 is a four verse set dealing mildly with the singer's time with the lasses at Tyrie School. Greig #8 is a four verse set about a fight over cards at Saut Wards. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD3398

Lamashayda Hi-a-lee-oh

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Lamashayda hi-a-lee-oh, Lamashayda lee-a-low. See the farmer swing On the apron string, Do re mi, Fa sol la, Do re, do ti, do re."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope nonsense music farming clothes
FOUND IN: West Indies(Nevis)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #307, "Lamashayda hi-a-lee-oh" (1 text)
File: AJRR307

Lambeau Gal Le' A-We Go

See Buffalo Gals (File: R535)

Lambing Time

DESCRIPTION: Expect the worst for some lambs at lambing time -- some will drown, some won't nurse, and foxes will take some -- but it all evens out in the long run. Besides, "it's aught that ye can dae"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 88-89, 152, "Lambing Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21751
File: McSc088

Lambkin

See Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)

Lambs on the Green Hills, The

See The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass) (File: K152)

Lambton Worm, The

DESCRIPTION: Young Lambton catches a fish of an unknown kind. Wanting to know what it is, he puts it down a well, then sets off for the Crusades. The fish grows into a serpent that leaves the well and does great damage. The lord comes home and kills the creature
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892
KEYWORDS: animal monster fishing fight
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 104, "The Lambton Worm" (1 text)
DT, LAMDWORM
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970, volume A.1, pp. 373-376, "The Lambton Worm" (a prose version)
[Cuthbert Sharp], _The Bishopric Garland, A Collection of Legends, Songs, Ballads, &c Belonging to the County of Durham_, 1834 (references are to the 1969 reprint), p. 21, "The Worme of Lambton" (1 prose version)
Jacqueline Simpson, _British Dragons_, 1980; second edition with new introduction, Wordsworth/Folklore Society, 2000, pp. 141-142, "The Lambton Worm" (1 text); also a prose text from c. 1875 on pp. 137-140
Roud #2337
NOTES [361 words]: Reputed to be about a Northumbrian lord's attempt to raise taxes (see the Digital Tradition notes). I know of no hard evidence of this.
The Briggs version, and the prose summary in Marc Alexander, A Companion to the Folklore, Myths & Customs of Britain, Sutton Publishing, 2002, pp. 159-160, tell a second part of the tale. A prophecy had told Lambton of a curse on his family, that could only be expiated, once he had killed the worm, by killing the first living thing he encountered. Lambton arranged to have a dog come to him -- but his father, forgetting the prophecy, instead ran to meet his son. Lambton could not bring himself to kill his father, and his family was cursed for nine generations.
The curse story is of course a variant on the tale of Jepthah's daughter (Judges 11:30-40), which is a fairly common motif (Thompson S241): Jepthah, if he defeats the Midianites, vows to offer up the first living thing to come out of his house -- and he is greeted by his daughter, who is his only child.
Jacqueline Simpson, British Dragons, 1980; second edition with new introduction, Wordsworth/Folklore Society, 2000, pp. 47-48, makes the interesting point that, although we think of dragons as creatures living by fire, in Britain they are often associated with watery habitats. The Lambton Worm is a clear example. Simpson, p. 30, goes on to note that some other great monsters, such as the Babylonian Tiamat and the Indian Vrtra, are also associated with water but often thought of as "dragons."
Simpson, p. 64, also observes that Young Lambton is unusual among dragon-slayers in that his conquest did not result in him founding a noble house; the family was already established. A further interesting element is that religious motifs are an integral part of the story; Simpson, p. 128, calls this unusual.
Interestingly, there was a nineteenth century pamphlet recounting this tale; the cover is shown on p. 81 of Simpson. It shows Lambton in a suit of armor covered in sharp points, which Simpson, p. 80, reports was a common way of dealing with worms and dragons: The snakelike creatures would try to crush their prey and be stabbed on the spikes. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: PBB104

Lame Crane, The

See My Dame's Crane (File: DTlamecr)

Lame Soldier, The

See Peggy and the Soldier (The Lame Soldier) [Laws P13] (File: LP13)

Lament (Life Is Full of Disappointments)

DESCRIPTION: "Life is full of disappointments, Dull and empty as a tomb, Father's got a strictured penis, Mother has a fallen womb." Uncle Ted was punished for homosexuality, Sister Sue has many abortions, other family members and servants have similar problems
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: bawdy nonballad disease
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 155, "Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #29428
File: Hopk155

Lament for Barney Flanagan

DESCRIPTION: "Flanagan got up on a Saturday morning... He didn't remember the doctor's warning, 'Your heart's too big, Mr. Flanagan." He dies. Many miss the tavern owner; there are elaborate ceremonies around his death; even the Governor-General attends
AUTHOR: James K. Baxter (1926-?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (broadsheet, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: death drink cards New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 151-152, "Lament for Barney Flanagan" (1 text, 1 modern tune)
File: BaRo151

Lament for John Sneddon

See The Collier Lad (Lament for John Sneddon/Siddon) (File: HHH110)

Lament for the Loss of the Ship Union

See Lovely Ann (File: Leyd034)

Lament of a Border Widow, The

See The Famous Flower of Serving-Men [Child 106] (File: C106)

Lament of a Young Damsel for Her Marriage to a Young Boy, The

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

Lament of John O Mahony

DESCRIPTION: The singer, growing old "in a foreign land, in a lonesome city" thinks "not a single hope have I seen fulfilled For the blood we spilled." He thinks of his home land. "My heart still lingers on its native strand And American land holds naught for me"
AUTHOR: Dr. Douglas Hyde (source: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: homesickness rebellion exile America Ireland lament nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 31, "Lament of John O Mahony" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [90 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "O'Mahony, born in Co. Limerick, turned out with Smith O'Brien at Ballingarry, 1848, fled to France and in 1852 to America; with Stephens founded I.R.B. and was Head Centre in U.S.A. Died in poverty, New York, 1877." - BS
For background on the work of Douglas Hyde, see the notes to "My Own Dark Maiden."
For more on the events of 1848, see especially "The Shan Van Voght (1848)." It is ironic to note that the 1848 rebellion was the one attempt to set Ireland free that resulted in almost no bloodshed. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: OLcM031

Lament of the Border Widow, The

See The Famous Flower of Serving-Men [Child 106] (File: C106)

Lament of the Irish Emigrant, The

See I'm Sitting on the Stile, Mary (The Irish Emigrant II) (File: Pea462)

Lament, The

See The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)

Lamentable Ballad of the Lady's Fall, The

See The Lady's Fall (File: Perc3139)

Lamentable History of Frankie and Johnnie, The

See Frankie and Albert [Laws I3] (File: LI03)

Lamentation of a Bad Market, The

DESCRIPTION: On January 10 a carpenter starts a fire that burns a bridge over the Thames. A lord and the King, looking at the thin ice, bet whether a man's weight could be held. The king loses when three children fall through and drown. John is beheaded.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1651 (The Loves of Hero and Leander, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: wager execution death drowning fire parody children nobility
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes [facing #99', "The Lamentation of a Bad Market" (reprint of the broadside)
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 287-290, "The Lamentation of a bad Market, or The Drowning of Three Children on the Thames" (1 text)
Roud #V29533
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(53), "The Lamentation of a Bad Market ," J. White (Newcastle), 1711-1769
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Three Little Girls A-Skating Went" (see Notes)
NOTES [247 words]: Immediately after the King loses his bet a man is beheaded without explanation or follow-up.
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 99, "Three children sliding on the ice": "It describes the burning of 'a bridge of London town' and was probably occasioned by the fire which, in February 1633, destroyed much of London Bridge. Stanzas 12, 18, and 19, run:
Three children sliding there abouts, Upon a place too thin, That so at last it did fall out, That they did all fall in.
Yee Parents all that Children have And ye that have none yet; Preserve your Children From the Grave, And teach them at home to sit.
For had these at a Sermon been, Or else upon dry ground, Why then I never have been seen, If that they had been drown'd.
This is undoubtedly a burlesque of the pious ballad-mongers whose 'Providential Warning and Good Counsels' wearied the Cavalier aristocracy."
The three verses survive as "Three Little Girls A-Skating Went" changed slightly to add paradox. - BS
According to the Riverside Shakespeare, p. 1395, it has never been common for the Thames to freeze over -- but that page shows a woodcut from Dekker's 1608 publication The Great Frost: Cold Doings in London; the winter of 1607-1608 did see the river frozen solid. Most amazing is the fact that it shows a fire burning in a pan set directly on the ice. Evidently this sort of thing was common.
And don't get me started on Minnesota ice fishermen who park their pickup trucks out in the middle of lakes. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BdBLoaBM

Lamentation of an Old Horse

See Poor Old Horse (III) (File: ShH85)

Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds, The

DESCRIPTION: Hugh Reynolds loves Catherine McCabe who, by perjury, has him condemned to be hanged. "With irons I'm surrounded, in grief I lie confounded, by perjury unbounded; she's the dear maid to me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Duffy)
KEYWORDS: abduction execution trial lament
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 28, 1826 - Hugh Reynolds executed for the abduction of Catherine M'Cabe (source: Sparling [see notes])
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 66, "The Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 134, "She's A Dear Maid To Me" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 380-381, 513, "The Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds"
Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 152-153, "The Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds"
Roud #2395
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Star of Sunday's Well" (tune)
NOTES [170 words]: Sparling: "Both families were County Cavan people and Catholics, but there was a feud between them, begun over 'a bit of land.' ... Catharine was very reluctant, and her evidence had to be forced from her. Her uncle was universally credited with being the instigator of the prosecution, and the vindictive inventor of the plot by which Reynolds was captured and convicted. The girl died soon after--of a broken heart, say the gossips; who also report that 'Divine vengeance' followed the M'Cabes."
Duffy: "'She's a dear maid to me.' Perhaps the English reader will require to be told that this is not to be taken in its literal meaning; it is a proverbial expression, implying that he would pay dearly for his acquaintance with her."
"Another popular ballad on the same subject is 'The Abduction of the Quaker's Daughter' by John M'Goldrick." (source: Chapters of Dublin History site: John Edward Walsh, Ireland Sixty Years Ago (1911), "Chapter III. Abduction - Abduction Clubs - The Misses Kennedy - Miss Knox") - BS
File: OLoc066

Lamentation of James O'Sullivan, The

DESCRIPTION: July 12 in Stewartstown the Catholics defend their church, leaving 22 Orangemen "a-bleeding on the ground." O'Sullivan is jailed, tried, convicted, "and sentenced for to end his life upon a gallows tree." He refuses freedom and reward to turn informer.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1830 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: violence execution trial Ireland political lament
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 36, "The Lamentation of James O'Sullivan" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Owen Rooney's Lamentation" (subject: "party fights")
cf. "The Battle That Was Fought in the North" (subject: "party fights")
cf. "The Noble Blue Ribbon Boys" (subject: Ulster quarrels)
NOTES [184 words]: July 12 is the Gregorian Calendar (adopted in England in 1752) date for celebrating the victory of William III of Orange in the Battle of the Boyne, July 1, 1690.
The complete title of Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion's broadside is "The Lamentation of James O'Sullivan, Who was executed at Omagh Jail for being concerned in the battle which took place between the Catholics and Orangemen at Stewartstown on the 12th July."
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "This ballad ... [was] perhaps also inspired by the 'party fights' in July 1829. Upwards of twenty men were said to have been killed in County Tyrone.... There was more fighting near Stewartstown in July 1831." - BS
And it would continue for many more years; after the fight at Dolly Brae in 1849 (for which see "Dolly's Brae (I)" and "Dolly's Brae (II)"), the British would pass the Party Processions Act in 1850 to control these fights. But still they march at Portadown.
Stewartstown is roughly on the boundary between the majority-Catholic and the majority-Protestant parts of Ulster; so it's easy to see how life could be very tense there. - RBW
File: Zimm036

Lamentation of James Rodgers, The

See Jack Rogers (File: Dean050)

Lamentation of Jane Shore, The

See Jane Shore (File: Percy263)

Lamentation of Patrick Brady, The

See Pat Brady (File: OLoc053A)

Lamentation of W. Warner, T. Ward, & T. Williams, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's melancholy to relate Of three young men who met their fate, Cut off just in the bloom of day, For robbing on the king's highway." One of the robbers describes attacking Mr. Greenway at Nuneaton. They are taken, tried, and swiftly condemned to death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Atkinson/Roud), but clearly published in the first half of the nineteenth century
KEYWORDS: robbery trial execution death warning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 1, 1818 - Warner, Ward, and Williams beat and rob George Greenway in Warwickshire (source: Palmer)
Jul 14, 1818 - The three are hanged
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, "'Birmingham Broadsides and Oral Tradition" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, pp. 53-54, "The Lamentation of W. Warner, T. Ward, & T. Williams" (1 text)
Roud #3207
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Three Brothers in Fair Warwickshire" (theme)
NOTES [134 words]: Palmer connects this with a broadside, "Three Brothers in Fair Warwickshire." Roud accepts the equivalence. There are certainly common elements -- the age of the young men (18, 19, 20), the fact that they are in Warwickshire, the fact that they rob someone whose name starts with "Gr...." But there are substantial differences, too. In this broadside, the three are not brothers; in the song, they are. The song adds a scene with the three brothers' mother bewail their fate. Only about half the verses have the same general contents. The song can't even decide whether it's in first or third person. My guess is that the song has taken on material from the broadside but that it either started as something else or was deliberately remade. Either way, I'd call it a separate although related song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: AtRo053B

Lamentation over Boston, The

DESCRIPTION: "By the Rivers of Watertown we sat down & wept, we wept... when we remember'd thee, O Boston...." The singer asks God to protect Boston. "A voice was heard in Roxbury" weeping due to the threat. The singer promises not to forget the danger
AUTHOR: William Billings
EARLIEST DATE: 1778 (The SInging Master's Assistant, according to Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
KEYWORDS: war rebellion America nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 183-184, "The Lamentation over Boston" (1 text)
NOTES [59 words]: This is largely based on Psalm 137, with its opening phrase "By the waters of Babylon" and its lyric promise three verses later, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem...." There is also an invocation of "Rachel's lament for her children," mentioned in Jer. 31:15 and quoted in Matt. 2:18.
For more about composer William Billings, see the notes to "Chester." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: FlNG183

Lamferd

See Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)

Lamfin

See Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)

Lamkin [Child 93]

DESCRIPTION: (Lamkin) rebuilt a lord's castle, but was never paid. As the lord sets out on a journey, he warns his wife to beware of Lamkin. The precautions are in vain; Lamkin (helped by a false nurse) steals in and kills the lord's child (and wife) (and is hanged)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1775 (Percy collection)
KEYWORDS: death theft revenge children punishment homicide cannibalism
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord),England(Lond,South,West)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (60 citations):
Child 93, "Lamkin" (25 texts)
Bronson 93, "Lamkin" (30 versions (some with variants)+3 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 93, "Lamkin" (6 versions: #2, #5a, #8, #12, #27, #29)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 234-239, "Lammikin" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 142, "(I wald be very sorry)" (1 fragment, a single verse that the editors think is this)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 256-258, "Lamkin" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #40, p. 2, "Lamkin" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan2 187, "Lambkin" (3 texts)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 9, "Lord Meanwell" (1 text)
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 199-200, "Young Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #19}
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #29, "Long Lankin; or, Young Lambkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #121, "Lambkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 200-206, "Lamkin" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 1 tune; also extensive notes on version classification) {Bronson's #16}
Randolph 23, "False Lamkin" (1 text with variants, 1 tune) {Bronson's #25}
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 17, "Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 127, "Lamkin" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune) {Bronson's #15}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 104-107, "Squire Relantman" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2, pp. 297-316, "Lamkin" (7 texts plus 3 fragments, 4 tunes) {C=Bronson's #7)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 303-305, "Young Alanthia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine,pp. 90-91, "Lamkin the Mason" (1 text, with no indication of source)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 26, "Lamkin" (3 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune entitled "Lampkin") {Bronson's #10}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 28, pp. 214-220, "Lamkin" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 29, "Lamkin" (1 text plus assorted excerpts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 29, "Lamkin" (4 excerpts, 4 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 42, "Lamkins" (1 text, apparently a fragment of Child #93 (containing only a threat of cannibalism) plus three "My Horses Ain't Hungry" stanzas)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 26, "Bow Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #10, "Lamferd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 62-64, "Bolakin (Lamkin)" (1 text)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 63, "Bolakin" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 16, "Lamkin" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #20}
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 20-21, "Lamkin" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 806-807, "Bold Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 13, "Lamkin" (1 text, 4 tunes)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 35, "False Limkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 288-295, "Lamkin" (4 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 116-119, "Lamkin" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 6, "Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 199, "Lamkin" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 78, "Lamkin" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 102, "Bolamkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 27, "Lamkin" (5 texts, 5 tunes){Bronson's #11, #14, #12, #4, #9}
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 27, "False Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 22, "Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #13, "Lamkin (False Lamkin)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11}
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 64, "Lamkin" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 38, "Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 60-61, "Long Lankin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #28}
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 258-259, "False Lanky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 80, "Lamkin" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 64, "Lamkin" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 16, "Lamkin" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 19, "Lamkin" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H735, p. 133, "Lambkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 241-248, "Lammikin" (5 texts)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 63-64, "Bo Lamkin" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 18-21, "Lamkin" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, John DeWitt Niles, "Lamkin: The Motivation of Horror," Vol. 90, No. 355 (January-March 1977), pp. 49-67, ("Lamkin") (1 text plus many excerpts and fragments plus a partial tune) {Bronson's #5A}
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Frank Proffitt: A Legend A-Borning," Vol. XIV, No. 2 (Nov. 1966), p. 15, "Bo Lamkin" (1 text, a semi-legible photograph of Frank Proffitt's own manuscript)
DT 93, BLAMKIN* BOLAMKN2* BOLAMKN3*
ADDITIONAL: Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, pp. 127-128, "Long Lankin" (1 text)
Roud #6
RECORDINGS:
Jim Bennett, "Bold Lamkin" (on PeacockCDROM)
Glenn Bolick, "Bo Lamkin" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #15, recorded 08/19/2020)
Ben Butcher, "Cruel Lincoln" (on FSB4, Voice03)
George Fosbury, "False Lamkin" (on FSBBAL1)
Orville Hicks, "Bo Lamkin" (Piotr-Archive #199, recorded 06/27/2022)
Bobby McMillon, "Bo Lamkins" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #13, recorded 08/14/2020); "Bo Lamkin" (Piotr-Archive #32, recorded 05/08/2021 -- a long composite version)
Mrs. Peter Mushrow, "Lamkin" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Nicola "Aunt Nicky" Pritchard (Turbyfill), "Bolakins" (Piotr-Archive #1, recorded 03/30/2020; Piotr-Archive #2, recorded 07/03/2020; Piotr-Archive #3, recorded 07/13/2020; most of these consist of description of the song rather than actual sung words)
Frank Proffitt, "Bo Lamkin" (on Proffitt03)
Reuben Walton, "Alanthia" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #312, recorded 10/12/2022)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1048), "The Lambkin," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Batson" [Laws I10] (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lamfin
NOTES [1008 words]: John Jacob Niles claims that this song was once sung in the Louisville schools. One can only wish he had offered supporting evidence.
Anne G. Gilchrist examines the development of this ballad in "Lambkin: A Study in Evolution" (first printed in the Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, I, 1932; see now Leach/Coffin, pp. 204-224).
Gilchrist finds two basic forms of the ballad. In one, primarily Scottish, Lamkin is a mason defrauded of his pay by the lord whose castle he built. In the other, Northumbrian and English, Lamkin is simply a ruffian or a border raider (Reed, p. 152, in making the same point, quotes the verse that says that Lankin "lies in the moss," implying that he is a mosstrooper) seeking loot or perhaps the hand of the lord's daughter.
Gilchrist believes the Scottish form to be older, and believes that the other arose when the first stanza (in which the lord's fraud is described) was lost. She argues that the name "Lambkin" is diminutive of the Flemist name Lambert, and speculates that it may have been based on a (hypothesized) incident at Balwearie in Fife -- a site mentioned in some versions of the ballad, and located near a Flemish colony.
Friedman, p. 465, supports Glchrist's idea that the name Lamkin is Flemish -- but he clarifies that this is not because of the initial element "Lam(b)-" but the terminal element "-kin," which he finds to be a standard Flemish diminutive. He offers several examples. I will confess that I do not find this compelling; the "-kin" suffix is originally Dutch but shows up frequently in English: bodkin (a small knife), catkin. manikin (a little man, not a mannequin); we meet "Harpkin" in Child's appendix to "The Fause Knight Upon the Road" [Child 3]; even in modern times, Beatrix Potter offered us "Squirrel Nutkin."
Some versions mention Lamkin catching the infant's blood in a bowl. This has caused all sorts of speculation about ritual, or perhaps about some sort of trick to further punish the child (because, according to the Bible, the blood is the life). Obviously some such explanation is possible -- but I think we have to allow the possibility that he's just a nut, or trying to avoid leaving a trail.
James Reed, in his article "Border Ballads" (which in large part parallels his book also cited here) included in Cowan, discusses this ballad on pp. 24-25, and considers it most unusual among border ballads because it features a class conflict (between the lord and Lamkin). It's an interesting point -- but the question then arises whether the song is really a border ballad. The mere fact that it has been widely collected along the border between England and Scotland does not make it one. Niles, p. 49, reminds us that the earliest known version, Child's K, was sent to Percy in 1775, and is from Kent.
All in all, there is a lot we haven't figured out about this ballad!
Niles, p. 50, suggests that major elements of the song have seemingly been lost by all versions of the song. One of the most important is Lamkin's motivation. Niles, pp. 51-53, points out that the statement that Lamkin built Lord Wearie's castle but went unpaid is characteristic only of Child's A, which is from Anna Brown Gordon -- and Anna Brown Gordon is known to have reworked some of her material heavily (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland,). Could she have introduced this motif?
Others have been open to the possibility of the motivation being lost. One, suggested by Phillips Barry based on an obscure phrase in a Maine version, was that Lamkin was a leper -- and, since folklore said that an infant's blood could cure leprosy, Lamkin was out primarily to cure himself (Niles, p. 56). Blood as a leprosy cure is well-attested (it's Thompson motif F955.1, and cf. S268), but Niles is probably right to reject it simply because the hints -- other than catching the baby's blood in a (silver) bowl are found only in obscure phrase in a recent and otherwise rather defective version.
Leach came up with a suggestion that the lady killed by Lamkin is his former wife or lover, who has run away with a demon lover (Niles, p. 56). This is based on the name "Lord Wearie," and perhaps on hints in some versions that Lamkin was sexually attracted to the lady, but Niles considers this far-fetched, and so do I -- Leach's idea is based on older versions of the song than Barry's, but it is also based on even more obscure features of the text.
Ninon Leader's suggestion is that blood was required in the mortar to make a building truly stand firm (Niles, p. 57). This is of course another common folklore motif. This hints that a human sacrifice was required for Lamkin to build the castle -- and that the lord either didn't supply the victim or that the lord did not make repayment when Lamkin sacrificed someone (wife? child?). This might even be the reason why the explanation was suppressed.
Although Niles agrees with the supernatural element, neither I nor Niles thinks this truly fits the surviving part of the ballad. So Niles, pp. 59-60, offers the alternate explanation that it is Lamkin, not the lord, who is the demon ("Devil builds building" is Thompson G303.9.1.13), and takes the wife as his price for building the castle. Niles speculates that this explains the name "Lamkin" (i.e. "little lamb"), to make him seem innocuous. As an analogy to this, Niles, p. 61, offers a Scandinavian folktale called "Hin Finn," and argues that the story has Celtic roots, which would allow for a link to a Scottish folksong.
I have to say that I'm not impressed with the genealogical connection. On the other hand, that silver bowl of blood really does sound like it belongs to some ritual or other. Could Lamkin have been using it to curse the lord?
Of course, the other possibility was that it was just a story made up by the great-to-the-tenth-grandfather of a modern horror film director, and he made up a bunch of gothic stuff because he liked awful things. - RBW
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads is one of Child's sources for composite text D. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C093

Lamkin the Mason

See Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)

Lammas Fair in Cargan, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer rambles until he chances on the Cargan fair, which he says exceeds all others. He describes the people, the food, the vendors, the police, the brawling -- and admits to coming home bruised and beaten
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: party drink fight nonballad brawl
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H513, p. 75, "The Lammas Fair in Cargan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9051
File: HHH513

Lammikin

See Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)

Lancashire Lads, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was last Monday morning... Our orders came from Manchester, we were to march away." A girl wants to marry one of the Lancashire lads. The mother wonders why, and threatens to confine her daughter. The girl says she will follow her lad once she is free
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire), but the broadsides seem to be from the first half of the nineteenth century
KEYWORDS: courting parting army clothes mother soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 44, "The Lancashire Lads" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #588
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(239), "Lancashire Lads," J. Crome (Sheffield), c. 1817; also Harding B 17(159b), "The Lancashire Lads," T. Bloomer (Birmingham), n.d.; also Harding B 28(130), "The Lancashire Lad," unknown, n.d.
NOTES [57 words]: Roud lumps "The Rifle Boys" and "The Lancashire Lads." There isn't much doubt but that they derive from the same original; they have several half-stanzas in common, and the plot is the same. But they also have substantial difference. I was undecided between splitting and lumping, and when in doubt, I split. But you should see both entries. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: MHFL044

Lancashire Lass

See The Frolicksome Farmer (File: ReSh055)

Lancashire Miller, The

See The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)

Lancashire Morris Dance

DESCRIPTION: "Morris dance is a very pretty tune And I will dance in my new shoon. My new shoon are not so good, But I would dance it if I could"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 163-164, "Lancashire Morris Dance" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
NOTES [13 words]: The current description is based on the Kidson-TraditionalTunes fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: KiTu163

Lancaster Maid, The

See Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid) [Laws M20] (File: LM20)

Land League's Advice to the Tenant Farmers of Ireland, The

DESCRIPTION: "Cheer up your hearts, you tenant farmers, the land you nobly till, Pay no rent, and keep the harvest" is the advice of Parnell, Brennan, Thomas Woods and Michael Davitt. Thumb your nose at the landlord. Reject the champion spud
AUTHOR: "M. O'Brien" (Source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1881 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: farming Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 79, "The Land League's Advice to the Tenant Farmers of Ireland" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blackbird of Avondale (The Arrest of Parnell)" (subject)
cf. "Michael Davitt" (subject)
NOTES [201 words]: Bodleian, Harding B 40(6), "The Land Leagues Advice to the Tenant Farmers of Ireland ("Attend to me you tenant farmers thats assembled in this town"), J.F. Nugent and Co.? (Dublin?), 1850-1899 is apparently this ballad but I could not download the image to verify that. It has the author as M. O'Brien.
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "This ballad was probably written as a comment on the 'No-Rent Manifesto' issued by the Land League after the arrest of its leaders, advising the tenant farmers 'to pay no rents under any circumstances to their landlords ... They can no more evict a whole nation than they can imprison them'" quoting The Nation, 22nd October 1881.
Zimmermann notes that the "Champion spud," ridiculed in the song, was resistant to the potato blight and was grown in Scotland and Ireland after 1870.
Zimmermann notes, p. 276, that Thomas Brennan was a Land Leaguer arrested in 1881. Charles Stewart Parnell was also arrested in 1881 (p. 278; cf. "The Blackbird of Avondale (The Arrest of Parnell)"). Michael Davitt is another arrested Land Leaguer (cf. "Michael Davitt"). [For these two, see also the notes on "The Bold Tenant Farmer." - RBW] I have no information on Thomas Woods. - BS
File: Zimm079

Land o' America, The

DESCRIPTION: "You native Scots, and relations all, A ploughman's wages is but small." Come to America. "There is plenty o' tobacco te smoke and te chaw" but beware the Indians. He says "nor yet will I forsake my dear, but I'll won gold and buckle braw"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: poverty emigration gold America Scotland nonballad Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #179, p. 2, ("You native Scots and relations all"); #179, p. 2, ("Yer stinkin' cheese, and yer breid fired raw"); #179, p. 2, ("The women there they nakit run") (3 fragments)
Greig/Duncan3 535, "The Land o' America" (3 texts)
Roud #6013
ALTERNATE TITLES:
America
NOTES [13 words]: Greig/Duncan3 by Greig in 1911: "Heard sung at St Combs seventy years ago." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3535

Land o' Cakes, The

See Bannocks o' Barley Meal (File: FVS142)

Land o' the Leal, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am wearing awa', John, Like snaw when it's thaw, Jean; I'm wearing awa' tae the land o' the leal...." The (old man) recalls the hard times they have been through, and looks forward to a happier life
AUTHOR: Caroline Oliphaunt, Lady Nairne (1766-1845)
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Eliot)
KEYWORDS: love separation death
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 161, "Hey Tutti Taitie" (1 text, a combination of "Hey Tutti Taitie" and something that looks like "The Land o' the Leal")
Heart-Songs, p. 46, "The Land o' the Leal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 109-124, "The Land o' the Leal" (1 text plus some rewrites)
DT, LANDLEAL
ADDITIONAL: Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, pp. 106-107, "[The Land of the Leal]" (1 text)
Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #330, p. 560, "The Land o' the Leal" (by Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne)
Roud #8999
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Be Kin' to Yer Nainsel, John" (parody)
cf. "Hey Tutti Taitie" (tune)
NOTES [572 words]: One of Lady Nairn's most popular pieces, reprinted in works such as Palgrave's Golden Treasury. (Benet, p. 755, lists her best-known songs as "Charlie Is My Darling" [which, however, appears to predate her], "The Laird of Cockpen," and this. I would add, at minimum, "Caller Herring.") Because no one claimed it when it was first published, there were attempts to attribute it to Burns (Ford, p. 111ff.) -- the first line was changed in some copies to "I am wearin' awa', Jean" rather than "I am wearin' awa', John," in order to make it look as if it was written for Burns's wife Jean (Armour). Indeed, it was claimed as Burns's last song. But no evidence was ever produced to support this.
Gordeanna McCulloch sings a song, "Be Kind Tae Yer Nainsel," which purports to be from oral tradition and which has many of the same lyrics but a rather different purpose. I do not know whether it inspired Lady Nairn's song, or was inspired by it; the notes on the recording imply the former.
Williams, pp. 105-106, declares "In its original and simplest form, before [Lady Nairn] had interpolated a verse to express some of her theological ideas, it is the perfect interpretation of a sweet, solemn, and simple thought, the tenderest and purest emotion, breathed in an equally simple, but absolutely perfect melody, that is like the flowing of limpid water, crystal clear and unbroken to the end. The heart of the world has responded, and it has a place like none other in the history of song."
Williams has a capsule biography of Lady Nairn on pp. 102-130 of his book, noting that she was born in 1766 to a staunchly Jacobite family; her father had fought in the "Forty-Five" (p. 108). Her parents had to marry in exile (p. 123). Carolina (sometimes Caroline) Oliphant was named after Bonnie Prince Charlie (p. 108). She came to be called "The Flower of Strathearn" (p. 109), although the surviving portraits of her do not strike me as very beautiful.
She apparently preferred anonymity from the very start; her first verses, "The Ploughman," are said to have been presented by her brother at a Harvest Home dinner being by an unknown author (p. 110). Her works were published anonymously in her lifetime (p. 107).
"The Land o' the Leal was written for Mrs. Archibald Campbell Colquhoun, a dear friend of Miss Oliphant, upon the death of an infant daughter, and to one other only was the secret of its authorship ever definitively disclosed" (Williams, p. 111; Ford, p. 112).
"Somewhat late in life Carolina Oliphant married her cousin, Major William Nairne, the heir to the forfeited Barony of Nairne, Assistant Inspector-General of Barracks in Scotland, and with him removed to Edinburgh, where she occupied for a time a cottage in Portobello and afterward official quarters in Holyrood place" (Williams, pp. 111-112).
Williams considers the freedom and gaiety of her life to have faded as she grew older, even though her husband was eventually restored to his barony by George IV. Ford-SongHistories, p. 114, corroborates this, all her poems were written while young. She became a staunch and rigid Calvinist (Williams, p. 112); she did not even allow her son to learn to dance (Williams, p. 113).
After her death, in 1846, her poems were collected under her name in Lays from Strathearn (Benet, p. 755). This has accompaniments by Finlay Dun, and is available on Google Books. That lists the tune of this as "Hey Tutti Taiti." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: DTlandle

Land of Fish and Seals, The

DESCRIPTION: "Let Sunny India her wealth proclaim... We envy not her gaudy show." The singer contrasts "the land of fish and seals" with foreign nations: though "No great immortal names are ours," they can boast of freedom and "our living brave."
AUTHOR: "Mrs. Peace" ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Murphy, Songs Sung By Old Time Sealers of Many Years Ago)
KEYWORDS: nonballad patriotic Canada fishing recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 25, "The Land of Fish and Seals" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, editor, _Songs Sung by Old-TIme Sealers of Many Years Ago_, James Murphy Publishing, 1925 (PDF available from Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 19, "The Land of Fish and Seals" (1 text)
Roud #V44606
NOTES [34 words]: A poem not a song, and probably not traditional -- but seemingly widely printed in Newfoundland. Murphy reports that the author, "Mrs. Peace," was from Scotland but lived in St. John's in the 1850s. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm025

Land of Oden

See Land of Odin (File: ACSF309O)

Land of Odin

DESCRIPTION: "In the land of Oden/Odin There stands a mountain Ten thousand miles in the air...." Every (thousand) years a little bird sharpens its beak there. "And when that mountain Has worn away This to eternity will be, But one single day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: bird campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 309, "Land of Odin"/"In the Land of Olden" (notes only)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Land of Oden
NOTES [567 words]: According to the mudcat.org thread "Tune Req: Land of Odin/Oden," the origin of this was Hendrik Willem van Loon's 1922 volume History of Mankind, in which "High in the North in a land called Svithjod [Svíþjóð=Sweden] there is a mountain. It is a hundred miles long and a hundred miles high and once every thousand years a little bird comes to this mountain to sharpen its beak. When the mountain has thus been worn away a single day of eternity will have passed."
This is Thompson motif H701.1, "How many seconds in eternity? A bird carries a grain of sand from a mountain" until it is worn down. This often occurs in Thompson tale type 922, in which a wise boy (or commoner) answers a king's questions. This is the theme, e.g., of "King John and the Bishop" [Child 45], but the king's questions in that song do not include the amount of time in eternity.
Much closer to this song, among versions accessible in English, is Grimm Fairy Tale #152, "The Shepherd Boy" or "The Little Shepherd Boy." The boy is famous for wisdom, so the king calls him to ask him tough questions. The third of the king's questions is "How many seconds in eternity" or similar. The shepherd boy answers "The Diamond Mountain is in Lower Pomerania, and it takes an hour to climb it, an hour to go around it, and an hour to go down into it. Every hundred years a little bird comes and sharpens its beak on it, and when the entire mountain is chiseled away, the first second of eternity will have passed" (Grimm/Zipes, p. 509).
The motif is also found in the Welsh Mabinogion, in the Tale of Culhwych and Olwen. This is a tale in which many quests must be achieved for Culhwych to win his bride. In the Mabinogion/Guest translation, it's p. 246, about two-thirds of the way through the story:
"They went forward until they came to the Ousel of Cilgwri. And Gwrhyr adjured her for the sake of Heaven, saying, 'tell me if thou knowest aught of Mabon the son of Modron, who was taken when three nights old from between his mother and the wall.' And the Ousel answered, 'When I first came here, there was a smith's anvil in this place, and I was then a young bird; and from that time no work has been done upon it, save the pecking of my beak every evening, and now there is not so much as the size of a nut remaining thereof; yet the vengeance of Heaven be upon me, if during all that time I have ever heard of the man for whom you inquire.'" (In Mabinogion/Gantz, p. 164, it's the ousel of Kilgwri; Mabinogion/Davies, p. 203, it's the blackbird of Cilgwri, which Davies, p. 272, thinks is on the Wirral Peninsula.)
This ancient bird is also mentioned in Welsh Triad #92, the Three Elders of the World; Bromwich, p. 235, uses the translation "blackbird" just as Davies does, and suggests on p. 236 that there must have been "a body of folklore about the oldest animals." And she finds (p. 237) Indian and Persian parallels, hinted at also by Thompson. But I have not seen these, and I strongly doubt they have anything to do with this song.
The concept of a thousand years or more being a single day is from the New Testament, 2 Peter 3:8: "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (KJV). Psalm 90:4 also has a bit of this idea "For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF309O

Land of Potatoes, Oh!, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, had I in the clear five hundred a year" the singer would build a cottage and garden in Ireland, not roam to other countries. Those from other lands would stay here if they came once. An Irish wife, "so nice and complete," would make him even happier.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland); before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1066))
KEYWORDS: poverty emigration Ireland nonballad home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 73+160, "The Land of Potatoes, Oh!" (1 text)
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 57-60, "The Land of Potatoes, O!" (1 text)
Roud #V22446
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1066), "The Land of Potatoes", J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Morgan Rattler" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
NOTES [70 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "[The Land of Potatoes] is ascribed to Mr. [Robert MacOwen] Owenson, the father of Lady Morgan; who is also said to have been "the author of various lyrical compositions, which were sung on the Dublin stage, and are remarkable for broad wit and genuine humour" (see also "Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan),Novelist, c1783 - 1859" at the site for George Owenson, Dalgety Church and Dalgety Bay). - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: OCon073

Land of the Silver Birch

DESCRIPTION: A pseudo-Indian ode to northern lands: "Land of the silver birch, home of the beaver, Where still the mighty moose wanders at will, Blue lake and rocky shore, I will return once more." The singer ends by promising to build a wigwam in the north
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (heard by Janet Tobitt, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: homesickness return nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 190-191, "Land of the Silver Birch" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 459, "Land of the Silver Birch" (notes only)
ST FJ190 (Partial)
Roud #4550
NOTES [19 words]: For some reason, we learned this in elementary school in Minnesota, some time around 1970. I can't imagine why. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FJ190

Land of the West, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer urges his love to "come to the west... I'll make thee my own. I'll guard thee, I'll tend thee...." North and south have their delights, but the west is warm and fair. He again calls her to come to his own land
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868) (source: Hayes)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 118)
KEYWORDS: love home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 505, "The Land of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H677, p. 175, "The Land of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 211, "The Land of the West" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1214, p. 83, "The Land of the West" (2 references)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol II, pp. 27-28, "The Land of the West"
Roud #5990
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 118, "The Land of the West" ("Oh, come to the West, love, oh come there with me"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth c.13(67), Harding B 11(528), Firth b.27(301), Harding B 18(336), Harding B 11(2056), Harding B 11(4390), 2806 c.15(247)[some words illegible], "The Land of the West"
LOCSinging, as202030, "Land of the West," H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1878; also sb20284a, "Land of the West"
NOTES [46 words]: Broadside LOCSinging as202030: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadsides LOCSinging as202030 and Bodleian Harding B 18(336) are duplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: HHH677

Land Where the Shamrocks Grow, The

DESCRIPTION: "There is an Island that's famed in her glory, Sweet poets have sung in her praise." Some prefer England or Scotland, but the singer gives his love to Ireland. He hopes that she may soon be more friendly to England
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 60-61, "The Land Where the Shamrocks Grow" (1 text)
Roud #9559
NOTES [44 words]: There is a relatively common poem with this title, found e.g. in the Digital Tradition. They are not the same song. I have found no other sure references to this piece, though with two songs having the same title and general theme, it can be hard to tell.... - RBW
File: Dean060

Landed in Botany Bay

DESCRIPTION: "My dear girl I am landed in Botany Bay, Nevermore to thy arms to return, Tho' I like a negro do labour each day, Tis for thee I am mostly concerned." He is weary, his tears stain the page; he wishes he could die rather than be separated from her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland); Anderson estimates his broadside is c. 1790
KEYWORDS: exile love separation transportation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 24-25, "Landed in Botany Bay" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 102, "Landed in Botany Bay" (1 text, with tune on p. 550)
Roud #V9223
NOTES [42 words]: Although this surely represents the attitude of many transportees, the number who could write letters was small, and the number who could express themselves in such a flowery way surely smaller still. I can't imagine this ever going into tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AnFa024

Landfall of Cabot, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's an argument unfinished Twixt his lordship and the Judge, And the doctor takes a hand in For to settle an old grudge." All disagree on where John Cabot first discovered Newfoundland. Many claim to have special information from Cabot's family
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 1st edition)
KEYWORDS: Canada humorous home travel
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1497- John Cabot's voyage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Landfall of Cabot" (1 text): p. 71 in the 4th edition
Roud #7300
NOTES [806 words]: The dispute over where John Cabot reached North America is very real; according to Roberts, p. 4, "Of the great mariner John Cabot... on whose 1497 voyage England's whole claim to North America rested, no portrait exists today, nor a single scrap of his handwriting. By the middle of the 16th century the facts of John Cabot's life had passed completely out of common memory." No real chronicle of English exploration was published until the time of Richard Hakluyt in 1582; our records are very few.
Brown, p. 20: "Cabot (born Giovanni Caboto) understood, like his Italian contemporary Christopher Columbus, that a direct and possibly shorter route to the spice trades of the Far East might be found by sailing west. Finding backers in England for a reconnaissance on a more northerly latitude than Columbus's, he probably landed in Northern Newfoundland, spent a month sailing this new coast, and returned to Bristol to acclaim and a royal pension."
Brebner/Masters, pp. 16-17: "The Bristol merchants outfitted [Cabot] with a tiny bark, named the 'Matthew,' and a crew of seventeen; King Henry VII gave him letters patent for the discovery of "whatsoever lands... which before this time were unknown to all Christians.' The expedition, which set sail on May 2, 1497, reached North America (probably near the southwest corner of Newfoundland, possibly near the northern tip of Cape Breton Island, or less possibly on the Labrador coast), on June 24. After a little coasting along those forbidding shores, they hurried home with the news that they had reached northeastern Asia, with Japan awaiting them to the south and west. They had found no gold, no inviting lands, no imperial cities. The rare natives whom they encountered were primitive folk, useful only as slaves."
Henry VII, ever the cheapskate, gave Cabot ten pounds in cash and a 20 pound annuity -- but from the receipts of Bristol, not his own revenue.
Bothwell, p. 13, "The great port of the English West Country was Bristol, in May 1497, sailed another Genoese, Giovanni Caboto, known to his English hosts as John Cabot. Cabot was sponsored by the English king, Henry VII. Henry was a prudent monarch and did not risk much.... By that time Columbus had made not one but two voyages to the New World, and it was clear that a sailor with a good compass and a certain amount of skill could sail west and enounter land -- possibly China or India, which Columbus had so far failed to locate.
"Cabot didn't find China, but he did find land, probably Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and he claimed it for his patron, King Henry. Yet Cabot's discovery of land had far less immediate significance than his discoveries at sea.... Cabot's English companions described an ocean alive with fish, the northern cod." It was these fish, on the Grand Banks and elsewhere in Canadian waters, that brought about most English contact with Newfoundland. Peter E. Pope once said that "Cabot may have been seeking Japan, but his greatest discovery was cod" (summary from Hallowell, p. 17).
From this standpoint, it didn't really matter just where Cabot had reached land; the land was there, and the fish were near it, and England had a claim to it. But, to this day, no one knows where Cabot landed. Indeed, his son, Sebastian Cabot, may have organized another trip in 1508, and there is disagreement over whether it even happened (Roberts, pp. 3-6). All that uncertainty forms the backdrop to this poem.
Some of the jokes in here are quite funny -- if you're a Newfoundlander. E.g. "He was two springs with the WALRUS And another with Joe Barbour." The Walrus was one of the very oldest sealing steamers, going back to the 1860s (for her, see "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full"), but that's still long after Cabot. Similarly, the Barbours were a sealing dynasty, but not in the 1470s! (For them, see "Sealer's Song (II)," "The Greenland Disaster (I)," "Captains and Ships," and "The Nimrod's Song." My guess is that although there was a Joseph Barbour who was a sealing captain, Joe Barbour is not the Barbour meant, since he was one of the less famous ones; perhaps the correct reference is to George Barbour.) I would assume the other references are equally anachronistic, although the characters involved aren't as well-known.
I personally find the line abut feeding "The population of Quebec and Moreton's Harbour" pretty funny, also -- in round numbers, Quebec would have had ten thousand times the population of Moreton's Harbour of Newfoundland's north coast (for it, see for instance "I'ze the B'y that Builds the Boat").
The poem refers to the crew turning "manus." "Manus" is both noun and verb, to manus being to refuse to work so as to force a captain to end his voyage and a manus being one who engages in this sort of strike (StoryKirwinWiddowson, pp. 322-323). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doyl4071

Landlady of France, The

DESCRIPTION: "A landlady of France loved an officer, 'tis said, And this officer he dearly loved her brandy-o." As he prepares to go off to battle, they encourage encourage each other (primarily to drink more), "For love is like the colic, cured with brandy-o."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942
KEYWORDS: soldier drink separation love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 37-38, "The Landlady of France" (1 text)
DT, LNDLDYFR*
Roud #V33309
SAME TUNE:
The Monitor and Merrimack ("Way down at Fort Monroe") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 98)
File: Gil037

Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl

DESCRIPTION: "Landlord, fill the flowing bowl until it doth run over (x2), For tonight we'll merry merry be (x3); Tomorrow we'll be sober." The singer describes those who drink water, ale, whiskey and/or court freely -- noting that those who drink deep are happier
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(55a))
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad courting landlord
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 562, "Come, Landlord, Fill a Flowing Bowl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 50-51, "Come, Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 394)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #357, p. 24, "Come, Landlord, Fill a Flowing Bowl" (1 reference)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 45, "Fill the Flowing Bowl" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 670-671, "The Jolly Fellow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 141, "Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #155, "Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 229, "Landlord Fill The Flowing Bowl" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 234, "Three Jolly Coachmen" (notes only)
DT, COACHMN3*
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, pp. 76-77, "Landlord, Fill Your Flowing Bowl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1234
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(55a), "Come Landlord Fill a Flowing Bowl," T. Birt (London) , 1828-1829; also Harding B 18(602), Harding B 15(53a), Harding B 11(2318), "Come, Landlord, Fill a Flowing Bowl" ; Harding B 15(52b), Firth c.22(49), Firth b.26(267), "Come Landlord Fill the Flowing Bowl"; Firth b.28(34) View 2 of 2, "Landlord Fill a Flowing Bowl"; Harding B 11(2247), 2806 c.17(135), "Flowing Bowl"
LOCSinging, as108210, "Flowing Bowl," Pitts, J. (London), 1819-1844; also sb10068a, "Come, Landlord, Fill a Flowing Bowl"; as102150, "Landlord, Fill the Flowing bowl"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "He That Will Not Merry, Merry Be" (theme: drink and good fellowship))
cf. "Come, Ye Friends of a Social Life" (theme: drink and good fellowship))
cf. "The Social Fellow" (theme: drink and good fellowship))
cf. "Push About the Pitcher" (theme: drink and good fellowship))
cf. "Fill a Glass of Sherry" (theme: drink and good fellowship))
cf. "Farewell to Grog" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Farewell to Grog (File: SCWF191)
Homeward Oh! (by H. A. Schauffler, [class of 18]59) ("Merrily roll we homeward, oh! While rings the air with laughter") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 114)
Shout for Alma Mater, O! ("Lift your joyful voices high To song of Kenyon measure") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 51)
When the Revolution Comes ("Come every honest lad and lass! Too long we've been kept under") (Foner, p. 305)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Three Jolly Coachmen
NOTES [164 words]: Although I have not been able to trace this song earlier than the nineteenth century, the idea is quite old. The Richard Hill manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, has a song written by 1537 which begins:
How, butler, how! Bevis a towt!
Fill the boll, gentill butler and let the cup rowght.
Jentill butler, bell amy,
Fyll the boll by the eye,
That we may drynk by and by.
This is item #101 on pp. 118-119 of Roman Dyboski, Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), and is #87 on pp. 153-154 of Richard Greene, editor, A Selection of English Carols, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962. Greene, p. 247, also notes a similar piece in Ravenscroft's Deuteromelia of 1609.
Broadsides LOCSinging as108210 and Bodleian Harding B 11(2247) are duplicates, [as are] LOCSinging sb10068a and Bodleian Harding B 18(602). - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB229A

Landlord, Fill Your Flowing Bowl

See Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl (File: FSWB229A)

Lane County Bachelor, The

See Starving to Death on a Government Claim (The Lane County Bachelor) (File: R186)

Lang Awa Ship, The

DESCRIPTION: "On a bonnie green knowe, by the side of the sea, Sat a sailor's wife and her bairnies three," singing, "Oh, it's braw to sit and see the ships comin' in." It's pretty to see ships leave, but better when they return. Her sailor returns to her
AUTHOR: Isabella Boyd (1808-1888) (source: Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: sailor return home ship nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 15, "The Lang Awa Ship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13090
File: Gath015

Lang Harper

DESCRIPTION: Don't love a rose that blossoms in July, fades in August, and will prick you when the roses fall.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection warning floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1410, "Lang Harper" (1 fragment)
Roud #7261
NOTES [22 words]: The Greig/Duncan7 fragment -- one floating verse -- is the basis of the description but gives no clue about the rest of the song. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71410

Lang Johnny More [Child 251]

DESCRIPTION: John More, on a visit to London, falls in love with the King's daughter. The King declares he will kill John, and takes him prisoner by drugging him. John sends a message begging help. Two giants come to rescue him, browbeating the King into surrender
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (described in a letter from Peter Buchan to Motherwell; see Emily Lyle, _Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition_, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, p, 172)
KEYWORDS: royalty love courting prison execution rescue
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 251, "Lang Johnny More" (1 text)
Bronson 251, "Lang Johnny More" (15 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 251, "Lang Johnny More" (2 versons: #8, "#36" -- the latter, however, is version #36 of "The Gaberlunzie Man" and was evidently pasted here by mistake)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #27, pp. 1-2, "Lang Johnnie More" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 246, "Lang Johnnie More" (10 texts, 8 tunes) {A=Bronson's #5, B=#3,C=#2, D=#1, E=#13, F=#11, G=#9, H=#12}
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 59, "Lang Johnny More" (1 text)
DT 251, LONGJOHN
Roud #3100
RECORDINGS:
John Strachan, "Lang Johnny More" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #8}
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnie Scot" [Child 99]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Long John, Old John, and Jackie North
Lang Johnnie Moir
NOTES [51 words]: Child views this as "perhaps an imitation, and in fact almost a parody, of 'Johnie Scot.'" Certainly the plots are very much alike -- but the supernatural feats of the rescuers are commonplaces (cf., e.g., "Hughie Grame" [Child 191]).
The surname "More/Moore" appears a distortion of Gaelic "Mor," "big." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: C251

Lang Lang Syne

See Do Ye Mind Lang Syne (File: FVS190)

Langley Dale

DESCRIPTION: "As I down Raby Park did pass, I heard a fair maid weep and wail, The chiefest of her song it was, Farewell the sweets of Langley Dale." She is forced to leave, and laments what she leaves behind. "Our foes have spoil'd the sweetest bower."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1834 (C. K. Sharp, The Bishoprick Garland)
KEYWORDS: home travel lament nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: [Cuthbert Sharp], _The Bishopric Garland, A Collection of Legends, Songs, Ballads, &c Belonging to the County of Durham_, 1834 (references are to the 1969 reprint), p. 57, "Langley Dale" (1 text)
Roud #8808
File: CSBG057

Langolee

See (references under) The Banks of the Dee (File: DTbnksde)

Lanigan's Ball (I)

DESCRIPTION: Jimmy Lanigan had "batter'd away till he hadn't a pound"; coming into money from his father, he determines to have a party. A fight ends the ball when "Old Shamus the piper" was tangled in "pipes, bellows, chanters" and "the girls in their ribbons"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Dime-Song-Book #10)
KEYWORDS: money party fight dancing drink music humorous brawl
FOUND IN: US(MW) Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 627, "Lannagan's Ball" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 222-224, "Lanigan's Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 100-101, "Lannigan's Ball" (1 text)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 52, "Lanigan's Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1216, p. 4, "Lannegan's Ball" (4 references)
Dime-Song-Book #10, pp. 12-13, "Lanigan's Ball" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 8, "Lanigan's Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 480, "Lanigan's Ball" (source notes only)
DT, LANIBALL*
ST SWM222 (Partial)
Roud #3011
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Jimmie Lanigan" [fragment] (AFS 4212 A4, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2058), "Lannigan's Ball", H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 15(167a), Harding B 11(3172), Harding B 26(345), 2806 c.8(124), "Lannigan's Ball"; 2806 b.11(154), "Lannigan's Ball!"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blythesome Bridal" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Larry Magee's Wedding (File: OCon083)
The President's Ball ("No doubt you've all heard of the hop of Tim Lannegan") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 129)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Laddikin's Ball
NOTES [220 words]: This reminds me quite a bit of "The Blythesome Bridal," in that the minimalist plot is offered simply to offer a justification for the party that the song is really about. - RBW
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads: "Air and fragment of words from my mother who learnt them in Kilkee about 1880.... I have seen a full music sheet of this song published about the 'seventies, where words were ascribed to 'Mr. Gavan, the celebrated Galway poet.'"
The versions of "Lanigan's Ball" that I have seen (the broadsides, O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, OLochlainn, the Spaeth fragment in the Supplemental Tradition) vary very little. The fragments in Greig/Duncan3 have a phrase ("Just in time for Lannagan's/Laddikin's ball") that ends a verse of other texts but the lines preceding that phrase ("I'll get up in the morning early, I'll get up and gie ye a call, I'll get up in the mornin' early") do not come close to fitting any of those texts. Greig, in Greig/Duncan3, suggests this as "kind of chorus." - BS
A date in the 1870s, or earlier, sees nearly certain, since Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 84, lists four mid-nineteenth century broadsides, mostly distinct from the British broadsides in the Bodleian collection. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SWM222

Lanigan's Ball (II)

DESCRIPTION: Singer's wife died -- "nice and handy I got rid of her When she died I closed the lid of her" -- and he goes to Dublin or Magilligan to learn to the steps -- and comes back in time -- for Lanigan's Ball.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: marriage death dancing humorous wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 80, "Lanigan's Ball" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #3011
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Hade a Wife" (first verse)
NOTES [75 words]: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin first verse: I married a wife and got no good of her / Nice and handy I got rid of her / When she died I closed the lid on her/ Just in time for Lanigan's Ball. Pete Seeger "I Had a Wife" first verse: Well I had a wife and got no good of her / Here is how I easy got rid of her/ Took her out and chopped the head of her / Early in the morning. Per Seeger's liner notes, "a bloody bit of Irish balladry." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC080

Lank Dank

See Carrion Crow (File: LoF072)

Lanky, Lucy, Lister

DESCRIPTION: "The lanky Lucy Lister, Oi-yo, di-o, di-o, I never even kissed her, Oi-yo, di-o, di-o, Lanky Lucy Lister, I never even kissed her, But I seduced her sister."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: courting sex
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 782, "Lanky, Lucy, Lister" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [17 words]: The current description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5782

Lannagan's Ball

See Lanigan's Ball (File: SWM222)

Lannegan's Ball

See Lanigan's Ball (File: SWM222)

Lannigan's Ball

See Lanigan's Ball (File: SWM222)

Lantern's Gleam, The

DESCRIPTION: "The lanterns gleam while yellow flames leap and play, And wild and vibrant music pours out, And the rafters ring as supple dancers gay Moving swiftly, circle about."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: dancing
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 165, "The Lantern's Gleam" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #9064
NOTES [68 words]: I suspect this is a fragment of a popular song, but much internet searching has failed to reveal it. Probably it in not the first verse.
The tune in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin is very strange, since it is said to have been sung by a single informant yet the musical notation shows two parts (and does not show how the words are aligned with the tune). It appears something important has been omitted. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet165

Lanty Leary

DESCRIPTION: "Slippery Lanty Leary" and Rosie Carey are in love. Her father is opposed. He follows her anyway. Her father dies leaving her "house, land, and cash." He agrees to follow her again. Deathly sick, she asks him to follow her. "I'll not, says Lanty Leary"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry)
KEYWORDS: courting death money humorous father separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, p. 78, "Lanty Leary" (1 text)
Roud #6538
File: HayU078

Large Balls

DESCRIPTION: "Miss Jones was walking down the street When a young fellow she chanced to meet" who is displaying oversize testicles. He is arrested for his behavior. He shows off before the jury as well. He is fined a barrel of beer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: trial punishment drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 150, "Large Balls" (1 text)
Roud #10241
File: RuSoLarB

Largy Kargy Haul Away Oh

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Largy kargy/weeny kreeny, haul away oh" We're bound for the West Indies. We'll have good food -- no more biscuits and molasses -- and dance and gamble. When we find the pirate gold we'll retire in comfort; no more bunking with cockroaches.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (McQuade; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: travel gold sea ship shore drink food humorous shanty
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 20-21, "Largy Kargy Haul Away Oh" (1 text)
NOTES [37 words]: The Abrahams text is from James McQuade, The Cruise of the Montauk to Bermuda, the West Indies and Florida (New York: Thomas R. Knox & Co, 1885 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), p. 103. The trip was Feb-May 1884 [p. viii]. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS20B

Largy Line, The

DESCRIPTION: Shoemaker George McCaughey, having seen many women, is ready to abandon them for "Miss Baxter." He met her while teaching the "Tully band," and walked home together. Her family has consented to the marriage. He blesses the founder of the band
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting music family
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H781, p. 467, "The Largy Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9457
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Foot of the Mountain Brow,The (The Maid of the Mountain Brow)" [Laws P7] (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Foot of the Mountain Brow,The (The Maid of the Mountain Brow) [Laws P7] (File: LP07)
File: HHH781

Lark and the Magpie, The

See Magpie and the Lark (File: Pet269)

Lark in the Morning (II), The

See The Banks of the Mossen (File: CoSB242)

Lark in the Morning, The

DESCRIPTION: (Singer) meets young girl who praises plowboys. The singer meets a plowboy. He takes her "to the fair." The rest of their relationship is couched in equally allegorical terms.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1834 (Cunningham)
KEYWORDS: lyric nonballad farming courting seduction
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland US(So)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 62, "The Lark in the Morn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 87, "THe Lark in the Morn" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 56, "The Lark in the Morn" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 81A, "The Lark in the Morn" (12 texts)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 145-146, "The Pretty Ploughboy" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph 562, "Lark in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 236, "The Ploughboys" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 484)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, p. 264, "The Lark in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 140, "The Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #70, "The Ploughman's Glory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #107, "The Lark in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #115, "The Owl" (1 text, 1 tune, with the first verse being "The Owl" verse from "Of All the Birds"(but mostly taken from print) and part of the rest being "The Lark in the Morning" or something related to it)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #99, "The Lark in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune, plus some excerpts in the notes)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 38, "The Jolly Ploughboy" (1 short text, 1 tune, which Graham places here although it is too short to really assign); p. 277, "The Lark in the Morning (a reprint of a Bodleian broadside)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 273-274, "The Lark in the Morn" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 7, "Lark in the Morn" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Lark in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 30)
DT, LARKMORN* LARKMOR2*
ADDITIONAL: Allan Cunningham, The Works of Robert Burns (London, 1834 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, p. 270, ("The lark in the morning") (1 fragment: one verse)
Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 46, "The Lark in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #151
RECORDINGS:
Jim O'Neill, "The Ploughboy" (on FSBFTX13)
Lucy Stewart, "The Ploughboy" (on FSBFTX13)
Paddy Tunney, "The Lark in the Morning" (on Voice05) [a mixture of "The Lark in the Morning" and "Roger the Ploughboy"]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1070), "The Lark in the Morning" ("As I was a walking one morning in May"), Swindells (Manchester), 1796-1853; also Harding B 11(3684), Firth c.18(172), Firth b.34(224), Harding B 16(125c), Harding B 11(2060), "The Lark in the Morning"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Pretty Plowboy
NOTES [195 words]: The narrative thread is so fragmentary that I've classed this as a lyric song, not a ballad. -PJS
There is a ballad back there, though, as Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland's version shows; under all the symbolism is a story of seduction. The title apparently came about because larks are among the first birds to start singing in the morning. - RBW
Cunningham (1834): "The second verse of ["To a Mountain Daisy", specifically, "Alas! It's no thy neebor sweet, The bonnie lark ...."] reminds me of a stanza of an old north country song, a favourite once with the peasantry, who loved it for its truth as well as beauty -- 'The lark in the morning Arises from her nest ....'"
Re Paddy Tunney's "The Lark in the Morning" (on Voice05): the first verse is a fragment of "The Lark in the Morning"; the second is a fragment of "Roger the Ploughboy."
Kennedy 140 is supposedly the Lucy Stewart text, of which the FSBFTX13 recording has only the first verse. Kennedy refers to the Jim O'Neill text on p. 333 as one he and Sean O'Boyle recorded in 1952. Since O'Neill sings Kennedy's second and third verse (and another not in Kennedy), the Kennedy text may be a composite. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ShH62

Larrigans, The

DESCRIPTION: About Angus Munn, his size 14 larrigans, and the daily life in the winter lumber camps: sleep on spruce boughs, up three hours before sun-up, lunch, axes and saws at work, songs at night.
AUTHOR: Jim McAree, Baldwin's Road
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: lumbering music humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 34-35, "The Larrigans" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12474
NOTES [112 words]: Here is a description of larrigans from the Web: "They're felt boots and rubbers. Heavy felt, shaped like an English Wellington and knee-high, with tough rubbers over the feet, the whole being devised to comfort woodchoppers in deep snow. The larrigan is noticeable and recognized at a great distance." (source: Grandmothers I Have Known and Embellished by John Gould, quoted from The Home Forum Column from the September 15, 2000 Christian Science Monitor on the Cristian Science Monitor site). In Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland pp. 38-39, "Shanty Boys" "We all arrive at the shanty wet and cold with damp feet; We then pull off our larrigans...." - BS
File: Dib034

Larry Doolan

See My Irish Jaunting Car (The Irish Boy) (File: HHH592)

Larry Magee's Wedding

DESCRIPTION: Larry "dwelt in a fashionable part of the city An illigant fine mansion." The dancers, drinkers and eaters "at the grand wedding" are named. All the old songs are sung. The wedding ends with a grand fight.
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, LOCSinging as107470)
KEYWORDS: wedding humorous party drink fight food moniker brawl
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland pp. 83-84, "Larry Magee's Wedding" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1217, p. 84, "Larry Magee's Wedding" (3 references)
Roud #V1213
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as107470, "Larry Magee's Wedding," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lanigan's Ball" (tune, per broadside LOCSinging as107470)
NOTES [78 words]: Broadside LOCSinging as107470: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 84, lists three broadsides of this, with the text credited to "Eugene T. Johnston." Perhaps an attempt to avoid paying royalties to Lover?
Last updated in version 5.0
File: OCon083

Larry Maher's Big Five-Gallon Jar

See see under The Big Five-Gallon Jar (File: Doe111)

Larry Marr

See see under The Big Five-Gallon Jar (File: Doe111)

Larry McGee

DESCRIPTION: Larry coaxes "Missus Brady, who was reared up a lady" to marry. There was a huge wedding party with dancing, drink and food. Larry gets drunk, confuses his donkey for his wife, gets into a fight "in defense of his darling" and is laid out "with a clout"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: wedding fight dancing drink food music humorous animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 139, "Larry McGee" (1 text)
Roud #3283
BROADSIDES:
Harding B 11(684), "The Wedding of Larry Magee," unknown, n.d.
NOTES [76 words]: Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia: "The Irish song 'Larry Magee's Wedding' is so similar in metre and plot to [Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 139] that there is pretty certainly a tie of relationship." It all depends. Mackenzie cites O'Conor pp. 83-84 (included in the Index as "Larry Magee's Wedding," by Samuel Lover); that is certainly a different song. However, broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(684) is certainly Mackenzie's song. - BS
File: Mack139

Larry McHale (Larry M'Hale)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Larry McHale, he had little to fear, And never could want when the crops didn't fail"; for he had property and 800 pounds a year. He has arms, too, and lives a good life. "Ould Erin would be a fine country to live in" if there were more like him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad Ireland
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 10-11, "Larry M'Hale" (1 text)
Roud #31845
File: HMHS10B

Larry O'Gaff

DESCRIPTION: Larry's father leaves when he is a baby in Ireland. He recounts his rambles to England as a hod carrying, bog trotting, soldiering at Waterloo, and retiring "with a wife to spend my life, sport and play, night and day" to Ireland.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1072))
KEYWORDS: Napoleon Ireland marriage rambling return abandonment soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 148, "We Fought Like the Divil" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 55-56, "Larry O'Gaff" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1220, p. 84, "Larry O'Gaff" (2 references)
ST E148 (Full)
Roud #13383
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1072), "Larry O Gaff", J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
File: E148

Las Kean Fine (Lost and Cannot Be Found)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: "Have you heard what I've heard?" "No sir." "The boiler burst, kill more than ninety." "Have you heard what I've heard?" "No sir." "Little boy, old man, Miss Matty, all lost, and cannot be found."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: death disaster worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 7-8, "Las Kean Fine" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Las Kean Fine" (on WIEConnor01)
NOTES [5 words]: Call and answer digging song. - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: JaMu007

Las Vegas Reunion

DESCRIPTION: "Come on, all you cow-punchers, To the round-up in July, Where the Busters get together En the old broncs go sky-high." Cowboys and cowgirls gather from all over. "So whip up yer horse en rope along To the Cowboys' Re-un-ion!"
AUTHOR: N. Howaard Thorp (source: Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy travel nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 91-92, "Las Vegas Reunion" (1 text)
File: ThLo091

Lasca

DESCRIPTION: "I want free life and I want fresh air; And I sigh for the canter after the cattle/" The cowboy loved fiery Lasca "in Texas, down by the Rio Grande." Deep in love, they ignore the cattle -- and they are forced to flee a stampede. She is thrown and dies
AUTHOR: Words: Frank Desprez (1853-1916)
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (The London Society: A Magazine of Light and Amusing Literature)
KEYWORDS: love courting Mexico cattle death burial recitation
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, pp. 119-121, "Lasca" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 86-89, "Lasca" (1 text)
Roud #2980
File: SBar086

Lash Up and Stow

DESCRIPTION: "Beautiful dreamer, lash up and stow, 'Cooks to the galley' went ages ago."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: cook navy derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 146, "Lash Up and Stow" (1 fragment, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beautiful Dreamer" (tune)
File: Tawn114

Lash'd to the Helm (I'll Think On Thee, My Love)

DESCRIPTION: "In storms when clouds obscure the sky, And thunders roll, and lightnings fly, In midst of all these dire alarms, I think, my Sally, on thy charms...." If the storm passes, he hopes to be home soon; in any case, "I'll think on thee, my love"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (sundry Bodleian broadsides)
KEYWORDS: love sailor separation storm
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XCIX, p. 193, "I'll think on thee, my Love" (1 text)
Roud #22803
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 12(160), "Lash'd to the helm. A new song," Burbage and Stretton (Nottingham), 1800; also Harding B 11(2066), "Lash'd to the helm," J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Firth c.12(188), "Lash'd to the helm," J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 16(126a), Harding B 11(1706), Harding B 11(2067), "Lash'd to the helm," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also 2806 c.17(219), "Lash'd to the helm," Swindells (Manchester), 1796-1853; also Firth c.12(186)=Harding B 25(1074), "Lash'd to the helm," D. Wrighton (Birmingham), 1812-1830; also Harding B 28(81), "Lash'd to the helm," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 36(22), "Lash'd to the helm," T. Wilkinson (Manchester), n. d.; also Harding B 11(3227), "Lash'd to the helm," unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.17(218), "Lash to the helm," R. Evans (Chester), n.d.; also Harding B 15(167b), "Lash'd to the helm," unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.17(220), "Lash'd to the helm," unknown, n.d.
NOTES [11 words]: Feeble, sez I, but there sure are a lot of broadside prints.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: SSSB193

Lass Amang the Heather, The

See Queen Among the Heather (File: K141)

Lass Among the Heather-O, The

See The Fair o' Balnaminna (The Lass Among the Heather) (File: UNFoBal)

Lass Behind the Oyster Bar, The

DESCRIPTION: "As I strolled into an oyster place, I saw a bonny smiling face" who serves the oyster stew. She cuts her finder with an oyster knife; he hopes she won't be scarred. He must go home to Scotland but will never forget
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: travel home food love beauty
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 191-192, "The Lass Behind the Oyster Bar" (1 text)
Roud #11704
File: Shoe191

Lass from Glasgow Town

See The Lass of Swansea Town (Swansea Barracks) (File: Pea547)

Lass in Betlehem Green, The (The Dutchman's Wife)

DESCRIPTION: A fine lass married a Dutchman. She had an affair with the baker. Local gossips tell the Dutchman. He gets drunk in the local pub and "came rolling home tight." He stabs his wife to death. In a frenzy of despair he accidentally kills himself.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: adultery marriage homicide revenge beauty death humorous husband lover wife suicide
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18219
RECORDINGS:
Ernest Pooles, "Lass in Betlehem Green, The (The Dutchman's Wife)" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3TLiBG

Lass o Glencoe (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer reminisces about the lass he has left in Glencoe. He meets her in the heather and asks her to marry; she refuses. He promises to keep a lock of her hair. Last line of most verses: "I still like my lassie fae bonnie Glencoe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (collected from Maggie McPhee)
KEYWORDS: love rejection parting travel Scotland
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 29, "The Lassie o' Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3923
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "MacDonald's Return to Glencoe" (lyrics)
cf. "Portmore (My Heart's in the Highlands)" (lyrics)
NOTES [36 words]: Despite a few lyrics in common, this is a separate song from "MacDonald's Return to Glencoe." It also seems to have had grafted onto it a verse from "Portmore", which inspired Burns's "Farewell to the Highlands." - PJS
File: McCST029

Lass o Glencoe (II), The

See MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe) [Laws N39] (File: LN39)

Lass o Gowrie, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets and proposes to Katie, "the finest flower That ever bloom'd in Gowrie." He says he has loved her since he first saw her in school and cares for nothing else in Gowrie. She agrees to marry, the old folks consent, and now she's Lady Gowrie.
AUTHOR: William Reid (source: Bodleian comment on broadside 2806 c.14(35) and some others; but see note re Whitelaw)
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: courting love wedding nobility
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan5 954, "The Lass o Gowrie," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Lass o Gowrie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 29, "The Hills o' Gowrie" (1 fragment)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 535, "The Lass o' Gowrie" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1221, p. 84, "The Lass of Gowrie" (1 reference)
ADDITIONAL: The Illustrated Book of Scottish Songs from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century, (London, 1854 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 145-146, "The Lass o' Gowrie"
Roud #3871
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(462), "The Lass o' Gowrie" ("'Twas on a simmer's afternoon"), Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also 2806 c.14(35), Harding B 11(2287), Harding B 11(2074), 2806 c.14(170), Harding B 25(1080), 2806 c.14(196) View 5 of 5, "[The] Lass O' Gowrie"
LOCSinging, as202060, "The Lass of Gowrie" ("'Twas on a simmer's afternoon"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also sb20265a, "The Lass of Gowrie"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(110), "The Lass o' Gowrie" ("'Twas on a summer's afternoon"), unknown, c.1875
NOTES [143 words]: Gowrie is an area immediately north of Perth City (source: Perthshire Scotland site).
Whitelaw marks his copy as "[Modern Version]"; his five verse version is, excluding some spelling and capitalization differences, the same as broadside Bodleain 2806 c.14(35) and Greig/Duncan5. These texts include a verse in which Kate hesitates, recalling that Nell was won by "Daft Will" and has dropped out of sight.
The Illustrated Book of Scottish Songs ...: "Founded upon an older ballad, by William Reid of Glasgow, entitled 'Kate o' Gowrie.'"
Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(110) appears to be a duplicate of a cut from Bodleian 2806 c.14(170), unknown, no date.
Broadside LOCSinging as202060: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: GrD5954

Lass o' Ballochmyle, The

DESCRIPTION: One evening the singer sees and falls in love with "the Lass o' Ballochmyle." "Had she been a country maid" he would bypass fame, honours or gold if he could have "the cot below the pine To tend the flocks or till the soil" to spend every day with her.
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3337))
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 735, "The Lass o' Ballochmyle" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #89, pp. 178-179, "Song. On Miss W. A." (1 text, 1 tune, from before 1796)
Roud #6168
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3337), "The Bonny Lass I Love So Well" ("Fair is the morn in flow'ry May"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(3338), "The Bonny Lass I Love So Well"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(89a), "The Lass o' Ballochmyle," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ettrick Banks" (tune, per Burns)
cf. "The Braes o' Ballochmyle" (form, rhyme and reference to "the braes o' Ballochmyle")
NOTES [131 words]: Greig/Duncan4 is a fragment (the first line of Burns); broadside NLScotland is verses three and four of Burns, with a chorus; the Bodleian broadsides are verses three and four of Burns without a chorus "as sung by Mr T Moore at the various Concert Rooms"; Burns is the basis for the description.
Commentary to broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(89a): "Burns's poem was later adapted into a song with the addition of the traditional chorus that also features in the song on this broadside."
What is the relationship between this song, "The Lass o' Ballochmyle" ("'Twas even; the dewy fields were green"), and another Burns poem, "Farewell to Ballochmyle" ("The Catrine woods were yellow seen")? Roud assigns the same number to both. The first verses are clearly related in form and rhyme. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4735

Lass o' Benachie, The

See The Lass o' Bennochie (File: Ord438)

Lass o' Bennochie, The

DESCRIPTION: "Twas at the back o' Bennochie... There I fell in love wi' a bonnie lass." Her wealthy father, despising the lad, forces him into the army. He returns to claim the girl. Father and uncle pursue, but the soldier beats them off. They live happily
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: love courting poverty soldier separation reunion father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #8, pp. 1-2, ("I fell in love wi' a bonnie lass") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1012, "The Lass o' Benachie" (15 texts, 12 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 438-441, "The Lass o' Bennochie" (3 texts, very diverse; the second is mixed with "Locks and Bolts" [Laws M13] and the third is "The Bonnie Lass o' Benachie")
DT, LASBENCH
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 36-37, "Twas at the Back o' Bennochie" (1 tune)
Roud #406
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie Lass o' Benachie" (plot)
cf. "Locks and Bolts" [Laws M13] (theme: girl locked away by father) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fury
The Banks o' Bennachie
NOTES [178 words]: Roud lumps this with "Locks and Bolts" (Laws M13), and indeed Ord-BothySongsAndBallads's second version includes several whole verses from that song. And Ord's other versions, particularly the third, are so different that it might be reasonable to classify #3 as a separate song and place #2 with "Locks and Bolts."
Nonetheless the similarity of Ord's #1 and #2, and the overall distinctness of the pair from "Locks and Bolts," causes me to split them. This apparently follows Laws, who does not list the Ord texts with M13. Best to see both songs, however - RBW
Greig: "Tradition says that 'The Bonnie Lass o' Benachie' was a Miss Erskine, heiress of Pittodrie, an estate close to Benachie in the parish of Chapel of Garioch. She was born about 1747 and married to her soldier lover about 1770. There is another and better known ballad ["Locks and Bolts"] which is said to refer to the same love episode." Greig then goes on to note "certain chronological difficulties to be faced."
All of the Greig/Duncan5 versions are the same song as the second Ord version. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord438

Lass o' Everton, The

DESCRIPTION: "Mony a nicht she's gien consent To rise an'at me in, An' a' wish gae wi' yon bonnie lassie That dwells at Everton"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: nightvisit
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1327, "The Lass o' Everton" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7216
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan7 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71327

Lass o' Gonar Ha', The

DESCRIPTION: "There's toons wi' lasses roon That think themsels fu' braw" but the singer adores Jean, the "lass o' Gonar Ha'" He lists towns where "ye winna find her peer." He challenges anyone to "spot a bonnier" he can compare to the "lass whom I adore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Milne, Buchan Folk Songs, according to Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: love beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 36, ("There's toons wi' lasses roon aboot"); #26, p. 2, ("Cake, Cake, and Cairneyquhing") (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan4 724, "The Lass o' Gonar Ha'" (1 text plus two additional versions on p. 520, one of which is Greig's "Cake, Cake,..." fragment and the other is Milne's version)
Roud #6159
File: GrD4724

Lass o' Killiecrankie, The

DESCRIPTION: When the singer was young he followed the Prince of Wales's call to join the army. Now Jane McPhail, the lass o' Killiecrankie, has him "turning old and frail." He met her, lent her a hankie, accepted her invitation to sit but sat on a thistle.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 736, "The Lass o' Killiecrankie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Behan-IrelandSings, #36, "Join the British Army" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 45-46, "Join the British Army" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BRITARMY (partial text in the notes)
Roud #5680
NOTES [249 words]: Greig Duncan4 is a fragment; I have no book or "traditional" recording of a more complete version. The description follows the text of "Killiecrankie," "Traditional Arrangement The Black Family/Johnny McCarthy" on the Black Brothers site. There is a similar text of "Killiecrankie," "Words and Music by Harry Lauder" on "A Celebration of Sir Harry Lauder" site.
The first verse is very close to the first verse of "Join the British Army." - BS
Is there a political subtext here? The famous battle of Killiecrankie, fought in 1689, came about because King James VII and II had had a son, the Prince of Wales, who would be raised Catholic and succeed his father. So, in effect, the Prince of Wales called Stuart loyalists to come to Killicrankie. The pro-Stuart army was all Scots, but when their commander Dundee was killed, the army broke up even though it won the battle. And then, frankly, the Jacobites, having had no success supporting the thistle, went home and turned old and toothless. It's all a bit far-fetched -- except that it all fits, more or less, plus Killiecrankie is nowhere in particular, and would be forgotten but for the battle.
Behan-IrelandSings's version gives a full text, with an Irish slant; I am not entirely sure it is the same song, given Behan's tendency to fiddle, but Roud appears to lump the two types, and unless a full set of versions turns up, there isn't much else to do. Dallas's version has a lot of Ewan MacColl in it, so it too is likely fiddled with. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: GrD4736

Lass o' the Lecht, The

DESCRIPTION: A servant girl becomes lost in a storm on Earnan's banks. Her master organizes a search. The towns that participate are named. Searchers and bloodhounds fail to find her in the snow. Her body is found in May and buried in Corgarff churchyard.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: burial corpse death storm servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #129, p. 1, "The Lass of the Lecht" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 229, "The Lass o' the Lecht" (3 texts)
Roud #5841
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnnie Cope" (tune, according to Greig/Duncan2)
cf. "Haughs o' Cromdale" (tune, according to Greig/Duncan2)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lass o' the Light
NOTES [104 words]: Greig/Duncan2: "From leaflet printed at Grantown. Girl was a daughter of Lewis Cruickshank, a contractor near Advie. She was in service at Milton of Allargue. Got permission to visit a former master and mistress near Tomintoul. Tragic death in February 1860. Body found in following May."
Margaret Cruikshank "set off from Tomintoul ... to cross the Lecht Pass over the Ladder Hills [in the current Cairngorms National Park].... body was discovered in Strathdon, on the banks of the river Earnan, many miles from the Lecht" (source: "History - Whisky Smuggling" at the Glenlivet Estate site).
Corgarff is in Aberdeenshire. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2229

Lass of Dunmore, The

See The Maid of Dunmore (File: MaWi083)

Lass of Glenshee, The [Laws O6]

DESCRIPTION: The singer woos the a Scottish shepherdess. He offers to marry and provide wealth and servants. She agrees, even though she is content with her life and herd. The singer looks back on years of happy marriage
AUTHOR: Andrew Sharpe (1805) ?
EARLIEST DATE: before 1851 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2075)))
KEYWORDS: courting money marriage
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Laws O6, "The Lass of Glenshee"
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 12-15, "The Lass o' Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 20, ("Ae bonnie nicht when the heather was bloomin'")" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan5 953, "The Lass o' Glenshee" (8 texts, 9 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 75-76, "The Lass o Glenshee" (1 text, tune referenced)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 4, "Lass of Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 28, "The Hills of Glenshee" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 77, "The Lass of Glenshee" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 167, "The Lass of Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 131-132, "The Lass of Glenshie" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H590, pp. 486-487, "The Lass of Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 36, "The Rose of Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 31, "The Lass of Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, p. 123, "The Lass of Glenshee (The Hills of Glenshee)" (1 text, 1 tune on p. 199)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 174-176, "The Hills of Glenshee (The Lass of Glenshee)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 27, "The Lass of Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 471, GLENSHEE GLENSHE2 GLENSHE3
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth Norman MacDonald, "The Gesto Collection of Highland Music," 1895 (reprinted 1997 by Llanerch Publishers), p. 105, "The Lass of Glenshee" (1 tune, presumably this)
Roud #292
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Lass of Glenshee" (on Abbott1)
Mrs. Mary Dunphy, "Maid of Glenshee" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Warde Ford, "Lass of Glen Shee" (AFS 4199 A1, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
"Yankee" John Galusha, "Lass of Glenshee" (on USWarnerColl01)
Mrs. T. Ghaney, "The Lass of Glenshee" (on NFMLeach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2075), "The Lass o' Glenshea," Stephenson (Gateshead), 1821-1850; also Harding B 17(162a), 2806 c.14(23), Harding B 11(3321), "The Lass o' Glenshea"; Harding B 25(1081)[some words illegible], "The Lass o' Glenshee"; Firth b.26(227), "The Lass of Glenshee"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(120), "The Lass o' Glenshee," unknown, c. 1875
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Road and the Miles to Dundee" (tune, per Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
SAME TUNE:
Queen Victoria's Welcome to Deeside (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 337)
Crafty Wee Bony (File: GrD1151)
The Guid Coat o' Blue (File: GrD3660)
NOTES [145 words]: Ford's notes claim that "The Crookit Bawbee" is "simply a free adaption" of this piece. In music, possibly. The text -- hardly. - RBW
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast notes the difference between his text and Ord-BothySongsAndBallads's: "The present text of six quatrains tells the same story found in the Ord text of twelve quatrains. The difference is, as usual, in the repetition of details." The difference between Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast and all of the broadsides is similar. The difference is more than the usual repetition of details. There are very few lines in common though the story outline is the same. This seems a rewrite by someone who once heard the original but never got the words and rebuilt the ballad out of the usual pieces. I wonder what A.B. Lord would have done with this. (No, this is not "Crookit Bawbee" either.) - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: LO06

Lass of Glenshie, The

See The Lass of Glenshee [Laws O6] (File: LO06)

Lass of Gowrie, The

See The Lass o Gowrie (File: GrD5954)

Lass of Lochroyan, The

See The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76] (File: C076)

Lass of Lochryan, The

See The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76] (File: C076)

Lass of Maui, The

See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Lass of Mohe, The

See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Lass of Mohea, The

See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Lass of Mohee, The

See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Lass of Mowee, The

See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Lass of Richmond Hill, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a shepherd, praises the "sweet lass of Richmond Hill": he'd "crowns resign to call her mine" "I'd die for her, How happy will the shepherd be" who wins her; "may her choice be fixed on me"
AUTHOR: Words: Leonard MacNally; tune: James Hook (source: I'Anson; see bibliography below)
EARLIEST DATE: 1786 (words), 1789 (tune) according to I'Anson (see bibliography below); 1803 (Wilson)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 70, "The Lass of Richmond Hill" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 281)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 752, "Ye Zephyrs Gay" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: C.H. Wilson, The Myrtle and Vine (London, 1803 (Third Edition) ("Digitized by Google")) Vol. II, pp. 96-97, "The Lass of Richmond Hill" ("On Richmond Hill there lives a lass") (1 text)
Roud #1246
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2590), "Lass of Richmond Hill" ("On Richmond hill there lives a lass"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth b.28(32d), 2806 c.16(49a), Johnson Ballads 528, Firth c.17(29), Johnson Ballads fol. 12, Firth c.26(125)[some words illegible], 2806 c.17(221), Firth b.26(228), Firth c.19(56), Firth c.19(56)[almost entirely illegible], "[The] Lass of Richmond Hill"; Firth b.27(532), Harding B 15(93b), "Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill"
LOCSheet, sm1881 16793, "Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill", Wm. J.A. Lieder (New York), 1881 (with tune)["words and music by Ada Burnett"]
SAME TUNE:
The Kentish Maid ("Let other swains their nymphs compare") (The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany, p. 57)
NOTES [642 words]: All texts I have seen are just the 20 lines described above. That considered, there is a strange, supposedly "true and pathetic story," published in 1826 (Mirror, pp. 29-30), and repeated verbatim in 1830 (Pulleyn, p. 73) (see bibliography below): the "daughter of a merchant of immense wealth" fell in love with "a young officer, of exemplary character, and of respectable though poor parents"; her father confined his daughter to the house and forbade the officer to enter; in despair she jumped from a window and was killed; the young officer "afterwards served in America, and was shot at the head of his company." This is certainly the stuff of many ballads in the Index, but hardly seems to fit this one. Nevertheless, it seems to have a little of the story right.
Apparently, real persons' names were incorrectly attached to the song, among them, "[by] Lord Stourton, on the strength of the lines, 'I'd crowns resign to call her mine,' argued that she could have been no other than Mrs Fitzherbert, whom George IV morganatically married" (I'Anson, p. 260). [For a little more about Maria Fitzherbert and her love match with George IV, see the notes to "The Ass and the Orangeman's Daughter." - RBW] "[I]t was also suggested that the heroine was none other than the mysterious Hannah Lightfoot, the fair Quakeress who, under the aegis, it is said, of George III, then Prince of Wales, so suddenly and mysteriously disappeared" (idem).
I'Anson exhausts the subject and asserts that "the real object of the song [was] the charming Frances I'Anson, ... daughter of a rich attorney ... [who] owned the ... residence [Hill House,] at Richmond [, Yorkshire]... Leonard MacNally, the Irish barrister, was her devoted admirer" (idem). Frances was '[b]orn on October 17, 1766, the only daughter of William, the wealthy attorney ...[and] she has been described as indeed very beautiful, a tall and graceful blonde, with brown hair, blue eyes, and an exquisite complexion." MacNally, son of a Catholic, was raised as a Protestant. "Tradition has it" that Frances's father opposed the match and she was "rusticated for a space at Hill House." While she was there MacNally sent her a copy of the verses in autumn 1786. "She could not resist this" (quoting correspondence). They were married in 1787, "we may assume, with the sanction of the parents of the bride." (Ibid. pp. 265-266.)
I'Anson says more about Frances and Leonard - a later member of the United Irish Society and one of the counsel for Napper Tandy - but that has nothing to do with the song (ibid, p. 267). "The notice of the death of Mrs MacNally, 'The Lass of Richmond Hill,' appears in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' of October 1795" (ibid., p. 268).
I'Anson goes on to prove by correspondence of the day that the composer of the song was this same Leonard MacNally, with the tune being by James Hook, musical director of Vauxhall Gardens from 1773 until 1820 (ibid., p. 261). "'Incledon, the incomparable ballad singer, was singing it to enthusiastic Vauxhall crowds in London at the time when the mob was storming the Bastille in Paris [July 1789]'" (ibid., p. 266). - BS
Against all that set these observations by Kellett, pp. 100-101: The Lass of Richmond Hill was "popularly believed to be Frances l'Anson, born in Leyburn, Wenlseydale, in 1766. Her father, a lawyer, moved with his family to London in 1773, and Frances there married an Irish barrister, Leonard MacNally, in 1787. He wrote the words of the song Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill, and James Hook the melody. The tradition that Frances lived at Hill House, Richmond, North Yorkshire, is not supported by recent research -- and the idea may have arisen from the fact that her grandfather and mother had lived there. There is no evidence either to connect Frances with the southern Richmond, named after the Yorkshire town." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: WT070

Lass of Roch Royal (II)

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Lass of Roch Royal, The [Child 76]

DESCRIPTION: (Anne) misses her love (Lord Gregory). She sets out to meet him. When she comes to his castle, Gregory's mother turns her (and her son) away. When Gregory arrives/awakens to meet his love, he find Anne dead (drowned) and gone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd); c. 1765 (Ebsworth)
KEYWORDS: separation death mother betrayal floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland) US(Ap,MW,So,SE,SW) Canada(Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (37 citations):
Child 76, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (12 texts)
Bronson 76, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (23 versions+1 in addenda, though many are generic "Pretty Little Foot" versions; I would regard only #1, #3, #4, #4.1 in the addenda, #5, #16, and #21 as being true versions of this piece, and the first two of those are fragments; #2 has the correct title but no text. Note that Bronson seems to agree, since all the versions in Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads come from this list)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 76, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (4 verions: #1, #4.1, #5, #16)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 201-206, "The Lass of Lochryan" (1 text)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 160-167, "Fair Anny," "Love Gregor," (2 parallel texts)
Dixon-ScottishTraditionalVersionsOfAncientBallads X, pp. 60-62, "Love Gregory" (1 text, plus a "pleasing imitation" called "Lord Thomas," printed 1825, on pp. 99-100)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 211-216, "The Lass of Lochroyan" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #60, p. 2, "Fair Annie of Lochroyan" (1 fragment, a verse of "Fair Annie of Lochroyan" from Peter Buchan "after Willie succumbs.")
Greig/Duncan6 1226, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (4 texts plus a single verse on p. 568, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 13, "Lord Gregory" (1 text)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 83, "Lord Gregory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2, pp. 174-177, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 fragments, one of which is probably "The Lass of Roch Royal" but the second being "Pretty Little Foot"; 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 55, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (notes and references only)
Randolph 18, "Oh Who Will Shoe My Foot?" (8 texts, 5 tunes, with only the "C" and "G" versions clearly belonging here; most of the rest are "Pretty Little Foot" texts; "D," "E," and "F" are probably "Fare You Well, My Own True Love") {G=Bronson's #16}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 37-39, "Oh, Who Will Shoe My Foot" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 18G) {Bronson's #16}
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 22, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 texts, clearly this song, but with the "Storms are on the ocean" verse; this is either the original of the latter or the two combined)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 122-123, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (sundry excerpts from versions she did not collect; the versions Scarborough collected are of "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot," "Honey Babe/New River Train," and "I Truly Understand That You Love Some Other Man")
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 78-79, "Fair Annie of the Lochroyan" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #5, a rather different transcription though of the same approximate version}
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 42, "Lord Gregory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 253-256, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 43, "The Lass of Rochroyan" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 78, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (3 texts, 1 tune, with only the "A" text being this ballad)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 31, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 texts, 2 tunes, the second clearly "The Lass of Roch Royal" but the first could be any "Who's Goin' to Shoe" song)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 223-227+352, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, 98-99, "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (3 texts, 1 tune; of the three texts here, "C" is definitely a fragment of this piece, "B" is "The Storms Are on the Ocean"; the "A" text is a "pretty little foot" version)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 21, pp. 118-121, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 12, "The Lass of Roch Royal" , 13, "Love Gregor" (2 texts)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 13, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 texts, but one is a "Pretty Little Foot" version)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 47-50, "Sweet Annie of Rock Royal" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 10, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 1-3, "The Lass of Lochryan"; pp. 3-5, "Fair Annie of Lochryan" (3 texts)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 65-68, "Love Gregor" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 214, "The Lass Of Roch Royal" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 66-70, "The Lass of Rock Royal" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1259, "I built my love a gallant ship"
ADDITIONAL: J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1888 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. VI Part 3 [Part 18], pp. 609-615, "The Lass of Ocram" ("I built my love a gallant ship, And a ship of Northern fame") (1 text)
DT 76, LORDGREG LORGREG2 LRDGREG2*
Roud #49
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Conway, "Lord Gregory" (on IROConway01)
Elizabeth Cronin, "Lord Gregory (The Lass of Roch Royal)" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1); "Lord Gregory" (on IRECronin01)
Peggy Delaney, "Maid of Aughrim" (on IRTravellers01)
Jean Ritchie, "Fair Annie of Lochroyan" (on JRitchie01) {Bronson's #5}
William Ritter, "The Lass of Loch Royal" (Piotr-Archive #197, recorded 06/20/2022, which as sung is clearly "The Lass of Roch Royal," but has been fortified from print; the source may have been "The Storms Are on the Ocean" or one of the other "Pretty Little Foot" versions)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 10(3367), "The Lass of Ocram" ("I built my love a gallant ship a ship of northern fam") J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (floating lyrics) and references there
cf. "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Mary Anne" (lyrics)
cf. "Blackbirds and Thrushes (I)" (theme)
cf. "More Pretty Girls than One" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lord Gregory
A-Roving On A Winter's Night
Roving On Last Winter's Night
Who's Goin' to Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot
Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot
Sweet Annie of Roch Royal
Annie of Rough Royal
Annie of Lochryan
NOTES [666 words]: This song has created a great deal of confusion, because of the attempt of certain scholars to make everything a Child Ballad. Some versions of this song contain the verses beginning "Who will shoe your pretty little foot, And who will glove your hand...." Therefore, anything containing these verses is filed by those scholars as Child #76, even though the songs they so file often contain no other portions of "The Lass of Roch Royal" -- and in fact the "pretty little foot" stanzas are not integral to "Roch Royal"; it's my personal feeling that they originated elsewhere and floated into this song, rather than the reverse.
For this reason, it may be that some of the versions listed here should be classified with "The Storms Are on the Ocean" or other some other song with the "who will shoe your pretty little foot" lyrics. (I eventually tried to clean those out, but it's hard to do after the fact, and for too long I just trusted people who stamped a song "Child 76.") The floating stanzas about shoeing the girl's feet are simply too widespread for any classification effort to be entirely successful; hence the Ballad Index staff created the entry "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot."
After much hesitation, we finally ended up dividing the complex family of songs involving those lyrics as follows:
* "The Lass of Roch Royal" for the ballad of that title
* "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" for fragments too short to classify at all
* "Mary Anne" for the versions specifically about that girl
* "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)," for everything else.- RBW
Greig/Duncan6 1226C has a happy ending. The lady, called Janet here, sails safely away, apparently not hearing Lord Gregory's cries because of the rough weather. He apparently goes crazy "among the wild wood swine" in someone's park and is "put in strong prison," apparently by the owner. Janet hears of that, sails back and brings him home. That is sort of "A Maid in Bedlam" ending -- especially broadside Bodleian Firth c.18(139) -- with sexes reversed.
Of Child's versions, Peggy Delaney's "Maid of Aughrim" on IRTravellers01 is closest to 76H.
Ebsworth: "There are various corrupt and fraudulent versions afloat, and even our Roxburghe Ballad is somewhat flawed, a modernized reprint [c.1765, according to Ebsworth] of one that may have belonged to the days of Mary Queen of Scots. It is the authentic fountainhead of all the others" (p. 609). - BS
This song offers an interesting example of how an informant might modify a song over time. We have two different versions from Anna Gordon Brown of Falkland. For an examination of how her two versions varied, see Bertrand Bronson's essay "Mrs. Brown and the Ballad," with the relevant comparison on pp. 70-71 of the reprint in Bertrand Harris Bronson, The Ballad as Song (essays on ballads), University of California Press, 1969.
Chambers explains that "Lochryan is a beautiful, though somewhat wild and secluded bay, which projects from the Irish Channel into WIgtonshire, having the little seaport of Stranraer situated at its bottom." Of course, that doesn't prove that Lochryan was the original setting of the ballad. - BS
Indeed, there are reasons to think the ballad predates any such setting. David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, pp. 218-219, suggests the woman is a type of calumniated queen, a theme common in the Middle Ages; a typical ballad of that type is "Sir Aldingar" [Child 59]. Fowler, pp. 228-230, compares the "Lass" particularly to Constance, the heroine of Chaucer's "Man of Law's Tale." There is certainly one very strong similarity: both involve a rejected woman going away in a boat with her son. Fowler, p. 233, also mentions Hermione in Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale."
Fowler, p. 227, says that James Joyce cites a fragment of this song in his short story "The Dead." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C076

Lass of Rock Royal, The

See The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76] (File: C076)

Lass of Swansea Town, The (Swansea Barracks)

DESCRIPTION: A maid tells a man she is waiting for Willie, a sailor who left eight years ago. She would know him by a scar. He says Willie was killed in battle and told him to look after her. She only wants Willie. Then she sees his scar. They marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1842 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2071))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage war reunion beauty dialog sailor separation trick
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 547-548, "The Lass of Swansea Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 45, pp. 136-137,173, "The Lass from Glasgow Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LASSWANS
Roud #1416
RECORDINGS:
Jack Kehoe, "Swansea Barracks" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mrs. Peter Mushrow, "Swansee Town" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Tom Pennell, "The Lass of Swansea Town" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2071) , "The Lass of --- Town" ("As down by --- barracks"), T. Birt (London), 1833-1841; also Harding B 11(2072), "The Lass of ---town"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] (plot) and references there
SAME TUNE:
Irish Molly O! (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(2071) )
NOTES [246 words]: At the Reinhard Zierke site re Mike Waterson entry for Swansea Town: "A.L. Lloyd said in the Mike Waterson sleeve notes: Behind this is an Irish song, The Blooming Rose of Antrim. Old Phil Tanner, of the Gower Peninsula, South Wales, used to sing it, and perhaps it was he who moved the events to Swansea." It's Waterson's version that repeats the line "She's the blooming rose of South Wales and the Lass of Swansea Town."
However, the version of The Blooming Rose of Antrim I've seen, at Henry's Songbook site, called Flower of Corby's Mill, the form of the ballads is similar and there are some parallel verses but the stories are entirely different: specifically, Antrim has no mention of a lost sailor or his return; the "Blooming Lass" is "the bonny wee lass that works in Corby's Mill."
The CD A Gower Garland by CaLennig includes (Tanner's?) version of "Swansea Barracks" in which the action takes place at Swansea Barracks but the maid is "the blooming rose of South Wales, the lass of Swansea Town." Swansea is in fact in South Wales. Antrim is in Northern Ireland.
As to moving the events to Swansea, it appears from the three Bodleian broadsides, which predate Tanner (1862-1950), that you were to substitute any barracks name you could make into two syllables and the "blooming rose" is equally non-differentiating.
In broadsides Harding B 11(2071) and Harding B 11(2072) she's "the blooming rose of England"; in Peacock "she appeared to be some goddess." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Pea547

Lass on Ythanside, The

DESCRIPTION: It is spring and the singer thinks of his Lass on Ythanside. He remembers their summer trysting tree under the stars. He thinks of "where first we met -- and parted last Ah! ne'er to meet again." "Tho' worlds us baith divide" he dreams and thinks of her.
AUTHOR: John Imlah (1799-1846) (source: Imlah, Walker)
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Imlah)
KEYWORDS: courting love separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1908, "The Lass on Ythanside" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: John Imlah, May Flowers (London, 1827 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 145-146, "The Lass on Ythanside"
Roud #13552
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Of a' the Airts the Wind Can Blow" (tune, per Imlah)
NOTES [91 words]: Greig/Duncan8's first verse, "The space may spread and days depart ...," is the second version of Imlah's "last half of the last stanza," according to Walker. It was originally "Tho' monie a mile o' shore and sea, Tho' worlds us baith divide, In dream and thought I dwell with thee, Sweet Lass on Ythanside!" (source: William Walker, The Bards of Bon-Accord 1375-1860 (Aberdeen, 1887 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 421-422). Since the Greig/Duncan8 second verse is not in the 1827 text either, I assume it is also a later modification by Imlah. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Grd81908

Lass That Loved a Sailor, The

See When I Was Young; also Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: EM075)

Lass that Loves a Sailor (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears a young man, just come into an inheritance, propose to a maiden. She says she loves a sailor and hopes to be his wife. "No sooner had these words been spoken" than the weather changes, blows her sailor home, and they kiss.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection return reunion sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 1034, "The Lass that Loves a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6738
File: GrD51034

Lass That Loves a Sailor (II -- The Standing Toast)

DESCRIPTION: "The moon on the ocean was dimm'd by a ripple, Affording a chequer'd delight," On a Saturday night, the sailors toast their loves, or the king, or whatnot, "But the standing toast that pleased the most" is to the ship "And the lass that loves a sailor."
AUTHOR: Charles Dibdin (1745-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (various Bodleian broadsides)
KEYWORDS: love drink sailor nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XV, "The Standing Toast" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 68 and #5/64, p. 52, "The Lass that Loves a Sailor" (1 text)
Roud #31350
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1083), "The lass that loves a sailor," J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; Firth c.13(119), "The lass that loves a sailoe, "J. Pitts (London) 1802-1819; also Firth c.13(120)=Harding B 16(126c), Firth c.13(219), "The lass that loves a sailor," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(2663), "The lass that loves a sailor," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1886; also Harding B 11(1861), "The lass that loves a sailor," H. Such (London), 1863-1885
NOTES [42 words]: The evidence that this song is traditional is very thin, but it has been printed so many times that Steve Roud gave it a number, and I'm including it for consistency.
For more on probable author Charles Dibdin, see the notes to "Blow High Blow Low." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SSSB188

Lass That Made the Bed to Me, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is on the road one January night and "to my good luck a lass I met." She invites him to her chamber and makes his bed. He seduces her. Next morning she says "Alas! ye've ruin'd me." He says "ye ay shall mak the bed to me." Presumably they marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: marriage seduction sex nightvisit beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 794, "When January Winds Were Blawin' Keen," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "When January Winds Were Blawin' Keen" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #571, pp. 675-676, "The bonie lass made the bed to me--" (1 text, 1 tune, from before 1796)
Roud #6201
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 14(210), "The Lass That Made the Bed to Me" ("When January's winds were blawing cauld"), W. Stephenson (Gateshead), 1823; also Harding B 11(2076), "The Lass That Made the Bed to Me"
File: GrD4794

Lass with the Bonny Brown Hair, The

See The Maid with the Bonny Brown Hair (File: HHH024)

Lass, Gin Ye Wad Lo'e Me

DESCRIPTION: Dialog. He says he is a kind goodman and would make her lady of his land. She acknowledges his wealth but doubts marriage would make an old man young. He says she may not get such an offer again. She says he can leave "and mind me i' your latter-will"
AUTHOR: Alexander Laing (source: Whistle-Binkie)
EARLIEST DATE: 1835 (Chambers' Edinburgh Journal No. 196, according to Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: age courting dialog humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 813, "Lass, Gin Ye Wad Lo'e Me" (3 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL:Alexander Rodger, editor, Whistle-Binkie, Second Series (Glasgow, 1842), pp. 35-36, "Lass, Gin Ye Wad Lo'e Me"
Roud #6119
NOTES [40 words]: The title here is from the half-line ending each speech. In sequence, alternating between him and her, the half-lines are "Lass, gin ye wad lo'e me," "I canna, winna lo'e you," "I think you'd better lo'e me," and "Bodie, gin ye lo'e me!" - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4813

Lass's Wardrobe, The

DESCRIPTION: A young lady was vain about her clothes (her ragged garments are listed) and no lad would take her. The miller wouldn't after she lost her silver. "An' noo she lives 'erlane in a garret Wi' nae and but a cat an' a parrot." "Be nae big aboot your claes"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong); before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2946))
KEYWORDS: clothes oldmaid
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #17, pp. 1-2, "The Aul' Maid" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1372, "Nae Bonnie Laddie Wad Tak Her Awa" (7 texts, 4 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 126, "The Lass's Wardrobe" (1 text)
Roud #895
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2946), "The Lass's Wardrobe" ("A lass lived down by yon burn-braes"), W. Fordyce (Newcastle), 1828-1837; also Harding B 25(1082), "The Lass's Wardrobe"; Harding B 17(161a), "The Lassie's Wardrobe"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(26a), "The Lassie's Wardrobe" ("A lass lived down by yon burn-braes"), unknown, c.1890; also RB.m.143(148), "The Lassie's Wardrobe"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away (I)" (theme)
cf. "Queen Mary" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dipple Brae
The Aul' Maid
NOTES [89 words]: Ford, re "Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away (I)": "A piece with a similar burden, but written in the second person, bearing the title of "The Lass's Wardrobe," may be seen in No. 175 of Chamber's Journal, which is said to have been written by an unmarried lady as a kind of burlesque of her own habits and history. It clearly suggests this song, or this suggested it." "Queen Mary" is another second person song with the same theme but sharing no lines with "The Lass's Wardrobe." Whitelaw considered both songs to be the same. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD71372

Lasses o' Foveran, The

DESCRIPTION: Lasses of Foveran are "foul fisher jauds," of Meldrum "lie wi' the lads," of Skene are "black at the bane," but the flower of Kinellar would dazzle your eyes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1646, "The Lasses o' Foveran" (1 text)
Roud #13057
NOTES [14 words]: Foveran, Old Meldrum, and Kinellar are Aberdeenshire parishes. Skene is a town. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81646

Lasses o' the Cannogate, The

See The Lassies in the Cougate (File: RPG059)

Lassie Come Home

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme: "Lassie come home, Lassie come home, Lassie come H-O-M-E." (Pobably you can repeat even more than that. Or say "Lassie, go away.")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Opie collection, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope dog home
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #308, "Lassie come home" (1 text)
NOTES [42 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes suggests that the "Lassie" of this short item is the dog of Eric Knight's book Lassie Come Home. It seems likely, but there is no explicit proof (e.g. it would be interesting if there were a verse, "Lassie, fetch, fetch!"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR308

Lassie Gathering Nuts, The

DESCRIPTION: The lassie gathers nuts in the woods as they hang and then falls asleep. Three strong, "lusty" lads come by; the first kisses her, the second undoes her belt, what the third did is not to be put in the song. She awakens and thinks she's "slept too long."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1800 (Burns's "Merry Muses")
KEYWORDS: rape sex abuse hunting bawdy rake
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, LASSINUT
Roud #5131
RECORDINGS:
Lizzie Higgins, "The Lassie Gathering Nuts" (on LHiggins01)
NOTES [46 words]: Rod Stradling notes this song was "One of Lizzie's favourite songs learned from her mother [Jeannie Robertson], who gave it to her 'to sing on the Folk scene'" (http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/higgins.htm). [All traditional versions seem to be from the Robertson family.] - DGE
Last updated in version 5.3
File: RcLaGaNu

Lassie Kens She's Far Better Noo, The

DESCRIPTION: "The lassie kens she's far better noo Wi' a hundred sheep and a sackfu' o' woo. [Greig/Duncan8: wool]"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1768, "The Lassie Kens She's Far Better Noo" (1 fragment)
Roud #13016
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81768

Lassie Lie Near Me (Laddie Lie Near Me)

DESCRIPTION: "Lang hae we parted been, Lassie my dearie, Now we are met again, Lassie lie near me. Near me, near me, Lassie lie near me. Lang hast thou lien thy lane, Lassie lie near me." "A' that I hae endured... Here in thy arms is cured, Lassie, lie near me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scots Musical Museum, #216)
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #218, p. 227, "[Old Words]" (1 text, 1 tune, filed as an addendum to the rewritten text "Laddie lie near me.")
Roud #V23985
NOTES [23 words]: Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 184-185, has a brief piece, Lady, Lie Near Me." As he points out, "It differs wholly from this." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: SMM3218

Lassie Lives by Yonder Burn, A

DESCRIPTION: "A lassie lives by yonder burn, That jinks about the seggins, And aft she gies her sheep a turn, To feed amang the bracken." The singer promises that he would "row her in my plaidie" if she would "woo wi' me." He must leave but hopes to return to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: courting separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 229-231, "A Lassie Lives by Yonder Burn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan4 799, "To Row Her in My Plaidie" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #6121
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Though Bogles Meet Me by the Way
File: FVS229

Lassie of the Glen, The

DESCRIPTION: "Beneath a hill 'mang birken bushes, By a burnie's [stream's] dimplit linn [torrent]," the singer says, he and "the lassie o' the glen" confessed their love and would "fondly stray" Now, "unhappy" and far away he recalls those times.
AUTHOR: Angus Fletcher (b.1776) (source: Rogers)
EARLIEST DATE: 1857 (Roger's _The Modern Scottish Minstrel_)
KEYWORDS: courting love lyric
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #64, p. 2, "The Lassie of the Glen") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1844, "The Lassie of the Glen" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Rogers, editor, [The Project Gutenberg EBook (2006) of] The Modern Scottish Minstrel; or, The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century Vol IV (Edinburgh, 1857), p. 294, "The Lassie of the Glen" (translated from the Gaelic by Angus Fletcher)
Roud #13604
NOTES [108 words]: The Greig/Greig/Duncan8 text is a fragment; Fletcher's translation of his Gaelic original is the basis for the description. The Greig/Greig/Duncan8 fragment is the first verse of the translation "which has become very popular" [source: John Mackenzie, Sar-Obair Nam Bard Gaelach or THe Beauties of Gaelic Poetry (Glasgow, 1865 ("Digitized by Google")) p. 367].
Fletcher says he was born in 1776 and wrote "The Lassie of the Glen" at the age of 16 [source: Mackenzie]. "The song was first published in the Edinburgh Weekly Journal" [source: Nigel MacNeill, The Literature of the Highlanders (1898, London ("Digitized by Google")), p. 270]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81844

Lassie wi' the Yellow Coatie

DESCRIPTION: "Lassie wi' the yellow coatie, Will ye wed a muirlan' Jockie? Lassie wi' the yellow coatie, Will ye busk an' gang wi' me?" The singer admits to poverty, but promises to work hard and be true. He warns: "Time is precious, dinna lose it."
AUTHOR: James Duff ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, p. 198, "Lassie wi' the Yellow Coatie" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #109, p. 2, "Lassie Wi' the Yellow Coatie" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan4 870, "Lassie Wi' the Yellow Coatie" (8 texts, 6 tunes)
Roud #2582
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.15(235), "Lassie Wi' the Yellow Coattie" ("Lassie wi' the yellow coattie"), J. Lindsay (Glasgow), 1851-1910
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bonnie Lass o' Fintry
NOTES [17 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quoting Duncan or Margaret Gillespie: "From Al. Imlah, Woodhead, Delgaty, about 1860." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: FVS198

Lassie Will Ye Tak' a Man

DESCRIPTION: He: "Lassie, will ye tak' a [wealthy] man"? She: "De'il take the cash!" He: "I'll buy you claise ... a riding pony ..." She: Joy is what you make of life. He: "Gie's your hand ye'll be my wife ... in love an siller rife Till death wind up the lave o't"
AUTHOR: Robert Tannahill (1774-1810)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1838 (Ramsay)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage money dialog nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1862, "Lassie Will Ye Tak' a Man" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Phillip A Ramsay, The Poetical Works of Robert Tannahill (London, preface 1838), p. 16, "O Lassie, Will Ye Tak' a Man"
Roud #13499
File: GrD81862

Lassies in the Cougate, The

DESCRIPTION: "The lassies in the Cougate Kaim doun their yalla hair, The lassies in the Cougate They sing for evermair" -- but woe to the roving boys and the sailor lads who fill their lassies "full."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (Sharpe, according to Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice)
KEYWORDS: sex courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #59, p. 221, "The Lassies in the Cougate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8158
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lasses o' the Cannogate
NOTES [54 words]: Brushing or combing hair is often a metaphor for sex. "Cougate" (or "Cowgate", meaning "Cow Street") refers a street or area in Old Town, Edinburgh. - DGE
Although, interestingly, the Cecil Sharpe 1824 text refers to the more familiar Cannongate; the Cougate reference seems to be specific to Jeannie Robertson's family. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: RPG059

Last Clam Falls Sensation, The

DESCRIPTION: "I got on board a tote team, at the town of Taylors Falls" to set out for a logging camp in 1874. The team arrives after a long, tedious trip. One of the loggers misbehaves with the local women, resulting in a fight between the loggers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Dunn, _The St. Croix_, from an uncited source)
KEYWORDS: logger clothes travel fight
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: James Taylor Dunn, _The St. Croix: Midwest Border River_, reprint edition with new introduction published 1979 by the Minnesota Historical Society press, pp. 251-254, "The Last Clam Falls Sensation" (1 text)
NOTES [175 words]: Information about this song is sadly lacking. Dunn, although he quotes a full text, does not tell his source. It appears to have been a manuscript, not an informant, because most of the names are left blank. Dunn thinks it might have been sung to the tune of "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks," although he does not specify which of the two tunes he means.
Dunn reports that the village of Clam Falls was founded in 1872 by Daniel F. Smith. It is a tiny place, not located on most atlases; it is slightly south of a line between Grantsburg and Shell Lake, Wisconsin, and about half way between the two. It is just about due northeast of Taylors Falls, the starting point of the song, which is on the Saint Croix river (in Minnesota), which is the limit of navigation on that river. Clam Falls is on the Clam River, which eventually flows into the Saint Croix, but its path is too convoluted to serve as a good path to the camp. Frankly, I can't see how they expected to get the logs out of Clam Falls. Which may be why the area was still unsettled in 1872. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: JTDST251

Last Farewell, The (The Lover's Return)

DESCRIPTION: "So at last you have come back Since time at last has set you free...." The singer recalls his old love for the other -- but concludes that it is all over now: "No, no, you must not take my hand; God never gives us back our youth...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: love separation return age infidelity
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph 761, "The Last Farewell" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 495,496 "The Last Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 761A)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 152-153, "And So You Have Come Back to Me" (1 text)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 154-155, "Too Late" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 94-95, "Too Late" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 33-34, "Too Late" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3590
File: R761

Last Fierce Charge, The [Laws A17]

DESCRIPTION: Two soldiers, boy and man, are about to ride into battle (at Fredericksburg?). Each asks the other to write to his home should he die. Both are killed; no letter is sent to mother or sweetheart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (February 7, 1863 edition of Harper's Weekly)
KEYWORDS: war battle death farewell Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 17, 1775 - Battle of Bunker Hill (fought on Breed's Hill, and won by the British, though at heavy cost)
Dec 13, 1862 - Battle of Fredericksburg. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, well-positioned and entrenched, easily throws back the assault of Ambrose Burnside's Army of the Potomac
July 1-3, 1863 - Battle of Gettysburg. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac holds off Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia
June 25, 1876 - Battle of the Little Bighorn. Lt. Colonel George A. Custer (who had been a Major General during the Civil War) is killed, along with the entire force of cavalry (five companies with somewhat over 250 men) with him.
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Laws A17, "The Last Fierce Charge (The Battle of Fredericksburg, Custer's Last Charge)"
Greig/Duncan1 105, "The Two Soldiers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 383-387, "The Last Fierce Charge" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Randolph 234, "That Last Fierce Fight" (2 texts, 1 tune)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 7-8, "Custers... Charge" (1 text)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 69-72, "Custer's Last Fierce Charge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 132, "Custer's Last Fierce Charge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 120-121, "Custer's Last Charge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #148, "Death in Battle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 94-96, "The Soldier Boy with Curly Hair" (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 139, "The Last Fierce Charge" (2 texts)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 14-16, "The Charge at Fredricksburg" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 231, "The Last Fierce Charge" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 231, "The Last Fierce Charge" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 1004-1006, "The Last Great Charge" (1 text, 1 tune, a conflate version)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 156-157, "Balaclava" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 118, "The Battle of Fredericksburg" (1 text)
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 86-87, "The Last Fierce Charge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 295, "The Last Fierce Charge" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 14, "The Battle of Gettysburg" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 45, "Custer's Last Charge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 196-197, "The Last Fierce Charge" (1 text)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 197-198, "The Battle of Fredericksburg" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 692, LASTFIER
Roud #629
RECORDINGS:
Jack Knight, "The Last Great Charge" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Ned Rice, "The Blue-Eyed Boy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Soldier's Letter" (plot)
cf. "Just as the Sun Went Down" (theme of two farewells to mother and lover)
cf. "I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again" (plot)
cf. "Custer's Last Charge (I)" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Two Soldiers
Fight at Bunker Hill
The Last Fierce Charge of the French at Waterloo
NOTES [316 words]: As the list of song titles shows, this piece could be particularized to deal with almost any battle (as, indeed, Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety has a text titled "Fight at Bunker Hill," after the Revolutionary War battle. This, however, is historically impossible; the Americans weren't doing any charging at Bunker Hill. In any case, the "Bunker Hill" text never mentions that battle).
Since, however, the second-earliest (and perhaps least famous) event commemorated in a version of this song was the Battle of Fredericksburg, it seems quite likely that the song was originally about that conflict.
Phillips Barry had two texts credited to Virginia F. Townsend -- but even if this is accurate, it may apply only to an adaption; both were "Gettysburg" texts. - RBW
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs names this "Balaclava" -- I assume the name the singer assigned -- though that is never mentioned in the ballad; Creighton also has a fragment naming the battle as Waterloo, referenced as in ms. as "The Last Great Charge." - BS
Jim Dixon recently pointed out to me a publication that may be the original. It was found in the February 7, 1863 edition of Harper's Weekly. It is titled "At Fredericksburg," and signed L.C.M. There is no tune (unless "L.C.M." is a reference to the meter -- the song does fit the standard definition of Common Meter and at least one definition of Long Meter, sometimes abbreviated LCM). The fact that it appeared just a couple of months after Fredericksburg would seem to imply that it was indeed inspired by that battle.
It is very similar to some of the traditional versions. Despite the title, there is absolutely no explicit reference to Fredericksburg, although the circumstances fit (the Union soldiers charge up a hill and take dreadful casualties). This lack of specificity no doubt made it easier to adapt the song to other circumstances. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LA17

Last Friday Evening

See I've Travelled This Country (Last Friday Evening) (File: Beld194)

Last Gold Dollar, The

See My Last Gold Dollar (File: R671)

Last Good-Bye

See The Broken Engagement (II -- We Have Met and We Have Parted) (File: Beld212)

Last Great Charge, The

See The Last Fierce Charge [Laws A17] (File: LA17)

Last Great Round-Up, The

DESCRIPTION: "When I think of the last great roundup On the eve of eternity's dawn, I think of the past of the cowboys.... And I wonder if any will greet me On the sands of the evergreen shore." The singer warns of the trail to perdition and says to follow Jesus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (ArkansasWoodchopper)
KEYWORDS: cowboy religious warning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 50-51, "The Last Great Round-Up" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 410-411, "The Cowboy's Dream" (1 text, tune referenced; this appears to combine "The Cowboy's Dream" and "The Last Great Round-Up")
Roud #4453
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink] "The Cowboy's Dream" (Champion 15897 [as West Virginia Rail Splitter]/Supertone 9571, 1929; Gennett 7065, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cowboy's Dream" (subject)
NOTES [37 words]: This is identical in concept to "The Cowboy's Dream," and Roud appear to lump them. I would agree that this may well have been inspired by "The Cowboy's Dream." But the result is different enough that I've split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: ArWo050

Last Kind Word Blues

DESCRIPTION: Two themes: singer's father is bound for "the German war" and tells what to do if he is killed; singer's mother is concerned about her rambling daughter's wildness. See notes for details.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (StuffDreams2)
KEYWORDS: love warning war train travel burial death Germany nonballad father lover mother
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Geeshie Wiley, "Last Kind Word Blues" (on StuffDreams2)
NOTES [87 words]: The First World War theme is covered in three verses: Her father says "I may not see you after I cross the deep blue sea." His "last kind words" tell her to send his body to his mother, not for burial, but to be left out to "let the buzzards eat me whole."
Before her mother died she said, "stay safe daughter; don't you be so wild." Her lover being across the Mississippi, she "went to the depot and looked up at the sign" -- a common floating line -- and "cried; if a train don't come there'll be some walking done." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcLKiWoB

Last Letter, The

DESCRIPTION: "Dear love here's a letter It's the last one I'll send For my love's correspondings will soon be at end." He dies with the letter unfinished. She dies from grief when she gets the letter. Now "they dwells each together in a bright home above"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: love parting reunion death
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 101, "Lovely Annie" (1 text)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 180-181, "The Unfinished Letter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 31, "I'll Write You a Letter" (1 text, 1 tune, probably this although it includes only the letter, with no indication that the man is dead or what comes after)
Roud #1967
RECORDINGS:
Jimmie Davis, "The Last Letter" (Decca 5726,/Melotone [Canada] 45334, 1939; Minerva M-14104, 1940)
George Hatfield, "Come Love Here's a Letter" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
George Riley, "The Last Letter" (Conqueror 7742, 1931)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Soldier's Last Letter" (theme)
File: GrMa101

Last Long Mile, The (Plattsburg Marching Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, they put me in the army and they handed me a pack" and sent him on a 20 mile hike. "I didn't mind the first 19 but the last one made me sore." "It's not the pack you carry on your back... That wipes away your smile... But the last long mile"
AUTHOR: Emil Breitenfeld (source: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver; Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier clothes travel hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 126, "The Last Long Mile" (1 text)
Roud #15628
NOTES [94 words]: Although this became a popular song -- it was included in the Broadway musical "Toot Toot" in 1918, according to the Wikipedia article on the song (checked July 29, 2023) -- it feels more genuine than most popular war songs. This is no doubt because author Emil Breitenfeld was a lieutenant in the 17th New York Regiment as it trained at Plattsburg, New York. In its original form, it was called "The Long Last Mile"; the middle two words were reversed in the Broadway show. It was also published in military songbooks, so it is not surprising that it spread. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW126

Last Longhorn, The

DESCRIPTION: "An aged longhorn bovine lay dying on the river...." As the bull says it does not wish to live alone, the cowboy watches the passing of their era. The bull dies. The cowboy rides off; "His horse stepped in a dog hole and fell and broke his spine"
AUTHOR: Words: John Wesley / Music: Carl T. Sprague (source: Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 ("The Cattleman"); Sprague set the tune in 1929 (source: Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong)
KEYWORDS: cowboy animal death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 88-90, "The Last Longhorn" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 115, "The Last Longhorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 220-223, "The Last Longhorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FCW115 (Partial)
Roud #8015
RECORDINGS:
Carl T. Sprague, "The Last Longhorn" (Victor V-40197, 1930; Mongomery Ward M-4467, 1934; on MakeMe, WhenIWas1)
NOTES [103 words]: The dating of the Fifes' version is rather strange; the final verse says that the cowboys' "glory has departed in 1889," but earlier it said that the last comrades of the longhorn "were embalmed to feed the boys who were a-fighting Spain" (placing the song after 1898). Since the cow also refers to the 1880s as "some nineteen summers past," the correct date in the final verse is probably 1899.
The longhorn cow was rugged and strong, but stubborn and perhaps not the best source of meat. Thus, after the closing of the frontier in the late eighteenth century, it was supplanted by domestic breeds. Hence this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: FCW115

Last Moments of Robert Emmet, The

See Bold Robert Emmet (File: PGa032)

Last Month of the Year

See What Month Was Jesus Born In? (File: CNFM245)

Last Night and the Night Before

See Not Last Night But the Night Before; also Ginger Blue (File: CarMF078)

Last Night As I Lye Sleeping

See Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail) [Laws E17] (File: LE17)

Last Night Being Windy

See Tavern in the Town (File: ShH94)

Last Night I Dreamed of My True Love

See Locks and Bolts [Laws M13] (File: LM13)

Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream

DESCRIPTION: "Last night I had the strangest dream, I never dreamed before. I dreamed the world had all agreed To put an end to war." All the people saw the agreements signed, and rejoiced as weapons and uniforms are tossed away as the people rejoice
AUTHOR: Ed McCurdy
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (recording, Pete Seeger); reportedly written 1950
KEYWORDS: war
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 548, "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream" (notes only)
DT, LASTNITE*
NOTES [69 words]: Just as a reminder, we tried this once. The Kellogg-Briand pact was agreed upon in 1928. Even if you ignore small wars, it lasted all of three years: The Japanese invaded Manchuria (staring what became World War II) in 1931. And, of course, Hitler took over Austria ten years after the pact, in 1938. Oh, and the Spanish Civil War began in 1936. And Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935. And... well, you get the idea. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF548L

Last Night Our Virgin

DESCRIPTION: "Last night, our virgin, Mary mild, was safe delivered, safe delivered of a child." "Then God's angel" did appear to a frightened shepherd: "Prepare and go to Bethlehem" where Jesus can be found. "Then it was in the beginning... World without end, amen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, pp. 94-95, "Last Night Our Virgin" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wexford Carol" (lyrics)
NOTES [80 words]: This contains quite a few lines of the Wexford Carol, but significantly modified, and with enough new material at beginning and end that I eventually concluded it was a separate song -- although I suspect it's a muddle of several songs in the source's head; it is the only carol that Cox found only once. Cox notes a resemblance to plainsong; and it concludes with a "world without end" portion of "The Doxology." I think it's a hymn which picked up the Wexford Carol lyrics. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: CoxN094

Last Night, the Night Before

See (notes under) Not Last Night But the Night Before (File: CarMF078)

Last of the Singers, The

DESCRIPTION: "I reckon the days is departed When folks 'us a listened to me." There was a day when people listened "To me and my purty old rhymes." Soon they will say, "The last of the zingers [singers] is dead."
AUTHOR: Words: Sabine Baring-Gould (or one of the other authors of Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: music death fiddle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #28, "The Last of the Singers" (1 non-traditional text, 1 tune)
NOTES [73 words]: Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd refuses to print the informant's words to this tune on the grounds that the had "no merit." Which strikes me as the pot calling the kettle black. The old words at least were from oral tradition. The new words have never, as far as I know, been sung by anyone except Baring-Gould and Co. Steve Roud didn't assign them a number, and he's right to do so. For the tune, see Roud #6907 and #12857- RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGSW028

Last of the Wooden Walls

DESCRIPTION: "Here Atlantic's foam-wreaths float In aqua-floral tribute to a ship submerged." The unnamed ship's activities are recalled, the men aboard mentioned; we are told of the tears shed when her journeys ended
AUTHOR: Harry R. Burton
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Harrington, Poems of Newfoundland)
KEYWORDS: ship nonballad hunting
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1950 - Scuttling of the SS Eagle, the last of the Newfoundland sealing steamers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 142-143, "Last of the Wooden Walls" (1 text)
Roud #V44654
NOTES [448 words]: Yes, this is as, um, aqua-floral as it looks. Really, it doesn't belong in the Index. But I've done everything else in Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff; leaving out one of many irrelevant poems because it's irrelevant is rather pointless.
This should not be confused with the various other poems about the decline of sailing ships, several of which share similar titles.
This piece nowhere names any names; there is no way to be certain what it refers to. But the fact that it was printed in 1952 is indicative. In 1950, the very last of the sealing steamers, the S.S. Eagle, had been scuttled by Bowring's, her owners; she was too worn-out to continue as she was, and not worth enough to fix. (Newfoundland became part of Canada in 1949, so Canadian laws would begin to apply in the year she was scuttled; they would have required the ship to be fixed up).) Attempts to make her a museum had failed. Many protested; it was the end of an era in Newfoundland. Little wonder that the scuttling would encourage poetry like this -- even *I* think it a tragedy that the wooden walls were all lost without any memory, and it all happened before I was born, and I don't like sealing anyway! But there was no money to maintain her. For more about the Eagle, see "The Ice-Floes," which is sort of the reverse of this song: instead of a song about a real ship hidden behind a lack of names, "The Ice-Floes" is a fictitious song about the real ship Eagle.
Confirming the connection to the Eagle is the reference to the wooden ship's "more than forty years of service"; the Eagle first went to the ice in 1904 under Arthur Jackman (see Levi George Chafe, Chafe's Sealing Book: A History of the Newfoundland Sealfishery from the Earliest Available Records Down To and Including the Voyage of 1923, third edition, Trade Printers and Publishers, Ltd., 1923 (PDF scan available from Memorial University of Newfoundland), p. 99; for Jackman, see "The Old Polina"), so she was 46 years old when she was scuttled.
A few terms used in the song (which I'm too lazy to footnote, but I've read a lot of sealing books to learn this vocabulary):
"Barrelmen": men who took their place in the barrel on the mast to guide the ship. They were lookouts, in a way, but they were also navigating the ship.
"Whitecoat patches, bedlamers and old dog-hoods": whitecoats were infant harp seals, the main target of the seal hunt; "bedlamers" were seals (whether harp seals or hooded seals) which were in their second year -- not fully grown, but living on their own. "Dog-hoods" were male hooded seals, which were dangerous and had to be hunted with guns; they became a target only if the whitecoat hunt had failed.- RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm172

Last Parting of Burns and Bonnie Jean

DESCRIPTION: "Come near to me, Jean, come close to my side... That the widow's God may soften the road For my helpless bairns and thee, O." Burns bids farewell. After he dies, she kisses his cold lips and takes a lock of his hair. Burns is buried and widely mourned
AUTHOR: Elizabeth Rennie ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: death burial separation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1759-1796 - life of Robert Burns
1788 - Burns marries Jean Armour (1767-1834)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 356, "Last Parting of Burns and Bonnie Jean" (1 text)
Roud #5606
NOTES [42 words]: Jean Armour was Robert Burns's wife; although he probably didn't love her as much as "Highland" Mary Campbell, Mary died, and Jean lived, so she was around at the time of the poet's own death. This is, obviously, someone's vision of their parting. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Ord356

Last Rose of Summer, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis the last rose of summer, left blooming alone, All her lovely companions are faded and gone." The singer promises not to leave this flower even when other flowers are "scentless and dead": "Oh! Who would inhabit this bleak world alone!"
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1813 (Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic)
KEYWORDS: flowers love nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, pp. 95-96, "'Tis the Last Rose of Summer" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 146, "The Last Rose of Summer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #88, "The Last Rose of Summer" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 59, "The Last Rose of Summer" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1227, p. 84, "The Last Rose of Summer" (5 references)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 20 and #5/64, p. 18, "The Last Rose of Summer" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 582-583, "'Tis the Last Rose of Summer"
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 35, "The Last Rose of Summer" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 25, "The Last Rose of Summer" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LASTROSE*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 378-379, "The Last Rose of Summer" (1 text)
Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #487, p. 818, "The Last Rose of Summer" (by Thomas Moore)
Roud #13861
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Castle Hyde" (tune)
cf. "Bells of Shandon" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Loafer's Lament (File: ChMS161)
The Groves of Blarney (File: OCon033) (per Hoagland in the notes to "Castle Hyde" and to William H. A. Williams, _'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream_, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 37)
Castle Hyde (Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 254-255)
NOTES [61 words]: Dr. William Mahar claims this is one of the six most popular songs of the Civil War era. I've no idea what his evidence for this was; I've never seen it mentioned in any Civil War history.
This is another of Moore's pieces that was very popular in print (Granger's Index to Poetry has 15 references to it) but which seems to have had little vogue in tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: DTlastro

Last Saturday Night I Entered a House

See Courting the Widow's Daughter (Hard Times) [Laws H25] (File: LH25)

Last Serenade, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am under your window tonight, love, Giving you my last serenade." The singer says he must leave the girl. "But in the days that are to come we may then be joined in heart.... Serenade, serenade, I am giving you my last serenade."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love separation farewell
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 742, "The Last Serenade" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7396
File: R742

Last Speech and Dying Words of the Auld Kirk of Turriff, The

DESCRIPTION: On Halloween the singer rides by the old church and overhears a meeting of testifying spirits. The church testifies about its history, including forced conversion "to Presbetrie." He hopes the new church will "strive to end as I began ... Pure Orthodox"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: religious ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 692, "The Last Speech and Dying Words of the Auld Kirk of Turriff" (1 text)
Roud #6114
NOTES [16 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "The poem relates to the building of the new parish church of Turiff in 1794." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3692

Last Thing On My Mind, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's a lesson to late for the learning, Made of sand, made of sand." "Are you going away with no word of farewell.... Well, I could have loved you better, didn't mean to be unkind, You know that was the last thing on my mind." Of lost love and regret
AUTHOR: Tom Paxton
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (recording, Tom Paxton)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, LASTMIND*
NOTES [206 words]: There isn't much evidence that this song became traditional, but Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, p. 186, says that Harry Mercer of Newfoundland knew it and sang it, with evidence of oral modification, so I put it in here very tentatively.
To be sure, Tom Paxton, on p. 31 of The Honor of Your Company (edited and with an introduction by Milton Okun; Cherry Lane Music, 2000) says that people in both Ireland and Scotland have thought it was traditional (which, Paxton declares, "suits me right down to the ground") -- but that isn't a field collection.
It is almost certainly Paxton's best-known song, though; he says it has been translated into French, German, Norwegian, and Croatian (at least).
He also says that it arose out of discovering a trick for hammering a C note into a G chord on the guitar, and was written just days before he recorded it.
I find it interesting that Tom Paxton has, as of this writing, five songs in the Index -- "The Marvelous Toy," "The Last Thing on My Mind," "My Ramblin' Boy," "Going to the Zoo," and "I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound" -- and all were written and recorded very early in his career. Nor have I seen any hints of any of his later songs matching those five in popularity. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: DTlastmi

Last Token, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come press to your heart this last token, Though 'tis neither silver nor gold, 'Twill remind you of words you have spoken Too fondly to ever be told. When I'm far away a-sleeping... Your first love you'll never forget."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 739, "The Last Token" (1 fragment)
Roud #7395
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Rosewood Casket"
NOTES [25 words]: I'm sure this is a fragment of something longer. It may even be elsewhere in the Index. But Randolph's fragment is so short that I can't identify it. - RBW
File: R739

Last Trip in the Fall

DESCRIPTION: "At Nick Hert's mine near Trenton, where we put on eighty tons... we kept right on a-moving... And landed safe in Cleveland, Where we laid up for the fall." The singer tells of cold weather on the Ohio-Erie canal in fall, but will stay with the work
AUTHOR: probably Pearl R. Nye
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (OHS)
KEYWORDS: ship travel canal
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 67-68, "Last Trip in the Fall" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: [no author listed], Scenes & Songs of the Ohio-Erie Canal, Ohio Historical Society, 1971, "Last Trip in the Fall" (1 text, 1 tune, from Pearl R. Nye)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Between Me and the Wall" (tune, according to Salt)
File: OHSLTitF

Last Voyage of the Veteran, The

DESCRIPTION: The captain and ten crewmen "perished in the ocean." A tug was sent out to salvage the Veteran "but the wind it blew so heavy and caused the sea to roar And caused the poor sailors to roll on a lee shore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 29, 1874 - The barque Veteran is wrecked in a storm outside Fraserburgh Harbour [about 40 miles north of Aberdeen] (source: Greig/Duncan1)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 33, "The Last Voyage of the Veteran" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3805
File: GrD1033

Last Winter Was a Hard One

DESCRIPTION: Two Irish women lament the hard times. Neither woman's husband could find a job, and both families suffered. They curse the Italians who have arrived to take Irish jobs. They look forward to better times when their husbands find work
AUTHOR: Words: Jim O'Neil / Music: Jack Conroy
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: work poverty unemployment foreigner hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 89-90, "When McGuinness Gets a Job" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 98, "Last Winter Was a Hard One" (1 text+fragments, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 111-112,248, "Last Winter Was a Hard One" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LASTWNTR*
Roud #4607
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Longshoreman's Strike (The Poor Man's Family)" (theme)
NOTES [247 words]: The sheet music to this is "respectfully dedicated to comptroller John Kelly." John Kelly (1822-1886) was a New York politician. A one-time representative, the Dictionary of American Biography credits him with running Tammany Hall 1873-1882. Thus he would be the chief politician responsible for municipal employment.
See one version of "When McGuinness Gets a Job" [Sheet Music: digital id sm1880 11975], published in New York in 1880, at the Library of Congress American Memory site. - BS
This seems to be a good example of the Irish situation in New York: They rose the socio-economic ladder, but not securely. William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 176, writes, "It was no accident that the term 'lace curtain' was coined in the 1890s.... By 1900, American-born Irish were over-represented in lower-middle-class positions, such as clerks, salespersons, teachers, and bookkeepers, and were under-represented in the poorer jobs. True, compared to the accomplishments of Germans, Scandinavians, and the recently arrived Jews, Irish success was, as Timothy Meagher pointed out, unspectacular and fragile. The Irish tended to 'slip' more than other groups. Yet, based on the economic distance they had to travel and the vast numbers that had crowded the bottom of the latter, the Irish in America had turned a corner. Even among the great numbers of working-class Irish, the majority were now skilled or semi-skilled." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: FSC098

Last Words of Copernicus, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye golden lamps of heaven, farewell, With all your feeble light. Farewell thou ever changing moon, Pale empress of the light. And thou refulgent orb of day, In brighter flames arrayed...." The singer looks forward to leaving earth for heaven
AUTHOR: Words: Philip Doddridge / Music: Sarah Lancaster (source: Sacred Harp -- which however spells Doddridge's name "Dodderidge")
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (source: Sacred Harp; this is apparently the tune date, with Doddridge's words reportedly published 1755)
KEYWORDS: religious death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1473-1543 - Life of Mikolaj Kopernigk, whose name was latinized as "Nicolaus Copernicus"
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #95, "The Last Words of Copernicus" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LASTWORD
Roud #15087
NOTES [512 words]: According to Julian, p. 305, Philip Doddridge "was b[orn] in London, June 26, 1702. His grandfather was one of the ministers under the commonwealth, who were ejected in 1662. His father was a London oilman. He was offered by the Duchess of Bedford an University training for ordination in the Ch[urch] of England, but declined it. He entered Mr. Jennings's Non-conformist seminary at Kibworth instead." He became a pastor at Kibworth in 1723, and later taught Hebew, Greek, mathematics, Philosophy, and Divinity, eventually being made D.D. by the University of Aberdeen. He died of tuberculosis in Lisbon on October 26, 1751. Job Orton posthumously published his hymns. He wrote many, many hymns -- Julian lists 78, of which he considers eight to be the most popular, although I don't recall ever hearing any of them (although "O God of Bethel" is in the Index). This is #66 among the seventy "lesser" hymns.
Neither Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, nor the Sacred Harp text, nor any other reference I have found, explains why this is called "The Last Words of Copernicus." Copernicus, it is true, was a priest and canon lawyer (see Porter, p. 143), so he probably did look forward to leaving earth (and, perhaps, to getting an explanation from God as to why celestial mechanics was so hard -- contrary to what you may have heard, Copernicus's heliocentric model of the universe did not produce better predictions of celestial mechanics than what went before; it was merely simpler).
Possibly the "last words" are a reference to the preface to Copernicus's master work De Revolutionibus, which outlined the heliocentric model. Ironically for a book by a Catholic, De Revolutionibus was prepared for publication by a Lutheran minister, Andreas Osiander, who (seemingly without telling the dying Copernicus) added a preface that called the heliocentric theory simply a better way to calculate planetary positions, not a reality (Porter, p. 144). And Osiander did not make it clear that he, not Copernicus, had written the preface. This meant that the book was not immediately banned (it wasn't placed on the Index of condemned works until 1616, almost three-quarters of a century after Copernicus's death in 1543), but it made the book rather pointless, and it did not sell well. Not that Copernicus cared; he was dead! But the preface, although it might be regarded as Copernicus's farewell, certainly wasn't anything like this. And the song never mentions Copernicus in the text.
In the mudcat.org thread "Tune Req: Last Words of Copernicus," user cnd has a different speculation. He notes that Copernicus's actual last words were said to be a paraphrase of Luke 2:29. This is Simeon's verses over the infant Jesus, the "nunc dimittis" -- in Latin, "nunc dimittis servum tuum Domine secundum verbum tuum, in pace" -- "now dismiss your servant, Lord, according to your word, in peace." cnd would interpret Copernicus's own words as "Now, O Lord, set thy servant free." I don't really consider that a paraphrase, but I agree with cnd that it fits the sentiment of the song. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: Morr095

Last Words of William Shackleford, Executed in Pittsboro, Chatham Co, March 28, 1890

See William S. Shackleford (File: BrII293)

Last Year Was a Fine Crap Year

See Whoa Back, Buck (File: LxU067)

Late Battle in the West

DESCRIPTION: Another account of the conquest of Vicksburg by Union troops. The focus is mostly on General Grant: "Oh bully for our chief... Old Jeff is getting scared, Grant's getting bolder... Three cheers for Grant, and the Union forever!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 1862 - Union general Ulysses S. Grant begins his Vicksburg campaign. His first four attempts to reach the city fail
Apr 16, 1863 - Porter's gunboats run past Vicksburg, opening the way for Grant's final successful campaign
May 12-17, 1863 - Grant fights a series of minor battles which bring him to the defenses of Vicksburg
May 22, 1863 - Grant's attempt to take Vicksburg by storm is a bloody failure. The Union army settles down to a siege
July 4, 1863 - Lt. General Pemberton surrenders Vicksburg
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 371-372, "Late Battle in the West" (1 text)
Roud #7764
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Vicksburg" (subject)
cf. "Victorious March" (subject)
NOTES [137 words]: Every historical event in this song is described in the notes to "Victorious March"; see the notes to this song.
Although this is surely a composed song, the informant almost certainly had it from oral tradition. This shows in the names of the officers. He mentions, in addition to Grant, three generals: MacPherson (James B. McPherson, 1828-1864, one of Grant's corps commanders), Logan (John A. Logan, 1826-1886, a division commander), and "McClellan."
George B. McClellan, former commander of the Army of the Potomac, of course did not serve at Vicksburg. The reference, I think, must be to John A. McClernand (1812-1900), a politician who had become one of Grant's corps commanders in exchange for raising many of the troops used in the expedition. He was not particularly competent, and would later be relieved. - RBW
File: Beld371

Late Last Night

See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

Late Last Night When Willie Came Home (Way Downtown)

DESCRIPTION: "Late last night when Willie came home Heard a mighty rapping on the door... Willie don't you rap no more." The song then veers to floating verses. Chorus: "Oh me, oh my, what's gonna become of me I's downtown, fooling around No one to stand for me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: drink prison nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 174, "Slippin' and A-Slidin' with My New Shoes On" (1 short text, 1 tune, too short to really identify but Rosenbaum considers it part of this song)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 180-181, "Well the Day I Left My Po' Mama's Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 166, "Late Last Night When Willie Came Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 87-89, "Come On, My Pink, an' Tell Me What You Think" (1 text, 1 tune, consisting of many floating verses -- the first, e.g., comes from "Little Pink" -- but which overall seems closest to this)
Handy/Silverman-BluesAnAnthology, pp. 58-59, "Ever After On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7691
RECORDINGS:
Frank Blevins, "Late Last Night when Willie Came Home" (Columbia, 1927; unissued)
Louise Foreacre, "Last Last Night" (on Stonemans01)
Skip James, “Drunken Spree” (Paramount 13111, 1931)
Uncle Dave Macon w. Sam McGee, "Late Last Night When My Willie Come Home" (Vocalion 5095=Vocalion 15319, 1926; on RoughWays2)
Sam & Kirk McGee, "Late Last Night When Willie Came Home" (on ClassOT)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Late Last Night When Willie Came Home" (on NLCR02)
Poplin Family, "Hammer Ring" (on Poplin01)
Doc Watson, Clint Howard & Fred Price, "Way Down Town" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms" (lyrics)
cf. "Goodnight, Irene" (floating verse)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Late Last Night When My Willie Came Home
NOTES [122 words]: It's hard to tell if the Handy text "Ever After On" belongs here. Certainly they derive from the same roots; the Handy text begins "Late last night when my baby come home I heard a mighty knocking on my door... Told him Baby don't you knock no more." The chorus runs, "But I'll love my baby till the seas run dry... Oh ain't it hard... To love a man that don't love you."
The rest, like the version in Wheeler, is fairly standard for a traditional blues: Verses unrelated except in their sorrowful feeling, and borrowed from all over. I initially listed it as a separate song based on the notes in Handy/Silverman, which imply multiple versions in Odum and Johnson. But I suspect those are actually versions of "Late Last Night." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: CSW166

Late One Night

See Bad Lee Brown (Little Sadie) [Laws I8] (File: LI08)

Lather and Shave

See The Love-of-God Shave (Lather and Shave) [Laws Q15] (File: LQ15)

Latin Is a Dead Tongue

DESCRIPTION: "Latin is a dead tongue/language, Dead as it can be, First it killed the Romans And now it's killing me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad death | Latin Romans
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 65, "Latin is a dead language" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #138, "(Latin is a dead tongue)" (1 text)
Roud #20758
NOTES [278 words]: You may sometimes encounter a second verse to this, but it's not clear to me that it circulates outside print.
All are dead who spoke it.
All are dead who wrote it.
All are dead who learned it,
Lucky dead, they've earned it.
The irony of this, to me at least, is that -- as dead languages go -- Latin is about as lively as it gets. Etruscan, Sumerian, Ancient Mayan -- *those* are dead. But there are still Catholic scholars writing in Latin, and the official Catholic Bible remains the Latin Vulgate, and many living languages -- Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Italian, French, Romanian, Rhaeto-Romansch -- are descendants of Latin and often retain substantial similarities to it. And while the Western Roman Empire was destroyed in 476, the Eastern Roman Empire lasted until 1453; it's just that we tend to call it the Byzantine Empire. And while the Byzantine Empire is gone, its church -- the Orthodox Church -- is still around (although its root language is Greek), just as the Catholic Church of the Western Empire still exists.
And although modern English Bibles are translated from the Hebrew and Greek, the earliest ones (Wycliffe's Middle English translation, and the Old English renderings from before the Norman Conquest) were derived from the Latin, and even the translators of the King James Bible consulted the Latin at times.
The point of this diatribe (a word transmitted via Latin although its origin is Greek) is that, although no one actually learns Latin as a native tongue any more, it is neither useless nor, in fact, entirely frozen (the way Sumerian is); Church Latin is not classical Latin, and Church Latin continues to evolve, if slowly. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC065A

Lauchie

DESCRIPTION: Lauchie comes from the Highlands looking for work and enlists. "She always wore her ruffled shirt and clean was shaved" and made a fine impression on the Major. She becomes a drill sergeant. She leaves the army when the war ends.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: cross-dressing humorous soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 530, "Lauchie" (2 texts)
Roud #6009
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tullochgorum" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
cf. "The Soldier Maid" (plot)
cf. "The Banks o' Skene" (plot)
cf. "The Drum Major (The Female Drummer)" (plot)
NOTES [126 words]: Greig/Duncan3 530A mixes 12 sung verses and three spoken lines by the recruiter or master sergeant and responses, primarily by the heroine. All the actors are made out to be fools. For example, having made drill sergeant, she says, "O Neil, Neil, if I was known you for a leer, I was believe you, but you was in the bad habit of crying 'Amashew,' ['Here'] whether you was hear or not, for that I will mark you down absent."
While the recruiter recognizes Lauchie from home, "a soldier she was made," and others think "she's a braw lad."
Greig/Duncan3 530B is a fragment of one-and-a-half verses with no spoken lines. - BS
For notes on legitimate historical examples of women serving in the military in disguise, see the notes to "The Soldier Maid." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3520

Lauchie Wilson

DESCRIPTION: "I'm Lauchie Wilson, the weaver's son, And I came from Rutherglen toon," He is fond of Geordie Wilson -- and his daughters, one of whom ran away. He will drown himself if no woman will have him. He tells of his work.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (MacColl-PersonalChoice)
KEYWORDS: courting river work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 56, "Lauchie Wilson" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LAUCHIE*
Roud #23429
File: McPCLaWi

Laugh

DESCRIPTION: Circular rhyme. "Laugh, I thought I'd die, Die a funeral; Funeral, flowers; Flowers, money; Money, work -- Work? Me work? Laugh, I thought I'd die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: nonsense death funeral flowers money
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 105, "Laugh" (1 text)
File: ZiZa105E

Laugh Ha Ha

DESCRIPTION: Round. "Laugh, ha ha, Hear the merry jest, But if you will laugh last You will laugh best!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 437, "Laugh Ha Ha" (notes only)
File: ACSF437L

Laugh Provoker, A

See S-M-I-L-E (File: ACSF125S)

Laughing Song

DESCRIPTION: "As I was coming 'round the corner, I heard some people say, Here comes a dandy darky; here he comes this way. His heel is like a snowplow, And his mouth is like a trap, And when he open it gently you will see a fearful gap." Chorus is mostly laughing
AUTHOR: George W. Johnson
EARLIEST DATE: 1894
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad Black(s)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) US(Ro) Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 171, "Laughing Song" (1 fragmentary excerpt)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #177, "The Laughing Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 17, page headed "After several social visits..."], "The Laughing Song" (1 text)
Roud #6352
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Old But I'm Awfully Tough" (chorus)
NOTES [162 words]: Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland replaces the "dandy darky" reference by "laughing jackass" and uses elipses to give the impression that the chorus is just "Ha, ha ha ha ha ha, ha, ha, ha, Ha, ha," etc.
Johnson's chorus is
Then I laugh ha ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha,
I couldn't stop my laughing ha ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha,
Ha ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha,
I couldn't stop my laughing ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Johnson's sheet music and recording were an immediate hit "selling tens of thousands of records by 1894 alone" per "The Ragtime Ephemeralist" site. The text is on on the Archeophone Records site recording of the month for February 2002.
This song is sometimes confused with another laughing chorus song, Cal Stewart's 1901 "I'm Old But I'm Awfully Tough." - BS
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah's text also reduces the chorus to a dozen "ha's." I wonder if this might not have been the way some popular performer presented the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: GrMa171

Laughter Runs by on Silver Sandals Shining

DESCRIPTION: "Laughter runs by in silver sandals shining, Stops in at ever wide-flung friendly door, Warm be the gypsy fire that we keep burning, That laughter may stay ever more."
AUTHOR: Words: Ruth A. Brown? / Music: Salut d'Amour" by Edward Elgar (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 462, "Laughter Runs by on Silver Sandals Shining" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 91, "Laughter Runs By" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 51, "Laughter Runs By" (1 text)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Laughter
File: ACSF462S

Launch Thy Bark, Mariner!

DESCRIPTION: "Launch thy bark, mariner, Christian God speed thee, Let loose the rudder bands, Good angels lead thee. Set thy sails warily; tempests will come... Set our course home." There is bad weather in the night. The gold is not worth keeping. Steer for heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Journal of the Sunbeam)
KEYWORDS: ship gold disaster home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 355-356, "The Mariner's Hymn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27507
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pull for the Shore" (theme)
NOTES [60 words]: This reminds me very much of "Pull for the Shore" -- so much so that I am tempted to think that the Philip Paul Bliss song inspired this. The problem is that, if Huntington's date is right, this was copied down a dozen years before "Pull for the Shore" was written. I will confess to wondering if the piece might not be a later addition to the ship's log. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HGam355

Laundry Song, A

DESCRIPTION: "I used to work in the kitchen And wash the pans and crocks, But now I work in the laundry And wash the stinking socks." Brought up well, the singer falls in with a bad crowd, and stands guard during a robbery. The others escape; he ends in prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: trial punishment crime work prisoner clothes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 148, "A Laundry Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST GC148 (Partial)
Roud #3674
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "No More Shall I Work in the Factory" (lyrics)
NOTES [46 words]: The informant from whom this song was collected said that he did not know where he learned the song -- but he was "a boy of fifteen in the Detention Home, Detroit." One suspects he or someone he knew composed it, based on something like "No More Shall I Work in the Factory." - RBW
File: GC148

Laurel Hill

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls sailing from Ireland to fight Napoleon with Wellington. He fights in Spain and all the way to Waterloo. At last her returns to find his love bewailing his death. He reveals himself to her; they settle down. He praises Wellington
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion Napoleon soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1809 - Wellington takes command in the Peninsula (to 1814)
1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H8, pp. 311-312, "Laurel Hill/Kyle's Flowery Braes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 193, "Laurel Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 39, "Laurel Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LAURLHIL
Roud #2917
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Burns and His Highland Mary" [Laws O34] (tune)
NOTES [46 words]: The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Sweet Laurel Hill" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: HHH008

Lavender Blue

DESCRIPTION: "Lavender's blue, dilly, dilly..." Singer tells his lady that she must love him because he loves her. He tells of a vale where young man and maid have lain together, and suggests that they might do the same, and that she might love him (and also his dog)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1685 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: courting sex love dog colors
FOUND IN: Britain US(NE)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 229-230, "Lavender's Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 299, "Lavender's blue, diddle, diddle" (3 texts plus a plate facing page 266 showing the "Diddle Diddle" broadside of c. 1680)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #137, p. 113, "(Lavender blue and rosemary green)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 129, "Lavender's Blue" (1 text plus a long text of "Diddle, Diddle")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 158, "Lavender Blue" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p.238, "Lavender Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 16, "Lavender's Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 19, "Lavender's Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LAVNDER2
ADDITIONAL: Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, pp. 112-113, "(no title)" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #140, "Lavender's Blue" (1 text)
Roud #3483
RECORDINGS:
Patricia Campbell, Bob Livingston, "Lavender Blue" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #498, recorded 02/23/2023; both struggled to remember the tune)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(56a), "Diddle, diddle" or "The Kind Country Lovers ("Lavenders green, didle, didle"), F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, and J. Clark (London), 1674-1679
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Dog and I" (some verses)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Diddle, Diddle (Or The Kind Country Lovers)
NOTES [313 words]: When I was four years old, I thought this song was stupid. Forty-five years later, I see no reason to change my mind. - PJS
Hard to argue that point based on the versions that I've heard, but the broadside version in the Digital Tradition hints that there is at least a little more going on behind the scenes. Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland explains that the song, "of English origin, is connected with the amusements of Twelfth Night and refers to the choosing of the king and queen of the festivities." Dolby-OrangesAndLemons says that the broadside version, "Diddle, Diddle, Or the Kind Country Lovers," is from the period 1672-1685, and is about a girl named Nell keeping the singer's bed warm.
Nettel, p. 112, also suggests that the song was originally political, although he doesn't state the political context.
The real problem may be that the version most people know comes from a Disney film. According to David A. Jasen, Tin Pan Alley: The Composers, the Songs, the Performers and their Times: The Golden Age of American Popular Music from 1886 to 1956, Primus, 1988, p. 254, the movie "SO DEAR TO MY HEART (1948) included the gem 'Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly),' composed by Eliot Daniel, who took the melody from a seventeenth-century English folk song, with lyrics by Larry Morey. It was sung twice in the film, first by Dinah Shore and later by Burl Ives, and was a hit record for Sammy Turner on Big Top Records in 1959." It was also recorded by Vera Lynn.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 500, estimates that this rewrite was the twentieth most popular song in America in 1949, peaking at #4 in February 1949 (#1 for the year being Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Some Enchanted Evening"). Whether anyone sings the pre-Disney version any more I don't know. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB158A

Lavender Cowboy, The

DESCRIPTION: "He was only a lavender cowboy, The hairs on his chest were two." Troubled by dreams, the boy tries all sorts of worthless hair nostrums. At last he "battled for Red Nellie's honor... He died with his six-guns a-blazing And only two hairs on his chest."
AUTHOR: Harold Brainerd Hersey (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Ewen Hail); reportedly written 1923
KEYWORDS: death dream cowboy fight
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 39, "The Lavender Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 30, "The Lavender Cowboy" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 296, "Lavender Cowboy" (notes only)
DT, LAVCOWBY
Roud #11213
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Lavender Cowboy" (Bluebird B-8229, 1939)
Ewen Hail, "Lavendar Cowboy" (Brunswick 141, 1927; Brunswick 433, 1930)
NOTES [19 words]: Vernon Dalhart recorded this song in 1938 in an ill-fated comeback on Bluebird, only to see the song blacklisted. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FCW039

Lavender Girl

DESCRIPTION: "When the sun climbs over the hills And the skylark sings so merrily, Then I my little basket fill And trudge away to the village cheerily." The girl sells lavender to "keep my mother, myself, and my brother"; she cries, "Come and buy my lavender."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: commerce home mother family orphan
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 245, "Lavender Girl" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, p. 201, "Lavender Girl" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 480, "Lavender Girl" (source notes only)
Roud #15774
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Blooming Lavender" (theme)
File: Br3245

Lavender's Blue

See Lavender Blue (File: FSWB158A)

Lavender's Blue, Diddle, Diddle

See Lavender Blue (File: FSWB158A)

Laverock, The (The Lark)

DESCRIPTION: Get up with the lark (laverock) and get your line, hook, rod and reel. With your fishing a a bit of luck, you'll have plenty of fish to bake.
AUTHOR: Andy Hunter (source: LHiggins01?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (recording, Lizzie Higgins)
KEYWORDS: fishing nonballad bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland (Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lizzie Higgins, "Up and Awa wi the Laverock" (on LHiggins)
Roud #5133
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. MacLennan's "Jig of Slurs" (tune)
File: RcLavero

Lawd Bin Gud, De

See The Lord's Been Good (File: RcLoBeGo)

Lawd, Remember Me

See Lord, Remember Me (II) (File: Edwa039)

Lawdy Lawdy Blues

See The Cat's Got the Measles and the Dog's Got Whooping Cough (File: RcCGTMDG)

Lawkamercyme

See The Old Woman Who Went to Market (The Old Woman and the Pedlar) (File: Lins258)

Lawland Lass, The

See The Highland Lad and Lawland Lass (File: GrD1123)

Lawlands o' Holland, The

See The Lowlands of Holland (File: R083)

Laws of Jersey State, The

DESCRIPTION: "The laws of Jersey state are such You dare not kill a snail; To Camden jail they'll send you off Without a cent of bail. They'll seize upon your gun For climbing on a fence And give you twenty years to boot... There's nothing like it, boys, you know...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Cohen)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad prison
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 126, "The Laws of Jersey State" (1 text)
Roud #22307
File: CAFS1126

Lawson Murder, The (Charlie Lawson) [Laws F35]

DESCRIPTION: Charlie Lawson goes mad on a Christmas evening and shoots first his wife and then, despite their pleas, his six children. He prepares them for burial, bids goodbye, and kills himself also. The family is buried in a common grave
AUTHOR: Wiley Morris? Walter "Kid" Smith?
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, The Carolina Buddies)
KEYWORDS: homicide family burial suicide madness children
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 25, 1929 - 43-year-old Charles D. Lawson shoots his family and himself
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws F35, "The Lawson Murder (Charlie Lawson)"
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 114, "The Lawson Family Murder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 298, "The Lawson Murder" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 111-112, "Charlie Lawson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 240-241, "The Lawson Family Murder (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 206-207, "The Lawson Murder" (1 text)
DT 729, LAWSNMRD
Roud #697
RECORDINGS:
[Walter "Kid" Smith and the] Carolina Buddies, "Murder of the Lawson Family" (Columbia 15537-D, 1930)
Spencer Moore with Everett Blevins, "The Lawson Murder" (on LomaxCD1705)
The Morris Brothers, "The Story of Charlie Lawson" (Bluebird B-7903, c. 1938)
E. R. Nance Singers, "The Lawson Murder" (Brunswick 542, 1931)
Glen Neaves, "The Death of the Lawson Family" (on Persis1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dark Knight" (plot)
cf. "William Beadle" (plot)
NOTES [670 words]: As is typical of songs from the early era of recorded music, the authorship of this is uncertain. D. K. Wilgus credits this to Wiley Morris of the Morris Brothers. But Richard Dress informs me that Walter "Kid" Smith of the Carolina Buddies also claimed to have written it -- and, of course, his recording came first; the Morris recording actually postdates the first field collection (Brown).
Whoever wrote it sure came out with it fast, since the song was first recorded three months after the murder, on March 25, 1930 (Thanks to Paul Stamler for the date).
Frances H. Casstevens, Death in North Carolina's Piedmont: Tales of Murder, Suicide, and Causes Unknown, History Press, 2006, devotes half a dozen pages to the murders. It appears there was little evidence in advance that trouble was coming. Charlie Lawson was an independent farmer who was buying his 128 acre tobacco farm on a mortgage and was regarded as honest and as a good provider. He had future plans to improve his property (Casstevens, pp. 79-80).
It is noteworthy that Lawson had suffered a traumatic brain injury not too long before the murder. His mattock had hit something, rebounded, and hit him in the head, requiring the attention of a doctor (Casstevens, p. 80). Although the doctor pronounced the injury not severe, his personality is said to have changed as a result. This is not, in the light of modern knowledge, a surprise; such a blow, if it damages certain parts of the brain, can severely affect the ability to regulate emotions.
Sadly, the effect of the injury was to make the formerly-patient Lawson a very combative man, quarreling with his family and, in 1928, getting into a fight with another man which put Lawson in the hospital for two weeks with knife wounds. He seems also to have been more impulsive about purchases. An autopsy after his death did not reveal obvious brain damage (Casstevens, p. 82), but what are the odds that some backwoods North Carolina doctor or coroner would know anything about brain pathology? If it happened today, we would probably find damage of a diagnosable kind.
What exactly happened on that day cannot be known. Elijah Lawson, Charles's brother, and Elijah's teenage son Claude chanced to visit the Lawson home, to find a grisly sight indeed. Mrs. Fanny Lawson and her infant girl Mary Lou, seven-year-old James, five-year-old Raymond, and sixteen-year-old Marie were killed in the house , and the oldest girl, were killed in the house. Thirteen-year-old Carrie and ten-year-old Maybelle were found in a barn with their hands crossed; it is hypothesized that they ran away and were shot, and their father brought them back and posed their bodies. Lawson also posed the five-month-old baby in her crib. The oldest son, Arthur, was away at the time of the shootings and survived (Casstevens, p. 81).
Lawson seems to have hidden, and waited until the police arrived, before shooting himself.
Five thousand people are said to have attended the burial (Casstevens, p. 82).
There is a full-length (although non-scholarly) book on the topic, White Christmas, Bloody Christmas, but M. Bruce Jones and Trudy J. Smith. I have not seen it; it is out of print, and used copies run hundreds of dollars. Apparently it offers the hypothesis that Lawson had gotten his daughter pregnant and committed the murder to cover it up (Casstevens, pp. 84-85). This doesn't explain why he killed the whole family, though. And why didn't the coroner figure it out?
For that matter, if Lawson's traumatic brain injury had influenced his ability to control his rage, it could also have inhibited his ability to control incestuous urges. So while the pregnancy hypothesis may be true, it doesn't preclude the TBI hypothesis being true as well.
This song has become quite popular with bluegrass performers in recent years, starting with the Stanley Brothers.
Casstevens, pp. 115-116, has another Lawson Family poem, "The Lawson Family in Rhyme," by Edith Willard. It does not seem to have become traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: LF35

Lawyer and Nell, The

DESCRIPTION: A lawyer seduces his housekeeper. She has him wish the Devil would take him if he does not marry her. He deserts her for a lady. She conspires with a chimney-sweep to play the Devil and threaten to take him. They marry. She reveals the plot. He is happy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1826 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1089)); 18C (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(180b)
KEYWORDS: marriage seduction bargaining promise disguise trick humorous lawyer servant Devil
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 308, "The Lawyer and Nell" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 75, "Poor Nell" (1 text)
Roud #555
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(180b), "The Politick Maid of Suffolk" or "The Young Lawyer Out-witted ("Come young men and maidens"), unknown, 18C; also Harding B 1(97), "The Politick Maid of Suffolk" or "The Lawyer Outwitted"; Harding B 25(1089), "The Lawyer and Nell" ("You lads and you lasses draw near")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kate and Her Horns [Laws N22]" (plot)
cf. "The Jealous Husband Outwitted" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Well Done Nell
There Was a Noble Lawyer
NOTES [18 words]: Greig/Duncan2 entries are incomplete; broadside Bodleian Harding B 1(97) is the basis for the description. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD2308

Lawyer Outwitted, The [Laws N26]

DESCRIPTION: A squire's son loves a lawyer's daughter. He disguises himself to ask the lawyer's advice on how to get married against a father's wishes. The lawyer gives detailed advice, which the children follow. Presented with a fait accompli, he blesses the union
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1764 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 3(14a))
KEYWORDS: lawyer courting disguise marriage trick
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,NE,Ro) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws N26, "The Lawyer Outwitted"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #90, p. 2, "The Lawyer's Bonnie Peggy" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan5 1016, "The Lawyer's Bonnie Peggy" (8 texts, 5 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 37, "The Councillor's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 24, "Rich Counsellor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 18, "The Lawyer Outwitted" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 295-297, "The Crafty Lover" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 121-123, "The Lawyer Outwitted" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 68, "The Councillor's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #50, "The Lawyer Outwitted" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2078, "Of a rich Counsellor I write"
DT 455, LAWYROUT
Roud #188
RECORDINGS:
John Myrick, "The Councillor" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(14a), "The Crafty Lover" or "The Lawyer Outwitted," W. and C. Dicey (London), 1736-1763; also Harding B 4(52), "The Crafty Lover" or "The Lawyer-Out-Witted"
SAME TUNE:
I'll Love Thee More and More (per broadsides Bodleian Douce Ballads 3(14a), Bodleian Harding B 4(52))
File: LN26

Lawyer, The

See (references to tune under) Mowing the Barley (Cold and Raw) (File: ShH60)

Lawyer's Bonnie Peggy, The

See The Lawyer Outwitted [Laws N26] (File: LN26)

Lawyer's Wife

See (references to tune under) Mowing the Barley (Cold and Raw) (File: ShH60)

Lay Dis Body Down

See I Know Moonlight (File: San451)

Lay Down Body (I)

See I Know Moonlight (File: San451)

Lay Down, Body (II)

DESCRIPTION: Response: "lay down, body" Leader: "I know you're tired," "you been toiling ... I know you're tired." "Soul need resting," "my God call you," "He will wake you," "tombstone moving," "grave is bursting," "soul is rising."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (McIntosh1)
KEYWORDS: death resurrection nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, pp. 30-31, "Lay Down Body" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, pp. 155-157, "Lay Down, Body" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Bertha Smith & Moving Star Hall Singers, "Lay Down Body" (on BeenStorm1)
Lawrence McKiver and the McIntosh County Shouters, "Lay Down, Body" (on McIntosh1)
NOTES [17 words]: The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree/McIntoshShouters-RingShoutSongs text and track is a "ring shout" song. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcLaDB2

Lay Me Down

See Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go) (File: Doe062)

Lay of Oliver Gogarty, The

DESCRIPTION: Senator and doctor Oliver St John Gogarty is asked at home by a lady in a Rolls-Royce to make a house call for a sick man. In the car he is abducted by rebel "masked ruffians" but escapes to the safety of the Civic Guard
AUTHOR: William Dawson (source: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: abduction escape patriotic doctor police IRA
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 12, 1923 - "[Free State] Senator Oliver St. John Gogarty [1878-1957] ... escaped from his IRA captors by swimming the Liffey." (source: _Chapters of Dublin History_ on the eircom site)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 16, "The Lay of Oliver Gogarty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Behan-IrelandSings, #7, "The Ballad of Oliver St. John Gogarty" (1 text, 1 tune, modified from the original)
File: OLcM016

Lay of the Ancient Valley

DESCRIPTION: "My tale is of a battle, God give it worthy rime, That fell out in this valley...." "John" Rogers brings his small force to Lake Champlain and ambushes the Indians. He kills ten chiefs and many others; the dead still lie there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (according to Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: death battle homicide Indians(Am.)
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1759 - the Saint Francis Massacre (see NOTES)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 318-320, "Lay of the Ancient Valley" (1 text)
Roud #6612
NOTES [139 words]: As best I can tell from the Dictionary of American Biography entry on Robert Rogers, this refers to Robert Rogers's 1759 raid on the Saint Francis Indians, in which he destroyed the Native American village. This was in the context of the French and Indian War -- Rogers was part of Jeffery Amherst's Crown Point force -- but it doesn't change the fact that he committed mass murder. As his DAB entry notes, Rogers was incapable of dealing with civilization -- or of being civilized.
There is a good deal of doubt about Rogers -- perhaps not surprising for a semi-independent officer. DAB gives his dates as 1731-1795, but J. Franklin Jameson's Dictionary of United States History 1492-1895, Puritan Press, 1894, p. 563, says 1727-1800. They agree that he was forced out of the Americas during the revolution, and died in England. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: TNY318

Lay of the Disappointed, The

DESCRIPTION: "Road and bridges and schools and churches Were among the original terms of purchase... But bridges and schools and churches and roads Are sought for in vain near the settlers' abodes...." The settlers of Dunedin are disappointed with their treatment
AUTHOR: Walter Mantell (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (MS. in the Hocken Library, Dunedin, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: home hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 24, "The Lay of the Disappointed" (1 short text)
File: BaRo024

Lay of the Trade, A

DESCRIPTION: "Staples and Co. were brewers, And they plied a roaring trade," forcing those who rented their rooms to sell their beer. They make a large gift to churches, but the town still votes for prohibition. They win in court, but it will be a minor victory
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Wellington Petrel, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: drink trial New Zealand
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1903 - The Staples and Co. case
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 98-100, "A Lay of the Trade" (1 text)
NOTES [117 words]: The way Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ describe this song, it seems to be self-referential. It was printed in the "Petrel" of Wellington, and Staples and Co. sued for libel, demanding a thousand pounds in damages (a penalty which, in 1903, I suspect would have been enough to shut down the paper). When the case was heard, the jury found the paper guilty -- but imposed damages of just one farthing.
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ's version is not the original from the "Petrel," but a version printed later by the Wellington "Prohibitionist." It was published two weeks after the trial. Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ do not say so, but I am guessing it was updated to include the trial result. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: BaRo098

Lay of the Vigilantes

See The Execution of Robert Schramle (File: Burt169)

Lay Out, Tack Sheets and Haul

See Paddy, Get Back (File: Doe054)

Lay That Luger Down

DESCRIPTION: "Sluggin' Jerry left and right, Havin' lots of fun, Till one night we caught him right, Now he's on the run. Oh, lay that Luger down, kid, lay that Luger down, Luger-luggin' Ludwig, lay...." The singer says why the German should surrender
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: war warning humorous derivative
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 17, "Lay That Luger Down" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #24981
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pistol Packin' Mama" (tune)
NOTES [145 words]: Elizabeth-Anne Wheal and Stephen Pope, The Macmillan Dictionary of The Second World War, second edition, Macmillan, 1997, p. 369, says that "The most famous types [of pistols issued to officers] were the American Browning Colt 0.45 inch, and the German 9mm Luger, although the latter had been superseded as standard issue from 1938 by the 9mm Walther P38." But no doubt some officers kept their old sidearms. In any case, it was a common German model of pistol.
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear thinks the song was written after the capture of the Falais Gap in 1944, and the reference to the Normandy Campaign does indeed assure a 1944 date, but it's worth remembering that there were two invasions of France (in Normandy and in the Mediterranean), and the song fits both; the reference to Normandy doesn't mean that only the invaders of Normandy could sing it. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hopk017B

Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom

See Riddles Wisely Expounded [Child 1] (File: C001)

Lay the Cloth

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Lay the cloth, knife and fork, Bring me up a leg of pork, If it's lean, bring it in, If it's fat, take it back, Tell the old woman I don't want that." Or, "... don't forget the salt, mustard, vinegar, pepper...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food | spices pork knife fork
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #299, "Knife and fork" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #32, "(Lay the Cloth)" (1 text)
Roud #20793
File: AJRR299

Lay This Body Down

See I Know Moonlight (File: San451)

Lay Up Brother Near Brother

See The Dying Californian (I) (File: R183)

Lay Your Love Lightly on a Young Man

DESCRIPTION: "Lay your love lightly on a young man. For he will deceive you, then he will grieve you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: love seduction
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1355, "Lay Your Love Lightly on a Young Man" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7233
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan7 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71355

Laying Information

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis twelve at night, and there upon the camp A foot policemen silent watch is keeping." The singer visits various businesses and drinks or buys, and "lays an information." "Next morning, the delinquents are seen" in court, and have to pay out 50 pounds
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Thatcher)
KEYWORDS: police trick money drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, p. 23, "Laying Information" (1 text, from the "Colonial Minstrel")
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 71-73, "Laying Information" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-GoldrushSongster, pp. 42-43, "Laying Information" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 51-52, "Laying Information" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Standard Bearer" (tune)
NOTES [29 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: AnSo071

Lazarus (I)

DESCRIPTION: "There was a man in ancient times" who dressed and ate well "And spent his day in sinning." Lazarus comes to his door to beg, but is turned away. Lazarus dies and is taken to heaven; the rich man dies, goes to Hell, begs mercy, and is lectured
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection); + 1889 (JAFL2)
KEYWORDS: religious poverty punishment Hell
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Bronson 56, "Dives and Lazarus" (13 versions, of which #10, #11, and #12 are this piece and #9, a tune with no text, might be)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 54, "Dives and Lazarus I" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 54, "Dives and Lazarus" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 14, "Dives and Lazarus" (1 text, listed as "Dives and Lazarus" but clearly this piece; 1 tune, entitled "Lazarus and Dives, or The Rich Man Dives") {Bronson's #11}
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 84, "Lazarus" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 53-54, "Lazarus and the Rich Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6566
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dives and Lazarus" [Child 56] (subject) and references there
NOTES [115 words]: Jesus's story of the rich man and Lazarus is found in Luke 16:19-31 (the Lazarus of John 11, 12 is unrelated).
It's worth remembering that this is not something that actually happened in the Bible; rather, it is a story Jesus told as a warning. Thus this is a warning about a warning. (At least one version, the Tennessee text of J. C. Jarnigan, makes this explicit.)
Bronson lists this song with "Dives and Lazarus," but in an appendix, and it appears to be a separate song; in this judgment Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety concurs. It has at least two key features: The introductory line about the man in ancient times, and the lack of mention of Dives/Diverus. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: C056A

Lazarus (II)

See The Little Family [Laws H7] (File: LH07)

Lazarus and Dives, or The Rich Man Dives

See Lazarus (I) (File: C056A)

Lazarus and the Rich Man

DESCRIPTION: The singer urges all people to listen as he relates how Lazarus suffered and the rich man ignored him. Indeed, the rich man enjoyed Lazarus's sufferings. Now the rich man is in torment; the listeners are urged to turn to God
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible death warning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 661, "Lazarus and the Rich Man" (1 text)
Roud #7582
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dives and Lazarus" [Child 56] (subject) and references there
cf. "The Rich Man and the Poor Man" (theme)
NOTES [48 words]: Jesus's story of the rich man and Lazarus is found in Luke 16:19-31 (the Lazarus of John 11, 12 is unrelated).
It's worth remembering that this is not something that actually happened in the Bible; rather, it is a story Jesus told as a warning. Thus this is a warning about a warning. - RBW
File: R661

Lazy (Young) Man, The

See The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn [Laws H13] (File: LH13)

Lazy Club, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains about his lethargic family: "My wife is such a lazy Turk, she will not do a bit of work." "My eldest daughter's just as bad; I really think she's lazy-mad." And so on, through son, servant, even dog -- leaving him to pay their debts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1848 (Elton's Song Book)
KEYWORDS: work money
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 107, "The Lazy Club" (1 short traditional text plus part of a broadside version, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1232, p. 85, "Lazy Club" (1 reference)
ST FSC107 (Partial)
Roud #V4798
SAME TUNE:
National Guards Song ("We are the gallant little band") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 105)
NOTES [47 words]: Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 85, has a broadside that lists this song as being sung to the tune of "Green Grow the Rushes, oh!" Of course, there are several songs by that name. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FSC107

Lazy dukes, that sit on their neuks

See Blawin' Willie Buck's Horn (File: GrD81640)

Lazy Farmer Boy, A

See The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn [Laws H13] (File: LH13)

Lazy Harry's (Five Miles from Gundagai)

DESCRIPTION: The workers set out for Sydney, but upon reaching Lazy Harry's, stop for a drink. And "the girl who served the poison, she winked at Bill and I, So we camped at Lazy Harry's on the road to Gundagai." The men revel until their money is used up.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: drink money rambling
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 253-255, "On the Road to Gundagai" (1 text)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 118-119, "Lazy Harry's" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 58-59, "On the Road to Gundagai" (1 text)
DT, GUNDAGI2*
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 60-61, "On the Road to Gundagie" (1 text)
A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 304, "On the Road to Gundagai" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), p. 306, "On the Road to Gundagai" (1 text)
Roud #10726
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Lazy Harry's (Five Miles from Gundagai)" (on JGreenway01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jacksons" (plot, lyrics, portions of tune)
cf. "Jog Along Till Shearing" (theme)
NOTES [335 words]: Gundagai was a town of no particular account in itself. Its position at the midpoint of the Sydney-Melbourne road has, however, made it the setting for many folk songs.
This particular song is sufficiently well-known that Davey/Seal included "Lazy Harry" as an entry in their encyclopedia (p. 175), but they do not mention a real "Lazy Harry's"; apparently there is no record of such a place.
According to O'Keeffe, p. 161, "the Yanco" was a mansion in the Riverina owned by a famous pastoralist named Samuel McCaughey, said to have owned more property in New South Wales than anyone in history.
There is some clever use of verbs in the song. In the first verse, the shearers have a cheques that "wanted breaking down." But at the end, their check is not "broken down" but "knocked down." Morris, p. 250, says "Knock-down. v. generally of a cheque. To spend riotously, usually in drink." His first cited usage is from 1869, and every cited instance seems to involve wasteful spending, although not all involve liquor.
A "nobbler," which the girls give the shearers when they have used up their money is defined on p. 321: "Nobbler, n. a glass of spirits; lit. that which nobles or gets hold of you. Nobble is the frequentive form of nab. No doubt there is an allusion to the bad spirits frequently sold at bush public-houses, but if a teetotaler had invented the word he could not have invented one involving stronger condemnation." The first citation is from 1852.
It is noteworthy that the shearers hump their blueys at the beginning, but shoulder their matildas at the end. The term "matilda" was originally rare; elsewhere, swagmen carried swags! The term is sufficiently local that the first Australian dictionary, Morris's, does not even mention it (that's in 1898). This, to me, strongly hints that the song was written only shortly before Banjo Paterson published it -- possibly even influenced by the usage in Paterson's own "Waltzing Matilda," which did much to make the term "matilda" popular. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: DTgundag

Lazy John

See Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me (File: R065)

Lazy Man, The

See The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn [Laws H13] (File: LH13)

Lazy Mary (She Won't Get Up)

DESCRIPTION: The mother calls the girl, but she "won't get up, she won't get up, she won't get up today." The mother makes various offers to entice the girl; she refuses each one. Finally a young man is offered, and the girl rises.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: dialog humorous mother family courting
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,SE,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 121-122, "Lazy Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 396, "She Won't Get Up" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 175, "Lazy Mary, Will You Get Up?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 509, "Lzy Mary" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 107, "Lazy Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 110, pp. 225-226, "What Will You Give Me If I Get Up?" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 31-33, "Lazy Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 62, "Lazy Mary" (2 texts)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #32, "Lady Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R396 (Full)
Roud #6561
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle" (theme)
cf. "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (tune) and references there
cf. "Gathering Nuts in May" (tune, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
File: R396

Lazy Mary, Will You Get Up?

See Lazy Mary (She Won't Get Up) (File: R396)

Lazy Old River

See Powder River (I - Lazy River) (File: FCW061)

Lazy Woman

See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Le Bal Chez Boule (Boule's Ball)

See Bal Chez Boule, Le (Boule's Ball) (File: FJ108)

Le Sergent

See Sergent, Le (File: FMB060)

Le Vieux Soulard Et Sa Femme

See My Good Old Man (File: R426)

Lea-Rig, The

DESCRIPTION: "When o'er the hill the eastern star Tells bughtin-time is near, my jo... I'll meet thee on the lea-rig, My ain kind Dearie O." The singer will never be unhappy if he is traveling to see the girl. He loves the "hour o' gloamin grey" when he meets her
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1792 (Kinsley)
KEYWORDS: love travel nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, LEARIG
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #392, pp. 530, "The lea-rig" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1792)
Roud #8516
SAME TUNE:
Hail to the Eight-Hour Day ("Ye miner lad, come gather round, And listen to my roundelay") (Foner, p. 233)
File: RBurnsLR

Lead Her Up and Down (Rosa Becky Diner, Old Betsy Lina)

DESCRIPTION: "Lead her up and down, Rosa Betsy Lina (x3) And I want you to be my darling." "Wheel and turn the old brass lantern..." "Swing corners all, Rosa Betsy Lina..." "All promenade...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Texas Folklore Society)
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 552, "Lead Her Up and Down" (2 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 167, "Rosabeckaliner" (1 text, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 57-58, "Rosabeckaliner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, p. 16, "Rosa-becka-lina or Lead Her Up and Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7679
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rosa Betsy Lina
Rosa-becka-lina
Betsy Larkin (?)
File: R552

Lead Me to the Rock Higher and High

See Lead Me to the Rock Higher Than I (File: Solmttrh)

Lead Me to the Rock Higher Than I

DESCRIPTION: "Won't you lead me to the rock, (Higher and Higher/Higher than I) (x3), Shelter in the time of storm." "My mother is a rock...." "King Jesus is a rock...." "My God is a rock...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 68, "Lead Me To the Rock Higher and High" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 35, #4 (1991), p. 15, "Lead Me To the Rock Higher and High" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [95 words]: Obviously a church hymn, but reportedly widespread enough that it perhaps deserves inclusion in the index. The Sing Out! version was collected by Guy Carawan from Janie Hunter, who gave him at least one other unusual song, "Barney McCabe." - RBW
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight: "Also sung elsewhere in the South "Lead Me to the Rock Higher than I"; same source as Sing Out. Apparently not the same as Jackson, Down East Spirituals, #76, "Lead Me To the Rock (A)" or #153, "Lead Me to the Rock (B)", nor Work, African Negro Songs, p. 75, "Lead Me to the Rock." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Solmttrh

Lead, Kindly Light

DESCRIPTION: "Lead, kindly light, amid th'encircling gloom, Lead me on; The night is dark, and I am ar from home." "I do not ask to see the distant scene; One step enough for me." The singer was not always so humble, but now realizes to whom he must turn
AUTHOR: Words: John Henry Newman (1801-1890) (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1834 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #42, "Lead, Kindly Light" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 261, "Lead, Kindly Light" (1 text, 1 tune, the Dykes melody)
Roud #25816
NOTES [43 words]: There is a good Wikipedia article on this song, listing four different melodies, "Sandon" by Charles Purday, "Lux Benigna" by John Bacchus Dykes; one by John Stainer, and "Lux in Tenebris" by Arthur Sullivan. It says the words were first published 1834. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: HeSo261

Leadsman's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Lord, when I am in the chains, Stop me from knocking out my brains, Send me an oilskin when it rains, And a smart relief. For sad and weary is my lot." When the singer gets to go off-watch and out of the weather, "I'll show them all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes storm
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 29, "The Landsman's Lament" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "To the Man in the Chains" (response to this song)
File: Tawn011

Lean on the Lord's Side

DESCRIPTION: "Wai', poor Daniel, He lean on the Lord's side. Say, Daniel rock the lion's joy (=jaw). Lean on the Lord's side. (Say) the golden chain to ease him down...." "The silver spade to dig his grave."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious animal
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 100, "Lean on the Lord's Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12058
NOTES [84 words]: Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates call this a variant of "Who Is on the Lord's Side," but the tunes are different and there are only a few lines in common; Roud and I both split.
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates give the second line as "Daniel rock the lion's jaw," which they link with the story of Samson (who tore a lion to pieces; Judges 14:5fff). I suspect that should be "Daniel LOCK the lion's jaw." The whole point of Daniel, chapter 6, is that God shut the jaws of the lions. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG100

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

DESCRIPTION: Gospel song, with chorus "Leaning on the everlasting arms." The rest is a combination of confidence in Jesus, comfort at being in fellowship with Jesus, and simple anticipation
AUTHOR: Verse Words: Elisha A. Hoffman (1839-1929) / Music and Chorus: Anthony J. Showalter (1858-1924) (Source: Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887? (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 235-236, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 260-261, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" (1 text)
DT, LEANARMS*
Roud #17383
RECORDINGS:
Irene Spain Family, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" (OKeh 45322, 1929)
NOTES [455 words]: At first glance, and even at second glance, this looks like just another gospel song. I don't know of any reason to think it's any more traditional than any other church hymn. But it has achieved a certain popularity with folk revival singers, so it's here.
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit says that the music and chorus words of this were composed in 1888 by Showalter as a comfort to two friends who had lost their wives; he asked Hoffman to compose the verses. But Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit also says that the song was published in 1887. An interesting trick, that.... Since other sources also say it was published in 1887 (in Showalter, Evilsizer, and Perry, The Glad Evangel for Revival, Camp, and Evangelistic Meetings), I've put that year as the Earliest Date.
EncycAmericanGospelMusic,oo, 339-340, says that Showalter was born in Virginia but went to work for a music publisher, the Ruebush-Kieffer Company, who sent him to Dalton, Georgia, where he lived for the rest of his life. In 1885, he started his own music company there, and also started the Southern Normal Conservatory. He wrote tunes faster than they could be published, meaning that many of his melodies were published after his death. P. 340: "Showalter edited more than a hundred collections and wrote more than a thousand gospel and secular songs, anthems, and hymns, yet all but one of his huge output is forgotten today. That one, 'Leaning on the Everlasting Arms,' was written for a text by Elisha A. Hoffman to express sympathy for two friends who had recently lost their wives. It initially appeared in The Glad Evangel for Revival, Campe, and Evangelistic Meetings (1887), a collection compiled by S. J. Perry."
Reynolds, p. 338, says that Elisha A. Hoffman was born in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania, and went to school in Philadelphia, then attended the Evangelical Association's Union Seminary. Ordained into the Evangelical Association, he eventually became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Benton Harbor, Michigan. He wrote a number of hymn texts (EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 187, says more than 2000 despite a lack of musical training), although few seem to have become well-known. EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 188, credits him with the well-known "Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb" although it is often listed as anonymous. It lists this and "Down at the Cross" as his other well-known hymns.
On p. 426, Reynolds says that Showalter was born in Rockingham County, Virginia in 1858, and studied under George F. Root among others. His first music book was published in 1880. He moved to Georgia in 1884 to work for a music company, and continued in musical pursuits the rest of his life. He died in Chattanooga in 1924. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: DarNS260

Leap for Life, A

See The Main-Truck (A Leap for Life; The Captain's Son) (File: Shoe115)

Leap Frog John

DESCRIPTION: "A poor little man living under the hill, And his name is Leap frog John, Old man is so joyous and easy to please...." "He's out at the elbow, and lame in the knees." But he is happy as he plays the fields as the cows come home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2940 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: clothes music fiddle cattle
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 698, "Leap Frog John" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BrS5698

Learmont Grove

See The Banished Lover (The Parish of Dunboe) (File: HHH023)

Learn To Use Your Hands

DESCRIPTION: A rich father's son never had to work. His father loses all his money and advises his son to "learn to use your hands." A farmer gives him a job; he learns to use his hands farming. He marries the farmer's daughter: "well they used their hands"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1)
KEYWORDS: poverty love marriage farming work
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 9, "Learn To Use Your Hands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24151
File: BrE1009

Leather Bottel, The

DESCRIPTION: The stoppered leather bottle is better than any open container. It is better than a silver flagon, which is likely to be stolen. The leather bottle is preferred by many. When old it can be used to patch shoes or to hold odds and ends.
AUTHOR: John Wade (source: Ebsworth and Bodleian Wood E 25(56))
EARLIEST DATE: c.1662 (Ebsworth); before 1675 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 1(119b))
LONG DESCRIPTION: The leather bottle with the stopper in is better than a can, glass, pot or tankard, which can spill. It is better than a silver flagon, which is likely to be stolen. The leather bottle is preferred by field-workers and hunters. When old it can be used to patch shoes or to hold odds and ends.
KEYWORDS: farming harvest hunting drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #23, pp. 208-210, "The Leathern Bottel" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 423-424, "The Leathern Bottle" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 244-245, "The Leather Bottel" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 240)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 513-515, "The Leather Bottèl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 141-142, "The Leather Bottel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 308-309, "The Leathern Bottel" (1 text
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #76, "The Leather Bottel" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1888 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. VI Part 3 [Part 18], pp. 467-473, "A Song in Praise of the Leather Bottel" (1 text))
John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 181-184, "A Song in Parise of the Leather Bottel" (1 text)
Roud #1307
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(119b)[some words cropped], "A Pleasant New Song in Praise of the Leather [Bottel]" ("God above that made all things"), R. Burton (London), 1641-1674; also Wood E 25(56), "A Pleasant New Song in Praise of the Leather Bottell"; Harding B 2(37), Harding B 2(38), "A Song in Praise of the Leather Bottle"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bottel-Makers Delight" (tune, per Bodleian Douce Ballads 1(119b))
NOTES [429 words]: Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames: "I have heard of it in every quarter of the Upper Thames Valley, though I have met with no one who could recite the piece complete. By carefully noting and comparing the different verses and inquiring as to the number of them, and the vessels introduced, I ultimately arrived at the following, which was the version most in use here."
The Ebsworth and Bodleian texts have eleven verses. The later Dixon and Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames texts introduce no additional verses though Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames adds a chorus.
The verses are not of uniform length. They are comprised of rhyming couplets. Excluding the chorus couplet, "I wish in heaven his soul may dwell, That first invented the leather bottle," the Ebsworth text has verses of three to seven couplets, Dixon's verses are three or four couplets, and Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames are all 3 couplets and a chorus adding a couplet of its own.
Although the verses are not uniform in length, the shared couplets make it easy to identify the shared verses. Here is how the verses are distributed, by subject:
- introduction: -- Ebsworth, Dixon, Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania
- compare cans of wood: -- Ebsworth
- compare glasses: -- Ebsworth, Dixon, Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania
- compare pots or tankards: -- Ebsworth, Dixon, Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania
- compare silver flaggons: -- Ebsworth, Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames
- leather bottle is good: -- Ebsworth, Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames
- used by scythe-men: -- Ebsworth
- use by hay-makers: -- Ebsworth, Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames
- use by corn-stackers: -- Ebsworth
- use by hunters: -- Ebsworth, Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames
- when the bottle is old: -- Ebsworth, Dixon, Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania - BS
I've added Shoemaker's verses to the above list as best I can. It seems pretty clear his version is not really from tradition.
It appears there may have been some disputes over the ownership of this song. Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 184, #2115, is "A pleasant new song in praise of the leather bottel," registered July 1, 1678. No printer is listed, but that filing would appear to conflict with the Burton broadside. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: WT244

Leather Bottle, The

See The Leather Bottel (File: WT244)

Leather Breeches

DESCRIPTION: "I went down town And I wore my leather breeches. I couldn't see the people For looking at the peaches." "I went down town And I got a pound of butter; I come home drunk And I throwed it in the gutter." Or "Leather breeches, finger stitches, Mammy sewed"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink clothes food
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 322, "Leather Breeches" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 322, "Leather Breeches" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 134-135, "Leather Breeches" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15748
NOTES [28 words]: Is the Brown text fiddler's mnemonic for Leather Britches? It's not possible to tell from Brown. Thomas's text, which is different, is clearly a fiddler's mnemonic. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Br3322

Leather Britches

See The Old Leather Breeches (File: MCB232)

Leatherman

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a stockman and my work is droving cattle, WIth my whip and dog I set them at a rattle... Jog along (x3), Leatherman, In the wind and in the rain, Droving cattle for the can." The singer sleeps under trees, then sets out with his dog to herd cattle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: sheep travel worker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 89, "Leatherman" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 51 in the 1972 edition)
File: COlq051

Leathern Bottle, The

See The Leather Bottel (File: WT244)

Leatherwing Bat

See The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat) (File: K295)

Leave for Texas, Leave for Tennessee

See T for Texas (Blue Yodel #1) (File: LoF152A)

Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Leave her, Johnny, leave her... And it's time for us to leave her." Tells of the troubles on the voyage and of what Johnny can hope for as the ship arrives in port. Some versions have a chorus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Robinson)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor separation return
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,SW) Ireland Australia Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 89-90, "Time for Us to Leave Her (Leave Her, Johnny)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 48-49, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 135-136, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 119-121, "Leave Her, Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 99-100, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 293-298, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (5 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 218-221]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 40, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, II-III, pp.3-4, "Leave Her Johnny" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 129, "I thought I heard the old man say" (1 short text)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 86-87, "Time to Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 61-62, "Leave Her Johnny"; pp. 135-136, "Leave 'er, Johnny, Leave 'er" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 46-47, "Leave Her, Jollies, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 412, "Leave Her, Bullies, Leave Her" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "A" text, which is this song, is very short; the "B" text is "Across the Western Ocean")
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 135-137, "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 233, ("Leave Her, Johnny") (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H53b, p. 96, "It's Time for Us to Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment, short enough that it could be this or "Across the Western Ocean")
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 103, "Leave he, Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 78, "Leave Her, Johnny" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 97, "Leave Her, Johnny" (1 text)
DT, LEAVEHER* LEAVHER2*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). A fragment called "Tis Time for Us to Leave Her" is in Part 4, 8/4/1917.
Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, pp. 280-281, "Leave Her Johnny, Leave Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #354
RECORDINGS:
Leander Macumber, "Leave Her Johnny, Leave Her" (on NovaScotia1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Across the Western Ocean" (floating lyrics; tune)
NOTES [55 words]: According to Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, this shanty was saved for the last duty of a voyage: Pumping out a ship after she reached port and was unloaded. Since the sailors wanted to get ashore, this was considered a particularly unpleasant task -- hence this song, about getting away from the work. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Doe089

Leave Her, Jollies, Leave Her

See Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her (File: Doe089)

Leave Me Alone (I)

DESCRIPTION: I hev a roustabout for my man-- Livin' with a white man for a sham, Oh, leave me alone, Leave me alone, I'd like you much better if you'd leave me alone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: home
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 593, [no title] (1 text)
File: DMRF593A

Leave Me Alone (II)

See Going to Chelsea to Buy a Bun (File: GrD71352)

Leave the Rope

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Leave the rope, Stop the rope, please take end." Presumably a rhyme to change who is involved in the jump-rope game.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Goddard, Word Lore 2, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | rope
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #310, "Leave the Rope" (1 text)
File: AJRR310

Leave You in the Hand of a Kind Savior

DESCRIPTION: "((I'm/Brother Charlie's/Sister Mary's/Sunday morning) going to leave you in the hand) (x3) Of a kind Savior"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 324-325, "Lebe Yuh Een Duh Han' Ob uh Kin' Sabeyuh" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR324L

Leavenworth Blues

DESCRIPTION: "I was in Leavenworth, boys, and my baby sent me there (x2), Just because I didn't want away, in most all day." "That's one no-good place." "Someone stole my gal, while I was in jail." "Blues remain all night in the Leavenworth walls."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Bertha "Chippie" Hill)
KEYWORDS: prison separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 504, "Leavenworth Blues" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Bertha "Chippie" Hill, "Leavenworth Blues" (OKeh 8367, 1926)
File: CAFS504B

Leaves Are Green, The

DESCRIPTION: Leaves are green, nuts are brown, "they hang so high they won't come down." In frosty weather "they'll all come down together"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Thoyts)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 50, "The Leaves Are Green" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Emma Elizabeth Thoyts, "Old Berkshire School-Games" in The Antiquary (London, 1893 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XXVII, Game #15, pp. 254-255, "The Leaves are Green" ("The leaves are green, the nuts are brown") (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nuts in May" (tune, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
NOTES [12 words]: Thoyts: "At the last line the children all flop down on the ground." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa050

Leaves of Life, The

See The Seven Virgins (The Leaves of Life) (File: OBB111)

Leaves So Green, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, who "never loved to tread" populated areas, asks that his body, when he dies, be taken "to some green lonely spot, Where none with careless steps shall tread." He recalls the flowers and birds, and can rest most easily among them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: burial flowers bird nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H719, p. 63, "The Leaves So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13332
File: HHH719

Leavin' Here, Don't Know Where I'm Goin'

DESCRIPTION: "Leavin' here, don't know where I'm goin', Lord, leavin' here...." "Went to the depot, looked up on the bo'd." "The water here tastes like turpentine, I'm goin' where the water tastes like cherry wine." "People around here treat me like a dirty dog...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: travel railroading
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 202, "Leavin' Here, Don't Know Where I'm Goin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16275
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Goin' Back to Good Ol' Birmingham" (lyrics)
cf. "Going Down This Road Feeling Bad" ("water tastes like wine" lyric)
File: Rose202

Leaving Erin

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell Erin, I now must leave you for to cross the raging main." The singer is leaving Ireland for America even though his parents have lived in Ireland since Brian Boru. He misses his family's graves, and hopes the Irish will come home for vengeance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: Ireland emigration home revenge
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 23, 1014 - Battle of Clontarf. Brian Boru defeats a combined force of Vikings and rebels from Leinster, but dies in the battle
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 109-110, "Leaving Erin" (1 text)
Roud #9577
NOTES [53 words]: Since this song mentions starvation only briefly, it appears it does not date from the potato famines but rather from one or another of the periods when landlords were squeezing tenants off their properties. It does not mention the Fenians by name, so perhaps it is early. I wouldn't bet too much on that, though. - RBW
File: Dean109

Leaving Home

See Frankie and Albert [Laws I3] (File: LI03)

Leaving of Liverpool

DESCRIPTION: The singer is preparing to sail from Liverpool. He bids farewell to the city and most especially to his sweetheart. He describes the difficult conditions he will face aboard the Davy Crockett under Captain Burgess
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman)
KEYWORDS: sailor parting abuse
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 104-105, "The Leaving of Liverpool" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 35, "Leaving of Liverpool" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 120, "The Leaving of Liverpool" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 97, "The Leaving of Liverpool" (1 text)
DT, LEAVLIV1*
Roud #9435
NOTES [519 words]: Despite the beauty of this song, it seems to have survived only in the single copy published by Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, which gave rise to all the pop/folk recordings. Palmer claims to have heard it sung, but he doesn't actually list where he heard it; I have little doubt all his versions go back to Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, perhaps via Ewan MacColl's recording.
Although the song refers to the ship as the "Davy Crockett," there was never (according to Howe/Matthews, p. 126; compare the index in Knoblock) a clipper by that name; the ship was called the David Crockett. She was launched in late 1853. Designed for the Liverpool-to-New-York trade, she was transferred to the San Francisco route in 1857. According to Lubbock, p. 46, she "could hardly have been improved upon as a Cape Horner, being possessed not only of unusual speed and strength but of good carrying capacity." Similarly Paine, p. 133, reports that she "combined large carrying capacity with good speed and was regarded by some as 'almost perfect.'"
She was also famous for her fast voyages, a tribute partly to her design but mostly to the harshness of her masters.
John A. Burgess took command of the ship in 1860, having previously commanded the Governor Morton and the Monarch of the Seas (Knoblock, p. 87). Burgess, according to Lubbock, p. 28, "was not only a navigator of exceptional reputation, but one of those seamen who delighted in the art of driving a ship under sail. Though a strict disciplinarian, he would allow no bucko methods, and was one of those rare master-men who were never known to swear or use bad language. His mates, Griffiths and Conrad, were men of the same type, who could get work out of an indifferent or vicious crew without using belaying-pins or knuckle-dusters."
Lubbock, pp. 266-267, gives a catalog of the Crockett's trips around the Horn -- a total of 25 from 1857 to 1983. Burgess took command on her fourth voyage (1860), and captained 13 trips before his death; his mate John Anderson finished that trip and commanded the next two.
Burgess was on his way home to San Francisco to retire when he was washed overboard in 1874 (Knoblock, p. 86). According to Lubbock, p. 28, he was attempting to remove wreckage, a task he took upon himself rather than risk a crewman's life.
The Crockett did not become an easier ship after his death. Wilson/AmHist discusses impressment ("crimping," in American terms) on the American West Coast. It notes on p. 80 that one Andreas Stork in 1882 sued second mate Jesse Millais of the Crockett for abuse -- and won! Given that sailors were expected to face harsh treatment, conditions on the Crockett must have been bad indeed.
Based on Lubbock's list of voyages, the Crockett made only one trip in 1882 and a last voyage in 1883. I wonder if the Stork suit didn't hasten her retirement from the route.
According to Lubbock, p. 49, the Crockett was converted to a coal barge in 1890 and wrecked in 1899. Paine, p. 133, notes that her figurehead still exists and is held by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: Doe104

Leaving of Merasheen, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer remembers life on the "little isle of Merasheen down in Placentia Bay" and mourns having to leave it. "Those days are gone forever now and so is Merasheen."
AUTHOR: Ernie Wilson
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: homesickness home parting lament nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 65, "The Leaving of Merasheen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #26627
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blow Below the Belt" (subject of Newfoundland resettlment)
NOTES [199 words]: "The Resettlement Program was carried out in Newfoundland during Joseph Smallwood's government [1950s to 1970s].... Its aim was to relocate ... coastal communities to larger centers where they would find better job opportunities and public facilities such as hospitals and schools.... When the smoke had finally cleared over three hundred communities had been completely closed down and those that remained were tombstones marking the passing of a large and noble part of our history."
See "The Blow Below the Belt" for another resettlement song - BS
Joey Smallwood began his career as a radio broadcaster, and used his position to push Newfoundland into Confederation with Canada; according to Craig Brown, e.d, The Illustrated History of Canada, p. 374, "Mainland prosperity, urged by Joey Smallwood... won out against the proud penury of independence."
But Smallwood, who went from broadcaster to Newfoundland premier and led the province for more than twenty years, by the late Fifties was turning to "increasingly illiberal one-man rule" (Brown, p. 491). The result of his policy was complaints like these.
For more on the resettlement issue, see the notes to "The Blow Below the Belt." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe065

Leaving Old England

DESCRIPTION: The singer is sadly leaving England, and asks for his mother's blessing as he departs. He regrets leaving home, but poverty forces him away. He comments on England's social system that is so hard on the poor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954
KEYWORDS: emigration family political mother
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 55-56, "Leaving Old England" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [25 words]: Meredith amd Anderson suggest that this might be the ancestor of "Botany Bay"; the tunes are similar. There is, however, no firm evidence of this. - RBW
File: MA055

Leaving on a Jet Plane

DESCRIPTION: "All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go," hating to leave and not wanting to say goodbye, but the singer is "Leaving on a jet plane" and is uncertain when he'll return. He hopes a time will come when he doesn't have to say he is leaving.
AUTHOR: John Denver
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: separation love travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 551, "Jet Plane" (notes only)
DT, LEAVEJET
File: ACSF551J

Lebanon Band, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Lebanon band is very green, And this you very well know, sir, For they sat up and sand their songs About their bags of tow, sir." With nonsense chorus, "Ri-oot the toot, ri-oot, the toot, Ri-oot the toot the daddy...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 72, "(The Lebanon band is very green)" (1 short text)
File: GFGW072C

Lebe Yuh Een Duh Han' Ob uh Kin' Sabeyuh

See Leave You in the Hand of a Kind Savior (File: HPR324L)

Lebt friedsam sprach Christus (Live Peacefully, said Christ)

DESCRIPTION: Amish hymn in German.. "Lebt friedsam, sprach Christus der Herr, Zu seinen Ausserkohrnen." "Live peacefully, said Christ, to his chosen people." The hearers are urged to accept doctrine and listen; they are promised rewards if they do
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1742 (Amish Ausbund, #134, according to Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 153-154, "Lebt friedsam sprach Christus (Live Peacefully, said Christ)" (1 short German text plus not-very-literal translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL153

Led I the Dance on a Midsummer's Day (Jack and the Dancing Maid)

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells how Jak, the "haly-watur clerk," came and prayed in her face as she danced in June. He asks for privacy. "Wan Jak had donn," he rings the bell but has her stay. The girl's mother asks where she has been. Now her "wombe wax out"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Fifteenth century (Cambridge, Gonville & Caius College MS. 383)
KEYWORDS: clergy seduction pregnancy MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #453, pp. 307-308, "(Ladd Y the daunce a Myssomur Day)" (1 text)
Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics 73, "(Allas, allas the while!)" (1 text)
Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols #40, "(Alas, aas the wyle)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1849
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3044
ADDITIONAL: Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #96, pp. 164-165, "("Ladd Y the daunce a Myssomur Day)" (1 text)
Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, _Middle English Lyrics_, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974, pp. 85-86, #87 (no title) (1 text)
R. T. Davies, editor, _Medieval English Lyrics: A Critical Anthology_, 1963, #108, pp. 204-206, "A night with a holy-water clerk" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSCaiusCollege383}, Cambridge, Gonville & Caius College MS. 383, page 41
NOTES [266 words]: This is found in only one manuscript, Gonville & Caius College MS. 383 ("badly faded and transcribed in a tiny script, in a fifteenth century exercise and commonplace notebook of a trilingual Oxford student," claims Hirsch, p. 120), but it has been so popular with scholars of Middle English that I decided to include it. Certainly it looks "folky"; Greene and DIMEV class it as a carol (IMEV "an erotic carol"), and Davies calls it ballad-like.
Richard Leighton Greene, editor, The Earliest English Carols, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1935, p. xcv, while admitting he has no proof, thinks this one of two carols in Cambridge, Gonville & Caius College MS. 383 that, "because of their homeliness, their directness of speech, and their theme of the betrayed girl, have a strong case for consideration as authentic folk-song" -- although E. K. Chambers, English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages, Oxford, 1945, 1947, p. 113, responds that "I see nothing in them but the work of some graceless minstrel." (Personally, I am more inclined to agree with Greene; it's a pretty good poem that sounds folk-ish although I can't prove oral transmission.)
If the child was conceived on Midsummer's Day, it would have been born around Annunciation Day, the beginning of the legal New Year in the Middle Ages. I don't know if that has any significance, but I point out the possibility.
The manuscript also contains the well-known "Serving Maid's Holiday," which is the other erotic carol Greene referred to. A third piece from the manuscript that is found in the Index is "Saint Thomas of Canterbury." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: GrEE096

Leddown Daniel Tek Yo' Res'

See Lie Down Daniel Take Your Rest (File: HPR312A)

Lee Bible

See The Fate of Lee Bible (File: CAFS1324)

Lee Bridge Cocking, The

See Cock-Fight, The (File: VWL027)

Lee Mills

DESCRIPTION: "Lee Mills is what they call my name. I was once without a murder stain," but Will Hardin led him astray. He has been condemned to death. He sees the scaffold waiting. He warns others against crimes and bids farewell to his girl and to all listeners
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (John Quincy Wolf collection)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution warning
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
Roud #17089
RECORDINGS:
Bobby McMillon, "Lee Mills" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #14, recorded 08/14/2020)
NOTES [20 words]: An odd gallows-confession: the murderer seems to be admitting that he did it, but he never really says what "it" was. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcLeeMil

Lee-lee-o, Lee-lee

DESCRIPTION: Monday morning when I wake up We have our whale, 'e gon 'a Bequia." Little girl has "big, big botty" and "big big belly." Big big girl has "little botty" and "little bell." Chorus is variation on "Lee-lee-o Lee-lee/Lee-lee-o gon 'a Bequia"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: sex shanty whaler
FOUND IN: West Indies(St Vincent)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 113-114, "Lee-lee-o, Lee-lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [11 words]: Bequia is an island in the Grenadines just south of St Vincent. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS113

Lee's Ferry

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you roving cowboys, bound on these western plains... We'll go back home again... We'll cross over Lee's Ferry, oh, and go back home this year." The cowhands agree that they will go home, but they grow old without ever returning
AUTHOR: Romaine Lowdermilk
EARLIEST DATE: 1967
KEYWORDS: cowboy home travel age
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 37, "Lees' Ferry" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19] (character of John D. Lee)
NOTES [74 words]: Lee's Ferry (named for Mormon pioneer John D. Lee) was at one time the only way to cross the Colorado River in Arizona. The region north and west of the river (the "Arizona Strip"), surrounded on two sides by river, and with desert to the west and hills to the north, was decent cattle country but very isolated. Hence this song.
For more about John D. Lee, very little of it good, see the notes to "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19]. - RBW
File: Ohr047

Lee's Hoochie

DESCRIPTION: A soldier visits "Miss Lee" in Seoul, and contracts a venereal disease. He advises it is better to avoid Lee's hoochie than to have "Old Smoky," his penis, blue.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy disease sex warning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1950-1953 - Korean War
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 407-409, "Lee's Hoochie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10409
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On Top of Old Smokey" (tune)
NOTES [15 words]: This song, for which there seem to be no direct antecedents, dates from the Korean War. - EC
File: EM407

Leeboy's Lassie, The

See Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going) (File: SBoA050)

Leeds Old Church

See Old Ned's a Rare Strong Chap (File: MHFL066)

Leek Hook, The

DESCRIPTION: "A brave young raftsmen dwelt among the Potty County pines" in a poor home, but he is sure he can beat Jeff (Davis) in the (Civil) war. He leaves his Sal and sets out for war. She offers a leek hook as a token. He does so well that he kills six generals
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: lumbering love separation soldier war
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 51-53, "The Leek Hook" (1 text) (pp. 4143 in the 1919 edition)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 351-352, "The Leek-Hook" (1 text)
Roud #7735
NOTES [109 words]: A leek-hook, according to Korson, was an implement attached to boots used to dig up leeks.
The claim that one man could kill six generals is, of course, simply absurd. Most Pennsylvania soldiers served in the Army of the Potomac, fighting against the army of Robert E. Lee. Philip Katcher, The Army of Robert E. Lee, Arms and Armour Press, 1994, pp. 49-52, lists all the general officers who served in the Army of Northern Virginia. He lists 27 of these as killed. Ten more "died," not all of them of wounds. I think Katcher mis-labelled one. Still, one soldier is supposed to have killed almost a sixth of the generals slain during the whole war? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KPL351

Leesome Brand [Child 15]

DESCRIPTION: Leesome Brand impregnates his love. When her time comes she has him take her riding, then go hunt, sparing the white hind. He returns to find her and his son dead. He laments his knife and sheath. His mother gives him St. Paul's blood to revive them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1827 (Motherwell)
KEYWORDS: love pregnancy death hunting resurrection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 15, "Leesome Brand" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan2 335, "Lishen Brand" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 90-96, "Leesome Brand" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 56, "Leesome Brand, or, The Sheath and the Knife" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 52, "Leesome Brand" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 43, "Leesome Brand" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 140-148, "Sheath and Knife" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the "B" text is certainly "Sheath and Knife," but "A" mixes "Sheathe and Knife" and "Leesome Brand" and is filed as the latter by Roud)
Roud #3301
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sheathe and Knife" [Child 16] (lyrics about the "sheathe and knife")
NOTES [105 words]: The symbol of a knife so fine that no smith can replace it occurs in at least two ballads, "Sheathe and Knife" [Child 16] and "Leesome Brand" [Child 15], also in the Percy Folio version of "The Squire of Low Degree," lines 121-126; for this, see William Edward Mead, The Squyr of Lowe Degre: A Middle English Metrical Romance, Ginn & Company, 1904, p. 34.
I do not know if it has any significance, but many Arthurian romances also feature a hunter pursuing a white stag. A white hind with antlers occurs in Marie of France's Breton Lay "Guigemar," which has other interesting parallels to this piece although a different plot. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C015

Left Jim and I Alone

See Orphan's Lament (Two Little Children, Left Jim and I Alone) (File: BrII150)

Left My Wife at Home in the Kitchen

DESCRIPTION: Circular song: "Right from the country where I come from, Hay foot, straw foot, skip by jingo, Left, left, Left my wife at home in the kitchen, The old gray mare and the peanut stand. Did I do right? Right!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: wordplay campsong | circular
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 293, 295, "Left My Wife at Home in the Kitchen" (notes, with a text on p. 295)
File: ACSF295L

Left, Left

DESCRIPTION: "Left, left, I had a good job [or home] and I left. I had a good job At fifty bob, And I left, left, I had a good job and I left."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: work unemployment money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 50, "(Left, left)" (1 text)
Roud #10768
File: PKKB050A

Leg of Mutton Went Over to France, A

DESCRIPTION: "A leg of mutton went over to France ... The ladies did sing and the gentlemen dance." Anyway, a man dies, a doctor looks in his head and finds a spring in which 39 salmon are learning to sing, with a pool for young salmon to go to school.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: France humorous nonsense talltale wordplay
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Peacock, p. 14, "A Leg of Mutton Went Over to France" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 7, "As I Was Going to Banbury" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 357, "As I was walking o'er little Moorfields" (3 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #244, p. 155, "(As I was walkin o'er little Moorfields)"
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 49, "As I Was Going to Banbury" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2423
RECORDINGS:
George Reid, "A Leg of Mutton Went Over to France" (on PeacockCDROM)
NOTES [110 words]: The ending floats: "perhaps you think I ... lie", "If you want any more ...", even if entire verses don't.
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes: "[Moorfields] would be an appropriate setting for a nonsense song, for in 1675 the Old Bethlem Hospital was moved to Moorfields from Bishops Gate Without." - BS
I suspect the "As I Was Going to Banbury" version is a compound of two different items. As, however, it appears to exist only in the version Cecil Sharp collected from Emma Sister, there seems no need to create a separate item for it. The ending is this song; it merely starts with the verse "As I was going to Banbury, Ri fol lat-i-tee O...." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea014

Legacy

DESCRIPTION: "When in death I shall calm recline O bear my heart my mistress dear, Bid her not shed one tear of sorrow To sully a heart so brilliant and light; But balmy drops of the red grape borrow To bathe the relict from morn till night."
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1808 (Missouri Harmony)
KEYWORDS: death drink religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, pp. 24-25, "The Legacy" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 155, "Legacy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 76, "Legacy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 772, "When in Death I Calmly Recline" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #21329
File: San155A

Legend of Pot Sunk Ann, The

DESCRIPTION: Baron Keith and Ann Crawford marry and have a son. King Edward of England, pursuing the Scottish crown, visits them. He falls in love with Ann. Ann dreams of trouble. Her gipsy advisor tells her to flee. In a storm she tries to cross a stream but drowns.
AUTHOR: William Lillie (source: Greig/Duncan2)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: drowning dream storm England Scotland wife royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #56, pp. 1-2, "The Legend of Pot Sunk Ann" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 343, "The Legend of Pot Sunk Ann" (1 texts plus an additional stanza on p. 586)
Roud #5871
NOTES [285 words]: Greig: "Pot Sunken, as it is now most commonly called, is a deep sluggish pool in the bend of the river Ugie almost immediately below Inverugie Castle." The Baron's castle, Ravenscraig, is nearby.
The English king here is Edward I and the time the period following the death of Margaret, in 1290, Edward's support of John Balliol as King of Scotland, and his 1296 attack of Scotland. The ballad has Edward ready to divorce Eleanor in order to marry Ann but Eleanor would have already died in 1290. (Source for dates: Earle, "The Plantagenets (Edward I 1272-1307)" in The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England, ed. Fraser (London, 1975)) - BS
Eleanor of Castile did indeed die in 1290, the same year as Margaret the Maid of Norway (for background on this, see "Sir Patrick Spens" [Child 58]). But Edward I did remarry (to Margaret daughter of Philip III of France) in 1299. By the time John Balliol had been pushed aside (for this, see the notes to "Gude Wallace" [Child 157]), Edward would theoretically have been in position to divorce another wife. And he was still capable of siring children -- he and Margaret had three. And he was certainly in Scotland many times in his later years!
And yet, such evidence as we have makes Edward pretty faithful to his wives. According to Mike Ashley, British Kings and Queens, Barnes & Noble, 2000 (originally published as The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens, 1998), p. 589, there is only one report of an illegitimate child, and that "suspect." B. Wilkinson, The Later Middle Ages in England, 1216-1485, Longmans, 1969 (I use the 1980 paperback edition), p. 83, declares him a "dutiful husband." So I think this must be labelled simply fiction. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2343

Legend of Sir Guy, The

See Guy of Warwick (File: GuyWarwi)

Legend of the Rosie Belle Teeneau

See The Rosie Belle Teeneau (File: WGM158)

Legion of the Rearguard, The

DESCRIPTION: "Up the republic, they raise their battle cry, Pearse and McDermott will pray for you on high, Eager and ready, for the love of you they die." The soldiers for the Republic die proud, bloody deaths to accomplish an unstated goal
AUTHOR: J. O'Sheehan
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (copyright, according to the Clancy/Makem songbook)
KEYWORDS: Ireland political soldier death nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, LGNREAR
NOTES [942 words]: Why is it that the Irish nut cases get all the good songs?
After the 1916 rebellion, the Irish people finally turned truly nationalist. And, after World War I, Michael Collins and others turned up the heat so much that the British, after repression failed (see the notes, e.g., to "The Bold Black and Tan"), gave up and started negotiating.
The result was the Anglo-Irish Treaty (for which see, in particular, "The Irish Free State"). This would have turned Ireland into a British Dominion (a nearly-independent state; Canada was the prototype). But there were two things in the Treaty that were objectionable: The Irish still owed nominal allegiance to the British crown, and Ireland was to be partitioned between Ulster and the Free State, according to a boundary to be determined.
Rationally, it was a fair agreement for Ireland; it was not George V and the current generation of the royal family who had oppressed them, but Elizabeth I (no descendants), Oliver Cromwell (repudiated by the English), William of Orange (not the ancestor of the current dynasty), and David Lloyd George, who wouldn't hold power much longer. And, had the boundary commission worked, Ireland would have gotten rid of those ungovernable Ulstermen that gave England almost as much trouble as they gave Dublin.
But the war with Britain had been fought by the IRA and other, even more secret and terrorist, forces, and they wanted complete independence. When Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins brought home the Treaty, Eamon de Valera (head of state and chief hard liner) rejected it. The Dail, the Irish parliament, however, went against him and -- despite being composed entirely of Sinn Fein members -- voted for it by a narrow margin. The national election which followed showed strong support for it; even the pro-Republican historian Calton Younger's statistics (pp. 313-314) make it appear that only 22% of the voters voted to reject the Treaty.
But 22% is more than enough for an insurgency. The IRA was split into pro- and anti-treaty factions. Speaking very loosely, the anti-treaty forces were concentrated in the south and west, with Cork their chief center (hence, presumably, the song's reference to the martial tramp of the Republicans being heard "from Cork to Donegal"). The anti-treaty forces promptly went to war against the pro-Treaty provisional government.
The insurgents scored one and only one real success: On August 22, 1922, they succeeded in killing Michael Collins, the effective head of the government. (For this, and much additional background, see the notes to "General Michael Collins").
It was the ultimate in pyrrhic victories. Collins had started his career as a terrorist, but he was also a realist and a genius. He might have managed to control the rebellion with relatively slight loss of life and liberty. Without him, the new government, headed by William Cosgrave, Kevin O'Higgins, and Collins's former Chief of Staff Richard Mulcahy, turned Ireland into a temporary police state; the Dail gave them emergency powers, and they set up military tribunals and indeed engaged in arbitrary executions; the rebels were explicitly denied prisoner of war status (Kee,, pp. 168-169). What should have been a noble cause got off to a dreadful start. But it suppressed the rebellion.
This song -- the only thing I've ever encountered by O'Sheehan -- seems to have played its part. In 1923, Eamon de Valera, whose refusal to accept the Treaty had contributed to much to causing the Irish Civil War, finally gave in and urged the anti-treaty forces to lay down their arms. And he addressed them as "Soldiers of the Republic, Legion of the Rearguard" (Kee, p 175; see also p. 170). They were so-called because they had once been (and hoped to be again) the vanguard of Irish independence, but now were fighting a rearguard action to keep the dream alive.
In the long run, of course, de Valera would succeed in "freeing" the 26 counties; Ireland is no longer a British dominion. But it would surely have been a lot easier had he pursued a political solution.
Besides de Valera, the song mentions:
Pearse - Padraig Pearse, the leader of the 1916 uprising, who was executed in that year; see in particular the notes to "The Boys from County Cork."
McDermott - Sean McDermott, another executed in the aftermath of the Easter Rising; he was one of those who joined Pearse in organizing the rebellion. According to Foy/Barton, p. 4, he and Tom Clarke were "the key figures who, in the years before 1916, shaped the policies of the Irish Republican Brotherhood." Still in his early thirties at the time of the rising, he had suffered from polio in his late twenties, and could barely shuffle along with a cane or walking stick. I wonder if he may not have been offered as an example precisely *because* he was a cripple whom the British executed anyway.
"Wolfe Love" - This is what the Clancy Brothers record as the text, but I have to think this is an error of some sort. Certainly the reference is to (Theobald) Wolfe Tone, who helped inspire the 1798 rebellion and tried to win French support in the years before that; for his activities and his condemnation by the British, see e.g. the notes to "The Shan Van Voght."
Emmett - Robert Emmet (the usual spelling), whose 1803 attempt at rebellion was a complete botch but who inspired many songs; see e.g. the notes to "Bold Robert Emmet."
I doubt this song is actually traditional; I think the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem (violent nationalists all) picked it up because of their political beliefs rather than its historic status. But since they recorded it, it perhaps deserves an Index entry. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: DTlgnrea

Lehigh Valley, The

DESCRIPTION: A stranger explains he is hunting the city slicker who stole his girlfriend Nelly "if it takes till Judgment Day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (As "The Tramp's Lament" in Edward Harrigan's play "Squatter Sovereignty")
KEYWORDS: bawdy parody love seduction elopement hobo
FOUND IN: US(MA,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 198-200, "The Lehigh Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 272-274, "The Lehigh Valley" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp. 16-18, "Down in the Lehigh Valley" (1 text, bowdlerized)
DT, LEHIGH*
Roud #9389
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Can I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight?" (plot)
cf. "The Tramp's Story" (plot)
NOTES [74 words]: According to Vance Randolph, this is a parody of Harrigan's "The Tramp's Lament." - EC
For additional thoughts on this point, see "The Tramp's Story" (the name the Index uses for the Harrigan song)
The details of this song apparently vary widely (though some of this may be due to editorial tampering). The final two lines, "I'll hunt the runt that swiped my cunt, If it takes till judgement day," seem however to be absolutely diagnostic. - RBW
File: EM198

Lei Ana Ika

See U. S. E. D. (File: CoCo095)

Leinster Lass, The

See The SS Leinster Lass (File: HHH808)

Lemeney (Lemeday, Lemody, Lemminy)

DESCRIPTION: "As I was a-walking one fine summer's morning," the singer hears the birds. "Arise, my dear... Arise, and get your humble posies." He will pick flowers for his love (Lemeney). He declares her beauty, and regrets that her parents have taken her away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Copper-ASongForEverySeason)
KEYWORDS: love courting flowers separation clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 260-261, "Sweet Lemeney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, pp. 31-32, "Limadie" (1 text plus Cornish translation, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 63, "Limady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #193
NOTES [51 words]: The description is based on the Copper-ASongForEverySeasons text, which seems confused. But the whole song family seems messed up, as witness all the variations on the girl's name, none of which seem at all probable. I wonder if the original wasn't French, le May, or some such. Or a jumble of "Milady"? - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CopSe260

Lemme Go, Melda Marcy

DESCRIPTION: Singer "cried all night and not a policeman was in sight." He hits Melda when she is ready to go to bed. "Lemme go Melda Marcy You bitin' me finger." The more he cries the more she bites. "This teach you not to hit a lady." She has bitten off his finger
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Bellafonte, "Hold 'im Joe"); 1957 (Attaway and Engel
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer "cried all night and not a policeman was in sight." He hits Melda when she is ready to go to bed. She bites his finger. "Lemme go Melda Marcy You bitin' me finger." The more he cries the more she bites. She says, "this teach you not to hit a lady in the home." He rings for the fireman but the fireman is too late. She has bitten off his finger
KEYWORDS: sex violence lover injury
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: William Attaway and Lyle Kenyon Engel, _Calypso Song Book_ (New York: Calypso Music, Inc, 1957), pp. 52-53, "Lemme Go, Melda Marcy" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Harry Belafonte with Hugo Winterhalter and his Orchestra, "Hold 'em Joe" (1954, on RCA Victor 78 rpm 20-5617, 1980 on "Harry Belafonte All Time Greatest Hits Vol. I," RCA BMG LC 0316, 1980)
Lord Lebby and the Jamaican Calypsonians, "Hol 'im Joe" (1955, on Kalypso 45/78 rpm RL102, 2013, "Mento, Not Calypso," Fantastic Voyage CD FVDD163)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hold 'im Joe" (sexual theme; some lines) references there
NOTES [115 words]: Belafonte and Sparrow incorporate the chorus from "Lemme Go, Melda Marcy" into "Hold 'im Joe."
Attaway and Engel have this as "public domain, traditional source" (facing title page); also, "Melda Marcy is a commonly used comic name in Jamaica folk songs" (p. 52).
The double entendre hold throughout. "I hit her with my hand 'cross she head" and she takes his finger. "The louder I shout, the more finger Melda bite with her mouth." At one point she says, "the finger taste like pineapple juice." At the end, "Melda drop me finger on the floor." "I cried out, 'Too late, Melda Marcy, You bite off me finger.'"
Belafonte and Lord Lebby replacing finger with backbone doesn't change things. - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: RcLMGMeM

Lemmi Sticks

See Lumi Sticks (Luni Sticks, Lummi Sticks, Lemmi Sticks) (File: ACSF424L)

Lemon Tree

DESCRIPTION: "When I was just a lad of ten, my father said to me, Come here and take a lesson from the lovely lemon tree." Love is like the lemon tree: "Lemon tree, very pretty.... But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat." The warning is true
AUTHOR: Will Holt
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (recordings, Kingston Trio; Peter, Paul and Mary)
KEYWORDS: love warning campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 238, 543, "Lemon Tree" (notes only)
DT, LEMONTRE
SAME TUNE:
Lemon Tree (MIT Parody) (DT, LEMNTRE2)
File: DTlemont

Lemonade

See Here We Come (Jamestown, Virginia) (File: Newe179)

Lemonade Made in the Shade

DESCRIPTION: "Lemonade, Made in the shade, Stirred with a spade By an old maid."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad oldmaid
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 120-121, "(Lemonade)" (1 text)
File: SaKo120L

Lemonade Pop

See Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who) (File: McIn110C)

Lenora

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I left to make a fortune, in the glowing West, Then I returned at least to marry the one that I loved best, I had made a half a million in a mine of gold...." "Lenora, darling, I think of you only... Lenora, love me as I love you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage gold
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 790, "Lenora" (1 short text)
Roud #7420
File: R790

Lenshie

DESCRIPTION: Fickle Nellie leads both farmer Lenshie and Gordie Ross to think she would marry. After "bemoaning our his muckle fate," Lenshie decides to court Melly Gray who has some money and waste no more time on Nellie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity rejection money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1205, "Lenshie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6799
NOTES [27 words]: Greig/Duncan6 "Lenshie is a farm in Auchterless, and Mr Isaac Troup states that the incidents referred to actually occurred, and were remembered by old people." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61205

Leo Frank and Mary Phagan

See Mary Phagan [Laws F20] (File: LF20)

Leprechaun, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a leprechaun and laughs anticipating a purse of gold. He grabs the leprechaun to claim the purse but is tricked into releasing the leprechaun. The singer laughs to think how he had been fooled.
AUTHOR: Robert Dwyer Joyce (1830-1883) (source: Hoagland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (recording, Margaret Barry and Michael Gorman)
KEYWORDS: trick gold supernatural
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 527, "The Leprahaun"
Roud #5274
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry and Michael Gorman, "The Leprechaun" (on Voice14)
NOTES [41 words]: The trick: singer is told that the [non-existant] lady by his side has the purse in her hand. - BS
Robert Dwyer Joyce is also credited with the Irish political songs "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" and "The Boys of Wexford" in this index. - RBW
File: RcTLepr

Les Darcy

DESCRIPTION: The singer mourns for Les Darcy. He recalls "how he beats, Simply eats them, Every Saturday night." "(The Yanks) called him a skiter, but he proved himself a fighter, (so they killed him, down in Memphis), Tennessee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs)
KEYWORDS: fight Australia death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1895 - Birth of Les Darcy
May 24, 1917 - Death of Les Darcy in Memphis, Tennessee
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 218-219, "Les Darcy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 8, "Les Darcy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 242-243, "The Death of Les Darcy" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Les Darcy" (on JGreenway01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Young Les Darcy" (plot, subject)
NOTES [2079 words]: Les Darcy was an Australian boxer of whom great things were expected. He did not live long, and so his major bouts were few, but the Australians made him one of their great heroes.
Almost everything about his story is disputed. Learmonth, p. 147, in their item on "James Leslie (Les) Darcy" declare that he was born in Stradbroke in New South Wales in 1895. Wannan, p. 38, quotes this quick summary of his career by Del Williams: "He arrived in America on an oil tanker, his goal the world's middleweight championship. Instead, he found frustration, injustice, and finally death. Branded a slacker by the Governor of New York, and unable to box in America, his spirit began to fade, and on 24 May 1917, he awoke from a short sleep at the Gartly-Ramsey Hospital, Memphis, opened his eyes and beckoned to his friend, Mick Hawkis. He gasped for words and found none." Soon after, he died.
Born in Australia of Irish parents, he became his homeland's lightweight, middleweight, and eventually heavyweight champion, winning 46 of 50 bouts according to Learmonth, he stowed aboard the oil tanker in 1916 to compete in the United States.
His role as heavyweight champion is interesting, in that he was only about 5'7" tall (FitzSimons, p. 19). But he reportedly had exceptionally long arms, giving him the reach of a man half a foot taller (FitzSimons, p. 39).
His first big break apparently came in December 1910, when he was about fifteen; he won a bout with a local bruiser named George Balser and earned fifteen shillings for the feat -- several weeks' income at the unskilled labor at which he was employed (FitzSimons, pp. 28-20). Despite family opposition, he apparently decided that boxing was a good way to improve his life, and signed on with a sort-of-coach named Mick Hawkins (FitzSimons, p. 31). Dance lessons improved his footwork, and a part-time job as a blacksmith no doubt hardened his already-strong muscles (FitzSimons, pp. 34-35). In fairly short order, he had beaten all the boxers in the vicinity of his home town of Maitland and was looking beyond (FitzSimons, pp. 36-37).
In 1914 -- ironically, shortly after his first loss -- he finally got his first invitation to fight in Sydney (FitzSimons, p. 45). Since he was starting to face American boxers at this time, he and his crowd also started a tradition of showing the then-new Australian flag at his fights (FitzSimons, p. 54). He lost that first big fight, but the crowd disagreed, so it didn't hurt his popularity (FitzSimons, p. 56). Granted a rematch, he lost again -- this time being disqualified, which finally pushed him to get a better coach (FitzSimons, pp. 62-63). FitzSimons seems to think it helped, but Darcy's record in the next few months didn't sound impressive to me -- yes, he won most of his fights, but against relatively weak opposition.
Then came World War I. Darcy was obviously of fighting age, and volunteered to fight for Australia -- but because he was under 21, his family had to sign his enlistment papers, and they refused (FitzSimons, p. 60). The Darcys were of Irish descent; apart from a mother's worry, one wonders if, perhaps, Margaret Darcy was opposed to a son of hers fighting for England. He did raise some money for medical charities in this period (FitzSimons, p. 84), which probably helped rise his profile.
A few more fights and, FitzSimons alleges "He was widely acclaimed -- if still not officially acknowledged -- as the champion middleweight of the world" (p. 99). This at a time when he had never had a fight outside Australia. Indeed, he apparently turned down his first offer to make a tour of the United States (FitSzimons, p. 105).
Many things in his life changed in 1915. He apparently proposed to his girlfriend Winnie O'Sullivan (and was turned down by her family because she was too young (FitzSimons, p. 108; she was younger than he was, and would outlive him by almost sixty years, dying in 1974; FitzSimons, p. 207). He had also bought his family a new home that needed to be paid off (FitzSimons, p. 111). The financial pressure was high -- and he was running out of opponents willing in Australia. If he wouldn't go to America, he needed something else. Although his size made him properly a middleweight, he fought briefly as a light heavyweight, then went all the way up to heavyweight -- and promptly beat Australia's heavyweight champion (FitzSimons, pp. 111-113). Thus he was Australia's top boxer in any weight class. (He did lose his two front teeth in that match. A dentist was able to rebuild them; FitzSimons, p. 113. The repair, however, turned out to be less than perfect...).
Meanwhile, Australians were dying in the European war. And one of Les's oldest friends was killed at Gallipoli even as Australia considered conscription (FitzSimons, pp. 101-103, 108). Australia didn't need boxers; it needed soldiers. His fame by this time was enough that the Army was after him specifically -- they wanted to recruit him for his propaganda value, and promised him a safe berth and what sounds like a makework job. He still refused (FitzSimons, p. 118) -- and even when they talked him around, his family continued to refuse (FitzSimons, p. 28). That was potential black mark #2 against him: He refused to fight for Australia, and he refused to fight outside Australia. There wasn't much question but that he was the best boxer in his country, but there was no one left there for him to fight!
And then -- Australian Premier Billy Hughes proposed a conscription law in 1916 (FitzSimons, p. 132). Hughes couldn't just order conscription, and indeed he lost two referendum on the subject and was thrown out of his political party (Clark, pp. 132-134; Learmonth, p. 125) -- but he could order all men to register (FitzSimons, p. 139). Suddenly Darcy's options were looking very limited. He tried to get a passport to go to America -- and was denied, for the third time (FitzSimons, p. 138).
Darcy wouldn't take that for an answer -- but he didn't make the logical move of making sure the media knew the situation and putting pressure on the government. Instead, despite opposition from his family, from his priest, from Winnie O'Sullivan, he decided to take an offer from a promoter which involved sneaking out of Australia to go to America (FitzSimons, pp. 140-142). He and this promoter Tim O'Sullivan (not listed as a relative of Winnie) rowed out to a coal carrier, the Hattie Luckenbach, and hid until they were safely in international waters. They weren't exactly stowaways -- the captain had been told, and paid, in advance -- but they certainly acted like they were! (FitzSimons, pp. 143-145).
It certainly wasn't a smart move in the short term; the Australian boxing authorities responded by revoking his titles as Australian champion (FitzSimons, p. 147) -- which, if nothing else, made him a less attractive opponent to American boxers. And it can't have been easy to practice on a coal carrier! Particularly since it took 62 days to get to New York; they arrived December 24, 1916 (FitzSimons, p. 153).
Darcy's explanation for all this was that he was trying to set his family on a sound financial footing (FitzSimons, p. 154). This seems to be true -- he had spent a lot of money on getting them into their new, comfortable setting. Too much money -- he'd in effect gone into debt against his future earnings. So he had to come up with those future earnings. That's not unreasonable if you have a steady job. But people in sports don't have steady jobs! The whole business strikes me as evidence that Darcy, although he is said to have been quite friendly and of a very cheerful disposition, wasn't very bright. Darcy -- who was getting questions even in America about dodging the war -- couldn't so much as find an opponent; he went on a sort of an exhibition tour with a show troupe (FitzSimons, p. 161).
In late January, his friend/coach/mentor Mick Hawkins arrived -- and found Darcy coughing and less peppy than usual (FitzSimons, pp. 162-163) -- and feuding with Tim O'Sullivan over what to do next. Darcy eventually fired O'Sullivan, and managed to book a big fight -- at Madison Square Garden, no less. And then, three days before it was supposed to take place, the governor of New York banned it on the grounds that Darcy had left Australia illegally (FitzSimons, p. 166). Other attempts to arrange high-profile fights were also shut down (FitzSimons, p. 173).
The Australian view, reflected in this song, was that the Americans were afraid to fight him. This strikes me as ridiculous -- there was no real evidence that Darcy was a world-class fighter. But all those cancellations make me see how the Australians came to view things that way. Similarly, there doesn't seem to be evidence of the Americans calling Darcy a "skiter" (boaster), but they did call him a slacker for avoiding the war. This was particularly true in the spring of 1917, when the Americans went to war themselves. Darcy had truly made a mess of his career. So his response was -- to apply for American citizenship (FitzSimons, p. 176). And then to volunteer for the American army, with the proviso that he be allowed to fight a few matches first. This was officially announced on April 20, 1917 (FitzSimons, p 180). He managed to work out a plan for a bout in Memphis. But there would be no fights. Darcy was too sick. An abscessed tooth. Tonsillitis. Both were removed, without effect. Soon he was confined to a hospital bed (FitzSimons, p. 182).
Winnie O'Sullivan was in America with a friend, but she had never been in the same city as Les. Finally a telegram called her to his bedside. She made it to Memphis on May 23 and was able to speak with him briefly before he died at 1:45 p.m. on May 24 (FitzSimons, pp. 184-187). He was not yet 22 years old.
There were four funerals: Memphis, San Francisco, Sydney, and Maitland. Somehow, being dead had canceled out all Australia's resentment about him not joining the army. Now he was a hero again; vast crowds came to see his coffin (FitzSimons, pp. 193-197). His body was laid to rest in East Maitland cemetary, where he came from.
Some Australians fell victim to conspiracy theories. When he died, the Americans gave the cause of death as sepsis and pneumonia, probably deriving from his damaged teeth (FitzSimons, p. 187), which makes sense in light of his earlier coughing, but many Australians claim he was poisoned.
It's interesting that not every Australian agrees with either diagnosis. Learmonth gives the cause of death as blood poisoning (i.e. sepsis), but MacDougall, p. 392, suggests meningitis, and adds that "His body was returned for burial in Australia giving Australians their chance to pay respects to a champion unfairly maligned." Davey/Seal, p. 85, reports, "Darcy died of blood poisoning arising from an injury received in the ring before he left Australia. Darcy was much more than a sporting celebrity, though, and up to and during World War I [he] took on the character of a national hero, celebrated in tradition with an intriguing mixture of pride, grief and affection."
Indeed, "In 1947 the readers of the Australian magazine Sports Novels voted Les Darcy the greatest sportsman of all time" (FitzSimons, p. 3, though he goes on to complain that Darcy was forgotten in the late twentieth century). in 1998, he was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame (FitzSimons, p. 200).
So how good was Darcy? It seems pretty clear that he wasn't the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, but boxers don't necessarily have to be smart. I think the answer has to be that we don't know -- he just didn't fight much high-level opposition. Given how close some of his fights were, I suspect he was not world-championship caliber -- but I don't know.
Two songs about Darcy are found in the tradition; this one, based on "Way Down in Tennessee," begins, "In Maitland cemet'ry (or "Way down in Tennessee") lies poor Les Darcy...." It has been surmised that this one was written by P.F. Collins (under the pseudonym "Percy the Poet"). The piece seems to have truly entered oral tradition, however; Fahey reports collecting it twice, and his text differs significantly from that used by John Greenway. It's sad that it makes claims that it can't substantiate rather than emphasizing Darcy's Australian success.
The other, more literary, Les Darcy song, "Young Les Darcy," has eight lines per stanza and begins "We all get a craving to roam, Far from home, o'er the foam...." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: FaE218

Les Reeder

DESCRIPTION: Les Reeder's mother begs him not to work on Sundays. He tells her he won't any more after this one last time. Needless to say, he's killed on the skidway by a log.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering logger death work mother
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 63, "Les Reeder" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 149-150, "Les Reeder" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 77, "Les Reeder" (1 text)
Roud #4053
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dream of the Miner's Child" (theme)
NOTES [32 words]: [Beck reports,] "Logs were skidded to the skidway, where they were piled to be hauled to the rollways or to the narrow-gauge railroads." - PJS
This song is item dC34 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be063

Lescraigie

DESCRIPTION: Pretty Peggie is advised to prepare the cot, "For the fair-haired laddie will be here." "He winna lie in the kitchen... But he'll lie in your bed, Peggie, And you in his airms twa." With the harvest done, Sandy Fraser is coming to take her away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: love courting harvest
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 41-42, "Lescragie"; #178, p. 2, "Peggie"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 21, ("But gin I had the sair hairst shorn") (3 fragments)
Greig/Duncan7 1490, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Lescraigie" (13 texts, 12 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 285, "Lescraigie" (1 text)
Roud #3940
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Duke o' Gordon's Three Daughters" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bonnie Woods o' Keldie O
File: Ord285

Leslie Allen

DESCRIPTION: Leslie Allen comes to Black Brook from Moncton. He wanders from town one day and a search team of "three hundred men and two bloodhounds" follow his tracks "but the search was unavailing" He is never found.
AUTHOR: Michael Whelan "the poet of the Renous" (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: manhunt
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 29, "Leslie Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi029 (Partial)
Roud #9188
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Barbara Allen" (tune)
NOTES [27 words]: Black Brook is a tributary of the Main Southwest Miramichi River in New Brunswick.
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: A true story of Leslie Allen, a lost hunter. - BS
File: MaWi029

Leslie the Gambler (Parse Nelson)

DESCRIPTION: "Leslie was a gambler, And dead up to the times, 'Twas him that killed Parson Nelson And didn't pay no fine. Oh, my baby, Why don't you come home? Told you once, told you twice, Told you if I told you the third time I'd be bound to take your life."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (collected from Judge Albert Williams by Boswell)
KEYWORDS: gambling clergy homicide warning
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 64, pp. 105-106, "Leslie the Gambler (Parse Nelson)" (1 short text plus an excerpt from another that may or may not be the same song)
Roud #11025
File: BoWo064

Lesson of the Water-Mill, The

See The Water Mill (File: BrdWatMi)

Lesson of the Watermill, The

See The Water Mill (File: BrdWatMi)

Let de Heaven Light Shine on Me

See Let the Heaven Light Shine on Me (File: Dett044)

Let Erin Remember the Days of Old

DESCRIPTION: "Let Erin remember the days of old, Ere her faithless sons betrayed her; When Malachi wore the collar of gold, Which he won from the proud invader." The singer recalls various Irish triumphs and urges that we recall "the long faded glory"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 163, "Let Erin remember the days of old" (1 text)
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, p. 38, "Let Erin remember the days of old" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 149, "Let Erin Remember the Days of Old" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #34239
File: HMHS149A

Let Go the Peak Halyards

DESCRIPTION: "Let go the peak halyards, Let go the peak halyards, My knuckles are caught in the falls. LET GO!" (last line shouted)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Shay)
KEYWORDS: sailor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 125, (no title) (1 fragment)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Let Go the Reef Tackle" (form)
NOTES [140 words]: Shay apparently thinks this a fragment of something. To me, it looks more like a curse -- and quite possibly cleaned up.
As a wild speculation, Don Nichols repeated a story Stan Hugill is is said to have told a story about a sailor who stuttered but was able to sing clearly. DoN recalled the story as follows:
There was a sailor... up the mast who was in obvious distress. He kept trying to tell what was wrong, and the stuttering got in the way. From the deck, the bosun cries "For God's
sake man -- *sing* it!". So, from the mast comes:
Slack off your reefy tackles
reefy tackles, reefy tackles.
Slack off your reefy tackles,
Me Bollocks are Yammed!
No words in common with this piece, of course, but the *feeling* sure sounds familiar. That song occurs in the Index as "Let Go the Reef Tackle," but with a much-cleaned-up feel. - RBW
File: ShaS125B

Let Go the Reef Tackle

DESCRIPTION: The ship sails out the channel as the sailor cries out, "Let go the reef tay-ckle, Let go the reef tay-ckle, Let go the reef tay-ckle, My sheets they are jammed."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips)
KEYWORDS: sailor work
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 165, "Let Go the Reef Tackle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 170-171, "Let Go the Reefy Tackle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 503, "Slack Away Yer Reefy Tayckle" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 371]
Roud #9145
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Let Go the Peak Halyards" (form)
File: Doe165

Let God's Saints Come In

DESCRIPTION: "Come down, angel, and trouble the water (x3), And let God's saints come in." "Canaan land is the land for me, And let God's saints come in." The story of the Exodus, and of Moses's role, is briefly told.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 76, "Let God's Saints Come In" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [88 words]: The reference to an angel coming down and troubling the water is assuredly to John 5:4 as it is found in the King James Bible -- though in fact this verse is almost certainly secondary; of the nine earliest manuscripts of John, only one includes it (and it omits part of verse 3).
God's instructions to Moses are in Exodus 3.
The incident in which God shows Moses the backside of his glory, but not his front, is in Exodus 33:22-23, and the passage has been provoking scholars for centuries with its seeming anthropomorphism. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG076

Let Her Go By

See Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye (File: BMRF591)

Let Him Go Again

See One, Two, Three, Four, Five (File: OO2388)

Let It Be Early, Late or Soon

See Rose in June (File: CoSB256)

Let Me Call You Sweetheart

DESCRIPTION: "Let me call you 'sweetheart'...." The singer professes his lover in the usual sorts of empty phrases
AUTHOR: Words: Beth Slater Whitson 1879-1930) / Music: Leo Friedman
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 327, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 257, 374, 467, 473, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" (notes only)
RECORDINGS:
New Milford Senior Center Members, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #680, recorded 09/19/2023)
Riley Puckett, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" (Columbia 405-D, 1925)
SAME TUNE:
Let Me Call You Sweetheart, I'm In Love With Your Automobile (File: xxLMCYA)
Don't You Call Me Sweetheart (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 113)
Let Me Call You Lizzie (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 113; cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 257)
Buddie Song ("Let me call you Buddie, let me pal with you") (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 100; Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 51)
NOTES [139 words]: Not a folk song by any stretch I can imagine. It's listed here because of all the parodies it inspired.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 293, 353, estimates that this was the second most popular song in America in 1911, peaking at #1 in February 1911 (#1 for the year being Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band"), with a secondary spike in October 1925 when it reached #9.
David A. Jasen, Tin Pan Alley: The Composers, the Songs, the Performers and their Times: The Golden Age of American Popular Music from 1886 to 1956, Primus, 1988, p. 66, notes that Chris Smith and Arthur J. Lamb had written a song, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart Once Again," but all it has in common with this song seems to have been the title. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: xxLMCYS

Let Me Call You Sweetheart, I'm In Love With Your Automobile

DESCRIPTION: "Let me call you sweetheart, I'm in love with your machine, Let me hear you whisper That you'll pay for the gasoline. Keep your headlights burning And you hands on the wheel, Let me call you sweetheart, I'm in love with your automobile."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: love technology money nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 115, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 146, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart (I'm In Love With Your Automobile)" (1 text, tune referenced)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Linda Weaver, "Camp Songs: Reflections of Youth," Vol. XXII, No. 2 (May 1974), p. 78, "(Let Me Call You Sweetheart)" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #22408
File: xxLMCYA

Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's

See Western Boat (Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's) (File: Doyl3039)

Let Me Fly

DESCRIPTION: "Way down yonder in the middle of the field, Angel workin' at the chariot wheel... Now let me fly (x2), Let me fly to Mount Zion, Lord, Lord." The singer hopes to meet mother in Heaven, and advises avoiding hypocrites
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 300, "Now Let Me Fly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 364, "Let Me Fly" (1 text)
DT, LETMEFLY*
File: FSWB364

Let Me Fly (Not So Particular)

DESCRIPTION: "I have a mother in the promis'd land, I'm not so particular 'bout shakin' her hand, But I heard an angel singing, Oh, let her fly, let her fly. Lord, Lord, let her fly, Let her fly to Mount Zion and sit down." "I have a father in the promis'd land...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad father mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 250-251, "Not So Particular 'Bout Shakin' de Hand" (1 text)
Roud #18174
File: KiWa250N

Let Me Go Home, Whiskey

DESCRIPTION: "Let me go home, whiskey, Let me go out that door... Well, I'm feelin' so fine, But I just can't take it no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 20, "Let Me Go Home, Whiskey" (1 text (probably incomplete), 1 tune)
File: CNFM020

Let Me In This Ae Nicht

DESCRIPTION: The (Laird o' Windy Wa's) comes to the girl's window (in bad weather) and begs her, "Let me in this ae nicht." The girl protests. He convinces her to let him in discreetly. She does, and he takes her maidenhead (waking her mother)) and steals away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: sex nightvisit bawdy mother father trick grief courting request rejection storm father lover mother soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 778, "The Laird o' Windywa's" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #46, pp. 197-198, "The Laird o' Windy Wa's" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 90, "Glaw, Keser, Ergh Ow-cul Yma [It Rains, It Hails and Snows and Blows]" (1 text + Cornish translation, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 22, "Cold Blow and a Rainy Night" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 245, "Let Me In This Ae Night" (1 text)
DT, AENICHT COLDRAIN*
ADDITIONAL: David Herd,"Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc." (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol. II, pp. 167-169, "Let Me In This Ae Nicht"
Roud #135
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Aye She Likit The Ae Nicht" (chorus, theme)
cf. "Love Let Me In (Forty Long Miles; It Rains, It Hails)" (plot)
cf. "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Laird o Windy Wa's
The Laird o Udny
Cold Haily Windy Night
Cold Blow and a Rainy Night
NOTES [304 words]: This is a complicated story. Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland seems to split this song from "Cold Blow and a Rainy Night" but I unhesitatingly lump them. [As do I - RBW.] The plot combines elements of the first three night-visiting songs cross-referenced, but has a distinctly different ending, more reminiscent of "The Barley Straw."
Kennedy's Cornish words are a revivalist translation from the English. Digital Tradition mentions a 19th-century broadside in Baring Gould's collection, but offers no details, and it's not in Kennedy. - PJS
Archie Fisher and Kennedy both say this is part of a longer song found in Herd. But is it a part, or a relative (compare "Aye She Likit The Ae Nicht")? I flatly don't trust Kennedy's list of versions.
Paul Stamler wanted to file this as "Cold Haily Windy Night," on the basis that it's the one best known to folkies, citing recordings by Steeleye Span and Martin Carthy. But I had already assigned the title I learned.... - RBW
The "laird o' windy-wa's," not capitalized in Herd, seems to me to be a comment rather than a title; after all, in Herd, the singer says "The morn it is the term-day, I maun awa', I canna stay," hardly the statement of a Laird. The "term-day" is the termination day of the farm help hired for six months. (See also, "South Ythsie," "Straloch" and "O Bonny Sandy.")
Kennedy's text, at least, shares little with the Herd or Greig/Duncan4 texts. On the other hand it is very close to Greig/Duncan5 983, "Forty Long Miles" and Kidson's Traditional Tunes pp. 58-59, "Forty Miles." - BS
Porter and Gower note that "Several versions of this old bawdy song, more often than not sung by women and all to the same air, have been current among [Scottish] Northeast travellers" (Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice, p. 198. - DGE
Last updated in version 5.3
File: DTaenich

Let Me Lose

See If I Lose, I Don't Care (File: CSW187)

Let Me Ride

DESCRIPTION: "Well, I'm a soldier, let me ride (x3); Low down your chariot and let me ride!" "I've been converted, let me ride..." "I've got my ticket..." "I'm bound for Heaven..." "In the Kingdom..." "Troubles over...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 170, "Let Me Ride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 31, "Let Me Ride" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 36, "Low Down Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 72, "(Low Down the Chariot and Let Me Ride)" (1 text); p. 250, "Let Me Ride" (1 tune, partial text)
ST Wa170 (Partial)
Roud #7500
RECORDINGS:
Dock Reed & Vera Hall Ward, "Low Down the Chariot and Let Me Ride" (on NFMAla5) (on ReedWard01)
NOTES [11 words]: This became a staple of gospel quartet recordings in the 1940s. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Wa170

Let Me Walk With You Jesus

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Please let me walk with you Jesus, Please never leave me alone, For without you I could never ... make heaven my home." The singer has been on the mountain, in the valley, and in trouble and Jesus never failed her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
KEYWORDS: help nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
RECORDINGS:
Valerie Walker, Mezma Gibson, Cedric Gibson, Stephen Gibson, Bryan Jackson, Gary Walker, "Up On the Mountain With Jesus" (on JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
File: RcLMWWYJ

Let Mr. Maguire Sit Down

See Let Mr. McGuire Sit Down (File: RcLMMSD)

Let Mr. McGuire Sit Down

DESCRIPTION: When Mick McGuire calls to court Kitty Donahue, her mother makes sure that he, a farm owner, had the seat by the fire. (Once married, Mick spends her father's legacy, or he proves poorer than expected.) Now her mother won't have him sit by the fire
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud); c.1845 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.1270(020))
KEYWORDS: courting dowry marriage humorous mother money poverty
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 86, "Kate O'Donahue" (1 text)
Roud #4249
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "Let Mr. Maguire Sit Down" (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Mick McGuire" (on IRClancyMakem01)
Dinny (Jimmy) Doyle and Larry Griffin, "Let Mr McGuire Sit Down" (on USBallinsloeFair)
John Power, "Pat McGuire" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.16(135), "Barney, Get Up from the Fire", unknown, n.d.
NLScotland, L.C.1270(020), "Barney Get Up from the Fire!", unknown, c.1845
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mick Maguire
Kitty Donahue
NOTES [96 words]: The 1928 date for USBallinsloeFair is according to site irishtune.info, Irish Traditional Music Tune Index: Alan Ng's Tunography, ref. Ng #1122.
Broadsides NLScotland L.C.1270(020) and Bodleian 2806 c.16(135) are clearly the same song with the same chorus as the recordings but [have] a different twist. Barney is Kate's brother and tries to blackmail Paddy M'Guire ("I saw you courting Peggy Brown, I'll tell my sister Kate, But if you give me a sixpence, maybe I'll hold my prate.") but mother saves the day; they marry happily and without recriminations on anyone's part. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcLMMSD

Let Old Nellie Stay

DESCRIPTION: The bartender is closing up, and demands that the "old lady in red" depart. As she starts crying, someone explains, "Her mother never told her The things a young girl should know... So do not treat her harshly Because she went too far...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: drink age sin recitation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 44, "Let Old Nellie Stay" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She Is More to Be Pitied than Censured" (theme)
File: Ohr044

Let Recreant Rulers Pause

DESCRIPTION: "Rouse! Orangemen, rouse! in God be your hope, For England is now allied with the Pope." "The Papists are plotting our Church to pull down." "For wearing a ribbon of Orange and Blue, The prisons were filled with the loyal and true" but we remain loyal
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 26, 1869 - Irish Church Disestablishment Act
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 18, "Let Recreant Rulers Pause" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Downfall of Heresy" (subject)
NOTES [105 words]: Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark: "This song is a protest against the proposal [sic] disestablishment and disendowment of the Church of Ireland, which was to take place in 1871." - BS
"Disestablishment" was the process under which Catholic tithes ceased to support the Protestant church and clergy. For the Catholic view of the matter, see "The Downfall of Heresy."
The absurdity of the claim that Britain was allied with the Pope is shown by the fact that, to this day, Catholics are excluded from the British succession. Not only is it illegal for a Catholic to be the crowned monarch, it's illegal for one even to marry a Catholic. - RBW
File: OrLa018

Let That Liar Alone

DESCRIPTION: On the theme of the wickedness a liar can do. "Come to your house, stay all day...." "Tell you such a lie it'll surprise your mind...." Sometimes the liar is Satan. Cho: "If you don't want... to get in trouble...You'd better let that liar alone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recordings, Rev. Edward Clayborn, Rev. Isaiah Shelton)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Words vary, but always on the theme of the wickedness a liar can do. "Come to your house, stay all day" "Tell you such a lie it'll surprise your mind/Mix a little truth just to make it shine" Sometimes the liar is Satan. Chorus: "If you don't want, you don't have to get in trouble...You'd better let that liar alone"
KEYWORDS: lie nonballad religious devil
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 183, "If You Don't Want to Get in Trouble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5120
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "Let That Liar Alone" (Vocalion 5229, 1928)
Carlisles, "Leave That Liar Alone" (Mercury 70109, 1953)
Carter Family, "You Better Let That Liar Alone" (Decca 5518, 1938, rec. 1937)
Rev. Edward Clayborn, "Let That Lie Alone" (Vocalion 1093, 1927)
Fairfield Four, "Better Leave That Liar Alone" (Bullet 253, n.d.; rec. 1946)
Golden Gate Quartet, "Let That Liar Alone" (Bluebird B-7835, 1938)
Rev. Anderson Johnson, "Leave That Liar Alone" (Glory 4016, n.d., rec. 1953)
Mound City Jubilee Quartette, "Let That Liar Alone" (Decca 7058, 1935)
Rev. Isaiah Shelton, "The Liar" (Victor 20583, 1927; on Babylon)
Silver Leaf Quartette of Norfolk, "You Better Let That Liar Alone" (OKeh 8667/Velvetone 7078/Clarion 6052/Diva 5175, 1929; rec. 1928)
Rosetta Tharpe, "Let That Liar Alone" (Decca 48023, n.d.; rec. 1943)
Trumpeteers, "Leave That Lie Alone" (Score 5057, n.d.; rec. 1946)
Rev. T. E. Weems, "You Better Let That Liar Alone" (Columbia 14469-D, 1929; rec. 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Satan's a Liar (Ain't Gonna Worry My Lord No More)" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
You Better Leave Segregation Alone (RECORDING: Nashville Quartet, on SingFreeCD)
NOTES [21 words]: This is a messy song; the verses vary all over the place, sometimes secular, sometimes religious, but the chorus is constant. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: RcLTLA

Let the Back and Sides Go Bare

DESCRIPTION: Beggar sings of the pleasures of his life -- drinking, starving, sleeping in filth, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Sharp); a related piece is from c. 1533 (Gammer Gurton's Needle)
KEYWORDS: drink begging starvation humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland,England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 78, "The Beggar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 142, "The Beggar" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT BCK&SID2*
Roud #1573
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A-Begging I Will Go" (theme)
cf. "Jolly Good Ale and Old (Back and Sides Go Bare)" (chorus)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Beggar's Song
NOTES [66 words]: The chorus, "Let the back and the sides go bare, go bare/let the hands and the feet grow cold/but give to the belly, boys, beer enough/whether it be new or old" appears in Gammer Gurton's Needle (1575), but the verses are quite different. -PJS
The themes are rather similar, though; I suspect the dependence is literary. For details, see "Jolly Good Ale and Old (Back and Sides Go Bare)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: ShH78

Let the Bullgine Run (I)

See Margot Evans (Let the Bullgine Run) (File: LoF029)

Let the Bullgine Run (II)

See Run, Let the Bullgine Run (File: Hugi342)

Let the Cocaine Be

See Take a Whiff on Me (File: RL130)

Let the Deal Go Down

DESCRIPTION: "Let the deal go down, boys, Let the deal go down." (Sound effects indicate cards being dealt.) "If your cards ain't lucky, Y' oughta be in a rollin' game." "I want to win for my sweet mama, She needs a new pair of shoes." Verses about (problem) gambling
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Hurston, Mules and Men)
KEYWORDS: gambling cards
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 296, "Let the Deal Go Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Zora Neale Hurston, _Mules and Men_ (New York,1990 (paperback edition of 1935 original)), pp. 271-272, "Let the Deal Go Down" (with tune)

NOTES [25 words]: Not to be confused with "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down." - RBW
The game referred to in this and similar songs is the "Skin Game" or "Georgia Skin Game." -PJS
File: LoF296

Let the Dove Come In

DESCRIPTION: "(Oh,) Noah, hoist the window (x3), Hoist the window, let the dove come in." Describes how Noah's neighbors scorned him for his work, but he had the last laugh.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: ship Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 45, (no title) (partial text)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 26, pp. 134-136, "Norah, Hist the Windah" (1 text, 1 tune)
tson/Pinckney/Rutledge, pp. 246-247, "Norah Hice duh Winduh" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 309, "(no title)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Noah's Ark" (lyrics)
NOTES [14 words]: In this song from the Georgia Sea Islands, the name "Noah" is pronounced "Norah." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: CNFM045

Let the Eastern Sages Rise (The Star of Bethlehem)

DESCRIPTION: "Let the eastern sages rise At a signal in the skies, Brighter than the brightest gem, 'Tis the star of Bethlehem." "Balaam's mystic words appear, Full of light, divinely clear." "Now the holy wise men meet At the royal infant's feet."
AUTHOR: Words: Jehoiada Brewer / Music: Samuel Stanley
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Ralph Dunstan, _Cornish Song Book_)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 73, "The Star of Bethlehem" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8360
NOTES [153 words]: The "eastern sages" are presumably the Magi of chapter 2 of Matthew.
Balaam's mystic words are less clear, but the high probability is that this is a reference to Numbers 24:17, "A star shall come forth from Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; It shall crush the corners of Moab, and break down all the sons of Sheth." This is frequently taken to be a reference to Jesus, but the oracle refers to Moab and Edom and Amalek and the Kenites and Asshur (Assyria) and Eber. Edom still existed as a people in New Testament times (Herod himself was an Idumean/Edomite), but most of the others were long gone -- not just destroyed as nations but vanished as peoples.
It is generally agreed among modern Bible scholars that Balaam's oracle refers not to Jesus -- who in any case did not go about smiting people! -- but to David, in whose time all these peoples existed, and who successfully fought most of them. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet073

Let the Heaven Light Shine On Me

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Let the heaven light shine on me (x2), For low is the way to the upper bright world, Let the heaven light shine on me." Verse: Brother (sister, preacher, elder, deacon) you must bow so low, For low is the way to the upper bright world, Let...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 44-45, "Let de Heaven Light Shine on Me" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 132-133 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #15282
NOTES [58 words]: It's hardly even an allusion, but this reminds me of Matthew 7:13-14 and its Lucan parallel: "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett044

Let the Lower Lights Be Burning

DESCRIPTION: "Brightly beams our Father's mercy, from his lighthouse evermore." "Let the lower lights be burning, Send a beam across the wave, Some poor fainting, struggling seaman, You may rescue, you may save." In a dark night of sin, many are seeking light
AUTHOR: Philip P. Bliss (1838-1876)
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (first published, according to Dright Boyer, Ships and Men of the Great Lakes); Julian, however, lists the first publication by Bliss as being in _Gospel Songs_ of 1874
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad sailor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 214-216, "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 262, 338, "Let the Lower Lights Keep Burning" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 82, "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LOWERLTS
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, p. 294, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #16709
SAME TUNE:
The Red Flag Is Unfurled ("Let us all be up and doing, Striking hard at every wrong") (by Arthur Cheesewright) (Foner, p. 305)
Embers of the Camp Fire (cf. , p. 338)
NOTES [738 words]: Many P. P. Bliss hymns have some sort of story associated with them (see, for instance, "Hold the Fort," inspired by a message General Sherman sent to a subordinate). Boyer devotes a whole chapter to Bliss and this song, and tells the story on pp. 41-42 (also found in Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors). Apparently, in this case, a ship was trying to make Cleveland harbor. But the crew could not see the lights of the town (the "lower lights") in the storm, and failed to navigate into the harbor, and the boat was lost.
Bliss made an analogy: God manages the "great lighthouse," but people are the "lower lights" which help with parts of the navigation, and hence should present the best light they can.
According to Boyer, p. 41n., no such boat wreck can be identified, but of course it doesn't really matter for purposes of the song.
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors claims that several Great Lakes sailors recalled this song, but cites no names; it appears the version in his book is from print. So I have not listed the Great Lakes in the "Found In" field; I am not convinced this song is genuinely traditional.
Nonetheless Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors did not invent the Great Lakes association, since Boyer also describes it.
Boyer on p. 40 says of Bliss "was best-known for his golden-voiced renditions of hymns he himself had composed. So beautiful and emotional was his delivery that tears would often stream from his eyes, and his audiences frequently reacted likewise.
According to Johnson, p. 146, Bliss (born July 9, 1838) sold his first song to Root and Cady in 1864. He even worked for that time for Root and Cady before becoming choir director of Chicago's First Congregational Church. He went on to work with Dwight L. Moody.
Julian, p. 151, reports, "Mr. Bliss is usually known as 'P. P. Bliss.' This is found on the title-pages of his collections. On his own authority, however, we are enabled to say that his name originally stood thus: 'Philipp Bliss.' Early in life he separated the final p from his Christian name, constituted it a capital P, and thus produced 'P. P. Bliss.'"
Julian, p. 150, says, "Originally a Methodist, [Bliss] became, about 1871, a choirman of the First Congregational Church, Chicago, and the Superintendant of its Sunday Schools. In 1874 he joined D. W. Whittle in evangelical work. To this cause he gave (although a poor man) the royalty of his Gospel Songs, which was worth some thirty thousand dollars."
Reynolds, p. 267, omits mention of his Methodism, and says that he converted at about age 12 and joined the Baptist church of Elk Run, Pennsylvania, adding that he published his first song with Root and Cady in 1864. He had married his wife, Lucy J. Young, in 1859.
It was in 1874 that Bliss published his collection Gospel Songs -- apparently the first substantiated use of the term "Gospel Songs", although a book Gospel Melodies was published in 1821 (Davidson, p. 139; EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 39). He had earlier published The Charm (1871), The Joy (1872), and Sunshine for Sunday School (1873) (Davidson, p. 138).
Bliss died in 1876 in a train wreck. He and his family were making a trip through Ohio on December 29 when the train went off the track near a bridge in a snowstorm (Boyer, pp. 43-46). As the train cars fell, they caught fire. Boyer says that 92 passengers were killed and 64 injured. Bliss and his wife were among them. A legend I saw repeated, e.g., by EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 39, says that he was killed while going back into the inferno to rescue other passengers. (Johnson, p. 145, says he was trying to rescue his wife; so also Reynolds, p. 268).
Daniel Webster Whittle, who also wrote "Neither Do I Condemn Thee," posthumously published the memoirs of Bliss; that book seems to be the major source of information about him.
Among songs in this Index, Bliss is responsible for "Hold the Fort," "Pull for the Shore," "Jesus Loves Me," "God Is Always Near Me," "Dare to Be a Daniel," and "Little Birdie in the Tree" (from The Charm), although it doesn't sound much like his style to me; he also supplied the tune for "It Is Well With My Soul." EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 39,says he wrote words or music or both for 303 songs; pp. 38-39, considers his most significant songs to be this, "Hold the Fort," "Wonderful Words of Life," and "Almost Persuaded." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: WGM214

Let the Lower Lights Keep Burning

See Let the Lower Lights Be Burning (File: WGM214)

Let the Mermaids Flirt With Me

DESCRIPTION: The singer can't stay, but has no steamship fare. He doesn't like work, his wife controls his home, his sweetheart has left him and crossed the sea. When he dies, don't bother with an undertaker; dump him in the sea with the mermaids.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt04)
KEYWORDS: love marriage infidelity separation travel death sea work nonballad wife mermaid/man
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Let the Mermaids Flirt With Me" (on MJHurt04)
NOTES [46 words]: Hurt's tune is close to Jimmie Rodger's "Waiting for a Train." On another track someone, probably Richard Spottswood, says "Play the 'Let the Mermaids Flirt with Me' except use all the original words." Hurt answers, before playing "Waiting for a Train," "But I can't yodel." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: RcLtMFWM

Let the Music Sprightly Play

DESCRIPTION: A series of toasts for a marriage: "Let the music sprightly play, This is Hymen's holiday." Toasts to "roseate" Hymen, "dimpled Innocence," "captivating Modesty, "country, friend and king"
AUTHOR: Leonard Mac Nally (source: Mac Nally)
EARLIEST DATE: 1788 (Mac Nally)
KEYWORDS: marriage drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 305, "Fill the Foaming Horn Up High" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 571)
ADDITIONAL: The Universal Songster or Museum of Mirth (London, 1834 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol III, pp. 308-309, "Let the Music Sprightly Play" ("Let the Music Sprightly Play") (1 text)
Leonard Mac Nally, Robin Hood; or, Sherwood Forest: a Comic Opera as Performed at the Theatre Royal in Covent-Garden (Dublin, 1788 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 62-63, ("Let the Music Sprightly Play") (1 text)
Roud #1341
NOTES [262 words]: This song is the Finale for Mac Nally's play, each verse being sung by two or three of the characters. The verse printed in Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, which begins "Fill the Foaming Horn up High," is marked "catch" by Mac Nally and is sung by Friar, Ruttekin, and John. The Universal Songster text treats the whole of Mac Nally's text as a simple song, retaining the attribution to "M'Nally."
Jones has a translation from Welsh of "Hirlas Owain", "The Drinking Horn of Owen", "composed by the Bard Owain Cyveiliog, Prince of Powys, about the year 1160, and immediately after his great victory over the English at Maelor ...." The translation includes a number of lines very close to Mac Nally's catch, though the 181 line translation of Cyveiliog's song is full of battle references and Mac Nally's comedy finale celebrates "Hymen's holiday."
Cyveiliog translation (line numbers are in parentheses):
...
(13) Fill the Hirlas Horn, my boy,
(14) Nor let the tuneful lips be dry
...
(57) Let the brimming goblet smile,
(58) And Ednyved's cares beguile;
...
Mac Nally's catch:
...
(13) Fill the foaming horn up high
(14) Nor let tuneful lips be dry;
(15) Let the brimming goblet smile,
(16) Blood-red wine our cares beguile.
...
Jones (1794) notes that the poem had been recently reported (and translated)? Did Mac Nally have the translation, or did the translator have Mac Nally's text, or is this a coincidence? See Edward Jones (Bard to the Prince of Wales), Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards (London, 1794 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 118-120. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT205B

Let the Toast Pass (Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen)

DESCRIPTION: "Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen, Now to the widow of fifty, Here's to the flaunting establishment quean, And here's to the housewife that's thrifty. Let the toast pass, Drink to the lass...." The singer toasts all women, whatever their station
AUTHOR: Words: Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816)
EARLIEST DATE: 1777 ("The School for Scandal," according to Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 744, "Let the Toast Pass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24401
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(131), "Here's to the maiden of blushing fifteen," R. and W. Dean and Co. (Manchester), c. 1805; also Harding B 19(30), "Here''s to the maiden of blushing fifteen," unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.15(173), "Here's to the maiden of blushing fifteen," unknown, n.d.
SAME TUNE:
What Did You Join the Army For? (File: BrPa045A)
NOTES [203 words]: Very popular as a poem, and widely reprinted. Traditional? I'm not so sure. But Steve Roud gave it a number, and the tune has been used for at least one traditional song, so I'm putting it here to help you find it.
In "The School for Scandal," it is sung by Sir Toby Bumper with chorus (Charles Surface, Careless, and unnamed gentlemen). It is in Act III, Scene III.
Despite the broadside title "Here's to the maiden of blushing fifteen," every authoritative text of Sheridan' play that I've seen gives the opening line as "Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen." Nonetheless, Sheridan reportedly revised the play several times, and there was no authorized version published, so it is possible that the "blushing" version was used somewhere or other.
The earliest dated account of the song in the field seems to be that of Laura Ingalls Wilder, who reports her father singing it in 1883 or so (These Happy Golden Years, chapter 18, "The Perry School"). Allegedly Charles Ingalls changed the words to "Here's to the maiden of bashful sixteen," since Laura was sixteen at the time. Does this imply traditional currency? As with all things Laura quotes, it's hard to be sure, since she was writing sixty years later. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: CPMLtTPa

Let Them Wear Their Watches Fine

DESCRIPTION: "I live in a town away down south, By the name of Buffalo, And worked in a town with the rest of the trash." The singer works in the factory, but the merchant takes the little he makes. The owners wear fine watches, but they will lose them at the judgment
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (New Masses, according to Horton)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes boss labor-movement money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Kristina Horton, _Martyr of Loray Mill: Ella May and the 1929 Textile Workers' Strike in Gastonia, North Carolina_, McFarland & Company, 2015, pp. 191-192, "A Southern Cotton Mill Rhyme" (1 text)
NOTES [46 words]: This song definitely sounds composed, and there is no direct evidence that it is traditional, but it is recorded as having been used during the Loray Mill Strike (for which see "Chief Aderholt"), and it has been recorded by many "folk" artists, so I am including it here. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: RcLTWTWF

Let There Be Peace on Earth

DESCRIPTION: "Let there be peace on earth And let it begin with me. Let there be peace on earth, The peace that was meant to be." All are brothers. All can live in harmony. Let this be the moment it starts
AUTHOR: Jill Jackson Miller and Sy Miller (souce: mudcat.org thread LYD ADD: Let the be peace on Earth (sic.))
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (source: Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 547, "Let There Be Peace on Earth" (notes obly)
File: ACSF547L

Let Us Be Merry Before We Go

See The Deserter's Lamentation (File: OLcM087A)

Let Us Break Bread Together

DESCRIPTION: "Let us break bread together on our knees (x2), When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun, O Lord have mercy on me." "Let us drink win together on our knees...." "Let us praise God together on our knees."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 383, "Let Us Break Bread Together" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "Let Us Break Bread Together" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 60)
Roud #16667
ALTERNATE TITLES:
When I Fall On My Knees
NOTES [356 words]: I checked three different hymnal references, all of which agreed that this was a Black spiritual, probably dating back to the nineteenth century -- possibly earlier. All suspected that the current third verse, "Let us praise God together on our knees," was probably originally the first verse, and the current first and second verses were added later to convert it to a communion song. Despite their hypotheses, none of the books seem able to trace it back prior to a reference in 1953. Neither does hymnary.org appear to have any versions from before c. 1950, even though (as of December 2021) it lists it as found in 101 hymnals. There does seem to be an earlier version, from Johnson and Johnson's 1926 Second Book of Negro Spirituals, but it's still a pretty thin paper trail.
Theologically there is much that is suspect here. There are instances of kneeling in the New Testament, usually in supplication to Jesus (e.g. a leper kneels before Jesus to ask for healing in Mark 1:40; the mother of James and John kneels before Jesus to ask preference for her sons in Matthew 20:20); also, Romans 14:11 implies that people will kneel before God when they are judged. But it is no Biblical demand that people kneel in worship or any other ritual (although some denominations include it in their ritual). There is no hint whatsoever that kneeling is required for the eucharist, although a lot of denominations seem to design their churches to facilitate kneeling. But all the hymnal companions denied that it is required.
Despite all those peculiar problems, this seems to have become one of the most popular communion hymns. Nonetheless I was surprised to find Averill citing it; it's not one of the easier hymns (usually being played slowly, and with a range of an octave and a third), and I've never thought the tune very memorable. Also, camps generally weren't in a good position to serve communion; while many Scout-type organizations were explicitly, even blatantly, Christian, communion practices are one of the strongest distinctions drawn between sects, so it would be hard to serve communion at a non-denominational camp. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF383L

Let Us Cheer the Weary Traveler

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Let us cheer the weary traveller (3x), Along the heavenly way." Verses: the singer will, with Jesus's help, blow "my gospel trumpet .. wherever I go." "If you meet with crosses and trials ... trust in Jesus And don't forget to pray"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 30, "Let Us Cheer the Weary Traveler" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Let Us Cheer the Weary Traveler" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 58)
Roud #12205
File: Dett030

Let Us Go to the Woods

See Hunt the Wren (File: K078)

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

DESCRIPTION: "Let us now praise famous men, Ancients of the college, For they taught us common sense -- Tried to teach us common sense— Truth and God’s Own Common Sense Which is more than knowledge!" They beat the students with rods; bless their good work
AUTHOR: Rudyard Kipling (in Stalky & Co.)
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (publication of Stalky & Co.)
KEYWORDS: injury | fame teacher
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 58, "Let us now praise famous men" (2 fragments)
Roud #25492
NOTES [23 words]: This is the epigraph to Stalky & Co., with no real title. The book is of course in print, and is also available on Project Gutenberg. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC058B

Let Us Praise Him

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Let us praise Him (x2), "Glory, Hallelujah, Let us praise Him, Oh praise"(x2), Glory Hallelujah." Verses: "I once was lost but now am found (x2)." "I never shall forget that day, When Jesus washed my sins away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 195, "Let Us Praise Him" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 121 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #15270
NOTES [22 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses every alternate line is "Glory, Hallelujah." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett195

Let Us Sing Together

DESCRIPTION: Translated Czech song. "Let us sing together, Let us sing together, One and all a joyous song Let us sing together, One and all a joyous song." "Let us sing again and again... One and all a joyous song."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Songs of Many Nations)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage music nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 340, 443, 447, "Let Us Sing Together" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "Let Us Sing Together" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 1)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 2, "Let Us Sing Together" (1 text, 1 tune)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 10, "Let Us Sing Together" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ACSF340L

Let's All Go Down the Strand!

DESCRIPTION: "One night a half 'a dozen tourists Spent the night together in Trafalgar Square"; they were planning to go to Germany, but are advised against it, so they all go down to the Strand to see what they can find
AUTHOR: Clarence Wainwright Murphy (1875–1913) and Harry Castling (1865–1933) (source: mfiles.org.uk)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (date of composition, according to various Internet sources)
KEYWORDS: travel
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, posts 78, 80, "(Let's all go down the strand)" (2 excerpts which together make up most of the song, from user John5918, posted September 19, 2021)
ST LTCSLAGS (Partial)
Roud #V31313
NOTES [48 words]: Popularized by Stanley Holloway. The phrase "have a banana," now universally heard as part of the song, was apparently an insertion by enthusiastic crowds, and the phrase has taken on a life of its own. So this song may not be traditional, but it has given us a traditional tag line. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LTCSLAGS

Let's Get the Rhythm

DESCRIPTION: Someone is drunk or ill. The doctor is called and recommends rhythm of the head (ding dong), the feet (stamp, stamp), hands (clap, clap), hot dog (pant, pant). Put it all together: ding, dong, stamp, stamp, clap, clap, pant, pant.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Frye)
KEYWORDS: playparty doctor drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond)) US(MA)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 479, ("When Jimmy got drunk on a bottle o' gin") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Ellen Frye, "Children's Rhythm Games from New York City" in Western Folklore, Vol. XXXII, No. 1 (Jan 1973 (available online by JSTOR)), #1 p. 54, ("Let's get the rhythm of the hands (clap clap clap"); #2 p. 55, ("We are going to the Jackie Gleason studio. Mister Knickerbocker, Knickerbocker, boo boo boo") (2 texts)
Kyra D. Gaunt, The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-dutch to Hip-hop (New York, 2006 (copyrighted material limited preview "Digitized by Google")) pp. 94-95, "Down, Down Baby" (1 text)
Onwuchekwa Jemie, editor, Yo' Mama: New Raps, Toasts, Dozens, Jokes, and Children's Rhymes from Urban Black America (Philadelphia, 2003 (copyrighted material limited preview "Digitized by Google")) p. 135, "Let's Get the Rhythm" (1 text)
NOTES [135 words]: The longest text and, in that sense, the most complete, is from Gaunt. That text has five sections that, Gaunt writes, "are exchanged between other game-songs." Nevertheless, the last three of those sections, at least, belong here. In section 3 grandma was sick in bed and when the doctor was called he said: section 4, "let's get the rhythm" of -- as in Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame -- the head, hands, feet and hot dog. In section 5, as in Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame "You put it all together."
Of the Frye texts, the first is a leader, answer-back set from the middle of the "full text." The second, like the Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame text had no "leader" but the group answered itself with pairs of lines like "Let's get together with the hands (clap clap clap) We got the ribbon of the hands (clap clap clap)." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa479B

Let's Go a-Hunting

See Billy Barlow (File: SBoA165)

Let's Go a-Hunting, Says Richard to Robert

See Billy Barlow (File: SBoA165)

Let's Go Back to the Bible

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Let's go back to the Bible." Love brightens the darkest night. There's hope and strength in the bible. Verses: when you're weary and tired and things go wrong, or you're lonely, alone, and strayed from the path, Jesus will guide your way.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Wilf Carter recording; see Notes)
KEYWORDS: loneliness Bible nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18220
RECORDINGS:
Eddy Primroy, "Let's Go Back to the Bible" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Montana Slim (Wilf Carter), "Let's Go Back To The Bible" (on "Have a Nice Day," RCA ANL1-2313 LP (1976))
NOTES [79 words]: The Wilf Carter track is only 2:00 minutes long and is probably a re-release of Wilf Carter (Montana Slim, The Singing Cowboy ), "Let's Go Back to the Bible" (RCA 48-0457-A 45). According to Tony Russell, Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 186, Carter's "Let's Get Back to the Bible" was released by BlueBird (B-4687, B-8875) in 1940. In the 2 minute version Carter sings two verses and Eddy Primroy sings the same. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcLGBttB

Let's Go Down to Rowsha's

See We Won't Go Home Until Morning (File: RJ19226)

Let's Go Down to the Water

DESCRIPTION: "Let's go down to the water (x3), To be baptized." "Oh the prettiest work that ever I done... Was to seek the Lord when I was young, Religion's so sweet." "I've gone to the water... been baptized." "Satan is mad and I am glad." "Let's go down to Jordan"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad river Devil
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 182, "Let's Go Down to the Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Religion So Sweet (II)" (lyrics)
File: Arno182

Let's Go to Bed, Says Sleepy-Head

See We'll Go to Our Bed, Said Sleepyhead (File: GrD81638)

Let's Go to Bed, Says Sleepyhead

See We'll Go to Our Bed, Said Sleepyhead (File: GrD81638)

Let's Go to the Woods

See Hunt the Wren (File: K078)

Let's Have a Party

DESCRIPTION: "We're gonna tear down the bar in this town. Booo! We're gonna build a new bar. Hurray!" The reciter alternates "bad" news ("The barmaids will wear long dresses") with "good" news (the dresses are "made of celliphane"). The men get much alcohol and women
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: recitation party drink sex clothes drugs talltale
FOUND IN: Canada Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 19, "Let's Have a Party" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 68, "(We're going to build a house... boo!") (1 text)
Roud #29413
File: Hopk019B

Let's March Around the Wall (That Suits Me)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, come along boys, let's march around the wall, I don't want to stumble, great God, I don't want to fall." "My leader, my tenor, my barione, God, forever stand." Similarly with sisters, brothers, deacons, etc. Other verses may float
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 116, "Let's March Around the Wall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 117, "Roun' the Wall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16280
File: Rose116

Lett no man cum into this hall

See Make We Merry Both More and Less (File: OBC172)

Letter Edged in Black, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer cheerfully greets the postman, only to be handed a letter edged in black. The letter is from his father, informing him that his mother is dead.
AUTHOR: Hattie Hicks Woodbury (Hattie Nevada)
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: death mother mourning
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Randolph 703, "The Letter Edged in Black" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 475-476, "The Letter Edged in Black" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 703A)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 169-171, "The Letter Edged in Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 35, "The Letter Edged in Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 55, p. 74, "The Letter Edged in Black" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 260-261, "The Letter Edged in Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 192-193, "The Letter Edged in Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 38-39, "The Letter Edged in Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 46, "The Letter Edged in Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 267, "The Letter Edged In Black" (1 text)
DT, LETTRBLK
Roud #3116
RECORDINGS:
Cotton Butterfield, "Letter Edged in Black" (OKeh, unissued, 1929)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Letter Edged In Black" (OKeh 7008, 1924)
Pete Cassell, "The Letter Edged in Black" (Majestic 6007, c. 1947)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Letter Edged in Black" (Lincoln 2426, 1925) (Edison 51649, 1925) (Victor 19837, 1925) (Cameo 809, 1925) (Banner 1653, 1926; Challenge 560, 1927; Conqueror 7074, 1928) (Bell 396, 1926) (Challenge 160/Challenge 319, 1927) (Champion 15906, 1930; Champion 45096, 1935; rec. 1928) (Brunswick 2900, 1925; Supertone S-2000, 1930) (Columbia 15049-D [as by Al Craver], c. 1926) (Brunswick 6799, 1934) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5085 or 5086, 1925) (Durium 9-2, n.d.)
Bradley Kincaid, "Letter Edged In Black" (Bluebird B-5895, 1935; rec. 1934)
Frank Luther, "Letter Edged in Black" (Decca 435, 1935)
George Reneau, "Lettter Edged in Black" (Vocalion 14998, 1925/ Vocalion 5058, c. 1926)
Marc Williams, "Letter Edged in Black" (Decca 5327, 1937; rec. 1934)
File: R703

Letter from Home Sweet Home

DESCRIPTION: "Out on a western range one night I met a restless crew" who bring Jack a letter. The cowboys speculate it is from a sweetheart. But "It's only a message, sweet home," bidding him come back. The sentimental cowboys ask him to read it again as he leaves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Roberts/Agey-InThePine)
KEYWORDS: cowboy home separation return | letter
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #73, "Letter from Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4646
File: RAInPi73

Letter in the Candle, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a letter in the candle, It points direct to me, How the little spark is shining, From whoever can it be." The singer describes the "writer From far across the sea." Her last letter in a candle meant her sailor was coming home....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 777, "The Letter in the Candle" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 37-38, "The Letter in the Candle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7412
File: R777

Letter That He Longed For Never Came, The

See The Letter that Never Came (File: Gil142)

Letter that Never Came, The

DESCRIPTION: Day after day, a man asks the mail carrier if there is a letter for him. Day after day, he is disappointed. The chorus asks from whom the letter might come. But come it never does; the man dies, and asks that the letter, if it comes, be buried with him
AUTHOR: Paul Dresser (1857-1906) and Max Sturm
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (date of composition)
KEYWORDS: death lastwill
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 170, "The Letter That He Longed For Never Came" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 47, p. 64, "The Letter That Never Came" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 699, "The Letter that Never Came" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 76, "The Letter That Never Came" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 142, "The Letter that Never Came" (1 text)
ST Gil142 (Full)
Roud #4860
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ridge Mountain Singers, "The Letter that Never Came" (Columbia 15580-D, 1930)
Pie Plant Pete [pseud. for Claude Moye], "The Letter That Never Came" (Supertone 9363, 1929)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "The Letter That Never Came" (Columbia 15179-D, 1927; on CPoole01, CPoole05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "No Letter in the Mail" (theme)
cf. "The Eight-Pound Bass" (tune and structure)
NOTES [43 words]: Gilbert-LostChords observes that this song, unlike almost all popular music, preserves the mystery to the end: We never do learn from whom the letter might have come.
For the story of Paul Dresser, see the notes to "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Gil142

Letters

See The Two Letters (Charlie Brooks; Nellie Dare) (File: R735)

Letters from Lousy Lou (Bugle Call Lyric)

DESCRIPTION: "Letters from Lousy Lou, Letters from Lousy Lou, Letters for you And letters for me, And letters from Lousy Lou."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 233, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Roud #11252
File: BrPa233C

Letters of Love, The

See Early, Early in the Spring [Laws M1] (File: LM01)

Letty Lee

See Young Kitty Lee (Letty Lee) (File: Pea605)

Levee Camp Holler

DESCRIPTION: "We git up in de mornin' so dog-gone soon, Cain'[t] see nothin' but de stars and moon. Um...." An enumeration of typical travails in a hard day behind a team of mules.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: poverty work hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 569, "Levee Camp Holler" (1 text (composite, from Lomax), 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 49-52, "Levee Camp 'Holler'" (1 text, obviously composite, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 67-70, "I Can Buckle a Wheeler" (2 texts, 2 tunes, both probably the same as one of the composite parts of Lomax's "Levee Camp Holler"; the "A" text also contains a large part of "Mule Skinner Blues")
Roud #15580
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roustabout Holler"
cf. "Steel Laying Holler"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Worked Old Moll
File: BMRF569

Levee Moan (I'm Goin' Where Nobody Knows My Name)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm goin' whe' nobody knows mah name, Lawd, Lawd, Lawd, Lawd, I'm goin whe' nobody knows mah name." (x2) "I'm goin' whe' dey don't shovel no snow...." "I'm goin' whe' de chilly wind don't blow...." "Oh, baby, whe' you been so long...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: nonballad work
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 225-227, "Levee Moan" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #7695
NOTES [19 words]: This looks to me like a cross of "Goin' Down This Road Feelin' Bad" with "Chilly Winds" -- but I can't prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: San225

Levee Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "I was born in Mobile town, a-working on the levee, All day I rolled the cotton down, a-working on the levee." "I had a dog, his name was Bill... he ran away but I'm here still." Uses the entire text of "I've Been Working on the Railroad" as a chorus.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2022 (Derek Piotr Archive)
KEYWORDS: work home dog derivative
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "The Levee Song" (Piotr-Archive #268, recorded 09/27/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (entire text is included in this song)
NOTES [33 words]: Roud appears to lump this with "I've Been Working on the Railroad" -- understandably, since it uses that song as the chorus. But since the verses are something entirely different, I've slit them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio266

Lewie Gordon (Lewis Gordon)

DESCRIPTION: "O send Lewie Gordon hame, And the lad I darena name" The singer describes her true love. "O to see this princely one Seated on his father's throne!" "Weel wad I my true love ken Amang ten thousand Highlandmen"
AUTHOR: Alexander Geddes (1737-1802) (source: _Fraser's Magazine_; see notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1778 (_The Scots Nightingale_, according to Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: rebellion exile nonballad Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 41, "Lewie Gordon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 133, "Lewie Gordon" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 73-74, "Lewis Gordon" (1 text)
Roud #5777
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1547), "Lewie Gordon" ("O send Lewie Gordon hame"), W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle), c.1840
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tarry Woo" (tune, according to Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John Hielan'man
My Highland Love
NOTES [97 words]: Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2: "'Lewie Gordon' has always been a popular ditty, and was supposed to have been made by a Mr Geddes, priest at Shenval in the Enzie, on the Lord Lewis Gordon...; on the rising in 1745, declared for Prince Charles; ... after the battle of Culloden he escaped abroad; was attainted by act of parliament, 1746; and died at Montreuil, in France, on the 15th of June, 1754."
The source for the author is Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, (London, 1866 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. LXXIII, p. 575, which also credits Geddes for "Wee Wifikie." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD1133

Lewiston Falls

See Shove Around the Grog (File: FSC175)

Lexington Murder, The

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Leys o' Logie, The

DESCRIPTION: "The lang leys[leas] o' Lessendrum, And the parks abeen Pittodrie, And I canna win where my lovie is For the weary leys o' Logie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1190, "The Leys o' Logie" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #6811
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan6 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61190

Li'l Liza Jane

DESCRIPTION: "I've got a gal who loves me so, L'il Liza Jane, Way down south in Baltimore... Oh, Eliza, L'il Liza Jane." The singer loves Liza at first sight, and so "Now I've got me a mother-in-law," plus a house and children in Baltimore, and a home which he loves
AUTHOR: Countess Ada de Lachau
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage children floatingverses worksong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 436, "Eliza Jane (I)" (1 text)
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (IV), pp. 158-167, "'Liza-Jane" (1 text plus variants, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 37, "L'il Liza Jane" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Anderson, "Spotlight on Culture: Menhaden Chanteys -- An African American Maritime Legacy" in Maryland Marine Notes, Vol 14, No 1 (Jan-Feb 2000) available at http://www.mdsg.umd.edu/maryland-marine-notes-archive accessed November 12, 2016, p. 4, "Mama Liza Jane") (1 text)
Roud #825
RECORDINGS:
Al Bernard, "Li'l Liza Jane" (Vocalion 15638, 1927)
Harry C. Browne, "Li'l Liza Jane" (Columbia A2622, 1918)
Scott Dunbar, "Little Liza Jane" (on USMississippi01, USDunbarS01)
Taylor Flanagan & his Trio, "Li'l Liza Jane' (Brunswick 573, 1931; rec. 1930)
Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band, "Li'l Liza Jane" (Victor 18394, 1917)
Louise Massey & the Westerners, "Lil Liza Jane" (Vocalion 05361, 1939)
Menhaden Fishermen, "Mama Liza Jane" (on USMenhaden01)
Northern Neck Chantey Singers, "Mama Liza Jane" (on USMenhaden02)
Ollie Shepard & his Kentucky Boys, "Li'l Liza Jane" (Decca 7651, 1939)
Win Stracke, "Little Liza" (Mercury 5777, 1952)
NOTES [116 words]: Hard to believe that this isn't a variant of one of the other Liza Jane songs. But there is no evidence that it is. - RBW
It's a composed song, published in 1906, from the show "Come Out of the Kitchen." - PJS
Which probably holds some sort of record for obscurity. I can't even determine if "Countess" is part of de Lachau's name (which I suspect of being a pseudonym), or if she really was a slumming member of some obscure branch of the nobility. My library contains no references to her, and an internet search turned up nothing of use except copies of the sheet music to this song. - RBW
As a worksong "Mama Liza Jane" is made up of floating verses in addition to "Li'l Liza Jane" verses. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: FSWB037

Liam O Raofaille (Willy Reilly; The Virgin Widow)

DESCRIPTION: Irish Gaelic: The singer and her Liam (Willie) are married on the island where they live, but as he rows the priest back to the mainland after the ceremony, the boat sinks and both are drowned. She is left a widow on her wedding night
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (recording, Sean 'Ac Donnca)
KEYWORDS: grief love virginity wedding death drowning ship foreignlanguage lament husband wife clergy
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Sean 'Ac Donnca, "Liam O Raofaille" (on TradIre01)
File: RcLiamOR

Liam OConnell's Hat

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes to Coolea "on a dancing expedition." After the dance and drinks his famous hat is missing. It had been worn by Brian Boru, Alfred the Great,... He searches all Ireland but, finally, a witch tells him it is in the Lake.
AUTHOR: "[Jimmy?] Crowley the tailor" (source: OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: dancing drink music humorous talltale witch clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 96-97,124, "Liam OConnell's Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [94 words]: The tall tale nature of this song is shown by the two kings mentioned. Alfred reigned in Wessex (southwestern England) from probably 871 to c. 899. Brian Boru was born a copule of generations later, and died at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Thus it is chronologically possible that the hat could have passed on -- but there was effectively no contact between Wessex and Ireland at this time. Unless the Vikings captured the hat from Wessex and carried it to Ireland. But what are the odds of it surviving that? (Even if you assume it survived everything else). - RBW
File: OCan096

Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire

DESCRIPTION: "Liar, liar, Pants on fire (or "Your pants are on fire"), Your nose is as long as a telephone wire."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: clothes lie
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 80, "Liar, Liar" (1 text)
Roud #19281
File: ZiZa080F

Liar's Song (I), The

See Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)

Liar's Song (II), The

See Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

Liberal March, The

DESCRIPTION: "We love our dear new land so bright, We sing of justice and of right." "We're marching on to victory... We're going to win the day." The pro-oligarchy politicians put the country into debt and gave away the land, but Samuel Vaile brings reform
AUTHOR: Words: James Adams
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: political New Zealand money worker nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 102, "The Liberal March" (1 partial text, tune references)
NOTES [190 words]: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ list the tune of this as "So Early in the Morning," by which I think they mean "The Drunken Sailor (Early in the Morning)." But the text is a poor enough fit that I wonder if it wasn't sung to something else. Of course, it could just be an incompetent piece of versifying.
I wasn't able to find much about Samuel Vaile. He is not mentioned in Keith Sinclair's A History of New Zealand. I did find an obituary in the 17 April 1913 "Auckland Star" which seems to be of him. Vaile was born in Kensington, England, in 1828, He came with his parents to New Zealand in 1843, and trained as an architect. He tried to emigrate to California at the time of the Gold Rush, but was left on Pitcairn Island when the ship he was aboard came in for water but was unable to recover those who had gone ashore because of bad weather. Another ship took him back to New Zealand. He spent 1861-1869 in England, working with the poor, then returned to New Zealand and became a land agent. In the 1880s, he tried to force railroad reform. He three times failed to win election to parliament, and died in 1913 at the age of 85. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: BaRo102

Liberty

DESCRIPTION: "One day I was walking down a lonely road" and meets a man with a burden who says, "Won't someone help me... I want to be free... Oh where is liberty?" A poor man and a frightened boy also seek liberty. Why must so many die without it?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 548, "Liberty" (notes only)
File: ACSF548Y

Liberty Ball

DESCRIPTION: "Come aid the poor slave's liberation ... Democrats come to the rescue ... Whigs forsake slavery's minions ... roll on the liberty ball"
AUTHOR: Words attributed to Jesse Hutchinson in Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: slavery nonballad political
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 98, "The Liberty Ball" (1 text, tune referenced)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 60, "Liberty Ball" (1 text)
Roud #2831
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (tune) and references there
NOTES [128 words]: It is more than a little ironic to find this song, about Whigs and Democrats, in a book compiled in 1856 -- the very year in which the Whig party ceased to be a political force and the new Republican party arose. In the pre-Republican era, the Whigs and Democrats both had room for pro- and anti-slavery members. In 1856, the Republicans were entirely for limiting slavery -- which pushed the Democrats to become pro-slavery. So, in that year, there was no point in appealing to both sides on the issue.
Equally interesting is the fact that the Pioneer Songster's version includes words not in the Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar version. It would appear the song had a significant life in tradition. Indeed, I almost wonder if one version wasn't a deliberate rewrite. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: TPS060

Liberty for the Sailors

DESCRIPTION: "The Bellman's called it round the town, And far and near the news has flown; Each wife seeks out her last new gown, There's liberty for the sailors." The revels are told as "every lass will get her lad And every bairn will see its dad."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: sailor home food drink party
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 188-189, "Liberty for the Sailors" (1 text, 1 tune); some additional words given on p. 198
DT, LIBSAILR*
Roud #3179
File: StoR188

Liberty Tree (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Columbus, a man of great genius, Came from the European shore [to America where] Great God himself has created A place for the Liberty Tree." Great Britain jealously tried to clamp down on the Americas, but they remain a beacon of liberty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad America exploration
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 47-50, "The Liberty Tree" (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 58-62)
NOTES [99 words]: The phrase "The Liberty Tree" is probably inspired by a publication of Thomas Paine's, itself found as a song (1775), though I don't know if it's traditional.
The piece in Thomas doesn't strike me as a real result of the folk process; it looks like one of those pieces certain teachers wrote to teach their students.
There was another song called "Liberty Tree," beginning "In a chariot of light from the riches of day"; for broadsides, see Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 86. For other songs about the Tree of Liberty, and some discussion of its origin, see the notes to "The Tree of Liberty." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa047

Licence-Hunting

See Where's Your License? (File: MA102)

Lichputscher, Di (The Candle Snuffer)

DESCRIPTION: German. Cumulative. "Ei du scheene (x3) Lichputscher, Di Lichputscher...." "Oh you pretty (x3) candle snuffer, The candle snuffer. Is this not a back and forth.... Back and forth, and the candle snuffer." "Is this not a short and long?" "A pair of tongs?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage cumulative nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 80-82, "Di Lichputscher (The Candle Snuffer)" (1 German text plus non-poetic English translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Schnitzelbank" (form)
NOTES [62 words]: Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends lists this as a version of the much-loved German cumulative song "Schnitzelbank," and this seems to be generally true; the middle of the song (the cumulative list of random items) seems to be the same. But the wrapper about the candle snuffer is perhaps slightly different, so I have (very tentatively) listed them as different songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: KPL080

Lichtbob's Lassie, The

See Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going) (File: SBoA050)

Lie Down Daniel Take Your Rest

DESCRIPTION: "(Lie down (Daniel/judges/accusers/mourners), take your rest) (x3) O the lion in the den cannot harm." Daniel "locked the lion's jaw," "lay down on the lion all night," "sweetest rest he ever had," "New grave every day," "Hearse keeps rolling every day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: accusation reprieve burial death religious animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 312-313, "Leddown Daniel Tek Yo' Res'" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [92 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect.
The verses telling Daniel's story have the same format as the others: one line repeated twice followed by "O the lion in the den cannot harm" - BS
Daniel was of course thrown into the lion's den in Daniel 6:16, and in 6:21, after he has survived, Daniel says, "My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths" -- but nowhere does it say that Daniel lay down on the lion all night or that he slept, let alone that he had a good sleep. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR312A

Lie Low

See The Major and the Weaver [Laws Q10] (File: LQ10)

Lie, The

See Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)

Lieutenant Lang and Storie Bauld

DESCRIPTION: John Arinthrow was a coward: "as soon's the shot began to crack He in the ground the colour stack ... And syne he run awa"/"he turned his back And on the ground he tumbled doun and fyled his Bum"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: cowardice battle scatological
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 17, 1746 - Battle of Falkirk won by Jacobite forces (see "The Battle of Falkirk 1746" at the BritishBattles site).
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 155, "Lieutenant Lang and Storie Bauld"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2, p. xliv, "The Earl o Hume" (2 fragments)
Roud #15111
NOTES [186 words]: For more on the Jacobite rising and defeat see notes to "The Muir of Culloden."
The fragment Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 p. xliv is from "Motherwell's manuscript Ballad Book ... Motherwell comments on it: '... It relates to the battle of Falkirk & the behaviour of the Paisley Militia on that day. It is quite a local song. John Arinthrow i.e. Renfrew was the Colour-bearer....'" The verse quoted from Motherwell is 'the equivalent stanza' to Crawfurd's. - BS
According to Stuart Reid, 1745: A Military History of the Last Jacobite Rising, Sarpedon, 1966, p. 84, "A small but enthusiastic battalion of about 180 men was raised in Paisley and Renfrew by another regular officer, Major William Cunningham the Earl of Glencairn"; this was a loyalist formation recruited in November 1745. At Falkirk, the Paisley unit was part of a tiny "brigade" of some 650 men led by the Earl of Home (Reid, p. 100). In the course of the battle, the Jacobites beat off a loyalist attack, then counter-charged and slammed into Home's brigade (Reid, pp. 100-101); not surprisingly, the Jacobites shattered and fled. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: LyCr2155

Liewer Henry (Dear Henry)

See There's a Hole in the Bucket (File: DTholebc)

Life and Age of Man, The

See The Ages of Man (File: LEBC20)

Life and Death of Sir Hugh of the Grime, The

See Hughie Grame [Child 191] (File: C191)

Life Boat, The

DESCRIPTION: "The life boat is comin', by the eye of faith I see, As she sweeps through the water to rescue you and me." The singer rejoices that the life boat will take him/her (and his/her companions) away from worldly sorrows and into heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 629, "The Life Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #42, "The Lifeboat is Coming" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6629
File: R629

Life in a Prairie Shack

DESCRIPTION: The singer points out the difficulties of "life in a prairie shack." The tenderfoot can't handle the cold and rain, is thrown from his horse, and hits his toe with an axe. His conclusion: "This bloomin' country's a fraud, And I want to go home to my ma."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: home hardtimes injury mother
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 36, "Life in a Prairie Shack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 33, "Life in a Prairie Shack" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PRAIRSHK*
Roud #4472
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Life on the Ocean Wave" (tune)
File: FCW036

Life in California

DESCRIPTION: Singer leaves his family in Maine to seek California gold; he loses his money at cards and catches the "fever-n-ager." He asks for food, drink, lodging. Cho: "I'm a used-up man, a perfect used-up man/And if ever I get home again, I'll stay there if I can"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1853 (California Songster)
KEYWORDS: disease homesickness loneliness poverty home emigration separation travel mining cards death family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1848 - gold found in Sutter's Mill, California.
1849 - multitudes of easterners emigrate west, hoping to "make their pile"
FOUND IN: US(SW)
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "Life in California" (on LEnglish02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Used-Up Man" (tune)
NOTES [5 words]: Fever and ague: Malaria. - RBW
File: RcLiICal

Life Is a Toil

See The Housewife's Lament (File: FSC097)

Life is But a Game of Cards

DESCRIPTION: "Life is but a game of cards, which each one has to learn: Each shuffles, cuts, and deals a pack... Some hold a card quite full of trumps, while others none can show." Some succeed in love when hearts are trumps; others succeed or fail in other ways
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: cards nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 147-148, "Life is But a Game of Cards" (1 text)
Roud #9540
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Game of Life
Pack of Cards
NOTES [60 words]: Dime-Song-Book #30, p. 54, has a song "Trumps," beginning
There's dozens of amusing games
In which we all indulge.
They're known by many different names,
A few I'll here divulge,
We've eucher, ball, croquet, and whist,
Foot-racing, running, jumps;
But the best of games, I must insist,
Is love where hearts are trumps.
Not the same, but clearly the same idea. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: SBar147

Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad

See Life's Railway to Heaven (Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad) (File: DTlifera)

Life Let Us Cherish

DESCRIPTION: Let's cherish life while we can. Life is over too soon so, "ere we quit this shore, Contentment seek." "Away with every toil and care" Meet conflicts "with manful hearts ... Till death sounds the retreat"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (Oldschool)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 292-293, "Life Let Us Cherish" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 418)
ADDITIONAL: Oliver Oldschool, The Port Folio (Philadelphia, 1802 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, p. 136, "Life Let Us Cherish" (1 text)
Roud #1320
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1101), "Life Let Us Cherish" ("Life let us cherish while yet the taper glows"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Johnson Ballads 217, Harding B 11(4230), Harding B 28(125), "Life Let Us Cherish"
LOCSinging, as202150, " Life Let Us Cherish" ("Life let us cherish, while yet the taper glow"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(083), "Life Let Us Cherish" ("Life let us cherish while yet the taper glow"), unknown, c.1870
SAME TUNE:
Philologian Song (By S. W. Gladden, (class of 18]59])) ("Now, boys, for Logia, Sing, sing the rallying song!") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 116)
For Life Let Us Charish The Fame of Honored Harrison (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p. 84)
NOTES [70 words]: NLScotland commentary: "It is thought that the author of 'Life Let us Cherish' was the Swiss-born poet, Johann Martin Usteri (1763-1827). Whether he was responsible for the first verse or the entire composition is unclear."
Broadside LOCSinging as202150: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: WT292

Life of a High-Country Shepherd, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh the life of a high-country shepherd Is worse than the life of a dog; In summer you frizzle in sunshine And in winter you freeze like a log." The singer's only companions are the dogs and sheep -- and the pay is lousy. He hopes for a government job
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (collected by Phil Garland, according to Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: sheep dog hardtimes work
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 47, "The Life of a High-Country Shepherd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 25-26, "(The Life of the High Country Shepherd)" (1 text plus an excerpt of another; tune referenced)
NOTES [64 words]: Apparently there are two tunes to this, both collected by Phil Garland. The first, from Alf Woods, has no chorus; the second, from Colin and Jean MacNicol, has a chorus and is sung to "Wrap Me Up in My Tarpaulin Jacket." Colin MacNicol claimed that his grandfather wrote the text in the 1920s. But Garland doesn't even give that grandfather's name, let alone proof of authorship. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Clev047

Life of a Man, The

See What's the Life of a Man? (File: K264)

Life of a Voyageur (Canadian Wilderness)

DESCRIPTION: "Life of a voyager, that of a sojourner, Travels around and round.... My heart has but one home, From which I'll never roam Land of true happiness Canadian wilderness." The voyageur hears loons and coyotes and prefers the life in the wild
AUTHOR: Mary Satterfield Swanson (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 459, "Canadian Wilderness" (notes only)
File: ACSF459C

Life of Georgie, The

See Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)

Life of Nicholas Thomas of Mount Desert, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the year of '80 I was born, In the town of Mount Desert, That lieth in the State of Maine Of which it makes a part." In tedious detail and feeble stanzas (130 of them!), Thomas tells his life story; he ends with a farewell and a thanks to his friends
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: work ship storm children marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 349-365, "The Life of Nicholas Thomas of Mount Desert" (1 text)
File: EcSm349

Life of the Bold Buccaneer

DESCRIPTION: "The life of the bold Buccaneer Is ever joyous and new, Upon the wave to steer With a jolly and daring crew." They fly over the sea, and make peace with no one -- except when, in war, they are privateers "'neath the starry flag of the free"
AUTHOR: Music: from "A Life on the Ocean Wave," by Henry Russell (1812-1900)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1850 (various songsters, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate ship war
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 69, "Life of the Bold Buccaneer" (1 text, 1 tune; #44 in the first edition)
Roud #V36066
NOTES [10 words]: For background on Henry Russell, see "Cheer, Boys, Cheer (II)."
Last updated in version 4.3
File: FrPi069

Life of the High Country Shepherd, The

See The Life of a High-Country Shepherd (File: Clev047)

Life on the Ocean Wave, A

DESCRIPTION: "A life on the ocean wave, a home on the rolling deep, Where the scattered waters roll And the winds their revels keep." The sailor thrills to the sea life, so much that he welcomes even the storms
AUTHOR: Words: Epes Sargent (1813-1880)/Music: Henry Russell (1812-1900)
EARLIEST DATE: 1838 (_New York Mirror_ for May 19, according to Gardner, with the words credited to "Zeta") (Russel's sheet music published 1838 by Hewitt & Jacques of New York)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 87-89, "A Life on the Ocean Wave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 431, "A Life on the Ocean Wave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1250, p. 86, "A Life on the Ocean Wave" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 54 and #3/62, p. 58, "A Sailor's Life for Me" (1 text, which appears to be an extensive rewrite based on this song); Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 48, "A Life on the Ocean Wave" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Martin Gardner, editor, _Famous Poems from Bygone Days_, Dover, 1995, pp. 123-124, "A Life on the Ocean Wave" (1 text)
ST SWMS087 (Partial)
Roud #2033
SAME TUNE:
Coal Ship Song (I) (File: Tawn002)
Oh! Come, Fair Maid, With Me (by Kate J. Boyd) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 112)
Song for the Gallant Hearts! An Original Fireman's Song (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 146)
The Swill Milk Song ("Hurrah! for the steaming swill") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 153)
Life of the Bold Buccaneer (File: FrPi069)
New Harrison Song ("Awake to the stirring sound") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p. 96)
The Men Who Work ("Hurrah for the men who work, whatever their trade may be") (by J. Richardson) (Foner, p. 164)
NOTES [10 words]: For background on Henry Russell, see "Cheer, Boys, Cheer (II)."
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SWMS087

Life Presents a Dismal Picture

DESCRIPTION: The physical and psychological woes of a family detailed. (The problems are usually sexual in nature, and the family may be very extended.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy family humorous nonballad scatological
FOUND IN: Australia Canada Britain(England) US(MA,So,SW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 114-116, "Life Presents a Dismal Picture" (2 texts, tune indicated)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 527-530, "Life Presents a Dismal Picture" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 100-101, "Life Presents a Dismal Picture" (1 text)
Roud #10130
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Letter from Home
My Family Life
NOTES [31 words]: Sung to the melodies of "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" or "Scarlet Ribbons." - EC
Roud seems to lump this with "Charlotte the Harlot Lay Dying (The Dying Harlot)." I'm not sure why. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM114

Life, Trial and Execution of John Tawell, the Quaker

DESCRIPTION: "Within a dark and dismal cell In anguish I do lie, Methinks I hear the solemn knell, Says 'Tawell, you must die.'" He seduced Sarah Hart. He was transported and came home. Then he committed murder; now he must die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland)
KEYWORDS: transportation crime homicide execution
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 77-79, "Life, Trial and Execution of John Tawell, the Quaker" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Geoffrey C. Ingleton, _True Patriots All: or News from Early Australia as told in A Collection of Broadsides_ ("Garnered and Decorated" by Ingleton), Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1988, p. 235, "(Copy of Verses)" (1 text, files under "Life, Trial and Execution of John Tawell, the Quaker, At Aylesbury for the Murder of Sarah Hart")
Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 301-302, "The Trial and Execution of John Tawell, the Quaker" (1 text)
Roud #V27138
File: AnFa077

Life's Railway to Heaven (Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad)

DESCRIPTION: "Life is like a mountain railroad With an engineer that's brave; We must make the run successful." The listeners are warned, in railroad terms, of the difficulties in life, and promised that if they do well, they will be praised by God the superintendent
AUTHOR: Words: M. E. Abbey/Music: Charlie Tillmann
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: religious railroading nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 611-618, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (1 text plus a text of "The Faithful Engineer", 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 15-16, "(Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad)" (1 text, plus fragments of assorted parodies)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 364, "Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad" (1 text)
DT, LIFERAIL
Roud #13933
RECORDINGS:
Allen & Hart, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (CYL: Edison [BA] 3441, n.d., prob. mid-1920s)
Allen Quartette, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (OKeh 45196, 1928; rec. 1927)
Blue Ridge Duo, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Edison 51498, 1925)
Buice Brothers, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Bluebird B-5613, 1934; rec. 1931)
Curly Bradshaw [King of the Harmonica], "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Acme J-102, n.d.)
Calhoun Sacred Quartet, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Victor 20543, 1927; Montgomery Ward M-4350, 1933)
Criterion Male Quartet, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Brunswick 2931, 1925; Supertone S-2120, c. 1930)
Sid Harkreader, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Broadway 8129, c. 1930)
Harper & Turner, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Supertone 9658, 1930)
Charles Harrison, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Victor 19825, 1922)
Bradley Kincaid, "Life is Like a Mountain Railroad" (Bluebird B-8501, 1940; rec. 1934)
Fred Kirby, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Melotone [Canada] 45037, 1935)
Smilin' Ed McConnell "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Victor 23823, 1933; Bluebird B-8194, 1939)
Montgomery Quartet, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Decca 146, 1934)
Pace Jubilee Singers, "Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad" (Victor 23350, 1932; rec. 1929)
Pickard Family, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Oriole 1934, 1930)
George Reneau, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Vocalion 14811, 1924; Vocalion 5030, c. 1926)
Homer Rodeheaver, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Vocalion 14339, 1922) (Columbia 165-D [as Rodeheaver and Asher], 1924)
John Seagle & Leonard Stokes, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Victor 22060, 1929)
Oscar Seagle [baritone], "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Columbia A3420, 1921)
Smith's Sacred Singers, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Columbia 15159-D, 1927; Vocalion 02921, 1935)
Southern Railroad Quartet, "Life's Railway to Heaven' (Victor V-40002, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-8129, 1939; rec. 1928)
Mr. & Mrs. J. Douglas Swagerly, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (OKeh 40086, 1924)
Ernest Thompson, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Columbia 158-D, 1924) (Diva 6003/Harmony 5096-H, 1930 [both as Jed Tompkins])
Frank Welling & John McGhee "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Champion 15971 [as Hutchens Bros.], 1930; Champion 45125, c. 1935)
Hermes Zimmerman, "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Vocalion 1018, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ballad of the Braswell Boys" (tune)
cf. "Miner's Lifeguard" (tune)
cf. "Weaver's Life" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Ballad of the Braswell Boys (File: MN1048)
Miner's Lifeguard (File: BSoF730)
Weaver's Life (File: CSW090)
NOTES [241 words]: The original [sheet music] publication also includes an alternate set of lyrics composed by Jack Penn, under the title "The Gospel Highway"; they seem not to have entered tradition. - PJS
The origin of this piece is looking more and more complicated the more I look at it. In previous editions of the Index, I noted a connection to "The Road to Heaven," which dates from probably 1854. Paul Stamler thought the notion of a railroad to heaven could occur independently. It almost doesn't matter; "The Road to Heaven" is among the earliest "spiritual railroad" songs, but Cohen in Long Steel Rail, pp. 597-603, notes many examples of the genre. There were certainly lots of forerunners to choose from, although only a handful went into tradition.
The interesting feature of this song is its relationship to "The Faithful Engineer," by Will S. Hays, published in 1886. This begins, "Life is like a crooked railroad, And the engineer is brave, Who can make a trip successful From the cradle to the grave."
The connection to this piece can hardly be denied, though the rest of the Hays poem is not quite so closely related.
So how did Abbey and Tillman get away with copyrighting this as an entirely new piece? I have no answer; neither has Cohen, though he speculates about intermediate versions. This seems likely enough, given how rapidly the song spread. Perhaps Abbey did not rewrite Hays, but rewrote some anonymous copy or rewrite of Hays. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: DTlifera

Lifeboat (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "We're floating down the streams of time, We have not long to stay, The stormy clouds of darkness Is turned to brightest day. Oh let us all take courage... The lifeboat soon is coming To gather his jewels home." The joys of life with Jesus are outlined
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 99, "The Lifeboat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ChFRA099 (Partial)
Roud #6629
NOTES [22 words]: Roud lumps several "lifeboat" songs under this number, but one is a secular ballad, "The Little Clare Mary (Dailey's Lifeboat)." - RBW
File: ChFRA099

Lifeboat (II), The

See Take Me In Your Lifeboat (File: ChMS172)

Lifeboat Is Coming, The

See The Life Boat (File: R629)

Lift Him Up and Carry Him Along

See Fire, Maringo (File: Hugi016)

Lift Him Up That's All

DESCRIPTION: Jesus meets a woman at Jacob's well; she wonders at his being a Jew, but when she sees it is Jesus she runs to town: "Come and see a man who told me all that I have done." He asks her for water; she tries to hide her sins, speaking of "race pride."
AUTHOR: Washington Phillips (c. 1891-1938)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Washington Phillips)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Jesus meets a woman at Jacob's well; she wonders at his being a Jew, but when she sees it is Jesus she runs into town saying, "Come and see a man who told me all that I have done." He asks her for some water, and she tries to hide her sins, speaking of "race pride." Ch.: "Lift him up, that's all/Lift him up in his word/If you tell the name of Jesus everywhere...He will draw men unto him."
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Jesus Jew
FOUND IN: US(SW)
RECORDINGS:
Washington Phillips, "Lift Him Up That's All" (Columbia 14277-D, 1927; on Babylon)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid and the Palmer" [Child 21] (subject)
cf. "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well" (subject)
cf. "See the Woman at the Well" (subject)
NOTES [89 words]: For the story of Jesus and the Woman of Samaria, see John 4:5-26.
Washington Phillips is probably worth looking up just for his instrumentation. According to W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 296, he played the dulceola, a zither with a keyboard that was manufactured for only a few years between 1900 and 1910; apparently only about a hundred were ever made. (There is a YouTube video of Andy Cohen playing one. A fascinatingly odd instrument that I'm glad I don't have to tune.) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcLHUTA

Light of the Moon, The

DESCRIPTION: In the first and last verses the singer complains of being true but deserted by his lover because he is poor. The other verses describe a night visit -- they sport and play -- ended too early by a wakeful cock.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting love sex rejection nightvisit chickens
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 59, "The Grey Cock" (2 texts)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, "Oh, Once I Loved a Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 7, "Oh, Once I Loved a Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21234
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Grey Cock, or "Saw You My Father" [Child 248] (theme: night visit ended prematurely by a crowing cock) and references there
cf. "Seventeen Come Sunday" [Laws O17] (theme: night visit ended prematurely by a crowing cock) [viz., "My Rolling Eye"/"A Waukrife Minnie"]
cf. "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover)" (theme: night visit ended by a crowing cock)
NOTES [208 words]: The description should make this seem like a ballad that glues together parts of other songs that do not usually float.
There are lines shared with Child 248, "The Grey Cock": "When I came to my true love's door I knocked both loud and sure, My love she arose and slipped on her clothes And came down to let me in"; "...[kept] a cock And it crowed in the morning so soon My love she thought 'twas day and she hastened me away But it proved to be the light of the moon." There are lines shared with Laws O3, "The Foggy Dew": "All the fore-part of the night We did both sport and play And all the last part of the night She sleeped in my arms till day" There's a line and a half of "Westron Wynde" -- "in my true love's arms And she in her bed again" -- and other familiar lines and half lines: "When I beheld my true love's charms", "I took her around her middle so small", "The wind it did blow and the cocks they did crow", "tripped over the plain", "I'll prove so true to my own love", "As the stars all in the sky". There is final couplet that I don't yet remember seeing elsewhere and like some others in the song it does not rhyme with the preceding couplet: "If she should not prove the same [true] by me, She's far better lost than found." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: ReCi059

Light on Cape May, The

DESCRIPTION: As the ship sails on a pleasant sea, the lookout spots a light. The crew is given the good news that it is the Cape May light.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: sea
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 130, "The Light on Cape May" (1 text, 1 tune, the latter identified as "The Bigerlow" and taken from Sandburg)
DT, CAPEMAY*
Roud #9438
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bigler's Crew" [Laws D8] (tune, lyrics) and references there
NOTES [20 words]: Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman describes this as a "salt-water variant of... 'The Timber Schooner Bigler.'" - RBW
File: Doe130

Light Sky, Dark Sky

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Light sky, dark sky, Peaches and cream, What are the initials of your dream? A, B, C...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: food jumprope | sky initials
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #80, "(Light sky, dark sky)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who)" (lyrics)
NOTES [39 words]: Ainsworth lumps this with "Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who)," but the only real commonality is the fortune-telling by initial. Very possibly they come from the same source, but at this points I'd consider them separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: AJRV080

Light the Fire, Blacksmith

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Light the fire, blacksmith, show the pretty light. In comes (Nellie) dressed in white, Pretty shoes and stockings, pretty curly hair, Pretty beads around her neck, but no chemise to wear."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas)
KEYWORDS: jumprope clothes colors | blacksmith
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #311, "Light the fire, blacksmith, show a pretty light" (1 text)
Roud #22187
File: AJRR311

Light, Stranger, Light

DESCRIPTION: "For this is the law of the Western range When a stranger hails in sight -- 'Jest tie up your hoss in the old corral, en 'light, stranger, 'light!" The range is hospitable at all times. They don't ask questions. You can stay as long as you wish
AUTHOR: N. Howaard Thorp (source: Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy travel nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 92-93,"'Light, Stranger, 'Light" (1 text)
File: ThLo092

Lightning Express, The

See Please, Mister Conductor (The Lightning Express) (File: R720)

Lightning Flash, The

See By the Lightning We Lost our Sight [Laws K6] (File: LK06)

Lights in the Quarters Burnin' Mighty Dim

DESCRIPTION: "Lights in the quarters burnin' mighty dim, partner... Must be killin' poor Shanty Joe. Please don't kill poor Shanty.... Captain, can't you see this four o'clock risin's 'bout to kill poor me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (collected from Johnny Maxwell)
KEYWORDS: execution hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 362-363, "Lights in the Quarters Burnin' Mighty Dim" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #15592
File: LoSi362

Lights of Cobb & Co

DESCRIPTION: "Fire lighted; on the table a meal for sleepy men; A lantern in th stable; a jingle now and then...." Cobb & Co men travel dusty roads and half-ruined towns to bring the mail and the news; "A hundred miles shall see tonight the lights of Cobb & Co."
AUTHOR: Henry Lawson (1867-1922)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback)
KEYWORDS: travel Australia horse worker
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, pp. 78-79, "Lights of Cobb & Co" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 153-155, "The Lights of Cobb and Co." (1 text)
File: TrMe078

Lights of Cobb and Co., The

See Lights of Cobb & Co (File: TrMe078)

Lights of London Town, The

See A Picture from Life's Other Side (File: R603)

'Ligion So Sweet

See Religion So Sweet (II) (File: LxA582)

Like a Bridge over Troubled Water

DESCRIPTION: "When you're weary, Feeling small... I'm on your side when times get rough
And friends just can't be found. Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down." The woman's dreams will shine, and he will go with her
AUTHOR: Paul Simon
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (recording, Simon and Garfunkel)
KEYWORDS: friend love nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 550, "Like a Bridge over Troubled Water" (notes only)
DT, BRIDTRBL*
NOTES [81 words]: This reportedly sold six million copies as a single, and the album sold 25 million -- and Simon and Garfunkel proceeded to break up. Those must have been some artistic differences to split them up! This is another song that I find it hard to believe was used as a camp song -- it's too mysterious. Are the troubled waters the emotional turmoils of the singer's friend? How is a bridge supposed to help?
Oh well, I'm too literal-minded. I'll let you interpret the song for yourself. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF550A

Like a Rough and a Rolling Sea (Rough and Rolling Sea)

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell, farewell to my only child, Like a rough and rolling sea (x2)." "The lightnings flashed and thunders rolled...." "The storms beat high and the winds blew fierce...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: farewell separation sea storm nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 229, "Like a Rough and a Rolling Sea (Rough and Rolling Sea)" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 90 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #15236
NOTES [132 words]: The words do not match Psalm 107:23-27, but the emotions do: "They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end." (King James) - BS
I suspect that there is New Testament influence here, in Jesus's stilling of the storm. Jesus was asleep in a boat with his disciples when the weather turned bad: "A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat" (Mark 4:37). The disciples woke up Jesus, who spoke to the wind and calmed it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett229

Like a True-born Native Man

See True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man) (File: MA062)

Like an Owl in the Desert

DESCRIPTION: "Like an owl in the desert I weep, mourn and cry; If love should overtake me I surely would die." "I can love like a lawyer... I can love an old sweetheart Till a new one comes along." "I can love him and kiss him... And turn my back on him ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 304, "Like an Owl in the Desert" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 304, "Like an Owl in the Desert" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #16860
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (subject) and references there
File: Br3304

Likes Likker Better Than Me (Brown-Eyed Boy)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh I'm in love with a brown-eyed boy And he's in love with me But he's in love with a whiskey jug...." Singer laments that her young man "likes likker better than me." She says she thinks of marrying him, but life's hard as a whiskey-drinker's wife.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Woodie Brothers)
KEYWORDS: love courting drink
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 75, "Likes Likker Better Than Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BRWNEYED*
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "Likes Likker Better Than Me" (on NLCR01) (NLCR12)
Woodie Brothers, "Likes Likker Better Than Me" (Victor 23579, 1931; on LostProv1)
NOTES [11 words]: Pity we don't have the keywords "alcoholism" and "co-dependency." -PJS
File: CSW075

Likes Liquor Better than Me

See Likes Likker Better Than Me (Brown-Eyed Boy) (File: CSW075)

Likewise We Hae a Hoosemaid

DESCRIPTION: The housemaid "wears her hair oot owre the croon To scare the lads awa" "... toothless Annie Her vera face wad fleg [scare] the rats ..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: nonballad servant oldmaid
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 402, "Likewise We Hae a Hoosemaid" (1 text)
Roud #5932
File: GrD3402

Lil

See Poor Lil (File: RL248)

Lil Lil

DESCRIPTION: "Lil, lill, Over the hill, Wash my lady's dishes, Hang them on the bushes." Rhyme for a tag-like game.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #112, "Lil Lil" (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wash the Lady's Dishes" ("Wash the Lady's Dishes" couplet)
File: Newe112

Lila Lee

See Lily Lee (File: R098)

Lili Marleen

See Lili Marlene (File: Fire202)

Lili Marlene

DESCRIPTION: Soldier speaks fondly of his sweetheart, "My Lili of the lamplight," Lili Marlene. She has waited for him "Underneath the lantern by the barrack gate." The soldiers are shipping out, and the singer remembers and dreams of Lili.
AUTHOR: German Words: Hans Leip; Music: Norbert Schultze; English lyrics often incorrectly credited to Marlene Dietrich; there are multiple English translations but the standard British version is credited to Tommie Connor (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (first published as song)
KEYWORDS: loneliness love army war separation foreignlanguage nonballad
FOUND IN: Germany
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 148-149, "Lilli Marlene" (1 English+1 German text, the latter titled "Lili Marleen"; 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 202, "Lili Marlene" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 331-332, "Lili Marleen"
ADDITIONAL: Carlton Jackson, _The Great Lili_, Strawberry Hill Press, 1979, pp. 10-11, "(no title)" (1 German text with line-by-line English translation); p. 13 shows Hans Leip's original scrawled melody; p. 52 has the official Tommy Connor English translation; p. 71 is a Japanese translation with one German verse; p. 72 includes German sheet music; the book also comes with one of those plastic micro-recordings which has Leip singing his melody, Andersen singing her version, and the "Axis Sally" version
Roud #15402
RECORDINGS:
Marlene Dietrich, "Lili Marlene" (Decca 23456, 1945)
SAME TUNE:
The D-Day Dodgers (File: SBoA358)
Onwards to the Po (File: Hopk111)
417's Lament (File: Hopk048)
Oh Mr. Fraser (File: Clev 114)
Non Capisce (File: Clev115)
23rd Flotilla (File: Hopk112)
When I Am LOB (File: Hopk114)
Orders Came for Sailing (File: Tawn015)
Down by the Bahnhoff (Liel Leibovitz and Matthew Miller, _Lili Marlene: The Soldiers' Song of World War II_, W. W. Norton & Company, 2009, p. 157; Carlton Jackson, _The Great Lili_, Strawberry Hill Press, 1979, p. 75)
Oh, Mr. Truman, Won't You Send Us Home? (Liel Leibovitz and Matthew Miller, _Lili Marlene: The Soldiers' Song of World War II_, W. W. Norton & Company, 2009, p. 157; Carlton Jackson, _The Great Lili_, Strawberry Hill Press, 1979, p. 75)
Lili Marlene (Axis propaganda version: "Listen to this bugle, clear as I recall") (Carlton Jackson, _The Great Lili_, Strawberry Hill Press, 1979, pp. 39-41)
Lili Marlene (Allied Stalingrad surrender version: "My heart is sad and weary as I write this today") (Carlton Jackson, _The Great Lili_, Strawberry Hill Press, 1979, pp. 41-42)
There Is a Bomber Squadron (Carlton Jackson, _The Great Lili_, Strawberry Hill Press, 1979, p. 56)
Lili at the Traffic Circle (by Dert Beladen-Otto) (English translation in Carlton Jackson, _The Great Lili_, Strawberry Hill Press, 1979, p. 94)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lili Marleen
NOTES [4274 words]: The poem underlying this song is properly known as "Leid ein jungen Wachtposten," or "Song of a Young Sentry," but this title is hardly ever mentioned. The song is either "Lili Marleen" (the usual German spelling) or "Lili Marlene" (English).
There are a several book specifically about this song, in English and German; the English books include Jackson and Leibovitz/Miller, cited below. - (RBW)
The song was enormously popular among German soldiers during World War II, and was picked up by British and American soldiers in the European theater. It was so popular that it was satirized by the Stars and Stripes cartoonist Bill Mauldin, whose drawing (reprinted in his book Up Front) showed two American GIs in a foxhole, one playing a harmonica. The caption reads, "The Krauts ain't following ya too good on 'Lili Marlene' tonight, Joe. Think somethin' happened to their tenor?" Singer Marlene Dietrich recorded the song for American propaganda broadcasts to German soldiers, and a recording of the song by her became a hit in the USA and UK; in later years it became a central part of her repertoire. Is it a folk song? Arguably, it became one among Allied troops; it even spawned the parody "The D-Day Dodgers" among British troops in Italy (see notes under that song). -PJS
Bierman/Smith, p. 84, describe how, during the North African campaign, the British adopted this German song: "Broadcast to the German troops [near Tobruk] but heard across the desert silence at night by the British and Australians too, the smoky voice of a Bremerhaven-born nightclub singer named Lale Andersen evoked an immediate response. She sang a ballad of longing and separation entitled 'Lili Marleen,' about a young woman waiting under a street light outside barracks for her soldier lover.... In their foxholes, the grimy front-line defenders of Tobruk pricked up their ears and called out, 'Louder, please, louder!' And a twentieth-century musical legend was born."
Lamb, p. 157, writes of its role in the Normandy landing of June 1944, "And through it all, like a kind of theme, ran 'Lili Marlene.' The Allied Forces radio seemed to play nothing else; on the popular Mailbag show a dozen different renditions, with a dozen different singers, gave us Lili's haunting ballad. But the German rendition, with the husky-voiced Lale Anderson, a bass chorus, and all those marching feet in the background, was by far the best. The Germans played it incessantly, and so did we; it had been the song of the desert armies, and now it became the melody of the invasion."
It is perhaps not too surprising that there are many World War II parodies of this, the majority of which seem to have arisen from the Italian Campaign. In addition to "The D-Day Dodgers," see e.g. "Onwards to the Po," "417's Lament," "Non Capisce," "Oh Mr. Fraser," and probably "When I Am LOB," although the latter is not very specific to Italy. These parodies seem to come from all over the Commonwealth, which again speaks to the popularity of the original song.
Spaeth, p. 555, comments that "The war ended without producing any significant songs, unless one should except the German Lili Marlene, which actually became a favorite of the allied armies as well."
According to Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 7-11, Hans Leip was the son of a soldier who had served in the Franco-Prussian War. Shortly before World War I began, Leip had gotten a job as a teacher of art. When the war came, he wanted to join the navy, but was rejected. So he entered the army -- and dumped his girlfriend of many years; as an officer candidate, he apparently hoped to play the field. "Lili Marlene" borrows the names of two different girls -- Betty, the niece of Leip's landlady, the literal Girl Next Door, whom a friend of Leip's nicknamed Lili based on a character in Goethe (Jackson, pp. 5-7; Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 11-13), and a much more elegant girl, Marlene, whom Leip had met and courted at a museum (Jackson, pp. 7-8; Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 13-14). One day, he kissed "Lili," then made a move on Marlene -- and his landlady caught them and chased them out of the apartment. Alone after that, Leip started scribbling his poem (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 14-17).
(In World War II, various women claimed to be "the" Lili Marleen; of course none of them were. Later, a German newspaper tried to find the two girls, but Leip would not help, so the real "Lili" and "Marleen" remain unknown; Jackson, p. 12. Jackson, p. 14, says Leip never found either girl after the war.)
Leip showed the poem to his roommates the day he wrote it. They liked it, so Leip set a melody (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 18. It was not, of course, the melody that became famous.
Soon, Leip and his roommates shipped out. One was killed almost at once. Leip, who found the front immensely depressing, took a fall after a few weeks of active service, hurt his spine, and was retired. He went home to the girl he had dumped, and married her -- though the marriage proved short-lived (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 19). He then fixed his attention on a married woman, and she and her husband took him into their house for years (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 20-21). Constancy just doesn't seem to have been in Leip's nature. He wrote several successful novels (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 21), went after several more girls, married again, had more children, and seemed to be bound for great things in a German culture that seemed to know it was doomed (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 22).
Then Hitler took over Germany, and Leip's wild ideas were no longer welcome. He found himself doing artistic grunt work. He did get the chance to publish an anthology of his writings, and in preparing it, came across his long-forgotten text of "Lili Marlene." He hesitated about publishing such a personal poem, but the publisher said he should, so it was included, and the public first learned of the poem's existence (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 23-24).
The name "Lili Marlene," as we saw, is a combination of two women's names, one of them a pseudonym. Ironically, the woman who made it famous was also known by a pseudonym. Elizabeth Carolotta Helena Eulalia Bunterberg, after she married, had used the name Liselotte Wilke. Marriage didn't suit her; she really wanted a career in show business (serious show business; she had begged for volumes of Shakespeare and Schiller while in school; Leibovitz/Miller, p. 34), and when she left her husband and children behind because of her love for performing, she decided she needed a new name. Having once been nicknamed "La La," she christened herself "Lale Andersen" (Jackson, p. 18; Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 25-30). She tried to make a living as an actress and singer over the next several years; she had little success (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 31-41).
Leip had written a tune for "Lili Marlene," but it was not published. Norbert Schultze (born 1911) was a young musician hanging around Berlin's cabarets in 1932 (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 42). Like everyone in this story, he used a pseudonym when performing, "Frank Norbert" (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 53). Even though this was around the time of his marriage (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 53), he was intrigued by Liselotte Wilke/Lale Andersen (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 43, says this was because of her looks, but the photos I've seen of Andersen don't make her look very attractive, and she was a lot older than Schultze). He claimed a romantic encounter that very night, which she never confirmed (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 44; given his record, I incline to believe her over him). Whatever happened, they knew each other only casually and briefly. Schultze struggled over the next several years before finally putting out a hit comic opera -- only to have Joseph Goebbels shut down everything Schultze was up to as part of the Nazi takeover of politics (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 54-58). With little else to do, Schultze wandered into a cabaret he had once frequented. It was very much changed from what he remembered, but a performer there, Jan Behrens, handed Schultze Hans Leip's book Die kleine Hafenorgel with the suggestion that Schultze might set tunes for some of the poems. Jackson, p. 15, claims he set ten of them.
Ironically, Behrens didn't like Schultze's settings (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 60). So Schultze sent copies around -- and as an afterthought, sent copies to Lale Andersen even though he had earlier criticized her voice and she wasn't particularly interested in seeing him (Jackson, pp. 18-19. Part of his problem may have been that she didn't have an operatically trained voice, but he also thought her voice too high). By an odd coincidence, she was already singing the song, with a melody not by Leip or Schultze but by Rudolf Zink. She agreed to sing both versions for an audience and see which they liked better. Schultze's tune won easily (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 60-61).
When Andersen and Schultze went to record companies, they turned it down, but Schultze rearranged it with a bugle call to conform to Nazi militarist prejudices, and the Electrola record company bought it (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 61). The "Song of a Young Sentry" did not sell well and at first received little radio play (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 62-63). Andersen, needing work, put behind much of her life (including a relationship with a Jewish artist), started to act more Aryan, and went to work doing the sort of singing that the Nazis liked (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 78-79). Schultze was even more willing to collaborate with the Nazis; being desperately afraid of the draft, he actually set the music for a poem by Joseph Goebbels himself entitled "Bomben auf Engellland" -- "Bombs over England" (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 79-85). Not long after, he formally joined the Nazi party (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 86). Thereafter, he continued to compose Nazi music (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 191). He survived the war without ever being drafted into the German army -- and was treated as a Nazi after the war; he was forbidden from entertaining for three years (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 192-196). On the whole, I'd say he got off lightly. He tried to avoid his association with "Lili" after the war (Leibovitz/Miller, p.197).
The song became a hit more by luck than anything else. When Germany conquered Yugoslavia, they wanted a radio station to support the occupation. But Radio Belgrade was run on a shoestring, and it had only a few dozen recordings available. The manager sent a soldier to try to get more in Germany, but he returned with only a handful. Andersen's unpopular recording was one of the handful. With the more popular discs going to pieces, the Andersen recording of "Lili Marlene" started getting airplay (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 97-101).
Radio Belgrade had the range to reach North Africa, and the Germans there fell in love with the song. It was frequently requested, and when the station manager tried to cut it from the schedule, tens of thousands of protests came in. Finally station manager Karl-Heinz Reintgen had to concede -- but he gave the song its own special spot, right before the 10:00 p.m. news, as part of a requests program, with most of the requests being soldiers asking for a dedication to people at home (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 100-105). And the British in North Africa were hearing the same music as the Germans. The German broadcasters actually got occasional requests for British soldiers (!), and both sides typically stopped firing at each other at 9:57 p.m. to hear "Lili" (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 106-107).
Goebbels didn't like "Lili," and eventually banned the song -- even ordering the original matrix to be destroyed. (Jackson, p. 22, claims there were two master matrices, one in Germany, one in Switzerland, and the one in Switzerland survived. I strongly suspect this is wrong -- either the matrix was smuggled to Switzerland and Goebbels destroyed a fake, or the one in Switzerland was second generation. But I don't know which) But since Schultze was his pet composer, Goebels allowed an instrumental version to circulate -- and, of course, that let people sing the words themselves (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 111). And Radio Belgrade, an army radio station and outside Germany proper, continued to play it (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 112). What's more, it is claimed that Goebbels's own children sang the song, and that Hermann Göring's performed it, badly (Jackson, p. 27).
The Germans eventually came up with an English "translation" (printed on pp. 39-41 of Jackson), designed to make the British soldiers homesick and probably think that their girls were untrue; it was sung by "Lowell Anderson" (yes, really) and broadcast by the infamous "Axis Sally" (Jackson, p. 39).
The British command was none too happy to find their men listening to an Axis radio station, and supposedly realized that the BBC needed more music and less propaganda talk. Something had to be done -- they either had to beat "Lili" with a better song or find a way to co-opt it. Given the problems of artificially creating a hit, they chose the latter course (Bierman/Smith, p. 85). They had a songwriter named Tommie Connor (also responsible for "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus") create an English translation (although, according to Jackson, pp. 49-51, most of the actual writing was done by J. J. Phillips, whose pen name John Turner appears on the copyright along with Connor's although only Connor's name appears on the sheet music). Fourteen-year-old pop singer Anne Shelton was chosen to record it (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 119). The proper title was apparently "My Lili of the Lamplight," and it was not really a translation but rewrite to eliminate hints that Lili might have been a prostitute. It gave it a different feel Jackson, p. 60, says that "The English link was the woman back home; the German link was the personal life as it had been," making the German version more unusual and poignant.
Jackson, p. 55, says that half a million copies of the British sheet music sold, which is astounding for that period. Vera Lynn also recorded it, and Marlene Dietrich (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 120, although Jackson, p. 83, says that Dietrich recorded a faulty American version, not the German or the official British version).
Connor would eventually crank out something called "The Wedding of Lili Marlene," and induced Andersen to record it after the war (Jackson, p.77), but I for one don't want to hear it....
Eventually the song was also translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish (Bierman/Smith, p. 86; Jackson, p. 11, says there were translations into forty different languages! Indeed, there was a claim that floated around for some time that the song was actually French in origin; Jackson, pp. 43-44). Little wonder, when the troops in Italy wrote their protest about Lady Astor accusing them of shirking the Normandy landing, they used the tune of "Lili" for "The D-Day Dodgers" (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 155).
Lale Andersen, while this was going on, was making a living performing for German soldiers. It was a decent living, but unexciting -- and when the soldiers started calling her "Lili" instead of "Lale," equating her name with her song, it made her famous but also left her irked; she wanted to be someone in her own right (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 124-126). And although she had not opposed the Nazis, their propaganda machine didn't trust her, and in time tightly controlled her every move (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 129-132). Finally -- having seen the horrors of the Warsaw ghetto and broken down -- the control reached the stage of attempted sexual assault by her minder; Andersen saw no choice but to give up her cushy job and attempt to flee (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 134-139). Caught, she was banned from the entertainment industry in 1942 (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 168-169). In April 1943, she swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills -- but she vomited some of them up, and her son and a friend found her in time to save her life, though she was in a coma for several days (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 171-173). Ironically, it probably saved her: When the BBC got word of her fate and broadcast it, Goebbels realized he had to produce her alive (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 174-175). When she recovered, she was allowed to perform again, as long as she didn't sing "Lili," though there were few venues still open in bombed-out, impoverished Germany (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 179-182); eventually she went to an island and tried to stay out of sight. After the war, although the Allies put her through a close examination, they concluded she was not a Nazi and allowed her to resume her career (Leibovitz/Miller, pp. 206-207) -- indeed she was more successful than ever before, dying in 1972 after a sold-out concert (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 208).
Hans Leip was apparently never fond of the Schultze setting of "Lili" (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 190), but that didn't make him popular with the Nazis, since he refused to join the party. In better shape than Andersen, he eventually went to a country home and, in effect, hid (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 191). But he was the only person associated with "Lili" to really gain any benefit from his part in the song: When, after the war, he went to his house in Hamburg, he found it occupied by a British officer -- but that officer cleared out immediately after Leip arrived; he said he did not want to occupy the house of someone whose song had been such a comfort to British soldiers (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 198). Royalties from the song helped keep him comfortable until his death in 1983 at the age of ninety.
Our trail of pseudonyms still isn't complete. The woman who would record the version best known in America (although not elsewhere; Jackson, p. 78) was born Maria Magdalena Dietrich in Germany on December 27, 1901 (Riva, p. 6). Her family called her "Lena" (Riva, p. 7), and she informally signed herself "Leni" -- just as well, because a woman less like the German notion of a good wife/mother/domestic Magdalena is hard to imagine. By 1914, she was no longer satisfied with her birth name; she experimented with, then adopted, the name "Marlene" (Riva, p. 15). Not long after, her father was killed in the Great War, leaving her family impoverished (Riva, pp. 20-21); her mother found another husband, only to have him killed before the war's end as well (Riva, p. 29, which adds that Lena never even mentioned her stepfather's death in her diary). Lena was getting hard to control; eventually, her mother sent her off to boarding school (Riva, p.36) -- where her violin teacher promptly got the hots for her (Riva, p. 37) -- and, being the wild child that she was, she gave in to him, didn't enjoy it, and started thinking about acting rather than music (Riva, p. 38). Oddly, the wild child proved incredibly disciplined in pursuit of her career (Riva, p. 41). By 1922, she was auditioning for small parts in films -- and caught the eye of director Rudolf Sieber; they married May 17, 1923 (Riva, pp. 44-45). With his support, her career was nearly assured. They were soon married, and had a daughter Maria -- and they stayed married even though Marlene apparently stopped sleeping with him after that (and was constantly involved with other men). The little girl was born in December 1924 (although Marlene later started pretending her daughter was born later so Dietrich could lie about her own age; Riva, p. 53).
In 1930, Marlene was given the role of Lola Lola in the movie "The Blue Angel," which made her a star; it was the first full-scale German "talkie" (Riva, pp. 70-71). But it was shot in both English an Germany, so her fame went beyond Germany. (There was a lot of behind-the-scenes drama to all this, which I won't try to retell; it's worth reading the Wikipedia article if you care. Dietrich, for starters, by this time had started her habit of trading in lovers every year or two.) The movie also established her as a singer and gave her a theme song, "Falling In Love Again." Even though it foreshadowed her constant quest for new relationships, she complained about it (Riva, p. 73) -- but as best I can tell, she griped about everything. (She seems to have had a lot of obsessions and compulsions, e.g. she was an extreme germophobe -- Riva, p. 104 -- and she was a control freak and sex addict; later, she became an alcoholic and opiate addict who refused to accept any evidence that she was aging and refused to listen to the advice of doctors).
That was later. In 1930, she was healthy, clean, and the hottest property in Germany Soon she received an offer from Hollywood. She complained about it -- but after a lot of debate, she took it (Riva, pp. 75-78). It was in her first American film, "Morocco," that Dietrich first appeared in pants (Riva, p. 96, 101), which became another trademark. On the whole, though she starred in several films, her American stay was only moderately successful, and in 1937 she was declared "Box Office Poison" (Riva, p. 435). But she was watching what was happening in Germany, and was deeply concerned; she became an American citizen in June 1939 (RIva, p. 479). She was still spending much of her time in Europe -- but, somehow, at the time Germany was preparing its invasion of Poland, she and her family (including then-lover Erich Maria Remarque) were warned to get out of France, and sailed out of Cherbourg on September 2, 1939 (Riva, pp. 487-488). She worked in Hollywood for a while after war began, and started meeting with the troops after the United States joined (Riva, p. 525). Later, she was given an official place in the USO (though she largely rejected their uniform, preferring to wear service uniforms, Riva, p. 539). Along with comedian Danny Thomas and others, she headed overseas to entertain the troops (Riva, p. 537). She also met hospitalized troops individually, and apparently sang "Lili Marlene" to some of them (Riva, p. 541); certainly she sang it in her USO shows (Jackson, p. 73). She remained in Europe until July 1945 (Riva, p. 555).
After the war, she went back to Hollywood, and was involved with so many men that I couldn't track them, as well as maintaining an extraordinarily troubled relationship with her daughter. But she had already by then recorded her "American" version of "Lili," and she sang it as part of her show for many years. Probably there were more copies made of the Dietrich recording than of the Andersen version, although it wasn't heard by as many listeners. She helped keep it alive until she started to collapse in the 1970s (though she didn't die until 1992; it sounds to me as if she could have performed for at least five more years if she hadn't refused to listen to doctors, her daughter, or anyone else within spitting distance of sanity).
After the war, an astonishing array of performers recorded the song, including Mel Tormé, Perry Como, and Frank Sinatra (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 204). But it wasn't the same. A crooner couldn't very well give the impression of a soldier thinking about either his sweetheart or the prostitute he would like to engage!
Oddly, for a song that everyone knew, "Lili" doesn't seem to have been very popular in tradition; there aren't a lot of field collections.
Although there are only a handful of books about the song in English and German, it seems to have inspired a lot of book titles. Guus Van Waveren and Hen Van Gedder published Lili Marleen: Ein Lied über Verlangen in 2003. Ruth Yorck's Lili Marlene and Kathleen Lindsay's Lili Marleen were earlier; both apparently detail wartime experiences but aren't about Lili as such (Jackson, pp. 36-37). James Wakefield Burke's Fraulein Lili Marlene seems to convert Lili to an actual character; Jackson, p. 37, says it "was not so much about the song itself as about the poignant conditions which the war produced." Many other works also refer to the song without being about it; most are in German but it appears one or two are in Spanish. A British film unit released something called "The True Story of Lili Marlene" in 1943 (Jackson, p. 41, notes that it has a lot of things wrong -- it dates Leip's poem to 1923 rather than 1915, and thinks that Lale Andersen was Swedish rather than German; it was more a propaganda piece than actual research). M. A. McCartney published two volumes of Lili Marlene, Twentieth Century Military And Political Battles.
The song was used in several movies apart from "The True Story," including "Bell for Adono" and "Judgment at Nuremberg" (Jackson, p. 53; on p. 96, he reports that there were 39 different television and movie uses by 1973, with a list on pp. 109-110).
There is a German biography of Lale Andersen: Gisela Lehrke, Wie einst Lili Marleen. Das Leben der Lale Andersen (2002), and Andersen herself authored Der Himmel hat viele Farben: Leben mit einem Lied (1972; apparently reissued 1984; I can't help but wonder if the single song of the title is "Lili"). Her diaries are found in Litta Magnus Andersen, Lale Andersen: Die Lili Marlene: D. Lebensbild e. Künsterlin: Mit Auszügen aus bisher unveröffentlichten Tagebüchern, 1981. All seem to be in German; there are no English books.
There are many books by and about Hans Leip, including Helmut Glagla, Hans Leip: Schriftsteller, Maler, Graphicker (1983); again, they all seem to be in German.
Norbert Schultze in 1995 published Mit dir, Lili Marleen: Die Lebenserinnerungen den Komponist Norbert Schultze. He lived until 2002, although he never seems to have accepted the fact that, being a Nazi, he had helped support a system of mass murder and oppression (Leibovitz/Miller, p. 210).
There are, of course, numerous books about Marlene Dietrich, and even more about the North African campaign that made this song famous. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Fire202

Lilli Bulero

See Lilliburlero (File: FR286)

Lilli Burlero

See Lilliburlero (File: FR286)

Lilli Marlene

See Lili Marlene (File: Fire202)

Lillian Brown

DESCRIPTION: "While the sun in his sinking beauty Was shining brightly in the West, A fair fortune maiden was thinking How soon she would meet her death." Lillian Brown, a Virginian boarding near West Durham Mill, takes poison and dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: suicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1914 - Reported date of Lillian Brown's suicide
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 299, "Lillian Brown" (1 text)
ST BrII299 (Full)
Roud #6638
NOTES [23 words]: This piece, only three stanzas long, gives no motivation for Ms. Brown's suicide, and the editors of Brown were not able to elucidate. - RBW
File: BrII299

Lilliburlero

DESCRIPTION: Two Irish Catholics congratulate one another on victory over the Protestants, and make nasty remarks about what they intend to do to them. The song was written by a Protestant Englishman, in a burlesque of Irish dialect
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1688 (broadside, Bodleian (Wood 417(168)-Wood 417(172)))
KEYWORDS: hate Ireland humorous nonballad political dancing
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1685-1688 - Reign of James II (James VII of Scotland), the last Catholic king of Britain
1688 - Glorious Revolution overthrows James II in favour of his Protestant daughter Mary II and her husband and first cousin William III of Orange
FOUND IN: Britain(England) Ireland
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 359-362, "Lilli Burlero" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XLII, p. 85, "Lilli Burlero" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 36, "Lillibulero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 286, "Lilliburlero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 568-573, "Lilliburlero" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a second setting, "When Venus the goddess of beauty and love"/"Nottingham Ale")
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 58-60, "Lilliburlero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 6-7, "Lillibulero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 303, "Lilli Burlero" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 90-91, "Lilliburlero" (1 text)
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 23-27, "Lilliburlero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Behan-IrelandSings, #43, "Lilli Bulero" (1 text, 1 tune, heavily modified)
DT, LILIBURL
ADDITIONAL:
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 441-443, 513, "Lillibulero"
Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 178-179, "Lilli Burlero" (1 text)
Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, pp. 110-111, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #3038
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, (Wood 417(168), A New Song [The first part of "Lill-li-burlero bullen a-la"] ("Ho brother Teague dost hear de decree") , unknown, [the date is illegible; see part 2];Wood 417(172), The second part of "Lill-li-burlero bullen a-la" ("There was an old prophesie found in a bogg") , unknown, "Printed in the Year 1688"); also Firth b.20(145), "A New Song" ("Ho brother Teague dost hear de decree"), unknown, see notes; Firth b.21(103), Harding B 5(33), A new song. Being a second part to the same tune of "Lillibullero" ("A treaty's on foot, look about English boys") (see notes for broadsides with a tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Overtures from Richmond" (tune)
cf. "There Was an Old Woman Tossed up in a Basket" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
My Thing Is My Own (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1181, DT THINGOWN; a piece entitled "A new ballad called Trapp or the Young Lasse" was entered into the Stationer's Register on March 1, 1675)
Overtures from Richmond (File: SCW46)
Bumpers, Bumbers, Flowing Bumpers (File: CrPS094)
There Was an Old Woman Tossed up in a Basket (File: OO2544)
You that love mirth, give ear to my song/Teague and Sawney (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3133)
The Martial drum no sooner did beat/The Couragious Soldiers of the West (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1757)
I have been long in Custody here/The Chancellors Resolution (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1282)
Come all ye Protestant Lads in the Land/The Protestants Delight, Or An Health to His Highness (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN515)
I'll sing ye a Song, if you'll pay me but for't/The Brandy-Bottle Plot (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1357)
We came into brave Reading by Night/The Reading Skirmish (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2745)
Protestant Boys, both valliant and stout/ Undaunted London-Derry (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2262)
Protestant Boys, good tydings I bring/Dublin's Deliverance..Surrender of Drogheda (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2263)
Protestant Boys now stand your Guard/The discovery of the New Plot (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2264)
You that a fair maids heart would obtain/Faint Heart never won fair Lady: Or, Good Advice to Batchelors (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3109)
Pray now attend and listen a while/The False-hearted Glover (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2235)
The Protestant subjects of England rejoice/ ..Kingdom's Joy for the Proclaiming King William (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2266)
I am a Lad that's come to the Town/West-Country Tom Tormented (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1201)
Sound up the Trumpet, beat up the Drum/The Protestant Courage..of Valiant Sea-men (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2391)
The coffee-house Trade is the best in the town/The City Cheat discovered (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN498)
Boys let us sing the Glory and Fame/Couragious Betty of Chick-Lane (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN427)
Hore-Belisha, Bludgeons and Blood (People's Parodies; Edward J. Cowan, _The People's Past_, p. 167)
"Buren, Buren, luckless Van Buren" (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 260)
NOTES [378 words]: The tune was used, under its own name, for an English country dance. A fragment of it is also played on the BBC World Service, 20 seconds before every hour. -PJS
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic report of this piece, "The words have been variously ascribed to Lord Wharton and Lord Dorset, but probably neither was the author. The tune is a harpsichord lesson by Purcell, printed... in... Musick's Handmaid, two years before Tyrconnel's appointment as Lord Deputy." They quote Percy, "[The piece] was written, or at least re-published, on the Earl of Tyrconnel's going a second time to Ireland, in 1688. 'Lilliburlero' and 'Bullen-a-lah' are said to have been words of distinction used among the Irish Papists in their massacre of Protestants, in 1641." (By contrast, William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 59, calls them "essentially gibberish, the sound of Gaelic to English ears.")
The appointment of Tyrconnel is explicitly mentioned in the song:
Ho brother Teague, dost hear de decree...
Dat we shall have a new deputie...
Ho, by my Soul, it is a Talbot.
Talbot is Richard Talbot (1630-1691), Earl of Tyrconnel since 1685, appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1687. He proceeded to "reform" the Irish army by removing its Protestant officers and increasing its size. Catholics were appointed to other positions as well. The Protestants, naturally, panicked; "Lilliburlero" is one sign of this.
According to Nettel, p. 112, "Teague" was the contemporary English slang for an Irishman, equivalent to "Paddy" in later centuries.
It is said that this song "whistled James II from his throne." (For background on this, see the notes to "The Vicar of Bray.") RBW
Broadside Bodleian Wood 417(168) has the tune.
Broadside Bodleian Firth b.20(145) has another tune and the annotation "Made upon ye Irish upon Tyrconnells goeing Deputy thither 25 Oct. 1688."
Sparling: "Generally attributed to Lord Wharton, but this has never been conclusively proved.... A copy printed in London, 1689, is in the British Museum." - BS
The rewrite printed by Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, which opens "When Venus the goddess of beauty and love" and sometimes known as "Nottingham Ale" is apparently Roud #22824. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: FR286

Lillie of the West, The

See The Lily of the West [Laws P29] (File: LP29)

Lillie Shaw

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the crowd gathered to see his execution "for the murder of Lillie Shaw, Who I so cruelly murdered And her body shamefully (?) burned." He recalls the crime, sees his parents in the crowd, and hopes for forgiveness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Henry, from the singing of Sofia Hampton)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution punishment gallows-confession
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 55-56, "Lillie Shull" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 308, "Lillie Shaw" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 306, "Lillie Shaw" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Roud #4627
RECORDINGS:
Yvonne "Mollie" Hicks (Hagie), Derek Piotr, "Lily Schull" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #172, recorded 05/11/2022, but the singer is prompted so heavily that it is not clear how much she actually remembered)
Bobby McMillon, "Lily Shull" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #12, recorded 08/14/2020)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pretty Fair Widow (Lillie Shaw)" (subject)
NOTES [54 words]: Although there are two songs on this subject, and this one at least spread enough to be collected three times, no one seems to have found details on the fates of Lillie Shaw and Jim Wilcox/E. B. Preston.
Frank Proffit, who supplied the Warner ballad, claimed the murder took place in the 1880s in Mountain City, Tennessee. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BrII208

Lillie Shull

See Lillie Shaw (File: BrII208)

Lillumwham

See The Maid and the Palmer [Child 21] (File: C021)

Lilly Dale

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas a calm still night and the moon's pale light Shone soft o'er hill and dale, When friends mute with grief" gather around Lilly Dale's deathbed. She asks to be buried near home, by a chestnut tree and stream.
AUTHOR: H. S. Thompson (1852) (source: Thompson-APioneerSongster)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1857 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.26(374)) [but note derivative song sheet dated 1853, LOCSheet sm1853 591360, "Grave of Lilly Dale"]
KEYWORDS: disease death burial
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 39, "Lilly Dale" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 291-292, "Lily Dale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1255, p. 86, "Lilly Dale" (1 reference)
Heart-Songs, p. 299, "Lilly Dale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #6, p. 5, "Lilly Dale" (1 text)
Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, p. 179, "Toll the Bell for Lilla Dale" (1 text, from the "Victoria Songster")
Roud #2819
RECORDINGS:
John McCready, "Lily Dale" (on AMMEM/Cowell; recorded 1939)
Asa Martin & Doc Roberts, "Lillie Dale" (American 5-11-63, 1934; on KMM])
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(374), "Lilly Da"" ("Twas a calm still night, and the moon's pale light "), H.F. Sefton (Worcester), 1844-1856; also Harding B 11(2674), Harding B 11(3148), Firth b.26(85), Harding B 40(26b), "Lilly Dale"; Harding B 11(938), Harding B 11(2131), "Lily Dale"
LOCSheet, sm1880 08165, "Lilly Dale," Oliver Ditson & Co. (Boston), 1880 (1 text, 1 tune)
LOCSinging, as107750, "Lilly Dale" ("'Twas a calm, still night, and the moon's pale light"), J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as107740, as107760, sb20280b, "Lilly Dale"
VonWalthour, CD Drive>l>l(37), "Lilly Dale" ("'Twas on a calm still night, and the moon's pale light"), H. De Marsan (New Yorke), 1861-1864
VonWalthour, CD Drive>l>l(38), "Lilly Dale" ("'Twas on a calm still night, and the moon's pale light"), J. Andrews, 1853-1859
VonWalthour, CD Drive>l>l(39), "Lilly Dale" ("'Twas on a calm still night"), Thomas G Doyle (Baltimore), no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Grave of Lilly Dale" (characters)
SAME TUNE:
Minnie ("When the sun's beaming high o'er the cloudless blue sky") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 97)
Poor Billy Vail. A Parody on "Lilly Dale" (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 128)
Some Love to Drink, A Popular Temperance Song (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 145)
NOTES [282 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(3148) ends with a verse that begins a different song, "The Grave of Lilly Dale" by Sidney Dyer: "We smoothed down the locks of her soft golden hair, And folded her arms on her breast, And laid her at eve in the valley so fair, 'Mid the blossoms of summer to rest." See
LOCSheet, sm1853 591360, "Grave of Lilly Dale," A. E. Jones and Co. (Indianapolis), 1853 (1 text, 1 tune). Another edition of this is LOCSinging, sb10139b, "The Grave of Lilly Dale" ("We smoothed down the locks of her soft golden hair"), J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as104830, sb10140a, "The Grave of Lilly Dale"
[For other broadside versions of "The Grave of Lilly Dale," see the list on p. 54 of Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963. It can also be found in Dime-Song-Book #2, p. 25 - RBW]
John McCready was recorded in Groveland, California in 1939.
Broadsides LOCSinging as107740 and VonWalthour CDDrive>l>l(37) appear to be the same edition.
Broadsides LOCSinging as107750 and VonWalthour CDDrive>l>l(38) appear to be the same edition.
Broadsides LOCSinging as107760 and VonWalthour CDDrive>l>l(39) appear to be the same edition.
Broadside LOCSinging as107750 and sb10139b (below) and VonWalthour CD Drive>l>l(38): J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadside VonWalthour CD Drive>l>l(37): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: TPS039

Liltin Ooral Ay

DESCRIPTION: "Liltin oo, ooral oo, Liltin ooral ay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1783, "Liltin Ooral Ay" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
NOTES [40 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Which, of course, will never be identified with any other song. Hard to imagine why it was printed on paper. Fortunately, we aren't on paper, so we aren't wasting any. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: GrD81783

Lily Dale

See Lilly Dale (File: TPS039)

Lily Fair Damsel, A

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Lily Lee

DESCRIPTION: (Nathan Gray) sets out across the sea to gain the money to marry (Lily/Lilla) Lee. One night he dreams that Lily is dead. He returns home in fear, to find that she has indeed died
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (LoC recording, David Rice)
KEYWORDS: separation love death travel
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 98, "Lily Lee" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 513-514, "Lily Lee" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 98B)
ST R098 (Full)
Roud #3268
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Lovel" [Child 75]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lila Lee
File: R098

Lily Munroe

See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Lily of Arkansas, The

See The Lowlands of Holland (File: R083)

Lily of Lake Champlain, The

DESCRIPTION: "Tis of as fair a landscape as ever you did see"; the singer loves Lake Champlain -- and Mary who lives by it. They agree to marry; he goes to sea. He meets Catherine and decides he prefers "the lovely rose of New York town not the lily of Lake Champlain"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Journal of the John Dawson)
KEYWORDS: love courting sailor abandonment rejection
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 328-329, "The Lily of Lake Champlain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25982
NOTES [41 words]: The description is based on the Huntington text, which Huntington regards as confused. I suspect that it has simply lost a verse or two in which the first girl changes her mind. There are a few more recent collections; I have not seen them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HGam328

Lily of the Lake

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes the beauties of Lake Champlain, then the beauty of fair Mary, who glides on its waters. He sits down by her, proposes to her; she accepts with a blinding smile -- "She is the lovely Mary, the Lily of the Lake."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: courting love beauty
FOUND IN: US(MA)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Lily of the Lake" (on PeteSeeger29)
NOTES [19 words]: This was only collected from tradition once, but it was from Yankee John Galusha, and that's good enough for me. - PJS
File: RcLotL

Lily of the West, The [Laws P29]

DESCRIPTION: The singer courts (Mary/Flora), only to see her courting another man. He stabs the other man to death. He is taken and sentenced, all the while saying that he loves the Lily of the West despite her betrayal
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Journal of the Champion)
KEYWORDS: homicide jealousy betrayal trial
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South,West)) Ireland US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Laws P29, "The Lily of the West"
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #58, "Flora the Lily of the West" (1 text, 2 tunes; the text has been bowdlerized)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 132-133, "The Lily of the West" (1 text plus reference to 1 more)
Randolph 145, "The Lily of the West" (3 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 13-14, "The Lillie of the West" (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 49, "The Lily of the West" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 267, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, with little of the plot remaining)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 113, "The Lily of the West" (1 fragment)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 85, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 148, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 135, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 54, "Lily of the West" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 219-220, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H578, pp. 416-417, "Flora, The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 40, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 133-136, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 93, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 473-474, "The Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 42, "Lily of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1256 & #1257, p. 86, "The Lily of the West" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 48 and #5/64, p. 48, "The Lily of the West" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 225, "Lily Of The West" (1 text)
DT 507, FLORAWST*
Roud #957
RECORDINGS:
Mr. and Mrs. Freeman Bennett, "The Lily of the West" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
W. Guy Bruce, "The Lily of the West" (on FolkVisions1)
Carmen McCord Hicks, "Handsome Mary (Lily of the West)" (Piotr-Archive #477, recorded 01/29/2023)
Evelyn Rumsey, "The Lily of the West" (on OldTrad1, FireMtns2)
Evelyn & Douston Ramsey, "The Lily of the West" (on FarMtns2)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(104), "The Lily of the West," W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 b.9(276), 2806 c.15(122), 2806 b.11(137), Harding B 19(15), "The Lily of the West"
LOCSinging, as107800, "The Lily of the West," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as107780, sb20280a, as107790, "The Lily of the West"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(87a), "Flora The Lily of the West," Poet's Box? (Dundee), c. 1880-1900
SAME TUNE:
Caroline Of Edinburgh Town (per broadsides Bodleian LOCSinging as107800, LOCSinging as107780, LOCSinging sb20280a)
NOTES [60 words]: OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 93 ends happily: "I then did stand my trial, and boldly I did plead, A flaw was in my indictment found and that soon had me freed."
Broadside LOCSinging as107800: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LP29

Lily Schull

See Lillie Shaw (File: BrII208)

Lily That Bends, The

See The Parting Kiss (The Lily that Bends) (File: Shoe047)

Lily White Robe

See Little White Robe (File: RcLWRobe)

Lily-White Flower

See Wallflowers (File: HHH048d)

Lily-White Hand, The

See Pretty Little Miss [Laws P18] (File: LP18)

Limadie

See Lemeney (Lemeday, Lemody, Lemminy) (File: CopSe260)

Limady

See Lemeney (Lemeday, Lemody, Lemminy) (File: CopSe260)

Limber Jim

DESCRIPTION: A long collocation of (often) floating verses, with recurrent themes of gambling, women, comparisons between black and white, "rebels," all in no apparent order, with a variable refrain including the words "Limber Jim" and the chorus response "Shiloh!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: gambling nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 593, "Limber Jim" (1 text)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 120-121, "(Shiloh)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Went to the River (I)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Buckeye Jim"
File: BMRF593B

Limbo

DESCRIPTION: "Many thousands I've spent on Rachel and Ruth... Bridget and Pegs." A rich uncle gets the singer out of limbo prison; he'd "put you once more on your legs" if he'd settle down. He shows the girls his money. They try to get it from him; he turns them away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3214))
KEYWORDS: prison rake family money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 124-125, "Once I Was Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 304-307, "The Spendthrift clapt into Limbo" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 272, "Spendthrift" (1 text)
ST CrMa124 (Partial)
Roud #969
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3214), "The Rakes Complaint in Limbo," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wild Rover No More" (theme)
cf. "The Wild Boy" [Laws B20] (theme)
NOTES [119 words]: Steve Gardham has this answer to my question as to whether there is/was a "Limbo Prison" (quoted with permission):
"No there was never a Limbo prison. The term applied to prisons evolved from the religious use of the word i.e. the medieval term for purgatory from Limbus Patrum. The leap isn't far from purgatory to prison if you think about it.
According to Partridge [The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang] the use of the word for a place of confinement dates from c1590. Partridge also gives other uses of the word:
a pawnshop c1690 to 1820,
female pudend 19thC,
bread- military late 19th century.
Roxburgh Ballads. Vol 8 p. 811 and Logan's Pedlar's Pack p. 304 have plenty to say on Limbo songs." - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: CrMa124

Lime Juice Tub, The

See The Limejuice Tub (File: MA140)

Lime Stone Water

DESCRIPTION: "Lime stone water and cedar wood, A kiss from you would do me good."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Henry, from Mary King)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 232, (second of several "Fragments from Tennessee") (1 fragment)
File: MHAp232B

Limejuice and Vinegar

See According to the Act (File: FaE042)

Limejuice Ship, The

See According to the Act (File: FaE042)

Limejuice Tub, The

DESCRIPTION: A sarcastic song about the ignorance of new chums just arrived in Australia. Recognized primarily by the chorus, "With a rowdem rowdem a rub a dub dub, We'll send you back (or "drive them back") to the limejuice tub."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: emigration humorous Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 140, "Rub-a-dub-a-dub" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 188-189, "The Whaler's Rhyme" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 124-125, "The Limejuice Tub" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 36-37, "Lime Juice Tub" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 108, "The Limejuice Tub (The Whalers' Rhyme)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 160-161, "The Limejuice Tub" (1 text plus a fragment possibly of this song)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, p. 13, "The Limejuice Tub" (1 short text)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 156, "(The Lime Juice Tub") (1 text)
Roud #22605
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Lime Juice Tub" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd10)
NOTES [39 words]: "Limejuice tubs" were British immigrant ships, so named after the lime juice used to prevent scurvy. (Ironically, the lime juice was usually lemon juice, but called "lime." A little propaganda to make it sound less sour, perhaps.) - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: MA140

Limerick is Beautiful (Colleen Bawn)

DESCRIPTION: The city of "Limerick is beautiful ... The girl I love ... lives in Garryowen, And is called the Colleen Bawn." If I were "Emperor of Russia ... Or Julius Caesar, or the Lord Lieutenant" I'd give up everything to have her be my bride.
AUTHOR: Dion Boucicault (1820-1890) ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (in play "The Colleen Bawn")
KEYWORDS: love lyric nonballad beauty Ireland courting rejection lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont) Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 12, "Limerick is Beautiful" (1 text)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 72, "Limerick is Beautiful" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 23-24, "Coleen Bawn" (1 text)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 34, "The Colleen Bawn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #16, p. 14, "The Colleen Bawn" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 15, "Limerick is Beautiful" (1 text)
Roud #3002
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Colleen Bawn (Limerick Is Beautiful)" (on Abbott1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(100), "Limerick is Beautiful", P Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; 2806 b.11(40), "Limerick is Beautiful"; also Harding B 26(101), "Colleen Bawn" ("Limerick is beautiful as every body knows")
LOCSinging, sb20290b, "Limerick is Beautiful!", H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck of the Varty" (tune)
cf. "Over Hills and Mountains" (theme: singer would give up the crown or great wealth he doesn't have for love)
SAME TUNE:
Limerick is Beautiful (Rebel Version ) (DT, LIMBEAUT)
NOTES [360 words]: Given how often most of the characters the singer envies were assassinated, I might be tempted to give up the job too. - RBW
Fowke notes that the song was included in Boucicault's play, and that he is therefore sometimes credited with authorship. A more literary version was penned by the Irish poet Michael Scanlan. - PJS
The song is from Dion Boucicault's play "The Colleen Bawn" which opened September 10, 1860 at the Adelphi Theatre, London [sources: Templeman Library University of Kent site "Richard Fawkes Dion Boucicault Collection" (gives attribution for "composer" as "Levey, R. M., Mr"; "The Adelphi Theatre 1806-1900" at Eastern Michigan University site for English Language and Literature).]
Broadside LOCSinging sb20290b includes the statement "Sung by Dan Bryant in the great Irish drama, the Colleen Bawn, at Wallack's Theatre, New-York."
"Garryowen (Garrai Eoin, 'the garden of Eoin') on the edge of the old city of Limerick Eoin is the older Irish form of the name John" (source: Odds and Ends from May 26, 2001 online edition issue Limerick Leader site)
Broadside LOCSinging sb20290b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
For background on Dion Boucicault, see the notes to "Cruiskeen Lawn."
Brian Miller suggests to me that Dean-FlyingCloud's song should not be linked with the "Limerick is Beautiful" texts, and points to several broadsides that are of his "Coleen Bawn" type. He probably has a point -- one of the broadsides is headed "The New Version of the Colleen Bawn," and neither it nor Dean's version mention the characters in "Limerick is Beautiful," nor Garryowen; the only places in it are Limerick and the Shannon. But this song seems to be rare, and the theme is similar; if a fragment turned up, it probably would not be clear which version it goes with. So I'm going to continue to keep them together for now, while being aware that there were two separate compositions. (With a fair chance that Dean's song is a recomposition of Boucicault's, or possibly the reverse.) Roud lumps them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OCon012

Limerick Races

DESCRIPTION: The singer, "a simple Irish lad," goes to Limerick to see the races. He hitches a ride on a coach and four but is thrown off for not paying. He tries to bet, selecting whatever horse finishes first. He enjoys a play when they sing "Paddy Carey"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2132))
KEYWORDS: travel gambling music humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1751, "The Braw Irish Lad" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 148, "Limerick Races" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1259, p. 86, "Limerick Races" (1 reference)
Roud #12871
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2132), "Limerick Races" ("I'm a simple Irish lad, I've resolved to see some fun, sirs"), Ryle and Paul (London), 1838-1859; also Harding B 11(2135), 2806 c.15(267), Firth c.19(84), Firth b.25(266), 2806 b.11(246), Firth b.26(276), "Limerick Races[!]"
LOCSinging, s107810, "Limerick Races" ("I'm a simple Irish lad, I've resolved to see some fun, sirs"), Hopkins (New Orleans), no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paddy Carey" (mentioned in this song)
NOTES [64 words]: Greig/Duncan8 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(2132) is the basis for the description.
Here is a "simple Irish lad" but not quite so simple as in "Paddy Backwards" and "Paddy's Ramble to London." One theme he does share with "Paddy's Ramble to London" is the coach trip abandoned for lack of funds. His adventures are mild and he comes off little the worse for them. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: GrD81751

Limerick Rake, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer brags of being a rake; his fancy is young women. Rich men die "among nettles and stones"; he wants to be like wise Solomon with 1000 wives who will cry at his wake. when he goes to the tavern, he's welcomed "where Bacchus is sportin' with Venus."
AUTHOR: words: Unknown; music: attributed to Robert Thompson
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.9(71))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer brags of being a rake; raised properly by his father and well educated, his main fancy is young women, whom he lists in great number -- he's in love with one from Arda. The money he spends on the girls causes his parents much chagrin. He says he's not inclined for riches; Rich men die "among nettles and stones" but he wants to be like wise Solomon with 1000 wives who, with their children, will cry at his wake. He will buy a cow that will never run dry, for riches won't last past the grave; when he goes to the tavern, he's welcomed "where Bacchus is sportin' with Venus." Macaronic refrain: "Agus fagaim id siud mar ata se"
KEYWORDS: courting sex bragging beauty money death Ireland foreignlanguage animal father rake humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 42, "The Limerick Rake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Behan-IrelandSings, #42, "The Limerick Rake" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
DT, LIMERAKE*
Roud #3018
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry & Michael Gorman, "The Limerick Rake" (on Barry-Gorman1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(71), "The Limrick Rake," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also Harding B 26(354), "The Limerick Rake"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vive la Compagnie" (on Bacchus & Venus line, otherwise unrelated)
SAME TUNE:
I'm Champion at Keeping 'Em Rolling (MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, p. 7; Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 233; Ewan MacColl, _Journeyman: An Autobiography_, re-edited and with an introduction by Peggy Seeger, 1990; revised edition, Manchester University Press, 2009, p. 344)
NOTES [256 words]: I believe the tune was used by Ewan MacColl for his song, "Champion at Keepin' 'em Rollin'"; Barry states that it was written by her grandfather, Robert Thompson, a famous piper. The Gaelic refrain translates as, "Leave it as it is," or, "Leave well enough alone." - PJS
The tune in fact has been much-used; recently, Ian Robb turned it into "Champion at Driving 'Em Crazy." The Digital Tradition, in fact, lists seven songs with this tune, though only one other, "The Pensioner's Complaint," has any any sort of traditional status. And it's listed as having two tunes, so it's not clear whether that affects Thompson's claim to authorship. We do note that he was unlikely to have been of "composing age" at the time the first broadsides were published.
MacColl in his autobiography, Journeyman: An Autobiography, re-edited and with an introduction by Peggy Seeger, 1990; revised edition, Manchester University Press, 2009, p. 344, says of his parody, "I'd spent a fair amount of time in transport caf's during my hitch-hiking days and my stint as an apprentice motor-mechanic had made me familiar with long-distance lorry-drivers talk. I had made up both songs for a BBC feature programme called Lorry Harbour, broadcast sometime between 1947 and 1949. During the next three or four years it became a popular piece among truck grivers and by 1960 it had gathered unto itself half a dozen new verses, mostly obscene." This would seem to imply that it has become traditional, but I have no proof of this other than MacColl's claims. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: DTlimera

Limerick Shanty, The

DESCRIPTION: Shanty or forebitter. Verses are in the form of limericks, and any limerick will do. Chorus: "Oh, the elephants walked around, and the band begins to play. And all the girls in Bombay town, were dressed in the rig of the day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sternvall's _Sang under Segel_)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Shanty or forebitter. Verses are in the form of limericks, and any limerick will do. Chorus: "Oh, the elephants walked around, and the band begins to play. And all the girls in Bombay town, were dressed in the rig of the day." The verses printed were fairly mild but one could easily see this turning into something like "The Good Ship Venus."
KEYWORDS: shanty humorous foc's'le wordplay
FOUND IN: Sweden Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 511-513, "The Limerick Shanty" (1 text plus fragments, 1 tune)
NOTES [92 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas found this in Sang under Segel, though he figures it was British in origin and was picked up by Swedish sailors, a practice which apparently was not unusual, given the number of English worded shanties sung on Scandinavian ships. One significant difference in practice however, is the use of many popular Victorian English "sea-songs." While these were sung ashore by British seamen, they rarely used at sea (and never as shanties), but the same songs were often sung at the capstan by Scandinavian and German sailors. - SL
File: Hugi511

Limey Sailor Song

DESCRIPTION: "For they came over the bounding main To fight their battles here.... They came the crown to stay, to save... but wimmen it was that ruint them all.... But there's no reason we should die for the want of a little liquor."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: drink sailor battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 131-134, "Limey Sailor Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27886
File: NiMo131

Limmer, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer has a hard-hearted jade. She hit him with a stool and a poker. He threatens to hang her. She goes to bed frightened and died. Her friends mourn but he has no tears and "wished them a joyful meetin'." He'll remain a widower.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage violence abuse death husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 30, ("I ance had a wife o' my ain") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1866, "The Limmer" (2 texts)
Roud #13584
NOTES [5 words]: A "limmer" is a scoundrel. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81866

Lincoln and Liberty

DESCRIPTION: From Lincoln's 1860 presidential campaign, to the tune of Rosin the Beau: "Hurrah for the choice of the nation! Our chieftain so brave and so true, We'll go for the great reformation, For Lincoln and Liberty too."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Hutchinson's Republican Songster for the Campaign of 1860l)
KEYWORDS: political derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1809 - Birth of Abraham Lincoln in Kentucky (hence the references to "the son of Kentucky")
1858 - Lincoln runs for Senator from Illinois against Stephen A. Douglas. Douglas won the election, but a series of debates between the two brought Lincoln to national attention
1860 - The Republicans, looking for a candidate who does not carry much baggage, nominate Lincoln for President. In a four-way race, Lincoln receives 40% of the popular votes and enough electoral votes to be elected President. The result is the Civil War
1864 - Lincoln re-elected President
1865 - Lincoln assassinated
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 167, "Lincoln and Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 364-365, "Lincoln and Liberty" (1 text)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 96-97, "Lincoln and Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, p. 75, "Lincoln and Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 50, "Lincoln and Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 40-41, "Lincoln and Libery" (1 text, filed under "Old Rosin, the Beau"; tune referenced)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 345-346, "Lincoln and Liberty, Too" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 292, "Lincoln and Liberty" (1 text)
DT, LINCLBRT*
ADDITIONAL: John W. Hutchinson, editor, "Hutchinson's Republican Songster for 1860," O. Hutchinson, 1860 (available on Google Books), pp. 71-72, "Lincoln and Liberty" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #6602
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Lincoln and Liberty" (on PeteSeeger28)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (tune) and references there
cf. "Lincoln Hoss and Stephen A." (subject)
cf. "Adams and Liberty" (concept)
cf. "Jefferson and Liberty" (concept)
NOTES [11448 words]: I have seen several authors (F. A. Simkins, Jesse Hutchinson) listed as writing these words. I think the matter must be considered uncertain. The publication in Hutchinson's Republican Songster does not list an author, which I think argues against Hutchinson.
Note that this song should not be confused with other songs in that songster such as "Lincoln and Victory."
To explain the complicated situation behind it requires a lot of history. Assuming you want the background, bear with me if it's quite a few words before I even mention the name "Lincoln."
Most histories of the Civil War, quite properly, begin some time around the end of the Mexican War, because this is when the sectional conflicts over slavery started to really tear the country apart. But it wasn't sectional rivalry that elected Lincoln; it was party division. And that division was due largely to the fact that the parties of the mid-nineteenth century were still very fragile things.
It all really started with the War of 1812. This was, in some very real ways, almost a civil war as well as a foreign war. New England, with its economy built upon the sea, hated the war with Britain, even though it was the part of the country that had suffered most of the insults inflicted by the British Navy.
The internal struggle in 1812 fell largely along party lines. The two factions which had existed since the passing of the Constitution were the Federalists, with a relatively strong concept of the power of the government, and the Jeffersonians ("Republicans," but not the same party as the current Repubican party) with a much more limited notion of government. And New England, which opposed the war, was almost entirely Federalist in politics.
But the country was governed by the Republicans, based in the South and with little reliance upon trade at sea. They were the ones who declared the war -- and nearly destroyed the young nation in the process, since they utterly bungled both finances and military strategy. By the end, so bitter was the conflict that Federalist New England was holding an event called the "Hartford Convention" which at least considered withdrawing from the Union (Hickey, pp. 270-281, with the results of the Convention itself occupying pp. 277-278).
But then the war ended. The Americans didn't win -- the two sides essentially called it all off on the basis of the status quo. The wreck of the U.S. government finances proved that the Federalists had in fact been mostly right. But Americans *felt* they had won -- and the Federalists were the party of the Hartford Convention, which in the wake of "victory" looked like near-treason. Plus the Jeffersonians had found themselves unable to manage the country on their strictly hands-off basis, and came to adopt more and more Federalist-type measures (Schlesinger, p. 19).
Between having little left to distinguish it from the Republicans and having the stain of lack of loyalty, the Federalist party died (Hickey, p. 308) -- died so fast that, five years after the war, James Monroe was re-elected with 231 out of 232 electoral votes, and I've heard that it would have been 232 out of 232 except that a New Hampshire elector disliked Monroe (Schlesinger, p. 19) and felt that no President except George Washington should be elected unanimously (for the electoral vote breakdown, see e.g. the Hammond Atlas, p. U-58). There was a feeble attempt to form a "Tertium Quid," or third party, in the original Jefferson mold, but it failed completely (Schlesinger, pp. 20-21).
For a dozen years after 1816, there were no real political parties as such; everyone was a Republican of one stripe or another. Then Andrew Jackson was elected in 1828 (he had nearly won in 1824; he led the popular vote but did not have a majority of the electoral votes, and the House made John Quincy Adams president), and *he* roused opposition (HoltWhig, p. 17, etc.; Schlesinger, pp. 3-7, describes the near-panic in Washington as Jackson prepared to assume the presidency). Indeed, the opposition party which formed in the years after that came to be called Whigs because the British Whigs were generally the anti-Monarchy party, and American Whigs opposed "King Andrew."
The Democratic (Jacksonian) party was never as united as it is sometimes portrayed; there were always factions such as "barnburners," "hunkers," and "locofocos" within it (see, e.g., Schlesinger, p. 398), and it was always possible that they would split off. What held the party together was that the government, inefficient in most other ways, was very good at patronage (see the sweeping indictment of the "spoils system" in Nevins1847, pp. 173-181, which demonstrates how government offices were handed out based on favors, not competence). What kept the nation together was the fact that these potential splinter parties were not truly widespread movements; if New York barnburners, say, tried to separate from the United States, they could not take a block of states with them. The most they could do was hijack the party.
A hijack of "the Democracy," as the Democratic party came to be called, might have happened had the opposition been weaker -- or stronger. But the Whigs never really managed to produce a coherent ideology any more than the Jacksonians did. The Whigs had some common opinions -- support for internal improvements, e.g. -- but on most other issues they had contradictions. For example, although theoretically the anti-war party (Jackson had been elected in part based on his wars against various Indian tribes, including the Creeks and Cherokees, and the Mexican War was started by Democrats), the only two Presidents the Whigs elected (William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor) were both generals.
Meanwhile, the South's pro-slavery attitude was hardening. As late as 1830, there were still significant numbers of southerners who opposed slavery, or at least wanted to see it restricted. But then came Nat Turner's rising. The rising failed quickly, with the participants almost all killed (Vandiver, p. 5) -- but the brought home to southerners the truth that there *could* be a slave rebellion. Ever after, the great fear of southerners was another Santo Domingo, where slaves succeeded in overthrowing their masters.
There was also John C. Calhoun. Originally a strong nationalist with a desire for internal improvements, in the 1820s he started spending more time in his home of South Carolina, and he started beating the drums of sectionalism (Schlesinger, pp. 52-54). Later, for purely personal reasons, he came to resent the northern Democrats who had thwarted his presidential hopes and supported Martin Van Buren (Schlesinger, pp. 54-55, shows just how vicious Calhoun became in this vendetta). And he was so strong an intellect, and so widely respected, that his opinions swayed even those who did not agree with him.
He had also changed how leaders were selected: "With General Jackson, I put the Congressional caucus system under foot, but I did not expect to see this monstrous system of national conventions take its place" (Nevins1847, p. 194). National political conventions, and their platforms, have obviously survived, but at this time the rules were still fluid and the results highly unpredictable (HoltWhig, p. 293) -- except for the certainty of pandering. There was a sense that "party dictation meant slavery" (HoltWhig, p. 32), so the strongest leaders did little to bind the parties to themselves or themselves to the parties.
By the 1840s, the Whigs were discovering that they just didn't have any answers on the question of slavery. And that oh-so-Democratic war, the Mexican War, made the problem worse, because suddenly the United States gained a lot of southern land -- Texas, California, plus lands in between containing most of what is now Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and more -- that had to be opened to slavery or kept as free soil (Mexico, unlike the U.S., banned slavery categorically, though its peonage system looked very like slavery to some observers).
Theoretically, the problem shouldn't have arisen. President Polk, who started the Mexican War, had campaigned on the platform of annexing Texas *and* a large part of what is now western Canada ("Fifty four forty or fight!"). Had he gained all the territory he wanted, he would have added as much northern territory (that is, north of the 36 30' Missouri Compromise line -- land which clearly would not accommodate slavery) as southern.
But, not wanting to fight two wars at once, Polk had compromised with Britain on the Oregon/Canada business, meaning that he brought in less northern territory than expected -- but the Mexican War took over all the expected southern land and then some. So Polk had supplied less free territory, and more slave territory, than anticipated. This led to charges of bad faith on the part of northwesterners (Nevins1847, p. 7).
The worst of it was that it potentially upset the balance of power in the Senate. California and New Mexico were thought to be mostly desert areas, which would always have small populations -- but they would have lots and lots of Senators (eight to ten, under the territorial arrangement envisioned at the time; Nevins1847, p. 21).
William Lowndes Yancey, who thirteen years later would be more responsible than anyone else for splitting the Union, made matters worse: His "Alabama Resolutions" called for repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 so as to open all the territories to slavery (Nevins1847, p. 12). Already he was threatening secession if he didn't get what he wanted.
It's interesting that, at this time, few called the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional; it had passed by a margin of three to one, with no questions about its legality (Nevins1847, pp. 26-27). It had generally been agreed that Congress could legislate slavery in the Territories -- until that started to threaten the Peculiar Institution.
Ironically, it was a Democrat, David Wilmot, who introduced the Wilmot Proviso, intended to bar slavery from the territories captured in the War (HoltWhig, p. 251); in this regard, it modeled itself on the great Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (Nevins1847, p. 9) -- something that, in theory, should have made it appeal to conservative Democrats. But it was anti-slavery Whigs who became devoted to it.
This proved an elaborate form of party suicide. The Whigs won the election of 1848 with Zachary Taylor as their candidate, but the process of electing him caused much damage to the party, which broke into "Cotton Whigs" and "Conscience Whigs" (the latter basically pro-Wilmot Proviso and anti-slavery; Nevins1847, pp. 201-202). In 1850, the Whigs lost ground in congress. And then they had to pick a presidential candidate for 1852. It took them 53 ballots to nominate someone, and the division was almost entirely sectional (McPherson, p. 116). They finally set aside sitting president Millard Fillmore (who had alienated the Free Soil forces by enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law) to endorse Winfield Scott (Nevins1852, pp. 28-30). He was, in a way, a compromise, but after the nomination, many southern Whigs abandoned the party (McPherson, p. 118).
(Perhaps the best way to demonstrate the Whig confusion is simply to look at their election record. The Whigs contested five elections, those of 1836-1852. In their worst election, that of 1852, four states gave their electoral votes to the Whigs. All four of those states had voted Whig in every presidential election involving a Whig. The four states? Kentucky, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and Vermont; Hammond Atlas, pp. U-58, U-59. Since the latter two were among the strongest against slavery, and the former two were slave states, the problem is evident.)
Even as the Whigs were struggling over a nominee, Democrats were uniting behind Franklin Pierce. (The Democratic convention of 1852 would how chaotic the convention system could be: The convention was deadlocked after many ballots, with Lewis Cass and James Buchanan the clear favorites. The Buchanan forces then tried a strange strategy of putting up what they thought were straw men, to be quickly defeated. The idea apparently was to convince Cass delegates that there was no other alternative to Buchanan -- that Buchanan was the only candidate in the field who could draw wide support. Instead, on ballot #49, the convention precipitated around Pierce; Nevins1857, pp. 18-20; HoltPierce, pp. 41-32.)
This tendency for a deadlocked convention to crystalize around a dark horse is not unusual; it happened again, e.g., in 1880, when a deadlock between Grant and Blaine resulted in the nomination of James A. Garfield (PresElections, pp. 1492-1497), and something vaguely similar had happened in the case of the first "dark horse," James K. Polk, in 1844 (Siegenthaler, pp. 82-85). (Of course, the current system, in which the convention does nothing except use up a lot of fossil fuels ratifying what is already decided, is hardly better.) The problem was, Pierce was a non-entity -- "arguably the most handsome man ever to serve as president of the United States" (HoltPierce, p. 1), with a good memory for faces and facts, but short-sighted, possibly a drunkard, and very likely a man who put party unity ahead of the good of the country (HoltPierce, p. 3).
Nevins1852, p. 32, notes great glee on the Democratic side: "the main reason for Democratic exuberance was that the party had patched up its slavery quarrels, while the Whigs had not." And, indeed, though Scott picked up a respectable vote total, the election was a blowout. HoltWhig, p. 758, gives a table analyzing the election of that year; so bad was the rout that, in Alabama and Mississippi, the Whig percent of the vote dropped by more than half. It was "the most stunning defeat in the party's history" (HoltWhig, p. 754). They won only 44% of the popular vote, and only 42 out of 296 electoral votes, against the vacuous Pierce. Their representation in congress fell dramatically, too -- the Democrats gained two-thirds of the seats in the House, and nearly two-thirds of the Senate (McPherson, p. 119).
No wonder that Alexander Stephens declared, "The Whig party is dead" (McPherson, p. 118). By 1854, even the corpse was collapsing; battered not only by slavery, but by an anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant backlash prompted in part by the Irish famines, and even by the temperance movement (McPherson, p. 135), splinters broke off the Whigs in all directions. HoltWhig, p. 838 says that the "congressional, state, and local elections between August 1854 and December 1855 were the most labyrinthine [and] chaotic... in all of American political history." They would be followed, two elections later, by the most labyrinthine presidential election.
Unfortunately, President Pierce was a failure. It's not that he was completely incompetent; had he been in a position such as the Queen of England, who at this time had an important role in forming governments though she did not rule directly (similar to the President of Israel today, say), he might have done good work. What he could not do was be a fair umpire between North and South. Nevins1852, p. 43, notes, "Pierce, taking up the reins of office in 1853, had a clear choice between two line of policy and unhesitantly took the weaker and more convenient." That is, he could have supported the Compromise of 1850 with all his might (or perhaps proposed a workable alternative) -- but instead he just tried to drift along.
Pierce's policies did nothing to endear him or his party to a broad base -- he alienated the west by opposing any and every form of internal improvement, plus he tried to avoid sectional conflict by giving in freely to Southern agitation (HoltPierce, pp. 53-54). As a result, even the most extreme Southerners viewed him as a friend (HoltPierce, p. 96) -- hardly something which would gain him northern support. In consequence, his party refused to renominate him in 1856 (HoltPierce, pp. 102-105) -- a unique occurrence in this period. He had turned so pro-Southern that the residents of his home town actually burned him in effigy (HoltPierce, p. 102).
HoltPierce, p. 122, comments that "Pierce understood southerners' temperament far better than Lincoln and most Republicans." This is undoubtedly true -- and, as a result, Pierce gave in to them. What Pierce clearly did *not* understand was northerners' temperament, even though he came from New Hampshire.
Pierce's cabinet was curious -- it was full of able men like Secretary of War Jefferson Davis and Secretary of State William L. Marcy, but they had no coherent policy; in effect, the Cabinet became a parliament of independent duchies rather than a government (Nevins1852, pp. 45-48). HoltPierce, p. 48, thinks Pierce constructed the cabinet solely to balance sectional and factional interests. "And when a brilliant young Alcibiades grasped the leadership that Nicias did not exercise, Pierce had to fall in behind a chariot that was being driven headlong toward the ruin of the Administration" (Nevins1852, p. 44).
But at least the Democrats were still theoretically in charge in the 1850s, which allowed them to survive. By 1856, the prediction of Alexander Stephens was proved correct: the Whigs were dead (they held a convention of sorts in that year -- but instead of nominating a candidate, they simply endorsed Know-Nothing candidate Fillmore; RandallDonald, p. 104. It was their last act). With their party evaporated, former Whigs had to decide which way to go. Those who accepted slavery almost all turned Democratic.
But northern Whigs founded a new party, devoted to opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Pierce administration (HoltPierce, p. 99). It might have been called "Free Soil" (there was a "Free Soil" splinter party in 1852), or the "Liberty" party, or even "Wilmotite" party -- but the name they ended up with was "Republican."
The anti-immigrant Know-Nothings (who by now were calling themselves the "American" party) also started to fracture in 1856. Northern Know-Nothings nominated Nathaniel P. Banks (the Speaker of the divided House, and a future thoroughly inept Civil War general) even as the southerners nominated Millard Fillmore, and Banks then withdrew in favor of the Republican candidate John C. Frémont (who had gotten the spot mostly because he carried no political baggage). In 1856, this split in the Know-Nothings helped the Democrats -- but in the longer term, it cemented the Republicans as the "other" party (McPherson, pp. 153-155).
The Republicans stood for a number of things -- e.g. most of them, as former Whigs, believed in a strong program of internal improvements. But they stood for one thing unequivocally: An absolute prohibition on slavery in the territories (Nevins1857, pp. 410-411; he claims this as the moderate position of Lincoln, as opposed to the more radical Seward, who considered the party's dominant idea to be "the equality of men before human tribunals and laws." Lincoln and the moderate Republicans wanted to fence in slavery so that it could not grow; the more radical wing of the part was for more or less immediate abolition).
Even the moderate position -- no slavery in the Territories -- was unacceptable in the South. It threatened slavery twice. It threatened it politically because, if all those territories became free states, they would eventually become numerous and populous enough to amend slavery out of the Constitution.
But the real threat, as some realized at the time, was economic. The southern economy was built around "King Cotton" -- and cotton ruined the soil. (This apart from the fact that mass cotton production meant the Southerners were falling into the economic trap of putting all their eggs in one raw material. The South, even as the planters built their mansions, was growing poorer in both absolute and relative terms. The planters were forever in debt, and there was no capital for the non-planters to build decent farms or anything else. Really, by 1860, the South was a colony of the British and New England textile mills; cf. Catton-Coming, p. 84; also McPherson, p. 95, which notes that there were more cotton spindles in Lowell, Massachussetts alone than in *all eleven future Confederate states combined*.)
Even had the South wanted to change -- and some did; the well-respected DeBow's Review, e.g., was always calling for more industry (McPherson, p. 96) -- the economy was ill-structured for change. All the capital was absorbed in land and slaves (McPherson, p. 97; Vandiver, p. 4 says that slaves alone "represented no less than a third of the section's wealth"). But, somehow, the South failed to realize that they were turning their fate over to their perceived enemies. Cotton consumption was growing so fast that the South took to the golden treadmill (the same treadmill that today keeps Saudi Arabia what it is).
William H. Seward was not simply being an anti-slavery man when he wrote that southern territory consisted of "exhausted soil, old and decaying towns, wretchedly-neglected roads, and, in every respect, an absence of enterprise and improvement" (Foner, p. 41). The poverty of slave territory was clear to all who saw it.
Seward apparently thought this entirely a moral effect -- slavery causing the decay. Not really; it was the cotton itself. A sufficiently smart owner could mitigate this -- Edmund Ruffin, who would later fire the first shot at Fort Sumter, had shown that marl (consisting largely of old seashells, and rich in calcium and magnesium) could replenish soil fertility. It didn't matter. Most plantation owners were too foolish to engage in scientific farming (these are, after all, people who thought slaveholding a *desirable* state -- RandallDonald, p. 107, quotes Albert Gallatin Brown: "That slavery is a blessing to the masters is shown by simply contrasting a Southern gentleman with a Northern abolitionist. One is courageous, high-bred, and manly. The other is cowardly, low-flung, and sneaking." Nevins1859, p. 126, cites R. M. T. Hunter, "the very keystone of this arch [the Union] consists of the black marble cap of African slavery; knock that out, and the mighty fabric, with all that it upholds, topples and tumbles to its fall"). Since slavery ruined the land it was on, these upholders of the Peculiar Institution saw the only way slavery could survive was if new land was opened to the slaveholders.
Catton argues that there was another reason why the South clung to slavery: It meant they could avoid the issue of what to do with the former slaves (Catton-Coming, pp. 85-86). Certainly it was a problem we're still struggling with; at the time, even liberals like Lincoln thought the best solution was sending the slaves to found colonies outside the U.S. Many states, north and south, refused to let free Blacks live there. It was a time when racism was so ingrained that no one questioned it. Foner, indeed, argues that many Republicans were not against slavery in the territories because they upposed slavery but because the Whites in the north wanted to make sure plantation culture didn't take over the land -- these Republicans wanted it for themselves, not for the plantation-owners (Foner, p. 61).
The decline of slavery had, in fact, already taken place in many slave states. Delaware in 1860 had a population roughly 20% Black -- but 19,723 of those Blacks were free and only 1798 slaves; the number of slaves had significantly declined in the last decade (RandallDonald, pp. 4-5), and by 1860 there were only 111 households left with five or more slaves (RandallDonald, p. 68). Maryland's Blacks were almost half free (Nevins1859, p. 488). Virginia still had plenty of slaves, but relatively few real plantations; to a significant extent, slavery persisted there to breed slaves for the cotton states (McPherson, p. 102).
But the truly ridiculous situation was Kansas. The state had fought a low-grade civil war for half a dozen years over the issue of slavery, and had (with some conniving from Missouri and Federal authories) tried to join the Union as a slave state -- but the 1860 census showed exactly *two* slaves resident in the region (RandallDonald, p. 99).
It didn't help that, in the decade of the 1850s, there had been all sorts of irritants between the regions -- California, Kansas/Nebraska, the doctrine of Popular Sovereignty, John Brown, the filibusterers (southerners who took semi-private invading forces into places like Nicaragua or Cuba hoping to capture more territory for slavery), physical violence in the Senate (Senator Charles Sumner had made a speech attacking South Carolina's Andrew Butler. Butler's nephew Preston Brooks answered by entering the Senate and beating Sumner unconscious with his cane. Sumner needed four years to recover, but his state refused to replace him; Brooks was easily re-elected; Current/Williams/Freidel, p. 398).
None of these actually affected the electoral situation in the slightest, so I won't detail them. What mattered was that every one of them led to more distrust between South and North.
Plus people no longer trusted the Supreme Court. As early as the 1840s, during the debate over the Texas territories, there was an attempt (the "Clayton Compromise") to turn the whole issue over to the courts. This failed; too many people thought the courts unreliable. And then, right after the Election of 1856, came the infamous Dred Scott decision, in which the courts upheld the Southern position in almost every particular -- no compromise, and no limits on the right to slavery. The North was outraged. The reservoir of national goodwill built up since the end of the War of 1812 was completely used up.
You will sometimes hear people claim that secession was not about slavery; it was about States' Rights. This is entirely false, as the above information clearly shows. But this does not mean States' Rights was trivial. On the contrary, the belief in States' Rights was what allowed the South to secede: They felt they were *entitled* to secede -- that each state was sovereign and had the right to leave the Union. The Constitution was, one might say, a treaty which might be revoked at any time, not a binding contract (cf. Nevins1859, pp. 329-331). The distinction is subtle but real: The South did not secede *in defense of* States' Rights but *because they believed in* their possession of States' Rights.)
It should be noted that this principle was never properly tested. The Constitution does not mention secession. The principle could have been taken to the Supreme Court -- e.g. President Buchanan could have sought an opinion on the matter when South Carolina pulled out. With a southern-dominated court led by Roger B. Taney of Dred Scott infamy, it is hard to guess how they might have ruled. But no one did so -- in the thousand pages of Hall, there is no article on secession, no court case about it, not even a mention of it in the index. The whole thing reminds me a lot of the Book of Judges: "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes" (21:25 and parallels).
This was the more so because the period had seen the passing of the last men who remembered the founding of the United States. Andrew Jackson died in 1845. John C. Calhoun followed in 1850, and Henry Clay and Daniel Webster in 1852. The leaders who had held the nation together for thirty years were all gone. So it was more or less accepted: If a Republican became President, the South would leave the Union.
In the place of the great leaders of the second generation there arose -- Stephen A. Douglas.
Catton-Coming, p. 6, sums up the man brilliantly: "Senator Douglas was a man about whom no one could be indifferent. He was either a remorseless scheming politician or a hero defending eternal truth, the appraisal depending partly on the observer's point of view and partly on what Douglas himself was up to at the moment. As a scheming politician he had opened the door for the great tempest in Kansas and now he was standing in the wind's path, defying the storm and those who had made it; a man who could miscalculate drastically but who would not under pressure run away from what he had done. Very few men either hated or admired him just a little. A passionate man himself, he evoked passion in others, in his friends and in his enemies."
Except for the Dred Scott decision, there was very little that happened in the 1850s that he had not influenced. First chosen for the Senate in 1847, he made a reputation for himself three years later. It was Henry Clay the Whig who put together the Compromise of 1850, but Clay was too old to put in the effort to push it through, and it was Douglas the Democrat who had gotten it passed (McPherson, p. 75; RandallDonald, p. 97). Yet, just a few years later, for reasons which seem completely inadequate, he in effect, ruined the Compromise -- and even the 1820 Missouri Compromise -- with his actions regarding Kansas (RandallDonald, pp. 94-95; Holt-Pierce, p. 79, believes the reason was that Douglas and President Pierce thought the Democratic Party needed an issue to rally around. They expected a party conflict; they got a sectional conflict. Sort of the nineteenth century equivalent of Brexit).
By 1858, Douglas was the most important figure in the country, not excepting President Buchanan, but he was widely regarded as being in trouble in his run for re-election to the Senate (Nolan, p. 133). His attitudes had turned the administration against him to the extent that the White House faction tried to run another Democrat in Illinois to make it a three-way contest (Nevins1857, p. 351), which would naturally have led to a Republican landslide. To this end, they were brutal to Douglas supporters in the state (Nevins1857, p. 372). In the view of Nevins, it made the 1858 Senate contest much more than an ordinary Senate race. Potentially it would decide the direction of the Democratic party -- and with it the nation.
Douglas managed to halt Buchanan insurgency (though naturally the administration never gave him any support), but found himself being trailed around the state by his Republican opponent Abraham Lincoln (Nolan, pp. 135-137). To stop the "stalking," he agree to a series of seven debates, organized by congressional districts.
Not all the debates were memorable or even particularly honest; Nevins1857, pp. 385-386, for instance, talks of the Charleston debate as almost a case of political trickery, and says that its "shadowboxing was unworthy of such men." But the Galesburg debate asked a question still worth asking today. Douglas, declaring Republicanism to be a sectional doctrine, declared that "no political creed is sound which cannot be proclaimed freely in every State of this Union." To which Lincoln wondered if the true test of the doctrine was whether people would not let it be proclaimed everywhere (Nevin1857, p. 387). This was the ultimate difference between the two: Lincoln had a much stronger belief in a higher law. Douglas held as his highest principle popular sovereignty: true democracy (as long as you were male and white and an American citizen and, probably, protestant); Nevins1857, p. 390.
The key was the second debate, at Freeport in northern Illinois. The Dred Scott decision, annulling the Missouri Compromise, allowed Lincoln to put Douglas on the spot: Was there *any* way the people of a territory could exclude slavery in the wake of the Supreme Court's action? Douglas, never one to dodge an issue, formally stated an opinion he had informally held for years (Nevins1857, p. 381). Now known as the Freeport Doctrine, his position was that the Federal government *could not* impose slavery on people, because they would simply not enforce it (Catton-Coming, p. 7; Current/Williams/Freidel, pp 402-403).
Historians -- most of them, of course, anti-slavery -- generally think that Lincoln won his "debates" with Douglas (McPherson, p. 187). Certainly it was the Republican party that distributed tens of thousands of copies (Nevins1859, p. 394).
But the debates and the Freeport Doctrine won "The Little Giant" re-election to the Senate -- just barely. RandallDonald, p. 120, implies that this was partly a result of out-of-date and perhaps gerrymandered district boundaries; Democratic parts of Illinois carried more legislative seats than they were due. (Recall that, at this time, Senators were elected by the state legislatures.)
Nevins1857, pp. 396-398, says that Republican legislative candidates won 125,275 votes; Douglas Democrats 121,090, with the Buchanan Democrats picking up a pitiful 5,071 votes. The map in Nevins1857, p. 397, shows county-by-county totals, with Lincoln taking every county north of roughly Peoria, Douglas winning all but three in the south (roughly below Effingham), and the east-central counties supporting Lincoln while the west-central went mostly to Douglas. (It's an amazing map. Apart from those three Lincoln counties in the south, each candidate had one solid mass; there was no checkerboard border such as we usually see in sectional elections).
McPherson, pp. 187-188, has Democrats winning 51 of 54 southern Illinois districts and Republicans winning 42 of 48 in the northern part of the state. It added up to a legislature that gave Douglas 54 votes for the Senate seat and Lincoln 46.
It was, however, a rather pyrrhic victory: Douglas had won Illinois -- but 1858 was otherwise a devastating election for the Democrats. While Republicans had not won sole control of congress (resulting in a second many-month battle over who would be Speaker), they had become the largest party in the House: 109 Republicans, 101 Democrats (only 32 of them from the north, down from 56 in 1856; McPherson, p. 188), 26 Know-Nothings, and one stubbornly self-declared Whig (Catton-Coming, p. 13).
What's more, the cracks in the Democratic party were showing. While it was still officially a unity, it was divided into two factions: The Douglas faction and the Administration faction which followed Buchanan (and his several southern advisors). And the South hated Douglas. Intent on States' Rights when that meant slavery, Southerners would not accept States' Rights when that meant free soil.
Administration supporters were known as "Lecompton men," after the Lecompton Constitution fraudulently foisted on Kansas. Nevins1857, p. 402, notes that "It was significant that nearly all Northern Congressmen who had supported the bill at the Directory's [i.e. the Administration's] behest had run pell-mell for cover as soon as they faced the voters.... Wherever Lecompton was a direct issue, the popular vote was decisive. In Buchanan's own State, for example, ten Lecompton Representative went down; two beaten for renomination, eight for election." Pandering to the South meant defeat in the north -- but failing to give in to the South meant the threat of secession.
Even churches were splitting over the issue; Vandiver, p. 10, notes the formation of the Methodist Church, South and the Southern Presbyterian Church in this period.
Ironically, the pro-Douglas, anti-Lecompton Democrats were not worried; Nevins1857, p. 403, notes "exultant as the Republicans were [after the 1858 elections], the popular sovereignty Democrats were happier still." They thought that their success would bring the rest of the Democratic party in line behind them. In fact, all they had won was gridlock: "A feeble president, the captive of a self-willed faction of his party, now repudiated by the North; a divided Congress which faced a certain deadlock on any important legislation; a Supreme Court discredited in half the nation [by the Dred Scott decision] -- such would be the government of the next two years" (Nevins1857, p. 404). With the nation completely leaderless, is it any wonder that southern fire-eaters were maturing plans for secession?
Indeed, in some ways, the rebellion started even before the Civil War. Many Northerners had long resisted enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law (a behavior which, when you think about it, was largely an expression of the Freeport Doctrine. But no one -- not even Douglas -- seems to have looked at it that way).
The South was coming up with its own answer: In the good old days when everyone had wanted slavery to die out, North and South had agreed to pass a ban on further importation of African slaves; all future slaves would be the children of existing slaves. Now, with slavery regarded as a positive good rather than an evil to be tolerated, plantation owners wanted to re-start the importation of slaves. And there were plenty of vile sailors willing to do their bidding. Some slipped through the (obviously quite loose) blockade intended to prevent this. Some crews were caught by the American navy. But when brought to trial in the South, juries refused to convict them even when the slavers were clearly guilty of atrocities (Nevins1857, pp. 433-437). (There was also agitation to make the trade legal; it's hard to say which was more disgusting. But, of course, both inflamed anti-slavery sentiment in the North.)
President Buchanan also promoted an attempt to annex Cuba -- something Spain would never voluntarily allow; it was just another irritant to northern anti-slavery forces, since Cuba was already slave territory and would strengthen pro-slavery forces (Nevins1857, pp. 448-450).
And then came 1860, and its presidential election. Douglas was the great issue. He was too powerful to ignore and too hated to be generally acceptable. It showed in the run-up to the 1860 presidential conventions: Douglas was the only true candidate on the Democratic side (Catton-Coming, p. 6; Nevins1859, p. 209, notes that various anti-Douglas politicians supported vice president Breckinridge, or secretary Guthrie, or Senator Hunter, or even Andrew Johnson. Several of these men, ironically, would stay with the Union).
Even had they stayed united, the Democrats had other problems, as the election of 1856 had shown. It had looked like a blowout in the electoral college -- President Buchanan had earned 174 of 296 electoral votes, or 59%. But a glance at the actual results (see e.g. p. U-59 of the Hammond Atlas) shows a different picture: There had been three candidates: Buchanan, the Democrat; Frémont, the Republican; and Fillmore, the "American" (the official name for the Know-Nothings, but which actually translated as the anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic party). Buchanan had won only 45% of the popular vote (only 41% in the north, according to McPherson, p. 162), with Frémont taking 33% and Fillmore 22%. It was southern electoral votes which had put Buchanan in office, and Southerners, as it proved, would make sure Buchanan knew he owed them.
And the Republican party in 1856 was brand-new and had little national organization; only a few states had a significant apparatus. It had clearly grown stronger in the years since 1856, when a battle over the house speakership had forced its congressional delegation to cooperate (McPherson, p. 144).
Plus the election was followed by the Panic of 1857, which shattered the economy; the after-effects were still being felt in 1860. It was hardly Buchanan's fault -- Current/Williams/Freidel, p. 399, blame it mostly on a decline in demand for American products after the end of the Crimean War -- but of course Presidents and their party are always blamed for the state of the economy.
There was every expectation Republicans would improve their showing in 1860 (which incidentally pretty well ruined the idea of a running a split Democratic ticket, as the Whigs had tried in the 1830s: If no candidate won the electoral vote, resulting in the election going to the House of Representatives, the House would very likely elect the Republican. Indeed, Douglas himself declared that he would not allow such an outcome: "before it shall go into the House, I will throw it to Lincoln" -- CattonRoads, p. 232; Nevins1859, p. 285).
Then, too, there was the distribution of votes in 1856. Frémont has won New York, all of New England, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Only five free states -- California, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania (which was Buchanan's home state) -- had gone for Buchanan. Already it was a sectional contest: Buchanan versus the Republican candidate Frémont in the north and against the Know-Nothing Fillmore in the south (McPherson, p. 157). The Democrats won only by taking all of the South and a little in the North. If they lost ground in either section, they were doomed.
And the electoral balance continued to tilt northward. Two states (Oregon and Minnesota) had joined the Union since 1856; the latter was almost certain to go Republican, and they had at least a chance for the former. In 1860, if the Republicans could hold the states they had won in 1856, win the two new states, and take Pennsylvania plus any one of the other Democratic states, they would have at least 152 out of 303 electoral votes and would elect a President. The Democrats, to win, had to somehow to come up with a candidate who would run strong in the Northeast or Midwest. Problem was, there were no Democrats, except Douglas, who seemed likely to run strong there (Catton-Coming, p. 9).
It's a situation really quite reminiscent of the early twenty-first century: Two parties dominated by extremists. The Democrats still had a chance -- a very good chance -- if they could keep their party united and their voters in line.
But who could they nominate? The incumbent, James Buchanan, had been nominated in 1856 mostly because he had been an ambassador and so was not burdened with baggage about Kansas (Current/Williams/Freidel, p. 398). But by 1860 he was obviously no longer free of that taint -- and was so worn and worthless that not even the Democrats seriously considered re-nominating him.
The leading man in the party was Senator Douglas, the man who had beaten Abraham Lincoln in that 1858 Illinois Senate Race. But keep in mind what he had done in the last decade: Douglas had (rather gratuitiously) created the infamous Kansas/Nebraska conflict. And, to win that 1858 election, he had supported the doctrine of "Popular Sovereignty" (in simplest terms, that the local [white male] residents always decide about Slavery), and added the "Freeport Doctrine" (not a law, simply an opinion: That locals would always end up making the decision about slavery, because only locals were in a position to enforce the law. If they didn't like a law, it would be ignored).
The centrist who would be easiest to elect nationally was almost impossible for the reactionary Democrats to stomach.
Douglas faced other handicaps. He had, in 1856, stepped aside to open the door for Buchanan's candidacy, at significant financial cost to himself (Nevins1847, p. 175), but gratitude is rare in politics. The Buchanan administration hated him, and they dominated several state delegations that might otherwise have gone for Douglas at least in part (Nevins1859, p. 211). The 1860 convention was held in Charleston -- a decision made four years earlier, when Democrats had seemed likely to dominate national politics for years; this was before Dred Scott and John Brown. But Charleston was probably the most reactionary, anti-Douglas city in the country (Catton-Roads, p. 201)
The Democrats were supposed to nominate their candidate before the Republicans; they were to meet in Charleston at the end of April 1860. But "[m]ost southern Democrats went to Charleston with one overriding goal: to destroy Douglas" (McPherson, p. 213). The southerners, according to Catton-Coming, p. 11, were clear: "There was going to be a showdown; once and for all the South would find out whether Northern Democrats would stand squarely with the South on true Constitutional principles [i.e. making people accept slavery whether they wanted it or not]. Both platform and candidate would have to be explicit; 'there must be no Douglas dodges -- no double constructions -- no janus-faced lyring resolutions -- no double-tongued and doubly damned trifling with the people.'" It was an attitude which hardly encouraged compromise.
The Southerners at least made this brutally clear, offering this platform language: "Resolved... First, that Congress has no power to abolish slavery in the Territories. Second, that the Territorial Legislature has no power to abolish slavery in any Territory, nor to prohibit the introduction of slaves therein, nor any power to exclude slavery therefrom, nor any right to destroy or impair the right of property in slaves by any legislation whatever" (Catton-Coming, p. 30; Nevins1859, p. 214, comments that, by the day before the platform was due, "everyone agreed that the platform committee must bring forward either a subterfuge or a bombshell").
Their choice was the bombshell. The platform committee had been stacked with anti-Douglas delegates, determined to produce a platform he couldn't accept (Nevins1859, p. 213; Catton-Roads, p. 203), and a majority of the committee adopted the southern position, with a vocal minority producing a more moderate document (Nevins1859, pp. 214-215). When the southern version of the platform was brought up, the Northern Democrats in effect said, "We've been suffering because of you for years, and now you want *this*?" (Catton-Coming, p. 32). The result was pandemonium, halted only by adjourning the day's session (Catton-Coming, p. 33; Nevins1859, p. 217).
When the delegates finally came back together, they rejected the proposed slavery-or-else language 165 to 138 (Catton-Coming, p. 34). This was no surprise; there were more northern than southern delegates. But the southerners were ready -- or had backed themselves into a corner. The delegations from the cotton states walked out (Catton-Coming, p. 34). Formally, the southern states were still part of the U.S. But they had, for practical purposes, already seceded. According to Catton-Roads, p. 204, they were not committed to secession; their goal was simply to get rid of Douglas. If he were gone, they were willing to come back on more moderate terms. But the Douglas supporters, thinking only a few delegates would withdraw, refused to give in at this time.
The seceders totalled only about fifty delegates (Catton-Coming, 36). The convention tried to continue. But, it was ruled, any resolution must get a majority (for some sorts of motions, a two-thirds majority) of all delegates, including those who had walked out (Catton-Coming, p. 36). It wasn't going to happen. There were 303 total delegates, of whom 253 (give or take a few) were still in the convention. 202 were needed to nominate a candidate -- 80% of those still present.
Six candidates were nominated: Douglas; former treasury secretary James Guthrie; Senator R.M.T. Hunter; Daniel S. Dickinson; Andrew Johnson; and Joseph Lane (Nevins1859, p. 222). Douglas on the first ballot earned 145½. His best total was 152½, and that only briefly. Thus he barely reached even 50% of total delegates, and never came close to two-thirds. But no other candidate was even close to him; on the first ballot, Hunter had 42, Guthrie 36½, and the others less.
Nor could anti-Douglas forces come together; the leading alternative, Guthrie, peaked at 64½. After nearly sixty ballots, the convention gave up (Catton-Coming, pp. 37, 39). There would be no nomination at this time. It was decided to reconvene six weeks later (Catton-Coming, p. 39).
The Republicans, whose convention followed, were thrilled. Nevins1859 reports that the convention chairman's gavel was "made of oak from Commodore Perry's flagship at the Battle of Lake Erie" (for background on which, see the notes to "James Bird" [Laws A5]). The chairman, noting this, declared, "All the auguries are that we shall meet the enemy and they shall be ours."
It seemed pretty clear a Republican could win the Presidency -- as long as they convention produced a candidate who didn't alienate any segment of the North. The same arithmetic that said they needed to add only Pennsylvania plus one other state to their 1856 tally in order to win the presidency also meant that they could not spare many northern states -- e.g. the loss of New York would effectively doom them (Catton-Roads, p. 219). So they had to pick a candidate who wouldn't alienate any of their potential supporters.
(How sectional were the Republicans? Apart from what Nevins1859, p. 251, calls a "flagrantly bogus" Texas delegation, only five slave states -- Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Virginia -- were even represented at their convention; Catton-Coming, p. 51. Note that four of the five would stay in the Union, and the fifth, Virginia, would have West Virginia secede when the rest of the state went South. There were no representatives of the cotton-growing areas at all. And the only one of those five states they had any hope of winning was Missouri, and that only because of Saint Louis.)
So the Republicans gathered, in effect, to seek a dark horse who didn't have any record for people to run against. And they were meeting in Chicago, Illinois. William H. Seward was the party's leading man, but he had spoken of the "Irrepressible Conflict," and he was just a little too prominent. The largest block in the Republican convention supported him. The rest, almost to a man, were "anyone but Seward" types. On the first ballot, Seward had 173.5 votes (out of 233 needed to nominate), favorite son Lincoln 102, and there were rather more than a hundred scattered votes.
The Lincoln team had worked hard. They were everyone's second choice. On the second ballot, it was Seward 184.5, Lincoln 181. The third ballot saw Lincoln at 231.5, and several delegates then changed their votes and Lincoln was over the top. (Catton-Coming, p. 63).
Then it was the Democratic turn to try again. And fail again. They met in Baltimore in mid-June -- and found themselves in a fight over credentials; there were now multiple delegations (pro- and anti-Douglas) from some of the states (Catton-Coming, pp. 69-74). Douglas himself had stated in writing that he would withdraw from the race if it would help (Nevis1859, p. 270). His followers never even revealed the letters, because they saw no signs that the Southern delegates would compromise.
Once again there was a walkout. The rump, naturally, nominated Douglas -- but of course many Democrats did not consider him "their" candidate. Indeed, right there in Baltimore, supported by a meeting in Richmond, the seceders nominated Buchanan's vice president John C. Breckinridge, and he was nominated on the first ballot among those in this small meeting (Catton-Coming, p. 77 -- a rather amazing outcome for this conservative bunch of crotchety old men, since Breckinridge was not yet forty). The Democratic party was split, just as the Whigs had been two elections earlier. It would be oversimplified to say that Douglas was the northern Democrat and Breckinridge the Southern (as the election proved, Douglas earned votes everywhere) -- but still, there were two Democratic candidates, and the general feeling was that both were regional candidates (though Breckinrige, unlike most of his followers, was not committed to secession if he lost -- he was, after all, the vice president!). And, with the situation so messy, a fourth candidate, John Bell, was thrown into the game.
Bell was a last-minute draft, called in in response to the Democratic debacle. But so severe was the train wreck that he was technically was the first candidate nominated. On May 9, after the Democratic failure in Charleston but before the Republicans met in Chicago, a group of (mostly) doddering elders (McPherson, p. 221, reports that "few... were under sixty years of age) representing 24 states met in Baltimore with the express purpose of preserving the Union.
Their leading light was Kentuckian John J. Crittenden, who would later offer the "Crittenden Compromise" (and who had sons who were generals on both sides in the war). But he took himself out of the running on the grounds that he was too old. That left Bell and Texas's Sam Houston as the only significant contenders. Bell earned some two-thirds of the votes (Nevins-1859, pp. 161-162).
Calling themselves the "Constitutional Union" party, they nominated Edward Everett as Bell's running mate, passed a platform standing for Union, the Constitution, enforcement of laws (plus, presumably, motherhood and apple pie), refusing even to mention the word "Slavery" (Catton-Coming, pp. 47-48) -- though Bell himself was a slaveholder (McPherson, p. 221).
Bell had had a distinguished career -- Speaker of the House in 1834, Secretary of War under Harrison, many years in the Senate. An independent thinker, he had opposed the pro-Slavery extremists on many occasions, so he could be called a genuine moderate (Nevins1859, pp. 272-273). He would even have praise for Lincoln, saying that the congressman from Illinois had impressed him (Nevins1859, p. 275)
Distinguished or not, balanced or not, Bell's nomination was a forlorn attempt to find middle ground where there was none. And even though it happened before the Democrats finally split, it was largely in response to the Democratic disaster. (That's the opinion of most of my sources, anyway, though they also represented an attempt by the several dying parties to revive; RandallDonald, p. 131, considers them to be the last gasp of the Know-Nothings. Catton-Roads, p. 230, agrees in part, calling the party "Conservative in tone, largely old-line Whig and displaced Know-Nothing in composition, staffed principally by respectable, elderly citizens whose only formula for solving the sectional problem was to stop talking about it." McPherson, p. 221, considers it to be a remnant of the Whigs. Nevins1859, like Catton, thinks it included both Whigs and Know-Nothings; p. 161.)
In practice, not even the Constitutional Unionists could avoid the slavery issue; apparently a number of their supporters in the south promised a slave code for the territories. That cost them whatever support they might have had in the North. They ended up winning only 3% of the vote in northern states (McPherson, p. 222).
The election which followed was hardly a legitimate example of taking the issues to the voters. Of the four candidates, only Douglas really went out and campaigned (Catton-Coming, p. 100). Bell was less a candidate than a platform which people could accept or reject; his supporters' primary campaign technique was to ring bells (Catton-Roads, p. 231).
Lincoln was the quietest of all, staying at home and explicitly refusing to make campaign statements on the grounds that his opinions were well-known (Nevins1859, pp. 277-278. Doesn't that sort of campaign sound heavenly today?). The Republican organization did produce a campaign newsletter, The Railsplitter, but it did little except print falsehoods about Douglas (Catton-Coming, p. 92). What little the voters knew (apart from those who read the many speeches Lincoln had given earlier, and which were the basis for his statement that his views were known) came from parades (staged by Republican "Wide Awakes" and Douglasite "Minutemen"; Catton-Roads, p. 231) and word of mouth and songs such as this one and the much more negative "Lincoln Hoss and Stephen A."
The Bell campaign was the weakest in this department; as Nevins1859, p. 281, comments, "The conservative businessmen and planters who ought to have toiled amain for Bell were just the most prone to indifference and apathy. They would vote, but they would not take off their coats and go to work." Plus, of course, such well-known and venerable men as Bell and Everett had long "paper trails," and opponents could almost always dig up something to make them appear "unsound" on some issue or another.
Breckinridge to a large extent relied upon the Democratic machinery governed by the White House; president Buchanan hated Douglas, and so gave all possible aid to Breckinridge (Nevins1859, p. 284).
Indeed, the administration contributed greatly to the debacle which followed. President Buchanan's hate of Douglas, combined with a pro-southern attitude and a fatal weakness (he is regarded by many historians as the worst president in American history. And, yes, liberal folkies, that includes George W. Bush in the calculations) meant that he did absolutely nothing to try to control the nation's divisions or to try to bring together the anti-Lincoln forces (Nevins1859, pp. 289-290).
We should perhaps not blame Buchanan too much; Nevins1847, pp. 186-187, notes that "For twenty-five years after Jackson left the White House, no man of high abilities entered it. What was more, the country knew that no man of high abilities occupied it." The parties did not want great men, who were bound to alienate one or another faction. Polk, who served from 1845 to 1849, was at least forceful, but Zachary Taylor (1849-1850) was too inexperienced and died too soon; Millard Fillmore (1850-1853) was a non-entity, Franklin Pierce (1853-1857) quite literally a pretty face, and Buchanan (1857-1861) got the job as the only Democrat who didn't have a track record on Kansas!
Nevins1847, pp. 188, sums up the situation this way: "With a clumsily managed, hopelessly divided Congress and a series of weak chief magistrates, the country watched the national crisis grow to a point where even strong leadership could not control it. In 1860 all three parties selected strong men. Douglas, Breckinridge, and Lincoln were alike leaders of intellectual power and stalwart character. At last the country was certain of a President of statesmanlike parts -- but it was too late."
There were side issues: excessive corruption in the Buchanan administration, Pacific railroads, the need for a Homested Act, tariffs (Nevins1859, p. 301, 304-305). The Republicans, stung by Democratic charges that they were in favor of Black equality, used these issues in some areas. (To show the tenor of the times -- there was a ballot initiative in New York at this time to give Blacks the vote. New York voted 54% for Lincoln -- but only 37% of the citizens of the state supported the ballot proposal; McPherson, p. 225.) But in the South in particular, the issue was slavery. And, indeed, the Republicans had made it clear that it would be; at the Chicago convention, when someone had nominated David Wilmot (of the Wilmot Proviso, banning slavery in the territories) to be temporary chairman, the proposal was greeted by "a tempest of applause" (Nevins1859, p. 251).
Not even the presence of an official (but extremely minor) Abolitionist candidate, Gerrit Smith, could cover up the fact that Republicans were the party of controlling slavery (just as Breckinridge was the candidate of appeasing the South). Nor did the false rumors of slave revolts change anything (Nevins1847, p. 307) -- after all, no one in the South intended to vote for Lincoln anyway!
All four candidates, ironically, seem to have thought that they were the only one who could save the Union. Breckinridge wanted to save it by giving in to the South. Bell wanted to save it by pretending there was no problem. And the Republicans believed in standing firm -- in effect, telling the South that they had cried wolf too many times.
That was indeed the South's problem; they *had* cried seccession every election since 1848 (Catton-Coming, pp. 96-97), and the Republicans thought it was just noise. But, in fact, every previous cry for seccession had won some sort of compromise. Now, compromises there were none. The forces opposed to the Republicans couldn't even compromise on a candidate; Catton-Roads, p. 231 and Nevins1859, pp. 283-285 report that there were a few abortive attempts to combine the Bell, Breckinridge, and Douglas tickets, but the Douglas camp insisted (almost certainly correctly) that only he could win anything in the North, so nothing came of that. And, as noted above, Douglas was unequivocally opposed to having the election settled in the House.
Douglas -- alone among the candidates -- actually wanted to address the issues. (No wonder he didn't win. In addition, he found it very difficult to raise funds, crimping his campaign activities; Nevins1859, p. 292.) He knew the Southerners were serious; he just felt they were dead wrong -- and told them so to their faces: The election of Lincoln was not grounds for secession, and if they did seceed, he declared, "it is the duty of the President of the United States and all others in authority under him to enforce the laws of the United States.... In other words, I think the President of the United States... should treat all attempts to break up the Union by resistance to its laws as Old Hickory treated the Nullifiers in 1832" (Nevins1859, p. 294).
Elections at this time were conducted over an extended period; Pennsylvania and Indiana voted before the rest of the North. When Pennsylvania went Republican, a number of papers in other states changed their attitudes, turning from Douglas to Lincoln or, in a few cases, Breckinridge (Nevins1859, p. 311). Douglas declared, "Mr. Lincoln is the next President. We must try to save the Union. I will go south" (Nevins1859, p. 295).
Douglas was dead right. There had been four-way elections before, in 1824, 1832, and 1836 (in 1836, in fact, five different candidates won states. 1832 and 1836 were cases of parties in effect nominating local candidates, but 1824 had four national candidates). But none was like this: Those had been about the person the public wanted as a leader. This was about the very nature of the United States, with each candidate standing for something very different. The bottom line of the 1860 election was straightforward:
* Lincoln: 40% of the popular vote, 180 electoral votes (Lincoln won California, Oregon, Minnesota, Iowa, plus all states north of the Ohio River except New Jersey, where he won four of seven electoral votes)
* Douglas: 29%, 12 electoral votes (9 from Missouri, 3 from New Jersey)
* Breckinridge, 18%, 72 electoral votes (Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas)
* Bell, 13%, 39 electoral votes (Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, which at that time still included West Virginia)
The actual results weren't nearly as simple as the above would imply. Lincoln wasn't even a serious candidate in the southern states (Nevins1859, p. 312; Foote, p. 34, says that he earned no votes at all in five states; RandallDonald, p. 133, says he had no votes in ten of them. The footnote on that page shows that there is some uncertainty about the vote totals; McPherson, p. 223, says simply that the Republicans were not on the ballot in ten states. In the handful of slave states where Lincoln was on the ballot, he earned only 4% of the vote, with most of those from Saint Louis). Breckinridge had hardly more support in the northwest (e.g. he earned only about 4500 votes in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa combined; Nevins1859, p. 313), though in total about a quarter of his votes came from free states (Catton-Coming, p. 113).
A look at the map in McPherson, p. 236, reveals an even more complicated situation. It shows the winners of the popular vote county-by-county. Only eight states had the same winner in every county: Connecticut, Maine (probably), Massachussetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont went for Lincoln, and Delaware and South Carolina went for Breckinridge (the latter meaning nothing, since conservative South Carolina didn't even conduct a popular vote in this period). The other states were split -- basically between Lincoln and Douglas in northern states, and between Bell and Breckinrige in the south, but several states divided three ways: In California and Oregon, various counties went for Lincoln, Douglas, and Breckinridge (the Breckinridge vote in the western states was just large enough to deny Douglas a win there); in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Virginia we see different parts supporting Bell, Breckinridge, and Douglas.
Missouri takes the prize. The state as a whole went for Douglas, but in terms of territory it was almost a perfect three-way split between Bell, Breckinridge, and Douglas, with Lincoln actually winning Saint Louis and one other county. (Missouri had earlier been the first Slave state to elect a Republican representative; Nevins1859, p. 300. He would be very lonely.)
Looking at sectional totals, Lincoln won 54% of the vote in the North, while in the South (not counting the border states of Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, and Virginia), Breckinridge won 45% of the vote and Bell 39% (MacPherson, p. 232) -- an interesting statistic, because it means that even in the South, the majority was still in favor of the Union. But the pro-Union group was a small majority, fragile and easily swayed. And in the deep South, Breckinridge had absolute majorities in most cases, though not in Georgia and Lousiana (Catton-Roads, p. 245).
Sliced one more way: Lincoln won more than 60% of the vote, and all but about two dozen counties, north of the 41st parallel (McPherson, p. 232) -- in other words, all points from a line passing south of Chicago, north of Pittsburg and Philadelphia, and just north of New York City. From that line to the Ohio River was won by Douglas (including, ironically, even Lincon's home county -- CattonComing, p. 110). Bell won from the Ohio River to roughly a line from Memphis, Tennessee to Norfolk, Virginia. And Breckinridge won south of the Memphis-Norfolk line. The United States had had elections divided by sectional interests before, and would have them again (just look at the 2004 electoral map) -- but never such a tiger-stripe based almost solely on north-south geography. It was, indeed, almost a tiger-scratch, ripping the nation apart.
To put that level of complication in another sort of a perspective: this was an election that could have had at least three different winners based on voting method. Lincoln won a plurality of the vote. He also won the Roman voting system vote (a.k.a. the Electoral College: Voting goes by tribes/states, with the winner of voting *within* the tribe earning all the tribe's votes). But if the current notion of Instant Runoff Voting had been in place, Douglas would probably have won. And if the other primary ranked voting method (assigned points, which is the voting method used by the Mathematical Association of America) had been used, my guess is that Bell would have won.
Some Democrats had hoped that, somehow, the three non-Lincoln candidates could combine to win an electoral majority, and a compromise could be worked out in the House. As it turned out, if Lincoln won a plurality in a state, he almost always won a majority; of the states he won, there were only three (California, Oregon, and New Jersey) where he did not win more votes than Bell, Breckinridge, and Douglas combined. (MacPherson, p. 232) The states he won outright had a total of 169 electoral votes, or 17 more than a majority. Nevins1859, p. 312, believes, "Had Douglas been nominated at Charleston, Lincoln might well -- in view of the different trend which the campaign would have taken -- have lost." But Charleston had not nominated Douglas. And I'm not sure Nevins is right nyway.
Two things were clear. One was that the country opposed the Southern doctrine that Slavery could be imposed on territories even if they didn't want the Peculiar Institution. Two-thirds of the population had voted either for Lincoln, who expressly opposed Slavery in the territories, or Douglas, who would allow its implicit limitation (Nevins1859, p. 316)
The other point was even clearer: Lincoln, despite the split in the vote, had won the election. And, as a special extra prize, secession and civil war.
The song is mostly accurate in its details about Lincoln's life -- e.g. the lines "They'll find what by felling and mauling, Our railmaker statesman can do" is reminiscent of Lincoln's own words: "I am not ashamed to confess that twenty five years ago I was a hired laborer, mauling rails, at work on a flat-boat..." (McPherson, p. 28). Though this omits the fact that Lincoln, since then, had worked almost exclusively as a lawyer.
The song calls Lincoln "The pride of the Suckers so lucky." "Suckers" were inhabitants of Illinois. He was hardly their "pride," though, considering that he had won only one term in congress, and lost the 1858 Senate race. In 1860, Illinois hardly looked like the "Land of Lincoln." On the evidence, it was the "Land of Douglas." Until that November. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: San167

Lincoln Hoss and Stephen A.

DESCRIPTION: "There's an old plow 'hoss' whose name is 'Dug,' Doo-dah, doo-dah, He's short and thick, a regular plug... We're bound to work all night... I'll bet my money on the 'Lincoln Hoss,' Who bets on Stephen A.?" Douglas's political problems are parodied
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: political parody nonballad animal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1847 - Stephen A. Douglas (1813-1861) of Illinois elected Senator
1854 - In response to the Kansas slavery question, Douglas proposes "popular sovereignty"
1858 - Abraham Lincoln runs for Senator from Illinois against Douglas. Douglas wins the election, but is forced to declare moderate positions that cause extremists on both sides of the slavery question to oppose him.
1860 - A four-way race pits Lincoln (Republican) against Douglas, the southern Democrat Breckinridge, and the "Constitutional Unionist" John Bell. In a bitter campaign over slavery, Douglas is lampooned by both sides. Lincoln earns 40% of the vote and is elected President; Douglas earns 29%
1861 - Douglas dies after strenuous attempts to save the Union and, failing that, to support Lincoln's positions
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 42-43, "'Lincoln Hoss' and Stephen A." (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #V6618
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Camptown Races" (tune)
cf. "Lincoln and Liberty" (subject)
NOTES [1255 words]: In addition to having been a moderate on slavery issues, Stephen A. Douglas was a short, stout man. Hence this vicious satire on a man who, though he was not a strong opponent of slavery, was in every other way an honest and generous politician. - RBW
Oh, I don't know about that. James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom offers evidence that Douglas took pro-slavery positions to win the support of southern politicians for his attempts to obtain railroad concessions. His record, at least as detailed in that book, is considerably less than honorable. - PJS
Paul is right; McPherson, pp. 121-122, reports that Douglas was "a large investor in Chicago real estate" who "had enhanced the value of his property by securing a federal land grant for a railroad from that city to Mobile. Perhaps hoping to repeat the scenario from Chicago to San Francisco, Douglas and [William A.] Richardson in 1853 reported bills to organize Nebraska territory." But even McPherson admits his view is controversial.
Nevins1852, pp. 9, admits that Douglas was a favorite of "an industrious bevy of lobbyists and privilege-hunters" and that he "had made a good deal of money in real estate [and] was something of a Western land speculator himself."
Great care must be taken not to see the men of 1860 in the light of today. If Douglas were alive today, we would consider him utterly vile -- it should be remembered that Douglas did not wish to destroy slavery. But it was an attitude of the time. Similarly, that was the era of the spoils system. Few people could make a career of politics, and elected officials weren't paid very well; naturally they tried to take advantage. Today, he would be in trouble with the Ethics Committee. But the rules were very different then -- and at least Douglas lived at a time when incumbents could be voted out of office!
In his defense, we note that Randall/Donald, p. 93, says that "His forthrightness, vigor, and aggressiveness, his force as a debater and talent as a political strategist, had made a deep impression; and the breadth of his national vision had given him a peculiar distinction in an age when the sectionalism of many of the nation's leaders was all too evident."
The real complaint against Douglas is that he destroyed the Compromise of 1850. Yes, he did, and he did it over Kansas. (Holt, p. 79, suggests that Douglas and President Franklin Pierce decided to do it to unify the Democratic party at a time when the Whigs were falling apart and the Democrats needed something to unify them.) But the Compromise was doomed anyway. If it hadn't been for Kansas, it would have been Dred Scott, or the Wilmot Proviso (which hadn't been settled, merely buried) or the Mormons, or Cuba, or something; the Whig party, we must remember, was *already* dying over the Slavery issue in 1852, before the first drop of blood was shed in Kansas. And Douglas notably opposed the fraudulent Lecompton constitution for Kansas.
The majority of historians I've consulted consider Douglas as basically honest, though he certainly resorted to a lot of politicians' tricks. And when it came down to the breach during the election of 1860, Douglas -- and only Douglas -- went all-out, campaigning to save the Union. In the process, he did such harm to his health that he died soon afterward.
According to Catton, p. 233, after it became clear that the parties were split in 1860, and that disaster loomed, it was Douglas, and Douglas alone, who gave his all to try to prevent the war: "The final months of his life were a blaze of glory for the Little Giant, and the greatness that had always hovered above his dogged trail descended fully upon him at the last. Of all the varied courses pursued by America's leaders in the loud, uneasy campaign of 1860, his alone was that of the statesman. Not only grasping but squarely confronting the probably course of events that would follow a Republican victory, Douglas made the Union his sole platform.
"His purpose was simply to remind the electorate, and especially the Democrats, that defeat at the polls in a fair election was no valid cause for destroying the government.... Douglas even carried his message to the deep South, where it took real courage to glorify the Union and repudiate secession at this late date. Abuse, rotten eggs, and detailed threats of physical force attended his swing through the cotton states...."
Nevins1859, p. 293, says that Douglas even feared a sort of sourthern coup d'etat if southern Democratic candidate and sitting vice president Breckinridge won the border states, and that Douglas campaigned heavily there to prevent it. The coup was probably just a daydream, but Douglas accomplished his ends, more or less: He took Missourri, John Bell won Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and Breckinridge's margin in Maryland was too small to allow any such games.
Elections at this time were conducted over an extended period; Pennsylvania and Indiana voted before the rest of the North. When Pennsylvania went Republican, Douglas declared, "Mr. Lincoln is the next President. We must try to save the Union. I will go south" (Nevins1859, p. 295).
Another measure of Douglas's character is that Alexander Stephens, the future Confederate Vice President who was also perhaps the most realistic man in the South, and one who knew Douglas, openly declared that he admired the man (Nevins1859, p. 296).
Nevins1862 p. 191, makes another very important point: Douglas, had he lived, would have been a War Democrat during the Civil War -- and, being as strong as he was, could probably have held the War Democrats together. With him dead, the War Democrats had no leader, and Peace Democrats dominated the party. They proved simply obstructionist, and the war was waged almost entirely by Republicans. As a result, the Democrats were very badly discredited by the War -- and reconstruction was run entirely by the Radical Republicans, who wanted vengeance and utterly botched the job. In the long run, the radicals definitely weakened the country, and hurt rather than helped the former slaves. Douglas was missed, though few realized it at the time.
I guess I would sum it up this way: No man in the United States loved the Union more than Douglas. Was this a crime? Lincoln fought the Civil War to preserve the Union. The difference between the two is that Douglas loved the Union as it was; Lincoln loved it as it should have been. Certainly Lincoln's was a better Union -- but not an entirely good one. Lincoln, for instance, had no use at all for independent women; when Jesse Benton Frémont visited him in the White House, he brushed her off as a "female politician" (Nevins1861, p.338). Lincoln had reason to be irritated with her, but the remark shows that he too had a lot to learn. Lincoln was more right than Douglas on one specific issue. It was enough to make him President. But it doesn't prove that he was actually a much greater man.
Really, Douglas is one of the hardest characters in American history to grasp. The disagreement with Paul rather shows the point: Could Douglas be great without being good? He made things happen, but sometimes it almost seemed as if he was stirring things up just to see if he could enjoy the chaos. On the whole, he reminds me more of Theodore Roosevelt than almost any other American politician. (Which, I am sure, will draw more protests. But, of course, opinions of TR were also very mixed.)
For more background on the Lincoln/Douglas situation, see the notes to "Lincoln and Liberty." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: SRW042

Lincoln Lovers, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a "fair maid," courts her twelve months, and she agrees to marry. He is "called away" [to war?]. When he returns she breaks her vows "for her parents sake." He will "roam this world" and hopes to find and marry some other pretty girl.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Ives-FolksongsFromMaine)
KEYWORDS: love courting promise rejection return separation rambling beauty father mother
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 13, "The Lincoln Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: IveMa13

Lincolnshire Poacher, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer served as apprentice for seven years, then took to poaching, "For tis my delight of a shining night in a season of the year." The poachers go out hunting, but are spotted by a gamekeeper; they subdue him and continue to make merry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1508))
KEYWORDS: poaching work apprentice fight
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All))
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 258, "The Northamptonshire Poacher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 290-291, "The Poacher" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 436-437, "The Lincolnshire Poacher" (1 text)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 74, "Poaching Song" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 175-176, "It's My Delight of a Shiny Night" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 56)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #49, "The Lincolnshire Poacher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 70, "Poaching Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #138, "The Lincolnshire Poacher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 29-31, "The Lincolnshire Poacher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 732-733, "The Lincolnshire Poacher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 203, "Lincolnshire Poacher" (1 text)
DT, LINCPOCH*
ADDITIONAL: The United States Songster (Cincinnati, 1836 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 158, "The Poachers" ("When I was bound apprentice in fair Lincolnshire") (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #216, "The Lincolnshire Poacher" (1 text)
ST K259 (Full)
Roud #299
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1508), "The Poacher" ("When I was bound apprentice, In fair Lincolnshire"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Harding B 28(9), Firth b.34(212) View 2 of 2, "The Poacher"; Firth b.34(228), Harding B 11(1439), Firth b.34(10), Harding B 11(4109), Harding B 11(3039), Firth b.34(229), Harding B 11(3038), Firth c.19(45), "The Poachers"; Firth c.19(41)[left margin clipped one position], "The Poachers" or "It's My Delight &c"
VonWalthour, CDDrive>b>b(3),"The Poachers" ("When I was bound apprentice in famed Northamptonshire"), T. Taylor (London), no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Chandler's Wife" (tune)
cf. "The Vermont Farmer's Song" (tune)
cf. "The Nottinghamshire Poacher" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
The New York Volunteer (File: SCWF187)
Philadelphia Fireman's Song (Forget-Me-Not-Songster, p. 209; Roud #V9600)
The Billygoat Overlander
NOTES [69 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland remarks, "Although Lincolnshire, Somerset and Leicestershire occur as the location for this most 'fam-e-rous' of poaching songs, more than half the versions from genuine sources favour Northamptonshire." This appears, from Kennedy's bibliography, to be true, but the oldest versions, and those usually sung, are associated with Lincolnshire, so that is the title I adopted. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K259

Lincolnshire Wrestler, The

DESCRIPTION: There is heavy betting on a wrestling match between Bill Scrimshaw from Claypole Town and the Derbyshire Don. "He soon tripp'd up the Derbyshire Don" and challenges the Derbyshire bettors to put up a better wrestler.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (OShaughnessy-Yellowbelly1)
KEYWORDS: fight gambling sports bragging
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 29, "The Lincolnshire Wrestler" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Francis M. Collinson, EFDSS Archives COL/5/2, "The Wrestling March[sic], or Bill Scrimshaw" accessed 4 January 2013 from http://library.efdss.org/archives/cgi-bin/search.cgi
Roud #1089
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bill Scrimshaw and the Scotsman" (subject and one verse)
NOTES [58 words]: OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 refers to a Bill Scrimshaw wrestling match in 1773.
The Collinson text, collected by L.A.S. Butler, is one verse and a tune. The verse is close to the OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 final verse, and the OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 tune seems slightly modified from the one collected by Butler. - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: OSY1029

Lincolshire Shepherd, A

DESCRIPTION: "Yan, tan, tethera, tethera, peth'ra, pimp, Yon owd yowe's far-welted and thos yowe's got a limp." "There's more to being a shepherd than being on watch, There's swedes to chop and lambing time...." The singer telsl of the shepherding life
AUTHOR: Words: Jesse Baggaley / Music: Maurice Ogg (source: Palmer)
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Palmer)
KEYWORDS: shepherd sheep travel children death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #7, "A Lincolnshire Shepherd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1469
NOTES [49 words]: The introductory words of this song are explained by Palmer as Lincolnshire dialect names for numbers; he calls them "Celtic-style." The song is "folk" in the sense that it was created by two ordinary people, not professional singers, but there is no sign that it has gone into tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: PECS007

Lindbergh's Baby

DESCRIPTION: Charles Lindbergh's baby disappeared from his home last night. The kidnappers "seek a large ransom." His mother wishes her baby would return but he is with the angels. The kidnappers will answer for this crime on judgement day.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: homicide nonballad mother father children abduction
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 1, 1932 - Kidnapping of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. (19 months old at the time). The kidnapper demands and receives $150,000, but the child is not returned
May 12, 1932 - The boy's body is found
Apr 3, 1936 - Execution of Bruno Hauptman, linked to the crime primarily by possession of some of the ransom money
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18221
RECORDINGS:
Mike Kent, "Lindburg's Baby" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Stolen Child (The Lindbergh Kidnapping)" (subject)
NOTES [16 words]: The Mike Kent version is not a version of either Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky text. - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcLindBa

Lindy Lowe

DESCRIPTION: "Come smilin' Lindy Lowe, de pootiest gal I know, On de finest boat dat ever float, in de Ohio, de Mississippi or de Ohio." Verses have no story at all and only the second line ever changes, "Come smilin' Lindy Lowe, by de Gulf ob Mexico.." etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips)
KEYWORDS: worksong shanty
FOUND IN: West Indies(Barbados)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 201-202, "Lindy Lowe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9170
NOTES [16 words]: [Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips's] notes give this as a Barbadian hand over hand shanty. - SL
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Harl201

Linen Song, The

See Driving Away at the Smoothing Iron (File: ShH82)

Lines Composed on the Death of Captain Samuel Spurling

DESCRIPTION: "What mournful news invades our ears? How the sad tidings spread." The subject of the poem (never named in the text) is gone, and many mourn. He was a good man, a patriot -- but it is all God's will
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: death separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 295-297, "Lines Composed on the Death of Captain Samuel Spurling" (1 text)
NOTES [38 words]: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine had this from a broadside; I strongly doubt it ever became traditional. It's not even a ballad, really; it's too vague. Change the title and it could be a (very bad) epitaph for almost anyone. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm295

Lines on the Death of Captain Smith C. Spurling

DESCRIPTION: "Come friends and neighbors, lend an ear, A mournful story you shall hear, Concerning of a brisk young man...." He took his boat out; it capsizes, and he drowns. Listeners are warned that God comes for everyone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: death separation
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 297-298, "Lines on the Death of Captain Smith C. Spurling" (1 text)
NOTES [52 words]: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine claims that many people could remember fragments of this. I wonder -- so much of it is commonplace that their memories could easily come from other songs. So, although I've marked this as found in Maine based on the Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine claim, I'm a bit dubious. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm297

Lines on the Fall of Two Girls from Newport Mountain, August 3, 1853

DESCRIPTION: "Historic muse whose ponderous book Contains the facts of ages past.... How vast the sphere of thy command." The people of the area seek the two girls; Elmira is found before they find Lucretia's body. The writer asks God to let them reunite
AUTHOR: William S. Douglas (source: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Mount Desert Herald, according to Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: death religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 300-302, "Lines on the Fall of Two Girls from Newport Mountain, August 3, 1853" (1 text)
NOTES [45 words]: Without wanting to minimize the suffering of the author (the father of the dead girl), this is a singularly incompetent piece -- excessively flowery, full of empty religious language, and it doesn't even really tell what happened! It was clearly never traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm300

Linger

See Mmm I Want to Linger (File: ACSF341M)

Lingle Lingle Lang Tang (Our Cat's Dead)

DESCRIPTION: "Lingle, lingle, lang tang, Our cat's dead! What did she die with? With a sore head! All you that kent her, When she was alive, Come to her burial, Atween four and five."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: animal death burial
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1678, "Ting, Ting the Bell Rang" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #159, p. 2, ("Ting, tang, the bell rang: fa's noo deid?") (1 text)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 41, "(Lingle, lingle, lang tang)" (1 short text)
Roud #13025
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oor Cat's Deid"
NOTES [36 words]: Roud lumps this with the Sam Henry piece "A Child's Lullaby" (indexed as "Oor Cat's Deid"). There is similarity in both form and subject matter -- but the lyrics are enough different that I decided to split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: MSNR041

Lingo

DESCRIPTION: "Ladies give me money for (lingo / dancing), Ladies give me money for all, Lingo, lingo, lingo, lingo"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Bolton)
KEYWORDS: money dancing
FOUND IN: Bermuda
REFERENCES (1 citation):
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, H. Carrington Bolton, "Gombay, a Festal Rite of Bermudian Negroes", Vol. 3, No. 10 (Jul-Sep 1890), p. 225, "Lingo" (1 text)
NOTES [7 words]: The description is all of Bolton's text. - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: JAFLingo

Linin' Track

See Can'cha Line 'Em (File: LxU078)

Linkin' Owre the Lea

See I'm a Day too Young (File: GrD71311)

Linktem Blue (Reeling Song)

DESCRIPTION: "All along, all along, All along, all along, All along, all along, Linktem blue." "Linktem blue is a very fine song, All along, all along, All along, all along, All along, all along, Linktem blue." Reportedly used to count knots while weaving yarn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, p. 34, "Reeling Song" (1 text)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 19, (no title) (1 text)
ST FlBr034 (Full)
RECORDINGS:
Margaret MacArthur, "Linktem Blue" (on MMacArthur01)
File: FlBr034

Linstead Market

DESCRIPTION: "He promised to meet me at Linstead Market, take me out to a show." The girl waits long, but there is no sign of Joe. At last a letter arrives, saying that he "just got married today." He promises to meet her the next day, though, and take her to the show
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: A woman goes to Linstead market to sell her ackee on a Saturday night. People come, including (Lord Flea) a soldier, to "feel up" and "finger" including a voodoo man (Denzil Laing -- maybe a figurative "finger") but she has no sale. The market is no calm agora: there is a fight (Lord Messam), and the woman rides "a merry go-round" (Lord Messam, Laing). At night's end the children meet her to see what she has brought home (Bennett, Laing)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage infidelity Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica,Trinidad)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 19-21, "Linstead Market" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 121, ("Me carry me akee a Linstead market") (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 335, "Linstead Market" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Helen H Roberts, "A Study of Folk Song Variants Based on Field Work in Jamaica," Vol. XXXVIII, No. 148 (Apr-Jun 1925), #44-56 pp. 184-190 "Akee Song No. 1" (14 texts, 14 tunes) [#54 has an a and b version]
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 143, 489, 496, "Carry mi' ackee goa Linstead Market"/"Caramy Achy" (notes only)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 43, "Linstead Market" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jim Morse, _Folk Songs of the Caribbean_ (New York: Bantam Books, 1958), pp. 86-87, "Linstead Market" (1 text, 1 tune)
Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time - Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), pp. 50-51, "Linstead Market" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16397
RECORDINGS:
Louise Bennett, "Linstead Market" (on WILBennett01)
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Linstead Market" (on WIEConnor01)
Denzil Laing and The Wigglers, "Linstead Market/Day O)" (2004, on "Mento Madness, Motta's Jamaican Mento: 1951-56," V2 Music Ltd CD 63881-27201-2)
Lord Flea and The Jamaican Calypsonians, "Run Mongoose/Linstead Market)" (2013, on "Mento, Not Calypso," Fantastic Voyage CD FVDD163)
Lord Messam and his Calypsonians, "Linstead Market" (2004, on "Mento Madness, Motta's Jamaican Mento: 1951-56," V2 Music Ltd CD 63881-27201-2)
Boysie Grant with Reynolds' Calypso Clippers, "Come We Go Down a Unity/Old Lady O/Linstead Market" (2004, on "Mento Madness, Motta's Jamaican Mento: 1951-56," V2 Music Ltd CD 63881-27201-2)
Lord Fly and Dan Williams Orchestra,"Medley of Jamaican Mento-Calypsos(Linstead Market;Hol' him Joe;Dog War a Mattuse Lane; Manuel Road)" (1951, on Motta MRS 02A, 2006, "Take Me to Jamaica: The Story of Jamaica Mento," Pressure Sounds CD PSCD 51)
NOTES [413 words]: Linstead is in central Jamaica.
Louise Bennett is the source for Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, Morse and Dexter & Taylor.
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory, p. 220: "The Akee (Cupiana edulis), pronounced acky, is a handsome tree producing something which one hardly knows whether to call a fruit or a vegetable. Besides the edible part, the beautiful scarlet capsule contains a substance which is poisonous. Deaths by misadventure through carelessness in its preparation for table occur every year."
The Jamaican versions I have so far -- Jekyll, Bennett, Laing, Lord Flea, Lord Fly, Lord Messam and Boysie Grant -- tell the story described in the LONG DESCRIPTION. So, what is the woman selling in the market on Saturday night? Bennett and Murray -- but not Connor -- have her really selling ackee ("Lady, buy yuh Sunday mawnin' breakfus'/ Rice and ackee nyam gran'"); on the other hand, in the 1950s, Bennett opposed "slackness" in music aimed at tourists; see the notes to "Hold 'im Joe." Connor does end with a spoken question: "Akee? Any akee lady?" Bennett is Murray's source; Murray is Connor's source.
The "merry-go-round" reference (Lord Messam, Denzil Laing) is not an anachronism. Jekyll (1907) has two other Jamaican songs about a merry-go-round (#146 pp. 241-242 and #147 pp. 242-243). Jekyll writes that "the merry-go-round is popular."
KEYWORDS for the Jamaican texts-might include "commerce," "food," and "sex."
Helen Roberts's texts, gathered between 1919 and 1925, have only what is usually the first verse and chorus, for the most part, though two versions add a verse from another song: "Gal, You Wan' Fe Come Kill Me?" in one case, and "Wata Come a Me Y'Eye" in the other. Her local titles are "Me Carry Me Akee a' Linstead Market," "The Old Gabber" [which combines with "Gal, You Wan' Fe Come Kill Me?"], "You Carry Yo' Akee to Linstead Market", "You Carry Yo' Akee' to Sollas Market" (2), "Sen' Me Akee [to Kingston Sollas/ to Kingston Market]" (2), "Carry Me Akee [to Solas Market], "Take Me Akee [to Sollas Market]," "Akee [go to Sollas market/ go to Kingston Sollas] (4) [one of which combines with "Wata Come a Me Y'Eye"]. Roberts's first text and tune are from Jekyll. "Sollas market, " Roberts explains, is one of several in Kingston itself." Roberts does not consider any sexual angle and her one-verse texts would give her no reason to think of that. The akee, she writes, "probably did not sell in the first place on account of its doubtful quality." - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB335

Lint Pullin', The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls his early days as a lint puller. He is kind to the girls he works with, and makes sure they do well. One day, Mary Jane chooses to work with him; they prove the best. They go home together, and now will work together at marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: work courting home marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H487, pp. 43-44, "The Lint Pullin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9299
File: HHH487

Linten Lowrin

See Rhynie (File: RcRhynie)

Linton Lowrie

DESCRIPTION: "I tint my heart ae morn in May When birdies sang on ilka tree... O, Linton Lowrie, Linton Lowrie, Aye sae fond ye trowed to be, I never wist sae bright a morn Sae dark a night would bring tae me." After wishing him back, she sets out to find him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H640, p. 291, "Linton Lowrie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6888
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Barnyards o' Delgaty" (tune)
NOTES [13 words]: Not to be confused with "Linten Lowrin," filed in the index with "Rhynie." - RBW
File: HHH640

Linton Race

DESCRIPTION: A woman coming from Linton Race describes the affair: the pipers and drummers raised a noise; the horses and their colours were a sight in the fast run to the finish, but Lord Louden's rider won the silver cup.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: colors racing music horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 71, "Linton Race" (1 text)
Roud #9529
File: LyCr171

Lion and the Unicorn, The

DESCRIPTION: "The lion and the unicorn, Fighting for the crown, The lion beat the unicorn All around the town." Details of the battle, and of the beasts' reception, may follow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1691 (according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: animal battle royalty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 304, "The lion and the unicorn" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #123, p. 103, "(The Lion and the Unicorn)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 39, "(The lion and the unicorn" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 97, "The Lion and the Unicorn" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 110, "The Lion and the Unicorn" (1 text)
Roud #20170
NOTES [377 words]: I've never heard this sung, but Lewis Carroll and other sources list it as a song, not a poem, so here it files.
The song definitely predates Lewis Carroll, appearing in several nursery rhyme anthologies, but I have been unable to determine exactly which, so I have to use Carroll as the earliest date.
Various theories revolve around this piece. Typical is the claim that it refers to the conflict between Scotland (whose arms featured a unicorn) and England (marked by lions). But both the Baring-Goulds and Martin Gardner in The Annotated Alice note that there was a traditional mythological rivalry between lion and unicorn over who would be the King of Beasts. Given that the lion is a carnivore and the unicorn presumably an herbivore (and how does it get its mouth to the ground with that thing on its head?), I suppose it's logical that the lion wins. - RBW
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes: "MS inscription dated 1691 beside a woodcut of the royal arms with supporters in a copy of The Holy Bible, 1638 (Opie Collection), 'the unicorn & the lyon fiteing for the Crown and the lyon beat the unicorn Round About the town'" - BS
If the poem did arise in that period, one suspects it has to do with the quarrel between England and Scotland over the Covenant, Charles I, or Charles II, with Scotland wanting to retain its Stuart King (while putting some restraints on his behavior), whereas England was trying to get rid of the monarchy.
On the other hand, the Opies suggest that the original second verse referred to the lion beating the unicorn three times. This argues against the seventeenth century date. Contrary to Scottish folklore, the English won most of the battles with the Scots -- except in two periods: During the reign of Robert Bruce, when the Scots won Bannockburn and made many successful raids deep into England -- and during the reign of Charles I, when the Covenanters successfully defended their religion against Charles I's attempts to make them Episcopal.
The incomparable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 269, affirms that this is indeed about Charles I, "the lion," but combines it with another poem, so her evidence is, as usual, extremely dubious. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: BGMG123

Lion's Cage, The

See Don't Go in Them Lion's Cage Tonight Mother (File: WarE022)

Lion's Den, The

See The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)

Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine

DESCRIPTION: When the young man comes to the girl's door, she confesses that she had once hastened to answer his call. But now he shows the signs of liquor; she warns him that "Lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine." If he sobers up, she will reconsider
AUTHOR: George W. Young
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (The Speaker's Garland #4, according to Gardner; supposedly writen c. 1870)
KEYWORDS: drink courting rejection
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 341, "Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 30, "The Lips That Touch Liquor Must Never Touch Mine" (2 texts, with the second perhaps a revised version of the Young original)
ADDITIONAL: Martin Gardner, editor, _Famous Poems from Bygone Days_, Dover, 1995, pp. 68-71, "Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine"; "Lips That Touch LIquor Must Never Touch Mine" (2 texts, the first by Glazebrook, the second by Young)
ST R341 (Partial)
Roud #7812
NOTES [90 words]: According to Gardner, the first "Lips That Touch Liquor" was by George E. Young; it is the version that has been found in tradition. This inspired a temperance crusader by the name of Harriet E. Glazebrook to compose a sort of parody which begins "Alice Lee stood awaiting her lover one night." In it, Lee convinces her lover to give up drink. This version does not seem to have gone into tradition, but Gardner's notes seem to imply that it is more popular as a poem.
If there is a traditional tune for this poem, I haven't found it. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: R341

Lipto

DESCRIPTION: "Lipto, lipto, jine de ring, Lipto, lipto, dance an' sing; Dance an' sing an' laugh an' play, Fur dis is now a holiday. Turn aroun' an' roun' and roun'...." "Er holdin' uv dis golden crown, An' I choose my (gal/man) fur ter dance me down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 132, "Lipto" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jingo Ring (Merry-Ma-Tanzie, Around the Ring)" (lyrics)
NOTES [45 words]: I have to suspect that "lipto" is a corruption of "tiptoe," but whether the confusion is the informant's or the collector's I can't tell.
I also suspect that this whole thing is a corruption of something, perhaps "Jingo Ring," but it's been very thoroughly corrupted. - RBW
File: ScaNF132

Liquor Book

DESCRIPTION: Singer has 3 weeks vacation coming after 3 years working. On line for 3 weeks to get liquor he finds he needs a "book." He gets it, not saying how, "bought myself a bottle of screech and drank the whole damn lot" and dreams "queer old things" while out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: dream medicine drink humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18222
RECORDINGS:
Eddy Primroy, "Liquor Book" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [47 words]: The note at MUNFLA/Leach: "During prohibition in Newfoundland, alcohol was only available to those with a prescription for it (which everyone, it seems, was able to get). The 'liquor book' was part of this bureaucratic process required to buy even the smallest bottle of alcohol." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcLiqBoo

Lisa Mary Murphy

DESCRIPTION: "Lisa Mary Murphy, Lisa Mary Anne, Lisa Mary Murphy, And grab your partner's hand." Or, "Oosha (sic.) Mary Murphy," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: game courting
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 123, "Oosha Mary Murphy" (1 text)
Roud #24551
File: BAAI123A

Lisburn Lass, The

DESCRIPTION: Henry loves a Lisburn Lass. Her parents' disapproval forces him to enlist for India. She offers to go with him. He says "All by my foes I am here cut down For loving a maiden in Lisburn town." He leaves her but promises to steal her if he returns.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Mary Anne Connelly on IRHardySons); 19C (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(530))
KEYWORDS: love army separation India father mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #5694
RECORDINGS:
Mary Anne Connelly, "The Lisburn Lass" (on IRHardySons)
Marge Steiner, "The Lisburn Lass" (on Steiner01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(530), "The Pride of Lisburn" ("You boys and girls where'er you be"), Haly (Cork), 19C

CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pride of Kilkee" (motif: hiding a sweetheart's name) and references there
NOTES [61 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(530) is the basis for the description.
Notes to IRHardySons: "Lisburn is in County Antrim, southwest of Belfast."
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(530) includes these lines: "For to tell her name I don't intend For fear I might insult her friends But you all know her well, the truth I lay down, For her dwelling lies in Lisburn Town" - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: RcLisLas

Lishen Brand

See Leesome Brand [Child 15] (File: C015)

Lisnagade

DESCRIPTION: The Ulster Protestants march to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne and meet an ambush at a fort at Lisnagade. There is shooting. The Catholic flag was inscribed "Hail Mary" but "my Lady Mary fell asleep, and so they ran away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1816 (_The Patriotic Songster_, according to Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion; Zimmermann believes it dates from "early 1790's")
KEYWORDS: battle political Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 12, 1791 - "A group of 'Defenders', a secret Roman Catholic agrarian society, took up position in Fort Lisnagade to attack a group of 'Peep O' Day Boys' who were celebrating King William's [1691] victory at Boyne." (source: "Lisnagade" at the Musica site)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 93, "Lisnagade" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #13403
NOTES [76 words]: "Lisnagade" refers to the white flag:
We had not march'd a mile or so when the white flag we espied,
With a branch of podereens on which they much relied,
And this inscription underneath -- Hail Mary! unto thee --
Deliver us from these Orange dogs, and then we will be free.
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 43 fn. 42: "Previously to the green, the 'seditious' colour was the Jacobite white. This colour remained the symbol of the Catholic Defenders." - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: Zimm093

Lisping Song

See I Wish I Were a.... (File: ACSF228I)

Listen to the Lambs

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Listen to the lambs (x3), crying, I want to go to Heaven when I die." Verses: "Come on, sister, with your ups and downs, Angels waiting to give you a crown." "Come on sister and don't be ashamed, Angels waiting for to write your name"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious sheep
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 136-137, "Listen to de Lambs" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 158 in the 1909 edition)
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (II), pp. 57-63, "Listen to de Lambs" (1 text with variants, 1 tune with variants)
ADDITIONAL: John W. Work, American Negro Songs (New York: Crown Publishers, 1940 (republished by Mineola: Dover Publications, 1998)), p. 111, "Listen to the Lambs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12260
NOTES [27 words]: In Work's and Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "Want to go to heaven when I die." - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Dett136

Listen to the Mocking Bird

See Listen to the Mockingbird (File: RJ19110)

Listen to the Mockingbird

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls his beloved Hallie, who is "Sleeping in the valley, And the mockingbird is singing where she lies." Now the song of the mockingbird makes him "Feel like one forsaken... Since my Hallie is no longer with me now."
AUTHOR: "Alice Hawthorne" (Septimus Winner) and Richard Milburn
EARLIEST DATE: 1854
KEYWORDS: death burial separation bird
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 78-79,"Listen to the Mocking Bird" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 159, "Sweet Hally" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 81-82, "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (1 text) (p. 68 in the 1919 edition)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 110-114, "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 61-61, "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1277, p. 87, "Listen to the Mocking Bird!" (1 reference)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 249, "Listen To The Mockingbird" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 89-91, "Listen to the Mockingbird" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 384-386, "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 46, "Listen to the Mocking-Bird" (1 text)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 47, "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 14, "Listen too the Mocking Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 333, "Listen to the Mocking Bird"
DT, MCKNBIRD
ST RJ19110 (Full)
Roud #8079
RECORDINGS:
Theron Hale & Daughters, "Listen To The Mocking Bird" (Victor V-40019, 1929)
Fiddlin' Red Herron, "Listen To The Mockingbird" (King 629, 1947)
Bela Lam and His Green County Singers, "Listen tothe Mocking Bird" (OKeh, unissued, 1927)
W. MacBeth & Tom Collins, "Listen to the Mockingbird" (Vocalion 5282, c. 1929)
Morgan & Stanley, "Listen to the Mockingbird" (Columbia 1833, 1904) (Victor Monarch 4080, 1904)
Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & the Jr. Skillet Lickers, "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (on DownYonder)

SAME TUNE:
I'm Dreaming Now of Hadley (by F. W. Adams, [class of 18]62) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 44)
NOTES [367 words]: Although now often used as an opportunity for fiddle players or other performers to produce strange sounds from their instruments, this piece was originally done "straight." After a few years of obscurity, the composer sold the copyright for a mere $5, only to see the song sell over a million copies.
Alice Hawthorne was a leading pseudonym of Septimus Winner; he also listed her as the author of "Whispering Hope." The name was a tribute to his mother. For some reason, Winner published such trivia as "Oh Where Oh Where Is My Little Dog Gone" under his own name.
The first edition of this piece gave a melodic credit to Richard Milbourne; this was dropped on later printings. It seems likely, however, that Milbourne did supply the tune; he was a young Negro errand-boy and beggar known as "Whistling Dick." Early in his career, Winner was willing to give credit to others; as he became more successful, he apparently wanted the praise for himself.
The song is reported to have been dedicated to Harriet Lane, the niece of president James Buchanan who was the White House hostess during that bachelor's presidency. (Buchanan was not yet President when the song was written, but Lane had already done duty as his social helper, so this is possible.) It is ironic to observe that Lane was almost an old maid, not getting married until 1866, when she was well into her thirties.
Septimus Winner was quite a character. According to Robert J. Morgan, Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories, Nelson, 2004, p, 113, he was born in 1827, the seventh child of his parents (hence his name). One of his compositions, "Give Us Back Our Old Commander," referring to the dismissal of General McClellan from the Union armies in 1862, earned him a spell in prison until he agreed to destroy remaining copies of the piece.
Other songs in the Index by Winner include "O Where O Where Has My Little Dog Gone" (reportedly written 1864), "Whispering Hope" (1868; said by Morgan to be his last successful composition), and possibly "Ellie Rhee (Ella Rhee, Ella Ree)"; he also had something to do with "Ten Little Injuns" and may have arranged "Heaven's a Long Way Off." He died in 1902. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RJ19110

Little 'Dobe Casa, The

See Little Adobe Casa (File: R197AC)

Little Adobe Casa

DESCRIPTION: "Just one year ago today, I left my eastern home, Hunting for a fortune and for fame. Little did I think that now I'd be in Mexico In this little adobe casa on the plains." Life is awful. He wishes a local girl would be his wife, at least until he escapes
AUTHOR: Credited to Tom Beasley by Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Thorp)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes settler bachelor Mexico derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys VII, pp. 87-96 (20), "Little Adobe Casa" (6 texts, 2 tunes); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 93-94, "Little Adobe Casa" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 469, "Little Adobe Casa" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #11082
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Sod Shanty On My Claim" (tune, form, concept)
NOTES [45 words]: "Little Adobe Casa" looks to me to be simply a localization of "The Little Old Sod Shanty On My Claim," and there are intermediate versions, so I initially did not split them. But Roud makes "Little Adobe Casa" distinct, as do several other editors, so I've now divided them.
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R197AC

Little Ah Sid

DESCRIPTION: "Little Ah Sid was a Chinese kid, A neat little cuss, I declare...." One day, as Ah Sid is out playing, he spots a bee and, taking it for a butterfly, knocks it down and puts it in his pocket. It stings him; he remarks "Um bullifly velly dam hot!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: foreigner bug injury
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 276-277, "Little Ah Sid" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "Little Ah-Sid" (Conqueror 7887, 1931)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Chinee Bumboatman" (style)
File: San276

Little Alice Summers

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you young parents, I'll sing to you a song Concerning Alice Summers Who was lost so long." Little Alice, not yet two, disappears in the cold. For long hours she is missing, and her family almost despairs. But her tracks are found
AUTHOR: John T. Barton? (source: Barton's great-grandson, Jamie Blackmon)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Arkansas Charlie)
KEYWORDS: family children rescue
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 727, "Little Alice Summers" (1 text)
Roud #7391
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Charlie [pseud. for Charlie Craver], "Little Alice Summers" (Vocalion 5367, c. 1929)
File: R727

Little Annie Rooney

DESCRIPTION: "A winning way, a pleasant smile, Dressed so neat but quite in style... Has little Annie Rooney... She's my sweetheart, I'm her beau; Soon we'll marry, never to part, Little Annie Rooney is my sweetheart." The singer looks forward to life with Annie
AUTHOR: Michael Nolan
EARLIEST DATE: before 1885 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.28(8a/b) View 3 of 8)
KEYWORDS: love marriage home
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Randolph 774, "Little Annie Rooney" (1 text)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 45-47, "Little Annie Rooney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #97, "Little Annie Rooney" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 333-334, "Little Annie Rooney"
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 46, "Little Annie Rooney" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 15, "Little Annie Rooney" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 174-177, "Little Annie Rooney" (1 text, 1 tune, the undated sheet music)
Margaret Bradford Boni, editor, _Songs of the Gilded Age_, with piano arrangements by Norman Lloyd and illustrations by Lucille Corcos, Golden Press, 1960, pp. 83-85, "Little Annie Rooney" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R774 (Partial)
Roud #4822
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(8a/b) View 3 of 8, "Little Annie Rooney", R. March and Co. (London), 1877-1884; also Harding B 11(2154), Harding B 18(577), "Little Annie Rooney"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Little Annie Roonie
NOTES [115 words]: Michael Nolan was an obscure music hall performer; Annie Rooney is reported to have been his niece, and to have been three years old when this song was written.
According to James J. Geller, this song was a huge commercial success, but brought no compensation to Nolan (international copyright law not being in place yet), who swore off writing songs as a result. - RBW
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 18(577) attributes music to George Le Brun. The 1889 sheet music was published in Boston by White-Smith; the American Memory LOC notes list George Le Brunn as the arranger [cover only, call number Music #572 no. 20 at Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University]. - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R774

Little Auplaine, The

See The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine [Laws C2] (File: LC02)

Little Automobile Song

DESCRIPTION: "Johnny McConny bought an automobile, He took his girlie for a ride on Sunday." All goes well until the car breaks down. "He had to get under, get out and get under." When he can drive again, she wants to start cuddling, but the car breaks down again.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: technology courting humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 73, "Little Automobile Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11392
File: Brne073

Little Baby Blue

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Little baby blue, Sitting on the table, Fooling with HOT PEPPERS."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #312, "Little Baby Blue" (1 text)
File: AJRR312

Little Ball of Yarn, The

See Ball of Yarn (File: EM089)

Little Barber, The

See Johnny Holmes (File: Gray044)

Little Beau, A

DESCRIPTION: "I have a little finger, I have a little toe; When I get a little bigger, I'll have a little beau."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 110, "A Little Beau" (1 short text)
File: ZiZa110D

Little Beggar Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: The beggar boy's mother is gone and his father is a drunkard who beats him. He misses his mother and wishes to be buried by her. Last verse: "My coffin shall be black/Six white angels at the back/Two to watch, two to pray/Two to carry my soul away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (collected from Emily Baker)
KEYWORDS: poverty abuse death funeral begging nonballad father mother floatingverses playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 122, "The Little Beggar Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BEGGRBOY*
Roud #6355
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Go and Dig My Grave" (floating verses)
cf. "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (I)" (floating verses)
cf. "The Drunkard's Lone Child" (lyrics)
NOTES [88 words]: This should not be confused with "The Little Beggarman," an entirely separate song. The last verse is a floater, tacked on from elsewhere; MacColl & Seeger note that it's a children's game, found in Edinburgh. I've heard recordings of it from Americans as well. I use the keyword "playparty" for the final verse because we lack a keyword "game." - PJS
The verse is also found with an Ayreshire version of "Bluebells, Cockleshells," so it's fairly widely distributed in Scotland; see Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes #42 under that song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: McCST122

Little Beggarman, The (Johnny Dhu)

DESCRIPTION: "I am a little beggarman, a-begging I have been, For three score years and more in this little isle of Green...." (Johnny Dhu) briefly narrates his life, including nights in barns and a "flaxy-haired girl's" attempt to court him. He sets out on his way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: rambling begging gypsy courting
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 345, "The Little Beggarman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H751, pp. 50-51, "The Oul' Rigadoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 26, "The Beggarman's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BEGGARDH*
Roud #900
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Doran et al, "The Little Beggarman" (on FSB3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Red Haired Boy" (tune)
cf. "Me Old Ragadoo" (tune, lyrics)
NOTES [50 words]: See Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, (Cardiff,2001), #172, pp. 447-448, "I Don't Give a Damn for Gaiging is the Best" [Scotto-Romani/Tinklers' Cant version from Maher (1972?)]. Coughlan also quotes an English text of "The Oul' Rigadoo" as performed at the Coleraine Musical Festival. - BS
File: K345

Little Bells of Westminster

See The Bells of Westminster (File: ACSF437B)

Little Bells of Westminster, The

DESCRIPTION: Round. "The little bells of Westminster go Ding dong, ding dong, dong, The little bells of Westminster go Ding dong ding."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (GirlScouts-SingTogether)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 437, "Little Bells of Westminster" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 101, "The Little Bells" (1 short text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Little Bells of Westminster" (1 short text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 18)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bells of Westminster
File: ACSF437B

Little Benton

DESCRIPTION: "To little Benton I did fee, In Rhynie feein' fair," but it proves an unhappy agreement; he and Benton soon quarrel. The farmer tries to drive off the singer, who is determined to stay and earn every farthing. The singer warns others of Benton
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: farming money hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 238-239, "Little Benton" (1 text)
Roud #5580 and 5906
NOTES [29 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads observes that "Benton" is Aberdeenshire dialect for "bantom," implying that it is a description of, rather than a name for, the unpleasant farmer. - RBW
File: Ord238

Little Bessie

DESCRIPTION: The little girl tells her mother that she is ill (with what sounds like heart disease). She reports that a voice called her, saying, "Come, be my child." The girl bids her mother not to grieve, then dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Recording, Buell Kazee)
KEYWORDS: death children mother religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 172-173, "Little Bessie" (1 text, the same as that in Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle; 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 132-134, "Little Bessie" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 109, "Little Bessie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 122-123, "Little Bessie" (1 text, the same as that in McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2; 1 tune)
ST MN2172 (Partial)
Roud #4778
RECORDINGS:
Leroy Anderson, "Little Bessie" (Champion 45059, 1935)
Blue Sky Boys, "Little Bessie" (Bluebird B-8017, 1939)
Dixon Brothers, "Little Bessie" (Montgomery Ward M-7171, 1937)
Kelly Harrell, "I Heard Somebody Call My Name" (Victor 23747, 1929; on KHarrell02)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Little Bessie" (on Holcomb1, HolcombCD1)
Buell Kazee, "Little Bessie" (Brunswick 215, 1928)
Holland Puckett, "Little Bessie" (Gennett 6720, 1928/Supertone 9324, 1929)
Kid Smith [Walter Smith] & Family, "Little Bessie" (Victor 23576, 1931)
NOTES [67 words]: McNeil reports that a song called "Little Bessie," credited to "someone named Keutchman," was published in 1870. No copies of this piece are known, however, so it cannot be determined if the two are the same.
Given how often this was recorded by old-time bands, and how rare it is in tradition, I have to suspect that Viola Cole (Foss's informant) learned it, at least indirectly, from a recording. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: MN2172

Little Betty Ann

See Shady Grove (File: SKE57)

Little Betty Pringle She Had a Pig

See There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)

Little Betty Winkle She Had a Pig

See There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)

Little Billee and Guzzling Jack and Gorging Jimmy

See Little Boy Billee (Le Petite Navire, The Little Corvette) (File: K114)

Little Bird

DESCRIPTION: "Where are you going, little bird, little bird, Where are you going, little bird? I am going to the woods, sweet child, sweet child." What is in the woods? A tree. In the tree is a nest, in the nest, eggs, in the eggs, baby birds to sing "Praise the Lord"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: questions bird nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 89, "Little Bird" (1 text)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 359-400, "The Tree in the Wood/Pretty Bird" (1 text)
ST Fus089 (Partial)
Roud #4281
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rattling Bog" (theme)
NOTES [44 words]: Lumped by Scarborough with the Endless Circle/Tree in the Wood/Rattling Bog family. But the versions of this do not complete the circle, and add the religious motif. This may well have started from a fragment of the English song, but they're separate, sez I. - RBW
File: Fus089

Little Bird, Fly Through My Window

See Bluebird (File: OpGa097)

Little Bird, Go Through My Window

See Bluebird (File: OpGa097)

Little Birdie

DESCRIPTION: "Little birdie, little birdie, Come and sing me your song. I've a short time for to be here And a long time to be gone." Often consists of floating verses, but concerns adultery: "Pretty woman... you made me love you, Now your husband has come."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: adultery bird love courting husband floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Randolph 676, "The Dark Hollow"" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune, with the "A" text perhaps somewhat mixed with "Dark Hollow")
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. The Dark Hollow, "" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 676A)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, p. 43, "Little Birdie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 255, "Kitty Kline" (2 text plus 4 fragments and 1 excerpt, which despite the title mostly file here; see Notes)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 255, "Kitty Kline" (6 tunes plus text excerpts)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 187-188, "Little Birdie" (1 text)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #96, "Little Birdie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #62, "Little Birdie" (1 text, 1 tune, with this chorus although the plot seems to be mostly floating verses)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 397, "Little Birdie" (1 text)
DT, LILBIRDY
Roud #5742
RECORDINGS:
Willie Chapman, "Little Birdie" [instrumental] (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Coon Creek Girls, "Little Birdie" (Vocalion 04413, 1938)
Al Craver [pseud. for Vernon Dalhart], "Little Birdie" (Columbia 15044-D, 1925)
John Hammond, "Little Birdie" (Challenge 168 or 332 [one of these as "William Price"/Silvertone 5697, 1927; on BefBlues3)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Little Birdie" (on Holcomb-Ward1, HolcombCD1)
Robert Howell [pseud. for Holland Puckett], "Little Birdie" (Herwin 75563, 1927)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Little Birdie" (Montgomery Ward M-7127)
Wade Mainer & Zeke Morris, "Little Birdie" (Bluebird B-6840)
Wade Mainer, "Little Birdie" (King 1093, 1952)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Little Birdie" (on NLCR16)
Land Norris, "Little Birdie" (OKeh 45006, 1925)
Frank Proffitt, "Little Birdie" (on FProffitt01)
Sauceman Brothers, "Little Birdie" (Rich-R-Tone 457, n.d.)
Stanley Brothers, "Little Birdie" (Rich-R-Tone 1056, rec. 1952) (on FOTM)
Pete Steele, "Little Birdie" (AFS, 1938; on KMM) (on PSteele01)
Pete Seeger, "Little Birdie" (on PeteSeeger47)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "East Virginia (Dark Hollow)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Easy Rider" (theme)
cf. "Kitty Kline"
NOTES [115 words]: No, not the producer of "Spirituals to Swing," nor his blues-singing son! - PJS
(I think the above is a reference to the recording by John Hammond. But it's all Urdu to me. - RBW)
Yes, it is such a reference. - PJS
Lyle Lofgren informs me that Charles Wolfe did some research on Hammond, learning that he cut only six sides. Wolfe was unable to trace his origins but suspects he came from northern Kentucky.
Very many of the versions in Brown contain references to "Kitty Kline (Clyde, etc.)," and the editors on that basis filed it under that title. But the versions are clearly what we know as "Little Birdie," sometimes mixed with references to Kitty Kline, and so I file them here. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R676

Little Birdie in the Tree

DESCRIPTION: "Little birdie in the tree, Singing a song to me, Singing about the roses/rainbow/etc., Singing about the tree; Little birdie in the tree, Singing a song for me."
AUTHOR: Philip P. Bliss (1838-1876)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (Bliss, "The Charm: A Collection of Sunday School Music")
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 146, "Little Birdie in the Tree" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 127, "(Little red bird in the tree)") (1 text)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 227, "Little Birdies" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Philip Paul Bliss, _The Charm: A Collection of Sunday School Music_, John Church & Co., 1871 (available on Google Books), pp. 120-121, "Little Birdie in the Tree"
Roud #5259
RECORDINGS:
Miriam "Mimi" Wright, "Little Birdie in a Tree" (Piotr-Archive #295, recorded 10/10/2022)
NOTES [26 words]: For more on Philip Paul Bliss, see the notes to "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning." Thanks to Jim Dixon for pointing out the publication in The Charm. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Br3146

Little Birdies

See Little Birdie in the Tree (File: Br3146)

Little Birdy with the Silly Name, The

DESCRIPTION: "Early in the morning, When I'm fast asleep. I heard a little chirping, I heard a little peep. It's from a little birdy, With the funny name" (which is designed to twist the tongue). The singer may feed the bird to silence it; the window may fall on it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2021 (LibraryThingCampSongsThread)
KEYWORDS: bird wordplay death food campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 27, "(Early in the morning While I'm still asleep)" (1 text, from user bilblio, posted August 29, 2021)
ST LTCSLBSN (Partial)
NOTES [36 words]: Although rarely published, Internet searches reveal that this is very popular as a camp song, with many variations (not all of them in the name of the bird, although that varies a lot), so I'm including it here. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LTCSLBSN

Little Bit

DESCRIPTION: "Leddle bit-a Niggeh an' a great big toe, Meenie miny mo. Leddle bit-a Niggeh wid a great big fis', Jes' de size fo' his mammy to kiss. Leddle bit-a Niggeh wid big black eyes, Bright as de sun up in de skies...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: love children nonballad lullaby
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 153, (no title) (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme)" (lyrics)
File: ScNF153A

Little Bit of Heaven, A

DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever hear the story of how Ireland got its name?" A small piece of Heaven broke off and fell to earth; when an angel finds it, he proposes to leave it there because it fits so well. They proceed to make improvements such as adding shamrocks
AUTHOR: Words: J. Keirn Brennan / Music: Ernest R. Ball
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: Ireland talltale
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 6-7, "And They Called It Ireland" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 334, "A Little Bit of Heaven, Shure They Call It Ireland"
Roud #5495
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Origin of Ireland" (theme: The Creation of Ireland)
SAME TUNE:
Shotley Stew (File: Tawn031)
NOTES [108 words]: Ironically, although this song supplies an (obviously humorous) explanation of how Ireland came to be, it does not explain how it came to be called Ireland.
Dean-FlyingCloud does not seem to have known the first verse of the song, which is about leprechauns and their antics. It's no loss; other sources omit it as well.
For more about composer Ernest R. Ball, see the notes to "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling."
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 308, estimates that this was the most popular song in America in 1915, reaching #1 in May 1915. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Dean006

Little Bitty Baby

See Children Go Where I Send Thee (File: LoF254)

Little Bitty Man

DESCRIPTION: "Little bitty man, Lord, Lord (x4)." "Pickin' up san, Lord, Lord (x4)." "Grain by grain, Lord, Lord (x4)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 153, "Little Bitty Man" (1 short text)
Roud #16283
NOTES [37 words]: The current description is based on the Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama text. I would guess that many other verses have floated in and out of this text, but with only a handful of versions, there is little way to really know. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Arno153

Little Black Bull, The

See The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)

Little Black Doctor

DESCRIPTION: "Little black doctor, How is your wife? Very well thank you, She's all right. She won't eat licorice, Sticky old licorice, O-U-T spells Out."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: doctor wife food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 77, "(Little black doctor)" (1 text)
Roud #19115
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric) and references there
NOTES [25 words]: Roud lumps this with "Oh Dear Doctor," but I don't see much in common except the doctor -- and even that doesn't exist in some of "Oh Dear Doctor"! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI077E

Little Black Mustache, The

See The Black Mustache (File: CW180A)

Little Black Train Is A-Comin'

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Little black train is a-comin', Get all your business right... For the train may be here tonight." King Hezekiah is offered as an example. A young man lives a sinful life; when death comes, he is surprised and vainly begs for mercy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death Bible train
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 625-628, "Little Black Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 46-47, "The Little Black Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 541, "The Little Black Train" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 914-915, "Little Black Train Is A-Comin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 41, "(Little Black Train)" (partial text)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 260-261, "The Little Black Train" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 305-306, "(no title)" (1 text)
ST BAF914 (Partial)
Roud #11594
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "The Little Black Train Is Coming" (Vocalion 5229, 1928)
Dock Boggs, "Little Black Train" (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1)
Carter Family, "The Little Black Train" (OKeh 03112/Vocalion 03112, 1935; ARC 7-07-62/Conqueror 8815, 1937; on CGospel1)
Rev. J. M. Gates, "Death's Black Train is Coming" (Columbia 14145-D,1926)
Harmon E. Helmick, "The Little Black Train" (Champion 16744, 1934)
Silver Leaf Quartet, "Gospel Train" (on LomaxCD1708)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "This Old World Ain't Going to Stand Much Longer" (subject)
NOTES [70 words]: The story of Hezekiah's bout with sickness, God's threat, Hezekiah's repentance, and Isaiah's promise of fifteen additional years of life is told in 2 Kings 20:1-11 (repeated almost verbatim inIsaiah 38) and briefly summarized in 2 Chronicles 32:24-26.
The version in Brown accidentally replaces "Hezekiah" with "Ezekiel," but the former name is clearly correct. It tacks on the story of the Wise Fool, Luke 12:16-20. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: BAF914

Little Blind Child

See The Blind Child (File: R724)

Little Blossom

DESCRIPTION: Lonely little (Blossom/Phoebe), left alone by her mother, sets out to find her father. She finds him in the saloon; when she interrupts him, he grabs a chair and attacks her with it. He comes to his senses, but the child is already dead
AUTHOR: (based on a poem by Martha J. Bidwell)
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: father drink homicide children
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph 311, "Little Blossom" (2 texts plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 260-263, "Little Blossom" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 311A)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 118-123, "Little Blossom (I), (II)" (2 texts)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp 130-132, "Little Blossom" (1 text)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 56-58, "Little Blossom" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LTLBLSSM*
Roud #7788
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "Little Blossom" (Conqueror 7886, 1931)
NOTES [55 words]: Randolph notes, "Little girls in starched white dresses used to sing [this song] in front of the courthouse at election time." Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore's informant also described it being used for political purposes at a prohibition program, reportedly in 1888. Almost makes modern political ads sound tolerable, doesn't it? - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: R311

Little Bo-peep

DESCRIPTION: Shepherdess Bo-peep can't find her sheep. When she finds them they are without their tails. One day she finds the tails hung on a tree to dry. She "tried what she could, as a shepherdess should, To tack again each to its lambkin"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1806 (Monthly Literary Recreations, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: humorous talltale sheep shepherd injury dream
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1659, "Little Bo-Peep" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 107, "(The autumn is Bo-peep)" (1 short text, a game song, much changed from the standard version)
Heart-Songs, p. 207, "Little Bo-Peep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 66, "Little Bo-peep has lost her sheep" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #112, p. 93, "(Little Bo-peep has lost her sheep)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 100, "Little Bo Peep" (1 very full text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 73, "Little Bo-Peep" (1 text)
cf. DT, MERRYLND
ADDITIONAL: Tim Devlin, _Cracking Humpty Dumpty: An Investigative Trail of Favorite Nursery Rhymes_, Susak Press, 2022, pp. 71-75, "Little Bo-Peep" (1 text plus many variants and alternate sources)
Roud #6487
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Simon Brodie" (theme: animal returns by itself, with its tail "behind")
NOTES [541 words]: Before digging into the meaning of this, we should perhaps note that the term "bo-peep" did not originate with this rhyme. Onions, p. 107, defines it as a "game played by peeping from behind a hiding place and crying bo!" "Bo," according to p. 103, is essentially the word we usually now spell "boo," attested since the fifteenth century: a word designed to startle. Peep, according to p. 662, is to "utter a week shrill sound," and is also a fifteenth century word, used by Lydgate. Hence a bo-peep might be someone who can't make enough noise to get anyone's attention, and the loss of the sheep might be because they can't hear the shepherd.
Devlin, p. 73, mentions a woman who in 1364 was sentenced to "play bo pepe through a pillory," though without citing the exact source; still, it is clear that the phrase "bo-peep" is very old.
Shakespeare's King Lear uses the word. Act I, Scene IV has these lines, stated by the fool:
Then they for sudden joy did weep,
And I for sorrow sung,
That such a king should play bo-peep,
And go the [fools] among.
This is lines 175-178 in ShakespeareEvans (p. 1263. The reading "fools" is that of the first two quartos; the First Folio has "Foole"); other editions have slightly different line numbers (e.g. it's 176-179 in the Signet Shakespeare).
None of these are this poem, though; they're merely uses of the name.
The Baring-Goulds find no versions of the rhyme before the 1810 edition of Gammer Gurton's Garland, which is the first date they mention for this rhyme. No one seems to be able to trace the the rhyme itself earlier than this, either.
I'm amazed no one has tried to find a political interpretation. Were the piece earlier, one would be tempted to the English Civil War and Restoration. Or maybe the Stuart monarchy and the Jacobite rebellions. Given the early nineteenth century date, one thinks of the French Revolution, the guillotine, and perhaps Bonaparte's restoration of monarchy.
Or not. I don't really believe it. But it sounds so "folk-plausible." Even the name is right.... - RBW
Maybe "Little Bo-Peep" parodies a shorter song where the only verse is the first. Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes says, "Several of the verses are based on pieces that seem to have been current in the 1760s, amongst them:
Our Jemima's lost her Mare
And can't tell where to find her,
But she'll come trotting by and by
And bring her Tail behind her."
Also, see "Simon Brodie" where the animal -- always a cow, but sometimes also a dove -- does return. - BS
To my amazement, it seems my English Civil War suggestion has been anticipated. Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel mentions a suggestion that this is about smuggling in the time of Charles I (reigned 1625 until his execution in 1649). I still don't believe it, though. Dolby-OrangesAndLemons mentions a link to Mary Queen of Scots, which is equally implausible; it appears to to go back to the frankly addled ideas of Katherine Elwes Thomas (Thomas, pp. 188-196). But Devlin, pp. 74-75, mentions several other references to smuggling in connection with the song, and thinks that the most likely explanation.
Heart-Songs, p. 207, attributes this to J. W. Elliott, but I think that means either the tune or the arrangement, not the original text. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: OO2066

Little Boneen

DESCRIPTION: The boys play cards at Kate Day's with "Gullivan's little black pig" as the prize. An accusation of cheating starts a fight. "Such a battered up crowd sure the boys never seen"
AUTHOR: probably Johnny Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Burke's Popular Songs)
KEYWORDS: accusation fight violence gambling humorous moniker animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke, _Burke's Popular Songs_, self-published, 1929 (a PDF is available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. [19], "The Night We Played Cards for the Little Boneen" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 35, "Playing For The Boneen" (1 text)
Johnny Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1926_, self-published, 1926 (PDF copy avallable on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), [no page number], "The Night we Played Cards for the Little Boneen" (1 text)
Roud #18223
RECORDINGS:
Jack Knight, "Little Boneen" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcLitBon

Little Bonny

See More Pretty Girls Than One (File: CSW192)

Little Boxes

DESCRIPTION: "Little boxes on the hillside... And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same." How people go to school and go into business and get put into "little boxes (houses) all the same" (except for minor differences in color)
AUTHOR: Malvina Reynolds
EARLIEST DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 378-380, "Little Boxes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 189, "Little Boxes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 314, "Little Boxes" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 130, 542, "Little Boxes" (notes only)
DT, LITBOX1* (LITBOX2*) (LITBOX3*)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Little Boxes" (on PeteSeeger35, PeteSeeger36)
NOTES [165 words]: The irony of this song, at least to me, is that while most Americans DO think the same thoughts and live the same lives and buy houses from the same contractors and watch the same sports on the same TV sets and otherwise follow the crowd and pollute the same environment with the same junk that they extract from the same oil wells, they at least have a choice about it. A medieval peasant was a medieval peasant no matter how hard he tried to be a freethinker, and even the nobility didn't have many choices....
This is of course not a traditional song by origin, and it probably hasn't gone into tradition either; it's here because it's cited in many books, but none of them are field collections.
Although Reynolds is responsible for both words and music of the piece, but she seems to have been inspired (perhaps unconsciously) by the song "Pittsburg, Pennsylvania" ("There's a pawn shop on the corner In Pittsburg Pennsylvania"), made popular by a 1952 recording by Guy Mitchell. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: SBoA378

Little Boy

See The Swapping Boy (File: E093)

Little Boy Billee (Le Petite Navire, The Little Corvette)

DESCRIPTION: English & French versions. Three Bristol men steal a ship and go to sea. Starving, Jack & Jimmy plot to eat Billee, but he asks to say his catechism first. Before he finishes, he sights the British fleet. Jack and Jimmy are hanged, Billee made an admiral
AUTHOR: Unknown, English version possibly translated by William Thackeray
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (published by Thackeray, according to Scott); 1946 (Davenson, French version)
KEYWORDS: crime execution punishment theft rescue death ship cannibalism foreignlanguage homicide
FOUND IN: France
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 114, "Le Petit Navire [The Little Corvette]" (French version -- 1 text + translation, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 429-430, "Three Sailors of Bristol City" (1 text)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 142, Un Petit' Navire" (2 texts, French & English, 1 tune)
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 110-111, "Little Billee and Guzzling Jack and Gorging Jimmy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #905
RECORDINGS:
Bob Roberts, "Little Boy Billee" (on LastDays)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship in Distress" (plot) and references there
NOTES [125 words]: The song was apparently widespread among French sailors. The English version, possibly translated by Thackeray, seems almost a burlesque. And the similarities to "The Ship in Distress" are so acute that I suspect the songs are related. - PJS
To me, the question is more of the relations between Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland's various texts in multiple languages. If two songs have the same plot, and there is a version in another language with the same plot, how do you tell which song it belongs with? Hugill's translation of the French "La Petite Navire" has no mention of Bristol, and lacks the ending about the boy and his prayers. It's not the same as his "Three Sailors of Bristol City." If it weren't for Kennedy, I'd split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: K114

Little Boy Blue (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Little boy blue, come blow your horn, The sheep's in the meadow, the cow's in the corn. Where is the boy who looks after the sheep? Under a haystack, fast asleep. Will you wake him? No, not I, For if I do, he will surely cry."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1744 (Nancy Cock's Song Book according to Devlin)
KEYWORDS: animal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 74, "Little Boy Blue" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #31, p. 46, "(Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 103, "Little Boy Blue" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 75, "Little Boy Blue" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 41, "Little Boy Blue" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #514, "Sheep in the meadow" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Tim Devlin, _Cracking Humpty Dumpty: An Investigative Trail of Favorite Nursery Rhymes_, Susak Press, 2022, pp. 77-82, "Little Boy Blue" (1 text plus some related lyrics)
Roud #19703
NOTES [154 words]: The Baring-Goulds and Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel both quote with some approval the suggestion by Katherine Elwes Thomas that Little Boy Blue was Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey (Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp. 87-91). But the Opies regard this as more Thomasian silliness. So do I. So does Devlin, who devotes several pages to debunking the idea, even noting that a verse that Thomas quoted to support her claim does not seem to have existed!
Devlin, p. 81, mentions another hypothesis connecting this with Charles II. This makes a big more chronological sense, since the poem was printed less than sixty years after Charles's death, but otherwise there isn't much convincing about the notion. Devlin tentatively suspects that this is... just a poem about a shepherd whose sheep strayed, with no hidden message. I agree that this is surely the simplest explanation. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OO2074

Little Boy Blue (II)

DESCRIPTION: "The little toy dog was covered with dust, But sturdy and staunch he stands. And the little toy soldier is red with rust." Little Boy Blue "dreamt of the pretty toys," but an angel takes him away. Still the toys stand faithful
AUTHOR: Words: Eugene Fields
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Journal "America," according to Wikipedia; set to music by Ethelbert Nevin in 1891)
KEYWORDS: death children
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 192, "Little Boy Blue" (1 text, 1 tune, close to the Fields poem except that it adds a half-stanza about the child praying as he goes to bed)
Roud #11318
File: Brne192

Little Boy Lonzo

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus: some variation of "Little boy Lonzo," "Lonzo, Lonzo," while the shantyman sings some variation of "Here come Lonzo," "Oh me Lonzo," "Little bitty Lonzo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: shanty
FOUND IN: West Indies(St Vincent)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 96-97, "Little Boy Lonzo" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: AWIS096

Little Boy on a Train, The

See Please, Mister Conductor (The Lightning Express) (File: R720)

Little Boys Are Made of Slugs and Snails

See What's Little Babies Made Of? (File: SKE79)

Little Brass Wagon

See Old Brass Wagon (File: San159)

Little Brigid Flynn

DESCRIPTION: "I've a nice slated house and a cow or two at grass"; a bachelor's life is "easy and he's free" -- but no one is looking after him. His father says he should find a girl. He wishes "Little Brigid Flynn" would "come and have an eye to me"
AUTHOR: Percy French (1854-1920) (source: Healy)
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Healy)
KEYWORDS: love home father courting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
DT, BRIDFLYN*
ADDITIONAL: James N. Healy, editor, _The Songs of Percy French_, 1955-1962, revised edition 1986; I use the 1996 Ossian paperback, pp. 28-29, "Little Brigid Flynn" (1 text, 1 tune)
James N. Healy, _Percy French and His Songs_, The Mercier Press, 1966, p. 92, "Little Brigid Flynn" (1 text, partial tune)
Roud #39674
NOTES [34 words]: There is no reason to think this particular Percy French song was ever traditional. But it was recorded by the Irish Rovers, so I put it here specifically so people can know of its non-traditionality. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: DTbridfl

Little Brown Bulls, The [Laws C16]

DESCRIPTION: Bold McCluskey believes his steer(s) can out-pull anything on the river, and backs his belief by betting that they can out-pull Gordon's little brown bulls. Despite McCluskey's confidence, the bulls are victorious
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: contest animal gambling lumbering
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Laws C16, "The Little Brown Bulls"
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 13, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 13, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 248-249, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 107, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 224-226, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 54, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 56-60, "The Little Brown Bulls" (2 texts)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 775-777, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 849-851, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 37, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 67-71, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 24, "Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #47, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 168-171, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 431-432 "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 178-179, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text)
DT 603, BRWNBULL*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 39, #2 (1994), pp, 96-97, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune, a combination of two versions sung by Robert Walker)
Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden, _Wisconsin Lore: Antics and Anecdotes of Wisconsin People and Places_, Wisconsin House, 1962, pp. 68-70, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, presumably from Wisconsin although no source is listed)
James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "The Wanigan Songbook" by Isabel J. Ebert, pp. 210-212, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Emory DeNoyer)
David C. Peterson, "Wisconsin Folksongs," chapter in _Badger History: Wisconsin Folklore_, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Volume XXV, Number 2, November 1973), pp. 58-59, "The Little Brown Bulls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2224
RECORDINGS:
Charles Bowlen, "The Little Brown Bulls" (AFS, 1941; on LC55)
Warde Ford, "The Little Brown Bulls" (AFS 4213 B, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Carl Lathrop, "The Little Brown Bulls" (AFS, 1938; on LC56)
Robert Walker, "The Little Brown Bulls" (on USWolfRiver)
NOTES [407 words]: According to Fred Bainter, who sang Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy's "A" text, "the ballad was composed in Mart Douglas's camp in northwestern Wisconsin in 1872 or 1873. It was in this camp and at this date... that the contest between the big spotted steers and the little brown bulls was held" (quotation from Botkin, not Bainter; Laws quotes this information from Rickaby, but without comment on its truth or falsehood. Fowke notes that Beck had a different story).
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy's second version lacks the Derry Down refrain, but the informant apparently knew it with the Derry Down tune. Fowke describes her tune as a "Villikens" variant. The Robert Walker recording is said to use the tune of "Rye Whisky." - RBW
Beck notes that some lumberjacks have suggested this song comes from Maine, but it is not included in R. P. Gray's collection Songs and Ballads of the Maine Lumberjacks. - PJS
This is going to be hard to solve. As best I can tell, there are 23 or 24 versions of this known from tradition (depending on whether the Gard/Sorden text is independent or copied from someone else; the text gives no indication, although they say that almost all lumberjacks in Wisconsin knew it, and on page 3 they mention hearing it from "an old lady in Forest County").
Five of these versions (found in Kentucky, Missouri, Texas, and two from the Ford family in California) are clearly not native to their area. Of the other 18, six are from Michigan and six or seven from Wisconsin (plus the Ward and Pat Ford versions surely derive from that state). Two are from Maine, two from Ontario, one from New Brunswick, and one from Nova Scotia.
In addition, Emery DeNoyer, who sang in lumber camps all over Wisconsin, claimed to have met McCloskey, the hero of the song, who was "a big Scotchman and popular wherever he worked." DeNoyer also said that McCloskey had heard several tunes for this song but considered DeNoyer's to be the original. (It may have been changed because it is hard to sing, with a range of an octave and a fourth.)
Did the song originate in the Midwest and travel east? The fact that 14 versions are ultimately from Wisconsin and Michigan argues for this. But it is more likely for a song to move west with the lumbermen than for six versions to make their way east. I think we just have to say we don't know. If I had to choose, I'd argue for the Wisconsin origin, but I'm far from sure. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LC16

Little Brown Church in the Vale, The (The Church in the Wildwood)

DESCRIPTION: "There's a church in the valley by the wildwood, No lovelier spot in the dale; No place is so dear to my childhood...." "Come to the church in the wildwood, Oh, come to the church in the dale." The singer recalls the joys of church as both child and adult
AUTHOR: William S. Pitts
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (sheet music published by J. M. Higgins of Chicago)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 43, "The Church In the Wildwood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1281, pp. 87-88, "Little Brown Church" (1 reference)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 188, "Church in the Wildwood" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 66, "The Church in the Wildwood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 108, "There's a Church in the Wildwood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 53, "The Church in the Wildwood" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 117, "Church in the Wildwood" (1 text)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 51, "The Church in the Wildwood" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp, 172-173, "The Little Brown Church in the Vale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 86-87, "Little Brown Church in the Vale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4970
RECORDINGS:
Chuck Wagon Gang, "The Church in the Wildwood" (Vocalion 03028/OKeh 03028, c. 1936; ARC 7-06-60, 1937; Columbia 20501, 1948; Columbia 20699, 1950; Columbia 54010, 1956)
SAME TUNE:
100% Americans, "The Cross in the Wildwood" [Ku Klux Klan song] (KKK 75003, c. 1924)
Imperial Quintette of Lansing, Mich., "The Fiery Cross in the Vale" (Imperial Quintette K-27, rec. 1924)
NOTES [140 words]: According to Johnson, this is largely about an actual church built in the 1860s in the town of Bradford, Iowa (near present-day Nashua). Bradford was bypassed by the railroads, and withered away, but as of his writing, the church still stood. Morgan reports that the congregation is relatively small but the church is financially sound because so many people want to be married at "the" Little Brown Church.
The story of the song's composition, as given by Morgan, seems almost too good to be true: Author Pitts came by the spot before the church was built, thought it would be a great site for a church and wrote the song -- but filed it away until five years later when, visiting the site again, he found that someone had built a church just where he thought one should be built. That inspired Pitts to put the song before the world. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: BdLBCitV

Little Brown Dog

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a little boy As fat as I could go, They set me there upon the fence...." The boy fights and defeats a giant, induces his hen to hatch out a hare, acquires a dog with legs ten feet long, and otherwise does the impossible
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (JAFL 4)
KEYWORDS: talltale animal chickens dog horse sheep humorous nonsense fight
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber),Shetlands) US(MA,NE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Randolph 357, "When I Was a Little Boy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Greig/Duncan8 1701, "Speculation" (8 texts, 2 tunes)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #149, p. 1, "Speculation" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 4, "As I Set Off To Turkey" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 145, "The Lofty Giant" (1 text)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 164-165, "When I Was a Little Boy" (1 text)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 101, "When I Was a Little Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 712, "As I Was Going to Romford" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 129, p. 275, "To London I Did Go" (1 text)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 140-141, "When I'se a Little Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 108-109, "Toll-a-Winker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 24-29, "A Tale of Jests" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 111, "The Lying Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 87, "The Liar's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 103-106, "The Little Bull Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 79, "The Little Bull" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 394, "Little Brown Dog" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, William Wells Newell, "Nursery Rhymes from Maine," Vol. IV, No. 14 (Jul-Sep 1891), #5 pp. 269-270 "Jack the Giant-Killer" ("When I was a little boy, to London I did go") (2 texts)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 94, 541, "Autumn to May" (notes only)
DT, (AUTUMNTO)
ADDITIONAL: Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, p. 81, "When I Was a Little Boy" (1 text)
Roud #1706
RECORDINGS:
George Decker, "A Tale of Jests" (on PeacockCDROM)
Bride Power, "The Lie" (on MUNFLA/Leach) (2 versions)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Derby Ram"
cf. "The Swapping Boy"
cf. "The Seven Wonders"
cf. "The Song of the Moor" (borrows this tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Big Jeest
Once I Had
The Lie Song
A Lad's Adventures
NOTES [138 words]: I've listed this song under a title by which it's well known; as it was extremely popular in the 1960s folk revival. -PJS
It's interesting that the two best-known titles today, "Autumn to May" and "Little Brown Dog," both seem to be modern labels not really known in tradition.
Versions of this song may take almost any form, as long as there is enough exaggeration. The piece is recognized by its short lines and stanzas. Here are samples: "When I was a little boy, To London I did go, Upon that banished (?) steeple, My gallantry to show." "I bought me a little hen, I did not take much care; I set her on an oyster shell, And she hatched me out a bear."
Hudson calls this a rhymed version of the story of Jack the Giant Killer. Some versions were doubtless influenced by that, but the song doesn't require killing a giant. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: VWL101

Little Brown Frog

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Little Brown Hands

DESCRIPTION: "They drive the cows home from the pasture Down through the long shady lane." "They know where the apples are reddest." These hard-working children shall one day be great. Many other secrets "are held in the little brown hand."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 327, "Little Brown Hands" (1 text)
Roud #15890
File: Br3327

Little Brown Jug, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises drink and the little brown jug it comes in: "Ha, ha, ha, you and me, 'Little brown jug' don't I love thee." Drink has turned his friends into enemies, left him poor and sick, and ruined his prospects -- but still he wants another drop
AUTHOR: Eastburn (Joseph Eastburn Winner)
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (sheet music published by J. E. Winner of Philadelphia)
KEYWORDS: drink poverty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 115-118, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 28, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 212, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 406)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 261, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text plus an excerpt from another)
Randolph 408, "The Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a fragment which may or may not go here)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 33, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text plus 6 excerpts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 33, "Little Brown Jug" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 99, pp. 124-125, "The Little Brown Jug" (3 short texts)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #131, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text plus an excerpt)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #78, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 83-84, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune that are clearly "Little Brown Jug"; also some supplementary dance verses that appear to derive from "Cotton-Eyed Joe" or "Corn-Stalk Fiddle" or some other very unstable text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 176-177, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune, probably composite, since it includes all the original verses plus some floaters)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 212, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 65, "(Little Brown Jug)" (1 text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 40-41, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 52-53, "The Little Brown Jug" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 64-65, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 269, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 79-81, "The Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 161-163, "The Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 236, "Little Brown Jug" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 334-335, "Little Brown Jug"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 97, "Little Brown Jug" (notes only)
DT, BROWNJUG*
ST RJ19115 (Full)
Roud #725
RECORDINGS:
[Gene] Austin & [George] Reneau, "Little Brown Jug" (CYL: Edison [BA] 4973, prob. 1924)
The Blue Ridge Duo [possibly a pseudonym for George Reneau?] "Little Brown Jug" (Edison 51422, 1924)
Uncle Tom Collins, "Little Brown Jug" (OKeh 45132, 1927)
Vernon Dalhart, "Little Brown Jug" (Perfect 12421, 1928)
The Glenn Miller Band (Bluebird 10286, 1939)
Chubby Parker, "Little Brown Jug" (Gennett 6120/Silvertone 5013/Silvertone 25013, 1927; Supertone 9191, 1928) (Conqueror 7893, 1931)
Riley Puckett (w. Clayton McMichen), "Little Brown Jug" (Columbia 15232-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
George Reneau, "Little Brown Jug" (Vocalion 14812, 1924)
Ernest Thompson, "Little Brown Jug" (Columbia 147-D, 1924)
Welby Toomey, "Little Brown Jug" (Gennett 6025/Champion 15198, 1927; rec. 1926)
Henry Whitter, "Little Brown Jug" (OKeh 40063, 1924)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, Music B-257, "The Little Brown Jug" ("My wife and I lived all alone"), J.E. Winner (Philadelphia), 1869 (with tune) "by Eastburn"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Woodpecker's Hole" (tune)
cf. "The Whiskey Seller" (tune)
cf. "The Poor Little Girls of Ontario" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Old Man's Lament (II) (File: Logs050)
Little Brown Jug (square dance call) (Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, p. 109)
NOTES [75 words]: Joseph Winner (the brother of Septimus Winner, a.k.a. "Alice Hawthorne") published some twenty pieces in his career under the title Eastburn, but only this one had any commercial success. The title may have come from another song of the same name, but that piece (by George Cooper and W. F. Wellman, Jr.; copyright 1868) fell into instant obscurity. Those who wish to see it can find it, e.g., in Dime-Song-Book #21, p. 41, "The Little Brown Jug." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RJ19115

Little Brown Mouse

DESCRIPTION: "Oh the liquor was spilled on the barroom floor, And the place was closed for the night. When out of the dark came a little brown mouse, To sit in the pale moonlight." The mouse drinks so much that it declares, "Bring on that gosh-darned cat! "
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: humorous animal drink campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 107, 233, "Little Gray Mouse" (notes only)
Roud #18503
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Intoxicated Rat" (plot)
NOTES [48 words]: Mudcat.org has a thread, "Intoxicated Mouse," in which this ends with a verse,
The cat came out the very next day
And ate up the little brown mouse.
The moral of this story is,
"Never have a drink on the house."
Despite its sillyness, I wonder if this isn't a moralizing conclusion. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF107L

Little Bull Song, The

See Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)

Little Bunch of Roses

See Darling, I Have Come to Tell You (Farewell Nellie, Little Bunch of Roses, Many Miles Apart, Don't This Road Look Rough and Rocky) (File: BrS5689)

Little Bunch of Roses, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am waiting here to meet my darling," "My little bunch of roses." They kissed last night and he anticipates the same tonight. He fell in love with her when they met as children. Now she is eighteen. He recalls his proposal and her acceptance.
AUTHOR: "written and composed by" W.H. Delahanty, according to broadside LOCSheet sm1871 06382) (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1871 06382)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 924, "The Little Bunch of Roses" (1 text)
Roud #6238
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1871 06382, "Little Bunch of Roses," G. D. Russell & Co. (Boston), 1871 (tune)
NOTES [19 words]: Composer attributions are notoriously unreliable on song sheets, frequently attributing the song to the arranger. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: GrD4924

Little Bunny Foo Foo

DESCRIPTION: "Little (bunny/rabbit) (Foo Foo/FuFu/Froo Froo), Running through the forest, Sneaking up on fieldmice and Batting them over the head." Repeatedly warned by a fairy godmother to stop, Foo Foo refuses and is turned into "a goon"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: animal magic humorous abuse warning campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 112, 239, 514, "Little Bunny Foo Foo" (notes only)
DT, RABTFUFU
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down at the Station" (tune, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Little Rabbit Fufu
Little Bunny Froo Froo
NOTES [35 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 112, reports collecting 22 versions of this despite occasional attempts to suppress it. I'm indexing it on that basis, even though I haven't seen a field collection in print. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: DTRabtFu

Little Bunny Froo Froo

See Little Bunny Foo Foo (File: DTRabtFu)

Little Cabin Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: A fair lady falls in love with Billy, a cabin boy. She tries to convince his captain to release him, but the captain will not. She bids him farewell, goes into a garden, and dies for love. Billy's ship is lost in a storm with all hands
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: sea courting love death separation wreck
FOUND IN: US(MA) Britain(Scotland,England(South)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 56, "The Little Cabin Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 83, "The Cabin Boy" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 104, "The Cabin Boy" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 242-243, "William the Handsome Cabin Boy" (1 text, 1 tune))
ST FSC056 (Partial)
Roud #1168
File: FSC056

Little Cabin in the Woods

DESCRIPTION: "Little cabin in the woods Little man by the window stood, Saw a rabbit hopping by, Frightened as can be. 'Help me, help me, help,' he said, 'Or the hunter will shoot me dead.' 'Little rabbit, come inside, Safely to abide.' Repeat with variants
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1997 (mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: In a Cabin in the Woods")
KEYWORDS: animal hunting rescue campsong
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 112, 393-395, "Little Cabin in the Woods"/"Little Cottage in the Woods" (notes only)
DT, CABINWDS RABTHOUS
Roud #36116
RECORDINGS:
Alessandra Delia-Lôbo, "Little Cabin in the Woods" (Piotr-Archive #391, recorded 12/18/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
In the Woods There Stands a House
In a Cabin in the Woods
NOTES [129 words]: The mudcat.org thread for this has versions from all over the United States, from England, the Carribean, and even translations into Dutch and German. One person speculated that the original was in French, which might explain the somewhat stilted English. It is obviously incredibly widespread. (I'd be interested in a study of the various motions used along with it.) But it's not clear if any of those versions were passed orally, as opposed to being learned in scout camps. So I haven't listed the song as "found in" any of those places.
There seems to be disagreement over whether the rabbit comes inside and is saved or comes inside and is killed and eaten. My guess would be that it started with the latter and that some singers decided to take (metaphorical) pity. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ACSF112L

Little Canoe, or Burman Lover

See Hiawatha's Wooing (File: Shoe097)

Little Carpenter (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer is courted successively by an old man, a blacksmith (who gives her a handkerchief and a finger ring) and a handsome young man (from Scarlet town!); she rejects all, preferring the little carpenter who, "hews with his broadaxe all day and sits by me
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (William Henry Long, _Dictionary of Isle of Wight Dialect_)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection magic lover worker
FOUND IN: US(Ap) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, LITCARP
ADDITIONAL: W H Long, A Dictionary of the Isle of Wight Dialect to which is appended ... Songs Sung by the Peasantry" (London, 1886 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 112, "The Little Cappender"[sic] ("I'll zing you a new zong, that lately has been maade") (1 text) [Not yet indexed as Long-Wight p. 112]
ST DTLitCar (Full)
Roud #1594
RECORDINGS:
Blind James Howard, "The Little Carpenter" (AAFS 1376 B2, 1933; on KMM)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Little Carpenter" (on NLCR06, NLCRCD2)
NOTES [347 words]: I've included the keyword, "magic" because the appearance of the handkerchief and finger ring hint at now-lost magical elements. Curiously, the field recording cited under, "Earliest Date" is the only time the song has been found, although its diction and images make it sound European. - PJS
Lyle Lofgren, who did a detailed examination of this song for a historical column, agrees. He noted several indications that the song is old: The change from third to first person, the "props" such as finger rings, the pentatonic melody (centering on the fifth rather than the tonic), and the general tone. One scholar speculated that it is a religious song in disguise. (Jesus, recall, was the son of a carpenter.)
The other very faint possibility that occurred to me was that it was about the historical Cherokee chief Attakullakulla, known as "Little Carpenter," who lived at the time of the French and Indian Wars and ended up surrendering some land in the region of South Carolina after a nasty campaign in which both sides suffered significant casualties. I can, by twisting very hard, make some of the references here make sense in his context.
But Virgil Philpott wrote to Lofgren in 2011 with additional information that seems to clarify the matter (much of this has been confirmed by Ben Schwartz) -- and eliminated both Cherokee chiefs and religious motifs:
"I live on the Isle of Wight and sing traditional songs from Southern England in harmony in a trio called The Dollymopps. Over the last 18 months we have been researching the Island's traditional songs and in doing so came across a song called 'The Little Cappender' in a recreation of an old Hooam Harvest celebration in William Henry Long's Dictionary of Isle of Wight Dialect published in 1886.
"WH Long was from a West Wight farming family and the songs he includes in his Dictionary were all 'collected from the mouths of the peasantry' on the Island in the early part of the Nineteenth Century."
This still doesn't explain what it's about, but we can obviously eliminate any thoughts of an American origin! - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: DTLitCar

Little Carpenter (II), The

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

Little Chickens in the Garden, The

See Treat My Daughter Kindly (The Little Farm) (File: R668)

Little Child There Is Yborn, A

DESCRIPTION: "This night there is a child born, That sprang out of Jesse's thorn." "Jesus is that child's name, And Mary mild is his dame, All our sorrow shall turn to game." "Three kings came with their presence." "Now kneel we down upon our knee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Richard Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354, folio 165b)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus childbirth MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #35, pp. 24-25, "(no title)" (2 texts)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 42-44 "A Little Child There Is Yborn" (2 texts, not clearly distinguished)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics LXX, p. 132, "(no title)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #63, #3635
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #93, #5740
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book , Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #59, p. 49, "(All this tyme this songe is best)" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354,page 484
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 1393 (Bodleian 7589), folio 69
NOTES [145 words]: There are only two manuscript copies of this, which usually would not be enough reason for me to include it in the Index, even though one of them is the Richard Hill manuscript, which seems to contain several folk songs. (The other manuscript, Ashmole 1393, is a tiny fifteenth century volume combined from five originally separate booklets. It contains just four pieces of poetry, so we can't say much about its origin.)
However, the two versions are very, very different. They have different burdens. Each has at least one verse not in the other. Even the stanzas in common have very different words -- e.g. in one Jesus is born in an ass's stall, in the other, in an ox's. These are not the sorts of changes that are likely to occur due to a deliberate rewrite; they look like the result of oral tradition. So I have indexed the piece to let you decide for yourself. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSALCTIY

Little Children Will Be There

See Here We Suffer Grief and Pain (File: KSUC113A)

Little Children, Then Won't You Be Glad?

DESCRIPTION: "Little children, then won't you be glad (x2), That you have been to heav'n, And you're going to go again, For to try on the long white robe..." "King Jesus, he was so strong That he jarred down the gates of hell." "Don't you remember what you promise..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus hell
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 87, "Little Children, Then Won't You Be Glad?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12045
NOTES [225 words]: This is a curious mix of Biblical and non-Biblical material. The white robes are Biblical enough, being mentioned especially in the Revelation to John (Rev. 3:5, 18, 4:4, 6:11, 7:9-14).
The mention of the Harrowing of Hell, however, is not Biblical at all; it is a Catholic legend, and not a particularly early one. According to Henry Bettenson, Documents of the Christian Church, second edition, Oxford, 1963 (I use the 1967 Oxford editon), the "Old Roman Creed" which seems to have inspired the Apostle's Creed does not mention Jesus's descent into Hell. As far as we know, a Gallican creed of the sixth century is the first to include the phrase "he descended into Hell." This was later adopted into the Apostle's Creed (mid-eighth century?), but it will be evident that that Apostle's Creed is in fact not apostolic. The Nicene Creed mentions the descent into Hell not at all. And the detail that Jesus actually broke the Gates of Hell is presumably a still later embellishment (known, e.g., to Dante).
The mention of a chariot and its wheels is reminiscent of the first chapter of Ezekiel.
The reference to feeding the sheep is imagery from the Gospel of John, though the language appears to me to be inspired by both John 10 and John 21.
All in all, this looks like a very Catholic song to me, even though the style is clearly American. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: AWG087

Little Chimney Sweep, The

DESCRIPTION: A chimney sweep steals the child while his mother spins. After three years, the child is not found. The sweep returns and is hired by the woman; when his boy appears, she recognizes him. Women are warned to keep their children close at hand
AUTHOR: Unknown, possibly a Mr. Upton
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (collected from William Hughes) -- but a broadside in the Madden collection, possibly called "The Lost Child Found", long predates it
KEYWORDS: reunion abduction crime mother worker children
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 124, "The Little Chimney Sweep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1549
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Lost Child" (plot)
NOTES [52 words]: The resemblance of this song to "The Little Lost Child" (composed 1894) is sufficient that I strongly suspect the author of the latter was familiar with "The Little Chimney Sweep", also known as "The Lost Child Found." According to MacColl & Seeger, it was quite popular among 19th-century broadside printers. - PJS
File: McCST121

Little Clare Mary, The (Daily's Lifeboat)

DESCRIPTION: "When the tempest was raging And the seas running high The little Clara May came scudding down by." The ship strikes a rock. The captain says Dailey will come in his lifeboat, but he never does. The sailors are finally rescued by the Mary Louise
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster rescue cowardice
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 289, "The Song of Dailey's Life-Boat" (1 text)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 32, "The Little Clare Mary" (1 text)
Roud #6629
NOTES [63 words]: The notes in Brown describe their failure to find historical evidence for the events described here (which may explain the confusion in the name of the song: Brown's text calls it the Clara May, Chappell the Clare Mary). Nor is there evidence of cowardice in the (real) Dailey family.
Roud lumps several "lifeboat" songs under this number, but the other is a religious song. - RBW
File: BrII289

Little Cobbler, The

DESCRIPTION: The butcher goes to London; his wife takes the cobbler to her bed. When a policeman shows up, she invites him into bed while the cobbler hides beneath. The butcher then arrives with the cobbler still hidden. The butcher finds and punishes the cobbler
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (JFSS)
KEYWORDS: seduction trick bawdy humorous hiding
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 224-226, "The Little Cobbler" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 30, "The Little Cobbler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 197, "The Cunning Cobbler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #78, "The Cunning Cobbler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, pp. xv-xvi, "The Cobbler" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 15-16, "The Cobbler and the Butcher" (1 text, 1 tun)
Roud #174
RECORDINGS:
George Spicer, "The Cunning Cobbler" (on FSB02, FSB2CD) (on FSBFTX19)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boatsman and the Chest" [Laws Q8] (plot) and references there
NOTES [118 words]: The Copper version of this piece appears, from the initial verse, to be very closely related to "The Major and the Weaver" [Laws Q10] . The Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland version, however, is distinct. I suspect the Copper version is a cross-fertilization.
Vaughn Williams observed that the piece must be modern (because of the policeman), and remarks "It is a modern example of the kind of fun we find in Chaucer's 'Clerk of Oxenforde.'"
This and similar songs are sometimes traced back to a story in Boccaccio (seventh day, second story: Gianella, Peronella, and her husband). But the story is really one of the basic themes of folktale, and doubtless predates Boccaccio as well as these songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: CoSB224

Little Cock Sparrow, The

DESCRIPTION: "A little cock sparrow sat on a green tree" A "naughty boy" with bow and arrow says he will shoot the sparrow to make a stew and pie. The sparrow says otherwise and flies away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Halliwell, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: escape hunting bird youth food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 111, "A little cock sparrow sat on a green tree" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #182, p. 130, "(A little cock sparrow sat on a green tree)"
Roud #3368
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1117), "The Little Cock Sparrow," W. Oxlade (Portsea), n.d.
NOTES [74 words]: Bird fanciers will note that this is the English sparrow, known in America as a "House Sparrow" but actually a weaverfinch, rather than a true sparrow; it's generally not possible to tell the genders of true sparrows without detailed examination. English sparrows are also generally more given to chattering, and spend more time in trees; true sparrows are groundfeeders. Not that a nursery rhyme writer is likely to worry about such details. - RBW
File: OO2111

Little Cora

See Darling Corey (File: LxU087)

Little Cory

See Darling Corey (File: LxU087)

Little Cottage Girl, The (We Are Seven)

DESCRIPTION: "I met a little cottage girl, She was eight years old, she said." Asked how many siblings she has, the pretty child says, "We are seven." Two are dead alongside their mother, two at sea. He says that the dead do not count; she insists, "We are seven."
AUTHOR: Words: William Wordsworth
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 ("Lyrical Ballads")
KEYWORDS: family death burial questions brother sister
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 188, "The Cottage Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Hazel Felleman, Best Loved Poems of the American People, p. 414, "We Are Seven" (1 text)
Roud #11314
NOTES [52 words]: There is a WIkipedia entry for this poem, which says that Wordsworth visited Goodrich Castle in 1793 and met a girl who inspired this song, though there is no evidence that the poem actually tells her story. Much later, Wordsworth visited the area again, but could not find her (he had not asked her name). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne188

Little Cottage in the Woods

See Little Cabin in the Woods (File: ACSF112L)

Little Cow-Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: "Daddy came from Brownsville En Maw from San Antone; We come here in a wagon" with stock and horses. The whole family was "raised with cattle." Dad plays the fiddle and they dance. She has "A young cow-puncher roped." It's a good life
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp (source: Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: mother father travel cowboy home music
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 94-95, "The Little Cow-Girl" (1 text)
File: ThLo094

Little Crooked Ring

DESCRIPTION: "Here we go in a little crooked ring, Boys for to whistle and girls for to sing." Choose the one that you love best, And I am sure it'll please the rest." "Irish potatoes, tops and all." "Kiss her quick and let her go, Yonder comes her mommy-o."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting food mother
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 24, "Little Crooked Ring" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grow The Rushes, Oh! (II -- Singing Game)" (lyrics)
File: Skea024

Little Darling (II)

See Nobody's Darling on Earth (File: R723)

Little Darling Pal of Mine

DESCRIPTION: "My little darling, how much I love you, How I love you none can tell... Little darling, pal of mine." In words often reminiscent of the "Dear Companion" family, the singer recalls dreaming of his pal and wishes to be dead without her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, The Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: love separation rejection
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 52, "Little Darling Pal of Mine" (1 text, 1 tune, linked with "Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection)" " and "Columbus Stockade Blues")
Roud #4315
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "Little Darling Pal of Mine" (Victor 21638)
File: Aber052

Little David, Play on Your Harp

DESCRIPTION: Recognized by the chorus, "Little David, play on your harp, Hallelu, hallelu." The rest can describe David's exploits, or almost anything else vaguely related to Biblical subjects
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 26, "Little David Play on Your Harp" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 64, "Little David, Play on Your Harp" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 139 in the 1901 edition)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 73, "Little David" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 609, "Little David, Play on Your Harp" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 609, "Little David, Play on Your Harp" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 81, "Little David, Play on Your Harp" (1 text, 1 tune, possibly mixed with "On My Journey Now")
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 46-49, (no title) (1 text, which appears composite); pp. 236-237, "King David"
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 361, "Little David" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, pp. 56-57, "Little David" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 311-312, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #11831
RECORDINGS:
Rich Amerson & Earthy Anne Coleman, "King David" (on NFMAla4, DownHome)
Big Bethel Choir #1, "Little David Play Your Harp" (Columbia 14157-D, 1926)
Commonwealth Quartet, "Little David" (Domino 0173, 1927)
Brother Claude Ely, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (King 1375, 1954)
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "Little David, Play On Yo' Harp" (Victor 16448, 1909)
Fisk University Male Quartette (sic.), "Little David Play On Your Harp" (Columbia A2803, 1919)
Hampton Institute Quartette, "Little David, Play On Your Harp" (Musicraft 231, prob. 1939)
Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Little David" (on LomaxCD1712, recorded 1959)
Joe Ramer Family, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (Broadway 8106, c. 1930)
Joe Reed Family, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (c. 1925; on CrowTold02)
Noble Sissle & Lt. Jim Europe's Singing Serenaders, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (Pathe 22084, 1919)
Southland Jubilee Singers, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (OKeh 4271/Phonola 4271, 1921)
Wood Bros. Quartet, "Little David Play On Your Harp" (Rainbow 1094, 1923)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All My Trials" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [64 words]: Spaeth lists a 1921 hit, "Little David, Play on Your Harp" as arranged by "Burleigh." I would assume that that is this song, and that it therefore is older than that date by some years. - RBW
The Courlander-NegroFolkMusic references certainly is composite, but the verses were compiled by the informant, Rich Amerson, not by Courlander. See his recording on NFMAla3 and DownHome. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: CNFM046

Little Devils

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Little Dicky Milburn

See Little Dicky Wigburn (File: WT293)

Little Dicky Wigburn

DESCRIPTION: Dicky's wife sends him far off to get her a cure. He meets a friend on the road who realizes the mission is a ruse to get Dicky out of the house while the wife and local clergyman make love. The friend schemes successfully to reveal the wife's deception
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Dicky's wife sends him far off to get a cure or "I shall die." He meets a friend on the road who realizes the mission is a ruse to get Dicky out of the house while the wife and local clergyman make love. The friend tells Dicky to climb into a sack. They go to Dicky's house and the friend makes up a reason to bring the sack into the house where the wife is entertaining the clergyman. In the natural course of events the subject of singing arises. The wife sings that she has tricked Dicky and she'll be with the clergyman until Dicky comes home. The clergyman sings that he is enjoying Dicky's food, ale and wife. The friend sings that Dicky is near and should come out of the sack. Dicky jumps out of the sack, grabs a club,and sings about how he will beat the clergyman. In at least one version Dicky beats his wife the next day; in another they hang the clergyman and burn Dicky's wife.
KEYWORDS: adultery trick humorous husband lover wife clergy execution
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap) Ireland West Indies(Bahamas) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 293-294, "Little Dicky Milburn" (1 fragment) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 227)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 174
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle, p. 286, "Oh Dickey, Oh Dickey" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Isabel Gordon Carter, "Mountain White Folk-Lore: Tales from the Southern Blue Ridge," Vol. XXXVIII, No. 149 (Jul-Sep 1925), #14 pp. 366-248 "Little Dicky Wigbun" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Mellinger E Henry, "Still More Ballads and Folk-Songs from the Southern Highlands," Vol. XLV, No. 175 (Jan-Mar 1932), #9 pp. 34-35 "Little Dicky Wigburn" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume 2, pp. 154-155, "Little Dicky Milburn" (1 text)
Elsie Clews Parsons, Folk-Tales of Andros Island Bahamas (Lancaster: American Folk-Lore Society, 1918 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #37, pp. 78-79, "The Husband in the Bag" (1 text, 1 tune)
Helen Creighton, _A Folk Tale Journey through the Maritimes_, edited by Michael Taft and Ronald Caplan, Breton Books, 1993, pp. 152-154, "Dicky Melbourne" (1 text)
Roud #1321
RECORDINGS:
Johnny Cassidy, "Dickie Milburn" (on IRCassidyFamily01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Canny Miller and His Wife" (theme: wife sends husband away so she can have her lover come to the house)
NOTES [154 words]: Most of the text is a recitation. The four verses are sung.
Henry quotes Phillips Barry: "It is the only version, as far as I know, in English, of a cante-fable widely current in central, eastern and southern Europe, the German form of which is 'Der Alte Hildebrand.'" See Grimm #95 pp. 440-444, "Old Hildebrand". The standard motif index and tale type references are K1556 ("Old Hildebrand. Hidden cuckhold reveals his presence by rhymes. He responds to the rhymes made by the wife and paramour concerning their entertainment")(TMI) and ATU 1360C, "Old Hildebrand" (ATU Part II, p. 166).
Thompson reports the tale type, aside from many European sources, "in the English tradition of North Carolina, the Negro of Louisiana and the Bahamas, and the Portuguese of Massachusetts." (Thompson, p. 204). Thompson does not cite references. I don't find the North Carolina reference in BrownI (Thompson was an editor for that volume).
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: WT293

Little Dog Sat on the Porch

See Bingo (File: FSWB390D)

Little Doogie

See Get Along, Little Dogies (File: R178)

Little Drop of Dew

DESCRIPTION: "Little drop of dew, Like a gem you are; I believe that you Must have been a star. When the day is bright, On the grass you lie; Tell me then, at night, Are you in the sky?"
AUTHOR: Words: Frank Dempster Sherman (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 196, 441, "Little Drop of Dew"/"Tiny Drops of Dew" (notes only)
File: ACSF196L

Little Drops of Water (Little Things)

DESCRIPTION: "Little drops of water, Little grains of sand, Make the mighty ocean And (the pleasant/a beautiful) land."
AUTHOR: Julia A. Fletcher Carney (1823-1908) (See NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1848 (Brewer, Reading and Spelling, according to Julian)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 242, (no title) (1 short text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #798, p. 293, "(Little drops of water)"
ADDITIONAL: Hazel Felleman, Best Loved Poems of the American People, p. 635-636, "Little Things" (1 text)
Martin Gardner, editor, _Famous Poems from Bygone Days_, Dover, 1995, pp. 35-36, "Little Things" (1 text)
John Julian, editor, _A Dictionary of Hymnology_, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 679, (2 texts, a comparison of the Brewer and "American" versions)
ST MHAp242A (Full)
NOTES [291 words]: This item has been variously attributed; Granger's Index to Poetry notes attributions to E. C. Brewer (1810-1897) and Frances S. Osgood, but unequivocally lists the author as Julia A. Fletcher Carney. The Baring-Goulds and Gardner also credit it to her, and Felleman agrees though it gives her name simply as Julia A. Fletcher.
According to Gardner, Brewer (yes, the author of Brewer's Phrase and Fable) added a stanza and managed to get credit for the whole thing as a result. So, e.g., the notes in Julian, p. 679, "The original of this hymn, by Dr. E. C. Brewer, was 1st published in Reading and Spelling, 1848, in 5 st[anzas] of 4 l[ines]. Subsequently it reappeared in a very much altered and improved form in the American Juvenile Missionary Magazine, also in 5 st[anzas]. From that magazine it was copied into Hymns and Sacred Songs, pub[lished] at Manchester by Fletcher and Tubbs, 1855, and from that collection it has passed into numerous children's hymnals in the United Kingdom. When the [common] version.... is compared with the original it is found that the leading thought of the hymn and the first stanza are all that remain of that first published by Dr. Brewer...." Julian goes on to note additional verses by Bickersteth and by Thring.
The second edition of Julian, however, gets it right (p. 1665), admitting that Brewer added "four inferior verses of his own" to Carney's first verse.
This rather insipid piece (which continues, "So the little moments, Humble though they be, Make the mighty ages Of eternity") is clearly Fletcher Carney's "hit"; Grangers's lists nine books which contain it, but cites no other works from her pen whatsoever. Gardner mentions (and prints) only one, "Think Gently of the Erring." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: MHAp242A

Little Drowned Girl, The

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Little Dun Dee

DESCRIPTION: "My uncle died and left me forty quid." The singer bets it all on Little Dun Dee in a match race. As the race progresses Little Dunny falls behind and the price rises. The pony falls behind the bay but just wins at the end and carts the money away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1793))
KEYWORDS: money racing horse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 620, "Little Dun Mare" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 53-54, "The Little Dun Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #124, "I'Anson's Racehorse"(1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #176
RECORDINGS:
Mary Anne Haynes, "Little Dun Dee" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Broadside Bodleian, Harding B 11(1793), "Little Dun Mare ("On the twenty-fourth of August last"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838 ; also Harding B 11(1794), Firth c.12(446), Harding B 11(2734), Harding B 25(1118)[some words illegible], Harding B 11(900), Harding B 11(1793), "[The] Little Dun Mare"; Johnson Ballads 895, "Dun Mare"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Skewball" [Laws Q22] (plot)
cf. "Molly and Tenbrooks" [Laws H27] (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Dun Mare
Little Dunee
NOTES [35 words]: The Bodleian broadsides go into more detail on the betting, the strategy, and the final weighing; the uncle does not die but is an active participant. The race takes place at Newmarket on July 14 or August 24. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcLiDuDe

Little Dun Mare, The

See Little Dun Dee (File: RcLiDuDe)

Little Dunee

See Little Dun Dee (File: RcLiDuDe)

Little Eau Pleine, The

See The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine [Laws C2] (File: LC02)

Little Family, The [Laws H7]

DESCRIPTION: Sisters Mary and Martha are deeply grieved when their brother Lazarus falls sick and dies. Jesus is informed that his friend Lazarus is sick, and hurries to Bethany. Finding the sisters weeping, he too weeps and raises Lazarus from the dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, from a manuscript probably from 1865; Hudson's ms. was dated 1862)
KEYWORDS: family Jesus religious Jesus Bible
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Laws H7, "The Little Family"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 447-449, "The Little Family" (2 texts plus a mention of 1 more)
Randolph 614, "The Little Family" (2 texts, 1 tune)
HIgh, pp. 31-32, "Mary Marth & Laserth" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 114, "The Little Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 133, "The Little Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 151, "The Little Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 134, "The Little Family" (2 texts)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 610, "The Little Family" (1 text plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more; also assorted stanzas in the notes)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 610, "The Little Family" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 86, pp. 212-214, "The Little Family" (1 text)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 195-196, "The Little Family" (1 text)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 218-222, "The Little Family" (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 220-223)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 734-736, "The Little Family" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 132-133, "Lazarus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 42-44, "Lazarus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 190-191, "The Little Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 231-232, "[The Little Family]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, p. 183, "The Little Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 647, LAZRUS
Roud #656
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Gilbert, "The Little Family" (on LomaxCD1704)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mary and Martha
Martha and Mary
Mary, Martha, and Lazarus
NOTES [63 words]: This song closely parallels the account in John 11:1-44, with two exceptions. First, when Jesus heard Lazarus was sick, he did NOT hasten to Bethany, but sat around for two days (apparently to give the dead body a little extra time to rot!). Second, Jesus did not weep for Lazarus; he wept because of the hardness of heart of the Jews who did not think Lazarus would be raised. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LH07

Little Farm, The

See Treat My Daughter Kindly (The Little Farm) (File: R668)

Little Fight in Mexico

DESCRIPTION: "They had a little fight in Mexico, It wasn't for the boys but the gals, you may know, Sing fa la la, sing fa la la, sing fa la la la day." Boys and girls "came to the place where the blood was shed," where (girls/boys) turned back but the dance continues
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting dancing fight
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 549, "Little Fight in Mexico" (2 texts, 1 tune, although the texts do not really look related)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 79, "Little Fight in Mexico" (1 fragment)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 141, pp. 288-289, "Had a Big Fight in Mexico" (1 text)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 36, "Had a Big Fight in Mexico" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, p. 14, "Jimmy Taylor, Oh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 66-67, "Had a Little Fight in Mexico" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 9, "Johnny Cake" (4 texts, 1 tune, but the "B" text, entitled "Had a Little Fight in Mexico," is clearly this piece)
Roud #736
NOTES [57 words]: Based on the content of this song, I would guess that it is not related to the Mexican War (Hudson states otherwise, but this is based only on the date of collection; he knew people who claimed to have heard it c. 1860). - RBW
There is a town called Mexico in Missouri, although it's in the northern part of the state, not in the Ozarks. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: R549

Little Fighting Chance, The [Laws J19]

DESCRIPTION: The "Little Fighting Chance" encounters a French warship. The battle is long, and the British take twenty casualties, but in the end they defeat the French vessel and take it home as a prize
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: ship battle navy
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws J19, "The Little Fighting Chance"
Greig/Duncan1 42, "Box Them Off, My Jolly Tars" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 82, "The Little Fighting Chance" (1 text)
DT 551, LILCHANC
Roud #980
File: LJ19

Little Fish (I), The

See Yea Ho, Little Fish (File: MA119)

Little Fish (II), The

See I Wish I Was a Little Bird (Nobody Cares for Me) (File: San338)

Little Fisherman (I)

See Cod Fish Song (File: EM005)

Little Fisherman (II)

See The Sea Crab (File: EM001)

Little Gal at Our House

See Possum Up a Gum Stump (File: R280)

Little Georgie Washington

See George Washington Never Told a Lie (File: CarMF80C)

Little German Home, The

See My Little German Home Across the Sea (File: R870)

Little Geste of Robin Hood and his Meiny, A

See A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117] (File: C117)

Little Girl (I)

See In the Pines (File: LoF290)

Little Girl (II)

See The Old Cow Died (Little Girl) (File: FSWB396A)

Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer hears screams of his daughter, who's been attacked by "an awful, dreadful snake." He runs through the woods to rescue her, but arrives too late; she is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recording, Stanley Brothers)
KEYWORDS: death animal children father
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Bill Monroe & his Bluegrass Boys, "The Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake" (Decca 28878, 1953)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake" (on NLCREP2, NLCRCD2) (NLCR16)
The Stanley Brothers, "The Little Girl And The Dreadful Snake" (Rich-R-Tone 1055, 1952)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Springfield Mountain" [Laws G16] (plot)
File: RcLGATDS

Little Girl and the Robin, The

DESCRIPTION: "There came to my window one morning in spring A sweet little robin that started to sing" "As soon as he had finished his... song A cruel young man with a gun came along. He killed... my sweet bird... No more will he sing at the break of the day"
AUTHOR: George J. Webb ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (New First Music Reader)
KEYWORDS: bird death hunting music
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 880, "The Sweet Little Birdie" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 538-539, "The Sweet Little Birdie" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 880A)
Roud #7545
NOTES [63 words]: If this were a traditional song, I'm sure folklorists would be all over it looking for a hidden meaning. Even though it seems to be composed, I suspect there is an additional meaning -- but I can't see what it is.
Roud seemingly lumps this with "Come, Birdie, Come," but they are certainly separate; apart from everythig else, "Come, Birdie Come" lacks the death of the bird. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: R880

Little Girleen With the Curling Poll Would You Buy Brooms

See Green Broom (File: ShH49)

Little Glass of Wine

See Oxford City [Laws P30] (File: LP30)

Little Golden Ring, The

DESCRIPTION: A sailor bids his mother, "a lone, weeping widow," farewell. He promises to return. She gives him a ring, saying, "Wear it for your mother's sake." He does well at sea, but then his mother's letters stop. He comes home to learn that she is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman)
KEYWORDS: sailor mother separation death ring return
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 170-172, "The Little Golden Ring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9418
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(104b), "It Is But a Little Golden Ring," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
File: Doe170

Little Gray Mouse

See Little Brown Mouse (File: ACSF107L)

Little Green Frog

DESCRIPTION: "MmmEhh (or some other impolite sound) went the little green frog (x3) And his eyes went MmmEhh." This is the wrong sound; all frogs songs make some other sound. Eventually, a blue bus/red truck runs over the frog, and it doesn't say "MmmEhh" and longer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: animal death technology campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 122, 279, 444, "Gack goon went the little green frog"/"Gack Goon"/"Glink Glonk" (notes only)
File: ACSF122L

Little Gypsy Girl, The

See The Gypsy Maid (The Gypsy's Wedding Day) [Laws O4] (File: LO04)

Little Harbour Bargain Store, The

DESCRIPTION: Great men in great cities have had "great ventures" but the Little Harbour bargain store is "the very best of all" You can find food, clothing, ... , lunch. "They're coming from Joe Batt's ... rushing to the Little Harbour store"
AUTHOR: Chris Cobb (source: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: clothes commerce food humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 236-237, "The Little Harbour Bargain Store" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25329
NOTES [29 words]: Little Harbour is on an island of the northeast coast of Newfoundland in Notre Dame Bay. Joe Batt's Arm is an outport on Fogo Island, also off the coast in Notre Dame Bay. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Guig236

Little Harry Hughes and the Duke's Daughter

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Little Harry Huston

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Little Hero, The

See The Stowaway (File: GrMa051)

Little Hillside

DESCRIPTION: "Well, our time is swiftly rolling on, When I know I must die." The singer therefore determines to turn to God. He asks to be buried on the "little hillside." He asks others to sing his songs. He says not to weep for him
AUTHOR: Clarence "Tom" Ashley
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (recording, Tom Ashley)
KEYWORDS: death burial nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, p. 40, "Little Hillside" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Preacher (Hick's Farewell)" (first verse lyrics)
File: BTN040

Little Indian Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer grew up in American Indian culture: her father hunted and her mother worked in the wigwam. She helped her mother, but could not read, sew, or pray until the white man "taught poor Indians Jesus's name." She asks the Saviour to bless whites
AUTHOR: unknown, but I bet it wasn't an Indian [note from PJS]
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1957 (recording, Lotys Murrin)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of growing up in American Indian culture, while her hunter father roamed, "wild nature's child," and her mother stayed in the wigwam, wove baskets and sewed his moccasins. She helped her mother, but could not read, sew, or pray until the white man came and "taught poor Indians Jesus' name." Now she asks the Saviour to bless the white man
KEYWORDS: religious family Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
Roud #4807
RECORDINGS:
Lotys Murrin, "The Little Indian Maid" (on Ontario1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Go Up to Shinum Place" (theme)
cf. "Indian Hymn" (theme)
NOTES [68 words]: The song practically reeks of missionary origin, but Edith Fowke was unable to find a printed source. She notes that it was popular among lumberjacks. - PJS
Indeed, the several other songs of this type are generally produced by whites (hence their use of English, often pidgin English). Contrary to propaganda, the chief thing the locals caught from missionaries was not Christianity but epidemic diseases. - RBW
File: RcLitInM

Little Jack Horner

DESCRIPTION: "Little Jack Horner Sat in a corner Eating of Christmas pie. He put in his thumb And pulled out a plum, And said, What a good boy am I."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1725 (Carey's Namby Pamby, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1682, "Little Jack Horner" (1 text, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 106-107, "(Little Jack Horner)" (1 short text, quite different from the common one)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 262, "Little Jack Horner" (1 text plus several perhaps-related fragments; also the cover of a chapbook print on a plate facing p. 234)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #50, p. 61, "(Little Jack Horner)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 106, "Little Jack Horner" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 76, "Little Jack Horner" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 43, "Jack Horner" (1 text)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 46, "Little Jack Horner" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 68, "Little Jack Horner" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Dime-Song-Book #24, p. 18, "Hokey-Pokey" (1 text, which quotes this as a verse)
cf. DT, MERRYLND
Roud #13027
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Get Hold of This (When There Isn't a Girl About)" (lyrics)
cf. "Throw Them Out the Window" (character of Little Jack Horner, who in this song takes the plum from the pie and throws it out the window)
NOTES [376 words]: This is probably only a nursery *rhyme*, and not a nursery *song*, and so properly does not belong in the Index. But Tony and Irene Saletan recorded it as part of their version of "Hail to Britannia" (which includes many nursery rhymes), so it does have a musical tradition of sorts. I also seem to recall a second tune for the second part of the verse. I include it, very tentatively, on that basis.
If one believes that all nursery rhymes have political contexts, this obviously has to do with political or ecclesiastical corruption. The quasi-official version of the story, according to the Baring-Goulds, is that the real Jack Horner was Thomas Horner of Glastonbury, who at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries managed to sneak several deeds to Henry VIII (allegedly in a piecrust), and managed to extract one for himself.
The Opies, for once, do not reject this out of hand, but give it detailed analysis (which I would boil down to, "We can't prove it wrong, but there is no real reason to think it true either"). They do admit that the story did not become attached to the poem until the nineteenth century.
There is a good bit of detail on this on pp. 49-56 of Thomas -- one of the few instances of her citing something reasonable. (Note, however, that the statement that Henry VIII became head of his own church in 1594 is blatantly wrong -- Henry was 47 years dead by then! The Act of Supremacy was passed in 1534.) The Opies also have substantial details.
Carey's Namby Pamby, the source cited by the Opies, has itself some interesting references; according to Partridge, "Namby Pamby" was a name used by Carey, Swift, and Pope for the poetaster Ambrose Philips. According to Benet (entry on Ambrose Philips), it was Carey who first bestowed the name on Phillps (a friend of Addison and of Steele, who died 1749) due to Phillips's "eminence in infantile style."
As with his earlier near-contemporary John Fell (of "I do not love you, Doctor Fell" fame), Philips seems to be remembered only for the quip at his expense. In the case of Fell, that was unfair; he did genuinely useful work. But Philips's most popular poem seems to have been "To Miss Charlotte Pulteney in Her Mother's Arms," which is probably a clue to his work.... - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGMG050

Little Jenny Flinders

See Little Polly Flinders (File: OO2421)

Little Jenny Wren

DESCRIPTION: "As little Jenny Wren Was sitting by the shed, She waggled with her tail, And nodded with her head."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: wren | Jenny wren tail
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 42, "Jenny Wren" (1 text)
Roud #6942
NOTES [22 words]: Roud lumps this with a number of Jenny Wren songs, but it looks separate to me. Whether it is a traditional song I am not sure. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DCCR041B

Little Jim

DESCRIPTION: "The night was dark and stormy, The wind was howling wild. A patient mother watched beside The deathbed of her child." The mother prays for Little Jim. He he has no pain. He asks that she tell his coaler father goodbye, then dies; angels take him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs)
KEYWORDS: mother children death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 105-107, "Little Jim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3522
File: Abrr105

Little Jimmy Murphy

See Jimmy Murphy (File: Beld291)

Little Joe

See Darling Little Joe (File: R712)

Little Joe the Wrangler [Laws B5]

DESCRIPTION: "Little Joe" runs away from home because of a parental remarriage. He is taken in by cowboys and learns how to herd cattle. When a storm starts blowing, he stops a stampede but is killed in the process
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp (1898)
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Thorp's "Songs of the Cowboys"); reportedly written 1898
KEYWORDS: cowboy death
FOUND IN: US(NW,Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws B5, "Little Joe the Wrangler"
Randolph 203, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (1 text)
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys I, pp. 28-37 (9-11), "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (4 texts -- one of them being "Sister Nell" and another a parody about "Joe... That hung that bunch of cactus on the wall," 1 tune); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 96-98, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (1 text)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 2, pp. 32-37, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 123-126, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 143-144, Little Joe, the Wrangler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 79, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 84-87, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 423-425, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 166-167, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 265, "Little Joe The Wrangler" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 207-208, "Little Joe, The Wrangler" (1 text)
DT 373, LITTLEJO*
Roud #1930
RECORDINGS:
Jules Allen, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (Victor 21470, 1928; Montgomery Ward M-4344, 1933; Montgomery Ward M-4780, 1935)
Leon Chappelear, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (Champion 16497, 1932; Champion 45068, c. 1935; Montgomery Ward 4950/Minerva M-14039, 1936)
Edward L. Crain, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (Crown 3239/Conqueror 8010, 1932; Homestead 22991, c. 1932; Varsity 5043 [as Cowboy Rodgers], n.d.; Montgomery Ward M-3019 [as Bob Star (The Texas Ranger)], n.d.; rec. 1931)
Harry Jackson, "Little Joe the Wrangler" (on HJackson1)
Goebel Reeves, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (Melotone M-12214, 1931; Panachord 25313, 1932; on MakeMe)
Arnold Keith Storm, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (on AKStorm01)
Marc "The Cowboy Crooner" Williams, "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (Brunswick 269, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (subject, tune)
NOTES [93 words]: Larkin-SingingCowboy notes that, in a cattle ride, the horse wrangler (responsible for controlling the horses and bringing them to the riders as needed) stood low in the social hierarchy but often played a vital role when the herd was nervous or the riders busy.
Although the evidence is strong that N. Howard Thorp (who of course first printed it) wrote this song, I have seen a claim that D. J. O'Malley (the probable author of "The Horse Wrangler (The Tenderfoot)" [Laws B27]) is responsible. For this claim, see Sing Out!, volume 41, #2 (1996), p. 134. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LB05

Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell

DESCRIPTION: The girl rides up to the cowboy's fire. She is looking for her brother Joe. The cowboys, reluctant to tell her that her brother is dead, listen to her sad story of a cruel stepmother. At last, seeing the brands on the cattle, she realizes the truth
AUTHOR: unknown (sometimes credited to N. Howard Thorp, author of "Little Joe the Wrangler"; Thorp himself in 1934 credited it to Kenneth Clark, according to Logsdon)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: abuse orphan death stepmother cowboy derivative
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 204, "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (1 text)
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys I, pp. 28-37 (9-11), "Little Joe, the Wrangler" (4 texts, 1 tune -- the "B" text being "Sister Nell")
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 69, "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4049
RECORDINGS:
Harry Jackson, "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (on HJackson1, CowFolkCD1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Joe the Wrangler" [Laws B5] (tune) and references there
NOTES [23 words]: This song is item dB36 in Laws's Appendix II. For background on authorship and such, see Logsdon 2, pp. 32-37, "Little Joe the Wrangle. - RBW
File: R204

Little John a Begging [Child 142]

DESCRIPTION: Little John (goes/is assigned by Robin to go) a-begging. He meets up with beggars feigning disabilities who do not want his company and they fall to blows. Little John overcomes them and is much enriched by their stores which he takes to Sherwood.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1663 (braodside printed by William Gilbertson); also a garland of 1663
KEYWORDS: Robinhood begging fight disability
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Child 142, "Little John a Begging" (2 texts)
Bronson 142, comments only
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 195-198, "Little John and the Four Beggars" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 47-49, "Little John, the Beggar, and the three Palmers" (1 fragment, with a fuller text in the notes)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 406-408, "Little John a Begging" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN2, "All you that delight to spend some time"
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 2-5, "Little Johns Begging" (1 text, close to the 1670 garland)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 521-526, "Little John a Begging" (1 text, based on one of the garlands)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item 20
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 20
Roud #3988
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Little John and the Beggars
NOTES [155 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 131, #1505, reports on the Stationer's Register entry for this: "Little John and the foure beggers, a merry song of Robin Hod & Little John," entered by William Gilbertson on August 18, 1657.
Knight/Ohlgren, p. 525, note the inherent improbability of this song -- would Robin Hood, a "proud outlaw," permit his men to go begging? And would Little John, himself a proud man, consent, even under constraint? Unlikely. I find myself wondering if there might not have been an earlier song about someone exposing feigned beggars which some enterprising, but hardly competent, hack writer converted to a Robin Hood ballad. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C142

Little John and the Beggars

See Little John a Begging [Child 142] (File: C142)

Little John and the Four Beggars

See Little John a Begging [Child 142] (File: C142)

Little John Henry

DESCRIPTION: "It was early one mornin' And it looked like rain, Way roun' that curve, Lord, I spied a gravel train. O my little John Henry, Godamighty knows." "Now where'd you get your learnin'? Please tell it to me. On the Gulf and Colorado And the Santa Fe."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933
KEYWORDS: train
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 300, "Little John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 198-199, "My Li'l John Henry" (1 text, 1 tune, a fragment placed her based primarily on the chorus)
Roud #6715
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long)" [Laws I16]
NOTES [25 words]: Probably a "John Henry-ized" version of "Casey Jones" -- but it may be that this is another case of the Lomaxes turning a song into something else. - RBW
File: LoF300

Little John, the Beggar, and the three Palmers

See Little John a Begging [Child 142] (File: C142)

Little Johnny England

DESCRIPTION: "Little Johnny England he went a wandering He went a wandering all day long, He went a wandering with his little panniken, He went a wandering all day long." "You are the butchers. You are the bakers. You are the candlestick makers... the broker's men."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (ChansonsDeNotreChalet)
KEYWORDS: travel begging campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 310, "Little Johnny England" (notes only)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 15, "Little Johnny England" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Little Johnny England" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 27)
NOTES [18 words]: SongsOfManyNations claims this is Australian, but I can find no sign of it in a traditional collection. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF310E

Little Johnny Green

See Grandma's Advice (File: R101)

Little Johns Begging

See Little John a Begging [Child 142] (File: C142)

Little Julie

DESCRIPTION: "Little Julie, little Julie, I love you (x3), Swing open your window for me now." "I'll pick my guitar at your window (x3). Swing open...." "Brick walls are built all around me." "Six months on the ocean I'll grieve me." "Six months on dry bread....."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation food
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 17, "Little Juile" (1 text,1 tune)
Roud #11384
File: Brne017

Little Lap Dog

See Mamma's Goin' to Buy Him a Little Lap Dog (Come Up Horsie) (File: RcMGtBHL)

Little Liza Jane

See Li'l Liza Jane (File: FSWB037)

Little Log Cabin by the Sea

DESCRIPTION: Yet another song derived from "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane", but in this one the singer reminisces about the precious Bible his/her mother left behind in the log cabin by the sea
AUTHOR: Lyrics: Probably A. P. Carter; tune: Will S. Hays.
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible mother family
FOUND IN: US
Roud #15142
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Little Log Cabin by the Sea" (Victor 21074, 1927; Bluebird B-6271, 1936)
DeBusk-Weaver Family, "Little Log Cabin by the Sea" (on DeBusk-Weaver1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune, structure) and references there
NOTES [27 words]: This shouldn't be confused with "Little Old Log Cabin by the Stream" or any of the other "Log Cabin" songs; it's indexed primarily to differentiate it from them. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcLLCBTS

Little Log Cabin in the Lane, The

See The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane (File: RcLOLCIL)

Little Logwood Cabin, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a little logwood cabin way down in Tennessee, Where the morning glories creep around the door. There's a little yeller girlie, she's waiting there for me." They have played together since they were "little pickaninies." Now he hopes to marry her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5); Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric
KEYWORDS: home marriage
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 701, "The Little Logwood Cabin" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 119, Little Old Log Cabin in Tennessee" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11403
File: BrS5701

Little Lonie

See Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise) [Laws F4] AND Naomi Wise [Laws F31] (File: LF04)

Little Lost Child, The

DESCRIPTION: "A passing policeman found a little child... Says to her kindly, you must not cry; I'll find your mother by and by." At the station he realizes she is his daughter Jennie, with whose mother he had quarreled. When the mother arrives, they are reconciled
AUTHOR: Words: Edward B. Marks / Music: Joseph W. Stern
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: father mother reunion children
FOUND IN: US(Ro,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 728, "The Lost Child" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #102, "The Passing Policeman" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 148-150, "The Little Lost Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 132-137, "The Little Lost Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4651
RECORDINGS:
Earl Shirkey & Roy Harper, "The Little Lost Child" (Columbia 15642-D, 1931; rec. 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Chimney Sweep" (plot)
NOTES [182 words]: David A. Jasen, Tin Pan Alley: The Composers, the Songs, the Performers and their Times: The Golden Age of American Popular Music from 1886 to 1956, Primus, 1988, p. 3, reports that "Edward B. Marks (1865-1945) was a young notions salesman who liked to write lyrics." Having published a song, "December and May," in 1893 through Frank Harding's music publishing house and being dissatisfied with the royalties, he went into business for himself. "He teamed with another salesman who could write melodies, Joseph W. Stern. They opened a small office in 1894 and issued their first collaboration, 'The Little Lost Child,' that same year. With the help of music hall singers Della Fox and Lottie Gilson, the song became a hit and established the firm of Joseph W. Stern & Company as a major voice in Tin Pan Alley. Marks also created the illustrated song slide, which was used in music theatres to help the audience visualize the lyrics through a series of action and sentimental photographs and illustrations."
The other Marks/Stein collaboration in the Index is "My Mother Was a Lady." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: R728

Little Low Plain, The

See The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine [Laws C2] (File: LC02)

Little Lowland Maid, The

See The Lovely Lowland Maid (File: Pea620)

Little Lulu

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Little Lulu, Dressed in blulu, Down doing the hula hula."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope clothes dancing
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #313, "Little Lulu" (1 text)
NOTES [69 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes thinks "Little Lulu" refers to a comic strip character by the same name, drawn by American author Marjorie Henderson Buell ("Marge"). The strip ran from 1935 to 1944, and eventually was turned into short films and a TV series. Obviously the character might have inspired the verse, but this is beyond proof -- and Wikipedia claims that Little Lulu always wore a red dress, not a blue one. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR313

Little Maggie

DESCRIPTION: Singer laments Maggie's drinking and straying ("Over yonder stands little Maggie... She's a drinking away her troubles and a-courting some other man"). He praises her beauty extravagantly, saying she was made to be his, but plans to leave town.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Grayson & Whitter)
KEYWORDS: jealousy courting love rejection parting drink travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 23-25, "Hustling Gamblers" (1 text, very long and with so much floating material that it could be linked with several songs, but "Little Maggie" seems to be the largest and most distinct part)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 102-104, "Hustling Gamblers" (1 text, from the same informant as Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, though apparently taken down independently and with some small differences, many of them orthographic)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, p. 11, "Little Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 48, "Little Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, pp. 10-11, "Little Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 277, "Little Maggie" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 193, "Little Maggie" (1 text)
DT, LILMAGGI*
Roud #5723
RECORDINGS:
Frank Bode, "Little Maggie" (on FBode1)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Little Maggie With a Dram Glass In Her Hand" Victor V-40135, 1929; Bluebird B-7072, 1937; rec. 1928)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers [or Wade Mainer], "Little Maggie" (Bluebird B-7201, 1937)
Wade Mainer, Zeke Morris & Steve Ledford, "Little Maggie" (Bluebird B-7201/Montgomery Ward M-7309, 1937; on GoingDown)
Ivor Melton & band, "Little Maggie"
New Lost City Ramblers, "Little Maggie" (on NLCR16)
Frank Proffitt, "Little Maggie (on USWarnerColl01)
The Stanley Brothers, "Little Maggie" (Rich-R-Tone 423, rec. c. late 1947)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Darling Corey" (words)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Little Maggie With a Dram Glass In Her Hand
NOTES [103 words]: Although this shares several verses with "Darling Corey", it leaves out the latter song's central theme of moonshining; that, a different tune, and several divergent verses lead me to call this a different song. - PJS
Roud, who is a lumper, of course lumps them. I agree with Paul, and in any case the Ballad Index errs toward splitting.
The notes to USWarnerColl01 note that this is widely recorded but rarely collected in the field; they speculate that its popularity derives from one or another old time country recording. This seems likely, with the first Grayson and Whitter version being the obvious candidate. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: CSW048

Little Maggie May

DESCRIPTION: "The spring has come, the flowers in bloom, The birds sing out their lay... How I love her none can tell, My little Maggie May." Time has passed, and he is far away, but he still remembers the running brook and hopes that he "may call her mine"
AUTHOR: Words: G.W. Moore / Music: C.W. Blamphin (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation beauty
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 142, "Maggie May" (1 text) (pp.120-121 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #5383
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2271), "Maggie May," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 20(56), "Maggie May," unknown (n.d.); also 2806 b.11(224)=2806 b.11(225)=2806 b.11(226), "Maggie May," T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899
NLScotland, Crawford.EB.3694, "Maggie May," T. Person (Manchester), 1865?; also Crawford.EB.3144, "Maggie May," unknown, n.d.; also Crawford.EB.3145, "Maggie May," unknown, n.d.
NOTES [52 words]: Obviously not to be confused with the sailor-robbed-by-a-whore song "Maggie May." Which may be dirty, but at least it has the virtue of not being dreadful. I presume the authors of this did not know the other song....
The broadsides seem to have had a strong tendency to print this with "Sally In Our Alley." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Shoe142

Little Marget

See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Little Marian Parker

See Marian Parker [Laws F33] (File: LF33)

Little Marion Parker

See Marian Parker (III) (File: LdF57)

Little Marlin's Race

DESCRIPTION: "There were three knights, three very golly knights, Came from the north country, To run their horses at Newmarket." At Frampton Hall, they declare none can beat Little Marlin. They place their bets; Little Marlin wins; many are upset
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: horse racing gambling
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 254-256, "Little Marlin's Race" (1 text)
Roud #15002
NOTES [104 words]: Everything about this screams northern English origin (e.g. it mentions York, and Frampton Hall is in Lincolnshire). The most famous Sir William Strickland (1st Baronet Strickland) was a supporter of the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil Wars and was based in the East Riding of Yorkshire; the family was important in that area for centuries. Despite that, the song it seems to be found (in this form) only in Pennsylvania. The verse structure reminds me a lot of "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" [Child 81]. Is this a survival of some sort of political song? Possibly, but I'm too lazy to try to figure out what. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe254

Little Mary Anne Who Lives Upstairs

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Little Mary Anne who lives upstairs With high-legged boots and a feather in her had, That's the way she meets her chap...." The rest is lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas, acording to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope clothes | Mary Anne lives upstairs
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #314, "Little Mary Anne who lives upstairs" (1 text)
File: AJRR314

Little Mary Fagan

See Mary Phagan [Laws F20] (File: LF20)

Little Mary in Her Tent

DESCRIPTION: "Little Mary in her tent, And nobody comes to see her, But a little mouse. Rise, Mary, Close your eyes! Point to the east, Point to the west, Point to the little girl That you like best."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: home animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 123, "Little Mary" (1 text)
Roud #38146
File: BAAI123B

Little Mary Phagan

See Mary Phagan [Laws F20] (File: LF20)

Little Mary, the Sailor's Bride

See Willie and Mary (Mary and Willie; Little Mary; The Sailor's Bride) [Laws N28] (File: LN28)

Little Massie Grove

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Little Mathy Groves

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Little Matthew Groves

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Little Matthy Grove

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Little Matty Gross

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Little Matty Grove

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Little Maud

DESCRIPTION: As the singer sleeps on some lumber, a policeman awakes and arrests him. He says he has lost his pocketbook and money, his crops are damaged, and he doesn't have a cent to his name. Chorus: "Little Maud, little Maud/She's the dearest darling of all"
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas B. Albrich / Music: J. P. Webster
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Bela Lam & his Greene County Singers), but in existence by the 1870s, when Edward Harrigan parodied it
KEYWORDS: captivity poverty love prison farming police hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #18483
RECORDINGS:
Bela Lam & his Greene County Singers, "Little Maud" (OKeh 45177, 1928, rec. 1927; on GoingDown)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Willy, Poor Boy" (floating verses, some similarity in the tune)
SAME TUNE:
Little Fraud (by Edward Harrigan; see the notes to "Babies on Our Block")
NOTES [33 words]: To say that this song is disjointed would be an understatement. The verses sound like floaters, but aren't. - PJS
The original song was coherent; it seems to have lost something in oral tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcLitMau

Little Maumee, The

See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Little Michael Finnigan

See Michael Finnegan (File: FSWB242B)

Little Miss Muffet

DESCRIPTION: "Little Miss Muffet Sat on a tuffet Eating her curds and whey. Along came a spider And sat down beside her And frightened Miss Muffet away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1797 (cf. Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose)
KEYWORDS: food bug | spider
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 369, "Little Miss Muffet" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #141, p. 114, "(Little Miss Muffet)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 110, "Little Miss Muffet" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 79, "Little Miss Muffet" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 40, "Little Miss Muffet" (1 text)
Roud #20605
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Get Hold of This (When There Isn't a Girl About)" (lyrics)
NOTES [254 words]: This is probably only a nursery *rhyme*, and not a nursery *song*, and so properly does not belong in the Index. But Tony and Irene Saletan recorded it as part of their version of "Hail to Britannia" (which includes many nursery rhymes), so it does have a musical tradition of sorts. I include it, very tentatively, on that basis.
The Baring-Goulds state, incidentally, that this is the most frequently illustrated of all nursery rhymes, even though (according to them) the word "tuffet" is otherwise unattested.
The word "tuffet" may have been a forced rhyme, because, according to Joe Schwarcz, That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles, ECW Press, 2002, p. 207, the story is real. Patience Muffet was the daughter of one Thomas Muffet, a physician who lived in the sixteenth century and kept spiders because he liked their webs.
The Opies, in fact, say that Thomas Muffet wrote poetry, causing some to attribute this to him. However, they add that his poetry was not very good. And they note several variations which eliminate that troublesome "tuffet."
Despite the fact that we know the subject of this song, he astounding Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 175, says that Miss Muffet is Mary Queen of Scots, and claims that this refers to her return to Scotland after her first husband, King Franis II of France, died. It's funny that Thomas can explain everything except the tuffet, which is the only word in the entire poem that requires interpretation. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: BGMG141

Little Miss Nancy

DESCRIPTION: "It's little Miss Nancy, she's just in her teens, She loves and she says, I know what it means, The other day to her mother she said with a frown, Indeed I must have a large flounce to my gown, Singing, ... [chorus]"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: sex clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle, p. 286, "Little Miss Nancy" (1 fragment)
Roud #1071
NOTES [170 words]: The current description is based on the Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle fragment.
"Little Miss Nancy" seems to be the target of English and Caribbean riddles:
A candle: "Little Miss Nancy, In her white petticoat, The longer she stands, The shorter she grows" (Archer Taylor, "English Riddles from Oral Tradition" (1977), #613, p. 223; Elsie Clews Parsons, "Barbados Folklore" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 148 (Apr-Jun 1925 (available online by JSTOR)), #62, p. 286), or "Little Miss Nancy with the blue nose, The longer she stays the shorter she grows" (Elsie Clews Parsons, "Riddles and Proverbs from the Bahama Islands" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXXII, No. 125 (Jul-Sep 1919 (available online by JSTOR)), #20, p. 440).
A pineapple: "Little Miss Nancy set on a hill with a big beaver" (Roger D Abrahams, "A Riddling on St Vincent" in Western Folklore, Vol. XLII, No. 4 (Oct 1983 (available online by JSTOR)), #38, p. 284). - BS
For related material, see "Little Nancy Etticoat." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: ReCip286

Little Miss Pinky

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme: "Little Miss Pinky [Miss Blue/Green, perhaps based on the color of her clothes] (Dressed in pink/blue) Jump-ropes like a top, Oops, oops, she missed, Just like that." Or, "...dressed in blue, Died last night, at quarter to two."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: jumprope clothes colors death
FOUND IN: US(MW,SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #64, "(Little Miss Pinky)"; #115, "(Little Miss Pink)" (2 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #315, "Little Miss Pinky, dressed in blue"; #316, "Little Miss Pinky (or any other color the jumper is wearing)" (2 texts)
Roud #19941
File: AJRV064

Little Mohea, The

See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Little Mohee, The [Laws H8]

DESCRIPTION: A (foreign soldier) is greeted by a pretty Mohee. She offers to take him into her tribe if he will stay with her. He will not stay; he has a sweetheart at home. Returning home, he find his girl has left him, and wishes himself back with the Mohee
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) love abandonment infidelity
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So,SW) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (58 citations):
Laws H8, "The Little Mohea"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 143-145, "Little Mohea" (1 text plus references to 6 more)
Randolph 63, "The Pretty Mohee" (2 texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 484-486, "The Pretty Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 63A)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 72-73, "Pretty Mohea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 110, "Little Mohea" (1 texts plus mention of 11 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 110, "Little Mohea (7 excerpts, 7 tunes)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #190, "The Little Mohea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 47, pp. 162-164, "Little Mohea" (2 texts plus mention of 3 more)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #44, "The Lass of Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 86, "The Indian Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 102-104, "Little Mohea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 71-72, "Little Mohea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 336-345, "The Indian Lass" (6 texts plus a fragment/excerpt, with local titles "Pretty Mauhee," "The Pretty Mohea," "Pretty Mohea," "The Lass of Mohee," "Mawhee," "The Pretty Mahee," (no title); 1 tune on pp. 448-449)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 29, "The Pretty Mohee" (3 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 3 more, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 190-194, "The Isle of Mohea," "The Little Mohea" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 17-18. "The Lass of Mohe" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 114, "The Pretty Mahmee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 25, pp. 33-37, "The Little Mohea" (3 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 172-175, "The Pretty Mohea" (2 texts)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 37-38, "Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 40, pp. 211-214, "The Little Mohea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 725-726, "The Little Mohee" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 173-174, "The Little Mohee" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 402-403, "Lass of Mohee" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 230-232, "The Pretty Mohea" (2 texts)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 144-146, "The Little Mohea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 42-43, "The Lass of Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 52, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 84, "The Little Mohea" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 62-63, "The Pretty Mauhee" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 39-40, "Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 55, "LIttle Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 47, "Little Mohea" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 115, "The Little Mohee" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 163-165, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 824-825, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 128-129, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H836, pp. 372-373, "The Lass of Mohee" (1 text with many variant readings, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 91, pp. 197-198, "The Pretty Mohea" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 116, "The Pretty Mohea" (3 texts)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #12A-C, pp. 147-150, "The Pretty Mohea," "The Little Maumee" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 47-49, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 98-99, "Fair Indian Lass or Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 124-125, "The Pretty Mohea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 135-137, "The Pretty Mohea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #41, "The Little Maumie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 148-150, "The Lass of Mowee" ( text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 48-50, "The Lass of Maui"; pp. 51-53, "The Pretty Maid of Mohe" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 199-200, "The Lass of Mohea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 53, "The Young Spanish Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 103, "Little Mohee" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 58, "The Lass of Mohee" (1 text)
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 82-83, "The Lass of Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 195-197, "The Little Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 227-229, "The Little Mohee" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 148, "Little Mohee" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 482, "The Pretty Mohea" (source notes only)
DT 648, LILMOHEE*
Roud #275
RECORDINGS:
Hall Brothers, "Little Mo-Hee" (Bluebird B-6843/Montgomery Ward 7237, 1937)
Buell Kazee, "The Little Mohee" (Brunswick 156, 1927; Brunswick 436, 1930) (on Kazee01 [fragment])
Bradley Kincaid, "The Little Mohee" (Gennett 6856/Supertone 9402, 1929)
Flora Noles, "Little Mohee" (OKeh 45037, 1926)
Pie Plant Pete [pseud. for Claude Moye], "Little Mo-Hee", Perfect 5-10-14/Melotone 5-10-14, 1935; rec. 1934)
Riley Puckett, "Little Maumee" (Columbia 15277-D, 1928)
Roe Bros. & Morrell, "My Little Mohi" (Columbia 15199-D, 1927)
Ernest Stoneman and His Dixie Mountaineers, "The Pretty Mohea" (Edison, unissued, 1928)
Marie Sullivan, "Little Mohee" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On Top of Old Smokey" (tune)
cf. "The Indian Lass" (theme, some verses)
cf. "I'm a Stranger in this Country (The Darger Lad)" (theme, verses)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Cocoanut Grove
NOTES [277 words]: Kittredge describes this as a "chastened" (i.e. de-bawdy-ized) American reworking of a British broadside, "The Indian Lass." It is agreed, though, that the American version is much superior to the British. [It may be agreed that this is superior to "The Indian Lass," but not by me. - PJS]
Barry, however, considers the American version original; it then became a sea song, with the girl transformed from a "Mohee" to a resident of Maui, and the British version descends from that. Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety concurs at least to the extent of calling it a sea song and saying "that the 'Indian lass' is a denizen not of America but of the South Seas."
Huntington splits the difference; he thinks the sea version is the original, and the source of the Native American version (he doesn't mention "The Indian Lass"). He offers no evidence for this view, except for the early dates of the whaling versions.
Just looking at the sundry texts, my (slight) inclination is to think "The Little Mohee" the original; "The Indian Lass" looks like this song with a little bit of "The Lake of Ponchartrain" mixed in and the Indian girl released from tribal affiliation.
Scarborough has a discussion of the matter, in which she supports Kittredge in calling it a British import. But she seems to consider the two still one song -- although her versions consistently mention the Mohee/Mauhee/Mawhee, she titles the song "The Indian Lass."
Whatever its origin, the song has become extremely popular in America (Laws lists in excess of two dozen versions, from more than a dozen states). Sundry tunes are used; many are close to "On Top of Old Smokey." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LH08

Little More Cider Too, A

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves drink and Miss (Snowflake/Dinah). He wishes they were apples rubbing against each other in the tree, and for more drink. Chorus: "A little more cider, cider, cider, a little more cider too, A little more cider for Miss Dinah...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Brown); 19C (Wolf)
KEYWORDS: drink courting floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ro,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 621, "Little More Cider, Too" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 46, "A Little More Cider Too" (2 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 46, "A Little More Cider Too" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #196, ""Little More Cider" (1 text, with the chorus of "A Little More Cider Too" although the lyrcs are often found in "Lynchburg Town")
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 160-161, "A Little More Cider" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 372-373, "A Little More Cider" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1289, p. 88, "A Little More Cider" (1 reference)
Roud #7866
NOTES [64 words]: The Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO text is in "minstrel" dialect. - BS
This appears to be original. Wolf, p. 88, gives his song as "A Little More CIder," beginning "I love the white gal and the black"; it reportedly was "Sung nighly, with tremendous applause, by Buckley's celebrated band of minstrels." Since this broadside was published by De Marsan, the song must date from before 1880. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Br3046

Little More Faith in Jesus, A

DESCRIPTION: "Mothers, don't you think it best, A little more faith in Jesus? Carry the witness in your breast, A little more faith in Jesus. All I want, all I need, All I want is a little more faith in Jesus." Similarly with fathers, children, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 211, "A Little More Faith in Jesus" (1 text) (OakEd, p. 213)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 61, "All I Want Is a Little More Faith" (1 text)
Roud #12067
File: ThBa211

Little Moscrow

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Little Moses

DESCRIPTION: The story of Moses in brief: Set adrift in a small boat in Egypt, he is found and raised by the daughter of Pharaoh. When grown, he leads his people across the Red Sea to safety while Pharaoh's host is destroyed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Jew royalty abandonment river rescue hiding
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 449, "Moses in the Bulrushes" (1 text)
Randolph 662, "Little Moses" (1 text)
Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook 6, "Little Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 94-95, "Little Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 250, "Little Moses" (1 short text)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 74, "Little Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 128-129, "Little Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, pp. 8-9, "Little Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 361, "Little Moses" (1 text)
DT, LITMOSES
Roud #3546
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Little Moses" (Victor V-40110, 1929; Bluebird B-5924, 1935; Montgomery Ward M-5010, 1936; on AAFM2)
A. P. Carter Family, "Little Moses" (Acme 992, n.d. but post-WWII)
Harmon E. Helmick, "Little Moses" (Champion 16705, 1934; Decca 5498, 1938)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Finding of Moses" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
By the Side of a River
NOTES [271 words]: The story of Moses being abandoned by his parents (who had to hide him to prevent him from being killed) is told in Exodus 2:1-10. These verses also tell of his sister (presumably Miriam, since she is Moses's only known sister, though she is not named in this passage) following him as he floated away (his brother Aaron would have been only three and too young for the task), and of his mother nursing her own child. The crossing of the Red Sea is covered in Exodus chapter 14.
The final lines of the Carter Family version, "When his labors did cease, he departed in peace, And rested in the Heavens above" are more interesting. The only official word on Moses's fate is in chapter 34 of Deuteronomy: "Then Moses went up... to Mount Nebo... and the LORD showed him the whole land.... Then Moses... died... in the land of Moab. He was buried in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-Peor, but no one to this day knows where hs is buried."
At the time of Moses's death, there was no Jewish tradition of an afterlife; all, good or bad, were thought to go to Sheol (which was quite clearly underground). Later, the idea of a heaven became widespread -- and a Jewish legend had it that Moses went there, or that he was taken up bodily to heaven, as was clearly reported of Elijah (2 Kings 2:11) and less clearly of Enoch (Genesis 5:24).
This view seems to be supported by the New Testament account of the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-8 and parallels), since Jesus is reported to have been talking with Moses and Elijah (though nothing ever makes it clear how Peter and James and John knew that the other two were Moses and Elijah...). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: R662

Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81]

DESCRIPTION: (Lady Barnard), left alone at home by her lord, convinces (Little Musgrave) to sleep with her. Her husband returns unlooked-for, and finds Musgrave in bed with his wife. Lord Barnard slays Musgrave in a duel, and then kills his wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1613 (The Knight of the Burning Pestle); earliest full version before 1750 (Percy Folio)
KEYWORDS: adultery death homicide
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland,England) Ireland US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Mar,Newf) West Indies(Jamaica,St Croix,St Vincent)
REFERENCES (79 citations):
Child 81, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (15 texts)
Bronson 81, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (74 versions+1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 81, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (5 versions: #6, #15, #27, #55, #66)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 249-253, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 170, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 excerpt, 1 tune) {Bronson's #31}
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 119-122, "A Fragme(en)t of the Ballad of Lord Barnard & the little Musgrave" (1 fragment)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 75, "Mossgrove" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 107, "Wee Mess Grove" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 50-53, "Moncey Grey" (1 text)
Dixon-ScottishTraditionalVersionsOfAncientBallads III, pp. 21-29, "Lord Burnett and Little Munsgrove" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 150-194, "" (11 texts plus a collation, a fragment, and a text not from Maine, several of these being variants on versions learned from the same source; 8 tunes from Maine plus one from elsewhere; also extensive notes on version classification) {Ab=Bronson's #70, B=#59, Db=#21, E [Yankee Doodle]=#73, Gb=#60, H [The Little Red Lark] = #71, I=#66; the non-Maine tune is #13}
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 68-74, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XLVI, p. 92, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 partial text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #32}
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 57-60, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #13}
Randolph 20, "Little Mathy Groves" (1 short text plus 2 fragments, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #58, C=#12}
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 15, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #40}
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 7, "Lord Valley" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #28}
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 135-139, "Lord Banner" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #68}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2, pp. 195-237, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (10 texts, 7 tunes) {A=Bronson's #46, F=#65, J=#68}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 86-91, "Lord Arnold" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #46}
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, pp. 109-111, "Paddy Magrue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 23, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (6 texts, 1 tune entitled "Lord Daniel's Wife"; 1 more version mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #72}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 24, pp. 170-181, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 26, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (3 texts plus 2 excerpts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 26, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (7 excerpts, 7 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 12, "Little Matthew Groves" (1 text)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, #VII, pp. 125-127, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (2 texts)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, pp. 47-49, "Little Matthew Groves" (1 composite text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 50-54, "Lord Daniel" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 23A, "Little Mathey Grove"; 23B, "Little Matty Groves" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 65-68, "Matha Grove" (1 text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 7, pp. 15-18, "Little Matty Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 143-149, colectively "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard," with individual texts "Little Mose Grove," "Lord Donald's Wife" (2 texts plus 2 excerpts; 1 tune on p. 400) {Bronson's #36}
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 30-32, "The Lyttle Musgrave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #4, "Little Matty Gross" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 23 "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (10 texts plus 7 fragments, 17 tunes){Bronson's #16, #18, #22, #9, #17, #11, #19, #20, #37, #27, #14, #29, #42, #43, #48, #38, #10}
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 18, "Matthy Groves (Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard)" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version) {Bronson's #17}
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #11, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson #18}
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 32-34, "Lord Darnell" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #49}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 110-113, "Little Matthy Grove" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 43-49, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #2, #23}
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 11-13, "Lord Arnold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 5, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 fragment, called "Little Matha Grove" by the singer, 1 tune) {Bronson's #47}
Peacock, pp. 613-616, "Lord Donald" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 11, "Matthy Groves" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 8, "Little Matha Grove" (5 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 54, "Little Moscrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 265-273, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (3 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 111-115, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 5, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 50, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 186, "Little Musgrave and the Lady Barnard" (1 text+2 fragments)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 22, "Little Matthew Grove (or, Lord Daniel's Wife)"; p. 62, "Lord Orland's Wife (or, Little Matthew Grew)" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {p. 22=Bronson's #51; p. 62=#6?}
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 52-55, "Little Musgrove and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 78, "Mathy Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 36, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp.119-122, "Little Massie Grove' (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 34, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 164, "Little Matthy Groves" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #13}
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 337-340, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text, printed in the notes to "Lord Randal")
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 123-127, "[Lyttle Musgrave]" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #15}
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 60, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 17, "Little Musgrave" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 105-108, "Matha Grove" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 15, pp. 37-39, "Little Matty Groves" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 15, "Little Musgrave and Lary Barnard" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 96-100, "Matthy Grew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 53-56, "Little Mathie Groves" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #21, "Little Matty Groves" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 230-231, "Lord Barnaby" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 69-74, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 99-102, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 47-50, "Lord Darnell" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 226, "Matty Groves" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN286, "As it befell on a high Holyday"
DT 81, MATTIEGR* MATTIEG2*
ADDITIONAL: Roger D Abrahams, "Child Ballads in the West Indies: Familiar Fabulations, Creole Performances" in Journal of Folklore Research, Vol. XXIV, No. 2 (May-Aug 1987 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 120-126, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (3 texts)
Martha W Beckwith, "The English Ballad in Jamaica: a Note Upon the Origin of the Ballad Form" in Publications of the Modern Language Association [PMLA], Vol. XXXIXI, No. 2 (Jun 1924 (available online by JSTOR)), #1-#3, pp. 455-457, 468-473 "Little Musgrove" (3 texts, 2 tunes) and #10, pp. 479-482 "Adinah" (1 text, 1 tune) [but see Notes]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 53
ST C081 (Full)
Roud #52
RECORDINGS:
Blinky (Sylvester McIntosh) and the Roadmasters, "Matty Gru" (on VIBlinky01)
Dillard Chandler, "Mathie Groves" (on OldLove, DarkHoll)
Din Dobbin, "Matty Groves" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Eunice Yeatts MacAlexander, "Little Massie Groves" (on FarMtns1)
Green Maggard, "Lord Daniel" (AFS, 1934; on KMM)
Jean Ritchie, "Little Musgrave" (on JRitchie02)
Cas Wallin, "Lord Daniel" (on FarMtns3)
Mrs. Thomas Walters, "Lord Donald" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Wood 401(91), "The Little Mousgrove, and the Lady Barnet," F. Coles (London), 1658-1664; also Douce Ballads 1(115b), Firth b.19(13)[many words illegible], "[The] Little Musgrove, and the Lady Barnet"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonny Birdy" [Child 82] (plot)
cf. "Run Mountain" (words)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Matty Groves
Matty Grove
Little Mattie Groves
Little Mathey Groves
Mathie Groves
Lord Barnard
Lord Arnold's Wife
Lord Daniel's Wife
Little Mathigrew
Lord Donald
NOTES [1702 words]: A fragment of this ballad is found in (John Fletcher and) Francis Beaumont's play "The Knight of the Burning Pestle" (published 1613; probably first produces in 1607):
And some they whistled, and some they sung,
"Hey, down, down!"
And some did loudly say,
Ever as the Lord Barnet's horn blew,
"Away, Musgrave, away!"
In Wine (p. 376), this is in Act V, scene iii, lines 47-51; KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, which does not mark scenes, has it as Act V, lines 207-211 on p. 111; KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, p. 156, has it as Act V, lines 208-212, with a tune on p. 182. For more on "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," see the notes to "Three Merry Men."
Chambers, p. 163, also mentions that a song of this title was entered into the Stationer's Register in 1630, so it was apparently well-known in the early seventeenth century. There seem in fact to be several Stationer's Register entries, according to Rollins:
- "Little Musgrave," entered June 24, 1630 by Francis Coles (Rollins #1506, p. 131)
- "The lamentable ditty of Little Musgrave," entered March 13, 1656 (Rollins #1507, p. 131)
- "A Lamentable ballad of Little Musgrove & the Lady Barnett," March 1, 1675 (Rollins #1508, p. 132)
Simon Furey makes an interesting note about the names. In a post to the Ballad-L mailing list, he observes, "I think it likely that the idea of 'Little Musgrave' as being a small person is just a mis-association of part of a place name to a personal attribute. Little Musgrave and Great Musgrave both still exist in Cumbria, in what used to be Westmorland... and are about 20 miles from Barnard Castle in County Durham. So what we have in the song IMHO is a simple bit of hanky-panky between the wife of the lord of Barnard Castle (the ancient seat of the de Balliol family) and a landowner in Little Musgrave.... In other words, the standard stuff of border ballad plots."
There is a somewhat interesting twist in several of the versions. Usually the song says that the wife loves Musgrave/Mattie more than her Lord and all his kin -- but in both of Scarborough's texts and in Creighton and Barry/Eckstorm/Smythe, p. 164 and a version from Sharp (Bronson's #42) and another from Karpeles (Bronson's #56) she loves his finger, and in Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia #1 his tongue. Maybe it just strengthens the comparison -- but they're interesting body parts to care for; maybe there was more going on in that bedroom than we thought.
It also occurs to me that there is a certain similarity in this tale to "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Not in plot, really, but in incident. Note that Lord Barnard kills Little Musgrave in a formal contest in which Musgrave is granted the first blow. This is obviously a variant on the Beheading Game of "Sir Gawain" -- though in fact the contest is older; the first instance of the Beheading Game appears to have been the Irish prose saga of "Fled Bricrend," "Bricriu's Feast" (cf. Tolkien/Gordon, p. xv); in this, Cuchulainn twice wins the Beheading Game (and others dodge the challenge -- O hOgain, p. 49).
The idea of surviving the Beheading Game might be inspired by the legend of St. Denis of France, who carried off his head after being beheaded; Benet, p. 969. Or, closer to England, there is the story of St. Nectan of Wales, who in the sixth century was killed and beheaded by robbers and supposedly carried his head to the well where he is buried; Kerr, p. 74) There is also a sort of a variant in Blind Harry's "Life of Wallace," in which Wallace cuts off the traitor Fawdoun's head, and Fawdoun returns to him carrying the head. This even has Fawdoun announce his presence by sounding a horn (Garnett/Gosse. volume I, p. 293.
But "Sir Gawain" adds to this the temptation of Gawain by a lady while her husband is out hunting. One might say that "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" is "Sir Gawain" if Gawain had given in to temptation.
Not that there is much likelihood of literary dependence; "Sir Gawain" was effectively lost (only one copy is extant, although there is a rougher parallel, "The Green Knight," in the Percy folio), and the tale seems to come from a region not associated with the main versions of "Little Musgrave." But there are a number of romances (listed in Tolkien/Gordon, pp. xvi-xvii) which are similar to "Sir Gawain" though weaker. Most of these are French, but they might have inspired the story.
The other thing it reminds us of is the idea of "trial by combat," which according to Benet, p. 1181 (under the title "wager of battle") goes back to "early Teutonic times," and was incorporated into English law by William the Conqueror, not being formally repealed until 1818.
Of course, there is an important footnote here: Three people ended up in Lord Barnard's bedroom: Barnard, his wife, and Musgrave. Only Barnard came out alive. Thus every detail must have been attested by Barnard. We could not know if there was actually a contest of blows, or what Lady Barnard said; it's perfectly possible, e.g., that Barnard struck Musgrave without warning, and that Musgrave inflicted Barnard's wound after he was himself struck. Or -- well, I leave the rest as an exercise for the reader, until someone comes up with an actual incident that might be the basis for the song. - RBW
Mary Jane Soule in the liner notes to VIBlinky01: "'Matty Gru' exhorts a young man to leave the bedroom of a married lady. (Although the need for such advice is not outside the realm of possibility in St Croix, the song actually derives from a British folk drama known locally as the King George play.)" (See VIZoop01. The CD and liner notes by Mary Jane Soule give the background of scratch bands, a little on Matty Gru -- included as an instrumental -- and a selection from a "King George play.") A version of Matty Gru is in the Supplemental Traditional Text File.
The insertion of the sex theme of Matty Gru into the St/King George play is not as much a reach as might seem. See the discussion of the St George play for "Sweet Moll."
The St Croix and St Vincent versions are similar -- sharing a verse -- though the Crucian version is connected with the St/King George mummers' play and the St Vincent version is connected with wakes. The Jamaica versions, like the St Vincent version, mix prose and song, but the story line is closer to the usual Child 81 plot. In all versions a parrot - not in other versions of Child 81 - is a central character. Beckwith notes, "The theme of the messenger bird who reveals crime appears in all collections of African texts and is closely bound up with the idea that the spirit of the dead takes the form of a bird in order to protect the innocent or avenge itself upon the guilty here on earth." So, for example, Jekyll reports a Jamaican version of "The Twa Sisters" in which the crime is revealed by a parrot rather than by a fiddle created from the victim's bones (See Walter Jekyll, C.S. Meyers and Lucy E Broadwood, Jamaican Song and Story (London, 1907 ("Digitized by Google")) #3 pp. 14-15, "King Daniel").
Regarding the parrot in the Caribbean versions, Abrahams writes (fn 26, p. 133): "A reader of this paper ... suggested that in terms of the plot, the stories here are closer to the very rare 'Bonny Birdy' (Child 82) than to 'Little Musgrave.' The use of the name 'Matty Glow' in the Vincentian texts for the interloping male seems to argue against such an attribution." The same can be said for the name "Matty Gru" in St Croix. The name is "Matty Glow" in one of Abrahams's Vincentian stories and Garoleen in the other two. Beckwith's texts have "Little Musgrove" in two versions and no name at all in the third fragmentary version (which is also lacking the parrot). There is no name in the Brown 20 version of Child 82, so no link can be made on the basis of name. Finally, there is Cunningham's always more-than-suspect version of "The Bonny Birdy" -- from "a recited copy, and [I] have ventured to eke out an imperfect passage or two" -- in which the murderer's name is "Sir Hugh" (Allan Cunningham, The Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern (London: John Taylor: 1825 ("Digitized by Google")) Vol 2, pp. 130-134, "Sir Hugh"). Just some things to keep in mind when looking at Caribbean texts, especially if you find one mentioning "diddle" as in the Brown 20 text.
Beckwith's "Adinah" is " Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah)" and is indexed there. The verses fit "William and Dinah" both as to text and tune. The first chorus begins "Singin' toural, sing-in toural, singin' toural all cleah," and the tune of the last two bars hints at "Villikens" but the rest of the tune is nothing like "Villikens" and the text is pure "Little Musgrave"; since the second chorus is simply "Singin' toural, singin' toural, singin' toural all day, Ri toural, ritoural, ritoural, all day," it is tempting to consider the insertion of this "Little Musgrave" into "Adinah" an editing error. - BS
The reader to whom Abrahams refers is probably Roger deV. Renwick; in Renwick, pp. 13-18, he described a great many parallels between "Matty Glow" and the "Bonny Birdie." But as I read Renwick's arguments, without having seen the Abrahams response, I independently came up with both the counter-arguments proposed by Abrahams. One is the name "Matty Glow," which is clearly derived from "Matty Groves" or one of the other similar names for Little Musgrave. The other is simply the frequency of the pieces. "Little Musgrave" is known throughout the English-speaking world, including West Indian versions which Renwick does not dispute; the other is the fact that "The Bonny Birdy," unless you count a version offered by John Jacob Niles, is known only from the version of Anna Gordon Brown and clearly has fallen out of tradition. If the former were the only argument, then I could perhaps accept the idea that "Matty Glow" was "The Bonny Birdy" with the name floating in from a "Little Musgrave" variant, but the latter argument is, I think, decisive.
Nor is the substitution of a bird messenger for a human one particularly decisive; it's a common enough motif, and it certainly didn't originate with "The Bonny Birdie"; after all, Ecclesiastes 10:20 refers to birds of the air passing secrets! - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C081

Little Musgrove and Lady Barnard

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Little Nancy Etticoat

DESCRIPTION: Riddle: "Little Nancy Etticoat (Nanny Goat, Hetty Cote), With a white petticoat, And a red nose; She has no hands or feet; The longer she stands, The shorter she grows." Probable answer: A lighted candle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell); a manuscript version is thought to date from c. 1645, according to the Opies
KEYWORDS: riddle nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 373, "Little Nancy Etticoat" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #700, p. 275, "(Little Nancy Etticoat)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 185, "Little Nancy Etticoat" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Joseph D. Clark, "More North Carolina Riddles," Vol. IX, No. 1 (Jul 1961), p. 12 (#17), "(Little Nannie Etticoat in her white petticoat and red nose)" (1 text)
Roud #20055
NOTES [138 words]: Although this doesn't seem to be well known in folk circles today, it was famous enough in the last century that J. R. R. Tolkien rewrote it in Old English; in this version, Nancy Etticoat becomes Hild Hunecan, who wears a white tunic (tunecan). See J. R. R. Tolkien, The Annotated Hobbit, annotated by Douglas A. Anderson, second edition, Houghton Mifflin, 2002, pp. 123-125, n. 19.
According to Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond, The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Reader's Guide, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, that piece was published in the 1923 Leeds English School publication "A Northern Venture," in an article titled "Enigma Saxonica Nuper Inventa Duo" ("Two Saxon Riddles Newly Discovered"). The other riddle was a version of "In marble halls as white as milk."
For related material, see "Little Miss Nancy." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OO2373

Little Nannie Etticoat

See Little Nancy Etticoat (File: OO2373)

Little Nassau

DESCRIPTION: New Yorkers: "takin a trip to see little Nassau ... bring all your friends ... drink you some booze ... champagne and whisky and lots of beer ... smokin a big-time cigar ... want your cocktail mix you come right here and get it fixed"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Blind Blake Higgs: see WIHIGGS01)
KEYWORDS: travel drink wine nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Little Nassau" (on WIHIGGS01)
NOTES [14 words]: For Higgs, "Little Nassau" is the second part of a track called "Peas and Rice." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcLitNas

Little Nell of Narragansett Bay

DESCRIPTION: "Full well do I remember My boyhood's happy hours... The bright and sparkling water O'er which we used to sail." The singer and Nell were never afraid at sea. But one day her body is found by the shore. Ten years later, he still weeps for the girl
AUTHOR: George F. Root
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #7)
KEYWORDS: ship death drowning separation mourning
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,Ro,SE)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 30-31, "Bright-Eyed Little Nell of Narragansett Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 138-139, "Little Nell of Narragansett Bay" (1 text) (pp. 117-118 in the 1919 edition)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 119, "Little Nell of Narragansette Bay" (1 text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 88, "Little Nell of Narragansett Bay" (1 text)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 226-227, "Little Nell" (1 text)
Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker, pp. 160-162, "Bright Eyed Little Nell of Narragansett Bay" (1 text, 1 tune, given as the source for the tune of "Guy Reed")
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 72, "(Bright-Eyed) Little Nell of Narragansett Bay" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #60, "Little Nell of Narragansett Bay" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #57, "Narragansett Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 253-254, "Little Nell of Narragansett Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #204, p. 15, "Bright-Eyed Little Nell of Narraganset-Bay" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #7/72, p. 6 and #7/64, p. 6, "Bright-Eyed Little Nell of Narraganset Bay" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 480, "Little Nell of Narragansett Bay" (source notes only)
ST Brew88 (Partial)
Roud #3274
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Guy Reed" [Laws C9] (tune, according to Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker, pp. 160-162)
SAME TUNE:
Lines on the Reduction of Pay ("Come all you operatives in this and other towns") (Foner, p. 70, with a broadside print on p. 71)
NOTES [74 words]: There is another "Little Nell" ballad in the National Library of Scotland collection; this too revolves around a dead girl. It is suggested that the name was inspired by the Little Nell of Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop. The same suggestion might apply here. Or might not, of course.
The Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida version of the song is from a singer who came from Connecticut, so the song's link to the American South is rather weak. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Brew88

Little Nellie In Her Tent

DESCRIPTION: "Little Nellie in her tent, She can't afford to pay her rent. The landlord came and put her out, Put her out (x3). It's not because she's dirty, It's not because she's clean, But because she has the whooping cough And the measles in between"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: home money landlord disease
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 55-56, "(Little Nellie in her tent)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #19596
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Apple on a Stick" (lyrics about being dirty and clean)
cf. "Gypsy, Gypsy (II)" (line about not being able to pay the rent)
NOTES [31 words]: Roud lumps this with "Gypsy, Gypsy (II)" probably because they share the second line about not being able to pay the rent. But the rest is different, so I think they should be split. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI055C

Little Old Dudeen

DESCRIPTION: If not for Walter Raleigh "I wouldn't be smoking my old dudeen." The singer smokes to keep peace when his wife grumbles. At his wake there'll be poteen but "into me gob, so help me bob, you'll find me old dudeen"
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David or John Braham (but see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach; Peacock); reportedly written 1875
KEYWORDS: nonballad funeral
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1554-1618 - Life of Sir Walter Raleigh, credited in the song with bringing tobacco to Europe (in fact it was first introduced to Europe by Columbus, and cultivated in Iberia; the first American tobacco plantation was founded by John Rolfe)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 377-378, "My Old Dudeen" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea337 (Partial)
Roud #9787
RECORDINGS:
Mike Kent, "My Old Dudeen" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]; "My Old Dudeen" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [236 words]: Library of Congress American Memory 19th century song sheets collection as "Little Old Dudeen": Words Ed Harrigan, Music John Braham, pub Boston 1875.
Harrigan and Hart famous vaudeville team per The Big Bands Database Plus site entry for David Braham.
See The Black Dudeen by Robert Service for one [use of the] phrase "tucked in me gub, me old dudeen." - BS
The LOC credit is a little sloppy; Harrigan's usual partner DAVID Braham, not John. And this song is not found in the comprehensive catalog of Harrigan and Braham songs published by Jon W. Finson and indexed as Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham. I wonder if it's a Harrigan song with a tune by someone other than Braham, since Harrigan and Braham were not entirely regular partners until slightly later.
Nonetheless Harrigan would know the word "dudeen" better than most; his father had lived in Newfoundland, and "dudeen" as a word for a short-stemmed pipe is well-attested there and can be traced back to at least 1836 (G. M. Story, W. J. Kirwin, and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, Dictionary of Newfoundland English, second edition with supplement, Breakwater Press, 1990, p. 158). Since Robert W. Service was not born until 1874, and Harrigan was effectively done as a writer by the mid-1890s, the use by Service could well have been derived from Harrigan.
For background on Harrigan, Hart, and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Pea337

Little Old Log Cabin by the Lane, The

See The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane (File: RcLOLCIL)

Little Old Log Cabin by the Stream (Rosalie)

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the happy time when he and the old folks partied with the fiddle and banjo. Now death has taken his (Rose/Rosalie) "From the little old log cabin by the stream." She was killed by "swamp fever"; and others are likely to be taken also
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Fiddlin' John Carson)
KEYWORDS: death love fiddle
FOUND IN: US(MW,So, SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 710, "Rosalie" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 122-123, "The Little Log Cabin by the Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 32, "Rosalee" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LOGCABIN*
Roud #7376
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Little Old Log Cabin by the Stream" (OKeh 45198, 1928; rec. 1927)
Ted Chestnut, "Little Old Log Cabin By the Stream" (Gennett 6672 [as Ted Chesnut]/Champion 15630 [as Cal Turner], 1928; Conqueror 7258 [as Eli Jenkins], 1929)
NOTES [121 words]: I'm not sure what to make of this piece; Randolph's version sounds like a southern minstrel piece, yet the Digital Tradition version, from Illinois and published in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, is neither southern nor minstrel-ish.
Making the matter more confusing is the fact that Randolph's informant, Rose Wilder Lane, is of course the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and might thus have had the song from the Ingalls (i.e. Wisconsin) tradition. - RBW
Yes, but it could have entered that tradition from the minstrel shows. They toured everywhere in the USA (and in Britain as well). - PJS
And there is a possibility that one or the other version, probably Lane's, could be from the Fiddlin' John Carson version. - (PJS,RBW)
Last updated in version 4.3
File: R710

Little Old Log Cabin in Tennessee

See The Little Logwood Cabin (File: BrS5701)

Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a former slave, is getting old and can't work; his master and mistress and fellow slaves are gone; only his old dog remains. His home is falling apart. He recalls the dances they used to have. He hopes the angels will watch over him.
AUTHOR: Will S. Hays
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (sheet music published by J. L. Peters of New York)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a former slave, is getting old and feeble; he can't work any more, his master and mistress are gone, and so are the other former slaves; no one else remains except his old dog. In former days the other "darkies" would gather around his door, and he'd play the banjo while they danced. His house is falling down, the footpath is overgrown and the fences fall down. Chorus: "The chimney's falling down, and the roof is caving in/I ain't got long round here to remain/The angels watches over me when I lay down to sleep/In the little old log cabin in the lane"
KEYWORDS: age loneliness home abandonment death farming dancing music slavery nonballad animal dog friend slave Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,SE,S0)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 167, "The Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane" (1 text) (p. 144 in the 1919 edition)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 178, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 214, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 702, "The Little Log Cabin in the Lane" (1 text, 1 tune -- but not the standard tune of this piece)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 94, "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 2 "Little Old Log Cabin by the Lane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2473
RECORDINGS:
Bentley Ball, "De Little Old Log Cabin in de Lane" (Columbia A3087, 1920)
Kenneth Barton [pseud. for Marian Underwood], "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Challenge 331, 1927)
Binkley Bros. Dixie Clodhoppers, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor V-40129, 1929; Yorkville K525, n.d.; rec. 1928)
Callahan Brothers, "Little Poplar Log House on the Hill" (Conqueror 8384, 1934)
Frank [or Kenneth] Calvert [pseud. for somebody, probably Vernon Dalhart or Carson Robison], "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Grey Gull/Radiex 4135, 1927)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (OKeh 4890, 1923)
Carroll Clark, "De Little Old Log Cabin in de Lane" (Columbia A-696, 1909)
Vernon Dalhart, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Cameo 1174/Romeo 399, 1927) 2455
Girls of the Golden West, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor 23857, 1933; Bluebird B-5737, 1934)
Doc Hopkins, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Broadway 8305, rec. 1931)
Bradley Kincaid, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Champion 15923 [as Dan Hughey]/Supertone 9505, 1929)
Silas Leachman, "Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor 1893, 1903)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner [Mac and Bob], "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Brunswick 350, 1929; Supertone S-2036, 1930; Aurora [Canada] 22004, 1931)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Vocalion 14864, 1924)
Clayton McMichen "Log Cabin in the Lane" (Crown 3447 [as Bob Nichols], 1933; Varsity 5026, n.d. but prob. c. 1939)
Metcalf & Spencer, "The Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Columbia 645, 1902; Columbia A-480, 1909)
Metropolitan Quartet, "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Edison 80484, n.d.) (CYL: Edison [BA] 3573, n.d.)
David Miller, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Gennett 3082/Silvertone 4019, 1925)
Fiddlin' Powers & Family "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor 19448, 1924) (Edison, unissued, 1925)
Riley Puckett, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Columbia 107-D, 1924) (Columbia 15171-D, 1927)
Oscar Seagle, "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Columbia A-3582, 1922; rec. 1921)
Frank C. Stanley, "A Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Imperial 44823, c. 1906)
Ernest V. Stoneman "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (Victor 20235, 1926) (Montgomery Ward M-8305 [as Stoneman's Dixie Mountaineers], 1939); Ernest V. Stoneman Trio, "Little Log Cabin in the Lane" (OKeh, unissued, 1927)
John White, "The Little Old Log Cabin" (Paramount 3190, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim" (tune)
cf. "Little Joe the Wrangler" [Laws B5] (tune)
cf. "Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell" (tune)
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune)
cf. "Beans, Bacon, and Gravy" (tune)
cf. "The Freehold on the Plain" (tune)
cf. "Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill" (tune)
cf. "Double-Breasted Mansion on the Square" (tune)
cf. "Sara Jane" (tune)
cf. "My Cabin Home Among the Hills" (tune)
cf. "The Titanic (I) ("It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down") [Laws D24] (Titanic #1)" (tune)
cf. "Another Fall of Rain (Waiting for the Rain)" (tune)
cf. "The Miner's Life" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim (File: R197)
The Little Old Sod Shanty in the West (File: LDC564)
Little Joe the Wrangler [Laws B5] (File: LB05)
The Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill (File: HHH207)
Little Joe the Wrangler's Sister Nell (File: R204)
The Freehold on the Plain (File: FaE174)
Beans, Bacon, and Gravy (File: Arn170)
Sara Jane (File: RcSarJan)
The Double-Breasted Mansion on the Square (File: FCW025H)
The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (I) (File: BRaF455)
The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (II) (File: Br3235)
The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (III) (File: RcTLRCBT)
The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (IV) (File: LSRai261)
The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (V) (The Hobo Tramp) (File: LSRai382)
My Cabin Home Among the Hills (File: RcMCHAtH)
My ANZAC Home (File: Clev091)
The Miner's Life (File: KMMP275)
The Od Miner's Refrain (File: KPL377)
NOTES [507 words]: This pop song is the basis from which all of the cross-referenced songs were built. From a modern perspective it's sentimentally stereotyped balderdash, but it was a huge hit when published -- and, judging by the number of versions on 78s, it remained wildly popular half a century later. (Presumably among white people.) It's indexed here primarily because of the genuine folk songs it inspired. - PJS
According to Malone, p. 54, the 1923 Fiddlin' John Carson recording is "one side of the first documented recordings of a southern rural musician." - RBW
Not quite; Eck Robertson recorded several sides of fiddle music on Victor before Carson made his first recording, and one of the discs was released before Carson's. But it didn't have any impact, probably because Victor considered itself a "prestige" label and had no idea how to market it. (They also, unlike their competitors, had no distribution agreement with a major mail-order company like Sears, and wouldn't until the 1930s, so they missed a prime means of distribution to rural buyers.) Carson's OKeh disc, backed with "The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Going to Crow," wasn't the first, but it was the one that started the avalanche. - PJS
Indeed so. OTH, p. 26, tells us that "[Ralph] Peer recorded Carson -- grudgingly, country music lore has it -- in conditions that were less than ideal. The sound of Carson's record, Peer would later say, was 'pluperfect awful.' Nevertheless, a test pressing of 500 of Carson's debut... sold out in the space of an afternoon."
D. K. Wilgus put it this way on pp. 141-142 of Paredes/Stekert: "It was no accident that the recordings of Eck Robertson and Henry Whitter in 1922-1923 were at the insistence of the artists, nor was it an accident that they were not exploited immediately by the Victor and Okeh companies.... It was no accident that Ralph Peer of Okeh was in atlanta in 1923, to be almost coerced into recording Fiddlin' John Carson on the first successful hillbilly disc.... If he needed to be persuaded that the 'pluperfect awful' performance of Carson would sell and that the 'wool hat' audience would buy, he lost no time in being convinced and in following up the initial success."
This story needs a little modification, according to Mazor, pp. 53-55. Peer never actually called the recording 'pluperfect awful,' according to this account; this was merely the way someone else described his response. And Peer's problem with the Carson recording was not that the song or the performance was bad, but that it had been recorded so badly that it was hard to listen to. It was an acoustic recording, made shortly before the electrical process became common -- and Carson was, of course, a fiddler who sang. This made a real problem for an acoustic set-up: his fiddle and his mouth were too far apart to be easily recorded with one acoustic horn, but too close together to allow for two. The engineers did the best they could, but there was a lot of sound reflection from the walls, producing a very noisy recording. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcLOLCIL

Little Old Man and I Fell Out, A

DESCRIPTION: "A little old man (or My old man) and I fell out, How shall we bring this matter about? Bring it about as well as you can, Get you gone, you little old man." Or, "...fell out, And what do you think it was about? He had money and I had none...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Gammer Gurton's Garland)
KEYWORDS: fight nonballad age | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 40, "(My old man and I fell out)" (1 text)
Roud #19793
File: WEMM040A

Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls how his father sold the livestock to send him across the sea, "For in Paddy's land but poverty you'll find." The singer misses home, mother, the local music; he wishes he were still there
AUTHOR: S.Gaffney
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration poverty
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H642, pp. 207-208, "The Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 100-101, "Old Mud Cabin on the Hill" (1 text)
Roud #9271
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Coyle, "The Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill" (on IRHardySons)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH207

Little Old Sod Shanty in the West

See The Little Old Sod Shanty on my Claim (File: R197)

Little Old Sod Shanty in the West, The

DESCRIPTION: "You may sing about the little old log cabin in the lane, Or of the little German home across the sea," but the singer prefers his prairie claim. They live on game. There are no towns except the ones made by prairie dogs. But now the area is being settled
AUTHOR: Words: O. E. Murray (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Aberdeen, SD, "Dakota Farmer," December 15, 1909, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: home derivative food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 564-566, "The Little Old Sod Shanty in the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11207
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
File: LDC564

Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer admits, "I'm looking rather seedy while holding down my claim." His little sod shanty is made of poor materials and is infested by mice. He recalls the easier life out east, and wishes a girl would join him
AUTHOR: possibly Lindsey Baker
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (Ashland, Kansas "Clark Cunty Clipper," September 25, 1884, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes settler bachelor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 20, 1862 - President Lincoln signs the Homestead Act
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro,So) Canada(West)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Randolph 197, "The Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 141, "Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 90-91, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 89-91, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 142-143, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 205, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 25, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (7 texts, 2 tunes, though some of these -- especially the "G" and "H" texts -- appear distinct)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 6-7, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 94-95, "Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 74, p. 165, "The Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 43-46, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text plus excerpts from another, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 18-19, "Little Old Sod Shanty On The Claim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 482-483, "Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text plus an extract from a rewrite)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 464-465, "The Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim, I" (1 text, 1 tune), plus p. 466, "Answer to the Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim" and p. 467, "Answer to the Answer to the Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim" (2 texts) as well as p. 468, "The Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim, II" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 332-333, "Little Old Sod Shanty" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 121, "The Little Old Sod Shanty On My Claim" (1 text)
DT, SODSHANT*
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 167-175, "'The Little Sod Shanty on the Claim'" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a history of the song and discussion of sod houses)
Roud #4368
RECORDINGS:
Jules Verne Allen, "Little Old Sod Shanty" (Victor 23757, 1933; on MakeMe)
Bill Bender (The Happy Cowboy), "Little Old Sod Shanty On My Claim" (Elite X20 [as "Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim"]/Varsity 5138, n.d., rec. 1939)
Craver & Tanner [pseud. for Vernon Dalhart & probably Carson Robison], "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (Vocalion 5342, 1929)
Jenkins Family, "That Little Old Sod Shanty" (OKeh 45563, 1932; rec. 1930)
Chubby Parker, "My Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim" (Gennett 6319/Silvertone 25103, 1927)
Jack Weston, "Little Old Sod Shanty" (Van Dyke 84293, 1929)
John I. White, "The Little Old Sod Shanty" (Romeo 1118 [as Jimmie Price], Jewel 5723 [as Whitey John], Banner 6532/Broadway 8132/Cameo 9321 [as "My Little Old Sod Shanty"]/Challenger 840/Conqueror 7725/Jewel 5723/Paramount 3190/Romeo 1118 [as Whitey Johns], Conqueror 7434/Domino 4440/Imperial 2216 [as "The Little Old Shanty], Pathe 32488/Perfect 12567/Regal 8881 [as the Lone Star Ranger], 1929)
Marc Williams, "Little Old Sod Shanty" (Brunswick 564, 1931; rec. 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Adobe Casa" (tune, form, concept)
cf. "Starving to Death on a Government Claim (The Lane County Bachelor)" (theme)
cf. "My Little German Home Across the Sea" (tune & meter)
cf. "I Will Tell You My Troubles" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Double-Breasted Mansion on the Square" (tune & meter)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Little Vine-Clad Cottage
Little Old Sod Shanty in the West
NOTES [233 words]: This piece is probably based on Will S. Hays's "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane," with which it shares a melody.
The song clearly dates back to the latter part of the nineteenth century, the period of Homestead Claims. The Homestead Act of 1862 had opened large areas of the western U.S. to settlement, allowing settlers to lay claim to 160 acre sections in return for nominal payments. However, the settlers were required to live on their claims for five years before they could "prove up" and gain title to the property. Many settlers, like the one here, wound up living in impossible conditions because it was the only way to stake the claim.
"Little Adobe Casa" looks to me to be simply a localization of this song, and there are intermediate versions, so I initially did not split them. But Roud makes "Little Adobe Casa" #11082, so I've now divided them.
Several people seem to have claimed the authorship (e.g. Pound lists a report that one Emery Miller claims to have made it up while living on a claim in the 1880s (so also Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, p. 43); on p. p. 171-172 White lists claims by Lindsey Baker, Emery Miller, Charles Griffiths Reynolds, and Orland Newell). Thorp credits the "Little Adobe Casa" version to Tom Beasley, but while he may well have adapted it, his is not the original. The claim by Baker seems to be the strongest, but proof is probably impossible. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R197

Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim, The

See The Little Old Sod Shanty on my Claim (File: R197)

Little Oma

See Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise) [Laws F4] (File: LF04)

Little One, Ring One

See Dance, Thumbkin, dance (File: BGMG576)

Little Onie

See Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise) [Laws F4] AND Naomi Wise [Laws F31] (File: LF04)

Little Orphan Annie (I)

See Donald Duck (File: McIn104A)

Little Orphan Annie (II)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Little Orphan Annie Sitting in the sun, Had a piece of bologny And wouldn't give me none. Take a bite, take a bite, It's good for your appetite."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (WIthers)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food | bologna Little Orphan Annie
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #318, "Little Orphan Annie" (1 text)
File: AJRR318

Little Owlet

See Baby Owlet (File: ACSF342B)

Little Pack of Tailors, The

DESCRIPTION: "I went to Dublin and met a little tailor, I stuck him in my pocket for fear the ducks would eat him, The dogs began to bark at him and I began to beat him, And I threw him in the water for fear the ducks would eat him."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: nonsense bird dog
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 171, "The Little Pack of Tailors" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #3053
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "The Little Pack of Tailors" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [37 words]: The current description is all of the OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin verse. There is also a chorus about rattling and chasing "the little pack of tailors." The last verse of the written version is mouth music.- BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC171

Little Page Boy, The

See Child Waters [Child 63] (File: C063)

Little Pallet of Straw, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm sitting alone in the garret, While the sleet and the snow's falling down," waiting for Jessie to return. "But I think when my little one comes, she will find her mother is dead." Already the father is dead, "And I think I'll see Jessie no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Harrisburg Daily Independent, Nov. 13, 1912, page 3)
KEYWORDS: mother death orphan
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 249-250, "The Little Pallet of Straw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5267
NOTES [15 words]: I can't help but wonder how, if the mother died alone, her dying words were taken down. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: NeDe249

Little Peter Rabbit

DESCRIPTION: "Little Peter Rabbit had a fly upon his nose (x3), So he flipped it and he flopped it And the fly flew away." "Powder puffs and curly whiskers (x3), So he flipped it and he flopped it And the fly flew away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: animal bug derivative campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 168, 393, "Little Peter Rabbit" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune) and references there
NOTES [37 words]: Averill calls this a decremental song -- that is, one in which the verse is repeated but with more and more words omitted. But it appears there are at least a few places that added verses and did not decrement the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF168L

Little Piece of Whang, The

DESCRIPTION: When the Lord sewed up Adam and Eve, He measured wrong, leaving Adam with a little piece of whang, and Eve with a gap. Ever since then, men have sought to lend women a bit of the whang to fill the gap.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 496-498, "The Little Piece of Whang" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8384
NOTES [112 words]: Legman provides citations to a number of folktale antecedents to the modern bawdy song in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I. - EC
The earliest of said folktales is apparently found in de Verville's "Le Moyen de Parvenir" (1610). However, one can find something rather similar as far back as Plato. The reference in the song is, of course, to Gen. 2:21-22.
Arnold Kellett, The Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition, and Folklore, revised edition, Smith Settle, 2002, p. 197, says that in Yorkshire dialect "whang" or "wheng" means tough leather, or a thong or bootlace." I don't know if that is related to the usage in this song, but I feel as if it should be. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RL496

Little Pig

See I Had a Little Puppy (Pussy Willow, Hot Dog) (File: PHCFS068)

Little Pig, The

See There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)

Little Piggee, The

See There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)

Little Pile of Tin

DESCRIPTION: "I've got a little old pile of tin, Nobody knows what shape it’s in. Got four wheels and a runningboard -- It’s a Ford, oh it’s a Ford! Honk honk, rattle rattle rattle, crash! Beep! Beep! (x3), Honk, honk!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: technology nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Linda Weaver, "Camp Songs: Reflections of Youth," Vol. XXII, No. 2 (May 1974), p. 77, "I'm Little Piece of Tin" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 27, "(I’ve got a little old pile of tin)" (1 short text, from user 2wonderY, posted August 29, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 257, 318, 417, 494, 497, 514, "Little Pile of Tin" (notes only)
Roud #22405
File: LTCSLPoT

Little Pink

DESCRIPTION: "My pretty little Pink, I once did think, That you and I would marry." The singer complains that the girl has taken too long to make up her mind. In some versions he is a soldier who sets out to see the sights and fight in the Mexican War
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting love separation soldier floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 166, "My Pretty Little Pink" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 793, "Careless Love" (3 texts, 1 tune, but the "B" text belongs here if it belongs anywhere)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 150-153, "Pretty Little Pink" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #103, "Pretty Little Pink" (1 text, 1 tune, clearly composite; about half of it is "Black is the Color" although it does not use those words; some of it is probably "Little Pink"; the end, in which the singer prepares to die and says she can look at his grave, seems to be from a third song)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 140-141, "My Pretty Little Pink" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 287, "Darling Little Pink" (1 text); also 78, "Coffee Grows on White Oak Trees" (7 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more, but almost all mixed -- all except "H" have the "Coffee grows" stanza, but "A" also has verses from "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss"; "and "C" through "H" are mostly "Little Pink"; "B" is mixed with "Raccoon" or some such)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 78, "Coffee Grows" (2 tunes plus text excerpts; based on the text in Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3, both tunes probably go here)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 219, "My Pretty Little Pink" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 85, p. 212, "Going to the Mexican War" (1 fragment, with the "Knapsack on my Shoulder" text and also the "Coffee Grows" stanza; there isn't much "Little Pink" in it, but it clearly goes with the Brown texts cited above)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #808, p. 301, "(My little pink)" (a fragment that appears related but may be a by-blow)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #175, "My Pretty Pink" (1 text)
ST San166 (Full)
Roud #735
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marching Down to Old Quebec" (floating verses)
File: San166

Little Plowing Boy, The

See The Jolly Plowboy (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy) [Laws M24] (File: LM24)

Little Polly Flinders

DESCRIPTION: "Little Polly Flinders, Sat among the cinders, Warming her pretty little toes. Her mother came and caught her, And whipped her little daughter For spoiling her nice new clothes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1807 (Original Ditties for the Nursery, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 119, "Little Polly Flinders" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 421, "Little Polly Flinders" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #166, p. 125, "(Little Jenny Flinders)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 113, "Little Polly Flinders" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 80, "Little Polly Flinders" (1 text)
Roud #19767
NOTES [68 words]: The improbable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp. 152-153, believes that Little Polly Flinders is Amy Robsart, the wife of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the favorite of Elizabeth I, who was murdered, though she can't decide who did the murdering. As with most Thomas hypotheses, I can see no evidence whatsoever for this supposition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OO2421

Little Pony, The

DESCRIPTION: "Hop! Hop! Hop! Nimble as a top! Where 'tis smooth and where 'tis stony, Trudge along my little pony. Hop, hop, hop...." "Whoa, whoa, whoa, How like fun you go, Stop, you jade!... If you don't I'll surely sell you." "Here!... Sure enough we're there"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook)
KEYWORDS: horse travel commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook 2, "The Little Pony" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22141
File: BrGr002

Little Poppa Rich

DESCRIPTION: Children's game: "Little poppa-rich you draw your long lannet/Sit by the fire and spin/The hen's in the window a-combing her hair/The cat in the corner a-frying his fish... Cocka-pen dungle a-blowing his horn/The wind was high and it blowed him away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 or 1966 (collected from Caroline Hughes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense paradox playparty animal chickens
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 123, "Little Poppa Rich" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16639
NOTES [9 words]: I call this a playparty for want of a keyword "game." - PJS
File: McCST123

Little Puppy

See I Had a Little Puppy (Pussy Willow, Hot Dog) (File: PHCFS068)

Little Pussy, Whose Coat Was Silver Gray

See I Had a Little Puppy (Pussy Willow, Hot Dog) (File: PHCFS068)

Little Rabbit Fufu

See Little Bunny Foo Foo (File: DTRabtFu)

Little Red Bird in the Tree

See Little Birdie in the Tree (File: Br3146)

Little Red Caboose behind the Train (I), The

DESCRIPTION: In this maudlin ballad, a young conductor is taking his bride to the city for their honeymoon. The train collides with the express, and the bride is killed. Now the old white-haired conductor "rides all alone In that little red caboose behind the train."
AUTHOR: Words: Bob Miller (tune by Will S. Hays)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: train marriage wreck death
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 261-263, "The Little Red Caboose behind the Train" (2 texts; tune referenced. The "A" text is this piece;"B" is "Little Red Caboose (IV)")
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 455, "The Little Red Caboose behind the Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4762
RECORDINGS:
Barney Burnett & Bob Miller's Hinky Dinkers, "Little Red Caboose" (Brunswick 446/Supertone S-2074, 1930)
Vernon Dalhart, "Little Red Caboose" (Velvet Tone 1893-V/Diva 2893-G/Harmony 893-H [as Mack Allen], 1929)
Bob Ferguson [pseud. for Bob Miller] & his Scalawaggers "Little Red Caboose" (Columbia 15616-D, 1930)
Bob Miller, "Little Red Caboose" (Grey Gull 4286/Van Dyke 74286, 1930 [as Miller & Burnett]) (Victor 23693, 1932; Montgomery Ward M-4337, 1933)
Red River Dave (McEnery), "Little Red Caboose" (Musicraft 285, 1944)
Rocky Mountaineers, "Little Red Caboose" (Columbia [UK] FB-1249, 1935)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (II), (III), (IV), (V)" (tune, structure)
NOTES [100 words]: This is one of several songs by this name, all set to the tune of "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane"; you should check out the others as well, as they're sometimes hard to untangle. It should also not be confused with the dance tune "Little Red Caboose," as recorded by Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas.
It looks like Vernon Dalhart rushed his recording into print before the author's. - PJS
Roud for some reason lumps at least the first two "Little Red Caboose" songs, though they are clearly different in purpose (Caboose I is a song about a young woman's death, Caboose II is about railroad life). - RBW
File: BRaF455

Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Now I am a jolly railroad man and braking is my trade." He tells of the enjoyable life throwing switches and making up trains, and mentions the "jolly crew" resting in the little red caboose. He wishes luck and the attention of angels for the crew
AUTHOR: unknown (tune by Will S. Hays)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Pickard Family)
KEYWORDS: work train nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 583-590, "The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train" (3 texts, 1 tune; only the "A" text is this piece; "B" and "C," both short, are probably "Caboose" (III); also a sheet music cover from a song that is none of these)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 235, "The Little Red Caboose behind the Train" (1 text)
Roud #4762
RECORDINGS:
Pickard Family, "Little Red Caboose" (Banner 6371/Cameo 9278/Conqueror 7349/Domino 4328/Jewel 5590/Lincoln 3305/Oriole 1562/Regal 8776/Apex[Canada] 8916/Crown[Canada] 81057/Melotone[Canada] 81037/Sterling[Canada] 281057, all 1929; Paramount 3231/Broadway 8179 [as Pleasant Family]/Conqueror 7736, 1931)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (I), (III), (IV), (V)" (tune, structure)
NOTES [86 words]: This is one of several songs by this name, all set to the tune of "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane"; you should check out the others as well, as they're sometimes hard to untangle. It should also not be confused with the dance tune "Little Red Caboose," as recorded by Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas. - PJS
Roud for some reason lumps at least the first two "Little Red Caboose" songs, though they are clearly different in purpose (Caboose I is a song about a young woman's death, Caboose II is about railroad life). - RBW
File: Br3235

Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (III), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a railroader, says he's getting old and feeble, and the only friend he has is the caboose (or his watch). He reminisces about working as a brakeman on the L&N and Southern railroads, and ironically wishes his young successors well
AUTHOR: unknown (tune by Will S. Hays)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Marian Underwood & Sam Harris)
KEYWORDS: age disability loneliness train railroading technology work nonballad worker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 583-590, "The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train" (3 texts, 1 tune; the short"B" and "C" texts are probably this piece; "A" is "Caboose" (II); also a sheet music cover from a song that is none of these)
RECORDINGS:
Marian Underwood & Sam Harris, "The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train" (Gennett 6155/Champion 15297 [as Clinch Valley Boys]/Challenge 334 [as Borton & Thompson]/Herwin 75549, all 1927)
Paul Warmack & his Gully Jumpers, "The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train" (Victor V-40067, 1929; on RRinFS)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (I), (II), (III), (V)" (tune, structure)
cf. "The Old Miner's Refrain" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [125 words]: This is one of several songs by this name, all set to the tune of "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane"; you should check out the others as well, as they're sometimes hard to untangle. It should also not be confused with the dance tune "Little Red Caboose," as recorded by Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas.
Paul Warmack copyrighted the lyrics in 1930, but since he copyrighted the well-known music as well, and the Underwood-Harris recording precedes his, his claim is doubtful at best. - PJS
It's worth noting that, of the "Red Caboose" songs, this is the one most directly inspired by "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane"; not only does it share the tune, but also the plot of an old man looking back. It simply changes an old slave to an old raildoadman. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: RcTLRCBT

Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (IV), The

DESCRIPTION: "Bill Jackson was a brakeman on number 51." Engineer Dad Mendenhall loses his brakes on Crooked Hill. The crew scrambles to set the brakes by hand in icy weather. Bill is thrown from the train and dies; his body is brought home in the caboose
AUTHOR: probably John Lair (tune by Will S. Hays)
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (100 WLS Barn Dance Favorites)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 261-263, "The Little Red Caboose behind the Train (I)" (2 texts; tune referenced. The "B" text is this piece;"A" is "Little Red Caboose (I)")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (I), (II), (III), (V)" (tune, structure)
File: LSRai261

Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (V), The (The Hobo Tramp)

DESCRIPTION: "I will sing you a little song, won't entertain you long, 'Bout the hoboes that promenade the streets." The hobos travel about, suffering in the cold, wishing they could be in the caboose.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Delaney's _Collection of Songs_)
KEYWORDS: train hobo nonballad travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 382-384, "The Little Red Caboose behind the Train (II)" (2 texts; tune referenced)
RECORDINGS:
(Tom) Darby & (Jimmie) Tarlton, "The Hobo Tramp" (Columbia 15293-D, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (I), (II), (III), (IV)" (tune, structure)
NOTES [60 words]: According to Cohen, the Darby & Tarlton recording is the only version of this song not from a songster, and there are only a few print versions. There is no evidence that it ever went into tradition. On the other hand, the melody implies that it is one of the vast constellation of "red caboose" songs, so perhaps Cohen is right to include it in his book. - RBW
File: LSRai382

Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (VI)

DESCRIPTION: "Little red caboose, chug chug chug (x2), Little red caboose behind the train, train, train, train Smoke stacks on his back, back, back, back Comin’ ‘round the track, track, track, track, Little red caboose behind the train. Whoo-whoo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: train railroading nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 415, 423, "Little Red Caboose" (notes only)
File: ACSF415L

Little Red Fox, The

DESCRIPTION: "The little red fox is a raider sly" taking ducks, cocks, and geese for "a family young and growing." He is a "family man," a "hero bold" and a "gallant knight." He is finally "taken 'mongst the rocks, For the love of two bright eyes dying"
AUTHOR: Francis Arthur Fahy (1854-1935) (source: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: theft death humorous animal family
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 69, "The Little Red Fox" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [39 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "Adapted from the old ballad of the Maidirin Rua which was a macaronic song -- mixed Gaelic and English." - BS
Francis Arthur Fahy is probably most famous as the author of "The Ould Plaid Shawl." - RBW
File: OLcM069

Little Red Light

DESCRIPTION: A house by the sea always had a light in the window. The fisherman comes home one night "his fish being unsold" and turns off the light to have peace. He learns that a barque, following the light, sank and many lives were lost when the light vanished
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: death drowning sea ship shore fishing wreck sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #26199
RECORDINGS:
John James, "Little Red Light" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [33 words]: The chorus is "Oh father dear father don't take it away, Remember the sailor far out on the bay, For if you only knew what would happen tonight, You would leave in your window that tiny red light" - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3LiRLi

Little Red Rooster and the Old Black Hen, The

DESCRIPTION: "Said the big red rooster to the little red hen, You ain't laid an egg since the Lord knows when," to which she answered, "Then why don't you act the way you used to?" They meet in the barn, "And they did what they used to do till the Lord knows when"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1055 (List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
KEYWORDS: bird humorous sex
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 198-199, "The Big Red Rooster and the Little Red Hen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16807
File: List198

Little Red Train, The

DESCRIPTION: A quatrain ballad, this describes the sexual activities and practices of the train crew and passengers. Recognized by the internal chorus, "(She/It) blew, (She/it) blew" and the final line "How (she/it) blew."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recordings, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: bawdy train humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 224-226, "The Little Red Train" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 254-256, "The Runaway Train" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 379, "The Wind It Blew Up the Railroad Track" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 54, "The Wind It Blew Up the Railroad Track" (1 short text, 1 tune)
DT, SHEBLEW*
Roud #9859
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Runaway Train" (Brunswick 2911, 1925) (Victor 19684, 1925) (Oriole 454 [as Dick Morse], 1925) (Edison 51584, 1925) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5028, n.d.) (Perfect 12207 [as Guy Massey], 1925)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mademoiselle from Armentieres" (tune)
cf. "Snapoo" (tune)
cf. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Runaway Train
The Sixty-Nine Comes Down the Track
NOTES [117 words]: The history of this song is a bit vague, as it has both clean and dirty forms. Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag prints a single stanza of a clean text (saying of it "This is for cold weather, around the stove in the switch shanty"). But the bawdy version seems to be much more widespread.
Which is original? The evidence available to me does not make it clear. The possibility that Sandburg's text is bowdlerized cannot be denied. - RBW
The Sandburg version may indeed be bowdlerized, but Vernon Dalhart also put out a clean version of "The Runaway Train" in 1925, two years before. Actually, he put it out several times that year, on different labels. Sandburg's verse isn't on his recording(s), though. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM224

Little Red Wagon

See You Can't Ride in My Little Red Wagon (File: ACSF415T)

Little Red Wagon Painted Blue

See Skip to My Lou (File: R516)

Little Robin Redbreast

DESCRIPTION: "Little Robin Redbreast Sat upon a rail, Niddle noddle went his head Wiggle waggle went his tail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1744 (Tom Thumb's Pretty Songbook, according to
KEYWORDS: bird | robin redbreast rail tail
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 452, "Little Robin Redbreast" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #1, pp. 25-26, "(Little Robin red breast)"
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 40-41, "Robin Redbreast" (1 text)
Roud #20613
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Robin Redbreast Sat Upon a Tree" (theme of robin sitting)
NOTES [51 words]: The Opies note that the earliest versions of this are "a rude little jest," with the robin on a pole instead of a rail and with the rhyme ending "And poop went his hole." Surprisingly, this doesn't seem to have survived particularly well. The Baring-Goulds also have this version with several variations. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DCCR040

Little Robin Redbreast Sat Upon a Tree

DESCRIPTION: "Little Robin Redbreast sat upon a tree, Up went Pussy Cat and down went he." Pussy follows Robin; Robin says "Catch me if you can." Pussy leaps and almost falls. Pussy meows; robin flies away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (Songs for the Nursery, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal bird | robin redbreast cat tree
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 453, "Little Robin Redbreast sat upon a tree" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 41, "Robin Redbreast and Pussy Cat" (1 text)
Roud #20616
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Robin Redbreast" (theme of robin sitting)
File: DCCR041

Little Rosewood Casket

DESCRIPTION: The singer, dying for love, asks her sister to bring her love's letters, kept in the rosewood casket. Having heard them read, she prepares to die and asks that the letters, (ring), and other tokens be buried with her
AUTHOR: Louis P. Goullaud & Charles A. White
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: death love infidelity ring farewell
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So) Australia
REFERENCES (30 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 220, "Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text)
Randolph 763, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (2 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 507-509, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 763A)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 123-126, "Little Rosewood Casket" (2 texts)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 53, "Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 67, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 181-183, "Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 47-48, "Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 273, "Little Rosewood Casket" (3 texts plus mention of 21 others )
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 273, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #28A-B, pp. 185-197, "A Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 56-57, "Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #85, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 139, "The Rosewood Casket (A Package of Love Letters)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 100-101, "Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 182-183, "Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, p. 40, "Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 22-23, "Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 53, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 101, "A Package of Old Letters" (1 text)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 261-262, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, p. 35, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 276-277, "Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 182, "Rosewood Casket"; p. 269, "Little Rosewood Casket" (2 texts)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 61, pp. 83-5, "Rosewood Casket" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 230-231, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 48, "Little Rosewood Casket" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 482, "The Rosewood Casket" (source notes only)
DT, RSEWOOD*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 206, "(The Rosewood Casket)" (1 text)
Roud #426
RECORDINGS:
Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (Rich-R-Tone 415, n.d. but post-WWII)
Vernon Dalhart "The Little Rosewood Casket" (Edison 51607, 1925) (Victor 19770, 1925) (Cameo 811, 1925; Romeo 333, 1927) (Broadway 4053, c. 1930) (OKeh 40488 [as Tobe Little], 1925) (Herwin 75506, mid-to-late 1920s) (Banner 6044/Domino 0199, 1927; Conqueror 7175, 1928; Conqueror 7750, 1931) (Champion 15906, 1930; Champion 45076, c. 1935; rec. 1928)
Cal Davenport & his Gang, "Little Rosewood Casket" (Vocalion 5371, 1929)
Arthur Fields, "Little Rosewood Casket" (Radiex 02272, 1926)
Betty Garland, "Little Rosewood Casket" (on BGarland01)
Sid Harkreader and Grady Moore (as Harkins and Moran), "There's A Little Rosewood Casket" (Broadway 8056, c. 1930)
Lulu Jackson, "Little Rosewood Casket" (Vocalion 1278, 1929)
Bradley Kincaid, "The Little Rosewood Casket" (Gennett 6989/Supertone 9403, 1929); (Bluebird B-5895, 1935)
George Reneau, "Little Rosewood Casket" (Vocalion 5057/Vocalion 14997/Silvertone 3044, 1925)
Arnold Keith Storm, "Little Rosewood Casket" (on AKStorm01)
Ernest Thompson, "The Little Rosebud Casket" (Columbia 216-D, 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Last Token"
NOTES [16 words]: Titled by the authors, "A Package of Old Love Letters," this title seems extinct in tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R763

Little Row of Pins, The

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

Little Sadie

See Bad Lee Brown (Little Sadie) [Laws I8] (File: LI08)

Little Sailor Boy, The

See The Prince of Morocco (The Sailor Boy II) (File: LN18)

Little Sallie Ann

See Little Sally Walker (File: CNFM157)

Little Sallie Saucer

See Little Sally Walker (File: CNFM157)

Little Sally Racket

See Haul 'Er Away (Little Sally Racket) (File: FSWB086A)

Little Sally Walker

DESCRIPTION: "Little Sally Walker, sitting in (a saucer), Cryin' (for the old man to come for the dollar), (Ride, Sally, Ride). (Fly) to the east, (fly) to the west, (Fly) to the one that you love best."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NW,SE,So) Ireland Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber),Wales) West Indies(Jamaica,Tobago) New Zealand
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1585, "Three Little Sand Maidens" (1 text, 1 tune); 1586, "Rise, Sally Walker" (5 texts, 4 tunes)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #152, p. 2, "Sally Walker" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H48g, p. 11, "Old Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 11, "Little Sally Ann" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 86-88=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 210-211, "Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune plus a portion of another)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 86-87, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 31-132, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 109, "Little Sally Waters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth, pp. 24-25, "Rise, Sugar, Rise or Little Sallie Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 143, pp. 209-291, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 147, "Little Sally Waters" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 157, "(Little Sally Walker)" (1 text); p. 278, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 50-51, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 222-223, "Little Sallie Saucer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #125, "Little Sally Walker" (1 fragment)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 34, "Sally Water" (6 texts, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #13, "Little Sally Waters" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, pp. 26-27, "Little Sally Walker (Waters)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, pp. 529-530, "Little Sally Waters" (2 short texts, 2 tunes)
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 25, "Little Sally Waters" (1 text)
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 89, "Sally Water"; 90, ("Poor little Zeddy they put him in the corner") (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Cray-AshGrove, p. 14, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 24-25, "(Sally, Sally Waters, sprinkle in the pan)" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 392, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Jean Olive Heck, "Folk Poetry and Folk Criticism, as Illustrated by Cincinnati Children in Their Singing Games and Their Thoughts about These Games," Vol. XL, No. 155 (Jan 1927), #9 pp. 12-13 ("Little Sally Walker") (2 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #319, "Little Sally Water" (1 text)
DT, LTLSALLY; also SALWALKER (a collection of several songs with this title, some of which belong here)
ADDITIONAL: James Orchard Halliwell, "Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales" (London, 1849 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 133, ("Sally, Sally Waters, why are you so sad?") (1 text)
Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 92, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 534-535, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olive Lewin, "Rock It Come Over" - The Folk Music of Jamaica (Barbados: The University of the West Indies Press, 2000), p. 66, "Little Sally Water"; pp. 66-67, "Poor little Zeddy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Martha Warren Beckwith and Helen Roberts, _Folk-Games of Jamaica_ (Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1922 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #66 pp. 78-79, "Little Sally Water" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Tom Nash and Twilo Scofield, _The Well-Travelled Casket: Oregon Folklore_, Meadowlark Press, 1999, p. 59, "Little Sally Walker" (1 text)
Roud #4509
RECORDINGS:
Mattie Gardner, Ida Mae Towns & Jessie Lee Pratcher, "Little Sally Walker" (on LomaxCD1703)
Vera Hall, "Little Sally Walker" (AFS 1323 B1, 1937)
Children of Lilly's Chapel School, "Little Sally Walker" (on NFMAla1)
Pete Seeger, "Little Sally Walker" (on PeteSeeger21)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "What's Poor Mary Weepin' For (Poor Jenny Sits A-Weeping)" (lyrics)
cf. "Silly Old Man" (some lines)
NOTES [81 words]: In England, if the collections in Gomme are to be believed, this is about equally known as "Poor Mary Sits A-Weeping" and "Little Sally Walker/Waters." The latter name seems to dominate in the U. S., and so has been used on the basis of plurality.
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #644, p. 256, begins "Sally, Sally Waters, sprinkle in the pan" and ends "Choose for the prettiest that you like best." This certainly sounds related, but on its face it doesn't appear the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: CNFM157

Little Sally Waters

See Little Sally Walker (File: CNFM157)

Little Saloo

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Little Saro Jane

See Liza Jane (File: San132)

Little Scotch Girl, The

See The Keach i the Creel [Child 281] (File: C281)

Little Scotch-ee

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Little Scottee

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Little Seaside Village, The

DESCRIPTION: "To a little seaside village came a youth one summer day." He wooed a girl, but then left a letter, "Goodbye, I'm going home." A year later he decides he loves her; her father shows him her grave; her message to him was "Goodbye, I'm going home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Byron G. Harlan recording)
KEYWORDS: death betrayal love courting separation abandonment
FOUND IN: US(So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 801, "The Little Seaside Village" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 520-522, "The Little Seaside Village" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 801)
Roud #7422
RECORDINGS:
Byron G. Harlan, "In A Village By The Sea" (Victor 2567, 1903)
Roy Harvey (with Odell Smith), "Just Good-Bye I Am Going Home" (Columbia 15609-D, 1930); (with Jess Johnston), "Little Seaside Village" (Champion 16213, 1930)
Jack Mooney, "The Cottage By The Sea" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
NOTES [57 words]: The cut I heard of the Harlan recording only includes the first three verses. That is, it ends when the girl receives the letter and is alone at night; the year-later ending was not in that cut and, I assume, was not on the record.
The two Roy Harvey recordings are identical with regard to the text (which includes the year-later ending). - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: R801

Little Shepherd, The

See Balm in Gilead (File: FSWB360A)

Little Shingle Mill, The

See Harry Bale (Dale, Bail, Bell) [Laws C13] (File: LC13)

Little Ship Was on the Sea, A

DESCRIPTION: A ship is overtaken by storm "And all but One were sore afraid Of sinking in the deep." "He to the storm said, 'Peace, be still!' The raging billows cease" "It was the Lord, The Saviour and the Friend"
AUTHOR: Dorothea Ann Thrupp (1779-1847) (source: Sidney Lee, editor, _Dictionary of National Biography: Teach - Tollet_, (London, 1898 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. LVI, p. 336)
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Phillips)
KEYWORDS: sea ship storm Jesus
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1756, "There Was Twa Ships Upon the Sea" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Charlotte Phillips, The Shower of Pearls, (London, 1855 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 29-30, "The Little Ship"
The Albion Sunday School Hymn Book, (Southampton, 1867 ("Digitized by Google")), #64, ("A little ship was on the sea")
[William Reid] "The author of 'The Praise Book'," editor, The Children's Praise Book, (London, 1872 ("Digitized by Google")), #21, "A Little Ship Was on the Sea"
Elementary Books for Catholic Schools: Reading-Book No. II, (London, 1860 ("Digitized by Google")), #32 p. 87, "Jesus on the Waters"
A Selection of Hymns and Poetry Compiled Chiefly for the Use of the Friends' Sabbath Schools, (Liverpool, 1863 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 2-3, "Peace, Be Still"
The [Presbyterian] School Hymnal, (Philadelphia, 1899 ("Digitized by Google")), #67, "A Little Ship Was on the Sea" (1 text attributed to Dorothy A Thrupp and dated 1840, 1 tune attributed to Duncan Hume)
The Methodist Sunday-School Hymn-Book, (London, 1879 ("Digitized by Google")), #150 p. 118, ("A little ship was on the sea")
Roud #13517
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hame To My Nancy" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
NOTES [488 words]: Matthew 8.27: "Even the winds and the sea obey Him."
The "ADDITIONAL" references illustrate how widely printed this poem was and how it cut across denominations. Lee commented in 1898 that the song was popular among children. Was it not collected, except in Greig/Duncan8, because it was known to be non-traditional? On the other hand, if it were that widely known why didn't the collector, Duncan, recognize it? Why did the contributor, who recalled that there was a storm in the forgotten part of the song, not recall where it was learned? Why was it recalled as dealing with two ships? - BS
I would note that few of the printings seem to be Scottish or Presbyterian. Checking my own collection of mostly-American hymnals, I do not find this in any -- not Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Mormon, or non-denominational military. Nor do I find it in Grangers Index to Poetry. There was a certain class of nineteenth century authors who just loved pwecious hymns for wittle people. And they all copied each other. I suspect that is what happened here.
Dorothea, or Dororhy, Ann Thrupp is also responsible for the lyrics to "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us," which (unlike "A Little Ship") is still remembered today. Another song, "Come, Happy Children, Come and Raise" ("Child's Song of Praise"), which appeared around 1830 in her Hymns for the Young, and also had some success in the nineteenth century.
John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 1175, gives this brief biography:
Thrupp, Dorothy Ann, daughter of Joseph Thrupp, of Paddington Green, was b[orn] at London, June 20, 1772, and d[ied] there on Dec. 14, 1847. Her hymns, a few of which have come into extensive use, were contributed to the Rev. W. Carus Wilson's Friendly Visitor and Children's Friend, under the nom de plume of Iota; to Mrs. Herbert Mayo's Sel[ection] of Hy[mn]s and Poetry for the use of Infant Schools and Nurseries, 1838... in which her signature is "D. A. T."; and also to the Hy[mn]s for the Young, which she herself edited for the R. T. S. circa 1830, 4th ed., 1836.
The story of Jesus stilling the storm is in Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:35-41, Luke 8:22-25. The precise words "Peace! Be Still!" are in Mark 4:39 (only). The line about even the winds and sea obeying is in all three versions: Matthew 8:27, Mark 4:41, Luke 8:25.
We might incidentally add that the "Sea of Galilee" was actually a lake (in fact called "Lake Huleh" or the like in some sources), and a vessel sailing on it was a boat, not a ship. Most modern translations get this right; the King James Bible, which was obviously the source for this song, does not. To be fair, Greek does not draw a distinction between boats and ships (there is a distinction between large and small vessels, but that's not the same -- and the Bible doesn't seem to pay it much attention anyway). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: GrD81756

Little Ship, The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Little Ships (I)

DESCRIPTION: "They're the little ships that Winston Churchill forgot, And he didn't know when one of them got lost. He'd not forget the Rodney, the Nelson or the Hood," but they do the hard work of escorting convoys, and suffer greatly, and are ignored
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy sailor work travel hardtimes derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 94, "Little Ships" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She's a Tiddley Ship" (mentions of HMS Nelson, Rodney, Hood) and notes there
cf. "The 23rd Flotilla" (subject: the hard life of convoy escorts) and references there
cf. "The Little Boy that Santa Clause Forgot" (tune)
File: Tawn070

Little Ships (II)

DESCRIPTION: "When all the little ships come sailing home Across the sea, Their weary journey ended, Their way wended, Home, where they would be. They sail across the bar. Where no storms are, All dangers past. And two by two together Come sailing home at last."
AUTHOR: Words: P. G. Wodehouse (and others?) / Music: Jerome Kern
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (from the Kern/Wodehouse musical "Oh Lady, Lady")
KEYWORDS: ship travel return campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 196, "Little Ships" (notes only)
NOTES [14 words]: The camp version of this seems to be just the chorus of the Kern/Wodehouse song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF196v

Little Shoe Black, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm Daniel O'Connor, an orphan I am, My father and mother both lately did die, But, 'I clean your boots, Shall I shine your boots!' It's all day long I cry. Just give me one try and I'm sure you'll come back, Please to encourage this little shoe black."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: orphan work clothes hardtimes
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 36-37, "The Little Shoe Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MCB036

Little Sir Echo

DESCRIPTION: "Little Sir Echo, how do you do? Hello (Hello) Hello (Hello), Little Sir Echo, will answer you Hello (Hello) Hello (Hello).... Won’t you come over and play? You’re a nice little fellow... But you’re always so far away." Other verses may ask why Echo hides
AUTHOR: Words: J. S. Fearis / Music Laura R(ountree) Smith and Joe Marala (source: Gardner, _Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (copyright(
KEYWORDS: dialog nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 309, 441, 466, "Little Sir Echo" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 62, "Little Sir Echo" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 17, "Little Sir Echo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25655
NOTES [251 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 444, estimates that this was the eighth most popular song in America in 1939, peaking at #2 in May 1939 (#1 for the year being the "Beer Barrel Polka").
There are multiple Greek stories to explain Echo (Ηχω) came to repeat back what was said to her, which perhaps have been combined in our recent sources. Echo was a nymph (i.e. female; she should have been Lady Echo, or Dame Echo, or Miss Echo, not Sir Echo).
One account (Grant/Hazel, pp. 124-125) has it that, when Hera was spying on Zeus in one or another of his flings, Echo turned up and chattered away, giving away Hera's trap. So Hera ordained that Echo could only speak when spoken to, and could only repeat what was said to her. In another account (perhaps after that), Echo fell in love with Narcissus, who ignored her, so she faded away, leaving only her voice to echo what was said to her. The latter part of the tale is the one I always heard. Both these parts are known primarily from Book III of Ovid's Metamorphoses, pp. 83-84 in the edition of Ovid cited here.
The other version (Grimal, p. 134) has Pan fall in love with her, but when she rejected him, Pan drove some shepherds mad and had them kill her. This story is apparently from the writer Longus, making it more recent than Ovid's version. It obviously explains why she cannot be seen but not why she can only repeat what she hears. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF309L

Little Sir William

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Little Sissy

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, bow and bow, put your arms around me; Say, little Sissy, won't you marry me? Oh, how and bow, put your arms around me, All those sassy words you say, Oh, bow and bow, put your arms around me; say, Little Sissy, won't you marry me?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1927(Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: playparty marriage
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 531, "Little Sissy" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [17 words]: The current description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5531

Little Skunk's Hole, The

See The Woodpecker's Hole; also Crazy Song to the Air of "Dixie" (File: EM226)

Little Soldier

See The Bold Soldier [Laws M27] (File: LM27)

Little Soldier Boy

See The Bold Soldier [Laws M27] (File: LM27)

Little Soldier's Boy, The

See The Soldier's Poor Little Boy [Laws Q28] (File: LQ28)

Little Son Hugh

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Little Sparrow

See Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)

Little Streak o' Lean, A

DESCRIPTION: "A little streak o' lean, an' a little streak o' fat, Ole Massa grumble ef you eat much o' dat!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: food slave
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 207-208, "Work-Song" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
File: ScNF207B

Little Streams of Whisky

See The Dying Hobo [Laws H3] (File: LH03)

Little Sweetheart in the Spring

DESCRIPTION: "On a lovely summer's evening, when all the world was still," two lovers meet. He must leave, but "You'll be happy little sweethearts in the spring, Those wedding bells for you will surely ring." But he is killed in battle; the bells never ring
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: soldier courting death separation burial
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 133-134, "You'll Be Happy Little Sweetheard in the Spring" (1 text, with tune on p. 153)
Roud #1755
RECORDINGS:
cf. "I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again" (theme)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'd Dream Forever More" (opening words)
NOTES [32 words]: This feels so much like "I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again" that I briefly toyed with lumping them. Of course, the theme is common; even A. E. Housman's "Bredon Hill" is similar. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Tawn100

Little Swiler, The

DESCRIPTION: "He was such a very little chap, Blue eyes and sunny smile"; when the boy's father becomes ill, the youth sneaks off (with a knife but no gaff) to take a seal. A band of sealers finds him, feeds him, takes him home, for he "was really only ten"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff)
KEYWORDS: youth work disease father children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 116, "The Little Swiler" (1 text)
Roud #V44662
NOTES [85 words]: Probably not traditional, but this fits with the culture of Newfoundland: there was almost a mystic attachment to sealing -- which is why Newfoundlanders were so upset when the rest of the world came to oppose the seal hunt. Children from a young age wanted to grow up to be sealers, even though it was dirty, dangerous work that (although it occasionally produced a very large payout) rarely paid well. In addition to children who would play at being sealers, there was a whole folklore about stowaways. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm116

Little Talk with Jesus, A

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: ("A little talk with Jesus makes it right, all right"(2x) "Troubles of every kind, Thank God I'll always find, I little talk with Jesus makes it right all right.") See Notes for comments on verses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: ordeal nonballad religious Devil Jesus
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: John W. Work, _American Negro Songs_, (Mineola: Dover Publications, 1998 (repub of New York: Crown Publishers, 1940)), pp. 78-79, "A Little Talk With Jesus" (first version) (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #20886
RECORDINGS:
Ernest Phipps and His Holiness Singers, "A Little Talk with Jesus" (on StuffDreams1)
NOTES [39 words]: Verses: the singer is "a sinner lost" until Jesus said "Come here I am the way"; no matter what the trouble, "Jesus is our friend, He'll keep us to the end"; Satan fights to hold us back but "A little talk with Jesus makes it right." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcAliTwJ

Little Teapot

See I'm a Little Tea Pot (File: Dolb161)

Little Thatched Cabin, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the "little thatched cabin Where first shone the light of my life's early morn." He describes learning from and working for his parents. Now he is old, "and kind fortune smiles on me," but he would trade the fortune to be a boy again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home age
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H91, p. 156, "The Little Thatched Cabin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8121
RECORDINGS:
Big John Maguire, "The Neatly Thatched Cabin" (on Voice20)
NOTES [35 words]: Sam Henry thought, based on a reference to vines, that this song originated in America. I'm not sure that constitutes proof, but I seem to recall seeing a very similar poem -- somewhere. So he is likely right. - RBW
File: HHH091

Little Tirpitz Has Lost His Ships

DESCRIPTION: "Little Tirpitz has lost his ships And doesn't know where to find them, They're bottled up safe in the Kiel Canal With a British fleet behind them."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: navy canal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1849-1930 - Life of Alfred von Tirpitz
1897-1916 - Tirpitz's term as Secretary of State of the Imperial Navy Department
May 31-Jun 1, 1916 - Battle of Jutland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 181, "Little Tirpitz has lost his ships" (1 text)
Roud #25464
NOTES [157 words]: When World War I began, the British navy's plan was to conduct a "distant blockade" of Germany, confining the German navy in the North Sea to prevent it from causing trouble. It didn't entirely work at first -- the Germans were able to send their battlecruisers to raid the British coast on several occasions.
At the end of May 1916, however, the two fleets met at the Battle of Jutland. The Germans sank more British tonnage, and so claimed victory -- but they were forced into a rapid retreat, and the fleet never sailed again. Thus this song might apply to the time before Jutland, but is a better fit for the time afterward. Of course, Admiral Tirpitz retired about that time, but that probably wouldn't make much impression in Britain -- Tirpitz and the German Navy were almost synonymous.
For (slightly) more about Jutland, see "The Grey North Sea."
Fowke says this is a parody of "Mary Had a Little Lamb," but I cannot make it fit. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC181B

Little Tom Tinker

See Little Tommy Tinker (File: ACSF277L)

Little Tom Tucker

See Little Tommy Tucker (File: OO2519)

Little Tommy Hooligan

See I've Worked Eight Hours This Day (File: KSUC093B)

Little Tommy Pinkerton

DESCRIPTION: "Little Tommy Pinkerton, the fat by, Went to see his uncle Brown" who gave him half a crown. Tommy uses it to buy "six lemonades and a dozen ginger beer" -- and explodes. Now they need a tombstone for "Tommy's fragments."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: humorous food death
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 32, "Little Tommy Pinkerton (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 16 in the 1972 edition)
RECORDINGS:
Barbie Colquhoun, "Little Tommy Pinkerton" (on NZSongYngCntry)
NOTES [33 words]: The notes in Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry compare this to an American poem, "There's Another Harp Hanging in the Sky." but not even Google recognizes this, at least by that title. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Colq016

Little Tommy Tinker

DESCRIPTION: Round. "Little Tommy Tinker sat on a clinker And he began to cry, MA! MA! Poor little innocent guy/boy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: nonballad injury campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #331, p. 81, "Little Tommy Tinker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 277, 285, 437, 447, 516, 518, "Little Tommy Tinker" (notes only)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 23, "(Tommy Tinker sat on a clinker)" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 71, "Little Tommy Tinker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 41, "Little Tom Tinker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 3, "Little Tom Tinker" (1 text)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 31, "Little Tommy Tinker" (1 text, 1 tune, with "Little Boy Blue" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb" added as additional verses)
OneTuneMore, p. 35, "Tommy Tinker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #19618
NOTES [20 words]: Roud lumps this with "Little Tommy Tucker." I don't think so; this is a round, and it involves a different action. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ACSF277L

Little Tommy Tucker

DESCRIPTION: "Little Tom(my) Tucker sings for his supper. What shall he eat? (White/Brown) bread and butter. How will he cut it without any knife? How will he marry without a wife?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1744 (Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: music food marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 519, "Little Tommy Tucker" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #5, p. 123 "(Little Tom Tucker)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 114, "Little Tommy Tucker" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 81, "Little Tommy Tucker" (1 text)
Roud #19618
NOTES [43 words]: The unprovable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930. p. 103, associates this with Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, but the only evidence for this is the first name "Tom" and Thomas's fevered imagination. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: OO2519

Little Town in the Old County Down

DESCRIPTION: "If I had the wings of a swallow" I would go across the sea, back to "the dear little town in the old County Down." Singer thinks of his sweetheart, left behind. "Like the black sheep of old I'll come back to the fold"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (McCormack recording)
KEYWORDS: homesickness love return reunion separation Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #13214
RECORDINGS:
John McCormack, "Little Town in the Old County Down" (HMV 5-2484, 1921)
Maudie Sullivan, "Little Town in the Old County Down" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [27 words]: Maudie Sullivan's version is close to McCormack's, with its difficult tune. Maudie Sullivan sang another McCormack song indexed here: "Love's Old Sweet Song." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcLTiOCD

Little Turtle Dove, The

See My Dearest Dear (also, for Bascom Lamar Lunsford's song, "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" and "Sugar Baby (Red Rocking Chair; Red Apple Juice)") (File: SKE40)

Little Valley, The

See The Red River Valley (File: R730)

Little Vine-Clad Cottage, The

See The Little Old Sod Shanty on my Claim (File: R197)

Little Wee Dog

See O Where O Where Has My Little Dog Gone (File: RJ19057)

Little White Cat, The (An Caitin Ban)

DESCRIPTION: The little white cat finds her kitten "dead in the hay of a manger." The sad mother brings the dead body home. The pretty kitten had never broken anything and had no enemies except mice.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection; Gaelic text in Costello 1923)
KEYWORDS: death animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H510, p. 17, "The Little White Cat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 228-229, "The Little White Cat (1 text, a translation from the Irish said to be by "Mrs. Costello of Tuam")
Roud #13342
File: HHH510

Little White Daises, The

See Among the Little White Daisies (File: RitS034)

Little White Rabbit, Hop on One Foot, One Foot

See Donald Duck (File: McIn104A)

Little White Robe

DESCRIPTION: Come on fathers and let's go home, I'm a-going where my troubles will be over, will be over, will be over I'm a-going where... There's a little white robe a-waiting for me, I'm a-going where..." Repeat for mothers, brothers, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 607, "Lily White Robe" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 507, "Lily White Robre" (1 partial tune plus a text excerpt)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 25, "Goin' Where My Troubles Will Be Over" (1 short text, 1 tune, which the authors consider to be this although it is too short to really be certain)
Roud #5740 and 7137
RECORDINGS:
Frank Proffitt, "Little White Robe" (on FProffitt01)
Rick Ward, "I'm Going Where My Troubles Will Be Over" (Piotr-Archive #128, recorded 04/18/2022)
File: RcLWRobe

Little White Rose, The

DESCRIPTION: "He gave me a rose, a pretty white rose, And asked me to wear it for him." She recalls their happy days together. Later, he is found dead, having thrown himself into the stream with a rose in his mouth.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drowning suicide courting flowers river
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 276, "The Little White Rose" (1 text plus mention of 2 fragments)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 276, "The Little White Rose" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 75, "The White Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 114, "Little White Rose" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 38, "White Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6628
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "The White Rose" (Vocalion 5335, 1929?)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Willie Down by the Pond (Sinful to Flirt)" [Laws G19] (plot)
File: BrII276

Little Willer Green

See The Holly Twig [Laws Q6] (File: LQ06)

Little Willie (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Little Willie went to heaven On a bright an' starry night, When I last viewed him in his coffin In his little Sunday suit." The singer describes the possessions the boy left behind. His sister hopes to meet him soon. Jesus will care for him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Pound)
KEYWORDS: death family corpse religious
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 613, "Little Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LTWILLIE*
Roud #7443
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blue-Haired Boy (Little Willie II, Blue-Haired Jimmy)"
File: R613

Little Willie (II)

See Blue-Haired Boy (Little Willie II, Blue-Haired Jimmy) (File: RcBlHaJi)

Little Willie (III)

See Come All You Fair and Tender Girls (File: WB2080)

Little Willie and Mary

See Willie and Mary (Mary and Willie; Little Mary; The Sailor's Bride) [Laws N28] (File: LN28)

Little Yellow Bird (Time to Rise)

DESCRIPTION: "A birdie with a yellow bill Hopped upon my window sill, Cocked his shining eye and said: 'Ain't you 'shamed, you sleepy-head!'"
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Louis Stevenson
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (A Child's Garden of Verses)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 191, "Little Yellow Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harbin-Parodology, #364, p. 92, "To a Late Riser" (1 text)
Roud #11317
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Pretty Little Yellow Bird
Birdie with a Yellow Bill
File: Brne191

Little Yorkshire Boy, The

See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

Live a Humble

See Humble Yourself, The Bell Done Rung (File: Parp164)

Live a-Humble

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Live Humble (Glory and Honor)

See Jonah and the Whale (Living Humble) (File: Br3346)

Liverpool Dock

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to his mother as his ship sails away from Liverpool Dock. He hopes to return to his home, but there will be no one to meet him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: mother separation emigration parting
FOUND IN: US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 95, "Liverpool Dock" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragmentary text that might fit with any number of emigration ballads)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 69, "Welcome Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 106, "No One To Welcome Me Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R095 (Full)
Roud #3266
File: R095

Liverpool Girls

See The Liverpool Judies (Row, Bullies, Row; Roll, Julia, Roll) (File: Doe106)

Liverpool John

DESCRIPTION: "When Liverpool John was just sixteen he went away to sea." "And he tries to settle down, he tries to stay on shore, But every time he gets itchy feet and he's off to sea once more." The song describes his absurd attempts to make a living on land
AUTHOR: Phil Colclough and June COlclough
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor home abandonment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 155, "Liverpool John" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [10 words]: There is of course no hint at all that this is traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: PaSe155

Liverpool Judies, The (Row, Bullies, Row; Roll, Julia, Roll)

DESCRIPTION: The young sailor sets out from England to America. But a wild, drunken life lands him at the boarding-master's. Back at sea, he suffers cruelly at the hands of the mate (whom he curses to hell). (At last he arrives back in port)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: sailor abuse drink return shanty
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US(NE)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 106, "Roll, Julia, Roll (Row, Bullies, Row)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 118-120, "The Liverpool Girls" (1 text, 1 tune, slightly cleaned up)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 176-177, "Row, Bullies, Row" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 198-199, "The Liverpool Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 401-403, "The Liverpool Judies" (3 texts, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 304-306]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 62, "Liverpool Judies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 62-63, "Liverpool Judies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 239-240, "FIrst to California, Oh, Fondly I Went" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #22, "Blow, Bullies, Blow" (1 text, 1 tune, probably this but short enough that it might be something else; Roud classifies it with "Blow, Boys, Blow (I)")
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 30, "Row, Bullies, Row" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 66, "The Liverpool Pilot" (1 text, 1 tune, a perhaps slightly adapted version but with too many similarities to split)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 126, "Liverpool Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 102, "Liverpool Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LIVJUDY LIVJUDY2
Roud #928
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best, "The Liverpool Pilot" (on NFABest01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Towrope Girls
NOTES [38 words]: [Regarding their "Liverpool Pilot" version, Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou report] the singer "describes this as a heave-up shanty." The chorus is "And it's row, row, row bullies row For the Liverpool Pilot she have us in tow." - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Doe106

Liverpool Landlady, The

See Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)

Liverpool Packet, The

See The Dreadnought [Laws D13] (File: LD13)

Liverpool Pilot, The

See The Liverpool Judies (Row, Bullies, Row; Roll, Julia, Roll) (File: Doe106)

Liverpool Play

See Warlike Seamen (The Irish Captain) (File: DTwarlik)

Liverpool Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in the' cold month of December... I shipped in the clipper ship 'Defender....'" The singer complains of sailing along with a lot of foreigners who "didn't know a word of English But answered to the name o' 'Month's advance.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Bone-CapstanBars); he reports learning it in 1900
KEYWORDS: foreigner sailor ship hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 140-144, "The Liverpool Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST BonCB140 (Partial)
Roud #653
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paddy, Get Back" (form, lyrics)
NOTES [121 words]: Roud lumps this with "Paddy, Get Back," which clearly inspired it, but Bone-CapstanBars notes that a sailor used each shantey "for its own special purpose on deck and it was rarely heard within the fo'cas'le, for entertainment...."
"[T]he elder hands maintained that the rousing of a chanty 'when ther worn't no call' could not but offend some presiding deity. But there were fo'cas'le ditty that could be sung in lieu and they had, in words and tune, a close resemblance to the chanty proper."
On that basis, I split them, though this hardly seems to exist in its own right.
There was an American clipper named Defender, launched in Boston in 1855 and wrecked in the South Pacific in 1859; I doubt it is the same ship. - RBW
File: BonCB140

Livin' Humble

See Living Humble (File: Parr034)

Living Humble

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are "Living humble, living humble" The mourner must believe "Christ is waiting to receive" Only the righteous will get to "King Jesus camp" The singer prays "to my God until I come through" Converted, the singer has tried to live humble
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 34, pp. 152-153, "Livin' Humble" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [63 words]: Choruses based on "live humble" are in both religious songs, like this one, "Humble Yourself, The Bell Done Rung," "Can't You Live Humble," "Going to Live Humble To the Lord" and "Better Live Humble," and minstrel parodies like Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 341C, "If Religion Was a Thing That Money Could Buy" (indexed here as "Walkin' in the Parlor"). - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr034

Living on a Hill

DESCRIPTION: "When you get married and living on a hill, I will send you a kiss by a whippoorwill."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Henry, from Mary King)
KEYWORDS: love marriage bird
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 231, (fourth of several "Fragments from Tennessee") (1 fragment)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 133, "(When you get married and live on a hill)" (1 text, listed as an autograph rhyme)
Roud #37548
File: MHAp231D

Living on the Hallelujah Side

DESCRIPTION: Singer, once a sinner perishing with cold, is rescued by Jesus, and would not leave "this precious place." Chorus: "Glory be to Jesus, let the hallelujahs roll/Help me to ring the Saviour's praises far and wide... And I'm a-living on the hallelujah side"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Ernest V. Stoneman)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, once a sinner perishing with cold, is rescued by Jesus, and now would not leave "this precious place" for all earth's gold and millions. Chorus: "Glory be to Jesus, let the hallelujahs roll/Help me to ring the Saviour's praises far and wide/For I've opened up towards heaven all the windows in my soul/And I'm a-living on the hallelujah side"
KEYWORDS: rescue religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Bahamas)
Roud #12646
RECORDINGS:
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Hallelujah Side" (on Stonemans01) (Victor 20224, 1926); Ernest Stoneman and Eddie Stoneman, "Hallelujah Side" (ARC, unissued, 1934)
Frank Welling & John McGhee, "The Hallelujah Side" (Vocalion 5241, 1928) (Champion 16585, 1933)
NOTES [30 words]: In addition to the hillbilly performers listed above, the song has been recorded by Bahamian songster Joseph Spence. I suspect it was printed in a popular hymnal at some point. - PJS
File: RcLotHS

Liza

See The Future Mrs. 'Awkins (File: Pet176A)

Liza Ann

DESCRIPTION: The singer offers herself to earn money to pay the fine for her man, serving on the chain gang.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy prisoner whore
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, p. 320-321, "Liza Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: RL320

Liza Anne

See Sweet Heaven (II) (File: RcSwHeav)

Liza Gray

See The Lady of the Lake (The Banks of Clyde II) [Laws N41] (File: LN41)

Liza in the Summer Time

See Liza Jane (File: San132)

Liza Jane

DESCRIPTION: "Goin' up on the mountain To plant a patch of cane, Make a jug of 'lasses To sweeten Liza Jane. O po' Liza, po' gal, O po' Liza Jane, O po' Liza, po' gal, She died on the train." About moonshine, courting Liza Jane, (and dodging work if possible)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians); +1893 (JAFL6)
KEYWORDS: courting drink nonballad work floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Randolph 435, "Liza Jane" (2 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune, but only the "A" text is this piece; the "B" text is "Goodbye, Susan Jane" and "C" is too short to clearly identify)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 174-176,"Liza Up in the 'Simmon Tree" (1 text, 1 tune, with this chorus and many floating verses)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 437, "Eliza Jane (II)" (1 text, which looks more like this than anything else though it lacks the chorus)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 437, "Eliza Jane" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth, pp. 8-9, "O, Li'l 'Liza Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 244, "Liza Jane" (3 short texts, 3 tunes)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 132-133, "Liza Jane"; "Mountain Top" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "B" text, "Mountain Top," appears mixed with "Moonshiner" or something similar); 308-309, "Liza in the Summer Time (She Died on the Train)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 127, (no title) (1 fragment in which the girl is "Susan Jane") (OakEd, p. 134)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 91-93, "Liza Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, p. 18, "Liza Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 35-36, "Liza Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 50, "Went Up on the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 7-8, "I Went Up on the Mountain Top" (1 text, 1 tune); also p. 192, "Hawkie Is a Schemin' Bird" (1 text, with the "Hawkie" first stanza, a chorus from "Lynchburg Town," and verses such as "Went up on a mountain To give my horn a blow" and "Climbed up on a mountain... To sweeten Liza Jane")
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 63, p. 86, "Poor Liza Jane" (1 text)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 62-63, "Goin' Upon the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune, with many floating lyrics but probably closes to this)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 284-286, "Liza Jane" (2 texts, 1 tune. The main text is composite)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 591 [no title] (1 text)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 58-59, "Mountain Top" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 30, "Goodbye 'Liza Jane" (1 text)
DT, LIZAJANE
Roud #825 and 4210
RECORDINGS:
Rufus Crisp, "Ball and Chain" (on Crisp01)
Homer & Jethro, "Poor Little Liza, Poor Gal" (King 773, 1949)
Bradley Kincaid, "Liza Up in the Simmon Tree" (Gennett 6761/Champion 15687 [as Dan Hughey]/Supertone 9362, 1929; Champion 45057, c. 1935; on CrowTold01)
John & Emery McClung "Liza Jane" (Brunswick 135, 1927)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Liza Jane" (on NLCR06, NLCR11)
Riley Puckett, "Liza Jane" (Columbia 15014-D, c. 1925; Silvertone 3261 [as Tom Watson], 1926)
George "Short Buckle" Roark, "I Ain't A Bit Drunk" (Columbia 15383-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Pete Seeger, "Oh! Liza, Poor Gal" (on PeteSeeger06, PeteSeegerCD01); "Liza Jane" (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
Uncle "Am" Stuart [vocal by Gene Austin], "Old Liza Jane" (Vocalion 14846, 1924; Vocalion 5039, 1926)
Tenneva Ramblers, "Miss 'Liza, Poor Gal" (Victor 21141, 1927)
Henry Whitter, "Liza Jane" (OKeh 45003, 1925)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Molly and Tenbrooks" [Laws H27] (lyrics)
cf. "Run Mollie Run" (lyrics)
cf. "Push Boat" (lyrics)
cf. "Cindy (I)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind" (floating verses)
cf. "Turn, Julie-Ann, Turn" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Watermelon Spoilin' On The Vine" (floating verses)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Goodbye Liza Jane
Saro Jane
Little Saro Jane
NOTES [153 words]: The "Saro Jane" referred to under "Alternate Titles" should not be confused with "Rock About My Saro Jane," which is a different song.
This song is almost certainly of minstrel origin, and shares many floating verses with other, similar minstrel-show songs.
The Rufus Crisp recording, "Ball and Chain", is in fact one of those conglomerated songs incorporating floating verses from a dozen sources; RBW suggests putting it here because more of its verses seem to come from here than anywhere else.
Ditto the George Roark recording; I put it here for want of a better place. It could also go under "Don't Get Trouble In Your Mind," as its lyrics overlap with that song, but it doesn't have the plot theme of rejection. In fact, it doesn't have a plot at all. - PJS
The same problem occurs with the Cecil Sharp fragments; his "A" and "B" don't appear to have a word in common except "the." But they have to file somewhere.
Last updated in version 6.7
File: San132

Liza Jane (II)

See Po' Liza Jane (File: Br3456)

Liza Lee

See Yankee John, Stormalong (Liza Lee) (File: Hugi080)

Liza Up in the 'Simmon Tree

See Liza Jane (File: San132)

'Liza-Jane

See Li'l Liza Jane (File: FSWB037)

Lizer Lee

See Yankee John, Stormalong (Liza Lee) (File: Hugi080)

Lizie Baillie

See Bonny Lizie Baillie [Child 227] (File: C227)

Lizie Lindsay [Child 226]

DESCRIPTION: A young man comes to court Lizie Lindsay, asking her to come to the Highlands with him. Neither she nor her relatives are interested. He then reveals that he is a rich lord (the Lord of the Isles?); she changes her mind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(Ap,MA,NE,So)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Child 226, "Lizie Lindsay" (8 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Bronson 226, "Lizie Lindsay" (9 versions+1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 226, "Lizie Lindsay" (3 versions: #1, #3, #7)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 53, "Sir Donald and Eliza Lindsay" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 854, "Lizzie Lindsay" (7 texts, 3 tunes)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 297-299, "Lizzie Lindsay" (1 text with variants, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 269-271, "Lizie Lindsay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #11, pp. 46-47, "Leezie Lindsay" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 20, "Lizie Lindsay" (1 text)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, p. 314, "Leezie Lindsay" (1 short text)
Randolph 29, "New Yealand" (1 fragment)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 45, "Leezie Lindsay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 49-51, "Bonnie Lizie Lindsay"; pp. 51-52, "Lizzie Lindsay" (2 texts)
DT 226, LIZLIND*
Roud #94
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dugall Quin" [Child 294]
cf. "The Blaeberry Courtship" [Laws N19]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Donald Macdonald
Lord Ronald Macdonald
NOTES [100 words]: Not every version of this song has Lizie's suitor describe the lands he rules, but the most typical version makes him "Laird o' Kingussie." Kingussie is in the banks of the Spey at its confluence with the Tromey, across from Strathspey. It is almost due south of Inverness. The region is hilly (the town itself is just below the height of Creag Bheag); I doubt it was ever wealthy. Of course, he's also identified as a MacDonald, and that could imply much greater holdings, up to and including the Lordship of the Isles. - RBW
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads pp. 51-52 is Child's source for text 226F. - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: C226

Lizie May

See Lizie Wan [Child 51] (File: C051)

Lizie Wan [Child 51]

DESCRIPTION: (Geordy) finds his sister (Lizie Wan) crying. When he asks why, he is told that she is pregnant by him. He kills her to hide his crime. He is revealed by the blood on his sword, and is forced away from home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: incest homicide pregnancy questions exile brother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland,England(South)) US(Ap,NE,SE)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Child 51, "Lizie Wan" (2 texts)
Bronson 51, "Lizie Wan" (7 versions plus the #10 text of "Edward," which is actually "Lizie Wan")
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 51, "Lizie Wan" (2 versions: #2, #4)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 46, "Rosianne" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 14 "Lizzie Wan" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #153, "Lizie Wan" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 143-145, "Fair Lucy" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5b}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 332-338, "Lizie Wan" (2 texts, 2 tunes, which differ though both informants cited the same source) {A1=Bronson's #5b, A2=#4}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 167-169, "Lizie Wan" (2 texts)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 159, "Lizie Wan" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 38, "Lizie Wan" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 21, "Lizie Wan" (1 text, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 65, "Lucy Wan" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 81-82, "Rosie Ann" (1 composite text, 1 tune -- probably longer than any actual text of this song)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 149-151, "Lizzie Wan" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 51, LIZIWAN1*
Roud #234
RECORDINGS:
Jeanie Robertson, "My Son David" (on LomaxCD1700)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sheath and Knife" (plot)
cf. "The Bonnie Hind" [Child 50] (theme)
cf. "Edward" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lizie May
NOTES [387 words]: John Jacob Niles claims that, in his experience, the only people willing to sing this song were men. He points out that Sharp's informant was a man; so was the singer who gave the song to Flanders. As usual, though, one must wonder about Niles's sources. In any case, Bronson lists four versions from women. - RBW
Niles may claim that the only informants willing to sing the song are men, but VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs's version was collected from a Mrs. Dann of Cottenham, Cambs. Lloyd notes, however, that this was the only version of the ballad found in oral tradition in England, and that no new Scottish version has been reported since 1827. -PJS
(Which requires the caution, however, that the ending of "Lizie Wan" is indistiguishable from "Edward" (Child 13), so some versions that people have filed as the former might be this.
On the scientific evidence that brothers and sisters raised apart are particularly likely to fall in love, and some further speculation as to why, see the notes to "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14]."
It appears very likely that Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) knew some form of this piece as a very young man. One of his earliest poems, written while he was still a schoolboy, is called "The Two Brothers," and the opening is quite similar to "The Twa Brothers" [Child 49]; it begins
There were two brothers at Twyford school,
And when they had left the place,
It was, "Will ye learn Greek and Latin?
Or will ye run me a race?
Or will ye go up to yonder bridge,
And there will we angle for dace?"
Later verses are more reminiscent of "Edward" [Child 13] or "Lizzie Wan" [Child 51]:
"Oh what bait's that upon your hook,
Dear brother, tell to me?"
"It is my younger brother," he cried,
"Oh woe and dole is me?"
[ ... ]
"And when will you come back again,
My brother, tell to me?"
"When chub is good for human food,
And that will never be!"
(for a photo of these verses, see Robert Douglas-Fairhurt, The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland, Belknap/Harvard, 2015, p. 75).
The final verse might be from "It Was A' For Our Rightful' King" or similar:
She turned herself right round about,
And her heart brake into three,
Said, "One of the two will be wet through and through,
And 'tother'll be late for his tea."- RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C051

Lizzie Borden Songs

DESCRIPTION: Sundry comments on the Fall River murders, e.g. "Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother forty whacks"; "There's no evidence of guilt, Lizzie Borden, That should make your spirit wilt." The poems/songs are not all derived from a single source
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide father mother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
August 1892 - the Fall River Murders
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 14-15, (no title) (5 assorted fragments/excerpts)
DT, (FALLRIVR)
NOTES [297 words]: Burt-AmericanMurderBallads observes that there seem to be no truly traditional songs about this famous event. That being the case (and it appears she's right), I've lumped all Lizzie Borden items here as a placekeeper.
Lizzie Andrew Borden (1860-1927) was a spinster living with her wealthy father and stepmother when they were murdered in 1892. Borden was tried for the murders, but found innocent, and lived as a recluse in Fall River for another 35 years.
The popular press has of course had a field day with her. Typical is the sketch given on pp. 171-176 of Matthew P. Mayo, Bootleggers, Lobstermen & Lumberjacks, Globe Pequot Press, 2011. Among the arguments he points out against her:
* Shortly before the murders, she reportedly tried to buy prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide solution) and was rebuffed.
* She had a strong motive; her father had remarried and was planning to change his will to include his second wife and her family, reducing the inheritance of Lizzie and her sister (supposedly $500,000 would go to the wife's family, only $25,000 to the two daughters by the first marriage). And the two older children never liked their stepmother. (Note that it was the stepmother who was murdered, not Lizzie's biological mother.) Indeed, the spinsters seem to have been on bad terms with their father as well.
* A witness reportedly saw Lizzie trying to destroy a (blood-)stained dress not long after the murders.
* No proper forensic examination was ever performed on the murder weapon -- in other words, what could have been incriminating evidence was ignored.
The Wikipedia article on Borden lists at least twelve books specifically about this case, plus sundry articles and chapters in other books; clearly it took an intense hold on the popular imagination. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: DTfallri

Lizzie Brown

DESCRIPTION: The singer, who has moved to Bee's Hotel to sleep with Lizzie Brown, extols the lady's lack of virtues.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 393-394, "Lizzie Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: RL393

Lizzie Laing Began the Play

DESCRIPTION: "Lizzie Laing began the play Baubie Dick beet [bet] to hae Sara Dunn pat up a limmer [scoundrel] Cause she gat a sup in simmer"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: gambling
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1895, "Lizzie Laing Began the Play" (1 fragment)
Roud #13564
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: GrD81895

Lizzie Lindsay

See Lizie Lindsay [Child 226] (File: C226)

Lizzie Menzies

See Dugall Quin [Child 294] (File: C294)

Lizzie Wan

See Lizie Wan [Child 51] (File: C051)

Lizzie Watson

DESCRIPTION: "Miss Lizzie Watson is my name, I brought myself to grief and shame, By loving one that neer loved me." The time when they were to be marred has passed; he avoids her. She intends to drown herself. Dig her grave both wide and deep
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3)
KEYWORDS: love courting abandonment death suicide drowning floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 50-51, "Lizzie Watson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7037
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] and references there
NOTES [36 words]: This is essentially "The Butcher Boy" or "Died for Love (I)" with a first verse in which the singer gives her name, but that's enough difference that both Steve Roud and I consider it a (sort of) separate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BWV3051

Llorona, La

DESCRIPTION: Spanish (Mexican). "La pena y la que no es pena, ay llorona, Todo es pena para mi." The Weeping (Woman), La Llorona, is a ghost who seeks her children, whom she killed or who died in a plague.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cray-AshGrove)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage death children Mexico
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-AshGrove, p. 22, "La Llorona" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [61 words]: Wikipedia (checked January 29, 2018) declares that this song "has [its] origins on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the mid of the 19th century besides to another song, 'La Sandunga.' However, the song was first made well-known by Raphael, Spanish singer, in 1968." Obviously the Cray-AshGrove version precedes this; it is only a subset of the popularized version. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: CraAG22

Lloyd George

DESCRIPTION: Lloyd George won the great war but he'd still "better keep clear from the boys of Fair Hill"; the Germans had intended to capture Ireland. The bishops say only Freestaters get to heaven but there is a spot reserved for the boys of Fair Hill.
AUTHOR: Sean O'Callaghan (source: OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political religious IRA
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 52-53, "Lloyd George" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [408 words]: The Irish Free State, created under the Free State Agreement, came into being December 1922. It did not provide for the independent republic desired by the IRA. David Lloyd George, who had been Prime Minister during the "Great War,' was British Prime Minister during the negotiation. (Source: Wikipedia article Irish Free State) See notes to "General Michael Collins" for additional background.
Fair Hill is a suburb of Cork City. - BS
And Cork, we should note, was one of the strongest centers of the rebellion in Ireland.
The Bishops did not say that only Freestaters get to Heaven; almost universally, they condemned all violence -- this is, after all, basic Christian doctrine, as is non-resistance to being governed by nonbelievers (so explicitly 1 Peter 213fff., and less explicitly but no less clearly in the writings of Paul). But since the Republicans started the violence -- and since they had very little Christian understanding of the other side -- they felt they were suffering the stronger condemnation. It was ironic to note than many Republicans considered their Catholic bishops to be working with the British!
The situation perhaps can be shown by the events of a single day in 1919. According to Robert Kee, Ourselves Alone, being Volume III of The Green Flag (Quartet, 1972, 1976), pp. 77-78, this day saw the murder of a British agent, which the Archbishop of Tuam labelled "'a shocking crime'... 'a most grave violation of the law of God.'" But even as this was going on, the entire Irish hierarchy was formally condemning British behavior in denying the Irish their political rights, and declaring, "Let the military domination of Ireland cease at once. Let the people of Ireland choose for themselves the Government under which they are to live."
Of course, the Irish people would choose the Free State (or Home Rule -- a government still with links to Britain). So in a way the Bishops were condemning the Republicans. But this was clear only after the fact.
The mention of the Germans capturing Ireland is a reference to the Casement Affair. They didn't really intend to invade Ireland (though they made vague promises along those lines); they could not, unless they beat the British Navy -- and the Battle of Jutland had settled that. What the Germans could do was send arms to the rebels -- arms which they considered unfit for their own soldiers. For background on this, see the notes to "Lovely Banna Strand.." - RBW
File: OCan052

Lloyd George Knew My Father

DESCRIPTION: "Lloyd George knew my father, my father knew Lloyd George." Repeat until exhausted
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2021 (LibraryThingCampSongsThread)
KEYWORDS: nonballad derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 4, "Lloyd George Knew My Father" (1 short text, from user John5918, posted August 28, 2021)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Onward Christian Soldiers" (one of several tunes used)
cf. "Land of Hope and Glory" (one of several tunes used)
File: LTCSLlGe

Lloyd George No Doubt When His Life Pegs Out

DESCRIPTION: "Lloyd George, no doubt, when his life pegs out Will ride in a fiery chariot... Twixt Satan and Judas Iscariot. Ananias that day to the Devil will say... Move me up one higher, away from the fire, And make room for the liar from Wales"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: political Devil | Lloyd George
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1863-1945 - Life of David Lloyd George
1916-1922 - Lloyd George's time as Prime Minister of Britain
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 94, "Lloyd George No Doubt When His Life Pegs Out" (1 text)
Roud #25510
NOTES [24 words]: The story of Ananias the liar and his wife Sapphira is in Acts 5:1-11. For background on the Merchant Shipping Act, see "According to the Act." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC094B

Lloyd George's Beer

DESCRIPTION: "We shall win the war. We shall win the war. As I said before, we shall win the war," because they have the beer -- "Lloyd George's Beer (x2). At the brewery, there's nothing doing All the water works are brewing." It's the worst thing in the war
AUTHOR: R. P. Weston (1878-1936) and Bert Lee (1880-1946) (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (recording, Ernie Mayne)
KEYWORDS: war humorous drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 41-42, "Lloyd George's Beer" (1 text)
Roud #V53407
RECORDINGS:
Ernie Mayne, "Lloyd George's Beer" (unknown label, 1917)
NOTES [523 words]: At the start of World War I, everyone expected a quick war. It of course didn't happen. The economies of the participants therefore had to be reorganized to support the vast cost of the war. David Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer at the start of the war, took charge of the (new) Ministry of Munitions in May 1915, was given the War Department in 1916, then became Prime Minister in late 1916 as a result of a cabinet coup. In the first of those offices, he stared imposing government controls on firms that could produce armaments (especially artillery shells, which had long been in short supply); after he became Prime Minister, "he extended government controls over the economy through a set of new ministries headed by leading businessmen" (Stephen Pope and Elizabeth-Anne Wheal, Dictionary of the First World War, 1995 (I use the 2003 Pen & Sword paperback), p. 289). Obviously many of the standardized, mass-produced products created in this way were less desirable than earlier, more customized products. The problem may have been especially severe with beer, because Lloyd George tried to reduce alcohol consumption.
According to a note on mudcat.org by "Monologue John," this was the very first Weston and Lee collaboration, written in 1915, meaning it was written after Lloyd George started trying to reduce alcohol consumption but before he completely controlled the economy.
For another example of the effects of Lloyd George's standardization, see "When the War Is Over, We Shall Have Some Jam."
There is one other dating hint in the song, the line "Said Haig to Joffre when affairs looked black." Douglas Haig was with the British Expeditionary force for the entire war. He began as commander of the British I Corps, commanded the First Army from December 1914 when it was formed, then became commander of all British forces in France in December 1915 (Pope/Wheal, p. 217). Despite having a skill set that consisted of little more than the ability to demand high casualties of his men and feel no pangs of conscience, he retained that post until the end of the war.
Joseph Joffre was the French Chief of the General Staff (i.e. commander of the Army) at the start of the war. But he was removed from that post in December 1916 ("promoted" to a ceremonial post; Pope/Wheal, pp. 257-258). Thus the song as it stands, with that line in it, must be from before December 1916, and makes the most sense from December 1915 to December 1916. Which seems to contradict Monologue John's date, but it could easily have been rewritten -- all they would have to do is substitute "Haig" for "French," the commander Haig succeeded.
Of the songs in the Index, authors R. P. Weston and Bert Lee were also responsible for "Anne Boleyn (With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm)," "Send Him a Cheerful Letter," Rawtenstall Annual Fair," "Goodbye-ee," and "The Gypsy Warned Me," and Weston also co-wrote "I'm Henery the Eighth I Am," "Where Are the Lads of the Village Tonight?" and "Private Michael Cassidy." Weston was also co-author of the fairly well-known "I've Got Rings on My Fingers" with Maurice Scott and Fred Barnes. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW041

Lo a Temple

DESCRIPTION: "Lo, a Temple long expected In St. George shall stand By God's faithful Saints erected Here in Dixie land." It is a pleasure to have a proper home of their religion. The singer hopes for future success
AUTHOR: Charles L. Walker (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious | Mormon temple building
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 123-124, "Lo a Temple" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10854
NOTES [17 words]: For St. George, Utah, and other songs about it, see the notes to "Saint George and the Drag-On." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS123

Lo Que Digo

See Venadito (File: San294)

Load of Kail Plants, The

DESCRIPTION: The young man comes to Ballymoney to sell his kail plants. He does his business with various buyers, then sets out to seek a wife. He finds a girl, offers her tea, kisses her, asks her name, and presumably asks if she wishes to marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting farming commerce home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H25b, pp. 261-262, "The Load of Kail Plants" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 41, "The Load of Kail Plants" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6919
File: HHH025b

Loading Pulp at Georgetown

DESCRIPTION: "I'll tell you how we load the pulp." The loading crew is named we are told how "they like to dine at Mrs Clay." "It is a very dangerous job." Pulp is poor at low price in 1953 and 1954 but "but the wages isn't bad"
AUTHOR: Joe Trainor
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: lumbering nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 100-101, "Loading Pulp at Georgetown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12452
File: Dib100

Loafer's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis the last greenback dollar left crumpled alone, All the fives, tens, and twenties are gambled and gone." The singer laments his current poverty: "When greenbacks have vanished and specie has flown, Oh who would inhabit this hard world alone?"
AUTHOR: Charles L. Walker (Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Cheney-MormonSongs); reportedly written 1864
KEYWORDS: money hardtimes humorous derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 161-162, "The Loafer's Lament" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10871
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Last Rose of Summer" (tune) and references there
File: ChMS161

Loakie's Boat

See Lukey's Boat (File: FJ046)

Lob-Gesang (Love song, Amish hymn)

DESCRIPTION: Amish song, the second one used in some of their services. "O Gott, Vater, wir loben dich, Dich, und deine Gute preisen." "O God, Father, we love you, You, and your goodness."The song gives thanks for God's presence
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Coffin & Cohen)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, pp. 75-77, "Lob-Gesang" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
File: CoCo076

Lobster, The

See The Sea Crab (File: EM001)

Loch Duich

DESCRIPTION: "As I was walking with my lover, Down a glen that was so fair, There I heard a piper playing...." The singer sits in the heather with his love as the piper plays "Loch Duich." "There I won and wooed my lassie." He hopes friends will be together again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2006 (Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather)
KEYWORDS: love courting music separation reunion
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, pp. 64-65, "Loch Duich" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21434
File: StQue054

Loch Erin's Shore (II)

See William and Eliza (Lough Erin's Shore) (File: HHH597)

Loch Erne's Shore

See William and Eliza (Lough Erin's Shore) (File: HHH597)

Loch Lomond

DESCRIPTION: Singer laments parting from his/her love by Loch Lomond, noting "the broken heart it kens nae second spring." Chorus: "You'll take the high road and I'll take the low road And I'll be in Scotland before ye But me and my true love will never meet again..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 ("Vocal Melodies of Scotland")
KEYWORDS: loneliness love parting separation Scotland lyric
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 145-148, "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" (2 texts, 1 tune; the first is the common version and the second a variant without chorus which may have inspired the popular piece)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #91, pp. 1-2, "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" (2 texts, including both of Ford's versions)
Greig/Duncan8 1528, "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" (3 fragments, 3 tunes)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 122-123, "Loch Lomond" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 80, "Loch Lomond" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 216-217, "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomon'"; pp. 406-407, "Loch Lomond" (2 texts, 2 tune; the texts are not quite identical and the tunes are in different keys)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #103, "Loch Lomond" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 257, "Loch Lomond" (1 text)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 275-281, "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" (1 text plus various perhaps-related texts and additions)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 336-337, "Loch Lomond"
DT, LOCHLMND LOCHMOM (LOCHLOM2)
Roud #9598
RECORDINGS:
George Alexander, "Loch Lomond" (Columbia 3294, 1906)
Henry Burr, "Loch Lomond" (Victor 4240, 1905; Victor 16062, 1908)
Unidentified baritone, "Star of Eve/Loch Lomand [medley]" (Climax [Columbia] X-88, c. 1901)
Patricia Campbell, "Loch Lomond" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #228, recorded 09/05/2022, with badly wavering pitch)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(17a), "Bonnie Banks of Lochlomond," unknown (probably Poet's Box ) (Dundee), n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Red Is the Rose" (tune)
cf. "The Waddin o McPhee" (tune)
cf. "The Passing of the Helvetia" (tune)
cf. "The Babcock Bedtime Story" (tune, some lyrics)
cf. "Flora's Lament for her Charlie" (verses)
SAME TUNE:
Red is the Rose (File: So28n3a)
The Waddin o McPhee (File: McSc093)
The Passing of the Helvetia (File: 147)
Paint Ship Song (I) (File: Tawn005)
Flora's Lament for her Charlie (broadside NLScotland, RB.m.168(178), "Flora's Lament for her Charlie," Robert MacIntosh (Glasgow), after 1849; probably the same broadside as Murray, Mu23-y3:013)
NOTES [341 words]: The song (or at least the chorus) seems to have entered oral tradition in the US, probably through the recording by Benny Goodman's band. (Benny Goodman & his Orchestra, vocal by Maxine Sullivan, "Loch Lomond" (Victor 25717, 1937)). - PJS
Legends about this song are numerous. One has it that it was heard and/or composed by Lady John Scott in the 1840s. Another (supported by the Clancy family) is that it is derived from the Irish "Red Is the Rose," with which it shares a tune. ("Red Is the Rose" sounds more recent and more composed, though, at least to my ears.)
Legend has it that the "low road" is the road of death, and that the song was made by a Scottish prisoner following the 1745 Jacobite rebellion: The condemned soldier tells his comrade that (following his execution), he will take the low road back to Scotland and arrive first.
One real connection with the Jacobite rebellion is a broadside, NLScotland RB.m.168(178), "Flora's Lament for her Charlie," printed by Robert McIntosh, beginning "It's yon bonny banks and yon bonny braise, Where the sun shines bright and bonny, Where I and my true love went out for to gaze On the bonny, bonny banks of Benlomond." The next verse is standard "Loch Lomond." But it looks like a patch-up job, and no tune is listed.
More explicit, and perhaps more traditional, is Ford's second text, said to have been found by Lady Jane Scott in Edinborough; it has a terminal verse, "The thistle shall bloom, an' the King hae his ain" and an explicit complaint in the second verse that "My Ranald... the morrow he marches to Edinburgh toun, To fecht for the King an Prince Charlie!"
Both these items, however, look like patch jobs as well. The connection with the '45 remains uncertain.
Fuld offers a list of possible antecedants of the tune; all show noticeable differences. I think the matter must be regarded as unsettled.
Loch Lomond, one of the largest Scottish lakes, is a short way north of Dumbarton, and not far north and west of Glasgow; its outlet flows into the Clyde in Dumbarton. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB257B

Loch na Garr (Lachin Y Gair)

DESCRIPTION: The singer is in England, a land of "a million luxuries," but longs for Caledonia. He remembers his childhood, his plaid and "traditional story ... on cheiftains long perished." As "one who has rambled o'er countries afar" he prefers "dark Lough Na Garr"
AUTHOR: George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) (source: broadside, NLScotland L.C.178.A.2(318))
EARLIEST DATE: 1807 (Byron, _Hours of Idleness_, according to Connie Beck's Lord Byron site)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration England Scotland
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, p. 180, "Dark Lough Na Garr" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 508, "Lochnagar" (1 fragment)
Roud #2436
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(318), "Loch na Garr," Harkness (Preston), c.1870
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(55)[some words illegible], "Loch Na Garr" ("Away, ye gay landscapes! ye gardens of roses"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(2241), 2806 c.14(54), "Loch-na-Garr"; Harding B 26(118), "Dark Loch Na Gar"; Harding B 40(2) View 3 of 4,"Dark-Lock-na-Garr"; Harding B 19(88), "Dark Lock-na-Garr"
NOTES [45 words]: Most of the broadsides and Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder are incomplete. For a complete version see NLScotland L.C.178.A.2(318). The commentary for that broadside notes that "Lochnagar [is] the mountain that gives this poem its title...." [about 40 miles west of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: TST180

Loch o' Shilin, The

See Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)

Loch o' the Auds, The

DESCRIPTION: "At nicht i' my fun, when late I was rovin'" in May, the singer sees a beautiful Portnay girl talking with a rover. Then her long-time swain shows up, and is shocked to find her showing affection for another man. The singer warns against trusting women
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: courting betrayal rambling
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 446-447, "The Loch o' the Auds" (1 text)
Roud #5619
File: Ord446

Lochaber Shore

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls all people to hear his song about "sweet Lochaber Shore." He lists the local residents, and describes the weather during the past two years, cold winters, and a summer storm which carried of several sailors. He hopes for better times
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home disaster ship
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H134, pp. 168-169, "Lochaber Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13482
File: HHH134

Lochaber, Lochaber

DESCRIPTION: Lochaber, Lochaber, lack aday ... them that's away, Our lands are all barren, our gardens also....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: poverty emigration nonballad food gardening
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1813, "Lochaber, Lochaber" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13077
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81813

Lochee

DESCRIPTION: "By dark Lochee's lanes and lochs, Sheepskin burns and waterin trochs... Walkin up an' doon the giddy village street, Baillie Perrie's kingdom is sweet, Here's my respects tae Lochee." The singer describes the people and places around Lochee
AUTHOR: William Harkins (source: Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1835-1917 - Life of Beilie Perrie, "The Provost of Lochee," who served on the Dundee town council 1876-1917 and become known as "the Provost-Maker"; Perrie Street in Lochee is named for him
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 55, "Lochee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22210
File: Gath055

Locher Banks and Locher Braes

See Logan Water (File: GrD61122)

Lochinvar

See Katharine Jaffray [Child 221] (File: C221)

Lochmaben Harper, The [Child 192]

DESCRIPTION: A (blind) harper sets out to work in England. He rides his mare, which has just given birth to a foal. In England, he contrives to tie his horse to King Henry's. Next morning, mare and horse are gone; King Henry pays the harper for his work and his mare
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1791
KEYWORDS: robbery royalty music harp
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Child 192, "The Lochmaben Harper" (5 texts)
Bronson 192, "The Lochmaben Harper" (3 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 192, "The Lochmaben Harper" (2 versions: #1, #2)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 272-275, "The Lochmaben Harper" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 270, "The Harpin' Mannie" (1 text)
Dixon-ScottishTraditionalVersionsOfAncientBallads IV, pp. 37-41, "The Jolly Harper" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 154-158, "The Jolly Harper" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 519-522, "The Lochmaben Harper" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 360-362, "The Lochmaben Harper" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 164-169, "The Lochmaben Harper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 144, "The Lochmaben Harper" (1 text)
DT 192, LOCHHARP
Roud #85
File: C192

Lochnagar

See Loch na Garr (Lachin Y Gair) (File: TST180)

Lock the Door, Lariston

DESCRIPTION: "Lock the door, Larriston, Lion of Liddesdale; Lock the door, Larriston, Lowther comes on; The Armstrongs are flying...." English attackers are coming; the singer calls on Elliot of Lariston to defend them. The singer cheers his success
AUTHOR: James Hogg
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 (source: Brander)
KEYWORDS: battle borderballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 54-55, 150, "Lock the Door Lariston" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Hogg, _The Works of the Ettrick Shepherd_ (London: Blackie & Son,1874) p. 406, "Lock the Door, Lariston"
Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 81-82, "Lock the Door, Larriston" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21732
File: MBra081

Lock the Door, Larriston

See Lock the Door, Lariston (File: MBra081)

Locked in the Walls of Prison

DESCRIPTION: "Locked in the walls of prison, Down in a narrow cell, Locked in the walls... No one to go my bail. If I was worth ten thousand, I'd bury it in my trunk, Or else I'd surely gamble Besides I might get drunk... Take me back... To wear the ball and chain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929
KEYWORDS: prison chaingang drink crime
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 144, "Locked in the Walls of Prison" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5484
NOTES [42 words]: Although nearly every word of this song occurs elsewhere (e.g. the final verse, "One foot upon the platform, T'other on the train," can be found in "The House of the Rising Sun"), this is the only version I know of that combines them in this way. - RBW
File: R144

Locks and Bolts [Laws M13]

DESCRIPTION: The singer misses his love. Her parents, learning she loved a poor man, locked her away (in her uncle's house). The young man breaks the locks and rescues her (possibly fighting a battle along the way). The two are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Christie, _Traditional Ballad Airs I_); a song "Locks and Bolts Do Hinder" was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: love poverty separation rescue marriage
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Laws M13, "Locks and Bolts"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 168-169, "Locks and Bolts" (1 fragment)
Randolph 110, "I Dreamed of My True Lover" (2 texts, 1 tune)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 24, "They Will Fite for Each Other" (1 short text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, p. 74, "Rainbow Willow"; pp. 75-76, "I Dreamt Last Night of My True Love" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 62, "Last Night I Dreamed of My True Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 84, "Locks and Bolts" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 84, "Locks and Bolts" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 74, "Sylvania Lester" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #67, "Rainbow Willow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 96, "Rainbow Willow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 54, "I Dreamed Last Night of My True Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 65, "Locks and Bolts" (1 text from tradition plus a text from the Pepys Ballads)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 80, "Locks and Bolts" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 149, "I Dreamed Last Night of My True Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 399, "(no title)" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 162, "Locks and Bolts" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 31, "Locks and Bolts" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 79, "Locks and Bolts" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 132-133, "Locks and Bolts" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 438-441, "The Lass o' Bennochie" (3 texts, very diverse; the second is mixed with this song)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 111-112, "Rainbow Willow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 145, "Locks And Bolts" (1 text)
DT 328, LOCKBOLT*
Roud #406
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "Locks and Bolts" (on Maynard1) (on FSBFTX15)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Locks and Bolts" (on NLCR16)
Almeda Riddle, "Locks and Bolts" (Vanguard VRS-9158, n.d.); "Rainbow 'Mid Life's Willows" (on LomaxCD1707)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Iron Door" [Laws M15] (theme: girl locked away by father)
cf. "The Gallant Shoemaker" (theme: girl locked away by father)
cf. "The Sailor and His Love" (theme: girl locked away by father)
cf. "The Lass o' Bennochie" (theme: girl locked away by father)
cf. "Johnie Scot" [Child 99] (theme: girl locked away by father)
cf. "Bredalbane" (theme: girl locked away by father)
cf. "The Farmer's Daughter and the Gay Ploughboy" (theme: girl locked away by father)
cf. "William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial)" [Laws M10] (theme: girl locked away by father)
cf. "Behind the Cold Iron Door" (theme: girl locked away by father)
cf. "Andrew Lammie" [Child 233] (theme: girl locked away by father[?])
cf. "All Over Those Hills" (theme)
cf. "The Drowsy Sleeper (II)" (theme)
cf. "The Farmer's Daughter and the Gay Ploughboy" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lass o' Bennachie
At the Back o' Bennachie
NOTES [150 words]: "Rainbow 'Mid Life's Willows" is a truncated version of the song, ending with the singer's lamenting his separation from his true love; his breaking down the door is omitted. It does contain the key line, "Locks and chains [bolts] doth hinder," which places it as a version of this song.
The versions of "Locks and Bolts" found in MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland, "The Lass o' Bennachie" and "At the Back o' Bennachie" should not be confused with the song indexed as "Where Gadie Rins", although the latter is also called "The Back o' Bennachie" and was collected from the same singer as MacColl/Seeger's "B" text. The songs are different. - PJS
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety notes a song from Martin Parker called "The Lover's Joy and Grief" with the burden "but locks and bolts doe hinder." It is not clear what is its relation with the present song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LM13

Lofty Cavavaille, The

DESCRIPTION: The French barque Cavavaille under Captain Ormsby strikes Blackwater sand-bank on December 18. Though freed once from the sand, they are cast up on Blackwater beach, "to pieces split," and 27 are lost. The rich cargo from exotic lands is summarized.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 18, 1768 - Cavavile wrecked on Blackwater Bank; Captain Ormsby and 27 crew lost (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 71)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 120-121, "The Lofty Cavavaille" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7347
File: Ran120

Lofty Giant, The

See Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)

Log Jam at Hughey's Rock, The

See The Jam on Gerry's Rock [Laws C1] (File: LC01)

Log of the Record Run, The

See The Mary L. Mackay (File: LoF074)

Logan Braes

DESCRIPTION: Verses 1-2: A shepherdess mourns that her lover, now in the wars, no longer sees her at church or convoys her home. Verses 3-6: A soldier hears her complaint, reveals that he is her lover "free of war's alarms" and they marry.
AUTHOR: John Mayne (1759-1836) (source: Whitelaw; dates from Contemplator site)
EARLIEST DATE: 1789 and 1816 (see Whitelaw's explanation in notes below)
KEYWORDS: love wedding war reunion separation shepherd soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1123, "Logan Water" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 24, "Logan Braes" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol I, pp. 31-32, "Logan Braes"
Roud #6842
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Logan Water" (tune, per Whitelaw)
NOTES [308 words]: Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(31)), "Logan Braes" ("By Logan streams that rin sae deep"), unknown, no date is this song but I could not download and verify it.
Chambers: "This song, the author of which is still alive, was written as a substitute for one or two old rude verses which were formerly sung to the same air" [see "Logan Water" for one rude verse]. The first verse and a half of Greig/Duncan6 are very close to Mayne's text but the last half verse ("O an Catrin wad come to peaceful terms An Britons a' lay doon their airms, An' soldiers view the British shore Syne I micht see my lad once more") is someone else's invention.
Whitelaw: As first printed in 1789 in Star Newspaper "we believe consisted originally of only the first two stanzas [that is the base of Greig/Duncan6 text], to which indeed, the song in singing, is generally limited. The four additional stanzas first appeared in the Pocket Encyclopedia of Songs, published at Glasgow in 1816, and are probably not by Mayne." - BS
The "invention" of the half-verse mentioned above nonetheless seems to hearken back to the time of the original song. I assume that "Catrin," since she is significant enough to have to come to peace terms, is Catherine the Great of Russia, who died in 1796 (having reigned, formally illegally, since 1762). - RBW
Wild speculation with no chance of being proven or disproven: Katherine the Great was Czarina when the Russians took the Crimea in 18C. Is the Catrin reference noted above a misconception by a singer that she was Czarina in 1855 during the Crimean War? - BS
Ben and I came the the Catherine the Great speculation independently (which is why I am leaving in both of our semi-redundant notes). My feeling is that the reference is simply a holdover from an earlier form of the song written when Catherine was still alive. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD61123

Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail) [Laws E17]

DESCRIPTION: The singer has been a criminal (robber and pickpocket) from his youth. Eventually he lands in prison, facing an extended sentence. A typical opening has the singer dreaming of younger days, only to wake up in (Logan/Dallas/Ramsey/Anywhere) County Jail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: crime prison youth
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws E17, "Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail)" (sample text in NAB, pp. 76-77)
Randolph 135, "The Dallas County Jail" (4 texts plus an excerpt, 3 tunes)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 35, "Last Night As I Lye Sleeping" (1 tect)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 59, pp. 185-186, "Bob Sims" (1 text)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 57, "Sporting Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 42, "Logan County Court House" (3 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 34, pp. 61-62, "When I Was a Small Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 336, "When I Was a Little Boy, I Lived at Market Square" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 186, "Ramsey County Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 23-25, "Jackson County Jail" (1 text, heavily localized but probably based on this)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 443-444, "Jackson County Jail" (1 text, heavily localized but probably based on this); pp. 464-465, "Ramsey County Jail" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 241-242, "The Sporting Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 285-286, "The Prisoner's Dream" (1 text); also pp. 286-287, "Jack o' Diamonds" (1 text, mostly the "Jack of Diamonds" variant of "Rye Whiskey," but with material from this song)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 130, "At the Jail" (2 texts, 1 tune; the result looks to me to be a mix between this and "Danville Girl," though it's one of those vague cases....)
DT 739, DALLJAIL* LGANJAIL RAMSJAIL*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 20, #5 (1971), p, 19, "Sporting Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune, the Watts & Wilson version)
Roud #691 and 9063
RECORDINGS:
Allen Brothers "Prisoner's Dream" (Victor V-40210, 1930) (Vocalion 02874, 1934) (one of these is on RoughWays1, but it's not clear which; the liner notes date it "1928")
Blue Sky Boys, "The Prisoner's Dream" (Bluebird B-7411/Montgomery Ward M-7468, 1938)
Carl & Harty, "The Prisoner's Dream" (Melotone 7-01-53, 1937)
Gooby Jenkins, "The Prisoner's Dream" (OKeh 45082, 1927; rec. 1926)
Glenn Ohrlin, "The Sporting Cowboy" (on Ohrlin01)
Shelton Brothers, "The Prisoner's Dream" (Decca 5381, 1937)
Hobart Smith, "Hawkins County Jail" (on LomaxCD1700, LomaxCD1705)
Weaver and Wiggins (pseudonyms for Wilmer Watts & Frank Wilson), "The Sporting Cowboy" (Broadway 8112, c. 1931; on WhenIWas1 [as Watts & Wilson])
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Moonshiner's Dream" (theme, lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Blue Sky Boys, "Answer to Prisoner's Dream" (Bluebird B-7411/ Montgomery Ward M-7469, 1938)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Moundsville Prisoner
NOTES [110 words]: Most of the Laws ballads have clearly defined boundaries and distinct plots. This one is rather an exception. By its nature, it has attracted a lot of extra verses, and (perhaps as a result) also sometimes has pieces fall off. Laws himself discusses this point in NAB, pp. 77-79.
Roud, curiously, splits off the Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin "Ramsey County Jail" and the McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks "Jackson County Jail" from the rest of this group. It is true that Peters has a "Song of a Gamboleer" verse, which is not typical of this song, but McIntosh doesn't, and the general form certainly seems to make it part of this family. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: LE17

Logan Temple

DESCRIPTION: "There's a mound in the midst of our city That is lovely and grand to behold. It was placed there by God for a purpose More precious than silver or gold." "A beautiful Temple of God, It will help us gain our salvation." It was built for living and dead
AUTHOR: H. G. Stevens (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious | Temple Mormon building
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 127-128, "Logan Temple" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10856
NOTES [132 words]: The final verse of this begins
It was built for giving endowments
To the living as well as the dead
And these are the things that's celestial
As the Prophet Elijah has said.
This fits in fairly well with the Saints' belief in the afterlife and reincarnation and resurrection of the dead. The reference to things celestial seems to be an allusion to 1 Corinthians 15:40, which in the King James version reads "There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another." But this is the only use in the King James Bible of the word "celestial"; Elijah never said anything that faintly resembled this. Perhaps it's a reference to some Mormon doctrine? -- note that "celestial marriage" was a term for polygamy. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS127

Logan Water

DESCRIPTION: On Logan's banks the singer "helpit a bonnie lassie on wi' her claes" but then she deceived him. If he had known he would have "bang'd her belly fou... And hae shew'd her the way to Logan-kirk."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: sex clothes trick
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1122, "Logan Banks and Logan Braes" (4 fragments, 2 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 153, "Locher Banks and Locher Braes" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 24, ("Ae simmer night on Logan braes") [three line fragment]
ADDITIONAL: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (facsimile of (Edinburgh,1776) with an "Appendix ... containing the pieces substituted in the 1791 reprint for those omitted of the 1776 edition, &c.") ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, p. 230, ("Logan-water and Logan-braes") (1 text)
Roud #6843
NOTES [61 words]: Whitelaw quotes his fragment in explaining the prehistory of John Mayne's "Logan Braes": "The tune of 'Logan Water,' to which ... ['Logan Braes' is] adapted, is of considerable antiquity, and, before the production of Mayne, used to be sung to the words of by no means a scrupulous character beginning [text]."
Greig/Duncan6 text count includes one verse on p. 549. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD61122

Logan's Bright Water

See The Star of Glengary (File: OCon011)

Logan's Lament

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the happy lives of various creatures, then turns to his own unhappy lot. His wife, children, and people have been destroyed by the white man. He vows to "dig up my hatchet and bend my oak bow...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (fragment in Sanders' Fourth Reader)
KEYWORDS: animal Indians(Am.) homicide revenge
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 112, "The Blackbird, or Logan's Lament" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, pp. 147-149, "Logan's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 128-129, "Logan's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 22-23, "Logan's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST E112 (Full)
Roud #5340
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Steals of the White Man" (theme)
cf. "Jilson Setters's Indian Song" (theme)
cf. "An Old Indian (The Indian Song)"
NOTES [396 words]: Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio reports that this song is based on a speech by one Logan, the son of a white man and a Cayuga woman. His family was slain by Europeans, and he vowed revenge, igniting what is known as Lord Dunmore's War (for which see "The Battle of Point Pleasant"). When the Shawnee chief Cornstalk made peace with Dunmore (the Royal governor of Virginia) in 1775, Logan refused to give up his vengeance, and offered this speech (delivered under the Logan Elm in Pickaway County, Ohio) to back his position.
Despite its origin, the first few stanzas of this song bear an interesting similarity to Jesus's words in Matt. 8:20, Luke 9:58. - RBW
Logan, a chief of the Mingo tribe, was raised a Christian, and the beginning of his oration under the elm is a clear paraphrase of the cited passages from the Bible. A biography of Logan, and the full text of his speech, may be found in Walter G. Shotwell's Driftwood (1927, reprinted 1966 by the Books for Libraries Press, Freeport, NY). - PJS
John Alexander Williams, West Virginia: A Bicentennial History, W. W. Norton & Co., 1976, p. 16, gives this summary of the events that led to Lord Dunmore's War. It began with "the murder on April 30, 1774, at a place neaer the tip of modern West Virginia's Northern Panhandle, of ten Indians, including two women, all killed and scalped by whites. Several versions of the massacre circulated on the frontier, but they all emphasized the fact that the victims belonged to the household of a Mingo chieftain[,] Tah-gah-jute, a baptized Indian who was known by his English name, Logan. Logan had always lived among the white peacefully, supporting his family by killing deer and dressing and selling the skins. Now he took to the warpath, taking many scalps in four widely separated raids on the Virginia and Pennsylvania frontiers. Dunmore blamed a settler named Daniel Greathouse for the outrage. Logan blamed Michael Cresap, a Maryland soldier and land speculator who was in the habit of building cabins along the Ohio as a means of securing land. Cresap was indeed in the vicinity of the massacre as part of a surveying party, but the evidence suggested that he was almost certainly innocent of the charge. Logan's assertion points up the fact that from the Indian's standpoint it hardly mattered who menaced him. Speculator or settler, the result was the same." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: E112

Logger's Alphabet, The

DESCRIPTION: A song by which lumbermen remember the alphabet and tell of their "merry" lives: "A is for axes as all of you know / And B is for boys who can use them also.... So merry, so merry, so merry are we / No mortals on earth are as happy as we"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Maine Sportsman, Volume XI, No. 126, February 1904, according to Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: logger nonballad lumbering wordplay | alphabet
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (26 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 207-208, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a sort of personalized appendix, "The Shantyboy's Song," on p. 209)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 112-113, "Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 169-171, "The Woodsman's Alphabet" (1 text plus several variants, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 235-237, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 30-32, "THe Lumberman's Alphabet" (2 texts)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 265-266, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 3, "The Woodsman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, pp. 59-60, "The Lumberjack's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 262-263, "(no title)" (1 text plus a few variant lines)
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 10-14, "The Alphabet Song" (3 texts, the "A" text being from the Maine Sportsman and the "C" text from JAFL XXXV)
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 6, "The Shanty-Man's Alphabet" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 6, "The Shanty-Man's Alphabet" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 102, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text plus an excerpt and mention of 5 more)
Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs, p. 14, "Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #1 , "The Shantyboy's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 168-170, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 98, "Alphabet Song (Lumberman's)" (1 text; the "A" and "B" texts in this entry are "The Sailor's Alphabet")
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 87-90, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 82, "The Lumberman's Alphabet (The Axe-Handle Song)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 564-565, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 5, "Alphabet Song" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 33-36, "Alphabet Song" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 13, "Alphabet Song" (2 texts)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 173-175, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 335-336, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (1 text)
DT, LUMBALPH*
Roud #21101
RECORDINGS:
Sam Campbell, "The Shantyboys' Alphabet" (on Lumber01)
Sam Eskin, "Lumberman's Alphabet" (on GrowOn3)
Rachel Gall, "The Lumberjack's Waltz" (Piotr-Archive #630, recorded 08/05/2023; learned from Tom Hanford, who also recorded it in the Piotr archive)
Tom Hanford, "Lumberman's Alphabet" (Piotr-Archive #649, recorded 08/16/2023)
Wilmot MacDonald, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (on Miramichi1)
Martin Reddigan, "Lumberman's Alphabet" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Gus Schaffer, "Lumberjack's Alphabet" (on AFS, 1938; on LC56)
Marge Steiner, "The Lumberman's Alphabet" (on Steiner01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailor's Alphabet" (subject)
cf. "The Bawdy Alphabet" (subject)
cf. "A Is for Apple Pie" (subject)
cf. "Alphabet Song (I)" (subject)
cf. "The Average Boy" (subject)
cf. "Alphabet Songs" (subject)
cf. "Building a Slide" (tune, lyrics)
cf. "The Fisherman's Alphabet" (subject and structure)
cf. "Air Force Alphabet" (subject)
cf. "The Army Song" (subject)
cf. "The Bargeman's Alphabet" (subject)
cf. "The Artillery Alphabet" (subject)
NOTES [106 words]: Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland claims that there are unprintable versions of this song, but it's not clear (since she doesn't print them) whether they are really lumber-camp versions or just forms of the various bawdy alphabets.
She also says that the song has been attributed to Larry Gorman -- but what hasn't been?
Although all collections of this song appear to be from the twentieth century, chances are that it dates from the 1860s or earlier; by the 1870s, the crosscut saw was replacing the axe as the standard method for felling trees -- but most versions of this have multiple references to axes and few if any to saws. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Doe207

Logger's Boast, The

See Once More A-Lumbering Go (File: Wa031)

Logger's Sweetheart, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, yes, my dear, I'm a logger, And I am lonesome too, For I recently lost my true love; She much resembled you." They talk about their fiery lievs in the cold climate, mostly boasting of impossibilities. The two have an exaggerated married life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1992 (Nash/Scofield)
KEYWORDS: love courting lumbering humorous drink children derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Tom Nash and Twilo Scofield, _The Well-Travelled Casket: Oregon Folklore_, Meadowlark Press, 1999, p. 66, "The Logger's Sweetheart" (1 text, tune implied)
Roud #5471
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Frozen Logger" (tune, ideas)
File: NaSc066

Loggers' Plight, The

DESCRIPTION: Landon Ladd comes to Newfoundland, forms a logger union, and calls a loggers' strike; some are thrown in jail. Premier Smallwood insists Ladd leave and that a new union be formed with Maxwell Lane to lead the way and come to terms with A.N.D.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: strike lumbering labor-movement Canada
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1959 - the [US-controlled] IWA (International Woodworkers of America [which split in 1987 into US and Canadian unions]) strikes the AND [Anglo-Newfoundland Development] company at Badger.
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 755-756, "The Loggers' Plight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9801
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Nicolle, "The Loggers' Plight" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The I. W. A. Strike" (subject of the I. W. A. Strike)
NOTES [1381 words]: The "on-ramp for K-12 school Web pages in Newfoundland and Labrador" site includes the background about the logging industry at Point Leamington and the strike.
"Throughout its history Point Leamington has been linked directly to the forest industry, and... many of the town's residents were -- and still are -- involved with logging camps and sawmill operations. Many men in the town and the surrounding communities worked at logging camps operated by... locals. The wood from these logging operations supplied the raw material needed to make newsprint by the AND Co. Paper Mill at Grand Falls.... Also, many of the locals operated sawmills within the Point Leamington area and employed many of the town's men.
"Over the years many men from Point Leamington were employed in the lumber woods and the seasonal trek to the logging camps in the fall and winter became a way of life.
"However, the wages and the living conditions in the early camps were far from adequate, and despite several attempts to improve those conditions, when the International Woodworkers of America (I.W.A.) arrived in the province in the late 1950's working conditions were still far from ideal.
"Although Landon Ladd's attempt at organizing the Nfld loggers into his union failed following the bitter strike of 1959, the Commission of Enquiry on the Logging Industry that followed in 1961 addressed the conditions of the camps, and this eventually led to improved conditions for loggers. Within a few years most of the recommendations of the Commission had been implemented, and many loggers attribute the improved working and living conditions in the logging camps (either directly or indirectly) to the I.W.A. strike of 1959."
Point Leamington, Grand Falls, and towns often mentioned in Newfoundland logging songs, like Badger -- originally Badger Brook -- and Bishops Falls are about 270 miles northwest of St John's on TC-1, not far from Bonavista Bay on the northeast coast.
The St. Mark's School site, in its biography of Newfoundland Premier Joseph Smallwood, states "On March 1959, a tragedy at the small town of Badger where striking loggers clashed with police officers. One member of the Newfoundland constabulary was clubbed and later died. Joey, who had opposed the strike and decertified the union a few days before, made him into a martyr. Joseph from then on consorted with corporate tycoons and devoted himself to large industrial endeavours like the Churchill Falls power project." St. Marks school is in King's Cove, Newfoundland, and serves grades K-12 for the northern section of the Bonavista Peninsula.
The IWA.CA site presents a view of the strike not in accord with the ballad. "In 1958, the Eastern Canadian Regional Council [of the IWA] organized loggers in Newfoundland and confronted the hostile government of Joey Smallwood who passed legislation decertifying and outlawing the IWA. In March 1959, battalions of RCMP marched on strikers in Badger, beating workers unconscious as women and children screamed. During the confrontation an officer was killed and a logger charged, later to be acquitted."
Peacock discusses the main characters of the ballad. "Landon Ladd is the local union representative sent in by the International Woodworkers of America to organize the loggers. Maxwell Lane is the head of the local union set up by Premier Smallwood to rid Newfoundland of alleged 'union gangsterism' emanating from the United States."
Peacock collected "The Loggers' Plight" at Rocky Harbour in July 1959. Rocky Harbour is on the northwest coast of Newfoundland. - BS
For more on the early history of AND, see the notes to "The Badger Drive."
DictNewfLabrador, p. 193, says that Harvey Alexander Landon Ladd was born in 1917 in Vancouver, and was a British Columbia labor organizer before joining the IWA in 1947 to lead its operations in eastern Canada. When Newfoundland joined Canada, it fell into his region. "The IWA had entered Newfoundland in 1956, when an organizing team had been sent to the province. A long inter-union battle had followed between the IWA, seeking to win the support of Newfoundland loggers, and a number of local unions, seeking to maintain the right they had established for themselves to represent the loggers' interests. In this struggle the IWA had been ably led by H. Landon Lad... A tough, experienced and determined unionist, schooled in the militant traditions of the west coast labour movement, Ladd had advanced the cause of the union on many fronts" (Hiller/Neary, p. 219).
In 1957, the lumbermen of Newfoundland's AND Company joined the IWA (DictNewfLabrador, p. 193). They struck against AND on December 31, 1958. This contributed to making 1959 "one of the most turbulent years in Newfoundland's troubled political history" (Hiller/Neary p. 219).
It is supremely ironic that Joey Smallwood, whose one big political idea was to have Newfoundland join Canada, called the IWA "outsiders" when they organized a strike in Newfoundland. "It [Landon's organizing of the strike] did strange things to Joey's soul" (Major, p. 418). "The strike proved long and bitter. On the company side there was a determination to keep out the IWA whose resources contrasted sharply with those of the local unions it was seeking to displace; on the union side victory was essential if the IWA was to maintain the foothold it has so painfully bought in the province" (Hiller/Neary, p. 219).
Major, p. 418, says that women were heavily involved in the strike -- a significant step forward for women's rights -- and that that upset Smallwood, too.
In February 1959, Smallwood radically altered things. "[T]he deadlock was finally broken when Smallwood sensationally intervened in the strike on the evening of 12 February in a highly emotional speech heard throughout the province. Accusing the IWA of lawlessness and of threatening the provincial economy, Smallwood called on the loggers to drive the union from Newfoundland. In language strikingly reminiscent of the nativism which had surfaced during other great confrontations between capital and labour in Canadian history, Smallwood characterized the IWA as a subversive outside influence incompatible with the Newfoundland way of life. 'How dare these outsiders,' he declared, come into this decent Christian Province and by such desperate, such terrible methods try to seize control of our Province's main industry'" (Hiller/Neary, p. 220). On February 23, Smallwood introduced a resolution condemning the IWA in the Newfoundland legislature (Hiller/Neary, p. 221). Major, p. 418 calls Smallwood's new rules "some of the most repressive labour legislation ever seen in Canada."
Smallwood would later call on the Canadian government to send in the Mounties, provoking a crisis in Canada's federal government (which eventually refused the request) and leading the head of the RCMP to resign (Hiller/Neary, p. 222).
Little wonder, with the Newfoundland government making such statements and acting in such a way, that the strikers clashed with the authorities; constable William Moss (1935-1959) was injured at Badger on March 10, 1959 and died on March 10 without regaining consciousness. (DictNewfLabrador, pp. 194, 236; Major, pp. 418-419, says that he was "the only member of the Newfoundland Constabulary to have ever lost his life in the line of duty"). Public opinion was now so strong against the strike that Ladd told the lumbermen to leave his union and join Smallwood's pet union the Newfoundland Brotherhood of Woodworkers (NBWW), which had been founded on March 25 by Smallwood's own government.
The NBWW was led by C. Max Lane, who was general secretary of the Newfoundland Foundation of Fishermen 1951-1961; he also kept the NBWW job until 1961, after which he became Smallwood's Minister of Public Works (DictNewfLabrador, p. 197). It all sounds very Communist to me: the government-run trade union replaced the actual independent trade union. But that's pretty typical of Smallwood, who went from supporter of the small man to petty tyrant in his quarter century in power. For another example, see "The Blow Below the Belt." The conflict arguably helped Smallwood's political position; it split the Newfoundland branch of the Progressive Conservatives (Hiller/Neary, pp. 222-223). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea755

Logging on Bear Fork

DESCRIPTION: "In 1845, I thought myself quite lucky to find myself alive," so the singer goes out skidding logs. He soon gets drunk and heads off to a dance. Eventually he and a friend sleep it off. The singer asks, "Don't tell no tales on me and Miss Heckert"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5)
KEYWORDS: logger lumbering work music drink dancing floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 37-40, "Logging on Bear Fork" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7053
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Backwoodsman (The Green Mountain Boys)" [Laws C19] (plot)
cf. "In Eighteen Forty-Nine" ("In17XX/18XX I found myself quite lucky to be alive" lyrics) and references there
NOTES [46 words]: This is so close to "The Backwoodsman (The Green Mountain Boys)" [Laws C19] that I probably would have considered it just a localized version. But Steve Roud, who is a lumper, splits them, so I too list it separately. But certainly see "The Backwoodsman" for similar songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BWV5037

Logie O Buchan

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that "they have taken away Jemy the delight of the yard." She has been offered the hand of wealthy Sandy, but prefers to wait for her beloved Jemy. Before he left, he gave her half of his only sixpence
AUTHOR: George Halket? (1736-1756) (source: Buchan)
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation poverty brokentoken
FOUND IN: US(SE) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 197-198, "O Logie o Buchan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 55, pp. 171-172, "Logie o' Buchan" (1 short and much-damaged text)
Greig/Duncan4 828, "Logie o' Buchan" (1 text plus a second version on pp. 549-550)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 443, "Logie o' Buchan" (1 text)
DT, LOGIBUCH*
ADDITIONAL: Peter Buchan, Gleanings of Scarce Old Ballads (Peterhead: A. Sangster and G. Mudie, 1825 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 175-176,211-215, "Logie o' Buchan"
Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #340, pp. 571-572, "Logie o' Buchan" (by George Halket)
ADDITIONAL: The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany: Containing a Selection of the Most Fashionable Songs, with Many Originals, Not Inserted in Ashburner's Vocal and Poetic Repository, G. Ashburner, Ulverston, 1812 (available on Google Books), p. 116, "O Logie of Buchan" (1 text)
Roud #1994
SAME TUNE:
Union for Ever ("Ye sons of Liberty assert your birthright," by "D. K. 42nd Regiment NYSV; tune listed as "Logic of Buckam," which is surely this) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 163)
File: SWMS197

Lohengrin

See Here Comes the Bride (Parody) (File: ZiZa113C)

Lollie Trudom

See Lolly-Too-Dum (File: LxU012)

Lollipop

See Lollypop (File: ACSF125L)

Lolly Too-Dum

See Lolly-Too-Dum (File: LxU012)

Lolly Trudom

See Lolly-Too-Dum (File: LxU012)

Lolly-Too-Dum

DESCRIPTION: Daughter comes to mother, asking to be married. Mother, after pointing out she's young, asks who she will marry. Daughter says, "Handsome Dan" -- or any of forty more if he's not available. (The daughter marries, and mother looks for a husband herself)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: marriage loneliness courting mother
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 266, "Mother and Daughter" (1 text)
Randolph 370, "Rolly Trudum" (2 texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 299-300, "Rolly Trudum" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 370A)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 134, pp.280-281 , "Rolly Trudam" (1 text)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 78, "Lollie Trudom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 189, "Lolly Trudom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 214-216, "Rolly Troodum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 122-123, "Rolly Troodum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 83, pp. 133-134, "Handsome Sam" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 81-83, "Lolly-Tu-Dum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 12, "Lolly-Too-Dum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 126-127, "Lolly Too-Dum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 138-139, "Lolly Too Dum" (2 texts, 1 tune, but the first is "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 344, "Lolly-Too-Dum" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Horton Barker: Folk Singer Supreme," Vol. XXII, No. 4 (Nov 1974), p. 149, "Rollie Trudum" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 57, "Lolly Too Dum" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 42, "Rolla Trudum" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LLYTOODM*
Roud #441
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "Rolly Trudum" (on Barker01)
May Kennedy McCord, "Rolly Trudum" (AFS; on LC12)
Pete Seeger, "Lolly Too Dum" (on PeteSeeger32)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Must And Will Get Married (The Fit)" (theme)
NOTES [41 words]: This song is named for its chorus, "Lolly-too-dum, lolly-too-dum-day." Thematically, it is identical to "I Must And Will Get Married (The Fit)," but the stanza form is different enough that I have separated them. (Roud, of course, lumps them.) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LxU012

Lolly-Tu-Dum

See Lolly-Too-Dum (File: LxU012)

Lollypop

DESCRIPTION: "L-O- double L- Y-P-O-P spells lollipop... That’s the only kind of candy... The guy who made it was a dandy. L-O- double L- I-P-O-P you’ll see... It’s a lick upon a stick guaranteed to get you sick." Other words, or a camp name, may also be spelled
AUTHOR: Music ("Harrigan, That's Me") by George M. Cohan
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: food wordplay nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 162-163, "Davenport" (1 text, tune referenced, consisting of the verses of "Davenport," "Castor Oil," and "Lollypop")
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 125, 133, 134, 228, 265-266-275, 346, 347, 348, 431, 500, "Lollypop" (notes, plus 6 texts labeled "Lollypop" on pp. 270-275; of these six, the "Lollypop" verse is found in A, C, D, E, F; "Castor Oil" is in A, D, E; "Davenport" is in D; and A, B, C, E, F have other material as well; bibliography on pp. 671-673)
Roud #37845
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Harrigan" (tune) and references there
File: ACSF125L

Lollypop Song, The

See I'd Rather Suck on a Lemon Drop (File: ACSF268L)

Lolotte

DESCRIPTION: Creole French, in praise of Lolotte. "Pauve piti Lolotte a mouin (x3), Li gaignin doulair." "Calalou porte madrasse, le porte jipun garni" (x2). "Pauve piti Lolotte a mouin... Li gaignin doulair, doulair, doulair... dans cour a li."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 112, "Lolotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: AWG112

Lomonds High, The

DESCRIPTION: Driving home his father's cows the singer meets a girl going to meet "friends" in Dumferline. His brother William is against the match but he proposes, she accepts, they marry and live happily "for he's been constant and she's been true"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love marriage farming
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #168, p. 1, "The Lomonds High" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 969, "The Lomonds High" (1 text)
Roud #6298
NOTES [25 words]: Greig: "The Lomonds are hills on the borders of Fife and Kinross, not to be confounded with Ben Lomond in the North-west corner of Stirlingshire." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5969

London 'Prentice, The

See The Valiant London Apprentice [Laws Q38] (File: LQ38)

London Bridge Is Broken Down

See London Bridge Is Falling Down (File: R578)

London Bridge Is Falling Down

DESCRIPTION: Upon learning that "London Bridge is (falling/broken) down," the singers must decide what to do, e.g. "Shall we build it up again?" "Mud and clay will wash away" "Iron and stone will stand alone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1744 (Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book)
KEYWORDS: playparty technology
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 64-65=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 221-222, "London Bridge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 578, "London Bridge is Falling Down" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, p. 45, "London Bridge" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 34-36, "London Bridge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, pp. 532-533, "London Bridge" (2 short texts, 2 tunes)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 8, "London Bridge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H48h, pp. 11-12, "Broken Bridges" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, p. 189, (no title; part of a section called "Granny London Tells About Old Times") (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 135, "London Bridge" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 244, (no title) (1 short text)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 109-110, "London Bridge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 81, "London Bridge" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 306, "London Bridge is broken down" (4 texts)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 8, "London Bridge" (6 texts, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #150, "London Bridge" (5 texts, 1 tune); #184, "London Bridge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, pp. 22-23, "London Bridge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 294-295, "London Bridge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #641, pp. 254-255, "(London Bridge)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 115, "London Bridge Is Falling Down" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 131, "London Bridge is Falling Down" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1566, "London Bridge" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 33, "(London Bridge is broken down)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 34, "(London Bridge is falling down)" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 337+, "London Bridge"
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #68, "London Bridge" (1 text)
ST R578 (Full)
Roud #502
RECORDINGS:
Pratt children and friends, "London Bridge" (on Ritchie03)
Pete Seeger, "London Bridge" (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rock-A-By Ladies" (tune & meter)
cf. "Watch and Chain" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Greenberg Shop is Moving South (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 126 note)
NOTES [685 words]: The notes in Baring-Gould mention the hypothesis that this pertains to the breaking of London Bridge by Olaf of Norway in the reign of Ethelred II Unraed ("the Unready," c. 978-1016). Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel even mentions a Norse poem on the subject, a translation of which begins:
London Bridge is broken down,
Gold is won, and bright renown,
Shields resounding, war horns sounding,
Hildur shouting through the din....
The situation is this: In 1013, the Viking king Swein Forkbeard had driven Ethelred (also spelled Aethelred) out of England. But Swein died in 1013, and in the uncertainty that followed, Ethelred was called back. From there, O'Brien, p. 86, takes up the account:
"In the spring of 1014, Aethelred returned to England. But resuming control of the country was not, apparently, an entirely straightforward exercise.... [H]e and his Norwegian ally Olaf Haroldsson encountered major problems around London.... The biggest obstacle there was London's bridge.... In occupying this large wooden structure the Dan[ish defenders] had a great strategic advantage and were able to check any naval attacks from the River Thames below. Olaf, however, had an ingenious solution. He sneaked up to the bridge, fastened cables around the piles that supported it, and took those lines to ships waiting downstream. When the tide was right, his oarsmen rowed with all their might, the bridge fell and London was liberated."
Of course, there are three problems with this. First, any song about an event in the reign of Ethelred II would have to be in Old English, and would have to survive for roughly 750 years without leaving any trace in the records, and it would have to adapt from Old English to Middle English to Modern English. That is difficult enough, but perhaps possible.
The second problem is that the history here is dubious. Linklater, p. 137, tells us that "In the [Norse saga about the event] there is a detailed description of how [Olaf] broke down London Bridge and stormed the Danish positions in Southwark... though it is difficult to accommodate these stirring operations in the English narrative of events."
There is, in fact, no hint of the event in our primary English source, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (see Swanton, pp. 142-146, especially p. 145). The source for the story is Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla, a saga of the Norse kings. But Snorri was born in 1179, and wrote his saga some two centuries after the events he narrates. And we know from his other works that he did not always follow his sources very closely anyway (Snorri/Young, p. 12). The reliability of the tradition is very questionable.
The third and final problem is -- I don't think this is possible. Without details on the construction of the bridge, and of the ropes used, I cannot prove this. But a bridge, to stand at all, had to be firmly footed in the river bottom. To pull it *up* from its footings would be possible with enough energy. But to pull it off its footings from the side would take a tremendous amount of power. I doubt even tides plus oars could supply that power. Alternately, the ropes might break the wooden supports -- this is a greater possibility, but I suspect the ropes would break before the pilings did. Perhaps the bridge did fall in 1014 -- but far more likely that it was burned or broken than that it was pulled off its foundations.
Thus the idea that this song connects to an event is dubious. Simpson/Roud, p. 216, don't even mention the notion. Gomme mentions it only in passing. The Opies, in their extremely extensive notes, talk about foreign analogs (some of them much older than the earliest English versions), and bridges dedicated or mortared with blood, and note Carey's use of this in "Namby Pamby," but ignore King Ethelred. And I mention it only with long, wearisome footnotes like these.
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons lists other suggestions: That the song is about human sacrifice, and that the Fair Lady is Matilda of Scotland, wife of Henry I; Eleanor of Provence, wife of Henry III; or a member of the Leigh family of Warwickshire. None of these seems very likely. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: R578

London City (I)

See The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: LP24)

London City (II)

See The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)

London Convict Maid, The

See The Convict Maid (File: FaE026)

London Heiress, The (The Brisk and Lively Lad)

DESCRIPTION: An heiress loves a farmer's son. Her father has him sent to the battle front. He is severely wounded. She is Captain's waiting maid in the hospital. She buys his discharge. They return to Ireland. She tells her father she will live with her lover.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1132))
KEYWORDS: love marriage army war reunion separation injury father
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 220-221, "Brisk and Lively Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 72-73, "The Valiant Lady or The Brisk Young Lively Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #83, p. 2, "The Farmer's Son" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 173, "The Dublin Heiress" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 33, pp. 86-87,119,169, "The Lady Heiress and the Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 198-202, "The Ship's Carpenter" (1 text, which might be any of several love-in-disguise ballads; I file it here to conform with Roud)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #31, "The Ship Carpenter's Love to the Merchant's Daughter" (1 text)
DT, BRSKLIVE*
Roud #2930
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1132), "London Heiress" ("In London lived an heiress unto a gentleman"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 11(2187), "London Heiress"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7]" (theme) and references there
cf. "The Chatham Merchant" (theme plus reunion scene)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
In Dublin Lived an Heiress
File: MoMa033

London Lackpenny, The

DESCRIPTION: "To London once my steps I bend," and visited many people and watched many activities. But the Kentish plowman, come to seek justice, cannot enjoy the food or take part in many of the pleasures, because "for lack of money I might not speed."
AUTHOR: possibly John Lydgate (c. 1370?-C. 1451?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Bell)
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes money MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 9-14, "London Lackpenny" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3759
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #5987
ADDITIONAL: James M. Dean, _Medieval English Political Writings,_ TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1996, "In London There I Was Bent, or London Lickpenny" (1 text)
Rossell Hope Robbins, _Historical Poems of the XIVth and XVth Century_, Columbia University Press, 1959, #50, pp. 130-134, "London Lickpenny" (1 text)
W. W. Skeat, _Specimens of English LIterature from the Ploughmans Crede to the Shepheardes Calendar," Oxford, 1879, pp. 24-27
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #200, p. 446, "London Lickpenny" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Harley 367, folio 127 (folios disordered, so the poem ends on folio 126!)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Harley 542, folio 102
NOTES [1494 words]: Friedman, p. 37, calls this the "best known of all pseudo-ballads" -- a term by which he means the transitional types of poems which led from French "ballades," which had a strict form rarely used in English, to the usual English four-line ballad stanzas.
Most older sources agree in attributing this piece (it is surely not a ballad) to John Lydgate, but Chambers, p. 117, considers this doubtful, and Pearsall, p. 218 (who calls it a "masterpiece of fifteenth century low satire") says that "we must admit that he did not" write it -- though he also says that Lydgate was capable of things (few others would agree). Robbins, p. 320, says bluntly, "The attribution to Lydfate, 'one of the freaks of literature,' rests on this MS. [Harley 367, which prefaces it, "A ballade compyled by Dan Iohn Lydgate, monke of Bury, about ... yeres agoo, and now newly ouersene and amended"]. The poem is not by Lydgate; and the rubric is of interest in showing how his name became attached to any medieval poem." Friedman, p. 38, cites others who reject Lydgate's authorship. Renoir never even mentions the poem.
Although John Lydgate was a very prolific writer, and one whose works survive in very many copies, our knowledge of him is relatively slight; most of what we know comes from the publication dates of his works. According to Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 328, his name comes from his birthplace of Lydgate in Suffolk.
According to NewCentury, p. 709, he was "one of the most prolific [poets] in the history of English letters. He was ordained as a priest in 1387, and gained a position as poet at the court of Henry IV, which he held during the reign of Henry V and after the accession of Henry VI." He is also supposed to have been patronized by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and to have known Chaucer. Benet, p. 660, says he also knew the Earl of Warwick, and was known for his allegorical forms.
Kunitz/Haycraft however give the date of his ordination as 1397.
Neither his birth date nor his death date is known; Renoir, p. 1, suggests 1370-1450. The last positive record of him is in 1446, when he was given a pension (Renoir, p. 145 n. 1).
Kunitz/Haycraft declare "Lydgate is at his best in his beast fables, his ballads, and in such brief humorous poems as London Lickpenny (not "Lackpenny" as sometimes given)." They snidely remark that he might have been a better poet if he had spent more time studying Chaucer and less time spitting out his own verses. They add that "his chief characteristic is dullness." Pearsall, p. 7, says that he is often charged with being prolix and dull, adding that "Prolixity is certainly a characteristic feature of Lydgate's style. No poet can mar time with such profuse demonstrations of energy, can so readily make twenty words do the work of one. Sometimes it is difficult to slow down the processes of mind to the breathless snail's pace of his verse." Even Joseph Ritson, that perpetual fan of the antique, labeled him a "voluminous, prosaick, and driveling monk" (Patterson, p. 4).
Bennett's tart comment on pp. 110-111 is that Lydgate "may well serve as a horrid example of the worst that [the contemporary society's system of supporting authors] could evolve." "He showed distinct powers of welding together words and phrases into collections which had all the appearance of verse, and he had an intolerable glibness and an indomitable energy, which enabled him to essay tasks which a more sensitive man, or one 'charged with children and chief lordes rent,' would not have dared to attempt." His total output is estimated at 145,000 lines of verse (Pearsall, p. 4, who calculates this as twice Shakespeare's output, and three times Chaucer's),
And he actually had the audacity to write a new Canterbury Tale, narrating it in his own voice; it was the first tale of the return from Canterbury (Lydgate/Edwards, p. 1)..This was The Siege of Thebes, and it clocks in at 4716 lines -- twice the line count of "The Knight's Tale," the longest of the genuine tales. Lydgate isn't the only author to create a bogus Canterbury Tale, but the others are generally attempts to fill in gaps in the incomplete Tales, and they are anonymous. Only Lydgate had the arrogance to think he could stand up to Chaucer. He was wrong. As NewCentury says, "Most of his longer works, like the Troy Book, are translations. Modern readers find them interminable and tedious, but many of his shorter poems may still be read with pleasure."
"Interminable" seems a suitable word. For example, the Troy Book is based on Guido della Colonna's Historia Destructionis Troiae. Lydgate's is one of three translations into Middle English, all roughly contemporary. The other two, according to Pearsall, pp. 126-127, are about 14,000 and 18,500 lines long. Lydgate managed to pad his version out to more than 30,000 lines. Even "London Lackpenny," though it has an interesting premise, continues it too long; there is a bit of Lydgate in that trait. Bell calls Lydgate "frequently difficult and tedious... [but] rarely obscure, and generally distinguished by ease and fluency." This is certainly true by comparison to his contemporaries; as Chambers notes on pp. 115-116, this was the period when many poets were taking Latin words and sticking an English ending on them and pretending they made sense.
As proof of Lydgate's prolixity, I offer the first sentence of the sequel to the Troy Book, The Siege of Thebes. The first sentence of this (as printed on pp. 29-30 of Lydgate/Edwards) is 65 lines long! It gets better after that -- the next one is only 26 lines long. Oy.
Or consider this comment by Pearsall, p. 58, "it is difficult to imagine an English sentence which contains neither subject nor predicate, but if there is one, it can probably be found at the opening of [Lydgate's] Guy of Warwick."
Nonetheless Lydgate was very popular. Bennett, p. 290, reports that we have 31 copies of Fall of Princes and 27 of The Siege of Thebes (Lydgate/Edwards lists 31 copies of the latter, but some are untraced or have only a few lines, so 27 is about right). That exceeds the number of copies of most of Chaucer's lesser works. At the beginning of the era of printing. Duff, pp. 71-77, counts twenty different editions of nine different Lydgate works published before 1500. Interestingly, it appears all of them spelled his name "Lidgate" (at this time, "i" and "y" were interchangeable).
All this leads McCarren/Moffat, p. 39, to ask, "Lydgate, for example, while not without his partisans among contemporary critics, has not achieved canonical status. But the numerous surviving copies of his work attest to his considerable medieval popularity. If we judge Lydgate to be an inferior poet, is the lack in his artistry or in our understanding?" This is a question which continues to bedevil those who compile Middle English anthologies: should they include Lydgate, because there is so much of his work, or should they omit it lest they turn off their students? As Renoir, p. 1, says, "He was one of the most prolific poets of all ages, and unquestionably the most important of his own time and country. During his mature lifetime and for more than three hundred years afterward, his countrymen ranked him on a level with the greatest poets; today, he is generalized as one of the dullest versifiers in the English language."
It's interesting that, although Lydgate wrote heavily on classical subjects, and was the leading translator of continental literature in this period (Renoir, p. vii), and had access to a great many classical volumes at Bury, his direct knowledge of classical authors seems to have been slight; Pearsall, pp. 35-37, believes he had actually read Ovid, but the other authors he knew mostly from collections of extracts (a common source of knowledge in the Middle Ages). Much of his knowledge of Troy, e.g., came from more modern rewrites, and he used French sources.
Still, Lydgate does deserve some credit for what he did for English verse. It had existed before him, of course, and Chaucer (to whom Lydgate owed a tremendous debt, most of his verse forms being Chaucerian; Pearsall, pp. 49, 51) had shown that English could be the language of great literature. Maybe Chaucer alone would have been enough to create an English literary tradition. But Lydgate, by writing in English, cemented Chaucer's triumph and made English literature a fixture (Pearsall, p. 50). He also helped establish quite a few words in English (Pearsall, p. 51).
Surprisingly for a poem attributed to Lydgate, the Index of Middle English Verse lists only two manuscript copies of this, both in the British Library, MS. Harley 367 (folios 126, 127) and Harley 542 (folio 102). Perhaps this is indirect evidence that it is not by Lydgate. On the other hand, both manuscripts contain other material attributed to Lydgate; Harley 367 has five other Lydgate pieces and the only other poem in Harley 542 is believed to be a Lydgate piece. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: BCom009

London Lawyer's Son, The

DESCRIPTION: A lawyer's son leaves his fiance for two months, returns to find her married to rich squire, and dies of broken heart. His ghost haunts her until she dies, admitting she must "answer for great offence"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: grief infidelity love marriage return separation death money ghost
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 12, "The London Lawyer's Son" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 382, "The London Lawyer's Son" (1 excerpt)
Roud #2813
NOTES [59 words]: The only other record I have seen for this song is an entry naming, and giving the first line for, a broadside sold 1800 or later in Boston: #3284, "The Perjur'd Female Lover or, London Lawyer's Son," ("Behold a London Lawyer's Son, A pretty Youth, nigh twenty-one") (Broadsides, Ballads etc Printed in Massachussetts 1639-1800 (Boston,1922), p. 434.) - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: TPS012

London Lickpenny, The

See The London Lackpenny (File: BCom009)

London Maid and Boy, The

See Young Sailor Bold (I), The (The Rich Merchant's Daughter) [Laws M19] (File: LM19)

London Prentice Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you young chaps who iive both far and near" as the 'prentice tells how his girlfriend urges him to kill her master, and threatens him if he doesn't. He gives in an does it. At his trial, she turns on him; he is transported to Van Dieman's Land
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside Bodleian Johnson Ballads 209)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal homicide transportation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 87-88, "The London 'Prentice Boy" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 58, "The London Prentice Boy" (1 text)
Roud #1501
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(184), "The Irish Transport," S. Russell (Birmingham), 1840-1851; also Firth b.34(260)=Harding B 11(3269), E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; Firth b.25(504), “The Irish Transport,” W. Jackson and Son (Birmingham), c. 1860; 2806 c.16(58)=2806 c.16(58), unknown, n.d.
File: AnFa087

London Rover, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer rides his horse from London "to get myself a dame ... lasses I saw plenty ... I told them I'd be marry'd But I never told them when." He courted a maid and a rich widow promising to marry but never told them when. He rides back to London
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1808 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 12(149))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage promise money horse rake lie
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1483, "I Never Taul Them When" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 71, "I Ride My Little Horse" (1 text)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #101, "I Rode My Little Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1045
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 12(149), "The London Rover" ("I took my little horse"), Burbage and Stretton (Nottingham), 1797-1807; also Harding B 28(257), Harding B 25(1135)[many illegible lines], Harding B 17(169b), Harding B 16(131a), 2806 c.17(233), "The London Rover"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Mounted My Neddy
File: GrD71483

London Squire, The

DESCRIPTION: A London squire in Aberdeen meets weaver's daughter Nancy. He claims that in his travels to France, Flanders and Ireland "the like o' thee I never saw before." She counts herself as good as those ladies. "That night they wedded and then they bedded"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting sex wedding beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 836, "The London Squire" (1 text)
Roud #6219
File: GrD4836

London Town

See The Ring-Dang-Doo (I) (File: EM182A)

London, Man of War, The

See Warlike Seamen (The Irish Captain) (File: DTwarlik)

London's Burning

DESCRIPTION: "London's burning, London's burning, Fetch the engines, fetch the engines. Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Pour on water, pour on water."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: fire disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1666 - The Great Fire of London
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 136, "London's Burning" (1 short text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 308, 433, "London's Burning"/Fire's Burning"/"Camp Fire's Burning" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 51, "London's Burning" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 30, "London's Burning" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Alessandra Delia-Lôbo, Cameo Delia, "London's Burning" (Piotr-Archive #394, recorded 12/18/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scotland's Burning" (lyrics)
cf. "Mother Leary's Cow" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
School's Burning
File: Dolb136

Londonderry Air

See references under Danny Boy (The Londonderry Air) (File: FSWB323)

Londonderry Love Song

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes out wandering and sees boys and girls at play. He might be with them had his girl proved true. But her father told her she must cross the seas, and with much lamenting, she consented. She sails away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation emigration father
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1862 - Wreck of the Zared, of Londonderry
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H518, p. 301, "Londonderry Love Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6898
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dreadnought" [Laws D13] (The Sam Henry text of that song describes the Zared)
NOTES [80 words]: A strange song: The father sends the girl away, but does not go with her or (apparently) offer her any means of support. One wonders if this isn't a worn-down version of something like "The Suffolk Miracle," where the father sends the daughter away because he doesn't like her lover.
If that were true, it would even explain the mention of the Zared -- the girl was coming home to her love, but drowned on the way. Very much "The Suffolk Miracle," with the genders reversed. - RBW
File: HHH518

Londonderry on the Banks of the Foyle

See Sweet Londonderry (on the Banks of the Foyle) (File: HHH813)

Lone Fish-Ball, The

See One Fish-Ball (One Meat Ball, The Lone Fish-Ball) (File: SRW074)

Lone Graveyard, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the time will come, and it won't be long, Till we leave this world for a land of song." "In the lone graveyard I will soon be laid; It will not be long until my grave is made." The singer will work on earth while alive, but looks forward to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (collected from Howell Thomas by Boswell)
KEYWORDS: religious death nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 105, pp. 160-161, "The Lone Graveyard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11027
NOTES [24 words]: I would swear that I have heard this song, with a Carter Family-style accompaniment. But I can't locate it; it must have been under some other title.
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BoWo105

Lone Green Valley, The

See The Jealous Lover (II) AND The Jealous Lover (I) (File: E104)

Lone Indian (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "'So, alas," said an Indian, "I once had a home in the far off shade where the wild deer did roam... And the steal/steals of the white man can't drive us away." He recalls father, sister, beloved, all now dead. Alone, "the last of my race," he'll die soon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) home animal death separation
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 87-88, "The Lone Indian" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "White Man, Let Me Go" (theme)
File: BWV3087

Lone Indian (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "There came a lone Indian once more to stray O'er the earth where the bands of his ancestors lay... To see where his father in battle was slain." He remembers his people's history, and how they were abused. He cries for the fate of his people
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) home exile death father battle
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 235, "The Lone Indian" (1 text)
Roud #11708
NOTES [16 words]: A surprisingly fair assessment of what the Europeans did to the First Nations of North America! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: SHoe235

Lone Pilgrim, The

See The White Pilgrim (File: R619)

Lone Prairie, The

See Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie [Laws B2] (File: LB02)

Lone Rock Mine Song

See Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line (File: ADR98)

Lone Rock Song

See Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line (File: ADR98)

Lone Shanakyle

DESCRIPTION: An exile thinks about "the murdered ... in coffinless graves" at Shanakyle and mourns for "Eireann" where "the foul Saxon's laws brought ... sorrow and shame." He is ready to return and fight: "my rifle is ready my sabre is bright"
AUTHOR: Thomas Madigan (source: IROConway01)
EARLIEST DATE: 2012 (IROConway01)
KEYWORDS: homesickness rebellion exile home return separation death Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #8138
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Conway, "Lone Shanakyle" (on IROConway01)
File: RcLoSHan

Lone Star Trail (II), The

See The Chisholm Trail (I) (File: R179)

Lone Star Trail, The

See I'm Bound to Follow the Longhorn Cows (File: LoF186)

Lone Starry Flower, The (The Lone Starry Hours)

DESCRIPTION: "O the lone starry flower, give me love, When still is the beautiful night.... Wake when I touch my guitar. When the rosy dawn comes, "I will wait for a welcome from thee." "And of if that pleasure be mine, live, We will wander together afar."
AUTHOR: Sheet Music Words: Marshall S. Pike / Music: James Power
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (sheet music, according to Huntington; it appears in the 1849 journal of hte Euphrasia, but it may have been added later)
KEYWORDS: love music nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 278-279, "The Lone Starry Flower" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 21, "The Lone Starry Hours" (1 text)
Roud #25983
NOTES [42 words]: The Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang text is very heavily modified from the original Pike/Power version, despite being contemporary with it, but I've used it as the basis of the description because it actually shows signs of being traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HGam278

Lone the Plow-Boy

See Cupid the Plowboy [Laws O7] (File: LO07)

Lone Valley

See Pretty Saro (File: R744)

Lone Widow, A

See The Widow in the Cottage by the Sea (File: R702)

Lonely Digger, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm heartsick and tired of struggle and strife, As my thoughts drift back to the twilight of life." "It's the music that haunts me wherever I go." The singer recalls the pleasures (?!) of his time as a gold miner
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2009 (Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ; reportedly collected in the 1950s)
KEYWORDS: gold mining music
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 73-74, "The Lonely Digger" (1 short text)
File: Garl073

Lonely Life a Shepherd Leads, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh the herdin' man he's a lonely one, For he always has to roam, He spends his nights out with his flock." "Wind and rain and cold and snow, He always has to go." He has no regular bed or friends. Nothing can remove his bad smell, as his wife points out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Carey)
KEYWORDS: shepherd hardtimes home drink wife
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 103, "The Lonely Life a Shepherd Leads" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Shepherds Are the Best of Men" (contrary view)
File: CaMar103

Lonely Louisa

See Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)

Lonely MIner of Wilkes-Barre, The

See Opuceny Banik z Wilks Barroch (The Lonely Miner of Wilkes-Barre) (File: KPL374)

Lonely Sarah

See The Sheffield Apprentice [Laws O39] (File: LO39)

Lonely Since My Mother Died

See I'm Lonesome Since My Mother Died (File: GrMa181)

Lonely Tombs

See Voice from the Tombs (Lonely Tombs) (File: Wa087)

Lonely Waterloo [Laws N31]

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a girl grieving for her love. She describes Willie, and the singer tells her Willie has died at Waterloo. The girl suffers terribly from grief; (in some texts he reveals himself as Willie and prepares to marry her)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: Napoleon separation grief brokentoken reunion clothes
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord)) US(MW) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws N31, "Waterloo II"
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 72-73, 151, "Bloody Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 88, "Bloody Waterloo" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 88, "Lonely Waterloo" (2 texts)
Peacock, pp. 1007-1008, "Lonely Waterloo" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 127, "Lonely Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 67, "Lonely Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 60, "The Plains of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp 87-88, "Bloody Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 390, BLDYWLOO*
ADDITIONAL: Willie Scott, "Bloody Waterloo," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1970.373,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 14 September 2013 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/67740/1
Roud #622
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Mary Dunphy, "Waterloo" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Ken Peacock, "Lonely Waterloo" (on NFKPeacock)
Willie Scott, "Bloody Waterloo" (on Voice08)
NOTES [86 words]: The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Lonely Waterloo" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001))
Harte notes that his version came back to Ireland via a singer who had seen the text in Peacock. - BS
This has recently been set to a new (and highly effective) tune by Daithi Sproule of Altan. This seems to be a song everyone wants to revive. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LN31

Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter, The [Laws H12]

DESCRIPTION: The singer insists that a girl tell him whether she will marry him or not. She will not; she has another lover. He berates her love of wealth and threatens to go away as a soldier/sailor. (In some texts she changes her mind, but the man has a new girl.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection separation
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Laws H12, "The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 195-196, "The Lonesome Scenes of Winter" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 136-137, "The Lonesome Scenes of Winter (All in the Scenes of Winter" (1 text)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 94, "The Gonesome [sic] Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 58-59, "Cold Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #65, "If One Won't Another Will" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 3, "Lonesome Seems the Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 108-109, "Lonesome Hours of Winter" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 156-157, "The Stormy Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 57, "The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 41, "The Lonesome Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 127-129, "Lonesome Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 38-39, "The Scornful Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 59-60, "All in the Scenes of Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 209-212,"Stormy Winds of Winter" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 50, "The Stormy Winds of Winter" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 445-446, "Flora" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, 650 CHILSCEN* CHILSCN2*
Roud #443
RECORDINGS:
Charlotte Decker, "Flora" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Texas Gladden, "Dark Scenes of Winter" (on USTGladden01)
John Leahy, "The Lonesome Scenes of Winter" (on ONEFowke01)
Lewis McDaniel & Walter Smith: "I Went to See My Sweetheart" (Victor 23505, 1930; on ConstSor1)
Southern Melody Boys, "Lonesome Scenes of Winter" (Montgomery Ward 7227, 1937)
NOTES [67 words]: The editors of Sam Henry's Songs of the People place H637 (p. 385, "Lovely Nancy") here -- but I frankly don't see the kinship. Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, in discussing the matter, says that a song he knows as "Proud Nancy" (I assume the same piece) has "a like theme but little verbal resemblance." Browne also thinks his "Lonesome Seems the Winter" is a separate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LH12

Lonesome Dove (I - The Minister's Lamentation)

DESCRIPTION: "As I set in that lonesome grove, Set o'er my head a little dove, For its lost mate began to coo...." The singer recalls his lost wife and daughter, killed by consumption. But he thanks God who has taken them away, and hopes to see them in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Social Harp)
KEYWORDS: death religious bird family disease children wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Randolph 607, "The Lonesome Dove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 46, "Lonesome Dove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 486, "The Dove" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 305, "The Lonesome Dove" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 305, "The Lonesome Dove" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 162-163, "The Lonesome Dove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 147, "The Lonesome Grove" (4 fragments, 4 tunes)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #49, "One Day, One Day" (1 short tect, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 77, "Lonesome Dove" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, pp. 230-231, "As I Was Waling Through the Grove (1 text, 1 tune, conflated from versions sung by Pearl Jacobs Borusky and by Maud Jacobs and Mrs. M. G. Jacobs)
Roud #3637
RECORDINGS:
Almeda Riddle, "Lonesome Dove" (on LomaxCD1707)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come All You Friends and Neighbors" (theme)
cf. "The Vulture (of the Alps)"
NOTES [34 words]: The Social Harp version of this song (1855) is credited to William C. Davis. This is certainly possible -- it is hardly a true folk song -- but since Davis might be an arranger, I do not list an author. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: R607

Lonesome Dove (II)

DESCRIPTION: Singer laments a lost love: "You've broken all your promises, Just marry whom you please." "The blackest crow that ever flew It surely will turn white." "Oh don't you see yon little dove?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Sharp)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal abandonment separation floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,SW) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 262, "The Slighted Girl" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 1-6-107, "Lonesome Dove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 50, "Lonesome Dove"; "Lonesome Turtle Dove" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 85, "Do You See That There Bird On Yonder Tree?" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
DT, (LONEDOVE) (TUTRLDOV) (TURTDOV2) TURTDOV3
NOTES [112 words]: It's hard to decide if this is really a song or a collection of floating verses. The Brown text is interesting; it begins with a verse "You need not flirt nor flounce around. There's more pretty boys than one." Then it goes through the lost love routine, and concludes "Darling, darling, do hush up! I hate to hear you cry. As other friends are having to part, And why not you and I, my love, and why not you and I?" - RBW
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs is a one verse fragment, "Do you see that bird there on yonder tree." It belongs, as Creighton notes, to some song which, she speculates, may be "George Collins" ("Lady Alice," Child 85) but I'd rather just put it here. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Br3262

Lonesome Dove (III)

See Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove) (File: Wa097)

Lonesome Grove, The

See Lonesome Dove (I - The Minister's Lamentation) (File: R607)

Lonesome Home Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Lonesome place don't seem like home to me." Blues "felt so heavy it caused my heart to moan." "I'm going back home, gonna fall on my knee, Tell the one I'm lovin', baby, sad I treat you mean."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (StuffDreams2)
KEYWORDS: loneliness love separation reunion nonballad lover
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Tommy Johnson, "Lonesome Home Blues" (on StuffDreams2)
NOTES [92 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought.
Tommy Johnson recorded two different songs under this title. The first one, recorded for Victor, was not released; the second -- this song -- was recorded by Paramount (Paramount 13000,1929). Almost all internet references are to the unreleased Victor song. Fortunately, both songs are available on Document DOCD 5001, and the words to both are on Mudcat at [thread 36701, "Lyr Req: Lonesome Home Blues (Tommy Johnson)"], accessed June 18, 2020. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcLoHoBl

Lonesome Hours of Winter

See The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter [Laws H12] (File: LH12)

Lonesome Hungry Hash House, The

See Hungry Hash House (File: San207)

Lonesome Prairie, The

See Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie [Laws B2] (File: LB02)

Lonesome Road

DESCRIPTION: "Look down (x2) that lonesome road, Hang down your head and sigh. The best of friends must part some day, And why not you and I? (x2)." "I wish to God that I had died... Before I had seen your smilin' face." Singer may be in prison, having ignored mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1923 (AbbotSwan)
KEYWORDS: courting betrayal lie floatingverses lyric prison loneliness lover
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 292, "Lonesome Road" (2 texts); also 306, "By By, My Honey" (1 text, mostly "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" though with several floating verses, including one from this song)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 292, "Lonesome Road" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 67-71, "Look Up, Look Down That Lonesome Road" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 73, "The Lonesome Road" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #53, "How Hard It Is to Love" (1 fragment, 1 tune, which could be almost anything; I file it here because Roud does)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 322-323, "Lonesome Road" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 146-147, "Long Lonesome Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 404, "Look Down that Lonesome Road" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 308, "Hattie Belle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abbot/Swan-8Negro 7, "Dat Lonesome Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 273, "Look Down" (1 tune, partial text, placed here on the basis of the first line)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 10, "That Lonesome Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 115, "Lonesome Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #824
RECORDINGS:
Luther B. Clark [or Blue Ridge Highballers], "Wish to the Lord I Had Never Been Born" (Columbia 15096-D, 1926) [note: tentative identification; I have not heard the recording]
Gaither Carlton, "Look Down That Lonesome Road" (on ClassOT)
Delmore Brothers "Look Up, Look Down That Lonesome Road" (Bluebird B-7383, 1938)
J. Paul Miles, "County Jail" (on AFS, pre-1940)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Long Lonesome Road" (on NLCR06)
Kilby Reeves, "County Jail" (on Persis1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "More Pretty Girls than One" (tune)
cf. "Lonesome Stream"
cf. "Old Alec Brown" (lyrics)
cf. "In the Pines" (lyrics)
NOTES [19 words]: Not to be confused with the (non-traditional) blues by Will Nash, "Goin' Down that Long Long Lonesome Road." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: San322

Lonesome Roving Wolves, The

DESCRIPTION: "The battalion encamped, by the side of the grove," while the battalion's hunters seek wild bulls. Around them the wolves howl. A teamster dies as they howl. They bury him deeply and light a fire over the grave to keep the wolves away
AUTHOR: Levi Hancock (source: Tyler; Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Tyler)
KEYWORDS: soldier death animal burial travel | Mormon Battalion wolves
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 46, "The Lonesome Roving Wolves" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Daniel Tyler, "A Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War," no publisher listed but copyrighted 1881 (available on Google Books), pp. 216-217, "Death and the Wolves" (1 text)
Roud #10819
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mormon Battalion Song (I)" (subject) and notes and references there
NOTES [32 words]: For background on the Mormon Battalion, see "Mormon Battalion Song."
This feels as if it's based on "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie," but I find it hard to make the words fit that tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS046

Lonesome Sea Ballad, The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Lonesome Seems the Winter

See The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter [Laws H12] (File: LH12)

Lonesome Stream

DESCRIPTION: "When you look way 'cross dat lonesome stream (x2), Way to Zion, Lawd, Lawd." "When you look way down that lonesome road." "I got a mother dead and gone." "She lef' me here to weep an' moan." "Dark cloud risin' i de east'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death mother
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 602-604, "Dat Lonesome Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15547
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lonesome Road"
NOTES [32 words]: The Lomaxes attribute this to Mississippi prisoners. I have not noted it elsewhere, though it obviously has links to "Lonesome Road." I suspect the Lomaxes may have engaged in editorial work. - RBW
File: LxA602

Lonesome Valley (I)

DESCRIPTION: "You've got to walk that lonesome valley, you've got to walk it by yourself; There's no one here can go there with you [or: walk it for you]; You've got to go there by yourself." Various floating verses about the difficult path to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Jenkins Family)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Randolph 622, "Some Folks Say John Was a Baptist" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune -- a floating verse which, based on the tune, probably belongs here)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 162, "Lonesome Valley" (1 text, 1 tune, sung and notated in three parts)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 486, "You Got To Cross It Foh Yohself" (1 text, 1 tune)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 53, "I Must Walk My Lonesome Valley" (1 text)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 196, "I Got to Lay In Yonder Graveyard" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 100, "Lonesome Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 286-287, "Uh Look Down duh Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 762, "Lonesome Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 354, "Lonesome Valley" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 62, "Lonesome Valley" (notes only)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 73, "Lonesome Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 37, "Lonesome Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Lonesome Valley" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 48A) (12th edition, p. 54)
DT, LONEVALY
Roud #7098
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff & his Crazy Tenneseans, "Lonesome Valley" (OKeh 04730/Vocalion 04730/Conqueror 9256, 1939; Conqueror 9781, 1941; rec. 1937)
Carolina Ramblers String Band, "That Lonesome Valley" (Perfect 12818/Banner 32474/Oriole 8148/Romeo 5148/Melotone 12428, 1932)
Carter Family, "Lonesome Valley" (Victor 23541, 1931; Bluebird B-6117/Montgomery Ward M-4735, 1935) (OKeh 03112, 1935; Vocalion 03112, 1935; ARC 7-07-62/Conqueror 8815, 1937; on CGospel1)
"Slim" Duckett and "Pig" Norwood, "You Gotta Stand Judgment For Yourself" (OKeh ???, 1930)
Bill Elliott, "Lonesome Valley" (Victor 23658, 1932; Montgomery Ward M-4337 [as Jim Baird], c. 1933)
Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, "Don't This Road Look Rough and Rocky" (Columbia 21334, 1954)
Elzie Floyd & Leo Boswell, "Lonesome Valley" (Columbia 15167-D, 1927; Velvet Tone 2491-V/Clarion 5439-C, 1932)
Jenkins Family, "That Lonesome Valley" (OKeh 40377, 1925)
Heavenly Gospel Singers, "Walk This Lonesome Valley" (Bluebird B-6984, 1937)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Walk That Lonesome Valley" (Bluebird B-6596/Montgomery Ward M-7007, 1936)
Curt Mann, "Lonesome Valley" (on USWarnerColl01)
[Lester] McFarland & [Robert] Gardner, "The Lonesome Valley" (Vocalion 5127, 1927)
Blind Willie McTell, "I Got to Cross the River of Jordan" (LoC, 1940, two versions; one version is on Babylon)
Blind Willie McTell, "I Got to Cross the River of Jordan" (LoC, 1940, two versions, on USWMcTell01; one version is on Babylon)
David Miller, "That Lonesome Valley" (Gennett 6175, 1927)
Mitchell's Christian Singers, "You Got to Stand Judgement" (Vocalion 04964, 1938)
Monroe Brothers, "You've Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley" (Bluebird B-6477, 1936)
Pete Seeger, "You've Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley" (on BroonzySeeger1); "Lonesome Valley" (on PeteSeeger47)
Ella Mae Wilson and Lillie B. Williams, "Trial in Judgment" (on USFlorida01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hard Trials" (floating verses)
cf. "I'm Going To Cross That Ocean By Myself" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
RECORDING: Dixie Reelers, "Lonesome Valley - Part 2" (Bluebird B-6713/Montgomery Ward M-7099, 1936)
NOTES [87 words]: The "Judgment" recordings all have the same form and tune as the "Lonesome Valley" versions. The difference is that "You've got to walk that lonesome valley... by yourself" becomes "You've got to stand your trial in judgment ... for yourself." The USFlorida01 version continues with "my father," "my son," "everybody," and so on, similar to the the Carter Family recording. Mitchell's Christian Singers use the "stand judgment" verse as a chorus the same way that Carolina String Band use the "Lonesome Valley" verse. - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Wa162

Lonesome Valley (II), The

DESCRIPTION: ""My brother, want to get religion? Go down in the lonesome valley (x4), To meet my Jesus there." "Oh, feed on milk and honey." "Oh, John he write the letter." "And Mary and Martha read 'em."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Spaulding)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 5, "The Lonesome Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H.G. Spaulding, "Under the Palmetto" in _The Continental Monthly_, Vol. 4, No. 11 (August 1863 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 199-200, ("Down in de lonesome valley") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11858
NOTES [197 words]: Spaulding is writing from Port Royal, South Carolina. - BS
This should not be confused with "Lonesome Valley (I)"; they have nothing in common except those two words.
The phrase "lonesome valley," interestingly, never occurs in the King James Bible, though the phrase would easily be suggested by Psalm 23.
There are three epistles credited to John in the New Testament -- but not one of them actually says it is from John. The assignment of authorship is based on the fact that they definitely seem to be from the same "school," and probably the same author, as the fourth gospel. And the fourth gospel is attributed to the Beloved Disciple, and the BD was surely either Peter or James or John (the three disciples who made up Jesus's inner circle), and it can't be Peter because Peter talked to the BD, and it can't be James because he was executed early on, so presumably it was John.
Even if John did write the three letters, there is absolutely no reason to connect them with Mary and Martha, since Martha is mentioned only in Luke 10 and John 11-12. (In fact, the Gospel of John never mentions John the Disciple by name; every reference to John is to John the Baptist.) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: AWG005

Long and Wishing Eye, The

See Branded Lambs [Laws O9] (File: LO09)

Long Awa' Ship, A

DESCRIPTION: The sight of an outward bound ship "wi' her white sails set to the breezes free" is fine "but to gladden the heart I am sure there's nane Like the sight of a long awa' ship coming hame"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (ONEFowke01)
KEYWORDS: return sea ship nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
RECORDINGS:
Stanley Baby, "A Long Awa' Ship" (on ONEFowke01)
File: RcALoAS

Long Barney

DESCRIPTION: Biddy Trigg meets Long Barney at an Easter fair and falls in love with him. Darby O'Brian interrupts their drinking and kissing. He and Barney fight. Barney wins. Giddy from whisky and fight, he asks Biddy to marry. She accepted. They are happily married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1862 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.11(274)) [but see Note re 1855]
KEYWORDS: courting marriage fight drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1749, "Young Barney" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13134
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(274), "Long Barney" ("Did you ever hear tell of long Barney)," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Firth c.26(254), Harding B 11(2192), 2806 c.16*(7), 2806 c.16(152) , "Long Barney"
NOTES [41 words]: Greig/Duncan8 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian 2806 b.11(274) is the basis for the description.
An 1855 broadside, NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(128a), "Come Sit Thee Down," Poet's Box (Glasgow), lists "Young Barney" in the "list of newest songs." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1749

Long Cookstown

See Nancy Whiskey (File: K279)

Long Eddy Waltz

DESCRIPTION: The singer climbs a tree, apparently to spy on lovers. His voyeurism is rewarded when a young couple appear under the tree. The man begs the girl to sleep with him. At some point, the spy lets out a whoop, and the lovers take flight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (text supplied to Logsdon by Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous request hiding sex
FOUND IN: US(MA,SW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 132, "Long Eddy Waltz" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 43, pp. 222-223, "The Oaks of Jimderia" (1 text)
DT, LONGEDDY*
Roud #10100
NOTES [148 words]: Logson connects this with "Walking in a Meadow Gren," found in the Percy Folio. I don't really see it. That is simply a song about a guy watching a couple go about their business. This piece, in both the New York and Arizona versions, has several distinct elements in addition to the voyeurism: The narrator in the tree, the crying out, and the lovers fleeing. They do differ in when the singer cried out -- but I suspect this is a deliberate clean-up of the Catskills variant.
There does not seem to be a generic title to this song, perhaps because it has so rarely been published. The "Long Eddy Waltz" title comes from Dick Edwards, the New York informant, and has no obvious relationship to the song (save that it is in triple meter). But it is the title which has been used in the Ballad Index for many years, so I am retaining it in the absence of a title with stronger claim. - RBW

File: FSC132

Long Fol-de-Rol, The

See Long Peggin' Awl, The (File: RL280)

Long Gone

See Long John (Long Gone) (File: LoF287)

Long Hot Summer Days

See Old Rattler (File: CNFM104)

Long John (Long Gone)

DESCRIPTION: "It's-a Long John, He's long gone, Like a turkey through the corn, With his long clothes on, He's gone, gone." Long John escapes from prison, and uses sundry tricks to avoid capture. He intends to keep moving
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (print reproduced by Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: prison freedom escape floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 44, pp. 77-79, "Long John Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 287, "Long John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 75-79, "Long Gone" (1 extended text, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 202-215, "Crooked-Footed John" (7 texts, 4 tunes; some of these sound like direct descendents of the commercial recordings, but others have been heavily adapted for prison life and may even incorporate other songs)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 102-103, "(Lost John)" (1 text); p. 261, "Long John" (1 tune, partial text)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 268, "Long Gone" (1 text, a reproduction of a printed version from 1920)
Handy/Silverman-BluesAnAnthology, pp. 200-202, "Long Gone" (1 text, 1 tune, heavily adapted)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 68, "Long John" (1 text)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 4, "Long John" (1 text, which I suspect has been rewritten to be more bluesy)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 407-409, "Lost John" (1 text)
ST LoF287 (Full)
Roud #11520
RECORDINGS:
Allen Brothers, "Long Gone from Bowling Green" (Vocalion 02817, 1934)
Louis Armstrong, "Long Gone (from Bowlin' Green)" (on "Louis Armstrong Plays W. C. Handy," 1954)
Eldon Baker & his Brown County Ramblers, "Lost John" (Vocalion 04217, 1938)
Richard Brooks & Riley Puckett, "Long Gone" (Brunswick 273, 1928)
[Richard] Burnett & [Leonard] Rutherford, "Lost John" (Columbia 15122-D, 1927; rec. 1926; on BurnRuth01, KMM)
Convicts at the Ramsey & Retriece State Farms, "Lost John" (on ClassAfrAm)
Ted Daffan's Texans, "Long John" (Columbia 20358, c. 1947; Columbia 37823, 1947; rec.1942)
Cousin Emmy [Cynthia May Carver], "Lost John" (Decca 24216, 1947)
Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston & Sonny Terry, "Lost John" (on Struggle2)
Sam Hinton, "Long John" (ABC-Eagle ABC-230, 1950)
J. H. Howell's Carolina Hillbillies, "Lost John" (Bluebird B-7162, 1937)
Charlie Jackson, "Long Gone Lost John" (Paramount 12602, 1928; Broadway 5076 [as Charlie Carter], c. 1930)
Ray Logan, "Lost John Blues" (Paramount 12310, 1925)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Lost John Dean" (Brunswick 227/Vocalion 5246, 1928; on Times1 [as Bascom Lamar Lundsford])
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt, "Long John" (AFS 2644 A2, 1939)
Prison farm work group "Lost John" (on NPCWork, DownHome)
Oliver Sims, "Lost John" (Columbia 15103-D, 1926)
Southern Moonlight Entertainers [possibly pseud. for the Stripling Bros.] "Lost John" (Vocalion 5372/Vocalion 5460, c. 1930; rec. 1929)
Stripling Bros. "Lost John" (Vocalion 5441, c. 1930; rec. 1929)
Vernon Sutphin & J. C. Sutphin, "Lost John" (on Stonemans01)
Sonny Terry, "Lost John" [instrumental with whooping] (AFS, 1938; on LCTreas); "Lost John" (on Terry01, DownHome)
Texas state farm prisoners, "Lost John" (on NPCWork)
Merle Travis, "Lost John Boogie" (Capitol 1737, c. 1951)
Henry Whitter, "Lost John" (OKeh 40391, 1925)
Unknown artists, "Long Gone" (AFS CYL-7-2, 1933)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Rattler"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lost John
Long Gone from Kentucky
NOTES [228 words]: The Lomaxes believe this to be based on the story (coming from W. C. Handy's book "Blues"; see page 215 in Handy/Silverman) of one Long John Green, who was known for his ability to move.
When the prison where Green was staying acquired a pack of bloodhounds, they allegedly decided to conduct a test by giving him a head start and then sending the hounds after him. But Green was too fast (he also managed to trick the hounds by catching one in a trap), and escaped them.
I have my doubts, though -- neither the Courlander text nor the Burnett & Rutherford recording shows the prison plot details found in the Lomax texts. I can't help but wonder if this might not be another Lomax retouch job, influenced perhaps by Handy's blues piece. - RBW
It's hard to tell pending full scrutiny of the field recordings, but it looks like the Lomaxes didn't mess with them as much as has been suggested. Some of the field recordings, at any rate, are as muddled as the Lomaxes' published versions. - PJS
And the versions in Jackson support this. Several of these versions involve a prisoner who had heels on the front of his shoes, fooling the pursuers. I am still inclined to suspect that several songs have been combined here (Jackson is of the opinion that it has swallowed a song beginning "This old tree..."). It's just that the combination probably predates the Lomaxes. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LoF287

Long John Chineeman

DESCRIPTION: "Big Long John was a Chineeman, He came from the land of tea." He lives in a hash house, sells cigarettes, and has long hair down to his heels. He sleeps outdoors. An Indian cuts off his scalp and queue. He dies of the shock of losing his hair
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: China humorous discrimination Indians(Am.) hair
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #87, "Long John Chineeman" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 3-6-307, "Long John, Chineeman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10915
File: Hubb087

Long John Green

See Long John (Long Gone) (File: LoF287)

Long Journey Home

See Two Dollar Bill (Long Journey Home) (File: CSW177)

Long Lankin

See Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)

Long Lonesome Road

See Lonesome Road (File: San322)

Long Lost Love

DESCRIPTION: "My sweet little one, with your winsome ways... Dearer to me, none ever can be, And nearer, there'll never be none, For in your sparkling eyes I see That favor that tells of a long lost love." The singer tells of the dead man buried in a grave in the snow
AUTHOR: Almeda Ridde (source: Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs)
KEYWORDS: love children death burial
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 74-76, "Long Lost Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Abrr074

Long or Short

DESCRIPTION: Running game. "Long or short, Long or short, Which would you rather have, Long or short?" The chosen player must choose one or the other, then run a race against the chooser, one course long, one short, the winner to be the new chooser
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: game nonballad | running distance
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 165, "Long or Short" (1 text)
File: BAAI165

Long Peggin' Awl, The

DESCRIPTION: A girl is berated by her mother for running away with a shoemaker. The girl retorts that the older woman did the same thing: "You followed old dad for his long peggin' awl"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Kelly Harrell)
KEYWORDS: bawdy mother elopement
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond)) US(MA,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 280-281, "The Long Peggin' Awl" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 181, "The Long Peggin' Awl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 200, "Long Fol-de-Rol" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
DT, LNGPGAWL*
Roud #2126
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox "The Long Peggin' Awl" (on FSB02, FSB2CD)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Pegging Awl" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2)
NOTES [43 words]: Talk about lumping: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland includes the Carolina Tar Heels' "Peg and Awl" as quoted by Lomax. I know both songs. No way. The phrase is common to them only because those two tools were found together in the kit of a shoemaker. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RL280

Long Preston Peg

DESCRIPTION: "Long Preston Peg to proud Preston went, To see the Scotch rebels it was her intent, A noble Scotch lord, as he passed by, On this Yorkshire damsel did soon cast an eye." He sends his servant to the girl "that sings with a voice so soft and so sweel."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland)
KEYWORDS: courting rebellion
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, p. 467, "Long Preston Peg" (1 fragment)
ST BeCo467 (Full)
Roud #8764
NOTES [52 words]: Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland attributes this to the 1715 Jacobire rebellion. That it dates from one of the Jacobite rebellions seems likely, if not quite certain, but I can't see why it has to be the 1715 rebellion. The Jacobites were in Prieston during the '45, after all! - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BeCo467

Long Shoreman's Strike, The

See Longshoreman's Strike (The Poor Man's Family) (File: FSC101)

Long Sought Home

See Jerusalem, My Happy Home (Long Sought Home) (File: NrecJMHH)

Long Strike, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you collier colliers, wherever you may be...." "In eighteen hundred and seventy-five, our masters did conspire" to leave the workers of without "food or fire." The strike is two months old, but it will continue
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining labor-movement hardtimes
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1875 - The Long Strike against the anthracite mines
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, p. 224, "The Long Strike" (1 text, with a "sequel," "After the Long Strike," that is clearly by a different author and is not a song)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32] (subject: the Long Strike and the Molly Maguires) and references there
NOTES [484 words]: Kevin Kenny, Making Sense of the Molly Maguires, Oxford University Press, 1998, has much to say about The Long Strike in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania, the failure of which seems to have inspired the Molly Maguire violence.
Until 1875, the Workingmen's Benevolent Organization, or W. B. A., had been able to work well enough with mine owners to prevent major labor actions. But Franklin Gowen, the boss of the Reading Railroad, had gradually been acquiring control of the mines, and he was prepared to use that control against labor.
Kenny, p. 157: "The final confrontation between the Reading Railroad and the Workingmen's Benevolent Organization took the form of the 'Long Strike,' which lasted from January to June 1875. The battle was fought in the context of a national economic depression [Panic of 1873 and its aftermath]. It was one of several desperate and unsuccessful attempts by organized labor in the United States to preserve the considerable gains won in the late 1860s and early 1870s."
Gowen demanded concessions of at least 10%, and often 20% or more, from the miners, as well as abolishing the minimum floor wage on the "sliding scale" based on the selling price of coal (Kenny. p. 170, etc.). Kenny, p. 171: "The operators must have known that the union would reject this draconian proposal. Clearly they wanted to provoke the union into a protracted strike, with the intention of finally breaking its power..... By the beginning of January 1875, production in the Lehigh and Schuylkill regions was almost completely suspended and the Long Strike was underway." But the bosses were prepared; they had spend 1874 stockpiling coal.
And Gowen and Co. had another tactic: They accused the W. B. A. of being linked to the violence of the Molly Maguires (Kenny, p. 172). This is true only in the sense that the Mollies were miners, and the W. B. A. represented miners, but it was effective in preventing some mines from closing down. The violence seems to have been the result of Gowen's actions, not a preface to it; "In the last few months of the strike, the [W. B. A.] leadership appears to have lost control over those elements of the rank and file who favored direct and violent action over gradual negotiation" (Kenny, p. 173).
"By April 1875 the union and the strike were in serious trouble" (Kenny, p. 176). The Union tried to re-open negotiations -- but Gowen, knowing he was in a dominant position, refused. In May, the mines prepared to re-open, offering the equivalent of 1874 pay rates to those who crossed the picket lines. By June, most miners had done so. The Long Strike was over, and the W. B. A. was, for practical purposes, out of existence (Kenny, pp. 176-180).
For the aftermath, see the notes to "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E25], as well as the many poems cross-referenced there about the miners who were hung for alleged Molly Maguire activities. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP124

Long Summer Day (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Long summer day make a white man lazy, long summer day" (x2). "Well, a long summer day make a nigger run away." "He run away to see miss Mary." He declares he is sick. The boss orders him back into the field.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from Moses "Clear Rock" Platt)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes disease love
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 396-398, "Long Summer Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15042
File: LxSi396

Long Summer Day (II)

See Rocky Road to Jordan (Long Summer Day) (File: R590)

Long Summer Days

DESCRIPTION: Chantey/worksong: "The day is so long and the wages so small..." "Captain you gae launch this boat today..." "Take it now easy boys, cause the crawfish they're come now" Refrain: "Long summer day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (recording, Frederick McQueen & group)
KEYWORDS: fishing ship work nonballad shanty worksong animal sailor
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
Frederick McQueen & group, "Long Summer Day" (on MuBahamas2)
NOTES [39 words]: This may derive from the same roots as Randolph's "Rocky Road to Jordan (Long Summer Day)." But the uses of the song are different enough that I am (very tentatively) allowing them to stay separate; Randolph's is a singing game. - RBW
File: RcLoSuDa

Long Tail Blue

DESCRIPTION: The singer has "come to town to see you all... And sing a song not very long About my long tail blue." He is proud of having two coats, a jacket for everyday and the blue for Sunday. He advises others to acquire a similar coat and keep it well
AUTHOR: George Washington Dixon?
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Christy's Negro Songster); Dixon is said to have performed the piece in 1827
KEYWORDS: clothes courting
FOUND IN: US(SE) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 416, "My Long Tail Blue" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 218, "The Long-tailed Blue" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 188)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 32-34, "My Long Tail Blue" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: The United States Songster, (Cincinnati, 1836 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 191-193, "Long Tail Blue" (1 text)
Roud #1287
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.13(135)[first four verses and chorus illegible], "Long Tail Blue" ("I've just dropt in to see you all") , J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth b.26(454), Harding B 25(1137), "Long Tail Blue"
LOCSinging, as108020, "Long Tail Blue" ("I've just drop'd in to see you all"), L. Deming (Boston), no date
NOTES [303 words]: There are no signs of minstrel origin -- clear in The United States Songster and Bodleian and LOCsinging broadsides -- in the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text.
The Bodleian library dates Firth b.26(454) and Harding B 25(1137), duplicate texts printed by J Todd (Easingwold), to c.1815. The date is suspect because the Bodleian dates all but one Todd broadside to "c. 1815" except one for which they have a definite date of 1838.
The longest text I've seen is LOCSinging as108020: 16 verses plus chorus.
The text in The United States Songster includes current event references to President Jackson and to "Crockett's gone to Texico." -- BS
Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 52, list a piece called "My Long Tail Blue," which was presumably this, as published by J. L. Hewitt & Co in 1836 or 1837. No composer is listed.
George Washington Dixon has also been credited with "Old Zip Coon," but the evidence for that is even murkier than the evidence for this song.
"Long Tail Blue" is said to have been a very early minstrel piece, joining the repertoire soon after the "original" minstrel song, "Jump Jim Crow"; see Harold Vincent Milligan, Stephen Collins Foster: A Biography of America's Folk-Song Composer, 1920 (I use the 2004 University of Hawaii reprint), p. 41. This is strong support for the 1820s date. Milligan, pp. 41-42, says that Dixon was singing "Coal Black Rose" in 1827, and "Longtail Blue" and "Zip Coon" by 1829.
On the other hand, Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 170 says that Dixon began his career in 1828, but allows that he may have originated "Long Tail Blue" (note the different orthography). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3416

Long Tall Thin and Yella

DESCRIPTION: "Long, tall, thin, and yella, My word, what a fella."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: colors nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 49, "(Long Tall Thin And Yella)" (1 short text)
Roud #20700
File: PKKB049A

Long the Days of Sorrow (All Around those Pretty Little Pinks)

DESCRIPTION: "We're marching round two pretty little pinks (x3), Long the days of sorrow." "Choose two in as we go round." "We've come in to marry you." "Tomorrow is the wedding night." "God Almighty bless them good old souls." "You rascal you, you told me a lie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty lie courting marriage
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 589, "Long the Days of Sorrow" (1 text)
Roud #7675
File: R589

Long Time Ago (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Once there was a little kitty, White as the snow, She went out to hunt a mousie, Long time ago." The cat's appearance is described: Her black eyes spied the mouse, her paws caught it, her teeth bit it -- but the mouse escaped
AUTHOR: Elizabeth Prentiss (1818-1879) (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: animal hunting
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 144, "Once there was a little kitty" (1 fragment)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 306-307, "Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4577
File: LxA306

Long Time Ago (II), A

See A Hundred Years Ago (I) (File: San485)

Long Time Ago, A

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "[To me] way, hey, hey, yah... A long time ago." Texts vary; many have to do with the troubles of seagoing life; one complains about serving an a boat so old it "must have been the ark that Noah built..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor ship
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) West Indies(Bahamas,Tobago,Nevis) New Zealand
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 37-43, "A Long Time Ago" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 68-69, "A Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 65-68, "A Long Time Ago" (1 text plus several fragments, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 60-62, "A Long Time Ago" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp.97-105, 156, 215, "A Long Time Ago," "Up, Up, My Boys, Up a Hill" (11 texts, 4 tunes. Version "C" is "In Frisco Bay", version "F" is "A-Rovin'", version "G" is "A Hundred Years Ago." Other versions borrow heavily from "Roll the Cotton Down," Blow the Man Down" and "Blackball Line") [AbEd, pp. 88-94]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XLIV, p. 49, "A Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 82-83, "A Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 141-142, "A Long Time Ago" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 237, "A Long Time Ago" (1 fragment)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 48, "A Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 47, "Around Cape Horn" (1 short text to the same tune)
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 39, "Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 46-47, "Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 123, "A Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune, edited; the version is partially localized to Auckland and New Zealand)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 35, "(A Long Time Ago)" (1 short text, the Auckland version)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 28, "A Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 306-207, "Long Time Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 312-313, "A Hundred Years" (1 text, with the phrase "A hundred years ago" replacing "A long time ago")
DT, (NOAHARK)
ST Doe037 (Full)
Roud #318
RECORDINGS:
Richard Maitland, "A Long Time Ago" (AFS, 1939; on LC27)
David Pryor et al: "Long Time Ago" (AAFS 505 B, 1935; on LomaxCD1822-2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In Frisco Bay (A Long Time Ago; Noah's Ark Shanty)" (lyrics)
cf. "Roll the Cotton Down" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "De Hoffnung" (tune)
cf. "Roll and Go" (refrain)
SAME TUNE:
De Hoffnung (File: Hugi104)
NOTES [32 words]: In 1833 one T. Rice sang a minstrel song by this name in "The Ethiopian Opera," with the sheet music published by John Cole of Baltimore; that may well have been the ancestor of this shanty. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Doe037

Long Time Traveler

See When I Can Read My Titles Clear (Long Time Traveling) (File: DTlongti)

Long Time Traveling

See When I Can Read My Titles Clear (Long Time Traveling) (File: DTlongti)

Long Ways from Home

DESCRIPTION: "One morning, one morning, one morning in spring," the singer meets a girl who says, "I'm a poor lost girl and a long ways from home." She left father and mother weeping to follow her girl. She will build a on a mountain. She warns against men
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: love separation father mother travel warning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 48-49, "Long Ways from Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #259
NOTES [82 words]: What a mess.... I think every word of this is paralleled in other songs. But it's so massively composite that it's truly impossible to say what it is a version of. So I call it its own song, not because it really exists independently but because it so obviously doesn't! Roud files it as #259, which is both "Rye Whiskley"/"Jack of Diamonds" (which is probably where I would file this if I had to file it with an existing song -- except that there is no drink in it) and "The Rebel Soldier." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Arn048

Long Whip, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas of an old man who lived in the city, He had a wife who was wonderful pretty She had a good notion of writing a letter, Her husband loved well but another one better. Fol lol-de-lol lay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Vaughan Williams collection)
KEYWORDS: beauty bawdy infidelity husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, p. xvii, "(The Long Whip)" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Roud #2541
NOTES [29 words]: This song was bawdy enough that Vaughan Williams took down only the first verse, and no other version has been identified. The description is all the text that survived. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: VWPxvii

Long White Robe (I)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Can't you hand down that long white robe (x4)." Verses: "Old Satan thought he had me fast, Can't you hand... But I broke his chain and I come at last, Can't you...." "If I ever reach that mountain top... I pray to my Lord I may never stop."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 518, "Long White Robe" (1 text, with a "Cotton-Eyed Joe" verse)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 518, "Long White Robe" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Roud #11813
File: Br3518

Long White Robe (II), A

DESCRIPTION: "Yes, I really do believe (x3), I shall wear a long white robe up yonder." "Fathers, will you meet me there? (x3), To wear a long white robe up yonder." "Mothers, will you meet me there...." Similarly sisters, brothers, ad distant-cousin-ia
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs)
KEYWORDS: family religious clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 67, "A Long White Robe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13913
File: Rich067A

Long-Legged Italy Kicked Poor Sicily

DESCRIPTION: "Long-legged Italy Kicked poor Sicily Into the middle Of the Mediterranean Sea. When Germany got Hungary, She eat/ate a bit of Turkey, Dipped it in Greece And served it on China/Japan."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: food wordplay | countries
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p 58, "(Long-legged Italy)" (1 text)
Roud #38122
NOTES [101 words]: Unlike a lot of children's rhymes, this one is clearly recent. Italy was not united until the mid-nineteenth century. Germany didn't really become a unity until 1866, and was formally proclaimed in 1870. Greece had become independent of the Ottoman Empire earlier in that century. But the most decisive items are that Hungary was part of the Habsburg Empire until 1918 (it had had a lot of self-government for decades before that, but it wasn't a separate country), and the Ottoman Empire didn't become Turkey until after World War I. Allowing time for maps to adjust, I think this has to be post-1925. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI058B

Long-Legged Lula's Back in Town

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Lula (x4), You know, long-legged Lula thought she's back in town." "Oh, Lula had a fallin' out, It was all about another man's wife." "Please tell me Lula, where you stayed last night." "She could shake it eas', shake it wes'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: infidelity
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 193, "Long-Legged Lula's Back in Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16273
NOTES [45 words]: Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices considers this to be derived from the pop song "Lulu's Back in Town." I wouldn't go that far, given the number of Lulu/Lula songs (several of which describe a very loose woman), but I suppose it might have been one of the inspirations. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Rose193

Long-Line Skinner

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a long-line skinner And my home's out west. Lookin' for the woman... that'll love me best." The doctor says whiskey will kill him "but he don't say when." When it gets cold, he will go home; "I ain't skinning mules in the wintertime"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: work home drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 128, "Long-Line Skinner" (1 text)
File: FSWB128A

Long-tailed Blue, The

See Long Tail Blue (File: Br3416)

Long, Long Ago!

DESCRIPTION: "Tell me the tales that to me were so dear, Long long ago, long ago; Sing me the songs I delighted to hear... Now you are come my grief is removed...." The singer welcomes back (his?) long-lost love; he doubted her fidelity, but he rejoices to see her
AUTHOR: Thomas Haynes Bayly
EARLIEST DATE: 1844
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 119-120, "Long, Long Ago!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p.293, "Long Long Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 278-279, "Long, Long Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 435, "Long, Long Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #10, p. 16, "Long, Long Ago" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #51, "Long, Long Ago" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 256, "Long, Long Ago" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 338, "Long, Long Ago!"
Harbin-Parodology, #317, p. 77, "Long, Long Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 23, "Long, Long Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 21, "Long, Long Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST RJ19119 (Full)
Roud #4921
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y4:019, "Long, Long Ago," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(145), "Long, Long, Ago," unknown, c.1870
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gone Long Ago" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Romeo and Juliet ("Come, now, and listen to my tale of woe, Of Romeo and Juliet") (Harbin-Parodology, #29, p. 14)
Long, Long Ago [a labor version] ("Where is the freedom which once we possessed, Long, long ago, long, long ago?") (Foner, p. 162)
NOTES [74 words]: Bayly made his name as a composer of sentimental tunes, but this is surely his best-known (although "Gaily the Troubadour" had a vogue a century or more ago). The exact date of composition is unknown; the earliest dated printing is from 1844, but copies are known to have been in circulation when Bayly died in 1839 (Spaeth says 1829). The best guess is that it originally appeared c. 1836.
The author's original title was "The Long Ago." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RJ19119

Long, Long Trail

See There's a Long, Long Trail (File: DTlngtra)

Longest Day I Ever Saw, The

See In the Pines (File: LoF290)

Longest Name Song

See Too Much of a Name (File: GrMa170)

Longest Train, The

See In the Pines (File: LoF290)

Longford Murder, The

See James MacDonald [Laws P38] (File: LP38)

Longford Murderer, The

See James MacDonald [Laws P38] (File: LP38)

Longing

DESCRIPTION: "From the green and fiertile valley where the broad Willamette flows" the singer sees mountains and fields and beautiful sights, and earns a living logging, but all things remind him of home; "And oh, I'm longing, longing for the bays of Michigan"
AUTHOR: Lizzie Langworthy Connine
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: homesickness
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 48, "Longing" (1 text)
Roud #18186
File: BeLo048

Longing for the Spring

DESCRIPTION: "The hills are very bare and cold and lonely; I wonder what the future months will bring. The strike is on...." The singer expresses anger at the scabs and the police, wishes he could shoot them, and longs for easier weather
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement hardtimes scab
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 188, "(Longing for the Spring)" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 223-224, "Longing for the Spring" (1 text)
Roud #22289
File: Burt188

Longing Maid, The

See The Maid's Complaint to her Mother (File: LyCr181)

Longshoreman's Strike (The Poor Man's Family)

DESCRIPTION: "I am a simple lab'ring man / And I work along the shores / For to keep the hungry wolves away / From the poor longshoreman's door." The singer demands fair pay for his work. He complains that foreigners get the jobs while local people starve
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: Harrigan and/or David Braham (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1875
KEYWORDS: strike foreigner poverty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1875 - Longshoreman's strike that inspired this song. Most of the strikers were Irish immigrants
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 377, "The Poor Man's Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 28, "Longshoreman's Strike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 82-83, "Long Shoreman's Strike" (1 text)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 236, "Longshoreman's Strike" (1 text)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 239, "The Poor Man's Family; p. 241, "Longshoreman's Strike"" (2 texts plus a broadside print on p. 242)
ST FSC101 (Partial)
Roud #7461
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Last Winter Was a Hard One" (theme)
NOTES [254 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block." Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills attributes this to both Harrigan and Braham, but I do not find it in Finson's collection of Harrigan/Braham tunes indexed as Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham. That might be because the music was not published at the time, but it might mean that Braham did not write the music.
According to John Franceschina, David Braham: The American Offenbach, Routledge, 2003, p. 83, "In November [1874], Harrigan and Hart arrived with "The Clancys," and "The Raffle for Mrs. Hennessy's Clock,' in which Harrigan introduced a new song written and composed by him, 'The Lockout, or, The Longshoreman's Strike.'" If it is true that David Braham did not write the tune for this, it is almost the only time Edward Harrigan had a successful song that didn't use a Braham tune.
Edward Harrigan was well aware of the problems that a strike could bring. In his volume The Mulligans (G. W. Dillingham, 1901), in which he turned parts of many of his dramatic plots into a novel, he describes the troubles of orphaned Jimmy Dempsey and his sister Nellie, cared for only by their grandmother: "Jimmy was out o' work in the shipyard be the big strike, an' our money gave out, sir, an' Jimmy wint lookin' for work, sir," but being only a boy, he found none, and was forced to try to steal.
Also, Harrigan knew about work around ports; he had worked there himself before becoming a professional writer and actor. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: FSC101

'Longside of the Santa Fe Trail

See The Santa Fe Trail (File: Ohr085)

Longstone Lighthouse, The

See Grace Darling (I) (The Longstone Lighthouse) (File: Ran086)

Longstreet's Rangers

See The Texas Rangers [Laws A8] (File: LA08)

Looby Lou

DESCRIPTION: "Here we go Looby Lou, Here we go Looby Lou, Here we go Looby Lou, Lou, Lou, All on a Saturday night." "I put my right hand in, I put my right hand out, I give my right hand shakey-shake-shake And I turn myself about."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: dancing playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(High)) US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Ireland New Zealand
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 192-193, "Looby Low" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 23-26, "I Put My Little Hand In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 538, "Looby Loo" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Randolph 554, "Loupy Lou" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 157, "(Loop de Loo)" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame pp. 392-395, ("Here We Dance Lubin Loo") (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, pp. 34-35, "Here We Go Loop-dy Loo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #135, "Lubin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 135-136, "Looby Loo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 20-21, "Baloo baloo balight" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 33, "(Here we go lubby-lu)" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #637, p. 252, "(Now we dance looby, looby, looby)"
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 387, "Her We Go Looby Loo" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Leah Rachel Clara Yoffie, "Three Generations of Children's Singing Games in St. Louis," Vol. LX, No. 235 (Jan 1947), #51 p. 43 ("Here we go Looby Lou") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 137-139, "Hinkumbooby"
Edward W.B. Nicholson, editor, Golspie: Contributions to its Folklore (London, 1897 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 176-184,206, "Hilli Ballu" (15 texts, 1 tune)
ST R554 (Partial)
Roud #5032
RECORDINGS:
Children of Lilly's Chapel School, "Loop de Loo (Loobie Loo)" (on NFMAla6, RingGames1)
Pete Seeger, "Here We Go Looby-Loo" (on PeteSeeger21)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Okey Kokey" (text)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Here We Go Looby Lou
Ugly Mug
Here We Dance Lubin, Lubin
NOTES [204 words]: This would seem to be the ancestor of the infamous Hokey-Pokey, perhaps urban America's only surviving singing game. But I don't know if the song was rewritten along the way.
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland reports the "Looby Loo" title as "a corruption of lupin,' the word for 'leaping,' for the game takes the form of animal antics."
Richard Greene, editor, A Selection of English Carols, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, pp. 49-50, regards this as a survival of the traditional carols. I guess it's easier to take it seriously when one wasn't forced to play the game in elementary school.
Courlander, if I understand him correctly, explains it as a bathing game. Wonder how they recorded the motions in that case. - RBW
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: ."..the dance was known at least as early as 1745, when it was used as the basis of a political song."
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame discusses the floating pattern of "action object 'in', action object 'out', "shake"/"wriggle," "turn" with "Here We Dance Lubin, Lubin," "(We come here to be merry)," "(Up with Ailie, Ailie)," "(Turn your toes in, turn your toes out)" and "One Tool In, The Other Tool Out, And So They Dance Looby Round About" - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R554

Looby Low

See Looby Lou (File: R554)

Look At Death

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "O look at death, It stole my mother away" (x2). Each verse is a pair of floater couplets (see notes), each line answered by "it stole my mother away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 13, "O! Look-a Death" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [39 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. The floating couplets include "If you get there before I do, Tell my Lord I'm on the way" and "If I'd a-died when I was young I would not have this race to run." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa013

Look at the Sun

DESCRIPTION: "Look at the sun, See how he run -- God Almighty'll catch you With your work undone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 229, (no title) (1 fragment)
Roud #11645
File: ScNF229B

Look Away (Some o' Dese Mornin's)

See I Hope I'll Join the Band (Soon in the Morning) (File: R266)

Look Before You Leap

See The Bald-Headed End of the Broom (File: FaE190)

Look Down

See Lonesome Road (File: San322)

Look Down that Lonesome Road

See Lonesome Road (File: San322)

Look How They Done My Lord

DESCRIPTION: Describes crucifixion of Jesus; he is whipped up to Calvary, where he "never [says] a mumbling word"; a thorny crown is placed on his brow and squashed down, and the blood comes streaming down. Refrain: "Good Lord I can't hold out no longer"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (recording, Vera Hall Ward & Dock Reed)
KEYWORDS: execution dying Easter Bible religious prisoner Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #10983
RECORDINGS:
Vera Hall Ward & Dock Reed, "Look How They Done My Lord" (on ReedWard01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "He Never Said a Mumbling Word" (verses)
NOTES [61 words]: Several verses of this song are shared with "He Never Said a Mumbling Word". But the "One day when I was lost" refrain is absent, and the overall feeling is quite different, so I split them. Incidentally, I use the keyword, "Easter" although the song technically describes only the events of Good Friday, letting the single keyword sit in for all of the events. - PJS
File: RcLHTDML

Look Me in the Eye, Johnny

DESCRIPTION: "Look me in the eye, Johnny, Look me in the eye. What keeps you out so late." She has to sit up waiting. She thinks he has been drinking. He says he has been with Cousin Molly Rose. They argue. He says they will both go to Molly Rose next time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong)
KEYWORDS: husband wife drink family accusation
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 233-235, "Look Me in the Eye, Johnny" (1 text)
Roud #5261
File: NeDe233

Look Out Below

DESCRIPTION: A young man goes to Australia to escape poverty at home. He goes to work in the mines, and in time grows rich. He returns home and marries, but finds that he misses Australia. Back he goes, to resume the miner's life
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters)
KEYWORDS: mining emigration poverty Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 93-94, "Look Out Below" (1 text, from "Thatcher's Colonial Songster")
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 44-45, "Look Out Below!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-GoldrushSongster, pp. 26-27, "Look Out Below!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, pp. 141-142, "Look Out Below!" (1 text)
Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 31-32, "Look Out Below!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 92-93, "Look Out Below" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 42, "Look Out Below!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 128-130, "Look Out Below" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 78-79, "Look Out Below!" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 308-309, "Look Out Below" (1 text)
Roud #27773
NOTES [225 words]: Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher lists the tune as "The Pirate King"; Thatcher has it as "Smuggler King."
Hugh Anderson, The Colonial Minstrel (biography of Charles R. Thatcher), F. W. Cheshire, 1960, p. 25, explain this as referring to "shepherding," which took place in the gold fields of Ballarat although not at Bendigo. "Shepherding" apparently referred to doing just enough work on a claim to maintain the claim, without doing serious mining. At Ballarat, the gold was often thirty feet below the surface (hence the need to "Look out below"!), so digging for it was hard. A man with a claim would "shepherd" it by doing a little digging and watching the success of the neighbouring claims. If one of the neighbours struck gold, the people on the shepherded claim would start digging at the point closest to the neighbours' strike, but otherwise would do minimal work.
For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong or Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher.
According to Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, p. 13, this is one of two Thatcher songs that have unquestionably survived in oral tradition, "Where's Your License" being the other. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: FaE092

Look There's a Moon (Lullaby)

DESCRIPTION: "Look there's a moon, it shines tonight, Kowhiti, kowhiti, whitireia, Now your mama will hold you tight... She'll sing you, orirori, She'll bring you, kawe mau, to sweet sleep." Mother will guard baby, so baby should close (his) eyes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2004 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry); supposedly composed in the 1830s
KEYWORDS: lullaby nonballad mother foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 31, "Lullaby" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a classical guitar accompaniment!)
File: Col2031

Look Up, Look Down

DESCRIPTION: "Look up, Look down, You owe me Half a crown."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: money trick
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 45, "(Look up)" (1 text)
Roud #20706
NOTES [26 words]: This sounds to me like a device to trick people out of a half crown, but I suspect some part of it (perhaps actions rather than words) has been left out. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PKKB045F

Look Up, Look Down that Lonesome Road

See Lonesome Road (File: San322)

Look Up, Sky Blue

See One, Two, Sky Blue (File: SuSm095B)

Look Upon the Mantle-Piece

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Look upon the mante-piece, There you'll find a ball of grease, Shining like a threepenny piece, Out goes she!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas)
KEYWORDS: jumprope money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #321, "Look upon the mantle-piece" (1 text)
Roud #22237
File: AJRR321

Look Where the Train Done Gone

DESCRIPTION: Floating-verse blues about trains and lost love: "Look where de train done gone (x3), Oh babe, Gone never to return." "I certainly been a friend to you." "If I'd a-listened to what Mama said." "Tomorrow's my trial day." "If I'd a-died when I was young."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses love separation train
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 245-246, "Look Where de Train Done Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18942
File: ScaNF245

Look Who Is Here

See Punchinello (File: OpGa118)

Look Who's Coming Down the Street

DESCRIPTION: "Look who's coming down the street, (X) on her feet. She was married twice before, Now she's knocking on (X's) door. (X, X), will you marry me? Yes, love, yes, love, at half past three."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage game
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 80, "(Look who's coming down the street)" (1 text)
Roud #38142
File: BAAI080B

Look Wider Still

DESCRIPTION: "When you think you're looking wide, Look wider still. Behold the world that lies outside your window sill: All creation from the start becomes a wonderland, for all who learn to lend a heart before they lend a hand." Seek friendship and a better world
AUTHOR: (based on a quote by Robert Baden-Powell)
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p, 195, "Look Wider Still" (notes only)
File: ACSF194L

Look Ye Down, Ye Powers Above

See Come Write Me Down (The Wedding Song) (File: K126)

Looked Down the Railroad Far As I Could See

DESCRIPTION: "Well, ah looked down de railroad fuh as I could see, Looked down dat railroad fuh as I could see, Saw mah gal a-wavin' back at me (x2)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: railroading separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 241, (no title) (1 short text)
NOTES [17 words]: This feels like a blues, but note that the one verse quoted by Scarborough has four lines, not three. - RBW
File: ScNF241

Lookin' for the Bully of the Town

See The Bully of the Town [Laws I14] (File: LI14)

Looking at the Comet

DESCRIPTION: She asks what he is doing: "Tell me this very moment." He says he "was gazing at the comet"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (Poet's Box broadside "Looking at the Comet," according to Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1508, "The Comet" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7169
NOTES [231 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan7 fragment.
Greig/Duncan7 quoting Duncan: "'The comet' was no doubt Donati's (1858)." - BS
According to Illingworth, p. 120, "Donati's comment (1858 VI)[:] A spectacular comet famous for its coma with muliple haloes: parabolic envelopes with vertices toward the sun and foci near the apparent nucleus."
In the table of comets on 284 of Lodders/Fegley. we find that comet Donati (C/1888 L1) approavhed to within .578 AU of the sun (about half earth's distance), and that it has a period of about about 1950 years. Thus the sighting in 1858 is the only one in the modern era.
Porter, p. 191, says that "Donati's comet, which was first cited on 2 June 1858, was notable for its great beauty. It had, in addition to its major 'tail,' two narrow extra tails. It even featured in William Dyce's painting 'Pegwell Bay.'"
Asimov, pp. 387-388, says that Giovanni Battista Donati (1826-1873), who spotted the comet, discovered five other comets in his life, none so spectacular as the comet of 1858. More important from a scientific standpoint, was his taking of spectra of a comet in 1864 as it neared the sun. This was an important step in determining the composition of comets.
Of course, there is no hint that this particular fellow was doing scientific research on the comet. But isn't it time we found a few folk songs for scientists? - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71508

Looking for a Ship

DESCRIPTION: "I went down dock the other day, Went for a ship, didn't you hear me say? Couldn't get a ship, couldn't get a sub, So I went down dock on the old lug. Singing, I'm going to look." The singer complains that the sailors work but the captain makes the money
AUTHOR: Harry Aisthorpe (source: Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (collected by Steve Gardham); thought to have been written in the 1920s
KEYWORDS: sailor bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 148, "Looking for a Ship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16875
File: PaSea148

Looking for Poppies

DESCRIPTION: An old man meets a girl and asks where she is going. She says she is looking for poppies; he says it's the wrong place. She would hear the nightingale; the time is wrong. At last her young man shows up; the old man warns against such bird songs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: love lie questions courting warning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 252-253, "Looking for Poppies" (1 text)
Roud #7759
File: Beld252

Looking for the Yeller

DESCRIPTION: "Hey boys, look around, but you won't find Johnny... He's gone to Gabriel's Gully to look for gold." "Johnny's gone, he's looking for the yeller, He's got that fatal fever in his head.... So have a drink for Johnny, 'cause he might as well be dead."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2009 (Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ)
KEYWORDS: mining gold New Zealand separation drink
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 70-71, "(Looking for the Yeller)" (1 short text)
File: Garl070

Looking Like My Brother

DESCRIPTION: Singer's twin brother John always causes trouble for which the singer is blamed, beaten, and jailed. John dies. On the way to the burial John's body, unseen, falls out of the casket. Singer is told to behave while he is nailed in the casket and buried.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: crime prison punishment burial corpse death drink humorous brother
FOUND IN: US(So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Everette Conklin, "Brother John," Max Hunter Folk Song Collection, Cat #0580 (MFH #66), accessed 9 August 2018 from https://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=580. (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17934
RECORDINGS:
Tom Finlay, "Twins" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Cyril O'Brien, "The Twins" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fellow that Looks Like Me" [Laws H21] (theme of a man who gets in trouble for his double's acts)
File: ML3LLMBr

Looking This Way

DESCRIPTION: "Loved ones are waiting, Looking this way, Fair as the morning, bright as the day, Dear ones in glory." Departed relatives and Jesus look towards the singer, waiting for him to come home, "safe with the angels."
AUTHOR: J. W. van de Venter (copyright 1895) (source: Date)
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Date)
KEYWORDS: death religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Henry Date, Pentecostal Hymns Nos. 1 and 2 Combined (Chicago: Hope Publishing Company, 1898 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #415, "Looking This Way" (1 text) (1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Looking This Way" (on MJHurt05)
File: RcLoThWa

Lookit Yonder

See The Old Gray Goose (I - Lookit Yonder) (File: FSC147)

Loop de Loo

See Looby Lou (File: R554)

Loose Every Sail to the Breeze

See Homeward Bound (II -- Loose Every Sail to the Breeze) (File: SWMS052)

Loose Goat

DESCRIPTION: "A loose goat do know how the tied goat feel." If you're "free and gay Take my advice and stay that way." If you marry you will be like the tied goat.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Blind Blake Higgs: see WIHIGGS01)
KEYWORDS: marriage freedom warning humorous nonballad animal
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Loose Goat" (on WIHIGGS01)
File: RcLoGoat

Loose horse in the valley

See Judgment Day Is Comin' (File: Br3606)

Loppington Bear (The Cobbler Frightened)

DESCRIPTION: "In Loppington town there does dwell, A cobbler that is known full well." One day the cobbler goes out and sees a great bear. He flees to the town. The townfolk set out to kill the bear -- until the blacksmith discovers that the bear is "a chump of wood"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2013 (Atkinson & Roud); apparently in print by 1827
KEYWORDS: animal humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, "'Birmingham Broadsides and Oral Tradition" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, p. 41, "The Cobbler Frightened" (1 text)
Roud #8295
File: AtRo041

Lora Williams

DESCRIPTION: ""Come all you fair and pretty damsels And listen while I now relate... And learn of Lora Williams fate." Lora sets out with a bucket for the spring, but, knowing she must swear against her lover, drowns herself instead
AUTHOR: "'Widder' Kizzie Talcott's Dan"?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: love suicide drowning
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 140-143, "Lora Williams" (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 147-150)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fair and Tender Ladies" (tune)
NOTES [67 words]: According to Thomas's informant (called by the absurd name in the author field), Lora Williams was a 16-year-old asked to swear out a warrant against her lover. She chose suicide instead. Folklore adds that her voice can still be heard at the rock where she drowned, begging her mother not to weep.
At no point is the nature of the lover's crime specified.
This is item dG35 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa140

Lord Abore

See Prince Robert [Child 87] (File: C087)

Lord Arnold

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Lord Arnold's Daughter

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Lord at the Bakin, The

See The Duke of Athole's Nurse [Child 212] (File: C212)

Lord Ateman

See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Lord Bakeman

See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Lord Baker

See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Lord Bangwell's Adventure

See Gil Brenton [Child 5] (File: C005)

Lord Banner

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Lord Barnaby

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Lord Barnard

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Lord Barnard and the little Musgrave

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Lord Barney

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Lord Barnie

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Lord Bateman

See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Lord Bateman's Castle

See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Lord Batesman

See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Lord Batsman

See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Lord Bayham

See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Lord Beichan

See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Lord Bokeman

See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Lord Brechin

See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Lord Burnett and Little Munsgrove

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Lord Cornwallis

DESCRIPTION: "In the year of '81, In Yorktown we capitulated ... We fought them four to one as long as we could stand." The captives are confined "like thieves in a dungeon" and hope for the war to end "to see ourselves at liberty"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Shield's _Songs and Ballads in use in the Province of Ulster...1845_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: captivity battle soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 15, 1781 - Cornwallis wins a pyrrhic victory at Guilford Courthouse (North Carolina) and decides to continue the campaign in Virginia rather than the Carolinas. He will command roughly 7500 men in Virginia
Aug 1, 1781- Cornwallis establishes his base at Yorktown, Virginia
Sep 5-13 - Naval battle of the Virginia Capes (also called the Naval Battle of Yorktown); the French fleet of de Grasse defeats and drives away the British fleet of Thomas Graves
Sep 28 - George Washington and Rochambeau begin the siege of Yorktown with about 15,00 men
Oct 19 - Cornwallis's surrender
Feb 27, 1783 - The British parliament authorizes peace negotiations
Feb 4, 1783 - Britain officially declares an end to hostilities with the colonies
Apr 15 - The Congress of the American Confederation ratifies the peace treaty with Britain
Sep 3 - The Treaty of Paris officially ends the Revolutionary War
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 7, "Lord Cornwallis" (1 text)
NOTES [191 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "This song deals with the aftermath of the battle of Yorktown on the 18th of October 1781, when the American rebel army of George Washington defeated the British under General Cornwallis, putting an end to the American War of Independence." - BS
This song, typically, is wrong on several counts: The British at Yorktown were outnumbered by only about two to one, and a large fraction of their enemies were raw troops. The British could certainly have held on -- had they had supplies. But de Grasse's naval victory (which was not very decisive, but it did drive off the English) sealed off the British army, which eventually had to give in.
Contrary to a lot of sources, this did not automatically mean an end to the war; Cornwallis's army represented only about a third of the British troops in North America, and Britain could have sent more. The next spring, indeed, Admiral Rodney took care of de Grasse, giving the British control of the seas again. But Parliament had had enough of paying for a war that seemed to promise nothing good, so they swallowed their pride and granted colonial independence. - RBW
File: Moyl007

Lord Cornwallis's Surrender

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you brave Americans, The truth to you I'll tell, 'Tis of a sad misfortune To Britain late befell." Cornwallis and his British troops, cut off by Washington on land and de Grasse by sea, are forced to surrender
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (broadside, LOCSinging as108040)
KEYWORDS: war battle rebellion derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 19, 1781 - Cornwallis surrenders his forces at Yorktown to General Washington
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 88-90, "Lord Cornwallis's Surrender" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LRDCRNWL*
Roud #V50597
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as108040, "Lord Cornwallis's Surrender," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The British Grenadiers" (tune) and references there
NOTES [358 words]: The Revolutionary War in the north did not go well for Britain. Although their only severe defeat was at Saratoga, they were unable to capture and subdue the countryside.
The British command therefore decided to concentrate on the south in 1780. In that year, Charles Cornwallis (the second-in-command in America and the most aggressive of the British generals) was to invade the Carolinas and Virginia.
The results were typical of the Revolutionary War: Cornwallis won most of his engagements against the Colonials, but never managed to pin them down and suffered occasional losses at the hands of a rebellious countryside.
Then came disaster. Cornwallis was facing Washington at Yorktown with only a fraction of the British colonial army. Suddenly a French fleet led by Admiral de Grasse, which had been expected to attack New York, instead appeared outside Yorktown. De Grasse could not hope to hold off the British fleet forever, but he held on long enough. Cornwallis, surrounded and cut off from supplies, had to surrender.
It was the effective end of the Revolutionary War. The peace would not be signed until 1783, but the British no longer had the troops in North America to fight the rebels, and were unwilling to send more.
Among the other revolutionary figures mentioned in this song are:
Burgoyne -- John Burgoyne, who surrendered at Saratoga (see "The Fate of John Burgoyne").
Hessians -- German mercenaries employed by the British. They were generally despised -- though the British government's decision to use mercenaries was rather logical when you think about it; the British did not want to send disaffected Irish soldiers, or Scottish soldiers who might prove loyal to the Stuarts -- and if they used English soldiers, they might well desert in the Americas, where the people spoke English and there were many economic opportunities (see Stanley Weintraub, Iron Tears: America's Battle for Freedom, Britain's Quagmire: 1775-1783, Free Press, 2005, pp. 42-44)
Greene -- Nathaniel Greene, who commanded a detached force in the Carolinas against Cornwallis. He was the best officer the Americans had at harassing the enemy. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: SBoA088

Lord Daniel

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Lord Darnell

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Lord Decided He'd Make a Man, The

See Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again [Laws I18] (File: LI18)

Lord Delamere [Child 207]

DESCRIPTION: The king wants a new tax. Delamere asks for charge of all the poor, to hang them; better they hang than starve. A French lord says he deserves death, but Devonshire, fighting for Delamere, kills the lord and finds he is wearing the king's hidden armor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle)
KEYWORDS: royalty nobility trick money death accusation
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 207, "Lord Delamere" (4 texts)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #7, pp. 80-85, "Lord Delaware" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 284-287, "Lord Delaware" (1 text)
Roud #88
NOTES [477 words]: This sort of gesture of defiance (compare Swift's "A Modest Proposal") is much more common in story than truth; there is no reason to believe that the events here ever took place. Child gives what background there can be.
The one interesting point I observe (to put my own take on Child's summary) is that the lords involved were mostly active at the time of the Glorious Revolution (1688) -- and, what's more, Lord Delamore (1652-1694) and William Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire (1641-1707; Duke of Devonshire from 1694) both gave open support to William of Orange. Delamere, in fact, went on to be one of the Lords of the Treasury.
Perhaps this originated as some sort of Williamite broadside? Or, perhaps, an attempt to save Devonshire from protests? (He is said to have been poor about paying tradesmen.)
Dixon (followed by Bell) had a different hypothesis. The lord in his version was not Lord Delamere but Lord Delaware -- and Dixon conjectured that that should be Lord Delamare. Obviously this was a very intelligent conjecture, since it fit the other versions -- but then Dixon suggested that this Lord Delamare was not the one at the time of James II but rather Thomas de la Mare (correctly Peter de la Mare) speaker of the House of Commons in the "Good Parliament" of 1376. This was certainly a memorable Parliament -- it tried to clean up abuses and also regulated the succession after the death of the Prince of Wales, Edward the Black Prince -- but none of the other characters make any sense in that context. And de la Mare wasn't a lord. The song is a much better fit for the Glorious Revolution.
As a footnote, the title of Duke was still brand-new in 1376 (it had been created by the then-monarch, Edward III, for his sons), and there was no Devonshire Dukedom.
It might seem strange to see a trial by combat at that late date, but judicial combat was not formally eliminated in Britain until 1818! (see MacEdward Leach, editor, Amis and Amiloun, Early English Text Society/Oxford University Press, 1937, p. lxxxi).
The idea of the French lord wearing the King's armor (concealed) while Delamare is un-armored is interesting in a Glorious Revolution context, since the French would naturally have favored the Catholic James VII and II over lord who favored William and Mary; although there is no real evidence that James II was pro-French, he would have been so portrayed. Wearing concealed armor is self-explanatory, but why the King's armor? One possibility is that a French lord would have to come to England without his full panoply; another is that the King's armor would be kept in ideal condition. But it probably wouldn't fit the French lord very well....
All of which fits well with the title of Child B, which explicitly dates the contest to 1687; James II reigned 1685-1688/1689, and the Glorious Revolution took place in 1689. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: C207

Lord Delaware

See Lord Delamere [Child 207] (File: C207)

Lord Derwentwater [Child 208]

DESCRIPTION: The king sends (Derwentwater) a summons to London. His wife bids him make his will before going. As he goes along his way, ill portents greet him. Arriving in London, he is condemned to death. (He gives gifts to the poor and is executed)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (Bell)
KEYWORDS: rebellion nobility execution lastwill
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1715 - the 1715 Jacobite rebellion
Sept. 1715 - Warrant issued for Derwentwater's arrest. He responds by openly going into revolt
Nov. 14, 1715 - Derwentwater and his comrades forced to surrender
Feb 24, 1716 - Execution of Derwentwater at the age of (probably) 26
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland) US(SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 208, "Lord Derwentwater" (10 texts)
Bronson 208, "Lord Derwentwater" (5 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 208, "Lord Derwentwater" (2 versions: #1, #3)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #5, "Lord Ellenwater" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 3, "My Lord Derwater" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 553-554, "Lord Derwentwater" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #167, "Lord Derwentwater" (1 text, 1 tune, in which Derwentwater becomes the "Duke of Bellanter") {Bronson's #4b; #4a is a different collection from the same informant which has some substanial differences in text and tunes which, according to Bronson, actually differ in time signature; one is in 4/4, the other in 6/8!}
Roud #89
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. G. A. Griffin, "The King's Love-Letter" (AFS, 1937; on LC58) {Bronson's #4a}
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sir Patrick Spens" [Child #58]
cf. "The Mother's Malison, or Clyde's Water" [Child 216]
cf. "Derwentwater's Farewell" (subject)
cf. "Derwentwater" (subject)
NOTES [584 words]: Although based on a historical incident, this ballad is a rather curious amalgam of material from other pieces; the opening is straight from "Sir Patrick Spens" [Child #58], while the incident of the nosebleed portending doom is found in "The Mother's Malison, or Clyde's Water" [Child 216]. The making of the will is harder to trace, but the idea is commonplace.
There is an obvious urge to confuse this with "Derwentwater's Farewell," by Robert Surtees, but Child explicitly and correctly denies this link.
Derwentwater seems by all accounts to have been popular, and other poems were written of his death. In this case, it would appear that an unknown poet (Surtees?) took pieces of older ballads to produce a song for the occasion.
The night of Derwentwater's execution witnessed a particularly bright aurora, and the aurora is sometimes called "Derwentwater's Lights" as a result. But this usage, like the ballad itself, seems to have faded out with time. Another version of "Derwentwater's Lights" makes it an annual reappearance of a beacon Lady Derwentwater once put out to welcome her husband home."
Alexander, pp. 66-67, gives this history of James, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater:
"In 1705 James Ratcliffe succeeded to the [Derwentwater] title at the age of seventeen. As befitted a scion of a Catholic and ardently pro-Stuart family, he had been educated at the court of St Germain with the son of the exiled James II. His devotion to the Stuart cause was reinforced by the fact that his mother was Lady Mary Tudor, a daughter of Charles II by Moll Davis. In 1712 James married a Catholic lady named Anne Welch, and three years later she watched her husband and his retainers join the Jacobite rebellion. Following their defeat, he was one of nine rebel lords taken prisoner."
Most accounts of the Fifteen Rebellion treat the Battle of Sheriffmuir as the Big Event, but perhaps it shouldn't be. Derwentwater, Lord Widdrington, and an M.P. named Thomas Forster had started an uprising in the northeast of England. Having failed to take Newcastle, they were joined by several Scottish lords, who brought their total force to nearly 5,000, and headed for the Lowlands of Scotland. Having failed there also, they headed for northwestern England, hoping to take the western counties of Cumbria, Westmoreland, and Lancashire, and perhaps even Liverpool, for James III. A smaller Hannoverian force led by two officers named Wills and Carpenter beat the Jacobites at Preston, scattering the force. Some 1600 were taken prisoner, as well as seven peers including Derwentwater (Hatton, pp. 177-178). This took place on the very day of Sheriffmuir.
Derwentwater pled guilty to treason, but no clemency was granted and he was beheaded after making a speech in behalf of the Stuart cause. (Alexander, p. 67).
There are three Derwentwater songs, all slightly confused -- perhaps because there were two Jacobite Earls of Derwentwater, one executed after the Fifteen and the other after the Forty-Five (Fraser, p. 415). Since they were brothers, though, a reference to a young Derwentwater has to be the one who died in the Fifteen.
As Alexander said, the Derwentwaters were actually Stuarts by the wrong side of the bed: Their mother Mary was the illegitimate daughter of Charles II, who gave her the surname "Tudor." Charles's huge brood of bastards had divided over the succession after James II was overthrown, but the Derwentwaters followed the Old Pretender, with whom they had been raised (Fraser, p. 415). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: C208

Lord Derwentwater's Good-Night

See Derwentwater's Farewell (File: Sto004)

Lord Dillard and Lady Flora

See Lady Maisry [Child 65] (File: C065)

Lord Do Something for Me

DESCRIPTION: "Lord do something for me... when I'm down at the altar on bended knee... I need the Holy Ghost... I'm your child... Crying, Lord please do something for me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (USSeaIsland03)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Rosa and Joseph Murray, "Lord Do Something for Me" (on USSeaIsland03)
File: RcLDSFMe

Lord Eglinton's Song

See A Sweet Country Life (File: LyCr162)

Lord Ellenwater

See Lord Derwentwater [Child 208] (File: C208)

Lord Errol

See The Earl of Errol [Child 231] (File: C231)

Lord Fife

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises Lord Fife: "every acre he does possess It's called the happy land." When tenants see hard times "Go home, he says, possess your place, I'll pay the rent mysel'." He toasts Lord Fife and "those who does not say Amen, Ashamed let them be"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: virtue farming nonballad landlord
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #147, p. 1, "Lord Fife"; #160, p. 2, "Lord Fife" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 438, "Lord Fife" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5952
NOTES [74 words]: Greig #149, p. 1: "Referring to 'Lord Fife,' ... Miss Bell Robertson is able to tell us that the peer alluded to was the Good Earl James, the grand-uncle of the Duke [Greig/Duncan3: "Alexander William George (1849-1912), first Duke of Fife"] -- an ideal landlord and idolized by his tenants. This information is also given by Mr John Mowat ...."
Greig/Duncan3: "This song concerns James, fourth Earl of Fife, who lived from 1776 to 1857." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD3438

Lord Franklin

See Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9] (File: LK09)

Lord Got Tomatoes

DESCRIPTION: Adam and Eve's clothes were fig leaves; in autumn bashful Adam turned to the wall when "those leaves would certainly fall" Mary had a cat that swallowed yarn; her kits "all had sweaters on" Mary slept with a sheep; it was a ram; she had a little lamb
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Blind Blake Higgs: see WIHIGGS01)
KEYWORDS: clothes bawdy Bible humorous nonballad animal sheep
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Lord Got Tomatoes" (on WIHIGGS01)
NOTES [40 words]: The chorus is inconsequential: "Father didn't raise no cotton no corn/ Very few potatoes/ String beans and lima beans/ But lord got tomatoes" - BS
Which I've heard sung with "Whoa Back, Buck," but I don't know if that arose naturally. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: RcLoGoTo

Lord Gregory

See The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76] (File: C076)

Lord Henry and Lady Margaret

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Lord I'm In Your Hands

DESCRIPTION: See notes for format. Verse lines include "I feel all right," "I'm groaning," "I'm satisfied," "I'm crying," and "I done died."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Rev. J.M. Gates)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Rev. J. M. Gates, "Lord I'm In Your Hands" (OKeh 8791, 1959)
Mary & Amanda Gordon, "Lord, I'm In Your Hand" (on USMississippi01)
NOTES [79 words]: The description follows the Gordon recording. The Gates recording includes the verse "I'm a motherless child."
The verse form is: (verse-line(2x), "I'm in your hand"(2x))(2x). The chorus is: "Throw your arms around me, So my enemies cannot harm, O Lord O Lord I'm in your hands" For example, the following is a repeated verse: "O Lord, O Lord, I'm in your hands, I'm in your hands. O Lord, O Lord, I'm in your hands." The Gordons sing "Throw your loving arms around me." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcLIIYHa

Lord I'm Sad, I'm Lost and Lonely

DESCRIPTION: "Lord I'm sad, I'm lost and lonely, And I'm trying to find my ease, So I'm asking thee, dear Savior, Dear Savior, help me please." He has tried pleasures; they leave an "aching void." He hopes to be accepted and to meet friends who have gone before
AUTHOR: Words: Simon Crocker
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, p. 155, "Lord I'm Sad, I'm Lost and Lonely" (1 text)
Roud #26735
File: CoxN155

Lord Ingram an' Gil Fyat

See Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet [Child 66] (File: C066)

Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet [Child 66]

DESCRIPTION: Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet are (brothers/uncle and nephew). Lady Maisry loves and is pregnant by Chiel Wyet but Ingram woos her family and she is made to wed him. On the wedding night Chiel Wyet and Lord Ingram kill each other; Maisry goes mad.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802/3 (ms)
KEYWORDS: family pregnancy marriage homicide fight madness
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 66, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (5 texts)
Bronson 66, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (2 versions, both regarded by Bronson as dubious; neither has a text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 188-191, "Lord Ingram an' Gil Fyat" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 213-222, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (1 text, with a Danish text for comparison)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 51, "Lord Ingram and Childe Vyet" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 30, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 70-73, "Lord Ingram ad Chiel Wyet" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 66, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (1 text)
DT 66, INGRWYLT*
Roud #46
NOTES [169 words]: Bronson quotes two tunes for this piece, but admits they "may have no genuine right to this association. The sole connecting link, in the absence of words [neither tune has a text], is the title of the first tune, 'Lord Ingram.' But the tune suits ill with the metre of any known text...."
In some versions of this, when Ingram and Maisry are wed and she is found to be pregnant, they sleep with a sword between them. Child has some notes on this folklore motif; for more, see Leach-TheBalladBook, p. xlv. It's not a common ballad motif, but it shows up a lot elsewhere, e.g. in the Tristan story.
Fowler, pp. 283-284, sees a connection to the May-January motif of Chaucer's "Merchant's Tale," mentioning in particular old January's enthusiasm at taking a beautiful young wife; Fowler seems to be arguing that the song is a fake as a result. Clearly a lot of people have questions about the authenticity of this ballad, but stories of May-December romances are much too common to posit dependence on Chaucer! - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: C066

Lord Is My Shepherd, The (Psalm 23)

DESCRIPTION: Psalm 23, made metrical: "The Lord’s my shepherd; I’ll not want. He makes me down to lie In pastures green He leadeth me by the (still/quiet) waters." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs)
KEYWORDS: religious shepherd nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 446, "The Lord Is My Shepherd" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 91, "The Lord Is My Shepherd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12306 and 22035 and 22039 and 32565
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Irreverence" (parody of Psalm 23)
SAME TUNE:
The Ford Psalm ("The Ford is my master; I shall not live in peace") (Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 114; no tune is indicated, but presumably it's one or another Psalm 23 version)
NOTES [78 words]: Psalm 23 is without question the most popular of the psalms, and has been paraphrased, made metrical, translated, retranslated, de-translated, and made into a song many times. Few of these have any hold on tradition. I've had to guess which text Averill means -- but it hardly matters, since I'm going to file any other Psalm 23 texts here; given that they are all minor paraphrases, it's not really possible to be sure which versions are related and which aren't. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ACSF446L

Lord John and Bird Ellen

See Child Waters [Child 63] (File: C063)

Lord John and Rothiemay

See The Fire of Frendraught [Child 196] (File: C196)

Lord John's Murder

See Young Johnstone [Child 88] (File: C088)

Lord Kenneth and Fair Ellinour

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Lord Levet

See Lord Lovel [Child 75] (File: C075)

Lord Levett

See Lord Lovel [Child 75] (File: C075)

Lord Livingston [Child 262]

DESCRIPTION: Livingston and Seaton both desire the favors of a lady. The lady weds Livingston for her own reasons. Seaton demands a duel. The lady offers to fight him, but Livingston claims it is his right. He is killed. The lady dies of sorrow after seven years
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1878
KEYWORDS: courting love fight death grief mourning marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Child 262, "Lord Livingston" (1 text)
Roud #3909
File: C262

Lord Lovat

See Lord Lovel [Child 75] (File: C075)

Lord Lovel [Child 75]

DESCRIPTION: (Lord Lovel) is setting out on a voyage. (Lady Nancy) begs him not to go, but he is determined. Soon after he reaches his destination, he misses Nancy and turns for home. He finds that she has died for love of him. He proceeds to do the same
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (letter from Horace Walpole to Percy); printed 1827 (Kinloch, Ancient Scottish Ballads, according to Child)
KEYWORDS: separation love death travel
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord,Hebr),England(All)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (84 citations):
Child 75, "Lord Lovel" (11 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 75, "Lord Lovel" (71 versions+3 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 75, "Lord Lovel" (7 versions: #8, #23, #32.1, #42, #46, #53, #57)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 144-145, "Lord Revel" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 127-128, "Lord Lovell" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 20, "Lord Level" (1 text)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #77, p. 255-257, "Lord Lovat (Lord Lovel, Child 75)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #32.1}
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 145-146, "Lord Lovel" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 371)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 51-52, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 32, "Lord Lovell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #122, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #6, pp. 78-80, "Lord Lovel" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 134-136, "Lord Lovel" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 139-148, "Lord Lovel" (3 texts plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes); p. 482 (additional notes) {Bronson's #36, #48}
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 52-54, "Lord Lovel" (1 text plus reference to 5 more; also texts of two Civil War parodies, the first of which, Ga, is "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell")
Randolph 17, "Lord Lovel" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #38}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 34-37, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 17A) {Bronson's #38}
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 13, "Lord Lovell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 124-125, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune0 {Bronson's #17}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 20, "Lord Lovel and Lady Nanca Bell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 13, "Lord Lovel" (5 texts plus an excerpt, 4 tunes; the "E" text has its first line from "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell (Mansfield Lovell)" but is still this song) {Bronson's #30, #46, #59, #68}
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 25, "Lord Lovel" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 6, "Lord Lovel" (1 text plus mention of 2 more, 1 tune) {Bronson's #63}
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 202-203, "Lord Lovell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 215-216, "Lord Lovell" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #22}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2, pp. 148-173, "Lord Lovell" (12 texts plus a fragment, 5 tunes) {L=Bronson's #22}
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 233-235, "Lord Lovell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 20, "Lord Lovel" (12 texts plus 3 fragments, of which "M" may not be this song; 4 tunes; 21 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #18, #9, #45, #5}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 20, pp. 146-151, "Lord Lovel" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 21, "Lord Lovel" (2 texts plus 2 excerpts and mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 21, "Lord Lovel" (6 excerpts plus a one-line fragment, 7 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 11, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #62}
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, #VI, pp. 121-124, "Lord Lovel" (2 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 2 more; 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, pp.41-42, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #158, "Lord Lovell" (3 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #59, #69}
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 12, pp. 90-91, "Lord Lovel" (1 text)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 16, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #35}
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 16-17, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 12, pp. 24-25, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, p. 29, "Lord Lovell" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #54}
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #8, "Lord Lovel" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 99-102, "Lord Lovell" (2 texts plus a fragment; 2 tunes on pp. 389-390) {Bronson's #8, #25}
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 55-56, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #14}
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 12, "Lord Lovel" (7 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #58, #41}
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 21 "Lord Lovel" (3 texts plus 2 fragments, 5 tunes){Bronson's #33, #34, #6, #47, #7}
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 26, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11}
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 146-147, "Lord Lovel" (1 text) (pp. 124-125 in the 1919 edition)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 97, "Lord Lovall" (1 text)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp.108-109, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 41-43, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #40, #39}
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 96-97, "Lord Lovell and Lady Nancee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, 48-49, "Lord Lovell" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 250-252, "Lord Lovel" (2 texts)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 97, "Lord Lovel" (2 texts, but the "B" text is "Abe Lincoln Stood at the White House Gate")
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 155, "Lord Lovell" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 33, "In Search of Silver and Gold" (1 text, 1 tune -- a facsimile of an "improved" version by George K. Hamilton which provides a happy ending for the piece)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 380-381, "Lord Lovell" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 93-95, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 30, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 70, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 209, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 2, pp. 4-6, "Lord Lovel"; pp. 6-7, "Lord Lover" (2 texts)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 12, "Lord Lovel" (3 text plus mention of two more)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #8A-C, pp. 32-37, "Lord Lovell," "Lord Lovell" (3 texts, 1 tune, but the "C" text is "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell (Mansfield Lovell)") {Bronson's #61}
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 88-90, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 45-46, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #17, "Lord Lovel" (1 text)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 11-13, "Lord Lovell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #159, p. 1, "Lord Lovel" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1232, "Lord Lovel" (8 texts, 7 tunes) {A=Bronson's #3? (Bronson prints no text), B=#4, E=#31}
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 9, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 38, "Lord Levett" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, p. 183, "Lord Lovel" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1307, p. 89, "Lord Lovel" (1 reference)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 74-75, "Lord Lovel" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 44-46, "Lord Lovell" (1 text, plus texts of "Abe Lincoln Stood at the White House Gate" and "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell")
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 96, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 178, "Lord Lovel" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 62, "Lord Lovell and Nancy Bell" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Frank L. Warner [nephew of Frank M. Warner], "Songs My Uncle Taught Me" Vol. XI, No. 1 (Jul 1963), p. 27, "Lord Lovel" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W Amos Abrams, "Della Adams Bostic: Sweet Singer of Old Songs," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), p. 143-144, "Lord Lovel" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, pp. 58-59, "Lord Lovell" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 75, LORDLOVL
ADDITIONAL: Flemming G. Andersen, "Technique, Text, and Context: Formulaic Narrative Mode and the Question of Genre," in Joseph Harris, editor, _The Ballad and Oral Literature_ Harvard University Press, 1991, p. 28, "Lord Lovat" (1 text, from Stanley Robertson)
Roud #48
RECORDINGS:
Winifred Bundy, "Lord Lovel" (AFS, 1941; on LC55)
Acie Cargill and Susan Brown, "Lord Lovel" (on HCargillFamily)
Nora Cleary, "Lord Levett" (on IRClare01)
Ethel Findlater, "Lord Lovel[l]" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
Lizzie Higgins, "Lord Lovat" (on LHiggins01)
Tom Lenihan, "Lord Levett" (on IRTLenihan01, IREarlyBallads)
Lucindia Perkins, "Lord Lovell" (on JThomas01)
Frank Proffitt, "Lord Lovel" (on FProffitt01)
Jean Ritchie, "Lord Lovel" (on JRitchie01)
Roxana Robinson, "Lord Lovel" (Piotr-Archive #699, recorded 10/01/2023)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2205), "Lord Lovel" ("Lord Lovel he stood at his castle gate"), J. Pitts (London), 1833-1851; also 2806 c.13(214), Firth c.21(17), Johnson Ballads 550 [some words illegible], Harding B 11(2204), Harding B 11(955), Harding B 26(380), "Lord Lovel"; Harding B 26(380), "Lord Lovel and Nancy Bell"
LOCSinging, as108050, "Lord Lovel" ("Lord Lovel stood at his castle gate"), J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lily Lee" (plot)
cf. "Bright Phoebe" (plot)
cf. "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" (floating verses)
cf. "Abe Lincoln Stood at the White House Gate" (lyrics, form)
cf. "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell (Mansfield Lovell)" (lyrics, form)
SAME TUNE:
Sam Cowell (Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine p. 147; cf. the notes to "Billy Barlow (II)")
King Matty and Blair ("King Matty he sat in his big 'white house'") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 278)
Old Sukey ("Old Sukey she stood at the college gate, a-scratching her milk-white ear") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 94)
The Murray Cod ("Mister Gubbins was standing just outside his shop And he seemed in a deuce of a hurry") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 112)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lord Lovinder
NOTES [244 words]: Although Child treated this as an entirely serious ballad, Bronson calls it "too too insipid," and believes it survives only because of its tune.
Comic versions are common. Sandy Paton states that Child refused to print a comic text that came to his attention. Cazden et al state that "At least nine of the versions compiled by Bronson may be identified as comic [and we note that many others might be but are fragmentary]"; they find a comic version in America as early as 1836. Numerous other parodies, comic versions, and rewrites are also listed -- Flemming G. Andersen suggests that this is because of the very sentimental ending, which invites exaggeration.
Stanley Robertson (Jeannie Robertson's nephew) explained the plot on the ground that Lord Lovat was going on crusade, which explains why Lady Nancy was willing for him to leave; she approved of his course.
It is sometimes stated that this is the original source of the rose-and-briar motif now widely associated with "Bonny Barbara Allan" [Child 84], though I don't believe this has been proved. Interestingly, some versions, such as Roxana Robinson's, substitute the gillyflower for the briar. The gillyflower is sometimes associated with heaven, so perhaps this is to indicate the lovers' fate. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as108050: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C075

Lord Lovel and Lady Nanca Bell

See Lord Lovel [Child 75] (File: C075)

Lord Lovell

See Lord Lovel [Child 75] (File: C075)

Lord Lovell and Lady Nancee

See Lord Lovel [Child 75] (File: C075)

Lord Lovell and Nancy Bell

See Lord Lovel [Child 75] (File: C075)

Lord Lover

See Lord Lovel [Child 75] (File: C075)

Lord Maxwell's Goodnight

See Lord Maxwell's Last Goodnight [Child 195] (File: C195)

Lord Maxwell's Last Goodnight [Child 195]

DESCRIPTION: Lord Maxwell, having had his revenge on the Johnstones and soon to be executed for it, bids farewell to the places and people he has known
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1778 (Percy papers)
KEYWORDS: death execution revenge feud
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1608 - Murder of James Johnstone by Lord Maxwell
1613 - Execution of Maxwell for his crimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 195, "Lord Maxwell's Last Goodnight" (2 texts)
Bronson 195, "Lord Maxwell's Last Goodnight" (4 versions)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 389-392, "Lord Maxwell's Goodnight" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 533-535, "Lord Maxwell's Last Goodnight" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 151, "Lord Maxwell's Last Goodnight" (1 text)
Roud #4015
NOTES [190 words]: The events which led up to the execution of Maxwell are typical of the sort of feuding in which Scottish nobles were constantly engaged, and are detailed by Child. Even for a last goodnight, this song is amazingly frugal of details; the texts in Child say nothing of what Maxwell did, nor even what his fate will be. I was tempted to give it the keyword "nonballad."
Incidentally, the Maxwells had been a problem for James VI long before the murder of James Johnstone; as early as 1588, he had been part of an extensive plot to overthrow James and perhaps bring back Catholicism (Alan Stewart, The Cradle King: The Life of James VI & I, the First Monarch of a United Great Britain, St. Martin's Press, 2003, pp. 96-07).
David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 237, makes an interesting point about the text: Although Child prints it in quatrains, if we arrange it in eight-line stanzas instead, they often appear to take the form ababbcxc -- in other words, the rhyme scheme from one stanza carries across to the next. Which clearly hints at sophisticated, not popular, composition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C195

Lord Meanwell

See Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)

Lord o' Aboyne, The

See The Earl of Aboyne [Child 235] (File: C235)

Lord O'Bore

See Prince Robert [Child 87] (File: C087)

Lord of Learne

See The Lord of Lorn and the False Steward [Child 271] (File: C271)

Lord of Lorn and the False Steward, The [Child 271]

DESCRIPTION: The Lord of Lorn, having done well in school, is sent to France to study. His steward abuses him, takes his possessions, and sets him to begging. Eventually the truth is revealed; the Lord regains his property and the Steward is executed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: apparently 1580 (stationer's register entry for "The Lord of Lorne"); it was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690; first text before 1750 (Percy Folio)
KEYWORDS: nobility trick abuse begging help punishment execution
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 271, "The Lord of Lorn and the False Steward" (2 texts)
Bronson 271, comments only
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 180-198, "Lord of Learne" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 76, "The Lord of Lorn" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1523, "It was a worthy Lord of Lorn"
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 138, "A pretty ballad of the Lord of LORN and the false Steward" (reproduction of a broadside with no imdication of source)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 73
RELATED: Versions of the Romance "Roswall and Lillian" --
Rhiannon Purdie, _Shorter Scottish Medieval Romances: Florimond of Albany, Sir Colling the Knight, King Orphius, Roswall and Lillian_, Scottish Text Society, Fifth Sieries, No. 11, 2013, pp. 125-199, "Roswall and Lillian" (2 texts, of the "long" and "short" versions)
Roud #113
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Greensleeves" (tune)
NOTES [2539 words]: A broadside printing of a song with this title entered into the Stationer's Register in 1580 lists the tune as "Greensleeves." This is also the tune listed on the broadside in Shepard. Since the ballad has not been found in tradition, this remains unverified. In any case, given the apparent wild popularity of "Greensleeves" at the time this was published, it is quite possible the printer tried to take advantage of a tune not normal to the ballad ("Lorn" can be sung to "Greensleeves," but only with effort; it is not a good fit).
And what was a ballad about a Scottish lord doing being registered in England anyway?
The first verifiable text is from the Percy folio, though Bronson thinks, probably correctly given what we find in the Station's Register, that it comes from a lost broadside. Rollins, p. 135, lists three broadsides that are presumably this piece: #1546, "The Lord of Lorne and the false Steward" (registered October 6 1580 by Jno. Wally); #1545, "Lord of Lorne" (registered December 14, 1624), and "A pretty ballad of the Lord of Lorne & the false steward" registered March 1, 1675). The last of these is probably later than the Percy Folio, but either of the first two could have been the source.
Child makes a great deal of the romances analogous to this ballad. Briggs, volume A.2, pp. 475-479, prints one of these, "Roswal and Lilian," from Hazlitt, and notes on p. 479 that this it is essentially the well-known tale of "The Goose Girl" but with the roles reversed. The romance is also known as "Roswall and Lillian."
Similarly Purdie, p. 51, declares that "The texts are not so close as to share any actual lines, but the plot of the 'Lord of Learne' is essentially a simplified version of [Roswell and Lillian]." Further, she points out that the hero in both ballad and romance goes by the strange name "Dissawar," and that it is the only proper name given in the ballad.
"Dissawar" is also, if one thinks about it, close to the name "Roswald" spelled backward. It is a sort of an oral anagram of "Roswald." And "Lillian," especially in a dialect which drops the letter "r," is a bit like "Lord o' Lorn."
Usually we expect ballads to be derived from romances. But, as Purdie notes on p. 52, "the evidence for the existence of the 'Lord of Learne' inconveniently predates that for Roswall." The earliest copy of "The Lord of Lorn," the Percy Folio text, may be more recent than the text of "Roswall" (although even this is uncertain; there are no manuscript copies of "Roswall," only print versions, the oldest being from the seventeenth century; Purdie, p. 56). But the evidence that "Lorn" is older relies on more than just the dates of the extent copies; as mentioned, the "Lord" seems to have been entered into the Stationer's Register in 1580 (Purdie, p. 52), and we also have a mention of "Ballads... Of patient Grizell, and the Lord of Lorne" from Charles Cotton in 1675 (Brushfield, p. vi).
Purdie further argues, pp. 73-74, that "Roswall" is dependent on the story of "Clariodus," which cannot be earlier than 1503 and it probably some decades later, and which would probably require some additional time to become well-known.
Also, the popularity of "Roswall" seems to be quite late. No version can be shown to be much older than the earliest dated print of 1663 (Purdie, p. 73), and the most of the prints are from long after the manuscript era. (Purdie counter-argues, pp. 75-79, that some of the words in the text argue for a sixteenth century date as they went out of use after that. However, some of her examples -- "syne," for instance -- endured into the twentieth century, so I am very far from convinced.)
It all adds up to a noteworthy LACK of evidence that "Roswall" predates "Lorn."
It's worth noting that the Percy Folio is full of texts that seem to be semi-cut-down romances -- still longer than ballads, but shorter than any normal romance. (Oddly enough, "Roswall" also underwent this process; Purdie, p. 56, describes a "Long Version" of about 850 lines and a "Short Version" of 412, which seems on its face to have been created in modern times. "Roswall and Lillian" is a romance, but whether it is a MEDIEVAL romance is altogether another question -- I incline to think it is not.)
The nature of the Percy romances is a hint that there might be an earlier, lost "Lord of Lorn" romance, which in turn raises the possibility that "Roswall" is derived from this, or that both are derived from some still earlier "Dissawar" romance.
I don't want to push that too far. It is much speculation based on the thinnest of evidence -- a Stationer's Register entry and the tendency of a manuscript. But it would explain a few things.... Child seems not to have noted the significance of the titles of the characters in the "Lord of Lorn," e.g.; I wonder if there might not be an allegory floating around somewhere in the background that was built up when the romance was balladized. So here is some of what Child omitted:
The story starts with Robert the Bruce (died 1329), the King of Scotland who won the Battle of Bannockburn and re-established Scottish independence. Bruce claimed the throne in 1306 after twenty years of confusion in Scotland (for background on this period, see the notes to "Sir Patrick Spens" [Child 58] and "Gude Wallace" [Child 157]).
The Scots at the time Bruce claimed the throne were divided into at least four parties: Those who favored the English, those who favored the deposed king John Balliol, those who favored the Bruce -- and those who, while opposed to the English and not enthusiastic about Balliol, were absolutely opposed to the Bruce claims. This included the powerful family of the Comyns, whose leader the Red Comyn Bruce had just slain (Magnusson, p. 166).
Of these four factions, the pro-English party was weak simply because any party associated with the English King Edward I would naturally have had the the independence beaten out of it (Edward was an absolute autocrat), and the Balliol faction was weakened by the fact that their monarch was a rather weak man long gone from Scotland. The anti-Bruce faction, though, was strong, including the MacDougalls.
Dougall MacDougall, a supporter of the Comyns (there was a marriage alliance between the familes; Thomson, p. 8), had actually defeated and killed two of Robert Bruce's brothers (Magnusson, p. 171). John MacDougall, Lord of Lorn, twice fought against Robert Bruce (Magnusson, pp. 175-177). In 1308, Bruce drove John MacDougall into exile; his family did not return until 1330 (Thomson, p. 11). (It is perhaps little surprise, then, that the Campbell clan first comes to our attention at about this time as supporters of Bruce; Thomson, p. 10, notes that the second known head of the clan, Neil Campbell, married Bruce's sister Mary. Since the MacDougalls had probably been responsible for the death of his father Colin -- Thomson, p. 1 -- the alliance was a natural one.)
After the great Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, of course, Robert Bruce was too firmly established to be pushed aside; he was able to deprive the MacDougalls of much of their property (Prebble, p. 23, observes that Glencoe, later site of a famous massacre, went to the MacDonalds; for the Massacre of Glencoe, see the song of that title). But there was the matter of the succession after Robert Bruce died.
By his first wife, Isabella of Mar, Bruce had only one child, a daughter Marjory/Marjorie. Given her importance for the succession, she needed a husband who had power and respect, so she was married to Walter, the hereditary Steward of Scotland. They had a single child, Robert; the pregnant Marjorie fell from a horse in 1316 (Cook, pp. 107-109) and died giving birth (Magnusson, p. 192, says she died and the child was saved by Caesarian surgery). The boy Robert (died 1390) would eventually become Robert II and ancestor of the Stewarts.
By the time of Marjorie's death Robert the Bruce had remarried, to Elizabeth de Burgh. But she was in English custody from 1306 to 1314; by the time she and Bruce reunited, there was some concern about whether she was even still capable of having children (Magnusson, p. 192). It turned out she was; she bore two daughters, then at last twin sons, David and John (Magnusson, p. 193). John died young, but the living boy would be the future King David II (Cook, p. 112). Unfortunately, it was nearly certain that he would be a minor when he came to the throne; although Robert Bruce was only in his fifties, he was also ill with a disease which was called (although almost certainly was not) leprosy.
Still, there was no question that David was Robert Bruce's heir, and he duly succeeded at the age of five -- though he would spend little of his life actively ruling Scotland. He began his reign as a minor, was sent to France for seven years (Mackie, p. 86); upon returning home, he went to war with England but was heavily defeated in 1346 at Neville's cross (Mackie, pp. 86-87). He was wounded and captured in the battle, and remained in English hands for eleven years (Magnusson, p. 204) apart from a little time on parole as he sought to raise a ransom (Magnusson, p. 205).
David was married even before he came to the throne, to Joanna "Make-Peace," the sister of Edward III of England (they had been wed the year before Robert Bruce died, when David was four and Joanna seven; Magnusson, p. 192).
This marriage, however, was childless and "apparently... loveless" (Ashley-Kings, p. 551); she apparently left Scotland, never to return, in 1357 (Boardman, p. 15). David would remarry after Joanna died in 1362, but his second wife (his former mistress, Margaret Drummond, who "was regarded by his nobles as in every way unworthy," according to Mackie, p. 88) could no more produce a child than did Joanna (odds are that the fault was David's, since she had had a son by her first husband; Magnusson, p. 106). They divorced in 1370 (Ashley-Kings, p. 551).
Boardman speculates that the divorce was perhaps an attack by David on the Stewarts, since Robert's son and heir John, the future Robert III, was married to a Drummond -- at David's insistence (Magnusson, p. 207). Ashley-Stuart insists that "Robert had been scrupulously faithful to [King David]" (p. 27), but the King himself clearly did not think so -- and, given that Robert fled the Battle of Neville's Cross at which David was captured by the Engiish (Magnuson, p. 204; for Neville's Cross, see the notes to "Durham Field" [Child 159]), and had for a time been part of an agreement in which the Douglases demanded "wiser government" (Brown, pp. 57-58), I certainly see David's point!
David had seemed, toward the end, to be doing all he could to block the Stewart succession: Seeking a third wife (Magnusson, p. 308), plus supporting anti-Stewart nobles (Boardman, pp. 24-25). He had previously tried to bring in the English prince John of Gaunt as an heir in preference to the Stewart (Magnusson, p. 207). But he ran out of time. David died unexpectedly in 1371 while still in his forties.
And suddenly there was a succession question. Robert Steward was the obvious heir, since he was the son of the oldest of Robert Bruce's three daughters, but there were objections. He was eight years older than his nephew David (Boardman, p. 1), and by this time was starting to fail in health; he was known as "Auld Blearie" or "Old Bleary" for his reddened eyes (Fry/Fry, p. 90; Magnusson, pp. 213-214, blames this description on Froissart). Plus he was regarded by some as a traitor (Ashley-Kings, p. 553), or at least someone who was willing to allow the English to control David (Magnusson, p. 204). And he had proved himself to be no general (Ashley-Stuart, p. 28).
Eventually Robert II suffered a sort of palace coup which pushed him aside in favor of his son (Magnusson, p. 215). Yet that just made the problem worse, because his sons were of questionable legitimacy. Robert II had had to seek a papal legitimization of his children by Elizabeth Mure (Boardman, p. 8). It seems the two were cousins, and they had gotten together in ignorance of this (Mitchison, p. 59; Mackie, p. 94 says that the marriage was made "in good faith"); Mure may also have been previously contracted to another (Cook, p. 135). It may be, in addition, that they had not been formally married (Boardman, p. 8) -- all in all, a lot of barriers to the legitimacy of the children.
Robert had later taken a second wife, and had additional sons (Mitchison, p. 59), but were the first brood his legitimate heirs, or were the second bunch, or were they both illegitimate?
If Robert II's claim to the kingship were set aside, or that of his children, then the Stewarts were not the heirs of David; rather, the true heirs of Robert Bruce would be the offspring of his daughters by Elizabeth de Burgh. (Indeed,it appears that some regarded the sisters as David's heirs all along -- Boardman, p. 9. Was this perhaps because they were "born in the purple," after Robert Bruce became king?)
On this line of argument, David's heir was his full sister Margaret rather than the son of his half sister Marjorie; Margaret had a son John who, from the time of his birth in 1346, seems to have been regarded as David's heir (since the children of Robert Stewart were not legitimized by the Pope until later, and Margaret apparently died in bearing the boy). But John himself died in 1361 (Boardman, pp. 8-9).
Next in line would be the children of Margaret's younger sister Matilda, should she have any. And she did: A daughter Joanna, who married John, Lord of Lorn (Boardman, p. 2). As it turned out, Joanna and John had no children, and the Lord of Lorn (John MacDougal, the head of Clan Dougal) died in 1388 (Boardman, p. 182) -- but no one could have known that at the time David died.
What's more, the Lords of Lorn (Lorne) had been rivals of the ruling dynasty for many years; Robert the Bruce had attacked the Lorn holding of Dunstaffnage in 1309 (MacLean, p. 41)
There was most definitely rivalry between the branches of the Scottish royal family at this time; while Robert Stewart did manage to ascend as Robert II, Boardman (pp. 42-45) describes what sounds like an abortive coup attempt on behalf of a Douglas. And it apparently took some time before Robert II managed to gain the full support of the nobility. In this period, a claim on behalf of the Lorn faction might have caused a great deal of trouble.
The conclusion is clear: A partisan of the Lords of Lorn might well have called Robert II (or his son Robert III) a "false Steward"; what's more, the Stewarts would set aside the MacDougalls when they had the chance. John MacDougall of Lorn was succeeded as Lord of Lorn by John Steward of Innermeath (died 1421). So if any lordship in Scotland would refer to a false Steward/Stewart/Stuart (as opposed to a mere false steward), it would be the Lords of Lorn.
Later, a Stewart actually became a Lord of Lorn: "In 1439 Jane [Queen Joan Beaufort, widow of James I and granddaughter of John of Gaunt] remarried, taking as her husband Sir James Stewart, Knight of Lorne" (Perry, p. 77). But while that had an effect on Scottish history (since it influenced the education of James II), I can't see a connection to this ballad. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C271

Lord of Scotland, The

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Lord of the North Country, The

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Lord Ogilvie

See The Days Are Awa That I Hae Seen (File: Ord179)

Lord Orland/Daniel's Wife

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Lord Paget (The Battle of Sahagun)

DESCRIPTION: "As in quarters we lay, which you shall quickly hear, Lord Paget came to us, and bid us to prepare." The 15th Hussars ride for Sahagun. Although the French are warned, the English and Spanish are victorious. They drink a health to Lord Paget
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats)
KEYWORDS: soldier battle Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 21, 1808 - The Sahagun skirmish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 55, "Lord Paget" (1 text)
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 123-125, "Sahagun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1660
NOTES [62 words]: "Sahagun, Action at: Minor engagement fought on 21 December 1808 along the road from Soldana to Leon, that was the only offensive action undertaken by General Moore's British force during the brief Peninsular War sortie of late 1808." Source: Stephen Pope, Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars, Cassell, 1999 (I use the undated Facts on File hardcover edition), p. 429. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Wins123

Lord Randal [Child 12]

DESCRIPTION: (Lord Randall) comes home; his mother questions him about his day. He answers each question accurately but incompletely, concluding with a request to rest. At last he reveals that his sweetheart has poisoned him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1787
KEYWORDS: homicide lover farewell lastwill food poison
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(All)) US(All) Ireland Canada(Mar,Que) West Indies(Jamaica) Australia
REFERENCES (85 citations):
Child 12, "Lord Randal" (21 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #31, #33}
Bronson 12, "Lord Randal" (103 versions plus 9 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 12, "Lord Randal" (20 versions: #1, #8, #14, #24, #31, #33, #35.1, #35,2, #43, #43.2, #48, #53, #60, #61, #72, #84, #90, #94, #97, #98, #99)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 287-289, "Lord Randal" (1 text plus excerpts of others)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, p. 88, "Shouly Linkum Old Fragment" (1 short text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 210-211. "Lord Randall" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #112, pp. 1-2, "Lord Ronald" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 209, "Lord Ronald" (10 texts, 8 tunes) {A=Bronson's #85, B=#29, C=#34, E=#40, H=#43}
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #79, p. 262-264, "Lord Donald (Lord Randal, Child 233)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #43.2}
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 162, "My Bonnie Wee Cruidland Dou" (1 text)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 96-97, 124-125 "King Henry, My Son" (2 texts, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 59, "Young Henery My Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #55, "Henry, My Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 64-65, "Henry, My Son" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 76-77, "Henry My Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 84, "Lord Randal" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 46-72, "Lord Randall" (12 texts plus 3 fragments and 2 quotations from non-Maine sources, 6 tunes plus 1 unrelated item; the "N" text is a rewrite which ends with Randall's accidental death) {Bronson's #42, #37, #16, #72, #23, [], #11; Bronson's #70 is a tune for the "J" text, which is printed without a melody}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 37-39, "Jimmie Rendal"; pp. 200-201, "Lord Randall" (2 texts)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 197-198, "Mother, Make My Bed Soon" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #30}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 175-207, "Lord Randall" (13 texts plus 6 fragments, 12 tunes) {H=Bronson's #30}
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 191-193, "Dirante, My Son or Lord Randall" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 144-145, "Wooing and Death of John Randal" (1 text) (pp. 123-124 in the 1919 edition)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 6, "Lord Randal" (15 texts [two of them in an appendix] plus a fragment; 4 tunes entitled "John Willow, My Son," "Johnny Rillus," Johnny Rilla," "Lord Randal"; 2 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #64, #28, (F version not reproduced), #58}
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 24-28, "Lord Randall" (5 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #41}
Randolph 5, "Johnny Randolph" (4 texts, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #21, B=#26, D=#96}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 7A, "My Ramboling Son"; 7B, "Jimmy Random My Son" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, #II, pp. 101-103, "Lord Randal" (2 texts); p. 64, "(Poor Anzo)" (1 text)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, pp. 23-24, "McDonald"; pp. 25-26, "Poor Anzo" (2 texts)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 5, "Lord Randal" (4 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #73, #95, #94}
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 3, "The Cup of Cold Poison" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 195, "Dirandel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 7, "Lord Randall" (1 text)
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 7, pp. 51-60, "Lord Randal" (5 texts plus an excerpt, 3 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 6, "Lord Randall" (3 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 6, "Lord Randall" (5 excerpts, 5 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 4, "Lorendo" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #148, "Lord Randal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 4, pp. 69-70, "Lord Randall" (2 texts)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 6, pp. 13-15, "Lord Randall" (1 text plus an excerpt from another, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 178-180, "Lord Randall" (1 text, with local title "Randal, My Son")
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 9-11, "Lord Randal" (2 texts plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #48, #86}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 81-85, "Lord Randal" (4 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 3-6, "Lord Randall," "Croodlin Dow" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 66, "Lord Randal" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 178, "Lord Randall" (3 texts)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 107, "Lord Randall"; 108, "Jimmy Ransome" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 7 "Lord Randal" (13 texts, 13 tunes) {Bronson's #13, #14, #17, #74, #3, #56, #47, #53, #54, #49, #63, #68, #62}
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 18, "Lord Rendal" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #90}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 101-102, "Lord Rendall" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 166, "The Croodin' Doo" (1 short text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #100}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 1, "Lord Randall" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #35}
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #3, "Lord Ransom" (2 texts)
Niles 9, "Lord Randall" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols #43, "Lord Randal" (4 texts [3 from Child, 1 from Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles])
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 168+336-337, "Lord Randal" (1 text)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 7, "John Randolph (Lord Randal)" (1 text, 1 tune -- an expanded composite version) {Bronson's #53}
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 50-51, "Lord Randal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 23-24, "Lord Ronald" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 34, "Lord Randal" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 4, "Lord Randall" (6 texts plus mention of 6 more)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #3, pp. 14-15, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #38}
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 89-91, "Willy, My Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Geiner, pp. 16-17, "Johnny Randal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #8, "Jimmy Randal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 458-459, "Lord Randal" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 1, p. 3, "Johnny Randall"; p. 4, "Jimmy Randolph" (2 texts)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 4, "Lord Randall" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 3-4, "Lord Randall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 44, "Where have you been today, Billy, my son" (3 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #287, pp. 167-168, "(Where have you been today, Billy, my son)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 199, "The Wee Croodin Doo" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 11, "Lord Randal" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H814, p. 415, "Lord Ronald" (1 text, 1 tune, incorrectly labelled "Child 92")
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, p. 238, "The Croodlin' Doo"; pp. 238, ("Where have you been to-day, Billy my son?") [Child 12G]; p. 239, "Lord Randal"; pp. 239-240, "Lord Donald" (3 texts plus 1 fragment)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 83-85, "Lord Randal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Behan-IrelandSings, #60, "My Bonny Brown Boy" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 5, "Henry My Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 43-44, "Lord Randall"; "Johnny Randall" (2 texts)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 21-22, "Lord Randal" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 346, "Lord Randall" (1 text)
DT 12, LORDRAN1* LORDRNLD* EELHENRY* EELHENR2
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #352, p. 485, "Lord Ronald, my son--" (1 short text, 1 tune, from 1792)
Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 51-53, "The Croodin Doo" (1 tune)
Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 30-31, "Henry, My Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, p. 396, "The Croodin Doo" (1 text)
Olive Lewin, "Rock It Come Over" - The Folk Music of Jamaica (Barbados: The University of the West Indies Press, 2000), p. 119, "Lord Randall" (1 fragment)
Roud #10
RECORDINGS:
Grace Carr, "Henry, My Son" (on Saskatch01)
Sara Cleveland, "My Bonny Bon Boy" (on SCleveland01)
Judy Cook, "Henry My Son" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #330, recorded 11/02/2022)
Mary Delaney, "Buried in Kilkenny" (on Voice17)
Em & Doreen Elliott, "Henry, My Son" (on Elliotts01)
Pete Elliott, "Henry, My Son" (on Elliotts01)
Ewan MacColl, "Lord Randal" (on ESFB1, ESFB2)
John MacDonald, "Lord Ronald" (on Voice03)
Lawrence Older, "Johnny Randall" (on LOlder01)
Paddy Reilly, "Buried in Kilkenny" (on IRTravellers01)
Jean Ritchie, "Lord Randall" (on JRitchie02)
Jeannie Robertson, Elizabeth Cronin, Thomas Moran, Colm McDonough, Eirlys & Eddis Thomas [composite] "Lord Randal" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1) {cf. Bronson's #43.2 in addenda}
Pete Seeger, "Lord Randall" (on PeteSeeger25)
Erica Warnock, "Billy My Son" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #458, recorded 01/26/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Billy Boy"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jimmy Randolph
Jimmy Randal
Bonnie Wee Croodlin Doo
Tiranti, My Love
Henry, My Son
Willie Ransom
Oh Mak' My Bed Easy
NOTES [418 words]: A few versions, such as that recorded by Lawrence Older, make Randall's wife, rather than his sweetheart, his murderer. Wonder if she found out about that other girl he was fooling around with. - RBW
And in Grace Carr's version, it's his father who poisons him. It's worth noting that the title "Henry, My Son" almost inevitably denotes a parody version. - PJS
Chambers, referring to "The Croodin Doo": "the same as a ballad called Grandmother Addercook, which is popular in Germany." - BS
I've seen several sources (notably Davis) mention that John Randolph of Virginia knew the song which sometimes bears his name. The text Randolph cited appears, however, to have been "Wheel of Fortune" or something similar.
Barry et al claim "It is reasonably safe to assert that, of all the English ballads, 'Lord Randall' holds in the United States the leading position, as regards the extent of purely traditional currency. 'Barbara Allen' and 'Lord Thomas' are, no doubt, known to more folk-singers, yet it cannot be said that their popularity is due solely to tradition, since both have been many times reprinted in pocket songsters. On the other hand, we know of no American broadside or songster text of 'Lord Randall.'"
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, following Hodgart, suggests that this is about Ranulf, Earl of Chester, the greatest English landowner in the early 1200s, who was the presumed subject of the comment in Piers Plowman that Sloth knew "rhymes of Robin Hood and (Ranulf/Randolph) Earl of Chester." Supporting evidence for this is nil except the similarity in names and the throwaway line in Langland.
Nonetheless something similar does exist in an old British manuscript, Bodleian Library, Ashmole 48 -- a manuscript Child knew but largely ignored, citing from it only one piece, "The Hunting of the Cheviot" [Child 162]. (See that ballad for background on Ashmole 48). But item LXVIII has several verses that resemble "Lord Randall" both in the last line and in stanza form, e.g.
Fare well haukynge and huntynge bothe;
Fare well game, solace, and gle;
Fare well, my ladye, fayre of face,
I wene I wyll the never more se.
I so sycke, make my bed, I will dye nowe.
I.e.
Farewell hawking and hunting both;
Farewell game, solace, and glee;
Fare well, my lady, fair of face,
I expect I will never more see you.
I [am] so sick, make my bed, I will die now.
For this text, see David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 121. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C012

Lord Ransom

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Lord Rendal

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Lord Revel

See Lord Lovel [Child 75] (File: C075)

Lord Robert

See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Lord Ronald

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie [Child 239]

DESCRIPTION: Jeanie Gordon loves (Auch)anachie, but her father would have her wed Lord Saltoun, who is old but wealthy. The wedding is carried out despite her wishes. She faints and dies. Auchanachie arrives the next day, learns of her death, and dies himself.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (Maidment)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Jeanie Gordon loves (Auch)anachie, but her father would have her wed Lord Saltoun, who is old but wealthy. The wedding is carried out despite her wishes. The servants cut her out of her gown so that Saltoun may bed her. She faints and dies. Auchanachie arrives the next day, learns of her death, and dies himself.
KEYWORDS: wedding separation age love death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 239, "Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie" (2 texts)
Bronson 239, "Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie" (1 version)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 25-26, "Auchynachy Gordon" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1021, "Lord Salton and Auchanachie" (2 text plus 2 verses on p. 618, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 239-597, "Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie" (1 text)
DT 239, ANGORDON*
Roud #102
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny Doyle [Laws M2]" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Annachie
Annachie Gordon
NOTES [112 words]: Possibly related to the Swedish ballad "Stolt Ingrid [Proud Ingrid]"? - PJS
William Bernard McCarthy, in the article "'Barbara Allen' and 'The Gypsy Laddie': Single-Rhyme Ballads in the Child Corpus," printed on pp. 143-154 of Thomas A. McKean, editor, The Flowering Thorn: International Ballad Studies, Utah State University Press, 2003, makes the interesting observation that this is the only ballad in the Child corpus where the predominant meter is four beats in all four lines with a rhyme scheme of aabb (with the last line generally ending with the name "Auchanachie"). I have no idea whether this might be responsible for its relatively limited distribution. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: C239

Lord Thomas

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Lord Thomas a Fragment

See Lord Thomas and Lady Margaret [Child 260] (File: C260)

Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73]

DESCRIPTION: (Lord Thomas) asks his mother to help him decide between (Fair Annet) and the "Brown Girl." The mother prefers the wealthy Brown Girl. Thomas consents, inviting Annet to the wedding, where the jealous brown girl stabs her; (Thomas kills her and himself)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1677 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 1(120b))
KEYWORDS: marriage poverty death courting jealousy homicide suicide wedding
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord),England(All)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (103 citations):
Child 73, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (10 texts)
Bronson 73, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (147 versions+4 in addenda, though 2 versions are relegated to an appendix for no evident reason; many of the other texts are also fragmentary and might belong elsewhere)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 73, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" (11 versions: #1, #8, #21, #71, #91, #95, #97, #103, #115, #136, #143)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 225-228, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" (1 text)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 239-246, "Sweet Willie and Fair Annie" (1 text plus an excerpt from Percy's text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #124, pp. 1-2, "Sweet Willie and Fair Annie"; #108, pp. 1-2, "Sweet Willie and Fair Annie" (2 texts plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan2 212, "Sweet Willie and Fair Annie" (5 texts, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #142, C=#129}
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 48, "The Nut-Brown Bride" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 112, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" (1 text)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 42-43, "Lord Thomas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 165, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 623, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" (1 text plus1 fragment)
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 200-202, "Lord Thomas and Fair Elinor" (1 slightly composite text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #39}
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 25-26, "Lord Thomas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #48, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #39}
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 135-137, "Fair Eleanor and the Brown Maid" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 132, "Fair Eleanor and the Brown Girl")
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 40-42, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 128-134, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" (2 texts plus 1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #110}
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 82-85, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor"; pp. 234-238, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (2 texts)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XLIX, pp. 94-95, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor"; LLXVIII, pp. 112-113, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (2 partial texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #95, #1}
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 37-48, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (3 full texts, fragments of 4 others, 1 tune, and listing of 5 unprinted versions) {Bronson's #109}
Randolph 15, "The Brown Girl" (8 texts plus 2 fragments, 5 tunes) {A=Bronson's #51, F=#147, G=#4, H=#124, J=#26}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 31-34, "The Brown Girl" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 15H) {Bronson's #124}
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 41, "The Brown Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 108-109, "The Brown Girl" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #82}
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #7, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" (1 fragment)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 18, "Lord Thomas and the Brown Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 39-42, "Fair Ellender" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #10}
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 17-20, "Fair Ellender" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 33-336, "Fair Eleanor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 11, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (2 texts plus 2 fragments, 1 tune) {Bronson's #140}
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 3, pp. 5-7, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #40}
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 272-281, "Fair Eleanor," "Fair Ellender" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 136-137, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 209-213, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #97}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2, pp. 89-121, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (10 texts plus two fragments, 8 tunes) {A=Bronson's #97, F=#98}
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 118-120, "Lord Arnold's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune, which never mentions a daughter of Lord Arnold)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 4, "Lord Thomas" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #54, #100}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 18, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (17 texts plus a fragment, 7 tunes entitled "Lord Thomas and Fair Elenor," "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor," "Fair Ellen," "Lord Thomas and the Brown Girl," "The Brown Girl, or Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender," "Lord Thomas and Fair Elinor," "Fair Ellender, or Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor"; 17 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #31, #81, #120, #36, #37, #60, #144}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 18, pp. 123-137, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (6 texts plus some excerpts, 5 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 19, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (4 texts plus 6 excerpts and mention of 4 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 19, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (15 excerpts and fragments, 15 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 9, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellen" (1 text)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, #5, pp. 109-120, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (5 texts plus mention of 1 more; 3 tunes) {Bronson's #138, #80, #85}
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, pp. 35-37, "Lord Thomas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #157, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (3 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #112, #59, #113}
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 10, pp. 78-87, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (5 texts)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 13, "The Brown Girl" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #93}; 21, "The Brown Girl" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #53}
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 49-51, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellendar" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 34-36, "Lord Thomas"; pp. 115-116, "The Brown Girl" (2 texts)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 41-44, "The Brown Girl" (1 text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 2, pp. 4-7, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 25-27, "Lord Thomas, or, Fair Eleanor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 62-63, "Lord Thomas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 105-114, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet," with individual titles "The Brown Girl," "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellen," "Lord Thomas,"Lord Thomas," "Fair Ellender," "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellendar" (5 texts plus a fragment; the "A" text has lost the ending; 4 tunes on pp. 391-393) {Bronson's #74, #14, #73, #57}
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 88-90, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellen" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11}
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 10, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (6 text plus 2 fragments)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 39-41, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #15, "Lord Thomas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 96-99, "The Three Lovers"; pp. 100-101, "The Brown Girl" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 19 "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (8 texts plus 20 fragments, 31 tunes){Sharp's A=Bronson's #103, Aa=#38, B=#,122 Bb=#35, C=#104, Cc=#32, D=#102, Dd=#6, E=#5, Ee=#71, F=#43, G=#101, H=#60, I=#96, J=#117, K=#119, L=#15, M=#145, N=#134, O=#133, P=#3, Q=#42, R=#127, S=#130, T=#46, U=#47, V=#72, W=#88, X=#89, Y=#92, Z=#91}
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 28, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #99}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 11, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #13}
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #9+9A, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor"/"Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes, similar but transcribed differently) {Bronson's #5
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, pp. 95-96, "The Brown Girl" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 40-41, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #136}
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 9-10, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 4, "Lord Thomas and Fair Elinor" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #34}
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 8, "Lord Thomas" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 617-619, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 6, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (1 text); "Lord Thomas" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #128}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 239-246, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (3 texts plus a translated Danish text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 54, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 84, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 14, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellendor (or, The Brown Bride)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #132}
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 140, "Lord Thomas" (1 text+1 fragment, 2 tunes)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania,, pp. 160-162, "Lord Thomas" (1 text) (pp. 138-140 in the 1919 edition)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 39, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 137-139, "Three Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles 28, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 231-235+353, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 15, "Lord Thomas and Fair Elinore" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version) {Bronson's #145}
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 156-157, "The Brown Girl or Fair Eleanor" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #85}
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 62-63, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #76}
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 17-20, "[Fair Ellender]" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #126; note that the tune is slightly different, and the text noticeably different, from the Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians version}
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 60-61, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender" (1 text, 1 tune) {note that the tune is slightly different, and the text noticeably different, from the Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands version}
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 57, "Lord Thomas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 122, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 12, pp. 27-31, "Lord Thomas" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 10, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (9 texts plus mention of 2 more)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 19-20, "Fair Annet"; pp. 20-23, "Sweet Willie and Fair Annie" (2 texts)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 15, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 61-65, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 46-47, "Three Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 145, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (1 excerpt, 1 tune) {Bronson's #95}
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 236-238, "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 75-78, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 222, "Fair Ellender" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN173, "Amongst the Forresters of old"; ZN1719, "Lord Thomas he was a bold Forrester"
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Horton Barker: Folk Singer Supreme," Vol. XXII, No. 4 (Nov 1974), p. 151-152, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender" (1 text)
DT 73, BROWNGRL BRWNGRL2*
ADDITIONAL: Charlotte Sophia Burne, editor, Shropshire Folk-Lore (London, 1883 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 545-546,651, "Lord Thomas" (1 text, 1 tune)
[Ambrose Phillips?,] A Collection of Old Ballads, (London, 1723 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol I, #35 pp. 249-251, "A Tragical Ballad on the unfortunate Love of Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor, together with the Downfal of the Brown Girl" (1 text)
Leslie Shepard, _John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844_, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 115, "A TRAGICAL BALLAD OF THE UNFORTUNATE LOVE'S (sic) LORD THOMAS AND FAIR ELEANOR" (reprint of a Pitts broadside)
Roud #4
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellendar" (AAFS 33) {Bronson's #21, but as "The Brown Girl"}; "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender" (on Barker01)
James Decker, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Acie Cargill, Debra Coawn, and Kristina Olsen, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender" (on HCargillFamily)
Texas Gladden, "Lord Thomas" (AFS 5232 ; on USTGladden01)
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Lord Thomas and Fair Annie" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
Amy Michels, Derek Piotr, "Lord Thomas" (Piotr-Archive #163, recorded 05/10/2022)
Jessie Murray, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellen (Lord Thomas and Fair Annet)" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
Jean Ritchie, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender" (on JRitchie01) {cf. Bronson's #126}
Ritchie Family, "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender" (on Ritchie03) {cf. Bronson's #126}
Mike Seeger, "Lord Thomas" (on MSeeger01)
Cas Wallin, "Fair Ellender and Lord Thomas" (on FarMtns4)
Doug Wallin, "Fair Eleanor and Lord Thomas" (on FarMtns3)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(120b), "A Tragical Story of lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" ("Lord Thomas he was a bold forrester"), F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright and J. Clarke (London), 1677; also Douce Ballads 3(58b), "A Tragical Ballad on the Unfortunate Love of Ld Thomas and Fair Eleanor"; Harding B 3(93), Douce Ballads 4(36), Harding B 3(94), Harding B 3(91), Harding B 3(92), Johnson Ballads 385, Johnson Ballads 386, Harding B 11(2208), "A Tragical Ballad of the Unfortunate Love's of Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor"; Harding B 11(2209), 2806 c.16(298), Harding B 37(38), "Lord Thomas and fair Eleanor"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Thomas o Yonderdale" [Child 253] (plot)
cf. "The Hunting of the Cheviot" [Child 162] (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lord Thomas and Fair Ellen
Thomas and Ellen
The Nut-Brown Maid
NOTES [210 words]: According to Bertrand Bronson, this is second only to Barbara Allen in popularity among the Child ballads. He notes that the Scottish tunes, though they are few, seem related to "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight," also among the most popular of the ballads.
Grieg/Keith see this as much the same ballad as Child #74, and Bronson sees similarities in the tunes, but concludes that the melodies, like the texts, justify separating them. - RBW
[Lloyd dates this to no later than the] late 17th century (broadside in reign of Charles II).
[Silber & Silber mis-identify] this as Child 295, which is actually "Brown Girl (I)." - PJS
The broadside Lloyd mentions appears to be mentioned also by Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety; he believes that it is the ancestor of all American versions, plus most recent British versions. But he believes the original was Scottish, and preceded the broadside. - RBW
A number of the Bodleian broadsides have as subtitle "with the downfall of the brown girl."
re A Collection of Old Ballads Vol I/II/III: Ambrose Philips, whose name does not appear in the Google Books copy is, according to Google Books, the editor. The New York Public Library catalog says "Compilation usually attributed to Ambrose Philips" - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C073

Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Lord Thomas and Fair Elinor

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Lord Thomas and Fair Ellen

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Lord Thomas and Fair Ellendar

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Lord Thomas and Ladie Margaret

See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Lord Thomas and Ladie Margaret (II)

See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Lord Thomas and Lady Margaret [Child 260]

DESCRIPTION: Thomas, goes hunting and is pursued by (Margaret), whom he cast aside. He orders that she be chased far from him. She takes refuge with and marries (someone). Later, Thomas arrives at her door as a beggar. She poisons him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1825
KEYWORDS: abandonment hunting punishment poison poverty begging
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 260, "Lord Thomas and Lady Margaret" (2 texts)
Bronson 260, "Lord Thomas and Lady Margaret" (1 version)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 58, "Lord Thomas and Lady Margaret" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 132, "Lord Thomas and Lady Margaret" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 119-121, "Lord Thomas a Fragment" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 631-632, "Lord Thomas and Lady Margaret" (1 text)
Roud #109
File: C260

Lord Thomas of Winchbury

See Willie o Winsbury [Child 100] (File: C100)

Lord Thomas of Winesberry

See Willie o Winsbury [Child 100] (File: C100)

Lord Thomas Stuart [Child 259]

DESCRIPTION: Thomas Stuart gives his lady wide lands as a gift. She desires to see them. They ride out, but Thomas is stricken with pain. He bids her ride on; he himself returns home and dies. She dreams a dreadful dream, returns home, and realizes he is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (A North Countrie Garland, according to Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads [Child 259A])
KEYWORDS: love home courting disease death dream
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 259, "Lord Thomas Stuart" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1233, "Lord Thomas Stuart" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 629-630, "Lord Thomas Stuart" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, p. 171, "Lord Thomas Stuart" (1 text)
Roud #4024
NOTES [93 words]: Greig/Duncan6 quoting Greig: "Origin unknown - first printed in [James Maidment,] A North Countrie Garland ?1835 [sic] [Edinburgh, 1824]." I don't understand the "?1835"; Child refers to the 1884 reprint of the 1824 edition. It is in A North Countrie Garland, ed James Maidment revised by Edmund Goldsmith, (Edinburgh,1891 reprint of 1824 edition), pp. 11-14.
The dream "that our chamber was full of swine and our bed full of blood" associates pigs with death. That association is also made, and discussed briefly, for "Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: C259

Lord Thomas, or, Fair Eleanor

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Lord Ullin's Daughter

DESCRIPTION: "A chieftain to the Highlands bound, Cries, 'Boatman, do not tarry!'" He and lord Ullin's Daughter are fleeing her father. The boatman fears the storm but takes them for the girl's sake. Lord Ullin finds his daughter dead in her lover's arms. He laments
AUTHOR: Thomas Campbell (1777-1844)
EARLIEST DATE: 1809 (Source: Benet)
KEYWORDS: love elopement river storm death grief father children
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 18, p. 33, "Lord Ullin's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 329, "Lord Ullin's Daughter" (1 fragment plus a copy of the Campbell text, 1 tune)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, pp. 30-31, "Lord Ullin's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: [No author listed], _The Household Treasury of English Song_, T. Nelson and Sons, 1872, pp. 164-166, "Lord Ullin's Daughter" (1 text)
The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany: Containing a Selection of the Most Fashionable Songs, with Many Originals, Not Inserted in Ashburner's Vocal and Poetic Repository, G. Ashburner, Ulverston, 1812 (available on Google Books), p. 26, "Lord Ullin's Daughter" (1 text)
Roud #3138
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Chieftain's Daughter" (plot)
NOTES [342 words]: NewCentury, p. 199, says of author Thomas Campbell that he was born July 1777 in Glasgow, died June 1844 in Boulougne. He briefly served as Lord Record of the University of Glasgow, and is buried in Westminster Abbey. It lists as his major works "The Pleasures of Hope," "Gertrude of Wyoming," "Lochiel's Warning," "Hohenlindon," "Mariners of England," and "Battle of the Baltic."
Thomson, p. 125, says that "in the Napoleonic Wars the Campbells produced one of the most popular poets of his generation. Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) was the son of a Glasgow tobacco merchant and was born just one year after then trade collapsed when his father was already sixty-seven. After attending Glasgow University he had his first success with 'The Origins of Evil'. Then came 'Lord Ullin's Daughter' and the popular 'Pleasures of Hope,' though Campbell was at the time himself quite close to suicide. Later, he settled in Hamburg and Ratisbon, producing his war poems to suit the heroic mood of the time: 'Hohenlinden', 'Ye Mariners of England' and 'The Battle of the Baltic'. He was also a great supporter of Polish nationalism and when he was buried in Westminster Abbey a handful of earth from the Polish leader Kosciusko's grave was put into his."
The Household Treasury of English Song prints four other Campbell pieces, "Battle of the Baltic,: :Men of England," "Hohenlinden," and "To the Rainbow," and mentions two others, "The Pleasures of Hope" and "Gertrude of Wyoming." Benet calls "Gertrude of Wyoming" his most famous piece and also lists "Hohenlinden," "Lord Ullin's Daughter," and "The Battle of the Baltic." Granger's Index to Poetry lists some three dozen pieces but not "Gertrude of Wyoming."
Despite his great contemporary popularity, of the twentieth century anthologies I checked, none included more than two complete Campbell pieces, and several had none at all.
Of items in the Index, he is probably responsible for "The Exile of Erin (I)" and "The Wounded Hussar"; also (not in the index but well-known) "Ye Mariners of England." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: ADDLoUlD

Lord Valley

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Lord Waterford

See Lord Wathe'ford (File: OLcM060A)

Lord Wathe'ford

DESCRIPTION: Lord Wathe'ford is dead. "The tyrant" choked wells and evicted farmers. He'll not be with common sinners in Hell but will share a private grate with his father. In Hell he meets Queen Bess, and his bailiff, and the Devil himself who is happy to see him.
AUTHOR: Michael A. Moran? (source: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1906 (ballad sheet, according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: death humorous political Devil Ireland Hell nobility landlord
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 60A, "Lord Wathe'ford" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 30-31, "Lord Waterford" (1 text)
Roud #6529
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (tune and repeated lines)
NOTES [85 words]: This is a rather odd piece. Landlords in Ireland of course frequently evicted tenants, and they had a general policy of not improving properties; they wanted the Irish Catholic farmers too poor to represent a threat. But not in Waterford. One of the earliest areas of English settlement, it earned a great deal of Royal favor, was relatively prosperous, and was generally one of the most loyal areas of the country. Perhaps this is a reference to some of Lord Waterford's territories outside his home county? - RBW
File: OLcM060A

Lord Wetram

See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Lord Will Make a Way Somehow, The

DESCRIPTION: Eight line verses ending "I say to my soul (don't worry take courage), The Lord will make a way somehow." The singer is "Like a ship thast's tossed and driven, Battered by an angry sea" and finds "my race so hard" and "good fortune's always passed me by"
AUTHOR: Thomas A. Dorsey (1899-1993) (source: James Cleveland and Soul Stirrers record sleeve attributions)
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (recording, The Soul Stirrers)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #17359
RECORDINGS:
The Blind Boys of Alabama, "Lord Will Make a Way" (1995, on "I Brought Him With Me," House of Blues 7001087003-2)
Rev. James Cleveland and the Charles Fold Singers, "The Lord Will Make a Way" (1978, on "Tomorrow (Vol. 3)," Savoy DBL 7020)
The Soul Stirrers, "Lord Will Make a Way" (Aladdin 2001, 1946)
Lovey Williams and Family, "The Lord Will Make a Way Somehow" (on USMississippi01)
NOTES [63 words]: The Lovey Williams and family recording takes the beginning of a verse -- "The Lord will make a way somehow When beneath the cross I bow. He will take away my sorrow; Let him have your burden now" -- as the first half of a chorus that continues, "I looked up and wondered why" followed by a statement about life's difficulties, and ended by the usual two line verse ending. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcLWMAWS

Lord William (II)

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Lord William and Lady Margaret

See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Lord William, or, Lord Lundy [Child 254]

DESCRIPTION: (Lord William) and the bailiff's daughter fall in love (while studying abroad). Her father calls her home to marry a nobleman. She sends a message by bird to Willie. Willie arrives at the wedding, forcing the groom aside and marrying the girl himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Dixon-ScottishTraditionalVersionsOfAncientBallads)
KEYWORDS: love marriage nobility wedding violence father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 254, "Lord William, or, Lord Lundy" (3 texts)
Bronson 254, "Lord William, or, Lord Lundy" (1 version)
Dixon-ScottishTraditionalVersionsOfAncientBallads IX, pp. 57-59, "Lord William" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 621-623, "Lord William, or, Lord Lundy" (1 text)
Roud #106
File: C254

Lord William's Death

See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Lord Willoughby

DESCRIPTION: "The fifteenth day of July... A famous fight in Flanders was foughten in the field... But the bravest man in battel Was brave Lord Willoughby." In a fierce contest with the Spanish, Willoughby's bravery encourages the English to victory
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy); tune known from 1603 (Robinson's "Schoole of Musick"); a song with this name was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: battle nobility soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1587 - Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby of Eresby, takes command of the English forces in the Netherlands
1601 - Death of Willoughby
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 238-241, "Brave Lord Willoughbey" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 115-116, "Lord Willoughby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 152, "Lord Willoughby, or Lord Willoughby's March, or Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 116-117, "Brave Lord Willoughby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 106-108, "Brave Lord WIlloughby" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN895, "The fifteenth day of July"
ADDITIONAL: Vivian de Sola Pinto and Allan Edwin Rodway, _The Common Muse: An Anthology of Popular British Poetry XVth-XXth Century_, Chatton & WIndus, 1957, pp. 40-42, "Lord Willoughby" (1 text)
ST Perc2238 (Full)
Roud #V18836
SAME TUNE:
Give ear you lusty Gallants/A famous Sea-fight. Hollander..Spaniard..September 1639. (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN969)
Now comfortable Tydings is come unto England/Joyfull News for England [Peace.. April 6, 1654] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3422)
Gallant Fighting Joe ("On old Virginia's sacred soil") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 46)
NOTES [163 words]: This is probably just another broadside that "made it big" without entering oral tradition, but the number of references seemed sufficient for me to include it in the Index. (Note the regular use of the tune in broadsides).
Lord Willoughby was a famous swordsman, and performed well in the Netherlands, but this report of his exploits against the Spanish is certainly blown out of proportion.
The Willoughbys had a strong martial record. The first one I've heard of was a baron who helped lead an English army to France in 1423; he successfully commanded the vanguard of the army in the British victory at Cravant in that year (Butler, pp. 23-24; Reid, p. 306.) Another was a Lancastrian peer killed at the Battle of Towtown in 1461 (Reid, p. 416).
There was a later Willoughby, Francis Willoughby de Parham, a royalist during the Civil Wars who was governor of Barbados in the 1660s, but he died at sea in a hurricane during a war with the French (OxfordCompanion, p. 991). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Perc2238

Lord, a Little Band, and Lowly

DESCRIPTION: "Lord, a little band, and lowly, We are come to sing to Thee...." "Far away, in the realms of beauty, Farther on, to the golden shore... We shall meet to part no more. " For we know the Lord of glory Always sees what children do...."
AUTHOR: Words: Martha Evans Shelly (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Curwen's Own Hymn Book, according to hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious children nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 108, "For we know the Lord of Glory" (1 fragment)
Roud #25516
NOTES [37 words]: Hymnary.org shows numerous tunes for this text, none of them representing as much as 20% of the known instances. So we cannot guess which tune Alice Kane used, even though Fowke claims it was also used for "Wingy Wangy." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC108C

Lord, Have Mercy

DESCRIPTION: "Lord have mercy (x3), Save me now." "Save me Jesus." "Save poor sinner." "Lord I'm troubled." "Lord I'm sinking." "When I'm dying." In Dett's verses, every line is sung three times, followed by "Save me now."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: death hardtimes nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 236, "Lord, Have Mercy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 171, "Lord, Have Mercy" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #15277
File: Dett236

Lord, Have Mercy If You Please

See See Four and Twenty Elders On Their Knees (File: Dett071)

Lord, I Never Will Come Back Here No Mo'

DESCRIPTION: "Some o' dese days about twelve o'clock, Dis old worl's a gwi' reel and rock. Lawd, I neber will come back here no more. No mo' my Lawd (x2), I neber come back here no mo'." "Way down about Arkansas, De niggers ain't a-arguin' a thing but wa'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922
KEYWORDS: religious war nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 349, "Lord, I Never Will Come Back Here No Mo'" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 349, "Lord, I Never Will Come Back Here No Mo'" (1 tunes plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11738
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep" (floating lyrics)
File: Br3349

Lord, I Want More Religion

See I Want More Religion (File: KPL059)

Lord, I Want to Be a Christian

DESCRIPTION: "Lord, I want to be a Christian (more loving, more holy, like Jesus) in my heart (x2)" (repeat), "Lord, I want to be a Christian (more loving, more holy, like Jesus) in my heart"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 218-219, "Lord, I Want to Be a Christian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 50-51, "Lord, I Want to Be a Christian" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 156 in the 1909 edition)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 131, "Lord, I Want to be a Christian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harbin-Parodology, #346, p. 90, "Lord, I Want to Be a Christian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 54, "Lord, I Want to Be a Christian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11966
NOTES [45 words]: According to LindaJo H. McKim, Presbyterian Hymnal Companion, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, p. 372, "The origin of this African-American spiritual has been traced to a 'Presbyterian environment' in Virginia during the ministry of Samuel Davies (1748-1759)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Dett050

Lord, I Want Two Wings

See Two Wings (File: IWan2Win)

Lord, I Wish I Could Pray

DESCRIPTION: "Lord I wish I could pray like Daniel prayed (x2), Lord I wish (x2), Lord I wish I could pray like Daniel prayed." "Go Gabriel go sound the trumpet now." "Lord, I wish I was in Heaven today." "Lord, I wish I had wings like an angel's wing."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Bible
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 2, "Lord, I Wish I Could Pray" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [12 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa002

Lord, I've Started for the Kingdom

DESCRIPTION: "Lord, I've starred for the kingdom (x3), And I won't turn back (x2)." "If my father he won't go with me (x3), I won't turn back, Lord, I won't turn back." Similarly for mother and brother; the singer concludes, "Take this world and give me Jesus."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Roberts-SangBranchSettlers)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #43, "Lord, I've Started for the Kingdom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3406
File: Robe043

Lord, It's All, Almost Done

See Almost Done (File: LxU094)

Lord, Lord, You've Been so Good to Me

DESCRIPTION: "Lord, Lord, you've been so good to me (x3), You have done what the world could not do." "You've saved me when I was lost, you've been so good to me." "You've given me the Holy Ghost." "You've heard and answered player...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, p. 36, "Lord, Lord, You've Been So Good to Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8090
File: TSG036

Lord, Make Me More Holy

See Lord, Make Me More Patient (File: AWG052B)

Lord, Make Me More Patient

DESCRIPTION: "Lord, make me more patient (x3), Until we meet again. Patient, patient, patient, Until we meet again." Repeat with other virtues: "Lord, make me more holy...." "Make me more righteous." "More peaceful."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad virtue
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 52, "Lord, Make Me More Patient" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12012 and 12277
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lord, Make Me More Holy
Make Me More Holy
File: AWG052B

Lord, Remember Me (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Deat' he is a little man, And he goes from do' to do', He killed some souls and he wounded some...." "Do, Lord, remember me (x2), I cry to the Lord as the year roll around...." "I want to die like-a Jesus die, And he die with a free good will...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Spaulding)
KEYWORDS: death religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 12, "Lord, Remember Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 915-916, "Lord, Remember Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 22, pp. 210-211, "Lord, Remember Me" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: H.G. Spaulding, "Under the Palmetto" in _The Continental Monthly_, Vol. 4, No. 11 (August 1863 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 198, ("O, Lord, remeber me") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11849
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Do Lord Remember Me" (on MJHurt04)
Jimmie Strothers & Joe Lee, "Do, Lord, Remember Me" (AFS 746 B2, 1936; on LC10)
Ella Mae Wilson, Lillie B. Williams, and Richard Williams, "Do Lord, Remember Me" (on USFlorida01)
Evangelist Sister Rosetta Winn, "Do Lord Remember Me" (on Great Gospel Performers Document Records DOCD-5463 (1996))
NOTES [22 words]: This should not be confused with "Do Lord, Remember Me," a separate song. - PJS
Spaulding is writing from Port Royal, South Carolina - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BAF915

Lord, Remember Me (II)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "O sinner you better pray, Do, Lord, remember me (3x)." Edwards's verses include floating couplets like "Jacob's ladder mus' be long, De angels shout from heavin down" and "Mi he'd get wet wid di midnight dew, De mahnin stah was a witniss too"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: Bible floatingverses nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 39, "Lawd, Remember Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [12 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa039

Lord, Until I Reach My Home

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Until I reach my home (x2), I never expect to give the journey over Until I reach my home." Verses: Satan follows the singer, interfering -- "with all his tempting charms" -- when he goes to pray. "At hell's dark door" Jesus saves him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Devil Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 76, "Lord, Until I Reach My Home" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 171 in the 1909 edition)
Roud #12351
File: Dett076

Lord's Been Good, The

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "The Lord's been good (x3), Well he's sure been good to me." Verses: The preacher keeps preaching till he gets it right. You keep running to the rock until the rocks cry out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (USSeaIsland04)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious clergy
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Gullah Kinfolk, "De Lawd Bin Gud" (on USSeaIsland04)
File: RcLoBeGo

Lords and Ladies All Bedene

DESCRIPTION: "Nowell, nowell, nowell, nowell, This said the angel Gabriel." "Lords and ladies all bedebe (=together), For your goodness and honour, I will sing all of queen." About the Annunciation. "Therefore be merr and let us sing, For this new Lord of Crhistmas"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1545 (Kele)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad childbirth MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #256, p. 183, "(Lords and ladyes all bydene)" (1 text)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 36-38, "A New Carol of Our Lady" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1984.5
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3257
ADDITIONAL: Edward Bliss Reed, editor, _Christmas Carols Printed in the Sixteenth Century Including Kele's Christmas carolles newely Inprynted reproduced in facsimile from the copy in the Huntington Library_, Harvard University Press, 1932, pp. 44-46 [26-28], "A new caroll of our lady" (1 text)
ST EPLaLAB (Partial)
NOTES [65 words]: Personally, I don't think this belongs in the Index. It has not been found in tradition. There is only one printed version, in Kele's collection, and several things in Kele seem to have been composed. Nor is it particularly good -- just another mundane retelling of parts of Luke 1. But Sandys for some reason decided to print it, and so I'm including it here, with my objection noted. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: EPLaLAB

Lords and ladyes all bydene

See Lords and Ladies All Bedene (File: EPLaLAB)

Lords of Creation Shall Women Obey, The

See The Lords of Creation (File: Beld432)

Lords of Creation, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye lords of creation, me you are called, You think to rule the whole... Now did not Adam, the very first man, The very first woman obey?" Though men are stronger, women control them with smiles and tears, and always shall
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #6)
KEYWORDS: feminist nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 432-433, "The Lords of Creation" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 308, "The Lords of Creation" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 126, "The Lords of Creation" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, pp. 60-61, "The Lords of Creation" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #6, p. 28, "The Lords of Creation shall Women obey" (1 text)
Roud #7837
NOTES [86 words]: I've tagged this with the keyword "feminist," but I'm not sure it applies; the women do not earn control based on their skills but their wheedling.
The whole argument is Biblical (or at least part of the Protestant apocrypha, and included in an appendix to the Catholic bible): See the argument of Zerubbabel that "women are strongest" in 1 Esdras 3:12, 4:13-32.
The notes in Brown call it an "amusing quip." Which perhaps shows more mostly how humor depends on circumstances -- I find it degrading and disgusting. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Beld432

Lordy Edgcumbe Good and Great

DESCRIPTION: "Lordy Edgcumbe, god and great, Open wide the Ha'penny Gate, While the soldiers go through free, Sailors pay a 'ha'penny. Lord Mount Edgcumbe, lord divine, All the hakey fish are thine, All the fishes in the sea... belong to thee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor money derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 61, "Lordy Edgcume Good and Great" (1 text with many variants, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" (tune)
File: Tawn044

Lorena

DESCRIPTION: "The years creep slowly by, Lorena; The snow is on the grass again." The singer recalls his early years with Lorena, and remembers how much he loved her. He tells her that he still loves her as truly
AUTHOR: Words: H.D.L. Webster/Music: J.P. Webster
EARLIEST DATE: 1857 (sheet music published by Higgins Brothers of Chicago)
KEYWORDS: love age
FOUND IN: US(MA,Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 222, "Lorena" (1 text)
Randolph 757, "Lorena and Paul Vane" (2 texts, 2 tunes, of which the first is "Lorena' and the second "Lorena's Answer")
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 179, "Lorena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #63, "Lorena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 193-194, "Lorena" (1 text)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 24, pp. 249-153, "Lorena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 122-125, "Lorena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 134-136, "Lorena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 58-59, "Lorena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1309, p. 89, "Lorena" (3 references)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 59-62, "Lorena" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 90-91, "Lorena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 228, "Lorena" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp.242-243, "Lorena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 255, "Lorena" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #16, pp. 47-48, "Lorena" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 481, "Lorena" (source notes only)
DT, LORENNA*
ADDITIONAL: David C. Peterson, "Wisconsin Folksongs," chapter in _Badger History: Wisconsin Folklore_, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Volume XXV, Number 2, November 1973), pp. 60-61, "Lorena" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R757 (Full)
Roud #4246
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ridge Mountain Singers, "Lorena" (Columbia 15550-D, 1930)
Carter Family. "No More the Moon Shines on Lorena" (Victor 23523, 1931; Montgomery Ward M-5027, 1936; rec. 1930)
Smyth County Ramblers, "Way Down in Alabama" (Victor 40144, 1928; on LostProv1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lorena's Answer (Paul Vane)"
NOTES [274 words]: The most popular sentimental song of the Civil War. Ironically, in the original Henry deLafayette Webster poem, the girl was Bertha.
To add to the name confusion, Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging reports that Henry Webster had been deeply in love with a girl named Ella. (E. Lawrence Abel, Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861-1865, Stackpole, 2000, p. 214, gives her full name as Eleanor Blockson, whom he met as a parish minister in Zanesville, Ohio.) Family opposition prevented their marriage (Abel says they discussed running away together, but concluded they could not earn enough money to survive), but Webster was apparently still carrying a torch when he wrote this, though he changed the name to make it seem less personal.
But when Joseph Philbrick Webster (no relation to H. Webster) set the poem to music, he needed a three-syllable name, and so "Lorena" was born. The name is said to be a combination of "Bertha" and Edgar Allan Poe's "lost Lenore"; the name was not in use until the Websters produced their song.(Or so it is claimed. However, I note that both the mother and the sister of Alice Liddell were named Lorina, with an I rather than an E; Lorina Liddell is thought to be the Lory in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. So "Lorena" wasn't so much a new name as a new spelling.)
The famous Civil War diarist Mary Chestnut illustrated how popular this song was. According to Abel, p. 213. Mrs. Chestnut wrote that by 1861 "there [was] a girl in large hoops and a calico frock at every piano between... [Charleston] and the Mississippi, banging [out Lorena] on the out-of-tune thing...." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R757

Lorena Bold Crew, The

See The Bold Princess Royal [Laws K29] (File: LK29)

Lorena's Answer (Paul Vane)

DESCRIPTION: "The years are creeping slowly by, dear Paul." Lorena answers Paul that, though the years have passed and the winter come, "There's no snow upon the heart." She expects to meet him in heaven.
AUTHOR: Words: H.D.L. Webster/Music: J.P. Webster
EARLIEST DATE: 1863
KEYWORDS: love age
FOUND IN: US(MA,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 757, "Lorena and Paul Vane" (2 texts, 2 tunes, of which the first is "Lorena" and the second "Lorena's Answer")
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 25, "Paul Vane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 195, "Paul Vane (A Reply to Lorena)" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1858, p. 125, "Paul Vane. Answer to Lorena" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #16, pp. 50-51, "Paul Vane" (1 text)
Roud #4246
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lorena"
NOTES [78 words]: The song "Lorena's Answer" was an attempt by Webster and Webster to cash in on the success of their earlier hit "Lorena." It didn't do nearly as well. The reason is probably obvious. If "Lorena" is saccharine, "Lorena's Answer" is sugar-coated extra-strength saccharine. It's more than I can take.
Observe that, whereas broadsides of Lorena were common, Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, which includes many thousands of broadsides, lists only one broadside of the Answer. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R757A

Lorendo

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Lorene

DESCRIPTION: Lorene is leaving for the city "where loved ones you're seeking to find" and the singer asks her not to go: "give me your answer Lorene today; say you'll be mine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed)
KEYWORDS: courting love parting separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 185-188, "Lorene" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 96-97, "Lorene" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3591
File: Ow2E096

Lorilla

See Jealous Lover, The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C] (File: LF01)

Loss of Seven Clergymen

DESCRIPTION: Concerning the death of seven priests, who are "drowned all in Nazen Lake." The seven relax by going fishing. A storm blows up. Although certain of the boat's crew survive, the priests -- three French and four Irish -- die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: clergy death ship drowning storm
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H742, pp. 104-105, "Loss of Seven Clergymen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3570
File: HHH742

Loss of the "Ellen Munn," The

DESCRIPTION: On Christmas Day the Ellen Munn is on its way to Goose Bay for repairs when it sinks in the weak ice. The children are carried to dry ground. A salvage operation follows and the song ends with a warning about weak ice and sailing on Christmas Day.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster rescue
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Loss of the 'Ellen Munn'" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 6 in the 2nd edition
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 10, "The Loss of the 'Ellen Munn'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 83-84, "The Loss of the Ellen Munn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4372
NOTES [31 words]: King's Cove is in Bonavista Bay on the east coast of Newfoundland. I found a Newman's Cove instead of Newman's Sound as mentioned in the song in the same area. Goose Bay is in Labrador. - SH
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy06

Loss of the Albion, The [Laws D2]

DESCRIPTION: The Albion [sailing from New York to Liverpool] is caught in a storm which washes captain and many hands overboard. The ship is finally wrecked upon the [Irish] rocks; only one man survives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.17(236))
KEYWORDS: ship sea wreck death storm
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 22, 1822? - Wreck of the Albion
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE,SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws D2, "The Loss of the Albion"
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 35-37, "Loss of the Albion" (1 text)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 65, "Loss of the Albion" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 204-206, "(Loss of the Albion)" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp.271-273, "The Loss of the Albion" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 212-213, "The Loss of the Albion" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 101, "The Loss of the Albion" (1 text)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 30, "Loss of the Albion" (1 short text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 91-93, "The Loss of the Albion" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 609, ALBION LOSSALBN
Roud #2228
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(235), "The Loss of the Albion," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also 2806 c.17(236); c. 2806 c.17(237), R. Peach (Birmingham), 1855-1875
LOCSinging, as108080, "Loss of the Ship Albion", L. Deming (Boston), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cedar Grove" [Laws D18]
NOTES [249 words]: The date of this event is somewhat uncertain. Eckstorm, cited by Laws, gives the date as April 22, 1822. Craig Brown, ed., The Illustrated History of Canada, states that a ship Albion was wrecked November 1819. (It also shows a poster advertising, in English and Welsh, for migrants to go to America. The name of the Albion has been crossed out and another name listed. Not the most encouraging advertising).
Plus Bennett Schwartz sent in this report, "April 1, 1822: '... wrecked about a mile west of the Old Head of Kinsale ... struck ... rocks under 60 foot cliffs'; at least one survivor (source: Bourke in Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast v2, p. 119; more details at v1, p. 116)."
In addition, Terence Grocott's Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Eras has a report from February 6, 1810, from the Shaw, which describes a ship Albion, sailing from New Brunswick, which had encountered a storm and lost her masts some stores; 10 of 13 crew apparently starved or died of dehydration.
There was also an Albion wrecked in 1797, though without loss of life.
Not a very well-omened ship name!
An 1862 book by John S. Warner was entitled The Wreck of the Albion, one of Beadle's Dime Novels published by Beadle and Company, but it was fiction, and about a wreck in the Carribean, so it's not related to this event (see Albert Johannsen, The House of Beadle and Adams And Its Dime and Nickel Novels, Volumes I and II, University of Oklahoma Press, 1950, volume I, p. 84). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LD02

Loss of the Amphitrite, The [Laws K4]

DESCRIPTION: The Amphitrite leaves port, bound for Australia. Two days out she runs aground and sinks, killing all the passengers and most of the crew. The singer and two others survive by clinging to a spar (though one of them dies later)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1833 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1833 - The Amphitrite, carrying female convicts to Australia, runs aground near Boulogne; only three sailors are saved
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws K4, "The Loss of the Amphitrite"
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 87, "The Anford-Wright" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 95, "Loss of the Amphitrite" (1 text)
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 151-153, "The Melancholy Loss of the Amphitrite" (1 text)
DT 740, AMPHITRI
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 119-120, "The Melancholy Loss of the Amphitrite" (1 text, with a tune on p. 553; another song, "Loss of the Amphitrite," is on the following pages)
Roud #301
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1947, "Loss of the Amphitrite," W & T Fordice (New astle), c. 1840; also Firth c.12(78), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; Firth c.13(277), J. Forth (Pocklington), no date; Johnson Ballads 1947, "Loss of the Amphitrite"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rounding the Horn" (subject)
cf. "Melancholy News of the Convict Ship George the Third" (similar shipwreck)
NOTES [1712 words]: For an account of the accident see broadside NLScotland, F.3.a.13(126), "Horrible Shipwreck !," Menzies (Lawnmarket), 1833 ("Taken from this day's Observer. Boulogne-sur-Mer, 1st Sep. 1833"). - BS
Cox also gives a contemporary description of the storm in which the Amphitrite sank. And Thomas Haynes Bayly, author of "Long, Long Ago!" and several other songs in the Index, in 1833 wrote "The Female Convict Ship" about this incident, although the poem is very short on actual names despite having thirteen eight-line stanzas.
According to Hudson and Nicholls, Tragedy on the High Seas, much of the fault belongs to the captain. Undermanned, and overcrowded with 136 people aboard, the Amphitrite ran into a severe storm, and the captain ran her aground but would not let anyone take to the boats; she had convicts aboard and he didn't want them getting loose. The ship eventually broke up, and only three survived. That's a good brief summary of what happened.
There is a recent book about the tragedy, Andrew C. A. Jampoler, Horrible Shipwreck! : A Full, True and Particular Account of the Melancholy Loss of the British Convict Ship Amphitrite, the 31st August 1833, off Boulogne, When 108 Female Convicts, 12 Children, and 13 Seamen Met with a Watery Grave, in Sight of Thousands, None Being Saved out of 136 Souls but Three! (Naval Institute Press, 2010). It features an incredible number of irrelevant side notes (I'd estimate that two-thirds of the book is not relevant to the Amphitrite at all), making it quite a task to wade through, but amid all the unrelated material, it gives many details on the tragedy.
The Amphitrite may not have been particularly well-constructed. As originally built in 1801, she had two masts (she was rigged as a "snow," with square sails on the masts plus a fore-aft sail) and was about 75 feet long and 158 tons (Jampoler, p. 70). In 1824, she was extensively rebuilt, increasing in length from 75' 10" to 92' 10", gaining a third mast and a bark rig, and increasing to 209 tons (Jampoler, pp. 72-73). This can't have helped her structural integrity. There was much dispute after her wreck about whether she had been sound (Jampoler, pp. 194-198, cites very mixed testimony -- naval officers who had inspected her had found her to be in good shape, but others disputed this); although Jampoler, p. 247, says that defects in her condition were not responsible for the tragedy, it sounds as if she was in decent shape but had not been perfectly cared for; she went to pieces in about five hours, and odds are the a stronger ship would have lasted at least a little longer.
Even as enlarged, she was small for a transport (the average in 1833, according to Jampoler, p. 73, was 418 tons), but by 1826, she was in service carrying soldiers to India (Jampoler, p. 74).
Unusually, her final voyage began on a Sunday; I can imagine that there were people who blamed that for the tragedy, although Jampoler, p. 102, suggests that the reason was simply a matter of supply contracts.
The fact that the ship went aground was not unusual at the time; "What made the Amphitrite's wreck unique and sensational was the public's suspicion that callous poop deck leadership and inept seamanship, coupled to contracting corruption and a civil servant's disinterest, had produced the tragedy" (Jampoler, p. 9)
Jampoler, pp. 42-43, says that most of the crew's names are unknown -- the muster rolls for that particular voyage are lost, although they were usually sent ashore and preserved before the ship sailed -- but that the ones who are known had not served on the ship before.
The same was true of Captain Hunter, who was owner as well as master -- he had bought all 64 shares of the ship on August 17, having to take out a substantial loan in order to do so (Jampoler, p. 51). Although still only thirty-three -- two years older than his ship (Jampoler, p. 59) -- he had a great deal of sea experience. Not all of that experience was especially relevant, though -- he had commanded smaller ships, but none as large as the Amphitrite, and not recently. He had sailed to Australia -- but as a junior officer, not commander. And he had never commanded a female transport (Jampoler, p. 47). So he was new to his ship, and new to handling a ship of this size -- not a good situation for a voyage halfway around the world!
The ship's surgeon James Forrester, who was to a significant extent responsible for the human cargo, had served on convict transports twice before (Jampoler, p. 51), but his performance in that role had been dubious enough that he was put on a semi-official list of those unlikely to do the job well (Jampoler, pp. 53-55), implying he got the job only because no one better was available. And his wife, who went with him, apparently was a snob who looked down on the convicts (Jampoler, p. 58).
We obviously don't know much about what went on in the ship's final hours, but many of the convicts had been on board her for weeks before she sailed, and there had been little control exercised over them (Jampoler, pp. 98-99).
The storm that hit the Amphitrite was a very bad one; it caused damage all over Britain (Jampoler, pp. 118-119). On the Thursday after she set sail, she passed Dungeness on the Kentish coast, a little east of Rye; on Friday, the storm was bad enough that the ship started to shorten sail; by late Friday night or early Saturday morning, she had taken in all sail and was running on bare poles. Out of sight of land, and with no ability to see the sky, there was no way for them to know their position. (Jampoler, pp. 108-109). It appears they were being blown just about straight east-southeast; Boulougne-Sur-Mer is the directly across the channel from Dungeness.
"Some time after 4:00 PM, several hours before low tide, on August 31, 1833, Captain Hunter deliberately put his ship onto the Boulogne sands, not because it was a good idea but because he had run out of alternatives" (Jampoler, p. 125; it was not possible for a ship the size of the Amphitrite to enter Boulogne harbor at low tide).
Captain Hunter apparently didn't realize what would happen when the tide rose. Perhaps he thought it would float him off; insofar as his actions are known, they seem consistent with that interpretation (Jampoler, p. 191). But the tides in that area, funneled by the English Channel, were very high and strong. Twice locals from Boulogne risked their lives to come to him and tell him that he had to abandon ship; she would be ruined by the tide. One harbour pilot brought a boat to the Amphitrite; one amazingly brave man swam to her with a line. Hunter refused to accept help (Jampoler, pp. 142-143). He didn't even run out the boats, and when the disaster struck, he apparently did not fire rockets or make other distress signals (Jampoler, p. 191. The ship soon broke up, killing almost all of those on board. There were just three survivors, all members of the crew, all quite young (Jampoler, p. 154. The oldest claimed to be 22, the others were in their teens. Two were unharmed, the third had non-life-threatening injuries). It sounds as if all three were in the upper parts of the ship when she fell apart; everyone below decks was killed.
There were reportedly seven doctors on the beach (Jampoler, p. 152), but there obviously wasn't anything they could do for the dead and drowned -- which was almost everyone. Possibly more could have been done to conduct a rescue, but it appears no one ashore realized the Amphitrite was a convict vessel until one of the survivors told them (Jampoler, p. 155); they just assumed she was a cargo vessel with a crew of probably fewer than twenty.
The exact number of female convicts is apparently unknown. The original indent lists 101, with convict #102 listed in a separate letter. Yet there are claims that there were 108 or more (Jampoler, p. 85). Sixteen of them were said to be under twenty years old, with the youngest being just thirteen although she was regarded as a hardened thief (Jampoler, p. 89).
Soon after the disaster, the newspapers began their coverage (Jampoler, p. 184, says the first story appeared on Tuesday; the wreck was on a Saturday). The story quickly became the subject of headlines. A week after the disaster, at the request of the Foreign Office, the Admiralty sent Captain Henry Ducie Chads to investigate (Jampoler, p. 195). As often happens in these cases, Chads refused to blame anyone British (Jampoler, p. 198). But there were reports that the French locals had actually killed some of victims of the Amphitrite, which threatened diplomatic consequences (Jampoler, pp. 200-201. Jampoler, p. 206 and after, seems to think the charges against the locals true (at least the claims of looting, if not of murder) -- but his main evidence seems to be what happened to other wrecks. It sounds to me as if the French were simply following their rules about preventing smuggling, enforcing quarantine, and preventing looting (as described by Jampoler, p. 210). Jampoler, p. 230, thinks that William Hamilton, the British consul in Boulogne, should have ordered the ship evacuated, but that strikes me as a pretty strange thing to expect a diplomat to do.
In all, 85 bodies (not all of them identified) were buried in Boulogne, meaning that about fifty were not found. They were buried in mass graves. The surviving crewmen identified four of the crew: surgeon Forrester, the second mate, the cook, and one of the seamen. Four other adult men's bodies were recovered but not identified (Jampoler, pp. 238-239).
The song is obviously correct in saying the Amphitrite had only three survivors; it is incorrect in saying that one later died. The rest of the details seem to be mostly true, from the little we can tell from the survivors' accounts, but despite its claims, the song is clearly not an account by one of the actual survivors.
In addition to this song, the wreck inspired a painting by N. E. Deey, "The Amphitrite Wreck'd off Boulogne Augt 31st 1833 (108 Females on Board)," which is reproduced on p. 141 of Jampoler and which can be seen at the Royal Museums Greenwich web site, as well as Joseph Mallord William Turner's much better-known, although unfinished painting, "A Disaster at Sea." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LK04

Loss of the Anglo Saxon

DESCRIPTION: "Gently o'er the swelling deep The noble vessel rolls... Within her bosom safely sleep 500 living souls." In the fog, the ship goes aground. The ship quickly goes aground. Those who reach "the cold, salt shore... send up their prayer of thanks"
AUTHOR: James Murphy?
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Murphy, Songs of Our Land, Old Home Week Souvenir)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 27, 1863 - Wreck of the steamer Anglo-Saxon near Cape Race, Newfoundland
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, compiler/publisher, "(Old Colony Song Book: Newfoundland)," James Murphy, 1904 (available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site; the cover is missing, but I suspect it is a copy of "Songs of Our Land"), p. 62, "Loss of the 'Anglo Saxon'" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Mayflower" (theme of wreckers) and references there
NOTES [805 words]: Murphy's text is printed without an attribution, and it's about a wreck which happened forty years before he published his book. He seems to want us to think it's a traditional piece. Yet I can find no other hint of the poem, and it doesn't sound like a folk song; the GEST songs site suggests that Murphy wrote it, and I suspect GEST is right. But because it is presented as anonymous and possibly traditional, I list it here.
I do find it interesting that the poem is absolutely generic; it never mentions the Anglo-Saxon or any other specific details.
Murphy claims that 155 of 445 aboard the Anglo Saxon were lost, but this may not be right. The ship was fairly new, having been built in 1860 and using both steam and sail. On her final trip, she carried a crew of 86, 48 cabin passengers, and 312 emigrants (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 17). She sailed from Liverpool to the Americas; her captain was named Burgess (Parsons, p. 38).
Greene, p. 290, says that many ships visited the Cape Race area to drop off news for "news boats"; it claims that the Anglo-Saxon was in a great hurry to transmit its news as fast as possible. The ships, according to Parsons, pp. 33-35, dropped off the news in "message cylinders" with flags attached; the news boats would take them to Cape Race so telegraphers could transmit the date. This was done for only a few years, from the time Newfoundland was connected to the mainland in 1856 tothe running of the Atlantic Cable in 1866; for that, see the notes to "The Atlantic Cable (How Cyrus Laid the Cable)"),
There was heavy fog as the Anglo-Saxon sailed near Cape Race (the area was infamously foggy), but the captain still had steam up and a full load of sail. (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 17. Parsons, p. 38, contends that the Anglo Saxon was not going at full speed, but all agree that there was no time to stop when a lookout spotted breakers. (There was a lighthouse at Cape Race, but it did not revolve, making it hard to spot in fog, and no foghorn; the first steam whistle was installed in 1872, according to Parsons, pp. 40-41.) According to Galgay/McCarthy and Parsons, the ship went ashore on Twin Rocks near Clam Cove, Newfoundland (just north of Cape Race near the southeast corner of the island), although Greene, p. 290, says it was at Chance Cove near St. John's. Baehre, p. 43, also says it was Clam Cove.
Attempts to hold the ship on the rocks with cables apparently did little good (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 18). Burgess soon had a hawser ashore, and passengers started to go ashore using baskets from the cable (Parsons, pp. 38-39). Some of these walked to Cape Race to pass out word of the disaster, and ships eventually arrived to rescue those they could. The lifeboats were launched, but there were too few and some were wrecked (Galgay/McCarthy, pp. 18-20). About an hour after hitting the rocks, the ship's structure disintegrated, with many people still aboard (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 20; Parsons, p. 39, says that such lifeboats as were in the water rescued a few of them).
Fox, p. 264, without saying how many were aboard, says that 237 were lost. Parsons, p. 39, says that "approximately 237" died. Galgay/McCarthy, p. 21, agrees with this figure, reporting that 209 people survived the wreck and 237 (including Captain Burgess) died. The total aboard almost agrees with Murphy's total for those on the ship (446 versus 445), but the number of casualties is obviously much higher. Greene's version says that 307 of 444 were lost, which is an even higher rate of loss but again almost agrees with the number of people aboard.
Even into the twentieth century, the Anglo Saxon wreck was considered to be the worst ever off of Cape Race, one of the most wreck-prone areas in the world (Parsons, p. 212).
"Reporting in sensational style, the Montreal Witness claimed that 500 wreckers had come to the scene and carried away every useful item. Even a local newspaper, in an article that was subsequently cited abroad, complained of the inhumanity of the Cape Race fisherfolk. Yet official evidence contradicted the press reports. Even if many people did come down to the shore at Cape Race to witness the wreck -- and the exact number remains unknown -- this group apparently also included officials and professional salvage workers. Moreover, the official record shows that, when the authorities arrived soon after the event, they found no desecration of the dead, but rather the decent burial by local people of over a hundred bodies interred in the frozen ground, with stones placed at their heads and feet.... Their courage in aiding the victims and their propriety toward the survivors and the dead were subsequently confirmed by dispassionate observers" (Baehre, pp. 43-44).
There is a book by Arthur Johnson, The Tragic Wreck of the Anglo Saxon. I have not seen it. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: JMOC062

Loss of the Antelope, The

DESCRIPTION: The Antelope sails from Chicago; on the second day out a gale arises. The cook, in the fore-rigging, freezes to death; the ship springs a leak and is wrecked. The captain tries to save his brother, but drowns; all but the singer are lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from various informants by Walton)
KEYWORDS: death drowning ship shore work disaster storm wreck brother cook sailor worker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 1870: Antelope wrecked on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, probably near Point Betsey?
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 202-205, "The Shores of Michigan (The Antelope)" (1 composite text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3840
RECORDINGS:
C. H. J. Snider, "The Loss of the 'Antelope'" (on GreatLakes1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" [Laws C1] (tune)
NOTES [1232 words]: Scholars long found it hard to identify the ship in this song, since Wolff lists two Antelopes lost on Lake Superior alone, and there were others on the other Great Lakes. In 1879, a tug with that name was wrecked, probably near Marquette (Wolff, p. 29). A better candidate for this song would be the 187 foot schooner Antelope, built in 1861. On October 7, 1897, while carrying coal from Sandusky to Ashland, Wisconsin, she started taking on water (the guess is the seams of the old ship started to come apart). It was clear she would not survive, so the Henry W. Sibley, which was towing her, took off her crew (Wolff, pp. 77-78).
Keller, p. 55, has a chapter entitled "Antelope: A Name With A Curse." He notes that Antelope was a popular ship name, and claims that 13 Antelopes worked the Lakes in the 1890s: "seven schooners, two propellors, one brig, one scow, and one tug" -- but goes on to note that all of them capsized, foundered, burned, or was stranded.
Keller, who quotes a fragment of this song, describes the same 1897 wreck cited by Wolff above. He notes that this Antelope was originally built as a steamer but later converted to a schooner (although she still had a smokestack even after her engine was removed!). This increased her cargo capacity, but it can't have strengthened her structure. Keller has a picture on p. 56; it shows a typical 1860s design. It looks as if she would be very inefficient under sail. Keller, p. 57, does note that, although there was no storm at the time of her sinking, October 7, 1897 had featured rather high seas, and that the Sibley had been towing her at twelve miles per hour -- a high speed for a schooner, particularly an old one. And it is perfectly possible that there would be ice in the water around the Apostle Islands in October (Keller, p. 21, shows her going down just east of Michigan Island, on the eastern edge of the Apostles, almost due northeast of Ashland, Wisconsin).
Ratigan, p. 235, quotes the same version of this song as Keller. This version seems to be set on Lake Superior (as opposed to Lake Michigan in the Snyder and Walton version). On p. 236 he says that of the 13 ships named Antelope on the Great Lakes, two of them (both schooners) were lost in 1894. He therefore thinks the song should be associated with one of the 1894 wrecks.
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors adds even more to the confusion. Their version, extremely composite (at least four informants contributed parts) is clearly a Lake Michigan song as given (the ship sets out from Chicago). They do not try to locate the relevant Antelope. It appears to me that at least part of their version is based on "The Banks of Newfoundland (II)."
Yet one of their verses is quite similar to the Keller/Ratigan fragment. Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors even quotes that same text as a fragment of a different song from Lake Superior!
If there are in fact two songs (one presumably set on Lake Superior and one on Lake Michigan), then it seems likely that Walton accidentally combined verses from both. But I suspect that the Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors hypothesis is wrong; this is really one song, which was perhaps localized to various events. Whether it was inspired by an actual Antelope seemed questionable. (It is truly unfortunate that no one ever really tried to collect songs of Lake Superior sailors....)
That was as far as I was able to take things -- and it turns out that there was a lot more to be learned. Solomon Foster came to another conclusion, based solely on the Walton text. He suggests that the Antelope involved was a 3-masted schooner, 337 tons, built 1855 at Buffalo, New York, by a shipbuilder named Jones. It was driven ashore in a storm eight miles north of Saint Joseph, Michigan on November 20, 1857, with the loss of five lives. More information is available at http://greatlakeships.org/2901840/data?n=4. Foster's own investigation, including scans of three clippings from the Oswego Palladium newspaper, can be found at https://whiskyandwater.wordpress.com/2020/09/24/the-loss-of-the-antelope/,
Mr. Foster points out that the story of this Antelope is a good match for the Walton text:
1. Oswego connection, which matches Walton's origin story for the song.
2. Location; ship was driven ashore was 8 miles north of St. Joseph, MI, which matches every location detail given in the song. (Except perhaps they would have been further north two days out of Chicago?)
3. Date: Database gives the date of the wreck as Nov 20th; the song gives it as Nov 18th.
4. Loss of life: song reports all but one of the crew, database reports five men lost.
There is also the fact that one of Walton's informants claimed that his father, Thomas Peckham, wrote the song. I suspected that, as with so many traditional singers, this meant "modified and perhaps wrote down." But possibly not. Foster's article transcribes the three newspaper pieces. I'll quote portions of them (see his web site for the full transcriptions):
November 28, 1857:
Loss of the Schooner Antelope -- The schooner Antelope, Capt. Geo. Budd, bound from Chicago to Oswego, with 14,000 bushels of wheat, was lost of Friday last, about eight miles north of St Joseph, and Capt. Budd and four of the crew perished. The Chicago Press contains the following particulars, obtained from Capt. Parker, of the schooner H. Rand:
"The Antelope was seen on Friday evening by Capt. Parker, running before the wind, in a southerly direction; but it appears that during the same evening she was driven ashore. The Captain and crew, as soon as she struck, made ever attempt to get ashore, but failed -- her small boat being carried away. Capt. Budd then determined to swim ashore, stripped and jumped into the water with a rope, but after several attempts he failed and had to be hauled on board again nearly dead. Shortly afterwards a wave washed him overboard and he was lost. During the course of the night three men of the crew were washed into the lake and met watery graves. The balance lashed themselves to the deck and rigging, where they were found by a party of men from St. Joseph, who reached the vessel with a scow.
"Five of the crew were found completely paralyzed with cold and wet, and almost dead. -- One they found lashed to the rigging, frozen to death....
"The Antelope will be a total loss. She was an A 1 vessel, owned by A. H. Hovey, Oswego, and valued at $11,000. We are informed that the Northwestern Insurance Company have risks on hull and cargo to the extent of $11,000."
November 30th, 1857/December 5th, 1857:
[The first of these is a report from the first mate about the survivors and losses. Besides the mate, four men were still alive, but one of them, Thomas Peckham, was not expected to live much longer. Five men were lost or frozen to death. The second is mentions several survivors -- including Peckam, who apparently made it after all. And, remember, Thomas Peckham was listed as writing the song!]
Foster's conclusion: "So what have we learned? I think we can be very certain the song was written about the November 20th, 1857 wreck. While there are minor discrepancies, if anything it seems surprising how closely oral tradition preserved the story from 1857 to Snider's recording in 1946, 89 years later!"
I think his work speaks for itself. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: RcLoOTAn

Loss of the Atlantic (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "The loss of the Atlantic upon the ocean wave Where fully seven hundred souls met with a watery grave." Bound for New York, the captain "changed his course for Halifax which proved our overthrow.... she ran upon a rock"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: death drowning wreck storm
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 31/Apr 1, 1873 - wreck of the Atlantic
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, pp. 931-932, "The Loss of the Atlantic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 241-243, "The Loss of the Atlantic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3822
RECORDINGS:
Pat Critch, "Loss of the Atlantic" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Joshua Osborne, "The Loss of the Atlantic" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (II)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (III)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (IV)
cf. "Never Go Back on the Poor"
NOTES [2570 words]: "The Atlantic was a famous four-masted iron vessel of the White Star fleet wrecked off the coast of Nova Scotia on March 31 and April 1 of 1873....[T]he records show a loss of 535" (Peacock). The Northern Shipwrecks database says the passengers were immigrants and 981 people were on board. - BS
Paine, p. 43, notes that the Atlantic was still quite new at the time of her disaster (completed 1871). Ritchie, p. 15, says that she had four masts and four 150 horsepower engines, giving her a speed of 12 knots. She was originally intended to sail to Chile, but the new White Star Line abandoned the idea quickly, and she never sailed that route. The fatal voyage was only her nineteenth.
Hatchard, p. 440, says she was 420 feet long and had a beam of just 41 feet -- in other words, she was very narrow for her length. This made her fast but not very stable. It also meant that she had a very large "sail" area against waves -- she could flex badly if she ran aground, which is exactly what happened to her. In addition to her engines, her full sailing rig was on four iron masts. The sails were often helpful, but they wouldn't be good for anything on this particular trip (though some survivors were able to stay in the rigging to avoid drowning). Hatchard also gives her a draft of 32 feet, which seems excessive.
The Atlantic, according to Brinnin, p. 249, sailed from Liverpool to New York (via Queenstown) on March 20, 1873. He reports 942 people aboard (as we shall see, this figure is subject to question) and enough coal to last 15 days. Fox, p. 246, notes however that there was a coal strike at the time, so she ended up being given less than her usual coal supply (927 tons, compared to 1155 tons on earlier voyages) -- plus the coal was a mix of Welsh and Lancaster coal. She usually used Welsh coal; the Lancaster type was less pure, faster-burning, and less useful for powering boilers. It was so bad that the chief officer told the captain that a hundred tons of it was just useless stone (Hatchard, p. 28). She usually burned 55-60 tons of Welsh coal a day (Hatchard, p. 120), and the voyage rarely exceeded twelve days, so it sounded like enough -- but the Lancaster coal was not the same.
She also reportedly had a "disorderly and infamous" crew and many officers who were not attentive to their tasks (Brinnin, p. 250); the good crew that she had had on her previous voyage had been dispersed because keeping them on would have required paying them while in port for a week (Hatchard, p. 27).
There seems to be some dispute about the captain's name. Ritchie, p. 15, says he was James A. Williams, and that the fatal voyage was his second with the Atlantic. Paine calls him John A. Williams. Hachard, p. 25, and Brinnin's index call him James Agnew Williams. This is also the name used on p. 246 of Fox -- who adds that he had previously been dropped from another shipping company for drinking, but was hired by White Star because they were growing fast and needed experienced captains. One suspects he had been promoted too fast; White Star had hired him in 1871 as a second officer -- but, just two years later, he had risen to first officer and now captain (Hatchard, p. 31). He apparently wasn't entirely fit, either; an accident during an earlier storm had resulted in a badly broken leg and ribs, and left him with a severe limp and fatigue problems (Hatchard, pp. 25-26).
Whatever (dis)abilities, circumstances beyond his control caused much trouble. There was a gale in the mid-Atlantic which slowed her dramatically. After 11 days of storms, she was an estimated 400 miles from New York. The distance to Halifax was less than half that. And the supply of coal was short. Fox, p. 247, thinks the inexperienced chief engineer had run the engines inefficiently, and also doubts his estimate of the amount of coal remaining. But the Captain had to accept the data supplied by the engineers.
There was no immediate danger; there was enough food on the ship to last quite a bit longer. But steerage was over-booked and over-crowded, and disease was possible. Meanwhile, the barometer was falling (Hatchard, pp. 50-51). Williams had to balance a requirement for safety with the passengers' desire to reach their destination quickly.
Captain Williams at first tried to save the situation by reducing speed and ordering other measures to conserve coal (Fox, p. 247). If he had slowed the ship during the storm, it might have worked, but it was now too late; the ship simply wasn't making enough progress. Williams was forced to make a decision.
Paine reports that Captain Williams's decision to make for Halifax conformed to company regulations, and Fox, p. 247, says that both his chief officer and chief engineer agreed with him: The ship had burned too much coal to continue her run (Ritchie says she was down to 127 tones, and estimates she would need at least 130 to finish her voyage; Fox, p. 247, also reports the 127 ton figure). So she headed for Halifax (Hatchard, p. 52).
To this point, everything Williams had done was defensible. But what he did next was an undeniable mistake. They were close to Halifax, so -- presumably in an attempt to save as much time as possible and avoid penalties for a delayed arrival -- the Atlantic lit all her boilers and headed for Halifax at full speed (Fox, p. 248). The goal was to get there, coal up, and hurry to New York in time to make her scheduled return trip to Britain.
This meant that she could expect to get to Halifax -- a coast few of his crew knew, and where there would be few lights along the coast -- at night or, at best, very early in the morning. And it was early spring in Canada, meaning that it would be so cold that lookouts would have difficulties; apparently they didn't even post any except on the enclosed bridge (Hatchard, p. 61).
Apparently the skies were still cloudy when Williams made his decision and set his course. Williams operated on dead reckoning, based on the compass and logged speeds. Later that evening, the clouds broke up, but he apparently did not recheck his bearings from the stars (which are of course more reliable, since wind and waves do not affect the speed). He could have checked his results by taking soundings -- but this would have slowed the ship, and he did not order it done (Fox, p. 248).
Ritchie thinks that, in the bad weather, Captain Williams misidentified a lighthouse and as a result misdirected the ship. This is not unlikely, given that many Newfoundland and Canadian lighthouses were under-powered. The wreck commissioners think there was a current which threw off his dead reckoning (Hatchard, p. 121). Whatever the explanation, the course was wrong by several degrees. And, having set a course, Williams took a nap. It was only supposed to last three hours (Fox, p. 248), but that was long enough.
It is unfortunate to note that a quartermaster at the helm had questioned the landmarks, but was ordered by the second officer to stay on course. The officer refused even to awaken the captain, despite him having given orders to be awakened during the night (Fox, p. 248; Hatchard, p. 61).
During the night, they checked the ship's speed and found that she was doing twelve knots -- faster than anyone expected. Shiortly after that, the quartermaster who had calculated the speed heard "breakers to port" (Hatchard, pp. 62-63). It was too late. Because of the navigation error, the Atlantic, instead of reaching Halifax, hit the coast some 20 miles from that port, near a hamlet called Lower Prospect (Hatchard, p. 84) along Pennant Bay.
The ship went aground around 3:00 a.m. near Marr's Island (Meagher's Head, on Point Prospect) east of Halifax. Her bow apparently was caught in a vice, so the bow was held in place while the stern was being battered by the waves (Fox, p. 248). She quickly began to settle. What happened next is debated; some claim that the real disaster came when one of her boilers blew up, causing her to roll over, casting many into the sea, and sink unusually quickly (Ritchie, p. 15. It sounds as if there were so many loud noises during her destruction that someone could easily have assumed one of them was a boiler going up).
Because her nose was trapped, she sank by the stern, and quickly twisted over on her side (Fox, p. 249). Hatchard, p. 67, describes her tilting toward starboard, so the boats on the port side could not be lowered and the starboard side was being crushe both by water and the flex of the ship. This meant that even the parts still above water were exposed to wind and waves, making it almost impossible to operate the machinery on deck and exposing the people on board to the full violence of the very cold weather. Many people, especially on the starboard side, were trapped below the decks.
The waves swept away the port side lifeboats, and wrecked most of those on the starboard side. Only one made it into the water (Fox, p. 249). Some took shelter in the rigging, but this was hardly better than down below because of the wet and cold.
There was a rock some forty yards away -- windswept, wet, barely above the water's surface, but no one would be washed away. After an unsuccessful try, a sailor managed to carry a rope to it (Fox, pp. 249-250; Hatchard, pp. 79-80, credits Quartermasters Robert Thomas and William Purdy as the first to make it safely and bring the line). Men slowly crawled along the lifeline, with many lost in the attempt. The rock was small, and could hold only a few hundred. Others went on to Marr's Island, but the crossing there also went slowly. As the tide fell, the Atlantic snapped in two (Fox, p. 250); perhaps there were more boiler explosions (so Ritchie, p. 16).
It was a poorly inhabited region; according the Hatchard, p. 89, only one family lived on Marr's Island at the time, and that was far from the headland where the survivors were. (Even today, it appears based on Google's photos that there are only four homes on the island.) There were a few more people along the mainland coast, but not many. Eventually local boats began to come out, but many locals were afraid to sail. It was some ten hours before rescue operations concluded (Fox, p. 250). At the end, the ship's Third Officer, Cornelius Brady, was the only one still strong enough to do anything, so Captain Williams (who was one of those rescued by Brady; Hatchard, pp. 92-93) sent him to Halifax to send a coded message to White Star (Hatchard, pp. 94-95). Chief Engineer John Foxley, despite possibly being responsible for Williams's earlier mistakes, helped to redeem himself by gathering a few men to walk to Halifax to get help -- there simply weren't enough supplies in the area to feed all the survivors! (Hatchard, p. 97).
About 250 people were saved -- all male and all but one an adult. (The one youngster was a twelve-year-old named John Hindley, who was one of the last people rescued.) The death of every woman and almost all the children aboard apparently became a source of controversy (understandably), but it does not seem to have been a matter of deliberate exclusion; men,being stronger, had a better chance of making it across the lifeline to the island (Fox, p. 250), and being larger, would also survive better in the cold. There are reports of at least a few women making it to shore alive (e.g. Hatchard, p. 92), but with no way to get warm, all died thereafter.
The losses are somewhat uncertain, because the purser and his records were lost, so we don't know how many people were aboard (Fox, p. 250). Paine lists as the extremes 454 lost out of 981 aboard to 560 of 931 aboard; Brinnin's figure is that 481 died. Ritchie, p. 15, also says that 481 died out of 931. Fox, p. 250, cites the high figure of 585. Preston, p. 56, says that over 500 were lost in this first great tragedy of the steam liner trade. Hatchard never really analyzes the losses, but on p. 117 says in passing that 535 were lost, a number apparently derived from the official tribunal finding (printed on pp. 118-126) which on p. 119 says 535 were lost "I believe" (so the tribunal didn't know) out of 957 thought to be on board. On pp. 127-140 Hatchard lists those thought to have been aboard and those who survived. This does not, however, account for stowaways -- I read somewhere that someone claimed there were fourteen.
Preston quotes a contemporary account: "A large mass of something drifted past the ship on the top of the waves, and then it was lost to view in the trough of the sea. As it passed by a moan -- it must have been a shriek but the tempest dulled the sound -- seemed to surge up from the mass, which extended over fifty yards of water: it was the women. The sea swept them out of the steerage, and with their children, to the number of 200 or 300, they drifted thus into eternity."
Captain Williams -- who had been asleep at the time of the wreck; he had given orders to be awakened, but the orders were not obeyed (Brinnin, p. 251) -- was found guilty of negligence, but his license was suspended for only two years based on his gallant conduct during the rescue operations (Brinnin, p. 253; Hatchard, p. 125, has the recommendation and says elsewhere that Williams returned to White Star. Fourth Officer Brown, who refused to wake up Williams, was suspended for three months; Hatchard, p. 126).
Williams was certainly guilty of a navigation error, but Fox would distribute the blame more widely; he blames the chief engineer for mismanaging the engines -- and White Star for being too cheap to supply either enough good coal or an abundance of cheap coal.
Incidentally, the Atlantic of 1873 should not be confused with another Atlantic, the Collins Line steamer launched in 1849. This ship had a major mechanical breakdown in 1851, and was for a time thought to have vanished, but made it home under sail after much delay (Brinnin, pp. 182-184). The second Atlantic was not exactly a replacement for the first, but the decommissioning of the earlier ship after the American Civil War made the name "available" for the new liner.
There was also a paddleboat named Atlantic which collided with the Ogdensburg on Lake Erie in 1852, and sank with the loss of some 250 lives (she was crowded with immigrants, and no one knows exactly how many died; for background, see Bourrie, pp. 77-83).
Despite this tragedy, the period after the sinking of the Atlantic was the glory time for the transatlantic steamers, and it was also a relatively safe period. There would not be another such disaster for almost forty years, when a certain ship called the Titanic set out on her maiden run. She too, we note, was a White Star liner.
There is an SS Atlantic Heritage Park, and a Park Society, based on the Lower Prospect peninsula, but it isn't actually at the wreck site. - RBW
For two different 1873 broadsides on the same subject see:
Bodleian, Harding B 13(234), "Verses on the Wreck of the Atlantic" ("Oh, pray give attention and listen to me "), unknown, 1873 [text refers to the wreck as having occurred after "the steamer Atlantic ... left Liverpool upon the 20th ult"].
Bodleian, Firth c.26(289), "Lines on the loss of the 'Atlantic'" ("Oh! listen you wives and mothers"), unknown, 1873 [text refers to a "List of the passengers, from the Manchester Courier, April 4th, 1873"] - BS
Note that Roud lumps all the Atlantic songs, but their form shows that they are distinct. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: Pea931

Loss of the Atlantic (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Of the gallant ship Atlantic Wrecked on Nova Scotia's shore." "The captain... heeded not that rocky coast That he was drawing near"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: death drowning wreck storm
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 31/Apr 1, 1873 - wreck of the Atlantic
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, pp. 933-935, "The Loss of the Atlantic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 88, "The Wreck of the Atlantic" (1 text)
Roud #3822
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (I)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (III)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (IV)
NOTES [18 words]: For extensive historical notes on the Atlantic wreck, see the notes to "The Loss of the Atlantic" (I). - RBW
File: Pea933

Loss of the Atlantic (III), The

DESCRIPTION: Atlantic sails from Liverpool for Halifax with a crew of 60 and 900 passengers. It strikes a rock at night. The captain is faulted: "he cared not for our safety as you may plainly see He went to bed and left the ship to prove our destiny." All are lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 31/Apr 1, 1873 - wreck of the Atlantic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 88-89, "The Loss of the Atlantic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3822
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (I)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (II)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (IV)
NOTES [29 words]: For extensive historical notes on the Atlantic wreck, see the notes to "The Loss of the Atlantic" (I). Observe that there were in fact hundreds of survivors of the wreck. - RBW
File: Ran088

Loss of the Atlantic (IV), The

DESCRIPTION: Atlantic stops at Queenstown "to bring Erin's sons and daughters to wild Amerikay." One night "and they all in bed, When our gallant ship she struck a rock at a place called The Major's Head ... seven hundred souls were buried in the main"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 31/Apr 1, 1873 - wreck of the Atlantic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 89-90, "The Loss of the Atlantic" (1 text)
Roud #3822
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (I)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (II)
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (III)
NOTES [26 words]: For extensive historical notes on the Atlantic wreck, see the notes to "The Loss of the Atlantic" (I). Observe that this version exaggerates the losses. - RBW
File: Ran089

Loss of the Barbara and Ronnie, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the spring of fifty-one" Walter Bond commands the "Barbara Ann Ronney from Petites in Newfoundland." Sailing home near Christmas they are caught and sank with a crew of five sharemen when "on the eighteenth of December the winter hurricane blew"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: death drowning ship sea storm wreck moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 937-938, "The Loss of the Barbara Ann Ronney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9813
NOTES [24 words]: The Barbara and Ronnie was missing and presumed sunk in Glace Bay in the Gulf of St Lawrence December 18, 1951 (Northern Shipwrecks Database). - BS
File: Pea937

Loss of the Barbara Ann Ronney, The

See The Loss of the Barbara and Ronnie (File: Pea937)

Loss of the Bruce, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Bruce was bound for Louisburg, the night being dark and drear ... Captain Drake stood on the bridge ... the Bruce with mail and passengers she ran upon a reef." All except "young Pike" are saved.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck rescue
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 1911 - The wreck of the Bruce
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 939-940, "The Loss of the Bruce" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9937
RECORDINGS:
Jim Dalton, "The Loss of the Bruce" (on PeacockCDROM)
NOTES [1163 words]: The Bruce was stranded on Port Nova Reef off Cape Breton Point and crushed in the ice on March 24, 1911 going from Port aux Basques, Newfoundland to Louisbourg Nova Scotia, A steamship ferry, it had 123 passengers (Northern Shipwrecks Database). - BS
The Bruce was one of the first members of the "Alphabet Fleet" (for which see "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie"); they were Newfoundland vessels given names alphabetically after places in Scotland (so Argyle, Bruce, Clyde, Dundee, etc.) and intended to bring steam ferry service to coastal outports. The service was set up along with the Newfoundland railway, a government-sponsored but privately-owned service intended to improve internal communications and industry on the island. (It was not a financial or economic success, but that's another story.)
The Bruce, although not the first ship on the alphabetical list, actually went into service before the railroad contract was finalized and the rest of the fleet completed, (Penney/Kennedy, p. 94), yet was one of the most closely connected to the railroad. (For more on the Newfoundland Railroad in general, see the notes to "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie," "The Bonavist Line," "Downey's Our Member," and "Drill, Ye Heroes, Drill!") The ship was put in service once the Newfoundland railway reached Port-aux-Basques in southwest Newfoundland; built in Scotland, it was to supply sea cargo for the train (DictNewfLabrador, p. 287), and in fact was beat the train into service, arriving in Newfoundland on Oct. 13, 1897 (Penney, p. 63) and being present when the first train reached the coast on June 30, 1898 (Bruce, p. 13; Penney, p. 63; Lingard, p. 53, says she left at 11:50 p.m.; Harding, p. 138, says this was 65 minutes after the train arrived). She was the first regular connection between Newfoundland and the mainland (recall that Newfoundland was still an independent dominion at this time), and Sydney, Nova Scotia, at the far end of the link, became a boom town as a result, tripling in size (Bruce, pp. 12-13).
The Bruce also carried the mail; it is ironic to note that the trains had an on-board post office to prepare mail for shipping (Harding, p. 134), given that the Bruce kept its schedule pretty well and the train rarely did.
According to Connors, p. 6, the Bruce was built by A. & J. Inglis of Glasgow; she was 237 feet long and of 1155 gross tons. Cook, p. 20, reports that she had "two decks, two masts -- schooner rigged -- four steel boilers, three water tanks, five water-tight bulkheads" and space for 70 first and 90 second class passengers. She developed about 2100 horsepower, good for a speed of 15 knots.
The Bruce kept such a regular schedule that she became a byword. England, p. 249, recounts that sealers reckoned short periods of time based on her schedule: "Sometimes for short periods, however, they count by 'Bruces'; i.e. trips by the steamship Bruce.... As for example: 'I come over six bruces ago.'" (There was a second Bruce built after the first was lost, which perhaps helped maintain this tradition even in the years after she was lost.) She became such an institution that, "In fond rememberance, her likeness appeared on the labels of the whiskey, Old Bruce, sold in government liquor stores" (O'Neill, p. 976).
According to Hanrahan, p. 2, the Bruce was designed to use both steam and sail. On her first voyage, she managed an impressive 15.5 knots (comfortably more than the ten knots she is credited with in the song). She was strengthened to deal with Newfoundland's icy conditions (she was the first ship to sail in and out of Sydney all year rather than shutting down for the winter; Bruce, p. 33), but still was considered a luxurious liner.
It was estimated that, in her career, she made two thousand round trips and carried about 350,000 passengers. She also carried most of the mail between Newfoundland and Canada. It appears she had only two captains in her career, Patrick Delaney, who had overseen her construction and stayed with her until her last year (Bruce, p. 32; Cook, p. 20) and Richard Drake, who obviously is the "Captain Drake" of the first verse..
The Bruce had a hard time setting out on her final voyage; the weather in 1911 had been very bad (as the song says, it was "dark and drear,"), and passengers reported a lot of water in the ship. Apparently it was some time before Captain Drake was given his orders to sail from Port aux Basques. But visibility was very poor because of heavy snow, and a lookout had mistaken one lighthouse for another. Captain Drake thought he knew where he was, but he was wrong, and he ran the Bruce on a reef and tore out her bottom (Hanrahan, p. 141; Cook, p. 21).
She was only about 150 feet from shore, on the east coast of Nova Scotia (the nearest town of any size, Main-a-Dieu, was about two miles away; Hanrahan, p. 142). But it was hard to get the passengers off the ship in the storm and heavy seas. The good news is that casualties were light -- William Pike drowned (the "Young Pike" of the song), and initially there were reports that a fellow named "Shea" was also lost, but "Shea" seems not to have actually existed; he was reported as a casualty based on confused accounts by the passengers (Hanrahan, pp. 142-143; Connors, p. 6; COok, p. 21; and Harding, p. 139, nonetheless report that two people were lost). But it took quite a while to get the survivors out of the horrid conditions; indeed, it took the lifeboats several trips just to get all the people to shore (Hanrahan, pp. 145-146), and of course most of the cargo was lost.
Hanrahan, pp. 178-179, has a full list of the passengers who were on the Bruce on her final voyage.
A new Bruce (which looked surprisingly similar to the old one) was put into service in 1912 but was sold to Russia in 1915 (Connors, p. 10), presumably because she was well-built and would make a good icebreaker; Russia -- with its Baltic and Black Sea ports closed off by Gemany and Turkey respectively, leaving them only the icy ports on the White Sea as a way to receive shipments from the western allies -- bought at least eight Newfoundland ships in that period for this purpose (Candow, p. 45).
There is a photo of the Bruce in her wrecked state on p. 8 of Connors, and photos of the intact ship in the photo insert following p. 79 of Bruce, on p. 53 of Lingard, on p. 51 of Penney, and on p. 94 of Hanrahan (a larger version of which is on p. 6 of Connors), with a note saying that it was taken from one of Gerald Doyle's postcards. I'm surprised this piece didn't go into one of his songbooks. Harding has that same publicity photo on p. 133, plus photos on pp. 138-139 of her waiting for the trains. Cook, pp. 20-21, has the standard picture of the old Bruce and a picture of the new on as well.
It's interesting to note that the third ship to take up the Sydney/Port-aux-Basques route, the Caribou, also has a song; see "The Loss of the Caribou." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: Pea939

Loss of the Caribou, The

DESCRIPTION: The steamship Caribou is torpedoed and sunk and passengers are lost. "Here at Channel ... widows and sweethearts and orphans cry and fret" Most of the men "belonged to" Port-aux-Basques. "The funeral was the largest ever known here"
AUTHOR: unknown(listed as by Mrs. Peter Musseau by Thornhill)
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Thornhill, _It Happened In October_)
KEYWORDS: grief war travel death drowning funeral commerce sea ship shore disaster wreck religious children family orphan
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 14, 1942 - The ferry Caribou was torpedoed by a German submarine going from North Sydney Nova Scotia to Port aux Basques, Newfoundland; 137 lives lost. (per Guigné, Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 244-246, "The Loss of the Caribou" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL:H. Thornhill, _It Happened in October: The Tragic Sinking of the S. S. Caribou_, no publisher listed, 1945, pp. 61-63, "(Come old and young, come rich and poor)" (1 text)
Douglas How, _Night of the Caribou_, Lancelot Press, 1988, p. 144, "(Remember the Caribou)" (1 excerpt, from H. Thornhill's _It Happened In October_ [mis-identified as _It Happened One Night_], plus three other pieces from the same source)
Harry Bruce, _Lifeline: The Story of the Atlantic Ferries and Coastal Boats_, Macmillan of Canada, 1977, p. 47, "(no title)" (1 partial text, also from _It Happened In October_)
Roud #18200
RECORDINGS:
Ernest Poole, "The Caribou" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Spancil Hill" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Swiler's Song (File: RySm144)
NOTES [4464 words]: Channel is a town once separate from the town of Port-aux-Basques, at the southwest corner of Newfoundland. - BS
The combination is now known as Channel-Port aux Basques (How, p. 142), but it appears that most of the crew of the Caribou came from Channel, the English part of town.
Wikipedia has a medium-sized entry ("SS Caribou") which, as of January 2018, had no photo but an extensive set of references, mostly to magazine articles or books which mentioned the ship only briefly. There is one relatively accessible book, How's, specific to the tragedy, plus a graphic novel for children, Jennifer Morgan, Almost Home: The Sinking of the S. S. Caribou, which I have not seen. There is also an historical novel by Kevin Major, Land Beyond the Sea. In addition, the well-known Newfoundland writer Cassie Brown published a book The Caribou Disaster, which was later republished (with some pretty irrelevant additions) as Writing the Sea. It contains a reprint of a newspaper article about the Caribou tragedy, but it is short and doesn't say anything not covered in How's book (or indeed in the Wikipedia article), although it has a few photos I haven't seen elsewhere; her account is all human interest stories.
More important, as the first book to publish this song, is H. Thornhill's It Happened in October: The Tragic Sinking of the S.S. Caribou, which however extremely hard to find -- and is a truly crummy book, a small format collection of facts and recollections without any real organization. Sources can't even seem to agree if it was published in 1945 or 1954, although the front page says explicitly that it was published in November 1945. As a history, it is extremely incomplete; it was written before the German records were available to prove that a submarine has sunk the Caribou, and it doesn't even discuss the escort, but it has some use for learning about how people felt at the time since it consists largely of accounts by survivors and witnesses (Bruce, p. 51).
Bruce, p. 47, claims that the Caribou was "the biggest, fastest, toughest, most reliable, and best-loved ferry that had ever sailed between Port-aux-Basques and North Sydney. She was some sweet ship." She had been built in 1925 to symbolize that (in 1923) Newfoundland had finally taken over the Newfoundland Railway and its associated coastal steamers (Connors, p. 48; How, p. 30; for a bit more on the fantastically improbable story of the Railway and the "Alphabet Fleet," see "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie").
The Caribou was a large car ferry ("car" meaning "railroad car"; there were very few automobiles, or passable roads, in Newfoundland at the time!); she was capable of carrying fifty cars (Harding, p. 140; Lingard, p. 54). Her run went from from Sydney in Nova Scotia to Port aux Basques in southwest Newfoundland, a 96 mile trip (How, pp. 26-27); this is where Newfoundland is closest to mainland Canada (excluding the almost unpopulated areas of Canada north of the St. Lawrence), and remains a ferry route today. Connors, p. 50, says she was 276 feet long and 2222 tons; Bruce, p. 48, says she cost $600,000, was 265 feet long and 41 feet wide, was 2200 tons, was designed to break ice, and could steam at 14.5 knots; Harding, p. 140, mixes these figures, giving her length as 265 feet, her width as 41 feet, and 2222 gross tons, a figure also quoted by CuffEtAl, p. 1; Thornhill, p. 12, makes her 265 feet long, 40 feet wide, 2200 tons but gives no speed. Her 14.5 knot speed meant that, at top speed, she could cross between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in about six hours, not counting the time navigating the harbors (where submarine attack was unlikely), although apparently the usual crossing time was eight hours (How, p. 33). She could carry 400 passengers (150 of them in first class), and she had facilities to keep them occupied during the crossing. She was built by A. Goodwin-Hamilton S. Adamson Limited of Rotterdam (CuffEtAl, p. 1; Thornhill p. 12).
Newfoundland was so happy to have her that they actually issued a two cent stamp with a picture of her and a caption that read "S.S. CARIBOU 9 HOURS TO SYDNEY N. S." (reproduced on CuffEtAl, p. 2).
Like most of Newfoundland's best ships, the Caribou once served as a sealer in the spring before resuming her regular duties; in 1935, under Billy Winsor (for whom see "Capt. Frederick Harris and the Grates Cove Seal Killers of 1915"), she took the most seals of any ship in the fleet -- often a sign that she handled well in the ice. But that was her only sealing voyage (my guess is that this is because she had limited coal capacity; Ryan-Last, p. 219, says she only had enough bunker capacity to hold the coal for her trip between ports, so the sailors spent most of her sealing trip moving coal from odd corners). She had proved highly reliable, having only one accident in seventeen years (she had run aground in fog in on August 18, 1930, but everyone survived and she was soon back in service; Bruce, p. 49; Harding, p. 140).
American histories of the Battle of the Atlantic rarely mention the war in Canadian waters, but as Britain derived more and more help from Canada, and became more and more dependent on Newfoundland (not yet part of Canada) as a naval base, the region around Newfoundland and the Maritimes became the site of the naval Battle of the St. Lawrence. The first major casualty was the British freighter Nicoya, sunk on May 11, 1942, by the U-533 (How, p. 18). Over the next half a year, the U-boats sank dozens of ships in the area.
Canada was ill-prepared; only two ships had been sunk by the Germans in Canadian waters in World War I, so Canada had very little naval strength (Sarty, p. 9; Milner, p. 71, says that she had just six modern destroyers before the war, and they mostly served in convoy escort, and no ability to build more); in the early years of the war, Canada had to accept what Britain gave it. Things were so desperate that, as late as 1942, Canada was still using minimally-modified yachts as antisubmarine craft! (Sarty, p. 64).
The Caribou was important enough to rate an escort, but all that was available was a minesweeper, the Grandmère a member of the Bangor class (How, p. 26). The big advantage of the Bangors was that they could be built by Canada's rather limited shipbuilding industry rather than calling for the more advanced construction facilities of a British naval shipyard (Sarty, p. 31); by using them, Canada was using its own ships for submarine defense. Even these relatively simple ships were a strain for the Canadian yards (Sarty, p. 59); it took a while for the ships to come into service. The whole class was new (built in the 1940s); Grandmère herself was commissioned in December 1941 and had had a lot of work done even after that (indeed, her main wireless conked out when she most needed it; How, p. 66, and her engines had failed in the first two weeks of her career; Macpherson, p. 51), but many in the class had the old triple expansion engines rather than the more powerful turbines (a third sequence had diesel engines), and were armed with only a single 3-inch gun plus a handful of light anti-aircraft guns (Jane's, p. 69). Their wartime crew consisted of six officers and 77 men (Macpherson, p. 46). Worth, p. 121, calls their anti-submarine capabilities "modest" -- but the submarine threat was so great that the Bangors were pressed into the role despite their severe limits. At least they had depth charges and ASDIC (sonar), although a request to install a radar set in the Grandmère had been turned down because the supply was too constrained (How, p. 40).
The Grandmère was commanded by 32-year-old Lieutenant James Cuthbert (How, p. 26), who was a member of the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve (Greenfield, p. 183) -- meaning that he wasn't even part of the "regular" reserve, but was a merchant sailor who had a few classes in naval affairs (Greenfield, pp. 163-164; based on Sarty, p. 9, members of this group sometimes hadn't even trained on a ship). For more about the RCNVR, see the notes to "Roll Along Wavy Navy"; they were the second string reserve, behind the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve, meaning that a lot of them were farm boys fresh from the fields. Cuthbert had sea experience; hardly anyone else aboard the Grandmère did (How, p. 41). In a way, the crew was lucky even to have someone as raw as Cuthbert; the immense expansion of the Canadian navy meant that, at this stage, there simply wasn't enough cadre to properly officer the ships.
The Caribou was thus considerably older, and larger, than her guardian.
For the last fourteen of her seventeen years, the Caribou's commander had been Benjamin Taverner (How, p. 31. "Taverner" is How's, Galgay/McCarthy's, and Greenfield's spelling; Hanrahan and Thornhill spell is "Tavernor." The newspaper article on p. 49 of Connors also spells it "Tavernor," but with a "[sic]," so Connors clearly accepts the spelling "Taverner"). He was only the third captain the ship had ever had (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 63). A Newfoundlander born in Trinity (Thornhill, p. 18), he was 62 years old in 1942, and approaching retirement; as early as the 1910s, he had been responsible for various marine rescues as captain of the SS Kyle (Hanrahan, pp. 72-77). By 1942, he had two of his sons as junior officers -- Stanley Taverner, 32, was his first mate; 22-year-old Harold Taverner is his third mate (How, p. 32; the plan was Stanley Tavernor to take over the ship when his father retired; Bruce, p. 56). None of them would survive the disaster. Nor were the Taverners the only sailing family to be hit hard; the large fraction of the Caribou's crew from Port-aux-Basques, the Caribou's home port, and nearby Channel saw to that (How, p. 32).
The passengers on the ship included six infants of no more than two years old, and five other children under the age of ten (How, p. 53).
Ironically, the ship had been rebuilt and strengthened just a few months before, and had better lifesaving equipment than at any time in her career. What's more, Captain Taverner took the lifeboat drills seriously (How, p. 33), and was serious about keeping her blacked out. He knew he had reason to worry; four days earlier, Oberleutnant Ulrich Graf's U-69 had sunk another vessel, the Carolus, which was about the same size as the Caribou and in a convoy with a heavier escort, in Canadian waters (How, p. 35). The Caribou did not manage to practice good "smoke discipline" about the smoke from her funnel, though, and apparently Captain Taverner wasn't happy about sailing at night (How, p. 46; according to How, pp. 130-132, etc., this eventually became a political hot potato regarding who gave the order and why. It's an interesting question: by sailing at night, the authorities made it harder for a submarine to spot the ship -- but they also made it harder for the ship and her escort to see the submarine, and it meant that the two Canadian ships could not see each other or conduct an efficient rescue. My personal feeling is that ships were safer at night, but that this was offset by the fact that everyone would be sleepy and inefficient).
Lieutenant Cuthbert of the Grandmère often tried to get to know the commanders of the ships he escorted, but he had never met Ben Taverner (How, p. 44). Did it matter? Who knows? The two ships left port at about 8:00 p.m., the Grandmère first (How, p. 44). They rendezvoused around 9:30, and began zigzagging at a speed of 12-13 knots (How, p. 46). It was known there were submarines in the area; U-69 called home a lot, and the signals were detected (Sarty, p. 196). But in the darkness, the Grandmère had no way to spot a submarine near the surface; ASDIC only worked on subs below a certain depth, and as mentioned, the Grandmère had no radar. Plus the mix of hot and cold water, and fresh and salt, in the mouth of the St. Lawrence made ASDIC less than reliable. What's more, doctrine said that the Caribou should sail in front, so the noise of her propellers meant that the Grandmère ASDIC couldn't search forward (How, p. 62). And the blacked-out ships were not supposed to contact each other by wireless or blinker (How, p. 60); Captain Taverner didn't even know where his escort was located.
Not a good situation when facing a skilled opponent like Graf; the U-69's skipper was still in his twenties, but he had been in the navy for seven years, and was smart and skilled enough to have risen through the enlisted ranks to become an officer. And he had won the Iron Cross, both first and second class (How, pp. 49-50).
U-69 itself was a Type VII C U-boat, the most common U-boat class of the war (in fact, according to Bagnasco, p. 65, she was the very first boat of type C of class VII, although of course there had been many Type A and Type B boats before her). Bagnasco, p. 62, describes these boats as 769 tons surfaces, 871 tons submerged, with a length of 218 feet 3 inches (making them rather small by World War II standards; they were well-armed but very cramped). Listed speed was 17.6 knots on the surface, 7.6 submerged; they had a surface range of 8500 miles at 10 knots, and 130 miles at 2 knots submerged. They had four forward torpedo tubes, one stern tube, and normally carried 14 torpedoes. They originally typically had a 3.4" main gun and some antiaircraft guns, but many changed their main weapons during the war.
The U-69 picked a great time to attack if it wanted to cause civilian casualties -- it was around 3:30 a.m. (How, p. 58, although the three ships involved all logged somewhat different times), and the Caribou so close to Newfoundland that she was soon to stop zigzagging as she prepared to go into the harbor -- if indeed she hasn't already straightened out her course (How, pp. 59, 115). So everyone who could get to sleep probably was asleep.
Not surprisingly, U-69 had a hard time identifying her targets with much precision -- she guessed the Caribou to be 6500 tonnes, three times her actual displacement. But Graf correctly identified the lead ship as a freighter/passenger vessel, and the second as a warship (How, p. 61). He fired a single torpedo, which hit the Caribou amidships (How, p. 63). Her boilers apparently exploded soon after; she went down very quickly (How, p. 72).
Some have regarded this as an atrocity, but it should be stressed that many passenger ships were converted to wartime use; there was no way for Graf to know there were civilians aboard. And she carried military cargo -- and reportedly was carrying as much freight as was legally allowed, which might have hastened her sinking (Greenfield, p. 185).
The Caribou's lifeboats were little use. Some were smashed. Those in the rear, since they had not been swung out, survived -- but passengers filled them before they could be swung out, meaning that they could not be launched! (How, p. 73). Only two would make it into the water (How, p. 74). And one boat did not have its seacocks in place -- in other words, it had holes in it! (How, p. 82). Fortunately it hauled a Newfoundlander aboard, and he straightened things out (How, p. 83).
The best guess is that it was only four to five minutes from the time the torpedo hit to the time the Caribou went down (How, p. 76). This means that we don't really have much knowledge about what happened aboard during those few minutes; many lives were lost, and survivors didn't have much time to see what happened, and memories of such stressful events are often inaccurate.
To add to the problems of the survivors, they were in northern waters in October. Best guess is that the air temperature was 46° F when the Caribou went down (How, pp. 92-93). Not too bad, for that time of night at that time of year. People who never went into the water could survive that. Those who got wet -- either from sea or spray -- would have a harder time.
The wind made it worse. It was 12 miles per hour at the time of the torpedoing; it rose to about 20 miles per hour over the next several hours. Passengers in the boats avoided the wind and covered themselves as best they could (How, p. 100).
Convoy doctrine said that, in the event a ship was damaged, the escorts should not attempt a rescue; their job was to go after the submarine. So that was what the Grandmère did. The escort could see U-69, and headed for her at top speed; apparently Lt. Cuthbert wanted to ram (How, p. 67). Graf could perhaps have escaped on the surface, or even won a surface battle -- his ship was slightly faster than the Grandmère, with a top speed of 17 knots (although it would take time to get up to speed), and it also had a heavier main gun -- indeed, it was the larger of the two vessels (Worth, p. 69). But, in the dark, Graf couldn't tell details of the Grandmère; what he knew is that an escort was coming for him, and he chose to dive rather than fight (How, pp. 72-73). The Grandmère dropped a series of depth charges without hitting U-69 (How, p. 78). The submarine then headed for where the Caribou sank, correctly anticipating that the Grandmère could not track, and would not attack, it there, where the survivors were gathered (How, pp. 85, 92-93).
The Grandmère never did get an ASDIC trace. She hunted for at least eighty minutes, and possibly as much as two hours, but never located the U-69 (How, p. 95). At the end of that time, she gave up and went to rescue the Caribou survivors. This of course meant that U-69 could have sunk her too -- but Lt. Cuthbert correctly guessed that the sub was not hunting in the area any more. As it turns out, it was staying down -- because it can't hear the Grandmère's ASDIC! (How, p. 97).
Around 6:00, as it grew light, the Royal Canadian Air Force sent out a plane to search for survivors (How, p. 98); sadly, the plane and ship seem to have had trouble communicating (How, p. 100). Another plane, and four navy ships, joined them later (How, p. 106). But most of the rescues were done by the Grandmère, which picked up its first survivors around 6:30 (How, p. 99). At about the same time, small craft started to set out from Port aux Basques despite the worsening seas (How, p. 101). The town prepared a makeshift hospital for the survivors that were expected shortly (How, p. 103) -- although the Navy, being the Navy, ordered the Grandmère to make for Sydney rather than nearby Port aux Basques. (Given that Port aux Basques didn't have electricity or running water at that time -- Greenfield, p. 191 -- that may have been for the best.) The authorities also try to keep the whole thing quiet -- but it seems that everyone knew (How, p. 110-111). It could hardly be kept secret at Port aux Basques, since bodies start to arrive there on the following evening (How, pp. 113-115).
There is some uncertainty as to how many were aboard; Galgay/McCathy, p. 63, and Sarty, p. xxi, say 237; Andrieux and Lingard, p. 54, say 238; but most of the other writers give totals that add up to 240 (plus or minus one). Smith, p. 115, says there were 206 passengers and on p. 116 implies 239 people aboard in all
The total losses are listed as 136 by How, by Bercuson, p. 95, and by Smith, p. 116; Bruce, p. 55, Galgay/McCarthy, p. 66, Greenfield, p. 182, Andrieux, p. 121, and Ryan/Drake, p. 43, say 137 were lost; this is also the figure in the newspaper article quoted on p. 49 of Connors; Sarty, p. xxi, implies 134 casualties (but this may refer to those who died in the water, excluding the two survivors who died after rescue). CuffEtAl, p. 5, break down the dead as 48 civilian passengers; 20 navy, 12 army, and 18 air force personnel; eight American militar, and 31 crew, for a total of 137. Thornhill, pp. 33-35, gives a list of 105 who were lost and 100 survivors but lists 31 crew separately without saying that they were all lost (but if we add 105 and 31, we get 136 lost, as above).
All sources except Thornhill say there were 103 or 104 survivors (How, p. 107; the discrepancy in the number of survivors is unexplained; Galgay/McCarthy, p. 66, and Sarty, p. xxi, say that the Grandmère rescued 103 but that two died after rescue, which again shows how confused the records were; Bruce, p. 55; CuffEtAl, p. 5; Connors, p. 49; and Lingard, p. 54, simply say that there were 101 survivors). The casualty rate among women was higher than among men; only eight of 26 survived, and most of them needed hospitalization (How, p. 107). Only one of eleven children survived (How, p. 110). Just 15 of the Caribou's crew of 46 survived; the captain and his three senior officers were all dead (Bruce, p. 55; How, p. 109). It is said to be the worst single loss Newfoundland would suffer in the entire war. The port of Channel suffered the highest losses -- 16 men and one woman (Greenfield, p. 182). Given that the area was reported to have only about two thousand people (Greenfield, p. 191), that means that it lost about 1% of its population! Supposedly there were 21 widows and 51 orphans in the area (Bruce, p. 55; Galgay/McCarthy, p. 66).
Greenfield, pp. 242-247, has a list of all people killed in the Battle of the St. Lawrence, including on pp. 244-246 a list of those lost on the Caribou. Deaths on the Caribou represented almost exactly half the losses on all ships in 1942, and almost all the true non-combatants.
Two days after the disaster, Ottawa finally admitted the story -- and, of course, broadcast it as an atrocity, an unprovoked attack on civilians (How, pp. 116-117). It should be repeated that, although civilians died, the Allies often used passenger ships like the Caribou for munitions and even as troop transports. The Caribou herself had been so used, and she was escorted by a navy ship (How, p. 126). She was clearly, by the doctrine of the time, a legitimate target.
There were multiple inquests, one made by the authorities at once and two later, after the public outcry -- two of them largely in the hands of a certain Captain Dalton (How, p. 127). Dalton's first report, which was frankly done much too quickly, accepted some of the atrocity stories; the second was more cautious and gave the Grandmère more credit, although it sounds as if only the report by the Canadian naval forces really gave her her due (How, p. 128).
The Caribou story became a rallying cry for Canada in World War II (with exaggerations and falsehoods, naturally, such as a claim that the U-boat had rammed and/or machine gunned a lifeboat; How, p. 119). This is twice ironic -- ironic first because Newfoundland, which bore the largest share of the cost, was not yet part of Canada; and second because the Caribou was the last ship the Germans sank in Canadian waters in 1942 (How, p. 122), so Canada was no longer under threat after she went down. (The Canadians, after a weak and chaotic initial response, had improved their defenses enough that their aircraft sank a couple of U-boats before the Caribou met her fate; Sarty, pp. 214-215). The Canadian navy did change some of its doctrines (How, p. 133), but with the U-boats going elsewhere, we don't really know if this made any difference.
U-69 and its skipper Graf was sunk with all hands by the Viscount on February 17, 1943 (How, p. 124). It was not until 1985 that her log was examined in detail and it became clear that she had seen both the Caribou and the Grandmère -- reducing but not entirely eliminating the bitterness among Canadians who remembered the sinking (How, p. 146).
The Caribou incident was the biggest event of the Grandmère's career; Macpherson's summary on p. 51 does not mention anything she did after that. In 1947, most of the Bangors were scrapped or mothballed or sold off; theGrandmère became a yacht (Macpherson, p. 51).
A memorial was set up at Port aux Basques on October 14, 1947, the fifth anniversary of the sinking (Sarty, p. 305).
In 1986, when a new ship took over the Sydney/Channel run, it was decided to name her the Caribou, and a survivor dropped a wreath near the site of the wreck (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 68). A later Newfoundland coastal boat was named the Taverner in honor of the Caribou's captain (photo on p. 70 of Connors).
There are photos of the Caribou and the Grandmère facing p. 76 of How; a plan of the U-69 follows, then photos of Captain Taverner and his sons, of Lieutenant Cuthbert, and others from both ships. Bruce, in the photo insert following p. 78; Greenfield, in the photo insert preceding p. 131; Andrieux, p. 120; Lingard, p. 54, Ryan/Drake, p. 43; and Neary/O'Flaherty, p. 146 also have pictures of the Caribou; O'Neill, p. 951, shows a memorial card (?) which shows not only the ship but her captain and thirty of her passengers and crew. Galgay/McCarthy, p. 62, shows the Caribou being launched, and p. 66 shows her at sea. Connors, p. 50, also has a photo of her sailing along the coast. Macpherson, p. 51, has two (better) photos of Grandmère and dozens of photos of other members of the class, plus a design plan (shrunk to the point of near-illegibility) on p. 59. CuffEtAl has a good photo of the Grandmère on p. 9 and a poor one of Captain Taverner on p. 5, plus a very dark one of the Caribou on p. 15. Thornhill has many photographs of the Caribou, including during her construction, and dozens of photos of those who sailed on her, but most are very poorly reproduced. Smith, p. 114, has a photo of the Caribou and one of the captain (whose name he misspells as "Tavnor") on p. 114 and shows the memorial card on p. 116.
Thornhill lists this song as "Composed by Mrs. Peter Musseau, Lake Brook, Nfld. and dedicated to the memory of the S.S. Caribou and those who were lost." This attribution seems to be largely forgotten, if indeed it is accurate; Thornhill's pages are scattered with snippets of poems with poor attributions. What is certain is that the song went into oral tradition and quickly developed variations.
The song as printed by Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports is mostly historically accurate (not too surprising, given that it was collected just nine years after the event). The Caribou was lost on October 14, to a torpedo, in the early morning. The song says there were fourteen children on the ship, whereas How gives the number as eleven, but that depends on just how you define children. The song correctly lists the captain and two sons among the casualties, although I don't recall any of the printed accounts mentioning their bodies being found. And the recriminations show just how important the ship was (or, at least, came to be) for Newfoundlanders.
It's interesting to note that the first ship on the Sydney/Port-aux-Basques run, the Bruce, also has a song; see "The Loss of the Bruce." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: Guig244

Loss of the Cedar Grove, The

See The Cedar Grove [Laws D18] (File: LD18)

Loss of the City of Green Bay

DESCRIPTION: "Since you ask Caruso for it, Friends and brothers, lend an ear." A schooner is wrecks almost within reach of shore. The sailors cry for help, and try to man the lifeboats, but they are too far away to reach in the storm
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1952 (Walton collection, from a scrapbook owned by Charles C. Allers)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, p. 127, "Loss of the City of Green Bay" (1 text)
Roud #19883
NOTES [145 words]: Although the text is entitled "Loss of the City of Green Bay," there is no indication whatsoever in the song of what ship is meant, except that she was sailing down from Escanaba and that "Caruso" was asked about the wreck.
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors says that the City of Green Bay was lost October 3, 1887 near South Haven on Lake Michigan, with the loss of six of seven men aboard. Bruce D. Berman Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks, Mariner's Press, 1972, p. 239, gives the date as October 4 (i.e. the same night but after midnight) though the cause of the wreck is unknown.
We should note that there was a later City of Green Bay, this one a steamer built in 1880, which burned in 1909. But the song seems to refer to a sailing ship going aground. The only real question is whether the ship was indeed the City of Green Bay. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM127

Loss of the City of Quebec, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the first day of April eighteen hundred and seventy two The City of Quebec leaved London with a choice of British crew." Seventeen are drowned in Newfoundland waters.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 8, 1871- Loss of the City of Quebec
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 941, "The Loss of the City of Quebec" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #9936
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Mary Ann Galpin, "The Loss of the City of Quebec" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [265 words]: The City of Quebec was lost at Isle Aux Morts, May 8, 1871 en route from London (Northern Shipwrecks Database). Isle Aux Morts is about 12 miles east of Port Aux Basques at the southwest corner of Newfoundland. - BS
Ships named "City of (somewhere)," e.g. City of Glasgow, City of Philadelphia, were characteristic of the Inman Line, which came into being in 1850; according to John Malcolm Brinnin, The Sway of the Grand Saloon: A Social History of the North Atlantic (1986; I use the 2000 Barnes & Noble edition), p. 208, "by 1857 he was carrying one third of all individuals traveling across the ocean." I have not been able to determine whether City of Quebec was an Inman ship, but it seems likely -- and, frankly, looking at the stories in Brinnin and at the entries on pp. 111-112 of Paine, they had a *terrible* safety record.
To give the Inman Line its due, one of its primary goals was the relatively efficient transportation of steerage passengers emigrating from Ireland to America. This meant that its ships had to be operated on a relatively low budget and had to carry a lot of passengers (Fox, pp. 174-181). The inevitable result was that, if a wreck happened, it killed a lot of people. At least they crossed the ocean faster than the emigrant sailing ships they replaced, so there were far fewer deaths by disease than on the sailing vessels.
Galgay/McCarthy, p. 156, report that the City of Quebec was a "Vessel from Aberdeen, Captain Pithie, from London on a voyage to Quebec. Wrecked on Isle aux Morts, May 8, 1891, all hands drowned, 6 bodies recovered." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea941

Loss of the Convict Ship

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you tender Christians that hear my tale of woe" as the singer tells of those transported for "petty crimes." They left Ireland in May. The ship is wrecked. The majority of the crew survives, but only 20 of 346 convicts survive
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland); Anderson dates his broadside c. 1835
KEYWORDS: transportation wreck disaster death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 159-161, "The Loss of the Convict Ship" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 132-133, ""Loss of the Convict Ship" (1 text, with a tune on p. 555)
Roud #V32795
File: AnFa159

Loss of the Danny Goodwin, The

DESCRIPTION: Captain LaFosse takes the schooner Danny Goodwin out from New Harbour. On December 6 the crew of six fisherman is lost in a storm.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: death drowning storm wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, pp. 942-943, "The Loss of the Danny Goodwin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 26, "The Wreck of the Danny Goodwin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4419
NOTES [48 words]: The Danny Goodwin was lost December 6, 1926 at Rose Blanche Bank ("The Mystery of the M.V. Danny Goodwin" at the Rose Blanche Lighthouse site). Rose Blanche is about 27 miles east of Port aux Basques -- and about a mile west of Harbour Le Cou -- at the southwest corner of Newfoundland. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea942

Loss of the Druid, The

DESCRIPTION: The Druid is "a schooner of fame" -- for the wrong reasons; "Jimmy Jackson, her owner, a miser was he, Too greedy to fit out his vessel for sea." A storm blows up, the mainmast is lost, the pumps don't work, and "the water she made was dreadful to see"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: ship storm wreck humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1878 - Loss of the Druid while en route from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia to the West Indies
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 195, "The Loss of the Druid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4082
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dD37 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Doe195

Loss of the Eliza, The (The Herons)

DESCRIPTION: The crew of the Eliza are cheerfully approaching home (?) when a sudden storm blows up. Driven before the storm, the ship is blown to pieces. The people ashore, including the sister of two of the sailors, await word, but the ship is never found
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: sea ship disaster storm death
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 47-50, "The Loss of the Eliza (The Herons)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 944-947, "The Loss of the Eliza" (1 text, 2 tunes)
ST FJ047 (Partial)
Roud #4424
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. T. Ghaney, "The Loss of the Eliza" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Ken Peacock, "The Loss of the Eliza" (on NFKPeacock)
Patrick Rossiter, "The Loss of the Eliza" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [372 words]: Fowke writes, "No information is available about the loss of the Eliza, but the story is very similar to that of the Southern Cross which was lost in April, 1914, with one hundred and seventy men aboard." (It might be noted, however, that the ballad claims the Eliza sank in October.) For the loss of the Southern Cross see "The Southern Cross (I)." To this day, no one knows what happened to her, and no bodies were ever found.
"It is... one of the very few native ballads carrying supernatural portents (the herons) in the manner of the older traditional ballads... the spectres... the herons... Death's Angel" (Peacock).
Many [ships named Eliza] lost but no record both in October and off Cape Race/St Mary's Bay; the route would seem to have started at St John's [near Fort Amherst]. The best bet may be March 18, 1862, crushed in the ice off Bay Bulls -- on the route just south of St John's -- en route to St Mary's Riverhead, owned by Welsh & Co at St Mary's Riverhead with a captain possible named Welsh [who, in the ballad, sees the failing ship] (Northern Shipwrecks Database) - BS
There were quite a few Newfoundland sealers named Eliza, but each was too small for the ship of the song. In Shannon Ryan, The Ice Hunters: A History of Newfoundland Sealing to 1914, Breakwater Books, 1994, p. 471, we find the Eliza, of 97 tons, under Captain James Hearne, sailing from Saint John's in 1834 with a company of 27; p. 458, for the year 1853 lists the Eliza, Captain Scott, fitted out by Baine, Johnston & Co., still of 97 tons, but now with 37 men. Ryan, p. 475, lists an Eliza sailing from Conception Bay in 1833 under Captain Long; she was 83 tons and had 28 aboard. On p. 479, we read of an Eliza under Clement Noel (91 tons, 29 men) sailing from Carbonear in 1836; on p. 481, an Eliza from St. John's, sailing in 1838; 105 tons, 38 men under S. French (Ryan, p. 481), and another under W. Mullins; 121 tons, 29 men (Ryan, p. 482).
Frank Galgay and Michael McCarthy, Shipwrecks of Newfoundland and Labrador, Volume II, Creative Publishers, 1990, p. 102, lists 48 ships lost in the ice in Spring 1862; it was a bad year. The Eliza Ben mentions above as lost in that year was one of the 48. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FJ047

Loss of the Evelyn Marie, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's mournful to tell you a story so sad, It's about a new trawler and the equipment it had." "Six gallant fishermen" were "In this beautiful trawler, the Evelyn Marie." After a year in service, they radio for rescue, but she sinks before help arrives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 7, 1975 - Loss of the _Evelyn Marie_ with all six people aboard (source: Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 158, "The Loss of the Evelyn Marie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16877
File: PsSe158

Loss of the Fanny Wright, The

See The American Aginora (File: Ran038)

Loss of the Gertie, The (The Loss of the Guernsey)

DESCRIPTION: The Guernsey sails from Trepassey "wit' fish and oil on borad of her" and is overtaken by wind and snow. The wreckage is found the next morning. The song speculates about how the wreck happened, lists the crew and calls for prayers for those lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: death drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 5, 1934 - Schooner Gertie lost at Trepassey (per Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30138
RECORDINGS:
Mike Welsh, "The Loss of the Guernsey" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [43 words]: Frank Galgay and Michael McCarthy, Shipwrecks of Newfoundland and Labrador, [Volume I], Harry Cuff Publishing, 1987, p. 82, have a slightly different report of the Gertie: "Schooner, sailed out of Trepassy. Lost with all hands at Calvert 4 Dec 1934." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3LootG

Loss of the Gilbert Mollison, The

DESCRIPTION: "Another proud and gallant ship, Another noble crew, Have sunk beneath the angry waves...." No more will the vessel take to the waters. Some of the many sailors who have served on her are now dead. People at home wait and mourn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from Ben Peckham by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck separation death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
October 1873 - disappearance of the Gilbert Mollison
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 213-214, "The Loss of the Gilbert Mollison" (1 text)
Roud #19871
NOTES [35 words]: Ben Peckham, Walton's informant, had this in manuscript rather than learning it from tradition. I strongly suspect it was written as a poem, not a song; it just doesn't sound like something meant to be sung. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM213

Loss of the Gilcher, The

DESCRIPTION: "On October 28, Oh how the wind did scream! The last time that the Gilcher and crew were ever seen." The ship vanishes on the way to Milkwaukee. The reason is unknown. A note claims she was caught in a storm off Manitou. All aboard are lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Collected from John E. Hayes by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 28, 1892 (or thereabouts) - Sinking of the Gilcher
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 197-199, "The Loss of the Gilcher" (1 text)
Roud #19884
NOTES [668 words]: Although this song talks primarily about the Gilcher, it is really a tale of two ships -- and all of the sources I checked (Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, Ratigan, Wolff, Shelak, and Thompson), agree on this.
The story begins with a boat called the Western Reserve, one of the first steel ships on the Great Lakes. (For what follows, except when another source is cited, see Thompson, pp. 218-225; there is a sketch of the boat on p. 213). Built in 1890, she was 300 feet long and the pride of the Minch family fleet. In the summer of 1892, she set out from Cleveland for Lake Superior. Having passed through the "Soo," a storm caught her in Whitefish Bay. On the night of August 30, a mast fell to the deck, the ship's plates developed large cracks, and within moments, she had broken in two (Wolff, p. 66). Apparently it was only about ten minutes from the time the cracks developed to the time she broke in two and went to the bottom (Ratigan, p. 253).
The crew took to the boats, but one of them overturned. The only other boat managed to rescue some of them, but it was too overloaded, and the storm too strong, for it to be steered. And it had no way of signalling other boats -- one went by in the night without spotting them (Wolff, p. 66). As they neared the beach, the boat capsized. Only a few of those aboard had life jackets, and only one man, wheelsman Harry Stewart, made it to the beach to tell the tale. 26 others were lost in the disaster (Shelak, p. 159).
The cause of the Western Reserve's loss was never determined, though many hypotheses were advanced. Many at the time suspected problems with the steel of the boat -- a genuine possibility if the weather had been colder, but it was August! Even the waters of Lake Superior are fairly warm by then. Others suspected design flaws, or improper loading (the latter, however, seems improbable, since Ratigan, p. 252, says she was mostly empty; according to Wolff, p. 66, she was on her way to Two Harbors, Minnesota to pick up iron ore.)
The worries about the Western Reserve did not cause the owners to do anything about her sister, the W. H. Gilcher. (Prior to the loss, the Western Reserve had made "several record-breaking hauls," according to Ratigan, p. 252. The ships were a point of pride; the Gilcher is said to have been the largest boat built in Cleveland to that time; Shelak, p. 158.) Although four months newer, the Gilcher was built to almost exactly the same design as the Western Reserve -- and was lost in the same year, on about October 28. This time, there were no survivors at all (Shelak, p. 159), so there was no clue whatsoever to what happened. It does appear that someone had tried to cut loose a lifeboat with an axe, implying extreme haste (Shelak, p. 159), but either the attempt failed or the boat was lost. It is believed there were 21 people on board when the Gilcher sank..
Ratigan, p. 12, has another speculation: That the Gilcher.collided with the Ostrich, also lost with all hands on or about the night of October 28, 1892. This speculation is also mentioned by Shelak. He says that wreckage was found on the Beaver Archipelago on Lake Michigan, though he does not mention the note later found allegedly from a Gilcher crewman.
Shelak, pp. 159-160, mentions a folktale calling the Gilcher a "Flying Dutchman," still seen in the area of Mackinac Island in a heavy fog.
Many at the time blamed the new-fangled steel construction (though of course steel vessels would in time prove to be very successful on the Lakes.) Wolff, p. 67, mentions that, in the aftermath of the loss of the Gilcher, new designs and stronger steel were specified for new steel ships; it would be more than seventy years until the next instance of a steel ship breaking up.
Ratigan, p. 11, quotes eight lines of text about the Gilcher, clearly the same poem as John Hayes's piece in Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors; unfortunately, he cites no source. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM197

Loss of the Guernsey, The

See The Loss of the Gertie (The Loss of the Guernsey) (File: ML3LootG)

Loss of the Industry Off Spurn Point, The

DESCRIPTION: The Industry is grounded off Spurn Point in a heavy sea. The captain refuses help: "we shall get off at high water." A later rescue attempt is launched too late to save the crew.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The Industry is grounded off Spurn Point in a heavy sea. A lifeboat is launched from shore "expecting every man to save" The captain refuses help: "we shall get off at high water." The lifeboat returns to shore and is launched again, too late to save the crew, when Industry raises a distress light.
KEYWORDS: rescue death drowning commerce sea ship storm wreck England
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 4, 1868 - "The vessel, Industry (Captain Burdon), was stranded on Spurn Point off the mouth of the Humber" (source: Palmer-VaughanWilliams)
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 180, "All on Spurn Point" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 48, "Spurn Point" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #55, "Spurn Point" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #599
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(440), "The Loss of the Industry Off Spurn Point" ("Good people all, pray listen well"), J. Forth (Pocklington), no date
File: BrMa180

Loss of the Jewel, The

DESCRIPTION: The Jewel sails from Tilt Cove on October 28 and runs into "a heavy gale." The crew is rescued by the Albatross bound to Philadelphia from Greenland.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: rescue sea ship storm wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 948-949, "The Loss of the Jewel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9935
RECORDINGS:
George Decker, "The Loss of the Jewel" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [41 words]: Jewel (possibly Jewell) wrecked October 28, 1891 at Gull Island in Conception Bay, between Tilt Cove and St John's (Northern Shipwrecks Database). Peacock notes "there are two Tilt Coves in Newfoundland, both in the north in Notre Dame Bay." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea948

Loss of the John Harvey, The

DESCRIPTION: The John Harvey sails from Gloucester for St Pierre in a hurricane and runs aground. Captain Kerley believes they will die. John Keeping ties a line around his waist and swims to shore; six of the crew are rescued. Keeping and one other died.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: rescue death sea ship storm wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 950-951, "The Loss of the John Harvey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3843
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Wreck of the John Harvey
The John Harvey
NOTES [30 words]: [The] shipwreck [took place] January 10, 1912 in Gabarus Harbour, out of Boston bound for St Pierre & Miquelon; [the] Captain [was] George Kearley (Northern Shipwrecks Database) - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Pea950

Loss of the Jubal Cain, The

DESCRIPTION: "Twas of the schooner Jubal Cain Of which no doubt you've heard.... lost on Nova Scotia's shore, She had eight men on board." The cargo vessel leaves Halifax January 10 and after 16 days the owner gets a wire that the ship and all hands are lost at sea.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 12, 1907 - The _Tubal Cain_ leaves Halifax for Grand Bank; it is lost in a storm, possibly on January 15
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 952-953, "The Loss of the Jubal Cain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9930
NOTES [95 words]: The Northern Shipwrecks Database notes that there is a monument to the loss at Grand Bank. There was, and may be again. A sign at Fraser Park explaining the loss was put up in 1987 but has since blown down according to Robert Parsons' "NF Shipwrecks on the WEB" site in 2003 - BS
Although the ship is properly the Tubal Cain (a name derived from Genesis 4:22; Tubal-cain, a worker in brass and iron), the only known collection calls it the Jubal Cain (possibly by confusion with Tubal-cain's half-brother Jubal mentioned in Genesis 4:21), and I've followed that. - RBW
File: Pea952

Loss of the Lady of the Lake, The

DESCRIPTION: In 1833 the Lady of the Lake sails from Belfast for Newfoundland. After three weeks on a pleasant sea "the ice came down like mountains" The Captain and some sailors escape in a long boat. The singer os rescued by the Lima and returns to Liverpool.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: emigration rescue death sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 11, 1833 - The _Lady of the Lake_ strikes an iceberg off Newfoundland and sinks, taking with her most of her passengers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 35, "The Loss of the Lady of the Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lady of the Lake (The Banks of Clyde II) [Laws N41]" (subject)
NOTES [256 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: "Total saved 34; perished 197; total 234" with a list of those saved, including Captain Grant; the ballad claims the author to be survivor George Monaghan via the Lima, who is not on Leyden's list. Leyden's list has one person saved by the "Lima," 13 in the "Harvest Home," and twenty in the "Lady ..." long and stern boats. - BS
Northern Shipwrecks Database has 18 left on Harvest Home -- abandoned after striking ice on May 9 -- rescued by Gypsey and transferred to Amazon - BS
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 301: "Bound from Belfast to Quebec, the ill fated emigrant ship struck the underwater tongue of an iceberg on May 11, 1833, south of Newfoundland. Her captain, mate, and some of the crew, with a few of the passengers, got clear of the sinking ship in the boats, leaving the rest of her 230 men, women, and children on board the hulk or struggling in the icy water. All but those in the captain's boat perished."
Curiously, for such a major incident, I find no mention of the Lady of the Lake in my books on seagoing disasters. But Patricia Kostelnik of St. Petersburg, Florida, in May of 2012 verified much of the information:
"I am writing to confirm that, indeed, George Monaghan was a survivor. He returned to Ireland and told the tale of the shipwreck in letters to friends. I also recall an article in the newspaper; perhaps the 'Freeman's Journal' of that year.
"I do know that George Monaghan was on that ship, as he was brought along by my family as a hired man." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Leyd035

Loss of the Life-Boat Crew at Fethard

DESCRIPTION: The life-boat goes out on a stormy night to try to rescue a Norwegian crew. "Early on next morning the sorrowful news went round." Wives and children find "husbands and fathers lying dead" on the Fethard shore.
AUTHOR: John Butler, Tipperary
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor rescue
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 20-21, 1914 - The Mexico wreck
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 104, "Loss of the Life-Boat Crew at Fethard" (1 text)
Roud #20546
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mexico" (subject) and references there
NOTES [87 words]: February 20, 1914: "Nine members of the Fethard lifeboat were drowned when going to the assistance of the Norwegian steamer Mexico.... Eight of the Mexico's crew were saved by the five lifeboat survivors. All but one of the stranded survivors were saved with great difficulty the next day." (source: Bourke in Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast v1, pp. 52-53) - BS
We note that at least four poems were written about this disaster (see the cross-references); one suspects a campaign to raise money for someone's family. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran104

Loss of the London (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The London, bound for Australia with 239 on board, is caught in a storm in the Bay of Biscay. Captain Martin remains on board when a boat is lowered with nineteen men. The nineteen are rescued by a passing ship and taken to Plymouth Bay.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: drowning rescue sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 11, 1866 - "London bound for Melbourne, Australia, foundered on 11 January 1866 in severe English Channel gale with a loss of 220." (source: New Zealand Bound site)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #61, pp. 1-2, "The Loss of the London"; #63, p. 2 (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan1 31, "The Loss of the London" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #1787
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the London (II)" (subject)
NOTES [34 words]: Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.13(149), "The Wreck of the 'London'" ("You landsmen all come rist [sic] to me"), J. Lindsay (Glasgow), 1851-1910 is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD1031

Loss of the London (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The "London" "pressed, through storm and rain ... with two hundred souls and more. The 'London' sank near a foreign shore" "The Captain said all hope was gone" Brooke "worked until all hope was gone, Then calmly paced the deck alone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.12(117))
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 11, 1866 - "London bound for Melbourne, Australia, foundered on 11 January 1866 in severe English Channel gale with a loss of 220." (source: New Zealand Bound site)
FOUND IN:
Roud #V6049
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(117), "The Loss of the 'London'" ("The sea ran high, the winds were wild"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 11(2396), Harding B 13(241)[manually marked "1866," the date of the wreck], "The Loss of the 'London'"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the London (I)" (subject) and references there
NOTES [60 words]: The description is based on broadside Bodleian Firth c.12(117).
Irish Shakespearean actor Gustavus Vaughan Brooke (1818-1866) stayed on deck to help those he could and refused to leave on the last lifeboat. (source: "s.s. London - founded in the English Channel 11 January 1866"; description of wreck by William Andrew Pearce on the New Zealand Bound site) - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BdLoLon1

Loss of the Maggie Hunter

See The Maggie Hunter (File: RcTMagHu)

Loss of the Maggie, The

See The Wreck of the Maggie (File: LLab080)

Loss of the Minerva, The

DESCRIPTION: "O, Thou who reignest enthroned on high," the singer reports losing the one she "valued far the rest above." They had been married just four years. He is lost at sea; none of his crew survived. She recalls their time in Europe, and asks God's help
AUTHOR: Ebenezer Easton? (source: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: husband wife ship death disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1829 - Loss of the sealer Minerva and her captain Samuel Hadlock, leaving his wife, formerly the Prussian lady Dorothea Albertine Eilhelmina Celeste Russ, a widow (source: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 286-289, "The Loss of the Minerva" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Death of William Gilley" [Laws D5] (subject: the Minerva loss)
NOTES [71 words]: The pseudo-King-James language of this is so thick I was tempted to tag it "foreignlanguage" (since we don't have a keyword "gibberish"; one wonders if Mrs. Hadlock, not being a native speaker of English, would even understand its combination of false archaism and pomposity). The amount of sermonizing in this thing far exceeds the actual information about what happened. Sad that the event didn't get a better memorial. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm286

Loss of the Philosophy

DESCRIPTION: Philosophy has a bad trip from St John to Havana. They make repairs at Havana. Nevertheless, they are cast away nearing home. Only five of seven make shore and two more die of cold. The survivors are rescued and return to Pope's Harbour.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship wreck sailor rescue
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 128, "Loss of the Philosophy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS128 (Partial)
Roud #1829
NOTES [53 words]: This song is item dD49 in Laws's Appendix II.
Creighton-NovaScotia: The singer says "This is a true story. Pope's Harbour is in Halifax County." Dates in the ballad -- which are not confirmed by Northern Shipwrecks Database -- have Philosophy leave St John for Havana on November 4 and the wreck takes place January 7. - BS
File: CrNS128

Loss of the Ramillies, The [Laws K1]

DESCRIPTION: A heavy storm dooms the Ramillies. The boatswain orders the crew to the lifeboats. Hundreds drown in the wreck; only three or four survive
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Vaughan Williams collection)
KEYWORDS: ship storm wreck death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 15, 1760 - Wreck of the Ramillies off the coast of Devonshire. Only 26 men survive
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar,Newf) US(NE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws K1, "The Loss of the Ramillies"
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #61, "The Loss of the Ramillies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 56, "The Loss Of The 'Ramillies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 28, "The Ramillies" (2 texts)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 144-145, "The Ship Rambolee (The Loss of the 'Ramillies')" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 954-955, "The Loss of the Rammelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 85, "The Old Ramillies" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 47, "The Wreck of the Rambler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 112-113, "The Fate of the Rena Lee" (1 text, 1 tune, so composite that the name of the ship changes from verse to verse!)
DT 554, RAMILLIE
Roud #523
RECORDINGS:
Jumbo Brightwell, "The Loss of 'The Ramilly'" (on Voice12)
Charlotte and James Decker, "The Loss of the Rammelly" (on PeacockCDROM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fatal Ramilies" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Ramalie
The Ramilies
NOTES [134 words]: Ramillies was the site of one of Marlborough's great victories (1706), and several ships were named after it, from this ship to an early twentieth century dreadnought.
This Ramillies had a peculiar history; it actually predates the battle bearing its name! In 1664, the Royal Katherine was built, an 84-gun ship. It was "rebuilt" in 1702 (a subterfuge used by the Royal Navy at the time: They built a new ship with some of the old timber). The rebuilt ship was renamed after the battle of Ramillies. (She would be rebuilt again in 1749.)
Half a century after the rebuilding and renaming, having been part of the fleet which failed to save Mallorca, Ramillies was wrecked off Bolt Head on her way to Plymouth. There are thought to have been 725 men aboard at the time, of whom only 26 survived. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LK01

Loss of the Regalis, The

See The Loss of the Regulus (File: Pea956)

Loss of the Regulus (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "While I'll explain ... How the Regalus she got lost in Petty Harbour bay." Regulus leaves Belle Isle [sic] and is disabled in a heavy breeze near Cape Race. The tug John Green attempts the rescue but the tow line parts. Captain Taylor and his crew drown.
AUTHOR: probaby Johnny Burke
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: drowning ship sea storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 23, 1910 - Wreck of the Regulus
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 956-957, "The Loss of the Regalis" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 74, "Wreck of the Regulus" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #25, pp. 42-43, "Loss of the S.S. Regulus" (1 text)
Roud #6471
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "The Loss of the Regalis" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Regulus (II)" (subject)
NOTES [564 words]: [The] Regulus, en route to Sydney Nova Scotia from Wabana [Bell Island, not Belle Isle], [was] wrecked October 23, 1910, when the tow parted from the John Green (Northern Shipwrecks Database). - BS
According to Frank Galgay and Michael McCarthy, Shipwrecks of Newfoundland and Labrador, Volume II, Creative Publishers, 1990, p. 54, the Regulus was a cargo ship launched in 1878. The Newfoundland shipping firm Harvey's purchased her in 1897 for use in the coal trade. Until 1907, she seems to have been completely ordinary.
Starting in 1907, she seemed to be under a curse. She ran aground on Sandy Hook in that year, although she suffered no real damage.
Her first problems in Petty Harbour took place in 1908 (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 55). Carrying coal from Philadelphia to St. John's, she ran aground. The tug John Green (which we will hear of again) was sent, but the Regulus had to offload much of her coal before the tug could get her off. She was taken to St. John's and repaired, then went back into service, only to collide with a Norwegian ship, the Ocland, and her owners were forced to pay damages although many blamed the Norwegians. In 1909, the Regulus was damaged in a collision with an iceberg (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 56). She barely made it back to St. John's with all pumps running and the men bailing water as well. Then she collided with the Karema. At this point, her owners sold her to pay off the damages, but somehow Harvey & Co. ended up back in possession of her in 1910 (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 57).
On October 20, 1910, she was supposed to pick up a load of iron ore at Bell Island on Conception Bay, but the mining company said she wasn't big enough and sent her back. Serving under an experienced captain named Taylor, she set out in ballast on October 23, 1910. As she steamed south along the Avalon Peninsula, her propeller shaft broke. Captain Taylor dropped anchor and (apparently having no radio -- hardly a surprise for a small ship in 1910) asked a schooner to go into port and ask that a tug be sent. For the second time, the John Green went to her rescue; so did another tug, the Ingraham (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 57). It was foggy enough that the Ingraham, unable to find the Regulus, gave up and went back to port. But the John Green found the Regulus late in the evening. It took until after midnight to get the hawser attached and to raise the Regulus's anchor (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 58). For two hours, the John Green towed the Regulus, but at around 2:30, the hawser broke. They found the wreck the next morning on a reef near Shoal Bay. There had been nineteen men aboard. All were gone; no bodies were ever recovered, although divers explored the wreck (Galgay/McCarthy, pp. 59-60). One source I read said it was the worst sailing disaster in Newfoundland in a decade.
Galgay/McCarthy, p. 100, has a list of those lost.
The song is quite accurate in its details, at least in the Burke original; the Regulus was leaving Bell Island (called "Belle Isle" in the text), she was lost near Cape Race, she broke her propeller, the John Green came to her rescue, the Regulus's lights appeared to go out when the tow-line parted, her captain was named Taylor, and she was lost near Shoal Bay, not far from the better-known Petty Harbour.
For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea956

Loss of the Regulus (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The Regulus is lost "near Bay Bulls that awful night the sea was raging high, The fog was thick the rain fell fast." The singer prays for consolation for mothers, wives and children of those lost.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: grief death drowning mourning sea ship storm wreck children mother wife sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 23, 1910 - Wreck of the Regulus
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #6471
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Frank Molloy, "Regalis" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Regulus (I)" (subject)
NOTES [18 words]: For background on the jinxed history of the Regulus, see the notes to "The Loss of the Regulus (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3LoReg

Loss of the Riseover, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Riseover left Northern Bay, with lumber she did sail" for St John's. They are forced to leave the ship by raft in a heavy storm. Nearing shore, the raft breaks in half and John Pomeroy and Sparks are lost.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 19, 1911 - Riseover wrecked on Muddy Shag Rock, per Newfoundland's Grand Banks Site
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, pp. 958-959, "The Loss of the Riseover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 94, "The Wreck of the Riseover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4408
RECORDINGS:
Ned Lee, "Wreck of the Riseover" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [304 words]: A detailed account of the Riseover wreck is included in Tales from the Kittiwake Coast by Robert E. Tulk, pp. 90-91 [available as a pdf file from the Canadian National Adult Database site.] - BS
A brief summary is also found in Frank Galgay and Michael McCarthy, Shipwrecks of Newfoundland and Labrador, Volume III, Creative Publishers, 1995, p. 161. The Riseover was a "schooner, ran on Muddy Shag Rock near Musgrave Harbour, Novermber 19, 1911. Captain Pumphrey [sic.] and his crew of five made a raft of lumber and escaped from the wreck. Raft split on a rock and four men went one way, two another. The four were saved, the two were lost."
A slightly fuller account is in John Feltham, Northeast from Baccalieu, Harry Cuff Publications, 1990, pp. 60-61, which opens by declaring, "It was the little islet called Muddy Shag that proved to be the nemesis on Captain William Pomeroy and his Lunenburg-built schooner." The schooner displaced 81 tons. The crew, in addition to William Pomeroy, were Williams Jones, William Percy, James Pomeroy, John Pomeroy, and Archibald Spracklin (presumably the "Sparks" of the song; he was the brother-in-law of brothers William and John Pomeroy). She was carrying 100,000 feet of lumber. In a heavy storm, skipper Pomeroy was aloft watching the rocks, and gave an order that was mis-heard, causing the helmsman to run her onto the rock.
Given the storm, there was no way they could remain on the ship or on Muddy Shag. So the crew decided to use all that lumber to build a raft and head for Peckford Island a few miles away in the direction the wind was blowing. But, as the song says, the raft broke in two, with John Pomeroy and Archibald Spracklin on the smaller part. Some of the lumber from their part of the raft was eventually found, but the bodies had disappeared. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Pea958

Loss of the Royal Charter, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of a shipwreck near Ireland. 400 passengers sail from Melbourne and are approaching home (and have already dropped off some passengers) when a storm hits. The singer describes the storm, the wreck, and the deaths
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: ship storm wreck disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 1859 - Wreck of the Royal Charter off Anglesey (on her way from Liverpool to Australia); 454 of those aboard were lost and only 39 saved (source: Palmer)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H623, pp. 109-110, "The Loss of the Royal Charter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9040
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(95), "Loss of the Royal Charter," unknown, no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck of the Royal Charter" (subject)
NOTES [200 words]: Curiously, this song is a first-person account of a passenger on the Charter, and yet it says that "all on board would meet a watery grave."
Although I assume the ship described in this song is the same as that in "The Wreck of the Royal Charter," the lyrics are so different that I think they are separate songs. Roud also splits them. I'm not confident about it, though, and indeed Roud seems to confuse them, filing Bodleian Firth c 12(95) with the "Wreck" even though it appears to be a version of the "Loss."
According to Lincoln P. Paine, Ships of the World: An Historical Encylopedia, Houghton Mifflin, 1997, pp. 438-439, the Royal Charter was built in 1855, and was "One of the finest passenger ships of the day... [and was] the first English ship to carry double topsails." On her last trip she left Melbourne with 511 passengers and crew, which was effectively equal to her capacity. She arrived safely at Queenstown, Ireland, 58 days later, and let off 17 passengers. The next night, as the passed Moelfre, Anglesey, she ran into a severe storm. Captain T. Taylor dropped anchor at 10:45 p.m., but the cables broke at 3:30 a.m., and she was driven ashore. 455 people were lost. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: HHH623

Loss of the Royal George, The

See Sinking of the Royal George (File: LaBo076)

Loss of the S. S. Algerine

DESCRIPTION: "Attention all ye sailor boys And hark to what I say And hear about the Algerine Was lost in Hudson Bay." The old sealing boat, loaded with Americans but with a Newfoundland crew, is destroyed by ice. The Neptune rescues the remaining crew
AUTHOR: presumably Johnny Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Burke's Ballads)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck rescue
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1912 - the Algerine wreck
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 92, "Loss of the S.S. Algerine" (1 text)
Roud #V44585
NOTES [527 words]: The Algerine (238 tons, according to Winsor, p. 30) first served as a sealer under H. Bartlett in 1893, and made her last voyage in 1912. Although she had been a sealer for every one of those twenty years, she was on an arctic exploration voyage in Hudson Bay, not a sealing trip, when she was lost (Ryan, pp. 195, 197; Winsor, p. 30, says her captain was John Bartlett when she was lost). She had been rebuilt as recently as 1910 (Evans, p. 45). According to Greene, p. 275, she was lost "4 miles off Cape Weld, Ponds Inlet, Baffin Land"; this is on the north side of Baffin Island, across from Bylot Island.
The Algerine had one other brush with fame in her last year. After the Titanic disaster, the White Star line hired ships to try to find bodies of the dead. The first of these was the Mackay-Bennett, which brought in most of the recovered bodies; the Minia and the Montmagny found more. The last ship chartered was the Algerine; she found only one body (Barczewski, p. 42), but that was remembered because unlike the other recovery vessels, she was a Newfoundland ship.
Although she had the biggest engine of any wooden-walled sealer (180 nominal horsepower; Candow, p. 55), she wasn't a spectacular success as a sealer; only once did she take more than 20,000 seals in a season (in 1898 under Job Knee, when she took 23,698); her average haul per season was a little over 10,000. Perhaps that helps explain why she had eight different captains in her twenty years.... (Chafe, p. 98).
In 1908, she had a near-disaster, running out of coal and needing help from other ships. Ironically, she was carrying dozens of refugees from other ships that had sunk in that year's bad conditions (Winsor, p. 30).
In addition to its mention in this song, the Algerine is mentioned in mentioned in "Captains and Ships," "The Sealer's Song (II)," "Success to the Hardy Sealers," and "Ballad of Captain Bob Bartlett, Arctic Explorer," An Algerine is also mentioned in "A Noble Fleet of Sealers," although this appears to be a reference to the MV Algerine, not the SS Algerine. Apart from the special case of the Greenland, which was mentioned a lot because of the infamous "Greenland Disaster," no other ship is mentioned more often in the sealing "songs" in Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff.
Perhaps ironically, the only other ship mentioned equally often is the Neptune, which rescued the Algerine's crew. For her, see "Neptune, Ruler of the Sea."
Ryan, p. 308, has another poem mentioning the Algerine and the Neptune, in the context of a bad voyage which left her sealers stuck without transportation home.
There is a photo of the Algerine on p. 30 of Winsor.
Although most sources attribute this to Johnny Burke, it is not in his most extensive collection, Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981. But Burke wrote a lot of songs starting "Attention..."; it seems to have been his personal alternative to "Come all ye..." (which he also used several times). For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: RySm092

Loss of the S.S. Regulus

See The Loss of the Regulus (File: Pea956)

Loss of the Sailor's Home, The

DESCRIPTION: Sailor's Home leaves Fortune Bay and picks up a load of coal in Sydney on Christmas Day. She sinks in a storm; three of the crew make land on the French island of Miquelon, find help, and recover.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: rescue drowning sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 31, 1890 - the Sailor's Home wrecked near St Pierre & Miquelon carrying coal from Sydney Nova Scotia to Fortune, Newfoundland (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 960-962, "The Loss of the Sailor's Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Pea960

Loss of the Sarah, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye landsmen all, now pray draw near, A lamentation ye shall her" of how the "Sarah" was lost at sea. Captain Pierce mistakes the lighthouse he is seeing. The ship breaks her anchors and is wrecked. 16 are killed; 16 survive
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: death disaster ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1835 - loss of the packet Sarah (source: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 280-281, "The Loss of the Sarah" (1 text)
Roud #4077
NOTES [7 words]: This is item dD31 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm280

Loss of the Savinto, The

DESCRIPTION: Two days out a storm drives Savinto against a rock. "The ship breaks up And all the crew... Look for a watery grave." Gormley gets to shore and brings help. The rescue ordeal is described in great detail. Eleven of twenty one are saved.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor rescue
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 6 or 7, 1906 - Barque Sovinto from Dalhousie, NS stranded at Priest Pond, PEI (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 52-55, "The Loss of the Savinto" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12467
File: Dib052

Loss of the Schooner Arabelle, The

DESCRIPTION: The Arabelle, being "light in ballast" in "a heavy gale" "capsized no distance from the land." The wreck is found drifting three weeks later with one corpse on board.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: travel death drowning commerce sea ship shore disaster wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 1880 - The schooner Arabelle capsized in a gale sailing from Chatteau, Labrador to Bay of Islands on Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula (Guigné)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 247-248, "The Loss of the Schooner Arabelle" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #25326
NOTES [24 words]: One of Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's texts is two verses from a Newfoundland version printed in a Newfoundland periodical. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Guig247

Loss of the Shamrock, The

DESCRIPTION: James Murray's mother asks him to delay sailing but he won't wait. He sails on Friday, September 18. The ship is seen on Saturday, then lost. Thomas Ridgeley might have saved two of those lost but he did not and is scorned for it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: sailor death mother wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 19, 1846 - the Shamrock is lost in a gale off Cape St Mary's (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 963-964, "The Loss of the Shamrock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9816
RECORDINGS:
George Decker, "The Loss of the Shamrock" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Tom Ferrier, "Torbay Song" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Mike Molloy, "Shamrock" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [122 words]: The 1846 wreck described in the HISTORICAL REFERENCES is not the only disaster involving a Newfoundland ship named "Shamrock" in September. On September 15, 1906, the schooner Shamrock, owned and sailed by captain Paul Ezekiel, was attempting to ride out the storm when the Margaret Dawe, which had broken her anchor chains, plowed into the Shamrock. The Shamrock drifted ashore and was wrecked, but due to the bravery of her crew and a Captain Mercer who lived in the area, all survived (see Captain Joseph Prim and Mike McCarthy, The Angry Seas: Shipwrecks on the Coast of Labrador, Jesperson Publishing, 1999, pp. 79-81). That wreck obviously is not the one in the song, but it might have helped keep the song live. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Pea963

Loss of the Snorre, The

DESCRIPTION: September 18 a storm in Bonavista Bay wrecks Harold F, Olive Branch, Planet, and Reliance. The Norwegian sloop Snorre bursts her chains and is swept away with two boys on board. Four men from Bonavista are named as saving four of the crew.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 1907 - more than 58 ships are lost including Olive Branch, Planet, and Snorre (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 98, "The Loss of the Snorre" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4407
NOTES [655 words]: Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou: "Two young Norwegian boys were drowned, and the four others on board were rescued through the bravery of J Louis Little, Robert Brown, James C Little, William Ford and Eli Paul, all men of Bonavista; they afterwards received recognition from the Carnegie Hero Commission." - BS
Galgay/McCarthy, pp. 129-136, has an account of this incident; it appears the song is mostly right.
The Snorre was a brand new wooden Norwegian barque of 800 tons; she was on her first voyage to Newfoundland (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 130). On this voyage, her crew consisted of Captain Alse, his mate, three sailors, and a cook (pp. 130-131). She was carrying a cargo of flour, which she expected to exchange for a cargo of fish. By the time she arrived at Bonavista Bay, the storm was already blowing hard, so she had to anchor in the harbor, not go to the wharf. Storms in Bonavista Harbour had a tendency to be especially bad because it is open to the sea on the north and northwest, meaning that the prevailing storms blew *into* the harbour (p. 130).
At 3:00 a.m., the Snorre dragged her anchors and was driven onto a ledge at a part of the harbour known as Canaille (pp. 130-131). Four other ships in the harbour, the Evelyn, the Olive Branch, the Jubilee, and the Harold F., also broke loose and were destroyed (p. 131). But all of them had been in the harbour when the storm blew up, and the crews were ashore, so no lives were lost. Only the Snorre that still had her crew aboard and in danger.
Fortunately, the Snorre had grounded in such a way that she survived the night, and she was able to set off distress signals. The signals were seen by brothers Lewis and Stuart Little. Their neighbours Robert Brown, James Little, William Ford, James Ford, and Eli Paul joined them in attempting a rescue in very dangerous conditions (pp. 131-133). They made several tries to get a rope to the Snorre, with little luck, and several of the rescuers were nearly swept away themselves (p. 133). Finally, at great personal risk, Lewis Little got a rope aboard (p. 134), and the rescue began. There was little time to waste; the Snorre was going to pieces. (There was little left of her after the storm; those who surveyed the area of the Snorre's wreck found nothing but broken wood and debris; pp. 134-135).
Even with a rope to shore, it wasn't easy to get the Snorre's crew ashore in the extreme weather. Four men made it, but cook Peter Sivertzen and 13-year-old seaman Anders Monson were swept away to their deaths (p. 134); their bodies were found after the storm (p. 135).
There seems to be a disagreement about the date of this event. Ben Schwartz reports that the Northern Shipwrecks Database dated in September 8-9, 1907, but Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou says September 18-19, and Galgay/McCarthy, p. 130, affirms this. September 18, 1907 saw a "great gale" hit Newfoundland; it was bad enough, for instance, that 26 of 28 schooners in Twillingate Harbour were wrecked (Clarke, p. 72). Thus the September 18 date seems much more likely than September 8.
The song states, correctly, that the Snorre was chartered by J. Ryan -- properly James Ryan, Ltd. (p. 130). It appears to be wrong in stating that "Ford" was the first to go down to try to get a rope to the Snorre; p. 133 says that Robert Brown was the first to try, then Lewis Little. The song does seem to say that "Littles" was the one that finally got a rope aboard. It is also correct in saying that one of the dead was thirteen years old. It mentions the brothers Ford, the Littles and (Eli) Paul as rescuers, omitting Robert Brown.
Other than the Snorre, the ships named in Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou's text are the Harold F. (called the Harold T. by Galgay/McCarthy, p. 131), the Olive Branch (correctly named), the Planet, and the Reliance; it seems the latter two were actually the Evelyn and Jubilee. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: LeBe098

Loss of the Souvenir, The

DESCRIPTION: "Gone was summer with its sunshire, with its mild and favoring gales." Even in the harsh weather of autumn, sailors take to the Lakes. A storm blows up and the Souvenir is wrecked. One man is seen on the deck, but cannot be rescued; in all, seven die
AUTHOR: probably A. J. Woods
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Oceana County Pioneers)
KEYWORDS: ship storm death wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 1872 - The _Souvenir_ sets out from Pentwater, Michigan for Chicago
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 224-225, "The Loss of the Souvenir" (1 text)
Roud #19865
NOTES [50 words]: Although Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors throws this in with other disaster songs, there seems to be no evidence that it is traditional, or even a song; the text seems to be taken from print, and no informant mentioned it. Nor does the form look much like a traditional song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM224

Loss of the Titanic, The (Titanic #13)

DESCRIPTION: "The beauty of the White Star Line, the Titanic, sailed the seas." Off Cape Race "she struck what's called a growler." "Captain Smith and his brave crew, they never left the deck But saved the helpless passengers and went down with the wreck."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 14/15, 1912 - Shortly before midnight, ship's time, the Titanic strikes an iceberg and begins to sink. Only 711 survivors are found of 2224 people believed to have been aboard.
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 965-966, "The Loss of the Titanic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9940
RECORDINGS:
Ned Rice, "The Loss of the Titanic" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. all the other Titanic songs (plot)
NOTES [140 words]: To give Captain Smith of the Titanic credit for saving the "helpless passengers" strikes me as a little much, since it appears that much of what went wrong was his fault. But the bravery of the crew mentioned by the song cannot be denied. While the loss of life was very large, it was largest among the crew: According to Lincoln P. Paine's Ships of the World, 60% of the first class passengers survived. 42% of second class passengers survived, and 25% of steerage passengers -- but only 24% of the crew, even though many crew members were put aboard the ship's boats simply to keep them afloat and steer them.
For an extensive history of the Titanic, with detailed examination of the truth (or lack thereof) of quotes in the Titanic songs, see the notes to "The Titanic (XV)" ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15) - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea955

Loss of the Tolesby, The

See The Wreck of the Tolesby (File: JMSFS013)

Loss of the Victory Man-of-War, The

DESCRIPTION: "Good people all, pray give attention. "When we first from Spithead sailed convoy to Lisbon bound," the ship is the best in the navy. But she is left behind in a storm off Scilly. Eventually wreckage is found with the name Victory. There is much mourning.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton-RealSailorSongs)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1744 - Loss of HMS Victory, flagship of Admiral Sir John Balchin/Balchen
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #42 insert, "The Loss of the Victory Man-of-War" (1 text)
Roud #21911
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Disconsolate Judy's Lamentation for the Absence of Her True Love" (subject of the loss of the Victory)
NOTES [220 words]: Not, obviously, about Nelson's flagship, which still exists. But the Royal Navy had had six earlier ships named Victory, two of them first-rates, according to Lincoln P. Paine, Ships of the World: An Historical Encylopedia, Houghton Mifflin, 1997, p. 550. Given that the song mentions Admiral Balchen, and the firing of ninety guns, and over a thousand losses, it seems clear that the ship of 1744 is meant.
There is disagreement in my sources about whether his name was spelled "Balchin" or "Balchen." It seems to be agreed that he lived from 1670 to 1744. He became an admiral in 1743, and was knighted in the next year.
"In July, 1744, during the War of the Austrian Succession, 1740-58, Balchen was ordered to relieve a convoy of supply ships that was blockaded in the Tagus River by a powerful French squadron. Balchen forced the enemy to withdraw and escorted the rescued ships to Gibraltar. On the voyage home his ship was caught in a storm and sank in circumstances that remain obscure. All 1,100 men on board, including Admiral Balchen, were lost" (Anthony Bruce and William Cogar, An Encyclopedia of Naval History, 1998 (I use the 1999 Checkmark edition), p. 30).
This ship, incidentally, was discovered on the ocean floor in 2008, finally revealing the details of its fate and the exact place it sank. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: AshS042i

Lost Babe, The

DESCRIPTION: A child wanders away from its mother (or is sent to take its father his dinner) and is lost. Men of the community (or Egypt and foreign lands) search; the child is dead, and buzzards are picking out its eyes. The mother cries, "Lord, have mercy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: grief corpse death bird children mother
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 129, "The Lost Babe" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Paul Robertson, "Ballads & Bytes: The Digitally Reproduced Folksong Collections of Dr. I. G. Greer and Dr. W. Amos Abrams" Vol. LV, No. 2 (Fall-Winter 2008), pp. 62-63, "The Lost Child" (1 fragment)
Roud #3636
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" (plot)
cf. "Three Lost Babes of Americay" (plot)
cf. "Penitent" (tune of Sharp's B version)
cf. "The Vulture (of the Alps)" (theme)
cf. "All the Pretty Little Horses" (theme of young one at the mercy of birds)
File: ShAp2129

Lost Babes of Halifax

See Meagher's Children [Laws G25] (File: LG25)

Lost Birdies, The

DESCRIPTION: Various birds (crow, robin) lay "but ae egg, she brought out ae bird, The bird it came out an' it flew awa', and she gaed a' day." The mothers look for their offspring and beg them come home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: bird separation lullaby
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H40c, p. 20, "The Lost Birdies/The Hobe and the Robin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13344
File: HHH040c

Lost Boys of East Bay, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a story so sad I'm about to relate, Of a ship that was left here and gone to her fate." Sailors set out in October 1894 from East Bay. A great storm sweeps over Sand Island. Sixteen men are killed. Families are left to mourn
AUTHOR: Harry Evans?
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: death sailor family orphan
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #50, "The Lost Boys of East Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 322, "The Lost Boys of East Bay" (1 text)
Roud #4083
NOTES [7 words]: This is item dD38 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: CAFS322A

Lost Child (I), The

See The Little Lost Child (File: R728)

Lost Child (II), The

See The Lost Babe (File: ShAp2129)

Lost Child (III), The

DESCRIPTION: A little girl lives in a cabin in a "dismal forest" where many dangerous animals live. One day she disappears. A great search party is organized, and eventually finds her. Later the local men volunteer for their country and fight under Kane
AUTHOR: Andrew Riley (source: Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: children hunting animal rescue | forest
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 244-250, "The Lost Child" (1 text)
Roud #15027
NOTES [210 words]: Almost certainly never sung, and while Shoemaker gives the name of the little girl who was rescued (Margaret McCabe, later Margaret McCabe Regan), he gives few other details -- e.g. no place and no date.
There are, however, hints. The song mentions Skinner Creek. This creek flows east into the Allegheny at Port Allegany (sic). I can't find a "Burbank Hill," but there is a "Burbank Hollow" near Smethport a few miles west of the Creek. Similarly, although I can't find a Kinzua Spring, Kinzua Creek flows west into the Allegheny (which has looped around) somewhat to the east of the town of Warren. Tuna is on the Pennsylvania/New York border, roughly NNW of Smethport and NNE of Warren.
All of these places are in McKean County in northwestern Pennsylvania.
McKean County was the place where Company I of the Pennsylvania Bucktails (13th Pennsylvania Reserves) was raised. The regiment was raised by Thomas Leiper Kane. So it's pretty clear that the reference at the end of the poem is to the Bucktails. For background on Kane and the regiment, see "The Bucktail Boys." Presumably it would be possible to find the roster of Company I of the Bucktails and perhaps find some of the men described in this song. But that's more work than I was willing to do. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe245

Lost Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl who confesses to being lost and far from home. She has left her family to escape from the boys. She warns maidens against men
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: rambling lament floatingverses warning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 60, "The Lost Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R060 (Partial)
Roud #272
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Poor Stranger (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone)" (theme)
cf. "The Poor Strange Girl (The Forsaken Girl)" (lyrics)
NOTES [79 words]: This is about half floating verses ("I'll build me a castle on youn mound so high," "Come all ye young maidens, take warning from me, Don't place your affections on a green willow tree"), and the final line of several stanzas ("Oh she says I'm a poor lost girl and a long ways from home"). Randolph lists many songs with similar elements, most of which I ended up filing under "The Poor Stranger (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone)". But the whole seems to be unique. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: R060

Lost Glove, The

See The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20] (File: LN20)

Lost in the Storm on the South West Coast

See The August Gale (II) (File: LeBe005B)

Lost Jimmie Whalen [Laws C8]

DESCRIPTION: A passerby hears a girl wailing for her lost Jimmie Whalen. He comes from the grave, and she begs him to stay. He cannot; death keeps them apart.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: death ghost lover
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Laws C8, "Lost Jimmie Whalen"
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 4, "The Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 4, "The Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 726-727, "Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 177-179, "Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 445-446, "The Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 48, "Jimmie Whalen's Girl" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 139-141, "Jimmie Whalen's Girl" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 79, "Jimme Whalen's Girl" (1 text)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #32, "Lost Jimmy Whelan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 26, "Lost Jimmy Whelan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott29, "Lost Jimmy Whelan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 186-187, "Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 114-115, "Lost Jimmy Whalan" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 385-389, "Jimmy Whelan" (2 texts, 4 tunes)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 61, "Jimmy Whelan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 35-37,249, "The Lost Jimmy Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 81, "The Lost Jimmie Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 27-28, "Lost Jimmy Walen" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 602, JIMWHEL* JIMWHEL2*
Roud #2220
RECORDINGS:
Mrs John Coughlin, "The Lost Jimmy Whalen" (on MREIves01)
Mrs Mary Dumphy, "The Lost Jimmie Whalen" (on NFMLeach); "Jimmy Whalen" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mrs. Mary Ann Galpin, "Jimmy Whelan" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Ken Peacock, "Jimmy Whalen" (on NFKPeacock)
Art Thieme, "Lost Jimmy Whalen" (on Thieme05)
Robert Walker, "The Lost Jimmie Whalen" (on USWolfRiver)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "James Whalen" [Laws C7] (subject)
File: LC08

Lost Jimmy Walen

See Lost Jimmie Whalen [Laws C8]; also James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC08)

Lost Jimmy Whalen, The

See Lost Jimmie Whalen [Laws C8]; also James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC08)

Lost John

See Long John (Long Gone) (File: LoF287)

Lost John Dean

See Long John (Long Gone) (File: LoF287)

Lost Johnny

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I wonder where my lost Johnny's gone (x3), Oh, he's gone to that new railroad, (x2)" "Go make me a pallet on your floor, Believe I will eat morphine and die." "I'll go if I have to ride the rail To the road where my Johnny is."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: railroading floatingverses suicide drugs
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 151, "Lost Johnny" (1 text)
ST Fus151 (Partial)
Roud #16412
NOTES [24 words]: Obviously a composite of floating elements. But it has so many floating elements that it can't really be associated with a particular song! - RBW
File: Fus151

Lost Johnny Doyle, The

See Johnny Doyle [Laws M2] (File: LM02)

Lost Lady Found, The [Laws Q31]

DESCRIPTION: A young lady is carried off by gypsies. Her uncle, who is her guardian, is convicted of murdering her. Her lover follows her to Dublin and tells her of her uncle's plight. They return to England, and the uncle's life is saved
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1833 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 5)
KEYWORDS: shanghaiing Gypsy trial reprieve abduction
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(England(Lond,South,West)) US(MA,NE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws Q31, "The Lost Lady Found"
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 63, "The Lost Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 347, "The Lost Lady Found" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 624, "Lost Lady Found" (1 text)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 86-91, "The Lost Lady Found (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 14, "The Lost Lady Found" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #139, "The Lost Lady Found" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 24, "The Lost Lady Found" (1 text)
DT 539, LOSTLADY
ADDITIONAL: Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, (Cardiff,2001), pp. 432-433, ("'Tis of a young damsel, that was left all alone") [English text reported by Broadwood, _Old English Songs_ (1843)]
Roud #901
RECORDINGS:
Marge Steiner, "There Was a Rich School Miss" (on Steiner01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 5, "The Lost Lady Found," T. Batchelar (London) , 1828-1832; also 2806 c.17(241), Harding B 15(177b), 2806 c.16(128), Harding B 11(3803), Firth b.26(375), Firth b.34(114), Firth c.18(167), Harding B 11(2222), Harding B 11(266), "[The] Lost Lady Found"; Harding B 11(1445), "The Gypsies" or "The Lost Lady Found"
NOTES [171 words]: In reply to the charge of abduction in this piece, Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland writes, "While it is quite likely that some ladies of quality... did run off with the gipsies, it is not proven that abductions of 'giorgio' women ever occurred. As to the charge that gipsies are child stealers, they usually have too many children of their own to bother about increasing their problems." - RBW
See Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, (Cardiff,2001), #163, pp. 416-421, "A Puv Pordo o' Romni Chels" [Romani-English version from Sampson, "English Gypsy songs and rhymes" (1891)] made by Lias Robinson from an English text also reproduced from Sampson. Coughlan prints another English text from an Irish Traveller. Coughlan believes #164, pp. 421-437, "So Did You Muk My Curi Old Dai" [Romani-English fragment from Thompson, "Anglo-Romani songs" (1909)] also belongs here. His commentary on #164 includes a Welsh Gypsy text and English translation, a Romani text and translation, and Woodie Guthrie's "Gypsy Davy." - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: LQ31

Lost Miners, The

DESCRIPTION: "Six miners went into the mountains To hunt for precious gold; It was the middle of winter, The weather was dreadful cold. Six miners went into the mountains, They had nor food nor shack -- Six miners went into the mountains But only one came back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: mining homicide death food cannibalism gold
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1873-1874 - The disappearance of the Packer party
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 231, "The Lost Miners" (1 fragment)
NOTES [204 words]: Burt-AmericanMurderBallads believes this item to be about Alferd Packer (she spells it "Alfred," but my sources indicate that "Alferd" is correct). In 1873, Packer and five others went out. In the bitter winter that followed, all save Packer died, and it was later learned that Packer had eaten their bodies. He was generally thought to have murdered them as well as consuming them, and died in prison in 1907.
He seems to have gone into folklore in a fairly substantial way. For a Wyoming account of his story, see James R. Dow, Roger L. Welsch, and Susan D. Dow, Wyoming Folklore: Collected by the Federal Writers' Project, University of Nebraska Press, 2010, #13, pp. 64-72, "Packer, the Man-Eater."
I believe Phil Ochs wrote a song about him, too.
There are at least five books on the subject, none of which I have made any attempt to see (you'll wee why when I give you the first two titles):
* Alferd Packer's Wilderness Cookbook by James E. Banks
* Alferd Packer's High Protein Cookbook by Wendy Spurr
* Otto Mears, his life & times: With notes on the Alferd Packer Case by Ervan F Kushner
* Alferd G. Packer, cannibal! Victim? by Ervan F Kushner
* Alferd G. Packer: Soldier, Prospector, and Cannibal by Ann Oldham - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Burt231

Lost on Lake Michigan

DESCRIPTION: "Come all brother sailors, I hop you'll draw nigh, For to hear of your shipmates, it will cause you to cry." John Gallagher sails to Traverse City despite his mother's dream warning and fiancee's fears. He heads home in a storm, but the boat Lookout sinks
AUTHOR: Dan Malloy
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (collected from John Malloy by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor death dream warning love
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 172-174, "Lost on Lake Michigan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 410-411, "Lost on Lake Michigan (The Beaver Island Boys)" (1 text)
Roud #19831
RECORDINGS:
John W. Green, "The Gallagher Boys" (1938; on WaltonSailors)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gallant Tommy Boyle" (subject)
File: WGM172

Lost on the Lady Elgin

DESCRIPTION: "Up from the poor man's cottage, forth from the mansion's door ... Cometh a voice of mourning, a sad and solemn wail, Lost on the Lady Elgin... Numbered in that three hundred Who failed to reach the shore." The many mourners are briefly mentioned
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work?
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (copyright by H. M. Higgins)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster death orphan family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1860 - The Lady Elgin, an excursion boat on Lake Michigan, collides with a steamer and sinks
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Randolph 692, "Lost on the Lady Elgin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 453-455, "Lost on the Lady Elgin" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 692)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 60, pp. 134-135, "The Lady Elgin" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 214, "Lost on the Lady Elgin" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 61-62, "Lost on the Lady Elgin" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 239-240, "Lost on the Lady Elgin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 44, p. 62, "The Lady Elgin" (1 text plus a fragment)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 199-202, "Lost on the Lady Elgin" (1 text, 1 tune, with no evidence that it was taken from tradition)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 480, "Lady Elgin" (source notes only)
DT, LDYELGN*
ADDITIONAL: Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden, _Wisconsin Lore: Antics and Anecdotes of Wisconsin People and Places_, Wisconsin House, 1962, p. 28, "Lady Elgin" (1 text, presumably from Wisconsin although no source is listed)
Roud #3688
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Titanic (IV - 'Lost on the Great Titanic')" (tune)
NOTES [1408 words]: Cohen, Pound, and McNeil credit this to Henry Clay Work, though the disaster came before his songwriting career took off. Other sources do not seem aware of this attribution. I have not seen the sheet music. Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors reports that Work first published it in a newspaper. It is not in his the anthology of his songs published by his nephew and cited in this Index as Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work.
Varhola, p. 58, describe the ship as follows: "[The] Lady Elgin [was] a double-decked wooden side-wheel steamer owned by Gordon S. Hubbard & Co. that had been built nine years earlier in Buffalo, New York.... One of the largest steamers on the Great Lakes, the luxurious Lady Elgin was an impressive 252 feet long, nearly 34 feet wide, and had a draft of just over 14 feet, and her 54-inch-cylinder, 11-foot-stroke steam engine powered a pair of 32-foot paddle wheels. Operated by a crew of forty-three, she was equipped to carry two hundred passengers in her cabins, another hundred on her decks, and up to eight hundred tons of freight in her holds."
Constructed in 1851 (Shelak, p. 86), Thompson, p. 146, says that she was originally built for Canada's Grand Trunk Railway, and intended to sail from Buffalo to Chicago (entirely under steam, if the drawing on p. 149 of Thompson is accurate; she carried no sail). Although designed for passengers, she also carried a lot of freight for the Grand Trunk (Bourrie,p. 92). In 1856, when the Grand Trunk between Toronto and Sarnia was completed, she shifted to a Chicago-to-Lake-Superior route. She was successful enough that she came to be called "The Queen of the Lakes." But Bourrie, pp. 92-93, also notes that she had an amazing series of groundings and other misadventures in this period, one of which nearly caused her to be written off. Shelak, p. 87, mentions a grounding and a fire, and says that she was considered a bad insurance risk as a result.
Apparently the passengers who booked the Lady Elgin were mostly Irish, from Wisconsin and Illinois. Their story was peculiar. Thompson, p. 147, explains that the governor of Wisconsin at the time was threatening to take the state out of the Union if the federal government didn't do something about slavery. One of the state's militia units was an Irish outfit commanded by Garrett Barry. Barry declared that he would stick with the Union no matter what Wisconsin did, and the Wisconin government ordered his unit demobilized (Bourrie, p. 94).
The unit wanted to stick together. So they chartered a trip from Milwaukee to Chicago on the Lady Elgin to raise money to purchase new weapons. The company and the paying passengers would go to Chicago on September 7, 1860, hold a parade, and come back.
The ship's captain was Jack Wilson, who was distinguished enough that he had been allowed to lead the first ship ever to travel the Soo Canal (between Lake Superior and the lower great lakes) in 1855 (Ratigan, p. 43). He apparently did not like the weather on the night of the return voyage (Thompson, p. 148). But he was finally convinced to put out from the shore.
Then, on the night of September 8, the storm struck,
It was a bad night for visibility. And the schooner Augusta, 129 feet long, carrying pine logs, had no running lights (Ritchie, p. 112; he calls the ship Augusta of Oswego. Shelak, p. 87, says that there is dispute about the running lights but notes that she was "carrying nearly full sail despite the weather." Apparently her cargo of logs was shifting and she was in danger of capsizing). Augusta's lookout allegedly saw the Lady Elgin twenty minutes before the collision, but she did not change course (Ratigan, pp. 44-45; Thompson, p. 148, explains this on the basis that the mate on watch could not tell the Lady Elgin's course and had been too busy taking in sail to worry about his own; Bourrie, p. 96, explains it as the result of an illegal maneuver which went wrong). The smaller ship's bow went right into the Lady Elgin's. side.
The high waves parted the two ships quickly (Thompson, p. 150), and although the Augusta remained seaworthy, she had sustained enough damage that her captain headed for port without making any attempt at rescuing the victims on the Lady Elgin. (He would later claim that he thought he had struck only a glancing blow; damage to his own ship was slight -- Thompson, p. 150. Shelak, p. 88. also reports a claim that the Lady Elgin refused assistance. This strikes me as most improbable -- not only was the damage immediately evident to the passengers, but the boats separated before there was time for the Captain to learn what had happened).
The Lady Elgin herself tried to head for shore, but she was nine miles off the coast, with one of her paddlwheels wrecked (Bourrie, p. 96), and it was soon clear that she would sink before she could reach the land, despite frantic attempts to lighten her, shift her cargo,and patch the hole (Bourrie,p. 98).
And, according to Thompson, p. 149, she had only four lifeboats -- and those lacked oars! (Thompson, p. 151. Shelak, p. 88, gives a slightly different story: The first boat to be lowered was supposed to inspect the damage, but the oars were forgotten and the boat torn away by the waves).
Captain Wilson managed to get most of the passengers onto improvised rafts, but in the storm, many of them broke up and most of those aboard, including Wilson, were lost (though Shelak, p. 90, says that he made it to shore, then went back into the water to try to rescue others and was lost; his body was finally found on the far side of Lake Michigan. Barry, the militia unit commander, was also killed (Bourrie, p. 106). To make matters worse, the shores of the Lake were very steep here, creating a strong undertow. Passengers would often find themselves very close to shore, only to be sucked back into the water (Bourrie, p. 100; Shelak, p. 89).
Reportedly the ship's upper works exploded as she went down -- probably due to compressed air rather than a boiler explosion. The boat sank within about twenty minutes of being hit.
There was one noteworthy deed of heroism: A university student named Edward Spencer swam out more than a dozen times to save fifteen or more passengers -- about a sixth of the total (Ratigan, pp. 47-48; Bourrie, p. 101, says that the deed crippled him for life). Others on the shore, however, robbed the dead bodies (Thompson, p. 153)
No knows how exactly how many were aboard, or how high the casualties were. According to Hudson/Nicholls, p. 85, the collision killed 287 of 385 passengers on the Lady Elgin. Ratigan says that 297 were killed. As of the time he wrote, it was the second-highest loss of life from a great lakes disaster. Thompson, p. 153, notes that estimates of the number of survivors range from 98 to 155, and the casualties from 279 to 350. Shelak, p. 89, says there were some 400 passengers on board and cites the 297 figure for casualties. Ritchie, p. 112, says 287 were lost and fewer than 100 survived. Varhola, p. 59, has the highest number of all, claiming that between 600 and 700 people were on board. He says that 160 survived, and 200 bodies washed ashore. Bourrie, p. 100, gives similar numbers.
The Augusta became so infamous that she had to be renamed Colonel Cook and transferred from service on the lakes to work on the Atlantic (Ratigan, pp. 48-49; Shelak, p. 90). Her captain was placed on trial, but it was found that he had conformed to the very weak regulations of the time (Ritchie, p. 112).
According to Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, many of the Augusta's former crew, including the captain, were lost four years later when the the ship they were then sailing, the Mojave, sank without a trace in good weather.
The one good thing to come out of the disaster was that an inquiry was held (Thompson, pp. 153-154), which assigned portions of the blame to both ships (e.g. the Lady Elgin had no watertight compartments, and did not yield to the smaller ship, while the mate of the Augusta was too slow to inform his captain of the other ship's presence), but the primary blame was with the existing navigation laws. The Lady Elgin disaster was largely responsible for the 1864 passage of America's first navigation law (Thompson, pp. 154-155)
Shelak, p. 92, notes that portions of the wreck were found in 1989, and became the subject of protracted litigation. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.0
File: R692

Lost River Desert

See The Red River Valley (File: R730)

Lost Rosabel

See Broken-Hearted (Lost Rosabel) (File: Neel238)

Lost Soul, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer says sinners at judgment will hear their fate and say, "I'm paying now the penalty/That the unredeemed must ever pay... For alas I'm doomed." The sinner will say that if he could go back, he'd fight for his Saviour's cause, but he can't
AUTHOR: L. V. Jones
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 ("Glad News")
KEYWORDS: sin death religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Watson family, "The Lost Soul" (on Watson01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wicked Polly" [Laws H6] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lost Soul's Lament
NOTES [55 words]: D. K. Wilgus, in his comments on Watson01, notes (speaking of this song and "When I Die"): "The Watson family apparently sang these songs directly from a song book, but I have been unable to locate them in any source available to me, despite the conviction that I have met them before." He may have been remembering "Glad News." - PJS
File: RcTLoSou

Lost Youth, The

See Death is a Melancholy Call [Laws H5] (File: LH05)

Lothian Hairst, The

DESCRIPTION: "On August twelfth from Aberdeen We sailed upon the Prince... Our harvest to commence." The crew works in Lothian for William Mathieson and his foreman Logan. They find no chance for sport under Logan, and happily depart when the harvest is done
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #3, p. 3, "The Lothian Hairst" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 404, "The Lothian Hairst" (9 texts, 6 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 264, "The Lothian Hairst" (1 text)
DT, LOTHARST*
Roud #2165
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(122), "The Lothian Hairst," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Louden Hairst
NOTES [41 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "This is a real bothy song, and is said to have been written about sixty years ago by a Highland lassie, one of a band of Deeside harvesters to the Lothians...." quoting Ord, "Byways of Scottish Song" in The Weekly Welcome, 1907. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ord264

Lots of Fish in Bonavist' Harbour (Feller from Fortune)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, there's lots of fish in Bonavist' Harbour, lots of fish right in around here. Boys and girls are fishing together...." The folk of the town are described: Uncle George, who tore out his britches; Sally, who has a baby without a father; etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: nonballad dancing fishing sex childbirth bastard father lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 122-124, "Lots of Fish in Bonavist' Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 37, "Feller From Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 53-54, "Feller From Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Feller from Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 23 in the 3rd edition; p. 23 in the 4th; p. 20 in the 5th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 53, "Feller from Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 38-39, "Feller from Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
England-HistoricNewfoundlandAndLabrador, p. 55, "Feller from Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FJ122 (Partial)
Roud #4427
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Bonavist Harbour" (on NFOBlondahl04,NFOBlondahl05)
Ken Peacock, "Lots of Fish in Bonavist' Harbour" (on NFKPeacock)
Bob McLeod and Lloyd Soper, "Feller From Fortune" (on PeacockCDROM)
File: FJ122

Lottie Yates

See The Murder of Lottie Yates (File: DoBW198)

Loud Roared the Dreadful Thunder

See Bay of Biscay (File: BdBaOBis)

Loudon Hill, or, Drumclog [Child 205]

DESCRIPTION: Claverse prepares for battle at Loudon Hill. His cornet would avoid battle; the enemy are too mighty to attack. Claverse calls him a coward and leads the attack himself, but his forces are defeated and chased from the field
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: battle nobility cowardice
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 1, 1679 - Battle of Drumclog. Covenanters defeat the army of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 205, "Loudon Hill, or, Drumclog" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 533-538, "The Battle of Loudon-Hill" (1 text)
DT, LOUDNHIL*
ADDITIONAL: Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (Edinburgh: Longman and Rees ("Digitized by Microsoft")), second edition, Vol. III, pp. 188-208, "The Battle of Loudounhill" (1 text)
Michael Brander, _Scottish & Border Battles & Ballads_, 1975 (page references are to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 171-173, "Loudon Hill, or Drumclog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4018
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Battle of Loudon Hill
NOTES [605 words]: The "Claverse" of Child's text is, of course, Claverhouse (James Graham of Claverhouse, First Viscount Dundee, c. 1649-1689, known as "Bonnie Dundee" and killed at Killiecrankie; see the entry on "Killy Kranky" for details of that battle).
Drumclog was not, in terms of size, much of a battle (historians have been known to call it "the 'battle' of Drumclog," because the forces were so small). After the restoration, Charles II had appointed James Sharp as Archbishop of Saint Andrews. Bishops were anathema to Presbyterians anyway, and Sharp was unusually obnoxious in that he had begun life as a Presbyterian and had turned Episcopalian (Keay, p. 205), presumably to gain preferment with Charles II. Apparently no one in Scotland liked him much because of his lack of principles. Plus he was much the strongest figure in the Scottish church (most Scots didn't want any part of an episcopal hierarchy, so Charles had to appoint second-raters and the power-hungry to bishoprics. Sharp was the only top-quality man willing to be part of Charles's church, and so was given the top Scottish post, Archbishop of St Andrews; Hutton, p. 179). As a result, "Scotland was dominated by the triumvirate of Rothes, Lauderdale [Charles's main agent], and Archbishop Sharp" (Hutton, p. 207).
He was ambushed and killed on May 3, 1679. His daughter was with him when he was murdered. Apparently those who killed him weren't actually after him -- they wanted a local sheriff -- but they were happy to get rid of such an obnoxious character when they found him (Keay, pp. 205-206).
The murder didn't make the problem of governing Scotland any easier: "The struggle was intensified after the 3rd, when Archbishop Sharp was removed from his coach near St Andrews by a group of aggrieved presbyterians, and stabbed many more times than was medically necessary for his departure to another life. The incident was atrocious, especially as he died beneath his daughter's eyes" (Hutton, p. 375. Hutton goes on to add that much of the mess was the fault of Charles II, who had a policy of "encouraging the Scottish government to persecute presybterians while showing advocates of toleration at court," which had the effect of making everyone think Charles would accept their views. Instead, he would send the forces that crushed the presbyterians at Bothwell Bridge.).
It wasn't really a rebellion, but Claverhouse treated it as if it were, and rode against the "rebels." They were only a few hundred ill-armed men, but Claverhouse had only a handful of troops, who eventually fled.
The success of the Covenanters at Drumclog did not last long; indeed, it helped induce their next defeat. The victory caused many more men to flow to the cause, but they were utterly disorganized. This rabble was defeated at Bothwell Bridge in the same year (see Child 206, "Bothwell Bridge").
There were actually two battles known as Loudon (Loudun) Hill. The first was fought in 1307 between the forces of England and of Robert the Bruce. Magnusson, pp. 172-173, describes how the Earl of Pembroke challenged Bruce to come out and fight. Bruce did so -- but arranged the battle so that Pembroke's forces charged over a series of hidden trenches. The horsemen went down, and were slaughtered by the Scottish spearmen, with Pembroke fleeing with the rearguard. It was the first real success of Bruce's rebellion (though it probably would not have been enough had not the English King Edward I, "The Hammer of the Scots," died soon after.) It will be obvious that this song refers to the second Battle of Loudon Hill, usually called "Drumclog" to prevent confusion. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: C205

Lough Erin's Shore

See William and Eliza (Lough Erin's Shore) (File: HHH597)

Lough Erne Shore

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets "a wonderful dame" on Lough Erne shore. As she is leaving he asks to go home with her. She says she will not "yield to men's pleasure." He says "I'll make you a lady of honor, if with me this night you'll come home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (IRTunneyFamily01)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection rake
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 115-116, "Lough Erne Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 14, "Lough Erne Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3476
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "Lough Erne's Shore" (on IRTunneyFamily01); "Lough Erne Shore" (on IRPTunney02)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lough Erin Shore
Loch Erin's Shore
NOTES [66 words]: OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition classifies this as a reverdie. For more about reverdie vs aisling see "Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce hi (For Ireland I Will Not Tell Whom She Is)."
As in "Sheila Nee Iyer" and "The Colleen Rue," there is no resolution for the Tunney-StoneFiddle version. Is there a broadside that ends the story one way or the other?
Lough Erne is in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. - BS
File: TSF115

Lough Ooney

DESCRIPTION: Murray was a friend "'til our great Irish nation" and the aged, poor, and sick. He and his friend McManus sail their pleasure boat on Lough Ooney in spite of threat of a storm. The boat sinks. Both swin towards shore but are drowned by high waves.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
KEYWORDS: drowning storm wreck
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 24, pp. 58-60,113,166, "Lough Ooney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2927
RECORDINGS:
Big John Maguire, "Lough Ooney" (on IRHardySons)
NOTES [19 words]: Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday has no information about the event. Lough Ooney is in County Monaghan. - BS
File: MoMa024

Loughrey's Bull

DESCRIPTION: Cruel John Loughrey's bull attacks him for evicting tenants. He promises he will never evict anyone again. The bull kills him anyway, saying "if I was a landlord I'd treat the tenants fair." Nobody mourns the loss. Tenants should feed that bull well.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: homicide funeral farming humorous talltale animal landlord
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 50, "Loughrey's Bull" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [93 words]: McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen: "This song recalls the death of a local landlord." - BS
There is an interesting symbolism, however -- though in reverse: Usually it is the bull (John Bull) which is harming Ireland. But there is a certain sense to this if one takes it in the context of the Land League and the Tenant Rights Movement -- an attempt to get the English law (often represented by a bull) to give tenants fair treatment. Could this have been a tale of John Bull's government actually enforcing its laws against a landlord? - RBW
File: McB1050

Louie Sands and Jim McGee

DESCRIPTION: Shanty: "Who feeds us beans? Who feeds us tea?/Louie Sands and Jim McGee/Who thinks that meat's a luxury?/Louie... We make the big trees fall ker-splash... Offers more examples of Sands & McGee's penury, usually with beans as the motif.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Shanty (from lumberjacks, not sailors): "Who feeds us beans? Who feeds us tea?/Louie Sands and Jim McGee/Who thinks that meat's a luxury?/Louie Sands and Jim McGee/We make the big trees fall ker-splash/And hit the ground an awful smash/And for the logs who gets the cash?/Louie Sands and Jim McGee". Other verses offer more examples of Sands & McGee's penury, usually with beans as the motif.
KEYWORDS: shanty lumbering work logger greed food nonballad worksong
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 19, "Louie Sands and Jim McGee" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 66-67, "Louie Sands and Jim McGee" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 23, "Louie Sands and Jim McGee" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 63-65, "The Black Stream Driver's Song" (1 text)
Roud #6521
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beulah Land" (tune) and references there
NOTES [53 words]: One of the few work songs I've seen from European-Americans who weren't sailors. - PJS
In the Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine text, the bad bosses are "Johnny Ross and Cyrus Hewes," not "Louie Sands and Jim McGee," so clearly this was localized to multiple logging camps.
For Ross and Hewes, see also "John Ross." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Be019

Louis Collins

DESCRIPTION: Ms. Collins weeps to see son Louis leave home; he is shot to death in a gunfight. All the young women put on red clothing in mourning; he is buried in the new graveyard. Chorus: "Angels laid him away/Laid him six feet under the clay/Angels laid him away"
AUTHOR: probably Mississippi John Hurt
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recorded, Mississippi John Hurt)
KEYWORDS: grief fight violence parting crime homicide clothes burial death mourning mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 393-394, "The Ballad of Louis Collins" (1 text)
Roud #21815
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Louis Collins" (OKeh 8724, 1929; rec. 1928; on MJHurt01, MJHurt02) (on MJHurt03) (on MJHurt04)
John Jackson, "Louis Collins" (on ClassAfrAm)
File: RcLouCol

Louisiana Earthquake, The

DESCRIPTION: On a Sunday night, God sets the earth shaking. Singer stands expecting "louder clouds of thunder." In the morning "the elements were darkened"; six month pass, but the earth continues to shake; Christians fear, while "sinners' hearts were aching"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (recording, Stella Walsh Gilbert)
KEYWORDS: disaster religious gods
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 16, 1811: Series of earthquakes begins, centered on New Madrid, Missouri
Feb 7, 1812: Worst shock of earthquake series
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 340-341, "Louisiana Earthquake" (1 text)
Roud #18656
RECORDINGS:
Stella Walsh Gilbert, "The Louisiana Earthquake" (on Ashley02)
NOTES [178 words]: The song's reference to the area as "Louisiana" suggests that it was composed shortly after the events; while the region was part of the giant Louisiana Purchase, it became known as Missouri Territory within a year or two after the earthquake. At the time of the quakes, New Madrid was the second largest settlement in the area, after St. Louis.
The earthquakes of 1811-1813 affected an area of a million square miles, and included the most severe shocks ever recorded in North America; the worst were felt as far away as Washington, DC, New Orleans, and northern Canada. The course of the Mississippi River was affected (and with it the boundaries of several states); islands and lakes vanished and new ones were formed; the river was observed to flow backward for a time. Remarkably, there were very few fatalities. After two years the shocks diminished, but small aftershocks were common in the area for nine years or more. The New Madrid Fault is still active, and shakes the region every few years; New Madrid residents sell T-shirts reading, "It's Our Fault." - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcLouEar

Louisiana Girls

See Buffalo Gals (File: R535)

Louisiana Lowlands

DESCRIPTION: Pompey Snow has "a good stiff glass of rum. So they buried him in the lowlands ...." "The fire bells are ringing boys, ... The steamer she is left behind ... so they ...." "This little boy had an augu-er that bored two holes at once ... so they ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (New-Comic-Songster)
KEYWORDS: nonballad parody humorous derivative floatingverses
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 129, "Louisiana Lowlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1038, p. 71, "In the Louisiana Lowlands" (1 reference)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 37, "In the Louisiana Lowlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS129 (Full)
Roud #1830
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Golden Vanity" [Child 286] (chorus and verse beginning "Some were playing cards and some were playing dice" base for parody)
cf. "A Boy He Had an Auger" (another parody of "The Golden Vanity" verse beginning "Some were playing cards and some were playing dice")
cf. "The Fire-Bells are Ringing!" (see notes)
cf. "In the Louisiana Lowlands" (see notes)
NOTES [174 words]: Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia may be all floating verses and fragments.
Its first verse, chorus and tunes are derived from the anonymous 1859 minstrel song "In the Louisiana Lowlands" which has nothing but form and, vaguely, melody to relate it to the "Golden Vanity" (see Public Domain Music site Music from 1800-1860). [It also reminds me a bit of songs like "Uncle Ned" and "Pompey Squash." - RBW]
[The third verse,] "Some were playing cards .." is either from "The Golden Vanity" or some other parody. The [second] verse beginning "The fire-bells are ringing, boys, there is a fire in town" ... is suggested by "The Fire-Bells are Ringing!" (1877) by Henry Clay Work (Source: Public Domain Music site Henry Clay Work (1832-1884))
The "original" "Louisiana Lowlands" air may be found at: LOCSheet, sm1881 03225, "Then Sing Louisiana Lowlands," unknown (New Orleans), 1881 (tune)
If "The Fire-Bells are Ringing!" or "In the Louisiana Lowlands" are ever reported in tradition they should be treated as separate songs from this one. - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: CrNS129

Louisiana Lullaby

DESCRIPTION: "Dreamland opens here, Sweep the dream path clear Listen, child, now listen well What the tortoise may have to tell." "Listen, child, dear little child To the song of the crocodile." "Listen child, now close yo’ eyes In the canebrake the wildcat cries."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1999 (mentioned in mudcat.org thread)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 342, "Louisiana Lullaby" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 82-83, "Louisiana Lullaby" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Dreamland Opens Here (Louisiana Lullaby)" (Piotr-Archive #582, recorded 05/17/2023)
File: ACSF342L

Louisville Burglar, The

See The Boston Burglar [LawsL16] (File: LL16)

Loupy Lou

See Looby Lou (File: R554)

Louse Song

DESCRIPTION: "Greasy wops and Yankey boys, they all lay own to rest, They flop their tails on lousy straw and the cooties begin the quest. They'll bite you, boys, they'll bite you." The soldiers hunt lice on trains to the front. The lice won't stop while they live
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: soldier bug
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 35-36, "Louse Song" (1 short text, tune referenced)
Roud #27872
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier" (tune & meter) and references there
File: NiM033

Lousy Lance Corporal, The

See Dinky Die (File: EM403)

Lousy Miner, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's four long years since I reached this land In search of gold among the rocks and sand, And yet I'm poor, when the truth is told... I'm a lousy miner In search of shining gold." Tells how the miner lives hard while his girlfriend forgets him
AUTHOR: John A. Stone ("Old Put") ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Put's Original California Songster)
KEYWORDS: mining work separation gold
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 107, "(The Lousy Miner)" (1 text found under "Sweet Betsy from Pike")
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 175, "The Lousy Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 863-864, "Lousy Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 98-99, "The Lousy Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LOUSMINR
Roud #4755
NOTES [49 words]: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest lists the melody of this as "Dark-eyed Sailor." They don't say which song of that title they mean, but it appears they took their melody from one of Flanders's versions of "The Dark-Eyed Sailor (Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor)" [Laws N35] - RBW
File: San107

Lousy Tailor, The

See The Butcher and the Tailor's Wife (File: BdBuTaWi)

Lovana

DESCRIPTION: "I once knew a cot, It was humble as could be" around which birds sang and where Lovana lived. The singer describes her beauty as she bathes in the stream. He wishes he were a fish by her boat, or the wind in her hair, or otherwise near her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: love courting bird rejection
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 223-224, "Lovana" (1 text, from a very poor transcription)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 3, "Luluanna" (1 text)
Roud #4649
File: Beld223

Love (I)

DESCRIPTION: "There is true love and false love," and so on, "but I always like to hear of love that ends in matrimony." If you love a lady offer her your hand.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love marriage nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 929, "Love" (2 texts)
Roud #6745
File: GrD5929

Love (II)

See Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) (File: K149)

Love and Freedom

DESCRIPTION: "As I cam ower Strathmartine Mains, O wha dae ye think I seen, But a braw young piper laddie...." His music makes her love him even though he is poor, "But we'll hae love and freedom, Gin ye'll follow me ma dear." "So I chose love and freedom...."
AUTHOR: Mary Brooksbank
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: love music courting rambling
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 66, "As I Cam Ower Strathmartine Mains" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6258
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hey Donal, How Donal" (lyrics)
NOTES [40 words]: Roud lumps this with "Hey Donal, How Donal," with which it shares lyrics and which probably inspired this song. But this is emphatically Mary Brooksbank's song, which shares only a few words with "Hey Donal, How Donal," so I've split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Gath066

Love and Pizen

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

Love and Whisky

DESCRIPTION: "Love and whisky both, Rejoice an honest fellow." If love leaves a jealous pang or whisky a headache "take another sup" as cure. "May the smiles of love Cheer our lads so clever; And, with whisky, boys, We'll drink King George for ever"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: love drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 73-74, "Love and Whisky" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bobbin Joan" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
NOTES [54 words]: Croker-PopularSong: "The most popular song of the heyday of Irish Volunteerism [beginning 1780] and which song continued a general favourite until the dissolution of the Irish Yeomanry Corps [started to decline about 1812 according to "County Armagh Yeomanry Corps" by Samuel Lutton at the Craigavon Historical Society site]."
File: CkPS073

Love at First Sight

DESCRIPTION: "I went to Ed Haley's, the day it was bright, I met with a woman I loved at first sight." The singer and his love discuss their histories; they agree to marry and live a happy life; she is very good at housework
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 183-184, "Love at First Sight (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 187-188)
NOTES [55 words]: According to Thomas, Setters wrote this to help one Tom Willie in his courting: Willie pretended it was his composition rather than by Setters. It seems likely enough; it's not exactly great art. (And, if I were Mrs. Willie, I'd be less than complimented... but then, I'm a modern male, not an early-twentieth-century female). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa183

Love at the Brig o' Don

DESCRIPTION: Bess and Jock were to be married. A barber seduces Bess. Jock tries unsuccessfully to commit suicide by jumping off the brig of Don. Bess, deserted by the barber and alone, has a baby born with "the brig o' Don arch ... mark'd on o' his forehead"
AUTHOR: Alexander Robb (1781-1859) (source: Greig/Duncan6)
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (George Smith's _Douglas Travestie_)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer's grandfather tells about Bess -- a widowed farmer's daughter -- and Jock who were to be married. A barber came from Auld-town and met Bess. After they danced "she discarded poor Jock." Jock tried to commit suicide by jumping off the brig of Don, but was rescued. He ran away, never to be heard from again. Bess, deserted by the barber, had the barber's baby, born with "the brig o' Don arch ... mark'd on o' his forehead."
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity sex childbirth humorous baby abandonment suicide river seduction
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #42, p. 2, "Love at the Brig o' Don" or "My Auld Lucky-Dady's Tale" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1208, "Love at the Brig o' Don" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: The Scottish Journal of Topography, Antiquities, Traditions (London, 1848 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, p. 51, ("There was an auld farmer, my grandfather ken'd him") (1 text)
George Smith, Douglas Travestie: to which are added Poems and Songs, Chiefly in the Broad Scottish Dialect (Aberdeen, 1824 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 133-134, "Love at the Brig o' Don; or "My Auld Lucky Dady's Tale" (1 text)
Roud #6796
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Legacy" (tune, per Smith)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My Auld Lucky-dady's Tale
File: GrD61208

Love Between Brothers and Sisters

See Birds In Their Little Nests Agree (File: KSUC109A)

Love Bro't de Savye' Down

See Love Brought the Savior Down (File: Edw010)

Love Brought the Savior Down

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Love love love brought the Savior down, Love love love For me." Verses include "Take a little peep over Jeffrey's wall... See the sinners rise and fall." "Satan fired a ball at me... His ball missed and dropped in hell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 10, "Love Bro't de Savye' Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [81 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. The verse is call and response, with "Love for me" the response to each verse line. A floating verse is "Head got wet with the morning dew... The morning star was a witness too" (see "Everywhere I Go My Lord," "Prayer Is the Key To Heaven," and "Pray On" (II)).
"Jeffrey's wall" may refer to "Jericho's wall" (Joshua 2 -- referring to the spying mission -- or Joshua 6 -- referring to the destruction of Jericho). - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edw010

Love Come Twinkling Down (Seek And You Shall Find)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, brother, you oughtta been there (x3), When the love come (twinking/trickling) down." "Seek, seek, seek and you shall find, Knock... and the door shall be opened, Ask, and it shall be given, When the love...." Repeat with father, mother, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 46-47, "Brother, You Oughtta Been There" (1 text, 1 tune)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 65, "Love Come Twinkling Down" (1 text)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, p. 48, When the Love Come Trick-a-lin' Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12090
NOTES [176 words]: The "seek and you shall find" refrain of Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices's version of this song derives from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7:7: Ask, and it will be given you; seek [so the King James translation; modern editions often read "search"] and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. There is a close parallel in Luke 11:9. It is not in the Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, which simly says "All around me The love come twinkling down, From heaven... Help me Jesus... Pity Lord...."
The mention of love "twinkling" down is not Biblical; the word "twinkle" is used only once in the King James Bible, in 1 Corinthians 15:52, where it refers to the blink or sudden movement of an eye. The alternative verb "trickle" occurs in the KJV only in Lamentations 3:49, of tears trickling down. My original feeling (and it's only that) was that "trickle" was the original verb, and the reference was to the blood of Jesus that came out when his side was pierced in John 19:34. But I have never seen a version that makes that explicit. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Rose046

Love Gregor

See The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76] (File: C076)

Love Gregory

See The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76] (File: C076)

Love Grows Under the White Oak Trees

DESCRIPTION: "Love grow under the wild oak tree, Sugar melts like candy, Top of the mountain shines like gold And you keep your little fella kinda handy." "Dreams dreams sweet dreams, Under the wild oak tree.... One for you and me! So,,, Love grows under...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: love courting food nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 417, 496, "Love Grows Under the White Oak Trees" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle)" (initial lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Love Grows Under the Wild Oak Tree
NOTES [41 words]: I feel quite certain that this originated as a variant of "Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle)." But the camp versions I've found have been changed so much (as well as being converted to a motion song) that I decided it was better to split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF417L

Love Grows Under the Wild Oak Tree

See Love Grows Under the White Oak Trees (File: ACSF417L)

Love Has Brought Me to Despair [Laws P25]

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a girl telling of the grief her false love has left her. She seeks a flower in the meadow to ease her mind; none meet her needs. She makes a bed of flowers, asks for a marble stone on her grave and a turtle dove at her breast, and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: death separation flowers grief
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro) Britain(England(Lond,North,South),(Scotland(Aber,Bord)))
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Laws P25, "Love Has Brought Me to Despair"
Greig/Duncan6 1170, "In Halifax Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #73, p. 246-248, "I Wish, I Wish (Love Has Brought Me to Despair (Laws P25)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 43, "Slighted Love" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 34, "Died of Love" (2 texts)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 92-95, "Died of Love or A brisk young lad he courted me" (1 short text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 52, "There Is an Alehouse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #42, "A Brisk Young Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 58, "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 116, p. 176, "The Auxville Love" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 144, "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #28, "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 7, "The Sailor's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune, rather short, and with elements of "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24}, "Tavern in the Town," and perhaps even "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" [Laws P25]; if I had to file it with one, it would probably be "The Butcher Boy," but I'm not sure; Roud lists it as #60, which is both "Tavern in the Town" and "Love Has Brought Me to Despair")
DT 824, LOVDISPR*
Roud #60
RECORDINGS:
Dillard Chandler, "I Wish My Baby Was Born" (on Chandler01, DarkHoll)
Geoff Ling, "Died for Love" (on Voice10)
Dellie Norton, "When I Wore My Apron Low" (on DarkHoll)
Berzilla Wallin, "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" (on OldLove, DarkHoll)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24]
cf. "Tavern in the Town"
NOTES [126 words]: This song has close ties with "Tavern in the Town," often sharing stanzas and, of course, a similarity of plot. Roud, in fact, lumps them (which seems a bit excessive to me). This may help explain why Laws failed to note either the Combs or the Cox version. - RBW
The floating verses "Once I wore my apron low," etc., provide connections to "Careless Love" (R793). - DGE
And Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 190-192, has a piece, "The Oxfordshire Tragedy," beginning "Near Woodstock Town, in Oxfordhire, As I walked forth to take the air," lyrics which occur in some versions of this. The plot in Chappell's text resembles this, but is extremely long; I wonder if this might have been influenced by a boiled-down version of Chappel's broadside. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LP25

Love Henry

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Love in a Tub (The Merchant Outwitted) [Laws N25]

DESCRIPTION: A vintner needs the consent of his sweetheart's rich father to obtain a dowry. The girl hides in one of her father's wine casks, and the vintner offers to buy its contents. The merchant agrees -- only to have his daughter revealed. He blesses the marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (chapbook by James Magee)
KEYWORDS: marriage courting trick hiding wine
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws N25, "Love in a Tub (The Merchant Outwitted)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 233-234, "Love in the Tub" (1 text)
DT 454, LOVETUB
Roud #556
NOTES [33 words]: In 1664, Sir George Etherege produced a play called "The Comical Revenge, or Love in a Tub." The plot is unrelated, and Etherege never produced anything else of even this minimal degree of note. - RBW
File: LN25

Love is Lovely

See Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) AND Carrickfergus (File: K149)

Love Is Pleasin' (I)

See Love is Teasing (File: Rits024)

Love is Pleasin' (II)

See Waly Waly (The Water is Wide); also Fair and Tender Ladies AND Love is Teasing (File: K149)

Love is Pleasing (I)

See Love is Teasing (File: Rits024)

Love is Teasing

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, love is teasing and love is pleasing, And love is a pleasure when first it's new, But as it grows older, it grows the colder...." Lyric piece about the dangers of love: The singer gave up family and home, (and now has a baby without a father)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle
KEYWORDS: love abandonment baby nonballad home floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1166, "Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bonny," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bonny" (1 fragment, 2 tunes)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 84, "Love It Is Pleasing" (1 text)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 24, "Oh, Love Is Teasin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 70-71, "Love Is Pleasin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 70, "Love is Pleasin'" (1 text, 1 tune, of four verses, two of which might go here, one belongs with "Fair and Tender Ladies," and the fourth could be from several sources; it could be a "Waly Waly" variant)
Behan-IrelandSings. #45, "Love Is Teasing" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 21, "O Love Is Teasin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1049
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" and references there
NOTES [122 words]: This probably originated as a "Waly Waly" variant, and it can be very hard to tell whether a fragment belongs with one or the other (note the Lomax "Love is Pleasin'" text, which suffers from the additional handicap of being in a Lomax publication; I gave up and listed it both places). I finally decided that there are enough songs which don't say "Waly waly" or "The water is wide" to split then.
It does leave an interesting genealogical question, though: You could produce "Waly Waly" by combining this with "Jamie Douglas," or you could start with "Waly Waly" and have this split off while a few verses floated into the longer ballad. Or it could just all float.
Moral of the story: Be sure to check entries under both songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Rits024

Love It Is a Dizziness

DESCRIPTION: Singer complains that love "winna lat a puir body gang about their business." "I drill the land that I should plow" and other foolish things. Love makes him more drunk than whiskey. "I first grew dizzy then gid daft and noo I'll dee for Peggy"
AUTHOR: James Hogg (source: Chambers and Whitelaw)
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: courting love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan5 934, "Love It Is a Dizziness" (7 texts, 6 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 122, "Love It Is a Dizziness" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol I, pp. 152-153, "Love's Like a Dizziness"
Roud #6744
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paddy's Wedding" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5 and Whitelaw)
NOTES [410 words]: Apparently, Whitelaw has his text from Hogg (1770-1836). That text says "Were Peggy's love to hire the job and save my heart frae breakin O I'd ... gang an spear for Mungo Park through Africa sae dreary O." That would date the text to between 1795 and 1806. "In 1795 the Association appointed Mungo Park [1771-1806] to explore the course of the River Niger" (source: "Biography: Mungo Park" at About: African History site).
Chambers has as Hogg's tune an earlier version of "Love's Like a Dizziness." - BS
According to Fleming, p. 15, Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society, in 1799 proposed an exploration of the Niger. Nothing came of it at the time, but Banks also headed the African Association, which sent out various exploratory parties.
Mungo Park had led an expedition to the East Indies which had gathered useful scientific data from 1792 to 1794 (Brumwell/Speck, p. 283). This brought him to the attention of Banks and his colleagues. He was the leader of the first expedition to the Niger to actually get there and back: "Then came Mungo Park, an intrepid Scot who was to become a legend in the annals of exploration. He went out twice, in 1795 and then in 1805. His first journey was under the auspices of the African Association and was funded accordingly: he was given two days' provisions. He did, however, reach the Niger after many vicissitudes..." (Fleming, p. 16).
"Many visissitudes" is an understatement; he was robbed of all his possessions, and also was imprisoned for a time, according to Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 393. But his journal -- the oly book he ever wrote -- became quite popular, and he met Sir Walter Scott. It was almost a decade before anyone found funding for a second trip, however.
Park's "second [expedition] was sponsored by the government... and saw him leading a band of fourty-four British redcoats to find the rest of the river. One by one the soldiers died. By the time Park reached the Niger at the town of Bussa only five of his original contingent were alive. Then, on some undetermined date in 1805, he was attacked on the river and the entire expedition was wiped out. As soon as the disaster became common knowledge, Park was revered as a hero" (Fleming, pp. 16-17).
The diseases which had killed so many of Park's men continued to be a problem for many years. In 1827, Park's son tried again to explore the Niger and complete his father's expedition. He too died of disease (Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 393). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD5934

Love It Is a Folly

DESCRIPTION: "Love it is a folly That dwells within my breast It makes me melancholy So I can take no rest... I darst not keep her company." He wishes he were a swallow, or turtle [dove] to fly and be with her but he "must not keep her company"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed)
KEYWORDS: courting love separation nonballad bird
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 170-171, "Love It Is a Folly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6377
NOTES [25 words]: I rather suspect this is a by-blow of one of the American members of the "Farewell He" family -- but with only one version, I can't really prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: Ow1E170

Love It Is a Killing Thing

See (mentions under) Raccoon (File: R260)

Love It Is Easing

See The False Lover (File: HHH790)

Love It Is Pleasing

See Love is Teasing (File: Rits024)

Love Johnnie

See Johnie Scot [Child 99] (File: C099)

Love King Jesus

DESCRIPTION: "Elder, you say you love King Jesus; Elder, you say you love the Lord." "Oh, come and let us know, How you love King Jesus, Come and let us know... love the Lord." "Sister, you say you love King Jesus." "Sing and tell us how you love King Jesus"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 69, "Love King Jesus" (1 text)
Roud #12076
File: FSAN069

Love Laughs at Locksmiths

See The Iron Door [Laws M15] (File: LM15)

Love Let Me In (Forty Long Miles; It Rains, It Hails)

DESCRIPTION: The singer arrives after a long journey, and appeals to the girl: "It rains, it blows, it hails, it snows ... love let me in." At first she turns him away because she is home alone. She changes her mind, takes him to bed and he marries her the next day.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes)
KEYWORDS: love marriage sex nightvisit
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Britain(England(North,South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Greig/Duncan5 983, "Forty Long Miles" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 90, "Glaw, Keser, Ergh Ow-cul Yma [It Rains, It Hails and Snows and Blows]" (1 text + Cornish translation, 1 tune, which shares elements of this song and "Let Me In This Ae Nicht")
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 452, "It's Forty Long Miles I've Travelled This Day" (1 text)
Hamer-GreenGroves, p. 22, "There Stands a Cottage" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #90, "The Charming Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 58-59, "Forty Miles" (1 text, 3 tunes)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 36, "Forty Long Miles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 48, "Love, Let Me In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 504-506, "Come, Open the Door, Sweet Betty" (1 excerpt, 1 tune plus a variant, possibly this although the text is too short to be certain)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 147-148, "Come, Open the Door, Sweet Betty" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
DT, FORTYLNG*
Roud #608
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover)" (plot)
cf. "Let Me In This Ae Nicht" (plot)
File: LLab048

Love Lifted Me

DESCRIPTION: "Love lifted me (x2), When nothing else would help, Love lifted me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: religious love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, various authors, "A Singing Stream: A Black Family Chronicle" [an entire issue about a documentary of the Landis Family], Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 (Winter 1989), p. 42, "Love Lifted Me" (1 short text, contained in the script of the documentary)
Roud #21076
NOTES [32 words]: The description is all of the Landis fragment. Many Landis songs seem not to be known anywhere else. This title is known from other sources, but I don't really know if it's the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: NCFLoLiM

Love Me Now

DESCRIPTION: "If you are ever going to love me, Love me now that I may know All the sweet and tender feelings Which from real affection flow. Love me now while I am living...." Would she deny water to the thirsty, or food to the hungry? If he dies, he won't need love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection questions
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 16, "Love Me Now" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Roud #11383
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Give Me the Roses While I Live" (theme of love while one is still alive)
File: Brne016

Love Me or No

DESCRIPTION: "[I] will sing you a song, the best in my heart, For you know very well I have a sweetheart... But if he won't love me, kind sir, won't you?" If one lad proves false, she'll happily turn to another; "I don't care a straw whether you love me or no."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: courting farewell abandonment
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 493, "Love Me or No" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (subject) and references there
File: Beld493

Love O'God Razor

See The Love-of-God Shave (Lather and Shave) [Laws Q15] (File: LQ15)

Love on the Range

DESCRIPTION: "Little gal, I'm not a singer; if I were I'd sing to you A tale of love that sure would be a wonder." He can't play the guitar, either, but he is a good worker. "So, Chiquita, if you'll let me... Come, we'll hit life's trail and follow it -- together!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: love courting cowboy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 98-99, "Love on the Range" (1 text)
File: ThLo098

Love Somebody, Yes I Do

DESCRIPTION: "Love somebody, yes I do (x3), Love somebody, but I won't tell who. Love somebody, yes I do (x3), And I hope somebody loves me too." "...Love somebody, yes I do, 'Tween sixteen and twenty-two."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Sid Harkreader)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 140-141, "Love Somebody, Yes I Do" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, p. 206, "I Love Somebody, Yes I Do" (1 tune, presumably this piece)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 141, "Love Somebody, Yes I Do" (1 text)
Roud #7407
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Barefoot Boys ,"I Love Somebody" (OKeh 45217, 1928)
Crook Brothers String Band, "Love Somebody" (Victor V-40099, 1929)
Sid Harkreader, "Love Somebody" (Vocalion 14887, 1924)
Land Norris, "I Love Somebody" (OKeh 45033, c. 1926; rec. 1925; on CrowTold02)
Joe & Tommy Thompson, "Love Somebody (Soldier's Joy)" (on ClassOT)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Soldier's Joy" (tune)
File: San140

Love Token, The

See A Seaman and His Love (The Welcome Sailor) [Laws N29] (File: LN29)

Love Will Find Out the Way

DESCRIPTION: "Over the mountains and under the waves, Over the fountains and under the graves... Love will find the way." A catalog of the paths love follows, and a praise of its overwhelming power
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 205-207, "Love Will Find Out the Way" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 232-234, "Love Will Find Out the Way" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques LXVII, p. 112, "Love Will Find Out the Way" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 174-177, "Truth's Integrity" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 303-305, "Love Will Find Out the Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 189-190, "Love Will Find Out the Way" (1 tune, partial text)
Roud #13167
NOTES [17 words]: Not to be confused with the 1921 pop song "Love Will Find the Way" by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: FVS205

Love Will Find the Way

DESCRIPTION: "Whate'er befall I'll still recall That sunlit mountainside Where skies are blue and hearts are true And love's the only guide.... Love holds the key to set me free And love will find the way."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 72-73, "Whate'er befall I'll still recall" (1 text)
Roud #25504
File: KSUC072C

Love Willie

See Fair Janet [Child 64] (File: C064)

Love-of-God Shave, The (Lather and Shave) [Laws Q15]

DESCRIPTION: Paddy asks the barber for a shave on credit. The barber is prepared; he has a razor just for such people. The injured Paddy flees the shop. Some time later, he hears a jackass bray near the shop and assumes someone else asked for a love-of-God shave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1853 (Bodleian broadside Firth b.26(197))
KEYWORDS: humorous animal trick
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So) Britain(England(South)) Ireland Australia Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Laws Q15, "The Love-of-God Shave (Lather and Shave)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 249-251, "The Monkey Turned Barber" (3 texts, but only B2 is the piece; A and B1 are "The Monkey Turned Barber")
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 178, "Lather and Shave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #240, "The Irish Barber" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 120, "Lather and Shave" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 134, "Camp Barber's Sog, Black Forest" (1 text) (p. 113 in the 1919 edition)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 136, "Love O'God Razor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 211-212, "The Love-of-God Shave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 227, "The Irish Barber" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 607, "Irishman's Shave" (1 text)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 83, "Lather and Shave" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 240-241, "Sweet Love of God Shave" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 106, pp. 134-135, "The Irish Barber" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 291-292, "The Irish Barber" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1229, p. 84, "Lather and Shave" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 40 and #3/62, p. 40, "Lather and Shave" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 483, "The Trust Shave" (source notes only)
DT 526, LOVEGOD
Roud #571
RECORDINGS:
Agnus "The Ridge" MacDonald, "Lather and Shave" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(197), "Lather Em, Shave Em," John Ross (Newcastle), 1847-1852; also Harding B 11(1927), "Lather 'Em, Shave 'Em"; Harding B 11(2085), Harding B 11(2632), "Lather-Em, Shave-Em"; Firth c.26(49), Harding B 11(1867), Harding B 11(1868), Harding B 11(2633), "[A] Love of God Shave" ; Firth b.27(285), "The Love o' Good Shave"
LOCSinging, sb20272b, "Lather and Shave," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also as202090, "Lather and Shave"
Murray, Mu23-y1:067, "Lather 'Em, Shave 'Em," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(082), "A Love of God Shave," unknown, c.1870
SAME TUNE:
The San Francisco Rag Picker (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 138)
NOTES [50 words]: Broadside Bodleian Firth b.27(285) is hard to read but has the tune as something like "Flare Up Neddy."
Broadside LOCSinging sb20272b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LQ15

Love, Farewell!

DESCRIPTION: "John and Mary making posies" when the Colonel calls "March, my lads." "Some for France, and some for Holland" with powdered hair and firelock shouldered. Mary's mother says, if he takes her daughter, "after death my ghost shall haunt thee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: courting army war parting separation France mother ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 235, "Love, Farewell!" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 106)
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 117-118, "Love Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1301
NOTES [93 words]: Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames: "An ancient piece, reminiscent of operations against the French and Dutch."
Roud lumps this with "The Harvest Shearin'." The only texts I have seen for that song are the four for Greig-Duncan1 101, which share no phrases, much less lines, with the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text. The chorus for Greig-Duncan1 is "Farewell love, for I maun leave you, Fare ye weel, I maun awa'" or "Love farewell for I maun leave you Farewell for I am away"; the chorus for Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames is "Love, farewell!" - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: WT235

Love, Love

See (notes under) Rose, Rose (File: ACSF346R)

Love's a Little Thing

See (mentions under) Raccoon (File: R260)

Love's Adieu

DESCRIPTION: "The e'e o' the dawn, Eliza, Blinks over the dark, green sea... Yet still my dowie heart lingers To catch one sweet throb mair." The singer says they have been blessed, but he must go (for no explained reason); he promises to remember and return
AUTHOR: Joseph Grant
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads); Grant died 1835
KEYWORDS: love courting separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 43-44, "Love's Adieu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3788
File: Ord043

Love's Fierce Desire and Hope's of Recovery

DESCRIPTION: The man says "Now the Tyrant hath stolen my dearest away" but he will remain faithful to Celia. Celia acknowledges his exile and pain. She will overcome all obstacles to return to him.
AUTHOR: Laurence Price (according to Bodleian header for broadsides Douce Ballads 1(132a) and Douce Ballads 1(114b))
EARLIEST DATE: before 1681 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 1(132a))
LONG DESCRIPTION: The man says "Now the Tyrant hath stolen my dearest away" but he will remain faithful "Till my Celia and I in our loves may be free." Celia answers that she understands "how in exile thou hast wandered the wood But I am resolved thy sorrows to free" She will overcome all obstacles to return to him: "I'll swim through the Ocean upon my bare brest, To find out my Darling whom I do love best, And when I have found him with Double delight, I'le comfort him kindly, by day and by night; And Ile be more faithful then the Turtle Dove, Which never at all did prove false to her love"; "The horn it shall sound, and the Hounds make a noise To fill my loves heart with ten thousand rare joy [sic]"
KEYWORDS: love exile separation nonballad royalty
FOUND IN:
Roud #V9208
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(132a), "Loves Fierce Desire, and Hopes of Recovery" or "A True and Brief Discription[sic] of Two Resolved Lovers" ("Now the tyrant hath stolen my dearest away"), T. Vere (London), 1644-1680; also Douce Ballads 1(114b), "Loves Fierce Desire, and Hopes of Recovery" or "A True and Brief Description of Two Resolved Lovers "
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fair Angel of England" (tune, per Bodleian broadsides Douce Ballads 1(132a) and Douce Ballads 1(114b))
cf. "Some Rival Has Stolen My True Love Away" (derivative)
NOTES [693 words]: Broadwood points out the similarities between this ballad and its derivative, "Some Rival Has Stolen My True Love Away." "Love's Fierce Desire" has 60 lines and Broadwood's text for "Rival" has 12; they share 8 lines and one more has the same shape, rhyme and intent, but different nouns [see the long description above for the shared lines]. In addition, his exile -- the subject of "Rival's" second line, is acknowledged at line 30 of "Love's Fierce Desire." "But the whole ballad [of 'Love's Fierce Desire ...'] is distinct, and artificial in character, and would seem to be based upon some older song" The tune for "Love's Fierce Desire," "Fair Angel of England," "refers to the wooing of a 'fair maid of London' by King Edward IV.[r. 1461-1483], who appears as an imperious and dangerously determined lover. Possibly he is the 'Tyrant' ... referred to." (source: Lucy E. Broadwood, editor, English Traditional Songs and Carols (London, 1908 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 125).
Other than tune and the general subject of a woman pursued by royalty, "Fair Angel of England" has nothing in common with "Love's Fierce Desire": King Edward asks his target "grant a King favour thy true love to be"; she rejects him absolutely -- "Leave me most noble King tempt not in vain" -- and comments besides that "My favour is vanisht my beauty is past" (see broadsides Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(178b), "A Courtly New Ballad of the Princely Wooing of the Fair Maid of London by King Edward" ("Fair angel of England thy beauty most bright"), F. Coles (London), 1663-1674; also 4o Rawl. 566(171), Douce Ballads 3(77b), " A Courtly New Ballad of the Princely Wooing of the Fair Maid of London, by King Edward"). "Edward was an insatiable womaniser with, it appears, a special taste for older ladies" (Anthony Cheetham in Fraser, p. 150). - BS
That Edward IV was an insatiable womanizer is beyond question; for some details of his love life, see the notes to "Jane Shore." His wife, Elizabeth Woodville or Wydeville, was certainly older than he was; her birth date is not certainly known (Wagner, p. 301, lists it as c. 1437), but we know that she had two children when her first husband was killed in 1461, in which year Edward IV was only 18. And it does seem to be true that he pursued her, and she rejected him, refusing to allow him into her bed unless he married her (Dockray, p. 5, cites the contemporary and near-contemporary sources). But nowhere did she claim at the time that "her beauty is past"; indeed, she used her looks to attract the easily-distracted king.
So I doubt "Fair Angel of England" is about Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, and certainly this song isn't; Elizabeth was a widow, not a married woman, when Edward IV pursued her. If you really want more about Edward and Elizabeth, though, see the notes to "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34]. - RBW
Besides being reworked in the oral tradition as "Some Rival Has Stolen my True Love Away," "Love's Fierce Desire" was well enough known to be copied. A song, dated July 26, 1678, to the tune of "Though the Tyrant Hath Stolen, &c" is recorded in the diary of Henry Teonge. It begins "Though the Fates have ordayned my true love away, And I am constrained on ship-board to stay"; a sailor in war time promises to remain true and asks that his lover do the same. No other words are shared with "Love's Fierce Desire" (source: Henry Teonge, The Diary of Henry Teonge Chaplain on Board His Majesty's Ships Assistance, Bristol, and Royal Oak, Anno 1675 to 1679 (London, 1825 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 248-249)). - BS
Although the Bodleian attributes this to Lawrence/Laurence Price, a well-known seventeenth century writer of broadside ballads, A. W. Pollard, G. R. Redgrave, et al, A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland & Ireland And of English Books Printed Abroad 1475-1640, The Bibliographical Society [of London], 1963, p. 467, does not list it among Price's known works. Of course, it could be from the period after the STC's cutoff date. But the Douce broadside, at least, attributes it simply to "L. P.," not to Price specifically. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: BdLDFHoR

Love's Not Like It Used to Be

DESCRIPTION: "They used to get married for love but now they get married for gold... what we called love in those old days it's not what it used to be." Once men were boss. Now wives divorce and go home to mother. Old maids can't find love "like it used to be"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: love marriage gold nonballad husband mother oldmaid wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 249-253, "Love's Not Like It Used to Be" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24245
File: Guig249

Love's Old Sweet Song

DESCRIPTION: In our youth at dusk love's song "wove itself into our dream." Now, "still to us at twilight comes love's old song." "Till the end, when life's dim shadows fall" love is found "the sweetest song of all"
AUTHOR: Words: J. Clinton Bingham ; Tune: James L. Molloy (1884) (Source: MUNFLA/Leach; Heart-Songs; Fuld)
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: age love nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Heart-Songs, pp. 276-277, "Love's Old, Sweet Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #53, "Love's Old, Sweet Song" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #311, p. 74, "Love's Old Sweet Song" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 339, "Love's Old Sweet Song" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 20, "Love's Old Sweet Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 63, "Love's Old Sweet Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 53, "Love's Old Sweet Song" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 342-343, "Love's Old Sweet Song"
Roud #18217
RECORDINGS:
John McCormack, "Love's Old Sweet Song" (Victor 6776, 1927)
Maudie Sullivan, "Just a Song At Twilight" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
SAME TUNE:
(Boy Scout) Camp Fire Song (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 338)
NOTES [81 words]: The description follows McCormack's recording. Maudie Sullivan's is a fragment. Maudie Sullivan sang another McCormack song indexed here: "Little Town in the Old County Down." - BS
There was a 1914 pop song, "Love's Old Sweet Song," with words by C. C. S. Cushing and E.P. Heath and music by E. Kalman, from the English adaption of "Henry W. Savage's New Operette Sári (Der Zigeunerprimas)." It does not appear to be this, although it may well have been inspired by this older song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcLoOlSS

Love's Parting

See The Faithful Rambler (Jamie and Mary, Love's Parting) (File: HHH825)

Love's Worse Than Sickness

See True Love from the Eastern Shore (File: ShAp2187)

Love's Young Dream

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! the days are gone ... When my dream of life, from morn till night, Was love." First love "'twas light, that ne'er can shine again On life's dull stream!"
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3385))
KEYWORDS: love lyric nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, pp. 64-65, "Love's Young Dream" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 110, "Love's Young Dream" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 322-323, "Love's Young Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 28, "Love's Young Dream" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1329, p. 90, "Love's Young Dream" (1 reference)
Roud #V9128
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3385), "Love's Young Dream", J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
NOTES [27 words]: Not one of Moore's more successful pieces; Granger's Index to Poetry lists only two anthologies containing it, and there seem to be few traditional collections. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon110

Loved by a Man

DESCRIPTION: There was a rich young girl courted by an Irish lad who "has left her and gone far away" Her beauty has faded; "see what it comes to [to] be loved by a man." If he returns "she'll crown him with joy." She is "bound in love-chains and can never be free"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection separation beauty floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 37, "Loved by a Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5232
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [27 words]: This song has floating lines rather floating verses such as "Her cheeks they were once like the bud of a rose, But now they're as pale as the lily that grows." - BS
File: RcLoBaMa

Loved You in the Days of Joy

DESCRIPTION: "I loved you in the days of joy, When you was but a slender boy." She recalls him as he was. "But times have changed... The stamp of manhood is on our brow." Now she lays down her pen, but her love remains even though he has abandoned her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love courting betrayal separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 26, "Loved You in the Days of Joy" (1 text)
Roud #11334
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Midnight on the Stormy Deep" (lyrics)
NOTES [54 words]: This shares several verses with "Midnight on the Stormy Deep" ("The deep deep sea may us divide"; "Farewell to you, I'd rather make My home upon some icy lake"). The direction of the influence is not clear, since "Stormy Deep" can be shown to date back to the 1850s, but this also sounds like it comes from that period. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne026

Lovel, the Robber

See Whisky in the Jar (The Irish Robber A) [Laws L13A]/The Irish Robber B (McCollister) [Laws L13B] (File: LL13)

Lovely Ann

DESCRIPTION: The singer's friends take him to Belfast to sail to America on the Union and leave Ann behind. The ship hits a rock off Rathlin in a storm. All passengers reach shore in boats. He decides to stay home with Ann rather than try to sail to America again.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (chapbook by James Smyth, Belfast, according to Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: emigration reunion separation sea ship storm wreck America
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 26, 1822 - The _Union_ out of Belfast, bound for St Andrews, New Brunswick, is wrecked on Rathlin Island. The passengers were rescued and returned to Belfast (source: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong).
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #108, pp. 2-3, "Sweet Charming Ann" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 24, "Sweet Charming Ann" (1 text)
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 34, "Lovely Ann" (1 text)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 56-58, "Lament for the Loss of the Ship Union" (1 text)
ST Leyd034 (Partial)
Roud #5804
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 5, "Lovely Ann ("When I was young and in my prime"), T. Batchelar (London), 1828-1832; also Harding B 11(2221), Harding B 11(2222), "Lovely Ann"; Harding B 11(4087), "Lovely Anne"
Murray, Mu23-y1:032, "Lovely Ann," James Lindsay Junr(Glasgow), 19C
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Loss of the Ship Union
NOTES [53 words]: Bourke in Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast v2, p. 17 lists this as an 1822 wreck without further details; his source is Tommy Cecil, The Harsh Winds of Rathlin. Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong has details from the News Letter and notes that "many of the details in the song contradict those reported in the News Letter." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Leyd034

Lovely Annie

DESCRIPTION: Annie promisedsto be true but while the singer is in "the North Highlands to work by the day" she marries someone else. He would have preferred transportation. His "mind turns to madness since Annie's away" His master threatens to send him to Bedlam.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation betrayal madness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 163-164, "Lovely Annie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5331
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "False Mallie" (theme: a man driven "mad" by a woman's infidelity)
cf. "The Green Bushes, The [Laws P2]," particularly the "Nut Bushes" version (theme: a man driven "mad" by a woman's infidelity)
File: TSF164

Lovely Annie (I)

See William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I) [Laws N8] (File: LN08)

Lovely Annie (II)

See Polly Oliver (Pretty Polly) [Laws N14] (File: LN14)

Lovely Annie (III)

See The Last Letter (File: GrMa101)

Lovely Armoy

DESCRIPTION: The singer is preparing to leave Armoy. He recalls all the pleasures and beauties of home. He describes his sad farewell from the girl he loves. Now in Belfast, he can write no more, as he must board the ship
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation parting
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H9, p. 186, "Lovely Armoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 43, "Lovely Armoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13541
File: HHH009

Lovely Banks of Boyne, The [Laws P22]

DESCRIPTION: The singer is courted by Jimmie, who wins his way into her heart and her bed but then abandons her. She hears that he is married to a rich lady in London. She must remain in Dublin, far from her love and her home by the Boyne
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.26(316))
KEYWORDS: seduction separation betrayal
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Ont) Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws P22, "The Lovely Banks of the Boyne"
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 17, "The Banks of the Boyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 2, "The Banks of Boyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 160, "The Lovely Banks of Boyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 10, "The Lovely Banks of Boyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 104-105, "The Banks of Boyne" (1 text)
DT 504, LOVLBOYN
Roud #995
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(316), "Poor Flora on the Banks of Boyne," H. Such (London), 1863-1885
NOTES [43 words]: The following broadsides could not be read and verified: Bodleian, Harding B 11(3079), "Poor Flora on the Banks of the Boyne," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; Bodleian, Harding B 11(3078), "Poor Flora on the Banks of the Boyne," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844 - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: LP22

Lovely Banks of Mourne, The

DESCRIPTION: A farmer's son sees a girl bathing by the banks of the Mourne. He hides behind a bush to watch. At last she sees him and flees. He pursues, and offers her his hand and produce. She consents to marry. The singer will not reveal her name
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting clothes marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H595, p.468 , "The Lovely Banks of Mourne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9454
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Baffled Knight" [Child 112] (subject)
NOTES [25 words]: Sort of a "Clear Away the Morning Dew" with the ending reversed. It's not nearly as much fun, though, which doubtless explains its limited currency. - RBW
File: HHH595

Lovely Banna Strand

DESCRIPTION: A German ship is bringing 20,000 rifles for the Irish rebels, but the car which was to meet the Germans crashes. The rifles are not delivered, and Sir Roger Casement, who planned the affair, is hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Galvin)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion execution injury wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1916 - The Casement affair (also the Easter Rising)
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 45, "Lonely Banna Strand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 57-58, "Lovely Banna Strand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5234
RECORDINGS:
Frankie Nash, "Lonely Banna Strand" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
NOTES [848 words]: During the bloody stalemate of 1915-1917, both sides in the First World War sought ways out of the dilemma. Britain tried "peripheral strategies" (her reward being the Gallipoli campaign); Germany dabbled with submarine warfare.
The Casement Affair was another of these sideshows. Ireland wanted freedom (they had been granted Home Rule in 1914, but the war and the disturbances halted its implementation; that plus the absence of many loyalists in the trenches caused a slow but steady increase among forces devoted to rebellion in Ireland); the Germans wanted to distract the British. It was an ideal match.
Roger Casement (1864-1916) was a Protestant who was knighted for his investigations into European cruelty in Africa. Despite this, he became an Irish patriot in the decade before World War One. One might almost think this disturbed his reason.
In 1914, Casement went to Germany and negotiated a "treaty." Among its other provisions, it offered to form Irish prisoners of war into an "Irish Brigade" to fight for Germany. (It turned out to be more of an Irish Platoon; a total of 55 soldiers chose to join it; Kee II,, pp. 246-250.) In exchange, Germany would recognize Ireland. It would also, "[i]n the event of a German naval victory affording a means of reaching the coast of Ireland," send forces to Ireland.
Of course, the British navy was much larger than the German, and the Germans never won their victory. They only made one attempt -- at Jutland -- and while more British than German ships went down there, it was a clear British strategic victory. The German navy acted like a whipped cur for the rest of the war, and the sailors actually revolted rather than go to sea in 1918.
In 1916, Casement was still in Germany, being ignored by all parties. Indeed, he had spent time in a sanatorium (Kee II, p. 264), and plans were made to retire him to America. Then came the news of the Easter Rising. Germany decided to give this some very elementary support -- a tramp steamer carrying 20,000 rifles captured from the Russians (and probably not in very good condition), with minimal ammunition and a handful of machine guns.
Casement was horrified at this pinch-penny scheme; it was too little too late. No troops were to be sent, only the weapons. His protests achieved one thing: He was sent along with the arms. On April 9, 1916, the weapons set sail on the Aud (also known, to the Germans at least, as the Libau; Kee II, p. 266), a ship so cheap that she did not have a radio; she was disguised as a Norwegian freighter. Casement was to come on a submarine.
The Irish never made contact with the Aud; the ship showed up in Tralee Bay, but no one was expecting her until later. She waited a day for someone to meet her, was ignored, and left. Eventually the British (who knew many details of the plot) found the ship. Ordered to head for Queenstown, the Aud's captain blew her up before she arrived in harbor (April 22).
Casement had set out by submarine on April 12. Somehow the sub (U19) and the Aud failed to make contact. So the boat's captain put Casement ashore at Banna Strand. He was captured on Good Friday and recognized; on April 22 -- the same day the Aud was blown up -- he was sent to London. He was hanged for treason on August 3, 1916.
The Casement affair incidentally put another nail in the coffin of the Easter Rebellion. The rebels desperately needed weapons, and Casement failed to deliver. What's more, the rebels were only a minority even within the Irish Volunteer movement -- and the official and public leader of the Volunteers, Eoin MacNeill, didn't like the idea. He was left out of the initial planning, told only at the last minute, and convinced to go along with the help of forged documents. (MacNeill was something of a figurehead; Foy/Barton, p. 5, note that he was a university professor with the moderate leanings one would expect of such a man; Bulmer Hobson -- himself too moderate for the fire-eaters -- found him as someone who looked respectable. MacNeill never did really control the Volunteers -- but a lot of the moderate Volunteers thought he did, which would lead to much confusion in 1916.)
When the Casement affair came out, MacNeill went all out to stop the Rebellion. It didn't stop the Dublin rebels -- but it kept the rest of the country quiet. Rather than helping rebellion, Casement's cloak-and-dagger-and-puffery operation hurt it (Kee II, p. 262).
Casement's death, however, proved very valuable to the rebel cause. After a series of quick executions following the Easter Rising, the British govenment halted the shootings and simply imprisoned the surviving rebels. But Casement was treated as a separate case. He was tried and convicted, and the British parliament saw no reason to halt his execution, which took place on August 3. The British also released his diary; this seemed to show that he was homosexual (though charges were made that the references were interpolations). In any case, his death seemed to confirm that the British still were abusing the Irish. (See Kee III, pp. 12-14). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.5
File: PGa057

Lovely Caroline

See Caroline of Edinborough Town [Laws P27] (File: LP27)

Lovely Cottage Maid, The (The Cottage Maid)

DESCRIPTION: The singer courts Emily but she remains true to William, her sailor, gone ten years. William shows a token identifying her dead lover. After satisfying himself of Emily's fidelity, William identifies himself. The two marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Bodleian Bod7126 Harding B 11(157))
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer courts Emily, but she remains true to William, her sailor, though he has been gone ten years in the Crimean War. William says her lover is dead, and shows a token with her lover's name. She won't marry the newcomer. William, certain now of her fidelity, identifies himself, and says he has "land and gold in plenty". They marry.
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage war return reunion death gold sailor brokentoken
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 251-253, "The Lovely Cottage Maid (The Cottage Maid)" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #24245
RECORDINGS:
Joshua Osborne, "The Lovely Cottage Maid" (on NFAGuigné01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod7126 Harding B 11(157), "The Cottage Maid" ("One morning in my rambles as I walked by the sea shore"), H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Bod11581 Harding B 11(1244), Bod5163 Harding B 15(323a), "Sweet Cottage Maid"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dark-Eyed Sailor (Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor)" [Laws N35] (plot, themes)
NOTES [118 words]: The token is one difference between "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" and "The Cottage Maid": in "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" (see, for example, broadside Bodleian Johnson Ballads 2483). Phoebe says "I took a gold ring from off my hand, We broke the token, here's part with me" ... "Then half the ring did young William show."; in "The Cottage Maid" (see, for example, broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(157)) Willie says "Your William sailed along with me ... He gave me this love token, his name you'll find, Saying, Take this to my Emily"
One of Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's texts is a verse from broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(1244), cited above. Another is a verse printed in a Newfoundland periodical. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Guig251

Lovely Derry On The Banks Of The Foyle

DESCRIPTION: "Cruel misfortune" forces the singer to leave Derry and Mary for the sea. Her letter asks him to return and marry. He will return "when I make a fortune ... I will build her a mansion"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: love marriage return reunion separation travel beauty money sea Ireland lover sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Charlie McGonigle, "Lovely Derry On The Banks Of The Foyle." Recording with text. ITMA Reference Number 467-ITMA-MP3 accessed 22 February 2017 at http://www.itma.ie/digitallibrary/sound/
Roud #4962
RECORDINGS:
Jack Knight, "There's a Dear Spot" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [63 words]: Jack Knight sings "Londonderry on the banks of the Nile." Londonderry -- "lovely Derry" -- is on the banks of the River Foyle. His version does not have the letter or commitment to make a fortune. He says that he has seen distant countries and has "tread on foreign soil" Now he'll "leave ye shipmates... resign the sea" and go home to marry Mary, "the pride of Londonderry." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: AdLDOBOF

Lovely Evening

See Oh, How Lovely Is the Evening (File: ACSF435O)

Lovely Georgie

See Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)

Lovely Glenshesk (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer has been "forced to my pen To write down the praises of the top of the glen." He tells of the birds and the hills of his home in Glenshesk, which he must leave tomorrow. His family has been there for generations; he grieves to depart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home rambling
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H544, pp. 165-166, "Lovely Glenshesk (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13476
NOTES [30 words]: The singer claims his family has been present in Glenshesk since the Battle of Orra. All I've been able to learn about this battle is that it took place in the sixteenth century. - RBW
File: HHH544

Lovely Glenshesk (II)

DESCRIPTION: "This evening I take my departure from the lovely town where I was bred"; he is bidding farewell to friends and relatives. Having come of age, he must go to "a far foreign land." He describes the temptations faced by humanity, and hopes to avoid them
AUTHOR: John McCormick (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection; tune collected 1905?)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H28a, pp. 194-195, "Lovely Glenshesk (IIa)"; H547, pp. 195-196, "In Praise of the Glen" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 175-176, "Lovely Glenshesk" (1 text)
Roud #5281
NOTES [96 words]: The Biblical allusion, "The Israelites they were in bondage and they murmured at their going away," actually refers to a multitude of troubles during the Exodus; whenever the Israelites faced problems, or just decided they were tired of something, they "murmured" and talked about going back to Egypt.
A handful of examples: Exodus 14:10ff. (the people are afraid when pursued by Pharaoh); Exodus 16:2ff. (the people demand meat); Exodus 17:2ff. (the people want water); Numbers 11:4ff. (more demands for meat).
The story of the serpent tempting Eve is found in Genesis 3. - RBW
File: HHH028a

Lovely Irish Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: Two lovers talk on Blackwater-side. He says "when I'm in Americay I'll be true to my Irish maid." She says "in Americay some pretty girls you will see." She says many who have crossed the Atlantic are drowned so "stay on shore." We assume he leaves.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting parting dialog lover emigration
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 551-552, "The Lovely Irish Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 80-81, "Blackwater Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, pp. 60-61, "Black Waterside" (1 text)
Roud #6319
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Clara Stevens, "The Lovely Irish Maid" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down By Blackwaterside" (plot, lyrics)
NOTES [64 words]: Kennedy lumps this with "Down By Blackwaterside," and I have to admit that there are strong points of contact, both lyric and in plot. This song, however, appears to take a slightly different direction, so I have, with much hesitation, split them. - RBW
The OCanainn-SongsOfCork text adds a verse to Peacock and ends "I'll stay at home and I'll not roam from my lovely Irish Maid." - BS
Last updated in version 3.8
File: Pea551

Lovely Irish Rose, The

See My Lovely Irish Rose (File: McB1051)

Lovely Jamie

DESCRIPTION: Brothers Jamie and Darby sell their peat and drink away the proceeds. They enlist in the army and are sent to the Crimea. At Sevastopol, Jamie loses his legs. The rest of the song wonders how the family will survive with him crippled
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: war soldier drink injury disability
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1853-1856 - Crimean War (Britain and France actively at war with Russia 1854-1855)
Nov 5, 1854 - Battle of Inkerman clears the way for the siege of Sevastopol (the city fell in the fall of 1855)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H618, pp. 85-86, "Lovely Jamie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9045
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Patrick Sheehan" [Laws J11] (plot)
cf. "Mrs. McGrath" (plot)
File: HHH618

Lovely Jane from Enniskea

DESCRIPTION: Willy Bell meets Jane McCann. Neither recognizes the other. He asks her to marry but she is still waiting for Willy after ten years. He shows her the ring she had given him before he left for America. She welcomes him home. They marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation marriage America Ireland ring reunion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 5, pp. 9,101,157, "Lovely Jane from Enniskea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2901
RECORDINGS:
John Maguire, "Lovely Jane from Enniskea" (on IRJMaguire01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rocks of Bawn" (tune)
NOTES [37 words]: Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday: "The tune is the same as is generally used for 'The Rocks of Bawn' and also used for 'The Maid of Magheracloon'." Morton speculates that the Enniskea of the song is in Co. Louth. - BS
File: MoMa005

Lovely Jimmie

See Lovely Willie [Laws M35] (File: LM35)

Lovely Jimmy (I)

See Lovely Willie [Laws M35] (File: LM35)

Lovely Jimmy (II)

See When First To This Country (II) (File: CrMa070)

Lovely Joan

DESCRIPTION: Young man, out riding, comes upon Joan. He offers her a ring/purse of gold in return for a roll in the hay; she says the ring is more use to her than 20 maidenheads. She takes the ring, then hops on his horse and rides off to her true love's gate.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: virtue seduction bargaining trick virginity
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 115, "Handsome Shone the Dairymaid"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2, pp. 189-190, "Handsome Joan the Dairy Maid" (2 texts)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 57, "Sweet Lovely Joan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 46-47, "Sweet Lovely Joan" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 469)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 64, "Lovely Joan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #82, "Lovely Joan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp.95-96, "Sweet Lovely Joan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #64, "Lovely Joan" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SWTJOAN SWTLJOAN* SWTJOAN4*
Roud #592
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2226), "Lovely Joan" ("A story unto you I will relate") , J. Catnach (London), 1813- 1838; also Harding B 11(4358), Firth c.21(24)[some words illegible], Harding B 11(2225), Harding B 11(797), Harding B 11(3833), Harding B 11(2227), "Lovely Joan"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid and the Horse" (plot)
cf. "The Broomfield Hill" (Child 43) and references there
NOTES [26 words]: Damn fool. -PJS
In Sharp's bowdlerized version, the young man asks Joan to marry him and says that the purse of gold is worth more than twenty husbands! - (PJS)
Last updated in version 4.2
File: ShH57

Lovely Johnny

See Johnny, Lovely Johnny (File: RcJoLoJo)

Lovely Katie of Liskehaun

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves "lovely Katie of Liskehaun" from afar; she is "far superior in wealth." If Paris had seen her he would have chosen her over Helen. He leaves at summer end but he'll be back to "make application to my sweet young Katie"
AUTHOR: C.T. Ahern (per broadside Bodleian 2806 c.8(271))
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(383))
KEYWORDS: love beauty money travel
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 99, "Lovely Katie of Liskehaun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3048
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(383), "Lovely Katey of Liskehan," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 c.8(271), "Lovely Katty of Liscahah"; Harding B 26(384), "Lovely Keaty of Liskehan"
LOCSinging, as108160, "Lovely Katey of Liskehan," P. Brereton (Dublin), 19C
NOTES [91 words]: In the nitpicky footnotes department, Paris (son of Priam) didn't exactly "pick" Helen of Troy. At the Judgment of Paris, he was to choose the fairest goddess among Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera. All offered him bribes, and Aphrodite's bribe was the hand of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta. Paris left Oenone, the wife he had actually chosen, went off to gather in Helen, and -- well, you know the rest. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as108160 appears to be the same as Bodleian Harding B 26(383) printed by P. Brereton (Dublin). - BS
File: OLoc099

Lovely Katie-o

See Twenty-One (File: HHH033)

Lovely Lou

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas early in the moth of May I said to my love Lou" that he will go to sea; he asks if she will be true. She says she will, So he says, "Goodbye, lovely Lou." He promises to bring exotic gifts -- but she leaves him. So he says, "Goodbye, lovely Lou."
AUTHOR: John Read (source: Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
KEYWORDS: sailor love separation gift promise animal abandonment
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 162, "Lovely Lou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V60313
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Goodbye Lovely Lou
File: LaGo162

Lovely Lowland Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: Mary Ann sends her sailor away "because he looked so poor." She invites him in when he shows her "a purse of gold" Now he rejects her. She and another suitor kill the sailor for his gold. There is a witness. Both are condemned to die.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: greed infidelity warning betrayal homicide poverty money trial punishment sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, pp. 620-621, "The Lovely Lowland Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 66-67, "The Little Lowland Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea620 (Partial)
Roud #307
RECORDINGS:
Patrick Rossiter, "The Lovely Lowland Maid" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Cruel Lowland Maid
NOTES [42 words]: The Lesley Nelson-Burns site Folk Music of England Scotland Ireland, Wales & America collection includes a text named The Little Lowland Maid with a note that "This appeared on a broadside entitled The Cruel Lowland Maid that was printed by Ryle." - BS
Last updated in version 2.8
File: Pea620

Lovely Mallie

See Yowe Lamb, The (Ca' the Yowes; Lovely Molly) (File: K124)

Lovely Mary

See Handsome Molly (File: FSWB148)

Lovely Mary Ann

See Blooming Mary Ann (File: Peac505)

Lovely Mary Donnelly

DESCRIPTION: "O lovely Mary Donnelly, my joy, my only best, If fifty girls were round you, I'd love you still the best." He describes her face and hair. He falls in love with her at a dance. She has many sweethearts. He is poor and has no hope of winning her.
AUTHOR: William Allingham (1824-1889) (source: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Sparling); 1887? (_Irish Songs and Poems_?, suggested by OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: love beauty dancing nonballad hair poverty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 53, "Lovely Mary Donnelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 247-248, 495, "Lovely Mary Donnelly"
NOTES [117 words]: William Allingham is known primarily for one piece, "The Fairies" ("Up the eairy mountain, Down the rushy glen"). Nonetheless he was a fairly major poet in his day; Patrick C. Power, A Literary History of Ireland, p. 159, writes "William Allingham was coeval also with the 'lost generation' [apparently the famine era] but he survived until 1888. He dispersed his talents imitating English poets such as Tennyson and his poetry is tinged with... pre-Raphaelitism.... Nevertheless, he wrote some ballads in the country style and poems inspired by his native Ballyshannon in County Donegal.... It appears that Allingham allowed himself to feel apart from the traditions of his native country...." - RBW
File: OLcM053

Lovely Molly (I)

See Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)

Lovely Molly (II)

See Yowe Lamb, The (Ca' the Yowes; Lovely Molly) (File: K124)

Lovely Molly (III)

See Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)

Lovely Molly (IV)

See The Ploughboy (I) (File: HHH780)

Lovely Nancy (I) [Laws N33]

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl and asks her what she is doing so far from home. She says she is seeking her love, gone these three years. He takes out his half of their broken ring and agrees to marry her and stay at home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: separation brokentoken marriage
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws N33, "Lovely Nancy I"
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 187-188, "Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 70, "Faithful Nancy, or One Fine Summer's Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 746, LOVNANC2*
Roud #1449
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
File: LN33

Lovely Nancy (II)

See Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy (File: E153D)

Lovely Nancy (III)

See Cupid's Garden (Covent Garden I; Lovely Nancy III) (File: SWMS090)

Lovely Nancy (IV)

DESCRIPTION: In this confused song, the singer courts a girl, who accuses him of not loving her. He claims he courted her only in jest. As he leaves her, she "hopes you and I will be judged on one day." If he survives his voyage, he hopes to return and ease her pain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting abandonment separation floatingverses
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H637, p. 385, "Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #443
NOTES [116 words]: This partakes of so many songs it's almost impossible to list them. The first verse is "When first into this country"; the last is "The Diamonds of Derry" or something similar. In between, we see lines or themes from "The Blacksmith," "The Wagoner's Lad," and any number of other betrayed love songs. There are also a few catch phrases from other "Lovely Nancy" songs. But I can't see that the result qualifies as a version of any of these myriad sources.
The notes in Sam Henry posit a link to Laws H12, "The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter," with which Roud lumps the song. Belden also alludes to the link, but says (correctly, in my view) that they are simply pieces on a similar theme. - RBW
File: HHH637

Lovely Nancy (V)

See William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I) [Laws N8] (File: LN08)

Lovely Nancy (VI)

DESCRIPTION: The singer courts Nancy. She and her mother reject me. Nancy marries "a boasty captain." He meet her walking in the fields; she bows her head and turns away. She knows she would have been happier with him. Young girls don't "throw your first love away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage rejection warning mother
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 477, "Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9792
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of Sweet Primroses" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [37 words]: Floating lines shared with The Banks of Sweet Primroses: Come all young girls I pray take warning, Don't ever throw your first love away, For there's many a dark and cloudy morning Brings forth a pleasant sunshiny day." - BS
File: Pea477

Lovely Nancy (VII)

See Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)

Lovely Nancy (VIII)

See Nancy (I) [Laws P11] (File: LP11)

Lovely Nancy from England (I)

See Pretty Nancy of London (Jolly Sailors Bold) (File: R078)

Lovely Nancy from England (II)

See Pretty Nancy of London (Jolly Sailors Bold) (File: LP05)

Lovely Newfoundlander, The

DESCRIPTION: "You may sing of maids of many lands," but none beats the Newfoundlander. Her form is perfect, she is sweet, lovely, can row a boat, catch a fish, garden, "her brain is sharp as needles," she knows when and when not to talk, can sing and dance, etc.
AUTHOR: Chris Cobb
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: beauty dancing flowers lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 370-371, "The Lovely Newfoundlander" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9788
File: Pea370

Lovely Night

DESCRIPTION: "Lovely night! O lovely night, spreading over hill and meadow, Soft and slow thy hazy shadow, Soon our weary eyelids close...." "Holy night, O holy night, placing brighter worlds before us." The singer wishes to never return "to this weary earth"
AUTHOR: F. X. Chwatal (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1842 (Bodleian broadsides)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Heart-Songs, p. 332, "Lovely Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13876
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.13(293), "Lovely Night," T. Birt (London< 1833-1841; also Firth c.12(265), "Lovely Night," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Firth b.27(263), "Lovely Night," (Ryle and Paul) (London), 1838-1859; also Harding B 11(2402), "Lovely Night," unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 11(567), "Lovely Night," unknown, n.d.; also Firth c.18(279)=Harding B 11(3962)=Johnson Ballads 1974H, G. Henson (Northampton), n.d.; also Harding B 11(2231), "Lovely Night," Neesom (London), n.d.
NOTES [16 words]: This seems to have been popular in broadsides. Why anyone would actually sing it is beyond me. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: HeSo332

Lovely Ohio, The

DESCRIPTION: The listeners are urged to emigrate to Ohio. The delights of the country are described: fish in the river, good cropland, sugar cane, no Indians. Both men and women are encouraged to come
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: emigration home nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 39, "The Lovely Ohio" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 563, "We'll Hunt the Buffalo!" (1 text, 1 tune, with the chorus of "Shoot the Buffalo" and lyrics from "The Lovely Ohio")
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 77, "Shoot the Buffalo" (1 text, called "Ohio" by the informant and clearly this piece rather than "Shoot the Buffalo," though the two do mix)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 85, (broadside print of "Battle of Stonington" and "Banks of the Ohio" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 71, "(O-hi-o, O-hi-o, my true love and me will go)" (1 fragment, probably this)
DT, OHIOBNKS*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pleasant Ohio" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Banks of the Pleasant Ohio
File: LoF039

Lovely on the Water

DESCRIPTION: "As I walked out one morning in the springtime of the year," the singer hears a sailor and his girl singing together. He must go; "it's lovely on the water to hear the music play." She asks to come; he refuses; she faints; they part; many sailors are lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Vaughan Williams)
KEYWORDS: sailor separation death travel music
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #66, "Lovely on the Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1539
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "High Germany" (theme, some lyrics)
File: VWP066

Lovely Polly

See I've Travelled This Country (Last Friday Evening) (File: Beld194)

Lovely River Finn, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls school days in Downrye by the river. He "fished for perch and trawled for pike." "Now I'm getting old and grey" and soon his bones will lie in Connon's church graveyard.
AUTHOR: John McKiernan (source: Steiner01)
EARLIEST DATE: 2012 (Steiner01)
KEYWORDS: age death fishing nonballad youth
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #22114
RECORDINGS:
Marge Steiner, "The Lovely River Finn" (on Steiner01)
File: RcTLRFi

Lovely Sally (You Broken-Hearted Heroes)

DESCRIPTION: Jamie, a militiaman, is being sent overseas. Sally comes with him to Belfast, and cries at their parting. She left her parents for him; how can she go back? Jamie's father promises to care for her. The song concludes with a wish for all militiamen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: soldier separation father mother home abandonment war
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H549, pp. 81-82, "You Broken-Hearted Heroes" ; H 724, pp. 82-83, "Lovely Sally" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 111, "The Spanish Shore" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 178, "The Spanish Volunteer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9046 and 2784
NOTES [424 words]: Sam Henry's two texts of this song are very similar though not identical; the same simply cannot be said of the two tunes. The first, said by Sean O'Boyle to be "The Winding Banks of Erne," is in G major and 6/8 time -- and takes shoehorning to fit the text. The second, though listed as being in G, looks to be in E minor, and is in 4/4. It fits the song much better, as well. The third tune, Creighton's, is in 4/4, but not identical to the Henry tune, though much of that may be the way Angelo Dornan ornamented it. It's clearly in G, though.
The two Irish versions do not say where the battle took place. In Angelo Dornan's Canadian fragment, though, the battle is located on the Spanish shore. Could this be a localized version? If so, then Ben Schwartz (based solely on Creighton; we had not at the time noticed that this was the same song as the Irish version) suggests this localization:
"My guess is that this refers to Irish participation on the Cristino side of the First Carlist [or Seven Years] War (for example, with the British Auxiliary Legion 1835-1837 (7th Irish Light Infantry, 9th Irish, 10th Munster Light Infantry, 2nd Lancers Queen's Own Irish) as at San Sebastian 5 May 1836 (source} Stephen Thomas's site re Military History and Wargaming)"
The above suggestion makes sense, though the possibility also exists that it's from Wellington's Peninsular campaign, or the various conflicts over Gibraltar and Minorca. We probably won't know for certain unless a more explicit text shows up. - RBW, BS
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 makes this a reference to the Peninsular War (1808-1814). It might refer to Irish participation on the Cristino [supporting Queen Christina] side in the First Carlist War (for example, with the British Auxiliary Legion 1835-1837 (7th Irish Light Infantry, 9th Irish, 10th Munster Light Infantry, 2nd Lancers Queen's Own Irish) as at San Sebastian 5 May 1836 (source} Stephen Thomas's site re Military History and Wargaming)
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Armagh Volunteer" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)).
Harte's final verse is substantially the same as the Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 111 fragment.
Harte, like Moylan, has this refer to the Peninsular War. "It is significant that the 'volunteer' in the song says that 'He was for ced to take the bounty and then to sail awa.'" - BS
File: HHH549

Lovely Story, The (The Sufferings of Christ)

DESCRIPTION: ""A story most lovely I'll tell, Of Jesus the wondrous surprise, He suffered to save us from Hell...." Jesus had pity on, and bled for, the "lost race." Judas hailed him with a kiss. He was tried before Pilate and crucified. Paradise awaits his followers
AUTHOR: William Walker?
EARLIEST DATE: 1835 (Southern Harmony)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 63-64, "The Crucifixion of Christ" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16619
NOTES [551 words]: This song seems very rare in tradition, and it also caused the hymnal-compilers some confusion. Charlie Spencer, the informant in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, thought it was two centuries old, and written by a London songwriter named Harris. The 1971 Denson version of the Original Sacred Harp prints it on p. 104 under the title "The Lovely Story," credited to "E. J. King, about 1850," but admits that it does not know whether King wrote or arranged the song.
The earliest trace I can find is the 1835 Southern Harmony, where it is called "The Sufferings of Christ" and credited to William Walker, who of course arranged many shape note songs.
Whoever wrote it (and I suspect the words and music are by different authors), it is certainly well-endowed with Biblical allusions:
The "sweat like blood" is found in "Luke 22:43-44" (a passage which, on the manuscript evidence, is almost certainly not an original part of the Gospel of Luke, but it's in the King James Bible).
Judas hailed Jesus with a kiss in Matthew 26:48-49, Mark 14:44-45, Luke 22:47-48.
In Matt. 26:55, Mark 14:48, Luke 22:52, Jesus says that those who are arresting him have come against him as they would against a robber, although the troops responsible are not called ruffians, merely a crowd.
Jesus was beaten before the Sanhedrin (Matt. 26:67, Mark 14:65, Luke 22:64), although it appears these blows were made by the tormenters' hands, not whips; Jesus was not flogged until after he came before Pilate.
The matter of what Jesus did or did not say to those who questioned him, and when, is complicated; suffice it to say that all the gospels say that he occasionally spoke, occasionally kept silent, and made cryptic but generally not abusive or rebellious statements.
Jesus is finally whipped in Matthew 27:26, Mark 15:15.
The colored robe (scarlet/cochineal in Matthew, purple in Mark and John) and the crown of thorns are in Matthew 27:28-29, Mark 15:17, John 19:2. He is called "King of the Jews" in the next verse (and John goes on to a complicated play between Jews and Pilate about that title; compare Matthew 27:27, Mark 15:26, Luke 23:38, John 19:19).
Jesus carries his cross in John 19:17; in Matthew 27:32, Mark 15:21, and Luke 23:26 Simon of Cyrene carries the cross.
The name "Calvary" does not occur in the Greek Bible; it is a Latin translation of Greek τοπον τον καλουμενον κρανιον, topon ton kaloumenon kranion, "Place th[at is] called 'of [a] skull.'" The King James Bible uses the name in Luke 23:33, based presumably on the Latin Vulgate's "locum qui vocatur Calvariea," "place which is called Calvariea/skull," although modern translations almost universally avoid the name; of the ancient translations, only the Georgian has the Latin name.
The line about "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me" is from Matthew 15:46, Mark 15:34 -- although the two gospels don't agree on whether he said it in Aramaic or Hebrew.
It was not the Temple, but the Temple CURTAIN, which was torn in two in Matthew 27:51, Mark 15:38, although Matthew claims there was an earthquake as well.
The spear in Jesus's side is mentioned in John 19:34.
The rest of the imagery, about Jesus's return, appears to be mostly inspired by the Apocalypse, although parallels to most of it can be found scattered about the Bible. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pet063

Lovely Susan

See The British Man-of-War (File: FSC013)

Lovely William

See Lovely Willie [Laws M35] (File: LM35)

Lovely Willie (II)

See The Cuckoo (File: R049)

Lovely Willie [Laws M35]

DESCRIPTION: A girl with many rich suitors is in love with Willie. The speaks of running away with him. Her father overhears and stabs Willie to death. At Willie's burial the girl openly rejects her father, vowing to spend the rest of her life in exile or die for love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homicide courting father elopement
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,So) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Laws M35, "Lovely Willie"
Randolph 113, "Lovely William" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 92-93, "Lovely William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 50, "Lovely William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 30, "Lovely Willie's Sweetheart" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H587, p. 433, "Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 138, "Lovely Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 55, "Lovely Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 456-457, "Green Grow the Laurels" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 66, "The Father in Ambush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 19, "Lovely Jimmy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 107, "Lovely Jimmy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 71, "Green Grow the Rushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 436, LOVLYWLL LOVJAMIE
Roud #1913
RECORDINGS:
George Carew, "Lovely Jimmie" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Kitty Cassidy, "Lovely Willie" (on IRCassidyFamily01)
Paddy Tunney, "Lovely Willie" (on IRPTunney02)
Mrs. Clara Stevens, "Green Grow the Laurels" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low" [Laws M34] (plot)
cf. "The Green Brier Shore (II)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Lover's Curse (Kellswater)" (themes)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lovely Jamie
Willy
NOTES [94 words]: The last verse of Peacock starts "Oh green grow the laurels and the tops of them small But love is a phantom will conquer us all," which is the form that resembles the beginning of the last verse of "Nancy from London"; that ends the similarity. - BS
This fragment also ends the Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi version (and gives it its title); evidently that was a Canadian adaption.
There is at least one documented instance of this happening in Ireland: In 1798, just before the Rebellion, Lord Kingston was on trial for the murder of his daughter's seducer. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LM35

Lovely Willie's Sweetheart

See Lovely Willie [Laws M35] (File: LM35)

Lovely Youth Called James McKee, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves wonderful James McKee. "I'm now despised, that once was prized, by him that I still adore." They had planned their wedding. "Him for to blame 'twould be a shame, 'twas these false maids led him astray." Warning: "tell your minds to none"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry)
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection warning
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 91-92, "The Lovely Youth Called James McKee" (1 text)
Roud #6540
File: HayU091

Lover and Darling, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears "a young pair." He asks that she call him "your darling." She smiles that he asks that so soon. He promises her riches. She refuses "for such." He promises her "love, contentment and ease." She says, "you're my darling"
AUTHOR: Sean Maistir O hIarlaithe (according to OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin; see note)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: courting love money dialog humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 172, "The Lover and Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9291
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "The Lover and Darling" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [28 words]: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin: "...a note added by Sean O Croinin states that the song was composed by Bess's [Cronin's] father, Sean Maistir O hIarlaithe." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC172

Lover and His Lass, A

See It Was a Lover and His Lass (File: FSWB155B)

Lover Freed from the Gallows

See Gallows [Laws L11] (File: LL11)

Lover's Curse, The (Kellswater)

DESCRIPTION: The girl tells how she will curse any woman who courts Willie. Her father gives her two choices: Send Willie away or see him die. When she scorns the choices, he imprisons her. Willie promises he will not leave Ireland without her. The father relents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (JIFSS)
KEYWORDS: love separation father hardheartedness poverty courting marriage violence travel death sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H695, pp. 442-443, "Kellswater" (1 text, 1 tune); also at least portions of H112, p. 288, "A Sweetheart's Appeal to Her Lover/Oh, It's down Where the Water Runs Muddy" (1 text, 1 tune, compiled from three different versions. I rather doubt the three versions were the same song, but at least part of it appears to go here)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 70, "On Board the Gallee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 45, "Jimmy and I Will Get Married" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 51, "In Bristol There Lived a Fair Maiden" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, KELLWATR KELLSWTR
Roud #916
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy Heffernan, "In Bristol There Lived a Fair Maiden" (on Ontario1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low" [Laws M34] (theme)
cf. "Lovely Willie" [Laws M35] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonnie Kellswater
NOTES [291 words]: The first few versions I met of this all seemed to start with the line, "Here's a health unto bonnie Kellswater," which seems to be the Irish form of the song. By far the larger fraction of the collections, however, seem to be from Canada, mostly from Fowke. Paul Stamler gives this description of the songs of this type:
A lady of [Bristol/London] is courted by sailor Jimmy, but her father opposes the match. She promises her father that, should she marry, it would be to an equal; he tells her that he's pleased, for he's found her a good match. She confesses that she loves Jimmy, and writes him a letter. They sneak up the stairs, but her father confronts them, holding a "fusee." He tells the daughter to choose between Jimmy's leaving or being shot; she tells him she'd rather see him sail than have innocent blood shed. The father relents and allows the marriage. - RBW/PJS
Edith Fowke notes that she was unable to find this ballad in any British or North American collection; neither was I. Plenty of father-opposes-match, of course, but none with precisely this story, never mind this ending. Fowke notes, "The reference to a 'loaded fusee' suggests a 17th-century origin, for according to the Oxford Dictionary, the term 'fusee' was used for a light musket or firelock between 1661 and 1680." Jim Heffernan, of Peterborough, Ont., learned the ballad from Jim Doherty, an older man who learned it from his mother. Her parents came from Ireland in the 1830s; therefore Fowke suspects an Irish origin for the song. - PJS
The Sam Henry version of this is very confused in viewpoint, with parts spoken by an outside observer and (seemingly) both the girl and the boy. One suspects some imported material. The plot seems undamaged by this. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: HHH442

Lover's Ghost (I), The

See The Suffolk Miracle [Child 272] (File: C272)

Lover's Ghost (II), The

See The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father [Child 248] (File: C248)

Lover's Lament (I), The

See My Dearest Dear (File: SKE40)

Lover's Lament (II), The

See Charming Beauty Bright [Laws M3] (File: LM03)

Lover's Lament (III), The

See Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)

Lover's Lament (IV), A

See Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove) (File: Wa097)

Lover's Lament for her Sailor, The

See I Never Will Marry [Laws K17] (File: LK17)

Lover's Proof, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come sit here beside me and tell me your thoughts, dear, Do you think the sun can rise in the west?" He asks who she loves. She won't say lest he reject her. "Oh when we are married I'll know his intentions, No weddin'... till the sun rises in the west"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (HCargillFamily)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection questions
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Debra Cowan, Acie Cargill, Kristina Olsen, "The Lover's Proof" (on HCargillFamily)
File: HCarg003

Lover's Resolution

DESCRIPTION: Singer's lover slights her "because I have not riches to disguise his poverty" If she were queen of England she'd resign the crown for him. She would travel with him "from seaport town to town," but he has left.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: poverty love rejection floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN:
Roud #V29751
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.13(299), "The Lover's Resolution ("Love it is a killing thing, I've heard the people say"), T. Wilson (Whitehaven), n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Girl" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Bonny Tavern Green" (lyrics)
NOTES [77 words]: The description is from broadside Bodleian Firth c.13(299)
Floating verses: from "The Irish Girl": "Oh, love it is a killing thing, I hear the people say." The queen of England line ("Was I queen of England, as queen Anne was before") is shared with "Bonny Tavern Green." There are lines that seem like floaters but are not lines I know. For example, "O was my love a red rose growing on yon Castle wall, And I myself a drop of dew all on the leaves would fall." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BrdLoRes

Lover's Return

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Lover's Return (I), The

See The Last Farewell (The Lover's Return) (File: R761)

Lover's Return (II), The

See The Banks of Claudy [Laws N40] (File: LN40)

Lover's Return (III), The

DESCRIPTION: Mostly floating verses: "If I had listened to mother, I would not a-been here today." "Let him go, let him go, God bless him, He's mine where ever he may be." "I have a ship out on the ocean." At the end, "My own sweet Robert" arrives from over the sea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: love separation return reunion floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 111, "The Lover's Return" (1 text)
Roud #16411
NOTES [60 words]: There may be a line or two in this song not paralleled elsewhere. There may not, too. But the combination is unique: The first verse and the "Let him go" chorus imply a betrayal song, the second verse is the floating "I have a ship on the ocean... but before my true love would suffer"; the last verse is closest to unique as it involves the man's return. - RBW
File: Fus111

Lover's Trial, The

DESCRIPTION: A listener hears a man and woman talking about marriage. She rejects him because she loves another who is "far away on the foaming ocean." He leaves and the listener reveals himself as her long lost lover.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting reunion separation dialog flowers
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 553-554, "The Lover's Trial" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea553 (Partial)
Roud #9794
NOTES [39 words]: Peacock discusses the "fertility symbolism of the garden" and [observes] that "each flower of the garden has its own meaning." - BS
For a catalog of some of the sundry flower symbols, see the notes to "The Broken-Hearted Gardener." - RBW
File: Pea553

Lovers Parted

DESCRIPTION: To the tune of "The Ship That Never Returned": Two lovers quarrel as he prepares to seek his fortune. Both regret the quarrel, but they are never reunited. Listeners are warned against quarreling
AUTHOR: Music by Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love separation farewell warning travel
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 215, "The Ship That Never Returned" (1 text, filed as "a" under the parodies, plus mention of 1 more)
Roud #6552
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship that Never Returned" [Laws D27] (tune, lyrics) and references there
File: BrII215A

Lovers Quarrel: or, Cupids Triumph, The

See Tom Potts [Child 109] (File: C109)

Lovers' Farewell (I)

DESCRIPTION: The girl laments that her love came and bade her farewell, then went to war in the Low Country. He fought, and none knew where he fell. Now "he may sleep in an open grave, But I will wake on my pallet of grief...."
AUTHOR: unknown ("collected" by John Jacob Niles)
EARLIEST DATE: 1961
KEYWORDS: parting death separation grief war
FOUND IN: US(SE?)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 17A, "Lover's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune, dubiously labelled as Child 26)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Three Ravens [Child 26]" (lyrics)
cf. "The Highland Widow's Lament" (plot)
NOTES [94 words]: Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles lists this piece as a form of "The Three Ravens," on the basis of a few lyric similarities ("evensong"; "No man knows that he lies there / But his horse and his hound and his lady Mary"; "Oh, he may sleep in an open grave / Where raven fly and flutter"). The plot, however, is completely different, and reminds me more of "The Highland Widow's Lament," which tells of a soldier dying in the Low Country (on behalf of Bonnie Prince Charlie). The piece is quite beautiful, but one can only suspect John Jacob Niles's hand in it. - RBW
File: Niles71A

Lovers' Quarrel (I), The

See The Courting Case (File: R361)

Lovers' Quarrel (II), The

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

Lovers' Tasks, The

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Lovewell's Fight (I)

DESCRIPTION: Captain Lovewell and his men set out to attack the Indians. They find and kill one, only to find their baggage plundered and the Indians planning an ambush. Lovewell is killed, and many others, but at last the Europeans reach their destination
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (Farmer and Moore, according to Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks); there is a mention of a 1725 broadside that is probably this
KEYWORDS: battle Indians(Am.)
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 9, 1725 - Battle between Captain Lovewell and the Indians at Pigwacket (near Fryeburg, Maine)
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 127-133, "Lovewell's Fight, I" (1 text, from a broadside)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 714-716, "Lovewell's Fight" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 2-4, "Lovewell's Fight" (1 text)
Roud #4026
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lovewell's Fight (II)" (subject)
NOTES [198 words]: Lest the Indians be blamed for this battle, it should be noted that Lovewell and his men were scalphunters -- receiving one hundred pounds for each trophy they brought in.
Although the conflict doubtless worsened relations between Colonists and Indians, it seems to have had little real effect on history. I checked five histories of the period, and only one mentioned it: Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., editor, The Almanac of American History, revised edition, Putnam, 1993 (I use the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 79-80, notes that Lovewell's men brought home ten scalps -- the first known instance of Europeans scalping Indians. Schlesinger, however, dates the attack to April 20, 1725, and places it near Wakefield, New Hampshire, not Pigwacket, Maine. The dating in the Historical References is based on the song itself (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks's version says that Lovewell's men encountered their first Indian on May 8 near Pigwacket).
This song is item dA27 in Laws's Appendix II.
To tell it from "Lovewell's Fight (II)," consider this first half-stanza:
Of worthy Captain Lovewell,
I purpose now to sing,
How valiantly he served
His country and his King. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: L714

Lovewell's Fight (II)

DESCRIPTION: Lovewell and fifty men set out from Dunstable. Other members of the party include Farwell, Harwood, Wyman, and Chaplain Frye. They kill an Indian, then are ambushed by 80 others. The deaths of several are described. Old men remember the fight sadly.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (Farmer and Moore, according to Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: battle Indians(Am.) clergy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 134-139, "Lovewell's Fight, II" (1 text, from a broadside)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lovewell's Fight (I)" (subject)
NOTES [86 words]: Lest the Indians be blamed for this battle, it should be noted that Lovewell and his men were scalphunters -- receiving one hundred pounds for each trophy they brought in. For background, see the notes to "Lovewell's Fight (I)."
Although neither Lovewell song is very good, this one is particularly overwrought. To tell it from "Lovewell's Fight (I)," consider this first stanza:
What time the noble Lovewell came,
With fifty men from Dunstable,
The cruel Pequa'rt tribe to tame,
With arms and bloodshed terrible.. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Gray134

Lovin' Babe

See Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor (File: Handy190)

Lovin' Nancy (II)

See If I Were a Fisher (File: HHH709)

Loving Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: "Adieu, my lovin' girl, adieu, It wounds my heart to part with you, The time has come for me to go, Therefore your mind I wish to know." He recalls that "you loved me first," but she has lost interest; he wishes her well and sadly departs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love separation parting infidelity
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 732, "The Loving Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LOVNGIRL*
Roud #7393
File: R732

Loving Hannah

See Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)

Loving Henry

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Loving Henry (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Have you seen my lovin' Henery. Oh, have you seen dat darlin' man? I'm jes' crazy 'bout my Henery, He's de sweetes' man in town.... I thought I heard a knocking'. "Is day you, Henry... Oh, dare's my lovin' Henery now."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love reunion nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 125, "Loving Henry" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11375
File: Brne125

Loving Nancy (I)

See The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)

Loving Nancy (II)

See Nancy (II) (The Rambling Beauty) [Laws P12] (File: LP12)

Loving Reilly

See William Riley's Courtship [Laws M9] (File: LM09)

Low Back Car, The

DESCRIPTION: "When first I saw sweet Peggy... A low-backed car she drove." "The man at the turnpike bar" was too stunned by her appearance to collect the toll. Men are knocked down by her glance. The singer imagines driving in the low-backed car to be married.
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1853 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(397))
KEYWORDS: beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 505, "Peggy in Her Low Backed Car" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 87-88, "The Low Back Car" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 442-443, "The Low-Backed Car" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #74, "The Low-Back'd Car" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 67, "The Low Backed Car" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1332, pp. 90-91, "The Low Back'd Car" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 44 and #4/64, p. 44, The Low Back'd Car"" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: [no author listed], _Songs That Never Grow Old_, Syndicate Publishing, 1909, 1913, p. 148, "The Low-Backed Car" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6954
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(397), "The Low-Backed Car", J. Moore (Belfast) , 1846-1852; also Johnson Ballads 1101, "The Low Back'd Car"; Harding B 11(2253), Harding B 20(148), "The Low Back Car"; Harding B 11(2254), Firth b.26(233), 2806 b.11(253), "The Low-Back Car"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(122b), "The Low-Backed Car," Poet's Box (Glasgow?), 1878
SAME TUNE:
Low Necked Dress ("When first I saw Miss Delia") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 91)
NOTES [86 words]: Note that there is no connection, save the title, between this and the song we have indexed as "The Low-Backed Car."
The tune to this is said to be "The Jolly Ploughboy," but since there are several songs with that approximate title, it isn't much help.
According to the list of broadsides on pp. 90-91 of Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, it appears this was originally published in America as "The Low Back's Car." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OCon087

Low Back'd Car, The

See The Low Back Car (File: OCon087)

Low Bridge, Everybody Down

See The Erie Canal (File: San171)

Low Down Chariot

See Let Me Ride (File: Wa170)

Low Down in the Broom

DESCRIPTION: "My daddy is a canker'd carle, He'll ne'er twine wi' his gear," the girl admits as she wishes to be with her lad. She details all the ways her family reigns her in. But she meets her love beneath the broom, and at last they escape and live happily
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1804 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: love courting family elopement
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 234-236, "Low Down in the Broom" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 161, "Low Down in the Broom" (1 text)
Roud #1644
NOTES [66 words]: Said to be the tune Burns used for "My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose."
Ford's version of this is distinctly longer than the versions in Ord-BothySongsAndBallads and the Scots Musical Museum; it starts with several stanzas about how Jenny and "Pate" meet, whereas the SMM text simply outlines how difficult the girl's parents are. It is not clear which form is older; Ford had it from a chapbook. - RBW
File: FVS234

Low Down the Chariot and Let Me Ride

See Let Me Ride (File: Wa170)

Low Is the Way

DESCRIPTION: "Oh my brother, you must bow so low, so low (x2), For low is the way to that upper bright world. Let the heavenly light shine on me." Similarly for sister, preacher, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad family travel clergy
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 180, "Low Is the Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16305
File: Arno180

Low Lands of Holland, The

See The Lowlands of Holland (File: R083)

Low-Back'd Car, The

See The Low Back Car (File: OCon087)

Low-Backed Car, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's onward we travel through life's weary journey Our thoughts oft returns to the bright days of yore, To the scenes of our childhood" in and around St John's. Some day good times will return and we will go back to "be happy by the old low-backed car"
AUTHOR: (credited to T. J. Greene by Michael P. Murphy)
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Murphy, Old Colony Song Book)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration hardtimes lament lyric
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 120, "The Low-Backed Car" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, compiler/publisher, "(Old Colony Song Book: Newfoundland)," James Murphy, 1904 (available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site; the cover is missing, but I suspect it is a copy of "Songs of Our Land"), p. 52, "The Old Low-Back-Car" (1 text)
Michael P. Murphy, _Pathways through Yesterday_, edited by Gerald S. Moore, Town Crier Publishing, 1976, p. 152, "(no title) (1 verse only, but with a description of the author and his situation)
Roud #17751
NOTES [66 words]: Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland notes that "This is a song about a boy who grew up in St John's but was forced to leave Newfoundland when economic conditions prevented him from getting a living there ... The low-backed car marked a street in St John's" - BS
Note that there is no connection, save the title, between this and the song we have indexed as "The Low Back Car." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: GrMa120

Low-Down Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Well, I tell all you workin' men, please take this advice from me, Save yo' money... let these crooked women go." Women will "drink up yo' last dime" and leave you behind. The singer has friends when he has money, none when he has none
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes abandonment money nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 191, "Low-Down Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16272
File: Rose191

Low-Down, Lonesome Low, The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Low, Black Schooner, The

DESCRIPTION: "A wet sheet and a flowing sea.... Come, raise the sparkling can, Sound the toast, each bold mess through, Huzza for our low black craft, my boys, and her noble pirate crew." "We make each trader ay toll, For pirates bold are we"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1845 (The Pirate's Songster, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate travel derivative nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 71, "The Low, Black Schooner" (1 text, 1 tune; #45 in the first edition)
Roud #V25663
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Britannia on Our Lee" (lyrics, tune)
File: FrPi071

Lowell Factory Girl, The

See No More Shall I Work in the Factory (File: Grnw122)

Lower the Boat Down

DESCRIPTION: Halyard shanty. "There's only one thing grieves me. Ch: Oh, lower the boat down! It's my poor wife and baby, Ch: Oh, lower the boat down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 63, "Lower the Boat Down" (1 single-verse fragment)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 158-159, "Lower the Boat Down" (1 fragment, quoted from Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll the Cotton Down" (similar tune)
File: Colc063

Lowland Lass, The

See The Highland Lad and Lawland Lass (File: GrD1123)

Lowland Lassie, Wilt Thou Go

See O Row Thee in my Highland Plaid (File: GrD4865)

Lowland Sea, The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Lowlands (My Lowlands Away)

DESCRIPTION: Sometimes a ballad: The singer is at sea when his love comes to him in a dream. She is dressed in white, and he realizes that his love is dead. Other times a lyric, in which the sailor talks about his travels, his ship, low pay, and/or a bad captain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1870
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor sea love death dream ghost
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Britain(England(North,West))
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 40, "Lowlands Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 80-82, "Lowlands" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 124-126, "Lowlands" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 100-101, "Lowlands" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the first is the dead lover version, the second the "Dollar and a half" version)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips pp. 127-128 "Lowlands" (1 text, 1 tune, a "Dollar and a half" version")
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 65-70 "Lowlands Away," "Lowlands or My Dollar An' A Half A Day" (4 texts, 2 tunes -- three dead lover versions, one Dollar and a half" version) [AbEd, pp. 61-64]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XVIII, p. 21, "Lowlands Away" (1 text, 1 tune, a"Dollar and a half" version)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 109, "A Dollar and a Half a Day" (1 text)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 43-44, "Lowlands" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 46-47, "Lowlands, II" (1 text); p. 47, "Lowlands, III" (1 fragment)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #6, "Lowlands away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 65, "Lowlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 237, "Lowlands" (1 fragment)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 100, "Lowlands Away" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 43, "Lowlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H469, p. 144, "My Lowlands, Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 132, "Lowlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 89, "Lowlands" (1 text)
DT, LOWLNDS LOWLND2 LOWLND3
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Johnny Boker" is in Part 1, 7/14/1917. "Lowlands" is in Part 1, 7/14/1917.
Roud #681
RECORDINGS:
Martin Bartlett, "Lowlands (Away)" (Piotr-Archive #83, recorded 09/17/2021 -- a pub (?) recording, with a lot of noise)
Anita Best and Pamela Morgan, "Lowlands Low" (on NFABestPMorgan01)
Anne Briggs, "Lowlands" (on Briggs1, Briggs3)
Brian Oxberry, "Lowlands (Away)" (Piotr-Archive #56, recorded 07/27/2021)
Erica Warnock, "Lowlands (Away)" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #459, recorded 01/26/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Dollar a Day" (floating lyrics)
cf. "A Long Time Ago" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [309 words]: This tune pattern ("Lowlands, lowlands away, my John...," with final line either "My lowlands away" or "My dollar and a half a day") has been used for at least three separate plots (which have perhaps cross-fertilized a bit): A dead sailor, a dead sailor's girl, and a more lyric piece about the bad conditions sailors face, the latter often having the "dollar and a half" refrain.
Shay, who apparently regards the dead sailor version as original, thinks this lyric item a much-decayed version of "The Lowlands of Holland." This is certainly possible, especially thematically, but there is a lot of evolution along the way....
Bone-CapstanBars comments on this subject, "'Lowlands' is a very old song. There are many versions, but it seems to me that the lament in the air establishes it as an adaption of some old ballad....
"I have heard it sung on many occasions -- as a capstan shanty -- and always there were the three standard lines, repeated, as verses, 'I dreamt a dream the other night.' ... 'I dreamt I saw my own true love.' ... 'And then I knew my love was dead.' With these the chantyman felt that he had held to tradition and then warranted in his own right to hawk his own wares.'"
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas adds that it was "never too popular, as it was too difficult to sing properly" -- which strikes me as true; it feels more like a ballad than a shanty. Most shanties have a very regular rhythm; this has very little.
Hugill thinks the "'dead lover' theme definitely originated in Scotland or the North of England" (which again feels right, not that that's proof). But he also thinks the tune as "a negro touch about it." That part I'm not so sure about. He adds that it is "the only chanty in which Sailor John allowed 'sob-stuff,'" which he again takes as evidence that it was not originally a shanty or even a sea-song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: PBB100

Lowlands Away

See Lowlands (My Lowlands Away) (File: PBB100)

Lowlands Low (I), The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Lowlands Low (II), The

See Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low [Laws M34] (File: LM34)

Lowlands Low (III)

DESCRIPTION: Halyard shanty. "Our packet is the Island Lass, Low-lands, low-lands, low-lands, low! There's a nigger howlin' at the main top mast, Low-lands, low-lands, low-lands, low!" Verses mostly complaints and rhymes about sailing.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
KEYWORDS: shanty work
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 70-71, "Lowlands Low" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEb, pp. 64-65]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXIX, p. 34, "Lowlands Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8286
NOTES [30 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas says this is from ships the West Indian trade (sugar and rum), many of which had "chequerboard" crews, i.e. one watch white and one watch coloured. - SL
File: Hugi070

Lowlands O, The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Lowlands of Holland, The

DESCRIPTION: A young couple are parted (when the young man is taken away to sea). While in service, he is drowned. The girl vows she will not dress in fine clothes nor seek another man until the day she dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1760
KEYWORDS: recruiting death parting pressgang separation ship marines
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,Lond,West),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,NE,So) Canada(Newf) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES (39 citations):
Bronson (92), "The Lowlands of Holland" (22 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads (92), "The Lowlands of Hollands" (5 versions: #1, #6, #7, #110, #16)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 107, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 55-57, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 88-89, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 26, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 7, "The Low Lands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune) {Brronson's #8}
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #83, pp. 1-2, "The Rocks of Giberaltar"; #135, p. 2, "The Lowlands o' Holland" (2 texts plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1116, "The Lowlands of Holland," Greig/Duncan6 1118, "The Rocks of Gibraltar," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "The Lowlands of Holland" (6 texts plus a single verse on p. 546, 2 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 23, "The Low, Low Lands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 60, "The Lowlands of Holland" (3 texts)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 85, "The Lowlands of Holland" (3 texts)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 456, "Lowlands of Holland" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #38, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #103, "I'll Build Myself a Gallant Ship" (1 text, 1 tune, probably this although there isn't much plot left in it)
Randolph 83, "The Lily of Arkansas" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 72-74, "The Lily of Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 83A)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 101-102, "The Jolly Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 45-46, "The Lawlands o' Holland" (1 text)
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 88-89, "The Lowlands Low" (1 text, slightly damaged)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 113-114, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 133-139, "(How Dan Golden Made Up a New Song)" (1 text of "John Ross" plus many quotes from "Lowlands of Holland" versions that Eckstorm and Smyth consider Golden's inspiration)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p.p. 53-54, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 179, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 22-25, "The Lowlands of Holland" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 160, "The Lowlands o' Holland" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 132, p. 150, "The Soldier Bride's Lament" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H180, pp. 149-150, "Holland Is a Fine Place" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 54-55, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 328-332, "The Lowlands of Holland (Scottish Version)"; "The Lowlands of Holland (English Version)"; "The Rocks of Gibraltar" (3 texts)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 12, "Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 7A, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 48, pp. 140-141,174, "The Rocks of Giberaltar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #59, "The Maid's Lamentation for the Loss of her True Love" (1 text)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads LXXIII, pp. 141-142, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text); LXXXVIII, pp. 177-178, "The Maid's Lamentation for the Loss of her True Love" (1 text)
DT (92), LOWHOLLD* LOWHOLL2* LOWHOLL3* LOWHOLL4 LOWHOLL5 LOWHOLL6 LOWHOLL7* LOWHOLL8
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #115, p. 118, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 213, "(The Lily of Arkansas)" (1 fragment)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #377, "The Lawlands o' Holland" (1 text)
ST R083 (Full)
Roud #484
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best and Pamela Morgan, "The Lowlands of Holland" (on NFABestPMorgan01)
Michael Murphy, "Lowlands of Holland" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Paddy Tunney, "The Lowlands of Holland" (on IRPTunney01) (on Voice02)
Guy Wolff, "Lowlands of Holland" (Piotr-Archive #433, recorded 01/08/2023)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2258), "Lowlands of Holland" ("The night that I was married"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth c.12(216), Firth c.26(201), "Lowlands of Holland"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(68b), "The Rocks of Bonnie Gibraltar ," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890; also RB.m.143(121) "The Lowlands of Holland," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonny Bee Hom" [Child 92] (given as an appendix to that ballad)
cf. "All Things Are Quite Silent" (theme)
cf. "The British Man-of-War" (tune)
cf. "Our Ship She Is Lying in Harbour" (lyrics)
cf. "Bonny Portmore" ("shines where it stands") and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lily of Arkansas
NOTES [332 words]: "The Lowlands of Holland" is frequently connected to "Bonny Bee Hom" (Child 92), a link dating back to Child (who printed four stanzas of Herd's text). The matter has been much studied, without clear conclusion. The tendency has been to assume that "Bonny Bee Hom" is the older, just because it is the Child Ballad, but the fact that "Lowlands of Holland" is so much more common may be a counter-argument. David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 323, suggests that "Bonny Bee Hom" is Anna Gordon Brown's rewrite of "Lowlands." It might be noted, however, that "Bonny Bee Hom" involves a magic device (the stone that tells the lover whether his sweetheart is true), a theme not found in "The Lowlands of Holland."
It will also be obvious that "The Lowlands of Holland" has been enduringly popular, whereas "Bonny Bee Hom" has had very little currency in tradition.
Roud assigns Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1's "The Jolly Sailor" text its own number, #7131, but the Burton/Manning song shares many words with this song; it just omits the reference to the Lowlands of Holland. I have no hesitation about lumping them. - RBW
Roud assigns #2174 to "The Rocks of Gibraltar." Aside from the location being changed from "The Lowlands of Holland" there's hardly anything to distinguish between the two songs.
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 85A includes a "shines as it stands" verse: "Holland is a pleasant place which shines as it stands And there's good accomodations for sailors in that land, Where sugar there in canes do grow, the tea falls from the tree. I wish to God my love was nigh, although she's far away." The more usual verse is something like "Holland is a pretty place, And in it grows no green, Nor is there any habitation, For any young man to be seen, The sugar cane is plentiful, And the tea grows on the trees, And the low lands of Holland, Betwixt you my love and me" (Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(2258)) - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R083

Lowly, Lowly

See The Pious Little Men (File: Grim057)

Lowrie (The Adventures of Larry McFlynn)

DESCRIPTION: Dubliner Lowrie enlists in ignorance. Sentenced to be whipped on his bare skin he puts a bear skin on his back. He drinks his kit empty and stuffs a young cat in his knapsack. The captain recognizes a hopeless case and makes Lowrie his personal servant.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1843 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(14))
KEYWORDS: army ordeal humorous soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 81, "Lowrie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5772
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(14), "The Adventures of Larry M'Flinn ("In the year eighteen hundred and thirty and three"), W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle), 1832-1842; also Harding B 11(17), Johnson Ballads 456, "Adventures of Lary O'Flinn"
NOTES [16 words]: Greig/Duncan1 and broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(14) intersperse verses and spoken story line. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1081

Loyal Lover (I), The

See Nancy's Complaint in Bedlam (File: ShH41)

Loyal Lover (II), The

See I'll Weave My Love a Garland (File: dlMC389A)

Loyal Lovers, The

DESCRIPTION: Two lovers court in secret for two years. When her parents learn it they and some of her friends on him "laid a' the blame." He feels he must leave: "love winna lat me stay." He claims he will be true. "Long courting is as bad a thing, as any man can do"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting separation father friend mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1119, "The Loyal Lovers" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6850
NOTES [31 words]: A few lines float from "The Wars of Germany" [Laws N7]: "And now he is sailing upon the sea, with a sad and troubled mind For the leaving of his countrie and his own dear love behind." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61119

Loyal Song Against Home Rule, A

DESCRIPTION: "I'm an Irishman born in loyal Belfast." Ireland "would be ruined for ever if Home Rule was passed." Gladstone "has got no idea of the blood it would spill ... don't let old Gladstone get you in a snare ... It's time long ago he was upon the shelf"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 100, "A New Loyal Song Against Home Rule" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Home Rule for Ireland" (subject: the quest for Home Rule)
cf. "The Union We'll Maintain" (subject: opposition to Home Rule)
NOTES [2271 words]: William Ewart Gladstone became British prime minister in 1868 and supported Home Rule for Ireland. He introduced his first Home Rule Bill, which was defeated, in 1885. His second Home Rule Bill was defeated in 1893. (source: "Home Rule" on the Irelandseye site) - BS
Gradually during the nineteenth century, the restrictions on Catholics in Ireland were lifted. But the memory remained -- and most of the land was still in Protestant hands.
Gladstone devoted much of his energy as Prime Minister to improving conditions in Ireland, disestablishing the Church (see, e.g., "The Downfall of Heresy") and granting increased tenant rights (see especially "The Bold Tenant Farmer," though the need for land reform inspired many songs).
Gladstone apparently thought initially that ordinary reforms would be enough to satisfy Ireland (see "Home Rule for Ireland"; also Kee, p. 58: Gladstone seems at first to have imagined that he could solve the problem of Ireland forever by two measures: first, By disestablishing the Irish Protestant Church and, second, legislating to compensate a tenant financially on conviction). The success of the Land League and the rise of Charles Stewart Parnell eventually forced Gladstone to see otherwise (for Parnell, see e.g. "The Blackbird of Avondale (The Arrest of Parnell)"; also "We Won't Let Our Leader Run Down").
For most of the nineteenth century, the Irish had given their support primarily to the Liberals, who were more sympathetic to their cause. But Parnell, who by 1882 was the dominant force in Irish politics, wasn't willing to settle for that. In 1885, he urged his supporters to vote Conservative just to try to shake things up.
The result as an election in which the Liberals held 335 seats in parliament, the Conservatives 249 -- and Parnell controlled 86 seats and the balance of power (Kee, p. 89).
Prime Minister Gladstone tried to improve the situation with his proposal for Home Rule (partial internal autonomy for Ireland). Gladstone's 1886 Home Rule proposal was limited -- the British would still control foreign and trade policy, for instance. But internal affairs would largely be in Irish hands. Curtis, p. 380, notes that Gladstone's "portrait as 'the Friend of Ireland' adorned thousands of peasant homes."
Unfortunately, his own party was not united on the issue. A handful of members openly went over to the Conservatives; a larger block, headed by Joseph Chamberlain, remained devoted to other liberal reforms, but simply would not support Home Rule (see Kee, pp. 89-90; Massie, pp. 235-238).
The government fell, and Home Rule was shelved for seven years.
The second attempt was no more successful. According to Kee, p. 124, the 1893 Home Rule bill "occupied more parliamentary time than any other bill in the history of the century." You have to wonder why the Ulster Unionists -- who, as we shall see, went into conniptions -- were so worried; some wit quipped that Gladstone had no more power to pass Home Rule (through the Lords) than he did to install waterworks on the moon. The Lords not only rejected it, they rejected it 419-41 (Curtis, p. 386; Kee, p. 125).
That was about the end for Gladstone. It wasn't good for the Liberals, either; for fifteen years Parliament was split into four groups: Conservatives, classic Liberals, Liberal Unionists (Chamberlainites), and the residual Parnellites, now led by John Redmond insofar as they had a leader (OxfordComp, p. 475); in the election of 1892, nearly 90% of the Irish MPs claimed to be anti-Parnellite, but that faded over time. As Curtis says, p. 389, "After Parnell there could not fail to be a dull epoch for Ireland. His party was split and John Redmond took the place of the dead chief, but Tim Healy, William O'Brien and John Dillon were rivals rather than lieutenants, and it was 1900 before even the seeming of unity was restored." For the most part, the British government suffered gridlock, though the Chamberlainites occasionally managed to extract liberal reforms from the Conservatives. But there was no possibility of serious legislation for Ireland. The Conservatives were in almost complete control from 1886 to 1906 (Curtis, p. 386).
Still, Home Rule naturally concerned the Irish Protestants, who would inevitably find Catholics in charge of a Home Rule Ireland. In most of Ireland, they were too few to really resist. But in Ulster, or at least in parts of it, they were the majority. And they didn't want the Catholics doing unto them as they had done unto the Catholics. (They knew what it was like: Unlike the Anglicans in the rest of Ireland, the Ulstermen *had* been subjected to religious persecution; Kee, pp. 96-97.)
So the Presbyterians strenuously opposed Home Rule. The old Orange Society, which had been banned in 1836, was revived in 1845 in Enniskillen (Kee, p. 100), and a Protestant Defence Association came into being in 1867-1868 (Kee, p. 101-102) in response to the Land League and the British government's relatively mild reaction (Kee, p. 103). By 1884, Kee reports that 20,000 Orangemen were demonstrating on the anniversary of the Boyne.
If Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion's 1893 date for this song is reliable, the probable inspiration for this song (apart from Gladstone's 1893 attempt at a Home Rule bill) was the great Ulster Unionist Convention of 1892 (Kee, p. 122); some 12,000 were said to have attended; they passed resolutions which stated that Ulster was an integral part of the United Kingdom, rejected an Irish parliament, and declared against Home Rule. One speaker declared that Ulster would defend itself if threatened with rule from Dublin.
Finally, in 1904, came the foundation of the Ulster Unionist Council (OxfordComp, p. 562, which notes that it was intended as "a unifying organization for northern uiononists. Ironically, it helped divide the national Unioninist movement; as Townshend notes, p. 32, Unionists in southern Ireland were a small enough minority that their only hope was to maintain the Union with Britain. The Ulster Unionists had a fallback position: Partition. The two groups thus ended up pursuing different ends.)
Even before the founding of the UUC, the Unionists had had a spokesman in Edward Carson (1854-1935). He was denouncing Home Rule in the government by the 1890s, and helped along the split in the Liberal Party that made Home Rule impossible. Eventually he managed to take Ulster out of Ireland. The irony in this is that he wasn't an Ulsterman -- and on issues other than Union, he was even relatively liberal (Kee, p. 169-170). But he openly declared that would support anarchy rather than Home Rule (O'Connor, p. 45).
By 1911, Ulstermen were rallying and marching -- with compliant Justices of the Peace being more than willing to grant them permits to drill (Kee, p. 171; Townshend, p. 35). Nearly 450,000 would sign a "Solemn League and Covenant" to oppose Home Rule, some with their own blood (Kee, p. 180). 20,000 signed on the first day alone (O'Conor, p. 46). They were pledged to "Stand by one another in using all means which may be found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to set up a Home Rule Parliament and in the even of such a Parliament being forced upon us, we further solemnly pledge ourseves to refuse to recognize its authority" (O'Connor, pp. 45-46).
Starting in 1913, the Ulster Unionist Council formed a provisional government (O'Connor, p. 46) and started raising a private army which woul eventually reach 100,000 men (Kee, p. 182; O'Connor, p. 46, credits them with 50,000 men withing three months of their foundation), though at first few had weapons (Townshend, p. 33); they practiced with wooden mock-ups. They would raise a million-pound insurance fund (Townshend, p. 42).
Members of the British government called it treason (O'Connor, p. 46). That didn't even slow them down.
Home Rule finally came back in 1910, long after Gladstone was dead. The Liberal government of H. H. Asquith, which needed the Irish votes controlled by Redmond (Dangerfield, pp. 52-53), passed Home Rule -- only to have the Lords block it again.
Asquith finally hit upon the radical solution of limiting the veto power of the House of Lords -- in effect setting up a system where the Lords could block a measure for two years, but have to give in if the Commons kept passing it. Asquith won a narrow parliamentary victory on this point (for an intensely detailed description of how all this came about, see Massie, pp. 640-662 -- the chapter entited "The Budget and the House of Lords"; for something shorter, see the notes to "My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher (Nobody Coming to Marry Me)").
With the Lords rendered relatively powerless, a preliminary Home Rule bill eventually passed in 1913 (see Cronin, pp. 177-179). But English opinion had not really been tested on the matter (Kee, p. 176, notes that "Only some 94 of the 272 successful Liberal candidates... had actually mentioned Home Rule at all in their election addresses" -- and that the Prime Minister was one of the many cabinet officials who did not mention the subject).
Worse, the army was not prepared to enforce the law; a number of officers resigned rather than prepare to suppress Ulster loyalists -- the so-called "Curragh Mutiny" (Kee, p. 192). In trying to calm the mutiny, the British government made it effectively impossible to control Ulster loyalists. Indeed, future Conservative prime minister Andrew Bonar Law stood with Carson at a rally against Home Rule in Belfast (O'Connor, p. 45)
Chandler/Beckett, p. 210, sums up the situation this way: "After indicating that sixty officers of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade at the Curragh would prefer dismissal to being ordered north, Brigadier-General Hubert Gough received a written assurance from the Cabinet, amended into more precise language by Sir John French, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff. When the government promptly repudiated any notion of a private bargain with a few officers, the signatories of the document -- French, Sir J. S. Ewart, the Adjutant-General, and J. E. B. Sealy, the Secretary of State for War, proffered their resignations. More of an 'incident' than a mutiny (no orders were actually disobeyed), the Curragh affair damaged personal relatinships within the army and bequeathed a legacy between the military and political leaders."
Then came World War I, which caused the law to be suspended (the Home Rule bill had been unravelling over the Ulster problem anyway). Kee reports that Prime Minister Asquith, after consultation with the main parties, "agreed... that Home Rule should become law and be placed on the statute book, but simultaneously with a Suspensory Act which would prevent it coming into force until a new Amending Bill could be introduced" (which, in practice, meant "until after the War").
Still, the bill formally passed and gained the King's assent in 1914. There was celebration in the streets of Ireland (Kee, p. 222)
And then came the Easter Rising of 1916 -- something that real Home Rule might have prevented (Townshend, p. 30, believes that the passage of full home rule, including Ulster, would have turned many Irish nationalists, including rebellion leader Paidraig Pearse and perhaps Sinn Fein founder Arthur Griffith, away from rebellion. O'Connor, p. 41, makes the same argument, noting that Pearse gave a speech, in Irish, applauding Home Rule when it came. I have to add, though, that Pearse in the same speech rejected the notion of even nominal obedience to the crown.)
But the rebellion meant that Home Rule never did really come into effect -- in part because of British brutality in the aftermath of the Easter Rising, and partly because Ulster simply wouldn't accept it. Plus, of course, many of the more moderate Irish had joined the British army during the war, and had died in droves in Flanders. The more militant nationalists had refused to serve; a much lower percentage of the Irish volunteered than did the English (Chandler/Beckett, p. 243). Thus, after the war, nationalist feeling was much stronger, and pro-British Irishmen fewer. Plus John Redmond, the man who had fought -- and compromised -- to win Home Rule had died in 1918 (OxfordComp, p. 475, thinks the crisis hastened his death; he was only 62), leaving Sinn Fein as the strongest political element.
When the pressure on Britain became intolerable, they gave Ireland the Free State and Partition rather than Home Rule in its initial form. In some ways, the Free State *was* Home Rule -- but it felt different, and opened the door for Eamon de Valera to make separation (and partition) complete.
We should note incidentally that the Orangemen did not really represent any particular segment of society; theirs was the minority no matter how you sliced the demographics. In the parliamentary election after Gladstone's Home Rule attempt, they lost even in Ulster (Kee, p. 106, reports that they won 16 seats, to 17 for their opponents). In Ulster as a whole, the population is said to have been 52% Protestant, 49% Catholic -- but a large share of those Protestants were Anglican, whereas the Orangemen were Presbyterian. Thus Catholics were the plurality in the nine counties of Ulster (three of which, to be sure, would end up in Ireland rather than Northern Ireland). And the Ulstermen didn't represent the majority of Ireland's Protestants, either; although Anglicans were everywhere else a small minority, there were enough of them scattered around the country that they as a group outnumbered the Ulster Presbyterians.
For more on how all this played out, see especially the notes to "The Irish Free State." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.6
File: Zimm100

Lubin

See Looby Lou (File: R554)

Lubin's Rural Cot

DESCRIPTION: "Returning homeward o'er the plain Upon a market day, A sudden storm of wind and rain O'ertook me on the way." The singer shelters in Lubin's rural cot, where he entertains her delightfully. He offers marriage; she happily accepts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford); 19C (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(196))
KEYWORDS: home courting marriage storm
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 178-180, "Lubin's Rural Cot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #114, pp. 1-2, "Lubin's Rural Cot" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 955, "Lubin's Rural Cot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6263
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(505), "Lubin's Rural Cot ("Returning home, across the plain"), E. Keys (Devonport), no date
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(196), "Lubin's Rural Cot" ("Returning homewards o'er the plain"), unknown, c.1840
NOTES [11 words]: Why do I suspect there is more going on here than meets the eye? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: FVS178

Lucindy, Won't You Marry Me

DESCRIPTION: "Lucindy, won't you marry me, Won't you marry me in the mornin'? If you'll marry me your mother'll Cook a shine-eyed-hen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: food courting marriage
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 6, "Lucindy, Won't You Marry Me" (1 fragment)
Roud #7854
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Richard (Irchard) of Taunton Dean" (theme)
File: Br3006

Luck Went With the Sealers Since Brave Colloway Led the Strike, The

See notes under The Sealer's Strike of 1902 (The Sealers Gained the Strike) (File: RySm064)

Lucky Elopement, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer drinks. He courts a girl whose mother calls him a drunkard. He elopes with the daughter to London where they are found and sent to Carrick Jail. At his trial for theft the daughter attests to his virtues, he is acquitted and they marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.9(96))
KEYWORDS: elopement marriage trial drink mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 43, "The Lucky Elopement" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2559
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(96), "Luckey Elopement," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867
LOCSinging, as108270, "Luckey Elopement," P. Brereton (Dublin), 19C
NOTES [19 words]: Broadside LOCSinging as108270 appears to be the same as Bodleian 2806 b.9(96) printed by P. Brereton (Dublin). - BS
File: OLoc043

Lucky Escape, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, born a plowman, meets a "Carfindo" who convinces him to go to sea. After a dreadful time aboard ship, he goes home and is told that his family has met disaster. When he declares that he will roam no more, he is told that all is well at home
AUTHOR: probably Charles Dibdin (1745-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1799 (The Columbian Songster)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor farming separation home reunion reprieve
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #80, "The Carfindo" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 20-22, "The Lucky Escape" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 68, "Farewell to Charming Sally" (1 short text, 1 tune, with effectively no plot left, meaning it could be any of several songs; I file it here for consistency with the Roud Index)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _The Columbian Songster: Being a Large Collection of Fashionable Songs, for Gentlemen & Ladies. In a Series of Numbers_, Nathaniel Heaton, Jr., 1799, (Volume) II, (available on Google Books, which calls this Issue 460), p. 1, Song XX, "The Lucky Escape" (1 text)
George Alexander Stevens, _Mirth and song, consisting of A lecture on heads ; and, The courtship, with a collection of approved songs_, E Lincoln for John Whiting, 1804 (available on Internet Archive), pp. 99-101, "The Lucky Escape" (1 text)
Roud #1446
NOTES [53 words]: According to Ashton-RealSailorSongs, a Carfindo was "one of the Ship's Carpenter's gang," although there are very few available citations.
For more on probable author Charles Dibdin, see the notes to "Blow High Blow Low."
Thanks to Michael Taft for pointing out the Columbian Songster and Mirth and Song printings. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Arn020

Lucky Jim

DESCRIPTION: "Jim was my friend, till one unhappy day The usual cause -- a pretty girl -- came in our way." Both court her, but "one day she married him." After three years, Jim dies. The singer marries her -- and regrets it so much that he thinks Jim lucky to be dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: love death humorous shrewishness
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 161, "Lucky Jim" (1 text)
Roud #9545
File: SBar161

Lucky Sailor, The, or, The Sailor's Invitation to Go with Admiral Anson

DESCRIPTION: "Come jolly sailors join with me (x2), To fight with Anson for renown, That we the French pride may pull down." Anson's fleet, with the Centurion in he lead, is first to attack the French fleet; it is the second time Anson has taken a great prize
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Firth)
KEYWORDS: sailor war money France
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
PalmerSea 43, "The Lucky Sailor, or, The Sailor's Invitation to go with Admiral Anson" (1 text)
Roud #V22822
File: PaSe043

Lucy and Colin

See Colin and Lucy (File: GC478b)

Lucy had a steamship

See Bang Away, Lulu (II) (File: EM180)

Lucy Locket (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Lucy Locket lost her pocket, Kitty Fisher found it; Not a penny was there in it, Only ribbon round it."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes; they cite versions going back to 1842, but given the confusing history of the piece, this must be treated with caution); there is an apparent citation from 1894 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: clothes money playparty
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 37-38, "Lucy Locket" (1 text, 1 tune, which has the "I Wrote a Letter" verse, the "Little dog" verse, and the "Lucy Locket" verse but which is said by Linscott to use the "Hunt the Squirrel" game)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 104, p. 133, "Nursery Rhyme" (1 text of two verses, the first being "Yankee Doodle" and the second "Lucy Locket/Hunt the Squirrel")
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 107, "Lady Locket" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 312, "Lucy Locket" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #279, p. 165 "(Lucy Locket)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 123, "Lucy Locket" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 82, "Lucy Locket Lost Her Pocket" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 50, "(Lucy Locket lost her pocket)" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 30, ""I sent a letter to my love"; "I had a little dog"; "Lucy Locket" (3 texts, the first being of the "Atisket, Atasket (I Sent a Letter to My Love)" type, the second of the "Hunt the Squirrel" type, the third being "Lucy Locket," but all apparently used for the same game)
Roud #19536
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hunt the Squirrel" (lyrics)
NOTES [473 words]: Much ink has been expended trying to link this to specific historical personages -- e.g. Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland claims Lucy and Kitty were "celebrated courtesans of the court of Charles II." Similarly Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 238. The Opies, however, declare that all such links are speculative, and I incline to agree, but let's document anyway.
"Lucy," if this is about Charles II, was surely Lucy Walter, the mother of the Duke of Monmouth, for whom see "The Monmouth Rebel." Lucy was not, however, part of the court of Charles II, because she was dead before the Restoration. Nonetheless Charles had clearly lost interest in Lucy before she died, so she had lost her control of him, at least. It is interesting to note that Lucy Walter was usually penniless. But so was Charles II, before the restoration.
As for Kitty... the list of Charles's mistresses on pp. 284-285 of Antonia Fraser, Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration (British title King Charles II), 1979 (I use the 1980 Delta paperback) does not include any names that would logically result in a nickname of Kitty (There was a Barbara, and a Louise, and a Nell -- yes, as in Gwynn -- and a Moll and a Winifred and a Jane and a Mary and an Elizabeth and one known mostly by her husband's name. There were doubtless many others, but they weren't "major" mistresses, just few-night stands. Fraser, pp. 411-412, says that Charles had acknowledged children by seven women: Lucy Walter, Elizabeth Killigrew, Catharine Pegge, Barbara Villiers, Nell Gwynn, Moll Davis, and Louise de Kéroüalle (the latter his main mistress at the end of his life). So maybe it was Catharine Pegge -- "Kitty" could of course be a nickname for Catherine --, even though she didn't keep his attention long.
However, Charles's actual wife was Catherine of Braganza, and he hadn't had time for too many mistresses between the death of Luck Walter and the time he married Catherine.
It must be stressed that Lucy Walter and Catherine of Brazanza never met, and really could not have met. They did not compete for Charles's favors. Nonetheless by the standards that Elwes Thomas uses, this is one of her better ones. It's not a pure drug dream; it's sort of possible and sort of makes sense: Lucy Walter was Charles's first mistress (and she had no money), but Catherine of Braganza was his (only) wife. Which doesn't chance the fact that it is completely non-compelling.
I cite the rhyme as being found in the Midwest on the basis of p. 29 of Laura Ingalls WIlder, On the Way Home: The Diary of a Trip from South Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri, in 1894, Harper & Row, 1962, where Laura wrote that "Nebraska reminds me of Lydia Locket's pocket, nothing in it, nothing on it, only the binding round it." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OpOx312

Lucy Locket (II)

See Hunt the Squirrel (File: BAF806)

Lucy Locket Lost Her Pocket

See Lucy Locket (I) (File: OpOx312)

Lucy Long (I)

DESCRIPTION: "If I had a scolding wife, As sure as you are born, I'd take her down to New Orleans And trade her off for corn."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: apparently 1854, when a "Lucy Long" tune was cited in Put's Golden Songster; Edwin Wolf 2nd, _American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870_, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 91, lists three nineteenth century broadsides
KEYWORDS: wife shrewishness
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 279, "If I Had a Scolding Wife" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 200, "If I Had a Scolding Wife" (1 fragment)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 415, "Lynchburg Town" (3 texts plus 2 fragments, 2 excerpts, and mention of 2 more, all with the "Lynchburg Town" chorus, but "A" and "B" have verses from "Raccoon" and "Possum Up a Gum Stump and "D" and "E" are partly "If I Had a Scolding Wife" ("Lucy Long (I)"); only "C" seems to be truly "Lynchburg Town")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 415, "Lynchburg Town" (4 tunes plus text excerpts, corresponding to "A," "B," "E," and a "J" version that apparently is not cited in Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3)
Heart-Songs, p.289, "Miss Lucy Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7413
NOTES [69 words]: Randolph and Brown both report this as a fragment of "Lucy Long," and I file it as such. It is interesting to note that both have the *same* single-stanza fragment; it seems likely enough that that one verse circulates on its own -- perhaps as the only traditional part of the song.
Also interesting is the fact that this single stanza, about the "scolding wife," is the *last* verse in the Heart-Songs version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: R279

Lucy Long (II)

DESCRIPTION: "One night when the moon was beaming, I strayed with my Lucy Long." The singer describes the beauties of their evening walk. He asks her to marry; she blushes, hesitates, and consents.
AUTHOR: L. V. H. Crosby (source: sheet music published by Oliver Ditson & Co.)
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 780, "Lucy Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #6, p. 23, "Oh! Silber Shining Moon" (1 text)
Roud #7413
NOTES [24 words]: The Dime-Song-Book #6 version of this is in minstrel dialect, and the girl is simply "Lucy lub," but it seems to have cleaned up in tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R780

Lucy Long (III)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: ""Why don't you try for to ring Miss Lucy Long?" Verses involve meeting Miss Lucy, making various attempts at seduction, and being rejected. A frequent first line is "Was you ever on the Brumalow/Brumielaw?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1796-1853 (Broadsides); 1926 (Terry)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor seduction rejection
FOUND IN: West Indies Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 396, "Miss Lucy Long" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 301]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXII, p. 25, "Lucy Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8285
NOTES [47 words]: There are several versions of this in the Bodleian Broadside collection, though they lack the shanty's chorus lines. [These should perhaps be filed under Lucy Long (II).- RBW] Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas says that Miss Lucy Long is a girl that often appears in Negro songs. - SL
File: Hugi396

Lucy's Flittin'

DESCRIPTION: Lucy's term was over and she "left her auld master and neebours sae dear." "I'm jist like the lammie that loses its mither." She and Jamie love each other but he only gives her a ribbon when they part. They won't meet again.
AUTHOR: William Laidlaw (1780-1845) (source: Ford)
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (James Hogg's _The Forest Minstrel_, according to Ford and Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: loneliness love parting servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1248, "Lucy's Flittin'" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland [first series] (Paisley,1899), pp. 170-172, "Lucy's Flittin'"
Roud #2641
NOTES [67 words]: Ford: "This deeply pathetic ballad has so much of the country air about it that it has maintained its immense popularity almost entirely among the rural population."
From Peter A Hall, "Farm Life and the Farm Songs," pp. xxi-xxxi in Greig/Duncan3: "The time between hirings was, in the mid nineteenth century North-East, predominantly six months ['terms'] and the hiring was generally called feeing." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61248

Ludlow Massacre, The

DESCRIPTION: Faced with a strike, the mine owners drive the workers from their (company-owned) homes. The National Guard moves in and kills thirteen children by fires and guns. Since President and Governor cannot not stop the guard, fighting continues
AUTHOR: Woody Guthrie
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (recording, Woody Guthrie)
KEYWORDS: mining strike violence death labor-movement
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 23, 1913 - Beginning of the strike by coal workers against John D. Rockefeller's Colorado Iron and Fuel Co.
April 20, 1914 - A state militia company (actually composed of company thugs) attacks the Ludlow colony of strikers using machine guns and coal oil. About 21 people die, including two women and thirteen children; three strikers are taken and murdered.
April 30, 1914 - Federal troops arrive and end the fighting
Dec 7, 1914 - Voting finally ends the strike, but the UMW had already been defeated
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 279-281, "The Ludlow Massacre" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 152-154, "Ludlow Massacre" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 134, "The Ludlow Massacre" (1 text)
DT, LUDLWMAS*
Roud #17650
RECORDINGS:
Woody Guthrie, "Ludlow Massacre" (Asch 360, 1945; on on AmHist2, Struggle2)
NOTES [6055 words]: Although reprinted many times, as one of Woody Guthrie's more important "historical" songs, I know of no field collections. - RBW
The Ludlow Massacre has been the subject of several books. In addition to those cited here (Andrews, Laughlin, and Martelle), Martelle, p. 4, points to Out of the Depths: The Story of John R. Lawson, a Labor Leader, by Barron Beshoar, and The Great Coalfield War, by George S. McGovern and Leonard F. Guttridge. Yes, that's the George McGovern who was a presidential candidate in 1972; the book is based on McGovern's 1953 Ph.D. thesis, but was rewritten by Guttridge and the documentation removed. Martelle's own book came out in 2007. Andrews published his book the next year; Laughlin published in 2006.
Martelle notes on the very first page that although there is a freeway exit for Ludlow [from Interstate 25/US Highway 85], the town itself doesn't really exist any more; the mines have mostly failed and all that is left is a sort of memorial park. Wikipedia calls it a "ghost town," but I wouldn't even call it that; it's a field with the monument in the middle. It isn't even a government-managed monument; it was set up by the United Mine Workers of America (Martelle, p. 8) in 1918 (Laughlin, p. 133). The nearest surviving town is Aguilar, Colorado, five miles to the north-northwest. There is a photo on p. 132 of Laughlin; you can also see it in Google Street View.
Andrews, pp. 6-7, says that two narratives arose from the Ludlow conflict: "Ludlow-as-battle" and "Ludlow-as-massacre." Loosely speaking, the former is the owners' version of the story and the latter is labor's.
Martelle does not even mention Woody Guthrie in its index -- rather surprising, given that Guthrie wrote at a time when the massacre was still part of living memory, which it obviously was not at the time Martelle was writing. Andrews has only one mention -- p. 6 says that the song inspired Howard Zinn, later a popular historian, to write his Masters thesis on the subject.
Labor wars in the west were quite familiar at this time. See, for instance, "Harry Orchard," for the tale of a fight more than a decade earlier. By this time, the owners knew how to respond: they hired private police forces. Sometimes it was the Pinkertons (who had by this time largely ceased to be detectives and had become mostly a private army). In the case of Ludlow, the company was the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (Andrews, p. 1), run by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (the son of the founder of the Rockefeller fortune; Andrews, p. 3), and the company they hired was the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency of Virginia (Martelle, p. 12). They were armed from the start; eventually the company gave them machine guns (Martelle, p. 93; on p. 97 he has a picture of a car that was modified to carry a machine gun and was covered with armor plate -- almost a proto-tank, or at least proto-armored-personnel-carrier; they called it the "Death Special").
They also probably had a hotline to the Colorado National Guard; Martelle, p. 20, reports that the Guard had been called out 22 times between its founding in 1879 and the events at Ludlow -- and 16 of the call-ups had been for purposes of intervening in strikes.
It is ironic to note that, by this time, John D. Rockefeller Sr. had semi-retired and was devoting his energy to his charities, and his son would have liked to do the same (Laughlin, pp. 42-43); apparently the Rockefellers wanted to devote philanthropy to everyone except their employees!
For the owners, it was probably worth the fight. Colorado's coal was high-quality anthracite (Martelle, p. 16), not easy to obtain elsewhere (I seem to recall that the only other American anthracite mines were in Pennsylvania). The flip side of that, of course, is that they had a highly profitable product and could have afforded some concessions. Concessions they made none; the southern Colorado coalfields were in a desolate area with not many people, and the miners were forced to live in slapdash company towns and shop at company stores (Martelle, p. 27). (Many of the miners were immigrants, who of course were ignorant of American ways and languages and so less able to put up resistance; according to Laughlin, p. 50, at the mine at Trinity, Colorado, the miners came from 32 countries and spoke 27 different languages.)
Perhaps there would have been more money had the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company been better-run; it was full of what Martelle, p. 37, calls "rogue midlevel managers" who milked the company and ran their own local businesses for their own benefit, so there was less profit to go around than there should have been. But given the way the Rockefellers handled the organization, I doubt it.
To make things worse, the Colorado mines were unsafe, even by coal mining standards. "In 1912, the death rate in Colorado's mines was 7.055 per 1,000 employees, or 8.9 deaths for ever million tons of coal produced, compared with the national rate of 3.15 per 1,000 workers and 4.29 deaths for every million tons of coal produced" (Martelle, p. 18; Abbott/Leonard/McComb, p. 152 simply says that Colorado's death rate twice that elsewhere). Colorado had mine inspectors -- but they were so few and so under-funded that they could do little (Martelle, pp. 18-19); even the tipples used to measure what had been mined were often inaccurate (Laughlin, p. 23). There has been unrest in the mines for many years -- there had been a bombing as early as 1904 (Martelle, p. 24). The mine owners ignored even the weak Colorado safety regulations, and they bought the local sheriff, Jefferson B. Farr, who in turn set up his own juries and so was in a position to personally decide who was and was not a criminal (Martelle, pp. 30-31); Laughlin, p. 23, says he also had a network of informants among the miners to keep them in check.
To be sure, it wasn't just the owners who brought in outside help -- although they hired gunslingers, while the union brought in organizers and speakers. The most famous of the latter was the well-known Mary Harris "Mother" Jones (Martelle, pp. 72-73). Yet the owners seem to have been convinced that the miners were not organized and that the UMWA's strike plans meant nothing (Martelle, pp. 74-75).
Andrews, p. 238, lists the union demands: (1) recognition of the union, (2) a 10% pay raise, (3) an eight hour workday, (4) payment for work done to maintain the mines (at this time, miners were paid only for coal dug up), (5) check-weighmen (who determined how much coal had been mined) to be chosen by the miners, not the company, (6) freedom to buy at any store and choose their own homes and doctors, rather than using company stores, houses, and doctors, (7) abolition of the guard system and enforcement of Colorado's mining laws. Laughlin, pp. 64-65, has the same list, and notes tat Colorado law already mandated 3, 5, 7, and parts of 6 (it's just that the laws weren't being enforced); also, the miners had recently gotten a raise, so 2 was not impossible. But the owners steadfastly refused to recognize the union -- while the workers felt they needed the union to keep the companies from backsliding.
Supposedly company control was so extreme that the companies "voted evey man and woman in the employ, without any regard to their being naturalized or not, and even their mules... were registered, if they were fortunate enough to possess names" (so Graham Adams, Jr., as quoted on p. 152 of Abbott/Leonard/McComb).
The walkout began September 23, 1913 (Martelle, p. 76). It's not clear exactly how many miners walked out -- or, of those that did, how many wanted to walk out and how many were pressured to do so. Not all mines were affected equally. Government figures, which were incomplete, showed a quarter of mines fully shut down and the rest operating at between 25% and 50% of capacity. The United Mine Workers claimed 11,232 of 13,980 (80%), which is amazingly high. Best bet is that somewhere between 50% and 70% of miners walked out, even though it meant leaving their company-owned homes and moving into tents in a Colorado rainstorm (Martelle, pp. 76-77). The companies made it clear they were not welcome back; after they left, guards searched their houses and threw their belongings into the streets (Laughlin, p. 9); they supposedly even tossed small children into the street, injuring some (Andrews, p. 247).
There were many tent camps, but that at Ludlow was the largest, the de facto headquarters; it housed about 1200 people, 500 of them miners and the rest family members and organizers (Martelle, p. 80). The Ludlow camp was fully forty acres in size (Laughlin, p. 70). Despite the discomfort the miners suffered, the Union was much better at communicating with the workers than was the company; they had leaders from 21 different ethnic groups to help the workers know what was going on (Laughlin, p.75).
The camps were miserable places, particularly with winter approaching; they were supplied with stoves, but the walls were thin wood with tents overhead. Each family was supposed to have its own tent, with a larger central tent used as a school and organization building -- but they were about a thousand tents short, so a large fraction of the strikers, perhaps a quarter, ended up having to share with others (Laughlin, p. 11). There was an events area -- but it included an open parade ground, so it can't have been very comfortable either (Andrews, p. 251).
It's hard to say who started the shooting. Before the strike, Martelle, p. 14, and Laughlin, p. 69, say that a labor leader, Gerald Lippiatt, got into an argument with the detectives, and pulled a gun -- but Lippiatt was the one who ended up dead (cf. Andrews, p. 235). His killers were found innocent (Laughlin, p. 69. I think this perhaps half-right; Lippiatt pulled his gun first, but the detectives had given him a bump in the street. They were not guilty of murder but were guilty of minor incitement). A guard, Robert Lee, was the next to be killed -- but he was hated for private reasons. Things were calm enough that, at first, the Colorado governor did not think there was need for the national guard (Martelle, pp. 81-83). The Wilson Administration appointed a mediator, Ethelbert B. Stewart, but the lines had hardened so much that no one would listen to him (Martelle, p. 92; according to Martelle, p. 134, Wilson lectured the parties a bit, but Wilson lectured everybody...).
The first large-scale attempt at violence came on September 29, when someone (presumably a group of strikers) shot up the camp of a group of Japanese miners who were working during the strike; happily, no one was killed (Martelle, p. 85, who understates the irony of the Japanese, who suffered even worse racism than the other strikers -- they were kept in their own segregated camps -- continuing to work). Clashes continued throughout September, with shots occasionally fired although casualties were few. On October 3, bombs began to be used; one blew up an explosives shed, although there is some doubt about who deployed it, and there again seem to have been no casualties (Martelle, p. 87).
On October 7, there was a big gunfight near Ludlow, though again casualties were surprisingly low -- just three injured (Martelle, pp. 88-89). But soon after, the shooting killed its first innocent bystander (Martelle, p. 90).
Although casualties remained relatively low, a lot of bullets flew over the weeks that followed. (This is one of the reasons why it is so hard to determine how many people were killed. If someone -- particularly a striker -- was shot, those with him usually carried the body away and the coroner did not see it; Martelle, p. 119). John Lawson, the UMW leader of the strikers, saw women and children being threatened by the violence and decided to have the miners dig holes under the floors of the tents to let non-combatants take shelter from the bullets (Laughlin, p. 76). This may well have saved lives at the time; it was to prove disastrous later.
The owners kept pressuring Governor Ammons to call out the militia. Ammons, who came from a poor background and had been elected with labor support in the strange three-way election of 2012, was hesitant (Laughlin, pp. 66-67; Andrews, pp. 253-254). Finally, convinced that the local authorities could not handle the situation (Martelle, p. 120), he gave in (Martelle, pp. 98-100). The militia were called out on October 28, even though the state had to borrow the money to pay them (Martelle, pp. 121-122). For a time, there were 1600 militia in the area (Martelle, p. 123), though the number was later reduced because of the cost. (According to Laughlin, pp. 86-87, the pro-Union state auditor absolutely refused to pay them, so the commander of the militia, got mine owners and banks to put up the money.)
This General Chase seems to have been a rather erratic character, and anti-union. Martelle, p. 123, calls him "A large man with a generous belly and a wide curling mustache, Chase, fifty-six, cut a comical figure in his military uniform, like a grandfather playing dress-up soldier with the grandkids. But Chase saw himself as the real thing." In an earlier 1903 strike, he had arrested striking miners and held them without trial; that had resulted in him being convicted by a court-martial, but he had enough popular support that he was kept on (Laughlin, p. 79). And he was a control freak -- he once threatened to arrest a reporter who had filed a story about a military train hitting a cow! (Martelle, p. 124).
There is no evidence that the governor declared martial law at the time of the call-up, but Chase acted as if there was, creating military tribunals -- one of them led by one of the mine owners' lawyers! -- to judge men he didn't like (Laughlin, pp. 84-85; Martelle, p. 132) and often denying them access to lawyers (Laughlin, p. 92) -- he even threatened to arrest two deputy district attorneys! (Martelle, p. 132). "From November through March his troops detained nearly two hundred UMW leaders without charges and periodically raided the strikers' camps" (Abbott/Leonard/McComb, p. 152; cf. Martelle, pp. 140-141). When local officials came to Chase with requests and suggestions, he brushed them off and lied about it (Martelle, pp. 126-127). Ammons probably just wanted the militia to keep the peace (so Martelle, p. 146, who says that "he ordered General Chase to direct his troops to freeze the conditions in place" -- including keeping strikebreakers out), but Chase wanted to contain the strikers and set about doing so, which surely inflamed the situation. He showed his true colors by absorbing mine guards into his under-strength militia companies (Martelle, pp. 128, 148-149; to give Chase his due, his regular troops were going home because the state wasn't paying them; Martelle, pp. 158-159).
Martelle, p. 142, claims that he tortured some detainees. He does not document physical torture, except for some instances of binding prisoners -- but he does on pp. 142-143 recount a case of a man being forced to dig what he was told was his own grave. (Fortunately, the man was released after that, emotionally wrecked but not seriously injured.) He certainly detained Mother Jones and forced her from the district (Martelle, pp. 152-153) -- something Governor Ammons agreed with, but Chase's ham-handed method drew unwanted attention to the situation. The result was a demonstration on her behalf, which resulted in a fight with the militia in which several women were seriously harmed by militia weapons, although apparently none were killed; in addition, six women and twelve men were arrested (Martelle, pp. 153-155). Chase ended up dodging a congressional subcommittee that wanted to investigate what happened (Martelle, p. 156).
The calling-out of the militia didn't do much to stop the strike, but it did make it much easier for scabs to get into the mines; coal production, which had fallen dramatically, started to pick up again (Andrews, p. 267; according to Martelle, p. 146, Ammons allowed the strikebreakers to work starting in late November -- although on p. 147 Martelle claims that the strikebreakers were brought in without being told that there was a strike on, which violated Colorado law. Indeed, Martelle, pp. 147-148, claims that some strikebreakers were promised land and instead forced to work in the mines). The militia also temporarily reduces the level of violence, as the troops helped to keep the sides apart (Martelle, p. 125. There was one out-and-out deliberate assassination, of one of the men who had killed Lippiatt; the assassin claimed union leaders put him up to it, but no charges were brought against them; Martelle, pp. 133-134; Laughlin, p. 87). But it didn't change the owners' absolute refusal to recognize the union (Laughlin, p. 81).
The Wilson administration was also trying to patch things up, but Woodrow Wilson did not become personally involved; he thought himself too distant from the situation (Martelle, p. 136).
Ammons wasn't done trying to reconcile the parties. (Martelle, p. 137, comments sourly, "Ammons was proving to be incapable of gauging the depths of anti-union sentiments among... [the] owners.") In mid-November, he brought in representatives of the companies and the union and tried to mediate, but both sides were firm in their demands and the owners in particular weren't even willing to talk to the union (Andrews, pp. 258-259). They wouldn't talk to a mediator appointed by the Wilson administration, either, thinking him pro-union (Laughlin, p. 76). Andrews did eventually get the Union negotiators to accept a proposal that didn't include recognizing the union but met most of their other demands -- but the rank and file voted it down (Laughlin, pp. 88-89; Martelle, pp. 138-139). Ammons, out of ideas, seems finally to have decided to let the militia loose after that. The owners took that as a signal to start bringing in strikebreakers -- by the thousands (Laughlin, p. 90).
There was a congressional investigation started at about this time. It didn't accomplish much except to make John D. Rockefeller say publicly that he would never deal with any union (Laughlin, pp. 94-97).
No one really knows who started the climactic battle. It didn't help that John Lawson, who tried to keep things calm, was away at the time, and another man, Louis Tikas, was the local leader of the strikers at Ludlow (Andrews, p. 271; according to Abbott/Leonard/McComb, p. 151, Tikas had come from Crete in 1906 and moved to Colorado in 1912; he was unusual among the miners, according to Laughlin, p. 93, in that he had had a college education). Even worse, the officer Chase had left in charge at Ludlow, Karl E. Linderfelt, was violently anti-union and constantly seeking provocations -- he once told the strikers that his statements was the word of God, and there was an instance of him physically assaulting a teenage bystander just for being in the vicinity. (Martelle, p. 151. He had military experience, but he also sounds like a pathological liar, claiming e.g. to have studied at the Sorbonne for two years despite being apparently a high school dropout; Martelle, p. 107).
The day before the massacre was relatively festive; it was Orthodox Easter Sunday, so the many Greeks at Ludlow had been celebrating -- though a group of four soldiers had taken the occasion to try a little intimidation (Martelle, p. 160).
In Andrews's reconstruction, it started with a peaceful confrontation that grew out of control. A woman had reported her husband held by the strikers against his will (cf. Martelle, p. 160). This should have been a police matter, but a militia officer came to talk to Tikas about it. (Similarlly Laughlin, pp. 98-99, who says that Tikas was know for his attempts to keep the peace.) Tikas -- who did not accept the militia's authority within the camp -- said the missing man wasn't there; the militia wouldn't accept that answer (Martelle, p.161). Crowds of strikers gathered. Meanwhile, the aggressive Captain Linderfelt started deploying his troops and machine gun in strong positions on high ground (Martelle, p. 162).
Somebody -- we don't know who, and it's not entirely clear which side he was on -- fired a shot, and it escalated (Martelle, p. 164).
It was an asymmetric conflict: The strikers outnumbered the militia, but the militia was much better-armed (Laughlin, p. 100). And they were able to call in reinforcements, including another machine gun (Martelle, pp. 168-169).
Acccording to Andrews, one militiaman, Alfred Martin, was killed, and several miners. A teenage bystander, Primo Larese, was also killed (Martelle, p. 168).
The militia apparently strafed the camp, forcing the people into gullies or wells or their underground shelters (Martelle, pp. 166-167). It was during a seeming lull that the Snyder family came out to grab supplies, and 11-year-old Frank Snyder was killed (Lauglhlin, pp. 100-101).
Soon after, Tent #1, at the very southeast corner of the camp, caught fire, forcing several people to flee; they ended up in the pit beneath Tent #58 (Martelle, pp. 173-174). As time passed, more of the Ludlow camp caught fire, and most of the casualties were the result of that (Andrews, pp. 271-273). There is no agreement how the fire started; some claimed the soldiers started the fires (Martelle, pp. 172-173, has several accounts of this), but it's possible that it was just the result of gunfire (Laughlin, p. 101). Or perhaps the first fire was accidental but the soldiers lit more once the first had started. Martelle, pp. 182-183, tells of Colorado's deputy labor commissioner Edwin Brake hearing troops boasting of the strikers who died and the fires they set, but this might just be aggressive talk. Still, I incline to the view that at least some of the fires were started by the militia; bullets rarely start fires, and fires need wind to spread them, and I haven't seen mention of such.
Tikas was deliberately sought out, and the vicious Captain Linderfelt got into a fight with him (Martelle, p. 175). Rather than have Tikas arrested, Linderfelt bashed his head with a rifle butt. Andrews says Linderfelt's men then shot Tikas in the back; similarly Martelle, p. 176, although he says that others were also shot. Laughlin, pp. 102-103, is more cautious. Linderfelt found Tikas and bashed him so hard that he doubtless sustained a concussion, but left him alive with two men as guards. No witness was there when Tikas was shot, and the guards claimed he was caught in the crossfire, even though the militia had swept most of the camp by then. Tikas had been shot by four bullets. Three of the bullets, which hit him in the back, were steel-jacketed bullets of the type that only the militia would have had; the fourth bullet (which, admittedly, was considered the fatal one) was an ordinary lead bullet that could have been fired by a striker or one of the many vigilante types hired by the owners -- or by a militiaman who used a gun other than his standard-issue weapon. We can't know who fatally shot Tikas, but it certainly looks as if the militia did its best to make certain of his death. None of which changes the fact that Linderfelt was patently guilty of assault.
Martelle, p. 2: "The nadir came on a sunny Monday morning in April 1914, when a detachment from the Colorado National Guard engaged in a ten-hour gun battle with union men at Ludlow, where a tent colony housing some eleven hundred strikers and their families had been erected. Seven men and a boy were killed in the shooting, at least three of the men -- all striking coal miners, one a leader [i.e. Tikas] -- apparently executed in cold blood by Colorado National Guardsmen who had taken them captive. As the sun set, the militia moved into the camp itself and an inferno lit up the darkening sky, reducing most of the makeshift village to ashes. It wasn't until the next morning that the bodies of two mothers and eleven children were discovered where they had taken shelter in a dirt bunker beneath one of the tents. The raging fire had sucked the oxygen from the air below, suffocating the families as they hid from the gun battle.
"The deaths of the women and children quickly became known as the Ludlow Massacre, and the backlash was vicious and bloody."
According to Laughlin, pp. 103-104, that there were four women and eleven children who had taken shelter in that particular pit, and that a burning bed and other roof debris had fallen on the opening. Two of the adult women and all of the children were asphyxiated; two women, Mary Petrucci and Alcarita Pedregon, survived, although the smoke affected them enough that they were not rational when found by the Ludlow postmistress, Susan Hollearan. Petrucci was the first one out, emerging around 5:30 to hunt for water (Martelle, pp. 176-177). She was found by the Ludlow postmistress, Susan Hallearine, who tried to get troops to help with a rescue, but they declared the site unsafe, so Hallearine had to go back herself (Martelle, p. 178).
Laughlin, pp. 104-105, believes that the casualties of the day to that point were 24: 13 who died in the pit, plus the boy Frank Snyder; one other passer-by; Tikas; four other miners; plus one militiaman and three mine guards. Abbott/Leonard/McComb, p. 153, reports, "Five strikers and one militiaman fell in the fighting, one boy died from a stray bullet and two women and eleven children choked to death on thick smoke in the cellar underneath one of the tents when the National Guard set fire to the colony."
The owner of a neighboring ranch, Frank Bayes, had to flee with his family, and when he returned, he found his home wrecked by the militia, even though he was not a striker (Martelle, p. 181).
Considering the large number of people in the area, the casualties were relatively light. But they ignited a broader war.
The tent city fire was not the end of things; the strikers were barred from the site after the fire, and charged that bodies found there were incinerated so that the militia would not have to admit how many they killed. The union eventually claimed 46-66 casualties (Andrews, p. 275). "Remember Ludlow!" was the cry (Andrews, p. 278). The UMWA suddenly started getting tens of thousands in new contributions, and miners in other areas mobilized to fight (Martelle, pp. 184-185). The surviving strikers went on a rampage against the owners; the map on p. 264 of Andrews shows six mines destroyed, plus one associated town (Forbes. Four of the destroyed mines were in the vicinity of Empire, northwest of Ludlow). According to Martelle, pp. 186-187, the strikers on several occasions forced mine guards and militia to take shelter in mine entrances -- and then blew up the entrances. This despite the attempts by ministers and local public officials to defuse things.
The fighting that followed came to be known as "The Ten Days' War" (Andrews, p. 9; on p. 14 he puts the total casualties at between 75 and 100). Trials would follow; United Mine Workers official John Lawson would be sentenced to hard labor for life (Andrews, p. 14).
Governor Ammons (who was out of the state) at once gave General Chase authority to call up more militia, promising to find money somehow, and also headed back to Colorado (Laughlin, p. 106; Martelle, p. 181). This didn't help much; many of the militia wouldn't serve because they hadn't been paid -- and many train crews refused to carry them (Martelle, pp. 188-189).
The lieutenant governor and the UMWA's lawyer managed to negotiate a cease-fire, which held for the most part but did not end the tension (Martelle, pp. 190-192; he thinks one reason it held is that the miners were taking the time to bury their dead). While this was going on, Ammons requested federal help (Laughlin, p. 107). But the strikers were also calling for all the help -- and weapons -- they could get (Martelle, pp. 195-196). Eventually violence flared again, with 54 people being killed before exhaustion set in (Martelle, pp. 198-210. Andrews, pp. 279-281, points to a Women's March calling for peace, but while they managed to talk to Ammons, I can't see any evidence that it mattered; no other source even mentions it).
President Wilson, after two days of trying and failing to get Rockefeller to budge (Martelle, pp. 194-195), agreed to a limited federal intervention (Laughlin, pp. 108-109). Troops arrived from Nebraska on April 30, 1914, with orders to disarm everyone and close gun shops and saloons (Laughlin, p. 110); they arrived about the time the fighting sputtered down (Martelle, p. 210), and their presence kept it from starting up again. The UMWA, meanwhile, had spent almost its entire assets on the strike; it could do no more. It abandoned its demand for recognition and, in effect, said it would take whatever it could get (Laughlin, p. 112). President Wilson tried to offer a peace plan in September 1914; the Union accepted it, but the operators (who correctly felt that they had won the strike and were unwilling to replace the strikebreakers they had hired) rejected it (Laughlin, p. 114). The UMW officially ended the strike on December 7 (according to Andrews, p. 283, they used Wilson's peace proposal as a justification); the remaining strikers scattered, and Federal troops started pulling out (Laughlin, p. 115).
The National Guard "investigated" what its soldiers had done. No significant punishments were issued, not even for the abuse and probably murder of Tikas. The civil authorities ignored the guards and went after the strikers; more than a hundred, including strike leader John Lawson, were indicted (Laughlin, pp. 112-113). In every possible sense, the strikers had lost.
Strikers and UMW people had to face the courts, though. They came before a judge who had worked for the coal companies, and they were prosecuted by an attorney who had been part of the company's protection force (Laughlin, p. 116). When the first trial for the murder of a guard ended in a hung jury, the judge staged another trial with a jury he picked himself and got the verdict he wanted. Another trial produced a life sentence for murder against Union leader John Lawson even though (at least according to Laughlin, p. 117) the testimony against Lawson was prejudiced and he was not present for the murder.
The outcry was sufficient that the new governor, George Carlson (whose election had set up the conditions for the trials; the voters had wanted no part of Ammons in 1916, according to Martelle, p. 218) and his attorney general backed off -- although it wasn't enough to save them from electoral defeat in 1916 (Laughlin, p. 118). Lawson's conviction, and several others, were overturned in 1917 (Laughlin, pp. 118-119; Martelle, pp. 215-216 -- though he notes that the UMWA dropped Lawson after his exoneration so he still suffered).
Andrews, p. 1, claims it was "the deadliest strike in the history of the United States." The name "Ludlow Massacre" apparently was from a UMW publicity person in Denver (Laughlin, p. 110).
After it was all over, the federal Industrial Relations Commission investigated, bringing up a lot of dirt about Rockefeller's management and causing the company to give the new workers better terms than the strikers had had (Laughlin, pp. 124-131). It marked the beginning of a turn in the attitude of the federal government, from anti-labor to relatively neutral.
Martelle's Appendix B, pp. 222-224, lists all the victims known to have died in the 1913-1914 labor war. Martelle says that at least 75 people were killed in the course of the war. He lists five uninvolved bystanders, 37 strikebreakers and guards (some of them killed from hiding), and 33 strikers and family. This means that more than half those killed on the miners' side died in the Massacre of April 20. The adult women killed were 37-year-old Patricia Valdez, along with four of her children, and 27-year-old Fedelina Costa, along with two of her children; one of the men killed outside was Charles Costa, Fedelina's husband. Five other children were also killed in the bunker. The oldest of the suffocated children was nine years old; six of them had not yet reached their fifth birthday.
Martelle, p. 5, while he attributes much of the blame to the miners, also blames the National Guard for much of the violence -- they ignored the miners' constitutional rights even though martial law had never been declared.
William Lyon Mackenzie King, the future Canadian Prime Minister, was working with Rockefeller on the response to Ludlow. His estimate was that about two hundred people died in the entire course of the strike, including those who died not of gunshots but of the effects of exposure (Laughlin, p. 130). Mackenzie King's proposal to resolve the situation was what Andrews, p. 286, calls a "company union." But that didn't chance Rockefeller's attitudes.
The UMWA dedicated its memorial on May 30, 1918. Mary Petrucci, the survivor of the Ludlow camp fire who had lost three children in the fire, dedicated it (Martelle, p. 211). John D. Rockefeller Jr. reportedly attended at a distance, without publicly announcing himself (Martelle, p. 212). He doesn't seem to ever have admitted that his anti-Union stance and failure to oversee his local subordinates was responsible for the many deaths. Instead, he brought in public relations people to improve the Rockefeller image -- although he did at least remove Lamont M. Bowers, the local company boss responsible for the mines (Martelle, pp. 214-215). It didn't bring peace to Colorado's coalfields. Andrews, p. 287, points to strikes in 1919, 1921, 1922, and 1927. Economics ultimately had the last laugh; a great many of the Colorado mines failed in the 1930s, and almost all were gone by the 1950s (Andrews, p. 288). Ludlow wasn't the only place that ended up desolate.
Woody Guthrie's text seems to me to have a fairly accurate "feel," but the actual details are not always right.
"It was early springtime when the strike was on" -- correct; the Massacre took place in April 1914.
"They drove us miners out of doors" -- this did happen, but is out of sequence. The miners had been driven out of their homes in September 1913, at the very beginning of the strike.
"We moved into tents up at old Ludlow" -- the mining camps were indeed tent camps.
"Every once in a while a bullet would fly, Kick up gravel under my feet" -- correct but it may give a wrong impression. That is, there were occasional skirmishes. But it was rare for bullets to enter the camps. Not entirely unknown, but rare.
"We dug us a cave that was seven foot deep" -- basically right.
"That very night your soldiers waited" -- flatly false. All evidence is that the fight was unplanned and unintentional.
"You snuck around our little tent town, Soaked our tents with your kerosene" -- unproved; there is testimony to this effect, but it is not sufficiently corroborated for us to be certain.
"Thirteen children died from your guns" -- Thirteen died in the pit, but they were not all children, and they died of suffocation, not by being shot.
"While your bullets killed us all around" -- as the casualty figures above show, there were relatively few casualties other than those in the pit, and the militia also suffered casualties; it was not a one-sided fight.
"We told the Colorado Governor to call the President, Tell him to call off his National Guard, But the National Guard belonged to the Governor, So he didn't try so very hard." Unfair from beginning to end, biased, and mostly flat wrong. Ammons spent the entire strike trying desperately, if incompetently, to settle things, and he wanted the Guard to keep the peace, not start a fight. (If anyone should be blamed, it is General Chase.) And Ammons tried to get President Wilson to intervene, and had no luck until after the Ten Day War had started.
"They sold their potatoes and brought some guns back, And they put a gun in every hand" -- many miners were given arms after the Massacre, but the vast majority of them were paid for by outside donations
"And the Red-neck Miners mowed down these troopers, You should have seen those poor boys run" -- apart from the glorification of violence, this gives a false impression. Yes, the miners attacked several mines and forced the troopers to retreat, but it wasn't a one-sided war.
- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: SBoA279

Luir A Chodla (Put the Old Man to Sleep)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic: Luir a chodla, cuir a chodla, cuir a chodla, an sean-cluine, luira chodle, nigh a chosa agus bog deoch do'r tsean duine. English: Put to sleep (x2) put to sleep the old man. Put him to sleep, wash his feet, and draw a drink for the old man
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: age nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 191, "Put the Old Man to Sleep" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [19 words]: Lomax claims this is a Gaelic version of "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)." The evidence is thin. - RBW
File: LoF191

Luke and Mullen

DESCRIPTION: Sam Mullen goes looking for Luke; Luke says he doesn't want trouble, but Mullen picks a fight until Luke shoots him. Cho: "Wake up, Sam Mullen, put on your shoes/Get ready to catch ol' Luke before he leave this town/For Luke done laid Mullen body down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (recording, Horace Sprott)
KEYWORDS: fight violence homicide death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Horace Sprott, "Luke and Mullen" (on MuSouth02, ClassAfrAm)
NOTES [28 words]: That the song continues in tradition is doubtful, but Horace Sprott said he learned it from a fellow packinghouse worker, so it was part of oral tradition at one time. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: RcLukMul

Lukey's Boat

DESCRIPTION: A song describing Lukey and his boat. The boat is "painted green... the finest boat you've ever seen," etc. Lukey observes that his wife is dead, but "I don't care; I'll get another in the fall of the year."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (England, Vikings of the Ice)
KEYWORDS: ship humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 126, "Lukey's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 46-47, "Lukey's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Lukey's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 71 in the 2nd edition; p. 40 in the 3rd; p. 43 in the 4th; p. 53 in the 5th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 44-45, "Lukey's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 127, "Loakie's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 42-43, "Lukey's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 28-29, "Lukey's Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: George Allan England, _Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt_ (also published as _The Greatest Hunt in the World_), Doubleday, 1924, p. 127, "Uncle Lukey's Boat" (1 excerpt)
ST FJ046 (Partial)
Roud #1828
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Lukey's Boat" (on NFOBlondahl05)
NOTES [475 words]: [According to Blondahl, Doyle attributes this to] Mr Roberts, and others, Mrs Ira Yates, Mr Andrew Young, Twillingate, 1929. - BS
George Allen England gives only one verse of this, "Lukey's boat was painted green, De finest boat dat was ever seen...." But it's clearly this song, and it seems to be the earliest mention of it. And he too has an authorship claim: one of the sealers with whom he sailed supposedly told another of the sealers, "Joe," "You know dat song ahl to pieces, an' why wouldn't ye, in 'gard of ye makin' it up in de first place?" England (probably not seriously) claimed that "Joe" had 57 verses. England is not overly free with surnames, but I think the "Joe" referred to is a man named Joe Stirge. Not that I believe the claim of all those verses (though I'm sure there were many.)
Creighton's informants said that the subject of the song lived in Lunenburg. But the song seems much more strongly associated with Newfoundland.
Philip Hiscock's notes to this song in West, p. 55, has perhaps the best folklore of all. In Wesleyville, famous as a home of sealing families, it is said that this was about a local fisherman named Luke "Lukey" Gaulton. The legend says the words were written by Virtue Hann Kean. Gaulton struck back with his own verse:
'Twas Virtue Kean made up the song,
RIght fa la, a diddle diddle die doe,
VIrtue Kean made up the song,
She sleeps with the doctor all night long....
I can't say whether Gaulton was real, but Virtue Hann Kean most definitely was. She was the wife of Captain Job Kean (for whom see also "Captains and Ships" and "The Sealer's Song (II)"), who was the nephew of Captain Abram Kean (for whom see "Captain Abram Kean"). As Hiscock notes, Job Kean was not a doctor, so this verse was an insinuation about Virtue Kean's character.
It's a nice legend, but pretty unlikely. First, Virtue Kean married into the Kean family, who were a bunch of stiff-necked prigs who would never have produced such a piece. Second, Virtue Kean, according to Kean, p. 23, had been the local schoolteacher before marrying Job Kean. So she would likely have been held in high regard.
And, remember, England said he heard this song on the Terra Nova, Abram Kean's own ship, in the 1920s. (And it would have been hard for him to find it anywhere else; it wasn't in print yet.) Can you imagine what Abram Kean's reaction was had there been a song floating around impugning the virtue of his niece? He'd probably have thrown the singer overboard! So I think the folklore came later.
There is an 1899 photo of Captain Job Kean, along with other sealing stalwarts such as Abram Kean and Arthur Jackman, on p. 25 of Winsor.
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland say that the form of the stanza is the same as "A-Rovin'." True, but the tune I've heard is different. I don't think they're related. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: FJ046

Lula Falls

See Lulu Walls (File: R383)

Lula Gal

See The Jawbone Song AND Crawdad, etc. (File: R259)

Lula Viers [Laws F10]

DESCRIPTION: John Coyer weighs his fiancee Lula Viers down with metal and throws her into the river. The body is not discovered for several months. Coyer is arrested, but is handed over to the army before going on trial
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: homicide river
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 1917 - Murder of Lula Viers by John Coyer. Viers was pregnant by Coyer, and he apparently preferred murder to marriage
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws F10, "Lula Viers" (sample text in NAB, pp. 62-64)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 144-146, "Lula Vires" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 150-152)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 79-81, "Lula Viers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #57, "Lula Vower" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 203-204, "Lula Viers" (1 text)
DT 804, LULAVIER
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 195-197, "Lula Voyers" (1 text)
Roud #1933
NOTES [75 words]: Laws was able to verify the basic facts of this ballad from the records of Floyd County, Kentucky (learning in the process that Lula was pregnant); see his notes in NAB, p. 65. Roberts/Agey-InThePine adds additional details, e.g. the fact that John Coyer was a soldier who was on furlough, presumably before deployment to France in World War I, when he killed Viers. The Army nonetheless allowed him to serve, and he never returned to Kentucky. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LF10

Lula Vires

See Lula Viers [Laws F10] (File: LF10)

Lula Vower

See Lula Viers [Laws F10] (File: LF10)

Lula Voyers

See Lula Viers [Laws F10] (File: LF10)

Lula Wall

See Lulu Walls (File: R383)

Lulabelle

See Alice (The Bathtub Song) (File: ACSF277A)

Luliana, the Maid of Susquehanna

DESCRIPTION: "There is a little cabin as humble as can be, And it stands upon the banks of Susquehanna." His beloved, Luliana, lives there. If he were a fish, he would swim by her; if he were anyone but himself, he would dream of her and try to win her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: love courting river dream
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 159, "Luliana, The Maid of Susquehanna" (1 text) (p. 137 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #15001
File: Shoe059

Lulie

See Shout Lula (File: RcShLulu)

Lullaby

See Hush, Little Baby (File: SBoA164)

Lullaby (Hush, My Babe, Lie Still and Slumber)

See Hush, My Dear, Lie Still and Slumber (File: Grim100A)

Lullaby (O Birdie, I Am Tired Now)

See Put Me In My Little Bed (File: Beld279)

Lullaby (Some People Seek Pleasures Away from Their Home)

See Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own) (File: R393)

Lullaby for a Sailor's Child

DESCRIPTION: "Roar, roar, thunder of the sea, Wild waves breaking on the sandy bar, And my true love is sailing, sailing far For his rosy little boy and Shena." The singer bids the child sleep, and wishes a blessing on her sailor far away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: lullaby sailor separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H517, p. 7, "Lullaby for a Sailor's Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH517

Lullay, By-by, Lullay

See This Endris Night (File: OBC039)

Lullay, Lullay, Thou Little Tiny Child

See The Coventry Carol (File: OBC022)

Lullay, my Child

See This Endris Night (File: OBC039)

Lully, Lullay, Lully, Lullay

See The Corpus Christi Carol (File: L691)

Lully, Lulley, Lully, Lulley

See The Corpus Christi Carol (File: L691)

Lulu (I)

See My Lulu (File: San378)

Lulu (II)

DESCRIPTION: Composite of verses about Lulu and mountain life, e.g. "Lulu, get your hair cut Just like mine." "I went a fishin' an' fished for shad, First I caught was my old dad." "I'll give you a nickel, An' I'll give you a dime To see little Lulu Cut her shine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (JAFL 22)
KEYWORDS: courting fishing nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 183, "Lulu" (1 text, clearly composed of parts of different songs as some stanzas are twice the length of others)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 183, "Lulu" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, p. 20, "Lulu" (1 short text, 1 tune, too short to be clearly identified, so I filed it here based on "feel")
Roud #4202
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shad" (floating verse)
NOTES [25 words]: This might be connected in some way with "My Lulu." But the Brown and Sandburg versions have only the woman's name in common, so I've separated them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3183

Lulu (III)

See Sweet Lulur (File: BrIII350)

Lulu (IV)

See Bang Away, Lulu (I) (File: EM173)

Lulu had a steamboat, Steamboat had a bell

See Bang Away, Lulu (II) (File: EM180)

Lulu Walls

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes "that aggravating beauty, Lulu Walls." She has stolen his heart and left him in "sad misery." He plans to offer to wed, but knows she will turn him down. If she were his, he would surround her with walls so no one else would see her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Walter Morris)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph 383, "Lulu Walls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp. 233-234, "Lula Wall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 37-38, "Lula Wall" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 703, "Lula Falls"; 704, "Lula Wall" (2 short texts, 2 tunes)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 90, "Lula Walls" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more, 2 tunes)
DT, LULUWALL*
Roud #3338
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Lulu Walls" (Victor V-40126, 1929; Bluebird B-5927/Montgomery Ward M-4437, 1934) (Romeo 06-05-53/Conqueror 8693, 1936; rec. 1935)
A'nt Idy Harper & the Coon Creek Girls, "Lulu Wall" (Conqueror 9065 [as Coon Creek Girls]/Vocalion 04203, 1938)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Lulu Wall" (Brunswick 229/Vocalion 5252, 1928)
Walter Morris, "Lulu Walsh" (Columbia 15115-D, 1927)
Marvin Williams, "Lula Wall" (OKeh 45467, 1930)
NOTES [86 words]: Recorded by the Carter Family, and credited to A. P. Carter -- but given that the song was in circulation in the Ozarks in 1928 (Randolph), and in the Appalachians in 1933 (Henry), it seems a fair bet that the song predates the Carters. Though it is quite likely that the Carters rewrote it. - RBW
The Ozark folks may well have learned the song from the Morris recording. - PJS
And ditto Frank W. Anderson, who was Henry's informant, and so on. I wonder if Morris wrote it? It doesn't sound very traditional to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: R383

Luluanna

See Lovana (File: Beld223)

Lumber Camp Song -- Black Forest, 1880-1905

See The Backwoodsman (The Green Mountain Boys) [Laws C19] (File: LC19)

Lumber Camp Song, The

DESCRIPTION: A song describing life in the lumber camp. The shanty boys are men of all places and occupations. Most of the song is devoted to details of meals, smoking in the evening, and sleep. Details of the song vary widely
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (Delaney's Song Book #13)
KEYWORDS: logger separation lumbering moniker
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 210-211, "The Lumber Camp Song" (1 text)
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 14, "Jim Porter's Shanty Song" (2 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 14, "Jim Porter's Shanty Song" (2 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 82-83, "The Shantyman's Life (II)" (1 text, listed by Peters as a version ot "The Shantyman's Life (I)" but clearly this)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 104, "The Shanty Boys" (1 text)
Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs, p. 8, "The Shanty Boys in the Pine" (1 short text, 1 tune, probably this); p. 9, "Cutting Down the Pines" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 10-11, "The Shanty Boys" (1 text, 1 tune, rewritten as a canon for two voices)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 141-143, "The Shanty Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 25-26, "The Shanty Boys" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 72-73, "The Lumber Camp Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 159, "The Lumber Camp Song" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 750-751, "Hurling Down the Pine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #5, "The Lumbercamp Song" (4 short texts, tune referenced); #7, "Hurry Up, Harry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 38-39, "Shanty Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 2, "Cutting Down the Pines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 350-351, "Song of the Shanty Boys" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 93-95, "Song of the Shanty Boys" (1 text)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 11, "The Shanty Boys in the Pine" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 92-102, "Shanty Boys in the Pine" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 38, "Shany Boys in the Pine" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT, CUTPINES*
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "The Wanigan Songbook" by Isabel J. Ebert, pp. 208-210, "The Wolf River Shanty Boy Song" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Emory DeNoyer)
ST Doe210 (Full)
Roud #667
RECORDINGS:
Emery DeNoyer, "Shantyman's Life" (AFS, 1941; on LC55)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jim, the Carter Lad" (lyrics)
cf. "The Herring Gibbers" (theme, tune)
cf. "Turner's Camp on the Chippewa" [Laws C23] (theme)
cf. "Falling of the Pine" (theme)
cf. "Johnny Carroll's Camp" (theme)
cf. "Dans Les Chantiers (The Winter Camp)" (theme)
cf. "The Winter of '73 (McCullam Camp)" (theme)
cf. "Burns's Log Camp" (theme)
cf. "Bunkhouse Ballad" (theme)
cf. "Winter Desires" (theme)
cf. "Hall's Lumber Crew" (theme)
cf. "Peaslee's Lumber Crew" (structure)
cf. "Dempsey's Lumber-Camp Song" (theme)
cf. "Trimble's Crew" (theme, tune)
cf. "Poupore's Shanty Crew" (theme, tune)
cf. "The Oxen Song" (theme)
cf. "The Boys at Ninety-Five" (theme)
cf. "The Tomahawk Hem" (theme)
cf. "The Fisherman Yankee Brown" (tune)
cf. "Lumberman's Song" (theme)
cf. "Way Up at Leota" (theme)
NOTES [251 words]: Fowke states that this is derived from "Jim the Carter Lad." That they have shared verses is undeniable. I'm not quite as sure that this is a direct descendant.
Fowke lists her unique text "Hurry Up, Harry" as a separate song, and Roud surprisingly consents (#4363) -- but it has the same form and many of the same lyrics as this piece; the only substantial difference is the addition of the chorus "So it's hurry up, Harry, and Tom or Dick or Joe.... (and even that shows up in the verses of some versions such as Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan and Cazden et al). I'd still call it the same song, at least until someone finds a version other than LaRena Clark's.
Gray, p. xvii, states that the song "originated about 1847 near Muskegon, Michigan." He offers no evidence for this assertion. - RBW
Peacock: "For a marine variant with the same tune see... The Herring Gibbers, [which could be] the original version. However, considering the fact that the lumbering version has been traced back at least a hundred years I am inclined to give it priority" - BS
Much of logging camp routine was determined by the climate and seasons. It was easier to cut trees when the sap was not running, so the camps were active during the winter; this also let them run the logs downstream in the spring when the water levels were higher. This had the final benefit that it let some of the loggers farm during the summer. But it did mean that life in camp was rather limited in its possibilities. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Doe210

Lumber Wagon Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Some women have their troubles, The men have theirs likewise, Compare the two with agony." A mlliner's daughter loves a shanty-boy. "The shanty boy... measures Susie's waist" but dislikes her makeup. He declares he has learned to cook for himself
AUTHOR: George Nye (Georgiana Keopcke), according to Gard/Sorden
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (The Knapsack magazine, April 1929 issue, according to Gard/Sorden)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden, _Wisconsin Lore: Antics and Anecdotes of Wisconsin People and Places_, Wisconsin House, 1962, pp. 107-108, "Lumber Wagon Blues" (1 text, with no evidence that the song went into tradition)
File: GaSo107

Lumbering Boy

See Harry Dunn (The Hanging Limb) [Laws C14] (File: LC14)

Lumbering Boys, The

See The Jam on Gerry's Rock [Laws C1] (File: LC01)

Lumbering on the Cass

DESCRIPTION: "How many of those pioneers, I wonder, are alive, Who used to lumber on the Cass in 1865? Over forty years ago, how swift the time it flies...." The singer recalls the troubles of bringing in supplies, lists some of the loggers, and recalls a fire in 1871
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: logger lumbering travel hardtimes fire river
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 14, "Lumbering on the Cass" (1 text)
Roud #18196
File: BeLo014

Lumberjack Song, The

DESCRIPTION: A call to Newfoundland lumberjacks: "On the banks of Red Indian Lake" we'll cut down the pines in the day and sing around our shanty fires at night. "We'll range the wild woods o'er as a-lumbering we'll go"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: lumbering logger nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30154
RECORDINGS:
Michael Murphy, "The Lumberjack Song" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [20 words]: "The Lumberjack's Song" seems based on "Chase The Buffalo" (I), and the tune is close to that of "The Bigler's Crew." - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3LumSo

Lumberjack, The

DESCRIPTION: Recitation; the speaker praises the character of lumberjacks, despite their rough-hewn ways.
AUTHOR: Probably Marion Ellsworth
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work nonballad recitation logger
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 98, "The Lumberjack" (1 text)
Roud #8879
NOTES [18 words]: This, like the other pieces probably written by Ellsworth, does not seem to have entered oral tradition. - PJS
File: Be098

Lumberjack's Alphabet, The

See The Logger's Alphabet (File: Doe207)

Lumberjack's Exit, The

DESCRIPTION: "When the wild goose quits the northland... At a leisurely, though very rapid rate... It is time for us to emigrate." As winter comes, the loggers pack up to go to the camps. The singer describes shanty life and wishes long life to the loggers
AUTHOR: John Dunham
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: travel logger bird
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 172-174, "The Lumberjack's Exit" (1 text)
Roud #23385
File: EcSm172

Lumberjack's Prayer

DESCRIPTION: "Blue Monday, bitter Tuesday, Long Wednesday, everlasting Thursday, Friday, will you ever go? Sweet silver Saturday in the afternoon. Sunday, may you last forever. Amen. Two nights in the straw And three meals ahead."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan)
KEYWORDS: logger work
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, p. 122, "Lumberjack's Prayer" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 4, "Lumberjack's Prayer" (1 text)
Roud #6508
File: BBun122B

Lumberjack's Revival

See Silver Jack [Laws C24] (File: LC24)

Lumberjack's Waltz, The

See The Logger's Alphabet (File: Doe207)

Lumberman in Town, The

DESCRIPTION: "When the lumberman comes down, Ev'ry pocket bears a crown, And he wanders, some pretty girl to find." He stays at a fine inn till his money is gone, whereupon he regretfully returns to the woods. (When he is old, he marries a young girl who mocks him)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: logger work drink marriage age
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 58-59, "The Lumberman in Town" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 96-97, "The Lumberman in Town" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 51, "The Lumberman in Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #44, "When the Shantyboy Comes Down" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 28, "When the Shantyboy Comes Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 68-70,81, "The Lumberman in Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LxU051 (Partial)
Roud #4374
File: LxU051

Lumberman's Alphabet, The

See The Logger's Alphabet (File: Doe207)

Lumberman's Drinking Song

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis when we do go into the woods, Drink round, brave boys! (x2)... 'Tis when we go... Jolly brave boys are we. 'Tis when we go... We look for timber, and that which is good." The woodsmen chop, the haulers haul -- and the merchants sell to the loggers
AUTHOR: John S. Springer? (source: Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (Springer, _Forest Life and Forest Trees_, according to Gray and Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: logger lumbering work drink commerce river
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 15-17, "Drinking Song" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 38-39, "Drink Round, Brave Boys" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp.101-103, "Lumberman's Drinking Song" (1 text) (pp. 90-91 in the 1919 edition)
ADDITIONAL: John S. Springer _Forest Life and Forest Trees: Comprising Winter Camp-life Among the Loggers, and Wild-wood Adventure ; with Descriptions of Lumbering Operations on the Various Rivers of Maine and New Brunswick_, Harper & Brothers, 1861 (available on Google Books and Project Gutenberg), pp. 152-154 "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #15000
File: Gray015

Lumberman's Life, The

See The Shantyman's Life (I) (File: Doe211)

Lumberman's Song

DESCRIPTION: "Winter it has come again, And to the woods we go." "It is work and work, from three till none." The singer lists some of the men in the camp: The tricky teamster Huey Mallinix, the McFarley Boys, the cook, the boss who carries the fire-poker
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson)
KEYWORDS: logger work lumbering moniker
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 265-266, "Lumberman's Song" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (theme)
File: TNY265

Lumbermen's Drinking Song

See Lumberman's Drinking Song (File: Gray015)

Lumi Sticks (Luni Sticks, Lummi Sticks, Lemmi Sticks)

DESCRIPTION: Stick game with nonsense words probably based on Maori: "Ah ko way, ko wee ah kin, way, ko wee ah kin." Or " Ma Koo Ay, Ko Tay O, Ay Koo e Tah no." Or something
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonsense foreignlanguage campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 424-425, "Lemmi Sticks" (notes only)
NOTES [121 words]: This is a game song played with sticks. Averill calls it an "intellectual challenge," but it seems more a physical challenge: to manage the words, and the stick game. The origin of the lyrics is almost certainly Maori, although many other nationalities have been claimed for both the words and the game. Since anything else I could say would be speculative, I will refer you to the mudcat.org thread "info Lumi sticks," which has several descriptions of the game and a lot of version of, or speculation about, the words.
Averill claims this is in Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, but since she cites neither a page nor his title for the game, I have no way of checking this or linking the songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF424L

Lupe

See Charlotte the Harlot (III) (File: EM169B)

Lurgan Braes

DESCRIPTION: An apprentice boy left Portadown for Woodside on the Kelvin River. He thought of the girl he left behind near Lurgan Braes. He swore he would remain true to her. If he returns he will call on her: "if she is dead, or if she is wed, I'm at my Liberty"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1860 (broadside, NLScotland APS.4.86.6)
KEYWORDS: courting love promise separation travel Ireland Scotland floatingverses nonballad apprentice
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #72, p. 2, "Lurgan Braes" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1909, "Lurgan Braes" (1 text)
Roud #6273
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(76), "Lurgan Braes" ("The summer time being in its prime"), J. Lindsay (Glasgow), 1851-1910
Murray, Mu23-y1:034, "Lurgan Braes," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, APS.4.86.6, "Lurgan Braes" ("The Summer time being in its prime"), J. Lindsay (Glasgow), 1852-1859
NOTES [61 words]: Greig: "'Lurgan Braes' is one of those songs which are compounded of several ditties and sorely lack unity and clear meaning."
In spite of Greig's comment there are few actual floating verses ("rocks melt with the sun," for example) but more floating ideas.
Specifically, [the singer] left Portadown in County Armagh. Woodside is on the Kelvin River, near Glasgow. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Grd81909

Lurgan Stream

See The Lurgy Stream (The Lurgan/Leargaidh Stream) (File: HHH229)

Lurgan Town (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer steps up to a girl and tries to court her. She says she is pledged to Jamie. He says Jamie died in China, and shows the (broken) ring he gave her. She laments, and curses her parents who exiled him. He reveals that he is Jamie; they get married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion brokentoken exile soldier
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H563, p. 316, "Lurgan Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6871
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. esp. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
cf. "A Bonnie Laddie, But Far Awa (theme: parents drive lover away)
File: HHH563

Lurgan Town (II)

DESCRIPTION: Catholic Inspector Hancock has changed Lurgan. You'd be jailed two days for singing an Orange song. He keeps the Fenian meetings safe. The police come to our dance and dance the girls to Garryowen. He breaks up an Orange demonstration on July 12.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: discrimination Ireland political police dancing
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 54, "Lurgan Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 21, "Lurgan Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6870
NOTES [57 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "The ballad was occasioned by the unpopular appointment of a Catholic Inspector of Police in Lurgan, Co. Armagh."
July 12 celebrates the Battle of the Boyne, 1690. When Hancock breaks up the demonstration, says the song, "We turned, shook hands, all we could do Was say 'Boys remember the Boyne water!'" - BS
File: OLcM054

Lurgy Stream, The (The Lurgan/Leargaidh Stream)

DESCRIPTION: The singer arrives in the country and sees a beautiful woman by the (Lurgy) stream. He asks her to marry him and come across the seas. She turns him down. He promises to be true, and tries again. She rejects him again. He mopes and leaves home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H65a, pp. 293-294, "Alt[i]mover Stream" (1 text, 1 tune); H229a+b, p. 360-361, "The Lurgan Stream" (2 texts, 1 tune. The two texts are probably different redactions of the same original)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 52, "The Lurgy Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6881 and 6889
RECORDINGS:
Mary Anne Connelly, "Lurgan Stream" (on Voice15, IRHardySons)
Marge Steiner, "Lurgan Stream" (on Steiner01)
NOTES [60 words]: McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen: "This is another Donegal song, popular in many parts of Ireland, especially the northern parts. Versions of this song were made famous in the earlier half of this century through recordings made in America by people like John McGettigan. Old 78 rpm records were sent home to the kinfolk by emigrants." - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: HHH229

Lusby Plough Play - Trio, The

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

Lushbaugh Girls

See Buffalo Gals (File: R535)

Lusitania, The

DESCRIPTION: Lusitania sails from New York for Ireland. "Three thousand souls she had on board ... Until those cruel German dogs, for her they lay unseen, And shattered her to fragments with their cursed submarine" Vanderbilt gives his life-belt to a mother.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 7, 1915: "At lunchtime ... a torpedo from U-20 struck the _Lusitania_. A further explosion rent the ship and she sank in two hours with the loss of 1200 lives" (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, pp. 117-118)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 76, "The Lusitania" (1 text)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 2, "The Lusitania" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7349
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "The Lusitania" (on IRTLenihan01)
NOTES [11656 words]: The Lusitania's tragic story tells a great deal about the peculiar circumstances of the early twentieth century. The British, though long known for their merchant fleet, were losing the edge in passenger service, especially high-speed passenger service; the German lines NDL and HAPAG were taking over the market (Ramsey, pp. 5-8).
Britain had only three companies competing in this market, Inman, White Star, and Cunard. Inman had sold out in the late nineteenth century, and J. P. Morgan by the early twentieth century owned the remnants of Inman and was controlling the White Star Line as well (Brinnin, p. 325; Ramsey, p. 12; Fox, pp. 391-393, says that it was one Clement A. Griscom who organized the combinations, but it was Morgan who managed the financing. Eventually Morgan took charge once Griscom had laid the groundwork; Fox, p. 394). Brinnin, p. 328, and Barczewski, p. 260, say that Morgan was sniffing after Cunard as well, hoping to create a dominating transatlantic cartel.
To add to the British problems, the German lines were in alliance with their government (Ramsey, p. 10) and had a working arrangement with Morgan (Brinnin, pp. 325-327).
Cunard had long built its reputation on an amazing safety record (no passengers lost, *ever*, to an actual sailing accident; see Brinnin, pp. 272, 275, etc.; Preston, p. 62), but now, seeing its position drastically affected, it had little choice but to get into the alliance game itself. Dangling the threat of a Morgan takeover, they negotiated with the British government (Brinnin, pp. 328-331), and came away with a big subsidy in return for rights to requisition Cunard ships in event of war.
The first ships to come under this arrangement were the Caronia and Carmania -- but the real prize, for Cunard, was an agreement to build two fast liners that could be requisitioned by the British navy and converted to auxiliary cruisers. These were the Lusitania and her sister the Mauretania.
The idea of liners that could be converted to warships was not new; the first such to be designed was the White Star Line's Teutonic of two decades earlier (Fox, pp. 361-362). But the ships' primary task was of course to carry passengers, not to fight.
"Speed, as ever, carried the day. The final specification called for ships 790 feet long and 88 feet wide, of 32,500 tons, driven by four screws and four turbine engines humming out 68,000 horsepower. All these dimensions leaped far past any other vessel, either running or planned.... [T]hey would be the first British ships topped off by four smokestacks" (Fox, pp. 402-403). The four screws were also a new design technique, which forced designers to work out a method of putting the outer screws much ahead of the center screws (Fox, p. 409).
It was difficult to design such ships; PeekeEtAl, p. 4, say that the designers were called upon to combine "the bottom third of the latest Admiralty design for a heavy cruiser [with] the top two-thirds of a super-liner." It didn't work; they ended up having to widen the beam (and, as we shall see, the result still wasn't as stable as a slower ship).
There were other interesting "naval" touches -- e.g. the equipment on her bridge was similar to that used on navy ships rather than civilian vessels, to make it easier for naval crewmen to use her should she be taken over (PeekeEtAl, p. 23).
When she was launched in 1907, the 30,396 ton Lusitania was the largest ship afloat, capable of over 26 knots for brief spells (Ramsey, p. 24). She soon won the Blue Riband for fastest transatlantic crossing, making the trip in less than five days and averaging almost 24 knots for the entire trip (Ramsey, pp. 27-28). She thus became the first-ever "four day ship" (Brinnin, p. 342). The only ship to compete with her in speed was her sister Mauretania, which proved to be ever so slightly faster and in fact held the Blue Riband for an incredible 22 years (Brinnin, p. 344). Mauretania also managed the astonishing feat of completing all her crossings over a long period in a time that varied by only about ten minutes (Brinnin, p. 345).
We should note that a misconception found in many histories is false. The Lusitania and Mauretania were *not* the fastest ships in the world -- contrary even to an assertion made by Lusitania's crew to her passengers in 1915; see Simpson, p. 112. The sisters were the fastest *liners*, but by 1915, there were all sorts of ships capable of catching her. Taking the data in Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I, the 1912 battlecruiser Tiger could reach 28 knots, the 1913 light cruisers of the Aurora class averaged about 28, and the 1911 "K" class destroyers hit 31 knots. Even the battleships of the Queen Elizabeth class could reach 24-25 knots. And ships with an even higher turn of speed were produced during the war.
Germany had no Queen Elizabeths, but they had battlecruisers and destroyers that could catch Lusitania and Mauretania. It's just that their submarines couldn't. Nor would any knowledgeable person have denied the existence of faster ships; even her builders at the time of her launching claimed only that he could move "at a speed only previously accomplished by a torpedo boat destroyer" (PeekeEtAl, p. 16).
In any case, warships, although capable of high speeds, usually sailed at a more economical cruising speed, which also saved wear and tear on the engines. The liners went at full steam the entire way, so although they were not the fastest ships in a sprint, they were the fastest way to cross the Atlantic, bar none.
Apart from being fast, the sisters was also allowed passengers luxuries never before seen (and not to be matched until White Star produced the Olympic and Titanic four years later). They used electricity for many functions previously done by hand or hydraulically, and their cabins were half again as large as previous liners (Brinnin, p. 342). They even had shipboard elevators -- the first on a British liner (Fox, p. 404). As designed, the Lusitania had four boiler rooms and capacity for 552 first class passengers, 460 second class, 1186 third class, and 827 crew (Ramsey, p. 25).
They were also magnificently decorated (Fox makes the ironic note that the idea of shipboard design was to make passengers think that they were ashore, and says on p. 403 that Lusitania's interior designer James Miller had done all his previous work on land projects.)
There were a few glitches in the basic design. As originally built, Lusitania vibrated so badly at high speed that she had to be taken in for a major refit (Ballard, p. 22; Preston, p. 62; Fox, pp. 404-405, blames it on the fact that no one fully understood the fluid mechanics of the turbines and propeller at the time -- which is hardly surprising, fluid mechanics to this day remains one of the most intractable areas of classical physics). The repairs succeeded, for the most part, but they perhaps indicated some other structural problems -- PeekeEtAl, pp. 25-26, says that the problem was the lack of decent reduction gearing to allow fast-running turbines to drive the screw propellers (which operate better at a lower rotation rate) at a reasonable speed.
Other than that, the ship performed better than expectations in every regard. But, reading PeekEtAl, I can't help but note how much time Lusitania spent in the dock, getting new screws, having her turbine blades repaired, or having the structure reworked -- just generally being fiddled with. Not the best testimony to her strength of design.
Despite her design problems, Lusitania was in many ways a stronger ship than her slightly later contemporary, the Titanic; Titanic had only 16 watertight cells, Lusitania 34 (Ballard, p. 23). Unlike Titanic, even though she was designed earlier, she was pretty close to iceberg-proof.
But, of course, she never ran into an iceberg. The surprise was that she proved so vulnerable to man-made attack. This was at least partly due to the many demands placed on her design. A 1907 heavy cruiser had a displacement in the 14,000 ton range. Lusitania was over twice that. Which meant a lot of boilers, which had to run most of the width of the ship, as did the coal bunkers.
The boiler rooms and bunkers were so large that, if flooded, they would cost the ship most of its buoyancy. The only solution was "longitudinal bulkheads" -- that is, instead of a full honeycomb, with from one to three bulkheads along the length of the ship and assorted bulkheads across the width, in the area of the boilers and bunkers, the boilers took up nearly the whole width of the ship, with only small compartments to the port and starboard sides for additional protection (PeekeEtAl, pp. 6-7). The arrangement really was iceberg-proof -- but if, somehow, one of those longitudinal bulkheads was breached, it meant that the ship would lose power and also would run the risk of sinking. If hit just wrong, so that two such bulkheads were breached, she would almost certainly sink.
And there was more. To keep the ship moving at full speed required huge amounts of coal. And the only place to put it, given that the rest of the ship was spoken for, was in the longitudinal bunkers. Which meant cutting doors in the wall. And it turns out that they were almost impossible to close, once opened, because of all the coal and coal dust in them. This wasn't considered a major concern at the time; the designers had thought of icebergs, and plunging shellfire -- but not torpedo hits below the waterline (PeekeEtAl, p. 7; Larson, pp. 11-12, although Larson is of the opinion that the coal was regarded as armor protection -- p. 12 makes the absurd claim that she was "a passenger liner... with the hull of a battleship" -- which is simply wrong; she was a passenger liner with the hull FORM of a heavy cruiser).
Oil fuel would probably have cured most of this, but oil-only vessels were years away.
It's also worth noting that Lusitania wasn't really suited to be a warship, despite the gun mountings built into her original design (which were actually fitted at a refit in 1913; PeekeEtAl, p. 37); to achieve her high speed, she was very long and lean -- and tall, because the propulsion system took up the entire size of the hull, so "the design team had nowhere to go but up when deciding where to place the passenger accommodations" (Harding, p. 60).
This meant that she (and Mauretania as well) was not particularly stable; in heavy weather, the bow could pitch wildly into the air, then bury itself in the seas; she was a very "wet" ship (Barczewski, p. 261). This would have made her a poor gun platform; battleships in particular -- by contrast to cruiser designs like the Lusitania -- tend to be very broad of beam, to help keep the guns on target. Indeed, the Admiralty soon after the start of the War refitted the Carmania as an auxiliary cruiser, and she succeeded in sinking a German refitted liner, the Cap Trafalgar -- but the experiment showed how ineffective the Carmania was as a warship (Payne, p. 93; Brinnin, pp. 407-409 points out that there was severe damage to the Carmania as well; both ships needed dozen of hits to sink their opponents. Brinnin, p. 410, calls it a "Gilbert and Sullivan gunfight").
This should probably have been obvious all along. Most converted liners -- "auxiliary cruisers" -- were armed with guns in the four inch to six inch range, with no more than twelve fitted, and obviously none of them centerline mounted. This meant that most liners would have offensive power somewhere between a destroyer and a weak light cruiser (and without a destroyer's antisubmarine weapons or torpedoes). But the liner needed at least as many men as a light cruiser, was slower than some cruisers and all destroyers, and burned more coal. Armed merchant cruisers weren't useful offensive weapons. The Admiralty largely abandoned the idea of arming the luxury liners; they just weren't effective enough for the task (Preston, p. 386).
Indeed, Lusitania had been requisitioned at the start of the war, and promptly turned back to Cunard; her coal demands were too high (Massie, p. 24).
(This is not to say that the auxiliary cruisers were useless. By late 1914, converted liners were doing most of the work of maintaining the blockade on Germany; Massie, pp. 510-511. But they were a very expensive way to do this work; it would have taken fewer men and less coal to patrol the area with light cruisers -- if Britain had had the light cruisers to do it.)
The plans for the Lusitania apparently specified a dozen six inch guns (Ramsey, p. 188). The Lusitania would thus have been in the light cruiser range, but unarmored and making a much bigger target. Nor would there have been a good place for an optical platform to centrally direct the guns.
The Admiralty had other uses for requisitioned liners, though. Britain had a lot of soldiers to move, and a lot of freight to haul, and liners were excellent for the first function and could be refitted to do the latter also. Lusitania would be one of the ships so modified.
It's at this point that things get a little murky. That Lusitania underwent a refit is certain. But many claims have been made about what was done during the refit. Simpson, pp. 27-28, claims that she actually was given guns at this time during a dockyard stay beginning August 8 (pretty amazing, given that the war had started only four days earlier).
But even Simpson allows that she never sailed as an auxiliary cruiser (p. 37), and seems to admit that she never went out armed. Harding, p. 62, points out that the United States inspectors never classed her as a combat ship -- and while they might have missed ammunition in the hold, they certain wouldn't have missed heavy guns on the deck! A member of the expedition of John Light, who dived to the ship in the 1960s, thought he saw guns (O'Sullivan, p. 36) -- but he worked in very bad conditions, in which mistakes were quite possible (Preston, pp. 386-387); O'Sullivan admits that "to date nothing has been found to substantiate his claims." The passengers' accounts uniformly denied seeing weapons (Preston, p. 387), even though at least one specifically searched for them (Preston, pp. 133).
A few paranoids have suggested that Lusitania carried guns in her holds which could be put into the gun rings when needed -- but this is simply ridiculous; you don't take 6" guns and casually haul them up an elevator and drop them in a gun mounting. And even if you did, the guns would need to be calibrated (Ramsey, p. 188).
Ramsey, pp. 186-192, documents how the story that she was armed arose, but also shows why it is false. Even if you doubt the British records, Ballard's exploration (much more thorough than Light's) would have shown guns on her decks, and evidence of secondary explosions from her shells, and it showed neither.
So what was the Admiralty doing to Lusitania during the refit? Primarily converting her to carry more cargo. They opened out some passenger space for storage and other purposes (Ramsey, p. 36; PeekeEtAl, p. 43), incidentally affecting her stability somewhat and worsening that pesky vibration (Ramsey, p. 39; Simpson, p. 45). It also caused significant inconvenience for the passengers. But the navy left her in merchant service, though it began to control her route, schedule, and loading (Preston, p. 64; PeekeEtAl, p. 43).
This was all against Cunard's wishes. With the war on, transatlantic traffic fell dramatically. Lusitania didn't have enough passengers to make a profit (PeekeEtAl, p. 43, estimates a two thousand pound loss per trip), but the Admiralty wouldn't let Cunard change her schedule; they wanted her bringing supplies. The government's only promises were to continue the subsidy to the ships, to pay for cargo space, and to insure the ship (Simpson, p. 38). The Admiralty would determine her course and sailing time.
It was a recipe for big losses. The only answer Cunard could find was to close down one of her four boiler rooms (to save coal; Ballard, pp. 30-31, and also to reduce the number of stokers needed; Simpson, p. 85). The shut-down of the boilers allowed her to roughly break even despite the reduced passenger load, but it also reduced her speed significantly -- and all that time spent fiddling around in the shipyard also reduced her efficiency and caused some of her equipment to deteriorate (Ramsey. p. 51).
Larson, p. 130, says that the passengers did not know about her reduced speed, but surely they must have noticed that it took her five days, not four, to cross the Atlantic! It doesn't seem to have caused much worry, though.
There does not seem to have been any fear at the time that a submarine would attack her; the Germans did not start unrestricted submarine warfare until later, and in any case, no submarine had sunk a ship moving faster than 14 knots (Preston, p. 93), and she would still easily exceed that. There had been a story that, early in the war, she was chased by a German cruiser -- a story which Simpson accepts. But PeekeEtAl, p. 42, shows that this simply did not happen.
The war didn't just cause the Lusitania to change what she carried and how she sailed. It also cost her most of her more experienced crew; the sailors ended up in the navy and some of the stewards and such were in the army. Their replacements were inexperienced (Simpson, p. 102, says that she managed to find only 41 able seamen for the last trip, though she was supposed to have at least 77), and such crew as could be found had a significant tendency to desert upon reaching New York (Ballard, p. 59). Some who did serve on her spoke poor English, and few knew their way around the ship.
Topping it all off, Lusitania's schedule was reduced to one round trip per month, making it harder for the crew to become accustomed to their tasks (Ballard, p. 208).
It was not a good combination should there be an emergency. And as for lowering the boats -- well, unlike the Titanic three years earlier, they had boat drills, but a passenger reported that they involved only two boats, and even those were not actually lowered (Ballard, p. 63; Preston, p. 131, and PeekeEtAl, p. 58, describe a few crew members simply climbing into a selected boat and then getting out -- PeekeEtAl, pp. 58-59 argues that this was about all that could have been done, since the boats could not be lowered while the ship was moving, but surely the passengers could at least have been shown how to board). Obviously the crew and passengers would not be ready in the event of disaster. (Simpson, p. 102, is of the opinion that the crew simply lied about her disaster preparedness; PeekeEtAl, p. 59, thinks the boat drills were solely to reassure the passengers.)
During the war, the ship continued to run primarily passengers, but she did carry some war-related cargo on her final voyages. (The British naturally concealed some of this until after the war, contributing to Simpson's air of paranoia.) O'Sullivan, p. 117, notes that under American law "no vessel could legally sail with any explosives likely to endanger the health or lives of passengers or the safety of the vessel."
The question, of course, is whether her cargo did in fact violate the American rules. It appears, contrary to O'Sullivan, that it did not. Just what she was carrying on her last trip is slightly uncertain; some of it was munitions -- some four million rifle cartridges (Hoehling, p. 96, calls them practice cartridges, but most sources seem to think they were for ordinary military use) and 5000 3-inch shells (Ramsey, p. 56). Ballard, p. 27, notes that these were considered legitimate items to transport on a passenger liner even in wartime, since they were not explosive (cf. O'Sullivan, p. 133; Preston, pp. 368-369, which has some of the court evidence on the matter). Brinnin, p. 422, says that the shell casings were not loaded with explosives (they were "filled," i.e. the shrapnel had been loaded -- but shrapnel is not itself explosive; O'Sullivan, pp. 131-132. The actual charges would be installed in England).
This has actually been verified; a handful of unfilled fuses have been brought up from the wreck (Preston, p. 389), and the measurement of the weight of the shells shows they were unfilled (Preston, p. 390).
On the other hand, the British themselves, at the start of the war, had changed the rules for what was contraband, and started paying extra attention to neutral ships (Massie, pp. 507-508). I would say that, by the revised British standards, Lusitania was carrying war materials, and could have been made to give them up. But the British would not have sunk her; they would have taken her into port and confiscated what they didn't like.
Simpson says that the British were playing a bit fast and loose with cargo manifests at the time. In effect, they submitted one well in advance with her "standard" cargo, then another with last-minute changes. Not too surprisingly, most of the last-minute changes involved perishable items like food -- given Britain's need for foodstuffs, the local buyers would naturally take whatever they could lay their hands on and find space for in the cargo holds (which had to be loaded very carefully, since the ship wasn't really designed for cargo-hauling and didn't have elevators or passages designed for freight). But it would presumably have been easy to slip in some contraband with the last-minute items.
A suspicious mind could have a field day with the manifest for the final trip. Simpson makes a great deal about 3863 large boxes of cheese (p. 105), which PeekeEtAl, p. 100, notes was unrefrigerated (though a cargo hold near the bottom of a ship in the North Atlantic needn't have been too hot, we should note. Cheese might well survive. There was, however, also butter listed in the shipment, which sounds pretty strange). Stranger still was something listed on her cargo manifest as 205 barrels of oysters, which would certainly go bad before they could be distributed (Ramsey, p. 57). The obvious assumption was that they were actually military materials. The flip side is, even if those oysters were actually explosives (say), 205 barrels of explosives weren't going to change the outcome of the war.
Others have questioned a consignment of furs -- but in fact some of the furs floated to shore after the wreck (Preston, p. 390).
The German government issued warnings in 1915 threatening unrestricted submarine attacks on "civilian" shipping sailing too close to the British Isles; one such message was published in a newspaper just as the Lusitania started her final run (Ramsey, p. 53; Ballard, p. 31, and Preston, p. 91, print a copy of the ad). Supposedly some of the passengers also received warnings, but these had an air of the crank about them (Ballard, p. 32; PeekeEtAl,p. 53, says that it was newspapermen seeking a story, not Germans, who sent them). Few changed their plans. Simpson, p. 114, claims there was a melancholy air about the passengers as they went aboard, but cites no source for this claim.
After all, the Lusitania, even with her speed reduced, was faster than any German submarine (her new cruising speed was about 18 knots, and according to PeekeEtAl, p. 44, she could still hit 21 in a pinch -- twice the speed of a submerged submarine, and at least five knots faster than a submarine on the surface), so no attempt was made to give her an escort (Paine, p. 311. Preston, p. 399, notes that there had been an attempt to give her an escort on a previous trip -- and, given the need for radio silence, the escort had never found her; cf. Ramsey, p. 245). Indeed, had she been given a naval escort, it would have made her a legitimate target in any reckoning.
On May 1, 1915 Lusitania sailed from New York with nearly two thousand people on board. This was by no means a full load; she had only 291 passengers in first class (53% of capacity); there were 601 second class passengers (31% over capacity). Steerage was almost empty, with only 31% of berths filled: 373 out of 1186 possible (Ballard, p. 37).
Nonetheless, it was the largest load of passengers she had had on the eastbound route since the start of the war (Preston, pp. 102-103), in part because passengers from other ships had been put aboard when the other ships had been rescheduled or requisitioned (Larson, p. 114). For some reason, the number of children was unusually high (Preston, p. 128).
To make things doubly unfortunate, the Germans had sent a number of submarines to the area where she was sailing. This, ironically, was in response to British disinformation: To mask the invasion of the Dardanelles, the British were trying to give the impression they would launch an amphibious assault on Germany. The Germans took the bait and sent submarines to try to interfere (Preston, p. 163).
On May 6, Lusitania entered Germany's declared "war zone." The claims that she made no attempts to avoid her fate are, however, false; Ballard, p. 72, notes that she extinguished her lights at night, closed several watertight doors -- and swung out her boats, just in case (cf. PeekeEtAl, p. 62). Larson, p. 192, says that the crew wasn't very good at doing this (lack of practice, no doubt) -- but the boats were ready to go when the ship was off Ireland.
On the other hand, no serious attempts were made to shut the portholes; many of them were apparently left open, and they probably caused the ship to flood even faster than she otherwise would have, and increased the list that was to make it so hard to lower the boats (Preston, p. 368).
She did receive some warnings of submarines (PeekeEtAl, p. 63). It's just that they didn't describe how severe the danger was (fully 23 ships in the area had been sunk since Lusitania left New York, including several sunk by Lusitania's nemesis U-20; O'Sullivan, pp. 85-88, though this report is marred, e.g., by calling H. M. S. Juno a "battle cruiser"; Juno was a light cruiser from the 1890s, meaning that, rather than being one of the fanciest and newest ships in the fleet, she was a piece a junk the British would have been better off without. It's like calling a Yugo a Mercedes). The commander in Queenstown (Cobh), in fact, issued a specific advisory that a U-boat was operating off the south Irish coast (Preston, p. 166), and a specific order was given to make sure the Lusitania was warned (Preston, p. 179; Hoehling, p. 100).
Other ships were warned in detail and redirected; Lusitania was not (O'Sullivan, p. 87). Of course, Lusitania was not expected to be anywhere near the Old Head of Kinsale at that time. Except -- she was.
In the absence of detailed knowledge of conditions in the area, Captain Turner chose to sail past Ireland at 18 knots, well below his available speed; Lusitania was big enough that he needed the right tide or a pilot to enter Liverpool, and he didn't want to have to sit around outside the bar, where he would be an even better U-boat target (Ballard, p. 78; Preston, p. 326). (I can't help but think that Turner didn't like having to make tight maneuvers, either; Larson, p. 20, notes that ships he had captained had already had two accidental collisions.) So he ignored what were claimed to be standing orders to proceed at full speed near harbors, to sail away from headlands, and to zigzag in the war zone (Ballard, p. 79), later claiming, possibly truly, that the rules had not been made sufficiently clear (Larson, pp. 146-147, claims this instruction had perhaps not been circulated when the Lusitania sailed).
According to PeekeEtAl, pp. 83-84, while en route, he also was wirelessed a secret order to head to Queenstown (a fact which never came out during the inquiries, because it was secret -- according to PeekeEtAl, it was also hidden by the removal of the relevant page from the Admiralty's signal log).
It was unfortunate that the Lusitania had encountered a lot of fog in the days before she reached the Irish coast (PeekeEtAl, pp. 67-68; Hoehling, p. 100). That left her dependent on dead reckoning. And the ship, when it left the fog, proved to be slightly off its dead reckoning position -- it was too far from shore. Captain Turner, when he spotted Ireland, of course realized where he was (it was hard to mistake the Old Head of Kinsale, especially as it was marked by a lighthouse with a distinctive white-and-black paint job; PeekeEtAl, p. 70) -- but for some reason he ordered what is known as a "four point fix" to determine his exact location. That meant he had to sail a straight course for some 20 minutes while the fix was being taken (Preston, p. 185, with details on the fog spread over the preceding pages; Larson, p. 231, claims the fix would have taken fully half an hour).
Ramsey, p.162, notes that "other captains had testified that an accurate position could be obtained by taking cross bearings in only three minutes." On pp. 284-285, he notes that it was usually accurate to within a mile, with current and wind being the main things which affected its accuracy. It was used in circumstances when only one landmark with a known location could be seen.
I can't help but note that the Lusitania was 787 feet long. If accurate bearings were taken simultaneously from bow and stern, and the angles compared, there would have been a significant difference -- on the order of a degree if the estimated distance from the coast was correct. So, given proper equipment and crew, even the three minute course was not needed. If navigators hadn't developed the trig tables to perform that particular calculation, it was time they did so!
But forget all that and just look at the map on p. 532 of Massie. If Turner could see the Old Head of Kinsale -- and we know he could -- then he could have sailed into Queenstown based solely on visual observation. And, presumably, once docked, even he would have known his position.
The four point fix was surely the greatest gift Turner could possibly have given to an attacking vessel; what was he afraid of -- that Ireland had moved overnight? I have seen dozens of excuses for Turner, most of them valid -- but nothing can excuse the four point fix when the ship's position was adequately known.
Early in the afternoon of May 7, off the Kinsale coast not far from Queenstown, while taking the four point fix, Lusitania encountered the U-20 under KapitanLeutenant (Lt. Commander) Walter Schwieger. By this time, the weather was clear and bright (Ramsay, p. 223), so the German had no trouble tracking the liner. Even so, she would have been out of his reach -- except that Turner kindly turned the ship to do the Four Point Fix. Schweiger would later say, "She could not have steered a more perfect course if she had deliberately tried to give us a dead shot" (Larson, p. 232).
Schwieger was actually giving up on this cruise; he was low on fuel and had already had several run-ins with British merchant ships. That left him with just three torpedoes, and it was standard policy to save two for the voyage home (Larson, pp. 204-205). Rather than risk digging into his reserve stock, he fired only one torpedo.
In a major stroke of luck, Schwieger's one torpedo hit Lusitania squarely, and exploded properly (many German torpedoes at this time were duds -- Preston, p. 165, says that 60% misfired in one way or another), and caused a secondary explosion.
(Some sources, including Marshall, p. 166, says there were two torpedoes; it appears this was based on the first British investigation, for which see O'Sullivan, p. 122; this claimed two torpedo hits, one forward and one aft. This was presumably inspired by the fact witnesses agreed there were two explosions; cf. Ramsey, p. 269. The claim of two torpedoes was at various times affirmed and retracted by Captain Turner -- Ramsey, p. 274; Preston, pp. 325, 402. Preston seems to think this was because Cunard wanted there to have been two torpedoes, presumably so they wouldn't look so bad, and the Admiralty also wanted two, because it would spare them having to explain a secondary explosion. A few passengers went so far as to claim three torpedoes; Preston, pp. 368, 402. The British investigation, of course, had no access to the German records showing only one torpedo -- the intelligence service may have known, but it wasn't talking -- so it may have seemed logical to assume two explosions meant two hits. It was nonetheless wrong).
The ship instantly started listing, and sank within 20 minutes (Paine, p. 311), relieving Schwieger of the need to decide whether to fire another torpedo (Ballard, p. 90). Indeed, he found the sight "too horrible to watch" (Brinnin, p. 420).
Captain Turner was quickly on the bridge, but his actions were a bit questionable. According to Larson's reconstruction (pp. 252-253), he first ordered the engines full astern (there was no response, which is very strange). He then ordered the ship to turn toward land; for the moment, she answered the wheel. He then ordered another course change; this time, she did not answer. Only *then* did he order the watertight doors closed! He then ordered the boats lowered to the rails so passengers could board (although it should be remembered that they could not be put in the water until the ship stopped moving).
At about 2:25, fifteen minutes after the torpedo hit, the ship's bow was down 25 degrees, and Turner told the helmsman to leave the bridge and save himself, but did not leave the bridge himself until he was swept away as the ship went down.
The speed with which the ship sank turned what could have been a relatively minor incident into a disaster. The crew began evacuating almost at once -- but it took time to round up the passengers and lower the boats. This was all the more problematic because the ship was listing so heavily; within minutes, it was difficult to walk or even stay balanced. It was also hard to lower the boats and keep passengers in them (Simpson, p. 22, claims that a list of five degrees -- which could be caused by only one compartment flooding -- would makes half her boats inoperable, and Preston, pp. 132-133, reports that Cunard had refused to install better davits when they upgraded her lifeboats after the Titanic sinking).
Plus Turner apparently wouldn't let the boats be lowered until several minutes after it was clear Lusitania was sinking (Preston, p. 215). His argument was that the ship was moving too fast to allow the boats to enter the water safely. This was obviously true for a few minutes, though the ship surely slowed rapidly. (Larson, p. 272, claims it was still moving at four or five knots shortly before the ship sank. I frankly find this incredible.)
Many passengers never even made it to the deck; the ship's electrical system failed only minutes after the explosion, so many below decks would have had no lights to guide them upward (Ballard, p. 99; Preston, p. 209, says it took only four minutes for the power to go out as the boilers lost steam. PeekeEtAl, p. 74, attributes the quick failure to a decision by Captain Turner to order "full astern" to stop the ship -- an order caused the piping to blow off an end cap, probably because it caused certain damaged-and-not-easily-repaired valves to fail).
By the time Turner allowed the boats to go, the list was so severe that the portside boats could not be lowered without hitting the hull, at minimum damaging them and dumping passengers; many could not be launched at all (Preston, pp. 218, 220). Those on the starboard side, by contrast, swung far away from the ship and were difficult to enter (Preston, p. 219; Larson, p. 259, says that people had to jump into them or build bridges of deck chairs. No one seems to have thought of counter-flooding -- which, in this case, might even have kept the boat afloat longer -- but it was probably impossible anyway, because all the power and control systems were out. Apparently the designers never considered how disastrous a power failure could be on a ship this size; the Titanic had had power to the end, so no one had reason to think about it). In the end, only six boats made it to the water intact (PeekeEtAl, p. 78).
Turner had stayed with the ship. His watch, which presumably stopped when he went into the water as the ship made its final plunge, read 2:36 (Larson, p. 278), or about 25 minutes after the torpedo hit.
It took time for rescue to come. Although the authorities responded quickly, the ships they sent out were slow and small -- fishing boats and trawlers and minor naval vessels -- and none had a wireless (Preston, p. 260; Larson, p. 289). The Juno, which despite its age was the largest and fastest ship available, was not allowed to engage in rescue operations as it would have made too vulnerable a U-boat target (PeekeEtAl, p. 79. There had earlier been talk of sending her out as an escort, but she was withdrawn for the same reason; PeekeEtAl, pp. 59-60). The decision not to send her probably added hundreds to the casualty list.
There were 764 survivors (Paine, p. 311; Ramsey, p. 94 says they consisted of 474 passengers and 290 crew). There were about 1200 casualties, though the number is slightly uncertain (Brinnin, p. 417, says it took months even to come up with a number). According to Keegan, p. 265; also Paine, p. 311, a total of 1201 lives were lost. On the other hand Marshall, p, 166, Barczewski, p. 289, Brinnin, p. 417, and O'Sullivan, p. 27 say that 1198 people were killed, which is also the figure we find if we subtract 764 from the 1962 people Ramsey claims were on board (p. 94). Simpson, p. 1, prefers the figure 1201, explaining on p. 9 that the figure of 1198 excludes three stowaways (!) not on the official passenger list; similarly Preston, p. 303, and PeekeEtAl, p. 80. (The stowaways were thought to be German spies; PeekeEtAl, p. 55, tells of the capture of their cameras and reports, which were probably preserved though no one seems aware of what they revealed). Ballard, p. 13, says that 1195 died.
Preston, p. 303, breaks this down: 785 of 1257 registered passengers were lost, and 413 out of 702 crew. She says 94 of 129 children were killed, including fully 35 of 39 infants (cf. PeekeEtAl, p. 80). Ramsey, p. 100, adds that Liverpool suffered particularly heavily, since Liverpool was Lusitania's home port. The losses might have been worse had the day not been calm and the waves slight (Larson, p. 328); anything else might have swamped some of the boats and the flotsam that people clung to.
Most sources seem to agree that 128 of the victims were Americans (Ballard, p. 13, says there were 123 Americans; O'Sullivan, p. 89 gives the number as 140 but on p. 107 says there were 127 Americans), producing a diplomatic crisis (Preston, p. 311, talks of how the description "Hun" for the Germans became common at this time).
President Woodrow Wilson took a while to respond (Larson, p. 329), but when he did, his words were forceful enough that his pacifist Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, resigned (Larson, p. 332) -- a move which, ironically, probably brought war closer, because Wilson's cabinet became more hawkish. But Bryan never did have good timing.
Although the uproar did not at the time lead to war, Germany was forced for a time to back off from unrestricted submarine warfare.
The search for bodies was officially ended on June 4, but at least one corpse washed ashore as late as July 15 (Larson, p. 304). The bodies were so many that most of them ended up in a mass grave. (The mass burial eventually became an issue, since families wanted to bury their relatives individually, but the bodies stayed where they were; Larson, p. 310.)
Among the songs played at the group memorial service were "Abide with Me" and "The Last Post" (Larson, p. 309) -- an interesting choice, given that the British were denying that the ship was involved in military activities!
There has been much argument over whether the sinking was justified. Some, like Simpson, seem to think it entirely justified. Others think it a pure atrocity. The truth is surely somewhere in between: The ship *was* carrying military materials, and the Germans probably knew that -- though the submarine commander didn't; he supposedly didn't even know it was the Lusitania at the time he fired -- but the ship was neither armed nor armored, and it could have been given proper notice and sunk after the boats were off -- which was the essence of the American position (Massie, p. 534).
Indeed, it would have been more reasonable to stop her: She was clearly a target worth sinking, just based on her size, but the chances of one torpedo sinking such a big ship would ordinarily be small even if the torpedo hit -- and it would have been easier to hit her were she standing still. By stopping her, the crew of U-20 would have been much more certain to put her under, *plus* there would have been no risk to innocent lives. (Sez I. But back to our story....)
The Vanderbilt of the song is Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, who died on the Lusitania (though he wasn't one of the more famous Vanderbilts; his wealth was primarily inherited; Ballard, p. 32). According to Ramsey, p. 85, he did indeed give his lifebelt to a female passenger, Alice Middleton. (Though, in the salt water off Ireland, the real threat was not drowning but being washed away from land, plus hypothermia -- the water temperature was about 53F/11C; Preston, p. 249, which since water has a higher heat capacity than air, means that the cold could cause unconsciousness and death in as little as an hour or two; Larson, p. 285. And a person with no training in water might drown despite the fact that his body would float, because water might get into his lungs.) Ballard, p. 116, reports that Vanderbilt made no effort to save himself (he could not swim); his body was never found.
Indeed, Brinnin, p. 425, says some 900 bodies were not recovered; either they were swept out to sea or they went down with the ship. The disaster produced an amazing flurry of messages as Cunard tried to figure out who had actually been aboard, so they could figure out who was lost (Larson, pp. 300-301); since they had never lost a passenger before, their system for tracking who was aboard ship had never been tested. Sadly, as with the Titanic disaster, there are reports of passengers already in boats refusing to help those who were not (Preston, p. 250).
Brinnin's comment (p. 421) may help explain the notoriety of what happened: "Dresden, Hiroshima, Biafra, My Lai [to which we might now add Armenia, Bosnia, 9/11, Iraq, Darfur....] -- after [these and] all the other names and instances of the murderous course of the middle years of the twentieth century, it is all but impossible to recapture, even to understand, the sense of outrage, 'the universal shout of execration,' generated by the sinking of the Lusitania."
There was of course an inquiry held after the sinking, but it being wartime, very little was done to punish Cunard or the captain and crew for sloppiness; instead, the blame was placed squarely on the Germans. Lusitania became just another atrocity story, used to inflame American opinion against Germany, causing the Germans to temporarily abandon unrestricted submarine warfare.
It is interesting to observe that, although the Germans briefly celebrated the sinking of the Lusitania, they later quieted down. And, when it came time to publish the U-20's war log, skipper Schwieger signed off on every page except that for May 7 (Preston, p. 314). There is also evidence that the record was fiddled with and even "humanized" (Preston, pp. 416-418; she calls the record "institutional afterthoughts"). Sadly, we do not know what Schwieger originally wrote; the original log has perished, and we have only the official transcription. Plus he died in the course of the war; the U-20 was later sunk (with the wreck being discovered in 1984; Hoehling, p. 119), and Schwieger died in the U-88 in 1917.
An anonymous woman who said she was Schweiger's fiancee (apparently in 1919) claimed he felt immense regret about the loss of life (Larson, p. 292), but there is no other sign of it; soon after sinking the Lusitania, Schweiger was going after other targets, and obviously he stayed in the submarine service.
O'Sullivan's chapter on the aftermath of the sinking is entitled "The Sham Tribunals." A sham they obviously were in that it was certain the Germans would be blamed for sinking the ship (though it can hardly be denied that they did so!). But the inquiries could at least have sought to find out what else went wrong -- and they didn't. O'Sullivan accuses the Admiralty of suppressing evidence (pp. 118-121), offering several particulars but not documenting any of them -- and it must be confessed that the tribunal, at least in its open sessions, skipped over a lot of important material. And the Admiralty made sure that certain information was not revealed in open court (Preston, p. 320) -- though this is hardly surprising in a period of wartime secrecy.
They were a sham in another sense, too, in that one of the parties tried to fix the outcome. It seems certain that the Admiralty was out to "get" Captain Turner. O'Sullivan accuses the Admiralty of making Turner the scapegoat; p. 115. Preston, pp. 316-319, 325-327, 403, documents the case the Admiralty built against Turner, sometimes on flimsy evidence; she notes on p. 405 that he probably did not receive some of the orders allegedly sent to him. Larson, pp. 317-318, also says the government was out to get Turner. Even the pro-British Ramsey says that the Admiralty, not Cunard, was getting most of the blame in the press (Ramsey, p. 113), so the officers were determined to find someone else to suffer the odium.
PeekeEtAl, p. 82, say explicitly, "Reading the collective correspondence in its original, unedited state would have made it abundantly clear to anyone that Captain Turner... had followed his Admiralty instructions to the letter. This is why Oliver and Webb were now busily 'tailoring' the Admiralty signals register...."
In fact, PeekeEtAl, p. 84, says that Turner was shown the evidence against him, which made it clear that it was being faked -- and yet Turner somehow didn't do anything to protest or correct the record. According to PeekeEtAl, p. 88-89, Turner was saved only because there were two different editions of the evidence against him (Ramsey, p. 148), and when Lord Mersey discovered this, he realized what was going on and effectively halted the hearings. And since there was a government change at this time, the Admiralty was shaken up and no longer needed a scapegoat as much, so they let things drop.
Mersey's conclusion was that Turner may have ignored Admiralty advice, but he consistently obeyed his actual orders (PeekeEtAl, p. 90). Mersey retired as Receiver of Wrecks shortly thereafter, and preserved the documents needed to show what happened.
The tribunal's final conclusion was all of two paragraphs long, "placing the entire blame for the disaster on Germany" (Ramsey, p. 154), with a ten-page addendum exonerating everybody in sight (Preston, p. 330). ***
In defence of Captain Turner, we should probably note that, although very experienced overall, and a former captain of the Lusitania, he had little wartime experience on the refitted Lusitania; her previous captain, David Dow, had had something of a breakdown shortly before the final voyage (Preston, p. 110; PeekeEtAl, p. 48; Larson, pp. 20-21, says that he refused to accept responsibility for the safety of passengers in enemy-patrolled waters). Turner in fact sent a number of letters complaining of the Lusitania's state, and saying he would not sail her again unless the problems were repaired.
On the other hand, these problems do not appear to have contributed to her demise (except perhaps for a minor problem with her ballasting). And Turner had told a reporter before the sailing, "It's the best joke I've heard in many days, this talk of torpedoing theLusitania" (Preston, p. 108). He may have simply been trying to calm nervous potential passengers -- but it sounds like complacency. Especially since he generally disliked having anything to do with the passengers, whom he once called "bloody monkeys" (Preston, p. 108). In fact, Turner requested the services of an assistant in this regard; he was assigned Staff Captain John Anderson to deal with the passengers (PeekeEtAl, pp. 50-51).
Even if we accept that Turner followed his orders exactly, there is still the idiocy of the four point fix. And it also came out during the investigations that Turner had not ordered the passengers to learn how to put on their life belts. And the belts had to be fitted properly to work -- and, with many of the passengers being non-English speakers, it proved impossible to instruct them at the last moment (Preston, pp. 206-207, describes some of the problems it caused. Several passengers would die from wearing the belts wrong). Nor had Turner ordered them to wear them, or even keep them close at hand, in the danger zone (Ballard, p. 132). Many would die because they could not find their belts.
And, of course, Turner had not ordered adequate boat drills (Ballard, p. 135; Preston, p. 325, in fact reports that Turner said in open court that his crew was not proficient in handling boats, to which he added a grumble about the crews available in 1915 compared to those in his youth. PeekeEtAl, p. 57, tells of him challenging his officers to tie a knot he had learned to tie aboard a sailing vessel in his youth. All of them being trained for steam, only one knew how. Turner really does sound like he was still living in the nineteenth century). Nor had the ship's daily newsletter told the passengers anything useful (Preston, p. 183).
Preston, p. 406, notes that the passengers would have taken ill to boat drills and lifebelt practice -- even though the lifebelts were a new, tricky model that even many experienced travelers would not have known how to use. That the passengers would have resented the drills is likely enough. I can't see how this justifies not having them, though.
I can't help but think, reading Captain Turner's responses at the inquiries, that he sounds like a senile old man. Preston declares that his answers were monosyllables, and that "He seemed anxious and, on occasion, confused" (Pretson, p. 326). Admittedly he had just lost his ship, which might account for his befuddled state (Preston suggests post-traumatic stress, and the description in PeekeEtAl, p. 79, certainly sounds like it) -- but his behavior *before* the sinking, if not befuddled, is certainly inexplicable.
Presumably Turner could no more believed that the Germans would attack without warning than could the passengers. He was, more or less, exonerated (Preston, p. 404).
To put this in perspective: A similar tribunal, under the same man (Lord Mersey) had earlier investigated the Titanic sinking, and had exonerated Captain Smith of sailing too fast in an ice zone.
My personal verdict on Turner would have to be, Not guilty of malice or criminal intent, but much, much too casual. In light of that, the failure of Lord Mersey's tribunal to blame anyone but the Germans may have been unfortunate, since Captain Turner was given another ship -- which also ended up being torpedoed and sunk (Ballard, p. 137; Larson, pp. 346-247, describes how he was first given a horse carrier, then a more important vessel). Turner again survived, but apparently that finally caused authorities to put him on the beach.
It is peculiar and sad to note that, although Turner survived two ships being sunk under him, during World War II, his son Percy Wilfred Turner -- a mere Able Seaman, not a merchant officer -- was killed when a U-boat sunk his ship in 1941 (Larson, p. 348).
Captain Turner retired from the sea in 1919 and died in 1933 at the age of 76. His marriage had ended decades earlier, and he became a near-recluse (Preston, p. 431). Reportedly he claimed that he had not been given a "fair deal" (Preston, p. 432), claiming e.g. that he had never been instructed to zigzag.
Few of my sources really talk about theeffects of zigzagging (probably because the authors are not mathematicians) -- e.g. Ramsey, in discussing it on pp. 224-225, merely says that it was costly, since it used more fuel, and would be uncomfortable for the passengers.
This is certainly true if the ship had gone through the sorts of sudden turns, of up to ninety degrees, recommended by the Admiralty for navy ships. But smaller turns would not be so bad. And they might well have saved the ship.
There is much we don't know about the geometry of the Lusitania and the U-20. Schweiger (quoted by Ramsey, p. 81, and implicitly by Preston, p. 191) estimated the distance at 700 meters. If anything, he probably estimated low, since the Lusitania was surely bigger than he expected. Nonetheless, PeekeEtAl, p. 72, give the distance as 550 meters. The Lusitania was moving at 18 knots, or about 9 meters per second. I've seen estimates that place the torpedo's speed as high as 38 knots, or 20 m/sec, but fromeverything else I've read, a speed more on the order of 18 m/sec is more likely. That means the approximate time from firing to impact was about 40 seconds.
The best guess is that Schweiger's torpedo hit somewhere around the boundary between #1 and #2 boiler rooms. Both flooded, which was enough to sink the ship.
If the Lusitania had changed course by 15 degrees at the moment the torpedo was fired -- a course that surely would not have caused the passengers too much discomfort -- the hit would have been about 15 meters further forward, taking out #1 boiler room but possibly reducing the damage to #2 enough that the ship, even if she sank, would at least have gone down more slowly, allowing better evacuation. Had Lusitania turned 30 degrees at the time the torpedo was fired, the hit would have been 50 meters forward, and she might have been saved, since only boiler room #1 would have been threatened. Had Lusitania turned 45 degrees, the strike would have been 110 meters forward, and she certainly would have lived; she might not even have been hit. Even if she had started a hard turn just 15 seconds before impact, she probably would have taken the impact only to boiler room #1, and she would have slowed down more rapidly, reducing the water inflow slightly and also making evacuation safer. Thus the straight course of the four point fix was a major cause of the disaster.
I would add that, though Turner was certainly guilty of taking the four point fix, which was the final cause of the disaster, he was not the first cause. The Admiralty certainly bears blame on several grounds. (Hardly a surprise, given its disastrous disorganization; there really was no central coordinating authority short of the First Sea Lord, who simply could not do everything; Ramsey, pp. 233, 250-251, etc.) The information sent to the Lusitania and to Turner was probably inadequate. But the real problem was their penny-pinching and limitations of the Lusitania's schedule. The crew's desperate lack of experience was largely due to this niggling. Had the navy paid enough, they could either have sailed the ship more regularly, allowing the crew to gain experience -- or they could have kept the crew on duty while the Lusitania sat in port, allowing them to practice with the boats. This was something Cunard could not afford to do on its own.
The bad crew also may have contributed to actual torpedo hit. We know that a watchman, Leslie Morton, saw the torpedo long before it hit (Ramsey, p. 82, etc.). Had he not been an untrained nitwit who failed to pass the message to the bridge, the ship would have had a few more seconds to avoid the torpedo -- which, as the geometry shows, might have saved boiler room #2 and the ship. But Morton was an untrained 18-year-old who hesitated, shouted a message into the communicator, and ran off to find his brother without even making sure his message was heard. Best guess is that it wasn't heard.
On the other hand, the Admiralty can hardly be faulted for failing to provide a destroyer to escort her. Destroyers were in short supply, and at this time, destroyers did not have sonar or radar or any other means of detecting submarines except to see them or their torpedoes. Even in World War II, when sonar was universal and radar coming into use, destroyers didn't keep U-boats from sinking the vessels they escorted; they just made them more miserable afterward. There is little reason to think an escort would have saved Lusitania.
There would later be an American court case (Preston, pp. 366-370); this didn't really bring out much in the way of new facts, but it supported the claim that the Lusitania was not an actual warship: the plaintiffs admitted that the ship was not armed, that she was not carrying Canadian troops (something alleged because of the curious coincidence that a lot of the passengers listed Canadian addresses; Ramsey, p. 195), and some lesser points supporting the contention that she was not a legitimate target.
Unlike the other great disaster of the period, Lusitania's transatlantic rival the Titanic, the Lusitania went down in relatively shallow waters, and the wreck was visited as early as the 1930s. But it wasn't until the late twentieth century that Ballard really investigated the wreck with adequate equipment.
The question of why she sank has long been a topic of controversy: What caused the second explosion, which most passengers thought the larger of the two?
Many have speculated that it was in fact an explosion of war materials she had secretly taken aboard (Ballard, p. 14; Preston, p. 448). Against this is Captain Turner's testimony; he said that there was no cargo near the area where (he thought) the torpedo hit. Ballard's exploration also argues against this; he notes on p. 151 that there was only one hole in her hull. The second explosion, then, did not do further damage to the exterior, but damaged the interior and destroyed her watertight integrity.
It is Ballard's belief, based on the opening in the hull and the distribution of coal around her grave, that the second explosion was caused by coal dust: Since the ship was nearing her destination, her bunkers were relatively empty, except for dust. The torpedo sent the dust up into the air, and then sparked it, and the explosion of all the coal was what brought the ship down (Ballard, p. 195).
Larson, p. 326, argues however that the coal was too damp for the dust to be very flammable. PeekeEtAl, p. 93, argue that Ballard's exploration did not turn up facts sufficient to justify his conclusions, and Ramsey, pp. 209-210, also doubts this, on the grounds that no similar instances of coal dust explosions are recorded. The latter strikes me as weak -- it is true that there are no verified instances of coal dust explosions on shipboard, but coal dust most definitely explodes (ask any coal miner!) Until World War I, there were no coal-carrying ships torpedoed, and few of the ships torpedoed in that war were examined as closely as the Lusitania, and by World War II, most ships were fueled by oil, not coal. So the lack of verified coal dust explosions proves very little.
O'Sullivan, pp. 134-136, holds out for an explosion caused by powdered aluminum (which can attract oxygen from water, causing the leftover hydrogen to burn. Powdered aluminum in fact is used in fireworks, with an oxidizer, to produce the very fast-burning "salutes," which are responsible for the loudest banging noises). There was aluminum in the cargo -- a lot of it (50 barrels and 94 cases, according to Larson, p. 182, who also lists 50 cases of bronze powder although no one else seems to consider that a fire hazard) -- though the aluminum, unlike the coal, was carefully packaged. And aluminum, even if powdered (as O'Sullivan says it was, though he as usual does not cite a source) is certainly a legitimate cargo.
Ramsey, p. 209, offers strong evidence that aluminum was not the cause -- while fine-ground aluminum can produce an explosive flash, coarser particles are more likely to simply burn, and 1915 aluminum powder was not very finely ground.
Another possibility is that her boilers blew up (Preston, pp. 451-452; Larson, p. 326) -- not an unusual occurence in ships of this period; it was part of what had caused the Atlantic tragedy forty-odd years earlier. But there wasn't much time for that to happen.
After examining all of these theories, and noting their weaknesses, Preston, pp. 452-454, argues for a failure of her steam lines -- or even a series of failures, perhaps accounting for the quick failure of the electrical system and the fact that the second explosion seemed to be heard everywhere; it may have been several explosions.
Under any of these theories, it is an "industrial accident" (O'Sullivan, p. 137).
Arguing against this are PeakeEtAl, p. 103, who suggest that the torpedo hit in the vicinity of the ammunition the ship carried, and that the ammo caused the second explosion, blowing out many bulkheads. Sadly, because the ship settled on its starboard side, we cannot entirely disprove this (if we could see the hole of the explosion, we could observe whether the metal is twisted inward or outward), but unless there were hidden munitions, I frankly don't see how enough explosive could go up at any given moment to cause damage exceeding that of the torpedo hit.
Preston, p. 443, notes that the corridors in passenger liners were often smaller than in other ships, meaning that the pressure wave from the explosion(s) could not dissipate as easily as in a cargo ship. This would have increased the damage in the area of the torpedo hit. Her ultimate conclusion is that the torpedo hit in just about the worst possible spot, and the Lusitania simply wasn't designed to take that sort of damage.
Ramsey says explicitly (p. 206), "Although earlier authors have generally ascribedLusitania's loss to the second explosion, current opinion suggests convincingly that the effect on the liner's stability resulting from the impact of Schweiger's torpedo was by itself sufficiently lethal to secure her destruction." (This because so much water would enter the starboard side that she could not stay on an even keel; Ramsey, p. 208.) He also suggest that there was a leak in a steam pipe somewhere, leading to rapid loss of boiler pressure (pp. 209-211), aggravated by mishandling of the situation (pp. 212-213). This would not have sunk the ship (the torpedo leak did that), but it was responsible for the rapid loss of power and propulsion.
Reading all the arguments, I am inclined to think we will never know with certainty what happened, or what caused the second explosion, though I too incline toward the "industrial accident" belief; contrary to the claims by Simpson and his followers, the evidence for a large ammunition explosion seems weak.
Apart from causing a diplomatic incident, there was one other effect of the sinking: The Admiralty gave in to the economics of the situation. For the remainder of the war, there was no British passenger service on the Atlantic (Brinnin, p. 426).
An interesting side note is that the Titanic, three years before, inspired almost too many songs to count. The Lusitania seems to have inspired just this one, and it not particularly well-known. Why? It can't be just the war, since the Lusitania got plenty of coverage. Maybe it's that the disaster couldn't so easily be blamed on "the hand of God." Though, in fact, the fault in both cases was largely "the hand of complacency."
The last survivor of the Lusitania is believed to have been Audrey Lawson-Johnston -- a member of a very fortunate family; although several children were lost, her parents, her brother, and the three-month-old Audrey herself were saved. According to a BBC story, she died at age 95 on January 11, 2011. She of course did not remember the disaster, although she did hear stories of it from relatives.
As mentioned, Lusitania is in shallow water (a depth of only 312 feet, according to Preston, p. 372, with parts of the hull 82 feet higher). The wreck has been visited many times as a result. The first was in 1935, but the equipment of the time was so bad that the diver actually thought the ship was resting on its port side; explorations since have shown that it lies on its starboard side (Preston, p. 373).
In the 1960s, the aforementioned John Light and colleagues tried to explore using newer technologies; this is the group that thought they saw guns (but Preston, p. 373, notes that this was still the era of nitrogen/oxygen breathing mixes; the divers suffered from cold and nitrogen narcosis). They did not produce usable film of the weapons. (We might add that the problems Light experienced pretty well demolish the theory that the British could have disarmed the wreck, and the hull was intact enough that the Admiralty could hardly have depth-charged it, as is claimed, e.g., by PeekeEtAl, p. 91.) Light hopes to eventually publish, but all that came of his work was Simpson's volume, which Light himself disputed.
A few artifacts were brought up by a 1982 television expedition (Preston, pp. 374-375); interestingly, these did not sell well at auction. Ballard took his turn in 1993, and produced the first good documentation of the wreck. A team of free divers working in 1994 largely reaffirmed his conclusions (Preston, pp. 376-377), and also discovered the annunciator which relayed speed and drive instructions to the engine room. This showed the ship still in forward drive -- contrary to what Turner said he ordered. Of course, since the engines failed within minutes, it hardly matters. But it makes you wonder what else Turner got wrong.
A curiosity about the whole story is the way the Lusitania legend still grips people. The Titanic fascinates people, but there is little real controversy about the history (yes, Hollywood distorted the story, but that's Hollywood). But the Lusitania continues to inspire polemics and conspiracy theories -- a common one is that the Churchill and/or Fisher (the men most responsible for naval policy) sent out the Lusitania as live bait in an attempt to get the Americans involved in the war. This is patently absurd -- not because Churchill or Fisher were above such things (in fact, Churchill hinted at the idea of live bait in a letter -- PeekeEtAl, p. 47), but because it just wasn't likely to work. The Lusitania was faster than any ship sunk by submarines to date; she also had good underwater protection that would make her hard to sink. And, if the Admiralty wanted her sunk, would they have put aboard such war materials as they did put aboard?
Preston, pp. 395-396, also makes the argument that the British in 1915 did not want the Americans in the war; they would be too likely to meddle with the peace.
Such logic does not stop the polemicists. Larson, p. 324, quotes a British intelligence officer, Patrick Beesly, was "reluctantly compelled" to think there was a British plot to have the Germans sink the ship. Both Simpson's and O'Sullivan's books both strike me as screeds intended to place as much blame as is possible on the British authorities. (O'Sullivan's in fact seems almost to be the work of two authors -- half the time he's going straight after the Admiralty; the other half, he calms down and tries to be objective. Was there a hidden ghost writer who only did half the book?) The reason defeats me -- whatever their faults, the men they would blame are long dead, and their policies dead with them.
And the need for polemic produced books that are clearly bad. Simpson's book is littered with small errors of fact -- e.g. he can't even spell "blue riband," consistently calling it "blue ribbon" (O'Sullivan, p. 17), and Preston, p. 374, observe that Simpson was criticized even by John Light, whose research originally inspired what was to have been a collaboration. O'Sullivan may be even worse; his unfootnoted work has its own set of substantial errors, some of which distort the whole history of World War I.
The question of "a legitimate target" is still argued today; Preston, e.g. has a chapter with that title, noting that, within days of the tragedy, a coroner in Ireland offered the verdict "wilful murder." We must remember, as the American judge later wrote, that the incident must be viewed in light of the knowledge of the time (Preston, p. 383). (Which is surprisingly easy to do, given that the British Admiralty is still concealing records, either by refusing to release them or by blanking out pages, and some of the papers Simpson claims to have seen have now vanished; Preston, p. 384).
Preston, p. 393, probably has the best last word: "The truth was that no government, British, German, or American, was entirely free of blame for the situation leading up to the attack. Nor, in its wake, was any government hesitant to twist the facts, or use the disaster, to its own political ends."
On pp. 424-426, Preston makes another point: Two weeks before the Lusitania was sunk, the Germans had launched the first gas attack. A few weeks afterward saw the first bombing of civilians from the air. Germany, for a short time, backed away from unrestricted submarine warfare (a mistake, in Preston's view, and I think she's right: Once Germany started, they would have been better off to keep it up). But Germany did not back away from gas, or bombings, and it built the "Big Berthas" to shell Paris. The age of limited, civilized warfare was over.
I would add only one more thing: whoever was "to blame" for the Lusitania tragedy, many hundreds of complete innocents perished needlessly. In this regard, the song knows what the true issue was, and the polemicists do not. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.2
File: Ran076

Lustely, Lustely

See Lustily, Lustily (File: PaSe002)

Lustily, Lustily

DESCRIPTION: "Lustily, lustily, lustily, let us sail forth, The wind trim doth serve us, It blow at the north." The ship is well furnished. The mariners fear no enemies. The master "excelleth in skill." Their cans will be filled with wine, ale, beer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1576 (from the play "Common Conditions," according to Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs; Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads dates the play c. 1570)
KEYWORDS: nonballad ship drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs, pp. 4-5, "Lustily, Lustily" (1 text)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads II, pp. 4-5, "Lustely Lustely" (1 text)
NOTES [47 words]: Palmer suggests that this "has a good whiff of salt, and may have been heard by the playwright [who is unknown] on a sea journey." I suggest Palmer look at some other folk songs to realize what they're like -- or else stay away from those "cans... filled with wine, ale and beer." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: PaSe002

Lusty Wooer

See Here Comes a Lusty Wooer (File: BGNMG026)

Luther's Cradle Hymn

See Away in a Manger (File: FSWB373B)

Lyda May

DESCRIPTION: A memorial to a dead little girl: her "cradle standing empty and her clothes are laid away... In the corner lies her play things... We must prepare to meet her... On the streets thats pure and holy We will join our Lyda May"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin)
KEYWORDS: grief death memorial nonballad religious baby clothes | cradle
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 44, "Lyda May" (1 text)
Roud #4272
File: MuLa044

Lydford Law

DESCRIPTION: A sarcastic piece about the arbitrary rule of law in Lydford, the terrible jail conditions -- dogs are fed better than prisoners -- and open town knavery. "By God's grace I'll come there no more"
AUTHOR: William Browne (1590-1645) (source: Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1701 (Prince's _Worthies of Devon_ according to Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: abuse crime law prison punishment trial humorous nonballad recitation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) [see note]
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Poem #11, pp. 46-50, "Lydford Law" (1 text)
Roud #V40188
NOTES [112 words]: Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland: "In Anglo-Saxon times, the town of Lidford on Dartmoor, had the privelege of coining, and long after such privelege was abolished, courts were held there for the purposes of trying all offences connected with coining, as well as for the settling of mining disputes."
The first three lines -- "I oft have heard of Lydford law, How in the morn they hand and draw, And sit in judgement after" -- have become a Devonshire street rhyme -- "First hang and draw, Then hear the cause by Lydford law" -- which preserves the meaning [see G.F. Northall, English Folk-Rhymes (London, 1892 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 19]. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: DixP011

Lydia Pink

See Lydia Pinkham (File: RL485)

Lydia Pinkham

DESCRIPTION: As found in tradition, a bawdy and scatological testimonial in multiple stanzas for the restorative powers of Mrs. Pinkham's patent medicine for women, although there are clean Lydia Pinkham versions
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: bawdy scatological sex drugs medicine
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 17, 1883 - Death of Lydia Estes Pinkham. Her spirit -- or at least the image of her face -- would live on
FOUND IN: US(So) Canada
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, p. 485-489, "Lydia Pinkham" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 176-177, "Lydia Pink" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 210, "Lydia Pinkham" (1 text, 1 tune, expurgated)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 46-47, "The Ballad of Lydia Pinkham" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT, LYDIAPNK
ADDITIONAL: Sarah Stage, _Female Complaints: Lydia Pinkham and the Business of Women's Medicine_, 1979 (I use the 1981 Norton paperback), p. 41, "(no title)" (1 excerpt)
Jean Burton, _Lydia Pinkham Is Her Name_, Farrar, Straus and Company, 1949, pp. 200-201, 278-279 "(no title)" (3 excerpts on pp. 200-201 plus a fairly substantial text on pp. 278-279)
Roud #8368
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Will Sing of My Redeemer" (tune)
NOTES [5195 words]: This is sung to the Protestant hymn tune "I Will Sing of My Redeemer," Legman notes in his extensive annotations in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I. - EC
I wouldn't bet on everyone using that tune, but that is also the melody listed in Washburn's epigraph.
It is likely that there are multiple Lydia Pinkham songs around, but I'm lumping them here because it's hard to separate what is a legitimate genetic difference from what is simply bowdlerization (there is a lot of that -- e.g. Washburn, p. 177, prints two verses and refuses to print more, saying "Unfortunately no rendering worth printing is permissible here"). The basic distinction I have seen is that is that one family of texts refer constantly to "that face" (the face of Lydia printed on every bottle of her product); the other doesn't mention it, at least not in every verse.
It's easy to make fun of Lydia Pinkham (1819-1883) now, for being responsible for a patent medicine that wasn't effective but sold very well. The medicine certainly deserved the scorn. But it's important to keep the context in mind. As Stage points out on p. 44, the doctors of Lydia's youth had been no better -- this was pre-Pasteur, pre-Semmelweis; Lydia herself would lose a child to early disease. In 1840, a case could be made that she knew better than doctors -- especially about women's health. By the time she died, that was starting to change, but not everyone realized it yet. And if her concoction was useless, she had social significance: "She became, as all the world soon knew, America's first successful businesswoman, and she introduced an entirely new kind of advertising which was at the time a satisfying form of self-expression. She wrote the first reliable facts-of-life treatise; distributed by the millions, its effect was incalculable. But her main contribution to public thought was a truly revolutionary concept: namely, that one could be healthy though female" (Burton, pp. 3-4). In fact, Burton argues (pp. 183-187) that for many years Lydia's treatise on female physiology was the only relatively accurate work available in America. According to Holbrook, p. 60, the "Guide for Women," although only four pages long in its first version, "described, in language plainer than that of a family physician, the physiology of the female and the many disorders she was heir to."
And Lydia at least made her concoction in relatively sanitary conditions, according to a fixed formula; the Pinkhams even let people visit the production facilities, at a time when doctors and apothecaries often mixed their drugs by guess or by taste, often in appallingly unsanitary ways (Burton, pp. 111-113).
Unlike most patent remedies found in the nineteenth century, Lydia Estes Pinkham's concoction was not originally designed simply to lure the public. Our knowledge of Lydia Pinkham's life is somewhat limited -- Stage, p. 17, says that our only writings from her hand are a few letters, a scrapbook, and some old, tired receipt books. DAB, Volume VII, p. 624, says that she was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, where she spent almost her entire life. She came from a large Quaker family, being the tenth of twelve children of William Estes and his wife Rebecca (so Stage, p. 18; DAB says she was one of ten children and that Rebecca Chase was William Estes's second wife; Burton, p. 9, adds that Chase was from another old Quaker family).
Rebecca Estes apparently went beyond Quakerism to Swedenborgianism, and Lydia picked up some of those spiritualist beliefs (Stage, pp. 18-19), even trying to contact her sons' spirits after they died (Burton, pp. 202-203).
Although the iconic image of Lydia is of a little old lady, little she was not -- five feet, ten inches tall! (Stage, p. 24). She was also very thin as a young woman; Stage says that she was not thought pretty because of her height, but in Stage's photo of her at age 25, she looks fairly attractive to me. Burton, p. 22, calls her a "composed and striking-looking young woman, erect, very tall (five feet ten or so), with reddish hair and fine dark eyes." (She was actually taller than her husband, who was short and a bit heavy; Burton, p. 31). She wasn't even all that old -- the photo that went on everything (which was the inspiration of her son Daniel Rogers Pinkham, known as "Dan"; Burton, pp. 104-105) was taken in 1879, according to Stage's photo section, which would make her 59 or 60; Burton, p. 103, implies she was 57; Holbrook, p. 62, says she was 55. (Washburn, p. 53, claims her hair went gray unusually early, but he cites no source and it's in the middle of one of his attacks on women who aren't subservient, so I don't trust it much.)
Lydia, after graduating with honors from school (Burton, p. 14), became a schoolteacher (Stage, p. 24). She continues her involvement in liberal causes, notably in the fight against slavery (she had joined an anti-slavery group at 16; Stage, p. 21, and her family was so close to Frederick Douglass that one sister was kicked out of the Methodist church; Stage, pp. 21-22). She also favored women's rights (Stage, pp. 22-23; based on Burton, p. 5, this was something of a family tradition) and temperance -- as well as oddities such as Swedenborgianism, phrenology, and spiritualism. Odd, given that Burton, p. 125, says the whole family was inclined toward Unitarianism/Universalism and believed in Darwin. In addition to Douglass, she knew the Hutchinson Family; one of them sang at her funeral (Stage, p. 44).
(Washburn, p. 152, says that the Pinkhams were anti-vaccination, but this is based on one of their advertisements; I wouldn't entirely trust it. Not that there were many vaccines available at that time except for smallpox.)
All in all, a strange person to become the commercializer of a quack medicine. (And, indeed, Burton, p. 70, says she initially disliked the idea. But the children talked her around.) On the other hand, there are plenty of liberals with wacko ideas about non-scientific medicine, so it's no surprise she believed in her recipes....
She liked to exercise her mind. (That open-mindedness ran in the family. Her granddaughter was the first woman to cross the United States by plane; Stage, p. 206.) She was actively involved in a debating society that took on big philosophical questions. It was there that she met Isaac Pinkham (born 1815) (Burton, pp. 23-25), a widower with a young daughter, Frances Ellen (Burton, pp. 27-28). After a short courtship, Lydia married him in September 1843 (Burton, p. 25; Stage, p. 25) and settled down to bear four sons (one of whom died young) and a daughter while her husband ran his way through a series of unsuccessful business ventures. (According to Washburn, p. 87, prior to the Panic of 1873, Isaac Pinkham was so involved in land speculation that there are almost 300 entries with his name in the county register of deeds!)
Despite intermittent poverty (e.g. Burton, p. 31), Lydia managed to have her two younger surviving sons and her daughter get very good educations by the standards of the time; there were a lot of school medals awarded to them (Stage, pp. 29-30; according to Washburn, p. 62, this even though son Dan, at least, had no money for textbooks and had to borrow them during recess to do his homework). Lydia during this period was compiling a notebook of home remedies for various complaints which she titled "Medical Directions for Ailments" (Stage, p. 27).
One recipe in particular had an odd history: One George Clarkson Todd went into debt, and Isaac Pinkham helped bail him out. Since Todd didn't have the money, he offered a recipe for a medicinal compound as part payment, and Isaac, who seems to have been very bad at saying no, accepted it (Washburn, p. 64). Probably Lydia modified it a bit, but this old recipe was the basis for the later Vegetable Compound.
Schwartz lists the Vegetable Compound's ingredients as licorice, chamomile. pleurisy root, Jamaica dogwood, life plant, dandelion root, and black cohosh. Plus, of course, alcohol. That may be a modified list; Stage, pp. 32, 89, gives the ingredients as Unicorn root, Life root, Black cohosh, Pleurisy root, and Fenugreek seed (if nothing else, it really did have lots of vegetable matter! Burton, p. 107, gives almost the same list, but splits the "Unicorn Root" into "True" and "False" varieties). As Stage shows on p. 90, most of these were in fact known to herbal practitioners as remedies for "female complaints." Indeed, Burton, pp. 50-55, claims the formula was lifted from Dr. James King's The American Dispensary, and Holbrook, p. 59, says that it combined ideas from King with a formula earlier created by Dr. Jacob Bigelow. The herbs were placed in the alcohol so as to mix and soften the ingredients -- and, most importantly, to preserve them; alcohol was one of the best preservatives then available.
Interestingly, there is some evidence that black cohosh actually can ease some of the symptoms associated with menopause. Indeed, in the 1940s, when finally clinical tests were done, the studies seemed to find -- to the researchers' surprise -- that the Vegetable Compound did seem to have a demonstrable effect on menopausal symptoms (Burton, pp. 275-276; according to Holbrook, p. 65, the 1950s version, at least, contained some estrogen). But the main "active ingredient" was doubtless the booze. Which is ironic, because another of Lydia's liberal causes was temperance (Stage, p. 32). But, because the alcohol was a preservative, it was apparently considered all right.
Schwarcz, pp. 218-222, reports that Lydia was originally just a local woman who devised a vegetable brew to deal with "female complaints," which she shared and which apparently had gained a local reputation. She had no intention of selling it. Then came the Panic of 1873 (Holbrook, p. 59). Isaac Pinkham had always survived largely on credit, and now there was no more; he lost his money, and even the family home. (That seemed to leave him depressed for the rest of his life; Burton, pp. 66-67; Washburn, p. 89, cites a newspaper account to that effect -- but it was written twenty years later. On p. 74, Burton says that when the rest of the family was busily working on the business, they gave Isaac the job of reading to them so that he could feel involved. Stage, p. 30, says his financial failures actually turned him into an invalid. Ironically, he outlived Lydia by six years, dying in 1889; Burton, pp. 207-208).
The Pinkham children were also losing their jobs and needed something to do. And, although they supported many of her liberal causes (e.g. temperance), the younger Pinkhams didn't have any objection to making a slightly shady dollar. They induced Lydia try to sell her glop, and in 1875 entered the patent medicine market (Burton, p. 69). In a minor irony, although often called a patent medicine by analogy to similar nostrums, the compound was not actually patented, which would have allowed competitors to duplicate it after a few decades. Instead, they copyrighted the name and such, so people couldn't rip off the advertising, and kept the formula secret (Burton, p. 106).
It was Lydia's son Dan who really pushed them into business (Stage, p. 31), and who wore out his shoes (Washburn, p. p. 102), and the sidewalks of New York, selling it. He didn't really do very well -- he kept asking money from home -- but eventually he sold enough to get the business off the ground (Burton, pp. 87-95).
Although Lydia assembled her compound to deal with women's health problems, Dan Pinkham quickly started advertising it for kidney disease and men's problems (Stage, p. 92), and for a while they advertised its fertility benefits ("A Baby in Every Bottle"; Burton, p. 179); once it went on the market, the Pinkham company was clearly more interested in sales than in the compound's alleged health benefits.
DAB, Volume VII, p. 624, says that Lydia made "Mrs. Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound" available to the people of Lynn in 1875. Her children set about hawking it -- one of them, Daniel, traveling as far as New York and picking up financial support from outsiders. Starting in 1876, the family advertised it in newspapers. Lydia did not actually own the company; her son Will was made sole proprietor because he and his sister Aroline were the only family members who had no business debts. (In 1881, after Dan Pinkham died, they reorganized as what was officially a partnership between the three surviving children -- Burton, p. 161 -- which in effect made Lydia an employee of her own children in a company named for her!) Lydia's job was to make the compound (Stage, p . 33); her sons sold the mixture -- with the ambitious Dan clearly being willing to use dishonest tactics to do it. (He also got in trouble with his advertising, because people wouldn't read things that were explicit about "female complaints" and used words like "uterus"; Stage, pp. 34-35). Strangely, Dan's near-rejection of Christianity (Stage, p. 38) did not prevent him from being elected first to the Lynn Common Council in 1875 (Washburn, p. 90), then to the Massachusetts legislature in 1878 as a Greenback candidate, where he came to be known as the "Fish-Cake Representative" because of one of his odder suggestions for reducing the privileges of the legislators (Burton, p. 131; Washburn, p. 122. In essence, he was countering Marie Antoinette: Instead of letting the legislators each fancy cake, let them eat cheap fish-cakes.). But he lost to the young Henry Cabot Lodge in a future election because Dan, who was making a living selling what amounted to adulterated booze, supported a temperance bill (Stage, p. 40; according to Washburn, p. 123, the bill would have made the sellers of alcohol responsible for damage done by those who got drunk with that alcohol. It was an ugly election; Washburn, pp. 124-125, shows a handbill in which Pinkham declared Lodge a "Boston Tax Dodger." The Pinkhams had many virtues, but honesty wasn't always one of them).
Dan would not long survive his defeat. Both Dan and brother Will came down with tuberculosis, which killed Dan at 33 and Will shortly before he turned 28 (Washburn, pp. 166-167). But by then, Dan had had an idea that worked: In 1879, they finally put Lydia's photo on the bottles of Vegetable Compound, and suddenly they had a success on their hands (Stage, pp. 40-41; Burton, p. 115; DAB, Volume VII, p. 624; Washburn, pp. 180-181, reports that this was almost the first, if not the first, use of a person's image in product advertising). This still didn't make them an overnight success; they had a lot of trouble with their advertising agent, who pushed out a lot of ads but also took a very high commission (Stage, pp. 95-97; Washburn, pp. 196-197, asserts that Charles Pinkham and the un-named agent casually walked into the Boston Globe offices and that Pinkham looked at the amount of ad space purchased and it was less than he expected; it appears, based on Burton, p. 198, that he also acquired a block of stock, although Burton's description is very unclear). Still, things had turned around. Those ads were spectacular, with headlines involving, for instance, woman murdering her husband because of insanity caused by "female complaints" (Stage, p. 100). And those ads were designed to look like actual news stories.
After Dan's death, the company officially became "Lydia E. Pinkham's Sons and Company." As we already saw, Lydia had no ownership share (although her daughter Aroline did), but people naturally assumed Lydia was the leader of the organization (Stage, pp. 96-97). This was particularly true since the company encouraged people to write to Lydia with women's health questions, which she personally answered until shortly before she died (Stage, p. 105; Washburn, p. 160,with a photo of one of the letters on the facing page; Burton, p. 138, explains that, in the early days when sales were slow, Lydia always put thank you notes in the packages, and the correspondence became a habit for the organization). The letters also provided useful testimonials (Stage, pp. 105-106; Burton, p. 229, says that at one point they were getting 100,000 per year!). Stage points out the interesting fact that Pinkham's was willing to say that men sometimes caused the problems their women suffered (Stage, p. 108), a small bit of progress for women's equality. And if Lydia promoted a worthless remedy, she did at least encourage good hygiene, and a diet rich in whole grains and vegetables and low in refined foods, so in her early years, the Pinkham company may actually have done some good, health-wise (Burton, pp. 141-143).
The company actually was insolvent for a time in there (Burton, pp. 196-197), but Charles Pinkham convinced others to sign the papers needed to keep him afloat. It sounds as if the Pinkham children were as financially reckless as their father -- but they got lucky.
Once Lydia's photo started being used in advertising, it was seen everywhere, explaining the lines in the song, "Both day and night it follows me, That face," or "Oh, we'll sing of Lydia Pinkham, And her love for the human race.... And the papers they publish her face." Burton, p. 115, claims that within a short time, Lydia's face was the most recognized woman's face in all the world except for Queen Victoria and perhaps Eugénie the wife of the former French monarch Napoleon III.
By 1881, the Pinkhams were doing $200,000 of business a year (Stage, p. 42).
Dan and Will's fatal illnesses proved one thing: that Lydia actually believed in her medical skills, since she prepared large amounts of her various concoctions for her sons (Stage, pp. 42-43; Washburn, p. 155). But illness rarely responds to treatments by the self-deluded. Dan and Will both died in late 1881 (Stage, p. 43; Dan was just 32 and Will just 28; Burton, pp. 160, 163). Lydia, already something of a nut case, turned even more to spiritualism (Burton, pp. 163-164), and sought to contact her dead children. Her surviving children went along. They didn't have to play the game too long; Lydia suffered a stroke in late 1882 and died on May 17, 1883 (Stage, p. 43).
Pinkham's first attempt to open a branch in Canada fizzled; they couldn't ship the product across the border because of high tariffs, and the local they hired to set up the business turned out to be a little too sharp an operator (Burton, pp. 190-194) Eventually, though, they had branches in Canada, Mexico, Britain, Cuba, Spain, France, and the Netherlands, and marketing operations throughout Latin America (Burton, pp. 236-238); they even tried to set up in China, although translating into Chinese produced even more complications than translating into European languages (Burton, pp. 239-240). Eventually they reached 33 countries (Burton, p. 241).
Despite their various crazy ideas, the company was apparently quite good to its workers, paying fair wages and offering good working conditions (Burton, p. 212).
By the late 1880s, the company had toned down the advertising, and was spending less on it. It was trying to go respectable (Stage, pp. 109-110). Only to hire an advertising representative named James T. Wetherald in 1889; he would stay with the company for the remaining 36 years of his life (Burton, p. 214). The name on the label might say "Pinkham," but for a third of a century, it was Wetherald who provided most of the direction for the product (Stage, pp. 111-112) while preserving the legend that the Pinkhams were still actively involved -- Stage, p. 115, says that "the company built up its institutional posture by the conscious use of half-truths." So, for instance, people could still write to "Mrs. Pinkham," and they would get a handwritten answer, but this was simply copied from a company book of answers. Officially Lydia's daughter-in-law was in charge of correspondence, but it was all Wetherald's game (Stage, p. 114).
Wetherald didn't just go in for bolder advertising. He increased the list of complaints the product allegedly treated, adding psychological symptoms and promoting the product for beauty needs (Stage, pp. 117-118), He issued a large "Health Guide" -- a 62-page expansion of Mrs. Pinkham's short little pamphlet (Holbrook, p. 61) -- digging up or inventing obscure maladies so that he could claim the compound cured them (Stage, pp. 118-119). The original Pinkham family believed in their medicine despite a lack of scientific evidence; Wetherald doesn't seem to have believed in much except increased receipts. He wrote pamphlets, spread more advertising, and kept bringing in testimonials The testimonials were voluntarily offered and not technically paid, but the women got free postage and large quantities of the compound (Stage, pp. 120-121). He also started marketing a "Sanative Wash," with a sort of whisper campaign that it could be used to induce abortions (Stage, p. 127). The manuscripts of the testimonials were eventually destroyed (Stage, p. 284, thinks this was in 1940 when the company shut down its correspondence department), but hundreds of thousands had been gathered by then.
The irony is that Lydia had at least been open about talking about female health, and Stage, p.131, suggests that that was the main reason the Vegetable Compound succeeded; Wetherald cloaked everything in Victorian misdirection, but told so many lies and half-truths that he still managed to boost sales.
According to Schwarcz, Lydia was successful enough to become the first millionairess in America, but that was getting a bit ahead of the story; the correct statement seems to be that her estate soon made that much money, but she didn't have that much in her lifetime. Burton, p. 209, says that the Pinkham company was grossing $300,000 a year at the time of her death -- but half of that was going for advertising. It was Wetherald who boosted the Pinkham company to annual sales of a million and a half dollars a year (Stage, p. 131), and eventually to a peak of more than three million dollars in 1925 (Stage, p. 225).
Around 1900, they started drawing more attention from the government. The state of Pennsylvania started persecuting them for publishing obscene materials (Stage, pp. 133-134), forcing them out of that state. And they also had to deal with counterfeiters who were making fake Compound (according to Stage, p. 135, the typical fake consisted of stale beer with a fake Pinkham label).
Worse, when Charles Pinkham (the last of Lydia's sons) died in 1900, while still in his fifties (Burton, p. 230), there was a battle between Charles's children and the family of Aroline Pinkham Gove, Lydia's last surviving child, over who would run the company (Stage, pp. 136-137; according to Burton, p. 166-167, the 112 shares of the company were divided 49 to Charles and family, 49 to Aroline and family, and 14 to the distant relatives of Will's deceased wife, though the family eventually got them back); until then, the Goves had been silent partners -- so silent that Charles sometimes complained about how little they contributed. The Goves seized control; the young Pinkhams fought back by threatening to start a competing line, and so forced their way into management (Stage, pp. 138-140). Perhaps just as well; Stage thinks William Gove was not a good manager. But the internal fights didn't stop.
And there was increasing pushback against patent medicines. Although the first regulatory attempts had largely failed, some publications were refusing their ads, and The Ladies' Home Journal -- hardly what we would consider a radical investigative source today! -- attacked the patent medicines openly and strongly (Stage, pp. 140, 160-162). These articles also made it clear that the original Lydia Pinkham, long dead, was not personally answering the letters sent to the company. Sales fell dramatically (Stage, p. 163). And then, in 1906, largely in response to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, plus a long series of exposés of patent medicines starting in 1905 by Samuel Hopkins Adams (Holbrook, pp. 14-28), the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed (Stage, p. 169). This forced the Pinkham company to make a number of changes. For starters, it had to list the alcohol content. It didn't have to list all the other ingredients, but it couldn't make false claims (so were it to claim to contain, say, pleurisy root, e.g., it would hve to contain pleurisy root). The advertising briefly became a lot more realistic, though that didn't last: the law only said that the label had to be accurate, not the advertising! (Stage, pp. 169-173). Sales dropped, but by 1912 were back over a million dollars a year (Stage, p. 180). But to pull that off, Wetherald was spending between 44% and 58% of the company's annual revenue on advertising, depending on the year! (Stage, p. 181). Pinkham's wasn't really a medicine company; it was mostly an advertising machine.
And, in 1913, a scientific analysis found that the Vegetable Compound didn't have enough non-alcoholic material to qualify as a medicine even under the lax 1906 law. It was a medicated alcohol, by the rules of the time -- and so should be taxed as such. Rather than face the high taxes, the company moved to reformulate the product (Stage, p. 183). They added dandelion, chamomile, and licorice, and so made it pass government inspection -- but it also affected the taste, and made it harder to mix and maintain in suspension properly; sales again fell (Stage, pp. 184-185). And the company continued to face pressure over its expansive claims; in 1915, the company was charged in Massachusetts court with false claims (Stage, p. 187). The company pleaded no contest and accepted a token fine (Stage, p. 189), but they kept tinkering with the formula and cutting back on their claims. They didn't stop advertising, though (Holbrook, p. 58, says that by his time they had spent forty million dollars in advertising -- which would have been mostly in gold dollars!; Holbrook, p. 5, estimates 35 million in advertising by 1931), and by the 1920s, they were back to making half a million in profit a year (Stage, p. 190). There is good reason to think that people used the compound as a source of legal alcohol during Prohibition (Stage, p. 194), even though Washburn, p. 218, declares that the product as sold c. 1930 was "really undrinkable.".
In 1925, the government forced the company to stop advertising the compound specifically for "female complaints" and to make other changes to its labels and literature (Stage, pp. 197-198). Ongoing squabbles between the children of Charles Pinkham and Aroline Pinkham Gove caused further changes and led to another substantial decline in sales (Stage, pp. 204-205). The family squabbles were so bad that, in 1927, they rewrote the corporate rules to ensure that there was always an independent director to deal with the conflicts, but much damage had already been done (Stage, p. 231; Burton, p. 259-261) as a result of the two halves of the corporation -- in effect, the financial half and the advertising half -- refusing to cooperate. (According to Burton, p. 249, corporate bylaws were actually rewritten to refer to the "Pinkham stock" and the "Gove stock.") In 1932 the Pinkham side of the family sued to deprive Lydia Pinkham Gove of her control over the pursestrings. But between the depression and the many years in which no good advertising ran, demand was much reduced (Stage, p. 233). Stage, pp. 234-236, describes the management fight as a deliberate attempt by Lydia Pinkham Gove to destroy the finances of the company, so that her Pinkham cousins -- who were dependent on the company's profits, whereas Gove had money socked away -- would have to sell out to her. Instead, the case wound up in court again in the 1930s, with the two sides fighting over control (Stage, pp. 236-237). The matter was finally settled in 1941, the year after Aroline, the last of the original Pinkhams, died; the courts gave control to the Pinkhams, not Lydia PInkham Gove -- but by then a 1938 law was putting the company under scrutiny (Stage, pp. 238-239). And Pinkham's had been unable to do any research on the compound's chemical properties over the preceding decade because Lydia Gove wouldn't pay for it. So they had to hastily add some vitamins and try to argue with the government that the product should still be sold (Stage, pp. 240-241). The 1940s were difficult years; sales fell 10% in 1950 alone, to below two million dollars, and the outside directors increasingly wanted to get rid of both the Lydia graphic and the remaining Pinkham descendants (Stage, pp. 242-243). For a while they tried out an entirely fictional "Ann Pinkham" as a newer company symbol (Stage, p. 244). Stage, pp. 244-255, notes the irony that the company's attempts to hold their old market, fighting with the FDA all the time, meant that they couldn't pivot to the role of a tonic; Stage thinks that Pinkham's could have occupied the spot eventually dominated by Geritol (which also had alcohol as its most significant ingredient, eventually got hit by the FDA, and converted to a vitamin mix).
As late as 1968, the company was still independent and still in business, but sales were steadily declining. In that year, it sold itself to a company called Cooper Laboratories (Stage, pp. 245-246), which basically shut down the company, keeping only the name and the formula and moving the production facility to Puerto Rico.
Schwarcz notes that "Lydia Pinkham's" is actually still sold. But what they sell is the much-reformulated version, which is mostly a vitamin mix.
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear says that World War II air force units regarded this as sort of "semi-dirty"; it was used at the beginning of the night to, in effect, scare away those who couldn't handle the really disgusting stuff. The connection with dirty subjects makes a certain amount of sense; from the beginning, there was a tendency to discuss the Vegetable Compound only in secret, because of its connection with, well, sex (Stage, p.113).
The tendency to spoof the advertising campaigns started early, too. Burton, pp. 219-220, quotes this letter to the company (I don't doubt that there were others more extreme):
Dear Madam, I have nearly got myself in trouble on account of your good medicine. As I travel some I often find good opportunities to give your medicine a very good reckommend (sic.) so I saw a married lady some months ago that looked in very delicate health, so I reckommended the use of your Vegetable Compound and the result was a big healthy baby boy. Well you see how it is. I get the blame.... And I have just heard of a second case where the lady got too healthy and they are throwing out some very strong hints at me. Maybe you would advise me what to do?"
In addition to the three Pinkham books cited here (Burton, Stage, and Washburn), there is a newer (but short and expensive) volume, Sammy R. Danna, Lydia Pinkham: The Face That Launched a Thousand Ads, Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
I really cannot recommend Washburn; it is breezy and feels very sloppy, and its sexism is astounding; on p. 8 he calls Lydia "a feminist as ardent as Mother Goose"!. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: RL485

Lydia Sherman

DESCRIPTION: "Lydia Sherman is plagued with rats, Lydia has no faith in cats, So Lydia buys some arsenic, And then her husband he gets sick, And then her husband, he does die...." Her children follow, and eventually Lydia ends up in prison.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide poison humorous children mother father husband wife
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 1864 - Death of Edward Struck, first husband of Lydia Sherman (she eventually had three)
August 1864 - Deaths of George and Ann Eliza, Lydia's children
May 16, 1878 - Lydia Sherman dies in prison in Wethersfield, Connecticut
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 5, "Lydia Sherman" (1 text)
NOTES [4585 words]: Burt-AmericanMurderBallads doesn't claim this as a traditional song; it was in a notebook of her mother's, probably from a contemporary publication.
When I read the song, I thought I would love to see a contemporary newspaper account of this trial. As it turns out, Barclay is mostly that, and it turned out to be very tedious.
For an early female mass murderer, she seems to have gotten relatively little coverage. The only modern book I've found that is entirely about her is Kevin J. Murphy, Lydia Sherman: American Borgia, cited here as "Murphy."
Lindberg, p. 4, reports that "Lydia Sherman (1824-1878) was a prolific Gaslight Era serial killer devoid of conscience.... Sherman, an illiterate from Burlington, Vermont, killed her husband, Edward Struck, an unemployed former Yorkville, New York police officer with rat poison after twenty uneventful years of marriage because she could no longer cope with his despondency and depression following his unexpected discharge from the police department. Encouraged to commit her husband's murder by a made acquaintance, she purchased arsenic from a drugstore counter without any questions asked. Then she systematically disposed of all six of her children -- three girls and three boys over a twelve-month period. Sherman later explained that she could not afford to provide for them without a husband, so she decided to take their lives in the same gruesome matter that she had taken Edward's life."
The statement that she was devoid of conscience is probably derived from a the statement of a contemporary minister, Reverend Goodsell, who spent time with her: "she appears to be a person born with no moral sense whatsoever, with not the slightest idea of right and wrong, and yet not... a person of loose habits or deep passions" (quoted on p. 200 of Murphy). On this basis Murphy, p. 201, declares her a "sociopath" -- but it is important to note that "sociopath" is not a diagnoses (it is not in the psychological textbooks in any form); it's an opinion, usually rendered by those who are not trained in psychology.
Lindberg calls her a "thin-faced, rather gaunt-looking woman," and continues (still on page 4) that she married two other elderly widowers, whom she then murdered, again with arsenic. She also took out the two men's children. She was arrested in 1871 and given a life term, dying in Wethersfield, Connecticut (just south of Hartford) in 1878.
She was a small, apparently frail-looking woman, about 5'3" and about 100 pounds (Murphy, pp. 13-14). The newspaper accounts disagree over how attractive she was. There are only two photographs of her, both taken in 1872 during her trial when she was nearing fifty; both are (rather poorly) reproduced on p. 185 of Murphy (who explains on pp. 185-186 that she asked to have them taken because she disliked the way newspaper sketch artists were trying to picture her). The better one makes it look to me as if she might have looked fairly attractive if only she would smile. But she probably didn't smile much; "Lydia's fellow inmates considered her as a prim, proper religious woman" (Murphy, p. 20). She seems to have been very committed to the Methodist Episcopal church; she named two of her children "John Wesley" and "George Whitfield" after important founders of the church, and wanted a Methodist Episcopal funeral service (Murphy, p. 32). She apparently presented herself well, dressing well and speaking good, clear English, making it easy to hide her lack of education (Murphy, p. 70). And she had "a calm disposition and a kindly way about her. Whenever she was available, she seemed to attract men without much effort" (Murphy, p. 94).
Barclay's book is illustrated, and has engravings, many of them implying they are of Lydia, as a frontispiece, as well as on pp. 23,30, 39, 47, 55, 63, 71, 79, 87, 97. However, it is clear that these were stock illustrations; one shows a woman on a gallows (which Lydia never faced), and most others show a woman much taller than Lydia, probably younger, and dressed in a very unlikely style. So these are no indication of her appearance.
She was a member of a very large family. Her father, Samuel Danbury, and her mother, Mary Ruckel Danbury, had seven children, of whom Lydia was the youngest (born December 24, 1824). After Mary Danbury died, Samuel Danbury married a widow, Mary Rockhill Freeman, who apparently already had two children and by whom he had eight more (Murphy, pp. 24-25; genealogy on p. 9 of Murphy). Her mother's death in 1825, when Lydia was less than a year old, caused her to be placed in the care of a widowed grandmother (Murphy, p. 25; Barclay, p. 19). She stayed there for about seven years; when she grew up enough to work, she was transferred to the farm of an aunt and uncle, which left her little time for schooling (Murphy, p. 29. She was "essentially illiterate," according to Murphy, p. 12, as her father had been before her; Murphy, p. 24, although she was able to sign her name, which her father apparently could not), She stayed on the farm until she was fifteen and a half (Murphy, p. 30), when her brothers located her and took her in (Murphy, pp. 35-36). It was in this period that she got most of what little schooling she received (Murphy, p. 37). At age 17, she was able to find work as a housekeeper (Murphy, p. 37). She stayed there for three years, until she was able to find a job with a family member (Murphy, p. 41, who seems to subtly suggest that Lydia might have been harassed by her employer).
She married Edward Struck in 1846. It was a curious match. She was 21; he was a widower with six children who Murphy, p. 43, says was "twice her age." At least he had decent prospects; he was a blacksmith who eventually worked for coachmaking companies. They bounced around New York as Lydia bore seven children, Lydia, John Wesley, George Whitefield, Ann Eliza, Josephine (who died of disease shortly before her second birthday; Murphy, pp. 52-53), Martha Ann, and Edward W. Struck (Murphy, pp. 44-46).
At age 49, Edward Struck gave up blacksmithing to become a New York City policeman (Murphy, pp. 46-47). Murphy gives no reason except the possibility of better wages, but I wouldn't be surprised if Struck was feeling his age and wanted a less physically taxing job. Unfortunately, this was before the New York police had been professionalized; they were still an organ of the city's machine government. And Struck's luck was bad. On November 20, 1863, in an area near his beat, there was what we would now call a police-involved killing. Struck was not involved, but (to oversimplify) the people who saw it claimed he could have prevented it. Murphy thinks the claim false, but Struck was still fired for "failure to obey rules" (Murphy, pp. 56-57).
As a result, he went into a depression so severe that he would neither seek work nor, when Lydia convinced his old boss to give him his job back, even work at the job when it was offered (Murphy, pp. 57-58). Clearly he was having a major depressive episode -- when a doctor visited, Struck wouldn't even talk to him. He made at least a show of a suicide attempt, forcing Lydia to lock up things he might use as weapons. Eventually he even had delusions (Murphy, p. 58). Delusions aren't particularly common in depression, but if they do come, it indicates that the depression is very bad. Today, he would clearly have belonged in a mental hospital, by involuntary commitment if need be. Back then, someone suggested it, but Lydia didn't do it, even though there was an asylum that would have taken him at no cost to her. (Murphy, p. 70. In one sense, there wasn't much point, since they couldn't treat him. Possibly, if he'd been lucky, he could have been kept safe until the depression cleared, which usually takes six to twelve months. But that would require a therapist who actually supported him, and not all would; he might have been in for life. So maybe Lydia did the right thing.)
But as she talked to people about the situation, some suggested that there was no hope, and that it might be better to get Struck out of the way (Murphy, p. 59). One even suggested arsenic. And eventually Lydia went to a pharmacist and purchased, yes, arsenic (Murphy, p. 59, although he does not say what form of arsenic she used).
This first purchase did not really match the song; she bought her arsenic openly, but apparently did not ask about rats at the time of her first purchase, although she did for later purchases (Murphy, pp. 83-84; Barclay, p. 54, has some of the testimony of the man who sold it to her). Even for that first purchase, she carefully went to a pharmacist who was a significant distance away rather than a local who would know her (Murphy, p. 60). She fed it to her husband, and called a doctor when he became sick (Murphy, pp. 60-61). That first doctor, and another who came later, could provide no help. Nor could they recognize the problem; when Struck died, they listed the cause of death as tuberculosis (!) and ordered the body buried without an autopsy (Murphy, p. 64).
Of course, Struck's death left Lydia without any income. Seemingly she decided that her youngest children, six-year-old Martha Ann and four-year-old Edward, were more than she can afford, so she put arsenic in their oatmeal -- and then called a doctor (Murphy, p. 73). Did she change her mind, or was she covering her tracks? Whatever the reason, the doctor she called failed to identify arsenic poisoning (Murphy, p. 74).
This dramatically improved Lydia's financial prospects. With no young children at home, she was able to get a job as a seamstress, and her oldest son was also able to find work (Murphy, p. 75). Unfortunately, he was working as a painter -- and the fumes made him ill. He could no longer work as a painter -- so Lydia got rid of him lest he become a burden again, and the doctor called it "painter's colic" (Murphy, pp. 75-76). Lydia then had the effrontery to seek work as a nurse -- and the doctor went along! (Murphy, p. 76).
Lydia's oldest daughter was working by this time, but the youngest surviving daughter Ann Eliza had no one to care for her -- so in went some more arsenic; she died after four days (Murphy, p. 77). It is interesting to note that Lydia called a different doctor this time; evidently she didn't want any particular doctor to notice a pattern.
Finally the surviving daughter, also named Lydia, contracted a fever (Murphy, p. 78). We don't know that Lydia Sr. helped her along, but obviously there is that suspicion! Lydia took a lot longer to die; the doctors (there were several this time) called it typhoid (Murphy, p. 80; Barclay, pp. 26-27, lists the death notices for all of the Strucks: Edward Sr. is listed as having died of "consumption"; Edward Jr. of "remittent fever"; William died of "bronchitis"; Anna and Lydia Jr. of "typhoid fever"). So Lydia had killed either four or five of her six children who had survived infancy, leaving her with just one, her son John, who was working for a butcher. Lydia apparently told him to go ahead and make a living on his own (Murphy, p. 82). She then started moving around, taking jobs in various places, eventually leaving her son behind. Among other things, she became a caretaker -- one might say home health aide -- for one Maria Fairweather Curtis (Murphy, pp. 85-86). Finally she found a job with a widower named Dennis Hurlbut, who took her on at the advice of a grocer who said Hurlbut needed someone to keep his house. Hurlbut was so excited about Lydia that, just two months after his wife died, and just weeks after meeting her, the 73-year-old Hurlbut married 43-year-old Lydia (Murphy, pp. 87-92).
Hurlbut was old enough to have severe tremors in his hands, and eventually started having dizzy spells (Murphy, p. 95). His condition rapidly grew worse, and Lydia called upon several doctors, who either could not attend Hurlbut or could do nothing (Murphy, pp. 95-98). After several days -- much longer than it took Lydia's children to die -- Hurlbut breathed his last and Lydia inherited an estate of several thousand dollars (Murphy, pp. 95-96). It wasn't a huge inheritance, but it was probably more than Lydia had had in her life; for once, she wasn't broke. But when a neighbor, Nelson Sherman (born 1824), lost his wife in 1869 (Murphy, p. 110) and needed someone to care for a sick baby, she considered it (Murphy, pp. 101-102). At first she did not commit. And so, Lydia found herself in a near-repeat of the Hurlbut situation: Sherman, desperate to deal with his domestic problems, proposed. She still was slow to accept. What followed is very complicated -- he found someone to buy her property; he revealed his financial situation; she gave him some money; Sherman's daughter Addie became so attached to Lydia that she ran away from home to stay with her potential mother-in-law (Murphy, pp. 112-114).
Sherman tried again; would Lydia join his household as either housekeeper or wife? She agreed to spend some time there, and they finally got married September 15, 1870 (though it appears from later testimony that they did not sleep together; Murphy, p. 173; Barclay, p. 21, treats this as one of Lydia's complaints against her husband, but it should be recalled that he married her to, in effect, hire her services). Then Sherman made his mistake: He told Lydia that he wished his sick baby, Frankie, would die. He surely didn't mean it, but no matter. Lydia could manage that; she apparently felt that both the sick baby and his father would be better off if Frankie weren't around. And Nelson Sherman actually had arsenic in the house to deal with rats (Murphy, pp. 114-115). As usual, a doctor was called; as usual, he detected nothing and was unable to do anything. On November 16, 1870, Frankie Sherman died (Murphy, p. 116).
Despite what he had earlier said about wishing the baby dead, Nelson Sherman went into a decline after that, drinking heavily and not earning enough to cover his bills. For a while, Lydia paid them using her own money (Murphy, p. 118). But Lydia's record almost makes me wonder if she had some sort of disorder that made her commit murders in streaks. The next month, Addie Sherman -- the teenager who liked Lydia so well and whom Lydia seemed to like in turn -- became ill (Murphy, p. 119). Two doctors failed to figure out what was the problem (Murphy, pp. 120-121; Barclay, p. 20). It sounds as if she was dying on her own, but Lydia "had some arsenic in the house, and I mixed some in her tea and gave it to her twice" (Murphy, p. 122). Addie died December 31, 1870.
After that, Nelson Sherman really lost his grip, drinking everything he could get his hands on. The marriage grew even more troubled (Murphy, pp. 122-123). Money was short. Barclay, p. 20, reports a week-long bender in which Nelson never came home. Finally Nelson Sherman got sick on one of his drinking bouts, came home to go to bed -- and Lydia fed him arsenic in his brandy (Murphy, p. 126. She would say it was to teach him not to drink so much, which might have worked had she done it sooner, but it was clearly too late!). A doctor told him he needed to stop drinking, but could do nothing else, and once again failed to realize what was happening in time to help (Murphy, p. 127). Nelson Sherman died on May 12, 1871 (Murphy, p. 129).
But, this time, there had been two doctors involved, and they called in a third, and all wondered about poisoning. So they asked for a real post-mortem examination. Both Sherman's mother and Lydia agreed (Murphy, p. 130), so tissue samples were taken and sent to what we would now call a lab. The physician who did the testing of Nelson Sherman's internal organs used the Marsh Test and other techniques; the result was clear (Barclay, pp. 27-30, prints what sounds like his entire court testimony, detailing the exact methods of analysis; I can't imagine the jury could comprehend it. It was apparently the first time the man had run all those tests -- Barclay, p. 59 -- but he sounded competent). Sherman had died of arsenic poisoning (Murphy, p. 133; cf. Barclay, p. 25). I would however point out that the doctor who was called to examine him in his sickness prescribed morphine, blue pill, and "means to obtain an evacuation" (Barclay, p. 33; repeated with variations on p. 41). Blue pill was a mercury compound, as the doctor admitted (Barclay, p. 41). Nelson Sherman may have died of arsenic, but the doctor might have helped him along inadvertently.
The pathologist (to use another anachronistic term) gave his results to law enforcement, which immediately started covertly watching Lydia although they did not at once arrest her; they needed better evidence that she had poisoned Sherman deliberately (Murphy, pp. 134-136). The bodies of Frankie and Addie Sherman were exhumed and tested for arsenic, as was that of Ole Hurlbut (Murphy, p. 137).
They then interviewed a druggist she had dealt with, who recalled her asking for a rat poison. He had suggested arsenic because it was cheap and effective. That, plus the toxicology reports, was enough for Sheriff Selah Blackman. Lydia was out of town, but he had had her followed; after this, he had her arrested on June 30 (Murphy, pp. 139-140). Despite the serious charge, she was brought home and kept under house arrest until July 11 (Murphy, p. 141).
At the preliminary hearing, Nelson Sherman's son Nelson Jr. ("Nellie") revealed something interesting: that his father owned a rat trap but preferred to poison rats with arsenic (Murphy, p. 150). This was confirmed by hearsay testimony from the sheriff (which was allowed at the hearing although it would not have been accepted at the actual court case). The general opinion among observers was that the case was strong enough to go to trial, but not strong enough to secure conviction, because there was no direct evidence that Lydia had supplied the poison (Murphy, pp. 158-159). Still, the judge ordered her imprisoned until she could be tried. Originally scheduled for November 1871, a series of delays meant that the trial did not actually start until April 16, 1872 (Murphy, pp. 162-163; Barclay, p. 30).
Her behavior after she was arrested led to some talk of an insanity plea, but that went nowhere (Murray, pp. 163-164). The case eventually involved four charges -- but they were all really the same charge, that Lydia had murdered Nelson Sherman; the difference was just that they suggested different times and places where the might have poisoned him (in his chocolate, in his gruel, in a brandy "sling"). When the charges were read, Lydia formally pleaded not guilty (Murray, pp. 166-167; Barclay, pp. 30-33).
It was possibly a bad move to charge Lydia only with the murder of Nelson, since the judge ruled that the prosecutors couldn't bring in evidence about the other deaths (Murphy, p. 170; Barclay, pp. 35-37, discusses how that was decided), and many felt that the case for the murder of Nelson Sherman was weaker than some of the other murders (Barclay, p. 25) -- which I think is true, because Nelson's drinking left a strong case for accidental poisoning. But there was testimony about the problems in the marriage: that Lydia and Nelson did not sleep together, and -- according to Nelson's mother at least -- that Lydia had threatened to leave him if he didn't shape up (Murphy, pp. 174-175; Barclay, pp. 49, 52). Others testified that they quarreled a lot (Murphy, p. 181) -- it was, after all, a marriage not for love but for child care! And it had not brought any benefits to Lydia; indeed, it had eaten deeply into her money to support Nelson Sherman. Little wonder that she wanted out; the problem was the method she used....
In Lydia's defense, neighbors could report that Nelson Sherman's house had had rat problems and that Lydia had sought to control them with poison (Murphy, p. 187). But the defense didn't have much else to offer except to waste some time attacking the scientific work of the man who had tested for arsenic (Murphy, p. 192; detailed descriptions of the trial occupy more than half of Barclay, and it seemed as if at least a third of that was spent arguing about testing for arsenic.)
The trial took eight days from the start to the judge's instructions to the jury,
It doesn't feel to me as if the case against Lydia was proved. It was certain that Nelson Sherman had died of arsenic poisoning. It was certain that he and Lydia did not get along particularly well. It was certain that Lydia had brought arsenic into the house. But it was also certain that Nelson Sherman was an intermittent (perhaps not so intermittent) drunk. Based on the evidence presented, I could easily see Nelson Sherman getting drunk and accidentally ingesting the poison. I could see convicting Lydia of involuntary manslaughter for leaving the poison out, but I don't think the evidence added up to proof of murder. Strong evidence, yes, but not proof.
The jury didn't see it that way. They asked the judge for information about the various degrees of murder. Once they had their answer, they deliberated for less than an hour. Lydia was convicted -- but of *second* degree murder, not first degree murder (Murphy, p.193). The first ballot had had nine in favor of the murder charge, three in favor of innocence; the second ballot was of course unanimous. One can only suspect that the jury chose second degree murder because it carried a mandatory life sentence but did not include the option of execution.
There was an appeal, but it was a formality; the conviction stood (Murphy, p.194).
Curiously, after the conviction but before she was sentenced (which took place after the appeal), Lydia made a confession (given on pp. 93-96 of Barclay). Because she was nearly illiterate, she dictated it to the warden and his wife (Murphy, p. 195). Murphy, p. 213, accuses her of a terrible memory, and certainly there are errors in the confession -- but because it was told to someone else, we in fact have no way of knowing which errors are Lydia's and which are those of the transcribers. She admitted to most of the poisonings -- two husbands and six children -- but denied killing Ole Hurlbut (husband #2), whom she said might have taken arsenic on his own; Dennis Hurlbut; and Lydia Struck, whom she said died of natural causes. Murphy doubts this, but I can't see what possible motive Lydia had to lie.
The judge who sentenced her had clearly heard about the confession; he said that Lydia was obviously guilty of first degree murder and should have been sentenced to hang -- but because the jury had decided on second degree murder, for which the mandatory sentence was life without parole, that was what the judge ordered, and Lydia, as soon as it was safe, was sent off to the Connecticut state prison (Murphy, pp.196-197). She entered the prison on February 3, 1873
Although Lydia was mostly a model prisoner, she did make a carefully-planned attempt to escape, including hiding away clothes, faking fatigue and fainting spells, and using makeup to make her look jaundiced. Careful planning and a decent share of luck eventually got her out of prison and on a train out of town (Murphy, pp. 18-23). She even made friends with the owners of the hotel in Providence where she escaped (Murphy, p. 205). She managed to remain at large for a week but was eventually found (Murphy, p. 206, thinks she gave herself away by forgetting her concocted story). Back to prison she went, and was watched more closely thereafter -- although she still managed to conceal $50; as she died, she gave it to a minister and asked that it be used to give her a proper Methodist burial (Murphy, p. 210). She seems to have suffered from a chronic illness in this period. In early May, 1878, she became seriously ill -- with symptoms that ironically resembled arsenic poisoning (Murphy, p. 209). She died a little more than a week later, on May 16, 1878, perhaps of liver disease (Murphy, p. 210).
Although it's clear that Lydia eventually was committing deliberate murder, it should perhaps be noted that fatal overdoses of arsenic are not always the result of deliberate poisoning. Emsley-Blocks:, pp. 40-46, notes various common uses of arsenic, including pigments and even a commercial remedy, "Dr. Fowler's Solution."
Crosland, p. 58, repotrs, "A Byzantine Greek called Nicolaus Myrepsus compiled a compendium of remedies in which he drew on Arabic sources, although his knowledge of Arabic was poor. He made the mistake of including arsenic as a remedy in certain cases." And, once it entered the literature, it stayed there.
According to Henderson, p. 284, "[arsenic] was a commonly administered medicine in the nineteenth century in the form of arsenious acid, which was prescribed for a great variety of diseases, such as headaches, ulcers, gout, chorea, syphilis, even cancer. Used in a popular patent medicine called "Fowler's Solution," it was a well-known remedy for fever and various skin diseases. It would have been a standard part of any sizeable medical kit."
Emsley-Blocks, p. 105, describes Fowler's Solution as being an arsenic compound in lavender water (the latter included to prevent accidental ingestion) and that Fowler had the idea for using an arsenic compound based on another medicine called "Thomas Wilson's Tasteless Ague and Fever Drops."
MacInnis, p. 99, reports that Fowler's Solution contained 1% potassium arsenite (K₃AsO₄), and that it was used to deal with fevers as a substitute for quinine, which was difficult to consume because it is so bitter. MacInnis, p. 100, says that women drank it for their complexions -- while also rubbing it into their hair to kill pests. (You'd think that would be a hint.) Timbrell, p. 224, reports that it gave the skin a "milk rose" hue.
Ironically, Fowler's Solution continued to be sold and used after it was established that it was poisonous; there were instances where the Solution was suspected of being used in murder cases (Blum, pp. 85, 95-97).
Also, it is possible to build up arsenic tolerance (Timbrell, p. 225; Emsley-Elements, pp. 102-103, notes that Styrian mountaineers regularly consumed arsenic to deal with altitude conditions), so if Lydia were tolerant (as she might have been, had she been using arsenic-based cosmetics), she might have accidentally poisoned her family while surviving herself.
As another defense, arsenic trioxide (the most common form of arsenic poison) is only mildly water-soluble, according to Emsley-Elements, p. 140, with the solubility increasing as the temperature increases. If the compound is mixed with cold water, the amount that dissolves will generally be too small to be fatal, but more will go into solution as the water warms. In the unlikely event that someone mixed arsenic trioxide with a cold pitcher of water, the first person to drink from it might survive while those who drank from it later would be killed; alternately, if someone mixed it into warm water (or tea, or coffee) which then cooled, the first people to drink might be poisoned but anyone who drank it when cooler might survive because the arsenic precipitated out.
All of this matters because Lydia's confession makes it sound as if she almost thought poisoning people -- at least poisoning her depressed first husband -- was something approaching a mercy, and done on the (probably misunderstood) advice of a policeman (see the part of the confession on pp. 215-216 of Murphy). Of course, once she had the idea in her head, she went and ran with it.... - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: Burt005

Lying Atwein Twa

See The Miller's Daughter (II) (File: LyCr2140)

Lying Song, The

See Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)

Lyke-Wake Dirge, The

DESCRIPTION: A warning to those not yet dead. Those who gave to the poor shall receive as they have given; those who have not will pay the penalty. "This ae nicht, this ae nicht, ilka nicht and alle -- Fire and sleet and candlelicht, and Christ receive thy soule"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: death funeral lament religious Hell
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 33, "A Lyke-Wake Dirge" (1 text)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, p. 5, "A Lyke-Wake Dirge" (1 text)
DT, LYKEDIRG
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #278, "A Lyke-Wake Dirge" (1 text)
Roud #8194
NOTES [528 words]: De la Mare quotes Sidgwick to the effect that sleet means not falling water but salt (the token of eternal life) -- or perhaps is an error for "fleet." The editors of the Oxford English Dictionary prefer the latter reading (remember that a "long s" looked very like an f, so it's an easy error). "Fleet" in this context would be a flat surface or floor -- it's the same word as J. R. R. Tolkien's "flet" for a platform in a tree. But it's not obvious what this would mean.
Bengt R. Jonsson suggests ("Oral Literature, Written Literature: The Ballad and Old Norse Genres," in Joseph Harris, editor, The Ballad and Oral Literature, Harvard University Press, 1991, p. 170), "As for the 'Lyke-Wake Dirge' we cannot entirely dismiss the possibility that we have to do with one out of many examples of Norwegian influence on Scottish tradition." The Norwegian influence is genuine, but Jonsson offers no real evidence for this particular contention.
Malcolm Douglas gave the following information about the tune to the Ballad-L list in 2008 (slightly edited, mostly for formatting reasons):
"The tune Hans Fried got from Peggy Richards [which was recorded by the Young Tradition] was written by Sir Harold Boulton, and first appeared in his Songs of the North(Vol I, c.1885) set to the text (slightly edited) from Scott. It had changed a bit in detail by the time it got to The Young Tradition, but not fundamentally. Songs of the North was immensely popular (at least 23 editions) and there would seem to be a decent chance that Peggy Richards (described as 'old') had learned it at school, or directly from print.
"It is *just* possible that a tune that may perhaps have been traditionally associated with the text survives. A song ('The Silkstone Disaster', written by Rowland Kellett) appeared in 'English Dance and Song' (XXXIII No 2 Summer 1971), set to a tune described as 'The Yorkshire Lyke-Wake'. Kellett noted that it was played as a funeral march in the Yorkshire Dales, but didn't say where, when or from whom he had got it. It bears no resemblance to Boulton's melody, but the words would fit.
"Some years later, the same tune (though slightly variant and in a different key) turned up in Blowzabella's tunebook 'Encyclopedia Blowzabellica.' There, it was titled 'Lyke Wake Dirge' and described as 'traditional' (but with a query if I remember correctly). No source was identified, and it's unclear whether the change of name is significant or not."
The connection with Yorkshire adds to the interest. According to Arnold Kellett, The Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition, and Folklore, revised edition, Smith Settle, 2002, p. 107, the Lyke Wake Dirge is a "funeral lament of great antiquity, the earliest example of Yorkshire dialect, not printed until 1686.The theme is the progress of the soul towards Purgatory and Hell, where good works done by the deceased in life help to minimise suffering. Though a Christian song, it has its roots in the pagan dread of death." The first verse quoted by Kellett opens, 'This yah neet, this yah neet, Ivvery neet an' all, Fire an' fleet an' cann'l leet," so it favors the reading "fleet" over "sleet." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: OBB033

Lynchburg Town

DESCRIPTION: Usually a comic song about a farmer's troubles with wife, horse, merchants, prices, machinery, and anything else that comes along. Chorus: "I'm going down to town, I'm going down to town, I'm going down to Lynchburg town, toting my tobaccer down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: farming humorous wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 415, "Lynchburg Town" (3 texts plus 2 fragments, 2 excerpts, and mention of 2 more, all with the "Lynchburg Town" chorus, but "A" and "B" have verses from "Raccoon" and "Possum Up a Gum Stump and "D" and "E" are partly "If I Had a Scolding Wife" ("Lucy Long (I)"); only "C" seems to be truly "Lynchburg Town"); also 480, "Hard Times" (1 text, massively composite: Chorus from "Lynchburg Town" and verses from "Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb" and the "White Folks Go to College" version of "Hard to Be a Nigger")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 415, "Lynchburg Town" (4 tunes plus text excerpts, corresponding to "A," "B," "E," and a "J" version that apparently is not cited in Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 181, "Lynchburg Town" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 145, "Goin' Down to Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 192, "Hawkie Is a Schemin' Bird" (1 text, with the "Hawkie" first stanza, a chorus from "Lynchburg Town," and verses such as "Went up on a mountain To give my horn a blow" and "Climbed up on a mountain... To sweeten Liza Jane")
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #196, ""Little More Cider" (1 text, with the chorus of "A Little More Cider Too" although the lyrcs are often found in "Lynchburg Town")
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 60-62, "Lynchburg Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 260, "Lynchburg Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 54-55, "Goin' Down to Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 167, "When I Was a Little Boy" (1 text, 1 tune, which appears to open with part of "I Wish They'd Do It Now," includes floating verses which sometimes are found in "Lynchburg Town," and end with the "Saturday NIght My Wife Died" of "The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)" or similar)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #130, "Goin' Down Town" (1 text, 1 tune, with a lot of floating verses)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Frank L. Warner [nephew of Frank M. Warner], "Songs My Uncle Taught Me" Vol. XI, No. 1 (Jul 1963), p. 31, "Lynchburg Town" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Allen Davidson, Jr., "The Songs of Caleb Mashburn," Vol. XX, No. 1 (Feb 1972), pp. 56-57, "'Baccer sellin' high/I'm goin' down to town/" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
DT, LYNCHBRG*
Roud #3444
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ridge Highballers, "Going Down to Lynchburg Town" (Columbia 15096-D, 1926)
The Highlanders [Lonnie Austin, Roy Harvey, Charlie Poole, Odell Smith, Lucy Terry], "Lynchburg Town" [instrmental] (Paramount 3171, 1929) [May also have been issued under Poole's name with the same record number]
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "Lynchburg Town" (Brunswick, unissued, 1928)
Grandpa Jones, "Going Down Town" (King 772-B, 1949)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Watermelon Spoilin' On The Vine" (floating verses)
cf. "Funniest Is the Frog" (lyrics, tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lebeck Town
File: Wa181

Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode, A

See A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117] (File: C117)

Lyttle Musgrave

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Lyttyl Thanke

See The Gossips' Meeting (File: MSGosMee)

M. and I. Goo-goo Eyes, The

DESCRIPTION: Recitation about logging life, with musical chorus, "Just because that jack makes goo-goo eyes, They piled them logs clear up into the skies." The singer discusses what happens when the train comes to collect the logs
AUTHOR: Ed Springstad
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: logger work train recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 25, "The M. and I. Goo-goo Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 25, "The M. and I. Goo-goo Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8892
NOTES [99 words]: Even Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy, who prints this piece, says of it, "Here lies the Song of the White Pine woods, sans originality, sans meaning, sans everything." Which about sums it up. Rickaby's final comment is, "This is Arkansaw Springstad's own work, composed at the time when "Just because She made those Goo-goo Eyes" was popular. He could sing only the chorus for me, and could not recall quite all of the final stanza. Perhaps it is just as well."
"Just Because She Made dem Goo-goo Eyes," by John Queen and Hughie Cannon, came out in 1900, if I read Spaeth correctly. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Rick101

M. T. A. (The MTA Song; Charlie on the M. T. A.)

DESCRIPTION: "Let me tell you of the story of a man named Charlie on a tragic and fateful day." He rides the MTA rail. Because he did not bring change, he cannot get off. "Did he ever return? No, he never returned.... He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston"
AUTHOR: Words: Jacqueline Steiner (1924-2019) and Bess Lomax Hawes
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Walter O'Brien campaign for Boston mayor)
KEYWORDS: humorous technology money parody campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 55, "The M. T. A. Song" (notes only)
DT, CHARLMTA*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship That Never Returned" [Laws D27] (tune) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Municipal Protest Train Association Song
NOTES [73 words]: According to a mudcat.org thread, "Tune Req: The MTA Song," the original of this listed Walter O'Brien as the mayoral candidate -- and, because O'Brien was a Progressive, when Will Holt recorded the song, there was a flap about a song praising an alleged communist. So the Kingston Trio zipped in a sort of artificial name.
Hard to believe this became a camp song; would kids understand the problem? But Averill lists 14 collections. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF055M

M. T. A. Song, The

See M. T. A. (The MTA Song; Charlie on the M. T. A.) (File: ACSF055M)

M.P.'s Life for Me, An

DESCRIPTION: "Hi diddle de dee! An M.P.'s life for me! You get the run of Bellamy's...." "You got to learn to lie." "You get a car that calls at four, With petrol coupons by the score." "And if the people don't obey, In gaol you lock them all away."
AUTHOR: Words: Ronald L. Meek (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (from a banned Victoria College event, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: political New Zealand humorous nonballad derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 109, "An M.P.'s Life for Me" (1 text, tune [inaccurately] referenced)
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 85-86, "An MP's Life for Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [60 words]: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ's notes list the tune of this as "'Hi diddle dee dee" from "The Wizard of Oz." There is of course no such song in either the Baum story or in the standard movie "Wizard." I assume this means "An Actor's Life for Me" from the Disney animated version of "Pinocchio," which came out in 1940. I'm amazed it was parodied so quickly. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: BaRo109

M'Dermott's Farewell

DESCRIPTION: A young man on the Limeric city quay is bound for America. "For want of wages and employment, home and country I must flee." He thinks of his parents and sweetheart left behind. He hopes "fortune [will] smile upon me" so he can return.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: poverty emigration farewell America Ireland nonballad family
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 79, "M'Dermott's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OLcM079

M'Ginty's Meal and Ale

See M'Ginty's Meal-an-Ale (File: DBuch72)

M'Ginty's Meal-an-Ale

DESCRIPTION: A pig escapes and wreaks havoc. Chorus: "They war howlin' in the kitchen like a caravan o' tinkies, An' some wis playin' ping-pong... Up the howe or doon the howe there never wis sic jinkies As M'Ginty's meal-an-ale far the pig gaed there tae see."
AUTHOR: George Bruce Thomson
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous game
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #136, p. 1, "M'Ginty's Meal-an'-Ale" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 630, "McGinty's Meal-an-Ale" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 72, "M'Ginty's Meal-an-Ale" (1 text)
DT, MEALNALE*
Roud #2518
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roxburgh Castle" (tune)
cf. "Sheelicks" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
M'Ginty's Meal and Ale
NOTES [37 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Balmannocks (630) is at coordinate (h0-1,v6-7) on that map [roughly 20 miles W of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: DBuch72

M'Pherson the Drover

See MacPherson the Drover (File: GrD4768)

M'Pherson's Farewell

See MacPherson's Lament (File: K348)

Ma and Dad Went to Town

See Blondie and Dagwood (File: AJRV013)

Ma Blonde Est Partie

See Jolie Blonde (File: CAFS1351)

Ma Bonnie Wee Lochee Lass

DESCRIPTION: "It fell upon a Lammas nicht now I went oot for a stroll"' the singer sees a beautiful girl and asks to walk with her. The talk. He walks her home. Now they are married "an' happy as we can be" with three children. He is happy they met
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: courting children
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 65. "Ma Bonnie Wee Lochee Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22218
File: Gath065

Ma Brune (My Dark-Haired One)

DESCRIPTION: French. Singer tells of his love for the dark-haired girl. He tells her that if she ever doubts his love, "Ask the echoes ... Ask brooks and rivers and the rocks". He asks the birds to join him in singing of his great love.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad bird
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 40, "Ma Brune (My Dark-Haired One)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [37 words]: If my lover spent his time singing to brooks, rocks and birds, I'd probably be off with a sailor at the first oppostunity. - PJS
On the other hand, it probably pays better than singing for actual people at folk clubs. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BerV040

Ma Grun War 'n Gelynen

See The Holly Bears a Berry (File: K091)

Ma Petite Marguerite (My Little Marguerite)

DESCRIPTION: French. The singer say, Little Marguerite, I am leaving to sail on the waves around the world but I will love you until I die. She says she will cry a thousand tears waiting for his return; all is useless; she would prefer them both lost at the same time.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting separation dialog love
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 558, "Ma Petite Marguerite" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Mme. Josephine Costard, "Ma Petite Marguerite" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea558

Ma, I Won't Have Him

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Ma, Let's Go To See the Rodeo

DESCRIPTION: "Ma, let's go, To see the Rodeo, The Rodeo is not far, It's just (beside the Penny Bazaar/behind the horse and car), The (Penny Bazaar) is not far, Ma, let's go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: travel mother | rodeo
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 60, "(Ma, let's go)" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #38139
File: BAAI060

Maa Bonny Lad

See My Bonny Lad (File: RcMBL)

Mabel Clare

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls walking in the garden to gather roses to "braid in [Mabel's] golden/shiny hair." But now he gathers with others to bid her farewell, as she has died
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love hair flowers death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 96, "Mabel Clare" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #11387
NOTES [79 words]: Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric notes that there was an 1862 song "Mabel Clare" with words by R. Hunt and music by A. J. Higgins. Based on the version on p 67 of Dime-Song-Book #2, it is similar in plot (it recalls beautiful Mabel, who is now dead), but omits the flower-gathering theme that is in both Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric's texts, and the words are quite different. Like Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric, I suspect one inspired the other, but they don't really look like the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Brne096

Mabel, Mabel

DESCRIPTION: "Mabel, Mabel, Set the table, Don't forget your Salt, vinegar, mustard, pepper." (or "salt and pepper," or "red hot pepper," etc.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: playparty food jumprope | spices table
FOUND IN: US(NE,Ro,So) New Zealand
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p, 104, "(Mabel, Mabel)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 54, "Betty, Betty"; "Mabel, Mabel" (2 fragments)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #15, "(Mary, Mary, set the table)"; #59, "(Mabel, Mabel, set the table)"; #76, "(Mabel, Mabel, set the table)"; #94, "(Mabel, Mabel, set the table)"; #134, "(Mabel, Mabel, set the table)" (5 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 137, "If you're able, set the table" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #322, "Mabel, Mabel"; #323, "Mabel, Mabel, strong and able"; #352, "Mother, Mother, I am able" (3 texts, with #352 perhaps a deliberate expansion)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Joan McCaskill, collector), "Rope-Skipping Games", Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 12, "(Mabel, Mabel, set the table)" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Teri John, "A Collection of Jump Rope Rhymes," Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), p. 16, "*Mable, mable, set the table" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 380, "Mabel, Mabel" (notes only); cf. p. 379, "Mabel, Mabel get your elbows off the table" (1 short text)
Roud #19280
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bluebells, Cockleshells" (verse regarding vinegar, salt, mustard, pepper) and references there
NOTES [119 words]: I've never heard the "Mabel, Mabel, Set the table" lyric -- but my mother had a childhood rhyme, "Mabel, Mabel (or Robert, Robert, or whoever), Strong and able, Get your elbows Off the table." This looks like it is from the same roots as the Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs item cited here, which in turn looks like it might be derived from "Mabel, Mabel"; there is a lot of folk processing along the way, but I thought I should mention it.
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #323, is also this piece, from Texas, which is interesting, because my mother presumably learned it in Michigan. The verse, or part of it, also shows up in the "Humoresque" in Ed Cray's Erotic Muse, but the purpose of that is obviously different! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SuSm104A

Mabel, Mabel, Set the Table

See Mabel, Mabel (File: SuSm104A)

Mable, Mable, Set the Table

See Mabel, Mabel (File: SuSm104A)

Mac and his Dog

See Mackenzie and His Dog (File: Clev052)

Mac and Shanahan

DESCRIPTION: Miko Mac and Shanahan are tracked to Newtown by bloodhounds and taken by Black and Tans. They refused to give their comrades' names. They are executed by shooting "in the Ennis Road." The pride of West Clare, they are buried in Doonbeg.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution manhunt burial patriotic IRA
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1920-1921 - The Black and Tan War
Dec 22, 1920 - Commandant Willie Shanahan of the West Clare Brigade of Republican Police and Captain Michael McNamara of Doonbeg Company IRA are executed by the Black and Tans (source: Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan).
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 25, "Mac and Shanahan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5221
RECORDINGS:
Nora Cleary, "Mac and Shanahan" (on IRClare01)
Tom Lenihan, "Mac and Shanahan" (on IRTLenihan01)
NOTES [70 words]: "The Black and Tans" (for which see "The Bold Black and Tan") were a special English constabulary recruited to quell Irish violence. They failed, and in fact contributed to the brutality.
It will tell you something of the violence of the period that none of the six histories I checked (including three devoted specifically to this period, one of which is largely a catalog of atrocities) mentions any of these events. - RBW
File: RcMacASh

Mac's and the O's, The

DESCRIPTION: "When Ireland was founded by the Mac's and the O's, I never could learn..." but the singer lists all the various great family names of Ireland. Some specific names are mentioned, but most are simply references to clans
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: nonballad wordplay Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H484, p. 176, "The Mac's and the O's" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 79, "The Mac's and the O's" (1 text)
Roud #4812
NOTES [68 words]: Even when a specific character is named in this song, it is often a legendary figure such as Finn MacCool. A handful, however, are historical, such as Hugh O'Neill of Tyrone, whose name is naturally connected with O'Donnell (for these two, see the notes to "O'Donell Abou").
The final stanza refers to women, and most of these, interestingly, are women of song, e.g. Eileen Aroon and Kathleen Mavourneen. - RBW
File: HHH484

MacAfee

See McAfee's Confession [Laws F13] (File: LF13)

MacAfee's Confession

See McAfee's Confession [Laws F13] (File: LF13)

MacCrimmon's Lament

DESCRIPTION: "Round Coolin's peak the mist is sailing." The mists stream, the banshee wails, the beasts and brooks mourn, the singer's eyes stream for MacCrimmon, who never shall return. "No more forever Shall love or gold bring back MacCrimmon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (recording, Jeannie Robertson); tune reportedly in print in 1884
KEYWORDS: death separation nonballad animal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #32, pp. 169-170, "MacCrimmon's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5134
File: RPG032

MacDonald of Glencoe

See MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe) [Laws N39] (File: LN39)

MacDonald of the Isles

DESCRIPTION: MacDonald courts Peggy, a lowland lady. He tells her that if she'd go with him he'd marry her. She agrees. As they ride "there was nothing there fittin for a lady." She becomes pregnant. At home he has a coach prepared to "go ... and see your daddy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
LONG DESCRIPTION: MacDonald says, "first when I cam to Kilboggie's Toon" courting Peggy "she lay in her bed till her breakfast was ready." She tells her mother that she would leave her silk gowns to go with her Highland laddie. He tells her that if she'd go with him he'd marry her and she'd be "a Highland chieftain's lady" She agrees. They ride with her in disguise, as his sister, or Lowland Kate, or Lowland Jinny. As they ride "there was nothing there fittin for a lady." She becomes pregnant. She recalls what she has left behind "in my father's ha'" He assures her that when they reach his home she'll be a lady. When they do arrive he has a coach and six prepared to "go once more and see your daddy"
KEYWORDS: elopement marriage sex return disguise pregnancy mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 851, "MacDonald of the Isles" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #95
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Glasgow Peggy" [Child 228] (tune and general plot)
NOTES [108 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quoting Duncan: "It is not easy to settle the exact relation between this ballad and [Greig/Duncan4 [850], Child 228] 'Glasgow Peggy'; but that there is a connection is clear enough. The plot and development of the story are the same; the names of Peggy and Macdonald are in both; some stanzas in the later part of this ballad are either modelled on 'Glasgow Peggy' or taken from it (9,10,13,14); and, to complete the connection, the tune is the same. Yet the greater part of the fifteen stanzas are quite different in matter from any version of 'Glasgow Peggy', and the name Kilboggie or Kilbagie is not found in any form of it." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4851

MacDonald's Camp

DESCRIPTION: "One evening last fall when we felt well inclined, We hired with D. A. MacDonald to work at the pine." MacDonald pushes so hard that "He brought bread seven miles and he got it there hot." The loggers are described, and Caldwell called "no use at all."
AUTHOR: reportedly Jack Caldwell
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: work logger lumbering moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #17, "MacDonald's Camp" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4469
File: FowL17

MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe) [Laws N39]

DESCRIPTION: The singer tries to woo a woman of Glencoe, but she says she is loyal to MacDonald, gone to war these ten years. He suggests that MacDonald may have forgotten her; she says she will remain single even so. He then reveals himself as MacDonald
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 1641)
KEYWORDS: courting disguise separation reunion
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(MW,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Laws N39, "MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe)"
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 247-248, "Donald and Glencoe" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #55, p. 1, "Glencoe" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1044, "The Pride of Glencoe" (16 texts plus a single verse on p. 631, 17 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 65-66, "Donald's Return to Glencoe" (1 text, tune referenced)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 62-63, 150, "Donald's Return to Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 126, "MacDonald's Return to Glencoe" (1 fragment)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 25, "Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 87, "The Pride of Glencoe" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 86, "Glencoe" (1 text)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 67-69, "The Pride of Glencoe" (1 text)
Peacock, p. 579, "The Pride of Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 60, "The Pride of Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 35, "The Pride of Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 129, "Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 56, "The Pride of Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 70-72, "Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 68, "The Pride of Glencoe" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 136, "McDonald's Return to Glenco" (1 text)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 52-53, "Donald of Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H655, p. 319, "The Pride of Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 113-115, "The Banks of Glenco" (2 texts, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 28, "The Lass o' Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1354, p. 92, "Mc'Donald's Return to Glenco" (1 reference)
DT 464, PRIGLENC*
Roud #515
RECORDINGS:
Lizzie Higgins, "MacDonald of Glencoe" (on LHiggins01)
Mr. MacDonald, "Glencoe" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1641, "Donald's Return to Glencoe," G. Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also 2806 c.14(133)[many illegible words], Firth c.17(300)[some illegible words], Harding B 11(932), Firth c.14(158), Firth c.14(160), Harding B 19(109), 2806 c.18(89), Harding B 16(324a), Firth b.26(11)[a few illegible words], Firth b.25(226), Firth b.27(454), Harding B 16(323b), 2806 c.15(174), "Donald's Return to Glencoe"; Firth b.27(462), "Donand's Return to Glencoe" ["Donald" in the text]
LOCSinging, as202320, "Mc'Donald's Return to Glenco," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also sb30347b, "Mc'Donald's Return to Glenco"
Murray, Mu23-y4:036, "Donald's Return to Glencoe," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(206), "Donald's Return to Glencoe," unknown, c. 1840; also L.C.Fol.70(73a), "Donald's Return to Glencoe," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c. 1875
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
cf. "The Silk Merchant's Daughter (I) [Laws N10]" (tune)
cf. "The Lass o Glencoe" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
The Silk Merchant's Daughter [Laws N10] (File: LN10)
NOTES [33 words]: Broadside LOCSinging as202320: H. De Marsans dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: LN39

MacFarlan' o' the Sprotts

DESCRIPTION: The singer courts Susy but their fathers cannot agree. He sends Macfarlan' as a middleman to negotiate for him. Macfarlan' is an ugly stupid oaf but Susy's father tells him to speak for himself. Susy and Macfarlan' marry. Moral: Never trust a middleman
AUTHOR: George B Thomson (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage bargaining humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #145, p. 1, "MacFarlan o' the Sprotts" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1221, "MacFarlan' o' the Sprotts" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6314
File: GrD61221

Machine-Guns They Rattle

DESCRIPTION: "Machine-guns they rattle, Jack Johnsons they roar, I don't want to fight With these Fritz any more. Take me over the sea, Where the Germans they can't get at me, Oh, my, I don't want to die, I want to go home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia)
KEYWORDS: war cowardice homesickness derivative
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 143-144, "Machine-Guns They Rattle" (2 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES [17 words]: Although this piece is probably a parody, Meredith and Anderson report a shearer's parody of it. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: MA143

Machiner's Song, The

See The Threshing Machine (I) (File: K231)

Mack McDonald

See Casey Jones (I) [Laws G1] (File: LG01)

Mack's Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Say, I told the Captain, he don't worry me, Got a hundred and twenty-nine summers, partner, never will go free." The singer complains of hard work and getting up so early, calls for water, works with mules, wishes for mercy, and tells of prison life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (collected from Mack Maze by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 81-82, "Mack's Blues" (2 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES [76 words]: This is an amazing demonstration of the fluidity of prison moans (this is properly not a blues; the form is wrong). *Both* of Jackson's versions come from Mack Maze, but while they have the same tune, only one verse is common. Maze's first text is apparently a mule song; the second has a large dose of "Easy Rider" material. I could make a strong case for splitting them, but it is not likely that we will find an exact match for either one elsewere. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM081

Mackafee's Confession

See McAfee's Confession [Laws F13] (File: LF13)

Mackenzie and His Dog (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Draw up your chair and I'll pour out a beer, While I sing you a song of a Scots mountaineer." "He had a fine sheepdog... he learned to find sheep that no one had lost!" While "Mac" is in a bar, the sheep steals sheep; Mac is captured and the dog shot
AUTHOR: Words: Joe Charles
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (recording by Les Cleveland, Canterbury Ballads of Joe Charles, Part I)
KEYWORDS: sheep travel thief dog New Zealand humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1855 - the disappearance of the sheep and McKenzie's capture. He is sentenced to five years, but the sentence is commuted after nine months and he returns to Australia
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 52-53, "Mackenzie and His Dog" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Joe Charles, _Black Billy Tea: New Zealand Ballads_, Whitcoulls Publishers, 1981, pp. 15-16, "Mac and his Dog" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "McKenzie and His Dog" (subject)
NOTES [559 words]: The John/James McKenzie of this song should not be confused with Sir John McKenzie (1839-1901), who spent about twenty years in the New Zealand parliament and in some liberal governments; Sir John was a generation younger and did not arrive in New Zealand until 1860.
Ell. 154-155, has an entry on "Mackenzie, the 'Sheep Stealer'": "A Robin Hood-lke glamour surrounds the exploits of James McKenzie (now spelled Mackenzie), who was said to have stolen 1000 sheep from George Rhodes of the Levels and driven them to the huge high-country basin that was named after him. A Highland drover who spoke Gaelic as his first language, McKenzie discovered his 'country' in the infant days of settlement in Canterbury (though his pass was known to others). McKenzie was apprehended by Rhodes' overseer James Sidebotham and two Maori, Taiko and 'Seventeen,' on March 4, 1855, but espcaped the same night. The memorial on the spot describes McKenzie as 'the freebooter.' Tried and sentences to five years' imprisonment, McKenzie made several escapes from the Littleton gal before he was pardoned five months later."
McKenzie claimed he was helping someone by the name of James Mossman watch over stolen sheep. There seems to be no evidence that Mossman existed.
Ell continues, "In allowing a pardon, the Provincial Superintendent accepted that McKenzie's silence in defence was born of the Gael's incomprehension of the English language in which he was tried. McKenzie's story has inspired many local legends, as did his dog which was said to have a prodigious memory for mustering instructions, allowing the dog to take sheep long after McKenzie had move on to some other place of safety." A writer named James McNeish wrote a novel Mackenzie [1870] and an attempt at a defense called The Mackenzie Affair.
NewZealandEncyclopedia, pp. 337-338, opens its entry on McKenzie by saying McKenzie "is a legendary figure in NZ history, whose date and place of birth and ultimate fate remain unknown.
"The Mackenzie Country, Mackenzie Pass and the Mackenzie River are all named after the shepherd (despite the difference in spelling). It is believed McKenzie was born in Inverness-shire, emigrated to Australia during the 1840s and then came on to NZ with the object of taking up land in Southland."
It was in 1855 that about a thousand sheep disappeared from Levels Station at Timaru. The rest of the story mostly matches Ell's, although in this account, the overseer is called J. H. C. Sidebottom. After his pardon, it is thought McKenzie returned to Australia.
"McKenzie's physical stamina, his stockmanship and his apparently remarkable dog companion have been romanticised over the years, until he is now established as part of NZ's folklore." The entry closes with a picture of McKenzie's dog but has no photo of McKenzie!
For some reason, McKenzie seems to have exerted a peculiar obsession among New Zealand songwriters. In addition to this and the song indexed as "McKenzie and His Dog," Harding, p. 74, lists a Bob McFarlane song "The Legend of Mackenzie," which I assume is about him; and on p. 75 cites a Michael Wall/Julie Collier song "McKenzie," and a "McKenzie Song" that was recorded at least four times, by Kathryn Tate, Mike Harding, Martin Curtis, and Pioneer Pog 'n' Scroggin Bush Band. P. 82 has "Sheep Stealer McKenzie," sung by Dusty Spittle. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Clev052

MacKenzie and His Dog (II)

See McKenzie and His Dog (File: Colq042)

Mackenzie's Dream

See The McKenna's Dream (File: Zimm065)

Mackin's Porch

DESCRIPTION: "To learn the way of Five Points folk, If you take and give a joke, Go on Scott Street for a mope, And stop at Mackin's Store." People of all nationalities gather "like chickens in a pen" despite the smell of gas. The poet describes the workers
AUTHOR: Words: Con Carbon? (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: work mining commerce
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 57-59, "Mackin's Porch" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #22374
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Floggin Reel" (tune)
NOTES [43 words]: Con Carbon, the purported author of this piece, is also known for "Me Johnny Mitchell Man"; see that song for other songs of his.
Korson claims to have this from tradition. There is no other evidence that it's traditional, but I'm indexing it on that basis. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMP057

Macnamara's Band

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Macnamara, I'm the leader of the band, My wife is Betty Grable, she's the fairest in the land"; she can sing, dance, "show a leg" ... everything but "make my ham and eggs"
AUTHOR: John J. Stamford (according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame -- but this probably refers to the source song)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: derivative playparty food | Betty Grable
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 121, "Macnamara's Band" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #383, "My name is Macnamara" (1 text)
Roud #19014
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "McNamara's Band" ("My name is Macnamara, I'm the leader of the band" line)
cf. "My Name is McNamara" ("My name is Macnamara" line)
SAME TUNE:
No. 5. Squadron Song (File: Hopk041)
NOTES [137 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "'Macnamara's Band', written by John J. Stamford (copyright J.H. Larway, 1914) has been a song too good for children to abandon, and is particularly cherished in Scotland."
Betty Grable, a movie star of the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's, was married to band-leader Harry James from 1943 to 1965. (Source: Wikipedia article Harry James ) - BS
I am honestly not sure whether Roud #19014 is this song (a derivative game song) or the the original here indexed as "McNamara's Band"; they are clearly both derived from the latter, but equally clearly they have gone separate ways. The Roud entries for this and "My name is McNamara" are, however, confusing. The other song is identified by the fact that it refers to an actual band, which is small in number, and the fact that it's not a game song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OpGa121

MacPherson the Drover

DESCRIPTION: Peggy's father would have her follow McPherson the drover. she agrees but thinks about all the men "for me hae gane stark" she might have had. But if Harry Mitchell, "my love just now," proves true she'll "look owre my nose at the drover"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage farming father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #156, p. 2, "M'Pherson the Drover" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan4 768, "MacPherson the Drover" (4 texts plus two verses on pp. 537-538, 1 tune)
Roud #6185
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Quaker's Wife" (tune, per Greig)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jeannie, My Dear
NOTES [33 words]: Greig: "[According to Rev. George Williams this song] was written about an irregular marriage in 1793, and is supposed to have been the work of John Adam, son of the Rev. Francis Adam, Cushnie." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD4768

MacPherson's Farewell

See MacPherson's Lament (File: K348)

MacPherson's Lament

DESCRIPTION: MacPherson tells how a woman betrayed him to the Laird o' Grant. He challenges all to a duel in defense of his honor. He breaks his fiddle, "the only friend I hae," rather than see it in bad hands. A rider is coming to reprieve him, so he is hanged early
AUTHOR: unknown / rewritten by Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (_Scots Musical Museum_ #114); supposedly first appeared by 1710 (ee NOTES)
KEYWORDS: execution betrayal reprieve fiddle outlaw
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 16, 1700 - Execution of James MacPherson at Banff
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 346-347, "Macpherson's Farewell" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 697, "MacPherson's Rant" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #15, pp. 134-135, "MacPherson's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 348, "MacPherson's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 443, "M'Pherson's Farewell" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 88, "Macpherson's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 16-17, "MacPherson's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 163-169, "Mary Hamilton" (2 texts plus a fragment, with the "C" fragment containing parts of "MacPherson's Lament"; 3 tunes; the tune for the "MacPherson" portion is not given)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 205, "MacPherson's Farewell" (1 text)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 219-226, "MacPherson's Farewell" (4 texts, one being the Burns "MacPherson's Lament" and three being ancestral or related pieces, probably forms of "MacPherson's Rant")
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 259-260, "MacPherson's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MACPHER* MACPHER2* MCPHERST
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #196,, pp. 306-307, "McPherson's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1788)
Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol I, pp. 83-85, "MacPherson's Farewell"
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #114, p. 117 "McPherson's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kenneth Norman MacDonald, "The Gesto Collection of Highland Music," 1895 (reprinted 1997 by Llanerch Publishers), p. 107, "MacPherson's Lament" (1 tune, presumably this)
ST K348 (Full)
Roud #2160
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy MacBeath, "MacPherson's Lament" (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743)
Davie Stewart, "MacPherson's Rant" (on Voice08)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "MacPherson's Rant" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
MacPherson
NOTES [555 words]: Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, p. 267, James MacPherson was "A freebooter and the illegitimate son of a member of the Invereshie MacPhersons by a gipsy mother. He had great strength and was also an excellent violinist. The counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Moray went in fear of him and his gipsy followers, until he was seized by Duff of Braco and tried before the sheriff at Banff." He was convicted and sentenced to death.
Legends about MacPherson's death are many. The basic one has it that he played this tune before his death and offered the fiddle to anyone who could play it back for him. None could, so he broke the fiddle rather than leave it in incompetent hands. The (ruins of) the instrument are now said to be in the MacPherson clan museum in Inverness-shire.
Very little of this, except for the bare fact that James MacPherson was executed in 1700, seems to have been verified. That MacPherson was a freebooter seems almost certain -- but only spite could have hung him for his deeds; most of Scotland was the same way!
The earliest reported version of this piece seems to have been Burns's, but (given the variations), it seems certain that several traditional forms are older.
Lindsay, p. 268, thinks that the song we've indexed as "MacPherson's Rant" is MacPherson's own and that this is Burns's rewrite. The tune is the same. - RBW
Chambers: "The old ballad, for which Burns substituted the above beautiful verses, is given in continuation, from Herd's Collection of Scottish Songs [1776]."
If there's an argument to be made for lumping "MacPherson's Lament" and "MacPherson's Rant" it might be Greig/Duncan3 697A and 697B, which mix verses of both. I think splitting them is the way to go.
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong is Burns's "Farewell, ye dungeons dark and strong" which Dick has from Scots Musical Museum, 1788, No. 114 (James C Dick, The Songs of Robert Burns (London: Henry Frowde, 1903 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), #311 pp. 292-293). - BS
[Regarding the Earliest Date: Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice mention] a "first appearance in the Margaret Sinkler MS (1710, "McFarsances testment," sic)]. Also they note that a "broadside text composed in 1705 (McPherson's Rant; or the Last Words of James McPherson, Murderer, To Its Own Tune) found its way in part into Herd's Collection of 1776, but was published in full only by Maidment 1859...." since MacPherson was executed in 1700, for my money I'd go for the 1705. They say Rabbie Burns' reworking appeared in 1788. But your mileage might vary :-). - DGE
Incidentally, this trick of hanging someone before a reprieve arrived did not originate with MacPherson. Ronald Hutton, Charles II: King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Clarendon Press/Oxford University Press, 1989, pp. 210-211, tells of a minor rebellion against Charles II in the north of England in the early 1660s: "Twenty-six men were condemned to death and all but two were executed, most being politically unimportant as Charles offered a pardon to leaders who turned King's Evidence. The gentry of Westmorland succeeded in delaying his messenger carrying a reprieve for the agitator of the local rebels, just long enough to hang the man along with his dupes" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K348

MacPherson's Rant

DESCRIPTION: "I've spent my time in rioting, Debauch'd my health and strength... But now, alas! at length, I'm brought to punishment direct." MacPherson laments that he is to be hanged, blames the Laird of Grant and Peter Brown, and tells people to live well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: punishment execution betrayal outlaw
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 16, 1700 - Execution of James MacPherson
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 444-445, "M'Pherson's Farewell" (1 text)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 219-226, "MacPherson's Farewell" (4 texts, one being the Burns "MacPherson's Lament" and three being ancestral or related pieces, probably forms of "MacPherson's Rant")
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1339, "I spent my time in rioting, debauch'd my health and stength" (?)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol I, pp. 85-87, "MacPherson's Rant"
Roud #2160
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "MacPherson's Lament" (subject)
NOTES [215 words]: Often treated (e.g. by Roud) as a variant of the now-better-known "MacPherson's Lament," the two have so little in common that it seems certain that the two are separate, though they use the same tune. There is, at the very least, a great deal of editing (by Burns?) separating the two.
Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, p. 267, James MacPherson was "A freebooter and the illegitimate son of a member of the Invereshie MacPhersons by a gipsy mother. He had great strength and was also an excellent violinist. The counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Moray went in fear of him and his gipsy followers, until he was seized by Duff of Braco and tried before the sheriff at Banff." He was convicted and sentenced to death.
Lindsay, p. 268, thinks that that this song is actually MacPherson's own and that the song we've indexed as "MacPherson's Lament" is Burns's rewrite. I am not convinced that this is actually MacPherson's own, but I agree that it is unlikely to be traditional by origin; it reads like a moralizing broadside, and it's much poorer poetry. It can be told from "MacPherson's Lament" by the first line in the description. For a little more about the MacPherson legend, see "MacPhersons' Lament." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Ord444

MacTavish is Dead

See McTavish is Dead (File: PHCFS122)

Mad Maudlin

See Tom a Bedlam (Bedlam Boys) (File: Log172)

Mad Moll

See (notes under) Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding (I) (File: AdAOBW1)

Mad Trapper of Rat River, The

DESCRIPTION: The Mounties learn that a trapper has gone mad; he shoots one and flees. During the manhunt, he kills another Mountie, then a third, but is surrounded and shot dead. Credit is given to the Mounties: "They always get their man"
AUTHOR: Probably Wilf Carter
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recording, Wilf Carter)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Two Indians report to the Mounties that a trapper has gone mad; the Mounties visit him, but he shoots one and flees. A manhunt ensues; in the process, he kills another Mountie, backtracks and escapes. Eventually he kills a third, but is surrounded and shot dead. Credit is given to the Mounties: "They always get their man"
KEYWORDS: madness fight violence crime homicide death police
FOUND IN: Canada(West)
RECORDINGS:
Wilf Carter, "The Capture of Albert Johnson" (Bluebird [Canada] B-4966, c. 1934; rec. 1933)
Stanley G. Triggs, "The Mad Trapper of Rat River" (on Triggs1)
NOTES [33 words]: Trapper Albert Johnson was hunted and killed by Mounties (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) in the 1930s.
Triggs reports this ballad as widespread in western Canada "from the Rockies to the coast." - PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcTMTORR

Mad'moiselle from Armentieres

See Mademoiselle from Armentieres (File: RL513)

Mada Cantinny (Mother Cantinny)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: They know I am Cantinny. Did you reveal that?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Beckwith-Ballad)
KEYWORDS: disguise trick animal
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, p. 18, "Mada Cantinny" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Martha W Beckwith, "The English Ballad in Jamaica: a Note Upon the Origin of the Ballad Form" in _Publications of the Modern Language Association_ [PMLA], Vol. XXXIXI, No. 2 (Jun 1924 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 460-461, "Grandy Beard" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Mada Cantinny" (on WIEConnor01)
NOTES [71 words]: Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica: "Mada Cantinny (Mother Cantinny), is a character in an Anancy story, whose name was only known to the animals she fostered. Anancy [the eponymous trickster] [often a spider, and often spelled Anansi - RBW], disguised as a girl, learned her name from Bra Crab, one of her 'children,' and Mada Cantinny sang this song to each animal in turn asking if it were responsible for divulging her secret." - BS
Last updated in version 3.8
File: JaMu018

Madal'na catal'na

See Catalina Madalina (File: ACSF289C)

Madam I Am a Sailor

See The Soldier's Letter (File: R244)

Madam Morel

See Mademoiselle Went to the Well (File: SuSm111B)

Madam, I Have Come A-Courting

See The Quaker's Courtship (File: R362)

Madam, I Have Gold and Silver

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) (File: E098)

Madam, Is Your Johnny Cake Baking Brown?

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Madam, Madam

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) AND No, John, No (File: E098)

Madam, Madam, You Came Courting

DESCRIPTION: When the girl comes courting the boy agrees to "entertain you If you will not call me names." She spurns his wealth: "All I want is a fancy man." He says she can look to the trees to keep her warm "when nights are cold and frosty"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 111, "Ripest Apples" (2 texts)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 121, "Madam, Madam, You Came Courting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 100-101, "Madam, Madam, You Came Courting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #542
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wheel of Fortune" (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) (theme)
NOTES [63 words]: Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs: "Although a different song, this is very like 'The Quaker's Courtship'"; Creighton's song is "Wheel of Fortune" with roles reversed. Nevertheless, though I find no lines shared with that group of songs it is close enough that it may belong there. - BS
Roud, indeed, lumps them -- but logic says that this is rewritten, and hence should be split. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CrMa121

Madam, Will You Walk

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

Madame Morale, She Went to the Well

See Mademoiselle Went to the Well (File: SuSm111B)

Madame, Have You...?

See Mademoiselle from Armentieres (File: RL513)

Made My Vow to the Lord

DESCRIPTION: "Done made my vow to the Lord, And I never will turn back, I will go, I shall go, To see what the end shall be." "My strength, good Lord, is almost gone, I will go, I shall go...." "Sometimes I'm helpless on the ground, I will go...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 67, "Make My Vow to the Lord" (1 text)
Roud #12077
File: FSAN067

Madeleine

DESCRIPTION: French (Belgian). Capstan shanty. "En revenant d'Beaumont, La digue, digue, daine." The singer dreams of Beaumont, where he meets a girl. Her name is Madeleaine. He lifts her petticoat. You can guess the rest
AUTHOR: "Commandant LeMaitre" (source: Hugill)
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: shanty foreignlanguage courting sex dream
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 102, "Madeleine" (2 texts, French and English, 1 tune)
File: HSoSe102

Mademoiselle from Armenteers

See Mademoiselle from Armentieres (File: RL513)

Mademoiselle from Armentières

DESCRIPTION: The mademoiselle "hasn't been kissed [or other appropriate verb] for forty years." The soldiers complain about her or cajole her to do their laundry; they complain about their superiors (and their relations with the lady?) and grouse about army life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919
KEYWORDS: bawdy soldier humorous nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1914-1918 - First World War, during which this ballad clearly arose
FOUND IN: US(So) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 513-515, "Mademoiselle from Armentieres" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 440-442, "Hinky Dinky, Parlee-Voo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 72-73, "Three German Officers" (1 text)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 26-27, "Mademoiselle from Armentières" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 139, "Three German Officers Crossed the Rhine" (1 text, tune referenced; Hopkins implies this is a separate song, but most of the verses are standard "Madamoiselle")
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, pp. 48-50, "Mademoiselle from Armenteers"; "Madame, Have You...?"; "The Sergeant-Major's having a time" (3 texts)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 76, "Mademoiselle from Armenteers"; p. 77, "Farmer Have You Any Good Wine"; pp. 102-103, "Madamoiselle from Armenteers" (3 texts)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 331-333, "Mademoiselle from Armentieres" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 38, "Mademoiselle from Armentieres" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 557-560, "Hinky Dinky Parley-Voo?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 78-79, "Mademoiselle from Armentieres" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 152-153, "Hinky Dinky Parlay-Voo!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp. 110-111, "Hinky Dinky" (1 text)
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 15-22, "Mad'moiselle from Armentieres (40,000 Marines Can't Be Wrong") (1 very long composite text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 277, "Mademoiselle from Armentieres" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 344-345, "Mademoiselle from Armentieres"
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #325, "Mademoiselle from Aremetieres, parley vous" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 188, "Mademoiselle from Armentières, parlez-voo?" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, posts 12-13, 23, 35, "Parley-vouz" (2 mentions, from users Crypto-Willobie and John5918, posted August 28, 2021; Crypto-Willobie offered the verse "The French they are are funny race, parlyvouz"; John5918's was "Three German officers crossed the line... shagged the women and drank the wine")
ADDITIONAL: George Allan England, _Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt_ (also published as _The Greatest Hunt in the World_), Doubleday, 1924, p. 128, "(no title)" (1 short text, probably partial)
Roud #4703
RECORDINGS:
Benny Bell, "Hinky Dinkey Polly Voo" (Cocktail Party Songs 101, n.d.)
Bell Record Quartet, "Hinky Dinky Parlez Vous" (Bell 285, 1924 - but it's possible this is Benny Bell's post-WWII recording for his similarly-named label)
Broadway Quartet, "Hinky Dinky Parlez Vous" (Banner 1382/Regal 9678, 1924)
Jan Garber & his Orch. "Hinky Dinky Parlay Voo" (Victor 19405, 1924)
Happiness Boys [Billy Jones & Ernest Hare] "Hinky Dinky Parlay Voo" (Columbia 132-D, 1924)
Lawrence Loy & Wilbur Waite, "Hinky Dinky Parlez Vous" (Columbia 20638, 1949)
[Billy] Murray and [Ed] Smalle, "Hinky Dinky Parlay Voo" (Victor 19388, 1924)
Sweet Violet Boys, "Hinky Dinky Parley Voo, Part 1/Part 2" (Vocalion 03281, 1936; this number was also used for Part 1 only, with the reverse side another song; Part 1 is also on Conqueror 9067, 1938; Columbia 20283/Columbia 37704, 1947. Part 2 was also issued as, "Hinky Dinky Parley Voo #2", Vocalion 03327, 1936; Columbia 20284/Columbia 37705, 1947)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (approximate tune)
cf. "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" (approximate tune)
cf. "Johnny, Fill Up the Bowl" (approximate tune)
cf. "Snapoo" (approximate tune; theme)
cf. "The Little Red Train" (tune)
cf. "Three Pirates" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Laff It Off ("If you find your bank roll's, bent, Just laff it off") (Harbin-Parodology, #94, p. 27)
What's Become Of Hinky Dinky Parlez Vous? (What Has Become of Hinky Dinky Parlez Voo?) (Al Bernard & J. Robinson, Cameo 572, 1924; Carl Fenton & his Orch., Brunswick 2618, 1924; Billy Jones, Vocalion 14817, 1924); (Billy Jones & Ernest Hare, OKeh 40128, 1924)
One Grease Ball (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, p. 38)
I Bought a Scab for Fifty Cents (by Odell Corley, then 11 years old) (Kristina Horton, _Martyr of Loray Mill: Ella May and the 1929 Textile Workers' Strike in Gastonia, North Carolina_, McFarland & Company, 2015, p. 199. For background, see the notes on "Chief Aderholt")
NOTES [183 words]: Both plot and tune of this song show a relationship with "Snapoo" (indeed, they sometimes mix, and Roud lumps them); it is reasonable to ask which came first and which influenced the other. As both appear at about the same time, however, it is effectively impossible to settle the matter.
Fuld has extensive notes about the origin of this song, with some interesting folkloric twists; the legends, while possible, are not convincing.
I have a very strange suggestion, which may be completely irrelevant, but it looks as if this might be relative to a shanty. "On Shanties," article in E(neas) S(weetland) Dallas, editor, Once a Week, New Series, Number 31, August 1, 1868 (published by Bradbury and Evans and available on Google Books), p. 92, refers to a song "All you Ladies now on Land,"
Have you got, lady, a daughter so fine,
Slapandergosheka,
That is fit for a sailor that has crossed the line,
Slapandergosheka, etc.
Which sort of seems like a cross between this and "Lady of the Land (Here's a Poor Widow)." I won't claim to be sure they're related, but I thought I would mention it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RL513

Mademoiselle She Goes to the Wall

See Mademoiselle Went to the Well (File: SuSm111B)

Mademoiselle Went to the Well

DESCRIPTION: Ball-bouncing game. "Mademoiselle, She went to the well, She never forgets her soap or towel. he washes her hands, She dries and dries, She combs her hair, She jumps up high And touches the sky Then twirls around Until she drops."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty clothes hair
FOUND IN: New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 111, "(Madam Morel)" (1 text); pp. 119-120, "(Mademoiselle She goes to the wall") (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 78, "(Mademoiselle)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #324, "Madame Morale, she went to the well"; #326, "Mademoiselle" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #82, "(Mademoiselle)" (1 text)
Roud #19285
File: SuSm111B

Mademoiselle, dites-moi donc

DESCRIPTION: "Dites-moi donc mademoiselle, dou venez-vous donc?" The singer asks the woman a series of questions: Is she from Sorel or Saint-Adele? Is her petticoat is cotton or flannel? She answers with questions of her own. They end with insults
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1930 (recording, La Bolduc and Ovila Legare, according to various YouTube videos)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage dialog clothes food rejection
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 34-35, "Dites-moi donc mademoiselle" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: PoEll034

Mag's Song

See The Orphan Girl (The Orphan Child) (File: R725)

Magdalen Green, The

See Down By the Magdalen Green (File: MorU016)

Magdalene's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "As I cam in by Tanzie's wood... Four-and-twenty o' Geordie's men Kiss'd me against my will." The girl recalls flirting happily in a tavern, "But now I'm in the correction-house And whipped to my turn." She hopes to be released and marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: seduction sex prison abuse whore
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook III, pp. 12-13, "The Magdalene's Lament" (1 text)
Roud #8153
NOTES [111 words]: Traditional? I don't know. Kinloch of course does not list sources.
The term "Magdalene" for a reformed prostitute is of course a reference to the Biblical Mary Magdalene ("maudlin"). But while Mary of Magdala was a follower of Jesus, from whom he "cast seven demons" (Mark 16:9), there is no reason to think she had formerly been a prostitute; Luke 7:37-50 describes a reformed prostitute wiping Jesus's feet with her hair, but never calls her Mary. John 12:1-8 has Mary wipe his feet -- but this is Mary of Bethany, not Mary of Magdala!
Not that this matters; while Kinloch calls the song "The Magdalene's Lament," the word "magdalene" is not used in the song. - RBW.
File: KinBB03

Magelhan

DESCRIPTION: German shanty. Original was a capstan (gangspill) shanty. The Magelhan/Magellan is the name of the ship. The verses (or at least the translation) are mostly good natured complaints about work and the captain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Baltzer's _Knurrhahn_ (reprint))
KEYWORDS: shanty foreignlanguage ship
FOUND IN: Germany
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 191-192, "Magelhan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 164-165, "Magelhan" (2 texts, German & English, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rolling Home (I)" (adaptation of text)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Magellan
NOTES [32 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas included this with the versions of "Rolling Home (I)" stating that this was the original shanty from which the German version of "Rolling Home" was derived. - SL
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hugi191

Maggie A-Milkin'

See Your Fingers Are Nimble (File: GrD71417)

Maggie by My Side

DESCRIPTION: "The land of my home is flitting, Flitting from my view; A gale in the sails is sitting; Toils the merry crew." The sailor wishes this were his home, with Maggie sitting by his side. Not even the storm can threaten him when she is there
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (sheet music by FIrth, Pond & Co.)
KEYWORDS: sailor home love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 282-283, "Maggy By My Side/Maggie By My Side" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 135-136, "Maggie By My Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #7/72, p. 25 and #7/64, p. 24, "Maggie by My Side" (1 text)
Roud #13954
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1854.750390, "Maggie By My Side," Firth, Pond & Co. (New York), 1854 (tune)
NOTES [309 words]: Like most Foster songs, this describes a life Foster knew nothing about, and like most Foster songs, it shows. This one is rare in tradition (in fact, I know of no actual field collections), but Foster's grip on the popular consciousness is shown by the fact that it was included in at least two ships' logbooks within two years of its composition.
William W. Austin, Susanna, Jeannie and the Old Folks at Home: The Songs of Stephen C. Foster from his time to ours, Macmillan, 1975, p. 117, reports "worst of all [in a series of sappy songs] is a cheerful song copyrighted in October 1853 and destined to sell more copies than any other song in the series [of love songs], including [I Dream of] 'Jeanie.' This is 'Maggie by My Side,' dedicated to a Pittsburg girl, Eliza Denniston, about whom nothing is known.... Such defiant good cheer is unique among the Foster songs."
Austin adds that it brought in $278.01 in royalties by 1857, and that the manuscript of the song sold in 1868 for $4500.
John Tasker Howard, Stephen Foster, America's Troubadour, 1934 (I use the 1939 Tudor Publishing edition), p. 211, reprints an anecdote from the June 1895 Pittsburg Press, which says that "We all attended a party given in honor of a young lady from Baltimore, who was the guest of one of the young ladies of our circle. Foster met her there and a warm friendship sprang up between them. I do not recall her last name, but her given name was Maggie, and shortly after he met her, Foster wrote that song."
Digging around on the Internet, I found an hypothesis that Maggie was the sailor's dog. While Stephen Foster was fond of dog songs, I find it hard to believe; the singer sounds too fond of Maggie.
Foster's manuscripts says that it was originally a blackface song, and the heroine was Fanny; I think this additional evidence that a woman is meant. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HGam282

Maggie C, The

DESCRIPTION: Maggie C is "built by George E Saville a man of high degree." Nevertheless, she is unstable. Everyone laughs at the effort to get to the dock. The owner says "It's that blooming Saville's fault" but Saville claims "No better boat's afloat"
AUTHOR: Victor La Pierre, Annandale, P.E.I.
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: ship humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 47-48, "The Maggie C" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12471
File: Dib047

Maggie Darling

See Fare You Well, Maggie Darling, Across the Blue Sea (File: Pea443)

Maggie Goddon

See Peggy Gordon (File: Gil127)

Maggie Gordon (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Fause Maggie Gordon she's made my life a burden." The singer has been jilted and wishes he'd never been born, has no heart to live, but is unwilling to die.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: love rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1899, "Maggie Gordon" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13237
File: GrD81899

Maggie Gordon (II)

See Peggy Gordon (File: Gil127)

Maggie Howie

DESCRIPTION: Michael Lee tells of courting Maggie Howie of Napanee; she wore his ring, but refused to marry him; her parents disapprove. He kills her with an axe, flees to the woods, is captured and jailed. He states his guilt and his readiness to be tried and hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1957 (recording, Mrs. Tom Sullivan)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage rejection violence crime execution homicide punishment death family lover prisoner
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 1887: Maggie Howie murdered by Michael Lee
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
Roud #3838
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Tom Sullivan, "Maggie Howie" (on Ontario1)
NOTES [51 words]: Despite the last verse of the song, Michael Lee was not hanged, but instead found to be criminally insane, and confined in a special wing of Kingston Penitentiary until his death. Maggie Howie's ghost is said to haunt the offices of the local newspaper, which stands on the spot where the murder occurred. - PJS
File: RcMagHow

Maggie Hunter, The

DESCRIPTION: The Maggie Hunter leaves Oswego bound for Toronto, but runs into a gale. Various crew members do their best, but the ship is lost, with only bits recovered. Six months later, the cook's body is found. Listeners are told to remember whenever a storm blows
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from William Head by Walton)
KEYWORDS: corpse death drowning ship disaster storm wreck moniker cook sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 194-196, "Loss of the Maggie Hunter" (1 text, heavily composite)
Roud #3841
RECORDINGS:
C. H. J. Snider, "The 'Maggie Hunter'" (on GreatLakes1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Persian's Crew" (subject, tune)
NOTES [184 words]: Snider said he learned the song in July of 1947. Fowke reports that it was widespread in the Prince Edward County area (where the cook's body came ashore) in the 1880s, but has not been reported elsewhere. - PJS
This seems to be true. Walton's version is based on material from six different informants, all from Ontario (towns Picton, Port Credit, Bront, and Hillier)
The history of the ship itself is more uncertain. Fowke's notes apparently caused Paul Stamler to write this historicaly reference: "Oct. 13, 1876 -- telegram to ship's owner announces the coming ashore of the Maggie Hunter's cabin work (acc." Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, though, report that it was in the "early 1880s" that the Maggie Hunter sailed from Oswego to Toronto with a load of coal and was lost.
I checked four references on Great Lakes shipping; none of them mention the Maggie Hunter. None of the four are comprehensive, but one tried to be, and all tend to emphasize "good stories." it seems the story of the Maggie Hunter is known primarily from this song, not from historical records. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: RcTMagHu

Maggie Jones

DESCRIPTION: "Miss Maggie Jones was a homely maiden, And she owned a homely apple tree." She begs the singer to climb it and throw apples down to her; a branch breaks and he falls on her. His parents fight under the tree and get stung by bees
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: derivative humorous food father mother fight
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 150, "Maggie Jones" (1 text)
Roud #11349
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shade of the Old Apple Tree" (tune)
File: Brne150

Maggie Lauder

DESCRIPTION: Maggie meets a piper, Rab the Ranter, and encourages him to strike up a tune while she dances. He does, and she praises his work; he says, "It's worth my while to play indeed When I hae sic a dancer." She encourages him to ask for her if he comes again
AUTHOR: Francis Sempill? (c. 1616-1682)
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (Ritson); reportedly written 1642
KEYWORDS: music dancing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 23-24, "Maggie Lauder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 96-103, "Maggie Lauder" (1 text plus a silly sequel)
Roud #5625
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y4:002, "Maggie Lauder," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
NLScotland, S.302.b.2(094), "Maggie Lauder," Simms and McIntyre (Belfast), probably 1825; also APS.3.84.2, "Maggy Lawder," Charles Pigott (London), after 1825 (with many distortions in the lyrics); also Crawford.EB.3390, "Maggie Lauder," George Walker (Durham), n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Northumberland Bagpipes" (theme)
cf. "Cripple Kirsty" (parody)
SAME TUNE:
Cripple Kirsty (File: GrD3556)
Cornwallis Burgoyned (broadside of 1781, "When British troops first landed here with Howe commander o'er them") (Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, p. 76; cf. Spaeth, _A History of Popular Music in America_, p. 25; Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. xxii)
The Joyful Widower (Scots Musical Museum, #98)
A Brand Fire New Whaling Song Right from the Pacific Ocean (File: HGam002)
NOTES [383 words]: One can only suspect that more than piping and dancing lies behind this song. This, indeed, may explain its rarity in the older collections; it sounds like a hidden story of something extremely indelicate. (The National Library of Scotland site, in fact, claims that Maggie ended up pregnant. The NLScotland broadsides do not show this, however.)
Absolute proof that Francis Sempill wrote this seems to be lacking, but Ford-SongHistories seems convinced, and it certainly seems to match the style of his other poems. The melody is thought to predate Sempill, but there is no agreement about its origin.
Habbie Simpson, to whom Rab the Ranter is compared, was a historical person, living in Kilbarchan (near Paisley) in the late sixteenth century (the site paisly.is gives his dates as 1550-1620); it may be significant that the father of Francis Sempill, Robert Sempill (c. 1595-c. 1665; not to be confused with another Scots poet named Robert Sempill, 1530?-1595), composed Simpson's elegy, The Life and Death of the Piper of Kilbarchan, or the Epitaph of Habbie Simpson (c. 1640), now most often known as the "Lament for Habbie Simpson." This poem was well enough known that its stanza format became known as a "Habbie" or a "Standard Habbie" (Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, pp. 340-341).
There is a broadside text (not a song) about Simpson at NLScotland L.C.1270(019), "Habbie Simpson and his Wife," unknown, c. 1845.
I don't know if Maggie and Rab are historical. Ford-SongHistories lists various attempts to identify Maggie. None are at all convincing, and some place her in a time before Habbie Simpson.
Burns, in his poem "The Ordination" (1786), refers to a Maggie Lauder: "Curst Common Sense, that imp o' hell, Cam' in wi' Maggie Lauder." But according to Lindsay, p. 210, this is not the Maggie Lauder of this song; rather it is one Margaret Lauder, later the wife of the Rev. William Lindsay (died 1817). I do not know how reliable this attribution is; the song is long and its meaning not very obvious at this distance.
"Anster Fair" is Anstruther Fair ("Anstruther" is often pronounced "Anster" by the locals), which is also the subject of a more recent poem by William Tennant, "Anster Fair." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: NSMagLau

Maggie Mac

See The Cumberland [Laws A26] (File: LA26)

Maggie Mackay

DESCRIPTION: The singer falls in love with Maggie Mackay at a fair. They go drinking but, when drinking is finished, she says she must go home with her mother. Later that night he sees her drinking with Davie McLean. He won't take girls drinking again.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting lie drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1510, "Maggie Mackay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7171
NOTES [59 words]: I don't understand the last line here which is apparently meant as a humorous conclusion. At an examination on theological knowledge the singer "set mysel doon in great fear" and the minister asked, "What the name the first woman did wear Losht I stammer't oot 'Maggie Mackay.'" I guess he is hearing "lush" or "lushed" but what is the minister asking? - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71510

Maggie May

DESCRIPTION: The sailor returns home and soon falls in with Maggie May. She takes him to her room, gets him drunk, and walks off with his money (and clothes). Maggie is arrested and transported to Australia
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1906 (recording, John W. Myers)
KEYWORDS: whore robbery sailor transportation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) Australia
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 404-408, "Maggie May" (4 texts, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 307-311]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 68-69, "Maggie May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 30-31, "Maggie May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 6-7, "Maggie May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 6, "Maggy May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 94-95, "Maggie May" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 159-161, "Maggie May" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MAGGIMAY*
Roud #1757
RECORDINGS:
Bob Roberts, "Maggie May" (on LastDays)
A. L. Lloyd, "Maggie May" (on Lloyd12)
J. W. Myers, "Goodbye Maggie May" (Oxford 11582, c. 1906)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gold Watch" [Laws K41] (plot) and references there
NOTES [514 words]: Not to be confused with "Little Maggie May," which is (ironically) about a very faithful love.
It has been suggested that this is of music hall origin, but I know of no proof. Hugill doesn't mention the hypothesis, and reports (second-hand, without listing his source, so I can't verify it as the EARLIEST DATE) that it was mentioned in a diary by Charles Picknel of the convict ship Kains, which sailed in 1830. Hugill also says that the girl was originally "Nelly Ray."
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin suggests that it is derived from "Darling Nelly Gray." That can hardly be correct if the song goes back to 1830. I don't believe it -- but I do concede some melodic similarity. Perhaps "Maggie May" at some point took over the "Nellie Gray" tune, which drifted from there.
The song has seemingly become a cultural phenomenon; I heard somewhere that the Beatles recorded it, and they surely didn't record many other traditional songs! Also, Lionel Bart (who wrote the musical "Oliver!") wrote a musical called "Maggie May" that was reasonably popular. Bart apparently knew the song as a child, and sang it to the delight of the rowdy children in his poor London neighborhood (Stafford, p. 147).
Lamb, pp. 327-328, has this to say of the musical: "for his next piece, Bart abandon London settings for Liverpool's dockland. Maggie May (1964) was built by librettist Alun Owen around the old English ballad character of prostitute Maggie May (played by Rachel Roberts), though the central character was not Maggie herself but her childhood sweetheart, docker Casey (Kenneth Haigh). The son of a union worker, he opposes unthinking union action but ends up leading a wildcat strike and dies while seeking to ditch a cargo of arms for South American anti-riot police. The piece had a strong book and colourful characters, who were well served by numbers that ranged from a love song 'It's Yourself I Want' to a topical piece for a Beatles-replica pop group."
The name Maggie May is interesting for a prostitute. Maggie May could be a nickname for Magdalene Mary -- Mary Magdalene. And, yes, the story went that Mary Magdalene was a reformed prostitute -- although this is based on a chain of equations that doesn't hold up. Mary of Magdala was a follower of Jesus, from whom he "cast seven demons" (Mark 16:9). There is no reason to think, based on the explicit references to her at the crucifixion and after, that she had formerly been a prostitute; if she had been, wouldn't someone have said so? Luke 7:37-50 describes a reformed prostitute wiping Jesus's feet with her hair, but never calls her Mary. John 12:1-8 has a woman named Mary wipe Jesus's feet -- but this is Mary of Bethany, not Mary of Magdala!
OxfordSaints, p. 357, reports that the identification of Mary of Bethany with Mary Magdalene was "propounded by Gregory the Great, but [is] now explicitly rejected by the Roman Missal." But while it is unlikely that Mary Magdalene was actually a prostitute, for a long time it was widely believed that she was. So the name "Maggie May" truly is a subtle one. Or might be.- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: FaE030

Maggie May (II)

See Little Maggie May (File: Shoe142)

Maggie Murphy's Home

DESCRIPTION: "Behind a grammar schoolhouse In a double tenement, I live with my old mother, And always pay the rent.... You're welcome every evening at Maggie Murphy's home." Maggie enjoys the area, and hopes all will remain happy at home
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (sheet music published by Wm. A. Pond & Co, New York)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad dancing music
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. II, #159, pp. 263-266, "Maggie Murphy's Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Stanley Appelbaum, editor, _Show Songs: from The Black Crook to The Red Mill_, Dover Publications, 1974, pp. 47-50, "Maggie Murphy's Home" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the sheet music)
Richard Moody, _Ned Harrigan: From Corlear's Hook to Herald Square_, Nelson Hall, 1980, after p. 54, "Maggie Murphy's Home" (a copy of the sheet music)
Roud #5208
RECORDINGS:
The Shannon Quartet, "Maggie Murphy's Home" (Victor 19336, 1924)
Mick Moloney, "Maggie Murphy's Home" (on HarriganBrahamMaloney)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(3a/b), "Maggie Murphy's Home," G. Ingram and Co (London), n.d.
NOTES [1723 words]: Traditional collections of this are few, but there are some. Edith Fowke seems to have had one from Ontario, and there is a YouTube recording sung by John O'Donovan. The latter has definitely been folk processed; the words are very different (a whole verse seems to have come in from somewhere else) and the tune has also drifted a little.
For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
When Edward Harrigan opened his new theater in 1890, the first show he put on there was "Reilly and the 400," which featured this song. According to Appelbaum, p. xxv, "'Maggie Murphy's Home,' an archetype of the 1890s waltz song, was sung by the fifteen-year-old Emma Pollock in the role of Maggie Murphy." Moody, pp. 189-190, reports "Reilly would probably have caught on even without Harrigan's newest sensations, the teenagie chippies Maggie Murphy and Kitty Lynch, played by Emma Pollock, age 16, and Ada Lewis, 17. Emma's Maggie Murphy blew into Casey's [social hall] 'like a sweet breath of air from over the meadow,' and as she 'stood ready to do her jig dance surrounded by roughs, toughs, and fallen women, she made you think of a little violet dropped among the weeds.' Reporters could not control themselves. She was 'like a little bobolink fluttering down from a rose in a frog pond.' Her prize jig led into 'Maggie Murphy's Home,' Al Smith's favorite song, the favorite of all Irishmen who knew that 'an organ in the parlor' did 'give the house a tone.'"
Al Smith famously ended up with "Sidewalks of New York" as the theme song of his political career, but it wasn't the song he wanted. He wanted "Maggie Murphy's Home" (Moody, p. 2); for background on the bandleader's mistake that led to Smith being stuck with "Sidewalks of New York," see the notes to that song.
Spaeth, p. 194: "This number has been associated with the name of Ada Lewis, but was actually introduced by the youthful Enmma Pollock. (Miss Lewis created the role of a tough, gum-chewing girl, which also became famous.) The Pollock interpretation included a 'Challenge Jig,' based on the contemporary custom of holding contests in dancing and other arts, and implying the limit of superlative skill. Maggie Murphy's Home is still remembered nostalgically as an exposition of simple New York life (the original home was in Brooklyn) and musically it was one of Braham's most effective creations."
The plot of "Reilly and the 400" is a typical Harrigan complication-fest. William Reilly (Harrigan) owns a pawnship. His lawyer son Ned is going to marry a rich girl, but a rival is trying to reveal Ned's humble past to break up the marriage. So William Reilly decides to pretend to be an Irish nobleman. The rival isn't what he seems to be either, but the book that would prove this gets mixed up with another, and everyone spends three acts looking for it before everyone ends up with the right partner (Franceschina, p. 198).
In the course of all this, "Waltzing music from an onstage orchestra leads into Maggie Murphy's Home, an exceptionally catchy waltz describing tenement life in New York City and performed by Maggie Murphy (Emma Pollock)... [After Reilly sings 'Taking in the Town,'] An eight minute jig follows in which Maggie Murphy and Bessie [Barlow, played by John Decker] compete in challenge dancing" (Franceschina, p. 199, although the music for the jig is lost). The show would prove popular enough to last 202 shows in its first run (Franceschina, p. 202) -- a near-record total (Ewen, p. 64, says it was the longest-running Harrigan/Braham show) -- and would later be revived.
Williams, p. 162: "In [Reilly and the 400] Harrigan introduced a new urban type into his company in the form of two teenage 'chippies' or tough girls. Maggie Murphy and Kitty Lynch were figures known on the street but new to the stage. When Kitty (played by Ada Lewis) appeared in her scruffy clothes and tight, ill-fitting sweater and rasped out to the pawn broker, 'Say Reilly, gimme me shoes!' she stopped the show.... Harrigan had 'framed' another bit of the city."
Harrigan's plays were noted for their complications on stage, but this musical produced one at home: Emma Pollock became involved with composer/bandleader David Braham's son George, a member of the Harrigan/Braham orchestra (Kahn, p. 155, calls it a "fiery romance"). She gave him a ring -- which George pawned to pay a gambling debt, and then had to come up with a trick to get it back (Franceschina, pp. 201-202). Plus, during a performance, he had to hide the fact that it was missing, which got him in trouble with his father even if he managed to avoid telling Emma.
Supposedly it took David Braham just five minutes to compose the tune for this (Moody, p. 154; Franceschina, p. 200, tells how Harrigan had come to Braham late in the production and Braham didn't want to write a new tune, but gave in, and then, some days later, had this melody come into his head). Franceschina, p. 201, has a reprint of his rough draft of the music, and it certainly appears to have been quickly dashed off -- but Braham, according to Harrigan, had terrible handwriting (Franceschina, p. 2), so that may not prove much.
According to Williams, p. 207, "The [Tin Pan Alley] Irish-American girl began life as the tough 'chippie' characterized by Harrigan's Maggie Murphy and the somewhat gentler girl who sings 'Danny By My Side.'"
Gilbert, pp. 215-216, gives the story of how Emma Pollock ended up in Harrigan's company. She started seeking theatre work at a young age, and had many tribulations along the way, including having her mother pull her out of a show because they costumed her in tights. When she auditioned for Harrigan, she dressed in borrowed clothes -- and someone dropped a wet towel on her and ruined her hat and hair; she was afraid of losing the part and having to return the damaged clothing. But Harrigan, who was fond of odd costumes, cast Pollock as Maggie Murphy. On pp. 216-217, Gilbert reports that "Maggie Murphy's Home" "not only stopped the show -- it is still a known song. For Emma, thereafter and wherever -- in England, the continent, South Africa, Australia, and on the battlefields of France -- sang it continuously. [Compare Kahn, p. 155, who says that Pollock's "rendition of 'Maggie Murphy's Home' ... was so universally applauded that it was her theme song ever after."]
"Emma, who, happily, is still alive [presumably in 1941, when she would have been about 66] and still as sprightly, now confesses that Maggie Murphy's Home actually was in Brooklyn, and that when she removed to New York, her change was sadly noted in the Brooklyn Eagle.
"In her role, Emma danced a 'Challenge Jig,' and she had to do it very well, because it was necessary to the plot of Reilly and the Four Hundred.. The 'Challenge Jig' had a peculiar connotation. It was an old form of program billing attached to any type of artist... and it meant the equivalent of our modern 'tops,' or 'supercolossal.'"
Kahn, pp. 274-275: "Reilly and the Four Hundred was a smash hit. It ran for 202 straight performances that first season.... Several factors contributed to Reilly's success. The return of Harrigan to New York after his unaccustomed absence as, of course, one. Another was that John Wild... was back in the Harrigan fold. Another was the song 'Maggie Murphy's Home,' which was fetchingly rendered by Emma Pollock in her debut with the company. She was only fifteen but had got herself hired by auditioning in her older sister Evelyn's clothes. But the most talked-about aspect of the production was Harrigan's unveiling in it of a type of low-life character novel to the state -- the Tough Girl." (This was mostly Ada Lewis, but Emma also played one to a lesser degree.)
Her role as Maggie was evidently a great success, and secured Emma's place in Harringan's company for years to come. She played the wife of the seemingly-disappeared Hogan in "The Last of the Hogans" (Franceschina, p. 203), and what sounds like a big role as the beautiful street performer daughter Nellie, the poverty-stricken daughter of former mine owner Paddy Dempsey, in "The Woolen Stocking." In "Notoriety," she played Bessie, the daughter of the retired policeman hero, Barney Dolan, played by Harrigan (Franceschina, p. 209). Even after Harrigan's company broke up and reformed when Harrigan's son Eddie died, a theatrical program in the author's possession (quoted in "Babies On Our Block) shows that, in 1895, she played Diana McFudd, the younger sister of Cordelia (McFudd) Mulligan (a role originated by Tony Hart's wife Gertie Granville; Franceschina, p. 159), in a touring production of the play "Cordelia's Aspirations." Clearly she was a performer Harrigan liked a lot.
(It wasn't universal. According to Kahn, pp. 284-285, Another young actress, Fannie Batchelder, briefly worked with Harrigan, and called Ada Lewis, Emma, Emma's sister Evelyn, and one Margery Teal by the gang name "The Racy Four," concealing their actual names but calling Emma, e.g., "The Human Fly" and Ada "The Hoodlum." Batcheler "made her Racy Four out to be ninnies of little charm and less culture. The Human Fly was depicted, for example, as childishly prone to jealous tantrums, La Sale [Teal] as as spiteful gossip, and the Hoodlum as so woefully ignorant that when an admirer presented her with some sterling silver she had been obliged sheepishly to ask Fannie Batchelder what 'sterling' meant." It is left to the reader to determine what the odds are that Lewis would have asked such a question of someone she despised. What I suspect Batchelder's story proves is that Pollock was a teenager. Well, we knew that....)
In 1895, Richard F. Outcault created created a comic strip, "Hogan's Alley," featuring "The Yellow Kid," which in turn inspired the term "yellow journalism" (see the Wikipedia entry on the "Hogan's Alley" comic strip). This name comes from the first line of the last verse of this song: "I walk through Hogan's Alley at the closing of the day"; Outcault was fond of Ned Harrigan's plays (Williams, p. 208).
The "organ in the parlor" of the chorus was probably a reed organ; Williams, p 32, says, "During the second half of the nineteenth century, the reed organ, its bellows operated by a foot pump, became popular, especially in working-class homes." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Aplb047

Maggie My Wife at Fifty

See The Betrothed (File: KSUC171B)

Maggie of Coleraine

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises Coleraine; it is the home of beautiful Maggie. He recalls meeting her by the Bann, and the various places he courted her. He hopes he will soon be able to meet her again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H657, p. 242, "Maggie of Coleraine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9480
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Teddy O'Neill" (tune)
File: HHH657

Maggie Pickens

DESCRIPTION: "(Maggie/Minne) Picken(s) on the shore, Gathering winkles off Culmore, he lifted her leg and gave a roar, What the devil ails he?" "Maggie Pickens on the shore, she had daughters three or four, Wishing she had many more...." And other short stories
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman)
KEYWORDS: nonballad children
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 44, "Maggie Picken" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 249, "Maggie Picken" (1 instrumental tune, similar in shape but with slightly different timing than the song)
Roud #2960
NOTES [35 words]: Graham lumps this with "Katie Bairdie," and it is true that they share a feeling and a stanza form. But I know of no common lyrics, and the tunes I know are different as well. I split them without hesitation. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: GrHo044

Maggie Walker, the Girl I Left Behind

See The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)

Maggie Was a Lady

See Frankie and Albert [Laws I3] (File: LI03)

Maggie, Maggie, Where Is Jiggs?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme "Maggie, Maggie, where is Jiggs? Down in the cellar, eating pigs. How many pigs will he eat? One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Keysyone Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food | pigs counting Maggie and Jiggs
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 125, "Maggie, Maggie, where is Jiggs?" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, "Maggie, Maggie, where is Jiggs?" (1 text)
Roud #19938
NOTES [98 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes believes this is a reference to the comic strip "Bringing Up Father," later known as "Maggie and Jiggs," which ran from 1913 to 2000 according to Wikipedia. This makes sense; according to that same Wikipedia article, Maggie and Jiggs were an Irish-American couple who had suddenly become rich, with Maggie aspiring to the social standing implied by her new wealth while Jiggs just wanted to keep living the way he was used to. Thus this rhyme, which implies that Jiggs is once again eating food that Maggie would not approve, is a good fit for the comic strip. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: DCCR125G

Maggie, The

See The Wreck of the Maggie (File: LLab080)

Maggie's Secret

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! many a time I am sad at heart." Boys come to court Maggie "but I tell them they needn't come wooing to me." Her secret is that she loves a sailor: "my heart is over the sea." His mother guesses her secret and approves.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Dime-Song-Book #19)
KEYWORDS: courting love separation mother sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 143-144, "Maggie's Secret" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 292, "Maggie's Secret" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1356, p. 92, "Maggie's Secret" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #19, p. 13, "Maggie's Secret" (1 text)
Roud #12886
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(180a), "Maggie's Secret", H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 11(1663), Firth b.26(257), "Maggie's Secret"
File: OCon143B

Maggie's Smile

DESCRIPTION: The singer courts Maggie. She would say "gae bide awa" but her smile said "come back again." He withstands her jeering words and finally wins her smile and heart.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes)
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 94-96, "Maggie's Smile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1099
File: KiTu094

Maggy May

See Maggie May (File: FaE030)

Maggy She Has Daughters Twa

See Whistle Owre the Lave O't (File: GrD71414)

Magherafelt Hiring Fair

See Tam Buie (Tam Bo, Magherafelt Hiring Fair) (File: HHH748)

Magic Glass, The

DESCRIPTION: "I went one night with a high-priced thirst to loaf in a booze bazaar." The singer, glancing at himself in the mirror, sees a "cringing bum" -- then looks again and it's gone. The bartender says that the "Magic Glass" lets men see what they might become
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: drink warning
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 130, "The Magic Glass" (1 text)
Roud #9586
NOTES [65 words]: Dean-FlyingCloud's version ends with the bartender explaining the Magic Glass -- but one has to suspect that the full song goes on to have the singer swear off drinking. Though what *I'd* like is to know why a bartender would be so foolish as to install a glass that would scare off his customers. Obviously some people would approve -- but those people aren't going to become bartenders! - RBW
File: Dean130A

Magic Penny

DESCRIPTION: "Love is something if you give it away Give it away, give it away... You end up having more." "It's just like a magic penny Hold it tight and you won't have any
Lend it, spend it and you'll have so many They'll roll all over the floor."
AUTHOR: Malvina Reynolds
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (copyright), although reportedly written more than five years earlier
KEYWORDS: love campsong nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 542, "Magic Penny)
DT, MAGICPN (MAGICPN2)
File: ACSF542M

Magician and the Baron's Daughter, The

See Here Beside Dwells a Rich Baron's Daughter (The Juggler) (File: MSHBDRBD)

Magilligan

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises Mary and their beautiful home country of Magilligan. He recalls carving their names in a bench, and drinking together. They watch a ship sail away, but again agree never to leave Magilligan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love home emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H52a, pp. 244-245, "Magilligan" (1 text, 1 tune, the latter derived from O'Neill on the basis of Henry's statement that the tune is "The Wearing of the Green")
Roud #2965
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Green (I)" (tune) and references there
File: HHH052a

Magpie and the Lark

DESCRIPTION: "In a snug little field in a neighboring park, On a beautiful morning in spring, A sly magpie jack saw a pert little lark." The magpie offers to teach the lark to sing. The lark refuses; "it would most likely fail" and they would be confused about colors
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: bird music colors
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 269, "The Magpie and the Lark" (1 short text, 1 tune)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 109, "The Lark and the Magpie" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #15682
File: Pet269

Magpie, The

DESCRIPTION: "I lingered near a cottage door, And a magpie said, 'Come in, come in,' And a magpie said, 'Come in.'" He meets a girl; the magpie says to sit down, and then encourages him to court her. Her father and brother chase him out; the magpie says "Good-bye."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Hamer-GreenGroves)
KEYWORDS: bird courting humorous abuse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 34-36, "The Magpie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1145
NOTES [41 words]: The theme of talking magpies causing trouble is fairly common; see "The Magpie's Nest" and "The Maid and the Magpie" in addition to this song. I strongly suspect that several of these songs are related, but I'm not sure which is the source. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: HaGr034

Magpie's Nest, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer praises his love, saying if he was a king he would make her queen and set her down in the "magpie's nest" -- a cottage alongside the River Shannon. He says he's never seen anyone more lovely than "the little Irish fairy in the magpie's nest."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recorded from Aunt Jane Kelly)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer praises his love, saying if he was a king he would make her queen and set her down in the "magpie's nest" -- a cottage alongside the River Shannon. He says he's never seen anyone more lovely than "the little Irish fairy in the magpie's nest." Chorus: "Shiddly-idle-daddle-diddle-dadle-diddle-didle-dum/I would l'ave you down to rest in the magpie's nest"
KEYWORDS: love beauty dancetune lyric nonballad lover
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 182, "The Magpie's Nest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2127
RECORDINGS:
Aunt Jane Kelly "The Magpie's Nest" (on FSB01, FSB2CD)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cuckoo's Nest (I)" (tune)
cf. "The Cuckoo's Nest (II)" (tune)
cf. "Around the Hills of Clare" (tune)
cf. "Heather Down the Moor (Among the Heather; Down the Moor)" (lyrics)
NOTES [56 words]: This shares the tune and structure with both versions of "The Cuckoo's Nest," the latter of which sometimes incorporate "dowdling" (mouth music) as here. However, "The Cuckoo's Nest" is almost inevitably bawdy or erotic, while "The Magpie's Nest" is invariably clean, so I split them. For completeness, though, better check them out. - PJS
File: K182

Magpies Seen

See One for Sorrow (Counting Magpies, Telling Fortunes) (File: BeFM079)

Magpies, The

DESCRIPTION: "When Tom and Elizabeth took the farm, The bracken made their bed (x3) And quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle The magpies said." They work hard, but finally she dies and he grows senile. The farm is still there -- because the bankers can't give it away
AUTHOR: Words: Denis Glover
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Glover, The Wind and the Sand, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: love home bird money humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 140, "The Magpies" (1 text, 1 modern tune by Neil Colquhoun)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 97, "The Magpies" (1 text, 1 modern tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid and the Magpie" (theme of magpies talking as events take place)
File: BaRo140

Maguire's Brae

DESCRIPTION: "Have you ever stood on the Carn street.. And viewed those hills with their limpid rills..." The singer has traveled widely, but never seen a place so fair. "Though here today in the U. S.A. I toil on a foreign strand," he wishes he were still at home
AUTHOR: Words: James O'Kane
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration homesickness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H747, pp. 214-215, "Maguire's Brae" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH747

Mah Mammy Stoled a Cow

DESCRIPTION: "Steal up, young ladies, mah mammy stoled a cow (x2)." "Stole dat cow in Baltimo', mah Mammy stoled a cow (x2).: "Steal up and take you' turn." "Steal up an' make a bow." "Steal all 'roun', don' slight no one."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks)
KEYWORDS: playparty thief nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 100-101, "Mah Mammy Stoled a Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: CoBr100

Mahoney (Maloney)

DESCRIPTION: The cabin boy, Tom Bones, is washed overboard of the steamer New Orleans, bound for New York. Newfoundlander Bill Maloney "dressed out in oilskins" "made a leap and saved the boy." "Five brave British sailor boys" rescued them both.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: rescue sea ship ordeal drowning
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18224
RECORDINGS:
Pat Sullivan, "Mahoney (Maloney)" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcMahMal

Maid A-Being Young, A

DESCRIPTION: "Well, a maid a being young, she thought it no harm (x3), so she jumped in the bed and rolled in my arms." "And it’s what I done there I cannot tell here." She becomes pregnant. The singer says to hire a nurse for a girl or to name a boy after him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (notebook contributed to Southern Appalachian Archives/Mars Hill University; apparently copied 1960 and learned at least four decades earlier)
KEYWORDS: love courting pregnancy derivative
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Bobby McMillon, "A Maid A-Being Young" (Piotr-Archive #85, recorded 11/04/2021)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosemary Lane" [Laws K43] (plot, lyrics)
NOTES [92 words]: This is so close in plot, and even in the lyrics, to "Rosemary Lane" [Laws K43] that I seriously considered filing it with that song. Clearly it is a rewrite. The question is whether it was a deliberate rewrite for comic effect or a case of someone barely remembering a "Rosemary Lane" version and reconstructing it with a lot of errors; I would guess the latter, but I'm not sure. It seems to have had very limited circulation among relatives of Bobby McMillon (the Southern Appalachian Archives manuscript copy is in the McMillon collection there). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcAMABY

Maid and the Horse, The

DESCRIPTION: A maid walking in the cold meets three men riding. She tells one that she craves the thing that "sits between your two legs" to make her warm. He gets off his horse. She gets on his horse and rides off. He goes after her until she threatens to shoot him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(83))
KEYWORDS: sex escape trick bawdy horse rake
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 214-215, "The Maid and the Horse" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #1624
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "The Maid and the Horse" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(83), "The Crafty Maid" ("Come listen awhile and I will sing you a song"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Johnson Ballads 323, Harding B 25(441), "The Crafty Maid's Policy"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lovely Joan" (plot)
cf. "The Broomfield Hill" [Child 43] and references there
NOTES [150 words]: There is another broadside at Bodleian as "The Crafty Maid" [Come all you lads and lasses ..."] in which a farmer's daughter is hiding a rabbit between her legs to keep it warm and a lord "buys that between her legs"; unsatisfied with the rabbit he takes her to a justice who resolves the dispute in favor of the farmer's daughter.
There is yet another broadside at Bodleian as "The Frolicsome Maiden or The Gentleman Outwitted" which combines both Crafty Maid stories: it is a cold morning; she does offer to go with him in exchange for what is between his legs; he is unsatisfied by the outcome and takes her to a justice who rules in her favor.
Roud seems to consider these all as #1624.
Cf. "Handsome Shone the Dairymaid" [Crawfurd 115] (theme) in E. B. Lyle Andrew Crawfurd's Collection of Ballads and Songs (The Scottish Text Society, Edinburgh, 1996) which is similar to "Lovely Joan." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea214

Maid and the Magpie, The

DESCRIPTION: The sailor goes to sea, leaving his girl and the magpie. The girl spends time with the parson, and tells the bird she prefers him. The lonely sailor hurries home; the bird reveals the truth. Neither sailor nor parson want the girl thereafter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO)
KEYWORDS: bird infidelity sailor clergy humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 44-45, "The Maid and the Magpie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 3, "Maid and the Magpie" (1 text)
Roud #1532
RECORDINGS:
Cyril Poacher, "The Maid and the Magpie" (on Voice06)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Magpies" (theme of magpies talking as events take place)
NOTES [269 words]: This apparently began as a nineteenth century theater piece; a play called "The Maid and the Magpie" was seen by none other than Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll); see Jenny Woolf, The Mystery of Lewis Carroll, St. Martin's Press, 2010, p. 221.
Presumably this was in turn inspired by the poem "The Maid and the Magpie," credited to Charles Moreton and said to be "Founded on Facts." Moreton's poem is not this piece; it is much longer and in a different meter. There is a version available from Project Gutenberg. - RBW
I have not found a broadside but evidence that there is one is that there is a broadside parody: Bodleian, Harding B 11(2273), "The Maid and the Dustman. A popular parody on the 'Maid & magpie'" ("Once there was a maid who was thought very shy"), unknown, n.d. The parody description: The maid's lover is a tailor; she said they'd marry when he "signed the pledge again." She "hook'd it with the dustman" when her pa goes to church. The girl talks all day to the dustman [instead of the magpie]. When the tailor is asleep the girl goes to the dustman but they are interrupted by her mother. The tailor gets drunk and returns home to find the girl gone. He complains to her parents [instead of the magpie] who tell him about the dustman. The take her to court and she puts the blame on the dustman, who disappears; the bird reveals the truth. Neither tailor nor dustman want the girl thereafter "and she's got no one to cuddle, so she sleeps by herself." - BS
The theme of talking magpies causing trouble is fairly common; see "The Magpie's Nest" and "The Magpie" in addition to this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: MA044

Maid and the Palmer, The [Child 21]

DESCRIPTION: A woman comes to a well, where she meets a man who asks of her a drink. She says she can offer him none because her leman/husband is away. The man tells her that she has no leman, and goes on to tell of her sins and assigns a punishment
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy Folio)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious adultery homicide children
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Child 21, "The Maid and the Palmer" (2 texts)
Bronson's (21 in addenda), "The Maid and the Palmer" (2 versions in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 21, "The Maid and the Palmer" (2 versions: #1, #2)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 89-90, "The Maid of Coldingham" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 106-107, "The Maid and the Palmer" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 99, "The Maid and the Palmer" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 3, "The Maid and the Palmer" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 37, "The Maid and the Palmer" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 15, "The Maid and the Palmer" (1 text, which Niles identifies with Child 21, but the fragment is so short that it could equally be part of Child 20)
DT 21, MAIDPALM MAIDPAL2*
ADDITIONAL: Frederick J. Furnivall, _Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript: Loose and Humorous Songs_, printed by and for the Editor, London, 1868, pp. 96-98, "Lillumwham" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 461
ST C021 (Full)
Roud #2335
RECORDINGS:
Steve Gardham, "The Maid and the Palmer" (Piotr-Archive #49, recorded 07/22/2021)
John Reilly, "The Well Below the Valley" (on Voice03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well" (subject)
cf. "See the Woman at the Well" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Samaritan Woman
The Well Below the Valley
Jesus Met the Woman at the Well (?)
Seven Years
NOTES [261 words]: For the story of Jesus and the Woman of Samaria, see John 4:5-26.
The second part of the song, in which the woman is given a penance in the form of a series of transformations, has no parallel in the Biblical story, although such transformations are attested elsewhere -- notably in "The Cruel Mother" [Child 20]. In fact, I wonder if the ending of this song in the Percy text might not be taken from Child 20.
David C. Fowler, The Bible in Middle English Literature, University of Washington Press, 1984, p. 115, offers another speculation: That the opening of the song was supposed to feature the "maid" going to the well as a penance (an idea based on a legend of Mary Magdalene, which is a pet motif of Fowler's). Her penance is not complete or sufficient, so she is given another penance. The problem with this is that it introduces a whole new plot which completely violates the first part of the existing song, which retells the story of the Woman of Samaria, who had five husbands, "and the one you have now is not your own" (John 4:18). For that matter, had she already been given a penance, and accepted it (even if she hadn't completed it), she would surely not need to be told of her sins!
Fowler, p. 118, does make the valid observation that the term "palmer," for one who had made a pilgrimage (especially to Jerusalem), largely went out of use after the Reformation when the whole concept of Pilgrimage mostly went out the window. Which hints at either an early date for the song or an odd mechanism of survival. Might it be originally Catholic? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C021

Maid and the Robber, The

See The Undaunted Female (The Box Upon Her Head; The Staffordshire Maid; The Maid and the Robber) [Laws L3] (File: LL03)

Maid and the Sailor

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Maid and the Squire, The

DESCRIPTION: A dialog between a maid and a young squire. He proposes, She ridicules him. In leaving he asks that she remember him "if ever ye in love be wounded." She replies, "If ever I in love be wounded Remember sir, I'll send you word"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer is approached by a young man who asks her to marry. She tells him to find someone else. He says he is 22 and has never mentioned love to another woman. She recommends he take another ten years to marry. He says if all women treat him this way he may be forty and not married. She says young men brag about how easy it is to win women's hearts. He says he is leaving and asks if he might call on her again. She says he can do as he wishes. He says "if ever ye in love be wounded Remember him that ye did despise." She replies, "If ever I in love be wounded Remember sir, I'll send you word"
KEYWORDS: courting rejection dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #100, p. 2, "The Maid and the Young Squire" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 810, "The Maid and the Squire" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #5068
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Just As I Walked Out One Morning
File: GrD4810

Maid and the Young Squire, The

See The Maid and the Squire (File: GrD4810)

Maid Freed from the Gallows, The [Child 95]

DESCRIPTION: A (woman) is about to be hanged. If she could pay her fee, she would be freed. One by one, father, brother, (and other family members) come to see her hanged, refusing to ransom her. Then her sweetheart arrives to rescue her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1770 (Percy collection, according to Child)
KEYWORDS: execution love rescue
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland,England(North,South,West)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) West Indies(Bahamas,Jamaica,St Vincent)
REFERENCES (86 citations):
Child 95, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (11 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Bronson 95, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (68 versions+2 in addenda, but the last four main entries are "Gallows" [Laws L11], and some of the fragments may be also)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 95, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (8 versions: #1, #4, #17, #23, #33, #39.1, #49, #61)
Greig/Duncan2 248, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (1 fragment)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 281-282, "The Prickly Bush"; Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 283, "The Prickly Brier" (1 text plus a fragment) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 498; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 218, "Prickly Brier")
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 24-25, "The Prick'ty Bush" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #19}
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 87, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, "The Prickle Holly Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 206-213, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (4 texts plus assorted folktale versions)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 15-41, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (8 texts plus a fragment, 8 tunes, but of the texts, only "A," "B1," and "B2" are 'The Maid Freed" [Child 95]; the remaining six are "Gallows" [Laws L11]
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 397, "(Hangman, hangman, hold the rope)" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 66-67, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #54}
Randolph 24, "Hold Your Hands, Old Man" (5 texts plus a fragment, 4 tunes) {A=Bronson's #41, D=#61, E=#12, F=#50}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 45-47, "Hold Your Hands, Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 24E) {Bronson's #12}
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 110-111, "Hangman on the Gallows Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 64-65, "The Gallows Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama pp. 68-69, "The Miller's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #56}
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 18, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #28}
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 39-41, "My Golden Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, pp. 116-117, "Hangman" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 50, "The Golden Ball" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #22}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 95, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (24 texts plus a fragment, 5 tunes plus a variant entitles "Maid Freed from the Gallows," "The Hangerman's Tree, or Freed from the Gallos," "The Maid Saved," "Hangsman"; 9 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #9, #26, #42, #46, #40}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 29, pp. 221-228, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (3 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes; the two longest texts, AA and DD, both contain floating material, in the case of "D" probably from "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum)" [Laws H2])
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 30, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (4 texts, 5 excerpts, 1 fragment, plus mention of two more, as well as one mixed text, M, probably a combination of this with "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum)" [Laws H2])
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 30, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (8 excerpts plus mention of 1 more, 8 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 15, "Maid Freed from the Gallows" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #34}
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, pp. 81-83, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}, with excerpts from several more versions on the following pages; also p. 87, "(The Hangman's Tree)" (1 text plus some excerpts); p. 88, "The Hangman's Tree" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #48}; pp. 88-89, "(no title)" (1 text plus recitation, 1 tune) {Bronson's #49}; pp. 91-92, "(The Golden Ball)" (1 text, partly prose); p. 93, "The Golden Ball" (1 text, a singing game); #X, pp. 144-147, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (2 texts, 1 tune, plus mention of 3 more) {Bronson's #23}
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 27, "The Scarlet Tree" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #163, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (4 texts, 1 tune, although the "D" text appears to be a mix of two songs) {Bronson's #16}
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 35-42, (no general title; one version is listed as "Hangman, Slack on the Line") (3 texts plus 3 excerpts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #10}
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 17, pp. 111-114, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (4 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 1 more; the "D" text is mixed with floating verses from prison songs)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 19, "The Hangman's Song" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #52}
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 284, (no title) (1 text)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 196-200, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (2 texts plus an excerpt, with local titles "The Hangman's Son" and "Hangman, Hold Your Rope"; 2 tunes on pp. 408-409) {Bronson's #37, #38}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 27A, "The Hangman Tree"; 27B, "The Raspel Pole" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 45-47, "The Hangman's Rope" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 26-27, "The Hangman's Rope" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 17, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (1 text)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 298-302, "The Hangman Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 295-300, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (4 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 24-28, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows," "The Golden Ball" (1 text)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 44, "The Hangman's Song" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #35}
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 113-114, "The Hangman's Song" (1 text, with an introductory verse related to "In the Pines," ending "I have done no hanging crime")
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 15-16, "The Hangman's Song" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 85-87, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 164-165, "Ropesman" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #60}
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 131, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (4 texts)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 105, "Hang Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 86-87, "Jimmy Loud"; pp. 88-90, "Hangman" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #6, "Hangman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #23, "Hangs-a-man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 28, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (11 texts, most of which appear to be fragments though it's often hard to tell with this song, 11 tunes){Bronson's #30, #33, #9, #42, #6, #25, #58, #31, #39, #32, #15}
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 17, "The Briery Bush" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #49}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 24, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows, or The Briery Bush" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #49}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 115-116, "The Hangman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 112-113, "The Prickly Bush" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 61, "Maid Freed from the Gallows" (2 texts)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 39, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 14, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #30}
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 72, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #23}; p. 385, "Hangman" (1 short text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #64}
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 14-15, "The Sycamore Tree"; pp. 207-208, "Hangman, Slack on the Line" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 282-383, "Prickle-holly Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 139-141, "[Hangman, Slack Up Your Rope]" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {second tune is Bronson's #36, with differences}
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 27, "The Hangman Song" (1 text, 1 tune) {approximately Bronson's #36, but Bronson's transcription, from recording, is noticeably different}
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 822-824, "The Hangman's Tree" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #23}
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 5, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows (The Hangman's Tree)" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 13, pp. 31-33, "The Hangman's Song" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 18, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (7 texts)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #9, pp. 38-39, "Slack Your Rope" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #27}
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 95-97, "Ropeman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 64-65, "The Gallows Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 15, "Rop'ry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 41-42 "Hangman, Hangman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 74, "The Highwayman" (1 text, with a significant mixture of unrelated material from songs such as "The Roving Gambler"); p. 80, "Hangman, Hangman, Slack the Rope" (1 text, a fairly normal American variant)
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 18, "Saylan" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #63}
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 255-258, "The Prickly Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 69-71, "The Hangman"; "Gallows Pole" (2 texts, the first "modernized" by Darling)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 211, "The Gallows Pole" (1 text)
DT 95, HANGMN1* HANGMAN2*
ADDITIONAL: Eleanor Long, _"The Maid" and "The Hangman": Myth and Tradition in a Popular Ballad_, Folklore Studies 21, University of California Press, 1971 (a catalog of 254 different texts, although only a few are printed, often in excerpts; 12 tunes plus references to many more)
Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 52, "Gallis (Gallows) Pole" (1 text, 1 tune)
Martha W Beckwith, "The English Ballad in Jamaica: a Note Upon the Origin of the Ballad Form" in _Publications of the Modern Language Association_ [PMLA], Vol. XXXIXI, No. 2 (Jun 1924 (available online by JSTOR)), #5 pp. 475-476, "Maid Freed From the Gallows" (1 text)
Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 567-568, "The Three Golden Balls" (1 text)
Olive Lewin, Forty Folk Songs of Jamaica (Washington: General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, 1973), pp. 87-89, "Sailor Girl from Asia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Elsie Clews Parsons, Folk-Tales of Andros Island Bahamas (Lancaster: American Folk-Lore Society, 1918 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #104, pp. 152-154, "The Maid Freed From the Gallows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roger D Abrahams, "Child Ballads in the West Indies: Familiar Fabulations, Creole Performances" in _Journal of Folklore Research_, Vol. XXIV, No. 2 (May-Aug 1987 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 127-118, "(John Gould)" (1 text)
Roud #144
RECORDINGS:
James "Iron Head" Baker, "Young Maid Saved from the Gallows" (AFS 204 A2, 1934)
Bentley Ball, "Gallows Tree" (Columbia A3084, 1920)
Judy Cook, "The Prickle-Holly Bush" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #319, recorded 10/26/2022)
Roy Harvey, Jess Johnston & the West Virginia Ramblers, "John Hardy Blues" (Champion 16281, 1931; on StuffDreams1) [see NOTES]
Fred Hewett, "The Prickle Holly-Bush" (on Voice03)
Harry Jackson, "The Hangman's Song" (on HJackson1) (in this version the true love pays the hangman to ensure that the hanging will take place)
Lead Belly, "The Gallis Pole" (Musicraft 227, rec. 1939)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Prickly Bush" (on ESFB1, ESFB2)
Walter Lucas & the people of Sixpenny Handley, Dorset, "The Prickle Holly Bush" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741) {Bronson's #20}
[Asa] Martin & [Bob] Roberts, "Hang Down Your Head and Cry" (Conqueror 8207, 1933) [see NOTES]
Will Noble, "The Pricketty Bush" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #61, recorded 08/02/2021; probably this although it is too short to be certain)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "The Highwayman" (a heavily modified version; Columbia 15160-D, 1926; on CPoole03); "Hangman, Hangman, Slack the Rope" (a more normal version; Columbia 15385-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Almeda Riddle, "Hangman Tree" (on LomaxCD1705)
Jean Ritchie, "Hangman" (on JRitchie01) {Bronson's #36?}
Julia Scaddon, "The Prickelly Bush [The Pricketty Bush]" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
Sarah Anne Tuck, "The Pricketty Bush (The Maid Freed from the Gallows)" (on FSBBAL1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gallows" [Laws L11] (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Golden Ball
The Prickilie Bush
The Gallows Pole
Granny and the Golden Ball
NOTES [529 words]: This very popular ballad is identical in plot with "Gallows" [Laws L11], and lumping editors will lump them; individual collections should be checked carefully.
Scarborough notes that southern Blacks turned this song into drama -- in a rather depressing way: The magical ball could be used to turn a Black girl into a pretty White.
The "golden ball" of some versions appears to have a complex history. Katherine Briggs, British Folktales (originally published in 1970 as A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales), revised 1977 (I use the 1977 Pantheon paperback edition), pp. 28-31, has a tale which is clearly a version of Grimm #4, "A Tale About the Boy Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was," in which the boy seeks a golden ball which his love has lost. She is to be hung for the loss; he arrives just in time to save her. This is evidently a conflation of two separate tales; Briggs, p. 31, points to Tristram E. Coffin's article "The Golden Ball and the Hangman's Tree," on pp. 23-28 of Folklore International (1967) for an explanation of how they were combined.
For the folktale of "The Golden Ball" itself, see another Briggs publication, Katherine Briggs, A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume 1, pp. 280-282, "The Golden Ball." - RBW
The Martin & Roberts recording is a weird mishmosh: one verse that sounds like it's from the "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home" family, one from this song, and one more or less from "Roving Gambler." I put it here because that middle verse is most explicitly from here, whereas the others are vaguer.
The Roy Harvey, recording, meanwhile, is equally weird; the tune is from "John Hardy," all right, but the lyrics are "Maid Freed from the Gallows." Don't ask me what's going on. - PJS
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory's "Saylan" is classified by Jekyll as an "Annancy" story. It is a cante fable following the Ashanti (West African) tradition: A stepmother and her daughter frame her husband's daughter -- apparently named "Saylan" -- for the death of a horse she has been hired to care for. The horse's owner, a sailor, takes her to town to hang her. She sings "Sister, you bring me some silver" and the answer is "No, my child, I bring you none." Her brother has brought no gold. But her lover has brought both silver and gold and sings "Yes, my dear, I bring you some. I come to town to see you save, save you mus' be saved."
Broadwood writes of Jekyll's "Saylan": "This is a version of 'The Maid freed from the Gallows," "The Golden Ball," or "The Prickly Bush" (Lucy E. Broadwood, "English Airs and Motifs in Jamaica" in Walter Jekyll, Jamaican Song and Story (New York: Dover Publications, 1966 (Reprint of David Nutt, 1907)), #18, p. 287, "Saylan").
In Abrahams "John Gould" the first one asked for "gold and silver" is the hangman. So, later in the ballad, "John Gould, John Gould, Will you slack your chain a while?" Finally, after "sweetheart" fails to come through, she is saved by "dear old time" who had rejected her long before because she had been "de first girl he was courting to." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C095

Maid from the Carn Brae, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the other girls described in songs -- the girl in the Galway shawl, the girl from the County, Down, etc. -- but "she was queen alone, The maid from the Carn Brae." No amount of searching will reveal another such girl
AUTHOR: James O'Kane
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: beauty music
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H704, p. 241, "The Maid from the Carn Brae" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9478
NOTES [19 words]: Curiously, the singer in this song makes no attempt to court the girl; he just describes her as irresistable. - RBW
File: HHH704

Maid from the County Tyrone, The

DESCRIPTION: Far from the city live Michael Murphy and his beautiful daughter. The singer praises her beauty at great length, and desires to wed her though she is only a farmer's daughter. If she agrees to marry, he will cease rambling and live in the country with her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H528, p. 246, "The Maid from the County Tyrone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13335
File: HHH528

Maid from Tidehead, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a young lumberjack tell how "I long once again for the Maid from Tidehead." He describes their parting and decides to return to Restigouche: "No more will I roam from the Maid of Tidehead"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: love separation logger reunion
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 31, "The Maid from Tidehead" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi031 (Partial)
Roud #9187
NOTES [20 words]: The Restigouche River is in the central Miramichi area of New Brunswick. Tide Head is on that river near Chaleur Bay. - BS.
File: MaWi031

Maid Gaed to the Mill, The

DESCRIPTION: "The maid's gaed to the mill by night, sae wanton... That she should hae her corn ground, mill and multure free." The miller's man obliges her. When she has a child "Her mother baid her cast it oot." "Her faither baid her keep it in," and she does.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: sex childbirth bastard mother father miller money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
DT, MAIDMILL*
Greig/Duncan7 1436, "The Miller and the Maid" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 39, #4 (1995), p, 38, "The Maid Gaed Tae the Mill" (1 text, 1 tune, Ewan MacColl's version, supposedly from his father)
David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, pp. 148-149, "The Maid Gaed to the Mill"
Roud #2575
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Maid Gaed to the Mill" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "It Was a Mayde of Brenten Arse" (theme: a miller trading work for sex)
cf. "The Miller and the Lass" (theme: sex and a miller; grinding corn as the metaphor)
cf. "Miller Tae My Trade" (theme: sex and a miller)
cf. "The Miller o' Drone" (theme: sex and a miller; grinding corn as the metaphor)
cf. "The Besom Maker" (theme: sex and a miller; grinding corn as the metaphor)
NOTES [143 words]: The wantonness of millers is proverbial -- and songs of a miller trading work for sex is ancient. There is a song from the sixteenth century about it, indexed as "It Was a Mayde of Brenten Arse."
Chaucer played with the theme indirectly in "The Reeve's Tale, plus there is his description of his miller (see Larry D. Benson, general editor, The Riverside Chaucer, third edition, Houghton Mifflin, 1987 (based on F. N. Robinson, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, which is considered to be the first and second editions of this work), p. 32; The General Prologue, lines 560-562):
He waas a jangler and a goliardeys,
And that was moost of synne and harlotries.
Wel koude he stelen corn and tollen thries...
i.e.
He was a teller of bawdy stories and a buffoon
And that was most of sin and obscenity/harlotry.
Well could he steal corn and take his toll thrice. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: RcTMGTTM

Maid Gathering Mushrooms, The

See Gathering Mushrooms (File: RcTGMus)

Maid I Am In Love, A

See The Maid in Sorrow (Short Jacket) [Laws N12] (File: LN12)

Maid I Left Behind, The

See The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)

Maid in a Flowery Garden, A

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Maid in Bedlam (I), The

See Nancy's Complaint in Bedlam (File: ShH41)

Maid in Bedlam (II)

See Fair Maid in Bedlam (File: LEB113)

Maid in Bedlam (III)

See Bedlam City (File: BrMa971)

Maid in Bedlam (IV)

See Pity a Maiden (File: BdPitMa)

Maid in Sorrow, The (Short Jacket) [Laws N12]

DESCRIPTION: A girl dresses as a sailor and goes to sea to seek her true love. The captain finds her attractive and wishes she were a girl. She puts him off, pointing out that there are handsome girls ashore. Only as she is leaving the ship does she reveal her sex
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: cross-dressing ship sea
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws N12, "The Maid in Sorrow (Short Jacket)"
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 36, "For I Am a Maid that's Deep in Love" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 69, "I Am a Maid That Sleeps in Love" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 46, "Short Jacket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 327-328, "Blue Jacket and White Trousers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 78, "A Maid I Am In Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 1, "Cabin Boy"; 48, "Cabin Boy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 164, "The Maid in Sorrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 444, SHORTJKT* SHORTJK2*
Roud #231
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "I Am a Maid That Sleeps in Love" (on IRECronin01)
Charlotte Decker, "Blue Jacket and White Trousers" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
A. L. Lloyd, "Short Jacket and White Trousers" (on Lloyd2, Lloyd3)
Mrs. Stan Marshall, "Maid I Am in Love" (on MRHCreighton)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Maid That's Deep in Love
NOTES [13 words]: Elizabeth Cronin sings her version to the tune of "The Lowlands of Holland." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LN12

Maid of Aghadowey, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls his time by the Banks of the Ban, where he met a beautiful girl. Her parents are "dead against me," but he begs her to be true to him, and says that he would give her all his riches if he had any
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation father mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H673, p. 429, "The Maid of Aghadowey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7958
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of the Bann (I)" [Laws O2] (plot)
NOTES [59 words]: This song is similar in plot to Laws O2, "The Banks of the Bann," and also takes place by the Bann. Some have tentatively equated the songs. But songs of parents opposing lovers are common, and songs set by the Bann are common; there is no reason there shouldn't be two such. There is no lyrical similarity that I can see. Different songs, in my book. - RBW
File: HHH673

Maid of Altaveedan, The

DESCRIPTION: "I met her on the brow of Altaveedon Hill, The lambs were calling after her to stay there." He describes the hills and her, saying "There's a head of gold far lovelier than yon hill." Her beauty has enraptured the singer; he will wander no more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H603, p. 239, "The Maid of Altaveedan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9474
File: HHH603

Maid of Altibrine, The

See The Holly Bough/The Maid of Altibrine (File: HHH111)

Maid of Amsterdam, The

See A-Rovin' (File: EM064)

Maid of Athens

DESCRIPTION: "Maid of Athens, ere we part, Give oh give [me] back my heart, Or, since that has left my breast, Keep it now and take the rest." "Then hear my vows before I go, My life, my soul, I love you."
AUTHOR: Words: George Gordon, Lord Byron
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (text; the many musical settings came later)
KEYWORDS: love travel separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 189, "Maid of Athens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11315
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2277), "Maid of Athens," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 11(2278), H. Such (London), 1863-1885
NOTES [161 words]: As "Maid of Athens, Ere We Part," this poem has a Wikipedia entry which explains that Byron wrote it about an actual girl, a twelve-year-old named Teresa Makre (Τερηζα Μακρη). Byron of course never saw her again. His poem had a chorus in (modern) Greek, which he himself translated somewhat inaccurately.
The poem was apparently set to music at least four times, and is very common in songsters, but Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric's appears to be the only verifiable field collection. And even Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric's collected version appears to have been learned from print, in an organ instruction manual.
Nonetheless there does seem to have been some oral tradition involved -- e.g. the Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric text adds "me" in the second line, which makes the meter much more folk-like but does not match the Byron text. Also, the chorus became "My life, my soul, I love you." Neither the Greek (Ζωη μου σας αγαπω) nor the original English had the words "my soul." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Brne189

Maid of Australia, The

See Oxeborough Banks (Maids of Australia) (File: FaE044)

Maid of Ballydoo, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a maid. He asks if she were Helen, or Aurora, or "Flo the queen of May." He takes her to Hilltown and gets her drunk so that "she soon forgot the vows she made." He recalls now "when I first composed these verses" sitting at his loom.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition)
KEYWORDS: seduction weaving drink
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 15, "The Maid of Ballydoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3477
NOTES [70 words]: O Boyle: "Ballydoo is a small townland between Hilltown and Mayobridge [in County Down]...." - BS
I have a recording of this made by David Hammond and released on "Irish Folk Songs: The Clancy Brothers, David Hammond and Families" (Excelsior/Madacy, 1994). Most of the material on this disc was previously released in 1959, but I cannot verify that this song was, so I am forced to use O Boyle as the earliest date. - RBW
File: OBoy015

Maid of Ballyhaunis, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer courts Mary, saying that her beauty has ensnared him. He begs her to love him, but notes that his father has told him they may not marry. He asks her to come away with him "to the land of ships," where they will be happy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (Hardiman _Irish Minstrelsy,_ according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: love courting father
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H483, p. 427, "The Maid of Ballyhaunis" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 45, "Mary of Ballyhaunis" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 157, "Maid of Ballyhaunis" (1 text)
Roud #7960
NOTES [23 words]: This strikes me as far too intricate to be a genuine traditional song; the evidence strongly implies that it originated in a broadside. - RBW
File: HHH483

Maid of Ballymore, The

DESCRIPTION: Markie Bawn loves the heiress "maid of Ballymore." If he wants to marry, she says, he must have her parents' consent. He puts on his shoes, has her mother's consent, and they marry. "A happier couple were never saw before"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (recording, Mary Ann Carolan)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #2991
RECORDINGS:
Mary Ann Carolan, "The Maid of Ballymore" (on Voice06)
NOTES [5 words]: Ballymore is in County Kerry. - BS
File: RcMaiBal

Maid of Barrack Hill, The

See The Barrack Hill Cavan (File: Shoe279)

Maid of Belfast Town, The

DESCRIPTION: "In Belfast town of high renown, There lives a comely maid." The singer approaches her and asks her to come away with him. She rejects him because of a vow made seven years before. Now, "each night I dream, rave and complain" because she refused him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (according to Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 26, "The Maid of Belfast Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V2930
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1193)[some words in last verse illegible], "The Maid of Belfast" ("In Belfast town of high renown there l[i]ves a comely maid"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(2279), "The Maid of Belfast"; Harding B 11(337), "The Belfast Maid"
NOTES [230 words]: Among other classic [Roman] references here: "Diana fair cannot compare, Or Venus from the tide, Or Dido sure that virgin pure, That for Aeneas died ...." See the notes to "Sheila Nee Iyer" for some traits of the "hedge school master" school of Irish ballad writing. - BS
Someday, someone should do a study on why Diana (Greek Artemis) became so noted for beauty in British tales (see, e.g., "The Tan-Yard Side" [Laws M28], "The Beaver Brig," and "The Fair of Balamina"). She was not one of the three goddesses who competed for the title of "the Fairest" in the Judgment of Paris. that was contested between Hera (Roman Juno), Aphrodite (Roman Venus), and Athena (Roman Minerva). That contest of course was won by Aphrodite, leading to the Trojan War.
Not every account says that Aphrodite was born of the sea-foam; Homer simply calls her the daughter of Zeus and Dione. But Hesiod tells of her birth from the sea-foam after the gonads of Ouranos were cast into the ocean after his castration by his son Chronos (Hesiod, Theogony, lines 185-195); indeed, the name "Aphrodite" is in these lines falsely equated with Greek "aphros," "foam."
Aphrodite was of course the mother of Aeneas, which lead smoothly into the story of the latter, and his betrayal of Dido, which is a major theme of Virgil's Aeneid, which I would assume is the major source for most of the material here. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Leyd026

Maid of Bonnie Strathyre, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer wants nothing better "than to herd the fine cattle on bonnie Strathyre" with "Mary, the pride of Strathyre." He dances with Mary, and Flora with Colin. Others can go to the lowlands, or soldier far away, but he'll stay home with Mary
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: love farming dancing Scotland nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 53, "The Maid of Bonnie Strathyre" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [45 words]: McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen: "The song originates in the beautiful vale of Strathyre in Perthshire.... It would seem to be a very localised ballad and it must have been imported by migratory workers who traversed between Insihowen and Scotland." - BS
File: McB053

Maid of Bunclody, and the Lad She Loves So Dear, The

See The Streams of Bunclody (File: BroaTSoB)

Maid of Burndennet, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, fair (are the) vales of (my) own native soil," particularly Burndennet, where a beautiful girl lives. The singer praises her beauty and describes their courting. Though their rivals sneer, their love will emerge victorious
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H96a+b, pp. 230-231, "The Maid of Burndennett" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #7982
NOTES [69 words]: Curiously, although Sam Henry lists only one source for this song, he preserved two texts -- each of four verses, but only two and a half verses in common, with a different order, and with substantial differences even in the common material. The differences are just what one would expect from oral tradition -- but with only one listed source, and no other versions known, one must suspect editorial tampering. - RBW
File: HHH096

Maid of Carrowclare, The

See Killyclare (Carrowclare; The Maid of Carrowclare) (File: HHH298)

Maid of Castle Craigh, The

DESCRIPTION: When the singer left Ireland to fight in the wars he had loved his "Maid of Castle Craigh" but thought she did not love him. Somehow, in the three years passed, he learned "that I had won thy gentle heart." The war is over and he has returned to her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: love war separation return Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 72, "The Maid of Castlecraig" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 146, "The Maid of Castle Craigh" (1 text)
Roud #39316
File: OLcM072

Maid of Coldingham, The

See The Maid and the Palmer [Child 21] (File: C021)

Maid of Colehill, The

See The Flower of Corby Mill (File: HHH612)

Maid of Craigienorn, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises the Maid of Craigienorn, whom he sees as he rambles. He begs her to come away. She refuses; she has another love and will not leave her parents. He says her love has abandoned her. The ending is confused
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection abandonment beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H500, pp. 359-360, "The Maid of Craigienorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6880
NOTES [112 words]: The first several stanzas of this are your standard guy-sees-girl/guy-hits-on-girl/girl-says-leave-me-alone ballad. Then we get a John Riley-like scene in which he says her love has abandoned her. (And how, given that the singer has never seen her before, does he know?) Then there seems to be a section from the woman's viewpoint, and another in which she is revealed as a Protestant, and another in which the singer complains about England's laws and wishes the couple happiness.
There seems little doubt that the ending of this song is confused. I would guess at least three other songs have contributed. But it's hard to identify them from the small fragments extant. - RBW
File: HHH359

Maid of Croaghmore, The

DESCRIPTION: The well-born young man falls in love with the maid of Croaghmore. He describes her beauty, says he would make her queen if he were king, and promises to serve for her hand as Jacob served Laban. Her parents say she is too young
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection father mother beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H522, pp. 355-356, "The Maid of Croaghmore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6878
NOTES [87 words]: One wonders what was wrong with this wealthy young man, that the girl's parents refused to wed her to him (the song says she was nineteen, so hardly too young!).
The story of Jacob serving Laban for fourteen years to win the hands of Rachel and Leah is told in Genesis 29:15-30.
The song refers in the third verse to the Duke of Cumberland. Sam Henry explained that this was the same Duke of Cumberland (Williams Augustus, 1721-1765) who destroyed the Jacobite cause at Culloden. I can see no basis for this assertion. - RBW
File: HHH522

Maid of Culmore, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises the harbour and women of Culmore. He recalls the girl he loved, who cried bu "sailed down Lough Foyle and away from Culmore." He wishes a storm would bring her back. He will follow her and seek her in America
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation ship emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H687, p. 302, "The Maids of Culmore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2493
File: HHH687

Maid of Don, The

See The Haughs o Newe (File: Ord193)

Maid of Dunmore, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a maid whose sweetheart is fighting the French with Nelson. He asks her to leave Dunmore and live with him in Ireland. She refuses. He "picked up my alls and left for Ireland, And left that fair maid in Dunmore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: love sailor war separation courting rejection Ireland
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 83, "The Maid of Dunmore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 47-48, "The Lass of Dunmore" (1 text)
ST MaWi083 (Partial)
Roud #9177 and 3668
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lass of Dunmore
NOTES [38 words]: This hits so many familiar themes that it sounds like it ought to be a version of something else (compare, e.g., "The Plains of Waterloo (I)" [Laws N32] and "The Banks of Clyde (I)") -- but I can't locate a true parallel. - RBW.
File: MaWi083

Maid of Dunysheil

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises Dunyshiel, "the place where my true love does dwell." He recalls meeting her at Rasharkin Fair. He must leave for Nova Scotia, but as long as he is away, "my heart shall be with the Maid of Dunyshiel."
AUTHOR: Paddy McGuckian
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting emigration separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H530, p. 298, "The Maid of Dunyshiel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6894
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Flowery Vale (The Irish Girl's Lament)" [Laws O29] (plot) and references there
File: HHH530

Maid of Erin, The

DESCRIPTION: "My thoughts delight to wander Upon a distant shore, Where lovely, fair, and tender Is she whom I adore... The lovely maid of Erin, Who sweetly sang to me." If he were a monarch, she would be his queen. The seas separate them; he hope to see her in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: love separation sailor beauty music
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 237-238, 'The Maid of Erin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 238-239, "The Maid of Erin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 118, "The Maid of Erin" (1 text)
Roud #2059
File: HGam238

Maid of Erin's Isle, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the sun does set down in the west when his daily journey's o'er.... With ruby wine I'll fill my glass... And I'll drink a health to my sweetheart, she's the maid of Erin's isle." He praises Mary's beauty, and vows to love her as long as he lives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love beauty nonballad wine
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H57b, p. 228, "The Maid of Erin's Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 46, "The Maid of Erin's Isla" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7978
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y4:002, "The Maid of Erin's Isle," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
File: HHH057b

Maid of Fainey, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a maid of (Fainey/Marlborough/etc.), of youth and beauty bright, Who had scores of sweethearts to court her day and night...." She loves her father's servant. They break a ring, then he flees. Her father threatens him. The end is confused
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: brokentoken courting love father separation
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 167-168, "The Maid of Fainey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 23, "The Maid of Fainey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 60-61, "In the Town of Marlborough" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MAIDFAIN
Roud #1417
File: MA167

Maid of Faughan Vale, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a beautiful girl near Faughan Vale. He asks her about the road, and then admits to being besotted with her. She tells him she is engaged to another, and they will soon sail for America. He laments his fate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: beauty courting rejection emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H167, p. 369, "The Maid of Faughan Vale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 25, "Faughanvale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6885
File: HHH167

Maid of Glenshee, The

See The Lass of Glenshee [Laws O6] (File: LO06)

Maid of Lismore, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets Kathy from Lismore, going to sell turkeys at Dungarvan. She pays for drinks. He claims to be rich. They sleep until the market closed. The price for turkeys falls. Now he claims poverty. She is ruined and would have him "hung or transported"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2283))
KEYWORDS: seduction lie drink commerce poverty bird food
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #9284
RECORDINGS:
Martin Reidy, "Lismore Turkeys" (on IRClare01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2283), "The Maid of Lismore" ("One day as I chanced to go roving"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also 2806 b.9(111), 2806 c.8(187), 2806 c.8(257)[some words illegible], 2806 c.15(12)[some words illegible], 2806 b.11(135), "The Maid of Lismore"
NOTES [33 words]: The places mentioned -- Lismore, Dungarvin and Cappoquin (where they stopped) -- are in County Waterford. It's about three miles from Lismore to Cappoquin, and about 11 miles farther to Dungarvan. - BS
File: RcMaLism

Maid of Magheracloon, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that the man who courted her on the hills of Magheraclon, "behind yon hawthorn tree," no longer courts her. "Oh he's not to blame, the fault's my own ... I gave my love to another young man." Now she is broken-hearted.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity rejection love
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 21, "The Maid of Magheracloon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 6, pp. 9,102,157, "The Maid of Magheracloon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2486
NOTES [24 words]: Magheracloon is a parish in County Monaghan.
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday: "The song seems to be very well known in Co. Fermanagh." - BS
File: MorU021

Maid of Monterey, The

See Mustang Gray (The Maid of Monterey) (File: FT09)

Maid of Monterrey

DESCRIPTION: A senorita comforts the fallen Americans on the field of Monterrey. "Although she loved her nation And prayed that it might live Yet for a dying foeman She had a prayer to give"
AUTHOR: John H. Hewitt (1801-1890) (source: sheet music published 1851 by F. D. Benteen)
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: battle mercy death Mexico soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 20-24, 1846 - Battle of Monterrey (part of the Mexican War). General Zachary Taylor captures the city, but the fight is bloody
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 55, "Maid of Monterrey" (1 text)
Roud #2828
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1851.520180, "The Maid ot Monterey" F. D. Benteen (Baltimore), 1851
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Field of Monterey" (subject)
File: THP055

Maid of Mourne Shore (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer ask is he will ever again see the region of Mourne. He goes to his sweetheart, and begs her to love him lest he go over the sea. She says she loves a sailor and will remain true to him. The singer sadly prepares to emigrate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love rejection sailor emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H34b (+tune in H27a), pp. 371-372, "The Maid of Mourne Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 50, "The Murlough Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MOURNESH*
Roud #2946
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Maids of Mourne Shore" (on IRRCinnamond03)
Martin Reidy, "Maid of Moorlough Shore" (on IRClare01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Foggy Dew" (II) (version on IRClare01) (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Banks of Moorlough Shore
The Moorlough Shore
The Mourne Shore
File: HHH034b

Maid of Mourne Shore (II)

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a young girl on the Mourne strand. She says she is too young to marry, but he seduces her. She asks if he will marry her but he says he is too young to marry now, but if he returns to the Mourne strand he'll marry her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction rejection rambling
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H 564, pp. 344-345, "The Banks of Mourne Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 47, "The Maid of Mourne Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5282
RECORDINGS:
Roisin White, "Maid of Mourne Shore" (on IRRWhite01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paddle the Road With Me" (theme)
NOTES [41 words]: As in "Paddle the Road With Me" the question is "will you pad the road with me?" In "Maid of Mourne Shore" the singer asks the question before the seduction and the maid asks it afterwards. There is no afterwards in "Paddle the Road With Me." - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: HHH564bb

Maid of Mullaghmore, The

See The Shamrock Shore (The Maid of Mullaghmore) (File: HHH20a)

Maid of Newfoundland, The

DESCRIPTION: The beauties of the maid are compared with the flowers, jewels, women of other lands, etc. The singer tells us that he met her in Labrador and will go far away if he cannot have her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Murphy, Songs of Our Land, Old Home Week Souvenir)
KEYWORDS: love beauty exile
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 118, "The Maid of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 372-374, "The Maid of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Maid of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 21 in the 2nd edition
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 71, "The Maid of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MAIDNEWF
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, compiler/publisher, "(Old Colony Song Book: Newfoundland)," James Murphy, 1904 (available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site; the cover is missing, but I suspect it is a copy of "Songs of Our Land"), p. 81, "The Maid of Newfoundland" (1 text)
James Murphy, editor, _Old Songs of Newfoundland_, James Murphy Publishing, 1912 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 9, "The Maid of Newfoundland"
James Murphy, _Songs Their Fathers Sung: For Fishermen: Old Time Ditties_, James Murphy Publishing, 1923 (PDF available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 9, "The Maid of Newfoundland" (1 text)
Roud #4412
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best and Pamela Morgan, "The Maid on the Shore" (on NFABestPMorgan01)
Andrew Nash, "The Maid of Newfoundland" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [19 words]: The song has a formulaic introduction by the singer who evokes the Muses to help sing praises to his beloved. - SH
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy21

Maid of Prairie Du Chien, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell, noting "There's nothing doth my footsteps detain But the beautiful maid of Prairie du Chien." He offers marriage; she rejects him. He hopes she will turn to him "when lovers get scarce." He wishes he were a soldier far away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: love rejection
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 201, "The Maid of Prairie Du Chien" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 430-431, "The Maid of Prairie du Chien" (1 text)
Roud #7947
NOTES [150 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety notes, correctly, that Prairie du Chien is in southwestern Wisconsin, where the Wisconsin River joins the Upper Mississippi. But he fails to note that it was the site of Fort Crawford, founded in 1816, which at the time was the northwesternmost point of functional United States control of the Midwest (to be superseded in 1819 by the founding of Camp New Hope, which eventually was moved to the site of Fort Snelling at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers).
If Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's informant was correct about when he learned it, the song must have dated back to at least 1850 or so. In that case, it seems quite likely that the singer was intended to be a soldier at Fort Crawford; the girl may have been a local Indian, though by 1850 there were a fair number of Europeans in the area. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Beld201

Maid of Rygate, The

See The Highwayman Outwitted [Laws L2] (File: LL02)

Maid of Seventeen, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer steps up to a beautiful girl and says that she entices him. She answers that she is only seventeen, and knows nothing of courting. He offers her a lesson in the subject. She says he should not visit her; she will return in a week
AUTHOR: Hugh McWilliams (source: Moulden-McWilliams)
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (according to Moulden-McWilliams)
KEYWORDS: love courting youth beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H144, p. 270, "The Maid of Seventeen" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Moulden, Songs of Hugh McWilliams, Schoolmaster, 1831 (Portrush,1993), p. 11, "The Maid of Seventeen"
Roud #2958
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Maid of Seventeen" (on IRRCinnamond02)
File: HHH144

Maid of Sweet Gartheen, The

See (File: HHH594)

Maid of Sweet Gartine, The

See (File: HHH594)

Maid of Sweet Gorteen, The

See The Maid of Sweet Gurteen (File: HHH594)

Maid of Sweet Gurteen, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells the praises of the beautiful Maid of Gorteen. His father opposes the match; she is only a serving girl. The father locks her up; when the singer still professes his love, he has the girl sent away. The ending is confused
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Harding B 11(2292))
KEYWORDS: love separation father beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H594, p. 430, "The Maid of Sweet Gorteen" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 22, "The Maid of Sweet Gurteen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 375-376, "The Maid of Sweet Gartheen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 85, "The Maid of Sweet Gartine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 20, "The Maid of Sweet Gurteen" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 31, "The Maid of Sweet Gorteen" (1 text)
ST HHH594 (Partial)
Roud #3025
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Mary Ann Galpin, "The Maid of Sweet Gartheen" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
John Kehoe, "Maid of Sweet Kartine" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Will O'Brien, "Sweet Gertie" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2292), "Maid of Sweet Gortein," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also 2806 b.11(146), "Maid of Sweet Gortein"; 2806 b.11(271), Harding B 11(2721), "The Maid of Sweet Gorteen"; 2806 c.8(263), Harding B 11(2290), Harding B 11(2291), 2806 c.15(200)[many illegible words], 2806 b.9(277), 2806 b.9(234), Harding B 19(39), "The Maid of Sweet Gurteen"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Suffolk Miracle" [Child 272] (theme)
NOTES [99 words]: Child would have liked this; the plot is "The Suffolk Miracle" ("The Holland Handkerchief"), minus that ghost he so despised. It's not clear how this song is supposed to end; the Sam Henry texts gives hints that the lovers would reunite, but they never do.
Peacock's version has a clear stopping point ("So now my song is ended"), but again, no resolution; it leaves the singer wandering, seemingly between England and Ireland, still coming back to where he found her. Similarly Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi, save that he is in Florida. And O. J. Abbott's version has him in Flower Hill. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HHH594

Maid of Sweet Kartine

See The Maid of Sweet Gurteen (File: HHH594)

Maid of Tardree, The

DESCRIPTION: In this confused song, the singer falls in love with a girl, who also says she loves him. But then he falls in love with another girl. But his "first expectations were blighted." He prepares to emigrate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H733, p. 342, "The Maid of Tardree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6872
NOTES [15 words]: There is no doubt in my mind that this song is damaged somehow. But I can't guess how. - RBW
File: HHH733

Maid of the East, The

See There Was a Lady in the East (File: Pea726)

Maid of the Logan Bough, The

See The Foot of the Mountain Brow (The Maid of the Mountain Brow) [Laws P7] (File: LP07)

Maid of the Mill, The

DESCRIPTION: Will has "kist and ... prattled with fifty fair maids" but prefers the maid of the mill to Phebe. Phebe says, "Young Harry's the lad for me." They describe their heartthrobs: "Her cheeks like the blossoms in May ..." "His cheeks are as red as a rose ..."
AUTHOR: Frances Brooke (1724-1789, per "Frances Brooke" in Wikipedia) (source: _British Drama_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1783 (_Rosina_ performed in Covent Garden, according to _British Drama_)
KEYWORDS: courting beauty dialog nonballad rake
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 184, "The Maid of the Mill" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 209)
ADDITIONAL: Mrs Frances Brooke, "Rosina," in _British Drama: a Collection of the Most Esteemed Tragedies, Comedies, Operas and Farces in the English Language_ (Philadelphia, 1832 ("Digitized by Google")) Vol. I, Act I, Sc. 1, p. 243, ("I've kiss'd and I've prattled to fifty fair maids") (1 text)
Roud #1276
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 907, "The Maid of the Mill" ("I've kist and I've prattled with fifty fair maids"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth c.18(48), "Maid of the Mill"
NOTES [101 words]: The description follows Rosina, in which William wants the maid of the mill, who is not Phebe; Phebe decides Will is too fickle and prefers Harry. In broadside Bodleian Johnson Ballads 907 Will and Phebe are unnamed; as a result, it appears to be a dialog between two lovers, Harry and the maid. The Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text has two verses; the first is built from the last line of the broadside and the second changes the sex in the broadside to refer to the maid where the broadside refers to Harry. The effect is that Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames is entirely sung by the man. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT184

Maid of the Moor, The

See Maiden in the Mor Lay (The Maid of the Moor) (File: MSBRDMM)

Maid of the Mountain Brow

See The Foot of the Mountain Brow (The Maid of the Mountain Brow) [Laws P7] (File: LP07)

Maid of the Mountain Glen, The

See Bastard Stephen (The Maid of the Mountain Glen) (File: RuSoBasS)

Maid of the Sweet Brown Knowe, The

See The Foot of the Mountain Brow (The Maid of the Mountain Brow) [Laws P7] (File: LP07)

Maid of Tottenham, The

See Haselbury Girl, The (The Maid of Tottenham, The Aylesbury Girl) (File: K176)

Maid on the Shore, The (The Fair Maid by the Sea Shore; The Sea Captain) [Laws K27]

DESCRIPTION: The captain sees a pretty girl on the shore, and vigorously entreats her to come aboard. At last she does, but then sings captain and sailors to sleep. She robs captain and sailors, then rows back to shore -- using the captain's sword for an oar!
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction trick escape robbery magic shore feminist
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,NW,Ro,So,SW) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Laws K27, "The Maid on the Shore (The Fair Maid by the Sea Shore; The Sea Captain)"
Bronson (43), "The Broomfield Hill" -- the appendix includes 6 versions (#25-#30) which are this song
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads (43), "The Broomfield Hill" (version #27 is this song)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 127, "The Maid on the Shore" (1 text)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 136, "Shore Shore If I Can't Get This Maid From the Shore" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 107-109, "The Maid on the Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #43, "The Sea Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 731-732, "The Fair Maid by the Sea Shore" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 403, "The Sea Captain" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 28, "The Maiden who Dwelt by the Shore" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #29}
Peacock, pp. 296-297, "The Maid on the Shore O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 28, "The Sea Captain" (3 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #27, #30}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 156-157, "The Sea Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 158-159, "The Maid on the Shore (The Sea Captain)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #29, perhaps slightly modified}
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 41, "The Sea Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 49, "The Sea Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 19, "The Sea Captain" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 75, "The Maid on the Shore" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 54-55, "The Sea Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 26, "The Sea Captain" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 136-137, "The Maid on the Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 73, "The Maid on the Shore" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #29}
DT 322 (43?), MAIDSHOR* MAIDSHR2*
Roud #181
RECORDINGS:
Frankie Armstrong, "The Maid on the Shore" (on BirdBush2, Armstrong1)
Omar Blondahl, "The Maid on the Shore" (on NFOBlondahl04)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broomfield Hill" [Child 43] (plot) and references there
cf. "Drimindown" (tune)
File: LK27

Maid Peeped Out at the Window, The

See The Friar in the Well [Child 276] (File: C276)

Maid Who Sold Her Barley, The

See Mowing the Barley (Cold and Raw) (File: ShH60)

Maid with Golden Hair, The

See The White Cafe (File: ISco341)

Maid with the Bonny Brown Hair, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a beautiful maiden, "brighter than Venus." He courts her; at last they set a wedding day. But she breaks off the engagement; she has "another more kinder." He laments; he or she or both set out for another country
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (JIFSS)
KEYWORDS: love rejection emigration beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H43, p. 394, "The Maid with the Bonny Brown Hair"; H575, pp. 394-395, "The Maid with the Bonny Brown Hair" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 6, "The Maid With the Bonny Brown Hair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 39-40, "The Maid with the Bonny Brown Hair" (1 text)
Roud #3032
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lough Erin's Shore (I)" (tune)
cf. "The Bonnie Wee Lass of the Glen" (tune)
cf. "Erin's Green Shore" [Laws Q27] (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lass with the Bonny Brown Hair
File: HHH024

Maid's Complaint to her Mother, The

DESCRIPTION: A girl finds her maidenhead "a burden" and would marry. Mother says she's too young and threatens to send daughter to the fields. "Young batchellors will tempt me, and I perhaps may yield" Mother concedes. Daughter will happily marry Frank the Farmer.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A girl, sixteen, finds her maidenhead "a burden every morning" and would marry. Mother says she's seven years too young. "Thousands I have seen Married before my age." Mother says she married at nineteen. She threatens to send daughter to the fields in sack cloth. If so, says the daughter, "young batchellors will tempt me, and I perhaps may yield," so don't blame me. Mother concedes and would have the daughter marry honest Frank the Farmer. Daughter agrees happily.
KEYWORDS: marriage virginity farming bawdy dialog mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 81, "The Maid's Complaint to her Mother"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1, pp. 239-240, "The Longing Maid" (2 texts)
Roud #3857
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle" (theme)
cf. "Sixteen Years, Mama" (theme)
File: LyCr181

Maid's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "I can bake and I can brew, I can cook an Irish stew, Wash a shirt and iron it too, But I must go out on Sunday." Six days she works to maintain a good home, "But I must go out on Sunday." She hopes someday to settle down with her young man
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Hamer)
KEYWORDS: work home oldmaid
FOUND IN: Britain(Engand(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 28, "The Maid's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1074
File: HaGa028

Maid's Lamentation for the Loss of her True Love, The

See The Lowlands of Holland (File: R083)

Maid's Wager, The

See The Broomfield Hill [Child 43] (File: C043)

Maidean Alainn Ghreine

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer has a vision of a woman, the spirit of Ireland, who wishes "to be free of English rule."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage beauty Ireland patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 86, "Maidean Alainn Ghreine" (2 texts)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC086

Maidean Bhog Aoibhinn (A Fine Soft Morning)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer seduces a beautiful young woman. "It is not altogether clear whether he abandons [her] or his previous companion."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting seduction sex abandonment rake
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 87, "Maidean Bhog Aoibhinn" (1 text)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC087

Maiden City, The

DESCRIPTION: Derry is the Maiden City, threatened in 1688. Her defenders shouted "No Surrender" and vowed Derry "should be a Maiden still." She rejected "a Kingly wooer" and her defenders won a terrible battle. "The Maiden on her throne boys, Shall be a Maiden still"
AUTHOR: Charlotte Elizabeth (source: Hayes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: battle Ireland patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 39, "The Maiden City" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859 (reprint of 1855 London edition)), Vol I, p. 278, "The Maiden City"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry" (subject: The Siege of Derry) and references there
NOTES [22 words]: For background on the Siege of (London)derry, see the notes to "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry" as well as "No Surrender (I)." - RBW
File: OrLa039

Maiden in the Garden, The

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Maiden in the Mor Lay (The Maid of the Moor)

DESCRIPTION: "Maiden in the mor [moor] lay, In the more lay, Seuenyst [seven nights] fulle (x2)," "Welle was hire mete. Wat was hire mete?... The primerole ant the violet." "Welle was hire dryng [drink]. Wat was hire dryng? The chelde water of the welle-spring." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: fourteenth century (Bodleian, MS. Rawlinson D.913)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad food flowers MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics 38, "(Mayden in the moor lay)" (1 text)
Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols #20, "(Maiden in the mor lay)" (1 text, with a much-reduced photograph of the manuscript on page 75)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3891
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3328
ADDITIONAL: J. A. Burrow, _Essays on Medieval Literature_, Clarendon Press (Oxford), 1984, p. 25, "(Maiden in the mor lay") (1 text, part of a full transcription of this page of the Rawlinson manuscript)
J. A. Burrow and Thorlac Turville-Petre, _A Book of Middle English_, second edition, 1996 (I use the 1999 Blackwell paperback edition), pp. 236-237 (no title) (1 text, expanded from the brief manuscript form)
Kenneth Sisam, editor, _Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose_, Oxford, 1925, p. 167, "The Maid of the Moor" (1 text)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #68, p. 167, "The Maid of the Moor" (1 text)
Rossell Hope Robbins, Secular Lyrics of the XIVth and XVth Century , Oxford University Press, 1952, pp. 12-13, "Maiden of the Moor" (1 text)
Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, _Middle English Lyrics_, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974, pp. 128-129, #138 (no title) (1 text)
R. T. Davies, editor, _Medieval English Lyrics: A Critical Anthology_, 1963, #33, p. 102, "The maiden lay in the wilds" (1 text)
James J. Wilhelm, _Medieval Song: An Anthology of Hymns and Lyrics_, Dutton, 1971, #214, pp. 353-354, "Maiden in the Moor Lay" (1 modernized text)
J. B. Trapp, _Medieval English Literature_ (a portion of the Oxford Anthology of English Literature), Oxford, 1973, p. 419, "The Maid of the Moor" (1 modernized text)
Karen Saupe, editor, _Middle English Marian Lyrics_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1998, #81, pp. 154-155, "(Maiden in the mor lay)" (1 text)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, pp. 31-32, "(Maiden in the mor lay)" (1 text, emended)
Donaldson: E. Talbot Donaldson, _Speaking of Chaucer_, The Athlone Press/University of London, 1970, p. 150, "(no title)" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRawlinsonD913}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson D.13 (Bodleian 13679), folio 1
SAME TUNE:
Peperit Virgo (Latin rewrite of this tune by the Bishop of Ossory) (Richard Leighton Green, _The Lyrics of the Red Book of Ossory_, Medium Aevum Monographs, New Series V, Basil Blackwell, 1974, #11, pp. 15-17)
NOTES [2246 words]: This, obviously, has never been found in oral tradition. But Burrow/Turville-Petre, p. 235, say that the piece "happens to be referred to in a fourteenth century sermon... described as 'a certain song, namely a 'karole'." That's an awfully thin reed on which to base an inclusion, but better to include than omit. Davies, p. 321, does describe this as "popular," which in a fourteenth century context presumably means "folk." It's certainly popular with anthologists! Sisam, p. 162, considers it minstrel work.
The poem itself is one of the "Rawlinson lyrics," found on a single strip of parchment in Bodleian library MS. Rawlinson D.913; it is just four inches wide by eleven inches tall, and much worn. Although the contents are clearly poetry, they are written as prose, although with blank lines between items (Burrow, pp. 2-3).
Even with modern layout and extra spaces, the contents of the that particular sheet of parchment take only three and a half pages; Burrow, pp. 23-26, has a full transcription.
The "manuscript" in which the single sheet is found is not a unity; it is a bunch of odds and ends the Bodleian bound together to make it easier to care for them (Burrow, p. 2, which reports that the Rawlinson collection was received in 1756 and the items bound up more than a century later). This particular item is hard enough to read that its contents were not noticed until 1907 (Burrow, p. 3).
Stevick dates the manuscript "after 1300." Burrow/Turville-Petre, p. 235, says "early fourteenth century," as does the headnote in Saupe. Greene-Carols, p. 42, says merely "fourteenth century." Sisam, p. 162, also thinks it early fourteenth century, pointing out that the poems of the latter part of the century (when the Hundred Years' War was lost and the Wars of the Roses resulted in intermittent civil war) tended to be much gloomier.
The fragment has several short poems, in both English and French (Burrow/Turville-Petre, p. 235), plus a few single lines that I would guess are more of a "set list" than anything else. Several of the other pieces also appear somewhat "folky"; Wells, p. 492, suggests that the page came from a minstrel's notebook but also says that all the substantial pieces "exhibit the primitive popular use of repetition, and apparently all were rude pieces for singing by the roadside or at the ale-house. All are catching jingles, with no sign of reflection or of the learned touch" -- a statement which I would firmly disagree with, particularly as regards this song. This is the eighth piece on the slip, by Wells's and Burrow's counts; the seventh, "Icham of Irlaunde (The Irish Dancer; Good Sir I Pray Thee)," is also well-known and is "perhaps the oldest English dance-song extant" (Wells, p. 493). The tenth also sounds rather folky: "Jonet's hair is all gold, and Jankyn is her love" (first line "Al gold Jonet is thin her"), although Boklund-Lagopolou, 38, claims some of its "semantic codes" are "courtly."
This particular poem/song has four verses, with only the first two spelled out in full; the last two verses are much abbreviated, although most modern editions spell out the verses.
There is much disagreement about who the Maiden is. Burrow, pp. 16-17 (compare Burrow/Turville-Petre, p. 236) mention suggestions of the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, a different penitent woman, a dead child, and a water sprite. (More on several of these below.) I am not sure what it was intended to be about, but I would think most singers would have interpreted it as the Virgin Mary. One other possibility that occurs to me, although I think the Virgin Mary hypothesis much more likely, is that it's a tale of one of those endless female saints who, upon being ordered to marry, or sexually abused, engaged in some absurd behavior to protect their virginity, along the lines of "A tale of how Saint Repetitiva, rather than yield her virtue to the lord of the manor, fled to the moor and lived there in the field, sustained by the reeds and grasses, which gave their fruit to her."
The scholarly discussion of this piece is very extensive. Luria/Hoffman reprint no fewer than four articles, by D. W. Robertson, Jr. [1950], by E. T. Donaldson [1960], by John Speirs [undated], and by Peter Dronke [1966] -- very big names in Middle English literature.
Robertson, who points out many puzzles in the poem. believes that the Maid is indeed the Virgin Mary, and points out that the sundry flowers often appear in medieval images of the Virgin, adding that the flowers also implied fleshly beauty. Saupe, pp. 268-269, repeats many of his notes in perhaps more understandable form; her notes are well worth consulting, since they're online.
Dronke absolutely rejects the link with the Virgin Mary and proposes the water sprite theory based on German folk tales. He thinks the piece a dance song. In his view, the girl comes to dances to fascinate men, but must return to the moor by a certain time, lest she die. The difficulty with this is that there is no direct evidence of these stories in English.
Donaldson's article in Luria/Hoffman believes reciters would indeed think of the Virgin Mary but might not seek much allegorical depth in the rest of the images. In his own work (Donaldson, pp. 150-152), in which he argues against Huppé and Dronke's contention that most Middle English poetry must be interpreted in light of the Church Fathers, Donaldson suggests that people tend to over-interpret the piece. I incline to agree. Donaldson, p. 152, also says, "I shouldn't be surprised if medieval readers often thought of the Virgin as they read the poem, not because they knew the symbols and signs, but because the Virgin is the paramount innocent maiden of the Christian tradition." Which I think sums the matter up pretty well although it does not preclude the possibility that the author was thinking of someone else.
Speirs denies that we can be expected to know who the maid is, but calls her a "child of nature" and suggests a link to fertility cults (which strikes me as extremely unlikely but clearly the result of Dronke-like thinking). Boklund-Lagopolou, pp. 37-38, based on an analysis of "isotopies" that might make sense in analyzing an over-trained college student's poetry exercise but makes very little sense when applied to a folk song, concludes that the maiden "is not human but some kind of nature spirit, and the period of seven nights and a day is probably related to the times when contact between this natural world and the cultural world of human beings becomes possible." (Oy.) She also wonders about a sexual component.
Davies, pp. 320-321, mentions an interpretation which compares this to the world's wilderness before the incarnation of Jesus. This would fit the moor, but hardly the flowers.
Saupe, p. 267, while acknowledging Donaldson's objection, accepts Robertson's link to the Virgin Mary. Although she doesn't express a strong opinion of her own, she did include this poem in her anthology of Marian literature, and observes that Schoeck, 1951, agreed with Robertson. She mentions an article by E. M. W. Tillyard suggesting that the maid is Mary Magdalene or Mary of Egypt (whoever that is). Greene/Ossory, p. xii, also mentions the Mary Magdalene hypothesis, but links it with Joseph Harris. Similarly Fowler, p. 113: "[A]s Joseph Harris has recently and impressively demonstrated, it is undoubtedly based on the legendary life of Mary Magdalene, and celebrates her victorious ascetic life in the desert." This follows ten pages (pp. 102-111, with pp. 103-106 giving Mary's alleged biography) in which Fowler demonstrates the importance of the Magdalene in Middle English legend. The biography is mostly from the Golden Legend, which, it is true, was an extremely widespread collection of religious teachings and saints' legends. But it is only one such account, and much of its popularity was after this song was evidently written. On p. 114 Fowler points out the legendary Mary Magdalene's "subsistence in the desert on nothing but spiritual food," which he claims is the same as the Maid of the Moor living on the flowers of the moor.
We hardly need Green/Ossory's scathing critique to throw this idea out the window -- yes, Mary Magdalene found Jesus in a garden, but she was also thought to be a prostitute. I would be very interested in learning how an experienced prostitute could be a maiden. (Fowler's answer, on p. 114, was that God purified her. But even if that included vaginal surgery, does that really make her a virgin?) And remember, the woman of the song is a *maiden* but is never called "Mary." Surely we must work from a famous maiden, not a famous Mary. Hence also Trapp, p. 419: "Until quite recently, this little poem existed peacefully as a secular piece of popular origin and obscure meaning," adding that "the Magdalene's maiden status is more than questionable."
I do find the mention of the maid drinking from the "welle spring" in the third verse interesting, since in Luke 4, Jesus meets the Woman of Samaria at the well and offers her "living water"; the wellspring could well be a Christian symbol.
Other than the text itself, we have little evidence about the poem. Burrow adduced two pieces of evidence that the song was secular -- the only two references to any of the Rawlinson lyrics outside the manuscript itself.
One comes from the Red Book of Ossory, associated with Richard de Ledrede, Bishop of Ossory 1317-1360. He was an extremely zealous churchman, an English Franciscan ruling an Irish diocese and in the habit of using the full force of his authority (Greene/Ossory, pp. iv-v). Greene/Ossory, p. iv, calls his administration "a reign of terror for those he disliked" and says that "It appears likely that before his death he became mentally deranged."
Ossory had a habit of taking secular pieces that he thought too popular and rewriting them for church use, "in order that [his clerks'] throats and mouths, consecrated to God, may not be polluted by songs which are lewd, secular, and associated with revelry.... [L]et them provide themselves with suitable tunes (notis) according to which these sets of words (dictamina, 'ditties') require" (Greene/Ossory, p. iv; Greene/Ossory, p. xii, adds that some of Ossory's lyrics were written without a specified tune, leaving it up to the singers to find something, but the early lyrics in the Red Book clearly have specified tunes).
There is a stain on the line which lists the tune of the eleventh song. But Greene/Ossory, p. x, is convinced that the text under the stain reads "mayde yn the moore lay." This is not proof that Ossory's Latin text uses this tune. But Greene/Ossory, p. x, lines up the two lyrics, and they match metrically. The Latin text reads:
Peperit virgo,
Virgo regia,
Mater orphanorum,
Mater orphanorum;
Peperit virgo,
Virgo regia,
Mater orphanorum,
Mater orphanorum,
Plena gracia.
(I can't help but say that the English words are better!)
This still isn't absolute proof, but I agree with Greene that it is almost certain that Ossory used "Maiden" as the pattern for his feeble piece. A number of scholars (Burrow, p. 19; cf. Davies, p. 320, Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 28) conclude that Ossory thought the song unfit for church use. I tend to agree. Burrow, p. 20, thinks this rules out references to the Virgin Mary or Mary Magdalene. I personally think it proves that Ossory was too uptight for his job. Possibly Ossory's objection was that this was a secular piece -- but he might also have objected because it was in English, or because it was unclear, or simply because it was too popular. I do not think Ossory's opinions tell us anything about what the author of the song thought. So the possibility that this is a religious text -- even a text about the Virgin Mary -- must remain open.
For his second bit of evidence, Burrow, p. 19, probably following Greene/Ossory, pp. xii-xiii, cites a manuscript described by Wenzel in 1974 (According to Wenzel, p. 84 n. 66, Wenzel presented this in an article in Speculum 49, pp. 66-74, "The Moor Maiden -- A Contemporary View." The only information given in the footnote is that the sermon is found in Worcester Cathedral MS. F.126, folios 145rb-146ra). It is a sermon collection thought to have been taken down around 1360. "The preacher is lamenting the moral deterioration of man. In the Golden Age, he says... men lived in joy and innocence. They ate only the foods that nature provided. And what, he asks, did they drink? His answer is unexpected. 'And what was their drink? The answer appears in a certain song [in quondam cantico], namely a karole that is called 'the mayde be wode lay'. Note in margin: 'the colde water of the well spryng.'" Obviously the mention is of a "wood" not a "moor" (which Greene/Ossory, p. xiii, says is a better place to find violets), and it calls the song a karole, which based on its form it is not (it is a roundel), but that's a nitpick. Here too we have what seems to be an allusion to this song -- but this time it hints that the song describes the state of unfallen humanity! Which would seem to make the maid Eve.
Probably we will never know what the song is really about. But, I repeat, it does seem likely that at least some hearers -- especially in the period before the reformation, when Mariolatry was very common in England -- thought it referred to the Virgin Mary.
Whatever it's about, I agree with Donaldson that it's a great, almost hypnotic, piece; I wish it had a tune. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: MSBRDMM

Maiden Makeles, The

See I Sing of a Maiden that Is Makeless (Matchless, Mateless) (File: MSISOAMa)

Maiden of Drumdurno, The

DESCRIPTION: "Busy baking for her bridal, Durno's maiden lilts wi' glee." A stranger taunts her for baking too slowly. She wagers she can finish baking before he can build a road. He, the devil in disguise, wins the wager. She flees and turns to stone to escape him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: cook food wager marriage trick Devil
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 434-435, "The Maiden of Drumdurno" (1 text)
NOTES [69 words]: According to Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, this is a poetic version of a legend regarding the "maiden stone of Bennachie." The tall stone, said to bear the marks of a fleeing girl, is reported to have been created when the condemned girl cried for help. Rather than obtaining rescue from the tempter, she was turned to stone.
The legend may have arisen naturally. The song, I think, is a purely modern composition. - RBW
File: Ord434

Maiden of the Moor, The

See Maiden in the Mor Lay (The Maid of the Moor) (File: MSBRDMM)

Maiden Pined by Derry's Walls, A

DESCRIPTION: A maiden starving in Derry tells "her 'Prentice Boy lover" not to weep for her: live free or die "not like a popish slave." The message is repeated in Derry by a young wife and mother to her husband, and by a widowed mother to her son.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: battle death starvation Ireland patriotic husband lover mother wife
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 32, "A Maiden Pined by Derry's Walls" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Slave" (tune, according to Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
NOTES [53 words]: See "No Surrender (I)" and references there for information about the 1688-1689 Seige of Derry. - BS
Also "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry." It's perhaps worth noting, in light of the girl addressing her "'Prentice Boy." that it was the apprentices of the town who were first credited with closing Derry's gates. - RBW
File: PrLa032

Maiden Sat a-Weeping, A

See As Sylvie Was Walking (File: VWL014)

Maiden Who Dwelt by the Shore, The

See The Maid on the Shore (The Fair Maid by the Sea Shore; The Sea Captain) [Laws K27] (File: LK27)

Maiden Who Lived on the Plains, The

See A Fair Lady of the Plains (Death of a Maiden Fair) [Laws B8] (File: LB08)

Maiden's Answer to the Young Man's Request, The

See Things Impossible (File: GC158)

Maiden's Grave, The

DESCRIPTION: "What is that crucifix gleaming so whitely, Here in the desert standing so brave? Let us go softly, let us go lightly, To read its inscription, 'The Maiden's Grave.'" No one, save the cross that marks the grave, knows who she was or how she died
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Deseret News)
KEYWORDS: death burial nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 135-136, "(The Maiden's Grave)" (1 text)
NOTES [29 words]: Reportedly based on an incident of 1904, when the Central Pacific railroad was realigning its tracks. This involved moving one grave of a woman whose history was not know. - RBW
File: Burt135

Maiden's Lament (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The girl laments that her parents have denied her poor lover's proposal of marriage. She bids farewell to parents, friends and foes. "Come all you fair maids like me a-dying, It's now I'm taking my last farewell." She believes her death is near.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation dying father mother death poverty
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 82, "The Maiden's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2305
File: KaNew082

Maiden's Lament (II), The

See I Never Will Marry [Laws K17] (File: LK17)

Maiden's Lament (III)

See Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme) and related songs (File: FSWB163)

Maiden's Lamentation, The

See Nancy's Complaint in Bedlam (File: ShH41)

Maiden's Prayer (I), The

See The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: LP24)

Maiden's Prayer (II), The

See Died for Love (V) (File: Gard028)

Maiden's Romance, The

See Her Age It Was Red (File: Gil105)

Maidens of England sore may ye mourn

See Maidens of England, Sair May Ye Mourn (File: MSMESMYM)

Maidens of England, Sair May Ye Mourn

DESCRIPTION: "Maidens of England, sair may ye mourn, For tyned ye have your lemans at Bannockburn, With heavalow. What wende [thought] the King of England to have gotten Scotland? With rumbalow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1400 (MS. Rawlinson B. 171, f. 119a); presumably written c. 1314
KEYWORDS: battle MiddleEnglish
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1286 - Death of Alexander III of Scotland
1290 - Death of his granddaughter Margaret "Maid of Norway"
1292 - Edward I of England declares John Balliol king of Scotland
1296 - Edward deposes John Balliol
1297 - William Wallace, the Guardian of Scotland, defeats the English at Stirling Bridge
1298 - Edward defeats Wallace at Falkirk. Wallace forced into hiding
1305 - Capture and execution of Wallace (August 23)
1306 - Robert Bruce declares himself king of Scotland
1307 - Death of Edward I
1314 - Battle of Bannockburn. Robert Bruce defeats Edward II of England and regains Scottish independence
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #2039
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3331
ADDITIONAL: Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #282, p. 554, "(no title)" (1 text)
R. M. Wilson: _The Lost Literature of Medieval England_, Philosophical Library, 1952, p. 213, "(no title)" (1 text)
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, p. 26, "(no title)" (1 text)
E. K. Chambers, _English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages_, Oxford, 1945, 1947, p. 74, (no title)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, p. 160, "(no title)" (1 text)
Prestwich: Michael Prestwich, _The Three Edwards: War and State in England 1272-1377_, Weidenfeld, 1980 (I use the 2001 Routledge paperback edition), p. 81, "(no title)" (1 text)
Rossell Hope Robbins, _Historical Poems of the XIVth and XVth Century_, Columbia University Press, 1959, p. 262, "(no title)" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS. Peniarth 396D, folio 140
MANUSCRIPT: Beaminster, Dorset, J. Stevens Cox MS. [formerly Harmsworth; Sotheby Sale, Oct., 1945, lot 1956] (pagination unknown)
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge [US], Harvard University, Houghton Library, MS. Eng. 530, folio 137
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge [US], Harvard University, Houghton Library, MS. Eng. 587, folio 76
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge [US], Harvard University, Houghton Library, MS. Eng. 766, folio 149
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge [US], Harvard University, Houghton Library, MS. Richardson 35, folio 63
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, University Library MS. Ll.2.14, folio 166
MANUSCRIPT: Glasgow, University Library, MS. Hunterian 83 (T.3.21), folio 82
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Cotton Galba E.VIII, folio 88
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Harley 266, folio 15
MANUSCRIPT: New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Library MS. 494, folio 73
MANUSCRIPT: New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Library, Takamiya Deposit MS. 12 [Dawsons of Pall Mall, Catalogue 103, item 3, 1970], folio 114
MANUSCRIPT: New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Library, Takamiya Deposit MS. 29, folio 81
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson B.171 (SC 11539), folio 119
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson B.190 (SC 15500), folio 90
MANUSCRIPT: Princeton, Princeton University Library MS. Taylor Medieval 3 [formerly Morent's Court, Kent, Meyerstein, Sotheby's 17 Dec. 1952, lot 466], folio 89
MANUSCRIPT: San Marino, Henry Huntington Library MS. 113 [formerly Phillipps 8857], folio 92
MANUSCRIPT: San Marino, Henry Huntington Library MS. 131 [formerly Buccleuch, Quaritch Cats. 303, 304], folio 88
MANUSCRIPT: San Marino, Henry Huntington Library MS. 136 [formerly Phillipps 8858], folio 85
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scots Wha Hae (Bruce Before Bannockburn)" (subject: Battle of Bannockburn)
cf. "Hal-an-Tow" (words of unknown meaning)
NOTES [771 words]: For background on the Battle of Bannockburn itself, see the notes to "Scots Wha Hae (Bruce Before Bannockburn)"; also "Gude Wallace [Child 157]."
This fragment of a taunt song has been very popular -- with scholars, at least, who have given it much attention. It seems clear that it was written shortly after Robert Bruce's victory at Bannockburn in 1314, but the author is unknown and the exact text is also uncertain. Much of the attention it has gotten, curiously, seems to be related to the two curious words it contains, "heavalow" and "rumbalow." These notes were originally written in connection with "Hal-an-Tow," which contains similar-sounding words (I would not necessarily concede that they are actually the same word). Take the following notes in that light:
Chambers, p. 74, quotes, with an astonishing lack of source detail, one of the "Brut" chronicles concerning the battle of Bannockburn:
Maydenes of Engelande, sare may ye morne,
For tynt [presumably past tense of tine, lose, forfeit] ye have youre lemmans at Bannokesborn,
With hevalogh
What wende [thought] the Kyng of Engleand
To have ygete Scotlande
With rombylogh.
Sisam has the same text but uses different punctuation and orthography:
Maidenes of Engelande, sare may ye mourne,
For tint ye have youre lemmans at Bannokesbourne,
With hevalogh.
What! wende the King of Engeland [i.e. here read "Did the king of England think"]
Have y-gete Scotlande?
With rombylogh.
The ultimate source of this is Bodleian MS. Rawlinson B. 171, f. 119a, dated c. 1400.
Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 160, declares the piece "more flyting [insult-rhyme] than narrative," but if nothing else it refers to a clearly datable event.
Chambers explains both "hevalogh" and "rumbylogh" as "boating refrains," but does not show any supporting evidence, although this is accepted, e.g., by Phillips, p. 11n. Chambers also says that Fabyan's Chronicle (1516) has a similar rhyme, which is described as a dance and carol (p. 180). Wells, p. 209, discussing Fabyan, mentions "six lines of tail-rime made by the English 'in reproche of ye Scottes' whom they had beaten in the attempt to relieve Dunbar; a six-line tail-rime stanza like that sung by the mariners in [the thirteenth century metrical romance] Richard Coer de Lyon ('with heua a lowe -- with rumbylowe')"; presumably this is the source of the Chambers comment, but no one gives a line citation from the romance (which was popular in its time but now relatively rarely studied or reprinted), so I can't check it.
Prestwich, p. 81, offers what seems to be a translation of the above rhyme, which he describes as "a song mocking the oarsman's chant of 'Heavalow, Rumbalow'":
Maidens of England, sore may you mourn,
For you have lost your men at Bannockburn with 'Heavalow'.
What, would the king of England have won Scotland with 'Rumbalow'?"
Prestwich's source for this is F. W. D. Brie, editor, The Brut, Early English Text Society, 1906, 1908, volume i, p. 208 (i.e. the same original source as Chambers; cited also by Phillips, p. 11, who quotes both the original and the translation and also gives a little of the context).
Greene, p. 26, gives yet another slightly different version, this one from Fabyan's Chronicle (as printed by Pynson in 1516) rather than the manuscript:
Than the Scottish enflamyd with pryde, in derysyon of Englysshe men, made this ryme as foloweth.
Maydens of Englonde, sore maye ye morne.
For your lemmans ye haue loste at Bannocisborne,
With heue a lowe.
What wenyth the kynge of Englonde,
So soone to haue wonne Sotlande
WIth rumbylowe.
This songe was after many dayes sungyn, in daunces, in carolis of ye maydens & mynstrellys of Scotlande, to the reproofe and dysdayne of Englysshe men, w[i]t[h] dyuerse other which I ouer passe.
Evelyn Kendrick Wells, The Ballad Tree, pp. 204-205, has this same version (with minor variants), also attributed to Fabyan's Chronicle.
The DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse says this is found in 21 witnesses -- an extraordinarily high number, though many of them are editions of the "Brut." The DIMEV lists the texts of many of the versions; the variations are dramatic. These two facts argue for some sort of traditional status, even though there is no evidence that it was ever a full-length song.
Whether any of these explanations is true, or none, the "rumbelow" refrain was well enough known that W. S. Gilbert used it in "The Mikado." In Act I, lines 67-71 (p. 265 in Gilbert/Sullivan/Bradley), we find the chorus
Then man the capstan -- of we go,
As the fiddler swings us round.
WIth a yeo heave ho,
And a rumbelow,
Hurrah for the homeward bound! - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSMESMYM

Maidens of Locharmuick, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer walks out one morning to the farm at Locharmuick. He is greeted with kisses by a girl in the garden. The "aul wife" brings out a whisky bottle and he drinks a toast to the five "maidens of Locharmuick," those over them and men who are away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: farming drink moniker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 745, "The Maidens of Locharmuick" (1 text)
Roud #6175
NOTES [32 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quotes a note from Charles Murray, Duncan's source for this song, who had "surveyed Glen Carvie [Strathdon, about 40 miles west of Aberdeen] including the farm of Locharmuick." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4745

Maidens of Sixty-Three (The Old Maid)

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a girl of eighteen years old... I was taught to expect wit, wisdom, gold, and nothing less would do for me." She rejected a youth as too poor, a duke as too old, etc. By her forties, the suitors were fewer; at (63), she begs for anyone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting oldmaid rejection
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #17, p. 1, ("When I was a maiden of sweet seventeen") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1377, "The Old Maid of Fifty-Three" (3 texts)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H679, pp. 255-256, "Maidens of Sixty-Three" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDMD53*
Roud #5643
NOTES [13 words]: Sort of a combination of "My Thing Is My Own" with "The Old Maid's Song." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: HHH679

Maidenstone, The

DESCRIPTION: The Devil, to seal a deal with a jealous suitor, wins a bet with a betrothed maiden. She flees and her silent prayer to evade the Devil is answered: she is turned into a stone pillar that reminds maidens to "guard the vows that love has made"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Thom)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A jealous suitor makes a deal with the devil to damn the betrothed "Maiden of Drumdurno" -- "the beauty of five parishes' -- and Jamie. She makes a lighthearted bet -- that she can bake bread before he can pave a road -- with a stranger for her self, which she loses. Realizing that she has lost to the Devil she runs -- "fast she flies, as fast pursued" -- and is turned into stone in answer to her silent prayer. The stone "bids the maids of Garioch Guard the vows that love has made" Now, "quick the pace, and quick the pulse" of those who wander there alone "atween Pittrodie's haunted wood An' the dowie Mayden Stane"
KEYWORDS: jealousy courting love bargaining wager disguise food Devil
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #55, p. 3, "Maidenstone" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1916, "The Maidenstone" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: William Thom, Rhymes and Recollections of a Hand-Loom Weaver (London, 1847 (3rd edition, "Digitized by Google")), pp. 58-61, ("And quick the pace, and quick the pulse") [narrative and one verse]
Jeanie M Laing, Notes on Superstition and Folk Lore (Brechin, 1885 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 63-65, "The Mayden Stane of Bennachie" [narrative and three verses]
Roud #13559
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Standing Stones" (subject: the sculptured stones)
NOTES [142 words]: Laing: "Those ancient sculptured stones which we find here and there throughout the island, and about the origin and significance of which antiquarians are undecided, have, in many cases, legends attached to them by the superstitious. One of the most remarkable of these is the "Mayden Stane of Bennachie," situated in the parish of Chapel of Garioch, Aberdeenshire.... The 'causey' [road] is said to be still extant, although overgrown with rank heather; and the neighborhood bears the reputation of being haunted."
The Greig/Duncan8 note adds this comment to Greig's about the stone: "which has Pictish carvings."
Both Thom and Laing repeat the verse Greig has from Orr. Laing adds two more verses. There may be more verses in Andrew Galloway Fordyce, Reminiscences of the Maiden Stane of Bennachie, published by the Banffshire Journal in 1975. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81916

Maidin Luan Chincise (Song of the Dead Insurgent)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The speaker laments that while Leinster and Ulster rose in rebellion, Munster did not.
AUTHOR: Micheal Og O Longain (1766-1837) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Toibin's _Duanaire Deiseach_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815); 1907 (Sigerson translation)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage rebellion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 102, "Maidin Luan Chincise" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: George Sigerson, Bards of the Gael and Gall (New York, 1907 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 290-292, "Song of the Dead Insurgent" (1 text in English translation)
NOTES [137 words]: The description is, verbatim, Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815's.
Moylan states that his text is not O Longain's original, but a version from tradition. - BS
This is one of those "technically correct" laments: There were lots of hot spots in Ulster in 1798. In Munster, outside of Dublin, there wasn't much -- except in Wexford. Wexford is right on the borther with Munster, but there were few spontaneous uprisings in Munster. But Munster was a backwater. Had the Ulster rebels held together until the French came, or the Wexford rebels raised more of Leinster and moved on Dublin, they might have succeeded. Had Munster risen but all else stayed the same, the effect would simply have been to increase the bloodshed: The British would have pacified the northeast, then concentrated all their forces in the south. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Moyl102

Maids of Australia

See Oxeborough Banks (Maids of Australia) (File: FaE044)

Maids of Culmore, The

See The Maid of Culmore (File: HHH687)

Maids of Downhill, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls wandering by Magilligan strand to Downhill. He describes the shore, the old castle, the fields, the girls. He complains that the famous poets never mentioned Downhill. He would rather be here than anywhere else in the world
AUTHOR: Frances Heaney ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H809, p. 162, "The Maids of Downhill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13462
File: HHH809

Maids of Mourne Shore, The

See The Maid of Mourne Shore (I) (File: HHH034b)

Maids of Simcoe (Ontario)

DESCRIPTION: The singer urges the girls to remember the loggers while waiting at home with the farmers. He remarks sarcastically on the dangers farmers face. The boys head for (Quebec) to party, then for home. (In some texts a girl at an inn falls in love with him)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: logger separation
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 241-242, "The Maids of Simcoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 16, "Ye Maidens of Ontario" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 16, "Ye Maidens of Ontario" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 76-77, "Ye Maidens of Ontario" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doe241 (Partial)
Roud #3289
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Union Boy" (tune, floating verses)
NOTES [97 words]: There are two places in Ontario called "Simcoe." Arthur Lant, of New York (who sang the version found in Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman), thought it referred to Simcoe *county* (on the southeastern corner of Georgian Bay, and extending down to Lake Simcoe). The town of Simcoe, which is farther from the logging regions, is in Norfolk County in southern Ontario, a short distance from Lake Erie and almost due north of Erie, Pennsylvania.
Fowke reports that this song "is descended from an old English broadside, 'Ye Gentlemen of England, or The Stormy Winds Do Blow.'" - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Doe241

Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man

DESCRIPTION: Examples of why young women should not marry old men. A girl married at sixteen, and has lived an unsatisfactory life. Details are given of the old man's various performance problems. The girl notes that she eventually found solace with a young man
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1791 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: age marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South,Lond),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland US(Ro) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 207, "Never Wed a' Auld Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 32, "An old man he courted me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, p. 92, "An Auld Man He Courted Me" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #100, "Hey Down Derry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #121, "I Courted an Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #50, "An Old Man Once Courted Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 60, "An Old Man He Courted Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 10, "An Old Man He Courted Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #79, "Never Wed an Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 156, "Maids When You're Young, Never Wed An Old Man" (1 text)
Behan-IrelandSings, #48, "Maid When You're Young" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 72, "Don't Wed an Old Man" (1 text)
DT, NOWEDOLD*
ADDITIONAL: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (facsimile of (Edinburgh,1776) with an "Appendix ... containing the pieces substituted in the 1791 reprint for those omitted of the 1776 edition, &c.") ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, Appendix pp. 63-64 [2-313], "Scant of Love, Want of Love" (1 text)
ST K207 (Full)
Roud #210
RECORDINGS:
O.J. Abbott, "An Old Man He Courted Me" (on ONEFowke01)
Sam Larner, "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man" (on SLarner02)
Jeannie Robertson, "Maids When You're Young [Never Wed a Auld Man]" (on FSB02, FSB2CD); "An Old Man Came a Courting Me" (on Voice01); "Never Wed a' Auld Man" (on FSBFTX19)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "An Old Man Came Over the Moor (Old Gum Boots and Leggings)"
cf. "I Wouldn't Marry an Old Man"
cf. "I Wouldn't Have an Old Man"
cf. "No Balls at All"
cf. "My Husband's Got No Courage In Him"
cf. "A Bird in a Gilded Cage"
cf. "The Whirly Whorl"
cf. "The Old Bachelor (I)"
cf. "The Burnt-Out Old Fellow [An Seanduine Doighte]"
cf. "Le Mari de Quatre-Vingt-Dix Ans (The Ninety Year Old Husband)"
cf. "Roll Me From the Wall" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Scant of Love, Want of Love
NOTES [488 words]: In their notes to Sam Larner's recording, MacColl & Seeger cite a version from the appendix to the 1791 edition of Herd's "Scottish Songs," which they call a "remarkably close parallel to Mr. Larner's." Without seeing it, I'm hesitant to assign "EARLIEST DATE," but that has the ring of certainty about it rather than careless lumping. - PJS
I'm assured by others that they're the same, and have adjusted the Earliest Date accordingly (the more so as every other version is rather recent). But I'm leaving the comment here because, well, I still haven't seen it.
The problem of this song, incidentally, was common enough to apparently produce some special vocabulary. Grose/Partridge, p. 99, defines COURT OF ASSISTANTS as "A court often applied to by young women who marry old men."
The title, or variants on it, are also fairly old. Around 1505, Wynkyn de Worde published a translation, by his assistant Robert Copland, "The Complaynte of Them That Ben To Late Maryed" ("The Complaint of them that were too late married"). The translation is of a French original by Ouerre Grungore, "La complainte de trop tard marie." It is likely, although not quite certain, that Robert Copland's successor William Copland (probably Robert's son, but possibly his brother) republished this piece in 1563/1564 under the title "the lamentation of an olde man for maryinge of a younge mayde" (see Mary Carpenter Erler, editor, Robert Copland: Poems, 1993 (I use the 2015 University of Toronto Press paperback), pp. 46-47).
The subject certainly was the subject of discussion as early as the fourteenth century; although many rich men managed to marry young (second) wives, there were plenty of warnings of what happened when a pretty girl married a senex aman; both Chaucer's "Miller's Tale" and "Merchant's Tale" skewer the tired old man, the former in fun and the latter in bitterness, and at about the same time, Langland wrote in Piers Plowman,
It is an oncomely couple, bi cryst, as me þinketh,
To ȝyuen a ȝonge wenche to an olde feble.
(so Donaldson, p. 42. note 2, who gives it as book IX, lines 160-161 in Skeat's version of the B text; Langland/Schmidt, p. 138, makes it lines 162-163 and notes two variations in the text: the manuscripts of group α read Ihesus, "Jesus," for cryst, "Christ," and Schmidt proposes to read "any" for "an." ) This should be understood as
It is an uncomely [unfit, unbecoming] coupl(ing) [match], by Christ, as I think,
To give a young wench to an old feeble (husband).
or, as rendered in prose by Langland/Goodridge, pp. 109-110, "I think there is nothing more unseemly, than to give a young girl to a doddering old man." Langland/Donaldson, p. 86, renders into modern English as
It is an uncomely couple, by Christ, I think
When a young wench is wedded to a worn-out gaffer.
(This translation had to be slightly un-literal because Donaldson was intent on preserving the alliterative form.) - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: K207

Maighre an Chuil Orbhui

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer's wife was stolen and replaced by a fairy woman without his knowledge. In Dublin he meets his real wife whom he eventually recognizes. He joins his real wife.
AUTHOR: Colla Mac Seain (source: O Boyle, citing O'Reilly's _Irish Writers_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage reunion disguise supernatural wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 16, "Maighre an Chuil Orbhui" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [33 words]: O Boyle summarizes the text in English but does not translate it. The description follows the summary. He says, at the end, that "the song does not tell us the fate of [the] fairy wife and children."- BS
File: OBoy016

Mail Boat Leinster, The

DESCRIPTION: On October 10, 1918, "the Dublin Mail Boat Leinster was sunk in the Irish Sea" by a German submarine. "The passengers, their life-belts on, unto the boats repair, While cries for help do rend the skies in sad and wild despair."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 10, 1918: World War I. Leinster with 680 passengers sunk "by torpedoes fired by a German submarine U 123 .... Of the total of 757 aboard 501 were lost" (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 32)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 35, "The Mail Boat, Leinster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 146, "The Mail Boat, Leinster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7344
NOTES [12 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: Tune is "Poulshone Fishermen" on p. 102. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Ran035

Mail Day

See Every Mail Day (File: Wa173)

Mail Day Blues

See Every Mail Day (File: Wa173)

Mailin, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer lists all her suitors: "the farmer's cauld son," a soldier she refused, a sailor, ... and she waits for the lad and farm waiting for her. Now she has "found a far better and a far better place"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage farming sailor soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 77, "The Mailin" (1 text)
Roud #3869
NOTES [140 words]: Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 translates "mailin" or "mailen" as "farm."
The Kinloch fragment (George Ritchie Kinloch, editor, The Ballad Book (revised by Edmund Goldsmid) (Edinburgh, 1885 (reprint of 1827 edition) ("Digitized by Microsoft")), #22 p. 46, ("First there came whipmen, and that not a few")) lists suitors who "court her, and leave her": "aye for the courting the lassie was keen ... and the laddie was airy." This is not the sense of the Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 text in which the woman is willing but choosy ("It's a wonner I refusit him"), even when there was one "that [others said" soud have me." Closer to LyleCrawfurd1 than to Kinloch is the Greig/Duncan4 fragment "He's a Dark Man" since the woman is the chooser. Nevertheless, I don't see "He's a Dark Man" as being a fragment of "The Mailin." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr177

Main-Truck, The (A Leap for Life; The Captain's Son)

DESCRIPTION: "Old Ironsides at anchor lay, In the harbor of Mahon," where the captain's son climbs the mast and cannot get down. The captain takes a gun and orders the boy to jump or he'll shoot. The boy jumps into the sea and survives
AUTHOR: Words:George P. Morris / Music: Henry Russell (source: sheet music published by J. W. Peters & Sons)
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: ship children rescue
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 115-117, "Old Ironsides" (2 texts) (p. 97 in the 1919 edition has a single text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 204, "Old Ironsides" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Roud #14089 and 24875
NOTES [34 words]: Reportedly based on a tale by William Leggett. The original title was apparently "The Main-Truck; Or, A Leap for Life A Nautical Ballad."
For background on Henry Russell, see "Cheer, Boys, Cheer (II)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe115

Maine Battle Song

DESCRIPTION: "Come, sogers! take your muskets up; And grasp your faithful rifles; We're gwoin to lick the red coat men, Who call us Yankees, 'trifles.'" Loggers and soldiers will drive off the inept British invaders. They will decide the border by battle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (McCarty, _Songs, Odes, and Other Poems on National Subjects, according to Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks); probably published in newspapers in 1839
KEYWORDS: political soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1839 - the "Aroostook War"
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 160-161, "Maine Battle Song" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John Francis Sprague, _The North Eastern Boundary Controversy and the Aroostook War_, Observer Press, 1910, pp. 110-111, "Maine Battle Song" (1 text, apparently the same text, and from the same source, as Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks's)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Aroostook War" (subject: Aroostook War)
cf. "Maine Soldiers' Song" (subject: Aroostook War)
NOTES [59 words]: For background on the Aroostook almost-war, see the notes to "The Aroostook War." Of the three songs Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks prints on this subject, all vigorously anti-British, this is the most jingoistic -- I strongly suspect that, had there been an actual battle, the British regulars would have destroyed the American militia. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: Gray160

Maine Soldiers' Song

DESCRIPTION: "We are marching on to Madawask, To fight the trespassers; We'll teach the British how to walk -- and come off conquerors." The British will not be allowed to log. People from all occupations are called to join the forces which will drive out the British
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Historical ollections of Piscatiquis County, according to Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks; supposedly from 1839 newspapers)
KEYWORDS: political soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1839 - the "Aroostook War"
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 158-159, "The Solders' Song" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John Francis Sprague, _The North Eastern Boundary Controversy and the Aroostook War_, Observer Press, 1910, pp. 109-110, "The Soldier's Song" (1 text, apparently the same text, and from the same source, as Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks's)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Aroostook War" (subject: Aroostook War)
cf. "Maine Battle Song" (subject: Aroostook War)
NOTES [14 words]: For background on the Aroostook almost-war, see the notes to "The Aroostook War." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Gray158

Maine-ite in Pennsylvania, The

DESCRIPTION: "I landed safe in Williamsport in a lumberman's rendezvous, 'Twas there I hired with Jacob Brown as one of winter's crew." The singer serves six months in the wild country, talking of the waters and the great variety of animals
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: logger work river animal humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 19, "The Maine-ite in Pennsylvania" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 19, "The Maine-ite in Pennsylvania" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-Pennegends, pp. 342-343, "The Maine-ite in Pennsylvania" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Rick089 (Full)
Roud #7739
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Morris Ellsworth" (imagery)
NOTES [86 words]: This is a very strange little song: After one verse about hiring out, which could come from another lumbering song, the singer describes the territory in which he worked. But this description is so exaggerated as to be funny -- "the wild ferocious rabbit"? And Caribou are an arctic mammal.
Sandy Ives (Ives-LarryGorman, p. 197) claims that this is a version of "Morris Ellsworth," sometimes credited to Larry Gorman. I wouldn't go that far, but they are similar in concept and may have cross-fertilized a bit. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Rick089

Mains o' Boyndie

DESCRIPTION: "If ye want to learn high farmin'" come to Mains of Boyndie: it takes 14 pair and some odd-jobmen to work it. The foreman for the day is the first to start. The scythe there slashes more in a day than you'd cut with a sickle in a week.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 22, ("If ye want to learn high farmin'") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 396, "Mains o' Boyndie" (1 text)
Roud #5929
NOTES [53 words]: Here is one song that praises, rather than condemns, the conditions at a farm.
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Mains of Boyndie (396) is at coordinate (h6-7,v7) on that map [near Banff, roughly 42 miles NNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD3396

Mains o' Culsh

DESCRIPTION: "I hear ye're gyaun to Mains o' Culsh." The singer will not work there again. You are expected to be in the yoke by half past six. Loanie wouldn't rehire him anyway: "I learned his bairns to curse and sweer" though Loanie swears worse himself.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 397, "Mains o' Culsh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5925
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lamachree and Megrum" (tune, per Greig "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 73)
NOTES [39 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Mains of Culsh (397) is at coordinate (h4,v98) on that map [near New Deer, roughly 28 miles N of Aberdeen] - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3397

Mains o' Elrick

DESCRIPTION: "'Twad be a crime, shame, and disgrace, To hear the people say, That the folk o' Little Elrick Works upon the Sabbath day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad religious
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 361, "Mains o' Elrick" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #5904
NOTES [108 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 fragment.
Greig/Duncan3: "Noted [by Duncan] 1905 from Mrs Gillespie. A fragment of a doggerel song made about 1855. The queen visited Haddo House that year, and the servants at Little Elrick were angry because they received no holiday .... The servants took revenge by working on Sabbath, while the people passed to church, a fact alluded to in this verse."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Little Elrick (361) is at coordinate (h4-5,v9-0) on that map [near New Deer, roughly 25 miles N of Aberdeen] - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3361

Mains O' Fogieloan, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer hires on in May at Turra as the lowest labourer at a Fogieloan farm. The foreman and second, kitchen maid and other labourers are named. Times in town are described with drink, fiddlers, and street dealers. He'll be back next May at a hiring day.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (recording, John MacDonald)
KEYWORDS: farming drink fiddle moniker nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
Roud #5148
RECORDINGS:
John MacDonald, "The Mains O' Fogieloan" (on Voice05)
NOTES [15 words]: Turra [Turriff, according to the notes] and Fogieloan [Aberchirder] are in Aberdeenshire. - BS
File: RcMaoFog

Mainsail Haul

DESCRIPTION: The sailor, broke, goes to a boarding-master and signs up to serve on the "Oxford." He comes aboard to find "sailors... from every nation"; "There wasn't one man that could understand another." At last he jumps ship or is paid off (with the entire crew!)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: sailor poverty humorous foreigner
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 117-122, "Mainsail Haul" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
ST Doe117 (Partial)
Roud #653
NOTES [28 words]: According to Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, the Black Ball Line ran the Oxford on the transatlantic packet run from her launching in 1836 until 1850. - RBW
File: Doe117

Mairi Laghach (Winsome Mary)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic: The chorus says the mountains, fountains, dewy dells, and snowy blossoms are sweet but "sweeter is young Mary of Glensmole to me." The singer fantasizes about roving with Mary through the woods. He would scorn wealth rather than give her up.
AUTHOR: John Macdonald (1766-1865) (tune: Lachlan M'Kenzie) (source: _The Celtic Monthly_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Macdonald, "Mairi Laghach. Winsome Mary," _The Celtic Monthly_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1331, "Winsome Mary" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: K.N. Macdonald, "Mairi Laghach. Winsome Mary," _The Celtic Monthly_, vol VII 1899, pp. 8-9 (1 text plus 2 translations into English) (can be seen at the Am Baile highland history and culture site)
Kenneth Norman MacDonald, "The Gesto Collection of Highland Music," 1895 (reprinted 1997 by Llanerch Publishers), p. 23, "Mairi Laghach" (1 Gaelic text, 1 tune)
Roud #7219
NOTES [148 words]: The Greig/Duncan7 text is the chorus of the translation by D Macpherson. The description is based on this translation from The Celtic Monthly which states that "it is more poetical, but not so near the original as Evan MacColl's" (also in The Celtic Monthly).
The MacColl translation description: The singer says he has often been with Mary and "there seemed 'neath heaven No such loving two!" He would prize her as his bride "far more Than all the treasure Europe has in store" He describes her beauty. The birds singing to them gives them more pleasure than artful music.
Macdonald in The Celtic Monthly says that John Macdonald wrote the song after he saw Mary Mciver (1786-1869), his future wife, for the first time, when she was twelve. - BS
On the oither hand, the Gesto collection says the words are by Mr. McKenzie of MonkCastle. Of course, they may be different words.... - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD71331

Mairin Ni Ghiobhalain

DESCRIPTION: Tradesmen, with their tools, come to fix "a new foundation In Maureen from Gippursland" to stop her leak: a blacksmith, saddler, baker, tailor, ploughman and timberman. Each fails. Finally, a big tinkerman, with a soldering iron, fixes her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
LONG DESCRIPTION: radesmen, with their tools, came to fix "a new foundation In Maureen from Gippursland" to stop her leak: a blacksmith with hammer and anvil, a saddler with needle and thread, a baker with flour and soda, a tailor with cloth and scissors, a ploughman with horse and plough, and a timberman with an axe. Each work "until his sides was sick and sore, And after all his labour she leaked In the place where she leaked before." Finally, a big tinkerman, with a soldering iron, "rosined her, he soldered her ... but after all his labour she never leaked In the place where she leaked before"
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy tinker
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1434, "Mairins Gibberlin" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #7269
RECORDINGS:
Bill Bryan, "Marie from Gippursland" (on IRTravellers01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Auld Mairin's Gibberlin
Mairins Gibberlin
NOTES [162 words]: Jim Carroll's notes to IRTravellers01 includes the complete text of a "version entitled 'The Jolly Weaver', described as an old Ulster weaving song ... to be found in The Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society of 1906...."; the tradesmen in that text are a weaver with his shuttles and jacks, a sailor with his compass, a mason with his hammer, trowel and plumb-line, and a ploughman "with two ploughshares in his hand." In addition he refers to "a fragment entitled 'Mairins Gibberlan,' described as 'decidedly objectionable', included in The Greig Duncan Folk Song Collection [vol 7]."
There are many examples in traditional song of tradesmen's use of tools of their trade as code for sexual activity. See, for example, "Donnelly," "Anything (II)," "Bill Wiseman," "The Bonny Black Hare," "Coachman's Whip," "Cruising Round Yarmouth," "The German Clockwinder," "The Jolly Tinker (III)," "The Long Peggin' Awl," "Miller Tae My Trade" and "The Thrashing Machine (I)." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: RcMaNiGh

Mairins Gibberlin

See Mairin Ni Ghiobhalain (File: RcMaNiGh)

Mairins McCrie

DESCRIPTION: "Now Mairins being old, and scarcely fit to walk aboot She hired a little girlie to sell her liquor oot, To sell her liquor oot and to serve her with the tea And she sold it to the customers for Mairins McCrie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: drink age
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1879, "Mairins McCrie" (1 fragment)
Roud #13572
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
NOTES [19 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
Greig/Duncan8: "The song is distinctly indelicate." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81879

Mairzy Doats

DESCRIPTION: Nonsense rhyme based on distortions of meaningful words: "Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey," equating to "mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy."
AUTHOR: Milton Drake, Al Hoffman, and Jerry Livingston (source: Gardner)
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (source: Gardner)
KEYWORDS: nonsense wordplay jumprope animal food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #330, "Mare-zlett oats" (1 fragment, heavily folk processed)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 69, "Mairzy Dotes)" (1 text, from user Tess_W, posted September 1, 2021)
cf. Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 249, "In fir tar is" (1 text, ending with the line "Goat eat ivy, Mare eat oats"; this is Roud #20173)
Roud #30614
RECORDINGS:
The Merry Macs, "Mairzy Dotes" (Decca 18588, 1944)
NOTES [194 words]: According to the Wikipedia article on this song, "Milton Drake, one of the writers, said the song had been based on an English nursery rhyme. According to this story, Drake's four-year-old daughter came home singing, 'Cowzy tweet and sowzy tweet and liddle sharksy doisters.' (Cows eat wheat and sows eat wheat and little sharks eat oysters.)" I don't recall ever seeing this verse, but the Opies note a certain similarity to a different older rhyme, cited above as "In fir tar is," and Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes has a different by-blow or source. Clearly this had a very complicated history!
I frankly would not have indexed this based on just the tiny item in Abrahams, but it has a Roud number, so I'm creating this entry to link in items Steve Roud doesn't include, such as the LibraryThing citation that affirms it had some traditional vogue.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 471, estimates that this was the tenth most popular song in America in 1944, peaking at #1 in January 1915 (#1 for the year being Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne's "I'll Walk Alone"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRV330

Maitre Bainjo

See Musieu Bainjo (File: AWG113)

Major and the Weaver, The [Laws Q10]

DESCRIPTION: The weaver comes home suddenly, forcing the major (who is visiting his wife) to hide under the bed. The weaver goes out wearing the major's breeches, containing money and a watch. He claims the same right to the breeches as the major has to his wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: seduction trick bawdy humorous hiding
FOUND IN: US(NE,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws Q10, "The Major and the Weaver"
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 268-270, "The Miller and the Major" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 91, "Lie Low" (1 fragment, 1 tune, a single stanza which can only tentatively be identified with this song)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #122, "In Bed with the Major" (1 text)
DT 522, WEAVWIFE
Roud #1005
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boatsman and the Chest" [Laws Q8] (plot) and references there
NOTES [78 words]: The Copper text of "The Little Cobbler" appears to have cross-fertilized with this piece; the two are similar in plot, and the Copper version shares some words as well. But the extreme versions are distinct.
This and similar songs are sometimes traced back to a story in Boccaccio (seventh day, second story: Gianella, Peronella, and her husband). But the story is really one of the basic themes of folktale, and doubtless predates Boccaccio as well as these songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: LQ10

Major Andre

See Major Andre's Capture [Laws A2] (File: LA02)

Major Andre's Arrest and Execution

See Major Andre's Capture [Laws A2] (File: LA02)

Major Andre's Capture [Laws A2]

DESCRIPTION: The young gentleman, John Paulding, escapes from a British prison and helps capture Major André. American general Benedict Arnold escapes and leaves Andre to be executed. "And every one wished André clear, and Arnold in his stead."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1817 (New American Songster)
KEYWORDS: betrayal execution war prison | revolution Major John Andre
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 2, 1780 - Execution of Major John André on a charge of spying for the British
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws A2, "Major Andre's Capture"
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 38-40, "Major Andre's Death" (1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 114, "Major Andrews' Execution" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 84-86, "The Ballad of Major Andre" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 129, "Major Andre" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 87, "Death of Major Andre" (1 text, a reprint of an early broadside)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1363, p. 92, "Major Andre's Arrest and Execution" (1 reference)
DT, ANDREXEC
Roud #798
NOTES [2444 words]: The story of Benedict Arnold and John André perhaps demonstrates why the American Revolution lasted so long: Neither side could really get its armed forces organized or find good officers to put in charge. In the case of Arnold, that very nearly cost the Americans deeply.
Benedict Arnold (1741-1801) was, according to Flexner, p. ix, a "druggist and disreputable horse trader." But he was also one of the best American officers of the Revolutionary War; he was the key figure, e.g., in the first great American victory of the war, at Saratoga (Ketchum, p. 404, reports that he "managed to be everywhere when needed" and lists him first among those responsible for the victory.
What he didn't have was political clout -- or even political understanding. Flexner, pp. xoo-xiii, describes him as delighting in battle -- almost like a knight who enjoyed fighting, or a latter-day Achilles. To his cost, he had none of the political or organizational skills of George Washington.
And he had a gripe. A bullet in the knee during the attack on Quebec had lamed him (Marrin, p. 80), which should have made him a hero -- but his victories were never properly recognized in Congress, and there were questions about his financial dealings (Lancaster, p. 243; Ferguson, pp. 217-218; Marrin, p. 228, describes how easily he fell into debt once he left field command, and Weintraub, p. 206, says he actually faced a court-martial, though he didn't suffer any real punishment).
After being passed over for promotion too many times (allegedly on the grounds that his state of Connecticut had too many generals already; Weintraub, p. 206), Arnold turned to the British. (There may have been more to it than that; Cook, p. 328, writes of how he was making profit off the black market as early as 1778, and in 1779 he married as his second wife Peggy Shippen, who was half his age and came from a family with Tory sympathies -- André, in fact, made an ink portrait of her, shown facing p. 202 of Flexner.) Within weeks of his wedding, he was making covert contacts with the British (Marrin, pp. 228-229) -- though he wanted a high price (10,000 pounds!) for his betrayal. This initial proposal was rejected.
Meanwhile, the British had their eyes on West Point. The Saratoga offensive had been intended to slice the northern colonies in two, but had failed. They could still achieve much the same end by capturing West Point, a narrow point in the Hudson River valley. If it were in British hands, they would be able to control the whole Hudson, and prevent contact between New England and the mid-Atlantic colonies (Marrin, p. 229). West Point was perhaps the most strategic point in the whole state of New York.
In 1780, Benedict Arnold asked George Washington to give him control of the West Point fortifications. Washington didn't want to waste Arnold on a post where so little action was expected.He would have preferred to give Arnold charge of his left wing -- an important field command. But Arnold had a pretty good argument: His lame knee had been hit again at Saratoga (Lancaster, p. 221; Marrin, p. 140; Ketchum, p. 403 tells how, after being hit, his horse went down and his leg was broken), and he simply wasn't the same physically. He claimed that field command was too strenuous (Marrin, p. 230).
I've read that he asked for command of West Point under British orders (e.g. Marrin, p. 229), but Cook implies that he had not yet gone over to the British. The other possibility is that he was toying with the British, giving them a certain amount of information but not really doing anything to support their cause (this seems to be the situation described on p. 207 of Weintraub). The only thing that is sure is that he would be serving the British soon -- and being called upon to do more than just release a little stale intelligence. If he wanted a traitor's fee, he had to do something that would really help win the war. In short, he had to work out a deal. Which meant talking to John André.
André (1751-1780) was, according to Marrin,p. 227, "a remarkable person... [H]e was a gentle, lovable man who wrote poetry and enjoyed putting on plays for brother officers. Always cheerful and polite, he had a way of making others want to be his friend." Washington Irving wrote of him "The character, appearance, deportment, and fortunes of André had interested the feelings of the oldest and sternest soldiers around him, and completely captivated the sympathies of the younger ones.... Never has any man, suffering under like circumstances, awakened a more universal sympathy even among those of the country against which he practiced" (Walsh, p. 4).
Even George Washington, who had him executed, later said, "He was more unfortunate than criminal, and there was much in his character to interest, while we yielded to the necessity of rigor, we could not but lament it" (Walsh, p. 6). Yet Walsh, on the very same page, notes pointedly that "he made a blundering failure of his supremely important mission" and calls it "an incredibly inept performance." And he declares, on p. 7, that André was "Not at all the open, accomodating personality he seemed, he was as I see it one of the most calculating of individuals, keenly aware of his peculiar power to impress and fascinate."
André was eventually appointed the adjutant of the British commander Henry Clinton, and as such acted as British intelligence chief -- which in turn made him the liason with Arnold.
Arnold by this time was working to weaken the West Point defences (Marrin, p. 230), but the British would need a plan of the fortifications and other details if they were to take advantage of these weaknesses. (According to Walsh, p. 72, the British even hoped to capture George Washington, which would make the blow doubly severe.) To this point, Arnold had been using a go-between by the name of Joseph Stansbury (Weintraub, pp. 206-207), who helped furnish Arnold's lodgings. But this information could hardly be sent by coded letter.
Arnold was using what is called a "book code," which forced him to dig through a volume looking for a code for each word. It took forever (Kippenhahn, pp. 45-46, says that Arnold eventually switched to a dictionary, which made things a little faster, but still too slow -- and not especially secure). For a long description, with drawings, that sort of manual encoding was simply impossible. Someone had to physically collect the plans. André was the logical candidate. (Walsh, p. 73, says that André was under orders not to carry any papers. It's hard to imagine how anyone could have considered this a viable idea.)
On September 20, 1780, the British ship Vulture dropped André off for a meeting with Arnold. André was in uniform at this time (Walsh, p. 26). But they didn't just exchange plans; they also talked until four in the morning (Cook, p. 329). Caught in the fire of American guns, the Vulture slipped a short distance downstream, leaving André behind (Walsh, pp. 79-81, who adds that the ship suffered some minor damage but no casualties). It left André behind, what's more, with the tide going against him; rowing to the ship was out of the question (Walsh, pp, 74-75).
The ship in fact didn't go far, but apparently far enough to be out of sight from where André and Arnold were meeting (Walsh, p. 82). Walsh also reports (though I supect it is only his conjecture) that Arnold expected a tightening of security, making it impossible for André to simply go back to the ship (p. 85). Plus George Washington was in the vicinity, so everyone was especially vigilant.
André was close to neutral ground, but either he or Arnold apparently decided he had no choice but to return to the British lines on land, through the American positions. A British sympathizer outfitted him with civilian clothes, and Arnold gave him a pass with a false name (Walsh, pp. 32, 85; he quotes the passes, with the name "John Anderson," on pp. 87-88). It was at this point that André became, formally, a spy. Worse, he was an ignorant spy; he needed a guide (Walsh, p. 90), and the guide chose a long and, as it turned out, dangerous route. They were soon stopped by a patrol, and ended up making an unexpected stop for the night (Walsh, pp. 94-95). When they set out the next morning, they were again stopped, though they were allowed to proceed soon after. Later, they encountered an American officer who actually knew André's appearance (Walsh, p. 96), but managed to slip by him. Finally André left the guide behind and set out on the last leg of his journey. It was then that he was caught.
Sergeant John Paulding (1758-1818) was almost as romantic a figure as André; twice captured by the British, he had twice escaped to return to his regiment (Walsh, pp. 99-100, tells how, in his latest escape, he had pretended to be a British soldier and stolen a rowboat to get away. Thus Paulding, we note, was guilty of the very crime for which André was hung -- more guilty than André, in fact, since André was merely out of uniform but Paulding wore a Hessian uniform coat). A force led by Paulding found André, seemingly by accident, and captured him with the plans to West Point in his boots. (Walsh, p. 30, says they were actually inside his stockings. One wonders what sort of state they were in by the time the authorities saw them.)
According to Marrin, p. 231, the men who captured André were robbers as well as militia; this seems to have been based on André's own statement that they probably would have let him go had they found any money (so Walsh, p. 37, while noting that Paulding denied it). But André had no cash to give them, so they searched him closely and found the plans. André, it should be noted, was taken on "neutral ground," between the lines, so it was formally proper for him to be out of uniform (Walsh, pp. 40-41). Possessing the papers was another matter.
Unfortunately, the papers did not reveal Arnold as the traitor. Lt. Colonel John Jameson, into whose command André fell, sent a message to Arnold describing André's capture (Cook, p. 330). Arnold managed to flee and make it to the Vulture (Marrin, p. 232). Still, with Arnold gone, the West Point plans safe in American hands, and the whole plot revealed, the fortifications were safe.
André was captured September 23. Once he realized his predicament, made no secret of his situation; he seems to have hoped for leniency. He was tried before a court of six major generals and eight brigadiers (Walsh, p. 17, but don't take that as too impressive -- the Colonial Congress made far too many generals; those 14 officers would have been majors and colonels in a proper army -- assuming they were promoted that far; many were not worthy of the rank). Walsh, p. 46, says that Washington wanted the Court Martial to return a verdict quickly. So the trial was very speedy; neither side called witnesses, and André had no lawyer or counsel.
André was tried and convicted as a spy on September 29. All 14 judges signed the paper recommending death (Walsh, p. 48). Washington approve the order and scheduled André to be executed at once (Walsh, p. 54) -- though he delayed the sentence for a day during negotiations with the British.
General Clinton tried to have André's execution postponed. But the American rebels wanted blood, and were not very courteous anyway (note, e.g., their refusal to parole the British soldiers after Saratoga). Walsh, pp. 55-57, described what amounts to mutual blackmail concealed as a prisoner exchange: Clinton threatened American prisoners, and the Americans would accept no less a prize than the betrayal of Arnold. Neither side would give in on the crucial point, and so André went to the gallows on October 2; he was denied a firing squad (Cook, p. 331).
The ballad's praise of André and dislike of Arnold seems to reflect widespread opinion. Even the men who condemned and hanged André respected him; one called him his brother; Lancaster reports (p. 248) that "Unnumbered Americans" felt deeply about his execution. Lafayette, one of the men who condemned him, called him a "charming man" and said he deeply regretted the sentence (Walsh, p. 61). George III gave his mother and sisters pensions, and made his brother a baronet. Arnold, by contrast, was hated in America and despised in Britain.
And it was Arnold's incompetence which had caused the whole thing to fail: He talked too long, and he refused to make sure André made it home. Had it not been for his errors, the capture of West Point would have gone off as planned.
Despite his failure, Arnold was well rewarded for his treachery: a British brigadier's commission, six thousand pounds in cash, pensions for his family, and land in Canada (Marrin, p. 234). Walsh, p. 73, say that the offer made to him was for six thousand pounds in cash, plus a brigadier's commission, with the total payout rising to twenty thousand pounds if West Point fell -- and that Arnold held out for at least ten thousand pounds, even if things fell through. André supposedly agreed during their conference -- but since Clinton never approved André's deal, Arnold was paid only the previously promised six thousand.
Arnold proved unable to use the rewards of his treachery; troops refused to serve under him, and in the end he lost most of his ill-gotten gains in bad business deals (Marrin, p.236).
Walsh consistently tries to change the image of André, painting him as a manipulative schemer who lied, e.g., about the girl he claimed to be in love with (Walsh, p. 60), and accuses him of briefly losing his composure upon being sentenced to death (p. 61. One wonders what Walsh would do is such a situation). He credits André's ability to make a good sketch of himself to the major's repeated use of himself as a subject (p. 62). It really does seem to be the picture of a man grasping at straws to find a reason to condemn André.
This was, incidentally, one of the last major events of the American Revolution in the north. The British navy at this time was at a rather low ebb; you would never know that it was the fleet that, 25 years later, would win Trafalgar. Despite their theoretical naval superiority, the British were in effect fighting two wars, one from New York and one from Charleston. And, by this time, most of the effort was going into Charleston. Had Arnold's treachery succeeded, the war in the north might have heated up again -- but Arnold failed.
Spaeth (A History of Popular Music in America, p. 24) refers to a song called "Sergeant Champe" which has this precise plot, and which was published in 1780 to the tune of "Barbara Allen," but I have never encountered his title in tradition. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: LA02

Major Andrews's Death

See Major Andre's Capture [Laws A2] (File: LA02)

Major Andrews's Execution

See Major Andre's Capture [Laws A2] (File: LA02)

Major Middleton

See Bonnie John Seton [Child 198] (File: C198)

Major Special, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh you come down on this Ramsey, partner, 'specially Ramsey Two, Hmmm, fix it in your mind, buddy, you got your time to do." The Major knows the river too well for convicts to escape. The singer recalls many years in the prison
AUTHOR: J. B. Smith
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (recorded from J. B. Smith by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 163-164, "The Major Special" (1 text)
NOTES [77 words]: All of the songs Jackson recorded from J. B. Smith included a large amount of material unique to Smith, but this one has perhaps the highest proportion of all; there is very little recognizable traditional material. As a result, I have listed Smith as the author.
I almost thought of tagging the piece with the "moniker" keyword, since it refers to several of the prison staff that Smith dealt with. But it doesn't really fit the general form of a moniker song. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM163

Major, The

DESCRIPTION: Dublin 1798: "The Major" supported Orange "hangman hacks," "told informers what to swear," tried to prevent his Jemmy's execution and finally converted to Methodism. All "who have their catechism well" agree "whene'er he dies [he] will go to hell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Cox's _Irish Magazine_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: violence death nonballad political police
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 165, "The Major" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Downs" (character of Major Sirr) and references there
cf. "Jemmy O'Brien's Minuet" (characters)
NOTES [219 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "The Major of the title was Town-Major Sirr, chief of the Dublin police, captor of Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Thomas Russell... The Jemmy referred to ... was Sirr's creature, Jemmy O'Brien.... In 1800 he [O'Brien] killed a man near Steevens' Lane in a fit of temper, was convicted of the crime and was sentenced to hang. Sirr tried [unsuccessfully] to 'fix' the trial.... In later life Major Sirr turned to religion and became a Methodist."
For more about Major Sirr see "Henry Downs," "Edward" (III) (Edward Fitzgerald)," "The Man from God-Knows-Where" and the notes to "Who Killed Cock Robin?" (II). For more about Jemmy O'Brien see "Hevey's Mare," "Jemmy O'Brien" and "Jemmy O'Brien's Minuet." - BS
The Oxford Companion to Irish History gives Sirr's dates as 1764-1841. He came from a firmly loyalist family; his father Joseph would for a time be Dublin's Town Major (roughly equivalent to police chief). Henry joined the army at about 14, ending his service in 1791. He went into business in Dublin in that year, but was appointed Town Major in 1796. He held that office until it was abolished in 1808, and retained the title even after that; he continued to serve as a magitrate until 1826. He reportedly became very interested in Irish antiquties late in his life. - RBW
File: Moyl165

Majuba Hill

DESCRIPTION: The singer sighs for "my militia man That sleeps on Majuba Hill" She met her man on Clifton Street on Sunday night and "I let him have his will" He sailed away. She heard a Banshee cry and dog moan one November night and at dawn had news he was dead.
AUTHOR: Hugh Quinn (1884-1956) (source: Hammond-SongsOfBelfast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (_Rann Magazine_ Summer 1952, according Roud)
KEYWORDS: grief courting sex battle parting death lover soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 26, 1881 - Boers defeat the British at Majuba Hill ("By the second Boer War the battle cry was 'Remember Majuba!'""). (source: "The Battle of Majuba Hill -The First Boer War 1881" at Books on Hector MacDonald site)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, pp. 38-39, "Majuba Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [465 words]: Hammond-SongsOfBelfast: The song "recalls the garrison town of Belfast in Victorian times when streets like Clifton Street were thronged with soldiers and female admirers on a Sunday night." - BS
The opening conflict of the (first) Boer War came on December 20, 1880, at Bronkhorstspruit, when "264 officers of the 94th Regiment (Connaught Rangers), marching from Lydenburg to Pretoria, were halted on the march by a Boer commando and ordered to turn back. The lieutenant-colonel in command was given two minutes to reply to the demand. He refused to surrender and was killed by the Boers' opening shots." Most of the other British soldiers were killed as well. (Farwell, pp. 244-245).
The British commander on the scene, Sir George Pomeroy Colley, wanted both revenge and glory. He found neither. He suffered a nasty and unnecessary defeat at Laing's Nek (Farwell, p. 246),then for some reason decided that the Commander in Chief needed to escort a mail wagon; he took with him only six companies. He suffered heavily in a running battle, and then found himself confronted by an entrenched Boer position. At least he had the sense not to attack that; instead, he headed for high ground; his force by this time, according to Farwell, consisted of 490 soldiers and 64 sailors.
Colley's forces reached the position at night, but -- despite the entreaties of his subordinates -- did not order his men to entrench.
On February 26, 1881, at Majuba Hill (properly Amajuba Hill, the Hill of Doves), The British forces were routed and Colley himself killed (van Hartsveldt, p. 4). Van Hartesveld, p. 5, adds that the British took no heavy weapons up the hill, and perhap were exhausted, and the slope of the hill was such that it was hard to defend with small arms.
The Boers lost one (Farwell, p. 250) or two men killed (Pakenham, p. xxix), and perhaps five wounded. British loses were 93 killed, 133 wounded, 58 taken prisoner.
A more conservative government might have kept up the fight; losses were still relatively slight. But the liberal goverment of Gladstone was not imperialist; it gave the Boers something analogous to Home Rule: Internal self-direction as long as they accepted nominal British authority and did not insist on an independent foreign policy (van Hartesveldt, p. 5).
Majuba Day would become something of a holiday to the Boers -- at least until Boers under Cronje surrendered on that day in the second Boer War (Belfield, p. 88).
"If one were forced to say, as in a school examination paper, at what exact moment in history the mighty British Empire began to crumble, it would perhaps not be far wrong to point to that Sunday afternoon in February 1881 when British soldiers, fleeing from Boer farm boys, ran down the steep slopes of Majuba Hill" (Farwell, p. 252). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: Hamm038

Make Me a Cowboy Again

See Cowboy Again for a Day (File: FCW116)

Make Me a Garment

DESCRIPTION: "Mama, mama, make me a garment, And make it long, white, and narrow." "Mama.... look on my pillow and you will find some money." "Come along, boys... come pay my fine." The singer's love is dead; the singer will die also
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (collected from Roscoe McLean)
KEYWORDS: love clothes death money
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 358-359, "Make Me a Garment" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15596
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonny Barbara Allen" [Child 84] (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [37 words]: Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry says this "contains lines from Barbara Allen." In fact, of the eight lines, five could be derived from the ballad. I suspect that this is in fact a much-word-down by-blow of the ballad. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LoSi358

Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor

DESCRIPTION: Possibly about life in the south (Atlanta?) and the singer's desire to return or a meeting between the singer's lover and girl. Chorus: "Make me a pallet on your floor (x2), Make it soft, make it low, so my good gal won't know Make me..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (version copyrighted by W. C. Handy)
KEYWORDS: nonballad separation loneliness home return floatingverses sex infidelity
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 291, "Cornbread When I'm Hungry" (2 fragments; the "A" text combines "Moonshiner" with "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor"; "B" mixes "Moonshiner" with what appears to be a minstrel song)
Handy/Silverman-BluesAnAnthology, pp. 190-192, "Atlanta Blues (Make Me One Pallet on Your Floor)" (1 text, 1 tune, loosely based on this song)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 292-294, "Lovin' Babe" (1 text, composite of floating verses including this one)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), p. 101, "Make You Down a Pallet" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PALLTFLR*
Roud #13930
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Ain't No Tellin'" (OKeh 8759, 1930; rec. 1928; on MJHurt01, MJHurt02); "Pallet on the Floor" (on FOTM); "Pallet On the Floor" (on MJHurt04)
Merline Johnson (the Yas Yas Girl) "Pallet on the Floor" (Bluebird B-7166, 1937)
Grandpa Jones, "Fix Me a Pallet" (King 1069, 1952)
Virginia Liston, "Make Me a Pallet" (OKeh 8247, 1925)
Stripling Brothers, "Pallet on the Floor" (Decca 5367, 1936)
Ethel Waters, "Make Me a Pallet on the Floor" (Columbia 14125-D, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Chilly Winds" (floating lyrics)
File: Handy190

Make Me More Holy

See Lord, Make Me More Patient (File: AWG052B)

Make New Friends But Keep the Old

DESCRIPTION: Round: "Make new friends but keep the old, One is silver and the other gold." Other words from other sources: "A circle's round, it has no end; That's how long I want to be your friend." "New made friends like new made wine Age will mellow and refine."
AUTHOR: Words: Joseph Parry (1841-1903) (source: web sites including https://www.enquoted.com/joseph-parry-quotes.html -- accessed July 17, 2023)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Tobitt)
KEYWORDS: friend nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 194, 288, 340, 438, 442, 446, 447, 470, "Make New Friends" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 34, "Make New Friends" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 10, "Make New Friends" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Make New Friends" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 23)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 18, "Make New Friends" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GSFRIEND*
File: ACSF194M

Make We Merry Both More and Less

DESCRIPTION: "Make we mery bothe more and lasse, For now is the time of Christimas." All who come to the feast are enjoined to bring some entertainment: A song, a sport, etc. "If he say he can nought do... But to the stokkes then let him go."
AUTHOR: unknown (contemporary tune by Martin Shaw)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Richard Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354)
KEYWORDS: carol Christmas food party nonballad MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 172, "Make We Merry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics CXXXVI, p. 234, "(no title)" (1 text)
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #11, p. 9, "(Lett no man cum into this hall)" (1 text)
Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols #11, (Make we mery, bothe more and lasse)" (1 text)
Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics 98, "(Make We Myrie Bothe More and Lasse)" (1 text)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 220-221, "Make we merry, both more and less" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1866
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3059
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #27, p. 15, "(Make we mery, bothe more & lasse)" (1 text)
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #5, pp. 58-59, "(Make we mery, bothe more and lasse)" (1 text)
Rossell Hope Robbins, _Secular Lyrics of the XIVth and XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1952, p. 3, "Invitation to Festivity, I" (1 text)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, p. 208, "(Make we mery)" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 223
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Now let us sing, both more & lesse" (lyric on the nativity, from Richard Hill's manuscript; see Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, #6, p. 3-4)
NOTES [244 words]: Very possibly not traditional, but widely quoted -- and many of the pieces in the Richard Hill manuscript (Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354) *are* traditional, so I included it.
According to the notes on p. 189 of Greene, "This carol is written as if to be led by a master of festivities or 'Lord of Misrule' who has the power to 'punish'."
The Hill version ends with a Latin tag, "In die dominica prima post festum sancti Michaelis archangeli anno regis henrici septimi post conquestum anglie sextodecimo illa res erat scripta primo." Henry VII invaded and conquered England in 1485, and reigned until 1509; his sixteenth year would presumably be 1501 or 1502.
A facsimile of the Hill manuscript is now available at the Balliol Library manuscripts resource at the Bodleian web site; go to http://image.ox.ac.uk/list?collection=balliol and scroll down to MS. 354.
The "more and less" phrase seems to have been common fifteenth/sixteenth century idiom; there is another piece in the Hill MS., "Beware of swerying by the Masse," which opens "Y concell yow, both more and lasse, Be ware of swerying by the masse" ("I council you, both more and less, Beware of swearing by the mass"). This occurs also in Trinity College, Cambridge, MS. O.9.38; see A. G. Rigg, A Glastonbury Miscellany of the Fifteenth Century: A Descriptive Index of Trinity College, Cambridge, MS. O.9.38, Oxford University Press, 1968, p. 91. For the Hill MS. version, see Dyboski, pp. 42-43, - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: OBC172

Make we mery in hall and bowr

See In This TIme Christ Hath Us Sent (File: MSITTCHS)

Make we mery, bothe more and lasse

See Make We Merry Both More and Less (File: OBC172)

Make We Mirth For Christ's Birth

See First Day of Yule. The (File: MSBR3343)

Make We Myrth For Crystes Byrth

See First Day of Yule. The (File: MSBR3343)

Make Ye Merry for Him That Is Come

See Father of Heaven, Blessed Thou Be (Make Ye Merry for Him That Is Come) (File: MsFoHBTB)

Make You Down a Pallet

See Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor (File: Handy190)

Makes a Longtime Man Feel Bad

See It Makes a Long-Time Man Feel Bad (File: LoF291)

Making a Pile

DESCRIPTION: A gold-hunting miner alternates between cheer and gloom as he considers his prospects. He starts out doleful, "My spirits now are low, and I feel quite down-hearted... And I very often doubt I'll make my pile." Then he has hope, the it's back to gloom
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: mining gold hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 89-91, "Making a Pile" (1 text, from "Thatcher's Colonial Songster")
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 24-26, "Making a Pile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, pp. 145-146, "Making a Pile" (1 text)
Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 29-30, "Making a Pile" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All 'round my Hat" (tune)
File: AnSt024

Making My Will (Father Abdey's Will)

DESCRIPTION: The singer, who is dying, leaves his entire estate to his wife. The estate is detailed in exquisitely rhymed, exquisitely monotonous detail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: dying bequest lastwill
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 14-16, "Making My Will (Father Abdey's Will)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MAKEWILL*
Roud #4676
File: FO014

Malahide Fishermen, The

DESCRIPTION: On a calm November 18 "four brave seamen ... took their nets and line." Neptune, Boreas, and Death conspire to "rise an awful squall" and they "were lost here in Fingal" The four are named.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck fishing
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 14-15, "The Malahide Fishermen" (1 text)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 56A, "The Malahide Fishermen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9780
NOTES [16 words]: Malahide is in the Fingal administrative area on the County Dublin coast, north of Dublin city. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran014

Malbrouck

DESCRIPTION: French language: "Malbrouck s'en va-t-en dguere-re/Marlborough he's gone to war." Marlborough is slow in returning home; he is dead and in his tomb. Details of his funeral are given
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (Trebucq)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nobility death burial funeral | French Marlborough
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1650-1722 - Life of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
1701-1714 - War of the Spanish Succession, pitting France and Spain against Britain, Austria, and many smaller nations. Marlborough made a reputation by winning the battles of Blenheim (1704), Ramillies (1706), and Oudenarde (1708) (he fought a draw at Malplaquet in 1709)
FOUND IN: France
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 108, "Malbrouck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 202-205, "Molly Brooks" (1 tune plus dance figures)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 231-233, "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow -- (Malbrouk -- We Won't Go Home till Morning! -- The Bear Went over the Mountain)
cf. List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 146-151, "We'll All Go Down to Rowsers" (1 text, 1 tune, plus sheet music reprints of "Malbrouck" and "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow")
ADDITIONAL: Gilles Booker, "'Malbrouk, s'en va-t-en guerre' or, How History Reaches the Nursery," essay inGillian Avery and Julia Briggs, editors, _Children and Their Books: A Celebration of the Work of Iona and Peter Opie_, Oxford University Press, 1989, pp. 140-143, "(Malbrouk, s'en va-t-en guerre)" (1 French tex)
George Borrow, _Romano Lavo-Lil: Word-Book of the Romany or English Gypsy Language_, 1874 (references are to the 2011? Lost Library reprint), pp. 164-169, "Malbrun," "Malbrouk" (1 text plus a a translation from a Spanish Gypsy text, presumably this although not clearly identified)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Won't Go Home Until Morning" (tune) and references there
cf. "The Duke of Marlborough" (subject: The Duke of Marlborough)
NOTES [303 words]: For the history of this tune, see the entry on "We Won't Go Home Until Morning."
Booker, p. 143, says that the basic text "is short on historical facts and establishes only that (a) Marlborough died while on campaign away from home and (b) that he was buried with ceremony. The first of these is notably untrue and the second, while true, would probably have been so of any person of his rank and importance."
Thus, although this song is probably "about" the Duke of Marlborough, this song has nothing to do with the historical Marlborough, although Edwards, p. 155 note, says that it was based on a false report that Marlborough was killed in the Battle of Malplaquet in 1709. She adds that it supposedly was brought to Ireland by Thomas MacDonagh, one of the Irish revolutionaries on 1916.
It is very curious that a tune about Marlborough, the enemy of France, became popular in France!
According to Entwistle, p. 53, "A simple instance of migration [of a tune from country to country] is Marlbrough s'en va en guerre. The tune may come from a seventeenth-century hunting song, but it suddenly sprang into popularity in 1781 through being taken up by the Dauphin's nurse and taken up by Marie Antoinette. It spread abroad so rapidly that Goethe heard it almost everywhere on the road to Naples." Entwistle goes on to mention French and German versions that differ by just one note, plus a Catalan version with more extensive changes.
That story of Marie Antoinette getting the tune from her wet nurse is also told by Booker, p.145, so it was widespread, but Booker calls it a "tradition" rather than history.
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs describes "Molly Brooks" as an American "wearing-down" of Marlborough. Hence the classification of his dance piece here rather than under one of the other Malbrouck tunes. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: K108

Malek Adehl, The

DESCRIPTION: "Up with the black signal, and brace for the battle, A United States cruiser plows upon our lee.' "Prime well your lee guns and stand by with your matches To sink or to die for Malek Adhel." Damaged, the cry is to "strike the black flag of Malek Adehl."
AUTHOR: Music: "Will Watch" by John Davy (1765-1824)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1845 (The Pirate's Songster, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1840 - the Malek Adhel [correct transliteration], accused of piracy, is captured by the brig USS Enterprise
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 58, "The Malek Adehl" (1 text, 1 tune; #46 in the first edition, where it is incorrectly associated with the battles against the Barbary Pirates)
Roud #V30373
File: FrPi058A

Mall Bowie

See Pretty Polly (I) (Moll Boy's Courtship) [Laws O14] (File: LO14)

Mallard, The

DESCRIPTION: "I have et, and what have I et, I have et the toe of a mallard." And so forth, through foot, heel, leg, etc., culminating in the entire bird. "And," we are assured, "good-a meat was the mallard."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1889
KEYWORDS: bird food cumulative nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 299, "The Mallard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 16-17, "The Mallard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #137. "The Mallard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1517
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Mary Ann Galpin, "The Mallard" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Henry Mitchelmore, "Most Beautiful Leg of the Mallard" (on Voice07)
Bunny Palmer et al, "The Mallard" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Red Herring" (theme)
cf. "A Country Dance" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Mullard
File: K299

Mally Leigh

DESCRIPTION: An extravagant description of Mally's beauty and its effect on men. Men turn aside to see her; a countess "pines" for her; nobles "each one thocht his Kate or Moll a drab to Mally Leigh." Even royalty is not immune (but she is true to the man she loves)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: beauty courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 176-178, "Mally Leigh" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 720, "Mally Leigh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6130
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mally Lee
NOTES [51 words]: Generally held to commemorate one Mally Sleigh, who is said to have married Lord Lyon Brodie in 1725. I know of no supporting evidence except widespread belief; Ford cites a manuscript of the song "subsequent to 1760." If Sleigh (or Brodie) had any subsequent influence on history, I do not know of it. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: FVS176B

Malone

DESCRIPTION: Pat claims Mick Malone borrowed half-a-crown and "never brough it back." He won't lend him more because Malone "well knows how to borrow But he don't know how to pay." If Pat catches Malone he'll "stop his dirty tricks ... I'll give him cause to moan"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: accusation nonballad money thief
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #16689
RECORDINGS:
Mikeen McCarthy, "Malone" (on IRTravellers01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Half Crown
NOTES [63 words]: The repeated lines here are "A half-a-crown is a half-a-crown, Of course it's two and six." - BS
Every time I read this, I'm reminded of the Blind Blake song "Jones." The feel of the lyrics is much alike, but the item stolen is different (money versus girlfriend), and of course they're very different in style. I guess it just shows how certain emotions exist across cultures. - RBW
File: RcMalone

Malt-Man, The

See The Mautman (File: KinBB29)

Maltman and the Highwayman, The

DESCRIPTION: A maltman is robbed by a highwayman and left bleeding. A miller finds his neighbor maltman, hears his story, borrows his horse, chases down and kills the highwayman. The maltman testifies for the miller and clears him of the murder charge.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: homicide robbery trial reprieve death friend miller thief
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 250-251, "The Maltman and the Highwayman" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 355)
Roud #1309
NOTES [32 words]: Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO is missing the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames third verse in which the maltman unsuccessfully tries to fob off three pounds of silver when he has twenty guineas. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT250

Mama Bought Me a Pincushion

DESCRIPTION: "Mama bought me a pincushion, pinuchion, pincushion, Mama bought... one, two, three." "What did Mama pay for it?" "Paid with Papa's feather bed." "What will Papa sleep on?" "Sleep on the washtub." And so forth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Coffin & Cohen, who seem to date it to 1899)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, pp. 191-192, "A Child's Dance Rhyme" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Milking Pails (China Doll)" (cumulative theme)
File: CoCo191

Mama Don't 'Low

DESCRIPTION: "Mama don't 'low no banjo playin 'round here... Well, I don't care what mama don't 'low, Gonna play my banjo anyhow...." Mama forbids all sorts of things, from jazz playing to motorcycle riding, but the singer is not discouraged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Charlie Jackson)
KEYWORDS: music mother nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 452, "Mama Don't Allow No Low Down Hanging Around" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 21, "Mama Don't 'Low" (1 text)
DT, MAMADONT
Roud #11793
RECORDINGS:
Allen Bros., "No Low Down Hanging 'Round" (Victor 23536, 1930; Bluebird B-5448, 1934; Montgomery Ward M-4797, 1935)
Connie Boswell & her Swing Band, "Mama Don't Allow It" (Decca 747, 1936)
Milton Brown & his Brownies, "Mama Don't Allow It" (Decca 5281, 1936)
Smilie Burnett, "Mama Don't Like Music" (Perfect 13011, 1934)
Bill Boyd & his Cowboy Ramblers, "Mama Don't Like No Music" (Bluebird B-5855, 1935; Bluebird B-6235/Montgomery Ward M-4791, c. 1936)
Charlie Jackson, "Mama Don't Allow It" (Paramount 12296, 1925)
Leon's Lone Star Cowboys, "Mama Don't Allow It" (Champion 49151, n.d.; Decca 5423, 1937; Montgomery Ward 8045, 1939)
Riley Puckett, "Mama Don't Allow No Low Down Hanging Around" (Columbia 15261-D, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny and Jane" (lyrics)
NOTES [95 words]: The Brown text is very distinct from the common, bluegrass/jazz-type arrangements of this piece; the first verse and chorus are"
Well, I get up in the morning,
See no rain;
Looked in the pantry,
See the same old thing.
Mama don't allow no low down hanging around.
Chorus:
Mama don't allow it,
Sister don't care.
Papa don't 'low it,
Won't have it here.
Mama don't low no low down hanging around.
But the ending is familiar: "Well, I don't care What your mama don't 'low, Gonna have fun anyhow." Clearly the same song, with the popular texts presumably a modern adaption. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: FSWB021

Mama Don't Allow No Low Down Hanging Around

See Mama Don't 'Low (File: FSWB021)

Mama Lama

DESCRIPTION: "Mama lama kuma lama kumala beesta O no no no no na beesta" "Otchy potchy kuma loma"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (JohnsIsland1)
KEYWORDS: nonsense playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Mabel Hillery, Janie Hunter and her grandchildren, "Mama Lama" (on JohnsIsland1)
File: RcMamaLa

Mama Liza Jane

See Li'l Liza Jane (File: FSWB037)

Mama Me Wan Wuk (Mama I Want to Work)

DESCRIPTION: "Mama me wan' wuk" (3x). "Look how me muscle a jump" (2x). "Me wan fi dig ram hill" (3x). "Look how me muscle a jump" (2x)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Olive Lewin, _Rock It Come Over - The Folk Music of Jamaica_ (Barbados: The University of the West Indies Press, 2000), pp. 104-105, "Mama Me Wan Wuk (I Want to Work)" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Cedric Gibson, Stephen Gibson, "Mumma Me Wan' Go Walk" (on JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
NOTES [147 words]: The current description is Lewin's text.
In his liner notes to JamaicaFaithWorkPlay Roberts writes that "Mumma Me Wan' Go Walk" -- sung by two boys -- was "originally a digging song ... has become a children's play song under the influence od school and community efforts to preserve Jamaican traditional music." Lewin writes that the song is a mento ("relatively slow, in quadruple time, and its most characteristic feature is the accent in or on the last beat of each bar") and that "I have observed gangs of men swinging pickaxes during field labour and I can confirm the link between their movements and the accented fourth beat in mento. In order to effect a strong downward movement on the first beat of each bar in songs used to accompany this most common type of agricultural labour, there is an almost equally strong upward movement on the previous beat" (Lewin p. 104). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcMaMWW

Mama Pass the Corn Bread

DESCRIPTION: "Mama pass the corn bread, Papa pass the coon, Baby's little belly growls About a(n) empty spoon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: food mother father
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Joseph D. Clarke, "Burke Davis as Folklorist," Vol. XIX, No. 2 (Mar 1971), p. 63, "(Folk Song)" (5 stanzas, probably representing multiple songs, beginning "Mamma pass the corn bread," "Chicken in the bread tray," "Oh, Nellie had a pair of shoes," "Ye living men come view the ground," "Eat the meat, gnaw the bone,"; the second is from "Granny Will Your Dog Bite?"; we file the first as "Mama Pass the Corn Bread" and the third as "Barefoot Nellie"; the last two are too short to file)
File: NCF192MP

Mama Sent Me to the Spring

See Jumbo (Mama Sent Me to the Spring) (File: BrII142)

Mama Told Me

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Mama, Have You Heard the News

See Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)

Mama, Mama

DESCRIPTION: "Well, it's Mama, Mama, O Lord, you don't know" (x2). "Well, it's trouble I've been havin', Mamma, ain't gonna have no mo'." If hearers see his Mama, he asks that she write to the governor for clemency. He regrets the bullies in the prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from A. Haggerty, "Track Horse")
KEYWORDS: prisoner hardtimes separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 355, "Mamma, Mamma" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15597
File: LoSi355

Mama, Mama, Don't Say a Word

See Hush, Little Baby (File: SBoA164)

Maman Donne Moin un Pitit Mari

See Mamman Donne Moi un Pitit Mari (Mama Gave Me a Little Husband) (File: ScNF123B)

Mamma, Mamma

See Mama, Mama (File: LoSi355)

Mamma, Mamma, Have You Heard?

See Hush, Little Baby (File: SBoA164)

Mamma's Goin' to Buy Him a Little Lap Dog (Come Up Horsie)

DESCRIPTION: Lullaby: "Mama's goin' to buy him a little lap dog/Put him in his lap when she goes off...Go to sleep and don't you cry/Mamma's goin' to buy you some apple pie" Cho: "Come up horsie, hey hey (2x)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Vera Hall Ward)
KEYWORDS: food lullaby nonballad animal dog horse
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 152, "Little Lap Dog" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #10997
RECORDINGS:
Vera Hall Ward, "Mamma's Goin' to Buy Him a Little Lap Dog" (on NFMAla1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hush, Little Baby" (theme, lyrics)
File: RcMGtBHL

Mamma's Gone to the Mail Boat

DESCRIPTION: "Bye-o, baby, bye (x2), Mama's gone to the mail boat." "Go to sleepy, baby, bye, Papa's gone...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: lullaby mother father
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 94, "Mamma's Gone to the Mail Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6373
NOTES [17 words]: Roud lumps this with "All the Pretty Little Horses"/"Go to sleepy, little baby." I don't see it. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LxSi094

Mamman Donne Moi un Pitit Mari (Mama Gave Me a Little Husband)

DESCRIPTION: Creole French. "Maman donne moin un pitit mari. Bon Dieu, quel un homme comme li pitit! Mo mette le couche dans mo lite, Bon Dieu, comme li si t'on pitit!" Mama gave me a little husband. My god, he's tiny! ... The cat mistakes him for a mouse."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: husband wife foreignlanguage animal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 21-22, "Maman Donne Moin un Pitit Mari" (1 fragment, 1 tune); p. 123, "Mamman Donne Moi un Pitit Mari" (1 short text with loose English translation)
NOTES [89 words]: Scarborough, in transcribing her first text, notes that Creole French "is no more like correct French than Negro dialect is like ordinary English. The songs are difficult to capture...." I suspect she is trying to say, "I've no idea what this means." If she, who had contact with the informants, did not, I'm not even going to try until we get a better text.
Although Scarborough's second fragment does not make it clear, one suspects that the girl's complaint is not with her husband's height but with, um, certain other dimensions. - RBW
File: ScNF123B

Mammie's Pet

DESCRIPTION: "Let never another young man marry mammie's pet." Her mother teaches her needlework, dancing, and playing the piano instead of baking, brewing, and washing. And the promised dowry? "When the day of payment came, they did them all deny"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes)
KEYWORDS: dowry marriage warning nonballad mother wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1298, "Mammie's Pet" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 93-94, "The Mammy's Pet" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #1098
File: GrD71298

Mammy in the Kitchen

DESCRIPTION: "Mammy in the kitchen cookin' pink beans; Daddie on the ocean dodgin' submarines."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: food work war technology
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 497, "Mammy in the Kitchen" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 497, "Mammy in the Kitchen" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11764
NOTES [37 words]: Since this was collected in 1919, it clearly refers to World War I and the German submarine blockade of Great Britain. It is said to have been sung by soldiers in France. It's unfortunate that we don't have more of it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3497

Mammy Loves

See All the Pretty Little Horses (File: LxU002)

Mammy Moon

DESCRIPTION: "De day is past and gone en what is done is done, Ef you ain' done you' bes' you'll be de suffrin' one. Ole Time jes goes along en never kin turn back." "Mammy Moon, Mammy Moon, Time jes never kin turn back."
AUTHOR: W. H. Neidlinger (1863-1924) (source: Niedlinger, Songs of the Camp Fire Girls of America)
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Niedlinger, Songs of the Camp Fire Girls of America)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 343, "Mammy Moon" (notes only)
NOTES [114 words]: Yes, this really was written in minstrel dialect in 1915! Little wonder that recent scouting books have dropped it. I'd be tempted to drop Neidlinger's other compositions, too, it's so disgusting.
W. H. Niedlinger's 1915 booklet was one of the first, if not the first, attempts to create song for a scouting group (the Camp Fire Girls). More than half of the songs Niedlinger published are cited by Averill -- but they consistently just *barely* met my threshold for inclusion. Which should not surprise anyone, because they are stilted, insipid, and -- in this case -- written in fake-minstrel dialect. I strongly doubt any of them went into actual tradition; they are too lousy. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF343Y

Mammy, I'm on the Shelf

DESCRIPTION: "Mammy, I'm on the shelf, What are you doin', ye divil ye? Mammy, I'm breaking the delft. Tear away, ye devil ye."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 44, "(Mammy, I'm on the shelf)" (1 text)
Roud #22994
File: PKKB044D

Mammy, Mammy Told Me O

See What'll I Do with the Baby-O (File: R565)

Mammy's Little Boy

DESCRIPTION: "Who all de time a-hidin' In de cotton an' de corn? Mammy's little boy, Mammy's little boy, Who all de time a-blowin' Ol' Massa's dinner horn?" The little boy runs, steals away to the kitchen, fusses; Mammy keeps careful watch
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: lullaby food baby
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 158-159, "Mammy's Little Boy" (1 text)
ST ScaNF158 (Partial)
File: ScaNF158

Mammy's Pet, The

See Mammie's Pet (File: GrD71298)

Man Ain't Nothin' But a Stupid Fool, A

DESCRIPTION: "Yes, a man ain't nothin' but a stupid fool To think he got a woman all by himself... Well, I say, as soon as his back is turned, You know she cuttin' out with somebody else... Yes, man ain't nothing but a crazy fool To give one woman all his pay"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: love infidelity
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 130-131, (no title) (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 516-517, "A Man Ain't Nothin' But a Stupid Fool" (1 text)
File: CNFM130

Man and a Maid

See The Baffled Knight [Child 112] (File: C112)

Man Behind the Plough, The

DESCRIPTION: A defense of "the man that walks behind the plough." He is glad for his sons to be in school, learning to read and write and sporting round at night, but his strength is failing and he needs them to raise food on the farm.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad age children
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 62-65, "The Man Behind the Plough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1947
File: IvNB062

Man Behind, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer's father warns, "Don't ever be too forward, lad, but act with modesyt; In battle it's the man in fromt that's always shot... But the general gets the credit, for he's the man behind." Other examples show that it's best to be "the man behind"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Collected by Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains from John Daniel Vass)
KEYWORDS: warning humorous soldier clothes food technology
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 82-83, "The Man Behind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 86, "The Man Behind (1 fragment, tune references)
Roud #7358 and 12812
NOTES [79 words]: Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains speculates that this might have originated in Vaudeville. I agree that it has that sort of feeling (or, even more, the music hall or comic opera), but I failed to turn up any versions in web searches. (The fact that the title is a very common phrase doesn't help...).
The Pankakes say that their fragment is sung to "The Wearing of the Green." Not so the version in Shellan -- so, at the very least, there has been folk processing. - RBW
File: Shel082

Man from Conner's Crew, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a novice "river hog" in the pinewoods, chances the "Hulling Machine" rapids rather than portage his canoe. Caught, he prepares to die, gamely shouting "Halloo" to Conner's crew as he passes them. One of them rescues him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work rescue dying logger worker recitation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 29, "The Man from Conner's Crew" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 84, "The Man from Conner's Crew" (1 text)
Roud #4063
NOTES [41 words]: Beck leaves it up in the air whether this was a recitation or a song to which his informant had forgotten a tune. However, it reads more like a recitation, so I've assigned it that keyword. - PJS
This song is item dC42 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be029

Man from God-Knows-Where, The

DESCRIPTION: A mysterious stranger joined the men around the fire at Andy Lemon's Inn and rode on into the snow. "Two winters more, then the Trouble Year": the French are defeated. Some time after that the singer sees the stranger hanged at Downpatrick gaol
AUTHOR: Florence M. Wilson (-1946) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution Ireland patriotic recitation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May-June 1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
August-September 1798 - A French force under General Jean-Joseph-Amable Humbert lands in Ireland and is defeated.
1803 - Emmet attempts a new rebellion. The revolt is quickly crushed.
Sep 20, 1803 - Robert Emmet is hanged
Oct 21, 1803 - Thomas Russell is hanged
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 161, "The Man from God-Knows-Where" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Breathe Not His Name" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
cf. "She is Far From the Land" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
cf. "When He Who Adores Thee" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
cf. "Henry Downs" (character of Major Sirr) and references there
NOTES [232 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "The poem was written in 1918 as a recitation."
Moylan: "Upon hearing of Emmet's arrest, Thomas Russell hurried to Dublin to attempt a rescue." He was taken there by Town Major Sirr. "Russell had been the United Irish organizer in Co. Down. After his conviction for treason he was hanged in Downpatrick on the 21st of October 1803." I am too dense to connect Moylan's dots and make Russell's execution the subject of Wilson's poem. Others, seeing more clearly, make the connection. [Personally, I can connect too many dots -- e.g. an alternate possibility is that Emmet is hanged in 1803, the French are defeated two years later at Trafalgar, and then someone else is hanged the time after that. - RBW] See, for example, "Man from God-knows-where," June 23, 2005, at the Newry Journal site. Also, from the Down County Museum site article on "Thomas Russell" states that Russell was the gaol's most famous prisoner known now to many County Down people as "the man from God knows where" from Wilson's ballad "which generations of school children learnt!"; the museum site has information about Russell's career and documents related to the trial.
Town Major Sirr is a frequent villain in Dublin incidents after "the Troubles"; see, for example, "Henry Downs," "Edward (III) (Edward Fitzgerald), "The Major" and the notes to "Who Killed Cock Robin?" (II). - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Moyl161

Man Going Round

See There's A Man Going Round Taking Names (File: San447)

Man in Love, A

See When a Man's in Love [Laws O20] (File: LO20)

Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon, The

DESCRIPTION: "The man in the moon Came down too soon, And asked his way to Norwich; He went by the south, And burnt his mouth With supping cold plum porridge."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Gammer Gurton's Garland)
KEYWORDS: food injury travel
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 138, "The man in the moon came tumbling down" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 331, "The man in the moon" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 91, "The Man in the Moon" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: J. R. R. Tolkien, _The Adventures of Tom Bombadil_ (1962), expanded edition edited by Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond, HarperCollins, 2014, p. 185, "(no title)" (1 text)
Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond, _The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Reader's Guide_, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, p. 579, "(no tite)" (1 text)
Roud #19744
NOTES [916 words]: In one of his earliest attempts to examine what the lost archetypes of nursery rhymes might have been like, J. R. R. Tolkien dramatically expanded this as "The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon," later to become #6 in the Adventures of Tom Bombadil; Tolkien's poem first appeared in 1923 (Shippey, p. 36), which I believe means that either it or Tolkien's other "Man in the Moon" poem, "The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late" (his attempt to "explain" "Hey Diddle Diddle, the Cat and the Fiddle") was the first published example of the Middle-Earth writings. According to TolkienBombadil, p. 186, Tolkien's oldest manuscript copy of his poem dates from March 1915. At one stage, Tolkien used the subtitle "An East Anglian Phantasy," although he later dropped that.
There has been a surprising amount of scholarship about this particular poem and what Tolkien did with it; these are listed in the Scull/Hammond reference cited above.
George MacDonald also fiddled with the poem; he made a sort of expanded combination of the two "moon" rhymes in "The True History of the Cat and the Fiddle" in the chapter "Another Early Bird," chapter 24 of At the Back of the North Wind.
There was quite a bit of medieval folklore about the Man in the Moon (most of which Tolkien would have known although MacDonald likely did not); Brown, p. 234, says: "According to the general folk-story, the Man in the Moon was a thief, and he was represented as carrying a bundle of thorns. In the Low Countries he was named Burno" -- a connection with burning his mouth? Similarly Dickins/Wilson, pp. 131, "According to a widespread folk-tale the man in the moon is supposed to be a peasant who has been banished there because he has stolen the thorns or brushwood which he is carrying on his fork."
Brown also says, "Popular tradition connected the Man in the Moon with the story of Cain, as O. F. Emerson has shown ('Medieval Legends of Cain', PMLA, xxi, 841-3). The legend of the Man in the Moon and his bundle of thorns was mentioned in the fifteenth century by Henryson in the Testament of Cressid:
On her brest a chorle painted ful even
Bearing a bush of thorns on his backe
Which for his theft might clime no ner the heven.
"It is twice introduced by Shakespeare, M.N.D., Act V, Sc. i, and Tempest, Act II, Sc. ii."
The Henryson text cited, according to both Kindrick, p. 164, and Fox, p. 119, is lines 261-263, i.e. the second through fourth lines of stanza 38 (the poem is in seven-line stanzas). Kendrick, p. 181, also mentions the link through Shakespeare: "The churl bearing a bunch of thorns on his back as part of the moon's iconography reminds one of the rude mechanicals' efforts to represent Moonshine with his 'bunch' of thorns in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream."
That the Henryson lines refer to the moon is made clear in line 253, which refers to "lady Cynthia," which in line 254 is said to be the planet "swiftest in her spheir" (Fox, p. 119).
It appears that Brown's text is quoted from one of the Anglicized editions (probably William Thynne's) and likely does not represent the original Scots text very well. Fox, who used all three surviving prints, gives the text of the three lines as
And on hir breist ane churle paintit full euin
Beirand ane bunche of thornis on his bak,
Quhilk for his thift micht clim na nar the heuin.
Both Fox and Kindrick read "bunch" for Brown's "bush"; "bush" is read only by Thynne. There are no other variations in the lines except those caused by Anglicization.
Brown, pp. 160-161; Davies, #15, pp, 71-72, and Dickins/Wilson, pp. 123-124, cite an even earlier Man in the Moon poem (which is why both Brown and Dickins/Wilson were commenting on the legend), from MS. Harley 2253 (the transcription is Brown's; Dickins/Wilson's has "ant" for "&" in the first line; Davies modernizes a bit):
Mon in þe mone stond & strit,
On is bot-forke is burþen he bereþ;
Hit is much wonder þat he nadoun slyt,
for doute lest he valle, he shoddreþ and shereþ.
Loosely translated:
Man in the moon stands and strides,
On his forked stick [hay-fork?] his burden he bears.
It is a great wonder that he does not sit down
For fear that he fall, he shudders and swerves. (Davies gives a translation/modernization of the whole thing.)
(Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2066; DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3362, which lists sixteen printings as of November 20, 2023.)
The poem goes on to describe him as driving stakes to establish a boundary, and calls him the slowest man that ever was born, who does little work. Finally he disappears in the dark (again giving us a possible link to the man coming down in this rhyme).
The source manuscript is the famous Harley 2253, the "Harley Lyrics," which in general do not appear to be "folk."
This poem was reprinted by Ritson in Ancient Songs and Ballads, but Ritson misunderstood it at several points. (To be fair, Shippey, p. 37, while calling it "perhaps the best medieval English lyric surviving" also says it is "certainly one of the hardest, prompting man learned articles and interpretations.") Despite its presence in the Harley Lyrics,I think it fairly likely that it is a "folk" piece, but there is no evidence of a tune, and it is so old that we really can't place it in a folk context.
Despite all this Man in the Moon folklore, the incomprehensibly imaginative Katherine Elwes Thomas (Thomas, p. 196) thinks this is about Earl Bothwell and his troubles after he married Mary Queen of Scots. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: OO2331

Man in the Moon Came Tumbling Down, The

See The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon (File: OO2331)

Man in the Moon, The

See Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

Man is Free by Nature

DESCRIPTION: "Why vainly do we waste our time, Repeating our oppression? ... See Gallia's bright example; The glorious scene before our eyes, Let's every tyrant trample.... future ages prove this truth, That man is free by nature"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (_Paddy's Resource_ (Philadelphia), according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: France nonballad patriotic freedom
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 14, 1789 - The Bastille is taken, marking the beginning of the French Revolution
1791-1792 - Thomas Paine publishes _The Rights of Man_
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 12, "Man is Free by Nature" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Glorious Exertion of Man" (subject of the French Revolution)
NOTES [101 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "This song may have been written by Thomas Russell." - BS
It does sound like something Russell (1767-1803) might have written, since he was a radical -- reportedly a friend of Wolfe Tone -- hung in the aftermath of Robert Emmet's rebellion. If so, though, he obviously lived to see the promise of the French Revoution drowned in blood. Indeed, it's hard to see how the song could have been published as late as 1796, assuming the author was rational; the Terror had run from 1793-1794, which should have shown how dangerous uncontrolled "populist" movements could be. - RBW
File: Moyl012

Man Killed by Falling From a Horse

See Come All You Young of Wary Age (File: R705)

Man Named Hods, A

DESCRIPTION: "Come, all you old cow-punches, a story I will tell.... Back in the days when I was young, I knew a man named Hods" who was good for nothing. Indians attack and leave him to die, but he lives to open a gambling house. He goes to New York
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy Indians(Am.) money injury gambling
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 99-101, "A Man Named Hods" (1 text)
NOTES [46 words]: This poem (almost certainly not a song, since the stanzas are irregular" ends with the line "And now they say he's a senator, but of that I shore don't know." There was no national Senator from New York with a name anything like "Hods," but possibly he was a state Senator. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: ThLo099

Man of Birmingham Town, The

See The Man of Burningham Town (File: VWL068)

Man of Burnham Town, The

See The Man of Burningham Town (File: VWL068)

Man of Burningham Town, The

DESCRIPTION: A man of (Burningham) goes to sea; his wife spends her time carousing. He returns to see her out on the town; he sneaks home and sends the maid to announce his arrival. She proclaims her delight, but he beats her with a rope. She promises to reform.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Sharp MS)
KEYWORDS: infidelity marriage warning return abuse humorous sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,Lond)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 68-69, "The Man of Burningham Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #71, THe Man of Birmingham Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 195, "The Birmingham Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 123, "There Lived an Old Man in Dover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #665
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "The Birmingham Man" (on HCox01) (on FSBFTX19)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Man of Burnham Town
In Burnham Town
The Man of Dover
File: VWL068

Man of Constant Sorrow

DESCRIPTION: "I am a man of constant sorrow, I have been troubled all my days, I'll bid farewell to old Kentucky, The place where I was born and raised." Singer describes his hard, rambling life, and bids farewell to his lover, country, and friends.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Richard Burnett's songbook)
KEYWORDS: loneliness farewell rambling train lament lyric hobo
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 167, "In Old Virginny" (4 texts, 4 tunes, with the "C" text being this song; "A" and "B" are "East Virginia (Dark Hollow)" and D is a collection of floaters)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 26-27, "Constant Sorrow" (1 text, 1 tune, beginning with "Man of Constant Sorrow" but with most of "Fair and Tender Ladies" grafted on at the end)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #94, "Man of Constant Sorrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 35-36, "Man of Constant Sorrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 30, "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 113, "Man of Constant Sorrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 260, "Man of Constant Sorrow" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 57, "Man of Constant Sorrow" (1 text)
DT, CONSTSOR* CONSTSR3*
Roud #499
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "Man of Constant Sorrow" (Paramount 3289, 1931; on ConstSor1); "I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow" (Vocalion 5208, 1928)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Man of Constant Sorrow" (on Holcomb-Ward1)
Frank Proffitt, "Man of Constant Sorrow" (on FProffitt01)
The Stanley Brothers, "I'm A Man of Constant Sorrow" (Columbia 20816, 1951)
Rick Ward, "Man of Constant Sorrow" (Piotr-Archive #140, recorded 04/18/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Girl of Constant Sorrow" (structure, tune)
SAME TUNE:
Girl of Constant Sorrow (File: FSWB128B)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow
Farewell Song
NOTES [101 words]: The words of this song have the curious characteristic of sounding like floating verses, even though they are not. - PJS
Although Emry Arthur claims to have composed this piece, a significantly different version was found in the Blue Ridge Mountains in 1957. One suspects that, when Arthur claimed authorship, he meant (as many other old-time singers meant) that he put it in shape for collection.
In later years, Richard Burnett was asked about the song. He himself could not remember, at that time, if he had composed it, or copied it, or -- perhaps most likely -- adapted it from something traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CSW113

Man of Dover, The

See The Man of Burningham Town (File: VWL068)

Man of Honor from Virginia Came, A

DESCRIPTION: "[I am???] A man of honor and from Virginia came, I courted a fair damsel and Polly was her name." Her brother opposes the match because he is poor. The two discuss whether to marry. The outcome is confused
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1)
KEYWORDS: love courting brother separation
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 49-50, "A Man of Honor from Virginia Came" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7124
RECORDINGS:
Texas Gladden, "I Am a Man of Honor" (on USTGladden01)
NOTES [82 words]: Burton and Manning lump it with Sharp's "The Virginia Lover," which is also heavily composite; these are the sorts of songs that are really hard to classify.... It seems clear that this is a composite, though it's hard to tell of what. Various verses reminded me of "Pretty Saro," "The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town)" [Laws M32], "When First Unto this Country," and others. Like Roud, I file it separately because it doesn't seem to have a single dominant component. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: BuMa1049

Man of the Earth

DESCRIPTION: "By profession and birth I'm a man of the earth; I burrow in it like a mole." The singer tells of the life of a miner -- often poor, often overworked, often blamed for problems not of his making. He recalls the price paid in blood for "socialised coal"
AUTHOR: Words: Jock Graham / Music: Phyl Lobl (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1975
KEYWORDS: mining work nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 204-205, "Man of the Earth" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: FaE204

Man of the North Countrie, The

DESCRIPTION: "He came from the North, so his words were few." The singer is happy she married him and moved to Limerick. "I wish that in Munster they only knew The kind kind neighbors I came unto" so that there would be no hatred between South and North.
AUTHOR: T.D. M'Gee (source: Hayes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Hayes)
KEYWORDS: marriage travel nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, p. 46, "He Came from the North" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859 (reprint of 1855 London edition)), Vol II, p. 46, "The Man of the North Countrie"
Roud #6548
NOTES [12 words]: County Limerick is in the north-central area of the region of Munster. - BS
File: HayU046

Man of Thessaly, The

See There Was a Man of Thessaly (File: OO2498)

Man of Travel

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Man of War

See The Press Gang (I) (File: RcTPrGan)

Man on the Flying Trapeze, The

See The Flying Trapeze (File: RJ19069)

Man That Came Home From Pretoria, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer catches a lugger for home from the Boer War. Landing at Dundalk he is picked up by peelers for having "no means of support" and is thrown in jail among the fleas. In the morning a J.P. releases him; he swears he won't leave Struicin again.
AUTHOR: Michael O Tuama (George Curtin) (source: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: war home return travel prison reprieve Africa Ireland humorous soldier
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 174, "The Man That Came Home From Pretoria" (1 text)
Roud #16261
NOTES [93 words]: Dundalk is in County Louth, Ireland. Peelers (Bobbies) would still have been in County Louth at the end of the Boer War. Struicin (Strickeen) is in County Kerry, Ireland, far enough away from Dundalk. I assume J.P. is Justice of the Peace. A lugger is a fishing vessel not likely to make the whole trip home from "Pretoria," and -- according to OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin -- it seems Curtin was not in the Boer War but based his song on his adventure to and from Cardiff, Wales; he might very well have been aboard a lugger for that trip. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC174

Man That I Look Out For, The

See Joe Bowers [Laws B14] (File: LB14)

Man That Knows It All, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's shiploads of Mormonites coming o'er, Coming o'er, bound for Utah; Oh, each has five wives and they shout for more... Oh, that's an old wrinkle in Solomon's time: Not in mine." The singer thinks one is enough; "I'm the man that knows it all"
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (play, "Investigation")
KEYWORDS: derivative humorous marriage | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. II, #105, pp. 82-85, "The Man That Knows It All" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 263, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Roud #10950
NOTES [269 words]: The description above is of the fourth verse of this song, the only one cited in a traditional collection. Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest says this is an addition to "The Man That Knows It All," by Edward Harrigan and David Braham (for whom see "The Babies on Our Block." This is not correct; the lyric is part of the original song (verse 4). The actual song begins:
The day of election is coming on,
Coming on, coming right on;
Oh, there will be trouble and lots of storm,
Oh, what d'ye think of it now?
Oh, that's an old chestnut, I've heard it before,
Long before, oh, take it next door,
To the deaf and dumb woman upon the top floor,
I'm the man that knows it all.
It's a very topical song; in addition to the Mormon verse (which became obsolete in 1890 when the Mormons banned polygamy) it has a verse about Free Trade and the Tariff (a constant issue in this period), and another about expeditions to the North Pole (which were frequent).
The reference to the "old wrinkle in Solomon's time" is a reference to Solomon's exceptionally large harem; he was reputed to have had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3). Solomon's wives are said to have led him astray, with disastrous results (1 Kings 11:4). And Solomon himself had come to the throne as a result of a harem intrigue in which Bathsheba asked the old King David to prefer her son Solomon to the proper heir Adonijah (1 King 1). Jacob had also had problems with multiple wives. So the Biblical examples of polygamy were certainly not encouraging. But the song, while reaching the same conclusion, does not really cite the Biblical examples. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GFGW263

Man That Lives, The

DESCRIPTION: "The man that lives must learn to die, Christ will no longer stay...." Listeners are reminded that their bodies will be food for worms; their lives are grass. They are in danger of hell, and one who ends there, "no physic shall him cure."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire)
KEYWORDS: death Hell religious nonballad carol
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 195-196, "The Man That Lives" (1 text, 2 tunes)
ST Leath195 (Partial)
Roud #2110
File: Leath195

Man that Waters the Workers' Beer, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am the man, the very fat man, that waters the worker's beer." The man waters the beer to make more profit (he admits to having "a car, a yacht, and an aeroplane") and to keep the workers in subjection. To this end he even uses poison
AUTHOR: Words: Paddy Ryan / Music: Traditional
EARLIEST DATE: 1937
KEYWORDS: drink poison worker humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 29, "The Man That Waters the Workers' Beer" (1 text)
DT, WATRBEER*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES [1330 words]: I was hesitant about including this song, but it is narrative, more or less, and it does seem to have entered tradition. - PJS
Reading this, I can't help but think of the charges filed against the founder of chemistry, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794). According to Brock, p. 123, Lavoisier was charged with "having mixed water and other 'harmful' ingredients in tobacco." He was charged based on the testimony of a man whose early scientific work he had shown to be inadequate (Jaffe, p. 70). He went to the guillotine.
To be sure, he was a stockholder of a tax farming company (he had, at age 28, married the 14-year-old daughter of a tax farmer; Porter, p. 414), and this was his real crime (though he did not himself collect taxes, and his wife helped his experiments, according to Porter, p. 414). But the execution was a terrible loss for France, and an even greater loss for chemistry; as Laplace (himself one of history's greatest mathematicians) said at the time, "It required only a moment to sever that head, and perhaps a century will not be sufficient to produce another like it" (Porter, p.415). Much as I sympathize with the British working class, charges such as these are usually oversimplified.
The song lists three poisons placed in the beer: Strychnine, methylated spirits, and kerosene. Kerosene is a highly unlikely contaminant, since it is a hydrocarbon and does not dissolve in water. It is true that, during prohibition, some bootleg compounds were found to contain kerosene (Blum, p. 51). But this was clearly accidental contamination, and it didn't happen in publicly-sold beer. Still, there were a lot of rumors about the matter (Blum, p. 153), which might have helped inspire this song.
Strychnine, which is a natural biological alkaloid, is a more plausible contaminant -- and the same reports which put kerosene in spirits also said that some contained brucine, which is similar to strychnine (Blue, p. 153).
Methylated spirits are even more likely -- methylated spirits usually refers to ethyl alcohol contaminated with methyl alcohol to make it undrinkable, but in this case probably is intended to mean pure methyl alcohol.
Methyl alcohol gives the drinker the impression of consuming "regular" alcohol, but methyl alcohol is in fact a poison (Emsley, p. 110, says that methylated spirit is more poisonous than bleach; Blum, p. 41, adds that it derives much of its effect from the fact that it is very hard to metabolize). Plus its buzz didn't last very long (Blum, p. 161), tempting the drinker to consume more sooner, adding to the danger of overdose.
But methyl alcohol is cheap (Blum, p. 40) -- and was commonly used as an adulterant during Prohibition in the United States. Nor was it just during Prohibition. In June 2020, I saw reports of methyl alcohol (also known as methanol) being used in place of ethyl alcohol (ethanol) in hand sanitizer.
Ironically, the more ethyl alcohol, the less poisonous the methyl alcohol; the ethyl alcohol soaks up the enzyme which otherwise converts the methyl alcohol into lethal formic acid (Timbrell, pp. 196-197). The main effect of methyl alcohol in small doses is to make hangovers far worse, but it can also damage the kidneys and eyes, and if consumption reaches about 70 ml, death will generally follow.
It strikes me as unlikely that a boss would have methyl alcohol placed in his workers' beer; blindness was too likely to result (Blum, p. 49). It would be more likely that a dishonest manufacturer, who doesn't care about the drinkers' health, would do so.
The inclusion of strychnine is much more complicated. For starters, the workers might well notice it -- it is one of the most bitter-tasting substances in existence (Timbrell, p. 227).
Although now known as a poison, it was not always so. Buckingham, pp. 35-47, has notes on the discovery of vegetable alkaloids (which is what strychnine is). It began when it was noted that "Jesuit bark" is effective against malaria (Buckingham, p. 35). It would eventually turn out that "Jesuit bark" contains quinine, the first effective anti-malaria medication (now pretty useless, but it worked fine in the nineteenth century). The incompetent chemistry of the time figured out that a bitter agent was responsible for the curative effect -- but not which bitter agent. It was assumed that most bitter vegetable products -- the vegetable alkaloids -- were active against fevers. One such alkaloid was from the Strychnos nux-vomica tree (Buckingham, p. 36). This was strychnine.
The symptoms of strychnine perhaps explain why it was initially considered a useful drug: Timbrell, p. 155, notes that it heightens awareness, and can be used as a purgative. But it also leads to violent and exhausting convulsions. These are what lead to death -- a painful and terrible death, because the victim remains aware the whole time. Respiration often halts during the convulsions; it can restart several times before finally failing. Death usually comes within three hours of the onset of symptoms; a victim who lasts three hours will often survive.
Apparently it began poisoning people very early on, but it took a century and a half before apothecaries ceased to supply it (Buckingham, p. 46). In the Sherlock Holmes novel The Sign of the Four, near the end of chapter four, we see Watson discuss it in a way which implies it was part of his medical kit. MacInnis, p. 79, tells of an Olympic runner in 1904 who tried to use strychnine as a restorative -- and nearly died of it. Even in 2001, there was a report of a weightlifter testing positive for strychnine (which means, yes, doping agencies test for it!).
It is ironic to note that, if someone really wanted to dose the workers' beer with strychnine, the stronger the beer, the less effective it would be. The reason strychnine causes convulsions is that it opens pathways for especially strong and repeated nerve impulses, leading to convulsions (Timbrell, p. 156). The treatment is to isolate the victim from external stimuli (to prevent the nerves from firing in the first place) and applying a sedative to calm the nerve impulses. Timbrell says that barbiturates are now the preferred sedative, but alcohol would certainly be better than nothing.
If the statement that strychnine was added to workers' beer is based on an actual news report (which I doubt, but I don't know), it *might* have been added in an attempt to keep workers healthy -- it was actually used as a tonic (MacInnis, p. xv). The effect, of course, would have been the reverse. And even if it hadn't been a poison, mass use of alkaloids would have had the same effect as the mass use of antibiotics has had more recently: The bugs would have developed immunity.
I do think adding it to beer at this early date would have been unlikely. It was not until the 1920s that Robert Robinson began to research the structures of the alkaloids; he managed to determine the chemical composition of strychnine (and even, by 1946, to synthesize it; Porter, pp. xxix, 585); until then, getting precise dosages would have been difficult.
To be sure, it was not unusual for pub owners to water beer and then add adulterants. MacInnis, p. xiii, notes the case of levant nut, which caused the consumers to go to sleep. In a place where the company also owns the bars, this might be very popular -- the workers would drink a little watered beer and go to sleep, thus eliminating the need for all that expensive beer and also reduced the number of drunken workers. On p. 46, MacInnis mentions a law case against a man who made a pseudo-beer out of ingredients including opium and vitriol. Bad beer was common -- but not for the reasons in this song.
It is ironic that the song does not mention arsenic, implicated one of the largest bad-beer stories of all time. According to Timbrell, p. 119, in 1900 a batch of glucose used to make beer was accidentally contaminated with arsenic. 6000 people in Birmingham were sickened; 70 of them died. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: FSWB029

Man to the Green Joe, The

See Four and Twenty Tailors (File: KinBB13)

Man Took in His Bed, A

DESCRIPTION: A man says he is sick to death for love of a girl. She sleeps with him. He says he never loved her, but loves another girl. She says he should leave: she does not value his love. If she has a baby she'll nurse it but send her seducer to the gallows.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: seduction rejection trick rake lie
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1482, "A Man Took in His Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7179
File: GrD71482

Man Was Burning, The

DESCRIPTION: A man had been gambling. "The man was burning on the log... that man was burning for blaspheming the name of God." People get a saw in order to free him from the log but "as the sawdust fell It commenced a-dripping blood"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (VaWork)
KEYWORDS: sin death gambling cards fire religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Joe Lee, "The Man Was Burning" (on VaWork)
NOTES [55 words]: Glenn Hinson, liner notes to VaWork, pp. 18-19: "Apparently the gambler lost his final hand, cursed the Lord, and immediately was engulfed in fire.... sat on a nearby log where he was struck immobile.... When they tried cutting the log to free the man, it began dripping blood, forcing them to leave the blasphemer there to die." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcMaWaBu

Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer rejoices in the happiness he experienced since he "broke the bank at Monte Carlo." The girls follow him, and he leads a carefree life. He sets out to marry "a madamoiselle [who] with twenty tongues swears she will be true."
AUTHOR: Fred Gilbert
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (sheet music published by T. B. Harms & Co.)
KEYWORDS: gambling money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 136-137, "The Man That Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 124-126, "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 237-239, "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" (1 text)
DT, BROKEBNK*
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 183-186, "The Man THat Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1891 sheet music)
Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 128-131, "The Man That Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Margaret Bradford Boni, editor, _Songs of the Gilded Age_, with piano arrangements by Norman Lloyd and illustrations by Lucille Corcos, Golden Press, 1960, pp. 125-126, "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24846
RECORDINGS:
Averil Lund, "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #45, recorded 07/21/2021)
Chris Miles, "The Man That Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #543, recorded 03/14/2023)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(90b), "The Man That Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo," unknown, c. 1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Monte Carlo" (subject: the man who broke the bank)
SAME TUNE:
My Old Iron Cross (File: AWTBW033)
NOTES [194 words]: This is one of those pieces that is carried entirely by its tune. The words are banal (so much so that a large number of singers instantly rejected it), but it was quite popular in its day (now, thankfully, over). Waites & Hunter say that publishers were so dubious about the song that they insisted upon offering a royalty upon publication rather than a flat fee. It was a mistake -- instead of Gilbert earning ten pounds, he ended up earning 600.
The sheet music, shown in Waites & Hunter, has an interesting superscription: "This song may be sung in public without fee or license, EXCEPT AT MUSIC HALLS."
Gilbert-LostChords reports that, in 1891, Monte Carlo hired a man to toss money about in the streets of London, describing himself as the man who broke the bank. Fred Gilbert, observing this spectacle, wrote his song.
According to Geller, the man who tossed the money was Arthur DeCourcy Bower, who died poor, but Geller mentions his hiring by Monte Carlo officials as a mere possibility.
NLScotland claims that the song was instead inspired by the success of Joseph Hobson Jagger (died 1892), who reportedly won a million pounds in Monte Carlo in 1875. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: SRW136

Man Who Has Plenty of Good Peanuts, The

See Jolly Neighbor (File: Arno071)

Man Who Has Plenty of Good Tobacco, The

See Jolly Neighbor (File: Arno071)

Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn, The

See The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn [Laws H13] (File: LH13)

Man Who Wouldn't Hoe His Corn, The

See The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn [Laws H13] (File: LH13)

Man Who Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was a Married Man, The

See The Brisk Young Bachelor (File: ShH69)

Man with the Gun, The

See There Was a Little Man (File: BGMG025)

Man You Don't Meet Every Day, The (A)

See Jock Stewart (The Man You Don't Meet Every Day) (File: R476)

Man-o-War Sailor

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "Man-o-war sailor, ho-heave-ho." The shantyman sings "Man-o-war sailor, you better le' me go." "... I'm trying to go home" "... I'm going home" "... I'm rowing home" "... the current going home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: work sea shanty
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 38-39, "Man-o-War Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [7 words]: Abrahams has this as a Tobago rowing song. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS038M

Man-of-War Piece, The

DESCRIPTION: "I have kept my true love company For better than three year; He promised that he'd marry me" but he's left on a man-of-war. If he's slain "in heaven I hope his soul will shine through all eternity"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: grief love war parting ship sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 45, "The Man-of-War Piece" (1 text)
Roud #7578
File: GrMa045

Man-of-War's Garland, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye valiant seamen And each jolly tar, And let us try our fortune On board a man-of-war." The Americans "broke our peace... in Virginia." French, Spanish, others join against Britain, but King George's sailors will be victorious
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 ("Man-of-War's Garland," according to Palmer)
KEYWORDS: war ship sailor patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 59, "The Man-of-War's Garland" (1 text)
File: PaSe059

Man, be glad in hall and bower

See In This TIme Christ Hath Us Sent (File: MSITTCHS)

Man, be ware and wise in dede

See Assay Thy Friend Ere Thou Hast Need (File: MSATFETN)

Man's a Man for A' That, A

DESCRIPTION: "Is there for honest poverty That hangs his head and a' that... For a' that and a' that, Our toils obscure and a' that, The rank is but the guinea stamp, The man's the gowd for a' that." Praising equality, with a final prediction that all will be brothers
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (Currie)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad freedom
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 162, "A Man's a Man for A' That" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 297, "A Man's A Man For A' That" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1370, p. 93, "A Man's A Man for A' That" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 41 and #5/64, p. 23, "A Man's a Man for a' That" (1 text)
DT, MANSAMAN*
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #482, pp. 602-603, "For a' that and a' that" (1 text, from 1795-1796)
Roud #30953
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "For A' That and A' That (I)" (stanza form, lyrics)
cf. "He Wears a Bonnet for a Hat" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
A Tidy Suit for A' That (Broadside Bodleian Firth B.26(289))
George the Fourth is Coming Down (by John Mayne; see Christoper Sinclair-Stevenson, _Blood Royal: The Illustrious House of Hanover_, Doubleday, 1980, p. 180)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
For A' That And A' That
Is There for Honest Poverty
NOTES [246 words]: Reported to be based on "The Bard's Song" in "The Jolly Beggars," and written in 1795, making it one of the last of Burns's "big" pieces. On the other hand, Ord has a song ("For A' That and A' That," p. 196) which looks like a model and which he calls an "old bothy song." And there is still another song "For a' that an' a' that" credited to Burns in the Scots Musical Museum (#290, p. 300, "Tho' womens minds like winter winds May shift and turn and 'a that, The noblest breast adores them maist, I consequence I draw that..."). Clearly the history of the song is complicated.
Though that's nothing compared to the use to which the tune is currently put. According to John Baynes with John Laffin, Soldiers of Scotland, Brassey's, 1988 (I use the 1997 Barnes & Noble edition), p. 105, five Scots regiments use this as the tune to announce Commanding Officer's Orders. Off the top of my head, I can hardly imagine a song more inappropriate -- this is an open rejection of authority, after all!
It's possible that this song got Burns in some trouble. According to Stephen Brumwell and W. A. Speck, Cassell's Companion to Eighteenth-Century Britain, Cassell & Co., 2001, p. 66, "Burns was accused in 1792 of joining in the singing of the French revolutionary song 'Ca ira'('that will come').... He excused his behavior on the ground that he was drunk at the time... Nevertheless the revolutionary sentiment is surely expressed in 'It's coming yet' [i.e. this song]." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB297A

Mañanitas

DESCRIPTION: Spanish: Title means "Early morning." The singer wishes for sun, moon, and stars to help him court, or separate from Marianita. Chorus: "Ya viene a maeciendo Ya la lus del dia nos vio, Ys dispierta amiga mia, Mira que ya amanecio."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: courting separation Mexico foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Mexico
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 292-293, "Mañanitas" (1 text plus free translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [39 words]: The accentuation of the chorus is left as an exercise for the Spanish-speaking reader.
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 21, has a song "Morning Song" ("Las Mañanitas"). Tobitt's version is so short that I can't tell if it's the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: San292

Manassa Junction

See The Battle of Bull Run [Laws A9] (File: LA09)

Manchester Angel (II), The

See The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)

Manchester Angel, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl in Manchester and promises to marry her. She sleeps with him; his regiment prepares to march. She begs to go with him; he refuses. She offers to buy his discharge; he refuses. She vows to enter a nunnery until he returns.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding Harding B 28(14))
KEYWORDS: courting sex army parting dialog soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,North))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 66-67, "The Manchester Angel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 71-72, "The Manchester 'Angel'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 734, "The Manchester Angel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, pp. 50-51, "The Manchester Angel" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MNCHESTR*
Roud #2741
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Manchester Angel" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(14), "In Coming Down to Manchester," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(2306), Harding B 25(1206), "The Manchester Girl"; Harding B 28(249), Harding B 25(1801), Firth c.14(196), Harding B 11(2388), Harding B 11(3575), Harding B 15(301a), Harding B 15(301b), Harding B 16(254a), "Soldier's Farewell to Manchester"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging)" [Laws O33]
cf. "Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany)" [Laws N7]
cf. "William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I)" [Laws N8]
cf. "The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II)" [Laws N9]
cf. "High Germany (I)"
cf. "The Jacket So Blue (The Bonnet o' Blue)" (theme)
cf. "Oh! No, No" (lyrics)
NOTES [164 words]: [According to A.L. Lloyd,] "The Angel Inn is said to have stood in the Market Place adjoining Market Sted Lane, Manchester."
Given the large number of ballads with this plot, I was tempted to lump this with one of the others. However, it has enough unique elements, in my judgment, to warrant a separate listing. -PJS
Although most of the elements of this song are duplicated elsewhere, the combination is unique. So is the (frequently Dorian) tune. So I agree with Paul: This piece is unique. There is another song with this title in Sam Henry, but it is distinct (and fragmentary).
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire cites Lloyd's location in Market Place, but says that the whole area was leveled to build "that tasteless abomination, the giant Arndale Centre, covered in acres of lavatorial tiles." Arndale Centre is still there, with lots of glass, looking just like any other shopping center, much too close to the center of Manchester and just a few blocks from the River Tib. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: VWL066

Manchester Canal, The

See The Calabar (File: HHH502)

Manchester Chambernaid, The

See The Brisk Young Butcher (File: DTxmasgo)

Manchester Martyrs (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Colonel Kelly and another man come to Manchester "to free old Ireland from her tyrant's chain." They are jailed. Allen, Larkin and O'Brien stage a rescue. They are taken, found guilty, and hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: execution prisoner rescue political England
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 11, 1867 - Kelly and Deasy are arrested and rescued a week later by 30 Fenians
Nov 24, 1867 - Three of the ambushers are hanged (source: _The Manchester Martyrs_ on the Gorton Local History Group site)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 76, "The Manchester Martyrs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3029
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Allen, Larkin and O'Brien" (subject: The Manchester Martyrs)
cf. "The Smashing of the Van(I)" (subject: The Manchester Martyrs)
cf. "God Save Ireland" (subject: The Manchester Martyrs)
NOTES [203 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "The Manchester Martyrs were Allen, Larkin and O'Brien, all three hanged in revenge for the accidental shooting of Constable Brett in the attempted rescue of Kelly and Deasy, two Fenian Leaders in 1867." - BS
We should probably note that Kelly and Deasy, while in British custody, were not really in danger of execution. Thomas J. Kelly, who had been proclaimed chief executive of the Fenian's Irish Republic, and one Captain Timothy Deasy were simply being transported from court to prison, but they were "rescued" anyway on September 18.
In the course of the "rescue," a police sergeant, Charles Brett, was killed. William Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O'Brien were convicted of the murder and executed on November 23. The three men came to be known as the "Manchester Martyrs." A later rescue attempt also failed, but managed to kill a dozen bystanders.
Nonetheless, both sides blamed the other, increasing Anglo-Irish tensions. The incident also increased rebel recruiting, despite the fact that the Irish had committed the initial crime and the fact that the British followed the law throughout.
For additional background, see the notes to "The Smashing of the Van (I)." - RBW
File: OLcM076

Manchester Martyrs (II), The

See The Smashing of the Van (File: PGa050)

Manchester Molecatcher, The

See The Mole-Catcher (File: K206)

Mandalay

DESCRIPTION: "By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' eastward to the sea, There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks of me." The soldier, in London, seeing the dirt and the squalor, thinks with longing of the green land and the girl on the road to Mandalay
AUTHOR: Words: Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 ("The Scots Observer")
KEYWORDS: love separation soldier
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #64, "Mandalay" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 463, "On the Road to Mandalay" (notes only)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 415, "On the Road to Mandalay"
NOTES [551 words]: I had to think long and hard about whether to put this song in the Index. It is, of course, composed. It has not been found in oral tradition. But it has been extremely popular, and has been set to music at least three times (the first time, I think, by Walter W. Hedgcock in 1899, although that seems to have all but disappeared; again by Oley Speaks, in 1907, and again by Peter Bellamy, to an adaption of "Ten Thousand Miles Away"; the latter version will probably be more familiar to folk fans).
One of these versions was apparently used by some camp or other, and later used for another camp song.
I finally decided to include the piece because it is so familiar, and used in so many contexts, and is one of the "folkiest" of the works of Kipling, who was probably closer to the average lower-class Englishman than any other major poet.
It originally appeared in the Scots Observer in 1890, and was published as one of the Barrack-Room Ballads (1892).
The girl's name is given as Supyalat, Thibaw's queen. This is a correct but highly unlikely name. According to The Snake Prince and Other Stories: Burmese Folk Tales collected and retold by Edna Ledgard, Interlink Books, 2000, pp. 6-7, Thibaw was a son of King Mindon, and as Mindon approached his death, there was a struggle for the succession. Thibaw's mother (one of Mindon's lesser wives) and Supyalat decided to take the matter into their own hands. They managed to lure all the other princes to a reception, drugged them, bound them in bags colored dark red (to hide any blood), and then turned war elephants loose in the room containing them. The princes died, but technically no human had killed them; Thibaw succeeded, and Supyalat was his queen -- and the British eventually stepped in to stop such atrocities. Would a Burmese girl have been given such a name? It strikes me as unlikely. But it strikes me as likely that an ignorant British soldier would have called her by the only Burmese woman's name he knew. Kipling, I think, has caught the sense of the occupation well.
I am going to opine, also, that this reveals the nuances in Kipling's beliefs, which few realize. Kipling was an imperialist; he believed in the White Man's Burden. But he did *not* think white men were superior to other "races"; in this song, the white man falls in love -- but does the girl? Or does she simply do what she must to survive? (Compare Gunga Din -- "a better man than I am.") In this sensitivity, Kipling was far ahead of the imperialists of his time (though hardly modern).
The geography here is rather confused, as in various stanzas it appears to be looking out from Mandalay, Rangoon, Moulmein, and the road to Mandalay (from Rangoon).
Mandalay was one of the key cities of British Burma (modern Myanmar), on the Irrawaddy (now the Ayeyarwady) where the Myitnge flows into the river. The main road from Rangoon also passes through the town. It was (and is), therefore, the main city of inner Burma. The "old flotilla" sailed the Irrawaddy from Rangoon to Mandalay.
The chorus seems to be set in or near Rangoon, where the "sun comes up like thunder" from across the bay (though the far side of the bay is not China but part of Burma -- Moulmein, in fact. From Moulmein, the apparent setting of the song, the sun *sets* over the bay). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Fuld415

Mandelin

DESCRIPTION: "There's a little old cabin on the Swanee shore far away, That's where my heart is longing night and day... Pretty little maiden waiting there for me by the shore. Mandelin, Mandelin, moon is shining on the fields of sugar cane... I love you"
AUTHOR: possibly John Thurland Chattaway
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love home river
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 105, "Mandelin" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #11388
NOTES [34 words]: Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric suspects this is a much-worn-down version of John Thurland Chattaway's "Mandy Lee," published 1899. With only seven lines in Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric's version, it's hard to tell. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne105

Mandi Went to Poov the Grais

See Mandi Went to Poove the Grys (File: K349)

Mandi Went to Poove the Grys

DESCRIPTION: Travellers' cant. Singer goes to put horses out to graze; a policeman is after the family. The farmer tries to impound the horses; the aunt chases them around the haystacks and steals some hay. Finally the policeman tells them to move on
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (recorded from Frank Copper)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Travellers' cant. Singer goes to put horses out to graze; a policeman is after the family (the daughter remarks, "It's just as Father said; we can't get away"). The farmer tries to impound the horses; the aunt (or the singer) chases them around the haystacks (or srikes the policeman) and steals some hay. Finally the policeman tells them to move on
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage horse family police Gypsy migrant
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 349, "Mandi Went to Poove the Grys" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 129, "Mandi Went to Poov the Grais" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, (Cardiff,2001), #82, pp. 280-281, "O, 'Tis Mandi Went to Poov the Grais" [from MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland]
Roud #852
RECORDINGS:
Peter Ingram, "Mandi Went to Poove the Girl" (on Voice11)
NOTES [74 words]: This song was apparently widespread among English Travellers. "Mandi" = I; "poov(e) the grys (grais)" = put the horses to grass. It was common practice for Travellers to camp in an unauthorized place, then let their horses into a farmer's field after dark with the intention of retrieving them before dawn. Often as not, they were caught and the horses impounded. - PJS
For a more general discussion see Coughlan, #74, #78-93, pp. 274-285. - BS
File: K349

Mandy (I)

See Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy (File: Wa122)

Mandy (II)

See Mandy Was a Little Bahama Girl (File: ACSF104M)

Mandy Was a Little Bahama Girl

DESCRIPTION: "Mandy was a little Bahama girl (x2), Mandy, oh my Mandy, Mandy mine." She "Said she'd love no one but me." "Mandy had a little baby." "Baby make my Mandy cry, Cry so hard she sure to die." "Lord he take my Mandy from me"; she is buried
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: death marriage baby campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 104, 234, 391, 488, 541, 550, "Mandy was a little Bahama girl"/"Mandy" (notes only)
DT, MANDYGAL
Roud #26772
NOTES [53 words]: According to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, many camps banned this song not because it was dirty but because children MADE it dirty by omitting the verse where Mandy married the singer, offending their parents with the hint of fornication. I guess that's why we've never heard, say, "Sheathe and Knife" in a summer camp. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF104M

Manila Bay

DESCRIPTION: "You have heard about he battle over in Manila Bay, How the Yankees met the Spaniards, fought them on the first of May. Our commander's name was Dewey...." Dewey is praised and Spanish boasting ridiculed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: Spain battle war navy
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1895 - Cubans rebel against Spain
Feb 15, 1898 - Explosion of the battleship "Maine" in Havana harbor
May 1, 1898 - Battle of Manila Bay. Dewey's fleet destroys the entire Spanish fleet in the Philippines
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 238, "Manila Bay" (1 text)
Roud #6623
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine" (theme) and references there
cf. "Yankee Dewey" (mentions of Admiral Dewey) and references there
NOTES [64 words]: This has more than the usual amount of American bluster. It is certainly true that Dewey won a decisive victory and did it at the cost of only eight minor injuries to his men (the Spaniards suffered nearly 400 casualties and lost their entire fleet). However, the Spanish knew the American fleet was much superior -- hence their desperate but unsuccessful efforts to prevent war. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: BrII238

Manistee Lumberjack, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a rippin', roarin' lumberjack From up on the Manistee... And the drinks are all on me." The lumberjack boasts of where he has worked and all he has done. He invites his companions to drink until he uses up his pay, then he'll go back to earn more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan)
KEYWORDS: drink logger money work
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 64-65, "The Manistee Lumberjack" (1 text)
Roud #6520
File: BBun064

Manitoba

DESCRIPTION: "Manitoba, here we rise to greet you, Manitoba, our home. You're the bond that binds our great Dominion...." "For we all love our Manitoba, Manitoba, our home so der, And we raise the strain Of the waving grain." Manitoba is free and great and lawful
AUTHOR: John Hughes Arnett (source: MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba)
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (source: MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba)
KEYWORDS: patriotic nonballad Canada
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba, #16, ppp. 91-93, "Manitoba" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25779
File: Macl16

Manley Pankey

DESCRIPTION: "Here I stand in the jail house door, Here I'll stand no more. Goodbye to my mother And friends forevermore. My mother she did warn me, She warned me when I 'as young, 'I'll raise you up for the gallows; My son, you will be hung.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: mother warning homicide gallows-confession
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 292, "Manley Pankey" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 292, "Manley Pankey" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
ST BrII292 (Full)
Roud #6636
NOTES [55 words]: According to the notes in Brown, Pankey was a laborer and musician who murdered his employer, a farmer named Curry. As usual, the song is described as sung by the condemned man before his execution. However, the editors can provide no precise dates or real details, and the song is a scrap with no circumstantial details at all. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: BrII292

Manning, The Pirate

See Bold Manan the Pirate [Laws D15] (File: LD15)

Manny Clark a you da man!

See Gal, You Wan' Fe' Come Kill Me? (Tek Akee, Mek Soup) (Woman, Do You Want to Kill Me?) (Take Akee, Make Soup) (File: Jek126)

Manson's Crew

DESCRIPTION: "It's on the Tomahawk river, a stream you all know well, It's of a crew of shanty boys, a story I would tell." He describes many members of the crew. He ends by wishing good luck to George Manson and others and prepares to leave for Wausau
AUTHOR: adapted by Bert Taplin
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin); supposedlywrittenaround 1894
KEYWORDS: logger moniker
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 89-90, "Manson's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9072
NOTES [54 words]: Bert Taplin, who supplied this song, claimed to have written it around 1894. There are enough local Wisconsin references (the Tomahawk river, Wausau) that it seems likely that the version as we have it is indeed Taplin's work. But it was clearly inspired by one or another of the many logging songs of this basic type. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet089

Mantle o' Green, The

See The Mantle So Green [Laws N38] (File: LN38)

Mantle of Green, The

See The Mantle So Green [Laws N38] (File: LN38)

Mantle So Green, The [Laws N38]

DESCRIPTION: The well-dressed girl refuses the singer's offer of marriage; she is pledged to Willie O'Reilly, whose name is embroidered on her fine mantle. He tells her O'Reilly died at Waterloo; seeing how she grieves, he reveals that he is O'Reilly in disguise
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Journal from the Ocean Rover); before 1853 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(417), but see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: love disguise separation grief
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,MA,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES (29 citations):
Laws N38, "The Mantle So Green"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 151-152, "The Mantle of Green" (1 text)
Randolph 94, "The Mantle So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 24, "Famed Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 400-401, "Mantle So Green" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 56, "Fain Waterloo" (1 text plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 93-94, "Her Mantle So Green" (1 text, 1 tune, expanded by Ritchie from a traditional fragment)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 87, "The Mantle of Green" (2 texts)
Peacock, pp. 555-557, "The Mantle So Green" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 130, "Mantle of Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 30, "Mantle So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 29, "The Mantle So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 91, "Round Her Mantle So Green (Willie O'Reilly; Famed Waterloo)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 28-31,81-82, "Mantle So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 7, "The Mantle so Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 188, "The Mantle So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 33, 214-215, "As I Was A-Walking" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H76, pp. 314-315, "The Mantle So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 38, "Mantle So Green" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #157, p. 2, ("One morning in May as I chanced to pass, And there I beheld a most beautiful lass") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan5 1033, "The Mantle o' Green" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 155-156, "The Mantle So Green" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 357, "Mantle of Green"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 745, "William O'Riley" (2 texts)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 122-123, "The Mantle So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 81-83, "Her Mantle So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 161-162, "Mantle So Green" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1371, p. 93, "Mantle So Green" (1 reference)
DT 463, MANTLGRN
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 80-81, "A Pretty Fair Maid" (1 text)
Roud #714
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "Her Mantle So Green" (on IRMBarry-Fairs, and not the same as the next item)
Margaret Barry & Michael Gorman, "Her Mantle So Green" (on Barry-Gorman1); "Her Mantle So Green" (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
Robert Cinnamond, "Willie Slain at Waterloo" (on IRRCinnamond02)
Marie Hare, "Round Her Mantle So Green" (on Miramichi1) (on MRMHare01)
Ned Martin, "My Mantle of Green" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Marge Steiner, "Round Her Mantle So Green" (on Steiner01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(417), "The Mantle So Green," J. Moore (Belfast), 1846-1852; also Firth c.14(212), 2806 c.15(246), "The Mantle So Green"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(85a), "The Mantle So Green," unknown, c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
cf. "The Plains of Waterloo (I)" [Laws N32] (theme and some lines)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
William O'Roley
The Garlands So Green
NOTES [196 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, in his remarks on this song, notes that green was considered an unlucky color for clothing. I'm not sure what significance that might have. - RBW
See the notes to "The Plains of Waterloo (I)" [Laws N32] for Mackenzie's discussion of Laws N36 as source for "The Mantle So Green" [Laws N38] and "The Plains of Waterloo (I)" [Laws N32].
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "The Mantle of Green" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)).
The Moore broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(417), includes the lines "For the lad I love lies at Sebastopol.... And in an Inkerman field your true lover does lie.... We fought for three days, till the fourth afternoon, He received his death summons on the 18th of June...." Is it strange that, so close to the event, the month is so far wrong? Inkerman and Alma -- also cited -- are in October 1854. On the other hand, of course, the Battle of Waterloo was June 18, 1815, and the printer wanted to preserve the rhyme from an earlier version. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LN38

Many Brave Boys Must Fall

DESCRIPTION: "Heavily falls the rain, wild are the breezes tonight... Gathered around the fireside.... We sit and talk of brothers abroad... And yet, and yet, we must not forget That many brave boys must fall." The singer promises to fight before the horrors of war
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (Dime-Song-Book #16)
KEYWORDS: soldier separation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #16, pp. 36-37, "Brave Boys are They" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 237-238, "Many Brave Boys Must Fall" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #15680
NOTES [89 words]: This songs seems to have had only the most tenuous hold on tradition; the version in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin seems to be the only one ever collected. But it was very popular in the Civil War. Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 14, lists ten different editions in the Philadelphia collection, by at least five different publishers, most of whom did not list Work's name. The title is either "Brave Boys" or "Brave Boys Are They." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Pet237

Many Miles Apart

See Darling, I Have Come to Tell You (Farewell Nellie, Little Bunch of Roses, Many Miles Apart, Don't This Road Look Rough and Rocky) (File: BrS5689)

Many Say I Am Too Noisy

DESCRIPTION: "Many say I am too noisy, But I know the reason why, If they only felt the glory They would shout as loud as I." "Hallelujah, bound for glory... I have crossed the River Jordan, Now I'm safe in Beulah Land." "...In his ranks I still remain."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 602, "Many Say I Am Too Noisy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7549
File: R602

Many Thousand Go

See Many Thousand Gone (Auction Block) (File: FJ030)

Many Thousand Gone (Auction Block)

DESCRIPTION: The freed slave rejoices to be done with abuse: "No more auction block for me... Nor more pint of salt for me... No more peck of corn for me... No more driver's lash for me..." (etc.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (J. McKim)
KEYWORDS: slavery freedom
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US(SE)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 45, (no title; filed with "Hail Mary" on the basis of the tune); p. 48, "Many Thousand Go" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 233, "No More Auction Block (Many Thousand Gone)" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 95 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 94, "Many Thousand Gone" (1 text, 1 tune, clearly this although it does not mention the auction block)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 30-31, "Auction Block" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 279, "Auction Block" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 8-9, "Auction Block" (1 text, 1 tune)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 35, p. 218, "Many Thousand Go" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 238-239, "Many Thousand Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 296, "May Thousand Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, p. 71, "Many Thousand Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 577, "Many T'ousand Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 238, "Many Thousands Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 83, "Many Thousand Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 101-102, "Many Thousand Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 95, "Many Thousand Gone" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 353-354, "Many Thousand Go (No More Auction Block)" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 187, "Many Thousan' Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 296, "Many Thousand Gone" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: J. McKim, "Negro Songs" in _Dwight's Journal of Music_, Vol. 21, No. 19 (Whole No. 540), p. 149, ("Many Thousand Die") (1 text)
ST FJ030 (Partial)
Roud #3348
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "No More Auction Block" (on PeteSeeger31)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blowin' in the Wind" (tune said to be derived from a version of this)
NOTES [110 words]: The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "Many Thousands Gone" on page 90, with the note "Fisk Jubilee Collection, by permission" (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, x (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 90.
J. McKim's 1862 letter from Port Royal discusses hearing this song sung by black soldiers of the first regiment of South Carolina volunteers, rowing back from St. Helena's. "They have one [song] that has a cheerful, and, as it sounded when I first heard it, a hilarious ring. It is a new one, made, as they say, "since secesh [secesson] times." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FJ030

Many, Many Stars Are in the Sky

DESCRIPTION: "Many, many stars are in the sky/skies, Some as old as Adam [or, "And each as old as Adam"], Down upon your knees and kiss who you please, Your humble servant, Madam." Described as a kissing game
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 227, "Many, Many Stars" (1 short text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, p. 62, "(Many, many stars are in the skies)" (1 short text, filed under #10, "marriage")
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #55, "If I Had As Many Wives" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #14006
NOTES [88 words]: Roud lumps several playparties about stars under the same number; I am hesitant to agree.
It might be noted that, according to Genesis 1:16, the stars are older than Adam.
Also, the Gentry text "If I Had As Many Wives" talks about being as old as Moses. But Moses did not live particularly long by the standards of the patriarchs; he is said to have live too be 120 years old (Deuteronomy 34:7); even his brother Aaron lived to be 123 (Numbers 33:39), and his grandfather Levi is said to have lived to be 137 (Exodus 6:16). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Newe066M

Maori Joe

DESCRIPTION: Mixed Maori/English. "Kuni atu, kuni mai, plenty piri ring, Turituri, all you folk, While I make you sing.... Time I go to Parliament... Tenei te korero tangata pai, Ingoa Maori Joe." Tales of what happens when Joe goes to parliament
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Christchurch "Canterbury Times," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage political New Zealand
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 103, "Maori Joe" (1 short text, apparently an excerpt)
File: BaRo103

Maori's Wool, The

DESCRIPTION: Maori chief Rerenga comes to Wellington "And told the Chief Financial Fiend the tribe had wool to sell." The dishonest bank manager makes an low offer. The chief accepts and brings the wool. The banker pays -- and finds the boxes weighted with sgones
AUTHOR: claimed by A. B. "Banjo" Paterson (1864-1941) (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (Collected Verse of Banjo Paterson)
KEYWORDS: humorous money trick New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 133-134, "The Maori's Wool" (1 text)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 40 in the 1972 edition, "Rerenga's Wool" (1 text, 1 tune); dropped from the 2010 edition
ADDITIONAL: A. B. "Banjo" Paterson, "The Works of 'Banjo' Paterson" [with an anonymous introduction], Wordsworth Poetry Library, 1995, pp. 257-258, "The Maori's Wool" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Tommy and Margaret Wood, "Rerenga's Wool" (on NZSongYngCntry)
File: BaRo133

Maple Leaf Forever, The

DESCRIPTION: "In days of yore, from Britain's shore, Wolfe, the dauntless hero came.... The Maple Leaf, our emblem dead, The Maple Leaf forever, God save our Queen, and heaven bless The Maple Leaf forever." In praise of the heroes and people of Canada
AUTHOR: Alexander Muir
EARLIEST DATE: 1867
KEYWORDS: Canada patriotic nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 13, 1759 - Battle of Quebec. Forces under Wolfe capture Quebec and firmly establish British rule in Canada, although Wolfe is killed
1812 - Battle of Queenston. British forces under Brock repel an American invasion, although Brock is killed
1867 - Canadian Confederation formed
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 111-113, "The Maple Leaf Forever" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #23, "The Maple Leaf Forever" (1 text)
DT, MAPLFREV
NOTES [175 words]: The story goes that Alexander Muir (1839-1906) was out walking in the fall of 1867 when a maple leaf floated down and stuck to his sleeve. It proved hard to brush off, and the phrase "the maple leaf forever" sprang to mind. Eventually he turned it into a song celebrating the new dominion of Canada.
Muir's song was a bit optimistic; the proud dominion he envisioned ("from Cape Race to Nootka Sound") did not exist at the time he wrote, and would not until 1949, when Newfoundland (which includes Cape Race) entered the Confederation. Nor did Nootka Sound enter the dominion until 1871, when British Columbia joined Canada.
The song has proved popular in British Canada, but its complete neglect of Quebec has kept it from any official status.
For background on the Battle of Quebec, see the notes to "Brave Wolfe" [Laws A1]. For Queenston, see "Brave General Brock" [Laws A22] and "The Battle of Queenston Heights." The issue of Canadian confederation led to quite a few songs, especially in Newfoundland; "The 'Antis' of Plate Cove" is typical. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: FMB111

Maple Leaf Squadron, The

DESCRIPTION: "Then here's to the lads of the Maple Leaf Squadron, At hunting the U-Boat it's seldom they fail." "We'll zig and we'll zag all over the ocean, Ride herd on our convoys by night and by day." They sail between Newfoundland and Derry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship war
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 51, "The Maple Leaf Squadron" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #29398
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We'll Rant and We'll Roar" (tune) and references there
cf. "The Saguenay Song" (tune and some lyrics)
File: Hopk051

Maple on the Hill

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the maple on the hill "Where I sat with my Geneva long ago." Now, as he is dying, he bids her, "Don't forget me, little darling, when they lay me down to die"; he must "leave you and that maple on the hill."
AUTHOR: Gussie L. Davis (1863-1899)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Recording, Vernon Dalhart); said to have been written 1880)
KEYWORDS: death separation
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 57, "The Maple on the Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #90, "Maple on the Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 240-241, "The Maple on the Hill" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5706, "Maple on the Hill" (1 short text, 1 tune)
DT, MAPLHILL
Roud #4333
RECORDINGS:
Buckeye Boys, "The Maple on the Hill" (Supertone 2616, 1930; Champion 45160, 1935) (Crown [Canada] 95083/Melotone[Canada] 93083/Minerva M-14046, 1936)
Homer & Walter Callahan, "Maple on the Hill" (ARC 6-06-57/Conqueror 8689/OKeh 02973/Vocalion 02973, 1936; Columbia 37601/Columbia 20200, 1947)
Vernon Dalhart, "We Sat Beneath the Maple on the Hill" (Vocalion 5044, 1926)
(Tom) Darby & (Jimmie) Tarlton, "Maple on the Hill" (Columbia 15591-D, 1930)
Farmer Sisters, "Maple on the Hill" (Vocalion 03104, 1935)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Maple on the Hill" (Vocalion 5158, 1927)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Maple on the Hill" (Bluebird B-6065/Montgomery Ward M-4710, 1935; Montgomery Ward M-4969, 1936; RCA Victor 20-3241, 1948)
Holland Puckett, "The Maple On The Hill" (Gennett 6532/Supertone 9186, 1928)
Posey Rorrer & The North Carolina Ramblers, "As We Sat Beneath The Maple On The Hill" (Edison 20005/Ed 52414/CYL: Edison 5615 [as by Posey Rorer's North Carolina Ramblers], 1929; rec. 1928)
Frank Welling & John McGhee, "The Maple On The Hill" (Perfect 5-12-59, 1935; Conqueror 8638, 1936)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't Forget Me, Little Darling (I)" (floating lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Crowder Brothers, "New Maple on the Hill" (Conqueror 8782/Oriole 07-02-63, 1937; rec. 1936)
Dixie Reelers, "Answer to Maple on the Hill - Part 2" (Bluebird B-6713/Montgomery Ward M-7099, 1936)
Dixon Brothers, "Answer to Maple on the Hill - Part 1" (Bluebird B-6462, 1936)
Dixon Brothers, "Maple on the Hill - Part 3" (Bluebird B-6630, 1936)
Dixon Brothers, "Maple on the Hill - Part 4" (Montgomery Ward M-7170, 1937)
Wade Mainer, "Maple on the Hill - Part 2" (Bluebird B-6293, 1936)
Wade Mainer & Zeke Morris, "Maple on the Hill, Part 2" (Bluebird B-6293, 1936)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers "Maple on the Hill - Part 3" (Bluebird B-6293, 1936)
Prairie Ramblers, "Maple on the Hill - Part 2" (Perfect 6-09-60, 1936)
Prairie Ramblers, "Maple on the Hill No. 4" (Melotone 7-09-51, 1937)
Don Weston, "Maple on the Hill Is Gone" (Decca 5421, 1937)
NOTES [110 words]: The Dixon Brothers had an "Answer to Maple on the Hill" and at least two additional "parts" to the song. Mainer's Mountaineers also had a "Part 3." What did the guy do, come back as a ghost?
This song has rarely if ever been collected in tradition, but its popularity with old-time singers (see the recording list and the "Same Tune" knock-offs) eventually made me decide to include it here.
For brief background on composer Gussie L. Davis, see the notes to "The Baggage Coach Ahead." - RBW
[Ten] recordings by old-time singers between 1927 and 1936 -- yes, it absolutely belongs in. I call that "being collected from tradition," albeit in a roundabout way. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DTmaplhi

Maple Sweet

See Vermont Sugar-Maker's Song (File: FlBr033)

Marafray

DESCRIPTION: The people at Marafray are described in unflattering terms: "Bell Lowe she rises in the mornin Wi' a nose sae neat and fine She jabbers and curses ...." "The [end of] term time is comin'" when we'll be paid and have a parting glass.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad drink
FOUND IN: Biriain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 399, "Marafray" (1 text)
Roud #5930
File: GrD3399

March of Intellect, The

DESCRIPTION: "Let schoolmasters bother their brain In their dry and their musty vocation; But what can the rest of us gain By meddling with such botheration?" Examples of people that work very well without esoteric knowledge: must the tailor know Conic Sections?
AUTHOR: Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) ? (attribution by O Lochlainn in OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (printed by Hicks, according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: commerce humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 52, "The March of Intellect" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [193 words]: O Lochlainn's attribution to Oliver Goldsmith is difficult to assess. I'm fairly sure that the song he refers to is Tony Lumpkin's song from Act I of She Stoops to Conquer, beginning
Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain
With grammar, and nonsense, and learning;
Good liquor, I stoutly maintain,
Gives genus a better discerning....
But the song simply calls for drink and roast fowl -- no conic sections mentioned. Did the song go into oral tradition and get modified? If so, why are there no other mentions? Or was it written somewhere along the way, perhaps by the printer Hicks?
If Oliver Goldsmith did write this, it may have been a sarcastic comment on his own experience; Barnhart and Halsey's The New Century Handbook of English Literature (revised edition, 1967) comments of him that his career was "a record of almost unbroken failure in everything that he tried to reach by study or effort: he tried law, medicine, the church, and teaching, and failed in all of them; the only thing he succeeded in was literature, which he did not study and for which he had no technical preparation."
The Handbook adds that "Facts meant little to him." - RBW
File: OLcM052

March of the Cameron Men, The

DESCRIPTION: The Cameron men swear to follow their chief "or die by his side." "Each Cameron knows he may tread o'er the heather no more." The chief says, "whatever men dare they can do."
AUTHOR: Mary Maxwell Campbell (according to Rogers and Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (date written according to Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong); before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Bod9200 Firth c.26(254))
KEYWORDS: rebellion nonballad patriotic Jacobites
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 18, pp. 123-126, "The Cameron Men" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Rogers, The Scottish Minstrel; The Songs of Scotland Subsequent to Burns (London: William P Nimmo, 1876), pp. 419-420, "The March of the Cameron Men" (1 text)
The Lyric Gems of Scotland (Glasgow: David Jack, 1856 ("Digitized by Internet Archive for NLS")), p. 4, "The March of the Cameron Men" (1 text) (1 tune)
Wehman's [Universal Songster] Collection of 96 Songs No. 6 (New York, n.d. [1890-1891] ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 21, "The March of the Cameron Men" (1 text)
Old Favourites Reprinted from The Family Herald and Weekly Star 1898 (Montreal: The Family Herald Publishing Co., 1898), p. 108, "The March of the Cameron Men" (1 text) (1 tune)
Roud #24300
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "The Cameron Men" (on NFJDowney01)
Hector MacIsaac and Jerome Downey, "The March of the Cameron Men" (on NFHMacIsaac01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod9200 Firth c.26(254), "The March of the Cameron Men" ("There's many a man of the Cameron clan"), T. Pearson(Manchester), 1813-1838; also Bod21267 2806 c.11(62), Bod12240 Harding B 11(4214), Bod21851 Harding B 11(523), "March of the Cameron Men"
Murray, Mu23-y2:060, "The Cameron Men" ("There is many a man of the Cameron clan"), James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
SAME TUNE:
The March of Loyalty (according to Murray Mu23-y2:060)
NOTES [363 words]: Reid, p. 11: "...without the eventual, albeit reluctant, adherence of Donald Cameron of Lochiel it is unlikely that any real headway would have been made [by Bonnie Prince Charlie's invasion of Scotland in 1745]."
Magnusson, p. 589: "...Monday, 12 August 1745 was a long, long day for Prince Charles Edward Stuart.... How many clansmen would respond to his call to arms? ... The clan which really mattered, however, was that of Cameron of Lochiel -- Young Lochiel, son of the chief who had taken part in the 1715 Rising and was now living in exile in France. Prince Charles had been in contact with Young Lochiel, who had been dismayed by the enterprise but had reluctantly given his bond. At four o'clock in the afternoon the sound of the pipes heralded the coming of the Cameron men -- eight hundred of Lochiel's Camerons...."
Magnusson, p. 620: "[At the final battle of Culloden], Cameron of Lochiel, whose ankles had been shattered by a cannonball, was carried from the field on the shoulders of a faithful clansman." Young/Adair, p. 271, reports that he followed his father to France, but died in 1748 "of brain-fever." His men had been slaughtered; the map on p. 264 shows the Camerons second from the right of the first line that charged the English army; they charged into a British battery and were taken in flank by the British cavalry. - RBW
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong: "...August 1746 when the loyal clan chief, Cameron of Lochiel, marched with his men from Loch Arkaig to Glenfinnan, to join Prince Charles Edward Stuart in raising the standard for King James VIII... [to] the disastrous defeat at Culloden the following April."
Regarding Wehman's Collection Norm Cohen writes, "Songbook #6 was undated, but most likely 1884-5." Each page except the first is headed Wehman's Universal Songster. The first page is undated but states, "Published Quarterly -- January, April, July and October. Norm Cohen's Finding List ... has WE29, Universal Songster as "monthly serial ... [beginning] 1881 (Norm Cohen, A Finding List of American Secular Songsters Published Between 1860 and 1899 (Middle Tennessee State University,Murfreesboro,2002), p. 150). - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 3.6
File: BeDo123

March of the Men of Garvagh

DESCRIPTION: "We're marching, marching thro' Garvagh town, We're ready to fight for queen and crown, If any man won't we'll knock him down." The singer sees the marchers come by, led by "fighting Phil," and her (?) heart beats loud
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (JIFSS)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H17b, p. 180, "March of the Men of Garvagh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13540
NOTES [91 words]: The Henry text appears to be composite; the first verse is a marching song (perhaps of Ulstermen opposed to Home Rule late in the reign of Victoria?), while the second and third appear to be the song of a girl in love with one of the marchers.
Garvagh, in county (London)derry, almost due south of Coleraine, was the site of some sectarian violence on July 16, 1813 (sometimes referred to as the "Battle of Garvagh," though it sounds more like a riot) -- but 1813 is during the reign of George III, so there is no reason to mention the queen. - RBW
File: HHH017b

March of the Men of Harlech

See Men of Harlech (File: CSMenHar)

March of the Rolling-Mill Men

DESCRIPTION: "Rouse, ye noble sons of Labor, And protect your country's honor, Who with bone, and brain, and fibre, Make the nation's wealth." Workers of all sorts are urged to unite. Many occupations are listed
AUTHOR: Words: Reese E. Lewis (source: Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (March 30 National Labor Tribune)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 447-448, "March of the Rolling-Mill Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Men of Harlech" (tune, according to Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
File: KPL447

March On

DESCRIPTION: "March on and you shall gain the victory, March on and you shall gain the victory." "We want no cowards in our day, You shall gain the victory, We call for the valiant-hearted men...." "This is the year of Jubilee... The Lord has set his people free."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 71, "March On"; p. 127, "(no title)" (2 texts)
Roud #11962
File: FSAN071

Marche des Animaux, Le (The Animal Market)

DESCRIPTION: French. "One day I go to the market to buy a cock. My cock goes coquelicou, cou, cou." Cumulative for: "My chipmunk, my horse, my cow, my pig, my ewe, my goose, my hen." Chorus: "Jamais je n'en serais jaloux"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage cumulative humorous nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 18, "Le Marche des Animaux" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Martin Deveau, "Le Marche des Animaux" (on PeacockCDROM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Had a Little Rooster" (theme and structure)
NOTES [25 words]: Re "Mon suisse" as "My chipmunk": or does "suisse" in this case really mean Swiss which goes "souisse-souisse-souisse"? or a play on swine=suide? - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea018

Marching 'Round the Level

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

Marching Along

DESCRIPTION: "The army is gath'ring from near and from far, The trumpet is sounding the call for the war, McClellan's our leader, he's gallant and strong." The Union army will face the enemy in battle array. The singer has good wishes for the families and the dead
AUTHOR: William B. Bradbury (source: Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (sheet music published by Firth, Pond & Co, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar; Edwin Wolf 2nd, _American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870_, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, pp. 93-94, lists 13 different broadsides by seven different publishers)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 30-31, "Marching Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 163, "Marching Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1378, pp. 93-94, "Marching Along" (13 references)
SAME TUNE:
Alliance Song (File: CAFS2489)
Song of the Volunteers ("Arouse to the conflict; why linger ye here") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 148)
NOTES [121 words]: George B. McClellan was appointed to command what became the Army of the Potomac after the first Battle of Bull Run in mid-1861, and led it until late 1862, commanding at Yorktown, Fair Oaks/Seven Pines, the Seven Days' Battles, and Antietam. Given that not one of those battles was a clear-cut Union victory, it seems clear that this song was written before McClellan's tendency toward delay and inaction became clear.
That this song was popular s shown both by the number of broadsides and by the fact that it probably inspired a "Marching Along No. 2," for which see Wolf, p. 94. But I find no evidence of the song in tradition.
For background on William B. Bradbury, see the notes to "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: SCWF031

Marching Down to New Orleans

See Marching Down to Old Quebec (File: R519)

Marching Down to Old Quebec

DESCRIPTION: "We're marching down to (old Quebec/New Orleans), Where the drum is loudly beating, The 'Merican boys have won the day And the (British) are retreating." The soldier describes marching, and his plans to go home/to New Orleans/to visit a girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty soldier war battle floatingverses courting rejection Canada
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1775-1776: American attack on Canada. The chief battle of the campaign was fought outside Quebec on December 31, 1775
Jan 8, 1815 - Battle of New Orleans. Although a peace had already been signed, word had not yet reached Louisiana, which Pakenham sought to invade. Andrew Jackson's backwoodsmen easily repulse Pakenham
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,MW,SE,So) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 65-66,=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 176-177 "Marching to Quebec" (1 text, 1 tune)
it, pp. 143-145, "Marching to Quebec" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 519, "We're Marching Down to Old Quebec" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 207-208, "We're Marding Down to Old Quebec" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, p. 10, "Marching Down to Old Quebec" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 524, "Marching to Quebec" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 57-59, "Marching Down to Old Quebec" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #59, "Marching to Quebec" (2 texts); #176, "Quebec Town" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, N. H. Hoke, "Folk-Custom and Folk-Belief in North Carolina," Vol. V, No. 17 (Apr-Jun 1892), p. 118 "Quebec Town" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Harriet L. Wedgewood, "The Play-Party [in south-west Nebraska and southern Iowa]," Vol. XXV, No. 97 (Jul-Sep 1912), #3 p. 271 "We're Marching Down to Old Quebec" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 184, "Quebec Town" (1 short text)
ST R519 (Full)
Roud #735
RECORDINGS:
C.H.J. Snider, "We're Marching Down to Old Quebec" (on ONEFowke01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Pink" (floating verses)
NOTES [238 words]: The history behind this song is somewhat confusing. Although America in its early years coveted Canada, and sent troops northward during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, Americans never successfully attacked Quebec (for their unsuccessful Canadian campaigns, see, e.g., "The Battle of Queenston Heights").
If the song refers to an actual event, it probably dates to the invasion of Canada by Montgomery and Benedict Arnold in 1775. Montgomery captured Montreal, and rendezvoused with Arnold to attack Quebec, but the assault of December 31, 1775 was repulsed (the Americans took part of the town, but not the whole). Montgomery was killed and hundreds of Americans killed, wounded, and captured.
As it turned out, both British and Americans sang about the invasion of Canada, with Americans lauding the capture of Montreal (which they obviously did not manage to retain) and the British celebrating the defense of Quebec.
This confusion may explain why the song was transferred to New Orleans, which was American property and where Jackson did repel a British army (for which see "The Battle of New Orleans" [Laws A7]).
The Randolph version of this piece has more than a little connection with "Little Pink," and may even be the same song -- but at this point it's hard to tell; I've heard a "Little Pink" variant which goes in a completely different direction.
Roud tosses the whole family in with "Coffee Grows." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: R519

Marching for Freedom

DESCRIPTION: "The farmers of Nebraska now are in a fearful plight, For years they have been worse than slaves... But now they are marching for freedom.... Hurrah for Powers, a farmer true and grand." Banks, speculators, railroads cannot defeat the farmers
AUTHOR: Words: Luna E. (Mrs. J. T.) Kellie (1857-1940)
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Farmer's Alliance, August 23, 1890 edition, according to Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore)
KEYWORDS: farming poverty hardtimes derivative political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1889 - John H Powers elected president of the Farmer's Alliance
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 60-61, "Marching for Freedom" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: Nebraska Folklore, Pamphlet Eighteen, "Farmers' Alliance Songs of the 1890's," Federal Writers' Project, 1938, p. 3, "Marching for Freedom" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marching through Georgia" (tune) and references there
NOTES [3842 words]: According to Hicks, p. vii, in the late nineteenth century, the cheap land that had always given farmers someplace to migrate started to dry up; all the land was taken In the aftermath, the farmers started to organize. First came The Grange, then the Greenback Party, then the Farmers' Alliance -- a group with a much more sophisticated program than the single-issue Greenbackers.
The railroads made it worse, both because they had permitted the land stampede and because they were the means by which farm products were moved, at rates they decided (Hicks, pp. 2-4) -- plus they had been given vast quantities of land themselves, which they advertised and sold, charging interest rates of up to 10% (Hicks, p. 7).
The banks weren't much better -- few were based in the farming areas; rather, they hired local loan officers -- and paid them like the old Roman tax farmers: the bank required a certain interest rate, and the local agents made their profit based on however much more than that interest rate they could get (Hicks, p. 22). Thus many farmers took loans at rates that they could not possibly afford, with no one having any incentive to engage in responsible lending. The situation was so bad that in five states, including Nebraska, the total number of outstanding mortgages exceeded the number of households! (Hicks, p. 24).
And that was when the weather was good, which had generally been the case in the years up to 1886, "But from 1887 to 1897 there were only two years in which the central and western areas had enough rainfall to insure a full crop, and for five seasons out of ten they had practically no crops at all" (Hicks, p. 30). Particularly since hot winds sucked away what little moisture there was.
What's more, crop yields per acre weren't going up (Glad, p. 46), and would not start to rise until the invention of nitrogen fertilizer. The increase in production was due entirely to increased mechanization, which allowed one person to manage about five times as many acres -- but that meant more loans, both to buy the land and to buy the machinery!
Ignorance perhaps contributed -- the new residents were mostly younger people who didn't have all the farming experience of their elders, and so could make bad mistakes in their planning -- Kellie/Nelsen, pp. 94-95, describes a bunch of fruit plantings which failed because they couldn't tell good plants from bad.
To make things still worse, the elevator operators (who often had a monopoly in particular areas), at their sole discretion, graded the crops the farmers brought in -- and often graded them below their actual quality in order to increase their profits (Hicks, pp. 76-79). And, because production was going up much faster than the gold supply, it was a time of substantial deflation (Hicks, p. 88). Indeed, the money supply was actually declining as the government paid off its debts and banks were retiring their notes based on those bonds -- a disaster for farmers whose lands were mortgaged to the hilt with fixed rate mortgages; they had to pay off loans on large sums with smaller income from their farming. (The Free Silver movement was right that the United States needed more currency; it's just that their mechanism was wrong.) The stage was set for a farming depression.
Creigh, pp. 124-126, tells much the same story. The movement for help for farmers arose out of bad weather and bad harvests in the 1880s (plus probably mis-management; the years from 1879-1886 had been unusually wet, so people didn't realize that their lands were arid in normal years, and settled where they should not have; Hicks, p. 18), combined with a feeling that Nebraska's politics was dominated by the railroad interests (Nebraska had two major railroads, the Union Pacific and the Burlington, and of course they were absolutely necessary to get Nebraska crops to the markets in the east).
"To make their voices heard, the farmers organized various groups; the first Nebraska chapter of the Farmers' Alliance began in 1880, and before long, the Nebraska state organization was the largest in the country. By the late 1880s, the Nebraska newspaper, the Farmers' Alliance, a powerful political organ, began urging that the organization take political action. Nebraska members of other groups, including some which had been founded as political parties, joined the coalition -- the Greenback Party, the Anti-Monopoly League, later the Knights of Labor. In early 1890,a scorching hot season, the combined forces circulated petitions, and in less than thirty days, collected fifteen thousand signatures, calling for a People's State Independent Convention" (Creigh, p. 125). They formed a party, variously known a the People's Independent State Party, the People's Party, the Independent Party, or the Populist Party. "They nominated as governor the president of the Nebraska Alliance, John Power, a white-bearded man who lived in a sod house on his homestead in Hitchcock county; he headed the slate that included candidates for the state legislature as well as for Congress" (Creigh, p. 125).
Similarly Hicks, pp. 98-101; local Alliance chapters were common by 1880, but it was harder to form state organizations. Nebraska's was the first, but the national organization didn't do much in the mid-1880s; the farmers were doing relatively well (Hicks, pp. 100-101). Then the rain stopped.
In 1887, the national organization really took shape (Hicks, p. 102). "By 1890 the secretary's office reported new members coming in at the rate of a thousand a week, and with pardonable exaggeration predicted a total of two million members in the immediate future. Kansas alone claimed a hundred and thirty thousand [almost 10% of the state's population!], and the other frontier states where times were hard, especially Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Minnesota, did not lag far behind" (Hicks, p. 103).
(To be sure, Lawrence Goodwyn, Democratic Promise: The Populist Movement in America, Oxford University Press, 1976, is cited by Kellie/Nelsen, p. 160, that "'real' Populism never existed in Nebraska" -- but Nelsen argues that this is ignoring the faction to which Luna Kellie belonged, and quotes Goodwyn about Kellie and the people in her area, "From [the counties around Custer County] came authentic greenbackers, a tireless reform editor and -- a sure sign of the culture of Populism -- movement songs." A major history of Nebraska, Addison Sheldon's Nebraska: The Land and the People, 1931, also mentions several of Kellie's songs, according to Kellie/Nelsen, p. 161, although not the ones in the Index.)
There were actually two "Alliances," one northern, one southern, with similar goals -- they remained separate because the northern organization admitted Blacks, which was anathema to the southern (Hicks, p.108). The southern organization was also more secretive -- the leadership made plans without telling the membership (Hicks, p.120). In 1889, they held a joint convention in St. Louis, with other groups such as the Knights of Labor also showing up (Hicks, p. 115), but the attempts at union failed over the same old problems (Hicks, p. 119). Still, they informally supported many of the same goals: Inflationist monetary policy, government control of railroads and other means of transport, regulation of who owned the land (Hicks, p. 124).
The Northern Alliance was not strong geographically, but it believed in education, and it published its viewpoints in various local newspapers, including "the Farmers' Alliance (originally the Alliance), published at Lincoln, Nebraska, by Jay Burrows, for a time president of the Northern Alliance. This was the source of most of the Kellie songs reprinted by Welsh and the Federal Writers Project pamphlet.
By this time, the Alliance was becoming overtly political -- it had supported individual politicians all along, its attempts to bring about reforms had so often failed that many members felt they simply had to give up on simply working with regular politicians who made promises then forgot them (Hicks, p. 151. In Nebraska, for instance, the Alliance's big anti-railroad measure, the "Newberry Bill," passed the legislature but was vetoed, and they couldn't override the veto; Hicks, pp. 183-184). In 1890, various Alliance factions and allies gathered to build a party. "The convention... met in Lincoln on July 29, 1890; and, with the support of such Grangers, Knights of Labor, and Union Laborites as cared to cooperate, it nominated a People's Independent ticket, headed by John H. Powers, president of the state Alliance, as candidate for governor."
Thousands gathered for rallies -- with their crops dead of drought, they had nothing else to do. And they sang -- Creigh, p. 126, mentions songs, "The Mortgage Has Taken the Farm, Mary," and "Good-bye, Old Party, Good-bye." They won two of Nebraska's three house seats (William Jennings Bryan took the third), and control of the legislature; they just missed taking the governor's mansion. In 1892, they lost control of the state legislature but retained enough votes that no party controlled; the Democrats and Populists entered an uneasy alliance that passed at least some reformist legislation.
The movement was at least somewhat open to female participation -- e.g. in Kansas one of their candidates was Mary Elizabeth Lease, a lawyer and mother of four who gave us the slogan, "What you farmers need to do is raise less corn and more Hell" (Hicks, pp. 159-160).
Into this stew entered Luna E. Sanford Kellie (Mrs. J. T. Kellie), was a prolific creator of poems about the Farmers' Alliance. She operated in the Joe Hill mode of setting her lyrics to well-known tunes.
There is a short biography of Kellie on the Nebraska Historical Society web site as well as material in the memoirs listed below. Luna Elizabeth Stanford was born on June 9, 1857 in Pipestone, Minnesota, she was the eldest of five children of James Manley "J. M." Sanford and Martha Lois Smith Sanford (Kellie/Nelsen, p.148). Her father was a railroad worker and farmer.
She married James Thompson "J. T." Kellie (died 1918/9) on the last day of 1874. A few years later, along with several relatives, they settled in Kearney County, Nebraska (Kellie/Nelsen, p. xv). That's in south-central Nebraska, rough south of Grand Island. It wasn't the worst part of Nebraska -- generally speaking, the state gets drier as you move west -- but neither was it the most fertile.
They lived a difficult life on the Nebraska prairie; she bore eleven children (two of whom died young; Kellie/Nelsen, p. xvii. They were her second boy and first girl, so she lost two of her first three children; Kellie/Nelsen, pp. 96-97). If I understand her statement, they were so poor when they came to Nebraska that they didn't even try to get store credit (Kellie/Nelsen, p. 32); it was a year and a half before Luna Kellie first went to the local store (Kellie/Nelsen, p. 54). In their first years in Nebraska, they lived mostly on potatoes and just "got along" (Kellie/Nelsen, p. 32).
Kellie's memoir almost never includes any dates or references to datable events, but they seem to have done reasonably well after those first hard years; for several years, there are references to improvements to their land and increasing material goods (although they were still working very long, hard days). But then came a year (Kellie doesn't say which year, but Nelsen on p. 159 of the Afterword says it was 1884 when they lost their land) when the cost of raising an acre of wheat was $5.00, and the price of the wheat from that acre was just $4.50 (Kellie/Nelsen, p. 121). It was an immediate crisis that had the Kellies discussing leaving their land. In the end, they did move, but not far -- they traded their parcel of land to Luna's father for a plot of his that was not as convenient for the father (Kellie/Nelsen, p. 121; Nelsen on p. 159 says that this resulted in a move to Adams County, and regards it as a "loss of their homestead").
Of this decision, Kellie wrote, "We realized that the best 7 years of our lives had been given to enrich the B. & M. R. R." (That is, I believe, the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad.) It's not hard to understand why she became an activist! Her "personal memoir" ends shortly after that.
Her first political activity, probably in the 1880s although she does not give a date, was a campaign to allow women to participate in local schools and school boards -- at least widows whose children were in school and who had no husband to speak for them (Kellie/Nelsen, p. 110). She didn't even attend the Farmers' Alliance meetings at first; it was her husband who was involved (Kellie/Nelsen, p.115). But that changed as they became more involved in the school board (Kellie/Nelsen, p. 125, says that one or the other of them was involved with the board almost constantly up to the time the memoir was written).
Although she had written a few items for them prior to 1894, she had never even been to an event of the statewide Farmers' Alliance until she and her husband decided to attend one in nearby Hastings, Nebraska in that year. Republicans had accused the Alliance of defaming Nebraska, and calling on people to "Stand up for Nebraska" -- so she took that as her text, and wrote a speech by that name. This earned her so much attention -- at the conference and in the newspapers -- that it earned her an on-the-spot nomination to be the Alliance secretary (Kellie/Nelsen, p.135). The first ballot was divided among several counties' own candidates, but the second ballot was "almost unanimous" in electing her (Kelle/Nelsen, pp. 135-136). It had been a paid position, and they wanted her to move to Lincoln, but she did not feel up to that, so she convinced them to let her set aside a small room in her house to maintain the Alliance's records (Kellie/Nelsen, pp. 136-137). Just as well she didn't move, since she was never paid (Nelsen, on p. 168 of Kellie/Nelsen, thinks that this was prejudice against women, but it seemed to me that there was just no money. Whatever the explanation, she certainly worked long hours without pay.)
She was not an obvious candidate to support a third party: "I had always been raised a strict republican and taught that by freeing the slaves and saving the nation that [Lincoln? the Republican party?] had done a wonderful and God-led work in spite of the wicked democrats" (Kellie/Nelsen, p. 104). But her husband had disagreed, so perhaps a third party was a good marital compromise. Kellie became what was apparently called a "Middle-of-the-road Populist" (Kellie/Nelsen, p. 163, meaning one who didn't want to try to convert the existing parties; she even softened her stand on women's suffrage to avoid raising an issue that could divide the new party. Kellie/Nelsen, p. 166, seems to say that her "Stand for Nebraska" speech was also in support of this position.
Her tenure as an Alliance official was not a happy one. She had to learn the job by doing it (Kellie/Nelsen, p. 168), and there was apparently a dispute about what she was authorized to do, and pay for, in her role. And no one had trained her in proper bookkeeping (Kellie/Nelsen, pp. 138-139). What perhaps hurt more was the steady decline in membership from 1890 to 1894. The organization felt that it needed more communication with its members, so they started a newspaper, initially called Wealth Makers but soon renamed the Prairie Home (Kellie/Nelsen, p. 171), that would be delivered free to the members. At first, they hired a typesetter, but this proved to require too much traveling, so they bought a second-hand printing press. For a while, they paid a typesetter, but eventually Kellie took over the job of editing and printing the paper (Kellie/Nelsen, pp. 140-142). The whole family took part (one 1899 issue recorded, "This is strictly a woman's or rather a girl's paper this week.... The editor [Luna Kellie herself] inks this week, so you know who to blame if you can hardly read your paper. Jessie runs the Washington press, Edith, Luna, and Lois (aged 10, 8, and 6) take turns 'jogging' folding and wrapping" -- Kellie/Nelsen, p. 171. The lack of punctuation is typical of Luna Kellie).
It's not hard to see why they had to scrimp. By this time the Nebraska alliance was so broke that it couldn't pay its national dues. (How much of this is the failure of their third party in 1892, and how much due to the poverty of the farmers, is not clear.) In 1896, the organization had total income for the year of just $143.03. (Kellie/Nelsen, p. 142. No wonder Kellie wasn't getting paid for her newspaper work!). By 1898, receipts were down to $56.38 and the Alliance was not able to pay its bills (Kellie/Nelsen, p. 143). It effectively ceased to exist after that.
In 1900, she was nominated as "Populist Candidate of Public Instruction," whatever that is. But Asa Taylor, the leader of the Union Reform movement died soon after -- of overwork, Kellie claimed -- in 1901, and "both daughter Jessie and myself felt our last chance was gone. Hardly a reform paper remained alive and the abuse was hard to bear. Jessie[,] now 19[,] had given the largest part of 5 years to the paper work with hardly a cent of pay and no time for pleasure" (Kellie/Nelson,, p. 144). Luna Kellie herself had seen her health badly affected. They gave up the paper, selling it (on credit) for half of what they felt the equipment was worth. "And so I never vote [... I] did not for years hardly look at a political paper. I feel that nothing is likely to be done to benefit the farming class in my lifetime. So I busy myself with my garden and chickens and have given up all hope of making the world any better" (Kellie/Nelsen, p. 145. The preceding sentences are the close of her "political memoir"; this was written before her family autobiography but covers later events).
The cover of the last issue of "The Prairie Home" (October 25, 1901) is shown on p. 178 of Kellie/Nelsen. Her constant striving had pretty clearly caused her to burn out, and the paper wasn't making money. According to Kellie/Nelsen, pp. 176-177, the paper had gradually become more of an actual paper, and less of a political organ, over the years, as Kellie bounced around from one quixotic political group to another over the years, but it remained a tremendous amount of work that didn't seem to accomplish anything.
Luna Kellie doesn't talk much about her music (the first time she mentions singing is 101 pages into her 124 page personal memoir), but after her fourth child was born, she wrote "I was able to resume my singing, something always did unconsciously unless too unhappy" (Kellie/Nelsen, pp. 103-104).
In addition to her time in the Nebraska Farmers' Alliance, she served in the Temperance movement as well as being active in the Methodist Church. Her efforts met little success and she spent her later years in Arizona.
The memoir I have cited as Kellie/Nelsen is now apparently available as a free download. It contains her political memoir, a text of "Stand Up for Nebraska" (pp. 127-132 of Kellie/Nelsen) and a long biographical sketch that she wrote for one of her daughters. It does not contain her songs; it is not intended to be a complete examination of her work -- it was Nelsen's undergraduate thesis topic. Thus there is actually much more that might be done in the way of a Kellie biography.
The Afterword of Kellie/Nelsen (p. 147) tells us that "Her writing reveals her living conditions, familial networks, the division of labor in her home, and women's roles in the Farmers' Alliance and the Populist party. Her accounts help explain what motivated women to become involved in politics. Furthermore, they illustrate how the Middle-of-the-Road Alliance movement -- so-called because members took a middle ground between the Republican and Democratic parties -- evolved, prospered, and then died when 'fusion' proponents pushed for major-party alignment."
Despite all this activity, I can find no evidence that any of her works actually went into tradition. The list of Kellie compositions cited by Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore includes:
Marching for Freedom ("The farmers of Nebraska now are in a fearful plight"; tune: Marching Through Georgia)
The Donkey's Song ("Oh, Thomas Benton is his name, Yonc huh, yonc huh"; tune: When Johnny Comes Marching Home)
Who Has Managed ("I've traveled through the state, dear Tom"; tune: Twenty Years Ago)
The Independent Broom ("Oh, say did you ever in years long gone by"; tune: The Star-Spangled Banner)
Dear Prairie Home ("There's a dear old homestead on Nebraska's fertile plain"; tune: Darling Nellie Gray)
The Pauper's Cowhides ("Say, Richards, have you seen the paupers"; tune: Kingdom Coming)
A Song of the Times ("There's a deep and growing murmur Going up through all the land"; tune: John Brown's Body)
Poking around the Internet turns up these other Farmers' Alliance items by Kellie (mostly found in WPA Nebraska Writers' Project pamphlets from the 1930s):
Good-bye, Oh Tommy, Good-Bye ("Tom Benton is on the G. O. P.")
Vote for Me ("Oh father, dear father, come vote for me now"; tune: Father Come Home)
Our John ("John Thurston is a railroad man, As such he is a dandy"; tune: Yankee Doodle)
Spread the News ("Oh, the farmers have united, And their actions will be cited"; tune: Sweet Memorie)
The Independent Man ("I was a party man one time, The party would not mind me"; tune: The Girl I Left Behind Me; two verses of this are quoted on p. 168 of Hicks)
Senator Paddock's Sentiments ("Oh, bankers, come and give me credit"; tune Kingdom Coming [this time listed as "The Year of Jubilo"])
Lament of the G. O. P. ("Up in congress now forever Will be many a vacant chair"; tune: "The Vacant Chair")
Man the Pumps ("At the railroad's late convention They observed at last"; tune: Hold the Fort)
Queen Victoria's Lackey ("There is a man at Buzzard's Bay To whom the goldbugs daily pray")
Good-Bye, My Party, Good-Bye ("It was no more than a year ago, Good-bye, my party, good-bye"; tune: "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye"; quoted in full on pp. 169-170 of Hicks, so this was perhaps her most noteworthy song).
"Stand Up for Nebraska" contained a poem beginning
There's a land where the toiler is free,
Where no robber of labor can come,
Where wealth gives not power to oppress,
Nor another man's labor to own.
The whole address is on pp. 127-132 of Kellie/Nelsen, with this poem on p. 128. If this was meant to be sung -- there is no indication that it was -- I suspect it was meant to be sung to "Sweet By and By."
The poem "Stand Up for Nebraska" ("Stand up for Nebraska! from the hand of her God She came forth, bright and pure as her own golden rod"; Kellie/Nelsen, pp. 131-132) which concludes the address does not have such an obvious melody, even though it seems to be her anthem.
Kellie wasn't in the same league as Mary Elizabeth Lease in terms of fame, but it's noteworthy that Hicks, pp. 168-170, quotes one of her songs in full and another in part; apparently her work was relatively well-known. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Wels060

Marching On

DESCRIPTION: "Old Abe's in the White House, taking a snooze, Gen'ral Grant is a-busting his gut with his booze... but let's keep marching on." Complaints about life in the Union army: Lincoln freed the Blacks but not the soldiers, the rebels keep coming back, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 23, 1862 - Abraham Lincoln issues the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which on Jan 1, 1863 will free all slaves in Confederate-controlled areas
Sept 19-20, 1863 - Battle of Chickamauga (calld "Chickamaugie" in the song). Braxton Bragg's reinforced Confederate army routs most of William S. Rosecrans' Federal force, which is saved only by a desperate stand by George H. Thomas. Although the most decisive victory the Confederates ever won, it is the last Rebel victory of the war, and will be avenged a few months later at the Battle of Chattanooga
Feb 1, 1865 - Thirteenth Amendment, which finally prohibits slavery, proposed by congress (It was declared ratified on Dec 18)
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 130, "Marching On" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Frank L. Warner [nephew of Frank M. Warner], "Songs My Uncle Taught Me" Vol. XI, No. 1 (Jul 1963), pp. 29-30, "Old Abe, or We Go Marchin' On" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT, MARCHON*
Roud #7475
RECORDINGS:
Frank Proffitt, "Old Abe" (on Proffitt03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (tune & meter)
cf. "Pass Around the Bottle" (lyrics)
NOTES [55 words]: This song implies that Grant, who was unquestionable a heavy drinker in his younger days, continued his alcoholic ways during the Civil War. Most observers agree, however, that he *did not* drink during the war. Grant was by no means a brilliant general, but at least he was stubborn enough to keep fighting until he won the war. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Wa130

Marching Order (Here Comes Mary)

DESCRIPTION: "Here Comes Mary, Covered all over with Marching Order! Marching Order! Marmelade and jam."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 49, "Marching Order" (1 text)
Roud #10551
File: BrPa049A

Marching Round the Gum Stump (Marching Round the Fodder Stack)

DESCRIPTION: "Marching round the gum stump, The gum stump, the gum stump, Marching round the gum stump, Rolly roly oh!" "If you want a sweetheart, A sweetheart, a sweetheart, If you want a sweetheart, Choose one and play."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 591, "Marching Round the Gum Stump" (1 text)
Roud #7676
NOTES [22 words]: I have this vague feeling that this is based on, or at least incorporates fragments of, a wren song. But I can hardly prove it.... - RBW
File: R591

Marching Round the Levee

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

Marching Song of Sherman's Army on the Way to the Sea, The

See Sherman's March to the Sea (File: SBoA248)

Marching Song of the First Arkansas

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, we're the bully soldiers of the 'First of Arkansas,' We're fighting for the Union, we are fighting for the law, We can hit a Rebel further than a white man ever saw..." The soldiers tell how they will show their prowess by defeating the Rebels
AUTHOR: Words: Capt. Lindley Miller?
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar); a nineteenth century broadside is listed on p. 147 of Edwin Wolf 2nd, _American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870_, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle Black(s) slavery freedom soldier derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 1, 1863 - Effectiveness date of the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in the portions of the U.S. not then in Federal hands
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 26, "Marching Song of the First Arkansas (Negro) Regiment" (1 text, tune referenced)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, p. 38, "Marching Song of the First Arkansas (Negro) Regiment" (1 text, tune referenced)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 110-111, "Song of the First Arkansas Regiment" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2194, p. 147, "Song of the First of Arkansas" (1 reference)
DT, MARARKAN*
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Marching Song of the First Arkansas" (on PeteSeeger28)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES [205 words]: The Union first began enlisting Black troops (informally) in 1862. By the end of that year, four regiments were raised, only to have Lincoln shut them down. After the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, however, Lincoln allowed the formation of (segregated) "colored" regiments.
In the end, over a hundred and fifty such regiments were raised. Their performance was mixed -- but this was probably the fault of the (white) officers rather than the Black troops. A large fraction of the officers in the "Colored" regiments were soldiers who had given up on promotion in the white army, and shifted to the "Colored" troops to get ahead. For more on this, see the notes to "Give Us a Flag."
Although originally recruited as the First Arkansas, the regiment came to be known as the "46th United States Colored Infantry." Its service was not particularly distinguished, except for the indignities inflicted on the troops when they were captured by Confederate forces.
At least one edition of this, according to Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 147, was published by "the Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: SCW38

Marching Song of the First Arkansas (Negro) Regiment

See Marching Song of the First Arkansas (File: SCW38)

Marching Song, The

See Riel Sits In His Chamber o' State (The Marching Song; Capture of For Garry, or Riel's Retreat) (File: Macl07)

Marching the Children Home

See Old Zion's Children Marching Along (File: RcOZCMaA)

Marching Thro' Georgia

See Marching Through Georgia (File: MA034A)

Marching Through Georgia

DESCRIPTION: Sundry boasts, mostly too optimistic, about Sherman's march to the sea: "How the darkeys shouted when they heard the joyful sound.... Yes, and there were Union men who wept with joyful tears... While we were marching through Georgia."
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (sheet music published by S. Brainerd's Sons)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 15, 1864 - William T. Sherman splits his army (which had conquered Atlanta on September 1) into two parts. One, under Thomas, is to defend Atlanta, while Sherman takes nearly 60,000 men on the "March to the Sea"
Dec 10, 1864 - Sherman's forces reach Savannah
Dec 21, 1864 - Sherman captures Savannah
FOUND IN: US(MW) Australia
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work, pp. 17-20, "Marching Through Georgia" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 126-129, "Marching Through Georgia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 34, "The Battle Cry of Freedom" (1 text, 1 tune, composed of equal parts of this song and "The Battle Cry of Freedom")
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 119-120, "Marching Through Georgia" (1 text)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 423, "Marching Through Georgia" (1 text, from a broadside by Johnson & Cartlitch, plus a copy of the Root & Cady sheet music cover)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 306-308, "Marching Through Georgis" (1 text plus a sheet music cover)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 43-45, "Marching Through Georgia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 78-79, "Marching Through Georgia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1381, p. 94, "Marching Through Georgia" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #17, p. 57, "Marching Through Georgia" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 122-124, "Marching Through Georgia" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 155-157, "Marching Through Georgia" (1 text)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 207-208, "Marching Through Georgia" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 278, "Marching Through Georgia" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 310-311, "Marching Through Georgia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #13, "Marching Thro' Georgia" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 91, "Marching Through Georgia" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 349, "Marching Through Georgia"
DT, MRCHGRGA*
ST MA034A (Full)
Roud #9596
RECORDINGS:
[Byron G.] Harlan & [Roba] Stanley, "Marching Through Georgia" (CYL: Edison 8606, 1904) (Columbia 1776, 1904) (Victor 4217, 1905)
J. W. Myers, "Marching Through Georgia" (Victor 4289, 1905)
Pete Seeger & Bill McAdoo, "Marching Through Georgia" (on PeteSeeger28)
Guy Wolff, "Marching Through Georgia" (Piotr-Archive #443, recorded 01/08/2023 -- heavily modified, perhaps to make it less controversial and more useful as a dance tune or the like)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Golden Gullies of the Palmer" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Workingmen's Army" (tune & meter)
cf. "Coxey Army" (tune)
cf. "Marching to Cuba" (tune)
cf. "All Are Talking of Utah" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Marching to Cuba (File: BrII237)
All Are Talking of Utah (File: CAFS2601)
Marching to Dixie (File: ChMS116)
Song for the Temple Volunteers (File: ChMS126)
Hooray, Hooray (File: CrAG34B)
When We Go Marching Home (File: LDC294)
Come, Ye Toiling Millions (File: LDC482)
Marching for Freedom (File: Wels060)
Marching to Freedom ("Rouse, ye sons of labor all, and rally in your might! In the Eastern heavens see the dawning of the light") (Foner, p. 165)
The Workingmen's Army ("When rebel shot and rebel shell burst open Sumter's wall, When honest Abraham Lincoln's voice aroused the people all") (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 59-60; Foner, p. 257)
Coxey Army ("Bring the good old bugle, boys, we want to tell in song, The Coxey army's marching from the town of Massillon") (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 62-63; Foner, p. 253)
Marching with Coxey ("We are marching to the Capital, three hundred thousand strong") (Foner, p. 253)
The People's Choice (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 126)
Labor Song ("Start the music, brothers, we will sing a labor song, Sing it with a vim that will speed our cause along") (by John Siney) (Foner, p. 98)
Labor Free for All ("Start the music, comrades, we will sing a labor song, We'll sing it with a spirit that will speed the cause along") (Foner, p. 154)
The March of the Toilers ("Shall we work for hunger pay, that's the question now") (Foner, p. 134)
The Unionist's Song ("Gabriel, blow the clarion and sound the bugle-horn") (Foner, p. 178)
Industrial Freedom ("Sing along the tidings that the race will yet be free") (by S. M. Jones) (Foner, p. 182)
A Song of Eight Hours ("Lo, a vision of dismay, a lurid glimpse of doom") (by E. R. Place) (Foner, p. 220)
The Land Song ("Sound a blast for Freedom, boys, and send it far and wide!") (Foner, p. 261)
March of United Labor ("Come forth, ye toiling millions, and join our worthy band") (by George Campbell) (Foner, p. 267)
Gold Bugs Go Down Before Bryan ("Bring the silver bugle, boys, We'll sing another song... Sing it as they sung it in The anti-gold bug throng") (Foner, p. 283)
When We're United for Freedom ("They tell us that the woods are full, they're coming right along") (by H. B. Salisbury)
While We Are Voting for Garfield ("Let us join our voices, boys, And sing an anthem grand") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 7)
Republicans, Remember ("Republicans, remember how in eighteen sixty-one, The fight for human liberty at Sumter was begun") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 13)
Hurrah! Hurrah! The Battle Has Begun ("Fling out the starry banner, boys, the flag we love full well") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 19)
We Must Vote for Prohibition ("Jump into the wagon, boys, and ev'rybody sing") (by Frank D. Reno) (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 17)
They Vote for Prohibition ("Do you see the women of the golden sunset west") (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 27)
Marching to Victory ("Bring the good old bugle, boys, and sound the call to war, We're out for prohibition, now") (by Ethel M. Van Vliet) (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 27)
The Battle Song of the "Iowa" (by Clay M. Greene, about the Spanish-American War) ("Clear the decks for action, boys, we're brave and strong and true") (Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 148)
The Freedom of Cuba (by Ella Strait Hollister) ("See the cruel bondage of the Spaniard's mighty host") (Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 148)
Marching on Georgia ("Georgia was a little girl who lived in Tennessee, he had a ticklish feeling on her ankle and her knee") (Harbin-Parodology, #215, p. 55)
NOTES [194 words]: Although Work can hardly be blamed for his cheerful view of the March to the Sea, it was in fact little better than terrorism. Sherman's expressed goal was to "make Georgia howl," and he certainly succeeded; a region some fifty miles across was devastated. (Sherman was, in fact, reviving the chevauchee, the method by which the armies of the Middle Ages destroyed their enemies' agricultural base).
Even if there had been Union men in the region before, there were none left afterward.
"Marching Through Georgia" has been called "the most hated song in the south."
The one other person who hated the song was none other than Sherman himself; he reportedly said, "If I had thought when I made that march that it would have inspired anyone to compose the piece, I would have marched AROUND the state."
Sherman became the most hated man in the south for the rest of his life. It's ironic to note that, when Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the last real southern army to Sherman, Sherman gave such generous terms (to Johnston and anyone else willing to take them) that the North instantly repudiated them. There were loud calls for his removal -- as being too soft! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: MA034A

Marching to Cuba

DESCRIPTION: "We're going down to Cuba, boys, to battle for the right, We're going to show the Spaniards that we Yankee boys can fight... While we are marching to Cuba." The victories at Manila Bay and Santiago are briefly mentioned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: Spain battle war navy soldier derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1895 - Cubans rebel against Spain
Feb 15, 1898 - Explosion of the battleship "Maine" in Havana harbor
May 1, 1898 - Battle of Manila Bay. Dewey's fleet destroys the entire Spanish fleet in the Philippines
May 19, 1898 - The Spanish fleet enters Santiago Bay
July 2, 1898 - The Spanish fleet at Santiago, acting under orders from Madrid, sails out into the teeth of the American fleet and is destroyed
July 10, 1898 - U. S. troops attack Santiago
July 17, 1898 - U. S. troops capture Santiago
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 237, "Marching to Cuba" (1 text)
Roud #6622
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marching Through Georgia" (tune) and references there
cf. "My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine" (theme) and references there
NOTES [249 words]: The editors of Brown were able to identify this with a piece "Marching to Cuba" credited to Josie M. Galloway, with words by J. H. Dohrmann. Since, however, it is instantly obvious that the tune is "Marching through Georgia," the authorship claims must be treated as slightly dubious.
For background on the loss of the Maine, and the war that followed, see the notes to "My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine."
The military figures mentioned in this song include:
Dewey - George Dewey (1837-1917), commander of the U. S. Navy's Asiatic Squadron from early 1898, he won the Battle of Manila Bay at slight cost: The Spanish lost their entire fleet, the Americans didn't have a single sailor killed
Sampson - William Thomas Sampson (1840-1902), who led the Board of Inquiry into the Maine explosion. He was appointed to command the North Atlantic squadron during the War, and hence was responsible for the blockade of Santiago harbor. His direct involvement in the Battle of Santiago was limited as he was not in the immediate presence of the enemy when the Spanish sortied
Hobson - Richmond Pearson Hobson (1870-1937) helped close Santiago harbor by sinking the collier Merrimac as a blockship.
Schley - Winfield Scott Schley (1839-1909) commanded the Flying Squadron of the fleet blockading Santiago. When the Spaniards attempted to break out, Schley was the senior officer present -- a fact which later led to severe arguments with Sampson over who deserved credit for the victory. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BrII237

Marching to Dixie

DESCRIPTION: "Some six or seven years ago this country looked forlorn, A God-forsaken country as sure as you are born," but the Mormons have taken St. George and made it into a good homw "As they came marching to Dixie" [Utah's Dixie region]
AUTHOR: Charles L. Walker (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: home derivative | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 116-117, "Marching to Dixie" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10851
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marching Through Georgia" (tune) and references there
NOTES [17 words]: For St. George, Utah, and other songs about it, see the notes to "Saint George and the Drag-On." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS116

Marching to Pretoria

DESCRIPTION: As commonly sung, about people sharing activities as they march to Pretoria. Traditional versions are more specific. Shanty Chorus: "We are marchin' to Pretoria, oh gloria, Victoria. We are marchin' to Pretoria, Victoria rules the waves!"
AUTHOR: unknown (common version "translated" by Josef Marais)
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Songs from the Veld by Josef Marais) (but see notes)
KEYWORDS: shanty army travel Africa food campsong
FOUND IN: South Africa Britain
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p.425, "Pretoria" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 329, "Marching to Pretoria" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 61, "Pretoria" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "Marching to Pretoria" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 33)
DT, MARPRET
ADDDITIONAL: Marais: Josef Marais, _Songs from South Africa: 14 Songs from the Veld_ (also published as _Songs from the Veld: 14 Songs from South Africa_; this name in fact appears on the title page!), G. Schirmer, 1942, pp. 28-29, "Marching to Pretoria" (1 English text, 1 tune, plus an Afrikaans verse and literal translation)
RECORDINGS:
Josef Marais and his Bushveld Band, "Marching to Pretoria" (Decca 18230A); later re-recorded by Joseph Marais and Miranda
NOTES [1046 words]: Hugill says he had to camouflage the shanty verses to the Pretoria tune to print them -- it is clearly a rewrite. - (SL, RBW)
I was surprised not to find this in the index already, considering how common I thought was. From what I could find it dates or at least refers to the Boer or Zulu war. - SL
It is not in the Index because it's rarely found in tradition. As best I can tell, it was fixed up by Joseph Marais and Miranda, based on a South African original, and the adaption has been sung very widely at camps -- typically on hiking expeditions. But only starting in the 1960s. Possibly the various versions should be split, but given the lack of field collections, it hardly seems necessary.
Hugill was the first time I'd met the sea version, which may be an alternate adaption. Although Cyril Tawney, on p. 63 of Grey Funnel Lines, reports that the tune was used as part of the melody for "The Oggie Song."
It would be very interesting to find the earliest version of this, to know the setting (including which Boer War it dates from). I've seen a number of web sites which give context, but none of them give any actual citations of anyone singing the song! Joseph Marais himself, in World Folk Songs, p. 60, says, "In 1939 I introduced this song to American audiences over NBC's Blue Network. Pretoria, of course, was the important objective of the British during the Boer War of 1901, the last of the so-called 'gentlemen's wars.' As both sides sang it, there was no recognizable set way of performance. I wrote English words and a definitive musical adaption...." All of which may be true, but Marais offers no evidence for any of it.
What's more, the mention of Victoria in the sailors' version would seem to imply a date before Queen Victoria died in 1901, i.e. before the second Boer War.
The opening conflict of the (first) Boer War came on December 20, 1880, at Bronkhorstspruit, when "264 officers of the 94th Regiment (Connaught Rangers), marching from Lydenburg to Pretoria, were halted on the march by a Boer commando and ordered to turn back. The lieutenant-coloonel in command was given two minutes to reply to the demand. He refused to surrender and was killed by the Boers' opening shots" (Farwell, pp. 244-245). Most of the other British soldiers were killed as well.
Britain was defeated again early the next year, on February 26, 1881, At Majuba Hill, British General George Pomeroy Colley took his force onto high ground, but failed to create a defensive position; his forces were routed and Colley himself killed (van Hartsveldt, p. 4).
Rather than keep up the fight, the British negotiated, A year later, the Pretoria Convention would end the war. "It gave the South African Republic independence subject to a vague assertion of British suzerainty whatever that might mean" (van Hartsveldt, p. 5).
In the second (1899-1902) Boer War, Pretoria would again be key -- and the site of a lot of marching. On October 30, 1899, after their victory at Lombard's Kop, the Boers marched a number of British prisoners through Pretoria (Belfield, pp. 20-22).
On March 13, 1900, Frederick Singh Roberts captured Bloemfontein, then prepared to march on the Boer capital of Pretoria. He set out on May 3 and arrived June 5 (Belfield, pp. 95-100). That made it possible for British forces to capture Koomati Poort and cut the Boers off from all contact with the outside world (Chandler/Beckett, pp. 200-201). This did not end the war -- there would be two more years of guerrilla fighting, in which world opinion turned against England and the international situation became ever more complicated. But it was nearly the end of the direct military phase (and it earned Roberts an earldom and the command of the British army), and at the time it was thought it would end the conflict; the soldiers must have thought they were making the last big push.
Thus, a march to Pretoria could have been bad news for Britain or for the Boers, depending on the war and the situation. Or it could be about something else.
Marais-Veld, p. 29, admits that there are "other lustier, but unprintable, versions of this famous marching song." He then gives an Afrikaans verse, beginning "Klap julle handjies, alle bobbejaantjies, Darr's 'n groot fees, ou boeties." This verse is an invitation to "all little baboons" to join a feast. Thus the Marais version is sort of a composite: The chorus is from the marching song (about the attack on Pretoria, whoever made it), but Marais's verses, especially the second verse, "We have food and the food is good," is sort of a free riff on the invitation to the baboons.
One of the camp songbooks I checked claimed this was "sung by men returning from the diamond mines." This is perhaps possible -- Pretoria is not far from the diamond district -- but Marais gives no hint of it, and neither does any other authoritative source.
Abby Sale pointed out to me a song recorded by Ian Colquhoun with an orchestra, "Marching On Pretoria," recorded c. 1902 and released c. 1903, on Zonophone, matrix X-348. More information about it is available at https://www.flatinternational.org/template%5Fvolume.php?volume%5Fid=150 (checked July 24, 2023). It was recorded to the tune of "Marching Through Georgia." The recording transcribed at the site was apparently very hard to understand, but it suggests the initial words were
When the call to arms went forth [our hearts were ???] and glad
[??? those days and ???] the brave it bloody had.
Every English meadow yielded up its human lad
We March! March! March! on Pretoria.
Hooraah! Hooraah! Come hither sail they come.
Hooraah! Hooraah! They've made the [business ???] calm.
Round the world you heard the beat of Britain's ceaseless drum
When we went marching on Pretoria.
The site suggests that this is the original of "Marching To Pretoria." I think it patently not; "Marching to Pretoria" has four feet in all lines, while this has the standard 4343 meter, and the tunes are not the same, nor are there lyrics in common other than "marching" and "Pretoria." But it is not unreasonable to conjecture that one inspired the other. I incline to thing that "Marching To Pretoria" the original and "Marching On Pretoria" the derivative; despite its rousing tune, that text looks awfully flowery. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hugi425

Marching to Quebec

See Marching Down to Old Quebec (File: R519)

Marching, Marching, Marching

See Raining Raining Raining (Grousing, Marching, Starving) (File: BrPa045B)

Marchioness of Douglas, The

See Jamie Douglas [Child 204] (File: C204)

Marco Polo

See Charlie Chaplin Went to France (File: CarMF80A)

Marco Polo Off He Ran

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Marco Polo off he ran, To the court of Kubla Khan, In the city of Cathay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Those Dusty Bluebells)
KEYWORDS: jumprope travel | Marco Polo
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #329, "Marco Polo off he ran" (1 text)
NOTES [61 words]: It isn't clear whether this derives from Marco Polo's book, or from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Kubla Khan." Coleridge's poem does not mention "Cathay," but it does use the spelling "Kubla Khan" rather than the preferred "Kublai Khan" for the grandson of Genghis Kahn (1214-1294; he was Great Khan of the Mongols from 1260 and considered ruler of China from 1271). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR329

Marden Forfeit Song

See Green Grow the Leaves (File: Leath206)

Mare and the Foal, The

DESCRIPTION: "The old clerk in the parish you know very well"; he tolls the bell then goes to the alehouse." A mare and a foal they ran in great speed" and begin to read the Bible. They observe that millers, bakers, tailors, butchers, publicans are all dishonest.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (E. J. Moeran collection)
KEYWORDS: clergy horse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, "#30, The Mare and the Foal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1477
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rigs of the Times" (theme)
File: PECS030

Margaret Gray

DESCRIPTION: Margaret Gray and her baby bid farewell to Robert Gray as he goes to work in the field. They agree to meet at a neighbor's house. She becomes lost in the woods. Her baby dies. Long after, she finally finds her way home.
AUTHOR: Julia C. R. Dorr
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Dorr, Poems)
KEYWORDS: baby separation death love return reunion travel rescue farming ordeal friend husband wife
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 19-26, "Margaret Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 37-41, "Margaret Gray -- A Legend of Vermont (1 text)
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 12, "Margery Gray" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Mrs. Julia C. R. Dorr, Poems (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1872 ("Digitized by Library of Congress")), pp. 56-62, "Margery Grey, A Legend of Vermont" (1 text)
ST FlBr019 (Partial)
Roud #5440
NOTES [227 words]: Flanders and Brown claim this piece was well-known in Vermont, and indeed they seem to list two informants. But it doesn't appear to have turned up in any other collection.
Julia Caroline Ripley Dorr (1825-1913) was successful enough as a writer to earn a place in the Dictionary of American Biography (she was born in Charleston, South Carolina, but moved to Vermont before she was two; her mother, who was frail, died when her family arrived there. She married Seneca M. Dorr in 1847, spent some time in New York City, but returned to the family home in Rutland, Vermont, i 1857. Her first books, published in the 1850s, were novels which were listed as by "Caroline Thomas." Her first volume of "Poems" was published in 1872, and included this piece; at least nine more volumes followed. Her husband died in 1884, and she spent the rest of her life living quietly.)
Despite her productivity, I checked eight anthologies without finding a single word she had written. Granger's Index to Poetry, which cites some 300 anthologies, lists a few of her poems -- but not one of those 300 volumes includes this piece. Given how wordy this poem is, it's perhaps not surprising. Nor is it surprising that she didn't place much material in tradition; her goal was to avoid anything "which she could not with propriety read to children" (DAB, volume III, p. 381) - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: FlBr019

Margaret's Ghost

See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Margery Gray

See Margaret Gray (File: FlBr019)

Margery Grey, A Legend of Vermont

See Margaret Gray (File: FlBr019)

Margery, Feed Well the Black Sow

DESCRIPTION: "Margery, feed well the black sow All on a misty morning, Come to your dinner, sow, Come, come, come, Or else thou shalt have never a crumb." May be sung as a round
AUTHOR: Thomas Ravenscroft?
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (Ravenscroft, Deuteromelia)
KEYWORDS: food | pig sow round
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
The Crofut Family, "Come Feed the Black Sow" (Piotr-Archive #670, recorded 09/17/2023)
NOTES [75 words]: This has a terrific tune, which can be done as either a four-part or an eight-part round, but I am quite sure it did not survive in tradition completely unnoticed from 1609 to 2023 (though Ravenscroft may have taken it from tradition in 1609). The Crofut family version does have some minor differences in words from Ravenscroft's text, though.
I did find one camp songbook that had it, so there may be a few young people who have heard it at camp. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio670

Margie Ate Some Marmalade

DESCRIPTION: "(Margie/Polly) (ate/drank) some (marmalade/lemonade), Margie drank some pop, Margie drank some other thing That made her stomach flop. Whoops/Oops went the marmalade... that made her stomach flop."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: food disease jumprope | stomach ache
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 50, "Margie" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #40, "(Polly drinks lemonade)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #504, "Saly drinks lemonade (ate a pickle)" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 139, "(Name of player) ate some marmalade" (1 text)
Roud #19227
File: ZiZa050B

Margot Evans (Let the Bullgine Run)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh the smartest clipper you can find, Oh hey, oh ho, are you 'most done? Is the (Margot Evans) of the (Blue Cross) line, So clear the track, let the bullgine run!" The singer describes the fast passage of the ship, and hopes Liza Lee will marry him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Terry)
KEYWORDS: sailor work ship courting nonballad shanty
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 29, "The Bullgine Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 99, "Clear the Track" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 18-19, "Clear the Track, Let the Bulgine Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 344-347, "Clear the Track, let the Bulgine Run" (2 texts, 2 tune) [AbEd, pp. 258-259]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 157, "Clear the Track" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, VI, p. 7, "Clear the Track" (1 text, 1 tune)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #5, "Clear the track, let the Bullgine run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 53-54, "Clear the Track, Let the Bulgine Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 237, "Mobile Bay" (1 fragment, clearly this despite the "Mobile Bay" title)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 317, "Clear the Track and Let the Bullgine Rune" (1 text)
DT, MARGOEVN*
Roud #810
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Eliza Lee
NOTES [107 words]: Hugill, following Sharp, claims this is sung to the tune similar to "Shule Agrah" (Lomax says they're the same), though it's not any variant I've ever heard.
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen thinks that explains the strange combination of bullgine engine (railroad engine) and low-backed car: Someone from the Margot Evans (the ship in her version, though Hugill has a Wild Cat or similar) heard Irish sailors singers sing it, and adapted it.
The Margot Evans, according to Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, was a packet running apparently from Mobile to New York.
Personally, I think the whole song needs a lot more historical study. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LoF029

Margot, La

DESCRIPTION: French shanty. Chorus: "Oh hisse! et ho! Tire larigot, Hourra pour la Margot!" "With a heave an'a ho! Blow the flute boys, O! Hurrah for La Margot!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Hayet, _Chansons de bord_)
LONG DESCRIPTION: French shanty. Chorus: "Oh hisse! et ho! Tire larigot, Hourra pour la Margot!" "With a heave an'a ho! Blow the flute boys, O! Hurrah for La Margot!" Translation is vague, verses seem to refer to Margot as both a ship and a woman and has thinly disguised bawdy lyrics, and several of the repeating words in both the verses and chorus can have different meanings
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty bawdy
FOUND IN: France
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 398-400, "La Margot" (2 texts-English & French, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Le Bihor
File: Hugi398

Mari de Quatre-Vingt-Dix Ans, Le (The Ninety Year Old Husband)

DESCRIPTION: French. The singer's father marries her to a ninety year old man. When she complains, her father said that her husband is rich. She would rather have a man that satisfies her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage age marriage dialog father husband
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 298-299, "Le Mari de Quatre-Vingt-Dix Ans" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man" and references there
File: Pea298

Maria

DESCRIPTION: "I wonder where Maria's gone (x3). Ear-lye in the morning." "Guess she's gone and I can't go (x3), Ear-lye in the morning." "Yonder she comes and howdy-do (x3), Ear-lye in the morning."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection); 1907 (JAFL20)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 66-67, "[Maria]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 258, "Maria's Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 23, "Mariah" (1 text, 1 tune; Skean notes that the name is pronounced "Mariar")
Roud #3625
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drunken Sailor (Early in the Morning)"
NOTES [93 words]: The similarity to "The Drunken Sailor" will be obvious even from the lyrics -- but since the theme of the song is different, the chorus is absent, and the tune somewhat modified, I decided to classify these as separate songs. Presumably at some point someone put new lyrics to the "Drunken Sailor" melody. - RBW
The 1917 version collected by Sharp -- in Hindman, KY, where many of the Ritchies attended the settlement school -- has a rather different melody; perhaps the words and earlier melody came first, then someone switched tunes to "Drunken Sailor." - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: JRSF066

Maria and Caroline

See The Folkestone Murder (File: K320)

Maria and William

DESCRIPTION: William seduces Maria. After her baby is born William scorns her until he sees her dancing with another. Jealous, he gives her poison in a glass of wine. He also takes the poison and they die. She says, "It's all for your sweet sake I died."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: seduction rejection homicide childbirth suicide dancing wine lover
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 88, "Maria and William" (1 text)
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 53, "Down the Green Groves" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1478
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oxford City" [Laws P30] (theme: poison in a glass of wine)
NOTES [51 words]: The last half of Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle is "Oxford City" ["Poison in a Glass of Wine"] from the woman's point of view. Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle includes a pair of lines close to a pair found in "Oxford City": "He saw me dancing with some other, Jealousy came in his mind." Roud lumps both songs. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: ReCi088

Maria Barberi

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis not for me to speak aloud On lofty themes. I tell As one among the lowly crowd How young Maria fell." "Swift as a flash a glittering blade Across his throat she drew. 'By you,' she shrieked, 'I've been betrayed." She apparently avoids conviction
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide revenge betrayal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 1895 - Maria Barberi kills Domenico Cataldo, apparently because he would not marry her
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 55, "(Maria Barberi)" (1 text, probably a fragment)
File: Burt055

Maria Bewell

DESCRIPTION: Fifteen year old Maria's stepfather comes to her bed one night and asks to sleep with her. She begs him not to; he persists. Finally his desire is too strong; he lies in wait for her and kills her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio)
KEYWORDS: incest homicide rejection father
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1832 - Murder of Maria Buell by Ira West Gardner. Gardner was later hung, though details of the sentencing were lost in a fire
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 120, "Maria Bewell" (1 text)
ST E120 (Full)
Roud #4116
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dF44 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: E120

Maria Marten

DESCRIPTION: Maria tells her mother she is going to meet William at the red barn. They are to be married next day in Islip. Maria is never seen alive again. After eleven months her mother dreams the body will be found buried in the red barn. The body is found there.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (collected from George Hall, according to Palmer)
KEYWORDS: courting homicide dream mother corpse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 18, 1827 - Maria Marten meets William Corder at the "red barn" and is murdered
Nov 1827 - Corder marries Mary Moore in London
Apr 18, 1828 - Supposedly informed by a dream experienced by Maria's stepmother, Maria's father finds the body
Aug 8, 1828 - Corder convicted and condemned to death. He admits to the crime in his condemned cell
Aug 11, 1828 - Corder executed (source: timeline on pp. 240-241 of Tom Pettitt, "Mediating Maria Marten: Comparative and Contextual Studies of the Red Barn Ballads" in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014)
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North,South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #115, "Maria Marten" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #123, "Maria Marten" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Tom Pettitt, "Mediating Maria Marten: Comparative and Contextual Studies of the Red Barn Ballads", in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, pp. 225 (various fragments of traditional and broadside versions compared)
Flemming G. Anderson and Thomas Pettitt, "'The Murder of Maria Marten': The Birth of a Ballad?" in Carol L. Wdwards and Kathleen E. B. Manley, _Narrative Folksong: New Directions: Essays in Appreciation of W. Edson Richmond_, Westview Press, 1985, pp. 132-178 (8 texts, 1 tune, most of which are "The Murder of Maria Marten" but some of which might be related to this)
Roud #18814
RECORDINGS:
Freda Palmer, "Maria Marten" (on Voice03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Murder of Maria Marten" (subject) and references there
NOTES [183 words]: For background on the Maria Marten case, see the notes to "The Murder of Maria Marten." Some collectors have thought this a version of that song, heavily corrupted by oral tradition, but broadsides show that both were independently composed. There were, in fact, at least four other Maria Marten broadsides, but it appears only this and "The Murder of Maria Marten" became traditional.
Tom Pettitt, "Mediating Maria Marten: Comparative and Contextual Studies of the Red Barn Ballads", in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition, Ashgate, 2014, pp. p. 242, compares the four traditional versions of this with the original broadside text. He identifies 24 major elements in the broadside. Only one of the four traditional versions retains more than ten of these (we can't say exactly how many, because the transcript has been damaged, but it has 15 of the 17 for which it is extant). Unlike "The Murder of Maria Marten," this song's hold on tradition was clearly very tenuous. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: RcMariaM

Maria Martin

See The Murder of Maria Marten (File: BdTMoMM)

Maria T. Wiley, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you Wiscasset sailors, I pray you lend an ear, I'll sing to you a ditty You never did hear. It's of the Maria T. Wiley. Under Captain Charles Coffin, she heads to Savannah with bricks and hay. The crew hates her but hopes for good wages
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: ship travel hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 323-324, "The Maria T. Wiley" (1 text)
File: EcSm323

Maria's Gone

See Maria (File: JRSF066)

Mariah

See Maria (File: JRSF066)

Marian Parker (I) [Laws F33]

DESCRIPTION: Pretty schoolgirl Marian Parker and her family are preparing for Christmas when the girl is kidnapped from school. "Young Hickman" is arrested and tried after the body is found
AUTHOR: Bill Barrett?
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Al Craver [Vernon Dalhart]; also copyrighted in that year, but the Dalhart recording was probably made in 1927; collected by Brown as early as 1930)
KEYWORDS: homicide corpse trial abduction
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 14, 1927 - Kidnapping and murder of twelve (eleven?)-year-old Marian Parker
Dec 17, 1927 - Discovery by her father of the girl's mutilated body
Oct 19, 1928 - Execution of William Edward Hickman for the murder
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws F33, "Marian Parker"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 254, "Marian Parker" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 68-70, "Little Marian Parker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 65-66, "(Marion Parker)" (1 text, tune referenced)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 667-668, "Little Marian Parker" (1 text)
DT 731, MARPARK1
Roud #781
RECORDINGS:
Al Craver [pseud. for Vernon Dalhart] & Charlie Wells [pseud. for Carson Robison], "Little Marian Parker" (Columbia 15218-D. c. 1928)
Helen Dunphy, "Marian Parker" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marian Parker (II)" (subject)
cf. "Marian Parker (III)" (subject)
cf. "Edward Hickman (Marian Parker IV)" (subject)
NOTES [70 words]: Laws lists a total of four Marian Parker ballads (the others are dF56, dF57, and dE49, "Edward Hickman"). This one, popularized by Vernon Dalhart, begins "Away out in California lived a family bright and gay. They were planning for their Christmas not very far away...."
The 1928 printing, credited to Bill Barrett (though I wonder if Carson Robison may not have been involved), titles the song "Little Marian Parker." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LF33

Marian Parker (II)

DESCRIPTION: Marian Parker, "a sweet little darling," is "lured away from school" so that the kidnapper (unnamed) can demand a ransom. Her father finds her mangled body. The ballad concludes with moralizing stanzas
AUTHOR: John McGhee?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: abduction homicide death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 14, 1927 - Kidnapping and murder of twelve (eleven?)-year-old Marian Parker
Dec 17, 1927 - Discovery by her father of the girl's mutilated body
Oct 19, 1928 - Execution of William Edward Hickman for the murder
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 255, "The Murder of Marian Parker" (1 text)
Roud #4126
RECORDINGS:
John McGhee, "The Marion Parker Murder" (Champion 15427=probably Gennett 6362)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marian Parker (I)" [Laws F33] (subject)
cf. "Marian Parker (III)" (subject)
cf. "Edward Hickman (Marian Parker IV)" (subject)
NOTES [62 words]: This is item dF56 in Laws's Appendix II. Laws lists a total of four Marian Parker ballads (the others are F33, dF57, and dE49, "Edward Hickman"). This one, with no details and an extremely sticky tone, begins "In a home out in Los Angeles Lived a sweet little darling so fair. 'Twas a pleasure her loved ones to be, But her loved ones her joy no more they'll share." - RBW
File: LdF56

Marian Parker (III)

DESCRIPTION: Marian and her sister set out for school. Edward Hickman tells her her father had an accident, and kidnaps her. He demands a $1500 ransom. Her father brings the money, but finds her dead body. The song blames Hickman but does not tell his fate
AUTHOR: Andrew Jenkins
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Andrew Jenkins)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution trial abduction mother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 14, 1927 - Kidnapping and murder of twelve (eleven?)-year-old Marian Parker
Dec 17, 1927 - Discovery by her father of the girl's mutilated body
Oct 19, 1928 - Execution of William Edward Hickman for the murder
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 256, "Little Marion Parker" (1 text)
Roud #4127
RECORDINGS:
Blind Andy [pseud. for Andrew Jenkins], "Little Marian Parker" (OKeh 45197, 1928) [The flip side is also a Marian Parker ballad, "Edward Hickman"]
Natalie Villmer, "Marion Parker" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #714, recorded 10/20/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marian Parker (I)" [Laws F33] (subject)
cf. "Marian Parker (II)" (subject)
cf. "Edward Hickman (Marian Parker IV)" (subject)
NOTES [93 words]: This is item dF57 in Laws's Appendix II. Laws lists a total of four Marian Parker ballads (the others are F33, dF56, and dE49, "Edward Hickman"). This, one of two by Andrew Jenkins and appearing in the Brown collection, has the opening stanza, "Now little Marion (sic) Parker, She left her home one day, She started to the schoolhouse, Her heart was light and gay."
Derek Piotr's recording of Natalie Villmer has only two lines and is useless for reconstructing the song but appears to be this, and it gives evidence that this song did go into tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LdF57

Marianina Tra La La

DESCRIPTION: "Little Tuscan maid so gay and blythe, Lovely as the land that gave her life; Through the vineyard and the olive trees, Rings her laughter on the breeze." "Marianina, tra la la (x2)... No wild red rose was ever half so fair." She sings as she travels
AUTHOR: English version by Homer Harbour and A.D.Z. (source: mudcat.org thread "ADD: Marianina / Mariannina"; Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs lists a "David Klburn Stevens")
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (ChansonsDeNotreChalet)
KEYWORDS: beauty music nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 147, 152, 263, 345, "Marianina Tra La La"/"Marianina" (notes only)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 50, "Marianina" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [33 words]: The mudcat.org thread "ADD: Marianina / Mariannina" says that the Italian original of this dates back at least to 1921, but it sounds as if the English translation is a pretty dramatic rewrite. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF147M

Mariann' s'en va-t-au Moulin (Marianne's Going to the Mill)

DESCRIPTION: French. Marianne rides her donkey to the mill to have her grain ground. A wolf eats her donkey as she waits. The miller pays to buy another. Her father asks what happened to the donkey. She says it is St. Michael's day, when donkeys change their coats
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage grief death money humorous animal father miller
FOUND IN: US(MW) Can(Que)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 76, "Mariann' s'en va-t-au moulin (Marianne's Going to the Mill)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 55-57, "Marianne S'en Va-t-au Moulin (Marie Went to the Mill)" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
File: BerV076

Marianson, Dame Joli (Marianson, My Lady Fair)

DESCRIPTION: French. A knight calls on Marianson and steals her husband's rings. The husband, coming home from war, is tricked by the knight into thinking she is unfaitfhul. He kills the child and drags her behind his horse. She proves her innocence, but is dying.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
LONG DESCRIPTION: French. A man (knight?) calls on Marianson, whose husband is off at the war. He asks her to lend him her golden rings; she gives him the key to her chest, and he takes the rings. He brings them to a goldsmith and has them duplicated. He then meets the lady's husband, who swears his wife is faithful. The man replies that "This I believe, yet disbelieve" and shows the husband the rings. The husband goes home, sick at heart; Marianson show him their newborn son. "A name I'll render to the child, The mother earns renown defiled." He kills the child by throwing it on the ground, ties Marianson by the hair to his horse, and drags her for three days. Then he looks back and asks, "Where are thy golden rings so rare?" She tells him they're in the chest; he looks, and they are there. Stricken with remorse, he asks her what surgeon could save her; she replies that "The only surgeon now would be / A winding-sheet to cover me." He asks her forgiveness; she replies that she forgives him for murdering her, but not for killing their child
KEYWORDS: jealousy virtue courting ring accusation lie questions violence return betrayal homicide death children husband wife foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada France
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 16 (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Adam Paulukaitis, "Marianson" (Piotr-Archive #727, recorded 10/28/2023. Very long text)
NOTES [132 words]: Although I can't remember where I encountered it, I seem to recall a medieval romance similar to this. Searches on the Internet say that this story was particularly popular in Normandy.
I am also strongly reminded of the story of Griselda in Chaucer's "Clerk's Tale" (which, admittedly, goes back to Boccaccio, and before that perhaps to the tale of Eros and Psyche). There is also the legend which Chretien de Troyes retold as "Erec and Enide," and which occurs in the Mabinogion as "Gereint and Enid," about a husband's unjustifid jealousy. Admittedly it ends with the lovers making peace, and Chaucer's tale of Griselda technically has a happy ending -- but the *true* happy ending in that case would have been to give Walter a taste of his own medicine. Where is Medea when we need her? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BerV016

Marie Hamilton

See Mary Hamilton [Child 173] (File: C173)

Marie Madelaine (Son Petit Jupon -- The Little Dress of Gray)

DESCRIPTION: French: The singer is her father's only daughter, and he sent her to sea in her little dress of gray. A sailor courts her and asks to kiss her. She is afraid of what her papa would do. He points out that her father is far away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: Quebec love courting sea father foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 294-296, "Son Petit Jupon" (2 texts (1 English, 1 French), 1 tune)
File: SBoA294

Marigold, The

See The Royal Oak (File: VWL091)

Marilyn Monroe Fell in the Snow

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Marilyn Monroe Fell in the snow; Her skirts blew up And the boys cried 'Oh!'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Ritchie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope clothes | Marilyn Monroe snow
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #331, "Marilyn Monroe" (1 text)
File: AJRR331

Marina Girl

See (references and notes under) Way Down the Old Plank Road (File: ADR94)

Marine Song

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, a corp'ral and a private of Marines, Licked the Germans and all their bloody damn marines" while their superiors toast General Le Jeune. The singer boasts of all their success against the Germans, who are the toughest soldiers they have faced
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: soldier war
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 78-81, "Marine Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27876
NOTES [69 words]: "General Le Jeune" is presumably U.S. Marine Major General John A. Lejeune, who commanded the second U. S. Division in the final offensives of the First World War. He wasn't particularly important historically; five of the six histories of World War I I consulted did not even mention him; neither did my largest encyclopedia of the war. I presume Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, a Marine base, is named for him. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: NiM078

Mariner's Grave, The

DESCRIPTION: "I remember the night was stormy and wet And dismally dashed the dark wave... On the mariner's new dug grave." The singer recalls the burial "near to a dreary cave." The grave is left to the wildflowers, the willows, the moonbeams
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: sailor death burial
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 127-128, "The Mariner's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13865
NOTES [17 words]: Very popular in broadsides, but there isn't much evidence that the song actually went into tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HGam127

Mariner's Hymn, The

See Launch Thy Bark, Mariner! (File: HGam355)

Mariner's Life, The

DESCRIPTION: "A mariner's life is the life for me, Floating along on the changeful sea." When it is stormy, the ship moves fast; when it is calm, it is easy to rest. The sailors always pray for those at home. They will give thanks and die happy when they return home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (journal of the Courier)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship home return death nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 150, "The Mariner's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27506
File: HGam150

Marines' Hymn (From the Halls of Montezuma)

DESCRIPTION: "From the Halls of Montezuma To the shores of Tripoli We fight our country's battles On the land and on the sea." The singers are "proud to claim the title of United States Marines." They fight well and toast the success of the Marines wherever they go
AUTHOR: music: Jacques Offenbach
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (music published, according to Fuld)
KEYWORDS: marines travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 72-76, "Marine Hymn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 105-106, "The Marines' Song" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 350-352, "The Marines' Hymn"
DT, MONTZUMA*
Roud #9630
SAME TUNE:
Damn Fine Kids in Harbour (File: Tawn025)
From the Halls of Montezuma (parody) ("From the halls of Highland View To the shores of St. Joe Bay") (Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 114)
NOTES [26 words]: Fuld cites reports that the words to this might go back to 1847, but observes that they cannot be verified; the first datable text seems to date from 1918. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: NiM072

Marines' Song, The

See Marines' Hymn (From the Halls of Montezuma) (File: NiM072)

Marion Massacre, The

DESCRIPTION: "A story now I'll tell you Of a fearful massacree Which happened down in Dixie On the borders of the sea." Five textile workers are shot in Marion, North Carolina. The workers needed more money; the owners brought in police.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Frank Welling & John McGhee)
KEYWORDS: strike labor-movement police death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 131-132, "The Marion Massacre" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 239-240, "The Marion Massacre" (1 text)
Roud #22308
RECORDINGS:
Frank Welling & John McGhee (as the Martin Brothers), "The Marion Massacre" (Paramount 3194, 1929)
File: CAFS1239

Marionene

DESCRIPTION: "Marionene, when you said to me That your love would never fade away, Maidens sometimes break their vows, they say. Did you know what love might do?" The singer promises to be true, and asks, "hear my prayer, Heart and soul are only thine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 109, "Marionene" (1 text)
Roud #11393
File: Brne109

Mariposa

DESCRIPTION: The steamer Mariposa, loaded with general cargo and sheep, runs on shore at Grassy Point, Labrador. "A portion of her cargo is gone up and down the shore, Honestly and hardly earned by the people of Labrador"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck sea humorous theft
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 27, 1895 - Mariposa, sailing from Montreal to Liverpool sinks in the Strait of Belle Isle at L'Anse Au Clair (source: Northern Shipwrecks DataBase)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 79, "Mariposa" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab079 (Partial)
Roud #9980
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Mayflower" (theme of wreckers) and references there
NOTES [90 words]: Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast: "The general attitude toward wrecks was summed up for me by one man, who said, 'If the good Lord sees fit to wrack a vessel, we hope it'll be hereabouts; we can use anything on board.'" - BS
There seems to be some disagreement about the date of this wreck. Frank Galgay and Michael McCarthy, Shipwrecks of Newfoundland and Labrador, [Volume I], Harry Cuff Publishing, 1987, p. 87, agrees that the SS Mariposa was lost in the Strait of Belle Isle, but gives the date as September 24, 1895. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: LLab079

Maritime Memories of Wexford

DESCRIPTION: "Tis often I dream of the old Wexford fleet," "golden memories" of the end of the nineteenth century. "Ah! those were the days of the sailing ship, days of a rare old sport, When the Devereux flag was carried on the ships that sailed from our port"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: sea ship commerce lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 10, "Maritime Memories of Wexford" (1 text)
Roud #20531
File: Ran010

Marjie Murdock

DESCRIPTION: "Shame shame shame Marjie Murdock, What a burning shame." "When the wedding come Marjie Murdock, You gie dem ginger-beer." "Me ask you fo' rum Marjie Murdock, Me ask you fo' rum." "When the wedding reach Marjie Murdock You run under bed!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: wedding accusation drink nonballad wife
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 1, "Marjie Murdock" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [26 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "Ginger-beer is a prestige beverage among the folk but at weddings it is not made to compete with drinks like rum and gin." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTO001

Mark Murphy

DESCRIPTION: Mark Murphy from Avondale "could fight and farm and swing his arm and drive this world along, But the only thing he left undone was to try and hold his tongue." He bragged once too often about his boxing and was shown up by a boxer he said he could beat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: bragging fight humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 103-104, "Mark Murphy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12454
NOTES [12 words]: Avondale is inland at central eastern Queens, Prince Edward Island. - BS
File: Dib103

Market Street Blues

DESCRIPTION: "I ain't gonna walk on Market Street no mo', 'Cause market Street made my feet so so'." "Went to the gypsy to get my fortune tol', That low-down gyspy stole my jelly roll." "Sittin' here worried, a bucket won' hold my tears (x2)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: Gypsy abandonment
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 204, "Market Street Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16276
File: Rose204

Marksman, The

DESCRIPTION: In '45 the singer fell in love with a maid who wore the Orange and Blue. He inquired of her home: "her index it came from above." Other questions were answered in Masonic code. Bring your sweethearts and "see if yours tells you what my love told me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: courting ritual religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 31, "The Marksman" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Inniskilling Dragoon" (tune, according to Orange Lark)
cf. "The Grand Templar's Song" (Masonic symbolism: Aaron's rod) and references there
NOTES [67 words]: Within the Orange Lodges, "Purple Marksman" refers to one of the Master degree, above "Orange" and "Orange Marksman," of the Orange Institution (source: "The Formation of the Orange Order 21st September 1795" in the anti-Orange Evangelical Truth at NIreland.com site).
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark has no comment on the code. The song says "if you want to know the secret, go search and you'll see." - BS
File: OrLa031

Marlborough Fair

See Bridgwater Fair (File: ShH76)

Marlborough Wreck, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you good people of every degree": people in the town of Marlboro are told to tremble when the see the coffins of five men who drowned when a storm struck a vessel at anchor on the Hudson. Only two survived. So stop sinning.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Charles F. Cochrane, History of the Town of Marlborough, according to Nestler)
KEYWORDS: ship death storm wreck funeral warning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 84-86, "(no title)" (1 text)
NOTES [29 words]: Your standard, "I'm God, see what you made me do?" sort of piece. Since there is no logic behind its warnings, I very much doubt it persuaded anyone not already believing. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: HaNe084

Marm Haucket's Garden

See The Alarmed Skipper (The Nantucket Skipper) (File: ShaSS198)

Marriage

See Getting Married (Hog and Hominy) (File: Neel203)

Marriage (Here We Go Around This Ring)

See Jingo Ring (Merry-Ma-Tanzie, Around the Ring) (File: Fus173)

Marriage Causes Trouble

DESCRIPTION: He says he will never marry, "my sorrow for to double," because you need a house, pots, pans, cradle .... She says she has a house and the other things. He says they'd need two maids for the house and children. She says she'll do everything. See notes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: marriage dialog nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #147, p. 2, "The Troubles of Marriage" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1071, "Marriage Causes Trouble" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6313
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lass o' Benachie" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
NOTES [28 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan5 fragment. Duncan says, "No more words remembered; only ultimately the woman turns upon the man and cuts him up." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD51071

Marriage of Sir Gawain, The [Child 31]

DESCRIPTION: Arthur must fight a huge knight or come back later and say what women most desire. An ugly woman will give the answer if Arthur marries her to one of his knights. Gawain agrees, leaves it up to her to be beautiful by day or night, and lifts the spell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage shape-changing royalty magic | King Arthur giant knight Loathly Lady Sir Gawain
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Child 31, "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 103-118, "The Marriage of S(i)r Gawaine" (1 text, with the defects supplied from The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnall")
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 13-24, "The Marriage of Sir Gawaine"; pp. 323-330, "The Ancient Fragment of the Marriage of Sir Gawain" (2 texts, the second being the damaged stanzas in the Percy folio and the first being Percy's reconstructed version)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 118-123, "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 19, "The Marriage of Sir Gawain [A Fragment]" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 102-108, "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 18, "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" (1 text, 1 tune, clearly a form of this ballad but of doubtful authenticity)
DT 31, GAWAIN1
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1819
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2992
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Hahn, editor, _Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1995), pp. 41-80, "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" (1 text)
Stephen H. A. Shepherd, _Middle English Romance: A Norton Critical Edition_, Norton, 1995, pp. 380-387, "The Marriage of Sir Gawaine" (1 text)
W. F. Bryan and Germaine Dempster, editors, _Sources and Analogues of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales_, 1941 (I use the 1958 Humanities Press edition), pp. 235-241, "The Marriage of Sir Gawaine" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 46
RELATED: Versions of the Romance "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnall" --
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3130
Thomas Hahn, editor, _Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1995), pp. 41-80, "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnall" (1 text, of 853 line)
Donald B. Sands, editor, _Middle English Verse Romances_, Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1966, pp. 323-347, "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell" (1 text, of 855 lines)
Stephen H. A. Shepherd, _Middle English Romance: A Norton Critical Edition_, Norton, 1995, pp. 243-267, "The Weddyng of Syr Gawen and Dame Ragnell for Helpyng of Kyng Arthoure" (1 text, of 855 lines counting the colophon/explicit)
W. F. Bryan and Germaine Dempster, editors, _Sources and Analogues of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales_, 1941 (I use the 1958 Humanities Press edition), pp. 242-264, "The Weddynge of Sir Gawen and Dame Ragnall" (1 text, of 855 lines)
Modernized prose version: Louis B. Hall, _The Knightly Tales of Sir Gawain_, with introductions and translations by Hall, Nelson-Hall, 1976, pp. 155-176, "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnall"
John Edwin Wells, _A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1400_, 1916 (references are to the 1930 fifth printing with three supplements), pp. 67-69, "(The Weddynge of Sir Gawen and Dame Ragnell)" (prose summaries of the romance, with notes)
Bibliography of related texts and articles: Joanne A. Rice, _Middle English Romance: An Annotated Bibliography, 1955-1985_, Garland Publishing, 1987, pp. 539-541, "The Weddynge of Sir Gawen and Dame Ragnell"
Roud #3966
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Half-Hitch" [Laws N23] (theme)
cf. ""King Henry" [Child 32] (theme of the loathly woman)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sir Gaunie and the Witch
NOTES [2941 words]: According to Fowler, p. 158 n. 25, this is one of eighteen ballads in the Child collection found only in the Percy Folio.
The theme of the "Loathly Woman" is common in folklore -- indeed, Chaucer/Benson, p. 10, points out that the legend itself (with the sexes reversed) survives to this day in the folklore of "The Princess and the Frog." This is typically traced to the Grimm folktale of "The Frog King" (the first tale in most printed editions of Grimm). This has multiple English analogies, the closest probably being the Scottish ("The Well at the World's End," Jacobs, pp. 215-219; summarized on pp. 563-564 of Briggs, volume A1; the tale seems rare in English tradition). Note, however, that in "The Frog King," the princess does not kiss the frog; he in fact transforms when she throws him against the wall! The tale as it is now generally told has clearly done some post-Grimm evolving.
There is another reversed variant now best known as "Beauty and the Beast"; many versions have links to the ancient Greek tale of Eros/Cupid and Psyche, and some versions even have a sort of a parallel to the story of Janet pulling a rose in "Tam Lin" [Child 39]. There is a close English analogy in the tale of "The Small-Tooth Dog" (Briggs, volume A.1, pp. 487-489). But the usual version of "Beauty and the Beast" came into English from French; the version most of us know is from Mme. Leprence de Beaumont's 1756 Magasin des Enfants (Jones-Larousse, p. 57) or from Charles Perreault (Pickering, p. 28); the version in Lang's Blue Fairy Book is attributed to Madame de Villaneueve.
The "Loathly Woman" is generally a more complex tale, and seemingly known in the British Isles at a much earlier date than either the Frog Princess or Beauty and the Beast. Indeed, Zipes, p. 47, declares that "'Beauty and the Beast' tales, which all require a woman's patient tolerance of an ugly man, have no companion tales in the modern period in which the obverse obtains, that is, a man who must love an ugly wife. In the medieval period, however, numerous companion tales circulated."
Tatar, p. 60, puts it even more bluntly: "Can we imagine, as Chaucer did in the Wife of Bath's tale, a story that could be called 'Handsome and the Beast'?"
The origin of the type is somewhat uncertain. One version goes back to the Irish tale of Niall of the Nine Hostages, summaries of which can be found in o hOgain, pp. 377-379 and Ellis, pp. 181-182. Niall was a historical figure of sorts, but OxfordCompanion, p. 388, can offer few hard facts: "Niall Noigiallach... eponymous ancestor of the Ui Neill [O'Neals], reputed to have flourished in the early 5th century. The earliest traditions about his career are ninth century in date, when he is remembered as a raider of Britain."
One version of the story makes him a contemporary of St. Patrick -- indeed, Niall is sometimes said to have been responsible for his kidnapping (McMahon, p. 10). Elizabeth Passmore, on p. 8 of Passmore/Carter, says that there are five different Irish versions of the Loathly Lady tales, some featuring Niall, some Lugaid. "The earliest Níall tale, a three-hundred-line poem called 'Echtra mc Echdach Mugmedóin,' dates from the early eleventh century and was written by Cúán Ua Lothcháin, court poet of Máel Sechnaill II, son of Domnaill and king of Tara from 980 to 1022" (Passmore, p. 8; on pp. 8-9 Passmore explains that the Loathly Lady here played a much more expansive role than in the Gawain legend; she orchestrated Niall's ascent to the throne.)
The Lugaid tales are similar; in the "Cóir Anmann," there is a Loathly Lady who offers shelter to the sons of King Dáire, one by one. Lugaid (Lugaid Laígde, Lughaidh Laidhe) accepts her advances, causing her to turn beautiful and offer him power (so Elizabeth M. Biebel-Stanley on p. 74 of Passmore/Carter).
Most of the tales about Niall revolve around his difficult relationships with his four half-brothers (although the relationship is somewhat confused. Ellis, p. 182, describes him as being oppressed by his stepmother, who favored her other boys -- yet how could he have older brothers by a living stepmother? O hOgain, p. 377, offers an alternate explanation that he was the son of a concubine, perhaps captured in Britain.)
Only one incident in Niall's career need detain us. He and his brothers -- who always seem to be together despite their rivalry -- were out hunting, and wanted water. They came upon a hag in the forest (Ellis, p. 182, says she had black skin, grey hair, and green teeth), who offered water to the one who kissed her. Three of the brothers refused absolutely, the fourth pecked her on the cheek -- and Niall kissed her properly and, when she demanded he lie with her, complied. She then was transformed into a beautiful woman who promised him sovereignty in Ireland.
(I am not sure, but this may be a reflection of the early Irish notion that the King was the husband of every woman in the land, and responsible for fertility; for this idea, see Ford-Mabinogi, p. 7.)
The parallels with this song will be obvious, but the differences are also substantial, and the dating of the tale dubious.
The notion of shape-changing, and questions about it, occur in other Irish tales. Curtin, pp. 15-25, prints a tale, "The Three Daughters of King O'Hara." This is a fairly close parallel of Asbjørnsen and Moe's "East of the Sun and West of the Moon," which itself has its roots in the Latin tale of Cupid and Psyche, but the Irish version has the twist that three daughters wish for husbands, and all gain enchanted husbands -- two who are enchanted as seals, one as a dog. All three are asked the question that we shall meet below: Would the girls rather have their husbands be men by day and animals by night, or vice versa? The two older girls prefer that their husbands be men by day; the youngest prefers him a man by night and a white dog by day.
There were plenty of English-language parallels. The theme seems to have been very popular around 1400. Gower had a Loathly Woman story in the Tale of Florent in the Confessio Amantis (Chaucer/Benson, p. 872, R. F. Yeager, on p. 42 of Passmore/Carter, says it is one of the longest of the many exempla in the Confessio. It is also one of the few tales in book one of the Confessio that isn't from old, mostly Latin, sources; the others are from Ovid, the various Trojan epics, and other Roman-ish sources, plus one from the Bible and one from Josephus; Passmore/Carter, p. 44. To be sure, according to Passmore/Carter, p. 45, Gower pretended that Florent was the nephew of the Roman Emperor Claudius, presumably meaning Claudius I, reigned 37-54 C.E., which is flatly impossible).
We find the Loathly Lady in the ballad "King Henry" [Child 32]. ("The Half-Hitch" [Laws N23], claimed by some extreme lumpers as a version of this ballad, also involves an ugly woman turned beautiful, but there the man is under a self-imposed oath; the two are not really parallel.)
A very brief "catch" on the "what women want" theme is quoted by Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes, #206:
The hart he loves the high wood,
The hare she loves the hill;
The knight he loves his bright sword,
The lady loves her will.
From about the same time as Gower, and even closer to the ballad, is the fifteenth century romance "The Wedding of Sir Gawen and Dame Ragnall" (called "Dame Ragnell" by Sands). It is viewed by Sir Frederic Madden as the source of the ballad. The notes on pp. 378-379 of Shepherd amount to the same claim -- and treat the ballad as a romance. (Indeed, Shepherd, p. 380, dates this piece to the late fifteenth century, and suggests sundry links with Malory's Morte d'Arthur -- a rather difficult claim, given that it would be some time before the Morte became widely known.)
Neither romance nor ballad is well-attested. We should note that, apart from the dubious piece in Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles, the only extant version of this ballad is the copy in the Percy folio. And that is badly damaged; it is in the section where half of each page has been torn out, so we have only portions of the piece (which may or may not have been sung as a ballad -- even in its damaged form, it is more than fifty verses long, which is very long for an item maintained by oral tradition). Given that the Percy Folio contains several pieces that appear to be romances cut down to size, it strikes me as quite possible that there was once a fuller "Marriage" romance, which cannot have been "Dame Ragnall" because too many details are different.
But if they are not directly dependent, the connection between this ballad and "Dame Ragnall" are hard to deny. If the song is not a recomposition of that romance, it certainly derives from the same immediate source. In the romance (retelling the summary in Sands, pp. 324-325), Arthur meets the huge "Sir Gromer Somer Jour," (a peculiar name -- as Hall notes on p. 157, "Gromer" is probably from the Old Norse "gromr," a boy or youth; "Somer" is English "summer," and "Jour" is French "day." So Sir Gromer is a child's summer day in bits of three languages. Hahn, p. 42, says that his name "connects him with the licensed anarchy of Midsummer's Day").
Sir Gromer threatens Arthur with death because he has given away land that belongs to Sir Gromer. In order to avoid death, the king is forced to take an oath to return in a year and answer the question, "What do women want?" Gawain manages to learn what has happened from Arthur, and they set out to find an answer. Toward the end of the year, Arthur meets the Loathly Woman in Inglewood, who will answer the question but only if allowed to marry Gawain. Arthur pretends to refuse -- but then begs Gawain to marry her. Gawain, who comes off far better than Arthur, agrees. (In English romances of this period, he is consistently the paragon of honor and very commonly the romantic hero; CHEL1, p. 269). Arthur gets his answer, and is saved.
That leaves Gawain to deal with Ragnall, who...
was so foulle and horrible.
She had two teethe on every side
As boris tuskes, I wolle not hide....
WIth grey heris many on.
Her lippes laye lumprid on her chin.
(lines 547-549, 553-554; Sands, p. 339)
Like Percy's "Marriage," the "Dame Ragnall" romance is found in only one manuscript, Bodleian MS Rawlinson C 86, which has lost a leaf containing probably about 70 lines after line 628. Sands, p. 325, speculates that it was deliberately cut out due to its indelicate content. The missing leaf contains a portion of the marriage ceremony, but the key question -- "fair by day and foul by night or vice versa" (Sands, p. 325) survives. When Gawain and the loathly lady go to bed, she turns beautiful. Gawain, amazed, asks "whate are ye?" (line 644). She replies (lines 658-663)
My beauty wolle not hold:
Wheder ye wolle have me faire on nightes
And as foulle on days to alle men sightes
Or els to have me faire on days
And on nightes on the foulist wife.
Gawain finds the choice too hard, and in lines 677-680, declares:
But do as ye list nowe, my lady gaye
The choice I put in your fist.
Evin as ye wolle, I put it in your hand.
And, of course, since he gave her the choice, she is transformed and becomes beautiful both day and night.
(Interestingly, Passmore, p. 27, believes that, in the "Marriage," Gawain is less interested in what others think of him than he is in the romance -- he would rather have the lady be beautiful at night and has to be talked around. In a sense, the fact that the lady does so shows her as an even better advisor than in the romance. The advice may not be disinterested, though; Passmore, p. 28, points out that the lady doesn't want to spend all her time being scorned.)
A yet more famous analog, and from almost the same time as Gower, is Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale. Like "The Marriage of Sir Gawain," this has an Arthurian setting, with a knight raping a woman and being tried for it. Queen Guinivere, granted the right to sentence him, commands that he learn what women want. He finally locates a hag who promises the answer if he will marry her. Being under sentence of death, he agrees -- and learns that what women want is "sovereignty" -- i.e. control. She then offers him a choice: "foul and faithful" or "fair and faithless." (A choice which, in fact, reflects many of the tradeoffs in human biology; evolution has made us mostly but not quite monogamous, making this a very difficult question. Just think of the fraction of Shakespeare involved in questions of cuckoldry.) In the tale, he offers her the choice -- and, satisfied with him, she becomes beautiful and faithful.
(I should perhaps note that a number of scholars think the Wife of Bath's Tale is not the tale Chaucer originally meant for the Wife; some suggest that she was originally meant to tell the Shipman's Tale. But her tale is an excellent fit for her personality; if this hypothesis is correct, one must suspect that Chaucer encountered the Loathly Woman tale while the Canterbury Tales was already under construction -- perhaps from his friend Gower. Chaucer's direct source has never been identified; I suspect he revised -- and dramatically improved, with the "foul or fair" question -- whatever it was that inspired him. Unfortunately, in the process, he made the woman far less of a character than in the romance of Gawain and the loathly woman; as Hall notes on p. 155, Dame Ragnall -- clever, independent, and refusing to be shamed by things not her fault -- dominates the romance, which is "one of the great stories in Middle English.")
In a rather sad ending, Gawain is said to have loved Ragnall above all his other wives (he went through several, given all the tales about him), but she died within five years.
There is one other interesting sidelight on this: Gawain in this song not only takes on King Arthur's fate but his question. According to Mallory's Le Morte D'Arthur, Book III, Chapter 1 (and earlier versions of the Arthur/Lancelot/Guinivere story), "Merlin warned the king covertly that Guenever was not wholesome for him to take to wife, for he warned that Launcelot should love her, and she him again" (p. 71 in Malory/Rhys). Thus, since Guinivere was considered the fairest woman in the land and Arthur seems to have wanted her for her looks, Merlin presented Arthur with the same question that Gawain faced: "Fair and faithless or foul and faithful." It wasn't so stark for Arthur; Merlin promised to find him a beautiful (if not quite so beautiful) and faithful wife if he would wait. But Arthur chose "fair and faithless," and of course the consequence was his destruction and the destruction of his dream. Thus Gawain not only proved more honorable than Arthur but more wise.
(Of course, none of this has anything to do with the historical Arthur; for background on that, see "King Arthur and King Cornwall" [Child 30].)
Jacobs, p. 256, comments of "The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs" and "Kemp Owyne" [Child 34], "There is certainly something Celtic about the Laidly being and the deliverance kiss, as Mr. Nott, as pointed out, Academy, April 30, 1892, and Miss Weston has shown the connection in her Legend of Sir Gawain, p. 49. Indeed, may not Owein be identical with Gawain?" In the "Laidly Worm," Child Wynd recalls his sister by kissing her; in "The Marriage of Sir Gawain," Gawain turns Dame Ragnall beautiful by agreeing to love her.
The manuscript of the Ragnall romance is generally regarded as dating from about 1500. The poem itself is probably 50-150 years older (Sands, p. 325, argues it was composed around 1450 and seems to be in East Midland dialect) -- though the very confused writing makes things harder. I observe that, in the first 60 lines in Sands, there the name "Arthur" is spelled "Arthoure," "Arture," "Arthoure" again, "Arthure, and "Arthour." Passmore, on p. 23, also suggests a date c. 1450 for both the romance and the Percy Folio piece. I don't really think the folio version goes back that far, but it clearly goes back to the same roots as the romance.
A date around 1450 would be interesting, because by that time it was becoming clear that King Henry VI was incompetent and ruled by favorites; by 1453 he went insane and was never capable of ruling in his own right again. Which makes it interesting that the romance features an incompetent Arthur.
Sands notes, p. 323, that the romance is generally not regarded as humorous, but "the Dame Ragnell poet seems to have taken delight in grotesque characterization and absurd social situations." He calls the poet an "indifferent artist who could tell a story with sufficient skill to make it effective." And, perhaps, sufficient skill to induce another poet to create a ballad of it.
Several other ballads also derive loosely or from Middle English romance, or from the legends that underly it, examples being:
* "Hind Horn" [Child 17], from "King Horn" (3 MSS., including Cambridge Gg.4.27.2, which also contains "Floris and Blancheflour")
* "King Orfeo" [Child 19], from "Sir Orfeo" (3 MSS., including the Auchinlek MS, which also contains "Floris and Blancheflour")
* "Blancheflour and Jellyflorice" [Child 300], from "Floris and Blancheflour" (4 MSS, including Cambridge Gg.4.27.2, which also contains "King Horn," and the Auchinlek MS, which also contains "Sir Orfeo")
It is somewhat depressing to note that, even though Chaucer and the Ragnall romance between them pretty definitively said all that needs to be said about this topic, moderns still try to add to it. Lupack, pp. 314-317, lists a number of retellings, most recently a blank verse recasting, "Gawain and the Loathly Lady," by Marilyn Bechely. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: C031

Marriage Proposal, The

See The Mormon Love Serenade (The Marriage Proposal) (File: Hubb220)

Married and Single Life (I)

DESCRIPTION: Singer warns young people of the perils of marriage, tells them to wait until age 21, and be sure of their sweethearts. "When a man's married he ain't his own man... But when a man's single he can live at his ease..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer warns young people (mostly men) of the perils of marriage, tells them to wait until age 21, and be sure of their sweethearts, who can be deceitful. "When a man's married he ain't his own man...For selling his freedom to buy him a wife...But when a man's single he can live at his ease...he can rove through the country and live at his will/Kiss Polly, kiss Betsy, and he is the same still." He offers healths to the single and married alike
KEYWORDS: age marriage warning drink nonballad bachelor husband
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 73, "Married and Single Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MARRSING
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bachelor's Hall (I)" (subject)
cf. "Single Life, A (Single Is My Glory)" (subject)
cf. "Single Girl, Married Girl" (subject)
cf. "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again" (subject)
cf. "I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male)" (subject)
cf. "When I Was Single (II)" (subject)
cf. "Sporting Bachelors" (subject)
NOTES [16 words]: This has parallel content to a lot of other "stay single" songs, but it's separate nonetheless. - PJS
File: ShrAp73

Married and Single Life (II)

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns young men "there is falsehood in the fairest ... a single life's the dearest." But, if you happen to get a wife who is modest, and so on, and let's a man "sit and sing In triumph like a king ... married life's the dearest"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: marriage warning nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 1066, "Married and Single Life" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6718
File: GrD1066

Married Man (II), The

See I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male) (File: R365)

Married Man Going to Keep Your Secret (Hey Lilee)

DESCRIPTION: "Married man going to keep your secret, Hi-li-li-lee-o" (x2). "Single boy will talk about you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: courting adultery nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 84-86, "Married Man Gonna Keep Your Secret" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 146, 278-279, 296, "Hey liddy liddy liddy, Hey liddy liddy lo"/"Hey Liddie"/"Hey Liddy" (notes only)
Roud #15650
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Married Man Will Keep Your Secret
Hey Lilee Lilee Lo
Hey Li Lee Li Lee
File: LoSi084

Married Man Will Keep Your Secret

See Married Man Going to Keep Your Secret (Hey Lilee) (File: LoSi084)

Married Man, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer looks back fondly on seven years of marriage: His wife cares for him (even when he drinks too much), and never questions or scolds. He advises girls to keep this in mind" So, girls, mind you this when you marry."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: marriage drink husband wife warning
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H701, p. 501, "The Married Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST HHH701 (Full)
Roud #9465
File: HHH701

Married Man's Blues

DESCRIPTION: Singer is ready to leave his wife and boy after he "gave ten years." His wife "just hollers all the time." "I'm going out west and I'm never coming back So you'll never see me any more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage farewell home parting rambling separation travel nonballad children wife
FOUND IN:
Roud #21347
RECORDINGS:
Wade Ward, "Married Man's Blues" (on StuffDreams1)
File: RcMaMaBl

Married Me a Wife

See Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now (File: C277RR)

Married to a Mermaid

DESCRIPTION: Farmer loves a knight's daughter, the knight has him pressed. At sea the farmer falls overboard. As his comrades look for him he pops up and tells them how he found and then married a mermaid. The sailors wish him well. Choruses of "Rule Britannia."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Broadside, Bodleian library)
KEYWORDS: sailor mermaid/man pressgang farming marriage
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 174-176, "Married to a Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 184, "Married to a Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9143
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rule Britannia" (tune and chorus)
cf. "The Merman (Pretty Fair Maid with a Tail)" [Laws K24] (theme of marrying a mermaid)
cf. "Down in the Diving Bell (The Mermaid (II))" (theme of marrying a mermaid)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
O 'Twas in the Broad Atlantic
NOTES [196 words]: This was obviously based on "Rule Britannia," keeping the tune and popular chorus and replacing all the other text. According to contemplator.com it was credited in the "Scottish Student's Handbook" to "A.J.C." and also appeared in Toser's "Sailor's Songs of Chanties." It seems to have been made popular by [music hall performer] Arthur Lloyd (1839-1904) but I could find no indication that he was responsible for the words. One of the Bodleian broadsides state that it was sung to the tune of "The Revelers." - SL
In a strange semi-folkloric note, J. R. R. Tolkien is said to have translated a traditional song called "The Mermaid" into Old English (Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond, The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Reader's Guide, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, p. 769). It is not the Child Ballad of that name; rather, it is this song (in his own notes, Tolkien declared it "An OE version of 'Twas in the brad Atlantic in the equinoctial gales...'" (Tom Shippey, The Road to Middle-Earth, revised edition, Houghton-Mifflin, 2003, p. 353). Shipped gives the Old English text, and a translation, on pp. 358-359. For more background, see under "Tolkien Songs." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Harl174

Married Woman's Lament, A

See I Wish I Were Single Again (II - Female) (File: E070)

Marrow Bones

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Marrowbone Itch, The

DESCRIPTION: "Look out, boys, better watch your hands, Joe's got the itch... That marrowbone itch is a-killing me." "That marrowbone itch... You have to scratch it day and night." It makes the hands crack; many people have caught it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: disease nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 110-111, "The Marrowbone Itch" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15605
File: LxSi110

Marrowbones [Laws Q2]

DESCRIPTION: An old wife goes to the doctor for a potion to blind her husband. The doctor suggests (eggs and) marrowbones. He says he wishes to die and asks her to push him off a cliff. As she runs to do so, he steps aside. She drowns; he says he cannot see to help
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (quoted in Mark Twain, _Life on the Mississippi_)
KEYWORDS: suicide trick drugs death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (59 citations):
Laws Q2, "The Old Wife of Slapsadam (The Wily Auld Carle; The Old Woman in Dover; etc.)"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #13, p. 1, "The Wily Auld Carle" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 318, "The Wife o' Kelso" (11 texts, 7 tunes)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 68, "The Wife o' Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 237-239, "Johnny Sands" (2 texts, but only the second, with no letter, is this piece)
Randolph 754, "Johnny Sands" (2 texts, 2 tunes, but the "A" text goes with "Johnny Sands" [Laws Q3] while the "B" text belongs with this piece)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 11, "Old Woman in Ireland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 176-178, "The Rich Old Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 239-240, "A Cruel Wife" (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 30, "An Old Woman's Story" (1 text)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 151-152, "The Old Woman from Slab CIty" (1 text)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 35-36, "Old Woman in Slab City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 93-94=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, p. 232, "There Was An Old Woman in Ireland" (1 text, 1 tune, a short text, converted into a playparty, with only a few words of this song)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 13-14, "The Drowning Lady (The Witch Song)" (1 fragment, 1 tune, which might be either "Marrowbones" or "Johnnie Sands")
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 255-258, "The Old Woman in Dover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 141, "The Old Woman from Boston" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 157-158, "The Cruel Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 55, "The Rich Old Lady" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 261-264, "Eggs and Marrow-Bones" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 357-359, "There Lived an Old Woman in Dover (Eggs and Marrow Bones)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 113, "A Cruel Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 39, "The Rich Old Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 122, "Marrow Bones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 73, "Marrow Bones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 109-110,243, "Cheese and Marrowbones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 75-77,84, "There Was an Old Woman in Our Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 16, "There Was an Old Woman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 182, "The Old Woman's Blind Husband" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 182, "The Old Woman's Blind Husband" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 44, "The Old Woman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 103, "She Loved Her Husband Dearly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 110, "The Cruel Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 207-209, "The Old Woman From Ireland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 60, "An Old Woman's Story" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 172, "There Was an Old Woman in London" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, pp. 101, "Old Woman from Ireland" (1 text)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 281, "The Wife of Kelso (The Wily Auld Carle)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 51, "The Rich Old Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 99, "There Was an Old Woman" (2 texts)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 274, "The Rich Old Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 130-131, "The Rich Old Lady" (1 text, 1 tune -- with a second verse created by Chase)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #121, "The Old Woman of Clinton" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H174, p. 507, "The Auld Man and the Churnstaff" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 88, "Marrowbones" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 70, "The Wee Woman in Our Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 35, pp. 89-90,121,170, "Marrow Bones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 208, "The Old Woman of Blighter Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 114, "Marrow Bones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 417, "Old Woman of Hyslop Town" (1 text)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #82, "Marrowbones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 157, "An Old Woman's Story" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 58-59, "The Old Woman of Slapsdam/The Old Lady from Dover/The Rich Old Lady" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 148-149, "A Blind Man He Can See" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, "Singa Hipsy Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 86-88, "The Blind Man Who Could See" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 144-145, "There Was an Old Lady" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 173, "Eggs And Marrowbones" (1 text)
DT 344, MARBONES* MARBONE2* MARBONE3* MARBONE4 MARBON5 MARBON6*
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 78-79, "The False Old Mawkin" (1 text)
Roud #183
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "There Was an Old Lady" (on Barker01)
Harry Cox, "Marrowbones" (on HCox01)
Betty Garland, "Love My Darlin' O" (on BGarland01)
Frank Hillier, "The Old Woman of Blighter Town" (on FSBFTX19)
Leonard Hulan, "Eggs and Marrow-Bones" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Jimmy Knights, "Marrowbones" (on Voice06)
A. L. Lloyd, "Tigery Orum" (on Lloyd01)
John Maguire, "Marrowbones" (on IRJMaguire01)
Red Mick McDermott, "Marrowbones" (on IRHardySons)
Lawrence Older, "Woman from Yorkshire" (on LOlder01)
Ken Peacock, "Woman from Dover" (on NFKPeacock)
Wesley Smith, "Cheese and Marrowbones" (on MREIves01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny Sands" [Laws Q3]
cf. "The Keach in the Creel" (tune,according to Greig/Duncan2)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Eggs and Marrowbones
Old Woman from Wexford
Dover
NOTES [253 words]: At one time witches were killed by drowning, and Flanders and Olney connect their fragmentary text (which mentions only the drowning and the husband pushing the wife in) with this phenomenon.
Mark Twain quotes a fragment of this piece in Life on the Mississippi.
The Catskills version has a peculiar ending in which the lady swims to the other shore and survives. Much as we would like this to be a feminist touch, it seems more likely that it was a lapse of memory.
Sam Henry had a text in which the man eventually rescued her. Pamela Reinagel points out to me that this is also true in Sarah Makem's version. Perhaps there was an onlooker around somewhere? Interesting that both versions with this trait are from Ireland.
Captain Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, edited (and expanded) by Eric Partridge, 1931 (I use the 1992 Dorset edition), p. 229, notes that "marrow bones" are a nickname for the knees, and mentions a folk derivation from "Mary's bones." Partridge adds a mention of the "marquess of marrowbones" as a lackey. I don't know if any of these have any significance to the song.
A number of editors confuse "Johnny Sands" [Laws Q3] and "Marrowbones" [Laws Q2]. They obviously have thematic similarity, and probably have exchanged parts. But the "gimmick" is different in each case; there seems no doubt that they are now separate songs. - RBW
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland and Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland are the same July 15, 1963 performance. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LQ02

Mars for Evermore

See Mars Forevermore (File: BrHa072)

Mars Forevermore

DESCRIPTION: "Well now, brave boys, we're off to the main, Roar, Agamemnon, roar, To load our ships with the dollars of Spain, Mars forevermore!" Thirty French and Spanish ships are at sea, but they will have reason to remember [18]05. The British will defeat them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire)
KEYWORDS: war battle nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 72-74, "Mars for Evermore" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll, Alabama, Roll" (form)
NOTES [35 words]: Although this is based on an event (Trafalgar) that predates the American Civil War, I can't help but think that it's based on "Roll, Alabama, Roll," or some related piece. The tune and form are both similar. -RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BrHa072

Marseillaise, La

DESCRIPTION: French language: "Allons, enfants de la Patrie! Le jour gloire est arrive!" The listeners are urged to fight for France and freedom, and drive foreigners off French soil
AUTHOR: probably Rouget de Lisle
EARLIEST DATE: 1792 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: patriotic France nonballad
FOUND IN: France
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1384-#1386, p. 94, "La Marseillaise" (2 references, plus six various English translations under #1385 and #1386)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 223, "La Marseillaise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 302, "La Marseillaise" (1 French text plus English version)
Heart-Songs, pp. 494-495, "Marseillaise Hymn" (1 text, 1 tune, an English translation only)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #28, Marseillaise Hymn" (1 text, an English translation only)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 55 and #1/64 p. 51, "The Marseilles Hymn" (1 text, an English translation only); #34, p. 45, "The Marseilles Hymn" (1 text, an English translation only)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 354, "La Marseillaise"
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 163-168, "La Marseillaise" (1 English text)
DT, LAMARSEI
Roud #11238
SAME TUNE:
I'm a Soldier Bound for Glory (File: ElTo025)
The Texan Marseillaise (by James Haines; [H. M. Wharton], War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy, pp. 191-192)
The Swineish Multitude (1798 rebel song; cf. Thomas Pakenham, The Year of Liberty, p. 173)
Stand By That Flag ("Ye sons of freedom, wake to glory") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 149)
The Union Marseillaise [1] ("Arouse, ye men who love your Nation") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 163)
The Union Marseillaise [2] ("Arise! Arise! ye sons of patriot sires") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 163)
The Workingman's Marseille ("Ye sons of labor, Duty calling, Uplift your standard to the sky") (FOner, p. 129)
The Last General March ("For the Revolution of the 24th of February") ("Onward! Drummers, beat the reveille! Ye faithful guards, blow your horns!") (Foner, p. 82)
Labor's Marseillais ("To be sung at Scenic Park, Labor Day, Sept. 3, 1900) ("'Tis no disgrace but virtue grand to earn one's bread") (Foner, p. 173, with a reproduction of a broadside verion on p. 176)
Soldiers' Marseillaise ("Ye living millions, true and earnest; Ye soldiers brave and battle-tried") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 5)
NOTES [149 words]: Summarizing the notes in Fuld:
There are all sorts of ironies associated with this song. To begin with, it wasn't associated with Marseilles; it was published as "Chant de Guerre pour l'Armee du Rhin" (more or less at the far end of France). Even more ironically, the author (Rouget de Lisle, 1760-1836) is reported to have been a royalist, and even to have been imprisoned for his support for the crown. (According to Ford-SongHistories, various attempts have been made to show that de Lisle was not responsible for the piece, but most still credit him as the author.)
The song was written in 1792, when France still had a king though it was doing its best to ignore him. France wound up at war with Austria and Prussia. It appears that the association with Marseilles came about because volunteers from Marseilles heard it sung, and then joined in storming the Tuileries (August 10, 1792). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB302

Martha Deckert

See Martha Dexter (File: Beld417)

Martha Dexter

DESCRIPTION: Young Martha Dexter and her niece set out to visit the niece's mother. When they come to the river, the water is high and Martha's excitable horse throws her. She drowns. When her body is found at last, the family mourns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: death river drowning horse mourning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 1, 1824 - Death of Martha Decker near what is now Wilawanna, Pennsylvania
FOUND IN: US(MA,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 417-418, "Martha Dexter" (1 text)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 29, "Martha Deckert" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 171-177, "Martha Decker" (1 text, 1 tune, with extensive notes including a transcription of Decker's tombstone)
Roud #4134
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ballad of the Drover (Death of Harry Dale)" (theme)
cf. "The Mother's Malison, or Clyde's Water" [Child 216] (theme)
NOTES [76 words]: This is item dG34 in Laws's Appendix II.
My first reaction, upon reading the first half-dozen stanzas in Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, was that this is basically a variant of a "Marian Parker" ballad. It has that same cloying feel. But, of course, the song is based on an earlier event, and it takes a different direction at the end. The similarity is presumably due simply to the way semi-professional balladeers treat children. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Beld417

Martha, the Flower of Sweet Strabane

See The Flower of Sweet Strabane (File: HHH224a)

Marthy Had a Baby

DESCRIPTION: "Marthy had a baby, and she said 'twas mine." "It must have been the walker's [walking boss's], 'cause it had blue eyes." "The walker couldn't stand to hear the baby cry." "Me an' my buddy stared lopin' down the road."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (collected from Roscoe McLean)
KEYWORDS: baby bastard prison father mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 385-386, "Marthy Had a Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15586
File: LoSi385

Marthy Wept (Mary Wept and Marthy Moaned)

DESCRIPTION: "Marthy wept and Mary moaned, A-weeoing on a willow tree -- tree -- tree, Don't you know? A-weeping...." "What did you do with my Lord? I left him on the other shore." "What did you do with that sinful man...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Henry, collected from Mrs. Samuel Harmon)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus burial
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 190, "Marthy Wept" (1 text)
Roud #12123
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We're All Surrounded" (lyrics)
NOTES [88 words]: The reference to "Martha wept and Mary cried" is presumably a reference to the sisters of Lazarus who mourned over their brother in John 11. The mention of a willow is not directly related to Jesus; the word "willow" is not even used in the King James New Testament. The reference is probably to Psalm 137.
The question, "What did you do with my Lord?" seems to be an allusion to John 20:15. The question "What did you do with that sinful man" isn't ever asked in that form, though there are plenty of warnings to sinners. - RBW
File: MHAp190

Martin Said To His Man

DESCRIPTION: The singer says s/he saw various animals performing various activities, some of which are impossible or unlikely (E.g. "Saw a crow flying low"; "Saw a mule teachin' school"). In some versions, the narrator(s) are drunk, competing to tell the tallest tale.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (Deuteromelia; registered as a ballad 1588)
KEYWORDS: contest drink lullaby nonballad nonsense paradox talltale animal bug
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook XIV, pp. 50-54, "The Man in the Moon" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1703, "I Saw a Sparrow" (1 text plus a single verse on p. 401, 1 tune)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #10, pp. 125-126, "Soo Sewin' Silk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 109, "Well Done Liar" (1 text)
Randolph 445, "Johnny Fool" (2 texts)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 114, "Kitty Alone" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 114, "Kitty Alone" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 128, p. 274, "Old, Blind, Drunk John" (1 text)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 41, "Old, Blind, Drunk John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 22, "The Bed-time Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 78, pp. 126-128, "Johnny Fool" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, p. 27, "Blind Johnny Boo" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 62, "The Liar's Song" (1 text, tune)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 22, "Nonsense Song No. 1" (1 short text, 1 tune, with a verse from this song although the rest might be anything)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 97, "Hurrah, Lie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 136, "Hurrah, Lie!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 76, "Who's the Fool Now" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 140, "Martin Said to His Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HURRALIE* WHOSFOOL*
Roud #473
RECORDINGS:
Martha Hall, "Kitty Alone" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Lizzie Higgins, "Soo Sewin' Silk" (on LHiggins01)
Danielle Lucas, "A Bear Ripen Tare" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #744, recorded 12/15/2023)
Natalie Villmer, "A Bear Ripen Tare" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #715, recorded 10/20/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gossip Joan (Neighbor Jones)" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Old Blind Drunk John
Fooba-Wooba John
NOTES [616 words]: Referred to in Dryden's 1668 play "Sir Martin Mar-all, or the Feign'd Innocence" (act IV). It seems to have been very popular in the century prior to that.
Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 146, #1681, gives the Stationer's Register entry for this as "Martyn said to his man, who is the foole now," printed November 9, 1588 by Thomas Orwin.
Rollins notes, in addition to Dryden's citation, that the title is used in Anthony Brewer's "Love-Sick King," Act III, and that someone named Collier in Notes & Queries, second series, XII, 143, connected this with someone by the name of Martin Skinck.
The American versions can generally be told by their narrative pattern, "(I) saw a () (doing something)," e.g. "Saw a crow flying low," "Saw a mule teaching school," "Saw a louse chase a mouse," "Saw a flea wade the sea."
The versions under the title "Kitty Alone" are sometimes a mix of this and "Frog Went A-Courting"; the first such text seems to have been in Gammer Gurton's Garland (1784), which has clearly a "Frog" plot but the form (and some of the exaggerations) of this piece.
I'm sure there are some who have argued that the ancient English "Martin Said To His Man" is not the same as the modern American texts. But there is continuity of verses, believe it or not, and the theme never changes. And there is no way to draw a dividing line.
There is a similar if not identical song that is even older than the "Martin" versions, which I was sorely tempted to lump with this. In the famous Richard Hill manuscript (Oxford, MS. Balliol College 354; see "MSRichardHill" in the Bibliography), folio 54 contains this lyric
I sawe a stokfysshe drawynge a harow,
and a-noder dryveng a barow,
and a saltfysshe shoteyng an arow,
I will have þe whetstone, and I may.
It ends with this lyric:
I sawe an ege etying a pye;
Geve me drynke, my mowth ys drye;
Yet ys not long syth I made a lye
I will have þe whetstone, and I may.
I.e.
I saw an egg eating a [mag]pie.
Give me drink, my mouth is dry,
Yet [it] is not long since I made a lie,
I will have the whetstone, and I may.
References for this is song include:
- Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #471, p. 317, "(I saw a doge sethyng sowse)" (1 text)
- Roman Dyboski, Songs Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book, 1908 (I use a [crummy] Forgotten Books print-on-demand copy made in 2016), #92, p. 110
- Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1350
- DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #256
There is a discussion in David R. Parker, The Commonplace Book in Tudor London: An Examination of BL MSS Egerton 1995, Harley 2252, Lansdowne 762, and Oxford Balliol College MS354, University Press of America, 1998, p. 82.
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, p. 453, explains the chorus line about the whetstone by saying that it was the custom in the Middle Ages to tie a whetstone about the neck of a convicted liar when he was in pillory. Thus "I will have the whetstone, and I may" implies "I will earn the whetstone for telling the biggest lie." - RBW
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople throws a bawdy light on some verses. For "I saw a wren kill a man" it cites Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional Slang to make "wren" "a harlot frequenting Curragh Camp, military 1869" [did the Women's Royal Naval Service -- Wrens -- of the World Wars escape this slang?]. For "I saw a maid milk a bull Every stroke a bucket full," "one of the meanings of 'milk' in the same source is 'cause sexual ejaculation'." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: WB022

Martin, Tim, and Dan

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye hustling chanty boys, a lesson take from me; Work steady in the lumber woods and don't go on a spree." The singer advises saving to buy a farm; he recalls learning to work as a logger. Chorus: "Martin, Tim, and Dan, Barney, Pat, and Sam...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: logger lumbering farming work moniker
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 116, "Martin, Tim, and Dan" (1 short text)
ST GC116 (Partial)
Roud #3698
NOTES [25 words]: This may be related to some other lumbering song, but with only two verses and an easily-modified chorus, it will be very difficult to identify. - RBW
File: GC116

Martinmas Time

DESCRIPTION: A troop of soldiers forces farmer's daughter to promise she will come to their quarters that night. She arrives in disguise, but the quartermaster sends her away. She leaves her garters and ribbons tied to the gates to prove she'd been there.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan1)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Troop of soldiers forces farmer's daughter to promise she will come to their quarters that night; she has her hair cut off and dresses in men's clothes. She goes to the soldiers' quarters, asking for lodgings for another troop of soldiers, but the quartermaster sends her away, saying there is no more room. She persists; he gives her money, for "tonight there comes a wench." She leaves her garters and ribbons tied to the gates to prove she'd been there, then blows a whistle, saying "you're not for a girl at all," and goes home in triumph
KEYWORDS: sex rape trick soldier cross-dressing disguise escape
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #84, p. 2, "It Fell Aboot the Mart'mas Time" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 161, "The Irish Dragoons" (16 texts, 10 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 308-309, "It Fell About the Martinmas Time" (1 text)
DT, MARTINMA*
Roud #2173
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs, "Martinmas Time" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2, Briggs3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broomfield Hill" (Child 43) and references there
cf. "The Brisk Young Rover" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Troop o' Soldiers
File: DTmartin

Martyr John

See The Twa Brothers [Child 49] (File: C049)

Martyrdom of St. Thomas, The

See Saint Thomas of Canterbury (File: MSSToCan)

Marvelous Toy, The

DESCRIPTION: "When I was just a wee little lad full of health and joy My father homeward came one night and gave to me a toy" which went "zip when it moved and bop when it stopped." He has given it to his son; "Neither one of us knows just what it is, but he loves it"
AUTHOR: Tom Paxton
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (copyrighted 1961)
KEYWORDS: technology campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 540, "The Marvelous Toy" (notes only)
DT, MARVTOY*
NOTES [409 words]: This was Tom Paxton's first song (or, at least, the first one he kept): he reports that, while in the army in the late 1950s, he was assigned to a typing class. But he already knew how to type, so he had nothing to do. Having no choice but to sit with the typewriter, he wrote this song, and the Chad Mitchell Trio recorded it in 1963, then Peter, Paul and Mary in 1969; The Irish Rovers and John Denver also covered it. Thus Paxton's earliest song is among his most popular, if not his most popular of all.
The only book I know of about the Chad Mitchell Trio is by Mike Murphy. Its title? We Never Knew Just What It Was: The Story of the Chad Mitchell Trio (Acorn Publishing; 2021; it gives credit to Chad Mitchell and Mike Kobluk of the Trio for helping with the book).
Paxton wrote the foreword to the Murphy book, and says on pp. vii-viii that, after original member Mike Pugh quit; Paxton temporarily got the job as his replacement. In his brief time with the group, Paxton had played them "The Marvelous Toy." After about a week, Milt Okun concluded that Paxton's voice just didn't blend well with Mitchell's and Kobluk's, so the job went to Joe Frazier instead. But Okun softened the blow by telling Paxton that he wanted "The Marvelous Toy" for his new company Cherry Lane Music (named after Okun's own address), so the song became the first major property of one of the most important Sixties Folk publishers. The Trio recording was the one that put the song out there for the world.
Paxton's conclusion: "In recent years we [i.e. Paxton and the Trio] have done many shows together and I'm usually included in their encores. I like to think that I fill out the Chad Mitchell Quartet very nicely, indeed."
A similar description of the event is in Paxton's own book, Tom Paxton (edited by Milton Okun), The Honor of Your Company, Cherry Lane Music, 2000, p. 22. It shows a cover of the sheet music print, published by the Teena Music Corp.; it has a photo of the Trio on the cover.
The song was also turned into a children's book with illustrations by Steve Cox.
I find it interesting that Tom Paxton has, as of this writing, five songs in the Index -- "The Marvelous Toy," "The Last Thing on My Mind," "My Ramblin' Boy," "Going to the Zoo," and "I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound" -- and all were written and recorded very early in his career. Nor have I seen any hints of any of his later songs matching those five in popularity. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ACSF540M

Mary Acklin (The Squire's Young Daughter) [Laws M16]

DESCRIPTION: The father of a girl secretly sees her giving a ring to her sweetheart. He confines the girl and arrests the singer for robbery. The girl pleads for her lover and, rather than being transported, he is freed. The two marry and settle down
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: ring robbery prison reprieve marriage love
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws M16, "Mary Acklin (The Squire's Young Daughter)"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 93, "The Squire's Young Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 82-84, "Mary Aclon" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H30b, pp. 437-438, "Young Mary of Accland (a)"; H721, p. 438, "Young Mary of Accland (b)" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 110-111, "Mary Acklin" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 40, "Mary Riley" (1 text)
DT 581, MARYRILY
Roud #540
RECORDINGS:
Leonard Molloy, "Mary Ecklan" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial)" [Laws M10] (plot)
cf. "Down By Yon Shady Harbor" (plot, words)
cf. "Lady Elspat" [Child 247] (plot)
cf. "The Footboy" (plot)
File: LM16

Mary Aclon

See Mary Acklin (The Squire's Young Daughter) [Laws M16] (File: LM16)

Mary Across the Wild Moor

See Mary of the Wild Moor [Laws P21] (File: LP21)

Mary Alling

See Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)

Mary Ambree

DESCRIPTION: Mary disguises herself to join her lover's regiment. When he is slain, she becomes an officer. She leads her men bravely, but is at last captured when her supply officer betrays her. Threatened with death by the enemy, she reveals her sex and is spared
AUTHOR: probably William Elderton
EARLIEST DATE: 1629 (broadside; see notes)
KEYWORDS: war cross-dressing disguise battle reprieve
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 515-519, "Marye Aumbree" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 232-237, "Mary Ambree" (2 text, one from the Folio manuscript and one touched up by Percy for the _Reliques_)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 158-161, "Mary Ambree" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 165, "Mary Ambree" (1 text)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 103-105, "Mary Ambree" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN468, "Captains courageous"; ZN2826, "When captains courageous, whom death could not daunt"
ST OBB165 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Female Warrior (Pretty Polly)" [Laws N4] (plot: lover becomes officer)
cf. "On the First of November" (plot: lover becomes officer)
cf. "The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green" [Laws N27] (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green [Laws N27] (File: LN27)
NOTES [370 words]: This was reportedly alluded to by Ben Johnson in 1609; a song "Mary Ambre" was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690. Rollins, p. 242, mentions two broadsides which are surely this: #2803, "The valorous acts of Mary Ambrey," registered June 20, 1629 by Francis Coles & partners, and #2804, "The valourous act performed at Gaunt by Mary Ambree," registered March 1, 1675.
"The Female Warrior" and "Mary Ambree" have many points of similarity; I was tempted to classify them as the same ballad. Since, however, the former involves the navy and the latter the army, I have kept them separate.
Friedman, p. 30, calls likely author William Elderton "the cleverest of Elizabethan broadside-writers." Although almost forgotten today, he seems to have been quite well known in the late sixteenth century; Rollins, p. 62, lists the following items which used his name to promote sales, with Stationer's Register dates:
#666, "Eldertons edvise to beginne the newe year " (December 29, 1579)
#667, "Eldertos answere for his mery toyes &c" (c. 1561. The printer was fined for this, so it is probably some sort of unlicensed response to #670 below)
#668, "Eldertons Answere to F. W. apprint" (August 3, 1581)
#669, "Eldertons ell fortune" (c. 1570)
#670, "Eldertons Jests with his mery Toyes) (cf. 1561)
#671, "Eldertons parratt answered &c" (c. 1562)
#672, "Eldertons solace in tyme of his sickness conteyning sundrie sonnets vppon many pithie paraboles" (1578)
Rollins's index lists at least 19 other pieces by him that don't use his name in the title, and three others that might be his. Given that his career spanned several decades, that's not an extremely high number, but it is impressive that so many pieces were attributed to him.
For more about Elderton, see Hyder E. Rollins, "William Elderton, Elizabethan Actor and Ballad-Writer," Studies in Philology XVII (1920). I have not seen this extensive article (about 45 pages long). Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 106-107, quotes a poem starting "Will. Elderton's red nose is famous everywhere."
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, p. 199, says this is not historical but it "is supposed to have taken place at the siege of Ghent in 1584." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: OBB165

Mary and her Servant Man

See The Iron Door [Laws M15] (File: LM15)

Mary and Martha

DESCRIPTION: "Mary and Martha just gone along (x3), To ring them charming bells." "Crying, free grace and dying love, To ring them...." "Oh! way over Jordan...." "The preacher and the elder just gone along...." "My father and mother's just gone along...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (College Songs)
KEYWORDS: religious love
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #129, "Mary and Martha" (1 text)
SongsOfManyNations, "Mary and Martha" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 55)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 61, "Mary and Martha" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 128 in the 1876 edition)
ST ColS061 (Full)
Roud #4989
File: ColS061

Mary and Martha (II)

DESCRIPTION: The basic verse, repeated often: "Mary and Martha Dem go wear the crown, O Hallelujah coming down Hallelujah round the throne" See notes for hymn and play party differences
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad religious Bible
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad,Carriacou)
RECORDINGS:
Ferguson Adams, Daniel Aikens, Charles Bristol, Beatrice and Martha Dick, Lucianne, Millicent and Sweet Honey Duncan, Edith Hector, Margaret Henry, Newton, Sheraf and Virginia Joseph, Faith and Prince Lawrence, Derrick Lejen, Lawrence Solon, Virginia Sylvester. "Mary and Martha," Carriacou, Grenada August 1962, Association for Cultural Equity Alan Lomax Collection, ref=(T1208.0, Track 8 (00:01:46)), accessed 19 July 2023 from https://archive.culturalequity.org/field-work/caribbean-1962/la-resource-862/mary-and-martha
Emilia Henry, Lovey Gilman, Martha Saunders, "Zion Rider Come Down" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [97 words]: Donald R. Hill and Lise Winer, liner notes for WITrinidadVillage02: "There are many versions of this song, which apparently originated as a Spiritual Baptist song but is also found as a Big Drum and pass play song in nearby Carriacou." The Alan Lomax sound recordings item, "Mary and Martha," by Ferguson Adams et al. is apparently the Carriacou version Hill and Winer have in mind. So, while the hymn has a verse "Zion rider coming down" and refers to Biblical Mary and Martha of Luke 10:38-42 and John 11, the Carriacou play party says, "If you want to see them Go to Anguilla." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcMaAnMa

Mary and Sandy

See Mary o' the Dee (Mary's Dream) [Laws K20] (File: LK20)

Mary and Sweet Caroline

See The Folkestone Murder (File: K320)

Mary and the Soldier

See The Gallant Soldier (Mary/Peggy and the Soldier) (File: HHH782)

Mary and Willie (I)

See Willie and Mary (Mary and Willie; Little Mary; The Sailor's Bride) [Laws N28] (File: LN28)

Mary and Willie (II)

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Mary Ann

See The Iron Door [Laws M15] (File: LM15)

Mary Ann Magee

DESCRIPTION: "Mary Ann Magee, At half past three, She locked the door, And turned her key." A twisting game, in which turning the key causes the players holding hands to trade places
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | key door
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 50, "(Mary Ann Magee)" (1 text)
Roud #19537
File: PKKB050

Mary Ann McCarthy

DESCRIPTION: "Mary Ann McCarty she went out to dig some clams (x3), But she didn't get a single solitary clam. All that Mary got was oysters (x3), But she didn't get a single solitary clam" She digs and digs without success, except in getting trench mouth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: animal food work derivative disease campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #64, p. 22, "Mary Ann McCarthy" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 168, 497, "Mary Ann McCarthy" (notes only)
DT, MARYMCAR*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune) and references there
NOTES [19 words]: This is apparently mostly a camp song, but I rather doubt the camps allowed the last verse about trench mouth! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF168C

Mary Anne

DESCRIPTION: "Oh fare thee well, my own true love, Oh fare thee well my dear, For the ship is waiting and the wind blows free, And I am bound away to the sea, Mary Ann." The singer compares his pain at parting to that of a mourning dove or a lobster in a pot
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Dime-Song-Book #1)
KEYWORDS: sailor separation love sea floatingverses
FOUND IN: Canada(Que) US(Ap,MA,SE) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 147, "Farewell to Mary Ann" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 300, "My Martha Ann" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 142-143, "Mary Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 48, "Mary Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 75, "Mary Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 61, "My Mary Ann" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 246, "My Mary Anne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 61 and #1/64 p. 38, "Our Mary Ann" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 147, "Mary Ann" (1 text)
Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 176-177, "My Mary Anne" (1 text, from the "Victoria Songster"; the text does not claim to be by Thatcher; it appears he added a few verses, e.g. comparing Mary Anne to a pumpkin and a calf "its nussin' days")
DT MARYAN*
Roud #4438
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1111, "My Mary Ann," A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1845-1859; also Firth c.12(366), Firth c.12(368), "My Mary Ann"
LOCSinging, as110580, "Our Mary Ann," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also sb30400b, "Our Mary Ann"; as109170, "My Mary Ann"; Harding B 15(288b), "My Mary Anne"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (floating lyrics) and references there
cf. "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Lass of Roch Royal" [Child 76] (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ten Thousand Miles
NOTES [304 words]: Cazden et al report that the distinct subtext of "pretty little foot" group "...was written by stageman Barney Williams to a variant of the traditional tune, ascribed to M. Tyle. It was published as sheet music in Baltimore during 1856...." The ascription to Tyte also appears in Heart-Songs.
Don Duncan reports of this version, "The melody is clearly related to the version re-popularized by Ian & Sylvia; Revels lists it in their songbook as having been collected by Marius Barbeau from a Canadian who had learned it from an Irish sailor "around 1850." I&S's "lobster/bluefish" verse is from the Williams version, which apparently was a bit of a spoof; the fourth verse is downright funky:
The pride of all the produce rare,
That in our garden grow'd
Was punkins, but none could compare
In angel form to my Mary Ann,
In angel form to my Mary Ann.
The Library of Congress has at least three song sheets (that is, I found three, one published in Baltimore and two in New York) in their American Memory 19th century song sheets collection... These have almost identical lyrics to the original, but rather than
repeating the final line of each verse (as the original did) they use the first verse as a chorus. "Our Mary Ann," by de Marsan in New York... identifies it as a minstrel song."
It is likely that some badly worn down versions of this song are filed with "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)"; the latter song is a catch-all for songs of this type that don't mention Mary Anne or have the Roch Royal plot. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as110580: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FJ142

Mary Anne McGuinan

DESCRIPTION: Mary Anne McGuigan: if your "pritties" are good you must spray them again with bluestone. John James leads the dance with her and buys her a blouse of silk. Who will help her fix her house and thresh her oats? She is "swiggin'" her porter.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: farming dancing drink humorous nonballad clothes home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 68, "Mary Anne McGuinan" (1 text)
Roud #17843
NOTES [307 words]: Each verse is independent of the others and of the chorus. Bluestone is sprayed as a potato fungicide. - BS
"Bluestone" in this case is not lapis lazuli, which is sometimes called by that name, but rather copper (II) sulfate, or chalcanthite, a copper mineral (CuSO₄.5H₂O), also known as blue vitriol. According to Emsley, p. 124, "Copper in the form of Bordeaux mixture(a blue gelatinous suspension of copper sulfate and lime in water) was one of the first agrochemical pesticides, developed to control downy mildew on vines."
Heiserman, p. 120, says that "Copper(II) sulfate, CuSO₄, is the best known and most popular of the copper compounds. It is a white crystal in its pure, anhydrous (waterless) form. It is better known in its pentahydrate form, CuSO₄•H₂0, which is a deep blue crystal. Sometimes called blue vitriol, the primary commercial applications of hydrated copper sulfate are in fungicides and algicides, and in ink pigments."
Schwarcz, p. 69, notes that copper sulfate was first used on grapes to discourage theft, but that Pierre-Maris-Alexis Millardet, a professor of botany at Bordeaux, observed that the material also prevented the growth of fungus. He went on to offer Bordeaux mixture as the first widely-used fungicide. (Had it been on the market in the 1840s, it could perhaps have prevented the Irish potato famine, according to Coogan, p. 54 -- but although some of the antifungal effects were discovered in the 1840s, it was not until 1882 that Bordeaux mixture was marketed.) It is also used to clarify and purify swimming pools.
Schwarcz also makes the ironic note that copper sulfate is no longer sold in home chemistry sets because it is considered dangerous -- but it is still sold to organic farmers who are allowed to use it as a fungicide!
For another song involving bluestone, see "Sergeant Neill." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: TSF068

Mary Anne Sat in the Pan

DESCRIPTION: "Mary Anne Sat in the pan, Forty years ago."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 56, "(Mary Anne)" (1 text)
File: BAAI056B

Mary Arnold the Female Monster

DESCRIPTION: Mary Arnold, for reasons unknown, decides to blind her baby by covering its eyes with beetles held in walnut shells. Her deed is discovered, and she is sentenced to transportation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Ashton)
KEYWORDS: mother children injury disability transportation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 101, "Mary Arnold the Female Monster" (1 text)
ST PBB101 (Partial)
File: PBB101

Mary Blain

DESCRIPTION: "I wish I were in Ireland, And sitting in my chair, And in my hand a glass of wine, And by my side my dear." "Oh, then, farewell, poor Mary Blain, Oh, do take care of yourself, my dear..." The singer promises to come back, and praises her great beauty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: beauty love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 3, "Mary Blain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 143, "Mary Blane" (1 fragment); pp. 304-305, "Mary Blain" (1 text, which appears to have been made into a minstrel song, with no mention of Ireland) (p. 121 in the 1919 edition)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 49, "Mary Blane" (1 text)
Roud #4454
NOTES [40 words]: The Dime-Song-Book #9 text, found also in many broadsides, as a minstrel-type song which never mentions Ireland. Is it the same as Hudson's text? I'm not entirely sure, but there is clearly common influence at least, so both forms appear here.
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HudT003

Mary Blane

See Mary Blain (File: HudT003)

Mary Bowed

See While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks AND I Know Moonlight (or something similar) (File: OBC033)

Mary Brien

See James MacDonald [Laws P38] (File: LP38)

Mary Celestia, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Mary Celeste she runned ashore, She _did_, she _did_, She'll never run the block no more, No more, no more!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Bolton)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar crime commerce sea ship wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 9, 1864 - "The blockade running steamer Mary Celestia, from Wilmington, N.C., via Bermuda, for Nassau, sunk off the south of Bermuda" (_The Troy (NY) Daily Whig_ (Sep. 15, 1864)). The cargo was munitions and bacon (Northern Shipwrecks Database))
FOUND IN: Bermuda
REFERENCES (1 citation):
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, H. Carrington Bolton, "Gombay, a Festal Rite of Bermudian Negroes", Vol. 3, No. 10 (Jul-Sep 1890), p. 224, "The Mary Celeste" (1 text)
NOTES [126 words]: The description is all of Bolton's text.
Writing in 1890, Bolton says, "About twenty-five years ago an old negro rejoicing in the soubriquet of 'Blind Isaac' used to go about the islands from house to house in quest of copper coins, and singing songs of his own composition ;... During the years 1862-64, when exciting and profitable ventures in blockade-running made the port of St. George a scene of great activity, Blind Isaac used to sing about a vessel that was wrecked on the south shore: - 'The Mary Celeste ...' emphasizing the sentiment by striking the ground at each did with a thick stick.
The Mary Celestia is one of Bermuda's popular SCUBA wreck-diving sites. It is not the Mary Celeste found deserted in the Azores; that was in 1872. - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: JAFMaCel

Mary Dear

See I'll Be There, Mary Dear (File: RcGoMaDe)

Mary Doyle

See The Wreck of the Lady Shearbrooke (File: HHH570)

Mary Ecklan

See Mary Acklin (The Squire's Young Daughter) [Laws M16] (File: LM16)

Mary for the Love of Thee (Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay)

DESCRIPTION: "Mary, for the love of thee, Blythe and glad may we be, And I shall sing...." "The first joy was sent to thee, When Gabriel greeted thee." And so through the five Joys of Mary. Chorus: "Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay, Gaude celi domina"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Richard Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354, folio 165b)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #232, pp. 164-165, "(no title)" (3 texts)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #2098
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3413
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #29, pp. 15-16, "(Ay, Ay. Ay, Ay)" (1 text)
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #51, pp. 111-112, "(A, a, a, a, Gaude celi domina)" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 45
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 223
MANUSCRIPT: {MSCambridgeS54}, Cambridge, St. John’s College MS. S.54 (Cambridge University 259), folio 2
NOTES [215 words]: According to Richard Greene, editor, A Selection of English Carols, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, p. 221, the twelfth line in his text, "Enixa est perpetua," is from the Latin hymn "A solis ortus cardinale." He notes that his text, based on Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), replaces the last of the standard five Joys, the Assumption, with the Last Judgment. Which makes Mary rather less merciful than in most Catholic traditions!
There is no proof that this piece is traditional, but there is good evidence that it was at least somewhat popular. The first is its inclusion in the Hill manuscript, which includes some folk pieces, and in Bodleian MS. Eng. poet e.1, which is thought to date from the fifteenth century and includes many popular pieces. And there is another manuscript copy Cambridge, St. John's College MS. S.54 (259), which consists mostly of carols..
Any text found in three such significant manuscripts probably belongs in the Index in some form.
For the Joys of Mary, see "The Seven Joys of Mary."
For more about the famous anthology Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)." Interestingly, St. John's College MS. S.54 also contains both that carol and this. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSLLBOaY

Mary from Dungloe

DESCRIPTION: The singer is leaving Donegal and Mary from Dungloe for America. "It was your cruel father" that drove him from her but he plans to return. "I wished I was in sweet Dungloe and seated on the grass And by my side a bottle of wine and on my knee a lass"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: courting separation America Ireland floatingverses father
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 75, "Mary from Dungloe" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MARYDNGL*
Roud #3001
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bowling Green" (floating verse)
cf. "Shady Grove" (floating verse)
NOTES [30 words]: The Digital Tradition lists this to the tune of "The Star of the County Down." The version I've heard (admittedly from The Irish Rovers) isn't quite that, but it may be a variant. - RBW
File: OLoc075

Mary Glennie

DESCRIPTION: "Marie Glennie she was there Dressed up like ony doo And aye as she gaed thro' the reel, Says Sandy I'm for you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: dancing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 623, "Mary Glennie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6061
NOTES [76 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 fragment.
Greig/Duncan3: "'Local ditty -- about a ball in the Ironside district, dealing with local characters -- perhaps twenty-five years ago" [March 1906].
The following songs are all one or two verses or fragments with a verse beginning "[so-and-so he/she] was there": "Mary Glennie," "Jean Dalgarno," "The Singing Class" and "The Auchnairy Ball." Should two or more be considered the same song? - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3623

Mary Had a Baby

DESCRIPTION: "Mary had a baby, oh Lord... People keep a-coming and the train done gone." "What did she name him?" "She named him Jesus." "Where was he born?" "Born in a stable." "Where did they lay him?" "Laid him in a manger"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (R. C. Seeger, American Folk Songs for Christmas)
KEYWORDS: Christmas childbirth Jesus religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 375, "Mary Had A Baby" (1 text)
DT, MARYBABY
Roud #11619
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Mary Had a Baby" (on PeteSeeger37, PeteSeeger42)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "You Got My Letter" (structure, tune, tag line)
File: FSWB375B

Mary Had a Little Lamb

DESCRIPTION: "Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow." Surely you know the rest....
AUTHOR: Words: Sarah Josepha Hale
EARLIEST DATE: 1830 ("Poems For Our Children"); a version with music credited to Lowell Mason was published in 1831 in "Juvenile Lyre or Hymns and Songs")
KEYWORDS: animal children
FOUND IN: US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Randolph 360, "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (1 text, 1 tune, with some unusual words in the first verse)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 35-36, "The teacher therefore turned it out"/"Mary had a Little Lamb" (1 partial text plus two parody verses, the first claiming that, if may were alive, she'd have an airplane rather than a lamb, the second being a Mary Had a Little Lamb verse of "Throw It Out the Window")
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 341, "Mary had a little lamb" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #174, pp. 127-128, "(Mary had a little lamb)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 128, "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 106, "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 179-180, "Mary's Lamb" (1 text, with a "sequel" by Emilie Paulssen)
Heart-Songs, p. 345, "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 354-355, "Mary Had a Little Lamb"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 192, 258-259, "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (notes only)
DT, (MARYLAM2* -- if you're broad-minded about what constitutes a version)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 51, "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (1 text, 1 tune, called the "Hobart Version" and having an "Ain't I Glad To Get Out of the Wilderness" chorus) (part 3, p. 55 in the 1876 editioon); cf pp. 50-51 of the 1876 edition, "Son of a Gambolier," which has "Mary Had a Little Lamb" verses with a "Son of a Gambolier" tune)
Roud #7622
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Had a William Goat" (tune & meter)
cf. "Mary Had a Little Watch" (form)
cf. "Mary Had a Little Lamb, She Also Had a Bear" (form)
cf. "Goodnight Ladies" (partial tune)
cf. "Mary's Little Lamb" by Commodore Jones (in which Mary raises various lambs, which won't follow her and get eaten; she fights the lamb over its wool, etc.)
SAME TUNE:
Mary Had a William Goat (File: San336)
Mary Had a Little Watch (File: NJF171MH)
Mary Had a Little Lamb, She Lived in Alabama ("...and I hit it with a hamma") (Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 101)
Mary Had a Little Smile ("Mary had a little smile, And oh how it did grow") (Harbin-Parodology, #186, p. 50; Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 124)
Mary Had a Little Lamb (2) ("Mary had a little lamb... she put it on the shelf"/"Mary had a little lamb... with green peas on the side") (Harbin-Parodology, #6, p. 10)
Poor Mary/Mary had a swarm of bees (Harbin-Parodology, #48, pp. 18-19; Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 123; Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 192, "Green Trees" (+"Taps") (notes only), p. 192)
Mary's Little Lot/Mary Had a Little Lot ("Mary had a little lot, The soil was very poor, But she had it all the same And struggled to get more") (by Mary C. Hudson) (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 51-52; Foner, p. 260)
A Retrospect ("Freshman has a little cane, a little cane, a little cane") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 117)
NOTES [465 words]: Reported to be based on a true story. Which seems likely enough; who would make up something so trite?
The Baring-Goulds report a variant by "modern teenager[s]": The response to "Mary had a little lamb" is "And was the doctor ever surprised!"
Hale is also responsible for one other item in the Ballad Index, "The Watcher."
According to Julian, p, 481, the author's biography is as follows:
Hale, Sarah Josepha, nee Buell, b[orn] at Newport, New Hampshire, 1795, and married to David Hale, a lawyer, who died in 1822. Mrs. Hale edited The Ladies' Magazine, Boston, from 1828; and Godey's Ladies' Book, Phila[delphia], from 1837, besides publishing several works. Her hymn, "Our Father in heaven, we hallow Thy name" (The Lord's Prayer), appeared in Maron & Green's Church Psalmody, 1831, No. 553, in 2 st[anzas] of 8 l[ines]. Mrs. Hale, who was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, d[ied] in 1879.
MassachusettsBioDictionary, p. 213, agrees that she died in 1879, but gives her birth date as October 24, 1788; they agree in having her born in Newport. Her parents were Gordon and Martha Buell. Home schooled herself, she became a schoolteacher from 1806 to 1813, when she married lawyer David Hale, by whom she had five children -- the last one posthumous. This forced Sarah to open a millinery shop; she also turned to writing, with her first book of poems published in 1823, the year after her husband died. She moved to Boston upon being offered the editorship of The Ladies' Magazine. "Hale was unique as an editor of a woman's magazine in that she concentrated on substantial matters and accepted only original work."
She did not believe women should leave the home, because they were needed to raise proper children, but she did firmly support women's education (MassachusettsBioDictionary, p. 214). She moved to Philadelphia in 1841, after her youngest son finished at Harvard, and remained there for the rest of her life. She continued to edit Godey's Lady's Book until 1877.
Her DAB entry (volume IV, part 2, p. 111), confirms the 1788 birth date. It lists Horation Emmons Hale, an "ethnologist," as her son and gives an entry on him as well. DAB claims that she wrote at least half the contents of the issues of Ladies' Magazine that she edited, though once Louis A. Godey bought out the Ladies' Magazine and shifted her to the Lady's Book, she gradually devoted herself to particular departments, particularly "Literary Noties" and "Editor's Table," thereby encouraging her readers toward her conservative, "decorous" views.
Thus Hale was extremely influential in the lives of two generations of American women, though I'm not sure she actually made their lives better.
This piece was published (as "Mary's Lamb") in Poems for Our Children in 1830. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: R360

Mary Had a Little Lamb, She Also Had a Bear

DESCRIPTION: "Mary had a little lamb, She also had a bear, I've often seen her little lamb, But I've never seen her bear."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: derivative humorous wordplay animal | Mary lamb bear
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 52, "(Mary had a little lamb)" (1 text)
Roud #7622
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (form)
NOTES [20 words]: Roud lumps this with "Mary Had a Little Lamb," from which it is clearly derived. But I would clearly distinguish them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PKKB052E

Mary Had a Little Watch

DESCRIPTION: "Mary (Patty, etc.) had a little watch, She swallowed it one day, So now she's taking castor oil To pass the time away. But as the time went on and on, The watch refused to pass, So if you want to know the time, Just look up Mary's ass."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 ("Immortalia")
KEYWORDS: derivative humorous
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, George W. Boswell, "Humor from the Kentucky Hills," Vol. XVII, No. 2 (Nov 1969), p. 75, "Little Patty Had a Watch" (1 text, with only the first half of the Immortalia version quoted in the description)
Roud #7622
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (form)
NOTES [31 words]: Roud lumps this with "Mary Had a Little Lamb," from which it is clearly derived. But I would clearly distinguish them -- despite the "unprintable" second half, this is genuinely clever. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: NJF171MH

Mary Had a William Goat

DESCRIPTION: "Mary had a William goat, William goat, William goat, Mary had a William goat, Its stomach lined with zinc." "One day it ate an oyster can... And a clothesline full of shirts." "The shirts can do no harm inside... But the oyster can."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag; Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: parody animal food derivative
FOUND IN: US Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 336-337, "Mary Had a William Goat" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Peacock, p. 19, "Mary Had a William Goat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harbin-Parodology, #394, p. 96, "Mary Had a William Goat" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 192-193, "Mary Had a William Goat" (notes only)
Roud #4567
RECORDINGS:
Joshua Osborne, "Mary Had a William Goat" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (tune & meter)
File: San336

Mary Had Bread and Jam

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Mary had bread and jam, Marmalade and treacle, A bit for me and a bit for you, And a bit for all the people."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #332, "Mary had bread and jam" (1 text)
Roud #22238
File: AJRR332

Mary Hamilton [Child 173]

DESCRIPTION: Mary Hamilton, servant to the queen, is pregnant (by the queen's husband). She tries to hide her guilt by casting the boy out to sea, but is seen and convicted. She is condemned to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1790? (One stanza quoted by Robert Burns, but it never mentions "Mary Hamilton" or the Four Maries or infanticide)
KEYWORDS: pregnancy homicide abandonment punishment execution | infanticide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 1542 - Birth and Accession of Mary Stewart (probably Dec 8 and Dec 14, respectively)
Dec 7, 1545 (?) - Birth of Henry, Lord Darnley (in England, be it noted)
1548 - Mary Stewart sent to France
Apr 24, 1558 - Mary Stewart married the future King Francis II (succeeded to the throne Sep 18, 1559)
Dec 6, 1560 - Death of Francis II; Mary Stewart becomes Queen Dowager of France
Aug 1561 - Mary Stewart returns to Scotland
Jul 29, 1564 - Mary Stewart marries her cousin Henry, Lord Darnley, who thus becomes King Henry
Jun 19, 1566 - Birth of the future James VI and I
Feb 9/10,1567 - Death of Lord Darnley
May 15, 1567 - Mary marries the Earl of Bothwell
Jun 15, 1567 - Battle of Carberry. Mary Stewart deposed and imprisoned; her son James VI becomes King
1568 - Mary Stewart flees Scotland for England
Feb 8, 1587 - Execution of Mary Stewart
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (45 citations):
Child 173, "Mary Hamilton" (27 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Bronson 173, "Mary Hamilton" (12 versions+1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 173, "Mary Hamilton" (4 versions: #3, #5, #6, #11.1)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 86-89, "Mary Hamilton" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 258-264, "Mary Hamilton" (2 texts plus some variants and a verse of "Peter Amberley" they claim floated in from this song, 1 tune plus some cited extracts) {Bronson's #7; the first short excerpt is from Bronson's #6}
Randolph 26, "The Four Maries" (1 fragment)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 133-136, "Four Marys" (1 text, 1 tune, plus some variants)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 70-71, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 35, "The Four Marys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 63-65, "The Four Marys" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 27-28, "The Four Marys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 79-80, "The Four Marys" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 163-169, "Mary Hamilton" (2 texts plus a fragment, with the fragment containing parts of "MacPherson's Lament"; 3 tunes) {B=Bronson's #7}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 36, "Mary Hamilton" (2 fragments from the same informant, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 32, pp. 245-252, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 481-483, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 86-88, "Mary Hamilton (The Four Maries)" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 184, "Mary Hamilton"; p. 219, "Mary Hamilton's Last Goodnight" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 22-23, "Mary Hamilton" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 3, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 94-95, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 83, "The Queen's Marie" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 61, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 51, "Mary Hamilton" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 159-161+334-335, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 32, pp. 124-126, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 160, "Last night there were four Marys" (2 fragments)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 138, "Marie Hamilton" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 33, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 106-111, "Marie Hamilton" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 195, "The Four Maries" (4 texts, 3 tunes) {B=#6, C=#11}
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #74, p. 249-250, "Mary Hamilton (Child 173)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 27-29, "The Queen's Mary" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 123, "Marie Hamilton" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 457, "The Queen's Maries" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 23, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 117-119, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 49-52, "Mary Hamilton" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 48-49, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 261-263, "The Queen's Marie"; pp. 263-264, "Mary Hamilton" (2 texts)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 184-187, "Mary Hamilton (The Queen's Three Maries)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 211, "The Four Maries" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 11, "Mary Hamilton" (1 text, 1 tune, with Mary's crime omitted but the fact of her execution told)
DT 173, MARYHAM1* MARYHAM2 MARYHAM3* MARYHAM4*
ADDITIONAL: Andrew Lang, "The Mystery of 'The Queen's Marie,'" article published 1895 in _Blackwoods Magazine_; republished on pp. 19-28 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009
Roud #79
RECORDINGS:
Texas Gladden, "Mary Hamilton" (AFS 5323 A5; on USTGladden01)
Chris Miles, "Yestreen the Queen had Four Marys" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #544, recorded 03/14/2023)
Jeannie Robertson, "Mary Hamilton (The Four Marys)" (on FSB5 [as "The Four Maries"], FSBBAL2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "King Henry's Murder" (subject of Henry, Lord Darnley)
cf. "Earl Bothwell" [Child 174] (subject of the third husband of Mary Stewart)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Purple Dress
Mary Mild
The Duke o' York's Dother
NOTES [19784 words]: Also collected and sung by Ellen Mitchell, "Mary Mild" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
That this song is partly based on history seems likely -- but which parts of the song, and what history, remains a very open question. The two basic possibilities are that it's based on the court of Mary Queen of Scots (when there were "Four Maries" but no obvious "Mary Hamilton") or that it's based on the court of Peter the Great of Russian (who had a Mary Hamilton but no Four Maries). If the song is set in the reign of Mary Queen of Scots, the date is the 1560s; if in the court of Peter the Great of Russia, it's in the 1710s. So let's provide some background on each setting. I'm going to do a lot more on Mary Queen of Scots because, if that is the setting, there are many more relevant facts.
THE CAREER AND COURT OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS UNTIL HER MARRIAGE TO LORD DARNLEY
No monarch of Scotland -- not even Robert I Bruce -- has attracted as much modern ink as Mary Queen of Scots, and certainly none has been so controversial. I'm going to touch relatively lightly on the periods before and after her personal reign in Scotland, because it's not relevant to the song. If something you think is important is omitted or treated lightly, understand the (relatively) limited scope of the entry.
First, a note about names: Mary herself, since she wrote her letters primarily in French and the letter w isn't native to French, spelled her name "Stuart," but the name derived from their ancient title of Stewards of Scotland; "Stewart" is the correct family name even though it was not what Mary used (Fraser, p. 5).
Mary Stewart became Queen of Scotland in December 1542 when she was six days old (so Keay/Keay, p. 682, Magnusson, p. 319; I have seen a figure of eight days elsewhere; there is some slight doubt about the date, according to Fraser, p. 12-13, and a possibility that she was born prematurely). This was the result of the early death of her father James V. James, like so many of the Stewart kings, had inherited the throne as a child, and seems to have developed melancholy as a result of his early experiences. By the age of 30, he had already lost his first wife and two infant sons by his second wife Mary of Guise (Morrison, pp. 13-17). Folklore has him spend much time among the people, disguised, learning their feelings, but Fraser, p. 4, accepts instead John Knox's opinion that the reason he moved around so much was that he was "debauched," pursuing many women who were not his wife. (According to Perry, p. 171, his stepfather the Earl of Angus had actively encouraged this, perhaps to make James easier to control.)
By 1542, he was thinking about war with the English. Having become sick late in that year, he turned his army over to incompetent favorites were defeated by the English at Solway Moss (Morrison, p. 18). Already unwell, when word came of the army's defeat, James in effect laid down and died. Not being with his wife when he died, he only learned at the last moment that Mary of Guise had born him a daughter rather than a son. Supposedly his last words were "It came with a lass, and it will pass with a lass" (Morrison, p. 19) -- i.e. the Stewarts gained the throne due to their descent from Robert Bruce's daughter, and the dynasty would end with a woman. He thought it meant his daughter; those who still hold it up as a true prophecy now point to Queen Anne, the last British monarch to be named "Stewart" (and whose reign saw the end of Scottish separation from England).
"Mary was to inherit her father's red-gold hair, his oval face, the heavy Stewart lids and the Stewart blood, with its mixture of charm and passion, the recklessness of those who 'gang their ain gait,' its wayward weakness allied to great nobility, and its undiluted personal courage.... [From her mother] she was to inherit... the Guise height and, from a family that had produced nuns, abbots, abbesses and cardinals, devotion to the Roman Catholic faith" (Morrison, p. 12). From neither side was she to inherit a stable kingdom -- or a stable personality.
In the years after Mary was born, various nobles fought for control of the state. The story takes dozens of pages in most texts, and doesn't really affect the events in this song, so I won't repeat it. Just keep in mind that there were all sorts of Scottish factions, some pro-France, some pro-England, some just out to feather their own nests. Plus there were the religious quarrels of the reformation. To top it all off, Scotland was under attack by Henry VIII of England, who wanted to unite the kingdoms by marrying Mary to his son Edward VI. Since most Scots rejected the idea, Henry tried to bring it about by attacking Scotland until the Scots gave in (the "rough wooing"; Keay/Key, p. 683; Magnuson, pp. 321-329).
In Scotland, though, there was always the memory of the "Auld Alliance" with France. At the time Mary was born, there was no French prince she might marry. But the future Francis II of France was born about a year after Mary. The Scots did not immediately send Mary to France, but after the Scots were heavily defeated again at the Battle of Pinkie in 1547, it seemed like a good idea to send her someplace safe (Hamilton, p. 27). As a result the Queen was sent out of the country. She was only a child when she was sent abroad to be brought up at the court of France (1548). To keep her good company, since her mother Mary of Guise would remain behind to manage Scotland, four well-bred Scots girls were sent with her. The four were Mary Beaton, Mary Fleming, Mary Livingston, and Mary Seton (Magnusson, p. 330; Morrison, p. 24, who explicitly notes that there were no Hamiltons in the lot!). The information about the four is limited but sufficient to prove this. According to Hamilton, p. 216, the four were all about the same age as Mary Stewart, so they were probably between five and seven when sent to France with the young queen in 1548. They were sent to a (Dominican) convent at Poissy to learn French and be educated (cf. Fraser, p. 43). Mary Stewart, who was brought up mostly at court, was married at age fifteen (Morrison, pp. 38-39) to the future King Francis II (April 1558; Stedall-Darnley, p. 44). It was a peculiar liason; Stedall-Darnley thinks that "he was almost certainly impotent" and believes that Mary dominated him; Magnusson, p. 332, also says no one expected them to have children. When Francis's father Henri II died after a jousting accident in 1559, Francis took the throne and Mary became Queen of France (Hamilton, p. 28; Stedall-Darnley, p. 46).
But Francis II truly was delicate; he died in 1560 after suffering an ear abscess and dizzy spells (Hamilton, p. 29; Stedall-Darnley, p. 47). Mary turned eighteen while shut up in mourning (Morrison, p. 54. She was also still mourning her mother, who had died a few months earlier). She could have stayed in France as Queen Dowager, but there was nothing for her to do there, and she was now old enough to rule in Scotland. so Mary went back to Scotland in 1561 (KeayKeay, pp. 682-683), still a desirable marriage prospect although (slightly) more able to care for herself. All of the Four Maries went home with her on the same ship.
(It is perhaps worth noting, in light of what follows and the romantic legends about Mary's beauty, that none of the many paintings of her make her look very attractive, at least to me. Stedall-Darnley, pp. 44-45, says that her portraits are deceptive because none were painted of her in her prime -- but he himself prints one of her at fifteen, and it looks just like all the others. People talked a lot about her looks, but one suspects what looked good was her claim to a throne! Also, she was almost six feet tall, according to Hamilton, p. 43, so she would have towered over most suitors, though Lord Darnley was taller still. She does, at least, seem to have been genuinely charming.)
The Scotland to which Mary Stewart returned was very different from the one she had left -- the Reformation had come, and in a much more dramatic way than in England, including a low-level civil war between Mary of Guise's Catholics and the Reformers; parliament had essentially outlawed Catholicism shortly before the Queen Mother's death. When Mary of Guise died of dropsy at the age of 44 or 45 in mid-1460, it left Scotland without a formal government, and Wormald, p. 103, says that Mary Stewart did nothing to remedy this until she returned to Scotland, giving a great advantage to the Protestant forces. Scotland's version of anti-Catholicism was the Presbyterian church, created on Calvinist principles, and John Knox was a power in the land. The radicals had summoned a parliament (without the Queen's or the dead Queen Mother's approval), which imposed the new religion, made peace with Protestant England, and reduced the ties with Catholic France -- all behind Queen Mary's back (Hamilton, p. 29. When she heard about it -- from a single, minor envoy -- she naturally rejected it all; Morrison, pp. 50-51). There were still plenty of Catholics, among both the nobility and the common people, but just the presence of John Knox -- who, being a typical Calvinist, hated Catholics, hated women, and hated anything that got in his way -- meant that the political situation in Scotland was unstable. (It was Knox who was responsible for the infamous First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, aimed at Mary Tudor, Mary of Guise, and anyone else who either had an independent mind or didn't have testicles. Mary Stewart, representing all that Knox hated, found herself the particular subject of his wrath and scorn -- even though, in the early years of her personal reign, she was quite tolerant of the religion that was not her own; Hamilton, p. 31).
This was the situation Mary Stewart, found when she arrived in Edinburgh in August 1561, armed not only with a hereditary right in Scotland but a claim that she, rather than Elizabeth I, should be Queen of England: by Catholic law, Elizabeth, being the daughter of Anne Boleyn, whom Henry VIII had married bigamously, was illegitimate and could not inherit the throne. By this line of logic, since Henry VIII had no other legitimate descendants after Edward VI and Mary I died, the throne after Mary I's death should have passed to the descendants of his older sister Margaret Tudor -- meaning Mary Stewart, and after her Margaret Douglas (of whom more below). Mary for the most part tried to keep things peaceful with England even though (or perhaps because) she wanted to succeed Elizabeth I. But then, in 1565, came the marriage to Henry, Lord Darnley, her cousin and, potentially, also potentially her heir.
HENRY, LORD DARNLEY
Some versions of the song refer to "the king." If the song is to be dated to the reign of Mary Stewart, and takes place in Scotland, then the king can only be Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, the heir to the earldom of Lennox, and Mary's second husband. (It is true that Mary had two other husbands, Frances II and the Earl of Bothwell, but Frances was never in Britain -- and surely never had an illegitimate child -- and Bothwell never became King.) And he was a Stewart, so "The highest Stewart of all." Although he was king by marriage, in some ways, Darnley was actually more exalted than Mary herself, for he had royal blood from both his parents.
Margaret Tudor, the older daughter of England's King Henry VII and the sister of King Henry VIII, had married three times. The first marriage (arranged by her father when she was still an early teen) was to King James IV of Scotland, by whom she had had James V the father of Mary Stewart. After James IV's death, she quickly married Archibald Douglas of Angus, by she had had a "beautiful but headstrong" daughter, Margaret Douglas. (Stedall-Darnley reproduces what he believes to be her portrait. If the painting is indeed of her, she does appear to have been really, really beautiful. But her later portraits show a much more pointed chin, so I doubt it's her.)
Margaret Douglas -- who was born in England after Margaret Tudor had remarried and been forced to flee Scotland (Cosh, p. 90) had probably been born a few weeks prematurely, very possibly as a result of the wild flight her mother had had to make to escape her enemies in the Scottish government (Perry, pp. 130-131; Ring, p. 17). Her difficult early life certainly didn't affect the younger Margaret's ability to scheme, or to find herself at the heart of controversies; she had had a roller-coaster career in England. Henry VIII alternately promoted her in the succession and attempted to cast her out -- for a while in 1536, before Edward VI was born but after Henry had declared his daughters Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate, it looked as if he might make her his heir; and Ring, p. 40, implies he shopped her on the international marriage market for a while. But he also sought to have her declared illegitimate after she tried to contract marriage with Lord Thomas Howard, Anne Boleyn's uncle (Marshall, p. 109; Perry, pp. 217-218). Henry had both Howard and Margaret tossed in the Tower and was threatening to execute them; Margaret finally relented shortly before Howard died of disease. After that, Henry brought her back to court; she got in trouble with another Howard, a relative of Queen Catherine Howard, but was again rehabilitated. As late as 1543, she was apparently considered second in line to the throne after the future King Edward VI, but in that year, Henry VIII put his daughters Mary and Elizabeth back in the line of succession (Ring, p. 85).
(To give Henry his due, there is something to the argument that Margaret Douglas was illegitimate; Margaret Tudor had married Archibald Douglas, Sixth Earl of Angus, shortly after James IV had died -- a marriage which cost her the Scottish regency and led to her leaving the country. But the marriage quickly failed, and Margaret Tudor managed to get an annulment in 1527; Cosh, pp. 89-91. According to Perry, p. 171, Archibald Douglas had made a marriage to another before marrying Margaret Tudor, which should have rendered Margaret Douglas illegitimate, but the Pope had declared Margaret Douglas legitimate under Catholic law because Margaret Tudor had been ignorant of Archibald Douglas's act. This was typical of what was done when marriages were annulled on the grounds of undiscovered consanguinity, so it was not unprecedented, but it was unusual. It made Margaret Douglas legitimate by Catholic rules, but Henry VIII made his own rules. Even when it was his sister's daughter he was mistreating.)
(An astounding thing in this story is how just about everyone was illegitimate at one time or another, for reasons relating to consanguinity and remarriage and the timing of remarriage. Of Henry VIII's three children, Mary and Elizabeth were both considered illegitimate at one time or another. Of Margaret Tudor's children, James V was unquestionably legitimate, but Margaret Douglas was called illegitimate because of precontracts. The children of Mary Tudor, Henry VIII's younger sister, were considered illegitimate because of a prior marriage by her husband -- Perry, pp. 177-178. Mary Stewart's probable heir the (Hamilton) Earl of Arran was of dubious legitimacy because of problems about when his parents did or didn't marry. For that matter, although Henry VIII was personally legitimate, his claim to the throne was not: on his father's side, his claim to the throne came through the Beauforts, who were barred from the succession as semi-legitimate descendants of John of Gaunt; and his mother Elizabeth of York had been declared an illegitimate daughter of Edward IV. And on and on....)
Margaret Douglas was a friend of the poet and future rebel Thomas Wyatt; there is an anthology, the "Devonshire Manuscript," in which both of them wrote items (Ring, p. 41) -- though she surely had no interest in his later rebellion against Mary Tudor, who was a close friend. If Mary had lived long enough to really cement her throne, Margaret might well have been declared her heir.
Margaret's husband Matthew Stewart, Earl of Lennox (whose grandfather had died at Flodden with James IV) was sort of her Scottish equivalent -- a person with a high but ambivalent situation in the Scottish succession.
The Stewart line was so thin by 1542 that the only legitimate descendant of King James III after the death of James V was Queen Mary Stewart. Which meant that the next in line were the heirs of the (another) Mary Stewart, the daughter of James II and sister of James III. This Mary Stewart had married James, 1st Lord Hamilton, and left a son James and a daughter Elizabeth. The son of James, another James, should have been heir presumptive -- except that some did not consider him legitimate legitimate (Hamilton, pp. 26-27, 173-175. Hamilton implies that the claim he was illegitimate was simply political, but according to Fraser, p. 15, James Hamilton Jr. was the son of his James Sr.'s third wife, and his second wife had not died but he had divorced her -- and there was doubt over whether the divorce was official and had taken place before the third marriage. If the divorce had not come through, then the third marriage was invalid and James Hamilton Jr. was not legitimate. It's nitpicky, but it's a valid objection if true.).
If the line of James Hamilton was barred as illegitimate, the next in line were the offspring of Elizabeth Hamilton, sister of James Hamilton Sr., who had married the earl of Lennox. There was, naturally, conflict between the Hamilton and Lennox branches over who was the rightful heir. The conflict caused much trouble in Scotland, with other nobles ranged around the two factions -- e.g. James V's illegitimate son James Stewart, Earl of Moray, was a Hamilton ally. The two sides hated each other so much that they did not scruple to intrigue with the English (Hamilton, pp. 48-49). It surely didn't help that the Hamiltons had murdered the father of the 4th Earl of Lennox in 1526 or 1527! (McGrigor, p. 29; Stedall-Darney, p. 22).
Thus there was constant conflict between the Hamiltons and the Lennoxes, with each earl claiming to be the senior cadet branch of the Stewart line.
(Note the significance, then, of the name "Hamilton" for the child-murderer in this song. When James V died and the infant Mary Stewart became queen, James Hamilton (c. 1516-1575), who had become Earl of Arran in 1529, became heir apparent, at least in the Hamilton reckoning. He was made guardian over the baby queen, but this was the source of great political controversy, with his legitimacy only one of the reasons he was attacked. (For one thing, his son and heir eventually went insane and spent half a century locked up; Stedall-Darnley, pp. 60-61.) If there was a "Mary Hamilton," was she the queen's companion -- or the queen's rival for the throne? Or perhaps the heir apparent's mistress, called "Hamilton" as an attempt to attack him? Also, the Hamiltons were considered not quite there: "the governor Arran was indecisive but his eldest son actually went mad and had to be confined. During the whole of this period, Hamilton blood was generally considered a convenient scapegoat on which to blame abnormalities of temper"; Fraser, p. 16. Could this be why the name "Hamilton" was chosen?)
According to Stedall-Darnley, p. 10, the Earl of Lennox initially hoped to marry Mary of Guise, the widow of James V. The idea was that if Lennox married Mary of Guise, he would become Regent and would be able to have the Hamiltons declared illegitimate, so that Lennox would become heir to the throne (Bingham, p. 32). But Mary of Guise refused to marry him and blocked his path to power. With that idea blocked, he turned to Henry VIII to sustain him (cf. Marshall, p. 109). Being based in England, Lennox decided that his next-best bet was to marry Douglas, even though she was a bit of an old maid (Douglas was 27 by then) -- and Henry VIII finally agreed, but, surprisingly, required that Margaret give genuine consent (Ring, pp. 87-88).
Surprisingly, Margaret and Lennox they really hit it off (Marshall, p. 109); based on their letters, it sounds as if they truly and deeply loved each other (Marshall, p. 115). Ring, p. 99, says that the evidence is that the marriage was "a partnership of equals" -- a rare thing that may have prejudiced Henry VIII against them. Certainly they can't have married for money; Lennox was an earl, but cut off from his Scottish lands because of his ties with the English (Marshall, p. 110) and while Margaret should have been Countess of Angus, her father, when he died, had left the earldom to his brother rather than his daughter, leaving Margaret with nothing except what Henry VIII gave her. Henry drove a hard bargain with Lennox, basically forcing Lennox to turn Scotland over to him in return for support (Bingham, p. 35 -- but Bingham suspects Lennox expected to outlive Henry, and then all bets would be off).
Henry let Margaret and Lennox marry in 1544 (Ring, p. 88; Bingham, p. 35, says that it was July 6, 1544), but soon after he again put her out of the succession because she was so determinedly Catholic. She was rehabilitated again in the reign of her friend Mary Tudor; by then, she had borne Darnley (Stedall-Darnley, pp. 14-15), but was demoted yet again when Elizabeth took the throne, and spent a lot of time in the Tower.
One might almost call the Douglas/Lennox marriage their revenge for being blocked from the English and Scottish successions, and Lord Darnley was the agent of their revenge.
Margaret and Lennox's first boy, Henry, died before he was a year old (Stedall-Darnley, p. 39; Marshall, p. 110.) But they quickly had another son, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. (Yes, their first two children were both named "Henry." They knew how to butter up their paymaster! Margaret endured eight pregnancies -- Marshall, p. 112 -- but their only other child to survive infancy was a brother, Charles, nine years younger, who eventually became Earl of Lennox and became the mother of Arabella Stuart, yet another possible claimant to the throne who ended up in the Tower.) Darnley was thus the half-first cousin of Mary Stewart -- and next in line after Mary Stewart and Margaret Douglas in the English succession. (The genealogy in the cover of Morrison makes this clearest; see also Hamilton, p. 286. Of course, Margaret would have liked to earn the throne in her own right, but apparently eventually gave that up after all her troubles with Henry VIII; Stedall-Darnley, p. 54.)
The date of Darnley's birth is disputed. Somewhere I found the date November 7, 1546. Fraser, p. 220, says the usual date is December 7, 1545, but offers evidence that he must have been at least a few months younger. How much younger? Probably not more than a year, but all we can really be confident about is that he was between two and four years younger than Mary Stewart.
This distinguished lineage did not guaranteed Darnley (or, for that matter, Mary Stewart) a place in the English succession -- in 1562, when Elizabeth was ill with smallpox, parliament considered four possible heirs (Stedall-Darnley, p. 69; Fraser, p. 164):
1. Mary Stewart (then still childless), the senior descendent of Henry VII's older daughter Margaret Tudor, but Catholic and born in Scotland;
2. Margaret Douglas (and Darnley after her), descended from Margaret Tudor's second child, born in England but still Catholic;
3. Catherine Grey, the younger sister of Lady Jane Grey, descended from Henry VII's younger daughter Mary Tudor, who was both English and Protestant and whose line Henry VIII had approved but who had gotten herself into a marriage the government didn't like
4. Henry Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon, one of two possible Plantagenet heirs (the other being the heir of the Pole family, who had been designated as Richard III's heirs; Hastings was descended from Edward IV's brother George of Clarence, which made him senior to the de la Poles, except that George of Clarence had been executed for treason and his descendants thus barred from the succession)
Parliament didn't like any of the choices (Catholics couldn't decide between Stewart and Douglas, and Protestants between Grey and Huntingdon; there was also the fact that, in Henry VIII's will, when he listed possible heirs after Elizabeth, he had explicitly mentioned the descendants of his sister Mary Tudor, i.e. Grey, and clearly passed over the descendants of his older sister Margaret Tudor, i.e. Mary Stewart and Margaret Douglas; Ring, p. 96). In the short term, it all became moot when Elizabeth recovered.
No matter how you sliced it, though, Darnley had a claim to the Scottish throne as well as to the English; if the Hamiltons were permitted to succeed, then he was about fifth in line -- but if the Hamiltons were excluded as illegitimate, then Darnley was third in line to the Scottish throne in line after Queen Mary and his father the Earl of Lennox as well as being unquestionably next in line after Mary and his mother for the English throne.
Her claim to the English throne put Mary Stewart in an interesting position. Elizabeth I had already intervened once in Scotland, as the Reformation took place there (Hamilton, p. 29). If Mary tried to interfere in England, Elizabeth could attack and perhaps overthrow her. If Mary sought a too-strong husband, such as a foreign king, that was also a threat. Since, by the 1560s, Elizabeth's throne seemed reasonably secure, Mary's best hope of succeeding her lay in trying to maintain friendship and choosing an appropriate husband (Hamilton, p. 31). She understandably rejected Elizabeth's favorite Robert Dudley; as a younger son, he wasn't even really part of the nobility, and Elizabeth didn't really want to give him up!
Margaret Douglas instead wanted Mary to marry Darnley, and made made intense efforts to bring this about, even though the two were well within the prohibited decrees; Hamilton, p. 35. It appears they just assumed they would get a dispensation, though the Papacy was none too willing (Hamilton, pp. 39-42. One wonders -- given that she outlived her son by more than a decade -- if Margaret still felt that way after his murder.)
Elizabeth didn't particularly like this idea, and for a long time kept Margaret and Darnley safely in England. Eventually, Elizabeth let Darnley go north, but kept his mother at home. Did she think this would prevent the marriage? It didn't work. Mary met Darnley, who promptly got usefully sick, and Mary nursed him and fell in love with him as she did so. The marriage that Elizabeth had so wanted to prevent quickly went forward.
(Interestingly, although Margaret Douglas was defiantly Catholic, Darnley's own convictions were less clear; he had frequently attended Protestant services; Stedall-Maitland, p. 66. Indeed, Morrison, p. 99, regularly listened to John Knox's sermons, which strikes me as a high level of masochism even for an actual Protestant! One suspects he was doing his best to be all things to all people.)
It is likely that Mary thought Elizabeth would approve of her marriage to Darnley -- after all, the English queen had let Darnley go to Scotland -- but when Elizabeth heard that Mary and Darnley were hitting it off, she ordered him to come back, and when they didn't, she put Margaret Douglas in the Tower (Marshall, p. 116); she stayed there until Darnley was killed (Marshall, p. 117).
Darnley may have had a good bloodline on paper, and been handsome, but as an individual he was not impressive: "Darnley... was of little use [during the rebellions against Mary's rule]. Indolent and dissolute, he was rarely to be found when there was business to be done or advice to be offered. Hunting and carousing took up most of his time. Affairs of state were very low on his list of priorities. He remained sensitive to his privileges and neglectful of his responsibilities" (Hamilton, p. 51). He had good training, in English, Scots, French, and perhaps Latin (Stedall-Darnley, p. 30), and had some classical learning, but this gave him merely "superficial polish and moral vacuity" (Stedall-Darnley, p. 31. I can't help but wonder if some of this came from his tutor John Elder, who was knowledgeable but also a very much a kiss-up out to feather his own nest, as shown by Bingham, pp. 57-58, who compares Elder to the Vicar of Bray). He was excellent at the sorts of sports an earl was expected to play. He danced well, and sang and played the lute with skill -- he reportedly had inherited the lutes of Edward VI (Stedall-Darnley, p. 31). And, from the standpoint of the English succession, he had been born on English soil, whereas Mary Stewart was born in Scotland.
"Beneath his outward gloss, Darnley was growing into an objectionable and self-opinionated dolt. Despite his careful education, he lacked common sense. Unable to hold his tongue, he revealed everything he was told to his friends and servants.... He was arrogant, idle and, when thwarted, could be petulant and uncouth with a violent temper. He was tactless and failed to keep his word" (Stedall-Darnley, p. 30). "The character of Darnley was like a tinderbox, on which it was all too easy for the disaffected nobles to strike a flame" (Fraser, p. 246).
He also was said to have been an extremely heavy drinker (Hamilton, p. 58). Just the sort of guy, e.g., to have an affair with a pretty girl of lower status....
To be sure, Stedall-Darnley, p. 32, calls him "openly homosexual." But no one else says that; Marshall, p. 115, mentions a rumor that eventually arose that he was bisexual, bit that's not the same thing at all! Hamilton, p. 75, calls him "promiscuous." It is likely that one of the various diseases he suffered was syphilis (there is supporting evidence from some marks on what is believe to be his skull; Hamilton, p. 75. Plus we know he was treated with mercury salts; Stedall-Maitland, p. 123. Stedall-Maitland, p. 79, sees signs of syphillis in a bout of illness Darnley suffered before he married Mary, though Morrison, p. 100, suggests measles; the latter was apparently the diagnosis at the time. Bingham, p. 101, thinks Darnley perhaps contracted the disease while in France, and p. 168 suggests that it was what he was suffering just before he was murdered).
Stedall-Darnley's claim of homosexuality is probably based on the fact that Darnley once slept in David Riccio's bed (Stedall-Maitland, p. 77) -- but that's hardly proof. He had to have gotten syphillis somewhere.... Stedall-Maitland, p. 97, also claims he visited "male brothels in Edinburgh" -- but offers no footnotes, and just how many male brothels did he think a town with a population of perhaps 12,000 could support?
Morrison, p. 101, declares, "Her betrothal to Darnley was the first irrevocable mistake Mary made, but the tragedy for her was it would not have been a mistake had Darnley been anything of a man."
THE MARRIAGE OF MARY STEWART AND LORD DARNLEY -- AND AFTER
It was a whirlwind relationship between the 22-year-old queen and her cousin, who was about three years younger. Darnley was born in England, but came to Scotland and met Mary in February 1565, and Mary quickly became infatuated -- she even cared for him during his sickness, and it seemed to cause her to become even more fond of him (Stedall-Darnley, p. 95; Fraser, pp. 224-225) -- even though Queen Elizabeth's disapproval meant that the marriage would threaten Mary's hopes of becoming Queen of England (Stedall-Maitland, pp. 80-81). On May 15, 1565, Darnley was made Earl of Ross, clearly showing that something was in the wind (Hamilton, p. 35) -- though some think he resented not being given an even higher title. In July, he was made Duke of Albany (a title usually held within the royal family) and on July 29 the two were married (Hamilton, pp. 35-37), well before the required dispensation actually arrived (Stedall-Darnley, p. 102).
For the wedding, George Buchanan (one of Scotland's most learned men, though he later became Mary's enemy) wrote a masque "in which the maiden goddess Diana complained... that one of her bright band of Maries had been stolen from her by the powers of love and marriage" (Bingham, p. 109); obviously the reference is to the Four Maries plus the Queen.
Darnley stood high on the English succession, but his place in the Scottish succession was, at least arguably, lower. There was no inherent reason to grant him the title of King Consort. But Mary did so anyway -- and did so without confirming it with parliament, which perhaps caused some anger (Hamilton, p. 37). Certainly it didn't make Elizabeth happy. But after more than twenty years, Scotland had a King again.
"The day before the ceremony, three heralds... proclaimed the bridegroom Henry Stewart, Earl of Ross and Duke of Albany, King of Scots.... [N]o one stirred in the waiting throng assembled round the Market Cross. Then one man, his hand upraised, called out loudly, 'God save his Grace!' It was the Earl of Lennox" (Morrison, p. 101; compare Stedall-Darnley, p. 104. Recall that Lennox was Darnley's father).
Interestingly, Mary did not grant Darnley the full Crown Matrimonial, meaning that he would lose the title of King should Mary die before him (Hamilton, p. 55 -- though, given the state of Scottish politics, that was probably just smart, since it would keep people from murdering her to make Darnley king. Some of the conspiracies around her had that very end in mind. Mary would later insist that only parliament could grant the Crown Matrimonial).
It quickly became a very unhappy match, so Darnley would almost certainly have engaged in extracurricular activities. (He had to get syphilis somewhere!) There is a report that he got a lady of the court pregnant (Stedall-Darnley, p. 116).
Ring, p. 206, wonders why no one realized how worthless he was before he married Mary. She makes the interesting point that syphillis can cause personality changes, and of course he can't have had it long. Also, his father Lennox was said to suffer from melancholia (Ring, p. 230), i.e. depression (and Bingham, p. 78, mentions "rages," which are often a sign of depression -- though he was being held in solitary confinement at the time, which can lead to all sorts of things). Could Darnley (or Lennox) perhaps have had something like bipolar II disorder, and his ill behavior have been the result of hypomania? Finally, his mother was still in England, imprisoned by Elizabeth; perhaps he didn't know how to behave in her absence. Ring also suggests that Lennox, Darnley's father, was regarded as henpecked because he thought his wife was worth listening to; perhaps Darnley didn't want that reputation. Whatever the explanation, he wanted to exercise power without being willing to do the work that came with the job.
In any case, it is clear that Darnley and the Queen stopped sleeping together -- something alluded to in "Earl Bothwell" [Child 174].
Darnley's refusal to take responsibility for governing forced Mary to rely on other men -- often lowborn men, since they were less likely to work against her. One of these was the infamous David Riccio/Rizzio who entered her household as a singer but ended up a secretary and confidant (Hamilton, pp. 53-55). Rumors that he was Mary's lover seem most unlikely, given that he was apparently a hunchback (Hamilton, p. 53, though Bingham, p. 123, thinks this may just have been propaganda about him). Mary was about six months pregnant when Darnley and others murdered him (Hamilton, pp. 58-59: Stedall-Maitland, p. 100, says that Mary Fleming's wooer Maitland put the plan in motion, but admits (pp. 100, 104) that Maitland was not present, that he did not sign the "bond" among the conspirators, and that the only evidence against him came from Darnley (who was about as unreliable as a witness could be). Fraser, p. 254, claims that Earls Huntley and Bothwell, and Lords Fleming and Livingston, were also supposed to be killed, and it seems unlikely that Maitland would have dared go after his wife's family. Most sources seem to agree that the final decision to murder Riccio in Mary's presence was made by Darnley himself. Stedall-Maitland, p. 101, suggests that Darnley wanted Mary to miscarry and die so he could seize the throne; Bingham, pp. 132-133, seems to be of the opinion that Darnley wanted the Crown Matrimonial so that he could be rid of Mary and reign on his own and have his children by other spouses succeed him.
What followed Riccio's murder was, perhaps, the most effective Mary Stewart ever was in her life. The conspirators were trying to seize power, but she manipulated Darnley, without doubt one of the weakest points in the scheme, into coming over to her side, thus allowing her to escape the trap and turn on the conspirators. Mary remained in power, and bore the future James VI about three months later (Hamilton, pp. 63-68), on June 19, 1566, after a very difficult labor (Stedall-Darnley, p. 150). She asked Elizabeth of England to be a godmother (Stedall-Darnley, p. 151).
Darnley had become "a nuisance and an embarrassment," however (Hamilton, p. 70). The King and Queen started avoiding each other. Even Mary Stewart was open to a divorce or annulment if it wouldn't affect the legitimacy of her son (Magnusson, p. 356; Stedall-Maitland, p. 117). As Bingham, p. 163, Darnley's "life was in ruins, for which he had only himself to blame, a fact which apparently he would not face." He left Edinburgh for his father's lands in the west.
In 1566, Mary suffered an illness so severe that there was fear she would die (Hamilton, p. 71). (Mary had many illnesses in her life; by the time she died, her joints were so stiff that she could not walk unaided and could barely write, even though she was only in her forties. But the symptom that recurred most often was a pain in her side, which some suspect was a duodenal ulcer, according to Marshall, p. 177. After her confinement in England, however, she had so many different symptoms, according to Fraser, p. 443, that I think there must have been more than that. The suggestion of kidney disease seems not unlikely, though that probably wouldn't explain the pains in her arm. I wonder, too, about environmental contamination at one or another of her prisons. Macalpine/Hunter, pp. 201-214, suggested porphyria, which passed through Mary all the way down to George III and beyond, but recent studies have cast extraordinary doubts on the idea that George III had porphyria, and that probably means Mary didn't either. All these physical symptoms are apart from the wild emotional swings she clearly suffered as well. Might she have contracted Darnley's syphilis? The severity and symptoms of syphilis vary greatly.)
Mary survived, but then it was Darnley's turn to get sick, probably with syphilis (Bingham, p. 171), though other diseases were suggested at the time. (The Earl of Bothwell used the French name for syphilis, roniole, of the condition; Bingham, p. 172 -- but he was surely a biased witness!). As Darnley was recovering, Mary relented a bit and started negotiating his return to Edinburgh. He still wasn't well, so the idea was to take him somewhere where he could finish his recovery. He eventually agreed to go to Kirk o' Field, a modest residence not far from Holyrood (Hamilton, p. 76). It was the last house he would ever occupy.
What happened next is peculiar. Darnley ended up dead, but who murdered him and how? What is certain is that, on the night of February 9/10, 1867, Kirk o' Field blew up. The explosion was definitely deliberate. Darnley's body, and the body of his valet, were found at some distance from the exploded building, showing no signs of having been in the explosion (Hamilton, pp. 78-79). So either they were blown there by the explosion (despite the fact that it left no traces on their bodies), or they were killed (probably by suffocation) before the explosion and their bodies left outside, or they fled the explosion and were killed as they fled.
The third possibility seems by far the most likely. It is almost universally accepted that they were strangled. Bingham, p. 183, and most others think they escaped the building just before it blew up, and no one was willing to risk going inside the building to deposit the bodies, given that the explosion was expected at any moment, so the conspirators strangled them and fled.
Who was responsible? We don't know. Hamilton, pp. 77-80, thinks that James Hepburn, fourth Earl Bothwell, was the one who set the mine, but that James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton also had assassins on the spot (Morton, who had spent time in English exile, became regent for most of the period 1572-1580 but arrested in the latter year and executed 1581 -- a curious candidate to murder Darnley, since Darnley's mother Margaret Douglas was his first cousin and had released her claim to the Earldom of Morton to let him take the title; Hamilton, pp. 145-147). Willson, p. 18, declares, "That Bothwell was the murderer no one can doubt; and that Mary was his accomplice seems equally certain." Fraser, p. 295, says that Mary almost certainly didn't know though she wished to be free of Darnley. Stedall-Maitland, p. 136, declares that the idea was Secretary of State Maitland's, with Earl Bothwell, Morton; Sir James Balfour (a sort of government lawyer, active in promulgating laws but also considered corrupt; died 1583), and Archibald Douglas (of Whittinghame) responsible for details -- but the only evidence I can see for this is his own fixed ideas. The cleric responsible for Mary's funeral oration implicated her (Bingham, p. 197), but he was responsible for justifying her execution, so I don't think that means much.
Drummond, whose rate of inaccuracies makes the average politician seem like a paragon of truth, thinks there was a vast conspiracy to murder Darnley, Mary, her half-brother Moray, her later husband Bothwell, and the Earl of Morton -- which doesn't leave much of anyone to actually do the murders! Wormald thinks Mary beneath contempt, but although she is convinced Mary knew, she admits on p. 10 that she doesn't have proof. Bingham, p. 163, considers Mary's behavior to be analogous to Henry II asking who would rid him of this pestilent priest: She didn't know what would happen, but wouldn't mind a convenient death.
Two people who were initially convinced that Mary was at least partly responsible were Margaret Douglas and her husband the Earl of Lennox ; they commissioned a painting to remind James VI of the murder of his father -- but Elizabeth kept a tight leash on the Lennoxes, not letting them do much else (Marshall, pp. 118-119). Interestingly, Margaret Douglas came around and even became friends with Mary.
There is no last word on the subject. Magnusson, p. 357, declares the murder still unsolved, and given that almost everyone hated Darnley, I have to agree -- there are too many suspects. The one thing that seems pretty clear is that Bothwell had been involved. (This is the subject, more or less, of "Earl Bothwell" [Child 174], but that song is very inaccurate.) Mary's guilt or innocence is less clear, but I incline to think she did not know.
It is interesting to note that, when Mary and Bothwell were overthrown, the lords who had taken charge initially blamed Bothwell alone for the murder, but later accused Mary as well -- not because the evidence changed by because their political needs changed (Fraser, pp. 351-352).
"The life of Darnley was brief and tempestuous, and he died unloved and unlamented by anyone except his parents.... He passed so rapidly from promising boyhood to dissolute youth and thence to criminal manhood that it was easy to forget the attractive and accomplished impression he had fleetingly given" (Bingham, p. 199). Darnley was (roughly) 21 years old when he died, and had been King for a year and seven months (Hamilton, pp. 80-81).
AFTER DARNLEY'S DEATH
Mary seems to have been profoundly shocked by the catastrophe (evidence, probably, that she wasn't personally involved); it drove her into a fit of depression, or something like it. She did very little to investigate the crime, which fueled the speculation that she was involved (Stedall-Maitland, p. 150; Fraser, p. 310). Stedall thinks that she felt she would be in danger if she investigated -- but she apparently already felt the conspirators were after her, so this makes little sense. The Privy Council was also passive about investigating -- after all, many of them had been responsible (Stedall-Darnley, p. 220).
The result of this was heavy anti-Mary propaganda (for an example, see the entry for "King Henry's Murder," which calls her "Delilah" and "Clytemnestra").
As a result, she made what Hamilton, p. 83, and most other writers, considers the worst mistake of her entire career. ("Mary allowed a temporary embarrassment to become an intolerable reproach"; Wormald, p. 177.) Although there was significant evidence that the Earl of Bothwell had been involved in the murder of Darnley, and public sentiment was against him, she showed him steady favor (Hamilton, p. 84; Fraser, pp. 310-311), perhaps because he was a loyal man who was always decisive.
Lennox, Darnley's father, tried to have Bothwell prosecuted (Hamilton, pp. 84-85). He was met by Bothwell's army, so that he could not be present to prosecute the case. (Drummond, pp. 127-129, thinks that Moray and Morton put Lennox up to it, but this is absurd; if Lennox had had their support, he would have been able to go to trial!) There being no accuser present, the Privy Council, which included Bothwell, declared Bothwell innocent after a kangaroo trial on April 12 (Hamilton, p. 85; Magnusson, p. 358). A week later, Bothwell was able to get a number of lords to support his attempt to become King (Magnusson, p. 359).
Exactly what happened next is hard to understand. By all accounts, Bothwell brought a strong force and intercepted Mary as she was traveling to visit her baby, and demanded that she go with him (Fraser, pp. 314-315). It looked like an abduction, but many thought Mary went voluntarily. And, having abducted her, it appears Bothwell slept with her -- but whether it was by force or by her choice is again an open question; it was disputed even at the time (Fraser, pp. 316-317. Sir James Melville said it was rape -- Marshall, p. 131 -- but he was a known liar and a prejudiced witness). What seems certain is that he quickly got her pregnant. (Based on Fraser, p. 343, it appears Mary claimed the conception date was around June 1, but Fraser thinks it might have been on April 24, when Bothwell had abducted her.)
Soon after, on May 15, Mary married Bothwell (Magnuson, p. 359) -- this even though Darnley's body was barely cold and Bothwell, who was Protestant, was already married. But he managed to get an annulment from a Catholic (Hamilton, p. 86), so the marriage could go ahead. Some have thought Mary was forced to wed him (some of Mary's later comments gave this impression; Magnusson, p. 360), but most historians think she showed him too many signs of affection for this to be likely. (I do wonder, given her passivity at the time, if perhaps she was depressed and simply going along with outside suggestions rather than thinking on her own. Fraser, p. 343, thinks she suspected she was pregnant -- but she patently could not have been sure if the rape took place April 24 and the marriage announced on May 8 and conducted on May 15!) She made Bothwell Duke of Orkney, and married him in a Protestant-style ceremony (Hamilton, pp. 86-87). There was almost no celebration, and the audience was small, though the Four Maries were among them (Stedall-Darnley, p. 252).
(Note the ironic implication here: only one of the five Maries got pregnant out of wedlock, and it was Mary Stewart herself. And the baby ended up dead, although it was a miscarriage rather than infanticide. And the father was "the king himself" -- or, at least, the man who would have been King Consort if the rest of Scotland had gone along with the marriage.)
The hasty marriage to the man most obviously linked to Darnley's murder turned all of Scotland against Mary. "Suspicion of complicity in the murder of the appalling Darnley was something that she could have lived down. Had she acted with resolution and independence after the event, all might have been well. But she married Bothwell. From that moment, everyone firmly believed that she and her lover had murdered her husband. With that, her cause was lost" (Hamilton, p. 88).
Most of the lords gathered an army and marched against Mary and Bothwell (this even though quite a few had earlier encouraged her to marry him; Hamilton, p. 97). After Bothwell and Mary had various escapedes, including Mary escaping a castle disguised as a man, the two armies met at Carberry Hill, about six miles east of Edinburgh (Hamilton, p. 89). Mary's army was ill-equipped and hungry, and had no senior leaders except Bothwell. The lords basically said, "It's him or us," and Mary would not initially abandon Bothwell. But her army started to slip away, and expected reinforcements from the Hamiltons and Gordons were too far away to reach the field in time (Hamilton, p. 90). After some negotiations, Bothwell fled and Mary was taken into custody by her own lords (Fraser, pp. 330-331; Morrison, pp. 184-186),
The original idea may have been to separate her from Bothwell and then let her resume her reign -- that, at least, was what was promised in the negotiations at Carberry. Some of her opponents seem to have tried to carry out those terms, but the majority broke the agreement and put her in confinement (Morrison, pp. 193-195; Hamilton, pp. 91-93). When she was taken to Edinburgh, many jeered her (Morrison, p. 194). For a time, she was reunited with Mary Seton and Mary Livingston Sempill (Stedall-Maitland, p. 182), but was watched very closely. Soon, to make sure she didn't escape, she was kept closely confined in the island of Lochleven (Hamilton, p. 93), where her half-brother Moray, back from England, took charge of her (and the whole country, as regent) and threatened her with overthrow and death (Hamilton, p. 97). Yet she still refused to divorce Bothwell (Morrison, pp. 196-197).
It was in this captivity, around the third week of July, that she miscarried twins (Hamilton, p. 94). This raises the question of when they were conceived and who was the father. Almost everyone thinks she was pregnant by Bothwell, not Darnley (Fraser, p. 330), and some even think she had gotten pregnant by Bothwell while Darnley was still alive (Hamilton, p. 86; Stedall-Maitland, p. 187, thinks the children were conceived around the beginning of June, but the evidence for that is not convincing). The pregnancy probably explains why she couldn't drop Bothwell; it would affect the child's legitimacy (Stedall-Maitland, p. 171; Fraser, p. 330).
There seem to have been a lot of attempts to blacken Bothwell's reputation, e.g. a claim that he was homosexual (Fraser, p. 318; recall that this was a very grave charge at the time), but it was hardly necessary; he'd done plenty all on his own to make enemies.
Since everyone agreed that Mary could not be allowed to reign with Bothwell, she was deposed (Morrison, p. 197). Formally, she signed the documents to abdicate in favor of her son (July 24), but Hamilton, p. 95, thinks that, first, she did it while still weak and depressed from her miscarriage, and second, that she had been advised that a forced abdication was not valid; Hamilton also suggests that she never read the articles.
She was not yet 25.
That wasn't the end. Helped by two of her captors, George Douglas (who seems to have been enamored of her) and his orphaned cousin Willie Douglas, she escaped from Lochleven on May 2, 1568 (Morrison, pp. 202-203; Hamilton, pp. 98-99; Stedall-Maitland, pp. 194-196).
There seem to have been several songs about Mary's time in Lochleven ("Mary Queen of Scots' Lament in the Castle of Lochleven," Roud #V36876, and "Queen Mary's Escape From Lochleven Castle," Roud #V14110, DT ARRANBOT), but I see no sign that either was ever traditional.
Had Mary been more patient, she might have had a chance to regain her throne. But Scotland's politics were still complicated: since the Lennox/Darnley faction was anti-Mary, that made the Hamilton faction pro-Mary -- and they wanted to fight as soon as possible and on their own land. They weren't ready. Just as at Carberry Hill, the two sides gathered their armies, but the fighting, at Langside, was almost a fizzle; the anti-Mary forces (led by none other than her half-brother Moray) had almost no casualties (Morrison, pp. 209-210). The Hamiltons collapsed (Hamilton, p. 99), and Mary again had a choice: Leave the field, find a safe stronghold, and wait for more forces to assemble (and perhaps get help from France) -- or flee?
For once, Mary's nerve failed her, and she fled -- not to a friendly stronghold in Scotland, and not to France where she could at least live as Queen Dowager, but south to England (Magnusson, pp. 348-363; Stedall-Maitland, p. 197, thinks she was still obsessed with the English throne and was unwilling to seek French help lest it alienate the English; according to Marshall, p. 176, everyone with her advised her against it). As Fraser, p. 367, says, "As decisions go, it was a brave one, a romantic one even, but under the circumstances it was certainly not a wise one." A year and a day after her marriage to Bothwell, she crossed the Solway Firth near Dundrennan, never again to be allowed to leave England (Morrison, pp. 214-215) -- never even to see the English queen on whom she had pinned all her hopes!
It was Elizabeth who settled this; she organized a sort of a summit at York where the various Scottish parties presented their case for what should be done about Mary. This was very unfair to Mary, who was not even allowed to be present, and couldn't even be in close contact with her representatives after the trial was moved to Westminster (Fraser, pp. 386-389). But of course the object of Tudor justice was not justice but rather making the monarchy stronger by stomping down everything that might develop into a threat. Elizabeth not only settled on the status quo (i.e. the infant James VI as king of Scotland with his half-uncle Moray as regent) but she gave financial aid to Moray while keeping Mary confined (Hamilton, pp. 100-101). When Moray was assassinated in 1570 (shot from ambush by a Hamilton supporter; Magnusson, p. 372), there was brief talk of restoring Mary (Hamilton, p. 102), but the Scots would not agree with Elizabeth's conditions -- for one thing, Lennox (after an anarchic six months when no one ran the country) was made regent, and why should Lennox want his daughter-in-law as Queen when he could rule for himself in the name of his grandson? But in 1571, Lennox had John Hamilton, Archbishop of St. Andrews, executed for his part in Darnley's murder; the Hamiltons responded by assassinating Lennox (Hamilton, p. 104, though Magnusson, pp. 373-274, seems to blame a different group of Marian partisans. The five-year-old James VI was there as his grandfather was dying, and said he remembered the sight all his life; Stewart, p. 16. It was probably the only memory he had of any member of his family; both his maternal grandparents were dead before he was born; his father was dead before he was a year old; his mother was imprisoned by then and never met him again; and his paternal grandmother was under guard in England. Lennox was the only one of his ancestors he saw after his first birthday). The Earl of Morton, who eventually became regent after that, was in turn executed in 1580 (Hamilton, p. 105). One could imagine several times when Mary might have made a comeback -- but Elizabeth never turned her loose.
It was a very successful trick, for Elizabeth: she had Moray over a barrel. He had the power he craved, but she could cause his overthrow at any time -- so although she had to pay him a subsidy, she didn't have to worry about Scotland. When Moray was assassinated, Lennox got the job, but Lennox couldn't cross Elizabeth either, because Elizabeth was holding Margaret Douglas (Stedall-Maitland, pp. 270-271).
Mary at first had a large circle of more than 130 people around her, but after Elizabeth and Cecil decided to keep her under their fist, they kept cutting her entourage, until it was down to a mere 16 in the early 1570s (Marshall, pp. 181-182). She shouldn't have been a burden on the English crown -- as dowager queen of France, she should have had income from her estates there -- but the French paid less than what she was due, and that slowly (Fraser, pp. 470-471), so her finances were always a problem.
For years, plots swirled around Mary (usually involving her replacing Elizabeth rather than returning to Scotland), and they inspired other ballads, or at least pieces that ended up in the Percy Folio (e.g. "The Rising in the North" [Child 175] and "Northumberland Betrayed by Douglas" [Child 176]). Some plotters managed to contact her; some went ahead on their own. Mary for years was not deeply involved, but the plots were constant, and the English government didn't like it. They put her in ever-tighter confinement, and warned her that any attempts to free her would be held against her even if she was not personally involved. The Duke of Norfolk was executed in 1572 for maneuvering a revolt (Magnusson, p. 375); apparently he had wanted to marry Mary, and Secretary Maitland had also pushed the idea (Stedall-Maitland, p. 224).
Eventually the English set out to trap Mary, and she put her trust in a not-very-secure cipher, expressing a desire to replace Elizabeth, or at least escape, and it cost her her head. Mary had not been part of some of the anti-Elizabeth plots, but she gave her assent to this one, or at least did not reject it (Fraser, pp. 490-491, thinks that after almost two decades of imprisonment, she would have done almost anything just to be free, whether as queen or not) -- and it was a set-up by Elizabeth's spies. Mary was charged with conspiring against Elizabeth I, tried by a kangaroo court, convicted, and after a long delay during which Elizabeth hesitated to sign the death warrant, was executed on February 8, 1587 (Hamilton, pp. 106-107). She had been given only one night's notice of her execution, and was subjected to many petty brutalities as she went to the block (Fraser, pp. 530-540), including being denied Catholic rites. Anyone who thinks Elizabethan England was civilized would be well advised to read the accounts.
Not every writer mentions the cryptographic evidence against her -- e.g. Morrison, pp. 238-247, points out that she was given an unfair trial without anyone to defend her and without a proper jury, but fails to point out that they had her dead to rights. Given how strong the evidence was against her, they could have afforded a fair trial! -- but Tudor England was a police state, and the rule of law had (temporarily) died with Richard III at Bosworth.
Mary's desire to be buried in France was not granted; her body remained in England, and was eventually given a fine tomb by James VI and I. Keeping her body in a Protestant nation was probably smart; given the accounts that leaked out of her piety and dignity at her martyrdom (Fraser, pp. 536-545), I suspect that miracles would have been reported at her grave had her tomb been in a Catholic country. But, despite her piety, she was certainly no saint, even though she was far more sinned against than sinning.
Tragic as were her captive years, they are irrelevant for our purposes; after 1568, Mary was not a queen, or, at best, a queen without a court (and her Four Maries were scattered, never to reunite, though all seem to have outlived her). By 1585 or so, it was irrelevant anyway; her son James, who was gradually taking up the reigns of personal rule, was Protestant, and not interested in converting; had his mother been freed -- even had she replaced Elizabeth -- England would have returned to the Protestant fold when James succeeded.
Bothwell kept his freedom a bit longer than his wife, but not much; he fled to the Orkneys, then to Europe. There he found himself in the hands of a mistress he had betrayed (Drummond, p. 43, thinks he might actually have married her for her dowry) and ended up in prison in Denmark (Fraser, p. 351); "He died, broken and insane in Dragsholm Castle in 1578, still the lawful husband of Mary" (Hamilton, p. 100), despite quixotic attempts (with Mary's approval) to get the marriage annulled. Drummond, pp. 163-164, speculates that the insanity resulted from brain damage suffered in all the fighting he did, but I wonder if the descriptions of Bothwell's condition are detailed enough for us even to be able to guess.
Mary was, obviously, dealt a dreadful hand in life. Possibly she would have been overthrown even had she played it better. But I can't help but think that she played it very badly. One can perhaps forgive her for refusing to become a Protestant (especially when the key example of Protestantism was the appalling John Knox). But her abrupt marriage to Darnley, and her even more abrupt marriage to Bothwell, and her refusal to simply rest quietly and hope to succeed Elizabeth when her turn came, were all severe mistakes. Everything she did was based on the desire to gain the English throne rather than a willingness to be content with Scotland and see what came in the future. And all seem to have arisen from a deep emotional neediness. Perhaps losing her father so early, and being separated from her mother when she was so young, and then seeing her beloved Princess Elizabeth (the French one, not the English one) married away hurt her more than any of us realize. Fraser, p. 125, also thinks she had a "gambling streak" and a desire for unfamiliar things -- almost a wanderlust. I have to think that, were she alive today, she would have been diagnosed with a psychological disorder, though we can only speculate as to which one. (Wormald, p. 9, declares her simply "hysteric" -- which is no diagnosis, by modern standards, though it suggests testing for Borderline and Histrionic Personality Disorders [the latter also likely to be scrapped]. These were my own thoughts in thinking about Mary's troubles -- but I would not go so far as to state any diagnosis confidently. All we know is that Mary had executive function difficulties. Those occur in many conditions. It's perhaps worth noting that her son James VI walked with a very unsteady gate and had trouble holding himself steady if he was not moving -- Stewart, p. 75 -- hinting at a neurological problem with his balance system. This might stem from early environmental factors, but there is a significant chance it was genetic.)
All of which says that if this song is truly set in the reign of Mary, it must be in the period 1542-1568, and if it is during Mary's time in Scotland it is 1560-1568, and if Darnley was in fact the father of Mary Hamilton's baby it must be between 1565, when Mary married Darnley (Keay/Keay, p. 683) and his murder in 1567. Furthermore, if Darnley was involved in the Mary Hamilton story, he would have had to get her pregnant no later than 1566 if he was to see her on the scaffold. Indeed, given his illness, odds are that he would have had to get her pregnant in late 1565.
THE LIVES OF THE FOUR MARIES
"Mary's departure to France also marks the first appearance in her story of those romantic concomitants of her adventures, the four Maries. A train of noblemen's sons and daughters, about Mary's age, were taken with her to France, it having been long traditional for young men of good family to be sent to France for a sort of chivalrous education. The four Maries, in Leslie's words, were considered 'special,' not only because they all bore the queen's christian name, but because they came from four notably honorable houses. Thus Mary Fleming, Mary Seton, Mary Beaton and Mary Livingstone are introduced into Mary Stuart's history" (Fraser, p. 32).
"Athough their public lives all began at the same point on a galley sailing to France in 1548, they ended at points far from each other, and in all but one case, far from the queen they were appointed to serve" (Fraser, p. 33).
The "Four Maries" were chosen to be companions to Mary Stewart when she went to France, and they were to stay there the entire time, and iafter the return to Scotland they were probably her closest friends -- although Morrison, p. 30, says that Queen Mary's "boon companion" in France was Elisabeth/Ysabel, the sister of the Dauphin of France whom Mary was destined to marry. The two were raised together, as if sisters, in the royal household, while the Four Maries were more separate. All of them, though, "learnt to make poetry, to play the harp, the lute, zithern and virginals, to knit in wools and silks, and what she [i.e. Mary Stewart] loved most, to embroider. Instead of the old-fashioned Gothic handwriting, she was taught the new Italian mode -- the handwriting that was to be so easy to forge" (Morrison, p. 32; the forging of Italian handwriting was significant because, in later years, Mary would exchange correspondence against Elizabeth with an English spy who forged the documents).
It is ironic to note that, in a certain sense, there were six "Maries"; according to Marshall, p. 50, Mary Stewart actually had eight maids of honor in total during her French years -- six Scottish, two French, and the two French maids were both named Marie. So the young Queen had six Scottish maids, and six maids named Mary/Marie. It's just that only four met both conditions -- and, as it turned out, those four came to be the closest to her anyway. (The other two Scottish girls were a Hamilton, probably Lady Barbara Hamilton, and Anne or Agnes Fleming, one of Mary Fleming's sisters; Marshall, p. 66. Thus there actually was a Hamilton among the Queen's ladies of the household; it's just that she wasn't one of the Maries. Although, as Marshall, p. 141, reminds us, serving girls were sometimes called "Marie" as a generic title, as later they were called "Mary Ann" in England. Thus, in fact, Mary Stewart had a Marie named Hamilton, just not a Marie named Mary Hamilton! Also, while in England, Mary Stewart had a servant "Marie Hanet" -- Marshall, p. 184 -- which a Scot might well hear as "Mary Hamilton," though Marie Hanet's name was without stain that I know of.)
The Maries' religious indoctrination seems to have been intense -- Mary of Guise had ordered that her daughter hear Mass every day (Morrison, p. 33).
Considering how much they did together after their return to Scotland, it is clear that the five Maries were genuine friends, not just five girls shoved together. And, when Mary Stewart had trouble, most of them showed conspicuous loyalty to the Queen. Indeed, Stedall-Maitland, p. 223, lists their four families closest to her after her overthrow; Lord Seton in fact had to abandon everything and flee from Scotland.
By 1563, Mary Stewart had lost so many friends and relatives since her return to Scotland that she "was destitute of confidantes except for her four Maries... who knew Scotland no better than she did" (Stedall-Maitland, p. 64), which may explain some of her mis-steps in this period. They remained close to her into the 1560s; supposedly they all said they would not marry until the Queen herself took a second husband (Morrison, p. 98), though in fact Mary Livingston married first (Fraser, p. 189). And they often did things as a group, sometimes in rather "naughty" ways, e.g. dressing as men at a dinner for the French ambassador, or going shopping while dressed as common people, or even pretending to be beggars (Stedall-Darnley, p. 59). The four offered oblations at Mary Stewart's wedding to Darnley (Stedall-Darnley, p. 103, although Fraser, p. 229, claims "Even the Maries were said to be against the match"), and were among the handful of witnesses when the Queen married Bothwell (Stedall-Maitland, p. 165).
All of them received gifts from Queen Mary in the will she made before the birth of her son James; several members of their families were also mentioned (Stedall-Darnley, p. 150).
All of them were from families who helped Mary govern -- e.g., according to Stedall-Darnley, p. 146, after the murder of Riccio, her Privy Council "consisted of Bothwell, Huntley, Atholl, Seton Livingston, and Fleming." The first three were dukes and earls; the later three were (1) George Seton, the fifth Baron Seton, Mary Seton's brother, who helped Queen Mary escape to England at the end of her reign (Hamilton, pp. 217, 233-235); (2) William Livingston, the sixth Baron Livingston, brother of Mary Livingston (Hamilton, pp. 211-212); and (3) John Fleming, the fifth Baron Fleming, Mary Fleming's brother, who was also with Mary as she fled after Lochlevel and was sent to London to represent her to Elizabeth; he was fatally wounded in 1572 during the last-ditch attempt to hold Edinburgh Castle for Mary (Hamilton, pp. 159-161). There were no Beatons on the Privy Council, but one of Mary Beaton's cousins, James Beaton, was archbishop of Glasgow at this time.
** Mary Beaton was the daughter of Robert Beaton of Creich, and a relative of the Cardinal David Beaton who was one of the great leaders of Scotland at this time but who would end up being murdered in 1546 during Scotland's religious strife (Hamilton, p. 216). Marshall, p. 144, calls her the "studious one," noting on p. 146 that the Queen in one of her wills left Beaton half of her Greek and Latin books. Her father had been one of the men who went to France with the five Maries and was Master of the Household for Mary Stewart at the time of Riccio's murder (Stedall-Darnley, p. 130). Morrison, p. 63, says she was "the prettiest" of the Maries, although the painting, said to be of her, which follows p. 64 looks very unattractive to me. She certainly had a long list of men interested in her. Supposedly Thomas Randolph, the English ambassador to Scotland, was "enamoured" of her (Stedall-Maitland, p. 74; Morrison, p. 98), even though he was about seventeen years older than she (Stedall-Darnley, p. 94). Nothing came of that; eventually, with the encouragement of the Queen, Mary Beaton married Alexander Ogilvy of Boyne (Stedall-Maitland, p. 92), who fought for Queen Mary in 1568 and 1571, being taken prisoner on the first occasion but obviously surviving. Mary Beaton must have been dead by 1599, because Alexander re-married in that year (Hamilton, p. 216; Marshall, p. 147, says that she died in 1597 but that she "disappears from the records after 1568"). According to Stedall-Maitland, pp. 92, 247; Fraser. p. 248, Ogilvy's earlier marriage was to Jean Gordon, who had earlier been married briefly to Bothwell and then to Alexander, the 12th Earl of Sunderland. It must have been quite a reunion; Ogilvy and Gordonhad been sweethearts all the way back in 1567 before Mary Stewart pushed the marriage of Jean Gordon and Bothwell.
That has to be one of the most complicated love hexagrams of all time: Mary Beaton was a servant of Mary Stewart; Jean Gordon loved Alexander Ogilvy; Bothwell loved mostly himself. To cement the crown's relationship with the Earl of Huntley, who was Jean Gordon's brother, Mary Stewart had Bothwell marry Gordon, which left Ogilvy at loose ends, so two months after Gordon married Bothwell, Ogilvy married Mary Beaton. Then Mary Stewart, having decided she wanted Bothwell herself (or whatever it was that happened), had Bothwell's marriage broken, so the Queen married Bothwell and Jean Gordon married Sunderland (who, according to Marshall, was still just 18, while Jean Gordon was 28). Finally, after Bothwell, Beaton, Stewart, and Sunderland were dead, Gordon and Ogilvy managed to marry. The only demonstrable love match in all that was the one between Gordon and Ogilvie, and while there may have been some happiness in the other pairings, we know that between Gordon and Bothwell was purely political.
As yet another strange note on this story, Janet Beaton, the aunt of Mary Beaton, was famous for having worked her way through five husbands in a long life -- and was reputed to have been sexually involved with the Earl of Bothwell for a time (Fraser, p. 263).
Another member of the family, Elizabeth Beaton, daughter of John Beaton of Creech, had an illegitimate daughter by James V, Lady Jean Stewart, who was born around 1533 but still became a friend of Mary Stewart's and briefly married the Earl of Argyll, though the marriage failed (Hamilton, p. 216; Marshall, pp. 90-93, 143).
Despite all these casual links to Queen Mary, it seems to me as if Mary Beaton was the one of the Four Maries who had the weakest connection to the Queen -- at least, she was the only one who seems never to have been active for the queen during or after the crises of 1566-1568. Indeed, she had some sort of dispute with the Queen over jewels after Mary was overthrown (Fraser, pp. 407-408). Which makes it somewhat ironic that she was still on Mary's payroll when the Queen was in English captivity, even though Beaton was in Scotland (Marshall, p. 183).
In a strange footnote, Fraser, p. 407, says that her handwriting was more similar to the Queen's than any of the other Maries, making her best equipped to produce forgeries of the Queen's handwriting.
** Mary Fleming was the daughter of the third Lord Fleming by Johanna Stewart, an illegitimate daughter of James IV. Her brother the fourth Lord was in Paris when he died in 1558; a younger brother became Fifth Lord and held Dumbarton Castle for Queen Mary 1569-1571; he ultimately was killed while fighting on her behalf (Stedall-Maitland, p. 237).
"All four little Maries were of noble birth, but Mary Fleming was considered the chief of them by reason of the royal blood which flowed in her veins, through her mother Lady Fleming" (Fraser, p. 32). "Mary Fleming always heads the list of Maries, for she was the cousin of Mary, Queen of Scots, being the fifth daughter of Lady Fleming, the queen's aunt and governess" (Marshall, p. 142).
Mary Fleming had other noteworthy relatives besides the various Lords Fleming; her sister Margaret became countess of Atholl (Hamilton, p. 216) as well as serving in Queen Mary's household for a time (Marshall, p.166). Her sister Agnes, as we saw above, was another of Mary Stewart's companions in France, who later became Lady Livingstone, and would also spend time with Queen Mary during her English captivity (Fraser, p. 181). Lord Fleming would have his property forfeited in 1570 by the regent Moray for Fleming's support of the Queen (Fraser, p. 380).
Morrison, p. 63, calls her "the brilliant Mary Fleming," without explanation. Fraser, p. 189, calls her "the belle of the quartet." Stedall-Maitland, p. 130, calls her "Mary [Stewart]'s closest confidant."
There is more about her that is potentially relevant to this song. Janet (or Jane, or Johanna) Stewart, Lady Fleming (died c. 1562), the mother of Mary Fleming, lost her husband at the Battle of Pinkie in 1547. Lady Fleming was part of the entourage of Mary Stewart when the young queen went to France; she was the queen's first governess while there. She was still attractive enough to gain the attention of none other than the French king Henry II, to whom she bore a son Henry, who came to be called the Bastard of Angôuleme (Fraser, p. 53; Marshall, pp. 42-43. That did cost her her job; Mary of Guise sent her back to Scotland in 1551 to bear the child; Marshall, p. 44). Queen Mary apparently became friends with Lady Fleming's son Henry, who was given various church offices and died in 1586 after a fight (Marshall, p. 45).
Mary Fleming, like her mother, was said to be very beautiful, and to have been quite close to the Queen. Fleming had, for a time, even slept in the Queen's bedroom, as a sort of guardian and chaperon, after a crazed French poet by the name of Pierre de Châtelard had broken into Mary Stewart's bedroom (Fraser, pp. 203-207. Châtelard was executed for his folly).
On January 6, 1567, she married William Maitland of Lethington (so Stedall-Maitland, p. 124, Fraser, p. 285; Hamilton, p. 217, gives the unlikely date of January 1568, though this is probably a typo since p. 214 says January 6, 1567; Magnusson, pp. 359-360 seems to imply a date around March 1567), a widower many years her senior. They had two children, James and Margaret (Marshall, p. 148).
It was an interesting marriage for one of the Maries, given that Maitland had been a Protestant for many years -- indeed, he had been a sort of a Protestant spy on Mary of Guise's privy council (Stedall-Maitland, pp. 10-11). Even contemporaries considered them an odd couple; Kircaldy of Grange, who in 1567 fought against Mary but would later fight for Mary at Maitland's side, said that Fleming was as suitable for Maitland "as I am to be Pope" (Marshall, p. 148). Yet the relationship seems to have worked, somehow.
After Maitland's death in 1573, Fleming married George Meldrum of Fyvie (Hamilton, p. 217). It is not known when this happened. Queen Mary in her captivity asked that Fleming join her in England in 1581, when Mary Seton retired from the entourage, but Fleming did not go, perhaps because of her re-marriage. Her date of death is not known but was probably around 1600 (Marshall, p. 149).
She had the most active career of any of the Maries -- e.g. in the 1560s she wrote a letter to Elizabeth I of England requesting the release of Earl Bothwell (Stedall-Maitland, p. 74). After the death of Darnley, she was the only one of the Maries that Bothwell allowed near Mary -- or, perhaps, Fleming was the only one willing to accompany her (Stedall-Maitland, p. 162), at least until Maitland and Bothwell quarreled.
We should probably give a biography of Maitland, since he was by far the most important of the Maries' husbands. Hamilton, p. 218, says he was 18 years older than Mary Fleming, and Marshall, p. 147, says "about eighteen years older"; Stedall-Maitland, p. 5, says Maitland was born around 1528, which would make the gap closer to 15 years. Wagner, p. 192, gives his birth date as c. 1528; Britannica says 1528; Hamilton, p. 212, 1525; Wikipedia 1525; clearly the exact date is unknown.) His father was a literary figure, Richard Maitland, who had arranged for William to be educated at St. Andrews and outside Scotland (Hamilton, p. 212); he had previously married Janet Menteith, by whom he had a daughter Marion (Hamilton, pp. 215-216; Marshall, p. 147).
Maitland was a fascinating character -- perhaps Mary Fleming liked intelligence. Morrison, p. 75, thinks his personality "nearer to us than many a man born centuries later." He was "Accomplished, with the subtlety of the courtier and the brilliance of the scholar" and "was cosmopolitan. He loved his native country of Scotland, but his patriotism had nothing provincial about it." At the time, though, "The dexterity with which he changed side won his the nickname of Chameleon, and his realistic politics rouse mistrust in the common people who called him Mitchell [Muckle? - RBW] Wylie, their corruption of Machiavelli." According to Fraser, p. 161, the name "Chameleon" came from George Buchanan, one of the great scholars of the age, who went through a few changes of heart of his own and ended up doing everything he could to insult the Marian regime. "Maitland was regarded by his contemporaries as having a finesse lacking in others, and an ability which made him 'subtle to draw out the secrets of every man's minds' as Buchanan put it. He was excellently educated and his correspondence is garnished with classical allusions and wit" (Fraser, p. 161).
Maitland had been part of the Scottish government for many years (including being made State Secretary in 1559; Hamilton, p. 212), and part of Mary Stewart's government, off and on, from the time of her return from France. He made serious attempts to reach accommodations with England (Hamilton, p. 213). in the wake of the Bothwell marriage, he had a row with Bothwell, and he and Mary Fleming left the court on June 6, 1567 -- a terrible blow to the Queen, since she lost both a close friend (Mary Fleming) and the smartest man in her government (Maitland).
Historically, Maitland had not always been a supporter of Queen Mary -- indeed, Stedall thinks he was at the heart of the conspiracy against Lord Darnley. (Though I find Stedall very unconvincing. Fraser, p. 226, calls him "The faithful Maitland," and Hamilton's capsule biography also seems to imply that, although he opposed some of Mary's policies, he never opposed her being queen. Hamilton, p. 215, says that he was accused of a part in Darnley's murder but seems to imply that the charge was false.) One thing he had done that Mary would have disliked: he had been Speaker of the parliament that had set aside the Catholic church, and one of the most important contributors to the Presbyterian confession of faith (Stedall-Maitland, p. 28).
"Regarded by both Protestants and Catholics as a traitor, Maitland was in fact a patriot, the well-being of Scotland being the most important matter in his life" (Hamilton, p. 215)
Whatever Maitland's real feelings about the Queen (my guess is that he was mostly loyal but had goals he wanted to achieve and found her stubborn plus a little foolish), Mary Fleming "had him twisted around her little finger" (Stedall-Maitland, p. xiii); even though Mary Stewart had planned to attaint him after the death of Riccio, he supported the Queen in the 1570s, after almost all others had abandoned her; not giving in until 1573, just days before his death. At that time, Kircaldy of Grange -- who had been against the Queen at Langside but then returned to the fold when he saw how she was treated -- was holding Edinburgh Castle for Mary. In 1571, Maitland, "his legs paralyzed, his body weak, and his head in need of support," joined the garrison (Stedall-Maitland, p. 233. No one seems to know what his condition was -- polio, perhaps?). They held out until the government prepared to batter the castle down, when they surrendered. Kircaldy was executed, as was his brother; Maitland, half-paralyzed and in great pain, died before they got to him (Morrison, p. 227; Magnusson, p. 375, wonders about poison or suicide; Stedall-Maitland, p. 238 says that it was assumed that he had poisoned himself). His body was left to rot, being attacked by vermin before Mary Fleming was able to have it cared for (Stedall-Maitland, p. 238). (The rest of the family also suffered, but only temporarily; William Maitland's younger brother John Maitland of Thirlstane in the reign of James I was made Secretary in 1584, and Chancellor in 1587; Stewart, p. 95.)
Mary Fleming them married George Meldrum of Fyvie, by whom she had two more children. Apparently her death date is unknown (Hamilton, pp. 216-217). In 1483, she had managed to get the forfeiture of Maitland's possessions reversed (Fraser, p. 433), and one of her sons by Maitland, James, was fairly influential politically and in time would write a defense of the father he can have only barely remembered.
In addition to Stedall-Maitland, which I find I deeply distrust, there is a modern biography of Maitland, William Blake, William Maitland of Lethington, E. Mellon Press, 1990. I have not seen it; it is rare and expensive. Older but still relatively recent is E. Russell, Maitland of Lethington, James Nisbet & Co, Ltd., 1912 (available on Google Books as well as in a bunch of low-quality reprints). Still earlier is Sir John Shelton, Maitland of Lethington And the Scotland of Mary Stuart, two volumes, W. Blackwood, 1887, which is regarded as not very reliable. The second volume (which contains most of the material that interests us) is available on Google Books.
** Mary Livingston was the daughter of Alexander, fifth Baron Livingston (who had been Queen Mary's guardian; Frasier, p. 32), and Agnes Douglas, daughter of John Earl of Morton (Hamilton, p. 217; she was their sixth child, according to Marshall, p. 143). Her brother William, the sixth Baron Livingston (died 1592) was a firm supporter of Queen Mary; he had been on her side when Riccio was murdered (Hamilton, p. 211) and was one of her agents in England 1568-1573 but was allowed to return to Scotland when Marian resistance ended in the latter year (Hamilton, p. 212). His wife Agnes was Mary Fleming's sister, based on Hamilton, p. 212.
Mary Livingston's younger sister Magdalen also became a member of Queen Mary's household, and was apparently a favorite (Marshall, p. 160); in 1562 Magdalen married Arthur Erskine of Backgrange, who became the queen's favorite equerry (Hamilton, pp. 156, 217); when the Queen fled her captivity after the murder of Riccio, it was Erskine who controlled her horse (Stedall-Darnley, p. 138).
Mary Livingston, said to be a good dancer, married a man who also enjoyed dancing, John Sempill of Beltries, in 1565. (According to Morrison, pp. 32-33, Queen Mary and two of the Maries once danced a classical ballet composed by Catherine de Medici, Queen of France and the mother-in-law of Mary Stewart. Presumably Mary Livingstone played a leading part.)
Since Sempill was a younger son of Lord Sempill, his fortune was limited; Queen Mary paid for the wedding (which took place at Forfar on March 6, 1565, making Livongston the first of the Maries to marry) and granted the couple lands (Stedall-Darnley, p. 92; Hamilton, p. 217). Sempill stayed close to the queen; he was attending the queen when David Riccio was murdered, and later helped one of her escape attempts. Mary Livingston helped to compile the inventory of her jewels that was part of the will the Queen made before her son James was born (Stedall-Darnley, p. 149).
Marshall, p. 146, says that Mary LIvingston was at Carberry Hill (though this seems to be disputed) and helped watch over the Queen as she went into custody, though they were separated after that. Her husband John Sempill was engaged in the conspiracies against the regent Moray, and was imprisoned but reprieved.
Sempill died in 1579; Livingston outlived him by at least a few years (Hamilton, p. 217; Marshall, p. 146, says she died in 1585).
Morrison, p. 63, says she "was vigorous and called the Lusty."
Livingston was a typical subject of John Knox's carping: "When Mary Livingston became engaged to the Catholic John Sempill, with whom she particularly enjoyed dancing, Knox implied that her marriage to 'The Dancer' was hastened by 'shame.' Yet they married to universal approval at a long-planned ceremony, and their first child was not born until at least a year later" (Stedall-Darnley, p. 58; cf. Fraser, pp. 188-189). Moreover, the wedding took at least two months to prepare (Fraser, p. 224); it clearly was not a shotgun wedding!
Mary Livingston Sempill is said to have joined Mary Stewart after she was imprisoned, even though her father-in-law Lord Sempill was one of those who signed the warrant for the queen's imprisonment (Morrison, p. 194).
** Mary Seton was the only daughter of the fourth Lord Seton; she, like Mary Beaton, had a French mother (Seton's second wife; Marshall, pp. 142-143), so one wonders a little why she needed education in French. Marshall, p. 144, says she "had inherited her family's tall stature and, like her relatives, placed loyalty to the queen above all other concerns." George, the fifth Lord Seton, returned to Scotland in 1561 with the Five Maries (Hamilton, p. 217) and became Mary Stewart's Master of the Household (Stedall-Darnley, p. 57); he would be one of the lords who was with her during her brief time of freedom after escaping Lochleven (Magnusson, p. 366).
Mary Seton was apparently rather quiet and introverted, not taking much pleasure in court life (Hamilton, p. 217), though she served Queen Mary devotedly. She was with the Queen at the Battle of Carberry (Morrison, p. 186). They were separated after that, but Seton was eventually allowed to join her Queen in captivity at Lochleven, along with two maids, though only after the abdication (Morrison, p. 198; Fraser, p. 349; Stedall-Maitland, p. 194, says that this was in September, after the queen had been captive there for months and after her miscarriage). She even impersonated her mistress in 1568 at Lochleven to delay the pursuers when Mary escaped captivity (Hamilton, p. 218; Marshall, p. 149; although according to Fraser, p. 356, the impersonation failed). When the Queen fled after Langside, Seton cut, or at least re-styled, Mary's hair to make her harder to recognize (Morrison, p. 210). The two were separated for a time after that, because the Queen traveled with such a small group, but Seton rejoined her while the queen was in Carlisle (Morrison, p. 219). She stayed with the queen until about 1583 (just four years before Mary Stewart's execution), making her the most faithful of the Maries. According to Morrison, p. 233, Seton remained at the queen's side for seventeen years, until she was too old to handle a needle -- i.e., presumably, was arthritic. She retired to a convent in Rheims, remaining there for 32 years until her death (Hamilton, p. 218).
She had at least two suitors, Christopher Norton and Andrew Beaton (yes, a member of the same family as Mary Beaton), in the late 1560s and 1570s while in England, but Norton got himself killed in the Northern Rising, and Seton "viewed [Beaton's] advances with more dismay than enthusiasm" (Marshall, p. 150). She claimed to have taken a vow of chastity, and while Beaton tried to get the vow lifted, he died before this was accomplished. Fraser, pp. 440-441, seems to think Seton regretted this "last chance of married happiness," but I suspect she wasn't interested in men. Clearly Seton was no candidate to have an illegitimate child!
Even after her retirement to a convent, she clearly cared about the Queen; during an illness in 1602, she made a will which included provisions for prayers for the queen -- though nothing came of it, since, by the time Seton died, she was a pauper with no property whatsoever. Interestingly, James Maitland, the son of Mary Fleming and William Maitland, visited her in 1613 (Marshall, p. 152).
In light of the song's comment that Mary Hamilton "washed the Queen's feet, and put the gold in her hair," it is noteworthy that it is Mary Seton who "had been described as the finest dresser of women's hair in the country" (Hamilton, p. 218; Marshall, p. 149). Morrison, p. 63, says that she was "the Queen's favorite."
THE COURT OF PETER THE GREAT OF RUSSIA
In one of life's curiosities, there is historical evidence that there actually was a Mary Hamilton who was executed for infanticide in Tsarist Russia. How that story could have managed to make it to Scotland has never been satisfactorily explained that I know of.
Obviously this Mary Hamilton was not one of the "Four Maries." She was, according to Massie, p. 804, a member of the court of Peter the Great's second wife Catherine, who after Peter's death was briefly the Empress Catherine I (1625-1627). The Russian "Marie Hamilton" was "a relation of the Scottish wife of Andrei Matveev [a well-known painter]." This Mary was rather an odd woman out, since most of the other members of Catherine's court were members of the nobility.
This Mary Hamilton's story has an odd similarity to Catherine's own, because Catherine wasn't a Russian aristocrat but probably a peasant from Livland, part of what is now Latvia but was then part of the Swedish kingdom. Peter the Great's marriage with his first wife Evdokia, which had been arranged for him, had been disastrous; they had children, but he eventually tried to put her in a convent, she rebelled, and ended up in harsh restrictions in a monastery (Anisimov, pp. 13-14). Peter started taking mistresses. Catherine was not the first, such but she rose highest.
Catherine's birth name was Martha, last name probably Skavronskaya (Massie, p. 371), and she was of no importance at all. Anisimov, p. 34, quotes the two lovers to the effect that she was fifteen years younger than Peter (which if true would make her birth date c. 1687), but Massie, p. 371, makes her 19 in 1703, so born c. 1684, and Sumner, p. 64, agrees that she was about eleven years younger. Born in Latvia (Anisiov) or Lithuania (Massie), she apparently was supposed to marry a Swedish military musician in 1702. In the Great Northern War between Russia and Sweden, which began in 1700, her home town of Marienburg was taken by the Russians and the inhabitants enslaved (Anisimov, pp. 8-10). She ended up in the hands of one of Peter the Great's favorites, Aleksandr Menshikov, and Anisimov, p. 11, thinks she was his concubine. (Hard to believe, given how unattractive her portrait is, but that was painted later.) She took the name "Catherine" upon being received into the Orthodox church; she learned Russian at the same time (Anisimov, p. 18). Peter the Great saw her in Menshikov's establishment and was apparently smitten -- she seemed to have to ability to detect the seizures which troubled him all his life and reduce their effects (Massie, p. 376). So, like Mary Hamilton in some versions of the song, Catherine herself had been the mistress of a king. It's just that Catherine managed to convert concubinage into a marriage. Eventually. She had a three children by Peter by 1707, though two of them died young (Anisimov, pp. 17-18); more came later. Massie, p. 375, and Sumner, p. 64, say they secretly married in that year, though Anisimov thinks they did not become engaged until 1711, when they were going off to war against the Ottoman Empire. The marriage date matters, because it affected the legitimacy, and the marriageability, of the two daughters born in the interim! (The claim is that she helped him win the agreement that rescued his trapped army -- possibly by sending her jewels to the enemy as a bribe, though Sumner, p. 74, doubts this.) They were publicly married in 1712 in a relatively quiet ceremony in which the Tsar played the role of "Rear Admiral Peter Mikhailov" (Anisimov, pp. 20-21). It was quite the shock to society: the Tsar marrying a commoner! (Maybe it was because she didn't object when he took mistresses -- indeed, she supposedly helped him pick them out; Anisimov, p. 25.)
He did more than marry a commoner. He had his only surviving son by Evdokia, Aleksei, tortured and killed in 1718, thus making Catherine's son Peter his heir -- except that Peter Petrovich died in 1719 at the age of three and a half (Anisimov, p. 29; Sumner, p. 99). Soon after, Catherine arguably convinced Peter to make her his heir (Anismov, pp. 34-35, although Sumner, p. 100, regards this as merely crowning her as Empress). Certainly he changed the Russian law so that, instead of the succession following a fixed rule of primogeniture for male heirs of the previous Tsar, the old Tsar could designate a successor, who need not be male nor a member of the Romanov dynasty (Massie, p. 835).
In late 1724, the year before Peter's death, something odd happened. William Mons, the brother of an old mistress of Peter's, became close to Catherine, and started selling influence (Massie, p. 838). According to rumor, accepted by Anisimov, p. 35, Peter learned that Mons was Catherine's lover. Neither Massie nor Sumner, p. 161, believe this; they think the two were merely friends and that Mons was merely criminally corrupt.
It is certain that, at his trial, Mons was not asked about improper relations with the queen (the corruption charges were enough to cost him his head; Massie, p. 839). And Catherine was allowed to live (Anisimov, pp. 36-37), and Peter's declaration that she was his heir was not definitively retracted. Mons was sentenced to death. Catherine begged for his life and was rebuffed. As in the alleged case of Mary Hamilton, Peter visited Mons the night before his execution -- but there was no reprieve; "Peter went to his cell to say he was sorry to lose such a talented man, but that the crime demanded punishment" (Massie, p. 840).
Shortly after, in 1725, it seems Peter wanted to make a declaration about the succession on his deathbed, but he was too far gone to finish his statement (Sumner, p. 100); no one knows who he wanted to succeed him. After some confusion, Catherine took the throne (Anisimov, pp. 1-3; Sumner, p. 164), though she passed no substantial new policies (Anisimov, pp. 45-50; Sumner, p. 172 lists as the only major result of her reign a reduction in burdens on land- and serf-owners), and herself sickened and died in 1727 (Anisimov, pp. 52-53).
Thus, Catherine's first two children by the Tsar died, and while she did not murder the Tsar's son with her own hands, she was at least complicit and very well might have encouraged it. And this was the situation at the moment the Russian Mary Hamilton was brought to trial.
It's worth noting that, in Russia, "Mary Hamilton" would not have been called "Hamilton," because Russian does not have the "H" sound. Russians would have called her "Maria Khamilton." Would this affect the way her story was reported? Probably not, but we should remember it. It is also worth noting that Massie's earliest reference for the story of Mary Hamilton is Staehlin, who did not arrive in St. Petersburg until a decade and a half after the events (Staehlin, p. 5), and whose account was not published for decades after that. Anisimov never mentions Hamilton. But here is what Staehlin wrote beginning on p. 278.
"Miss Hamilton, maid of honour to the Empress, was much addicted to gallantry, and delivered herself of two children, with so much secrecy, as to escape suspicion of any one at court. But the same thing happening a third time, brought her to the scaffold.
"The dead child was found, and all the circumstances bore witness against her. She was taken into custody by order of the Czar, and confessed in prison, that this was the third child she had murdered. Sentence of death was pronounced on her, and confirmed by the Emperor, contrary to her expectation, for the great number of solicitations in her favour, and the friendship with which he had always honoured her, so far even as to raise suspicions of amorous motives, made her hope for pardon. All, however, was ineffectual; Peter, determined to keep up in his dominions the respect due to laws both human and divine.
"On the day of execution, the offender appeared dressed in a white silk gown, trimmed with black ribbons, and was conducted to the scaffold. The Emperor came thither, took leave of her, and gave her a kiss: -- 'I cannot,' said he, 'violate the laws to save your life. Support your punishment with courage, and, in the hope that God may forgive your sins, address your prayers to him with a hearth full of faith and contrition.' Miss Hamilton kneeled down, and prayed, and the Czar having turned aside, she was beheaded."
This was apparently the report of "Vœtius, cabinet maker at court, present at the execution."
It should be noted that infanticide had been a normal practice in Russia until just a few years before: "Peter forbade the killing of newborn infants who were deformed -- the custom in Moscow had been to quietly smother such children immediately after delivery" (Massie, p. 391). Mary Hamilton broke the law -- but she didn't really break custom.
SOME CURIOUS SIDE NOTES
We usually say that there was no infanticide at the court of Mary Stewart. Certainly we have no record of one. But, in 1830, workmen found bones bricked up inside a wall in Edinburgh Castle (Fraser, p. 267 note; Magnusson, p. 355 note; Bingham, p. 151, says that the body was said to have been wrapped in cloth of gold, and rejects the story). Whose? We don't know. When were the bones interred? We don't know. We apparently don't even know they were an infant's, or that the infant died by violence. But something must have happened to put them there.
It is interesting to note that Elizabeth Beaton, a not-epecially-close relative of Mary Beaton, had born a child to James V, and this child, Jean, had married then become estranged from the fifth Duke of Argyll and was said to have become close to Queen Mary (Hamilton, p. 216).
The addition of "Mary Carmichael" to the other three Maries is curious. The real Four Maries were all of good families. Which explains three of the four Maries in the song: Mary Beaton and Mary Seton were real. Mary Hamilton was not, but the Hamiltons were the heirs to the throne after Mary Stewart; they were a distinguished line. But the Carmichaels were a minor clan. However, one of the illegitimate half-brothers of Mary Stewart was Lord John Stewart, the son of one Elizabeth Carmichael, daughter of John, Lord Carmichael (Hamilton, p. 243). So here again we have an illegitimate child of James V in a setting with some similarity to the song.
If this song went back to the time of Mary Stewart, the author might not wish to name either the allegedly guilty woman (since, contrary to the song, she was very much alive and could strike back) or Mary Fleming (since she was the Chief Marie and a member of the royal family, even if on the wrong side of the bed).
It also occurs to me that there is the case of the son of George III, who in due time would become George IV. According to Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 118, Prince George at one time "had fallen in love with Mary Hamilton, one of his sisters' governesses." Whether this is relevant depends of course on the earliest date of the song. There are a number of mentions in the early nineteenth century. If we can push it before about 1780, then of course this Mary Hamilton is out of the question. Furthermore, George IV's Mary Hamilton didn't kill her baby. In fact, she never even had an affair with the prince -- he was 16, she was six years older, and he wrote her a bunch of pathetic love letters, but she was not willing to get involved (Smith, p. 17). But the talk of an affair with the Prince of Wales might have influenced the name of the character in this song.
SO WHAT IS THIS SONG REALLY ABOUT?
Having rehearsed both histories -- that of Mary Queen of Scots and of Tsar Peter -- we return to our question of which one, if either one, was the inspiration for this song. To try to find the answer we will need to look at all the various aspects of the song, not just a few words such as the name "Mary Hamilton." For extensive discussion of the matter (which is, however, rather more theoretical than practical) see Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia, pp. 246-248. I think, however, that we need to dig deeper.
Unfortunately, there are versions of the song from more than seventy different informants, plus anonymous versions. Probably there are, in all, between eighty and ninety distinct versions known -- and I don't have access to all of them. So I've started by just taking the versions in Child. I've looked at all of Child's versions and done my best to catalog every motif that is, or has the potential to be, based on actual history. In many cases, I've quoted particular versions to establish the element that I mean, but the reference is to the motifs, not the exact words. I've numbered the items for easy reference:
-- #1: The heroine is called...
----1A: MARY HAMILTON -- A B G H I (D once called her Molly, but else Mary Hamilton).
----1B: MARY MILD or similar BUT DO NOT USE THE NAME "HAMILTON": (C "Mary Myle") (M "Marie Mild") (N "Mary Mild")
----1C: WHICH HAVE NO NAME OR AT LEAST DO NOT USE THE NAME "HAMILTON" -- C E F K L M (E "Lady Maisry") (F "Lady Mary")
-- #2: My FATHER was the DUKE OF YORK (!) -- E F L Q / DUKE OF ARGYLL -- P
-- #3: How she arrived at court: Ladies lived in a bower... THE YOUNGEST IS TO THE KING'S COURT -- B (C specifically three ladies) (D also has three, one a barber's wife) O
-- #4: The YOUNGEST (of the three ladies/daughters of... someone) is to Scotland gane [implying she wasn't from Scotland!] -- D
-- #5: Mary's mother hires her to the queen WHEN SCARCE ELEVEN YEARS AULD -- H J
-- #6: [The prince takes her to bed] WHILE SHE WAS SCARCE FIFTEEN -- D
-- #7: THE KING THOCHT MAIR O MARIE THAN ONIE THAT WERE THERE and loved her more than the queen -- G / THE KING FELL IN LOVE WITH Mary -- L
-- #8: They could get of her nae work/could not work FOR WANTONNESS AND PLAY -- B C
-- #9: Mary Hamilton's (BORN A/GANGS WI) BAIRN -- (A gangs wi) (B born a) (E grew big wi bairn)
-- #10: Identity of the seducer:
---- #10A: the HIGHEST STEWART of a' -- A / THE KING H
---- #10B: "A YOUNG MAN" -- (E, which later calls him "Warenston") J N
---- #10C: "SWEET WILLIE" -- F
---- #10D: NA BODY KEND TO WHA -- H
-- #11: She's PULL[ED] THE LEAF OFF THE TREE [to try to abort the child] -- C D (In I it is the King who pulls the tree) N
-- #12: The Means of Execution:
---- #12A: She's (TIED IT In (something)/PUT IT IN A TINY BOAT) and CAST IT OOT TO SEA -- (A tied in her apron) (B in a piner-pig) (C D in a handkerchief) (K calls it both a handkerchief and a napkin) (L in her "apron green") (O "a wee wee clout")
---- #12B: (Instead of casting it to sea, the body is in the bed, e.g.) BETWEEN THE BOLSTER AND THE BED -- E / the baby WAS BLABBERING IN ITS BLEED -- F (L) / they seek it FROM THE PILLOW TO THE STRAW -- J / UNDERNEATH... THE BLANKETS FINE -- M
-- #13: When the queen investigates, she called the AULD Queen -- A G
-- #14: QUEEN asks WHERE'S THE BONNY WEE BABE -- A B C D E F G H I J (in K, a "bonnie wee burd" asks) L M
-- #15: Mary denies it: THERE NEVER WAS A BABE intill my room -- A C D E F G H I J L M
-- #16: The queen is named Mary, but the king, who condemns the murderous girl, is "King Henrie" -- K
-- #17: THE KING says she should have SAVED THE BRAW CHILD'S LIFE -- L
-- #18. The queen says Rise... THERE IS A WEDDING IN GLASGOW TOWN/TO SEE EDINBOROUGH/HOLYROOD -- B C D E G H I
-- #19: Queen says PUT ON YOUR ROBES OF BLACK/BROWN -- A
-- #20: She put not on her robes of black... But she put on her ROBES OF (WHITE/GOLD), usually to "shine" through the town -- (A white) (B C K O gold) (D has the queen tell her to wear yellow gold) (E white silk and red scarlet) (H J have the queen tell her to wear red) (N red)
-- #21, when Mary arrives, she goes up the (CANNOGATE/PARLIAMENT STAIR/TOLBOOTH) -- (A Cannogate and Parliament Stair) (B C E H Tolbooth) (D Parliament Close) (F Cannogate) (G [H} M Netherbow Port) (I Tolbooth and Netherbow) (L Cannogate and Cowgate Head)
-- #22. After being condemned, Mary called on the "jolly sailors" not to report to her family: Let them never say to my father and mother THAT I CAME HERE TO DEE -- A B (E) (F) (G)
-- #23: She specifies something about where she is or is dying: Little did my mother ken... THE LANDS I WAS TO TRAVEL THROUGH, THE DEATH I WAS TO DEE -- A B C I J (N the ROAD I'd hae to travel in) R (others mention only the death she was to dee)
-- #24: Her parents come to see her but will not give her gold (as in "The Maid Freed from the Gallows") -- E F
-- #25: LAST NIGHT I WASHED THE QUEEN'S FEET AND (GENTLY LAID HER DOWN/PUT THE GOWD IN/COMBED HER HAIR) -- (A B laid her down) (C kembed doun her yellow hair) E G I (N combed her hair)
-- #26: When she is at the place of execution: BY THERE COME THE KING HIMSELF... COME DOWN, COME DOWN, MARY HAMILTON -- B
-- #27 Mary answers the king, HOLD YOUR TONGUE... IF YOU'D A MIND TO SAVE MY LIFE, YOU'D NOT HAVE SHAMED ME -- B
-- #28: LAST NIGHT THERE WERE FOUR MARIES, THIS NICHT THERE'LL BE BUT THREE -- A B D G H I J M N. The names of the other three Maries are:
Mary Beaton -- A B D F G H I K M N (J "Mary Bethune," which is an alternate, rarer name for the Beaton family -- Steadall, for instance, uses it consistently)
Mary Carmichael -- A B D G H I J K M
Mary Heaton -- N
Mary Livingston -- F
Mary Michel -- N
Mary Seton -- A B D F G H I J K M
The versions are a very mixed bag, completely inconsistent. "E" in particular has a lot of "The Maid Freed from the Gallows," and "F" seems to mix a more normal version with E and its changes. But, as Child noted, the versions simply cannot be reconciled: Although most versions are individually coherent, all of them contain elements which directly contradict elements of others.
Personally, I rather suspect there are two originals which have partly overlapped.
The obvious explanation for this song is that it refers to events in the time of Mary Queen of Scots. But nowhere in Mary's troubled reign do we find an actual record to a serving girl committing infanticide. We can say with even higher confidence is that this did not happen to any of the actual Four Maries. Of the motifs listed above, the only ones which fit actual events at Mary's court are 1B, 16, (18), 28. The ballad thus cannot be about actual historical events in the court of Mary Stewart.
The hypothesis that it's based on the Russian Mary Hamilton goes back to Sharpe. This hypothesis sounds good, since it is the only one with a "Mary Hamilton" and an infanticide. On the other hand, it's not a great fit for Peter the Great, either. The only elements of the actual story found in the ballad are 1A, (8?), (9, but note that the Russian Mary Hamilton murdered three children, not just one) (10B), 12B, 17, 20, (26). Notably, King Peter was not the father of Mary's child. And although Peter talked with Mary Hamilton on the scaffold (#17), he didn't show a whiff of sympathy; the incidents are not in fact parallel. If it were actually about that event, you'd think it would have more of the details straight! Plus there is the incontrovertible fact of Motif #28, the statement that the Queen had four Maries. That really can only refer to the court of Mary Queen of Scots, and this is substantiated by the fact that the song has two of the four surnames right. This is among the best-attested of all the motifs. This is simply incompatible with the Russian hypothesis.
And yet, there was no Mary Hamilton and no infanticide in the Stewart court that we know of.
The Peter the Great version of the story also suffers from the fact that the first report of it that would have been heard in Scotland is almost certainly Staehlin's, which didn't come out until 1788 -- and Burns quoted one stanza of this song (the one "Little did my mither ken"; #23 above) in 1790. Maybe that verse floated in, but on the face of it, the song was in existence *before anyone in Britain knew the story of the Russian Mary Hamilton*. (The name "Mary Hamilton," we might add, doesn't seem to have been attested before Scott in 1802. A small gap from 1790, but not entirely trivial.)
So what is left?
John Knox, that's what is left. Sir Walter Scott seems to have been the first to make the connection between this song and events that did not happen but that were nonetheless reported about Queen Mary's court. He connects it with members of Mary Stuart's court *other than* the four Maries and Lord Darnley. He had evidence for this in the writings of Knox, who told a tale chillingly like this ballad: "he repeated one actual case which had come to public knowledge at the beginning of Mary's rule; of a 'heinous murder' committed in the court -- 'yea, not far from the Queen's own lap.' A French woman who had served in the queen's chamber was said to have 'played the whore' with the queen's apothecary and in the course of the liaison unwisely conceived a child. Father and mother then conspired to murder the infant: 'Yet,' to continue Knox's account of it all, 'were the cries of the newborn bairn heard; search was made, the child and mother both deprehended, and so were both the man and the woman damned to be hanged upon the public street of Edinburgh'" (Fraser, p. 188; cf. Marshall, p. 142). Thus here we have a case where the court looked for a babe they "saw and heard greet by thee."
Knox also cast shade on Mary Livingston, declaring that "shame" hastened her marriage to John Semple, and noting that she was called "the Lusty." But "lusty" in this period often meant "lively," not "sexually active," and in actual fact there was no shame over their wedding and Livingston's first child was born more than a year after the wedding (Fraser, pp. 188-189; Stedall-Darnley, p. 58). But facts didn't matter to Knox.
In this connection it is worth looking again at the four Maries listed in the song. Mary Beaton and Mary Seton are correctly included among the four Maries. Mary Livingston and Mary Fleming usually are not. One can imagine Fleming being omitted because of her higher personal status -- and the name "Hamilton" being substituted for "Livingston" because the author wanted to pin the crime on her but did not dare to use her name.
Furthermore, bolstering this hypothesis, we have a reference to Darnley getting a lady of the court pregnant: the only case of a girl getting pregnant by "the highest Stewart of all" (Stedall-Darnley, p. 116).
Thus although there was no Mary Hamilton who got pregnant by Darnley, murdered the baby, and was executed, we have John Knox telling of a woman who got pregnant, murdered the baby, and was executed, and Knox calling one of the Four Maries lusty, and all in a court where Lord Darnley got a serving girl pregnant. It's easy to see how someone stupid enough to believe Knox could have combined three tales, at least one of them false, into one.
We may emphasize: This narrative is false, but it assembles three actual pieces of court gossip (or lies by John Knox, if we're frank), and it meets motifs 1B, 9, 10A, 12, 25, 28. This is as good a fit as the Russian hypothesis, and it doesn't require us to explain how the story made it from Russia to Great Britain.
Some possible variations on this theme: Perhaps, as Scott suggested, the crime involved someone in Mary's court other than the Four Maries. An obvious thought would be that it might refer to Janet Fleming, the mother of Mary Fleming, who became pregnant by Henry II of France. The two Ladies Fleming were then confused, and in the Great Rewrite that converted Mary Fleming and Mary Livingston into Mary Carmichael and Mary Hamilton, she got renamed. This hypothesis fits in every way except that there was no infanticide.
Another possibility is that the story got attached to the Hamilton family as a political move, perhaps by Lennox or by Bothwell or by James Stewart the Queen's brother.
Also, it should be noted that the verse "Yestreen there were four Maries" does not absolutely require that one of the four be executed; it merely requires that one leave their number. It might be, e.g., that one of the four married and left the group -- so, theoretically, this verse might refer to the marriage of Mary Livingston, the first of the four to marry. If Mary Livingstone were the singer, the verse might have begun in a form such as "Yestreen the Queen had four Maries, This e'en she'll hae but three, There were Mary Beaton and Mary Seton, And fair Mary Fleming and me." Note that this requires just one actual name change to get the verse as it now exists.
I have one other really odd thought, which I don't really endorse but will mention: That this is a sort of an answer to the "calumniated queen" tale type (Thompson K2121.2), exemplified in English literature by the story of Constance in Chaucer's "Man of Law's Tale" and among the ballads by "Sir Aldingar" [Child 59] (see that entry for background on the type). Here we have the roles and the parts reversed: Instead of a queen or noblewoman falsely accused of adultery, we have a king genuinely accused of adultery, with Mary Hamilton as the woman who suffers as a result. Looked at that way, there is a faint feminist hint in here. But I have no support for this idea except a belief that someone would have a different response to this type.
In light of theme #2, that the pregnant woman's father was the Duke of York... it's worth noting that, although there were adult Dukes of York from the reign of Edward III until 1461, they all but disappeared after that. There was no adult Duke of York from 1483 until after the Stuarts succeeded in England in 1603, and only one after that until the Hannoverian Succession in 1714. So unless the song is post-1714 (and probably post-Peter the Great), then the only possible Duke of York was James, son of Charles I and brother of Charles II, the future James II -- who, it should be added, had many mistresses, though I find no record of one named Hamilton.
To sum up: If you want my personal guess, I think that the song originated in the scandal and infanticide in Mary's court that John Knox referred to, or perhaps the woman that Darnley got pregnant. It probably did not originally involve "Mary Hamilton" but "Mary Mild," or perhaps "Mary Livingston" or some such. Consider: At the court of Mary Stewart, all at the same time, we have
-- The King (Darnley) getting one of Mary's servants pregnant
-- One of Mary's servants getting pregnant and committing infanticide
-- John Knox implying that one of the queen's four Maries was committing fornication
In fact these three things all involved different women, and the third at least was false. But they all involve a servant of the Queen, and they all involve sex. Is it any wonder if someone assumed they involved the same woman, maybe Mary Livingston?
For that matter, it's not far from there to replace "Livingston" with "Hamilton" -- they scan the same. Possibly, if the original mentioned the name Hamilton at all, it was because of the Hamilton claim to be Queen Mary's heir.
Perhaps, indeed, the original didn't even involve the infanticide -- we could envision a pure "Mary Livingston" ballad. "Word is to the kitchen gone... that Mary Livingston's born a bairn to the highest Stewart of all" (motifs #1C, #9, #10A). "My father was Lord Livingston" (#2). "My mother sent me to the queen When I was scarce five (?) years auld" (#5). Because of fornication, she is forced from the queen's house: "Yestreen the queen had four Maries...." (#28). No execution necessarily implied. And it's all in John Knox.
Very possibly the Russian story cemented the name of "Mary Hamilton" in later versions. Maybe it brought in the infanticide. Conceivably Mary Hamilton even had her own broadside version which mixed with the song set in Mary Stewart's court. But the ballad did not originate with the Russian woman and is not at its heart about her. John Knox's vitriol contained all the elements required to put together the core of the ballad, and the rest could be imagination and coincidence. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C173

Mary Hamilton's Last Goodnight

See Mary Hamilton [Child 173] (File: C173)

Mary Hebrew

See The Wife of Usher's Well [Child 79] (File: C079)

Mary in the Silvery Tide

See The Silvery Tide [Laws O37] (File: LO37)

Mary Jamieson

DESCRIPTION: "I loved you Mary Jamieson ... You ken I loved you Mary dear ye needna look sae high The time may come yet Mary when I may pass you by." The singer loved Mary "as a bridegroom loves his bride" -- but apparently unsuccessfully
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 711, "Mary Jamieson" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Roud #6151
NOTES [15 words]: Greig/Duncan4: "Often sung in New Deer district forty or fifty years ago.... Noted 1906." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4711

Mary Jane

See references under Sara Jane (File: RcSarJan)

Mary Jane the Milkmaid

See Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid) (File: R079)

Mary Kate White

DESCRIPTION: Gus courts Mary Kate White when her sweetheart Ned is laid up with an injury. Gus takes her to a card game, an acceptable public courting site, but "it was labour in vain." Ned recovers "so now he and Kate play cards" with Gus as imaginary prize.
AUTHOR: Paul E. Hall (according to Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection cards
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 15, pp. 111-115, "Mary Kate White" (1 text)
Roud #24298
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "Mary Kate White" (on NFJDowney01)
File: BeDo111

Mary Kelly Had a Lamb

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme, probably composite. "Mary Kelly had a lamb, Peever, peever, Sister Kelly stole that lamb, Peever, peever, O." L stands for London. Harry Brown will marry her. She washes during the days of the week. Harry Beery kisses Shirley Temple
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: jumprope animal theft wordplay marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #333, "Mary Kelly had a lamb" (1 text)
File: AJRR333

Mary L. Mackay, The

DESCRIPTION: About a voyage by the Mackay from Portland to Yarmouth. Driven by a gale, and handled by uninhibited officers, she ran 220 miles in 18 hours. The singer challenges others to best the mark, but admits the voyage was made on the power of Portland rum
AUTHOR: Words: Frederick W. Wallace (1886-1958)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Canadian Fisherman)
KEYWORDS: ship racing sailor drink storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 74, "The Mary L. Mackay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 132, "The Mary L MacKay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 124-125, "The Mary L. McKay" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MARYMKAY*
Roud #1831
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Log of the Record Run
NOTES [413 words]: This song is item dD50 in Laws's Appendix II.
According to Creighton, Wallace wrote this poem to describe an experience he had aboard the Effie M. Morrissey in 1913. She believes her informant, Edmund Henneberry, supplied the tune.
The notes in Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors give the strong impression that this song was written about a trip the Morrissey made while Bob Bartlett was her captain. This is wrong. Bob Bartlett did not take her over until 1925, more than a decade after this song was written, when a rich fan, James B. Ford, gave him the boat (Horwood, pp. 125-126). It would appear that Lane/Gosbee have confused Bob Bartlett with another of the large Bartlett clan, Harold Bartlett, who took her over in 1914 (moving her to British registry).
Lane/Gosbee also exaggerate her role as an exploration vessel; Bartlett took her to the Arctic and other places, pretending he was exploring and selling what we might call internships to the children of rich men (Horwood, pp. 126-127), but they really didn't discover much. After his time, she went into foreign service -- carrying immigrants from the Cape Verde Islands, according to Paine, p.160 -- which caused her to be renamed the Ernestina, then the Ernestina-Morrissey.
According to Paine, p. 159, the Effie M. Morrissey was built at Essex, Massachusetts, in 1894. She was a two-masted schooner, 112 feet by 13 feet by 24.4 feet, 120 tons, designed for a crew of 34.
Paine suggests Gordon Thomas's Fast and Able as a reference for the career of the Morrissey.
Although this song is apparently a close description of what happened on the Morrissey, Wallace used a different ship name in case describing the actual ship embarrassed her owners. I can't help but think the change also made the scansion easier -- fewer unstressed syllables.
The poem was originally published under the title "The Log of the Record Run." None of the traditional versions seem to be aware of this title.
Frederick William Wallace, who although born in Glasgow came to Canada in 1904 and spent the rest of his life there, eventually became famous for his writing; Wooden Ships and Iron Men (1924) is still considered a classic. But he had almost nothing published at the time he wrote this poem. In 1913, he had founded Canadian Fisherman, a magazine which he long edited; I believe he took his voyage in the Morrissey to gather material. His autobiography is Roving Fisherman.(CanadianBio, p. 868). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: LoF074

Mary L. McKay, The

See The Mary L. Mackay (File: LoF074)

Mary Le More

DESCRIPTION: "As I strayed o'er the common on Cork's rugged border" the singer meets Mary Le More, distracted. She tells that her brother and friend Connor have been murdered by soldiers and she has no one to avenge them. When troops appear she screams and runs away.
AUTHOR: George Nugent Reynolds (1770-1802) (see Notes)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.34(174))
KEYWORDS: grief madness rebellion death brother friend soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 11-12, "Mary Le More" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 366-367, "Mary Le More" (1 text)
Roud #28006
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.34(174), "Mary-le-More" ("As I stray'd o'er the common on Cork's rugged border"), J. Ferraby (Hull), 1803-1838; also Harding B 11(2350), "Mary-le-More"; 2806 c.15(321), "Mary Le More"; Harding B 11(495), "Mary le Moor"; Harding B 25(1223), "Mary-le More"
NLScotland, RB.m.169(007), "Mary Le More," Robert McIntosh (Glasgow), after 1848
NOTES [69 words]: Broadside Bodleian Firth b.27(277), "Mary La More" is almost entirely illegible.
The Ballad Poetry of Ireland by Charles Gavan Duffy (Dublin, 1845), pp. 119-120, "Mary Le More" makes the attribution to Reynolds. [A claim backed by Hoagland. - RBW]
See another similar broadside Bodleian Harding B 22(166), "Mary Le More" ("Oh! S---s of B---n, your merciless doings") in which Mary's father, Dermot, is killed. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: OCon011A

Mary Lies Weeping

See Christ Was Born in Bethlehem (File: MA189)

Mary Machree

DESCRIPTION: "The flower of the valley was Mary Machree," whose beauty is described at length. Her soldier love goes away for many years, leaving her pining on the shore. At last, in the winter, he returns to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1842 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(44))
KEYWORDS: love soldier separation reunion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H485, p. 308, "Mary Machree" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 154, "Mary Machree" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1391, p. 94, "Mary Machree" (1 reference)
Roud #3231
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(44), "Mary Machree," Birt (London), 1833-1841; also Harding B 15(187a), Firth c.26(239), "Mary Machree"
LOCSinging, sb30316a, "Mary Machree," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
SAME TUNE:
Come Home to Me, Love (per broadside LOCSinging sb30316a)
NOTES [70 words]: According to William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 34, "machree" is a popular word in Irish song because it comes from Irish Gaelic "mo chroí," "my heart." - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb30316a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: HHH485

Mary Mack (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Mary Mack, Mack, Mack, All dressed in black, black, black...." The singer speaks of love, and engages in a series of unprofitable transactions. Much of the song consists of floating verses, e.g. "I went to the river... And I couldn't get across."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad courting commerce | black buttons clapping
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) US(MA,MW,NW,SE,SW,So) Australia Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 158-159, "(Mary Mack)" (1 text); p. 279, "Mary Mack" (1 tune, partial text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 72-73, "Johnnie Bought a Ham" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 145, "Miss Mary Mack" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, pp. 24-25, "(Mary Mack)" (notes, filed under "Pease Porridge Hot"); p. 58, "Mary Mack" (1 text)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 110, "Mary Mack" (1 text)
Cray-AshGrove, pp. 14-15, "Mary Mack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 44, "(Harvey-Darvy dressed in black)" (1 fragment with this form although it's short enough it might be something else, 1 tune, filed with a group of songs under the general heading "Crowdy Crawn")
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 66, "(Mary Mac, Mac, Mac)" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Winifred Smith, "A Modern Child's Game Rhymes," Vol. IXL, No. 151 (Jan 1926), #6 p. 83, ("Mary Mack, dressed in black"); #9 p. 83 ("Tinkle bells and cockle shells, E-V-I-V over, Mary Mack, dressed in black") (2 texts)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Leah Rachel Clara Yoffie, "Three Generations of Children's Singing Games in St. Louis," Vol. LX, No. 235 (Jan 1947), p. 41 ("Mary Mack, Mack, Mack") (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 499, "Oh Mary Mack Mack Mack" (notes only)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #120, "Mary Mack, dressed in black" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Miss Allen, "Children's Game-Rhymes" in Relics of Popular Antiquities, &c , The Folk-Lore Record (London, 1878 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. V, #14 p. 87, "Darby's Son" (1 text)
Henry Carrington Bolton, Counting-Out Rhymes of Children (New York, 1888 ("Digitized by Google")), #795 p. 117, ("Miss Mary Mack, dressed in black") (1 text)
James Orchard Halliwell, The Book of Nursery Rhymes Complete (Philadelphia, 1846 ("Digitized by Google")), #413 p. 202, ("Parson Darby wore a black gown"); #421 p. 205, ("Darby and Joan were dress'd in black") (2 texts)
G.F. Northall, English Folk-Rhymes (London, 1892 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 395, ("Betsy Blue came all in black, Silver buttons down her back"), ("Darby's son was dressed in black, With silver buttons behind his back"); p. 387 ("Darby and Joan were dress'd in black, Sword and buckle behind their back"), ("Parson Darby wore a black gown, And every button cost half-a-crown") (4 texts)
Mrs Lois Rather, "Circle Clap Chants" in Western Folklore, Vol. XVIII, No. 4 (Oct 1959 (available online by JSTOR)), #2 p. 294 ("Say, Say, Say, O Mary Mac, Mac, Mac") (1 text)
Anna Raudnitzky, "The Greatest Thing in the School-Room" in N.C. Schaeffer, editor, The Pennsylvania School Journal, Vol. XLVII (Lancaster, 1898[?] ("Digitized by Google")), (May 1899[?]) p. 510, ("Mary Mack dressed in black") (1 text)
Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 535-536, "Mary Mack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, _A Guide to Australian Folklore_, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 151, "(Mary Mack)" (1 short text, described as a handclapping game)
Ron Young, _Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador_, Downhome Publishing Inc., 2006, pp. 225-226, "(Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack)" (1 text, a handclapping game)
Tom Nash and Twilo Scofield, _The Well-Travelled Casket: Oregon Folklore_, Meadowlark Press, 1999, p. 59, "Miss Mary Mack" (1 text, a clapping game)
Roud #11498 and 10999
RECORDINGS:
Hunter children "Miss Mary Mack" (on JohnsIsland1)
Children of Lilly's Chapel School, "Mary Mack" (on NFMAla6, RingGames1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Swapping Boy" (plot)
cf. "Turkey in the Straw" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Went to the River (I)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Hi Ho! Skippety Toe" (lyrics)
NOTES [350 words]: Not to be confused with the music hall song of the same title, which involves what sounds to be a shotgun wedding. - RBW
Raudnitzky: "Once upon a time, now long ago, there lived in the city which we know as Gotham, two little sisters who were wont to amuse themselves with ... ['Mary Mack']."
One spiritual includes the verse "Look over there what I see, Mary and Mac, Dressed in black. Where shall I be when the first trumpet sound? Where shall it be when it sound so loud? Goin' ter wake up de dead" (source: Anna Kranz Odum, "Some Negro Folk-Songs from Tennessee" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXVII, No. 105 (Jul 1914 (available online by JSTOR)), #3 p. 257 "Goin' ter Wake Up de Dead" (1 text)). Apparently not knowing about the rhyme, Odum reasonably takes Mac to be a corruption of Martha, Mary of Bethany's sister (John 11:1-12:11); or perhaps he has it right and the rhyme is corrupted.
On the other hand, Archer Taylor in English Riddles from Oral Tradition (Berkley, 1951) apparently lists "Mary Mack all dressed in black, Silver buttons down her back" as riddle #656 with the solution "coffin" (source: Robert A Georges and Alan Dundes, "Toward a Structural Definition of the Riddle" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. LXXVI, No. 300 (Apr 1963 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 114).
Perhaps this should be named .".. Dressed in Black." Among the subjects are "Darby and Joan" -- having nothing to do with the "Father Grumble" take off -- or "Darby's son" and "Betsy Blue," both in black, with silver buttons down the back (Northall). - BS
There seems to be fairly standard clapping-game version of this now:
Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack,
All dressed in black, black black,
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons,
Down her back, back, back...."
But the many versions show that there was more variety in the past. Was there a media program that standardized it? I don't know.
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes agrees with Taylor's interpretation that this is a riddle for "coffin." I strongly doubt most players today would guess that -- or even guess that this is a riddle. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: CNFM158B

Mary Mack, Dressed in Black

See Mary Mack (I) (File: CNFM158B)

Mary Mahoney

DESCRIPTION: Mary Mahoney is a servant maid in Indiantown. She rejects Archie, a "brisk young mutineer." The landlady resolves to help him and sends him to Newcastle to get jewelry. Mary rejects him again when the "gold" rings prove fake.
AUTHOR: probably Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection humorous ring
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 32, "Mary Mahoney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 65-66, "Mary Mahoney" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi032 (Partial)
Roud #9186
NOTES [97 words]: Indiantown, now Quarryville, is near the junction of the Renous River and Main Southwest Miramichi River. Newcastle is about twenty miles away, down river, near Miramichi Bay.
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "'And THAT'S by Larry Gorman,' he [the singer, Thomas Coughlan] said.... One of Larry's devastating satires, this song is aimed at the 'silly young gaw gaw,' Archie Woodworth, and his unsuccessful love affair.... Sandy Ives ... says several people have doubted Larry's authorship of the song, saying 'It just doesn't sound like him' but we both think it is authentic Gorman." - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: MaWi032

Mary Marth & Laserth

See The Little Family [Laws H7] (File: LH07)

Mary McVeagh

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls being young and handsome and having all the girls follow him. He loved only Mary McVeagh. Now he is old and fat and tired, but has grown rich. He returns to find Mary -- and finds a girl who looks just like her. Her grandmother was Mary
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation return family mother children age
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H773, p. 229, "Mary McVeagh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7980
NOTES [30 words]: Obviously a piece of fiction -- how many old men would actually admit to being nicknamed "Tubby" and confess that they are completely unattractive to women except for their money? - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: HHH773

Mary moder, cum and se

See O Mary Mother (File: Gree044)

Mary Nail

See Mary Neal [Laws M17] (File: LM17)

Mary Neal [Laws M17]

DESCRIPTION: The singer is on trial for kidnapping Mary Neal. She pleads for him and he is released. She steals some of her father's wealth; they marry and set off overseas. After a near-disaster on the ship, they reject her father's offer of land if they return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3843)); "from an Athlone ballad slip of about 1840," according to Sparling)
KEYWORDS: trial emigration love abduction
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(South)) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws M17, "Mary Neal"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 92, "Mary Neal" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 216-217, "Mary Neal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 80, "Mary Nail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H55, pp. 479-480, "Charming Mary O'Neill" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 38, "Charming Mary Neill" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 582, MARYNEAL
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 321-323, 511, "Charming Mary Neal"
Roud #142
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3843), "Mary Neal and John M'Cann," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also 2806 b.11(66), "Mary Neil" ("I am a bold undaunted youth my name is John M'Cann"); 2806 b.11(259), Harding B 15(41b), "Charming Mary Neal"
Murray, Mu23-y1:044, "Mary Neal," James Lindsay Junr (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(063), "Mary Neil," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), c.1875
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial) [Laws M10]" (tune)
NOTES [82 words]: A correspondent of Sam Henry's claimed that this was a true story, with the girl being kidnapped to prevent a fight between two rival suitors. Yet another case where we can't prove it false but can hardly credit it, either.
Michael Harron of County Tyrone offers more substantial details. He reports that the ship involved was the Charlotte Douglas, which sank June 9, 1836. Harron has seen newspaper accounts of the ship's voyage, and reports that only three were killed in the wreck. - RBW
File: LM17

Mary o' the Dee (Mary's Dream) [Laws K20]

DESCRIPTION: Mary falls asleep thinking of Sandy. His ghost appears to her, bidding her to stop weeping; his body lies at the bottom of the sea and he is at rest. He warns her that they will soon meet. The cock crows and the ghost vanishes
AUTHOR: John Lowe
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (The Vocal Magazine)
KEYWORDS: dream ghost separation death drowning
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Laws K20, "Mary o' the Dee (Mary's Dream)"
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 151-152, "Mary's Dream" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 339, "Mary's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 83, "Mary o' the Dee (Mary's Dream)" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H54, pp. 144-145, "Mary's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune -- the latter added by Sam Henry)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 147, "Mary o' the Dee" (1 text)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 40, "Mary and Sandy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 707,"Mary, Weep No More for Me" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #68, "Mary's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 28, pp. 50-51, "Mary's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 102-103, "Mary's Dream" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 180-181, "Mary's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 246-248, "Mary's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 65, "Mary's Vision" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 214-215, "Young Sandy" (1 text); pp. 306-307, "Mary's Dream" (1 text) (a fragment of "Young Sandy" is on p. 155 in the 1919 edition)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, p. 168, "Mary's Dream" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 481, "Mary's Dream" (source notes only)
DT 562, MARYDREM
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume I, #37, p. 38, "Mary's Dream" (1 short text, 1 tune, plus a "new set")
ST LK20 (Full)
Roud #713
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(191b), "Mary's Dream" ("The moon had clim'd the highest hill"), T. Birt (London), 1833-1841; also Firth b.27(534), 2806 c.17(266), Firth b.27(240), Firth b.27(407), Harding B 11(2368), Harding B 11(2369), Harding B 25(1230), Firth b.25(18), Harding B 11(1875), 2806 c.14(49), 2806 c.14(166), Harding B 15(189a), "Mary's Dream"
LOCSinging, as108650, "Mary's Dream," L. & J. L. Appley (New York), 19C
Murray, Mu23-y1:056, "Mary's Dream," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(075), "Mary's Dream," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c.1875
NOTES [143 words]: Although traditionally considered a Scots song (there is a version in Scots dialect, possibly by Allan Cunningham), and often found is Scottish song collections, its grip on Scottish tradition is weak -- I wouldn't be surprised if most are ultimately derived from the Scots Musical Museum. There are a number of printed versions, but traditional collections are mostly from North America. The author, John Lowe, emigrated to the American colonies shortly before the Revolutionary War, and the song was written in what later became the U.S. - RBW
The commentary for NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(075) for "Mary's Dream": "The lyrics for this ballad were written in 1772 by John Lowe. Lowe was tutor to the McGhie family, and wrote the song for Mary, one of the daughters. She had been engaged to a surgeon named Alexander (Sandy) Miller who was lost at sea." - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LK20

Mary o' the Wild Moor

See Mary of the Wild Moor [Laws P21] (File: LP21)

Mary of Argyle

See Bonny Mary of Argyle (File: JMSSo105)

Mary of Ballyhaunis

See The Maid of Ballyhaunis (File: HHH483)

Mary of Limerick Town

See Beautiful Mary from Sweet Limerick Town (File: HMHS179C)

Mary of Sweet Belfast Town

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets Mary. He asks why she frowns. Her lover has "gone over the main And I hear he is married." The singer reveals that he is her lover returned after seven years. They marry next morning and settle, with his riches, in Belfast.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry)
KEYWORDS: love separation marriage reunion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 70-71, "Mary of Sweet Belfast Town" (1 text)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 55, "Mary of Sweet Belfast Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6535
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. esp. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
File: HayU070

Mary of the Curling Hair

See My Mary of the Curling Hair (File: HMHS068A)

Mary of the Wild Moor [Laws P21]

DESCRIPTION: Abandoned Mary comes with her child to her father's door on a bitter winter night. Her father fails to hear or ignores her cries, leaving her all night on the doorstep. In the morning he finds her body. He dies of grief and the child of neglect
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 27)
KEYWORDS: death father children family hardheartedness grief
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (45 citations):
Laws P21, "Mary of the Wild Moor"
Thompson-APioneerSongster 85, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 143, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 fragment)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 114, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text) (p. 96 in the 1919 edition)
Sturgis/Hughes-SongsFromTheHillsOfVermont, pp. 44-46, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan6 1175, "Why Did I Leave My Auld Hame?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 213-214, "The Wind Across the Wild Moor" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 89)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 57, "Mary If The Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 77-78, "Mary Across the Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #124, "Mary Across the Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 48, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 239-240, "The Winds That Blew 'Cross the Wild Moor (Mary on the Wild Moor)" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 207-208, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text plus references to 5 more)
Randolph 72, "The Wild Moor" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 107-108, "The Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 72A)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 111, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 75-77, "The Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 69-70, "The Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 88, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 216, "Young Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 45, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, p. 149, "Mary o' the Wild Moor" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 78, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 78, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, pp. 51-52, "Mary on the Wild Moor" (1 reconstructed text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #213, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 335-336, "The Wind That Blew O'er the Wild Moor" (1 text, with local title "Poor Mary"; tune on p. 448)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #114, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 20, pp. 28-30, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (3 texts)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 733-734, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 62, "Mary Across the Wild Moor" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 61, "The Village Pride" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 132-134, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 466, "When Mary Came Wandering Home" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 548-549, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 35, pp. 81-82, "Mary o' the Wild Moor" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 148, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text plus mention of 3 more)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #27, p. 103, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 62-63, "Mary, of the Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 133-134, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 155, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #2/72, p. 28 and #2/64, p. 28, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1393, p. 95, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (2 references)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 481, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (source notes only)
DT 503, WILDMOOR* WLDMOOR1*
ST LP21 (Full)
Roud #155
RECORDINGS:
Blue Sky Boys, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (Bluebird B-8446/Montgomery Ward M-8667, 1940)
Jim Molloy, "Wind Across the Wild Moor" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Letys Murrin, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (on Ontario1)
Debra Sharpe, "Mary of the Wild Moor" (Piotr-Archive #594, recorded 05/30/2023 -- a summary rather than an actual song)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 27[many illegible words], "Mary of the Moor," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Johnson Ballads 1802 View 2 of 2, Harding B 11(3), Harding B 11(2364), Harding B 11(2365), Harding B 11(1501), Firth c.12(443), Harding B 11(4232), Harding B 11(4233), Firth b.25(147), Harding B 15(188b), "Mary of the Moor"; Firth b.27(69), Harding B 26(600), "Poor Mary of the Wild Moor"; Firth b.34(229), Firth c.26(275)[some illegible lines], 2806 c.16(261), 2806 c.14(78), 2806 c.14(13)[some illegible words], "Mary of the Wild Moor[!]"; Harding B 11(2789), Harding B 17(243b), Harding B 25(1538)[some illegible lines], 2806 c.18(252) [some illegible/missing words], "Poor Mary of the Moor"
LOCSheet, sm1882 10438, "Mary of the Wild Moor," Oliver Ditson & Co. (Boston), 1882 (tune)
LOCSinging, sb30333b, "Mary of the Wild Moor," H. De Marsans (New York), 1861-1864; also as108620, as108630, "Mary of the Wild Moor"
Murray, Mu23-y4:018, "Poor Mary of the Wild Moor," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(072), "Poor Mary of the Wild Moor", unknown, c.1860
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fatal Snowstorm" [Laws P20] (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Robin's Petition (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 25(1538))
NOTES [55 words]: Quoted by Laura Ingalls Wilder in chapter 14 of By the Shores of Silver Lake. She does not repeat the sad ending, of course. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb30333b: H. De Marsans dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LP21

Mary on the Banks of the Lee

DESCRIPTION: Before the singer leaves Mary to go on the ocean he warns her her not to stay out late on the moors. He writes her a letter but recieves no reply. He returns and brings roses to place on her grave.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (IRPTunney01)
KEYWORDS: love warning separation death flowers
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, p. 56, "The Banks of the Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BNKSLEE*
Roud #6857
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "Mary on the Banks of the Lee" (on IRPTunney01)
Sheila Stewart, "The Banks of the Lee" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
NOTES [40 words]: The description is from the text of "Lovely Banks of Lea" on "Oak - Country Songs and Music," Musical Traditions Record MTCD327-8 (2003) sung by Peta Webb, apparently following the text from Mary Connors. It is longer than Paddy Tunney's. - BS
File: DTbnksle

Mary on the Silvery Tide

See The Silvery Tide [Laws O37] (File: LO37)

Mary on the Wild Moor

See Mary of the Wild Moor [Laws P21] (File: LP21)

Mary Phagan [Laws F20]

DESCRIPTION: Mary Phagan works in a pencil factory. While there she is beaten to death by Leo Frank. An innocent bystander (who happens to be black) is arrested, but then Frank's guilt is established and he is sentenced to death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (JournalOfAmericanFolklore XXXI)
KEYWORDS: homicide accusation factory abduction rape execution lie abuse mother corpse Jew
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 26/27, 1913 - Murder (and suspected rape) of thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan at the National Pencil factory in Atlanta
Aug 26, 1913 - Despite evidence that Jim Conley committed the murder, Leo Frank found guilty of the crime and sentenced to death
June 22, 1915 - Georgia Governor Stanton commutes Frank's sentence to life imprisonment
Aug 16/17, 1915 - A lynch mob captures Frank and kills him
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws F20, "Mary Phagan"
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 110, "Leo Frank and Mary Phagan" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 144, "Little Mary Phagan" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 71-75, "Little Mary Fagan"; "Little Mary Phagan" (2 texts)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 253, "Little Mary Phagan" (4 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more; Laws lists only three of these as this song, but this appears to be an error)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 253, "Little Mary Phagan" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 260, "Little Mary Fagan" (1 fragment)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #37, "Little Mary Phagan" (2 texts)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama. pp. 74-75, "Little Mary Fagan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 104, "Little Mary Fagan" (1 text)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 231, "Little Mary Phagan" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 314, "Little Mary Phagan" (1 text)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 61-64, "(Mary Phagan)" (1 text plus 2 long excerpts, 1 tune; one of these versions blames Conley rather than Frank, and is probably a rewrite); also an isolated couplet on p. 123
DT 774, MARYFAG
ADDITIONAL: Leonard Dinnerstein, _The Leo Frank Case_, second edition, University of Georgia Press, 1987, pp. 166-168, "The Ballad of Mary Phagan" (1 text, from JAFL)
Robert Seitz Frey and Nancy C. Thomson, _The Silent and the Damned: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank_), 1988; Cooper Square, 2002, pp. 139-141( 3 texts, one from Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, one from Pearl Flake of Atlanta, and one unidentified; there is also a separate Mary Phagan poem)
Kristina Horton, _Martyr of Loray Mill: Ella May and the 1929 Textile Workers' Strike in Gastonia, North Carolina_, McFarland & Company, 2015, pp. 189-190, "Little Mary Phagan" (1 text, from Brown, included because it is the basis of "The Mill Mother's Lament")
Roud #696
RECORDINGS:
Rosa Lee Carson, "Little Mary Phagan" (OKeh 40446, 1925)
Vernon Dalhart, "Little Mary Phagan" (Columbia 15031-D [as Al Craver], 1925) (Romeo 332, 1927; rec. 1925)
Charlie Oaks, "Little Mary Phagan" (Vocalion 15099, 1925; Vocalion 5069, c. 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Death of Roy Rickey" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Death of Roy Rickey (File: ThBa163)
The Mill Mother's Lament (File: GAFP250)
NOTES [15043 words]: [This] story was later made into a movie, "They Won't Forget," in which Lana Turner made her debut as Mary. - PJS
I've seen it called "They Don't Forget," though Internet sources seem to indicate that Paul is correct. The stills on the web don't make Turner a very good likeness of Mary Phagan, if it matters. (McNeil, p. 74, says that Turner was "totally inappropriate" in the role, though he gives no explanation. Hollywood would hardly care that the two didn't look alike.)
Although probably the best-known, "They Won't Forget" was in fact only one of many movies inspired by the case, beginning with a contemporary documentary of sorts, "Leo M. Frank and Governor Slaton," which included actual footage of Leo Frank in prison (it could hardly be called an "interview" in the days of silent film!) but largely ignored the actual case. The Turner movie was based on Ward Green's novel Death in the Deep South, which was not intended to be factually accurate. There was also a later TV movie. Books about the tragedy are commonplace, and continue to be published to this day. I have four, including three which as best I can tell are the most recent serious treatments of the subject still in print; for the list, see the Bibliography.
In addition to these three books, Dinnerstein's bibliography cites at least five other books devoted exclusively to the Leo Frank case, and numerous articles. WebFlag lists 13 books about the case, but four are novels and one appears to be more a sociological study than a work about the case itself.
As I re-read and update this entry about fifteen years after I first wrote it, I am amazed by the number of slips of the pen (word processor?). I can only say that I wrote it in real anger and shame at the American judicial system. MacLean, p. 160, suggests that the whole thing was influenced by the sort of reactionary populism which was not widely recognized when she wrote but that came to full flower in the election of 2016.... I still believe that the execution of Leo Frank could only be the result of vigilante justice fueled by what we now call "fake news," but I have tried to improve the account somewhat. Still, there will surely be traces of my earlier passion.
I wasn't the only one making mistakes. Laws, for what reason I do not know (it may be just one of the many typos in his work), gives the date of Mary Phagan's death as April 5, and this was used in earlier editions of the Index. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan incorrectly give it as August 5. McNeil reports April 27, 1913 as the date of Mary Phagan's death; I think this is meant to refer to the date on which the body was discovered. A New York Times story (August 18, 1915) quoted by Brown gives a date of April 26. Mary's tombstone says April 26. This is also the date cited in Dinnerstein and Oney. F/T, p. 1, states that the body was found at 3:20 a.m. on April 27; Dinnerstein, p. 1, gives the time as 3:00 a.m., and Oney, p. 18, says it was found at 3:30 a.m.
The date of the murder isn't the only thing that is uncertain. For example, Laws lists the date of the commutation of Leo Frank's sentence as June 22, but I made a note (from what source, sadly, I do not recall) that it took place in August. The June date is correct; Governor Slaton was out of office by August.
There seems to have been confusion over the date of Frank's murder as well.
Even the date of Mary Phagan's birth is slightly uncertain, though this is not a case of modern misprints; it's an early error. Her tombstone says she was born June 1, 1900 (a photo is found in F/T following p. 68), but her mother implied a date in 1899 (F/T, p. 6). The best guess is that she was not quite fourteen at the time of her death. Her family's history is not entirely clear in the sources; her biological father was dead at the time of her murder, but F/T, p. 6, says her father was named John and died in 1911, while Oney, p. 4, says that her father William Joshua Phagan died in 1899 before Mary was born. F/T and Oney also disagree on her birthplace; F/T says Marietta, Georgia, which is where she grew up; Oney claims Alabama, saying the family moved to Marietta in 1900, then to Atlanta in 1907. WebFlag agrees with Oney.
What is certain is that Mary Phagan worked in the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta in 1913. If you're wondering what a thirteen-year-old was doing working in a pencil factory, Atlanta at this time was a very poor area, little more than a big sweatshop; child labor was considered normal (Dinnerstein, p. 8) though it was considered dangerous to let girls work in such places among grown men. But with her father dead, Mary had to work in the factory to make ends meet. Later, Mrs. Frances Phagan remarried -- to John W. Coleman in 1912, according to Oney, p. 4 -- but Mary chose to keep working in the factory; she reportedly enjoyed the job; Dinnerstein, p. 11.
Oney, p. 5, says that Mary had quit school at the age of ten, and her job at National Pencil was already her third. On p. 6, he says that Georgia was the only state that still allowed ten-year-olds to work in is factories. (The first attempt at a national child labor law was passed in 1916; it was not until Franklin Roosevelt's administration that such a law passed court scrutiny. Dinnerstein, p. 7, states that in Georgia at this time, even children under ten often worked illegally in the factories, which were never inspected; some of these children earned only 22 cents a week -- by this measure, Mary Phagan was actually relatively well off. At least she seems not to have been one of the more than 50% of Atlanta children who, according to Dinnerstein, p. 8, suffered malnutrition or work-related illnesses.)
Atlanta at this time was a very rough place; in 1905, it is claimed that a fifth of the population had some sort of run-in with the police. Crime was still extremely widespread at the time of the Frank Dupre case nearly a decade later (see the notes to "Dupree" [Laws I11]). The poverty made the city a powderkeg; Dinnerstein, p. 9, thinks this explains the public hysteria caused by the Phagan case.
Another thing is certain: while in the factory, Mary was murdered.
She wasn't even supposed to be there. April 26 was Confederate Memorial Day, so the factory was closed down and only a few people were in the building (F/T, pp. 4-5). As the song says, she went to the factory to collect her pay.
The body was discovered by night watchman Newt Lee in the early hours of Sunday, April 27, 1913 (Dinnerstein, p. 1). Lee had apparently gone down to the basement to use the "colored" toilet (F/T, p. 32 -- remember, this was Atlanta in 1913, so the facilities were thoroughly segregated. Oney, p. 21, says that Lee was born a slave -- whatever that tells us).
Lee called the police, who found the corpse of a girl concealed by sawdust and grime so thick that the police could not immediately determine her race, her mouth filled with dirt, her skin covered with cinders (they probably stuck to her as the murderer choked her with her face to the ground), her cheeks slashed, her fingers out of joint, her head bashed in, blood coming from mouth and ears, with a 3/4 inch cord and a strip of her underclothes tied around her neck, and her clothing in shreds (F/T, p. 2; Dinnerstein, p. 2, Oney, p. 18; on p. 391, Oney says that her clothing was *cut* with knife or scissors, to expose body parts -- seemingly evidence of sexual fetishism). She clearly had fought her murderer, but equally clearly, the murderer had been a brute, and probably a very strong one. The issue in the Mary Phagan case is not whether the murderer deserved to be hung -- clearly the human race would have been better off without him (and I say that as an opponent of the death penalty). The issue is, who was the beast?
The police investigation was inept, leaving much physical evidence unexamined. The police expended a lot of energy, searching subjects' homes and checking time clock records (F/T, pp. 10-11), but showed little intelligence. (F/T, p. 11, points out the interesting fact that the Atlanta police chief would in later years be twice demoted for incompetence! -- James L. Beavers, had been appointed in 1911 and gone on a crusade against brothels, but was inept enough that he was deposed and resigned in 1915, then reappointed in 1917, ran for mayor in 1922 and didn't even make it to the second round, and was deposed again in 1923, only to be restored yet again 1925-1932; Garrett, pp. 574, 657, 699, 787, 794-795.)
The coroner does not seem to have examined the body fully enough to rule on whether the murderer had engaged in anal rape, checking only for vaginal intercourse -- and even there, the results would prove less than definitive.
Mary's purse, described as a mesh handbag, had been taken and was never found (F/T, p. 3) -- a fact which is significant in considering the motive for the murder. Jim Conley would accuse Leo Frank of taking it (Oney, p. 257), but it never surfaced in Frank's possessions. Dinnerstein, pp. 169-171, mentions that a prisoner later claimed that Jim Conley gave him a purse which matched the description of Mary's -- but the account was said by the newspapers to have been discredited, though no explanation was given as to why.
Whoever got it, the purse can't have held much; Mary was paid a few pennies an hour to put erasers in their metal holders (F/T, p. 5, says she earned 12 cents an hour; Oney, p. 5, claims 10 cents an hour). Other employees had been paid the Friday before the holiday, but because the eraser room had been temporarily shut down due to a supply problem, Mary had not been in the plant at the time and did not know about this. As a result, she came in a day late to pick up her $1.20 (F/T, p. 5. Ordinarily, she worked 55 hours a week, but this week she had worked only eight or ten hours; Oney, p. 9). Manager Leo Frank was in the office to compile the weekly production report, so she collected her pay from him (he reportedly did not know who she was, according to Oney, p. 27 -- not too surprising, since the factory employed 170 people, mostly teenage girls, according to Oney, p. 16. In the trial, it was shown that he rarely talked to his workers; Oney, p. 215). No one admitted to seeing her again until her body was found (F/T, p. 6).
It was obviously murder, and a brutal one; some suspected rape as well. (McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2,, p. 72, says unequivocally that she had been raped, but it must be repeated, this is unproved.) The claim of rape was apparently was based on the testimony of janitor Conley (Tennessean, p. 3), and also on the fact that there was blood around her genitals (Oney, p. 19), though the limited physical evidence supplied by examiners would prove inconclusive. The room in which she was found was almost inaccessible; the only ways to reach it were by an elevator, a few shafts from the upper floors which could not be climbed from below, or a plank ladder which led to a long, narrow, minimally lighted corridor (Oney, p. 19). It sounds as if, had luck been different, Mary's body might not have been found for days.
Remember that elevator, because Jim Conley later claimed that it was by this means that he and Leo Frank had carried Mary's body to the basement. Despite this, there seems to be no evidence that her body was ever in the elevator cage.
Support for the theory of rape probably came from the descriptions of Mary Phagan; according to Tennessean, p. 6, she was "a beautiful girl -- four feet, eight inches tall and weighing about 105 pounds. She had long, reddish-blond hair...." F/T, p. 6, says she was considered the prettiest girl in her neighborhood, and Oney describes her on p. 3 as follows: "Eyes blue as cornflowers, cheeks high-boned and rosy, smile beguiling as honeysuckle, figure busty (later, everyone acknowledged that 'she was exceedingly well-developed for her age'), she had undoubtedly already tortured many a boy." This largely matches the description of Mary given by a friend at the Leo Frank trial; Oney, p. 213.
(Two men who sniffed after her actually became suspects in the case, according to Oney: One was a 24-year-old named Arthur Mullinax who supposedly had been attracted to her at a Baptist Christmas pageant in which she played Snow White; Oney, p. 33. There seems to be some confusion about this pageant; F/T, p. 7, says Phagan played "Sleeping Beauty" at the First Christian Church, which doesn't sound like a Baptist congregation. In any case, the police questioned Mullinax but eventually let him go; a sighting of him in suspicious circumstances was a case of mistaken identity; Oney, p. 62. Mary also apparently attracted the attention of James Milton Gantt, a 26-year-old former National Pencil employee; Oney, p. 47. He too came under suspicion, but had an alibi; Oney, p. 62.)
Dinnerstein, p. 12, has a photo which does make her quite attractive, though her hair looks rather dark and I would have guessed her to be older than thirteen. It appears that the photos from this set are the only ones of her available, at least as a teenager; the cover of F/T, F/T, p. 26, Golden, before p. 177, and Oney, after p. 278, all show pictures of her in what appears to be the same clothing, though the photos themselves are not quite identical.
People also described her as a "model girl" and said that everyone liked her (F/T, p, 6), though Oney, p. 3, sees a more rebellious streak in her letters, which talk about escaping her circumstances. But she had never done anything that seriously troubled her family. When she didn't come home on time, her mother and stepfather were frantic; when word eventually came (long delayed because the body had been hard to identify and because the Colemans had no phone, so a neighbor had to carry word), Mrs. Coleman literally collapsed over the fate of her daughter (Oney, pp. 23-24). Mary had not until then even been considered old enough to go dating.
(She may have been up to something on the side, though; MacLean, p. 159. Two medical examiners eventually looked at her body. One thought that she had been sexually abused but found no sperm in her vagina; Oney, p. 234. The other found that her hymen was not intact but, because there was little blood there, did not think it had been broken in the assault -- perhaps evidence that she had not been raped; Oney, p. 237. She definitely was not pregnant; F/T, p. 37.)
The police abused and detained watchman Lee (Dinnerstein, p. 14; Garrett, p. 620, mentions the custody but not the abuse), and brought to light some inconsistencies in his testimony (F/T, p. 14) as well as finding a suspiciously stained (bloody?) shirt in his trash (Oney, p. 65). He had, however, punched his time clock pretty regularly on the night of the murder (Oney, p. 30), and they finally concluded he was innocent. (Unlike the papers, which at one point declared him unequivocally guilty.) The authorities also used strongarm tactics on fired former bookkeeper Gantt, again without results (F/T, p. 8).
The police had been so incompetent that plant manager Leo Max Frank called in the Pinkertons (Dinnerstein, p. 4). Oney, p. 20, thinks the first men on the scene did a relatively good job, but even he allows on p. 30 that the detectives messed up the trail over which Mary had been dragged, as well as destroying physical evidence when they took the elevator to the basement. In light of their performance, Oney, p. 54, makes the interesting observation that Atlanta's policemen at this time had only a week's training before being given a badge, and the department had no fingerprint expert. This is important, because Dinnerstein, p. 4, says that there were fingerprints on Mary's clothes, and probably in the vicinity, some bloody, but no examination was made of them, even though Frank himself asked if they had been looked at.
Hiring the Pinkertons may have been a mistake; Oney, p. 62, observes that the Pinkertons at this time were often hired to whitewash businesses, so hiring them was seen as a sign of some sort of guilt. They often supplied muscle that was used against ordinary people. In any case, they seem to have turned against Frank under pressure of public opinion; Dinnerstein, p. 20. Plus they weren't much help; F/T, p. 28, says that an Atlanta ordinance forced them into subservience to the police.
Nothing much happened for a week after the murder: Investigators did haul in seven suspects -- but couldn't offer any real evidence (Dinnerstein, p. 15). Meanwhile, tensions in the community were increasing.
Because of the lack of results, Atlanta Solicitor-General H. M. Dorsey stepped in on May 5 (Oney, p. 92). "Solicitor-General" was the then-current term for what we would now call "District Attorney"; his main duty was managing prosecutions. Dorsey certainly brought more energy to the case, but it was hardly his job. (Dinnerstein, p. 154, calls his action "conduct unbecoming a state official.")
Nor was Dorsey the last to intervene -- a coalition including one of the newspapers would hire the William Burns detective agency (Dinnerstein, p. 16). Burns was probably the most famous sleuth of the time (Oney, pp. 102-105), but though he sent a subordinate, he would not personally get involved until things had turned ugly.
So by early May there were four competing organizations investigating the Phagan case (Dinnerstein, p. 19): The Atlanta police, Dorsey's office, the Pinkertons, and Burns and Company. It was more a competition than anything else -- the investigators were actually spying on each other (Oney, p. 108). Sadly, this caused Burns -- the one competent investigator -- to pull out temporarily (Dinnerstein, p. 20; Oney, p. 112). By the time he returned, public opinion was too set for him to do much good.
While police were striking out with their original suspects, Leo Frank, the manager of the National Pencil factory, had come under suspicion. Oney, p. 24, describes Atlanta Detective John Black as a suspicious sort; he seems to have been set off by the fact that it was some hours before anyone answered the phone at the home where Leo and Lucille Frank lived with Lucille's parents. It didn't help that, when detectives came to the home, Frank appeared to be very agitated (Oney, p. 25). Frank's explanation -- which makes sense to me -- is that, when the police came to his door, no one was willing to say what was going on! (Oney, p. 26).
Later, the police put Newt Lee (whom they still suspected) and Frank in a room together to try to shake something loose, but with no results (Oney, p. 69). This somehow caused investigators to suspect Frank even more (Oney, p. 70).
By that time, the papers had roused tensions to a fever pitch. Unfortunately, one of the local papers was a Hearst organ -- and one that had only been part of the chain for a year, so it needed beefing up (Oney, p. 40). Crime stories were a favorite (Oney, p. 41). The Atlanta Georgian devoted over 17,000 column inches to the Phagan case in the first five months after the murder, forcing the other papers to give it attention as well (Dinnerstein, p. 13). The Georgian did not break the story; a sensationalist writer named Britt Craig induced the Atlanta Constitution to publish an extra (Oney, pp. 22-23).
But that was just the opening salvo. The papers competed in lurid coverage (including, e.g., a faked photo of Mary's head on another body; Oney, p. 35); naturally public opinion was inflamed! On the Monday after the murders, the Georgian printed at least eight extras, perhaps more (Oney, p. 37). The Georgian was not actually anti-Frank (according to Dinnerstein, pp. 29-31, only the Atlanta Constitution, which was closest to the police department, accepted police statements without question), but it hardly mattered. The Mayor of Atlanta, under pressure, proceeded to order the police to find the murderer or lose their jobs (Dinnerstein, p. 16). After all, they already had 13 unsolved murders on their books (F/T, p. 27) and a reputation for corruption (Oney, p. 54) -- though they also had a crusading reputation (Oney, p. 59).
Later on, another paper, Tom Watson's Jeffersonian, would prove even more troublesome. Thomas E. Watson (for whom see the notes to "Thomas E. Watson") called himself a populist, which in practice means that he combined the worst aspects of William Jennings Bryan populism with bigotry, appealing to base prejudices against foreigners, Jews, and Yankees, including the non-Georgian detective Williams Burns (Oney, p. 397. Dinnerstein, p. 95, says that -- in his early days at least -- Watson was not anti-Black. But that changed as he went from politician to publisher -- he even went so far as to rejoin the Georgia Democratic party, which at that time was still the party of racism and reactionary opinion).
Watson had been the populist vice-presidential nominee in 1896 -- producing a very strange situation, since William Jennings Bryan ended up being nominated for President by both the Democrats and the Populists, but with different vice presidential nominees. The Democrats chose Arthur Sewell, the Populists Watson. (That was the last time -- the only time, really -- that a presidential candidate had two significant vice presidential candidates associated with him.) This had come about because the Populists had wanted to support Bryan but did not want to merge their party with the Democrats (PresElections, p. 1812). They supported Bryan to promote free silver, but nominated Watson for vice president to maintain their separate organization.
According to PresElections, p. 1874, the populists were pretty well skunked in the popular vote -- William McKinley earned 7.1 million votes, Bryan with Sewell (or no specified vice president) 6.5 million, the Populist ticket only 222,000. In Georgia, Watson earned only 440 votes, to 94,672 for Bryan and Sewell. Yet, of the 176 electoral votes for Bryan that year, only 149 voted for Sewell, giving Watson 27 electoral votes. It was one of the strongest electoral college showings ever by a third party vice presidential candidate, and the high point of Watson's political career. Watson was the populist presidential candidate in 1904, but went nowhere in that election; the Populist party was dying.
Watson probably didn't help his future prospects in the 1896 campaign; PresElections, p. 1821, describes how he turned "angry and vituperative" when the regular Democrats hadn't paid more attention to him. In effect, he became the predecessor of angry conservative talk radio hosts -- and, arguably, of President Donald Trump.
Since his days on the national stage, Watson had turned into a popularity-grubbing nativist whose message was largely about hate; see Oney, p. 8, and his entry in the Dictionary of American Biography. Watson argued (obviously falsely) that there was no poverty in the early United States (Hofstadter, p. 62n.), but "We have become the world's melting pot. The scum of creation has been dumped upon us.... What brought these Goths and Vandals to our shores? The manufacturers are mainly to blame" (Hofstadter, pp. 82-83; on p. 81, he comments on Watson's behavior in the Frank case). Dinnerstein, p. 119, says that he called Frank a "jewpervert."
As the above shows, Watson had a way with words -- and his way was to flamingly condemn anything that his uneducated, poor, parochial readers might dislike. As best I can tell, the only thing he had in common with the broad-minded Thomas Jefferson is that both believed in an agrarian society.
The time of the murder was never firmly established (F/T, p. 37). The prosecution's doctor would estimate that she was killed around the time she was given her pay (Dinnerstein, p. 3). However, the forensics of the time had very little to go on -- the examiner's only evidence was the state of digestion of the contents of her stomach, which led him to estimate that she had eaten within an hour of the time she was killed. This worked out to a time between 12:00 and 12:15, which fit the state's case against Leo Frank; Oney, pp. 233-234. But while this might have been the most likely time, the defense brought in an expert who argued that the death might have occurred much later (Oney, p. 262) -- energetic activity could slow digestion, and even if you ignored being murdered, Mary had a fairly busy itinerary on the last day of her life.
The whole chronology is difficult (the following comes from Dinnerstein, pp. 48-49). Two employees said they came in to be paid around 11:45; Jim Conley said they came in around 1:00. Conley said that Mary Phagan had reached the factory before Monteen Stover. Stover testified that she reached Frank's office at 12:05, failed to see him in his office (he may have been hidden behind an inner door, assuming her account is accurate), and left at 12:10. The conductor of the trolley Mary rode to work said she had gotten off at 12:10 at a point about three minutes' walk from her work. Frank was seen at home (where he had lunch) between 1:00 and 1:30. Conley said Frank was at the factory at 1:30. And, as noted, the doctor claimed Mary was dead by 12:15. Obviously these times cannot all be reconciled, and the primary contradictions are between Conley, Stover, and the doctor who estimated the time of death -- all prosecution witnesses.
Quite a few people apparently visited the factory on April 26 (F/T, pp. 11-12). But it was alleged that at the time of the murder (based on the prosecution's timeline, of course) only two men were in the factory -- manager Leo Frank and (Black) janitor Jim Conley. (Frank's stenographer and office boy had both left around noon, shortly before Mary came to draw her pay; Oney, p. 29). The claim that no one else was there was extravagant -- the building was not ordinarily locked (F/T, p. 32), and Newt Lee, during the trial, would state that "anyone" could enter; Oney, p. 202. Plus the building was huge -- four stories high, and it occupied a whole city block. Oney, p. 9, reports that it was big enough to produce an average of 4.374 gross of pencils per week, or about 630,000. And the pencils weren't even all identical; Oney, p. 273, quotes a staff member as saying they made dozens of different kinds of pencil, which meant that it wasn't just one continuous assembly line; there were several separate production facilities. The obvious conclusion is that a sufficiently determined person could enter the building, and hide for an extended period if he so desired.
Still, the evidence indicates that Leo Frank was apparently the last person, other than the murderer, to see Mary alive, when he gave her her pay (Dinnerstein, p. 3). He said he heard no signs of a row during his time in his office. This even though a stain, which was said to be a pool of blood, was found in the "metal room" near Frank's office (Dinnerstein, p. 5). Oney, p. 46, says witnesses thought it was new, and that an attempt had been made to hide it. Apparently, though, the only "proof" that the fluid was blood was the fact that it did not dissolve in alcohol. (Oney, p. 47, thinks the blood was Mary's, but it appears no valid testing was done.) Hair was also found there, and one of the other workers in the metal room was sure it was Mary's.
(The claim that it was Phagan's blood and hair turned out to be extremely weak; staff at the factory said that there was often blood there because saws were in use; F/T, p. 35. Plus it was on the path to the first aid station, so people sometimes came in bleeding; Oney, p. 231. In any case, Dinnerstein, p. 234, says that the stain was eventually demonstrated not to be blood. Also, a girl who had worked there with Mary said that the floor of the room often was spotted with paint and other fluids, and that girls sometimes combed out their hair there -- and that one of those girls had hair much like Mary's; Oney, p. 216. The state biologist would later declare unequivocally that the hair was not Mary's; Dinnerstein, pp. 84-85.)
Given Monteen Stover's testimony that Frank was not in his office around the alleged time of the murder (Dinnerstein, pp. 37-38), Frank was arrested on suspicion of murder on April 29 (F/T, pp. 11-12; Oney, p. 60). He would later be interrogated harshly without his lawyer being present. (In the light of what followed, we have to note that Frank was Jewish and came from New York; Phagan of course was a southern girl.)
Since her purse was missing, it was evident that she had been robbed as well as murdered. Frank, however earned a salary of $150 per month (F/T, p. 37), which was at least five times Mary's income, and no one seems ever to have alleged that his pay was inadequate to his needs. Even if his salary *hadn't* been enough, what are the odds that he would have cared about Mary's $1.20?
No physical evidence was ever found to implicate Frank. The only real evidence against Frank seems to have been his nervousness when informed of the murder and his vigorous attempts to blame someone else (Oney, p. 63. To which I say, What would *you* do if you were falsely charged with murder?)
A number of witnesses came forward to attack Frank's sexual morality. A young man named George Epps said Mary Phagan was afraid of him (Dinnerstein, p. 17). This seems dubious -- given the labor shortage in Atlanta, she could have found other work had she been suffering harassment. Plus the strong evidence is that Leo Frank did not know who she was. Topping it all off -- would she have gone to collect her pay on that day, when no one else was around, if she had been afraid of him? If she were really afraid, she would surely have gone to the factory only when there were witnesses around!
Accounts differed about whether Frank hassled other female employees (and, naturally, when one of them made charges against him, it got bigger headlines in the papers than when someone denied it; Dinnerstein, pp. 30-31). One "rooming house" owner claimed that Frank had tried to secure a room for part of a day (Dinnerstein, pp. 17-18), though an employee, despite pressure from the police, declared unequivocally that this was not so (Dinnerstein, p. 28). There were rumors, seemingly unsubstantiated, of paedophilia or other "perversions" (Dinnerstein, p. 19).
I would add that Frank had married as recently as 1910 (Dinnerstein, p. 6; F/T, p. 20). His wife was still only 25, described as pretty if plump (Oney, p. 81, though the photo he prints don't make her appear very attractive), and she was said to be quite endearing. One would think that Frank would still have been fairly happy with his wife, and their letters seem to have been very loving. In addition, his wife frequently visited Frank at work, so he could hardly use the factory for lecherous liaisons (F/T, p. 41; Oney, pp. 269, 271, says that several reliable witnesses reported that these visits were often on Saturdays, when Frank's alleged trysts with other girls took place).
In light of the extensive force used in Phagan's murder, it is worth noting that Frank was skinny and rather frail and probably weighed no more than 132 pounds (F/T, p. 20; Oney, p. 10, says he was five feet six inches and weighed 120 pounds. To be sure, Dinnerstein, p. 136, says he lost 60 points in prison, which is obviously impossible if he started at 120 or even 132. I wonder if "60 pounds" wasn't an error of hearing, at some point, for 16 pounds, which makes more sense and would also account roughly for the difference between F/T's and Oney's numbers). It is likely that he was hardly bigger than Mary herself (F/T, p. 35). The adjective "birdlike" could almost have been invented for him; in his photos, his head seems bigger than all the rest of him. He hardly seemed strong enough to be able to apply that much force. In addition, a few days after the murder, he showed the detectives that his body had none of the cuts and bruises that would have been expected had he been in a fight (Oney, p. 51).
We might note in addition that he was a Reform Jew (Oney, p. 597); he was clean-shaven and had attended Cornell (Oney has several photos of him in college). His subject was mechanical engineering (Dinnerstein, p. 5).
Police hauled in a servant of the Franks, and sweated some comments out of her that vaguely supported their theory of the case (Oney, pp. 162-165). Once released, she declared her entire affidavit false (Dinnerstein, pp. 26-27). Given the circumstances, her statements against Frank are clearly unreliable; she had been kept in prison without charge or warrant, and police apparently gave her the impression she would be hanged. In essence, it was a confession under torture.
The strange question is, why wasn't 27-year-old janitor Jim Conley, the other person who was known to have been in the National Pencil factory around the time of the murder, given this sort of attention? Although he was taken into custody a few days after the murder, Oney, p. 118, states that no one even took a statement from him for fifteen days after he was arrested! True, he was eventually questioned repeatedly, but apparently this was because the examiners expected him to lie because he was Black (Oney, pp. 140-141). Instead of the changes in his story being considered evidence against him, they were considered evidence that his final story was true! The prosecution was so intent on making a case against Frank that at one point they formally put Conley back on the street on the grounds that he wasn't even a material witness! (Oney, p. 173).
Dinnerstein, p. 19, and Oney, p. 94, hypothesize that prosecutor Dorsey needed to win a high-profile case for political reasons, which seems likely enough given his rather poor record in past cases; Oney argues on p. 100 that Dorsey intended to use pubic opinion to make it easier to win a conviction. But that still doesn't explain why he went after Frank rather than Conley.
Notes which proved to be in Conley's handwriting were found by Mary's body (Dinnerstein, p. 21; Garrett, p. 619 has the texts), yet at one time he claimed to be unable to write (F/T, p. 26; Oney, p. 119; Dinnerstein, p. 22, says that Frank himself had told police that Conley could write -- he had gotten notes from the man asking for loans). Later, having admitted literacy, Conley claimed Frank dictated the "murder notes," but outside analysts generally felt that Conley composed them to try to divert suspicion (they accuse someone of the murder, and they blame it on a Black -- but seemingly a tall dark-skinned Black; Conley had relatively light skin; WebFlag). Some of these claims were based on racist opinions about Black intelligence, but most were based on sober stylistic analysis. One would come from Conley's own lawyer (Oney, pp. 427-430, 483).
Conley was found trying to wash blood from his shirt (Oney, p. 118, though Conley claimed the stain was rust) -- but no one even subjected the blood to scientific examination! (Dinnerstein, p. 21). Conley was the one who charged Frank with having sexual liaisons at the factory, adding that Frank was physically abnormal -- but doctors testified that he was not (Oney, p. 276). When asked to re-enact the murder, Conley -- who had not been present when Mary's corpse was found or removed -- knew just where the body had lain (Oney, p. 142). To be sure, his final story said that he took Mary's body to the basement after Frank murdered her, so this did not prove his guilt. But it should be kept in mind.
Conley had an extensive record of petty crime (F/T, pp. 37-28, says he had been in prison seven or eight times in five years, and three times in the two years he had worked for National Pencil). His job performance had been bad enough that he had been demoted from elevator operator to sweeper (Oney, p. 119) -- it was said that the whole National Pencil Factory was filthy (MacLean, p. 168). There was eyewitness testimony that he was drinking in the period before the murder (Dinnerstein, pp. 21-22), and there were other reports of him being drunk on the job in the past (Oney, p. 119). We might also note that he lived with a woman without being married to her (Oney, p. 145, etc.)
Under questioning, Conley changed his story repeatedly (how often depends on how you count changes, but it was certainly three times, and F/T, p. 39, would make it five times). Each recital adding more incriminating statements against Frank (Dinnerstein, pp. 22-25), with his version on the witness stand being even more detailed than the statements to police. His final pre-trial story was that he only helped Frank dispose of the body, plus he was almost the only person to describe actual sexual liaisons in the National Pencil building. He never mentioned the fact (which came out later) that Mary's clothing had been carefully cut up.
The story he told had inconsistencies; the Georgian stated clearly, "Careful study of the negro's story has revealed absurdities in its structure which bring the deed to Conley's door" (Oney, p. 133).
Much of Conley's testimony was contradicted by reputable witnesses during the trial (F/T, pp. 40-41). A senior National Pencil employee testified that Conley often tried to borrow money from his co-workers (F/T, p. 42), which would provide motive for robbery. Two women he claimed to have seen on the day of the murder contradicted his timeline for the encounters (Oney, p. 283). An expert testified that Conley's claims for the time he needed to transport Mary's body was too short to be physically possible (Oney, p. 284).
Conley stated that he repeatedly stood watch while Frank engaged in his sexual activities (Oney, p. 239). Had this been true, of course, he would almost certainly have been seen doing it, and he never was.
We do not know if Mary was raped, but if rape it was, Conley seems the much more likely perpetrator; letters he wrote from prison are pornographic and utterly disrespectful to women (Oney, pp. 390-391. quotes a small sample. They make disgusting reading -- Dinnerstein alludes to them on p. 102, but, even in 1966, apparently didn't dare quote such filth).
Conley was also crude enough to have defecated down an elevator shaft in the factory on the day of the murder (F/T, p. 46) -- an important point, because it proved that part of his testimony about Frank was a lie. He claimed that he and Frank had used the elevator on that day in moving the body -- but if they had, it would have smashed the pile of excrement, which was untouched when the police arrived. This point -- the "shit in the shaft" -- was not brought out until later, but it is still evidence against him.
In summary, here we have a robber, a liar, and a drunk -- yet, somehow, he became the prosecution's star witness.
On the witness stand, Conley would confess to lying repeatedly, and whenever a question came up regarding a matter on which he had not given specific testimony, he "disremembered." Somehow, he managed to remember many details about Leo Frank's misdeeds, but he "disremembered" almost everything else (Oney, p. 249).
After the trial, a witness would come forward to say that he had tried to assault her (F/T, p. 67; Oney, p. 120, reports that he once shot at a lady friend and wounded a bystander).
Mary Phagan's mother Fannie Phagan Coleman eventually brought suit for $10,000 against National Pencil in what we would now call a Wrongful Death case (F/T, p. 74). I can't help but think she would have had a great case -- if Conley had been convicted of murder. I find it incomprehensible that National Pencil did nothing to control or fire this hooligan. It seems the question of why he wasn't fired came up at trial; an officer of the company apparently declared that "trustworthy" Blacks were hard to find (Oney, p. 275).
Eventually a Grand Jury wanted to indict Conley; in fact, a week before Frank's trial, they tried to bring a charge against Conley when they hadn't even been convened (Oney, p. 185). Solicitor Dorsey, who clearly wanted to convict Frank, browbeat them out of it (Dinnerstein, p. 29). At the trial, a Pinkerton agent testified that the police guided Conley to his story (F/T, p. 40). When the time came, Frank was placed on trial for murder, and Conley was primarily as a witness for the prosecution. The trial began on July 28, 1913 (Oney, p. 190).
Due to the high levels of poverty, and the extremely low levels of education, the population of Atlanta is said to have been very xenophobic. Lynchings were common. People even raised the suggestion of "blood libel" -- that Phagan's killing had been a ritual murder. Despite this, jury selection went surprisingly quickly, considering that four of the first seven groups of prospective jurors produces no jurors at all (Oney, p. 195). It took less than a day to form the jury.
The prosecution treated the case very seriously -- Dorsey and his staff evidently knew they had a weak case, so they worked jurors' emotions to the limit. The first witness called was Fannie Coleman, Mary Phagan's mother (Oney, p. 196). She of course had absolutely no evidence to bring against Leo Frank (in all likelihood she had never even seen him before!) -- but she broke down several times on the stand, including when her daughter's bloodstained clothes were brought in; it was a clear attempt to make the jurors desperately want revenge on the murderer. (I can't say I blame them. I would have wanted to avenge Mary, also. I'd just like to have gotten the man who murdered her rather than a scapegoat.)
In addition, the prosecution (plus his lawyer William Smith) had clearly gotten to Jim Conley, tidying him up and, based on his behavior on the witness stand, coaching him on how to present his story (Dinnerstein, pp. 40-44; Oney, pp. 188-189). In the court, he gave a dramatic -- though not very reasonable -- account of how Frank had had him dispose of Phagan's body. And the defense could not shake him (Dinnerstein, p. 45). Having failed, they made little attempt to point up the inconsistencies of his story.
Frank hired top-flight defense lawyers (Dinnerstein, p. 37; Oney, p. 191, notes that no fewer than eight attorneys were present for the defense). But they handled the case badly. F/T, p. 55, suggested that the lawyers simply didn't believe a Georgia jury would convict a white man on the testimony of a black man. Despite the mob baying for blood, they never requested a change of venue (Dinnerstein, p. 57), which was clearly necessary (in fact, the failure to request a change of venue was later used by the prosecution as support for the claim that the trial was fair; Oney, p. 493). Given the Georgia summer heat, it was sometimes necessary to open the court windows, allowing outside demonstrations to be heard (Oney, pp. 210-211). The judge never even cleared the court (F/T, p. 51), except for a brief time when he ordered the women out (Oney, p. 246), which turned the whole thing into a circus. I don't understand why the defense even wanted a jury trial; it cost Frank his life.
The defense did break down the testimony of the first investigators (Oney, p. 208), and of the lead detective (F/T, p. 33; Oney, pp. 218-220). They also largely demolished the testimony of George Epps and Helen Ferguson, young people who vaguely linked Frank to Mary (Oney, pp. 270-271, 273), and Oney, p. 238, seems to think they were ahead "on points," so to speak, when Conley came to the stand. But Conley was the key to the whole case -- the *only* witness or evidence linking Leo Frank to the murder of Mary Phagan -- and they did not break him down. They didn't even object when Conley testified to other misdeeds allegedly committed by Frank (Oney, p. 242. Presumably they thought they would be able to discredit these charges. To a great extent, they did -- but it didn't matter. The jurors got the message.)
When it came time to present a defense, the real disaster began. The defense lawyers had failed to penetrate Jim Conley in cross-examination, but they never presented a real alternative to Conley's claims. They surely could have gone after Conley (who, if Frank was innocent, was almost certainly the murderer). Instead, they spent most of their energy to paint Frank as a saint who would never have done such a thing.
The primary argument seemed to be that Frank had done nothing unusual on the day of the murder (Dinnerstein, p. 48). They did demonstrate the inconsistencies in the times of events as stated by the various witnesses, and showed that Frank's whereabouts were accounted for in most of the two hours around the time the murder was thought to have been committed (Dinnerstein, p. 49). Indeed, a stenographer testified that he had asked her to stay the entire period (Oney, p. 279), but she had other duties. But they made no real use of the limited forensic evidence available, and made no attempt to find more (F/T, p. 56).
And then there were the character witnesses. Under 1913 Georgia law, all witnesses had to be sworn in at the start of the trial. Oney, p. 192, notes that the defense wanted to delay submitting its witness list. Told they could not do so, but allowed additional time to compile the list, they huddled, then turned in the list. They proceeded to offer the names of many prominent Jews and alumni of Cornell, Frank's old college. "Plainly, this list of well over one hundred names was more than just a list -- it was a theory of the defense, one that carried with it the prospect that in rebuttal, the state would introduce witnesses to testify to Frank's bad reputation" (Oney, p. 192).
The main effect of these witnesses seems to have been simply to stretch out the proceedings and irritate all involved (F/T, p. 56). Plus they gave Dorsey the chance to ask all of them more questions about Frank's alleged perversions (e.g. Oney, p. 286). In all this, probably the only defense witnesses who really mattered were the outside accountants who testified that the work he did on the fatal Saturday would have required him to stay at his desk all day (Oney, pp. 277-279) -- he would have had no time for attempted seduction, rape, or murder.
Oney, p. 281, shows a typical example of how the character witnesses were treated. Dorsey took a defense witness who had done distinct damage to the prosecution case and kept asking him about homosexual acts by Frank. As the defense stated, no one could get a fair trial in those circumstances (Oney, p. 282). The judge often struck Dorsey's questions from the record, and the witnesses usually said that Frank didn't do any such thing anyway, but it didn't matter; the insinuation that he was some sort of pervert was kept before the jury's mind.
The whole trial took four weeks (Dinnerstein, p. 52). Dinnerstein's description makes the whole prosecution case little more than a smear campaign, and the accounts in F/T and Oney are only slightly more charitable to Dorsey. Golden, p. xiv, declares, "It is unlikely that anyone could be convicted in the America of the 1960s on the evidence and the testimony which convicted Leo Frank in 1913." Dorsey's tactics were so vile that at times it appeared the attorneys for the two sides would come to blows (Oney, p. 290).
At the end, Frank made a statement in his own defense; I assume that this was unsworn (a quirk of Georgia law allowed -- in effect, almost demanded -- the accused to speak, not under oath, but without help or guidance of counsel). He spent four hours in this, and declared it "the whole truth." His family was in tears afterward. (Garrett, pp. 623-624). But -- he was Jewish.
The outcome, in Dinnerstein's view, was inevitable; judge and lawyers had been presented with death threats, and possibly the jurors also (Dinnerstein, p. 60. F/T, p. xix, declare that "The jury were scared, the judge was scared, and the prosecutors were scared"). The prosecution spent three days theatrically summing up the case (Oney, p. 337), reminding the jury again and again that Frank was a Jew (Dinnerstein, p. 53). The defense called for a mistrial (Oney, p. 339), but was turned down. The judge spent mere minutes instructing the jury (Oney, pp. 339-340), and then, only an hour and a half after Dorsey finished shrieking "guilty! guilty! guilty!" like a demented fury as church bells tolled, the jury began to deliberate.
It took the jury only four hours to decide the case (Dinnerstein, p. 55); they reported only two ballots; (Oney, p. 340). To prevent riots, the court had (finally!) been cleared (F/T, pp. 52-53), so there were few people around when the court declared Frank guilty of first degree murder. (Frank would comment, "My God! Even the jury was influenced by mob law" -- Dinnerstein, p 56; Oney, p. 342). Not even Frank was allowed to be present when the verdict was announced, which, according to F/T, p. 53, should have been by itself grounds for a new trial. (The jurors needed to see the accused they were about to convict.) The next day, Frank was sentenced to hang, in a proceeding so secret that not even his wife was allowed to be present (Dinnerstein, p. 57). The execution was scheduled for October 10, 45 days after the sentencing date of August 26 (F/T, p. 54).
Despite the claim by F/T that the jury was scared of the mob, they seem to have been more playful than anything; they had become friends and made up nicknames for each other (F/T, p. 52). From what we know of their deliberations, not one seems to have been bothered by the possibility that they were committing judicial murder.
Clarence Feibelman, who knew Frank and was in high school at the time, reported later, "There was no possibility of him not being found guilty. There were mobs outside the courthouse. It was hot, it was the summertime. And the mobs outside were hollering, 'Kill the Jew!' and 'Lynch the Jew!' and all that sort of stuff. And I'd be on the streetcar and sometimes I'd get off and walk past there, and it was just harrowing to hear these people. It made your blood run cold" (Kuhn/Joye/West, p. 12)
When the verdict came down, it did much to arouse the nation's Jewish community. There were comparisons to the Dreyfus Affair in France, where a Jewish officer had been falsely convicted of treason on even flimsier evidence (Oney, p. 346; Chapter III of Dinnerstein is titled "An American Dreyfus"; Golden, p. xiv, mentions Dreyfus while mentioning the key difference that Dreyfus was not sentenced to death). In one sense, the outrage helped -- it brought in more money for Frank's legal defense (Frank's initial defense had cost about $50,000, according to Oney, p. 365, and he of course didn't have that sort of money). But it also caused the xenophobic Georgians to suspect some sort of Jewish conspiracy (Dinnerstein, p. 92). There was a widespread belief that anyone who supported Frank had been bribed. As a result, there was fear in the Jewish community that they would suffer if they seemed to be openly supporting him.
While the verdict convinced the mob, it did not convince Frank's bosses. National Pencil executives still consulted him on policy while in his prison cell (Oney, p. 349).
There was, of course, an appeal -- but the Georgia constitution didn't care about guilt or innocence, or tainted juries; the only grounds for appeal was an error in law or procedure (Dinnerstein, p. 77; F/T, p. 66, remarks that this was the effect of a constitutional amendment adopted in 1906. To put it another way, having bad lawyers was a hanging offense.)
There were good grounds for the appeal. Frank's lawyers listed 115 reasons why there should be a new trial (Oney, p. 349) -- though some of them should surely have been brought up in the first trial. The most dramatic of the reasons: Two jurors had apparently declared Frank guilty in advance (Oney, p. 350). The judge who tried the original case declared in refusing the motion for a mistrial, "I have thought more about this case than any other I have tried. I am not certain of the man's guilt. With all the thought I have put on this case, I am not thoroughly convinced that Frank is guilty or innocent. The jury was convinced. There is no room to doubt that. I feel that it is my duty to order that the motion for a new trial be overruled" (Dinnerstein, p. 79; Oney, p. 364, points out that the jury's verdict, once reached, bound the judge -- he could not overrule them unless there were procedural errors, and the defense should have pointed those out earlier). The flip side is, Judge Roan ruled that his uncertainty should be included in the appeal request. In other words, he felt bound by the law but probably hoped Frank would get a new trial. The Atlanta Journal also called for a new trial (Garrett, p. 625).
F/T, to be sure, have another hypothesis: based on a book published in 1959, they think Judge Roan knew (based on an account from Conley's lawyer) that Conley was guilty. But, rather than inflame public opinion, he denied the motion for a new trial, hoping the furor would die down and that the appeal would clear Frank (F/T, p. 58-59). Roan's brother said something similar about his brother's motives before the pardon commission (Oney, p. 481). I can't see how this is in any way morally superior to the other.
(F/T say on page 74 that Judge Roan died in March 1915 of a blood clot; Oney, followed by Oney, says the cause of death was cancer. There was speculation that the pressure of the trial contributed to his demise. On his deathbed, he wrote a letter appealing for clemency for Frank; Oney, p. 469.)
That left the Georgia Supreme Court. They listened to arguments from the lawyers for four hours, then decided 4-2 not to allow a new trial (Dinnerstein, p. 81). Oney, pp. 368-370, notes that this appeal opened very little new ground, so perhaps it is no surprise that nothing came of it -- though the judges needed 142 pages to say so. But it appears that their ruling boiled down to "it's up to the trial judge." Judge Roan, as we have seen, thought it was up to the Supreme Court. Frank's first appeal was denied because both courts said, "You go first." As a result, a new execution date was set, by a new judge -- April 17, 1914, Frank's thirtieth birthday (Oney, p. 377).
In the period after the first appeal, much new evidence came out. The parties finally consulted a scientist, who said that hairs alleged to have been torn from Mary's head during the murder were not hers (Dinnerstein, pp. 84); those hairs were important to the prosecution's case, but the scientific evidence was suppressed by prosecutor Dorsey (Oney, p. 371), who declared the testimony of his witnesses to be worth more than mere scientific fact (Dinnerstein, p. 85). This was clear misconduct by the prosecution (Oney, p. 370). There was even a witness who said the blood in the "metal room" was probably his.
The "murder notes" that Conley had written and left by the body were shown to have been written on old stationary, stored in the factory basement, not on the current stationary Frank would have had in his office (Dinnerstein, p. 87; Oney, pp. 379-380). Yet Conley claimed that he had written them in Frank's office. The prosecution argued that Frank had dictated the notes to Conley, but there was strong evidence that Frank could not have used the language they contained (Dinnerstein, p. 90); they used words which strongly implied that Conley -- who certainly did the actual writing -- also composed them. This issue would come up again, even more forcefully.
In addition, a number of witnesses changed their story (Dinnerstein, pp. 86-87), with most though not all of them saying that their previous evidence against Frank was false. One of these, George Epps, had been one of the keys to Dorsey's reconstruction of events (Oney, pp, 197-198), and he now accused the police of telling him what to say on the stand (Oney, p. 373). At least seven girls who had testified to Frank's "bad character" changed their accounts, most way that they had been coached (Oney, p. 389, who adds that one testified as she died because she didn't know what "lasciviousness" meant). There were reports of the police having bribed or threatened other witnesses (F/T, pp. 66-67; Oney, p. 372).
Two separate sources, in this period, gave evidence that Frank had not committed the murder (Dinnerstein, pp. 102-105). One was a woman who said Conley had confessed to it while proposing (! -- Oney, p. 395), the other was hearsay testimony from a minister who overheard a congregant saying that he, not Frank, had committed the murder (Oney, p. 396). The minister, C. B. Ragsdale, said he didn't know who had made the comments -- but it obviously wasn't Frank! I suspect both would have been inadmissible in court; in any case, both ended up being retracted. The girlfriend later denied receiving Conley's letters and promises, perhaps under pressure from the prosecutors; the minister also retracted his testimony, claiming that he had been bribed (Oney, p. 398). This ruined one possible grounds for appeal and of course made Frank look bad (F/T, p. 69). The minister involved eventually resigned his pastorate -- after all, he had both sides mad at him!
Other witnesses who changed their stories were threatened by Dorsey with perjury charges (Oney, p. 394). In the end, most of those who recanted would re-recant (Oney, pp. 411-413). None of it mattered anyway; under Georgia law, perjured testimony stood unless the witness were convicted of perjury (Oney, p. 418). In other words, here again, Georgia law did not consider innocence to be grounds for a new trial.
During this period, the famed detective Williams Burns finally took a personal role in the case, showing that Mary's clothing had been cut up in a sexually explicit way, implying "deviancy" on the part of the murderer (Oney, p. 391); they failed to find any genuine witnesses to deviancy of this sort on Frank's part (Oney, p. 392)
It is noteworthy that Conley's lawyer refused to let Conley talk to Burns (Oney, p. 393). Monteen Stover, the young girl who claimed Frank was out of his office at a crucial time (making her one of the most important prosecution witnesses other than Conley) also avoided Burns.
Burns eventually was driven from Georgia; when he went to visit Mary's hometown of Marietta, he was chased from the town (Oney, pp. 401-403). Witnesses for Frank also suffered the wrath of Georgia; Mineola McKnight, who had testified for Frank, was slashed in the face during the appeals (Oney, p. 422).
In the end, Georgia justice refused to act; the judge (not Judge Roan) responsible for deciding on a new trial barred most of the defense's best evidence (Oney, pp. 403-411), and the state Supreme Court promptly concurred (Oney, p. 446).
Frank's lawyers finally appealed to the United States Supreme Court. Reading the description in Dinnerstein, pp. 109-113, it really sounds as if the Court used a series of quibbles to refuse to intervene -- but refuse they did. A first appeal was denied without explanation (F/T, p. 70; Oney, p. 452, notes that the only statement was the single word "denied"). The second appeal (on the broader grounds of habeas corpus) at least reached the full court (Oney, p. 460), but was denied on April 19, 1915 (Dinnerstein, p. 117) by a vote of 7-2 (Hall, p. 317), with justices Hughes and Holmes dissenting.
(You have to wonder what might have happened had the case come up two years later, after Justice Brandeis joined the court, but this was 1914, not 1916. The flip side is, the blatantly anti-Semitic justice James Clark McReynolds, who was such a boor that he could not even speak civilly to justices Brandeis and Cardozo, had joined the court in 1914; Hall, pp. 542-543.)
Those wishing to look up the case in legal articles will find it under "Frank v. Mangum." The court majority's decision was written by justice Pitney, who considered theGeorgia appeals process to have eliminated any irregularities in the original trial; Hall, p. 317. Pitney, appointed to the court by President Taft in 1912, had never studied law formally and had a firm belief in individualism, the overwhelming authority of contracts, states' rights, restricted rights of labor, and extremely limited government -- although, oddly enough, he supported workmen's compensation; Hall, pp. 635-636. Hall, p. 317, declares the Frank case a "clear miscarriage of justice."
F/T, pp. 71-72, notes that the court would later reverse itself in a similar case: In Moore v Dempsey, which reached the high court in 1923 (Hall, p. 560; this was a year after justice Pitney left the court; Hall, p. 636), the court found that irregularities such as those found in the Frank case were grounds for a new trial. (The case involved a riot in Arkansas in which hundreds of Blacks and five whites were killed. Several Blacks, convicted of murder, appealed for habeas corpus, which was denied by the lower court but upheld 6-2 by the Supreme Court; Hall, pp. 560-561). But that was later. The court decisions left Frank's friends with no recourse but an appeal for clemency.
While that was going on, William Smith, the lawyer for Jim Conley, released a statement concluding that Conley had committed the murder (Dinnerstein, pp. 114-115). This obviously sounds like a violation of attorney-client privilege, but Smith had two reasons for thinking otherwise. First, Conley had never told him what he felt was the truth, so he was not violating a confidence. Smith's declaration, according to Oney, pp. 427-430, was based solely on evidence he had found that Conley had lied (Dinnerstein, p. 115, says that Smith offered "no [single] convincing proof"; he was convinced by an accumulation of evidence).
In any case, Smith felt that to Conley was safe from further prosecution due to the law against double jeopardy; Conley had already been convicted of a lesser charge. In this connection, it is noteworthy that Dorsey declared that he thought Conley should not be punished at all. But the jury needed only twelve minutes to convict Conley of the lesser crime with which he was charged; Oney, p. 385. He was sentenced in February 1914 to a year on the chain gang, and actually served ten months (WebFlag). So Smith made the statement to try to save Frank (F/T, pp. 70, 78). But such was the climate of the time that those convinced of Frank's guilt thought Smith had been bribed; Dinnerstein, p. 115. Georgians by and large dug in their heels and refused to listen to reason.
Smith, like Judge Roan, would carry the Frank case to his death; the last words he ever wrote were a testament to the "innocence and good character of Leo Frank" (Oney has a photo preceding p. 455).
The appeals for clemency came from all over the country; Dinnerstein, p. 118, counts nine governors (many of them southern), at least seven senators, "scores" of congressmen, and many resolutions by state legislatures. F/T, p. 75, says that the state received 15,000 petitions for clemency; p. 86, claims that the governor was sent more than a hundred thousand requests. Dinnerstein, p. 118, claims that over a million people signed one or another petition. Eventually, even vice president Thomas R. Marshall would speak up, though not until later (Oney, p. 491). But the Georgia Prison Commission, claiming incredibly that no additional evidence had come in (Dinnerstein, pp. 121-122), voted 2-1 to deny Frank relief (F/T, p. 78). They did not explain their reasoning (Oney, p. 488), but one suspects that they were influenced by the large crowds who demonstrated against clemency (Oney, p. 486).
That left only governor John M. Slaton, whose term came to an end a few days after Frank's scheduled execution (Dinnerstein, p. 123). He apparently had hoped that the appeals process would drag out long enough that ye would not have to make a decision before his term ended (F/T, p. 70; Oney, p. 472, notes that he did not wish to act on a case involving Frank's lead defense lawyer Luther Rosser, who was technically his law partner, though Dinnerstein, p. 124, notes that the firms of Slaton & Phillips and Rosser & Brandon did not combine until after Slaton became governor; Slaton was a courtesy partner in the new firm and the two had never practiced together). In the end, though, the matter landed on his desk.
As had happened in all these cases, Hugh Dorsey represented the prosecution and a large team handled the presentation of the defense case. The one major new point was the state of the excrement Conley had left in the elevator shaft (Oney, p. 489). This of course demonstrated that a major portion of Jim Conley's testimony was inaccurate.
Slaton examined the evidence more thoroughly than any other judicial investigator, even testing the workings of the National Pencil elevator which played such a large role in the case (Oney, p. 501). The governor spent many days on his decision, apparently knowing that commuting Frank's sentence to life imprisonment would damage his political career and maybe even cause his assassination. (There was apparently no question of pardoning Frank; that would have been too controversial.) Finally Slaton decided to commute the sentence (Dinnerstein, p. 125).
It was, as F/T remark on p. 81, "political suicide." In a folkloric touch, his wife is said to have told him, "I would rather be the widow of a brave and honorable man than the wife of a coward" (Dinnerstein, p. 126). She very nearly was; it took militia to force the crowds away from Slaton's home (Oney, p. 504). He ended up leaving the state for years (Dinnerstein, p. 159), even taking up residence in ruined Romania during World War I (Oney, p. 609). Prosecutor H. M. Dorsey, on the other hand, rode his fame into the governor's mansion. To give him his due, Oney, p. 614, says that he proposed the broadest civil rights agenda of any southern governor of the time.
Slaton's summary of the case brought forward much more evidence than the actual criminal trial, and showed strong evidence of Conley's guilt (Dinnerstein, pp. 126-129) -- most, including Dinnerstein, consider it overwhelming evidence. Slaton pointed out the absolute proof that Conley had lied about using the elevator to move the body, argued that Frank was not strong enough to carry the body as far as he would have had to, and noted that there was not enough blood in the room where Conley said the body was found, and that the hairs did not match (F/T, pp. 86-87).
Slaton knew the commutation would cause trouble, and he prepared carefully for his ruling, trying to move Frank to a safer location (Dinnerstein, p. 126). Decoys were actually used to keep Frank safe on his journey (F/T, p. 86). Slaton also called out the militia -- wisely, since rioters tried to reach his home (Dinnerstein, p. 132); martial law continued until the new governor took office (F/T, p. 89).
The reprieve didn't help Frank much; he paid a high price for being left in custody. Although the commutation of his sentence meant that he was moved to a more pleasant prison, four weeks after he arrived, another inmate, William Creen, cut his throat (Dinnerstein, p. 137) using a butcher knife from the prison kitchen (Oney, p. 547); he would have died had their not been doctors among the prisoners to treat him immediately. Such was the sickness of the time that letters reached the new governor demanding that Creen be pardoned for his attempted murder (Dinnerstein, p. 138). The demagogue who led this campaign, Thomas Watson, publisher of The Jeffersonian, openly advocated lynching Frank (F/T, p. 90), and rejoiced when it was said, falsely, that the knife had been used to butcher hogs (Oney, p. 550).
About a month later, on the night of August 16, 1915 a mob broke into the prison where Frank was housed, where they handcuffed him (Dinnerstein, pp. 139-141). This was no casual break-in; F/T, p. 93, says that 25 men were involved, and they drove seven cars. Oney, pp. 511-524, catalogs some of those involved in planning the operation; they included lawyers, a judge, and a former governor (though none of these took part in the actual raid). One of them, in fact, was the solicitor responsible for prosecuting crimes in the area of the lynching! Naturally, he did nothing to seek the lynchers (Oney, p. 586).
It is evident that the raiders had tools, knowledge of the prison, and a careful plan. Insiders may have had some knowledge of what was coming; Oney spends many confusing pages discussing this, and Alan M. Dershowitz, who wrote an introduction to the Notable Trials edition of Dinnerstein, explicitly states that some prison officials were in on the plan. It took only seven minutes to kidnap Frank (F/T, p. 94).
It was hard for the authorities to call for help; most of the phone and telegraph lines had been cut, and the warden's car's gas line was cut. Clearly, the lynch mob didn't care that they were creating an opening for other prisoners to escape.
The mob then drove 175 miles, over mostly unpaved roads, to Marietta, Mary Phagan's home town (F/T, p. 95). There they hooded and hanged Frank. Inexpertly; his neck was not broken; rather, he suffocated and bled to death after his neck wound reopened; Oney, p. 566. Despite their ineptitude, the lynchers had accomplished their goal; Frank was dead.
At least one witness kicked the body and stomped on Frank's face after he was cut down (Dinnerstein, p. 144). Souvenir hunters cut off portions of his clothing (F/T, p. 97), and photos of his lifeless body were sold for 25 cents (F/T, p. 98). The oak from which he was hung became the site of a perverse sort of pilgrimages (Dinnerstein, p. 145). A local coroner's jury refused to return indictments against men known to have taken part (Dinnerstein, p. 145; Oney, p. 586, says that the local coroner had been a member of the original Ku Klux Klan) -- even though some of the lynch mob actually volunteered to talk to reporters (F/T, p. 105). Only one man had the decency to recover Frank's wedding ring for his wife, and he seemingly had to do so anonymously (F/T, p. 106).
A man who had known Leo Frank and declared that "He couldn't be guilty of such a thing" recalled the time of the lynching: "I happened to be at Five Points [in downtown Atlanta] the morning after Frank was lynched. There muse have been five or six of these men, they would be called red-necks, drove into Five Points. And they displayed a piece of the rope with which they had lynched Frank. They were pretty well received by the folks at Five Points. You can imagine how I felt. They were hazardous times. They were frightening times. We were all frightened" (Kuhn/Joye/West, p. 253).
Supposedly the whole incident led to a revival of the Ku Klux Klan in the area (Dinnerstein, p. 150; F/T, p. 95; Oney, p. 607, tells of them openly applying for a state charter in 1915); certainly the Klan was still making pilgrimages to Mary's grave more than half a century later. They also sent a great cross of flowers when Tom Watson died (Oney, p. 615); after all, it was his poisoned pen that had inspired their rebirth. (For more on Watson and his death, see "Thomas E. Watson," a song written by Andrew Jenkins after his decease.)
Is it any wonder that Frank's family took his body north for burial?
It is worth noting that, in this period, Georgia experienced several dozen lynchings per year, and is said to have been the lynching-est state in the Union (Oney, p. 122). In 1915, all but one of the 22 people lynched were Black (Oney, p. 513). The one exception was Frank. Whether innocent or guilty, there is no real question that the reason Frank died is that he was a Jewish Yankee living in Georgia.
Although many, including the new governor, Nathaniel E. Harris, publicly condemned the lynching, none of Frank's murderers were ever brought to trial (Garrett, p. 628).
More data came in after Frank's death. In 1922, a reporter discovered that there were photos of bite marks on Mary's body, and concluded based on what was known about Frank's teeth that Frank could not have made those bites (Dinnerstein, p. 158; Oney, p. 617). The reporter's reward was to have his car forced off the road; for years, the data was suppressed.
Even more dramatically, in 1982, a witness came forward with evidence that Conley had lied about his part in the affair. Alonzo Mann, a boy who had been in the factory on the fatal day, had seen Conley carrying Mary Phagan's body around the time of her murder. What's more, he saw Conley with the body *on the first floor* and not in the presence of Frank; according to Conley's testimony, he had taken it from the second floor to the basement via the elevator, meaning that he should never have stopped on the first floor, and that Frank should have been with him even if he had (WebFlag). Having been threatened by Conley, Mann was advised by his mother to keep quiet at Frank's trial (F/T, p. 157). He did tell his story to a few people, but for a long time no one, not even the Jewish community, wanted to reopen old wounds (F/T, p. 148). Only much later did The Tennessean become interested and interview Mann. He took a polygraph test to verify his story. (Tennessean, p. 2.) He was also examined psychologically (F/T, p. 150). He passed both tests.
Several of the major witnesses against Frank had interesting careers in the years after his trial. Monteen Stover, the fourteen-year-old girl who claimed that Frank was not at his desk at the time the prosecution claimed the murder took place, would some years later be charged with being the lure in a "badger scam" to extort money from married men who had affairs (Oney, p. 618). George Epps, who had claimed Mary Phagan was afraid of Frank (an odd claim, given that she risked being alone with him when she collected her pay) was sent to a reformatory in late 1913 for stealing (Dinnerstein, p. 86). It was Jim Conley, though, who had a truly extraordinary record.
On November 1, 1915, Conley (who, you will recall, had a common law wife) was picked up in a "disorderly house." He escaped a prostitution charge by claiming he wanted to marry one of the girls -- and he was so popular that the judge and spectators put up the license fee which he said he could not afford. But he was arrested *three times* for wife beating in the next three and a half months (Oney, p. 612). In 1919, he was injured in an attempt to burglarize a drug store, and was sentenced to twenty years. In 1941, he was arrested for gambling. In 1947, he was picked up for drunkenness. Dinnerstein, pp. 158-159, cites at second hand an obituary notice from 1962. Oney, p. 647, says that there is no record of his death though a witness in 1970 said he had died. WebFlag notes the lack of an obituary or death notice but cites the 1962 date.
A memorial to Mary Phagan was erected in 1915. One speaker went so far as to refer to her as "sainted" (Dinnerstein, p. 136). The inscription was written by none other than Tom Watson, according to WebFlag.
Although we have no absolute evidence for when this song was composed, it seems to be a pretty good reflection of the murderous mood in Georgia. It is also a fairly accurate reflection of the story told at the trial. The list below summarizes factual details listed in the various versions. I have listed the versions which contain each fact. I have also listed which statements are true, false, or disputed.
The versions cited are those of:
Burt1: The first full text of Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 61-62, sung by Thelda Barris and collected probably around Ibapah, Utah, c. 1926; quoted by F/T (with incorrect stanza divisions), pp. 139-140. This version is fascinating in that it never mentions Leo Frank, which makes it seem that Newt Lee was the criminal. However, it cannot be an early version of the song, since it mentions Judge Roan and prosecutor Dorsey. The version of Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, interestingly, also seems to follow this outline, and does not mention Roan or Dorsey.
Burt2: a partial text of Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 62-63, from Pearl Flake, who was originally from Atlanta though apparently she was working for Burt c. 1940 when the song was collected. F/T quote this on pp. 140-141.
Burt3: A fragment, printed by Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 63-64 with no source listed and repeated by F/T on p. 141.
Cambiaire: From Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 104. No source information given. The murderer is unnamed, and the trial is not mentioned.
Carson1: Fiddlin' John Carson, as given by Wiggins, Fiddlin' Georgia Crazy, and quoted by Oney, p. 492f.
Carson2: Fiddlin' John Carson, apparently as given in the Atlanta Constitution, August 18, 1915, and quoted by Oney, p. 571f. This seems to be the earliest report of the song, but I suspect the reporter managed to take down only part of it.
Eddy: Eddy, p. 252. A very incomplete text, which Eddy had from Mrs. Lawrence Davis of Perrysville, Ohio. In this, the version is called "Mary Pickford" (obviously an error for the actress, who however was still alive at the time Eddy collected the song!). I suspect fragments of other songs may have mixed with this -- it even appears to say that *Mary* called a policeman. The murderer is not named.
G/C: Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 144. Sung by Margaret Tuggle of Detroit but apparently learned in Virginia.
JAFL: Journal of American Folklore, 1918; quoted by Dinnerstein on pp. 166ff.
McNeil1: McNeil, Southern Folk Ballads II, p. 71, from Mrs. Artie Waggoner, Creston, Louisiana, 1977. In this the murderer is called "Leo Benton," presumably a mix-up with other ballads of this type.
McNeil2: McNeil, Southern Folk Ballads II, p. 72, from Reba Cheyne, Fort Smith, Arkansas, 1979. A defective version which appears to include primarily the early verses.
The historical details found in the versions are as follows:
* Correctly states that Mary worked in a pencil factory (versions of JAFL, Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, Carson1, Carson2, Burt1, Eddy, G/C, McNeil1, McNeil2)
* Correctly states that Mary was going to collect her pay (Carson1, Carson2, Burt1, Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, Eddy, G/C, McNeil1, McNeil2)
* Correctly states that Mary was very pretty (G/C)
* States, probably correctly, that Mary was going to see the Memorial Day parade (JAFL)
* Correctly states that the murder took place on a holiday, in this case, Confederate Memorial Day (JAFL, Carson1, Burt1)
* Correctly states that she went left home around 11:00 on the fatal day; she had the lunch of cabbage and bread that caused the forensics people so much trouble shortly after 11:00 and then set out for the trolley (JAFL, Carson1, Carson2; Burt1 and McNeil2 incorrectly give the time as 7:00)
* Correctly states that Jim Conley was given a year's sentence (though the song implies that Frank and Conley were tried together, which is false) (JAFL)
* Correctly states that the body was found in the basement (JAFL, Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, Carson1, Burt1, Burt2, McNeil1)
* Correctly states that Newt Lee found her body (JAFL, Carson1, Burt1; Cambiaire spells it "Nute Lee"; Burt2 calls him "Nemphon"; McNeil1 has "Jim Newt" -- perhaps combining "Jim Conley" and "Newt Lee"?)
* Correctly states that Lee was imprisoned for a time (JAFL, Carson1)
* Correctly states that Mary's mother was wild with grief (JAFL, Carson1, Burt1, Burt 2, Burt3, G/C, McNeil1)
* Correctly states that Solicitor H. M. [Dorsey] was the prosecutor (JAFL, Carson1, Burt1)
* Correctly states that Judge Roan tried the case (Carson1, Carson2, Burt1; McNeil1 calls him "Judge Long")
* States that Mary was murdered in the metal room, agreeing with the prosecution but not the defense (JAFL, Carson1, Burt1; McNeil1 and others call it the "little room"; Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads has "middle room")
* States that Leo Frank called on Jim Conley to carry the body, agreeing with the prosecution but not the defense (JAFL, Carson1)
* States that "the janitor" lured Mary to a dreadful fate, agreeing with the defense but not the prosecution (Burt3, G/C)
* States incorrectly that "the janitor" let Mary into the factory (Burt3, G/C); since the factory was not locked, she would not have needed admission
* States incorrectly that Frank had children (JAFL); that may, however, be a holdover from its source, since the song is based on the "Charles Guitea"/"Murder of F. C. Benwell"/"Ewing Books" family.
* States incorrectly that Mary was "bound both hands and feet" (JAFL, Carson1); there was cord around her neck, but none on her hands and feet.
* States incorrectly that Mary was her mother's "sole support" (Burt3, G/C)
* States incorrectly that "the janitor," rather than Frank, was strung up (Eddy, G/C)
Looking at the versions, it appears that the song exists in three "states." In one, it seems to have ended with the discovery of the body and the police telling Newt Lee that he "must go" (presumably to prison). A second state, associated particularly with Fiddlin' John Carson, brings in Leo Frank, accuses him of the murder, and credits H. M. Dorsey with convicting him, but does not mention the appeals or the lynching. A third state mentions the lynching, though the versions I've seen seem to describe the janitor (i.e. Conley), rather than Frank, as being lynched.
The data is not sufficient to form an absolute conclusion, of course, but this would seem to imply three stages of composition: A very early version, in circulation before Frank's trial; a second completed after he had been convicted (and probably after Conley had been convicted also, given the mention of his sentence), and a third after the lynching. Possibly this last stage involved *two* rewrites, one to add the lynching, the other (perhaps northern) to blame Conley, and these two fused.
And, yes, I know that's an extremely complicated reconstruction based on very flimsy evidence! But how else to explain versions which explicitly blame Leo Frank, explicitly blame "the janitor," and implicitly blame Newt Lee? It's hard to see such changes happening by accident.
Few of the sources I've seen credit this song to an author, but Malone, p. 220, credits it to Fiddlin' John Carson, whose daughter Rosa Lee is credited with the first recording of it. His footnote lists several sources for the murder, but it's not clear how authorship was established. Dinnerstein, p. 121, says that Carson was singing the song at rallies in Georgia in this period -- but his footnote as to sources contains no reference to Carson. Oney, p. 491, cites Fiddlin' Georgia Crazy by George Wiggins as the source of the attribution, and says that Carson sang it during the hearing before Governor Slaton.
Nonetheless, I don't think the evidence quite strong enough to prove that Carson wrote the song (or, rather, the lyrics, since the tune is borrowed). He *does* seem to be particularly associated with the second version, which convicts Frank but does not mention the lynching. It strikes me as likely that he converted the first stage of the song to the second, and the evidence is strong that he made it popular enough that Vernon Dalhart recorded it -- and that, of course made it popular indeed. But I would not wish to bet on whether he wrote the first version. And I strongly doubt that the lynching version is his.
So who killed Mary Phagan? It is unlikely that we will ever be able to acquire any evidence beyond what has already been discussed. Alonzo Mann, the last significant witness, died soon after giving his testimony. Oney, p. 647, says that the physical evidence collected by Hugh Dorsey is gone. WebFlag notes that the National Pencil Company building was demolished June 6, 1994. Even if the family consented to having it exhumed (which seems unlikely), we can hardly hope to learn anything from Mary's body at this late date. Jim Conley's last resting place seems to be unknown, so we couldn't get DNA evidence from him under any circumstances. So all we have is the records of the evidence collected at the time. On this basis, Oney manages the curious summary that "the argument [will] never move beyond Conley's word versus Frank's" (p. 647). That is indeed the key point, but surely we can go beyond "He said, he said" to express probabilities.
(To give Oney his due, according to WebFlag, which reviews Oney's book, Oney is personally convinced that Frank is innocent and Conley guilty.)
Basically, we have three possible murderers: Leo Frank, Jim Conley, or an unknown someone else. There is no evidence for someone else, though we cannot deny the possibility given the ease with which many people entered the National Pencil building. (The one person we know was there at the time, Monteen Stover, seems never to have come under suspicion. Nor does she seem a likely suspect; I mention her only to show that the possibilities have not been fully examined.) However, if it were someone else, why would Conley have implicated Frank? And why write the murder notes if not to divert suspicion? (For this point see WebFlag.) Since Conley is unequivocally known to have carried the body, based on Mann's testimony, and also wrote the murder notes, he surely knew who committed the crime. Since he mentioned only himself and Frank, Conley's testimony strongly implies that either he or Frank did it.
If we look at the classic tests of a crime, "motive, means, and opportunity," we know that Conley had greater motive (either man might have had a sexual motive, but Conley also had robbery as a motive, plus we known that he had quite the sex life). Conley is known to have had the opportunity -- after all, Mann saw him carrying her body! By contrast, there is no evidence linking Frank directly with Mary, though he of course did see her on the day of her death. As for means, Conley was a strong man who could have overcome her; Frank was a weak man who was unlikely to win a battle to the death even with a thirteen year old, and he showed no scars of such a fight.
Also, nearly all testimony against Frank was either perjured (if a witness makes a claim and then denies it, we can hardly treat either claim as reliable, no matter what Georgia law said) or from very questionable sources such as Monteen Stover.
Finally, we have the known facts that Conley was a robber, and a wife-beater, and a drunk. His first accounts of the crime were perjured, and the "shit in the shaft" and the testimony of Alonzo Mann show that his final testimony was also perjured. I can imagine no reasons to commit perjury except to cover up crimes of his own (which must mean the murder of Mary Phagan) or to punish Frank somehow (which is hard to believe, given that Frank had kept him on the payroll despite his repeated petty crimes. Conley should have been incredibly grateful to Frank!)
Unlike Conley, Frank had no criminal record. Yes, he ran a company that was little more than a sweatshop, but that was the law at the time. Oney wonders why there were so many allegations of sexual impropriety against him, but ignores the fact that the witnesses didn't even agree on whether he was a homosexual, a heterosexual paedophile, or a fetishist (and very few people are all of these). Plus most of his accusers were ex-employees who might have carried a grudge. And, while many people claimed to have seen him having illicit liaisons, *no one every came forward admitting to being one of the liaisons*.
As best I can tell from Oney, only one of Frank's alleged conquests, a woman named Daisy Hopkins, was ever mentioned by name (Oney, p. 245; it was Conley who gave her name, and Oney, p. 247, shows that Conley knew nothing about her except a name, though one C. Brutus Dalton also mentioned her; Oney, p. 258). A Daisy Hopkins was brought before the court, and she denied any sexual relationship with Frank (Oney, pp. 265-266), though she apparently wasn't a very convincing witness (Oney, p. 268). Still, William Smith, who apparently knew her, later declared that he didn't believe there was such a liaison (Oney, pp. 436-437).
So my conclusion is that it is nearly certain that Jim Conley killed Mary Phagan. Dershowitz in the introduction to Dinnerstein, Dinnerstein himself, F/T, WebFlag , and the Tennessean all agree with this. It is probably impossible to prove beyond reasonable doubt at this stage, but it is clearly the highest probability. And even if Conley were innocent, he was still guilty of perjury, for which he was never tried.
The next highest probability is surely that, despite Jim Conley's behavior in accusing Frank, an unknown person (probably someone known to Jim Conley) committed the crime. In this case, the unknown person must also have had a hold on Conley. (Not unlikely, given Conley's history.)
Leo Frank is almost certainly innocent. Even if (perhaps a chance in a thousand) he were guilty, the testimony presented at his trial clearly was not enough for conviction. It wasn't even enough for a mistrial. Judge Roan should have declared him innocent and not even sent the case to the jury. But that would very likely have cost Roan his life (and, very possibly, Frank's as well; he would probably have been lynched before he could get out of the state).
After Alonzo Mann came forward, a first attempt to have Frank cleared failed when, amazingly, some of Mary's living relations objected (F/T, p. 153), but a second appeal succeeded. Frank's name was formally cleared in 1986 (F/T, p. .xix), 71 years after he died, an innocent man whose only crime was to be "different." Frank's wife Lucille had remained faithful to him all her life, but died in 1957 without seeing him given the justice he deserved.
Dinnerstein, p. 156, states that "With the Supreme Court so zealous in its defense of civil liberties today, it is extremely unlikely that another Frank case could occur." He wrote that in the days of the Warren Court. But the "convict 'em or else" mentality that motivated so much of what happened in the Frank case persists today, and increasingly the courts and legislatures are re-imposing the sort of "innocence is no excuse" rules that deny appeals not filed in a timely and legally correct way. The old-time singers often added the interjection "Young girls, take warning" to this song. But the real warning may be for us. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: LF20

Mary Riley

See Mary Acklin (The Squire's Young Daughter) [Laws M16] (File: LM16)

Mary Rolled the Stone Away

DESCRIPTION: "Mary rolled the stone away Early on a Easter Sunday morning ... Angel came from heaven Mary rolled the stone away" My brother brings the news from Heaven.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (USSeaIsland01)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Moving Star Hall Singers, "Mary Rolled the Stone Away" (on USSeaIsland01)
NOTES [85 words]: The Marys find the stone rolled away from the Christ's sepulchre in Matthew 28:1-2, Mark 16:1-2 and John 20:1. Matthew 28:2: "... the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door ...." [King James].
The current description is based on the USSeaIsland01 text.
The Herskovits Trinidadian Spiritual Baptist account of "Jesus Lover of My Soul" fits this USSeaIsland01 track as well. Although this is not a Sankey hymn, the performance style matches "Sankey into Shout." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: RcMRTSA

Mary she went out one day

See The Gallant Soldier (Mary/Peggy and the Soldier) (File: HHH782)

Mary Smith, the Maid of Mountain Plain

DESCRIPTION: "Ye maids of Columbia... I beg your attention and now pity me"; he has been wounded by love. He spells out Mary Smith's name to describe her beauty and virtues. He wishes he were Adam and she Eve. He will wander forever if he can't gain her love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love rejection wordplay
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H636, p. 235, "Mary Smith, the Maid of Mountain Plain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9469
File: HHH636

Mary the Rose

See Of a Rose, A Lovely Rose (File: MSOARALR)

Mary Thompson

DESCRIPTION: "In Manchester in Lancashire A damsel she did dwell, In service a long time she lived, Till this to her befell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: courting homicide servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #148, p. 2, ("In Manchester in Lancashire") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan2 205, "Mary Thompson" (1 fragment)
Roud #2458
NOTES [18 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Greig/Duncan2 fragment.
Greig: "Her sweetheart murdered her." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2205

Mary Vickery and Connelly Donnelly

DESCRIPTION: Mary runs way from home. Her father thinks her dead. When a woman's body is found it is thought to be Mary. Conley is arrested for the murder. A jealous woman swears she saw him do it. He is sentenced to life. Mary returns and clears Conley.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: homicide prison trial jealousy lie return pardon hiding
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 819-820, "Mary Vickery and Connelly Donnelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9806
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Return of Mary Vickery
NOTES [42 words]: "Conley Dabney, sentenced to life imprisonment in 1926 for the supposed murder of Mary Vickery at Williamsburg, Ky., was freed when she returned home on Mar 19, 1927, to clear his name" -- from Country Music Sources by Guthrie T Meade Jr, p. 93 - BS
File: Pea819

Mary Was a Bad Girl

DESCRIPTION: Mary, a bad girl, says "I won't." A good girl, the singer says "I will." In school she says "I write." Leaving,she says "Hooray." Courting, she says "a boy." She gets engaged, marries, has a baby who dies (boo, hoo). Her husband dies (hooray). She dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: courting wedding childbirth death playparty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 71, "Mary Was a Bad Girl" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nuts in May" (tune, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
cf. "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (tune) and references there
File: OpGa071

Mary Was a Red Bird

DESCRIPTION: Lullabye. "Mary wore her red dress, red dress, red dress, Mary wore her red dress, All day long." "Mary wore her red ha." "Mary wore her red shoes." Additional verses ask where she got her shoes, groceries, etc. Song concludes, "Mary was a red bird...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: lullaby bird clothes commerce
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 98-99, "Mary Was a Red Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11588
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mary Wore Her Red Dress
File: LoSi098

Mary Was a Three-badge Wren

DESCRIPTION: "Mary was a three-badge Wren, Her hair was fair and curly, She joined the Wrens in 1910, just 30 years too early." "As a glamour girl she wished to pass." She tries to snag a sailor (or more), but ends up with someone undesirable; other Wrens are warned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor courting clothes derivative warning
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 119-120, "Mary Was a Three-badge Wren" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (tune)
File: Tawn090

Mary With Her Young Son

DESCRIPTION: "Then Mary took her young son, And set him on her knee, Saying, 'My dear son, tell me, Tell me how this world shall be.'" Jesus responds by foretelling his death and resurrection
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Terry)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bronson 54, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (Item #31 to this song, in the appendix, is this piece under the title "Mary's Question")
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 66, "The Cherry Tree Carol" (1 text (separated into smaller parts, the last being "Mary With Her Young Son"), 4 tunes)
Roud #453
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cherry Tree Carol" [Child 54]
cf. "Als I Lay Upon a Nith (As I Lay Upon a Night II)" (theme of the young Jesus foretelling his future)
NOTES [191 words]: The earliest extant version of these stanzas is in Sandys's version of "The Cherry Tree Carol," allowing the possibility that they are an original part of that ballad. But it is certainly not necessary to that ballad -- which is, of course, very episodic.
Of the thirty versions of "The Cherry Tree Carol" in Bronson (not all of which have complete texts), only two have this item in its full form, but many more have a brief section in which Joseph asks the unborn baby about the future. This could well have attracted a separate song on the same theme.
Thus it is equally possible that "Mary With Her Young Son" is a broken-off fragment *or* that it is a separate song grafted in. A. L. Lloyd, in his notes to the recording by The Valley Folk, is noncommittal, and Bronson's treatment is equally noncommittal.
There is, of course, no scriptural basis for any of this; although the adult Jesus repeatedly spoke of his future fate, only the Gospel of Luke mentions any foretellings before his ministry, and even that passage (Luke 2:49, "Didn't you realize that I must be in my Father's house?") is dated to the twelfth year of Jesus's life. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C054A

Mary Wood

DESCRIPTION: "Listen to my story that to you I'll now relate. Of how a Philadelphia maiden met her melancholy fate." Mary Wood loves a poor man; her father, who wants her to marry wealth, stabs her -- then repents. She forgives him, sends love to her beloved, and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: love courting father homicide money
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 205-206, "Mary Wood" (1 text)
Roud #11711
File: Shoe205

Mary Wore Her Red Dress

See Mary Was a Red Bird (File: LoSi098)

Mary Wore Three Links of Chain

DESCRIPTION: Floating religious verses with the chorus, "All my sins been taken away, taken away." Sample verses: "Mary wore three links of chain (x3), Ev'ry link bearing Jesus's name." "I don't know but I've been told (x3) Streets of heaven are paved with gold."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad sin floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 543, "Mary Wore Three Links of Chain" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 543, "Mary Wore Three Links of Chain" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 474-475, "Mary Wore Three Links of Chain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5027
RECORDINGS:
George Herod, "Sister Mary Wore Three Lengths (Links) of Chain" (on MuSouth07)
Bradley Kincaid, "Mary Wore Three Links of Chain" (Supertone 9666, 1930)
Dock Reed, "I'm Going Home on the Morning Train" (on NFMAla5)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Mary Don't You Weep" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
cf. "All Night Long" (floating verses)
NOTES [34 words]: This is probably a religious adaption of "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane." Since, however, it seems to circulate widely on its own, it gets its own listing.
I sure hope I remember that I split them.... - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: San474

Mary, Go Round the Sun

See Sally Go Round the Moon (File: BGMG636)

Mary, Mary, Brummagem Mary

DESCRIPTION: "Mary, Mary, Brummagem Mary, how does your allotment grow? You've 'ad some shy knock through workin' at Kynoch's, Althouh you don't mind we all know. You've never seen Arizona and Texas is not your abode, You're just Mary... what lives up Pairsher street"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Palmer)
KEYWORDS: home work nonballad derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, pp. 149-150, "Mary, Mary, Brummagem Mary" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: RPFW149A

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

DESCRIPTION: "Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow? With silver bells and cockle shells And pretty maids all in a row."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1744 (Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: gardening
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 342, "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #9, p. 31, "(Mistress Mary)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 133, "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 83, "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 44, "Mistress Mary" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 115, "One Dern Eggplant" (1 text, a parody of this but still basically the same text; it's just that "And one dern eggplant" is substituted for the last line)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #335, "Mary, Mary, quite contrary" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Tim Devlin, _Cracking Humpty Dumpty: An Investigative Trail of Favorite Nursery Rhymes_, Susak Press, 2022, pp. 85-90, "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" (1 text)
Roud #19626
NOTES [325 words]: This is one of those pieces for which a vast variety of explanations has been suggested. The Opies mention several religious explanations, but observe that different denominations give different meanings to the symbols. They also mention a possible connection to Mary Queen of Scots, leading them to add that the "pretty maids" might be the Four Maries of "Mary Hamilton" [Child 173]. This speculation goes back at least to Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp. 170-171; it is one of the few instances of a Thomas speculation which is not absolutely absurd.
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel also mentioned Mary Queen of Scots, plus Mary Tudor, and finally the Virgin Mary, in which case the garden has something to do with Mary's virginity.
Devlin, pp. 85-88, discusses the evidence for these hypotheses, none of which can be proved but none of which can be entirely excluded. He has another suggestion, however. He suggests on pp. 89-90 that the Queen Mary is Mary II (reigned jointly with her husband William III 1689-1694). As evidence he points out that Mary II liked gardening, and that "silver bells," "cockle shells," and "pretty maids" are all known names, or nicknames, of garden plants. This also has the advantage that the earliest version of the rhyme, from Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, is relatively contemporary with the events it describes -- there were still some people who remembered William and Mary at the time it was published, and so might remember childhood rhymes about Mary.
On the other hand, in that case, you'd think someone might have said something! It's an interesting hypothesis, the drawback, in this case as with all the others, is that we have absolutely no evidence that this poem is about anyone, royal or not. Even if Devlin is right about the plants being real garden plants (and I suspect he is right), it could just be someone's backyard flower plot. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OO2342

Mary, Mary, Set the Table

See Mabel, Mabel (File: SuSm104A)

Mary, Mary, With a Curl

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Mary, Mary, with a curl, Will you jump as my best girl? Slow at first, now that's the way,On we go to the break of day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Journal of Health and Physical Education, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope hair courting
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #336, "Mary, Mary with a curl" (1 text)
File: JRR336

Mary, my dear Mary

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Mary, She Did Dream a Dream

DESCRIPTION: "Mary, she did dream a dream, As she was floating down the stream. When she woke, she gave a sigh, The grey cat kicked out the black cat's eye."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal dream fight
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 190, (no title) (1 fragment)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gray Cat on the Tennessee Farm" (lyrics)
File: ScaNF190

Mary, The

See Captain Conrod (File: SmHa014)

Mary, the Maid of the Don

DESCRIPTION: "Nae mavis nor larkie sang blither than I" but Mary has left the singer and "caused me to roam." "Nae mair I'll herd sheep upon yon hills sae steep But I'll die for my Mary, the maid o' the Don."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #110, p. 2, "Mary, the Maid of the Don" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1239, "Mary, the Maid of the Don"; Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Mary, the Maid of the Don" (6 texts, 7 tunes)
Roud #6265
NOTES [6 words]: This River Don is in Aberdeenshire. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61239

Mary, the Pride of Killowen

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the fine summer night when he emigrated from Coleraine and Mary. He recalls courting her, and says he will never forget the place or the girl He blesses the spot they met.
AUTHOR: Andrew Orr
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Derry Standard)
KEYWORDS: love separation emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H26b, p. 250, "Mary, the Pride of Killowen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13340
NOTES [44 words]: In this particular instance, the song's author Andrew Orr did emigrate (to Australia). Whether the rest of the song is historical is not clear; it's interesting that he wrote at least one other song (Ann o' Drumcroon) with the same plot but a different heroine. - RBW
File: HHH026b

Mary, the Pride of the Shamrock Shore

DESCRIPTION: Henry returns and finds Mary with a squire. The squire is her true love now since her previous sweetheart "is no more." Henry kills the squire in a duel. Mary kills Henry and recognizes him by a private token. She is sentenced to life in jail.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(699))
KEYWORDS: courting homicide prison fight return lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 630-631, "The Pride of the Shamrock Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea630 (Partial)
Roud #9797
RECORDINGS:
Peter Ryan, "The Pride of the Shamrock Shore" (on PeacockCDROM)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(699), "Mary, the Pride of the Shamrock Shore," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also 2806 c.9(26), Harding B 11(2377), "Mary, the Pride of the Shamrock Shore"
File: Pea630

Mary's Ass

DESCRIPTION: The singer mentions Mary, "a beautiful lass, And the song I will sing is about Mary's ass." She rode the beast, a gift from her uncle, regularly. At last it falls, knocking Mary off, and dies. It is buried, and the bad smell from the Ass Hole described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous animal
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 158-159, "Mary's Ass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3351
File: MA158

Mary's Dream

See Mary o' the Dee (Mary's Dream) [Laws K20] (File: LK20)

Mary's Lamb

See Mary Had a Little Lamb (File: R360)

Mary's Mad

See Johnny Is Mad (File: SaKo119A)

Mary's Question

See Mary With Her Young Son (File: C054A)

Mary's Son

DESCRIPTION: "If you stop to find out what your wages will be And how they will clothe and feed you, Willie, my son, don't you go on the Sea, For the Sea will never need you." Don't question orders, and don't expect to much, for land and earth don't need you
AUTHOR: Words: Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Nash's Magazine, according to The Kipling Society web site)
KEYWORDS: money hardtimes warning
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 171, "If you stop to think what your wages will be" (1 fragment)
Roud #25409
NOTES [76 words]: The "Mary" of the title of this is not some random Mary, nor the Virgin Mary, but rather Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha of Bethany. Kipling also wrote a poem "The Sons of Martha." This one expresses the view of Mary, who left it to Martha to manage the house when Jesus came to visit, while Mary simply sat with Jesus. Although most of the citations of Mary and Martha are from the Gospel of John, this particular incident is in Luke 10:38-42. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC171A

Mary's Vision

See Mary o' the Dee (Mary's Dream) [Laws K20] (File: LK20)

Maryborough Miner, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes all the places where he has been digging. At Fitzroy River the boss calls him a loafer, so he burns his office and left. He tells further tall tales, ending "I'm a Maryborough miner, and I'm one of the good old time."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: mining work rambling
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 78-79, "The Maryborough Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Murrumbidgee Shearer" (tune, theme)
NOTES [134 words]: Fahey's version was collected by A.L. Lloyd, and he suspects Lloyd may have retouched it. The notes to Patterson/Fahey/Seal on "The Murrumbidgee Shearer" make this even more explicit: they declare this to be Lloyd's rewrite of that. Similarly Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, pp. 185-186; they note that it describes an improbably long life for one person, and say that it is Lloyd's production, and that it became controversial at Australian folk festivals as a result.
On p. 195, Davey/Seal report, "In the original song, the shearer has had a chequered career of prospecting for gold, burning the sheds of uncooperative squatters and robbing gold escorts. He finishes up by spending 'ten years on Cockatoo,' Sydney's colonial island prison." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: FaE078

Marye Aumbree

See Mary Ambree (File: OBB165)

Maryland Battle Cry, The

DESCRIPTION: "Hark! the trumpet calls to duty, See, our glorious flag unfurled...." "So let the Southerns do as they will, We are for the Union still." The singer declares the southerners "traitors" and "rebels" and calls Marylanders to defend the flag
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (Cohen)
KEYWORDS: patriotic nonballad Civilwar
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 175, "The Maryland Battle Cry" (1 text)
File: CAFS1175

Maryland Martyrs, The

DESCRIPTION: "They bore them to a gloomy cell And barred them from the light Because they boldly dared to tell The people what was right." The singer urges all to support the cause of "Freedom," and calls their Unionist captors "despots"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (Cohen); 19th Century (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar political prison
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 173-174, "The Maryland Martyrs" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #C104, p. 191, "The Maryland Martyrs" (2 references)
File: CAFS1173

Maryland, My Home

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet Maryland, thy groves are green, And sparkling are thy rills... Though far away I plow the seas... My heart with fondness clings to thee, Sweet Maryland, my home!" The singer looks forward to seeing his home once again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (Cohen); 19th Century (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 176, "Maryland, My Home" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #C106, p. 191, "Maryland, My Home" (1 reference)
File: CAFS176A

Maryland! My Maryland

DESCRIPTION: "The despot's heel is on thy shore, Maryland, my Maryland." The state's heroic history is recalled; the singer wants and expects her to join the Confederacy: "Huzza! She spurns the northern scum! She breathes! She burns! She'll come!"
AUTHOR: Words: James Ryder Randall
EARLIEST DATE: 1861
KEYWORDS: Civilwar patriotic nonballad derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April, 1861 - Clashes between Massachusetts troops and the residents of Baltimore
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 130-133, "Maryland! My Maryland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 168-172, "Maryland, My Maryland" (2 texts plus a broadside pring, one being Randall's original and another a less Confederate version perhaps by Septimus Winner)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 70-72, "Maryland, My Maryland" (1 text, 1 tune); also p. 73, "Answer to 'My Maryland'" (1 text, a parody of the preceding); p. 73, "Kentucky! O Kentucky!" (1 text, a parody of the preceding)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 60-61, "Maryland, My Maryland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 195-197, "My Maryland" (1 text)
Krythe-SamplerOfAmericanSongs 9, pp. 142-149, "Maryland, My Maryland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 355-357, "Maryland, My Maryland -- (O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum!; Lauriger Horatius)"
Heart-Songs, p. 456, "Maryland! My Maryland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #16, "My Maryland" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp.126-127, "Maryland! My Maryland!" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #C107, p. 191, "Maryland, My Maryland" (6 references); also sundry parodies on p. 95, mostly titled, "Maryland, My Maryland"; see also "My Maryland" on p. 104
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 457, "Maryland, My Maryland" (notes only)
ADDITIONAL: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, pp. 113-114, catalogs early sheet music printings
William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, pp. 41-43, "(Maryland, My Maryland)" (1 text, tune on p.p. 127-128)
ST RJ19130 (Full)
Roud #V19764
RECORDINGS:
Harry Macdonough, "Maryland, My Maryland" (CYL: Edison 2033, c. 1897)
Tandy Mackenzie, "Maryland, My Maryland" (Columbia 80320, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree)" (tune) and references there
cf. "General Lee's Wooing" (tune, subject)
cf, "My Delaware" (form)
cf. "My Normandy" (tune, in some printings)
SAME TUNE:
Answer to "My Maryland" ("The Rebel horde is on thy shore") (Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 73; Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, , p. 95)
Kentucky! O Kentucky! ("John Morgan's foot is on thy shore") (Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 73)
Our Maryland (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 361 -- one of four "Maryland, My Maryland" rewrites on pp. 360-361, all the others being titled "Maryland, My Maryland")
Husbandman! O Husbandman ("Thou art the tiller of the soil, Husbandman! O Husbandman!") (by A. P. Knapp) (Albert P. Knapp, _Grange Songster_, 1915, p. 9)
To Labor ("Should you complain who feed the world? Who clothe the world, who house the world?") (by Charlotte Perkins Gilman) (Foner, p. 177)
See also the entries under "O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree)"
NOTES [692 words]: James Ryder Randall was a native of Baltimore. At the time of the Civil War he was teaching English at Poydras College in Louisiana. He wrote this poem on April 26, 1861, after hearing of the Baltimore riot; the piece was published in a New Orleans paper on May 5. Randall hoped it would help encourage Maryland to secede.
Randall's expectations were disappointed; Maryland never joined the Confederacy. The Union could not possibly allow it; the loss of Maryland would place Washington inside Confederate territory. The federal government moved quickly to prevent the state's succession. One side effect of this was the riots in Baltimore that inspired "Maryland! My Maryland."
Chances are, however, that Maryland would not have seceded. Baltimore favored the rebellion, but the rest of the state seems to have been Unionist. A fair number of Maryland citizens went south -- Lee's army contained a Maryland battalion -- but more served in the Northern armies.
The reference to the "patriotic gore / that flecked the streets of Baltimore" is, of course, to the Baltimore riots. "Carroll" is Charles Carroll, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. I believe "Howard's warlike thrust" refers to Major John Eager Howard, who led the handful of troops who cut their way out of a British trap at the Battle of Camden (1780).
It should be noted that the sung version of this song does not quite match the written version. In Randall's poem, the internal refrain was not "Maryland, my Maryland"; he used this only in the final line. The internal phrase was simply "Maryland." This was expanded to fit the tune. For a time the poem was sung to the tune "Manormandie," but this was not a success. The "O Tannenbaum" tune is said to have been fitted by a Baltimore girl, Jennie Cary.
Even though Randall's authorship was widely known, a few other names also circulated. Wharton's War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy, for instance, credits it to Lamar Fontaine. Dichter and Shapiro think that this is because Randall sent a copy of the poem to a friend shortly after writing it, and the other distributed it without Randall's knowledge. The apparent first edition is anonymous; by 1862, printings circulated which had Randall's name printed and declared that they were the only authorized versions.
J. Franklin Jameson, Dictionary of United States History 1492-1895, Puritan Press, 1894, p. 541 gives this capsule biography of the author:
Randall, James R., born in 1839, wrote many popular songs in support of the Southern cause, among them "Maryland, My Maryland" and "The Battle-Cry of the South." He became editor of the Constitutionalist in 1866.
There is a long chapter on the song, and on Randall, in E. Lawrence Abel, Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861-1865, Stackpole, 2000 (chapter 3, pp. 67-80). Apparently Randall, after hearing of the Baltimore riots, flew into extreme agitation. He couldn't sleep, and couldn't sit still, and eventually cranked out this poem (Abel, p. 68). His students urged him to publish. Jenny Cary, who set the tune, was a daughter of a prominent Maryland family with Confederate sympathies, and her parents hosted a glee club. So it was easy for her to make her tune popular -- although the sheet music was published anonymously (Abel, pp. 70-71). The Carys eventually went south to avoid the political fallout.
Randall after the war became a journalist. He continued to write poetry, but was remembered only for "My Maryland" -- which he resented (Abel, pp. 78-79); it made it harder for him to get recognition for his other work. Nonetheless, his wife insisted on naming one of his daughters "Maryland," so that she could call the girl "My Maryland" (Abel, p. 79). He died in 1908 (so Studwell/Schueneman and his entry in the Dictionary of American Biography; Abel says 1907), apparently of pneumonia (Abel, pp. 79-80).
"My Maryland" was made the state song in 1939 (Abel, p. 80), after being widely treated as if it were the state song for many years. It finally lost that role in May 2021, when agitation about its Confederate sentiments became too strong. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RJ19130

Mashering a Doo a Day

DESCRIPTION: Mashering a doo a day Mashering a doo a daddie, O, Mashering a doo a day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1752, "Mashering a Doo a Day" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13529
NOTES [122 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
Greig/Duncan8: "Mrs Gillespie does not remember the song, but thinks it may be 'Whisky, punch, and toddy O' [possibly [Greig/Duncan4] 918 'Come All Ye Young Men That Want a Wife' which includes the words 'rum punch and toddy O']. The refrain partly occurs in [[Greig/Duncan7] 1378 'Come Ye Inksmen' B ["The Old Maid's Song" (I)]. [This] is a refrain, and after each verse ends with the last line of that verse." - BS
I strongly suspect her memory is just a little off, and she is remembering a version of "Whisky in the Jar (The Irish Robber A) [Laws L13A]/The Irish Robber B (McCollister) [Laws L13B]." There are versions of that with a chorus very similar to this. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81752

Maskers' Song, The

See The Pace-Egging Song (File: RcPaceEg)

Maskin' Rung, The

DESCRIPTION: A maid puts off a young man by saying she'll meet him that night in the woods. She makes a "maid" from a masking rung, branches, and an old widow's clothes. This "maid" smiles but does not speak. When he lifts her skirt he sees he has been fooled.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes trick
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #173, p. 2, "The Maskin Rung"; #177, p. 2, "The Maskin Rung"; #153, p. 3, ("I wonder what does ail my love") (2 texts plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan2 323, "The Maskin' Rung" (8 texts, 6 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 124, "Hir Hands War Made o' Willan Wands"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2, pp. 190-194, "The Masking Rung" (2 texts)
DT, MASKNRNG*
Roud #5868
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Harlaw" (tune of the chorus,according to Greig/Duncan2)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Masculine Rung
The Holland Green
The Hollin It Grows Green
NOTES [50 words]: Greig: "'masking rung' is defined as a rod for stirring malt in the mash-tub."
A number of the Greig/Duncan2 texts have a title taken from the chorus: "For the holland grows, the holland grows, And the holland it grows green. There's nae a tree in a' the wood Like the birk and the holland green." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD2323

Mason Laddie, The

DESCRIPTION: "Leaning oer a window ...I spied a mason laddie who gave my heart a wound." She compares masons to ministers, millers, ploughmen, cobblers, weavers, and smiths, and prefers "my bonnie mason laddie" to each.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: love work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #40, pp. 1-2, "The Bonnie Mason Laddie" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 465, "The Mason Laddie" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 119, "The Mason Laddie"
Roud #5883
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny Lad" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
cf. "Sandy Ower the Lea" (tune, per Whitelaw)
cf. "The Masons" (subject: praise of masons)
cf. "The Bonnie Mason Laddie" (subject: praise of masons)
NOTES [16 words]: Greig's text fragment is the first and last verses from Whitelaw's Book of Scottish Song. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD3465

Mason's Bonny Daughter, The

DESCRIPTION: "The mason's bonny daughter, The mason's lassie braw, Hey the mason's bonny daughter, She's stown me heart awa'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 726, "The Mason's Bonny Daughter" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6160
File: GrD4726

Mason's Daughter, The

DESCRIPTION: Isabel refuses to marry her steward. He drugs and seduces her. She tries to kill her baby in a well. He rescues it. When Isabel admires the baby the steward reveales that it is hers. She murders the baby. The steward cries when she was arrested.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: love seduction homicide childbirth baby servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 196, "Fair Isabel" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 39, "The Mason's Dochter" (1 text)
Roud #3850
ALTERNATE TITLES:
In Fair London City
File: GrD2196

Mason's Dochter, The

See The Mason's Daughter (File: GrD2196)

Masonic Hymn, The

See Free Mason Song (File: LLab063)

Masons, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a bridge where masons are working. She praises their work and would give up her fortune to wed a mason. She admires smiths but "if it had not been for oor mason lads ye would all died of cold." She admires soldiers, printers and tailors.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #40, p. 1, "The Mason Lads" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 463, "The Masons" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Roud #5644
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie Mason Laddie" (subject: praise of masons)
cf. "The Mason Laddie" (subject: praise of masons)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Freemasons
From the City to the New Toon
From the Seatown to the Newtown
NOTES [14 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "'Heard at Aberdour fifty-three years ago.'" [counting from 1909?] - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3463

Massa Had a Yaller Gal

See Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal) (File: BAF904)

Massa Had a Yellow Gal

See Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal) (File: BAF904)

Massa Run Away

See Kingdom Coming (The Year of Jubilo) (File: R230)

Massa's in De Cold Ground

See Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground (File: RcMitCCG)

Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground

DESCRIPTION: "Round de meadows am a ringing, De darkeys’ mournful song,... Down in de cornfield Hear dat mournful sound: All de darkeys am a weeping, Massa’s in de cold, cold ground." The "darkeys" loved him because he was so kind; the singer cries and plays banjo
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1852 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: slave death burial
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 149, "A Medley" (1 text, 1 tune, starting with the chorus of "Sweet Adeline," then "The Old Oaken Bucket," "In the Evening by the Moonlight," "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown," and "Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground")
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 130, "Massa's in de Cold Ground" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 350, "Massa's in de Cold Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #7/72, p. 40 and #7/64, p. 40, "Massa's in de Cold Ground" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #125, "Massa's in de Cold, Cold Ground" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, 3307, p. 74, "Massa's in de Cold Ground" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 358, "Massa's in de Cold Ground"
NOTES [39 words]: Not one of Foster's best, but it gained some popularity due to its melody. Happily, it has pretty well died out since the Civil War; apart from the Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric fragment, there appear to be no traditional collections. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RcMitCCG

Massacre at Butcher's Hall, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come hearken to a bloody tale of how the soldiery Did murder men in Boston, as you full soon shall see." The 29th Regiment attacks the Americans. Several are killed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: soldier death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 5, 1870 - The "Boston Massacre"
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 53, "The Massacre at Butcher's Hall" (1 text) (p. 43 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #14079
NOTES [1265 words]: As is usual in history, there are two sides to the story of the Boston Massacre. Jameson, p. 76, gives a fairly orthodox American view:
"During 1769 and the early months of 1770 continual quarrels and misunderstandings occurred between the Boston population and the British soldiers stationed in the town, over the persistent non-observation of the navigation acts. In February, 1770, a press gang from the British frigate 'Rose' boarded a ship belonging to Hooper, of Marblehead, and a riot followed. On the night of March 5, the ringing of fire bells brought together a large crowd and the usual collision with the soldiers took place. The soldiers fired. Three persons were killed and several others severely wounded. The news of the Boston Massacre spread rapidly, strengthening the revolutionary spirit. The soldiers were acquitted."
(According to Paine, p 437, the H.M.S. Rose was a sixth-rate frigate, built in 1757, which in 1768 was sent to the Americas and stayed there until she was scuttled in 1779 to keep the French from being able to sail into and through Charleston. Early in her career, she actively impressed merchant sailors for the Royal Navy -- obviously not something that the sailors liked, but the colonials were not treated any differently than people in England. It's just that they complained more.)
Jameson may not want to admit it, but in fact the British soldiers were heavily provoked. Though the details are very murky; most of what we know apparently comes from claims and counter-claims in the court case.
It was perhaps a follow-on to another fight, where a redcoat who was looking for work to make extra money while off duty was insulted by a colonial, and fists flew (Cook, pp. 150-151; Middlekauff, p. 203). This set many of the people of Boston on edge.
Monday, March 5 was a cold night, with snow on the slippery ground. British Private Hugh White was on guard outside the Custom House on King Street (Marrin, p. 27; Cook, p. 151, says that this had long been a place for demonstrations). It is likely a barber's assistant named Edward Garrick called out to a British captain that he hadn't paid his bill. Private White for some reason took it into his head to cry out that the captain was a gentleman and always paid his bills (Marrin, pp. 27-28). To which Garrick said that there were no gentlemen in the British army. White hit him with his musket. Garrick retreated -- and returned with a mob, which quickly grew.
White had no choice but to retreat -- except that the Custom House was closed. He needed help, and Captain Thomas Preston, the officer on duty in the British barracks ordered out a squad to rescue him (Marrin, p. 28, says he heard White's cries; Cook, p. 151, and Middlekauff, p. 204, say that Preston saw what was happening and responded). Preston went with the group of six privates and a corporal (Middlekauff, p. 205).
The crowd grew quickly; apparently there had been a fire scare that night, setting bells ringing and drawing people into the streets (McCullough, p. 65; Middlekauff, p. 204, thinks it was a deliberate false alarm to draw people out.)
Preston might have retreated, but instead he may have tried to reason with the crowd. He certainly didn't order his men to fire, which was against the law (Marrin, p. 29). But some say that one of the crowd -- possibly Crispus Attucks, a tall man who may have been Black and certainly not your typical New Englander -- hit him in the arm; he also hit one of the soldiers (Marrin, p. 29).
It is also possible that one of the soldiers was hit by snow, or slipped on it (Cook, p. 152; Middlekauff, p. 205, gives the private's name as Hugh Montgomery). Whatever the situation, the man fired (Cook, p. 152, says it is not clear whether it was deliberate or an accident; McCullough, p. 67, allows the possibility that Preston gave the order to fire, although none of the other sources accept this). That caused the other soldiers to fire. Five in the crowd, including Attucks, were killed or mortally wounded (Marrin, p. 29); six others were wounded (Cook, p. 152; Middlekauff, p. 206).
The British really did go by the rules. They put Preston and his squad on trial for murder, though they delayed the trial for six months in hopes things would calm down (Cook, p. 152; McCullough, p. 67. In one of life's truly strange ironies, one of the assistants to the prosecution was Robert Treat Paine Sr., whose sone Robert Treat Paine Jr. would write "Adams and Liberty"). Preston's friends managed to convince John Adams to defend them. Adams wanted American independence, but he was also an honest man -- and he convinced a Boston jury to acquit the soldiers on all but two of the soldiers the basis of self-defense; even the two convicted of manslaughter, although branded, were not executed (McCullough, p. 68; Marrin, pp. 30-31 calls it benefit of clergy). Adams reportedly lost a lot of his clients, because they didn't agree with him defending the soldiers, but in the long run his reputation for integrity was strengthened (McCullough, p. 68).
That was that: There was a riot, those who were attacked defended themselves, and some of those who attacked them died. It should have been the end. But Samuel Adams and others used the Massacre as grounds to ratchet up complaints about British rule. The British took measures to calm things (Marrin, p. 33 -- indeed, they had cut their garrison even before the Massacre; Cook, p. 150). The fire-eaters among the Americans refused to be calmed.
The name "Butcher's Hall" is a bit of propaganda by none other than Paul Revere. The actual building was the Customs House. But Revere produced an engraved pint of the scene which plastered the label "Butcher's Hall" on it (Marrin, p. 32). The engraving is deliberately inaccurate in other ways -- notably, it shows the colonials as unarmed. Also, it shows the British soldiers in line and firing volleys, rather than in a defensive circle (at least, Middlekauff, p. 205, says they were in a circle) and firing, without orders, in response to a perceived direct threat. Marrin, p. 32, shows the actual engraving, with Paul Revere's name readily visible.
The song is correct in saying that the troops were of the 29th Regiment; the 14th Regiment was also stationed in Boston (Middlekauff, p. 206). The date, March 5, 1770, is also correct. The location on King Street is correct; the mention of Butcher's Hall is clearly based on the Paul Revere distortion.
The song lists Samuel Maverick, "Monk," Samuel Gray, and Patrick Carr as killed; James Caldwell and Crispus Attucks as "bleeding in the mire," and John Clark as wounded. Oddly, though most of the books mention Attucks, they rarely list the other victims. The Boston Massacre Historical Society (bostonmassacre.net) lists the killed as Attucks, Gray, and 17-year-old Caldwell as killed on the spot, 17-year-old Maverick as dying the next day, Carr as dying two weeks later, and "Christopher Monk who should rightly be considered the sixth victim of the massacre" -- he didn't die for another decade, but the injury, it is claimed, was so severe as to disable himand lead to his early death. Thus the song is sort of right to to list Monk as killed, and it correctly lists the other five who died. The reason why it list Monk is not clear; was it written that much later? I don't know. Otherwise, the song clearly represents the Paul Revere/American view of what happened quite accurately.
I do find it noteworthy that three of the six killed were teenagers. It appears the crowd really was composed of hot-headed young fools. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Shoe053

Massacre of Glencoe, The

DESCRIPTION: Glencoe is wakened by cannon. "Naked mothers were shot with their babes as they ran, For the English had risen to murder the clan." Five hundred McDonalds are killed including Flora's Donald. She dies of grief. "The pride of Glencoe" are buried together.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.14(26))
KEYWORDS: battle burial death Scotland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 13, 1692 - The Massacre of Glencoe
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 115, "The Massacre of Glencoe" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5783
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(26), "Flora and Donald" or "The Massacre of Glencoe" ("O dark lour'd the night on the wide distant heather"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866
Murray, Mu23-y1:082, "Flora and Donald" or "The Massacre of Glencoe," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(021), "The Massacre of Glencoe," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c.1856
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Yellow-Haired Laddie (I)" (possible subject: The Massacre of Glencoe")
NOTES [3837 words]: Greig/Duncan1: .".. 13 February 1692 ...."
When Maclain of Glencoe, a MacDonald clan subdivision, was late in swearing loyalty to the crown, William III's forces, augmented by the MacDonald enemy Campbells killed 38 in Glencoe and forced "countless others into the snow-topped Scottish mountains (where many died)." (source: "British Timeline: Massacre of Glencoe 1692" at the BBC site). - BS
The Massacre of Glencoe remains controversial to this day. The reason is the complicated set of circumstances which led to it. In some ways it was just another case of clan-on-clan warfare (Campbells versus MacDonalds), and by no means the most bloody. But it ended up with a taint of royal favoritism and injustice -- and a deserved reputation as a "brutal crime" (Willson, p. 467).
The story, according to Thomson, p. xv, began "with the violent death of a Campbell chief in 1296[. T]he feud then went on for about 450 years. There were numerous clashes and cullings inflicted by both sides, among which the incident at Glencoe in 1692 just happens to have been the best publicised."
It became known because King William III (William of Orange) approved it.
The problem was that William III, who had come to power by ousting James II, was shaky on the throne. (The "Glorious Revolution" which brought him to the throne had happened as recently as 1689; see the notes to songs such as "Lilliburlero" and "The Vicar of Bray.")
Scotland in particular was restive, and the Highlands most restive of all. "The Jacobite Rising of 1689 had left the Highlands in a turmoil. The government hurriedly built a new garrison fortress at Fort William, at the head of Loch Linnhe, and troops were deployed at several other strategic points. These were men King William urgently needed in Flanders, where he was embroiled in a war with France. How was the problem to be settled?" (Magnusson, pp. 522-523).
"It is probable that the government, and especially the Joint-Secretary, Dalrymple, hoped that the recalcitrance of the Highland chiefs would provide a pretext for a crusade against them" (Mackie, p. 251).
"In the spring and summer of 1691 there were signs of unrest among the clans of the north-west, who had hopes of a French invasion; and the government distributed several thousands of pounds of bribes to keep them quiet, at the same time ordering the suspected chiefs to take an oath of allegiance before the fixed date of New Year's Day 1692. In anticipation of widespread refusals 'letters of fire and sword' were drawn up in the long accustomed form, ordering wholesale ravaging and slaughter" (Clark, p. 269).
"The king's secretary of state in Scotland was now the lord advocate, Sir John Dalrymple, the Master of Stair. Dalrymple was an able and dedicated civil servant, totally committed to achieving the security and stability of the new regime. He saw the Highlands as a constant threat, and was convinced that the only way to establish law and order in Scotland was to make an example of one or another of the recalcitrant clans. He was also sure that few of the clan chiefs would submit to William voluntarily, and started drawing up grandiose plans for an exemplary punitive expedition" (Magnusson, p. 522).
"The time of year was carefully chosen. 'The winter time,' wrote Stair, 'is the only season in which we are sure the Highlanders cannot escape, and carry their wives, bairns, and cattle to the hills.... This is the proper time to maul them in the long dark nights" (MacLean, p. 143).
Not everyone views Stair's behavior in this light. Mitchison, p. 286, suggests that "Stair, in London, in the confidence of the King, wanted to see what negotiation would do. He took over Tarbat's scheme [of settling Highland quarrels by buying up disputed areas for the crown], but did not know or understand Highland issues -- he was impatient with the attitudes of the chiefs to William's sovereignty and did not appreciate their values and way of life.... To negotiate with the chiefs he rightly chose a Highlander who could go among them but unwisely chose a man whom nobody could ever begin to trust. The Earl of Breadalbane had never been known to do anything straightforwardly...."
(Tarbat's career was fascinating, incidentally -- he had gotten in trouble in the reign of Charles II, had wormed his way into favor with James II, but then managed to gain the trust of William III also; Prebble, p. 85. Talk about slick....)
Prebble, p. 87, describes what happened this way: "Joining in the clamour of voices and the prodigal expenditure of ink there came the Earl of Breadalbane, whom few men trusted but all credited with a umique knowlege of Highland robbers and murderers, being descended from a long line of them himself. He had no original proposal. He blandly took Tarbat's, with this difference -- he should treat with the chiefs, he should distribute the money among them. He had a plausible tongue, and he persuaded the King... to give him a commission 'to meet, treat and correspond with any of the Highlanders in order to reduce them to submission and obedience'. But if few men in the Lowlands could be found to trust the Earl of Breadalbane there were even fewer in the Highlands, and for the moment his commission was no more than paper in his pocket. He had not, in any case, been sent the money, and felt no obligation to move until he was."
The continued Jacobite threat (leading to the Battle of the Boyne) made William especially worried about Scotland. He wanted the place pacified, whatever it took. And the battle of the Haughs of Cromdale in 1690 (the real one, not the fictional story in the song of that name) inclined him to be forceful; Cromdale gave the government forces the initiative they had largely lost after Killiecrankie.
In practice, it hardly matters whether Stair preferred to use the carrot or the stick. He prepared both -- and in the end used both. "Tarbat's plan had miscarried because Stair was not the right man to carry it out, but the unity of the band of chiefs was gone" (Mitchison, p. 287). "By the end of the year it was clear that nearly all the clan chiefs were prepared to swear the required oath of allegiance" (Magnusson, p. 522). (It may not have been a sign that their allegiance to the Jacobite cause was waning; MacLean, p. 143, notes that "From his exile in France King James at the last moment authorized the chiefs to swear allegiance to his Dutch son-in-law.")
What happened next is somewhat unclear. What is certain is that the MacDonalds of Glencoe were not liked. Their chief "had fought at Killiecrankie and his men were reputed to be as troublesome as any in the Highlands" (Clark, p. 269). It sounds as if they raided Campbell lands on their way back from Killiecrankie, where of course they fought for the Stuarts (Prebble, pp. 71-72).
"The MacDonalds were thus still seen as semi-barbarian and the Glencoe branch of the family was particularly unpopular for its frequent raids on Glenlyon and Inverary" (Thomson, p. 83). "By the end of the sixteenth century it was agreed that the men of Glencoe were the most incorrigble and troublesome of the gallows herd, and had their land been as desirable and as accessible as Clan Gregor's they too might have come under the Crown's proscription" (Prebble, p. 45). The chief himself had already been imprisoned once, and was accused of executing some of his own men -- a severe crime by Highland standards (Prebble, p. 57). Plus, they had fought with Montrose on behalf of Charles I (Prebble, p. 48) -- though Prebble thinks this was because of the usual rivalry with the Campbells, not true loyalty to the Stuarts. And -- their chieftain was late to submit. (MacLean, p. 143, claims that he was one of only two chiefs -- the powerful MacDonell of Glengarry being the other -- not to take the oath on time.)
Thomson, pp. 84-85, takes a very low view of Alastair MacIain MacDonald, the twelfth chief of Glencoe. "He had spend some time acquiring polish in Paris.... The Glencoe MacDonalds had joined in virtually every raid southwards or eastwards since Alastair MacColla first mobilised the MacDonalds in 1645....
"Numerous mysteries still surround the massacre, not least with regard to the behavior of the 12th Chief.... [H]e had been accused of murdering some of his own men. He had been arrested in 1673 and imprisoned at Inveraray but then escaped." [Prebble, p. 58, says that no one knows how he pulled this off, but notes that it caused quite a stir.]
Thomson continues, "The other mystery about Alastair MacIain is why he made such a mess of his capitulation. He as an experienced campaigner and not a stupid man. Soon after the end of August 1691 he must have received the offer of pardon extended to all Highlanders by William of Orange as long as they reported to their local sheriff by 1 January of the following year. He knew that for him it meant a trip down to Inveraray, yet he left everything to he last minute and then reported to the wrong town, Fort William.... Then after a slow midwinter journey from Fort William to Inveraray he arrived too late and because it was the new year holiday had to wait another three days before being allowed to sign. Since the Sheriff, Colin Campbell of Ardkinglas, had been a heavy recent sufferer from Glencoe depredations it was not surprising that he made Glencoe sweat it out."
MacLean, p. 143, agrees that Glencoe's delay was "partly from dilatoriness and partly through the inclemency of the weather." Few other authorities are so willing to blame Glencoe. Clark, p. 269, says that he arrived late "by accident."
Magnusson, p. 523, declares, "By an extraordinary series of mishaps, Alasdair MacIain Macdonald of Glencoe had missed the deadline for taking the oath of binding loyalty to King William. He was one of the many chieftains who had waited for formal permission from 'the king across the water' to take the oath, which permission did not arrive in the Highlands until 28 December. With time running out fast, Macdonald set out at once and presented himself at the newly-built government fortress at Fort William on 31 December. But there he was told that the military commander could not accept the oath -- only the sheriff at Inverary could do that. Macdonald now had to make the freezing, ninety-five kilometre journey... carrying a helpful explanatory letter from the commander at Fort William. On the way he was stopped by a party of grenadiers who refused to accept the validity of the letter and held him for twenty-four hours. By the time he reached Inverary the deadline had passed.... His oath was forwarded to Edinburgh, but the government lawyers refused to accept responsibility for it."
"Some very underhanded dealings by the clerks of the Privy Council meant that the Council had not been officially informed that Glencoe had taken the oath; and Stair, who had been informed, stuck to it that all that mattered was that the time limit had been passed" (Mitchison, p. 287).
And so the government decided to use Glencoe as an example: they "were a much softer target [than the other chiefs who had not sworn], living in scattered huts at the foot of a glen which could easily be blocked at both ends. According to Dalrymple, they were also 'the only popish clan in the kingdom, and it will be popular to take severe course with them'; in fact, they were probably Episcopalian, if anything. But they were the ideal victims for a terrible and symbolic act of punishment to frighten everyone else into submission" (Magnusson, p. 523).
(The statement that the Glencoe sept was Episcopalian is probably based on the fact that they were part of the Highland Host of 1678 that tried to convert the Lowlands from Calvinism to episcopacy; Prebble, p. 59. However, a Catholic sept might well have supported episcopacy against Presbyterianisn; Prebble, p. 34, agrees with the claim that the MacDonalds were were Catholic.)
The glen was indeed a trap: "Running east to west along the northern border of Argyll, and eight miles in length, [the vale of Glencoe] is a deep scar left by the agony of Creation. It is an arm bent at the elbow, with sinews of quartz and muscles of granite. It is both fortress and trap, for the only natural entrances are at either end -- across Rannoch Moor in the east and by Loch Levenside in the west, and the high passes to the north and south lead ignorant men to higher hills only. Before the building of a road the Rannoch gate itself was frequently closed by winter snows and summer storms....
"Only the people of Glencoe, and the broken men of Clan Gregor who hid on its fringe, knew the paths across Rannoch.... The northern wall of the glen is a rippling, saw-toothed escarpment called Aonach Eagach, the Notched Ridge. It is three thousand feet and more in height, and unbroken except in the west where it twists sharply toward Loch Leven, dips, and rises again.... At the eastern end of Aonach Eagach is the only path to Glencoe from the north, a narrow, crooked path that climbs cautiously from the head of Loch Leven... It is rightly called The Devil's Staircase.... [O]pposite the Devil's Staircase [stands] Lairig Gartain, the green pass to Glen Etive in the south, and this too is no escape from or entrance to Glencoe..." (Prebble, pp. 19-20).
It was neither a large nor a productive territory, which never could field more than 150 swords, and so presumably never had more than about 500 people (Prebble, p. 27). The population seems to have been significantly less than that in 1689, even though the land was good (Prebble, p. 29). The glen did support about a thousand cattle, a major source of food for the winter (Prebble, pp. 30-31). There was no central keep or defensive fortification of any kind (Prebble, p. 28).
Little is known of the history of the MacDonalds of Glencoe. Although Alastair MacDonald was said to be the twelfth chief, we have no list; the number may be wrong (Prebble, p. 34). Indeed, Alastair is almost the only chief about whom we know anything: "He was born late in the third decade of the [seventeenth] century, with the red hair of his family, and he grew to an extraordinary height, six feet seven inches it was said. In his youth he went to Paris, where the sons of Highland chiefs were often sent to lacquer their splendid savagery and pride.... The death of his father brought him home in 1650" (Prebble, p. 34).
"[Alastair MacDonald] took a wife from among the Keppoch MacDonalds who, living to the north of Loch Leven, were the Glencoe men's constant companions in raiding and in war. By her he had two sons, John who would succeed him, and Alasdair Og, Alexander the Younger, a man of eager spirits and a hot temper. There was also at least one daughter, of whom little is known but her existance. John's wife was the daughter of the tacksman of Achtriachan, but Alasdair Og's came from outside the glen. She was Sarah Campbell, daughter of Campbell of Lochnell, great-granddaughter of a Breadalbane Campbell, and niece of the Glenlyon Campbell who would one day come to cut her husband's throat" (Prebble, p. 35).
How much William of Orange knew about the plan is uncertain; Clark, p. 269, says that Dalrymple "laid before the king an order for their extirpation. It is probable that the king did not read it: we know that he often signed papers so hurriedly that he did not know their contents." But whether he agreed with the idea or not, "his signature is still to be seen on the paper" (Clark, p. 269). The sept of Glencoe was to be destroyed.
"Hamilton [the commander of Fort William]... passed on the orders to Major Duncanson of the Earl of Argyll's regiment on 12 February 1692: '...pursuant to the commander in chief's orders for putting into execution the service against the rebels in Glencoe the orders are that none be spared'.
"That same day Duncanson wrote to Captain Robert Campbell of Glenlyon... 'You are hereby ordered to fall upon the rebels, the MacDonalds of Glencoe and to put all to the sword under seventy. You are to have a special care that the old fox and his sons upon no account escape your hands. This you are to put in execution at 5 of the clock precisely.' Thus, like so many war crimes over the centuries, the guilt was spread thinly from top to bottom" (Thomson, p. 85. MacLean, p. 145, has a copy of the written order).
Campbell, being a Campbell, had a grudge against the MacDonalds anyway, and he was not the sort to show mercy: "Captain Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, a kinsman of the Earl of Breadalbane... was sixty years old, an inveterate gambler, and in a notoriously hard-drinking age he drank harder than most" (Magnusson, p. 524).
The way the attack was carried out was particularly odious. The day before, "Robert Campbell actually dined with the head of the sept, who was totally unaware of the plot about to be murderously carried out" (Fry/Fry, p. 180). "Rather more than a hundred soldiers from Fort William, most of them highlanders of Argyll's regiment, were quartered on the valley. After living amicably with their hosts for more than a week they set about the work of massacre" (Clark, p. 269).
"[Campbell's] obedience [to the order for massacre] is even less remarkable when we remember that it was mainly the Glencoe MacDonalds who had caused his ruination by so many raids on his farms. They had also recently burned down the castle of Achallader, south of Glencoe, which belonged to his cousin, Campbell of Glenorchy. What is more surprising -- and this is the main reason why Robert Campbell's reputation has remained so black -- is that if he was aware of the purpose of his expedition to Glencoe for the ten days between arriving there and receiving his final orders, how could he bear to enjoy the MacDonalds' hospitality to hypocritically for all that time? This dishonesty was made even more objectionable by the fact that his own niece was married to one of Alastair MacIain's sons and was living in the glen" (Thomson, p. 86).
"At about five in the morning the next day the Campbells rose quietly and crept toward the homes of the Macdonalds, and in a few swift minutes slaughtered thirty-eight people, including two women and a child of six" (Fry/Fry, p. 180).
The only good news is that the massacre was not as complete as intended. "It was a botched affair -- the passes were to have been closed by Argyll's followers and by troops from Fort William, but many of the victims got through in spite of the bad weather that the high mountains bring down upon the narrow glen" (Mitchison, p. 287). "It was snowing hard, and additional contingents from Fort William and Ballachulish who were intended to block off the escape routes did not arrive in time.
"At five in the morning, two of Glenlyon's officers burst into the house of 'the old fox' at Carnoch and shot him as he was getting out of bed. The sound of gunfire there, and in another house at Achtriachtan, alerted the rest of the Macdonalds, who ran, half-naked, for the icy sanctuary of the hills. Both of Alasdair MacIain Macdonald's sons, and his baby grandson, escaped. Nevertheless, at least thirty-eight of the clan -- men, women, and children -- were systematically slaughtered; many others died in the raging snowstorm" (Magnusson, pp. 524-525).
"Parties of soldiers went from cottage to cottage, slaughtering the sleeping MacDonalds and setting light to their houses. MacIain himself was shot by one of his guests of the night before. A Campbell soldier gnawed the rings from Lady Glencoe's fingers with his teeth. A child of six, who clung, begging for mercy, to Glenlyon's knees, was promptly dispatched. As the massacre proceeded, snow began to fall. Some of the inhabitants of the glen were able to escape in the confusion. Others died in the snow" (MacLean, pp. 144-146).
"The final mystery about Glenlyon is that, given the fact that he did so totally deceive the unsuspecting MacDonalds... why did he not do a better job of exterminating them? ... He had not obeyed his orders very thoroughly; indeed, he had left people alive who could act as witnesses of the way he had behaved. And he managed to lose three of his own men as well... Of the roughly 150 men who took part in the massacre, under 10 per cent were Campbells, but these included the commanding officer, two junior officers and a corporal" (Thomson, p. 86).
"Such was the public outcry that the Scottish parliament was forced to react when it met in March 1693. A committee was appointed to look into the Massacre, but its report was not published and nothing was done. Two years later, as public revulsion showed no signs of abating, a royal commission was appointed to examine the chain of events leading up to the events at Glencoe. It published its report a month later, in June 1695. This time there was no cover-up: the Massacre had been an act of murder, and the government was condemned for having 'barbarously killed men under trust'. There had to be a scapegoat; the blame was laid squarely at the door of Dalrymple, who resigned his office as secretary of states, unrepentant but totally discredited" (Magnusson, p. 525).
"In due course, however, Stair was rewarded with an earldom, while Campbell of Glenlyon was promoted to colonel" (MacLean, p. 147).
"The earl of Breadalbane, who had acted with [Dalrymple/Stair], was charged with high treason, but never brought to trial. That was all that was done to punish the offenders" (Clark, p. 270).
William III "attempted to deny prior knowledge of the plot, but the documents showed otherwise and he was never trusted again in Scotland" (Fry/Fry, p. 180).
"In its immediate object terrorism succeeded, as it usually does. The resistant chiefs made their peace at once. Within a fortnight of the slaughter Colonel Hill had occupied Glengarry and Castle Eilean Donan, and was expecting the submission even of McNeill of Barra. But though the clans yielded to the threat of force the basic cause of discontent in the growth of Campbell power remained.
"William's government to the end of his reign rested on uncertain foundations. Jacobitism remained an open, or openable, question far longer in his northern kingdom than in England" (Mitchison, p. 288).
"The general execration of the deed helped to build up the British sense of justice and humanity. There were still to be scenes of cruelty in the Highlands as long as the Stuarts called their friends to arms; but never again were the worst methods of frontier warfare combined with the worst methods of secret police" (Clark, p. 270).
"Despite William's concessions, Scotland was never reconciled to his rule, and bitterness in England was greatly increased by a commercial failure in 1799" (Willson, p. 467).
It will be observed that the song bears almost no resemblance to the actual masssacre: The first shots were not fired by artillery, and the casualties in the song are exaggerated more than tenfold. You almost wonder if the song might not be about another clan-on-clan massacre. Except -- it blames it all on the English.... - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: GrD1115

Massacre of ta Phairshon, Ta

DESCRIPTION: "Phairshon (MacPherson) swore a feud Against the Clan MacTavish And marched into their land...." His small force quickly disperses to chase cattle. He encounters his rival; they exchange insults, and Phairshon is killed
AUTHOR: Aytoun and Martin?
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford); reputedly composed 1844
KEYWORDS: feud death humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 287-290, "Ta Massacre of ta Phairshon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13100
NOTES [14 words]: Said to be based on an extended party joke, and with about that level of quality. - RBW
File: FVS287

Massacre of the Whole of the Passengers and Part of the Crew of the Sea Horse, The

DESCRIPTION: "You landsmen and you seamen bold, Attention give to me, While I a tragedy unfold Upon the briney sea." Sailors on the "Sea Horse," from Australia, drug and murder the passengers and crew in order to take the gold, but another ship captures them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland); Anderson dates his broadside c. 1854
KEYWORDS: drugs homicide ship gold
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 199-200, "The Massacre of the Whole of the Passengers and Part of the Crew of the Sea Horse" (1 text)
Roud #V41926
File: AnFa199

Master Had a Bran' New Coat

See Jinny Go Round and Around (File: R272)

Master Kilby

DESCRIPTION: "In the heat of the day When the sun shines so freely, There I met Master Kilby" and asks where Kilby is bound. He is going west to Nancy, "the fairest of girls" He would give anything he could gain for her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting travel
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 60, "Master Kilby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1434
NOTES [50 words]: This refers to "King William." This would seem to mean William IV (reigned 1830-1837); the language is too modern for William III (reigned 1689-1702). Admittedly the song appears to have been collected just once, so it could have been modernized, But it doesn't feel like a seventeenth century song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: KaCr060

Master McGrath

DESCRIPTION: The great Irish greyhound wins the Waterloo Cup, beating Rose, "the pride of all England." (The two dogs discuss their respective countries. The owners bet large sums. The Irish celebrate the fact that their dog was better than an English dog.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: racing dog gambling
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1868, 1869, 1871 - Years in which Master McGrath, a hound belonging to Lord Lurgan, won the Waterloo Cup
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H161c, pp. 32-33, "A Ballad of Master M'Gra[th]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 215, "A ballad of Master McGrath" (1 text)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 33, "Master McGrath" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 61-62, "A Ballad of Master McGrath" (1 text)
Behan-IrelandSings, #49, "Master McGrath" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
DT, MASMCGR*
Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), p. 16, "The Ballad of Master McGrath" (text, music and reference to Decca F-2604 recorded Oct 4, 1931)
Roud #3041
NOTES [24 words]: The date and master id (GB-3359) for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Hodg215

Master of the Sheepfold, The

DESCRIPTION: Cho.: "The Master guards the sheepfold bin/Comes and calls, is my sheep brung in?/And he's calling...for them all to be gathering in." The Master calls the sheep; the shepherd says some are lost, but the rest will come. The Master goes out and gathers
AUTHOR: Sarah Pratt McLean Greene
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (recording, Art Thieme)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Cho.: "The Master guards the sheepfold bin/Comes and calls, is my sheep brung in?/And he's calling, calling...for them all to be gathering in" The Master calls the sheep; the shepherd answers that some are wan, weathered, lost or good-for-nothing, but the rest will come. The Master goes out on the wind and rain path, lets down the bars to the sheepfold, and gently calls the sheep to come in; they do
KEYWORDS: religious sheep
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, SHEEPFOL
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "The Master of the Sheepfold" (on Thieme04) (on Thieme06)
NOTES [90 words]: Please pardon a personal remark: this song is unlike any other I've heard in the emotional effect it creates from a spare lyric; the only comparison, I think, is with Blind Willie Johnson. - PJS
Although Art Thieme comments that the song, "means different things to different folks," there is little doubt that it comes from the New Testament images of Jesus and the sheep, e.g. John 10:7-16, especiallay v. 14: "I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me." Compare also the parable of the lost sheep (Matt. 18:12f., etc.). - RBW
File: DTsheepf

Master piece of Love Songs, The

See The Bold Soldier [Laws M27] (File: LM27)

Master Watch, The

See The Master-Watch (File: Doy77)

Master-Watch, The

DESCRIPTION: While men are preparing for the seal hunt, an old man reminisces in a long nostalgic monologue about the days when he used to go sealing. He dies at the end of his recital.
AUTHOR: Dan Carrol
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 2nd edition)
KEYWORDS: recitation age hunting
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Master-Watch" (1 text): p. 77 in the 2nd edition, p. 68 in the 4th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 81-82, "The Master-Watch" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 118, "The Master Watch" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Farley Mowat, _Wake of the Great Sealers_, with prints and drawings by David Blackwood, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1973, p. 63, "(No title)" (1 text, probably an excerpt and very likely rewritten)
ST Doy77 (Partial)
Roud #4423
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "The Master Watch" (on NFOBlondahl06)
NOTES [418 words]: The author, Dan Carrol (1865-1941), was a wood carver and poet from St. John's. He seems to have published poems mostly in local newspapers and they have a collection of these at the Memorial University of Newfoundland library. - SH
Starting around the 1860s, when steamers took over the Newfoundland seal hunt, and lasting until the decline of the hunt in the 1930s and 1940s, it was customary for sealing ships to carry several hundred sealers who could be sent away from the ship to hunt. (The ships were big enough that they often could not navigate close to where the seals pupped, so men had to walk the distance.) It became customary to divide the gangs of sealers into four "watches" (even though they did not stand watch); each watch was commanded by a Master Watch. These were the senior sealers; the only people on the sealing ship higher in the chain of command were the ship's captain and the Second Hand (first mate), who could give orders to the watches but normally did not participate in the sealing themselves. So Master Watch was the highest post a sealer could really aspire to (some managed to go on to become Second Hands, but a Master Watch did not have to have any sailing skills; he might not be capable of managing the ship). If, as seems not unlikely, we are to view this poem as being set around 1915 or 1920, the Master Watch of the poem would have been a sealer for almost the entire era of sealing steamers and Master Watches up to the time of the poem.
The statement in the first line that there were three thousand sealers going to the ice is about right; in the early decades of the twentieth century, there were fifteen to twenty sealers going out each year, each with 150 to 200 sealers. On the other hand, they weren't "Vikings" (Newfoundlanders were descended from the English and Irish, plus some French and others on the west coast of the island). Indeed, the "Vikings" might have been seen as their adversaries -- in later years, Norwegians often encroached on Newfoundland waters. Nonetheless, the most famous book about the sealing life, George Allan England's The Greatest Hunt in the World, was also sometimes known as Vikings of the Ice; perhaps the author lifted the idea from the book title.
Strangely, another Carrol song, "Freshwater Bay," is found on p. 62 of Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), Burke's Ballads, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site). The author's name is there spelled "Carroll." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Doy77

Masters in This Hall

DESCRIPTION: "Masters in this hall, hear ye news today." The singer announces the good news "brought from oversea" of the birth of Jesus. The shepherds go to visit the child.
AUTHOR: Words: William Morris / Music: Tune: Marin Marais, "Marche pour les Matelots," from the opera _Alcyone_ (1706)
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 ("Antient (sic) Christmas Carols"); the tune is said to be French and to predate the lyrics
KEYWORDS: Christmas religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 137, "Masters in this Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 288-291, "Masters, in this Hall" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 288, "Masters in This Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 375, "Masters In This Hall" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #51, "Masters in This Hall." (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Master in This Hall" (on PeteSeeger42)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Female Saylor," a country dance first published in 1706 by​ Raoul Auger Feuillet as "La Matelotte" and first called "The Female Saylor" in 1710, using Marin Marais' dance from _Alcyone_ (tune)
NOTES [102 words]: The carol books say that this is by WIlliam Morris and based on a French piece. But I note a curiosity. Item #56 in Richard Greene, editor, A Selection of English Carols, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962 (pp. 116-117) begins
Nowel, nowel, nowel,
SIng we with myrth;
Cryst is come wel,
With us to dewell,
By hys most noble byrth.
This comes from Bodleian MS. Eng. poet e. 1, one of the great carol manuscripts, of the fifteenth century. Greene, p. 223, suggests that it is a "religious imitation of a secular lyric." I can't help but wonder if this somehow influenced Morris. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: FSWB375C

Matelot and a Pongo, A

See The First Thing They Asked For (File: Hopk094)

Matelot's Prayer, The

DESCRIPTION: "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray my soul the Lord shall keep, And grant no other sailor take My shoes and socks... But if some poor soul should... try to take these things away, I'll punch his bleeding head in!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: humorous clothes sailor religious warning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 121, "The Matelot's Prayer" (1 text)
File: Tawn121

Matha Grove

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Mathew the Miller

See Tickle My Toe (File: RL545)

Mathireland

See Matt Hyland (File: DTmatthy)

Matilda

DESCRIPTION: "Matilda, she tke me money and run Venezuela." The singer had saved up his money to buy house and land, hiding it in his bed, but she locates it, sells his cart and horse, and leaves the country. The singer warns against trusting women
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (recorded by Harry Belafonte, according to Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: love separation robbery theft emigration
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 108-109, "Matilda" (1 text)
NOTES [76 words]: The origin of this song is unclear. Harry Belafonte made it popular, and appears to have copyrighted his version, but it seems to have existed before that. Courlander seems to say that a text was printed in Caribbee Cruise in 1938, as sung by "Duke of Iron," but Courlander's citations are so sloppy that I cannot be sure of this. On the other hand, Belafonte's assignment of credit (and sometimes of royalties) is also reported to be rather dubious. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Crln108

Matin Je Me Leve, Un (One Morning I Get Up)

DESCRIPTION: French. A young soldier is being sent away for six years; he comes to his beloved's chateau to tell her. She despairs; he says other young men of the village will entertain her in his absence. She says they will never take his place in her heart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (recording, Mrs. Louis Amirault & Mrs. Sephora Amirault)
KEYWORDS: courting love farewell parting separation foreignlanguage lover soldier war
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Louis Amirault and Mrs. Sephora Amirault, "Un Matin Je Me Leve" (on NovaScotia1)
File: RcUMJMLe

Matt Hyland

DESCRIPTION: A lord's daughter loves Matt. "But when her parents came to know, They swore they'd drive him from this island." The girl bids Matt flee before he is transported. Eventually her father relents, and she bids him come home to marry her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.18(344))
KEYWORDS: nobility love separation exile transportation servant
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Ireland US(NE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 1, "Matt Hyland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp.95-97, "Mathireland" (1 text, 1 tune, a composite with the first two verses and the tune from Maine, the rest from Newfoundland)
DT, MATTHYL
Roud #2880
RECORDINGS:
Din Dobbin, "Matt Ireland" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
John James, "Matt Ireland" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Liz Jefferies, "Matt Highland" (on Voice06)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.18(344), "Young Mat Hyland," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also 2806 b.9(235), 2806 c.15(139), "Mat Hyland"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Young M'Tyre" (plot)
cf. "Erin's Lovely Home" [Laws M6] (plot)
cf. "Henry Connors" [Laws M5] (plot)
cf. "Richie Story" [Child 232] (plot)
cf. "The Kitchie-Boy" [Child 252] (plot)
NOTES [279 words]: This song has been claimed by Irish and Scottish sources, and I've also heard it sung by English singers. Interestingly, all the versions are very close, suggesting there is some single, recent source. This theory is supported by the ornate language, so atypical of traditional song. But no one seems to know what the source is.
There are several broadsides, at least one dated c. 1825 (though such datings are notoriously unreliable), entitled "Mat Hyland" or "Young Mat Hyland." None match the traditional text commonly sung; they are without exception wordier and poorer poetry. Still, they provide a strong indication that the song originated as a broadside -- though these prints (e.g. in the Bodleian collection) are probably not the original source, as no tune seems to be indicated!
In addition, a manuscript volume called "Songs and Ballads in use in the Province of Ulster...1845" is said by Hugh Shields to contain a version of the song, but I do not know if the dating of the volume is considered reliable. Still, there seems no doubt that the song was in existence by the early nineteenth century.
Jimmy O'Brien Moran writes to tell me that "the melody and title were collected by Henry  Hudson from Paddy Conneely, a blind piper and singer in Galway, in October/November 1841. The melody is almost exactly the same as the version popularly sung today. Although Conneely had a large repertoire of song in Irish, he also had an extensive repertoire in the English language.... If it was already in Conneely's repertoire by 1841, it must have been around for some time, and quite popular, to allow it to travel (presumably from the northern counties) to Galway." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: DTmatthy

Matt Ireland

See Matt Hyland (File: DTmatthy)

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (I)

DESCRIPTION: A child's prayer, asking the apostles for a blessing: "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John / Bless the bed that I lie on / Four bright angels at my bed / Two at the bottom and two at the head / Two to hear me as I pray / And two to bear my soul away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Baring-Gould); original probably from 1656 (Ady, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,SE) Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, p. 33, "White Paternoster (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) (1 short text)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, p. 209, "The Bedtime Prayer" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 544, "A Parody" (1 partial text, 1 tune, listed as a parody of this piece, but the only test is that found in the proper song)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 346, "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John" (4 texts)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #121, "The Evening Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #548, p. 221, "(Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 177, "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 49, "(Matthew, Mark, Luke and John)" (1 short text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #457, "Before Sleeping" (1 composite text, of a number of children's prayers; it may have inspired some later uses of the text.)
ST FO033 (Full)
Roud #1704
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Go And Dig My Grave" (lyrics)
cf. "The Little Beggar Boy" (floating verses)
cf. "Old Lead (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John II)" (lyrics)
NOTES [206 words]: The first two lines of this piece can be dated to Thomas Ady in 1656 -- but could easily have been used in another context. Similar pieces are common e.g. Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 95 runs "Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Hold the horse till I leap on; Hold it succar, hold it sure, Till I win o'er the misty moor". Peter and Iona Opie, I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth, # 84, is similar: "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Hold the horse till I leap on; When I leapt on I could not ride; I fell off and broke my side" (also in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes #347, p. 305); they suspect this is a hobby horse rhyme.
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd has the usual first verse but then two verses about counting through the week: "Monday morn the week begin, Christ deliver our souls from sin, Tuesday morn, nor curse nor swear...." I'm not even entirely convinced that's the same song, but given the amount of editorial tampering in that book, I'm not going to split it off.
Similarly, I'm not really convinced that, e.g., the Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs and Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland texts are the same -- but how do you separate two pieces with the same words and no tune? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FO033

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (III)

DESCRIPTION: "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Hold the (horse/cuddie/X) till I get on. Hold him fast, hold him steady.... Matthew, Mark.. (Hold/loose) the (horse), I'm on. I'm on, the (horse) gone." Or, "When I got on I could not ride, I fell off and broke myhide"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: jumprope horse injury
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 347, "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #338, "Matthew, Mark, Luke and John" (1 text)
Roud #13032
File: AJRR338

Matthy Grew

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Mattie Walla Lef (What Matty Left Over)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: Matty, running to meet her lover, drinks rum, laughs, gets up, and runs some more. The singer doesn't want Matty's left overs.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: courting lover nonballad drink
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, p. 50, "Matty Walla-Lef'" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time - Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), p. 74, "Mattie Walla Lef" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Matty Walla-Lef'" (on WIEConnor01)
File: JaMu050

Matty Broon's Soo (Tam Gibb and the Soo)

DESCRIPTION: Song with recitation. Tam's wife says they could afford a pig. He goes to buy Matty's sow. Old lovers, they fall to joking; he leaves lightheaded. The sow does not want to follow; when he trips over a stone, it escapes him; he says he likes fish anyway
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3); 19C (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(51))
KEYWORDS: animal commerce humorous escape
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #162, pp. 1-2, "Tam Gibb and the Soo"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 29, ("Quo' Nell my wife the other day") (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 497, "Tam Gibb and the Soo" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H671, p. 22, "Matty Broon's Soo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5879
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(51), "Tam Gibb and His Sow," unknown, c. 1880-1900
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Tam Broon and His Soo
NOTES [30 words]: Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(253), "Tam Gibb, and the Sow" ("Quo Nell my wife, the ither day"), unknown, no date is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: HHH671

Matty Groves

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Matztown Cornet Band, Di (The Mertztown Cornet Band)

DESCRIPTION: German song which can be about any band. "In (Matztown) meet un Cornet Band." In Matztown meets a Cornet band" which plays in the schoolhouse. The members of the band, and their instruments, are listed, with tales or jokes about their lives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage music nonballad moniker
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 114-117, "Di Matztown Cornet Band (The Mertztown Cornet Band)" (1 German text with non-poetic English translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL114

Maud Wreck, The

See The Wreck at Maud (Al Bowen) (File: LSRa272H)

Maudline

See The Merchant's Daughter of Bristol (File: BeCo216)

Mauling Live Oak

DESCRIPTION: "One day as I was traveling, I happened to think, My pockets were empty..." so he agrees to work for Captain Swift to go "live-oaking." Cutting live oak is hard work, the mosquitoes are fierce, and Charles Douglas wins all the singer's money at "Bluff"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: logger hardtimes bug gambling
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp.65-68, "Mauling Live Oak" (2 texts plus a fragment)
File: EkSm065

Maurice Crotty

DESCRIPTION: Green hand Crotty understands nothing about sealing. When the Dan reach the seals Crotty boxes with a big one until he is rescued. Crotty is thankful the seal's breath smelled of whisky, else he might have been beaten to death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Burke & Oliver)
KEYWORDS: fight rescue hunting ship humorous animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Peacock, pp. 73-74, "Maurice Crotty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 74, "Maurice Crotty" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 86-87, "Maurice Crotty"; p. 88, "The Spring of the Wadhams" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Michael P. Murphy, _Pathways through Yesterday_, edited by Gerald S. Moore, Town Crier Publishing, 1976, pp. 155-156, "The Spring Maurice Crotty Fought The Od Dog Hood" (1 text)
Farley Mowat, _Wake of the Great Sealers_, with prints and drawings by David Blackwood, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1973, p. 71, "(Sealer's Song)" (1 text)
ST Pea073 (Partial)
Roud #6649
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Grandfather Bryan" (tune)
NOTES [456 words]: Although Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff's two texts have different titles, they are clearly the same song, as both involve the strange exploits of Maurice Crotty. It is possible, however, that the piece was rewritten, because a full version would have many anachronisms -- in particular, references to steamships at a time when there were no steam-powered sealers.
Only a handful of versions have the opening referring to the Spring of the Wadhams. This may be one of the items that floated in somehow, for several reasons. One is that the Spring of the Wadhams was a disastrous year (more on this below), and there is no hint of it here. Another is that several versions refer to "steamers," yet the first steamer did not go to the ice until 1863, eleven years after the Spring of the Wadhams! (Ryan/Drake, third [unnumbered] page of introduction). Third, while the song does not say that the ship Dan was a steamer, the mentions of steamers hint that it was, and we know there was no steamer named Dan or anything like it. (I can't find a sailing sealer named Dan, either, but there were enough small sealing vessels in the pre-1860 period that doesn't mean much.)
Michael P. Murphy attributes this to Johnny Burke (for whom see "The Kelligrew's Soiree"), which based on the style of the song is possible, but no one else mentions the attribution, and I don't find the song in the collections of Burke's work.
According to Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, "1852 is generally known and spoken of as the 'Spring of the Wadhams.'" Seals were found very plentiful in the vicinity of the Wadhams, (islands located in Notre Dame Bay S.E. of Fogo Island), and the majority of vessels were caught in a fearful gale of NNE wind which caused great destruction to the fleet."
Similarly Busch, p. 50, writes of "the 'spring of the Wadhams' (1852), when the seals were found near those desolate rocks and forty vessels were driven to their destruction by rafting ice pushed by a north-northeast gale."
Chafe, p. 41, reports, "It was calculated that upwards of 40 vessels were smashed to matchwood by the rafting ice, while more were destroyed by fire by the upsetting of stoves. About 200 men arrived from Greenspond, who reported leaving 1,500 men behind them who only saved what they stood in.
"The crews were sheltered on the 'Wadham Island' from the 5th to the 12th of April, till a relief ship was sent them by the government." (Feltham, p. 54, however, considers this exaggerated -- although, if he is right in saying there were forty lost ships, averaging 25 in their crews, this comes out to a thousand or so lost.)
Feltham, p. 54, quotes a newspaper article saying that there were storms on the fourth and tenth of April in that year. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: Pea073

Maurice Hogan's Song

DESCRIPTION: The singer, now sixty-four, compares the happy "dark depression days" of his youth to the go-go girl, T.V., mini-skirt-changed times he sees now. "O how I long for those bright days"
AUTHOR: Maurice Hogan
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: age lament nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 75, "Maurice Hogan's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #28975
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve" (theme) and references there
NOTES [38 words]: As best I can tell, all the many songs in which old guys complain about young women's casual clothing (and there are many; see the cross-references) come from guys who aren't having the slightest luck with said young women.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe075

Maurice Kelly

DESCRIPTION: "Maurice Kelly one night when about three parts loaded" is beaten by a ghost. "Twas Kelly's wife dressed up in white to keep him from drinking... he got such a fright he won't stir after night But right after supper goes ... straight off to bed."
AUTHOR: Johnny Burke?
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: fight drink humorous wife ghost
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 78, "Maurice Kelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 122, "Kelly and the Ghost" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 228-229, "Kelly and the Ghost (Maurice Kelly)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MAUKELLY*
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #13, p. 28, "How Kelly Fought the Ghost" (1 text)
Michael P. Murphy, _Pathways through Yesterday_, edited by Gerald S. Moore, Town Crier Publishing, 1976, pp. 158-159, "How Kelly Fought the Ghost" (1 text)

Roud #16894
RECORDINGS:
Ralph Pennell, "Kelly and the Ghost" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kate and Her Horns" [Laws N22] (gimmck)
NOTES [15 words]: For background on probable author Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrews Soiree." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: GrMa078

Mautman, The

DESCRIPTION: The mautman arrives to demand his pay, "or maut ye'll ne'er get mair." He says it is very good maut, but she complains of the"unruly crew" that "pierc'd my dochter's barrel." (The answer is that kissing is no sin, else so many would not do it.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1724 (Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany)
KEYWORDS: food seduction sex money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook XXIX, pp. 86-88, "The Mautman" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scots Sangs (in three vols) (Robert Forrester, Glasgow 2-volume reprint of the 14th edition) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, pp. 100 "The Malt-Man" (1 text)
Roud #5508
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kissing's No Sin (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "Behave Yoursel' Before Folk" (theme of avoiding public kissing)
NOTES [108 words]: The Kinloch text of this song seems to be composite; the first part is an argument about seducing an auld wife's daughter, in very irregular meter. It then breaks into a much more regular section stating that "some say kissing's a sin, but I think it's nane ava, For kissing has been in the world When there was but only twa."
The first part is all that is found in Ramsey.
Ewan MacColl has a fragment, "Kissing's No Sin," with only that second part, followed by a part about how lawyers and others go kissing. The latter also appears in "The Hog-Tub." The nature of the dependence is not clear to me given the small number of texts I've seen. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: KinBB29

Maw Bonny Gyetside Lass

See The Gyetside Lass (File: StoR182)

Maw Canny Hinny

DESCRIPTION: "Where hes te been, maw canny hinny? An where hes te been, maw bonny bairn?" The singer tells of all the places she(?) has looked for him, and the people she has talked to. He describes what he has been doing
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Thompson
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Thompson et al)
KEYWORDS: questions reunion
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 156-157, "Maw Cann Hinny" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: T. Thompson, J Shield, W. Midford, H. Robson, and others, _A Collection of Songs, Comic, Satirical, and Descriptive, Chiefly in the Newcastle Dialect: And Illustrative of the Language and Manners of the Common People on the Banks of the Tyne and Neighbourhood_, (John Marshall, Newcastle, 1827), p. 14, "May Canny Hinny" (1 text)
ST StoR156 (Partial)
Roud #3168
NOTES [47 words]: This is a difficult song to describe; it spends to much time talking about people and places that it becomes almost a moniker song. The Stokoe version, at least, has a curious change in mid-song: After seven verses with the same chorus, the last two use two different choruses. - RBW
File: StoR156

Maxwell's Doom

See Ewing Brooks (Maxwell's Doom) [Laws E12] (File: LE12)

May All of Your Dreams

See Dreams (May All of Your Dreams Be Like Daisies in the FIeld) (File: ACSF550D)

May All Your Dreams

See Dreams (May All of Your Dreams Be Like Daisies in the FIeld) (File: ACSF550D)

May and December

DESCRIPTION: The singer (May) would not be a husband bought by a codger (December). He wants "a young damsel so brisk as a bee." He is "nimble and active" and "not so old as you take me to be." "Come to my wedding" and we'll fill the glasses and push them about.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: age courting wedding dancing drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 90, "May and December" (1 text)
Roud #1051
File: ReCi090

May Be the Last Time I Don't Know

See This May Be Your Last Time (File: CNFM070B)

May Collean

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

May Collin and the Knight

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

May Colven

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

May Colyean

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

May Day Carol

DESCRIPTION: The singer has been wandering and will return with a branch of may. It is to celebrate the Lord's handiwork (in bringing forth the plants in spring). The singer wishes the listeners well: "God bless you all both great and small And send you a joyful May."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland)
KEYWORDS: religious ritual carol
FOUND IN: US(Ap) Britain(England(Lond,South,West))
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 386-387, "The Hitchin May-Day Song" (1 text)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 98-99, "May-Day Carol" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 303, "May Song of the Children at Shilton" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 290, "May Song")
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #4, "May Song" (1 text, 1 tune, the first half of which comes fro "The Moon Shines Bright (The Bellman's Song)" and the last verses from the "May Day Carol," two songs which often swap verses)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 84-85, "Bedfordshire May Day Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 32, "May Song -- North Bedfordshire" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 33, "May Song -- Bedfordshire" (1 text, 1 tune, which I don't really think is the same song and which might have some element of "The Cuckoo")
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 32-33, "May Song" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #47, "May-Day Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 238-239, "[May Day Carol]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 52, "The May Day Carol"; p. 86, "Cambridgeshire May Song" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 36, "May Day Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MAYCAROL MAYCAR2
ADDITIONAL: Percy Manning, "May-Day at Watford, Herts." in Folk-Lore, Vol. IV, No. 3 (September 1893 ("Digitized by Google)), #5 pp. 403-404 "Verses sung by Children at Watford, Herts, on May-Day" ("Here begins the merry month of May") (2 texts)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #18, "Song of the Mayers" (1 text)
Roud #305
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Moon Shines Bright (The Bellman's Song)" (lyrics)
cf. "Swinton May Song" (subject)
cf. "Peterborough May Song" (subject)
cf. "Padstow May Day Song" (subject)
NOTES [116 words]: The two May carols in Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians are so different that I almost split them. This is a distinct problem with May songs; Roud lumps a great variety (many of them clearly distinct) under his #305. I've split a lot of them, but in the case of the Ritchie songs, I lump them because they have many of the same words plus tunes which, while not identical, look as if they might have come from the same original.
The same is true of Hamer's three May songs cited, two from the same informant, "Mrs. Johnstone." They look very distinct, but people will probably look for both of them here, so here I list them. Hamer's third May song, from Chris Marsom, is clearly this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: JRSF238

May Day Song

See Padstow May Day Song (File: K086)

May God Above Send Down

DESCRIPTION: "May God above send down a dove With wings as sharp as razors To cut the throats of those old bloats Who cut the poor man's wages." Or "May God above send down his love,... To cut the throats of gentlefolks, Who grudge poor men their victuals"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: drink curse nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, p. 287, "(May God above Send down a dove)" (1 short text)
NOTES [57 words]: There is a long thread about this toast on mudcat.org, listing very many variants, although most of them are clearly topical and composed. Nonetheless it appears traditional; one of the mudcat posters had a version apparently fro 1830, and Jonathan Lighter found a version very much like Korson's from 1902, plus rewrites from 1888 and 1916. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP287

May God Guard and Prosper England

DESCRIPTION: A mother and son are on the deck of "Florizel." He is leaving to "tread the fields of battle" in World War I. She recounts his growing up. He asks that she and his father, weeping at home, pray for him. She gives him "freely to our king"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: war parting separation ship father mother youth soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #26347
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Michael Devereaux, "May God Guard and Prosper England" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck of the Steamship Florizel" (subject of the ship "Florizel")
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Emigrant from Newfoundland
NOTES [35 words]: We know this refers to World War I because Florizel was wrecked February 1918. - BS
And the ship had spent part of the war serving as a transport. For her story, see "The Wreck of the Steamship Florizel." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: ML3MGGPE

May I Go With You, Johnny?

See The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging) [Laws O33] (File: LO33)

May I Sleep In Your Barn To-Night, Mister

See Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight? (File: R841)

May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister

See Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight? (File: R841)

May Irwin's Frog Song (The Foolish Frog, Way Down Yonder)

DESCRIPTION: A bull frog "with nothin else to do" falls, jumps around, and falls in a well. The preacher warns that the Devil is looking for folks with "nothin else to do" If you want your wings, stay home with your family instead of going to other frogs' farms
AUTHOR: Credited to Charles E. Trevathan
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (recording, May Irwin); Protobilly gives a composition date of 1896, but with no documentation
KEYWORDS: animal humorous talltale
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Bahamas) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 189, "Way Down Yonder in Pasquotank" (1 fragment); also 435, "The Dummy Line" (2 short texts; the "B" version is a mixed text that seems to be mostly this with a "Some Folks Say a Nigger Won't Steal" verse)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 189, "Way Down Yonder in Pasquotank" (1 tune plus a text excerpt); 435, "The Dummy Line" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 112-113, "Way down yonder in Yankety Yank" (1 text)
Roud #15891
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Foolish Frog" (on WIHIGGS01)
Frank Corso, "Foolish Frog" (Flying Lady, no number, 2017; on Protobilly) [Note: this is the Bahamas version]
May Irwin, "May Irwin's Frog Song" (Victor 5156, 1907; Victor 17253, 1913; on Protobilly)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down on the Banks of the Hanky Tank" (lyrics)
NOTES [360 words]: This is a confusing situation. I have met this chorus only once in tradition, in the form quoted below from Brown. But folkies will know it from Pete Seeger's "Foolish Frog." That is apparently a tall tale concocted by Charles Seeger based on a vaudeville item called "May Irwin's Frog Song." Hence the title I use. Beyond that I cannot trace the piece.
May Irwin was a notable popular singer who was at the height of her powers in the 1890s; In Sigmund Spaeth's A History of Popular Music in America she is credited with the song, "Mamie, Come Kiss Your Honey Boy" (pp. 265-266), and with popularizing George M. Cohan's "Hot Tamale Alley"(pp. 282, 339) as well as such songs as "I Couldn't Stand to See My Baby Loose" (p. 347) and "Mister Johnson, Turn Me Loose" (p. 285). Her biggest success of all was apparently "May Irwin's Bully Song," written by Charles E. Trevathan; it is indexed as "The Bully of the Town [Laws I14]," though most folk versions are far removed from the May Irwin original.
According to Stanley Appelbaum, editor, Show Songs: from The Black Crook to The Red Mill, Dover Publications, 1974, pp. xxix, "May Irwin... did not use blackface. Her performancces, and those of Ben Harney, gave white urban audiences their first exhilarating taste of what was soon to be called ragtime, and eventually became jazz." She had her first starring role in "The Widow Jones," in which she sang "May Irwin's Bully Song," for which see "The Bully of the Town" [Laws I14]. That song also has more background on Irwin.
There is at least one book about Irwin, Sharon Ammen, May Irwin: Singing, Shouting, And The Shadow Of Minstrelsy, University of Illinois Press, 2016(?). - RBW
The description is from the May Irwin recording. The Higgs version is very close to Irwin, switching some lines from verse to verse, and adding another verse in the same vein: beware or you'll not be happy on Judgement Day.
The Brown version ("Way down yonder in Pasquotank, Where the bullfrogs jump from bank to bank, They jump so high they break their shank, The old grey goose went 'yankety-yank'") seems an early ("probably in 1913") parody of the Irwin recording. - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Br3189

May Morning Dew

DESCRIPTION: Winter is pleasant but summer is coming with memories of old times when "we tripped through the heather" The old house has fallen, garden overgrown, and all the neighbors "like the red rose they are faded from the May Morning Dew"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: flowers nonballad family home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 30-31, "May Morning Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MAYMRNDW
Roud #5405
RECORDINGS:
Kitty Hayes, "May Morning Dew" (on IRClare01)
File: DTmaymor

May Peace and May Plenty Her Footsteps Attend

DESCRIPTION: A toast "to the lass wi' the lang pedigree": "to the poor and the lowly she's aye been a friend"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: virtue nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #155, p. 2, ("May peace and may plenty her footsteps attend") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1926, "May Peace and May Plenty Her Footsteps Attend" (1 text)
Roud #15446
NOTES [22 words]: Greig: "Mr Mowat ... gives a verse of a song written in honour of Lord Clinton's mother, and sung at her Majority Banquet in 1857." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81926

May Pole Song, The

See All Around the Maypole (File: BSoF706)

May Queen, The

DESCRIPTION: "Our Queen up the river And we'll keep her there forever with your yah-yah-yah ... Your Queen down the river ... Our Queen can tumble a pole ... birl her leg ... smoke a fag ... ate a hard bap ... The darkie says he'll marry her Because she is a Queen"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Hammond-SongsOfBelfast)
KEYWORDS: bragging ritual nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, pp. 14-15, "The May Queen" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [148 words]: Hammond-SongsOfBelfast describes Belfast May Day rituals and children's May Queen parades. "The encounters with rival Queens are always exciting and vituperative. Modesty and restraint are not predominant features of the occasion." - BS
Note that this is not to be confused with Tennyson's poem "The May Queen" ("You must wake and call me early, Call me early, mother dear; To-morrow'll be the happiest time Of all the glad new-year, -- Of all the glad new-year, mother, The maddest, merriest day; For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May.") -- a poem which, it seemed, inspired both Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and his contemporary Julia Margaret Cameron to create photos of "The Queen of the May." Dodgson's was of Alice Liddell herself. That poem appears to have been sung at some stage (it's in Dime-Song-Book #6), but I don't know what tune was used. - RBW
File: Hamm014

May Song

See May Day Carol (File: JRSF238)

May Song -- Bedfordshire

See May Day Carol (File: JRSF238)

May Song -- North Bedfordshire

See May Day Carol (File: JRSF238)

May Song of the Children at Shilton

See May Day Carol (File: JRSF238)

May the Devil Reward

See The Deserter from Kent (File: VWL032)

Maybe I'll Be Mairriet Yet

See He Wears a Bonnet for a Hat (File: GrD4796)

Maybe I'll Be Married Yet

See He Wears a Bonnet for a Hat (File: GrD4796)

Maybe It's Because I'm a Londoner

DESCRIPTION: "Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner, That I love London so, Well, maybe it's because I'm a Londoner, That I think of her wherever I go, I get a funny feeling inside of me, While walking up and down, Well, maybe it's because...That I love London town..."
AUTHOR: Hubert Gregg (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 2021 (LibraryThingCampSongsThread)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, posts 78, 89, "(Maybe It's Because I'm a Londoner)" (1 excerpt, from user John5918, posted September 19, 2021, with a mention by user Dilara86 on September 22, 2021)
Roud #32458
NOTES [50 words]: Recorded and popularize by Flanagan & Allen. There is some debate about the date, at least on the web sites I've seen; best guess for the composition date is 1946, and Bud Flanagan is said to have sung it in 1947, but it's said that the first recording was by Billy Cotton and His Band in 1950. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LTCSMBIL

Mayden and moder, cum and see

See O Mary Mother (File: Gree044)

Mayden in the Moor Lay

See Maiden in the Mor Lay (The Maid of the Moor) (File: MSBRDMM)

Maydens of Englande, Sare May Ye Morne

See Maidens of England, Sair May Ye Mourn (File: K092)

Mayn Yingele (My Little Son)

DESCRIPTION: Yiddish: The father comes home to his little boy, whom he sees "only while he sleeps." The mother tells him that he is a fine boy but he misses his father. But father can only be there while the child sleeps; he must work all day
AUTHOR: Morris Rosenfeld
EARLIEST DATE: 1887
KEYWORDS: work family separation foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 290-291, "Mayn Yingele (My Little Son)" (2 texts (1 English, 1 Yiddish), 1 tune)
File: SBoA290

Mayogall Asses, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes a "cavalcade of donkeys" taken to Mayogall. The animals, in all sorts of conditions, are set to carry a load of cabbages to market. The driver convinces the animals to come, where he sells cabbages and animals both
AUTHOR: Words: James O'Kane
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: animal commerce
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H130, pp. 26-27, "The Mayogall Asses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13350
NOTES [30 words]: When I read this, I get the feeling something has been lost -- it seems completely pointless.
The story of Saul and his father's missing donkeys is told in 1 Samuel 9:3-10:16. - RBW
File: HHH130

Mayor of Waterford's Letter, The

DESCRIPTION: The letter is addressed to the Archbishop of Dublin. It makes the argument for the legitimacy of Henry's claim and ridicules the claim of Lambert, now in the Tower of London. It critisizes the archbishop's silence and asks for reconciliation.
AUTHOR: John Butler (Mayor of Waterford), James Rice, Wm Lyncolle (source: manuscript quoted by Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1487 (quoted in Dr Smith's _History of Waterford_, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
LONG DESCRIPTION: O thou most noble pastour, chosen by God, Walter, Archbishop of Dublin." The song hopes that the traditional closeness between the people of Dublin and Waterford, "now late broken of thy parte onely," be restored. It claims "that Henry vijth is king" by descent on his mother's side, like Christ, and other kings of England. It claims his marriage to Elizabeth [heir presumptive], "maried both by amiable accord" settles the matter. It recounts his claims, including "bull papall ... affirming theis titles." Of the opposition to Henry "if thow be cause for this perversitie ... We know it not; but certaine we can saie, Thou keepest silence, and said not once nay" The claim of Lambert, "now kept in the Tower of London," is ridiculed. "It is tyme for you to be reconciled ... Correct yourself." "Thinke not in us no malice."
KEYWORDS: rebellion England Ireland nonballad political religious clergy royalty Jesus
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1485-1509: Reign of Henry VII (associated with Elizabeth of York until her death in 1503)
1487 - Battle of Stoke. Defeat of the forces supporting Lambert Simbel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 293-312, "The Mayor of Waterford's Letter" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 130-131, "A Letter Sent by the Mayor and Inhabitants of Waterford unto Walter, archbishop of the Citie of Dublin, the Mayor and Citizens of the same, in the time of their Rebellion" (1 text, excerpted from Croker)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Praise of Waterford" (structure)
NOTES [4660 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: The texts of "The Mayor of Waterford's Letter" and "The Praise of Waterford" are included in "the collection of some laborious antiquary about the end of the reign of Elizabeth.... 'Ballad royal,' or rhyme royal, was the name given to the measure in which the ballads or songs about Waterford are written: each verse has seven ten-syllable lines with an a/b/a/b/b/c/c rhyme scheme.
[Rhyme royal was a popular medieval format, iambic pentameter with, as Ben says, an ababbcc rhyme scheme. According to Rossignol, p. 308, Chaucer was the first English poet to use it, for The Parliament of Fowls, Troilus and Cresyde, and a number of the Canterbury Tales, those of the Man of Law, the Clerk, the Prioress, and the Second Nun. Others to use it include Lydgate, Hoccleve, Skelton, and Shakespeare, as well as The Kingis Quair. But it is a very artificial format; it doesn't seem to have had any success with folk poets. - RBW]
"To the end of his reign Henry [VII] was troubled by Yorkist claimants to the throne and by pretenders... In the autumn of 1486 ... came disturbing news of a pretender, claiming to be the young Warwick, who, it was rumoured, had escaped from the Tower. Lambert Simnel, who had been carefully groomed for this impersonation ...." (Williams/Fraser, p. 171)
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland quotes the prose introduction to "The Mayor of Waterford's Letter." It discusses Lambert, "a boy, an organ-maker's sonne, [who] was crowned at Dublin Kinge of England and Lord of Ireland, in the third yere of Henry the 7." The Mayor of Dublin, the governor Earl of Kildare, and Walter, Archbishop of Dublin, then Lord Chanceler of Ireland, were among Lambert's supporters. Among those loyal to Henry VII was the Mayor of Waterford. He sent messages to other mayors to support Henry. In the end "the counterfeit kinge, with his Erle tutor, Walter, Archbishop of Dublin, and many others, wer taken prisoners, and carried to the towr of London...." The Mayor of Warwicke sent a "metrical letter" to the Archbishop of Dublin on October 20, 1487. Croker says "it does not seem improbable that the mayor's metrical letter was sung before Sir Richard [Edgecombe], upon the occasion of his public entertainment by the city of Waterford." - BS
This immensely complex poem (I doubt it was ever a song) is an argument from history supporting the claims of King Henry VII. It is an argument worthy of a very fancy lawyer with a guilty client: There is a lot of stuff thrown out to the listener, most of it completely invalid. This is understandable, for the good and simple reason that Henry Tudor's only serious claim to the throne was right of conquest over Richard III (prior to his crowning, his highest title had been Earl of Richmond, and even that was a shadow title: He claimed it, but another was in possession of the Earldom).
Henry was descended from King Edward III (died 1377, more than a century before Henry took the throne in 1485), but it was through Edward's third son John of Gaunt, and the claim ran through the Beaufort family, children of a woman who was not even John's wife when they were born; they had been specifically excluded from the succession. What's more, Henry VII's mother Margaret Beaufort was still alive when Henry took the throne, so even if his claims were upheld, she, not he, should have been the monarch. (For background on all this, see "The Rose of England" [Child 166], "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34], and "The Vicar of Bray." The essential point is that Henry didn't have supporters because he had a claim to the throne; he had supporters because it is human nature to form factions and he was the only faction head left other than Richard III.) Little wonder, then, that he was troubled by pretenders -- he was himself a pretender who got lucky!
But the song refers to events long before the time of Henry VII. Croker has some notes on this, but there is a great deal more to be said.
"Henry [VII]... is king, by grace, of England and Fraunce, and lord of Ireland": King Edward III had claimed the title "King of France," and started the Hundred Years' War to back it up, and although England had lost all French soil except Calais by 1453 (an event which in fact helped provoke the Wars of the Roses and eventually led to Henry VII's taking the Kingdom), the English monarch continued to claim the title for centuries.
"Moses had... commandment, If a man died without issue male": The song links this to the "daughters of Sulphact in Numery 17." Croker correctly refers this to the daughters of Zelophehad in Numbers 27 (also Numbers 26, 37, Joshua 17:3), and wonders about the chapter numbering in earlier Bibles. The easiest explanation is, of course, that this is an error -- or maybe a combination of Numbers 27 with Joshua 17. In the Greek Old Testament, the chapter is still Numbers 27, though the man's name is Salpaad. It's chapter 27 in the Latin Bible also, but the name is "Salphaad," which isn't far from "Sulphact."
"King Henry the First... he passed his traunce without issue male." Henry I of England (reigned 1100-1135), the third and youngest son of William the Conqueror, had dozens of bastard children, but only two legitimate offspring who lived past infancy: Matilda (sometimes called Maud, as in the song) and William of the White Ship. William, Henry's only legitimate son, died without issue in 1120 in the wreck of the White Ship (Brooke, p. 175).
At this time, England had no law of primogeniture (until William the Conqueror, the Witan elected the new king, from the royal family of course, and William himself had been succeeded initially by his second son William II Rufus, and then by his third son Henry I, even though the Conqueror's eldest son Robert Curthose was still alive at the time both William Rufus and Henry succeeded. For that matter, William the Conqueror in his lifetime was called "William the Bastard," because he succeeded to the Duchy of Normandy despite being illegitimate). What's more, few thought a woman competent to rule. So when Henry I died, there was much debate over the succession.
Stephen, the son of William the Conqueror's daugher Adela, was the male heir closest to the conqueror (see Brooke's genealogy of the Norman kings, and Brooke, p. 39).
Stephen (who inherited the title Count of Blois, hence the description "Earle of Bloyes" in the song) proved an absolute disaster; he was too indecisive to rule, especially with many of his barons rallying to Matilda's cause. In theory, he reigned from 1135 to 1154, but there was civil war for much of that time, and in 1153, Matilda's son Henry of Anjou invaded. (The title Henry inherited from his father was Count of Anjou, hence the reference to his "Earldome of Angeoi" in the song.) A peace was patched up in which Henry became Stephen's heir (Brooke, p. 39); he was crowned Henry II in 1154 after Stephen's death, reigning until 1189. He was called "Fitz Empress" (son of the empress) because his mother Matilda had for a brief time been married to the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V (who, however, died in 1125, while she was still young. Matilda lived until 1167, so she was still alive when her son became King -- as with Henry VII, Henry II really shouldn't have been monarch; his mother should have been).
The statement that Henry's "issue raigned King of England... from sonne to sonne" shows this particular item to be a piece of propaganda. Henry was indeed succeeded by his son Richard I (reigned 1189-1199) -- but Richard had no sons (he was possibly homosexual; see the notes to "Richie Story" [Child 232]), and the throne then passed to Henry's youngest son John (reigned 1199-1216) rather than Henry's grandson Arthur, the child of the son between Richard and John in age. John was succeeded by his son Henry III (1216-1272) , and Henry by his son Edward I (1272-1307), Edward I by his son Edward II (1307-1327), Edward II by his son Edward III (1327-1377) -- but Edward III was succeeded by his grandson Richard II (1377-1399), who was deposed by his cousin Henry IV (1399-1413), who was the grandson of Edward III's third son John of Gaunt even though there were living descendants of Edward's second son Lionel, Duke of Clarence. Henry IV was succeeded by his son Henry V (1413-1422), and Henry V by his son Henry VI (1422-1461).
Henry VI was ineffectual and eventually went insane; his incapacity eventually caused the Wars of the Roses to break out. He was succeeded by Edward IV (1461-1483, minus a brief interruption due to a revolt in 1470-1471), who was the proper heir of Edward III via Lionel, but who -- far from being Henry VI's son -- was his third cousin twice removed. (To be fair, the song may simply be noting that Henry VI was descended from Henry II entirely in the male line, while Edward IV had two female links in the chain. But in fact Edward IV also had a link in direct male line to Edward III; we'll get to that.)
The song finally manages to cover Edward IV's descent, noting that Edward was descended from "Leonell" via "the Duke's daughter of Clarence." Lionel's daughter was Philippa; her son was Roger Mortimer, his daughter Anne Mortimer, her son Richard of York, and Richard's son was Edward IV.
The song draws from the examples of Henry II, Stephen, and Edward IV the ironic conclusion that the "female In England shall succeed for fault of the male." This is by contrast to France, where the Salic Law was held to bar succession in the female line (not only were female ruling queens barred, but the royal title could not be transmitted through a woman; Seward-Hundred, p. 21, though Seward describes the Salic Law as an after-the-fact discovery). However, these precedents are mostly meaningless, because Stephen and Henry II were elected kings, and Edward IV, while his claim to priority over Henry VI was based on descent from Lionel of Clarence in the female line, was also descended from Edward III's fourth son Edmund of York in the male line, and -- if you treated the Beauforts as illegitimate, as nearly everyone did -- was Henry VI's heir in the male line once Henry's son Edward was disposed of.)
The song then goes on to seemingly claim that Jesus was King of Jerusalem by female line. But there are two genealogies tracing the ancestry of Jesus back to David: One in Matthew 1, the other in Luke 3. These two genealogies cannot be reconciled, leading some to claim that one is a genealogy of Mary -- but this is simply balderdash; both link Jesus to David via Joseph, not Mary. In any case, even if one of the genealogies of Jesus is accurate (which neither one can be; that of Matthew doesn't have enough names and that in Luke does not transmit the legal succession), that wouldn't make Jesus David's heir; it would just make him a descendent of David -- which would be true of effectively everyone in Judea a thousand years after David had his zillion or so children.
It is really, really interesting to note that the song eventually, in effect, gives up its claim on behalf of Henry VII, noting that Edward's title "is fallen to our soveraigne ladie, Queene Elizabeth, his [Edward IV's] eldest daughter liniall; To her is com all the whole monarchie." In other words, Elizabeth -- not "the" Elizabeth of a century later, but her grandmother -- is the woman with the real right to the throne. Which lies at the heart of Henry VII's kingship. Keep in mind that, as noted above, Henry's claim in his own right was pitifully weak.
The one thing Henry could do to bolster his claim was to marry into the real Royal Family. Which he did; he married Elizabeth. There was some slight doubt about Elizabeth's legitimacy (which is why Richard III had been able to seize the throne), but there wasn't really much doubt but that she was Edward IV's surviving heir. (And, since all of Henry's children were her offspring, and every monarch of England has been descended from that union, in fact every King of England since has been legitimate heir. It was only Henry VII who had a problem.)
The song goes on to note six supports to Henry's claim: first, "Gode's provision" (hard to prove either way); second, election by the Lords and Commons (meaningless, since parliament was always tossing the crown back and forth during this period); third, Elizabeth's claim to the throne (his single best argument, but it was an argument for her, not him); fourth, right of conquest; fifth, "the old Brittaine storie." Croker is not sure what this refers to; I think it refers to Henry's Welsh ancestry on his father's side; he claimed to be descended from Rhys ap Gruffyd of Deheubarth (Ashley, p. 625), and before that from Cadwallader and maybe even King Arthur (Henry in fact named his oldest son Arthur to support this claim); and finally, Papal sanction (received in 1486, according to Ashley, p. 627 -- but that, again, was easily changed; in all likelihood, if someone overthrew Henry, that someone would quickly earn Papal sanction also).
Thus every one of Henry's claims to the throne cited in the song is rather weak. Everyone knew that Henry had usurped the throne, and had little strength of his own. Even after Bosworth, there were many people with clear prior claims -- a fact which, ironically, would help Henry, since it made it hard for the opposition to coalesce around a particular potential monarch.
Making everyone's problems worse was the matter of The Princes in the Tower (for details on this, see the notes to "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34]). Edward IV had had two boys, Edward (briefly Edward V in 1483) and Richard, Duke of York. The elder was only twelve when Edward IV died, too young to rule (Edward IV had died while in his early forties), and Edward IV's brother Richard of Gloucester had convinced the leaders of the realm to set them aside (digging up a claim against their legitimacy to make it look legal).
Early in Richard's reign, the Princes vanished. Literally. Their fate is a complete mystery; we don't know when or how they died, though there seems little doubt that they did. There are some bones which some have thought are theirs -- but the British royal family has refused to dig them up to allow DNA testing. Odds are that the boys were killed by Richard (or, just possibly, by someone in his official family without him knowing about it), but it was done so secretly that, when the time came, Henry VII couldn't prove who did them in; it's even possible he killed them himself. (It seems pretty safe to say that, had they still been alive, Henry would have disposed of them.) But if Henry didn't know where they were, neither did anyone else. Hence the possibility of pretenders.
And all this was in the aftermath of the Wars of the Roses, in which the crown had changed hands six times (though there were only five kings involved), and every reign had either begun or ended in blood. Henry VII came to the throne as a result of the Battle of Bosworth on August 22, 1485, where Richard III was killed in a death-or-glory charge. That was late enough in the year that there really wasn't time for another revolt in 1485. But early in 1486, Humphrey Stafford and Lord Lovell rebelled. This revolt was quickly suppressed. (Gillingham, p. 247.)
The Stafford revolt had quickly run into the Heir Problem caused by the mystery of the Princes in the Tower. To vastly oversimplify, there were four potential Yorkist heirs after Edward IV and Richard III died: The Princes in the Tower, if they were alive; Elizabeth of York, their older sister; the Earl of Warwick, who was the son of Edward and Richard's brother George of Clarence (who was born after Edward but before Richard); and the Earl of Lincoln, the son of Edward and Richard's oldest sister. The problem with the Princes was that they weren't available. Elizabeth was hardly a possible Yorkist heir since she was married to Henry.
The Warwick claim was weak; he was alive and his location known (since he was in Henry's custody), but George of Clarence had been attainted and executed for rebelling against his brother Edward. (And, yes, he was guilty, and no, Richard III had nothing to do with the execution!) It was generally held that an act of attainder barred all heirs from the succession; in any case, it was reported -- we don't know how accurately -- that young Warwick was feeble-minded (Kendall, p. 349. Henry VII would eventually solve the Warwick problem by executing the boy. Although there was one interesting sidelight on that: When Edward IV executed George, one of the charges against him was that he had hidden his son in Ireland; Ross, p. 242. That might have set someone thinking.)
John, Earl of Lincoln was in many ways the best candidate -- he was an adult, male, known to be of sound mind, undeniably legitimate, and with no acts of parliament against him. Richard III had seemingly appointed him his heir (Kendall, p. 350) after flirting with the idea of Warwick. Unfortunately, Lincoln was also junior in the succession to the Princes, to Elizabeth, and to Warwick, assuming their disabilities were eliminated.
As it turned out, the Stafford rebellion threw its support behind Warwick -- but failed in part because they couldn't get their hands on him (Seward-Wars, p. 315).
The next attempt, in 1487, did better -- not least because it had, or pretended to have, the actual Warwick. This was the first of two significant imposters to arise against Henry: First Lambert Simnel, then Perkin Warbeck.
Lambert was apparently the creation of an Oxford priest named Richard Simons, who passed him off as Warwick (Gillingham, p. 248); Seward-Wars, p. 315, agrees with Croker's notes in calling him an organ-builder's son, from Oxford, and Weir, p. 235, says he was born around 1475 -- the same year that Warwick was born and a bit more than a year after the birth of Richard of York. She notes, however, that she can find no records of a Simnel family in Oxford (or, indeed, anywhere in England at this time); she suspects that even Lambert's "real" name was a pseudonym. Weir, p. 232, says that the original plan was to have him portray Richard of York, the younger of the Princes in the Tower, but the decision to have him portray Warwick was made before Lambert had become well-known.
Williamson, p. 25, offers a possible reason for the change: The conspirators thought that Henry VII had executed Warwick, and so would need to reveal his guilt if he wished to expose them. Chrimes, p. 75, points out that George of Clarence was born in Dublin, so pretending that Lambert was his son might earn him local support.
Unfortunately for them, Henry was smarter than that; he hadn't executed Warwick -- yet. He was able to answer the conspirators by bringing out the real live earl.
It hardly mattered. Very many Yorkists would have supported *anyone* who might overthrow Henry Tudor. (It's hard to blame them, since one of Henry's acts was to repeal almost every grant of title or lands made since 1455; Williamson, p. 20. That cost the surviving nobles a *lot* of money; little wonder they were resentful!) Lambert was a cause to rally. He earned major support: John of Lincoln (who doubtless intended to use Lambert to get rid of Henry and then intended to take charge himself; Weir, p. 232); Gerald Fitzgerald, eighth Earl of Kildare, the of the family which produced most of the Deputy Lieutenants of Ireland (meaning in effect that he was the ruler of English Ireland -- which, to be sure, was by this time only a small strip on the east coast); and Margaret of Burgundy, another sister of Edward and Richard (Gillingham, p. 249).
It was a situation in which Ireland was unusually crucial in English affairs. The old Duke of York, father of Edward IV and Richard III and grandfather of the Princes in the Tower, had for a time been Lieutenant of Ireland -- and he was unique among Lieutenants in actually doing a good job and treating the Irish fairly; the Irish were firm supporters of the Yorkist dynasty. If Ireland supported a pretender, it meant big trouble for Henry VII; if Ireland rejected the pretender, Henry was probably safe.
And most of Ireland supported Lambert. Williamson, p. 26, reports, "Margaret [of Burgundy] and the English leaders knew without a doubt that Simnel was an imposter.... The Irish lords seem to have believed in him. They crowned him as Edward VI, did homage to him, called a parliament, struck coins and issued writs in his name. Waterford in the south held out for Henry VII, but for the moment he had lost all the rest of Ireland."
The Archbishop of Dublin was actually responsible for crowning him "Edward VI" (Seward-Wars, p. 316) -- even though it had to be done with a circlet borrowed from a statue of the Virgin Mary (Chrimes, p. 75). Hence this song.
Chrimes, p. 73, declares "Of the two impostitures [Simnel's and later Warbeck's], Simnel's, although by far the more far-fetched, yet for a time attained a startling and menacing success, whilst Warbecks... never attained such distinction. The reason for the difference is to be found in Irish politics. To comprehend how it came about that Lambert Simnel, the ten-year-old son of an Oxford joiner, could come to be crowned King Edward VI in Christchurch, Dublin, on 24 May 1487, supported by many Irish lords, including Gerald, eighth earl of Kildare (the 'uncrowned' king of Ireland), and several Irish bishops, is impossible without some excursion into the circumstances of Irish history during the preceding decades at least."
Waterford had a strong tradition of loyalty to the crown (a loyalty which had earned it significant privileges), and it stayed loyal to Henry VII, trying to convince the Yorkist Archbishop to come back to the fold -- a not-very-successful quest, obviously. (In fact, it was in many ways a really dumb idea for Waterford; after all, it was the Tudors who finally really conquered Ireland. And when Henry VIII turned England Protestant, Waterford stayed even more staunchly Catholic than the rest of Ireland, and suffered for it.)
In that context, it is interesting to note than one of Henry Tudor's claims against Lambert was that his entourage included a Lollard, or proto-Protestant (see Russell, pp. 56-57). The story is clearly not true (Henry claimed the guy said something anti-Catholic, dropped dead, and turned black), though it it likely enough that Lollards were against the oh-so-Catholic Henry VII. But it earned Henry more support from the Pope.
During the Simnel rebellion, Waterford was besieged by the Earl of Desmond for six weeks due to its loyalty to Henry VII. The city earned praise from Henry VII for its efforts. In 1488, a counter-attack by Henry's forces was based in Waterford (Chrimes, p. 79).
The song argues that an English king could not be crowned in Ireland, but while Ireland had never produced a monarch, English kings *had* been crowned away from Westminster -- e.g. Henry III was crowned at Gloucester (Ashley, p. 531), and Edward IV, although formally crowned at Westminster, had made himself king well before that. Indeed, Henry VII had picked up Richard III's crown at Bosworth. Nor had the Archbishop of Canterbury always been responsible for the coronation; Aldred, Archbishop of York, had crowned William the Conqueror (Linklater).
Lambert, who had support from Burgundy, eventually sailed from Ireland to Furness in Lancashire (landing June 4, less than two weeks after the "coronation"; Chrimes, p. 76; Gillingham, p. 250). Due to a lack of sources, we know very little about the resulting Battle of Stoke (June 16, 1487). Burne, pp. 308-309, says that there are only two independent sources, Polydore Vergil's history (followed by all the later Tudor historians) and an anonymous herald in Henry's army. The herald was an eyewitness but had a limited viewpoint; Vergil was not an eyewitness, and though he tried to be objective, it appears based on his coverage of other events that it was extremely easy to lead him around by the nose. In any case, both these accounts are from Henry's side.
It seems that the rebels sailed from Ireland to Lancashire (Williamson, p. 27), because they wanted to take advantage of the Yorkist support in the north of England (Richard III had been very popular in the north, and the Yorkists in general were preferred there). The Yorkist force supposedly included 2000 continental mercenaries, assorted Irishmen (mostly poorly equipped), and of course the English exiles (Burne, p. 305; Chrimes, pp. 76-77). Burne thinks they may have totalled as many as 9000 troops, though they were a very mixed bag; Williamson (who has a very strong pro-Tudor bias) however thinks that they found little support in England. Estimates of their forces made at the time of course varied heavily; Gillingham, p. 252, cites two Acts of Attainder against the rebels, one of which claims they numbered 8000, the other 5000.
However many they were, the rebels did not head for York, where they could probably have expected support. Instead, they headed south. Henry VII gathered an army very quickly, and both sides seemed to be heading for Newark when they ran into each other at Stoke (about three miles from Newark, near the river Trent). The herald, disappointingly, gives us no details of the battle, and Vergil has hardly more, and Burne's map on p. 312 shows them to be irreconcilable anyway. The bottom line is, Henry VII's forces won (with the credit perhaps largely due to the Earl of Oxford rather than Henry; Burne, p. 313); Lincoln was killed, as was mercenary commander Schwartz and the Irish leader Thomas Geraldine; Richard III's friend Viscount Lovell vanished, and Lambert was captured (Gillingham, p. 252; Williamson, p. 27; Burne, p. 314; Chrimes, p. 77). Henry, who rarely showed much evidence of humanity, in this case was merciful and sent Lambert to work in the kitchens (Gillingham, p. 253). Apparently the lad was loyal enough to eventually be let out of the King's service, and he lived until at least 1525 (Poole, p. 15).
Stoke was the last battle of the Wars of the Roses, though hardly the end of opposition to Henry VII. The people of Northumberland murdered their earl Henry Percy for failing to support Richard III at Bosworth (Kendall, pp. 458-459; contrary to the lies Shakespeare told, Richard III was very popular in the north of England, where he had ruled a sort of palatinate in the final years of Edward IV's reign). Henry VII himself executed Sir William Stanley, the man who had won the Battle of Bosworth for him by killing Richard III! (Kendrick, p. 457; Weir, p 236; Poole, p. 18, mentions the suspicion that Henry killed him out to get his hands on Sir William's money).
Henry even went so far as to seize the property of his mother-in-law Elizabeth Woodville (Weir, pp. 232-233, who notes the strangeness of the idea of Elizabeth plotting against her own daughter, while mentioning a theory that Elizabeth believed Henry VII, not Richard III, had killed her sons. But Weir thinks, and I tend to agree, that Elizabeth Woodville did not plot against Henry; Henry degraded her just to get his hands on her money).
And then there came Pretender #2, Perkin Warbeck, who (after some indecision about which member of the Yorkist dynasty to impersonate) decided that he was Richard of York, the younger of the Princes in the Tower. He proclaimed himself in 1491, in Cork (Chrimes, p. 81), and managed to get the support of Margaret of Burgundy and others. But by this time, Henry had quite a spy network built; Perkin aroused a lot of interest, but never managed to mount a real invasion; he landed in Cornwall with a few hundred men (Weir, p. 238), but ended up in Henry's custody, tried to escape, and was executed in 1499 (Seward-Wars, pp. 320-323). Warwick was executed soon after (Weir, p. 239). Presumably that was after this piece was written; for the story of Warbeck, see "The Praise of Waterford." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: CrPS293

Maypole Butter, Maypole Tea

DESCRIPTION: Ball-bouncing rhyme. "Maypole butter, maypole tea, M-A-Y-P-O-L-E."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: food wordplay
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 61, "(Maypole butter, maypole tea)" (1 text)
Roud #20218
File: BAAI061

Maypole Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come, lads and lasses, take leave of your dads, And away to the maypole hie, For every he has got him a she, And the minstrel's standing by." "Begin," says Hall; "Aye, aye," says Mall. The youths call for dances and exchange remarks
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1671 (_Westminster Drollery_)
KEYWORDS: dancing courting music dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #11, pp. 184-187,246, "The Rural Dance about the May-pole" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 384-386, "The Rural Dance About the May-Pole" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 533, "Come Lads and Lasses" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 114-115, "Come Lads and Lasses" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: J. Woodfall Ebsworth, editor, Westminster Drolleries Both Parts of 1671, 1672 (Boston, 1875 (“Digitized by Google”)), pp. 80-84, “The Rurall Dance about the May-pole” (1 text)
ST BeCo284 (Partial)
Roud #22885
File: BeCo284

Mazlim's Mill

DESCRIPTION: "Now I am a bullock driver and I work for Mazlim's Mill, And pulling timber from Vine Creek I've nearly had my fill." The singer complains about the rain and advises listeners that it's better to "turn your bullock out" than work at the mill
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 108, "Mazlim's Mill" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA108

McAfee's Confession [Laws F13]

DESCRIPTION: McAfee, the singer, is raised by an uncle after being orphaned. As a youth he runs away and turns wild. Married to a good woman, he has an affair with Hettie Stout and murders his wife by giving her poison instead of medicine. He is condemned to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin)
KEYWORDS: homicide orphan adultery execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 28, 1825 - Hanging of John McAfee
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Laws F13, "McAfee's Confession"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 317-321, "McAfee's Confession" (2 texts plus references to 4 more, 1 tune)
Randolph 133, "McFee's Confession" (2 texts plus a long excerpt, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #33, "McAfee's Confession" (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 129, "McAfee's Confession" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 138, "McAfee's Confession" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 86, pp. 107-109, "McAfee's Confession" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 175-177, "McAfee's Confession" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 42, "Confession of Mc ifee" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 68, pp. 153-154, "Young McFee" (1 text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, p. 30, "Master MacAfee" (1 excerpt, probably this); pp 40-43, "MacAfee's Confession" (1 text plus some excerpts, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 37, "McAfee's Confession" (2 texts plus references to 5 more, 1 tune)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #6A-B, pp. 133-136, "McAfee's Confession" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 54-56, "MacAfee"; pp. 57-59, "The Orphant Boy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 79, "Macafee's Congession, or Harry Gray" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 22-24, "McAfee's Confession" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 399-401, "Mackafee's Confession" (1 text)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 136, "MacAfee's Confession" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 630, MCAFEECN*
Roud #449
NOTES [45 words]: Laws lists this as a native American ballad, but there is British influence; Pound notes that her text concludes with a wish by McFee that he had "ten thousand pounds" to bring his wife back to life. This may be a moralizing addition, but clearly from a British source. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: LF13

McAllum's Lament

DESCRIPTION: McAllum, a poacher, bids farewell to the woods and the game he hunted. He had been trapped by police and shot one man dead. He curses the lairds and laws and warns poachers to "lay aside your guns while you're able and free"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: homicide poaching prison police
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 251, "McAllum's Lament" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5847
File: GrD2251

McCaffery (McCassery)

DESCRIPTION: A young man enlists in the 42nd Regiment; mistreated by his captain and confined to barracks for a trivial offense, he decides to kill the captain. He accidentally shoots his colonel instead, and is tried (at Liverpool Assizes) and hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 or 1966 (collected from Caroline Hughes)
KEYWORDS: army violence crime execution homicide punishment revenge death soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1862 - Execution of Patrick McCafferty (source: Palmer)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland,England(West)) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 86, "McCaffery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 170-172, "McCaffery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 47-48, "McCaffery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 79-84, "McCaffery" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MCASSERY
Roud #1148
RECORDINGS:
May Bradley, "Calvery" (on Voice08)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gallant Forty-Twa" (subject: 42nd Highlanders or Black Watch) and references there
cf. "The Croppy Boy (I)" [Laws J14] (tune for Voice08)
cf. "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream)" [Laws K9] (tune)
cf. "Callino Casturame (Colleen Og a Store; Cailin O Chois tSiure; Happy 'Tis, Thou Blind, for Thee)" (tune?)
NOTES [221 words]: Hall, notes to Voice08, re "Calvery": "The story in the ballad is true in all its essentials. Patrick McCafferty was born in Mullingar, Co. West Meath, and in October 1860 enlisted at the age of seventeen in the 32nd Regiment.... McCafferty was tried at Liverpool Assizes and was hanged in Liverpool in front of Kirkdale gaol on January 11th, 1862. [ref. Roy Palmer, ed., The Rambling Soldier (Alan Sutton, 1985).]" Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 8" - 1.3.03 has a more detailed account. - BS
When I met this song, I was surprised to find a soldier from the 42nd Regiment (the famous Black Watch) being tried in Liverpool; their base is in Perth. The likeliest explanation is that several sources confused the obscure 32nd regiment (which was, improbably enough, the Cornwall Regiment, and is apparently mentioned in a few regiments) with the famous 42nd, for which see songs such as "Wha Saw the Forty-Second." - RBW, (PJS)
(In the May Bradley version, which is on Voice08 and transcribed in Hamer-GreenGroves, it's the Royal Artillery anyway.)
John Faulkner, on his album "Kind Providence," reports, "This song is the subject of a persistent myth that it is a punishable offense to sing it in the British Army. This may account fo rit being the best known song in the ranks."b- RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: McCST086

McCarthy

DESCRIPTION: St. Patrick's night, John McCarthy and William Toole go to play cards and drink. At the dance hall they have a fight with Dickie Costello. Costello sues McCarthy over the fight. McCarthy wins. Everyone "pitied poor Dickie for being such a fool"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: fight trial cards dancing drink gambling brawl
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #26239
RECORDINGS:
John Connors, "McCarthy" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3McCar

McCarthy's Mare (The Runaway Mare)

DESCRIPTION: "We started for the fair, With spirits light and hearty, Behind McCarhy's mare...." It is a wild cart ride; the seats are hard. The singer's coat is torn and his had lost. Finally all are thrown from the cart
AUTHOR: J. P. Skelly (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (source: Sheet music published by E. H. Harding, New York)
KEYWORDS: horse hardtimes humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 151-152, "McCarty's Mare" (1 text) (p. 129 in the 1919 edition)
ADDITIONAL: _THe International Horseshoer's Magazine_, Volume I, Number 5 (May 1900) (available on Google Books), p. 7, "McCarthy's Mare" (1 text)
Roud #14083
NOTES [35 words]: The sheet music gives the title of this as "The Runaway Mare," but most printings seem to call it "McCarthy's Mare" or "McCarty's Mare." A copy of the original sheet music can be found in the Levy collection. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Shoe151

McCarthy's Song

DESCRIPTION: McCarthy stops in Pope's Harbour for a bottle at Brian's tavern. He treats all hands and he sleeps it off on the floor. Next morning the landlord wants his money. He staggers to Mrs. Haws who nursed his wounds at no charge. He swears not to return again.
AUTHOR: Michael McCarthy, school teacher at Taylor's Harbour, N.S. (Source: Creighton-NovaScotia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: drink ordeal landlord
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 133, "McCarthy's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS133 (Partial)
Roud #1832
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dH52 in Laws's Appendix II. - BS
File: CrNS133

McCarthy's Widow

See McCarty's Widow (File: Dean093)

McCarty's Mare

See McCarthy's Mare (The Runaway Mare) (File: Shoe151)

McCarty's Widow

DESCRIPTION: "It's just a year ago today I took to me a wife, And ever since she's proved to be the burden of my life." The woman licked McCarty to death, but now that he is married to her, the singer vows she won't beat him. He hopes to beat her until she behaves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: marriage fight
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 93, "McCarty's Widow" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 174-175, "McCarthy's Widow" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MCWIDOW*
Roud #5490
RECORDINGS:
Gene Silsbee, "McCarthy's Widow" (AFG 4976 A, 1941; in AMMEM)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
McCarthy's Widow
File: Dean093

McCassery

See McCaffery (McCassery) (File: McCST086)

McClenahan's Jean

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises the beauty of McClenahan's Jean. When her father learns that they are courting, he vows "that in merriage we ne'er should be buckled thegither." He wants her to wed a rich old man. The singer casts scorn on her potential husband
AUTHOR: David Herbison? (Tune supplied by Sam Henry)
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting father beauty lover
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H81, pp. 430-431, "McClenahan's Jean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7959
File: HHH081

McClure, The

DESCRIPTION: McClure sails for Naples with cargo of fish. They are boarded by sailors from a submarine who sink McClure with bombs. The crew are allowed to leave and are rescued by an Italian destroyer who take the Captain and crew of six to Cadiz
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: war sea ship ordeal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 22/24, 1917 - McClure, out of St John's, captured and bombed by a German submarine off Cape Carbonara, Sardinia (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou, Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 76, "The McClure" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #28974
NOTES [97 words]: Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou note that there is uncertainty about how the McClure was destroyed in 1917. The song claims the Germans captured and scuttled it, but others report it was sunk by gunfire or torpedoes. I haven't found proof one way or the other, but it's nearly certain that it wasn't a torpedo -- submarines had guns because some boats (such as schooners with crews of just six) weren't worth a torpedo; subs only had a limited supply of "fish." Putting a bomb aboard was possible, but it took a lot of time. So I'd guess the McClure was actually sunk by gunfire. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe076

McCracken's Ghost

DESCRIPTION: The singer encounters McCracken's ghost at midnight. He recounts the deaths of Irish heroes of the rebellion. He advises: take by force the Reform the English would not yield. You will free "the Green Isle and receive the world's thanks"
AUTHOR: James Hope and James Orr (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1893 (Young's _Ulster in '98_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion England Ireland patriotic ghost
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 112, "McCracken's Ghost" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Joy McCracken (I)" (character of Henry Joy McCracken) and references there
NOTES [40 words]: It sounds as if this may have been written with reference to Gladstone's unsuccessful proposals for Home Rule. For background, see the notes to "Home Rule for Ireland"; for Henry Joy McCracken, see the notes to "Henry Joy McCracken (I)." - RBW
File: Moyl112

McDonald

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

McDonald Family, The

DESCRIPTION: "Sons of freedom, only ponder, On McDonald's awful doom." The five members of the family die in the great fire (of 1871). The singer imagines them dying. He particularly remembers "poor Jeanette," beautiful and a teacher, and believes she is in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan)
KEYWORDS: fire death family
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 172-175, "The McDonald Family" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 83, "The McDonald Family" (1 text)
Roud #4142
NOTES [7 words]: This is item dG44 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: BBun172

McDonald of Salmonier

DESCRIPTION: Captain Mike McDonald's fog-bound fishing schooner "struck at Johnson's Point up in Trepassey Bay." McDonald's sons make it to land but the captain, "the last to leave," drowns. His body is found three days later and is returned to Salmonier.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: death drowning fishing sea ship wreck father
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18225
RECORDINGS:
Gerald Aylward, "McDonald of Salmonier" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Cyril O'Brien, "Mike McDonald" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [14 words]: Salmonier and Trepassey Bay are on the eastern part of Newfoundland's south coast. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcMacdoS

McDonald's (Is Your Kind of Place)

DESCRIPTION: "McDonalds is your kind of place, Hamburgers in your face, (French fries) up your nose, (Catsup) between your toes. The last time I was there, They stole my underwear, McDonalds (is the place for me/is your kind of place)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1984
KEYWORDS: nonballad parody humorous
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 38, "McDonald's" (1 text, tune referenced)
NOTES [57 words]: I make the assumption that, if I learned a kids's song from a source other than my parents or school, it qualifies as a folk song. This seems to fit that bill.
The Pankakes claim that the tune of this is "Down by the Riverside." Not in the version I know! There is similarity, but they are definitely not the same. But I may not be typical. - RBW
File: PFCF038b

McDonald's Farm

See Old MacDonald Had a Farm (File: R457)

McFee's Confession

See McAfee's Confession [Laws F13] (File: LF13)

McGinty's Meal-an-Ale

See M'Ginty's Meal-an-Ale (File: DBuch72)

McGinty's Model Lodge

DESCRIPTION: The singer is "a kind of overseer in a famous hotel" in Glasgow: "a 'Model' lodging house where working men do stay.... All the fighting men in Glasgow's in MacGinty's model Lodge." He describes the fights over imagined offenses.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: fight humorous nonballad worker
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 54, "McGinty's Model Lodge" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: McB1054

McGinty's Wedding

See Sheelicks (File: McCST109)

McKeeny Is Dead

See McTavish is Dead (File: PHCFS122)

McKenna's Dream, The

DESCRIPTION: McKenna dreams of Ireland's heroes: Brian Boru, Sarsfield, St Ruth, Billy Byrne from Ballymanus, Reilly "on the hill of Screen," Father Murphy, the pikemen, Napoleon. "I looked around, but could not see One foeman on the plain... So ends McKenna's dream"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850's (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: rebellion war Ireland dream patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 65, "The McKenna's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 133, "McKenna's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 48-50, "M'Kenna's Dream" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 279-281, "MacKenna's Dream" (1 text)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 89-92, 513, "MacKenna's Dream"
Roud #2377
RECORDINGS:
John Joe English, "Mackenzie's Dream" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(357), "The Irishman's Vision," E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1855-1861; also Firth b.25(357), "The Irishman's Vision"; 2806 b.10(133), "MacKenna's Dream"; Harding B 19(92), Harding B 26(434), 2806 c.8(115), "M'Kenna's Dream[!]"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Rock" (tune, per Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, Hoagland))
cf. "The Irish Sixty-Ninth" (tune, apparently, according to the sheet music)
NOTES [280 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "Donal O'Sullivan ... tells me that towards the end of the last century, at Buncrana, a street-singer would often be brought before the R.M. who asked: 'What is the charge in this case?' The answer would usually be: 'Singing McKenna's Dream, Sir.'"
At the Battle of Clontarf, 1014, Brian Boru defeated a combined force of Vikings and rebels from Leinster, but died in the battle. [For Brian, see "Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave." - RBW]
At the Battle of Aughrim, 1691, the Irish Catholic forces [are finally defeated] and the commander of their French allies, St Ruth dies [see "After Aughrim's Great Disaster" - RBW].
Sarsfield is the Irish commander in 1691 who is on the field at Aughrim and Limerick (cf. "The Jackets Green")
United commander Billy Byrne is hanged in 1799 (cf. "Billy Byrne of Ballymanus")
The Wexford rebels under Father John Murphy defeat the North Cork militia in 1798. Father Murphy is caught and executed later in 1798 (cf. "Father Murphy (I).")
The pikemen fought for the rebels in the 1798 rebellion (cf. "General Monroe").
Reilly "on the hill of Screen" [i.e., Tara]. I don't know the reference, but "Rebels posted on Tara Hill, County Meath, were routed on May 26." (Zimmermann, p. 155) - BS
Although one would expect, from the contents of this song, that McKenna was a well-known Irish patriot, I have not been able to find any suitable candidate to be the dreamer. - RBW
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte, "McKenna's Dream" (on "The Croppy's Complaint," Craft Recordings CRCD03 (1998); Terry Moylan notes) - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Zimm065

McKenzie and His Dog

DESCRIPTION: "John McKenzie stood in the Mataura store, And looked at the yokes and chains," and sets out to haul cargo. He discovers a large plot of good land -- but he also makes off with a thousand sheep. Still, they name the region for McKenzie and his collie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: sheep travel thief dog New Zealand
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1855 - the disappearance of the sheep and McKenzie's capture. He is sentenced to five years, but the sentence is commuted after nine months and he returns to Australia
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 68, "MacKenzie and His Dog" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 42 in the 1972 edition, where it is called "McKenzie and His Dog")
RECORDINGS:
Rudy Sunde, "McKenzie and His Dog" (on NZSongYngCntry)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mackenzie and His Dog (I)" (subject) and notes there
NOTES [55 words]: The John/James McKenzie of this song should not be confused with Sir John McKenzie (1839-1901), who spent about twenty years in the New Zealand parliament and in some liberal governments; Sir John was a generation younger and did not arrive in New Zealand until 1860. For background, see the notes to "Mackenzie and His Dog (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Colq042

McKinley

See Mister McKinley (White House Blues) (File: LoF143)

McKinley Brook

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the poor conditions in the McKinley Brook logging camp: The buildings leak ("for comfort, as you plainly see"); there is a risk of flood ("for they deserve it well, it's true") and the gambling and bawdy singing rarely stops
AUTHOR: George Calhoun (around 1869?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: logger work hardtimes flood
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 220-221, "McKinley Brook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9426
File: Doe220

McKinney Is Dead

See McTavish is Dead (File: PHCFS122)

McLellan's Son

DESCRIPTION: On April 18 Daniel McLennan is shot accidentally by Tim who claims he was playing carelessly with a gun he did not know was loaded.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: homicide death friend youth
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 831-832, "Young Daniel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 72-73, "Mind How You Trifle With a Gun" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 151, "McLellan's Son" (1 text)
Roud #1969
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Thomas Walters, "Young Daniel" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [43 words]: Peacock quotes Mackenzie in Ballads and Songs of Nova Scotia re "McLellan's Son," his name for the song, that it was "made in commemoration of an accidental shooting ...[circa 1875] in Pugwash [Nova Scotia]" - BS
This is item dG43 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea831

McNab's Island

DESCRIPTION: Sergeant John McCafferty marches you "forty hours a day ... in the regular army." "I went down to McNab's Island" to fight Indians but "we got bald-headed And never lost a hair." "I got blisters... bunions...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: army humorous nonballad soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 134, "McNab's Island" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS134 (Partial)
Roud #1833
NOTES [16 words]: Creighton-NovaScotia: "McNab's Island includes part of the fortification of Halifax Harbour" - BS
File: CrNS134

McNally's Row of Flats

DESCRIPTION: "Down in Bottle Alley lived Timothy McNally, A wealthy politician and a gentleman at that," owner of flats occupied by tenants from "Ireland and Italy, Jerusalem and Germany"; not even "the Tower of Babylonium" could match it
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (sheet music published by Wm. A. Pond & Co, New York, from the show "The McSorleys" or "McSorley's Inflation")
KEYWORDS: home humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. II, #85, pp. 15-17, "McNallys' Row of Flats" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #32438
RECORDINGS:
Mick Moloney, "McNally's Row of Flats" (on HarriganBrahamMaloney)
BROADSIDES:
Library of Congress, Microfilm M 3500 M2.3.U6A44, "McNally's Row of Flats" (Sheet music: Wm. A Pond & Co., 1882)
NOTES [402 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
Although no field collections of this song have ever been printed, Helen Hartness Flanders did pick up a copy of the chorus (only) from Thomas Armstrong on June 22, 1942. Like many Harrigan/Braham songs, its hold in tradition was tenuous, but it had one. (Possibly part of the problem is the wide range -- it takes more than an octave and a fifth.) And Armstrong, in some respects, had the words more correct than the recording by Mick Moloney, which has been slightly cleaned up.
Franceschina, p. 152, says of this song that it was "a lively hornpipe with another schottische dance break," but it was only a modest hit. Indeed, the whole show "McSorley's Inflation," from a musical standpoint, doesn't seem to have been particularly successful. Franceschina, p. 152, summarizes the plot:
The drama "dealt with Peter McSorley (Harrigan), a tenement landlord and candidate for the local coronership. Ashamed of the successful poultry-stall run in Washington Market by his wife, Bridget (Tony Hart), McSorley attempts to destroy her seller's permit. Bridget hides the document in her mattress, which is subsequently taken away by a black politician, Rufus Rhubarb (John Wild), at McSorley's request. Bridget follows the mattress robber to his home, where a group of African Americans are assembled to hear the political platforms of McSorley and his opponent, Coroner Slab (Edward Burt). Bridget, with the help of the female constituency, manages to recapture the bed, and McSorley, who has been knocked out by Tom Tough (Michael Foley), a bruiser in the employ of Coroner Slab, decides against a political career and vows never again to try to interfere with his wife's poultry business."
Moody, p. 133, explains that "Dan Mulligan [hero of a whole series of Harrigan plays; see again the notes to "Babies on Our Block"] had been rechristened Peter McSorley to honor the saloon [McSorley's Saloon, later McSorley's Old Ale House, a landmark near where the play was performed] and to take account of Yeaman's absence from the company" [Annie Yeamans played Cordelia Mulligan, wife of Dan Mulligan, and her absence was temporary -- she was still visiting Harrigan in the last days of his life]. The play premiered November 27, 1882 (Moody, p. 132).
For another song from "McSorley's Inflation," see "I Never Drink Behind the Bar." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: HaBrMcNa

McNamara's Band

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Macnamara, I'm the leader of a band, And though we're small in number, We're the best in all the land." Even General Grand said, "I've never seen the likes of Macnamara's Band." Members of the band may be described
AUTHOR: original -- Words: John J. Stamford / Music: Shamus O'Connor / American revision: Red Latham, Wamp Carlson and Guy Bonham (source: mudcat.org thread "
Origins: McNamara's Band? / MacNamara's Band")
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (original copyright)
KEYWORDS: music humorous nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 286, 315, "McNamara's Band" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 41, "McNamara's Band" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 6, "My Name is McNmara" (1 text)
DT, MCNMRA
Roud #19014
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Macnamara's Band" ("My name is Macnamara, I'm the leader of the band" line)
cf. "My Name is McNamara" ("My name is Macnamara" line)
SAME TUNE:
No. 5. Squadron Song (File: Hopk041)
NOTES [178 words]: I am honestly not sure whether Roud #19014 is this song (the original) or the children's song here indexed as "Macnamara's Band"; they are clearly from the same original, but equally clearly they have gone separate ways. The Roud entries for this and "My name is McNamara" are, however, confusing. This is identified by the fact that it refers to an actual band, which is small in number, and the fact that it's not a game song.
I don't know if the line about General Grant is a deliberate joke, but it might be -- Grant was tone deaf and could not understand music, so all he would be able to perceive about the band was its appearance.
Apparently the correct original title is "MacNamara's Band." Although published before 1920, the song had its greatest vogue three decades later. Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 483, estimates that this was the sixteenth most popular song in America in March 1946, probably on the basis of a recording by Bing Crosby. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF286M

McNulty's Family

DESCRIPTION: The logger's camp, owned by McNulty, is "all populated by McNulty's family... some from every place you'll find upon a map": Irish, French, and Yankee loggers. The crew are all named. "It's pleasant in the evening when your day's work is done"
AUTHOR: James O'Hara? (possible, per Ives-FolksongsFromMaine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Ives-FolksongsFromMaine)
KEYWORDS: lumbering food moniker logger
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 2, "McNulty's Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: IveMa02

McPherson's Farewell

See MacPherson's Lament (File: K348)

McSorley's Beautiful Twins

See McSorley's Twins (File: Dean046)

McSorley's Twins

DESCRIPTION: "Mrs. McSorley had fine bouncing twins, Two fat little devils they were." The parents determine on a grand christening; many come to join the party. As guests get drunk, fights break out; at last "they smothered the two little twins."
AUTHOR: Gus Philipps ("Oofty Gooft"), according to College Songs
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (College Songs)
KEYWORDS: baby humorous party mother father fight twins
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 46-47, "McSorley's Twins" (1 text)
DT, MCSORTWN
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, pp. 30-31, "McSorley's Twins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5501
ALTERNATE TITLES:
McSorley's Beautiful Twins
File: Dean046

McTavish is Dead

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, McTavish is dead and his brother doesn't know it, His brother is dead and McTavish doesn't know it. They're both of them dead and they're lying in bed And neither one knows that the other is dead."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard)
KEYWORDS: death campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 2, "MacTavish is Dead" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 122, "McTavish Is Dead" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 132, 315, "O'Riley is dead and O'Reilly doesn't know it"/"McKinney Is Dead" (notes only)
RECORDINGS:
Deborah Paulukaitis, "McKeeny Is Dead" (Piotr-Archive #724, recorded 10/28/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Washerwoman" (tune)
cf. "The Railroad Corral" (tune and references for the "Irish Washerwoman" tune)
cf. "John Dolan" (theme of two people both being dead)
NOTES [34 words]: Said to have been used as mouth music for dancing. Presumably it is one of the several attempts to provide a lyric for "The Irish Washerwoman" -- in this case, probably just to help remember the tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: PHCFS122

Me and Five More

See Van Dieman's Land (II - Young Henry's Downfall) (File: FaE16)

Me and Me Chum Johnny Riley

See Riley and I Were Chums (File: Pet057)

Me and My Baby and My Baby's Friend

DESCRIPTION: Floating verse song (even the chorus changes): "Me 'n' my baby 'n' my baby's friend Can pick mo' cotton dan a cotton gin." "I got a baby and a honey too." "Boat's up de ribber and she won't come down." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses love work
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 236, (no title) (1 text, which appears more a collection of blues stanzas than an actual song, but verses from songs such as "Boat's Up the River" and "I Got a Gal in de White Folks' Yard")
File: ScaNF236

Me and My Wife We Fell Out

DESCRIPTION: "Me and my sister/wife/lover (we) fell out, I'll tell you what it was all about. She liked coffee And I liked tea, And that's the reason We couldn't agree."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: fight food drugs sister wife lover
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 65, "My Sister Eileen and I fell out" (1 text)
Roud #11728
File: BAAI065F

Me carry me akee a Linstead market

See Linstead Market (File: FSWB335)

Me Complete

See Ten Little Fingers (File: DCCR065)

Me Done Done What You Told Me To Do

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: Leader: "O Lord, aye." Response: "Me done done what you told me to do." Verse: "You told me to pray And I done that too"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (USSeaIsland04)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Gullah Kinfolk, "Me Dun Dun" (on USSeaIsland04)
File: RcMeDunD

Me donkey want water

See Hold 'im Joe (File: RcHoImJo)

Me Dun Dun

See Me Done Done What You Told Me To Do (File: RcMeDunD)

Me Father Is a Lawyer in England

See My God, How the Money Rolls In; also My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher and The Cobbler (File: EM107)

Me Father's a Lawyer in England

See My God, How the Money Rolls In (File: EM107)

Me go da Galloway road, Gal an' boy them broke rock stone

See Go Down Emmanuel Road (File: Jek199)

Me Heart Dun Fixt

See Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone (File: RcMJBTCA)

Me Johnny Mitchell Man

DESCRIPTION: A miner's song in "Slavic" dialect, telling how the immigrant has been working in the mines, in bad conditions, for many years. When "Me Johnny Mitchell man" calls a strike, the singer will welcome it
AUTHOR: Con Carbon
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: emigration mining strike labor-movement
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1899 - John Mitchell becomes President of the United Mine Workers of America. He devoted much of his energy to soothing tensions between Slavs and longer-settled workers so that the UMW could effectively strike against the mine owners
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 234-236, "Me Johnny Mitchell Man" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 394-396, "Me Johnny Mitchel Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 865-867, "Me Johnny Mitchell Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 211, "Me Johnny Mitchell Man" (1 text)
Roud #4757
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On Johnny Mitchell's Train" (character of John Mitchell)
NOTES [68 words]: For other songs by Con Carbon, see:
- When the Black Diamond Breaker Was Burned to the Ground
- Mackin's Patch
- (possibly) When Jim Gets to Klondike
- (possibly) A Hungarian Christening
He wrote quite a few others which cannot be shown to have entered tradition.
There is a capsule biography of him on pp. 289-291 of Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch. He is said to have been born in 1871 and died in 1907. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: BAF865

Me No Wantee No Tea

DESCRIPTION: "Me no wantee no tea"(3x). The singer doesn't want coffee tea, bush tea or cocoa tea.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad | tea
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Alfred McLerty, "Me No Wantee No Tea" (on JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
NOTES [19 words]: The current description is part of the way I hear the JamaicaFaithWorkPlay recording but excludes Jamaican patois. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcMNWNT

Me Old Ragadoo

DESCRIPTION: Michael Chaser was born "with me hands in the pockets of me old ragadoo." At forty he meets Suzy Lagan but claims he won't shame her by taking her to the altar in his old ragadoo. She is fine with that and bids him adieu. He marries someone else.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting clothes humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 77, "Me Old Ragadoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #900
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best, "Me Old Ragadoo" (on NFABest01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Beggarman" (tune, words)
NOTES [81 words]: Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou: "A 'ragadoo' is a general name for a tattered garment, presumably with pockets."
This is close enough to "The Little Beggarman" that I could not argue too long if they were considered the same song. [Indeed, Roud lumps them. - RBW] Clearly, one is derived from the other. The difference is that this song, in Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou, actually has a story (having nothing to do with begging). Nevertheless, I would bet that this is the derivative. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe077

Me One Are Walk a' Road

DESCRIPTION: Singer complains that he was walking alone on a road and "jumbie come an' knock me down." The same happens when he worked his ground, built his shack, planted his corn....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: ordeal ghost Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 30, "Me One Are Walk a' Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [25 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "One way of getting rid of this evil spirit is to arrange with the obeahman (shaman) to exorcise it or publicly shame it." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo030

Me One Man

See One Man Shall Mow My Meadow (File: ShH100)

Me Teacher Help Me

DESCRIPTION: "Me teacher help me ... roll the chariot away ... roll him [the Devil] away ... roll the stone away Oh when the trumpet sound We all going home Going to roll that stone away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Devil
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Edna Wright, Margaret Wright, "Me Teacher Help Me" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [202 words]: There are specific roles in the Spiritual Baptist church, including preacher, teacher, prover, leader, divine healer, healer, captain, pastor, shepherd, shepherdess, pumper, diver, prophet, apostle, queen, fortune-teller, surveyra [sic], judge, nurse (see Herskovits-Village: Melville J. Herskovits and Frances S. Herskovits, Trinidad Village (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947), pp. 194-197; Wallace W. Zane, Journeys to the Spiritual Lands (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 198-203); "teacher -- one who teaches the meanings of dreams and visions, and 'sees things'" (Herskovits). The form of the verse is: one line repeated three times, "We going to roll the stone away," similar to "We'll Roll the Old Chariot Along." For the stone reference, see Mark 16:3-4, "And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great" (King James); see also Matthew 28:3, Luke 24:2, and John 20:1. - BS
(There is also a stone rolled away in the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den in chapter 6 of Daniel. I don't claim it is the source here, but it may have influenced things a bit. - RBW)
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcMTHeMe

Me Want Me Daughter (I Want My Daughter)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: Answer-back worksong with the response always "no mah." Mother wants her daughter back: daughter's husband mistreats daughter on account of trivial disagreements ("piece of bread") and other women. "Give me back my daughter." "No mah."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (WILBennett01)
KEYWORDS: infidelity marriage request rejection nonballad worksong mother
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Louise Bennett, "Me Want Me Daughter" (on WILBennett01)
File: RcMWaMD

Meagher's Children [Laws G25]

DESCRIPTION: Two girls, four and six years old, lose their way in the woods and die. It takes a hundred men a week to find their bodies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: children death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 11, 1842 - "Two little girls from Preston Road into the woods did stray"
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws G25, "Meagher's Children"
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 135, "Meagher's Children" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 204-205, "Meagher's Children" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 103-105, "Meagher's Children" (1 text)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 75-77,248-249, "Lost Babes of Halifax" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 37-40,80-81, "The Lost Babes of Halifax" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 30, "The Lost Babes of Halifax (Meagher's Children)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 347, MEAGCHLD
Roud #1834
NOTES [60 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: The initials of the author are disputed. Creighton refers to a copy with initials B.G.V. and Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi refers to a copy with initials D.G.B. "An article in the Dartmouth Free Press, by Dr J P Martin, April 12, 1962, says decidedly that the author is Daniel G Blois, of The Gore, Hants County, Nova Scotia." - BS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: LG25

Mealy-Mou'd Charlie

DESCRIPTION: Charlie warns "fan ye mairry tae manage yer wife." When she nagged him and he took a stick to beat her she took it and beat him. She scratches him when he drinks. Though she reads the Scriptures she is the devil that breaks "hen-ridden" Charlie's bones.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage warning violence drink humorous nonballad wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1300, "Mealy-Mou'd Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7198
File: GrD71300

Mean Mistreater Blues

DESCRIPTION: "It seems mighty hard when you're sleeping all by yourself And the one you love she's loving someone else." "I feel so lonesome sad and blue today I had a darn good woman but my kindnesses drove her away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (USFlorida01)
KEYWORDS: love rejection sex floatingverses nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Robert Dennis, "Mean Mistreater Blues" (on USFlorida01)
NOTES [154 words]: The blues form of the USFlorida track is aab.
Tampa Red "Mean Mistreater Blues" (Bluebird B5546, 1934) and Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell "Mean Mistreater Mama" (Columbia C30496, 1934) are about a man deserted by his woman ("but I don't blame you baby. I'd be the same way if I could"). That's just the opposite of the case here, where the man is the mean mistreater and has driven his woman away. However, Robert Dennis picks up the last verse from Tampa Red and Leroy Carr: "Boys ain't it lonesome sleeping all by yourself When the woman that you love is loving someone else"; while both Tampa Red and Carr & Blackwell have this verse as abab, Robert Dennis maintains his aab form.
Dennis's "my kindnesses drove her away" seems a mishearing of Tampa Red's "Seminole Blues" (Bluebird B7315, 1937): "She give me hard love even let me draw her bay (bed? bath?), She was a real good woman but unkindness drove her away." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcMeMisB

Measles in the Spring, The

See The Sow Took the Measles (File: LoF015)

Medicine Jack

DESCRIPTION: Medicine Jack, "a jolly old quack," hopes to sell his pills, powders to be taken in vodka, and "very cheap" plasters for pains. "I am the man" for pulling teeth. "Since you will not buy my goods I'll go and sell elsewhere"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Dime-Song-Book #25)
KEYWORDS: bragging lie promise commerce medicine humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dime-Song-Book #25, p. 56, "Medicine Jack" (1 text)
Roud #18226
RECORDINGS:
John A. McLellan, "Medicine Jack" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod6599 Firth b.25(172), "Medicine Jack" ("Good people all both great and small"), H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Bod21930 2806 c.16(225), Firth c.26(116), Harding B 11(1675), "Medicine Jack"
File: BdMedJac

Meditations of an Old Bachelor (The Good Old-Fashioned Girl)

DESCRIPTION: "The girls today are different from those I used to know, They never seem contented unless they're on the go." He complains about makeup, short hair, etc.; "Womenly characteristics we loved and prized are few." He wants a "good old-fashioned girl."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: hair clothes courting bachelor
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 57, "Meditations of an Old Bachelor" (1 text)
Roud #7843
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve" (theme) and references there
cf. "The Braw Servant Lasses" (subject)
NOTES [56 words]: All I can say to the singer is, "You couldn't get a woman back when they *were* modest; why should they want you now when you're old and a grump?"
Despite this sort of whine, it's worth noting that the population of the planet has doubled repeatedly since this grouse was written (1920s?). Evidently most men can adapt to modern women. - RBW
File: Br3057

Meeks Family Murder (I), The [Laws F28]

DESCRIPTION: The Meeks Family (husband, wife, and three children) are lured from home by the Taylors. The parents and two children are killed, but wounded Nellie escapes to report the crime (the song details Nellie's story, and ends before the villains are captured)
AUTHOR: Arthur Wallace
EARLIEST DATE: 1913
KEYWORDS: homicide family escape
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 11, 1894 - Gus Meeks, his wife, and two children are killed by William and George Taylor (who are suspected of cattle stealing). William Taylor was hanged; George escaped and was not recaptured
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws F28, "The Meeks Family Murder I"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 404-412, "The Meeks Family Murder" (11 texts, 2 tunes, grouped into types A-E; the "A" group of 3 texts and 1 tune is this song; Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety however believes that A1 and A3 are mixtures of F28 and "The Meeks Family Murder (IV)," which is Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's "B" group. "C" is "The Meeks Family Murder (V)", "D" is too brief to categorize, and "E" is not traditional)
Randolph 152, "The Meeks Murder" (4 texts, 1 tune; with the "B" and "C" texts being this song; the A text is Laws F30, and D is Laws F29)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 232-234, "(The Meeks Massacre)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 719, MEEKMUR1*
Roud #2266
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder II" [Laws F29]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder III" [Laws F30]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder IV"
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder (V -- Nellie's Lament)"
NOTES [214 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety has detailed notes on the history of this piece; it appears that the Taylors were unsavory sorts, perhaps guilty of cattle stealing, and their employee and tenant Gus Meeks -- given a pardon by the governor -- was going to provide evidence of their financial wrongdoing.
The Taylors, knowing they were in trouble, offered Meeks a better job, and convinced him to go along with them, then tried to kill the whole family with axes and burn their bodies. The hay used in the fire, however, was wet, and so Nellie Meeks, once she awoke, was able to escape alive and report the crime.
Both brothers were sentenced to be hanged, but George escaped and no reliable evidence of his later career is available. Folklore, however, attended both George Taylor and Nellie Meeks for many years (e.g. Nellie is said to have borne a "dint" from the blow of the axe to her head for the rest of her life).
To tell this piece from the other Meeks ballads, consider this first stanza:
About a mile from Brownington
At the foot of Jenkins's hill,
Took place this awful murder
By the Taylors, George and Bill.
(Other versions of the song use stanzas of eight lines of this sort.)
This song seems to have mixed heavily with "The Meeks Family Murder IV."
- RBW
File: LF28

Meeks Family Murder (II), The [Laws F29]

DESCRIPTION: The Meeks Family (husband, wife, and three children) are lured from home by the Taylors. The parents and two children are killed, but wounded Nellie escapes to report the crime. The Taylors are captured and sentenced to die
AUTHOR: credited to Marion Anderson (1894)
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: homicide children escape execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 11, 1894 - Gus Meeks, his wife, and two children are killed by William and George Taylor (who are suspected of cattle stealing). William Taylor was hanged; George escaped and was not recaptured
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws F29, "The Meeks Family Murder II"
Randolph 152, "The Meeks Murder" (4 texts, 1 tune, but Laws considers only the "D" text to be this song; "A" is F30 and "B" and "C" go with F28)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 235, "(The Meeks massacre)" (1 excerpt)
DT 797, MEEKMUR2
Roud #2267
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder I" [Laws F28]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder III" [Laws F30]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder IV"
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder (V -- Nellie's Lament)"
NOTES [48 words]: For more historical details on this piece, see the notes to "The Meeks Family Murder" (I).
To tell this piece from the other Meeks ballads, consider this first stanza:
'Twas in the lovely springtime,
In the merry month of May,
When Meeks, his wife, and children
Were induced to go away. - RBW
File: LF29

Meeks Family Murder (III), The [Laws F30]

DESCRIPTION: Nellie Meeks recounts her fate. Her family (father, mother, and three children) are lured from home by the Taylors. The parents and two children are killed, but wounded Nellie escapes to report the crime and tell of being an orphan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: homicide family children orphan
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 11, 1894 - Gus Meeks, his wife, and two children are killed by William and George Taylor (who are suspected of cattle stealing). William Taylor was hanged; George escaped and was not recaptured
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws F30, "The Meeks Family Murder III"
Randolph 152, "The Meeks Murder" (4 texts, 1 tune, but Laws considers only the "A" text -- which has the only tune -- to be part of F30; "B" and "C" are F28 and "D" is F29)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 151-153, "The Meeks Murder" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 152A)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 372-373, "The Meeks Murder" (1 text)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 235-236, "(Nellie's Lament)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 796, MEEKMUR3
Roud #2268
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder I" [Laws F28]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder II" [Laws F29]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder IV"
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder (V -- Nellie's Lament)"
NOTES [93 words]: For more historical details on this piece, see the notes to "The Meeks Family Murder" (I).
Rumor has it that Nellie (elsewhere called Sadie) Meeks herself sang this variant in the 1890s. One person who claimed to be a family relative denied this, saying that Nellie stayed with her grandmother until she married, gave birth, and died at the age of eighteen.
To tell this piece from the other Meeks ballads, consider this first verse:
We lived upon the Taylor's farm
Not many miles from town;
One night while we were all asleep
The Taylor boys came down.
- RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: LF30

Meeks Family Murder (IV), The

DESCRIPTION: George Meeks is in prison, but is offered a pardon to testify against the Taylors. The Taylors offer him a job and money to come with him, but then kill him and his family. Nellie escapes and laments being an orphan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: homicide family children orphan
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 11, 1894 - Gus Meeks, his wife, and two children are killed by William and George Taylor (who are suspected of cattle stealing). William Taylor was hanged; George escaped and was not recaptured
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 404-412, "The Meeks Family Murder" (11 texts, 2 tunes, grouped into types A-E; the "B" group of 5 texts and 1 tune is this song, though Laws lists only three texts -- B1, B3, and either B2 or B4, probably the latter -- as this piece; in addition, some of Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's "A" texts, which belong to "The Meeks Family Murder (I)", appear to have mixed with this piece. Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's "D" is too brief to categorize, and "E" is not traditional)
Roud #2269
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder I" [Laws F28]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder II" [Laws F29]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder III" [Laws F30]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder (V -- Nellie's Lament)"
NOTES [54 words]: For more historical details on this piece, see the notes to "The Meeks Family Murder" (I).
This is item dF49 in Laws's Appendix II.
To tell this ballad from the other Meeks Murder songs, consider this first stanza:
In Milan, Sullivan County,
There lived a family poor,
A father and a mother,
Three children around the door. - RBW
File: Beld408A

Meeks Family Murder (V -- Nellie's Lament), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments, "Once I had a mamma, likewise a papa too." She recalls a beautiful, sunny day; the next thing she can remember is a pain in her head and the bodies of her family. Having told her tale, she regrets her fate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: homicide family children orphan
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 11, 1894 - Gus Meeks, his wife, and two children are killed by William and George Taylor (who are suspected of cattle stealing). William Taylor was hanged; George escaped and was not recaptured
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 404-412, "The Meeks Family Murder" (11 texts, 2 tunes, grouped into types A-E; the "C" text is this song, while "A" is "The Meeks Family Murder (I)" and "B" is "The Meeks Family Murder (IV). Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's "D" is too brief to categorize, and "E" is not traditional)
Roud #2270
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder I" [Laws F28]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder II" [Laws F29]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder III" [Laws F30]
cf. "The Meeks Family Murder (IV)"
NOTES [67 words]: For more historical details on this piece, see the notes to "The Meeks Family Murder" (I).
This is item dF50 in Laws's Appendix II.
To tell this ballad from the other Meeks Murder songs, consider the first line above and the chorus:
Sad, sad to be an orphan here,
No more to see my little sisters dear,
They are in heaven, the voices they are still,
The fatal blows were given upon the Jenkins Hill. - RBW
File: Beld407B

Meeks Murder, The

See The Meeks Family Murder (III) [Laws F30] (File: LF30)

Meena, Deena, Deena, Duss

See Hewery, Hiery, Hackery, Heaven (File: DeSh052A)

Meerschaum Pipe

DESCRIPTION: "O who will smoke my meerschaum pipe (x3), When I am gone away? Allis Bazan, Patsey Moran, Mary McCann, Cann, Cann." Similarly, the singer asks who will use his umbrella and boots, and who will kiss his girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart-Songs)
KEYWORDS: drugs courting separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Heart-Songs, p. 413, "Meerschaum Pipe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #28864
File: HeSo413

Meet Half Way (Miss Liking)

DESCRIPTION: ""Meet half way to your best like-'em/likeness (x3), You're the one my darling." (Or, "Won't you be my partner?") "Right hand round your best like-'em." "Five dollars if you touch her." "Trip her up and down as long as you love her."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Botkin, The American Play-Party Song)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 137-138, "Meet Hal Way with Your Best Likeness" (1 text, 1 tune, with the verses being from "Meet Half Way (Miss Liking)" but the chorus being "Ten Little Indians (John Brown Had a Little Indian)")
Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs, p. 34, "Miss Liking" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #7923
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Brass Wagon" (tune)
File: Spurg137

Meet Half Way with Your Best Likeness

See Meet Half Way (Miss Liking) (File: Spurg137)

Meet Me at the Fair

See Meet Me in Saint Louis (File: R514)

Meet Me by Moonlight

See Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight (File: R746)

Meet Me by the Moonlight

See Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight (File: R746)

Meet Me by the Moonlight Alone

See The Prisoner's Song (I) (File: FSC100)

Meet Me In Galilee

DESCRIPTION: The leader sings a line such as "Tell me Mary." "One morning soon." "Just roll the stone away." "Tell my disciples"; the congregation sings "Ay, Lord." Leader: "If you want to see me"; Congregation: "Meet me in Galilee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (USSeaIsland01)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Bible Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
James Mackey and the Moving Star Hall Singers, "Meet Me In Galilee" (on USSeaIsland01)
NOTES [199 words]: The current description is based on the USSeaIsland01 text.
The USSeaIsland01 track is call-response. Syncopated clapping starts slowly and speeds up -- singing only "If you want to see me Meet me in Galilee" -- into what the liner notes describe as a "shout." The Herskovits Trinidadian Spiritual Baptist account of "Jesus Lover of My Soul" fits this track as well. Although this is not a Sankey hymn, the performance style matches "Sankey into Shout." - BS
The references are to the resurrection scene of Jesus. The earliest account is that in Mark 16, in which two Marys and Salome go to Jesus's tomb, asking each other who will roll the stone away (Mark 16:3). But the stone is already rolled away (16:4). A young man in the tomb, who tells the women (16:7) "Go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee." This is closely paralleled in Matthew 28:1-7; the account in Luke 24 is very different and does not include a summons to Galilee; the account in John 20 also involves Mary Magdalene but has Peter and company brought by her to the tomb. Thus the source of this hymn must be either Matthew or Mark, although I suspect a little influence from John also. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcJMMMiG

Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis

DESCRIPTION: Louis returns from work to find Flossie not at home. Her note says that life is too slow, and tells him to "Meet me in St. Louis, Louis, Meet me at the fair; Don't tell me the lights are shining Any place but there." A despondent Louis prepares to move
AUTHOR: Words: Andrew B. Sterling / Music: Kerry Mills
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love travel separation abandonment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1904 - St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition (World's Fair), for which Kerry Mills wrote this song
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 514, "Meet Me at the Fair" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 255, "Meet Me In St. Louis, Louis" (1 text)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 241-244, "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 191-194, "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1904 sheet music)
Margaret Bradford Boni, editor, _Songs of the Gilded Age_, with piano arrangements by Norman Lloyd and illustrations by Lucille Corcos, Golden Press, 1960, pp. 16-18, "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7597
RECORDINGS:
Billy Murray, "Meet Me In St. Louis, Louis" (Victor 2850, 1904)
NOTES [458 words]: Although the song pronounces the name of the town "St. Louie", no St. Louis resident ever uses that pronunciation, and we look upon it with disdain. - PJS
Andrew B. Sterling is best known for writing the words to this song and "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie"; also "On the Shores of Havana," "Strike Up the Band (Here Comes a Sailor)," "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown (What You Goin' to Do When the Rent Comes 'Round?)," and others.
According to Geller, Sterling and a couple of friends visited a bar run by a man named Louis (Louie), and they called his product Louie as well. When Sterling came in, one of the others said, "Another Louie, Louie," and that inspired the idea. (Boni et al have the minor variant that beers from Saint Louis were called Louis. They agree that the phrase "Another Louie, Louie" inspired this song.)
This is probably the most popular tune by Kerry Mills (whose publishing company F. A. Mills used his actual initials; "Kerry" was a nickname) -- but he had plenty of others, including in this index "Red Wing (I)" and "Whistling Rufus" (although he did not write the texts of any of them). Probably his other biggest hit was "At a Georgia Campmeeting" (1897). This was one of the many "cakewalks" published by Mills, who according to David A. Jasen, Tin Pan Alley: The Composers, the Songs, the Performers and their Times: The Golden Age of American Popular Music from 1886 to 1956, Primus, 1988, p. 18, had been largely responsible for the cakewalk craze with his 1895 coon song/cakewalk "Rastus on Parade." Mills went on to produce rags and other modern music; Jasen, p. 19, says, "Through Kerry Mills, the cakewalk became the first major dance form of Tin Pan Alley, breaking the dominance of the waltz and adding a syncopated kick."
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 267, estimates that this was the eighth most popular song in America in 1904, peaking at #1 in July 1904 (#1 for the year being Edward Maddon and Theodore F. Morse's "Blue Bell"); p. 478 says that it had another vogue in January 1945, when it reached #19, presumably as a result of Judy Garland's recording in the song "Meet Me in St. Louis."
Incidentally, the 1904 World's Fair turned out to have a great deal of cultural influence (and waistline influence). Joe Schwarcz, That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles, ECW press, 2002, pp. 214-218, notes that among the inventions popularized there were the ice cream cone (ice cream was well known, but until then it had been served mostly in dishes), the hot dog bun, peanut butter (originally designed as a protein source for those with poor or no teeth), cotton candy, and Dr. Pepper soda. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: R514

Meet Me in the Bottoms

DESCRIPTION: "Meet me in the bottoms with my boots and shoes, Whoo Lordy mamma, Great God A'mighty...." The singer "got to leave this town now." He notes that he sees both the woman he loves and the woman he hates every day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Davie Lee)
KEYWORDS: love separation clothes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 97-98, (no title) (1 text); p. 274, "Meet Me in the Bottoms" (1 tune, partial text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 520-521, "Meet Me in the Bottoms" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Davie Lee, "Meet Me in the Bottoms" (on NFMAla6)
NOTES [24 words]: Despite the fact that Davie Lee's version appears in the series of recordings, "Negro Folk Music of Alabama," he was recorded in Mississippi. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: CNFM097

Meet Me in the Moonlight (II)

See Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight (File: R746)

Meet Me in the Moonlight (I)

See The Prisoner's Song (I) (File: FSC100)

Meet Me Over There

DESCRIPTION: "A little child was dying, And called her father near, And on his arm reclining, She whispered in his year, 'I'm going home to glory, A golden crown to wear, O meet me... Meet me over there." The sinful father, after she dies, turns to Jesus
AUTHOR: Elisha A. Hoffman (1839-1929) (source: several hymnals listed on hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: death father sin
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 756, "Drunkard's Dream" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [59 words]: Despite the Brown/Schinhan title, there is no indication, in Hoffman's original text, that the father was a drunkard. He is merely described as a sinner and "no Christian."
The other work by Hoffman in the Index is "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms." If this piece of dreck is typical of his work, little wonder he never put anything else into tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5756

Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on his sweetheart to "Meet me tonight in the moonlight." He bids her come alone and hear his sad story. He is being sent to sea, and they must part. He expresses his hope to return in metaphors of a fine ship, angels' wings, etc.
AUTHOR: Joseph A. Wade (died 1875)
EARLIEST DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: separation love
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Randolph 746, "Meet Me Tonight" (3 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune, although the "C" text is probably "The Prisoner's Song (I)")
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 489-491, "Meet Me Tonight" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 746A)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 47-48, "Meet Me in the Moonlight" (1 text, plus a text of "The Prisoner's Song" and extensive background notes and text), culminating on pp. 50-51 with "Prisoner's Song (Tragic Romance)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 350, "The Prisoner's Song" (7 texts plus 1 fragment, 2 excerpts, and mention of 1 more; "A"-"C," plus probably the "D" excerpt, are "The Prisoner's Song (I)"; "E" and "G," plus perhaps the "H" fragment, are "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight"; "J" and "K" are "Sweet Lulur")
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 216-217, "Moonlight" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 494, "Beautiful Light o'er the Sea" (1 text, possibly mixed with something else)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 346-351, "New Jail/Prisoner's Song/Here's Adieu to all Judges and Juries" (1, not collected by Scarborough, of "Judges and Juries," plus 6 texts from her collections: "New Jail," "I'm Going To My New Jail Tomorrow," "New Jail," "Meet Me in the Moonlight," "The Great Ship," "Prisoner's Song"; 3 tunes on pp.449-450; the "A" fragment is probably "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight"; "B" and "D" are "New Jail" types; "C" is too short to classify; "E" is a mix of floating verse, "If I had a great ship on the ocean," "Let her go, let her go and God bless her," "Sometimes I'll live in the white house, sometimes I live in town..."; "F" may well have some Dalhart influence)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 60, "The Old Prisoner's Song" (1 text, 1 tune, the first verse of which probably floated in from "Broken Ties (I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" although the rest is clearly "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight" or part of that family)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 55, "Meet Me by the Moonlight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 64, pp. 87-88, "Meet Me by the Moonlight Alone" (1 short text)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 239-240, "Moonlight, Alone" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 296, "Meet Me by Moonlight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #767
RECORDINGS:
Burnett & Rutherford, "Meet Me in the Moonlight" (Supertone 9443, 1929)
Carter Family, "Meet Me by Moonlight Alone" (Victor 23731, 1928; Bluebird B-5096/Electradisk 2011/Sunrise S-3174, 1933; Montgomery Ward M-7149, 1937)
Bradley Kincaid, "I Wish I Had Someone to Love Me" (Vocalion 02686, 1934)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Prisoner's Song (I)"
cf. "I'm Dying for Someone to Love Me" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Wish I Had Someone to Love Me
NOTES [267 words]: This song later became merged with a version of "Botany Bay/Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries" to produce "The Prisoner's Song (I)." See notes on that piece also, as they often cannot be distinguished. It doesn't help that that song was built out of traditional materials by Vernon Dalhart (or someone), and the Carter Family patched up a version also.
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's "Beautiful Light o'er the Sea" is a curiosity; it doesn't really look like this song -- but two of its three verses go with this song, and the whole theme is very similar. Since I haven't met the "other half" that gave it its title (indeed, it sounds more like a hymn than anything else), it seemed proper to file it here so people will realize that the "half and half" song exists.
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs's version also has an ending not found in the typical version: She promises to be true, and says that heaven will bless him; she proves faithful, but he dies and her life is "blighted." This looks like a graft onto the song; the poetry seems less skillful although not actually defective.
Richard Dress informs us that Joseph Augustine Wade (1796?-1845) wrote the lyrics 'Meet me by moonlight alone, And then I will tell you a tale Must be told by the moonlight alone" around 1826. It seems to have been the only thing he ever did of significance; my sources don't even agree on whether his middle name was "Augustus" or "Augustine."
This latter piece can be found as broadside NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(83b) "Meet Me by Moonlight Alone," Poet's Box (Dundee), n.d. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: R746

Meet, O Lord!

DESCRIPTION: "Meet, O Lord, on the milk-white horse, An' de nineteen wile in his hand. Drop on, drop on the crown on my head, And rolly in my Jesus's arms. In that morning all day (x3), When Jesus the Christ been born." "Moon went into the poplar tree...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 43, "Meet, O Lord!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11998
File: AWG043A

Meeting at the Building

DESCRIPTION: "Meeting at the building Soon be over (with) (x3), Meeting at the building soon be over (with), All over this world." "Preaching at the building...." Continue with shouting, praying, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Leadbelly Songbook)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 354, "Meeting At The Building" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 44, "Meeting at the Building" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11694
SAME TUNE:
Elizabeth Cotten, "Praying Time Will Soon Be Over" (on Cotten03)
File: FSWB354

Meeting Is a Pleasure

See On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)

Meeting of Tara, The

DESCRIPTION: Thousands attend to support O'Connell and Repeal. The counties are represented. Dan appears: 3 cheers for Victoria, 9000 for Repeal. Wellington and Peel would face more men at Tara than at Waterloo. "Come rouse my brave Repealers be obedient to the law"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 19(102))
KEYWORDS: Ireland political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 15, 1843 - Repeal meeting at Tara (source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 50B, "The Meeting of Tara" (1 fragment)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 79-81, "The Meeting of Tara" (1 text)
Roud #40558
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(102), "Meeting of Tara" ("On the 15th day of August in the year of 43"), J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899; also 2806 b.9(269), 2806 c.15(118), "The Meeting of Tara"; 2806 c.15(277), "The Tara Monster Meeting"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(065) , "The Tara Monster Meeting," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c.1843 [? see Notes]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Glorious Repeal Meeting Held at Tara Hill" and references there
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
NOTES [742 words]: The description is from broadside Bodleian Harding B 19(102). A line from the broadside hints that it may date from after October 8 when the Clontarff meeting was abandoned: "Such a grand sight was never seen nor will till times no more."
The commentary for broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(065) states "The meeting at Tara, Co. Meath in the summer of 1843, is now estimated to have been attended by 750,000 people." It is interesting that that version, seemingly a duplicate of Bodleian 2806 c.15(277), is shortened to omit all reference to O'Connell: not only the final five verses but also the lines in the first verse ("On the Royal Hill of Tara, Irish thousands did prevail, In Union's hands to join their hands with Dan, for the Repeal" becomes "On the Royal Hill of Tara, Where thousands did prevail, In union's bonds to join their hands, To sign for the repeal.")
Be skeptical about NLS dating. L.C.Fol.178.A.2(065) has two entries which, when put together, seem the same as Bodleian 2806 c.15(277). "The Irish Girl" half has the printer's information; "The Tara Monster Meeting" half, of course, has no printer information. NLS dates "The Irish Girl" "Probable period of publication: 1860-1890" and "The Tara Monster Meeting" "Probable date published: 1843" - BS
Be skeptical about NLS numbers estimates, too -- 750,000 people was a tenth of the population of Ireland! Kee1, p. 208, mentions this estimate, but notes that it was from The Nation -- which was pro-Irish. Gavin Duffy in 1880 spoke of 500,000 to 750,000 (Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, p. 225). O'Connell's estimate was an even more absurd million and a half. These wildly inflated guesses still command occasional modern support (e.g. Coogan, p. 47, accepts the 750,000 figure). A more realistic estimate is a quarter of a million (Woodham-Smith, p. 11).
Nonetheless it is clear that O'Connell faced more people than Wellington at Waterloo. Wellington (who had been Prime Minister from 1828, and in fact granted Catholic emancipation, if unwillingly; Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, p. 221) at Waterloo had faced only about 72,000 men under Napoleon.
"Repeal" was of course O'Connell's basic political platform; he wanted repeal of the Union between Ireland and Great Britain. For this purpose, he organized some forty mass meetings in 1843 (Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, p. 223).
Sadly, the Monster Meetings accomplished little. As Kee writes on p. 209, "The real question was whether the giant had a giant's strength. The closer O'Connell got to his goal the nearer came the moment when the question of how exactly he hoped to get Repeal if the government continued to stand firm had to be answered. This critical moment was in fact just seven weeks away."
O'Connell published a platform of reforms he sought, then scheduled another Monster Meeting for Clontarf, where Brian Boru had won his great victory -- and close enough to Dublin Castle to seem like a direct threat (Coogan, pp. 47-48).
The day before the meeting was to take place (October 5), the government decided it didn't trust O'Connell's protestations of loyalty. They banned the meeting. O'Connell could surely have held it anyway. But he stood firm to his principle of loyalty, cancelled the meeting -- and saw his movement all but collapse. He had blinked, and from being distrusted by the British, he now saw himself distrusted by the extreme radicals also.
Shortly after this, the government had O'Connell arrested. He was convicted in a farce trial and was sentences to a fairly brief spell of minimum-security detention. But, by the time he was free to move about again, the potato blight had arrived. Repeal was a fine principle, but what Ireland needed was food; the Liberator perforce spent his last years trying to prod a stubbornly non-interventionist government to provide aid.
The "Iron Duke" is of course the Duke of Wellington, victor at Waterloo, and a former Prime Minister; although his official government role was relatively slight by this time, he had an important role as an advisor to Sir Robert Peel's government and was overjoyed at the ending of the Monster Meetings. Sir Robert Peel himself (1788-1850) was Prime Minister for most of this period; some of his legislation, ironically, was pro-Irish, but he was anti-Whig and anti-O'Connell (and later would earn deserved infamy for his lack of response to the potato famine). Basically he believed in small government -- in all the bad senses. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Zimm050B

Meeting of the Waters, The

DESCRIPTION: "There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet As the vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet" The magic of the spot "'twas that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near"
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2174))
KEYWORDS: lyric nonballad friend river
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, pp. 16-17, "The meeting of the waters" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 54, "The Meeting of the Waters" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 80, "The Meeting of the Waters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1415, p. 96, "The Meeting of the Waters" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 36, "The Meeting of the Waters" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Sullivan, ed., Ireland in Poetry, p. 15, "The Meeting of the Waters" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), p. 269, "The Meeting of the Waters" (1 text)
ST OCon054B (Partial)
Roud #30116
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Bulger, "Meeting of the Waters" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2174), "Meeting of the Waters", G Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Harding B 11(584), Johnson Ballads fol. 18 View 2 of 2, Harding B 45(23) View 3 of 3, Harding B 11(4323), Harding B 11(4189), Harding B 15(195a), Harding B 17(193a), "[The] Meeting of the Waters"
SAME TUNE:
The Head of Old Dennis (broadside Bodleian Harding B 17(193a))
NOTES [24 words]: This is among the most popular of Moore's poems; Granger's Index to Poetry cites four anthologies -- and none of them the usual suspects. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OCon054B

Meeting, A

See Friendly Road (A Meeting; He Came from Maoriland) (File: BaRo126)

Meg Steg

DESCRIPTION: Meg Steg had Bill John's baby; Bill and Jamie Jess "Bor't a hole in Meg's arse." Jock "kissed the cow ahint the tail"; the cow shit; crazy Jock licked the butter. Dirty arse went out to shear gorse and came home with the sickle in his arse.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: sex childbirth nonballad scatological
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 168, "Meg Steg" (1 text)
Roud #15096
File: LyCr2168

Melancholy Accident, A -- The Death of M. Hodge

DESCRIPTION: "Far distant friends will drop a tear When of this accident they hear." A group of girls visits Betsy Green's school. With bad weather coming, parents gather six girls -- but the horses fall on a slope; Mira is killed instantly; Eliza succumbs weeks later
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: death horse injury disaster wreck
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 126, "A Melancholy Accident -- The Death of M. Hodge" (1 text)
ST GC126 (Partial)
Roud #3701
NOTES [23 words]: This looks very historical, but it's not really specific enough (or clear enough; it's poor poetry) to allow much hope of dating it. - RBW
File: GC126

Melancholy Cow-boy, The

See Old Time Cowboy (Melancholy Cowboy) (File: TF19)

Melancholy Loss of the Amphitrite, The

See The Loss of the Amphitrite [Laws K4] (File: LK04)

Melancholy News of the Convict Ship George the Third

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell, dear friends and comrades all"; the singer, who is being transported, wishes those he leaves behind well. They strike a rock near the mouth of the Derwent in Tasmania. The guards keep them on the ship. 134 are killed in the wreck
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1835 (Hobart Town Courier, according to Ingleton; Anderson dates the broadsides c. 1835)
KEYWORDS: transportation wreck disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 12, 1835 - Wreck of the _George III_ with the loss of 134 of 294 aboard (source: Wikipedia)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 155-156, "Melancholy News of the Convict Ship George the Third" (1 text)
Geoffrey C. Ingleton, _True Patriots All: or News from Early Australia as told in A Collection of Broadsides_ ("Garnered and Decorated" by Ingleton), Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1988, pp. 156-157, "(no title)" (1 text, listed as a "lines," on a broadside that is primarily an announcement of the "Melancholy News of the COnvict Ship, GEORGE THE THIRD, a Total Wreck, with the Loss of 133 Souls")
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 122-123, "Melancholy News of the Convict Ship George the Third" (1 text, with a tune on p. 554)
Roud #V46385
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Amphitrite" [Laws K4] (similar shipwreck)
File: AnFa155

Mele No Ka Hula Ala'a-Papa (Song for the Hula Ala'a-Papa)

DESCRIPTION: Hawaaian: "A Koolau wau, ike i ka ua." The singer encounters rain in Koolau. It accompanies dust storms and produces mud. The song is full of strange analogies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Emerson, "The Hula," Unwritten Literature of Hawaii, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 687, "Mele No Ka Hula Ala'a-Papa (Song for the Hula Ala'a-Papa)" (1 Hawaiian text plus English translation)
File: CAFS687P

Melindy's Nose

See What a Nose (Melindy's Nose) (File: BCWVI006)

Melody of Rain, The

See Rain on the Roof (File: Shoe118)

Melven Vine

DESCRIPTION: "The melven vine grows around the tree" (x2). "Go write her name and send it to me." "Morris Jones his name shall be." "So rise you up and she will sit down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 66-67=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, p. 143, "Melven Vine" (1 text)
Roud #7889
NOTES [24 words]: Roud appears to lump this with the much more common "Sleeping Beauty (Thorn Rose, Briar Rose)." This is possible, but I'd want more evidence. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Wolf066

Memories of You

DESCRIPTION: "Why can't I forget like I should? Heaven knows I would if I could." The singer cannot forget, and whines about how everything -- sunrise, sunset, places they have been -- bring back "memories of you" and leave "a rosary of tears"
AUTHOR: Words: Andy Razaf / Music: Eubie Blake (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (date of composition, according to Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Brian Hawkins, "Memories of You" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #709, recorded 10/11/2023)
NOTES [56 words]: Although apparently written in 1930, this seems to have been popularized by a 1955 recording by Benny Goodman and Rosemary Clooney. It patently is not folk in origin, and I doubt it has been adopted by the folk, other than one person who couldn't even stay on pitch while singing it. For more information, try the Wikipedia article. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcMemYo

Memory of the Dead, The

DESCRIPTION: "Who fears to speak of Ninety-Eight? Who blushes at the name?" The listeners are urged to recall the soldiers of the Irish rebellion, and to cherish their values
AUTHOR: Words: Joseph Kells Ingram (1823-1907)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "According to _The Nation_, 12 April, 1843, 'The Memory of the Dead' was first sung in a 'Symposium' held on St. Patrick's Day")
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion memorial
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - the 1798 Rebellion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 48-49, "The Memory of the Dead" (1 text)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 51, "The Memory of the Dead" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 136, "The Memory of the Dead" (1 text, 1 tune)
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 39-40, "The Memory of the Dead" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 64, "The Memory of the Dead" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1418, p. 96, "Memory of the Dead. 'Who Fears to Speak of Ninety-Eight?'" (1 reference)
DT, MEMRYDED*
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 276-277, "The Memory of the Dead"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 505-506, "The Memory of the Dead (1798)" (1 text)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 63-64, 501, "The Memory of the Dead"
Charles Sullivan, ed., Ireland in Poetry, p. 90, "The Memory of the Dead" (1 text)
Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, _The Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1958, 1979), pp. 80-82, "The Memory of the Dead" (1 text)
Roud #V5143
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Orange Yeomanry of '98" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Easter Week (The Song of 1916) (Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 263-264)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Who Fears to Speak of Ninety-Eight?
NOTES [111 words]: According to Robert Kee in The Most Distressful Country (being Volume I of The Green Flag), p. 203, this poem served to rehabilitate Ireland's memory of the 1798 rebellion, which at the time it was published "had been under a polite historical cloud for nearly half a century."
In an irony pointed out by the semi-parody "The Orange Yeomanry of '98," it was initially published anonymously.
In another irony, Ruth Dudley Edwards, The Seven: The Lives and Legacies of the Founding Fathers of the Irish Republic, Oneworld Books, 2016, p. 41 note, says that author Ingram was not an Irish nationalist because he thought Ireland incapable of governing itself. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: PGa039

Memphis Flu

DESCRIPTION: In 1929 people in Memphis are dying from influenza. Doctors say they will control the flu soon, but God shows his power by making them sick too. Influenza, "puts a pain in every bone/a few days you are gone/to a place in the ground called the grave."
AUTHOR: Words: Elder David Curry/Music: Benjamin Hanby
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Elder Curry & congregation)
LONG DESCRIPTION: In 1929 people in Memphis are dying from influenza. Doctors say they will have the flu under control in a few days, but God shows his power by sending the doctors and nurses to sickbeds too. Influenza, "puts a pain in every bone/a few days you are gone/to a place in the ground called the grave." Ch.: "It was God's mighty hand/He is judging this old land...Yes, He killed the rich and poor/And he's going to kill more/If you don't turn away from your shame"
KEYWORDS: disease death religious doctor gods
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1918 - Influenza pandemic kills tens of millions worldwide.
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Elder Curry & Congregation, "Memphis Flu" (OKeh 8857, 1931; rec. 1930; on Babylon)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Darling Nelly Gray" (tune)
NOTES [42 words]: The 1918 pandemic was the most devastating in [recent] history; smaller outbreaks occurred in later years. Curry may be conflating one of these with the 1918 disease, the symptoms of which were closer to his description than those of "normal" flu. - PJS
File: RcMemFlu

Men Are Like Ships

DESCRIPTION: "Men are like ships upon the main, Exposed to every gale, Each passion is a fatal blast That tears away a sail." "Each pleasure is a latent rock And life a stormy sea." "Yet oft... our pilot sleeps Or leaves his place to pride... the vessel drives ashore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1832 (Journal of the Condor)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 359, "Men Are Like Ships" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27508
File: HGam359

Men Awaiting Trial for the Murders in Phoenix Park, The

DESCRIPTION: The men will be tried for murder on the evidence of the double-dyed informer Carey. He duped them and "pointed out the victims, the men that were to be stabbed"; "let us hope further fair play won't be denied." Carey should be given justice
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: betrayal homicide trial nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
The Phoenix Park murders (source: primarily Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, pp. 62, 63, 281-286.)
May 6, 1882 - Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and the Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke are murdered by a group calling themselves "The Invincible Society."
January 1883 - twenty seven men are arrested.
James Carey, one of the leaders in the murders, turns Queen's evidence.
Six men are condemned to death, four are executed (Joseph Brady is hanged May 14, 1883; Daniel Curley is hanged on May 18, 1883), others are "sentenced to penal servitude," and Carey is freed and goes to South Africa.
July 29, 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell kills Carey on board the "Melrose Castle" sailing from Cape Town to Durban.
Dec 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell is convicted of the murder of James Carey and executed in London (per Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, p. 63, "A New Song on the Men Awaiting Trial for the Murders in Phoenix Park" (1 fragment)
Roud #V8797
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(427), "A New Song on The Men Awaiting Trial for the Murders in the Phoenix Park ("In the dark dismal dungeons and the cold prison cell ," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Phoenix Park Tragedy" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders) and references there
NOTES [68 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 62: "The Phoenix Park murders and their judicial sequels struck the popular imagination and were a gold-mine for ballad-writers: some thirty songs were issued on this subject, which was the last great cause to be so extensively commented upon in broadside ballads."
Zimmermann p. 63 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(427) is the basis for the description. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BrdMATMP

Men may leve all gamys

See Pilgrim's Sea-Voyage and Sea-Sickness, The (Pilgrim's Song; Pilgrims to St. James) (File: MSPSVASS)

Men of County Clare, The

DESCRIPTION: Toast "The men of County Clare!" Brian Boru's call to defeat of the Danes, and de Valera's call "to strike for native land" were answered by "the mighty men of Clare". Toast "'Our land a nation free again From Cork to Antrim's shore!'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: battle Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 48, "The Men of County Clare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5237
NOTES [111 words]: At the Battle of Clontarf, 1014, Brian Boru defeated a combined force of Vikings and rebels from Leinster, but died in the battle.
The song mentions Eamon de Valera. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 6, 1921 established the Irish Free State. The Civil War that followed was between the pro-treaty and anti-treaty factions. De Valera led the ant-treaty faction. (source: Irish Civil War at the Wikipedia site).- BS
For more on Brian Boru, see the notes to "Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave." For de Valera, the Free State, and the Civil War, see e.g. the notes to "The Irish Free State" and "General Michael Collins"; also "The Boys from County Cork." - RBW
File: RcMoCoCl

Men of Harlech

DESCRIPTION: Welsh, with various translations, the most typical beginning "Men of Harlech in the hollow, do you hear like rushing billow Wave on wave that surging fellow battle's distant sound. 'Tis the tramp of Saxon foemen," so fight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (Jones, "Musical and Poetic Relicks of the Welsh Bards," according to Fuld)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 363, "Men of Harlech"
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, pp. 21-23, "March of the Men of Harlech" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HARLCH*
Roud #24790
SAME TUNE:
Woad (File: Hopk024)
John, Get Up and Light the Fire (File: PKKB058B)
NOTES [703 words]: Very well known as a tune, with multiple translations (and often used as a platform for parodies). The words I've personally heard most often begin "See the glares of fires like hell there, Tongues of flame that writhe and swell there...." Fuld reports that the standard Welsh words, which are more recent than the tune, are by John Ceiriog Hughes.
The original Harlech Castle was built by the English King Edward I in the 1280s, one of his five great castles in newly-conquered Snowdonia (Powicke, p. 430), so its purpose was to hold down the Welsh. Prior to that, Harlech hadn't even been a town, really (Powicke, p. 433); it was just a place with access to the sea -- which was to Edward's advantage, since he could supply the new castle remotely (Wagner, p. 107). The castles of Wales seem to have been designed by James of St. George, believed to have been from Savoy (Powicke, p. 431); that at Harlech had "a square inner ward featur[ing] round corner towers, and a massive twin-towered gatehouse in the centre of one wall. This was developed on the courtyard side into what looks more like a mansion than a fortification" (Prestwich, p. 210; there is a sketch of the plan on p. 213).
According to Davies, p. 169, the cost of the five castles built at this time (Carnaerfon, Conway, Cricieth, Harlech, and Beaumaris slightly later) was about 60,000 pounds, so the cost for Harlech would have been between 10,000 and 15,000 pounds -- which, to put it in perspective, was more than the annual income of even the richest earls. Harlech was not a cheap building!
Although an English fortification, it did not always stay in their hands; the Welsh under Owain Glyndŵr made it theirs in 1404 (Given-Wilson, p. 240; Davies, p. 200) and held it for five years (Given-Wilson, p. 319; many of Glyndŵr's relatives, including his wife and three of his children, were captured when it was retaken; Davis, p. 202, implies that its capture was the final major act in suppressing Glyndŵr's revolt), so it became a symbol for the Welsh as well.
In the Wars of the Roses, Harlech Castle held out for the House of Lancaster from 1461 to 1468, making it the last Lancastrian stronghold prior to Warwick's (first) rebellion of 1469. It was held by a Welshman, David ap Eynon, although many of those with him were English Lancastrians (Evans, p. 84).
Although the Lancastrians held the castle for seven years, and raided from there into the countryside, it is not really true to say that the castle was under siege for the entire time. Jasper Tudor, the Lancastrian Earl of Pembroke, had garrisoned it after the Battle of Towton in 1461 (the battle that finally won England for the Yorkists). Sir William Herbert then defeated Pembroke at Twt Hill/Tuthill, and took over most of Wales (Wagner, pp. 278-279). And, because Herbert was chasing Jasper Tudor, he couldn't spare much attention for Harlech, allowing it to hold out. Tthe new King Edward IV doesn't seem to have been worried about it; remote as it was, Harlech was a symbol of Lancastrianism, but not a real threat. It was not until 1464 that Herbert tried -- and failed -- to take Harlech. In 1468, Jasper Tudor came back to Harlech and raised a Lancastrian revolt. Herbert had to fight him off, and after that was done, he returned to besiege Harlech. He didn't manage to take it by assault, but he did talk the garrison into surrendering. David ap Eynon was pardoned; many of the others suffered; Herbert was given the earldom of Pembroke that was taken from Jasper Tudor (Wagner, p. 108).
The last big event in Harlech's history came almost two hundred years later, when Charles I was in the process of being overthrown: "The First Civil War came to an end when Harlech Castle yielded to the Parliamentary forces in March 1647" (Davies, p. 280).
It is sometimes claimed this song goes back to that siege of Harlech in the 1460s. I don't really buy that; the Welsh would fight for Henry Tudor, who was part-Welsh, in 1485, but that doesn't mean they were Lancastrians. If anything, most would be Yorkists, because the first Lancastrian king, Henry IV, had overthrown Richard II, whom the Welsh tended to like, and Henry IV had also been the king who suppressed Glyndŵr. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: CSMenHar

Men of Merry England, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh the men of merry, merry England, Search ye the wild world round, And take ye the best From the East to the West, Where are such to be found?" The name is "a passport to al that is free." The singer raises a glass to the people of England
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: patriotic nonballad drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 131, "The Merry Men of England" (1 text)
Roud #13658
NOTES [24 words]: This song makes me wish we had a keyword along the lines of "willfully blind." Or at least "drawing conclusions with absolutely no evidence." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: HenV131

Men of the West, The

DESCRIPTION: "Forget not the boys of the heather Who rallied their bravest and best When Ireland was broken in Wexford And looked for revenge to the West." The brief success and final failure of the western rising are recounted.
AUTHOR: William Rooney
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (IRClancyMakem03)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Ireland death derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion
Aug 22, 1798 - 1100 French troops under General Humbert land at Killala Bay in County Mayo. He would surrender on Sept. 8, and by May 23 the Mayo rising had been suppressed with some brutality
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 30-31, "The Men of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 114, "The Men of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MENWEST*
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Men of the West" (on IRClancyMakem03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (tune) and references there
cf. "Eoghan Coir" (tune according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815, which tune we generally index as "Rosin the Beau")
cf. "Rouse, Hibernians" (subject)
cf. "The West's Asleep" (subject)
cf. "The Frenchmen" (subject)
NOTES [462 words]: The 1798 rising had already been crushed (see the notes on ""The Shan Van Vogt" and "Boulavogue") when French general Humbert landed, largely on his own initiative, in County Mayo (August 1798). A few local peasants rose, and the local British forces were defeated at the "Races of Castlebar."
Castlebar was one of the most ignominious defeats in history: The Loyalists were on the defensive, in prepared trenches; their forces are thought to have been larger, and they had the overwhelming edge in artillery. But their Irish militiamen fled, and the handful of steadier forces could not hold in those circumstances.
Humbert, however, had only three ships, all frigates -- not enough men to do anything of significance. There was supposed to be another French force, under Hardy -- but it was delayed while its commander tried to pry the money needed to pay the troops out of the French government.
Nor was the country particularly receptive when Humbert landed. Connaught had not rebelled at the height of the 1798 rising; a few French troops could not inspire a real rebellion. Worse still, the recruits he did get were Catholics, with few weapons, poor training, and no contact with the United Irish movement.
Humbert hardly helped his cause by an explosive temper. Nor did he help his cause by having no money; he issued drafts on the "Republic of Connaught," but in a country that had no banks, few even understood the cheques they were given in lieu of payment for what was requisitioned.
It's probably no surprise that Humbert soon had to surrender. He chased around the west of Ireland, and tried to open a way to Dublin, but eventually was trapped between forces led by Cornwallis and Lake; with no reliable troops except his French veterans, he had no choice but to yield to superior force on September 8, 1798. That was the effective end of Humbert's career; indeed, most references I checked don't even list his death date.
(If it matters, Robert Kee's The Most Distressful Country, being Volume I of The Green Flag, gives a brief account of his later career on page 140: He fell out with Napoleon and went to the United States, participating in the Battle of New Orleans. He participated in Mexico's 1815 rebellion against Spain, then went back to the U.S. where he died in 1823.)
There would be two more French naval expeditions in 1798; for the second, a single ship carrying Napper Tandy, see the notes to "The Wearing of the Green." The third and largest expedition, with Wolfe Tone aboard, is described under "The Shan Van Vogt." - RBW
"Eoghan Coir" [the listed tune for this piece in some Irish sources] is a poem by Riocard Bairead (1740-1819) (source: "Riocard Bairead" in the Ar gCeantar and Beyond project at the Inver National School site). - BS
File: PGa030

Men's Clothes I Will Put On (I)

See William and Nancy I (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I) [Laws N8] (File: LN08)

Men's Clothes I Will Put On (II)

See The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II) [Laws N9] (File: LN09)

Men's Clothes I Will Put On (III)

See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Menschikoff

See Our Brave Scotch Lads (File: GrD1157)

Merchant and the Beggar Wench, The

See The Beggar Wench (File: K338)

Merchant Shipping Act, The

DESCRIPTION: ""Come all you fo'c'sle lawyers that always take delight By brooding o'er your troubles to set all matters right." The singer complains about the Merchant Shipping Act. Sailors must endure the bad food, the work, the bad officers, because of the Act
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (The Mariner's Mirror), with the chorus found in 1876 (Two Years Abaft the Mast)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1894 - Merchant Shipping Act combines various earlier shipping regulations and adds more.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 140, "The Merchant Shipping Act" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: F. W. H. Symondson, _Two Years Abaft the Mast: Or, Life as a Sea Apprentice_ (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1876, available on Google Books), p. 150, "The Merchant Shipping Act" (chorus only)
(no author listed), _The Mariner’s Mirror_, Vol. 6, No. 1 (London and Birmingham: J. G. Hammond, January, 1920; available on Google Books), p. 31, "The Merchant Shipping Act/The Lime Juice Ship" (3 verses and 2 versions of the chorus under the heading "Queries")
Roud #17763
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "According to the Act" (subject of crew's rights under shipping regulations)
File: PaSe140

Merchant's Daughter (I), The

See The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)

Merchant's Daughter (II), The

See The Slighted Suitor (File: HHH159)

Merchant's Daughter (III), The

See William and Harriet [Laws M7] (File: LM07)

Merchant's Daughter and Her Sailor

See Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser) [Laws N6] (File: LN06)

Merchant's Daughter and the Highwayman, The

See The Highwayman Outwitted [Laws L2] (File: LL02)

Merchant's Daughter of Bristol, The

DESCRIPTION: A merchant's daughter loves a "gallant youth." Her parents ship him overseas. She takes ship to follow him to Padua. The parents follow her. She finds him condemned to die for religion. She prepares to die with him, but the authorities relent
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1725 (A Collection of Old Ballads); what is probably this piece was registered in 1595
KEYWORDS: love sailor father mother brother sister ship cross-dressing reunion death execution religious reprieve
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume III, pp. 374-384, 'Maudline" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 216-224, "The Merchant's Daughter of Bristow" (1 text)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #67 insert, "The Bristol Garland; or the Merchant's Daughter of Bristol" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 483
ST BeCo216 (Partial)
Roud #892
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fair Maudlin
NOTES [107 words]: Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), pp. 148-149, lists the following Stationer's Register entries for what is presumably this ballad:
#1707, "the first parte of the merchauntes daughter of Bristoll," Thomas Creede, registered February 24, 1595
# 1709, The merchants daughter of Bristoll," printer not listed, registered March 1, 1675.
There is also
#1708, "the second parte of the mercchantes Daughter of Bristowe," Thomas Creede, registered March 17, 1595. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: BeCo216

Merchant's Daughter of Bristow, The

See The Merchant's Daughter of Bristol (File: BeCo216)

Merchant's Daughter Turned Sailor, The

See The Silk Merchant's Daughter [Laws N10] (File: LN10)

Merchant's Daughter, The

See The Constant Farmer's Son [Laws M33] (File: LM33)

Merchant's Only Son, The [Laws M21]

DESCRIPTION: A young man's parents send him to America to keep him from marrying a poor girl. He reaches land despite his ship's wreck. He meets a rich girl who offers marriage, but he remains true to the girl at home. The rich girl gives him money to return to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.11(224))
KEYWORDS: transportation exile courting poverty ship wreck escape return
FOUND IN: US(MW) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws M21, "The Merchant's Only Son"
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 48-49, "The North Star" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 74, "The Merchant's Only Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 764, MERCHSON
Roud #1019
RECORDINGS:
Martin Howley, "The North Star" (on IRClare01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(224), "The Belfast Lovers" ("You lovers all attention pay, the truth I will pen down"), T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899; also Johnson Ballads 1895, "The Belfast Lovers"; 2806 c.8(156), "The Limerick Lovers"; 2806 b.9(65), "The Lovers of Derry"
NOTES [31 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: Tune is "Thomas Murphy" on p. 98.
Ranson's version makes the lost ship the North Star, an historical wreck on the Welsh coast (see "The North Star") - BS
File: LM21

Merchant's Son and the Beggar Wench, The

See The Beggar Wench (File: K338)

Merchant's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "You are put under... by the merchants and the government right here in Newfoundland." The season is over. Fishermen go on the dole in winter. Merchants sell cheap necessities at high prices. Government won't help but say "go home and sell your cattle"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: greed poverty clothes commerce fishing hardtimes nonballad canal commerce factory farming
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #26131
RECORDINGS:
Leo Martin, "The Merchant's Song" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rigs of the Times" (subject: Newfoundland's truck system)
cf. "Squarin' Up Time" (subject: Newfoundland's truck system)
cf. "The Merchants of Fogo" (subject: Newfoundland's truck system)
cf. "The Merchants" (subject: Newfoundland's truck system)
NOTES [502 words]: Newfoundland, because it was so capital-poor, had few proper banks and little ability to invest. As a result, fishermen and others had to operate on the "truck system," where merchants advanced merchandise to fishers and farmers in return for their produce, which the merchants bought at whatever rate the merchants set (Major, p. 186).
O'Flaherty, pp. 4-5, describes it this way:
"The wage system that emerged in the Newfoundland fishery was also curiously tilted one way. In this system the merchants provided credit that enabled the fisherman to obtain the gear he needed and supplies for his family from that merchant's store; the fisherman then brought him his fish, thereby repaying what was owed. The 'settling up' time, when the fisherman's earnings from fish and the debt he owed the merchant were adjusted, was the fall, normally toward the end of October. A balance toward the fisherman might be settled in goods -- again at merchant-controlled prices from his store -- a combination of goods and cash, or (certainly by 1858) just cash. In some cases the fisherman might use the merchant as a banker, and simply leave any balances accruing in his hands. A balance in favour of the merchant, too often the case, would be added to the fisherman's debt, which of course increased when he was supplied anew. (If he was supplied anew. Withholding supplies could be as productive of distress as a poor fishery.)
"This 'truck' or credit system -- the terms came to be used synonymously in Newfoundland -- had some benefits to the fisherman as well as the merchant. Obviously, the availability of credit meant that the fisherman didn't have to draw on his own savings, supposing he had any, to get his voyage underway. The system also forced the merchant, to some degree, to share the risks of catching the often elusive cod.... The fact that this credit/wage method operated, though in a reduced and altered form, into the 1950s and that efforts to end it, in particular the assault on it in the early 20th century by W. F. Croaker [for whom see 'Croaker's Dream']... were resisted not just by the merchants but by the fishermen themselves, may indicate that it was less of an enslavement than many have claimed. [Or it might indicate that most Newfoundlanders flat-out hated anything that smacked of progress!].... Yet the credit system as it operated in Newfoundland offered the merchant ample room for the exercise of arbitrary power, and it would be disingenuous to suggest that such power was not often abused."
Like most such systems, those who had to live under it resented it. (Compare the complaints in "The Farmer Is the Man." It's the same problem.) In fact the merchants seem to have been only moderately rapacious. But it was hard for the fishermen to see that, given that they lived their entire lives in alternating between poverty (in years when the fishing was good) and possible starvation (when it was not).
For more examples of the effects of the truck system, see the cross-references - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: ML3TMeSo

Merchants of Fogo, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye toil-warn fishermen ... lend an ear; Beware of those cursed merchants, in their dealings they're not fair; For fish they'll give half value." All local merchants are thieves except the Hodge brothers; "they've showed justice to each man"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: greed accusation commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 149, "The Merchants of Fogo" (1 text)
Roud #17749
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Merchant's Song" (subject: Newfoundland's truck system) and references there
NOTES [490 words]: Fogo, on Fogo Island, is up the East Coast about 170 miles north of Saint John's. Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland states "This song with its coarse slander and gossip was made up in praise of the Hodge Brothers [by] ... a man ... hoping to curry favor." Mr Hodge, however, was not impressed. - BS
That this is about real merchants seems likely; the Earles were a well-known merchant family, and they worked in Fogo: "Another long-lived Fogo merchant establishment, and the one most familiar to older residents today, was run by the Earle family" (Clarke, p. 153). DictNewfLabrador does not mention a Pat Earle, but we have a likely relative:
EARLE, HENRY J. (1841-1934). b. St. John's 25 Dec.; established business on own account 1870; M[ember] H[ouse of] A[ssembly] 1900-1913; d. Glovertown 26 Dec... Earle went to Twillingate in 1864 as a clerk for Slade and Co. When that firm was dissolved Earle and a partner took over the business. After this partnership ended Earle continued to operate a general fishery supply business based in Fogo. He was elected MHA for Fogo four times as a liberal. (DictNewfLabrador, p. 95). Based on Clarke, pp. 153-154, Henry John Earle was the patriarch of the Earle family, going into partnership with John W. Owen in 1869 and taking sole ownership of the Fogo business in 1893. There is a photo of him on p. 153 of Clarke.
In 1912 the company became "Earle, Sons & Company"; in 1917, "Earle Sons & Company Ltd," run by Henry's son Harold. The various Earle operations, which came to include a canning plant as well as stores and which were eventually run by Brian Earle, shut down in 1967/1968 (Clarke, p. 154).
Clarke also gives us a hint about 'Thomas Hodge and John Hodge." On p. 152, Clarke says, "From the 1870s on, the Watermans were partnered with Thomas and Richard Hodge, Thomas having been William Waterman and Company's Fogo agent.... As of 1871 Thomas had set up premises on Wigwam Point.... Later, another member of the family, John Wheadon Hodge, the company's agent at Tilting, bought out the company's assets on both Fogo and Change Islands. John W. Hodge ran the enterprise until 1918 when, on the death of his two Sons (sic.), he retired to Toronto."
Pickett, pp. 128-129, says that "In the 1860s the Slade interests in Fogo were sold to John W. Owen [eventually to be taken over by the Earles] and a second major merchant establishment was started by Thomas W. Hodge (these two firms were the major merchant establishments in Fogo well into the Twentieth Century, known afer ownership changes, as Henry Earle and Sons and the Newfoundland-Labrador Export Company."
A good look through the Earle Company records would probably either find a Pat Earle or tell us who is really meant (since the name might have been distorted or deliberately hidden). This hints that the other characters in the song could also be identified, if one could check the Fogo records. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: GrMa149

Merchants of the Bay

DESCRIPTION: The merchants of the village of St Peter's Bay are named and characterized: good and bad. "Oh those were spirit stirring times, some twenty years ago" Times have changed for the worse; some remaining moderns are named.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 23-24, "Merchants of the Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12478
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Twenty Years Ago (Forty Years Ago)" (tune)
NOTES [11 words]: St Peter's is on the north coast of Kings, Prince Edward Island - BS
File: Dib023

Merchants, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's all about the cruel rogues of merchants No pity or love do they show." They live a life of ease and luxury and sell poor goods and show no charity. But death found rich and poor on Florizel and Titanic and will find the merchants too.
AUTHOR: Paddy Dover
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 4th edition)
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness poverty commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 78, "The Merchants" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Merchants" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 51-52 in the 4th edition
Roud #26131
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Merchant's Song" (subject: Newfoundland's truck system) and references there
NOTES [315 words]: Florizel and Titanic, of course, are famous Newfoundland wrecks with songs of their own. - BS
It's a sad irony to note that, on the Titanic at least, losses were heavier among the third class passengers (who were down below) than the rich in first class.
The bitterness in this song is not at all surprising. Newfoundland was a very poor place, with much of the population isolated and ill-educated and unable to really express its desires politically -- in an island where the population was scattered in "outports" with no connection but by sea, and where every town was too small to have local politics or taxes (in 1901, there were only 18 towns with a population of even 1000 people; Noel, p. 18 n. 1), it was almost impossible to form a political movement anywhere in St. John's.
The effect of this was to put control of almost everything in the (relatively) well-off hands of the St. John's merchants. J. D. Rogers concluded that "the merchant 'acted as banker, mint, and clearing-house, besides acting as money-lender, export-agent, and import-agent" (Noel, p. 8). In other words, the people had to sell their fish and crops to the merchants at the merchants' price, and they had to buy everything else at the merchants' price.
The result that the merchants of St. John's (often referred to as "Water Street," after the road on which many of them were located) had disproportionate influence -- and were perceived as having even more than they did. In the early years of the twentieth century, political, economic, and even physical conflicts between "Water Street" and the ordinary people were common; see e.g. Cadigan, pp. 1, 170-171 (there are several other passages in the book affirming this same point).
For background on the Florizel, see "The Wreck of the Steamship Florizel." For the Titanic, see "The Titanic (XV) ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15)." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe078

Merci God and graunt Merci

See Now Mercy, Lord, and Gramercy (As I Wanderede Her Bi Weste) (File: MsNMLaG)

Mercy, O Thou Son of David

See references under This Old World (File: DarN259B)

Merie Sungen the Muneches Bennen Ely (Merry Sang the Monks of Ely)

DESCRIPTION: "Merie sungen the munches binnen Ely, Tha Cnut ching reu therby; Roweth, cni(c)tes, noer the land, And here we thes moneches saeng." "Merry sang the monks of Ely, When King Cnut rowed there by, Row, knights, near the land, And hear we the monks sing."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1300 (Trinity College/Cambridge MS 1105)
KEYWORDS: royalty clergy river nonballad MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics 1, "Myrie songen the monkes binne Ely)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #2164
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3487
ADDITIONAL: Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #264, p. 549, "(no title)" (1 text)
John Edwin Wells, _A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1400_, 1916 (references are to the 1930 fifth printing with three supplements), p. 490, "The Canute Song" (1 text)
John Julian, editor, _A Dictionary of Hymnology_, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 208 (an oddly modernized version)
E. K. Chambers, _English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages_, Oxford, 1945, 1947, p. 73, "(Merie sungen the muneches binnen Ely)" (1 text); p. 177 (the same text, but this time with its Latin context in the Liber Eliensis)
J. R. R. Tolkien, "The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son," published in _Essays and Studies for 1953_; I use the version published in _The Tolkien Reader_, Ballantine, 1966, p. 5, "(no title)" (1 text, with presumably the original orthography)
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Laud misc. 647 (Bodleian 1595), folio 45
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, Trinity College MS O.2.1 (1105), folio 73 (Brown/Robbins say 87b)
MANUSCRIPT: Ely, Ely Cathedral MS
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Judas" [Child 23] (subject: The Earliest English Ballad) and references there
NOTES [2612 words]: Gummere, according to Chambers, p. 177, offered the hypothesis that there were ballads before the transcription of "Judas" [Child 23], usually held to be the earliest ballad. This single-verse fragment was the only supporting evidence for the hypothesis. Greene, Early English Carols, accepted this hypothesis to the extent of including this fragment among the carols, and Julian, p. 208, also calls it a carol, and actually attributes it to King Canute (and gives a very different version of the text). A Scandinavian scholar by the name of Just Bing joked about those who thought it "the oldest Nordic vise, in characteristic couplet form with four stresses to each verse" (Nygard, p. 47). On that basis, I include the piece. But a great many cautions are required.
For one thing, Lawson, p. 141 seems to thinks (I say "seems" because Lawson is an incredibly incomprehensible writer) that the monks of Ely wrote about this to commemorate a visit by Cnut -- and used it to bolster their claim that he gave them a charter of liberties. But no such charter has survived.
There are also questions about the source. The document containing the text is the so-called Liber Eliensis, the most important copy of which is Cambridge, Trinity College MS. O.2.1 (or MS. 1105), folio 87b. (The Liber is also found in Bodleian MS. Laud misc. 647 and in a copy at Ely. In all three cases, it is the only piece of Middle English poetry in the volume.) James, volume III, p. 79, describes the vellum manuscript at Cambridge as "Cent. xii late, in a beautiful hand." That is, based on the handwriting, it appears to have been written between 1150 and 1200. On the basis of the manuscript, Stevick (e.g.) dates "Merry Sang...." to c. 1150.
But while James was a most excellent paleographer and cataloger (and I mean that very strongly -- he catalogued all the early books in the Cambridge libraries and several other places, and his catalogs are still in use today. Interestingly, he was also a successful author of ghost stories and a fantasy novel, The Five Jars), paleography is an imprecise art. MS. O.2.1 is written mostly in Latin (the English poem is an insertion into a Latin text). Latin writing styles changed dramatically between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries -- but only very slightly between the twelfth and thirteenth. A thirteenth century hand would typically be somewhat narrower than a twelfth, and the symbols for abbreviation, if used, were typically less artistic (Thompson, pp. 436-455, esp. p. 450). But the changes were small enough that possibility must always be admitted that a manuscript which appears to date from the twelfth century may in fact be from the thirteenth.
Indeed, when I looked at the photographs of the manuscriptI thought the text was thirteenth century, not twelfth. I am not the paleographer that James was, and I didn't study it as much; I only say this to make it clear that paleographic dating is a chancy thing. If you want to see for yourself, photographs of the manuscript are now available on the Cambridge library site at https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.2.1, checked July 4, 2023. Go to folio 073v. It's the very last line, and continues on 074r. (It is interesting that there is no change in writing style; English and Latin were usually written in a different script at this time -- same alphabet, mostly, but different "fonts." There are no line breaks. As I read it, it says, "Merie sūgen ðe muneches binnen elẏ. ða cnut ching reu ðer bẏ. Roƿeþ cnites noer the land. and here ƿve þes muneches sæng," i.e. "Merie sungen the munecjes binnen Ely, Tha cnut ching reu ther by. Roweth, cnites noer the land, And here wue thes munches saeng." Interestingly, although there is a piece in musical notation near the beginning of the book, there is no sign of music on this verse.)
And the content of the manuscript gives several arguments for a later date. According to Gordon, p. 7, a primary source of the Liber Eliensis was the history of one Richard -- and this Richard was also credited with the romance of Hereward the Wake. But the Hereward romance is clearly built up mostly of legends. It is much easier to understand how a late book would take him seriously than an early book.
A second argument for a late date is the inclusion in the Cambridge MS. of the "Passion of St Thomas of Canterbury" (James, p. 81). It appears this is in the original hand. Also included is a catalog of the Kings of England, ending with Henry III (James, p. 81), who wasn't even born until the thirteenth century. James, p. 80, appears to say that section is in a thirteenth century hand. But, given the nature of hands of this period, all we can say with certainty is that it is in a different hand, not that it is later. (The fact that multiple hands were involved is no surprise; the manuscript is very miscellaneous.)
Looking at the dates of these materials, we note that Thomas Becket died in 1170, and was canonized in 1173. The main tribute to him was by John of Salisbury (died 1180), who worked under Becket (he was apparently present at the murder) and wrote the Archbishop's life immediately after his martyrdom (Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 292). Other tributes to him would probably have been written in Canterbury or London, not Ely, so we must allow time for a copy to make it to Ely. Henry III ascended in 1216, and died in 1272. His inclusion in the kings list may well be an addition, but this is not certain.
Thus, due to the mention of Becket, the earliest possible date for our manuscript is c. 1175, and a date fifty or more years later, in the reign of Henry III, is perfectly possible. If we take the latter date, it eliminates the problem of this alleged carol coming into existence so long before all other known ballads (since we are now only a century or so earlier than "Judas"). But we should not stop with paleographic evidence; we must still look at the internal evidence of the poem.
One point stands out dramatically: Although the poem claims to be by King Canute (Garnett/Gosse, p. 62), and this claim is actually accepted by Garnett/Gosse, and also by Julian, p. 208 (and even Tolkien, p. 5, seems to think it an early reference to Canute), *the poem is in Middle English.* Garnett/Gosse note that all but two words of the original are "good modern English." Indeed, allowing for sound shifts, it appears there is only one ("binne," line 1) which is not directly related to its modern English equivalent.
But King Canute, who came to the throne in 1016 and died in 1035, did not speak Middle English. The language did not even exist then -- and Canute, who was a Danish invader, spoke as his native language a form of Old Norse. Old Norse and Old English were close enough that they could sometimes be mutually understood with effort -- but what are the odds that Canute produced a poem even in Old English that could be converted into Middle English? Not even Gummere accepts that part (Gummere, p. 298).
For that matter, Hodgart, p. 74, correctly points out that Old English and Old Norse poetry was not written in rhyming couplets; it was alliterative verse. So why would Canute compose in a form that didn't even exist in his time? Hodgart's conclusion is that this piece "does not prove that the genre of ballads is of great antiquity; it is simply part of the evidence showing that the ballads rest on verse forms which had been current since the twelfth century."
Keen, p. 34, calls this "one of the earliest snatches of genuine popular poetry" but adds "of the post-conquest period."
The provenance of the manuscript also raises concerns. There appears to be no question but that the Cambridge manuscript is from Ely. (It would have come to Cambridge after Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries.) It includes a special mark in the margin of the first page which is characteristic of the Ely library, The contents includes a list of obituaries of benefactors and monks of Ely (James, p. 79) and a catalog of bishops and abbots of Ely (James, p. 80). But this raises another interesting question. The song's description of Ely is accurate enough (it is an island). But would the residents of Ely have wanted to remember any associations with Canute in the period immediately after his reign?
It is true that Canute gave substantial gifts to Ely (Hindley, p. 313). This they surely appreciated.
But then things got complicated. There are several reasons why the residents of Ely might not want to remember Canute. For starters, he may have been suspicious of them. A mention in a manuscript from Ely (I *think* the same manuscript as the one containing this song, although the note in Barlow, p. 32, is unclear) says that the future King Edward the Confessor was given to Ely by his parents to be educated as a monk. Barlow, p. 33, goes on to explain why this is effectively impossible. But Edward might have been sheltered there during the Danish invasions (Barlow, pp. 33-34), giving Canute reason to wonder about the monks' loyalty. Could he have rowed by, or visited, for purposes of spying?
Even more complicated is the story of Canute's stepson Alfred.
Canute, when he came to the throne, married as his second wife Emma of Normany, the widow of the old King Ethelred II (O'Brien, pp. ix, xvii). Emma already had two sons (Alfred and Edward) and at least one daughter by Ethelred.
When Canute died, there was a succession crisis, since he had two sons who were possible successors -- one, Harthecanute, by Emma, his more official wife (O'Brien, p. xix) and the older, Harold I Harefoot, by his less official wife Ælgifu, whom Canute had married first, but never put aside when he made Emma his queen (O'Brien, p. xi). Let's put that another way: Ælgifu (the mother of Harold) was Canute's wife even after he married Emma (the mother of Harthecanute), but Ælgifu was never his Queen; Emma held that role. The marriage with Ælgifu seems to have been at least partly for love (although it was also politically useful), that with Emma for politics.
With Canute dead, there arose a Harold/Ælgifu faction and a Harthecanute/Emma faction. In the end, it proved moot -- Harold got the throne first, but died without issue in 1040, and then Harthecanute took the throne and died without issue in turn in 1042. But in 1036, before any of that was sorted out, Alfred, one of Emma's sons by Ethelred, decided to come to England (Humble, p. 174; Walker, p. 15, suggests that both Alfred and Edward invaded England at their mother's request).
Whatever Alfred's reason for coming, he was captured, bound, taken to Ely, and blinded (Swanton, pp. 158-160). He would soon die of the wounds he suffered (O'Brien, p. 180). There is disagreement in the sources whether Earl Godwine or King Harold Harefoot is to blame (Walker, p. 17). There are no accounts which blame the folk at Ely -- but it must have been a painful memory. If I had been from Ely, I wouldn't want to remember the reign of Canute!
On the other hand, that feeling might fade over time, since Ely did not directly oppose Canute (indeed, at his great victory of Assandon/Ashington, they wrote that they had carried the relics of St. Wendreda -- whoever that was -- to help him win the victory; Bolton, pp. 88-89), and many later kings had trouble with the island. Ely for a time was the base of the rebels associated with Hereward the Wake, the last real rebel against William the Conqueror (Keen, pp. 12-13 -- although Keen notes on p. 19 that it was the monks of Ely who negotiated with William to give the place up). Danish invaders also took over Ely for a time (Brondsted, pp. 100-101), so the locals definitely had trouble in the Conqueror's reign.
William the Conqueror's son William Rufus had trouble with just about everyone, so there was nothing special about his problems with Ely -- but no one wanted to remember his reign.
Things were even worse a third of a century later, in the reign of Stephen, who was King from 1135 to 1154. The reason is that Bishop Nigel of Ely opposed Stephen (Bradbury, p. 30). Stephen would attack Ely over their quarrel (Bradbury, p. 78). Later, the active rebel Geoffrey de Mandeville defied Stephen from the area of Ely (Bradbury, p. 130).
A case could be made that the piece must date before 1189, when Richard I became king. When he went on crusade, Richard named William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, as one of his justiciars (Gillingham, p. 217) -- i.e. Longchamp ran the country while Richard was away. The flip side is, Longchamp had been named bishop by Richard after Richard had appropriated much of the property of the previous bishop when that bishop died intestate (McLynn, p. 125). And Longchamp proved a very unsuccessful governor. Still, he was from Ely; if the song were composed after Richard's accession, the Lionheart might have been a logical name to plug in rather than Canute. But that's a very hypothetical chain of reasoning;I don't buy it.
Could the poem be even later? As we have seen, the date of the manuscript does not absolutely preclude a thirteenth century date. But I can't think of a reason for composing such a piece in the thirteenth century. So the twelfth century date, even though we can't prove it by the manuscript, seems likely. Still, I think we cannot claim this as by Canute, we cannot be certain that it existed before the thirteenth century -- and, frankly, we can't even be sure it's a carol. It's just a fragment of a Middle English poem. It may have passed from scribe to scribe in its day. That hardly makes it a folk song.
Thus, although we cannot prove that the poem was in existence in the twelfth century, there is a fair amount of reason to think it might have been written in the twelfth rather than the eleventh (which would still make it a century more recent than Canute, and also make it much more likely that it would be in something recognizable as Middle English). By that time, the bad associations with Canute might well have been forgotten by the Ely monks, and the locals might have wanted to remember a king who, if not exactly monogamous, was (other than William the Conqueror) probably the most efficient monarch of the previous two centuries. (As Humble notes on p. 46, a typical public relations method for kings was "deliberately evoking memories of the last efficient king to rule." Why wouldn't a monastery do the same? Especially since Canute, after becoming Christian, became enthusiastic about attending services and supporting the church.)
The simplest explanation for the existence of this piece would seem to be that the monks of Ely were trying to butter up Cnut, as they had with their claim of carrying saints' relics for him. But why? What good would it do to make such a claim when Cnut and his dynasty were gone? Ultimately I think this poem remains a mystery.
All that said, even if this is as old as sometimes claimed, is it a ballad? riedman, pp. 15-16, says that "In the course of a single volume, Sir Edmund Chambers tries these couplets as parts of a boating song, carol, pure lyric, and ballad-like narrative. Long ago Grundtvig condluded that they were the refrain of some lost epic or chronicle poem." So: Old? Maybe. Ballad? Maybe. Traditional? Well, maybe.
Folk song or not, mystery or not, one strange place this item did show up, however, is an essay by Lewis Carroll. He made it the centerpiece of his introduction to "The Guildford Gazette Extraordinary," one of his more obscure publications. It doesn't really tell us anything about this piece, and Carroll modernized the lyrics, but if you really want to see what he had to say about it, the essay can be found on pp. 327-330 of Hudson. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: MSMStMoE

Merie sungen the muneches binnen Ely

See Merie Sungen the Muneches Bennen Ely (Merry Sang the Monks of Ely) (File: MSMStMoE)

Mermaid (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "To yon fause stream that, near the sea, Hides mony an elf and plum... A witless knight did come." A mermaid comes up to lure him into the water. She convinced him; he holds out his hand, and she laughs as he is sucked into the water, never to rise
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1808 (Finlay, according to Bell)
KEYWORDS: mermaid/man river death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 186-188, "The Mermaid" (1 text)
ST BeCo186 (Partial)
File: BeCo186

Mermaid (III), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer day dreams at the wheel of the Pretty Peggy, bound for Dundee. A mermaid jumps on board. She wants him to go with her but he "cannot breathe the brine." If she joins him on land they could get rich with her on display. She slaps him. He wakes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: sea ship dream humorous mermaid/man courting injury
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18227
RECORDINGS:
Jacob Noseworthy, "The Mermaid" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcJNoTMe

Mermaid (IV), The

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a lad in a fishing town, an old man said to me... don't go swimmin' with a mermaid, son, if you don't know how to swim!" He'll love only the upper part. This proves true. But then he finds a mermaid whose lower half is a girl, and is happy
AUTHOR: Shel Silverstein (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recording, Shel Silverstein, according to Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: humorous mermaid/man sailor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, MERMAID8
RECORDINGS:
Dale Borusky, "Mermaid Song" (Piotr-Archive #557, recorded 04/18/2023)
NOTES [52 words]: This song, and its gag, are popular enough to have a Wikipedia entry, filed under "The Mermaid (Shel Silverstein song)." I'll let you look up details there.
Dale Borusky learned a number of songs from his grandmother Pearl Jacobs Borusky, but he says he learned this one in the Navy. Why am I not surprised? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcSSMerm

Mermaid, The [Child 289]

DESCRIPTION: A group of sailors see a mermaid (meaning that they can expect a shipwreck). Various crew members lament the families they are leaving behind. The ship sinks.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1765?
KEYWORDS: mermaid/man ship sea wreck
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) US(All) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (67 citations):
Child 289, "The Mermaid" (6 texts)
Bronson 289, "The Mermaid" (42 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 289, "The Mermaid" (5 versions: #2, #25, #30, #35, #40)
Greig/Duncan1 27, "The Mermaid" (8 texts, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #16, B=#2, C=#6}
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 333-334, "The Mermaid" (1 text plus a fragment)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 42, "The Mermaid" (3 texts plus 1 fragment, 4 tunes) {Bronson's #17, #41, #24, #14}
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 151-152, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune) {compare Bronson's #41}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 363-368, "The Mermaid" (3 texts plus a fragment and a version from the Forget-me-not Songster, 1 tune) {Bronson's #25}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland4, pp. 271-280, "The Mermaid" (4 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes) {E=Bronson's #39}
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 101-102, "The Mermaid" (1 text)
Randolph 39, "The Wrecked Ship" (3 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #42, #40}
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 83-85, "Merrimac at Sea" (1 text, 1 tune, which is mostly this although the first verse probably floated in from somewhere else)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 48, "The Mermaid" (8 texts plus 4 fragments, the last of which may not be this song; 2 tunes entitled "The Stormy Winds," "The Mermaid"; 1 more version mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #22, #12}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 44, pp. 344-349, "The Mermaid" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 48, "The Mermaid" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 41, "The Mermaid" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 23, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #175, "The Mermaid" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 26, p. 127, "The Mermaid" (1 short text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 57, "The Ship A-Raging" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 189-190, "The Mermaid" (1 text)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 26, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 106-107, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #31}
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 16, "The Royal George" (1 text)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 90, "Black Friday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 38, "Then Turn Out You Jolly Tars" (1 fragment)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 129-130, "Up then spake our little cabin boy" (1 fragment)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 34-35, (no title) (1 fragment) (OakEd, p. 47)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 673-674, "The Mermaid" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 404, "The Mermaid" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 8, pp. 14-15, "The Mermaid" (1 text plus a fragment)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 71, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 216-217, "(The Murmaid)" (1 text)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 9, "The Mermaid" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, "(Once around went our gallant ship) (1 fragment, probably this) (p. 157 in the 1919 edition; not found in the third edition)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 33, "The Saillers" [sic] (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 62, "The Mermaid" (2 texts, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 70-71, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #36}
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #13, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 84, "While the Raging Seas Did Roar" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 224)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 98-99, "Waves on the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 562-563, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 147-149, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 560, "The Mermaid" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 124, (no title) (1 fragment, almost certainly of this song)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 156-157, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 71-73, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 11, pp. 26-27, "Three Sailor Boys" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 33, "The Mermaid" (1 text)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 98-99, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #41, "The Mermaid"; #42, "The Seaman's Distress" (2 texts)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XI, pp. 17-18, "The Mermaid" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 50, "The Seamen's Distress" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 742-743, "The Stormy Wind Do Blow" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Heart-Songs, pp. 360-361, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #150, "The Mermaid" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1422, p. 96, "The Mermaid" (1 reference)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, p. 79, "The Mermaid" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 93, "The Mermaid" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 38-43, 133, 175, 231, 238, 239, 241, 346, 348, 390, 427, 431, 500, 510, 528, "The Mermaid" (notes plus 3 texts on pp. 38-43 plus some extraneous matter from "Sir Patrick Spens"; bibliography on pp. 636-644; the first two are texts collected in camps, with instructions for gestures; these two versions probably derive ultimately from a 1929 Girl Scouts songbook)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 78-79, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 29, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 31, "The Mermaid" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2143, "On a Friday morning we set sail"
DT 289, MERMDFRI* MERMAID3* WAVESSEA* MERMAID5*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #413, "One Friday Morn" (1 text)
Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, part III, p. 47, "The Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST C289 (Full)
Roud #124
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Black Friday" (on NFOBlondahl06)
Emma Dusenberry, "The Mermaid" (AFS, 1936; on LC58) {Bronson's #40}
William Howell, "The Mermaid" (on FSBBAL2)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "The Mermaid Song" (on BLLunsford01) {cf. Bronson's #32}
New Lost City Ramblers, "Raging Sea" (on NLCR02)
Ernest Stoneman & His Blue Ridge Corn Shuckers, "The Raging Sea, How It Roars" (Victor Vi 21648, 1928) {Bronson's #20}
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(273), "The Mermaid" ("One Friday morning we set sail"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(3641), Harding B 11(3642), 2806 c.17(272), Harding B 11(2228), Harding B 11(2519), Firth c.12(413), 2806 c.17(271), 2806 c.17(275), Harding B 11(2404), Harding B 11(2603), Harding B 11(2403), "The Mermaid"; 2806 c.13(248), Firth c.12(414), Harding B 11(3146), "The Mermaid" or "The Gallant Ship"
LOCSinging, sb20297a, "The Mermaid," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Three Times Round" (verse form and some lines)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sinking Ship
Oh, the Lamp Burns Dimly Down Below
The Stormy Winds Do Blow
The Gallant Ship
NOTES [1256 words]: Legend has it that a ship that sees a mermaid will be destroyed. (Some versions say that all aboard are to be drowned as well, but they could hardly drown at the time; else how would anyone know what destroyed the ship?) Ord-BothySongsAndBallads also notes that it was considered unlucky for ships to sail on a Friday -- and most versions do seem to involve sailing on that day.
One of the verses of this, "three times around went our gallant ship," seems to have circulated independently as a nursery rhyme; see, e.g., Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #862, p. 322.
It is often stated that mermaids were sailors' mistaken impression of manatees or dugongs (so, e.g., Benet, p. 715; Jones-Larousse, p. 300; Pickering, p. 193). But Cordingly, pp. 165-166, makes the noteworthy points that, first, manatees and dugongs aren't very attractive. Second, and even more decisive, dugongs live in the Indian Ocean and in the coastal areas of Indonesia and Australia -- areas European sailors would not have seen. Similarly, manatees are found in Florida, the West Indies, Brazil, and the Congo. Neither mammal is found anywhere near European waters.
In a side note, Dawkins, p. 216, notes that the Afrotheres, which includes the order of Sirenia (dugongs and manatees) are the most remote of all placental mammals from modern humans, having split off from the human lineage more than 100 million years ago. Thus the dugongs and manatees are, logically, the mammals least likely to attract human male interest.
Dawkins himself comments on p. 222 that the sailors "who first spotted the likeness must have been at sea for a very long time." He adds two rather interesting points. First, "Sirenians are, with whales, the only mammals that never come on land at any time." In other words, you will not see a manatee or dugong "sitting on a rock," as in this song. Second, "Their vegetarian died requires an immensely long gut and a low energy budget. The high-speed aquabatics of a carnivorous dolphin contrast dramatically with the lazy drifting of a vegetarian dugong: guided missile to dirigible balloon." Thus the Sirenians neither look nor act anything like mermaids.
If there is any physical reason for the Sirenians being identified with mermaids, it may be because of the way they nurse their young. Binney, p. 206, makes the interesting point that "While sucking their single young the [female Sirenians] cradle the babies to their breasts with one flipper in the manner of human mothers."
Simpson/Roud, p. 234, make the interesting observation that mermaids seem to have been originally tailless -- an elaboration of the siren legend. (Hence the name Sirenia for the order containing the dugongs and manatees.) Which makes sense -- how could a warm-blooded mammal like a mermaid (and it is obvious that they are mammalian!) have a cold-blooded, scaled fish tail? A dolphin's tail, maybe, but a fish's tail?
To be sure, one of the earliest documented sightings, by two of Henry Hudson's crew in his Northeast Passage exploration of 1608, described a creature with a porpoise's tail -- although with the coloration of a mackerel. The skin of the creature's upper body was very white, the hair very dark. Hudson noted the sighting, but did not see the alleged creature himself (Mancall, p. 58).
Cordingly, p. 168, claims an upsurge in alleged mermaid sightings "during the age of exploration," and cites mentions from seemingly hard-headed observers as Hudson's crew. Possibly the dugongs and manatees helped along the transition from siren to creature half-human half-fish -- but even this would be hard to prove. Maybe the sailors were seeing Sirenians -- or maybe their long absence from home made them particularly lusty, and the scurvy they probably experienced made them particularly imaginative. Cordingly also notes, p. 169, some instances of people allegedly keeping mermaids. It would be nice if someone had kept a skeleton....
In any case, we see our first half-human half-fish creature in mythology before Europeans reached the seas where the sirenians are found: The demon Melusine/Melusina, who, when first seen, was a beautiful woman Sunday through Friday, but who hid on Saturdays because her half-fish form was revealed (Cordingly, pp. 166-167; Jones-Larousse, p. 298,) Also, CHEL1, p. 354, notes a fourteenth century book which declares that "flatterers are like to nickers (sea-fairies), which have the bodies of women and the tails of fish" and sing sailors to sleep. - RBW
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs moves the locale to New York City: "board bill on Fifth Avenue," "sweetheart in Madison's Square," and the wreck [took place] as "we neared Jersey flats, Sandy Hook was on our lea." - BS
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia's "The Royal George" ("O the Royal George turned round three times") would seem to have adapted "The Mermaid" to the sinking of the Royal George, "flagship of Admiral Kempenfelt, ... on 29 August 1782 with the loss of eight hundred lives, including Admiral Kempenfelt himself." (source: "The Loss of the Royal George" at The Cowper and Newton Museum web page at the Milton Keynes Heritage Association site). You can see William Cowper's poem on the subject at Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #314, pp. 533-534, "Loss of the Royal George." - BS
I note parenthetically that Keegan, p. 51, spells the name "Kemenfelt." This may be a printing error, however, as the name is used only once, with reference to the revised signal system he invented. Dupuy/Johnson/Bongard gives his dates as 1718-1782, and says of him, "An intelligent and learned officer, Kempenfelt was noted as a scientist, scholar, and author, known both for his concern for his men's health and welfare, and for his scholarly approach to naval issues; his success at Ushant showed initiative, daring, and a clear grasp of strategy and tactics."
Uden/Cooper, p. 244, describe how his new signal system worked and quote a description of him as "a tall thin man who stooped a great deal." They call Cowper's poem "On the Loss of the Royal George." We, however, indexed it as "The Sinking of the Royal George," because that is the title used in Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors.
The Royal George itself, according to Paine, p. 439, was ordered in 1749 but not finished until 1759; she was a first rate battleship, said to be the "first warship to exceed 2,000 tons burden." She fought under Hawke at Quiberon Bay (for which see "Bold Hawke").
Put in the reserve in 1763 with the conclusion of the Seven Years' War, she was put back in commission in 1778 as the French and Americans made war on Britain. She was taking on supplies at Spithead "when on August 29 Royal George was being heeled at a slight angle to make some minor repairs below the waterline. At the same times, casks of rum were being loaded aboard and the lower deck gunports were not properly secured. At about 0920 the ship suddenly rolled over on her beam ends, filled with water, and sank, taking with her 800 people, including as many as 300 women and 60 children who were visiting the ship."
In a strange semi-folkloric note, J. R. R. Tolkien is said to have translated a traditional song called "The Mermaid" into Old English (ScullHammond, p. 769). The one line quoted ("It was in the broad Atlantic") appears to be from "Married to a Mermaid" instead of Child 289, but I can't imagine where Tolkien would have found that, and we know that Tolkien knew the Child collection well. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C289

Merman, The (Pretty Fair Maid with a Tail) [Laws K24]

DESCRIPTION: The crew is waiting for a breeze to carry them south when a merman appears with a shout. The ship's anchor has stopped his front door! The merman reveals that he is a sailor who was washed overboard. Having married a mermaid, he grew a tail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.26(152))
KEYWORDS: ship mermaid/man
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws K24, "The Merman (Pretty Fair Maid with a Tail)"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 64, "The Pretty Fair Maid with a Tail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 131-133, "The Merman" (1 text)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 30-31, "The Merman" (1 text)
DT 564, MERMAN
Roud #1898
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.26(152), "The Merman", T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down in the Diving Bell (The Mermaid (II))" (plot)
cf. "Change Islands Song" (plot)
cf. "Married to a Mermaid" (theme of marrying a mermaid)
File: LK24

Merner Song, The

DESCRIPTION: In November Billy Merner came to Darlingtown and moved in with the Sargents. At Christmas he got drunk, "raked poor Bessie," and left. No one whose "Head is good and sound ... let Will Merner come back to Darlingtown."
AUTHOR: Wilmot MacDonald
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: home drink hunting
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 83-87, "The Merner Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1950
File: IvNB083

Merrie Golden Tree

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Merrily We Roll Along

See Goodnight Ladies (File: FSWB258A)

Merrimac (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "The Merrimac she went out; The Yankees wa'n't a-thinking. The fust thing the Yankees knew, the Cumberland was a-sinking... Holler, boys, oh, holler! ... You ought to seen her go down." The Merrimac sinks the Congress also
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: battle Civilwar navy war ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 8, 1862 - U.S. frigates Congress and Cumberland sunk by the CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimac). The Minnesota runs aground; had not the Monitor arrived the next day, the Merrimac would have sunk that ship also
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 226, "The Merrimac" (1 text, probably fragmentary)
Roud #6569
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cumberland Crew" [Laws A18] (subject) and references there
File: BrII226

Merrimac (II), The

See The Cumberland [Laws A26] (File: LA26)

Merrimac at Sea

See The Mermaid [Child 289] (File: C289)

Merry Mormons, The

DESCRIPTION: "What peace and joy pervade my soul, And sweet sensations through me roll... Since I became a Mormon. Aye the merry, aye the merry, I'm a merry Mormon. I never knew what joy it was Till I became a Mormon." He will marry none but Mormons
AUTHOR: Words: Matthew Rowan (source: Willes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Willes, The Mountain Warbler)
KEYWORDS: courting religious
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #212, "Daddy, I'm a Mormon" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 187-188, "The Merry Mormons" (1 text, tune referenced)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 267-268, "The Merry Mormons" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 243-244, "The Merry Mormons" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: William Willes, _The Mountain Warbler: Being a Collection of Original Songs and Recitations, by WIlliam Willes, with a Selection from Other writes, for the Use of Choirs, Sabbath Schools and Families_, Deseret News Book and Job Establishment, Salt Lake City, 1872 (available on Google Books), pp. 74-75, "(no title)" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10878
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie Breist-knots" (tune, according to Cheney-MormonSongs)
cf. "The Merry, Merry Mormons" (title)
File: Hubb212

Merry Bagpipes, The

See The Northumbrian Bagpipes (File: StoR032)

Merry Bloomfield

See The Broomfield Hill [Child 43] (File: C043)

Merry Broomfield, The

See The Broomfield Hill [Child 43] (File: C043)

Merry Christmas to the Master

DESCRIPTION: "A merry Christmas to the Master (x3), And a merry Christmas to you all." "A merry Christmas to the Mistress." "A merry Christmas to the children." "Master, mistress, and children, A merry Christmas, a merry Christmas... A merry Christmas to you all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: Christmas nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Nevis)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Roger D. Abrahams, "Christmas Mummings on Nevis," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), p. 121, "(A merry Chritmas to the Master)" (1 text)
File: NCF213MC

Merry Fellows, The

See He That Will Not Merry, Merry Be (File: WT051)

Merry GIrl, The

See One More Kiss Before I Go (File: MHAp168)

Merry Golden Lee, The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Merry Golden Tree, The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Merry Green Broom Fields

See The Broomfield Hill [Child 43] (File: C043)

Merry Green Fields of the Lowland, The

See Old MacDonald Had a Farm (File: R457)

Merry Haymakers, The

DESCRIPTION: In (May), the creatures cavort in the fine weather. Assorted men and women join together to cut the hay and frolic. Several are introduced as they arrive. In addition to cutting the fields, they may find other ways of making hay....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland); c.1720 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(154))
KEYWORDS: farming work love courting
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(Lond,South,West))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #15, pp. 192-193, "The Haymakers' Song" (1 text)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 228-229, "Pleasant Month of May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H697, pp. 278-279, "Tumbling through the Hay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 78, "Tumbling Through the Hay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 187-188, "The Haymakers" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 46)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 58, "The Merry Haymakers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 255, "The Merry Haymakers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #9, "Pleasant Month of May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #109, "The Merry Haymaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MONTH MAY
Roud #153
RECORDINGS:
Bob & Ron Copper, "The Merry Haymakers" (on FSB3)
Sam Larner, "The Pleasant Month of May" (on Voice05)
Levi Smith, "The Haymakers" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(154), "The Merry Hay-makers" or "Pleasant Pastime, Between the Young- Men and Maids, in the Pleasant Meadows" ("In our country, in our country"), S. Bates (London), [c.1720]; also Mus. 1 c.118(6e)[title and many words illegible], "The Merry Hay-makers"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Month of May
File: HHH697

Merry It Is on a May Morning

DESCRIPTION: "Mery hyt ys in May mornyng, Mery wayys for to gone." "And by a chapell as Y came, Mett Y wythe Jhesu to chyrcheward gone." Peter, Paul, Thomas, John, St. George, and Collas (Nicholas?) attend. All take part in the chapel service
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: fifteenth century (National Library of Wales MS. Porkington 10)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus clergy nonballad MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #323, p. 223, "(And by a chapell as Y came)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #298
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #298
ADDITIONAL: Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #68, pp. 130-131, "(Mery hyt ys in May mornying)" (1 text)
Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, _Middle English Lyrics_, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974, pp. 220-221, #129 (no title) (1 text)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #180, p. 423, "By a Chapel" (1 text)
Carleton Brown, editor, _Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1939, #116, p. 183,"By a Chapel as I Came" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPorkington10}, Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS. Porkington 10, folio 198
NOTES [404 words]: According to Greene, p. 231, "This chanson d'aventure, with its highly unorthodox religious imagery, its 'popular fantasy uncontrolled by the book' (E.E.C., p. xcv), and its characteristic style, quite unlike any of the other religious carols, has a good claim to be considered as true folk-song." I'm not sure I buy that, but I include the piece just in case.
It certainly isn't very popular; the only copy is in MS. Porkington 10, in the National Library of Wales. This is a miscellany, with a number of important and rare pieces, but few show up in the more "folky" Middle English manuscripts.
Greene also suggests that the burden is borrowed from a secular May song. This seems rather more probable than that it is a folk song.
Greene says that there is nothing in canonical scripture, or even in apocryphal, comparable to this -- although he does point to an instance of Christ as priest in "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" [Child 106].
I would consider this to be partly true. The image of the Apostles serving as assistants to a higher priest is one I have not encountered elsewhere. But the notion of Jesus as chief priest is the central theme of Hebrews: "We have a great High Priest... Jesus, the Son of God" (Hebrews 4:14), "You are my son... a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek" (Hebrews 5:6), etc.
On the other hand, Hebrews 7:14 says "For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and regarding that tribe Moses said nothing about priests."
Carleton Brown suggests that the "Collas" is Saint Nicolas; I know of no better suggestion, though there may be ways to emend the line to make better sense (e.g. for "and sent[=Saint] Collas the mas gane sing" read "and sent Collas the mas to sing"). David C. Fowler, The Bible in Middle English Literature, University of Washington Press, 1984, p. 100, translates the verse in such a way as to make it clear that he accepts the meaning "Nicholas." He also comments on p. 101, "the picture of Jesus as a priest officiating at Mass is not the sort of thing one would expect from the learned composers" of most surviving medieval lyrics, which he considers some evidence for folk, or at least lowly, origin.
I'm not sure that the image is really supposed to be of Jesus officiating at the mass, though, even as a vision of an ideal chapel. Rather, Jesus is giving an offering -- which sounds like it might be his blood, or the holy grail. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Gree068

Merry It Is While Summer Lasts

See Mirie It Is While Sumer Ylast (Merry It Is While Summer Lasts) (File: DIMMIIWS)

Merry King, The

See Some Rival Has Stolen My True Love Away (The Rifles, The Merry King) (File: BuDa005)

Merry Lykewake, The

See Willie's Lyke-Wake [Child 25] (File: C025)

Merry Ma Tanzie, The

See Jingo Ring (Merry-Ma-Tanzie, Around the Ring) (File: Fus173)

Merry Mackerel Catchers, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's laugh, ha, ha, and shout hurrah, We are bound for the coast of Maine.' The ship is well supplied and sails well. In the morning they spot a school of fish, catch a great haul, and head for home
AUTHOR: Words: Jacob S. Lord (source: The Fisherman's Own Book)
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (The Fierherman's Own Book)
KEYWORDS: ship fishing home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 234-235, "The Merry Mackerel Catchers" (1 text, 1 tune, a modern setting)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed_, _The Fisherman's Own Book_, Proctor Brothers, Gloucester, 1882 (available on Google Books), p, 169, "The Merry, Merry Mackerel Catchers" (1 text)
NOTES [7 words]: Not traditional and not worth the effort. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LaaGo234

Merry Man, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer drinks whisky with friends from morning till night. He hates men too miserly to spend their money on drink. He wants no crying or paid keeners at his wake: everyone should toast his journey. All should sing when carrying his body to the grave.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(549))
KEYWORDS: death money drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 101-105, "The Merry Man" (1 text)
Roud #7060
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(549), "Drinking Song" ("I am a young fellow that loves to be mellow"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819
File: CrPS101

Merry May the Keel Row

See The Keel Row (File: StoR041)

Merry May the Maid Be

DESCRIPTION: "Merry may the maid be that marrys the miller." Jamie wooed the singer; she was impressed by his home, animals, and food. Her mother advised her to marry. Now her mother is happy with them. "Who'd be a king a petty thing when a miller lives sae happy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (Scots Musical Museum #123)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage food animal mother miller
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #56, p. 2, ("Merry may the maid be") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 453, "Merry May the Maid Be" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 178, "The Miller" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #123, p. 129, "The Miller"(1 text, 1 tune)
ST GrD3453 (Partial)
Roud #5656
NOTES [15 words]: Greig in 1908: ." .. an old song that appeared in the Charmer about 150 years ago." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD3453

Merry Men of England, The

See The Men of Merry England (File: HenV131)

Merry Ploughboy, The

See The Jolly Ploughboy (The Merry Plowboy, The Scarlet and the Blue) (File: Beha051)

Merry Shanty Boys, The

DESCRIPTION: "We are a band of shanty boys, as merry as can be, No matter where we go, my boys, We're always gay and free." The men go out in the morning to cut the trees, sharpen their axes and relax in the evening, bring the logs to market, and celebrate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy), from a nineteenth-century broadside
KEYWORDS: logger work food nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 31, "The Merry Shanty Boys" (1 text)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 31, "The Merry Shanty Boys" (1 text)
Roud #8898
NOTES [33 words]: Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy prints this, but it appears to be entirely from print. And, despite his comment about its quality, it strikes me as something no shantyman would actually sing. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Rick122

Merry Tippler, The

DESCRIPTION: "When first I was a little boy my mammy did begin, She sent me early in the morning to fetch her cargo i. So I drink some you must know, must know." The singer tells how he and his mammy tried various drinks; now he doesn't care; he'll drink it all
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Gardiner MS.)
KEYWORDS: drink mother humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 59, "The Merry Tippler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1661
File: PCL059

Merry Widow, The

DESCRIPTION: "Though I say not what I may not let you hear, Still the swaying dance is saying, 'Tell me, dear,' Every touch of fingers seems to let you know -- Says to you, ''Tis true, 'tis true, I love you so.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: love dancing
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 72, "Though I say not what I may not let you hear" (1 text)
Roud #25502
File: KSUC072B

Merry Wives of Wapping, The

See The Sailor's Frolic (Tit for Tat) (File: PaSe055)

Merry-Go-Round

See I Like to Catch Brass Rings on the Merry-Go-Round (File: ACSF513I)

Merry-ma-tansie

See Jingo Ring (Merry-Ma-Tanzie, Around the Ring) (File: Fus173)

Merry, Merry Mormons, The

DESCRIPTION: "We will put down the spirit glass, Of water we'll take a draft, And drink to the health of the merry, merry Mormons. We will drink to the health of the merry, merry Mormons."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle)
KEYWORDS: drink | Mormons
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, p. 322, "The Merry, Merry Mormons" (1 fragment)
Roud #10878
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Merry Mormons" (title)
NOTES [44 words]: Roud lumps this with "The Merry Mormons," on the obvious basis of the title. But the text of the fragment the Fifes recovered from Walter Cox is not found in "The Merry Mormons," and the form doesn't appear to be the same, either. I think they are separate songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSSS322A

Mery Ballet of the Hathorne tre, A

See The Hawthorn Green (File: LyCr104)

Mery Geste of the Frere and the Boye, A

See notes under Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (II) (File: OO2507)

Messenger of Mortality, The

See Death and the Lady (File: ShH22)

Messenger Song, The

DESCRIPTION: The horse, a descendent of Messenger, reports on its frisky behavior with its handlers. They respond by beating the animal. It breaks down the door and flees; it boasts of its new freedom and its abilities
AUTHOR: John Calhoun?
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: horse abuse escape freedom
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 266, "The Messenger Song" (1 text)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 33, "The Messenger Song (John Calhoun's Colt)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doe266a (Partial)
Roud #4166
NOTES [40 words]: Messenger was a famous horse of the nineteenth century; Manny and Wilson note that he "was foaled in 1780, imported to the United States in 1788, and died in 1808, leaving a large progeny."
This song is item dH49 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Doe266a

Met Mister Rabbit

DESCRIPTION: "Met Mister Rabbit one night, All dressed in his plug hat, He turned his nose up in the air, Said, 'I'se gwine to Julia's ball, So good night, possums all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal dancing
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 176, (no title) (1 short text)
File: ScaNF176

Metamorphoses, Les (Metamorphoses)

DESCRIPTION: French. The male magician is trying to seduce the female. She will be game in a pond and he will hunt her.... She will die and go to heaven and he will be St Peter to open the door. She says, Since you are inevitable, you may as well have me as another.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage rape seduction shape-changing magic
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf,West) US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, pp. 788-789, "Je me mettrai gibier dans un etang" (1 text, 1 tune)
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 42, "La Chanson des Metamorphoses (The Song of Transformation)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune); also p. 64, "J'ai fait une maitresse (I've Found a Maiden)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Mme. Josephine Costard, "Je me mettrai gibier dans un etang" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Twa Magicians" [Child 44] (theme) and references there
cf. "Un Canadien Errant" (tune of "La Chanson des Metamorphoses" in Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Si tu reviens Dimanche
NOTES [297 words]: Child, in his notes to The Twa Magicians [Child 44] gives an extensive description of this ballad [in] the French form. He cites 14 sources, often with names that translate along the lines of "Transformations," "The Mistress Won," and "The Pursuit of Love." Incidentally, he notes that the "French ballad generally begins with a young man's announcing that he has won a mistress, and he intends to pay her a visit on Sunday...."
In that connection, the Brandon [Manitoba] University site for the journal Ecclectica inludes two verses of the ballad, collected in Manitoba, under the title "Si tu reviens dimanche" (If you return Sunday), "The Songs of Their Fathers" by Lynn Whidden, Ecclectica, August 2003
Peacock's version is not as complete as Child's summary. The male verses end "par amitie" (by friendship) while the female verses end "Tout ce que t'auras de moi aucun agrement" (what you have of me is without my agreement). She will be game in a pond and he will hunt her. She will be a rose and he will be a fireman to warm her. She will be the moon and he will be a cloud to cover her. She will become sick and he will be a doctor to cure her. She will die and go to heaven and he will be St Peter to open the door.
Peacock ends here but, according to Child, "she says, Since you are inevitable, you may as well have me as another; or more complaisantly, Je me donnerai a toi, puisque tu m'aimes tant." - BS
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes suggests the theme is found "in the folk-lore of France, Canada, and southwestern Louisiana." No documentation other than the songs in that book, though. The two songs listed there share several verses but have quite different tunes, though both are in 3/8; "La Chanson des Metamorphoses" uses the tune of "Un Canadien Errant". - PJS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Pea788

Methodist Pie

DESCRIPTION: The singer attends a camp meeting and reports on the goings-on. (S)he enjoys food and music greatly. (S)he maintains, "Oh, little children, I believe (x3); I'm a Methodist till I die...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Perrow)
KEYWORDS: music religious
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 291, "Methodist Pie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 248-250, "Methodist Pie" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 291A)
DT, METHPIE
Roud #7823
RECORDINGS:
Ashley's Melody Men, "Methodist Pie" (Victor 23661, 1932)
Bob Atcher, "Methodist Pie" (Columbia 20482, 1948; rec. 1947)
Gene Autry, "Methodist Pie" ((Banner 32308/Oriole 8103/Romeo 5103/Perfect 12764, 1931)
Bradley Kincaid, "Methodist Pie" (Gennett 6417/Champion 15631 [as Dan Hughey]/Supertone 9210/Silvertone 8220, 1928) (Brunswick 420/Supertone S-2018, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hard Trials" (floating verses)
File: R291

Methody Beat Them All

DESCRIPTION: School chant: "Methody [or "Academy," or any other name for a school that values competition over civilization] beat them all, Methody beat them all, They/We won two to one, Methody on the ball."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: sports nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 82, "Methody beat them all"; p. 84, "Academy beat them all" (2 texts, identical except for the name of the school)
Roud #25374 and 25378
File: KSUC082A

Metisse, Le (Song of the Metis Maiden)

DESCRIPTION: Canadian French: "Je suis metisse et je suis orgueilleuse." "I am a girl of the small Metis nation" who is proud of her heritage. She hopes to marry one of the soldiers who fight for Metis freedom. Schultz is captures; McDougall is forced back
AUTHOR: supposedly Loius Riel
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba); probably written 1870
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage Canada love fight
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov. 2, 1869 - Louis Riel's men seize Upper Fort Garry, taking many prisoners.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba, #8, pp. 51-55, "Song of the Metis Maiden" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Riel's Song" (subject of the Metis rebellion) and references there
cf. "Chanson des Metis (Song of the Metis, or McDougall at the Border)" (subject of McDougall's attempt to govern the Metis)
cf. "Les Tribulations d'un Roi Malheureux (Misfortunes of an Unlucky 'King')" (subject of McDougall's attempt to govern the Metis)
File: Macl08

Mettons la Chaloupe a L'eau

DESCRIPTION: French. Forebitter shant: "Mettons la chaloupe a l'eau (x2), Matelot tomba dans l'eau, Mentendez vous?" A sailor falls overboard. His arm is hurt. He will not have it amputated. When they reach port, the singer wants pipe and tobacco
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage sailor injury drugs shanty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 54, "Mettons la Chaloupe a L'eau" (2 texts, French and English, 1 tune)
File: HSeSo054

Mexico Trail, The

See The Trail to Mexico [Laws B13] (File: LB13)

Mexico, The

DESCRIPTION: Mexico is wrecked on Keeragh rocks when the captain "lost his bearings." Fourteen Fethard men set out to rescue the crew "but their boat was smashed upon the rocks": Nine are drowned; the remaining five get the crew to an island and 12 are rescued.
AUTHOR: John Codd
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor rescue
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 20-21, 1914 - The Mexico wreck
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 28-30, "The Mexico" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #20525
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fethard Life-Boat Crew (I)" (subject)
cf. "The Fethard Life-Boat Crew (II)" (subject)
cf. "The Fethard Life-Boat Crew (III)" (subject)
cf. "Loss of the Life-Boat Crew at Fethard" (subject)
NOTES [87 words]: February 20, 1914: "Nine members of the Fethard lifeboat were drowned when going to the assistance of the Norwegian steamer Mexico.... Eight of the Mexico's crew were saved by the five lifeboat survivors. All but one of the stranded survivors were saved with great difficulty the next day." (source: Bourke in Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast v1, pp. 52-53) - BS
We note that at least four poems were written about this disaster (see the cross-references); one suspects a campaign to raise money for someone's family. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran028

Mhaighdean Mara, An (The Mermaid)

DESCRIPTION: Irish Gaelic. Blond Mary Chinidh, whose mother is a mermaid, swims Lake Erne forever. She loves blond sailor Patrick.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recording, Kitty Gallagher)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love nonballad supernatural family mother mermaid/man
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 58, "An Mhaighdean Mara" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Kitty Gallagher, "An Mhaighdean Mhara (The Mermaid Song)" [fragment] (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
NOTES [67 words]: The description follows the translation for "An Mhaighdean Mara" at Clannad on Celtic Lyrics Corner site. - BS
Paul Stamler gives this description of Kitty Gallagher's version, which is however a translation of an excerpt of a fragment: "The singer, Mary Heeney, having swum the Erne, speaks to her girl Maire and (husband?) Patrick. Maire then speaks, saying that her mother was a mermaid." - PHS, (RBW)
File: TSF058

Miami Hairikin

DESCRIPTION: "God A'mighty moved on the water, And the peoples in Miami run. And the lady left Miami; She left in lightning speed. Every time the lightnin' flash She thinks about her dirty deeds." Various people's troubles in the Miami hurricane are told
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: storm death derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 17, 1928 - the "Okeechobee hurricane," having already done great damage in the Carribean, makes landfall in Florida near West Palm Beach. According to Wikipedia, the storm killed at least 2500 people in Florida and more than 4000 people overall.
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #49, "Miami Hairikin" (1 text)
Roud #4174
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Titanic (III) ("God Moves on the Water") (Titanic #3)" (form, lyrics)
cf. "West Palm Beach Storm" (subject)
NOTES [59 words]: This song is item dI28 in Laws's Appendix II.
There are at least two books about this event, Okeechobee Hurricane: Killer Storms in the Everglades by Lawrence E. Will and The Great Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928 by Wayne Neely. I have not seen either. The latter is apparently from 2019, so it ought to have access to a lot of information, at least. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Morr049

Michael Boylan

DESCRIPTION: Boylan, a United man, is taken prisoner to Drogheda June 3. Dan Kelly swears falsely that Boylan had 10,000 at his command "to assist the French invaders as soon as they would land ... and the jury cried out, Boylan you must die by martial laws"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: rebellion betrayal execution prison Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 22, 1798 - Michael Boylan is hanged at the Tholsel, Drogheda. (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 15, "Michael Boylan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 66, "In Collon I Was Taken" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [152 words]: "Michael Boylan" has the form of a gallows-confession except that the condemned man is a hero rather than a criminal. We have the usual farewell to an "aged father" and mother and the final request that "good Christians pray for me."
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815's account of the event has Kelly, the informer, enraged by Boylan's defection: Boylan was supposed to lead the pikemen to fight on Tara May 23, 1798 but, on that night, he refused to leave his house. - BS
Drogheda, we note, is in County Louth, near the border with Meath, north of Dublin and at the southern edge of Ulster. Collon is about a dozen miles north and west of there, again in County Louth.
Unless Boylan was taken far away from the city where he was tried, the charges against him do sound exaggerated; there weren't that many active rebels in that area. The nearest rebel activity was in County Meath, and that pretty feeble. - RBW
File: Zimm015

Michael Davitt

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the Lords and and the Commons, Bill Gladstone and Bright" passed Coercion "and arrests and evictions are going on still." Davitt, Dillon, Parnell, "Kettle and Brennan, and two hundred more" are arrested. "[T]he land it is ours and we mean to be free"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: prison farming Ireland political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 80, "A New Song on Michael Davitt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #29516
BROADSIDES:
cf. "The Blackbird of Avondale" or "The Arrest of Parnell" (subject)
cf. "The Land League's Advice to the Tenant Farmers of Ireland" (subject)
cf. "Erin's Lament for her Davitt Asthore" (subject of Michael Davitt)
cf. "Garryowen (II)" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Harding B 40(17))
NOTES [846 words]: Bodleian, Harding B 40(17), "A New Song on Michael Davitt ("Then up with the flag, raised by Davitt, our head"), J.F. Nugent and Co.? (Dublin?), 1850-1899 is apparently this ballad but I could not download the image to verify that. It has the tune as "Garryowen."
"A Coercion Act, I should explain, is defined to be a statute which is not a part of the general law, but applies only to some specified portion of the kingdom. And within the limits to which it applies it arms the police with powers unknown to the ordinary law, and sometimes foreign to the spirit of that law." (source: The Lighter Side of My Official Life by Sir Robert Anderson, 1910 on the Casebook site re Jack the Ripper).
In 1881 Gladstone established "the Irish Coercion Act that let the Viceroy detain people for as 'long as was thought necessary.'" (source: "William Ewart Gladstone" in Wikipedia)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "A.J Kettle and Thomas Brennan were Land Leagers arrested in 1881.... John Dillon was arrested in May 1881, but was released later on grounds of ill-health."
Zimmermann p.281: "Michael Davitt, who had been sentenced in 1870 to fifteen years' penal servitude for his share in the Fenian movement and released in 1877, was re-arrested in February 1881. Released in 1882, he was again prosecuted for seditious speeches and imprisoned for four months in 1883 ...." - BS
Considering that Gladstone worked for most of his career trying to improve conditions in Ireland, and passed much relief legislation, and on one occasion lost a confidence vote over a proposal for Home Rule, this is a pretty unfair accusation. It was the Tories who opposed rights for Ireland (Lyons, pp. 182-187, especially p. 183). Yes, Gladstone at times was forced to clamp the lid down, but it was hardly something he desired. Unfortunately, he inherited an Ireland which was in turmoil over tenants' rights (see, e.g., "The Bold Tenant Farmer"). He also had to contend with the Phoenix Park Murders (see the notes to "The Phoenix Park Tragedy"). The situation was bad enough that any government would have been forced into a crackdown.
Kettle is, I assume, Andrew J. Kettle, a Land League organizer, whose son Thomas was a nationalist but died at the Somme (Boylan, pp. 185-186).
John Bright (1811-1889) is a more confusing case: He was a pacifist, but an imperialist, and supported more freedom for Ireland and India, but opposed Home Rule in 1886.
Michael Davitt (1846-1906), having seen his family evicted from their land at five and then lost his arm in an industrial accident at the age of 11 or 12 (Boylan, p. 84; Kee, p. 74), started out as a radical, and though he moderated over the years, he was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in 1870. Released after half that time, he allied with Charles Stewart Parnell to form the Land League, though they would later fall out violently. He was imprisoned again from 1881-1882, this time apparently for more conservative views. (Altogether he is a very confusing figure, at least to me.) In 1886, he supported home rule (Kee, p. 119).
His popularity is a bit ironic, given that he was anti-clerical and inclined toward socialist solutions. As Boylan says on p 85, "Ironically, 'the land for the people' meant to Davitt the nationalisation of the land, whereas to the tenants it could mean only one thing, ownership by themselves.'"
Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, p. 248, describe Davitt this way, "Davitt was the son of an evicted small tenant, exiled in 1850 from Mayo to Lancashire... in the cotton town of Haslingden. At the age of nine he was working twelve hours a day in a cotton mill. He was just over eleven when in 1857 he lost his right arm in a machine he was minding. This led to four years of unexpected schooling and employment with the local postmaster. A life of comparative security seemed to be opening up when in 1865 Davitt threw himself into the Fenian movement. His Fenian activities earned him in 1870 a sentence of fifteen years' penal servitude, of which he served seven years, mainly in Dartmoor Prison. His release on ticket-of-leave in December 1877 was the outcome of a long and persistent agitation of amnesty for the Fenian prisoners, in which Butt, Parnell, and others took a leading part. He emerged from prison a far more formidable enemy than he went in. He was still a Fenian but critical of Fenian methods and dogmatism.... A Catholic who had been taught by a Wesleyan schoolmaster, he accepted religious diversity as a social fact and not a ground of estrangement...."
For more on Davitt, see the notes to "The Bold Tenant Farmer"; he is also the subject of "Erin's Lament for her Davitt Asthore."
John Dillon (1851-1927) came from a wealthy background but spent most of his life campaigning for land reform; he was four times imprisoned despite spending most of the years 1880-1918 in parliament (OxfordCompanion, p. 148).
For Parnell (1846-1891), see the various songs in the cross-references.
The other imprisoned Land Leaguer, Brennan, was not noteworthy enough to show up in the histories I checked. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Zimm080

Michael Dwyer (I)

DESCRIPTION: "At length brave Michael Dwyer and his undaunted men Were scented o'er the mountains and tracked into the glen." Dwyer and three men are trapped by the British in a house afire. One, wounded, tries to delay the police, but only Dwyer escapes
AUTHOR: Timothy Daniel Sullivan (1827-1914)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland); Anderson estimates his broadside as c. 1803 but does not have publication details
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion police escape death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
February 15, 1799 - Michael Dwyer escapes from the Glengarry Regiment (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 44-45, "Michael Dwyer" (1 text)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 142, "Michael Dwyer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 30, "Michael O'Dwyer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 95-96, "Michael Dwyer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 110-112, "Michael Dwyer" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 352-353, "Captain Dwyer" (1 text, with a tune on p. 592)
Roud #5219
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "Michael O'Dwyer" (on IRTLenihan01)
Jack Swain, "Mike Dwyer" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Michael Dwyer (II)" (subject)
cf. "Captain Dwyer" (subject)
cf. "Michael Dwyer's Lament" (subject)
cf. "The Mountain Men" (subject)
cf. "Twenty Men from Dublin Town" (subject)
NOTES [274 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "Michael Dwyer was a Wicklow man, a member of the United Irishmen, who fought during the 1798 rebellion, and who waged a guerilla war in the Wicklow mountains for several years afterwards."
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan: "Michael Dwyer (1771-1826) is a genuinely romantic figure in Irish history. An outlaw 'on his keeping' in the Wicklow hills after the rebellion of 1798 he is remembered by the folk is the same light as Robin Hood or Jessie James are in other traditions." - BS
Sullivan is the author of a number of Irish patriotic poems, of which "God Save Ireland" is probably the best-known. Dwyer also attracted the attention of that militant writer, Peadar Kearney, who produced the Irish national anthem "The Soldier's Song," as well as such pieces as "Whack Fol the Diddle (God Bless England)."
As a historical figure, Dwyer was less important; of the five histories I checked, only Robert Kee's The Green Flag mentions him, and only to note that he was a Catholic (unlike many leaders of the 1798 rebellion), and that after the United Irish collapse, he fought on in the Wicklow Mountains until about the time of Robert Emmet's rebellion.
According to the Oxford Companion to Irish History, his dates were 1771-1826; he surrendered to the British in 1803 and was transported to Australia. He became High Constable of Sydney in 1815. He does not seem to have been notable in that post (none of my histories of Australia mention him) -- but I find it somewhat ironic to imagine the former outlaw commanding the forces responsible for tracking down outlaws and bushrangers. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PGa095

Michael Dwyer (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Have you heard of Michael Dwyer and his mountain men?' Dwyer fought when "our flag went down And the nation's hope was banished." Ireland won't have Liberty again "till we strike like Michael Dwyer and his mountain men"
AUTHOR: Peadar Kearney (1883-1942) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion nonballad patriotic Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 143, "Michael Dwyer" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Michael Dwyer (I)" (subject of Michael Dwyer) and references there
NOTES [238 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "Michael Dwyer was a Wicklow man, a member of the United Irishmen, who fought during the 1798 rebellion, and who waged a guerilla war in the Wicklow mountains for several years afterwards." - BS
Peadar Kearny was the author of, among other things, the Irish national anthem "The Soldier's Song," as well as such pieces as "Whack Fol the Diddle (God Bless England)"; for more on him, see the notes to the latter song. It is perhaps no surprise to find him writing in praise of a covert warrior. Dwyer also attracted the attention of T. D. Sullivan, author of "God Save Ireland," who wrote "Michael Dwyer (I)."
As a historical figure, Dwyer was less important; of the five histories I checked, only Robert Kee's The Green Flag mentions him, and only to note that he was a Catholic (unlike many leaders of the 1798 rebellion), and that after the United Irish collapse, he fought on in the Wicklow Mountains until about the time of Robert Emmet's rebellion.
According to the Oxford Companion to Irish History, his dates were 1771-1826; he surrendered to the British in 1803 and was transported to Australia. He became High Constable of Sydney in 1815. He does not seem to have been notable in that post (none of my histories of Australia mention him) -- but I find it somewhat ironic to imagine the former outlaw commanding the forces responsible for tracking down outlaws and bushrangers. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Moyl143

Michael Dwyer's Lament

DESCRIPTION: "To Wicklow's Glens he'd started, from Father Murphy parted." Michael Dwyer continues the fight from the mountains. Some 1798 battles and United Men are listed: "Their Cause it could have gained, then, a Liberty for all!"
AUTHOR: Mick Fowler (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Ireland nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 145, "Michael Dwyer's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Michael Dwyer (I)" (subject of Michael Dwyer) and references there
NOTES [76 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "This song ... was written in 1998 by Dublin singer Mick Fowler."
Moylan: "Michael Dwyer was a Wicklow man, a member of the United Irishmen, who fought during the 1798 rebellion, and who waged a guerilla war in the Wicklow mountains for several years afterwards." - BS
For background on Dwyer -- and his eventual surrender to the British authorities -- see the notes to "Michael Dwyer (I)" or "Michael Dwyer (II)." - RBW
File: Moyl145

Michael Finnegan

DESCRIPTION: Of the exploits of Michael Finnegan, constantly urged to "begin again" after a variety of escapades such as the wind blowing his whiskers back into his chin, or growing fat and then growing thin
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Camp Clavell and Girl Reserve Club Songs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense humorous campsong
FOUND IN: US(MW) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 134, "(Little Michael Finnigan)" (1 text)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 66, "Michael Finnigan" (1 short text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 48, "(There was a old man called Michael Finnegan)" (1 short text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 242, "Michael Finnigan" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 201, "Michael Finnigan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 132, 255, 259, 390-391, 415, "Michael Finnigan" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 41, "Michael Finnegan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #236, "I know a man named Michael Finnegan" (1 text)
DT, MIKFINEG
Roud #10541
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger et al, "Finnegan Beginigin" (on PeteSeeger11)
NOTES [38 words]: It perhaps says something about the American education system that this song was forced upon me in grade school, but the schools would never have even contemplated a serious ballad with something resembling actual content.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB242B

Michael FinnIgan

See Michael Finnegan (File: FSWB242B)

Michael J. Doyle

DESCRIPTION: "Mount Laffee, oh my happy home! Of thee I love to sing." He recalls going home there after finishing work each day. But then "a crowd of men" arrested him. Some charge them them. Doyle is in prison, unable to go out or see those he would like to see
AUTHOR: purportedly Michael J. Doyle
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining punishment prison home homicide
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 261-262, "Michael J. Doyle" (1 text)
Roud #4092
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32] (subject: the Long Strike and the Molly Maguires) and references there
cf. "The Doom of Campbell, Kelly and Doyle" (character of Michael J. Doyle)
NOTES [966 words]: This song is item dE31 in Laws's Appendix II.
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch has three poems or songs about (two of them allegedly by) Michael J. Doyle: "Doyle's Pastime on St. Patrick's Day," "Michael J. Doyle," and "The Doom of Camplbell, Kelly and Doyle." None of them seem to have been collected outside of Korson; I doubt any of them became traditional. For this reason, I have not indexed "Doyle's Pastime." But "Michael J. Doyle" and "The Doom of Campbell, Kelly and Doyle" are both cited by Laws, albeit as of dubious traditionality, so I have indexed them.
For the background to the whole issue of the Long Strike and the Molly Maguires, see the notes to "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32]. Briefly, in the 1870s, the owners of the mines in the Pennsylvania anthracite region put the squeeze on their workers. The workers responded by striking -- an event known as "The Long Strike." It failed, and the miners had to go back to work for reduced pay. In the aftermath, there were a series of murders in the anthracite region, blamed on the "Molly Maguires." The mine owners infiltrated the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) to try to find those responsible. They eventually arrested many, and tried and executed twenty men. One of them was Michael J. Doyle; he, along with Alexander Campbell and Edward Kelly (the three heroes of "The Doom of Campbell, Kelly and Doyle") were hung for the murder of John P. Jones. (For more about Jones, see the notes to "Jimmy Kerrigan's Confession.")
Kenny, p. 291, gives this short bio of Doyle. "AOH member, Mount Laffee, Shuylkill County. Born in Mount Laffee of Irish parents. Worked at the No. 5 Colliery in the Panther Creek Valley, for the Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company. Hanged at Mauch Chunk on June 21, 1877, for the murder of John P. Jones."
Riffenburgh, pp. 98, tells us that there had already been a plan to murder Jones, which failed, before Doyle et al became involved. Riffenburgh, pp. 98-99, gives this description of the second, successful, attempt on Jones's life. "September 1, two men from the Mount Laffee lodge, Edward Kelly and Michael J. Doyle... had arrived at [James] Carroll's saloon, where they had been sent to carry out the job. Carroll told [future informer James] Kerrigan [for whom see "Jimmy Kerrigan's Confession"] to lead them to Lansford to commit the murder, after which he could guide them back to safety."
"That evening, the three made their way first to Campbell's liquor store and then to Summit Hill and then to Summit Hill, the western terminus of the switchback railroad, where [Hugh] McGehan's new tavern was located. [McGe(e)han is the subject of another Korson piece, "Hugh McGeehan."] After McGehan cleaned and oiled two pistols, Campbell, realizing that none of the three had ever seen Jones and needed to be certain of his identity, 'gave them a description of Jones.'
"The next day, Kerrigan, Doyle, and Kelly wandered over to Jones's neighborhood... Jones took the train from the Lansford depot, thereby eluding his killers. They hunted him that day.
"Coincidentally, that night, having decided that the danger had been overestimated, Jones stayed in his own house with his wife and seven children for the first time in weeks. Around 7:00 A.M., he headed down the pipeway for the Lansford depot, half a mile away. Carelessly alone and unprotected... he was within one hundred yards of the depot when Kelly and Doyle approached him on the path, and he moved aside to let them pass. Instead, the two men drew their pistols and shot him, Doyle twice. Jones tried to reach the bushes to escape but was pursued, and when the wounded man fell, Doyle... riddled his body with bullets. Kerrigan and the two killers then fled toward the high woods to the west."
Witnesses had seen enough to recognize the "highly disreputable" (and extremely short) Kerrigan, so a search quickly began. A posse found Kerrigan, and then Doyle and Kelly, "who were quickly captured while drinking whiskey near a mountain spring" (Riffenburgh, pp. 99-100).
There were many trials of accused Molly Maguires; the Jones case came first, with Doyle, Kelly, and Kerrigan asking for separate trials. Doyle's was first (Kenny, p. 214); it began January 26, 1876 and concluded on February 1 with Doyle convicted of first degree murder (Kenny, p. 215). It was one of the rare Molly trials where neither James McParlan nor Kerrigan testified -- though the trial did induce Kerrigan to turn informant. (As in so many such cases, the worst of the criminals, Kerrigan, survived by turning informant, while the slightly more reputable defendants were punished.) Kerrigan's confession led police to arrest Carroll, James Roarity, Thomas Duffy (for whom see "Thomas Duffy"), McGehan, James Boyle, and Alexander Campbell (Kenny, p. 216). Campbell, Doyle, Kelly, Boyle, Carroll, Duffy, McGehan, and Roarity would all hang (in different towns) on July 21, 1877, Doyle and Kelly for the murder of Jones; Campbell for his parts in the deaths of Jones and Morgan Powell; Boyle, Carroll, Duffy, McGehan, and Roarity for the murder of Benjamin Yost (Kenny, p. 270). Most of them were probably guilty, although the evidence was far from perfect; it is quite possible that Duffy was innocent.
For more about all this (some of it the same as the text in this entry), see the notes to "The Doom of Camplbell, Kelly and Doyle."
The song is correct in saying Doyle was from Mount Laffee; he lived his entire life there. I do not know who the "Mike Keely" of the second verse was; he was not noteworthy among the Molly Maguires. Probably he was just a friend of Doyle's. And Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania) was the largest local town, which explains both why the officers who arrested him came from there and why Doyle was hanged there. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP261

Michael James

DESCRIPTION: "I'm as happy as can be, Faith, there is merriment in me," because the singer, when he came home, found he was the father of a boy. He had waited ten years for his first child. He will name the boy Michael James, and boasts of how he will care for it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: baby father
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 77, "Michael James" (1 text)
Roud #9566
File: Dean077

Michael O'Brien

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you girls ... A man like me with property free -- how can you pass him by?" He lists his assets. But "the girls won't keep my company, they say my breath is bad ... So I'll take a stroll for the good of my soul and see my neighbor's wife"
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: courting bragging humorous nonballad bachelor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 52-53, 249, "Michael O'Brien" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 42-44, 196, "Michael O'Brien" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13990
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bachelor's Hall (III)"
NOTES [58 words]: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland: "It's worth pointing out that this song exhibits three Gorman hallmarks. First, it is about a man looking for a wife. Second, like 'Bachelor's Hall,' it develops its theme through a list of possessions. And third, it is said to have been made up on someone who had asked Gorman to song someone else." - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: IvDC052

Michael O'Dwyer

See Michael Dwyer (I) (File: PGa095)

Michael Power

DESCRIPTION: "On my road to Dungarvan" Michael Power finds a pistol, holds up a postboy and a dragoon, kills four yeomen on the road, twelve more in Carrick and Carey the hangman. He goes to Fulham barracks where he is convicted and sentenced to be hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (recording, Straighty Flanagan)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution trial humorous outlaw
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #8141
RECORDINGS:
Straighty Flanagan, "Michael Power" (on Voice08)
NOTES [29 words]: Hall, notes to Voice08, describes "Michael Power" as "a humorous unlikely tale of fiction, ... set in the counties of Waterford and Wexford in those dangerous times of 1798." - BS
File: RcMicPow

Michael Roy

DESCRIPTION: "In (London/Brooklyn) city there lived a maid, And she was known to fame." Her name is Mary Jane. The charcoal man, McCloskey, loves her, but when she is thrown through a window, he stabs the donkey responsible and goes to Salt Lake City
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (College Songs)
KEYWORDS: love commerce travel mother animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 332, "Michael Roy" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 408-409, "Michael Roy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 68, "Michael Roy" (1 text, 1 tune) (part III, pp. 40-41 in the 1876 edition)
ST CSon068 (Partial)
Roud #6655
NOTES [14 words]: I have the feeling this is a stage Irish comic song, but I cannot trace the origin. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: CSon068

Michael, Row the Boat Ashore

DESCRIPTION: "Michael, row the boat ashore, (h)allelujah" (x2). Remaining verses tend to be about the difficulty of crossing (Jordan) to heaven: "Jordan's river is chilly and cold, (h)allelujah; Chills the body but not the soul...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen, Ware, Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad travel river ship work worksong floatingverses shanty
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, pp. 23-24, "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 34-35, "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 303, "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" (1 text)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, pp. 82-83, "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 15, "Row, Michael, Row" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 75, "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 97, "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 458, 551, "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 95, "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" (1 short text, 1 tune)
DT, MICHAELR
Roud #11975
RECORDINGS:
Jane Hunter & Moving Star Hall singers, "Row, Michael, Row" (on BeenStorm1)
Pete Seeger, "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" (on PeteSeeger12) (on PeteSeeger15)
James Garfield Smalls, "Songs in the Prayer House" (on USSeaIsland03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Crossing Jordan River" (floating lyrics)
cf. "All My Trials" (lyrics)
cf. "Is Your Lamps Gone Out?" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Ling Po Drove the Truck Away (RECORDING, Chip Dockery, in "Panther Pack Medley" on InCountry)
NOTES [44 words]: Seeger dates this Georgia sea islands worksong from the mid-19th century. - PJS
The USSeaIsland03 recording includes a one verse parody of "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore." The BeenStorm1 recording is call-response. Clapping at end as in the beginning of a "shout." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DTmichae

Michié Préval

DESCRIPTION: Creole French: "Michie Preval li donne youn bai..." Preval hosts a ball, charging three dollars for admission. The festivities reach the stable, where the horses are "astonished." The prison warden likes it so much that he is tempted to stage his own ball
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage party animal clothes
FOUND IN: US West Indies
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 111, "Calinda" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 213-214, "Michié Préval" (1 text plus translation, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 166-167, (no title) (1 text plus literal translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [51 words]: Lomax and Courlander accent the name of the title character differently (Lomax: Michié Préval; Courlander, Michié Preval), but the plot is the same in both versions of the song. The earliest version, Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates's, agrees with Lomax, so I've used that as the song name. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CNFM166

Michigan Girls

DESCRIPTION: Playparty: "Up to the head and you I call, The invitation is to all, The way is broad, the road is clear, Michigan girls, come volunteer! Volunteer, volunteer! Michigan girls, come volunteer!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (JournalOfAmericanFolklore, volume 33, according to Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs, pp. 31-32, "Michigan Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7921
NOTES [16 words]: Roud lumps this with "You Pretty Girls of Michigan," but they look completely unrelated to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: LeMi031

Michigan-i-a

See Michigania (File: BNEF555)

Michigan-I-O

See Canaday-I-O/Michigan-I-O/Colley's Run I-O [Laws C17] (File: LC17)

Michigania

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye Yankee farmers who would like to change your lot." The singer lists the problems with life in various parts of the country (from cold Vermont to "the land of Blue Laws" to tax-heavy Massachusetts) and urges listeners to come to "Michigania"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Gardner & Chickering)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 555-556, "Michigania" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 406-407, "Michigan-i-a" (1 text)
Roud #4745
File: BNEF555

Mick Magee

DESCRIPTION: Magee is a dealer in tobacco and tea who does not bother with licenses. Accidentally taking his wares to a police station, he is pursued by the force. He lends his bag to a beggar and lets himself be trapped. Since he has nothing illegal, he is released
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: commerce trick police escape
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H740, pp. 56-57, "Mick Magee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 74, "Mick McGee" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST HHH740 (Partial)
Roud #2764
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mick McGee
File: HHH740

Mick McGee

See Mick Magee (File: HHH056)

Mick McGuire

See Let Mr. McGuire Sit Down (File: RcLMMSD)

Mick Riley

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in the summer season in the year of seventy-six" the singer fished one summer on Ocean Lark, whose owner is a cobbler in winter. The song claims this cobbler is a cheat and robber and will be so until "he'll find himself in Hell's eternal flames"
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: greed thief fishing ship humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, p. 87, "Mick Riley" (1 text)
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 36-37, 196-197, "Mick Riley" (1 text)
Roud #14003
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gull Decoy" (characters)
NOTES [92 words]: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland: "This song was about the Gull Decoy's son Mick, who, during the off-season, worked as a cobbler." See the notes to "The Gull Decoy" for another example of Gorman's reputed vindictiveness. - BS
Gorman in fact had another song about Michael Riley, called "Michael Riley" and beginning "My name is Michael Riley, I'm a cobbler by trade; Many a pair of brogans I've cut and never made." Ives-LarryGorman gives a text and tune on pp. 35-36, and it's Roud #25171, but I see no real evidence that it's traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: IvDC087

Mickey Brannigan's Pup

See Brannigan's Pup (File: FSC122)

Mickey Burke

DESCRIPTION: The singer's wife takes in Mickey Burke as a boarder. She and Burke blow the singer's wages on liquor. One night she hits the singer and when he "raised a fist to strike her" they beat him. The singer plans to shoot Burke and put his wife in jail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: marriage violence money drink ordeal wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30139
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Duggan, "Mickey Burke" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3MiBur

Mickey Free

DESCRIPTION: "I'm from the town of Banjor, down in the state of Maine, A native American Irishman That spakes the English plain." The singer arrives in Stilliwater and works in many logging camps (in Wisconsin). He considers taking up farming in Bashaw.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Dunn, _The St. Croix_, from an uncited source)
KEYWORDS: logger work travel farming
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: James Taylor Dunn, _The St. Croix: Midwest Border River_, reprint edition with new introduction published 1979 by the Minnesota Historical Society press, pp. 254-256, "Mickey Free" (1 text)
NOTES [411 words]: The only printed version of this seems to be Dunn's, and Dunn, unfortunately, gives very little information about this song; he says it "first made its appearance" in Taylors Falls (on the St. Croix) in 1878, and in the introduction to the revised 1979 edition of his book, says on p. xi that the song describes the life of Ed Hart. Since, however, Dunn gives no real biographical information about Hart, this is little help.
The song does seem a very Midwestern product. Other than Bangor, Maine, and Stillwater, Minnesota, every place mentioned is in northwestern Wisconsin. The spots mentioned are all in the region north of Hayward, south of Ashland, west of Spooner, and east of the St. Croix -- and all are small and require a very detailed map to locate.
Namekegon is a town and a river. The river flows through Hayward to join the St. Croix just north and east of the point where the St. Croix ceases to mark the Minnesota/Wisconsin border. Namekegon town is on Garden Lake about half way between Hayward and Ashland.
Clam Lake is a lake and down. The lake is near Siren, not far from the St. Croix, and is on the Clam River. Clam Lake the town is not on the Clam River; it is about ten miles ESE of Namekegon town.
The Yellow River (and Yellow Lake) are almost due north of Clam Lake the Lake, the lake being about five miles from the St. Croix town of Danbury.
Tototatic is a river that is a tributary of the Namekegon, and there is a Totogatic Lake north of Hayward.
Bashaw, where the singer expects to settle, is a very small town -- or perhaps "region" is the right word -- about five miles WNW of Shell Lake and not too far from the Yellow River. Since it is not very good farming country, I would suggest a slight possibility that this should be emended to Wabasha, Minnesota.
Overall, the plot of this song is pretty clear. The singer's story begins in 1853 in Stillwater. Stillwater -- founded in 1843 and incorporated in 1854 -- was in its early years a logging center and one of the chief towns of what was then Minnesota Territory. It was also the northernmost town on the St. Croix -- the only convenient way to reach the areas in Wisconsin mentioned in the song, especially in the early 1850s before the Soo Canal opened, making it possible for ships to enter Lake Superior. The singer came from Maine to Minnesota in 1853, worked in the lumber camps for a couple of dozen years, and at the time the song ends is contemplating retirement. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: JTDST254

Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Mickey Muse and Minnie Mouse Went down to the power house, To see how high the water would flow. One foot, two feet, three feet...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | Mickey Minnie Mouse dam power water
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #339, "Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse" (1 text)
File: AJRR339

Mickey Mouse Bought a House

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Mickey Mouse bought a house, Couldn't pey the rent And got kicked out."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: animal home money jumprope | Mickey Mouse
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #14, "(Mickey Mouse)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #340, "Mickey Mouse" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mickey Mouse Built a House" (subject of Mickey's residence)
File: AJRV014

Mickey Mouse Built a House

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Mickey Mouse built a house Under an apple tree, Mickey Mouse called the house Number twenty-tree."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Opie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: animal home jumprope | Mickey Mouse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #341, "Mickey Mouse built a house" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mickey Mouse Bought a House" (subject of Mickey's residence)
File: AJRR341

Mickey Mulligan's Pup

See Brannigan's Pup (File: FSC122)

Mickey Pick-Slate

DESCRIPTION: "There came to this country a short time ago A poor Irish widow from the county Mayo, She had but one son, his age it was eight, And the boss gave him work picking slate." He works hard, but falls down an hole and dies; his mother laments
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining work children death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 115-116, "Mickey Pick-Slate" (1 text)
NOTES [137 words]: Unlike most of the pieces in this part of Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, Korson does not list an author; he seems to imply that it is traditional. So I've indexed it.
Child labor was of course common in the Pennsylvania mines, but the children were usually older than eight! Still, the song is accurate in describing most of the youngsters as slate-pickers. According to Kevin Kenny, Making Sense of the Molly Maguires, Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 60, "Three thousand nine hundred and eighty boys worked in the mines of Schuylkill County in 1870; 886 (22 percent) of them worked below ground, in charge of mules and ventilation, and 3,094(78 percent) above ground, picking slate out of coal in the breaker." A footnote adds that 12,000 boys worked as slate pickers in the anthracite region as a whole in 1880. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP115

Mickey's Warning

See Blue Bleezin' Blind Drunk (Mickey's Warning) (File: RcBlBlBl)

Micky Jim MacNeil

DESCRIPTION: Micky Jim MacNeil was "the tightest of the Scotchmen." Out on the ice, he falls in and is rescued. The rescuers tease him that he has drowned his [only?] bosom friends [that is, his lice]: "the ones he hadn't lost all had a better appetite"
AUTHOR: Paul E. Hall (according to Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
KEYWORDS: rescue river humorous bug
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 24, pp. 143-147, "Micky Jim MacNeil" (1 text)
Roud #24329
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "Micky Jim MacNeil" (on NFJDowney01)
Hector MacIsaac and Jerome Downey, "Scotchie Town" (on NFHMacIsaac01)
Hector MacIsaac, "Scotchy Town" (on NFHMacIsaac02)
File: BeDo143

Micky O'Dowd

DESCRIPTION: "Don't whistle so loud, You naden't be so proud, Many a boy is a father today, And there might have been two of them, Micky O'Dowd"
AUTHOR: Arthur Lennard (1867-1954)? (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: father baby music
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 106, "Don't Whistle So Loud" (1 fragment)
Roud #25346
NOTES [61 words]: The attribution to Arthur Lennard is from Fowke, but while Lennard was a well-known stage actor and music hall entertainer (a rather interesting one, since he impersonated a woman so often that he released a picture postcard of him wearing a dress and a woman's hat), he doesn't seem to have had any reputation as a composer. I suspect he merely sang the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC106B

Middlesex Flora, The

DESCRIPTION: Bound from London in a storm, "the proud waves did beat her to staves, her name was The Middlesex Flora, and they did sweep our men to the deep." Strangers on the coast pick up the rich cargo. Captain James Bell and the lost crew of thirteen are named.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor shore
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1825: "Middlesex Flora of London was wrecked at Dundrum... en route from Barcelona to Belfast.... Twenty four were drowned." (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v2, p. 25; Irish Wrecks Online site)
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #63, pp. 2-3, "The Middlesex Flora" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 29, "The Middlesex Flora" (5 texts, 4 tunes)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 72-74, "The Middlesex Flora" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 254-255, 294, "The Middlesex Flora" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #3810
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(119), "The Middlesex Flora," H. Such (London), 1863-1885
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Mayflower" (theme of wreckers) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Downs
NOTES [33 words]: Christie: "The Editor was informed by a native of the Enzie, who died in 1847, aged 85 years, that he heard "The Middlesex Flora" sung by two sailors on the streets of Buckie about the year 1780." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Ran072

Middletack Cliack

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a miller, is invited to "a meal and ale" at Middletack farm. "When we got the lasses out we did commence to dance." He names some of the "pretty charming maids" and some of the men. The party ended peacefully after three o'clock.
AUTHOR: John Sim (composed 1860) (source: Greig/Duncan3)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: dancing drink food party moniker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 631, "Middletack Cliack" (1 text)
Roud #6066
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Castles in the Air" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
NOTES [36 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Middletack (631) is at coordinate (h6,v0) on that map [roughly 35 miles N of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3631

Middleton Junction Band

DESCRIPTION: "We have a band in Junction, The good old Junction Band, They practice every night Behind the Bird i' th' hand." The band members are described. They enter a contest and lose to the only other band. Everyone joins in on the choruses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire)
KEYWORDS: music humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, pp. 56-57, "Middleton Junction Band" (1 text)
NOTES [24 words]: Almost certainly a modern composed song, but Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire lists no author, so I've included it, with obvious reservations. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: MHFL056

Midnight

DESCRIPTION: "Under this sod lies a great bucking horse. There never lived a cowboy he couldn't toss. His name was Midnight, his coat black as coal, If there's a hoss heaven, please, God, rest his soul."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: horse death recitation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1924 - First appearance of the bucking horse "Midnight" at the Calgary Stampede
1933 - Midnight is retired
1936 - Death of Midnight. This poem was reportedly inscribed on his monument
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 80, "Midnight" (1 text)
NOTES [273 words]: The horse "Midnight" was especially associated with rider Pete Knight, for whom see the entry on "Pete Knight." Knight owned bucking horses, but Midnight was not one of them; it was owned by one Jim McNab (Darrell Knight, Pete Knight the Cowboy King, Detselig Enterprises, 2004, p. 51). It was a "tall black gelding, sired by a Percheron-Morgan cross on the Cottonwood ranch in southern Alberta's Porcupine Hills" (ibid.), and apparently was born in 1916, since it was eight years old at the time it made its appearance at the MacLeod rodeo in 1924. The horse was "saddle-broken," but too unpredictable to be ridden (Knight, p. 52).
Later in 1924, the horse was in action at the Calgary Stampede, where it threw on Cecil Henley; because the Calgary event was so big, it was there that Midnight started to build a reputation (Knight, p. 55). It was enhanced when the Alberta Stampede Company, the first organized traveling rodeo in Canada, purchased the horse for its bucking horse exhibitions -- paying an amazing $500 for a horse that was otherwise too wild to be used for anything (Knight, p. 65).
The Stampede Company closed down in 1928, and Midnight was sold to an American named Jim Eskew (Kinight, p. 94). The horse was retired in 1933 (Knight, p. 142), though it was famous enough to be brought out of retirement at least once, soon after, to be taken on a tour of Britain (Knight, p. 149). The horse died in Colorado in 1936 (Knight, p. 173)
There is at least one book about the horse: Sam Savitt, Midnight: Champion Bucking Horse, Scholastic Book Services, 1957. Based on the publishers, it sounds like a children's book. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Ohr080

Midnight Dew, The

See Nine Hundred Miles (File: LxU073)

Midnight Express, The

See Jim Blake (File: GC479b)

Midnight Messenger, The

DESCRIPTION: Death: "the time is come that thou shalt be no more." Rich man: "sure it cannot be; Depart therefore, you are not sent for me." Convinced, rich man says "serve ye the Lord, obey his holy will"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: virtue money death dialog religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Poem #4, pp. 12-19, "The Midnight Messenger" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 244-249, "The Midnight Messenger" (1 text)
Roud #V2951
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fortune My Foe (Aim Not Too High)" (tune) and references there
NOTES [61 words]: Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland prints the following, apparently from his source: "A sudden call from an earthly glory to the cold grave in a dialogue between Death, and a Rich Man; who in the midst of all his Wealth, received the tidings of his Last Day, to his unspeakable and sorrowful Lamentation. To the tune of 'Aim not too high,' &c." - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: DixP004

Midnight on the Stormy Deep

DESCRIPTION: "Twas midnight on the stormy deep, My solitary watch I'd keep, And think of her I'd left behind, And ask if she'd be true and kind." He is forced away by war. She asks him not to leave; "The deep deep sea may us divide." One or the other betrays the other
AUTHOR: attributed to "B. E. L." in the 1857 sheet music, perhaps based on a poem "Die Schildwache" by Wilhelm Hauff (1802-1827)
EARLIEST DATE: 1857 (sheet music published by Miller & Beacham)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dime-Song-Book #11, p. 45, "'Tis Midnight on the Stormy Deep" (1 text)
Roud #18034
RECORDINGS:
The Blue Sky Boys, "Midnight on the Stormy Deep" (Bluebird 6480)
Mac & Bob (Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner), "Midnight on the Stormy Deep" (Vocalion 5125)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Midnight on the Stormy Deep" (CYL: Edison ???, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Loved You in the Days of Joy" (lyrics)
NOTES [50 words]: The common version of this has a text substantially different from the 1857 sheet music, and the tunes are somewhat different also. So even though I can't cite a traditional version, there may have been some oral transmission along the way. Of course, it could just be that it was A. P. Carter-ized. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RcMotSD

Midnight Serenade

DESCRIPTION: "The voices of the night, love, (Are singing/have hushed) their lullaby, The little stars are bright." "Awake to the notes of my guitar And listen to your lover true." The girl is the man's dream and blessing. He apologizes for waking her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love courting music
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 23, "Midnight Serenade" (2 texts, 2 tunea)
Roud #11336
File: Brne023

Midnight Special, The

DESCRIPTION: "Let the Midnight Special shine its light on me; Let the Midnight Special shine its ever-loving light on me." The prisoner describes how he was arrested, the difficult conditions in prison, and a visit from his girlfriend
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Dave Cutrell)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes warning crime police train
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 478-484, "The Midnight Special" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 292, "The Midnight Special" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 171, "The Midnight Special" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 26-27, "The Midnight Special"; 217, "Midnight Special" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 91, "The Midnight Special" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 71-75, "The Midnight Special" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 70-71, "Yon' Come Roberta" (1 text, 1 tune. The song lacks a chorus and the tune is "completely different," according to Jackson, but most of the lyrics belong here); pp. 92-93, "Midnight Special" (1 text, 1 tune, unusually full)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 908-909, "The Midnight Special" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 528-529, "Midnight Special" (1 text)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 112-113, "The Midnight Special" (1 short ext, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 142-143, "Midnight Special" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 55, "Midnight Special" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 71, "Midnight Special" (1 text)
DT, MDNTSPCL
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 71, "Midnight Special" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6364
RECORDINGS:
Jesse Bradley, "Midnight Special" (AFS 218 A1, 1934)
Dillard Chandler, "Gastony Song" (on Chandler01, DarkHoll)
Bill Cox, "The Midnight Special" (Banner 32891/Melotone M12797/Oriole 8271/Perfect 12942/Romeo 3271/Conqueror 8230, 1933; Panachord (UK) 25626, 1934) (See Notes)
Dave Cutrell (known as "Pistol Pete") with McGinty's Oklahoma Cowboy Band, "Pistol Pete's Midnight Special" (OKeh 45057, 1926); McGinty's Oklahoma Cowboy Band (now led by Otto Gray), "The Midnight Special" (Vocalion 5337; c. 1929)
Folkmasters, "The Midnight Special" (on Fmst01)
Frank Jordan & Group, "Midnight Special" (AFS 619 A1, 1936)
Lead Belly, "Midnight Special" (on ClassRR)
Leadbelly & the Golden Gate Quartet, "The Midnight Special" (Victor 27266, 1941; rec. 1940)
Pete Seeger, "The Midnight Special" (on PeteSeeger18) (on PeteSeeger26) (on PeteSeeger43)
Pete Seeger & Big Bill Broonzy, "The Midnight Special" (on BroonzySeeger1) (on BroonzySeeger2)
[Wilmer] Watts & [Frank] Wilson, "Walk Right In Belmont" (Paramount 3019, 1927; on TimesAint04)
Ernest Williams, "Midnight Special" (AFS CYL-11-5, 1933)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jumpin' Judy"
cf. "Mississippi Jail House Groan" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Early in the Morning (IV -- prison song)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Woolston Ferry" (primary tune)
NOTES [238 words]: I seem to recall a legend that, should the light of the Midnight Special shine on a convict, he would soon be freed. I can'r remember where I heard this, though. I've more recently found this mentioned in Sing Out magazine, Volume 37, #2 (1992), pp, 54, but I'm sure I heard it somewhere else. That issue of Sing Out refers to another legend, in which highly favored convicts were allowed visits from prostitutes brought in on a special train. (The problem with this, of course, is that someone had to pay the prostitutes, so I rather doubt it.)
Carl Sandburg, on the other hand, believes that the song refers to suicide: That the convict would rather be dead under the wheels of the train than spend another twenty years in prison.
Cohen quotes Mack McCormick to the effect that several versions show localization to an unsuccessful 1923 jailbreak, but offers evidence that the song, or at least pieces of it, are much older. The version he prints, "Pistol Pete's Midnight Special" by Dave Cutrell, has several verses not heard in the common Leadbelly version. - RBW
The Bill Cox recording consists of floating train-song verses, e.g., "I've rode the Southern, I've Rode the L&N." It does have a chorus "Let the Midnight Special shine its light on me/Way out on that old I.C.," so I place it with the other versions of the song. Oh, the I.C. Is the Illinois Central railroad, which ran through Mississippi to New Orleans. -PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: R292

Midnight Train and the 'Fo' Day Train, The

See The Midnight Train (File: San325)

Midnight Train, The

DESCRIPTION: "The midnight train and the fo' day train run all night long (x2) They run till the break of day." "'Twas the same train carried yo' mother 'way, run all night long (x2) It run until the break of day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: train mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 325, "The Midnight Train" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 240-241, "The Midnight Train and the 'Fo' Day Train" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ST San325 (Full)
Roud #20045
File: San325

Midst of Night

See A Seaman and His Love (The Welcome Sailor) [Laws N29] (File: LN29)

Midsummer Carol

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas early I walked on a midsummer morning, The fields and the meadows were deckéd and gay." The singer plays the pipes as the nightingales court. He will wear flowers in honor of his love. He will play a song for her beauty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: love flowers courting music
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #89, "The Midsummer Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6913
File: BGSW089

Midsummer Fair

See Tom Pearce (Widdicombe Fair I) (File: K308)

Mien Vader Vos Ein Dutchman

See My Father Was a Dutchman (File: Pet046A)

Mighty Bright Light

DESCRIPTION: First verse/chorus: "(It was) a mighty bright light that was shining down." "Oh, tell me who was that light that was shining down?" "King Jesus was the light that was shining down." "My mother saw the light that was shining down...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recorded by Texas state farm prisoners)
KEYWORDS: worksong chaingang religious
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 101, "(Mighty Bright Light)" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Texas state farm prisoners, "Mighty Bright Light" (on NPCWork)
NOTES [17 words]: A work song, with the gang joining in on the word "down," perhaps striking the hammer at that point. - RBW
File: CNFM101

Mighty Day

DESCRIPTION: Refrain: "Wasn't that a mighty day"(4x). Verse: The book of Revelations is opened. The singer is invited "to see the mystery." He sees the red and black horses and the pale horse takes his father. Satan is chained and burned. The dead rise and are judged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious death Jesus Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 20, "Mighty Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John W. Work, American Negro Songs (New York: Crown Publishers, 1940 (republished by Mineola: Dover Publications, 1998)), p. 232, "O It's Goin' To Be a Mighty Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12297
NOTES [104 words]: The description is based on the Barton-OldPlantationHymns text.
References to the Book of Revelations [King James]:
Barton-OldPlantationHymns's singer is invited to be a witness (Revelation 1:11).
Barton-OldPlantationHymns mentions the white, red, and pale horse on which sat Death, but does not mention the black horse. The first four seals are opened (Revelation 6:1-5).
Barton-OldPlantationHymns: "And the wicked calls in the mountains To hide them from His face" (Revelation 6:15-17, after the sixth seal is opened).
Barton-OldPlantationHymns's Satan is bound (Revelation 20:.1-3) and put in the fire (Revelation 20:10). - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart020B

Mighty Day (Wasn't That a Mighty Storm)

DESCRIPTION: The story of the Galveston tidal wave. Despite evacuation efforts, many die on land and at sea. Chorus something like, "Wasn't that a mighty day/storm, when the storm winds struck/swept the town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: storm disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 8, 1900 - Galveston hurricane and flood. Some 6000 die
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 728, "Wasn't That a Mighty Storm!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 53, "Mighty Day" (1 text)
DT, MIGHTDAY
Roud #12206
RECORDINGS:
"Sin-Killer" Griffin & congregation, "Wasn't That a Mighty Storm" (AFS 185 B2, 1934; on LC10)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wasn't That a Mighty Time (Galveston Flood)" (subject, floating lyrics)
cf. "Galveston Storm" (subject)
NOTES [3021 words]: This song shares many of its lyrics, and even some musical elements, with "Wasn't That a Mighty Time (Galveston Flood)." It is quite likely that the two have common roots. The "feel" of the resulting songs is so different, however, that I list them as separate pieces.
The "popular" version, as recorded by the Chad Mitchell trio, reportedly was touched up somewhat by Bob Gibson. - RBW
In the LC version... the chorus is: "Wasn't that a mighty storm/Wasn't that a mighty storm, great water/Wasn't that a mighty storm/That blew the people away." - PJS
For a possible spiritual source, see Anna Kranz Odum, "Some Negro Folk Songs from Tennessee," in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 27, No. 105 (Jul-Sep 1914 (available online by JSTOR)), "Wasn't That a Mighty Day" #20 p. 264 (1 text); the chorus is ("Wasn't that a mighty day"(3x) "When Jesus Christ was born!" (not the spiritual quoted by Work (see "Mighty Day") which has a chorus of ("Wasn't that a mighty day"(4x)). - BS
Some versions of "Wasn't That a Mighty Time" declare that "The story of Galveston flood Will never, ever be told." There is an odd bit of truth to this; Fehrenbach's 761 page Texas history has no index entries for the storm, and McComb gives it a single sidebar and two photos (pp. 104-105). But there are several books specifically about the disaster; I know of Hubert Molloy Mason Jr., Death from the Sea, 1972, which I have not seen; John Edward Weems, A Weekend in September, 1957; and Patricia Bellis Bixel and Elizabeth Hayes Turner, Galveston and the 1900 Storm, cited here. There is also Erik Larson's Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History (sometimes published with other subtitles), but while Larson is a popular author of history, I have found his accuracy level in other books to be distressingly poor, so I have not used it for this entry. I assume "Isaac" is Isaac Cline, the forecaster, who will be mentioned several times below.
A number of other books were published in 1900-1901, but with the sole exception of Clarence Ousley's Galveston in 1900, they should be avoided as tabloid-style fictionalization, according to Bixel/Turner, p. 168.
Galveston Island is one of the barrier islands off Texas in the Gulf of Mexico. Shaped somewhat like a carrot, it is twenty-seven miles long and a maximum of three miles wide (Bixel/Turner, p. 1), with the widest parts generally in the northwest. It is quite low; before it was rebuilt, the highest part of the island was just nine feet above sea level (Bixel/Turner, p. 5).
The first European to see it seems to have been Cabeza de Vaca in 1528, but it was left to its native inhabitants for the next two and a half centuries. The Island had been named for the Conde de Gálvez, a one-time governor of (Spanish) Louisiana (Fehrenbach, p. 126) who ordered the area mapped in 1785 (Bixel/Turner, p. 1). A few filibusterers, and the famous pirate Jean Lafitte, spent time there in the half century after that. A man named Michel B. Menard realized the value of its harbor (loosely speaking, the entrance to the bay on which Houston resides) and set to take advantage of it (McComb, p. 68); he can probably be considered the founder of the city of Galveston, which took shape immediately after Texas declared independence from Mexico in 1836 (Bixel/Turner, p. 2). It soon became the main shipping point for much of Texas, with cargo being taken off big ships and loaded into smaller vessels that could penetrate the shallower streams and inlets of the Texas coast. By 1899, there were twenty steamship routes connected with Galveston, fourteen of them connecting with Europe. The population at the turn of the twentieth century was 80% white, 20% Black (Bixel/Turner, p. 4).
"[T]he Island City was the most advanced and sophisticated in Texas.... Galveston trailed Houston, Dallas and San Antonio [in population]. It would never catch up.... Galveston was still the most important port, it was the first to have telephones and electricity, it had the best newspapers and theater, it had the greatest variety of sports, it had the most individual wealth and the most advanced architecture, and it was a place of unique, unusual beauty which ever visitor could feel" (David G. McComb, quoted on p. 5 of Bixel/Turner).
But, despite a history of street flooding during storms, it had very little protection from bad weather. Indeed, the residents had cut down the trees and leveled the dunes on the beach, eliminating such natural protection as the island had. Contrary to some of the songs, there was no sea wall (Bixel/Turner, p. 10) -- the city, despite the wealth of its population, had little revenue and was financially constrained; many of the streets were still just open spaces covered with sand! (Weems, p. 25).
The storm was not entirely un-forecast. Warnings had gone out as early as September 4 (Weems, p. 11). On Tuesday, September 5, the Galveston Daily News had a mention of bad weather in Cuba, and ships heading east from Texas were told they might expect high winds (Bixel/Turner, p. 12). Additional word of high winds came from the Gulf Coast over the next several days. And the storm was known to be strong; a number of telegraph lines in Florida were knocked out (Weems, p. 11). But there was no way to know where it would go next. In Galveston, the only evidence of something usual, on the morning of September 8, 1900, was an unusually high tide that was producing some flooding (Bixel/Turner, p. 17). The sky did not show strong signs, the winds gave no warning, and the barometer was not unusually low (Bixel/Turner, p. 19).
Nonetheless meteorologist Isaac Monroe Cline, who was in charge of hurricane warnings, decided to raise the storm flag -- a red flag with a black square (Bixel/Turner, pp. 18-19). Later, he would drive around the outer coast of the island, warning residents to go home and tourists to try to leave the island (Weems, p. 34). The line in the song that the people were warned "But they never meant to leave their homes Till death was in their face" seems to have been accurate. Weatherman Joseph Cline, Isaac's brother, also went around the town pointing people to the center of town, where their chances of survival would be better, but many refused to take his advice (Weems, p. 84).
The Clines' prediction was good forecasting -- but of course there were storms and there were storms. The best guess is that the Galveston hurricane was what we would now call a Category 4 storm (Bixel/Turner, p. 41), although we can't be entirely sure because most wind gauges blew out. Similarly, the rain was estimated at ten inches, although no official figure could be given because the official rain gauge blew away some time before 2:30 after measuring 1.27 inches of rain. At 2:30 the wind was averaging 42 miles per hour, with higher gusts (Weems, p. 65).
There was a rail line from Galveston to Houston, about three hours away, and there were people who wanted to take it out of town, but the high water made that impossible even before the main storm hit; the tracks were reported flooded by 12:15 (Weems, p. 53). Trains to Beaumont, Texas (which connected to Galveston by boat) were also out of reach.
At 11:00 a.m. on September 8, the Galveston meteorologists reported to Washington a temperature of 82.8F, winds of 30 miles per hour, heavy rain, and a falling barometer (Weems, p 46). By noon, storm waters had made it as far as twelve blocks into the city and still rising (Weems, p. 49). At noon, the winds reached "gale force" on the Beaufort scale and were still increasing (Weems, p. 54).
If it hadn't been clear before, by early afternoon it was obvious that this was going to be an unusually strong storm, and people were struggling to get home and prepare (Bixel/Turner, pp. 23-24). We don't know who was the first person to die, or when, but by 1:00 p.m., it is known that a baby had drowned (Weems, p. 58).
By late afternoon, the storm surge was so high that it covered all of Galveston Island (Bixel/Turner, p. 27; Weems, p. 72, believes this happened between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m.); because floods were so common, most houses were raised, so many were still above water, but that didn't mean they could stand up to the weather! It is believed that the storm surge was about fifteen feet (Bixel/Turner, p. 41), meaning that every point on the island was under at least six feet of water. Electricity was out, naturally; so were all bridges to the mainland. Trains, streetcars, and even the water pumps went down (Bixel/Turner, p. 43; on p. 46, they explain that the island's water was supplied by a pipe from the mainland. The pipe survived, but without pumps, Galveston had no water). The two telegraph lines to the island were down by about 2:00 p.m.; around 3:00, the telephone line to the mainland went down, meaning that all communication with the mainland was gone (Weems, pp. 66-67).
The last official wind gauge blew away at 5:15. The highest five-minute average up to that time had been 84 miles per hour; there had been gusts unofficially recorded at 100 miles per hour, and the wind is thought to have gotten stronger after that (Weems, p. 80).
The peak of the storm came between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m., September 8 (Bixel/Turner, p. 28). At 7:15, an official observer recorded a barometric pressure of 28.48 inches of mercury, said to be the lowest on record to that date (Weems, p. 110), though far lower pressures have been recorded since. The water peaked in the hour after 8:00 (Bixel/Turner, pp. 30-31). It stayed very high until about 10:00 or 11:00, though, and began to fall after that (Bixel/Turner, p. 31). Weem, p. 127, says that most of the damage had been done by 10:00 p.m., after which a south wind started to blow water out of the town.
Apart from the immediate death and destruction, the entire city was covered with a "foul-smelling slime" that permeated both the buildings that still stood and the supplies that were still available (Weems, pp. 135-136).
After hitting Galveston, the storm headed north and northeast, losing power as it went over land; it traveled over Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, the Great Lakes, and eastern Canada (Weems, p. 150), but the damage it did seems to have been less memorable, though Bixel/Turner, p. 164, claim that 4000 died outside Galveston and Weems, p. 167, says that some 2000 died elsewhere.
A few days after the storm, mayor Walter C. Jones sent out a description and appeal: "It is my opinion, based on personal information, that 5000 people have lost their lives here. Approximately one-third of the residence portion of the city has been swept away. There are several thousand people who are homeless and destitute; how many, there is no way of finding out..." (Weems, p. 149). His estimates were perhaps low. Galveston's insurance inspector concluded that 3636 residences were demolished and that the total damage was on the order of 28 million dollars (Weems, p. 153). Other estimates place the property damage between $17 and $30 million (Bixel/Turner, p. 43) -- which, given that inflation increased prices some 25-fold in the following century, puts the damage in the range of half a billion to a billion early-twenty-first century dollars. It was estimated that 97.5% of the homes in the city had suffered damage (Bixel/Turner, p. 73). There were five thousand applications for help rebuilding homes (Bixel/Turner, p. 73) -- i.e. five thousand families whose homes were destroyed or at least damaged beyond their own ability to repair.
"There had never been a worse disaster in North American history. The death toll, only approximate until much later, would eventually reach six thousand, the largest number of disaster fatalities ever recorded in American history" (Bixel/Turner, p. 33, although Weems, p. 167, says that estimates range from 3,000 to 12,000). The death toll was out of a population, according to the 1900 census, of 37,389 (Bixel/Turner, p. 57), so roughly one person in six died. Another six thousand or so migrated out; the city is said to have lost 32% of its population (Bixel/Turner, p. 57).
In the aftermath, with few relief supplies and desperate people resorting to looting, the mayor and police chief declared martial law and recruited a volunteer militia (Bixel/Turner, p. 46). There were so many bodies, and the ground was still so wet, that they could not be buried; after an attempt to bury them at sea, which failed because corpses kept coming back to land, most were cremated (Bixel/Turner, p. 48).
The attitudes of the citizens of the city is shown by the fact that fifty Black men were forced at bayonet point to help with body disposal (Bixel/Turner, pp. 48, 57; Weems, p. 144, mentions that people were made to work at weapon-point but doesn't say they were Black). A number of Blacks were accused of looting, and some were shot (Bixel/Turner, p. 78; they seem to want to deny that looting happened, but in light of what we now know about police and racism, I'd guess the looting was real but the shootings were the work of prejudiced policemen). Other Blacks were imprisoned for looting, and denied relief supplies (Bixel/Turner, p. 80).
Eventually relief supplies started to arrive, of course. The Red Cross was one of the relief organizations; it was the last time Clara Barton would be directly involved in rescue efforts (Bixel/Turner, p. 61), and her presence probably encouraged others to contribute (Bixel/Turner, p. 63); she also fought against the racial prejudice of the locals (Bixel/Turner, p. 810. Help came in from all over the place. One of the biggest contributions was tents from the army -- most from the recent Spanish-American War, but some supposedly going back to the Civil War! (Bixel/Turner, p. 70).
The initial crews hired to rebuild were basically people swept off the streets, and were so incompetent that, supposedly, 90% of the homes put up had to be rebuilt (Bixel/Turner, p. 73). Eventually the relief committee gave in and hired union professionals.
Various services came back online in the week after the storm. The first mail boat was on September 12. Western Union managed to string a new wire on September 13 (and charged no fee for telegrams pertaining to relief). The water supply also came back on September 13, at least for places with working plumbing (Bixel/Turner, p. 74), but that was only a small minority at first (Weems, p. 157). The banks are said to have re-opened on September 15; the next day, some mule-drawn streetcars began running, with difficulty due to the debris (Weems, pp. 158), and electric power was restored in many areas. Long-distance telephone service came back on the 17th. On September 21, with one of the several railroad bridges repaired, the first train pulled in (Weems, p. 158; Bixel/Turner, p. 76); in addition, the streets were mostly clear, and new phone lines were being laid. By October 22, five schools had re-opened (Bixel/Turner, p. 76) -- though that still left many, including all but one black school, closed (Bixel/Turner, p. 77).
But just getting services back didn't get the city rebuilt. As we have seen, the city government had been close to bankrupt before the storm (in 1899, it did not meet its September payroll until December; Bixel/Turner, p. 91; in 1895 it had been discovered that the official accountant knew no bookkeeping and was not creating financial statements!; Bixel/Turner, p. 94). Galveston had no reserves to deal with even small problems, let alone a catastrophe. And its mayor and twelve aldermen were regarded by many as corrupt and self-interested (Bixel/Turner, p. 90); in 1900, they were also deadlocked between an Old Guard and a reformist faction (Bixel/Turner, p. 91). Ultimately the city asked the Texas legislature to let it shift from this traditional system to an appointed commission of government (Bixel/Turner, p. 92). This proved better able to deal with the financial difficulties.
The engineers chosen by the commission made several recommendations: a seawall 17 feet high (1.3 feet higher than the storm surge), putting up an embankment associated with it, and raising the city itself and its streets. The estimated cost for all this would be about $3.5 million (Bixel/Turner, p. 95). Construction began of the wall about two years after the hurricane, in October 1902, with sections finished by 1904 although there would be extensions thereafter (Bixel/Turner, p. 97, who on the following pages have photographs of the wall under construction). And the wall also caused increased beach damage, which (apart from reducing the appeal of the beaches) threatened to undermine the seawall, so it turned out to require ongoing (and expensive) maintenance (Bixel/Turner, p. 126). Still, the seawall soon proved its worth, helping the city through hurricanes in 1909 and (especially) 1915 (Bixel/Turner, p. 157); in the latter storm, which was thought comparable to the storm of 1900, only a few lives were lost although there was again extensive property damage, including to the wall itself (Weems, p. 160, says twelve lives were lost in 1915; Bixel/Turner, p. 157, says eight).
Raising the land also involved temporarily moving homes, both to raise them and to cut the canal that would be used to bring in the fill (Bixel/Turner, p. 108; Weems, pp. 160-161) -- something the government paid for, but I have to think the people went along only because their houses were being rebuilt anyway. And they apparently buried a lot of trash in the fill (Bixel/Turner, pp. 119-120), which I have to think would have eventually resulted in pollution problems. The filling was finally finished in 1911, with a new firm taking over the task that had been too much of a financial strain for the company originally contracted (Bixel/Turner, p. 121). The port was also rebuilt, and a causeway was constructed to the land, with a lift bridge to keep the channel open, to carry trains and cars (Bixel/Turner, pp. 132-135). Difficult to finance as it was, all that work paid off; by 1912, Galveston was again the nation's #2 port, after New York (Bixel/Turner, p. 130). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: BSoF728

Mighty Fortress Is Our God, A (Ein Feste Burg)

DESCRIPTION: Originally in German; now English: A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing." God is a help in the world's troubles, and can rescue those who cannot save themselves. God endures forever
AUTHOR: Martin Luther / usual English words by F. H. Hedge
EARLIEST DATE: 1529 (sources: Johnson, Julian); English words 1852 (Julian)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 241-242, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 278, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (Ein' Feste Burg)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 86, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 21 "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" (1 text, 1 tune)
John Julian, editor, _A Dictionary of Hymnology_, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), pp. 321-325, "Ein Feste Burg ist Unser Gott" (1 German text)
SAME TUNE:
What Gives the Wheat Fields Blades of Steel? (File: SBoA236)
NOTES [445 words]: I suspect the fact that this hymn does not seem to have been collected in tradition indicates primarily that relatively few collectors have worked the Upper Midwest. My experience is that almost all Lutherans (the dominant Christian denomination in Minnesota and other Midwestern states) know at least one verse by heart, but with folk processing errors, and I have included it on that basis.
According to Johnson, p. 20, this "was written in 1529 shortly after the Diet of [Speyer], when German princes made formal protest against revoking some of their liberties and received the name Protestants." This contradicts an account by Heinrich Heine, who claimed that it was a "battle hymn" sung as Luther attended the Diet of Worms in 1521 (Julian, p. 323). Julian points out that Heine's account is surely wrong; had the song been in existence by then, Luther would have published it in his 1524 hymnal, which he did not do. Julian agrees with Johnson's belief that it was probably written in 1529, before the Diet of Speyer. The earliest surviving text, however, was published in 1531.
Julian, pp. 324-325, lists eighteen translations in "common use" and another 44 that are not in common use, and lists four more on pp. 1561 and 1631, but the "A Mighty Fortress" lyric is the one everyone sings; the others are probably used only to shake up congregations once in a while. Admittedly I'm not a Lutheran, but the only one that sounds even slightly familiar to me is Godfrey Thring's "A Fortress Sure is God Our King," from 1882.
One rendering that does not seem to have become well-known was made as early as 1539 by Miles Coverdale, who also created the first officially approved English Bible; it begins "Oure God is a defence and towre, A good armour and good weapon" (Reynolds, p. 24). Reynolds, p. 25, claims that an 1852 translation by Frederick H. Hedge (1805-1890), a Unitarian minister and professor of German, is popular, but it's new to me.
The German text is allegedly based on Psalm 46, but Julian grants (p. 704) that it "takes... hardly anything from the Psalm." The psalm perhaps gave the idea rather than any real text; it refers to God as a "strength" and a "refuge," and it isn't far from there to the "Feste Burg."
Incidentally, even English versions that mention the Mighty Fortress may not be very close to the Luther text; according to McKim, p. 185, the version sung by Presbyterians has only the first two lines from Luther (translated by Frederick Henry Hodge); the rest was made up by the Roman Catholic musician Omer Westendorf ("J. Clifford Evers") and published in 1964; this version was intended to bring it closer to the actual Psalm 46. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: xAMiFIOG

Mighty Maulin', A

See Fod (File: LoF213)

Mighty Mississippi

DESCRIPTION: "Way out in the Mississippi valley, Just along the plain so grand, Rose the flooded Mississippi River, Destroying the works of man." The Mississippi River flood of 1927 is described, and the plight of those flooded out detailed
AUTHOR: Words: Kelly Harrell
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Ernest Stoneman)
KEYWORDS: flood river disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1927 - Mississippi River floods, devastating the Delta region and leaving thousands homeless
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 87, "Mighty Mississippi" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MGHTYMSS*
Roud #21713
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "Mighty Mississippi" (on NLCR02)
Mike Seeger, "The Story of the Mighty Mississippi" (on MSeeger01)
Ernest Stoneman, "The Story of the Mighty Mississippi" (Victor 20671, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Great American Flood Disaster" (subject)
cf. "Backwater Blues" (subject)
cf. "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues" (subject)
cf. "The Mississippi Flood (The Murrumbidgee Flood)" (subject)
cf. "Cairo (II)" (subject)
NOTES [3306 words]: Kelly Harrell wrote this poem but never attempted to record it (shows how different attitudes toward composed songs were back then); it was Ernest Stoneman who took the piece, found a traditional tune for it, and recorded the result. - RBW
And the recording was out within a few months of the disaster -- probably by September, 1927. - PJS
According to Kip Lornell, Virginia's Blues, Country & Gospel Records 1902-1943, the recording session was even more timely: It was made May 21, 1927. Stoneman also cut "Jim Hoover's Mississippi Flood Song" in that session, but Victor declined to issue it.
According to Parrish, p. 1, the great flood wasn't just the result of a wet spring in 1927. 1926 had also been wet in the upper Mississippi watershed. This had caused some relatively local flooding, but its main effect was to fill every lake, river, and reservoir to capacity. There was no place for additional water to go except straight down the Mississippi. And then 1927 was a wet year also....
To make things worse, the heavy engineering that had gone into Mississippi flood control had straightened the river's course and made it possible for waters to flow faster, and the wetlands and backwaters had been drained or cut off from the river, and the land cleared, all of which meant that the river had more power and fewer places to hold excess water (Parrish, p. 11). The pre-engineering river might flood, but it flooded slowly and relatively locally. The new river rarely overtopped its banks, but when it did, look out: "In trying to lessen the risk to property inherent in a floodplain, this 'levees only' policy paradoxically turned natural disturbance into potential catastrope" (Parrish, p. 28).
The levees were more than just floodwalls. Barry, pp. 190-191, describes them. The area closest to the river, the "batture," was a wide area of riverbank that the river was simply allowed to flood; it was usually planted with trees. Then came the "barrow pit," a great gulley or moat to slow, contain, and channel the water. The earth cut out of the barrow pit was usually used to build the "berm," the great ridge that most of us would think of as the levee -- a great earthen embankment, gently sloped, with a flat eight food crown, planted with heavy grasses to hold it together. They were great works of engineering -- but they were often made of relatively unsuitable local dirt, and the embankments, although grassy, had no rocky carapace to guard them. Like all earthen dams, they were strong but could be washed away if overtopped or undercut.
The other thing about the Mississippi Flood is that it was slow (relatively speaking). A tornado or hurricane comes quickly and hits hard; there is no time for coverage. But the Mississippi Flood could be tracked as it flowed down-river. There was a lot of time for press coverage, so people were able to talk about it at length (Parrish, p. 12).
Parrish, pp. 34-35, describes the chronology: in September-October 1926, there was heavy rain and local flooding in South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana -- in other words, in all three major upper watersheds, the Missouri, Ohio, and Upper Mississippi. In December 1926, there was more rain in Montana and South Dakota, adding to the water levels in the Missouri. Pittsburgh was flooded on January 23, 1927; Cincinnati was hit five days later (Barry, p. 181). In March 1927, rains and tornadoes hit almost the entire watershed. This was the beginning of the Great Flood itself, with levees weakening and many workers, mostly black, being impressed to work on repairs and shoring up.
And there were no fewer than ten crests (Barry, p. 78), increasing the destructive power even more. At one time, the flooding on the Missouri and Upper Mississippi was so severe that it caused the Ohio River to flow backward! (Barry, p. 339). There are maps of the failures and floods on pp. 36-37 of Parrish and pp. 170-171 of Barry. The first levee to fail was at Dorena, Missouri (about 30 miles south of Cairo, Illinois, where the Ohio joins the Mississippi/Missouri), on April 16.
On April 21, the levee at Mounds Landing, Mississippi failed (Barry, p. 201), about halfway between Memphis and Vicksburg. It created a channel that, near the river, was a half a mile wide and a hundred feet deep (Barry, p. 202), supposedly carrying more water than the Upper Mississippi has ever carried in its entire recorded history (Barry, p. 203). It flooded an area fifty miles wide by a hundred miles long (Barry, p. 204). There were reportedly 185,459 people who lived in the area flooded by just that one break (Barry, p. 206).
The various levee boards downstream did make preparations; they had called in workers to maintain and sandbag the levees, and people were working around the clock. There were guards posted to prevent sabotage (and, yes, there had been some such -- Barry, p. 188, 192 -- though it's not clear whether the saboteurs were just terrorists or if they were trying to blow up someone else's levee to protect their own property. In New Orleans, on just one day, April 19, three supposed saboteurs were shot, one fatally; Barry, p. 196, and at times people were shot just for coming too near the levees; Barry, p. 238. When, on April 23, a molasses tanker hit a levee just below New Orleans and broke it, many were sure it was deliberate).
It will tell you a lot about the contemporary Southern culture that many areas conscripted Blacks, at gunpoint, to do the hard physical labor (Barry, pp. 195-196; according to p. 206, they were typically paid 75 cents a day, which was even worse than the absurdly low payment they received for picking cotton). But there was no general coordination or alternative plan for what to do if it was clear the levees would fail or be overtopped. And the weather was unusually cold at the time of the crests, making outdoor work much harder (Barry, p. 186).
Five million acres in Arkansas flooded as water from the overflowing Mississippi pushed back up the Arkansas river, causing it to flood as well. The St. Francis River in Missouri and Arkansas also flooded. The so-called "Good Friday Storm" on April 15 caused a major levee break that flooded Mississippi's Yazoo Valley region; it is believed that at least a hundred Blacks were killed on the levees on April 21. Then the flood pushed south toward New Orleans.
According to Barry, p. 15, the Good Friday storm "would pour from 6 to 15 inches of rain over several hundred thousand square miles, north to Missouri and Illinois, west into Texas, east almost to Alabama, south to the Gulf of Mexico.... Little Rock, Arkansas, and Cairo,Illinois, would receive 10 inches. New Orleans would receive the greatest rainfall ever known there; in eighteen hours officially 14.96 inches fell, more in some parts." That would have caused local flooding anyway, but when it fell on already-saturated lands, the effect was even more disastrous. It was a wild weather system; in many areas, the temperature dropped 30 degrees Fahrenheit in the space of a few hours (Barry, p. 189).
New Orleans had a plan, of sorts: they convinced higher authorities to let them blow up a series of levees beyond the city, so as to flood some relatively sparsely-populated areas rather than the city itself (Parrish, p. 38). As Barry, p. 209, puts it, "The struggle against the river had begun as one of man against nature. It was becoming one of man against man." It turned out that New Orleans didn't need to do what it did -- other levees broke. (To be fair, the other breaks might not have entirely relieved the problem -- much of the water that flooded then flowed back toward the Mississippi basin, so it put pressure on the levee on the side opposite the river! (Barry, p. 281).)
The deliberate breaking of levees was perhaps the rational course if it had been done fairly (if you have to flood somewhere, it makes sense to flood sparsely-populated areas rather than a large city), but New Orleans did not do it fairly. They had promised compensation to the inundated areas before they blew up the levees, but the compensation fund they set up was trivial ($150,000), and locals in the flooded areas had only one-fifth of the votes on the fund's board (Barry, p. 247). The amount was eventually raised to $2,000,000, with more help for the refugees (Barry, p. 251), but it was still New Orleans threatening to destroy the neighboring areas -- and the residents who could expect to be flooded threatening to fight back (Barry, pp. 254-255).
Once the place for the break was decided, they sent in trucks and forced everyone out of the flood area, took aerial photographs to document the flood effects, set guards to prevent the locals (many of whom wanted revenge) from interfering, and tried to break the levee. To add irony to injury, the levee there was particularly strong; they spent two days trying to blast it before they really got it to start releasing water; in the end, they needed 39 tons of dynamite! (Barry, pp. 254-257). One day later, the failure of other levees proved that the destruction of two whole Louisiana parishes (counties) had been unnecessary (Barry, p. 258). And, naturally, when it came time for New Orleans to pay compensation, they realized that it was going to cost a lot, and started trying to cheat (Barry, pp. 346-347; pp. 348-349 details some of the mechanisms they used to force people to take what was offered, no matter how unfair, On p. 357, he says that claims for compensation totaled about $35 million, of which $22 million were not even allowed to be filed; on the remaining $12.5 million the city and its agent J. Blanc Monroe approved less than $4 million -- and then knocked off $1 million on the grounds that the victims had gotten help while homeless, deducting that from individual claims. Thus New Orleans paid out less than 10% of the claims against it, and a lot of that went to one or two entities with political clout). Although it was patently unjust, Louisiana's courts quickly quashed the lawsuits that followed (Barry, pp. 358-360).
There were actually two peaks, one in May and one in June; the latter was a relatively normal event (water frequently rose in June), but with the levees down, it caused more flooding. People were left trying to find high ground, or boats; many found themselves stuck on top of the crumbling levees, that being the only place near the river that was above the water (Parrish, p. 39).
"In total, during this months-long flood in the Lower Valley, water covered 27,000 square miles, land in seven states where about a million people lived... roughly 637,000 people became homeless, approximately 555,000 of whom were people of color; somewhere between 250 and about 1,000 people died, and 50 percent of all animals in the flooded areas drowned. And financially, direct property losses totaled $250-500 million, while indirect losses brought that figure up to $1 billion" (Parrish, p. 41). Barry, p. 285, gives the precise figure of 931,159 residents of flooded areas, and says there were 154 "concentration camps" in the seven affected states. P. 286 says that the camps housed 325,554 people (the majority of them Black), and that the Red Cross fed 311,922 people outside the camps; he largely agrees with Parrish's figures on economic loss.
Barry, p. 285, says that the waters did not entirely recede until August.
The Mounds Landing break had finally forced action. The Red Cross was already at work, but the United States government, led by King Log Calvin Coolidge, had been ignoring the situation because of his "belief in a minimal federal government." Coolidge had ignored every earlier request from governors seeking help (Greenberg, p. 132). Finally the heat was too much even for Coolidge. Coolidge appointed his Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, to lead a response, with various other cabinet secretaries and agencies called upon to him; Hoover also had the power to give directions to the military (Barry, p. 240; Parrish, p. 40. Greenberg, p. 133, says that, "Having delegated the job, Coolidge considered his own duties largely discharged." He refused even to discuss the matter lest people decide that the government should do more). Hoover, the former World War I aid boss and future President, eventually established a series of almost 150 camps which housed about 325,000 people (Parrish, p. 41) he also made several radio addresses to the nation (Parrish, p. 72), helping establish the idea of national figures reaching the population via the mass media. He quickly started touring the region in a Pullman car, calling on people to help the displaced and raising money (Leuchtenburg, p. 68).
"Unhappily, the Mississippi flood, which showed Hoover at his best, also revealed him at his worst" (Leuchtenburg, p. 69) -- genuinely non-racist (he had integrated the Census Bureau), he largely refused to interfere with others' mistreatment of Blacks, even when they were murdered or beaten, and he offered little support to Black sharecroppers because they had no property. His work earned him enough publicity to make him the frontrunner for the 1928 Republican Presidential nomination -- even though he had never held, or even run for, electored office (Leuchtenburg, p. 71). (Barry, p. 262, calls Hoover a "brilliant fool": very clever, but so rigid in his thinking that he could not go beyond his false opinions about how the world works.)
Blacks suffered the most, according to Parrish, pp. 44-45; they were impressed into fighting the floods, they were housed in poorer conditions if displaced, and they were given far less help to rebuild. The problem as assessed by Barry, pp. 369-372, was that while Hoover did a great job of rescuing refugees and caring for them in the short term, it was all done with volunteer contributions (of which there were a great many; America was tremendously generous), and when it came time to put people back on their feet -- which often meant giving them grants, or at least loans, to rebuild their lost homes and livelihoods -- gave them only the slightest support, and that again came from charity, not the government. Even such money as was available mostly went un-lent, because the people had no collateral for the loans; if they were laborers, they owned nothing, and if they were landowners, their land had already been used as collateral to plant the crops that had been ruined by the flood (Barry, pp. 376-377). Somehow, money had to be provided by someone who would not require collateral. Very little was provided.
To add insult to injury, the wet spring gave rise to a very dry summer, then an early frost. Most of the crops planted in the flooded areas failed. The problems were so bad that pellagra (niacin deficiency) became widespread, adding yet more to the woes of the flood victims (Barry, p. 387).
Neither Hoover nor Coolidge was willing to use government resources to rebuild -- Coolidge faced loud demands to call a special congressional session, and ignored it (Barry, pp. 372-373). Given that the refusal to help people rebuild left something close to 1% of Americans destitute, I have to suspect that that helped make the Great Depression even worse, and so contributed to Hoover's defeat in the Presidential election of 1932. Sometimes you have to do the right thing even when it violates the requirements of the false gods you worship!
Eventually Congress passed legislation giving the Federal Government responsibility for flood control on the Lower Mississippi, said to be the biggest thing it had taken on outside of wartime, but it was a far more limited move than many states wanted (Barry, pp. 404-407).
The people of Louisiana's flooded parishes would have their revenge on the New Orleans power brokers. In 1928, they elected Huey Long governor, and he had no use at all for the elites (Barry, pp. 407-408). And the way the banks had done their work -- often by putting money into bad reconstruction projects -- left them unusually vulnerable; every New Orleans bank except one would fail in the Great Depression (Barry, pp. 409-410).
The statements in this song that "There were children clinging in the treetops who had spent a sleepless night" and "There were some of them on the housetops with no way to give an alarm" are absolutely right; Barry, p. 275, says that tens of thousands of people were trapped that way after the Mounds Landing break, and with few boats available to rescue them, some of them died of exposure due to unseasonably cold weather. On p. 285, he estimates that 330,000 people were rescued from small areas of dry ground, rooftops, trees, and unbroken levee tops.
The event soon became famous in popular culture. Much of Parrish's book is devoted to these popular manifestations. Perhaps the most peculiar was a $125 "Walk-through Exhibition" that Charles T. Buell & Company produced for uses in carnivals and other public events (Parrish, p. 66). Parrish, pp. 63-65 describes various comic performances to raise money, many of them having the feeling of a minstrel show. Apparently the flood response caused some sectional strife between North and South, with the latter regarding themselves as being patronized; the Southerners considered the flood primarily man-made, the Northerners regarded it as more natural, resulting in a lot of newspaper articles slinging charges at the other sections and/or races (Parrish, pp. 98-99) -- for instance, on May 15, the Atlanta Constitution editorialized, "The unvarnished truth is the great disaster in its entirety is directly chargeable to congressional neglect" (Parrish, p. 101). H. L. Menken contributed an editorial about Southern society that, although largely true, was so inflammatory in tone as to create lasting tensions (Parrish, p. 120).
There was of course a congressional investigation. But it strikes me as something of a joke -- e.g. they called Will Rogers because he was a "common man" who had raised money for victims, not because he actually knew anything! (Parrish, pp. 176-177).
This is not the only, or indeed, the most famous, song about the flood; the biggest hit was pretty definitely Bessie Smith's "Backwater Blues." Parrish, p. 127, says that the song influenced "the flood fiction of William Faulkner and Richard Wright," and goes on to devote entire chapters to the "flood fiction" of each, which in Faulkner's case began with The Sound and the Fury of 1929. It is not tied to the actual Mississippi Flood, but Parrish thinks that provided much of the background (though on p. 206 she also rings in the Johnstown Flood of 1889). Parrish, p. 230, also connects it to Zora Neal Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Richard Wright was an eighteen-year-old living in Memphis at the time of the flood; although that city was mostly spared, it saw the refugees and the relief operations, and Wright himself worked for an insurance agent at the time, so his knowledge of the flood was intimate (Parrish, p. 243). Works such as "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow," "Silt," "Down by the Riverside," and the anthology Uncle Tom's Children were based on what he had seen (Parrish, p. 244).
The most modern book about the flood is of course Parrish's, but I don't really recommend it. The introduction, in particular, sounds more like a Marxist dialectic tract than an actual study of history. Half of it is about Faulkner and Wright rather than actual history. It's so dull and mind-numblingly dry that it could probably has sopped up half the water in Louisiana -- and, although it covers a lot of musical reflections on the flood, it does not include this song. Barry is a much better read, but its hundreds of pages about events before the flood include a lot of not-really-very-relevant biographical material that I could have done without. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: CSW087

Mighty Mount Saint Helens

DESCRIPTION: "We listened to you rumble, we listened to your roar, We watched the smoke roll fro, your top like we'd never seen before" as "Mighty Mount Saint Helens" prepares to erupt. They "never understood your rage" but now share her wrath.
AUTHOR: Jeanie Bigbee
EARLIEST DATE: 1998 (thesis by J. Revell Carr III)
KEYWORDS: disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 27, 1980 - Beginning of the Mount Saint Helens eruption
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 629, "Mighty Mount Saint Helens" (1 text)
File: CAFS2629

Mighty Rocky Road

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: I'm bound to carry my soul to Jesus, Carry my soul to the Lord" (2x). Verse: "It's a mighty rocky road and I'm most done travelling"(3x). "Christian's (mourner's, sinner's) on the road and he's most done travelling...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 6, "Mighty Rocky Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 70, "Might Rocky Road" (1 text)
Roud #12078
NOTES [11 words]: The description is based on the Barton-OldPlantationHymns text. - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Bart006

Mike

DESCRIPTION: "Section men a-workin' there all side by side." One of them, Mike, boasts of his work on the railroad. He works and fights hard. One day he works in the jimson, picks up a crosstie, is attacked by a snake, and flees
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: work railroading animal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 1869 - Transcontinental railroad complete
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 23, "Mike" (1 text)
Roud #15523
NOTES [49 words]: The chorus of this piece runs, "Damned be the President, My name's Mike, I got a hand in it, I drive the spike." I assume this refers to the famous "driving of the golden spike" (May 10, 1869 in Promontory, Utah), completing the first transcontinental railroad. This is only a guess, though. - RBW
File: LxA023

Mike and Jerry

DESCRIPTION: "Mike and Jerry going down the main line" (spokten: "Southern"). "Oh, they saw it come by (here) never got no coal never got no (water). Must've been a gasoline (burner), For he never stopped by here."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: technology
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 749, "Mike and Jerry" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [36 words]: The current description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment. I've no idea what it's about, although my gut feeling is that Mike and Jerry are either mules or escaped prisoners. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5749

Mike Bolin

DESCRIPTION: The captain hires Mike Bolin, a fisherman who could do everything. Nevertheless, they catch nothing but sculpin and dogfish, and they run short of gas when jigging and so must row to shore
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea ship shore humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30140
RECORDINGS:
John Conway, "Mike Bolin" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [33 words]: Although I cannot give precise dates for this song, it is probably late, since it features a boat that has an engine but evidently no sails. Also, they use jiggers, which were eventually banned. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3MiBol

Mike Dwyer

See Michael Dwyer (I) (File: PGa095)

Mike McDonald

See McDonald of Salmonier (File: RcMacdoS)

Milatraisse Courri Dans Bal

DESCRIPTION: Creole French. "Militraisse courri dans bal, Cocodrie po'te fanal, Trouloulou! C'est pas zaffaire a tou (x2), Trouloulou!" The mixed-blood woman goes to the dance; a full-blood black "holds the lantern"; the musician is asked what difference it makes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (Cable in Century Magazine)
KEYWORDS: Black(s) dancing foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 122-123, "Milatraisse Courri Dans Bal" (1 short text plus loose English translation, 1 tune)
File: ScaNF122

Mild Marie

See Fair Mary of Wallington [Child 91] (File: C091)

Militia's Broken Up and Wir Jock's Come Hame, The

DESCRIPTION: Jock has come home in his soldier clothes. He's a fine looking lad and his father was too, so it must run in the blood.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad soldier father beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1762, "The Militia's Broken Up and Wir Jock's Come Hame" (1 text)
Roud #13010
File: GrD81762

Milk Shake, Milk Shake

See Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who) (File: McIn110C)

Milk-Maid, The

See Pretty Betsy the Milkmaid (Blackberry Fold) [Laws O10] (File: LO10)

Milk-Maid's Life, The

DESCRIPTION: "You rural goddesses, That woods and fields possess, Assist me with your skill" to praise "them who choose this trade to use... To carry the milking-pail." They are gay and free from care, they are not idle, they are healthy, they do good work
AUTHOR: Martin Parker?
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 446-449, "The Milk-Maid's Life," "The Milking-Pail" (2 texts)
ST BeCo446 (Partial)
NOTES [120 words]: The earliest copy of this known to Bell carried the initials "M. P."; he conjectured that this is Martin Parker. This is not absolutely convincing, but certainly the piece has the hallmarks of Parker's flowery style and ignorant praise of a life he would hever in fact have gone near.
A. W. Pollard, G. R. Redgrave, et al, A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland & Ireland And of English Books Printed Abroad 1475-1640, The Bibliographical Society [of London], 1963, also attributes it to Parker; it is #19257 on p. 440, and is listed under the title "The milke-maids life. A pretty new ditty." It is signed "M. P." and was registered by T. Lambert 22 March 1634 and published in the same year. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: BeCo446

Milk-White Lammie, The

See The Milkwhite Lammie (File: GrD5988)

Milk-White Steed, The

DESCRIPTION: "My hour is come, my day is spent, The jailer's at the door; I've been a noted highwayman." The singer recalls his robberies. At a fair, he races with the sheriff and is spotted. He would have escaped, except that his horse was killed. Now he will die too
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Finger-FrontierBallads)
KEYWORDS: robbery crime prison death horse racing
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 36-38, "The Milk-White Steed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8833
File: Fing037

Milking Pail

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Milking Pails (China Doll)

DESCRIPTION: The child begs, "Mama, buy me a china doll." The mother asks where the money will come from. The child proposes selling Papa's bed. Mama asks where Papa will sleep. The child keeps proposing ideas, each more impractical. Finally Mama ends the discussion
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Gammer Gurton's Garland)
KEYWORDS: commerce children family mother playparty dialog
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,So) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Randolph 356, "Buy Me a China Doll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 291-293, "Buy Me a China Doll" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 356)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 47-49, "China Doll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 166, "Buy Me a Rocking Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 63, "Milking Pails" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 192, "(Buy me a milking pail)" (1 text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #114, "Milking-pails" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, May Ovington, "A Dance-Rhyme of Children in Brooklyn, N.Y.," Vol. XXXI, No. 120 (Apr 1918), pp. 293-294 ("Mamma bought me a pincushion, pincushion, pincushion") (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Mrs. H.G. Richardson, "'Buy Me a Milking-Pail' and Songs of the Civil War," Vol. XXXI, No. 120 (Apr 1918), pp. 275-276 "Buy Me a Milking-Pail" (1 text) [No inference here that "Buy Me a Milking-Pail" is a Civil War song.]
DT, MILKPAIL
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #75, "Milking Pails" (1 text)
ST R356 (Full)
Roud #3515
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mama Bought Me a Pincushion" (cumulative theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Chiney Doll
NOTES [256 words]: Randolph's informant claims to have learned this in Oklahoma. I know of only three verified American collections, though: Browne's (where it starts with a rocking chair), Randolph's, and Almeda Riddle's "Chiney Doll.". Thus American texts, and the "China Doll" wish, may be confined to the Ozarks and Deep South.
On the other hand, Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren's text, "Milking-Pails" (from England) is so close in form (if not in the object of desire) that the song must be considered ancient, and Gomme has more than a dozen British texts. The British version is a singing game, though the American texts seem to have lost this trait.
Jim Dixon pointed out to me the earliest known version, in Ritson's edition of Gammer Gurton's Garland. It is not immediately obvious that it is a version of this song, because the opening seems like a milking song:
Betty's gone a milking, mother, mother;
Betty's gone a milking, dainty fine mother of mine:
Then you may go after, daughter, daughter;
Then you may go after, dainty fine daughter of mine.
But then we get into the dialog so typical of this piece (though the ending is rather ugly):
Buy me a pair of milk pails, mother....
Where's the money to come from, daughter...?
And so forth, until we reach these final verses:
Where are the pigs to lay? daughter....
Lay them at the stair-foot, mother....
There they will be trod to death, daughter....
Lay them by the water-side, mother....
There they will be drowned, daughter....
Then take a rope and hang yourself, mother.... - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: R356

Milking Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Pbroo, pbroo! my bonnie cow! ... Ye ken the hand that's kind to you; Sae let the drappie go, hawkie." The calf is sleeping in the pen, but will come soon. The milk makes visitors glad.
AUTHOR: Robert Jamieson
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: animal food nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 244, "The Milking Song" (1 text)
Roud #3939
NOTES [101 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads believes that Jamieson produced this as an imitation, or perhaps an improvement, of an actual milking song. It seems likely enough. I know of no purely traditional collection.
And, no, I have no idea how one pronounces "pbroo"!
Similar milking rhymes are of course common. Baroing-Gould-MotherGoose 490, p. 213, runs
Cushy cow, bonny, let down thy milk,
And I will give thee a gown of silk;
A gown of silk and a silver tee,
If thou will let down thy milk to me.
There is a similar text in Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes -- #29, "(Bonnie lady, Let down your milk)." - RBW
File: Ord244

Milking-Pail, The

See The Milk-Maid's Life (File: BeCo446)

Milking-Pails

See Milking Pails (China Doll) (File: R356)

Milkmaid, The (The Milking Maid)

See Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid) (File: R079)

Milkmaids, The

See Three Maidens to Milking Did Go (File: K191)

Milkman's Lament, The

See Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own) (File: R393)

Milkwhite Lammie, The

DESCRIPTION: Annie overhears Johnny comforting a lost lamb while complaining of Annie's scorn. Annie reveals herself and offers to marry Johnnie. They share "a moment's leisure," for which she would not exchange being Scotland's queen, and marry the following Sunday.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 (_Aberdeen Magazine_, as Greig/Duncan5 988D)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage farming sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #29, p. 1, "The Milk-White Lammie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 988, "The Milkwhite Lammie" (6 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5635
File: GrD5988

Mill (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Clip, clap goes the mill by the swift running brook, clip, clap, By day and by night is the miller at work, clip clap! He grindeth the corn to make bread for the year, And with plenty of this we have nothing to fear; Clip clap...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: miller work river nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 240-241, "The Mill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3750
NOTES [47 words]: Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland says of this, "This song in transition has lost its music-box characteristics, which are so apparent in the German form." A curious statement, since she never tells us what the German form is. Possibly "Es klappert die Mühle am rauschenden Bach"? - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Lins240

Mill (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Beside of clump o' needlewood we anchor down the mill." The singer describes building the mill. It isn't fancy; "no wealth of Yankee gear" or clerks or large crew; there are just nine or ten of them. The trees are going down; soon "we'll be all cut out"
AUTHOR: Words: C. H. Winter? (source: Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 93, "The Mill" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 54 in the 1972 edition)
RECORDINGS:
Bill Taylor, "The Mill" (on NZSongYngCntry)
File: Colq054

Mill and the Kiln, The

See Tak It, Man, Tak It (I) (File: FVS015)

Mill Mother's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "We leave our homes in the morning, We kiss our children goodbye, While we slave for the bosses, Our children scream and cry." They have no money for clothing and little for food. "Let's stand together, workers, and have a union here."
AUTHOR: Ella May Wiggins
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Greenway), but Wiggins was shot to death in 1929
KEYWORDS: children hardtimes labor-movement
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 250-251, "The Mill Mother's Lament" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _Let's Stand Together: The Story of Ella Mae Wiggins_, Metrolina Chapter, National Organization for Women (Charlotte, NC), 1979, p. 18, "The Mill Mother's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kristina Horton, _Martyr of Loray Mill: Ella May and the 1929 Textile Workers' Strike in Gastonia, North Carolina_, McFarland & Company, 2015, pp. 138-140, 196-197, "The Miill Mother's Lament" (1 text, printed twice in different contexts)
John A. Salmond, _Gastonia 1929: The Story of the Loray Mill Strike_, University of North Carolina Press, 1995, p. 62, "(Mill Mother's Lament)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Phagan" [Laws F20] (tune)
NOTES [104 words]: This is said to be the most popular and most requested song by Ella May Wiggins, although I have no evidence that it went into tradition. The song was sung by Wiggins's grave at her funeral after she was murdered. Much of it is based on her own experience as (for practical purposes) a single mother working for inadequate wages in a mill -- and one who had had four of her nine children die because of the effects of poverty. It is said to be based on "Mary Phagan" [Laws F20]; for the irony of that, and for background on Wiggins, and on the Gastonia strike that led to her murder, see the notes to "Chief Aderholt." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: GAFP250

Mill o Tifty's Annie

See Andrew Lammie [Child 233] (File: C233)

Mill o' Lour, The

DESCRIPTION: "We a' agreed at Martinmas On Mill o' Lour to dwell, They said it was a very fine place, But it turned out not so well." The singer describes how hard it is to work the mill, and the people and teams involved.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: work home horse miller
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 330-331, "The Mill o' Lour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 255, "The Mill o' Lour" (1 text)
Roud #5573
File: FVS330

Mill of Boyndie

See Mullnabeeny (Mill of Boyndie) (File: Ord249)

Mill Wheel (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "In darkest shades the mill wheel Still sings its busy lay, My darling once did dwell there, But now he's far away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: love separation miller
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #56, p. 2, "The Mill Wheel" (1 fragment)
NOTES [9 words]: The current description is all of the Greig fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Grg056a

Mill Wheel (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Turn, turn, turn the big wheel, Round, round, round the big wheel, Whirr, whirr, hear the big wheel, What a pleasant sound." "Who is come on a visit to me? Put on the kettle and pour out tea. Welcome, dear neighbor... Please say 'Good day.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (JournalOfAmericanFolklore, volume 33, according to Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs, p, 33, "The Mill Wheel" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #7924
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bow, Belinda" (tune)
NOTES [65 words]: I suspect the "Bow, Belinda" tune cited by Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs is that which is better known as "O Belinda" and is part of the family we've filed as "Old Betty Larkin (Betsy Larkin, You Stole My Pard, Steal Partners, Stole My Partner)." Since neither Gardner in JournalOfAmericanFolklore nor Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs gives an actual tune, however, I can't prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: LeMi033

Mill-Boy of the Slashes, The

See Henry Clay Songs (File: SRW039)

Mill, Mill O, The

DESCRIPTION: "Beneath a green shade I found a fair maid, Was sleeping sound and still." The singer has his way with her, then departs to fight in Flanders. Ten years later, he returns to find that she has a child and knows not the father. He marries her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (_Scots Musical Museum_ #242)
KEYWORDS: sex rape mother children reunion marriage soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1437, "The Mill, Mill, O" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 165, "The Mill, Mill, O" (1 text)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #242, pp. 250-251, "The Mill Mill O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8486
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Binnorie" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
File: Ord165

Millbank Rocking, The

DESCRIPTION: A Millbank party: "Ranten Lads and Lasses Gaed West a bit ... neer did a mair motely Squad As this eer lea the Toun" The partiers are named. Lots of dancing and drinking. When the fiddler thought it time to quit they all left after "A Roun o Mountain dew"
AUTHOR: Neil Walker (source: Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: dancing fiddle drink food music party moniker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 148, "The Millbank Rocking" (1 text)
Roud #15107
NOTES [16 words]: Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 glossary: "rocking, n, convivial gathering of neighbours" - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2148

Miller (I), The

See Miller Tae My Trade (File: K218)

Miller (II), The

See Merry May the Maid Be (File: GrD3453)

Miller and His Sons, The

See The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)

Miller and His Three Sons, The

See The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)

Miller and the Lass, The

DESCRIPTION: A maid takes her corn to be ground. The miller says he can't grind right now "my stones is high and my water low." She stays with him until "the mill would grind." "She swore she'd been ground by a score or more But never been ground so well before"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: sex miller
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 63, "The Miller and the Lass" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, "The Miller's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 44, "The Miller's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 60, "The Miller and the Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1128
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid Gaed to the Mill" (theme: sex and a miller; grinding corn as the metaphor) and references there
File: ReSh063

Miller and the Maid, The

See The Maid Gaed to the Mill (File: RcTMGTTM)

Miller and the Major, The

See The Major and the Weaver [Laws Q10] (File: LQ10)

Miller Boy, The (Jolly is the Miller I)

DESCRIPTION: Playparty: "Happy is the miller boy who lives by the mill, The mill turns around with its own free will, Hand on the hopper and the other on the sack, Lady keeps a-going, gents turn back." Other verses about courting, milling, weather
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1719? (Pills to Purge Melancholy) (American version 1903/Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad miller
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Ont) New Zealand
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 67-70=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 179-180, "Miller Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 124-131, "THe Miller Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 214, "The Miller Boy" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1604, "There Was a Jolly Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 518, "The Miller Boy" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 97, "Dusty Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #132, "The Jolly Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 75, "The Miller Boy" (3 one-stanza fragments)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 75, "The Miller Boy" (1 tune plus a text excerpt);also p. 522, "The Jolly Miller" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 153, pp. 300-301, "The Jolly Miller" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 137, "The Miller's Boy" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 4-6, "The Dusty Miller" (3 short texts, 2 tunes)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 40, "Jolly Is the Miller Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, p. 197, "Happy is the Miler" (1 short text)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 73, "(Happy was the miller who lived by the mill)" (1 short text, in the notes to "Turkey in the Straw")
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 75, "Jolly Miller" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #40, "Happy is the Miller" (3 short texts)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 40, "(There was a jolly miller") (1 text, which open with verses from "The Miller Boy (Jolly is the Miller I)" and continues with "A-Hunting We Will Go")
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Mrs. L.D. Ames, "The Missouri Play-Party," Vol. XXIV, No. 93 (Jul 1911), p. 306 "The Jolly Old Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, F.W. Waugh, "Canadian Folk-Lore from Ontario," Vol. XXXI, No. 119 (Jan 1918), #638 p. 54 ("Happy is the miller who lives by himself") (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Q. Anderson, "'Miller Boy,' One of the First and Last of the Play-Party Games," Vol. XXI, No. 4 (Nov 1973), pp. 171-172, "(Happy Is the miller boy who lives by the mill)" (1 text, 1 tune, from Texas, not North Carolina)
DT, OVRHILL5*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Ford, Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories (Paisley, 1904 (2nd edition, "Digitized by Google")), p. 70, "The Jolly Miller"
Charlotte Sophia Burne, editor, Shropshire Folk-Lore: A Sheaf of Gleanings (London, 1883 ("Digitized by Google")), #I.11 p. 512, "The Jolly Miller" (1 text)
Marjorie Kimmerle, "'The Jolly Miller' in Colorado and Elsewhere" in Western Folklore, Vol. XVIII, No. 2 (Apr 1959 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 106 "The Jolly Miller" (4 texts)
Roud #733 and 4348
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Jolly is the Miller" (on PeteSeeger22) (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Man at the Mill" (one verse)
cf. "How Happy's the Mortal" (first verse, more or less)
SAME TUNE:
The Miller (square dance call) (Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, p. 109)
NOTES [108 words]: Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana traces this piece back to Pills to Purge Melancholy, and Randolph reports that Gomme has English versions. But they don't look like the same item to me. - RBW
Greig/Duncan8 is almost identical to Ford, and very close to the verse Gomme 1.290-293 version IV; all seven of Gomme's one verse versions are the same song as Greig/Duncan8 and seem to agree with the description.
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame points out the similarity between "The Jolly Miller" and "How Happy's the Mortal," printed in Wit and Mirth, or, Pills to Purge Melancholy (q.v.); Farmer says his copy from Pills to Purge . . . was dated 1707. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: R518

Miller o' Drone, The

DESCRIPTION: A miller grinds a maid's corn. She praises him to her mother. Mother has her corn ground. When the old man goes he is beaten. When he understands the game he beats mother and daughter until they promise not to return to Drone. They return anyway.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Poet's Box broadside "Miller of Drone," according to Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex violence miller father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #41, p. 1, "Miller o' Drone" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan7 1435, "The Miller o' Drone" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #7155
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle o' Harlaw" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
cf. "The Maid Gaed to the Mill" (theme: sex and a miller; grinding corn as the metaphor) and references there
File: GrD71435

Miller o' Straloch, The

See The Jolly Miller (I) (File: K229M)

Miller of Dee, The

DESCRIPTION: The jolly miller "worked and sang from morn till night, no lark more blythe than he." He is happy because "the bread I eat my hands have earned... in debt to none I be." Listeners are urged to follow his example
AUTHOR: probably C Jonson (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1729 ("Village Opera" (see NOTES))
KEYWORDS: work drink nonballad miller worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 194-195, "The Miller of the Dee" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 283)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 635, "Miller of the Dee" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland (229), "The Jolly Miller" (1 text, located in the notes)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 149, "The Miller of Dee" (1 text) (pp. 126-127 in the 1919 edition)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 352, "There was a jolly miller once" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 257, "The Miller of Dee" (1 text plus a later rewrite)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1433, p. 97, "The Miller of the Dee" (1 reference)
Heart-Songs, p. 443, "The Miller of the Dee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd #2, "The Miller of Dee" (1 text; #3 is James Whitcomb Riley's "rewrite for The Northwestern Miller")
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 30 and #1/64 p. 30, "The Miller of the Dee" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 666-668, "The Budgeon It Is a Delicate Trade" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, p. 124, "The Budgeon It Is a Delicate Trade" (1 tune, partial text)
DT, MILLDEE* MILLDEE2*
ADDITIONAL: J. Woodfall Ebsworth in Notes and Queries (London, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), Ninth Series, Vol. VIII, No. 199, Oct 19, 1901, p. 331, "[Query ]Scott Quotation ["I live by my mill, God bless her! She's parent, child and wife"]" "The Jolly Miller" ("There was a jolly miller once lived on the river Dee")
Matilda Blair, The Violet Speaker (New York, 1906 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 188-189, "The Miller of the Dees" (1 text)
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 347-348, "(Song)" (1 short text)
Roud #503
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(449), "There Was a Jolly Miller" ("There was a jolly miller once") , J.O. Bebbington (Manchester)], c.1850; also Bodleian, Firth b.25(278), "Miller of the Dee," W.S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; Harding B 15(200a), "Miller of the River Dee"; Harding B 15(199b), "The Miller of the Dee"; Harding B 11(450), "There Was a Jolly Miller"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jolly Miller" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
The Budgeon It Is a Delicate Trade (Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, p. 124; Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 14-15)
The Jolly Grinder (File: DTjollgr)
NOTES [1139 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland makes rather a hash of his notes on this song, observing that it is quite close to "The Jolly Miller," which may derive from the same sources. True enough. But "The Jolly Miller" is not "The Miller of Dee," and though Kennedy identifies the tune of the latter (correctly) with "The Budgeon It Is a Delicate Trade," "The Miller of Dee" and "The Budgeon" do *not* use the same tune as "The Jolly Miller," at least as transcribed by Kennedy. "The Budgeon," which Chappell finds in "The Quaker's Opera" in 1728, is in the natural minor; Kennedy's "The Jolly Miller" is in Ionian (major).
Kennedy makes things worse by saying "The Budgeon" is the same tune as "All Around My Hat" -- which again is in Ionian, not natural minor. - RBW
The Bodleian attributes authorship to Isaac Bickerstaffe, though none of the broadsides have that attribution on its face. Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 352: "This song, a general favourite in Scotland, and of Sir Walter Scott in particular, became well known after it was sung by John Beard in Bickerstaffe's Love in a Village. The music of this successful opera, performed at Covent Garden in 1762 ...."
Verse 1 of broadside Bodleian Firth b.25(278) is almost the same as verse 1 of Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 352, "There was a jolly miller once" (earliest date in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes is 1762). - BS
The Opies say that it was "Love in a Village" was first performed in 1762, "arranged and largely composed by Arne," with this song sung by John Beard. Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, Editors, British Authors Before 1800: A Biographical Dictionary, H. W. Wilson, 1952 (I use the fourth printing of 1965), p. 43, give the publication date of "Love in a Village" as 1763.
I looked up several editions (Hoagland; RIchard Aldington, The Viking Book of Poetry of the English-Speaking World) of the "Love in a Village" text, and it's clearly this song -- but there appears to be only one verse. So Bickerstaffe (1735?-1812?) isn't the whole story; the additional text must have come from another source.
According to Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, p. 42, "Love in a Village" was based on ideas produced by others: "The plot, as was often the case with Bickerstaffe's dramas, was derivative, put together from Charles Johnson's Village Opera, Wycherley's Dancing Master, and Marivaux's Le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard."
Bickerstaffe, incidentally, is almost as confusing as the piece he wrote, because he was a real person, but shared a name (almost) with Isaac Bickerstaff, who was not. There was also an actor with a name something like this (Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 42). And some sources confuse the spellings -- e.g. Henry Boylan, A Dictionary of Irish Biography, second edition, St. Martin's Press, 1988, p. 22, spells the name of the real one "Bickerstaff." He reports that Bickerstaffe was born around 1735, served in the marines, wrote twenty-odd plays -- but in 1772 was accused of murder and fled to Europe. He died in poverty around 1812.
Bickerstaff (no e on the end) was a pseudonym adopted by Jonathan Swift in a controversy with John Partridge. Bickerstaff made a claim Partridge was dead, and even wrote an elegy (1708), provoking an indignant exchange of pamphlets with the very-much-alive Partridge. This was amusing enough that Richard Steele used the Bickerstaff name for a writer of The Tatler Starting 1709). Then Bickerstaffe (with an e) was born a few decades later.- RBW
Ebsworth, successor to William Chappell as editor of The Roxburghe Ballads, gives a history of this song in Notes and Queries, cited above. He writes that "the foundation [of Bickerstaff's song] was C Jonson's 'Village Opera,' 1729. ... There was a jolly miller once lived on the river Dee; He work'd and sang from morn till night, no lark more blithe than he; And this the burthen of his song for ever used to be, 'I care for nobody, no, not I, if nobody cares for me. I live by my mill, God bless her! she's kindred, child, and wife; I would not change my station for any other in life: No lawyer, surgeon, or doctor e'er had a groat from me: I care for nobody, no, not I, if nobody cares for me.' This is the entire genuine song, but two other stanzas were afterwards added, unnecessarily, by inferior hands, printed in 'The Convivial Songster,' 1782, p. 334, and 'Edinburgh Musical Miscellany,' 1793, p. 209, commencing:-- When Spring begins his merry career, oh, how my heart grows gay! and Thus like the miller, bold and free, let us rejoice and sing.... Let me add that a fraudulent modern version was sent by an Islington correspondent, 'Pallas,' to the Illustrated London News, circa 1856, and printed therein, as if from a flyleaf MS. It gave the genuine first stanza, omitted the second, 'I live by my mill,' &c., and added three stanzas of no value, viz., 'The reason why he was so blithe,' 'A coin or two I've in my purse,' and 'So let us his example take, and be from malice free,' &c. It was not trustworthy, but good-natured William Chappell gave it renewed currency on p. 667 of his 'Popular Music of the Olden Time'; but on p. 668, in giving the music notes, he utterly 'sophisticated' the second verse and turned it into a drinking song" [compare W. Chappell, Popular Music of the Olden Time (London, n.d. [1859 per Internet Archive]), Vol II, pp. 666-668; incidentally, Chappell re Bickerstaff: "he appropriated so many songs from other sources, without acknowledgement, that this [The Jolly Miller] may also have been introduced."].
The Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO text is the four-verse version Ebsworth has in the 1782 The Convivial Songster.
Common to all texts are lines to the effect, "I envy nobody, no, not I, Nor ..." something close, in 1762 in "Love in a Village." That is indeed all there is in "Love in a Village" in 1791 (source: Isaac Bickerstaff, Love in a Village (London, 1791 ("Digitized by Google", bound with and linked as John Milton, Comus, a Mask (London, 1791))), p. 19); Hoagland quotes this one verse. The description above goes with the text in Kennedy's note and with DT MILLDEE, a 1782 text, and DT MILLDEE2, possibly an earlier text than Bickerstaff. There are two sets of Bodleian broadsides from the mid-19th century: The "Miller of Dee" set adds a conversation between the miller and "old King Hal" in which the miller explains his happiness and the king concludes "Thy mealy cup is worth my crown"; the "There Was a Jolly Miller" set has a noble lord ask miller Ralph how to be happy and Ralph would have the lord "leave pomp and pageantry aside, be from ambition free." Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames is an "old King Hal" version. The claimant as author of "old King Hal" is Charles Mackay (1814-1889), according to Blair. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: K229A

Miller of Derbyshire, The

See The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)

Miller of Gosport, The

See The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)

Miller Tae My Trade

DESCRIPTION: The singer reports, "I am a miller tae my trade... And mony a bag of meal I've made, And mony a lassie I hae laid." He describes one night on which a girl came to his mill and sought his services. (They end up being married)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906
KEYWORDS: miller work seduction bawdy marriage sex work
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1489, "I Am a Miller to My Trade" (7 texts, 7 tunes)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 218, "The Buchan Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 31, "The Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MILLTRAD
Roud #888
RECORDINGS:
John McDonald, "The Buchan Miller" (on FSB3)
Davie Stewart, "I Am a Miller To My Trade" (on Voice05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid Gaed to the Mill" (theme: sex and a miller; grinding corn as the metaphor) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Jolly Miller
File: K218

Miller That Made His Will, The

See The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)

Miller, Miller, Dusty Pole

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "Miller, miller, dusty pole, How many sacks have you stole? Twenty-five and a peck, Hang up the miller by his neck."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: miller thief | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 36, "(Miller, miller, dusty pole)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons)" [Laws Q21] (theme of a dishonest miller) and notes there
File: WEMM036B

Miller's Advice to His Three Sons, on Taking of Toll, The

See The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)

Miller's Apprentice, The

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Miller's Daughter (I), The (The Fleeing Servant)

DESCRIPTION: The youth and the miller's daughter find themselves on the hill; she starts to seduce him. He flees to the miller, saying, ""O, I have served you seven long years and never sought a fee, And I will serve you seven more if you'll keep your lass from me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: seduction humorous miller sex rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook V, pp. 23-24, (no title) (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1476, "The Caul's Takin' Me, Gudeman" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 84, "The Miller's Daughter" (1 text)
ST KinBB06 (Full)
Roud #7151
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Miller's Daughter (II)" (theme: miller's daughter's, like millers, have a big sexual appetite)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Waukin' o' the Kilne
NOTES [174 words]: Kinloch has no title for this piece, and of course doesn't list a source -- but I have to think it's traditional, simply because it doesn't make much sense as it stands. If the young man wants nothing to do with the girl, why does he go walking with her? It seems likely that a stanza is missing -- either one explaining how she trapped him alone, or one along the lines of "The Warranty Deed," explaining why she is desirable only when clothed.
The Penguin version of this apparently comes from A. L. Lloyd, and isn't much more detailed -- but looks to have been tidied up just a little.
This is one of the handful of humorous treatments of male fidelity -- a theme going back to the tale of Joseph and Potiphar's wife (Genesis 39:1-20), as well as in the Egyptian "Tale of Two Brothers" which may have inspired it (for which see, e.g., Anthony S. Mercantante, Who's Who in Egyptian Mythology, Clarkson N. Potter, 1978, pp. 197-204). The theme is also the the source of such tragic ballads as "Child Owlet" and "The Sheffield Apprentice." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: KinBB06

Miller's Daughter (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The man says he'd give half year's fee to lie with the miller's daughter. "She said she'd gie him wark enough." She wears him out and he dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1996 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The man said he'd give half year's fee to lie with the miller's daughter. "She said she'd gie him wark enough." The first night they had sex nine times; the second night seven times; the third night five times; the fourth night three times; the fifth night not at all. He dies, apparently from exhaustion, and "his mother brought him the winding sheet"
KEYWORDS: sex death miller
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 140, "Lying Atwein Twa"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2, pp. 194-195, "The Miller's Daughter" (2 texts)
Roud #15105
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Miller's Daughter (The Fleeing Servant)" (theme: miller's daughter's, like millers, have a big sexual appetite)
cf. "Nine Times a Night" (theme: male sexual ability or lack thereof)
NOTES [61 words]: A "half-year's fee" marks the man as a hired hand. See, for example, "Bad Luck Attend the Old Farmer," "The Hiring Fair at Hamiltonsbawn," and "Hie Bonnie Lassie." The Duke of Athole's Nurse "woud gie a' my half-year's fee For ae sight o my leman" [Child 212F].
The Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 "The Miller's Daughter" text is from an undated[?] chapbook. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2140

Miller's Daughter (III), The

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Miller's Daughter (IV), The

See The Weeping Willer (File: GrD61247)

Miller's Daughters, The

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Miller's Last Will, The

See The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)

Miller's She-Ass, The

DESCRIPTION: A miller could not pay the rent on his mill. The landlord offered the mill and arrears for the miller's wife. For appearances' sake they contract that the miller lend the landlord his she-ass in return for the mill. The miller enforces the contract.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2055))
LONG DESCRIPTION: An honest miller could not pay the rent on his mill. The landlord loved the miller's wife. Drunk, he offered to trade the mill and arrears to sleep with the miller's wife. For appearance sake they agreed that the miller would appear to loan the landlord his she-ass in return for the mill. A lawyer wrote the contract. The next day the landlord's servant called on the miller to complete the deal. The miller had the servant take the she-ass. Sight unseen, the landlord ordered the she-ass put in his bed. The ass kicked the landlord out of bed and was turned out on the street. "The miller he came and his ass he did own And through all the village the story was known"
KEYWORDS: sex bargaining trick hardtimes drink humorous animal wife landlord miller lawyer
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 310, "The Miller's She-Ass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5864
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2055), "The Landlord Outwitted" or "The Crafty Miller and his She-ass" ("Good people attend I pray you draw near"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
File: GrD2310

Miller's Song, The

See The Miller and the Lass (File: ReSh063)

Miller's Three Sons, The

See The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)

Miller's Wife o' Blaydon, The

DESCRIPTION: "The miller's wife o' Blaydon (x2), Sair she bang'd her ain gudeman For kissing o' the maiden." "Yet aye the miller sings and swears... For one kiss o' that bonny mouth He'd freely give up twenty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: miller abuse adultery
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 152-153, "The Miller's Wife o Blaydon" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR152 (Full)
Roud #3167
File: StoR152

Miller's Will, The (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21]

DESCRIPTION: The dying miller, to decide which of his three sons will inherit, asks each boy how much he would charge. The first son would take an honest toll; the second, half; the last, all and swear to the sack. The miller joyfully gives the mill to the last son
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1764 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 5(7))
KEYWORDS: death father children robbery crime bequest lastwill
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar) Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (51 citations):
Laws Q21, "The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons)"
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 11-13, "The Miller's Three Sons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 244-246, "The Miller and his Three Sons" (3 texts)
Randolph 359, "There Was an Old Miller" (4 texts plus an excerpt, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 126-129, "There Was an Old Miller" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 91D)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 61, "The Dishonest Miller" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 226-230, "The Miller's Will" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 137, "The Miller's Will" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 98, "The Dying Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 173-175, "The Miller and His Three Sons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 177, "The Miller and His Three Sons" (2 text plus 5 excerpts and mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 177, "The Miller and His Three Sons" (4 excerpts, 4 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 106, "The Miller" (1 fragment)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 12-13, "The Old Man and His Mill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp. 207-208, "The Dishonest Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 27-28, "The Miller's Will" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #205, "The Miller's Will" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 145, "The Old Miller" (1 text plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 107, "The Miller That Made His Will" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 240-242, "The Miller's Advice to His Three Sons, on Taking of Toll" (2 texts, both called "The Old Miller"; 2 tunes on p. 419)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #188, "The Dying Miller" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp.234-236 , "The Miller of Derbyshire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 94, "The Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 161, "The Miller's Will" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 56, "The Miller's Will" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 113, "The Three Sons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 192-193, "The Miller and His Three Sons" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 381)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 232, "The Miller's Last Will" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #32, "The Miller and His Three Sons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast 41, p. 1, "The Miller's Three Sons" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 703, "The Miller's Will" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #12, "The Miller and His Sons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #100, "The Miller's Three Sons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 46, "The Lancashire Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 58-59, "The Miller and His Sons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #21, pp. 204-206, "The Miller and his Sons" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 414-415, "The Miller and His Sons" (1 text)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 80-81, "The Miller's Will" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 144-145, "The Miller's Will" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #41, "The Miller of Gosport" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 546-547, "The Miller's Three Sons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 155, "The Dishonest Miller" (3 texts plus mention of six more, 1 tune)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #18A-B, pp. 163-165, "The Miller and His Sons," "The Miller" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 81-83, "Whack 'em to the Rye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 80-81, "The Old Miller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 38-39, "Once There Was an Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 149-151, "The Miller's Will" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 120, "The Miller" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2524, "There was a miller who had three sons"
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Horton Barker: Folk Singer Supreme," Vol. XXII, No. 4 (Nov 1974), p. 150, "The Miller's Will" (1 text)
DT 348, MILLWILL MILLWIL2 MILLWIL3*
Roud #138
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "The Miller's Will" (on Barker01)
Jumbo Brightwell, "The Derby Miller" (on Voice14)
Carson Brothers & Sprinkle, "The Old Miller's Will" (OKeh 45398, 1929; on TimesAint01)
Eunice Yeatts MacAlexander, "The Miller's Will" (on FarMtns1)
Margaret MacArthur, "New Hampshire Miller" (on MMacArthur01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Miller's Will" (on NLCR04)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 5(7), "The Miller's Advice to His Three Sons, in Taking of Toll," W. and C. Dicey (London) , 1736-1763; also Douce Ballads 4(44), "The Miller's Advice to His Three Sons, in Taking of Toll"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Miller, Miller, Dusty Pole" (theme of a dishonest miller)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Old Miller Rake
NOTES [228 words]: Folklore about millers and their morality is ancient and widespread. For the theme of millers trading sexual favors for their services, see the notes to "The Maid Gaed to the Mill."
The theme of the dishonest miller may be even older. In the prologue to the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer writes of his miller (see Larry D. Benson, general editor, The Riverside Chaucer, third edition, Houghton Mifflin, 1987 (based on F. N. Robinson, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, which is considered to be the first and second editions of this work), p. 32; The General Prologue, lines 560-562):
He waas a jangler and a goliardeys,
And that was moost of synne and harlotries.
Wel koude he stelen corn and tollen thries...
i.e.
He was a teller of bawdy stories and a buffoon
And that was most of sin and obscenity/harlotry.
Well could he steal corn and take his toll thrice.
(It is believed that, at this time, millers usually charged a flat fee plus a percentage of the flour for their services. The typical percentage was about 5%, so Chaucer's miller was taking probably a sixth to a fifth of the total. Which makes him relatively honest, compared to the people in this song. - RBW)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames is very close to Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, even when the words seem to me to be clumsy, as in "He called for his middlemost son." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LQ21

Million Miles I've Travelled, A

See Will the Angels Play Their Harps for Me? (File: PKKB068C)

Millman and Tuplin Song, The

DESCRIPTION: June 18 at Margate, Mary "went to meet her young lover, who a few nights before Said he'd make all things right when they'd meet on that shore." He shoots her and "sunk her body deep down" in the river. He is convicted in 1898.
AUTHOR: Dan Riley
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: courting homicide trial lover
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 28, 1887 - Murder of Mary Tuplin by William Millman
1888 - Execution of Millman
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 46-47, 249-250, "The Millman and Tuplin Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 42-44,82, "The Millman and Tuplin Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 50, "Young Millman (The Tuplin Song)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST IvDC046 (Partial)
Roud #9179
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Prince Edward Island Murder" (subject)
cf. "The Murder of Mary Tuplin" (subject)
cf. "The Millman Song" (subject)
NOTES [165 words]: Roud has at least five different numbers for this event:
Roud #1837: Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 140, "Prince Edward Island Murder" [Laws dF59]
Roud #4129: Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 285-286, "The Millman Song" (also Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 180-181, "The Millman Murder Trial") [LawsdF60]
Roud #9179: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 46-47, "The Millman and Tuplin Song" (also Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 50, "Young Millman")
Roud #9552: Shea, pp. 174-179, "The Millman Tragedy"
Roud #12463: Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland pp. 72-73, "The Murder of Mary Tuplin"
The Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland text has the trial in 1898 instead of 1888. That's understandable since the rhyme still holds. [We note that the version in Manny & Wilson has the date right. - RBW]
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland and Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland are the same June 25, 1957 performance. - BS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: IvDC046

Millman Murder Trial, The

See The Millman Song (File: Doe285)

Millman Song, The

DESCRIPTION: Mary "Cuplon" is pregnant by Millman. The father, rather than admit the deed or marry the girl, murders her and throws her in the river. Her body is found, and Millman is sentenced to death. The singer reminds parents to watch their children
AUTHOR: Attributed to John Calhoun
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: homicide pregnancy river trial execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 28, 1887 - Murder of Mary Tuplin by William Millman
1888 - Execution of Millman
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 285-286, "The Millman Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 180-181,250, "The Millman Murder Trial" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doe285 (Partial)
Roud #4129
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Prince Edward Island Murder" (subject)
cf. "The Murder of Mary Tuplin" (subject)
cf. "The Millman and Tuplin Song" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Millman Murder Trial
NOTES [117 words]: This song is item dF60 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Roud has at least five different numbers for this event:
Roud #1837: Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 140, "Prince Edward Island Murder" [Laws dF59]
Roud #4129: Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 285-286, "The Millman Song"(also Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 180-181, "The Millman Murder Trial") [Laws dF60]
Roud #9179: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 46-47, "The Millman and Tuplin Song" (also Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 50, "Young Millman")
Roud #9552: Shea, pp. 174-179, "The Millman Tragedy"
Roud #12463: Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland pp. 72-73, "The Murder of Mary Tuplin" - BS
File: Doe285

Millman Tragedy, The

See Prince Edward Island Murder (File: CrNS140)

Milly Molly Mandy

DESCRIPTION: The first lines of each verse are "Milly Molly Mandy Sweet as sugar candy." Each verse has a third line: "I'm in love with you," or "Your pretty little eyes are blue."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty love
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 480, ("Milly Molly Mandy") (1 text)
NOTES [65 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "The first Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories, by Joyce Lankester Brisley, were published in 1928." - BS
Based on the artwork I have seen, and the intended readership of the stories, it would seem that Miss Millicent Margaret Amanda was intended to be about eight. Interesting to see her apparently being courted. Presumably her audience grew up even if she didn't. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa480A

Milton

See I'll Let You Know the Reason (File: GrD4829)

Milton of Aberdour

See I'll Let You Know the Reason (File: GrD4829)

Milwaukee Blues

See Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)

Milwaukee Fire, The [Laws G15]

DESCRIPTION: The "oft-condemned" Newhall House catches fire; passers-by watch in horror as the residents die in the flames. In particular, a servant girl leaps to her death, and a mother watches her son trapped in the fire
AUTHOR: probably J. W. Kelley
EARLIEST DATE: 1922
KEYWORDS: fire disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 1883 - Fire at the Newhall House. At least 63 people die
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws G15, "The Milwaukee Fire"
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 245-246, "The Newhall House Fire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 166-167, "Milwaukee Fire" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 62, pp. 138-140, "The Milwaukee Fire" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 435-437, "The Milwaukee Fire" (1 text plus a copy of the Kelley broadside)
DT 682, MILWAUKF
Roud #3255
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Milwaukee Fire" (AFS 4198 B1, 4198 B2, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Robert Walker, "The Milwaukee Fire" (AFS, 1941; on LC55)
NOTES [155 words]: John W. Kelley (who also produced such pieces as "The Bowery Grenadiers") wrote a piece called "The Milwaukee Fire" in 1884, and some sources equate this song with that item. The fire, however, was the subject of a great deal of press coverage, and doubtless produced several pieces. The version of the song reproduced by Cohen appears to be the same song but is entitled "The Newell House Fire" and does not appear to have a chorus. This makes me wonder about a rewrite along the way. None of the folk sources I have consulted equate the traditional song with the Kelley piece, and so I am attributing the authorship only tentatively until I see better evidence.
According to Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, the Milwaukee Fire was the worst in American history until 1946, The informant in Peters, Ella Mittelstaedt Fischer, claimed to have witnessed the fire. Unfortunately, she did not describe where she learned the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LG15

Mima, Mima

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Mima, Mima, Black Jemima, Lost her child and couldn't find her, Brother found her in the dell, Now she treats her very well."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: mother children separation reunion brother jumprope
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #12, "(Mima, Mima)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #342, "Mima, Mima" (1 text)
NOTES [12 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes compares this to "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRV012

Min Mand Han Var en Sjomand (My Man He Was a Seaman)

DESCRIPTION: Swedish shanty. Cautionary song, children ask "where is father? He's resting in the grave." Warns girls not to wed a sailor or they'll end up a widow with children. Source doesn't give a chorus, verses may have been repeated as refrains.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Eivind Jartved)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty sailor wife death
FOUND IN: Sweden
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 529-530, "Min Mand Han Var en Sjomand" (2 texts, Swedish & English, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 106, "Min Mand Han Varen Sjomand" (2 texts, Swedish and English, 1 tune)
NOTES [24 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas got this from Sternvall's Sang under Segel (1935) with a note that it was taken from "Eivind Jartved" in 1904. - SL
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hugi529

Mind How You Trifle With a Gun

See McLellan's Son (File: Pea831)

Mind Your Eye

See Quare Bungo Rye (File: Log416)

Mind Your Own Business

DESCRIPTION: "Mind your own business And don't mind mine. Kiss your own sweetheart And don't kiss mine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: jealousy | kissing
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 18, "(Mind your own business)" (1 text)
Roud #38111
File: BAAI018A

Mine Ain Love

DESCRIPTION: "They say I may marry the laird if I will, The laird of high degree, With jewels so rare to wear in my hair, A lady I'll surely be." "But where, o where, will my heart be?" "Oh, I will marry mine ain love... For true of heart am I."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (collected from Nancy Stevenson by Boswell)
KEYWORDS: love money rejection
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 13, p. 26, "Mine Ain Love" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11036
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lad That's Far Awa" (theme)
NOTES [52 words]: This has much in common with "The Lad That's Far Awa," including the theme of the young woman being true to her love even though she could marry a man of "high degree." I would not be surprised if they go back to a common original. But the three verses found by Boswell are simply too short to prove identity. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BoWo013

Mine at Baie Verte, The

DESCRIPTION: George McNaughton finds asbestos. "The mineral was taken and shipped for higher test And when they got their answer it was the best." "Baie Verte will be mining in nineteen sixty-three"
AUTHOR: Gordon Rice (source: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: mining nonballad technology
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 263-265, "The Mine at Baie Verte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25327
RECORDINGS:
Gordon Rice, "The Mine at Baie Verte" (on NFAGuigné01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wabash Cannonball" (tune) and references there
NOTES [35 words]: Baie Verte is at the west end of the north shore of Newfoundland's Notre Dame Bay, at the base of the other side of the Northern Peninsula from White Bay where the song was recorded (a short drive these days). - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Guig263

Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Burning of the School

DESCRIPTION: "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school, We have tortured every teacher, we have broken every rule." The students describe (with many variations) how they overthrew the scholastic regime
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: rebellion derivative
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 100, "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Burning of the School" (1 text with many variants, tune referenced)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 100, "(Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of teacher)," "(Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school)" (2 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #153, "Glory, glory, hallelujah, Teacher hit me with a ruler" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Gloria Dickens, "Childhood Songs from North Carolina" Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), p. 8, "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Nancy Hunnicutt and Donna Southards, "The Foxfire Music Program," Vol. XXVI, No. 1 (May 1978), p. 29, "(Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school)" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT, BURNSCHL
ST PHCFS100 (Full)
Roud #30929
RECORDINGS:
Travis Johnson, "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #507, recorded 03/08/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune)
cf. "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Horror of the Ending of the Term"
NOTES [83 words]: I wonder if this isn't the most popular folk song in America today.
Roud used to lump this with "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," from which it is patently derived, but it is clearly a separate song now, sung by many children who do not know the Battle Hymn. Even I heard it at some time in my youth. The Hunnicutt and Southards article says that all children know it. I'm surprised that Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes lists only one version, but probably most versions are not used for rope-skipping. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: PHCFS100

Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Coming of Teacher

See Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Burning of the School (File: PHCFS100)

Miner Boys, The

See The Cross Mountain Explosion (Coal Creek Disaster) [Laws G9] (File: LG09)

Miner Child's Dream, The

See The Dream of the Miner's Child (File: R859)

Miner Hill

DESCRIPTION: "Come, boys, if you'll listen, I'll sing you a song... It's up here at Cutting's, at Camp Number One, The boys call the firm here Cutting and Son." The singer lists various specialists in the came, complains of the work, and says he won't be back
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (Bethke-AdirondackVoices)
KEYWORDS: lumbering moniker hardtimes cook logger
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, pp. 125-127, "Miner Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2975
File: Beth125

Miner, The

DESCRIPTION: The miner goes to work "With his calico cap and his old flannel shirt, his pants with the strap round the knee, His boots watertight and his candle alight His crib and his billy of tea." He works to support his family, and hopes to have money for tobacco
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: mining work family poverty
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 74-75, "The Miner" (1 text, 1 tune -- collected as a fragment inserted into another piece)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 42-43, "The Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 43, "The Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 131-134, "The Miner" (1 text, collected as a conflation of "The Miner" and "The Dream of the Miner's Child")
ADDITIONAL: A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 159, "The Miner" (1 text)
NOTES [48 words]: Manifold comments, "This is one of the few songs from the later period of gold-mining, after the alluvial gold was finished." In other words, it is a true mining song, not a prospecting song. Such things are not rare in America, of course, but they do seem to be unusual in Australia. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FaE074

Miner, The (Butte Miner)

DESCRIPTION: "The miners in the mines of Butte Are in rebellion fairly, The gathering clouds of discontent Are gathering fast and surely." The singer describes a miner's hard life. He declares that "the mighty system trembles. The revolution's coming fast."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1918, according to Cohen
KEYWORDS: mining labor-movement hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 563, "The Miner" (1 text)
File: CASF564B

Miner, The (The Miners in the Mines of Butte)

DESCRIPTION: "The miners in the mines of Butte Are in rebellion fairly"; they deserve your respect. He works hard, and gets sick from the conditions. They live an unnatrual life. It's this that has made them rebels. The tyrants will vanish
AUTHOR: "Scottie" (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1918 (New Songs for the Butte Mining Camp, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes labor-movement
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 168-169, "The Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Standard on the Braes of Mar" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
File: LDC168

Miner's Child, The

See The Dream of the Miner's Child (File: R859)

Miner's Death, The

See Only a Miner (The Hard-Working Miner) [Laws G33] (File: LG33)

Miner's Doom, The [Laws Q36]

DESCRIPTION: Although a miner's life may be happy, the risks are great. This miner is riding back to the surface when the elevator rope breaks. His death causes his wife to die of grief, leaving their three children orphans
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Vernon Dalhart); reportedly sung to Korson in 1925
KEYWORDS: mining death orphan
FOUND IN: US(MA) Britain(Wales)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws Q36, "The Miner's Doom"
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, p. 203, "The Miner's Doom" (1 text)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 388-390, "The Miner's Doom" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 544, MINRDOOM*
Roud #1015
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Miner's Doom" (Brunswick 139, 1927; Supertone S-2014, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Orphan Girl" (the subtext "The Coal Miner's Child" has a plot very like this)
cf, "Adieu to Dear Cambria" (tune, according to Korson)
NOTES [93 words]: Laws lists this as an old Welsh song, and Korson claims to have picked it up from a Welshman in 1925. Korson lists the tune as "Adieu to Dear Cambria [Wales]." But I wonder. There seem to be only two known traditional versions: Korson's, which he claims to have heard in 1925 but who did not record it until 1938, and Lloyd's. Thus, apart from Korson's unverifiable claim of a 1925 date, there is no evidence of this song being in circulation prior to Vernon Dalhart's recording. One has to suspect that Dalhart at least contributed to its (bare) survival. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LQ36

Miner's Dream of Home, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, away from home for ten years, dreams of "the old homesteads and faces I loved" and thinks of hearing the New Year's bells as a boy. In his dream he promises his parents that he'd not roam again.
AUTHOR: Will Goodwyn and Leo Dryden [George Dryden Wheeler (1863-1939 [per Wikipedia])] (according to OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Wehman)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration home return reunion separation dream England Ireland father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North)) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 187, "'Tis Ten Weary Years" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 354-356, "Ten Weary Years (The Miner's Dream of Home)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Wehman's [Universal Songster] Collection of Songs No. 34 (New York, 1892, digitized by Internet Archive), p. 28, "The Miner's Dream of Home" ("It is ten weary years since I left Ireland's shore") (1 text)
David Hillery, _Vernacular Song From a North Yorkshire Hill Farm: Culture, Contents and Comparisons_, (Newcastle: University of Newcastle, 2005 [submitted ... for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy]), Vol. II, #4, "The Bells Were Ringing" ("It's ten weary years since I crossed England's shore") (1 text, 1 tune) [sung by Jack Beeforth] [may be downloaded as a pdf from ttps://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/bitstream/10443/158/2/hillery05v2.pdf, accessed 7/15/2023)
Roud #1749
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "'Tis Ten Weary Years" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [73 words]: Published 1891 per Wikipedia article "Leo Dryden" accessed July 27, 2013.
The words to "The Miner's Dream of Home" are printed at http://www.poppyrecords.co.uk/lifebeforevinyl/P15.htm. They are the same as Cronin's except that "home" for Goodwyn/Dryden is England, while Cronin has Ireland, and Goodwyn/Dryden refer to "old village bells" while Cronin sings "old Shandon bells." Note that the ADDITIONAL sources also differ on "home." - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OCC187

Miner's Farewell, The

See Only a Miner (The Hard-Working Miner) [Laws G33] (File: LG33)

Miner's Life, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a poor old miner, my race is nearly run, Like many of my comrades, my mining days are done." He had to start working when young when his father ied. He worked up to be a miner, but now that he is old, he has to go back to easier work that pays less
AUTHOR: Jack Johnson (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch); supposedly written 1884
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes work money age
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 275-276, "The Miner's Life" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
File: KMMP275

Miner's Lifeguard

DESCRIPTION: A union song with religious overtones. The miner is advised to "Keep your hand upon the dollar and your eyes upon the scales."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: nonballad mining religious labor-movement
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 730, "Miner's Lifeguard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 15-16, "(Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad)" (1 text, plus fragments of assorted parodies, of which this is the first)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 208, "Miner's Lifeguard" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 138, "Miner's Lifeguard" (1 text)
DT, MNRLFGRD*
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 85-86, "Complaint: Miner's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3510
RECORDINGS:
Mary Travers , "Miner's Lifeguard" (on PeteSeeger01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Life's Railway to Heaven (Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad)" (tune) and references there
NOTES [8 words]: A parody of "Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BSoF730

Miner's Prayer, A

DESCRIPTION: "I keep listening for the whistles in the morning, But the mines are still; no noise is in the air." The miner's children are crying with hunger and cold, but with no work, there is no food. All he asks is that the rich city folk give him work
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes food poverty
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 382-383, "A Miner's Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7721
File: KPL382

Miner's Song (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the farmers go around and fill their legs tied up with straw, The miners they go underground and never miss a blaw. Oh, a-mining we will go, my boys...." They work where they must. They go broke with the girls. They pay for their beer -- eventually
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall)
KEYWORDS: mining worker humorous money courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 53, "Miner's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3317
NOTES [47 words]: The last verse of Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall's text is "And where we're up we're up, And when we're down we're down, And where we're only half way up, We're neither up nor down," from "The Noble Duke of York." But it obviously has a different meaning for miners.... - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Gund053B

Miners, The

See Six Jolly Miners (File: K238)

Miners' Fate, The [Laws G10]

DESCRIPTION: "At just three o'clock in the morning As the whistles gave the death sound," a cave-in five hundred feet below the ground traps the Pittston miners. There can be no rescue; not even the bodies can be brought out. The families grieve
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining disaster death family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 28, 1896 - The Pittston cave-in
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws G10, "The Miners' Fate"
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 198-199, "The Miners' Fate" (1 text)
DT 786, MINRFATE
Roud #3261
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Twin-Shaft Mine Squeeze" (subject)
File: LG10

Miners' Meeting, A

DESCRIPTION: "When miners get into a row about their mining ground, A miners' meeting then is called, and miners flock around." Both sides call witnesses; the crowd gets drunk. "Old Bob" wins the vote because he "has raised the largest crowd of liars"
AUTHOR: Words: John A. Stone ("Old Put")
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Put's Golden Songster, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining fight drink lie
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 136-137, "A Miners' Meeting" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Raging Canal" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
File: LDC136

Mines of Carriboue, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the banks of the Mississippi my parents reared me well, There was nothing for to hinder me along with them to dwell," but he was restless and went to the mines of Carribou. He warns of a hard trip and nine years spent unsuccessfully seeking gold
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra)
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes mining warning
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 61, "The Mines of Carribou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #28959
File: RDL061

Mines of Locust Dale, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, come all you tender Christians, I pray you will draw near, It is of a sad disaster I mean to let you hear." In 1875, a powder explosion kills four. A rescue attempt finds only their mangled bodies. The singer asks for prayers for them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining death disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 18, 1875 - the Locust Dale explosion (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 193-196, "The Mines of Locust Dale" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #4140
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Avondale Disaster (I) (The Mines of Avondale)" [Laws G6] (tune)
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dG40 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP193B

Mingo Mountain

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

Minister o' Birse, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye sanna need to lie ther'oot And me ther'in, and me ther'in"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: seduction clergy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 793, "The Minister o' Birse" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6200
NOTES [19 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 fragment.
Greig/Duncan4: "Birse is on Deeside near Aboyne." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4793

Minister's Daughter Jean, The

See Richard (Irchard) of Taunton Dean (File: RcIOTD)

Minister's Dochter o' Newarke, The

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

Minister's Farewell

DESCRIPTION: "Dear friends farewell, how do you tell, Since you and I must part? I am going away and here you stay, But still we are joined in heart. Your love to me has been most free, Your conversation sweet. How can I bear to journey where With you I cannot meet?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Morris, Southern Folklore Quarterly 8)
KEYWORDS: separation clergy
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #97, "Minister's Farewell" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5058
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Now Our Meeting Is Over" (lyrics)
NOTES [50 words]: This has so much in common with "Now Our Meeting Is Over" that I have to think they are mutually dependent. But with only two texts (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida's and one in the John Quincy Wolf Arkansas collection), both very short, telling the exact nature of the connection is almost impossible. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: Morr097

Minister's Wedder, The

See Parson Brown's Sheep (File: GrD2309)

Minister's Wife Has Learned a Sang, The

DESCRIPTION: "The minister's wife has learned a sang And she cares not how grit it be if it be lang"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: music wife clergy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1869, "The Minister's Wife Has Learned a Sang" (1 fragment)
Roud #13583
NOTES [45 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text. - BS
Ben conjecturs that "grit" in the second line is "great." This seems likely,but I might conjecture that it is from "greet," "weep" -- i.e. she doesn't care how mournful the song is if it's long enough. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81869

Minnehaha

DESCRIPTION: "On the banks of the Minnehaha, my love... We'll buy a little farm, and we'll live together there." But "death came knocking at the door" and took "my poor Nella." She is buried on the banks of the Minnehaha
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: courting love death river
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p.153, "Minnehaha" (1 text) (pp. 130-131 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #14096
NOTES [25 words]: A curiosity. The only body of water called "Minnehaha" that I can find is Minnehaha Creek in Minnesota. So why is a Pennsylvania song using the name? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Shoe153

Minnehaha, Laughing Water

DESCRIPTION: "Minnehaha, Laughing Water, Cease your laughing notes for aye," because "savage hands are red with slaughter Of the innocents today." The singer's home is on fire. His wife and children are dead. He wishes he were dead also
AUTHOR: Words: Richard H. Chittenden / Music: Frank Wood (died 1899)
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (according to Dunn)
KEYWORDS: death homicide river Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 53, "Minnehaha, Laughing Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Peg Meier, _Bring Warm Clothes: Letters and Photos from Minnesota's Past_, Minneapolis Star/Tribune, 1981, p. 100, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #29014
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Haunted Wood" (approximate plot) and the extensive notes there on the relationship between the two songs
NOTES [206 words]: At the time I entered "Haunted Wood" into the Index, there was no evidence that this song had gone into tradition, and so I put all my research about "Minnehaha, Laughing Water" into the notes on that song. They're at least as relevant to this one, though, so I'd advise you to look them up. One small excerpt:
According James Taylor Dunn, "A Century of Song: Popular Music in Minnesota," Minnesota History magazine, Winter 1974, pp. 124-125, "[T]here is at present no reason to doubt that Frank Wood's 'Minnehaha' was the first song by a Minnesota to find local publication.... It followed Wood's initial composition by eight months, appearing in October, 1863. The words -- 'Minnehaha, laughing waters, cease thy laughing now for aye' -- were written by Richard H. Chittenden, a captain in the First Wisconsin Cavalry, who took part in the Sioux Uprising. The song is dedicated 'To the memory of the victims of the Indian Massacre of 1862.' It deals in lurid words the terrors of the Indian revolt and was as close to the Civil War as any of the local music came."
I would add (as the "Haunted Wood" notes make clear), there is no truth in this story. There was violence during the Dakota Conflict -- but not *this* violence. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: RDL053

Minnie Moocher (Minny and a Minny and a Ha, Ha, Ha)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Minny and a Minny and a ha, ha, ha, Kissed her fellow on a Broadway trolley car. You tell Ma and I'll tell Pa. Minny and a Minny and a ha, ha, ha!
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folk Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: jumprope courting technology mother father
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #344, "Minny and a Minny and a ha, ha, ha" (1 text)
NOTES [69 words]: I'm a it dubious about Abrahams's classification of this piece. He lists six sources, but two of them are not folk, and one of the ones that is goes by the title "Minnie Moocher." Is this really one piece, and if so, is it of traditional origin or is it some show piece? Sadly, I can't answer that, so I'm filing it based on the data in Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes -- but not trusting his dates or found-in data. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR344

Minnie Quay (Winnie Gray) [Laws G20]

DESCRIPTION: Slandered by a young man, sixteen-year-old (Minnie) finds that her parents have turned against her and wish her dead. She drowns herself in Lake Huron
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: suicide family lie drowning
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws G20, "Minnie Quay (Winnie Gray)"
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 77, "Minnie Quay" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 98, "Minnie Quay" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 411, "Minnie Quay" (1 text)
DT 835, MINIQUAY
Roud #8850
NOTES [32 words]: [Beck notes that] Minnie Quay's tombstone can be found in the village of Forester, on the shore of Lake Huron. [The author of the song is] possibly William J. Smith, of Port Huron, Michigan. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: LG20

Minnie the Witch

See Winnie the Witch (File: BAAI065C)

Minnie, Minnie Ha Ha

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

Minny and a Minny and a Ha, Ha, Ha

See Minnie Moocher (Minny and a Minny and a Ha, Ha, Ha) (File: AJRR344)

Minstrel Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: "The minstrel boy to the war is gone, In the ranks of death you'll find him. His father's sword he has girded on And his wild hard slung behind him." The minstrel falls in battle, destroying his harp so that "no chains shall sully thee."
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1813 ("A Selection of Irish Melodies")
KEYWORDS: soldier harp music death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, pp. 99-100, "The Minstrel-Boy" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1440, p. 97, "The Minstrel Boy" (1 reference)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #86, "The Minstrel Boy" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 57, "The Minstrel Boy" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 226, "The Minstrel Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 279, "The Minstrel Boy" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 369, "The Minstrel-Boy"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 188, "Minstrel Boy" (notes only)
DT, MINSTBOY
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 375, "The Minstrel Boy" (1 text)
Roud #13867
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Minstrel Boy" (on IRClancyMakem03)
Martin Lay, "The Minstrel Boy" (Piotr-Archive #81, recorded 09/10/2021)
Vernon Stiles, "The Minstrel Boy" (Columbia A-2435, 1917)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1037), "The Minstrel Boy", T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also 2806 b.9(243), 2806 c.15(207), Harding B 11(1471), Harding B 16(49c), Firth b.26(434)[some words illegible], Firth b.25(385), Harding B 11(2293), 2806 c.16(197), Firth b.27(457/458) View 1 of 4, Johnson Ballads fol. 26, Harding B 40(2) View 3 of 4[some words cut out], Harding B 19(48), Firth b.26(87)[some words illegible], "The Minstrel Boy"
LOCSheet, sm1879 02687, "The Minstrel Boy", Edw Schuberth (New York), 1879; also sm1882 21694, sm1882 22258, sm1884 25744, sm1885 05300, "The Minstrel Boy" (tune)
LOCSinging, sb30345a, "The Minstrel Boy", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fisherman's Son to the Ice Has Gone" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The ASC to the War Have Gone (File: AWTBW082)
My Northern Boy to the War Has Gone! (by John Ross Dix) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 104)
The Soldier's Funeral ("He mingled not with the glorious slain," by John Ross Dix) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 145)
NOTES [231 words]: Usually sung, in these days, as an anti-war song, but originally composed as an Irish freedom piece. The music is said to be "The Moreen," though that song is obscure. Songs That Never Grow Old (1909, 1913) credits the music to the popular composer Michael W. Balfe (who wrote the music to "Killarney") -- but doesn't mention Thomas Moore!
This is another of Moore's "big works"; Granger's Index to Poetry cites it from 13 different anthologies. Ironically, I'm not sure it has ever been found strictly in tradition.
There was a broadside, "The Coal Black Steed." The most common edition was published by Thomas M. Scroggy of Philadelphia (I own one, and have seen about eight others online). This edition is subtitled "An Original Glee -- Words by John Moore." It begins, "The Knight is on his steed again, To the fields of war he's going." (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets #323; Roud V364; Bodleian, Harding B 18(88), Firth b.34(118), Harding B 15(47b), Harding B 11(4218), 2806 c.16(30)=Harding B 11(992), Harding B 11(626), Harding B 11(993)). No tune is indicated, but the form, some of the words, and even the authorship by "Moore" hint that it is a parody of "The Minstrel Boy." - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb30345a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB279A

Minstrels Sing of a Bastard King of Many Long Years Ago, The

See The Bastard King of England (File: EM122)

Mione

DESCRIPTION: French cumulative song, in which the singer describes each of the items given by Mione: "If I had the beautiful shoes/stockings/hat/etc. which Mione gave to me...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 517-518, "Mione" (1 text, badly defective and conjecturally restored)
File: Beld517B

Mirabeau

DESCRIPTION: "You may talk of equine heroes from Ajax to Grand-van-Ur.... But there's one more worthy of song... [is] Johnson's Mirabeau." The horse is far behind at the three quarters mark, but comes on to win
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: racing horse
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 117-118, "Mirabeau" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA117

Miracle Flower, The

DESCRIPTION: A man murders and buries a girl. A flower grows from her grave and blooms the year round. If anybody plucks the blossom, it blooms again right away. The killer comes to see it. The flower it turns to blood in his hands and reveals his guilt
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: homicide flowers supernatural
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 188-189, "The Miracle Flower" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3345
NOTES [35 words]: [Creighton notes], "Although I have told many singers this story, I have yet to find one who knows the song." [The fragmentary text reads] "And wondered how so fair a flower could bloom and flourish there." - BN
File: CrSe188

Miraculous Harvest, The

See The Carnal and the Crane [Child 55] (File: C055)

Miramichi Fire, The [Laws G24]

DESCRIPTION: A great fire covers an area 42 by 100 miles. In less than a day it burns forest, houses, and towns, killing or wounding vast numbers. There is little for the survivors to do but bury the dead
AUTHOR: John Jardine = Thomas M. Jordan (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: fire death disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 1825 - A great series of forest fires sweeps New Brunswick. Popular legend had it that the damage was done by a single fire
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws G24, "The Miramichi Fire"
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 201-202, "The Miramichi Fire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 62-64,250-251, "The Miramichi Fire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 33-37,82, "The Miramichi Fire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 251-254, "The Miramichi Fire" (1 text)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 34, "The Miramichi Fire" (1 text, 3 tunes)
DT 324, MIRAMICH
Roud #2721
RECORDINGS:
Edmund Doucette, "The Miramichi Fire" (on MREIves01)
Marge Steiner, "The Banks of the Miramichi" (on Steiner01)
NOTES [620 words]: By the early nineteenth century, with the fur trade moving into the Canadian west, the eastern provinces were turning increasingly to logging as a source of income, sending most of their wood products to England.
This had significant effects on the ecology. As the old forests were cut down, second growth invaded, which was naturally more flammable -- and if the fire grew big enough in one of the clear patches, it could spread to the old growth as well. The result was a constant fire danger.
Smith, p. 9, says that the early summer of 1825 was warm, but there was no rain at all for ten weeks in August, September, and early October, with temperatures often reaching 90 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. Fires became widespread. Smith, p. 11, has a map of these fires; one around Newcastle Parish and the north side of the Miramichi was easily the largest. The "Great Fire" is said to have burned 400 square miles (Brown, p. 239). Smith, p. 10, dates this greatest fire to October 7. Adding a zero to that might perhaps have helped inspire this song. From the map, it appears three other fires would have covered more than a hundred square miles, and there were at least four others that covered more than ten.
Smith, p. 14, reports half a dozen towns effectively destroyed and about 200 deaths. Plus it ruined a lot of timber, doing real economic damage. The prosperity of the region was badly affected, according to Wynn, p. 47, who offers this description:
"On 7 October 1825, parts of Fredericton and vast tracts of forest to the north and east were burnt. Overnight, the prosperous settlement of Newcastle -- a town of almost 1,000 inhabitants -- was reduced to a smoking ruin. Fewer than a score of the two hundred houses and stores remained, and the small neighbouring settlements of Douglastown and Moorfields the destruction was just as severe. Four hundred square miles of forest were destroyed in the Newcastle district, and land along the Southwest and upper Northwest Miramichi rivers was also burnt over. Robert Cooney, the historian of northern New Brunswick who witnessed this so-called 'Miramich Fire,' felt that 'a greater calamity... never befell any forest country....' The devastation seemed to lay bare the frail foundations of provincial prosperity."
There is a recent book about the event, Alan MacEachern, The Miramichi Fire, A History, McGill-Queen's University Press. 2020. I haven't seen it. There is also Merle Milson & Lynn Johnson, The Great Miramichi Fire, Miramichi Literacy Council, 1985, but that is apparently a 15-page pamphlet, so it probably doesn't offer much more than is said here. A book A Narrative of the late fires at Miramichi, New-Brunswick: with an appendix, containing the statements of many of the sufferers, and a variety of interesting occurrences: together with a poem, entitled "The conflagration" was published shortly after the event. Google Books attributes it to Beamish Murdoch and lists P. J. Holland as the publisher but does not (as of 2022) have a copy. - RBW
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland: "Shortly after [the fire], John Jardine of Black River wrote a ballad about it which he almost certainly had printed and sold. Either he or, what is more likely, later singers put tunes to it.... At the moment ... no tune has a better right than the present one to be called, if not the 'original,' at least the most widespread." - BS
Laws cites the Bulletin of the Folk-Song Society of the Northeast (#11) in attributing this song to Thomas M. Jordan. It will be evident that "Jordan" and "Jardine" are oral variants on each other. Jardine is the more likely; Manny and Wilson have a photograph of John Jardine (obviously in later life). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: LG24

Mirie it is while sumer i-last

See Mirie It Is While Sumer Ylast (Merry It Is While Summer Lasts) (File: DIMMIIWS)

Mirie It Is While Sumer Ylast (Merry It Is While Summer Lasts)

DESCRIPTION: Early Middle English: "Mirie it is whil somer ylast, With fughles song." Merry it is while summer lasts, With fowls' song, But now neigh winter's blast, And weather strong. Ei! Ei! What, this night is long, And I, from much wrong, sorrow, mourn, and fast
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1225? (Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Rawlinson G.22)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes bird MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics 2, "(Myrie it is whil somer ylast)" (1 text)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics I, p. 1, "(no title)" (1 text)
Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols, #2, ("Mirie it is while sumer i-last)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #2163
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3486.5
ADDITIONAL: Carleton Brown, editor, _English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1932, p. 14, "Now Comes the Blast of Winter" (1 text)
Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 13, "(no title)" (1 short text)
R. T. Davies, editor, _Medieval English Lyrics: A Critical Anthology_, 1963, #2, p. 51, "How Long This Night Is" (1 text)
Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, _Middle English Lyrics_, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974, p. 7, #5 (no title) (1 text)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #3, p. 5, "Winterfall" (1 text)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, p. 42, "(no title)" (1 text)
Bruce Dickins & R. M. Wilson, editors, _Early Middle English Texts_, 1951; revised edition 1952, #XXV, p. 118, "Winter Comes" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Rawlinson G.22 (Bodleian 14755), folio 1. With music.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Judas" [Child 23] (subject: The Earliest English Ballad) and references there
NOTES [182 words]: Mark this down as yet another instance of a claimed "earliest known ballad." Nettel, p. 13, offers it as his first popular piece. The idea seems to predate him; Brown, p. xiv, reports "E. W. B. Nicholson, sometime Bodley's librarian, dated [this] 'about 1225' and pronounced [it] to be 'the oldest known song in the English language.'"
I doubt it truly qualifies for that description, but it is an early English piece with music, so I'm putting it in here just because we try to list all the claimed "earliest ballads." At least it has a tune in the manuscript, as most of the other candidates do not.
Hirsch-MedievalLyric says, "The powm has been discussed widely, including Raymond Oliver, Poems WIthout Names: The English Lyric, 1200-1550 (1970) and Edmund Reiss, The Art of the Middle English Lyric: Essays in Criticism (1972), but retains its mystery."
Apparently this poem was not originally meant to be part of MS. Rawlinson G.22 (which is mostly classical material); it was a sheet that was stuck into the volume. It is apparently the only Middle English poem in the manuscript. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: DIMMIIWS

Miser, The

See A Rich Old Miser [Laws Q7] (File: LQ07)

Miser's Daughter, The

See There Was an Old Miser (File: FSC048)

Misfortunes of an Unlucky "King"

See Les Tribulations d'un Roi Malheureux (Misfortunes of an Unlucky "King") (File: Macl05)

Misouri Girls, The

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Miss Aledo

See Powderhorn (File: FCW070)

Miss Betsy

See Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid) [Laws M20] (File: LM20)

Miss Bridget Adair

DESCRIPTION: Bridget Adair is a forty year old spinster. One morning a man comes to her door and said "Miss Bridget, I die for you." She likes his demeanour. Then he gives her silks she had sent him to dye "a beautiful mazarine blue." She cries with disappointment.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 74-75, "Miss Bridget Adair" (1 text)
Roud #6536
NOTES [47 words]: The Albert Memorial, cited in the song ["It was just as the Albert Memorial struck nine, And Miss Bridget was just out of bed"], was completed 1876 (source: The Victorian Web site). That puts an earliest possible date on the Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry version. - BS
File: HayU074

Miss Brown

See The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (The Gosport Tragedy; Pretty Polly) [Laws P36A/B] (File: LP36)

Miss Cochrane

DESCRIPTION: "It was on an Easter Monday which happened of late, Young Marg'ret got ready and set on her way." Her boat blows out to sea and she is drowned. Her body is never found. Her father says he warned her against sailing on Logh Foyle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: death drowning ship father
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H42a, p. 148, "Miss Cochrane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9452
SAME TUNE:
Eirigh Suas a Stoirin (Kennedy, #34)
File: HHH042a

Miss Dinah

DESCRIPTION: "I wish I was an apple, Miss Dinah was another. And O! what a happy pair we'd make On the tree together." "Oh, I love Miss Dinah so." One day a wind blows them together, then into the water. "Miss Dinah she was raked ashore, But I was never founded"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: love courting river drowning rescue
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 127-128, "Miss Dinah" (1 text)
File: ScaNF127

Miss Fogarty's Cake

See Trinity Cake (Mrs. Fogarty's Cake) (File: Doyl3062)

Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake

See Trinity Cake (Mrs. Fogarty's Cake) (File: Doyl3062)

Miss Foggarty's Christmas Cake

See Trinity Cake (Mrs. Fogarty's Cake) (File: Doyl3062)

Miss Forbes's Farewell to Banff

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell ye fields an' meadows green, The blest retreat of peace and love." The singer tells of the beauties of home, and admits, "I'm loath to leave the scene again." The singer bids farewell, hoping all the while to return
AUTHOR: John Hamilton (died 1814) ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: home love emigration
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 358, "Miss Forbes' Farewell to Banff" (1 text)
Roud #5607
File: Ord358

Miss Gordon of Gight

DESCRIPTION: "O, whare are ye gaun, bonnie Miss Gordon... Ye're gauin wi' Johnny Byron To squander the lands o' Gight awa." "Your Johnny's a man frae England just come, The Scots dinna like his extraction ava... he'll spend a' your rent."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: warning home money marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 390, "Miss Gordon of Gight" (1 text)
Roud #3891
NOTES [39 words]: According to Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, Catherine Gordon of Gight married John Gordon on May 12, 1785. The poet Lord Byron was their son -- but the fears of this song did come true: The Byrons did sell her family estate of Gight. - RBW
File: Ord390

Miss Green

DESCRIPTION: Miss Green courted Sean O'Farrell. He left "for the love of old Ireland" and was greeted in New York by a band; he toasted the Yankees. Tomorrow she will follow him and they will marry. She hopes to return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage emigration America Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 47, "Miss Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 127, "Sean O'Farrell" (1 text)
Roud #5236
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea" [Laws O15] (tune, according Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
File: RcMisGre

Miss Hattie Stold His Heart Away

DESCRIPTION: "Under my uncle's kind and friendly roof... Then to my so distressful life I took unto myself a wife." But then Miss Hattie beguiled him and caused him to kill his wife with poison disguised as medicine, then strangled her. His wife had been good to him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (High-OldOldFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage poison homicide adultery wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 24-25, "Miss Hattie Stold His Heart Away" (1 text)
File: High024

Miss Jenni O. Jones

See Jenny Jones (Jennie Jo) (File: Lins026)

Miss Jennia Jones

See Jenny Jones (Jennie Jo) (File: Lins026)

Miss Jennie Jones

See Jenny Jones (Jennie Jo) (File: Lins026)

Miss Jenny Jones

See Jenny Jones (Jennie Jo) (File: Lins026)

Miss Julie

DESCRIPTION: "Oh come, oh come, Miss Julie, Oh come and go with me, There's lots I can buy and cabins I can build On the banks of the Ohio." She will only marry him once "everybody else was dead." She cries when he hangs around; she tells him not to come again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (recorded from Mrs. L. L. McDowell, according to OneTuneMore)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection home
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OneTuneMore, p. 30, "Miss Julie" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: 1TMMissJ

Miss Julie Ann Glover

See Julia Grover (Miss Julie Ann Glover) (File: Lins224)

Miss Liking

See Meet Half Way (Miss Liking) (File: Spurg137)

Miss Liza

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Miss Liza, oh, mah darlin'! -- hoo ah hoo! Gwine away to leave you... Gwin away tomorrow... Ain't you mighty sorry?" "Oh, miss Liza... Comin' back to you... Won't you be my honey?" "Don't you know I lub you?... Don't you want to marry?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: courting love
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 227, (no title) (1 text)
File: ScaNF227

Miss Lucy

DESCRIPTION: "I went to see Miss Lucy; I'd never been there before. Last time I saw Miss Lucy, She was rolling on the floor."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 547, "Miss Lucy" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [77 words]: The current description is all of the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment. There are a number of songs with the verse "I went to see my (Susie), she met me at the door, Said I needn't to come any more..."; I suspect this is related to one of them. But I don't know which; the lyric floats into, among other things, "The Keys of Canterbury," "Goodbye, Susan Jane," "Sally Anne," and "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song)." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5547A

Miss Lucy Long

See Lucy Long (I) (File: R279)

Miss Lucy Loo

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Bend yer backs take in the slack, roll me over, Lucy. To me way, hay, hay, ho, hu! Bend yer backs take in the slack, roll me over, Lucy. We're rollin down to Trinidad to see Miss Lucy Loo" No story line, verses one line each repeated w/choruses.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 397, "Miss Lucy Loo" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 302]
DT, LUCYLOO
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sing a Song, Blow-Along O!" (chorus lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rollin' Down to Trinidad
File: Hugi397

Miss Mary Belle

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Miss Mary Jane (Riding in the Buggy, Who Moan for Me)

DESCRIPTION: "Ridin' in the buggy, Miss Mary Jane... Long way from home. Who moan for me...." "Sally got a house in Baltimore... And it's three stories high. "Sally got a house in Baltimore, filled with chicken pie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: courting home nonballad nonsense
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 117, "Miss Mary Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 259, "Miss Mary Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 104-105, "Who Mou'n fo' Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LoF259 (Partial)
Roud #11595
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Letter from Down the Road" (lyrics)
NOTES [9 words]: I know it looks like "Old Joe Clark." But it's not. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LoF259

Miss Mary Mack

See Mary Mack (I) (File: CNFM158B)

Miss Milly

DESCRIPTION: "Young Miss Milly was sweet and fair" but let herself be seduced by an old letcher. When she becomes pregnant, she seeks his help, but he has disappeared. Thrown out by her family, she dies in the snow. Hearers are told to use birth control pills
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: sex warning pregnancy death abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 179-180, "Young Miss Milly" (1 text)
Roud #10250
NOTES [36 words]: Since the first birth control pill went into testing in 1954, and was not approved for some time after that, this song must have been very new when Morgan/Green-RugbySongs printed it. I doubt it was traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RuSoMisM

Miss Molly

DESCRIPTION: "Took Miss Molly out to tea, And on the way back, She tried to squeeze it out of me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: courting food
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 79, "Miss Molly" (1 text)
File: ZiZa079A

Miss Riot

See Henry Green (The Murdered Wife) [Laws F14] (File: LF14)

Miss Sally and Big John

DESCRIPTION: "Old Miss Sally tell me do, Is Big John true to you? If he ain't I'd take his hide, And take you now for a sorrow ride."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 81, "Miss Sally and Big John" (1 text)
File: ZiZa081E

Miss Susan Jane

See Goodbye, Susan Jane (File: FowOn062)

Miss Susanna Jane

DESCRIPTION: "Miss Sue, Miss Sue; Somebody's in your cellar, Mis Sue, Miss Sue, Somebody's in your cellar, Miss Susie Anna Jane." "Did you ever see a monkey make a motion, Miss Sue...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 510, "Miss Susianna Jane" (1 short text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Monkey Motions" (mention of Monkey Motions)
File: BrS5511

Miss Susie

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

Miss, Miss

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme, typically ended deliberately, e.g. by stepping on the rope: "Miss, Miss, Little Miss, Miss, When she misses, she misses... like this"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: nonballad jumprope
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 48, "Miss, Miss" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #78, "(Miss, miss, little miss, miss)" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 137, "Miss, miss, little miss, miss"; "Jump and miss, jump and miss" (2 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #346, "Miss, miss, little miss, miss" (1 text)
File: ZiZa048M

Miss, Will You Have a Farmer's Son

See Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me) (File: R493)

Missa Ramgoat (Mister Ramgoat)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois. Mr Ramgoat, the barber has come. Please lend me your razor to shave off my long beard.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: nonballad worksong animal
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, p. 39, "Missa Ramgoat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time - Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), p. 75, "Missa Ram Goat O" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Missa Ramgoat" (on WIEConnor01)
NOTES [31 words]: Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica has this as a song "from Jamaican folklore, which may mean a cante-fable song. Dexter/Taylor say "a song sometimes used to accompany work or as a mento piece." - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: JaMu039

Misses Limerick, Kerry and Clare

DESCRIPTION: Three girls civilly compare their county's heroes. "The Limerick people, they were never beaten." Kerry and Clare both claim O'Connell, "that great Lib'rator." Limerick also claims O'Connell: "we have his staue as well as ye" and Parnell besides.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 24, "Misses Limerick, Kerry and Clare" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5223
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "Misses Limerick, Kerry and Clare" (on IRTLenihan01)
NOTES [29 words]: For Daniel O'Connell, see Daniel O'Connell (I) and the myriad songs cross-referenced there; for Charles Stewart Parnell, see notably "We Won't Let Our Leader Run Down." - RBW
File: RcMLiKCl

Missie Mouse

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Missing Ship, The

See Her Mighty Sails the Breezes Swell (File: LaGo045)

Mission Song

DESCRIPTION: The workers at the Mission "get the milk skimmed and de relations de cream." The poor get only rags while the Manager is off spending the proceeds in places like Carboneer or Boston.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: greed hardtimes poverty worker
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 91, "Mission Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab091 (Partial)
Roud #9973
NOTES [56 words]: Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast: "The Mission referred to is the Grenfell Mission at Red Bay.... This is a local gripe song that not at all expresses the feelings of the people in general toward the Mission. I was told that this song was composed ... by a man .. dismissed from his job at the Mission because of misconduct." - BS
File: LLab091

Missionary's Farewell, The

DESCRIPTION: "Yes, my native land I love thee, All thy scenes I love them well... Can I leave thee, can I leave thee, Far in heathen lands to dwell?" The singer rehearses all that (he) would be leaving, but concludes that preaching the gospel is worth it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious separation home
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 641, "The Missionary's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7565
NOTES [16 words]: Variously, and probably falsely, attributed to William Walker and the Reverend S. F. Smith. - RBW
File: R641

Mississippi Bo Weavil Blues

See The Boll Weevil [Laws I17] (File: LI17)

Mississippi County Farm Blues

DESCRIPTION: ("Wish I was a babe in my mama's arms"(3x) Wouldn't a been here working on the county farm.") Floating blues verses include "And I hate to hear that big bell dong ... Poor boy, poor boy, you're going on."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: captivity prison floatingverses nonballad prisoner
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Son House, "Mississippi County Farm Blues" (on StuffDreams1)
NOTES [69 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought.
Son House's "hate to hear" verse takes off on Blind Lemon Jefferson's "Have you ever heard the church bell dong" ("See That My Grave Is Kept Clean") by tolling on his bass string. Other floating verses comment on life in jail: "Some got six months and some a year ... Poor me, poor me got a lifetime here." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcMCFB

Mississippi Flood, The (The Murrumbidgee Flood)

DESCRIPTION: "Another great disaster has come upon our land, Down where the Mississippi flows on her way so grand." A great flood comes. The levee breaks. Many are killed. The singer has no explanation but believes the dead will have crowns in heaven
AUTHOR: Carson J. Robison?
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs)
KEYWORDS: death disaster river flood
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1927 - Mississippi River floods, devastating the Delta region and leaving thousands homeless
FOUND IN: US(So) Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 12, "The Murrumbidgee Flood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10441 and 22608
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mighty Mississippi" (subject) and references there
NOTES [84 words]: Scott calls this the "Murrumbidgee Flood," but admits in his notes that the singer called it the "Mississippi Flood," although he heard another version in which the river was the Murrumbidgee. It's not really surprising that a song about the Mississippi was known in Australia, since it was recorded by Vernon Dalhart. Roud splits the versions about the two rivers (the American versions are Roud #10441, Scott's version is #22608), but I'd call them the same, given that Scott rewrote his version. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: ScCol012

Mississippi Girls

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Mississippi Heavy Water Blues

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of destructive power of Mississippi River floods of 1927; his woman and his home have both been washed away. Refrain: "That's why I'm cryin', Mississippi heavy water blues."
AUTHOR: Robert "Barbecue Bob" Hicks
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, "Barbecue Bob" Hicks)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of destructive power of Mississippi River floods of 1927; his woman and his home have both been washed away; he hopess for her return and yearns for another pay day. Refrain: "That's why I'm cryin', Mississippi heavy water blues." He says "Ain't no womens out here, for they all got washed away." "Mississippi shakin', Louisiana sinkin', the whole town's a-shrinkin', Robert Hicks is singin'. That's why I'm cryin', Mississippi heavy water blues."
KEYWORDS: grief homesickness loneliness lover river flood lament
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1927 - Mississippi River floods, devastating the Delta region and leaving thousands homeless
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Robert "Barbecue Bob" Hicks, "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues (Columbia 14222-D, 1927)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues" (on Holcomb02)
Josh Thomas, "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues" (on ClassBanj)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Great American Flood Disaster" (subject)
cf. "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues" (subject)
cf. "Mighty Mississippi" (subject)
File: RcMiHWBl

Mississippi Jail House Groan

DESCRIPTION: Singer, in jail, sleeps "with my back turned to the wall." His woman brings coffee and tea -- everything but the jailhouse key. His parents say he has too many women; he looks at his mother, hangs his head, cries; if his woman kills him he's ready to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Rube Lacy)
KEYWORDS: captivity prison floatingverses father lover mother prisoner
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Rube [Reubin] Lacy, "Mississippi Jail House Groan" (Paramount 12629, 1928; on BefBlues1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Midnight Special" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [15 words]: Again, the narrative in this song just sneaks under the wire as a ballad, but it does. - PJS
File: RcMJHG

Mississippi Lawyer

See Mississippi Sawyer (File: BrS5671)

Mississippi Lives by the Shore

See Mrs. Sippy Lives by the Shore (File: AJRR364)

Mississippi Sawyer

DESCRIPTION: Fiddle tune, with no words listed, but very well known.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: nonballad fiddle
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 671, "Mississippi Lawyer" (1 tune)
NOTES [56 words]: Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 gives only a tune for this, no words, but says it was "Sung by Miss Jewell Robbins." It is described as a "jog." It is of course a well-known fiddle tune, and we don't index fiddle tunes, but this is just enough of a dubious case that I put it in. But it probably should be excluded. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5671

Mississippi Sounding Call

See Sounding Calls (File: BMRF572)

Mississippi Spelled

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Mississippi. M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i." (With various actions for each letter.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: jumprope wordplay | Mississippi spelling
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #151, "(Mississippi)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #345, "Mississippi" (1 text)
File: AJRV151

Missus in de Big House

See Missus in the Big House (File: CNFM117)

Missus in the Big House

DESCRIPTION: "Missus in the big house, Mammy in the yard. Missus holdin' her white hands, Mammy workin' hard." "Old Marse ridin' all the time, Niggers workin' round. Marse sleepin' day time, Niggers diggin' in the ground."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: work slave discrimination
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 117, (no title) (1 text)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 96, "Missus in de Big House" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 246-247, "De Black Gal" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss"
NOTES [73 words]: Metrically, this reminds me very much of "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss." Hard to tell if they are the same without a tune and with only two verses.
The Lomax text does not share the two verses of the Courlander and Greenway versions, but the form and content (contrasting white luxury with Black work and poverty) seem to place the songs together. The Lomax text may be composite anyway; they give no information about its origin. - RBW
File: CNFM117

Mistah Rabbit

See Mister Rabbit (File: LxU006)

Mister A. B.

See Calomel (File: SWM203)

Mister Boll Weevil

See The Boll Weevil [Laws I17] (File: LI17)

Mister Booger

See Johnny Booker (Mister Booger) (File: R268)

Mister Carter

DESCRIPTION: "Mister Cyarter, Mister Cyarter, Won't you be (i.e. buy?) my dawg? He won't bite a sheep But 'e will bite a hog."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: dog nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 110, "Mister Carter" (1 text)
File: Br3110

Mister Costler

DESCRIPTION: Lorn Costler has the mail contract for outports. When he and his engineer, Billy Warren, work, "the day must be fine, the sea must be calm." He "gives out the mail at a terrible rate" in order to leave quickly even with no danger from ice or wind.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: cowardice commerce storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 80, "Mr Costler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #28972
NOTES [98 words]: The mail route for Costler's ship, The Packet, is along the south coast about 70 miles east of Port-aux-Basques. - BS
Lehr/Best thinks the ship's name is the Packet, but I rather doubt it; I think she was simply a packet ship running a regular schedule. Since the ship in the song carried the mail, and had an engine, it was very likely a member of the "Alphabet Fleet," for which see the notes to "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie." On that basis, it might be possible to work out which ship it was, since the ships each were responsible for part of the circuit around Newfoundland. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LeBe080

Mister Dooley's Geese

DESCRIPTION: "I've a very noisy neighbor, Mister Dooley is his name, He's fond of ructions, likewise of raising game; With his turkeys and his chickens... For it's all day long they're marching, WIth their quack, quack...." The singer is always fighting Dooley's birds
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (sheet music published by William A. Pond & Co.)
KEYWORDS: humorous bird fight clothes
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. II, #109, pp. 99-100, "Mister Dooley's Geese" (1 text, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, M 3500 M2.3.U6A44,, "Mister Dooley's Geese," Firth, Pond & Co. (New York), 1884
NOTES [320 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
Franceschina, p. 171, reports this as one of five songs for the play McAllister's Legacy: "'Mister Dooley's Geese,' a narrative patter song complaining about a noisy neighbor, has an attractive march chorus evoking the quacking sounds of geese, the gobbling noises of turkeys, and the rooster's cock-a-doodle-doo."
The play "McAllister's Legacy," according to Franceschina, p. 170, starts with a typical Edward Harrigan absurdity: old Morgan McAllister, from Ireland but living in Australia, leaves most of his relatives worthless legacies such as a pair of pants or a wooden leg, but one is given a plot of land and another the building on the land. The two then fight over how to dispose of the property. It eventually turns out that the lawyer who read the will is actually McAllister, disguised, attempting to find out which of his relatives is worthy of the property. Molly McGouldrick (played by Tony Hart), who had been granted the building, had been kind to all, ends up with the entire inheritance.
Moody, p. 146, mentions a few other features: a communist planting bombs in clocks, a veterinarian who treats humans "while off duty," a wild parody of the stock market.
The play sounds interesting, but it was to have sad side effects: On the night of November 22, 1884, after the Harrigan and Hart company rehearsed the play (which was supposed to premier in two weeks), the theater burned down (Moody, p. 143). The play managed to find a new stage fairly quickly, but did not last long (Moody, pp. 146-147), and no doubt that contributed to the eventual split between Harrigan and Hart.
Although I have not been able to hear it, Edith Fowke collected a song by this title, with the correct first line, in Quebec; hence the "Found In" entry. As of this writing, despite the collection from tradition, it has no Roud number.- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: HaBrMDoG

Mister Finagan

See Molly McGlocklin (File: RcMolMcG)

Mister Frog Went A-Courtin'

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Mister Frog Went A-Courting

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Mister Garfield

DESCRIPTION: Song-story about the assassination of President Garfield. Garfield, shot, tells doctor he's badly wounded. He gives dying advice, and hopes to go to heaven. Sheriff arrests Charles Guiteau for the murder; he says "I'll hang on the 6th day of June."
AUTHOR: Unknown, but much of the text may have been written by Anderson Williams
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (recording, Bascom Lamar Lunsford)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Song-story describing the assassination of President James Garfield. Garfield's been shot; tells doctor he's badly wounded. Preacher asks where he'd like to spend eternity; Garfield says "Heaven." His wife asks if he should die, should she remarry? He tells her, "Don't you never let a chance go by." Sheriff arrests Charles Guiteau for the murder; he says "I'll hang on the 6th day of June." Mrs. Garfield brings her husband roses
KEYWORDS: grief marriage questions violence crime execution homicide punishment death dying wife doctor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 2, 1881 - James A. Garfield is shot by Charles Guiteau, who thought Garfield owed him a patronage job. Garfield had been president for less than four months
Sept 19, 1881 - Death of Garfield
June 30, 1882 - Hanging of Charles Guiteau
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp. 212-214, "Mr. Garfield' (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Forbes (transcriber), "Songs Collected by Mr. Bascom,'" Vol. XXV, No. 1 (May 1977 -- special issue for Bascom Lamar Lunsford), pp. 17-20, "Mr. Garfield" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9138
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Mr. Garfield" (LOC AAFS L29, 1949) (Folkways FP 40, c. 1952) (on BLLunsford02)
J. C. "Jake" Staggers, "Garfield" (on FolkVisions2)
Art Thieme, "Mister Garfield" (on Thieme04)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charles Guiteau" [Laws E11] (subject)
cf. "Garfield" (form)
NOTES [82 words]: Lunsford is usually thought to have written this, but Art Rosenbaum believes it originated in the Black community. - PJS
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices is comparing it to his song "Garfield," which is a story song about a murder involving a "Garfield." But it never says that the "Garfield" is the President. I have split Rosenbaum's "Garfield" from "Mister Garfield," although Roud lumps them.
For the story of James A. Garfield and his death, see the notes to "Charles Guiteau" [Laws E11]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: RcMrGarf

Mister MacKinley

See Mister McKinley (White House Blues) (File: LoF143)

Mister McKinley (White House Blues)

DESCRIPTION: "McKinley hollered, McKinley squalled; The doc says, 'McKinley, I can't find the ball.'" Describing McKinley's assassination by Zolgotz, his poor medical treatment, and his funeral. MacKinley is usually said to be "bound to die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Charlie Poole)
KEYWORDS: death homicide doctor funeral political humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 6, 1901 - President William McKinley is shaking hands at an exhibition when he is shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz, who felt McKinley was receiving too much attention.
MacKinley's wounds should not have been serious, but his inept doctor decided to operate immediately rather than wait for a specialist
Sept 14, 1901 - Death of MacKinley (due more to operative trauma than to his wounds). Theodore Roosevelt becomes President
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 337, "Zolgotz" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp. 215-216, "Czolgosz" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 413-425, "Cannonball Blues/Whitehouse Blues" (2 texts, 2 tunes, the first being "Mister McKinley (White House Blues)" and the second the "Cannonball Blues," plus a version of a song called "Mr. McKinley" from _The Week-End Book_, which is so different that I would regard it as a separate though perhaps related song, probably not traditional)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 118-119 "McKinley" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 256-257, "White House Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 143, "Mister MacKinley" (sic) (1 text, 1 tune)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 56 "White House Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 228 "White House Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 73, "White House Blues" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 287, "White House Blues" (1 text)
DT, WHITHOU*
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 90, "McKinley" (1 text)
Roud #787
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Buffalo, Buffalo (Death of McKinley)" (AFS 4198 B3, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Bill Monroe & his Bluegrass Boys, "Whitehouse Blues" (Decca 29141, 1954)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "White House Blues" (Columbia 15099D, 1926; on AAFM1, CPoole01, CPoole05)
Riley Puckett, "McKinley" (Columbia 15448-D, 1929)
Swing Billies, "From Buffalo to Washington" (Bluebird B-7121, 1937)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Battleship of Maine" (tune)
cf. "Delia's Gone [Laws I5] (tune, some versions)
cf. "The Cannonball" (words)
cf. "Joking Henry" (tune)
cf. "White House Blues (II)" (structure, tune, words)
cf. "Huey Long" (lyrics, form)
NOTES [327 words]: I know of three derivative versions of this song: one collected in Kentucky in the 1930s, talking about Herbert Hoover (in this collection as "White House Blues (II)"), a second recorded by country-and-western singer Tom T. Hall in the 1970s, talking about Richard Nixon. Both share the title "White House Blues." The third is ""Governor Al Smith." - (PJS)
McKinley had been unpopular among farmers, most of whom had supported Democrat William Jennings Bryan, and his passing was not much mourned among country people -- thus the jaunty, humorous tone of this song. - PJS
For more about the 1896 McKinley/Bryan election, see the notes to "Free Silver."
The reference to McKinley's children earning a pension upon their father's death is completely unhistorical; McKinley married Ida Saxton (1847-1907) in 1871, but his two daughters, Katie and Ida, both died in infancy, and Mrs. McKinley was an epileptic and an invalid by the time her husband was elected President.
According to Paul W. Glad, McKinley, Bryan, and the People, 1964 (I use the 1991 Elephant paperback), pp. 21-22, "As a young lawyer in Canton[, Ohio,] the Major [=McKinley, who had risen to the rank of Major in the Civil War] had married the vivacious Ida Saxton, daughter of one of the town's leading bankers and businessmen. Within a year the couple announced the birth of a daughter, Katherine. A few months later the Major and his wife, awaiting the arrival of a second child, experienced a series of crises that would shatter their happiness forever. It began with the death of [Ida's mother] Mrs. Saxton. The young wife underwent labor in a state of extreme grief for her mother, and there were complications. The infant lived less than five months; Ida herself never recovered. Her subsequent periodic convulsions indicated some damage to the brain, and phlebitis crippled her so that she moved about with the greatest difficulty. Then little Katie died in 1876 at the age of four." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LoF143

Mister Moon (Kindly Come Out and Shine)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Mister Moon, Moon, silvery moon, kindly come out and shine, Do Mister Moon, Moon, come out soon. My home I wants to find." In he original, Parson Jones is coming home and is frightened by intruders who set off a gun; camps just have a man with a gun
AUTHOR: Chris Smith & Euday L. Bowman (source: mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: Mr. Moon")
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (copyright, according to mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: Mr. Moon")
KEYWORDS: clergy hunting campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #245, pp. 60-61, "O Mister Moon" (1 text, tune referenced, implying that it is considered a rewrite)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 236, "Oh, Mister Moon" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "From Out the Battered Elm Tree" (lyrics)
NOTES [115 words]: The original of this was pretty ugly -- kids, or someone, setting off a shot to scare Parson Jones, and "darkies" making sport of it. Only the chorus appears to have survived as a camp song, and even that has been modified a bit. I've no idea if the tune has wandered also, but I wouldn't be surprised.
It's ironic to note that author Chris Smith (who was a vaudeville performer, so he may well have originated the song as well as co-writing it) was black. I have never heard of any of the other Smith compositions on his Wikipedia page.
The mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: Mr. Moon" has many interesting variants on this, including one in which part of the game was to "moon" the listeners. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF236M

Mister Rabbit

DESCRIPTION: "'Mister Rabbit, Mister Rabbit, your tail's mighty white.' 'Yes, bless God, been gettin' out of sight...." Mister rabbit similarly explains its coat, ears, and other physical features
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal questions dialog nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 173-174, "Mister Rabbit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 6, "Mister Rabbit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 240-242, "Cotton Field Song" (1 text, 1 tune, composite; the final portion goes here and the rest is largely floating verses or unidentifiable; some may go with "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss")
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 167, "Old Molly Hare (Mr. Rabbit)" (2 texts plus 4 fragments, 1 excerpt, and mention of 2 more; the "C," "D," and "E" fragments, plus probably "B," are "Old Molly Hare," "I" is "Mister Rabbit"; "A" and "G" mix the two)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 83, "Mister Rabbit" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 27, "Mistah Rabbit" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LxU006 (Partial)
Roud #10058
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "Hop, Old Rabbit, Hop" [with a couple of verses from "Poor Old Man"] (on Barker01)
Pete Seeger, "Mister Rabbit" (on PeteSeeger08, PeteSeegerCD02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rattlesnake" (theme)
NOTES [58 words]: Roud links together several rabbit songs under one number: "Mister Rabbit," "Ole Mister Rabbit (I'll Get You Rabbit)," even "Rabbit Hash." All are about rabbits raiding gardens (something they certainly do) and the attempts to punish them for it (rarely successful, even with modern technology). But the forms are quite distinct, so I split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LxU006

Mister Squirrel

DESCRIPTION: "One day Mr. Squirrel went up a tree to bed. A great big hickory nut fell upon his head. 'Although I am fond of nuts,' Mr. Squirrel then did say, 'I'd very much rather that they wouldn't come this way.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal food humorous
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 171, "Mr. Squirrel" (1 short text)
File: Br3171

Mister Stormalong

See Stormalong (File: Doe082)

Mister, Please Give Me a Penny

DESCRIPTION: "Mister, please give me a penny, For I ain't got any Pa, Mister, please give me a penny, I want to buy some bread for Ma."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: orphan money begging
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 729, "Mister, Please Give Me a Penny" (1 short text)
Roud #17627
File: R729

Mistletoe Bough, The

DESCRIPTION: In the castle, beneath the mistletoe bough, the lord's daughter prepares to wed young Lovell. The girl, tired of dancing, decides to hide and have Lovell find her. He never does. Years later, her body is found "in a living tomb," trapped in a chest
AUTHOR: Thomas Haynes Bayly?
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (National Temperance Songster)
KEYWORDS: love marriage game hiding death Christmas
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North,South)) US(MA,MW,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 637, "Mistletoe Bough" (1 text)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #126, "The Mistletoe Bough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 143-144, "The Mistletoe Bough" (1 text) (p. 122 in the 1919 edition)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 142, "The Old Oaken Chest" (1 recollection; Devlin did not give any actual text)
Randolph 802, "The Mistletoe Bough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 466-468, "The Mistletoe Bough" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 802)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 223-224, "The Mistletoe Bough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 31, "The Mistletoe Bough" (1 text plus a text of "Ginevra," for which see the NOTES)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #35, "The Mistletoe Bough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #72, "The Mistletow Bough" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1723, p. 116, "The Old Oak Chest, or The Missletoe Bough" (sic.) (2 references)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 481, "The Mistletoe Bough" (source notes only)
DT, MISTLETO*
ADDITIONAL: Michael R. Turner, _Victorian Parlour Poetry: An Annotated Anthology_, 1967, 1969 (page references are to the 1992 Dover edition), pp. 220-221, "The Misteltoe Bough" (1 text)
Roud #2336
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "The Mistletoe Bough" (Piotr-Archive #257, recorded 09/13/2022, learned from Joan Sprung but with some minor changes)
Will Noble, Pippa Noble, "The Mistletoe Bough" (Piotr-Archive #63, recorded 08/02/2021)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2462), "The Mistletoe Bough," J. Harness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 15(204b), "Mistletoe Bough," H. Disley (London), 1860-1883 (partly illegible); Harding B 11(2464), "Mistetoe Bough," H. Such (London), 1863-1885
SAME TUNE:
The Vorkhouse Boy ("The cloth was laid in the vorkhouse hall") (Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 102; Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 42, "The Workhouse Boy"; cf. broadside Bodleian Firth c. 16(311), unknown, no date; a parody in "Dutch" dialect of this song, with very similar lyrics except that the girl is transformed to a boy in a poorhouse; Roud #29495)
Billy Jenkins, or The two houses of parliament (parody per broadside Harding B 11(2462), which also contains the original)
Hail to Old Tippecanoe ("Van Buren sits in his marble hall") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 276)
The Greeley Pill, Mixed at Cincinnati and taken at Baltimore, July 19, 1872 ("There was an old doctor who wore a white hat; He made pills of Free Love and Free Farms and all that") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 456)
The Chinaman's Fate ("The cradles were rocking one fine summer's day, And the diggers were busily puddling away") (by Charles R. Thatcher, in "Thatcher's Colonial Songster") (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, p. 72; Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 79-80)
NOTES [658 words]: Underwood, pp. 22-23, reports this of Bramshill House near Basingstoke in Hampshire: "An ancient chest in the panelled gallery is said to have been the 'death bed' of a young bride who died on the eve of her wedding." Her ghost is reported to have walked.
That tale is probably unrelated, but a garbled version might perhaps have inspired this song. The legend was certainly widespread; Alexander, pp. 195-196, reports versions of the story from Maxwell Hall, Owslebury, Hampshire; Brockdish Hall, Norfolk; Minster Lovell hall, Oxfordshire (a place with a lot of other legends going back to the Wars of the Roses), and of course Bramshill, but Alexander thinks Maxwell Hall the original because it, in his account, has the ghost known as the Mistletoe Bride. Boase, p. 80, also lists Maxwell Hall as the place most associated with the legend and mentions the "Mistletoe Bride" title -- but points out on p. 81 that the ghost seen at Maxwell Hall could also be Anne Boleyn, who was held there before her execution.
On the other hand, Westwood/Simpson, p. 591, give particular attention to Minster Lovell, where there was a legend that, during a restoration, a walled-off room was located in which a dead body was found. This obviously sounds rather like this legend -- although most think the body was that of Francis, Lord Lovell, a close associate of King Richard III who fought at the Battle of Stoke in 1487 and, with his side having been defeated, was never seen again.
Hadlow, pp. 23-24, quotes a similar story told by Horace Walpole of the body of Count Konigsmark, the lover of Sophia Dorothea the wife of George I of England, who was made to disappear.
Alternately, the tale might come from the same roots as "Ginevra," by Samuel Rogers (1763-1855), which has the same story though the bride is Italian and the poem is set in Italy. I do not know the exact date of "Ginevra," but it is part of his massive multi-volume poem "Italy," published 1822-1828 and reissued in revised form in 1830, so his piece probably predates "The Mistletoe Bough."
Westwood/Simpson, p. 303, say that Rogers was working from the legend of "The Mistletoe Bride," i.e. the same legend as this song.
The final stanza of "Ginevra," as quoted in HouseholdTreasury, pp. 133-135, is as follows (the whole poem "Italy" is apparently in blank verse):
Full fifty years were past, and all forgot,
When, on an idle day, a day of search
'Mid the old lumber in the Gallery,
That mouldering chest was notices; and 'twas said
By one as young, as thoughtless as Ginevra,
"Why not remove it from its lurking-place?"
'Twas done as soon as said; but on the way
It burst, it fell; and lo! a skeleton,
With here and there a pearl, an emerald-stone,
A golden clasp, clasping a shred of gold.
All else had perished, -- save a nuptial ring,
And a small seal, her mother's legacy,
Engraven with a name, the name of both,
"GINEVRA."
There, then, she had found a grave.
Within that chest she had concealed herself,
Fluttering with joy, the happiest of the happy;
When a spring lock, that lay in ambush there,
Fastened her down for ever!
Incidentally, NewCentury, entry on "Ginevra," say that this story was told of several English castles.
And, no, I have no idea, Harry Potter fans, if it is significant that Ginny Weasley's real name was Ginevra!
Leach, p. 278, claims that "The Hunting of the Snark," Lewis Carroll's greatest work other than the Alice books, uses this song as a "leitmotif"; Turner, p. 221, also speculates that this might have inspired the method of hunting a snark, "They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care...." But although Leach et al claim that a theme in "The Mistletoe Bough" is the origin of one of Carroll's stanzas, the only words they have in common are "They sought." And Leach is full of speculations in the absence of evidence (often in direct defiance of evidence). So I don't think we need pay that particular hypothesis much attention. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: R802

Mistress Mary

See Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary (File: OO2342)

Mistress Paxton's Shop

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells about everything he finds in the shop: "bacca, saip and carpet shoon, screw nails and bakin soda,... split peas an fiddle rosit... whings, biscuits...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
KEYWORDS: commerce humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 82-83, 152, "Mistress Paxton's Shop" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21745
NOTES [37 words]: An "outlandish catalog" song of a kind popular in Newfoundland ("The Kelligrews Soiree," "The Rich Wedding Cake" and "Trinity Cake") and the music hall (hear, for example, The Flanagan Brothers' "The Half Crown Song"). - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: McSc082

Mistress Shady

DESCRIPTION: "Oh (Miatress/Mrs.) Shady she was a lady, She had a daughter whom I adored. I used to court her -- I mean her daughter -- Every" Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: courting wordplay campsong | days of week
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #113, p. 34, "Mistress Shady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 115, "Mistress Shady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 129, 286, "Mistress Shady" (notes only)
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Mistress Shady" (Piotr-Archive #482, recorded 02/01/2023)
NOTES [49 words]: This can be cumulative: First time through, you sing the last line "I used to court her -- I mean her daughter -- every Sunday." Then repeat, ending "I used to court her -- I mean her daughter -- every Sunday, Monday." Then repeat, ending '...every Sunday, Monday, Tuesday." And so forth. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ACSF129z

Mistress's Health (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Here's a health unto the mistress, the fairest of twenty ... We'll drink him out so deep, and we'll sing ourselves to sleep"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 140-141, "The Mistress's Health" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #310
File: BrMa140

Mistress's Health (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Our mistress's health we now begin, In spite of the Pope and the Spanish king" She has gold and silver and can get more. Let's smoke and drink. "Let the mistress's health go round"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 141, "The Mistress's Health" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21096
NOTES [121 words]: "The popularity of the poet's royal mistress, Queen Elizabeth, has been brought before us, in a drinking-song of the time, by Mr F.E. Sawyer, among the specimens of Sussex music (p. 322): 'Our mistress's health we'll now begin ....'" (source: T Morgan, "Review of the [4 May 1887] Session" in The Journal of the British Archaeological Association (London, 1887 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XLIII, p. 201). The text is the first four lines of the second Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs text. The source for Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs's version, from Sussex, is not stated and may also be Sawyer (possibly Frederick Ernest Sawyer, Sussex Folk-Lore and Customs Connected with the Seasons (London, 1883)). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BrMa141

Misty Mountain, The

See Beinn a' Cheathaich (File: K002)

Mitchel's Address

See John Mitchel (File: PGa045)

Mither, I Maun Hae a Man

DESCRIPTION: "Noo mither, I maun tell ye, I'm gaun to be a wife; For I'm sure it's nae pleasure To live a single life." The girl complains of the burdens her mother puts on her, and offers Biblical arguments for marriage, and concludes, "I mean to tak' a man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid mother children marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #105, pp. 2-3, "Mither, I Maun Hae a Man"; #101, p. 2, "Mither, I Maun Hae a Man"; #103, p. 2, "Mither, I Maun Hae a Man" (1 texts plus 3 fragments)
Greig/Duncan7 1333, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Mither, I Maun Hae a Man" (7 texts, 3 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 148-149, "Mither, I Maun Hae a Man" (1 text)
Roud #5554
NOTES [113 words]: The girl here does not really quote the Bible, except for paraphrasing "be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 9:1, etc.), but her argument is taken largely from 1 Corinthians 7, particularly 7:28, which states that it is no sin for a girl to marry.
The part about the girl being obedient has multiple sources in scripture, including the first part of 1 Corinthians 11 (the key verse here, 11:10, is actually close to making nonsense in Greek, but of course this is clarified -- usually to the detriment of the women -- in most translations). - RBW
Greig #107, p. 2, 1909: "Mr Ord adds:-'The version of "Mither I mean to tak' a man" is just what I heard upwards of 30 years ago.'" - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord148

Mither's Loon, The

See What Do You Think o' Me Noo, Kind Sirs? (File: FVS115)

Mitherless Bairn, The

DESCRIPTION: "When a' ither bairnies are hushed to their hame... Wha stan's last an' lanely, an' naebody carin'? 'T is the puir doited loonie -- the mitherless bairn." His bed is lonely, his clothes few; he dreams of someone to comb his hair. Don't treat him harshly
AUTHOR: William Kennedy ? (source: Whistle-Binkie) / music: John Thomson (1805-1841) (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Thom, Rhymes and Recollections)
KEYWORDS: children mother orphan clothes | bed
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 286-292, "The Mitherless Bairn" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: William Thom, _Rhymes and Recollections of a Hand-Loom Weaver_, third edition with additions, Smith, Elder, and Co. (Cornhill), 1847 (available on Google Books), pp. 140-141, "The Mitherless Bairn" (1 text)
(No Author Listed), _Miller's New British Songster_, J. M. Miller (Edinburgh), 1853 (available on Google Books), p. 129, "The Mitherless Bairn" (1 text)
Roud #24038
NOTES [43 words]: Those wishing to learn more about william Thom may consult the essay "William Thom, The Weaver Poet" in Alfred M. Williams, Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, pp. 166-188. His other song in the Index is "The Wedded Waters." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FoSoMith

Mmm I Want to Linger

DESCRIPTION: "Mmm (or "Ooo," or just a hum) I want to linger, Mmm a little longer, Mmm a little longer here with you. Mmm it's such a perfect night, Mmm it doesn't seem quite right, Mmm that it should be my last with you.... Mmm this is goodnight and not goodbye."
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: farewell campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 341, 552, "Mmm I Want to Linger"/"Linger" (notes only)
DT, MMLINGER
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ooo I want to linger
NOTES [96 words]: According to a thread on mudcat.org, something so similar that it can be considered the same song has lyrics written by Kermit Goell and copyrighted 1947. Under the title "I Wanna Be Friend of Yours," it was recorded by Nat King Cole later in that year. Whether this is actually the original I do not know. I do observe that it is not found in any of the early camp songbooks.
Jim Dixon pointed out a song "I Want to Linger," words by Stanley Murphy, music by Henry I. Marshall, 1914. I definitely would not consider it the same song, but perhaps it inspired something. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ACSF341M

Mmm, And a Little Bit More

DESCRIPTION: "I'd like to be a (friend) of yours, mmm, and a little bit more. (x2), I'd like to be a little flower, Blooming round your door... mmm, and a little bit more." Or "I'd like to be a college man, Umm, and a little bit more." Or "I want a little red canoe."
AUTHOR: original words: Alfred Brya / Muaic: Fred Fischer
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: friend bawdy campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #202, p. 53, "I'd Like to Be a Friend of Yours" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 236, 340, 389, "Mmm, and a Little Bit More"/"I want to be a friend of yours, mmm, and a little bit more" (notes only)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Want to Be a College Man
NOTES [219 words]: This is a true chameleon of a song, recognized by form (in particular, the use of the second line "mmm/umm, and a little bit more") rather than by contents. In the camp song version, the singer wants to be a friend, and the "little bit more" is just to be a close friend. In the "college man" version, the singer wants to be not just a college man, but a fraternity man, and perhaps to date a sorority girl (and do a little bit more than dating! -- I don't know how bawdy the bawdy versions get, but the direction things can go is quite obvious). Another version has a girl wanting to go to college. The "red canoe" version could be a request for a toy -- or a way to court a girl.
The original "And a Little Bit More" was written by Alfred Bryan (words) and Fred Fisher (music), published by T. B. Harms in 1907; it was recorded by Arthur Collins and separately by Collins & Harlan; it was a fairly significant hit in 1907 (Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 276, estimates that this was the the #4 song in America in June 1907) -- but it was substantially changed to make it into the camp song (e.g. the "Mmm" replaces an instrumental chord). It's not clear what other changes happened in that process. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Paro202

Mo Buacaillain Donn

See Buachaillin Donn (File: OCC035)

Mo Chraoibhin Aoibhinn Aluinn Og (My Pleasant Beautiful Young Little Branch)

DESCRIPTION: The harper says his true love is "bound and bleeding 'neath the oppressor." Her riches and beauty gone, she is deserted by many "crouching now like cravens" "Arouse to vengeance, men of brav'ry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (_The Spirit of the Nation,_ according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: harp nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 85, "Mo Chreeveen Eeven Aulin Og" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OLcM085

Mo Dhachaidh (My Ain Home)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Our house by the ferry is surrounded with flowers and birds, protected by the hill from snow. My wife is "the star o' my hame ... the bairnies are singin'" We don't need riches.
AUTHOR: Malcolm MacFarlane
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (The Celtic Monthly)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage lyric nonballad home wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL:
Alfred Moffat, The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Highlands, pp. 48-49 in the soft-cover edition printed c.1960, pp. 92-93 in the hard-cover edition printed c.1908
RECORDINGS:
Malcolm Angus McLeod, "Mo Dhachaidh" (on NovaScotia1)
NOTES [68 words]: The description is based on Moffat's translation by Alexander Stewart. - BS
Jaan Kolk pointed out to me the publication of this work in The Celtic Monthly with a report date of March 13. 1893; this was the winning poem in a Gaelic poetry contest. This first printing was signed "Tobar a' Chaibeil" ("The Well of the Chapel"?), but the prize was awarded to Malcolm MacFarlane, so the authorship is clear. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcMDMAH

Mo Leastar Beag

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "The poet takes his newly-churned butter for sale at the market, but the 'Taster' declares it impure. The song lament's the poet's misfortune."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage commerce food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 89, "Mo Leastar Beag" (2 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Mo Leastar Beag" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC089

Mo Mhuirnin Ban

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer "laments his absence from his loved one... she is already betrothed to Lord Keane." She outshines all his other suitors.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love beauty lament nobility
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 90, "Mo Mhuirnin Ban" (2 texts)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC090

Mo Nighean donn a Cornaig

DESCRIPTION: Singer's fiancee, coming to church, is murdered by ruffians. The wine saved for their wedding is instead drunk at her funeral. The singer wishes he could find those who killed his beloved; he has a sword, and will test the strength of his arm with it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides)
KEYWORDS: grief love sex wedding violence abduction crime homicide revenge beauty death funeral mourning foreignlanguage lament lover wine
FOUND IN: Scotland(Hebr)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 19, "Mo Nighean Donn a Cornaig [My Dark-Haired Maid from Cornaig]" (1 text in Scottish Gaelic + translation, 1 tune)
Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides II, pp. 140-145, "A Tiree Tragedy (Mo Nighean donn a Cornaig)" (1 text in Scottish Gaelic + translation, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My Bonny Cornaig Lassie
NOTES [108 words]: Flora McNeil, from whom the song was collected, notes that while she had only heard the song in Barra, it may have come from the island of Tiree, where there is a place called Cornaig. - PJS, paraphrasing Kennedy
Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides, however, has a very different story: Words (not quite the same!) collected in Eigg, with a tune from Eriskay. The source of the tune was one Annie MacNeill.
According to Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides, the girl's brothers had wanted to kill he lover, but got her instead; "the lover spent the rest of his years making passionate songs to her who had given her life for his own." - RBW
File: K019

Mo-te A-pe Promene Sur La Rue Commune

DESCRIPTION: Creole French. "Mo-te a-pe promene sur la Rue Commune, Quand Mo-te a-pe boire un bon berre la bierre. Voila m'o culotte craquet et fais moin assi par terre." A man has a drink of beer and meets and forces the singer to the ground
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage drink
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 124, "Mo-te A-pe Promene Sur La Rue Commune" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: ScNF124

Moab Alphabet, The

DESCRIPTION: "A stands for Amassy, in Moab he does dwell, B stands for Bartlett, the judge you all know well; C stands for Chalrley, a young man on the flat," and so forth through the residents of Moab, Utah, omitting F, Q, U, V, X, and Y
AUTHOR: Hannah Somerville (source: Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: moniker home nonballad wordplay | alphabet Mormon Moab Utah
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #248, "The Moab Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21107
File: Hubb248

Moanin'

DESCRIPTION: Leader (preacher): "De trumpet sounds in my soul" (congregation echoes). "I ain't got long to stay here."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 579-580, "Moanin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15563
File: LxA579

Moanish Lady

See Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady) (File: San011)

Mobile Bay (I)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "From Liverpool Town we sailed away - CH: John come tell us as we haul away. Outward bound at the break of day - CH. Aye, aye, haul aye - CH." Several verses refer to Mobile Bay and to women. Probably started as a Negro cotton stowing song.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, p. 7)
KEYWORDS: shanty work
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 118, "Mobile Bay" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 86-87, "Mobile Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 287-288, "John, Come Tell Us As We Haul Away" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 210-211]
Roud #4696
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Stow'n' Sugar in de Hull Below" (some verses)
NOTES [25 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas explains that this was one of a very few shanties that would use two singers for the solo lines, alternating verses. - SL
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Hugi287

Mobile Bay (II)

See Margot Evans (Let the Bullgine Run) (File: LoF029)

Mobile Blues

DESCRIPTION: A verse is two couplets followed by "mama, daddy got that mobile blues." Verses are about car wrecks and driving 'mobiles. Then, you won't find "your loving daddy" till you "drop on down in Florida"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (USFlorida01)
KEYWORDS: travel death wreck nonballad wordplay technology
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Emmett Murray, "Mobile Blues" (on USFlorida01)
File: RcMobBlu

Mochyn Du (The Black Pig)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Explains that the black pig is dying, and that now they'll have to do without bacon. Chorus laments the passing of the pig, "Oh, our hearts are very sore...." Based on a Welsh folk song.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong foreignlanguage animal food
FOUND IN: Wales
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 238-239, "Mochyn Du" (2 text-English & Welsh, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hob-y-derri-dando" (English verses often interchanged with this)
cf. "Cosher Bailey's Engine" (tune)
NOTES [44 words]: See also notes to "Hob-Y-Derri-Dando." English words often sung to the same tune go "Dave Davy comes from Nevin, an' he's got a little engine, An' he cannot do without it, 'Cos he thinks so much about it. Ch. Wass you effer see (x3) such a funny thing before?" - SL
File: Hugi238

Mockin' Bird

See Hush, Little Baby (File: SBoA164)

Mocking Bird Valley

DESCRIPTION: "In my dreams I see a trail a-winding, Through a valley once so dear to me." The singer longs to be back in Mocking Bird Valley. He recalls the old church, and his mother. He wishes life were a book so he could turn back the pages.
AUTHOR: Albert E. Brumley (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Super Specials, according to Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
KEYWORDS: home flowers travel nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 25, "Mocking Bird Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V9481
File: ABLT025

Mockingbird Song

See Hush, Little Baby (File: SBoA164)

Mode o' Wooing, The

DESCRIPTION: "Young men when that they do arrive Between a score and twenty-five... [are inclined] To gang away a-wooing, a woo woo wooing." The singer tells of asking advice on how to court, but the old men's advice is bad. He has better luck asking an old woman
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: youth courting questions
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 106-107, "The Mode o' Wooing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #176, pp. 1-2, "The Mode o' Wooing" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 908, "The Mode o' Wooing" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
ST StoR106 (Partial)
Roud #3151
File: StoR106

Model Church, The

DESCRIPTION: "Well, wife, I found a model church, And worshipped there today. It made me think of good old times." Because he is hard of hearing, they let him sit in front. The singing made him think he could hear. The music makes him feel happy that he won't sin more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 148, "The Model Church" (1 text)
Roud #7523
NOTES [76 words]: The singer claimed that the service in the Model Church made him able to hear. On the evidence, it doesn't seem to have helped his ability to think.
The hymn "Coronation" referred to in the song is often known as "All Hail the Power of Jesus's Name," and is indexed under that title. "Coronation" isn't really a good name for it, since that is the name of the tune, and "All Hail" is sung to many tunes although "Coronation" is probably the most common. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Boet148

Modesty Answer, The

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)

Mogos, Nogos, Everybody Come

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Mohee

See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Mole Catcher, The

See The Mole-Catcher (File: K206)

Mole in the Ground

See I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground (File: BAF900)

Mole-Catcher, The

DESCRIPTION: The old molecatcher learns that his wife is carrying on with a young farmer. He catches them in the act, and demands ten pounds of the farmer for "tilling my ground." The farmer says that's a fair price, "For that won't amount t'above tuppence a time."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: adultery sex trick commerce humorous bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 206, "The Mole-Catcher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 268-269, "The Molecatcher" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 38, "The Molecatcher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 93, "The Molecatcher" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 61, "The Molecatcher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #104, "The Mole Catcher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #45, "The Mole-Catcher" (1 text, 1 tune, a Baring-Gould creation because the original words were "very gross")
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #83, "The Molecatcher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, pp. 54-55, "The Manchester Molecatcher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp.24-25, "The Mole Catcher" (1 text)
DT, MOLECATCH*
Roud #1052
RECORDINGS:
Alec Bloomfield, "The Mole-Catcher" (on FSBFTX19)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Molecatcher" (on Lloyd01)
File: K206

Molecatcher, The

See The Mole-Catcher (File: K206)

Moll Boy's Courtship

See Pretty Polly (I) (Moll Boy's Courtship) [Laws O14] (File: LO14)

Mollie and Willie

DESCRIPTION: When Mollie (?) refuses to marry Willie (?), he sets off to be a soldier. She dresses in soldier's clothes and follows him. He tells his fellow "soldier" of his love for Mollie. She starts to cry, and her identity is revealed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love soldier cross-dressing trick reunion
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 98, "Mollie and Willie" (1 text)
ST BrII098 (Full)
Roud #6571
NOTES [49 words]: The editors of Brown speculate that this is a defective version of "Polly Oliver." I really don't see it. It looks more like "The Banks of the Nile." But the differences in the (disordered) Brown text are large enough that I treat this as a separate ballad until I find something more similar. - RBW
File: BrII098

Mollie Bond

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Mollie Darling

DESCRIPTION: "Won't you tell me, Mollie darling, That you love none else but me? For I love you, Mollie darling; You are all the world to me." He asks that her answer be a kiss. When he says goodbye, he asks her to dream of him
AUTHOR: Will S. Hays (source: Dime-Song-Book #30)
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (Dime-Song-Book #30)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation dream flowers
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 82-83, "Mollie Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 128, "Mollie Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 708, "Molly Darling"; 709, "Molly Darling" (2 short texts, 2 tunes)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 30, "Mollie Darling" (2 texts plus a fragment, an excerpt of a fourth, and mention of a fifth; 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 41, "Mollie Darling" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #30, pp. 6-7, "Molie Darling" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W Amos Abrams, "Della Adams Bostic: Sweet Singer of Old Songs," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), p. 141, "Molly Darling" (1 text)
Roud #4966
File: BrS5708

Mollie Hair

See Old Molly Hare (File: R277)

Mollie Vaughn

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Molly Agnew

DESCRIPTION: The singer is vexed that the Irish are "forced from their nation." He meets Molly Agnew, a poor servant girl. Her rich father had been slain in 1799, and his family driven "to beg, starve or die." She agrees to marry the singer and go to old Scotia.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.11(175))
KEYWORDS: marriage rebellion death servant hardtimes Ireland Scotland father
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 30, "Molly Agnew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2750
RECORDINGS:
Mary Dunphy, "Molly Agnew" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(175), "Molly Agnew"[partly illegible] ("On the nineteenth of July, in the year twenty-nine"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1854; also Harding B 17(196b), "Molly Angew"[sic but only in the title][partly illegible]
SAME TUNE:
The Girl I Love Best (tune, per broadside Bodleian Harding B 17(196b))
NOTES [59 words]: The Bodleian broadsides 2806 b.11(175) and Harding B 17(196b) are more complete than Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick and are the source for the description. - BS
I have to suspect that this is based some other emigration song which lacks the political motif. It reminds me a bit of "The Poor Stranger (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone)." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: CrSNB030

Molly and Johnny

See Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)

Molly and Tenbrooks [Laws H27]

DESCRIPTION: In the race between (Molly) and (Ten Broeck), Molly at first takes the lead. Ten Broeck tells his jockey to let him run free, and proceeds to overtake the mare.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: racing horse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 4, 1878 - race between Ten Broeck and Miss Mollie McCarthy (won by Ten Broeck)
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws H27, "Ten Broeck and Mollie"
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 126-127, (no title) (1 short text, probably of this song although it does little except describe Ten Broeck) (OakEd, p. 134)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 253-254, "Ten Broek and Mollie" (1 text)
DT 652, MOLLTEN (MOLLTEN2)
Roud #2190
RECORDINGS:
Carver Boys, "Tim Brook" (Paramount 3199, 1930; rec. 1929; on StuffDreams2)
Warde Ford, "The Hole in the Wall / Timbrooks and Molly" (AFS 4210 A1, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys, "Molly and Tenbrooks" (Columbia 20612, 1949)
Sonny Osborne, "Molly and Tenbrooks" (Kentucky 605, n.d.)
The Stanley Brothers, "Molly And Tenbrooks" (Rich-R-Tone 418, 1948)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Timbrook" (subject)
cf. "Old Timbrook Blues" (subject)
cf. "Liza Jane" (lyrics)
cf. "Run Mollie Run" (lyrics)
cf. "Skewball" [Laws Q22] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Run, Molly, Run
NOTES [239 words]: The "short description" above mirrors the plot as given by Laws. In my experience, however, almost all versions of this song credit Molly, not Ten Broek, as the winner. Of course, many of these texts may have been influenced by the popularized Bill Monroe version, "Molly and Tenbrooks."
Every version of this piece that Laws was aware of came from two articles by Wilgus (both in Kentucky Folklore Record, Vol II, #3 and Vol. II, #4). Wilgus reports that "A match race in Kentucky was arranged at $5,000 a side for a three-heat race, all heats to be four miles each. If either horse was distanced in a heat, the other horse was to be declared automatically the winner."
"The July 4, 1878 match race in which the Kentucky thoroughbred Ten Broeck defeated the mare Miss Mollie McCarthy went into the record books as the last four-mile heat race in American turf history."
As it turned out, Mollie led for much of the first race, then staggered and was distanced, ending the contest. Both sides started trading charges: That Ten Broeck had been poisoned, that the state of the track affected the outcome, etc.
Wilgus sees a relationship with "Skewball" [Laws Q22], and the possibility of a relationship cannot be denied. Laws, however, does not note the connection. As Laws makes the observation that the ballad shows "extreme verbal variation," he may have thought that similarities to "Skewball" either coincidence or later grafts. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LH27

Molly and the Baby

DESCRIPTION: "There's a patient little woman here below, And a little kid that ought to have a show, Now I'll give the whiskey up and I'll take a coffee cup With Molly and the baby don't you know." The singer vows to give up drinking for the sake of his family
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Aurora Advertiser)
KEYWORDS: drink family promise
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 338, "Molly and the Baby" (1 text)
Roud #7810
File: R338

Molly Ban

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Molly Ban Lavery

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Molly Banding

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Molly Baun

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Molly Baun Lavery

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Molly Bawn (II)

See The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)

Molly Bawn (Mary Bawn or Boating on Lough Ree)

DESCRIPTION: The singer remembers happier days with beautiful Mary Bawn: "Her smiles she had for everyone, her kisses all for me." "She pledged herself to be my bride" but "an angel" took her. His hair is now silver but "her comely form still haunts my mind"
AUTHOR: John Keegan Casey (1846-1870) (source: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, Roe)
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (Roe); 1942 (The McNulty Family recording)
KEYWORDS: courting love death beauty nonballad lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 266-268, "Molly Bawn (Mary Bawn or Boating on Lough Ree)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Owen Roe, Reliques of John K. Casey ("Leo") (Dublin: Richard Pigot, 1878 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 181, "Boating on Lough Ree" ("I'm sad and I am lonely now in this far-off West") (1 text)
Roud #24971
RECORDINGS:
The McNulty Family, "Molly Bawn" (Decca 12257, 1942)
Alphonse O'Driscoll, "Molly Bawn" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [169 words]: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports: "['Molly Bawn's] popularity in Newfoundland is attributed to the influence of the Irish American vaudeville group the McNulty Family, who popularized it.... McNulty records were readily available... in St. John's...." Guigné's tune is the same as on the McNulty recording. The McNultys made minor changes in every line of Casey's poem; for example, besides changing Mary Bawn's name to Molly Bawn, and the lake's name from Lough Ree to Lough Lee, they changed the first line from "I'm sad and I am lonely now in this far-off West" to "Well I am sad and lonely here in the distant West." The McNultys use Casey's second verse as a chorus. Guigné's text follows the McNultys rather than Casey and mishears some McNulty words (for example, the McNultys have "a-boating on Lough Lee" and Guigné has "alone beyond Lough Lee").
There are a few differences between O'Driscoll and Guigné. O'Driscoll also mishears "a-boating on Lough Lee," but as "of old beyond Lough Lee." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Guig266

Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36]

DESCRIPTION: Jimmy goes out hunting and shoots his true love (Molly, mistaking her for a swan). He is afraid of the law, but is told that the law will forgive him. At his trial Molly's ghost appears and explains the situation; the young man is freed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1806 (Jamieson, volume i, p. 194 -- a partial text in the notes to "Lord Kenneth and Fair Ellinour)
KEYWORDS: hunting death trial reprieve help ghost
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England(West)) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (42 citations):
Laws O36, "Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear)"
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #62, "At the Setting of the Sun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 54, "Molly Vaughn" (3 texts plus 2 fragments and 1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 77, "Mollie Vaughn (Polly Band)" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 14, "Molly Baun" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 274-276, "Polly Van" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 26, "Shooting of His Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 111, "As Jimmie Went A-Hunting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 76, "Molly Bawn" (1 text plus a fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 76, "Molly Bawn" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #214, "Molly Baun" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, p. 117, "Molly Vaughn" (1 text, properly titled "The Death of Molly Bender," with very peculiar orthography; it looks like it came from a semi-literate manuscript but is said to be from a field recording)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 57, "Polly Bond" (1 fragment)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 50, "Shooting of His Dear" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #23, "Shooting of His Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 32, pp. 145-146, "Shooting of His Dear" (2 texts)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 73, "Molly Bond" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 24, pp. 44-46, "Molly Bond" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 700-701, "Molly Bawn" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 176-177, "Molly Bawn" (1 text)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 46-47, "Molly Banding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 26, "Molly Bawn" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 92, "Young Molly Ban" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 96-97, "Molly Van" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 196, "Molly Baun Lavery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 206, "Young Molly Ban" (1 text)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 49, "Molly Ban Lavery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H114, p. 143, "Molly Bawn Lowry" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 29, "Young Molly Ban" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 1, pp. 1-2,99,154-155, "Molly Bawn Lowry" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 92, "Molly Bawn" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 330, "Polly Vaughan" (2 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 102, "Mollie Vaughn" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 87-88, "Molly Bond" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp 79-80, "Polly Bond" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp.58-59, "Molly Vaunder (Vaughn)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 33, pp. 78-79, "Mollie Bond" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 89-91, "Polly Vaughan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1896, p. 128, "Polly von Luther and Jamie Randall" (1 reference)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 133-134, "Molly Bawn"; "Molly Bander" (2 texts)
DT 308, POLLYVON POLLVON1 POLLVON2
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 304, "Young Molly Bawn" (1 short text)
Roud #166
RECORDINGS:
Louis Boutilier, "As Jimmie Went A-Hunting" (on MRHCreighton)
Anne Briggs, "Polly Vaughan" (on Briggs1, Briggs3, Briggs4)
Packie Manus Byrne, "Molly Bawn" (on Voice06)
Sara Cleveland, "Molly Bawn" (on SCleveland01)
Elizabeth Cronin, "Molly Bawn" (on IRECronin01)
Seamus Ennis, "Molly Bawn" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
A. L. Lloyd, "Polly Vaughan" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
John Maguire, "Molly Bawn Lowry" (on IRJMaguire01)
Maggie Murphy, "Molly Bawn" (on IRHardySons)
Pete Seeger, "Shoo Fly" (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
Phoebe Smith, "Molly Vaughan" (on Voice03)
Dan Tate, "Molly Van" (on OldTrad2, FarMtns1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(11), "Young Molly Bawn," J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899; also 2806 b.11(131), "Young Molly Bawn"
LOCSinging, as111140, "Polly Von Luther and Jamie Randall," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Molly Ban
Peggy Baun
Lord Kenneth and Fair Ellinour
NOTES [224 words]: Darling compares this to the story of Cephalus and Procris. The standard version is supplied by Ovid in the Metamorphoses (VII.685 and following; it starts on page 174 of the Penguin edition translated by Mary M. Innes). First he tested her love in disguise, and she passed the test. But then she heard a rumor of his unfaithfulness, and set out to watch him. He heard her in hiding, without seeing her, and threw his javelin on the assumption that she was a wild beast. It killed her.
Incidentally, Michael Grant and John Hazel, Gods and Mortals in Classical Mythology: A Dictionary, article on Cephalus, thinks Ovid's version of the story may conflate legends of two different heroes named Cephalus. In any case, I don't see a particularly strong parallel to the ballad; yes, the hunter kills his lover, but the motivations are very different.
There was a nineteenth century song "Molly Bawn," in which a young man tries to convince Molly to marry him; it can be found in New-Comic-Songster, p. 44, Dime-Song-Book #4, p. 51, and Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 42. I do not know if this song inspired the (feeble) courting song. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as111140: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LO36

Molly Bawn Lowry

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Molly Bond

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Molly Bonder

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Molly Brannigan

See Polly Brannigan (File: E153E)

Molly Brooks (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Molly Brooks has gone to the isle (x3), And I hope she'll never return (x3), Molly Brooks has gone to the isle, And I hope she'll never return."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad travel
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, p. 71=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 194-195, "Molly Brooks" (1 text, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 78-79, "Molly Brooks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 529, "Molly Brooks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 139, "Molly Brooks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, p. 274, "Moll Brooks" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment which is placed here by the manuscript title; Roud [#2075] files it with "I Lost My Love and I Dinna Ken Hoo," though it has really only one line in common)
Roud #7642
NOTES [49 words]: This probably springs from the same roots as Molly Brooks (II), a dance to the tune of "Malbrouk." Since, however, Randolph's version has lost the tune (which in this case is diagnostic), and Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana appears to have a different tune, I have classified them separately. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: R529

Molly Brooks (II)

See Malbrouck (File: K108)

Molly Hustan

DESCRIPTION: "Late at night, there I sped A barefoot maid trip o'er the street, Oh! the ground shone around...." The singer praises her beauty and comes to her window to court her. She turns him away. He still cannot resist her, and follows her; he spells her name
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Harris Manuscript; similar to Burns's "Mally's meek")
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection river wordplay
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 156-157, "Molly Hustan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18043
File: HLMM156

Molly Maguires, The

DESCRIPTION: A song "in praise of Molly's sons." "They can root out all Defenders and plant the Laurel Tree." Seeing them in St Patrick's day finery "while the Ribbon Bands did play" the singer prays "That the Lord may enable Molly's sons to tear down tyranny."
AUTHOR: John Maguire (source: Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 9, pp. 21-22,103,158, "The Molly Maguires" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2923
NOTES [381 words]: Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday: "Tradition has it that the Molly Maguires were formed in the early nineteenth-century after the Catholic neighbors of a Co. Tyrone widow, Molly Maguire, had successfully foiled an attempt to evict her. The success spurred them to combine to carry out similar defensive action in other areas." Morton continues "I find John's song somewhat confusing for various reasons": The Defenders were a Catholic organization that you would expect to be on the same side as the Molly Maguires but, since there was no great Orange threat in Fermanagh, there could have been conflict between Catholic organizations; on the other hand there was no alliance between the Molly Maguires and the more extreme Catholic Ribbonmen.
Why a "laurel tree"? I don't find any association, for example, between the Liberty Tree and laurel (see "The Liberty Tree," "Ireland's Liberty Tree," "Plant, Plant the Tree" and Zimmermann's discussion of the Liberty Tree: pp. 41-43, 85-86, 255-256). - BS
In classical mythology, and in Roman history, the laurel, or the bay, is associated with victory, and is also said to ward off evil spirits. I don't know of any overwhelming reason to connect that legend with Ireland, but it's probably more likely than a link between "laurel" and "liberty."
The Irish Molly Maguires were not a particularly noteworthy group; I checked seven histories without finding a single mention of them. But they loomed larger in legend. Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia described them as "An Irish secret society organized in 1843. Stout, active young Irishmen dressed up in women's clothes, blackened faces, and otherwise disguised themselves to surprise those employed to enforce the payments of rents. Their victims were ducked in bog-holes, and many were beaten most unmercifully." And this Irish group inspired the American Molly Maguires, which fought against the Pennsylvania coal bosses -- and largely failed. The American Mollies are the chief subject of "Muff Lawler, the Squealer." [Laws E25]; see the entry on that song for background on the American Mollies.
The Mollies, in both their American and Irish forms, inspired sundry other songs -- e.g. there is one by Phil Coulter in the Digital Tradition. Few if any made it into tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: MoMa009

Molly Malone

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of meeting sweet Molly Malone in Dublin, where she sold shellfish from a barrow; her parents were also fishmongers. She dies of a fever; now her ghost wheels the barrow. Chorus: "Singing 'Cockles and mussels, alive, alive-o"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Waite, Carmina Collegensia)
KEYWORDS: death food worker ghost disease commerce
FOUND IN: US Ireland
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 44-45, "In Dublin's fair city" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 22, "Cockles and Mussels" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 124, "Molly Malone" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 96, "Molly Malone" (1 excerpt, from user Robloz, posted September 23, 2021)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 89, "Cockles and Mussels" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Cockles and Mussels" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p.13)
DT, MOLLYMAL*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 256, "Cockles and Mussels" (1 text)
Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, p. 12, "Molly Malone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 73 [of part 3], "Cockles and Mussels" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSWB124B (Partial)
Roud #16932
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Molly Malone" (on PeteSeeger32)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(82a), "Cockles and Mussels. Aliv, O" (sic.), Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Walnut Girl" (subject)
NOTES [168 words]: We don't have "peddler" as a keyword -- pity. Meanwhile, I believe this started out as a Tin Pan Alley song? For better or for worse, it seems to have entered tradition -- at least, at every Irish gig I've played, some drunk asks for it. - PJS
Although the Poet's Box broadside is the earliest version I've found, it can hardly be the original; incredibly badly printed (Apart from the title, it can't decide if Miss Malone is Molly or "Melly," and the chorus runs "Alive, alive, O! alive, alive O! Crying Cockles and! alive, alive, O!"), and no tune is indicated. It has to be derivative.
The only source I've ever seen with a listed author was Robert Gogan's 130 Great Irish Ballads, which says that there is a London printing from 1884 calling it a comic song and attributing it to James Yorkston. I know nothing else about Yorkston. But observe that this is after the Waite printing.
Gogan also notes that there is actually a statue of Molly Malone in Dublin. Wish I knew who had put the thing up! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FSWB124B

Molly McGlocklin

DESCRIPTION: He marries Molly McGlocklin. She prefers Finnigan who "his gizzard he broke." Molly mourns; the singer hits her and fights the Finnigans. After the burial she attacks him; he throws her in the grave. He's single now and will dance but won't marry again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #2)
KEYWORDS: marriage fight death funeral burial humorous family
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 42, "Mister Finagan" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #2/72, pp. 30-31 and #2/64, pp. 30-31, "Mr. Finagan" (1 text)
Roud #19484
RECORDINGS:
Jack Swain, "Finnigan's Wake II" (on NFMLeach); "Finnegan's Wake (Version 2)" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2962), "Pat Finnigan," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 26(37), "Barnaby Finegan"; 2806 b.11(184), "Barnaby Finnegan"
NOTES [19 words]: Leach (NFMLeach notes) says "Finnigan's Wake" "is a local title; it is more generally known as Molly McGlocklin" - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RcMolMcG

Molly Put the Kettle On (Polly Put the Kettle On)

DESCRIPTION: "(Molly/Polly/Kitty) put the kettle on, Sally blow the dinner horn... We'll all take tea." Often a fiddle tune with the usual sorts of verses for a fiddle tune
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (_Barnaby Rudge_ by Charles Dickens, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad floatingverses food dancetune playparty
FOUND IN: US(Ap.MW) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1684, "Molly, Put the Kettle On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 133, "Jennie Put the Kettle On" (1 text, which looks like a playparty based on this chorus)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, p. 83=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, p. 230, "Polly Put the Kettle On" (again, a playparty based on this chorus)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 420, "Polly put the kettle on" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #237, p. 153, "(Polly put the kettle on)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 154, "Polly Put the Kettle On" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 144, "Polly Put the Kettle On" (1 tex)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #125, "Housekeeping" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #146, "(Polly put the kettle on)"; #152, "(Keep the pot a-boiling)" (2 texts; the form says it is not this piece -- it's only two lines long, "(Polly) put the kettle on, Be on time"/"Keep the pot a-boiling, Be on time" -- but the first line makes it this)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 256, "Molly Put the Kettle On" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 3, "Molly, Put the Kettle On" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Blanton Owen, "Manco Sneed and the Indians: 'These Cherokee Don't Make Music Much,'" Vol. XXVIII, No. 2 (Nov 1980, p. 66, "Polly Put the Kettle On" (1 tune)
Roud #7899
RECORDINGS:
Leake County Revelers, "Molly Put the Kettle On" (Columbia 15380-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers, "Molly Put The Kettle On" (Columbia 15746-D, 1932; on GoingDown)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pakenham" (form)
SAME TUNE:
Jennie's Bawbee (so Herd, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
Gunpoweder Tea (File: CAFS1052)
NOTES [404 words]: Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes re 420: "Around 1810 the song was clearly the rage in London."
The following broadside refers to the original song and quotes it as a chorus.
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4332), "Polly Put the Kettle On" ("I am a merry, happy chap"), C. Sheard (London), 1840-1866 - BS
According to Eric Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (combined fifth edition with dictionary and supplement, Macmillan, 1961), this was a c[atch] p[hrase] from around 1870, since become obsolescent. He attributes it to "the song of Grip, the Raven (Dickens)." Since Dickens was born 1812, the poem would appear to precede him, but he may well have added to its popularity (and is often credited with changing the girl's name from "Molly" to "Polly"; cf. Colby, p. 144).
The book involved, Barnaby Rudge, is based on the anti-Catholic riot of June 1780, but is influenced, e.g., by Sir Walter Scott, so there is no particular reason to think the catch-phrase dates from c. 1780.
Grip is the mentally deficient Barnaby's pet raven, given to phrases such as "I'm a devil," "Never say die," and "Polly, put the kettle on." The latter quote occurs in chapter 17.
According to John Baynes with John Laffin, Soldiers of Scotland, Brassey's, 1988 (I use the 1997 Barnes & Noble edition), p. 105, when arranged for pipes, is known as "Jenny's Bawbee," and is used as a "Tea Call" by several Scottish regiments. The Opies say that "Jenny's Bawbee" is mentioned by Herd.
Fans of J. R. R. Tolkien may be interested to learn that this is one of the tunes which Tolkien used when creating songs -- although in this case he did not use it for something from his Middle Earth cycle. Rather, he set the poem "'Lit' and 'Lang'" to the tune he called "Polly Put the Kettle On" (see John D. Rafeliff, The History of The Hobbit: Part One: Mr. Baggins, Houghton-Mifflin, 2007, p. 188). "'Lit' and 'Lang'" describes the conflict between philologists and literary critics in the university English departments of his time, with the philologists thinking that you needed to study language to understand literature and the rest thinking you didn't. Tolkien's solution was to develop two separate tracks to a degree, one with much more language stress than the other. Sadly, this proposal has now been largely dropped -- because no one studies philology any more. Like folk music, which Tolkien also studied. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DarNS256

Molly Stewart

See Bonnie Mally Stewart (File: FVS174)

Molly Van

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Molly Vaunder

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Molly Was a Good Gal

See Row, Molly, Row (Molly Was a Good Gal) (File: BMRF590A)

Molly, Asthore

See Gramachree (File: HHH204)

Molly, I'm the Man

See The Banks of Claudy [Laws N40] (File: LN40)

Molly, Lovely Molly

DESCRIPTION: Molly hears a voice at her window; it is her old love returned. She bids him leave; he has courted other women. He replies that it was his master's orders which took him away. His ship leaves tomorrow; will she come with him? She agrees to do so
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H557, pp. 478-479, "Molly, Lovely Molly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9456
NOTES [50 words]: Some versions of The Cruel Ship's Carpenter [Laws P36] share a title and/or metrical form with this ballad. The plots are so completely different, however, that I would not even have noted the similarity had not there been a note in the Henry collection pointing out the (lack of) common material. - RBW
File: HHH557

Molly, My Dear

DESCRIPTION: When harvest is over the men's "hearts filled wi' love and their pockets wi' money" and they ask the girls to go with them. Dermot asks Molly to go north with him. She prefers him to Thady "wi' his blarney" and "love songs of the Lake o' Killarney"
AUTHOR: Robert Tannahill (1774-1810)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1838 (Ramsay)
KEYWORDS: courting farming harvest money Ireland Scotland
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 861, "The Harvest is Ower" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Phillip A Ramsay, The Poetical Works of Robert Tannahill (London, c.1838), pp. 44-45, "Molly, My Dear"
Roud #6246
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Miss Molly" (tune, per Ramsay)
File: GrD4861

Momma, Momma, I Am Sick

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

Mommy Moon

DESCRIPTION: "The day is past and gone and what is done is done, If you ain't done your best you'll be the suffering one. Oh, Mommy Moon... get up in the morning fit to do your best. Oh, Mommy Moon, the sun's coming up pretty soon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2002 (Derek Piotr Archive)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | sleep sun moon
FOUND IN: US(NE)
RECORDINGS:
Patricia Campbell, "Mommy Moon" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #238, recorded 09/05/2022)
NOTES [35 words]: This sounds like a fragment of a pop song. But I can find no trace of it. (The tune as sung by Patricia Cambell does not sound like a lullaby.) Presumably there has been a lot of mis-remembering along the way. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio238

Mommy Please Stay Home with Me

See Please Mama Stay Home With Me (File: RAInP122)

Mon Amour (My Love)

DESCRIPTION: French. Singer tells the charms of her beloved shepherd and tells him (via a passing turtledove) to be true forever
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love virtue nonballad shepherd lover bird
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 26, "Mon Amour (My Love)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [4 words]: It's nicer in French. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BerV026

Mon Berger (My Shepherd)

DESCRIPTION: French. Shepherdess sings about the merits of her shepherd. He's somewhere else, she knows not where, but if she knew she'd tell him she loves him. If he comes home, she swears she'll marry him tonight.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love shepherd lyric
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 60, "Mon Berger (My Shepherd)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [53 words]: If it sounds cloying, that's because it is. Even the editors of Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes suggest this is a composed piece, not long in tradition, suggesting delicately, "These compositions are often characterized by a definite artificiality of sentiment.". - PJS
They are also characterized by shepherdesses.... - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BerV060

Mon Bon Ami Va Venir Ce Soir (My Good Friend Will Come This Evening)

DESCRIPTION: French. The singer's good friend comes to see his, undresses and sleeps in his bed. Near midnight she says Hello. The singer says thanks for the hello, but had hoped for more. To lead quail to corn, you have to know how to serve it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage sex lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 300-301, "Mon Bon Ami Va Venir Ce Soir" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Mme. Josephine Costard, "Mon Bon Ami Va Venir Ce Soir" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [68 words]: "Quail" -- that is "caille" -- here likely has the same connotation, that is "young woman," in French slang as it does in US slang. See, for example "Suburban slang greets visitors to France" by John Lichfield, June 6, 2001, "In ...verlan -- the ... language of ... French, suburban youth -- there are more than 50 ways of referring to women. They include "...caille..." from the New Zealand Herald site. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea300

Mon Cher Voisin (My Dear Neighbor)

DESCRIPTION: French. My neighbor sent me to find a worn out old horse. Let's drink, sharpen our knives and skin it. He soothes the horse: no more demands will be made, no more pulling a master and his luggage.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage execution horse
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 129, "Mon Cher Voisin" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pawkie Paiterson's Auld Grey Yaud" (theme)
cf. "Poor Old Horse (III)" (theme)
NOTES [14 words]: The description is based on Alan Mills's translation in Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs. - BS
File: CrMa129

Mona (You Shall Be Free)

See Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady) (File: San011)

Moncey Grey

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Moncton Tragedy, The

See John Sullivan (The Moncton Tragedy) (File: Dib057)

Monday Is My Washing Day

DESCRIPTION: "Monday is my washing day, Tuesday I'm alone"; her fellow is supposed to come on Wednesday, but has been missing for several days. He gives her apples and pears; the stair broke under him "And all the ducks in Finglas Went quack, quack, quack"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: love courting work separation injury bird
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 94, "(Monday is my washing day)" (1 text)
Roud #12986
NOTES [38 words]: Roud lumps this with "The Bells are Ringing (Eight O'Clock Bells)," and it certainly includes the "Johnny gave me apples" verse, but there are enough other things going on that I think it has to be considered a separate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI094A

Monday Morning

See Next Monday Morning (File: ShH38)

Monday Morning Blues

DESCRIPTION: On Monday morning the singer's woman left him crying. Now he's been in jail six weeks. At trial he's sentenced: "get a pick and shovel, let's go down in the mine." His "tears come rolling down." He asks for change of a dollar to get a lucky dime.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt04)
KEYWORDS: grief courting prison punishment trial mining prisoner money
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Monday Morning Blues" (on MJHurt04, MJHurt05)
File: RcMoMoBl

Monday Night

DESCRIPTION: "Monday night, Band of Hope, Tuesday night, pull the rope, Wednesday night a visitor [or, put on your coat]." Then, lines like "I love so-and-so" or "take her to the river ... Give her a kiss and send her back"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,West)) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 86, "Monday Night" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 82, "(Monday night the gramophone)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #347, "Monday nght, Band of Hope"; #348, "Monday night -- the gramophone" (2 texts)
Roud #13182
NOTES [132 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame considers this rhyme descended from "My Nannie, O" via "Sunday Night." The argument, as the Opies recognize, seems tenuous: "This is the present stage of the game's evolution; and although scarcely a trace remains of the original structure, yet the bouncing jollity of the 1680's song somehow survives." All that's left of the link to the nineteenth century stage -- much less to the seventeenth century -- is that it starts with a night and that both have a bonny girl: now, "Monday night, Band of Hope"; then, "Sunday night an' Nancy o!" - BS
It's not absolutely clear to me that Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes's two texts are "the same," but since I don't find any other "gramophone" texts, I'm including it with the "Band of Hope" lyrics to go along with the Roud Index.
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OpGa086

Monday Night the Gramophone

See Monday Night (File: OpGa086)

Monday was my Courting Day, A

See My Wife Died on Saturday Night (File: RcMWDOSN)

Monday's Child

DESCRIPTION: "Monday's child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace, Wednesday's child is full of woe, Thursday's child has far to go, Friday's child is loving and giving, Saturday's child works hard for his living." Other lines regard Sunday or Christmas
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1838 (Bray, Traditions of Devonshire, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: children
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North)) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 353, "Monday's child is fair of face" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #533, p. 218, "(Monday's child is fair of face)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 137, "Monday's Child is Fair of Face" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 46, "Monday' Child Is Fair of Face" (1 text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #149, "Counting Rhymes" (8 texts of the "One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann" type, 4 of "Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme)", 1 of "Intery Mintery Cutery Corn", 1 of "Alphabet Songs", 1 of "Monday's Child", and 20 miscellaneous rhymes)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, p. 276, "(no title)" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 64-65, "Born on Days" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 111, "Monday's child is fair of face" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Marjorie Rowling, _The Folklore of the Lake District_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 130, "(Monday's child is fair of face") (1 short text)
Roud #19526
NOTES [44 words]: According to Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, the birth of Charles, the son of the soon-to-be Queen Elizabeth II, inspired a great debate in Britain about the "correct" version of this poem. I suspect that any "definitive" answer that was reached was, in fact, wrong. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OO2353

Monday's Child is Fair of Face

See Monday's Child (File: OO2353)

Mone, Member, Mone

DESCRIPTION: "Tell-a me who had a rod, Mone, member, mone! Hit was Moses, child of God, Mone, member, mone!" A call-and-answer sermon describing the crossing of the Red Sea, listing the order of those who will go to heaven, and calling for repentance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 578-579, "Mone, Member, Mone" (1 text)
Roud #15562
NOTES [34 words]: One suspects that this was sort of a preacher's "zipper" text -- any story could be zipped in to replace the Exodus account. But I've never seen this in any other form, so I can't say with certainty. - RBW
File: LxA578

Money

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, money is the meat in the coconut, O money is the milk in the jug; When you've got lots of money You feel very funny, You're as happy as a bug in a rug."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: money food
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 112, "Money" (1 short text (perhaps just the chorus), 1 tune)
Roud #19896
File: San112

Money Makes the Mare to Go (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Will you lend me your mare to go a mile?" "No; no she is lame, leaping over a stile." "But if you will her to me spare You shall have money for your mare." "Oh, ho! say you so? Money will make the mare to go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (broadside, Walsh)
KEYWORDS: request money nonballad horse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 303, "Money Will Make the Mare to Go" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 190)
ADDITIONAL: William S Walsh, Handy-Book of Literary Curiousities (Philadelphia, 1893 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 734-735, ("Will you lend me your mare to go a mile?") (1 text)
Roud #1332
NOTES [179 words]: The current description is all of the Walsh text.
Walsh: "Money makes the mare go, an old English proverb of uncertain origin. It may be a far-off variant of the ancient phrase found in this form in Publius Syrus: 'Money alone sets all the world in motion.' (Maxim 656) There is an old glee that contains the following lines: ... There is no evidence, however, to show that the glee was not taken from the saw. In Caleb Bingham's 'American Preceptor,' published inj 1794, is a dialog called 'Self-Interest,' in which an English rustic, named Scrapewell, makes all sorts of false excuses to avoid lending his mare to a neighbor, but afterwards, finding that the loan is to be profitable to himself, he takes back all the excuses and lets the mare go. The author's name is given as Berquin. Probably it is a paraphrase from the French writer for children Arnauld Berquin (1749-91). The glee may have been founded on this dialogue, as it follows it in all essentials. And, as the proverb is not mentioned in the dialogue, the saw as well as the glee may have arisen therefrom." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT303AB

Money, Money, Oh Sweet Money

DESCRIPTION: "Long time ago I had a beau, He came a-courting me, Because he thought that I had wealth...." The girl tests him by informing him she has no money. He drops her at once. She warns others, "Let them find you're minus of gold And you'll be minus of beaux."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting money abandonment
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 484, "Money, Money, Oh Sweet Money" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7637
File: R484

Moneygran Pig Hunt, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was racing and chasing in old Moneygran," as pigs bid humans catch them and say they are "Home Rulers and Fenians and Orange pigs too." The "warhawks" pursue, but "the pigs are the winners in old Moneygran."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Words: 1924 (Northern Constitution); as a song, 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: political racing animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H731, pp. 22-23, "The Moneygran Pig Hunt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13345
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnets o' Bonny Dundee" (tune)
cf. "The Bold Tenant Farmer" (subject)
cf. The Barrymore Tithe Victory" (theme)
cf. "The Sow's Triumph Over the Peelers" (theme)
NOTES [216 words]: Said to be based on an incident from 1876, when law officials were sent to the Mercers estate to collect back rent. The tenants loosed their pigs, and the police tried to catch them.
The song is said to be associated with the Land Leagues, a group arising out of the complex interactions between Britain and Ireland. The election of 1868 brought Gladstone to power, but also gave Charles Stewart Parnell a decisive voice in parliament. In 1870, Gladstone passed a Land Act, but the House of Lords rejected it.
The Irish reaction was the Land Leagues, tenant organizations intended to curb excessive rents. They were basically non-violent, but they did resist pressure from landlords in all sorts of creative ways.
The Land Leagues finally faded in 1881 when Gladstone managed to get a true rent reform bill passed (though at the cost of a Coercion Act used to suppress the worst radicals). For further details, see the notes on "The Bold Tenant Farmer."
The reference to the pigs being "Home Rulers and Fenians and Orange" is an observation on the personal politics of those who wanted relief from rents: They ranged from radical Irishmen (Fenians) to conservatives, often Protestant, who wanted Home Rule, to the Ulster Protestants who wanted to be part of Britain but still needed rent reform. - RBW
File: HHH731

'Mong the Little White Daises

See Among the Little White Daisies (File: RitS034)

Monie Kings, Monie Queins

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a killing in a wood and meets a dog that bites his finger off... yoke the plow... the shepherd takes the witch [?] home, shears her and puts her in the pot... Maggie bribed a boy "to tell the deed that she had done"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: farming hunting dog sheep shepherd injury
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 120, "Monie Kings, Monie Queins" (1 text)
Roud #15099
NOTES [85 words]: Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 pp. xxxvii-xxxviii: "'Monie Kings, Monie Queins' may have been sung or spoken during seasonal house-visiting like other not dissimilar items discussed in my note in Scottish Studies 21 (1978) pp. 109-13 on '"Mony Kings, Mony Queens' and its Possible Link with Seasonal Custom'."
I have no idea what's going on here. Not even in those parts I think I have translated correctly. It would help if someone could read and comment here on Lyle's Scottish Studies note. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2120

Monitor and Merrimac

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going to sing a song, I won't detain you long.... The Monitor went smack up to the Merrimac, And upon her sides played Yankee Doodle Dandy, O." The singer taunts Jeff Davis with the success of the Monitor, which he offers as evidence of Yankee skill
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (Cohen); 19C (Wolf)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 8, 1862 - U.S. frigates Congress and Cumberland sunk by the CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimack). The Minnesota runs aground; had not the Monitor arrived the next day, the Merrimac would have sunk that ship also
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 195-196, "Monitor and Merrimac" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 116-117, "The Monitor and the Merrimack" (1 text, 1 tune, heavily composite)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1453, p. 98, "Monitor and Merrimac" (9 references)
Roud #V20552
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (tune) and references there
NOTES [129 words]: For background on the Monitor and the Virginia/Merrimac, see the notes to "The Cumberland Crew" [Laws A18].
Although there is little evidence of this song entering tradition, it was popular in print; Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 98, lists nine different broadside prints, which surely dates it to the 1860s.
The listed tune is "Yankee Doodle," but it really feels like it should be sung to "Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel" or one of its relatives. Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors suggest "The Bonnie Lass of Fyvie (Pretty Peggy-O)," which fits the meter but lacks the internal rhymes of the first and third lines of each stanza; it just doesn't feel right to me.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: CAFS1195

Monitor and the Merrimack, The

See Monitor and Merrimac (File: CAFS1195)

Monk McClamont's "Farewell to Articlave"

DESCRIPTION: In (18)40, the singer prepares to sail for America on the Provincial. The ship being becalmed, he has time to see, and mourn, the land he is leaving behind. He praises the captain and crew of the ship
AUTHOR: Monk McClamont
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: ship emigration farewell
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H65b, p. 166-187, "Monk McClamont's 'Farewell to Articlave'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13542
File: HHH065b

Monk of Great Renown, The

DESCRIPTION: A monk has sex with one or more women until his fellows abruptly put a halt to his misadventures.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex death burial clergy
FOUND IN: Canada Britain(England) US(MW,SW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 37-42, "The Monk of Great Renown" (3 texts, 1 tune; a piece to a different tune but with the same sort of plot occurs on p. 265 under "Ditties")
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 91, "The Monk of Great Renown" (1 text)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 184, "The Old Monk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10137
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singer, "The Monk of Priory Hall" (on Unexp1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Horse Shit"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Squire of Great Renown
File: EM037

Monkey and the Baboon, The

DESCRIPTION: "The monkey and the baboon playing seven-up The monkey won the money And was scared to pick it up." "The monkey and the baboon Running a race. The monkey fell down And skint his face." "The monkey... climbed a tree... threw a cocoanut..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal cards humorous floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 180, "The Monkey and the Baboon" (1 text)
NOTES [35 words]: The stanza about X and Y playing seven-up of course occurs with many protagonists (white man and black, David and Goliath, Adam and Eve); one wonders a little if its use here is not some sort of allegory. - RBW
File: ScaNF180

Monkey and the Elephant, The

DESCRIPTION: "The monkey and the elephant were riding on a rail, The elephant said, 'Oh, monkey, you look so doggone frail.'" Other animals also fight. So do the singer's Mom and Dad. The singer discusses his history of courting. Many verses float
AUTHOR: probably adapted by John Daniel Vass
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (recorded by Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains from John Daniel Vass)
KEYWORDS: courting animal humorous mother father rejection humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 48-49, "The Monkey and the Elephant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7330
NOTES [86 words]: The number of floating lines in this song is high: "If I had a scolding wife," "I went to see Miss Annie, I'll never go no more, Her shoes and stockin's in her hand," and references to courting Cindy. Other portions feel adapted from traditional song. My suspicion is that this is a rewrite by John Daniel Vass of an assortment of traditional songs. Vass gave his treatment to several other songs, producing items which are long, invertebrate -- and, to my mind, not really very good when considered as a whole. - RBW
File: Shel048

Monkey Came Into My Shop One Day, A

DESCRIPTION: "A monkey came into my shop one day And asked for a bottle of beer. Where is your money? In my pocket. Where is your pocket? I left it at home. Well, please walk out."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal drink money
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 90, "(A monkey came into my shop one day)" (1 text)
File: SuSm090A

Monkey Draw Bow (Monkey Jaw Bone)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: Singer goes to a pond hears a bull frog, asks the watchman what it said. Chorus: monkey jaw bone [or monkey draw bow] is so sweet. He hears an alarm in Linstead when "Sweetie tumble off a chair."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Rovere: see Notes)
KEYWORDS: fiddle music nonballad animal
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 37-38, "Monkey Draw Bow" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Olive Lewin, _Forty Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Washington: General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, 1973), pp. 79-80, "Monkey Jawbone" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Monkey Draw Bow" (on WIEConnor01)
NOTES [78 words]: The 1950 single verse is from a short story that follows the "monkey draw bow" line (Ethel Rovere, "Prempeh" in 14 Jamican Short Stories (Kingston: The Pioneer Press, 1950), p. 46, ("Go to Long Pnd fe water").
Lewin: "'Jawbone' probably refers to an instrument (made from the jawbone of an animal) which was used in old Jamaica. In some versions of this song the words 'draw bow' are sometimes substituted for 'jawbone' in which case reference is made to a fiddle." - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: JaMu038

Monkey Married the Baboon's Sister

See The Monkey's Wedding (File: San113)

Monkey Motions

DESCRIPTION: "I act monkey motions, too-re-loo, I act monkey motions, so I do; I act 'em well an' dat's a fact -- I act just like de monkeys act." "I act gen'man motions...." "I act lady motions...." Similarly for children's motions, preachers' motions, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 133, "Monkey Motions" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "What's the Lady's Motion? (Skip O'er the Mountain)" (form)
cf. "Miss Susianna Jane" (mention of Monkey Motions)
File: ScaNF133

Monkey Sitting on the End of a Rail

DESCRIPTION: "Monkey settin' on de end uf a rail, Pickin' his teeth wid de end uf his tail, Mulberry leaves un' calico sleeves, All school teachers is so hard to please." Rest floats: The redbird shaking 'simmons down, the singer is tired of sleeping alone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal floatingverses bird food
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 193, (no title) (1 text, with varying stanza forms)
File: ScNF193B

Monkey Song (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Everything I do the monkey wanna do ... rapping ... going out ... drinking ... eating ... going home ... sleeping ... nothing in the world the monkey won't do"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Blind Blake Higgs: see WIHIGGS01)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Monkey Song" (on WIHIGGS01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Monkey" (theme; see notes)
NOTES [114 words]: King Radio, the Lion and the Tiger recorded "Monkey" in 1936 (on "Fall of Man: Calypsos on the Human Condition 1935-1941," Rounder CD 1141, 1999). The theme is the same as for Higgs's "Monkey Song" but the structure is different, as well as the words and tune. For example, here are three verses, of one line each, sung respectively by Lion, Tiger and Radio, with a group chorus in parentheses:
I make a dash, monkey made one too/ (We don't know what to say, we monkey won't do)/ I mean, I cover up, monkey cover up too/ (Well look, we don't know what to say, we monkey won't do)/ Oh when I take off me jacket, monkey take off too/ (So we don't know what to say we monkey won't do) - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: RcMonkSo

Monkey Song (II)

See Oh My Pretty Monkey (File: RcOMPrMo)

Monkey Turned Barber, The [Laws Q14]

DESCRIPTION: Pat enters the barber's and asks for a shave. A monkey in clothes winks and sets to work. Pat screams with pain; the monkey disappears. The barber enters. Pat accuses his "father" of having cut him. Finally the truth comes out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (Bodleian Broadside Harding B 11(2478))
KEYWORDS: animal abuse humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws Q14, "The Monkey Turned Barber"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 249-251, "The Monkey Turned Barber" (3 texts, but B2 is "The Love-of-God Shave")
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 82, "Irishman's Lumber Song" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 239-240, "Wild Irishman" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 525, MONKBARB MANKBAR2
Roud #918
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2478), "The Monkey Turned Barber", ("A frolicksome spark in Dublin did dwell") J Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 25(1267)=Harding B 11(2480), "The Monkey Turn'd Barber," J. K. Pollock (North Shields), 1815-1855; Firth b.27(230), "Monkey Turned Barber" (unknown, n.d.); Firth b.26(97)=Harding B 11(2481), "The Monkey Turned Barber," Povey (Berkeley), n.d.; Harding B 11(2479)=Johnson Ballads 916, J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; Harding B 15(207a), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; Firth b.25(230)=Harding B 11(412), J. Forth (Pocklington), n.d.; 2806 b.11(264), H. Such (London), n.d.
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Wild Irishman
NOTES [42 words]: There is a broadside, NLScotland, F.3.a.13(5), "The Monkey Barber," unknown (Edinburgh), 1825, which tells this story in prose, with rather more substantial detail. It's not clear whether it is the source of this song, or a retelling; I suspect the latter.
Last updated in version 3.5
File: LQ14

Monkey, Monkey, Bottle of Beer

See Monkey, Monkey, Draw the Beer (File: SuSm097M)

Monkey, Monkey, Draw the Beer

DESCRIPTION: "Monkey, Monkey, draw the beer (or "...bottle of beer"), How many monkeys are there here? Two, four, six, eight, Out goes my best mate." (Or "O-U-T spells out," or "One, two, three, you are he," or the like)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal drink
FOUND IN: US(So) New Zealand
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 97-98, "(Monkey, monkey, draw the beer)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, "Monkey, Monkey" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 11, "(Monkey, monkey, bottle of beer)" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 129, "Monkey, monkey, bottle of beer" (1 text)
Roud #19289
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric) and references there
File: SuSm097M

Monkey, Monkey, Sitting on a Fence

DESCRIPTION: "Monkey, monkey, sitting on a fence, Trying to make a dollar out of fifteen center. One, two, three, Out goes he."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: animal money | monkey counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 25, "(Monkey, monkey, sitting on a fence)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pounds, Shillings, and Pence" (lyrics)
File: WEMM025B

Monkey's Wedding, The

DESCRIPTION: "The monkey married the baboon's sister, Gave her a ring and then he kissed her, He kissed so hard he raised a blister, She set up a yell." Verses, often nonsensical, about the proceedings at the wedding
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, LOCSinging sb30342a); sheet music was published by Firth & Hall of New York some time after 1832
KEYWORDS: animal wedding nonsense humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1903, "A Monkey's Wedding" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 181, "The Monkey Married the Baboon's Sister" (1 short text plus 2 excerpts)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 86-87, "The Monkey's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 54-55, "The Monkey's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 197, "The Monkey's Wedding" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 241-243, "The Monkey's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 113, "The Monkey's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 180, (no title) (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 68-69, [no title] (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 114, [no title] (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1455, p. 98, "The Monkey's Wedding" (2 references)
ADDITIONAL: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 101, has a description of the earliest known sheet music
Elsie Clews Parsons, Folk-Tales of Andros Island Bahamas (Lancaster: American Folk-Lore Society, 1918 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #115, pp. 166-167, "The Baboon's Sister" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST San113 (Partial)
Roud #3123
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, sb30342a, "The Monkey's Wedding" ("The monkey married the baboon's sister"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
NOTES [62 words]: Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland lists this as being sung to "The Drunken Sailor," and it will fit that tune -- but her tune is not quite the usual "Drunken Sailor." - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb30342a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: San113

Monmouth Rebel, The

DESCRIPTION: "I wasn't but a growing boy when first I came to arms Behind the Duke of Monmouth," but the troops they fought at Sedgemoor were "the best, the very best." He flees the country, and takes a pardon, but is frightened by what Jeffries did to Lady Lisle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire)
KEYWORDS: rebellion escape royalty punishment judge
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1649 - Birth of James Scott, the future Duke of Monmouth, the illegitimate son of the future King Charles II
1685 - Death of Charles II brings his brother James II -- who is Catholic -- to the throne, causing great discontent in Protestant England
July 6, 1685 - Battle of Sedgemoor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 75-77, "The Monmouth Rebel" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [11584 words]: There are several other songs about the Duke of Monmouth, though only "Bothwell Bridge" [Child 206] seems to have had any hold on tradition. For the others collectively, see "Young Jemmy."
Charles II of England and Scotland, the first Stuart king after the Restoration, died in 1685 without a legitimate child. The clear heir was Charles's brother James VII and II, the Duke of York -- but James was notoriously Catholic. (A fact that would result in his overthrow in 1688-1689; see the notes to "The Vicar of Bray," "The Boyne Water (I)," etc.) In 1685, most were willing to accept James on the throne -- after all, his daughters and heirs were Protestant.
Most, not all. A few decided instead to support Charles II's illegitimate son the Duke of Monmouth. Monmouth raised a rebellion, but it was crushed at the Battle of Sedgemoor, described in this song. (I can't help but note how evocative a name it is: "Sedge" derives from Old English sećǵ, sword -- Onions, p. 806 -- so while "Sedgemoor" on its face means "moor of sedges," it could ultimately mean "moor of swords" or even "field of swords.")
James, Duke of Monmouth (1649-1685) was the son of Lucy Walter, mistress of Charles II. "Lucy Walter was not a whore. But she did belong to that restless and inevitably light-moralled generations of young ladies who grew up in the unparalleled times of the Civil War.... Charles himself never questioned Monmouth's parentage. He assumed responsibility for the child from his birth and was inclined rather to remove him from his unsuitable mother's care than to consign him to a limbo of doubtful bastardy" (Fraser, pp. 64-65). The best guess is that Monmouth's parents had met in 1648 when Charles, still a teenager, was preparing to lead a fleet to try to retake England, or rescue his father, or make some sort of symbolic gesture against the parliamentary forces that held Charles I prisoner (Keay, pp. 6-7. This dating is very uncertain, and is based only on when Monmouth was born; there are no records of any use about Charles and Walter, and even the date of Monmouth's birth is highly uncertain, being given only by unreliable sources -- Hutton, p. 24. Given the number of men Walter had been involved with, one wonders if it was truly certain that Charles was the father (Fraser, p. 65, mentions occasional doubts about this point), though Charles never seemed to have any doubts. (According to Brennan, p. 18, people thought the boy James was the "spitting image" of Charles at the same age. This I doubt on two grounds. First, very few people would have seen both of them as boys, and second, Monmouth was always very good-looking, whereas Charles was, at best, funny-looking, and most of his portraits are flat-out ugly. There are reasons to doubt Walter's fidelity even in this period; within a few years, she would have a daughter Mary by one of Charles's friends; Keay, p. 21. It is fascinating that one of the few who doubted Monmouth's paternity was James Duke of York -- Clifton, p. 78 -- who was Charles's eventual heir and was threatened by Monmouth's popularity.)
(Most think that Walter was Charles's first mistress, although Fraser, p. 37, thinks he might have had an affair before that, with -- of all people -- his former nurse Christabella Wyndham. Charles was fourteen, so it's biologically possible, but between the age difference and near-universal aversion to people one was close to in childhood, it strikes me as unlikely.)
(According to Clifton, p. 77, Monmouth late in life would claim that Lucy was descended from King Edward IV, which would give him royal blood -- if probably bastard blood -- on both sides of his ancestry, but this seems unlikely, and even if it is true that he descended from one of Edward's various bastards, that gives him no more claim to the throne than being the illegitimate son of Charles did.)
The boy James is believed to have been born about three months after his grandfather Charles I was executed (Keay, pp. 12-13), although the date is unknown. Thus James's father was nominally king at the time he was born, but a king who appeared to have no prospects whatsoever, unless some European prince supported them. As it turned out, the French kept the English princes around, but on a tight leash, which didn't make Charles II any more popular with those around him. Relations between Charles and Lucy eventually became so bad that Charles on more than one occasion tried to kidnap his own son (Keay, pp. 1-2. The third attempt would succeed (Keay, pp. 33-34), which perhaps just as well, because Walter died of disease soon after, at the age of 28 or so, in 1658 (Fraser, p. 155, says explicitly that it was venereal disease, but gives no details; it was James II who said so, according to Clifton, but James was an unreliable witness. Fraser, pp. 154-155, and Clifton, p. 79, claim that she had two abortions, but given the low odds of surviving an abortion in this period, this strikes me as unlikely. Or perhaps a third attempt might have killed her. But I suspect that we just don't know her cause of death).
There was eventually a story that, on her deathbed, she told her confessor that she was married to Charles, and gave him tokens and told him to hide them until Charles was dead -- but the confessor died before Charles and the evidence was lost (Clifton, p. 81). Like all the claims of marriage, this is absurd -- if Lucy had proof, the best thing she could have done for Monmouth was to offer it. Perhaps she might have told her confessor that the boy James was *not* Charles's son, but there is no evidence even of that.
But the attempts to make Monmouth legitimate came later. The fact that Walter was dead by 1660 is significant, for two reasons: First, she was dead before Charles contracted his actual marriage, so it would have been possible to claim that she and Charles were actually married and Monmouth was legitimate (as indeed was to happen); and second, she wasn't around to testify to anything when these sorts of questions started to arise.
Eventually Monmouth's supporters would try to claim that Charles II and Walter had married. "But the rival assertion... that [Walter] secretly married Charles and that Monmouth was therefore legitimate, is not so much dubious as fantastic. Thirty years after his birth, when it was pressingly necessary for Monmouth's adherents to prove the existence of this marriage, all they could turn up with was a set of rumours among obscure people that such a wedding had taken place early in the relationship. They name two different clergymen as the reputed conductors of the ceremony, but neither individual was in Holland at the time. Modern suggestions that Lucy and Charles could have met and married in Pembrokeshire or Exeter during the Civil War founder upon the fact that there is no evidence that she was in either place at the time, while he never visited the former and passed swiftly through the latter.... The alternative conclusion open to those who favour the idea of a wedding, that in his hectic ten days in July Charles met a commoner and immediately married her, seems insanity" (Hutton, p. 26).
Charles in 1679 gave an explicit statement given to the Privy Council that they were not married (Clifton, p. 110(.
Monmouth's bastardy is reinforced by the fact that, early in life, he didn't even have a surname! For a while he was known by the name of Crofts, after one of his tutors while he was in exile (Brennan, p. 23), but eventually he took his wife's name and was known by the name of James Scott (Brennan, p. 46).
Fraser, p. 65, points out that, even if Charles wanted to marry Walter, he simply couldn't afford to. With the family in exile and on the brink of having the English monarchy extinguished, one of the few diplomatic coins Charles had to offer was a dynastic marriage; he couldn't get married without getting "value" for it. Maybe he could have married Walter later, but if he did, it would surely have been documented, and in any case, he got over her quite quickly. Besides, given her history of extramarital affairs, it's unlikely that Charles would have had to marry her to get into her bed.
It is true that, during the mid 1650s when Lucy Walter was hanging around in the Netherlands and Charles was wandering around in exile, Charles's sister twice referred to Lucy as Charles's "wife" (Clifton, p. 78) -- but this was at a time when Lucy was involved with another man, so "wife" in this context pretty definitely did not refer to an actual marriage (Hutton, pp. 96-97). It was just a euphemism, but one that caused trouble when discovered.
The boy's position was anomalous. Astoundingly, he was the first royal bastard in a century and a quarter (Keay, p. 15), since the time of Henry VIII -- Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I had been childless; James I seems to have been interested primarily in men; and Charles I, for all his myriad faults, seems to have been devoted to his wife. In the past, royal bastards had been common and unexceptional -- Henry I had had dozens, and Henry II and Edward IV in particular had had many side affairs also. But starting with Richard II in 1377, other than Edward IV and Henry VIII, most English kings had had puritanical (or, in some cases, obsessive, or simply addled) streaks, and ceased to take as many mistresses, so England came to have less use for illegitimate royals. Given that the English Commonwealth was run by Puritans, the fact that the legitimate King had a bastard was not likely to improve his position, nor would the fact that he had had a liaison with a woman who now had an illegitimate child by another man (Keay, p. 21. In fact, when Lucy Walter went to England to try to claim an inheritance, she and her children were taken prisoner -- and released by Cromwell so that they could be used in propaganda against Charles; Keay, p. 28; Clifton, p. 79. Incidentally, this is strong evidence that Lucy and Charles were never married; had the Commonwealth had evidence of a marriage, they would have publicized it, because it would make it impossible for Charles to form a marriage alliance with some other power that might help him invade England). Much later, Charles II would recognize and ennoble a bunch of other bastard children (Keay, p. 160; there were supposedly seventeen in all. Fraser, p. 153, say the next bastard was born in 1651, but she was a girl, so she didn't have much political influence) -- but even though he remained friendly with many of their mothers, none of those other children were politically significant. (At the time. Fraser, pp. 412-413, observes that a far-too-high proportion of the House of Lords over the coming centuries were composed of the descendants of Charles II's bastards. One can't help but suspect that British history would have been better if either someone with a time machine had sent Charles a pack of Trojans or if parliament had passed a law that you couldn't make illegitimate children into nobles. It wouldn't have hurt anyone to leave them as well-endowed gentry....)
Monmouth was hardly prepared to be the leader of anything. Although a handsome boy who grew up to be a handsome man, he had had a chaotic childhood, and when Charles captured him, he was taken away from everyone he had ever known. All those shocks probably affected him psychologically; he proved indecisive and not very brave. And his education had been terrible; at age nine, he could not sign his name and couldn't even count to twenty! (So Keay, p. 35; Hutton, p. 126, adds that he couldn't read. Clifton, p. 82, says that, although he eventually learned basic literacy, "his orthography was child-like and his spelling bizarre even by the standards of the day.") His limited literacy probably held him back in his later years, although it didn't prevent him from being a good leader of troops.
Soon after the Restoration, young James entered the nobility as the Earl of Buccleuch, when, at 13, he was married to Anna Scott, Countess of Buccleuch since the death of her father and older sister. Anna's mother felt she had to marry her off to prevent someone else from taking the earldom after her husband had died (Keay, pp. 45-47; although Keay says the marriage was troubled, they would eventually have seven children; Keay, pp. 76, 297; Brennan, p. 47, although only three survived infancy; Brennan, p. 129 says only two reached adulthood -- though the modern Dukes of Buccleuch are descended from one of the survivors. Anna's last child, indeed, was stillborn, perhaps as a result of the fear Anna suffered at the time of Monmouth's implication in the "Rye House Plot." The Monmouths managed to produce that brood despite all his infidelities and even though Anna hurt herself while dancing and walked with a limp for the rest of her life; Keay, p. 94). With the Buccleuch title -- quite a rich one, by Scottish standards -- in prospect, Charles added the title of Duke of Monmouth (not a very established dukedom, although there had been two past dukes; Keay, p. 58), as well as Earl of Doncaster (Keay, p. 57). Furthermore, Charles acknowledged Monmouth as "Our Naturall Sonne" -- a bastard, but a son (Keay, p. 58). Then Charles made a sort of strategic mistake -- he raised the topic of "legitimizing" Monmouth. He didn't mean for purposes of the succession; it was just to clear things up with the Buccleuch inheritance. But the matter went in the public record (Keay, pp. 58-59), and the matter would come up again.
Similarly, his first coat of arms omitted the bar sinister to indicate illegitimacy. This caused Charles's queen Catherine of Braganza to protest, and the next coat of arms rectified the matter (Fraser, p. 212).
Although Charles had provided for Monmouth, and quite handsomely, he did little to teach him how to manage his wealth or life; at 14, Monmouth was released from his schooling and set free to do whatever he wanted. And mostly what he wanted was to amuse himself rather than learn or do work; he rarely even bothered to write to his father (Keay, pp. 69-71). Supposedly his gang of cronies even took part in a murder (Clifton, p. 89). He was certainly not being groomed to be anything useful until, out of the blue, Charles let Monmouth purchase the appointment as commander of the then-new Life Guards (Hutton, p. 252, who thinks it was a result of Charles having a brief quarrel with his brother York, though how Monmouth's appointment figured into that escapes me, except that it perhaps helped start the endless feud between uncle and nephew). Monmouth and his wife ran through money faster than probably anyone in the country, and repeatedly ran out of cash -- but instead of learning better, he just kept being bailed out by his father (Keay, pp. 73-75). And he had so many side affairs that there were a lot of rumors about venereal disease (Keay, pp. 96-97), though given all the children he fathered, it doesn't seem likely that he could have suffered anything too severe.
Monmouth never really did anything with himself until he came of age and was appointed to raise and lead the English force that Charles II sent to France to help Louis XIV attack the Netherlands. (An example of Charles II's pursuing short- rather than long-term advantage, since Louis XIV was basically out to conquer the world -- but at the time was willing to buy English help.) Monmouth found that he liked being a soldier (Keay, pp. 112-119), and he was good at it ("the 'Journal' of his campaign reveals a very professional commander taking considerable pains, and making the troops' welfare his prime consideration"; Clifton, p. 100). Keay, pp. 123-129, and Brennan, p. 54, think that his reckless courage in the siege or Maastricht contributed materially to the fortress's surrender. Certainly he led successful attacks against strong forces and high odds (Clifton, p. 93, who says that it proved nothing about his qualities of higher leadership although "he was a very good junior officer" with the "capacity to improvise" and "a valuable instinct for vigorous action in an emergency"). It makes a strange contrast to his abject cowardice after Sedgemoor.
After James, then Duke of York, turned Catholic, he had to give up his military offices. Charles II was willing to give some of them to Monmouth -- but Monmouth demurred, arguing (probably correctly) that he needed more experience (Keay, pp. 136-137). It again makes a strange contrast with Monmouth's later ambition.
Oddly, although he was an abominable manager of his own finances, he proved a good steward of money for other purposes, as e.g. when he was Master of Horse and in charge of the royal stables (which he successfully reformed) and his army commands (Keay, pp. 151-155); eventually he became in effect the administrative head of the (new) standing army, and might have become the combat head as well except for the jealousy of the Duke of York (Keay, pp.156-158, who suggests that he did a good job in the role. Clifton, pp. 95-96, lists three significant reforms he undertook, both in discipline and in training). In 1678, he added the job as the top combat commander as well (Keay, pp. 174-175). This began the chain of events that eventually led to his rebellion and death. When Monmouth was appointed to his post, he received a commission from Charles II which referred to him as that monarch's son.
What made this complicated was the fact that Charles II had no legitimate children. That might have been less of an issue had it not been for the fact that Charles's legitimate heir, his brother James (II), the Duke of York, was Catholic. On several occasions there had been attempts in parliament to exclude James from the succession; all had failed, although sometimes it had taken extraordinary measures on Charles's part (e.g. by proroguing parliament when the bill was about to pass). One way to prevent James from succeeding was to have Monmouth declared legitimate. Charles gave this idea no encouragement, but the Earl of Shaftsbury proposed it, though few even of the Whigs supported the idea (Smith, p. 362). Thus, when Monmouth was made Captain General, the Duke of York and Monmouth had disagreed over whether it should call him Charles's "natural son" or just "son" -- York naturally wanted it clear that Monmouth was a bastard and York the heir to the throne. They interfered with the process of writing the commission, fighting over that one word (Keay, pp. 182-184).
Even that might not have been a big deal except that York combined Catholicism with the pig-headedness of the Stuarts and a sense of Divine Right of Kings that was even more extreme than the one that had resulted in the execution of his father Charles I. If there had been reason to think York would make a good king, people probably wouldn't have given Monmouth a second thought. But the signs that York would be an abominable monarch were already there in the 1670s.... At some point in the process, Monmouth and York became pretty clear enemies (Keay thinks it was rather late; Brennan, pp. 58-59, thinks it started very early). My guess is that York turned jealous much earlier, since Monmouth was all the things York was not: Handsome, tolerant, open-handed, and not a blithering idiot like York.
Clifton, p. 111, agrees: he does not think that Monmouth was gunning for the throne in the late 1670s: he "was thought ambitious for the succession; and in the same way his very personal feud with York could be misread as an attempt to replace the heir. Monmouth's actual intention was much simpler: to humiliate the man who had humiliated him." Clifton, pp. 116-117, points out the very good service Monmouth gave Charles II in the late 1670s, and thinks that Monmouth's problems came about because he felt unjustly treated. I don't know that that's what Monmouth felt -- but I certainly agree he was treated unjustly.
Ultimately, what evolved was a three-way tug-of-war: York, extremely unpopular but the heir to the throne and insistent upon his rights; Charles II, also unpopular and determined to uphold what he held to be the proper role of the monarchy by insisting on the legitimate succession even if it put his useless, Catholic brother on the throne; and Monmouth, with no right to the throne but extremely popular and on the right side of history. Charles basically limited Monmouth -- eventually destroying him -- to maintain the principle of legitimate succession. I find myself thinking that the right solution would have been to insist that York was the heir but to make him promise to resign his throne to William and Mary as soon as Charles died. But there was no way York was going to do that. And so the road to tragedy was paved.
As for who was the leading road-paver, I would nominate Titus Oates. Oates almsot single-handedly concocted the absurd Popish Plot, an alleged scheme to eliminate Charles II and replace him with the Duke of York, bringing back Catholicism in the process (Miller, p. 87). One account, not by Oates, claimed Monmouth was another who would be targeted by the plot (Brennan, p. 75), to eliminate any chance that he might succeed Charles. Most of what Oates said was false, but he named so many names that a few people on his list actually were engaged in questionable activities (Brennan, pp. 70-73), and it further blackened York and increased the tension between him and Monmouth (Keay, pp. 191-195). It also raised the political temperature sky-high (Kishlansky, pp. 254-255). The politics of the Popish Plot forced Charles to call a new parliament in 1678 (Miller, p. 91), after 17 years of the old one (Keay, p. 196) -- and the new parliament was far less friendly to Charles (Keay, p. 197), with the opposition members (soon to be called "Whigs") out-numbering the pro-government "Tories" by about two to one. Charles had to get York out of sight for a time; York and his wife Mary of Modena left for Holland (Keay, p. 198; Miller, p. 91), later shifting to Scotland. The fact that York was out of sight inevitably meant that more people started looking at Monmouth, even though Charles made no moves to change the succession (Keay, p. 199), and though Monmouth did not make any moves to encourage the talk, he did increase his involvement in politics and seems to have seen himself as a sort of arbitrator in and for the unfriendly parliament (Keay, pp. 200-201).
The meaning of what happened next is uncertain. Parliament was on its second reading of a bill to bar York from the succession (the "Exclusion Crisis"). Charles, without any warning, prorogued parliament (Keay, pp. 202-203). Just what was Monmouth's part in this? Keay thinks he was trying to negotiate a solution. But Miller, p. 97, thinks that Monmouth was "irrevocably committed to exclusion." Hutton, p. 373, also thinks he was pro-exclusion -- an attitude that would not endear him to Charles.
In his role as army commander, he did the crown good service in defeating the rebels at Bothwell Bridge (for which see "Bothwell Bridge" [Child 206]) in 1679. But in the aftermath, perhaps because of York's ongoing hostility, he started talking to the Whigs and their leader the Earl of Shaftesbury (Keay, pp. 208-209). Hutton, p. 376, refers to "the great (and deserved) credit which Monmouth had gained with his lightning victory" -- but adds "In his actions he had remained a loyal servant of his father throughout the crowded events of the previous year, but his associations had begun to trouble many" (pp. 376-377). Until this time, Monmouth had been entirely a supporter of the government. But, suddenly, he was at least flirting with the opposition. And he was becoming very popular -- not least because he had refused to slaughter the enemy at Bothwell Bridge after they surrendered (Keay, p. 213). And so the plot got even thicker.
Charles II suffered a brief but severe illness after this, and there was a succession crisis (Keay, pp. 217-220; Hutton, pp. 379-381) -- which featured York hurrying home to be prepared to take over. (Apparently there was fear in the pro-York camp that Monmouth would seize the throne if Charles died -- Hutton, p. 381 -- though there is no evidence that Monmouth even contemplated it.) When Charles recovered, he sent York back into exile -- but also fired Monmouth from all his jobs and sent him out of the country, explaining that it was the only way to get York to leave (Keay, pp. 220-221; Hutton, p. 382, however thinks that Charles was truly worried that Monmouth would interfere with James's path to the throne). One can hardly blame Monmouth for resenting York, who had apparently said that he would only leave England if Monmouth went too. But the circumstances led to a confusion: Monmouth went to the Netherlands to see William and Mary, and showed them an affectionate note from Charles II, which caused them to take him in (Keay, pp. 228-229) -- and apparently caused William to assume that Monmouth would continue to retain his father's affection even after Monmouth actually lost it.
Within days, Charles let York move to Edinburgh -- exile, of a sort, but at least he was in Britain, which improved his odds of claiming the throne. Monmouth was unwilling to accept that. He packed up and, unexpectedly, headed for England. The people welcomed him, but there was no welcome at Whitehall (Keay, pp. 234-235). Charles wouldn't even talk to him; he just ordered Monmouth back into exile (Keay, pp. 236-237).
It was only then, having gone from royal and national favorite, that he finally formed what seemed like a permanent emotional attachment to a woman, Henrietta, Countess of Wentworth, the only child of the deceased Lord Wentworth (Keay, p.239). He was enamored of her for the rest of his life and apparently regarded her as his proper wife, based in part on something that sounds a bit like a spiritual experience (Keay, pp. 302-303). As he prepared to go into exile, he even started writing (not very good) poetry to her (a sample is on p. 302 of Keay).
She would join him in exile -- indeed, they had to leave one place of exile when their hosts refused to condone their illicit relationship (Brennan, p. 49); she supposedly died of grief after his execution (Brennan, pp. 48, 50; Keay, pp. 375-376 summarizes her brief sufferings after she received word of Monmouth's death, Clifton, p. 120, reports that she died "from a broken heart some said, others more vindictive, of mercury poisoning from over-painting her face"). She was just 25; Brennan, p. 51, says they had an illegitimate child who, left without parents, was adopted by someone else and all but disappears.
Monmouth was now explicitly supporting the opposition; in 1680, he went on a sort of a progress around the country to drum up opposition to York (Keay, pp. 246-247). He didn't just parade around, either, but mixed with the people and engaged in sporting contests with them; he was clearly making himself a "man of the people" (Brennan, pp. 88-89). One woman with scrofula (the "King's Evil") had even insisted on touching him, then claimed that his touch had cured here (Keay, pp. 248-249). The Parliament that Charles II had so long tried to delay met in that year, and the House of Commons passed an Exclusion Bill. Monmouth spoke for it in the Lords, but Charles II was clearly opposed, and it failed (Keay, pp. 250-255).
That would not be the end of the issue. Charles called another election, and got another Whig parliament that wanted to set James aside. Charles's opposition was a little odd, because no one was proposing to block James's children; the idea was to have James's daughter Mary become heir to the throne, which simply skipped a generation. Presumably she would succeed anyway. But Charles was opposed -- and then the unthinkable happened: Shaftsbury proposed that Monmouth be declared the heir (Keay, pp. 260-261). This was a violation of all precedent -- illegitimate children simply could not succeed in England -- but it certainly put a black mark on Monmouth. Monmouth claimed no part of this, and Keay, p. 262, thinks he meant it, but Charles wasn't certain, and neither, I'm sure, was anyone else.
(Aside: Brennan, p. 84, claims that there were precedents for illegitimate children succeeding, and cites Mary I and Elizabeth I. But this is flatly bogus. Both Mary and Elizabeth were born in marriages that were, officially, legal. Henry VIII repudiated the marriages, but that is not the same thing. There are only two instances of illegitimate succession in English history: William the Conqueror and Henry VII Tudor. William was illegitimate in his Norman duchy, but since he took the English throne by right of conquest, that's irrelevant. Henry VII, although himself legitimate, descended from John of Gaunt in illegitimate line and had no claim to the throne -- but he too took the throne by right of conquest. And although he never admitted it, he knew he had no claim, which was why he married Elizabeth of York. The only relevant precedent for an illegitimate child succeeding was the case of Edward V. He had been barred from the succession in 1483 because he was allegedly illegitimate. And his claim was far better than Monmouth's -- there was undeniable proof that Edward's father had married his mother; it's just that evidence was offered that the marriage was not legal. There is no avoiding the fact: Illegitimate children *cannot* succeed in England, even if, as in Monmouth's case, they would clearly be an improvement on the legitimate heir.)
It was the start of a very hard period for Monmouth. His offices and pensions were gone, so all he had was his landed income -- and his wife had gone off to France with her children, and her landed wealth belonged to her, not him, and they were both spending money faster than it came in (Keay, pp. 268-269).
Things seemed to be pointing to a showdown: Parliament would not vote Charles funds while James was the heir. But Charles found an answer: Louis XIV of France offered him a subsidy which made him free of Parliament (Keay, p. 263). Charles had solved his problem: He dissolved Parliament and never called another (Keay, p. 264). With parliament out of his way, he charged Shaftsbury with treason (Keay, pp. 270-271).
It didn't work. The jury utterly rejected the charges against Shaftsbury (Keay, pp. 272-273), causing Charles to become even more upset with Monmouth and the Whigs -- though Shaftsbury would soon leave the country, and wouldn't live much longer anyway.
It was as the trial was being prepared that John Dryden wrote his famous satire "Absalom and Achitophel," which retold the story of King David and Absalom (told in the Bible in 2 Samuel 13-19) as a story of Charles II and Monmouth (Keay, p. 148), with Charles as David, Monmouth as his rebellious son Absalom, and Shaftsbury as Ahitophel, the wise counselor whose advice Absalom ignored. "With characteristic subtlety, Dryden adapts this long polemical tradition to his defense of Charles II against the attacks of his Whig opponents during the time of the Popish plot (1678-1681).... Dryden... portray[s] his hero [Absalom=Monmouth] as a fine young man misled by the consummate treachery of Ahitophel and dazzled, like Narcissus, by his own noble attributes" (Jeffrey, p. 13). It was good literature but imperfect prophecy; in the Biblical account, David outived Absalom, whereas Monmouth outlived Charles -- though both Absalom and Monmouth were executed for rebellion against the current monarch.
(Incidentally, Dryden wasn't the only famous poet to write covert references to Monmouth; Andrew Marvell, author of "To His Coy Mistress," refers to Monmouth in his poem about Charles II and his circle, "The Vows": "I will have a fine Son (in making though marr'd) If not ore a Kingdome to reigne or'e my guard And Successor, if not to me, to Gerrard." Based on Clifton, p. 90, there are probably other references by Marvell to Monmouth.)
Brennan, p. 61, thinks that Dryden's poem accurately describes the situation: Monmouth was led astray by his friends. Keay clearly thinks him his own agent but motivated by good causes. Fraser, p. 326 calls him a "popinjay." Hutton seems to think he was his own agent but out for his own ends. Clifton, p. 76, says that most have regarded him as "Handsome, weak, and empty-headed," but that this "under-estimates some of his talents, and fails to explain his character. What historians see as shallowness, foolish pride, and stupidity, appeared to Monmouth as conduct dictated by honour and self-respect. The son of Charles II, he resembled more in his obstinate loyalty to principle and honour James Duke of York, his uncle and enemy, with whom he is more often contrasted than compared." This strikes me as probably the best explanation: both Jameses "failed ultimately because they were trapped in courses of action from which a man cleverer and less scrupulous -- such as Charles II -- would have escaped" (Clifton, p. 76).
Clifton, p. 143, regarding the situation that finally forced Monmouth into exile before his father's death: "At worst [it was] pride which prevented him from taking the first step toward his father, or apologising to his uncle; at best it was refusal to betray his friends... even at the price of losing his newly-regained position as a favorite, to endure disgrace and exile. Monmouth fell not through his own stupidity, or following the withdrawal of external guidance, but because he could not subordinate honour to political calculation, or indeed to self-preservation." He had refused to be a witness against his allies in a capital case in which the crime was at best dubious. That strikes me as more virtue than vice.
I honestly think Monmouth wasn't quite as rigid as York -- but he was a generation younger; maybe, had he lived, he would have turned into the same sort of absolutist bigot. Certainly they shared a certain tendency to ignore big problems but panic in the face of small.
Reading about Monmouth's activities in this period (Keay, pp. 279-281), I can't help but wonder if he was becoming depressed -- he became more indecisive and less enthusiastic about his activities. This might explain why the Monmouth of Sedgemoor was so different from the Monmouth of the late 1660s. Of course, you'd probably be depressed too if your father put out a warrant for your arrest (as happened in this period; Keay, p. 284).
That hesitation was certainly evident in the meetings of Whig leaders which took place in the early 1680s to try to figure out how to deal with the problem of York succeeding. They were anything but united in their goals and plans, but Monmouth was among the most pessimistic, saying that they needed to raise far more supporters, and much more money, than they had (Keay, pp. 290-291). They sometimes met at Richard Rumbold's fortified house in Rye (Brennan, p. 95). We don't really know the details of their discussions -- but clearly it was treasonous! At least one sub-group wanted to assassinate York -- and Charles II as well (Keay, p. 294).
When an informer told the court about the "Rye House Plot," Charles didn't really think Monmouth would assassinate him (Keay, p. 297, and Hutton, p. 422, say that he actually knew where Monmouth hid after the arrest warrants went out and didn't give him away) -- but he still told Monmouth's wife Anna, to whom he remained close, that Monmouth had to flee (Keay, p. 295). He also suppressed a play that satirized Monmouth (Hutton, p. 422).
In the trials that followed, several of Monmouth's friends, including Lord William Russell, were executed, and the Earl of Essex committed suicide so that his children and wife would not lose his inheritance (Keay, pp. 298-299; Hutton, p. 421; Brennan, pp. 96-98, says that twelve were executed apart from Essex. Most of them died in horrible ways -- seven, of low social rank, were drawn and quartered, a woman named Elizabeth Gaunt was burned at the stake, two were hanged, and two including Russell were beheaded. According to Brennan, p. 127, Gaunt was "a poor Anabaptist, who would be the last woman executed for the political crime of treason in England." One wonders how much her sectarianism contributed to her fate. She was burned on October 19, having supposedly kissed the wood that would be used to light the fire and declared that it did not matter whether she died by fire or in her bed).
Brennan, p. 128, thinks that Charles was right; Monmouth did not know about the assassination plot, but the plotters made sure that he was involved so he have to be on their side when the plot succeeded.
He made a formal submission to Charles and to York, and was formally pardoned (Miller, p. 116; Keay, pp. 310-311), but no one -- least of all York -- trusted him (Keay, p. 311), and he left England in 1684 (Miller, p. 116; Keay, pp. 316-319. According to Keay, he left his wife Anna behind -- Charles II was still fond of her -- but Henrietta Wentworth followed him). There were, of course, still attempts to get him back into English politics; surprising, at least according to Keay, p. 320, Monmouth rebuffed those attempts as long as his father was alive; he went to the court of William and Mary in the Netherlands and, surprisingly, seems to have brightened it (Keay, pp. 324-325); if Keay, p. 330, is to be believed, Monmouth would have been happy to just hang around Europe with Henrietta, seeking a military job and avoiding politics.
"Why Monmouth abandoned this comfort for the rigours of an uncertain military campaign was a question he later came to ponder, and neither he nor anyone else has answered it satisfactorily" (Kishlansky, p. 270).
It appears that Charles II was becoming open to a reconciliation with Monmouth around the end of 1864 (Keay, pp. 326-328; Hutton, p. 442, is not quite as sure that the letters supporting this idea are genuine). But, before anything came of that, Charles II died, after a short illness, on February 6, 1685, and York succeeded as James II. (Interestingly, James was at Charles's bedside, and Charles supposedly asked him to take care of two mistresses, the Duchess of Portsmouth and Nell Gwynn, and "his poor children" -- but not Monmouth; Miller, p. 119.) The great calamity had taken place: A Catholic was on the throne. Exclusion had failed.
I suspect that a large majority of the country would have preferred a Protestant. Unfortunately, there were three serious candidates to succeed instead of York -- Monmouth, York's daughter Mary, and William of Orange. I suspect, with less certainty, that Monmouth was the most popular of the three: He was popular, he was male, he was Charles's own son, he was purely English -- but while a lot of people wanted him on the throne, there was no organization behind it (Clifton, pp. 136-139). No one was ready to move.
Nonetheless a conspiracy arose around Monmouth. (Note that he did not instigate it!) Robert Ferguson, one of the Rye House plotters, worked on both Monmouth and the Earl of Argyll (Keay, pp. 330-333) -- though he didn't really get them to agree. In particular, the Earl of Argyll wanted to move before James could be crowned (Brennan, p. 109). That wasn't possible, but Argyll convinced Monmouth to move sooner than he wanted to -- there wasn't much time to gather money or weapons (Brennan, pp. 108-109; Kishlansky, p. 270, implies that the conspirators were too incompetent to have done any planning, which I think is right. And they pushed Monmouth to move too soon.).
Given the other exiles' lack of planning and fundraising, Keay, pp. 338-339, says Monmouth sold everything he had, some of it probably at steep discounts, to raise what money he could. It wasn't enough to mount much of an expedition, and it left him with no money at all to use in England. On May 2, 1685, Argyll left the Netherlands for Scotland with three ships carrying weapons; he was supposed to raise the Scots and distract the London government (Brennan, p. 110). Monmouth himself took four ships worth of arms to England four weeks later (Miller, p. 139), having with him apparently only about eighty followers (Magnusson, p. 501; Keay, p. 341, says 83; Brennan, p. 112 gives the number as 150, but perhaps this includes the ship's crews). The voyage took weeks longer than it should have (Keay, pp. 240-341), which made coordination with Argyll even worse. But Monmouth eventually arrived and started to gather a ragtag following -- Clifton, pp. 250-259, concludes on the basis of what amount to police records that an extremely large share of them were cloth workers affected by a decline in demand for cloth.
Argyll's rebellion was a complete fizzle; he raised his standard at Campbeltown on May 20, but could not attract any supporters, was captured (on June 18, according to Brennan, p. 111), tried to kill himself, failed, and was executed; his followers -- such as there were -- suffered the same fate (Magnusson, pp. 501-502; Clark, p. 115, says they "were treated with needless harshness"). Argyll had made just about every mistake a soldier could make, and kept making them even after his final defeat: Struggling away from his pursuers, effectively alone, he got into a fight with a drunk old man, who hit him over the head with a rusty sword and turned him over to James's forces (Keay, p. 352).
Monmouth, who came ashore on June 11, did a bit better. He landed at Lyme Regis in Dorset (Chandler, p. 19), and the south-west of England was apparently fertile ground (according to Miller, p. 140, many there had supported Monmouth during the Exclusion Crisis. Clifton, pp. 55-57, reports that Somerset was strongly anti-Catholic and had more dissenters per capita than almost anywhere else in the country; it was also heavily Whig and anti-absolutist-monarchy). Monmouth attracted followers -- but not particularly effective ones. It appears only one member of the nobility, Lord Grey, was in his camp (Chandler, p. 53), and few gentry or trained soldiers (Clark, p. 114); Keay, p. 347, says his army consisted of the "working poor," and their horses were mostly not suitable for use as cavalry mounts. Grey had come with Monmouth (Brennan, p. 112), so not one member of the nobility joined his army! (Clifton, p. 168, suggests that this was an ironic side-effect of Monmouth's moderation; he hadn't claimed the crown, meaning the nobility feared that James might stay on the throne and come after them -- though on pl 271 Clifton suggests that Monmouth's illegitimacy kept the nobility from supporting him.) Grey, after an officers' quarrel, became commander of Monmouth's cavalry, but Monmouth apparently wasn't impressed with him (Chandler, p. 21). Because Monmouth had brought so few men with him, the bulk of the army was local recruits (Brennan, p. 112; Clifton, pp. 160-167, describes how most of the town around Devon produced large contingents eager to fight against Catholicism). The infantry was organized into five regiments, named for colors (Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, White) -- but the troops had no experience and only a few skilled officers. Tough to build a strong army with nothing but peasants....
James had a lot to worry about when Monmouth landed: Monmouth himself, Argyll (who could have done much more harm if they had successfully cooperated; their failyr to coordinate cost them both dearly), and the possibility that William and Mary would join the fight, plus he had to worry about a spontaneous rising in London. And the regular army at this time had fewer than ten thousand troops, widely scattered (Miller, pp. 140-141); James could not immediately concentrate his forces. So James had his (highly unreliable) militia follow Monmouth but not fight him. James also appointed Louis Duras, Earl of Feversham, to command the loyal forces once they assembled (Chandler, p. 24; Keay, p. 353, notes the irony that Feversham, his #2 John Churchill the future Duke of Marlborough, and many others of the army officers had formerly served under Monmouth -- Churchill in fact had been at Monmouth's side when he fought his great fight at Maastricht, and another officer, Percy Kirke, was actually the brother of one of Monmouth's mistresses! But Feversham -- who wasn't even English -- owed everything to James and was impeccably loyal even if he didn't have Churchill's military gifts; Clifton, p. 171). But when Argyll's rebellion fizzled and William and Mary didn't move, James was able to move against Monmouth while still keeping London under control (Brennan, p. 114). The too-rapid invasion already had Monmouth in trouble.
Monmouth did not immediately proclaim himself king, choosing at first to refer only to James II's crimes (the flags he brought with him read ""For God, Freedom, and Religion"; Keay, p. 342). Keay, p. 347, claims that he didn't want to claim the throne -- but many people thought he was a republican, and didn't want to fight for that. Also, it was thought safe to fight for anyone who had been proclaimed King, under legislation going back to the Wars of the Roses. (Keay, p. 348. James of course ignored that precedent.) So when he reached Taunton, with some 4000 followers at his back, Monmouth made it official (Chandler, pp. 24-25; Brennan, pp. 114-115, who adds that Monmouth could no longer go back -- his ships had been taken by James's forces). The proclamation accused James II of poisoning Charles II while Monmouth was abroad and usurping the throne (quoted on p. 103 of Chandler. The charge is of course baseless; Charles didn't die of poison, and Monmouth was in exile because he had upset Charles and he couldn't risk staying in Britain -- plus he had no claim to the throne!). But apparently many believed Charles had been poisoned (Kishlansky, pp. 266-267), so it was good propaganda.
To prevent the confusion between the names of James II and James son of Charles II, he was informally called "King Monmouth" for the time being (Chandler, p. 25).
Monmouth's next objective was Bristol, which would have been a good source of recruits as well as supplies and the capture of which would be a significant psychological boost (Clifton, p. 169), but Feversham got there first (Chandler, pp. 28-29; Keay, p. 351; Clifton, p. 183). Monmouth, meanwhile, was having so much trouble arming his troops that he was organizing companies of men with scythes (Chandler, p. 29; Keay, p. 342, says that he had brought only about 1500 muskets); even those who had guns had mostly old weapons, and to make bullets, they had been forced to strip lead from the roof of Wells Cathedral (Brennan, p. 117)! And prisoners revealed that the regular army was present in force (Keay, p. 351). It was the worst possible news -- since he was getting no support from the nobility or gentry, he needed a success, and the failure to take Bristol meant he wouldn't get it. For practical purposes, he had lost -- and he knew it (Clifton, pp. 184-185).
His men won a minor skirmish at Norton St Philip, trapping the Royalist vanguard and inflicting heavy casualties (Keay, p, 354, who credits Monmouth with planning a good battle), but both sides broke off the fight fairly quickly (Chandler, pp. 34-37) and retreated; bad weather made a continued fight difficult, and Monmouth didn't have the cavalry to pursue (Clifton, pp. 188-189). What's more, he had lost four of his few officers, one of them to friendly fire, which shows how bad his troops were (Clifton, p. 190)
In an extremely odd little coincidence, the Royalist commander who walked into the trap was the Duke of Grafton, another bastard of Charles II -- in other words, Monmouth's half-brother! (Clifton, p. 187)
Monmouth, seemingly both before and after this battle, was already getting cold feet, wanting to give up and head back overseas (Chandler, p. 38. Brennan, pp. 112-113, 116, suggests that this was when he heard of Argyll's failure and death; the two had no direct communication, so he had had no idea how Argyll was doing except what he learned from locals in England. Keay, pp. 355-356, has a suggestion that reflects better on him: Realizing that his men were simply not ready to face James's army, and that they were almost sure to be defeated, he wanted to disband his army so that his men could take advantage of an offer from James that any man who would rejoin the royalist side within eight days would be pardoned. Clifton, p. 190, mentions that Monmouth was aware that he simply didn't have the junior officers he needed to train or manage an efficient army). He was talked out of it -- to his own misfortune -- but it's another indication of his fragile emotional state.
According to Clifton, pp. 195-196, the forlorn-hope of an idea was to head for the northwest -- Cheshire, perhaps -- where there might be a chance to recruit more troops. But it was a forlorn hope, given his inexperienced troops and the long distance to be covered. So when it appeared there might be another chance to surprise the Royalists, Monmouth took it.
Monmouth was already out of money (according to Keay, p. 337, the people who were expected to fund the expedition had hemmed and hawed and done nothing); the men were not being paid, and had started to slip away. The contest had hardly even started, and the rebellion was already failing! (Chandler, p. 39). Monmouth needed to accomplish something to restart his campaign. Hence the battle of Sedgemoor, in Somerset. (The official name for the battle site, according to Chandler, p. 104 n. 1, was "Langmoor," but the general area was known as King's Sedgemoor, and the battle was named after that.) Monmouth's forces arrived at Bridgwater, Somerset, where they made at least a pretense of fortifying (Chandler, p. 43; Keay, pp. 356-357 seems to think the goal was to prevent the Royalist army from attacking right away and give Monmouth more time to come up with... some alternative; Clifton, p. 195, thinks he was trying to cover the move northwest). There was no time to finish; James's army under the Earl of Feversham came up so quickly that Monmouth's defenses, even if he meant to use them, were incomplete (Chandler, p. 44).
There are different estimates for the sizes of the armies:
* Chandler, p. 45, says James's army had perhaps 1500 infantry and 1000 cavalry and dragoons; on pp. 70-71, Chandler gives the precise total of 2850 and 26 guns. P. 54, estimates that Monmouth had 2500 infantry and 600 horse but p. 71 gives the exact number of 3610: 5 infantry regiments, 600 cavalry, 4 guns
* Miller, p. 142, and Clifton, p. 203 suggests the royal army had 2000 infantry and 800 horse of all types (which Clifton says is 100-200 less than Monmouth's forces)
* Brennan, p. 118, estimates that the royal army had 3000 men and Monmouth had 4000
Although it was near Bridgwater, the royal army didn't seem to be fortifying its camp (Chandler, p. 47). Monmouth and his advisors, not wanting to be besieged, decided on a night attack; they set out at 11:00 p.m. to try to take the enemy in the least defensible part of their camp (Chandler, pp. 47-48), which was located at a place with the improbable name of "Westonzoyland." (A name so peculiar that Brennan, p. 116, misspells it "Westernzoyland,") Clifton, pp. 204, 222, thinks it was a good plan -- but it required a six mile night march along a complex path to avoid detection (Chandler, p. 56). The guide got slightly lost, leaving the army standing while he tried to find his way; during that time, a shot was fired, and surprise was lost (Chandler, pp. 58-61; Keay, p. 360). Monmouth had to redirect his forces: "This change was the best that could be improvised, but Monmouth put an intolerable strain on the training of his army, and things began to go wrong" (Clifton, p. 208). It got worse from there: Monmouth's inexperienced cavalry, led by the incompetent Grey (Keay, pp. 360-361), quickly fell to pieces and fled, disordering his leading infantry regiments and causing his ammunition wagons to halt (Chandler, p. 63), meaning his handful of cannon were soon out of service. He never got his forces back in order, and Churchill soon realigned James's forces to meet the threat. Quickly realizing that all was lost, Monmouth abandoned his troops and tried to save himself (Chandler, p. 67). Eventually Feversham was able to order a counter-attack, which easily succeeded (Chandler, pp. 68-69).
"On 5th July [Monmouth] attempted a night attack on Feversham's forces at Sedgemoor. Despite the advantage of surprise, the attack was bungled. Once Feversham's regular troops rallied themselves, Monmouth's ill-trained, ill-armed followers stood little chance. Most fled, except for 'some particular obstinate scythemen and clubmen, most of whom died for it, as all did, until the soldiers wearied of killing'" (Miller, p. 141).
"When on 5 July the army of Monmouth, swollen to 6000 men, faced Feversham's troops on the plain of Sedgmoor, the battle that followed soon turned into a rout. Monmouth's army of untrained, half-armed peasants had attacked the Royalist troops at midnight, and for a moment this surprise assault seemed likely to be successful. But Feversham's troops under the able command of the rising young John Churchill [the future Duke of Marlborough] were too much for them, and by sunrise they were running for their lives.
"The fighting was over; the terror was yet to come" (Clifton, p. 224).
More than 1500 bodies were left behind on the bloody plain" (van der Zee, p. 194). The bodies on the field were not all battle casualties. On p. 73 Chandler estimates that only 400 of Monmouth's troops were actually killed in the battle, with another thousand killed after the battle ended. Keay, p. 363, believes fewer than 200 were killed in the battle but a thousand died in the pursuit. Brennan, p. 118, says 1300 of Monmouth's men were dead compared to just 200 royal losses.
According to Brennan, p. 118, it had taken less than two hours. Chandler, p. xi, points out that Sedgemoor was the last pitched battle (which he defines as one with more than two dozen casualties, thus excluding the 1745 Battle of Clifton) fought on English (as opposed to Irish or Scottish) soil. On p. 71, he lists the Royal army as having about 80 killed and 220 wounded, while the rebels had 1000 killed and 500 taken prisoner, many of them wounded. Clifton, p. 224, cites an accounting that found 1384 corpses, with some not yet found.
Monmouth and his other officers fled. At first Monmouth and Grey stayed together, hoping to flee the country. They later separated. Grey was taken first -- and promptly told his captors where to look for Monmouth (Keay, pp. 364-365. Note that Grey had helped get Monmouth into this mess, had cost him any chance at Sedgemoor, and then betrayed him. Nice guy).
"It was the end of the road for Monmouth. A day later [i.e. July 8] he was discovered hiding in a ditch, betrayed -- according to legend -- by the faithfulness of one of his dogs, who having lost his master followed his scent. Monmouth was in a state of nervous collapse, trembling and crying, and said later that he had never enjoyed a night's rest nor eaten a meal in quiet since the day of his landing" (van der Zee, p. 194). Miller, p. 141, says he was disguised as a shepherd, and Brennan, p. 119, says he was "wearing provincial clothing." According to Chandler, pp. 76-77, the tree at the site came to be known as "Monmouth's Ash." (A bad choice of tree, perhaps, given that Monmouth's father had once managed to hide from the forces of the Commonwealth in a "Royal Oak.") So stressful had the last few weeks been that, according to Keay, p. 366, the stubble of his beard had come in mostly white, even though he was only 36 years old. (Although we might note that both his father and his grandfather had gone prematurely gray, according to Fraser, p. 183, so maybe that's evidence that he was truly Charles II's son.)
He appealed desperately to James, without result -- James did see him, but Brennan suggests "The meeting was probably primarily agreed so that James could give the duke is sentence in person. It is also not unreasonable to assume that the king would have wanted to gloat to his nephew that he was the victor, or even see his nephew beg for mercy, just for pleasure; James II was a vain, petty, frivolous, mean man and such behavior would not have been beneath him." There was no proper trial; Monmouth had already been attainted (Miller, p. 141; Brennan, pp. 119-120; Keay, p. 346, says it was passed the day word came to London that Monmouth had landed), so James's minions could execute him at their leisure. He was allowed a brief meeting with his wife and children (Brennan, p. 121).
One of those attending his death was Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells, the author of what we now usually call "The Doxology" ("Praise God from whom all blessings flow"; see the notes to "Old Hundred.") It was here that he declared that his relationship to Henrietta Wentworth should be regarded as a marriage (Brennan, p. 122-123; according to Keay, pp. 370-371, he argued that his marriage to Anna Scott had been a political one when they were minors and so was not truly binding. The clergy argued; Monmouth was so convinced of his opinion that, when the ministers threatened to refuse him a final communion if he would not back down, he would not relent; Keay, pp. 370-371). He did declare that his actual wife had no part in his rebellion (Keay, p. 369), and that he was not and never had been the true king (Keay, p. 370). When Anna Scott showed up, he apologized enough that she broke down (Keay, p. 371).
Fortunately, his exoneration of Anna were sufficient that she was allowed to keep the properties that were hers by inheritance, though naturally the Dukedom of Monmouth went by the boards. She married Baron Cornwallis in 1688, and lived until the reign of George I (Keay, p. 384).
On the scaffold he declared "I come to die. I die as a Protestant of the Church of England" (Keay, p. 372), indirectly maintaining his justification for invasion. He again maintained the propriety of his relationship to Henrietta, but gave the bishops a statement explicitly declaring that his parents were not married. He apologized for the invasion and forgave his enemies without mentioning James II (Keay, pp. 372-373). He had done enough to save his children; he would do no more.
Monmouth was beheaded on July 15. It took the headsman -- the infamously incompetent Jack Ketch -- five blows (van der Zee, p. 195; Brennan, p. 123; Keay, pp. 374-375).
Eventually there were claims that he was spared -- one account even says that he was the Man in the Iron Mask (Brennan, p. 127). This is absurd; it assumes that James II was capable of mercy when his own position was at stake. He wasn't.
The ordinary prisoners were held without food or medical treatment, causing some to die of wounds or illness (Brennan, p. 125), and many who had given themselves up were executed without trial. One of James's regimental commanders, Colonel Piercy Kirke, was so brutal that he was said to have "accepted the offered favours of an inn-keeper's daughter at Crewkerne in return for the life of her father; but when next morning she went to the window it was to see his corpse dangling from the inn-sign" (Chandler, p. 74).
The war crimes didn't stop in the immediate aftermath of the battle; there were still judicial murders to be committed -- the so-called "Bloody Assizes" (Miller, p. 141). George Jeffreys, First Baron Jeffreys, became known as the "Hanging Judge" because of the severity of the sentences he handed down; his name is still remembered today. He had earlier been one of those who prosecuted the Rye House plotters. Loyal to James II to the end, Jeffreys was in prison in 1689 when he died; it was reportedly due to illness (he had been suffering some disease -- Chandler, p. 85, says kidney stones, the pain of which made him into a "hectoring bully" -- for some years), but he probably would have been in deep trouble with the new regime had he lived. (Chandler, p. 83, says that we need to balance traditional images of him as "ogre" or "misunderstood," but even Chandler's "balanced" description would file under "ogre" in my book!)
"Lady Lisle" was one of his victims; apparently her only crime was helping fugitives from Sedgemoor (and, perhaps, having been married to a Republican MP, John Lyle; Brennan, p. 126), but Kirke arrested her and Jeffreys had her beheaded. Chandler, pp. 84, reports, "The first major case was the most notorious of all (and the best recorded) -- that of Dame Alice Lisle on 27 August. Charged with harbouring two rebels, John Hickes and Richard Nelthorpe, she was a widow of over eighty, and had scant sympathy for the cause of Monmouth; of the former, she believed him to be only a dissenting minister; of the latter she knew nothing at all. Jeffreys produced an appalling virtuoso performance from the Judge's Bench, and bullied and confused witnesses until after a six-hour trial he extracted the verdict he wanted from an unwilling jury, even though Hickes had not been proved to be a rebel. 'Had she been my own mother, I would have found her guilty,' he commented to the cowed jury, before sentencing Dame Alice to be burnt at the stake, the penalty for women convicted of high treason. A five-day postponement of execution was eventually agreed, and the King was persuaded to substitute a sentence of beheading with the axe. She died at Winchester on 2 September, it was noted in Hansard's second volume of State Trials 'with a great deal of Christian resolution'. Another eyewitness recorded that 'she was old and dozy and died without much concern'." Her age is apparently uncertain; Brennan, p. 127, gives it as 71, and Clifton, p. 233, as 70, but most seem to agree that she was not of entirely sound mind.
Clifton, p. 233, notes the further fact that Hickes was not yet a convicted rebel, so how could Lisle be accused of harboring a known rebel?
The Rebel in this song was absolutely right to fear that Jeffreys would do injustice again. Having dealt with Lisle, there was none of this shilly-shallying with six-hour trials for one defendant; he tried the accused in batches, usually in less than three hours per batch, pushing people to plead guilty to get a reduced sentence and then giving them the death penalty anyway (Chandler, pp. 86-87; Clifton, pp. 236-240). Chandler, p. 88, calculates that 333 people were sentenced to death and 814 to transportation in thirty days across multiple cities. Clark comes in with lesser figures, but even he thinks about 150 were killed and 800 transported. The number sentenced to death was initially higher, but transportees were worth money, so James decided to sell off most of the convicted rather than wasting money killing them (Clifton, p. 238, who adds on p. 241 that the transportees were given ten year sentences rather than the usual five). There were still enough people killed to force almost every town to acquire equipment to execute the victims and then tar their bodies to preserve them -- not a cheap thing to do (Clifton, 239). It was not justice; it was a Bolshevik-style purge. According to Keay, p. 378, more than 90% of those charged were either executed or deported; less than 10% were pardoned. The number of executions ordered was so high that Jack Ketch complained it was impossible to perform them in the time allotted.
"In the weeks after Sedgemoor, luckless peasants were summarily and brutally killed, notably by the fearsome Colonel Kirke. Soon after, the judges, headed by Jeffreys, arrived on the western circuit. Jeffreys's temper was not improved by is being 'tortured by the stone', but he was always ferociously hostile to any form of dissent. Most seventeenth-century judges thought it necessary to secure convictions wherever possible in treason trials, for the security of the state. Even so, Jeffreys and his colleagues stretched the law of treason even more than usual and Jeffreys's verbal violence was exceptional even by the robust standards of his day. Nobody knows how many were executed for their alleged complicity in the rebellion, but it is unlikely to have been much less than three hundred" (Miller, p. 141).
It is a sad commentary on the times that the secondary leaders of the rebellion tended to come off better then their followers. Although both Monmouth and Argyle were executed, several of Monmouth's regimental commanders either succeeded in fleeing Britain or managed to turn enough states' evidence to buy a pardon (Chandler, pp. 79-80). Lord Grey, for instance, was able to buy a pardon, though it cost him £40,000 (Chandler, p. 88), plus he had to inform on others (Brennan, p. 126). Some of the fines were actually paid over to Jeffreys, and how can there be justice that way?
Some accounts say that Daniel Foe, who later wrote under the name "Daniel Defoe," was one of those who supported Monmouth but escaped punishment (Brennan, p. 125; according to Clifton, p. 274, Defoe hinted at this in his own writings). But Defoe's life story is very obscure; many scholars doubt this.
All of this was fine with the King: "While Jeffreys was on his 'campaign' (James's word), he informed James fully of what he was doing and, when he returned, James made him Lord Chancellor" (Miller, p. 142; cf. Chandler, p. 87. Lord Chancellor at this time was still one of the highest offices of state). Clifton, p. 236, thinks that Jeffreys hurried the trials because he expected the old Chancellor to die and wanted the job. It wouldn't do him much good; he was shoved aside in the Glorious Revolution and died, probably of his kidney disease, in the Tower in 1689 (OxfordCompanion, p. 530).
The reign of terror instituted by Jeffreys was so extreme that it resulted in the publication (in 1689) of a book called The Western Martyrology, which was a sort of non-conformist tribute to his victims (Clifton, p. 273) -- but this was largely the work of that pathological liar Titus Oates and is not at all trustworthy (Clifton, p. 268).
James II "won" at Sedgemoor, but it wasn't much of a success. Like all the Stuarts, he had an over-inflated opinion of the rights of the monarchy -- and also of his own capacity. He was overthrown by the Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689, succeeded by his daughter Mary II and her husband (and James's nephew) William III. Keay, p. 381, suggests that Monmouth's failure actually helped, indirectly, with James's overthrow: William III learned that he couldn't just hope for a spontaneous rising to overthrow James. The invaders would need to come with a plan and with sufficient force to pull it off. (A lesson, we might note, that James's son the Old Pretender and his grandson Bonnie Prince Charlie were unable to learn. It is a further irony that Scotland was the wellspring of Jacobitism; the Scots had actually suffered more than the English from Stuart religious policies -- but they hadn't been consulted in James's overthrow, and so some of them clung to the Jacobite cause despite the prior oppression,)
With James gone, you'd think the followers of Monmouth would have been more acceptable, and indeed William and Mary offered pardons for those who had been sent to the West Indies. But it was hard for them to come back; apart from the many who died of tropical diseases, many found it hard to get away from their masters even though they were officially pardoned (Chandler, p. 89); after some arguments with the earlier colonists, William declared that the transportees were free but needed the governor's permission to leave the colony, so there was no "right of return" (Clifton, pp. 242-243). Many who did escape went to North America rather than returning to England.
Althouth there are few traditional songs about Monmouth, he certainly did attract other compositions. Broadside Bodleian Ashm. G 5(102) is "Monmouth's Return, or The Mistaken Whiggs" (C. Corbet London, 1683; with music). Bodleian Vet. A3 c.29(14) is "The down-fall of the Whiggs: or The duke of Monmouths journey into the North" (Thomas Johnson, London, 1682). Bodleian Ashm. G 5(92) is "Monmouth and Bucleugh's welcom from the North: or The loyal Protestants joy for his happy return" (Thomas Johnson, London, 1682). Bodleian Firth c.23(25) is "Rebellion rewarded with justice. Or The last farewell of the late duke of Monmouth" (J. Deacon, London, 1685?). Bodleian Firth c.23(71) is "Monmouth routed. Together, with his promise and resolution to return again" (unknown, n.d.). Bodleian Firth c.15(34)=Wood 417(140) is "Monmouth degraded or James Scot, the little King in Lyme. A song" (James Dean, London, 1685). Bodleian Firth c.15(35) is "Monmouth routed, and taken prisoner, with his pimp the lord Gray. A song" (James Dean, London, 1685). Bodleian Wood E 25(116) is "Monmouth worsted in the west: or, His care and grief for the death of his poor souldiers" (H. G., London, 1688? -- I have to suspect this was printed in 1685, then perhaps reprinted when William III invaded).
There are also literary works. In addition to "Absalom and Achitophel," he is a major character in Aphra Behn's 1684-1688 Love Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister; like "Absalom and Achitophel," it allegorizes, or at least conceals, Monmouth's name (Brennan, p. 132). On p. 133, Brennan lists other works with a "Monmouthian" setting, the most famous probably being R. D. Blackmore's 1869 romance Lorna Doone. But it isn't really about Monmouth' that's just the background, and I suspect this is true of most of the other books Brennan lists. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: BrHa075

Monongahela Sal

DESCRIPTION: "She was born in an old Monessen alley, And her maw and her paw, they called her Sal." One day, by the river, a boat pilot name Moat Hanley takes her aboard. He shoves her overboard. She hunts him, kills him, and is acquitted. The dirty river is mentioned
AUTHOR: Robert Smertz
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: river technology pilot travel homicide trial humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 462-465, "Monongahela Sal" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MONONGAH
Roud #7748
File: KPL462

Monquhitter's Lonely Hill

DESCRIPTION: "I love Monquhitter's lonely hills." The singer was born there and knows "ilka neuk." He describes the heather bells, bonnie "woods and waters o' Auchry," a lovely spot by a mill, "the birdies' evening sang" and trout swimming in the brook.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: lyric home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 510, "Monquhitter's Lonely Hill" (1 text)
Roud #5994
NOTES [36 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Auchry (510) is at coordinate (h5,v8) on that map [roughly 31 miles NNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3510

Montague, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Montague packet left Wexford at ten, With a fine stock of cattle and a fine crew of men, Hee Ho, Heave away, ho." Montague gets stuck in the sand and the cargo is lost: two cows, six sheep, a goat, and a sow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: sea ship wreck animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 27, "The Montague" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7355
NOTES [26 words]: Possibly Montagu, a Liverpool steamship [which] "struck the bar at Wexford" April 25, 1878 (source: Bourke in Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast v1, p. 51). - BS
File: Ran027

Montcalm and Wolfe, (Ballad of)

See Brave Wolfe [Laws A1] (File: LA01)

Monte Carlo

DESCRIPTION: "As she walked along the Bois de Bolougne... She had lost her maidenhead... She's the girl that lowered the price at Monte Carlo." The girls recall dealing with "the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: whore sex money
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 146, "Monte Carlo" (1 text)
Roud #10239
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" (subject: the man who broke the bank)
NOTES [26 words]: I would assume that this is derived from "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo," but since no tune seems to have been recorded, I can't prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RuSoMonC

Montezuma

DESCRIPTION: "When I was young and runnin' wild I talked with Montezuma," who tells him to go to sea and attack his enemies. He ships in an "Indian Man," carrying cargo from India. Along the way, "I loved full many a woman, Many a woman loved I."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: sailor travel sex
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 128-130, "(Montezuma)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27885
File: NiMo128

Month of May, The

See The Merry Haymakers (File: HHH697)

Monthly Rose, The

DESCRIPTION: Man and woman compare each other, privately, to a diamond or pearl, a rose, and so on. She is afraid "another will enjoy him." He overhears her and proposes. "I'll lock the door with marriage So that none durst enter in"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage flowers
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #167, p. 1, "The Monthly Rose" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 990, "The Monthly Rose" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6299
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh Gin My Love War a Red Rose" (some verses)
NOTES [104 words]: Greig/Duncan5 990A fragment: "'From MS. of George F Duncan (1875) ...." The fragment text -- "But I'm sure it will never be me; Never be me; But I'm sure it will never be me" -- does not appear in the Greig text, which is also the other Greig/Duncan5 text. The editors must have included it here because of the source's memory of the drift of the song.
Greig: "From this song and another 'When you are on the sea sailing,' ... Burns evidently got material for his famous song 'Oh, my love is like a red red rose.'" See Robert Burns, The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (New Lanark,2005), p. 395, "A Red, Red Rose." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5990

Months of the Year, The

DESCRIPTION: "January is the first month, the sun goes very low... We shall see an alteration, before the year comes round." The song catalogs the months, describing how farmers spend the time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 256, "The Months of the Year" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #19, "The Months of the Year" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, pp. 18-19, "All the Months in the Year" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1954
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Calendar Rhymes"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Seasons
File: K256

Monto

DESCRIPTION: "Well, if you've got a wing-o, Take me up to ring-o, Where the waxies sing-o, all the day." Various people in Dublin set out to accomplish some end or other, fail, and console themselves by asking, "Take me up to Monto."
AUTHOR: George Hodnett
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (Soodlum's Irish Ballad Book); reportedly written 1958
KEYWORDS: whore Ireland political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, MONTO*
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 60-61, "Monto" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Take Me Up to Monto
NOTES [794 words]: I have never seen definitely-traditional version of this song. But Irish bands seem to sing it without any knowledge of its origin, and the three versions I've seen (Harte's, that in Soodlum's Irish Ballad Book and that in Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), 42) are somewhat different, with the differences being almost always clear errors of hearing, so it possibly belongs here.
The song is intensely political, but you have to know the code to realize what is going on. And I've never seen any analysis that covers everything. Here is what I have come up with, including some of my own conjectures.
"Waxies" are candlemakers.
"Monto" is Montgomery street, Dublin's red light district. Soodlum's says that 1600 prostitutes once worked there, before it was closed down in 1925; Gogan, which is prone to folkloric exaggeration, gives the number of prostitutes as 1800.
"Buckshot" Forster ("Butcher Foster" in Soodlum's and Gogan) is W. E. Forster, known as "Buckshot," a one-time British Chief Secretary for Ireland. According to Kee, p. 86, Forster was given his name because, during his tenure, the police were sometimes given buckshot for ammunition, rather than the more dangerous ball cartridges. This was not his decision, however, and he came to have a bad reputation for violence. Forster resigned his post in the 1880s when Prime Minister Gladstone released Charles Steward Parnell from arrest (for this, see e.g. "The Blackbird of Avondale (The Arrest of Parnell)"; also "Home Rule for Ireland" and the songs cited under those two; also Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, p. 252).
It tells you something about the troubles of Ireland that Forster "had accepted the first secretaryship in a spirit of goodwill and conciliation toward Ireland" (Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, p 250).
"Carey" and "Skin-the-Goat" were two of those involved in the deadly Phoenix Park murders of 1882 (for which see especially "The Phoenix Park Tragedy"; also "Murder of the Double-Dyed Informer James Carey" and "Skin the Goat's Curse on Carey").
These two mentions would seem to set the song in the mid-1880s. This fits with the mentions of Queen Victoria, who ruled 1837-1901 and who repeatedly visited Ireland (though I doubt she ever weighed eighteen stone even in her later years when she did become stout; she just wasn't tall enough).
A similar date also seems to be implied by the mention of "the Czar of Russia and the King of Prussia." My guess is that this is a reference to Victoria's Golden Jubilee of 1887. Wilhelm II, King of Prussia and Kaiser of Germany, was Victoria's grandson by her daughter Victoria; Nicolas II of Russia was married to Alexandra, the daughter of Victoria's second daughter Alice. Neither had ascended yet (Wilhelm I of Prussia died 1888, and his grandson came to the throne three months later; Nicholas II ascended in 1894) -- and there was a plot to assassinate Victoria, blamed on Irish anarchists, which might explain the mention in this song.
Arguing for a slightly later date is the mention of sending the Dublin Fusiliers overseas, which sounds like a reference to the Boer War which began in 1899; more than 20,000 troops were eventually sent to South Africa. But maybe it's a reference to some other small colonial conflict. There were certainly plenty to choose from.
The mention of the "Duke of Gloucester, the dirty old imposter" is frankly befuddling if we are to date this in the reign of Queen Victoria. At the time of Victoria's birth, the Duke of Gloucester (and of Edinburgh) was William, the nephew of George III (being the son of George's brother William) , who died in 1834 (Sinclair-Stevenson, genealogy inside front cover). Due to the incestuous politics of the House of Hannover, he married late (to his cousin Mary, daughter of George III) and had no legitimate children. He was known as "Silly Billy" (Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 124), and even "The Cheese" (Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 129), so I can imagine broadside writers having a lot of fun with him -- but he was dead before Victoria took the throne. And, strangely enough, none of Victoria's children was given the Dukedom of Gloucester; it eventually went to one of the sons of Victoria's grandson George V. So no matter when this song was set in Victoria's reign, there was no Duke of Gloucester.
I'm guessing this is an error of some sort, and that the actual reference is to Spencer Cavendish, the eighth Duke of Devonshire, who was one of the chief leaders of the Unionist party -- that is, the party that broke away from the Liberals over the issue of Home Rule (Massie,, pp. 235-238).
Of course, the song is said to have been written in the 1950s. I'm not sure what that proves, except that old grudges die hard. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.8
File: Hart060

Mony a day hae I followed Duke Willie

See Duke Willie (File: GrD81763)

Monymusk

See The Monymusk Lads (File: Ord068)

Monymusk Lads, The

DESCRIPTION: "As I cam' in by Monymusk And doun by Alford's dale," the singer goes "to see my Maggie dear." He visits at night, but the auld wife detects him and sounds an alarm. The auld man forces him out; he vows to return when the old man snores
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: nightvisit courting age escape
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 375, "Monymusk" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 68-69, "Rural Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MONYMUSK*
Roud #5568
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Monymusk Lads" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Auld Wife to the Bell-Rope Ran" (lyrics)
NOTES [77 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "The song was probably composed before 1876 when the farmer Robert Wilson died and left the farm to his daughter. The full song relates the attempts by a farm servant to court his sweetheart by entering her bedchamber at night."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Lethenty (375) is at coordinate (h3,v5-6) on that map [roughly 25 miles WNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord068

Moody to the Rescue

DESCRIPTION: "Word came down to Derby town in the spring of '59: McGowan's men had smashed the pen & left for the Hill's Bar Mine." Col. Moody finds the miners do not wish to fight on Sunday. Moody says "Things look all right, so where's the fight?" and heads home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: mining gold Canada political humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1859 - Ned McGowan's War
FOUND IN: Canada(West)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 5, "Moody to the Rescue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17698
SAME TUNE:
The Keach i' the Creel (File: C281)
NOTES [382 words]: In 1856 gold was discovered near Fraser River (Vancouver Island), and subsequently the area was host to a massive influx of gold-seekers not only from Canada but America, Europe, and even Australia.
In 1859 two American miners were accused of assault by a man named Dixon. The local magistrate at Fort Yale, named of Whannell, put Dixon in jail for safe keeping and issued a warrant for the two Americans. When they were caught they were put into the jail at Hill's Bar, under the jurisdiction of another magistrate, Perrier. Perrier decided he was going to handle the case and sent a constable to Fort Yale to retrieve Dixon. Whannell refused to release Dixon and instead jailed Perrier's constable. When Perrier heard about this, he deputized Ned McGowan and sent him after Dixon and the constable.
McGowan arrived at Hill's Bar with a dozen armed men and arrested Whannell, charging him with contempt of Perrier's court. The exaggerated account of the proceedings that reached the capital indicated that American miners at Hill's Bar had broken into the jail and were attempting to overthrow the British authority. Colonel R.C. Moody and a force of Royal Engineers and marines were sent out. They arrived, arrested McGowan, and charged him with assault on Whannell. The presiding judge, Begbie, fined McGowan five pounds and lectured all parties (and Whannell and Perrier in particular) on the impartiality of British law. American miners were to receive the same treatment under British law as British citizens, and at the same time the American miners had to understand that on British soil they were to abide by local laws.
This incident became known as 'Ned McGowan's War.'
From Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs - Collected from Patrick Graber of Vancouver in 1970. Graber says he got the words from 92-year-old Henry Hawkins, who said he had heard it fifty years earlier. Hawkins could only recite the words, not the tune and Graber set the words to 'The Keach i' the Creel' (Child 281). Another source, Billy Wardell of New Westminster, said he had heard "old Harry Wiltshire" sing the song in 1927, and claimed the opening line should be "word came down to Sappertown." - SL
There is at least one book about this, Donald Hauka, McGowan's War, New Star Books, 2003? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: FowM005

Moon Shall Be in Darkness, The

DESCRIPTION: "The moon shall be in darkness, and the stars shall give no light, If ever I prove false to my own heart's delight; In the middle of the ocean there shall grow a myrtle tree, If ever I prove false to the girl that loves me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 739, "The Moon Shall Be in Darkness" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #12656
File: CPMMSBIN

Moon Shined on My Bed Last Night, The

DESCRIPTION: As the Moon shines, the singer finds no rest, thinking of the boy she left behind. When an old rich man wants to marry her, she ignores her parents' advice; she would rather live in poverty but with her love. She is bound to follow him to another country.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Jeannie Robertson)
LONG DESCRIPTION: As the Moon shone on her bed the singer can find no rest, thinking of the boy she left behind. If he were there she could sleep. She ignores talk of him and of her. When an old rich man wants to marry her, she ignores the advice of her parents, for she would rather live in poverty but with her love. She is bound to follow him to another country
KEYWORDS: age jealousy poverty courting elopement emigration lover family
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #65, p. 231-232, "The Moon Shined on My Bed Last Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6959
NOTES [17 words]: This song has so far only been recorded by Jeannie Robertson and her immediate family in Aberdeen. - DGE
Last updated in version 5.3
File: RPG065

Moon Shines Bright on Charlie Chaplin, The

DESCRIPTION: "The moon shine bright on Charlie Chaplin, His boots are cracking For want of blacking And his (baggy/khaki) trousers They want mending Before we send him To the Dardanelles."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier travel clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 180, "Oh, the moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin" (1 short text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 59, "(Oh, the moon shines so bright)" (1 text)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 40, "The Moon Shines Bright" (1 text)
Roud #10558
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Chaplin Went to France" (subject of Chaplin) and references there
cf. "Red Wing (I)" (tune) and references there
cf. "Red Wing (II)" (lyrics)
File: BrPa040B

Moon Shines Bright, The (The Bellman's Song)

DESCRIPTION: "The moon shines bright And the stars give a light." Listeners are told to awake that they may hear the life of Jesus and of the passion: "We ne'er shall do for Jesus Christ as he hath done for us." Listeners are reminded that life is short
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(200))
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus death resurrection warning
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 108-109, "The Moon Shines Bright" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 193-194, "The Moon Shines Bright" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 76-77, "The Moon shines bright [Christmas Carol]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 95, "The Moon Shines Bright" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #150, "The Moon Shines Bright" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #4, "May Song" (1 text, 1 tune, the first half of which comes fro "The Moon Shines Bright (The Bellman's Song)" and the last verses from the "May Day Carol," two songs which often swap verses)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 46, 47, 48, "The Bellman's Song" (1 text, 3 tunes)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 201-202, "The Moon Shone Bright; or, The Bellman" (1 text)
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, pp. 97-98, "The Moon Shines Bright" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 193-194 (4 tunes)
DT, BELLMAN*
ADDITIONAL: William Sandys, Cristmas Carols, Ancient and Modern (London, 1833 ("Digitized by Google"), pp. 159-160, "The Moon Shines Bright" (1 text)
A.M. Wakefield, "Foundation Stones of English Music," in Murray's Magazine (London, 1888 ("Digitized by Google"), Vol. IV, pp. 385-386, "The Moon Shines Bright" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, ppp. 168-169, "The Moon Shines Bright" (1 text)
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #80, "The Moon Shines Bright" (1 text plus sundry loose stanzas)
Roud #702
RECORDINGS:
Jasper Smith, "The Moon Shine Bright" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(200), "The Moon Shone Bright," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Douce adds. 137(66), Douce adds. 137(8), Johnson Ballads 1392C, Johnson Ballads 1485, "The Moon Shines Bright"; Harding B 7(31), "St. John's Day"; Johnson Ballads 2456, "Carol 2" ("The moon shines bright"); Harding B 25(379), "Christmas carol. III. ("The moon shone bright, & the[sic] gave light")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "May Day Carol" (lyrics)
cf. "Hampshire Mummers' Carol (God Sent for Us the Sunday)" (lyrics)
cf. "Christ Made a Trance (God Made a Trance)" (lyrics)
cf. "Awake Awake (Awake Sweet England)" (lyrics)
cf. "Here We Come A-Wassailing"
cf. "Somerset Wassail"
NOTES [465 words]: Wakefield's text and tune are from Miss L.E. Broadwood; she took them down from her uncle, Mr. John Broadwood, probably around 1840 [p. 383]. - BS
This song in its current form seems to have originated in broadsides. It has some material in common with May carols, but whether the lyrics originated there (so A. L. Lloyd) or moved from this piece to the May songs is not clear.
The initial lines, "The moon shines bright The stars give a light" are found in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, volume II, from around 1744 (see Peter and Iona Opie, I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth, #55), but this is yet another separate piece:
The moon shines Bright
The Stars give a light
And you may kiss
A pretty girl
At ten a clock at Night.
The Baring-Goulds connect the above item with "Now I Am a Big Boy"; this appears possible but not certain.
A second stanza also occurs in nursery tradition: "God bless the master of this house, The Mistress bless also..." (see Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #423, p. 196).
Ravenscroft also printed a "Bellman's Song"; it is not the same thing.
According to Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, p. 300, it was Husk who first suggested that this was sung by bellmen (watchmen) on their rounds. Rickert also suggests a relation with the lines
"This carol they began that hour
How that life was but a flower"
from Act V, scene iv of "As You LIke It" (the famous song "It was a lover and his lass"). I see the link, but I doubt a specific connection. The idea is too obvious.
Bradley in The Penguin Book of Carols says "This is not, as might appear from its first line, a song about Charlie Chaplin." Don't ask me what that is supposed to mean; I have no clue.
In the article "Whale or Boojum: An Agony" (printed in Guiliano: Edward Guiliano, editor, Lewis Carroll Observed, Clarkson N. Potter, 1976, pp. 111-131), Harold Beaver suggests that Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark "perhaps... [is] a deliberate (or is it unconscious?) parody of that traditional English carol popularly known as the 'Bellman's Song' (p. 116). This is not on its face entirely absurd -- The Bellman is the figure in Carroll's poem who organizes the hunt, and the Snark has been suggested as an allegory of death, as this song is a warning about the danger of early death. But would Charles Dodgson/Carroll have known the song -- and, more to the point, would he have known it as "The Bellman's Song"? The song had been printed in his time, and Dodgson had a fair knowledge of popular music -- but he shows no knowledge of traditional carols, and the early book printings call it "The Moon Shines Bright," not "The Bellman's Song" (which is the Oxford Book of Carols title) -- and the versions I know don't mention a bellman. So I strongly doubt the connection. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: DTbellma

Moonlicht Waters

DESCRIPTION: Laddies will come by with "pistols, guns and rappers [rapiers]"; there's a maid who has drunk "moonlicht waters." Chorus: She wears stays "that disna need nae lacin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: clothes drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1421, "Moonlicht Waters" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7265
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan7 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71421

Moonlight

See Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight (File: R746)

Moonlight and Skies

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, come hear my story of heartaches and sighs, I'm a prisoner who's lonely for my moonlight and skies." The singer leaves his girl (daughter?) and sets out on a robbery. His partner is killed and he is taken. He wishes he were free and with the girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Jimmie Rodgers)
KEYWORDS: love separation robbery death prison
FOUND IN: US Canada(West)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 21, "Moonlight and Skies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4096
RECORDINGS:
Gene Autry, "Moonlight and Skies" (Conqueror 8002, 1932)
Hank & Slim "Moonlight and Skies" (Vocalion 02852, 1934)
Jimmie Rodgers, "Moonlight and Skies" (Victor 23574, 1931/Regal Zonophone [Australia] MR 2200, 1931; rec. 1930)
Stanley G. Triggs, "Moonlight and Skies" (on Triggs1)
SAME TUNE:
Jimmie Davis, "Moonlight and Skies - No. 2" (Decca 5104, 1935)
NOTES [46 words]: This was item #170 in the first edition of Randolph, but was deleted in the second edition. It is item dE36 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Triggs found a logger's version of this song while working in a lumber camp at Salmo, BC; evidently it had already entered oral tradition. - PJS
File: Ohr021

Moonlight Attack on Curtin's House

DESCRIPTION: "Moonlighting heroes of late made a raid Down in Castlefarm in John Curtin's place" and shot Curtin and his son. "May those boys that's in jail be home before long." "Not forgetting Thady Sullivan," an assailant shot and killed in the raid.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: homicide prison Ireland political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 13, 1885 - John O'Connell Curtin killed by "Moonlighters" at his farm in Molahiffe, County Kerry (source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 88, "Moonlight Attack on Curtin's House" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [93 words]: The ballad recalls "His grandfather ... brought to the gallows in the year '98 Four dozen of croppies ... For which he was highly rewarded." Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion notes "The Land War [roughly 1879-1885] took a particularly violent form in County Kerry where a secret agrarian organization revived the methods of the Whiteboys and Ribbonmen. John O'Connell Curtin was killed by some of these "Moonlighters."... Curtin was described by The Nation as a staunch nationalist.... The verses were sung at fairs and other gatherings, and much applauded." - BS
File: Zimm088

Moonlight Bay

DESCRIPTION: Known mostly by the chorus, "We were sailing along On Moonlight Bay, We could hear the voices ringing, They seemed to say, You have stolen her heart, Now don't go ''way! ... on Moonlight Bay" -- but he has left, and remembers the "girl he left behind"
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Madden / Music: Percy Wenrich (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (recording, American Quartet); apparently both the recording and the sheet music are from 1912
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 190, "Moonlight Bay" (notes only)
Roud #29731
RECORDINGS:
American Quartet, "Moonlight Bay: (Victor 17034-A, 1912; rec. 1911)
Dale Borusky, "Moonlight Bay" (Fragment/chorus only: Piotr-Archive #561, recorded 04/18/2023)
Guy Wolff, "On Moonlight Bay" (Piotr-Archive #429, recorded 01/08/2023)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
On Moonlight Bay
NOTES [116 words]: In 1951, this became the theme song of the movie "On Moonlight Bay" with Doris Day and Gordon MacRae. The number of recordings is amazing -- even The Beatles covered it -- though few could be considered in any way "folk." Such field recordings as there are seem almost always to drop the verses and report only the chorus.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 297, estimates that this was the third most popular song in America in 1912, peaking at #1 in July of the year (the #1 song that year being "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee"), with the Doris Day recording making it a hit again in 1951. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio561

Moonlight in Glory

DESCRIPTION: "Moonlight/ sunlight/starlight in glory" (3x). "Jesus, he's risen from the dead" "Death where is your stinger" (3x). "Jesus, he's risen from the dead"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (USSeaIsland01)
KEYWORDS: death religious nonballad Bible Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Moving Star Hall Singers, "Moonlight in Glory" (on USSeaIsland01)
NOTES [182 words]: Matthew 28.6: "... he is risen"; Mark 16.6: "... he is risen ..."; Luke 24.6: "He is not here, but is risen" [King James].
I Corinthians 15.55-57: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" [King James].
The current description is based on the USSeaIsland01 text.
The Moving Star Hall Singers track is call-response. The Herskovits Trinidadian Spiritual Baptist account of "Jesus Lover of My Soul" fits this track as well. Although this is not a Sankey hymn, the performance style matches "Sankey into Shout." - BS
The passage about death's sting ultimately derives from Hosea 13:14. However, the King James Version translates the passage in a way quite unlike this song, so the source is surely, as Ben indicates, the passage in 1 Corinthians, which is in turn derived from the LXX Greek translation of Hosea rather than the Hebrew. In other words, there was a whole lot of mistranslating going on in the text in Corinthians. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcMooLGl

Moonlight, Alone

See Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight (File: R746)

Moonlight, Starlight

DESCRIPTION: "Moonlight, starlight, Bogey won't come out tonight."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England) New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 78, "(Moonlight, starlight)" (1 short text)
File: SuSm078

Moonshine

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you booze fighters, if you want to hear, 'Bout the kind of liquor that they sell around here...." The great power of the product is described: "One drop'll make a rabbit lick a hound dog." The large number of 'shiners and revenuers is mentioned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: drink talltale
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 131, "Moonshine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 42, "Moonshine" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #46, "Come All You Rounders" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 94-95, "Moonshine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 230, "Kentucky Bootlegger" (1 text)
ST Wa131 (Partial)
Roud #3126
RECORDINGS:
Fruit Jar Guzzlers, "Kentucky Bootlegger" (Paramount 3113, 1928)
Buell Kazee, "Moonshiner Song" (on Kazee01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Kentucky Moonshiner" (on NLCR08)
Red Fox Chasers, "Virginia Bootlegger" (Champion 15790 [as Virginia Possum Tamers]/Supertone 9492, 1929)
File: Wa131

Moonshine Can, The

DESCRIPTION: Informers report Pat's whiskey still to the Mounties. He is called to court. His still is dumped in the bay. At a neighbor's house a health is drunk to all but the informers
AUTHOR: Pat Troy (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: drink police
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, pp. 75-76, "The Moonshine Can" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 39, "Moonshine Can" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9949
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "The Moonshine Can" (on NFOBlondahl01,NFOBlondahl05)
George Hatfield, "Moonshine Song" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Frank Knox, "Moonshine Song" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Kenneth Pink, "The Moonshine Can" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blockader's Trail" (subject)
cf. "Ewie Wi' the Crookit Horn" (subject)
NOTES [241 words]: According to Philip Hiscock's notes to this song in West, p. 55, "This was composed by Pat Troy of Goose Cove in 1920 about real events he had undergone that year. Folklorist Julia Bishop has shown that The Moonshine Can was composed specifically to clear Troy's reputation." It appears to have gone into tradition based on radio performances by Blondahl and others -- note that, in Peacock's version, "Pat Troy" has become "Pat Roy."
"Doctor Grenfell," mentioned in Peacock's version, was Wilfred Thomason Grenfell (1865-1940), was the son of an English clergyman who became a doctor in 1886, but then was influenced by the famous American evangelist D. L. Moody and by a zealous doctor he worked with, Frederick Treves. Grenfell decided to devote his life to improving conditions in Labrador, and took a hospital ship there in 1892. Over the next several years, he treated patients in Labrador and lectured in Canada and elsewhere to support his mission; eventually his mission founded five hospitals, seven nursing stations, and three orphanages. He also tried to promote economic development in Labrador. Plus he encouraged activities such as Greenleaf and Mansfield's song collecting. He wrote a number of books, and was honored with many degrees and decorations, most notably Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George. There are at least five biographies of Grenfell (CanadianBio, p. 317; DictNewfLabrador, pp. 133-134). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea075

Moonshine Informer, The

DESCRIPTION: John Snow "informed on those people for making moonshine" around Bonavista Bay and is driven from town by the women of Southern Bay.
AUTHOR: Moses Harris
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: crime punishment revenge drink
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 79, "The Moonshine Informer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #28973
NOTES [12 words]: Southern Bay is near Bonavista Bay on the east coast of Newfoundland. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe079

Moonshine Song

See The Moonshine Can (File: Pea075)

Moonshine Steer, The

DESCRIPTION: Two cowboys come across a still whose owner, thinking they are sheriffs, has fled. They get well and truly drunk, and see a steer with two heads, 12 legs, and 14 tails. At last they manage to give it a drink, and it disappears -- flying, according to them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935
KEYWORDS: drink cowboy talltale
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 73, "The Moonshine Steer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11202
File: FCW073

Moonshiner

DESCRIPTION: "I've been a moonshiner for sev'nteen long years, I've spent all my money for whiskey and beer, I'll go to some holler, I'll put up my still...." "I'll eat when I'm hungry and drink when I'm dry; If moonshine don't kill me I'll live till I die...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 291, "Cornbread When I'm Hungry" (2 fragments; the "A" text combines "Moonshiner" with "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor"; "B" mixes "Moonshiner" with what appears to be a minstel song)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #56, "Moonshiner" (1 text, 1 tune, with verses from many places, including probably "Moonshiner," "Rye Whiskey," and maybe even "Green Grows the Laurel"); also #57, "Short Life of Trouble" (1 text, 1 tune, opening with a "Moonshiner" verse but the rest is "Short Life of Trouble")
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 142-143, "Kentucky Moonshiner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 187, p. 189, "Moonshiner" (1 text)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 38, "God Bless the Moonshiners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 134, "Moonshiner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 229, "Moonshiner" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 29, #3 (1983), p, 1, "God Bless that Moonshiner" (1 text, 1 tune, from Currence Hammons)
ST San142 (Full)
Roud #4301
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Moonshiner" (on IRClancyMakem01)
Daw Henson, "Moonshiner" (AFS, 1937; on KMM)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Moonshiner" (on Holcomb-Ward1, HolcombCD1)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Moonshiner" (on NLCR08)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Country Blues" (words)
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Wild Rover No More" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [55 words]: An early 1960s recording of this song by Bob Dylan, long circulated as a bootleg but released in the 1990s, became justly famous in the folk revival as one of his finest performances, and inspired multiple covers of his version. Listening to the Daw Henson field recording, it seems very likely that this was Dylan's source. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: San142

Moonshiner's Dream

DESCRIPTION: "Las night as I lay sleeping I dreamed one pleasant dream...." "Making blockade whiskey And selling at retail; But I woke up sad, broken-hearted In the Fulton County Jail." He laments the conditions, dreams of better, and warns others
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Riley Puckett)
KEYWORDS: prison drink dream
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 355, "Moonshiner's Dream" (1 text)
Roud #11729
RECORDINGS:
Riley Puckett, "The Moonshiner's Dream" (Columbia 15324-D, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail)" [Laws E17] (theme, lyrics)
NOTES [25 words]: This shows clear signs of borrowing from "Logan County Jail" or a relative. But the dream motif seems important enough for me to list it separately. - RBW
File: Br3355

Moore and Jacoby

DESCRIPTION: "While I relate my story you oystermen give year, Jacoby's fading glory you presently shall hear... the Eloisa Moore can beat the Samuel Jacoby." The Jacoby can barely crawl along as the Moore has to take in sail. The reactions of townfolk are described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (Cohen); the event apparently happened around 1900
KEYWORDS: ship racing humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 127, "Moore and Jacoby" (1 text)
Roud #22306
NOTES [30 words]: Jim Albertson, who recorded this song, used Henry Clay Work's tune, "Strike the Bell, Second Mate." This fits fairly well, but I strongly suspect the proper tune is "The Bigler." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: CAFS127A

Moorlough Maggie

DESCRIPTION: Singer owns sheep, cattle, and ships at sea. He offers each to Moorlough Maggie if she will go with him. She rejects each offer: "Tae gie consent, love, I darna gie Tae herd your sheep high in yon heathery hills"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (recording, Stanley Robertson)
KEYWORDS: love rejection nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
Roud #12939
RECORDINGS:
Stanley Robertson, "Moorlough Maggie" (on Voice15)
NOTES [12 words]: I have to suspect this is a fragment of something like "Lizie Lindsay." - RBW
File: RcMooMag

Moorlough Mary

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls meeting Mary in Strabane, and being stricken. He describes how lovely it is to see her. He wishes he had education so he could wed and entertain her. Having no hope of wedding her, he departs Moorlough's banks forever
AUTHOR: James Devine ?
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.11(223))
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection nonballad shepherd
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H173, pp. 250-251, "Moorlough Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 85, "Moorlug Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 59-61, "Moorlough Mary" (1 text)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 17, "Moorlough Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2742
RECORDINGS:
Brigid Tunney, "Murlough Mary" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
Paddy Tunney, "Moorlough Mary" (on IRPTunney02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(223), "Moorlough Mary" ("The first time I saw young Moorlough Mary"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also 2806 c.14(18)[some words illegible], "Moorlough Mary"; Firth b.27(232), "Moorlouch Mary"[text uses "Moorlough Mary"]
NOTES [96 words]: Credited to James Devine by Sam Henry. Devine's one other song known to me ("The Pride of Glenelly") is a dreadul literary contraption; there is little real evidence that it went into tradition. This song is better-known, and not nearly as pretentious; it makes me wonder if Devine really wrote it. - RBW
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder: "It seems that Mary Gormley or Moorlough Mary was no great beauty at all." Peter Boyle's notes to IRPTunney02: "Local tradition has it that, though they were never married, he [Devine] remained in love with her until they both were very old." - BS
File: HHH173

Moorlough Shore, The

See The Maid of Mourne Shore (I) (File: HHH034b)

Moorlug Mary

See Moorlough Mary (File: HHH173)

Moorsoldaten, Die (Peat-Bog Soldiers)

DESCRIPTION: German: The prisoners, trapped in a concentration camp, carry their spades to work in the moors and bogs. There is no escape; they can only keep working. But the winter (of despair) will eventually end, and they can reclaim their corrupted homeland
AUTHOR: unknown (see notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (reported written that summer at Borgermoor)
KEYWORDS: war prisoner hardtimes abuse political foreignlanguage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 354-355, "Die Moorsoldaten (Peat-Bog Soldiers)" (2 texts (1 English, 1 German), 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 210 "The Peat-Bog Soldiers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 307, "Peat Bog Soldiers" (1 text)
DT, PEATBOG*
ADDITIONAL: Shoshana Kalisch with Barbara Meister, _Yes, We Sang!: Songs of the Ghettos and Concentration Camps_, Harper & Row, 1985, pp. 92-96, "Moorsoldten / Peat Bog Soldiers" (1 German text plus the "Peat Bog Solders" translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [106 words]: This is properly a German folksong, but the English translation has become so popular in revival circles that it probably belongs here.
Most sources list this as anonymous, but Kalisch says the German words are be "Esser," adapted by Wolfgang Langhoff, and the music by Rudi Goguel.
Klaisch, p. 92, claims that it was the "first song ever written in a Nazi concentration camp" (Borgermoor). That strikes me as unlikely, but it is very probably the most popular. Kalisch adds that some people had a false impression that it came from the Spanish Civil War, because it was recorded by Ernst Busch who fought in the International Brigade. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: SBoA354

Moose Hunt, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was one chilly morn in March, I started for a ramble" and tracks a moose over great distances.Kkilling it, the meat is of little use, it is so tough; they use some of it as shingles. For all that, ignoring time spent, the hunter makes half a dollar
AUTHOR: "Old Lynit" (source: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Ellsworth American, according to Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal food humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 370-372, "The Moose Hunt" (1 text, not divided into stanzas but with appropriate rhyme scheme)
File: EcSm370

Moose Song, The

DESCRIPTION: Izzie Walters sees a moose. The boys kill it. An informer sees them divide the meat. The magistrate says "Five dollars ... or fourteen days in jail." Next time I'll "pay the squealer b'y to keep his big mouth closed."
AUTHOR: George Croucher?
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal police punishment
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 77-78, "The Moose Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9950
RECORDINGS:
George Croucher, "The Moose Song" (on PeacockCDROM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Terry Toole's Cabbage" (plot)
File: Pea077

Moosehead Lake

DESCRIPTION: "In eighteen hundred and ninety-two, Bant Breau and George Elliot they started a crew." Life in the camp, and the various characters there, are described. The singer talks about the combative men and the long hours
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: logger work
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 60-61, "Mell Whitten" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 226-228, "Moosehead Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 58, "Moosehead Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 122, "In the Month of October" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1825
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blue Mountain Lake (The Belle of Long Lake)" [Laws C20] (floating lyrics)
cf. "Derry Down" (tune) and references there
NOTES [283 words]: This song as found in Lomax shares several verses with "Blue Mountain Lake" (with which Roud lumps it) as well as the "Derry Down" tune, and may well have sprung from the same roots. The overall feeling is just different enough, however, that I have very tentatively decided to keep them separate.
Laws offers another explanation: "Lomax seems to have added some stanzas from [Blue Mountain Lake] to... 'Moosehead Lake.'" - RBW
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia begins "In the month of October eighteen-eight-two, Billy Williams from Bangor he scared up a crew, And forty brave fellows of us he did take, And he landed us over across head Moose Lake" - BS
The crew chief seems to vary more than the lake -- e.g. Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks's text megins "In the month of October eighteen eighty-two, Mell Whitten from Bangor he started a crew. A crew of young fellows with him he did take, And he landed them safely upon Moosehead Lake." Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks's version also claims to have been composted by "Heyward the chopper, "White-headed Bob," and "Marshall the sled-tender."
All these versions seem to refer to Moosehead Lake in Maine, which is the largest lake in that state. There is also a Moosehead Lake in Minnesota, however, somewhat south and west of Duluth. I have seen no signs that this song was localized to the Minnesota lake. On the other hand, there is a legend that a Moosehead Lake is "the imprint of [Paul Bunyan's] 'broad shape behind'" (see Daniel Hoffman, Paul Bunyan: Last of the Frontier Demigods, 1952; Bison Books edition with a new Introduction by the author 1983, p. 40). That seems more likely with the Minnesota lake. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: LoF058

Morality

DESCRIPTION: "While beauty and youth are in their full prime, And folly and fashion affect our whole time, O let not the phantom our wishes engage; Let us live so in youth that we blush not in age." The singer vows to avoid youthful passion and be happy when he's dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1835 (Southern Harmony)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 667, "Morality" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [83 words]: Although this appears in a number of shape note hymnals (Sacred Harp, several editions of the Southern Harmony; Missouri Harmny, p. 54), Brown's appears to be the only traditional collection. In the 1971 Denson Revisions edition of the Original Sacred Harp, it is claimed to be "much older" than the earliest version it can cite from hymnals (which is the 1827 Missouri Harmony), "but none discloses the author of the music or words." I can find no hints of it in mainline Protestant sources. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5667

More Pretty Girls Than One

DESCRIPTION: Singer is a rambler who likes women; his mother told him to settle down, but he won't. He cries, thinking of pretty girls, and hopes he'll never die; he leaves us this lonesome song: "Every town I ramble around/There's more pretty girls than one."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (JAFL)
KEYWORDS: loneliness rambling nonballad lyric floatingverses love separation travel farewell courting parting family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Randolph 734, "Goodbye, Little Bonnie Blue Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, p. 10, "Hush, LIttle Bonnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 96, "Goodbye, Little Bonnie, Blue Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 284, "Bonnie Blue Eyes" (2 text plus 1 fragment and 1 excerpt); also 301, "High-Topped Shoes" (2 texts, both mixed; "A" is mostly "Pretty Little Foot" with verses from "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" while "B" is a hash of "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down," ""More Pretty Girls Than One," "In the Pines," and others)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 301, "High-Topped Shoes" (2 tunes plus text excerpts, of which "B" has verses of this song)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 284, "Bonnie Blue Eyes" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 23, "More Pretty Girls Than One" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 170, "More Pretty Girls Than One" (1 text)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 193-195, "Goodbye Little Bonnie Blue Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, "My Little Bonny Blue Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 99-100, "Goodbye Little Bonnie Blue Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 148, "Little Bonny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 192, "More Pretty Girls Than One" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 142, "Goodbye, Little Bonnie, Goodbye" (1 text)
Roud #11505 and 762?
RECORDINGS:
[Richard] Burnett & [Leonard] Rutherford, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" (Challenge 423 [as Crockett & Cannon], 1929)
Carolina Tar Heels, "Goodbye My Bonnie, Goodbye" (Victor 21193, 1928, rec. 1927)
The Carter Family, "Bonnie Blue Eyes" (Decca 5304, 1936)
Cranford & Thompson, "Goodbye Little Bonnie" (Supertone 2594, c. 1932)
Woody Guthrie, "More Pretty Gals" (Folk Tunes 150, n.d., prob. mid-1940s)
Ken Marvin, "More Pretty Girls" (Mercury 6366, 1951)
Ozarkers, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" (OKeh 45573, 1932)
Prairie Ramblers, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" ((Perfect 6-10-58/Melotone 6-10-58/Conqueror 8713, 1936)
Riley Puckett, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One - Parts 1 & 2" (Decca 5439, 1937)
Ridgel's Fountain Citians, "Little Bonnie" (Vocalion 5389, 1930)
Rutherford & Foster, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" (prob. Brunswick, 1930; on KMM)
Arthur Smith Trio, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" Montgomery Ward M-4822/Bluebird B-6322, 1936)
Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & Uncle John Patterson, "Goodbye, Little Bonnie, Blue Eyes" (on DownYonder)
Fields Ward and the Grayson County Railsplitters, "Good Bye Little Bonnie" (Gennett, unissued, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum) [Laws H2]" (words, tune)
cf. "The Lass of Roch Royal" [Child 76] and its various offshoots (tune)
cf. "Lonesome Road" (words)
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Dixon Brothers, "Bonnie Blue Eyes - Part 2" (Bluebird B-6691, 1936)
Arthur Smith Trio, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One - Part 2" (Bluebird B-6889/Montgomery Ward M-7155, 1937)
Arthur Smith Trio, "Answer to More Pretty Girls Than One" (Bluebird B-7437/Montgomery Ward M7476, 1938)
Howard Dixon & Frank Gerald (The Rambling Duet), "More Pretty Girls Than One - Part 3" (Bluebird B-7484/Montgomery Ward M-7464, 1938)
NOTES [257 words]: This song and "Danville Girl" [one of the various forms of Laws H2 - RBW] are siblings. - PJS
And the whole family is rather a mess. "More Pretty Girls Than One" is reasonably well-known. The Silber text "Goodby, Little Bonnie, Goodbye" has been found with this tune. Since both are largely floating verses, we decided to lump them.
Randolph's text also has a similar tune, and it shares the basic form of the Silber text, as well as some lyrics:
""Goodbye, little bonnie blue eyes (x2), I'll see you again, But God knows when, Goodbye, little...." "I'm going on the railroad train... 'Cause I love you, God knows I do." "I'm goin' on the ocean blue...." "Lay your hand in mine...."
Brown's two substantial texts ("A" and "B") are similar: Most of the same verses, but no chorus. Note the absence of the "more pretty girls" verse, which originally caused us to classify separately.
After some discussion, Paul Stamler and I decided to lump the lot, even though it's against our general policy, simply because none of the variations are really well-attested enough to be regarded as independent songs. But it should be noted that almost anything can be grafted onto this stalk.
The "Goodbye, Little Bonnie Blue Eyes" family, which includes Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains's "Hush, Little Bonnie" and Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices's "Goodbye, Little Bonnie, Blue Eyes," plus probably Lunsford's "My Little Bonny Blue Eyes," although it's short and somewhat different, is Roud #762. These texts often end with the singer coming back. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: CSW192

More We Are Together, The

See The More We Get Together (File: NeTMWGTo)

More We Get Together, The

DESCRIPTION: "The more we get together, The merrier we shall be; For our friends are my friends, And my friends are your friends, The more we are together, The merrier we shall be." May repeat with verbs like "The more we play together" or "The more we drink together"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: nonballad drink friend campsong
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 163, 315, 378, 444, 517, 518, "The More We Get Together" (notes only)
Harbin-Parodology, #396, p. 96, "The More We Get Together" (1 text, tune referenced)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, pp. 1, 114, "Get Together" (1 text, tune referenced)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 51, "The More We Get Together" (1 text, tune referenced)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 8, "The More We Get Together" (1 text, tune referenced)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 8, "The More We Get Together" (1 text, tune referenced)
Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 234, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Roud #23730
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Did You Ever See a Lassie?" (tune) and references there
SAME TUNE:
Double-bunking (File:BaRo144)
File: NeTMWGTo

Moree Spider, The

See The Spider from the Gwydir (File: MA204)

Moreton Bay (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a prisoner. The prisoner, an Irish transportee, describes the various prisons he has been in, ending with Moreton Bay, which had no equal for harshness. He rejoices at the death of the sadistic commander, Captain Logan
AUTHOR: unknown (sometimes credited to "Frank the Poet" Macnamara)
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (quoted the "Jerilderie Letter" of Ned Kelly; see Hughes, p. 444; Innes, pp. 81-82)
KEYWORDS: abuse prison transportation injury Australia
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1824-1842 - Period during which Moreton Bay served as a prison colony
1830 - Murder of Captain Patrick Logan by an aborigine
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 38-39, "Moreton Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 52-53, "Moreton Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 16-18, "Moreton Bay" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 52-54, "Moreton Bay" (1 text)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 13-14, "Moreton Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 36-38, ""A Convict's Lamentation on the Death of Captain Logan" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads,pp. 8-9, "A Convict's Lamentation on the Death of Captain Logan" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #114, "The Convict's Lamentation" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MORETONB*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Hughes, _The Fatal Shore: The epic of Australia's founding_, Knopf, 1986, pp. 443-444 (1 text)
Lyn Innes, _Ned Kelly: Icon of Modern Culture_, Helm Information Ltd., 2008, pp. 81-82, "The Convict's Lament" (1 text)
Geoffrey C. Ingleton, _True Patriots All: or News from Early Australia as told in A Collection of Broadsides_ ("Garnered and Decorated" by Ingleton), Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1988, p. 121, "A Convict's Lament on the Death of Captain Logan" (1 text plus a contemporary report of the murder of Captain Logan)
Roud #2537
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Youghall Harbour" (tune)
NOTES [1644 words]: Moreton Bay is the name of the sea inlet into which the Brisbane River empties, but early in the history of Australia, it was "the name formerly given to the district of New South Wales which is now... Queensland" (Morris, p. 303). The name was given to it by Captain James Cook, in 1770; he named it after the Earl of Morton but spelled it "Moreton," and the variant spelling stuck. A remote penal colony there was authorized in 1822 to deal with the most difficult convicts, and Moreton Bay was selected as a site and founded in 1824 (Murphy, p. 190).
"Between his arrival at Moreton Bay and his violent death there four years later, Logan became a legend among the convicts -- so much so that he was the only commandant of an Australian penal station to have a whole ballad dedicated to him" (Hughes, p. 443). Specifically this song, which Hughes quotes in full.
Logan (1792-1830) was a Scotsman who joined the 57th Regiment in 1810, coming to Australia in 1825 (Hughes, p. 445).
Learmonth, p. 321, says that "Little is known of the true personality of this hated commander except through official reports and the tales of flogging and escapes, and bitter ballads made by his convict charges whom he disciplined strictly and with some brutality." Hughes believe that Logan's brutal regimen was shaped by the experience of the British army, which -- being composed mostly of those who could find no other work -- was controlled largely by the lash.
Hughes, p. 446, reports that "Although the punishment registers for Moreton Bay in Logan's time are lost, it seems clear that Logan habitually worked prisoners in irons, whatever their sentences. He was also a relentless flogger. One sample record... show[s] that from February to October 1828, Logan ordered 200 floggings, for a total of 11,100 lashes."
Few reports of what was going on escaped the colony, since prisoners could not escape and Logan had to endorse any papers that were sent out. It has been speculated that what reports did reach the world were actually leaks intended to make people fear transfer to Moreton Bay (Hughes, p. 447). But at last a manuscript by Thomas Matthew emerged detailing the brutalities (Hughes, p. 449) -- and Logan's caprice in applying them.
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition notes that, during Logan's tenure as commander of Moreton Bay, the death rate among the prisoners exceeded ten percent per year; there was a time when it exceeded 3% per month (cf. Hughes, p. 446). This is not entirely Logan's fault; there was a famine and an epidemic at the time. On the other hand, a pretty good way to kill a sick man is to flog him unmercifully. No wonder prisoners celebrated his death!
Moreton Bay is located in what is now southern Queensland. The penal colony there was founded in 1824 (though relocated slightly in 1825), and deliberately placed far away from the settled areas of Australia. Moreton Bay was intended for "doubly convicted felons" -- i.e. those who had stuck to their criminal ways after transportation to Australia, and so were thought effectively beyond redemption -- and it was thought that its remoteness would make it more secure.
Governor Brisbane, who gave his name to the local river and to the town which later arose on the site, wrote that "Port Macquarie [is] for first grave offenses [in Australia], Moreton Bay for runaways from the former, and Norfolk Island... is the *ne plus ultra" (Hughes, p. 461).
This policy of "security through distance" didn't work; squatters were settling near Moreton Bay by 1840. In 1842, the government gave in and opened the area to settlement.
The list of settlements the prisoner has inhabited in the song seems unlikely. For one thing, Norfolk Island should have been his last stop -- unless he had been on Norfolk Island in its first incarnation. But the island was closed in 1814 and not reopened until 1825, when it was determined that Moreton Bay was not sufficient to handle the die-hards (Clark, p. 54). And convicts sent there were not allowed to leave for at least ten years!
In addition, Norfolk Island (in both its incarnations) was as bad as Moreton Bay (the death rate was prodigious; some men received over a thousand lashes a year, and the most common reason for murders was that men would do anything to be sent to Sydney for trial). In one of those interesting folklore links, the governor of Norfolk Island in 1846 was John Price, who "became a byword for cruelty" (Alexander, p. 163). He was the husband of Mary Franklin, one of Sir John Franklin's nieces (Alexander, p. 161). Among his other crimes, Alexander thinks Price was an abusive husband. Little wonder he cared little for the convicts.
Interestingly, like Captain Logan, Price was murdered for his behavior. A mob of convicts attacked him in 1857, injuring him so severely that he died (Alexander, pp. 163-164).
Of the other sites mentioned:
Toongabbie is one of the farming areas near Sydney, and (despite being called "cursed Toongabbie") was said to be the easiest, not the worst, of the settlements.
Castle Hill probably refers to Newcastle (which was so called because it was near a Castle Hill); founded in 1821, it was another place destined for incorrigibles, but was close enough to Sydney that it didn't last long.
The reference to Moreton Bay as part of New South Wales as correct at the time; although it is now in Queensland, all the settled regions of Australia, save Van Diemen's Land, were initially called "New South Wales," and Queensland did not become a separate territory until 1859.
The reference to men dying of starvation in Moreton Bay also has its truth; the British were incredibly inept about organizing colonies, and prison colonies were the worst; they didn't even allow plows to till the soil. A crop failure in 1828/1829 caused Logan to cut the minimal rations in half. He also kept prisoners in irons whatever their punishment status; this can only have lowered their productivity
A "triangle" was actually a tetrahedron, three sticks lashed together from which a man was hung to be flogged.
Logan (1792-1830) was assigned to Moreton Bay in 1826, and since he was judge, jury, and tribune, no word came out for some time; Governor Darling (who succeeded Brisbane in 1825) wanted it that way. But eventually a prisoner was brought to Sydney for trial, and though he was hanged, a manuscript he left behind revealed some of the truth.
Eventually Logan was ordered to India in 1830, but he stayed at Moreton Bay for some time to show his successor the ropes (Hughes, p. 450) and to testify to the state of things in Queensland. While waiting for the call to testify, he did some exploring, and was waylaid (Hughes, pp. 450-451). His body was eventually found, partly buried; the physical evidence seemed to indicate that an aborigine had killed him. (Relations with the local natives had turned bad almost instantly, and they killed any intruders they could.) But there isn't much doubt that most of his prisoners would have murdered him given the slightest opportunity.
As with most such historical figures, there have been attempts to whitewash Logan (see Hughes, p. 444). The attempts strike me as ludicrous. Possibly he would have been a decent man in another job; perhaps he thought what he was doing was necessary. That does not make him less a sadist, brute, and fool, nor does it make Moreton Bay any less of a concentration camp.
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition notes that this song is usually attributed to Francis "Frank" Macnamara/McNamara, but observes that other authors have also been suggested. Davey/Seal, pp.128, 178, 191, clarify by crediting it to "Frank the Poet," who is often said to be Macnamara (an Irishman born in 1811 and transported in 1832). Manifold, p. 31, mentions the connection to Macnamara -- but points out that there is no record that Macnamara was ever anywhere near Moreton Bay. Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads say without question that "Frank the Poet" was McNamara (their spelling) but say he was transported in the "early 1820s," most likely for forgery. Thus details are very lacking; "Frank the Poet" was real, and may have been Macnamara, but it can't be proved, and it can't be proved that Frank (whoever he was) wrote this song.
The (online) Australian Dictionary of National Biography says that Macnamara (c. 1810-after 1861) was Irish, possibly from County Clare, and appears to have had some education. He was transported in 1832 for theft on the Eliza. Soon after arriving in Australia on September 6, 1832, he was assigned to an ironed gang and was repeatedly flogged -- so even if he didn't end up in Moreton Bay, he knew what the convicts experienced. In 1842, he was sent to Van Dieman's Land; he earned his ticket-of-leave in 1847, was pardoned in 1849, moved to Melbourne, and all but disappears from the record; we don't even know when he died, except that he was alive in 1861. His best-known piece (other than this) is said to have been "The Convicts Tour of Hell" (which can be found, e.g., in Ingleton, pp. 143-144). See also "The Seizure of the Cypress Brig."
John Meredith is reported to have written a book about him, but I haven't been able to find it.
Davey/Seal, p. 192, give the text of the relevant part of Ned Kelly's Jerilderie Letter, thought to be the earliest citation of the song:
...[they] were doomed to Port McQaurie Toweringabbie Norfolk island and Emu plains and in those places of tyranny and condemnation many a blooming Irishman rather than subdue to the Saxon yoke were flogged to death and bravely died in servile chains....
The resemblance to the standard text of "Moreton Bay" is obvious; literary dependence is almost certain. How many of the differences are the result of oral tradition, and how much the result of Ned Kelly's illiteracy, is less clear. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: FaE038

Moreton Bay (II)

See The Boston Burglar [LawsL16] (File: LL16)

Mormon Army Song

DESCRIPTION: "When Uncle Sam he did send out his army to destroy us, He thought, 'The Mormons we will rout, so they cannot annoy us.'" But the Mormons defeat the American forces. They would have taken "Brigham Young and Heber... but were afraid of Echo Canyon"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Briegel, Old Time Mormon Songs, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: battle travel
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1857 - Mounting of the Mormon Expedition/Mormon War/Utah War, in which Federal forces were commanded by Albert Sydney Johnston
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 602, "The Mormon Army Song" (1 text)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 87-89, "Johnston's Army Episode" (1 text, tune referenced)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 260-261, "Mormon Army Song" (1 text)
Roud #10840
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (tune, according to Cheney-MormonSongs)
File: CAFS2602

Mormon Battalion Song (I)

DESCRIPTION: "When Mormon trains were journeying through To winter quarters in Nauvoo, Five hundred men were called to go" to fight in the Mexican War. Colonel Allen leads them well; they hate Lieutenant Smith; they suffer privation; the enemy flees
AUTHOR: Eliza R. Snow (1804-1887) (source: Tyler; Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Tyler)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes travel | Mormon Battalion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1846 - Formation of the Mormon Battalion
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 35-40, "Mormon Battalion Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Daniel Tyler, "A Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War," no publisher listed but copyrighted 1881 (available on Google Books), pp. 107-109, "The Mormom (sic.) Battalion, and First Wagon Road Over the Great American Desert" (1 text)
Roud #10816
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lonesome Roving Wolves" (subject of the Mormon Battalion)
cf. "The Desert Route" (subject of the Mormon Battalion)
cf. "All Hail the Brave Battalion" (subject of the Mormon Battalion)
cf. "The Mormon Battalion Song (II -- In Forty-Six We Bid Adieu)" (subject of the Mormon Battalion)
cf. "On the Road to California" (subject of the Mormon Battalion)
NOTES [2060 words]: Cheney quotes a source as saying that the travels of the Mormon Battalion "was said to have been unparralleled (sic.) in recenty history in the misery it produced." Without denying that the men had a miserable time, this is emphatically an exaggeration.
Reeve/Parshall, p. 94, say that "The Mormon Battalion was a volunteer army unit of about 500 men. This unit, commanded by U.S. Army officers and otherwise consisting exclusively of Mormons, served from July 1846 to July 1847. During their enlistment, Battalion members marched about 1,900 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to San Diego, California."
The politics was interesting. The Mormons of course had much trouble with the largely Protestant population of the United States, resulting in the murder of founder Joseph Smith and his successor Brigham Young's decision to head for Utah. According to Reeve/Parshall, p. 94, Young decided to offer troops to the United States to try to improve relations and to raise cash for the Mormon migration. President James K. Polk, whose chief goal was to conquer California, took the troops (Wheelan, p. 213; Roberts, pp. 10-11, seems to say that Polk wanted a regiment, i.e. 800-1000 men, but all he got was a battalion -- but says on p. 14 that the Mormons would be included in a unit with only about a thousand other men, so the Army might not have wanted a full-strength regiment which would have been as strong as the rest of the unit).
Captain James Allen was sent to Mount Pisgah, Iowa, to recruit the troops, although it took Brigham Young's influence to get most of them to join (Roberts, pp. 20-21). Reeve/Parshall, p. 95, says that they eventually earned about $71,000 for the Mormon Church, which was standard army pay; Roberts, p. 15. The Mormons were mostly poor, and needed to get away from the hostile populations of orthodox Christians, so that money was a welcome help -- although the absence of so many able-bodied men made it harder for the rest of the population to move west.
Wheelan, p. 213, says that Allen managed to raise 496 officers and men; they were accompanied to Leavenworth, Kansas, by 35 women and 44 children. Some of these, however, were sent back at various stages of the journey; Roberts, p. 38-39). Roberts, p. 29, says that the deal to offer the government troops also bought the Mormons more time to rest on their migration to Great Salt Lake.
Not all were really in condition to serve; Allen complained that the battalion "was enlisted too much by families," resulting in the recruitment of many "inefficient" (usually too old or too young) men who would not be able to stay with the regiment (Roberts, p. 38)
Allen, promoted to Lieutenant Colonel (presumably of volunteers rather than regular army) died while they were still in Kansas. He sent them on their way, hoping to join them later, but did not recover (Roberts, p. 33). A temporary commander, Lieutenant Andrew Jackson Smith, took them to Santa Fe. The song is apparently correct in saying that the troops disliked Lieutenant Smith; "The Mormons... resented Smith's strict adherence to military discipline" (Reeve/Parshall, p. 95; Roberts, p. 34, reports that they were also upset that a Lieutenant was being placed over the Captains who commanded their companies. But, of course, those Captains were amateurs who needed training just like their men, and they eventually accepted the situation).
"When he learned of Colonel Allen's death, [Stephen W.] Kearny had sent Colonel Philip St. George Cooke back to Santa Fe to take charge of the Mormon Battalion, an assignment that Cooke described as 'turning a very sharp corner indeed.' Cooke, a regular Army officer, found the Mormons obedient but undisciplined: 'They exhibit great heedlessness and ignorance -- and some obstinacy' (Wheelan, p. 215. This let Smith run the commissary, where he didn't have as many conflicts with the men. Lieutenant George Stoneman, who later became a Civil War general though not a particularly successful one, was quartermaster; Roberts, p. 41; Warner, p. 481).
Thus both Smith and Cooke found the Mormons hard to control. Cooke, for instance, could not get them to abandon their wagons, so they were forced to seek a road to California south of the mountains. The route they found would later become a major path to California, but at the time, it was isolated, and just bringing their wagons didn't mean the men had supplies; they ended up on short rations (Wheelan, p. 215) and at times had no water (Wheelan, p. 216), though they did have fiddlers who played for dances.
Their lack of discipline very likely means that they would not have done well in combat. Cooke's bulletin to his troops upon arriving at San Diego was interesting: Thus volunteers, you have exhibited some high and essential qualities of veterans. But much remains undone. Soon, you will turn your attention to the drill, to system and order, to forms also, which are all necessary to the soldier" (Roberts, p. 64).
Fortunately, they never had to fight. They never saw the Mexicans; they were heading for Tucson when the Mexicans abandoned it (Wheelan, p. 216 -- a foolish move, since, according to Roberts, p. 48, the Mexicans had some two hundred men there; that should have been enough to hold off four hundred ill-fed, ill-disciplined religious nuts pretending to be soldiers. But they had negotiated with Cooke, and it sounds as if he bluffed them out). "[T]he Battalion fought only one battle, with wild bulls, near the San Pedro river in what would become Arizona" (Reeve/Parshall, p. 95). This became the subject of the song "The Bull Fight on the San Pedro." It was apparently a fairly desperate fight, which demonstrated the disobedience of the Mormons: Cooke had ordered them to march with their weapons unloaded, but they had prepared their guns when they saw the bulls (Roberts, p. 46). Roberts claims the animals were very hard to kill and had to be hit many times, which is probably true in a few cases, but I suspect the main problem -- as with most untrained soldiers in this period -- was that they couldn't shoot accurately; with officers still thinking in terms of smoothbore muskets that had little ability to hit what they were aimed at, marksmanship was not a skill that was much stressed at this time.
They reached San Diego on January 29, 1847 and stayed there until their enlistments ended. The officers on the spot tried to get them to sign up for another term, but most refused; the battalion was reorganized as a single company, with the equivalent of four companies packing up and heading home. It is interesting to note that Sergeant Tyler, the author of the first major book about the battalion, was one of the leaders in arguing that they should go home (Roberts, pp. 74-75). So they headed for Salt Lake (meaning that they went back by a different route than the one they came), though a great many of them ended up staying in the gold rush area around San Francisco rather than making the difficult trip over the Rockies (Roberts, pp. 75-76; in the following pages he describes how Mormons were involved in the discovery of the gold beds). Those that did return were able to bring seeds of certain crop species that did well in the Salt Lake area (Roberts, p. 79).
Total losses in the battalion were 22 dead, of disease, which wasn't a particularly high rate of loss for armies in the field at this time, though apparently the trek through the southern desert was very uncomfortable.
Colonel Cooke claimed their total distance traveled was two thousand miles, and "History will search in vain for an equal march of infantry" (Roberts, p. 1). I guess neither Roberts nor Cooke had ever heard of Alexander the Great.
Still, they apparently had an influence on history. They had, in effect, surveyed a route to the sea south of the main peaks of the Rockies, and made some improvements, cutting trails wide enough for a wagon and starting wells (Roberts, pp. 57-62). It looked like a good route for a transcontinental railroad, and the American government pushed through the Gadsden Purchase of 1853 to give it control of the land (Roberts, p. 50).
It is perhaps just as well that the battalion didn't fight under Cooke. Although his career was distinguished overall, his Civil War service was unexceptional. In 1862, he led a cavalry division in the Peninsular Campaign, and at the Battle of Gaines's Mill, some of his troops made a completely useless charge against infantry and were slaughtered, although there is disagreement about whether he was responsible (Sears, p. 245). After the campaign, he was transferred to non-combat duties, and he never served actively again (Warner, p. 90). Stoneman and Smith both rose higher; Stoneman commanded an infantry corps at Fredericksburg, then the Federal Cavalry at Chancellorsville (Warner, p. 481), without distinction. Smith (1815-1897) didn't rise in the ranks as quickly (he didn't make it to major general until 1864), but he commanded a corps at Nashville in 1864 and Mobile in 1865 (Warner, p. 454); the Mormons may not have liked him, but I would say he had the best record of their three regular officers.
In a great irony, when relations between the Mormons and the American government became so bad that the government sent an expedition to try to control the Mormons, Colonel Cooke was one of the senior officers on the American side (Warner, p. 90).
After the first Mormon Battalion disbanded, there was apparently a Federal attempt to recruit another. But, this time, Brigham Young wasn't interested, so it didn't happen (Roberts, p. 91).
It appears the men of the battalion eventually started staging reunions. At least, Bushman's photo section has an image of several dozen men and it claims are the Mormon Battalion. But all of them appear to be quite old -- the youngest at least in their fifties, and most in their sixties or seventies. So I would guess it was a reunion photo taken perhaps around the 1880s.
Reeve/Parshall have a biography of Eliza R. Snow on pp. 200-201. She was hailed as the "mother of this people." Born in Massachusetts, raised in Ohio, she was one of those who took part in the Mormon peregrinations that eventually took her to Utah. She, and certain other relatives, converted to Mormonism in 1830. She was one of Joseph Smith's wives, and later one of Brigham Young's. She occasionally served as a teacher, and is credited with more than 500 poems. Bushman, p. 64, says "Eliza R. Snow, Zion's most prominent woman poet and the Relief Society head, as genteel and refined an eastern lady as could be imagined, plurally married first Joseph Smith, then Brigham Young. She never regretted her marriages...."
Reeve/Parshall mention two books about the Battalion: David L. Bigler and Will Bagley, Army of Israel: Mormon Battalion Narratives, Arthur H. Clark, 2000, and Norma B. Ricketts, The Mormon Battalion: U.S. Army of the West, 1846-1847, Utah State University Press, 1996. In addition, General Cooke wrote several volumes about his experience in the West; The Conquest of New Mexico and California (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1878; available on Google Books) treats of his experience with the Mormon Battalion. There is also the Tyler volume which contains this poem, but despite its claim to be concise, it is almost 400 pages, and the wording is so nineteenth-century-convoluted that I found it close to unreadable.
There is also, of course, the Roberts book cited here -- but I don't recommend it; it is short (120 pages, but in large type with excessive space between lines; my wild guess would be 50 pages in an ordinary book), not especially well researched (basically just paraphrases Tyler's account and Cooke's book), and far too complimentary to the Mormons. Roberts (1857-1933) was an important Mormon apologist; born Henry Roberts, he took the first name "Brigham" in honor of Brigham Young (Reeve/Parshall, p. 171). He had a number of conflicts with the LDS hierarchy (Reeve/Parshall, p. 172) but also wrote important theological works. Curiously, although he took three wives (Bushman, p. 78), he also tried unsuccessfully to include women's suffrage in the Utah constitution (Reeve/Parshall, p. 172). Elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1898, he was denied his seat because of his multiple wives (Bushman, p. 78). A strange character.... - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS035

Mormon Battalion Song (II -- In Forty-Six We Bid Adieu), The

DESCRIPTION: "In '46 we bid adieu To loving friends and kindred too, For one year's service, one and all... In these hard times." They march for Fort Leavenworth. The colonel dies. They march on. They hope God will bring them home to friends "And have good times"
AUTHOR: Azariah Smith (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Tyler)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes travel | Mormon Battalion
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 41-42, "The Mormon Battalion Song" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 259-260, "(Song)" (1 excerpt)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 284, "The Mormon Battalion" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Daniel Tyler, "A Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War," no publisher listed but copyrighted 1881 (available on Google Books), pp. 287-289, "(Song)" (1 text)
Roud #10820
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mormon Battalion Song (I)" (subject) and notes and references there
File: ChMS047

Mormon Battalion Song (III)

See All Hail the Brave Battalion (File: ChMS040)

Mormon Bishop's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a Mormon biship, and I will tell you what I know, I joined the confraternity some forty years ago." He met Brigham Young and learned Mormon ways. The Mormons killed many. Brigham is dead. Most of his sixteen wives are too. Mormons will go to hell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax, Cowboy Songs)
KEYWORDS: warning clergy death homicide | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 237, "The Mormon Bishop's Lament" (1 text)
Roud #8009
File: LDC237

Mormon Car, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Mormon car is moving and has been in motion long, At first her pow'r was feeble, but now it's getting strong." The train crew has her moving well. There have been a few problems, but "We'll all unite, with one consent, and pull her quickly through"
AUTHOR: Words: John Taylor (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Western Folklore, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: railroading | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 238-239, "The Mormon Car" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jeanette and Jeannot" (tune) and references there
File: LDC238

Mormon Coon, The

DESCRIPTION: "Young Abraham left home one day." A friend receives his note: "I'm out in Utah in the Mormon land, I'm going to stay because I'm living grand... Now every day I get a band new wife." He can spare six or seven wives, "For I am a Mormon coon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (JAFL 58)
KEYWORDS: rambling wife humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #224, "Mormon Coon" (2 short texts)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 183-184, "The Mormon Coon" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 264, "The Mormon Coon" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "The Wanigan Songbook" by Isabel J. Ebert, p. 218, "The Mormon Coon" (1 text, sung by Emory DeNoyer)
Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 530-532, "The Mormon Coon" (1 text)
Roud #10887
NOTES [225 words]: Ordinary Christians viewed Mormons as scandalous because they had multiple wives, and this song portrays a very flirtatious Mormon girl. In fact Mormons, except for being polygynous, were sexually strict. And in fact the church had abandoned multiple marriage by the time this song was collected. Today the Mormons' primary difference from Protestant Christianity is their acceptance of several books by Joseph Smith as scripture. There are other theological differences, to be sure (including some over how salvation is achieved) which are of great importance to scholars -- but they generally don't interest ordinary people much, and are not widely published.
It probably goes without saying that very few Mormon men were allowed as many wives as this song implies; there weren't enough available women for that! Even Brigham Young had only 17 living wives at the time of his death (see the notes to "Brigham Young"). Joseph Smith had somewhat more -- but if one reads the catalog of wives in Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, 1945, 1971, it quickly becomes evident that many of these were middle-aged and even elderly women; while one cannot but suspect that Smith introduced polygamy to improve his reproductive life, he in fact doesn't seem to have spent much time rolling in the hay with pretty young women. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: EDeN218A

Mormon Cowboy (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a Mormon cowboy, is invited to a grand ball. He meets all the girls and enjoys the music. After dancing a few sets, he steps out for rest; later, a fight starts, with gunplay, but is quickly quashed. The cowboy rides off, vowing nevermore to roam
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Carl T. Sprague)
KEYWORDS: fight dancing music party cowboy
FOUND IN: US
Roud #11523
RECORDINGS:
Carl T. Sprague, "The Mormon Cowboy" (Victor V-40246, 1929; on AuthCowboys, WhenIWas1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The High-Toned Dance" (plot)
File: RcTMorCw

Mormon Cowboy (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sings "Concerning Archie Barber and his unhappy state." At 22, he marries, but he has "no tool at all" and can't satisfy the girl. Her mother tells her to try him before a female jury. The marriage is annulled; the girl marries a Mormon cowboy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: marriage sex abandonment cowboy humorous
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 3, pp. 38-41, "The Mormon Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Logs003 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "No Balls at All" (theme) and references there
NOTES [54 words]: Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging treats this as a version of "No Balls at All." I really don't see it; the lyrics are almost entirely different, the boy is young, the girl puts him on trial before a jury of women, and she goes on to remarry a Mormon cowboy. That surely qualifies as enough reason to split the songs. - RBW
File: Logs003

Mormon Creed, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Mormon Creed I'll now explain, Which you may quickly learn, 'Tis 'Mind your own business.'" The Mormons sometimes forget it themselves, but they learned it from "The prophet of the Lord." It will bring them eternal life
AUTHOR: probably William Willes
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Willes, The Mountain Warbler)
KEYWORDS: derivative | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 216, "The Mormon Creed" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: William Willes, _The Mountain Warbler: Being a Collection of Original Songs and Recitations, by WIlliam Willes, with a Selection from Other writes, for the Use of Choirs, Sabbath Schools and Families_, Deseret News Book and Job Establishment, Salt Lake City, 1872 (available on Google Books), pp. 42-43, "(no title)" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In Days When We Went Gypsying" (tune)
NOTES [74 words]: Not everything in the Willes book is by Willes (and, we might add, it's texts only; no tunes are printed; despite its title, it's not what I would call a book for choirs!). Willes generally attributes poems written by others, and this has no attribution. On the other hand, he put a "W. W." after some of his own poems, and it doesn't have that, either. It's almost certainly by Willes, but perhaps one could argue that it has not been proved. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC216

Mormon Du Dah Song, The

See The Du Dah Mormon Song (File: Hubb236)

Mormon King, The

DESCRIPTION: "O hark, kind friends, while I do sing About Brigham Young, the Mormon King, Who swears that he'll do everything Out in Salt Lake City." But he can't intimidate Yankees. They will show him "that we've got laws."
AUTHOR: Words: G. W. Anderson
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Vernon, Yankee Doodle Doo, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: warning | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 214-215, "The Mormon King" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1458, p. 99, "The Mormon King" (1 reference)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The King of the Cannibal Islands" (tune) and references there
NOTES [62 words]: I would presume this dates from the period of the Utah War in the late 1850s, when the United States was trying to suppress the Mormons. They of course failed to do so, though the Mormons eventually were induced to give up polygamy. The dating is reinforced by the fact that Thomas Andrews, who put out a broadside of this piece, stopped printing soon after the Utah War. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC214

Mormon Love Serenade, The (The Marriage Proposal)

DESCRIPTION: "O Susan, wilt though come with me In sweet community to live." He promises "all the love that swells in my breast" and a sixteenth of his wealth. He has "only" 15 other wives, compared to Brigham Young's 44. He also offers a sixteenth of a kiss
AUTHOR: Words: Alfred Norton / Music: S Riggs (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Briegel, 44 Old Time Mormon and Far West Songs, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: courting love money humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #220, "The Marriage Proposal" (1 text)
Cheney-MormonSongs, p. 182, "A Marriage Proposal" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 266, "Mormon Love Serenade" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 217, "Mormon Love Serenade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10875
File: Hubb220

Mormon Question,The

DESCRIPTION: "When Uncle Sam first set out His army to destroy us, Says he, 'Those Mormons we'll rout...." "There's a great commotion in the east About the Mormon question." But the expedition encounters much trouble and concludes "These Mormons beat the devil."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: war travel hardtimes
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1857 - Mounting of the Mormon Expedition/Mormon War/Utah War
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #234, "The Mormon Question" (2 texts plus an excerpt)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 227-228, "The Mormon Question" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10840
NOTES [182 words]: The Mormons, having been oppressed in the United States, moved to Utah under the direction of Brigham Young to try to avoid American persecution. Then came the Mexican War, which put Utah and the Mormons back in the United States. Young still tried to stay independent even as colonists headed west. And then came Mountain Meadows Massacre (for which see "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19]; also "Brigham Young (I)"). Eventually the United States decided to show that it, not Brigham Young, ruled Utah. So they sent out an army led by Albert Sidney Johnston. But Utah was so far away, and so dry, that the expedition found it very hard to mount a real attack. Eventually a peace was patched up -- but the Mormons, correctly, regarded that as a victory; they still had substantial self-goverment despite American hatred of them and of polygamy.
On the other hand, they eventually had to abandon polygamy to gain statehood, and once the United States surrounded them, they needed statehood for economic reasons. In the long run, I'd call their quarrel with the United States a draw. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hubb234

Mormon Sunday School Song, The

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Mormon Tabernacle, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Saints a tabernacle reared Where naught but sagebrush had appeared Without a nail or bolt or screw Or anything to nail it to." The singer describes the building and its organ -- plus its construction and fine acoustics
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | Mormon Tabernacle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1893 - Completion of the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City after forty years of construction
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 101-103, "The Mormon Tabernacle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10846
File: ChMS101

Mormond Braes (I)

DESCRIPTION: A (lass/lad) laments a lost sweetheart, (who promised to marry but proved fickle). At last (she) says she will find another sweetheart elsewhere. "So fare ye weel, ye Mormond braes, Where after I've been cheerie... Sin I hae lost my dearie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1894 (Murison collection, according to Lyle, _Fairies and Folk_)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment rambling
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 171-173, "Mormond Braes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #1, pp. 2-3, "Mormond Braes"; #6, p. 3, "Mormond Braes"; #107, p. 2, ("Farewell to Pulteney-banks"); #4, p. 3, ("Farewell ye Mormond Braes"); "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 63-64, "Mormond Braes" (3 texts plus 5 fragments, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan6 1142, "Mormond Braes," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Mormond Braes" (25 texts plus a single verse on p. 554, 22 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 62-63, "Mormond Braes" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 25, "Mormond Braes" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MORMBRAE*
Roud #2171
RECORDINGS:
Daisy Chapman, "Mormond Braes" (on SCDChapman01)
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Mormond Braes" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(124b), "Fareweel tae Blairgowrie," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
NOTES [98 words]: Greig #1: "The authorship of 'Mormond Braes' is usually attributed to Dr Gavin of Strichen, father of the late Dr Gavin. All tradtions of this kind, however are to be received with extreme caution, even when there exist no specific grounds for doubting them. And in the present case we are confronted with an awkward problem." He then goes on to quote the text of "Fareweel to Blairgowrie," which is lumped with "Mormond Braes," and discusses the problem of which came first, which borrowed what, and whether there might be an earlier ancestor. "There is really no settling such points." - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: FVS171

Mormond Braes (II)

See Blythe Mormond Braes (File: Ord060)

Mormond Braes (III)

See Blythe Mormond Braes (File: Ord060)

Mormons in the Mountains, The

DESCRIPTION: "Many people in the nations Are very much afraid Of the Mormons in the mountains Who, they fear, will make a raid." But it is the Mormons who have suffered. If the nations try it again, like a snake "When he gulped the horny-toad."
AUTHOR: probably William Willes
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Willes, The Mountain Warbler)
KEYWORDS: warning | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 229, "The Mormons in the Mountains" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: William Willes, _The Mountain Warbler: Being a Collection of Original Songs and Recitations, by WIlliam Willes, with a Selection from Other writes, for the Use of Choirs, Sabbath Schools and Families_, Deseret News Book and Job Establishment, Salt Lake City, 1872 (available on Google Books), pp. 119-120, "(no title)" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O! They Marched Through the Town (The Captain with His Whiskers)" (tune)
NOTES [80 words]: Not everything in the Willes book is by Willes (and, we might add, it's texts only; no tunes are printed; despite its title, it's not what I would call a book for choirs!), but this one is signed "W.W.," so he is clearly claiming it. It certainly looks like his less than wonderful style.
And if he wonders why the rest of the country was concerned with the Mormons, maybe he should have told Brigham Young to come clean about the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Just a thought.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC229

Mormons, The

DESCRIPTION: "Some folks talk about the Mormons, and I think it is very sad...." Most people try to make the Mormons look bad for having many wives, but the singer thinks "they have lots of fun, Do the Mormons!" He described the loose Mormon customs
AUTHOR: Herbert W. Taylor?
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: marriage wife sin humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 500, "The Mormons" (1 text)
Roud #7638
NOTES [116 words]: Ordinary Christians viewed Mormons as scandalous because they had multiple wives, and this song portrays a very flirtatious Mormon girl. In fact Mormons, except for being polygynous, were sexually strict; public nudity was unacceptable. And in fact the church had abandoned multiple marriage by the time this song was collected. Today the Mormons' primary difference from Protestant Christianity is their acceptance of several books by Joseph Smith as scripture. There are other theological differences, to be sure (including some over how salvation is achieved) which are of great importance to scholars -- but they generally don't interest ordinary people much, and are not widely published. - RBW
File: R500

Mornin's Mornin', The

See Shanahan's Ould Shebeen (The Mornin's Mornin') (File: SBar205)

Morning After (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Sometimes, old scout, in the morning, when the dawn looks cold and gray," the singer ponders life's troubles and wonders 'Is it really worth the while?" He lists various problems. Then he gets serious about the day, for "tomorrow you may die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: nonballad death
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 131-132, "The Morning After" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hazel Felleman, Best Loved Poems of the American People, pp. 621-622, "Is It Really Worth the While?" (1 text)
Roud #9588
File: Dean131

Morning After (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "A gilded mirror, a polished bar, A million glasses, straws in a jar... Are my recollections of last night." The singer a long, dirty road to his home. His hangover makes him sick. Will he quit? No, "I got soused again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927(Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: drink travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 50, "The Morning After" (1 text)
Roud #9626
File: SBar050

Morning Comes Early

DESCRIPTION: "Morning comes early and bright with dew Under your window I sing to you, Up, then, my comrade, up, then, my comrade Let us be greeting the morn so blue." "Why do you linger so long in bed, Open your window and show your head... the sun comes red"
AUTHOR: Words: Katherine Davis (source: Sanders-SingHighSingLow)
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Sanders-SingHighSingLow)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 332, 467, "Morning Comes Early" (notes only)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, p. 33, "Morning Comes Early" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Morning Comes Early" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 1) (12th edition, p. 39)
Roud #36123
NOTES [43 words]: According to Songs of Many Nations and Sanders-SingHighSingLow, this is based on a Slovak folk song. It lists the translation as being from Ten Folk Songs and Ballads. It can be sung as a round; other versions repeat the last two lines of the verse.. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF332M

Morning Dew, The

DESCRIPTION: "The pink, the lily, and the blooming rose Grow in the garden where my true love goes. The little birds they do rejoice When they think they hear my love Jimmy's voice. O James Machree, I do love you well; I love you better than tongue can tell...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 86, "The Morning Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 148-149, "The Morning Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FJ148 (Full)
Roud #2307
File: FJ148

Morning Fair

See The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: LP24)

Morning Has Broken

DESCRIPTION: "Morning has broken, like the first morning.... Praise for the springing fresh from the Word." "Sweet the rain's new fall sunlit from heaven." "Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning." Praise for God giving us the day
AUTHOR: Words: Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965)
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Songs of Praise)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 539, "Morning Has Broken" (notes only)
DT, MORNGBR
ADDITIONAL, Percy Dearmer, words editor; Ralph Vaughn Williams and Martin Shaw, music editors, _Songs of Praise_, Revised and Enlarged Edition, Geoffrey Cumberlege, 1932, #30, "(no title)"
NOTES [261 words]: This was apparently commissioned by Percy Dearmer for Songs of Praise (so Averill). The tune, "Bunessan," is said to be an "Old Gaelic Melody." It hadn't been especially popular. Then Cat Stevens took this song and changed everything.
Eleanor Farjeon was the daughter of Benjamin J. Farjeon (1838-1903), who, although born in Britain, spent several years in Australia and New Zealand. He came to Dunedin from Australia in 1861, having been sent by a Melbourne paper to write stories about the goldfields there. A compositor as well as writer, he was soon brought on in both capacities at the Otago Daily Times, and rose to an ownership position. Around the same time, he wrote a novel, Shadows in the Snow, which was quite popular in New Zealand. One of the locals reported that he sent a copy to Charles Dickens for an opinion, and Dickens must have liked it, because Farjeon packed up and headed back to London to be a writer (Reed, pp. 273-274). It was only after his return that his daughter Eleanor, and several other children, were born.
Benet, p. 366, does not mention Benjamin Farjeon in its biography of Eleanor, instead reporting that she was the "Granddaughter of the actor Joseph Jefferson (1829-1905). English writer famous for her juveniles. Her brother, Joseph Jefferson Farjeon... is a skilled English mystery story writer." (The later editions of Benet cut her entry, so apparently they are largely forgotten.) A number of her songs seem to have been taken up by Girl Scouts, although few seem to have been popular enough to be remembered. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF539M

Morning of the Fray, The

DESCRIPTION: Frank Gardner leads his gang against a coach at the Eugowra Rocks. The outlaws scatter the escort and take the rich prize. Chorus: "You can sing of Johnny Gilbert, Dan Morgan, and Ben Hall, But the bold and reckless Gardiner he's the boy to beat them all"
AUTHOR: Music supplied by A.L. Lloyd
EARLIEST DATE: 1984
KEYWORDS: outlaw robbery battle money
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1830 - Birth of Francis Christie in New South Wales. He later took the name Frank Gardiner
FOUND IN: Australia?
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 84-85, "The Morning of the Fray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBalladsm p. 67, "The Morning of the Fray" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Hold-Up at Eugowra Rocks" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd10)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Frank Gardiner" (subject of Gardiner)
NOTES [92 words]: Although the song implies Gardiner was separate from Gilbert, Morgan, and Ben Hall, in fact Gilbert and Hall were associated with Gardiner's gang. Ben Hall was shot in 1865; Johnny Gilbert met his fate in 1866. Gardiner was eventually taken and imprisoned, but was released and sent into exile after serving ten years of a 32 year sentence. For more on Gardiner (known as "The Darkie" because of he was part-aborigine), see "Frank Gardiner."
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads tentatively assign this to Gardiner himself. I don't believe it. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: FaE084

Morning Prayer (Father We Thank Thee for the Night)

DESCRIPTION: "Father we thank thee for the night And for the blessed morning light For rest and food and loving care And all that makes the world so fair. Amen"
AUTHOR: Rebecca J. Weston and Daniel Batchellor (source: BoyScoutSongbook1997)
EARLIEST DATE: 1997 (BoyScoutSongbook1997)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 446-447, "Morning Prayer" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 115, "Father, We Thank Thee for the Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 17, "Morning Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ACSF446P

Morning Star

DESCRIPTION: "Morning star begin to rise Just before the break of day Children of God awake... I'm goin down by da morning train ... For da evenin' train shall be too late"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Jamaica,Tobago)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 50, "Morning Star" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, pp. 33-34, "Git On the Evening Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Melvyn Lloyd Butler, _Songs of Pentecost: Experiencing Music, Transendence, and Identity in Jamaica and Haiti_ (Ph.D. Dissertation, New York University, 2005), #13, p. 393 "I Am Going Home on the Morning Train"
NOTES [49 words]: Barton-OldPlantationHymns has a "morning train" verse as well as an "evening train" verse but loses the "evening train will be too late" line. It adds verses "Gabriel's trumpet shall blow," "Let God's people get on board," "Swing low chariot swing low," and "Old Death is staying in the grave." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElCh050A

Morning Trumpet, The (O When Shall I See Jesus)

DESCRIPTION: "O when shall I see Jesus, And dwell with him above, And drink the flowing fountains Of everlasting love. When shall I be delivered, From this vain world of sin?" "But now I am a soldier, My Captain's gone before.... And tells me not to fear."
AUTHOR: unknown (sometimes attributed to John Leland, 1754-1841))
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Jackson)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus soldier nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, SEEJESUS
Roud #15077
NOTES [134 words]: The text of this is widely attributed to John Leland, an American Baptist minister who worked in Massachusetts and Virginia; this attribution has been accepted, e.g., by George Pullen Jackson. But John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 671, says, "This vigorous lyric is ascribed by Dr. Hitchcock, in Hymns and Songs of Praise, 1874, to Leland. It has generally been regarded as anonymous, and is of uncertain date, cir[ca] 1807, or probably earlier." In the supplement on p. 1683, Julian pushes that date back to 1805 (in The Christian Harmony, or Songster's Companion by Jeremiah Ingalls), but still is not certain of the author. Jeremiah Ingalls wrote many tunes, but few texts; possibly he added the tune.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: dtSEEJE

Morning Was Charming, The

DESCRIPTION: The hunters rise early to follow the stag or hare. In some versions the hare is killed. In another, at day's end hunters are warned "to govern their passions ... and see heaven at last when he sees no more hounds"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1785 (_ The Humming Bird_)
KEYWORDS: hunting nonballad animal dog horse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 59, "The Morning Was Charming" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 236)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, "Hare Hunting Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: The Humming Bird (Canterbury, 1785 (third edition) ("Digitized by Google")), p. 3, ("The morning is charming, all nature looks gay") (1 text)
Roud #580
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Red, Rosy Morning" (same theme and shared lines)
File: WT059

Morris Ellsworth

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Morzie Ellsworth, the truth I'll tell to you." He has left home and parents. His ship goes to Miramichi; he joins a logging crew. He sees many creatures such as the "savage owl" and "celebrated rabbit" and "wicked robins." It's a hard life
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917) ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Ives-LarryGorman)
KEYWORDS: humorous lumbering animal bug travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 58-59, 197, "Morris Ellsworth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25133
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. The Maine-ite in Pennsylvania" (imagery)
NOTES [40 words]: Sandy Ives (Ives-LarryGorman, p. 197) claims that this is the same as "The Maine-ite in Pennsylvania.". I wouldn't go that far, but they are similar in concept (e.g. the idea that rabbits are a threat) and may have cross-fertilized a bit. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LaGoMoEl

Morris Fragment

See Once They Said My Lips Were Red (File: WT302A)

Morrisey and the Russian Bear

See Morrissey and the Russian Sailor [Laws H18] (File: LH18)

Morrisite Massacre, The

DESCRIPTION: "We'll see Morris, Banks, and others, Joseph, Hyrum with the Martyrs, On Mount Zion in great glory With the savior and his army." "Slain by Burton, cruel Mormon," the song tells of the coming joys for the believers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: religious homicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 13, 1862 - The Morrisite Massacre
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 121-122, (no title) (1 text)
NOTES [3000 words]: The Morrisites are an effectively extinct sect (earlier editions of the Index said they were entirely exting), largely because of the actions described in this song.
Joseph Morris was born in England (lthough Powell gives the date as 1817 and Anderson, p. 31, as December 15, 1824, near Chester; I assume Anderson's date is based on the fact that George Morris said Joseph was 38 when he died -- Anderson, p. 33). He was said to be the fifth of eight children.
As a young man, he was a farm worker and coal miner in England (Anderson, pp. 31-32); he suffered at least one severe burn while working in the mines (Anderson, p. 32)
Morris became a Mormon in the late 1840s, moving to America, arriving in Utah in 1853 (Powell). During his early years in America he was married to one Mary Thorp (Anderson, p. 33). When he went on one of his peregrinations, she left him and took all that he owned, leaving him penniless. He then married a widow named Elizabeth Mills; she too dumped him (Anderson, p. 35). He had a child somewhere in there (Anderson, p. 40). In 1857, he managed to find another wife, Elizabeth Jones (Anderson, p. 41).
This is typical of his lack of social success; one of his surviving letters describes his quest to marry Jones; which went badly -- which he came to blame on the Mormon hierarchy (Anderson, p. 13; Morris's long letter explaining the situation, which I found close to incomprehensible, is on pp. 13-15). He also had trouble getting a decent job (Anderson, p. 25). According to Anderson, p. 22, he never ceased to believe in Joseph Smith; his disagreement was with Brigham Young and the post-Smith organization of the church. In this he had plenty of company, since Mormonism split half a dozen ways when Smith was murdered! The difference was, Morris came later and was active after, not before, the Church moved to Utah -- instead of founding a Mormon sect well separated from the main branch of the Latter-Day Saints, he was an irritant right there in the middle of them.
Morris had always been prone to "spiritual manifestations" (not by itself a crazy thing in Mormon circles; they had been founded by a modern-day prophet, after all!) George Morris described his brother as having the "gift of tongues" but "was unwise in the use of them" (Anderson, p 33).
From the sound of things, he was a genuine visionary, i.e. psychotic, rather than a con artist such as Joseph Smith; he believed what he was telling people. His brother attributed his mental aberrations to the psychological effects of his mining accident as a young man plus an illness he suffered while in the United States (Anderson, p. 33, quotes George Morris as saying that after the illness he became "very flighty and visionary in his mind" -- but he was already convinced "that he was in very high estimation with the Lord"). Morri's notion is barely possible; it's rare for disease to cause loss of contact with reality in those who are too young for a dementia, but it does happen once in a while. Usually, though, psychotic episodes simply come about because of a deeper mental condition with genetic roots, normally schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Morris clearly didn't have the latter; his failures with people might be additional evidence for the former.
His visions caused him to invent a truly original cosmology (Anderson, p. 37): his view of the "Rounds of Eternity" envisioned a universe over a billion years old, with 144,000 worlds. Much of this reminds me of first- and second-century gnosticism, which he can't possibly have known about. He also believed in transmigration of souls -- an idea that had some pedigree in both orthodox Christianity and Mormonism (Anderson, p. 37, thinks he got it from a Mormon schismatic named Charles B. Thompson), but his notion of the "Keys of the Priesthood" seems to have been his own. In addition to its cosmological ideas, Morris's system envisioned a series of angels who had "missions" on earth. Morris was the incarnation of the angel Seth, who previously had been Moses (Anderson, pp. 39-40). It's all very strange, and too screwy for me to try to summarize; if you really want to see it, consult pp. 36-40 or so of Anerrson.
The schism with the Mormons came about because, in 1857-186, he received a series of revelations that contradicted the party line (Powell).
He believed that he was called to replace Brigham Young as prophet of the Mormon Church. (Maybe as secular head, too, but certainly as prophet; Anderson, p. 2). In all, he recorded more than 300 revelations (Anderson, p. 26).
He had no education, so when he wrote to Young, the result was near-gibberish: "to si exelency Governor young" (Anderson, p. 11; I checked that orthography twice!). Little wonder Young, or someone, scribbled in the margin, "He's weak minded" (Anderson, p. 12). Nonetheless, his writings show a clear familiarity with the style and language of the King James Bible (which Joseph Smith had imitated, somewhat imperfectly, in the Book of Mormon -- but which, it should be noted, was not the style of the actual Bible; the King James Bible was slightly archaic even when it was published, whereas the original Greek and Hebrew of the Bible was the normal language of the time. Thus the evidence is that Morris -- and Smith -- did not have a hot line to God, because God would have told them to talk English, not a fake jargon.) His second message to Brigham Young, shown on pp. 27-29 of Anderson, shows him shifting smoothly from archaizing to modern English as he shifts from his alleged divine message to his suggestions to Young.
The Mormons did not accept his revelations (not surprising, given that he called Brigham Young a fallen prophet!), so after being ignored by Young yet again in late 1860 (Anderson, pp. 51-53), he finally set out on his own. Few took him seriously for a long time (any sane man would surely have given up!), but eventually a Mormon bishop named Richard Cook accepted his revelation and he was in business (Anderson, p. 62). He gathered followers among the Mormons and founded his own community (Powell), very close to Salt Lake City -- on the banks of the Weber River (Anderson, p. 3).
By mid-1861, Morris had managed to gather some 300 followers, with the number of members reaching 507 by 1862 (Anderson, p. 66) -- surprising, since he was anything but eloquent and made few efforts to recruit new followers (Anderson, pp. 67-68). It is possible that the eloquent John Banks, another disappointed ex-Mormon from England, made up for Morris's lack of charisma. Morris's ability to deal with people was a problem, though; there was apparently already some internal dissension about organization almost from the start (Anderson, p. 65). Their base was called "Kington Fort," but it was unfinished and, being in a valley with hills on all sides, hard to defend -- but isolated from the people around it (Anderson, p. 64).
His inability to come up with clear revelations was both strength and weakness. When he seemed to predict the Second Coming in the fall of 1861, he probably drew followers (for some reason, a lot of people seemed to expect the end of the world around then!) -- but of course it meant a lot of disappointment when the world stayed put. Morris did offer another vision to correct things (Anderson, pp. 72-73) -- but he had made no attempts to found an economically viable organization (Powell), and many failed to raise crops or do useful work that year. The community lived for a time on the proceeds of the members' selling their property (Anderson, p. 35). When they ran out of cash from this, Morris was unable to control dissension among his followers. The armed guard that had earlier been formed to hold off Mormon harrassers was by 1862 being used to intimidate some of the Morrisites themselves (Anderson, p. 86). Morris was even having to aim revelations at his two leading followers, Cook and Banks, who were apparently not friendly (Anderson, pp. 86-87). Certainly Morris's personal skills hadn't improved much; he managed to find a bride, Mary Olsen, among his followers -- but within a month, they were apparently fighting so much that Morris had a revelation directed *explicitly to her* telling her to stop arguing and obey him (Anderson, p. 87). Even if God had nothing better to do than be Morris's relationship counselor, God would at least be competent at it! The two did have a son, born in May 1862, but it died almost at once (Anderson, pp. 104-105) -- perhaps a small mercy, since it spared the boy from inheriting his father's mental condition, plus he would have been orphaned within wees.
Some think the Mormons would have come down on the Morrisites in 1861, except that the American government was threatening to suppress the Mormons themselves; Brigham Young and his supporters didn't want to get in more trouble (Anderson, p. 81). But that protection (if protection it was) would not last. Both Morris's visions of the Seeond Coming -- which was saying would come any day -- and his political problems were reaching a crescendo. A disgruntled follower named William Jones tried to leave (Anderson, pp. 96-100). The exact details are hazy -- the witnesses disagree, and all are biased -- but Jones and two others ended up in Morrisite custody, in chains. The Morrisites were not a government body; they did not have the right to imprison people.
Then one of them, Lars Gurtsen, escaped (Anderson, p. 100) and called on the Utah authorities, who -- being left largely free of federal control due to the Civil War -- could now safely settle the dissident faction (Powell). A judge, John F. Kinney -- a non-Mormon but one who generally accepted Mormon advice (Bagley, p. 251) -- issued a writ of habeas corpus, addressed to Morris, Banks, Cook, and one other (Anderson, p. 105). A group of deputies tried to deliver the writ. The Morrisites refused to accept it -- some witnesses said they burned it (Anderson, p. 101). Morris, in fact, was having revelations telling his followers to ignore the authorities (Anderson, p. 102. It simply amazes me that anyone would believe God would worry about things like that at a time when, for instance, the Civil War was killing thousands of young men each week!). Morris also gave a new date for the Second Coming: May 30, 1862 would be "Foreshadowing of the Kingdom of God Day" (Anderson, p. 103).
Morris may not have been worried, but the situation was critical. The Morrisites were in open defiance of the law. The state marshal was unwilling or unable to serve a writ in circumstances which might result in violence (Anderson, pp. 107-108), but his top assistant was up for the job. Deputy marshal Robert T. Burton led a posse against the community (Powell). No one knows how many were involved, but there were probably several hundred, most of them Mormons of the Nauvoo legion -- the Mormon militia, although it was technically considered a Federal force (Anderson, pp. 110-111).
The idea was probably to induce a surrender (Anderson, p. 111), but apparently Morris had a revelation anticipating a large army coming. He took it as more evidence of the second coming, and perhaps had another revelation. So there was no surrender. (Many of the Morrisites were probably afraid to surrender. They were aware of the Mountain Meadows Massacre -- Bagley, p. 251 -- where a group of Mormons attacked a passing wagon train, induced the people to surrender, then slaughtered them; for background on this, see "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19].)
Burton captured a Morrisite herder and sent him in with a demand for surrender. It is claimed that he allowed only thirty minutes to think about it, which simply wasn't enough time for the message to be brought to the leaders, let alone for them to decide what to do (Anderson, pp. 112-113), though others claim Burton allowed two hours.
Whatever the timing, Burton fired shots -- warning shots, some said, but the first one fell among the assembled Morrisites (Anderson, pp. 114-115), killing two and leaving one teenager with a permanently disfigured jaw (Anderson, p. 127; p. 119 shows the disfigured woman in later life). Morris, rather than do something useful, reeled off another vision promising better things to come (Anderson, pp. 127-128). For about a day, both sides settled down to a siege; during this, one of the attackers, Jared Smith, was killed (Anderson, p. 132). The next day brought heavy rain, which was hard for the Morrisites in their damaged fort (Anderson, p. 134), especially as they were almost out of ammunition and even food.
Burton apparently sent a message to the territorial governor asking for instructions, pointing out that the Morrisites were resisting and that a man had been killed. Acting Governor Fuller told him to enforce the law (Anderson, p. 133). So, even though the next day was Sunday (Anderson, pp. 134-135), Burton moved in. He ordered a small group of men to storm one of the outbuildings of the fort. One of those who went in, Peter Wahlin, became the second fatality among the Mormons, but they took the building and brought up more equipment (Anderson, pp. 136-137). The Morrisite position was no longer tenable, and they surrendered (Anderson, p. 137).
Burton then occupied the place (Powell). What happened once he and his troops met the assembled, mostly-unarmed Morrisites is unclear -- the witness accounts disagree, and all are self-serving. What is clear is that Burton personally killed a few people including Morris and Banks (Anderson, pp. 138-139). Then his troops took prisoner those men who had been found with arms or were listed as part of the Morrisite army (Anderson, pp. 140-141; this was about ninety people, according to Powel).
With the attack over, the question was what to do about the survivors. Two of the state militia had died, after all. Most of the armed men eventually went on trial. In 1863, although two men were acquitted, seven men were convicted of second degree murder and 66 of "resistance." The latter group were fined; the former were given prison terms of ten years and up (Anderson, p. 143). Territorial governor Stephen S. Harding, who thought he saw in this more resistance to Federal control, pardoned them (Powell) -- on the grounds, one suspects, that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," even though the Morrisites were no more pro-United States than the Mormons.
As early as 1863, there were people who wanted Burton charged with murder. (Justifiably, I think; we don't know how Morris and Banks died, but it's hard to believe they attacked Burton or his troops after the surrender!) In 1870 a grand jury brought charges against him, but in 1872 the U. S. Supreme Court threw the case out on a technicality (Anderson, pp 148-149). Apparently that ended the possibility of charging him for those deaths, which were probably the ones easier to link to him. In 1879, Burton was charged with another of the Morrisite deaths (Anderson, p. 149; on p. 228, Anderson notes that this was only after Burton's supporter Brigham Young was dead), but was acquitted (Powell).
You'd think that seeing their psychotic "prophet's" visions dramatically disproved would have spelled the end of the Morrisite movement. And some did abandon the faith, either returning to Mormonism or abandoning both Utah faiths and moving away (Anderson, p. 142). But a surprising number tried to preserve their belief system (Anderson, p. 222, concludes that Morris's death actually helped preserve his movement, because his mismanagement had been driving his church into the ground). Few wanted to stay in Utah, though -- most had lost their property, and they faced a hostile population. So they took the opportunity to migrate. In the process, they became divided into two groups (Anderson, pp. 156-157). At first, the separation was merely geographical, but in a denomination that was built around a prophet, the two soon became separate in other ways. There were several post-Morris branches; Anderson has photos of their some of their leaders and one of their meeting sites. Some of them lasted a long time, but none was in any way noteworthy; I checked my several catalogs of denominations and histories of the church without finding any hint of the Morrisites. Such importance as they have seems to be greater for the history of Utah than the history of Christianity.
C. Leroy Anderson's book about this -- the main reference for anyone who cares -- was published under three titles. The first edition,For Christ Will Come Tomorrow: The Saga of the Morrisites, was published in 1981. In 1988 a slightly revised edition was published by Utah State University Press as Joseph Morris and the Saga of the Morrisites. The final version, from 2010, is Joseph Morris and the Saga of the Morrisites (revisited), which is the version cited here. Those wishing to see Morris's own writings may attempt to find Joseph Morris, The Spirit Prevails: Containing the Revelations, Articles, and Letters Written by Joseph Morris, George S. Dove and Company, 1886. Dove was one of Morris's associates (Anderson, p. 3; Dove is all over Anderson's index); I doubt the portrayal is unbiased (and Anderson more than enough Morris quotes for my taste, thank you!).
There is also a book about Colonel Burton, Janet Burton Seegmiller, Be Kind To The Poor : The Life Story Of Robert Taylor Burton. Although copies are obtainable, the prices were too ridiculous for me to bother trying to find a copy.
This poem definitely seems to be by a Morrisite, and probably near-contemporary, since it refers to seeing Morris and Banks in the afterlife. It also correctly refers to the massacre as being on the banks of the Weber, to Morris as being slain by Burton, refers to Burton as a Mormon,
Joseph and Hyrum are, of course, the brothers Joseph and Hyrum Smith, who were slain by a mob near Nauvoo, Illinois, one of the key events in Mormon history. They were off the scene by the time Morris started having his visions. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: Burt121

Morrissey and the Benicia Boy

DESCRIPTION: The Benicia Boy -- Heenan -- challenges Morrissey saying "no man from Ireland before him could stand." They agree to fight for $5200 in North America. Morrissey wins in the eleventh round and takes the championship belt.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: fight gambling sports
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 20, 1858 - American Heavyweight Championship fight between John Morrissey and John C Heenan at Long Point, Canada. Heenan broke his hand during the fight. This is Morrissey's last fight
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 44, "Morrissey and the Benicia Boy" (1 text)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads, pp. 252-253, "Morrissey and the Benicia Boy" (1 text, tune referenced: OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 26)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 254, "The Bold Benicia Boy" (1 text)
Roud #9781
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Heenan and Sayers" [Laws H20] (subject)
cf. "Morrissey and the Black" (subject)
cf. "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (subject)
cf. "Donnelly and Cooper" (tune)
NOTES [487 words]: Source: Re historical references--"Troy Boxing -Round Two" by Don Rittner on The Mesh site. I have not been able to find which Long Point in Canada was the site of the fight. - BS
John Morrissey was born in Ireland in 1831 but was raised in New York and apparently went to California at the time of the Gold Rush. In 1852 he gained fame as a boxer by defeating George Thomson. The climax of Morrissey's career came in 1858 (so DAB and other sources; I've seen a date of 1860 cited), when he defeated champion John C. Heenan and promptly retired. In the years that followed his gambling resort in Saratoga Springs proved very successful, and Morrissey was twice elected to congress. He died in 1878.
In addition to his boxing prowess, he is said to have been a "hatchet man" for the New York Tammany Hall machine. - RBW
America Singing at the Library of Congress American Memory site does not have this ballad but has another about Morrissey and Heenan:
LOCSinging, sb10143a, "The Great Prize Fight Between Morrissey and Heenan, the Benicia Boy, at Long Point, Canada, Oct 20, 1858 for $5000," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue does not have this ballad among its "prizefighting" broadsides. However, among the broadsides at that site, there are many celebrating Heenan. For example:
Bodleian, 2806 c.15(229), "Heenan's Challenge to Mace," unbknown, n.d.; also Harding B 19(62), "Heenan's Challenge to Mace"
Bodleian, Firth b.25(587/588), "Heenan and King," J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899 [could not be downloaded]
Bodleian, Harding B 13(12), "Sayers' and Heenan's Struggle for the Championship and GBP400," J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1858-1861
Bodleian, Harding B 13(7), "The Bold Irish Yankee Benicia Boy," J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1858-1861 [tune: "Irish Molly"]
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 2161a, "Coburn's Challange to Heenan," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 c.8(234), "Coburn's Challenge to Heenan"
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 2705, "The Boxing Match Between Sayers and Heenan," unknown, n.d.
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1448B, "Maugh Bonamalath" or "Charles Heenan, the Champion of the World," W. Pratt (Birmingham), c.1850
Bodleian, Firth c.19(12), "The Fight with Heenan and the Black," H. Disley (London), 1860-1883
Bodleian, Harding B 26(247), "Heenan's Arrival in England," unknown, n.d.
There is a different broadside there for this fight:
Bodleian, Harding B 40(15), "The glorious victory of John Morrissy, of Templemore, Ireland, over the Yankee Buffalo boy, on Long Island, North America," J.F. Nugent and Co.? (Dublin?), 1850-1899 [could not be downloaded]
Morrissey has many fewer but at least two have been collected (see cross-references above)
Broadside LOCSinging sb10143a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OCon044A

Morrissey and the Black [Laws H19]

DESCRIPTION: Morrissey agrees to fight "Ned the black of Mulberry town" for a stake of ten thousand pounds. By the fourteenth round Morrissey is unconscious or nearly, but he is revived and knocks out his opponent in the twenty-fifth round
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: fight
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws H19, "Morrissey and the Black"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 175, "John Morrissey and the Black" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 136, "Morrissey and the Black" (1 text)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 186-187,251, "Morrissey and the Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 30-32, "Morrissey and the Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 269-271, "Morrissey and the Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 9, page headed "MORRISSY AND THE BLOCK"], "Morrissy and the Block" (sic.) (1 fragment, which the editor thinks is "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" [Laws H18] but is in fact this song)
DT 706, MORRBLK
Roud #1884
RECORDINGS:
Alexander March, "Morrissey and the Black" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" [Laws H18] (subject)
cf. "Donnelly and Cooper" (subject)
cf. "Heenan and Sayers" [Laws H20] (subject)
cf. "Morrissey and the Benicia Boy" (subject)
cf. "The Napan Heroes" (theme)
NOTES [217 words]: John Morrissey was born in Ireland in 1831 but was raised in New York and apparently went to California at the time of the Gold Rush. In 1852 he gained fame as a boxer by defeating George Thomson. The climax of Morrissey's career came in 1858 (so the Dictionary of American Biography and other sources; I've seen a date of 1860 cited), when he defeated champion John C. Heenan and promptly retired. In the years that followed his gambling resort in Saratoga Springs proved very successful, and Morrissey was twice elected to congress. He died in 1878.
In addition to his boxing prowess, he is said to have been a "hatchet man" for the New York Tammany Hall machine. - RBW
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland says Morrissey was also a Congressman and State Senator for New York.
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland: .".. there is no record of a fight between Morrissey and anyone with a name remotely resembling 'Ned the blackman' from Melbourne or anywhere else." - BS
There had been, however, a tendency to recruit Black boxers in the early nineteenth century (see Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, Blood Royal: The Illustrious House of Hanover, pp. 142-143). This was apparently due to the success of one Molineaux, called "The Moor." This may well have been remembered. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: LH19

Morrissey and the Russian Sailor [Laws H18]

DESCRIPTION: A Russian sailor in Tierra del Fuego challenges Morrissey to a duel. Morrissey takes on the challenge to uphold the honor of Ireland. The fight, for a large stake, takes 38 rounds, and each knocks the other down, before Morrissey is victorious
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: fight patriotic
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws H18, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor"
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 48, "Morrisey and the Russian Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 48, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 4-5, "Morrisy and the Russian Sailor" (1 text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 44-47, "Morriseey and the Russian Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 216-217, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 398-399, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 325, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 135, "Morrissey and the Russian" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 30, "Morrisey and the Russian" (1 text)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads, pp. 255-256, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (1 text, tune referenced: see OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 26)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 38, "Morrisey and the Russian Bear" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 694, MORRRUSS MORRRUS2*
Roud #2150
RECORDINGS:
Joe Heaney, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (on Pubs1, Voice08)
Alexander March, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Denis McGrath, "Morrissey And The Russian Bear" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Johnny McDonagh, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Morrissey and the Black" [Laws H19] (subject)
cf. "Donnelly and Cooper" (subject, tune)
cf. "Heenan and Sayers" [Laws H20] (subject, tune)
cf. "Morrissey and the Benicia Boy" (subject)
NOTES [363 words]: John Morrissey was born in Ireland in 1831 but was raised in New York and apparently went to California at the time of the Gold Rush. In 1852 he gained fame as a boxer by defeating George Thomson. The climax of Morrissey's career came in 1858 (so the Dictionary of American Biography and other sources; I've seen a date of 1860 cited), when he defeated champion John C. Heenan and promptly retired. In the years that followed his gambling resort in Saratoga Springs proved very successful, and Morrissey was twice elected to congress. He died in 1878.
In addition to his boxing prowess, he is said to have been a "hatchet man" for the New York Tammany Hall machine.
There is no record of Morrissey ever fighting a Russian sailor -- and certainly not in Tierra del Fuego! On the other hand, he did fight some very long matches; in 1853 it took Morrissey 37 rounds to defeat James Sullivan.
(That win, incidentally, made Morrissey arguably the American champion; Sullivan in 1849 had beaten Tom Hyer in what the February 2006 issue of American History magazine says was "considered to be the [first[ American championships prizefight") - RBW
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland's last verse refers to other fights. Specifically, "Our hero conquered Thompson, the Yankee Clipper, too, The Benicia Boy, and Sheppard he nobly did subdue."
We have a ballad for "Morrissey and the Benicia Boy", at least.
"Thompson" was George Thompson, California champion, who lost a controversial fight to Morrissey in 1852.
The "Yankee Clipper" refers to Morrissey's controversial victory over Yankee Sullivan to become "Champion of America". See "The Fight at Boston Corners" and "The Great Prize Fight Which Took Place at Boston Corners, Oct 12, 1853" broadsides at the Library of Congress American Memory site.
There is also a broadside "Rough and Tumble, or the Amos Street Fight between Poole & Morrissey" at the Library of Congress American Memory site.
Sources: Biography of John Morrissey on the International Boxing Hall of Fame site; Biography of John Morrissey on the HarpWeek Explore History site; "Yankee Sullivan (James Ambrose)(alias Frank Murray)" at Cyber Boxing Zone site. - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: LH18

Morrissy and the Block

See Morrissey and the Black [Laws H19] (File: LH19)

Morrisy and the Russian Sailor

See Morrissey and the Russian Sailor [Laws H18] (File: LH18)

Morro Castle Disaster

DESCRIPTION: "As the fire filled the air maddening scenes were everywhere, The flame-swept decks were far beyond control." Hundreds take a trip on the Morro Casle. The captain is dead. Many die. Investigations won't help. God will judge those involved.
AUTHOR: Bob Miller
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (recording, Ray Whitley)
KEYWORDS: ship fire wreck death disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 5, 1934 - The Morrow Castle begins its voyage
Sep 8, 1934 - The Morrow Castle fire
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 133-134, "Morro Castle Disaster" (1 text)
Roud #22305
RECORDINGS:
Ray Whitley, "Morro Castle Disaster" (Conqueror 8383, 1934)
NOTES [6481 words]: There have been at least five books written about this event, of which I have seen Burton, Gallagher, Hicks, and Thomas/Witts. Gallagher is responsible for the suggestion that George White Rogers started the fire that sank the Morro Castle, so he has a bit of an axe to grind. Thomas/Witts I consider sensational -- as Hicks, p. xiii, says, there are "mountains of misinformation" about this event. Burton and Hicks, as their frequent citations below will surely show, seems much more reliable, although I think Hicks has less understanding of what constitutes evidence than does Burton (e.g. he's much too willing to accept eyewitness testimony over forensic -- "circumstantial" -- evidence when we know that eyewitness testimony is extraordinarily unreliable).
The Morrow Castle tragedy is one of the saddest in the history of shipping, because it was clearly preventable. The ship itself was new, having been built in 1930 (Paine, p. 345). It had been designed with safety in mind (the Ward Line was proud of saying it had never lost a passenger; Burton p. 13), including safety from fire -- there was an advanced firefighting system and a (rather less effective) fire detection system (Burton, pp. 9-10). Although far smaller than major British liners, a newspaper at the time of her commissioning called her the finest and luxurious liner of built for Americans (Burton, p. 12), and experience in a hurricane showed that she was genuinely well suited to deal with the sea itself (Burton, p. 20).
On the other hand, her crew was poorly paid and poorly kept (the food was reported to be terrible; Burton, pp. 15-16), and there was apparently little sense of teamwork -- they didn't even all speak the same language! There are reports that some were even smuggling drugs to augment their minimal pay (Burton, p. 17).
The Morro Castle sailed as a passenger liner, primarily between New York and Havana -- often with passengers making the voyage to escape the limits of prohibition (Burton, p. 8). It was on its way from Cuba to the United States on its final trip (Ritchie, p. 136). It was far from full; the line had repeatedly cut fares because of the Depression, until they were about half the original price (Hicks, p. 18), but it still wasn't enough, especially with prohibition over. But the ship had no choice but to sail; the Morro Castle made its money carrying cargo and the mail. The passengers were for profit, but the cargo *had* to be carried; Hicks, p. 9. Indeed, the ship had been built with government loans because the government felt the country needed merchant ships; Hicks, p. 14.
On September 8, Captain Robert Wilmott (this is the usual spelling; Hicks spells it "Willmott") complained of stomach pains, then died (Hendrickson, p. 292). Most believe he had a heart attack (Paine, p. 346) -- he was overweight and reportedly had had two earlier mild heart attacks (Burton, p. 19), and had had some sort of problem as recently as the last week of August (Hicks, pp. 48-49). The ship's doctor and three other physicians on board agreed that heart disease was the cause of death (Burton, p. 22). But he was only 52 years old (Hicks, p. 8), and there are some who think he was poisoned (Hendrickson, p. 292). They includes the ship's own cruise director; Burton, p. 53, and Fourth Officer Howard Hansen, who said he "had reason to believe" the captain "was given a Micky Finn which could have brought on a heart attack," although he apparently did not present his reasons (Gallagher, p. 27). And the doctor died in the disaster, so he couldn't testify about the matter afterward (Hicks, p. 206).
After the tragedy, a body was identified as Wilmott's and autopsied. However, there is much doubt about the identification (it was too badly burned to recognize, so it was identified by location, and there is some doubt about where it was found, because the man who recovered it did not know the layout of the ship; Gallagher, p. 231; Hicks, p 187), and the results of the autopsy were not helpful (Gallagher, p. 232).
Wilmott -- a British-born sailor who had become an American citizen in 1904 and had been captain of an earlier Morro Castle for 13 years before taking over the new one (Hicks, p. 8) -- was a masterful and suspicious man, whose own suspicions may have played a role in his death, by increasing the stress he was under; he supposedly distrusted some of his crew (Burton, p. 20) -- being convinced, e.g., that the radio operators meant to sabotage the ship (Burton, p. 21).
In the aftermath of Wilmott's death, first officer William Warms took command -- producing a complicated command situation, since Warms was only a "three stripe" officer, and Chief Engineer Eban Abbott was a "four stripe" officer. Abbott was thus senior, and Hicks, p. 76, seems to think that he should have taken command -- but he wasn't a line officer, and most agree that that meant he was out of the chain of command. What's more, it appears that the Ward Line didn't entirely trust Warms -- on the several occasions when Wilmott had skipped a cruise, the Ward Line brought in another captain rather than let Warms sail the ship (Hicks, pp. 77-78).
My guess is that they just didn't consider Warms personable enough to represent the ship to the passengers, but the possibility exists that his superiors didn't trust his judgment. He was regarded as a loner as well as being prone to changes of mind (Burton, p. 19), and Captain Wilmott's wife later said that her husband had not trusted him (Gallagher, p. 24). So his command experience was very limited, and he had no experience dealing with emergencies.
It was in this peculiar situation that a fire broke out in a sealed cabinet. It was discovered fairly quickly, but it was too large to put out with a fire extinguisher, and there was too little water pressure in the fire hoses, so it quickly grew out of control (Burton, pp. 34; Gallager, p. 89, notes that when people opened the ship's fire hydrants, they neglected to close the unused hydrants, so all of them lost pressure -- one of the inevitable results of refusing to train the crew to deal with fires). Apparently Captain Wilmott had ordered most of the fire control system disabled a month before, after a leaky hydrant had cause a woman to break an ankle (Burton, p. 40).
The smoke detection system was also mostly inoperative, because the ship was carrying a cargo of fresh animal hides, and the only way to keep the smell away from the passengers was to turn it off (Burton, p. 148); this was arguably the worst bit of planning in the entire miserable saga. The ship's fire doors had been changed from automatic to manual, and no one seems to have thought to close them (Burton, p. 151). It is also reported that the bos'un who should have led the fire crew was drunk (Burton, p. 38). And Warms, who as first officer in the past was the other possible leader of the fire crew, was now acting captain and couldn't do it (Gallagher, p. 35). So there was no one to lead the fire crews.
What caused the fire is unknown; many have suspected arson by a crewman (Ritchie, p. 136). This opinion seems to have been widespread among the ship's officers; Acting Captain Warms, Cruise Director Smith, and at least three other watch-standing officers testified to that effect (Burton, pp. 149-150). Warms declared in his testimony to the Dickerson Hoover commission, "I believe the fire was set. I think somebody put something in that locker" (Hicks, p. 179). Junior officers Freeman and Hackney agreed, although on other points they disagreed with their superior officer.
Gallagher, p. 53, suggests that the fire meets three criteria for arson: if it is intense by the time it is discovered; if it spreads in a rapid, unusual manner (which officer Hackney said it had; Hicks, p. 180); and if water causes the flames to change color, indicating chemical accelerants. However, the third of this is clearly irrelevant (whatever was burning when the crew turned water on it, it wasn't the original chemicals -- and Gallagher, p. 77, notes that there was extremely flammable chemical-treated wood everywhere; Hicks, p. 98, says much of it was re-varnished weekly with a toxic and flammable varnish). The second argument is probably irrelevant (there aren't enough liner fires to compare it against), and the first would have a lot more force if the fire detection system hadn't been turned off! What's more, all the claims are based on memories, not photos or actual forensic examination.
The Dickerson Hoover commission decided not to investigate claims of arson, since it was outside their purview, but did say that it was a strange thing to do, since the arsonist would have been in danger of dying in the fire. It concluded that most of the loss of life was due to the crew's "laxness" -- although Hicks, pp. 284-285, says that most of the crew (except for Chief Engineer Abbott) did their best for the passengers.
You'd think such paranoid officers would have been prepared for sabotage -- but they weren't. There was no real procedure for dealing with fires, and Captain Wilmott had not done much to train the crew or drill the passengers (Hendrickson, p. 292). This even though there had been a fire on board in August! (Hicks, p. 49). When the fire was detected, it probably could have been stopped by closing fireproof doors, but no one was responsible for closing them and, as mentioned, it apparently it did not happen. And it happened in hurricane weather, which undoubtedly distracted the crew (Burton, p. 37).
Commanding officer Warms did not respond well to the disaster -- stressed out, perhaps, by the loss of his commander? (Burton, p. 148, and Hicks, p. 69, say he actually discovered the body, although Gallagher, p. 21, says it was a junior officer, Howard Hansen). Or overworked (Warms had supposedly been on duty without sleep for more than a day; Burton, p. 30)? Cowed by the fact that he had always been forced to obey Wilmott exactly (Burton, p. 163), and needing time to start thinking independently? Or just antisocial?
Warms apparently tried to alter course so the wind would not affect the ship as strongly (Paine, p. 346), but he did not send an SOS (Hendrickson, p. 293). An emergency signal would have made the ship subject to salvage, which was very expensive for the owners; one may speculate that he did not wish to risk potential promotion by saddling the company with a high repair bill (Burton, p. 118; Warms's son would say that Warms was "a company man" who did not want to hurt the company; Burton, p. 130. Of course, the fact that it would probably cost him his job also played a part). Particularly since the ship was almost back in port; she was off Atlantic City, New Jersey (Paine, p. 346).
Whatever his reasoning, the ship's high speed fanned the flames; the fire was soon out of control. The powder for the line-throwing gun exploded at about 3:00 a.m. making matters even worse (Burton, p. 39), and at 3:10 a.m. the electricity went out (Burton, p. 40). At almost the same moment, the steering controls on the bridge went out, and Warms did not attempt to transfer control to the emergency rudder system at the stern of the ship, instead slowing down and trying to steer the ship by her propellers (Burton, p. 41). That did no good; about the time he tried that, the engine room had to be evacuated because of the smoke, and the engines had to be shut down lest they explode (Hicks, p. 115).
The high speed posed another problem: It meant that passengers -- especially those near the stern, where most of them had been trapped by the fire -- could not jump from the ship, because they would be sucked into the propellors (Hicks, p. 113). And by the time Warms ordered the engines stopped, it was almost impossible -- the ventilation system sucked smoke, not clean air, into the engine room, making it almost impossible to manage the controls (Gallager, pp. 112-113).
There is conflict about what happened on the bridge in the next ten minutes (one officer claimed to have slugged Warms to get him to do what needed to be done), but at about 3:20, the ship let down her anchor and stopped. Then came the order to abandon ship; Burton, p. 41.
Warms still hadn't ordered a distress call sent. The radio operators tried to keep the airwaves clear, but the window for sending a distress signal was only three minutes long -- and it passed before Warms did anything (Burton, pp. 42-43). George White Rogers, the senior radioman, finally started to call for help on his own initiative (Paine, p. 346). The ship was already in bad enough shape that he had to use the emergency backup transmitter power (Hendrickson, p. 293). As it turned out, he signalled just in time, because all power went out a few minutes later.
The actual distress call (as opposed to a signal to stand by) went out at 3:23 a.m. (Burton, p. 45), and already the power was so low, or the operators so overheated, or the fire producing enough static, or something, that the ships listening could not entirely comprehend it. They receiver had already permanently failed by then; Rogers -- who had done an emergency fix to keep the transmitter working -- was sending without being able to hear any responses (Gallagher, p. 133). The last signal went out at 3:24.
The heat of the fire made things even worse. Even for those far from the fire, the deck was uncomfortably hot, because it was planking over steel, and the steel conducted heat. And, as the planking heated, the chemicals applied to it began to change state, making the deck sticky and releasing noxious fumes (Gallagher, p. 101).
The crew, meanwhile, was abandoning ship without the passengers; the first boats to go off had almost no passengers aboard -- Paine, p. 346, reports that only six of the first 98 people to reach land were passengers! The #1 lifeboat, even though it carried the chief engineer (the senior person aboard other than Warms) was only half full, and of those 31 people, all but three were crew members (Burton, p. 81). Not every boat was lowered (some caught fire, some were hard to reach because of the fire, and it appears that one had been so heavily whitewashed that the tackle no longer worked; Hicks, p. 115), but the six that were lowered had a capacity of 408 people -- but they carried only 85, and most of those 85 were crew! (Burton, p. 82). One of the passengers bitterly remarked, "Officers and stewards were simply splendid, but ordinary seamen went over the side at the first opportunity" (Gallager, p. 157).
The worst of it is, given the heavy storm, most of the boats could not be maneuvered because there were too few aboard to row or handle them in the bad weather! (Hicks, p. 120). Had the ship been far from help, or had the SOS not been sent, those crew members who abandoned ship hastily would have died as a result of their lack of discipline. Indeed, some of the lifeboats from the rescue ships got in trouble due to the extreme conditions (Hicks, p. 148, who notes on p. 150 that one boat from The City of Savannah could not even return to her ship and had to be rescued herself). Indeed, the storm was so bad that at 2:30 the following afternoon (i.e. about eleven hours after the distress call went out), the Coast Guard was forced to call off search-and-rescue operations (Hicks, p. 156).
It should have been possible to save everyone except the few who were direct victims of the fire; the lifeboats alone could have carried 816 (Gallagher, p. 159), which is hundreds more than there were people aboard, and there were also life preservers and other equipment; counting them all, Gallagher, p. 160, reports that there was life-saving equipment for 1900, which was more than three times the number of people aboard. The problem was that it was misused, or not used at all. At least some people died, for instance, because the life jackets (of hard cork) knocked them unconscious as they went into the water, causing them to drown (Hicks, p. 150).
Part of the problem was inexperience. Gallagher, p. 161, reports that ordinary seamen were paid $35 per month by the Ward Line, and able seamen $50 per month; even executive officer Warms made only $180 per month, so it didn't get good crews. Worse, because no one particularly wanted to work for them, they often recruited crew at the very last moment, so the crews were not very good and not very experienced (Hicks, pp. 24-33).
Although the crew had roused some passengers when the fire broke out, those who fled to the stern never received word to abandon ship, and were cut off from the lifeboats; they had little choice but to go into the sea, and it was non-line officers such as the purser and the cruise director who decided when the passengers should go over the side (Hicks, p. 131).
Burton, p. 84, thinks that ships in the area were slow to respond (in particular, the Coast Guard was hampered because a transmitter was temporarily down; Burton, p. 86), but several eventually turned up and, once they arrived, did very good work, taking off hundreds of survivors (Paine, p. 346). Still, 133 of 435 people aboard died (Ritchie, p. 136). To add to the controversy, 29 percent of the passengers died (86 of 318), but only 18 percent of the crew (49 of 231; Burton, p. 5). I would guess that some of the problems were caused by the gale force wind and poor visibility. Some people died simply because the spray was filling their lungs (Burton, p. 95). Others suffered severely from hypothermia (Burton, p. 101); the water in the area is reported to have been about 70 degrees Fahrenheit -- chilly enough to cause hypothermia if one spent enough time in the water (Hicks, p. 136), although not as quickly fatal as, say, the waters when the Titanic sank.
Many small boats that would otherwise have been able to come out and perform a rescue simply could not put to sea in the storm (Gallager, p. 177).
It is perhaps ironic to note that one of the rescue ships, the Monarch of Bermuda, would itself be destroyed by fire thirteen years later (Gallagher, p. 190).
Acting Captain Warms and a handful of his officers were the last survivors off the ship. By then, they were so out of it that, when it came time to cut the ship's anchor cable, they insisted on doing it with a hacksaw blade (which took three hours) rather than letting the tow ship use a real cable cutter (Gallagher, pp. 212-213). It was a minor point, but indicative of the sort of stupidity that doomed the ship. This prevented some people from being rescued -- when the Coast Guard ship Tampa came on the scene, it didn't engage in rescue operations, because it was hanging around waiting for Warms and no one told the Tampa's captain that there were still people in the water! (Hicks, p. 150).
Gallagher, pp. 213-221, reports that this delay would destroy and chance of salvaging the ship -- she couldn't be towed while she was anchored, obviously, and by the time they cut the cable, the storm had reached such intensity that the attempt to tow her failed (the Coast Guard's Tampa could hardly pull her against the storm; shortly after 6:00 p.m., the 12 inch tow line snapped) and she drifted away, still burning (Burton, pp. 132-133; Hicks, p. 157).
Despite a fire so severe that parts of the ship's structure glowed red (Burton, p. 119) and made the whole ship appear to be afire (Burton, p. 115), the Morro Castle did not sink. Still burning, the Morro Castle grounded off Asbury Park (Burton, pp. 133-134), so close to the convention center that people in the building actually feared it might hit them (Hicks, pp. 161-162). Smoke came from the wreck for days, and small bursts of flame as the fire found new things to burn (Hicks, p. 180). Huge crowds gathered to watch the burning ship -- one estimate says 150,000 (Burton, p. 143), another claims that a quarter million visited the site -- now claimed by some as a murder scene -- in less than a week (Hicks, p. 180). Some tried to help the passengers, but many were gawkers and had to be controlled (Burton, p. 137).
The city actually made overtures to buy the wreck and use it as a tourist attraction (Hicks, p. 187), but nothing came of that.
It proved hard to get aboard the ship to investigate -- the only way to reach the deck was by ropes that had been used to let passengers off the stern; arrangements had to be made to rig a breeches buoy to carry people up and down (Hicks pp. 162-163). Just as well; the ship was still burning and very dangerous.
Although she had brought a lot of business to Asbury Park at first, eventually they wanted to be rid of her. She shifted at times, and people kept getting into trouble while visiting the wreck (Hicks, pp. 210-211). Even once the fires burned out, the ship stank -- those hides were now both untanned and burnt, plus there was all the smoke, as well as the occasional dead body (Burton, p. 165; Hicks, p. 163). The ship was finally towed away to be scrapped on March 14, 1935. The ship that had cost millions to build was sold as scrap for $33,605 (Gallagher, p. 236). In a non-trivial irony, the ship caught fire again while they were cutting her apart (Burton, p. 166).
Insurance eventually paid out more than four million dollars -- more than the estimated value of the ship. The company paid much of this to survivors and heirs, who received an average of $894 (Burton, p. 167); the total amount paid out was $890,000, which was not quite three-fourths the amount claimed (Gallagher, p. 236), which strikes me as pretty good by the standard of the time. The New York Post, however, claimed the company had made a $263,000 profit on the disaster, even after the expenses were paid (Hicks, p. 209).
The Ward Line knew it was in trouble, and reacted swiftly -- even before the Tampa reached the shore with Warms and the other officers, they managed to get a lawyer on board via one of the pilot boats, and he gave the officers instructions: Don't talk to reporters or government investigators, call it an Act of God. They were even told to stonewall the U. S. Attorney! (Hicks, pp. 166-167). But the second radio operator, George Alagna, was an activist, and he knew he was going to be out of a job, and he wouldn't put up with it (Hicks, p. 167). Indeed, the Line's attempts to browbeat him just made him more stubborn; he convinced others that they should not follow the company's official position (Hicks, p. 173). The company's mistreatment of its sailors was coming home to roost.
Naturally there were hearings after the event -- the commission headed by Dickerson Hoover (J. Edgar's brother) began the Steamboat Inspection Service inquiry just two days after the disaster (Hicks, p. 172), and there were four investigations going within a week (Hick, p. 177), with J. Edgar Hoover involved in one of them (Hicks, p. 175). A grand jury issued subpoenas, and a judge ordered the entire crew to stay in New York for a year (Hicks, p. 171). Second radio operator George Alagna, being a radical, was actually taken into custody for a time (Hicks, p. 183, although it seems to have been regarded as protective custody so that the company lawyers -- who were doing their best to control the story -- couldn't get to him). When Acting Captain Warms was called to testify, it was the first federal hearing ever broadcast on radio (Burton, p. 147). He didn't come out very well, and other witnesses -- notably Alagna -- clearly described his near-stupor. Indeed, Alagna called Warms a murderer (Hicks, p. 182).
(Later, Warms would give much better performances as a witness, helped by Ward Line lawyers; Hicks, p. 207. These were in the Coast Guard hearings, with the company apparently trying to pin everything on George Alagna. But Alagna was never asked to testify, and the hearings produced no real results; Hicks, p. 208. Alagna grew so frustrated, and found it so hard to get a job afterward, that he attempted suicide; Hicks, p. 213)
Five officers had their licences temporarily suspended (Burton, p. 161).
The story was eventually driven from the headlines by stories of an arrest in the Lindbergh kidnapping case (Hicks, p. 202).
Warms eventually faced charges of negligence, as did Chief Engineer Abbott and the company (Burton, p. 164). (Abbott had, by all accounts, been completely useless in the emergency, had left the ship early, and even claimed an injury that others could not see, according to Gallagher, p. 129. It sounds as if the stress caused him to develop delusions; certainly he did not do all he could have.) There were several charges against the officers; they largely came down to not properly organizing and preparing the crew for possible disasters (Burton, pp. 164-165). The company, it turned out, allowed a man who barely spoke English to hire its crews; inevitably the crews were not properly vetted (Burton, pp. 167-168).
Warms, who had reverted to his near-stupor in the trial (Hicks, p. 218), was sentenced to two years in prison, Abbott was given a four year term, and the company and one of its officers fined (Burton, p. 170), but a higher court overturned the sentence (Ritchie, p. 136; Burton, p. 170, notes that the famous Justice Learned Hand was one of those who voted to overturn and that the fines against the company were sustained). To give Warms what credit we can, he had at least stayed with the ship rather than abandoning it -- a fact that was actually mentioned in the court documents overturning his conviction (he "stay[ed] on the vessel until the bridge had burned from under him"; Gallagher, p. 235).
Warms was allowed to go back to sea, but a year later, he ran his new ship aground. That, finally, put an end to his sea career (Burton, p. 171), although he spent time in the navy in World War II (Hicks, p. 283).
The only good to come out of the mess was a series of stronger laws for maritime safety (Hendrickson, pp. 293-294), as well as a deeper understanding that things like wood and paint were flammable and their use had to be restricted (Burton, p. 180). The whole Ward Line, which ran the ship, and the umbrella company which owner it, did not dissolve at once, but the first steps in that direction began after the Morro Castle inquiry (Burton, p. 181).
You'll note that a lot of conspiracy theories arose about the tragedy: That the captain was poisoned, that the fire was arson. This strikes me as pretty unlikely; too many things went wrong that couldn't have been planned for. But there were genuinely suspicious signs; Thomas/Witts, p. 13, point out that a newspaper in the Asbury Park region of New Jersey had said that the area needed a shipwreck to attract tourists. Problem is, the editorial involved was fifty years old at the time of the Morro Castle fire; surely the article had been forgotten! And Thomas/Witts don't actually think this was the explanation for the disaster; they blame fears of a communist conspiracy plus arson by the psychopathic radio operator George White Rogers.
Gallagher, p. 18, also declares that "George W. Rogers was a psychopath with a criminal record going back twenty years. According to one of several subsequent psychiatric reports, all of which agreed diagnostically, he was 'a sociopathic personality; a shrewd individual who attempts to manipulate his environment.'" This statement is notably problematic; see the excursus at the end of this entry.
Nonetheless, Rogers did have a criminal past dating back to his teens (Burton, p. 174; Gallagher, pp. 249-250, catalogs the deeds, which included both theft and, as a teenager, assault, probably sexual, on a younger boy), and he had been repeatedly thrown out of school as a teenager, eventually being permanently barred from the California school system (Hicks, p. 220). None of this was discovered because they didn't do background checks back then -- and he was genuinely skilled with radio equipment. It also appears that the Navy discharged him in 1920 for malingering or bad behavior, although there was no explicit record of his misdeeds (Hicks, pp. 220-221). But it proved relatively easy for J. Edgar Hoover's agent on the case to trace multiple instances of theft -- and fire (Hicks, pp. 202-204). He even lied about his birth date (Hicks, p. 219).
After the Morro Castle disaster, Rogers ended up working for the Bayonne police department, which had recently installed two-way radios in its cars -- the first city in the country to do so, which meant of course that they needed radio technicians (Hicks, pp. 222-223). It was an officer named Vincent Doyle who had set up the system; Rogers became his assistant (Hicks, p. 224). Then, in 1938, Doyle suffered a murder attempt (Gallagher, pp. 239-240) -- people made a habit of giving Doyle odd gadgets to fix (Hicks, p. 229), and someone gave him a fish tank heater to upgrade. When he worked on it, it exploded. Strong circumstantial evidence pointed to Rogers, who might have been in line to get Doyle's job (Burton, pp. 172-174; Hicks, p. 237, says that this was the only motive police had for the crime) and who had quarreled with Doyle from the day they met after Doyle caught Rogers in a flamboyant lie (Hicks, pp. 190-191).
After Rogers got out on bail, the police had to start protecting the recuperating Doyle (whose left hand had been wrecked and his left leg crippled), since a series of incidents, each petty in itself, seemed to add up to another attack on him, or an attempt to frame someone else for the Doyle murder (Hicks, pp. 240-241). And, interestingly, one involved anonymous notes, a technique which someone had used to get Rogers the position as senior radio operator on the Morro Castle (during his trial, the prosecution had found the people who had sent those notes on Rogers's behalf; Hicks, p. 246), as well as to get Doyle to play with the gadget that nearly killed him. Rogers even tried to cheat his lawyer of most of the money friends had gathered for a legal defense fund (Hicks, pp. 244-245). Little surprise, perhaps, that said lawyer made only a perfunctory attempt to mount a defense (Hicks, p. 248).
Rogers was convicted and sentenced to prison (Gallagher, p. 251), but paroled to do military work (Burton, p. 175; Hicks, p. 253, says that many, including the president, said he should not be paroled, but New Jersey freed him anyway). In the mid-1940s, he became a foreman at an electronics factory where, after a girl turned down his advances, a water fountain was found to have been laced with a poison (Hicks, pp. 256-259).
Later, Rogers became friends with an elderly rich man, William Hummel, who lent him money for various business schemes that, somehow, never came to anything (Hicks, pp. 259-261); Hummel himself recorded that he lent Rogers $7500 by 1949, and more after that (Hicks, pp. 270-271, 273). When he prepared to move south and leave Rogers behind, Hummel and his spinster daughter ended up as murder victims -- with Rogers supposedly noticing that they were missing days before anyone else did (Hicks, p 264, although based on the account on p. 273, this was based on one man's memory of one word said by Rogers, which isn't anything I would regard as evidence. Still, Rogers seems to have liked to hasten the discovery of his crimes; he had nagged Doyle about the exploding tank heater, and this time, he blabbed about the Hummels, whose bludgeoned bodies were found in their home more than a week after; Hicks, pp. 265-266). The trial took a long time, in no small part because it was hard to find a jury, but this time, Rogers went to prison until he died in 1958 (Burton, pp. 175-176). It took the jury just half a day to convict him of first degree murder; they chose life imprisonment over the death penalty (Hicks, pp. 276-277)
It certainly sounds like the career of a man with no sense of morality.
Even during the hearings after the wreck, Rogers told tales about George Alagna, the man who had perhaps saved his life (Hicks, p. 186) -- and did so in a way that seemed to make Rogers look much better than he actually was.
On the other hand, there is no direct evidence that Rogers had anything to do with the Morro Castle fire. It can't even be shown that it was set. Every text except Burton is sure he did it, but their evidence is extraordinarily thin.
The most interesting thing is a statement that allegedly was made by Rogers himself. Rogers is recorded as having told Officer Doyle of how a fire could be set to start after a delay, hinting that he knew what caused the Morro Castle fire (Gallagher, pp. 238-239). Obviously a criminal might wish to boast of his acts -- but then, too, a man who had been in a traumatic fire might wish to talk about how it happened! *If* the fire was set, Rogers is the obvious criminal on the crew, but was it set?
Doyle supposedly once asked Rogers "Why did you do it?" and Rogers replied, "The Ward Line stinks and the skipper was lousy" (Hicks, p. 228). But this is the only statement Rogers ever made about it, and it was heard only by Doyle, who had a grudge and who of course was human and might have remembered incorrectly, especially since he only reported it after the murder attempt on him -- long after Rogers made the statement, *if* he made the statement.
It should be noted that the official conclusion was that the cause of the fire was not, and could not be, known (Hicks, p. 285. Hicks, p. 286, seems convinced Rogers did it but admits that "There's no guarantee he could have been convicted." He also seems to think that Rogers arranged the death of Captain Wilmott, noting on p. 288 that Rogers used poison on other occasions but admitting that he would have had a hard time getting access to Wilmott's meal.)
Burton, p. 177, says unequivocally (and clearly correctly) "Did [Rogers] start the fire? The only verdict has to be the Scotch verdict, "Not proven."
Robert Smith, the cruise director on the final trip, had a spooky story of his own: Captain Wilmott, what had spent the last 26 years of his life on the Ward Line, supposedly was once asked what he would do if he ever had to leave the Morro Castle. He replied, "In that case, I'll take her with me" (Burton, p. 11). He can't have planned it, but that's how it turned out.
EXCURSUS: "Psychopathic personality disorder." Gallagher calls George W. Rogers a psychopath, and Hicks, p. 249, says that Charles E. Clark, of the New Jersey State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, examined Rogers after his conviction in the Doyle case and declared that he had a psychopathic personality.
Unfortunately for this diagnosis, prior to the 1970s, when the American Psychiatric Association published the third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, there was no such thing as a psychiatric diagnosis. I'm serious. Prior to that, psychiatric terms had no definitions, so any psychiatrist could use any designation he liked. So Clark's diagnosis means nothing.
Furthermore, neither "psychopathy" nor "sociopathy" is a recognized psychiatric diagnosis -- the only diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual is antisocial personality disorder. So Clark's diagnosis, and Gallagher's citation of it, is meaningless (not necessarily wrong, but meaningless).
And Clark's evaluation was very likely done according to psychodynamic principles. And Robert Hare, who is the best-known psychopathy researcher in the world and who tried for decades to get psychopathy into the DSM, declares, "Although many books and hundreds of articles on the psychodynamics of psychopathy have been written over the past fifty years, in my opinion they have not greatly advanced our understanding for the disorder. To a large extent, this is because most psychodynamic accounts of psychopathy have an armchair, often circular, quality about them" (Hare, p. xii).
This must be stressed. Clark's evaluation has *no* evidentiary value, because he gave a diagnosis which had no meaning and was likely conducted according to principles which cannot produce meaning.
That being said, it must be conceded that Rogers does appear to fit the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder. According to the current (fifth edition) of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, to be diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder, one must be at least eighteen years old (Rogers was), one must have shown signs of the problem by age fifteen (which Rogers had, as evidenced by his history of school expulsions), the behaviors must not be the result of schizophrenia or bipolar illness (Rogers showed no signs of either), and one must meet at least three criteria out of seven. It appears to me that Rogers met these:
(1) failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are ground for arrest. Although not every instance is proved, there are repeated hints of robbery, at least the one accusation of homosexual rape, two different attempts at murder, multiple intimidation campaigns, and hints of several arsons. Some of these may not be valid. But the list is long enough that it seems nearly sure that Rogers meets this criterion.
(2) deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure. Demonstrated, at minimum, by his use of anonymous letters.
(5) reckless disregard for safety of self or others. Demonstrated, at minimum, by his attempt on the life of Doyle.
(6) consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations. As an example, there is his cheating of his lawyer.
(7) lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another. He displayed this constantly.
Hence it seems reasonable to conclude that Rogers had antisocial personality disorder. And we note that criterion (5) includes reckless disregard for one's own safety. A person with ASPD is just the sort to start a fire on a ship that he was himself aboard.
Which is not, however, proof that he did it. Or even evidence that he did it.
We know that Rogers was guilty of theft, and probably of arson as well. Formally, a person who has antisocial personality disorder cannot be diagnosed with either kleptomania or pyromania. Rogers clearly does not fit the diagnosis of kleptomania anyway. He comes closer to pyromania -- clearly he was fascinated with fire-starting devices, and there are signs that he meets some of the other criteria -- but the evidence still available to us does not allow a clear diagnosis on this point.
In addition to this song, the Morrow Castle disaster had one other musical legacy. The tragedy took place just before the premiere of the musical "Anything Goes," and the musical as originally conceived involved a shipwreck. Rather than remind audiences of the disaster, the shipwreck motif was eliminated (Laufe, p. 34). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: CAFS1133

Moses

DESCRIPTION: Leader lines out "Moses, Moses, don't let King Pharaoh overtake you." "I hear the chariot coming (horses running, Jordan rolling)." "Jordan, Jordan, let those children over." All repeat the line twice and end "In some lonesome graveyard"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (LomaxCD1712)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
John Davis and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Moses" (on LomaxCD1712)
NOTES [108 words]: The tag line, "In some lonesome graveyard," is also in "Oh, Lord, How Long," a different hymn. - BS
This song seems to conflate two instances of the Israelites crossing dryshod over a place that is usually water: Exodus 14, where Moses leads the Israelites across the Red Sea/Sea of Reeds as Pharaoh pursues, and Joshua 3, where Joshua, not Moses (who is by then dead) leads the Israelites over the Jordan. In the latter case, there are no pursuers to be avoided; the Israelites have already slaughtered the peoples of Kings Og and Sihon, and are crossing the Jordan for the purpose of massacring the people of Jericho and the rest of Canaan. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcJDMose

Moses Andrew Jackson

DESCRIPTION: "I's a-weary of my troubles and I'se tired of my woes... I tried my best to please you, but it really seems no use." "Good-by, you good-for-nothing Andy, Good-bye, you're gonna lose your Mandy." The girl consults a fortune-teller who tells her to get ou
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (collected from Marion Taylor Page by Boswell)
KEYWORDS: separation humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 60, pp. 99-100, "Moses Andrew Jackson" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BoWo060

Moses Donohoe

DESCRIPTION: "The news from Rome ... our Pope he was in danger." April 29, 1869 Irish volunteers leave Dublin on the Avatuskey. They are rammed in a gale on May 10 and sink, deserted by the crew. Moses Donohue of Killincooley is among those drowned.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck soldier war
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 123-124, "Moses Donohoe" (1 text)
Roud #20537
NOTES [231 words]: Did some ship, possibly named Avatuskey -- or some more Polish name -- sail on April 29, 1869 to sink following a collision on May 10, 1869?
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast says "I have not been able to check up the correctness of the name 'Avatuskey,' nor have I been able to verify the statement that Irish volunteers went to the defence of the Papal States in 1869." Rome was all that was left of the Papal States in 1869 and it fell to Italy in "The Battle of Porta Pia" on September 20, 1870. Newspapers in Galway and London for the dates may reveal the facts. - BS
We might note that the Papal States were annexed rather than directly conquered by Italy; Porta Pia was more demonstration than battle. Of course, if the Papacy had had an Irish regiment at hand, who knows what it might have tried?
Barbara Lee, of Crosby, Liverpool, writes with a likely explanation:
"[The ship] could perhaps have been the General Abatucci, a packet steamer sailing between Marseilles and Civitavecchia, whose sinking was reported in the Times of London on 13th May 1869. THE TIMES - 13 May 1869:
''Intelligence has been received of the loss of the steam packet General Abbatucci. A French Intendant General, the Pontifical Consul at Marseilles, 16 French soldiers and 15 Papal recruits, on their way to Civitavecchia, have perished... '
"Moses was my great grandfather's first cousin." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran123

Moses in the Bulrushes

See Little Moses (File: R662)

Moses of the Mail

DESCRIPTION: "It was a dark and stormy night, The snow was falling fast, I stood on Thorpbridge Junction Where the reckless Moses passed." Although there is no description of a wreck, the song ends with the dying words of Moses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads)
KEYWORDS: train death storm
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, pp. 8-9, "Moses of the Mail" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, p. 49, "Moses of the Mail" (1 short text)
NOTES [61 words]: Although the text in MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads is described as composite, it doesn't make much sense: It is never made clear if there was a serious accident, or if engineer Moses retired after a minor injury, or if the whole thing is just a talltale. The song is said to refer to an actual engineer, Henry "Moses" Poyser, who worked in the 1880s. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: MacCS08

Moses Paul

DESCRIPTION: "My kindred Indians, pray attend and hear... This day I warn you of that cursed sin That poor despised Indians wallow in." The preacher warns Indians against drink, which led Moses Paul to murder; he bids them turn to Christ
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: drink homicide Indians(Am.) religious
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1772 - Execution of Moses Paul, an Indian, for the murder of Moses Cook.
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 152-153, "(Moses Paul)" (1 excerpted text)
NOTES [50 words]: Supposed to be based on the words of one Reverend Samson Occom, himself an Indian, who gave the funeral sermon for Moses Paul. Occom correctly noted the poverty in which the Indians lived, and noted the effects of drink -- but rather ruined the effect, I would say, by blaming these faults on Sin. - RBW
File: Burt152

Moses Ritoora-li-ay

DESCRIPTION: A policeman sees a man peddling in the street and hauls him in. A trial ensues in which the court tries to find out if Moses Ri-too-ral-i-ay is Irish. He turns out to be a Jew related to the judge. Moses is released, and the unhappy policeman fired
AUTHOR: attributed to Brian O'Higgins (1882-1963?) but see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recording, Margaret Barry)
KEYWORDS: police Jew humorous trial punishment
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, MOSESRIT*
Roud #5197
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "Moses Ritoora-li-ay" (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "The Sergeant's Lamentation" (theme)
NOTES [374 words]: In the period around the Easter Rising, it was a crime in Ireland to preach rebellion. Apparently many revolutionaries got around this by preaching in Irish (though this raised the possibility that the listeners couldn't understand them!). The police, who were often English and almost always anglophone, were told to learn Irish to try to figure out what was going on.
This didn't work out all that well. (Gee, where have we heard that story before? The Habsburg Empire? Iraq?) The amused Irish created songs like this to celebrate the problem.
Brian O'Higgin wrote a song about this topic, according to Frank Harte. But Harte believes the song on this topic is "The Limb of the Law," found in Songs of Dublin, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 36-37. Could he have written two such songs?
Kee, p. 28, cites a Sinn Fein speech from 1918 claiming that "there were by then five hundred people in Ireland imprisoned under the Defence of the Realm Regulations on charges ranging from singing a song written seventy years before to presenting their names in Irish when accosted by a policeman." Unfortunately, he does not cite a precise source.
Then there is the mention, in the Clancy version, of "Briscoe." The DT notes mention Briscoe as Mayor of London. Which is true, but.... Boylan, p. 34, gives a capsule biography of Robert Briscoe (1894-1969) -- born in Dublin, but the son of an Orthodox Jew of Lithuanian ancestry. He left Ireland to avoid World War I, but returned in 1916 to support Irish independence. A hard-liner, he opposed the Free State and the Treaty with Britain after the war, and was a founder of Fianna Fáil. He was chosen Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1956 and 1960.
Thus Briscoe cannot have been mentioned in the original version, which doesn't much resemble the Clancy version. The bottom line on the origin appears to be that O'Higgins wrote the original of this song, but it drifted somewhat, then was modified (deliberately? perhaps by the Clancys?) to mention Briscoe. This quite possibly while O'Higgins was still alive (For some reason, although all sources seem to agree that O'Higgins was born in 1882, I've seen three different death dates: 1949, 1963, and 1966. Wikipedia says 1963). One wonders what he thought. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: DTmosesr

Moses Supposes His Toeses Are Roses

DESCRIPTION: Tongue-twiser verse. "Moses supposes his toeses are roses, But Moses supposes erroneously. For he knowses his toeses aren't roses (or "For nobody's toeses are posies of roses") As Moses supposes his toeses to be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes)
KEYWORDS: wordplay | Moses toes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 146, "Moses supposes his toesies are roses" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #754, p. 283, "(Moses supposes his toeses are roses)"
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #45, "(Moses supposes his toeses are roses)" (1 text)
Roud #19253
NOTES [24 words]: One of the rare children's rhymes I learned myself, in Minnesota, probably some time around 1970. The version I learned was not sung, however. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DCCR146

Moses Supposes His Toesies Are Roses

See Moses Supposes His Toeses Are Roses (File: DCCR146)

Moses, Don't Get Lost

See Pharaoh's Host Got Lost (File: RcPhHoGL)

Mosey, Mare

See Mossie and His Mare (File: FVS39)

Moss o Burreldale, The

DESCRIPTION: Description of a rowdy gathering of Travellers at the market of Burreldale. A piper's bag bursts, and he's launched into the air; another man plans to fight but his Annie knocks him over, etc. (Some versions describe the participants and their trades)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (collected from Jimmy McBeath)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Description of a rowdy gathering of Travellers at the market of Burreldale. A piper's bag bursts, and he's launched into the air; another man plans to fight but his Annie knocks him over then challenges him to fight some more; a showoff horseman is thrown (I think). Another man challenges a Catholic to fight. Eventually all leave, but vow they will always remember the fracas. (Some versions describe the participants and their trades)
KEYWORDS: bragging fight commerce drink music party moniker worker Gypsy migrant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 351, "The Moss o' Burreldale" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 127, "The Moss o' Burreldale" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #1876
File: K351

Moss of Balloch Fair

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets Mary Ann at the fair. He takes her to see the show and buys candy. He takes her home that night; "the auld folks" consent. The next day they marry at the fair. In twelve months they have twins and plan to open a baby show at the fair.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage food children father mother twins
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 885, "Moss of Balloch Fair" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5144
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh Dinna Quarrel the Bairnies" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Peter Fair
NOTES [13 words]: The fair is either Peter Fair in Raffin or Moss of Balloch Fair at Ben Lomond. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD4885

Mossback, The

See The Farmer and the Shanty Boy (File: Wa033)

Mossgrove

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Mossie and His Mare

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Mossie was a cunning man, A little mare did buy; For winking and for jinking There was few could come her nigh." After telling how Mossie captures her, various folks are warned against bad behavior; they will be punished "as Mossie catch'd his mare."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 22(179))
KEYWORDS: horse humorous warning Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 39-42, "Mossie and His Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 143, "Mosey, Mare" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast 171, p. 1, "Mossie and His Meer" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 677, "Mossie and His Meer" (2 fragments, 3 tunes)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #234, p. 152, "(Moss was a little man, and a little mare did buy)"
Roud #6104
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 22(179), "Moss and his Mare" ("Moss was a cunning man a little mare did buy"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812
NOTES [87 words]: The keyword "Jacobite" may be strange for this song, but Ford's text, after warning "gilpy lasses," "crafty ale wives," "lousy tailors," and "pettyfoggers," turns its attention to "A' ye Whigs about the land, Wha deny our lawfu' King." - RBW
There is no reference to Jacobite politics in broadside Bodleian Harding B 22(179), the earliest text I have seen. Ford's second notion, "that [it] was rejuvenated in the first half of the last century," may explain "the Jacobitish dirl that occurs in the concluding stanza." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: FVS39

Mossie and His Meer

See Mossie and His Mare (File: FVS39)

Most Done Ling'rin' Here

See notes under Run, Nigger, Run (File: R264)

Most Done Suffering

See Rough, Rocky Road (Most Done Suffering) (File: Br3632)

Most Done Trabelling

See Rough, Rocky Road (Most Done Suffering) (File: Br3632)

Most Done Traveling

See Rough, Rocky Road (Most Done Suffering) (File: Br3632)

Most Tragical Account of Woman's Murdering a Peddler, And Then Burning to Death Her Own Child, A

DESCRIPTION: "People and Friends of every name, Attend to what I write." A peddlar asks lodging with a farmer. The hosts search his pack; the wife kills him so they can sell his effects. Her daughter talks about her new clothes; the mother burns the child
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: homicide husband wife children begging clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 433-435, "A Most Tragical Account of Woman's Murdering a Peddler, And Then Burning to Death Her Own Child" (1 text)
Roud #V46538
NOTES [6 words]: We need a keyword "over-wrought." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: TNY433

Most Unconstant of Young Men, The

See Two Lovers Discoursing [Laws O22] (File: LO22)

Moth and the Flame, The

DESCRIPTION: Two old sweethearts meet. He says he still loves her; she says she is to be married to another. He tells the fable of the Moth and the Flame to reveal her lover is already married. At the wedding, the fiance kills his wife. The girl turns to her old love
AUTHOR: Words: George Taggart/Music: Max S. Witt
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (sheet music by Jos. W. Stern & Co.)
KEYWORDS: love separation homicide wedding adultery
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 818, "The Moth and the Flame" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 156-158, "The Moth and the Flame" (1 text, 1 tune)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 155-160, "The Moth and the Flame" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 199-202, "The Moth and the Flame" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1899 sheet music)
Roud #7433
NOTES [34 words]: Should be an opera. - PJS
It comes close. It's based loosely on an 1898 play by Clyde Fitch with the same title. Taggart wrote the words after seeing the play, then sought someone to write the music. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: R818

Mother Brown Went to Town

See I Went Downtown (File: McIn103A)

Mother Bunch

DESCRIPTION: Bessie's daughter would marry Andrew Carr. Mother objects. Maggie Spreul married Roger because she was pregnant; Andrew has had daughter's maidenhead. Daughter says, mother had done the same when she was young. Mother must agree and the couple marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting marriage sex pregnancy dialog mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 28, "Mother Bunch" (1 text)
Roud #3872
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sprightly Young Damsel" (theme: daughter, wanting to marry, reminds mother of her own indiscretions)
cf. "Between the Meadow and the Moss" (theme: daughter, wanting sex, reminds mother of her own indiscretions)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Andrew Carr
NOTES [179 words]: Mother Bunch objects to the marriage only because "scarce there's ane of the twa has a sark to put on your back." Unspoken is the threat that daughter may already be pregnant but does not yet show it, as Maggie Spreul had. Besides, says daughter, "when ye were young and braw Ye likit the lads yoursel As weel as ony ane o us aw."
The stories of Mother Bunch of Bonny Venture are reprinted by George Laurence Gomme from "the copy in the Pepsyian Library at Cambridge, dated 1685," "... a story of an old woman who lived in the west county, who took delight in studying how she might know what a sweetheart she might have, for at that time she thought she had tarried very long; she being full twenty years of age .... finding some [Grandmother strategies] to be true she took upon her to teach other maidens ...." The stories are always of a maiden meeting Mother Bunch and being instructed how to find a man (see George Laurence Gomme, editor, Mother Bunch's Closet Newly Broke Open, and the History of Mother Bunch of the West (London, 1885) ("Digitized by Microsoft")). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr128

Mother Carey's

DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. "The brave west wind it filled our top-s'ls and bore us out-ward bound... for Frisco Town.... Sheet it home- that big main top-s'l, sheet it home- boys, good and true, For we're bound to Mother Carey's, where she feeds her chicks at sea."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. "The brave west wind it filled our top-s'ls and bore us out-ward bound, out-ward bound across the Western, out-ward bound for Frisco Town. Chorus: Sheet it home- that big main top-s'l, sheet it home- boys, good and true, For we're bound to Mother Carey's, where she feeds her chicks at sea."
KEYWORDS: shanty ship travel return
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 192, "Mother Carey's" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [1119 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas: "'Mother Carey's chickens' was a sailor name for stormy petrels, seabirds found flying close to the crests of the great seas of the high latitudes." - SL
The origin and use of this name is the subject of some dispute. Numerous sources agree that Mother Carey's chickens are stormy petrels. Kemp, p. 561, refers the name particularly to Procellaria pelagica On the other hand, Hendrickson, p. 58, notes that there are several species of stormy petrels, and identifies Mother Carey's chickens in particular with Hydrobates pelagicius (the European Storm Petrel; hydrobatidae is the family name for the petrels, most of which belong to other genuses). Ditto Young, p. 46, entry "Carey's Chickens," which refers it to "one of two species of small petrels: the storm petrel [Procellaria pelagica] and Leach's storm petrel [Oceanodroma leucorhoa]."
Neither of the latter pair give a source for the name. It appears to go back at least to 1834, however, when author Harriet Martineau saw them on an Atlantic voyage (Fox, p. 12). I suspect that its use in Newfoundland English makes it a good deal older than that; StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 85, give a vague citation that perhaps goes back to 1767, and mention a "North Carey Island" apparently so named because careys (a short name for petrels) were common there.
Kemp p. 561, reports that the name "Petrel" is derived from Italian Petrello, a diminutive for Peter; supposedly petrels are "St. Peter's birds, because Peter followed Jesus's command to walk on water" (Binney, p. 158).
These birds, according to folklore, foretold approaching storms (Fox, p. 213). This is not as crazy as it sounds; birds, for obvious reasons, are acutely aware of atmospheric conditions, such as barometric pressure, and simple observation shows that they know when storms are coming -- anyone with a birdfeeder can see them stoking up before a storm hits. Presumably the petrels do the same at sea.
Benet, in the article on mothers, adds that Mother Carey's goose is "the great black petrel or fulmar of the pacific." (Interestingly, Brewer/Evans, p. 759, article on "Mother Carey's Chickens," has these definitions almost verbatim. I don't know who stole from whom, though.)
Benet and Brewer/Evens agree that the phrase "Mother Carey is plucking her goose" means that it is snowing.
Partridge dates the use of Mother Carey's Chickens as a name for snowflakes to 1861, citing Hotten's slang dictionary. This usage is also supported by Simpson/Roud. Partridge also cites a usage, "faring alike and paying the same, ca. 1820-1850," and lastly notes that Bowen's Sea Slang applies the phrase to "a small gun."
Opie/Tatem, p. 1878, quote A. MacGregor, Brahan Seer, p. 31, "Superstitions of Highlanders": "Sailors... greatly dread the stormy petrel, or Mother Carey's Chickens, as they flutter at night around their masts and yards. The birds are regarded as objects of superstitions fear, believing that they are possessed of supernatural agency in creating danger for the... mariner."
But who is Mother Carey? Walker states that the name is an "English sailor's version of Mater Cara, 'Beloved Mother' [or 'Dear Mother'], the Latin Sea-goddess." She notes that the French call the petrels the "Birds of Our Lady." Similarly, Benet notes that the French call them "oiseaux de Notre Dame" or "aves Sanctae Mariae."
Walker's equivalence, although quoted also by Kemp, appears to be wrong, I checked four classical dictionaries, and not one mentions "Mater Cara" as a Latin goddess. There is a "[Mater] Matuta," identified in Zimmerman as a "goddess of sea travel," or perhaps of harbors, but Lucretius (De Rerum Natura, B. 656) credits Matuta with bringing the dawn; she is also associated with childbirth. In any case, it's obviously a different name.
Of course, Mater Cara as a name for the Virgin Mary -- frequently addressed as the Mother of God in Catholic tradition, and often invoked as an intercessor -- is quite common, and Binney, p. 158, declares that petrels "are also called 'Mother Carey's Chickens,,' supposedly from the words 'Mater cara,' or 'Dear mother,' uttered by sailors when storms strike." But would nineteenth century English sailors be addressing Mary for help? (Indeed, if we're trying Latin for a goddess of sailors, how about "Mater Carina," which can mean "Mother of hulls/keels." I don't believe it, though.)
The REAL problem with the Mother Carey=Mater Cara equivalence is noted by Simpson/Roud: It has no support. We nowhere find references to Mother Carey without her birds.
If we're looking for an equivalent of Mother Carey that might be known to sailors, we might also mention "Matrika," which is the Hindu name for a "Divine Mother"; there were said to be seven of them (Knappert, pp. 168-169). As a Hindu religious figure, the "Matrika" might well be treated as something of an alien power. There is no link to birds, however, so this too is pretty far-fetched.
Simpson/Roud speculate that Mother Carey is the Old Woman of the Storms -- the hag who brings foul weather (sometimes illustrated as stirring the clouds or the sea with a very long finger; George MacDonald in The Princess and Curdie, Chapter V, calls her "Old Mother Wotherwop," but I don't know if this name is traditional or out of his head). The link strikes me as quite reasonable but beyond proof.
There is one other interesting note about that, though: It sounds as if Morgan le Fay, of King Arthur fame, also played a role as the Old Woman of the Storms -- and in this role may be connected with the Celtic goddesses Matrona and Modron (GawainStone, pp. 138-139) -- which is reminiscent of Mater. So we can build a nice mythological circle; we just can't tie it to Mother Carey or chickens.
The "chickens" phrase is certainly famous, however. Kate Douglas Wiggin (1856-1923), best known for writing Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, also wrote a book called Mother Carey's Chickens, which was made into a movie in 1938. As best I can tell from reading excerpts, though, it's just a book about chickens.
H. D. Traill in 1910 published a mock-ballad with the words
"I'm writing a ballad, be still if you can,
Little brother."
(O Mother Carey, Mother!
What chickens are these between sea and heaven?)
(Friedman, p. 323)
Rogers/Rogers, p. 93, claim that J. R. R. Tolkien, somewhere in his works, explained Mother Carey, but give no explanation for why they say so. My guess is that they are thinking of Elwing's transformation into a bird at the end of the first age, and her coming to Earendil bearing the silmaril. But that is only a guess. In any case, Tolkien was offering at most a retrospective explanation for an existing phrase. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Hugi192

Mother Dear, Goodbye

DESCRIPTION: "I'll not be long with you, mother, I soon must say goodbye, But, mother, we shall meet again, In God's bright home on high." The singer rejoices that she(?) will join sister in heaven, and taste the joys there; she promises to pray for mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: death mother children
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 177, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, p. 182)
NOTES [40 words]: Thomas reports this to have been composed by Anna Messer on her deathbed, and that it was still being sung in 1936, 63 years after Messer's reported death. It's insipid enough to come from a dying girl -- but much too cutesy, I think. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa177

Mother Jones (I)

See The Death of Mother Jones (File: Grnw154)

Mother Leary's Cow

DESCRIPTION: "Late last night, when we were all in bed., Mrs. O'Leary put a Lantern in the shed and when the cow Kicked it over, She blinked her Eyes and said "It'll be a hot time in the old town tonight. Fire Fire Fire, Pour on Water... Save my Children.... Jump..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: death fire campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #91, p. 26, "Mother Leary's Cow" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 110, 285, 389, 415, 444, 519, "Mrs. O'Leary"/"Mother Leary's Cow"/"Old Lady Leary"/"Old Lady Murphy"/"Old Mrs. Leary" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There'll Be a Hot Time (In the Old Town Tonight)" (tune)
cf. "Scotland's Burning" (lyrics)
cf. "London's Burning" (lyrics)
cf. "One O'Leary's Cow" (lyrics)
NOTES [115 words]: On p. 415, Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs refers to a song "Old Lady Murphy." There may be a camp somewhere that has a song by that name, but diligent searching shows that there is no well-known camp song with that title -- and Averill claims there are 31 versions of the thing.
It so happens that Averill has 31 versions of this song. It seems pretty clear that "Old Lady Murphy" is a mistake for "Old Lady Leary," which was the name Averill used for the song elsewhere on p. 415 (though she used multiple other names on other pages).
There was a song from the 1870s, "One O'Leary's Cow" (Dime-Song-Book #31, p. 61). It's the same subject but, despite the similar title, not the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ACSF110M

Mother Malone

DESCRIPTION: The singer ridicules men out courting who are afraid to go into the house. He swaggered in, kissed Mother Malone, hugged the old man, gave one brother a dollar and shook the other's hand; "then I'd walk out with me girl Mary Ann." Now they are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage humorous nonballad brother father mother
FOUND IN:
Roud #24278
RECORDINGS:
The McNulty Family, "Mother Malone" (on IRMcNulty-Night1)
NOTES [46 words]: According to Ethnic Music on Records: a Discography of Ethnic Recordings Produced in the United States, 1893 to 1942 by Richard K Spottswood (Urbana, c1990), Vol. 5, p. 2819, The McNulty Family, "Mother Malone" on 78 Decca 12195 is apparently another recording of this song. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcMoMalo

Mother McLaughlin's Party

See Mrs. McLaughlin's Party (File: OCon061)

Mother Phoebe

See The Juniper Tree (File: R540)

Mother Says I Mustn't

DESCRIPTION: "I fell in love with a pretty girl"; when he asks for a kiss, she says, "Oh, mother says I mustn't (x2), Oh, George, please George, not just yet awhile." Pushed to improve his circumstances, he finally has enough that they agree to marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Dime-Song-Book #32)
KEYWORDS: love courting mother rejection money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dime-Song-Book #32, p. 32-33, "Mother Says I Mustn't" (1 text)
Roud #21505
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.26(245), "Mother Says I Must'nt" (sic.), T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899; also Firth c.20(189)=Harding B 20(112), "Mother Says I Mustn't," H Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Harding B 11(2494), "Mother Says I Must'nt" (sic.), unknown, n.d.
File: DSB32032

Mother Sent Me to the Store (I)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Mother sent me to the store, She told me not to stay. I fell in love with a blue-eyed boy And I couldn't get away. How many kisses did I get? Ten, twenty...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Musick, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: mother commerce jumprope
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #358, "Mother sent me to the store" (1 text)
File: AJRR358

Mother Sent Me to the Store (II)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Mother sent me to the store, This is what she sent me for, (To get some) coffee, tea, and pepper" (or "salt, vinegar, mustard and pepper," etc.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Folkways 7029, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food
FOUND IN: US(MW,So,SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #359, "Mother sent me to the store" (1 text)
File: AJRR359

Mother Shipman's Prophecy

See Mother Shipton's Prophecy (File: Pet077)

Mother Shipton's Prophecy

DESCRIPTION: "Carriages without horses shall go, And accidents fill the world with woe, Men in the air shall be seen In blue and black and white and green.... Under the water men shall walk... The world to an end shall come In eighteen hundred eighty-one."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin), but see the NOTES
KEYWORDS: prophecy technology nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 77, "Mother Shipman's Prophecy" (1 text)
Roud #9077
NOTES [528 words]: Although the text in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin (which has no tune -- an indication that it was never a traditional song) refers to "Mother Shipman," this is unquestionably a reference to the "prophetess" known as "Mother Shipton."
The quantity of Mother Shipman material on the Internet surprised me (at least until I remembered that there is still popular demand for, e.g., astrology columns). The typical story is that she was born Ursula Southeil/Southill in about 1488, and lived until the reign of Elizabeth I. She was supposed to have lived near Knaresborough in Yorkshire. A cave where she took refuge is still pointed out; Alexander, pp. 198-199, notes that it was considered a dangerous place because high amounts of calcite in the runoff could enclose unmoving objects in stone very quickly.
But as Simpson/Roud note on p. 248, most of this information comes from a chapbook of her prophecies from 1641, nearly a century after her death; there is no reason to consider it reliable. If there are any valid references to Shipton from historical sources, I haven't seen them.
BriggsAbbr, p. 299, has a slightly different version: "Most, if not all, of these stories are derived from a book published in 1684, 130 years after the reputed death of Mother Shipton, and it is uncertain how far they were the invention of the author, Richard Head." Westwood/Simpson, p. 832, note that this version makes her a child of the Devil. Briggs goes on to repeat a story of magic and witchcraft. BriggsDict, volume A.2, p. 549, has another tale, "Mother Shipton's House," which seems to show that even articles associated with her were considered magical.
She is reported to have prophesied the death of Cardinal Wolsey -- or at least his failure to reach York on his last trip (Westwood/Simpson, p. 832; Kellett, p. 118); this is considered the prophecy that validated her others, but the accounts of it are, of course, all after-the fact.
The version of the text found in Peters doesn't even go back to Shipton. In 1862, one Charles Hindley took an old Mother Shipton chapbook, edited it, and added some material, including the final couplet about the world ending in 1881 (an interesting number since it is symmetrical front-to-back and top-to-bottom; Westwood/Simpson, p. 833). This was taken seriously enough that there was panic in that year -- even though Hindley had admitted in 1873 to having written the account himself. A later version changed the year to 1991 (Kellett, p. 118), but that obviously didn't work out either.
Hindley had lots of company; according to Alexander, p. 199, more than fifty books of her prophecies have been published since the first one.
Although Shipton's prophecies do often seem to have come true (e.g. the big about carriages without horses), there seems to be little indication that whoever originated the verses expected them to come about as a result of technology; the various Biblical apocalypses seem a greater source of inspiration (and probably explain why Hindley saw fit to add an apocalyptic ending).
According to Kellett, p. 118, the species of insect Callistege me has the popular name "Mother Shipton's Moth." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.1
File: Pet077

Mother Was a Lady

See My Mother Was a Lady (File: LPnd217)

Mother Went Out on a Party, A

See Please Mama Stay Home With Me (File: RAInP122)

Mother, can I pick a rose? (Defiance)

DESCRIPTION: "Mother, can I pick a rose? Yes, my dearest daughter, if you don't tear your clothes... I picked a rose. I tore my clothes. Come home! I don't hear you. I'll send your (father/brother/sister) after you. I don't hear you." Etc., until the child is caught
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty flowers clothes mother father
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #123, "Defiance" (2 texts)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mother, May I Go to Swim" (question form)
File: Newe123

Mother, Dad, and Joe

DESCRIPTION: "I'd like to go back home again, To Mother, Dad, and Joe, And simply loaf around a while 'Mid scenes of long ago." Life is too busy now; the singer wishes he were with his family, old Rover, and the rag doll Joe. There, he could sleep peacefully
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: home mother father dog
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 265-266, "Mother, Dad, and Joe" (1 text)
Roud #14080
File: Shoe265

Mother, Don't You Cry

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, well I can remember now, When but a little boy, The fond caresses I received, I was my mother's joy," but he turned criminal, and "I am transported now, But, mother, don't you cry." Finally he received news of liberty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland); Anderson estimates his broadside is from c. 1840
KEYWORDS: separation mother exile transportation reprieve
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 43-44, "Mother, Don't You Cry" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 180, "Mother, Don't You Cry" (1 text, with a tune on p. 564)
Roud #V2969
File: AnFa043

Mother, He's Going Away

DESCRIPTION: Mother: Don't cry for that liar Barney; remember "how he served poor Kate Kearney." Nelly: He's going away; I dreamed of his ghost. Mother: All the better; remember you protested when he courted Jinny M'Cray last week. Nelly: He's going away ...
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868)
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 ("Barney's Courtship," according to John Franceschina, _David Braham: The American Offenbach_, Routledge, 2003, p. 84)
KEYWORDS: dialog love separation mother rake ghost
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 71, "Mother, He's Going Away" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 147, "Mother, He's Going Away" (1 text)
Roud #V8731
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(5a/b) view 2 of 8, "Mother, He's Going Away", Richard March & Co (London), 1877-1884
NOTES [48 words]: It appears that this song was printed at least once in America; see the entry in Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 99. But it does not seem to have become traditional.
It's fun, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon071

Mother, Is Massa Gwine to Sell Us?

DESCRIPTION: A child asks mother whether master will sell him/her "down in Georgia." She says yes. The child tells mother "don't grieve after me ... I'll meet you in heaven"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute); 1893 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: separation slavery dialog nonballad children mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 230, "Mother, Is Massa Gwine to Sell Us? (Massa Gwine to Sell us To-morrow)" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 86 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
Roud #15237
NOTES [50 words]: The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "Massa gwine to sell us to-morrow" on page 86 (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 86. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Dett230

Mother, Is the Battle Over?

DESCRIPTION: The boy asks, "Mother, is the battle over? Ten thousand have been slain, they say. Is my father coming? Tell me, Have the rebels gained the day?" The boy sees his mother crying, and assumes his father is dead. At last mother admits the truth
AUTHOR: Henry Werner
EARLIEST DATE: 1863
KEYWORDS: father battle death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 243, "Mother, Is the Battle Over?" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 75, "Mother, Is the Battle Over?" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1466, pp. 99-100, "Mother, Is the Battle Over?" (14 references)
DT, BTTLOVER*
Roud #5462
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Does Your Mother Know You're Out" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [58 words]: Although not especially popular in tradition, it was sufficiently well-known at the time of composition to inspire an "Answer." According to Wolf, p. 4, there were at least five different prints of "Answer to Mother I the Battle Over?" This four-verse piece began "Yes, my boy, the battle's over," and one print credits it to James Wakefield. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: R243

Mother, May I Go Out to Swim

See Mother, May I Go to Swim (File: Br3325)

Mother, May I Go Out?

DESCRIPTION: "Mother, may I go out? All the boys are waiting, Just to take me out. Some will give me candy, Some will give me cake, Some will give me kisses, Behind the garden gate. I don't want any candy... But I wand (X) to kiss me Behind the garden gate."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty mother
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 101, "(Mother, may I go out)" (1 text)
File: McIn101

Mother, May I Go to Swim (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Mother, may I go out to swim? Yes, my darling daughter. Hang your clothes on a hickory limb But don't go near the water."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren); before 1870 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses clothes nonballad river
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) Canada(Ont) New Zealand
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 325, "Mother, May I Go to Swim" (1 text)
Randolph 873, "The Alphabet Song" (6 texts, 6 tunes, the "A" text has this verse)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, "(Mother, may I go out to swim?") (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 360, "Mother may I go and bathe?" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #879, p. 327, "(Mother, may I go out to swim?)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 171, "Mother, May I Go Out to Swim?" (1 text)
DT, (DRLDAUGH -- probably a composed song borrowing this stanza)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, pp. 30-31, "Jack and Gill" (a combination of "Jack and Jill," "Old Mother Hubbard," and "Mother, May I Go to Swim," with a "Never Get Drunk" chorus)
Roud #3303
RECORDINGS:
May Kennedy McCord, "The Singing Alphabet" (AFS; on LC12 -- the recording cited by Randolph)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alphabet Songs" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Mother, can I pick a rose? (Defiance)" (question form)
NOTES [229 words]: This is primarily a floating verse, but apparently exists also independently (as in Brown), so here it files. Most of the entries listed are songs borrowing the verse.
The Baring-Goulds, probably following Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 328, quote Ditchfield to the effect that this goes back to the sixth century writer Hierocles. The joke may be the same, but I strongly doubt literary dependence. Most versions mention a hickory limb, and as Dolby-OrangesAndLemons notes, hickories are American trees, not European. (In Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, it's a "gooseberry bush")
We can at least show that the verse was proverbial before 1870. The great Union general George H. Thomas once commented on the caution of fellow general George McClellan, saying that his method "was like that of the woman who 'consented to have her daughter learn to swim, but warned her not to go near the water'" (quoted in Glenn Tucker, Chickamauga: Bloody Battle in the West, Konecky & Konecky, 1961, p. 327). The form of the quote varies somewhat; Benson Bobrick, Master of War: The Life of General George H. Thomas, Simon & Schuster, 2009, p. 163, cites it as "It was like the poor woman who warned her daughter not to go near the water yet consented to have her learn to swim." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Br3325

Mother, May I Go to Swim (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Mother, may I go to swim, Yes, my darling daughter; Mind the boys don't see your (wee) legs, Keep them under the water."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: mother children | swimming legs
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 53, "(Mother, may I go to swim)" (1 text)
Roud #3303
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mother, May I Go to Swim (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [25 words]: This is obviously derived from "Mother, May I Go to Swim (I)" (or, just possibly, vice versa) -- but the gimmick is different, so I've split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PKKB053C

Mother, Mother, Can You Tell

See Oh Dear Doctor (File: OpGa032)

Mother, Mother, Have You Heard?

See Hush, Little Baby (File: SBoA164)

Mother, Mother, I Am Able

See Mabel, Mabel (File: SuSm104A)

Mother, Mother, I Am Ill

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

Mother, Mother, I Am Sick

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

Mother, Mother, I Feel Ill

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

Mother, Mother, I Feel Sick

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

Mother, Mother, Make My Bed

DESCRIPTION: A young woman, dying, sends for her true love. He hastens home, but finds her already dead. He kisses her, and dies the next day. They are buried side by side, and a rose and briar twine over their grave.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: love death dying magic lover burial
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Bronson (65), "Lady Maisry" (13 versions, of which #4, #5, #7, #8, #10, and perhaps #9 and #11 are this piece)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads (65), "Lady Maisry" (3 versions, of which #8 is this piece)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 22, "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" (2 texts, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 71, "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 32-34, "Lady Maisry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 137-139, "Laidy Maisry" (1 text, which despite the title appears closer to this than to "Lady Maisry," though it lacks the "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" verse)
ST VWL071 (Partial)
Roud #32444
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lady Maisry" [Child 65] (floating verses)
cf. "Lord Lovel" [Child 75] (floating verses)
cf. "Bonny Barbara Allen" [Child 84] (floating verses)
NOTES [244 words]: This ballad shares verses with the cross-referenced titles; it's essentially a composite of floating verses and plot elements. -PJS
The problems with this song are myriad, though enough versions exist that it must be treated as a separate piece (at least; *I* say so; Roud lumps it with "Lady Maisry"). It shares material with many ballads (MacColl & Seeger see contacts with no fewer than ten Child ballads in their version, though some of these are stretched or verses found floating in several Child ballads -- e.g. the contact with "Little Musgrave" is the stanza "The first two miles the little boy walked, and the next two miles he run," which is an element which can float easily).
The real difficulty is, every version seems fragmentary. We don't know why the young woman is dying. If the ultimate source were "Lady Maisry," she is to be executed; if "Lord Lovel," she is dying for love. But neither explanation gains any support from the extant texts, implying that the cause of death was never stated. Paul Stamler suggests the possibility of plague. I doubt we'll ever know.
It is worth noting that Bronson has thirteen tunes listed under "Lady Maisry," and that eight of them (#4-11) belong to his "C" group, and that *all* of the texts of "Mother, Mother" are in the C group, and *every* song in the C group is either "Mother Mother" or a fragment which could be either song. Thus "Mother Mother" in fact appears to have its own distinct tune group. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: VWL071

Mother, Mother, May I Go

See No, My Child (File: ZiZa109A)

Mother, Mother, Pin a Rose On Me

DESCRIPTION: "Mother, mother, mother, pin a rose on me, Two little boys are after me. One is blind and the other can't see. Mother, mother, mother, pin a rose on me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: mother courting flowers
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 120, "(Mother, mother, pin a rose on me)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #355, "Mother, mother, mother, pin a rose on me" (1 text)
Roud #11765
NOTES [16 words]: Roud appears to lump this with "Hesitation Blues." For this little fragment, I don't buy it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SaKo120D

Mother, Mother, What Is That

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Mother, mother, what is that, Hanging down that lady's back? Hush your mouth, you naughty thing, That's the lady's corset string"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Bennett, Lyrics of the Pavements, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope clothes mother | corset string
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #356, "Mother, mother, what is that" (1 text)
NOTES [44 words]: I find it odd that every collection of this appears to have come from the period after most women stopped wearing corsets. Hasn't someone come up with a new version, about bra straps or thongs or something? On the other hand, these days, no one would care.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR356

Mother, Mother, Where's the Key?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. ""Mother, mother, where's the key?" 'Go ask father.' 'Father, father, where's the key?' 'Have you washed the dishes?' 'Yes.' 'Have you swept the floor?' 'Yes.' 'Turn the key in the lock and run out to play.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (La Salle, Play Activities for Elementary Schools, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope mother father | housework key
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #357, "Mother, mother, where's the key?" (1 text)
File: AJRR357

Mother, Queen of my Heart

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls leaving home and mother and taking up gambling. One day, "I had bet all my money... I needed one card to beat them and that card was a queen." The card shows his mother; she reminds him of what is right and he gives up gambling
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (recording, Jimmie Rodgers)
KEYWORDS: cards gambling mother warning
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 258, "Mother, Queen of My Heart" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MQNHEART
Roud #9708
RECORDINGS:
Jimmie Rodgers, "Mother, the Queen of My Heart" (Victor 23721, 1932; Bluebird B-5080/Electradisk 2008/Sunrise S-3167/Montgomery Ward M-4201, 1933; Victor 20-6408 [w. the Rainbow Ranch Boys overdubbed], 1956; HMV [UK] HR10137 [w. the Rainbow Ranch Boys overdubbed], n.d.; overdubs rec. 1955)
File: DTMQHrt

Mother's Admonition, The

See As I Roved Out (I) (Tarry Trousers II) (File: LoF014)

Mother's Last Goodbye

See My Mother's Last Goodbye (File: RcMMoLaG)

Mother's Love Is a Blessing, A

DESCRIPTION: An Irish boy about to cross the Atlantic says farewell to his mother. He will teach his children that a mother's love is a blessing. Love her when she's old and grey. "You'll never miss a mother's love till she's buried beneath the clay"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: age emigration farewell home parting separation travel Ireland children mother
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #4914
RECORDINGS:
The McNulty Family, "A Mother's Love Is a Blessing" (on IRMcNulty-Night1)
Mary Powers, "A Mother's Love Is a Blessing" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [78 words]: The description follows the McNultys' recording. The Mary Powers recording has the same tune but no story. While the McNultys say "keep her while she's living," Powers concentrates on avoiding maltreatment: "do not treat her with scorn" and "do not speak hasty to her." On the other hand only Powers says that your mother "will help you through" when you are in trouble "and don't know what to do." Both agree that you'll never miss her until she's "beneath the clay." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcMLisaB

Mother's Malison, The, or Clyde's Water [Child 216]

DESCRIPTION: Willie wishes to visit his lover. His mother bids him stay, and curses him to drown in Clyde if he goes. Willie, trusting in his horse, goes anyway, but his lover's mother bids him away. Returning, he drowns in Clyde; his lover drowns as she seeks him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: river death love drowning curse horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Child 216, "The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water" (3 texts)
Bronson 216, "The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water" (14 versions+2 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 216, "The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water" (2 versions: #2, #12.1)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 268-271, "Willie and May Margaret" (1 text)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 252-253, "Willie and May Margaret" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 125-127, "Sweet William" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #60, pp. 1-2, "Clyde's Waters" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1231, "Clyde's Waters" (10 texts plus a single verse on p. 582, 11 tunes) {A=Bronson's #7, B=#2, C=#1,D=#10, E=#9, F=#8, G=#5, H=#4, I=#12, J=#13, K=#11?}
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 98, "Willie an' May Margeret" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 572-575, "The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 38-39, "The Drowned Lovers" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 90, "Clyde Water" (1 text)
DT 216, CLYDWATR*
Roud #91
RECORDINGS:
Stanley Robertson, "The Clattering of the Clyde Waters" (on Voice03)
John Strachan, "Clyde's Water (The Mother's Malison)" (on FSBBAL2) {Bronsons #12.2}
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Annan Water"
cf. "Lord Derwentwater" [Child 208] (lyrics)
cf. "Ballad of the Drover (Death of Harry Dale)" (theme)
cf. "Martha Dexter" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Drowned Lovers
Maggie's Bowers
NOTES [173 words]: A number of versions of this begin with Willie's nose bleeding. This sounds strange enough that at least one modern performer changed it to say that his heart began to bleed. But Iona Opie and Moira Tatem, editors, A Dictionary of Superstitions, 1989 (I use the 1999 Barnes & Noble edition) has several items on nosebleeds on pp. 287-288. It is noted as a sign of ill omen as early as 1180 (Nigel de Longchamps, Mirror for Fools), and there are also several mentions of a spontaneous nosebleed as a sign of affection.
In the context of this song, the nosebleed is probably either an omen of disaster or a token of Willie's fear of losing his love.
David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, pp. 300-301, seems to believe that Anna Gordon Brown, the great ballad singer, created this piece, using "The Lass of Roch Royal" [Child 76] as a model but adding a supernatural twist. Hers does seem to be the earliest version, but the popularity of the song seems to me to argue against this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C216

Motherless Child (I)

See Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child (File: LxU107)

Motherless Child (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child (I'd never been born, I'm a long ways from home, a homeless child)" (3x). "I get down on my knees and pray"(2x). "I wonder where my mother (baby, sister, preacher) has gone"(3x). "I get down on my knees...."(2x)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious baby mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 18, "Motherless Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" (theme, some words, form)
File: Bart018

Motherless Child (III)

DESCRIPTION: "As I walk from door to door, And I have no where to go, And I hear my neighbors cry, That's a motherless child." "Everybody turn me down, Motherless child." "As I walk through the streets, Yes, my knee bones, they seem weak, For I am hungry...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: orphan mother hardtimes food rejection
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 253, "Motherless Child" (1 text)
Roud #18172
File: KiWa253

Motherless Children

DESCRIPTION: "Nobody treat you like mother will when mother is dead." (Various surrogate parents are suggested, but the children "have no place to go." "Motherless children have a hard time when mother is gone.")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Recording, Blind Willie Johnson); reportedly composed 1904 (so McNeil, editor, _Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music_)
KEYWORDS: orphan mother nonballad family
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 761, "Motherless Children Sees a Hard Time" (1 text, 1 tune -- a lyric piece, but with enough common lyrics to apparently belong here)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 143-144, "(Motherless Children)" (1 text); pp. 269-270, "Motherless Children" (1 tune, partial text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 58, "Motherless Children" (1 text)
DT, MOTHRLSS*
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 527-529, "Motherless Children" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16113
RECORDINGS:
Bessemer Melody Singers, "Motherless Children" (Victor V-38606, 1930; Bluebird B-5041 [as Bessemer Melody Boys], 1933)
The Blind Pilgrim, "Motherless Children" (Anchor 380, n.d.)
Carter Family, "Motherless Children" (Victor 23641, 1932; Bluebird B-5924, 1935; Montgomery Ward M-5010, 1936; rec. 1929)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Motherless Children" (on Holcomb2, HolcombCD1)
Joe, John & Janey Hunter & Mable Hillery, "Motherless Child" (on JohnsIsland1)
Blind Willie Johnson, "Mother's Children Have a Hard Time" (Columbia 14343-D, 1928; Vocalion 03021, 1935; rec. 1927; on BWJ02)
Blind Gussie Nesbitt, "Motherless Children" (Decca 7131, 1935)
Joshua White, "Motherless Children" (Banner 32859/Melotone 12786, 1933) (Musicraft 250 [as Josh White Trio], c. 1944)
Ella Mae Wilson, Lillie B. Williams, and Richard Williams, "Motherless Children" (on USFlorida01)
NOTES [42 words]: Probably best-known from the Carter Family recording. According to W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 68, A. P. Carter learned it from Lesley Riddle, who sometimes joined him on his song-hunting trips. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BSoF761

Motherless Children Sees a Hard Time

See Motherless Children (File: BSoF761)

Motor Boat, Motor Boat, Go So Slow

DESCRIPTION: "Motor boat, motor boat, Go so slow, Motor boat, motor boat, Go so fast. Motor boat, motor boat, Step on the gas."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Southern Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, "Motor boat, motor boat" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Teri John, "A Collection of Jump Rope Rhymes," Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), p. 17, "(Motor boat, motor boat)" (1 text)
Roud #32509
File: NCF211MB

Motto for Every Man, A

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns about "Some people you've met in your life, Who never look happy or gay." But he has an answer: "'Put your shoulder to the wheel' is a motto for every man." "The weak must go to the wall," but hard work and a good home life bring success
AUTHOR: Words: Harry Clifton / Music: Charles Coote
EARLIEST DATE: before 1872 (in which year Clifton died)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 58-59, "A Motto for Every Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Peter Davison, _Songs of The British Music Hall_, Oak, 1971, pp. 26-27, "A Motto for Every Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9079
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "You Never Miss the Water till the Well Runs Dry" (theme of hard work and frugality)
NOTES [29 words]: For background on author Harry Clifton, see the notes to "The Good Ship Kangaroo."
According to Davidson, the melody of the chorus is derived from "The Corn Flower Waltz." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet058

Mottos on the Wall

See The Mottos That Are Framed Upon the Wall (File: ChMS170)

Mottos That Are Framed Upon the Wall, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a wealth of pure affection, There's a rose red speck of joy" in the memory of mother and home, where the singer remembers "mottos that were framed upon the wall." Things like "God bless our home" and "What is home without mother."
AUTHOR: Words: William Devere / Music: W. S. Mullaly (source: traditionalmusic.co.uk site)
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (copyright by Willis Woodward & Co.)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad mother | mottos
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 170-172, "The Mottos on the Wall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10874
NOTES [1 words]: Gag. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS170

Mouldering Vine, The

DESCRIPTION: "Hail! ye sighing sons of sorrow, Come learn with me your certain doom; Learn with me what's your fate tomorrow, Dead and perhaps laid in the tomb." Life should bring "to our mind the mouldering vine." People are dying; trees are dying; you are next
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1837 (William Caldwell's _Union Harmony_, according to McNeil)
KEYWORDS: death religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 120-121, "Sons of Sorrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13950
NOTES [3 words]: Cheerful guy. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: MSMF120

Mount and Go

See Hey Bonnie Laddie, Mount and Go (File: GrD71361)

Mount Holly Jail

See The Cryderville Jail (File: LxU090)

Mount Massey the Flower of Macroomwn

DESCRIPTION: The singer "must roam far away from my home And sail o'er the wide raging sea" but hopes to return to the place he grew up, to his friends "and that colleen that dearly loves me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: homesickness courting love emigration separation dancing Ireland lover
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 93, "Mount Massey the Flower of Macroomwn" (1 text)
Roud #16249
File: OCC093

Mount Vernon Cyclone

DESCRIPTION: "The gentle breeze blew soft o'er Mount Vernon's quiet homes; The Sunday schools had closed for the day, when all at once there burst that awful, dread cyclone." First the tornado hits, then fire springs out; five hundred homes are destroyed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (collected from L. L. Jones by McIntosh)
KEYWORDS: disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 20 1888 - A tornado hits Mt. Vernon, Illinois, followed by a fire caused by leaking gas. Almost the whole town is destroyed, dozens are killed, and hundreds injured or left homeless
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 449, "Mount Vernon Cyclone" (1 text)
File: CAFS449A

Mountain Dew

See Old Mountain Dew (File: BSoF736)

Mountain Dew, The

See Good Old Mountain Dew (File: LxA180)

Mountain Meadows Massacre, The [Laws B19]

DESCRIPTION: A wagon train is attacked by (Mormons disguised as) Indians. They surrender, but are slaughtered the moment they lay down their weapons. The assault is blamed on Brigham Young
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (collected from Mr. Harter of Kahlotus, Washington, according to Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle); Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest cites a broadside, "The Utah Horror," from c. 1875-1877
KEYWORDS: fight death Indians(Am.)
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 11, 1857 - The assault at Mountain Meadows. All members of the caravan except 17 small children are said to have been killed. John D. Lee, reported to have led the assault, was executed Mar 23, 1877
FOUND IN: US(NW,Ro,SW)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws B19, "The Mountain Meadows Massacre"
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #240, "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 117-120, "Mountain Meadows Massacre" (1 composite text, 1 tune, plus a loose stanza about the punishment of Lee)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 200-205, "Mountain Meadows Massacre" (1 composite text, from Burt)
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, pp. 72-73, "Mountain Meadows Massacre" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 596-597, "Mountain Meadows Massacre" (1 text plus an early broadside)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 234-235, "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2446, p. 164, "The Utah Horror! The Darkest Deed of the 19th Century, Mountain Meadow Massacre--" (1 reference)
DT 386, MTMDOW
Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 523-525, "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" (1 text)
Roud #3240
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lee's Ferry" (character of John D. Lee)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Ballad of John D. Lee
NOTES [5635 words]: The Mountain Meadows Massacre is one of those Great Mysteries of History. I've done a lot of research on what follows, but very little of what follows is absolutely certain, and much will be inherently controversial, especially to Mormons. Too much knowledge died with the victims of the massacre, or has been hidden away in one form or another. To those who disagree with what follows, I can only say that a church which will not open its archives will almost always be suspected of having something to hide.
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah's notes on the song are fascinating -- they never really discuss the internal Mormon politics and the question of who is ultimately at fault, but his main informant, Salley A. Hubbard, mentioned a report that when someone visited the area and sang the song one night, he "was forced to leave before morning."
Almost from the moment Joseph Smith announced his first revelation, the Mormon Church suffered persecution. After all, they added new sacred scriptures to the Bible (something no significant sect had tried for roughly 1500 years), and they produced a doctrine of salvation completely unlike anything in orthodox Christianity.
And this was even before polygamy became an issue! But the pressures on the Mormons just kept getting greater. The sect was born in New York, but early on headed for the Midwest. In 1833, they became victim of a massacre organized by Missouri's then-Lieutenant Governor Lilburn Boggs (Brodie, pp. 136-137). In 1838, Boggs (by then governor) ordered the whole church destoryed (Brooks, p. 5), though his orders were not obeyed. Moving once again, this time to the east, they built a city in Nauvoo, Illinois, where leader Smith was lynched (Brodie, pp. 393-395). This, even more than the earlier massacre at Independence, Missouri, was psychologically very significant; as Stegner writes (p. 17), it "made zealots out of men and women who might otherwise have been only die-hards," while Walker, p. 209, observes that it "set in stone the Mormon hatred for the Gentile and gave the Saints a thirst for revenge that found a slaking thirteen years later."
Nor was the Mormon doctrine created by Smith entirely peaceful; Brooks, p. 59, notes a revelation in the Doctine and Covenants stating "if he has sought thy life, and thy life is endangered by him [as Mormon lives obviously had been threatened], thine enemy is in thine hands and thou art justified." Easy to whip up a mob with texts like that!
Smith had also established a dangerous precedent of authoritarianism; although Stegner, p. 24, cites Brodie to the effect that the problems the Mormons had in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois all arose from different causes, on pp. 25-27 he tells how Smith harassed and persecuted some of his own followers who disagreed with him (cf. Brooks, p. 6; Stegner, pp. 28-30). It was one of these internal quarrels that resulted in Smith's imprisonment and thus led to his lynching.
Smith was succeeded by Brigham Young (for whom see "Brigham Young"). The new Prophet's solution to the problem of living with the Gentiles was to head farther west, away from the rest of America, to the Great Salt Lake area, which would become the land of Deseret (Brooks, p. 7; Stegner, pp. 37-42). The reasoning was that no one would want to follow them there; not only was it a remote and inhospitable land, it was at that time Mexican rather than United States territory.
For the Mormons, this was their Exodus -- both the test and the salvation that forged a people. Forced out of their homes by the pressures of the locals, they suffered much on the trail (Brooks, pp. 8-10, plus this is the main topic of Stegner; Bagley, p. 22, says that some 600 of the 6000 who were in their "Winter Quarters" that first year died). But their exile wasn't far enough. The Mexican War gave the United States control of the land of Deseret. And whereas Mexican control had been lax (indeed, non-existent), the United States wanted to use the land. They sent the explorer John Williams Gunnison to survey the area. In the process, he met and observed the Mormons in Deseret. And he published a book: The Mormons, or Latter-Day Saints, In the Valley of The Great Salt Lake: A History of Their Rise and Progress, Peculiar Doctrines, Present Condition, and Prospects, Derived from Personal Observation, During a Residence Among Them.
The book came out in 1852 (Denton, p. 65). Denton believes that Gunnison was relatively sympathetic to the Mormons: If left alone, he expected their church to decay due to its internal contradictions. (Obviously he hadn't met many fundamentalists.) But Gunnison's book changed the whole debate. The Federals had made Brigham Young governor of Utah Territory (Denton, p. 66), a region rather smaller than the area of Deseret they had hoped to control (Bagley, p. 24), but the authorities didn't know much about the Mormons. Gunnison's publication made it clear: Mormons were polygamous. It didn't sit well with the regular population.
Gradually the Mormons and the government started heating up their cold war. In 1853, the Federal Government sent Gunnison on another surveying expedition in Utah. He thought the Mormons would let him work as before. They didn't. They (or someone) shot him down, along with most of his party, at the Sevier River on October 26, 1853 (Denton, p. 87). It was, in a way, the first blood of what was to follow.
The Sevier River massacre by itself did not cause war between the Mormons and the United States, but it made it easier to blame Mormons for their behavior -- especially as they did little to investigate it (Bagley, p. 44). Add in the church's fierce desire to run its own affairs, and you had trouble. In 1857, Brigham Young declared that he would decide which Federal laws were enforced in his domain (Denton, p. 108). As the government became more insistent, Young would make what amounted to a declaration of independence (Denton, p. 113); he also assembled troops to resist (Brooks, pp. 18-19). As this was going on, discipline among the Mormons was becoming more vigorous, in part because of bad harvests and the unrest they brought; to backslide was to risk death (Denton, pp. 104-107).
To be fair, Young's authoritarianism "was strongly approved by the Mormons when they found President Pierce [who served 1853-1857] appointing political hacks of bad personal character, prejudiced and quarrelsome, to executive and judicial offices in the Territory" (Nevins, p. 317). But Young's declaration was still an obvious attempt to block enforcement of Federal law in Deseret (Nevins, p. 318).
In 1857, President Buchanan ordered the army to suppress Brigham Young's government (Brooks, p. 13; Denton, p. 108; Walker, p. 210).
Many think that Young's declaration was just a negotiating ploy. But Young was too smart to run a pure bluff. Young sent out orders to leaders in other communities to count up their arms and prepare to fight (Brooks, pp. 19-22, 31n; Denton, p. 116); all able-bodied men were drafted into a militia. Many, including John D. Lee, would take this very seriously indeed, calling the instructions "sacred commands" (Denton, p. 117). The Mormons also built up a stock of food, weapons, and ammunition, even trying (and failing) to start a lead mine for bullets (Brooks, pp. 25-27). Brooks, pp. 40-41, also tells of Brigham Young meeting with groups of Indian chiefs; he was probably trying to convince them to ally with him against the invaders -- a "hang together or hang separately" sort of situation. The stage was set for the Mormon War (or, as it is also known, the Utah War).
It was a war with an unusual number of bystanders, because the Great Salt Lake was along the route of most of the trails to the West Coast. There were several overland routes to California, all difficult due to the dry and deserted nature of the lands west of the Mississippi. Utah was one of the few places where water and help could be had. So it was quite normal for emigrants to come that way. Brooks, pp. 43-44, prints a journal that lists six emigrant parties reaching Salt Lake City over a period of 16 days in late July and early August 1857. Most probably took a northern route out of Utah, but at least one group -- the Fancher party, from Arkansas -- went south. Their route took them up the Arkansas River, then north to meet the Platte at Fort Kearney; from there they followed the North Platte to Fort Laramie, then through South Pass to Salt Lake City. From there, they evidently intended to head mostly south through the Great Basin; see the map in Denton, pp. 12-13.
What Denton's map doesn't tell you (and what her book clouds by describing the Massacre before the Utah War) is that the shooting between Mormons and "Gentiles" had already started on a small scale. At the time of the Massacre, the Mormons feared that any Gentiles among them might be spies, and any supplies they gave them would not be available during the coming fight. Indeed, even as the Massacre was starting, Brigham Young was negotiating with a federal officer, knowing full well that the U. S. Army was coming -- and that it had a very big supply problem (Denton, pp. 164-165; Brooks, p. 63, prints a letter from Young which seems to show that he was aware this. It also orders his followers not to "meddle" with emigrant trains. It is dated September 10, in response to a lost letter dated September 7. Yet Brooks, p. 64, notes that this letter might allow a massacre by Indians). On September 15, Young declared a scorched earth policy against the Federals. By the end of the month, Mormon guerillas were attacking army outposts (Denton, p. 168)
The Fancher party should perhaps have known better than to get mixed up in all this. The Fancher brothers, Alexander and John, had moved to California as early as 1850 and started a ranch (Denton, pp. 95-96). They made several trips to ferry cattle to California. Alexander's 1857 expedition was expected to be their last.
We don't have exact details on the Fancher party, but it included a number of families, and property estimated to be worth over $2500, plus cash on the order of $100,000 (Denton, p. 100; Walker, p. 213). There were at least 30, and perhaps more than 40, wagons in the train. There are estimated to have been about fifty men, forty women, and fifty chldren (Walker, p. 212), and perhaps close to a thousand cattle -- though Brooks would reduce those totals (see below).
The Fancher party hoped to simply pass through Mormon territory, purchasing supplies along the way -- but quickly found that the Mormons closed their doors (Denton, p. 119). It appears (though we cannot know for sure) that the members of the caravan were forced to resort to eating the cattle they had hoped to use to make their fortunes in California (Denton, p. 123). They circled their wagons at night to guard against attack, even as some Mormons, frightened of the Church's strict regimentation, tried to join them.
Meanwhile, groups of Mormons were gathering to make plans. Brooks, pp. 60-61, makes the interesting point that John D. Lee, who would later suffer for the Massacre, was not present at these early meetings.
Despite all that hostility, the caravan almost made it through. Mountain Meadows is in southern Utah; the area is now a national forest, near the town of Enterprise, just east of the Nevada border and almost due north of Saint George, which is on the Arizona border.
They picked a bad place to camp. Mountain Meadows is just what the name implies, a relatively open field surrounded by high rocks on all sides, with excellent grazing for cattle (Brooks, p. 69). But it can be a trap; there are only two exits, and the rocks provide excellent cover for an attack on a train in the meadow (Denton, p. 129). In 1857, it was a desolate area; Brooks, p. 69, says that there was only one house within 20 miles. There is water, but the Fancher train camped at some distance from it (Brooks, p. 70, thinks it was because the ground was swampy). The camp simply could not be defended for an extended period (Walker, p. 218). Given how far they were from any settlement, the Fanchers probably thought they didn't need to worry about that.
It is noteworthy that the date of the Massacre is somewhat uncertain; Brooks, p. 62, writes that "among the many writers on the subject, many different dates have been used"; she then assembles what evidence she can for the date (pp. 63-67). This is significant because it bears directly on the guilt of high officials of the church.
The best guess is that, on Monday, September 7, 1857, the Fancher Train was attacked by people who apparently were dressed as Indians. John D. Lee, however, dated the attack to Tuesday, and said that there were seven defenders killed and three badly wounded at this stage; Brooks, p. 70, notes that we simply cannot test this.
Soon after the attack started, the Fancher party circled their wagons (Brooks, p. 70; Denton, p. 128), but they had no water supply, little food, limited ammunition, and no way to escape. When they tried to send out young girls to get water, the attackers shot them (Denton, p. 130). They tried to send out messengers seeking help; the only result of that was that several ended up dead and one returned to the camp wounded (and, according to Denton, pp. 130, 132, with news that the attackers were Mormons, though it's not clear how she could possibly know this; Brooks, p. 72, does note that the death of one of these men has been claimed as the cause of the massacre, since the victims would now know that their attackers were white, but this doesn't make much sense that I can see. A few messengers continued on -- Brooks, pp. 95-100 -- but they could not bring help in any reasonable time). Those who were left prepared to die; even if one of the messengers made it through, it would be a week or more before rescue arrived.
The ugliest part of the story is also perhaps the best documented. With the Fancher party close to despair, the Mormon elder John D. Lee came into the camp under a flag of truce (Brooks, p. 73). Denton, p. 134, says that he claimed the train needed to appease the Indians, and could survive by surrendering their weapons and cattle. (This even though the local Indians, the Paiutes, were relatively peaceful and ill-armed. The Indians admit to having taken some of the artifacts, but deny participation in the actual assault. Their actual role remains disputed; Denton seems to think they were not involved, but Walker and others think they were.) After much discussion, seeing no alternative, the survivors gave in (Denton, pp. 135-136).
The Mormon leaders, including Lee, broke them up into smaller parties -- and slaughtered them (Brooks, p. 74; Walker, p. 221). It was pure and simple murder; the only survivors were children under the age of eight, most of whom saw their parents and older siblings killed before their eyes. Supposedly 121 people were killed (Walker, p. 222), though there is uncertainty about the numbers; Brooks, pp. xix-xxiv, considers this to be "greatly exaggerated." She never ventures an exact number; I suspect she would have accepted 80-100 as reasonable. Brooks, pp. 101-103, counts 17 children recovered after the massacre; she thinks (pp. 104-105) that one other infant was raised by the Mormons.
Who gave the order for the murders is not clear; after it was over, no one wanted to admit responsibility (Brooks, p. 75). Supposedly the order was phrased, "Halt! Do your duty!" (Brooks, p. 70). Whoever said it -- it may well have been Lee -- the Mormon soldiers instantly obeyed (Denton, p. 137-143, which gives brutal details of the treatment of the prisoners).
Who was this man who was responsible for what Denton, p. 241, calls "the largest civilian atrocity to occur on American soil" prior to 1995 and the Oklahoma City bombing? (A disputed claim, but it probably does qualify as the largest white-on-white civilian atrocity in that time.) John D. Lee (1812-1877) was an orphan whose father had died of alcoholism when he was six (Bagley, p. 20). Deprived of an inheritance, and raised strictly, he had joined the Mormon church in 1838 after fighting in the Black Hawk War (Walker, pp. 208-209). He was recruited into the Danites, the society of vigilantes who fought the Mormon's enemies (for other tales of the Danites, see "Old Port Rockwell").
Lee was one of Brigham Young's earliest lieutenants, who gave his allegiance to the prophet at the time when Young's power was still uncertain. Lee was in effect Young's adopted son (Brooks, p. 79; Walker, p. 214), for a time signing himself "J. D. L. Young" (Bagley, p. 19). Despite some minor quarrels (e.g. over a woman both wanted as a wife) he would surely obey the prophet almost without question (Walker, p. 215; Brooks, p. 40, stresses how all Mormons were urged to seek directions from higher authority whenever in doubt about anything) -- a significant point in assessing the conflicting blame for the Massacre.
When word of the Massacre came out, the government had to figure out how to respond. There were two basic questions: Who was responsible for the initial attack (Indians or Mormons)? And (since it was clear that the Mormons were responsible for the eventual slaughter) who was responsible for the Massacre (John D. Lee or someone higher in the church)?
There isn't much evidence. Federal officers took testimony from the surviving children, but all were very young, and many were traumatized; it is very likely that their testimony would today be considered tainted. The Mormon participants reportedly swore vows of secrecy.
Opinions have shifted over the years. The very first investigator was appointed by Brigham Young himself, who had promised the incoming governor that he would look into the Massacre (Denton, p. 182) -- but Young chose as his investigator George A. Smith, was one of those who had helped whip up the people behind the Massacre (Denton, p. 186). Smith's report is so far off the mark that it dates the massacre to September 21-25 rather than September 7-11, and it places almost the entire blame on the Indians (Denton, pp. 186-187).
A non-Mormon investigator, Jacob Forney, set out to investigate further. He recovered 17 children and much property in Mormon hands, and his 1859 report placed the blame squarely in the hands of the Mormons (Denton, pp. 192-194). And, indeed, forensic examination from that day to this show that firearms caused most if not all the deaths, confirming that the Indians were not responsible for the slaughter.
As for what historians have written, the earliest description of the massacre in my library is from Jameson, p. 433; he reports that the emigrants "were brutally murdered at Mountain Meadow, Utah, by a band of Indians, who were incited thereto by Lee, a Mormon fanatic." Note the complete absence of mention of any Mormon other than Lee! He goes on to say, "It was the period of the first troubles between the United States Government and the Mormons. Brigham Young had made threats of turning the Indians loose upon west-bound emigrants, but the Mormons, as a body, were innocent of a massacre."
Nevins, p. 322, reports that "In September, a party of one hundred and thirty-seven California-bound emigrants passing through southern Utah had been all but wiped out by a Mormon-Indian attack in the Mountain Meadows massacre." He as in a footnote, "Neither Young nor the Mormon church approved this murderous attack on the Missouri emigrant train."
Stegner, p. 277, comments, "The massacre of the Fancher party at Mountain Meadows in 1857 may have been, though it probably was not, planned with the knowledge of Brigham Young."
Bushman is a pro-Mormon history, and their one-paragraph account on p. 55, blames the Fancher party for oppressing Indians and for robbing locals who would not sell them supplies. Their final word is "Brigham Young heard of the attack too late to stop it. This tragic incident, the legacy of suffering in Missouri and of the grim paranoia of the time, is a dark blot on the history of the Mormons." Other than absolving Young, it makes no attempt to figure out who was responsible, and the tone, despite that last sentence, seems to imply that the Fancher caravan brought it on themselves.
Walker's is the strangest account of all: On p. 216, he tells of the killers sending to Brigham Young for instructions, but then going ahead with the killings -- even as Young sent orders to leave the settlers alone. This makes no sense, unless it was a way for Young to establish plausible deniability. Walker, p. 224, adds that Young certainly knew about the massacre before he officially acknowledged guilt.
Brooks, probably the most careful historian of the event, is certain that Indians were involved, and looted the wagons (p. 95). But she admits that we simply can't be certain about Young's role; there just isn't enough information. She does say, p. 77, that the original plan was for a few whites to induce the Indians to harrass the Fancher party; there was initially "no decision to exterminate them." John D. Lee claimed there were hundreds of Indians, angry at the repluse of their initial attack, thirsting for slaughter (Brooks, p. 80). Lee also claimed that a militia band had orders to destroy the Americans; Lee asserts that he prayed, then assented (Brooks, p. 82).
Yet Denton seems to possess no doubts whatsoever that Mormons did it -- and with the full knowledge of Brigham Young (presenting her arguments on pp. 153-159). This even though she confesses that the local leaders argued long and hard about what to tell him (Denton, pp. 147-148). And the planning seems to have been imperfect; while many of the attackers disguised themselves as Indians, there was no scheme to hide the corpses of the emigrants, except to leave them to the crows and wolves (Denton, pp. 149-150).
(I wonder a bit about Denton's motives. The dust jacket says she is "of Mormon descent" -- but she is not a practicing Mormon. She seems to have a strong prejudice against the church.)
Part of Denton's case seems pretty airtight: The massacre was the action of the Mormons, not the local Indians. Modern examination of the bodies -- though it was quickly halted by Mormon authorities -- seems sufficient to establish this.
The case against Young, though, rests on a very slender basis: The testimony of John D. Lee, published after his death and possibly fiddled with by its editor. There is also a "John D. Lee scroll," which if authentic would seem to confirm his guilt (Denton, pp. 242-243), but all that can be proved about it is that it seems to be from the appropriate era.
It is of course possible -- even likely -- that there is additional information in Mormon records, which are not accessible to the public; this would explain why the Mormons seem always to try to quash investigations into the matter. These may even include the journals of John D. Lee, which he reported giving to the church for safekeeping, and which they did not return when asked.
The only conclusion I can make is that it would be very hard to convict Young based on Denton's evidence; at best, he might be labelled an accomplice after the fact. And I would hate to be the prosecuting attorney on that one (even if you ignore the likelihood that Young's followers would have lynched any lawyer who brought the case).
In any case, President Buchanan had offered a near-blanket amnesty for all events of the Mormon War if the Mormons would just back down (Denton, p. 179). Which, for the most part, they did. Buchanan then took away the rights of the military investigators to seek information, stalling any investigation (Denton, p. 202). National dislike of polygamy, and other details, meant that Utah was kept a territory for decades after it had met the normal criteria for statehood, but once the Mormons eliminated polygamy and obtained guarantees of religious autonomy, statehood followed.
Which does not mean that the participants of the massacre were entirely safe. The Mormon church, after all, had every reason to want to clear its name. And once the trasncontinental railroad was completed, it was much easier for journalists and others to head west and see what they could learn. For many years, Brigham Young remained close to John D. Lee (Denton, pp. 209-211), but eventually started to distance himself from Lee and the other leaders of the massacre. Lee and another Massacre leader, Isaac Haight, were excommunicated in 1870 (Denton, p. 214; Walker, p. 224).
Eventually Lee was pushed out of Utah altogether, spending some time with John Wesley Powell as the latter explored the Colorado River. He went on to found and operate Lee's Ferry (yes, the Lee's Ferry of the song of that name; Denton, p. 218). He was forced to sell his property in Utah (Denton, p. 215).
When, in 1874, the federal government took over direct control of justice in Utah (Denton, p. 219), it was the beginning of the end for Lee. He was arrested in that year. According to Bagley, p. 290, it was the most sensational trial in American history prior to the twentieth century. Initially, Lee stated that the Church, and Brigham Young, had no role in the massacre (Denton, pp. 219, 221; Bagley, p. 291, notes that a document Lee submitted placed all the blame on lesser men such as Haight and Higbee).
What happened next is fascinating. Even though Lee had been excommunicated, the Mormon Church provided two lawyers for his 1875 trial. Lee himself had three (Denton, p. 221). Bagley, p. 291, argues that this was a mistake for the church, since it led to claims of a cover-up.
Denton thinks these two groups were at cross-purposes. The church lawyers had as their chief purpose to protect the church. Lee's lawyers wanted to keep him alive -- which would be very hard to do unless they could implicate the church. (After all, Lee had already given a partial confession.)
The 1875 trial was defective in many ways. No testimony was taken from Indians. All sorts of tricks were used to obtain what should have been invalid testimony, or to block what should have been valid (Bagley, p. 291). Many Mormons were subpoenaed; fewer than half appeared. One of those who avoided testifying was Brigham Young (Denton, p. 225). There was conflicting testimony about who did what. Supposedly the lawyers didn't even know when the massacre happened (Bagley, p. 292; he comments acidly, "In their eagerness to answer larger questions about the massacre, the prosecutors apparently forgot they needed witnesses and evidence to convict Lee of murder"). But the defence was not noticeably better, because (as Lee himself noted) the defence lawyers were defending "some person not in court" (Bagley, p. 295).
Eventually the trial went to the jury, which -- being part Mormon, part Gentile -- deadlocked (Denton, p. 226); the Mormon jurors apparently wanted Lee acquitted, the Gentiles wanted him convicted (Walker, p. 226). Bagley, p. 296, claims that the church by this time wanted Lee convicted, but failed to give proper instructions to the Mormon jury members.
If Denton is right (p. 228), the next step was simply despicable. A new U. S. attorney reached a deal with Brigham Young: Young would supply all needed witnesses to convict Lee -- as long as the attorney didn't do anything which would implicate the greater church. Since even Denton admits there are no records of this deal, we can hardly be sure of it. Bagley, p. 300, at least offers some slight justifications: The new prosecutor found, to his shock, that the Utah prosecutor's office had neither propoer facilities nor equipment, so an independent prosecution was almost impossible. And he was under intense pressure to convict *someone*, so that there could be an official scapegoat. Prosecutors often make pleabargains with defendends. Bagley suggests that Sumner Howard, who had no practice in dealing with the Mormons, instead made a deal with the LDS church.
According to Bagley, p. 301, prosecuter Howard told the judge, "I have eaten dust and I have gone down out of sight in dirt and expect to eat more dirt."
What is certain is that Lee's church-appointed lawyers withdrew from the case, and that the U. S. attorney would earn a reprimand over the matter (Denton, p. 232). We also know that none of the others we know to have taken part in the massacre was ever brought to trial (Walker, p. 226).
In 1876, Lee's second trial began -- this time with an all-Mormon jury. It was a much briefer trial: Seven prosecution witnesses, all Mormons, all of whom testified voluntarily. The defence called no witnesses at all (Denton, p. 229; Bagley, p. 305, says, "By the time the prosecution rested, Lee knew he had been betrayed [by the church]. He ordered his attorneys to present no defense").
According to Bagley, p. 306, "The jurors themselves knew that Brigham Young had furnished the witnesses and evidence to convict Lee." He strongly implies that only one juror proved even slightly reluctant, and the rest convinced him that it was better to sacrifice Lee than threaten the whole church.
Not surprisingly, Lee was found guilty of first degree murder, with the jury needing not quite four hours to convict (Bagley, p. 306). The judge sentenced him to execution (Denton, p. 230; Walker, p. 226); Lee chose a firing squad as a method of execution (Walker, p. 227).
Denton notes the interesting point that, at this time, the Mormons practiced beheading as a means of "blood atonement" -- a sort of release from sin. She thinks that Lee, by rejecting the option of beheading, was stating that he did not think his actions needed atonement. In support of this, we note that Lee would write while in prison, "I have been treacherously betrayed and sacrificed in a most cowardly manner by those who should have been my friends" (Walker, p. 227).
(I must admit to extreme disquiet about the whole affair. There can be no doubt that Lee was a mass murderer, and that he defiled the names "Christian," "American," and "human being." So Lee deserved everything the law could do to him, and more. Still, the Mormon practice of "blood atonement" -- ritual beheading -- surely made it easier to induce the attackers to massacre their victims; a church that's run like a Mafia shouldn't be surprised that its people turn into barbarians! Certainly Lee's trial should not have been conducted in Utah, there should have been no Mormons on the jury, and the parties involved should have taken real testimony. If there is a Hell, I can only hope Lee and the prosecuting attorney are confined together....)
Lee would write various statements about his actions as the appeals process worked itself out. Eventually, he delivered a large manuscript to his lawyer W. W. Bishop; in it, Lee would aim the blame directly at Brigham Young (Denton, p. 237). Lee was executed March 23, 1877 at the site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
In an interesting coincidence, Lee predicted before his end that Brigham Young would die within six months of his own execution. On August 23, 1877, Young took sick with an illness that killed him six days later (Denton, p. 238).
Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 323-324, does not offer a text of this song, but reports the Arkansas belief that the Massacre was "the sequel to the killing in Arkansas of the Mormon Elder, Parley P. Pratt." (An evenf which very likely inspired the song fragment indexed as "A Warning to Wife-Stealers.") This story is also reported in the literature on the Massacre: Pratt had become involved with an already-married women, Elenore McLean (Bagley, pp. 8-9). After a long and complicated pursuit across the country, McLean's husband succeeded in killing Pratt near Van Buren, Arkansas. It was extrajudicial -- but it was also popular; the locals had already hauled Pratt before the law on trumped-up charges (Denton, pp. 110-111). The basic reason for the hullabaloo was polygamy, but Denton, p. 112, and Brooks, p. 57, state that the Mormons viewed it as religious persecution. Hence, in Denton's view, their particular anger with the Arkansans of the Fancher party. Brooks, however, thinks (p. 61) that there is no evidence at all that the Mormons were after the Fancher party in particular; they just wanted blood in general.
(Denton does not say so, but this is, I think, an argument against the guilt of Brigham Young. He was too smart a politician to let things like that influence him.)
This song appears to be generally accurate in its details: The Fancher train of "thirty wagons" was attacked by "Lee's Mormon bullets" and by people "In Indian garb and colors." "While Lee... his word to them did give That if their arms they would give up He'd surely let them live." "When once they had given up their arms... They rushed on them." "Their property was divided Among this bloody crew." The one interesting element is found in what is the final stanza of Burt-AmericanMurderBallads's and Fife's texts: "By order of their president This awful deed was done... His name was Brigham Young." This, of course, is the point still in dispute -- but this verse has been sung by Mormons themselves!
Sundry references appear in the literature to a song, "The Ballad of John D. Lee." Denton, for instance, has a scrap of it on pp. 209-210. But almost all of her words are found in either the Burt-AmericanMurderBallads or the Fife text of "The Mountain Meadows Massacre." Until something clearer comes along, I am assuming these are the same song.
Historical markers eventually went up at the site of the Massacre. At first, these failed to acknowledge the part the Mormons played. A story broadcast on National Public Radio on about April 28, 2024, describes how more accurate markers were eventually put up.- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LB19

Mountain Men, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is one of Dwyer's mountain men. The Yeos can't trap us, he says. "The people all bless us, for many a cabin's left safe and secure" We are few but we control the mountains and, while we have strength, "we'll keep the old cause living still"
AUTHOR: William Rooney (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Madden's _Literary Remains of the United Irishmen of 1798_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Ireland nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 146, "The Mountain Men" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Michael Dwyer (I)" (subject of Michael Dwyer) and references there
NOTES [82 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "Michael Dwyer was a Wicklow man, a member of the United Irishmen, who fought during the 1798 rebellion, and who waged a guerilla war in the Wicklow mountains for several years afterwards." - BS
"Yeos" = yeomen, the British militia. Contrary to this song, they did catch up with Dwyer -- or, at least, put him under so much pressure that he gave in and allowed himself to be transported. For more details, see "Michael Dwyer (I)" or Michael Dwyer (II)." - RBW
File: Moyl146

Mountain Song

See The Iron Door [Laws M15] (File: LM15)

Mountain Stream, The

See Where the Moorcocks Grow (The Mountain Stream; With My Dog and Gun) (File: K136)

Mountain Streams Where the Moorcocks Crow, The

See Where the Moorcocks Grow (The Mountain Stream; With My Dog and Gun) (File: K136)

Mountain Top

See Liza Jane (File: San132)

Mountaineer's Courtship, A

See Buffalo Boy (File: LoF162)

Mountains of Mourne, The

DESCRIPTION: The Irishman in London writes home to Mary to tell her of the city. He describes how the local women dress (or, rather, don't dress). He watches the King of England. He wishes he were home with Mary "where the Mountains of Mourse sweep down to the see"
AUTHOR: Words: Percy French (1854-1920)
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (date of writing, according to Healy
KEYWORDS: love home separation homesickness clothes royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1903 - Visit of King Edward VII to "Erin's Green Shore" (mentioned in the song)
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 272-274, "The Mountains of Mourne (Mountains o' Mourne)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MTMOURNE*
ADDITIONAL: James N. Healy, editor, _The Songs of Percy French_, 1955-1962, revised edition 1986; I use the 1996 Ossian paperback, pp. 31-32, "The Mountains of Mourne" (1 text, 1 tune)
James N. Healy, _Percy French and His Songs_, The Mercier Press, 1966, pp. 65-66, "The Mountains of Mourne" (1 text, partial tune)
Roud #18229
RECORDINGS:
Gordon Bok, "The Mountains of Mourne" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #556, recorded 04/18/2023)
Peter Dawson, "The Mountains O' Mourne"(HMV [UK] B-3772, 1931; HMV [UK] B-9114, 1940)
Monica Rossiter, "The Mountains of Mourne" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Green Hills of Antrim" (tune, lyrics)
cf. "Canny Newcastle" (plot)
SAME TUNE:
The Green Hills of Antrim (File: HHH606)
The Stoker's Complaing (File: Tawn016)
Hospital Ship Song (File: Tawn073)
Old Gallipoli's a Wonderful Place (File: AWTBW100)
When a poor bloody pilot goes down in the sea (Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 232, mentions this as being in John Moore's _In the Season of the Year_, 1954)
NOTES [613 words]: Several sources say that the tune to this is properly known as "Carrighdhoun," but it is now much better known under French's title. The tune is reported by Gogan, p. 12, and by Healy to have been supplied by Houston Collisson, who performed with French for many years. According to Healy, p. 66, although Collison borrowed the tune, he doubled the time values (i.e. an eighth note became a quarter note, or a quarter note became a half note or two quarters), which extended the four-line tune over eight lines. It's still "Carrighdoun" if played without words, but when used with the words, it sounds rather different.
Healy reports that French sent the lyrics to Collisson on the back of a postcard.
The dating of the poem is more problematic. Gogan says that French is "reputed to have written it in 1896 on a very clear day when he could see the Mountains of Mourne from the Hill of Howth in North Dublin"; Healy gives the same date.
And yet there is the mention of England's King having "visited Erin's green shore." Now note that, in 1896, England *had* no King; the ruling queen was Victoria, and her husband Albert had died in the 1860s, when French was still a boy too young to notice girls, and Albert had never been King anyway. King George IV did visit Ireland (Smith, p. 191), and had received genuine popular acclaim (Smith, pp. 194-195), but he had died in 1830, long before French was born. The first English King to visit Ireland in modern times was Edward VII, who did not ascend until 1901 and who made his visit in 1903 (and "was regarded as a friend of Ireland and was the first of his line to be so," according to Curtis, p. 402, although I think many would have regarded George IV as a friend as well).
Edward VII did visit Ireland, but, to repeat, the year was 1903. So how could this song have been written in 1896?
Whatever the explanation, Edward's visit had little real effect; five of six histories I checked had no mention of the event (and some other reference I used apparently had the wrong date, since earlier versions of this Index gave the date as 1905).
But Edward's trip did show an interesting change in Irish attitudes: quite a few radical nationalists were very upset about the visit, but the ordinary people seem to have loved it; Kee, p. 154, calls it an "outstanding success," and cites newspaper accounts of how he was greeted. Compare the song's mention of the singer "cheer[ing] with the rest."
Too bad the Easter Rebellion, and the British over-reaction, did such a find job of messing that up.
For background on Percy French, see the notes to "Ballyjamesduff." This is said by Healy to be the most popular of all French's songs; Healy, p. 67 says that "There is a monument standing to-day, under the shadow of the Mourne Mountains, at Newcastle, Co[unty] Down to Percy French and his song. It is odd to reflect that when his publishers, Pigotts, first received the song, they turned it down as 'not serious enough for a ballad, not funny enough for a comic-song.' One of Pigotts readers persuaded them to take it, and it made plenty of money for them both, establishing French as a song-writer,and giving the entrèe to engagements in England."
I can't help but relate one other interesting anecdote, from C. S. Lewis's stepson. According to Gresham, p. 99, Fred Paxford, C. S. Lewis's long-time gardener, had a tendency to tunelessly sing odd songs as he went about his work. The text that Gresham cites is unquestionably this song, although much mangled. I can't help but wonder what Lewis would have done when Paxford mumbled (especially around a teenage boy) about women who "don't wear no tops to their dresses at all." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: DTmtmour

Mountains of Pomeroy, The

DESCRIPTION: A maid meets "her gallant Reynardine, on the mountains of Pomeroy." He is an outlaw "but keeps the flag of freedom safe." She is afraid for him. Her kinsmen would kill him. She leaves "her cruel kin and home" to go to him but drowns in a storm
AUTHOR: George Sigerson (1838-1925) (source: Celtic Lyrics site)
EARLIEST DATE: 1991 (Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder)
KEYWORDS: love drowning storm Ireland patriotic outlaw derivative
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 146-147, "The Mountains of Pomeroy" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Reynardine" [Laws P15] (subject)
NOTES [211 words]: This version is almost exactly George Sigerson's as quoted at "The Mountains Of Pomeroy" at The Celtic Lyrics site, copyright The Celtic Lyrics Collection 2000-2004. Steve Roud's Folk Song Index reference for "Renaldine" makes it appear that this version is also in Flanders, Ballard, Brown and Barry The New Green Mountain Songster.
Pomeroy is in County Tyrone, Ireland. - BS
The description of Reynardine immediately made me think of the resistance fighter Michael Dwyer, who after the collapse of the 1798 rebellion organized a resistance movement in Wicklow, then was transported to Australia after giving up to the British. (For more background, see "Michael Dwyer (I)"). would explain why the girl has to cross the ocean to see him. The problem is that Wicklow is in the southeast of Ireland, Ppmeroy is in Ulster, about ten miles northwest of Dungannon or twice that from Armagh.
On the other hand, Pomeroy is not mountainous. (Fermoy, mentioned in some other versions of "Reynardine," is in south Ireland, on the Blackwater a few dozen miles north of Cork, an is in a much more hilly region.) So I think we have to conclude that this song is not intended to be "real" -- but it may have been meant to remind listeners of both Reynardine and Dwyer. - RBW
File: TST146

Mountblairy

DESCRIPTION: "Mountblairy thy woods and walks are green ... Thy pleasant scenes in after years I'll lovingly review ... when I am far from you." The singer says Mountblairy's "trees can tell a tale ... but keep thee ever silent ... And I will ever love you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: lyric home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 509, "Mountblairy" (1 text)
Roud #5993
NOTES [37 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Mountblairy (509) is at coordinate (h5-6,v7) on that map [roughly 35 miles NNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3509

Mountsandel

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises the "soft sylvan splendour" of Mountsandel. Wandering the land reminds him of childhood. He says that friendships grow in the central town of Coleraine
AUTHOR: George Graham
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H817, p. 169, "Mountsandel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13483
File: HHH817

Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady)

DESCRIPTION: A complex family, with no clear dividing line, known by the key chorus line "You shall be free When the good lord sets you free" (or "calls you home"). Verses can be serious or silly ("Oh! there was a moanish lady Lived in a moanish land...")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious nonsense parody humorous floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So) West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 11, "Moanish Lady!" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 110-112, "Mona (You Shall Be Free)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 254-258, "When de Good Lord Sets You Free" (1 text, 1 tune -- an immense composite containing elements of "Moanish Lady," "Talking Blues," and probably other materials, to the tune of "Mourner, You Shall Be Free")
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 163-164, "Old Marse John" (1 text, 1 tune, with this chorus and sundry floating verses: Ole Marse John and the mule he is riding till it dies; the singer standing on the corner doing no harm; the singer in the henhouse hearing the chicken sneeze); p. 172, "Po' Mournah" (1 fragment); p. 176, "Great Big Nigger Sittin' on a Log" (1 text, with this chorus and floating verses: Jakey hunting coons, the Big Nigger shooting at a hog; an humorous description of an unusual girl); p. 194, "Fragment from Pore Mournah" (1 text); p. 197, "There Was an Old Nigger, His Name Was Dr. Peck" (1 text, which uses this chorus); pp. 224-225, (no title), with this chorus and the "My old mistus promised me" and "Some folks say a nigger won't steal" lyrics; p. 235, with a variant on "Ain't no use me working so hard"
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 176-177, "Oh Mou'nuhs"; pp. 178-179, "You Shall Be Free" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 107-108, "Yellow Gal" (1 text, 1 tune, a non-serious version)
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 76, "We Shall Be Free" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11685
RECORDINGS:
Jules Allen, "Po' Mourner" (Victor 23834, 1933; rec. 1928)
The Blue Chips, "Oh! Monah!" (ARC 6-09-55, 1936)
Bill Boyd & his Cowboy Ramblers, "You Shall Be Free, Monah" (Bluebird B-6694, 1936; Montgomery Ward M-7190/Regal Zonophone [UK] M-2433, 1937)
Carolina Tar Heels, "When the Good Lord Sets You Free" (Victor 20931, 1927)
Four Dusty Travelers, "Po' Mourner" (Columbia 14477-D, 1929; on VocalQ2)
Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Cisco Houseton & Sonny Terry, "We Shall Be Free" (on WoodyFolk)
Blind Blake Higgs, "Eighteen Hundred and Ninety One" (on WIHIGGS01)
Lions Quartet, "Moanin' Lady" (Columbia 1167-D, 1927)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Shout Mourner, You Shall Be Free" (Vocalion 5007, 1926)
Amy Michels, "Yella Gal" (Piotr-Archive #160, recorded 05/10/2022)
Bill & Belle Reed, "You Shall Be Free" (Columbia 15336-D, 1928)
Frank Stokes & Dan Sane, "You Shall" (Paramount 12518, 1927; on Cornshuckers2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Raise a Ruckus" (floating lyrics)
cf. ""Uncle Eph" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Talking Blues" (sometimes sung to a tune similar to this)
cf. "Some Folks Say that a Preacher Won't Steal" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Deacon's Calf" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Golden Axe" (gospel parody)
NOTES [516 words]: This is a complicated group, and the problem is not lessened by the way editors have handled it. The first three texts I indexed, for instance, were all messed with by editors. Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, e.g., derived his "Moanish Lady" from the spiritual "Mourner, You Shall Be Free," but printed only one verse because "the music is too superbly serious to have cheap lines."
It appears, however, to be the same as Spaeth's song about a no-count who hangs around rail yards and sponges off his girl, giving us a whole family of knock-offs.
Fred W. Allsop, in Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II, p. 161, says Moanish Lady "has been heard often in negro barber shops." Whatever that tells us. - RBW
"Moanish Lady" is derived from "Mourner, You Shall Be Free," and so is "You Shall," but the latter is quite a different song, with a different melody, having in common only the derivation.... [The hymn] seems to have spawned quite a few [parodies], mostly in African-American tradition, but even Bob Dylan created one. - PJS
For the moment, I'm still lumping the family. It's just too messy. - RBW
The Higgs Bahamian text begins with each year from 1891 to 1898 in which the singer explains how he avoids work: "Couldn't do it boys (you shall be free)/ Too lazy boys (you shall be free)/ When the good Lord sets you free."
After a verse about the whale throwing Jonah in a sweet potato patch, and another about a man trying to get to heaven on the tail of a kite, there are some standard floaters found in the U.S.: "settin by the log ... finger on the trigger and his eyes on the hog" [for example, Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 #311 p.566, "The Preacher Song", Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs p.255, "When De Good Lord Sets You Free", "Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, "Old Salty Dog Blues", Carolina Tar Heels, "When the Good Lord Sets Me Free"] and "no use of working so hard when I've got a gal in the white folks' yard." [for example, Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs p.257, "When De Good Lord Sets You Free", E.C. Perrow, "Songs and Rhymes from the South" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXVIII, No. 108 (Apr-Jun 1915 (available online by JSTOR)), #7.1 p. 135, "Oh Mourner", Carolina Tar Heels, "When the Good Lord Sets Me Free", Carolina Tar Heels, "There Ain't No Use Working So Hard", J.E. Mainer, "Old Hen Sitting in a Chimney Jamb"]. Of course, these examples may indicate that "Mourner, You Shall Be Free" is the source of these "floaters" rather than the passive receiver.
"Workin' in the white folks' yard" may not be so rare in the West Indies. Sam Manning's take off on "Linstead Market" seems to comment on his own position as a long-time West Indian recording artist: "With my basket on my head/Tryin' for my daily bread/Workin' in the white folks' yard/Lookin' for my Santa Claus/Me try my best to sing a song/Sun too hot and road too long/Workin' in the white folks' yard/Lookin' for my Santa Claus" (Sam Manning with the Melodettes and Felix and his Krazy Kats, "Lookin for Me Santa Claus," Decca 18259 (1941)) - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: San011

Mourner's Comfort, The

See Boundless Mercy (Drooping Souls, No Longer Grieve) (File: Br3528)

Mournful Tragedy: Lines on the Drownng of Six Young Men

DESCRIPTION: "Young men who in this city live or in the Pine Tree state" should beware. Seven men went sailing in Portland. A gale blew up and six were drowned; one survived by swimming. It will be our turn to die soon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (original broadside, according too Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
KEYWORDS: sailor death religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 192-193, "Mournful Tragedy: Lines on the Drownng of Six Young Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [32 words]: This piece makes me regret that we don't have a keyword "why-did-they-bother?" I can't imagine why Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors included it; there is no hint that it is traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LaGo192

Mourning Souls

DESCRIPTION: "Ah, poor souls, why cast you down, And why art thou so sad?" The sinner confesses being bound down by his body and his sins; his soul confesses "its ruined state," it prays to Jesus, and is set free
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 466, "Mourning Souls" (1 text)
Roud #7955
File: Beld466

Mouse and Mouser

See The Cattie Sits in the Kiln Ring (File: MSNR195)

Mouse and Plum Cake, The

DESCRIPTION: "A mouse found a beautiful piece of plum cake." It "held the cake fast," not telling the other mise. "He kept gulping it down till he made himself ill." The doctor makes him tell of his greed. Children are warned to share or they too might become ill
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection)
KEYWORDS: food animal warning
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 37, "The Mouse and Plum Cake" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Grim037

Mouse's Courting Song, The

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Move Along, 'Gator

See Haming on a Live Oak Log (Mister Gator) (File: JDM240)

Move for Your Dyin' Savior

DESCRIPTION: "Move, children, move For your dyin' Savior" ... "I'm lookin', lookin' For my dyin Savior"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1994 (Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, p. 113, "Move for Your Dyin' Savior" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [22 words]: The description is two verses from the Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree text.
The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree text is a "ring shout" song. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RSBF113

Move, Daniel

DESCRIPTION: Directions to Daniel: "Move, Daniel," "Go the other way, Daniel" -- including obfuscation -- "Sinner in my way" and "Do the eagle wing"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Proctor recording)
KEYWORDS: warning trick nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, pp. 121-124, "Move, Daniel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21455
RECORDINGS:
Lawrence McKiver and the McIntosh County Shouters, "Move, Daniel" (on McIntosh1); "Move, Daniel" (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutOnsiteVideo)
Freddie Palmer and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Move, Daniel" (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation)
Freddie Palmer, Brenton Jordan and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Move, Daniel" (on McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts)
Willis Proctor, "Daniel" (on LomaxCD1712, recorded 1959))
NOTES [235 words]: Art Rosenbaum's liner notes to McIntosh1, quoting the lead singer, Lawrence McKiver: Daniel is on a mission for the other slaves. They warn him when the "ol' boss was comin' down... So ol' boss thought that they was singin' a party song, but they was tellin' Daniel how to get out the way, so that ol' boss wouldn't put that whiplash on him..." (p. 6). - BS
The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree/McIntoshShouters-RingShoutSongs text and track and LomaxCD1712 and McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts tracks are "ring shout" songs. The McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation and McIntoshShouters-RingShoutOnsiteVideo videos show the shout.
Gordon has a ring shout song that might be related to "Move, Daniel": "Side 'um, Darn'l," which Gordon translates as "Go sideways, Darn'l." The format is one line of religious commentary -- say, "When I get to Heaven, Heaven own me" -- followed by the title line. The ring shout "holy dance" often mimics the lines being sung. In this case, Gordon writes, "The step used for this was a modified chasse and very sprightly, though without any 'crossin' of de feet.'" "Crossing feet," like other non-deferential references to The Cross, is an invitation to the Devil. (See Robert Winslow Gordon, "Negro 'Shouts' from Georgia" in Alan Dundes, editor, Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1990) ""Side 'um, Darn'l," pp. 450-451 (1 text)) - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcMovDan

Move, Members, Move

DESCRIPTION: "Move members move Daniel (x4)! Move till I get (there/home), Daniel (x4) Got on my little John shoes, Got on my little John shoes Daniel (x3), Shoes gonna rocka me home Daniel... Who want to buy this land Daniel...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Rosie Hibler & family)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 230-233, "Move, Members, Move" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10958
RECORDINGS:
Rosie Hibler & family, "Move Members Move" (on NFMAla2, NFMAfAm)
NOTES [67 words]: The form of this song, and the references to Daniel, would seem to imply a religious theme. But there are no religious references, and none of the phrases are reminiscent of the Biblical stories of Daniel. - RBW
Despite the fact that Rosie Hibler's version appears in the series of recordings "Negro Folk Music of Alabama," she and her family were recorded in Mississippi. Just thought I'd mention it. - PJS
File: CNFM230

Movie Stars

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme or a game called "Stars," with the lines made up of movie star names, e.g. "Roy Rogers, Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth, Clark Gable."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #500, "Roy Rogers" (1 text)
File: AJRR500

Moving On (The Bug-Out Ballad)

DESCRIPTION: "Hear the patter of running feet / It's the old First Cav in full retreat. / They're moving on; they'll soon be gone." The singer describes the unpleasant conditions in which he is fighting, and the many enemies approaching. He intends to head out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Korean War
KEYWORDS: soldier war battle escape
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1950-1953 - Korean War
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 412-414, "Moving On" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BUGOUT*
Roud #10360
NOTES [14 words]: This parody was inspired by Hank Snow's immensely popular recording "Moving On." - EC
File: EM412

Moving Picture Cowboy

See Cowboy Again for a Day (File: FCW116)

Moving-On Song

DESCRIPTION: "Born in the middle of the afternoon In a horse-drawn wagon on the old A5." Wherever travelers stop, they are ordered away -- they lower the price of property, they have no work. "You'd better get born in someplace else, so move along, get along, SHIFT!"
AUTHOR: Ewan MacColl
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1961 (radio ballad, "The Traveling People")
KEYWORDS: Gypsy travel childbirth rejection money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, MOVEON
Roud #6852
RECORDINGS:
Sheila Stewart, "The Moving-On ong" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
NOTES [48 words]: Although this is obviously a modern composed song, I was surprised to find what amount to two "field collections" -- by Sheila Stewart and Johnny Connors. Does that make it traditional? It would seem to imply at the very least that it touched a nerve. I am, very hesitantly, indexing it. - RBW
File: RcMovOn

Mower, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a young woman; she has a small meadow needing mowing, it has never been mowed before. He mows all afternoon, but the grass remains standing; she tells him to sharpen his scythe, for the work's not finished
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1187))
KEYWORDS: sex virginity farming harvest work
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(MW) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 14, "The Mower" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 22, "The Mower" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #69, "The Mower" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, THEMOWER
Roud #833
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "The Mowing of the Hay" (AFS 4200 B2, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
A.L. Lloyd, "The Mower" (on Lloyd 1) (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1187), "The Mower" ("It was on one summer's morning on the 14th day of May"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(2505), Firth b.25(378), Johnson Ballads 559, 2806 c.16*(236)[some illegible words], Harding B 25(1275), Harding B 11(1929), Harding B 16(153c), Harding B 11(2282), "The Mower"; Harding B 25(391), "The Cocks of Hay" ("I am a roving mower, through this country I do stray")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Next Market Day" (plot) and references there
cf. "One Man Shall Mow My Meadow" (imagery)
cf. "The Wanton Seed"
cf. "Mowing the Hay" (subject)
NOTES [36 words]: Lloyd remarks that the song "often appeared on 19th century broadsides," but as he gives no further dates I've refrained from citing that as earliest date. - PJS
The more so since this image is quite a common one. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: DTthemow

Mowing Down the Meadow

See One Man Shall Mow My Meadow (File: ShH100)

Mowing Machine, The

DESCRIPTION: The cowboy "used to go dashing," "But that was before they invented wire fences And started the cowboys to shoveling hay." He looks back to the good old days, curses the man who invented barbed wire, and requests a "mowing machine" for his tombstone
AUTHOR: Words: "Haywire Mac" McClintock
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1934 (recording, Charlie Marshall)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work technology
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 3, "The Mowing Machine" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] (tune & meter) and references there
File: Ohr003

Mowing Match Song

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye jovial mowing lads Who have been up aloft To see that famous mowing match 'At were mown at Brimmy Croft." Curly and Tom compete to see who is the better mower. The ill-planned contest goes undecided, to Curly's great displeasure
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Palmer); the text refers to what may be a 1912 version
KEYWORDS: farming contest
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1842 - the Brimmy Croft mowing contest
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #121, "Mowing Match Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1143
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Nutting GIrl" (tune)
File: PECS121

Mowing the Barley (Cold and Raw)

DESCRIPTION: A lawyer asks a pretty woman where she's going: "To my father a-mowing the barley." He propositions her; she scorns him, (telling him to keep his money for his wife at home). (He presses his case; she yields and marries "into a station above her")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1697 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 39(152)); 1699 ("Pills to Purge Melancholy"; a bawdy version)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction marriage rejection lawyer
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West)) Ireland
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 60, "Mowing the Barley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 62, "Mowing the Barley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 64, "Mowing the Barley" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 82, "The Lawyer" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #96, "The Lawyer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 20, "Lawyer's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 13-14, "Oh Where Beet Gwying?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 28-29, "The Barley Mow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #49, "Mowing the Barley" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 61, "The Maid That Sold Her Barley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 305-309, "Stingo, or Oil of Barley" (1 partial text, 1 tune, plus a different song that does not appear to be traditional)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, "Stingo, or The Oil Of Barley, or Cold And Raw" (1 tune)
Behan-IrelandSings, #5,"As I Was Going O'er the Moor" (1 text, tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN499, "Cold and Raw the North did blow"; cf. ZN2294, "Riding down a narrow lane, two or three hours after"
DT, MOWBRLY SOLDBRLY*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 281-282, "The Maid That Sold Her Barley" (1 text)
Roud #922
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Cold and Raw" (on Lloyd01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 39(152), "The Northern Ditty" or "The Scotch-man Out-witted by the Country Damsel", P. Brooksby (London), 1683-1696; also Harding B 39(201)[almost entirely illegible], Douce Ballads 2(168a), Douce Ballads 3(70a), Vet. A3 b.43(13), Harding B 1(86), "The Northern Ditty" or "The Scotch-man Out-witted by the Country Damsel"; Harding B 1(87), Harding B 11(2300), Harding B 11(2301), 2806 c.15(108)[almost entirely illegible], Harding B 26(413), Harding B 11(3867), 2806 b.11(138), Harding B 19(28), "[The] Maid That Sold Her Barley"
NLScotland, APS.4.84.18, "The Northern Ditty" or "The Scotchman Outwitted by a Country Damsel," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Frozen Limb" (plot elements)
SAME TUNE:
The Lusty Fryer of Flanders/Not long ago from hence I went (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1898)
The Poor Contented Cuckold/Was e'er man so unfortunate (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2731)
Roger's Renown..Fourth and Last Merry Ditty of Cold and Raw/Roger did a letter send (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2302)
The Downright Wooing Of Honest John & Betty/Well met my pritty Betty (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2778)
A General Summons ..Hen-Peck'd Frigate/Here is a summons for all honest men (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1133)
The London Jilts Lamentation/Here is wonderful Strange News (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1136)
The Miserable Mountebank/In a market town of late (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1403)
The Wealthy Farmers Choice/Near a pleasant shady grove, in prime of summer weather (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1863)
Up in the Morning Early (_Scots Musical Museum_ #140, probably a partial rewrite of this piece)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Cold and Raw
Lawyer Lee
The Maid Who Sold Her Barley
NOTES [325 words]: Although this song is most famous as "Cold and Raw" (see the numerous broadsides using this tune), there are versions which do not use this phrase, so I chose the title "Mowing the Barley." In addition, the "Cold and raw" refrain apparently exists as an independent nursery refrain; see Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #414, p. 194, "(Cold and raw the north wind doth blow)."
According to Arnold Kellett, The Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition, and Folklore, revised edition, Smith Settle, 2002, p. 175, "Stingo" (one of the names for this tune) is "strong beer from the first brewing."
There is a broadside, NLScotland APS.4.84.18, "The Northern Ditty; or The Scotchman Outwitted by a Country Lass," which begins with the words of this song, but the rest sounds like a "Baffled Knight" plot. The photograph of the sheet is largely illegible. - RBW
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople: "And well in the station above her" is a Sharp emendation, following "They live in the happiest content of life," of "And will in the place above here." In the Bodleian broadsides, for example Harding B 11(2300) and Harding B 1(87), the girl takes his money and leaves him behind on the other side of a river he can't ford.
Sequels or answers arose early. Some of the "Northern Ditty" broadsides listed above have "a second part" (for example, Douce Ballads 3(70a) and Harding B 1(87)).
See Bodleian, Don. b.13(12), "A third merry ditty of Cold and raw," J. Deacon (London), 1671-1704; Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(187a), "Rogers Renown" or "The fourth and last merry ditty of Cold and raw," J. Blare (London), 1683-1706
Bodleian attributes its "The Northern Ditty" broadsides' authorship to Thomas D'Urfey. I don't find that attribution on the face of any of those broadsides. For information about Thomas D'Urfey see The Contemplator's Short Biography of Thomas D'Urfey (1653-1723) at the Contemplations from the Marianas Trench contemplator.com site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ShH60

Mowing the Hay

DESCRIPTION: Singer goes to Dublin to hire to mow hay. He is hired by a farmer for one thousand a year. He apparently meets a girl and gets consent of "daddy and mammy." They marry and "Whilst the money it will hold out, We'll make the old-tap-room shake"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage farming drink
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #16878
RECORDINGS:
Andy Cash, "Mowing the Hay" (on IRTravellers01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mower" (subject)
File: RcMowtHa

Mozart Alleluia (Alleluia, Alleluia)

DESCRIPTION: To a tune by Mozart, "Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia."
AUTHOR: Music: Wolfgant Amadeus Mozrt (1756-1791), adapted by Harry Robert Wilson (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 446, "Alleluia, Alleluia" (notes only)
File: ACSF446M

MP that Goes Shilly Shally, The

DESCRIPTION: An MP says he's a good Protestant but does not speak out or vote on critical issues. He won't insist on letting the Bible into school. "He hates the name of 'Orangeman,' 'They go it far too strong; They hit too hard at Popery, And that is very wrong!'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: Ireland humorous nonballad political religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 30, "The MP that Goes Shilly Shally" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lucy Long" (tune, according to Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
NOTES [144 words]: Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark: "An attack on a Parliamentarian who was a Mister Looking-Both-Ways." - BS
This sort of behavior was apparently a significant issue in Ulster. Robert Kee, in The Bold Fenian Men (being volume II of The Green Flag), Penguin, 1972, p. 102, talks of the response of William Johnston [for whom see "William Johnston of Ballykilbeg"] to such people: "At [a meeting in 1868] the resentment felt by rank and file Orangemen for the upper-class conservatives was particularly marked. Such conservatives, said Johnston, liked their votes very much but they disliked the name of Orangemen. They had used the Orangemen for thirty years and it was 'now time to put their members of Parliament through their catechism.'" Johnston in fact did so, running for Parliament himself and taking the seat even though neither major party supported him. - RBW
File: OrLa030

MP's Life for Me, An

See An M.P.'s Life for Me (File: BaRo109)

Mr. Bee, Why Do You Bite Me?

DESCRIPTION: "A very little (boy) one day, planted a sunflower seed... What a wonderful feast he thought it would be For a fine little hungry honeybee!" So he brings a bee to the flower. It stings him. The boy complains, "Don't be angry Mr. Bee, why do you bite me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2022 (Derek Piotr Archive)
KEYWORDS: flowers children injury bug | sunflower bee
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. B. H. Cutler, "Unknown "Sunflower Seed" Song" (Piotr-Archive #222, recorded 08/29/2022)
NOTES [39 words]: I suspect, both from what Mrs. Cutler said and from the form of the song, that this is one of those dreadful songs taught in schools to teach... behavior, or something. But I haven't been able to find a source, so I can't prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio222

Mr. Boll Weevil

See The Boll Weevil [Laws I17] (File: LI17)

Mr. Carpenter

See The Arkansas Traveler (fiddle recitation) (File: FSC090)

Mr. Finagan

See Molly McGlocklin (File: RcMolMcG)

Mr. Flynn Broke His Chin

DESCRIPTION: "Mr. Flynn Broke his chin Sliding on A banana skin."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: injury food | chin banana
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 56, "(Mr. Flynn)" (1 text)
Roud #38123
File: BAAI056C

Mr. Fox

DESCRIPTION: Game in which players approach "Mr. Fox" until he turns and catches them: "Mr. Fox, what time is it? One o'clock." "Mr. Fox, what time is it?" "Half past one." And so forth, until, "Mr. Fox, what time is it?" "Time for my dinner!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: game animal food | fox time
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 149, "Mr. Fox" (1 text)
File: BAAI149A

Mr. Frog Went A-Courting

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Mr. Garfield

See Mister Garfield (File: RcMrGarf)

Mr. Grumble

See Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)

Mr. Low Is a Very Good Man

DESCRIPTION: "Mr. Low/Long/Foster/Faustus is a very good man, Who tries to teach us all he can, Singing, spelling, arithmetic, He never forgets to give us the stick." "...He goes to church on Sunday, He prays to God to make us good, And gives us the cuts on Monday."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty abuse injury jumprope | teacher
FOUND IN: New Zealand Ireland Britain
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 55, "(Mr. Low is a very good man)," "(Ole Pa Watson's a very good man)" (2 texts)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 98, "([Name] is a very good man)" (2 verses which seem to be treated as separate texts)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 59, "Dr. Foster was a good man" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #108, "Doctor Long is a very good man" (1 text)
J. C. Reid, _A Book of New Zealand_ (Collins National Anthologies), Collins, 1964, p. 334, "Children's Games" ("Mr. Low is a very good man") (1 text)
Roud #19288
File: SuSm055

Mr. Mouse Went A-Courting

See Frog Went A-Courting AND Kemo Kimo (File: R108)

Mr. Pierce's Experience

DESCRIPTION: "On the twenty-fifth of September, I always it shall remember." Mr. Pierce, of Cambridge, is driving cars when his horse goes wild. The cars crush his legs, which have to be amputated. He warns of and moralizes about his fate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (New Green Mountain Songster)
KEYWORDS: horse technology wreck injury disability
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 161-164, "Mr. Pierce's Experience" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 54-56, "Mr. Pierce's Experience" (1 text)
File: CAFS1054

Mr. Postman Die

DESCRIPTION: Children's game song in three sections about a postman, about a pussy giving directions, and an unrelated conclusion.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (BeenStorm1)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The first section is call and response about the postman. For example, leader "Mister Postman die," response "How he die," "He die like-a this," "He die like-a this." Then the leader says "Where he livin'," and everyone does the remaining lines about where the postman lives and what he wears. All continue in the second section where "pussy" gives directions such as "touch the ground" and "turn around." Finally all speed through "Now I went to college, and now I went to school, and now I went to booglie booglie boo." The game gets faster as it goes.
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Mabel Hillery, Janie Hunter and her grandchildren, "Mr. Postman Died" (on JohnsIsland1)
Janie Hunter's children, "Mr. Postman Die" (on BeenStorm1)
File: RcJHMrPD

Mr. Postman Died

See Mr. Postman Die (File: RcJHMrPD)

Mr. Pussyfoot

DESCRIPTION: "Mr. Pussyfoot, bow wow. Mr. Pussyfoot, miaou miaou. Fancy coming from America to try To make Old England dry. Mr. Pussyfoot, bow wow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: drink animal travel
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1862-1945 - Life of William "Pussyfoot" Johnson
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 190, "Mr. Pussyfoot, bow wow" (1 short text)
Roud #25455
NOTES [107 words]: At the site westervillelibrary.org, I found a short biography of William Johnson, known for some reason as "Pussyfoot." (One hypothesis is that it was because he worked to get laws changed by stealth rather than openly.) He became a "dry" crusader, and in that cause visited England in 1919 (where he was attacked and lost an eye). I would assume this song is about the 1919 visit. I have no explanation for the animal references in the song. He has a Wikipedia entry, although it's not particularly long.
Fowke thinks this inspired by "Drink Old England Dry," but I don't think that the actual tune although it may have supplied the idea. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC190C

Mr. Woodburn's Courtship

See Captain Wedderburn's Courtship [Child 46] (File: C046)

Mr. Wright and Mrs. Wrong

DESCRIPTION: Old Mr. Wright married Mrs. Wrong, a gin drinker. One night she came home drunk and "flew into the riverside with suicide intent." He jumped in to save her and they were never heard of again. The chorus says "Wrong married right and Wright married wrong"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: age love marriage death drowning river drink humorous wordplay husband wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18230
RECORDINGS:
Lou O'Driscoll, "Mr. Wright and Mrs. Wrong" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcMrWMsW

Mrs McLeod of Raasay

DESCRIPTION: "Up wi't Meggie Dickie, doun wi't a'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1720, "Mrs McLeod of Raasay" (1 fragment)
Roud #13196
NOTES [92 words]: The Greig/Duncan8 text repeats the description line three times. Greig/Duncan8 does not explain why this text is connected to the title. There is, Greig/Duncan8 notes, a tune named "Mrs McLeod of Raasay" but there is no indication that this text is to be sung to that tune.
Greig/Duncan8: "This is said to refer to the notorious Meg Dick of the White Ship Tavern .... The Black Drummer was murdered in her house.... Margaret Dick's case is discussed at page 168 in the fourth edition of James Bruce, The Black Kalendar of Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1878)" - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81720

Mrs Mulligan, the Pride of the Coombe

DESCRIPTION: "I am a scrap of a widow" from the Coombe in Dublin. She has had a room and stall, selling fruit, sweets and second-hand clothes, for (35) years. "And where would you see a nate widow like me, Mrs Mulligan, the Pride of the Coombe?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: commerce humorous Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads, p. 230, "Mrs Mulligan, the Pride of the Coombe" (1 text)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 94, "Mrs Mulligan the Pride of Coombe" (1 text)
DT, BIDDYMUL*
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 10-11, "Biddy Mulligan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16250
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Biddy Mulligan
Biddy Mulligan the Pride of the Coombe
NOTES [125 words]: Harte declares this a relatively recent song, made famous by Jimmy O'Dea, who acted the character of Biddy. He does not say that O'Dea wrote the song, but it seems not impossible. - RBW
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin: "The song was was supposedly written and composed by Seamus Kavanagh, but for reservations concerning such attributions, see Tom Munnelly, Mount Callan Garland, 121." Munnelly: "'The Bandon Blarney Stone' was published in sheet-music form by Walton's Musical Galleries of Dublin in 1936 and its authorship ascribed to Seamus Kavanagh. That the song had been doing the rounds considerably earlier than that is proved by the fact that a recording of it was made in America by Shaun O'Nolan, 'The Wicklow Piper,' in 1926." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OLoc230A

Mrs O'Grady

DESCRIPTION: Mrs O'Grady, or Mistress Shady, or Mrs Brady "was a lady, She had a daughter whom I adore." The singer courted her each day -- Monday, Tuesday,... -- "afternoon at half past four." Her hair color changes on each telling.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty hair
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 414, "Mrs O'Grady" (1 text)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mistress Shady
Mrs Brady
NOTES [26 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: .".. may have been a transient enthusiasm ... we have not heard of its being used as a game in the thirty-odd years since [1950]." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGap414

Mrs. Barton, Mrs. Barton

See Beg Your Pardon, Mrs. Arden (File: SuSm132P)

Mrs. Bliss

See Teasing Songs (File: EM256)

Mrs. Bond

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, what (shall we have/have you got) for dinner, (Mrs.) Bond? There's beef in the larder and ducks in the pond." Mrs. Bond offers good meat to her customers, and sends the ostler to kill the ducks. They flee him. She at last goes out herself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 (Juvenile Amusements No. 48, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: food bird commerce
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 62, "Oh, what have you got for dinner, Mrs Bond?" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #822, pp. 306-307, "(Oh, what have you got for dinner, Mrs. Bond)"
Roud #4580
RECORDINGS:
Roxana Robinson, "Mrs. Bond (Come and Be Killed)" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #702, recorded 10/01/2023)
NOTES [153 words]: Much of this revolves around the duck cry "Dilly, dilly, come and be killed." The Baring-Goulds note that there are actually traditions of such animal calls, though this is the only one I've ever heard quoted in any other context. - RBW
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes: "'Mrs Bond' was originally 'introduced and sung by Mr Bannister Junior in the character of Jerry Sneak', in Foote's 'The Mayor of Garret' (1763). The song was popular, and was immediately issued by rival music publishers ....'" - BS
Derek Piotr's informant Roxana Robinson reported finding this in Anthony Trollope. This is partly true: Trollope reports the duck-call "Will you, will you⁠ -- will you, will you⁠ -- come and be killed." This is from Doctor Thorne, XLIV, "Saturday Evening and Sunday Morning." The book was published in 1858. But it has just the one line; the plot is missing, and in any case, the whole thing is older. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGMG822

Mrs. Brown Went to Town (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Mrs Brown went to town, Riding on a pony, When she came back, she took off her hat And gave it to [or they called her] Miss Malonie." Or "...town, To buy a pair of britches, When she came home, she tried them on, And bang! went the stitches."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850s (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: derivative humorous nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber,High)) New Zealand US(So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #159, p. 2, ("Mrs Brown went to town") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1617, "Mrs Brown Went to Town" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 441, "(Old Mrs Brown went up to town)" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 132, "(Mrs. Brown went to town)" (1 text); also probably "(Mrs. B. went to town)" (1 short text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 54, "Buster Brown" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #361, "Mrs. Brown went to town" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: M.C. Balfour, County Folklore (London, 1904 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. IV, p. 120, ("My mother said that I should not") (1 text) [see note]
Edward W.B. Nicholson, editor, Golspie: Contributions to its Folklore (London, 1897 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 188, "Missis Brown" (1 text)
Roud #12982
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (structure and some words)
NOTES [243 words]: Both Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame and Greig/Duncan8 add one or more unrelated verses that "might be used in any order" [Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame].
The Balfour text is eight lines. The first four are "My Mother Said (Gypsies in the Wood)"; the last four are "Mrs Brown Went to Town." In this case "Susan Brown went to town With her breeches hanging down."
The Nicholson text has Mrs Brown return with "a Dolly Varden hat." Nicholson notes that "the 'Dolly Varden' style of dress came in about 1872." See the discussion for "The Dolly Varden Hats" song.
A parody from the 1870's: "Mr Brown went up to town On dit to see his dentist, When he came back He got the sack, Thou'rt sorry, Brown, thou wentest" (source: , The Shotover Papers, or Echoes from Oxford (Oxford, 1874-1875 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, No. 11 (November 28th, 1874), p. 169). - BS
Roud lumps Solomon-ZickaryZan's "Buster Brown" text here, and I do the same even though parts of it probably belong elsewhere, because children's verses swap so eaily.
The strange thought occurs to me that this might just be about Queen Victoria, her servant John Brown, and her earlier confidant Lord Melbourne. This may have come to me simply because the song is printed in GriegDuncan 8 not too far from "John Brown's Snapsack," which gives every evidence of being about Victoria and Brown. For the background on this, see the notes to "John Brown's Body," under which "John Brown's Snapsack" files. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: GrD81617

Mrs. Brown Went to Town (II)

See Mrs. Red Went to Bed (File: AJRR363)

Mrs. D. Mrs. I. (Difficulty)

DESCRIPTION: A "hot hands"/clapping game. "Mrs. D -- Mrs. I, Mrs. F -- F-- F, Mrs. C -- Mrs. U, Mrs. L -- T -- Y." DIFFICULTY
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: wordplay
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 37, "Mrs. D -- Mrs. I" (1 text)
Roud #29508
File: BAAI037A

Mrs. Day Made a Cake

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Mrs. Day made a cake. The cake was soggy, She fed it to her doggy. The doggy ate the cake; He got the stomach-ache. How many days did he have it? One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Journal of American Folklore, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: cook food dog disease
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #362, "Mrs. Day Made a Cake" (1 text)
NOTES [43 words]: I have to think that this has lost a line at the beginning, although with only one version, we can't be sure. But note that the first extant line does not rhyme with anything. Probably it started with something along the lines of "Mrs. Day went to bake." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR362

Mrs. Dunne Made Her Bun

DESCRIPTION: "Mrs. Dunne made her bun In the middle of a nun, Saw a ghost eating toast Half-way up a lamppost."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: clergy ghost
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 64, "(Mrs. Dunne made her bun)" (1 text)
File: BAAI064C

Mrs. Fogarty's Cake

See Trinity Cake (Mrs. Fogarty's Cake) (File: Doyl3062)

Mrs. Gee

See Teasing Songs (File: EM256)

Mrs. Greig of Sandlaw

DESCRIPTION: "Twas at a certain firm toon... A braw goodwife ca'd Mrs. Greig Her servant girlies kept in order." After Greig foils many attempts to sneak in a man, the girls create a straw man, which Grieg "slays" with a cudgel. They hope she has learned her lesson
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: sex nightvisit trick disguise hiding
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #178, pp. 1-2, "The Straw Man" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 316, "Mrs Greig of Sandlaw" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 247-248, "Mrs. Greig of S--" (1 text)
Roud #5161
NOTES [76 words]: Greig: .".. we have deemed it advisable to suppress names. "The Straw Man" (as we have named the ditty) is said to have been written by a Banffshire rhymer of the name of Shaw, who was long beadle at Alvah. He was the author also of "O Charlie, O Charlie," given in Art. LI." - BS
To this we may compare Ord-BothySongsAndBallads. He did not suppress the family name, but did suppress the name of the town. Only in Greig-Duncan do all the names come out. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ord247

Mrs. Hooligan's Christmas Cake

See Trinity Cake (Mrs. Fogarty's Cake) (File: Doyl3062)

Mrs. Macaroni

See Here Comes Solomon and All His Glory (File: GrD81611)

Mrs. Martin Fell Down Barking

DESCRIPTION: "Mrs. Martin fell down barking, Got up blinking, Ran away thinking."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty injury
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 132, "(Mrs. Martin fell down barking)" (1 text)
File: SuSm132O

Mrs. Mason Broke a Bason

See Old Mother Mason Broke Her Basin (File: SuSm101C)

Mrs. McGrath

DESCRIPTION: A sergeant urges Mrs. McGrath to make her boy a soldier. He sails away in fine style. For seven years she waits for him, hoping for word. At last he returns with both legs gone. (She curses the wars.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: war injury separation soldier
FOUND IN: Ireland Australia US(MW)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 126, "Mrs. McGrath"; pp. 197-198, "My Son Ted" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 48-49, "Teddy McGraw" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 121-123, "Mrs. McGrath" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 211, "Mrs McGrath" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H131, pp. 84-85, "My Son Ted" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 71, "Mrs McGrath" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 179, "Mrs. McGrath" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 37-39, "Mrs McGrath" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 275, "Mrs. McGrath" (1 text)
DT, MRSMCGRT*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 285-287, "Mrs. McGrath" (1 text)
Roud #678
RECORDINGS:
Seamus Ennis, "Mrs. McGrath" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
Pete Seeger, "Mrs. McGrath" (on BroonzySeeger2) (on PeteSeeger15) (on PeteSeeger44)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(76), "Teddy O'Gra" ("Come all you sons of Hibernia," T. Birt (London), 1833-1841; also Harding B 11(3746), Firth c.12(314), "Teddy O'Gra"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kerry Recruit" [Laws J8] (theme)
cf. "Felix the Soldier" (theme)
cf. "Lovely Jamie" (plot)
cf. "The Wars of America" (plot)
NOTES [352 words]: OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads: "Known to every true-born citizen of Dublin. In the years 1913-1916 it was the most popular marching song of the Irish Volunteers."
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "This song of the Peninsular War dates, according to one source, to 1815. The earliest account of it in Ireland seems to be 1876 when Sam Henry's informant learned it in Belfast."
The final verse of the three Bodleian "Teddy O'Gra" broadsides seems to refer to the Peninsular War or the 1830s First Carlist War (which included Irish volunteers):
A mighty war I will proclaim
Against the King and Queen of Spain,
And I will make them rue the day,
They shot my Teddy's legs away.
Hoagland's text refers to the First Carlist War: "All foreign wars I do proclaim Between Don John and the King of Spain...."
The following note from John Moulden is quoted with permission:
"I note that all the ballad sheets of this song in Bodley or Madden are English printed. To my almost certain knowledge there is not a single one of Irish popular print origin in those libraries, the British Library, Birmingham University Library or any Irish library in either ballad sheet or 8-page song book form. This suggests that the song originated in Britain and diffused to Ireland only early in the 20th century. This is not the only possibility but the one the evidence most strongly suggests.
Actually, it appears that the mid nineteenth-century texts which begin approximately 'Come all of you Hibernian sons' have been substantially altered in the more recent ones; several of the verses at the beginning have been omitted and the 'humour' of the later ones 'enhanced'."
John Moulden is researcher at the "Centre for the Study of Human Settlement and Historical Change" at National University of Ireland, Galway whose subject is "the printed ballad in Ireland."
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Son Tim" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: MA126

Mrs. McKenzie's Dead

See Queen Anne's Dead (File: SuSm140)

Mrs. McLaughlin's Party

DESCRIPTION: Everyone prepares for weeks, buying new clothes and patching the old, for Mrs McLaughlin's party. They dance and drink all night until the fiddler falls drunk and they carry him home, and fight on the way.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: fight dancing drink music party brawl
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 61, "Mrs. McLaughlin's Party" (1 text)
Roud #18228
RECORDINGS:
Jack Houlihan, "Mother McLaughlin's Party" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
SAME TUNE:
Julia Harding Got Her Hair Bobbed for the Races ("Oh give us the days of our grannies") (by Johnny Burke) (Johnny Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1926_, self-published, 1926 (PDF copy avallable on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), [no page number])
NOTES [30 words]: Also see a text and hear an excerpt of "Mother McLaughlin's Party" among Newfoundland songs as sung by Jack Houlihan on the "MacEdward Leach and the Songs of Atlantic Canada" site. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: OCon061

Mrs. Mullowney Was Three Weeks in Bed Since She Ate the Fipper Stew

DESCRIPTION: "Mrs. James Mullowney gave A party Tuesday night... They say the table fairly groaned...." Mrs. Mullowney "couldn't eat no more... She swooned off on the floor." After recovering, "just mention fippper stew" if you want to be attacked
AUTHOR: presumably Johnny Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Burke's Ballads)
KEYWORDS: food party doctor humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 125, "Mrs. Mullowney Was Three Weeks in Bed Since She Ate the Fipper Stew" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 49, "Mrs. Mullowney Was Three Weeks in Bed Since She Ate the Fipper Stew" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #33, p. 53, "Mrs. Mullowney Was Three Weeks in Bed Since She Ate the Fipper Stew" (1 text)
Roud #V44588
NOTES [439 words]: Yes, that's "fipper." A common Newfoundland pronunciation of "flipper," since the dish is made of seal. (I find no use of "fipper" [as opposed to "flipper"] in the section on Newfoundland dialect in Young, but England, pp. 134, 315, attests to it, and StoryKirwinWiddowson, pp. 175, 191, list "fipper," "fippar," and "phripper" as variants of "flipper," with "phripper" being attested as early as 1770 and "fipper" by 1822. Their instances of usage also include this song.)
According to Bob Bartlett (who should know; see his biography under "Captain Bob Bartlett"), "The flesh [of the seal] is by no means disagreeable, though it has a general flavor of fish, which constitutes the seal's chief food" (Bartlett-Karluk, p. 54). Sealers normally ate seal while on the ice (indeed, if far from the ship, they might eat it raw), and dishes such as "flipper pie" were known (Young, p. 77).
Flippers were one of the few "perks" sealers were (usually) allowed to take home; they sold very well in Newfoundland; Ryan-Last, pp. 264-266, has ten different discussions by sealers of flippers, making them one of the most popular topics of his oral history project.
I do not know if it is significant that the sick woman was "Mrs. Jim Mullowney," and a skipper's wife. Sealing captains ran to dynasties (the result, says Ryan-ice, p. 218, of the contraction of the sealing fleet that followed the introduction of larger ships, which forced many captains and second hands out of their positions), and there were two men named Mullowney (first names unknown) who commanded sealers in 1853: one skippered the Primrose and one the Alpha (Ryan-Ice, p. 459). Pierre Mullowney was skipper of the the Ranger in 1872-1873 (Feltham, p. 115), and of the Proteus -- at the time, one of the biggest and fanciest sealers -- in 1874 (Feltham, p. 109), but I haven't found a reference to a James Mullowney.
Of the other references in the song, "white-coats" and "harps" are both harp seals; the whitecoats are the infant seals that were the primary target of the seal hunt; harps were the adults.
Bedlamers are second year seals, not yet fully mature but able to care for themselves -- sort of the seal equivalent of teenagers. The title is a description of age; a bedlamer may be either a "harp" or a "hood." The origin of the name is uncertain; some connect it with "bedlam," because they create bedlam, others with French "bête de la mer," "beast of the sea" (Young, p. 33; StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 37, prefer the "bedlam" sense, and first cite the term from 1766).
For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm125

Mrs. Murphy's Chowder

DESCRIPTION: "Mem'ries of the golden west and friends I used to know Take me back to that boarding house Where I lived long ago." On Fridays the residents waited for Mrs. Murphy's chowder, which "made you yodel louder," and included things from benzene to ice cream
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (ArkansasWoodchopper)
KEYWORDS: food home humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 10-13, "Mrs. Murphy's Chowder" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ArWo010 (Partial)
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink] , "Mrs. Murphy's Chowder" (Conqueror 7879)
NOTES [54 words]: Although there is some thematic similarity, this is not the same song as the equally silly but slightly better-known "Who Put the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder," which is also sometimes called "Mrs. Murphy's Chowder." Steve Roud either omits this one or lumps the two. Meade, Spottswood, and Meade definitely lump them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ArWo010

Mrs. O'Leary

See Mother Leary's Cow (File: ACSF110M)

Mrs. Red Went to Bed

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Mrs. Red went to bed, In the morning she was dead." "Mrs. Brown went to town, To buy herself a (wedding gown?)." (Or, "with one leg up and the other down")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: colors death commerce
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 65, "(Mrs. Brown)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #363, "Mrs. Red" (1 text)
Roud #19078
File: AJRR363

Mrs. Russell Had a Bustle

DESCRIPTION: "Mrs. Russell had a bustle, Mr. Bush gave it a push... Sent it back to New York City"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (NewmYan/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong)
KEYWORDS: nonballad travel wordplay
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 201, "Mrs. Russell Had a Bustle" (1 short text)
Roud #5246
NOTES [24 words]: I feel as if I have met this device before, only with someone other than "Mrs. Russell" as the first name in the chain. But I can't find it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: NeDe201

Mrs. Simpson Lives by the Shore

See Mrs. Sippy Lives by the Shore (File: AJRR364)

Mrs. Sippy Lives by the Shore

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Mrs. Sippy (Mississippi, Mrs. Simpson) lived by the shore; She had children more and more; The oldest one was twenty-four. She shall marry...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (California Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: jumprope mother marriage river
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #364, "Mrs. Sippy lived by the shore" (1 text)
Roud #18999
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mississippi Lives by the Shore
Mrs. Simpson Lives by the Shore
NOTES [76 words]: Roud for some reason lumps the Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes text, which appears to by from the California Folklore Quarterly, with "The Old Maid's Song (I)." Abrahams seems to link it with something else that I can't verify because at least one of his references (to Botkin) is wrong. So I'm holding this as a separate item until someone can straighten it out. I've put it with what seems to be its "proper" Roud number despite the Roud/Abrahams confusion. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR364

Much of a Hand

See The Sealer's Ball (File: Pea094)

Muck on my Heel

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

Mucking o' Geordie's Byre, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the filthy habits of Geordie and his family, and the strange and immense task of cleaning out Geordie's byre. The family's ineptitude and the poorly trained animals result in improbable accidents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 (_Scots Musical Museum_, #96)
KEYWORDS: home work animal dancetune
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber)) Australia
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 257, "The Muckin' o' Geordie's Byre" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan7 1303, "The Muckin' o' Geordie's Byre" (3 fragments, 2 tunes)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 82, "Muckin' of Geordie's Byre" (1 tune)
DT, MUCKBYRE
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Rodger, _Poems and Songs_ (Glasgow, 1838), pp. 29-33, "The Mucking o' Geordie's Byre"
Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, p. 372, "The Muckin' o' Geordie's Byre"
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume I, #96, p. 97, "The Mucking of Geordie's Byre" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST DTMoGB (Full)
Roud #2137
NOTES [44 words]: This humorous piece has an incredibly complex history, as various poets (including Robert Burns) have taken their hacks at it. The result is so thoroughly mingled that it probably is not possible even to describe the original. - RBW
Rodger: "Written in 1819." - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: DTMoGB

Muckle Meal-Pock, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a sturdy beggar loon, weel kent the country through." The rambler describes his life and all work. At last he trades in his pack for "a cuddy an' a cart;" he admits a carrier is "a gentleman compared to the owner o' a pock."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Ford); before 1850 (NLScotland, L.C.1270(006))
KEYWORDS: begging work travel
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 239-241, "The Muckle Meal-Pock" (1 text)
Roud #13087
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.1270(006), "The Muckle Meal Pock," James Kay (Glasgow), c. 1845; also L.C.Fol.70(34a) [same as the preceding, but with the accompanying text of "Irish Molly, O" cut away]
File: FVS239

Muddley Barracks

DESCRIPTION: The singer accepts the King's shilling to enlist in Muddley Minor regiment. At Muddley Barracks "they cut my hair so close to my head I could hardly wink my eye." Between marching drills, discipline, and meager food he wishes he were back behind the plow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (recording, Jumbo Brightwell)
KEYWORDS: soldier recruiting food ordeal hardtimes hair
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
Roud #1735
RECORDINGS:
Jumbo Brightwell, "Muddley Barracks" (on Voice20)
NOTES [33 words]: For the typical British recruiting method of The King's Shilling and getting potential soldiers drunk, as well as the miserable conditions in the army, see the notes to "The Recruited Collier." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: RcMuddBa

Mudion River

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on the muses to pay attention as he asks their aid in praising the Mudion River. He admits the virtues of other Irish rivers, but none can compare with the Mudion. Had he money to spare, he would spent it living by the Mudion
AUTHOR: "Master (Mc?)Mullan"
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: river home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H108b, pp. 169-170, "Mudion River" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #13484
File: HHH108b

Muff Lawler, the Squealer [Laws E25]

DESCRIPTION: Muff Lawler, a member of the Molly Maguires, is accused (of murder). Rather than face the consequences, he offers to turn informant if he can be protected from the remaining Mollies. The deal is struck when the lawyers offer to send him to another county
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining reprieve punishment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1876 - Conviction of Michael "Muff" Lawler on a charge of murder
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws E25, "Muff Lawler, the Squealer"
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 267-268, "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 398-399, "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 5-6, "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 710, MUFFLAWL
Roud #2254
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sliding Scale" (about the pay system that was at the heart of the Long Strike and about Franklin Gowen against whom the strike was directed)
cf. "The Blacklegs" (another anto-Gowen song)
cf. "W. B. A." (a song of the events leading to the Long Strike of 1874-1875)
cf. "The Long Strike" (a song about the Long Strike itself)
cf. "Pat Mullaly" (likely about a worker who opposed the Long Strike)
cf. "Jimmy Kerrigan's Confession" (about another Molly Maguire "squealer")
cf. "Thomas Duffy" (about one of the executed Molly Maguires)
cf. "Michael J. Doyle" (about one of the executed Molly Maguires)
cf. The Doom of Campbell, Kelly and Doyle" (about three of the executed Molly Maguires)
cf. "Hugh McGeehan" (another executed Molly)
NOTES [4612 words]: This story arises from the conditions in the Pennsylvania coal fields in the 1870s. The mine owners treated the miners horribly, resulting in a violent response usually attributed to a shadowy group, the "Molly Maguires." So the owners set out to suppress the Mollies.
It should be kept in mind that "The Molly Maguires themselves left virtually no evidence of their existence, let alone their aims and motivations. Almost everything that is known about them was written by hostile contemporary observers" (Kenny, p. 5). In fact, this song is one of the few pieces from the other side.
To rid themselves of the Mollies, the mining companies hired the Pinkerton detective agency, and Pinkerton decided to employ James McParlan (who later took to spelling his name "McParland") to infiltrate the group. Muff Lawler was one of those he met.
"[Michael] Lawler was in his forties [when he met McParland] and... was 'above medium height, heavily but not clumsily built... with black hair and heavy side whiskers of the same color, the chin being shaven,' all below a bald crown.... [H]e ran a tavern, but he also still worked occasionally as a contractor in the mines" (Riffenburgh, p. 58).
According to Lukas, p. 181, Lawler was the "bodymaster" of the lodge of the Ancient Order of Hibernians who introduced "James McKenna" (the name used by McParland in his undercover work) to the Pennsylvania Hibernians -- and its local chapter with its clandestine terrorist side. Lukas says that Lawler also trained gamecocks (known as "muffs," hence his nickname) and that his nephew Ed was one of the Mollys' triggermen.
The Pennsylvania Molly Maguires were named for an earlier protest group in Ireland (Riffenburgh, p. 28, or see the notes to "The Molly Maguires"). In their defense, it should be noted that the mine bosses' treatment of their employees also verged on terrorism; the Mollies were just seeking decent conditions.
Weir/Hanlan, pp. 618-619: "Nineteen men were eventually hanged for involvement in what was supposedly a clandestine Irish and Irish American terrorist organization responsible for disorder and murders in coal mining regions of northeast Pennsylvania between 1870 and 1876. It has never been definitively proven that such an organization actually existed. Most of the testimony that condemned alleged Mollies came from Pinkerton agent James McParland, who supposedly infiltrated the Molly Maguires.
"Critics of the verdict claim that the organization was a fiction invented by coal and railroad barons as an excuse for crushing a legitimate trade-union movement that threatened to loosen the autocratic grip of mine owners, who kept workers toiling in company towns as impoverished chattel. They also point out that McParland was exposed as a pathological liar in a twentieth-century case involving the Western Federation of Miners..." (this is the Frank Steunenberg assassination case, for which see "Harry Orchard." Riffenburgh, pp. 1-16, effectively demonstrates McParland's untruthfulness. A typical one: McParland's tombstone gives a date of birth, yet McParland always denied that he knew when he was born -- and once claimed he had gone to sea in the year of his birth).
Rosenbaum, p. 233, "MOLLY MAGUIRES (1865-75), a secret organization among Irish-American coal miners in the anthracite fields of eastern Pennsylvania. During prolonged labor strife, the Molly Maguires allegedly resorted to intimidation, arson, and murder against strikebreakers and mine owners. A Pinkerton detective infiltrated and exposed the organization. On dubious evidence, 20 of its members were hanged and the organization destroyed."
One of the big reasons for all this conflict was that the Pennsylvania coal fields were special -- they supplied high-quality anthracite coal; few other coal fields had such a quality product (Riffenburgh, pp. 30-31). This meant that they offered the potential for high profits -- if they were managed appropriately. This was especially true of the southern fields, where the coal was hardest to mine because of the angle of the seams (Kenny, p. 47); in the northern fields, around Scranton, the coal was more accessible. Franklin Gowen was able to control enough of the coalfields to accomplish that management (Riffenburgh, pp. 22-27. Gowen had all the morals of a sea slug, but it's hard to deny that he was brilliant; in addition to assembling a successful coal monopoly, he was also the lawyer whose skills convicted the sundry Mollies; Bimba, p. 33. And he was put in charge of the Reading Railroad in 1869 at the age of 32; Kenny, p. 136. Which makes me wonder how he managed to avoid getting drafted into the American Civil War...). But he wasn't satisfied with monopoly control over a valued resource. He wanted to drive down his costs -- meaning that he wanted cheap labor. The miners fought back. Hard to blame them; it was a deadly job -- Bimba, p. 24, says that in 1871, 112 miners were killed and 339 injured in Schuylkill County. That was the worst year, but mining was never safe.
It's also possible that the miners suffered even more prejudice than most Irish in America; Kenny, p. 37, suggests that an unusually high proportion were from the Gaelic-speaking portions of Ireland. (In fact, one family involved with the Mollies, that of the "Widow O'Donnell," were cousins of Patrick O'Donnell, who half a decade after this would kill James Carey, the informant in Ireland's Phoenix Park Murders; Kenny, p. 207. For the Phoenix Park murders, the subject of close to a dozen songs, see the notes to "The Phoenix Park Tragedy.") The whole county was heavily immigrant (1870 population 116,428; 30,856 immigrants; 13,465 from Ireland; Kenny, p. 53).
The first death associated with the labor troubles came as early as 1862, when one Frank W. Langdon, who was criticizing a group of Irish miners, was beaten so badly that he died (Riffenburgh, pp. 32-33). But this happened relatively publicly, and spontaneously; could it really be blamed on a secret organization? "[I]t is difficult to see how it could have been attributed to the Molly Maguires other than retrospectively" (Kenny, p. 85). The only real evidence of terrorism in Pennsylvania in this period was that there were a lot of murders -- there were 14 in 1863, 14 in 1864, 12 in 1865, six in 1866. Many of these involved mine officials; in one case, a mine owner was killed in the sight of his family! (Riffenburgh, pp. 34-35). But certainly not all involved mine officials -- Kenny, p. 8, lists a total of only 16 Molly Maguire-type murders from 1862 to 1875, with just one each in 1862, 1863, 1865, 1866, and 1867, and none at all in 1864; it wasn't until 1874-1875 that things really got out of hand. (Kenny, p. 188, has a list classified by type. I'm a bit dubious of it, but it implies that organized attacks on mine officials mostly came late.) The Pennsylvania legislature in 1865 responded by letting the mining companies, and the railroads that worked with them, set up their own law enforcement organizations with significant, unregulated powers (Riffenburgh, p. 36).
The crimes rate did fall after that, but not because of the new law; the likely explanation is that the Workingman's Benevolent Association worked to improve the miners' living conditions while negotiating with the bosses (Riffenburgh, pp. 36-40; Kenny, p. 103).
But then Gowen started squeezing. And maneuvering. By the end of 1874, his Reading company owned more than 100,000 acres of land and more than 100 collieries (Riffenburgh, p. 43). He then used his market dominance to drive out the coal middlemen, and cut a deal with other coal owners to divide the market (Riffenburg, p. 44; Kenny, pp. 1501-151, lists the shares, with Reading getting the largest -- meaning that he could hope to eventually drive his competitors out of business and have a true monopoly). He had achieved a classic oligopoly, with nothing left to interfere with his dominance except the miners. He cut wages, and also started company stores and made it clear that the miners would shop there or be blacklisted (Bimba, p. 27; Kenny, p. 141, says that the Reading was the only rail line serving the area, so he was able to enforce his control by raising rates for businesses that resisted him).
These demands were so stringent that the miners again started to fight back. So Gowen talked to Allan Pinkerton about ways to destroy the miners' organizations (Riffenburgh, p. 45). And Pinkerton eventually decided to infiltrate an immigrant Irishman, James McParlan(d), into the Ancient Order of Hibernians to try to find out more about the Mollies. (There would be other Pinkertons later -- Riffenburgh, pp. 65-66, 71, etc.; p. 75 tells of them forming an official alliance and "flying squadron" with the company police, which gave the Pinkertons arresting power -- but McParland was the first and most important. The "squadron" was led by Robert J. Lindon, who would also be important in the aftermath. A Scotsman, P. M. Cummings, also infiltrated the Workingmen's Benevolent Organization -- Kenny, p. 156 -- but he found it entirely peaceful, which of course wasn't what Gowen wanted.)
Although McParland went in alone, he needed help and preparation. McParland worked for two weeks with Franklin Pinkerton to develop a new identity. McParland would become James McKenna. And even McKenna would be a sort of double identity. "McParlan's new character was not a nice man. He supposedly had come to the coal region to hide from the police after murdering a man in a grain elevator in Buffalo. But this was not to be 'disclosed' to just anyone -- his initial story was to be that he had worked in the silver mines of Colorado, where jobs were becoming scarce" (Riffenburg, p. 51). He would only reveal the "true" tale when he managed to reach the violent inner circle of the Mollies. He also was supposed to have a sideline dealing in counterfeit money.
"McKenna" headed for coal county on October 17, 1873 (Riffenburgh, p. 52), and wandered around the area for some days before making a temporary landing in Pottsville (Riffenburgh, p. 53). He gave a fine performance, drinking, singing, fighting -- but not finding a job (not that he actually wanted one -- he was there to investigate -- but he had to go through the motions!). So one of the friends he had made "suggested he go over the mountains to Shenandoah, where Michael Lawler, the bodymaster, would look after him" (Riffenburgh, p. 56).
Lawler got McKenna into the local HIbernians even though McKenna showed clear signs of having lied about his membership in Ireland (Riffenburgh, pp. 55, 57); he was initiated on April 14, 1874 at Lawler's tavern (Kenny, p. 155). Lawler also found him a job loading coal wagons rather than mining (Riffenburgh, p. 59), which was was relatively low on the pay scale and social hierarchy -- a job done mostly by the unskilled Irish (Riffenburgh, p. 62).
"McKenna" apparently won Lawler's trust by helping him with his fighting cocks. He ended up living with Lawler's family, even though it meant he no longer had his own bed and had to scramble very hard to write and deliver his reports (Riffenburgh, pp. 60-61). He also saw first-hand how hard the miners' lives were -- he called it the hardest work he ever had, and that was apart from claustrophobia and nausea from working in the dark, crowded conditions. Any normal person would surely have started to sympathize with the workers -- but McParland doesn't seem to have been normal.
"McKenna" went through two jobs, then stopped trying. He moved out of Lawler's fairly soon, but managed to find a better place where he didn't have to work so secretly -- and he stayed in Lawler's good graces (Riffenburgh, pp. 62-63). Indeed, on April 14, he was allowed to join the Hibernians -- and started to learn about the terrorist activities (Riffenburgh, p. 64).
Violence wasn't just directed at mine bosses. At least once, a man attempted to murder Lawler, and "McKenna" was instrumental in saving his life (Riffenburgh, p. 66). Something about this perhaps helps explain why Lawler lost his role as bodymaster the following summer, being replaced by Frank McAndrew. But McAndrew was almost illiterate, and so "McKenna" was appointed Secretary of the Shenandoah lodge despite his own limited grasp of spelling and an increasing debility that sounds like it was stress-related (Lukas, p. 183; Riffenburgh, p. 67).
Then came the so-called "Long Strike" that started in December 1874. John Siney, who had headed the Workingman's Benevolent Association, had moved on to a bigger union, and the WBO was in the relatively inexperienced hands of John F. Welsh, who was more willing to go on strike than Siney (Kenny, p. 169). Gowan meanwhile was putting more pressure on the miners' wages. The result was that the workers in the southern coalfields went on strike (Riffenburgh, p. 71). This quickly caused a spike in crime, but at first this was just the sort of brawling you see during any economic downturn, with more theft and violence because people were starving and scared (Riffenburgh, p. 72). But gradually the violence got more organized -- especially since the WBO was breaking down (Riffenburgh, p. 73).
In May 1875, the Long Strike collapsed, with most mine workers being allowed their jobs back under the harsh labor agreement that had caused the strike (Riffenburgh, p. 78). It is estimated that Gowan had forced a 26.5% pay cut on the typical worker (Riffenburgh, p. 80), and as wages continued to fall in the following years, the total decline from 1869 to 1877 was estimated at 54%. The strike had been so hard on workers that at least one superintendent had to supply food to his employees to enable them to work! (Kenny, p. 180).
During the strike, which aroused deep bitterness, violence was again threatened -- and McParland, who was acting head of his lodge while McAndrew was away, headed the mob, but also warned authorities that it was coming (so that police could be there), and managed to frighten the mob so that they did not attack at once (Riffenburgh, p. 79). Later, a murder was planned that he couldn't get out of, but he managed to delay it for a day -- and then got sick, seemingly genuinely but very conveniently (Riffenburgh, pp. 80-81). And on, and on -- the violence continued, with "McKenna" sometimes involved in the planning and sometimes not. The one thing that is clear is that the Pinkertons had not set up a good enough communication system for McParland to quickly report what he had learned.
Eventually the Mollies suspected a traitor. Muff Lawler was one of their first suspects (on October 9, about fifteen bullets were fired into his saloon, according to Riffenburgh, p. 106), but soon "McKenna" came under suspicion (Lukas, p. 185).
I won't go into all the details of the murders, which don't really affect our understanding of the song. Eventually the state started bringing people to trial, and earning convictions. As this was happening, "McKenna" gave up his alias and his infiltration work (both for safety and to help in the prosecution). Even as one of the trials was going on, about a dozen major figures in the mining movement were arrested and put in prison. Lawler was one (Riffenburgh, p. 125).
McParland's role was at best ambiguous. "The weight of the evidence in the Sanger, Uren, and Jones cases is that McParlan let these killings go ahead in order to accumulate more evidence" (Riffenburgh, p. 100, quoting Kevin Kenny without entirely agreeing with him). He played his role of agitator so well that there were mining officials wanted him to face vigilante justice (Riffenburgh, pp. 102-103). He courted the daughter of a labor leader as a way to stick around her father and learn what he could (Riffenburgh, p. 90). As a lodge Secretary, he would have been part of the planning of any terrorist acts.... He would then inform other Pinkertons (notably the "flying squadron"), who "tried to be present when a crime was committed so as to gather eyewitness accounts and physical evidence necessary for convictions.
"It was this procedure that later gave rise to suspicions that McKenna was an agent provocateur who encouraged the Mollies to commit crimes, then arranged for Linden [the Pinkerton liason] to witness them. This is difficult to prove. But it is worth noting that the Mollies' Shenandoah division didn't gain its reputation for homicide until McKenna became its secretary" (Lukas, p. 184).
More than that: When a man was on trial for murder, and McParland knew he was innocent, McParland did not come forward lest it break his cover. McParland said he expected the man, Daniel Dougherty, to be acquitted, and he was, but Dougherty had to undergo a dangerous surgery to remove a bullet to secure the acquittal (Bimba, pp. 84-85, who seems to think Dougherty was being deliberately framed; Riffenburgh, pp. 76-77). There is no reason to think McParland would have come forward had Dougherty's case gone against him.
"Serious questions surround the role of James McParlan in the assassinations of Sanger, Uren, and Jones. He clearly knew of the plot to kill Sanger at least one day in advance. McParlan named the men assigned to kill Sanger in a report dated August 31, 1875, the day before the assassinations took place [although the report was not received until September 2].... Why, then, did McParlan not notify Captain Linden or warn Sanger directly? His failure in the Jones case is even more troubling, as the plans for the assassination were known long in advance [though he got word out on that one in a timely way].... Did McParlan allow Sanger and Uren to be killed so that he could accumulate evidence against the Molly Maguires? Was the detective an agent provocateur?" (Kenny, pp. 199-200). I, at least, find McParland's actions deeply disturbing.
Even more than that: McParland openly admitted that he was not in public service, and that he would not risk his own life to protect another (which was not part of his job description, we should add): under questioning about why he didn't do more to help potential murder victims, he said he would not risk his own life to save another man; indeed, "I would not run the risk of losing my life for all the men in this Court House"; when prodded, "You would rather see this man Jones sacrificed," he responded, "Than sacrifice myself? Decidedly" (Riffenburgh, p. 102). He obviously isn't unique in that, but it's not what we'd expect of someone who supposedly was enforcing the law.
But then, the Pinkertons were not law enforcement. They were hired guns who did not consider the law to be binding on them -- Riffenburgh, p. 103, reminds us of their treatment of the James/Younger gang. Among other things, they had illegally half-hung Frank and Jesse James's stepfather; for details, see the notes to "Jesse James (III)."
Certainly, for an outsider just getting to know the Mollies, "McKenna" heard an amazing number of admissions of crimes (Riffenburgh, pp. 132-133),
McParland eventually testified, against his will (Pinkerton rules said their agents were supposed to keep out of courtrooms, and McParland had more reason to fear retribution than most!), in nine cases (Lukas, p. 186). It is noteworthy that, under Pennsylvania law at this time, the accused could not testify in their own defense, because they had an interest in the case (Riffenburgh, p. 142) -- but McParland, who had an interest in conviction, was allowed to testify.
"The trials of the Molly Maguires began in January 1876 and ended in August 1878. They bordered on a travesty of justice. The trials were conducted under conditions of enormously hostile publicity. The defendants were arrested by private policemen and convicted on the evidence of a detective who was accused of being an agent provocateur. The detective's evidence was supplemented by a series of informers who turned state's evidence. Irish Catholics were excluded from the juries as a matter of course [although, as Kenny points out on p. 218, Germans who couldn't even understand the testimony in English were accepted].... As one historian aptly put it: 'The Molly Maguire investigation and trials marked one of the most astounding surrenders of sovereignty in American history. A private corporation initiated the investigation... the state provided only the courtroom and the hangman" (Kenny, p. 213). On pp. 213-214, he says that "Thomas Duffy, James Roarity, and Jack Kehow, for example, surely ought not to have been convicted as charged" while admitting that "even those who were wrongly convicted may well have been involved in other, similar activities" -- in essence, the Mollies were real and were violent; it's just that no one truly knows who did what, and the trials did not really clarify the situation.
So, for instance, Kenny, p. 222, suggests that there was no real case against John Kehoe; it's just that he was a major figure in the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and since the whole Pinkerton case rested on saying that the Hibernians and the Mollies were the same thing, they had to get Kehoe -- not because he was actually guilty but because the logic of their case required him to be guilty; if they couldn't nail him, then their other cases would be weakened at an abstract level, and they couldn't offer actual proof of much of anything. Kehoe had to die for the sake of the others. Which comes awfully close to judicial murder.
In the first trial, McParland testified for four days, and, pathological liar that he was, the defense could not shake him (Riffenburgh, pp. 125-127. Riffenburgh, pp. 154-156, is more generous than most of today's revisionist historians such as Bimba, and defends the general truth of McParland's statements -- but concludes "So McParlan appears to have been mostly honest, but not totally untainted.... [A] close acounting of his witness statements makes it clear that he held back the truth in various parts of his testimony and, ultimately did, in fact, commit perjury. Moreover, he did it more than once").
For the most part, his testimony was convincing. Even the national organization of the Ancient Order of Hibernians condemned the Pennsylvania branch (Bimba, p. 11). On June 21, 1877, ten alleged Mollies were hung, and others were executed on other dates. Lawler was not the witness that McParland was, so in some sense his guilt is less, but he'd certainly brought the traitor into the miners' midst.
After the first few convictions, most of which resulted in sentences of death, some of the accused started turning states' evidence. The first to do so was Patrick Butler, Bodymaster for Lost Creek (Riffenburgh, p. 145).
In August 1875, "Muff Lawler was tried as an accessory after the fact in the Sanger murder. McParlan testified that his old chum took several guns to hide for the killers when they came to his saloon after the murder, and added that, 'I know that he knew of crimes before they were committed, because before these men came back he said he wondered how the boys got along....' Lawler quickly admitted his role and turned state's evidence by corroborating information about other crimes, but the jury was unable to arrive at a unanimous verdict, after voting 10-2 for acquittal" (Riffenburgh, p. 146).
"On September 21, the Shenandoah saloonkeeper and AOH bodymaster, Michael 'Muff' Lawler, was arraigned as an accessory before the fact in the killings of Sanger and Uren. Lawler turned state's evidence and, as a result, the jury failed to reach a verdict.... But, in November, Lawler was tried for a second time in the Sanger-Uren case, convicted of second-degree murder [on November 13, 1876], and sent to prison" (Kelly, p. 224).
"McParlan returned briefly to Pottsville [after some months out of sight]... for the second prosecution of Muff Lawler. Having not succeeded with the earlier case, the prosecution used the same information but changed the charge from accessory to the murder of Sanger to that of Uren" (Riffenburgh, pp. 147-148). The defense pointed out defects in "McKenna's" actions, but the jury still found Lawler guilty.
That wasn't the end of Lawler's role in the Molly trials. In 1877, three men were accused of the murder of Alexander Rea in 1868. The main evidence was the testimony of a fellow by the name of "Kelly the Bum" -- a man who had already been convicted of highway robbery and grand larceny for other crimes. He was given a pardon for his testimony, plus money from citizens that let him leave the country (Kenny, p. 230) -- but you wonder why any Molly would have trusted him. Lawler corroborated some of Kelly's claims, and the three, Hester, McHugh, and Tully, joined the list of alleged Mollies sentenced to death (Kenny, pp. 228-229).
In the end, twenty men were hung for their part in the coalfield violence (so Riffenburgh, p. 150, contradicting the Weir/Hanlan figure given above; to be fair, some of the hangings were only tangentially related to the Mollies).
Lawler, unlike most of the others convicted, did not swing -- he was only an accessory, plus he had turned states' evidence. He not only survived; the Reading company gave him a job at the Indian Ridge shaft (Riffenburgh, p. 163). Little wonder the miners judged him harshly -- particularly since most of the local miners were Irish, and the Irish hated informers above all.
It is ironic to note that Gowen's Reading Company had spent so much to secure its monopoly that it went into bankruptcy in 1880 and forced Gowen out the next year (Kenny, p. 282). The company survived, and Gowen even returned in time, but he eventually killed himself in 1889 (Riffenburgh, p. 190).
Soon after Lawler's trial -- four years after James McParlan(d) had come to the area, the Pennsylvania coal cases were over. McParland left, never to return. Many of those he had accused had departed in an even more permanent way.
It might perhaps be noted that, in January 1979, Pennsylvania's Board of Pardons recommended, and Governor Joseph Wayne officially granted, a posthumous pardon to John Kehoe, the man McParland called the ringleader (Kenny, p. 284).
It's interesting that only a handful of Mollies seem to have songs about them, and that Lawler is one of them. What's more, it is the only one for which Korson has a tune, and seems to be the best-attested. His is the only song to have a Laws number, though Laws had a few other tentative references. (This is why this is the song with the most information on the Mollies.) It's not obvious why Lawler would be the best-known; the obvious candidate for the villain is Jimmy Kerrigan. Kenny, p. 194, refers to James "Powderkeg" Kerrigan as "the most infamous of the Molly Maguires to turn informer," and I think that description is right. Kerrigan is mentioned much more often in the histories than is Lawler. After his testimony, he fled to Virginia and took a different name, dying in 1898 (Kenny, p. 230 n. 59). There was a published piece, "James Kerrigan's Confession," but there is no hint at all that it went traditional. Maybe it was Lawler's connection with McParland which earned him special attention.
One thing that I find interesting is that, in Korson's text, Lawler's name is always used at the end of each verse, but it is not rhyme with anything. Other than in that position at the end of the verse, his name is used only once, and no other names are used at all. One wonders if this wasn't a "zippered" confession song, with some texts mentioning Kerrigan or someone else.
See the cross-references for other pieces about the Mollies, mostly from Korson and none with wide circulation -- neither I nor Laws is confident they were traditional. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: LE25

Muffin Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "Do you know the muffin man Who lives in Drury Lane?" "Yes I know...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1837 (Hone); c.1820 (Bodleian Douce Adds. 134(8), according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty food commerce
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,West)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 104, "The Muffin Man" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 158, "Do You Know the Muffin Man?" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Emelyn E. Gardner, "Some Play Party Games in Michigan," Vol. XXXIII, No. 128 (Apr 1920), #32 p. 113 "The Muffin-Man" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Frank Bellew, The Art of Amusing (New York, 1866 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 245-246, ("Do yaw know the muffin man") (1 text)
Charlotte Sophia Burne, Shropshire Folk-Lore: A Sheaf of Gleanings (London, 1883 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 571, ("Don't you know the Muffin man!") (1 text)
Roud #7922
NOTES [188 words]: "In Bath, before Sally Lunas were so fashionable, ... muffins were cried with a song beginning -- 'Don't you know the muffin man! Don't you know his name! And don't you know the muffin man! That lives in Bridewell-lane! &c'" (source: William Hone, The Every-Day Book and Table Book (London, 1837 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, [October 26] p. 1355 footnote) ).
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame cites a broadside Bodleian, Douce Adds. 134(8) that is not in the Bodleian online catalog. The date is c.1820 and begins "Don't you know the muffin man?" - BS
According to Arnold Kellett, The Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition, and Folklore, revised edition, Smith Settle, 2002, p. 119, "In Yorkshire, muffins were commonly sold in the streets by the muffin man, who advertised his wares by ringing a bell." Kellett adds on p. 206 that the muffin man also sold yeast.
I am amazed to realize that I know (in a substantially different form from that cited here) a song which seems to be so obscure. I remember only a few words, however, and do not know whether I learned it in Michigan or Minnesota. The latter is more likely. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: OpGa104

Muileann Dubh, Am (The Black Mill)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The black mill is moving around and we expect to go dancing. There are many things you wouldn't expect at the black mill
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 179, "Black Mill, The" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [87 words]: The translation, as far as it goes, is from the Celtic Lyrics Corner site. Two verses are untranslated: "An cual thu gun robh snaoisean" (apparently something to do with "your faggot was without snuff") and "Tha gobhair is crodh-laoigh ann" (maybe "the goat and calf are there"). If you can translate this please update the entry.
Is the mill here symbolic, in a mythic sense? For a popular starting point for research on the mill as a non-sexual symbol see Hamlet's Mill by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend. - BS
File: CrMa179

Muir Hen, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer bends his bow to fire at the muir hen, but cannot fire. She complains that the young men "do want the pouder." The young man later arrives with "pouder," and twenty weeks later her back grows sore. He still fears a misfire
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: courting pregnancy bawdy hunting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook XVII, pp. 65-66, "The Muir Hen" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1426Ab, "The Bonnie Muirhen" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Joseph Watt" (muir hen as sex symbol)
NOTES [75 words]: If this song is traditional (as usual with Kinloch, it's not clear), having another version would help greatly. Toward the end, it appears strongly that the girl is pregnant -- but the final stanza seems to contradict this, and even contradict the singer's personal prowess of which he previously boasted:
But I thought my gun would me misgie,
Whan I had her on my shouther,
Tho' my flint was soft and fired not,
'Twas an for want o' pouder. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: KinBB18

Muir of Culloden, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing of my country, its deep glens and fountains... I'll sing of its battles renowned in story." "On the sixteenth of April, I'll ever remember." The Jacobite leaders disagree and attack half-heartedly; "Cauld lies the lads on the Muir of Culloden."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: Jacobites battle death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 16, 1746 - Battle of Culloden Muir ends the 1745 Jacobite rebellion
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #124, p. 1, "The Muir of Culloden"; #125, pp. 2-3, "The Muir of Culloden" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan1 127, "The Muir of Culloden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 293, "The Muir of Culloden" (1 text)
Roud #3777
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Culloden Moor" (subject)
cf. "Culloden Field" (subject)
NOTES [11292 words]: Most songs of the end of 1745 Jacobite Rebellion (at least the ones in English) seem to talk about Bonnie Prince Charlie. This is a genuine exception; it is almost entirely about the tragic Battle of Culloden, which not only destroyed the Jacobite army but, ultimately, the Highland culture.
The history of the 1745 rebellion is almost like a wave: The level rises and rises and crests and then collapses. Indeed, the whole history of Jacobitism is rather like that. In the fifteen years after George I had died, the Jacobite cause had seemed to die down -- notably due to the accession of George II in 1727 (Magnusson, p. 584); even the most extreme Jacobite would agree that he was an improvement on his father. It took two major change to bring Jacobitism back to life: The European political situation, and the rise of a new generation of leaders. James III, the "Old Pretender," was a pessimistic, uninspiring leader who outlived five monarchs who sat on the throne he claimed (Cook, p. 409) but managed to drive off even his own wife (Cook, pp. 407-408); he did his own cause more harm than good.
His son, Charles Edward Stuart, the "Young Pretender," was altogether different -- handsome, outgoing, and tremendously attractive. Few would call him a genius and some declare him little more than a drunk -- but he roused wild affection; he must have been one of the most charismatic leaders in history.
The whole thing started, in a way, as an incident in the War of the Austrian Succession, in which Britain (as usual) found itself fighting France. In 1743, the French were preparing to invade the British Isles. The invading force was to have been led by the brilliant Marshal de Saxe (Dorn, p. 161), who was so superior to British generals of the period that success seemed certain. Britain was poorly defended -- so many troops had gone to the continent that there were supposedly only 8000 soldiers in all of Britain (Browning, p. 221). But the expedition, which was intended to take place in 1744, was intercepted and ruined by the British fleet and storms (Magnusson, p. 585; Reid, pp. 7-9; Wilkinson, pp. 56-58).
Prince Charles, who had hoped to lead the expedition, wasn't willing to take that for an answer. The French were not willing to commit much to a second attempt, in part because they didn't trust Charles -- Browning, p. 220, says that the French viewed him as a "blinkered and quixotic adventurer."
The "blinkered" part probably arises from his manifest incompetence in writing and in scholarship; he hated studying, and McLynn-Charles, p. 35, quotes his tutor's comment on the boy's schoolwork: "[I]t is impossible to get him to apply to any study as he ought to or indeed in any tolerable degree, by which means the Latin goes ill on." Wilkinson, p. 45, tells us that he spoke French, Spanish, and Italian as well as English, and apparently eventually gained some Gaelic as well, but he flatly could not spell. Kybett, p. 31, declares that he was "functionally illiterate," but also claims that he "never fully mastered English, his primary language." This, of course, is nonsense unless he communicated by grunting; at best, it shows how diverse the opinions about Charles were. But it is agreed that he was very, very stubborn. He clearly hated studying -- and being told that things were impossible.
McLynn-Charlie, p. 553, gives perhaps the most balanced assessment of his abilities: "The old view of the prince as a man unable to deal with failure because of mental feebleness will not stand up to scrutiny. A close study of Charles Edward reveals him as highly intelligent, even if the intelligence was often of the divergent or 'lateral' type. His poor spelling and punctuation is a red herring, assiduously peddled by those who cannot see that 'intelligent' and 'academic' are very far from matching complements. More pertinently, the prince, unlike his father who wrote letters of impeccable orthography and sentiments, never wrote a boring sentence.... The prince habitually uses a medley of unusual (even eccentric) arguments, wit, irony and imagery that gives even his most self-pitying letters a peculiar richness...." Charles was stubborn to an extreme, and perhaps dyslexic, and there were things he never learned (such as military tactics) -- but he was certainly more than a mere fool and a drunk.
Even though the French wouldn't support Charles, they certainly didn't mind him going on his own as long as it didn't cost them anything. Supported by some Irish exiles in France, and by pawning his mother's jewels (Magnusson, p. 586), he managed to scrape up two ships and headed for the Hebrides with about 3500 muskets (firelocks), 2500 swords, a tiny treasury, and about sixty marines (Reid, p. 10).
The two ships included only one real fighting vessel, the Elizabeth. On their way from France to Scotland, the convoy ran into the British vessel Lion. Having little other choice, the Prince's expedition put as many crew as possibly on the Elizabeth and left her to fight the Lion alone. (The ships ended up battering each other to the point where neither could continue, suffering total casualties in excess of 300; Browning, p. 221.) The prince, with half his supply of arms left behind, continued on (Wilkinson, pp. 60-63).
The prince landed on Eriskay with only a handful of men, and only a handful of that handful (the "seven men of Moidart") crossed to the mainland, landing at, yes, Moidart. Many chiefs were afraid of a rising without at least some foreign troops (Magnusson, p. 586) -- but Charles was charming enough that he quickly built an army. His reply, when some chiefs told him to go home, was the stuff of legend: "I am come home, Sir, and I will entertain no notion at all of returning to the place from whence I came; for I am persuaded that my faithful Highlanders will stand by me" (Magnusson, p. 587).
Not all of them did, to be sure. But most of the MacDonalds joined him (Thomson, p. 99, claims that they made up 40% of his force, but this was true for only a very short time. Still, most of them came in early, making them very important). Add in Lochiel's Camerons, and it was enough men to organize into something that could be called an army. Plus, while the Prince hadn't been able to bring many firearms, he at least had some -- and most of the Highlanders had been disarmed after the 1715 rebellion, so those who opposed the Jacobites had nothing with which to fight (Browning, p. 243).
It would have been interesting to see what would have happened had a significant fraction of the Campbells, the other great clan, joined. But, of course, Campbells and MacDonalds were not going to be on the same side at this time! (Thomson, p. 98).
It wasn't a big army, but it was enough to occupy Edinburgh (it helped that the city's fortifications were decayed, according to Magnusson, p. 591). Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 57, says that there was no real resistance. In an interesting move that might have done some good had anyone paid attention, the Jacobites proclaimed the Union of Scotland and England to be dissolved; Magnusson, p. 592. They then took on and defeated Sir John Cope at Prestonpans (for which see "Hey Johnnie Cope" and "Tranent Muir") in just ten minutes; it was said to be the shortest battle of the entire War of the Austrian Succession (Browning, p. 241).
After some further maneuvering in Scotland, during which more Highlanders joined the army but the Lowlanders for the most part proved disinterested (Fry/Fry, p. 194), Charles and his men headed into England. This was controversial -- many of the Scots wanted to be independent of England, whereas Charles wanted to regain the entire British Kingdom for the Stuarts. Plus many leaders thought that their force simply wasn't sufficient to attack the English. Charles finally persuaded a bare majority of his senior officers that they should take the army south (Browning, p. 243).
An invasion of England could not go down the center of the island due to the Pennine range. It had to go either to the east (via Berwick and Newcastle) or to the west (via Carlisle). The Hanoverian army of Marshall Wade blocked the eastward route. So the Jacobites went west. Some scholars think "The Flower of France and England, O" tells of their occupation of Carlisle -- an event which caused significant friction, because Lord George Murray (the brother of Charles's Marquis of Tullibardine, who had been one of the Seven Men of Moidart), who was widely regarded as the best soldier in the army but was a confirmed pessimist and as touchy as mercury fulminate, felt slighted. Neither for the first nor the last time (Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 58).
I note incidentally that, despite his reputation, Murray before 1745 seems never to have commanded anything larger than an understrength regiment (Young/Adair, p. 256), so that his position in the Jacobite army (he was officially Lieutenant General, giving him charge of half the force, and also a sort of de facto chief of staff) was about two grades above his previous best rank. He had no more strategic experience than anyone else in the army. He was now 51 years old, and set in his opinions; Reid, p. 23, quotes one of his own aides as saying "Lord George was vigilant, active, and diligent; his plans were always judiciously formed, and he carried them promptly and vigorously into execution. However, with an infinity of good qualities, he was not without his defects: proud, haughty, blunt and imperious, he wished to have executive disposal of everything and, feeling his superiority, would listen to no advice." Not a good recipe for a second-in-command! It was even worse because Prince Charles was unused to dealing with such independent men (McLynn-Charlie, p. 142); they were often at loggerheads.
Although there were forces in England capable of fighting the invaders, the Jacobite maneuver did a good job of befuddling them. The main defensive army, led by Marshall Wade, was centered on Newcastle, and it just sat there. A second army, assembled by the Duke of Cumberland, tried to block the Jacobites from reaching Wales and the southwest, and it too tended to sit still. The Jacobite army , instead of continuing south from Carlisle, soon turned to the southeast, almost halfway between Wade and Cumberland (Browning, p. 243). The objective was London -- a go-for-broke gamble to take over the government before they could be stopped.
The invading army eventually reaching Derby. It had been a depressing march. There had been Jacobite rebellions in Scotland before, but no Jacobite army had reached England south of Cumbria. They had hoped to find supporters. Except for a few recruits raised in Manchester, they found nothing. As Dorn says (p. 162), the rebellion's failure "was certain from the moment when Prince Charles on his southward march from Carlisle to Derby encountered only a dispiriting indifference among the inhabitants of the countryside." They managed to raise (extort, really) money in most places -- enough to keep the army fed. "But the Jacobites were invariably greeted by sullen faces or by boots and jeers from the brave" (Kybett, p. 170).
And the Jacobite army remained small -- McLynn-Army, p. 25, lists the formations which began the march south. There were about 5100 infantry, mostly in small formation which were hard to control, and many of them ill-equipped. The cavalry totaled only 520, and their equipment was even worse. Had they raised the expected recruits in England, they could perhaps have defeated the Hanoverian armies in detail. Certainly the rank and file were very confident (McLynn-Army, p. 123). But many of the officers felt that, without reinforcements, there was no hope of real victory -- they might win a battle by stratagem, but if it came to a set battle against a proper Hanoverian army, they would certainly be destroyed.
So, at Derby, there was a council of war -- one that lasted from shortly after sunrise until midnight, then resumed the next day. Apparently many of Charles's officers had agreed to advance on England more as a raid than an actual invasion, and were willing to continue only if foreign troops appeared -- and, so far, none had (Magnusson, p. 603. It's ironic to note that this was at about the time Lord John Drummond's expedition, mentioned below, was being mounted). Charles had not understood this to be their meaning (McLynn-Charlie, p. 188). What was Charles to do? As Adair/Young note on p. 248, in connection with another revolt, "A rebellion on the defensive must fail." Charles could have risked everything on a run for London. He could have disbanded the revolt on the spot and fled. He could have retreated for Scotland and tried again for foreign help. Or he could retreat for Scotland and then dispersed the army.
In practical terms, the first was the most risky. It was also the only thing that could possibly succeed -- and McLynn-Army, p. vi, offers reasons why it might have succeeded, because the English government was in panic and the London mob was fickle. The odds were huge -- but the odds of winning any other way were non-existent. As Wilkinson says (p. 136), "There was still just a chance in London, a gambler's throw. But a retreat could only mean one thing -- the failure of the rebellion."
If the rebels had wanted an example of the results of inaction, they need only to have looked at the failure of the 1715 rebellion. But, somehow, they didn't consider it.
Charles wanted to go for it. But Lord George Murray again showed his severe pessimism, and argued that the army must retreat (Wilkinson, p. 132). He brought most of the other leaders over to his side. Sinclair-Stevenson, pp. 59-60, declares, "It [the arguments of those in favor of retreat] was all special pleading, and almost certainly the wrong decision. It was not well received: The Highlanders, conceiving at first that they were on the march to attack the army of the Duke of Cumberland, displayed the utmost joy and cheerfulness, but as soon as the day allowed them to see the objects around them and they found that we were retracing our steps, nothing was to be heard throughout the whole army but expressions of rage and lamentation."
Magnusson, p. 603: "They called it 'Black Friday': Friday, 6 December 1745, the day the Jacobites began their retreat from Derby." Page 604: "Lord George Murray had won the day, but had he lost the future. For two and a half centuries there has been endless speculation. Derby is one of the great, unanswerable 'ifs' of Scottish history."
Especially since the French had finally been induced to help out, in a small way. A small force of reinforcements, mostly taken from the Irish units in the French army, had been sent out around around the end of 1745 under the command of Lord John Drummond (McLynn-Charlie, p. 202). The Jacobite cause thus gained roughly a thousand experienced troops, plus artillery heavier than the light pieces they had managed to capture so far (Reid, p. 83). It's too bad these forces hadn't arrived earlier; their arrival, and Drummond's strong leadership, might have done much to strengthen the Jacobite grip on Scotland, which weakened appreciably while the army was in England.
Despite the despair of the retreat, and the hostility and appalling weather the army met on its way back to Scotland, there were military successes during the retreat, at Clifton and Falkirk. The former was small; the Duke of Cumberland's army was snapping at the Jacobite rear, and Lord George Murray, who commanded the rear, gave his vanguard a bit of a bloody nose and caused him to halt his pursuit (McLynn-Army, pp. 186-189). Falkirk was big though a very close-run thing (Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 60). But there was little planning behind what was done at this time; as Reid says on p. 94 of the siege of Stirling which preceded Falkirk, "they had decided to besiege Stirling Castle, not through any pressing strategic necessity, but rather it seemed for lack of anything more positive to do."
Falkirk shouldn't have happened. The Hanoverian forces under Hawley (who had replaced Marshall Wade) had a tremendous superiority in cavalry, but they did not scout the field (Reid, p. 98). Hawley's junior officers apparently considered his orders absurd, but he was so harsh that they dared not disobey (McLynn-Charlie, p. 209).
Falkirk is generally described as a big brawl. Neither side was properly deployed, and it ended in darkness and storm (Reid, p. 100) -- not too surprising, since it took place on January 17, 1746. Wilkinson, p. 176, says that "it was Prince Charles in person who by his intervention saved the situation," but most other sources think that he did little good, even causing the pursuit to fail (see, e.g., McLynn-Charlie, p. 210). Casualties were relatively light (Reid, p. 102), but the Jacobites has possession of the field, and picked up some useful equipment as a result.
Then, after Falkirk, the commanders started arguing again. Lord George Murray claimed that soldiers were deserting, that the weather was bad, and that British forces were on their tail; the only option was to head for the Highlands (Wilkinson, p. 184). As Wilkinson comments on p. 185, "Another victory was to be turned into a rearguard action." The retreat continued, but Charles himself wrote, "I know I have an army that I cannot command any further than the chief officers please, and therefore if you are resolved of it I must yield -- but I take God to witness that it is with the greatest reluctance, and that I wash my hands of the fatal consequences which I foresee but cannot help."
Whoever is to blame, these delays and retreats gave the government time to bring home more troops. Note that Falkirk is in Scotland, near the Forth. At the end of 1745, the Jacobites had retired back into Scotland (Kybett, p. 180) -- though they left a small garrison left at Carlisle which was quickly swallowed. (A bad move by Charles, since he had left all of his artillery with the garrison, hampering his future operations; Magnusson, p. 605. Though if he'd followed Lord George Murray's plan, things might have been just as bad; McLynn-Army, p. 191, says that Murray wanted to trash all the baggage.)
Kybett and Magnusson both think that Charles was by this time an alcoholic (Magnusson, p. 610, and Kybett, almost everywhere; Wilkinson, p. 228, admits that many called him a drunkard as early as the 1740s but says that he was simply trying to act like a British squire. McLynn-Charlie accepts that he ended up a drunkard, and acknowledges that he always had a fondness for drink, but does not think it began to overwhelm him until *after* the Forty-Five; on p. 243 he argues that it was during the flight, when Charles was under great tension but spent most of his time simply sitting and waiting, that he really started drinking heavily). It cannot be denied that the decision to garrison Carlisle was militarily bad -- yet it made some symbolic sense: Charles did not want to entirely abandon England.
The Jacobites returned to a Scotland which had largely been occupied against them. Glasgow had always been loyal to the Hanoverians, and Edinburgh had been recaptured soon after the invasion of England began (Magnusson, p. 606). The only good news was that Lord John Drummond has his army at Perth, which had even been reinforced by a few French soldiers (Wilkinson, p. 159). This force combined with the invasion army to win the aforementioned battle of Falkirk. But there was no follow-up; "The Jacobites spent most of the month of January in or around Falkirk, and in doing so they threw away whatever initiative they might have gained. They were never to regain it" (Magnusson, p. 608).
A month later, after Charles and Lord George Murray had another fight, they fell back into the Highlands (Magnusson, p. 615; McLynn-Charlie, p. 218, who adds on p. 219 that each of these retreats was disorganized -- the Jacobites, as Murray should have known, were horrible at logistics). Charles was once again sarcastic about the potential effects of the retreat: "Can we imagine, that where we go the enemy will not follow, and at last oblige us to a battle which we now decline?" (Browning, p. 264). In this, Charles again saw more clearly than Murray.
If there was any happy note for the Prince, it was that Charles met Clementina Walkinshaw, the closest thing he had to a love of his life, around this time (Magnusson, p. 608). Wilkinson, p. 157, says that it is not quite certain when he met her, but it was definitely in early 1746. McLynn-Charlie, p. 204, says that she helped nurse him through the various illnesses he suffered in early 1746. According to Cook, p. 422, she had actually been named for Charles's mother Clementina Sobieska, so it was pretty clear what her family politics were!
Other than that, it was a particularly hard time for the Prince, who was sick for several months in early 1746 (McLynn-Charlie, pp. 232-233), even as the army was enjoying several minor successes. But the force was still pinned back into a small, desolate area. They were out of money, meaning the soldiers could not be paid (Wilkinson, p. 193; McLynn-Charlie, p. 233. Magnusson, p. 616, says that a ship sent by the French with a large supply of cash was captured). They had managed to bring in a French technical expert on sieges, Monsieur Mirabelle; he proved a complete incompetent (Magnusson, p. 612). Based in the relatively unproductive country around Inverness, they were short of supplies. Their commissary was breaking down due to the death of Charles's efficient administrator Murray of Broughton (McLynn-Charlie, p. 235).
In this situation, a good many clansmen deserted (Wilkinson, p. 194). Somehow, before the army fell apart of starvation and lack of pay and lack of hope, they needed to get out of their trap. They never figured out how to do it.
Into their stronghold came William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1721-1765), the third son of George II (and the second son to survive infancy), the man who had lost the skirmish at Clifton. Cumberland's record in wars in Europe shows that he was no general, but he inflicted ferocious discipline and understood butchery very well; massacres don't require brainpower. His army had been following the Jacobites since the March to Derby (his had been the army the chiefs were most afraid of when they argued for a retreat), but apart from the skirmish at Clifton, this was the first time he had closed on them. They had had one chance to stop him as he crossed the Spey (McLynn-Charlie, pp. 237-238; Reid, pp. 121-124). They didn't (most authors seem to think this was sheer stupidity, by junior officers or by Charles himself; Reid, p. 125, blames lack of reconnaissance). After that, the Jacobites were cornered; they had the sea to one side, dead land on another, and Cumberland coming up against them on another.
The faction led by Lord George Murray, that endless fount of suggestions that increased the odds of short-term survival at the expense of any chance of long-term success, wanted to go to the hills and fight as guerrillas (Magnusson, p. 616). But this would mean giving up arms and equipment, and -- as the government's vengeance after Culloden showed -- would open up the clans to piecemeal destruction. Charles insisted he would fight. This was the most hopeless of all the Jacobite battles -- but, once again, it seems to me the most reasonable option in the broad sense. The Jacobites had little chance of victory, but failure to fight meant clear defeat.
In a singularly foolish move, the Jacobite army had been scattered for the winter -- and did not manage to concentrate fully in time for Culloden (McLynn-Charlie, p. 239). The extra few thousand men who were still out foraging might have made a great deal of difference.
The Hanoverian army had the Highlanders outnumbered on the order of two to one -- Wilkinson, p. 195, estimates Cumberland to have had 9000 troops, the Jacobites 5000. Browning, p. 265, gives the numbers as 9000 and 5400. Young/Adair, p. 262, credit the Jacobites with "at most" 5000. Reid, pp. 145-146, puts 3800 in the Jacobite front line, which would probably mean 5500-6000 for the whole force. Young/Adair estimates the loyalist army at 13000. Kybett, p. 203, makes the exceptional estimate that the Hanoverians had 14000 troops. Brander, p. 215, thinks the Jacobites had only 4500 going into the Night March, compared to 10000 Hanoverians -- though on p. 217, Brander gives the Hanoverian numbers at Culloden as 9000 and Charles's as "certainly under 5,000."
And, no matter what their initial numbers, the Jacobite ranks were depleted by the march, and some of the men who made it back from the march would still have lost their weapons, and others would be too tired and hungry to fight successfully. This is one of the main reasons why estimates vary so much: Although we know which units were present for the Night March, the disaster of Culloden meant that there were no reports about the units' strength before the March or -- even more so -- after.
In addition to their edge in numbers, the Hanoverians of course had a great advantage in equipment. Making this disparity worse is the fact that Charles's handful of French regulars, who presumably would have been the best musketeers he had, were in the second line (Brander, p. 217).
The Battle of Culloden, April 27, 1746, was one of the most mismanaged affairs of military history. Experience showed that Charles's Highlanders had only one successful tactic, the so-called Highland Charge. The idea was to get a bunch of burly clansmen with swords in among the enemy. It worked better than a modern would think -- the standard army of the time was armed with slow-firing smoothbore muskets that weren't very accurate. If the charge were properly executed, the defenders might have time for only one volley, which would not do enough damage to halt the attackers. But the Charge required suitable terrain to pull it off. Why Charles's forced messed up so badly, and who made the decision to fight as they did, is an open question.
Lord George Murray wrote afterward that the Jacobite plan was hopeless -- Kybett, p. 197 -- but of course Murray was trying to defend his own behavior and make Charles look bad.
Reid, p. 129, reports, "Murray's criticism of the field appears to have owed more to his insistence on contradicting everything which [Adjutant General] Sullivan proposed, for on previous experience it fitted the rebel army's requirements in every respect. In order to execute a 'Highland Charge' successfully the rebels needed a clear run at their opponents, as they had on the flat cornfields of Prestonpans, not on the broken grounds of the defensive position proposed by Murray." Magnusson, p. 617, says of the battlefield, "They used to call it Drumossie Moor -- a bleak stretch of boggy, heather-clad upland moor above Culloden House, south-east of Inverness, overlooking the broad waters of the Moray Firth." McLynn-Charlie, p. 240, agrees with Magnusson at least in part: The ground on the left was too wet to make it easy to attack.
The original Jacobite plan was for a night march, allowing them to attack the Hanoverians at sunrise at Nairn. There is no agreement on whose idea this was. Ben Schwartz looked through the early histories on Google, and found the following quotes:
*** Supporting the theory that it was Charles's idea:*
Robert Chambers, History of the Rebellion of 1745-6 (London and Edinburgh, 1869 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 281, "There yet remained, before playing the great stake of a [pitch?]ed battle, one chance of success by the irregular mode [of] warfare to which the army was accustomed, and Charles [res]olved to put it to trial. This was a night-attack upon the [ca]mp of the Duke of Cumberland."
James Browne, A History of the Highlands and of the Highland Clans (London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, 1849 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III p. 232, has Lord George Murray putting the details to Charles's proposal:
"Concluding from the inactivity of the duke of Cumberland that he had no intention of marching that day, Charles held a council of war in the afternoon, to deliberate upon the course it might be considered most advisable to pursue in consequence of the duke's stay at Nairn. According to Charles's own statement, he had formed the bold and desperate design of surprising the English army in their camp during the night; but, desirous of knowing the views of his officers before divulging his plan, he allowed all the members of the council to speak before him. After hearing the sentiments of the chiefs, and the other commanders who were present, Lord George Murray proposed to attack the duke of Cumberland during the night, provided it was the general opinion that the attack could be made before one or two o'clock in the morning. Charles, overjoyed at the suggestion of his lieutenant-general, immediately embraced him, said that he approved of it, that in fact he had contemplated the measure himself, and that he did not intend to have disclosed it till all the members of the council had delivered their sentiments [vide Memorandum by the Prince, note, p. 134].
(James Johnstone) The Chevalier de Johnstone, Memoirs of the Rebellion in 1745 and 1746 (London, 1820 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), pp. 132-133, footnote, "The following is the account of it [the night-march to Nairn] given of it by Mr. Home: --
"'When mid-day (the 15th) came, and the King's army did not appear, it was concluded that they had not moved from their camp at Nairn, and would not move that day, which was the Duke of Cumberland's birth-day. About two o'clock, the men were ordered to their quarters, and Charles, calling together the generals and chiefs, made them a speech, in which he proposed to march with all his forces in the evening, and make a night-attack upon the Duke of Cumberland's army, in their camp at Nairn.
"'At first nobody seemed to relish this proposal; and the Duke of Perth and Lord John Drummond expressed their dislike of it. Lochiel, who was not a man of many words, said that the army would be stronger next day by 1500 men at least; but when Lord George Murray rose and seconded the proposal made by Charles, insisting and enlarging upon the advantage of a night-attack, that rendered cannon and cavalry (in which the superiority of the Duke's army chiefly consisted) of little service, it was agreed to make the attempt, as the best thing that could be done in their present circumstances, for they were almost entirely destitute of both money and provisions.'"
The notes apparently were added by the uncredited editor, "J.B" in 1821, along with the Introduction that had this to say about Home, whom he was apparently responsible for quoting, above. "But, of Home, from the introduction, pp. xlvi-xlvii, 'The history of Home, which appeared nearly sixty years after the Rebellion, and from which, previous to its publication, considerable expectations were entertained, added little to our knowledge on any of the above important points. This was partly owing to the defective information of the author, and partly owing to his fear of giving offence. Having himself borne arms in the Rebellion as a volunteer, in aid of the government, he was not a person to whom the leading Jacobites would willingly confide their secrets; .. Besides, the writer of this introduction can assert, of his own knowledge, that Mr Home submitted his history in manuscript to some members of the royal family.. His book affords materials for the historian, but ought not to be considered a history.'"
*** Supporting the theory that it was Lord George Murray's idea:*
Andrew Lang, "Prince Charles Stuart" in Scribner's Magazine (New York, 1895 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XVII January-June p. 416, "At a council Lord George proposed what Charles was longing for, a night surprise."
"Murray, Lord George (1694-1760" in Dictionary of National Biography (London, 1909 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XIII p. 1257, "Murray was entirely opposed to making a stand against Cumberland at Culloden.. He therefore advised that meanwhile a retreat should be made to the hills to await reinforcements, and when overruled in this, stipulated for a night attack as affording the only possible chance of victory."
*** Unclear as to whose idea it was:*
Robert Chambers, Jacobite Memoirs of the Rebellion of 1745 (Edinburgh, 1834 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 138, "The Prince (being informed that the Duke of Cumberland had halted that day at Nairn, to refresh his men, and that the ships with provisions were coming into the bay of Inverness, that evening) called a council of war; and, after great debates, (although that neither the Earl of Cromarty, who by this time was prisoner, though not known, nor the MacPhersons, nor a great many of the Frazers was come up,) it was resolved to march, and endeavor to surprise the Duke in his camp at Nairn, about twelve miles distance."
The Lockhart Papers (London, 1817 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II p. 518 in "Account of events at Inverness and Culloden" [likely a source for Chambers], "The P. being inform'd that the Duke of Cumberland had halted that day at Nairn to refresh his men (the ships with his provisions came into the bay of Inverness that evening) the P. calld a council and after great debates, tho' neither the Earl of Cromerty (who by that time was prisoner tho' not known) nor the Macphersons nor a great many of the Fraizers were come up, it was resolved to march and endeavour to surprise the Duke in his camp at Nairn about twelve miles distant."
Among modern commentators, Reid, p. 130, says the concept of the night march was Murray's. Wilkinson, p. 195, says, "Lord George Murray came forward with an ingenious plan for attacking the royal army at a disadvantage, thus offsetting their numerical superiority. Briefly, his proposal was to make an immediate night march upon Nairn, followed by the Highland charge at the first peep of dawn.... From Murray's own account it seems doubtful whether the proposal first came from him, but, at any rate, he adopted it with enthusiasm." Magnusson, p. 618, writes, "When the Hanoverian army did not appear on 15 April, Lord George Murray urged that the Jacobites should turn the tables by taking the offensive, and suggested a surprise night attack on Cumberland's sleeping camp."
Young/Adair, p. 258, says that "This plan, somewhat reminiscent of Monmouth's for Sedgemoor, was devised by the Prince and O'Sullivan. The Duke of Perth disliked it... but Lord George Murray, though 'very sensible of the danger should it miscarry,' came round to it, probably because he preferred it to fighting on the open moor." McLynn-Charlie, p. 241, describes the prince as "cajoling" the chiefs while Murray argued for another battlefield, and McLynn-Charlie, p. 242, implies that Murray was opposed to the very end. Brander, p. 215, credits the whole business to Charles and O'Sullivan, never even mentioning Murray.
Kybett, p. 198, says "Charles walked around the field [the day before Culloden] speaking to individual officers, trying to cajole them to agree to an impetuously conceived plan to attack Cumberland's camp at dawn the next day. No doubt he hoped to take the drunken government troops by surprise, but almost without exception everyone believed it a mad scheme." (Of course, Kybett would say red was blue if it would make Charles look bad.)
"[Adjutant General] Sullivan was commanded to give the orders, and explain what he said in them. Lord George answered that there was no need of orders, [tha]t everybody knew what he had to do" (Reid, p. 132). But in fact they did *not* know what they had to do. "The attack on Nairn, put forward more or less on the spur of the moment by Murray, was badly thought out, poorly prepared and incompetently executed, and responsibility for the debacle lies squarely with Murray alone."
The real problem was not with the idea, though, but with its execution. The Highlanders had not been fed for two days, and were weakened by a cold rain (Magnusson, p. 618). The ground had not been scouted. The distance was rather long for a night march (Wilkinson, p. 195, says 12 miles; McLynn-Charlie, p. 244, implies a distance of 10 miles; Young/Adair, p. 258, says eight miles but adds that the night was exceptionally dark; Magnusson, p. 618, says 16 kilometers, or 10 miles. The map in Reid, p. 135, shows that Culloden Moor is about five miles from Inverness, with Nairn about 12 miles beyond that, but the army did not start from Culloden and would not have followed the direct path).
It would surely have been wiser to cover at least some of the distance before dark, but the army did not start until about 8:30 (Young/Adair, p. 258) or 9:00 p.m. (Magnusson, p. 618). The troops were slow to make the journey, and the march resulted in much disorganization (Magnusson, p. 619). The plan called for the army to divide into three columns, but they ended up all on the same trail (McLynn-Charlie, p. 244). Eventually the column started to break up. Lord George Murray, at the front of the column, sent word to Charles at the rear that it was too late for the attack, and that it had better be abandoned (McLynn-Charlie, p. 245). Charles, ever aggressive, didn't want to give up. But eventually Murray on his own ordered the column to halt (Young/Adair, p. 259). "Lord George made the only decision he could under the circumstances. He ordered what remained of the bitter army back to Culloden" (Kybett, p. 200).
"Surviving accounts of the night are pretty unanimous in depicting it as a sorry shambles from its confused beginning to its acrimonious end. The rebel army initially set off in what should have been three columns, following one behind the other. The first was let by Lord George Murray, the second by Lord John Drummond and the third by the Duke of Perth.... Instead of proceeding straight down the main road to Nairn, Murray decided to move across country, thus shunning any houses and people who might be tempted to warn Cumberland of his approach..." (Reid, p. 133). "[I]t soon proved quite impossible to prevent substantial gaps opening up between the columns and between the individual units within the columns. Murray afterwards tried to blame the French regulars and his MacIntosh guides... " (Reid, pp. 133-134). "[T]he rebel army simply [was] not up to the task" (Reid, pp. 134-136).
Charles apparently went bananas over this; Kybett, p. 200, describes him as losing control completely -- "Charles continued to shout hysterically that nobody could command his army but himself" -- though Reid, p. 139, declares that he put on a brave face. Wilkinson, p. 196, describes him as angry but resigned. Wilkinson and McLynn-Charlie, p. 246, both describe him as asking, "Where the devil are the men going?" McLynn also describes a man who went from fury at being disobeyed to weary resignation after the Duke of Perth pulled him aside and described the situation. Whatever his behavior, there was nothing to be done at that point. Lord George, not the Prince, had decided where and how the last battle would be fought. And his decision was simply dreadful: The open field of Culloden, where the Hanoverian artillery could sweep the Jacobite army.
(I must admit that I've never understood this. I can at least comprehend that Lord George would call off the attack. But why send everyone back to Culloden? Lord George disliked the ground, and the retreat left the men even more tired and hungry. If it was light enough for the night attack to fail, it was light enough to pick a better defensive position.)
Just how close the Jacobites had come to the enemy camp is not certain. Wilkinson, p. 196, and Reid, p. 137, say that Cumberland's campfires were already in sight, but McLynn-Charlie, p. 244, calculates that the Jacobites still had four miles to go before they could attack. Brander, p. 216, gives the distance as two miles from Cumberland's camp.
The troops straggled back to camp, even more hungry and exhausted than they had been before. They were also even more scrambled, because there was no real plan for the retreat (Reid, p. 138). All the Night March had done was soften them up for Cumberland's attack. Magnusson, p. 619, estimates that only a thousand Jacobite soldiers were still ready to fight, and says only 1500 took part in the initial attack on Cumberland's line. This is probably too low, but the number cannot have been large.
Thomson, p. 101, notes that "by every standard the Jacobite generals made a mess of Culloden when battle came on 16 April 1746. They chose unsuitable terrain, tired out their troops by ill-thought-out manouevres and vacillation, and failed totally to make proper use of their greatest asset, the Highland charge."
Kybett, whose method of analysis consists of finding the worst possible interpretation of Charles's behavior and then inventing a way to make it sound worse, claims that everyone in the army believed the battle plan was a "desperate attempt" -- and claims that Charles was drunk as the battle began (Kybett, pp. 198-199).
"There has been much argument about the choice of the battleground -- Lord George Murray claimed that it was a death trap for his troops. Others maintain that it was good ground for the Highland clansman to charge over; but it was also ideal terrain for the Hanoverian cavalry" (Magnusson, pp. 619-620).
The final battle took place a little south of the ocean. The Jacobite army seems to have left both its flanks rather exposed (so both the maps in Reid, p. 147, and Young/Adair, p. 264, and the semi-legible sketch facing p. 198 of Wilkinson; Reid, p. 145, says the flanks rested on walled parks. The parks probably had some defensive strength, but only if properly manned -- and they weren't; Reid, pp. 150-151, describes how the Hanoverians used them to outflank the Jacobites on the right).
Of the three divisions of the Jacobite army that had marched to Nairn, two were placed in the front line, with the third division forming a second line. Reid, p. 145, estimates that there were 3800 men in the Jacobite front line, which stretched over a distance of 1100 yards (and with a bit of a gap in it when Lord George Murray realigned some of his forces and the other half did not conform). The second line, which was more a tactical reserve than an actual line of battle, had no more than half that many (Reid, p. 146; in the map on p. 216 of Brander, it is so thin as to hardly even constitute a line). A few units, probably mostly cavalry (much of it dismounted, according to Young/Adair, p. 261), were behind that, but they were not really a line, just a small reserve. The small handful of guns -- perhaps a dozen cannon, of various calibers and poorly manned -- was all in the front line, according to Young/Adair, p. 262.
The Hanoverian army also was arranged in three lines, though Reid shows all three lines as being about equally heavy, while Young/Adair makes the front line very strong and the third line little more than a token; Brander splits the difference and makes the second line almost as strong as the first and the third line very weak. Still, given the relative sizes of the armies, the number in the Hanoverian front line must have been at least as many as in the Jacobite, and their reserves were greater -- and they covered the attack with artillery. Young/Adair, p. 263, says that the Hanoverian artillery was able to fire twenty rounds for each round fired by the Jacobites.
The weather too was on the Hanoverian side; the weather was cold and rainy, and the wind blew into the faces of the Highlanders (Young/Adair, p. 262).
"At Culloden the advantages in terms of firepower and training lay with Cumberland, and he had the bonus of fumbling Jacobite command. The result was swift, decisive and bloody. The Jacobite artillery was silenced by a precise, long-range bombardment from artillerymen who were then free to pound the Highland line with shot. When the charge began, fire was opened with grape[shot] which was supplemented by volleys of musketry. The onrush was poorly co-ordinated and the clusters of clansmen who reached the lines of redcoats were repelled by bayonets. Culloden was uncannily like one of those Victorian colonial battles in which steady, confident troops used discipline and firepower to repel tribal armies" (James, p. 219).
Under this pressure, the Jacobites had little choice but to charge. Even so, Young/Adair, p. 265. thinks they waited too long to go in. Reid, p. 159, agrees, and says that Charles probably ordered it; Lord George Murray, who actually commanded the charge, had been responsible for the delay.
Unfortunately, it was a disorganized charge -- the Duke of Perth's command on the left hardly took part at all, and when it did move, it got tied up in the bog and the movement halted (Reid, p. 166). The center and right, under Murray, rapidly lost order; Young/Adair, p. 267. Reid, pp. 159, says that, instead of the usual fairly regular advance until the clans were in musket range, at which time the men would rush the enemy lines, most men dropped their guns, drew their swords, and started running at once. And they bunched up, exposing them to concentrated canister fire, which of course slaughtered the officers leading the charge and caused the men to become even more disorganized; Reid, p. 160. Reid estimates they may have lost as many as 400 men just getting to Cumberland's line -- in other words, at least 20% of those who were charging. What was left simply could not hit with the force of a proper Highland Charge. Within minutes of reaching the Hanoverian line, the right had to retreat, and as it retreated, it broke up even further. The left still held together, but when the Hanoverian army counter-charged, the Jacobite army generally dissolved.
Browning, p. 265, gives Hanoverian casualties as 300, Jacobite as 1560 (though this is surely too precise). Magnusson, p. 620, estimates Jacobite losses as "at least 1,500 dead" and the Loyalist forces as having lost fifty dead and 259 wounded. Young/Adair, p. 271, concurs with gives those same numbers for the Hanoverians, adding that one (yes, just one!) soldier was missing, and adds that only about 3000 Hanoverian troops were seriously engaged. Reid, p. 170, also gives 50 dead and 259 wounded in Cumberland's force, and says there were 750 Jacobite dead on the moor, and estimates total Highlander losses as 1500, plus "154 rebel and 222 'French' prisoners."
"The main battle was over inside an hour. Prince Charles, once he saw the day was lost, rode away to the south-west, into hiding. For a moment there might have been a chance of gathering for another fight, but it was too late, and the prince sent word to the clans to disperse and look to their own safety. And well they might for the vengeance of the English was systematic and terrible" (Fry/Fry, p. 196). Although the Frys, and Kybett, seem to imply cowardice, Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 61, declares that Charles left the battlefield reluctantly.
"The curtain was about to ring down on the clan system and the last battle fought on British soil. It was only regrettable that it should have been marred by the excesses of the victorious general. 'Butcher' Cumberland earned his nickname and the notoriety which still clings to his memory. Instead of dying courageously on the field the Prince was persuaded to fly for his life in the heather and the legend of his escape wove a magic round his name which was largely undeserved. It was the poverty-stricken Highlanders whose honour and gallantry forbade them to betray him whose memory we must applaud. Ahead of them lay the Clearances and the empty glens, the sorrows and persecutions of the century to come..." (Brander, p. 217). Brander also notes the interesting fact that Culloden inspired few songs. He compares it to Flodden: Time needed to pass before the poets' pens could face the tragedy.
"There was still a chance of taking to the hills and continuing a guerrilla war of attrition against the Hanoverian victors. But Prince Charles had no intention of staying in Scotland, and told his followers it was now every man for himself.... For him, the Rising was over" (Magnusson, p. 624). Magnusson seems to disapprove of this course. But such an attempt would surely have failed; many man would have deserted, and their only bases would be in the Highlands; they would have had no way to trouble the English government, or even the Lowland Scots. All they would have done was inflict further trouble on the Highlands. True, the Hanoverians came with fire and sword -- but if the Jacobites had fought, then it would have been *both* Hanoverians *and* Jacobites picking the Highlands clean. If Charles made no other right choices, his decision to abandon the rising was certainly the best thing for all involved.
James, p. 220, observes how strongly our modern attitudes are influenced by the romance and legend of Bonnie Prince Charlie. At the time, Cumberland was feted as a great victor -- the "Conquering Hero" of Handel (Magnusson, p. 623). Magnusson also claims that a plant was renamed "Sweet William" after him (which I doubt); I am only slightly more willing to accept that, in Scotland, "the foul-smelling ragwort Senecto jacobaea was nicknamed 'Stinking Willie.'"
"But the '45 did not end with the battle. Everyone knew that, this time, rebellion was serious, and the smallness of the section of Scotland involved meant that real punishment would follow. The fact that many groups of clansmen got away from the battle gave a particular motive for punitive search. It would be made clear to those who had chosen to fight for the prince rather than have their roofs burnt over their heads by Lochiel and his men, that they were not better off in rebellion" (Mitchison, p 342).
"The atrocities and indiscriminate killing went on for several days. Detachments of Hanoverian troops were sent far and wide to scour the Highlands for rebels on the run. The glens were laid waste. Men found bearing weapons were hanged on the spot, and their womenfolk were raped. Whole families were evicted from their blazing hovels and left to starve. Twenty thousand head of livestock -- cattle, sheep and goats -- were driven off to be sold at market in Fort Augustus, the money to be distributed to the victorious army" (Magnusson, p. 623).
"Nowadays it would be called genocide. Cumberland himself advocated his own 'final solution" to the Highland problem: the transportation of whole 'clans such as the Camerons and almost all the tribes of the MacDonalds (excepting some of those in the Isles) and several other lesser clans' -- also excepting, of course, the Campbells, most of whom had fought on the Hanoverian side" (Magnusson, p. 623).
"Of the total of 3,471 Jacobite prisoners, 120 were executed: most by hanging, drawing and quartering, four by beheading because they were peers of the realm -- the privilege of rank. Of the remainder, more than six hundred died in prison; 936 were transported to the West Indies to be sold as slaves [which, at that time, meant that they would almost certainly be dead of yellow fever or the like within two years], 121 were banished 'outside our Dominions'; and 1,287 were released or exchanged" (Magnusson, p. 624).
"When all is said and done Cumberland and 'Hangman Hawley' [who at Culloden commanded the cavalry] marred their victory by the atrocities they permitted, and indeed encouraged, afterwards. Pillage, rape and murder were the order of the day, the innocent suffering with the guilty. An undistinguished military career lay ahead for [Cumberland], culminating in his defeat at Hastenbeck and the inglorious Convention of Klosterseven (1757). It is more charitable to remember him as the founder of the Ascot Race Meeting (1748)" (Young/Adair, p. 271).
There is to this day much dispute over who is to blame for the disaster of Culloden, and for the Forty-Five. There is a strong school which argues that, since Lord George Murray was a sound tactical general, he must have been a strategic genius and anything that went wrong in 1745 was someone else's fault. So Young and Adair write,p, 256, "The Young Pretender... besides being himself no soldier, distrusted his ablest general, Lord George Murray, and chose to lean on his hare-brained Quartermaster-General, John William O'Sullivan."
Similarly, Keegan/Wheatcroft, p. 292, write that the Forty-Five "was doomed from the outset" (though they also say "the chance was there"); "Lord George Murray... the only commander of ability on the Jacobite side, argued in vain for a rapid descent on England before the Hanoverian forces could recover from the shock of a rising in the North. The victories -- Prestonpans and Falkirk -- were the work of Murray. It was Charles himself who insisted on attacking... at Culloden, when saner voices argued for a retreat into the Highlands and a war of attrition" (though how an outnumbered force is supposed to win a war of attrition is beyond me. Keegan/Wheatcroft, p. 227, also paper over the fact that Murray had been the voice of retreat at Derby).
McLynn-Charlie, pp. 249-250, also thinks the ultimate fault is Charles's. After the Night March, when Charles confronted Murray, Murray offered three choices: To retreat to Inverness and face a siege, to scatter and become guerrillas, or to accept battle on a different field south of the Nairn. Charles refused all three possibilities, and hence accepted battle at Culloden. McLynn-Charlie, p. 247, blames this on Charles's character: "The prince was never warned of the very real risk that [the night march] might miscarry. At this stage in his life, Charles was far too credulous and trusting toward his favourites, while being ludicrously suspicious of those not in the circle of initiates. The charm and affability of Charles Edward was the positive side of a mentality that was also distinguished by a marked anxiety to please those he considered his friends.... All these signs of a fragile identity were reinforced by a declining grip on reality."
It seems to me that this over-complexifies things: It's basically true, but the real problem was that Charles had taken a lot of advice from Lord George Murray, and it had resulted in the Jacobites being stuck up in the Highlands, so Charles was understandably -- and properly -- very suspicious of *Murray's* advice.
Reid, pp. 139-140, however, makes the significant point that, had the Jacobite army tried at that point to head for Murray's preferred battlefield, Cumberland could have pitched into their rear and done even more than he did at Culloden. When the Night March failed, I think, the Jacobite cause was lost. What was needed was a better plan for the March -- specifically, an alternate plan for what to do if the March were detected. But even if Murray thought of such a thing, he probably didn't dare suggest it.
Kybett, of course, blames everything on Charles. Browning too says that Charles was simply not a good enough leader for his cause, and notes correctly that the Prince's Catholicism cost him support (Charles, who clearly had no strong religious feelings, would actually convert to Protestantism after the Forty-Five, but too late to do any good; McLynn-Charlie, p. 399; Wilkinson, p. 227), and blames him for leading the Jacobite army into England.
In a very broad sense, Browning's charge is true: If Charles had been a military genius *and* smart enough to talk around Lord George Murray when needed *and* had been able to convince the French to really support him, then the rebellion would have had a much better chance. But if he had been able to call lightning from heaven, it would have had a better chance, too -- and the one was almost as impossible as the other.
Consider the flip side: The 1745 rebellion came much nearer success than the 1715, even though the latter was conducted under conditions much more favorable to revolt: The Hanoverian dynasty was weaker in 1715, and the Jacobites far stronger. Why did the 1745 rebellion come as close as it did? Because of Prince Charles.
Oh, Charles certainly wasn't anyone's notion of a general. But he understood something that Lord George Murray completely failed to understand, which was that a forlorn hope of a rebellion could only succeed by being bold -- even flashy. Charles was good at flashy. Lord George had opposed the idea of going after London; he had been wrong, and as a result, the Jacobite army had been forced to retreat all the way to Culloden in the north of Scotland. In the end, Murray didn't want to fight at Culloden either, even though the Jacobites needed to do *something* to keep the rebellion alive, and all Murray did was see to it that the battle, which would probably have been lost even if everything had gone well, was *guaranteed* to be lost.
Ironically, the period after the debacle at Culloden was considered the Prince's finest hour. He of course spent almost half a year on the run before he finally boarded the L'Heureux on September 20, 1746 (old style) to sail for France (McLynn-Charlie, p. 307). The flight was the subject of many songs such as "Skye Boat Song (Over the Sea to Skye)." For the most famous incident of this period, the time he spent with Flora MacDonald, see "Flora MacDonald's Lament." But his escape to Skye did not end his escapades; he spent another three months "in the heather"; "Despite the huge bounty on his head, not a single Highlander betrayed his whereabouts" (Magnusson, p. 627).
His escape was the more amazing because the British, according to James, p. 220, had 15,000 troops in the Highlands searching for him. Of course, they were somewhat distracted by the fact that they were also trying to destroy the Highland way of life.
Although Jacobitism is not quite dead, and many hoped for another rebellion, it was the last rising on behalf of the Stuarts. It is likely that Charles visited England again (Magnusson, p. 628), but he never started another rising (Magnusson, p. 627).
When Charles arrived in France, he found himself as popular as a rock star today: "It is difficult now to appreciate the sensation his exploits both on campaign and in the heather had caused. 'He left France an adventurer and came back a hero,' was Bulkeley's comment. Without exaggeration, in October 1746 the prince was the most famous man in Europe" (McLynn-Charlie, p. 308).
But fame doesn't last forever. As long as the War of the Austrian Succession continued, Charles was a useful pawn for France. But the war ended in 1748. He was no longer any use to France -- and had gotten himself into a certain amount of trouble with women and with political intrigues. By the time the war ended, he had in fact already left for Spain. He would spend the next twenty years (until his father died in 1766) a wanderer, always scraping for cash, and never saw his father after he set out to lead the Forty-Five (Magnusson, p. 629).
And the Stuart family's famous ill luck was starting to re-emerge. James the Old Pretender's wife had left him only two children before dying of scurvy caused by her extreme asceticism (McLynn-Charlie, p. 45). The two were Charles and his younger brother Henry. And Henry turned out to be homosexual (McLynn-Charlie, p. 327; Kybett, pp. 297-298); he decided to take holy orders to avoid the idea of marriage, and rose to be a cardinal in 1747, while still in his twenties (Wilkinson, p. 227).
Charles was heterosexual but extremely clumsy with women (Wilkinson, p. 233; McLynn-Charlie, pp. 554-555, argues that his parents' marital problems and his mother's early death badly damaged his ability to understand the opposite sex. Magnusson, p. 528, notes his several affairs in his years in France, including several with married women, one of them a first cousin). In 1852 he summoned Clementina Walkinshaw (McLynn-Charlie, p. 422). "Their relationship lasted for nine tempestuous years, during which she bore him a daughter, Charlotte, whom Charles adored. He became insanely possessive over Clementina, and would beat her in his drunken rages. In 1760 she left him, taking Charlotte with her" (Magnusson, p. 629). The quarrels reportedly began a month after Charlotte was born; Wilkinson, p. 233. Charlotte was seven when Clementina took her from her father (Wilkinson, p. 234); she claiming that Charles was threatening her life (Cook, p. 423). She supposedly said that she would rather see Charlotte cut in pieces (as Solomon would have divided the child of the two prostitutes) than returned to Charles.
It made no dynastic difference. Marriage with Clementina never seemed to be part of Charles's plans; he wanted a royal wife (McLynn-Charlie, p. 327), and of course no king would waste his daughter on a pretender, and there were no available ruling queens for him to seduce. The Stuart line was on its way to extinction.
And it was an ugly end. By the time he reached his fifties, not even Kybett has to distort facts to make Charles look bad; he did it all by himself. At first, he tried to get the courts of Europe to give him support for another invasion of Britain (Wilkinson, p. 226), with no success. He tried to convince his father to imprison Lord George Murray on the grounds that he was a traitor. When both these plans failed, Charles went to seed, and got drunk and (eventually) fat.
After his father died, Charles finally started worrying about producing an heir. He had almost certainly waited too long. His glittering reputation was gone, and the nations of the world no longer even pretended to hope for a Jacobite restoration. Even the Vatican had given in and (for practical purposes) acknowledged the Hanoverian dynasty (Kybett, p. 313; Cook, p. 424) -- the Vatican at this time, rather than recognize Charles as King Charles III, offered to recognize him as Prince of Wales! (McLynn-Charlie, p. 481). Every other country had long since accepted George III, and George II before him, as King of England.
But someone finally turned up a possible spouse in Louise of Stolberg, "young, fair, gay, penniless, it is true, but claiming the blood of Bruce in her veins and eager to become a 'Queen.' She was one of a quartette of fatherless daughters, and her mother, who had been left a widow at twenty-five in straightened circumstances, was willing enough to range one of her brood by presenting her to a titular King. Indeed, if Louise failed to suit, Charles might have a younger child for a bride" (Cook, p. 424). "[Louise] seems to have made the sacrifice very willingly. The marriage was first performed by proxy at Paris [Charles was there, Louisa wasn't]... and [she] was formally united to him on Good Friday 1772" (Wilkinson, p. 236). Charles called her his "Queen of Hearts" (Magnusson, p. 629), and he may even have cut back on his drinking for a while -- but not for long.
Charles was 51 at this time, and "Louise was young, and she took lovers -- first Alfieri, then Gehegan, an Irishman. Charles, his suspicions aroused, broke into her room one day, and there was a disgraceful scene" (Wilkinson, p. 236). She never produced a child, however; I seem to recall reading somewhere that she is suspected of having been sterile.
Having given up on Louise, Charles tried to have Charlotte legitimized (Wilkinson, p. 237), making her Duchess of Albany, but, really, no one cared much. His claim to the English throne, such as it was, would pass to his brother Henry.
Wilkinson, p. 225, sums up the truth and the legend this way. "The great romantic tradition of which this simple-minded young man of action was the unconscious founder still lived and flourished under the trampling boots of the southern invaders, and was to burst into bloom half a century later, with a riot of music and song, idealist tartans, and impossible Floras, and a whole new springtime of romance, which we may sneer at if we like as early nineteenth century sentimentalism, but which is really a hard, imperishable growth.... From this point of view -- indeed, from any point of view -- the later period of Prince Charlie's life does not greatly matter. It is a perfectly sound popular instinct which thinks of him always as a young man, ignoring those weary, wasted, insignificant years. There is little to be gained from the contemplation of a man of action who has no longer anything to do."
Compared to the rest of his family, he had a short life -- possibly the result of his alcoholism. By 1786, he was in poor health (McLynn-Charlie, p. 548). He had a stroke early in 1788, and died on January 30 of that year at the age of 67 (McLynn-Charlie, p. 549), with his daughter by his side and his brother Henry administering the last rites of the church that he had earlier scorned and that had cost him his chance for a crown. His father, by contrast, lived to be 78, and Cardinal York, the titular Henry IX, died in 1807 at 82 -- by which time he was actually being given a pension by the English government (Kybett, p. 314)! -- possibly in return for making over some of the Sobieski gems to become part of the English crown jewels. On the other hand, Charlotte outlived her father by only a little more than a year, dying in late 1789 of what McLynn-Charlie, p. 550, describes as liver cancer.
I have read, somewhere, that Charlotte had no children, and even Kybett, p. 304, says that Charles was "not aware" of the existence of any grandchildren. But Kybett, on that same page, says that Charlotte, in the period when her father would have nothing to do with her, became the mistress of a French bishop, and had three illegitimate children -- a daughter Algae, born 1780; a daughter Marie, born 1782, and a son Charles Edward, born 1783. It was shortly after the birth of the latter that Charles and Charlotte were reconciled. Magnusson, p. 629, claims however that Charlotte had married (presumably making the children legitimate), but that she left them behind when Charles summoned her.
The fate of these children seems to have been sad. Their father does not seem to have done anything for them; their grandmother Clementina Walkinshaw, herself quite poor, cared for them until she died in 1802 (Kybett, p. 312). In any case, they were clearly illegitimate in terms of their descent from Charles. James the Old Pretender's claim to the throne lived only in Henry, and it died out when he died. Officially there is still a Catholic heir to the Stuarts out there (I seem to recall that it was the heir of one of the defunct Germany dynasties), but in practice the Jacobite threat, never very great, died with Charles in 1788.
Among the others mentioned in this song:
"Lochiel": Donald Cameron, Lochiel of Cameron (1695-1748, called the "Young Lochiel," even though he was middle-aged, because his father was in exile as a Jacobite); he was the first great chief to come to Charlie's support. He was wounded at Culloden, and, like Charles, would die in exile; the British would execute his brother.
Drummond: Probably the aforementioned Lord John Drummond, though it might be William MacGregor of Drummond (Bahaldy), like Lochiel an early supporter of Charlie, since the others mentioned were among the prince's earliest supporters.
Lewis Gordon was responsible for raising most of the troops from the Aberdeenshire area. For a song about him, see "Lewie Gordon (Lewis Gordon)."
As noted above, the argument these three presented was, in a sense, sound: The Highlanders would have been depressed and would have deserted had the Jacobite army retreated. You wonder, though, if they weren't motivated partly by the fear of British retribution.... - BS, RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: Ord293

Muirisheen Went to Bonane

DESCRIPTION: The singer's lover has left him: "she got this young swain from Bonane." He admits he drank too much, even with her father. "'Tis many an evening I rambled" So "she packed up her boxes quite hasty." "I hope this good dame will succeed."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection separation drink father lover rake
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 95, "Muirisheen Went to Bonane" (2 texts)
Roud #16251
File: OCC095

Muirland Farmer, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a gweed fairmer has acres o lan'," servants, a "mansion hoose," "A dainty we wifie," and two children. He describes the farm, the lake with wild ducks, the snug house, his church clothes, and his good luck at selling his barley crop.
AUTHOR: Andrew Scott (1757-1839) (source: Whitelaw)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #122, p. 1, "The Muirland Farmer" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 433, "The Muirland Farmer" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 94, "The Gude Farmer" (1 text)
Roud #5949
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow" (tune, per Whitelaw)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Farmer
The Sma' Farmer
The Aul' Farmer
NOTES [14 words]: The Greig version and two of the Greig/Duncan3 versions add verses not in Whitelaw. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD3433

Muirsheen Durkin

See Good bye Mursheen Durkin (File: OLcM036)

Mulb'ry Bush

See Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (File: Lins038)

Mulberry Disaster

DESCRIPTION: A storm-tossed ship is blown near Mulberry. The crew abandon ship. One of the boats overturns, drowning five of its seven passengers. The rest of the piece is devoted to mourning for the lost sailors
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: death sea storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 12, 1800 - date of the Mulberry Disaster (according to the song)
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 114-117, "Mulberry Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune); cf. also the fragment about Calais Pond on page 119
ST FO114 (Partial)
Roud #4678
NOTES [37 words]: For a song so long, and so specific as to place and date, this is surprisingly unspecific about the actual people involved -- a moniker song without the monikers! This makes it hard to determine actual historical details. - RBW
File: FO114

Mulcahey's Gone Away

See Mulcahy's Gone Away (File: Dean083)

Mulcahy's Gone Away

DESCRIPTION: "The hero of my humble song was once a mighty man, A shining light in his neighborhood, the chief of all his clan." Mulcahey, a politician, loses his office and disappears. His family laments as they seek for him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: family separation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 83, "Mulcahey's Gone Away" (1 text)
Roud #9570
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mulcahy's Home Again" (character?)
cf. "Mulcahy's Sister Kate" (character?)
NOTES [164 words]: Dean-FlyingCloud has three songs about Mulcahy/Mulcahey, and they present a bit of a conundrum -- and not just because he can't decide how to spell the name! None of them seem to appear in any other source. The feel of the three is very similar, so I suspect some sort of stage origin.
It appears, adding them up, that Mulcahy was a big man in some sort of Irish neighbourhood. Then he was given some sort of a patronage job, presumably for turning out a large Irish vote for a particular candidate. It is not clear whether he was fired or simply let go when another administration came in.
The Irish community in Minnesota is large enough that such a story might be possible here. But it frankly souns much more like New York City to me -- local bosses were much more important there. My out-of-the-blue speculation is that this might come from some sort of musical show telling, indirectly, of the fall of Boss Tweed. But that is a lot of speculation based on very little data. - RBW
File: Dean083

Mulcahy's Home Again

DESCRIPTION: "I come with news tonight, me boys, just listen for a while." The singer tells of his amazement that Mulcahy has returned home. The famous Mulcahy has had enough of politics and has decided to return to his roots
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: reunion
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 78, "Mulcahy's Home Again" (1 text)
Roud #9567
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mulcahy's Sister Kate" (character?)
cf. "Mulcahy's Gone Away" (character?)
File: Dean078

Mulcahy's Sister Kate

DESCRIPTION: "You have heard me sing of a hero bold, Mulcahy was his name, And, faith, he had a sister, too, that was noted for her fame." Kate Mulcahy is tall, red-haired, and apparently unmarried at 28; she cooks at a boarding house
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: cook sister
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 76-77, "Mulcahy's Sister Kate" (1 text)
Roud #9565
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mulcahy's Home Again" (character?)
cf. "Mulcahy's Gone Away" (character?)
NOTES [65 words]: As it stands in Dean-FlyingCloud, nothing much happens in this song, which seems to be about an old maid. Possibly the singer is courting her to get her money? But Dean's version has only two verses; I suspect a Stage Irish song; either Dean has forgotten some of the lyrics, or they made sense in the context of the drama.
For more on the story, see the notes to "Mulcahy's Gone Away." - RBW
File: Dean076B

Muldoon, the Solid Man

DESCRIPTION: "I am a man of great influence... I came when small from Donegal, in the Daniel Webster I crossed the sea." Hard work has brought the singer success. He promises the listeners he will "use you decent... I'm a solid man." He tells of his social sucess.
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Harrigan's sketch "Muldoon, the Solid Man")
KEYWORDS: emigration work
FOUND IN: US(MW) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 102-103, "Muldoon, the solid Man" (1 text)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #41, pp. 187-188, "I Will Lay You Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Behan-IrelandSings, #79, "Sit Yeh Down And I'll Treat Yeh Decent" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
DT, LAYEDON2*
ADDITIONAL: Edward Harrigan, _The Mulligans_, G. W. Dilingham, 1901, p. 12, "(no title)" (1 fragment, of the chorus)
Roud #3355
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'll Lay Ye Doon, Love" (lyrics)
cf. "Laird of Drum" (tune, as sung by Jeannie Robertson)
NOTES [478 words]: Roud lumps this with "I'll Lay Ye Doon, Love." But that is a song of seduction, while this is a song telling of prosperity.
The key verse of "I'll Lay You Doon, Love," as derived from Jeannie Robertson, is something like this:
O I'll lay ye doon, love, I'll treat ye decent
I'll lay ye doon, love, I'll fill your can
O I'll lay ye doon, love, I'll treat ye decent
For surely he is an honest man.
Ned Harrigann's own text of this, as published in The Mulligans, runs
Go with me and I'll trate ye decent,
I'll set ye drunk, and I'll fill yere can.
As I walk the street, each frind I meet,
Says, There goes Muldoon, he's a solid man.
Harrigan premiered the song in May 1872 in a sketch also entitled "Muldoon, the Solid Man." Richard Moody's biography of Harrigan describes the sketch as "foreshadowing [Harrigan's] fascination with lunatics and undertakers. An old actor has gone mad on Shakespeare, a common affliction according to Harrigan. Another lunatic imagines himself a kite and shouts 'Fly me! Fly me!' The undertaker is overjoyed at the prospect of the final wholesale slaughter: 'A whole world dead! Lord, what a fat job that would be!'"
There is one curiosity about that 1872 date. The song mentions "General" Grant. This require a date after 1862 (when Grant became a general and fought his first significant battles) but might hint at a date before 1868. But that's a minor point.
Given its early date, it is unlikely that the tune was written by Harrigan's long-time collaborator David Braham (Franceschina, p. 82) -- the two were performing together by then (Franceschina, p. 76), but weren't yet a "team." That make it likely that Harrigan used a traditional or popular tune. But what odds that he would use a Scottish song of seduction unknown in American? Besides, while Ned Harrigan did borrow traditional material and adapt it, he didn't do it like this -- he might borrow a tune, or allude to a text, but not rewrite it.
So how did the song end up in Scotland? All attempts to trace it seem to stop at Jeannie Robertson. Her story was that it came from an Irish Traveler -- and that it was bawdy. Abby Sale mentions a suggestion that it became an Irish Music Hall song. Possible -- after all, although Harrigan was American and made his home in New York, his pieces were like music hall; it's possible that someone moved the piece to the music hall. But there is a lot that we can't trace in that history.
For background on Harrigan, see the notes to "Babies on Our Block." - RBW
Porter and Gower note a provenance from an "Irish-American music hall song with the title, "Muldoon, the solid Man," and that Jeannie Robertson used the tune for several of her songs, e.g. "Laird o Drum" (Child 236). Some 6 of Roud's 23 Muldoon variants attributed to his number 3355 appear to actually be Robertson and Stewart family versions of "Laird o Drum." - DGE
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: Dean102

Mule

DESCRIPTION: "The mule he is the funniest sight; he's made of ears and dynamite." "Some folks don't treat mules with respect; they say he has no intellect." "The mule attends to his own biz; He don't look loaded, but he is."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Henry, from Annie E. Franklin)
KEYWORDS: humorous animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 225, "Mule" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 456, "Mule He Is a Funny SIght" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree)" (tune) and refences there
cf. "The Mule, (Never Take the Hindshoe from a Mule)" (subject)
File: MHAp225

Mule (I), The

See On Mules We Find Two Legs Behind (File: ACSF126A)

Mule He Is a Funny Sight

See Mule (File: MHAp225)

Mule on the Mountain

DESCRIPTION: The singer or captain has a mule on the mountain called Jerry. Who will ride him? I will. Jerry is hiking down the Southern main line; didn't stop for water and made it on time.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Hurston)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad shanty worksong animal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Frye-TheMenAllSinging, p. 184, ("I got a muley on the mountain") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men (New York: Harper
Perennial,1990 (paperback edition of J.B. Lippincott, 1935 original)), pp. 269-270, "Mule On de Mount" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Crew of the Charles J. Colonna, ("Lord I got a muley") (on VaWork)
Menhaden Fishermen, "Mule on the Mountain" (on USMenhaden01)
Northern Neck Chantey Singers, "Mule on the Mountain" (on USMenhaden02)
NOTES [155 words]: As a menhaden work song this is lined out. For example, ("o hiking jerry O LORDY HIKING DOWN THE MAIN LINE SOUTHERN (chatter)"(2x) "o he did on time boys O LORDY LORD LORD HE DID ON TIME (chatter)"), where: lower case is the chanteyman calling the verse line; upper case is the crew's response; "(chatter)" is directions called out by the crew about hauling.
The VaWork song is part of the "Evalina" track.
Hurston p. 269: "The most widely distributed and best known of all Negro work songs. Since folk songs grow by incremental repetition the diversified subject matter that it accumulates as it ages is one of the evidences of its distribution and usage. This has everything in folk life in it. Several stories to say nothing of just lyric matter. It is something like the Odyssey, or the Iliad." Hurston's version includes sections from menhaden chanteys besides "Mule on the Mountain": "Evalina" and "I'm Gonna Roll Here." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Frye184

Mule Skinner Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Good morning, Captain, Good morning, shine... Do you need another mule skinner out on your new road line?" About the hard life on the road work gang, waiting for water, and dealing with a mule
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Jimmie Rodgers)
KEYWORDS: work loneliness animal floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #84, "Mule Skinner Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 152, "Mule Skinner Blues" (1 text, 1 tune, with one stanza of "T for Texas" thrown in for fun)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 129, "Mule Skinner Blues" (1 text)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 67-70, "I Can Buckle a Wheeler" (2 texts, 2 tunes, both probably the same as one of the composite parts of Lomax's "Levee Camp Holler"; the "A" text also contains a large part of "Mule Skinner Blues")
Roud #3437
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff, "Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel #8)" (OKeh 05638/Conqueror 9528, 1940; Columbia 37012, 1946; Columbia 20038, c. 1947; rec. 1940)
Maddox Bros. & Rose, "New Muleskinner Blues" (4-Star 1240/4-Star 1288, n.d. but post-WWII)
Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys, "Mule Skinner Blues" (Bluebird B-8568, 1940; RCA Victor 20-3163, 1948)
Bill Monroe & his Bluegrass Boys, "New Muleskinner Blues" (Decca 46222, 1950)
Sonny Osborne, "Mule Skinner Blues" (Kentucky 605, n.d.)
Jimmie Rodgers, "Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel #8)" (Victor 23503, 1930; Bluebird B-6275, 1936; RCA Victor 20-6205 [as Jimmie Rodgers w. the Rainbow Ranch Boys], 1955)
Pete Seeger w. Jerry Silverman & Sonny Terry, "Muleskinner Blues" (on HootenannyTonight)
SAME TUNE:
Columbia Waters (by Woody Guthrie) (Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 52-53)
NOTES [144 words]: A "skinner" is a teamster.
To the best of my knowledge, every known version of this goes back to Jimmie Rodgers ("Blue Yodel #8"). I doubt the song can truly be considered traditional. - RBW
To add to the fun, the Lomaxes tacked part of another Rodgers piece, "T for Texas," onto the end of this one. Given that neither song has much of a plot, it can be hard to separate the resulting hybrids. - PJS, RBW
One more bit of mixture: "Chinaman" Johnson's song "I Can Buckle a Wheeler," which seems to be mostly the same as the song the Lomaxes call "Levee Camp Holler," starts with a couple of verses of this. "Chinaman" sang the song more than thirty years after Rodgers recorded it, so the two could have simply been attracted together -- but the flip side is, who was worrying about mule behavior in 1965? I think we just have to call the whole thing a mess. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LoF152

Mule Skinner Blues (II)

See T for Texas (Blue Yodel #1) (File: LoF152A)

Mule Skinner's Song

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I drove three mules for George McVane, And I drove them three miles on a chain. Nigh one Jude and the middle one Jane, And the one on the stick she didn't have no name."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: animal harvest work
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 400, "Mule Skinner's Song" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
File: San400

Mule Song

DESCRIPTION: "No matter what you teach a mule, He'll always have his bray; He'll always have his floppy ears and his god-damned mulish way." "Hee-haw, hee-haw is the only thing he knows." "In the middle of a straff he'll land a caisson in a ditch...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: animal war hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 204-207, "Mule Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27892
File: NiMo204

Mule-Skinners, The

DESCRIPTION: "In readin' the story of early days, it's a cause of much personal pain" that writers ignore "us in charge of the wagon train." They work and endure harsh conditions just like cowboys, "So why in the name of all that's fair can't we figger in history?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 101-102, "The Mule-Skinners" (1 text)
File: ThLo101

Mule, The (Never Take the Hindshoe from a Mule)

DESCRIPTION: "A story come down from old Mathuslam... You'll make a great mistake... If you bother around the hind parts of a mule. So never tickle a mule when he's reposing; If you disturb his peaceful slumbers, you're a fool...." Thus the practical advice continues
AUTHOR: Sam Devere
EARLIEST DATE: 1882
KEYWORDS: animal humorous parody
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 108, "The Mule" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MULESONG*
Roud #4601
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door" (of which this is a parody)
cf. "Mule" (subject)
NOTES [34 words]: Written as a parody of the popular song "Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door" (by Edward Harrigan and Dave Braham). As the original was written in 1880, it didn't take long for the parodists to start. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: FSC108

Mules

See On Mules We Find Two Legs Behind (File: ACSF126A)

Mules Ran Off, The

DESCRIPTION: "The mules ran off and I fell down, I really thought I'd croak," but despite troublesome mules, "I love my old canal." All the river critters make their noise as "Old Fear" looks on and grins. It rains hard, but then it clears up and the birds sing
AUTHOR: Pearl R. Nye (source: Salt)
EARLIEST DATE: 1992 (Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory)
KEYWORDS: river travel hardtimes bird animal canal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 62-63, "The Mules Ran Off" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Susanna" (tune, according to Salt)
File: Salt062

Mules That Walked Our Fo'c'sle Deck, The

DESCRIPTION: "The mules that walked our fo'c'sle deck, They were two mules of fame; They sailed the Lakes for many a year." The singer describes the mules, the tasks they did, how they adapted to sailing, the messes they made, and says one of them should be mate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1952 (collected from James Dix and others by Walton)
KEYWORDS: animal work sailor ship humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont) US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 135-137, "The Mules That Walked Our Fo'c'sle Deck" (1 composite text)
Roud #19880
NOTES [165 words]: Many deep-sea sailing vessels carried animals aboard -- chickens on short voyages, perhaps even pigs and cattle for long. The idea was to have fresh meat. Great Lakes vessels, never far from shore, normally did not do this, so a good chunk of this song is devoted to complaints about the two mules' waste products.
According to Walton, many timber vessels carried mules aboard, to do the heavy lifting of loading and unloading logs. When this work was taken over by steam engines, they were called "donkey engines."
Walton's informant said that work on these "horseshit boats" was extremely wearying, so sailors rarely signed on for more than one trip. Hence it was quite possible (as in this song) that the mules would be more used to the work than the sailors.
Walton indicates no tune for this, but I can't help but suspect that it is the same melody as that used for "On Mules We Find Two Legs (Before/Behind)," which I seem to recall my father singing to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM135

Mullach Na Re

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "A local song, about a rick of turf that went up in flames. A mock match-making is discussed and local personalities gently lampooned."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage marriage humorous fire
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 96, "Mullach Na Re" (1 text)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC096

Mullaghdoo

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls how "Hugh Fulton, once my comrade dear, Pursuing fortune, left his home"; Hugh is now in Nova Scotia. The singer is lonely at home now that Hugh is far away. When he left, Hugh asked that they play Auld Lang Syne for Mullaghdoo
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H2, pp. 215-216, "" (1 text, 2 tunes -- Sam Henry's different transcriptions of the same original)
DT, MULLGDOO*
NOTES [11 words]: An unusual emigration song, told by one of those left behind. - RBW
File: HHH002

Mulligan Guard, The

DESCRIPTION: "We crave your condescension, We'll tell you what we know, Of marching in the Mulligan Guard...." The members of the target company "shouldered guns, And marched and marched away From Baxter Street we marched to Avenue A." At home, they drink
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (sheet music published by Wm. A. Pond & Co, New York)
KEYWORDS: soldier humorous drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #1, pp. 2-6, "The Mulligan Guards" (1 text. 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 113-114, "The Mulligan Guard" (the chorus only)
ADDITIONAL: Richard Moody, editor, _Dramas from the American Theatre, 1762-1909_, World Publishing Company, 1966, insert after p. 544, "The Mulligan Guard" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music); the play "The Mulligan Guard Ball" is on pp. 549-565 (this is the first printed edition, taken from the manuscript filed with the Library of Congress in 1879, and may not have matched the actual performances perfectly); this song is at the end of scene 2, on pp. 554-555, apparently sung by Dan Mulligan
Stanley Appelbaum, editor, _Show Songs: from The Black Crook to The Red Mill_, Dover Publications, 1974, pp. 13-17, "The Mulligan Guard" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the sheet music)
Richard Moody, _Ned Harrigan: From Corlear's Hook to Herald Square_, Nelson Hall, 1980, p. 49, "The Mulligan Guard"; photo inset following p. 54 has a copy of the sheet music
John Franceschina, _David Braham: The American Offenbach_, Routledge, 2003, pp. 57-58, "(The Mulligam Guard)" (1 text)
Edward Harrigan, _The Mulligans_, G. W. Dilingham, 1901, pp. 11, 86, 303, "(no title)" (1 fragment, of the chorus, slightly different from the published sheet music)
Roud #V7922
RECORDINGS:
Mick Moloney, "The Mulligan Guard" (on HarriganBrahamMaloney)
NOTES [1115 words]: For background on composers Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block." Of all their songs, this was the most popular; it was used as a march by the Coldstream Guards and is actually quoted in modified form in Kipling's Kim! (Kahn, pp. 3-4). Kahn, p. 4, says there was even a French version, from which which he quotes the chorus.
Appelbaum, p. xx, gives the history of the song as follows:
"The song 'The Mulligan Guard' was not originally part of a musical play. It was first performed by Harrigan and Hart in a sketch at the Academy of Music in Chicago on July 15, 1873. The sketch and song poked fun at the unofficial military organizations then rife among various minority groups in New York City. On certain days these groups would pay their compliments to their local ward politicians and would then partake in a rowdy picnic, combined with target practice.
"Harrigan worked up this sketch into a playlet, The Mulligan Guard Ball, which ran at the Theatre Comique from January 13 to May 24, 1879. In the playlet two guards organizations, one Irish and one Negro, hire the same dance hall for the same night, with seismic results. [Literally; in the play; the floor breaks down and the Blacks on the upper floor land among the Irish on the lower.]... In 1883, Harrigan and Hart presented an enlarged, full-evening of The Mulligan Guard at the Theatre Comique."
The Mulligan Guard, as originally presented, was a "target company" -- one of these militia groups that gathered to march, take shots at a target, and then get drunk. Kahn, p. 81, reports that "Target companies came into being in the eighteen-thirties mainly because immigrants were refused admission into the city's existing militia companies by their choosy officers. These companies were pseudo-military outfits, often named in honor of an alderman or other leader in ward politics -- the William A. Tweed Guards, for instance -- which every so often would assemble and march off for what was ostensibly a day's firing practice. Splendidly uniformed, a company would parade through the streets early in the morning, a brass band hired for the day leading the way, and the rear brought up by a colored boy carrying a large target, on which would be prominently lettered the name of the company's patron. The outfit's first stop would always be the home of this individual who was expected, in return for being serenaded there, to provide it with prizes to shoot for." Then the company would go on a party before they had their shooting contest, at which they would get so drunk that they were rarely able to hit the target.
Ned Harrigan reportedly wrote his original skit because he "considered the high-stepping target companies to be a nuisance" (Kahn, p. 84).
Part of the humor of the presentation was that the "company" -- which, to deserve that title, should have consisted of many dozens of men -- in fact consisted of just two soldiers, Captain Hussey, plus a private and the Black boy, Morgan Benson, who carried the target. (There is disagreement in the books I've read about whether Harrigan or Hart played Captain Hussey. Looking at a photo of the two in costume, I think Harrigan was Hussey, but I can't prove it.)
'Harrigan got the 'guard idea' in Boston n the winter of 1872, wrote the sketch and lyrics, and when Braham sent him a tune shaped to his lyrics, he tried to persuade William A. Pond to publish the sheet music, hoping to get the song in circulation before the act got on stage. It was a promotional stunt he was to use successfully in later years. Pond declined, then changed his mind when he heard Harrigan and Hart perform the number. He offered fifty dollars for the rights, and Harrigan accepted. For the rest of his life, Harrigan bemoaned his youthful indiscretion: 'I let him have it! I let him have it' Why couldn't he have learned his lesson just as well on a less popular song.
"The Mulligan act featured a marching troop of two, one modeled on a tailor on the Seventh Ward named Dan Mulligan and the other on Capt. Jack Hussey, a baggage master at Castle Garden who was said to have the 'awfulest gnarlest, dead-looking face Darwin ever saw,' but whose chest was decorated shoulder to shoulder with medals awarded for the rescues from drowning he had performed along the East RIver. (Hussey's wife Cordelia would later serve as the model for Dan's wife Cordelia in the Mulligan plays)" (Moody-Harrigan, p. 45).
Kahn, p. 86, says that Jack Hussey was "the idol of all the Seventh Ward target companies. Hussey, a longshoreman and for some years a gatekeeper at Castle Garden, was a native of County Cork who emigrated to New York in 1851 and, during an era when the city's citizens were continually falling or being pushed in the waters that bordered it, achieved a massive reputation as a life-saver. When he rescued his twenty-fifth individual from drowning, Congress had a special medal struck for him to commemorate the feat. Before he was shot and killed in a street brawl, Hussey had fished at least one drowning person out of a New York river annually for thirty-five years, not to mention seven horses that, at one time or another, he pulled from the East River."
"By the summer of 1875, indoors and outdoors, rare was the establishment that did not include at least 'The Mulligan Guard' [and often other Harrigan/Braham songs] in its concert programs" (Franceschina, p. 91).
Despite this widespread popularity, there is no evidence that the song went into tradition, even though some other Harrigan/Braham songs did. But, according to Kahn, p. 84, the success of this song "laughed [the target companies] right out of existence."
According to Franceschina, p. 58, "Braham's music begins with a side-drum roll and a single beat of the bass trum. This figure is played three times and followed by eight bars of a drum-and-fife duet. The fife tune is then repeated with full orchestra leading into a four-bar military fanfare. The voice follows in an idiomatic Braham melody outlining the harmony with almost no dissonant nonchordal tones. Following the indication 'Forward march' comes the chorus anticipating many of the trios in the marches of John Philip Sousa, with its easily memorable, constantly soaring melody. After the last verse and chorus are sung, the introductory fife tune reappears, followed by the opening side drum and bass drum duet (with the indication "Present arms"). The musical interlude is completed with an eight-bar Irish jig borrowed from the Irish ballad "St. Patrick's Day in the Morning" (with the indication "Target excursion band"), leading into a final reprise of the chorus (with the indication "Forward march"). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Aplb013

Mullinabrone

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees two lovers saying goodbye. He is going to America; she fears he will forget her. At last she can stand it no longer; she buys passage to America. At first she cannot find him, but meets him eventually; they are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation emigration reunion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H242, p. 483-484, "Mullinabrone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2494
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "You Lovers All" (plot)
cf. "My Father's Servant Boy" [Laws M11] (plot)
cf. "Erin's Flowery Vale (The Irish Girl's Lament)" [Laws O29] (lyrics)
NOTES [68 words]: The lyrics of this song often overlap those of "Erin's Flowery Vale," and the first part of the plot is also the same. But this is somewhat less, um, flowery, and it also has a proper ending, which "Erin's Flowery Vale" (as defined by Laws) does not. There probably is kinship, but perhaps the most likely explanation is that both split off from the same roots; they aren't really the same song any longer. - RBW
File: HHH242

Mullnabeeny (Mill of Boyndie)

DESCRIPTION: "When I was young and in my prime, Guid-fegs, like me there wisna mony." The singer recalls his success at a young age: A good fee, fine clothes, and the attention of the ladies. He wishes he were back in the days when his old hat was new
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming age clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #167, pp. 2-3, "Mullnabeeny" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 441, "Mullnabeeny" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 249, "Mill of Boyndie (Mullnabeeny)" (1 text)
Roud #5576
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When This Old Hat Was New" (the concept of "When this old hat was new")
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mill o' Beenie
When My Auld Hat Was New
NOTES [65 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads explains that the name "Mullnabeeny" is local dialect for "Milne of Boyndie" -- yet calls his version "Mill of Boyndie." - RBW
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Mill of Boyndie (441) is at coordinate (h6-7,v6) on that map [near Banff, roughly 41 miles NNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord249

Mulroy Bay

DESCRIPTION: The singer thinks about the hills of home, where he spent his happy childhood. "I'll soon be coming back to the place, To the sweetheart that I met so many years ago" at Mulroy Bay.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: love home return reunion nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 55, "Mulroy Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [5 words]: Mulroy Bay is in Donegal. - BS
File: McB1055

Multiplication Is a Vexation

DESCRIPTION: "Multipilication is a vexation, Division's twice as bad, The Rule of Three perplexes me And practice drives me mad."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | multiplication division mathematics
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 60, "Multiplication is a vexation" (1 text)
Roud #20070
File: KSUC060B

Multiplication Table Song

DESCRIPTION: "Five times five is 25, And five times six is 30, Five times seven is 25, and five times eight is 40. Five times nine is 45, Five times ten is 50. Five times eleven is 55, And five times twelve is 60." With variations for other numbers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Stout-FolkloreFromIowa); reportedly learned 1882
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 103, pp. 127-133, "Early Iowa School Songs" (11 texts, of which "H" is this song)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 78-80, "The Multiplication Table Song" (2 short texts, 2 tunes, the first for multiples of 2, the second for multiples of 5)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 60, "Five times five is twenty-five" (1 short text)
Roud #16811
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (tune)
cf. "Five to My Five" (subject of multiplication)
NOTES [29 words]: Roud lumps this with "Five to My Five," but the purpose is (just barely) different enough that I've split them; that song is a playparty, and this seemingly a school song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Stou103H

Mumma Me Wan' Go Walk

See Mama Me Wan Wuk (Mama I Want to Work) (File: RcMaMWW)

Mummers' Carol

See Hampshire Mummers' Carol (God Sent for Us the Sunday) (File: LEBC078)

Mummers' Song

See Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid) (File: R079)

Mummers' Song, The

See Poor Old Horse (III) (File: ShH85)

Mummy, Daddy, Tell Me True

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Mummy, Daddy, tell me true, Who shall I get married to? Paul, John, Ringo, George?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Those Dusty Bluebells)
KEYWORDS: courting jumprope mother father | Beatles
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, 365, "Mummy, Daddy, Tell Me True" (1 text)
NOTES [29 words]: This was impressively fast composition and collection: the first major Beatles hit, "I Want to Hold Your Hand," hit the charts in early 1964, and this was printed in 1965! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR365

Municipal Protest Train Association Song

See M. T. A. (The MTA Song; Charlie on the M. T. A.) (File: ACSF055M)

Munro's Confession

See The Murder of Sarah Vail [Laws F9] (File: LF09)

Munro's Tragedy

See Donald Munroe [Laws J12] (File: LJ12)

Murder in the Market (Payne Dead)

DESCRIPTION: Betsy asks Miss Clark for shelter. Miss Clark asks for details. Betsy says her husband "call me a liar an I stab 'im" "I ain't killed nobody but me husband Didn't mean to kill him but him stone dead."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Heskovits)
KEYWORDS: accusation violence crime homicide husband wife
FOUND IN: Panama West Indies(St Croix)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Louise Cramer, "Songs of West Indian Negroes in the Canal Zone" in _California Folklore Quarterly_, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Jul 1946 (made available online by JSTOR)), pp. 265-266, "Murder in de Market"
RECORDINGS:
Ethel McIntosh, "Payne Dead" (on VIZoop01)
NOTES [191 words]: Alan Lomax says this is the basis for Wilmoth Houdini's "He Had It Coming" ("Stone Cold Dead in the Market") [Alan Lomax, "Introduction to 'Stone Cold Dead in the Market'" (on "Calypso at Midnight," Rounder CD 11661-1840-2, 1999) [recorded 1946]]. The verse structure is the same -- aaac -- and some lines are shared: "Didn't kill nobody but me husband" and "... him stone dead." Cramer says this is based on an incident in which a Barbados woman "was told that her husband was being unfaithful to her. One morning a neighbor came by as she was working at home and told her that the miscreant was down in the market. The wife rushed down to the market and confronted her husband with her accusation. He called her a liar. The wife thereupon struck and killed him." Cramer continues the story of how the woman asks for help, and, apparently is tried and released.
The tune of the MacIntosh version, from St Croix, is close to Houdini's "He Had It Coming".
Apparently there is a short version at the Library of Congress collected in Trinidad by the Herskovitses but I have neither seen nor heard it: "Payne Dead, Payne Dead" recorded in 1942. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcPaynDe

Murder in the Shoe-box

DESCRIPTION: "Murder in the shoe-box, fire in the spence [cabinet], I had a little donkey and I haven't seen 'n sense. Give 'n a little oats, give 'n a little straw, Gee up, donkey! ans awa she go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Deane /Shaw)
KEYWORDS: homicide animal food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 51, "(Murder in the shoe-box)" (1 short text)
File: DeSh051A

Murder of Alan Beyne, The

DESCRIPTION: A young man is to be hanged for the murder of Alan Beyne. He repeatedly protests his innocence, but judge and jury condemned him. Just before the sentence is carried out, a rider rides up, and proves to be Beyne. The singer is saved
AUTHOR: Will Carleton ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1935
KEYWORDS: execution punishment reprieve mother homicide
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) Australia
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 243-245, "The Murder of Alan Beyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 100-103, "Allen Bain" (1 text, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 8-12, "Alan Bane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 438-439, "Allen Bayne" (1 text)
DT, ALANBANE*
Roud #2974
RECORDINGS:
Almeda Riddle, "Alan Bain" (on LomaxCD1707)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Alan Bain
NOTES [159 words]: Said to be based on an actual event of the 1860s. - RBW
According to the notes in Lomax, W. K. McNeil says this originated in Australia. McNeil tends to be right a lot. - PJS
Maybe not in this case, though. Cohen, p. 440, gives what he believes is the original, in which a man named McMahon went missing. A Mr. Williams was accused of murder, but was found innocent when McMahon turned up in court to say he was alive. McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 8-9, prints the newspaper account of the proceedings.
Will Carleton published this piece, but it is noteworthy that the plot has been changed in several ways -- the victim's name is altered, and the missing man appears not at the trial but at the gallows. So it is difficult to be sure whether Carleton rewrote an existing piece, or picked up a bit of folklore and turned it to his own ends, or perhaps just made up the whole thing. Still, an American origin seems very likely. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: MA243

Murder of Alfreda Pike, The

DESCRIPTION: Out walking, Alfreda Pike, sixteen, is overtaken and her throat is cut. If the murderer is found he'll be lynched. Alfreda is buried at Harbour Grace.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: homicide burial
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 5, 1870 - murder of Alfreda Pike in Harbour Grace by Constable Furey
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 821-822, "The Murder of Alfreda Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9810
RECORDINGS:
George Decker, "The Murder of Alfreda Pike" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [65 words]: Constable Furey, who had been involved in the murder investigation, made a death-bed confession, more than 50 years later. Evidence of the confession was lost until revealed in a book by Jack Fitzgerald published in 1997. Source is an excerpt from The Hangman is Never Late by Jack Fitzgerald on the Creative Book Publishing site. Creative Book Publishing is in St. John's, Newfoundland - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea821

Murder of Ann O'Brien, The

See James MacDonald [Laws P38] (File: LP38)

Murder of Charles Stacey, The

DESCRIPTION: Charles Stacey goes out on a Sunday morning and meets three drunks -- one of whom had lost his girlfriend to Stacey. The three ruffians wait till Stacey and the girl return from church, then shoot him. Stacey shoots back at one, then dies and is buried
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: homicide courting revenge burial
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 173, "The Murder of Charles Stacey" (1 text)
Roud #4119
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dF47 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: R173

Murder of Col. Sharp

See Colonel Sharp (File: L790)

Murder of Dennis Somers, The

See Murder of Young Somers (File: GrMa153)

Murder of F. C. Benwell, The [Laws E26]

DESCRIPTION: J. R. Birchell is condemned to die for murdering F. C. Benwell. He had tried to pretend innocence in the trial; the attempt failed. His wife bids him farewell, and he is hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918
KEYWORDS: homicide execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 17, 1890 - John Reginald Birchall kills Frederick C Benwell "in the Blenheim swamp in southwestern Ontario." (source: Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario and _The Canadian Encyclopedia_)
Nov 14, 1890 - John Reginald Birchall is tried and hanged for the murder. (source: _The Canadian Encyclopedia_, "Birchall, John Reginald")
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,Ro) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws E26, "The Murder of F. C. Benwell"
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 50, "John R. Birchall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 65, pp. 148-149, "The Death of Bendall" (1 text, joined with "Charles Guiteau")
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 228-229, "(J. R. Birchell)" (1 text)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 49-51, "The Death of Bendal" (1 text, with tune on p. 88)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 135-136, "The Murder of F. C. Benwell" (1 text)
DT 732, MURBENW*
Roud #2255
RECORDINGS:
Lamont Tilden, "The Murder of F. C. Benwell" (on Ontario1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charles Guiteau" [Laws E11] (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES [128 words]: According to Spaeth, "J. R. Birchell killed F. C. Benwell in the swamps near Blenheim, Ontario, and then wrote the account of his own execution...." As, however, no date is offered, and the same story is told about every "Charles Guiteau" variant, the reader is advised to take this with a grain of salt.
This is not to deny that the event is historical. Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario, p. 189, calls this "the most famous murder case in Ontario's history." She also declares the song "remarkably accurate" (p. 190).
There was a printed "confession" by Birchall: Birchall: The Story of His Life, Trial and Imprisonment, as Told by Himself. Profusely Illustrated. I suspect that it is bogus, like most such things, but I haven't seen it to prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LE26

Murder of Grace Brown, The

See Grace Brown and Chester Gillette [Laws F7] (File: LF07)

Murder of James A. Garfield, The

See Charles Guiteau [Laws E11] (File: LE11)

Murder of Jay Legg, The

See Jay Legg (File: CAFS1219)

Murder of John Codman, The

DESCRIPTION: "What sad and awful scenes are these Presented to your View." The crimes of Mark and Phillis, slaves who murdered their master, "appear as black as hell." The two are condemned for "poys'ning" their master, and are condemned to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: slave homicide poison punishment execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 18, 1755 - Execution of the slaves Mark and Phillis for their role in the poisoning of their owner John Codman of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A third slave, Phoebe, was acquitted
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 154-155, (no title) (1 excerpted text)
File: Burt154

Murder of John Dugar, The

DESCRIPTION: John Dugar and Charles Robisher quarrel. Dugar murders Captain Charles. Dugar reaches Liverpool and tries to take ship, but is overtaken by a detective. He is tried and condemned.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: homicide escape trial punishment execution fight
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 172-173, "The Murder of John Dugar" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FO172 (Partial)
Roud #4681
NOTES [37 words]: Helen Flanders's informant, W. B. Morton, believed that this murder took place in Digby, Nova Scotia, although his text (which is complete on the face of it but badly confused) seems to point to County Clare in Ireland - RBW
File: FO172

Murder of John Love, The

DESCRIPTION: Broadside. "Again the murderer's ruthless hand Has stained with blood our happy land!" "Three brothers bent on crimes and blood... Have murdered Love, their nearest friend." "The gallows now must end our days, And we must walk in unknown ways."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide punishment execution friend brother gallows-confession
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 17, 1825 - Hanging of brothers Isaac, Israel, and Nelson Thayer for the murder of John Love, to whom they owed money
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 77, (no title) (2 excerpts)
File: Burt077

Murder of Laura Foster, The [Laws F36]

DESCRIPTION: Laura Foster's fiance and his new sweetheart kill her and bury her. Her parents find the body, and it is agreed that she has been murdered. In the Brown texts, at least, the fate of the murderer is not mentioned
AUTHOR: Almost certainly Thomas Land
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: homicide corpse family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1866 - Murder of Laura Foster by Thomas C. Dula (and his new sweetheart Ann Melton). Dula apparently killed Foster because he had contracted a venereal disease from her
May 1, 1868 - Dula is hanged for the murder.
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws F36, "The Murder of Laura Foster"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 302, "The Murder of Laura Foster" (1 text plus mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 302, "The Murder of Laura Foster" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Gardner: Rufus L. Gardner, _Tom Dooley, The Eternal Triangle_, Gardner Enterprises/Reliable Printing Company (Mount Airy, NC), 1960, pp. 12-16, "The Murder of Laura Foster" (1 text)
John Foster West, _The Ballad of Tom Dula_, Moore Publishing Company, (second printing) 1977, pp. 17-34, (various titles) (gives Land's text starting on p. 31, following 12 texts and fragments plus 4 tunes of "Tom Dooley")
Roud #1935
RECORDINGS:
Sheila Clark, "The Ballad of Laura Foster" (on LegendTomDula)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tom Dooley" [Laws F36A] (plot)
cf. "Tom Dula's Lament" (subject)
NOTES [293 words]: Laws does not name an author for this ballad, but the attribution to Thomas Land (a Confederate veteran) seems to have been well known to Brown's informants, and the poetry has the stilted feel of a composition which, at the time of collection, was still close to its composed origins.
For background to this song, see the notes to "Tom Dooley." - RBW
John Craig, the source for [Sheila] Clark's version, learned it from his great-grandmother, Zora Church Lee. He describes the ballad as having been "taken from a popular local account" written by Land. So it sounds like Land wrote the story in prose, which was then made into poetry by an unknown author. Clark's song retains the stilted feel Bob mentions. - PJS
In fact Land wrote it; see the text in Gardner cited above. But Fletcher, p. 138, explains that Land wrote the piece as a poem, not a song. So possibly the person who found the "popular local account" was the person who set it to music. This would also explain why the song doesn't describe Dula's fate. Land published "The Murder of Laura Foster" in 1866, and Dula's case bounced around the courts until 1868, when he was hanged. (Again, see the notes to "Tom Dooley").
As for Land's account being local, Land himself was a witness at Dula's trial, although we don't know what he said. (There is no transcript of the trial, just some notes by the judge and clerk.) Land, according to Fletcher, was a former Confederate officer who was also a schoolteacher.
According to Fletcher, p. 140, the text of the Sheila Clark version is very close to Land's original, which sometimes forces her to some tricks to deal with his poor metrical sense.
West, p. 31, in printing the text, comments crisply, "The events described are chiefly imaginary." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: LF36

Murder of Lottie Yates, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come listen, friends, while I relate Of a crime committed in Kentucky state." Lottie, a young mother living with her parents, is stabbed to death. The murderer (her estranged husband) is found and admits to the crime. He is executed; listeners are warned
AUTHOR: Supposedly Elija(h) "Lige" Adams (source: NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (collected from Lindsay Adams, according to Dorson)
KEYWORDS: homicide mother father children punishment execution
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Virgil L. Sturgill, "The Murder of Lottie Yates," Vol. VI, No. 2 (Dec 1958), pp. 26-28, "The Murder of Lottie Yates" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 197-200, "The Murder of Lottie Yates" (1 text)
Roud #4123
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lottie Yates
NOTES [31 words]: This is item dF53 in Laws's Appendix II. Dorson, or his source, refers to the "innate talent" of the author, but the thing is overly long, incredibly elliptical, and, frankly, bad. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: DoBW198

Murder of Maria Marten, The

DESCRIPTION: William Corder has Maria Marten meet him at the red barn before they go to Ipswich to be married. He murders her and buries the body in the red barn. Her body is discovered by following her mother's dream. Corder is tried and sentenced to be hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1862 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 14(239))
KEYWORDS: courting homicide dream gallows-confession mother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 18, 1827 - Maria Marten meets William Corder at the "red barn" and is murdered
Nov 1827 - Corder marries Mary Moore in London
Apr 18, 1828 - Supposedly informed by a dream experienced by Maria's stepmother, Maria's father finds the body
Aug 8, 1828 - Corder convicted and condemned to death. He admits to the crime in his condemned cell
Aug 11, 1828 - Corder executed (source: timeline on pp. 240-241 of Tom Pettitt, "Mediating Maria Marten: Comparative and Contextual Studies of the Red Barn Ballads" in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014)
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 628, "Maria Martin" (1 text)
DT, MARMARTN*
Flemming G. Anderson and Thomas Pettitt, "'The Murder of Maria Marten': The Birth of a Ballad?" in Carol L. Wdwards and Kathleen E. B. Manley, _Narrative Folksong: New Directions: Essays in Appreciation of W. Edson Richmond_, Westview Press, 1985, pp. 132-178 (8 texts, 1 tune, some of which might be "Maria Marten" rather than this)
Roud #215
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 14(239), "Murder of Maria Marten, by William Corder" ("Come all you thoughtless young men a warning take by me"), E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1855-1861; also Firth c.17(110), Firth b.25(379), "Murder of Maria Marten by W. Corder"; Firth c.17(111), "Murder of Maria Martin by W. Corder"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(71b), "The Murder of Maria Marten by W. Corder," unknown, c.1845
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maria Marten" (subject)
NOTES [969 words]: Description based on broadside Bodleian, Harding B 14(239). Roud assigne the same number to "Maria Marten"; the texts are clearly different and told from a different point of view. This is a gallows confession.
There is a sequel broadside -- Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 2416, "A copy of verses, on the execution of Wm. Corder, for the murder of Maria Marten, in the Red Barn, Polstead," unknown, no date -- in which he is executed August 11. The commentary to Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(71b) states that a "broadsheet published in London by James Catnach about this crime sold over one million copies."
Hall, notes to Voice03 for "Maria Marten": "The story captured the popular imagination through its additional representation in the melodrama, Murder In The Red Barn, played by countless amateur and touring companies."
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 3" - 19.8.02: "[Marten's] three illegitimate children -- to different fathers -- and her possible criminal activities with Corder became overshadowed by the myth that grew up around her death. Indeed, research now suggests that her mother's 'supernatural dreams' were motivated not so much by psychic phenomena as by her own criminal knowledge and probable association with Corder."
A note for The Haunting of William Corder on the Alistair Ferguson site: "The true-life murder of Maria Marten, upon which John Latimer's famous [Victorian] melodrama 'Maria Marten; or The Murder in the Red Barn" is based, has been adapted several times over the years. This is my version of the story."
There are references at IMDB [Internet Movie DataBase site] to movies from 1902 (Maria Marten: or, The Murder at the Red Barn), and 1935 (Maria Marten, or The Murder in the Red Barn). - BS
To the above compare Alexander, p. 200, article "Murder in the Red Barn":
"The story of Maria Marten and her murder achieved the status of a folk tale largely because of the melodrama The Red Barn or the Gypsy's Curse that was based on the tragedy. The play was first performed in 1828, the year after Maria's death, and one reason for its outstanding success was its theme of a simple village girl betrayed by a heartless member of the gentry. The story was given further prominence by a book entitled The Awful Adventure of Maria Monk.
Marten, according to Alexander, was a mole-catcher's daughter, and William Corder, who had gotten her pregnant, preferred a London school-keeper named Mary Moore. In 1827, he told Marten to meet him at a red barn; she "was never seen alive again." Later, he tells Maria's parent that he has married her, but Maria's mother had nightmares and managed to convince the authorities to find the body.
In a macabre development, after Corder was hanged, his skin was cured and used as a binding for a record of the proceedings.
According to Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, when Maria Marten gave birth to William Corder's baby, it was her third child, by three different fathers (one of the fathers being Corder; that baby apparently died and was secretly buried; Pettitt, p. 236). After Marten was murdered, it took eleven months for her body to be found. Her stepmother had had a dream which led Marten's father and a neighbor to excavate the red barn and find the body. Corder -- who had left town shortly after Marten disappeared -- was at once suspected and was taken into custody two days after the body was found. He was tried at the August 4 Assizes, with the trial itself lasting from August 7-8. He was hanged outside the Bury St. Edmunds gaol on August 11. (The above summarized from the timeline on pp. 240-241 of Pettitt).
Although a lot of the accounts say the murder was premeditated, Corder himself said he did it in a fit of rage, and that he had not expected to bury Marten (Pettitt, p. 237; this in contrast to the various reports that he had already dug her grave).
For more on this story, see now Tom Pettitt's essay, cited in the bibliography. On p. 219 it reports that there were at least six broadsides regarding the crime, although most clearly have not survived. Shepard, p. 62, quotes Henry Mayhew to the effect that broadsheets about the Marten case sold 1,650,000 copies!
Pettitt, p. 221, reports that this was clearly the most popular of the Maria Marten songs; there are eleven versions of parts of the text, plus a number of versions of the tune without text.
Pettit, p. 241, breaks down the broadsides versions of this song into sixteen components, and then looks at the traditional versions to see which survived. Every one of the seven substantial versions includes Corder's self-identification and his statement that he courted Maria, that he promised to arrange their wedding, that he arranged to meet her at the barn, and that Maria's mother dreamed the body at the barn. Six of seven versions include his statement that he was resolved to kill her, his statement that he did murder her when she arrived, that her father dug her up at the barn, and a final request for pity. Six other plot elements occur in two to five versions, but only one mentions that Corder buried Maria in the barn, and all omit mention of the mother's anxiety.
The Digital Tradition lists this has been collected from one Joseph Taylor (initially in 1908), who sang a three-verse fragment to the tune of "The Star of the County Down"/"Dives and Lazarus."
In addition to the song, there appear to be several books about this case. Andersen and Pettitt apparently regard Donald McCormick's The Red Barn Mystery (John Long, 1967) as being the most informative. More recent is Shane McCorristine, William Corder and the Red Barn Murder: Journeys of the Criminal Body (Palgrave Pivot, 2014), but it's listed as just 112 pages, so it probably isn't very substantial. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: BdTMoMM

Murder of Marian Parker, The

See Marian Parker (II) (File: LdF56)

Murder of Mary Tuplin, The

DESCRIPTION: June 1887. Mary leaves home "her lover for to see Down by the river Margaret." Her jealous lover shoots her "through her brain," ties a rope with a stone around her waist "and dashed her in the tide." Her body being found, Willy Millman is hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: execution homicide trial
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 28, 1887 - Murder of Mary Tuplin by William Millman
1888 - Execution of Millman
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 71-72, "The Murder of Mary Tuplin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12463
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Prince Edward Island Murder" (subject)
cf. "The Millman Song" (subject)
cf. "The Millman and Tuplin Song" (subject)
NOTES [108 words]: Roud has at least five different numbers for this event:
Roud #1837: Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 140, "Prince Edward Island Murder" [Laws dF59]
Roud #4129: Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 285-286, "The Millman Song" (also Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 180-181, "The Millman Murder Trial") [LawsdF60]
Roud #9179: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 46-47, "The Millman and Tuplin Song" (also Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 50, "Young Millman")
Roud #9552: Shea, pp. 174-179, "The Millman Tragedy"
Roud #12463: Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland pp. 72-73, "The Murder of Mary Tuplin" - BS
File: Dib071

Murder of McBriars, The

DESCRIPTION: McBriars, "master of an Orange Lodge," stops for whisky at a tavern and proclaims his Orange loyalty too loudly. He is killed "by Papish schemes" and "three villains" "He was an old and feeble man not able to resist" Thousands attend the funeral.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1860 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: homicide funeral drink political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 99, "The Murder of McBriars" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 14, "The Murder of McBriars" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [16 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "McBriars is said to have been killed in the early 1860's." - BS
File: Zimm099

Murder of Miss Wyatt, The

See Henry Green (The Murdered Wife) [Laws F14] (File: LF14)

Murder of Patsy Beasly, The

DESCRIPTION: Listeners are invited to hear the tale of a "harmless woman." "Patsy Beasly was her name, In Anson County where she was slain, Her little child alone was left, To live with others or starve to death."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1066 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: homicide children abandonment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 1844 - The body of Patsy Beasley found in Anson County, North Carolina. Some accounts say her young son had been left abandoned with her dead body with no means of taking care of himself
Oct 8, 1847 - Tom Nash, the probable father of Beasley's unborn child, is hung for her murder
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Douglas Helms, "The Murder of Patsy Beasly: The Story Behind the Folksong," Vol. XV, No. 2 (Nov 1967), p. 52, "The Murder of Patsy Beasly" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #11569
RECORDINGS:
Henry Griffin, "Patsy Beasley" (Hand-Me-Down Music: Old Songs, Old Friends - Vol. 1 Traditional Music of Union County, North Carolina, Folkways Records FES 34151, 1979)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Going Home to Die No More" (tune, according to NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
NOTES [679 words]: According to the notes in NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, several people remembered the existence of this song, but the single stanza is all anyone recalled. But the history was remembered: Patsy Beasly (who already had one illegitimate child) was pregnant again, and was found murdered. The killer (and presumed father of her child), Tom Nash, was found out and eventually hung. Helms notes some similarities to the story of Tom Dula and Laura Foster, but the differences are also fairly significant. As a story, I find this one more affecting; Laura Foster doesn't seem to have been much more use to the world than was Tom Dula, but Patsy Beasley sounds like a decent person and her child didn't deserve to be orphaned.
Henry Griffin, whose (field) recording seems to be the only recording of this song, was also the main informant for the NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal article. The Folkways recording was made by Karen G. Helms and Otto Henry; presumably Karen Helms and Otto Helms, the author of the NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal article, are related. The recording has four stanzas; it adds the details "Down by the brook her body lay, The villain took her life away" and "Her skull was crushed, her hair was torn, Her arms were bruised to the bone," and concludes with a warning to "Get right with God, don't wait too late.
The Helms article tells a story which also occurs in Daniel W. Patterson, A Tree Accursed: Bobby McMillon and Stories of Frankie Silver, University of North Carolina Press, 2000, p. 96: "a local Primitive Baptist preacher 'opened a Sunday service by laying a large flint rock on the pulpit. He announced the murder of Patsy Beasley as his text and during the course of the sermon said, 'The man who killed Patsy Beasley is in this church house and I am going to smash his head with this rock.' Startled, a man named Tom Nash 'jumped through an open window and ran like a jack rabbit,' thus betraying his guilt."
There is one caution about all of this. The one source cited by NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal is an article by Heath Thomas. Thomas also had a finger in the ballad "Alec Whitley," which seems to be known only from his collection -- and some have considered Thomas to have made up details of the stories he told. I can't say one way or the other. Helms found others who had heard Patsy Beasley's story, at least, though he couldn't recover more of the song.
A note at genealogy,com says that Patsy Beasley's real name was Martha, and she was the daughter of John Beasley. However, the 1840 census records I tried to consult do not reveal a John Beasley, a Martha Beasley, or a Patsy Beasley in that part of North Carolina. Perhaps it's just that the relevant information has not been entered into the genealogy databses.
A review of the "Hand-Me-Down Songs (Union Co., NC)" recording at bluegrassmessengers.com says that a different man eventually was heard to say he had murdered Beasley, but it gives no details. Her first child was said to be about a year and a half old when Patsy was murdered.
Based on comparing Helms's sketch map with Google Maps, it appears that Beasley's home, and murder site, were just northwest of where where modern North Carolina highway 1459 crosses Richardson Creek. It's a rural area, farm fields broken up by woods, including along the creek. There are very few buildings in the area (which is in Anson County, just across the border from Union County); the closest address I can find is 8212 Fish Rd, Marshville, NC 28103, which is about 800-900 feet to the north or northwest of the spot. It is about thirty miles east of the center of Charlotte, North Carolina. Tom Nash's grave is probably somewhere near 6408 Carpenter Rd, Marshville, NC 28103. There doesn't seem to be much left of it, either. The church where the Primitive Baptist minister made is threat is probably close to the site of the New Home Baptist Church, 1617 New Home Church Rd, Peachland, NC 28133 (though there are so many Baptist churches in the area that if the congregation still exists, it might be one of the others). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: NCF15251

Murder of Pearl Bryan, The (Pearl Bryan VII)

DESCRIPTION: The Setters take on the Peal Bryan story: "A horrible crime was committed Soon was brought to light; For parents to look on their headless girl, What a sad and terrible sight." Jackson's insanity plea fails; he is to be executed; Walling's trial awaits
AUTHOR: adapted by James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: homicide trial execution punishment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 1, 1896 - Discovery of the headless body of Pearl Bryan, killed along with her unborn child by Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling, near Fort Thomas, Kentucky
Mar 20, 1897 - Execution of Jackson and Walling
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 131-135, "The Murder of Pearl Bryan" (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 138-142)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 32, (no title) (1 excerpt)
ST ThBa131 (Partial)
Roud #500
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jealous Lover (I), The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C]" [Laws F1], particularly the "B" subgroup of Pearl Bryan ballads
cf. "Pearl Bryan I" [Laws F2]
cf. "Pearl Bryan III" [Laws F3]
cf. "Pearl Bryan (IV)"
NOTES [185 words]: Thomas's version is rather a curiosity, since she learned it from Jilson Setters decades after the murder but he never updated the song. There is no evidence that it ever circulated in tradition.
Roud lumps this with Laws F1(B). But while it's just possible that that song inspired Jilson Setters, this is not a version of the Laws ballad. But my guess is that the song was inspired by the piece which Burt-AmericanMurderBallads excerpts, since both songs end with a stanza about Pearl and her head being reunited in heaven.
In earlier versions of the Index, this was listed as "Pearl Bryan (V)." But Anne B. Cohen, Poor Pearl, Poor Girl!: The Murdered-Girl Stereotype in Ballad and Newspaper, Publications of the American Folklore Society, Memoir Series, Volume 58, University of Texas Press, 1973, claims that there are six traditional Pearl Bryan ballads (not just four as claimed by Laws), and Cohen lists this as a "non-traditional" text. So, to conform to her numbering, I have changed this to Pearl Bryan VII.
For background on the Pearl Bryan murder see the notes to "Pearl Bryan (I)" [Laws F2]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa131

Murder of Sarah Vail, The [Laws F9]

DESCRIPTION: John Monroe, a married man with two children, seduces Sarah Vail, who bears him a child. He takes woman and child on a trip, murders them, and hides their bodies. When his crime is discovered, he is hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
KEYWORDS: homicide pregnancy children corpse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 31, 1868 - Murder of Sarah Vail and her child
Feb 1870 - Hanging of John Monroe
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws F9, "The Murder of Sarah Vail"
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 89, "Munro's Confession" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 221-223, "The Murder of Sarah Vail" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 760, SARAVAIL
Roud #2258
File: LF09

Murder of Susan Newham, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come friends and relations, I b id you adieu, The grace is now open to welcome me through." The singer admits, "I killed Susan Newham as you have heard tell," bids his friends not to mourn, and looks forward to seeing her in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution reunion gallows-confession
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 178, (no title) (1 text)
NOTES [47 words]: According to Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, J. B. Crane was a schoolteacher in Hangtown, California, who became enamored of his student Susan Newham. She rejected him, and he murdered her in 1854. Crane reportedly surrendered to the police, but was captured by vigilantes and hung. - RBW
File: Burt178

Murder of the Double-Dyed Informer James Carey, The

DESCRIPTION: "Kilmainham's blood is avenged" by the murder of James Carey on board the Melrose. "So traitors all beware I say, And innocent blood don't take away, For vengeful hands shall you repay"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: betrayal homicide revenge Africa
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
The Phoenix Park murders (source: primarily Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, pp. 62, 63, 281-286.)
May 6, 1882 - Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and the Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke are murdered by a group calling themselves "The Invincible Society."
January 1883 - twenty seven men are arrested.
James Carey, one of the leaders in the murders, turns Queen's evidence.
Six men are condemned to death, four are executed (Joseph Brady is hanged May 14, 1883; Daniel Curley is hanged on May 18, 1883), others are "sentenced to penal servitude," and Carey is freed and goes to South Africa.
July 29, 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell kills Carey on board the "Melrose Castle" sailing from Cape Town to Durban.
Dec 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell is convicted of the murder of James Carey and executed in London (per Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, p. 63, "A New Song on the Murder of the Double-Dyed Informer James Carey" (references only)
Roud #V30749
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(452), "A New Song on The Murder of the Double-Dyed Informer James Carey ("In a far off land, 'neath an African sun "), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Phoenix Park Tragedy" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders) and references there
NOTES [131 words]: Per notes to broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(452): "Carey, James, 1845-1883 "
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 62: "The Phoenix Park murders and their judicial sequels struck the popular imagination and were a gold-mine for ballad-writers: some thirty songs were issued on this subject, which was the last great cause to be so extensively commented upon in broadside ballads."
Zimmermann p. 63 notes that, in the chorus of this broadside, the executed men have become "those martyrs brave."
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(452) is the basis for the description.
Double-dyed: "Dyed twice; thoroughly or intensely colored; hence; firmly fixed in opinions or habits; as, a double-dyed villain." (Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) at the Online Dictionary site) - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BrdMDDIJ

Murder of the Gibbons Children, The

See The Ashland Tragedy (III) [Laws F27] (File: LF27)

Murder of the King of Scots, The

See Earl Bothwell [Child 174] (File: C174)

Murder of Thomas a Beket, The

See Saint Thomas of Canterbury (File: MSSToCan)

Murder of Thomas Walsh, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's a sad and cruel tragedy I am going to relate, Happened near Willow City in North Dakota state." Harmless old Thomas Walsh is found dead. Sheriff Billy Pitts arrests William Ross, who is convicted and bids a sad farewell
AUTHOR: Thomas Cave?
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide trial execution punishment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 5, 1903 - Discovery of the murdered body of farmer Thomas Walsh
Mar 6, 1903 - William Ross executed (in Ohio) for the murder of Ross
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 82-83, (no title) (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 479, "[William Ross and Thomas Walsh]" (1 text)
File: Burt082

Murder of William Funston, The

DESCRIPTION: William Funston is murdered near Trillick. The Catholic Maguires are arrested for the crime. "Two purged Orangemen named Smith and Armstrong" are paid to swear against them. McGrory implicates Armstrong. The singer hopes they will be acquitted.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
KEYWORDS: homicide trial accusation lie political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 52, pp. 147-148,175, "The Murder of William Funston" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2935
NOTES [88 words]: The song says the murder occurred near Trillick town on March 9, fair-day of Irvinestown, County Fermanagh. Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday: "... such happenings are likely to take place when inter-religious tension is high in this country, so perhaps we can suggest sometime during the 1910s or 1920s as the possible date of this particular incident. At such times each side of the religious divide will tend to think the worst of those on the other side." Funston himself was, according to the song, an Orangeman. - BS
File: MoMa052

Murder of Young Somers

DESCRIPTION: "When the news it did come in, Sebastopol was taken, (there was rejoicing in the city, and drinking, and young Somers was murdered.)" Somers is knifed to death by accident; "(the man who stabbed Somers ... was after another man)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: fight war death drink
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 9, 1855 - Fall of Sevastopol following an 11 month siege
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 153, "Murder of Young Somers" (1 fragment)
Peacock, pp. 823-824, "The Murder of Dennis Somers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17750
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "The Murder of Dennis Somers" (on PeacockCDROM)
NOTES [9 words]: Peacock believes the murder took place in St John's. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrMa153

Murder Song

DESCRIPTION: A rich lady asks poor Willie to marry. She gives him 15000 pounds for their passage to a country where he can be a gentleman. He throws her in the deep. A wave reveals the corpse. Good Friday her ghost testifies against him and he is sentenced to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: execution trial homicide river gallows-confession ghost
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 90, "Murder Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB090 (Partial)
Roud #2769
NOTES [123 words]: Well, almost a gallows-confession. The last verse is truncated but has his parents standing by for the execution on April 29, but -- while the ballad starts with a hope that the listeners will pray for him -- he doesn't get to repeat that request at the end.
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick: "The place name may be Lipper or Lifford; it was difficult to make out." I repeat that here because it may help connect this tale with some other ballad or some specific murder. - BS
My obvious conjecture would be "Liffey." But that doesn't really help -- though obviously a lot of Irish emigrated to America, so it could connect with the emigration theme. Nor does the April 29 date, though of course that could have been garbled. - RBW
File: CrSNB090

Murdered Boy, The

See The Twa Brothers [Child 49] (File: C049)

Murdered Brother, The

See Edward [Child 13] (File: C013)

Murdered by a Brother [Laws F12]

DESCRIPTION: A brother takes his sister sailing. He denounces her adulterous liaison and announces that he will be avenged. He has already drowned her lover; now he drowns her and sails back alone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
KEYWORDS: homicide adultery sea
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws F12, "Murdered by a Brother"
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 92-94, "Murdered by a Brother" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 758, MURDBRO
Roud #1932
File: LF12

Murdered Girl, The

See The Wexford Girl [Laws P35] AND The Banks of the Ohio [Laws F5] AND The Jealous Lover [Laws F1] (File: LP35)

Murdered Pedlar, The

DESCRIPTION: "Vouchsafe thine aid, ye wondrous nine... A tragic scene transpired of late, The truth of which I will relate." "A Jewish pedlar was shot down, Ah, by a wretch called Warren Wood." "Hiram Williams was the peddlar's name." Wood is sentenced to hang
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution punishment Jew
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 19, 1853 - Warren Wood robs and attempts to murder Hiram Williams (Williams survived long enough to identify a photograph of Wood)
Jun 20, 1864- Wood is hanged for murder
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 79-80, "(The Murdered Pedlar)" (1 text)
File: Burt079

Murdered Wife or the Case of Henry G. Green, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come young and old attention give and lend a listening ear" as the singer tells of "a gay and sprightly youth who lived in Berlin Town." Henry Green becomes enamored of beautiful singer Mary Ann Wyatt, marries her, then murders her, and confesses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Bulletin of theFolk Song Society of the Northeast)
KEYWORDS: homicide marriage execution poison
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1845 - Murder of Mary Ann Wyatt Green (February) and execution of Henry Green (September)
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 8-11, "The Murdered Wife or the Case of Henry G. Green" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Green (The Murdered Wife)" [Laws F14] (subject, plot)
NOTES [163 words]: This rather rare broadside on the Mary Wyatt/Henry Green story can be distinguished from the more common ballad "Henry Green (The Murdered Wife)" by the lines quoted in the description and by its length.
According to Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, Mary Ann Wyatt was a performer in a troupe which staged temperance dramas. Her appearance so excited Henry Green that he joined the troupe to court her. They were married in February 1845.
The marriage was so sudden that Green felt compelled to publicize it with a sleighing party for his friends, at which a former love told him that she had once wished to marry him. Wyatt felt sick the next day, and Green went to get some medicine. He shoved more and more down her throat, and she died by poison.
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads claims that there are seven different songs written about this story, but cites only this, parts of the Laws ballad, and a single stanza of a third (which might, however, be part of the Laws piece). - RBW
File: Burt008

Murdered Wife, or, The Case of Henry G. Green, of Berlin, Rensselaer County, New York, The

See Henry Green (The Murdered Wife) [Laws F14] (File: LF14)

Murderer's Home Blues

DESCRIPTION: The singer is in jail, imagines finding a jailer with a key, and hopes to be a free man some day. "Sent me to the chain gang, back to the murderers' home, I'd a been in better shape if I'd left that reckless woman alone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (USWMcTell01)
KEYWORDS: captivity courting prison nonballad judge
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #17454
RECORDINGS:
Blind Willie McTell, "Murderer's Home Blues" (on USWMcTell01)
File: RcMuHoBl

Murderers Rock

DESCRIPTION: "Murderers Rock stands on the track And watches all that passes" by the Dunstan, where there is a gold rush. Four men murder Mathieu and other miners. Burgess, the leader, and two others will be hanged "on the evidence of an informer"
AUTHOR: Neal Colquhoun
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: homicide police trial death punishment execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1866 - arrest of the Dunstan murderers. One of them, Joseph Thomas Sullivan, turns Queen's Evidence against the rest of the band, resulting in their conviction and execution
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 41, "Murderers Rock" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 41 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 132, 135, 136-137, "(Murderers Rock)" (various excerpts)
RECORDINGS:
Tamburlaine, "Murderers Rock" (on NZSongYngCntry)
NOTES [8285 words]: The story of the "Maungatapu murderers," or the "Dunstan murderers," is told on pp. 132-137 of Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ. The trial apparently attracted great attention, but it doesn't seem to have left much mark on history. The gang involved is often known as the "Burgess Gang" or the "Burgess-Kelly gang."
Richard Burgess was an interesting character. Clune, ever one for drama, on p. 4 calls him "a tower of strength, a brilliant man, but mentally and morally warped and gone rotten." I'm not sure I agree; he was determined, and he was without conscience, but he doesn't strike me as particularly intelligent -- he made too many foolish choices.
After he was condemned, he gave a detailed confession: David Burton, editor Confession of Richard Burgess: the Maungatapu murders and other grisly crimes (there are several editions). Although this was a confession made when he knew he was going to die, Martin, p. 6, thinks it not entirely honest; Burgess, he thinks, was trying to burnish his own reputation, save his comrades Levy and Kelly, and (if possible) hang the informant Sullivan. The last three of these, at least, are certain.
By his own report, Burgess was born in London in 1829, to an unwed mother (Clune, p. 5), and was born under the name Richard Hill. His father was not present in his life, except perhaps for one or two visits (Clune, p. 6). Clune conjectures that his mother was a member of the Grosvenor family who became pregnant by a man, perhaps a horse guard, who would not or could not marry her; Martin agrees that Burgess was illegitimate but will not go beyond that.
Despite his mother's social handicaps, she managed to give her son some education (his confession is surprisingly literate) -- but when he was twelve, she became the partner of a widower, and Hill/Burgess quarreled with them. In any case, he had been a hard-to-control, violent youth (Martin, p. 15; Clune, pp. 7-8). At 14, he ran away from home and joined a gang of thieves -- a real-life parallel to Fagin's operation in Oliver Twist (Martin, p. 16). Apprehended and sentenced to six months' imprisonment and two rounds of birching (Clune, p. 11), his mother and stepsister were waiting when he was freed, begging him to go straight. Instead, he said, he went back to his gang mates (Clune, p. 12). Not too long after, he was captured again (Martin, p. 17; Clune, pp. 13-14). Held in Pentonville Prison for more than a year, he was transported in the Joseph Somes on June 2, 1847, even though he was not yet eighteen. He seems to have been using the name "Samuel Watson" at the time (Martin, pp. 18-21). He arrived at Melbourne on September 10, 1847. Clune, p. 21, suggests he thought about going straight at this time. If so, he didn't think hard; he quickly moved to the vicinity of Adelaide where he resumed his criminal ways (Martin, p. 22). Caught again, he served a year and a half in Adelaide Gaol (Martin, p. 23. Clune, p. 23, points out that South Australia was not a penal colony, so conditions there were relatively good for prisoners).
Then, in 1851, there was a gold rush in that part of Australia, and Burgess/Hill headed there -- not so much to hunt gold himself as to feed off the legitimate prospectors (Martin, pp. 23-25; Clune, p. 24). It was apparently at this time that he committed his first murder; he and an accomplice robbed a rich storekeeper, but apparently the storekeeper claimed to recognize them, so they killed him (Martin, pp. 26-27; Clune, p. 25). After further escapades, he was sentenced to ten years' hard labor in Australia (after all, they couldn't transport him again!). It was 1852; he was 23 years old (Martin, pp. 28-29). He ended up being put aboard a prison hulk (Clune, p. 30). Men were confined for up to 23 hours a day in a space about two and a half yards long, a yard wide, and two yards high, with little air or light, bedding that was never changed, and limited, often rotting, food (Martin pp. 30-31). It probably broke many men's spirits. In Hill, it probably just made him meaner. When he was placed on a road gang, he became, or at least was accused of being, the leader of an attempted revolt. He became even more violent as a result (Martin, pp. 32-33). In this time, he claimed to have known several imprisoned bushrangers, including Harry Power and "Captain Melville" (Martin, p. 36). He made another escape attempt with Melville and others; he took a bullet in his shoulder and failed to escape; several died in the attempt (Martin, pp. 37-38). In the aftermath, several convicts, including Melville, were sentenced to death -- but their report of the conditions they were trying to escape was so graphic that it raised demonstrations, and in the end, no one was hung (Martin, pp. 38-39; Clune, pp. 30-32) -- perhaps unfortunate, since Burgess by this time was clearly beyond redemption. Despite this, he was released after serving just eight years of his ten year sentence (Martin, p. 42). He once again turned robber, bringing in a younger man as a sidekick. When they were caught, the younger man, David C. (last name unknown; Martin, p. 42) escaped, leaving Hill raging against him (Martin, pp. 47-48). Hill was able to conceal his identity, using the name "Charles Harris," and so was able to argue his way into a light sentence (Martin, pp. 48-49). When his identity was discovered, it was too late to change his punishment, so he was released after a relatively short time.
It was his big chance to go straight. Instead, he apparently heard of the Otago gold rush (for which see, e.g., "Bright Fine Gold"), picked a man's pockets at a cricket match, and used the proceeds to head for Dunedin in January 1862, where he started calling himself "Richard Burgess" (Martin, pp. 50-51; Clune, p. 36, thinks he borrowed the name from the owner of a sheep station who offered him hospitality).
By the time Burgess reached Dunedin, he had apparently been joined by Thomas Kelly. Kelly's history wasn't quite as crime-filled (although he was older) -- but it was bad enough. Born Thomas Noon in London in 1825, he stole a pair of pants at age 17 or 18 and was transported to Van Dieman's Land for seven years in 1843. Freed in 1849, he supposedly spent time in the gang of Frank Gardiner (for whom see "Frank Gardiner"). But he wasn't around for Gardiner's big exploits; he was taken in 1854 for an alleged robbery and murder (Martin, p. 51).
Burgess and Kelly started to prey on the Otago diggings, and started to gather a new gang: John "Spratty" Russel, J. Davies, and John Joseph Sullivan (Martin, pp. 52-53). Once again they got in trouble and were captured (Martin, pp. 54-55); on the way to custody, Burgess fell and hit a rock and suffered a prolonged recovery (Martin, p. 56). Burgess and Kelly were sentenced to three years and six months on the various charges. Once again, Burgess had managed to outrun his reputation; had they known who he was, he would surely have suffered a harsher sentence. He could not stay out of trouble -- but he somehow always managed to get a lighter-than-deserved sentence.
He made the worst of it, though (Martin, pp. 58-62), attempting to set up a mass escape, which failed and caused him to be put in solitary confinement for a year, then started an agitation when he was put back with the general prison population -- and so went back into solitary (Martin, pp. 62-63; Clune, pp. 47-48). He also suffered from flogging as a ringleader. According to another convict, the non-violent bushranger Henry Garrett, Burgess then swore to "take a human life for every lash and indignity they have laid upon me," adding that "I must see my victims die, look into their eyes, watch their tortures, and mock them as I have been mocked" (Martin, p. 65). He and Kelly/Noon were set free on September 11, 1865.
The Otago gold rush was largely over by then, so they left the southern part of the island and headed north (Martin, pp. 70-71; Clune, p. 49). The police were watching them (Martin, p. 72; Clune, pp. 52-53), so they pretended to stake a claim in Kelly's name though they didn't stop their crimes (and later sold it to get their shareholders off their backs; Martin, p. 72). Martin, p. 72, tells a truly nasty story of Burgess going to a brothel at this time and first enjoying the service then stealing the money -- but also courting a woman named Carrie, whom he got pregnant but did not marry although they did move in together (Martin, pp. 72-73; Clune, p. 57, thinks Burgess was trying to make a quick fortune so he could legally marry her, move back to Australia, and live respectably in Sydney. He might have said that in his confession; I personally doubt it).
Martin, p. 74, thinks that it was at this time that Burgess became involved with Phillip Levy, who was a far less flamboyant criminal: "Specializing in intelligence-gathering, financing and planning crime and disposing of stolen goods, Levy was a shadowy figure, a lone wolf and consultant to the underworld. He planned and facilitated the crimes of other men while remaining on the fringes, taking his percentage but staying beyond the clutches of the law." (Clune, pp. 44-45, agrees with Martin's description of Levy but thinks Burgess met him earlier, shortly after the Burgess came to New Zealand.) One of the oddities of the story is how Levy, generally not an active criminal, ended up serving as a member of Burgess's active gang -- he was arguably a double liability, not being used to this sort of work and, according to Clune, p. 73, "no athlete," so he may have slowed them down.
As his name implies, Levy was of Jewish ancestry, born in London in 1826. He had voluntarily migrated to Victoria, Australia in the 1850s, where he seemingly plied some sort of shady business. He moved to Dunedin in the early 1860s and set up another small store (Martin, p. 74). It was only when a big bank heist was planned that he thought the reward big enough to be willing to take an active part (Martin, p. 75).
But three men, they felt, weren't enough. It is noteworthy that the informer, Sullivan, was the last man recruited into the plot. It was apparently Levy who found him (Martin, p. 77). Although his rap sheet wasn't as long as Burgess's, he was another transportee to Australia who had been in and out of prison. He was apparently older, born around 1815 (so Martin; Clune, p. 54, says 1820. He had been a prize fighter and a baker. He had had far less trouble while in confinement than had Burgess (Clune, p. 54), and had finished his time in 1853 and run a public house and boxing establishment in the Australian goldfields. He had come to New Zealand in 1866 to try the gold fields (Clune, p. 55, describes it as a sort of vacation; he left his wife to run his business), and had been disappointed. Supposedly he had left a wife in Australia, had come to New Zealand with another woman, and intended to head back to Victoria. It sounds as if he and Burgess had some disagreements, but Sullivan -- not having enough money to return to Australia -- still joined the gang (Martin, pp. 78-79).
Their first attempt at catching a bank courier failed, but they kept making plans. The concluded they would need police uniforms (Clune, p. 56), and set out to rob a police camp to get them, finding a rogue policeman, John Carr, to help them (Martin, pp. 80-81). The thefts being detected, the police found the collaborator, who pointed them to Burgess. Burgess was taken into custody (Martin, pp. 84-85), then Kelly, but Carr came up with a plot to get him freed based on perjured evidence. It got them off, but they had to abandon their plan; their presence was now known (Martin, pp. 86-87; Clune, p. 60). So they ended up leaving the area and improvising.
Exactly what happened is a little unclear next. Burgess was not present, and the main account is Sullivan's self-serving testimony. What is known is that Sullivan, Kelly, and an associate named Jimmy Murray set out to rob a gold buyer named Edward Fox, who was known to regularly travel a certain road. But, on this occasion, Fox decided to go by boat, and they instead found an engineer named George Dobson, who had decided to walk the road Fox usually took. Dobson ended up dead, murdered or allowed to die by the outlaws, who argued about burying him then headed home (Martin, pp. 88-95; Clune, pp. 63-64, mentions the murder but omits mention of Murray and thinks Burgess might have been present. Martin's opinion is that Kelly and Sullivan committed the murder).
The gang hadn't given up on Fox. But Murray had. He was a criminal, but not a murderer, and he was afraid of the other members of Burgess's gang. He snuck away that night and went to the authorities (Martin, pp. 96-97 -- an important point, because Murray confessed and Sullivan would later testify that Murray had had a part in the murder despite Murray explicitly admitting to crimes but not that crime). That didn't mean that the others would give up, though.
Their second attempt to catch Fox was another failure. He came with enough guards that they didn't dare risk an attack (Martin, pp. 99-100; Clune, p. 64). An officer in the local police, Inspector Henry James, found them, briefly detained Burgess and Kelly, and ordered them out of town (Martin, pp. 100-101; Clune, p. 65). They decided to head for the town of Westport to rob a bank there, even though they had to rob a friend and associate to come up with the money to pay their ferry tickets (Martin, pp. 101-103). But, contrary to what they had heard, there was no bank there to rob (Martin, p. 104; Clune, p. 65). So it was back onto the steamer to head for the town of Nelson, with no real plan and no money (Martin, p. 105; Clune, p. 66). That town had the opposite problem: There were three banks, and lots of people, making robbery impractical (Clune, p. 70). So they decided to try the town of Picton, said to have a single bank. The trail was a narrow one, built to reach the Wakamarina goldfield, and it passed the mountain the Maori called "Maungatapu" (Clune, p. 69). This was a long walk for men with no money, forcing them to stop along the way for food and shelter, and along the way Levy met someone whom he had known years before (Martin, pp. 108-109).
They never made it to Picton. Clune, p. 75, thinks Burgess decided to return to Nelson and go to Picton by boat. But they would need money for the fare. Along the way, Levy found word of a party of travelers who would be heading along the track, and the band decided to attack it rather than plod onward (Martin, p. 110).
It is noteworthy that one of the four was Felix Mathieu, whom Levy had known in the past in Otago; Levy met Mathieu at a digger camp near the Wakamarina where Mathieu was running a pub. Mathieu told Levy about the traveling party, which included Mathieu, John Kempthorne (another man Levy knew), Jim Dudley, and James de Pontius (Clune, pp. 75-76).
One June 12, 1866, before the Mathieu party set out, the Burgess gang met an old digger, James Battle. He clearly didn't have much money, but they apparently murdered him anyway to eliminate a witness -- strangling him brutally to avoid having to shoot him (Martin, pp. 112-117; Clune, p. 79). They then prepared for the big robbery.
It was a difficult situation. There were four robbers and four intended victims -- and the victims all young and healthy. The Burgess gang did not really have the weapons to attack from hiding; they had two shotguns and two revolvers -- nothing accurate or with good range. (Nor is it clear that they were good marksmen.) To be able to fight such a group when all they had were those weapons, the attackers would have to come out and directly confront the victims. Including Levy. And... most of the victims knew Levy's appearance. Levy, the man who preferred to not be directly involved in crimes, was going to be unmasked -- if the victims lived (Clune, p. 77, 91). Plus, as Clune points out on p. 91, there were no side branches on the Maungatapu track; the robbers could not hide or go another way or make a quick getaway. If they robbed their victims but let them live, then they would be able to identify Burgess and Co. before they could make their escape. They, or at least Levy, may not have thought about it, but when they decided to rob those four men on that track, they were making a plan that had to include murder.
The gang prepared the ground so that they could make their attack quickly and decisively, picking a spot and clearing brush so that they could suddenly appear from under cover (Martin, p. 118). They let a few lesser targets pass while they waited for the main chance (Martin, p. 119). Then came the big moment:
Ell, p. 42, in the entry on "The Burgess-Kelly Gang": "The most notorious of the gangs to operate on the goldfields of New Zealand was known as the Burgess-Kelly gang. They were four armed robbers, criminals from Australia, named Burgess, Kelly, Levy, and Sullivan.... [Burgess and Kelly] were involved in incidents about Tuapeka in central Otago where Burgess and Kelly were arrested and sent to jail for three years. Released in 1865, they swore to take a life for every lash laid on them while imprisoned. Levy was said to have a gang in the Kawarau Gorge, near Cromwell, which robbed the passing miners and threw their bodies in the river. These three met up with Sullivan in the 1865 gold rush to Westland.... The gang was caught following the murder of five men on the slopes of Maungatapu. Their victims were storekeepers returning from the Wakamarina gold diggings. When arrested, Sullivan confessed and got life imprisonment. His partners were hanged, their corpses placed on public display, and their death masks taken for posterity. See Confession of Richard Burgess: the Maungatapu murxders and other grisly crimes, edited by David Burton...."
NewZealandEncyclopedia, p. 359, says that the "MAUNGATAPU MURDERS were the result of one of the few cases of bush-ranging in NZ during the gold-mining days." It confirms that the four murder victims, who left the Wakamarina River on June 12, 1866, were miner James de Pontius, hotelkeeper Felix Mathieu, and storekeepers John Kempthorne and James Dudley. At first, no bodies were found -- only a dead horse and various artifacts. Sullivan, Levy, Burgess, and Kelly were taken into custody on suspicion.
There were no witnesses to the crime other than the criminals and the dead men. Sullivan would implicate Burgess, Kelly, and Levy; Burgess would say that Kelly and Levy had left the party to return to Nelson and had no part in the murders (Martin, pp. 111, 120). Neither account makes perfect sense; Levy had no skill with weapons, and so might have been sent back, but perhaps was not fit enough to go alone; on the other hand, to have just two men to rob four is hopeless; there is no way Burgess would have sent Kelly with him!
Martin conjectures that, to prevent an escape attempt, the four robbers tried to separate the four victims and deal with them individually. He suggests they took Dudley away and strangled him (Martin, p. 121). This made enough noise to scare the other victims. So, while Sullivan watched the road, the other three were stabbed and/or shot (Martin, pp. 122-123). It seems likely that this was done by Burgess, Levy, and Kelly; Sullivan's gun was found not to have been fired (Martin, p. 123) -- which implies that his claim, that he was watching the road when the murders took place, was true. (But note that if someone dies in the commission of a felony, all involved in the felony are considered guilty of murder even if they do not commit the actual murder. Sullivan was still guilty of a capital crime.)
They didn't bother to bury the bodies, since they thought no one would notice; they just dragged three of them off the road, They did pile stones over the body of de Pontius, perhaps with the thought that the police wouldn't find his body and suspect him of the murders (Martin, p. 130). They also shot their packhorse, "Old Farmer," and threw a few branches over it (Martin, p. 131).
Based on the time various travelers on the Maungatapu Track passed each other and met each other, Martin, pp. 125-127, estimates the robbery took place around 1:30 p.m., with the actual shootings being around 2:15.
Having done their dirty work, the robbers disposed of identifying items such as personal papers and split the somewhat disappointing take -- they had expected to collect hundreds of pounds, but got only 64 pounds and change (Martin, p. 132). There was also some gold, however, some of which they would dispose of in Nelson (Martin, pp. 136-137).
That done, they returned to the town of Nelson, a harrowing trip at night on a trail that at some points hugged a cliff edge (Clune, p. 96; Martin, p. 133).
The plan was to go to Nelson and ship out to another town, or to Australia, though the fact that their haul of ready cash was small might have made it difficult to pay their fare. They would have to sell the gold in Nelson.
Fatally for the murderers, the four murder victims had arranged with another man to come and pick up their pack horse when they arrived in town. This man, Henry Möller (Clune calls him "Heinrich Moller"), was walking on his own but along the same track (Martin, p. 122). He was a fast walker and so had set out later than the others, but had almost caught up; was very close by when the murders were committed. Wanting to know when he would overtake the Mathieu party, he questioned another walker going the other way very near the site of the murders, who had never seen the party (Clune, p. 94), so he already knew something odd was happening. He reached Nelson to find the Mathieu party had never arrived (Clune, p. 95; Martin, p. 135), and wondered about it. Two days after, unable to find the people he was supposed to meet and wanting to head for his home, he talked to the police (Clune, p. 101). At the time, they didn't think there was enough evidence to justify a search (Martin, p. 143).
Meanwhile, the gang had taken the gold they had taken from the Mathieu party, divided it into three parts, and sent Sullivan, Kelly, and Levi to the three banks in Nelson to convert it to cash. Burgess, the one most known to the police, sat this out (Clune, p. 99; Martin, p. 137) -- after all, there were just three banks. Obviously going to three banks with smaller amounts of gold was better than taking it all to one bank, but it certainly wasn't too bright to do it all at the same time -- and once they had the cash, they started spending it and being seen around Nelson, which may have had three banks but was still a small town where a bunch of big spenders would be noticed! (Clune, p. 100). They weren't really doing much to conceal themselves, either. The total deposit was about 225 pounds (Martin, pp. 137-138).
At this stage, their goal was to take a ship out of town. Unfortunately for them, there was no ship going to a safe port for another week; the only ships at Nelson were heading for parts of the South Island where they were known. Their only choice was to wait for the Airedale, which would take them to the North Island (Martin, p. 141) -- if they weren't caught by then.
One thing led to another: Möller headed for home, asking about the Mathieu party all the way. On the way he came to the establishment of John Jervis, one of the places visited by Burgess and Co. before the murder. Jervis had talked with Levy, and seen the ruffians with him. He and Möller informed Sergeant Samuel Goodall -- the sole constable based anywhere along the track of their suspicions (Clune, pp. 102-103; Martin, p. 144). With strong evidence that the Mathieu party had disappeared, they returned to Nelson; this time, the Nelson police decided it was time to act (Martin, p. 144). On Monday, June 18, the gang first received word that the police were searching for evidence about the missing men (Martin, p. 145). A newspaper report referred to four "highly suspicious characters." Burgess and Co. were being actively sought (Martin, p. 146). One of the men the gang had met up the trail gave the searchers Levy's name (Martin, p. 147).
Soon descriptions of the four were being posted. Levy was quickly found by men who had seen him; he was arrested in a bar (Martin, p. 148; Clune, p. 108, says he was carrying £63 -- and that, when arraigned, there was little evidence against him except that he had been seen at Deep Creek along the trail to Picton). The other three were taken soon after (Martin, pp. 153-154; Clune, p. 109, says Burgess had £62, of which he hid £20; Sullivan had £49, of which he hid £20; and Kelly, who was a spendthrift, had just £18 -- interesting, given that they had said they had little money a few days before). They were arraigned on Wednesday, June 20 (Martin, p. 155). All four were formally charged on Saturday, June 23, even though the bodies still hadn't been found (Martin, pp. 159-160).
On Monday, June 18, a search party had set out to try to find the missing men -- or their corpses (Clune, p. 104). By forming a human chain, they found the dead horse (Martin, p. 158; Clune, p. 113), then, despite pouring rain, a series of artifacts including an abandoned shotgun (Martin, p. 159). But they did not at once find the bodies, which were not near the horse.
The circumstantial evidence against the four was significant, but it hardly rose to the level of proof. The police needed more -- and looked to get something out of one of the murderers. Who, it might be added, were mostly without lawyers; Levy hired one of the few in the area, but he only intermittently worked on behalf of the others (Clune, pp. 112-113, who suggests on p. 123 that a local rabbi paid the lawyer. On the other hand, Martin, pp. 176-177, says that Burgess wrote his confession with equipment supplied by his lawyer). They let the prisoners know that there was a promise of a reward, and even a pardon for someone who would tell them what happened -- then separated Levy from the others, seemingly in an attempt to convince them that he would confess (Martin, p. 162; Clune, p. 116). Burgess supposedly saw through the trick, but Sullivan -- who was already unhappy with Burgess and Levy -- saw his chance and took it, scribbling an offer to tell what he knew (Martin, p. 163; according to Clune, p. 117, he called for paper to write to his wife in Australia -- but kept winking and gesturing so that they would know he had more to say but couldn't say it while Burgess and Kelly could hear him).
One of the conditions for the pardon was that the person who confessed must not have been actively involved in the murder. NewZealandEncyclopedia, p. 359: "On the promise of a reward and a free pardon, Sullivan confessed that he had been the look-out but the other three had committed the crimes, and the bodies were discovered according to his directions. Two of the victims had been shot, one stabbed and the other strangled."
Sullivan, brought before the police commander in Nelson, didn't just describe the murders of the Mathieu party but two other murders committed by the gang, as well as some of their other exploits and their accomplices. He of course did not admit to his part -- but he did say where the bodies could be found. (Supposedly he was not promised a pardon, just told he would likely get one. I wonder.) Clune, p. 119, calls his recitation a "remarkable feat of imagination combined with some facts"; it is noteworthy that hours upon hours of questioning never managed to find a significant inconsistency in his testimony. (Martin, p. 239, has a very interesting suggestion: That Sullivan's tale was true except for one thing: That he exchanged the roles of himself and Levy, or, in one case, of himself and Wilson."Jimmy Murray." This would mean that Sullivan didn't have to make up anything; he just had to blame his own actions on Levy and take on Levy's relative innocence as his own. Very clever if true; sadly, we can't know. But Martin, pp. 244-245, gives evidence that Sullivan was an anti-Semite who disliked Levy; it makes sense that Sullivan would exaggerate Levy's role.) The body of James Battle was found somewhat later, confirming another of Sullivan's claims. (Clune, p. 122).
Sullivan's confession, or confessions, since he repeated it at greater or lesser length in different contexts, included information the police had not known, such as the murder of James Battle and the connection of the Burgess Gang with the death of George Dobson. He also claimed that he had consistently been on lookout duty while murders were committed (Clune, pp. 119-120).
The police sent out a party to check his information (Martin, pp. 164-165). And so the bodies were found, and the police at last had proof that murder and robbery had been committed. They were reported to be well-preserved, considering that they were not found until sixteen days after the murders (Clune, p. 121); when they were brought back to Nelson (Martin, p. 167), it was possible to determine the cause of death in each case, and it was clearly murder. In response to that, extra staff were brought in to guard the now-notorious prisoners (Martin, p. 168, seems to think it was to prevent escape; Clune, p. 122, to prevent them from being lynched).
On June 30, 1866, an official inquest was held and the cause of death of the four men was officially declared to be murder (Martin, pp. 168-169).
I am not sure why the song implies that Levy was any better than Burgess and Kelly -- though it does sound as if he was less vile. Possibly it's because he hadn't spent as much time with the gang (Burgess and Kelly, formerly Thomas Noon, had been working together for years), and although he was a habitual criminal he seemingly had no history of violence. Also, he was the only one who had not been transported; he had left Britain voluntarily (Martin, p. 14). Apparently the police felt that "Levy was the most likely of the four to be only an accomplice" and tried without success to get him to turn Queen's Evidence -- only to have Sullivan confess first. (Clune, p. 125, does note the interesting point that the conditional pardon applied only to the Mathieu party murders; it did not cover the murder of Battle. So Sullivan was not necessarily off the hook.)
There were various hearings before the trial proper. Martin, p. 175, says that on July 20, the clerks of the banks in Nelson were testifying about the gold received from the murderers. Sullivan's testimony began on August 2, 1866, six weeks after the four gang members had been arrested (Clune, p. 123).
When Sullivan gave his testimony, it apparently set Burgess thinking. He was by all accounts smarter than Kelly or Sullivan, and he has more experience with the justice system than Levy. Given Sullivan's testimony, the external evidence, and the public climate, he probably sensed that he was going to die. But perhaps he could take Sullivan with him (Clune, p. 125). A few days after Sullivan spoke, given paper and pen, Burgess began to write: "Written in my dungeon drear this 7th of August in the year of Grace, 1866..." (Clune, p. 127). Seven thousand words of confession followed (Martin, p. 177), much of it couched in the language of religious repentance (I personally doubt the repentance, but Burgess probably thought it would be more convincing to his readers; Clune, p. 126, also suggests, and I think it likely, that he was trying to save Levy and Kelly). When it was ready, Burgess read it to the court, then signed the court reporter's copy, declaring it a true transcript. As he said, "I have signed my own death warrant" (Martin, p. 178; Clune, p. 130). Burgess would expand and fill out the testament (Martin, p. 179), but the core of his claims was in the court record.
The problem was that the two confessions differed. Sullivan said that Burgess, Kelly, and Levy had committed the murders but that Sullivan himself was only an accessory; Burgess -- who explicitly declared that Sullivan had perjured himself (Clune, p. 127) said that Burgess and Sullivan were the guilty parties but Kelly and Levy were not involved in the actual slayings. The question then became, Who was telling the truth? And could the state prove its case without using an informer (who, almost by definition, was in it for himself)? Clune, pp. 131-132, thinks "The law had acted too hastily in granting Sullivan the immunity of an informer. The case against all four could have been sufficiently proved without recourse to this detestable detective practice" -- but for the life of me I can't see how. Even if the corpses had been found without Sullivan's testimony, and even if they had found soon enough for them to be in good enough shape to prove it was murder (neither of which is certain), the only evidence they had against the four is that they had been in the right place at what was probably but not certainly the right time.
The formal trial began September 12, 1866, with Justice Alexander Johnston presiding (Martin, pp. 178, 180). (NewZealandEncyclopedia, p. 280, says that Alexander James Johnston, 1820-1888, came from Aberdeenshire, and earned his MA at the age of just fifteen. He was appointed to the New Zealand Supreme Court at age 38, and would later serve as both acting Chief Justice and Acting Governor. In addition to presiding at this trial, he presided over the trials of several Maori "rebels," including Te Kooti, the subject of another Neil Colquhoun song.)
If I understand Clune and Martin correctly, they started with a Grand Jury of 19, which decided on charges, then chose twelve jurors to decide the case. (Clune, p. 133, thinks that the judge left it open for the Grand Jury to find a true bill against Sullivan as well as the others, but they charged only Burgess, Kelly, and Levy.) There was no change of venue, even though (as Clune, p.123, points out) opinion in Nelson was strongly against the gang members. Burgess and Kelly still had no defense attorney; they first one appointed had backed out, and they apparently refused to try to find another (Martin, p. 181). When asked how they pled, Kelly and Levy pled not guilty; Burgess explicitly admitted his guilt but pled not guilty for the sake of the trial (Martin, pp. 181-182). Sullivan also pled not guilty (Martin, p. 182) but was not tried with the other three,
The began with evidence about the causes of death of the four men, with Pitt (Levy's lawyer), Burgess, and Kelly all asking questions (Clune, p. 134). Burgess was especially active in his defense, examining the witnesses who testified about finding the bodies and the cause of death; he disagreed with their testimony at a few points (Martin, pp. 182-183), although it doesn't sound as if it was material. When the state called Sullivan, there was an argument about whether his testimony should be admitted, but the judge finally allowed it (Martin, p. 183), with the judge warning him, in effect, that what he said could and would be used against him and that being an informer did not guarantee him immunity from anything. After the prosecutor had, in effect, led Sullivan through his confession (Clune, p. 135), Burgess began questioning him, with each of the two liars trying to find the inconsistency in the other's story (Martin, pp. 184-188, has a long excerpt from this). Martin declares that both of them slipped up a few times, but seems to find more inconsistencies in Sullivan's testimony. No one (including Burgess) seems to have noted them at the time, though. Kelly also had a turn at Sullivan (Martin, pp. 188-191; Clune, pp. 138-139), and Levy's lawyer Pitt (Martin, p. 191). They chipped away at his testimony a little but in fifteen hours of trying they could not crack him (Clune, p. 139). Then came a parade of witnesses to testify that Burgess and Co. had been on the Maungatapu track at the time of the murders, although none of them could testify to anything that hinted at a murder. (Clune, p. 140; Martin, pp. 196-198. On the other hand, Kelly tried to get them to testify to his and Levy's alleged alibi, and none of them testified to that, either; Martin, p. 194). Clune seems to think this was enough to establish their guilt; I don't, and even if it did, it proved only that some of the Burgess party were guilty, not all.
The whole case was a problem for the judge, who near the end almost ordered Burgess's plea to be changed from "not guilty" to "guilty," since Burgess had confessed. He also had to spend a lot of time worrying about which of Burgess's statements were admissible, and which the jury would have to disregard (Clune, p. 141; Martin, p. 199). It's a defect in the court system, really -- its goal was to determine guilt, not ascertain the truth. He also refused Burgess access to his own written confession near the end of the trial (Martin, p. 195), or even give it to someone other than the police (Martin, p. 196).
After Burgess spoke, Kelly made a more conventional plea to believe his account, not Sullivan's (Clune, p. 143). He also called on Sullivan to confess his true actions, causing the judge to order Sullivan from the court (Clune, p. 145). Levy's lawyer then took his turn, apparently arguing in part that Levy wasn't the type to murder (Clune, pp. 146-147).
After the prosecution closed, Judge Johnston took a night to figure out his closing instructions (Martin, p. 203), after a trial which, to that point, had lasted just five days. I must say that these strike me as highly prejudicial (he roundly condemned Burgess; Martin, p. 204). He also told them they needed to apply the death penalty even if they were personally opposed to it -- a clear indication that the jury had not been screened on that important point! He also said that the evidence presented corroborated Sullivan's evidence, without noting that it also corroborated Burgess's. And he made errors of fact which Burgess corrected (Martin, p. 205; to be fair, the judge accepted the corrections). His instructions to the jury basically ordered them to convict Burgess and urged them to convict Kelly and Levy. It took the jury just 55 minutes to convict Burgess, Kelly, and Levy (Clune, p. 150; Martin, p. 206).
I find it hard to know what "guilt beyond a reasonable doubt" is; I need a probability. But I am bothered. I think there is at least a 90% probability that Kelly and Levy were guilty, but that's surely within the range of reasonable doubt. To be sure, I have yet to read of a nineteenth century trial where I didn't have doubts....
Burgess's mistake, I think, was in trying to accomplish two incompatible goals: to nail Sullivan and to save Kelly and Levy. It meant that he, like Sullivan, had to mix lies with the truth. If he had just gone after Sullivan, he could have told the straight truth and exposed Sullivan's lies; if he had just tried to save Levy, he could have told most of the truth while adding that he had trapped Levy into it. (I doubt Kelly could have been saved whatever he did; Levy's clean record gave him a betrer argument. Although Levy also had greater motive for murder, since some of the victims could recognize him. Clune, p. 176, thinks Levy was too "physically soft" for murder; I don't buy that.) By trying to both nail Sullivan and save the others, he fell short in both.
The three (Kelly in particular; Martin, pp. 207-208) argued with the judge after the verdict was read; he cut them off, assumed the black cap, lectured the three ("with undiluted contempt," as Martin says on p. 208), and sentenced them to death (Clune, p. 150-154; Martin, pp. 209-210). Burgess received his sentence calmly (Clune, p. 153); Kelly lost control and kept trying to argue (Clune, pp. 153-154); Levy -- who had claimed he had witnesses who did not testify -- declared that he still considered himself innocent (Clune, p. 154).
Burgess, Kelly, and Levy, duly convicted, were hanged at Nelson in October 1866. Sullivan in turn eventually faced a different murder charge, and was sentenced to hang in turn, but this was commuted to life in prison.
Despite the failings of the trial, it's clear that the court reached the right verdict for Burgess and Kelly (recall that one of the murder victims had been strangled, and Burgess once said that Kelly had taught him to strangle his victims; Martin, p. 229), and I think for Levy also -- although I somewhat doubt he *wanted* to commit murder, he probably *did* commit murder, and even if he didn't actually kill anyone, he participated in a plot which was likely to result in murder. Accessories to murder would generally get the death penalty at the time, so hanging him was appropriate by 1866 standards. I'd have given him life in prison instead, were it up to me, but of course I wasn't even alive then! The one thing that bothers me is Sullivan. They got him for the murder of Battle, sort of, but it is unconscionable that he suffered less than Levy just because he peached first (so also Clune, pp. 177-178). This is a severe defect in British justice that came up again and again -- e.g. in the Burke and Hare murder case.
The day after the three were condemned, Sullivan was placed on trial for the murder of James Battle, with Justice Johnston presiding but a new jury (Clune, p. 155; Martin, p. 210). Sullivan, asked how he pled, said he was "not guilty of actual murder," which the judge interpreted as a plea of not guilty (Martin, p. 210). Burgess and Co. did not testify; the case consisted of evidence that murder had been done plus Sullivan's account of what happened (Clune, p. 156). Sullivan said he didn't do it -- but it is worth noting that Battle died of suffocation made worse by a punch in the stomach. Recall that Sullivan had been a prizefighter; he was the member of the gang most able to kill with a punch!
The judge told the jury that a participant in a conspiracy to murder was as guilty as the actual murderer (Martin, p. 211). The jury promptly convicted him of murder, after just 25 minutes of deliberation (Clune, p. 157), and Justice Johnston sentenced him to death (Martin, p. 211).
The government at Wellington had to approve the executions, and the order to proceed arrived on Wednesday, October 3, 1866 (Martin, p. 212; Clune, p. 162, points out that this was exactly sixteen weeks after the murders). The locals, wanting to get things over with, scheduled the hangings for just two days later, the morning of Friday, October 5.
There was barely time to finish the scaffold before Burgess, Kelly, and Levy were hung. Burgess had spent the time since his conviction revising and expanding his confession (Clune, p. 160). It contains a number of religious comments, but Clune, p. 161, thinks these were added, or at least dictated, by his spiritual advisors; he believes they interrupt the flow and don't sound like the rest of the narrative. Nelson having never staged an execution (Clune, p. 160), and having no official executioner, they took applications, and the man who got the job was someone named Clarke whom Burgess knew as a fellow criminal. (Martin reports that Clarke would eventually be executed himself, in Hobart, for committing murder.)
The hanging, by law, was private (Clune, p. 166), but there was a more public moment before the men were taken to the scaffold. When the time came for last words, Burgess thanked those who had helped him in his final days and was relatively unemotional. He even complimented the local police commander on the promotion he had received for his work on the case (Clune, p. 167) as well as others he had been with during his time in prison (Martin, pp. 214-215); upon reaching the scaffold, he kissed the rope and said it was a prelude to heaven (Martin, p. 218). Levy gave a short speech about how his trial was somewhat unfair but was brief and also relatively unemotional until the end (Clune, pp. 170-171), though his last words were "I am innocent" (Martin, p. 219; Clune, p. 173). Kelly kept protesting -- he had written a four-page speech -- until they shut him up and took him away from the crowd (Martin, pp. 213;, 215-216 Clune, pp. 164, 168-170), having to haul him to the scaffold as he continued to protest (Martin, p. 219; Clune, pp. 172-173).
Burgess of course left the testament he had written; Levi had written a letter to his relatives again protesting his innocence and wishing them well (and saying he wished Sullivan would someday tell the truth); his rabbi later released it to the press (Clune prints it on pp. 164-165).
When the three were dropped, Burgess and Levy quickly stopped moving, Kelly did not; his body was convulsing, forcing the hangman to grab his legs to try to complete the execution. Clearly his neck had not been broken -- not an unusual occurrence when an amateur executioner was involved. But autopsies indicated that none of the three had actually had their necks broken (Martin, p. 220; Clune, p. 174); it's just that Burgess and Levy had presumably gone unconscious before they slowly strangled.
Afterward, the heads of the three were apparently removed so that casts could be made of them, while phrenologists made... phrenologists of themselves (Martin, p. 221).
The same mail shipment that had approved the executions of Burgess, Kelly, and Levy had included an order commuting Sullivan's sentence to life imprisonment (Clune, p. 162, who adds that he was shipped to Dunedin under guard to prevent him from being lynched). But he was a problem there, too -- the prisoners wanted to kill him (Clune, p. 178; Martin, p. 250). In 1869 someone who claimed to be his wife wrote to ask what his fate was to be (Martin, p. 250 -- though in 1871 she gave up and married another man; Martin, p. 251). Sullivan was pardoned in 1874 on condition that he leave New Zealand (Martin, p. 252). He wasn't allowed into Australia, either, since they had banned transportation of prisoners on conditional pardons. He wanted to go to the United States, but the ship that was supposed to take him turned around and took him back to Auckland the moment they found out who he was! (Martin, p. 252). So, after being paid to absent himself, he was sent back to Britain (Martin, p. 253; Clune, p. 179. This was presumably legal, since he had completed his sentence). Once he was recognized on the ship, he had to be kept under guard, in part for his own protection (Martin, p. 253). When he arrived in Britain, the British authorities started watching him (Martin, pp. 253-254). It was a crummy life, plus he wanted to see his family in Australia. He somehow managed to disappear from Britain and make it to Australia (Martin, pp. 249, 254). He soon showed up at his wife's door (Martin, p. 254). There, he was discovered and forced to leave the area (Martin, p. 254) then sentenced to transportation to New Zealand or three years in fetters (Clune, pp. 179-181). He argued successfully that this was against the law, but spent fifteen months in jail in Melbourne before it was determined that he was within his rights to visit his home (Martin, p. 256). Once free, he tried again to return to his wife's home (Martin, p. 257), but no one wanted him around, and they kept persecuting him (Martin, pp. 258-259). Interestingly, no one reports evidence of him committing another crime; the last report we have of him has him grubbing for gold and barely having enough to eat (Martin, p. 260). But what happened to him thereafter is apparently unknown; there is no verifiable record of where or when he died.
In the period after the convictions of Burgess and Co., several people who had worked with the Burgess Gang were taken into custody. Jimmy Murray, also known as James Wilson, the man involved with the Dobson murder, was one of them; so was John Carr, the policeman who had helped the gang steal police equipment (Martin, p. 225). But Sullivan, the main witness against Wilson/Murray, was so despised that the jury refused his testimony and acquitted Wilson (Martin, p. 216); another case also resulted in acquittal apparently because Sullivan was the key witness (Martin, p. 217, though on p. 241 Martin offers evidence that Sullivan again was lying, blaming Wilson for his own crime -- Wilson had witnesses saying he was not there). Martin's conclusion on p. 248: "The truth of the Maungatapu mystery may never be known, but there is a case for the man whose confession around the neck of his companions being as guilty as two of them and more guilty than the third."
There are several memorials to the crime. Rickard, p. 144, says that "Battle's Gully, near Port Underwood, was named after a whaler named James Battle from Tasmania; in 1866 he had the misfortune to be murdered by the Burgess-Sullivan gang, the notorious Maungatapu murderers."
In addition to the Burgess/Burton book, there are at least three others about this event, Wayne Martin, Murder on the Maungatapu: A Narrative History of the Burgess Gang and Their Greatest Crime, Canterbury University Press, 2016 (cited as Martin); [David M. Luckie] with a Preface and Postscript by A. A. Grace, The Maungatapu Mountain Murders - A Narrative of the Murder of Five Men Between the Wakamarina River and Nelson by Burgess. Levy. Kelly and Sullivan in 1866., R. W. Stiles & Co., 1924; and Frank Clune, Murders on Maunga-Tapu. A history of the crimes committed on the lonely slopes of Maunga-tapu ("The Sacred Mountain") in New Zealand in the year 1866, Angus & Robertson, 1959 cited as Clune). Martin strikes me as an excellent piece of scholarship; Clune is pure sensationalism and moralizing and probably should be avoided. I have not seen Luckie.
This is not a traditional song in any sense, but the event was dramatic enough that it probably deserves a song. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Colq041

Mureau, Mureau the Devil

DESCRIPTION: The singer, Mureau "the devil," is so bad that his mother made his father disown him. Be careful or his fighting stick will come down on your head and that fighting stick will be used to measure your coffin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage01)
KEYWORDS: bragging warning fight violence nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: J.D. Elder, "'Kalinda': Song of the Battling Troubadours of Trinidad" in _The Journal of the Folklore Institute_, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Aug., 1966 (made available online by JSTOR)) #1 pp. 198-199,202-203, "Me Mother Bring Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Henry Williams, Allan Lovelace and George Roberts, "Mureau, Mureau the Devil" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
NOTES [157 words]: This is a Trinidadian Carnival kalinda song. That is, it is a song used by stick fighters advertising how threatening they are. This song is typical of kalinda song in that it is in a minor key.
For a few references on kalinda, see
Donald R. Hill, Maureeen Warner-Lewis, John Cowley, Lise Winer, liner notes on WITrinidadVillage01
Donald R. Hill, Calypso Calaloo (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993), p. 56),
John H. Cowley, "Canboulay, Carnival, and Calenda," liner notes on "West Indian Rhythm", pp. 259-271, Bear Family Records 10CD BCD 16623 JM, 2006
J.D. Elder, "Color, Music, and Conflict: A Study of Aggression in Trinidad with Traditional Music" in Ethnology, Vol. 8, No. 2 (May, 1964 (made available online by JSTOR)),
and especially, J.D. Elder, "'Kalinda': Song of the Battling Troubadours of Trinidad" in The Journal of the Folklore Institute, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Aug., 1966 (made available online by JSTOR)). - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcMuMutD

Murillo's Lesson

DESCRIPTION: "As down the lone valley with cedars o'erspread, From war's dread confusion I pensively strayed." "Perfumes of Eden slowed sweetly along; A voice as of angels enchantingly sung; Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise...."
AUTHOR: Dr. Timothy Dwight (source: Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #89, "Columbia" (2 short texts, 1 tune)
Roud #17927
NOTES [252 words]: According to Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, the two texts he has are both shortened versions of Dr. Timothy Dwight's poem "Columbia," which have been turned from a patriotic to a religious theme. It seems to me that both themes are still strongly present. The verse preserved by Morris is the last, with his "chorus" being close to the first verse:
Collumbia, Columbia, to glory arise,
The queen of the world and the child of the skies!
Thy genius commands thee; with rapture behold,
While ages on ages thy splendors unfold.
Thy reign is the last and the noblest of time,
Most fruitful thy soil, most inviting thy clime;
Let the crimes of the east ne'er encrimson thy name;
Be freedom and science and virtue thy fame.
According to John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), pp. 316-317, Timothy Dwight "is the most important name in early American hymnology, as it is also one of the most illustrious is American literature and eduction. He was b[orn] at Northampton, Massachusetts, May 14, 1752, and graduated at Yale College, 1769.... [After 1777 he] became for a short time a chaplain in the United States Army, but passed on in 1783 to Fairfield, Connecticut, where he held a pastorate, and taught in an Academy, till his appointment, in 1795, as President of Yale College....
"Dwight's lyrics are all professedly psalms, but they are by no means literal versions." I recognize none of the items Julian lists as being from his pen. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: Morr088

Murlough Shore, The

See The Maid of Mourne Shore (I) (File: HHH034b)

Murmaid, The

See The Mermaid [Child 289] (File: C289)

Murphy Delaney

DESCRIPTION: "Murphy Delany so funny and frisky Reeled into a shebeen to get his skin full." He falls into a coal barge, thinking it his bed. He is hauled out by people who think him deed, then comes to life. He is forced to fight the doctor and flee the coroner
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1835 (Journal of the Frances Henrietta)
KEYWORDS: drink death humorous escape
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 334-335, "Murphy Delany" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25981
NOTES [16 words]: This seems to have been very common in broadsides, but actual traditional versions are few. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HGam334

Murphy Delany

See Murphy Delaney (File: HGam334)

Murphy in the Cupboard

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves Molly McClare. He finds her kitchen door open and hides in a cupboard. She returns kissing Murphy. When Murphy also has to hide in the cupboard he reveals he is Molly's husband. The singer locks Murphy in and leaves with the key.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: love humorous hiding husband wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 81, "Murphy in the Cupboard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #28970
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boatsman and the Chest" [Laws Q8] (plot) and references there
File: LeBe081

Murray Holds the Reins

DESCRIPTION: "There's another of this nobby band That I've not mentioned yet; There is Dickson with his pettyfogging hell, Who rules, 'The law is not enough To punish Mormon crime." Mormon persecutors Ireson, Zane, and Dickson, are bound for hell for opposing polygamy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: trial punishment Hell
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #247, "Murray Holds the Reins" (1 short text)
Roud #25782
File: Hubb247

Murrumbigdee Shearer, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come, all you jolly natives, and I'll relate to you Some of my observations -- adventures, too, a few." The singer tells of the stations he has visited to ask for work. Denied employment, he has stolen and even burned the place. He ends up in prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson, _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes prison
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 185-187, "The Murrumbidgee Shearer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 192-193, "The Murrumbidgee Shearer" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 54-55, "The Murrumbidgee Shearer" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maryborough Miner" (tune, theme)
File: PFS192

Murty Hynes

DESCRIPTION: Poor Bermingham is evicted from his farm for failure to pay rent. Murty Hines takes the farm but is persuaded by the Land League to give it up. The people celebrate. "Give three cheers for the Land League and nine for Murty Hines"
AUTHOR: T.D. Sullivan (1827-1914) (source: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: poverty Ireland political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 14, "Murty Hynes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9757
NOTES [59 words]: Formed in 1879, the Irish tenant farmers' Land League fought evictions and spearheaded land reforms through Parliament. - PJS
For other songs and more information on the League, see "The Moneygran Pig Hunt" and "The Bold Tenant Farmer."
Sullivan is the author of a number of Irish patriotic poems, of which "God Save Ireland" is probably the best-known. - RBW
File: OLcM014

Mush a Doody

See The Jug of Punch (File: K278)

Mush, Mush, Mush

See Just Tread on the Tail of Me Coat (File: R474)

Music Alone Shall Live

DESCRIPTION: German: "Himmel und Erde mussen verghen, Aber die musici (x3) Bleiben bestehn." English: "All things shall perish from under the sky, Music alone shall live (x3), Never to die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (ChansonsDeNotreChalet)
KEYWORDS: nonballad music campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 412, "Music Alone Shall Live" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 442, "Music Alone Shall Live" (notes only)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 14, "Himmel og Jord" (4 short texts, in English, German, Dutch, and French; 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 45, "Music Shall Live" (4 short texts, in English, Danish, French, and German; 1 tune)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 1, "Music Alone Shall Live (Die Musici)" (4 short texts, 1 English, 1 German; 1 tune)
DT, MUSICALN*
NOTES [35 words]: The English translation given here, be it noted, is not really equivalent to the German, which might better be rendered along the lines of "Heaven and earth must pass away, But music (x3) still shall remain." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB412A

Music and Love

DESCRIPTION: "How great is the pleasure How sweet the delight, When soft love and music together unite. How sweet sweet how sweet the delight When harmony sweet harmony and love do unite."
AUTHOR: Henry Harrington (1727-1816) (source: _Supplement to the Musical Library_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1834 (_Supplement to the Musical Library_) fragment; 1838 (Gardiner)
KEYWORDS: love music nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 306, "Music and Love" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 640)
ADDITIONAL: William Gardiner, Music and Friends (London, 1838 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, p. 437, ("How great is the pleasure How sweet the light") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1348
NOTES [76 words]: The Supplement to the Musical Library (London, 1834 ("Digitized by Google")), (September 1834) No. 6, p. 62, reads "'How great is the pleasure, how sweet the delight, When soft love and music together unite!' Composed, and we believe written by Henry Harrington, M.D., a physician, eminent in Bath ... born in Somersetshire in 1727... and died ... on the 15th of January, 1816." (also Gardiner, p. 284)
The current description is from the Gardiner text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT306A

Music and Wine

DESCRIPTION: The singer wants nothing but to "sing of my pleasure in music and wine." He says nothing can compare with them but then thinks of days past "joined hand in hand with my true love" kissing and listening to birds sing.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: love music wine nonballad bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 42-43, "Music and Wine" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 38)
Roud #1229
File: WT042

Music Shall Live

See Music Alone Shall Live (File: FSWB412A)

Musici, Die

See Music Alone Shall Live (File: FSWB412A)

Musieu Bainjo

DESCRIPTION: Creole French. "Yoyez ce mulet la, Musieu Bainjo, Comme il est insolent. Chapeau sur cote, Musieu Bainjo. La canne a la main, Musieu Bainjo. Botte qui fait crin, crin, Musieu Bainjo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage clothes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 113, "Musieu Bainjo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 343, "Maitre Bainjo" (1 text)
File: AWG113

Musikanter (Ich Bin ein Muskanter)

DESCRIPTION: German: "Ich bin ein Musikanter und komm aus Schwabenland" (respose: "Wir sind" or "Du bist ein Muskantter und..." "Ich kann spielen Auf mein viola! Vio, vio, viola." Similarly for many instruments: piano, plank, plank, plank; Trumpet, rat, tat, tat, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 ("Songs of Many Nations")
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage music nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp, 316, 389, "Musikanter"/"I Am a Great Musician" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "Musikanter" (1 German text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 41)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Instruments (The Orchestra Song; Zur Feier, Die Geige)" (theme of describing instruments)
cf. "Johnny Schmoker" (theme of describing instruments)
NOTES [100 words]: Unusually, the camp version of this is apparently very often sung in German, although there are several English versions e.g., "The Music Man": "I am a music man, and I can play." (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs lists many others.) Oddly, the "Songs of Many Nations" version, which probably is responsible for the camp versions, lists most of the instruments by their English names.
There is pretty good proof that the piece went into oral tradition in English -- because Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 316, reports a version completely befuddled by it: "I am the music condor, I come from Slavic." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF316M

Muskrat

See Rattlesnake (File: LoF083)

Musleboorrowe ffeild

See Musselburgh Field [Child 172] (File: C172)

Musselburgh Field [Child 172]

DESCRIPTION: "Two goodly hosts" meet on Musselburgh Field. The Scots enter the battle confident, but are defeated heavily. The English narrator describes the contingents defeated
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy Folio); "Upon the Scots being beaten at Muscelborough Field" appeared in "Choyce Drollery" in 1656
KEYWORDS: battle nobility
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 10, 1547 - Battle of Pinkie (Pinkie Cleuch, Musselburgh). English armies defeat the Scots
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 172 "Musselburgh Field" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 123-126, "Musleboorrowe ffeild" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), p. 84, "Musselburgh Field" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 54
Roud #4003
NOTES [421 words]: The song claims that the battle of Pinkie was fought in "the fourth yeere of King Edwards raigne" -- but in fact 1547 was the first year of the reign of Edward VI (reigned 1547-1553). Other such errors occur in the song (e.g. the battle is dated to the twelfth of December, not the tenth of September); apparently the piece (which surely originated as a broadside) went through several stages of imperfect tradition. According to Albert B. Friedman, The Ballad Revival, University of Chicago Press, 1961, the Choyce Drollery version of 1656, which he suspects is the original (but which, note, is still two centuries after Pinkie!), is free of some of these errors.
(The other possibility is that it perhaps started as a song about some other Anglo-Scottish battle, and was imperfectly adapted, but the data in the song is hardly enough to reconstruct which.)
Pinkie was the final major ballad of the Anglo-Scottish border wars; by the time the Scots were fully recovered, Elizabeth was Queen of England and the Scottish monarchs were her heirs; James VI, in particular, was very careful not to offend Elizabeth.
Pinkie was part of a long campaign between the English and Scots over the fate of the infant Queen Mary, who came to the throne at the age of eight days (1542) and instantly found herself a pawn in the contest between England and France.
In 1543, the English under Henry VIII pressured the Scots into negotiations, and the result was a draft treaty to wed Mary to Prince Edward (the future Edward VI). The Scottish parliament, however, rejected the treaty. There followed the so-called "Rough Wooing"; Henry sent in his armies in 1544 (burning Edinburgh) and 1545, but the latter was heavily defeated at Ancrum Moor.
A quiet period followed, with continued skirmishing but no big battles. That changed after Henry VIII died in 1547. Now, with Edward VI King of England, the desire to take over Scotland was even stronger.
The battle of Pinkie itself resulted when the English Lord Protector, the Duke of Somerset, let an English army in the direction of Edinborough. The Earl of Arran gathered a Scots army -- but, as was often the case, the Scottish army was not really a unified force, but a collection of individual armies; the English won an easy victory.
Pinkie scared the Scots, but did not convince them to marry their Queen to Edward; instead, they shipped her off to France the next year, though her marriage to the French Crown Prince was childless and she ended up going back home after his death. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C172

Musselman

DESCRIPTION: "When the summer winds blow And the buttercups grow... Where the wild curlew flies, Jimmy's favorite lies, An honest and trustworthy horse." Describes the beloved horse Musselman, how it raced and how people greeted it, and its grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975
KEYWORDS: horse racing burial
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 222-223, "Musselman" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: FaE222

Mussels in the Corner

DESCRIPTION: "Indeed I's in love with you, Up all night in the foggy dew, 'Deed I's in love with you, Mussels in the corner." "Ask a bayman for a smoke, He will say his pipe is broke, Ask a bayman for a chew, He will bite it off of you." Other verses are similar
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1997 (Eric West, _Sing Around This One: Songs of Newfoundland & Labrador Vol. 2_)
KEYWORDS: love clothes drugs hardtimes dancing sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, MUSSLCRN*
ADDITIONAL: Ron Young, _Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador_, Downhome Publishing Inc., 2006, p. 261, "(Mussels in the Corner)" (1 excerpt)
Roud #26307
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dirty Newfoundlanders
NOTES [117 words]: "Baymen" were people of Newfoundland who did not come from St. John's -- meaning that they probably lived on the coast of one of Newfoundland's many bays. The word seems to have been in use by 1792 (StoryKirwinWiddowson, pp. 32-33). The relatively sophisticated people of St. John's ("Townies") often had a low opinion of other Newfoundlanders -- and vice versa. Wright, p. 35, for instance, writes that "the common antagonism between 'baymen' (rural people) and 'townies' (St. John's people)... finds great expression on lavatory walls at the [Memorial] university."
This conflict between the people of Newfoundland may well be the subject of "Saint John's Girl," and possibly "Irishmen All" as well. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: YDN261

Must I Be Bound

See Must I Go Bound (File: HHH218)

Must I Go Bound

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments, "Must I go bound and you go free." (S)he hears someone sing "that marriage was a pleasant thing," but "My marriage day soon turned to woe." The singer's spouse has scorned/abused the singer; the singer hopes for revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: marriage abuse betrayal
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H218a/b, p. 386, "Must I Go Bound" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 8, "Must I Be Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 195-196, "Must I Be Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18829
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] and references there
cf. "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Died for Love (I)" (theme)
cf. "Yon Green Valley" (lyrics)
cf. "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" [Laws P25] (lyrics)
NOTES [124 words]: This, like "My Blue-Eyed Boy," is so close to "The Butcher Boy" that I almost listed them as one song. But where "The Butcher Boy" is relatively coherent, this is little more than a lament composed of floating verses (e.g. from "Waly Waly") and the complaint "I heard (a shepherd//fair maid) sing That marriage was a pleasant thing, [but] My (marriage/wedding) day soon turned to woe." So I've listed them separately -- but there may well be intermediate versions.
For further discussion, see the notes to "The Butcher Boy."
Steve Roud's #18839 is a large family of sixty-odd versions. I would consider some of them to be "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" and others to be "Must I Go Bound" -- yet more evidence of how amorphous this family is. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: HHH218

Must I Go to Mississippi?

DESCRIPTION: "Must I go to Mississippi? Must I go or must I stay? Must I go all broken hearted? Oh, my heart shall break in two." "Who will shoe your foot...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, collected from Mrs. Nathan Hicks)
KEYWORDS: travel floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 24, "Must I Go To Mississippi?" (1 text, of three verses, of which the last two are "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot?")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot?" (lyrics)
NOTES [49 words]: Although two-thirds of the Hicks version are from "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot," the first verse is separate. I'm splitting the songs on the odd chance that the "Must I Go to Mississippi" verse is part of something else. Though it is unlikely to matter unless we find more text. - RBW
File: MHApp024

Must I Go to Old Virginia?

See East Virginia (Dark Hollow) (File: JRSF134)

Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "My heart's been fixed, My mind's made up, In Thou I live for him." Verse: "Must Jesus bear the cross alone And all the world go free, No there's a cross for every one And there's a cross for me"
AUTHOR: (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Date)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 204, "Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Date, Pentecostal Hymns Nos. 1 and 2 Combined (Chicago: Hope Publishing Company, 1898 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #292 p. 217, "Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ira D. Sankey, Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos (1200 Hymns) (London: Collins, 1921?), #610, ("Must Jesus bear the cross alone") (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Albert A. DeBique and Mt. Tabor Spiritual Baptist Church congregation, "Jesus On the Cross Alone" (on WITrinidadBaptistMusic01)
Gullah Kinfolk, "Me Heart Dun Fixt" (on USSeaIsland04)
NOTES [276 words]: The pattern of the Gullah Kinfolk recording is common to "shouts": a verse of what is often a Sankey hymn, and a chorus that may or may not be from Sankey.
The Herskovits Trinidadian Spiritual Baptist account of "Jesus Lover of My Soul" fits the USSeaIsland04 track as well. This is a Sankey hymn, and the writers of the WITrinidadVillage02 liner notes would characterize this track as "Sankey into Shout." - BS
According to William Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal, Broadman Press, 1976, pp. 143-144, the original version of the first stanza of this read
Shall Simon bear the cross alone,
And other saints be free,
Each saint of thine shall find his own,
And there is one for me.
This appeared in Thomas Shepherd's 1693 "Penitential Cries." Reynolds does not state who "Simon" was (Simon of Cyrene, who was made to carry Jesus's cross according to Mark 15:21, etc.? Simon Peter?), nor who substituted "Jesus." (Perhaps someone who read the Gospel of John, which says in 19:17 that Jesus alone carried his cross?) The other verses come from other sources, and apparently were assembled by George N. Allen, who published a three-verse version in 1844 in "The Oberlin Social and Sabbath School Hymn Book." Thus Allen, although not exactly entitled to the name "author," is responsible for the hymn as it is known. Allan apparently did compose the tune "Maitland."
Reynolds, p. 425, says that Shepherd (1665-1739) was an Englishman who originally belonged to the Church of England but left it in 1694 to lead an independent congregation in Nottingham. In 1700, he moved to another congregation, in Bocking, Essex, where he worked until his death. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcMJBTCA

Mustang Gray (The Maid of Monterey)

DESCRIPTION: "There was a brave old Texan, his name was Mustang Gray." When the Mexicans invaded Texas, he was taken prisoner. "He wore the yoke of bondage through the streets of Monteray. A senorita loved him...." and turned him loose
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908
KEYWORDS: love battle prisoner rescue
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1835 - Mayberry B. Gray migrates to Texas from South Carolina (source: Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong)
FOUND IN: US(MA,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys IX, pp. 104-111 (23-24), "Mustang Gray" (4 texts, 1 tune); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 102-104, "Mustang Gray" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 49, "Mustang Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 149, "Mustang Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 395-396, "Mustang Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 196-199, "Mustang Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 282-283, "Mustang Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 190-191, "Mustang Gray" (1 text)
DT, MUSTGRAY*
Roud #4035
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Turkish Lady" [Laws O26] (plot)
cf. "Young Beichan" [Child 53] (plot)
SAME TUNE:
The Dying Soldier Boy ("Upon Manassa's bloody plain a soldier boy lay dying" -- words by A. B. Cunningham) (War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy, pp. 347-348)
NOTES [131 words]: Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys notes that this song takes two forms: "In Hewitt's original aria interest is focused on the senorita and her heroic deed. The texts most current in Western American oral tradition... bring the American soldier-cowboy into central focus...."
The piece seems to have drawn its title from the 1847 novel The Volunteer, or The Maid of Monterrey, by Ned Bluntine.
The song has been variously credited to John Hill Hewitt, Tom Grey, and James Lytle. Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys considers Hewitt (a well-known composer) to be the most likely candidate -- although Thorp himself credited it to Grey.
I would consider it not unlikely that someone (unknown) wrote the words and Hewitt added a tune.
As "Mustang Gray," this song is item dB28 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FT09

Musterer's Lament

See Wrap Me Up in my Tarpaulin Jacket (File: FR439)

Mustering Day

See The Mustering Song (File: FaE158)

Mustering Song (The Old Poley Cow)

DESCRIPTION: "Master came to the old hut door And said has he had often said before, "Tomorrow will be mustering day.'" An old poley cow flees the mob; Master's horse throws him and he dies. The singer sees master's ghost as he goes to gather the body
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads); reportedly printed in the Brisbane "Queenslander" in 1894)
KEYWORDS: cowboy death ghost work
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, p. 19, "The Old Poley Cow" (1 composite version)
Roud #27771
File: SKeF019

Mustering Song, The

DESCRIPTION: The station owner gathers the crew for mustering day. The workers head out to gather the herd when the old man is thrown into a tree and dies. The next day, the singer sees the man's ghost in his usual place, smoking his usual clay (pipe)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (The Queenslander)
KEYWORDS: ghost death horse boss Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 158-159, "The Mustering Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 80-81, "Mustering Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 226-227, "The Mustering Song" (1 text)
Roud #27771
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drunken Sailor (Early in the Morning)" (tune & meter)
NOTES [77 words]: The description is based on Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia. The version in Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong has no mention of the old man with the pipe; it's just a list of problems encountered by herdsmen. The first verses are close enough to show that the two are derived from the same original, so I list them together here. But one is clearly a rewrite of the other. My strong suspicion is that the Fahey text is the rewrite; it has much more plot. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: FaE158

Mutlah, The

DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "Our good ship she heeled over and sank upon her side, And left her chains and anchors all in the Eddy-tide Outside the sunken Cooneys, where the Mutlah went aground, All with her general cargo, she for Halifax was bound"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 16, 1877 - "The ... Mutlah ... went ashore at Glynn Point, Poulshone mear Courtown Captain Faraquar, one passenger and ten of fourteen crew were drowned.... the survivors described the captain as drunk...." (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 45)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 127, "The Mutlah" (1 text)
Roud #20539
File: Ran127B

Mutton Pie

See The Old Farmer of Tetford (File: OSY233)

Muttonburn Stream, The

DESCRIPTION: "Muttonburn Stream, It's not marked on this world's map... A wee river in Ulster." It has wondrous qualities: "a wee dunt" in it makes washing clean, "it cures all diseases" including fatness or lean, a good place to fall after a drinking party.
AUTHOR: William James Hume
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recorded by Richard Hayward)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous nonballad talltale
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 10, "The Muttonburn Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 137, "I remember my young days, for younger I've been" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), p. 6, "The Mutton Burn Stream" (text, music and reference to Decca F-2602 recorded Oct 4, 1931)
Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 81-82, "The Muttonburn Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2896
NOTES [100 words]: Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster: "The Muttonburn Stream is to be found near Carrickfergus."
"Castle Hyde" takes glorification of a locality to an extreme. "The Groves of Blarney" takes it to the next stage by parody. "The Muttonburn Stream" completes the transformation by making a tall tale.
The date and master id (GB-3353-1) for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. - BS
Kathleen O'Sullivan pointed out to me that this song was written by William Hume, who is the grandfather of the twenty-first century storyteller Billy Teare. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: MorU010

My Ain Aunty Jean

DESCRIPTION: The singer's late Aunty Jean was a big woman who had seen better days and begged for her living. She'd been wed once or twice. She was "brimfu' o' fun," read fortunes and was "a modest blackmailer." "Let us hope 'mang the blest is my ain Aunty Jean"
AUTHOR: John Murray (written c. 1860) (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: marriage death begging hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #41, p. 2, "My Ain Aunty Jean"; #38, p. 2, "My Ain Aunty Jean" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan4 741, "My Ain Aunty Jean" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5642
NOTES [24 words]: Greig quotes the author in #41: "'Auntie Jean's suggested by the publication of Davidson's 'Uncle John.' [specifically, 'Uncle John's Fiddle']" - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD4741

My Ain Counterie

See The Sun's Bright in France (My Ain Countree) (File: McSc129)

My Ain Countree

See The Sun's Bright in France (My Ain Countree) (File: McSc129)

My Ain Countrie

See A North Country Maid (File: LK43B)

My Ain Country

See The Sun's Bright in France (My Ain Countree) (File: McSc129)

My Ain Dear Nell

DESCRIPTION: The singer remembers Nelly Brown and their youthful days together. "Ance mair then Nelly Brown I hae sung o' love and thee Tho' oceans wide between us row you're aye the same to me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: age love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1253, "My Ain Dear Nell" (1 text)
Roud #6789
SAME TUNE:
Dunedin Town Board ("The streets here in Dunedin are now a sea of mud, This place is very much the same as 'twas before the flood") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 119)
File: GrD61253

My Ain Fireside

DESCRIPTION: The singer says it is time to go home to a wife he's afraid to face, but a drink and a song will sooth her and they'll go to bed "and I'll cuddle her in my airms ... and crack aboot the joys o' oor ain fireside." Here's to every man that will do the same.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: sex drink music nonballad wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 553, "My Ain Fireside" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6028
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(144b), "My Ain Fireside" ("Come, my lads, let us mount and go"), Muir [John Muir (Glasgow)?], no date
NOTES [79 words]: Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(239), "My Ain Fireside" ("Come, my lads, let's mount and go"), unknown, no date is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
There is a pop song called "My Ain Fireside" which opens "Oh! I hae seen great anes, and sat in great ha's" (e.g. Dime-Song-Book #4, p. 49). Roud files them together, but it lacks the mention of trouble with the wife, so I'd consider it separate although very possibly the inspiration for this song.
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3553

My Ain Kate

DESCRIPTION: The singer/reciter is a linen draper clerk told by Kate she'll not leave him. He buys her a watch and chain. A policeman "put Her Majesty's braces upon her." He goes to her ninth trial for stealing her mistress's clothes. She is transported for life.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: courting theft transportation trial clothes recitation servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #47, p. 2, ("I'm nae awa' to bide awa'"); #49, p. 2, ("I'm not going away to stay away") (2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan2 257, "My Ain Kate" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5850
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mormond Braese" (tune, according to Greig/Duncan2)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I'm Not Going Away
NOTES [56 words]: The form is an introductory verse followed by spoken text interspersed with the chorus "I'm not going away to stay away, I'm not going away to leave you; I'm your own Kate, your darling Kate, That never will deceive you." At the end the singer, in spite of everything, is convinced by her "sly little wink" that she's not going away. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2257

My Ain Kind Dearie

DESCRIPTION: The singer returns wet and weary from gathering seaweed. She says "my ain kind dearie O, Ye row me up, ye row me doon, ye row me owre fu' cheerie O"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love farming nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 734, "My Ain Kind Dearie" (1 text)
Roud #8559
NOTES [118 words]: Greig/Duncan4 refers to "a note by Peter Buchan on the gathering of seaweed for manuring the land." - BS
A quick Google search finds many, many hits extolling the virtues of seaweed as a fertilizer. Few of these seemed to be anything more than the usual sort of "if it's natural, it must be good, and we expect you to pay a lot for ot" sort of business. But seaweed in fact is a useful soil additive -- not because it's really very special but because cultivated soil generally loses its nitrogen and phosphorus over time, and seaweed is a useful source of organic forms of those two essential elements. Seaweed is also a good source of potassium, which can sometimes be in short supply in soil as well. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4734

My Ain Wife

DESCRIPTION: "I wadna gie my ain wife for ony wife I see." She is cheery, never shows anger, is good with the neighbors and loves the baby. "Tho' beauty be a fading flower, ... She ance was ca'd a bonnie lass, she's bonnie aye to me"
AUTHOR: Alexander Laing (source: Whistle-Binkie)
EARLIEST DATE: 1830 (_The Edinburgh Literary Gazette_ v.II, according to Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: love marriage nonballad baby wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 747, "My Ain Wife" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 184, "My Ain Wife" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Rodger, editor, Whistle-Binkie, Fifth Series (Glasgow, 1843), p. 94, "My Ain Wife"
Roud #6127
File: GrD4747

My Alabama Sweetheart Far Away

DESCRIPTION: Singer thinks back to his days "upon the snowy fields of cotton" with his "Alabama sweetheart far away." He could never tell her he loved her before he left. He has received a letter "that some other has been with her"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: love home parting separation
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #28838
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Ned Lee, "Alabama Blossom" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
John Molloy, "Alabama Sweetheart" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [50 words]: Annmarie O'Riordan's version on the CD Ireland: Love of My Heart changes the first line to "fields of snowy cotton" but both Avalon peninsula singers agree on "the snowy fields of cotton."
At first glance this looks like a "minstrel" song, but the "sweetheart" is a white "blue eyed maiden." - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3MASFA

My ANZAC Home

DESCRIPTION: "Come see my little dugout, upon the hill it stands, Where I can get a lovely view of ANZAC's golden sands" as artillery shells fall. There are fleas and ants and orphaned mice. His back is sore. If he ever gets home, he might miss the place. Or might not
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1916 (according to Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 91, "My Anzac Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
File: Clev091

My Army Cross Over

DESCRIPTION: ""My brother, tik keer (take care?) Satan, my army cross over" (x2). "Satan very busy, my army cross over." "Wash his face in ashes." "Put on the leather apron." "Jordan river rolling." "We'll cross the danger water."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment); 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 38, "My Army Cross Over" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 5, p. 201, "My Army Cross Over" (1 text)
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, pp. 118-119, "Army Cross Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11992
RECORDINGS:
Brenton Jordan and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Army Cross Over" (on McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts)
NOTES [30 words]: The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree text and McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts track are "ring shout" songs in which the leader sings a call and the basers respond "Army cross over." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: AEG038

My Aul' Gudeman

DESCRIPTION: Dialog between a wife and her second husband. He says her first husband left her nothing, whereas now she has things: "tell me nae mair o' yer aul' gudeman." She compares her first husband in bed to her current feeble husband. "Alack, my aul' gudeman"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: age marriage sex death dialog husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1305, "My Aul' Gudeman" (1 text)
Roud #7201
File: GrD71305

My Auld Breeks, air the Corn Clips

See Robin Tamson's Smiddy [Laws O12] (File: LO12)

My Aunt Came Back

DESCRIPTION: Action song; each line accompanied by a motion. "Oh my Aunt came back from Tokyo Japan and she brought with her a waving fan." (wave hand). "My Aunt came back From old Hong Kong... ping pong." "Timbucktoo... nuts like you" (points at audience)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 308, 391, "My Aunt Came Back"/"My Wealthy Aunt Brought Back" (notes only)
File: ACSF308A

My Aunt Jane

DESCRIPTION: "My Aunt Jane she took me in" and gave me tea from her shop. "She's awful smart" and bakes rings in an apple tart. She "has a bell on the door A white stone step and a clean swept floor, Candy apples, hard green pears, Conversation lozenges"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Hammond-SongsOfBelfast)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 12, "My Aunt Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 39, "My Aunt Jane she called me in" (1 fragment)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 63, "(My Aunt Jane she called me in)" (1 text)
Roud #5642
NOTES [65 words]: Hammond-SongsOfBelfast: "Probably the best-loved of all Belfast songs." - BS
The practice of baking prizes (such as coins or rings) into cakes is well-attested, even if it is today remembered mostly because J. R. R. Tolkien mentioned it in Smith of Wootton Major, but it seems somewhat improbable to find it in the context of a Belfast tea-shop; how did Aunt Jane afford such thing? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hamm012

My Aunt Jane She Called Me In

See My Aunt Jame (File: Hamm012)

My Bark Canoe

DESCRIPTION: An Ojibway (Chippewa) song. The singer reports, "Through the night I keep awake, Upon the river I keep awake."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) nonballad river
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, p. 34, "My Bark Canoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4539
File: FJ034

My Beautiful Muff

DESCRIPTION: A young lady goes out in her muff, which is "my own, and I'll wear it, So don't you come near it, You'll spoil it, you'll tear it, My beautiful muff." A young man greets her and plies her with wine. She sleeps. Her muff is ruined. Young ladies are warned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956
KEYWORDS: bawdy clothes seduction wine
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 247-248, "My Beautiful Muff" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 21, p. 27, "My Beautiful Muff" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1402
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(51), "My Beautiful Muff" (unknown, n.d.)
File: MA247

My Beauty of Limerick

DESCRIPTION: "I sing of my loved one, an idol to me." Patrick is across the sea but thinks of his "beauty of Limerick" waiting at home. He promises "to go back to old Ireland when money I'd save." He sleeps with her ribbon under his pillow.
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (sheet music published by William A. Pond & Co.)
KEYWORDS: love separation Ireland nonballad money return
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #38, pp. 140-141, "The Beauty of Limerick" (1 text. 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 38, "My Beauty of Limerick" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9752
NOTES [79 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
The original title of this was "The Beauty of Limerick." Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, says it has "No known connection to any play," although the timing fits "The Mulligan Guards' Surprise," for which see "Whist! the Bogie Man." Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, Random House, 1948, p. 188 says that this was sung by "'the American linnet,' Jennie Morgan." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: OLcM038

My Bible Leads to Glory (The Pilgrim's Song)

DESCRIPTION: "My Bible leads to glory (x3), Ye followers of the Lamb." "Sing on, pray on, ye followers of Immanuel! (x2)." "Religion make me happy (x3)...." ""I'm on my way to glory...." "King Jesus is my captain...." "There we shall live forever...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs); Hymnary.org lists several versions from before 1850, including "Hymns: designed for the Use of the Second advent band" dated 1843
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 68, "My Bible Leads to Glory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13916
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Religion So Sweet (I)" (lyrics)
File: Rich068

My Big Red Ball

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "My big red ball Went over the wall, (Hold/told) my mum, She skelpt/slapped my bum, B-U-M."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: jumprope mother | red ball wall bum
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #366, "My Big Red Ball" (1 text)
Roud #20205
File: AJRR366

My Blooming Highland Jane

See Highland Jane (File: HHH477)

My Blue-Eyed Boy

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses on the subject of lost love, usually borrowed from "The Butcher Boy" and/or a "Pretty Little Foot" variant. The wide and deep grave carved with a turtle dove may also be present. Identified by the line "Bring me back my blue-eyed boy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety); possibly 1879 (Journal of the Andrew Hicks)
KEYWORDS: love beauty separation death suicide
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MW,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Bronson 76, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (23 versions, of which #11 appears to belong here)
Greig/Duncan6 1085, "My Love He Is a Sailor Bold" (1 text plus a single verse on p. 538, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 478-480, "The Blue-Eyed Boy" (4 texts, though "D" is a fragment, probably of "Tavern in the Town" or "The Butcher Boy" or some such)
Randolph 759, "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (3 short texts, 1 tune)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 46, "Remember... Well" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 18-19, "(Bring Back My Blue-eued Boy)" (1 text)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 33, "Blue-Eyed Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 257, "The Blue-Eyed Boy" (2 text, though the second is rather distantly related)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 151-152, "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 93-94, "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 85, "The Blue-Eyed Boy" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 102, pp. 212-213, "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (1 text)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 120, "Bring Me Back the One I Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H482, pp. 391-392, "Bring Me Back the Boy I Love"; H692, p. 392, "Never Change the Old Love for the New" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 224, "Never Change the Old Love for the New" (1 fragment, 1 tune, possibly this although it's too short to be certain)
DT, BLUEYEBY
Roud #4308 and 18831
RECORDINGS:
Brier Hopper Brothers, "Bring Back My Blue-Eyed Boy" (Champion 16692, 1933)
Carter Family, "Bring Back My Blue-Eyed Boy to Me" (Victor V-40190, 1930; Montgomery Ward M-4741, c. 1935; Bluebird B-6271, 1936)
Gid Tanner & Riley Puckett, "Bring Back My Blue-Eyed Boy" (Columbia 15577-D, 1930; rec. 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] and references there
cf. "The Willow Tree" (form and lyrics)
cf. "Must I Go Bound" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Died for Love (I)"
cf. "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" [Laws P25] (lyrics)
cf. "Remember Well and Bear In Mind" (lyrics)
NOTES [82 words]: This is so close to "The Butcher Boy" that I almost listed them as one song. But where "The Butcher Boy" is relatively coherent, this is little more than a lament composed of floating verses and the complaint "Bring me back my blue-eyed boy." So I've listed them separately -- but there *are* intermediate versions. Sandburg, for instance, has one (p. 324, "Go Bring Me Back My Blue-Eyed Boy," with the suicide theme intact, so I list it with "The Butcher Boy" -- but it has this chorus). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: R759

My Body Rock 'Long Fever

DESCRIPTION: "Wai', my brother, true believe, better true be... Oh, my body rock 'long fever, O! with a pain in 'e head, I wish I been to the kingdom, to sit alongside o' my Lord." "By the help of the Lord we rise up again... An' we'll get to heaven at last."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, pp 44-45, "My Body Rock 'Long Fever" (1 text, 1 tune plus a variant)
Roud #11988
File: AWG044B

My Bonnie Irish Boy

See The Bonny Young Irish Boy [Laws P26] (File: LP26)

My Bonnie Laddie's a Writer o' Letters

DESCRIPTION: The singer says her bonnie laddie's "a writer o' letters And aye as he writes them he sends them to me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #147, p. 2, ("My bonnie laddie's a writer o' letters") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan7 1345, "My Bonnie Laddie's a Writer o' Letters" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7226
NOTES [12 words]: The current description is based on the single Greig/Duncan7 verse. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD71345

My Bonnie Laddie's Lang, Lang o' Growing

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

My Bonnie Laddie's Young (But He's Growing Yet)

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments that his bonnie is across the waves, and implores that someone "bring back my bonnie to me." He asks the winds specifically to carry her. (He dreams she is dead.) (He rejoices that the winds have blown his bonnie to him.)
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Hills's "Student Songs")
KEYWORDS: love separation sea reunion
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Heart-Songs, p. 179, "Bonnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #142, "My Bonnie" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 143, "My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 381, "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 251, 393, 518, "My Bonnie" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 34, "My Bonnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 21, "My Bonnie" (1 text); also pp. 122-123, "Campfire Medley" (1 text, a combination of "Our Boys Will Shine Tonight," "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean," "Sailing, Sailing," and "Goodnight Ladies")
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Jay Mechling, "Magic of the Boy Scout Campfire," Volume 93, Number 367 (Jan-Mar 1980), p. 40, "My Bonnie" (1 text, with the first verse and chorus being the original song and the rest being various "gross-out" parodies about Bonnie's infirmities, including the "My Bonnie Has Tuberculosis" verse cited under SAME TUNE)
DT, MYBONNIE*
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 6, "Bring Back My Bonnie to Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1422
RECORDINGS:
Cliff Bruner, "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (Decca 5638, 1939; rec. 1938)
Ella Fitzgerald, "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (Decca 28375, 1952)
Haydn Quartet, "Bring Back My Bonnie to Me" (Victor A-123, 1900)
Leake County Revelers, "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (Columbia 15227-D, 1928)
Ella Logan, "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (Brunswick 8196, 1938; Columbia 36313, 1941)
Mobile Strugglers, "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (on AmSkBa)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My God, How the Money Rolls In" (tune)
cf. "The Cowboy's Dream" (tune)
cf. "Tom Twist" (tune)
cf. "The Prisoner's Song (I)" (tune)
cf. "Shine Your Buttons With Brasso" (tune)
cf. "Shaving Cream" (tune)
cf. "My Children Are Seven in Number " (tune)
cf. "Bring Back My Johnny to Me"
cf. "Young Jean Lies Over the Ocean" (presumed tune)
SAME TUNE:
Tom Twist (File: FlBr171)
My Children Are Seven in Number (File: CAFS1282)
We Want None of Thee (FIle: Wels074)
They Say There Is Gold on the Maggie (File: Garl273)
Swim Back You Bastard to Me (File: Tawn009)
Jenny Wren Bride (File: Tawn056)
My Tunic Is Out at the Elbows (File: AWTB055A)
Song of the Reluctant Transport Driver (File: AWTB055B)
Ode to Corporal (File: AWTB062A)
Bring Back My Neighbors to Me (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 119)
My Daddy Lies over the Ocean (Miriam "Mimi" Wright, "My Daddy Lies over the Ocean" (Piotr-Archive #299, recorded 10/10/2022))
Yuck! Cats (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 67)
Come Up, Dear Dinner, Come Up (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 121)
My Body Has Tuberculosis (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 131)/My Bonnie Has Tuberculosis (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 251)
Zekey Looked into the Gas Tank (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 133)
My Barney Lies Over the Ocean (RECORDINGS, Nora Bayes, Columbia A-2678, 1918; Louis Winsch, Pathe 22061, 1919; Ada Jones, OKeh 1218, 1919; Billy Murray, Victor 18530, 1919)
Saigon Lullaby (RECORDING, Bull Durham, Saul Broudy, Tom Price, Robin Thomas & chorus, on InCountry)
My Bonnie Parodies (Harbin-Parodology, #46, p. 18)
Stand Up, Stand Up ("Stand up, stand up, stand up, ???, stand up, stand up!") (Harbin-Parodology, #180, p. 49)
Mr. --- Is a Very Fine Fellow (Harbin-Parodology, #411, p. 101)
My Mother's an Apple Pie Maker (possibly a variant of "My God, How the Money Rolls In") (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 251)
Shiny Noses/Why Do Bunnies Have Shiny Noses/Wrong End (various girl scout songbooks)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My Bonnie
Bring Back My Bonnie to Me
NOTES [355 words]: Fuld notes an 1882 printing of this song allegedly written by H. J. Fulmer (Charles E. Pratt). This text, however, disagrees with the 1881 printing, and Fuld suspects that Pratt is responsible only for the adaption. In College Songs (1887) it is listed as copyring 1885 by Oliver Ditson & Co., but with no authorship details.
Larry J. Purcell of Minneapolis has sent me a photograph of sheet music that credits it to H. J. FULLER (not Fulmer), and reports that Howard Jones Fuller was his great-great-grandfather. This would presumably explain the "Fulmer" attribution, but unfortunately the music has no date. The text is very similar to the common version.
Purcell gives this capsule biography of Fuller: Howard Jones Fuller was born 15 April 1853 in Vershire, Orange County, Vermont to Stephen Fuller and Luvia Carpenter, He married first my great great grandmother , Ida Elizabeth Pickett, 08 March 1874 in Albert Lea, Freeborn, Minnesota, then divorced. He married secondly to Bertha Chloe Smith 04 Jan 1904 in Mississippi. He died 05 Aug 1907 in Gloster, Amiite, Mississippi. He is buried at Silver Creek Cemetery in Pike County, Mississippi.
The song obviously has spawned a number of parodies and borrowings. It itself, however, seems relatively constant, and the parodies are all recent. It thus seems likely that the song is fairly recent, and that most known versions derive from the 1881 printing.
It has been theorized that this is a derivative of the song we index as "Bring Back My Johnny to Me." The tunes aren't the same, but there are similarities, and a few lyrics also cross, as well as the theme. But there is no evidence of an intermediate form; it seems nearly certain that there was a deliberate rewrite somewhere along the line.
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 518, mentions a camp where they played a game where people were supposed to change from a sitting position to standing, or from standing to sitting, every time the song used the phoneme "B." I seem to recall playing that game once, and I never went to camp or played singing games in an organized setting, which hints that it was common. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DTmybonn

My Bonnie Light Horseman

See The Bonnie Light Horseman (File: HHH122a)

My Bonnie Love is Young

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

My Bonnie Love Johnny

DESCRIPTION: "My love he's bonny ... He's handsome, charming, sweet and young, An' his cheeks are like a cherry. O"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 940, "My Bonnie Love Johnny" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6755
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan5 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5940

My Bonnie Meg o Noo, o Noo

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks Meg to sit down by him. Meg tells him to drop her hand and tells him he has ruffled her gown. He asks why she's in such a rush to run away "as ye war chased". He says he has told her mother every thing "that passed between us twa"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1353, "My Bonnie Meg o Noo, o Noo" (1 text)
Roud #7231
File: GrD71353

My Bonnie Sailor Boy

See The Bonny Sailor Boy [Laws M22] (File: LM22)

My Bonnie Wee Cruidland Do

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

My Bonnie Wee Hen

DESCRIPTION: The singer had a fine hen; it laid two eggs a day. But it went out to seek food and was killed. The owner will punish the killers; "I wasna half so sorry the night my husband died." She invites others to the funeral
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: chickens death burial
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H94, p.17 , "My Bonnie Wee Hen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 142, "The Wee Broun Tappit Hen" (1 text)
Roud #9054
File: HHH094

My Bonnie, Bonnie Boy

See The Bonny Boy (I) (File: FSC037)

My Bonny Black Bess (I) [Laws L8]

DESCRIPTION: Dick Turpin gives a detailed account of Black Bess's speed and beauty and the good use to which he put them. He once robbed a horseman and sped to town, arriving so quickly that he appeared to have an alibi when the horseman at last arrived in town
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915
KEYWORDS: robbery horse outlaw
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1735 - Dick Turpin comes to the attention of the authorities as a robber
April 1739 - Hanging of Dick Turpin (by then retired from highway robbery; he was captured after getting drunk and shooting the landlor'd cockerel)
FOUND IN: US(Ro,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws L8, "My Bonny Black Bess I"
Randolph 167, "Bonnie Black Bess" (3 texts, 1 tune, but Laws assigns only Randolph's "C" text to this piece; the others belong with Laws L9)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 7, "Bonny Black Bess" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "B" text is this piece while the "A" text is Laws L9)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 69, pp. 155-157, "My Bonny Black Bess" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 369, "My Bonny Black Bess" (1 text)
DT 569, BLCKBES3
Roud #1904
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:027, "Poor Black Bess," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Black Bess (II)" [Laws L9]
cf. "Dick Turpin and the Lawyer [Laws L10]" (subject)
NOTES [173 words]: This is much the more literary of the Turpin/Black Bess songs; based on the evidence in Laws, I am not convinced it is actually a traditional song. The following stanza will demonstrate this point and serve to distinguish the piece from Laws L9:
Let the lover his mistress's beauty rehearse,
And laud her attractions in languishing verse;
Be it mine in rude strain but with truth to express
The love that I bear to my bonny Black Bess.
Peter Underwood reports that the hoofbeats of the ghost of Black Bess (presumably with Turpin aboard) have been heard at the "Woodfield" estate in Bedfordshire, where Turpin was said to have had a safe house.
Which just shows the power of folklore, since Black Bess apparently never existed (for this and the rest of Turpin's history, see the notes on "My Bonny Black Bess (II) (Poor Black Bess; Dick Turpin's Ride)" [Laws L9]).
The Murray broadside lists this as to the tune of "Poor Dog Tray." I would assume that's supposed to be "Old Dog Tray." Though the tune I know isn't even vaguely similar. - RBW
File: LL08

My Bonny Black Bess (II) (Poor Black Bess; Dick Turpin's Ride) [Laws L9]

DESCRIPTION: Dick Turpin bids farewell to the horse that served his so well, making his exploits possible and finally carrying him from London to York in a single day. Now the hounds are on his trail and he cannot escape; he shoots Bess and waits to die himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia); before 1878 (broadside LOCSinging, sb30428b)
KEYWORDS: robbery horse punishment outlaw
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1735 - Dick Turpin comes to the attention of the authorities as a robber
April 1739 - Hanging of Dick Turpin (by then retired from highway robbery; he was captured after getting drunk and shooting the landlor'd cockerel)
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar) Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws L9, "My Bonny Black Bess"
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, pp. 32-33, "Poor Black Bess" (1 text)
Hamer-GreenGroves, p. 44, "Turpin's Farewell to Black Bess" (1 fragment, 1 tune, so short that it could be either Black Bess song, but the lyrics suggest it is this)
Randolph 167, "Bonnie Black Bess" (3 texts, 1 tune, with the "A" fragment and "B" text belonging here; the "C" text is Laws L8)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 122, "My Bonnie Black Bess" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 65, "Bonnie Black Bess" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 130, "My Bonny Black Bess" (1 text text plus 1 fragment and an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 189, "Dick Turpin and Black Bess" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #139, "My Bonnie Black Bess" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 126, "Dick Turpin's Ride" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 7, "Bonny Black Bess" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "A" text is this piece while the "B" text is Laws L8)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 12, "Bonny Black Bess" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1899, p. 128, "Poor Black Bess" (3 references)
DT 422, BLCKBESS* BLCKBES2 BONNBESS*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 25, #4 (1977), p, 9, "Bonnie Black Bess" (1 text, 1 tune, from James and Mary Atwood)
Roud #620
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "My bonny black Bess" (AFS 4212 A1, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Lawrence Older, "Bonnie Black Bess" (on LOlder01)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, sb30428b, "Poor Black Bess," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
Murray, Mu23-y1:027, "Poor Black Bess," James Lindsay Jun (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonny Black Bess (I)" [Laws L8]
cf. "Dick Turpin and the Lawyer [Laws L10]" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
Poor Dog Tray (per broadsides LOCSinging sb30428b, Murray Mu23-y1:027, and the one listed in Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 128)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonnie Black Bess
NOTES [2611 words]: This is much the more popular of the Black Bess songs; to distinguish it from Laws L8, consider the following stanza:
When blindness did guide me, I left my abode;
When friends proved ungrateful, I took to the road.
For to plunder the wealthy and relieve my distress,
I bought you to aid me, my bonny Black Bess.
The problem is, Turpin did not buy Black Bess, and never rode her to York. Although Dick Turpin was real, most of the exploits traditionally attributed to him are false. This is, at least in part, because the hack writers of his time -- the ones on whom our modern knowledge of roadside robbers is based -- rarely mentioned him in their accounts of famous highwaymen (Sharpe, pp. 73-74). When later writers resurrected him, they had few real facts to operate on. Even our knowledge of his death is relatively slight -- Sharpe, p. 18, points out that much of what we know about his execution comes from a cheap pamphlet, and we know how reliable those are! But here is the biography we can give.
The only real description of Turpin is a single sentence, from a proclamation seeking him: "About thirty years of age, by trade a butcher, about five feet nine inches high, of a brown complexion, very much marked with the small pox, his visage short, pretty upright, and broad about the shoulders" (Sharpe, p. 137; Pringle, p. 216, has a similar but not identical version).
According to Sharpe, p. 109, Turpin was born probably on September 21, 1705, although other sources give the year as 1706. He was baptized on September 23, 1705, however, which would seem to settle the matter. He was son of an Essex innkeeper; James Turpin was still keeping "the Bell at Hempstead" at the time of his son's trial and execution (Sharpe, p. 31).
Apprenticed to a butcher, Turpin apparently married (although there is no known record of the marriage; Sharpe, p. 109, and Brandon, p. 116, gives two possible names for his wife) and went into business around 1726. But several sheep turned up missing near his establishment in Waltham Abbey. Apparently forced out of the Guild of Butchers for his misdeeds (Pringle, p. 202), he took to a life of open crime.
For a time, he was associated with a brutal group of poachers and robbers known as "Gregory's Gang"; according to Sharpe, pp. 106-108, they took the King's Deer from Waltham in Essex. Turpin apparently helped them sell their kills (Sharpe, pp. 108-109). By 1734, the gang had turned to robbery. By 1735, they had moved from Essex to London (Sharpe, p. 115).
They really do seem to have been a brutal bunch; Sharpe, pp. 117-118, describes how they beat and burned an old farmer during a robbery -- while one of them raped a servant. Large rewards were put on their heads in 1735, but Turpin escaped when the others were taken. He turned to highway robbery (Sharpe, pp. 128-129). It is possible that he also went to Holland for a time (Sharpe, pp. 131-132).
Turpin in this period worked with various companions, the most noteworthy being Tom King (died 1737 -- possibly killed by Turpin himself as they struggled with people who were attempting to apprehend them; Sharpe, pp. 133-134; Pringle, p. 214; Brandon, p. 122; Alexander, p. 297). King, according to Alexander, p. 297, was known as the "King of the Highwaymen," but in fact he does not seem to have been very noteworthy on his own. About this time, Turpin killed one Thomas Morris who was attempting to apprehend him; for the first time, Turpin was clearly guilty of murder (Sharpe, p. 135; Pringle, p. 213; Pringle implies that it happened before the death of King, Sharpe perhaps after).
Turpin had already had a price on his head; the murder caused it to be increased to 200 pounds (Sharpe, p. 136). But Turpin had disappeared (Pringle, p. 216). He had moved to Yorkshire, and was calling himself John Palmer (Sharpe, p. 2). He seems to have lived a relatively honest life in the town of Welton, posing as a horse-dealer (Alexander, p. 299) -- but in October 1738, in a fit of mindless brutality, he shot a gamecock belonging to his neighbour (Sharpe, p. 136; Pringle, p. 216 -- a bad move, because the bird apparently had brought its owner good results, and perhaps income, in cockfights; Brandon, p. 123). This presumably is the origin of the claim in "Dick Turpin and the Lawyer" [Laws L10] that he was taken for "shooting of a dunghill cock").
The charges need not have been fatal had his history stayed hidden, but they led to an inquiry into how he made his living (Sharpe, p. 13). In a comedy of errors which started with the fact that Turpin did not pay the proper postage for a letter (Alexander, p. 297), a sample of his handwriting came to the attention of his old schoolteacher, who supposedly recognized it (Sharpe, p. 20). The man then came to Yorkshire and identified his face (Sharpe, p. 21). The indictment against Turpin was technically invalid, according to Sharpe, p. 27, but he was eventually convicted of horse-stealing and sentenced to hang (Pringle, p. 218).
The date of Turpin's hanging is uncertain; it is generally dated to April 7, 1739 (so, e.g., Pringle, p. 218, and Brandon, as well as Sharpe, p. 1), but the day may have been April 6 or April 10. He apparently went to great lengths to put on a good show, buying new clothes and hiring five mourners to accompany him (Sharpe, p. 1). And he jumped off the ladder himself, considered a mark of courage and style, rather than waiting to be dropped (Pringle, p. 218; Brandon, p. 125). A second man, John Stead, was executed at the same time (Sharpe, p. 2).
Reportedly Turpin was executed by another highwayman, Thomas Hadfield, who was pardoned in return for doing the duty; York did not have a professional executioner (Sharpe, p. 3). What is purported to be Turpin's grave still exists, but Sharpe, p. 35, points out that the headstone is not contemporary.
There is little evidence in the historical record of the sort of nobility of character found in many of the songs about him.
The rest of the legend in the songs is equally suspect. There was, almost certainly, no Black Bess, and the twelve hour race to York was not undertaken by Turpin. Logan reports that the feat was performed by one "Nevison or Nicks, who plundered a traveler at four o'clock in the morning on the slope at Gadshill, and was in the bowling-green at York... at a quarter before eight in the evening."
Brandon, p. 127, also mentions "a highwayman named Harris" making the trip to Yorkshire, although he mentions Nevison first. Sharpe, p. 74, notes that Daniel Defoe attributed the trip to Nicks (Nix?), who lived around 1676 and whose actual name was Richard Dudley.
Pringle has more details on this, devoting a whole chapter to "Who Rode to York?" (pp. 135-144). He notes that it was perfectly possible to cover the London-to-York distance (about 190 miles) in a day -- if one could change to fresh horses along the route (Pringle, pp. 141-142). We can show that such things happened: when Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, the messenger Sir Robert Carey took the news to the new King James VI and I; on the first day, he made it from Richmond to Doncaster, very similar to a trip from London to York. But he changed horses along the way (Magnusson, p. 382). The improbable element of "Turpin's Ride" is the idea of doing it on *one* horse.
Did such a journey happen? Defoe's version is that it was done by Nix in 1676. It started with a robbery at Gad's Hill (where else?) at 4:00 a.m. (quoted on p. 137 of Pringle), and Nicks arrived at York that afternoon (Pringle, p. 138). Pringle points out that Defoe wrote this tale in 1724, before Turpin took to the road.
There is a 1668 report of a robber named "Swift Nicks," though it isn't known if it is the same guy.
The other fellow Logan mentions, Nevison, is certainly historical, though there is a lot of uncertainty about him. His name was probably William (Pringle, p. 123), but this is not certain; it might have been John (Pringle, p. 124). He did most of his work in Yorkshire, became the subject of broadsides, and later was mentioned by Maccaulay (Pringle, p. 123).
Sharpe, p. 68, reports that Nevison was born in 1639, began to steal at age 14, and soon ran off to London, then Holland. His birthplace is uncertain; Pringle, p. 124, mentioned four places that claim him. Sharpe, p. 69, reports, "He was charitable to the poor, and Robin Hood-like in giving them some of the spoils he collected from rich people he robbed. And [this being the era of the Civil Wars] he was a convinced royalist...." He was executed at York in 1684 -- although he supposedly had already faked his own death once by then (Pringle, pp. 131-132). On the evidence, much of the Turpin legend could have derived from tales of Nevison.
The reason for Nevison's ride, however, is different. Nevison had robbed an official, and the victim had insufficient cash, so he wrote a bank draft for 500 pounds. Nevison made his ride from York to London (not London to York!) to cash the draft before the official could stop it; Sharpe, p. 69.
The link between Nevison and Nicks is tenuous. According to Brandon, p. 82, Nevison earned the nickname Nicks because he had ridden to York as fast as Old Nick. Right.
Personally, I'd guess it's a confusion of name. There is a place in Yorkshire known as "Nevison's Leap," because, according to Kellett, p. 124, it "refers to the legendary escape of the Yorkshire highway man John Nevison, who is supposed to have avoided capture by making a horseback leap from the top of Giggleswick Scar." And Nevison's Leap, Kellett says, was also known as Nevison's Nick. From there, it isn't much of a stretch to equate Nevison with Nick(s).
According to Pickering, p. 297, "Turpin never made such a ride," and Pringle, p. 135, says, "It is a good story; but, in the unequivocal words of Encyclopedia Britannica, 'pure fiction.'"
So how did this semi-legendary feat come to be associated with Turpin? As far as popular culture is concerned, there is no question but that the responsibility must be pinned on William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882), who made it a major element of his first major novel, Rookwood (1834). "There was," Pringle admits on p. 136, "no Turpin controversy. No one got up and defended Ainsworth's version."
It was the forerunner of a great deal of highwayman fiction, usually featuring improbably gentlemanly robbers, much of it found in "penny dreadful" format. These created a great body of nonsense and such absurd characters as "May Turpin, the Queen of the Road" (Sharpe, p. 179).
And yet, it was so popular that it reshaped the legend. Westwood/Simpson, p. 2, quote Ainsworth's biographer S. M. Ellis as writing, "All along the Great North Road the legend is truth; every village through which the highwayman galloped (in the imagination of Ainsworth) during that famous ride has its own peculiar tale and relic of Turpin's feat." This was in 1911.
Ainsworth's long account is mostly out of his own head, but it's thought that the seeds of the legend came to him from his family; he said that his father told stories of highwaymen and that, as a boy, he and his friends had acted them out (Sharpe, p. 142). Could they have gotten their ideas from one of the Black Bess songs? Or did these songs get it from Ainsworth? It is unlikely, now, that we will ever be able to answer that question.
There are some hints. Derek Barlow did find an 1808 booklet which apparently transferred Defoe's tale of "Swift Nicks" to Turpin, so seemingly Ainsworth did have a source for that (Sharpe, p. 158). And we find Turpin with a mare named Bess in "Turpin and the Bishop" as published by Horace Smith in 1825 (Sharpe, p. 158; cf. Pringle, p. 143). But Ainsworth seems to have been responsible for turning Bess the black mare into Black Bess (Sharpe, pp, 158-159).
Some of the details of the song may well have originated with Ainsworth and Rookwood, with no prior source at all -- e.g. Ainsworth claimed that Bess leapt the Hornsley tollgate, perhaps inspiring the line "no toll bars could hold you." He also gave us a Turpin/Bess death scene -- though Turpin in Ainsworth's account merely lingered as the horse died; he didn't shoot her.
Sharpe, p. 160, notes the irony that Rookwood was published just about the time highway robbery became ineffective -- an improved banking system meant that few travellers carried much cash. The book itself seems to have come together in fits and starts; Sharpe, p. 148, observes that, despite its importance to the Turpin legend, Rookwood is not primarily about Turpin. It is a novel with Gothic elements about the Rookwood family, which is gripped by several dark secrets (Sharpe, pp. 149-151, sums it up, but it's really too complicated to repeat).
Turpin is part of a subplot, first appearing as "Jack Palmer," a variation of the name he used at the end of his life. Turpin's Ride is the subject of Book IV of Rookwood, which ends with Black Bess dying in sight of York Minster. Book IV begins with a semi-real incident, Turpin's accidental killing of Tom King (Sharpe, p. 155). This caused Turpin to flee from Kilburn to York.
Ainsworth himself admitted that Bess, not Turpin, was the real heroine of Book IV (Sharpe, p. 156). And the book was popular enough that it could have spawned legends -- five editions were published from 1834 to 1837 (Sharpe, p. 160).
Although Ainsworth had great literary success for a few years after Rookwood, tastes soon changed. He lived for almost another half century, but was almost forgotten by the time he died (Sharpe, pp. 168-170). His revision of the Turpin legend proved far more durable.
The one part of his story that's true is that Turpin, late in his career, transferred from the London area to Yorkshire, though it was not at the very end of his life.
As Brumwell/Speck note on p. 394, "While undoubtedly a prolific and daring highwayman, Turpin was raised above the ranks of his fellows largely because he managed to evade the hangman's noose for longer than most. By the time of his execution in 1739, Dick Turpin was already celebrated in anecdotes and ballads that cast him in a Robin Hood role. He was subsequently credited with other exploits -- notably the famous ride from London to York -- previously linked with other folk heroes. The reality of Turpin's life was less glamorous and more violent."
Based on Sharpe, pp. 197-198, the first Turpin song seems to have been "Dick Turpin and the Lawyer" [Laws L10], published in broadside form around the time of Turpin's death. It is noteworthy that it does not even mention a name for Turpin's horse.
Underwood reports that the hoofbeats of the ghost of Black Bess (presumably with Turpin aboard) have been heard at the "Woodfield" estate at Aspley Guise in Bedfordshire (p. 18 and photo facing p. 225), where Turpin was said to have had a safe house. Alexander, who notes many "Turpin Inns" around England, mentions on p. 299 a spot in Oxfordshire where it is also alleged that Bess's hoofbeats can be heard; it boasts several alleged artifacts. Such a list of traces of the fictional Turpin could easily be extended.
The reign of Queen Anne (1702-1714) was considered the heyday of the English highwayman -- probably because the amount of travel was increasing, so there were more targets, but there was no effective national constabulary. Turpin of course came after that time; he was arguably a victim of the reforms that the previous banditry had inspired. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb30428b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LL09

My Bonny Blooming Highland Jane

See Highland Jane (File: HHH477)

My Bonny Bon Boy

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

My Bonny Boy

See The Bonny Boy (I) (File: FSC037)

My Bonny Breeden

DESCRIPTION: "She was born 'mong the wild flowers that bloom in our valley, and like those same flowers she grew lovely and fair." The singer praises the beauty and grace of the girl, and prays that the powers may guard her
AUTHOR: Words: Andrew Doey
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H512, p. 225, "My Bonny Breeden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7973
File: HHH512

My Bonny Brown Boy

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

My Bonny Brown Jane

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls courting a girl with a "false flattering tongue." He courts Jane, but another earns her love. He enlists in the army "to fight for my queen in a far country." Lonely at night, he prays "for her welfare; what can I do more?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love rejection soldier floatingverses
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H613, p. 396, "My Bonny Brown Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7000
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Comely Young Dame" (on IRRCinnamond02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "William and Nancy (II) (Courting Too Slow) [Laws P5]" (lyrics)
cf. "The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass)" (theme)
NOTES [28 words]: This has many lyric similarities to "William and Nancy," and also a bit of "The False Bride." But the ending about enlisting as a soldier makes the song distinct. - RBW
File: HHH613

My Bonny Cuckoo

DESCRIPTION: "My bonny cuckoo, I tell you true" that they will roam the groves together until spring, when the cuckoo will sing. The singer asks that the bird stay "and make the season last all year."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Tobitt-TheDittyBag), probably derived ultimately from Bunting's "Ancient Music of Ireland" (1840)
KEYWORDS: bird courting
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p.129, "My Bonny Cuckoo" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 17, "My Bonny Cuckoo" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #24351
File: TobiMBC

My Bonny Girl

See The Disappointed Lover (I) (File: Camb039)

My Bonny Irish Boy

See The Bonny Young Irish Boy [Laws P26] (File: LP26)

My Bonny Laboring Boy

See The Bonny Laboring Boy [Laws M14] (File: LM14)

My Bonny Lad

DESCRIPTION: "Ha' you seen owt of my bonny lad?... He's gone along wi' a stick in his hand/He's gone to row the keel-o" "Yes, I ha' seen your bonny lad; 'twas on the sea I spied him/His grave was green, but not wi' grass/And you'll never lay beside him"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recording, Isla Cameron)
KEYWORDS: navy separation death sailor love | grave
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
Roud #204
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs, "Maa Bonny Lad"/"My Bonny Lad" (on Briggs2, Briggs3, Briggs4)
Isla Cameron, "My Bonny Lad" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
NOTES [18 words]: This sounds like a fragment, but in fact the story is complete, although squeezed down to bare essentials. - PJS
File: RcMBL

My Bonny Light Horseman

See The Bonnie Light Horseman (File: HHH122a)

My Bonny Love Geordie Gordon

See Geordie Downie (File: Ord461)

My Bonny Wee Wifie and I

DESCRIPTION: The singer is "a warkman wi' a wife an' twa laddies," six chairs and a pendulum clock. Everything they do turns out so well since he's given up drink. He and his wife are so happy.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Poet's Box broadside "My Bonny Wee Wifie and I," according to Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: marriage drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1272, "My Bonny Wee Wifie and I" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Roud #7139
File: GrD71272

My Boy Billy

See Billy Boy (File: R104)

My Boy Willie (I)

See Billy Boy (File: R104)

My Boy Willie (II)

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

My Boyfriend Gave Me An Apple

DESCRIPTION: "And five o'clock is striking, Mother may I go out My true love is waiting for me without." He brings apples, pears, and six-pence that she "kiss him on the stairs." She rejects apples and pears and gives back sixpence after he kisses her on the stairs.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: playparty food money
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England) US(Ap,MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 11, "Five O'Clock is Striking" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 37, "My Mammy sent me to the shops one day"; "Johnny gave me apples" (2 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #287, "Johnnie gave me apples" (1 text)
Roud #12986
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bells are Ringing (Eight O'Clock Bells)"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Six O'Clock Bells Ringing
NOTES [106 words]: Hammond-SongsOfBelfast: "A skipping game." - BS
Brady-AllInAllIn makes it a "hot hands" (clapping) game, but it seems to be more common as a jump-rope rhyme.
According to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, the jump-rope versions are more likely to start with "My Boyfriend gave me an apple," or "Johnny gave me an apple"; hence the title used. Roud combines this with "The Bells are Ringing (Eight O'Clock Bells)," and even "I Am a Pretty Little Dutch Girl." I am almost certain the latter is separate, and while I'm not as sure in the case of the former, they are distinct enough that I have quite tentatively allowed them to stay separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Hamm011

My Brother Broke a Bottle

See Johnny on the Ocean (File: DoDW385)

My Brother Edward

See Edward [Child 13] (File: C013)

My Brother Sylvest

See My Brother Sylveste (File: Hopk180)

My Brother Sylveste

DESCRIPTION: "Have you heard about the big strong man Who lives in a caravan?" The singer's "brother" Sylveste has medals on his chest, has fought Indians, has swum the Atlantic Ocean, beaten boxing champions, can overcome anything
AUTHOR: original by Jesse Lsaky (words) and Fred Fisher (music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear); original version published 1908
KEYWORDS: talltale travel
FOUND IN: Canada Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 180-181, "My Brother Sylveste" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 139-140, "My Brother Sylvest" (1 text, with tune on p. 155)
Roud #10682
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sylveste
Big Strong Man
NOTES [256 words]: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear for some reason files this among the bawdy songs, perhaps because one verse has Sylveste invading the harems of Arabia or perhaps because it was often sung with the unpleasantly dirty "Salome." But I didn't tag it as bawdy; it may have been sung in all-male contexts, but it's mostly suitable for mixed company. Indeed, two of Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy's informants appear to have been women. I think it is more bothersome for people like *me*, who hate stupid exaggeration.
Although not every collection is from a veteran, the song does seem to have strong military links, e.g. Ernle Bradford, The Mighty Hood, 1959 (I use the 1977 Coronet paperback), p. 120, describes it as being sung by Royal Navy sailors in Gibraltar in the early 1940s. And it appears he did get it from oral tradition, not print, because he spells the hero's name "Silvest."
According to Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 282, this began with a 1908 popular song "My Bruddah Sylvest," with words by Jesse Laske and music by Fred Fisher, which Gardner believes was the #7 song in America in December 1908. The versions we hear today, with their references to the Lusitania and Jack Dempsey and such, are clearly newer rewrites. It's also noteworthy that the traditional versions seem mostly to come from Britain and Canada. The path from the 1908 pop song to the World War II pop song must have been complex. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Hopk180

My Brother, I Wish You Well

DESCRIPTION: "My brother, I wish you well (x2), When my Lord calls, I trust I shall Be mentioned in the promised land." "My sister, I wish you well...." "My father, I wish you well...." Similarly mother, neighbors, pastor, young converts, poor sinners
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Millenial Harp, according to Hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad father
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 69, "My Brother, I Wish You Well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13915
File: Hopk069

My Cabin Home Among the Hills

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of his cabin in the Virginia hills, where his "mammy" used to sing to him. His mother tells him she's going away "to another home way down in Tennessee." She promises to write, and to someday come home. She never does
AUTHOR: unknown (tune by Will S. Hays)
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Asa Martin)
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness promise farewell home parting separation death slavery mother
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
Roud #17214
RECORDINGS:
Recordings: Asa Martin, "My Cabin Home Among the Hills" (Champion 16769, 1934; Champion 45067, 1935; rec. 1931; on KMM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
NOTES [66 words]: I included both the keywords "death" and "slavery", because the song is ambiguous: it doesn't make clear whether the singer's mother has died or been sold. I'd bet on the latter, though. - PJS
The counter-argument being that she promised to write, and most slaves were illiterate. Many states, in fact, made it illegal to teach slaves to read and write (though some managed to learn anyway). - RBW
File: RcMCHAtH

My Cabin in the Hills

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! please just one peep At my cabin in the hills Where the pine trees sway And the hound dogs bay To the notes of the whippoorwill." The singer wants to see Ma knitting Pa's socks and Pa tending his gun, and recalls the sounds of home
AUTHOR: Robert Louis Stevens?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad clothes hunting animal bird
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 173, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 177-178)
NOTES [29 words]: This is the sort of thing that you feel you ought to know from somewhere else. But that's just because it's based on so many "home" themes; I can't find its like elsewhere. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa173

My Captain Paid Me Forty-one Dollars and a Quarter

DESCRIPTION: Hammer song. "My cap'n paid ne (hah!) Forty-one dollars and a quarter (hah!), To get a pair of shoes (hah!), Oh, partner (hah!), To get a pair of shoes (hah!)" "I got a woman... She's got legs Big as anybody." "She got a ring... Shine-a like gold."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: ring work nonballad worksong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 118-119, "My Captain Paid Me Forty-one Dolalrs and a Quarter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16281
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Take This Hammer" (form, theme, lyrics) and references there
NOTES [44 words]: I am almost certain this is a descendent of "Take This Hammer," and I thought seriously about lumping them. Roud splits them, presumably because the first verse is unusual for "Take This Hammer" versions, and I decided to follow. But this is a very weak split. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Rose118

My Chainmaker Lad

See The Chainmaker Lad (File: JRUI245)

My Charming Blue-eyed Mary

See Charming Blue-eyed Mary (File: LeBe019)

My Charming Coleraine Lass

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a beautiful girl by the banks of the Bann. He asks her to come away with him. The sit by the river and talk. They set a wedding day and are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting river beauty marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H616, p. 464-463, "My Charming Coleraine Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9460
File: HHH616

My Charming Kate O'Neill

DESCRIPTION: "The first place that I saw my love, 'twas on a summer's day, She was going to her father's as I passed Red Bay." The singer, a young sea captain, praises her beauty but must go away, for "there's another young man, she intends his bride to be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love rejection marriage sailor travel
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H767, pp. 370-371, "My Charming Kate O'Neill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6886
NOTES [72 words]: The notes to Henry/Huntington/Herrmann list no other versions of this song, and I can't recall any myself. But there are many lines reminiscent of "The Lowlands of Holland," and the meter is also similar. Sam Henry reports that this is about an actual girl "who captivated the hearts of young Glensmen eighty years ago" (i.e. c. 1855-1860). One wonder if the composer didn't take some inspiration from "The Lowland of Holland." - RBW
File: HHH767

My Charming Lass from the County Mayo

DESCRIPTION: "The daughters of Erin are famed the world over, For wit and for beauty and charms of their own," but the singer loves one girl from Mayo above all others. He praises her beauty extravagantly
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: beauty love
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 115, "My Charming Lass from the County Mayo" (1 text)
Roud #9581
File: Dean115

My Charming Sally Ann

See Charming Sally Ann (File: LeBe020)

My Children Are Seven In Number

DESCRIPTION: "My children are seven in number, We have to sleep four in a bed, I'm striking with my fellow workers, To get them more clothes and more bread." The singer describes his hard life, tells how Barney Graham was shot, and urges support for the union
AUTHOR: Eleanor Kellogg
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Greenway)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes poverty labor-movement strike
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 166, "My Children Are Seven In Number" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 282, "My Children Are Seven In Number" (1 text)
Roud #22287
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "My Children Are Seven in Number (on PeteSeeger13, AmHist1)
File: CAFS1282

My Clinch Mountain Home

DESCRIPTION: "Far away on a hill to sunny mountain side, Many years ago we parted, my little Ruth and I, From the sunny mountain side." She begs him not to go. He promises to return and marry her. Far away, he wants to go to "old Vifginia" and "my old mountain home"
AUTHOR: copyrighted by A. P. Carter
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, the Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: love separation promise home
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 682, "Away on a Hill" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirschberg, _Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone: The Carter Family & Their Legacy in American Music_, Simon & Schuster, 2002, p. 34, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #17254
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "My Clinch Mountain Home" (Victor V-40058, 1929; Bluebird B-5301/Montgomery Ward M-4432/Electra-Disc 2172/Sunrise S-3382, 1934) (ARC 7-08-69/Conqueror 8806, 1937; rec. 1935)
NOTES [87 words]: According to Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirschberg, Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone: The Carter Family & Their Legacy in American Music, Simon & Schuster, 2002, p. 34, this was A. P. Carter's first song. I certainly can't offer counter-evidence, since Brown's field collection, which seems to be the earliest, was not dated. But it looks somewhat different from the Carter version, and Zwonitzer/Hirschberg, p. 120, says that some Carter relatives say that it came from another Carter relative, Amanda "Mandy" Groves. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: BrS5682

My Cock, Lily-Cock

See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

My Cottage by the Sea

See The Widow in the Cottage by the Sea (File: R702)

My Creole Belle

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves "my darling baby, my Creole Belle." He loves her "more than anyone can tell." He'll call her his when the stars shine.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt05)
KEYWORDS: courting love nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, CREOLBL
Roud #20959
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "My Creole Belle" (on MJHurt05)
File: RcMyCrBe

My Crime Blues

DESCRIPTION: Singer is on trial for murder, soon to be sentenced, but pleads his innocence. He calls for his lover to come for his trial, so that when he is condemned she can wipe his tears away. The jury finds him guilty; the judge sentences him to the electric chair
AUTHOR: Almost certainly Ed Bell
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Ed Bell)
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness accusation crime execution homicide law punishment trial death lover judge
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Barefoot Bill [Ed Bell] "My Crime Blues" (Columbia 14510-D, 1930; [1929]; on RoughWays1)
File: RcMyCrBl

My Da's a Millionaire

See My Man's a Millionaire (File: PKKB062E)

My Dad's Dinner Pail

DESCRIPTION: "Preserve that old kettle so blackened and worn, It belonged to me Father before I was born." The singer recalls carrying the pail, and seeing his father; he is sure Father shared with those in need
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (from the musical Cordelia's Aspirations)
KEYWORDS: nonballad food father
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Canada
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. II, #95, pp. 48-49, "My Dad's Dinner Pail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 260-261, "My Dad's Dinner Pail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 70, "My Dad's Dinner Pail" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Richard Moody, _Ned Harrigan: From Corlear's Hook to Herald Square_, Nelson Hall, 1980, photo inset following p. 54, "My Dad's Dinner Pail" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the sheet music)
John Franceschina, _David Braham: The American Offenbach_, Routledge, 2003, p. 159, "(My Dad's Dinner Pail") (partial text)
Edward Harrigan, _The Mulligans_, G. W. Dilingham, 1901, p. 260, "(no title)" (1 fragment, of the chorus)
Hazel Felleman, Best Loved Poems of the American People, p. 505, "My Dad's Dinner Pail" (1 text)
Roud #5257
RECORDINGS:
Mick Moloney, "My Dad's Dinner Pail" (on HarriganBrahamMaloney)
NOTES [879 words]: According to Spaeth, p. 191, "Harrigan, Hart, and Braham [produced] perhaps their best show, Cordelia's Aspirations, [in] November, 1883. In it the Mulligans were almost disrupted by the social climbing of Mrs. Mulligan, and Annie Yeamans, as Cordelia, had one of her greatest comedy scenes when she took a stiff drink under the impression it was poison. [This also occurs in "The Mulligans' Silver Anniversary"; see the notes to "John Reilly (II)".] The best of the songs was My Dad's Dinner Pail...."
(Personally, it doesn't strike me as one of David Braham's better melodies, but it is one of the relatively rare Harrigan and Braham songs to have been collected from tradition more than once, so it was doing something right!)
For background on Harrigan, Hart, and Braham, as well as the Mulligan Guard, see the notes to "Babies on Our Block."
According to Franceschina, p. 158, the play opens with Cordelia Mulligan and her servant Rebecca Allup (played by Harrigan's long-time partner Tony Hart) returning to New York via Castle Garden; they have been abroad for sixteen months with Cordelia's relatives, including bad guy Planxty McFudd. Cordelia -- who was able to afford the trip because of many years of wise investing -- now wants a higher social standing, and pushes her husband Dan Mulligan to leave his old home: "When Cordelia breaks the news that they're moving uptown and auctions off the furniture, Dan grabs the one precious item that can't be sold, 'that trifle that held his wee bite... that emblem of labor that hung in a corner beyant on a nail.... My Dad's Dinner Pail.' It was one of the best-loved songs and one of Harrigan's biggest production numbers. Grocer, butcher, barber, et al 'focus on Dan upstage as he exits -- then curtain back up -- repeat of chorus'" (Moody, p. 136). Dan finds Madison Avenue hard to understand; eventually the family will go back where it belongs.
Cordelia, in the earliest form of the story, took "poison" because she thought some other woman had written Dan a love letter (in one version, Planxty McFudd convinces his sister Diana, played by Tony Hart's wife Gertie Granville, to write a deceptive note; Franceschina, p. 159). Cordelia was wrong twice: the letter wasn't to Dan and the "Rat Poison," as Spaeth says, was an alcoholic beverage.
(According to HarriganMulligans, pp. 296-299. Dan Mulligan is so confused by his new social state that he can't handle it, and needs to know where he can find some fortification. The maid, Rebecca Allup, also wants to keep the extra-strong hooch secret so that she can have at it and no one else will drink it. So she puts the brandy in a cleaned-out bottle labelled "roach poison.")
So Cordelia, believing she is dying, sobs out her last will and testament while getting drunk -- and then wakes up to find herself alive, allowing Dan and Cordelia to reconcile (I read somewhere that Annie Yeamans had done something similar, faking being drunk before going on stage and then revealing herself as sober -- and Ned Harrigan had liked the trick so much that he wrote it into "Cordelia's Aspirations"). Dan, in the upper-class residence, gets in trouble for being "uncouth" and finally puts his foot down and moves back home (Franceschina, pp. 159-160). One of his minor triumphs in the early part of the play was saving the pail of the song title.
Harrigan would later return to several of the ideas in this song; "The Old Featherbed" is another song in which a family heirloom is saved and (a closer parallel) "My Little Side Door" has a boy bringing his father his father Dan his beer in a pail (Williams, pp. 166-167)
There is, in a sense, a picture of the pail: when Edward Harrigan in 1901 published The Mulligans, his novelized version of the Mulligan plays (here cited as HarriganMulligans), the cover was printed with a graphic of a man with a pail, presumably Dan with his dad's dinner pail. Dan is dressed in a white shirt with a green kerchief, a brown hat, brown pants held up by suspenders, and a brown suit coat. The pail is shown in white, but it is quite nondescript. And the man on the cover doesn't look much like Harrigan to me, so it presumably wasn't taken from life.
On p. 264 of HarriganMulligans, we see Harrigan's literary version of this incident. Cordelia has acquired the new house, and is moving into it, with the old place being closed down:
"'Are ye going to sell iverything in the house?' quietly asked Dan.
"'Everything, Daniel, that has a tag on it! For instance, here's a sample of old tinware' --
"'That's mine!' cried Dan, snatching the pail from O'Guff's hands. The auctioneer was taken by surprise, and, fearing Mulligan's anger, retreated to the parlor door.
Dan looked at the old pail, blacked from the many times it had been heated over the fire to warm his coffee, when he was a laborer years before in Webb's shipyard.
"'Look, see, neighbours! He was going to take away me ould dinner pail. It belonged to me father, an' its (sic.) a relic of his and me own honest labor, an',' angrily turning to the auctioneer, 'I'm damned if ye'll sell it! Ye'll not sell a thing out of this house, Mr. O'Guff...."
It is perhaps interesting to note that, before he found success in the theater, Harrigan had himself worked in a shipyard. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: Dean070A

My Daddy's a Delver o' Dykes

See My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher (Nobody Coming to Marry Me) (File: BrII185)

My Daddy's Ship

See The Gentle Boy (Why Don't Father's Ship Come In) (File: GrMa113)

My Dame Had a Lame Tame Crane

See My Dame's Crane (File: DTlamecr)

My Dame Has a Lame Tame Crane

See My Dame's Crane (File: DTlamecr)

My Dame's Crane

DESCRIPTION: "My dame had a lame tame crane. My dame had a crane that was lame. Pary, Mistress Jane, man my dame's lame tame crane Fly and re-turn again?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook 16, "My Dame Had a Lame Tame Crane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #755, p. 284, "(My dame hath a lame tame crane)"
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 233, "My Dame's Crane" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 133, "My dame had a lame tame crane" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 114, "The Lame Crane" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LAMECRN* LAMETAME*
Roud #13622
NOTES [19 words]: Reported to have originated in England in the seventeenth century, but seemingly found only in the United States. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: DTlamecr

My Dancing Day

DESCRIPTION: "Tomorrow shall be my dancing day, I would my true love did so chance To see the legend of my play To call my true love to my dance." The story of the life of Jesus is repeated, with each stage being a reason why the true love should come to the dance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1833 (Sandys)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus dancing
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 71, "My Dancing Day" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 146-148, "To-morrow Shall Be My Dancing Day" (1 text)
Wells-TheBalladTree, p. 197, (no title) (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
DT, DANCEDAY*
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #90, "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day" (1 text)
Roud #21931
NOTES [1252 words]: It would appear that this song is known only from Sandys (I've heard of broadside copies, but have yet to see one that predates Sandys). It is thus arguable that it is not a folk song, and should not be included.
There are, however, strong hints that it is much earlier than Sandys; the Oxford Book of Carols argues that it is from the sixteenth century or earlier, and Bradley in the Penguin Book of Carols thinks it medieval. The latter claim rests on pretty slender evidence (Bradley argues that the third line about seeing "the legend of my play" implies an origin in one of the mystery play cycles, and cites a claim from the New Oxford Book of Carols that it is resembles elements of Cornish play cycles of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries).
That isn't the only, or even the best, evidence of antiquity in the text itself; the language sounds as if it predates Sandys, and the mention of the Harrowing of Hell hints at a date prior to the Anglican reformation. The Oxford Book of Carols suggests that the original was secular (which seems not unlikely -- probably a dance song). This might well explain the mix of popular legend and learned theology ("Then I was born of a virgin pure, Of her I took fleshly substance" reminds me of the Christological controversies of the early church.)
The theme of calling one's love to a dance is probably from the secular source, but there are four New Testament uses of the Greek word ορχεομαι, orcheomai, "to dance": Matt. 11:17, 14:16, Mark 6:22, Luke 7:32. Two of these uses (Matt 14:6, Mark 6:22) refer to the daughter of Herodias dancing before Herod Antipas and clearly would not be the source for this imagery. But the other two refer to children or musicians calling out their friends/playmates to dance, making it a very relevant image for evangelism. (The English word "to dance" is also used in translations of Luke 15:25, in the partying at the return of the prodigal son. This is somewhat less relevant, since the Greek word is χορος, choros, the song/dance of the Greek chorus -- but a reader of the English Bible would not know that).
The individual verses of the song are more biblical; they also have strong ties to the creeds. In the references below, "NC" refers to the Nicene Creed (created by the church in stages starting at the Council of Nicaea in 325, though the final version had to await the Council of Chalcedon over a century later; Bettenson, pp. 24-26, with English translation of the creeds; Christie-Murray, pp. 47-50, 71) while "AC" is the "Apostle's Creed" (which is certainly not Apostolic; it seems to come mostly from the Roman church. Boer, p. 73, claims "it is called the Apostles' Creed because it faithfully set s forth the central teachings of the Apostles." But even he admits on pp. 75-76 that the first elements were used only around 200 C.E., and the final form he dates to the fifth century. Bettenson, pp. 23-24, is less an apologist for the name; he says the elements of the Creed were first assembled by even later writers such as Marcellus and Rufinus, and reached its final form in the eighth century (Bettenson, pp. 23-24).
"Then I was born of a virgin pure": AC; Matthew 1:18-25. (Luke also says that Mary was a virgin at her marriage, but does not explicitly state the idea of the virgin birth. Of course, the phrase "virgin pure" is sometimes taken to refer to the Immaculate Conception, and the notion that Mary herself was born of some sort of parthenogenesis, but there is no Biblical hint of this; even the Catholic Church, while venerating Mary from a very early time, did not fully pronounce the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception until 1854; Christie-Murray, p.198).
"Of her I took fleshly substance": John 1:14; NC; cf. Gal. 4:4. Moderns rarely hear about this, but this was truly a key issue in some of the controversies of the early church; most Monophysite heresies made Jesus either entirely human or entirely divine, with an illusory human body. The belief that he was a divine illusion is known as Docetism, from a Greek word meaning "appearance" or perhaps "display" (Clifton, p. 36). (In the more extreme Gnostic forms, Jesus had to have a phantom body because all matter is evil; Nigg, p. 78. Obviously a song which admits a pleasure such as dancing opposes this view on several levels.) The statement that Jesus became flesh explicitly denies Docetism. The use of the word "substance" might also be significant, since much of the controversy related to the Nicene Creed had to do with the use of the word "substance" (ουσις, ousis) for Jesus; the word is non-Biblical (Christie-Murray, pp. 48-49; Qualben, p. 122), and there was dispute over whether Jesus was of "the same" substance or "like" substance with the Father. (A very small difference in Greek, involving only the addition or deletion of a single vowel.)
"In a manger laid and wrapped I was": Luke 2:7, 12, 16. There is no scriptural warrant for saying an ox and ass were present.
"Then afterward baptized I was, The Holy Ghost on me did glance": Jesus's baptism is told in Matt. 3:16-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:22-23, John 1:29-34
"Into the desert I was led... The devil bad me make stones my bread": Matt. 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13
"The Jews... loved darkness rather than light": not an explicit quotation, but compare John 12:44-46, Matt 6:23; the treatment of Jesus as light is common in the New Testament.
"For thirty pence Judas me sold": According to Matthew 26:15, 27:3-9, Judas sold Jesus for "thirty of silver" (so literally, hence modern renderings "thirty pieces of silver"). That would be a lot more than thirty pence in today's money, but early silver pennies might have a value roughly comparable to the price paid to Judas. This is perhaps more evidence that the song is early.
"Mark whom I kiss": Matt 26:48-49, Mark 14:44-45, Luke 22:47-48.
"Before Pilate the Jews me brought": AC; NC; Matt. 27:1-2, Mark 15:1, Luke 23:1, John 18:28fff. It was in fact the high priests, not the Jewish population as a whole, who handed Jesus over (so all four Gospels, though John uses the word "Jews" in fairly close proximity to the description of Jesus being handed over to the Romans)
"Where Barabbas had deliverance": Matt 27:16-26, Mark 15;7-15, Luke 23:18, John 18:40
"Then on a cross hanged I was": Too many references to list; see e.g. Mark 15:25; AC; NC
"Where a spear to my side did glance": John 19:34. (The word used for the weapon is perhaps best translated "lance-head"; sometimes used as a medical instrument)
"There issued forth both water and blood": John 19:34.
"Then down to Hell I took my way": The Harrowing of Hell is non-Biblical. There is, in fact, no real Biblical explanation of what Jesus was doing during the roughly 36 hours between his death and resurrection. The Harrowing is, however, mentioned in the Catholic texts of AC (the Methodists and some other denominations suppress this). This is not a definitive argument on whether the song is pre- or post-Reformation (Anglicanism, unlike most of the Reformed denominations, allows prayer for the dead and hence admits the possibility of Purgatory; Bainton, p. 202), but the whole business was de-emphasized; the mention of the Harrowing would be much more likely to come from a Catholic than an Anglican (and more likely from an Anglican than a Presbyterian or Lutheran).
"And rose again on the third day": Again too many references to list; cf. e.g. Mark 16:6; AC; NC
"Then up to Heaven I did ascend": Acts 1:9-11; AC; NC. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: OBC071

My Dark-Haired Maid from Cornaig

See Mo Nighean donn a Cornaig (File: K019)

My Darlin' Mabel

DESCRIPTION: "My darlin' Mabel Swallowed the table And lost the leg of her trousers."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: clothes | table
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 53, "(My darlin' Mabel)" (1 text)
Roud #22976
File: PKKB053A

My Darling Blue-Eyed Mary (I)

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)

My Darling Blue-Eyed Mary (II)

See Charming Blue-eyed Mary (File: LeBe019)

My Darling Kate

See My Ain Kate (File: GrD2257)

My Darling Ploughman Boy

See The Bonny Sailor Boy [Laws M22] (File: LM22)

My Darling Sleeps in England

DESCRIPTION: "My darling sleeps in England across the Irish Sea, While I who love him dearly shall mourn him bitterly." The times were hard, so Danny went to work in Birmingham during the war, and was killed by bombs. His wife and growing children mourn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs)
KEYWORDS: war death wife children separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 230-231, "My Darling Sleeps in England" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9729
NOTES [32 words]: This song comes from a Leitrim singer, but it's not clear whether it is from an Irish Nationalist or Unionist source. As sung by Mary Reynolds, it appears to have no political affiliation. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: DalC230

My Dear Highland Laddie

DESCRIPTION: The singer's lover fee'd with her father "when he row'd me in his plaidie And vow'd to be mine." Now he's left with the laird as a soldier. "The blae-berry banks Are now lonesome and dreary." She would leave everything for her Highland laddie.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (Millar's _Paisley Repository no III_, according to Semple _The Poems and Songs and Correspondence of Robert Tannahill_, p. 221)
KEYWORDS: love separation farming nonballad soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1120, "My Dear Hielan' Laddie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Phillip A Ramsay, The Poetical Works of Robert Tannahill (London, preface 1838), pp. 30-31, "My Dear Hielan Laddie"
Roud #6841
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1290), "My Dear Highland Laddaie [sic]" ("Blythe was the day"), unknown, no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mor Nian a Ghibarlan" (tune, per Ramsay)
NOTES [56 words]: Greig/Duncan6 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Harding B 25(1290) is the basis for the description.
From Peter A Hall, "Farm Life and the Farm Songs," pp. xxi-xxxi in Greig/Duncan3: "The time between hirings was, in the mid nineteenth century North-East, predominantly six months ['terms'] and the hiring was generally called feeing." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61120

My Dear I'm Bound for Canada

See My Dear, I'm Bound for Canady (File: GrMa154)

My Dear Irish Boy

DESCRIPTION: "My Connor, his cheeks are as ruddy as morning...." The girl describes her love. But "The wars are all over, and lonely I've waited, I fear that some envious plot has been laid." Though hope is almost lost, she wanders to look for her "dear Irish boy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(157))
KEYWORDS: love separation soldier rambling
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H142, p. 294, "My [The] Dear Irish Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 57, "The Dear Irish Boy" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 56, "The Dear Irish Boy" (1 text); compare p. 152, "Connor, the Fisherman" (1 text, starting, "My Connor is a fisher bold, He likes the life so free"; Roud #V25191)
COMPARE: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol II, p. 40, "Connor the Fisherman" (1 text); also p. 62, "My Connor" (1 text)
Roud #1555
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(157), "Dear Irish Boy," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Harding B 11(1219), Harding B 11(819), Harding B 11(2269), Firth c.26(168), 2806 b.11(185), Harding B 26(121), "[The] Dear Irish Boy"
LOCSinging, as101620, "The Dear Irish Boy," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
SAME TUNE:
The Wife's Lament, A New Temperance Song ("My Connor was loving, gentle and kind," by Archibald Scott) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 179)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Dear Irish Maid
NOTES [33 words]: Broadside LOCSinging as101620: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HHH142

My Dear Old Comrade Soldiers

DESCRIPTION: "My dear old comrade soldier of this our native shore, I'm glad to have the honor of greeting you once more." The singer recalls the difficult careers of soldiers, hopes for pensions, and prays that God inspire current leaders
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier reunion nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 89-91, "My Dear Old Comrade Soldiers" (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 97-100)
NOTES [26 words]: Civil War soldiers held reunions through the 1920s and even into the 1930s; this (not very good) piece presumably came out of one of those gatherings. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa089

My Dear Old Innocent Boy

See Buffalo Boy (File: LoF162)

My Dear, Do You Know How a Long Time Ago

See The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods) [Laws Q34] (File: LQ34)

My Dear, I'm Bound for Canaday

See My Dear, I'm Bound for Canady (File: GrMa154)

My Dear, I'm Bound for Canady

DESCRIPTION: "My dear I'm bound for Canady; Love Sally we must part." Sally asks Willie to stay; "you'll find employment here" but he leaves St John's; he will marry her within three years. But the song ends "every honest decent young man Don't leave his girl behind"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: love parting unemployment hardtimes Canada father mother betrayal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 154, "My Dear, I'm Bound for Canady" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 85, "Bound for Canada" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 82, "My Dear, I'm Bound for Canaday" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 187-190, "I'm Bound Away for Canada (My Dear I'm Bound for Canaday)" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #4411
RECORDINGS:
Jacob Noseworthy, "Canada" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Charlie Williams, "My Dear I'm Bound for Canada" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [154 words]: To understand this song, it is important to recall that Newfoundland did not become part of Canada until after World War II (for background, see especially "Anti-Confederation Song (II)"). And Newfoundland was poor, which meant that many of its people left for other places with more opportunity. Some went to the United States, some to Britain, but probably most went to Canada. Gary McManus and Clifford H. Wood, Atlas of Newfoundland and Labrador, Breakwater Books, 1991, plate 9, shows the shocking figures: Newfoundland in 1986 had somewhat fewer than 600,000 people. And there were 70,000 ex-Newfoundlanders in Ontario alone, and another 25,000 in the Maritimes, and 37,000 in the rest of Canada. That's more than a fifth of the population out-migrating! - RBW
One of Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's texts is a verse from a version on the "MacEdward Leach and the Songs of Atlantic Canada" site. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: GrMa154

My Dearest Dear

DESCRIPTION: "My dearest dear, the times draws near When I and you must part, And no one knows the inner grief Of my poor aching heart." The (girl) wishes that they could stay together; (s)he promises to love (him) till (s)he dies, and begs that he write to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: love separation lyric nonballad parting floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Bronson 76, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (23 versions, of which #18, #20, and #22 perhaps go here)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 484-486, "Banishment" (1 text)
Randolph 18, "Oh Who Will Shoe My Foot?" (8 texts, 5 tunes; the "B," "D," "F," and "H" versions are of this sort) {F=Bronson's #18}; 760, "I Love You Well" (4 texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 14-15, "Winter's Night" (1 text, 1 tune, very heavily composite, starting with "As I rode out last winter's night," then two "Pretty little foot" verses, then "Lonesome dove" verses and ending with "I wish to the Lord I'd never been born") {Bronson's #22}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 21, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (of the various texts in the appendices, at least "G" seems to belong here) {Bronson's #20}
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 314-317, "The Time Has Come, My Dearest Dear" (2 texts; 1 tune on p. 440)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 8, "Unto Me the Time Drew Near" (1 text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 90, "The True Lover's Farewell" (1 text, which despite the title appears closer to this song than that)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 77, "My Dearest Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 40, "My Dearest Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 102-103, "A-Roving On One Winter's Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 243,"Little Turtle Dove" (1 text, 1 tune, a composite of floating verses, some of which perhaps belong here)
Greig/Duncan8 1540, "Time's Drawing On, Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 112, "When You and I Must Part" (1 text)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 119-120, "The Little Turtle Dove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 52-53, "Time Draws Near" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 102-104, "Time Draws Near" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 108, "Winter's Night" (1 text, 1 tune, beginning with lyrics from this song but with final verses more characteristic of "The Storms Are on the Ocean")
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 126-127, "The Lover's Lament" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 40, "The Blackest Crow" (1 fragment of a single stanza, 1 tune, a floating verse that might go here or almost anywhere else); 43, "Woe Unto Me When the Time Draws Near" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Frank Proffitt: A Legend A-Borning," Vol. XIV, No. 2 (Nov. 1966), p. 17, "The blackest crow I ever seen will surely turn to white" (1 excerpt, from Frank Proffitt, probably this although it's too short to be sure)
DT, (REDREDR2)
Roud #3601
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Little Turtle Dove" (1928; on BLLunsford01; a composite of all sorts of floating verses, a few of which may be from here)
Doug Wallin, "The Time Draws Near" (on OldTrad2, FarMtns3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (floating lyrics) and references there
cf. "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A-Roving on a Winter's Night
NOTES [152 words]: This is basically a lyric piece assembled from all sorts of floating materials. The first two lines are characteristic; what follows can come from almost anywhere. Doc Watson sings a version which combines parts of this song (notably the verse "A-roving on a winter's night") with portions of "My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose" (see DT REDREDR2). - RBW
The one verse of Greig/Duncan8, "Time's drawing on love, when you and I must part; There's none knows the sorrows of my poor wounded heart, For already I have suffered much and sighed many a tear, I wish I were to go with you, or you to tarry here" is very close to verses 1 and 2 of Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana: "O to me the time draws nigh When you and I must part; But little do you think or know The grief of my poor heart.... Sure I am troubled for your sake Since you I loved too dear; I wish that I could go with you Or that you could stay here." - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: SKE40

My Delaware

DESCRIPTION: "How beautiful along thy shore, Delaware, my Delaware, Shall Freedom's word ring out once more?" "We want the earth, we want it all, We want the whole terrestrial ball." In support of the "single tax" land reform movement.
AUTHOR: Frank Stephens
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Stephens, _Some Songs_, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 164, "My Delaware" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maryland! My Maryland" (form)
File: CAFS1164

My Dog and I

DESCRIPTION: The singer and his dog are inseparable. He loves no woman who doesn't love his dog. They conspire to seduce maidens and pimp whores. They consult on politics and go to war together. When he dies they will be buried beneath the tap, "cheek by jowl"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: efore 1680 (broadside, Bodleian 4o Rawl. 566(108))
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer and his dog are inseparable, comparable to Prince Rupert and his virtual(?) familiar. He loves no woman who doesn't love his dog. They can cure any woman from 5 to 50 of "the green sickness ... [that is to say, troubled] with over-grown virginity"; they don't bother with 60 year old women. Together, they search out feasts and games. They consult on politics and go to war together in 1642. They pimp the whores near Hatten-wall, though they "are fitter for my dog than I" He claims, "My Dog is caterer and cook, for he at every game can fly ... Whilst many thieves are hang'd on high, No Law can touch my Dog and I" When he dies they will be buried beneath the tap, "cheek by jowl"
KEYWORDS: seduction sex Civilwar poaching hunting party bawdy nonballad dog rake whore
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 254, "My Dog and I" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: S. Baring-Gould, English Minstrelsie (Edinburgh, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VI, pp. 118-120, xiii, "My Dog and I" (2 texts, 1 tune ["Bobbing Joan"])
Roud #5848
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 4o Rawl. 566(108), "My Dog and I" ("You that are of the merry throng"), F. Coles (London), 1674-1679; also Firth c.23(109a)[some words illegible], Douce Ballads 3(67a), "My Dog and I"
EngBdsdBA 21889, Pepys 4.229, "My Dog and I" ("You that are of the merry Throng, Give good attention to my Song "), F. Coles (London), no date, accessed 08 Dec 2013. [see note]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bobbing Joan" (tune, per Bodleian and EngBdsdBA broadsides, Baring-Gould and Simpson)
cf. "Lavender Blue" (some verses)
cf. "George Ridler's Oven" (some verses) and references there
NOTES [650 words]: From the spelling of "doged" in the second verse it appears that broadsides EngBdsdBA Pepys 4.229 and Bodleian Firth c.23(109a) are duplicates. Bodleian dates Firth c.23(109a) as 1678-1680.
Two verses refer to the English Civil War (1641-1651): "When Mars commanded we did go, Unto the wars in forty two, We'd never fear in field to die, But out we'l go, my Dog and I ... There was a time when Rebel rout, Did fear Prince Rupert and his Dog, 'Tis dangerous when two heads comply, Especially my Dog and I." See Wikipedia "Prince Rupert of the Rhine": "... Prince Rupert of the Rhine, (17 December 1619-29 November 1682) ... was a younger son of Frederick V, Elector Palatine and Elizabeth Stuart, and the nephew of King Charles I of England, who created him Duke of Cumberland and Earl of Holderness.... In 1642, aged 23, Rupert was appointed by King Charles to lead the Royalist Cavalry during the English Civil War, and he largely deserves credit for their early successes.... He took a white standard breed poodle dog named 'Boye', into battle with him on several occasions. Throughout the Civil War the soldiers of Parliament feared this dog, claiming that it had supernatural powers .... This poodle was Prince Rupert's constant companion until the dog's death at the Battle of Marston Moor (2 July 1644)."
The broadside versions are seventeen stanzas of four lines, excluding the chorus. The Greig/Duncan2 text is three verses. Greig/Duncan2 has only two lines close to the broadsides. Pepys has "But if the weather prove foul and wet, My Dog he shall not wet his Feet; But if the weather prove fair and dry, Then a whisting [whiffing?] goes my Dog and I"; Greig/Duncan2 has "In winter when the weather's wet, My dog and I we warm our feet, In summer when the weather's dry, To the hunting goes my dog and I." Greig/Duncan2 is about a poacher and his hunting dog. Poaching and petty thievery does not seem beyond the pair in the broadsides (see also the next paragraph).
The entry for "George Ridler's Oven" discusses stanzas shared by that song and "My Dog and I." One verse shares only two lines but may give a clue to a petty thievery connection. "George Ridler's Oven" (Dixon) has -- apparently imitating Gloucestershire dialect -- "My dog is good to catch a hen; A dug or goose is vood for men; And where good company I spy, O thether gwoes my dog and I." Pepys has "We night and day can take no rest, If we can hear of any feast, And where good fellows I espy, There go in my dog and I ... My living lies in every nook, My dog is caterer and cook, For at every game can flie, No fellow to my dog and I."
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames "George Ridler's Oven" adds another verse that fits "My Dog and I": "Of furren tongues let travellers brag, Wi ther vifteen neams vor a puddin-bag; Two tongues I knows neer towld a lie, And ther wearers be my doag and I."
At least a few verses of the broadside versions overlap "Lavender Blue"; for example, "Lavender Blue" "My hostess's maid, her name was Nell, She was a lass that I loved well; But if she die, by some mishap, Then she shall lie under the tap" compares to Pepys "I lov'd a maid, her name was Nell, A bonny lass, I lov'd her well, And if you'd needs know the reason why, Because she lov'd my dog and I .... If death do come, as it may hap, My grave shall be under the tap. With folded arms there we will lie, Cheek by jowl, my dog and I."
Simpson, among others, notes that "Bobbing Joe" or "Bobbing Joan" has a bawdy background of its own, making it an appropriate tune for "My Dog and I"; specifically, "... 'bobbin jo' is equivalent to the 'green gown,' a euphemism for the sexual act. (source: Claude M. Simpson, The British Broadside and Its Music (New Brunswick, 1966), p. 47) - BS
I wonder if the "dog" of this song is a canine -- or a "dog robber," a term for a menial and sometimes used for an officer's body servant. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: GrD2254

My Doggie and I

DESCRIPTION: The singer mourns that, when he and his dog went to the well, his dog fell in and drowned. What will become of him? He can still spin a spangle thread "but bowf bow-ow my doggie's deid"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: grief death lament dog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1660, "My Doggie and I" (1 text)
Roud #13045
File: GrD81660

My Emmet's No More

DESCRIPTION: "Despair in her wild eye, a daughter of Erin" played the harp and "sang Erin's woes and her Emmet no more." She accuses "tyrants and traitors" and the "proud titled villains" who cowered before him before they murdered him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland) ; beginning 19C (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution patriotic Ireland separation love
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 20, 1803 - Robert Emmet (1778-1803) is hanged
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 143, "My Emmet's No More" (1 text)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 25, "My Emmet's No More" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 156, "My Emmet's No More" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 41, "My Emmet's No More" (1 text)
Roud #V1056
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(204b), "My Emmet's No More", unknown, n.d.; also 2806 b.10(16), "My Emmet's No More"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Robert Emmet" (subject) and references there
NOTES [16 words]: For the sad background of this typically Irish story, see the notes to "Bold Robert Emmet." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon143A

My Enemy

See See, See, My Playmate (File: OpGa148)

My Eyes Are Dim

DESCRIPTION: Humorous song about lining out hymns. The preacher speaks a line (i.e. "My eyes are dim; I cannot see; I left my specs at home") and singers repeat it. He says "I did not mean for you to sing." They sing the line back. Finally he says, "Doxology...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: humorous clergy nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 23, "My Eyes Are Dim" (1 text); p. 139, "My Eyes Are Dim" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (no author listed), "My Eyes Are Dim -- I Cannot See," Vol. XII, No. 2 (Dec. 1964), p. 29, "My Eyes Are Dim" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 26, #45 (1978), p, 3, in the article "No Fiddle in My Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10508?
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Quartermaster Corps (The Quartermaster Store)" ("My eyes are dim" lyric, although the context is completely different)
NOTES [45 words]: Hedy West, who wrote the Sing Out! article cited above, said that Don Yoder printed this in Pennsylvania Spirituals from sources in 1849 to 1854. I can't verify this, but it would appear to be the earliest date if correct.
Thanks to Carter C. for this information. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Grim023

My fader deed an' left me

See The Swapping Boy (File: E093)

My Fairey and My Forey

See Have You Any Bread and Wine (English Soldiers, Roman Soldiers) (File: Lins040)

My Faith Looks Up to Thee

DESCRIPTION: "My faith looks up to thee, Thou lamb of Calvary." "Oh let me from this day Be wholly thine." The singer asks for strength and guidance, and asks, "O bear me safe above."
AUTHOR: Words: Ray Palmer (1808-1887) / Music: Lowell Mason (1792-18720
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (Hastings and Mason's Spiritual Songs for Soical Worship, according to Marilyn Kay Stulken, _Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship_, Fortress Press, 1981, p. 500); words reportedly written 1830
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Heart-Songs, p. 483, "My Faith Looks Up to Thee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 282, "My Faith Looks Up to Thee (Olivet)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 86, "My Faith Looks Up to Thee" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp, 100-102, "My Faith Looks Up To Thee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14038
NOTES [331 words]: Julian, p. 877, writes of this song, "This hymn was written by the author when fresh from college, and during an engagement in teaching in New York. [McKim, p. 383, and Rudin, p. 30, say it was a girls' school.] This was in 1830. The author says concerning its composition, 'I gave form to what I felt, by writing, with little effort, the stanzas. I recollect I wrote them with very tender emotion, and ended the last line with tears.' A short time afterward the hymn was given to Dr. Lowell Mason, if thought good, in a work then being compiled by him and Dr. T. Hastings." The tune Mason wrote is known as "Olivet."
Julian reports that Palmer was "s[on] of the Hon. Thomas Palmer, a Judge in Rhode Island, [and was] b[orn] at Little Compton, Rhode Island, Nov. 12, 1808. His early life was spent at Boston, where he was for some time clerk in a dry-goods store. At Boston he joined the Park Street Congregational Church, then under the pastoral care of Dr. S. E. Dwight. After spending three years at Phillips Academy, Andover, he entered Yale College, New Haven, where he graduated in 1830. In 1835 he became pastor of the Central Congregational Church, Bath, Maine.... In 1850 he was appointed to the First Congregational Church, at Albany, New York. He resigned in 1878, and retired to Newark, New Jersey. He d[ied] at Newark, Mar. 29, 1887."
This hymn is said to have been written when he was just 22 (Rudin, p. 29).
Reynolds, p. 146, Rudin, p. 31, and McKim, p. 384 all tell an interesting anecdote: Lowell Mason met Ray Palmer soon after Mason first saw the words to this poem. which of course he set to music, and Mason told Palmer, "Mr. Palmer, you may live many years and do many good things, but I think you will be best known to posterity as the author of 'My Faith Looks Up to Thee'!" Reynolds notes that Mason was right. In other words, Palmer never did anything else of any note. Even this song's success, I suspect, is due more to Mason's tune than to the lyrics. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: CJns0100

My Faither Was Hung for Sheep-Stealing

See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

My Fancy Dwells With Nancy Belle

See When Bucks a Hunting Go (File: GrD4727)

My Far Down Cailin Ban

DESCRIPTION: Sean meets a lass who invites him "'longside the Cailin Ban" in her cart. She invites him in to meet her father and have tea. Her father falls asleep. He slips his arm around her waist. He has travelled over Erin's Isle and has never seen such a beauty
AUTHOR: Shaun O'Nolan (1871-1945) (source: Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: courting Ireland father beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 36, "My Far Down Cailin Ban" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5231
NOTES [84 words]: Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan: The author was "described in his publicity as 'Shaun O'Nolan, The Wicklow Piper.' The protagonist is a piper named Sean going from Donegal to Tandagree. Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan: "Irish geography does not seem to have been a strong point with him, for when he wrote that couple in the ass and cart jog along from Donegal to Tandragee in County Armagh he can hardly have been aware that the distance involved is over ninety miles!" - BS
File: RcMFDCBa

My Father and Mither Were Irish

See Pig in the Parlor (File: R522)

My Father and Mother Are Irish

See Pig in the Parlor (File: R522)

My Father Built a Little Red Schoolhouse

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "My father built a little red schoolhouse. How many nails did he put in it?" (The end of the rhyme might be when the speaker says "It," or the person pointed to might name a number and the count goes on using that number)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: work | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 30, "(My father built a little red schoolhouse)" (1 text)
File: WEMM030B

My Father Died a Month Ago

DESCRIPTION: "My father died a month ago And left me all his riches." The "riches" are listed: feather bed, wooden leg, leather breeches, teapot without a spout, cup with no handle, tobacco pipe with no lid.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Notes and Queries)
KEYWORDS: death humorous nonballad lastwill
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,West),Wales)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 155, "My father died a month ago" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Notes and Queries (London, February 17, 1894) ("Digitized by Google"), Vol. V, No. 112, p. 126, ("My father died when I was young") (1 text)
Notes and Queries (London, March 17, 1894) ("Digitized by Google"), Vol. V, No. 116, p. 217, ("My father died when I was young") (4 texts)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Grandfather Bryan" (theme)
cf. "The Swapping Boy" (theme)
NOTES [192 words]: Notes and Queries, February 17, 1894 is reported from Bradford, Yorkshire: "[when] I was quite a youngster ... it was common enough with us in our district."
Notes and Queries, March 17, 1894: "My father died when I was young, And left me all his riches: His gun and volunteering-cap, Long sword and leather breeches.... I have been told that the 'volunteering-cap' form of the ditty is supposed to relate to the American War of Independence" [quoted in Mrs Gutch and Mabel Peacock, County Folk-Lore (London, 1908), Vol. V, p. 393].
Notes and Queries, March 17, 1894 versions include one from Glamorganshire, Wales, and one "current in Leicestershire" which has a "'bacco-box" - rather than a "tobacco-pipe" - "without a lid."
See DT, CNTRYFSH, "Country Fashions," for a song that begins like "My Father Died a Month Ago": the first verse ends "... a horse both lame and blind sir; You'd swear he'd in a trap been catch'd, he wur cropped so close behind sir." The following verses are neither like "My Father Died a Month Ago" nor "Grandfather Bryan." The singer mounts the horse and the song recounts his misadventures until his unhappy marriage. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpOc155

My Father Gaed Me Milk and Bread

DESCRIPTION: "Ma faither gies me milk an breid [or meat], Ma mither gies me claes, Tae sit aboot the fireside [or be someplace else] An knap fowk's taes"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: clothes food humorous nonballad father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1620, "My Father Gaed Me Milk and Bread" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #225, p. 123, ("Ma faither gies me milk an breid")
Roud #12984
NOTES [4 words]: A joke on collectors? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81620

My Father Gave Me

DESCRIPTION: "My father gave me when he was able A bowl, a bottle, a dish and a ladle, A bowl sir my father gave me" up to "... Twelve bowls, twelve bottles, twelve dishes, twelve ladles, eleven bowls ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: cumulative nonballad gift
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 20, "My Father Gave Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1505
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Mary Ann Galpin, "My Father Gave Me" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Counting Song
A Bowl, a Bottle, a Dish and a Ladle
File: Pea020

My Father Gave Me a Lump of Gold (Seven Long Years)

DESCRIPTION: "My father dear, so far from here, has given me good advice, He told me to quit my rambling ways And settle down for life." The rest of the family gives equally good advice. Father gives a lump of gold, but it cannot save the son from hell. Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: family father mother rambling loneliness poverty separation bequest lastwill
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 307-308, "My Father Gave Me a Lump of Gold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 259-260, "Prentice's Drinking Song" (1 text)
Randolph 834, "My Father Gave Me a Lump of Gold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 102, "Seven Long Years" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3605
File: R834

My Father Gave Me an Acre of Ground

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

My Father Had an Acre of Land

DESCRIPTION: "My father had an acre of land, Hey ho, sing ivy, My father had an acre of land, With a bunch of green holly and ivy." He farmed it in impossible ways: "plowed it with a team of rats," "rolled it with a rolling pin," "thrashed it with a hazel twig"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842
KEYWORDS: farming nonsense paradox
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All))
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 221-222, "Holly and Ivy" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 479)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #116, An Acre of Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 300, "My Father Had an Acre of Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 703, "Sing Holly, Sing Ivy"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 273, "Sing Holly, Sing Ivy" (2 texts)
Hamer-GreenGroves, p. 27, "Evie and Ivy (Acre of Land)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 22-23, "An Acre of Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 120, "Sing Ovy, Sing Ivy" (1 text)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 206-207, "Heigh-ho, Sing Ivy" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire 1, "An Acre o' Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 7, 8, pp. 11-12, 44-45, "An Acre of Land" (5 texts, 2 tunes; the first four texts are "My Father Hand an Acre of Land" but the fifth text, on p. 45, is "The Elfin Knight" [Child 2])
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 51-78, "The Elfin Knight' (12 texts plus 3 fragments, not all from New England; 8 tunes; mostly of Child #2, but the "N" text, which has no tune, appears to be this song)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 158, "My father left me three acres of land" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 210, "Three Acres of Land" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 97-98, "Three Acres of Land" (1 text)
Roud #21093
RECORDINGS:
Bob & Ron Copper, "My Father Had an Acre of Land" (on FSB4)
Bob Pegg, "Yecker o’ Land" (Piotr-Archive #366, recorded 11/25/2022)
Charlie Potter, "Sing Ivy" (on Voice14)
Tony Wales, "Sing Ivy" (on TWales1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Elfin Knight" [Child 2] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Team of Rats
Sing Ivy
Sing Ovy, Sing Ivy
NOTES [62 words]: This song is sometimes listed as a variant of "The Elfin Knight" [Child 2], and in fact they share many ideas and some lyrics. However, the crucial element of "The Elfin Knight" is the dialog, whereas this is a song of impossible deeds. The should be kept separate.
For the juxtaposition, and possible rivalry, of holly and ivy, see the notes to "The Holly and the Ivy." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K300

My Father Has a Horse to Shoe

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope or counting-out rhyme. "My father has a horse to shoe, How many nails do you think will do? One, two, three...." (Or the players may race to pick numbers less than the number of players; the last to choose a number is it.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Botkin, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: father horse jumprope | horseshoe shoe nail counting
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 35, "(My father has a horse to shoe)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #367, "My Father Has a Horse to Shoe" (1 text)
File: AJRR367

My Father Has Often Told Me

See Rose Connoley [Laws F6] (File: LF06)

My Father He Died, But I Can't Tell You How

See The Swapping Boy (File: E093)

My Father Is a Butcher

See Father Is a Butcher (File: SuSm108C)

My Father Keeps a Public House

See Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low [Laws M34] (File: LM34)

My Father Kept a Horse

See The Irish Family (File: K275)

My Father Left Me Three Acres of Land

See My Father Had an Acre of Land (File: K300)

My Father Sent Me Here with a Staff (Laughter Game)

DESCRIPTION: "My father sent me here with a staff, To speak to you, and not to lay. Methinks you smile. Methinks I don't. I smooth my face with ease and grace, And set my staff in its proper place."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #77, "Laughter Games" (1 text plus discussion of others)
File: Newe077

My Father Was a Dutchman

DESCRIPTION: "My father was a Dutchman, Das sprechen verstehst du? My father was a Dutchman, Verstehst du? Yah! Yah!" "Ich spoke ein funny lingo." The singer was a sailor who got in trouble. Or he climbed steeples, or otherwise made mischief
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad emigration shanty
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 46, "My Father Was a Dutchman" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 188, "Mein Vader Vos Ein Dutchman" (1 dialect text, 1 tune)
Roud #9085
NOTES [82 words]: If it appears that the non-English part of this text is in German, but the singer calls himself a "Dutchman," recall that in the nineteenth century, "Dutch" was a common name for Germans ("Deutsch"). It is rather a surprise to see a German use it, since it was definitely derogatory. Hugill calls his version a "pidgin," but it is not in a pidgin, which is a technical term for a minimally grammatical pseudo-language used by two groups with no common language. It's just a fake-German song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pet046A

My Father Was a Farmer Good

See One and Twenty (File: GC096)

My Father Was a Gambler

See Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Been All Around This World) (File: R146)

My Father Was a Spanish Merchant

See No, John, No (File: R385)

My Father Was Born in Germany

DESCRIPTION: Father born in Germany, mother in Italy, sister in USA "and my baby followed me." Father likes to smoke a pipe, mother to read her book, sister to show her legs "and my baby follows me." Father died in Germany, ..., baby followed me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty baby father mother sister
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 479, ("My father was born in Germany") (1 text)
File: OpGa479A

My Father Was Born in Killlarney

See Don't Run Down the Irish (My Father Was Born in Killlarney) (File: MCB224)

My Father Went to War

DESCRIPTION: Father went to war in 1974, brought back a gun "and shot me in the tum, tum, tum"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: war playparty father
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 479, ("My father went to war, war, war") (1 text)
File: OpGa479E

My Father, How Long?

DESCRIPTION: "My father, how long\ (x3) Poor sinner suffer here?" "And it won't be long (x3) Poor sinner suffer here." "We'll soon be free (x3), The Lord will call us home." "We'll walk the miry road." "We'll walk the golden streets." "We'll fight for liberty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment); 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 93, "My Father, How Long?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 34, pp. 34, 217-218, "We'll Soon Be Free" (1 text)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 287-288, "My Father, How Long?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12048
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We'll Soon Be Free" (lyrics)
cf. "Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady)" (lyrics)
File: AWG093

My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher (Nobody Coming to Marry Me)

DESCRIPTION: "My father's a hedger and ditcher, my mother does nothing but spin, They say I'm a pretty young girl But the money comes slowly in." The girl laments, with variations on a theme, that "there's nobody coming to marry me, Nobody coming to woo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1806 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 10(39))
KEYWORDS: love courting oldmaid
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, p. 189, "Naebody Comin' to Marry Me" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #18, p. 1, ("My daddy's a delver o' dykes") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1385, "Naebody Comin' to Marry Me," Greig/Duncan7 1386, "My Daddy's a Delver o' Dykes" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 226-227, "There's Nobody Comes to Marry Me" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 470)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 185, "Nobody Coming to Marry Me" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 185, "Nobody COming to Marry Me" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 181, "Me Father Is a Lawyer in England" (2 short texts, 2 tunes, both very mixed; "A" has the first verse of "Me Father Is a Lawyer in England,"; the second is "Me father is a hedger and ditcher, and the third and the chorus are from "The Cobbler"; the "B" text is also clearly mixed though the elements are less clear)
Roud #846
RECORDINGS:
Mary Ann Carolan, "My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher" (on Voice20)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 10(39), "Nobody Coming to Marry Me" ("Last night the dogs did bark"), Laurie and Whittle (London), 1806; also Harding B 25(1371)[many illegible words], "Nobody Coming to Marry Me"
NOTES [569 words]: At first glance, the "Hedger and Ditcher" stanza (which is the first in Brown though not in Ford) seems unrelated to the rest, but it seems likely to be a reference to the girl's inadequate dowry. There is every likelihood that this is a stage song; most of the (rather unhelpful) references in Brown are to printed and popular versions.
Roud lists many more versions, but many are of what I would consider separate songs (e.g. "My Father's a Lawyer in England," which often goes with "My God How the Money Rolls In").
It's just possible that there is a link to British politics in here somewhere. In the years around 1910, the Liberal government of H. H. Asquith was trying to pass a variety of reforms, and had them vetoed by the House of Lords. This was understandable; Britain at the time was trying for social reforms *and* conducting a naval arms race against Germany, and it cost a great deal. The Liberals were proposing extreme tax increases (Smith, p. 481)
The Liberals, having been stymied again and again by the Lords, eventually tried to pass a law restricting the veto power of the Lords. Which, naturally, the Lords vetoed.
Asquith tried various tricks. He called a general election on the issue, and won it -- barely. He tried to persuade the King (originally Edward VII, then George V after Edward's death) to appoint, or at least threaten to appoint, enough liberal peers to override the overwhelming conservative majority (probably at least 75%; some put it at 90%) in the Lords (Longford, p. 148).
The Lords opposed to the reform measure were known as the "Ditchers," because they would die in the last ditch. Those willing to go along with the change were, for whatever reason, known as "Hedgers."
The acrimony was intense; Longford, p. 149, records that all pretense of genuine debate was halted: "The mood... was plain honest anger. The point was not to convince the opponent but to run him through."
In the end, the reform law was passed by the Lords, very grudgingly -- so grudgingly that the Lords took the almost unknown step of recording the Division of the House (Longford, p. 152). The large majority of the Lords did not attend (nothing unusual about that -- a quorum in the Lords was three peers, though the body had over 500 members). Over 100 Ditchers voted against. Fewer than 100 peers voluntarily voted for. 37 lords led by Lord Curzon, who opposed the bill, finally voted in favor -- better to lose the veto than dilute the Lords. The final vote was 131 to 114.
It had taken two years, and it brought down Unionist (conservative) leader Arthur Balfour, who had been strangely quiet the whole time -- a critic of the period might well have said he "does nothing but spin."
I don't really think the two are connected, but it *is* an interesting parallel. For more on the whole incident, see "Home Rule for Ireland" and "A Loyal Song Against Home Rule"; also Massie, pp. 640-662 -- the chapter entited "The Budget and the House of Lords." - RBW
The broadside Bodleian Harding B 10(39) notes: "(Intended as a Companion to the second appearance of Miss Bailey's Ghost, Just Published) Sung by Mrs Jordan, with Unbounded Applause at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane." That "No rest in the grave: or The second appearance of Miss Bailey's ghost" is a parody of "Nobody Coming to Marry Me" : "Nobody coming to bury me," etc. [the latter found in Bodleian Harding B 17(219a) - RBW] - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.7
File: BrII185

My Father's Gone to View That Land

DESCRIPTION: "My father's gone to view that land, To view that land, to view that land, My father's gone to view that land, To sing that cheering song." "It takes a saint to view that land." "My (mother/brother/sister/children/neighbor)'s gone to view that land."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 209, "Our Father's Gone to View That Land" (1 text)
ST Fus209 (Partial)
Roud #13937
File: Fus209

My Father's Gray Mare

See The Gray Mare [Laws P8] (File: LP08)

My Father's House

See In My Father's House (File: San483)

My Father's Old Sou'wester

DESCRIPTION: "My father's old sou'wester He wore in days gone by ... Those happy days of old." "When I was but a lad" my father wore his old hat wherever he went. When he died he said "Go take that old sou'wester hat And wear it for my sake"
AUTHOR: words: William Hollett; music: Jimmy Ring (source: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: death lastwill fishing sea hunting work nonballad father clothes
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "My Father's Old Sou'wester" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 42-43 in the 3rd edition
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 118, "Old Southwester" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 280-281, "My Father's Old Sou'wester" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 57, "My Father's Old Sou' Wester" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SOUWESTR*
Roud #4422
NOTES [23 words]: This was originally sung on the Newfoundland radio program "The Irene B. Mellon," for which see the notes to "The Cliffs of Baccalieu." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doyl3042

My Father's Servant Boy [Laws M11]

DESCRIPTION: The girl's father plans to have her marry a gentleman. She chooses instead to flee with her sweetheart. They find a captain who will bring them to America, and are supported by an Irishman till the boy can find a job. Despite poverty, the girl is happy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: marriage emigration poverty
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws M11, "My Father's Servant Boy"
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H198, pp. 481-482, "My Father's Servant Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 52, "My Father's Servant Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 78, "My Father's Servant Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 39, "My Father's Servant Boy" (1 text)
DT 578, SERVNTBY
Roud #1910
RECORDINGS:
Maggie Murphy, "My Father's Serving Boy" (on IRHardySons)
Roisin White, "My Father's Servant Boy" (on IRRWhite01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 238, "The Servant Boy" ("You lovers all both great and small attend unto my theme"), J. Catnach (London) , 1813-1838; also Firth c.18(207), Harding B 11(2595), Harding B 11(3453), Harding B 25(1752), Harding B 11(1471), "The Servant Boy"; Harding B 11(2998), "Answer to the Philadelphia Lass"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "You Lovers All" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "Mullinabrone" (plot)
NOTES [115 words]: The broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(2998), "Answer to the Philadelphia Lass," W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle), c.1840 is on the same sheet as "Philadelphia Lass" ("It was on a summer's morning, all in the month of May"), another title for "Mary in Search of Her Lover"; that packaging makes it seem, to me, unlikely that our ballad was ever known elsewhere as "Answer to ...." On the other hand "Philadelphia Lass" may have been in tradition by that title
[see: Bodleian, Harding B 11(4257), "Mary in Search of her Lover," W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle) , 1832-1842; also Firth c.13(233), "Mary in Search of her Lover"; Harding B 11(2997), Harding B 11(2998), "[The] Philadelphia Lass" ] - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: LM11

My Father's Whiskers

See Father's Whiskers (File: FSWB241A)

My Fine Sailor Boy

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

My First and Last Courtship

See I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male) (File: R365)

My First Love Was Sarah

See Sarah's Young Man (File: IvNB130)

My Fither and Mither Were Irish

See Pig in the Parlor (File: R522)

My Flora and I

See Sheepcrook and Black Dog (File: HHH030a)

My Flora and Me

See Sheepcrook and Black Dog (File: HHH030a)

My Foot Is in the Stirrup

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells Molly he is going to find a new girlfriend (in rather more coarse language), promising he will do his "plowing in some cleaner, greener land."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy parting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, p. 275, "My Foot Is in the Stirrup" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh Lily, Dear Lily"
cf. "Old Paint"
cf. "Sweet Willie"
cf. "The False Lover Won Back" [Child 218]
NOTES [36 words]: There was a nineteenth century song titled "One Foot in the Stirrup" and beginning "One foot in the stirrup, one hand in (sic.) the rein"; see Wolf, p. 118. I do not know if it has any relationship to this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: RL275

My Four Little Johnny-Cakes

See Four Little Johnny Cakes (File: PFS276)

My Friends and Relations

DESCRIPTION: "My friends and relations they live in the nations,They know not where their cowboy has gone." The poor cowboy "might have lived long in this world... If my cruel friends could have left me alone." But now he wanders the world
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Coolidge, "Texas Cowboys")
KEYWORDS: cowboy rambling exile separation family
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 2, "My Friends and Relations" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16240?
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] (tune & meter, floating lyrics) and references there
File: Ohr002

My Friends the Germans

DESCRIPTION: "The Germans are a noble race, and of that race I'll sing, They love their pas, they love their mas, they idolize their king." The singer knows many languages, but "the tongue of the Fatherland Almost dislocates my jaw." He insults German wine and music
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Finger-FrontierBallads)
KEYWORDS: nonballad humorous food drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 173-174, "My Friends the Germans" (1 text)
Roud #8835
File: Fing173

My Gal

See She Gets There Just the Same (Jim Crow Car) (File: DarNS355)

My Gal's a Corker

See I've Got a Daughter (File: OpGa123)

My Gallant Brigantine

See The Gallant Brigantine [Laws D25] (File: LD25)

My Generous Lover

DESCRIPTION: False Jimmy deceives an innocent young woman into yielding to him; she says, "My generous lover, you're welcome to me", but the generosity is all hers. She leaves her home; he leaves the country, telling her not to allow any other to love her; she regrets
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1960 (recording, A. L. Lloyd)
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness seduction sex abandonment lover
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 225-227, "The First Time I Saw My Love" (1 text)
ST RcMGL (Full)
Roud #1996
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "My Generous Lover" (on Lloyd01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Pretty Peggy
NOTES [188 words]: The alternate title "Pretty Peggy" should not be confused with "Pretty Peggy-O", a version of "Bonnie Lass of Fyvie". The young woman's name does not appear in this song. - PJS
Huntington's version of this (Roud #1996, for which he currently lists only this song) has a rather simplified plot, in which the man's faithlessness is not clear and the sexual element is very muted (I didn't see it until Paul's description brought it out). I tie the two versions together based on the key line "My generous lover, you're welcome to me."
Huntington says he has not seen any other versions in print, and I must admit that I haven't seen any either. Huntington is reminded of "Logie o Buchan," and I get the same feeling. But they are definitely separate songs.
A point of interpretation: I believe the key line "you're welcome to me" does not mean "let's do something dirty" but "you will always be welcome home to me, whatever my family thinks of you." - RBW
I don't agree; the context makes the offer explicitly sexual. Not something dirty; she's offering her heart and body in sexual love, and he proves unworthy of the offer. - PJS
File: RcMGL

My Gentle Colleen Bawn

DESCRIPTION: The singer courts Colleen Bawn for 16 months. He is rich and "her friends all kindly welcomed me" He loses his money and is told "They'd forced my own colleen to wed An old man for his gold" He asks why "in our own dear land ... They wed for money"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting marriage money
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 24, "My Gentle Colleen Bawn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 290-292, "For Sixteen Months I Courted Her" (1 text)
Roud #4391
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.7(21), "Tipperary Mans Courtship ," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867 ; also 2806 b.9(7), "For 16 Months I Courted Her"
LOCSinging, as113780, "Tipperary Mans Courtship," unknown, 19C; also as104070, "For 16 Months I Courted Her"
NOTES [22 words]: Broadsides LOCSinging as113780 and Bodleian 2806 c.7(21) are duplicates, [as are] LOCSinging as104070 and Bodleian 2806 b.9(7). - BS
File: OLcM024

My Gentle Harp

DESCRIPTION: "My gentle harp, once more I waken The sweetness of thy slumb'ring strain. In tears our last farewell was taken, And now in tears we meet again." The wreathes in which he dresses her are "half flowers, half chains."
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Moore-IrishMelodies-1846)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad reunion
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, pp. 135-136, "My Gentle Harp" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 88, "My Gentle Harp (A Londonderry Air)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 176, "My Gentle Harp" (1 text)
Roud #V19511
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Danny Boy (The Londonderry Air)" (tune) and references there
File: Fire088

My Geordie O, My Geordie O

See Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)

My Girl from Battersea

See The Tattoed Lady (File: FaE230)

My Girl from Donegal

DESCRIPTION: The singer is setting out for America. He tells those around him of his parting from beautiful Aileen Oge, with whom none can compare. He wishes he could stay, but no money is to be had. When he becomes rich, he will marry Aileen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration love separation beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H4, pp. 190-191, "My Girl from Donegal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13547
File: HHH004

My Girl's a Corker

See I've Got a Daughter (File: OpGa123)

My Girl's from USC

DESCRIPTION: Various stanzas about how the singer's girl, whose college or fraternity is usually identified, satisfies the singer. Example: "My girl's from USC, She fights for chastity, Fights ev'ryone but me, I love her so."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: courting sex bawdy
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 357-359, "My Girl's from USC" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #10402
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I've Got a Daughter" (a playparty derivative of "My Girl's a 'Corker'") and references there
File: EM357

My God Is a Rock In a Weary Land

See Jesus Is a Rock (File: R657)

My God, How the Money Rolls In

DESCRIPTION: A quatrain ballad, "My God" describes the various illegal or dubious occupations of family members, e.g. "My sister she works in a (cathouse/laundry), My father makes synthetic gin, My mother she takes in washing, My God, how the money rolls in"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous family
FOUND IN: Australia Canada Britain(England,Scotland) Ireland US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So,SW) New Zealand
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 107-109 (related songs to p. 114), "My God, How the Money Rolls In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp116-117, "My God How the Money Rolls In" (1 text)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 161, "How the Money Rolls In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 381, "My Sister She Works in a Laundry" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 68, "Me Father's a Lawyer in England" (1 text, 1 tune -- seemingly a composite text with a different chorus and some floating verses, e.g. from "The Cobbler")
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 181, "Me Father Is a Lawyer in England" (2 short texts, 2 tunes, both very mixed; "A" has the first verse of "Me Father Is a Lawyer in England,"; the second is "Me father is a hedger and ditcher, and the third and the chorus are from "The Cobbler"; the "B" text is also clearly mixed though the elements are less clear)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 31, "My God, How the Money Rolls In" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #46, p. 18, "My Bonny Parodies" (1 text, which seems to be partly a bowdlerized version of this)
DT, MYGODHOW MYGOD* (MONTSARG*)
Roud #10143
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (tune) and references there
cf. "Please, Don't Burn Our Shithouse Down"
cf. "The Cobbler (I)"
cf. "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms" (words)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Poor Tailor's High Relations
NOTES [72 words]: This is one of the most commonly found of bawdy songs, virtually ubiquitous in the English-speaking world. - EC
On the off chance you didn't know, the tune is "My Bonnie." And I've even heard clean versions.
It's possible that "Me Father's a Lawyer in England" is a separate song, or at least a separate subtext -- but the versions I've seen are mixed enough that splitting them based on a single key line seemed rather extreme. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM107

My Golden Ball

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

My Good Old Man

DESCRIPTION: Wife asks husband where he is going. He says, grumpily,"Out" (or the like). She asks about supper. He: Eggs. She: How many? He: A bushel. She: They'll kill you. He: Then I'll haunt you. She: You can't haunt a haunt
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: dialog wife husband shrewishness hardtimes ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Randolph 426, "The Best Old Feller in the World" (2 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 325-327, "The Best Old Feller in the World" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 426A)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 191, "The Good Old Man" (2 texts)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 104A, "The Best Old Feller in the World"; 104B, "My Good Old Man" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 36, "Good Old Man" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 52, "Good Old Man" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 230, "The Good Old Man" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 12-14, "[My Good Old Man]" (1 text, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 33-35, "Kind Old Husband" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 128-129, "Where Have You Been, My Good Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 88 "Le Vieux Soulard Et Sa Femme (The Old Drunkard and His Wife)" (1 text, in French with English translation, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 344, "Where Are You Going, My Good Old Man" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 64, "Yr Hen wr Mwyn [The Gentle Old Man]" (1 text in Welsh + translation, 1 tune)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 89, "The Good Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 75, "Good Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, pp. 42-43, "Good Old Husband" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GDOLDMAN
Roud #240
RECORDINGS:
Cleoma Breaux & Joseph Falcon, "Le Vieux Soulard et sa Femme" [in Cajun French] (Columbia 14301D, 1928; on AAFM3)
Texas Gladden, "My Lovin' Old Husband" (AFS 5233 A2; on USTGladden01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tam Buie (Tam Bo, Magherafelt Hiring Fair)" (form)
NOTES [146 words]: The plot of this song varies widely, as does the final line ("My good old man," "The meanest man in the world," "The best old fellow in the world," "Best Old Soul in the World"). But the format is constant: First the wife asks a long, involved question, e.g.
Where are you going, my good old man?
Where are you going, my honey, lovey dove?
Where are you going, my good old man?
Best old man in the world.
Then the man replies (spoken, not sung) in the shortest set of monosyllables possible.
The final element, about the ghost, disappears in many versions.
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland's Welsh text doesn't look that much like the English versions to me, at least in terms of plot; it may be an analog rather than a version of the same song. But it's filed here rather than include it in a separate entry, which it does not deserve in an English-language index. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R426

My Good Ship Sails in Half-an-Hour

See I'm Leaving Tipperary (File: GrD81754)

My Good-Looking Man

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns other girls against good-looking men. When young, she saw a good-looking man and set about to marry him. Now she sees him with another woman. When he claims to have been in church, she beats him until he flees
AUTHOR: John Morgan ?
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1368))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage infidelity abuse
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Newf,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 42, "My Good-Looking Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 182, "My Good-Lookin' Man" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 302-303, "My Good-Looking Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 30, "Good Looking Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 83, "My Good Looking Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 19, "My Good Looking Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 7, "My Good-Looking Man" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1503, p. 103, "My Good-Looking Man" (1 reference)
DT, GOODLOOK*
Roud #3340
RECORDINGS:
Nonie Lynch, "My Good Looking Man" (on IRClare01)
Mike Molloy, "Good Looking Man" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1368), "The Good Looking Man," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
SAME TUNE:
Nice Young Girl (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(1368))
NOTES [11 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(1368) has the author as J. Morgan. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: FSC42

My Goose

See Why Shouldn't My Goose (File: ACSF437W)

My Grandfather Died

See The Swapping Boy (File: E093)

My Grandfather Married a Quaker

DESCRIPTION: When Judy "sung like a peacock or starling" the singer introduces himself and offers himself as a husband "so hearty" she's not likely to find such again. "Your coldness puts me in a flame I'll marry you if you have money In spite of my family name"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: greed courting money humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 820, "My Grandfather Married a Quaker" (1 text)
Roud #6214
NOTES [162 words]: The singer claims to have been attracted by Judy's singing which reminds him of two very unmusical birds. He claims that "all meanality I do disdain" but, whatever that may mean, I'm not convinced.
The first verse of Greig/Duncan4 is not required for the rest of the text but its sentiments float when it is necessary to establish a seedy environment:
My grandfather married a Quaker,
My uncle made hay wi' a fork,
My mither's a great grand brog maker
In the beautiful city called Cork.
My father sold mouse-traps and rabbits
Pigs, tressle and all other game
Would you know the sweet town he inhabits?
It's jolly Dungavin by name.
Croker reported almost exactly the first four lines of this text for "I Was the Boy for Bewitching Them." For other examples close to this see "My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher," and references there, and "My God, How the Money Rolls In." If the first verse just floated here then it's fair to ask what the title [for the rest] should be. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4820

My Grandfather's Clock

See Grandfather's Clock (File: RJ19076)

My Grandfather's Cock

DESCRIPTION: An ode to Grandfather's amazing sexual equipment.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: death bawdy
FOUND IN: US(SW) Britain Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 270-271, "My Grandfather's Cock" (2 fragments)
DT, GRANDCCK*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Grandfather's Clock" (tune) and references there
File: EM270

My Grandma Lives on Winson Green

See Grandma's Advice (File: R101)

My Grandma...

See Grandma's Advice (File: R101)

My Grandma's Advice

See Grandma's Advice (File: R101)

My Grandmother

See Grandma's Advice (File: R101)

My Grandmother Has a Very Fine Farm

See Old MacDonald Had a Farm (File: R457)

My Grandmother Lived on Yonder Green

See Grandma's Advice (File: R101)

My Grandmother Lived on Yonder Little Green

See Grandma's Advice (File: R101)

My Grandmother's Advice

See Grandma's Advice (File: R101)

My Grandmother's Chair

See Grandmother's Chair (File: R467)

My Grannie's Old Armchair

See Grandmother's Chair (File: R467)

My Grave's Gonna Be Decorated On That Day

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: ("My grave's going to be decorated on that day And I know when my Jesus comes" (2x). "There won't be no more trouble in my way I know I'm going to shake my master's hand I know when my Jesus comes") Verses: liar/gambler, where you going to run?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (USMississippi01)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Church of God in Christ, "My Grave's Gonna Be Decorated On That Day" (on USMississippi01)
File: RcMGGBDD

My Gray Haired Irish Mother

DESCRIPTION: Barney thinks of his childhood in Ireland and how blessed him when he left. He imagines her sorrow: "Your old Irish mother is waiting for you And when friends and companions will turn and desert you There's a place Barney darling at the old home for you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (for USBallinsloeFair, according to site irishtune.info, Irish Traditional Music Tune Index: Alan Ng's Tunography, ref. Ng #2617)
KEYWORDS: homesickness separation Ireland nonballad mother home
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
John McGettigan and his Irish Minstrels, "My Gray Haired Irish Mother" (on USBallinsloeFair)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There's No One Like Mother to Me"
NOTES [319 words]: "There's No One Like Mother to Me" and "My Gray Haired Irish Mother" are clearly related but clearly distinct. The question is: which is the original and which the derivative?
The tunes are closely related though the rests in "There's No One Like Mother To Me" are filled with text in "My Gray Haired Irish Mother."
The theme of both songs is: an expatriot remembers his childhood in a "cottage far over the sea" and recalls especially the mother that blessed him with tears on her cheeks.
"There's No One Like Mother to Me" has two verses and a chorus. "My Gray Haired Irish Mother" has five verses and no chorus.
Here is the first verse of "There's No One Like Mother to Me"
Sadly I'm thinking tonight
Thinking of days long gone by
Memories of childhood so bright
Come back like a dream with a sigh
I'm thinking of friends and of home
In that cottage far over the sea
Oh no matter where-ever I roam
There is no one like mother to me.
and the first two verses of "My Gray Haired Irish Mother"
How sadly I'm thinking tonight of my sire-land
Thinking of scenes and of days long gone by.
Memories of childhood so bright and so airy
Come rushing back to me with many's a sigh
I'm thinking of one whom I left far behind me
In that little thatched cottage far over the sea
Oh the one only cried Barney every noon and morning
Darling won't you come back to me.
The pattern is repeated in the remaining verse of "There's No One Like Mother to Me" and the third and fourth verses of "My Gray Haired Irish Mother."
We have sheet music dated 1885 for "There's No One Like Mother to Me" (LOCSheet sm1885 25967, by Gussie L Davis). The version recorded in 1936 by The Carter Family is almost identical to that original (source: Country Music Sources by Guthrie T Meade Jr, p. 324; the Bluegrass Lyrics site)
The John McGettigan recording of "My Gray Haired Irish Mother" in 1929 demonstrates that the songs co-existed. - BS
File: RcMGHIM

My Guid Kilmarnock Bonnet

See Big Kilmarnock Bonnet (File: RcBiGkBo)

My Gum Tree Canoe

See The Gum Tree Canoe (File: R787)

My Gypsy Lady

DESCRIPTION: "My gypsy lady, Won't you be my baby? I know I love you, I know I do, For in the springtime, The pretty ringtine, I know I love you, You know I do."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: love Gypsy | spring
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 22, "(My gypsy lady)" (1 text)
Roud #23015
NOTES [88 words]: Presumably this is in part an allusion to Shakespeare's "There Was a Lover and His Lass":
It was a lover and his lass,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
That o'er the green cornfield did pass,
In springtime, the only pretty [ring] time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.
(As You Like It, Act V, scene iii, starting at line 16 in the Riverside edition. Ironically, the First Folio has "the only pretty rang time," but Thomas Morley's setting has the much more likely reading "ring.") - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PKKB022C

My Hair Was Black As Ribbon

See Handsome Molly (?) (File: FSWB148)

My Hand on My Head (Hand on my Heart, Nicky Nicky Nu)

DESCRIPTION: "With my hands on my head what have we here? This is my brain thinker my (mother/teacher) dear, Brain thinker, brain thinker nicky nacky nocky nu, That's what they taught me when I went to school." Additional (cumulative?) verses involve other body parts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook; one poster on mudcat.org thread "'My hand on my head' (children's song)"; claimed to remember it from the 1930s)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong cumulative
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 94-96, "My Hand on Myself" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 12, "I Points to Mineself" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 285, 316, 516, "Nicky Nicky Nu"/"Brain Boxer" (notes only)
Roud #12775
RECORDINGS:
Chris Miles, "My Hand on Myself" (Piotr-Archive #548, recorded 03/14/2023)
NOTES [102 words]: This seems to be an extremely amorphous song. It may start with head, heart, or other body part; the hand on the heart may be used as a promise that what follows is true, the nonsense vocables are unfixed. I'd hate to have to guess what the original looked like.
Apparently it was common to sing it in a pseudo-German (Yiddish?) accent; so, e.g. BoyScoutSongbook1997.
It seems there was a version by The Wiggles.
It's interesting that camps allow it, given the obvious possibilities for dirty verses. Note that the Boy Scouts, e.g., changes the song to POINTING to one's self rather than touching one's self. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ACSF285N

My Hand on Myself

See My Hand on My Head (Hand on my Heart, Nicky Nicky Nu) (File: ACSF285N)

My Handsome Gilderoy

See Gilderoy (File: RL040)

My Handsome Sailor Boy

DESCRIPTION: "As I roved out one evening down Water street I took my way." Mary Jane hopes to meet MacDonald, her true love, but is told he's gone to Halifax "for money." Her mother and father tell her to forget MacDonald but she will go to Halifax to be his bride.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting separation sea father lover mother
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 566-567, "My Handsome Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea566 (Partial)
Roud #9795
NOTES [52 words]: Peacock says "Despite the fact that Mary Jane roves down Water Street in St John's (or Halifax) and MacDonald lives in Halifax, this song does not seem to me to be of Canadian origin. It is probably a British song with Canadian referents." Water Street is hardly a street name found only in Halifax or St John's - BS
File: Pea566

My Happy Little Home in Arkansas

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis a pretty little cottage where the grass is ever green... Come and see me, neighbors, come today... 'Tis the finest country found, I will show you all around In my happy little home in Arkansas." Praises of the farming conditions in Arkansas
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Stockard, History of Lawrence, Jackson, Independence, and Stone Counties, Arkansas)
KEYWORDS: home farming
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 868, "My Happy Little Home in Arkansas" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 364, "My Happy Little Home in Arkansas" (1 text)
Roud #7537
File: R868

My Harding County Home

DESCRIPTION: "Not so many years ago I left old Buffalo, The place that I have always loved the best.... I'm yearning today For my Harding County home out in the west. The singer recalls the beauties of home; "As I wander down Broadway," he hears a coyote call him home
AUTHOR: Tex Fletcher
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (recording, Tex Fletcher)
KEYWORDS: home travel
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 67, "My Harding County Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Tex Fletcher, "My Harding County Home" (Flint 1782, 1948)
NOTES [122 words]: "Buffalo" here refers not to the city in New York State but to the county seat of Harding County, South Dakota.
Although this began life as a commercial recording, it does have some oral tradition behind it; the author's son tells me of a "kitchen table" recording he has of his father singing it.
The mention of the coyote, while hardly South Dakota-specific, is certainly fitting for the state; according to Robert F. Karolevitz, Challenge, the South Dakota Story, Brevet Press, 1974 (I use the eighth printing from 2004), p. v. "In the past, South Dakota has been semiofficially nicknamed for the coyote, the environmentally adaptable but not universally appreciated official state animal with inhabits all 67 counties." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ohr067

My Harry was a Gallant gay

See Highland Harry (File: GrD1134)

My harte of golde as true as stele

See My Lady Went to Canterbury (File: EPMLWtCa)

My Hat It Has Three Corners

DESCRIPTION: "My hat it has three corners, three corners has my hat. And if it has not three corners, it would not be my hat." Also sung in German. Sole verse may repeat with words left out, e.g. "My ---, it has three corners, three corners has my ---..."
AUTHOR: Words: unknown / Music: based on "The Carnival of Venice" by Paganini, itself from the Neapolitan folk tune "O Mamma, Mamma Cara" (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1970; the German lyric goes back to at least 1886 (Wikipedia). "The Carnival of Venice" is from 1829, according to Wikipedia
KEYWORDS: clothes foreignlanguage nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 212, "My Hat It Has Three Corners" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 393, 395, 417, 515, "My Hat It Has Three Corners"/"My Hat" (notes only)
Roud #12783
RECORDINGS:
Deborah Paulukaitis, "My Hat It Has Three Corners" (Piotr-Archive #726, recorded 10/28/2023)
NOTES [33 words]: I find it hard to believe that this didn't go into the Index until version 6.3. But I guess it is more popular in schools (where I may have learned it) and camps than it is among folk collectors. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ACSF393H

My He'rt It Is Sair

See The Deluded Lover (File: K150)

My Head is Sair, My Back's in Twa

DESCRIPTION: "My head is sair, my back's in twa, Gar him come, gar him come, My head is sair, my back's in twa, Gar Johnnie come and see me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1101, "My Head is Sair, My Back's in Twa" (1 fragment)
Roud #6849
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan6 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61101

My Heart Goes Back to dear Old Pendleton

DESCRIPTION: "Now I've sailed the sea, I've seen gay Paree, I've seen the sights of old London, Though I'm far away, I never stray" from Pendleton. The singer declares that he will go back for the September roundup; "That's the place for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2007 (Furlong, Let 'Er Buck, according to Cohen); apparently written by 1920
KEYWORDS: home travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 642, "My Heart Goes Back to Dear Old Pendleton" (1 text)
File: CAFS2642

My Heart Is As Licht As a Feather

DESCRIPTION: The singer says her "heart is as licht as a feather." She will not "lat doon my heart" for any mud-splashing lad. "I'll never lie dead for them That winna lie sick for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1135, "My Heart Is As Licht As a Feather" (1 text)
Roud #6825
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (theme) and references there
File: GrD61136

My Heart Is Woe (When That My Sweet Son Was Thirty Winter Old)

DESCRIPTION: "When that my sweet son was thirty winter old, Then the traitor Judas waxed very bold." He betrays Jesus on Maundy Thursday with a kiss. The Jews demand crucifixion. Longeus spears his body
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Richard Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354)
KEYWORDS: Jesus betrayal money mother MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #163, pp. 122-123, "(Whan that my swete Son was thirti wynter old)" (1 text with variants)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics LXXVIII, pp. 142-143, "(no title)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #4023
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #6423
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #50, pp. 40-41, "(O my harte is wo! Mary, she sayd so)" (1 text)
Edward Bliss Reed, editor, _Christmas Carols Printed in the Sixteenth Century Including Kele's Christmas carolles newely Inprynted reproduced in facsimile from the copy in the Huntington Library_, Harvard University Press, 1932, pp. 32-34 [14-16], "(no title)" (1 text)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #255, p. 533, "Winterfall" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, page 481
ST MSOMHIWo (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Judas" [Child 23] (themes)
NOTES [1279 words]: As is usual with Middle English carols, there is no evidence that this is traditional -- although one of the two surviving sources is the Richard Hill manuscript, which contains substantial folk material. The other source is the first substantial surviving book of Christmas Carols, the Kele collection of c. 1545. Based on the date, it does not appear Hill could have gotten the text from Kele, and Kele could not have gotten it from Hill. On the other hand, there is good reason to think Kele took texts from an earlier carol book by Wynkyn de Worde, and Hill might have gotten his text from de Worde; it's just that the de Worde book is almost entirely lost and we don't know what it contained. So we might have two sources -- but we might not. The differences between the two texts, while not trivial, are not so substantial as to preclude a common source -- especially since many of the differences are short omissions in the Hill manuscript which could well be immediate copying errors.
So why do I include the song in the Index? Not because I'm particularly convinced that it's traditional. Instead, I'm indexing it because there are a number of references which are reminiscent of "Judas" [Child 23]. Could it be that that song survived long enough to influence this one? I'm not convinced, but I'm putting this piece in the Index to give you the chance to decide for yourself.
Notes on the song itself:
Chorus: The claim that Mary had no other sons is widespread in folklore, which claimed she was a perpetual virgin, but Mark 3:31 and parallels explicitly state that Jesus's mother and brothers visited him, and Mark 6:30 lists his brothers as James and Joses and Judas and Simon. Nothing is known of the latter three, but Jesus's brother James is well-attested -- e.g. Paul calls him "James the Lord's brother" in Galatians 1:19, and he is even mentioned in Josephus as Jesus's brother! ("Ananus... brought before [the Sanhedrin] a man named James, the brother of Jesus who was called the Christ" -- Josephus, Antiquities XX.200=XX.ix.1; Josephus/Feldman, pp. 106-109.) The notion that Mary was a perpetual virgin was probably originated by heretics who condemned carnality, which somehow was accepted by Catholics; the official line became that James et al were children of Joseph by a previous marriage. The only evidence for this is folklore; see the discussion under "The Cherry-Tree Carol" [Child 54]. It is very unlikely, but the belief in Mary's ongoing virginity was accepted by Catholics.
Stanza 1, line 1: Jesus is said to be "thirty winter old." Luke 3:23 says that Jesus was ABOUT (Greek ωσει, hosei, "as") 30 years old at the time he began his ministry. If he were exactly 30 years old at the time the ministry started and we accept the synoptic gospels' view that his ministry lasted only one year, then he would likely have been 31 at the time of the crucifixion. (John's chronology requires a ministry of three or more years.) However, Luke 3:1 says the ministry started in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, which is 29 C.E., so the crucifixion would have been in 30 C.E. But Luke 1:5 says that Herod the Great was king when Jesus was born (and Matthew also says Herod was king), and Herod died in 4 B.C.E. Thus Jesus must have been at least 34 at the time of the crucifixion, and since he was likely born at least two years before Herod's death, an age of 36 or 37 is much more likely -- and if John's chronology was right, an age of about 40 would be reasonable. This is, flatly, a case of taking Luke 3:23 much too literally.
But it is interesting to note, in light of the reading that it was "Longeus" and not "Longinus" who speared Jesus (a reading that agrees with Piers Plowman; see below) that Piers Plowman also says that Jesus was thirty winters old when he died: "Sith this barn was ybore ben thritti wynter passed," i.e. "since this bairn [child] was born been thirty winter(s) passed," B text, Passus XVIII, line 133, Langland/Schmidt, p. 312; Langland/Pearsall, p. 325, gives Passus XX, line 137 of the C text as "Sethe this barn was ybore brrn thritty wynter ypassed."
Stanza 1, line 3: Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 "plates" of money. Matthew 26:15 (only) says that the authorities promised Judas 30 pieces of silver (the vast majority of Greek manuscripts, plus the Latin which the English church of the period used, say only "30 of silver"; a few manuscripts -- D 1 1582* a b h q -- say "30 staters" or "30 staters of silver." The usual silver coin in the gospels was the denarius; the stater is mentioned elsewhere only in Matthew 17:27. The whole verse is a strange adaption by Matthew of Zech. 11:12, which also says "thirty of silver." For more on this, see the notes to "Thirty Pieces of Silver")
Stanza 2, line 1: "Shere Thursday" is the day we usually call Maundy Thursday," but note that "Shere Thursday" is the term used in "Judas."
Stanza 2, line 4: Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss in Matthew 26:48-49 and parallels
Stanza 3, line 1: The gospels agree that Jesus had a sort of preliminary hearing before the High Priest before being brought before Pilate, but they also agree that he ended up being tried by Pilate; Matthew 27:2 and parallels
Stanza 3, line 2: Peter's denial is also in all the Gospels, e.g. Matthew 26:69fff.
Stanza 3, line 4: The call to crucify Jesus is in all the gospels, e.g. Matthew 27:22-23
Stanza 4, line 1: The name "Calvary" is from Luke 23:33, which says that Jesus was crucified at the "place of the skull" (κρανιον, kranion); this was translated into the Latin Vulgate of 23:33 as "Calvariae," but the name is not properly Biblical (though someone living in the Middle English period, which knew only the Vulgate, likely would not know this).
Stanza 4, lines 3-4: We have (contradictory) lists of the women who were at the foot of the cross, but no men are named. John 19:26-27 however says that the "disciple that Jesus loved" was there with Mary, mother of Jesus. We do not know who the Beloved Disciple was, but it is cogently argued that it was John son of Zebedee. And the Beloved Disciple is credited as the source of the Fourth Gospel. Hence, John the Evangelist is credited in the song with being by the cross. The Bible nowhere says so explicitly, but it is not a ridiculous assumption.
Stanza 5, line 2: The earthquake when Jesus died is mentioned only in Matthew 27:51, which otherwise follows Mark 15 almost verbatim in this section.
Stanza 5, line 4: John 19:34 says that Jesus's side was pierced by a spear. This is not even hinted at in the other Gospels. There is no Biblical warrant for calling the soldier with the spear "Longus" or "Longeus" or "Longinus"; that's from folklore. (According to Jeffrey, p. 461, "The name of the soldier... arises only in the late sixth century (ca. 586) when it appears in a miniature or illumination in a Syriac manuscript." He was said in the "Gospel of Nicodemus" to be blind, and the blood of Christ cured his blindness, a story which also occurs in several mystery plays; the lance itself came to be part of the grail legend.) The fact that the name is spelled "Longeus" rather than "Longinus" is interesting, because "Longinus" is the form in the Gospel of Nicodemus, but the name is given as "Longeus" or "Longius" in Piers Plowman (in the B text, it's Passus XVIII, line 79, and it has been suggested as an emendation in line 82; Langland/Schmidt, pp. 309-310; in the C text, Passus XX, lines 82, 85; Langland/Pearsall, p. 323). Piers Plowman was very well-known in the Middle Ages; I wonder if it didn't influence this text. Especially given the fact that both inaccurately describe Jesus as being thirty winters old. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: MSOMHIWo

My Heart It Never Was Afraid

DESCRIPTION: "My heart it never was afraid To go and meet my foe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: fight
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1922, "My Heart It Never Was Afraid" (1 fragment)
Roud #15123
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81922

My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold

DESCRIPTION: "My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky, So was it when my life began, So is it now I am a man, So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die. The child is the father to the man, And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each in... piety"
AUTHOR: William Wordsworth
EARLIEST DATE: 1807 (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: children father | rainbow
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 140, "My heart leaps up when I behold" (1 text); p. 149, "So it was when my life began" (1 excerpt)
Roud #25535
File: KSUC140A

My Heart of Gold

See My Lady Went to Canterbury (File: EPMLWtCa)

My heart of gold as true as stele

See My Lady Went to Canterbury (File: EPMLWtCa)

My Heart's in Old Ireland

DESCRIPTION: ""My bark on the billow dashed gloriously on, And glad were the noted of the sailor-boy's song," but the singer is sad, "For my heart's in old Ireland wherever I go." He recalls its beauties, and vows never to leave leave if he ever returns to his cottage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #3)
KEYWORDS: home Ireland ship exile
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 15, "My Heart's in Old Ireland" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 12 and #3/62, p. 10, "My Heart's in Old Ireland" (1 text)
Roud #25090
File: HMHS015A

My Heart's in the Highlands

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to the highlands mountains, valleys, forests, and rivers, and recalls "chasing the wild deer and following the roe My heart's in the highlands where ever I go"
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1790 (according to Kinsley, _Burns_)
KEYWORDS: homesickness farewell travel nonballad animal hunting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 521, "My Heart's in the Highlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, _Burns: Complete Poems and Songs_ (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #418, pp. 418-419, "My heart's in the Highlands" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1790)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #259, p. 268, "My heart's in the Highlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST GrD3521 (Partial)
Roud #5878
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Failte na miosg" (tune, per Burns)
NOTES [61 words]: Although Robert Burns specified a tune for this, it doesn't seem to have stopped others from supplying their own. Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 280, says that Henry Russell in 1837 produced a setting modified from another setting from that year by Henry Phillips. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: GrD3521

My Heart's Tonight in Texas [Laws B23]

DESCRIPTION: A rancher's daughter and her lover must part; the girl's father is sending her to England in hopes that she will marry a nobleman. Eventually an earl proposes to her, but she will marry none but her Texas Jack
AUTHOR: Words: Robert F. Roden / Music: Albert Witt (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (sheet music published by Joseph W. Stern & Co.)
KEYWORDS: separation love
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws B23, "My Heart's Tonight in Texas (By the Silvery Rio Grande; Texas Jack)"
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 179-183, "My Heart's Tonight in Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 525, "My Heart's Tonight in Texas" (1 text)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 38-40, "By the SIlv'ry Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 841, HRTEXAS*
Roud #635
ALTERNATE TITLES:
By the Silvery Rio Grande
Texas Jack
NOTES [83 words]: A piece called "Down by the Silvery Rio Grande" was published in 1913 as by Dave Weisberg, R. F. Roden, and Charles Speidel. I have not seen it, but it is evidently not the original version of this.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 251, estimates that this was the seventh-most popular song in America in November 1900 (#1 for the year being James Thornton's "When You Were Sweet Sixteen"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LB23

My Heart's Turned Back to Dixie

See I'se Gwine Back to Dixie (File: DTheartd)

My Hielan Hame

DESCRIPTION: The singer will not leave his Highland home, where his parents are buried. He is not tempted to leave by promises of "wealth and ease... gold and fame... a glorious name...." "Flowers may bloom fer ayont the sea But oh, my Hielan hame for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1911 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.14(27) but see the notes)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration gold work Scotland father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 97, 153, "My Hielan Hame" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21758
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(27), "My Hieland Hame" ("I canna leave my hieland hame"), J. Lindsay (Glasgow), 1851-1910; also 2806 c.11(25), "My Hielan' Hame"
NOTES [18 words]: McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen dates what is probably Bodleian 2806 c.11(25) "probably circa 1880." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: McSc097

My Hielant Hame

DESCRIPTION: "Oh for a sprig o' my ain Hielant heather." The singer recalls parting from his "faither and mither wha near broken hearted." "Sair was my thochts when I crossed the wide ocean For I had nae friend to welcome me there" He dreams of the old folks at home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration parting Scotland father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 533, "My Hielant Hame" (1 text)
Roud #6012
File: GrD2533

My High Silk Hat

DESCRIPTION: "One day I took with me upon the subway My high silk hat, my high silk hat, I placed it down upon the seat beside me, A big, fat lady came and sat upon it, My hat she broke and that's no joke... Christopher Columbo, what do you think of that?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs)
KEYWORDS: clothes travel campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 160, "My High Silk Hat" (1 text, tune referenced)
Harbin-Parodology, #385, p. 94, "My New Silk Hat" (1 text, tune referenced)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 43, "My New Silk Hat" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 166, 285, 416, 514, "My High Silk Hat"/"My New Silk Hat" (notes only)
DT, SILKHAT
Roud #12793
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Funiculì, Funiculà" (tune, according to Harbin-Parodology)
cf. "A Merry Life" (tune, according to Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs)
File: ACSF166Y

My Highland Home

See My Native Highland Home (File: GrD81892)

My Highland Lassie, O

DESCRIPTION: "I set me down wi' right guid will, To sing my Highland lassie." He prefers her to "gentle dames;" "their titles a' are empty show" If he were rich the world would know his love, but he is poor and will go to India to make his fortune. He will be true.
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: love separation money India nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #76, p. 1, "The Highland Lassie O" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #107, pp. 202-203, "Highland Lassie O--" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1786)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Deuks Dang O'er My Daddy" (tune, per Burns)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Nae Gentle Dames Though E'er So Fair
NOTES [28 words]: Greig: "His [Burns's] first reference to ["Highland"] Mary [Campbell?] is in a song, contributed anonymously to Johnson's Musical Museum, "The Highland Lassie, O" - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Grg076a

My Home in Fermoy

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls "those bright golden hours I spent long ago in my home in Fermoy" "far away o'er the wide spreading ocean": school, the Blackwater, Castlehyde, and the Angelus bells. He hopes to return but knows that many he left behind have died.
AUTHOR: Kate Dowling (source: OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (according to OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: home travel return Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 104-105, "My Home in Fermoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OCan104

My Home in Sweet Glenlea

DESCRIPTION: Singer travels to South Africa, Hindustan, Java, and Palestine, thinking all the time "the fairest was Glenlea." After an earthquake in San Francisco, he writes home for money. He returned, is met by a great crowd, marriess and lives happily in Glenlea.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: parting travel return marriage Africa America India Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 62-65, "My Home in Sweet Glenlea" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [67 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "[The singer] thinks it was written by a man called Cronin, who probably never ventured further from home than an occasional trip to Macroom." - BS
Presumablly shortly after the 1906 San Francicso earthquake. Such a late date also has the advantage that the singer would have heard of some of those places. The mention of South Africa might have been suggested by the Boer War. - RBW
File: OCan062

My Home Is on the Mountain

DESCRIPTION: The singer expresses a hope and a prayer to be reunited with mother: "I want to see my mother, O can't you call her here? / It wouldn't seem so hard to die to have my mother near...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: religious reunion death
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 78, "My Home Is on the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC078 (Partial)
NOTES [41 words]: Cazden et al know of no other collections of this lyric, although the melody is similar to the familiar hymn tunes "Imandra" and "Milton."
They file the piece among "religious songs," but it feels a bit like a Civil War "dying soldier boy" song. - RBW
File: FSC078

My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going back to North Carolina (x3), I never expect to see you any more." Repeat with "I'm going to leave here Monday morning," "How can I ever keep from crying," "I'm going across the Blue Ridge Mountains."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (JAFL)
KEYWORDS: love home separation farewell nonballad parting
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 124, "I'm Goin' Back to North Carolina" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 228, "My Home's Across the Smoky Mountains" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 11, "My Home's in Charlotte, North Caroline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 278, "My Home's Across the Smoky Mountains" (1 text plus a fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 278, "My Home's Across the Smoky Mountains" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 79-80, "My Home's Across the Smoky Mountains" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #55, "Icy Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune, which Roud gives its own entry, #3417, but which is clearly a version of this song)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 242, "I'm Going Back to North Carolina" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 42, "My Home's Across The Smokey Mountains" (1 text)
DT, HOMSMOK
ST Wa124 (Full)
Roud #7686
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley, Garley Foster, Dock Walsh & Doc Watson, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01)
Frank Bode, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (on FBode1)
Carolina Tar Heels, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (Victor V-40100, 1929)
Carter Family, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (Decca 5532, 1938/Decca X2184, n.d.)
Judy Cook, "I'm Going Back to North Carolina" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #381, recorded 12/14/2022, with a non-standard tune)
Delmore Brothers, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (Bluebird B-8247, 1939)
Shirley Glenn, Derek Piotr, "I'm Going Back to North Carolina" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #184, recorded 06/06/2022)
Kelly Harrell, "I'm Going Back to North Carolina" (OKeh 40505, 1925; on KHarrell01)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "My Home's Across the Smoky Mountains" (AAFS 3155 B2)
Poplin Family, "My Home Is Not In South Carolina" (on Poplin01)
Pete Seeger, "My Home's Across the Smoky Mountains" (on PeteSeeger25)
Arthur Smith, "Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (Bluebird B-7221, 1937)
Jack Wallin, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (on Wallins1)
Guy Wolff, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #467, recorded 01/26/2023)
File: Wa124

My Home's Across the Smokey Mountains

See My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains (File: Wa124)

My Home's Across the Smoky Mountains

See My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains (File: Wa124)

My Home's in Charlotte, North Carolina

See My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains (File: Wa124)

My Home's in Montana

DESCRIPTION: "My home's in Montana, I wear a bandana, My spurs are of silver, my pony is gray. While riding the ranges my luck never changes, With my foot in the stirrup I gallop for aye." The cowboy sketches the life of a horseman following cattle in the wilderness
AUTHOR: Words: Christine Turner Curtis (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 ("Singing Days" series)
KEYWORDS: work cowboy nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 1, "My Home's in Montana" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #72, "Cowboy Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 30-31, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune, with four verses that are clearly "Streets of Laredo" but an opening that is "My Home's in Montana")
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 247, "My Home's in Montana" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 51, "My Home's in Montana" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 22, "My Home's in Montana" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] (tune & meter, floating lyrics) and references there
cf. "The Unfortunate Rake" (tune, floating lyrics)
NOTES [62 words]: This was apparently composed (based on elements of "The Streets of Laredo") as a cowboy song suitable for young people. There are reports of versions from Montana, possibly unprintable. See the notes in Ohrlin for the background.
Larkin-SingingCowboy's text may be a "missing link": It's largely "Streets of Laredo," but it starts with the "home in Montana" half-verse. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Ohr001

My Home's in Old Virginny

DESCRIPTION: "My home's in old Virginny Amongst the lovely hills; The 'membrance of my birthplace Lies in my bosom still." But the singer wanted to ramble. He courted a girl. When drunk, he attacked a man. Now he is to be hanged. He says not to forget the song
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2)
KEYWORDS: home travel homicide courting drink floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 80, "My Home's in Old Virginny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7109
File: BuMa2080

My Horses Ain't Hungry

See The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)

My House

DESCRIPTION: "My house is built by an old sheep corral, And I've lived there so long I've got used to the smell, But I live there so merrily, so merrily alone, In the valley of Juab, though Springfield's my home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: home sheep | smell
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, p. 132, "My House" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #10859
NOTES [52 words]: Juab is a county in Utah, very sparsely settled; it looks like a rectangle with a sort of handle on the end. The west end of the rectangle is on the Nevada/Utah border; the east end, where the handle is, is around the town of Nephi, almost due south of Provo, Utah. "Springville" is a town just south of Provo. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS132

My Household

See I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song) (File: R352)

My Husband's a Mason

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells how her (husband/father/boyfriend/old man) works all day at his trade and then comes home and plies his trade upon her, e.g. "My husband's a mason... All day he lays bricks... At night he comes home and lays me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949
KEYWORDS: work sex bawdy incest
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,SW) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 55-61, "My Husband's a Mason" (6 texts, 2 tunes)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 115, "My Old Man" (1 text)
Roud #10268
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Used to Work in Chicago" (theme)
NOTES [91 words]: In some of Cray-EroticMuse's versions the final sexual act ("lays me/screws me/drives me/etc.") is replaced by the euphemism "drinks tea." One wonders what peculiar impulse drove anyone to sing such an explicit song and then use such a silly euphemism.
Although Cray-EroticMuse's versions are all modern, he traces the device back to the 1707 edition of Pills to Purge Melancholy. - RBW
Why would anyone sing the euphemistic version, Bob asks? Because in the right company, it's even funnier when the listeners make the connection themselves. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM055

My Husband's Got No Courage in Him

DESCRIPTION: (Two women meet); one laments, "(My) husband's got no courage in him." She describes all she has done to encourage his "courage," but all attempts have failed. (Even now she still has her maidenhead.) (She hopes he dies so she can find another)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1701 (broadside NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(053))
KEYWORDS: wife husband sex disability
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 213, "Rue the Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan7 1367, "My Husband's Got No Courage in Him" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 67, "O Dear O" (2 texts)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 171, "The Husband With No Courage In Him" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2114, "Of late it was my chance to walke"
DT, NOCOURAG* NOUCOURG2
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, "'Birmingham Broadsides and Oral Tradition" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, p. 44, "O! Dear O! He's Got No Courage In Him" (1 text, probably missing some verses)
Roud #870
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(053), "My Husband Has No Courage In Him," unknown, 1701
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids, When You're Young"
cf. "What Can a Young Lassie"
cf. "The Jolly Barber Lad" (theme)
cf. "The Old Man from Over the Sea"
NOTES [743 words]: Although this sounds like it is just a woman's lament over an impotent (or homosexual?) husband, it's just possible that there is more going on. At least if you believe Roach. Failure to consummate a marriage of course could allow for an annulment -- and, in sixteenth and seventeenth century France, could call for more. Roach, pp. 149-152, told how a man could be sued by his wife for non-performance. In such a case, he had to prove, before witnesses, that he could produce an erection. If he failed, he could be fined and forbidden to remarry -- and the dowry he had gained upon marriage would be forfeit. The inability to "put up" could thus be extremely expensive as well as embarrassing.
The use of the term "courage" for sexual potency goes back to Middle English; we find it in Chaucer's "Merchant's Tale." In this tale, the old man January has just taken a young wife May, and is trying his best to consummate the marriage:
He drynketh ypocras, clarree, and vernage
Of spices hoote t'encreesen his corage....
(Fragment IV, lines 1807-1808 in Chaucer/Benson (p. 161); lines 563-564 of the Merchant's Tale in Chaucer/Donaldson (p. 324); lines 595-596 in Chaucer/Hussey; some older editions call them Fragment E, lines 1806-1807). We might translate:
"He drinks hippocras, clarree, and Vernaccia
Of/with hot spices to increase his courage."
Hippocras is wine mixed with spices and sugar and strained; claree is wine mixed with honey and spices; Vernaccia is a strong Italian wine. None of them in fact increase "courage" (alcohol in fact reduces sexual capability although it does nothing to inhibit lust) but the wine plus the heat of the spices was thought to do so in the Middle Ages.
Chaucer didn't invent this idea of using these techniques; two lines after the above quote we find that January derived his ideas from "daun Constantyn," that is Constantinus Africanus, who, according to Masi, pp. 16-21, wrote among other things a book De Coitu about, well, sex. It was more philosophical than dirty, though; it was a medical text. Constantinus (1015-1087, according to Masi, p. 18) was mostly a translator of Greek and Arabic medical treatises into Latin. The Wife of Bath apparently took information from him also (Masi, pp. 20-21).
Rossignol, p. 92, described De Coitu as follows: "A treatise on sexual intercourse written by an 11th-century monk of Monte Cassino named Constantius Africanus, or Constantine the African, who was considered one of the fathers of Western medicine.... The treatise was known to contain recipes for aphrodisiacs." On p. 97, Rossignol says that Constantine was "referred to simply (and confusingly) as 'Constantyn' by Chaucer, was a merchant, physician and scholar of the 11th century. Born in North Africa, he traveled widely in the Middle East as a merchant, and later became a monk, focusing his studies on medicine and philosophy. Contantine spent his last year at the monastery of Monte Cassino in Salerno, Italy, where he translated a number of Arabic works into Latin. The medical works that he translated gave western Europe its first general view of Greek medicine.... Constantine is mentioned in Chaucer's General Prologue... as one of the medical authorities whose teacher the Doctor of Phisic had studied."
This isn't the only reference to non-performance in the Canterbury Tales, either, although it's the one with the most scholarly background. In this tale, a man Thomas is sick, and his wife complains to a visiting friar that
He is as angry as a pissemyre,
Thogh that he have al that he kan desire;
Thogh I hym wrye nyght and make hym warm,
And on [or ouer] hym leye my leg outher myn arm,
He groneth lyk oure boor lyth in oure sty.
Oother disort right noon of hym have I.
I may nat plese hym in no maner cas
(lines 1825-1831 in Chaucer/Plummer, pp. 135-136; equivalent to Fragment III, lines 1825-1831 in Chaucer/Benson (p. 130); lines 117-123 of the Summoner's Tale in Chaucer/Donaldson (p. 249); some older editions call them Fragment D, lines 1825-1831). We might translate:
He is as angry as a pissmire (=ant),
Though he has he has everything that he can desire,
Though I cover him up each night and keep him warm,
And on/over him lay my leg or else my arm,
He groans like our boar that lies in our stye,
Other sporting of him absolutely none have I;
I cannot please him in any sort of way.
Thus the ideas behind this song are very old in English, and even older in other languages. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: K213

My Irish Jaunting Car (The Irish Boy)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm Larry McHugh, a boy so true, I belong to the Emerald Isle." He tells how the girls "Think it a trate to take a seat and be drove in my jaunting car." He offers rides to all, and guidance on the best places to buy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: technology travel nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H592, p. 41, "My Irish Jaunting Car" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13464
NOTES [12 words]: Not to be confused with the much more common "The Irish Jaunting Car." - RBW
File: HHH592

My Irish Molly-O

DESCRIPTION: The singer, (a Scotsman,) is in love with Molly. Her parents oppose the match (because he is not Catholic). Unable to win his love, he is ready to die (and makes preparations for burial). (Common versions often lose the plot, and simply speak of courting)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Joyce, The Native Music of Ireland)
KEYWORDS: love separation death courting
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE) Ireland Australia Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #111, p. 2, "Irish Molly" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1088, "Irish Mally, O"; Greig/Duncan6 1158, "The Gipsy's Warning" (11 texts, 8 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 131, "Irish Molly, O" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 62, "My Irish Molly-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #234, Irish Mollie-O" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 177-178, "Irish Molly-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 52, "Irish Molly O" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 606, "Irish Molly O" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 92, "Irish Molly O" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1057, p. 72, "Irish Molly, O" (1 reference)
DT, IRSHMOLL*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 214-215, "Irish Molly"
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 186-187, 512, "Irish Molly"
Roud #2168
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1787), "Irish Molly, O!" ("As I walk'd out one morning all in the month of May"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(2121), Firth b.28(35) View 2 of 2[some words illegible], Johnson Ballads fol. 114, Harding B 11(4209), Harding B 17(140b), Johnson Ballads 2582, Firth c.26(181), Harding B 20(257), Firth c.26(137), 2806 c.15(243), Firth c.14(204), 2806 b.11(252), "Irish Molly, O[!]"; Johnson Ballads 340, "Irish Molly!"
LOCSinging, as106290, "Irish Molly, O," Harris (Philadelphia), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.1270(006), "Irish Molly, O," James Kay (Glasgow), c. 1845; also L.C.178.A.2(256), "Irish Molly O," unknown, c. 1860
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Often Think of Writing Home" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Lass of Swansea Town (Swansea Barracks) (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(2071) )
I Often Think of Writing Home (File: RcIOTOWH)
NOTES [158 words]: Greig/Duncan6 1158's two fragments entitled "The Gipsy's Warning," Roud #7358, are female and male variants of the "never lay your love On the top of a tree. The branches will wither ..." verse. The notes quote Greig: "Thinks this may be chorus of the 'Gipsy's Warning.'" The notes also say, "The printed text [of Cox's version of 'The Gypsy's Warning' in Folk-Songs of the South, Cox-FolkSongsSouth 149 in this index] does not contain [these] words"; neither does the text of "Gypsy's Warning" at Digital Tradition GYPWARN, quoted from Folk Songs Out of Wisconsin. For lack of evidence that this verse goes anyplace else I have stowed it with "Irish Molly, O" which often includes that verse and has been found in Scotland [see Greig/Duncan6 1088]. - BS
There was a 1905 pop song, "My Irish Molly-O," credited to William Jerome (words) and Jean Schwartz (music). Since the song was already in existence, that obviously was not the original. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FSC062

My Irish Polly

See The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)

My Jesus Led Me To the Rock

DESCRIPTION: "My Jesus led me to the rock; Oh my! Oh my! I heard such a ramblin' in the sky, I tho't 'twas my Lord comin' down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 31, "My Jesus Led Me To the Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [10 words]: The description is the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa031

My Johnnie Was a Shoemaker

See My Johnny Was a Shoemaker (File: OLcM044)

My Johnny

DESCRIPTION: Basically a lament for Johnny, who apparently died and was buried at sea. "We're homeward bound today ... We'll drink and play (etc) but always think of Johnny" Chorus: "In the middle of the sea, my boy is floating free, so far away from me, my love."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Richard Runciman Terry, _The Shanty Book_)
KEYWORDS: foc's'le shanty lament farewell
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 539-540, "My Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [16 words]: Rather slow and sentimental for a shanty, but Terry's source said it was used at the capstan. - SL
File: Hugi539

My Johnny Was a Shoemaker

DESCRIPTION: "My Johnny was a shoemaker But now he's gone to sea." He will be a captain "Of a bold and galliant crew And then across the sea he'll roam All for to marry me ... And when I am a captain's wife I'll sing the whole day long"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, LOCSinging as202550)
KEYWORDS: courting separation sailor nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England,Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 181, "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan8 1848, "Oh My Johnny Was a Shoemaker" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #110, p. 3, "My Johnnie Was a Shoemaker" (1 text)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 181, "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sumner-TheBesomMaker, pp. 11-12, "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 44, "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1514, p. 103, "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 44 and #5/64, p. 44, "Johnny was a Shoemaker" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 8, "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JOHNSHOE
ADDITIONAL: Heywood Sumner, The Besom Maker (London, 1888 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 11-12, "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1388
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(366), "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also Harding B 18(670), "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker"
LOCSinging, as202550, "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also sb20295b, "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker"
NOTES [121 words]: Broadsides LOCSinging as202550 and Bodleian Harding B 18(366) are duplicates.
Broadsides LOCSinging sb20295b and Bodleian Harding B 18(670) are duplicates.
The description is from broadside LOCSinging as202550.
Greig/Duncan8 speculates that the Greig text is "probably from print as he does not identify any source." Greig's text is very close to the De Marsan texts but excludes the chorus "But now he's gone to reef top-sail, And sail across the briny sea, e, e, e--, My Johnny was a shoemaker."
Broadside LOCSinging as202550 and Bodleian Harding B 18(366): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OLcM044

My Jolly Playmate

See See, See, My Playmate (File: OpGa148)

My Jolly Shantyboy

DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears a girl praising her shantyboy and lamenting that her parents dislike him. She is advised to marry a drygoods clerk rather than "throw herself away." But "If I had my will I'd love him still, my jolly shantyboy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: love logger mother father separation
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #55, "My Jollu Shantyboy" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #4383
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonny Laboring Boy" [Laws M14] (tune, theme)
NOTES [66 words]: Fowke considers this a reworking of "The Bonny Laboring Boy" [Laws M14], and this is nearly certain; it's absolutely certain that it's derived from a song of that type. I thought about lumping them, as I did with "The Railroad Boy." But this song is so defective (only two stanzas) that we cannot tell its final outcome; I think it has to remain separate until we find a version with an ending. - RBW
File: FowL55

My Jolly Waggoner, Drive On!

DESCRIPTION: The singer won't have a carpenter, blacksmith, cowman, shepherd, reaper, thresher or miller. She'd "rather have a waggoner", "to whip me ..." "with his whips", "on the back", "a good deal", "instead", though he be poor or "stupid as a block"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 236-237, "My Jolly Waggoner, Drive On!" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 459)
Roud #1302
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me" (theme) and references there
NOTES [101 words]: The chorus of Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, "Way! Wo-utt! Drive on! My jolly waggoner, drive on" is reminiscent of the chorus of "The Jolly Waggoner": "And sing wo, my lads, sing wo! Drive on my lads, I-ho! And who wouldn't lead the life of a jolly waggoner!" (source: Bell). However, that song is about the pleasures and problems of waggoning from the waggoner's viewpoint. This song is much closer to the songs that Roud lumps with it, such as "Soldier Boy for Me." On the other hand, the "whip me" line of thinking taken by the singer seems to me not at all like the approach of those other songs. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT236

My Jolly-Hearted Ploughboy

DESCRIPTION: "Sailors they are fickle, And the gardeners they're nae true, But my jolly-hearted ploughboy, I'll go along wi' you." It's fine on the sea but she wishes she were in her lover's arms. He gives her "the napkin frae his neck Which cost him guineas three"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad clothes farming
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 845, "My Jolly-Hearted Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6223
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sailors They Are Fickle
File: GrD4845

My Joy and Comfort

See Come Write Me Down (The Wedding Song) (File: K126)

My Kentucky Home

DESCRIPTION: "As I stand here in the woods I wonder why I ever left, I wonder if I ever did leave." The singer recalls how it was when she was a girl. She wonders about those she knew. She and her old dog head home, slowly, because they are old; the memories linger
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (HCargillFamily)
KEYWORDS: home dog nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Acie Kargill, Ellen Wright, John Wright, "My Kentucky Home" (on HCargillFamily)
NOTES [68 words]: There are several songs on HCargillFamily which do not occur elsewhere, and they frankly have a similar style, much less effective than the traditional pieces. Because of their style, I think it likely they are by a single author. And that author was likely Hattie Mae Tyler Cargill, since this song at least is the song of an old woman (definitely a woman) looking back on her life. But I can't prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: RcMyKeHo

My Kentucky Jane

See Hungry Hash House (File: San207)

My Lad's a Sailor

DESCRIPTION: "My lad's a sailor ... he's going to marry me." In twenty-five days "I'll trim my hat wi' velvet, and gie my lad a dram"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: marriage clothes drink nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1582, "My Lad's a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13504
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Five-and-Twenty Masons" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
File: GrD81582

My Lad's a Terry

DESCRIPTION: "My lad's a terry" and a toff. "He says he loves me I know it's true"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 84, "My Lad's a Terry" (2 texts)
NOTES [65 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "The song just possibly celebrates the inauguration of the Territorial Force in 1908, which caused much excitement at the time and was the source of a number of popular songs." ["The Territorial Force (TF) was the volunteer component of the British Army from 1908 to 1920, when it became the Territorial Army" (source: Wikipedia article Territorial Force )]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa084

My Laddie Sits Ower Late Up

DESCRIPTION: "My laddie sits ower late up, My hinny sits ower late up.... Betwixt the pint pot and the cup." The singer calls Johnny home to his bairn, lamenting the money he wastes: "When I cry out, 'Laddie, cum hame,' He calls oot again for mair beer."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: home drink wife husband
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, p. 192, "My Laddie Sits Ower Late Up" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR192 (Full)
Roud #3181
File: StoR192

My Lady Greensleeves

See Greensleeves (File: ChWI239)

My Lady Queen Anne

See Queen Anne (File: BGMG186N)

My Lady Went to Canterbury

DESCRIPTION: "My heart of gold as true as steel." "My lady went to Canterbury, The saint to be her bothe." Nonsense verses, ending, "Terlery lorpyn, the laverock sant, So merrily pipes the sparrow. The cow broke lose, the rope ran home; Sir, God give you good morrow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (Ravenscroft, Pammellia); c. 1545 (Kele)
KEYWORDS: nonsense humorous travel bird animal clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #473, p. 318, "(My lady went to Caunterbury)" (1 text)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics CLI, pp. 254-255, "(no title)" (1 text)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 143-144, "My Heart of Gold" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #2250.8
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3620
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _Selections from the Works of Thomas Ravenscroft; A Musical Composer of the Time of King James the First_, Roxburgh Club, 1822 (available on Google Books), No XIII/p. 7, "My Lady's Gone to Canterbury" (1 text, 1 tune)
Edward Bliss Reed, editor, _Christmas Carols Printed in the Sixteenth Century Including Kele's Christmas carolles newely Inprynted reproduced in facsimile from the copy in the Huntington Library_, Harvard University Press, 1932, pp. 38-40 [20-22], "(no title)" (1 text)
Douglas Gray, _The Oxford Book of Late Medieval Verse and Prose_, Oxford University Press, 1985, pp. 174-175, "A Nonsense Song" (1 text)
ST EPMLWtCa (Partial)
NOTES [212 words]: There are only two copies of this, both printed, neither from a particularly traditional source: There is a copy in Kele's book of Christmas Carols, c. 1550, with refrain "My harte of golde as true as stele, As I melened to a bough, In fayth but yf ye loue me well, Lorde, so Robyn lough." The first verse is "My lady went to Caunterbury, The Saynt to be her bothe [i.e. probably "boot," helper], She met with Cate of Malmesbery; Why wepyst thou in an apple rote [root]." It has eight verses plus the chorus.
Half a century later, Ravenscroft's Pammelia has a piece "My heart of gold as true as steele, As I me leant into the bowers, But if my Lady love me well, Lord so Robin lowres." A later verse runs, "My Lady's gone to Canterbury, St. Thomas to be her boote, She met wit Kate of Malmesbury, Why weep'st thou maple Root?" It has four verses (what was Kele's chorus becomes the first verse) and a round, "Ut re me fa sol la, la so fa me re ut, Hey downe down, hey down down a," as a chorus.
Throw in the significant difference in time between the two printings, the substantial differences in the text, and the fact that this is one of the earliest English nonsense songs, there seems a real possibility that this is a folk song, and I felt it deserved indexing. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: EPMLWtCa

My lady went to Caunterbury

See My Lady Went to Canterbury (File: EPMLWtCa)

My lady's gone to Canterbury

See My Lady Went to Canterbury (File: EPMLWtCa)

My Lagan Love

DESCRIPTION: "Where Lagan stream sings lullaby, There blows a lily fair." The singer admits the girl "has my heart in thrall. No life I own, nor liberty, For love is lord of all." The singer recalls the girl's life in the bogs and her sweet songs
AUTHOR: Joseph Campbell
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (recording, John McCormack)
KEYWORDS: love beauty courting nonballad bug music
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, LAGANLUV*
Roud #1418
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "My Lagan Love" (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wake of William Orr" (tune)
NOTES [29 words]: According to the notes on IRMBarry-Fairs, this art song entered the traditional repertoire (to the extent it did) as a result of a pop recording by John McCormack in 1910. - RBW
File: DTlaganl

My Last Farewell to Stirling

DESCRIPTION: The convict bitterly prepares to leave Stirling for Van Dieman's Land. He laments the pheasants he will not disturb, the rabbits he cannot hunt. He bids farewell to his (Jeannie), and hopes she will find another love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: love separation transportation hunting poaching
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1534, "Farewell to Stirling" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #171, p. 1, "Farewell to Stirling" (1 text)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 23, "My Last Farewell to Stirling" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 13, "My Last Farewell to Stirling" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FAREWLST
Roud #5160
File: PASB023

My Last Gold Dollar

DESCRIPTION: "My last (gold/ole) dollar is gone (x2), My whiskey bill is due an' my board bill too...." "Oh darling, I'm crazy about you... and another girl too..." "Oh darling, won't you go my bail?..." "Oh darling, six months ain't too long...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (American Mountain Songs)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes prison courting drink
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 671, "My Last Gold Dollar" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 381-382, "My Last Gold Dollar" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 671A)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 112, "My Last Gold Dollar" (1 single-stanza fragment)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 96, "My Last Ole Dollar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 149, "My Last Ole Dollar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 130-131, "My Last Old Dollar" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDOLLAR*
Roud #4310
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "The Last Gold Dollar" (on BLLunsford01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground" (floating lyrics)
cf. "New River Train" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Six Months Ain't Long" (lyrics)
NOTES [86 words]: We might note that the line "last gold dollar" had a slightly different meaning in the nineteenth century. During the Civil War, the Union government issued both gold-backed and unbacked ("greenback") dollars. The greenbacks were, not surprisingly, treated with less respect and discounted. A man who spend his last gold dollar might still have money -- but only the less valuable greenbacks.
Of course, since the song is often sung "My last OLD dollar," that may be just a bit of excessive historical analysis. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: R671

My Last Ol' Dollar

See My Last Gold Dollar (File: R671)

My Last Old Dollar

See My Last Gold Dollar (File: R671)

My Last Ole Dollar

See My Last Gold Dollar (File: R671)

My Laughter Is Over, My Step Loses Lightness

See The Ash Grove (Llwyn On) (File: FSWB336B)

My Li'l John Henry

See Little John Henry (File: LoF300)

My Little Brown Mule

DESCRIPTION: "His mammy's a burro, his daddy's a horse, Of course you'll all think it's a mighty queer cuss," but it's "as smart as a cricket, my little brown mule." Always in trouble, it knows every horse and is "wise as a parson." The singer will never sell it
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys); reportedly written 1912
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse animal commerce
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 104-105, "My Little Brown Mule" (1 text)
File: ThLo104

My Little Dear, So Fare You Well

See Farewell, Sweetheart (The Parting Lovers, The Slighted Sweetheart) (File: R756)

My Little English Home Across the Sea

See My Little German Home Across the Sea (File: R870)

My Little Four-Leaf Shamrock from Glenore, The

See The Shamrock from Glenore (File: HHH034)

My Little German Home Across the Sea

DESCRIPTION: "How I love to think about the days so full of joy and glee, But they never will come back again to me." The singer recalls home and family in Germany, but now mother and father are dead and he cannot return home. He wishes he could
AUTHOR: George S. Knight ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Pound); reportedly copyrighted 1877
KEYWORDS: home Germany family mother father separation emigration
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 870, "My Little German Home Across the Sea" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 536-538, "My Little German Home Across the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 870A)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 57, "The Little German Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 282-283, "My Little English Home Across the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 91, "I Left My German Home" (1 text)
Roud #7429
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "I Left My German Home" (No known Columbia release; recorded 1930)
Jim Rice, "My Little Home Across the Sea" (on MUNFLA/Leach) [the home is "English"]
Ernest V. Stoneman, "My Little German Home Across the Sea" (Edison 51909, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
NOTES [46 words]: This piece is probably based on Will S. Hays's "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane;" it uses the same melody for the verse, although the chorus is missing. "Log Cabin" of course gave us an assortment of other parodies, including "The Little Old Sod Shanty on my Claim." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: R870

My Little Home Across the Sea

See My Little German Home Across the Sea (File: R870)

My Little Home in Tennessee

DESCRIPTION: "Ev're night I'm greaming of that little home Down among the hills of Tennessee." It's "just a little shack," but the birds sing there, and mother lived there until she died. But another man won the singer's beloved, so he wanders broken-hearted
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: home love rejection mother rambling
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 106, "My Little Home in Tennessee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11389
RECORDINGS:
Blue Sky Boys, "My Little Home in Tennessee" (Bluebird 8143/Montgomery Ward 7327)
The Carter Family, "My Little Home in Tennessee" (Victor CNV-102)
File: Brne106

My Little Kerry Cow

See My Little Kerry Gow (My Kerry Cow) (File: Shoe150)

My Little Kerry Gow (The Kerry Cow)

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis in Connacht and in Munster, you may travel far and wide... But you'll never find the likes of her... my little Kerry cow." The King of Spain, the men of Ulster, the Cardinals' College would all seek her, but she is grazing on his "good green grass"
AUTHOR: Winifred Mabel Letts (1882-1972) ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: animal cattle nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 150-151, "My Little Kerry Gow" (1 text) (pp. 127-128 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #9739
NOTES [188 words]: The only copy of this I could find with an attribution credited it to Winifred Mabel Letts. Poems by Letts seem to have been fairly widely distributed -- Granger's Index to Poetry has entries for seventeen of them (none of which I'd ever heard of; most of the citations were from just a few anthologies). I have no real reason to doubt the attribution -- Letts was half-Irish, and visited frequently in her youth, then moved there when her father died. But... Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania's field collection is from 1918, when Letts was just 36. According to Wikipedia, her first book of poetry, Songs from Leinster, had been published in 1913, and the musical setting, A Sheaf of Songs from Leinster with music by C. V. Stafford, came out in 1914. Was that enough time for the song to get to Pennsylvania and have its author forgotten? I don't know; I have not seen a copy of Songs from Leinster.
The title in Shoemaker's third edition is unquestionably "My Little Kerry Gow" (with a G, not a C), so I've used that ttle, but this may have been an error; in the first edition, it's "My Little Kerry Cow." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Shoe150

My Little Old Home on the Hill

DESCRIPTION: "In a hillside that slopes toward the setting of the sun Stands a little old house all alone." It was where the singer grew up. He remembers his mother working there, and "old dad, so unselfish and fine." Even in bad weather, he was happy
AUTHOR: Jesse Moore (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 ("Favorite Radio Songs No. 2," according to Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
KEYWORDS: home mother father nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 51, "My Little Old Home on the Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ABLT051

My Little One's Waiting for Me

DESCRIPTION: "In the dell where the brook's gently flowing, On the bench by the old willow tree... My little one's waiting for me." The singer describes how he happily goes home from work (or wherever) to home and the "little one"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love home nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 850, "My Little One's Waiting for Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7450
File: R850

My Little Organ Grinder

See The Organ Grinder (File: EM341)

My Little Rambling Rose

DESCRIPTION: "They called her 'Rambling Rose' because she loved to stray... because she always had her way.... He sweetheart wrote a note:" "Someday you''ll ramble back to me, my little Rambling Rose." It takes a long time, but she finally comes home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (Bethke-AdirondackVoices)
KEYWORDS: love separation return home
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, pp. 118-119, "My Little Rambling Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2979
File: Beth118

My Little Sister Dressed In Pink

DESCRIPTION: "My little sister dressed in pink, She washed the dishes in the sink. How many dishes did she break? One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: playparty clothes colors sister | pink sink dishes
FOUND IN: New Zealand US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 108, "(My little sister)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 61, "My Little Sister" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #70, "(My little sister Dressed in pink)"; #137, "(I had a little sister Dressed in pink)" (2 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #131, "I had a little sister (My little sister)" (1 text)
Roud #19419
File: SuSm108B

My Little Sister, Dressed in Pink

See Cinderella Dressed in Yellow (File: CarMM079)

My Little Soul's Going to Shine

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going to join the great association (x3), Then my little soul's going to shine, shine, Then my little soul's going to shine along." Other verses are shared with "Welcome Table." See notes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 122, "I'm Gwine to Jine de Great 'Sociation (Oh, Den My Little Soul's Gwine to Shine)" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 173 in the 1874 edition)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, pp. 56-57, "Oh, My Little Soul'S Going to Shine" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: J. B. T. Marsh, The Story of the Jubilee Singers (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1903 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #28 p. 185, "Shine, Shine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11955
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Welcome Table" (floating verses)
NOTES [81 words]: Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute has the "great association" verse, as well as "I'm going to climb up Jacob's ladder (climb up higher and higher, sit at the welcome table, feast of milk and honey, tell God how you serve me, join the big baptizing)." Work has "I'm going to tell God all my troubles," "Bury my body in the east of the garden." Marsh has "I'm going to sit at the welcome table (tell God about my trial, walk about that city)." - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Dett122

My Little Wet Hole in the Trench

DESCRIPTION: "I've a little wet hole in a trench, Where rainstorms continually drench, There are star shells that shine, Each night just at nine, And a lot of things you civvies miss" such as various types of shells and of vermin and of smells
AUTHOR: Tom Skeyhill (source: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (source: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes | rain mud
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 58, "My Little Wet Hole in the Trench" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Little Grey Home in the West" (tune, according to Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
File: AWTBW058

My little woman shakes like jelly all over

See Evalina (I) (File: FrGB185)

My Little Yaller Coon

DESCRIPTION: "My little yaller coon Done got back here so soon, Dat I ain't yet got De big fat coon For de 'tater an' de pone, To eat in de light of de moon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: food animal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 179, (no title) (1fragment)
NOTES [31 words]: Scarborough considers this a song about eating raccoons. Given the coon's diet, I rather doubt it was ever considered a delicacy; I wonder if there isn't something else going on here. - RBW
File: ScaNF179

My Lone Rock by the Sea

DESCRIPTION: "Oh tell me not the woods are fair Now spring is on the way." The singer admits the beauty of the land, "But ask me, woo me not to leave My lone rock by the sea." He describes the beauties of life by the shore
AUTHOR: Charlie C. Converse
EARLIEST DATE: 1857 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: home sea nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 842, "My Lone Rock by the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2018, p. 135, "The Rock Beside the Sea" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #11, p. 39, "The Rock Beside the Sea" (1 text)
Roud #7447
NOTES [27 words]: According to Spaeth, this tune later supplied part of the melody for "Aloha Oe." And Randolph's source noted its connection to "these fool 'Hawaiian' songs." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R842

My Long Journey Home

See Two Dollar Bill (Long Journey Home) (File: CSW177)

My Lord 'Size

DESCRIPTION: "The jailor for trial had brought up a thief" as lawyers look for work and gawkers look for sensation -- when the notice the body of Lord 'Size. Witnesses are sought and questioned. The jury is trying to reach a verdict when the body comes to life
AUTHOR: Words: John Shield
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: humorous trial judge lawyer
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 142-144, "My Lord 'Size" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3164
NOTES [75 words]: According to Stokoe, this "is commemorative of an unlucky accident that actually occurred to one of Her Majesty's Judges of Assize, Baron Graham, about the year 1810." Though, in 1810, the King was George III and it wouldn't have been Her Majesty's Judge....
The whole thing reminds me very much of the Barrister's Dream in The Hunting of the Snark, though such courtroom jokes are common in English literature (see, e.g., The Pickwick Papers). - RBW
File: StoR142

My Lord Delibered Daniel

See Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel (File: FSWB370A)

My Lord Derwater

See Lord Derwentwater [Child 208] (File: C208)

My Lord Knows the Way

DESCRIPTION: "My Lord knows the way through the wilderness -- all I have to do is follow (x2). Strength for today is mine all the way, and all I need for tomorrow; My Lord knows...."
AUTHOR: Sidney E. Cox
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 81, "My Lord Knows the Way" (2 texts, tune under #80; sung as a medley with #80, "Heavenly Sunlight (Heavenly Sunshine)")
ST FSC081 (Full)
File: FSC081

My Lord Says There's Room Enough in Heaven for Us All

See Room Enough (File: JDM094)

My Lord, What a Morning

See When the Stars Begin to Fall (File: LoF237)

My Lord, What a Mourning

See When the Stars Begin to Fall (File: LoF237)

My Lord's Riding All the Time

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "He sees all you do and He hears all you say, My Lord's a-riding all the time (x2)." Verses: "When I was down in Egypt, I heard a mighty talking about the promised land." "Come down come down my Lord come down, And take me up to wear the crown"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute); 1893 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 150, "My Lord's a-Riding All the Time" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 98 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
Roud #15244
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Can't Stay In Egypt Land" (theme: this world is Egypt)
NOTES [84 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "My Lord's a-riding all the time."
The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "My Lord's a-riding all the time" on page 98, with the note "Fisk Jubilee Collection, by permission" (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 98. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Dett150

My Lost Love

See The Rejected Lover [Laws P10] (File: LP10)

My Love

DESCRIPTION: "My love, why art thou straying From my heart so warm and true?" The singer wonders why her love has gone to sea. Her love is not fading during his years away. She wishes she could sail with him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Journal of the Andrew Hicks)
KEYWORDS: love sailor separation nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 280-281, "My Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27509
File: HGam280

My Love for You Will Never Fail

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope or autograph album rhyme. "My love for you will never fail As long as a monkey has a fail, And if that tail is cut in two, That won't stop me loving you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: animal love jumprope | monkey tail
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #371, "My love for you will never fail" (1 text)
NOTES [35 words]: The nitpicker in me can't help but note that, while one of the characteristics that distinguish monkeys from apes is the fact that all apes lack tails, there are tail-less monkeys -- in particular, baboons. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR371

My Love He Is a Sailor Lad

DESCRIPTION: "My love he is a sailor lad He's on the ocean blue." The singer says her sailor's heart is "the compass true" that points to her. She turns her head aside when landsmen smile at her and wishes for a safe breeze to bring him home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad sailor separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 939, "My Love He Is a Sailor Lad" (1 text)
Roud #6754
File: GrD5939

My Love He Stands

DESCRIPTION: The singer thinks of when her love stood "in yon stable door ... combing down his yellow hair." He's "across the sea ... forsaken a lover true And followed the one that ye never knew" She wonders if he thinks of her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1086, "My Love He Stands" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Roud #6776
File: GrD61086

My Love in Newfoundland

DESCRIPTION: "In many lands I've wandered, In many climes I've roved... But since I crossed the water, A new light on me shine In the beauties of a daughter Of this enchanted Isle." The singer declares, "I'll toast both now and ever The Belle of Newfoundland"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Old Songs of Newfoundland)
KEYWORDS: love sailor travel beauty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, editor, _Old Songs of Newfoundland_, James Murphy Publishing, 1912 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 8, "My Love in Newfoundland" (1 text)
NOTES [43 words]: Murphy claims that this was written by an officer of HMS Hydra, which had been assigned to Newfoundland around 1861. He also claims it was widely sung in Newfoundland. I've seen no evidence of it being traditional, but I'm including it on that basis. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: JMOS08

My Love is a Rider

See The Bucking Broncho (The Broncho Buster) [Laws B15] (File: LB15)

My Love Is Like a Dewdrop

See Farewell He (File: FSC41)

My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose

DESCRIPTION: "My love is like a red, red rose that's newly sprung in June, My love is like a melody that's sweetly sprung in June." The singer promises to love "Till all the seas gang dry" and return to his love though his voyage takes him "ten thousand mile"
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (Urbani's _Scots Songs_, according to Lindsay)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad separation return beauty
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #105, "My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 140, "My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose" (1 text)
DT, REDREDRO*
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #453, p. 582, "A red red rose" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1794)
Roud #12946
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. McGrath, "My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose" (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743)
SAME TUNE:
I Have No Pain, Dear Mother, Now (File: BrPa043B)
NOTES [227 words]: The irony of this song, of course, is that Burns himself was about as constant as -- well, we won't go into that....
I don't know if this song ever did much in tradition, but it's certainly one of the more often-printed of Burns's poems (printed, e.g., as item CXC in Palgrave's Golden Treasury).
It took some time for the song to settle on a tune. According to Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, p. 367, Urbani, who first published it, had his own tune, reporting, "the words of the RED, RED ROSE were obligingly given to him by a celebrated Scots Poet, who was so struck with them when sung by a country girl that he wrote them down, and, not being pleased with the air, begged the Author to set them to Music in the style of a Scots Tune, which he has done accordingly." It doesn't sound as if this was really Burns's idea, though; when Burns gave it to the Scots Musical Museum, he used Gow's "Major Graham" as the melody. Thomson then published it in 1799 in Original Scottish Airs, rewritten to fit a tune by Marshall called "Wishaw's Favorite," which forced Thomson to add syllables. Finally one Robert Archibald Smith published it with the tune "Low down in the Broom," which came from the Caledonian Pocket Companion. This tune finally made the song popular. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB140C

My Love Is on the Ocean

See Farewell He (File: FSC41)

My Love is so Pretty

DESCRIPTION: The singer waxes lyrical in his love's praise -- telling how she turns everyone's heads with her straight, slender figure, "mouth always twittering," and "cheeks like cauliflower." He joyfully prepares for his wedding.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage nonballad youth
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 7-9, "My Love is so Pretty" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FO007 (Partial)
Roud #4677
File: FO007

My Love John

See The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)

My Love Lays Cold Beneath My Feet

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls telling tales by the fire. She says she would comfort her love if he appeared. But "My love's laying so cold beneath my feet." She says that he promised to marry her and no other, "but don't my love lay so cold beneath my feet"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: early 1960s (collected from Caroline Hughes)
KEYWORDS: love death burial separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 61, "My Love Lays Cold Beneath My Feet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2513
NOTES [140 words]: When Paul Stamler indexed this book, he despaired of this piece as a conglomerate. MacColl and Seeger couldn't classify it with anything, either.
Caroline Hughes seems to have been one of those unusual people who could gather together lines from all sorts of songs and produce a relatively coherent result. I strongly suspect this is the result of such a process; of the six opportunities for rhyme in the song, only three actually do rhyme, and always with the same word (e.g. "feet" is rhymed with "feet"), and stanza one has an aabc rhyme while stanza 3 is abab. (There are no rhymes in stanza two).
Most such songs have a dominant element, and we would classify them there. This song simply does not. It is, as best I can tell, absolutely unique. So I think we have to classify it separately, a de facto composition of Caroline Hughes. - RBW
File: McCST061

My Love She Lives in Lindolnshire

See Alison and Willie [Child 256] (File: C256)

My Love She's but a Lassie Yet (I)

DESCRIPTION: "My love, she's but a lassie yet (x2), We'll let her stand a year or twa, She'll no be half sae saucy yet!" Singer tells of a hard courtship, calls for more drink, and concludes, "The minister kisst the fiddler's wife, He couldna preach for thinkin' o't."
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (_Scots Musical Museum_ #225); cf. Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book of c. 1744
KEYWORDS: courting love youth drink nonballad clergy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1871, "We're A' Dry wi' the Drinkin' O't" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 226, "My Love is but a Lassie Yet" (1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 524, "My love, she's but a Lassie Yet" (3 texts)
DT, LUVELASS*
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, _Burns: Complete Poems and Songs_ (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #293, pp. 409-410, "My love she's but a lassie yet" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1790)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #225, p. 234, "My love she's but a Lassie yet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, p. 473, "My Love, She's But a Lassie Yet"
ST MCB226 (Full)
Roud #8979
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lady Badinscoth's Reel" (tune, per Burns)
cf. "Green Grow the Rashes" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
NOTES [133 words]: The verse, "We're all dry wi' the drinkin' o't... The minister kisst the fiddler's wife, He couldna preach for thinkin' o't" precedes Burns; it appeared (in a more English version) in the Pretty Songs of Tommy Thumb in 1744 (see Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #23, p. 37). This is also in Herd's manuscript of 1776. Whether there is more to the piece than that I do not know. - RBW
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes: "This song fragment ... had all the while quietly been residing in the English nursery. where it appeared about 1744.... Burns also borrowed the title 'My Love, she's but a Lassie yet'. The tune appears in Walsh's Caledonian Country Dances (c.1740), and in Johnson's Twelve Country Dances (1749) under the title 'Foot's Vagaries', as well as in the Museum." - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: MCB226

My Love She's But a Lassie Yet (II)

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves beutiful Jean, fears her scorn, and says "I'll love thee ... till life's last close" If he were rich he'd give "a monarch's ransom for thy hand"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting love beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #70, pp. 2-3, "My Love She's But a Lassie Yet" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan4 733, "My Love She's But a Lassie Yet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6166
File: GrD4733

My Love's a Plooman

DESCRIPTION: "My love is a ploughman and follows the plough." The singer has promised the ploughman that she will love him. She says she will be true and never rue her promise.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming love promise
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #130, p. 1, "The Plooman Laddie" (1 fragment: only the first verse)
Greig/Duncan3 446, "My Love's a Plooman" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #5957
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Plooman Laddie (I)" (llyrics)
NOTES [33 words]: Greig #135, p. 3, explains that a correspondent says the first verse of his composite "The Plooman Laddie" is from a different song. This is the verse printed in Greig/Duncan3 [also verse 1 of Ord]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3446

My Love's Gien Me

DESCRIPTION: "My love's gien me a gay gold ring," says the singer, "but I've gien him a better thing." In the garden there is a straw bee-hive "full o' honey The lad that loes his lassie weel Will never want for money."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: ring sex money nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1846, "My Love's Gien Me" (1 text)
Roud #13595
File: GrD81846

My Lovely Irish Rose

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls leaving Mary, his "lovely Irish Rose," and sailing to America. "The strangers' land is fair to see, the strangers too are kind," but he'd rather be home. Nothing compares with Mary and "those many happy days spent with my Irish Rose"
AUTHOR: Fred Kearney (source: McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
KEYWORDS: love emigration farewell home separation America Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 51, "My Lovely Irish Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Eta Nash, "The Lovely Irish Rose" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
NOTES [29 words]: McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen: "This song is common all over Ireland thanks mainly to recordings of it done on 78 rpm records in the 1930' and 40's." - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: McB1051

My Lovely Nancy

See Queen Among the Heather (File: K141)

My Lovely Sailor Boy

See The Sailor and His Bride [Laws K10] (File: LK10)

My Lover's a Cowboy

See The Bucking Broncho (The Broncho Buster) [Laws B15] (File: LB15)

My Lovie She's Little

DESCRIPTION: The singer says his love is little, with "handsome foot" and "weel-made middle." He wishes she would fancy him. If she were ale the sight of her would warm him on the coldest night. He would buy her new shoes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting love clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 937, "My Lovie She's Little," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "My Lovie She's Little" (16 texts, 17 tunes)
Roud #6752
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Carrickfergus" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
cf. "Oh Gin My Love War a Red Rose" (lyrics about ale warming on the coldest night)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Courting in Yon Rashy Glen
File: GrD5937

My Lovie Was a Shoemaker

See The Gallant Shoemaker (File: Ord102)

My Lovin' Father (When the World's On Fire)

DESCRIPTION: "My lovin' father, When the world's on fire, Don't you want God's bosom For to be your pillow? Hide me, oh thou, in the rock of ages, Rock of ages, cleft for me." (Similarly with mother and perhaps other relatives)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 928 (Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 637, "My Lovin' Father" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 174, "Oh My Lovin' Brothuh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 137, "When the World's On Fire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 61, "Fire Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R637 (Full)
Roud #4225 and 5119
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "When the World's On Fire" (Victor V-40293, 1930; Bluebird B-1836. 1932; Montgomery Ward M-4229/Bluebird B-5006/Sunrise S-3127, 1933; Bluebird 33-0537, 1945)
Freddie Palmer, Brenton Jordan and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Oh, My Loving Mother" (on McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "This Land Is Your Land" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Charlie Monroe's Boys "(New) When the World's On Fire" (Montgomery Ward M-7574, 1938)
NOTES [25 words]: The version of this recorded by the Carter Family, or one of its relatives, is probably the tune-source for Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R637

My Lovin' Old Husband

See My Good Old Man (File: R426)

My Lovyer Is a Sailor Boy

DESCRIPTION: "My lovyer is a sailor boy so galland and bold, He's tall as a flagstaff, only 19 years old." She wishes he were with her. He was bound as a carpenter but prefers the sea. She fears he will find a girl somewhere else
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Tobitt-YoursForASong)
KEYWORDS: love sailor separation
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 130, "My Lovyer Is a Sailor Boy" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 19, "My Lovyer Is a Sailor Boy" (1 short text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 36, "My Lovyer Is a Sallor Boy" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [31 words]: The Tobitt version of this is short enough that it might be some other separated-lovers song. But I don't recognize it based on the three verses Tobitt has, and the form is unusual. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: TobiMLSB

My Lowlands Away

See Lowlands (My Lowlands Away) (File: PBB100)

My Lucky and I

DESCRIPTION: Lucky and the singer went to the mill. Lucky fell in and drowned herself. He pulled her out by her hair but she was dead.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: drowning hair death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1515, "My Lucky and I" (1 fragment)
Roud #7174
File: GrD71515

My Lula Gal

See Bang Away, Lulu (I) (File: EM173)

My Lula Lou

DESCRIPTION: "On the banks of the noble Cumberland I spent many happy hours Wandering there with my Lula Lou, Kentucky's sweetest flower." "She buckled on my sabre there." "The fatal shot has done its work"; now he waits for her to join him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: soldier separation love
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 124-125, "My Lula Lou" (1 text)
ST Fus124 (Partial)
Roud #16367
NOTES [34 words]: The ending of this song, at least as found in Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, is confused: The boy is shot, "and fainted and fell, and fell as dead," but "to-day his heart faints for your voice." - RBW
File: Fus124

My Lulu

DESCRIPTION: "My Lulu hugged and kissed me, She wrung my hand and cried, She said I was the sweetest thing That ever lived or died." The singer praises Lulu and threatens any who court her. (He will follow her anywhere, but she deserts him)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation abandonment floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 378, "My Lulu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 178, "Lulu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 182-184, "Lulu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #82, "Old Corn Whisky" (1 text 1 tune)
ST San378 (Full)
Roud #3435
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pig at Home in the Pen" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [21 words]: I suppose this could be a clean version of one of the "Bang Away, Lulu" songs, but the scansion appears slightly different. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: San378

My Ma Was Born in Texas

DESCRIPTION: "My ma was born in Texas, my pa in Tennessee," and the singer was born as they moved to California. He left home to become a cowboy. He married a girl; she proved to have seven children. He caught her with another man and shot him; he is sentenced to life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity homicide prison punishment
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 33, "My Ma Was Born in Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4808
NOTES [83 words]: This was collected by Edith Fowke in Lakefield, Ontario. Don't ask me how an item about the American South got there.
Possibly this is related to an item that reportedly came from World War I: "My mama was born in Germany, My daddy was born in France, I was born in my BVD's, And I ain't gonna wear no pants." For this, see NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, F. Roy Johnson, "A Sampling of Eastern Oral Folk Humor," Vol. XXIII, No. 1 (Feb 1975), p. 10, "(My mama was born in Germany)" (1 short text). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: FCW33

My Maggie She Can Wash

DESCRIPTION: Farmer Gordie Duff met Maggie at Porter Fair and he hired her as "dairy maid and gave her right good pa.y" "My Maggie she can wash ... shew ... patch a coat ... like new ... darn ... keep a hoose and ... fireside ... she's aye my joy and pride"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: farming servant work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 731, "My Maggie She Can Wash" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6164
File: GfD4731

My Mam's a Millionaire

See I Want a Teddy Bear (File: SuSm105A)

My Mammie Sent Me to the Shops One Day

See My Boyfriend Gave Me An Apple (File: Hamm011)

My Mammy Don't Love Me

DESCRIPTION: "My mammy don't love me, She won't by me no shoes, Won't give me no corn-licker, Won't tell me no news." The man asks what he has done: "killed nobody, I've done no hanging crime." She(?) says that a man who mistreats her will treat others the same
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes drink crime punishment execution
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 314, "My Mammy Don't Love Me" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 314, "My Mammy Don't Love Me" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
NOTES [34 words]: The text in Brown is so short as to be almost meaningless; is it the story of a wild woman separated from her husband? Of a wild boy? It may well include floating material which adds to the confusion. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3314

My Mammy Said

See One, two, three, O'Leary (File: SuSm118A)

My Mammy Stoled a Cow

DESCRIPTION: "Steal up, young ladies, My mammy stoled a cow. Steal up, my darlin' chile, My mammy stoled a cow." "Stoled that cow im Baltimo', My mammy stoled a cow." "Steal all around, don't slight no one, My mammy stoled a cow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: dancetune theft animal
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 116, "My Mammy Stoled a Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [24 words]: Scarborough claims that the reported theft in this song is "used merely as an excuse to bring in the directions of stealing up in the dance." - RBW
File: ScaNF116

My Mammy Told Me (Don't Marry No Girl You Know)

DESCRIPTION: "My mammy told me long years ago, 'Son, don't you marry no girl you know. Spend all your money, sell all your clothes, Then what'll become of you the Lord only knows."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: marriage warning
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 316, "My Mammy Told Me" (3 short texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 316, "My Mammy Told Me" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
File: Br3316

My Man John

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

My Man's a Millionaire

DESCRIPTION: "My man's/maw's/da's a millionaire, (Blue eyes/big feet) and curly hair, See him walking down the street With his big banana feet, My man's a millionaire!" Or, "...feet, Works among the Eskimos, Playing a game of dominoes, My man's..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Ritchie, The Singing Street)
KEYWORDS: mother father travel | millionaire
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #372, "My man's a millionaire" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 62, "(My da's a millionaire)" (1 text)
Roud #19022
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Want a Teddy Bear" (lyrics)
NOTES [44 words]: I initially lumped this with "I Want a Teddy Bear," based on a lot of similar lyrics, but having seen more versions, I have split them.
There was a nineteenth century pop song, "Dad's a Millionaire" (printed, e.g., in Dime-Song-Book #22, p. 22). This is not it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: PKKB062E

My Man's Gone

DESCRIPTION: "My man's gone now. He had to go. He couldn't find no work around this town. Not for ages; used his wages. Got up this morning, and he was gone." He takes to the railroad on a rainy Monday to seek work. She wonders how John is doing as he travels.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: worker hardtimes poverty separation railroading
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 69, "My Man's Gone" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 43 in the 1972 edition)
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 102, "My Man's Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 164, "My Man's Gone" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Marilyn Bennet, "My Man's Gone" (on NZSongYngCntry)
File: Colq043

My Mantle of Green

See The Mantle So Green [Laws N38] (File: LN38)

My Martha Ann

See Mary Ann (File: FJ142)

My Mary Ann (I)

See Henry and Mary Ann (Henry the Sailor Boy) (File: HHH037)

My Mary Ann (II)

See Mary Ann (File: FJ142)

My Mary of the Curling Hair

DESCRIPTION: "My Mary of the curling hair, The laughing teeth and bashful air, Our bridal morn is dawning fair." They have been close since infancy. Even so, "My cheek is pale and wan for you," but now all is ending happily
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster_
KEYWORDS: love marriage hair
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 68, "Mary of the Curling Hair" (1 text)
Roud #22751
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier)" (lyrics)
File: HMHS068A

My Maryland

See Maryland! My Maryland (File: RJ19130)

My Massa Am a White Man, Juba!

See Juba (File: BSoF708)

My Master and I

DESCRIPTION: "Says the master to me, Is it true that I'm told, Your name on the books of the Union's enrolled?" The master says that he can't keep working with a disturber of the peace, and can't pay higher wages. The worker says there is no need to quarrel
AUTHOR: Howard Evans (source: Palmer)
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: farming worker labor-movement political food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #17, "My Master and I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 123, "My Master and I" (1 text)
ST PaPa017 (Partial)
File: PaPa017

My Master Sent Me

DESCRIPTION: "My master sent me to you, sir. For what, sir? To do with one as I do, sir."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #69, "My Master Sent Me" (1 short text)
File: Newe069

My Master's Gun (I'm a Prentice Boy, My Name Is Bob)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a 'prentice boy, my name is Bob... They bound me to a dirty 'snob.'" Resenting his master, he takes the master's gun and enlists in the Spanish army. There, he claims, he proves such a fine fighter that they label him the British Bonaparte
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Purslow-TheConstantLovers)
KEYWORDS: bragging work escape soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Purslow-TheConstantLovers,, p. 11, "The British Buonaparte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1657
File: PCL011

My Meg

DESCRIPTION: The singer is in the local pub telling "my great deeds And ither great things o' the nation" when his brother Jim tells him to go home "for your Meg she is gettin' a bairn." It's good to have a good wife "your joys and your sorrows to be sharin'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: marriage bragging drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1274, "My Meg" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7189
File: GrD71274

My Minnehasin Come from China

DESCRIPTION: "My Minnehasin come from hina, Me lika Els 'cause she lika me." The singer wishes to marry Els, mote back to China, and eat rats and mice. He lives in Bottle Alley. He gets married; his wife gets drunk. The story is told in a strong fake accent.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: love courting China humorous discrimination drink marriage travel
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #88, "My Minnehasin Come from China" (1 text)
Roud #10916
File: Hubb088

My Minnie Ment My Auld Breeks

See Robin Tamson's Smiddy [Laws O12] (File: LO12)

My Mither Built a Wee, Wee House

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "How can I keep my maidenhead Amang sae many men?" "My mither built a tiny house To keep me frae the men." The walls fell. "The Captain had a guinea for't, The Colonel he bad ten." No silver: "I'll give it to a bonnie lad" as mother did.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (Sharpe)
KEYWORDS: sex virginity money nonballad mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1727, "Hi Tak the Bonnie Lassie" (1 text)
DT, HOWKEEP
ADDITIONAL: Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, A Ballad Book (Edinburgh, 1891, reprint of 1824 edition), Vol I, #18 p. 47, "My Mither Built a Wee, Wee House"
Roud #13128
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There's Nae Luck Aboot the Hoose" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
cf. "Birks of Abergeldie" (tune, per Sharpe)
cf. "What My Minnie Did" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
How Can I Keep My Maidenhead
NOTES [80 words]: Greig/Duncan8 about that version: "Sung ... as far back as 1867."
An argument can be made that Greig/Duncan8 should be split from Sharpe [and Burns (see Digital Tradition version at DT, HOWKEEP)]. I see it as a song that is certainly derived from Sharpe and has changed some details. A description of Greig/Duncan8: Father builds a house to keep the girl from the men. Mother would add a window so she can see them. The girls says "What can a bonnie lassie dee Among so many men" - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD81727

My Mither Is Turnin' Auld

DESCRIPTION: The singer's mother is getting old and would have her child behave but if she were young again she'd behave just like the rest.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: nonballad mother age
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1422, "My Mither Is Turnin' Auld" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7266
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan7 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71422

My Mither She Feed Me

See The Bed-Making (File: Ord199)

My Mither Was a Cankert Fairy

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that her ill-natured mother would not let her court Harry, who has left her. "I hae nane but Jocky only." She wishes "Jockie wad but steal me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1342, "My Mither Was a Cankert Fairy" (1 text)
Roud #7224
File: GrD71342

My Mom and Your Mom Were Hanging Out Clothes

See My Mother and Your Mother (I) (File: MHAp240A)

My Mommy Killed Me

See The Juniper Tree (The Wicked Stepmother, The Rose Tree) (File: Cha047)

My Monkey

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

My Mother

DESCRIPTION: "I know a dear old lady, whose voice is soft and low, Her face is like some picture, a dream of long ago." "She is not great or famous." "Her life's a living sermon." "Her presence is a garden of ever-blooming flowers... Which time can never wither."
AUTHOR: Larry Chittenden (?) (Source: Finger-FrontierBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Finger-FrontierBallads)
KEYWORDS: mother nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finger-FrontierBallads, p. 142, "My Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8837
File: Fing142

My Mother and Your Mother (I)

DESCRIPTION: "My mother and your mother Were hanging out clothes; My mother came to your mother And snipped off her nose" (or "punched her in the nose," which may draw the response, "Did it hurt?" or "What color was her blood?")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Mrs. Henry C. Gray, or her maid)
KEYWORDS: mother clothes fight jumprope
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #581, p. 234, "(My mother and your mother)"
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 240, (no title) (1 short text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 73, "Hanging Out Clothes" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #133, "(My Mother and Your Mother)" (1 text, which begins with a verse that is probably "My Mother and Your Mother (I)" and ends with "Ickie Bickie Soda Cracker")
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 123, "My Mom and your Mom were hanging out clothes" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 34, "(My mother and your mother)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #373, "My mother and your mother were hanging out clothes"; #381, "My mother, your mother Live across the way (hall)" (2 texts)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 48, "(My mother and your mother)" (1 text)
Roud #19058
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Spelling Game (Blue spells B-L-U-E; T-W-O Spells Two; My Mother and Your Mother)" (lyrics)
cf. "Ickle Bickle Soda Cracker" (lyrics in a few versions)
cf. "1918 East Broadway" (lyrics in some versions)
NOTES [289 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes separates the texts that begin "My mother and your mother Were hanging out clothes" and those that begin "My mother, your mother Live across the way," and I was sorely tempted to do the same -- I probably would have done so had Roud not lumped them. But both are amorphous, with mixes material (e.g. Abrahams's version of "My mother, your mother Live across the way" follows with lyrics typical of "1918 East Broadway," and he says that "Ickle Bickle Soda Cracker" often follows). So you really need to check all the texts of each anyway. Perhaps just as well to have them all here.
The text given here is sort of a reconstruction of something I vaguely remember. It's sort of an infant game; on the last line, the speaker grabs the listener's note between index and middle fingers and pretends to cut it off as with a scissors. Possibly the thumb of one hand, held between the fingers, becomes the nose.
At least, that's what I remember. The Baring-Goulds have a different version of the rhyme ("My mother and your mother Went over the way, Said my mother to your mother, It's chop-a-nose day"), and their version of nose-chopping is two-handed.
Henry's informant had a very different version: Instead of nose-chopping, Mother #1 merely PULLED Mother #2's nose. Curiously, Henry's informant also claimed that there was more to the song. I wonder if this might be the item I've indexed as "Spelling Game (Blue spells B-L-U-E; T-W-O Spells Two; My Mother and Your Mother)"; it shares the first few words but is structured differently, so I've tentatively split them.
Incidentally, while actually chopping off the nose was not common in history, slitting the nostrils as a punishment for crime is well-attested. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MHAp240A

My Mother and Your Mother (II)

See Spelling Game (Blue spells B-L-U-E; T-W-O Spells Two; My Mother and Your Mother) (File: SuSm096F)

My Mother and Your Mother (III)

See 1918 East Broadway (File: ZiZa073B)

My Mother Bid Me

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

My Mother Cried Me Up to Go Wi' My Father's Dinner-O

See My Mother Said that I Must Go (File: MSNR145)

My Mother Did So Before Me

DESCRIPTION: "I am a brisk and bonny lass, A little over twenty," but not risheing to get married: "The men I'll tease, myself to please, My mother did so before me." She likes being noticed. When she marries, she will "manage... My husband to perfection"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Dime-Song-Book #17, which says it was copyrighted by Oliver Ditson & Co)
KEYWORDS: love courting husband clothes mother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #116, "My Mother Did So Before Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #10, p. 46, "My Mother did so Before Me" (1 text)
Roud #6915
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(35), "My mamma did so before me," T Watts (Birmingham), n.d.
File: BGSW116

My Mother Died A-Shouting

DESCRIPTION: "My mother died a-shouting, I hope she's gone to glory. The last words I heard her say Was about Jesualem... I'm traveling to the grave, Lord, To lay this body down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: religious death nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 244-245, "My Mother Died A-Shouting" (1 text)
Roud #18155
File: KiWa244M

My Mother Gave Me a Necklace

DESCRIPTION: Mother gives a necklace, father a dime, sister a lover-boy "who kissed me all the time." Mother takes the necklace, father the dime, sister the lover-boy "and gave me Frankenstein." He makes her work so she kicks him out.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty father lover mother sister monster
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 478, ("My mother gave me a necklace") (1 text)
NOTES [68 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "Derived from the skipping rhyme 'Nine o'clock is striking' ["My Boyfriend Gave Me An Apple"], especially the early American versions ... (JAFL, xxxix, pp. 84-5) [Winifred Smith, "A Modern Child's Game Rhymes" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXXIX, No. 151 (Jan 1926 (available online by JSTOR)), #18 pp. 84-85 ("Twelve o'clock striking") (1 text) ]." I don't see it. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa478B

My Mother Has Told Me That When I Was Born

See Ballyjamesduff (File: RcBalJDu)

My Mother Is a Baker

DESCRIPTION: "My mother is a baker, she bakes like this, Yummy, yummy." "My father is a butcher, he smells like this, Yummy, yummy, Pooey, pooey" Then, modeller sister, cowboy brother, flasher grandpa, hairdresser grannie. The last line of each verse is cumulative.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: cumulative playparty family food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 149, "My Mother Is a Baker" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Susie Was a Baby" (tune, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
File: OpGa149

My Mother Made a Chocolate Cake

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "My mother made a chocolate cake, How many eggs did she take? One, two, three, four...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Withers, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: mother food jumprope | chocolate cake eggs
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #376, "My mother made a chocolate cake" (1 text)
File: AJRR376

My mother owns a butcher shop

See Father Is a Butcher (File: SuSm108C)

My Mother Said (Gypsies in the Wood)

DESCRIPTION: "My mother said that I never should Play with the gypsies in the wood. The wood was dark; the grass was green; In came Sally with a tamborine." "I went to the sea -- no ship to get across... Sally tell my mother I shall never come back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Kilvert, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: playparty Gypsy mother separation floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,West)) New Zealand
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 362, "My mother said that I never should" (1 fragment)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, pp. 441-442, "(My mother said That I never should)" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #603, p. 240, "(My mother said that I never should)"
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #377, "My mother said I never should" (1 text, which opens with "My Mother Said (Gypsies in the Wood)" and concludes with part of "I'll Tell My Ma (I)")
ADDITIONAL: M.C. Balfour, County Folklore (London, 1904 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. IV, p. 120, ("My mother said that I should not") (1 text) [see note]
John Devenish Hoppus, Riverside Papers (London, 1882 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, pp. 91-92, ("My mother said") (1 text)
Neil C. Hultin, "The Songs and Ballads of R.F. Kilvert [1840-1879]" in Folklore, Vol. XXVIII, No. 2 (1981 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 182-183 ("My Mother said that I never should") (4 texts)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, third edition, 1928 (type reset 1953), p. 535, ("My Mother said that I never should") (1 short text)
Roud #13187
NOTES [155 words]: The second verse of this, of course, floats in part; I have no idea whether it was originally integral to this song, which is thought to be quite old though the Baring-Goulds claim it was not published before de la Mare in 1922. The Opies also consider this the first multi-verse published version, but mention sources who seem to remember it from the nineteenth century. They also note some curious classical relatives of the tune. - RBW
The Balfour text is eight lines. The first four are "My Mother Said (Gypsies in the Wood)"; the last four are "Mrs Brown Went to Town."
The references for this song in Hultin are for "songs and games recalled [from] Kilvert's own youth and [for which] he expressed surprise at the longevity of such material." Only one of the texts quoted are Kilvert's. The others are from Brian Sutton-Smith, The Games of New Zealand Children and Leslie Daiken, Children's Games Throughout the Year. - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BGMG603

My Mother Said that I Must Go

DESCRIPTION: "My mother said that I must go To fetch my father's dinner, o. Chappit tatties, beef and steak, Two red herrings, and a bawbee bake/hapnie cake."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Montgomerie)
KEYWORDS: mother father food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 145, "(My mother said that I must go)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #374, "My mother cried me up to go wi my father's dinner-o" (1 text, which opens with "My Mother Said that I Must Go" and ends with "Went to the River (I)" or one of its variants)
Roud #9531
File: MSNR145

My Mother Said That the Rope Must Go

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "My mother said that the rope must go Over my head."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope mother | rope head
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #378, "My mother said" (1 text)
File: AJRR378

My Mother Sent Me Out A-Fishing

See The Rolling Sailor (File: PsSe064)

My Mother She Bid Me

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

My Mother She Told Me

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

My Mother Told Me

See My Mummy Told Me (File: OpGa134)

My Mother Told Me to Bury Him Deep

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

My Mother Was a Lady

DESCRIPTION: Two (drummers) come to a hotel for dinner, and harass the waitress. Eventually she bursts out, "My mother was a lady... I came to this great city To find a brother dear...." One drummer knows her brother, and offers to marry her
AUTHOR: Words: Edward B. Marks / Music: Joseph. W. Stern
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (sheet music published by Jos. W. Stern & Co)
KEYWORDS: family servant brother separation marriage
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 107, pp. 218-220, "The Two Drummers" (1 text)
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, pp. 121-122, "Mother Was a Lady (Or, If Only Jack Were Here") (1 text, 1 tune)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 44, "My Mother Was a Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MTHLADY
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 208-211, "Mother Was A Lady. or If Jack Were Only Here" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1896 sheet music)
Roud #2982
RECORDINGS:
Mack Allen [pseud., for Vernon Dalhart], "Mother Was a Lady" (Harmony 721-H, 1928)
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "If Brother Jack Were Here" (Supertone 9628, 1930)
Ted Chestnut, "My Mother Was A Lady" (Gennett 6480 [as Ted Chesnut]/Champion 15524 [as Cal Turner]/Supertone 9180 [as Alvin Bunch], 1928)
Jerry Colonna, "My Mother Was a Lady" (Columbia 35371, 1940)
Walter Dalton, "If Brother Jack Were Here" (Perfect 12468, 1928)
Morgan Denmon, "The Two Drummers" (OKeh 45306, 1929; rec. 1927)
Warde Ford, "My mother was a lady (Brother Jack)" (AFS 4201 A1, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Beatrice Kay & the Elm City 4, "My Mother Was a Lady" (Columbia 35460, 1940)
Jimmie Rodgers, "If Brother Jack Were Here" (Victor 21433, 1928; Bluebird B-5482, 1934; Victor 23193, n.d.; rec. 1927)
Joan Sullivan, "My Mother Was a Lady" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Arnold Keith Storm, "Two Drummers" (on AKStorm01)
Frankie Wallace [pseud. for Frankie Marvin], "If Brother Jack Were Here" (Domino 0261, c. 1928)
NOTES [299 words]: "Drummer" = "salesman." - PJS
Finson, pp. 77-78, quotes Edward Marks as writing, "It was a German restaurant on Twentieth Street, and some of the male customers were joshing a new waitress.... The girl, a comely, simple sort... burst into tears. 'No one would dare insult me,' she said, 'if my brother Jack was only here.' And she added, 'My mother was a lady.' Meyer Cohen, known as 'the Californa tenor,' a favorite ballad singer, was at our table and suggested the possibilities of this line as a song title. Stern and I wrote it that afternoon, and Meyer introduced it at [Tony] Pastor's the next day."
Jasen, p. 3, reports that "Edward B. Marks (1865-1945) was a young notions salesman who liked to write lyrics." Having published a song, "December and May," in 1893 through Frank Harding's music publishing house and being dissatisfied with the royalties, he went into business for himself. "He teamed with another salesman who could write melodies, Joseph W. Stern. They opened a small office in 1894 and issued their first collaboration, 'The Little Lost Child,' that same year. With the help of music hall singers Della Fox and Lottie Gilson, the song became a hit and established the firm of Joseph W. Stern & Company as a major voice in Tin Pan Alley. Marks also created the illustrated song slide, which was used in music theatres to help the audience visualize the lyrics through a series of action and sentimental photographs and illustrations."
The other Marks/Stein collaboration in the Index is, not surprisingly, "The Little Lost Child."
Lottie Gilson, the single most important influence in popularizing this song, was known as "The Little Magnet" because of the crowds she drew. She was also responsible for popularizing "The Sidewalks of New York" (Jasen, pp. 26-27). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: LPnd217

My Mother-In-Law

DESCRIPTION: Dialect song. The singer grumbles "My life is all troubles... I'd rather be sent off to jail or to Congress Dan live all my life mit my mother-in-law." He complains of her ugliness. He claims she beats him. He says he married his wife, not her family
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: family abuse humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ro,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 140, "My Mother-In-Law" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph 395, "My Mother-In-Law" (1 text)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 16, "My Mother-in-law" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #132, "My Mother-In-Law" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #74, "My Mother-In-Law" (1 text, not in dialect)
Roud #4650
File: R395

My Mother, My Mother

DESCRIPTION: "My mother, my mother, She married a Black, She went to the wedding And never came back. When she got back She'd a hump on her back. My mother, my mother, She married a Black."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: mother Black(s) marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 55, "(My mother, my mother)" (1 text)
Roud #38149
File: BAAI055B

My Mother, Your Mother

See (references under) Ickie Bickie Soda Cracker (File: ZiZa072C)

My Mother, Your Mother Live Across the Way

See My Mother and Your Mother (I) (File: MHAp240A)

My Mother's Beautiful Hands

See My Mother's Hands (File: RAInP125)

My Mother's Going to Have a Baby

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "My mother's going to have a baby. It's going to be twins, triplets, boys or girls?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folk Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: jumprope mother baby
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #375, "My Mother's Going to Have a Baby" (1 text)
File: AJRR375

My Mother's Hands

DESCRIPTION: "These beautiful, beautiful hands, they were neither white nor small, But my mother's hands were the fairest And the loveliest of all." They cared for the singer as a baby. The singer hopes to clasp them again in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, "Shortbuckle" Roark)
KEYWORDS: mother | hands
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #125, "My Mother's Hands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17215
RECORDINGS:
Bradley Kinkaid, "My Mother's Beautiful Hands" (Bluebird B5201/Montgomery Ward 4405, 1934; rec. 1933) (Decca 5026, 1934)
George "Shortbuckle" Roark, "My Mother's Hands" (Victor Vi-40023, 1929; rec. 1928)
File: RAInP125

My Mother's Last Goodbye

DESCRIPTION: Charlie "left my dear old homestead and went away to sea" after his parents tell him "let no false pride make you forget the loving ones at home," When he returns his parents have died. "My gold it had no joy for me for all its joys was fled"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: rambling return separation death gold father mother
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 20, "Darling Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9705
RECORDINGS:
Tom Finlay, "Mother's Last Goodbye" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
James McDermott, "My Mother's Last Goodbye" (on Voice12)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There's No One Like Mother to Me" (subject)
File: RcMMoLaG

My Mother's On That Train

DESCRIPTION: "Well," (("my mother/sister/father)'s on that train, Going around the mountain" (2x).) "The bells go ding, dong, The whistle go wah"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (USMississippi01)
KEYWORDS: nonballad death train religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Mary Alice and Alan McGowan, "My Mother's On That Train" (on USMississippi01)
NOTES [213 words]: The description is all of the three verse spiritual as sung by Mary Alice and Alan McGowan.
Regarding the symbolism of the train as death in Spirituals:
"In their Prometheus' struggle towards the light, the singers saw death as a necessary prerequisite in order to enter into the real world. Often the singers' symbol of death was a boat or ship crossing the river of Jordan. Here original symbols were preserved to denote death:
Tis the old ship of Zion,
Get on board, get on board.
"However, a new concept was retained by a vital symbolism in the slave's everyday experience. Death was emphasized as the 'same train.' This train carried off his mother, father, sister, and brother. The continuation of this process of death can be seen in the repetition of the term 'same train' three times. The train will be back tomorrow for him.
Same train, same train, same train
Carry my mother,
Same train be back to-morrer.
"Death was not an end, but the means of entering into God's eternity. As heaven was the true home, eternity was the true time. This view has many elements of the utopianism of Voltaire's Candide."
(Weyman B. McLaughlin, "Symbolism and Mysticism in the Spirituals" in Phylon (1960-) Vol. 24, No. 1 (1st Qtr., 1963 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 74-75.) - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcMMOThT

My Mother's Prayer

DESCRIPTION: "I never can forget the day I heard my mother kindly say, 'You’re leaving now my tender care; Remember, child, your mother’s prayer.'" Moher is now gone, but the singer still hears the words and the voice. They will meet again up yonder
AUTHOR: Words: Judson W. Van DeVenter (1855-1939) / Music: "I Never Can Forget the Day" by Winfield S .Weeden (1847-1908) (source: Hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (copyright, according to Gospel Songs of Grace and Glory, itself from 1896)
KEYWORDS: mother separation death | prayer
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 241, "My Mother's Prayer" (1 fragment)
Roud #5265
File: NeDe241

My Mule

DESCRIPTION: "The other day I had some cash, And then I thought I'd cut a dash," so the singer bought a mule. The mule throws him, dirties his clothes, injures him. The singer hits the mule; it runs and kicks and throws him. It's easier to get on a mule than off.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Morris, Southern Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous commerce injury clothes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #108, "My Mule" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5030
File: Morr108

My Mummy Told Me

DESCRIPTION: "My Mommy told me" she would buy a rubber dolly if I was good. "Don't you tell her," or someone/Auntie told her "I kissed a soldier"; she won't buy me a rubber dolly.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1910 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty mother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 134, "My Mummy Told Me" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 83, "My mother told me" (1 text)
Roud #17597
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Rubber Dolly" (on MJHurt04)
NOTES [108 words]: Andrew Kuntz's Fiddler's Companion site: "According to Bronner (1987), 'Rubber Dolly' was first collected as an Anglo-American children's game with the following words or variants (which may have come from a music-hall song of the 1890's)."
Among the recordings is "My Wubba Dolly" by Ella Fitzgerald (1939, Decca 91839-A) (source: the Ella Fitzgerald site).
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: .".. may have been given a boost by Shirley Ellis's pop version [Congress 234, according to the Shirley Ellis discography on the Spectro Pop Express site], 'The Clapping Song', 1965 [which includes the 'Rubber Dolly' verse and 'Three, Six, Nine', among others]." - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OpGa134

My Name Is Allan-a-Dale

See Robin Hood and Allen a Dale [Child 138] (File: C138)

My Name is Ben Hall

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Ben Hall, from Murrurundi I came; The cause of my turn-out you all know the same... I was forced to the bush my sorrows to drown." Hall recalls his skill as a robber, and toasts his imprisoned companions
AUTHOR: Tune fitted by J. S. Manifold
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: abuse outlaw police Australia
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 47, "My Name is Ben Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ben Hall" (plot, subject) and references there
NOTES [34 words]: Based on something found in Paterson's Old Bush Songs, but significantly modified by Manifold. The result probably does not qualify as traditional. For background, see the several other Ben Hall songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: PASB047

My Name Is Bold Hewson the Cobbler

See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

My Name is Death

See Death and the Lady (File: ShH22)

My Name Is Dick Bradley

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Dick Bradley, A boy as loves pleasure, In courtin' and kissin' I spends all my leisure, For Toping and Fuddling, I am always so ready, And I never will give over, While my name is Dick Bradley." The singer talks of his toping
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: drink travel courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, p. 57, "My Name Is Dick Bradley" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #23617
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, B 22(134), "The Jolly Toper, A New Song," unknown, N.D.
File: CoMo057

My Name is Donald Blue

See Whiskey Is My Name (Donald Blue) (File: HHH835)

My Name is Edward Broderick

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Edward Broderick, I was born in Illinois." "A boiler maker I'm by trade." One day "A hot iron chip struck me in my right eye." After he recovers, another chip costs him the sight in the other eye. He hopes somehow to survive by running a shop
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Oster)
KEYWORDS: disability work hardtimes technology
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 475-476, "My Name is Edward Broderick" (1 text)
File: CAFS2475

My Name is Edward Gallovan

DESCRIPTION: Edward Gallovan from Wexford courts Mary Riley. He tells her they will sail to America with 20 pounds she has saved. He kills her intending to use her money to escape. The body is found. He is convicted and executed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: courting execution homicide trial gallows-confession
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 92, "My Name is Edward Gallovan" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB092 (Partial)
NOTES [102 words]: Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick calls this "The Wexford Girl" though the singer's title is "My Name is Edward Gallovan." Creighton then goes on to make this an instance of "The Wexford Girl." Except that Wexford, probably Ireland, is mentioned and that a man murders a woman I see no connection. - BS
Nor I; there are several things here which remind me of other songs (the obvious example being the first line, which may have come from "The Flying Cloud"; the only other reference to the murderer calls him "James"). But "The Wexford Girl" is not one of those songs. Roud nonetheless lumps them. - RBW
File: CrSNB092

My Name is Edward Kelly

DESCRIPTION: The early adventures of Ned Kelly, told in the first person. He turned to robbing when his sister was harassed by police. He has escaped all attempts to catch him. He hopes to die in battle like Donahue rather than be treated like a government slave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Manifold)
KEYWORDS: outlaw Australia escape abuse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1855 - Birth of Ned Kelly
1880 - Execution of Kelly. His last words are reported to have been "Such is life."
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 112-114, "My Name is Edward Kelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 64-65, "My Name is Edward Kelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 91-93, "My Name is Edward Kelly" (1 text)
Roud #22599
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kelly Was Their Captain" (subject) and notes and references there
NOTES [96 words]: This song dates itself to Kelly's twenty-fourth year. Despite his hope to die in battle, he was captured and executed the next year. John S. Manifold, Who Wrote the Ballads? Notes on Australian Folksong, Australasian Book Society, 1964, p. 75, observing that the song mentions neither Euroa nor Jerilderie, thinks this may be one of the oldest Ned Kelly songs.
Edward "Ned" Kelly and his gang are perhaps the most famous of all Australian bushrangers. For some anecdotes of his life, in addition to the cross-referenced songs, see the notes to "Kelly Was Their Captain." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: FaE112

My Name Is John Johanna

See The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II) [Laws H1] (File: LH01)

My Name Is John Johnson

See My Name is Yon Yonson (File: xMNIYY)

My Name is Laban Childers

DESCRIPTION: A song of a volunteer who served in the First World War. He describes how troops were assembled and trained, with many local young men leaving their homes and work. His friend Martin Borders is killed. He says he will not forget
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: war soldier work separation death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 99-100, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, p. 107-108)
File: ThBa099

My Name is McCarthy

See Woolloomooloo (File: FaE194)

My Name is McCarty

See Woolloomooloo (File: FaE194)

My Name is McNamara

DESCRIPTION: "My name in McNamara And I come from County Clare...." "Our little farm was small, It would not support us all," so he emigrates via Castle Gardens. He finds it hard to find work because he is Irish, but hopes to bring his family across the sea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: emigration hardtimes work mother sister
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 53, "My Name is McNamara" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9082
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Castle Gardens (I)" (exile theme and mention of Castle Garden)
cf. "Macnamara's Band" ("My name is Macnamara" line)
cf. "McNamara's Band" ("My name is Macnamara" line)
NOTES [32 words]: I was sorely tempted to lump this with "Castle Gardens," from which I strongly suspect it is descended. But the motivations are sufficiently different that I very tentatively split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Pet053

My Name is McNamara (II)

See McNamara's Band (File: ACSF286M)

My Name is Morgan (But It Ain't J. P.)

See Bill Morgan and His Gal (File: RcBMAHG)

My Name Is Old Hewson the Cobbler

See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

My Name Is Paddy Leary (Off To Philadelphia)

See Off For Philadelphia (File: BdOffoPh)

My Name is Santa Claus

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "My name is Santa Claus, I bring you lots of toys, For little girls and boys, whose names begin with A, B, C...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | Santa Claus toys
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #384, "My Name is Santa Claus" (1 text)
File: AJRR384

My Name is Solomon Levi

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Solomon Levi, At my store on Salem street, That's where you'll buy your coats and vests, and everything that's neat." "All the boys" trade with him at #149.. He will fight off those who do not deal honestly
AUTHOR: Fred Seaver (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (sheet music published by O. Ditson & Co.)
KEYWORDS: clothes commerce
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 198-199, "My Name is Solomon Levi" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harbin-Parodology, #405, p. 99, "Solomon Levy" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 290, 313, "My Name is Solomon Levi" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 116, "Solomon Levi" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15423
File: ACSF290L

My Name Is Sweet Jennie, My Age Is Sixteen

See Queen Mary (Auld Maid's Lament) (File: HHH230)

My Name Is Yohn Yohnson

See My Name is Yon Yonson (File: xMNIYY)

My Name is Yon Yonson

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Yon Yonson, I come from Visconsin, I work in the lumber mills there, Ven I valk down the street, all the people I meet, say, 'Hello, vot's your name?' and I say...." and repeat until someone rebels
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: humorous cumulative campsong | circular
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 154, "(My name is Yohn Yohnson)" (1 text, from user 2wonderY, posted October 29, 2021)
Harbin-Parodology, #28, p. 14, "Yon Yonson" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 123, "Yon Yonson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 415, "Yon Yonson"/"My Name is John Johnson" (notes only)
ADDITIONAL: Walker D. Wyman, _Wisconsin Folklore_, University of Wisconsin Extension (?), 1979, pp. 71, ("My Name is Yon Yonson") (1 text)
Sinclair Lewis, _Dodsworth_, 1929
ST xMNIYY (Full)
RECORDINGS:
Paul Smith, "Yon Yonson" (Recitation: Piotr-Archive #252, recorded 09/12/2022)
NOTES [187 words]: The form quoted in the description does not appear to be original. Wyman's version is not in dialect (I've quoted James F. Leisy's text, even though I've never heard a Norwegian who could pronounce "th" but could not pronounce "w"; it's either or neither). Also. Wyman's last line is simply "All the people I meet Ask how I came to be there." I suspect the latter form would not have been remembered had not someone "circularized" the poem. But since no author is known, there are variant texts, and Leisy has a tune, this *might* be a folk song. So here it is.
Credit to Jim Dixon for pointing out to me the 1929 version in Sinclair Lewis's Dodsworth. This is a version in true Scandihoovian dialect, and properly circular: "Ven I go down de street, All de people I meet, Dey saaaaaaay, 'Vot's your name?' And I sa-aaaaay: My name is Yon Yonson...."
As early as 1895, there was a play presented at the Columbia Theatre in New York, "Yon Yonson," featuring Gus Heege. Wikipedia says that this play (written in 1890) was part of Heege's "Swedish Immigrant" trilogy of plays. But I don't know if it is related to this. RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: xMNIYY

My Name's Been Written Down

DESCRIPTION: "How'd you know your name been written down? (x2) On the wall, oh, it's been written down. (x2) Oh, the angel told me, been written down. (x2) Well, the Lord told me, been written down. (x2) Ain't you glad your name been written down. (x2)" Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 67-68, (no title) (1 text); pp. 244-245, "My Name's Been Written Down" (1 tune, partial text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 333, "(no title)" (1 text)
File: CNFM067B

My Nannie, O

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears Sandy moaning about Nannie. The young men envy him. His father recommends he marry a laird's daughter. Sandy says, "I would marry the laird's dochter I would die for my Nannie" He'd rather have Nannie "than Jenny wi' ten thousand mark"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1697 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson a.57(24c))
KEYWORDS: courting love sex money father cards
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 919, "Some Delights in Cards and Dice" (3 fragments, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Hans Hecht, editor, Songs From David Herd's Manuscripts (Edinburgh, 1904), #106 pp. 247-248,328, "(As I Came in by Edinburgh Town)" [Not yet indexed as Hecht-Herd 106]
James Hogg and William Motherwell, editors, The Works of Robert Burns (Glasgow, 1841 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, pp. 94-96, ("As I gaed doun thro' Embro toun") (1 text)
Roud #6242
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson a.57(24c)[many illegible words], "The Scotch Wooing of Willy and Nanny" ("As I went forth one morning fair"), P. Brooksby (London), 1672-1696; also Douce Ballads 2(194a) [many illegible words], "The Scotch Wooing of Willy and Nanny"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sunday Night" (some lines)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Nannie O
NOTES [440 words]: The Greig/Duncan4 fragments are all a verse and chorus or less. The differences among the three are primarily the name of the girl: Nannie, Sandy, or Mary. The Nannie version begins "Some delights in cards and dice, And some delights in brandy O, Some delights in a red red rose, The colour o' my Nannie O." Here is the corresponding verse in "Willy and Nanny": "Some takes delight in cards and dice and other some in dancing O, But I take delight in a bonny lass and her name is called Nanny O."
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame points out that Ramsay "wrote a more sophisticated version" of this fragment: "While some for pleasure pawn their health, 'Twixt Lais and the Bagnio, I'll save myself, and without stealth, Kiss and caress my Nanny - O... I care not though the world know How dearly I love Nanny - O" (source: Allan Ramsay, The Poems of Allan Ramsay (London, 1800 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, 23, pp. 151-152, "Nanny O").
Hogg and Motherwell: "We are indebted to that indefatigable collector of our Scottish Minstrelsy, Mr. Peter Buchan, for the following copy of the elder lyric, which probably awakened the muse of both Ramsay and Burns."
The two Bodleian broadsides are different issues by the same printer. Between them I can see most of the ten verses and chorus. The Buchan text of seven verses and a chorus shares most of four verses and the chorus with the broadsides. The description follows Buchan. Of the shared texts the following are connections to the Greig/Duncan4 fragments "Some Delights in Cards and Dice" ["Some delight in cards and dice, And other some in brandy, O, But my delight's in a bonnie lass, Her name is lovely Nannie, O"], and "Sunday Night" ["Nae friend nor foe shall ever know, The love I bear to Nannie, O"].
See also Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(2b), "An Answer to Nanny O" or "The Happy Agreement between the two Scotch lovers, Willy & Nancy" ("Art thou so loyal to thy love"), P. Brooksby(London), 1672-1696, an answer to Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(194a).
The Greig/Duncan4 fragment reminds me of the fragments of "The Golden Vanity" and its parodies: "Some were playing cards and some were playing dice" (see references for "Louisiana Lowlands). A phrase containing "cards" and "dice" is also in "The Rantin' Laddie" (the singer says "Aften hae I playd at the cards and the dice, For the love of a bonie rantin laddie") and "The Sorrowful Maiden" (whose father "was so rash in his Spending ... At Cards and Dice"). Another reference is in the 1703 broadside "The Banishment of Poverty" ("I dought nor dance to pipe or harp, I had no stock for Cards and Dice")(source: NLScotland, APS.4.94.22). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD4919

My Native Hame

DESCRIPTION: "Far far frae thee my native hame across the mountains high." The singer misses "the heather hills and glens." He would like to return where there are "no black coal pits ... but air aye pure and clear ... where the Ythan water rins"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: homesickness travel mining nonballad home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 523, "My Native Hame" (1 text)
Roud #6005
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Go Bring My Guid Auld Harp Once Mair" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
File: GrD3523

My Native Highland Home

DESCRIPTION: Scotland's winters are harsh but "colder far's the Scotsmans heart" not warmed by the words "My native Highland home." The singer asks his sweetheart to go with him to live in Scotland; he describes the pleasures of Scotland's summer.
AUTHOR: Thomas Morton (source: Morton)
EARLIEST DATE: 1816 (Thomas Morton, _The Slave_, according to John S Dwight, _Dwight's Journal of Music: A Paper of Art and Literature, (Boston, 1877 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XXXV, p. 316)
KEYWORDS: courting home travel Scotland nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1892, "My Native Highland Home" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 265-266, "My Highland Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1511, p. 103, "My Highland Home" (2 references)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Morton, The Slave; a Musical Drama, in Three Acts, (London, 1818 ("Digitized by Google")), Act I, Sc. i, p. 14, ("My Highland home, where tempests blow")
The Universal Songster or Museum of Mirth (London, 1834 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol I, p. 439, "My Native Highland Home"
Roud #13215
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(292), "My Native Highland Home" ("My Highland home, where tempests blow"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Firth b.26(103), Harding B 12(64), Harding B 17(207a)[3 verses instead of 2], "My Native Highland Home"; Johnson Ballads fol. 20, Harding B 11(342), Harding B 15(215a), "Native Highland Home"; Harding B 19(30) [some words illegible], Firth c.26(101) [some words illegible], Harding B 15(211b), Harding B 11(3761), "My Highland Home"; Johnson Ballads 1330, 2806 c.14(37), 2806 c.17(166), 2806 c.17(165), Harding B 17(128a)[6 verses instead of 2], Harding B 11(1538), "Highland Home"
LOCSinging, sb30301b, "My Highland Home" ("My Highland home, where tempests blow"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also sb20167a, as202540, "My Highland Home"
Murray, Mu23-y1:026, "My Native Highland Home," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NOTES [136 words]: Two of the Bodleian broadsides add to Morton's lines.
Harding B 17(207a)[, "My Native Highland Home" ("My highland home where tempest blow"), J. Wheeler (Manchester), 1827-1847] adds a final verse: "When Charley brave, our scottish king, In the highlands braw was bred, With honor to his country To valiantly he bled, We fought the French at Waterloo, When the thistle on each brow did bloom My cottage maid I sigh in vain, And my sweet highland home."
Harding B 17(128a)["Highland Home" ("My Highland home, where tempest blows"), W. Carse (Glasgow), c.1825] has it that the singer would have Mary accompany him: "My Highland Home, and Mary's love, Is bliss enough for me." He continues with further description of the pleasant spring and summer. "E'en shall thy artless smile dispel The winter's sullen gloom." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: GrD81892

My Neighbors Dear (The Falling Tree)

DESCRIPTION: "My neighbors dear I pray draw near, In mourning our sad fate." "We to the forest did repair... Began the cutting down a tree Which on our father fell." "Then watch and pray... At such an hour as we think not, The Son of Man will come."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1800 (Beck-FolkloreOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: death father family warning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1800 - Death of Beriah Randall, the subject of this piece, according to Beck-FolkloreOfMaine
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 259-260, "Poetry (On the Sudden Death of Mr. Beriah Randall, of Easton...." (1 excerpt from a 36 stanza poem)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Harry Dunn (The Hanging Limb)" [Laws C14] (plot) and references there
NOTES [101 words]: Beck-FolkloreOfMaine declares this to be the earliest poem of a lumbering tragedy, half a century earlier than the next known instance. It is included on that basis, although there is little evidence that it was in circulation (or was even a song).
The reference in the final verse to the coming of the Son of Man is probably an allusion to Matthew 24:44 or something similar, although there are many Biblical mentions of the coming of the end and of sudden death (e.g. the Wise Fool, Luke 12:13-21; the Little Apocalypse of Mark 13, especially 13:37; also the warning against idleness in 1 Thes. 5:6). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BeMe259

My Nelly

DESCRIPTION: "My Nelly's a whore! My Nelly's a whore! She's got such wonderful eyes of blue. She uses such wonderful language too, Her favorite expression is, 'Ballocks to you!' My Nelly's a whore."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: bawdy love whore
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 65, "My Nelly" (1 text)
Roud #10519
NOTES [33 words]: Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang list this as to the tune of "Three Blind Mice," but for the life of me I can't make the first line sing to that tune, so I haven't listed it as a tune match. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: BrPa065A

My New Silk Hat

See My High Silk Hat (File: ACSF166Y)

My Number Will Be Changed

DESCRIPTION: "Don't you know my number will be changed, will be changed... Soon as my feet strike Zion, I'm gonna lay down my heavy burden, I'm gonna put on my robe in glory... I heard the voice of Jesus say, 'Come unto me and rest. Lay down, you weary traveller...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: religious clothes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 36-39, "My Number Will Be Changed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16264
NOTES [125 words]: There isn't much here that is actually scriptural. The reference to the weary coming to Jesus and resting clearly alludes to Matthew 11:28, where those with heavy burdens are urged to come to Jesus, who will give them rest. There are several references to robes in the Apocalypse, with 6:11 being a likely source for this song (see also 1:13, 19:13). The idea of people bearing a number is not Biblical (but see the notes on "John Saw the Holy Number"). - RBW
The last verse of Rosenbaum is "I heard the voice of Jesus say, "Come unto Me and rest, Lay down, you weary wand'rer, your head upon My breast." That is from the first verse of the hymn indexed here as "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say," listed as found in a number of popular hymn books. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Rose036

My Old Brown Coat and Me

See The Old Brown Coat (File: R791)

My Old Cottage Home

DESCRIPTION: "I am thinking tonight of my old cottage home It stands on the brow of the hill" where the singer used to roam. Now it is quiet; all the people who used to live there have left or died. "But I shall meet them round Heaven's bright throne"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs)
KEYWORDS: home death separation reunion
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 16-18, "My Old Cottage Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3384
File: Abri016

My Old Dog Tray

See Old Dog Tray (File: FSWB396B)

My Old Hammah

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

My Old Hen's a Good Old Hen

See Cluck Old Hen (File: Wa120)

My Old Horse Died

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of disasters: horse dies, mule goes lame, storm blows house away, earthquake swallows wreckage, land is repossessed. He dies, but wife & kids are comforted, because he was insured with Banker's Life [Insurance Co.]
AUTHOR: Words: advertisement; tune "Chicken Reel" (trad.), set by Dock Boggs
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (recording, Dock Boggs)
KEYWORDS: death disaster storm humorous family horse animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
Roud #11580
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "My Old Horse Died" (on Boggs1, BoggsCD1)
NOTES [120 words]: Does this belong [in the index]? It's certainly narrative, and it has entered the repertoire of old-time revival performers. Toss-up, but I say yes, if only for the novelty of the thing. And most traditional performers were far less picky about including non-traditional material in their performances than their revival heirs. - PJS
And the tune, the Chicken Reel, is worth noting in its own right, although we can't really index a melody. But the Chicken Reel was popular enough that it was actually arranged for piano (by John W. Schaum) and published in a musical series which also includes Mozart, Chopin, and Bach, copyrighted 1946 by Belwin, Inc. Not that there is any chance Boggs would have encountered that. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: RcMOHD

My Old Iron Cross

DESCRIPTION: "I'm the bloke that broke the bank at Monte Carlo, I'm the hero of a dozen dirty nights. I went out in a submarine to give the Kaiser one"; he meets the Kaiser and is given an Iron Cross. Iron crosses are tossed around for various other trivial feats
AUTHOR: Huntley Trevor (source: mudcat.org thread by Jim Dixon)
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (recording, Harry Champion)
KEYWORDS: war royalty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 33-34, "My Old Iron Cross" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" (tune)
NOTES [88 words]: This is listed as having both words and music by Huntley Trevor, but Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver lists it as being sung to "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo," so presumably Trevor is responsible primarily for the lyrics.
The song really doesn't make much sense to me. Yes, a lot of Iron Crosses were awarded in the First World War. But you genuinely had to do something worth doing to earn one.
Harry Champion, who was the first to record this, is perhaps best known for popularizing "I'm Henery the Eighth I Am." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW033

My Old Kentucky Home

DESCRIPTION: "The sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home; 'Tis summer, the darkies are gay...." The song lists the troubles of the poor tired slave (soon to die? far from home?), "Weep no more, my lady... We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home far away..."
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (sheet music by Firth, Pond & Co.)
KEYWORDS: home slave exile age
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 72, "My Old Kentucky Home" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 249-250, "My Old Kentucky Home, Good-Night!" (1 text plus a copy of the sheet music cover)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 134-138, "My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 217-218, "My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 18-19, "My Old Kentucky Home, Good-Night" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1527, p. 104, "My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 7, "My old Kentucky Home, Good-night" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 246, "My Old Kentucky Home" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 83-85, "My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 162, "My Old Kentucky Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #118, "Old Kentucky Home" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 131, "My Old Kentucky Home" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 384-385, "My Old Kentucky Home"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 188, "My Old Kentucky Home" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, pp. 30-31, "My Old Kentucky Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, pp. 26-27, "My Old Kentucky Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, KENTYHOM
ADDITIONAL: William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, pp. 38-39, "(My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night!)" (1 text, the cleaned-up version used by the state of Kentucky; tune on pp. 117-119)
ST RJ19134 (Full)
Roud #9564
RECORDINGS:
George Alexander, "My Old Kentucky Home" (Oxford 3354, n.d.)
Bowman Sisters, "My Old Kentucky Home" (Columbia 15473-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Climax Quartet, "My Old Kentucky Home" (Columbia 512, 1900)
Ford Hanford, "My Old Kentucky Home and Old Black Joe [medley] (Victor 18767, 1921)
Harry Macdonough, "My Old Kentucky Home" (Victor 636, 1900)
Standard Quartette, "My Old Kentucky Home" (CYL: Columbia 2248, rec. 1894)
SAME TUNE:
We Will Sing One Song (by Joe Hill) (Gibbs M. Smith, _Joe Hill_, 1969 (I use the 1984 Peregrine Smith Books edition), pp. 250-251)
My Good Old Irish Home ("Och my heart still yearns for my good ould Irish Home" by John L. Zieber) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 103)
At the Old Farm Home ("The sun shines bright from a clear and cloudless sky") (by A. P. Knapp) (Albert P. Knapp, _Grange Songster_, 1915, pp. 19-20)
To a Bald Head ("The sun shines bright on ???'s unlucky dome") (Harbin-Parodology, #184, p. 49)
NOTES [218 words]: Spaeth, p. 114, reports that the text of this song was derived from a poem called "Poor Uncle Tom, Good Night." Morneweck, pp. 406-408, thinks the song actually based on Uncle Tom's Cabin, as if that staunch Democrat Foster would ever go near an abolitionist tract! It appears, based on Howard, p. 176, that this is the original text in Foster's notebook, but that it does not fit the later tune. (Morneweck reproduces the notebook page facing p. 409; I would say the first verse is nearly final -- and so could have its final tune -- but it appears the chorus was still to properly evolve.)
Emerson, p. 29, notes that Stephen Foster's parents lost their home very early in Foster's life, and suggests that "Foster would compose so many songs about home in part because he seldom knew one for long."
TaylorEtAl, p. 95, says that the Rowan family of Bardstown, Kentucky were cousins of Stephen Foster's family, and that there is a story that theirs is the Old Kentucky Home mentioned in the song -- but there is no record of Foster ever visiting there. Howard, pp. 169-175, discusses his trip to Kentucky; his conclusion in effect is that Foster could have visited the Rowan house, but we can't know if it's the house in the song.
This is now the state song of Kentucky, with the racist references reduced. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: RJ19134

My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night

See My Old Kentucky Home (File: RJ19134)

My Old Man and I Fell Out

See A Little Old Man and I Fell Out (File: WEMM040A)

My Old Man Number One

See This Old Man (File: FSWB390C)

My Old Man Said Follow the Van

See Don't Dilly Dally on the Way (File: LTCSDDDW)

My Old Man's a Dustman

DESCRIPTION: "My old man's a dustman, He fought at the Battle of Mons. He killed ten thousand Germans With only a couple of bombs." The song describes the horrid casualties, concluding, Flies are bad, bugs are worse, If you sing any more I'll start to curse"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1948 (Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs)
KEYWORDS: soldier death bug music
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, p. 185, "(no title)" (1 text)
File: CalC185

My Old Man's a S'ilor On a Carley Float

DESCRIPTION: "My old man's a s'ilor on a carley float, Wiv 'is gorblimey collar and 'is gorblimey coat, Ties his blledin' muffler round is' bleedin' froat, Oh, My old man's a s'ilor on a carley float."
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: humorous clothes sailor | carley float
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 129, "My old man's a s'ilor on a carley float" (1 short text)
Roud #25532
NOTES [80 words]: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood says that this song was "a music hall song by George Leyton and Lil Hawthorne," but that doesn't mean they were the authors; they might have been the performers. I haven't been able to find a text of their full song, but it seems to me that I've heard some of these words in other songs, so it may have been well-known.
A carley float was a small life raft, so this was a joke: The sailor wasn't really a sailor but just a guy in a raft. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC129C

My Old Pennsylvania Home

DESCRIPTION: Pennsylvania Dutch adaption of Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home," relocated to Pennsylvania. "Die suun schiendt hell in em alt Pennsylfawnisch heim, Sis suumer die schartze sin fro...."
AUTHOR: Music: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Herzog, _The Favorite Songs, Saying and Stories of a Pennsylvania Dutchman_)
KEYWORDS: home foreignlanguage derivative
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 159, "My Old Pennsylvania Home" (1 text)
File: CAFS1159

My Old Pinto Pal

DESCRIPTION: The singer declares "I'm headin' once more for the prairie;" he longs for and recalls the joys of cowboy life. But his pinto pal is old; he decides to set the tired horse free, for it is "dearer to me than a gal," and "not once have I known you to fail"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: horse cowboy freedom
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 89, "My Old Pinto Pal" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Ohr089

My Old Sow's Nose

See The Sow Took the Measles (File: LoF015)

My Old True Love

See Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove) (File: Wa097)

My Old Wife

See (notes under) My Rattlin' Oul' Grey Mare (File: HHH664)

My Old Wife's a Good Old Cratur

DESCRIPTION: "Every morning for my breakfast She gives me good toast and roll ... at night when work is over She brings me bacon and my beer." When times are hard she kisses me and if I get beery she has no harsh word Some folks live better but none is happier.
AUTHOR: Edward Farmer
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Farmer)
KEYWORDS: marriage food nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 140-141, "My Old Wife's a Good Old Cratur" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 250, "My Wife's a Good Old Cratur")
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, pp. 58-59, "My Owd Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Farmer, Ned Farmer's Scrap Book (London, 1863 (3rd edition, "Digitized by Google")), pp. 95-97, "My Wife Is a Good Old Cratur" (1 text)
Roud #1263
NOTES [12 words]: "My Wife Is a Good Old Cratur" is not in Farmer's first edition (1846). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: WT140

My Ole Missus Promise Me

See My Ole Mistus Promised Me (File: Br3417)

My Ole Mistus Promised Me

DESCRIPTION: "My ole mistus promised me When she died she'd set me free." "Good mornin', John. Howdy." "She lived so long her head got bald...." Rest involves her mistreatment: "My old mistus killed a duck, Didn't give me nuffin' but de bone to suck." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: slave hardtimes work freedom death age floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 417, "My Ole Mistus Promised Me" (1 text)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 223-224, "My Ole Mistis" (1 short text, with a "Johnny get de hoecake" chorus, 1 tune); there are sundry related texts with the "My ole mistus/marster" stanza on the nect several pages
Finger-FrontierBallads, p. 164, "(No title)" (1 fragment, possibly this)
Roud #11723
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Raise a Ruckus" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Old Marse John" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Way Down Below" (floating lyrics)
cf. Take Your Lover in the Ring" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Steal, Miss Liza (II)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [57 words]: The initial stanzas, about the promise of freedom at the owner's death, is common and supplies the heart of several songs. But all seem to be distinguished by their choruses. It is possible that this is one of the elements that went into the Lomax conglomeration "Old Marse John" -- but it's such a kitchen sink that proof is impossible. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Br3417

My Onery Little Roan

DESCRIPTION: "I've said goodbye to my old bunk, I'll give away my chaps.... I'll go, but no one knows just how I'll miss my little roan." The retiring cowboy recalls breaking the "Scout," He is prepared to head to the city; leaving his horse is his one great regret
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Powder River Jack Lee songbook)
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, pp.24-25, "My Onery Little Roan" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: PRJL024

My Only Jo and Dearie, O

DESCRIPTION: "Thy cheek is o' the rose's hue." The singer describes his sweetheart. He recalls "when we were bairnies on yon brae" and he would chase her and pull flowers for her. He wishes that they would always be together "till life's warm stream forgat to play"
AUTHOR: Richard Gall (1776-1801) (source: Eyre-Todd)
EARLIEST DATE: 1819 (according to Eyre-Todd)
KEYWORDS: love lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1859, "Your Cheeks Are o' the Roses' Hue" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Allan Cunningham, The Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern, (London, 1825 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, pp. 28-29, "My Only Jo and Dearie"
Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, p. 271, "My Only Jo and Dearie, O"
George Eyre-Todd, Scottish Poetry of the Eighteenth Century, (Glasgow, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 332-333, "My Only Jo and Dearie, O"
Roud #13588
NOTES [24 words]: Greig/Duncan8 is a fragment; Chambers is the basis for the description.
Cunningham, 1825: "I remember when this song was exceedingly popular." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81859

My Only Love

DESCRIPTION: "I once knew a beautiful greaser... Who played in the street for a living." He follows "And worshipped her sweet mandolin." The singer asks to marry, and offers many gifts, but is ignored. He says he will die. At last someone tells him the woman is deaf
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Finger-FrontierBallads)
KEYWORDS: music courting humorous rejection
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finger-FrontierBallads, p. 108-110, "My Only Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8826
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The German Girls" (theme of following a woman for her music)
NOTES [18 words]: So who is more deaf -- the woman who plays a mandolin she can't tune, or the man who thinks it sounds good? - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Fing108

My Only Woodbine

DESCRIPTION: "My only Woodbine, my double Woodbine, Don't give me Players or Craven A" or other cigarettes, but "Please don't take my Woodbine away" even though they make the singer's throat sore. Eventually, "I cannot smoke the Woodbines any more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier drugs hardtimes derivative
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 84, "My Only Woodbine" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #24974
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "You Are My Sunshine" (tune)
File: Hopk084A

My Owd Wife

See My Old Wife's a Good Old Cratur (File: WT140)

My Own Dark Maiden

DESCRIPTION: "Not a youth from Dublin town Unto Galway of renown,. but is laden... with love-gifts to thee... My own dark maiden." He could find a girl elsewhere, "But could I have my choice, How much I wold rejoice To wed thee, my dark maiden of all yet."
AUTHOR: English version by James Clarence Mangan (1803-1849)
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Hyde, Abhráin grádh chúige Connacht)
KEYWORDS: love poverty
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 285-286, "My Own dark Maiden" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Douglas Hyde, _Abhráin grádh chúige Connacht, or, Love songs of Connacht_, T. F. Unwin, 1893 (available on Google Books), p. 113, "(Not a youth from Dublin town" (1 text, apparently with an Irish original)
Roud #15017
NOTES [707 words]: "The Dark Girl of the Valley" and "My Own Dark Maiden," both printed by Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, have common elements; it appears that the middle section of the two poems are different translations of the same Gaelic original, the first apparently by Douglas Hyde, the latter by James Clarence Mangan. If any proof were needed that Shoemaker's versions came from Hyde, and not from true oral tradition, it is the fact that Shoemaker's "My Own Dark Maiden" includes *only* the portion of Mangan's text printed by Hyde (that is, the parts with parallels to "The Dark Girl of the Valley"), dropping all the rest of Mangan's text; as Hyde says, "The two songs are altogether different from one another, except in these two verses" (meaning that the cross-fertilization is in the Gaelic, not the English) -- but the common element is all that Shoemaker prints of Mangan.
According to Benet/Murphy, p. 515, Douglas Hyde (Gaelic name Dubhglas deh-Ide, 1860-1949) was an "Irish poet, scholar, and statesman. The first president of Eire (1938-1945), he wrote much of his work in Irish and devoted himself to the restoration of Irish culture. He was one of the many founders of the ABBEY THEATRE and wrote many books on Irish history, literature and folklore. His Love Songs of Connaught (1894) is a classic compilation."
Foster, pp. 447-448, note CCVIII, says "Douglas Hyde (1860-1947): born in Sligo; educated at Trinity College, Dublin; co-founded the Irish Literary Society in London, 1891, and President of the National Literary Society, Dublin, 1892; co-founder and find President of the Gaelic League, 1893; wrote the first modern play in the Irish language, Casadh an tSuágín, 1901; sat on the Commissions for Irish Secondary and University Education, 1901 and 1906; Professor of Modern Irish at the National University of Ireland, 1908-32; resigned as President of the Gaelic League upon its politicization, 1915; Irish Free State Senator, 1925-6; President of the Irish Republic, 1938. Major works: Love Song of Connacht, 1893, and A Literary History of Ireland, 1899. An autobiography, Mise agus an Conradh, 1931."
Power, pp. 163-164, "[T]he major influences from the old Gaelic literature at this time [the period around 1900] came through the translation of Gaelic folkverse by Dr Douglas Hyde. His three books, Love-Songs of Connacht (1893), Songs Ascribed to Raferty (1903), and Religious Songs of Connacht (1906) were the fruit of some years spent collecting verse from the Connacht peasantry and were issued with translations which were almost literal. The poems were seized avidly by many of the poets and poems were adapted by some, while others, such as Yeats, used turns of phrase found in the translations. The first two books were most influential in this regard.... Hyde's influence was a major one."
Biographies include (probably not a comprehensive list):
-- Gareth Dunleavy, Douglas Hyde, Bucknell University Press, 1974 (a small volume of just 92 pages, according to Google Books)
-- Janet Egleson Dunleavy, Gareth W. Dunleay, Douglas Hyde: A Maker of Modern Ireland, University of California Press, 1991 (presumably based partly on the preceding, but five times as long!)
-- Diarmid Coffey/Diarmid O. Cobhthaigh, Douglas Hyde, President of Ireland (1917?)
-- Gerard Murphy, Douglas Hyde 1860-1949, Educational Company of Ireland, 1949
See also:
-- Colm O Lochlainn, The Literary Achievement of Douglas Hyde (1938?)
-- Patrick Sarsfield O'Hegarty, A Bibliography of Dr. Douglas Hyde, privately printed, 1939
-- Attracta Halpin, Áine Mannion, editors, Douglas Hyde: The Professor of Irish who Became President of Ireland : Proceedings of Seminar Held to Explore Aspects of the Life and Achievements of Douglas Hyde, the First President of Ireland, National University of Ireland, 2016
Other songs in the Index associated with Hyde include:
-- Bas an Chroppi (The Dead Croppy)
-- Callino Casturame (Colleen Og a Store; Cailin O Chois tSiure; Happy 'Tis, Thou Blind, for Thee)
-- The Dark Girl of the Valley
-- Darling Black Head
-- Dark Moll of the Valley
-- Lament of John O Mahony
-- Nelly of the Top-Knots
-- The Pretty Pearl of the White Mountain
-- The Red Man's Wife
- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe285

My Own Dear Home

DESCRIPTION: The singer thinks in turn of his childhood home, his longing for home when among strangers, his current happy home, and his home after death.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1842 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3571))
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer thinks "with pleasure on my first dear home." After leaving his childhood home, being among strangers, "thou would'st say to thyself, what induced me to roam?" Then he thinks of his current home, cherishing wife and children, and the comfort of returning there after a day of work. Then, after his death, "his wife and his children in sorrow will roam To see him conveyed to his last sad home"
KEYWORDS: homesickness marriage home rambling nonballad children family wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 240-241, "My Own Dear Home" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 212)
Roud #1306
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3571), "My Own Dearest Home" ("Wherever I wander, wherever I stray") , T. Birt (London), 1833-1841; also Harding B 11(2578), Firth b.27(219), "My Own Dearest Home"; Harding B 16(233a), Firth b.25(383), "My Own Dearst Home"; Johnson Ballads fol. 371 View 1 of 2, Harding B 20(115), 2806 c.16(185), Johnson Ballads fol. 114, Harding B 20(121), "My Own Dear Home"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hellen the Fair" (tune, per Bodleian Harding B 16(233a))
cf. "Dog Tray" (tune, per Bodleian 2806 c.16(185))
NOTES [44 words]: Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO adds a verse to the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text: "The man that is blest with a wife in affliction, He would find a nurse that is tender and kind ...."; see, for example, verse three of broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(3571). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT240

My Own Father Forced Me

See Charming Beauty Bright [Laws M3] (File: LM03)

My Own True Handsome Bill

DESCRIPTION: "One evening very lately" the singer meets handsome Bill. They want to marry. She tells him to speak to her father. "Say you are a farmer and that you want a wife and that you dearly love me." Don't dress in Sunday best. Talk about farming and ploughing.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting farming father clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 824, "My Own True Handsome Bill" (1 text)
Roud #6215
File: GrD4824

My Ozark Mountain Home

DESCRIPTION: Singer recalls his mother sitting in "that little cabin home" "in those Ozark Hills far away." Mother is dead and buried in a "little mound of clay" and the cabin is gone. He's "going back and build a shack...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (StuffDreams2)
KEYWORDS: homesickness home return death nonballad mother
FOUND IN: US(So)
Roud #21512
RECORDINGS:
George Edgin's Corn Dodgers, "My Ozark Mountain Home" (on StuffDreams2)
Swing and Turn Jubilee, "My Ozark Mountain Home", Max Hunter Folk Song Collection, Cat #1589 (MFH #1042), accessed 18 June 2020 at https://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=1589. (1 text, 1 tune)
File: RcMOMH

My Pappy He Will Scold Me

See Chickens They Are Crowing (File: R541)

My Pappy's Whiskers

See Father's Whiskers (File: FSWB241A)

My Parents Reared Me Tenderly (I -- The Soldier Boy)

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells how his parents brought him up and sent him to school. He works for a time, but -- influenced by drink -- enlists in the army. He learns the drill, but also finds he will have to serve at least twenty years. He hopes eventually to return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: soldier drink family money loneliness separation army war
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H466, pp. 79-80, "My Parents Reared Me Tenderly" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 54, "My Parents Reared Me Tenderly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 1018-1019, "The Soldier Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8003
NOTES [157 words]: The first two lines, "My parents reared me tenderly I being their only son But little did they ever think I'd follow the fife and drum", are in common with "The Bold Deserter" and the first line with "The Girl I Left Behind (I)" [Laws P1A/B]. There is no other connection with those ballads. - BS
The reference to serving the Queen found in Peacock (not in the Henry version) forces us to the reign of either Anne (reigned 1702-1714) or Victoria (1837-1901); there was no standing army in the time of Elizabeth.
Enlistment was still for life early in Victoria's reign, but the references to the wars inclines me to think that -- if the reference to serving the Queen is original -- the reign of Anne is meant, since Victoria's reign was relatively peaceful (at least in Europe) while Anne's reign corresponded almost exactly with the War of the Spanish Succession, with British troops in Flanders (mostly under Marlborough) the whole time. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: HHH466

My Parents Reared Me Tenderly (II)

See The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)

My Peggy and I

DESCRIPTION: "I hae a wee wifie, an' I am her man, My Peggy an' I." They have a daughter: "I am sure she is hers, and I think she is mine," and "when we have siller, we dee best's we can"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: marriage nonballad baby wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1275, "My Peggy and I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7190
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Howes o' Glenarchy" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
File: GrD71275

My Pigeon Gone Wild

DESCRIPTION: In each verse the singer asks to borrow a bird or pony "that will keep family that's mine"; his own bird or pony has "gone wild in the bush" or "gone wild on his trap" or "gone swimmin in the pool" and is usually "in the neighbor's yard"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Blind Blake Higgs: see WIHIGGS01)
KEYWORDS: poverty request nonballad animal bird chickens dog horse
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "My Pigeon Gone Wild" (on WIHIGGS01)
File: RcMPiGWi

My Pink Pajamas

See I Wear My Pink Pajamas (File: PHCF034P)

My Ploughman Boy

See The Bonny Sailor Boy [Laws M22] (File: LM22)

My Pony

DESCRIPTION: "One morning bright and early, so early, so early, My shining boots my pride, Out near Miss Anna's cottage... where she could see me ride." Hoping to impress Anna, the singer spurs his pony, which throws him in the dirt. Anna laughs at him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting horse humorous animal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 464, "My Pony" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 678, "Trip, Play-Mo-Blay" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7606
File: R464

My Pony Boy

DESCRIPTION: "Pony (boy/girl), pony boy, Won't you be my (pony/tony) boy, Here we go, riding slow, all across the plain. Marry me, carry me, far away with you, Giddyap, giddyap, giddyap, WHOA, my pony boy" (as the adult bounces the child on the knee)
AUTHOR: Words: Bobby Heath / Music: Charley O'Donnell (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (musical "Miss Innocence," according to Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: playparty horse | knee dandling
FOUND IN: US(NE)
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Pony Boy" (Piotr-Archive #271, recorded 09/27/2022)
Ada Jones, "My Pony Boy" (Victor 16356, 1909)
Peerless Quartet, "My Pony Boy" (Columbia 713, 1909)
Jane Prentice, "Pony Girl" (Piotr-Archive #100, recorded 03/08/2022)
NOTES [59 words]: This, according to the sheet music, is a complete song by Heath and O'Donnell, beginnin "Way out west, in a nest from the rest, dwelt the bestest little Bronco Boy" -- but it appears that the only part that has gone into tradition is the chorus (which is the basis of the quoted description). This seems to have been widely used as a bouncing song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio100

My Poor Dog Tray

See Poor Dog Tray (File: HMHS075B)

My Prairie Home

See Dear Prairie Home (File: CAFS491A)

My Pretty Flora

See Sheepcrook and Black Dog (File: HHH030a)

My Pretty Little Miss

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17]; also The Banks of Sweet Primroses (File: LO17)

My Pretty Little Pink (I)

See Little Pink (File: San166)

My Pretty Little Pink (II)

See Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss (File: CSW066)

My Pretty Maid (I)

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)

My Pretty Maid (II)

See Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid) (File: R079)

My Pretty Pink

See Little Pink (File: San166)

My Pretty Quadroon

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a slave, mourns for his lost Cora, "my pretty quadroon." His master had been kind, but coveted Cora, and when the slave grieves, the master sells the singer down the river. He contemplates suicide until he hears the trumpets of the Union army
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (Dime-Song-Book #16)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a slave, mourns for his lost Cora, "my pretty quadroon". His master used to be kind, so much so that the singer "had not...a wish to be free" The master covets Cora, and when the slave tears his hair in grief, the master turns hard, and sells the singer down the river. He contemplates suicide, but hears the trumpets of the Union army and regains hope.
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness sex separation slavery lover Civilwar jealousy
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 79, "My Pretty Quadroon" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 711, "My Pretty Quadroon" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 38, "My Pretty Quadroon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #16, pp. 40-41, "My Pretty Quadroon" (1 text)
Roud #4965
RECORDINGS:
Beverly Hill Billies, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Brunswick 441, 1930)
Bud & Joe Billings (Frank Luther & Carson Robison), "My Pretty Quadroon" (Victor V-40282, 1930)
Dixieland Swingsters, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Bluebird B-8109, 1939)
The Happy Chappies, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Columbia 2252-D, 1930)
Jim & Ken, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Champion 16812, 1934; Champion 45074, c. 1935)
Light Crust Doughboys, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Vocalion 02992, 1935)
John James, "Pretty Squadron" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Carson Robison Trio, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Banner 773/Challenge 785/Conqueror 7593/Jewel 6024/Romeo 1388, 1930) (Broadway 8280, n.d.; Crown 3140, 1931)
Texas Jim Lewis, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Decca 5990, 1941)
Vagabonds, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Victor 23849/Bluevird B-5072/Montgomery Ward M-4307, 1933)
Wanner & White [pseuds for W. C. Childers & Clyde White], "The Pretty Quadroon" (Champion 16306/Superior 2713 [as Holmes & Taylor], 1931)
NOTES [100 words]: In the tortured stratification of racism, a "quadroon" was someone whose ancestry was one-fourth Negro -- hence, someone with fairly light skin, and therefore of high status in the African-American community. This song was enormously popular in minstrel shows and vaudeville, well into the twentieth century. But I can't for the life of me remember the author. - PJS
The description here seems to be that of the original poem, or perhaps a Civil War adaption. As it circulates in oral tradition, however, the details can be lost and it may become a lament simply for a girl lost (perhaps by death). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Be079

My Ramblin' Boy

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the "ramblin' boy" with whom he traveled, who stuck with him in all conditions. On a cold night in a hobo jungle, the ramblin' boy dies. The singer speculates that he will still be rambling in the afterlife
AUTHOR: Tom Paxton
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: rambling death friend
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 61, "My Ramblin' Boy" (1 text)
DT, RAMBLBOY*
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ramblin' Boy
NOTES [177 words]: Like several other Tom Paxton songs, this has not really entered oral tradition, but it certainly has a strong place in the repertoire of professional folksingers, who ramble more than most. I *have* seen it listed as traditional -- and by people who really should have known better. I'm allowing it to be listed here to make it clear that it is composed.
Tom Paxton himself, on p. 60 of The Honor of Your Company (edited and with an introduction by Milton Okun; Cherry Lane Music, 2000) , says that this was written between shows at the Gaslight, and was in part a response to the Dylan/van Ronk version of "He Was a Friend of Mine."
ing, five songs in the Index -- "The Marvelous Toy," "The Last Thing on My Mind," "My Ramblin' Boy," "Going to the Zoo," and "I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound" -- and all were written and recorded very early in his career. Nor have I seen any hints of any of his later songs matching those five in popularity. - RBW
This shouldn't be confused with versions of "Wild and Wicked Youth" that are called "Ramblin' Boy". - PJS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: FSWB061

My Ramboling Son

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

My Rattlin' Oul' Grey Mare

DESCRIPTION: "I am a jolly carter and a jolly good soul am I. I whistle and sing from morn till noon, all troubles I defy." The singer described how "my rattlin' mare and I" work together. He does not overburden the horse, and she does her work well
AUTHOR: Harry Clifton (source: Gardham-EastRidingSongster)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: horse work nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(North,South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 456, "The Country Carrier" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H664, p. 41, "My Rattlin' Oul' Grey Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 548, "Country Carrier" (1 text)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 10, pp. 14, 45-46, "The Country Carrier"; "My Old Wife"; "My Rattling Old Mare and I" (3 texts, the first being a traditional version, the second being "My Old Wife," the song Harry Clifton parodied; the third, "My Rattling Old Mare and I," being Clifton's original version)
Roud #1400
NOTES [73 words]: Gardham-EastRidingSongster attributes this to Harry Clifton, although I have not seen the attribution elsewhere. But Clifton did write a lot of songs, and many went into tradition. This was said to be Clifton's knock-off on "My Old Wife," which Roud files under the same number, #1400; "My Old Wife" does not appear to be traditional in its own right.
For background on author Harry Clifton, see the notes to "The Good Ship Kangaroo." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: HHH664

My Rattling Mare and I

See My Rattlin' Oul' Grey Mare (File: HHH664)

My Rattling Old Mare and I

See My Rattlin' Oul' Grey Mare (File: HHH664)

My Rolling Eye

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)

My Rose in June

See Rose in June (File: CoSB256)

My Sailor Boy (A Sailor Boy in Blue)

DESCRIPTION: "My boy he is a sailor, A sailor boy in blue, I know he has my heart, And I hope he will prove true.... And soon he will return again To his own dear Mary Jane." She describes the gifts her has promised to bring her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: sailor separation gift love
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H759, p. 288, "My Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 49, "My Bonny Boy in Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5238
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "The Bonny Boy in Blue" (on IRTLenihan01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?" (theme)
NOTES [89 words]: Sort of a cross between "Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea" and "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?" - RBW
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 49: "It is possible, even likely, that he [Tom Lenihan] learned it from the American recording of Nan Fitzpatrick which she made when she joined forces with the very popular Frank Quinn. Fn 144: Frank Quinn and Nan Fitzpatrick with violin, banjo and piano accompaniment 'My Bonny Boy in Blue' on Columbia Records, 33477-F. Matrix (w) 113025. 'Connamara Dan' is on the reverse side." - BS
File: HHH759

My Scolding Wife

See The Scolding Wife (I) (File: R397)

My Seventy-Six Geared Wheel

DESCRIPTION: "O how I long for solid roads In the merry month of June ... How jolly I will feel A-spinning down to Rustico On my seventy-six geared wheel." The singer lists his favorite stops on the way to Mary's "big front door" at Rustico.
AUTHOR: Mary Fleming? Ambrose Cosgrove?
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: courting technology
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 25-26, "My Seventy-Six Geared Wheel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 151-152,251, "My Seventy-Six Geared Wheel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12477
RECORDINGS:
John O'Connor, "My Seventy-Six Geared Wheel" (on MREIves01)
NOTES [120 words]: Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland: Maybe "seventy-six geared wheel" refers to a geared bicycle built in 1876.
The Rusticos are on the north coast of Queens, Prince Edward Island.
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland claims the author is Mary Fleming, the Mary of the song. Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland claims the author is Ambrose Cosgrove.
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland speculates that "seventy-six" "is probably a then-current way of referring to a bike's power (a derivation involving gear-ratio and wheel size, perhaps), Mr Cosgrove is saying that he's riding the last word in bikes.... [The] distance [was] some forty miles, and not all of it first-class highway." - BS
File: Din025

My Shoes Are Made of Spanish

See Our Boots Are Made of Leather (File: OpGa049)

My Siller's Scarce

DESCRIPTION: "My siller's scarce." The singer lists his current hardships. As for anything substantial, he says, although "I love you well And very dear But you'd better wait Another year"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 921, "My Siller's Scarce" (1 text)
Roud #6241
NOTES [22 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quoting Greig dates the text to a 1819-1820 manuscript valentine, noting that the "city bankruptcy took place then." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4921

My Sins Are All Taken Away (I)

See Free at Last (File: FSWB368A)

My Sins Are All Taken Away (II)

See All My Sins Been Taken Away (File: Ch085)

My Sins Are Taken Away

See All My Sins Been Taken Away (File: Ch085)

My Sister Broke a Bottle

See Johnny on the Ocean (File: DoDW385)

My Sister Don't Love Me

DESCRIPTION: "My sister don't love me; She will not take me in Just because I'm teachin' She must live above sin; What need I to fear when Thou art near? Thou carest, Lord, for me." Similarly with mother, brother, and presumably other ungrateful relatives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Henry, from "Aunt" Martha Hardwick)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad mother brother sister
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 191, "My Sister Don't Love Me" (1 text)
NOTES [47 words]: New verse: "My sister don't love me, Because I'm a jerk, Who insists on saying, I know better than you do, And won't listen, Because I've misread the Bible so thoroughly." The only thing I'm sure of about this song is, I don't want to be around anyone who would sing it and mean it!
File: MHAp191

My Sister Eileen and I Fell Out

See Me and My Wife We Fell Out (File: BAAI065F)

My Sister She Works in a Laundry

See My God, How the Money Rolls In (File: EM107)

My Sister's Got a Boyfriend

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "My sister's got a boyfriend Who comes every night. They go into a corner And turn out the light. I peek through the keyhole And this is what I hear, 'Johnny, Johnny, take your arms away.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Journal of Genetic Psychology, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope courting | sister boyfriend light
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #387, "My sister's got a boyfriend" (1 text)
Roud #19962
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ladies and Gentlemen (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [38 words]: Just about every word of this shows up in "Ladies and Gentlemen (I)," which simply adds a few lines at the beginning; I would be inclined to lump them. But Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes and Roud split them, so I have done so also. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR387

My Size Is Small

DESCRIPTION: "My size is small, My heart is large, God bless the girls, I love them all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 243, (no title) (1 short text)
File: MHAp243A

My Son Come Tell It To Me

See Edward [Child 13] (File: C013)

My Son Davie

See Edward [Child 13] (File: C013)

My Son John

DESCRIPTION: "My son John was tall and slim, And he had a leg for ev'ry limb, But now he's got no legs at all, For he ran a race with a cannon ball." He is asked how he came to lose his legs, and he says he was not at sea nor deaf or blind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Hamer)
KEYWORDS: soldier injury mother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 44, "My Son John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #678
NOTES [48 words]: Roud lumps this with "Mrs. McGrath," and of course both are songs about injury. But "Mrs. McGrath" is also about recruiting, and that is completely missing here. Might this be derived from "Mrs. McGrath"? Certainly. But it's not where I would look for the piece, so I've split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: HaGa044

My Son Joshua

See Wal I Swan (Giddyap Napoleon, Ebenezer Frye) (File: RcWelIS)

My Son Ted (I)

See Mrs. McGrath (File: MA126)

My Son Ted (II)

See The Wars of America (File: LoF017)

My Soul Be At Rest

DESCRIPTION: Response line is "My soul be at rest." Leader lines include "One of these mornings and it won't be long," "Be at rest, going to be at rest," "Be at rest till Judgment Day," "Hitch on my wings and try the air," "You'll ask for me and I'll be gone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious shanty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 221, "My Soul Be At Rest" (1 text)
File: Parp221A

My Soul Rock On Jubilee

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "'N Jubilee (x2), A-a-a-h my Lord, 'N Jubilee (x2), My soul rock on Jubilee." Verses: "Long time talki' 'bout Jubilee." "My mother done gone to Jubilee." "I come to tell you 'bout Jubilee." "That Jud! That Jud! [sic] That Jubilee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 89, "My Soul Rock On Jubilee" (2 texts)
NOTES [42 words]: In Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands's verses, the verse line is repeated, alternating with "A-a-a-h my Lord" and "My soul rock on Jubilee."
Art Rosenbaum's liner notes to McIntosh1 note that that recording's "Jubilee" is a similar shout song. - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parrp89

My Soul Wants Something That's New

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "My soul wants something that's new, that's new, My soul wants some thing that's new (x2)." Verses are "Dark was the night and cold the ground..." and "Was it for crimes that I had done ..." See notes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 105, "My Soul Wants Something That's New" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 147 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #15290
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" (first verse from Haweis)
NOTES [250 words]: Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's text is attributed, in error, by White, to Barton, but White does point out that this text starts with Haweis's first verse "Dark was the night ..." and verse two is "stanza 2 of Watt's 'Alas and Did My Saviour bleed?'" (Newman I. White, American Negro Folk Songs (Hatboro: Folklore Associates Inc, 1965 (reprint of Harvard University Press, 1928) p. 105).
I have split "My Soul Wants Something New" from "Dark Was the Night" because Haweis's first verse has floated here with a verse from another hymn, and includes no other verse from Haweis. In this it is similar to White's #51B, which starts with Haweis's first verse, and continues with couplets from "Amazing Grace," "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say," "Am I a Soldier of the Cross" and the chorus of "Lord, Remember Me."
Haweis's first verse was floating as early as 1835 where it begins a sacred harp hymn concluded by the first verse of another (Isaac Watts?) hymn, "Now in the hour of deep distress, My God, support thy Son, When horrors dark my soul oppress, O leave me not alone!" (Lowell Mason and T.B. Mason, Mason's Sacred Harp (Cincinnati: Truman and Smith, 1835 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 66, "Burford"("Dark was the night, and cold the ground"); A Collection of Hymns and Liturgy for the Use of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (Germantown: M. Billmeyer, 1827 ("Digitized by Google")), #135 p. 83, ("Now, in the hour of deep distress")). - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett105

My Soul's Full of Glory (The Dying Christian)

DESCRIPTION: "My soul's full of glory, inspiring my tongue, Could I meet with angels, I'd sing them a song." The angels wish to hear more songs about Jesus. The singer longs for heaven. The singer asks for protectin, and declares, "I'm going (x3), I'm gone."
AUTHOR: probably John A. Granade
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin); supposedly written 1815
KEYWORDS: religious death
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 65, "The Dying Christian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9078
NOTES [141 words]: The informant who supplied the version in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin was Charlie Spencer, who was brought up in a Primitive Baptist church in Kentucky but moved to Wisconsin. Several of his Primitive Baptist songs were obscure (see, e.g., "The Lovely Story (The Sufferings of Christ)," but this one seems more obscure than most. I have not been able to find any real hint of where or when it was first published.
Internet sources attribute it to John A(dam) Granade, called the "Wild Man of Goose Creek," a sort of itinerant preacher/hymn writer known for his preaching and his unkempt appearance. I could not find his birth and death dates based on a casual search, but this song was supposedly written in 1815.
Granade also wrote two other slightly better-known hymns, "Come All Ye Mourning Pilgrims" and "Sweet Rivers of Redeeming Love." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet065

My Soul's So Happy

See Set Down, Servant (File: LxU105)

My Spinning Wheel

DESCRIPTION: A man accosts the singer while she sits spinning at her wheel. He flatters her and finally convinces her to leave her spinning-wheel and go with him to a hay-cock. She says, "The pleasure I cannot reveal, It far surpast the Spinning-Wheel"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1719 (Pills to Purge Melancholy); 1688? (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 1(19b))
KEYWORDS: sex weaving
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1861, "Jean and her Spinning Wheel" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Wit and Mirth, or, Pills to Purge Melancholy (London, 1719), Vol III, pp. 88-89, ("As I sat at my spinning wheel")
Roud #4255
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(19b), "The Bonny Scot" or "The Yielding Lass" ("As I sat at my spinning-wheel"), J. Walter (London), 1688?
LOCSheet, sm1843 390460, "My Spinning Wheel," A. Fiot (Philadelphia), 1843 (tune)
NOTES [17 words]: Greig/Duncan8 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Douce Ballads 1(19b) is the basis for the description. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81861

My Station's Gonna Be Changed

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the station's gonna be changed after 'while (x2), When the Lord himself shall come And shall say 'Your work is done.'" "The Gospel train is coming, It's coming around the curve, Stopping at every station... For your station's gonna be changed...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad train
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 119, "My Station's Gonna Be Changed" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Get On Board, Little Children" (lyrics)
NOTES [39 words]: The version of this in Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection has a chorus that is very close to "Get On Board, Little Children." The rest of it feels just different enough that I have split them -- but only very tentatively. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: Grim119A

My Stetson Hat

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises his hat: "Stained with alkali, sand, and mud, Smeared with grease and crimson blood, Battered and bent from constant use, Still you have stood the darned abuse." "You've been a good pal... You dirty old gray Stetson hat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Hoofs and Horns)
KEYWORDS: clothes cowboy nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 83, "My Stetson Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21614
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Soldier's Joy" (tune)
File: Ohr083

My Straw Bamer

DESCRIPTION: "My straw bamer, one, two, three, Nobody has one, only me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 23, "My Straw Bamer" (1 text)
NOTES [32 words]: A "bamer" is a straw hat, but I can't find any references to it prior to James Joyce. Did he invent the word? I haven't researched it, but it's interesting to find it in a children's rhyme. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI023B

My Sweet Farm Girl

DESCRIPTION: "My sweet farm girl, she's my joy and pride (x2)." Double-entendre song; singer describes his girlfriend and her abilities to do chores around the farm while the singer "keeps her garden free from bugs and weeds."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Carolina Tar Heels)
KEYWORDS: sex farming work bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #21326
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley & Gwen Foster, "My Sweet Farm Girl" (Vocalion 02780/Conqueror 7942/Perfect 12779/Banner 32356/Romeo 5113/Oriole 8113, 1934?; rec. Dec. 1, 1931; on Ashley04)
Carolina Tar Heels, "Farm Girl Blues" (Victor 23516, 1931)
New Lost City Ramblers, "My Sweet Farm Girl" (on NLCREP3, NLCRCD1)
NOTES [43 words]: Individually, the verses of this song can be regarded as "clean" -- enough so that I didn't notice the bawdiness on casual hearing. But the overall effect of the song (which may conclude, "She loves her daddy Because I'm long and hard") is very salacious. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: RvMSFG

My Sweet Little Air Force Blue Suit

DESCRIPTION: "Now we're in the Air Force WD, Brass buttons and flat heels are all that you see. No glamour, no charm, with our closely cropped hair, But our little blue suits are doing their share." Despite the un-glamorous clothing, the women are proud of their work
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: clothes soldier nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 80, "My Sweet Little Air Force Blue Suit: (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #24975
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alice Blue Gown" (tune)
cf. "Night-Gown of Blue" (tune)
NOTES [309 words]: Gardner, p. 328, estimates that "Alice Blue Gown," words by Joe McCarthy, music by Harry Tierney, was the thirty-fourth-most popular song in America in 1920; p. 447 says that it had a second peak in 1940, reaching #12 in May of that year. Presumably it was the second spike in popularity that inspired the parodies, since they are clearly from World War II.
Laufe, p. 465 says that "Alice Blue Gown" is from the musical "Irene," book by James Montgomery, lyrics by McCarthy, music by Tierney; the musical premiered in November 1919 and ran for 670 performances -- the longest run for a production of its type until "Oklahoma!" more than two decades later, according to Laufe, p. 10. It also was featured by many touring companies.
Laufe, p. 9, says that "Irene" was based on a Cinderella motif. "Poor but honest working girl" Irene O'Day makes a delivery to a rich man, Donald Marshall, who is able to find her a job as a model. Problems ensue when she borrows a blue gown from the shop, but eventually she and Marshall marry.
The original blue gown was presumably supplied by Lucille, Ltd., which supplied the women's costumes for "Irene."
The original Irene was Edith Day, who also recorded the song. There were apparently two movie versions. This was the only song from the production to be genuinely popular, according to Laufe, p. 9.
Wikipedia claims the title was inspired by the gowns of Alice Roosevelt Longworth.
Although there seem to be no field collections, there were at least three old-time recordings, by Milton Brown and His Brownies (Decca 5311, 1937), by Bill Boyd and His Cowboy Ramblers (Bluebird B8141, 1939), and by the Light Crust Doughboys (Vocalion 05535/Oheh 05535/Columbia 20322, 37745, 1940). Also, my father learned it well enough, probably in the late 1930s or early 1940s, to still remember the tune and some text in 2023. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hopk080

My Sweet Mary Ann

DESCRIPTION: "She's charming neat and handsome, Her middle ye could span, The only one that entices me Is my sweet Mary Anne"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 944, "My Sweet Mary Ann" (1 text)
Roud #6759
NOTES [74 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan5 fragment.
Is the Greig/Duncan5 fragment related to the floating "She's my darling, she's my daisy, She's humpbacked and she's crazy... She's my freckled-faced consumptive Mary Ann" from "Hungry Hash House" and "Sara Jane?" I have to admit it's a reach. - BS
I'd be willing to bet that the "freckle-faced consumptive" fragment is a parody of this. Finding evidence, though, will be tough. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: GrD5944

My Sweetheart is a Shy Little Fairy

See I'm Just Going Down to the Gate (File: RcJGDttG)

My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine

DESCRIPTION: "Once I had a sweetheart, noble, brave, and true... Out on the high seas he sailed... Anchored at Havana... Down went the Maine.... Rouse ye, my countrymen, rouse... Strike down the cowardly fiends Who slaughtered the crew of the Maine."
AUTHOR: Bert Morgan (source: sheet music published by The Morgan Music Company available at New York Public Library)
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (copyright date in the sheet music)
KEYWORDS: disaster ship death love separation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1895 - Cubans rebel against Spain
Feb 15, 1898 - Explosion of the battleship "Maine" in Havana harbor
April 25, 1898 - Congress declares war on Spain
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph 689, "My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine" (1 text)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 7, "The Battle-Ship-Main" (1 text)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 31, "Spanish American War" (1 text, which appears to be this although it never mentions the "Maine"; possibly two songs are mixed)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 236, "The Battleship Maine" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 236, "The Battleship Maine" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
DT, SWTMAINE
Roud #6621
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Did the Maine Go Down?" (theme)
cf. "On the Shores of Havana" (theme)
cf. "Down in the Harbor of Havana" (theme)
cf. "The Spanish War" (theme)
cf. "Manila Bay" (theme)
cf. "Battleship of Maine" (theme)
cf. "Marching to Cuba" (theme)
NOTES [3070 words]: The U. S. S. Maine, it should be noted, was not exactly a battleship, although often called that (including in songs); originally designed as an armored cruiser, she lacked the coal capacity for that role (just 896 tons; Newhart, p. 14; Blow, p. 76, claims that gave her a range of 7000 miles, but that's hard to believe, and Herder, p. 21, says her range was 3600 nautical miles at 10 knots, which wouldn't even let her cross the Pacific). She wound up as an unsatisfactory battleship/cruiser hybrid or "second class battleship."
The design problems shouldn't surprise us; the American navy had essentially been shut down after the Civil War, and she was one of the first ships -- indeed, the first large ship -- coming out of the naval revival of the 1880s. The 1860s and 1870s had been a time of intense naval evolution in Europe; no one in the United States knew how to design a modern ship! (Weems, pp. 4-5). Indeed, the Americans bought the design for the Maine's contemporary, the battleship Texas, from the British! (Herder, pp. 21-22), but the Maine was a home-grown attempt.
Laid down in 1888, she had decent speed -- 17 knots -- and four 10" guns, plus decent armor (Paine, p. 320. Note, however, that the American navy was still using gunpowder at the time, not more modern propellants, so a 10" gun packed less punch than a 10" gun of World War I vintage. Contemporary American battleships had 13" guns and were intended to make 16 knots; contemporary cruisers were usually expected to manage 21-22 knots. So Maine was too lightweight for the battle line and too slow to function as a cruiser even if you ignore her lack of range.
In addition, the layout of the guns was obsolete, and she had a worthless ram bow. Originally intended to carry a sailing rig to give her a decent range despite her lack of coal capacity (Herder, p. 17), her design was revised in 1892 to eliminate it, and it wasn't until 1895 that she was finished (Weems, p. 4) -- a ridiculously long time that showed how much the navy had to learn about shipbuilding (so, for example, the first real American battleship, the Indiana, was laid down two and a half years later, but was commissioned just two months later because the Maine took so long; Newhart, pp. 14, 17). And her forwardmost coal bunkers were literally inaccessible when she had a full load of coal (Weems, p. 104); if by some chance the coal in those bunkers got hot or was exposed to flame, it might be the end of her (although this was apparently not an issue when she blew up, because she had used up the coal that blocked the way to those forward bunkers)....
"Her original designation was Armored Cruiser No. 1.... Reclassified as a second class battleship, shorn of sails, the Maine now fit uneasily into any category. She was too lightly armored for a true battleship, but carried heavier guns than any cruiser. Outdated when commissioned, she weighed [i.e. displaced] just 6,682 tons, much less hefty than foreign battleships. She was the Navy's second battleship, the first being the British-designed Texas. The arrangements of her guns, which the two ships had in common, was unusual. The forward turret with its big pair of 10-inch guns was mounted to starboard of the centerline, while the matching after turret was to port. The Maine also mounted six 6-inch guns and a baker's dozen of smaller guns" (Leeke, p. 24). The odd turret layout was an old Italian idea which had been intended to let all four guns fire in any direction, but it didn't work -- the guns damaged the ship when they fired across the deck. As a result, the Maine's guns actually had more limited arcs of fire than standard designs. They also had to be lowered because the original design had too much topweight (Herder, p. 20). As Herder comments on p. 20, her long gestation meant that she was out of date by the time she was commissioned! It would be two more generations of ships before the Americans finally figured out how to design a proper pre-Dreadnought.
She was also very "wet," had poor balance because of the off-center heavy turrets, and had bad sea-keeping (Herder, p. 22); this poor design made her relatively slow despite her long, narrow form (Texas, despite heaver guns and a broader beam, was actually faster -- more evidence of American lack of design knowledge).
She was really too fragile to be good for much, and she was known in the navy as a "Jonah" ship (Blow, p. 135), but she looked impressive. Fundamentally, if the Americans had wanted to employ a ship that they could lose without it really costing their navy anything, she was the ship....
Her captain, Charles G. Sigsbee, was distinguished, but not so much for his naval work -- although he had been a navy man for more than a third of a century -- but for oceanography and hydrography; he had explored the Gulf of Mexico with biologist Alexander Agassiz. He also held several patents. He was not very experienced with a large, modern ship (Blow, pp. 133-134; Leeke, p. 23).
When the Cubans rose in revolt against inept and brutal Spanish rule, the U.S. government -- spurred on by William Randolph Hearst's newspapers -- decided it should be involved. Without going too deeply into either the Cuban rebellion, the Spanish attempts to suppress it, or the American politics of the period, suffice it to say that many Americans wanted Cuba to have autonomy (Trask, p. 28). When the Spanish continued to repress the Cubans, the Americans decided to be prepared to intervene. The Maine was sent to Key West, where she could steam to Havana in just a few hours (Trask, p. 24). Initially the idea was to keep her in American waters, waiting for a signal from the American diplomats in Cuba. When there appeared to be trouble in Cuba, Consul General Fitzhugh Lee (yes, the former Confederate general who was Robert E. Lee's nephew) called for the ship, then changed his mind -- but the ship went, on what was officially listed as a courtesy visit (Trask, pp. 24-25; Weems, pp. 46-47). Once she was there, Lee wanted her to stay until a ship of at least equal power could arrive (Trask, p. 26).
The Maine arrived in Havana on January 25, 1898 (Trask, p. 25), and stayed for some time, ready to potentially evacuate Americans -- or attack the Spanish. Her officers also visited with the Cubans, in proper diplomatic form; everyone seemed to be getting along well. "During the entire visit the officers and crew of the Maine never slackened their vigilance [keeping unusually large crews on duty at all time to watch for trouble]... however, no one had any indication that precautions were actually necessary" (Weems, p. 59, although Blow, p. 34, mentions a poster that circulated showing the ship being blown up). She kept an unusually heavy watch for a ship at anchor -- a quarter watch, i.e. a quarter of her crew were ready for duty at all times; she also kept watertight doors closed -- and enough steam up to power her turrets (Blow, p. 26).
Then... she blew up with a large loss of life. The explosion took place on the port side forward, near where the crew quarters were, so many of the enlisted men were killed at once, or at least unable to escape (Weems, p. 73). This probably helps explain the line in the song about the singer's sweetheart being peacefully asleep in his hammock when he died; this was indeed the fate of many of the victims.
There were secondary explosions, and the ship caught fire. Possibly more men could have been rescued had it not been for this. Only three of the ship's boats (out of fifteen) were usable (Weems, p 83), but other ships came to the aid of the bewildered crew.
It is believed that 26 officers and 328 men were serving on her when she blew up (although four of the officers were not on the ship at the time); of these, 252 were dead or missing, and eight more were recovered alive but would die of their injuries (Weems, p. 94).
Captain Sigsbee seems to have behaved in a very responsible way. Once he was on another boat and could send messages, he reported both to the Secretary of the Navy and to his immediate supervisor, requesting tenders to bring supplies and clothing -- and suggesting that no one draw premature conclusions: "Public opinion should be suspended until further report" (Weems, p. 92). He would soon change his mind, however, and suggest that the Maine had been mined (Weems, p. 97), although he still allowed that the explosion itself might be an accident.
Divers went to the hulk to recover her codebooks, and learned, with some difficulty, that the keys to her magazine were still in place, so it didn't appear the explosion was caused by the deliberate actions of someone on board (Weems, p. 101).
On February 21, an American investigation board arrived, led by Captain William T. Sampson, soon to be made an admiral and to command one of the forces that fought the Spanish fleet (Weems, p. 102). Witnesses from aboard the Maine disagreed about whether there was one explosion or two, but observers elsewhere all reported two (Weems, p. 110), which must have meant that the first explosion, of unknown origin and location, set off either coal dust or the forward 6" magazine, probably the latter. (The magazines for the main guns did not go up, or the explosion would have been even worse.) The divers who visited the ship also claimed that there was a hole in her hull where the metal bent inward, not outward (Blow, p. 143). This was based on what they felt, not what they saw (apparently they didn't ever really get lights down there), so the evidence was very dubious -- but the American investigators concluded that this meant that the first explosion had been outside the hull. In other words, that she had been mined (Weems, pp. 123-124). On the other hand, the few survivors who had been on the deck at the time of the explosion did not report a waterspout or water landing on the deck, nor were there reports of dead fish (Weems, p. 126).
Also, the Spanish had had no warning of the Maine's arrival, so there was no time to plant a mine in advance, and the ship kept careful watch while in Havana, so it would have been hard to plant a mine after she arrived (Weems, p. 128).
One thing that is perhaps of importance is that the Maine, although she never left her berth, did not stay in the same place the whole time. She was moored to the berth, but apparently her other end was not anchored, so she moved around. At different times, she covered different spots on the harbor bottom. So a timed mine could not be sure of getting her; either some person -- unknown and unidentified -- would have had to set off the mine (perhaps electrically, from a distance) or it would have had to be a contact mine. No sign of either was ever found.
The Spanish also ordered an investigation. Apparently neither side cooperated with the other's investigation; the Americans wouldn't let Spaniards onto the hulk, and the Spaniards wouldn't let the Americans examine the harbour (Blow, p. 118). The Spanish inquiry disagreed with the idea of a mine, but other than rowing around the harbor, they couldn't examine the ship; they just talked to their own witnesses (Weems, pp. 124-125).
And even if there had been a mine, that wouldn't have proved whether the Spanish or the insurgents had set off the mine.
The American commission finally concluded that the first explosion had been external, not internal, although it could not determine who had set the (presumed) bomb (Blow, p. 167). According to Berner, p. 216, the Spanish then offered to submit the issue to international arbitration, but the Americans weren't interested.
No account was taken of the fact that the Spanish had nothing to gain from blowing up the Maine; if the crime had been discovered, then the war they had been trying so hard to avoid would of course be inevitable, and even if they got away with it, if war still came, getting rid of a rather feeble ship wouldn't improve the odds for their navy significantly.
Not that Hearst and his minions cared about the result of the investigation. Never mind that the Spanish had nothing to gain from destroying the ship. Spain had to be punished! The newspapers demanded it, with Hearst famously (although perhaps apocryphally) writing to illustrator/correspondent Frederic Remington when the latter wanted to come home from Cuba, "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war" (Weems, p. viii).
The Spanish did all they could to avoid war; after brief delays to save face, they gave in to every American demand. The Americans would have none of it -- even though many responsible Americans were unsure that their small armed forces could win (Trask, p. 30). McKinley too was afraid of the consequences of war -- he suffered so badly from insomnia in this period that he had to start taking sleep drugs and developed dark circles under his eyes (Phillips, p. 94). He had a point, too -- even if you ignore the morality of it all, Spain had a half-million-man army (Weems, p. 129), while the United States had only a few regiments it used to oppress Native Americans. The United States was the more populous country, but it could not hope to win a purely land campaign. A naval campaign was another matter.
And McKinley had to worry about the way the American people were responding, too. They -- or, at least, the majority of loudmouths who expressed an opinion -- wanted war. By March, McKinley demanded that Spain agree to an armistice with the Cuban insurgents (Trask, pp. 40-41). On April 11, the Americans ran out of patience as the Spanish tried to give in without giving in too far; McKinley asked Congress to let him intervene in Cuba (Trask, p. 52). "Some two months [after the explosion] came the Spanish-American War, which was to mark the final collapse of the Spanish Empire and the emergence of the United States as a world power.... Cuba, Guam, the Philippine Archipelago, Puerto Rico, and all other Spanish islands in the West Indies were ceded to the United States, which then entertained fond hopes for an empire of its own" (Weems, p. vii).
On April 11, President McKinley asked for a declaration of war; on April 25, he received it. Americans set out to "free" Cuba and the Philippines. (The Philippines, in particular, were so thoroughly "freed" that they soon rose in revolt and did not achieve independence until 1947.) "Remember the Maine," went the battle cry.
The U.S. army was pitifully bad; the vast majority of its losses in the war were caused by disease and supply problems -- but so dreadful were the Spanish forces that by the end of the summer both the Philippines and Cuba were under U.S. control. In December the Spanish were forced to accept the humiliating Treaty of Paris, and the war ended. The U.S. was now an imperialist power -- and all because of songs like this one and Hearst's headlines.
The cause of the Maine's explosion was never definitely determined. As mentioned above, the Navy's initial investigation, led by Captain William T. Sampson (who later led the fleet that beat the Spanish fleet outside Havana), blamed an underwater mine although it could not say who put it there (Trask, p. 35; Paine, p. 321). The Spanish felt it was an internal explosion. When the ship was raised in 1910-1911, the Americans again concluded it was an external explosion, although they revised their opinion of where it happened (Weems, p. 157) -- and then hauled the wreck away and sank it in deep water, making further examinations difficult. Weems, in 1958, could only "conclude that there is a good chance that the ship did blow up internally despite signs to the contrary. In any event, the explosion must have been an accident, even if an outside force caused it" (Weems, p. 178). A 1975 investigation, with little new data but more engineering knowledge, concluded "the available evidence is consistent with an internal explosion alone.... The most likely source was heat from a fire in the coal bunker adjacent to the 6-inch reserve magazine" (Paine, p. 321); this convinced Hyman Rickover, who commissioned the study (Blow, pp. 431-433), but Blow himself considers the result "conjectural and inconclusive" (p. 434, although he seems to think an internal explosion the likeliest explanation); on p. 437 he declares that it will be "forever unsolved." Leeke, p. 35, agrees that certainty is now impossible. Yet Trask, p. 35, says that "it is now almost certainly believed that the Spanish view [that the explosion was internal] was correct." Captain Sigsbee himself wrote, "without more conclusive evidence than we have now [in 1899] we are not right if we charge criminality to persons" (Weems, p. viii). Herder, p. 33, makes the significant point that the Maine was using cheap bituminous coal, which sometimes emitted methane or other flammable gases. He concludes, "The most accepted theory by modern historians is that a smoldering coal bunker detonated Maine's adjacent bow magazine.
Given the Maine's poor design, we certainly should at least be open to the possibility that the explosion was the fault of Americans, not Spanish or Cubans. But if modern politics teaches us anything, it's that facts don't matter in mob politics!
That the event was costly for Americans, though, is certainly true. The Maine's Captain Sigsbee would write after the war, "During the recent war with Spain about seventy-five men were killed and wounded in the United States Navy. Only seventeen [of them] were killed. On board the Maine 252 men were killed outright and eight died later" (Weems, p. ix). Thus the Maine explosion cost the Navy far more than the entire rest of the war combined!
Songwriter Bert Morgan was apparently based in Macomb, Illinois, and the headnote to the song says that this was inspired by the story of a young woman ("Miss Frances N--) in Illinois who lost her intended husband in the disaster. The sheet music does not state which city the man was from, but I saw a claim online that he was from *southern* Illinois. According to the list on pp. 185-196 of Weems, there were nine sailors from Illinois on the Maine, but six were from Chicago and two others were from the northern part of the state (La Salle County and the town of Ottawa). That leaves only one from southern Illinois: Coal Passer John Matza of East Saint Louis, who was among the dead in the wreck (Weems, p. 192). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: R689

My Sweetheart's a Mule in the Mines

DESCRIPTION: "My sweetheart's a mule in the mines, I drive her without any lines, On the (bumpers/dasher) I sit and tobacco I spit All over my sweetheart's behind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927
KEYWORDS: animal mining work humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 122-123, "My Sweetheart's the Mule in the Mines" (1 short text plus a "bowdlerized version," 1 tune)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 1, 8-11, "(My Sweetheart's the Mule in the Mines)" (1 text and various fragments, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 65, "My Sweetheart's a Mule" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 864-865, "My Sweetheart's the Mule in the Mines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 127, "My Sweetheart's the Mule in the Mines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 27, "My Sweetheart's The Mule In The Mines" (1 text)
DT, MYSWEETM*
Roud #4756
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "My Sweetheart in the Mines" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Sweetheart's the Man in the Moon" (tune)
NOTES [38 words]: In a mudcat.org thread on this song, someone (I believe Jonathan Lighter) reports that "The text of the song (and possibly the melody) was inspired by the 1892 hit, "My Sweetheart's the Man in the Moon," by James Thornton." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LoF065

My Sweetheart's Dying Words

DESCRIPTION: The dying girl says, "Dear Charlie dear, don't grieve for me... For when I'm dead and leave this world, I'll pray for you and the other girl." Recalling his love, she dies. "Twas then I realized she'd been true." He says he will never marry the other girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 169, "My Sweetheart's Dying Words" (1 text)
Roud #6581
NOTES [33 words]: Really smart, Charlie: Betray one, then betray the other because the first one is dead. You sound like a corporate CEO testifying to congress about where the missing ten billion dollars went.... - RBW
File: BrII169

My Sweetheart's Gone to the Fair

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

My Teacher

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "My teacher is crazy, She joined the navy, When she was one, two, three...." Or, "My teacher is balmy, She wears a taumy (sic.) She joined the army, At the age of one, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Those Dusty Bluebells)
KEYWORDS: army navy jumprope | teacher
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #388, "My teacher is balmy" (1 text)
File: AJR388

My Teacher is Balmy

See My Teacher (File: AJR388)

My Teacher is Crazy

See My Teacher (File: AJR388)

My Thought Was on a Maid so Bright

See As I Lay Upon a Night (Alma Redemptoris Mater) (File: MSAILUaN)

My Tra-La-La-Lee

DESCRIPTION: In this formula song, the singer successively feels the girl's heel, calf, knee, thigh, etc., has sex, and is told in the last line "Boy, I'm a whore, and you've got the C-L-A-P."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy whore sex disease
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 126-127, "My Tra-La-La-Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [11 words]: The melody in its last phrase owes much to "Home on the Range." - EC
File: RL126

My True Love Once He Courted Me

See Tavern in the Town (File: ShH94)

My True Love's Face Is As Bright

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes his lover ("...a simple Irish lass... born near the walls of Garryowen And they call her Cailin Deas"). He compares her to others and says she loved to hear about the Irish who fought "the Saxon foeman" in 1798.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: love beauty Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 99, "My True Love's Face Is As Bright" (1 text)
Roud #16252
File: OCC099

My True Love's Gone A-Sailing

DESCRIPTION: "My true love's gone a-sailing right o'er yon western main"; she promises to remain a maid till he returns, even though his absence leaves her uneasy. An old man comes courting her, but she stays true. She wishes she could see her love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation sailor money age
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H160 p. 292, "My True Love's Gone A-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3820
NOTES [18 words]: This looks very much like a Riley ballad to me, but the confused ending makes it impossible to be certain. - RBW
File: HHH160

My Trundle-Bed

See Trundle Bed (File: HeSo234)

My Trunk Is Packed

DESCRIPTION: "My true love be flirting, But I know I've treated her kind, What can I do or say, darling, That'll change her mind." He cannot change her mind; her trunk is packed. He goes to see her, but he won't go see her again
AUTHOR: Jim Couch? (source: Roberts-SangBranchSettlers)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Roberts-SangBranchSettlers)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #63, "My Trunk is Packed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3422
File: Robe063

My Tuesdays are Meatless

DESCRIPTION: "My Tuesdays are Meatless, My Wednesdays are Wheatless, I'm getting more Eatless every day. My home it is Heatless, My bed it is Sheetless, They're all sent to the YMCA." And on through the troubles of the War, ending "Oh boy! How I do hate the Kaiser"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (FIshkil Weekly Times, according to Nestler)
KEYWORDS: war hardtimes food
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), p. 101, "(My Tuesdays are Meatless)" (1 text)
File: Nest101B

My Tunic Is Out at the Elbows

DESCRIPTION: "My tunic is out at the elbows, My trousers are out at the knee, My puttees are ragged and frazzled, but QM does nothing for me." "My tummy knocks hard on my backbone... Still all we get handed at mealtimes Is bully and Maconochie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: war soldier hardtimes clothes food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 55, "My Tunic Is Out at the Elbows" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (tune) and references there
cf. "Where Are Our Uniforms?" (subject: World War I supply problems)
File: AWTB055A

My Valentine

DESCRIPTION: On Valentine's day "came a pretty damsel to my bedside" They meet again. She is pregnant and says he is the father; if he won't marry he'll go to jail. He agrees but sails off instead. Sometimes he returns rich and she welcomes him back after seven years
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1884 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 15(168b))
KEYWORDS: sex return reunion separation pregnancy gold ship rake
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 66, "My Valentine" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 95, "My Valentine" (2 texts)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, p. 60, "My Valentine" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #945
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(168b), "Last Valentine Day" ("It was on the morn of last Valentine's day"), H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Firth c.12(280),"Valentine's Morn"
File: ReSh066

My Warfare Will Soon Be Ended

DESCRIPTION: "My warfare will soon be ended, My trouble is almost done, My warfare is almost ended, And then I am going home." "God bless the holy people, The Presyterian two (?) Those shouting Methodists (?) And the praying Baptists too."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 294, "William Shackleford's Farewell Song As Sung by Shackleford" (1 text)
ST BrII294 (Full)
NOTES [54 words]: Brown's informant described this as the last words of William S. Shackleford (for whom see the notes on the song with the same title). But it is clearly a generic hymn. Shackleford, a lay preacher, may have sung it at the gallows, but he probably did not originate it; both verses are attested in other religious songs. - RBW
File: BrII294

My Way Seems So Hard

DESCRIPTION: Tag line: "My ways do seem so hard." Verses: "My way my way my way"(2x). "Two white horses side by side One of these horses I'm bound to ride." "I got a mother in the Promised land Never expect to see her till I shake her hand."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (LomaxCD1708)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious shanty worksong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #11897
RECORDINGS:
Bright Light Quartet, "Promised Land" (on LomaxCD1708)
Menhaden Fishermen, "My Way Seems So Hard" (on USMenhaden01)
NOTES [147 words]: The LomaxCD1708 song is part of the "Menhaden Chanteys" track.
A couple of verses have close parallels in Newman I. White, American Negro Folk Songs (Hatboro: Folklore Associates Inc, 1965 (reprint of Harvard University Press, 1928). Specifically, "Two white horses side by side Me and my Jesus going to take a little ride" (#ii.28 p. 88), and "I'se got a mudder in the promised land I'se won't stop workin' till I'se shakes huh han'" (#ii.63, pp. 114-115).
Another verse on USMenhaden01 is "If you see my mother won't you tell her for me I'm on my way to Galilee."
Verses are lined out by the chanteyman. For example, "two white HORSES SIDE BY SIDE (chatter) "one of them HORSES I'M BOUND TO RIDE" (chatter) "o lordy MY WAYS DO SEEM SO HARD" (chatter). See the notes to "Help Me to Raise Them" for an explanation of my formatting and other information about menhaden chanteys. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcBLQPL

My Way's Cloudy

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "O brethren, my way, my way's cloudy, my way, O send one angel down (x2)." Verses: "There's fire in the east and fire in the west, And fire among the Methodist." "This is the year of Jubilee, The Lord has come to set us free."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute); 1893 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: slavery Bible nonballad religious floatingverses Devil
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 231, "My Way's Cloudy" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 97 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
Roud #12333
NOTES [228 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "Send one angel down."
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute includes the floater "Old Satan's mad and I am glad, He missed the soul he thought he had."
Perhaps the Biblical reference for "send one angel down" is Psalms 91:11: "For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways"; as for "the year of Jubilee," Leviticus 25:54 has "And if he not be redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubile, both he, and his children with him." (King James) - BS
(The idea being that, every fifty years was a Jubilee year, and in the year of Jubilee, the Israelites were to free their Israelite slaves. This law applied specifically to Hebrews -- the Israelites were allowed to keep foreign slaves in bondage, which is how Americans justified Negro servitude -- but one can see how American slaves seeking freedom would adopt the language! - RBW)
The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "My way's cloudy" on page 97, with the note "Fisk Jubilee Collection, by permission" (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 97. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Dett231

My Wealthy Aunt Brought Back

See My Aunt Came Back (File: ACSF308A)

My Wedding Day (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer is sitting at her spinning wheel, watching birds gather nesting material and thinking of "wool and linen I've stored away For Sunday morning's my wedding day." She thinks about her lover and the house, like a nest, where they will live.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: wedding nonballad home bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 1065, "My Wedding Day" (1 text)
Roud #6719
File: GrD1065

My Wedding Day (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, tomorrow is my wedding day, I'm as happy as I can be. It's the day that I've been living for...." She reamed of this as a girl. She asks the birds to sing. She will have daisies in her hair. The feast is being prepared. It will be a new start
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (HCargillFamily)
KEYWORDS: marriage bird nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Acie Cargill, Debra Cowan, Kristina Olsen, "My Wedding Day" (on HCargillFamily)
File: RcMyWed2

My Welcome

See Rye Whiskey; also The Rebel Soldier (File: R405)

My Wheelie Goes Round

DESCRIPTION: "My wheelie goes round (x2), And my wheelie casts the band, It's not that my wheelie has the wit, It's my uncanny hand."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 475, "Spinning Rhyme" (1 text)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 173, "(My wheelie goes round)" (1 short text)
Roud #5882
NOTES [25 words]: It probably goes without saying that this refers to a spinning wheel, not a bicycle or motorcycle or the like -- but I'm saying it just in case. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: MSNR173

My Wife Died on Saturday Night

DESCRIPTION: "My wife died on Saturday night, Sunday she was buried, Monday was my courting day, and Tuesday I got married." "Round and round, up and down, everywhere I wander, Round and round, up and down, looking for my honey." That's all, folks.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage wedding death burial floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 153 (last of several "fragments of Irish songs" - 1 fragment, which could be this or "The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)")
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 202, "A Monday was my Courting Day" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Douglas D. Short, "Some Scottish Variants of a Burnsville Folk Song Fragment," Vol. XXIII, No. 1 (Feb 1975), p. 16, "(Last Saturday night my wife taken sick)" (1 text, from Sharp, plus a Kinloch text of "Merrily Danced the Quaker" on p. 17 and a text from Chambers on pp. 17-18, a 1620 broadside text "A New Yeares Guift for Shrewes" on pp. 18-19 and "Tom, Tom of Islington" on p. 20)
Roud #3619
RECORDINGS:
Dr. Humphrey Bate & his Possum Hunters, "My Wife Died on Saturday Night" (Brunswick 271, 1928)
New Lost City Ramblers, "My Wife Died on Saturday Night" (on NLCR07, NLCRCD2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)" (floating verse)
cf. "Way Down the Old Plank Road" (floating verse)
NOTES [148 words]: A fragmentary song, really just floating verses and a dance tune. But it's indexed because, compact though it may be, that first verse tells a coherent story. - PJS
This verse, to be sure, is shared with "The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)." But the rest goes in different directions.
To add to the confusion, there is a nursery rhyme (Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #131, p. 106):
I married a wife on Sunday,
She began to scold on Monday,
Bad was she on Tuesday,
Middling was she on Wednesday,
Worse she was on Thursday,
Dead was she on Friday,
Glad was I on Saturday night,
To bury my wife on Sunday.
To this compare also Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes, #509, p. 410, which begins "Tom married a wife on Sunday, Beat her well on Monday," but the rest almost the same as the Baring-Gould version.
The Baring-Goulds also compare the well-known poem of "Solomon Grundy." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: RcMWDOSN

My Wife Has Become a Mormonite

See She's Gone to be a Mormonite (File: R501)

My Wife Went Away and Left Me

DESCRIPTION: Abandoned by his wife, the singer appeals to her to come back. She replies that she will come back "When the grocery man puts sand in the sugar, The milkman makes milk out of chalk, Boys stay home with their mothers...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Kelly Harrell)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment humorous husband wife
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 176-177, "Of Late I've Been Driven Near Crazy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #77, "Then I'll Come Back to You" (1 text)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 78, "My Wife Went Away and Left Me" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 85, "My Wife's Gone Off and Left Me" (1 text plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Roud #3686
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "My Wife Went Away and Left Me" (Victor 21520, 1927; on KHarrell02)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "My Wife Went Away and Left Me" (Columbia 15584-D, 1930; rec. 1928; on CPoole03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Things Impossible" (lyrics)
NOTES [381 words]: Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole reports that this song bears similarities to a song by Charles D. Vann called "Then My Darling I'll Come Back to Thee." It is not clear whether they are the same song, though, or whether that song merely influenced this.
There are several sourthern versions of this song, and there is an English song with common lyrics, "Things Impossible." These two are surely derived from the same original, but the setting is different; the English song is an appeal to marry, the American a plea to a woman to reunite with her ex-love. Possibly Vann rewrote the English text and created the popular American version. I separate them; Roud lumps them.
There are several references in the Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin version which might be used for dating: The singer's wife runs off with a "Chinee," there was a recent bank robbery in Canada, Jay Gould is in a contest with the Knights of Labor, and the K.C.'s [Knights of Columbus?], Eagles, and Masons are feuding.
Jameson, p. 334, reports that Uriah S. Stevens organized the Knights of Labor in 1869, and that it was formally organized in 1871 -- but only abandoned secrecy in 1881. In 1886 it organized the strike against the Missouri Pacific railroad, which failed. By the 1890s, it was dying out (Hofstadter, p. 99); the strikes it had organized had brought much bitterness but little help to the workers.
Jay Gould (1836-1892, according to CDAB) was involved with the Missouri Pacific in the 1870s, and "By 1890 he owned half the railroad mileage in the southwest" (CDAB, p. 358).
Protests against Chinese immigration to California had become widespread by 1880, when the census showed more than 100,000 Americans of Chinese origin (Jameson, p. 131). The first attempt at a Chinese Exclusion Act was vetoed by President Hayes in 1879, and another by President Arthur (Karabell, ppp. 84-85), but when Arthur was burned in effigy and he realized that a new law would be passed over his veto, he allows a new law to take effect (Karabell, p. 85). Another strenuous law was passed in 1888 (and largely repealed in 1893 due to its ineffectiveness)
Taking all this into account, the song must have been put into the form found in Peters between 1881 and 1892, and probably between 1886 and 1892. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.3
File: RcMWWALM

My Wife's a Wanton Wee Thing

DESCRIPTION: The singer complained that his wife "winna be guided by me." She had affairs before they married and he is sure she'll do that again. She sold her coat to buy drink. Finally he beat her and she's been "a braw guide bairn" since.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: infidelity violence drink husband wife clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1295A, "My Wife's a Wallopin Wee Thing" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 497, "My Wife's" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, p. 230, ("My Wife's a Wanton Wee Thing")
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #217, p. 226, "My WIfe's a wanton, wee thing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, pp. 334-335, "My Wife's a Wanton Wee Thing"
ST GrD71295 (Full)
Roud #5659
File: GrD71295

My Wife's Gone Off and Left Me

See My Wife Went Away and Left Me (File: RcMWWALM)

My Wifie Winna Dee

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that his wife won't die. Rather, "she'll live an' anger me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1294, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "My Wifie Winna Dee" (2 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #7195
File: GrD71294

My Wild Irish Rose

DESCRIPTION: "If you listen I'll sing you a sweet little song Of a flower that's now drooped and dead Yet dearer to me, yes, than all of its mates" because it came from his beloved, his "wild Irish rose." He hopes he will win her someday
AUTHOR: Words: Chauncey Olcott
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd)
KEYWORDS: love courting flowers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #96, "My Wild Irish Rose" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 188, "My Wild Irish Rose" (notes only)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 385, "My Wild Irish Rose"
Roud #5256
SAME TUNE:
My Wild Irish Nose (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 112; Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 188, 250)
NOTES [14 words]: For background on Chauncey Olcott, see the notes to "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: SonMWIR

My WIllie O

See The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father [Child 248] (File: C248)

My Willie's on the Dark Blue Sea

See Willie's on the Dark Blue Sea (File: SWMS234)

My Worry Sure Carryin' Me Down

DESCRIPTION: Opening recitation describes the singer's hard life in prison. The song begins with the lament, "Lord, my worry sure carryin' me down... Sometimes I feel like, baby, committin' suicide." The singer is failing, "goin' down slow, somethin; wrong with me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes loneliness disease suicide nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 133-135, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune)
File: CNFM133

My Yallow Gal

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, my daddy was a fool about a yallow gal." "God knows I'm a fool about a yallow gal." The singer describes the various things (walking, talking, having sex), but the consistent result is "I didn' get nothin' from my yallow gal"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: love courting sex
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 245-246, "My Yallow Gal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 285-287, "Yelllow Gal" (1 text, 1 tune, plus mention of four more)
Roud #11657
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Yaller Gal" (theme)
File: LxA245

My Young Love Said to Me

See She Moved Through the Fair (Our Wedding Day) (File: K165)

My Youthful Days

DESCRIPTION: "My youthful days I freely wasted In drinking brandy and such pastime, And other joys which I have tasted Have made me sail to a foreign clime"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: drink travel exile
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 105, "My Youthful Days" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #2780
NOTES [16 words]: The current description is all of the Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick fragment. - BS
File: CrSNB105

Mylecharane

DESCRIPTION: Manx Gaelic. Mylecharane had found and hidden gold years before. He's a poorly dressed miser with a daughter. She asks him for gold so she can have a wedding dress and marry. He retrieves the gold and, curse him, starts the custom of a daughter's dowry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (Cookson)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage poverty dowry wedding request clothes gold dialog father children
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 36-37, "Mylecharane" (1 text, 1 tune, translated from Manx Gaelic)
ADDITIONAL: W.H. Gill, Manx National Songs with English Words (London, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 34-39, "Mylecharane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Elizabeth Cookson, Poems from Manxland (London, 1868 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 187-192, "Mylecharane" (1 text)
Roud #1370
NOTES [43 words]: Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs is translated from Manx Gaelic; pronounced Mollecarane or Mulcrane
Cookson: "The most ancient Manx song, rendered into English verse adapted to the popular old Manx National Air, which is plaintive and very beautiful." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BrMa036

Myrtle Tree, The

See The Yellow Handkerchief (Flash Company) (File: K360)

Mystery of the Dunbar's Child, The

DESCRIPTION: "The eleventh, month of August, in the year of 1912, The kidnapping of the Dunbars' child" at Lake Swayze causes a wide search. No body is found. Months later, a child is found in the presence of Walters. He is convicted of kidnapping but later freed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Richard "Rabbit" Brown)
KEYWORDS: children separation reunion trial punishment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 351-353, "The Mystery of the Dunbar's Child" (1 text)
Roud #22309
RECORDINGS:
Richard "Rabbit" Brown, "The Mystery of the Dunbar's Child" (VIctor 35840, 1927)
File: CAFS1352

Mystic Fire

DESCRIPTION: "Ghost-dance 'round the mystic ring, Faces in the starlight glow, Maids of Wohelo. Praises to Wokanda sing, While with music soft and low, Rubbing sticks grind slow." The singers ask for guidance as they sit by "The flame of Wohelo."
AUTHOR: Words: Margaret Bradshaw / Music: credited to "South California Indians"
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: religious Indians(Am.) fire campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 337, "Mystic Fire" (notes only)
File: ACSF337M

N & W Cannonball Wreck, The

See Wreck of the N & W Cannonball (File: LSRa272G)

Na Conairigh

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "The song curses the people who gave false witness against the Connery brothers, indicted and condemned to exile in New South Wales.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage transportation trial Australia Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 100, "Na Conairigh" (1 text)
NOTES [66 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin.
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin: "The song celebrates the dramatic events surrounding the trial and and conviction of three Waterford brothers, John, Seamus, and Patrick Connery, who were sentenced to be transported to Australia.... They were transported on 8 September [1838]...." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC100

Na Gleannta

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "...[verses] sung extempore by guests at a wedding, each in praise of his own locality."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage pride wedding Ireland nonballad home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 101, "Na Gleannta" (4 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Na Gleannta" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC101

Na Leannain Bhriotacha (The Stuttering Lovers)

DESCRIPTION: Birds fly into a poor man's corn. His daughter follows. A fisherman's son follows her. They kiss. The poor old man finds them: "If that's the way ye're minding the corn I'll mind it myself in the morn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (sheet music "arranged by Herbert Hughes," according to Bruce Olsen)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous bird father farming
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 12, "The Stuttering Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune); 12A, "Na Leannain Bhriotacha" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9669
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Stuttering Lovers" (on IRClancyMakem02)
NOTES [181 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: Translated as "Na Leannain Bhriotacha" to Gaelic by Father Tomas O Ceallaigh.
The fourth line of each verse mimics stuttering (for example, "I'll mind it myself in the m-m-m-m-m-morn"). The effect is preserved in the Gaelic (for example, "Rachad na bhfiel me f-f-f-f-fein")
IRClancyMakem02 cover notes: "'The Stuttering Lovers' ... was collected and arranged by Herbert Hughes."
John Moulden pointed me to the late Bruce Olsen's Roots of Folk website which has been moving and I can no longer find. Fortunately John quoted a good part of the reference. He pins down the IRClancyMakem02 reference for Hughes to 1906 sheet music. Olsen then refers, for a source, to "English MS Harleian 6057, c 1632." No stuttering in this version, but the same repetition pattern. The birds fly into the corn. "The little boy ...spiede his dame In the middle of all the green and kisses her. "'It's enough to tempt a woman,' quote she, 'That never knew man before." The old man finds them making love, chases the boy away, and he'll keep the birds to himself tomorrow. - BS
File: OLcM012

Nabob, The

DESCRIPTION: "When silent time, wi' lightly feet, Had trod on thirty years, I sought again my native land Wi' mony hopes and fears." The singer finds a new generation in the land; all is changed. He misses the old, asking the forgiveness of his old friends' children
AUTHOR: Susanna Blamire (1747-1794)
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (Smith, _The Scottish Minstrel_, according to Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: age return home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #5, p. 2, ("When silent time, wi' lightly foot") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 538, "The Nabob" (5 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 361-362, "The Nabob" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (Boston, 1851 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, pp. 275-276, "The Nabob"
Roud #4592
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(125), "Traveller's Return" ("When silent time wi' lightly foot"), unknown, no date
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(215), "Traveller's Return," unknown, c.1840
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Traveller's Return
Auld Lang Syne
Silent Time
File: Ord361

Nach Mbonin Shin Do

DESCRIPTION: There is no money this year "but we'll drink all we earn, and we'll pay what we owe." "The gentry who fed upon pheasants and wine" will be reduced to eating what we eat. If the markets improve "every stout farmer will draw the long bow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes Ireland nonballad patriotic food money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 49, "Nach Mbonin Shin Do" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9765
File: OLcM049

Nachul-Born Easman

See Casey Jones (I) [Laws G1] (File: LG01)

Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away (I)

DESCRIPTION: "My name it is (Jean) and my age is (fifteen)... Yet there's nae bonnie laddie tae tak me awa." The girl describes her clothes and her good dowry, but confesses to having no luck in seeking a man
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: loneliness courting
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H230, p. 255, "Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away'" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 315-317, "Nae Bonnie Laddie Will Tak Me Awa'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 102, "(Queen Mary, Queen Mary, my age is sixteen)" (1 short text, which despite the first line appears more likely to be this piece)
Roud #895
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Queen Mary (Auld Maid's Lament)" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [58 words]: Ford has anecdotal evidence that this was written by Thomas Scott of Falkirk. If this be true, the song has surely wandered far, becoming little more than a singing game in some of the more corrupt versions.
For the vexed relationship between this song and "Queen Mary (Auld Maid's Lament)," with which it shares much, see the notes to that song. - RBW
File: HHH230A

Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away (II)

See Queen Mary (Auld Maid's Lament) (File: HHH230)

Nae Bonnie Laddie Wad Tak Her Awa

See The Lass's Wardrobe (File: GrD71372)

Nae Bonnie Laddie Will Tak Me Awa'

See Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away; also Queen Mary (Auld Maid's Lament) (File: HHH230A)

Naebody Comin' to Marry Me

See My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher (Nobody Coming to Marry Me) (File: BrII185)

Nails

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, this world is like a bag of nails and some are very queer ones...." The singer describes the world in terms of nails: "The doctor nails you with a bill"; "the undertaker wishes you as dead as any doornail...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1838 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(204))
KEYWORDS: work
FOUND IN: Australia Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 96, "The Bag of Nails" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 182-183, "Nails" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V160
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(204), "The Bag of Nails," W. Wright (Birmingham), 1831-1837; also Firth b.26(28) View 2 of 2, "The Bag of Nails"
File: FaE182

Nairn River Banks

DESCRIPTION: The singer wanders by Nairn River banks, where he sees a pretty girl herding her flock and lamenting her soldier. A boy brings her a letter from him, saying he is fighting the French in Spain with Wellington, but hopes to come back to her soon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: love separation soldier Spain
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1809 - Wellington takes command in the Peninsula (to 1814)
1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #28, p. 1, "Nairn's River Banks" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 92, "Nairn's River Banks" (14 texts, 10 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 314-315, "Nairn River Banks" (1 text)
Roud #3780
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jock Scott" (tune, per Greig/Duncan6)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Nairn's Bonny Banks
The Banks o' Nairn
The Water o' Nairn
NOTES [75 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads calls this a "real Bothy Song," though he admits that it is found in broadsides. But the texts generally seem to be in very exact, even flowery, English, with not a hint of dialect; I have to think it is in origin a broadside, and the traditional versions close to the original. - RBW
One of Greig's correspondents said the song was "written by a Mr Gordon, whose widow was living in Nairn some 30 or 40 years ago." (1908) - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord314

Nairn's River Banks

See Nairn River Banks (File: Ord314)

Name Is a Very Good Man

See Mr. Low Is a Very Good Man (File: SuSm055)

Name Is No Good

See Tommy Johnson Is No Good (File: SuSm131C)

Name the Boy Dennis Or No Name At All

See I'll Name the Boy Dennis, Or No Name At All (File: Dean034)

(Name) Sells Fish

See Sally Walker Sells Fish (File: BAAI176A)

Nancy

See under The British Grenadiers (File: Log109)

Nancy (At Eight O'Clock)

DESCRIPTION: "At eight o'clock at neet, I went a-courtin' Nancy, She come t' garden gate, And said I weren't her fancy." He asks why. She says she only courted him because no one else would have her. Now she has another beau. He will go home... and have supper
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection food humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 60, "Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [26 words]: Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire gives no indication of where this came from. I wish I could say more about it; the anti-climax at the end is quite funny. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: HFSL060

Nancy (I) [Laws P11]

DESCRIPTION: The singer offers Nancy his love while confessing his lack of wealth. She is not interested. By the time she changes her mind he has found another love. Nancy warns others against her mistake
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting rejection
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws P11, "Nancy I"
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 189-190, "Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 60, "Proud Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 77, "Jenny Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 733, DRNANCY*
Roud #1002
RECORDINGS:
Marie Hare, "Jenny Dear" (on MRMHare01)
Jim Molloy, "Lovely Nancy" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rejected Lover" [Laws P10] and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dearest Nancy
File: LP11

Nancy (II) (The Rambling Beauty) [Laws P12]

DESCRIPTION: Nancy rejects the singer's offer of marriage. He expresses the wish that her marriage be troubled. His wish comes true; her husband ignores her. Years later, having grown rich, he rubs it in by giving the now-poor girl money. She regrets her error
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: marriage curse poverty rejection
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws P12, "Nancy (II) (The Rambling Beauty)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 191-193, "The Rambling Beauty" (3 texts)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp 129-131, "The Widow's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 36, "False Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 163, "Loving Nancy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 34, "False Nancy" (1 text, perhaps mixed with "The Banks of Sweet Primroses")
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #142, p. 2, "The Rambling Beauty" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1213, "The Rambling Beauty" (6 texts, 2 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 47, "The Prince of Orange" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 176-177, "The Rambling Beauty" (1 text)
DT 496, LVNGNANC
ST LP12 (Full)
Roud #563
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rejected Lover" [Laws P10] and references there
cf. "False Mallie" (tune, per Greig)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Merchant's Daughter
A Farmer's Daughter
NOTES [60 words]: This is rather a difficult item, because the family is so fractured. Laws lists neither the Ord-BothySongsAndBallads nor the Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan text with his piece, and indeed the various texts have few words in common. But the plot is the same, and Laws allows both the Ord and Gardner/Chickering titles. So here they are. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LP12

Nancy Ann Took It Out of the Pail

DESCRIPTION: "Nancy Ann took it out of the pail And she wrapped it up in her petticoat tail, And she rolled it in and she rolled it out, And if I'd a-been cheating I would have been out." Apparently a rhyme about cheating at jackstones
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: game clothes | cheating
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 80, "Nancy Ann took it out of the pail" (1 text); p. 212 in the notes has a similar-seeming text, "Sonsy Ann She Won the Game" (1 text)
Roud #25371
File: KSUC080A

Nancy B, The

DESCRIPTION: Recitation; the speaker, tired of lumber camps, signs on as cook of the lumber ship "Nancy B." They anchor in the bay. After only one lighter load, however, a storm comes up. The storm last 16 days; it's cold and hard to cook, but no one complains.
AUTHOR: Probably Marion Ellsworth
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: work cook sailor ship recitation storm
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 102, "The 'Nancy B'" (1 text)
Roud #8883
NOTES [18 words]: This, like the other pieces probably written by Ellsworth, does not seem to have entered oral tradition. - PJS
File: Be102

Nancy Dawson

DESCRIPTION: "There lived a lass in yonder glen, Wham auld and young did brawly ken." Nancy Dawson's parents would wed her to "the laird o Mucklegear," ancient Bauldy Lawson. She loves a young man; the wedding is set, but she flees with her love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford); the tune"Nancy Dawson" dated back at least to the 1770s
KEYWORDS: lover courting age beauty elopement abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 71-75, "Nancy Dawson" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1028, "Nancy Dawson" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 718-720, "Nancy Dawson" (1 text, 1 tune; the text is not the same as that in the DESCRIPTION of this song)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 186-187, "Nancy Dawson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6717
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John of Hazelgreen [Child 293]" (plot)
cf. "Lady Jean" (plot)
SAME TUNE:
Ye Tories all rejoice and sing Success to George our gracious King (also called "The Congress") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 75; Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, pp. 36-37)
American Liberty; or, the Sovereign Right of Thinking ("Since we're forbid to speak or write") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 150)
NOTES [242 words]: There is a (feeble) poem by Herbert P. Horne called "Nancy Dawson"; they are unrelated. It may be that this piece inspired that, however; at least, the name "Nancy Dawson" was well enough known that one of the ships involved in the Franklin search was named Nancy Dawson. And it can't be named after the Horne poem; Horne wasn't born until 1864.
Linscott says that "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" and "Gathering Nuts in May" use the tune "Nancy Dawson." That does not appear to be this song; though no tune seems to have been recorded, the stanza forms don't match.
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 718, explains that "Nancy Dawson... was a celebrated dancer in the reign of George II" (King of Britain 1727-1760). Grant Uden and Richard Cooper, A Dictionary of British Ships and Seamen, 1980 (I use the 1981 St. Martin's Press edition), p. 122, has more detail; "Nancy Dawson" became "a popular ship name, originating from a dancer of the name (?1730-1767) who danced her way into the public heart by her rendering of the hornpipe in The Beggar's Opera. The tune became a great popular success and, the ultimate tribute, was frequently used to summon seamen for their grog ration. Hence the rum itself was often called 'Nancy Dawson.'"
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 718-720, gives a short text and tune for "Nancy Dawson," but it's a different text, so I can't prove that it is the same as this. I've indexed it even so. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FVS071

Nancy from London (I)

See Pretty Nancy of London (Jolly Sailors Bold) (File: R078)

Nancy from London (II)

See William and Nancy (II) (Courting Too Slow) [Laws P5] (File: LP05)

Nancy Lee

DESCRIPTION: "Of all the wives as e'er you know. Yeo ho! Lads, ho! ... There's one like Nancy Lee, I know..." Chorus: " The sailor's wife the sailor's star shall be, Yeo ho! We go across the sea." Composed song in which a sailor sings the praises of his wife.
AUTHOR: Words: Frederic Edward Weatherly (1848-1929) / Music: Stephen Adams (a.k.a. Michael Maybrick)
EARLIEST DATE: 188? (composed); 1909 (Heart-Songs)
KEYWORDS: wife husband separation sailor nonballad love
FOUND IN: Britain US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 159-161, "Nancy Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 170-171, "Nancy Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #26, "Nancy Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 394-396, "Nancy Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #152, "Nancy Lee" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 386, "Nancy Lee"
ST ShaSS170 (Partial)
Roud #5014
NOTES [60 words]: Adams and Weatherly were a very successful British songwriting team during the 1880s & 90s. Stephen Adams's real name was Michael Maybrick, and he was brother to James Maybrick, one of the favorite contenders for having been Jack the Ripper. - SL
For Weatherly, the reputed author of "Danny Boy," and his other works in the Index, see the notes to that song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ShaSS170

Nancy Lovely Nancy

See William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I) [Laws N8] (File: LN08)

Nancy of Yarmouth (Jemmy and Nancy; The Barbadoes Lady) [Laws M38]

DESCRIPTION: Nancy's father does not want her to marry Jimmy. He is persuaded to allow them to marry AFTER Jimmy completes a voyage. On his way he breaks a lady's heart and is murdered by a man hired by Nancy's father. His ghost reveals the truth, and Nancy dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1818 (Garret, _Merrie Book of Garlands, vol. ii_)
KEYWORDS: homicide courting ghost sailor
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws M38, "Nancy of Yarmouth (Jemmy and Nancy; The Barbadoes Lady) [Laws M38]"
Greig/Duncan2 222, "Jamie and Nancy of Yarmouth" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #14, "Nancy of Yarmouth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 61, "Nancy of Yarmouth" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 61, "Nancy of Yarmouth" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 63, "Pretty Nancy of Yarmouth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 9, pp. 15-20, "Jemmy and Nancy" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 682-686, "Jimmy and Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 41, "Jimmie and Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #64 insert, "The Constant Lovers' Garland" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 86-92, "Jemmy and Nancy" (1 text)
DT 437, JIMNANCY
Roud #187
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Chowan River" (plot)
NOTES [29 words]: Michael Taft points out to me an 1806 Philadelphia chapbook with "Jamie and Nancy"/"The Yarmouth Tragedy." Without a text, I can't prove that it's this, but it seems likely. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LM38

Nancy Till

DESCRIPTION: "Down in the cane brake close by the mill" lives pretty Nancy Till. The singer goes to serenade her, asking her to come along; "I'll row the boat while the boat rows me." When they part, he bids her to be ready the next time he arrives in the boat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (LOCSheet sm1851 491730)
KEYWORDS: love courting ship river
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 68, "Nancy Till" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 409, "Nancy Till" (1 text plus a fragment and mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 409, "Nancy Till" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 165-166, "Come, Love, Come" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1540, p. 105, "Nancy Till" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 39, "Nancy Till" (1 text)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 50-51, "Nancy Till" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 18, "Nancy Till" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 10, "Nancy Till" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Jim Vandergriff, "'Nancy Dill': Searching for a Song My Mother Sang," article in _Missouri Folklore Society Journal_, Volume 27-28 (cover date 2005-2006, but published 2015), pp. 33-68, "Nancy Dill," "Nanc Till," "Nancy Till," "Nancy Till," "Uncle Bill" (parody), "Nancy Till," "Come, My Love, Come," "Down in de Cane Brake," "Come, Love Come," "Down in the Cane Brake," "Come, Love, Come," "Nancy Till," "Nancy Till," "Nancy Till," "Down in the Canebrake" (14 texts plus a parody, not all of them traditional; also a copy of the sheet music cover and one tune; it includes some versions that might perhaps file with "Come, Love, Come, the Boat Lies Low")
Roud #2836
RECORDINGS:
Eleazar Tillet, "Come Love Come" (on USWarnerColl01) [a true mess; the first verse is "Nancy Till", the chorus is "Come, Love, Come, the Boat Lies Low," and it uses part of "De Boatman Dance" as a bridge.)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1851 491730, "Nancy Till," Firth, Pond and Co (New York), 1851 (1 text, 1 tune)
LOCSinging, sb30423b, "Nancy Till," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also as110140, "Old Dog Tray"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come, Love, Come, the Boat Lies Low" (chorus lyrics)
NOTES [215 words]: Broadside LOCSinging sb30423b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
According to Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. 185-186, this was made famous by a minstrel troupe called White's Serenaders, after their leader Charles T. White (1821-1891). Finson says that White is sometimes credited with writing it, but proof is lacking. Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings credits it to Stephen Foster, but its attributions are extremely unreliable, and I have not seen the claim elsewhere. Jim Vandergriff's article cited above (p. 36) suggests that the song is the same as the "Nancy Gill" transcribed by one William Sydney Mount in 1838. I have not seen "Nancy Gill," but I know of no connection except the name.
Roud splits this from Mary Wheeler's "Come, Love, Come, the Boat Lies Low" (#10033). I'm not sure I would have, but I have conformed to his system to try to retain clarity.
There is a parody of this, "Uncle Bill," beginning "Way up near the top of the hill"; I don't know if it uses the same tune. For broadsides, see Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 160. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Br409

Nancy Varnon

DESCRIPTION: "Between Lochiel and Gowrie, I met a fair maid by the way; I steppid up unto her, and unto her this word did say." "She's my darling Nancy Varlin, She's my darling goes to and fro"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 738, "Nancy Varnon" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Roud #6170
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Planxty Nancy Vernon" (tune by O'Carolan as far as the fragment 738A goes)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Nancy Varlin
Nancy Vernon
NOTES [33 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 fragments.
Greig/Duncan4 quoting Duncan: "This song also [like 'Mairins Gibberlin' from Mrs Gillespie] is understood to be distinctly indelicate." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4738

Nancy Whisky

DESCRIPTION: The weaver sets out to sample the pleasures of drink and a roving life. After extensive drinking, he finds himself broke and despised. He vows to return to weaving, and warns others of the evil of drink
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907
KEYWORDS: drink poverty weaving warning
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Ireland
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #90, p. 1, "The Dublin Weaver" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 603, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Nancy Whisky" (9 texts, 7 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 372-373, "The Calton Weaver" (1 text)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 132-133, 155, "Nancy's Whisky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 279, "Nancy Whisky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H745, pp. 47-48, "Long Cookstown/Nancy Whiskey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 42, "Long Cookstown" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, "The Calton weaver" ( 1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 234, "The Calton Weaver" (1 text)
DT, CALTONWV
ADDITIONAL: Willie Scott, "Nancy's Whisky," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1973.024,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 14 September 2013 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/89836/1
Roud #883
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(125), "Nancy Whisky," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1880-1900
SAME TUNE:
It's Very Strange (per broadside NLScotland, RB.m.143(125))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Am a Weaver
NOTES [57 words]: One title for this song is "The Calton Weaver"; Calton was a village, swallowed up by Glasgow in the early 20th century. - PJS
Also collected and sung by Ellen Mitchell, "The Carlton Weaver" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)).
Greig/Duncan3: "Greig prints a composite text ...." - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: K279

Nancy, the Pride of the West

DESCRIPTION: "We have dark lovely looks on the shores where the Spanish From their gay ships came gallantly forth...." The singer praises Nancy's beauty, her sighs, her laugh, her everything, and says that she holds a thousand in thrall
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (OConor); we have a parody before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.18(188))
KEYWORDS: beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H495, pp. 227-228, "Nancy, the Pride of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 150, "Nancy, the Pride of the West" (1 text)
Roud #7977
NOTES [213 words]: It gives me a certain amount of pleasure to note that this odious piece probably isn't traditional in origin or, very likely, survival. The evidence of its composed nature comes from several references:
The "shores where the Spanish... came forth": Presumably a reference to the ships of the Spanish Armada, many of which were wrecked in Ireland, generally off the northwest coast (the number is given by David Howarth, The Voyage of the Armada, p. 210, as 26). Few of these Spaniards survived long. (There were later instances of Spanish in Ireland, notably at the battle of Kinsale in 1601 -- but Kinsale was in the south, and this is a song about "the pride of the West.")
"The statue the Greek fell in love with": Clearly a reference to Pygmalion and Galatea (Ovid, Metamorphoses, X.254 and following.) - RBW
Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue has no copies of "Nancy, the Pride of the West" but has a parody: Bodleian, Firth c.18(188), "Nancy, the Pride of the East," J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 11(1206), Harding B 15(212b), 2806 c.8(177), Harding B 11(3796), 2806 c.18(217), "Nancy, the Pride of the East."
This Nancy has "eyes ... like rubies so fine" and leaves the East "For Jemmy is the boy I adore ... He is the pride of the North Country" - BS
File: HHH495

Nancy's Complaint in Bedlam

DESCRIPTION: In Moorfields Nancy in Bedlam rattles her chains and mourns the absence of her lover, forced to sea by her unkind friends. He returns, learns she is in Bedlam, and goes to rescue her. He convinces her of his identity, rescues her, and marries her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1740 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
LONG DESCRIPTION: In Moorfields Nancy in Bedlam rattles her chains and mourns the absence of her lover, forced to sea by her unkind friends. She wishes she were a turtle dove, swallow, or fish, to be with him. He returns, learns she is in Bedlam, and goes to rescue her. He convinces her of his identity, rescues her, "brought her to herself and married her" Chorus: "I love my dear Johnnie, And will do till I die"
KEYWORDS: madness love marriage prison rescue sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West), Scotland(Aber)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 41, "Bedlam" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 34, "Bedlam" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 65, "A Maid in Bedlam" (1 text, very possibly from print)
Greig/Duncan6 1079, "The Maid in Bedlam" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #99, p. 1, "The Maid in Bedlam"; #166, p. 2, "The Maid in Bedlam" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 86, "The Loyal Lover" (3 texts)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 172-173, "The Loyal Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p/ 9, "I'll Mount the Air on Swallow's Wings" (1 fragment, 1 tune, too short to classify but surely this or one of its various relatives such as "I'll Weave My Love a Garland")
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 34, "I Love My Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MAIDBDLM
ADDITIONAL: The Vocal Magazine (London, 1781 ("Digitized by Google")), #900 pp. 245-246, ("One morning very early, one morning in spring")
John Struthers, The Harp of Caledonia (Glasgow, 1821 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol I, pp. 312-313, "The Maid in Bedlam"
ST ShH41 (Partial)
Roud #578
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 14(34)), "The Maid in Bedlam" ("One morning, very early, one morning in the spring"), Fowler (Salisbury), 1770-1800; also Firth c.18(138), Firth c.12(229), "Nancy's Complaint in Bedlam" ("As through Moorfields I walked one evening in the spring"); Firth c.18(139), "The Maid in Bedlam"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tom a Bedlam (Bedlam Boys)" (theme)
cf. "Gramachree" (tune, according to Struthers)
cf. "William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial)" [Laws M10] (theme of a maid in Bedlam; see Note below)
cf. "The Fair Maid in Bedlam" (theme of a maid in Bedlam)
cf. "Bedlam City" (theme of a maid in Bedlam)
cf. "Pity a Maiden" (theme of a maid in Bedlam)
NOTES [863 words]: Bethlehem Hospital ("Bedlam") was the first hospital in London for patients with mental illnesses. It was for men, I believe; Magdalene Hospital ("Maudlin"), established somewhat later, was for women. - PJS
Roud lumps this with "I'll Weave My Love a Garland"; I really consider them separate, and have split them. But see Ben Schwartz's comments below. - RBW
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes: "In 1675 the Old Bethlem Hospital was moved to Moorfields."
Most Laws M10 texts that I have seen have no reference to Bedlam. For one example that does refer to Bedlam see Mary O Eddy, "William Reily's Courtship: A Nineteenth Century Broadside" in Midwest Folklore, Vol. II, No. 2 (Summer 1952 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 116-118, "William Reily's Courtship, Trial, Answer, Releasement, and Marriage With His Fair Coolen Bawn":"Reily's Answer, Releasement, & Marriage with His Coolen Bawn" ("You tender hearted lovers attend unto my theme") (1 text)
At this point [we have located] four ballads with the main plot line having a maiden locked in Bedlam:
(I) Nancy's Complaint in Bedlam (Roud #578). If the maiden rattles her chains it is this song. If she does not at first recognize her lover it is this song. As in "The Fair Maid in Bedlam," the couple are married in spite of her parents. In many versions the plot has been lost and all that remains is the chorus (something like "I love my dear Johnnie, And will do till I die") and non-floating verses in which the maiden wishes she were a turtle dove, had swallow's wings, or was a fish, all to find her lover. It is the chorus and these "wish I were"-style verses that distinguish "Nancy's Complaint."
(II) The Fair Maid in Bedlam (Roud #605). The lover was apprenticed to the maiden's parents, who sent him to sea. He returns rich enough to bribe the Bedlam porter to let him in, free the girl, and marry her. In some versions he returns as a silk mercer.
(III) Bedlam City (Roud #968). If the song begins with the singer in Moorfields or Strawfields, it is *not* "Bedlam City." If the missing lover is killed in a war and is seen returning in the clouds with guardian angels it is "Bedlam City." There is no happy ending in "Bedlam City."
(IV) Pity a Maiden (Roud Broadside Index only; no Roud number). The sailor, Billy, has been imprest and is in the war. In Bedlam, "my lilly white hands they shall toil braiding of silver and straw" so that "in a very little time I may fit out a man of war" and "sail to my dear." He writes her a letter so that a happy ending is, at least, a possibility.
There are other "mad songs" that, as far as I can tell, have no Roud number. There are at least two such entries indexed by Bruce Olson in the Broadside Ballad Index (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex): ZN670, "Come maidens all and pity me" ["The distracted maiden's love for the farmer's son"]; ZN3182, "Young maidens all, pray pity me, and think of my extremity" ["Distracted by love for sailor Billy, she is sent to Bedlam, and dies. Billy returns, kills her father, and ends his own life over her grave. A maid in Bedlam, or warped Romeo and Juliet"]
There are at least two "Amelia's Complaint" broadsides not yet assigned a Roud number. In the first [Bodleian, Harding B 25(41), "Amelia's Complaint for the Loss of Young Edward" ("Young lovers all awhile attend")[some words illegible], J. Jennings (London), 1790-1840], Amelia is not in Bedlam; her lover is imprest to fight in the war; she prays that the war will end; if he is slain she'll be undone forever; she'll be true. In the second [Bodleian, Harding B 25(43), "Amelia's Complaint, in Bedlam for the Loss of her Sailor" ("Young women with attention listen to what I mention"), G. Pigott (London) , n.d.], Amelia is in rattling chains because her father sent her sailor away where, she thinks, he was slain; her mind wanders as she cannot make out what approaches; she prays to die.
Broadwood-Carols: "Mad songs were the fashion in the 17th and 18th centuries. For further notes, and traditional examples, see Journal of the Folk Song Society, Vol. ii., p.326 (Subject Index, "Madness"), and Vol. iii., p. 111".
To this point every song listed is, at the earliest, late 18th century. George Carey prints a fragment from a manuscript dated no later than 1777 that does not seem to match any of ours: "A number titled 'The Maid's Lamentation in Bedlam,' which plays upon the traditional theme of the girl-gone-mad because her lover has left her, ends with: Why am I with irons loaded Why am I from my bed of down Why is my precious eyes enclosed Within these disonate walls of stone."
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle is a three verse song the first verse of which -- "I'll make my love a garland ...." -- belongs here (see, for example, broadside Bodleian Harding B 14(34)), and the other two verses -- "I wish I were an arrow ...." and "I wish I were a reaper ...." -- fit the pattern of this song's verses. Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle: "Whether 'The Loyal Lover' is a detached portion of '[Nancy's Complaint in] Bedlam' or an older song incorporated in '[Nancy's Complaint in] Bedlam' by an 18th-century hand is difficult to say. It may well be the latter." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ShH41

Nancy's Courtship

See Two Lovers Discoursing [Laws O22] (File: LO22)

Nancy's Whisky, The

See Nancy Whisky (File: K279)

Nanny That Lives Next Door

DESCRIPTION: The singer takes Nan next door to "a wild beast show" where she is almost killed by a bear: it gets only the false bun of her hair. He proposes. She would prefer a man to a lad. He says he'd be her lad first and then her man. He's been happy with her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (broadside "Nanny That Leeves Next Door," Poet's Box (Glasgow), according to Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting escape hair humorous animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 884, "Nanny That Lives Next Door" (2 texts)
Roud #6137
NOTES [44 words]: This may not seem "humorous" but the intent is clearer from the chorus: "For she stole my heart while sittin and knittin' The time that I sat smokin' and spittin' And ever sin syne my heart's been a flittin' For Nannie that lives next door" (Greig/Duncan4 884A). - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3884

Nantucket Lullaby

DESCRIPTION: "Hush, the waves are rolling in, White with foam, white with foam, Father toils amid the din, While baby sleeps at home." "Hush, the ship rides in the gale... Father seeks the roving whale...." "... Mother now the watch will keep..."
AUTHOR: Words: unknown / Music: Lucy Allison
EARLIEST DATE: 1943
KEYWORDS: lullaby sailor mother father whaler
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, p. 571, "Nantucket Lullaby" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BNEF571

Nantucket P'int

See Nantucket Point (File: Harl191)

Nantucket Point

DESCRIPTION: "Uncle Josiah and old Uncle Sam, they built them a sloop in the shape of a clam." The sloop is finished and launched but they find that they can't sail her. After much trouble they get the boat moored and swear they won't build any more.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips)
KEYWORDS: ship humorous
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 191-192, "Nantucket P'int" (1 text)
NOTES [228 words]: The idea of a ship in the shape of a clam (which I assume means relatively circular and with a smooth, shallow bottom) isn't as ridiculous as it sounds. It has been done -- admittedly with mixed success. In the 1870s, the Russian admiral Andrei Aleksandrovic Popov designed the "Popovkas" (or "Popoffkas") -- battleships (eventually named the Novgorod and Admiral Popov) with circular hulls for maximum stability as gun platforms. Paine, p. 424, says they worked well enough, but Humble, p. 41, reports they could only be steered into a current: "They spun like tops when coming downstream and their decks were flooded by the slightest seaway."
A later vessel, elliptical rather than actually circular, proved better. Fritdjov Nansen's Fram, built in the early 1890s, was designed for polar exploration; Nansen and Sverdrup used her to make what amounted to a Northeast Passage (see, e.g., Berton, pp. 489-498, especially p. 495), and Amundsen later took her to the Antarctic. But the honest truth was, she wasn't much good for ordinary sailing; her round sides and rounded bottom were designed to keep her from being crushed by ice, and made her very slow (her top speed under steam, according to Paine, p. 190, was seven knots) and almost useless for other tasks. She ended up in a museum, but it appears no other ships like her were ever ever constructed. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: Harl191

Nantucket Skipper, The

See The Alarmed Skipper (The Nantucket Skipper) (File: ShaSS198)

Naomi Wise [Laws F31]

DESCRIPTION: (John Lewis) takes Naomi for a ride and throws her in the river. When her body is found, he is arrested but not convicted. He confesses to the murder only on his deathbed
AUTHOR: Carson J. Robison
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: homicide river gallows-confession
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1807 (some sources say 1808) - Drowning of Naomi Wise in North Carolina
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws F31, "Naomi Wise"
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 94, "Poor Omie (Leoma Wise)" (1 text, 1 tune) (apparently; Laws does not list Eddy's text with either Naomi Wise ballad, but the pattern fits this one)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 300, "Poor Naomi (Omie Wise)" (5 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 2 more; it appears that Laws places text "F" here, but "G" is also this song, with "A," "D," and "H" being "Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise)" [Laws F4])
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, pp. 57-58, "Naomi Wise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #38, "Naomi Wise" (2 texts, 1 tune, with the "A" text and tune, locally titled "Sweet William," being "Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise)" [Laws F4], while the "B" text is "Naomi Wise" [Laws F31])
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 129, "Naomi Wise" (1 fragment, 1 tune, so short that it's hard to tell if it's this song or Laws F4)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Ralph Steele Boggs, collector; Laura Bradshaw, informant), Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), pp. 14-15, "Naomi Wise" (1 text)
DT 730, NAOMIWIS
Roud #981
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart & Co., "Naomi Wise" (Edison 51669, 1925) (Columbia 15053-D [as Al Craver], 1926; rec. 1925) (Silvertone 27351926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise)" [Laws F4] (plot)
NOTES [210 words]: Eleanor R. Long-Wilgus wrote an important monograph on this piece ,Naomi Wise: Creation, Re-Creation, and Continuity in an American Ballad Tradition. Chapel Hill: Chapel Hill Press, 2003. viii + 88 pp.
Dr. Long-Wilgus's monograph on Naomi Wise proceeds from the apparent original "True Account of Nayomy Wise" to show how both folksongs, "Poor Omie" (Laws F4) and "Naomi Wise" (Laws F32), grew out of this original under the influence of two broadsides (on other murders) from the 18th Century, both exemplifying the "murdered girl" narrative theme. The first printed version of "Poor Omie" was published by Braxton Craven in 1851, the second, "Naomi Wise," was recorded in 1925 by Carson Robison. But Long-Wilgus argues convincingly that the songs are older, modeled on the murdered girl theme (cf. Banks of the Ohio [Laws F5], the Wexford Girl [Laws P35], or Rose Conoley [Laws F6]), and while they show communalities with the eighteenth and nineteenth century broadsides, do not derive strictly from them, but rather increasingly fulfill the conventions of the "murdered girl theme" implied by that original "True Account." - DGE
For more background on the story of Naomi Wise, see the notes to "Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise)" [Laws F4]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LF31

Napan Heroes, The

DESCRIPTION: Twenty-five shantymen watch a fight between Robert Sweezey and Frank Russell. After an hour "a poke in the stomach" makes Russell give in. Sweezy "conquered the champion from old Point Carr. He's the true Napan hero."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: fight sports logger derivative
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 61-62, "The Napan Heroes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 36, "The Napan Heroes" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST IvNB061 (Partial)
Roud #1946
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Morrissey and the Black" (theme)
cf. "Twickenham Ferry" (tune)
cf. "Squid Jiggin' Ground" (tune)
NOTES [61 words]: Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick: This is a parody of "Morrissey and the Black." "According to Louise Manny, the fight took place in 1889 and the casus belli was the love of a woman who later married neither combatant." - BS
Manny and Wilson in fact states that the fight took place "about 1889," and describe the tune as "Twickenham Ferry"/"The Squid Jiggin' Ground." - RBW
File: IvNB061

Napoleon (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I had a horse and his name was Napoleon, All on account of his bony part." The horse is thin and travels in/with a milk wagon; it stops when the owner shouts "milk." He loses a race when the other rider rider shouts "milk" just before he wins
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: horse racing humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 161, "Napoleon" (1 text)
Roud #4573
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Reuben and Rachel" (tune) and references there
File: TNY161

Napoleon (II)

See Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)

Napoleon Bonaparte

See Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)

Napoleon Bonaparte (II)

See Napoleon's Farewell to Paris (File: GC089)

Napoleon Bonaparte (III)

DESCRIPTION: "The deeds of famed Napoleon I mean for to relate ... led astray ... Grouchy led the French astray And the great battle of Waterloo was bought with English gold." Having been betrayed by Grouchy Napoleon is banished to St Helena and Louisa laments.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: war exile betrayal Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 42-45, "Napoleon Bonaparte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 140-142, "Napoleon Bonyparte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1943 and 3084
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wheels of the World" (for the charge that Grouchy betrayed Napoleon)
cf. "The Removal of Napoleon's Ashes" (for the charge that Grouchy betrayed Napoleon)
NOTES [580 words]: Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick: Other pieces "have the Little Corporal as their hero, [this one] is different in having a true villain, the Marquis de Grouchy, the marshall who failed to keep Blucher from joining up with Wellington at Waterloo." - BS
One suspects broadside origin for this piece, from someone who needed a scapegoat for Napoleon. While the behavior of Emmanuel Grouchy (1766-1847) helped lose Waterloo, he certainly didn't betray Napoleon! His competence can be questioned, but not his loyalty.
Primarily a cavalry officer, Grouchy served well in small roles in Napoleon's first career. Quick to return to Bonaparte's service during the Hundred Days, he was rewarded with a Marshal's baton (the last of Napoleon's Marshals) -- and given command of a third of the army in the Waterloo campaign.
This was a mistake; Grouchy had little infantry experience, and no experience with forces so large (two corps and change). His appointment was one of several organizational mistakes that cost Napoleon dearly at Waterloo.
Napoleon's plan for the Waterloo campaign was brilliant: Two armies, Wellington's (British and Dutch) and Blucher's (Prussian), were concentrating against him. Individually, they were smaller than Napoleon's cobbled-up force, but together, they were far larger. Napoleon divided his army into three parts, under Ney, Grouchy, and his own direct command. He interposed them between Wellington and Blucher, and proposed to defeat them in detail.
There were actually three battles involved: Ligny and Quatre Bras on June 16, and Waterloo on June 18. At Quatre Bras, Ney was supposed to attack Wellington's rearguard, while Grouchy and Napoleon attacked Blucher at Ligny.
Grouchy's performance at Ligny was competent enough; the Prussians were forced to retreat. But Ney completely muffed the attack at Quatre Bras, first failing to attack when the odds were with him, then going in after the small local force was reinforced. This got him in enough trouble that he took control of d'Erlon's corps, which Napoleon had called upon to polish off the victory at Ligny, and hauled it back to Quatre Bras. Where it didn't fight.
This was disastrous. Napoleon turned his own and Ney's forced to attack Wellington at Waterloo, leaving Grouchy to watch Blucher -- but Blucher had merely been pushed back a few miles. He halted the retreat, marched around Grouchy, and managed to bring up enough of his army to turn the tide at Waterloo.
Grouchy's performance was certainly poor; he lost contact with Blucher, and then just sat rather than trying to find a battle to fight. He did, nonetheless, obey his orders, if woodenly. While his behavior cost Napoleon his last chance to survive at Waterloo, the fundamental fault is Napoleon's for setting up very bad command arrangements -- and, tactically, the fault is almost entirely Ney's (who, indeed, gets the blame in "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon," which see): He messed up at Quatre Bras, he made it impossible to win at Ligny, and he was in tactical charge at Waterloo but delayed so long that Blucher had time to come up. - RBW
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Napoleon Bonaparte" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001))
Harte: "This particular song was written almost fifteen years after the death of Napoleon [1821]." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: IvNB042

Napoleon Bonaparte (IV)

See The Removal of Napoleon's Ashes (File: Moyl206)

Napoleon Bonyparte

See Napoleon Bonaparte (III) (File: IvNB042)

Napoleon Is the Boy for Kicking Up a Row

DESCRIPTION: Hard times now but "money was plenty as paving stones In the days of General Bonaparte." He far exceeded past great warriors. He returned from Elba but was murdered on St Helena. "But his nephew's on the throne of France"; maybe he will make England pay.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (broadside Bodleian, Firth c.16(85))
KEYWORDS: war homicide commerce death Napoleon France royalty revenge
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 199, "Napoleon Is the Boy for Kicking Up a Row" (1 text)
Roud #V12967
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.16(85), "Napoleon is the Boy for Kicking up a Row" ("Arrah, murther, but times is hard"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1865
NOTES [522 words]: Napoleon's "nephew's on the throne of France": Napoleon III[1808-1873; president 1848-1852; emperor 1852-1870] was the son of Napoleon's stepdaughter and, nominally, his brother Louis Bonaparte. (source: "Napoleon III of France" at the Wikipedia site).
This ballad claims Napoleon "was sent off to a barren isle, Where he was murdered and ill-treated." Apparently the thought that Napoleon was poisoned is older than the speculation of the past fifty years that he was poisoned intentionally (possibly). (see, for example "Arsenic poisoning and Napoleon's death" by Hendrik Ball at the Victorian Web site).
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 p. 151: "Times were good during the Napoleonic era as the war effort generated massive demand for goods and services in Ireland. An economic slump ensued after Napoleon's defeat as the war machine was wound down and armies were demobilized." This is like the lines from "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon": "Napoleon he was a friend to heroes, both young and old, He caus'd the money for to fly wherever he did go." Here also is the main theme of "The Grand Conversation Under the Rose": "Come stir up the wars, and our trade will be flourishing." - BS
It's worth remembering that Napoleon poisoned *himself* -- he tried to commit suicide on April 13, 1814, as the allies closed in on Paris (see Alan Schom, One Hundred Days, pp. 2-3). Obviously, he failed -- but he was physically never the same. And he died of what may have been stomach cancer -- the sort of thing that, at the time, could easily have been blamed on poison.
Napoleon did have elevated levels of arsenic in his body when he died (though this was not established until recently, based on neutron activation analysis of his hair). This need not have been the result of poison, however, it turns out his wallpaper contained heavy doses of arsenic in the pigment (see John Emsley, Nature's Building Blocks, p. 46).
Saint Helena certainly qualifies as barren; according to the 2001 Statesman's Yearbook, it didn't even become a British colony until 1834, more than a decade after Napoleon's death. Even now,the population is less than 10,000, and the lone town, Jamestown, has only about 3000.
The alleged good times during the war with Napoleon are more weak memory than anything else; the British government nearly spent itself into the ground, the economy was weak (see "Ye Tyrants of England," e.g., where the people are promised an improved economy once Napoleon is gone), and if times were so good in Ireland, why was there a rebellion in 1798? The one thing Napoleon did was siphon off Irish youths of military age.
Napoleon III certainly wanted to enhance French power at British expense, but he didn't have much nerve. In the Crimean War, he allied with England against Russia. In the American Civil War, he is said to have wanted to support the Confederacy, but was unwilling to do so without British support -- and the British were too cautious (and their millworkers too anti-slavery). Ultimately, Napoleon III ended up dying in England, having done much to strengthen the British Empire despite himself. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Moyl199

Napoleon Song

See Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)

Napoleon the Brave

DESCRIPTION: "Napoleon is no more, the French did him adore." His victories are listed: "The Austrians he beat." "The Poles he made to flee, and he conquered Italy." "The Hollanders he slew, he Caesar did outdo" ... "There were 14 Kings at war with Napoleon the Brave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1856 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.12(225))
KEYWORDS: war death Napoleon
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, p. 106, "Napoleon the Brave" (1 fragment)
Roud #V1173
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(225), "Napoleon the Brave," J. Cadman (Manchester), 1850-1855
NOTES [21 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 106 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Firth c.12(225) is the basis for the description. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BrdNapBr

Napoleon the Exile

See Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)

Napoleon's Dream

See One Night Sad and Languid (Dream of Napoleon) (File: SWMS215)

Napoleon's Farewell (Pretty English Girls)

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you pretty English girls, I must bid you adieu"; the singer is going to Alexandria to fight Napoleon. They enter houses in the fight and find girls crying for mercy. Now the wars are over and they intend to return to their girls and spend freely
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton-RealSailorSongs)
KEYWORDS: Napoleon navy battle love separation reunion
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #83, "The Sailor's Farewell" (1 text)
Roud #12823
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(269b), "The Sailor's Farewell," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 25(1701); Firth c.13(51) (appears to be a cut-down version of the preceding); Firth c.13(1); Harding B 16(240a); Harding B 17(270a); all by Pitts, 1819-1844; Harding B 17(269a), "The Sailor's Farewell," Angus (Newcastle), 1774-1825
File: AshS83

Napoleon's Farewell to Paris

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell ye splendid citadel, metropolis called Paris...." "My name is Napoleon Bonaparte, the conqueror of nations... But now I am transported to Saint Helena's isle." Bonaparte recalls his greatness and laments his fall
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1842 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2602)); c.1818 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(139))
KEYWORDS: exile lament Napoleon
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 186, "I Am Napoleon Bonaparte" (1 text, 1 tune); 187, "Napoleon Bonaparte's Farewell to Paris" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 89, "Bony's Lament" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 82, "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris" (1 fragment)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 72, "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris" (1 fragmentary text plus some variants, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 1009-1011, "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1541, p. 105, "Napolein's Farewell to Paris" (` reference)
DT, NAPOLBON
Roud #1626
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2602), "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris," T. Birt (London), 1833-1841; also Harding B 20(267), Harding B 15(214b), Johnson Ballads fol. 59, Harding B 16(165c), Firth c.16(87), Harding B 11(2600), Harding B 11(2601), Firth c.26(124), "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris"; Harding B 11(2599), "Napoleon's Farewell"
Murray, Mu23-y1:043, "Napoleon Bonaparte," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C; also Mu23-y1:107, "Napoleon Bonaparte"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(139), "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris," unknown, c.1818
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena)" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Napoleon Bonaparte
NOTES [116 words]: The rather ornate language of this song (references to "citadels" and "bright Phoebus," etc.) seems to have caused it to be rather liable to corruption; Gardner and Chickering's text, for instance, has the first line read "Come all ye splendid city dells"! Creighton comments on the difficulty her informant had in learning the song, and prints part of a broadside text to show why he had such difficulty. - RBW
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: GC089

Napoleon's Lamentation

DESCRIPTION: Napoleon says "I was born to wear a stately crown." He recounts his victories until, after Moscow, "my men were lost through cold and frost." Defeats follow. He bids fare well to his "royal spouse, and offspring great"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: war France Napoleon royalty hardtimes wife children
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 194, "Napoleon's Lamentation" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [95 words]: The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Napoleon's Lamentation" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
This sounds to me rather like "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" [Laws J5], recast to put it in the mouth of Napoleon the Father rather than Napoleon the Son. Of course, I can't tell in which direction the mixture went -- or, indeed, if there might not be a third song that influenced both. - RBW
File: Moyl194

Napper

DESCRIPTION: "Napper come to my house, I thought he come to see me, When I come to find him out He 'suade my wife to leave me." And similar verses about (Napper's) eccentricities: "Napper went a-huntin', He thought he'd catch a coon... He treed a mushy-room."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: humorous hunting betrayal wife
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 123, "Taffy Was a Welshman" (3 short texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 123, "Taffy Was a Welshman" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 102-103, "Rise, Ole Napper" (2 fragments, the first of which might be "Old Tyler" or something else; the second appards to be this but is too short for certainty and is mixed with the chorus of "Oh! Susanna"; 1 tune)
Roud #7849
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Tyler"
cf. "Taffy Was a Welshman (I)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [90 words]: The notes in Brown say that these three fragments are "clearly derived from the familiar Mother Goose rhyme about the thieving Welshman [i.e. 'Taffy Was a Welshman']."
This is a very long stretch; the two have a few similar lines, but *not* the key phrases about Taffy. As they stand, I'd certainly call them separate songs, and possibly not even related.
Brown's "A" text may not be the same as "B" and "C," but it's too short to really deal with separately. The same can be said of Scarborough's miscellaneous one-sentence fragments.- RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3123

Naptown Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Nobody knows old Naptown, baby, like I do, do (x2), If you will stop and listen, I will tell you a thing or two, two." Naptown (Indianapolis) is a place for fun; the blues don't last long there. The singer declares that he is returning to Naptown
AUTHOR: probably Leroy Carr (1905-1935)
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (recording, Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 428, "Naptown Blues" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell, "Naptown Blues" (Vocalion 1400, 1920)
File: CAFS2426

Narrow Lane, The

DESCRIPTION: "Circle four in the narrow lane (x3), Way down below." "Do-si-do in the narrow lane." "Circle six in the narrow lane." "Cut a figure eight in the narrow lane."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1999 (Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 142-143, "The Narrow Lane" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: SPurg142

Nassau Homeward Bound, The

See The Jamestown Homeward Bound (File: Colc133)

Nat Goodwin [Laws F15]

DESCRIPTION: A young mother, sick abed, is denied a last look at her dead baby. Her husband turns her out of the house. He falls in love with another woman and kills his wife. He is executed when his new flame testifies against him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: homicide abandonment baby execution husband wife
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 3, 1897 - Shooting of Mrs. (Walter) Goodwin
May 1898 - Hanging of Walter Goodwin
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws F15, "Nat Goodwin"
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 143, "Nat Goodwin" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 770, GOODWIN
Roud #3670
NOTES [55 words]: Although this song seems to be known only from the text found in Michigan by Gardner and Chickering, the tragedy took place in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. Gardner and Chickering report that after the hanging of Walter Goodwin, "Gertrude Taylor, the girl in the case, did the shooting." They do not report Taylor's eventual fate. - RBW
File: LF15

Natalicio de Washington

DESCRIPTION: Spanish. "Hoy commemoramos el dia de Washington." "Today we commemorate Washington's birthday." "Long live the nation." "The first president... Was a very brave man called Washington." The people gather to celebrate Wasington's birthday
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Robb)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage patriotic
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 546, "Natalicion de Washington (Washington's Birthday)" (1 Spanish text plus translation)
File: CAFS546

Nathan Hale

DESCRIPTION: "The breezes went steadily through the tall pines, A-saying o hush...." as Nathan Hale attempts to return to his command. But the British capture him, try him, insult his cause, and hang him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Moore's "Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution," according to Eggleston)
KEYWORDS: rebellion war prisoner execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 22, 1776 - Execution of Nathan Hale by the British as a spy.
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 67-68, "Nathan Hale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 7-9, "The Ballad of Nathan Hale" (1 text)
NOTES [26 words]: There is a poem, "Nathan Hale," by Francis M. Finch, in Eggleston. It is not his piece; it begins "To drum-beat and heart-beat, A soldier marches by." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: SBoA067

Nathan Killed a Belled Cow

DESCRIPTION: "Nathan killed a belled cow and fed the dogs the liver, And now we're out of meat, and we'll hang the dogs forever." "Oh, the hawks shoot the buzzards and the buzzards shoot the crows." "Oh, the maggots and the skippers they do grow so very bold."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2)
KEYWORDS: cattle dog animal food bird nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, p. 29, "Nathan Killed a Bell Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3644
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shoot the Buffalo" (lyrics)
NOTES [47 words]: Roud lumps this with "Shoot the Buffalo," and I entirely see his point; the second verse borrows words from that song, and the whole thing is likely based on it, but this has so many unique words that I would consider it a song in its own right, if a feeble and little-known one. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BWV2029

Nation Once Again, A

DESCRIPTION: "When boyhood's fire was in my blood, I read of ancient freemen... And then I prayed I yet might see... Ireland, long a province, be A nation once again." The youth describes the glories of freedom, and hopes it can be regained
AUTHOR: Thomas Davis (1814-1845)
EARLIEST DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion freedom
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 42-43, "A Nation Once Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Behan-IrelandSings, #3, "A Nation Once Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 129, "A Nation Once Again" (1 text)
DT, NTNAGN
ADDITIONAL: Charles Sullivan, ed., Ireland in Poetry, p. 199, "A Nation Once Again (1 text)
Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), p. 305, "A Nation Once Again" (1 text)
Roud #V2194
NOTES [376 words]: Thomas Davis was an Irish poet and patriot. A member of Daniel O'Connell's National Repeal Association from 1841, he started the Nation newspaper in 1842 and was a leader of the "Young Ireland" movement that sought a more modern approach to independence.
Davis died of scarlet fever in 1845, and it never really became clear whether he supported violent revolution or agreed with O'Connell in espousing peaceful reform.
What is truly hard to imagine is the National Ireland that Davis hoped for. As is so often the with Irish leaders, Davis was Protestant. (See Robert Kee, The Most Distressful Country, being Volume I of The Green Flag, pp. 195-197).
The irony and the problem of the song is that Ireland was *never* a nation; before the English came, it had been a land of many petty chiefs who never united. The closest it came was the period from 1782-1800, when it had a truly independent parliament under the British crown. It proceeded to shoot itself in the foot, with a government so bad that it induced the 1798 rebellion and in turn caused Britain to create a parliamentary union. So the Protestant concept of the Nation of Ireland was one that oppressed Catholics, and the Catholic concept didn't exist.
And, in fact, Ireland never did manage to become the nation Davis wanted it to be, since the Catholic and Protestant parts separated, and each would display strong prejudice toward the members of the other denomination.
The first stanza refers to "Three Hundred men and Three men." The Three Hundred might refer to the Spartans who held Thermopylae against the Persians -- though they're hardly the best example of a free nation, given that the Spartan soldiers were part of an elite class that held down the majority of helots at least as strictly as the British oppressed the Irish.
But three hundred had another significance: It was the number of representatives in the old Irish parliament -- the one which had voted the Union, but which Davis (and O'Connell) proposed to recreate.
The "three men" I'm not sure about; too many possibilities.
For all that I'm carping about the historical accuracy, it cannot be denied that this song, with its stirring tune and brilliant tag line, is a very effective argument for nationalism. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: PGa042

National Song Used for Hauling (Russian Shanty)

DESCRIPTION: Russian hauling shanty. Translation: "Let us pull away together, boys, all together it goes - it goes, Pull away, away, together."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (L.A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty worksong ship
FOUND IN: Russia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 573, "National Song Used for Hauling" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Hugi573A

Native Mate

See Give Me a Hut (File: MA137)

Native Swords

DESCRIPTION: "We've bent too long to braggart wrong, While force our prayers derided; We've fought too long, ourselves among..." The singer briefly recounts the story of Irish rebellion, concluding, "But now, thank God, our native sod Has native swords to guard it."
AUTHOR: Thomas Davis (1814-1845)
EARLIEST DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 41-42, "Native Swords" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 216, "Native Swords" (1 text)
Roud #V27520
NOTES [83 words]: Thomas Davis (1814-1845) was an Irish poet and patriot. A member of Daniel O'Connell's National Repeal Association from 1841, he started the Nation newspaper in 1842 and was a leader of the "Young Ireland" movement that sought a more modern approach to independence.
He is probably most famous for writing "A Nation Once Again."
Davis died of scarlet fever in 1845, and it never really became clear whether he supported violent revolution or agreed with O'Connell in espousing peaceful reform. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: PGa041

Natural Born Reacher

DESCRIPTION: "De white man say de times is hahd, Nigger never worries, 'case he trust in de Lawd. No matter how hahd de times may be, Chicken never roost too high foh me." He recalls "Freeze," who died in a fight and now cuts no ice. He is a "nachel-bawn reacher."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes theft death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 232-233, "I'm a Nachel-Bawn Reacher" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ScNF232B (Partial)
File: ScNF232B

Nautical Philosophy

See Sailor's Consolation (File: Hugi460A)

Nautical Yarn, A

DESCRIPTION: "I sing of a captain who's well known to fame" named Bill Jinks. He sails on the Murray River. One night, it is too dark to see, and the crew are all afraid, but the ship goes on. At last they are wrecked -- so the crew walks ashore
AUTHOR: Keighly Goodchild (source: Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Goodchild's "Who Are You?: A Volume of Verse," according to Martin Graebe)
KEYWORDS: river ship wreck humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 67-68, "A Nautical Yarn" (1 text)
Roud #9094
NOTES [169 words]: Sort of an Australian version of "The E-ri-e," although I do not suspect dependence. - RBW
Martin Graebe reports about this song, "Its origin is in a book of verse by Keighley Goodchild, a Londoner, then living in Echuca, a (very!) inland port on the Murray River in Australia. It was published in his book 'Who Are You?: A Volume of Verse', privately published in 1883. I have not, yet, seen a copy but it is said that the direction is that it should be sung to the tune of 'The Dreadnought', though Burl Ives used 'Villikins' for his 1952 recording.
"Goodchild's book was known in England and another of his poems,' When the Billy Boiled', was included in an anthology of Australian poetry published in London in 1888. It has been published in a few Australian collections, but the only example of it being recorded in England is Reg Hall's recording of Cyril Phillips singing it in Sussex in 1966. I have a newspaper report of it being performed in a village concert in Gloucestershire in January 1900." - (RBW)
Last updated in version 6.3
File: StKF067

Nauticle Filosophy

See Sailor's Consolation (File: Hugi460A)

Navigation (Navvy's Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Come roll up, my lads, and you shall have a prize, In all parts of the nation, Where all young lads and swaggering blades that work(s) on the navigation."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (collected from Jim Creedy by Cecil Sharp, according to Raven)
KEYWORDS: work canal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, p. 30, "The Navvy's Song" (2 short texts, 2 tunes, both from Jim Creedy)
Roud #2453
File: RavVI030

Navvy Boots

See The Courting Coat (File: RcWMPBO)

Navvy Boots On

See The Courting Coat (File: RcWMPBO)

Navvy Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: The navvy boy goes roaming, finding work and shelter with a ganger. The ganger's only daughter wishes marry and travel with him. The girl's mother questions this; the daughter says that her father was a navvy.The old man dies and leaves them 500 pounds
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rambling mother father marriage money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H760, pp. 471-472, "The Navvy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NAVVYBOY*
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 33-34, "The Navvy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune, from the Henry collection)
Roud #360
NOTES [41 words]: It has been suggested that this is a reworking of "The Little Beggarman." There are common elements, but that's quite a stretch. Roud lumps it with "The Roving Irishman," which also has points of similarity but appears a separate song to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: HHH760

Navvy on the Line

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a nipper, I'm a ripper, I'm a navvy on the line... All the ladies love the navvies, And the navvies love the fun, There'll be plenty little babies When the railway's done." Independent verses generally about the sexual exploits/desires of the navvies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia)
KEYWORDS: railroading courting sex bawdy
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 217, "Navvy on the Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [66 words]: Roy Palmer, The Folklore of Warwickshire, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 53, gives a single verse of a children's song, beginning "I'm a navvy, you'm a navvy, Working on the line; Five and twenty bob a week, And all the overtime." Clearly it derives from the same original, but it seems likely that it evolved in a very different direction. Roud appears to file this piece as his #13310. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: MA217

Navvy, The

DESCRIPTION: The gaffer gives his girl an expensive ring and warns "beware of the navvy." The navvy gives her a cheap ring and gown to lie with him. She has a baby and goes to find her navvy who's "on the spree." They marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage ring sex pregnancy railroading
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #118, p. 3, ("Oh, I'll get ribbons to my hair") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan5 977, "The Navvy" (7 texts, 5 tunes)
Roud #6730
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Navvy Lad
Donald Duff
NOTES [174 words]: The alternate title of "Donald Duff" is from lines common to four of the Greig/Duncan5 texts: "And I'll gang to see my navvy lad He works wi' Donal Duff."
The "gaffer," in this case may be the employer or foreman (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary) and the navvy is the railroad worker. You can get some information on "The Navvy Age" in the notes to "The Roving Newfoundlanders (II)" [as the navvies moved to Canada], and, about their reputations as rakes in "The Courting Coat," "The Navvy Boy" and "Navvy on the Line."
Greig/Duncan5 quoting Gillespie: "Heard often in Savoch district, when the Buchan railway was being made. Introduced by navvies. Noted 1906." 1858: "The Formartine and Buchan Railway Act was passed approving the building of the railway line to Peterhead with a branch line from Mintlaw to Fraserburgh." (source: "Some dates in the history of Peterhead" at danielsd demon uk site; also Records of British Railways Board Formartine and Buchan Railway 1855-1858, at National Archives of Scotland site.) - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5977

Navvy's Song (II)

See Navigation (File: RavVI030)

Navy Fragment

See The Captain Went Below (File: ShaS125A)

Navy Hymn (Eternal Father, Strong to Save)

DESCRIPTION: "Eternal father, strong to save, Whose arm does bind the restless wave... O hear us when we cry to thee, For those in peril of the sea." The singer prays to Father, Savior, Holy Spirit, and "Trinity of love and pow'r" for protection, and will praise God
AUTHOR: Words: William Whiting / Music: John Bacchus Dykes (1823-1876)
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Whiting's manuscript copy; see notes)
KEYWORDS: sailor religious nonballad navy
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 183-184, "Eternal Father" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NAVYHYMN
SAME TUNE:
The Aviator's Hymn (by Sally Nelson Robins) ("Almighty Sov'reign of the sky, Whose ever-wake yet tireless eye") (Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 185)
NOTES [362 words]: Julian, p. 356, reports:
Of this hymn the following texts are known:--
1. The original MS, 1860....
2. The revised text by the Compilers of Hymns A[ncient] & M[odern], 1861, No. 222. This is the most widely used of any.
3. A revision made by the author... [in] 1869....
4. A Latin version also by Whiting.... [1867, based on the Hymns Ancient & Modern version rather than Whiting's own original]
The lack of hymns for that at sea, together with its merits as a hymn, rendered it exceedingly popular from its first publication, and its use has become most extensive in English-speaking countries. Hodges, of Frome, has published a short tale founded thereupon, and entitled "Hymn 222."
McKim, pp. 562-563, reports that this was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's favorite hymn, and was sung at his funeral. The tune was played after the death of John F. Kennedy. The melody is called "Melita," after the ancient name of the island of Malta. I do not know why it is connected with Malta, unless it's the fact that composer John B. Dykes (1823-1876) was curate of Malton (with an n) for a time starting in 1847 (McKim, pp. 83-84).
John Bachus Dykes was apparently musical from an early age, playing organ for his father's congregation as early as age 10. He went to Catherine's College, Cambridge, and helped found the Cambridge University Music Society before receiving his B.A. in 1847. He was ordained as a priest the next year. His wife Susanna Kingston, whom he married in 1850, was a resident of Malton, where he was curate. He later moved to St. Oswald's Durham. His other most familiar hymn tune is probably "Holy, Holy, Holy." He was perhaps not easy to get along with; in the 1870s, he became involved in a religious and legal controversy with the Bishop of Durham which likely helped to induce a breakdown in 1875. He died in 1876 -- and was popular enough that an endowment of 10,000 pounds was raised for his widow and children. Four of his daughters have the minor distinction of having been photographed by Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) in 1862 (DodgsonWakeling4, p. 129 and n. 105), although, oddly, he does not seem to have corresponded with them. .- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: DTnavyhy

Navy navy nick nack

See Nievie Nievie Nick Nack (File: SuSm059B)

Naw, I Don't Want to be Rich

See You Wonder Why I'm a Hobo (File: BRaF461)

Nay, Ivy, hyt shal not be, iwys

See (notes under) The Holly and the Ivy (File: FSWB383)

Nay, Ivy, It Shall Not Be, Iwys

See (notes under) The Holly and the Ivy (File: FSWB383)

Near the Cross

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "In the Cross, in the Cross, be my glory ever / Till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river." Verses center on being "near the Cross" and reaching "the golden strand Just beyond the river."
AUTHOR: Words: Frances Jane (Fanny) Crosby (Van Alstyne) (1820?-1915)
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 ("Bright Jewels," according to Robinson)
KEYWORDS: river Bible nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Ira D. Sankey, Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos [1200 Hymns] (London: Collins, 1921?), #134 (1880 #127), "Near the Cross"
F. E. Belden, Christ in Song (Washington: Review & Herald Publishing Assn, 1908 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #289, "Near the Cross" (1 text) (1 tune)
Roud #17303
RECORDINGS:
Bright Light Quartet, "Just Beyond the River" (on LomaxCD1708)
Moving Star Hall Singers, "Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross" (on USSeaIsland02)
NOTES [192 words]: The USSeaIsland02 version starts with Sankey verse 1 - "Jesus, keep me near the Cross / There a precious fountain / Free to all -- a healing stream -- / Flows from Calvary's mountain" repeats the chorus, as in the description above, many times, introduces verse 4 -- "Near the Cross I'll watch and wait / Hoping trusting ever / Till I reach the golden strand / Just beyond the river" -- and ends repeating the chorus again with increasing speed, clapping and beating on the floor.
The Herskovits Trinidadian Spiritual Baptist account of "Jesus Lover of My Soul" fits the USSeaIsland02 track as well. This is a Sankey hymn, and the writers of the WITrinidadVillage02 liner notes would characterize this track as "Sankey into Shout."
Belden's tune is attributed to W.H. Doane with an 1890 copyright. - BS
For background on author Fanny Crosby van Alstyne, see the notes to "A Few More Marchings Weary." According to William Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal, Broadman Press, 1976, pp. 1220123, William H. Doane wrote the tune to this and had Crosby set the text. The result appeared in Bright Jewels in 1869 and was reprinted by Sankey in 1880. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcJKMNtC

Near the Shannon Side

DESCRIPTION: "Near the Shannon side there dwelt a lass, a made both chaste and pure." Despite being poor, her beauty caused many men to court her. One finally wins her. They set out to cross the river, and are almost killed, but he saves her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1961 (Fowke collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty river rescue
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 8, "Near the Shannon Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4821
NOTES [40 words]: This is very flowery, making me think it has not been folk processed much. It feels like a rewrite of "Dublin Bay (Roy Neal)," transferred to the Shannon and given a happy ending. I think; the ending in the O. J. Abbott version is abrupt. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: AbFo008

Near the Town of Taunton Dean

DESCRIPTION: "Near the town of Taunton Dean, Upon a pleasant green, There lives the miller's daughter fair, Her age is sweet sixteen." The singer praises her beauty and hopes to win her
AUTHOR: unknown (most of Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime's words are by John Oxenford)
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
KEYWORDS: beauty love courting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 746, "Near the Town of Taunton Dean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22227
File: CPMNTTD

Near to the Isle of Portland

DESCRIPTION: A ship "outward bound to the Indies" sinks in a storm. "We were near to the Island of Portland Where our gallant ship went down; There were never a better commander Sailed out of Plymouth town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship disaster storm sailor wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 59, "Near to the Isle of Portland" (1 text)
Roud #17748
NOTES [28 words]: Portland Bill Lighthouse was built on the Isle of Portland in 1716. Portland is south of Weymouth and about 85 miles by sea east of Plymouth in the English Channel - BS
File: GrMa59

Nearer My God To Thee

DESCRIPTION: "Nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee, E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me, Still all my song shall be Nearer my God to thee." Whatever tribulations come, the singer hopes they will cause him/her to come closer to God
AUTHOR: Words: Sarah Fuller Flower Adams (1805-1848)
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (Hymns and Anthems)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 353, "Nearer My God To Thee" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 423, "Nearer, My God, to Thee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #41, "Nearer, My God, to Thee" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 387-388, "Nearer, My God, To Thee"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 162, "Nearer My God to Thee" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 84, "Nearer, My God, to Thee" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 92-93, "Nearer, My God To Thee" (1 text, 1 tune)
John Julian, editor, _A Dictionary of Hymnology_, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), pp. 792-293, "Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee!" (1 text, the original, plus many variations)
Roud #28881
RECORDINGS:
Climax Quartet, "Nearer, My God, to Thee" (Climax [Columbia] 518, 1900; Harvard 518 [as unidentified Vocal Quartet], 1903-1906)
Elliott Shaw, "Nearer My God to Thee" (Resona 75016, 1919)
Spencer, Young & Wheeler, "Nearer, My God, to Thee" (Edison 80074, n.d.)
Unidentified baritone, "Nearer, My God, to Thee" (Oxford 397, c. 1909)
SAME TUNE:
Nero, My Dog, Has Fleas (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 107)
Nearer My Job to Thee (Gibbs M. Smith, _Joe Hill_, 1969 (I use the 1984 Peregrine Smith Books edition), p. 253)
Nearer to Nature's God (by A. P. Knapp) (Albert P. Knapp, _Grange Songster_, 1915, p. 6)
NOTES [506 words]: The words of this song date from 1841 or earlier; according to Reynolds, p. 151, "This was one of thirteen hymns Sarah F. Adams wrote in 1840 that were submitted to the Rev. William Johnson Fox for his Hymns and Anthems (1841), compiled for the use of his congregation at the Unitarian South Place Chapel, Finsbury, England, and proved popular enough that it soon acquired three different tunes.
According to Rudin, pp. 40-41, Adams was the daughter of a radical English journalist, Benjamin Flower, who went to prison for his writings. Sarah Adams had wanted to be an actress, but wasn't healthy enough. Rudin, p. 41, claims that the song is based on Jacob's vision at Bethel, in Genesis 28; fleeing from Esau, he sleeps and sees a ladder going up to heaven. I can't see much similarity between that image and the song that resulted.
The standard tune in America is by Lowell Mason (1792-1872), published in 1859; this often bears the name "Bethany." Reynolds, p. 151, reports that the irregular text was difficult for Mason, but an idea came to him on a sleepless night, and he produced the tune the next day. The tune most often used in the Church of England is "Horbury," said by Johnson to be by John Dykes. British Methodists tend to use the tune "Propior Deo" by Sir Arthur Sullivan. If that weren't confusing enough, I have encountered at least one other attempt by a modern composer to abuse the text.
It isn't just the tunes that get hacked at. Julian, p. 792, reports, "The use of this hymn, generally with very slight alterations, but often with the omission of the last stanza, is very considerable in all English-speaking countries. It has also been translated into many European and other languages.
"This hymn is a curious illustration of the colouring which is given to a hymn by the antecedents of its author.... With Mrs. Adams, being an Unitarian, [the text is not as respectfully treated], not withstanding the redeeming lines 'E'en though it be a Cross That raiseth me' in the opening stanza." Julian goes on to list five different major alterations by later writers.
I do not believe that either the original or any of the results qualify as true folk songs, but the piece is widespread enough that I chose to include it here.
This seems to be the Official Song of People Dying Under Unfortunate Circumstances in the Absence of Corroborating Witnesses. The story that it was played as the Titanic went down is simply false (a story spread by one Mrs. A. A. Dick; see Wade, pp. 61-62) -- the disproof being that the passengers who claimed they heard the song were British and American both despite the fact that the two nations used different tunes (Lord, p. 110). Johnson reports that William McKinley's doctor claimed these were the dying president's last words. In the aftermath of the Johnstown Flood, there were newspaper reports of families singing the song in harmony as they were washed away in the flood (McCullough, p. 221).
Interesting how none of these claims are ever capable of verification. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB353C

Neat Irish Girl, The

See Polly on the Shore (The Valiant Sailor) (File: Wa057)

Neat Little Window, The

See The Bonny Wee Window [Laws O18] (File: LO18)

'Neath the Crust of the Old Apple Pie

DESCRIPTION: "'Neath the crust of the old apple pie, There is something for you, me, O my! It may be a pin that the cook has dropped in, Or it may be a poor little fly... But whatever it be, it's for you and for me, 'Neath the crust of the old apple pie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: food derivative nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #93, p. 27, "The Old Apple Pie" (1 text, tune referenced)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 125, "'Neath the Crust of the Old Apple Pie" (1 text, tune referenced)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 14, "'Neath the Crust of the Old Apple Pie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 252, "'Neath the Crust of the Old Apple Pie" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree (I)" (tune)
File: Paro093

Neath the Crust of the Old Apple Pie

See 'Neath the Crust of the Old Apple Pie (File: Paro093)

Neath the Gloamin' Star at E'en

See The Gloamin' Star at E'en (File: Ord066)

Neath These Tall Green Trees

DESCRIPTION: "'Neath these tall green trees we stand Asking blessings from Thy hand Thanks we give to Thee above For Thy health and strength and love."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p.539, "Neath These Tall Trees" (notes only)
File: ACSF539N

Nebraska Land

See Dakota Land (File: San280)

Nebrasks Blues

DESCRIPTION: "I like you, baby, baby, I like you true (x2), But I'm headin' for Nebraska, there's nothin' up there you can do." The singer will leave the snows of Chicago; her baby is holding her back. She has a "daddy" in Nebrasks to whom she will turn
AUTHOR: Victoria Spivey?
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Victoria Spivey)
KEYWORDS: love travel separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 492, "Nebraska Blues" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Victoria Spivey, "Nebraska Blues" (Vocalion 1606, 1931)
File: CAFS2492

Nebuchadnezzar

See Nebuchadnezzar's Wife (File: PalWa097)

Nebuchadnezzar, King of the Jews

See Nebuchadnezzar's Wife (File: PalWa097)

Nebuchadnezzar's Wife

DESCRIPTION: "Nebuchadnezzar/Holy Moses/Thomas a Didymus/Pontius Pilate, the King of the Jews Sold his wife for a pair of shoes. When the shoes began to wear, Nebuchadnezzar began to swear... good lack, Nebuchadnezzar wanted her back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: royalty wife clothes humorous playparty commerce Jew
FOUND IN: Britain(England) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #389, "Nebuchadnezzar, King of the Jews" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 128, "(Iky Moses, king of the Jews)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 27, "(Ala Bala Busha, the King of the Jewws)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #98, "(Nebuchadnezzar the King of the Jews)" (1 text); cf. #10, "(Thomas a Didymus, Hard of Belief)" (1 text)
Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 97, (no title) (1 single-verse fragment)
Roud #19250
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sale of a Wife" (theme) and references there
cf. "Johnston Mooney and O'Brien" (form)
NOTES [875 words]: For some reason, the number of people who want to tell me about this song is unusually high. Robert Salles sends me this report:
"When I was a little boy, in the 1950 ies, my mother told me the following:
Nebuchadnezzar, the King of the Jews
Sold his wife for a pair of shoes.
When the shoes began to wear,
Nebuchadnezzar began to swear.
She knew it from her childhood, she was born in 1904."
Beth Edwards sent me a much longer version, which obviously could contain many more couplets:
Nebuchadnezzar, king of the jersey (sic)
Sold his wife for a pair of shoes.
When the shoes began to wear,
Nebuchadnezzar began to swear.
When the swear began to stop,
Nebuchanezzar bought a shop.
When the shop began to sell,
Nebuchanezzar bought a bell.
When the bell began to ring,
Nebuchanezzar began to sing.
At the end, "When Nebuchadnezzar finished his song," he got his wife back.
For the idea of selling a wife, see the notes to "Sale of a Wife."
Not every version refers to Nebuchadnezzar, although he is the most common pseudo-hero. The other names are harder to explain. Moses was never King of the Jews, but of course he did lead them, so I suppose he was in the place of a king. Thomas Didymus, however, was a follower of Jesus (at least in the Gospel of John; no other gospel calls him "Didymus"); he certainly never reigned over the Jews.
The reference to Nebuchadnezzar is interesting. He is sort of the Standard Heathen King of the Old Testament, mentioned about 85 times, with the largest number of mentions being in the books of Jeremiah (whose prophesies cover much of Nebuchadnezzar's long reign) and Daniel (although the events in Daniel, insofar as they are non-fictional and not related to the Maccabean period, seem to be based on the historical Nabonidas, who was perhaps Nebuchadnezzar's son-in-law, rather than Nebuchadnezzar himself). He is also mentioned in Tobit 14:14, where he is credited, falsely, with conquering Ninevah, and in Judith 1:1 and following we find him falsely being called the Assyrian Emperor.
Nebuchadnezzar (or, as Jeremiah more correctly calls him, Nebuchadrezzar) is the Hebrew name for the Chaldean Emperor Nabo-kudurri-usur II. He couldn't really be called the King of the Jews -- he overthrew the Davidic dynasty and deported the people (these events are described in the last two chapters of 2 Kings), but the land was left desolate; there was no King of Judah. Indeed, several records in Babylon still call the deposed King Jehoiachin "King of Ya-u-du" (i.e. Judah; Noth, p. 282). But Nebuchadnezzar did rule almost all the Jews of the Dispersion -- the only ones not within his borders were the handful who had fled into Egypt.
And he was easy to remember, because he reigned for a very long time -- 43 years, according to the Uruk King List (PritchardII, p. 119). He assumed the throne of Babylon in 605, following the death of his father Nabopolassar (If you're wondering about all these names starting with "Nabo" or "Nebo," Nebo was a Chaldean god). This took place just after Nebuchadnezzar had won the great battle of Charchemish and destroyed the last remnant of the Assyrian empire and smashed a great Egyptian army (Bright, p. 326; compare Jeremiah 46:2-4). Had it not been for the death of his father, it is quite possible that Nebuchadnezzar would have gone on to destroy Egypt. As it was, Judah became a Babylonian vassal, but rebelled and was conquered in 598/597. The rebellious King Jehoiakim conveniently died (Bright, p. 327, speculates that he was assassinated), and Nebuchadnezzar did not entirely destroy Judah, although he did exile many of the best people and the new King Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24). A decade later, Jehoiachin's uncle Zedekiah rebelled, and Judah was conquered again in 587 (2 Kings 25). Judah was destroyed and its people exiled.
Many Jews probably expected divine revenge on Nebuchadnezzar. It didn't come. He remained King for another quarter century, and embarked in an ambitious rebuilding of Babylon, with much building of temples and monuments to his gods (Leick, p. 119). He finally died in 562.-- opening the door for chaos in Babylon. (And these dates are pretty firm -- according to Dougherty, p. 10, his date list for the Chaldean kings, which agrees with PritchardII, is said to be based on "more than two thousand dated cuneiform documents.") Three kings reigned before Nabonidas took the throne in 556 (Bright, pp. 352-353), and then Babylon fell to the Persians in 539.
Actual records of Nebuchadnezzar's private life are of course few; PritchardI, p. 203, records his brief account of his first capture of Jerusalem in 598 B.C.E., while p. 205 lists some of his household accounts. Goodspeed, p. 349, notes the "instability" of his dynasty -- but there is no mention of his wife, just of the weakness of his son and the brutality of his son-in-law. Still, based on all the sources I checked (not all of which are cited here, since they duplicated the material in the sources I have cited), there seem to have been no succession quarrels in the period before his death, nor is there any mention of a son other than Amel-Marduk (the Bible's Evil-Merodach), implying that there weren't a bunch of wives trying to advance the interests of their sons. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: PalWa097

Necktie's Up Behind

DESCRIPTION: "When you attend a party and gyrate with the girls... oh, that painful feeling when suddenly you find The naked truth revealing: your necktie's up behind." When sparking with a girl, or otherwise compromised, you will often find your necktie up behind
AUTHOR: probably Thomas P. Westendorf (but in a form so different from Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric's that there was almost certainly a deliberate rewrite)
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Westendorf's verstion printed in Wehman's Collection of Songs #32, according to Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad courting dancing clothes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 162, "Necktie's Up Behind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11357
File: Brne162

Ned Bolton

DESCRIPTION: "A jolly comrade in the port, A fearless mate at sea." The singer hopes that, if he ever forgets his comrade, he will lose the ability to fight. Ned Bolton was a fine man aboard the privateer Black Snake. His ship ran aground and ship and crew lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (Journal of the Hillman)
KEYWORDS: pirate ship death disaster drink gold
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 139-141, "Ned Bolton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27510
File: HGam139

Ned Kelly's Farewell to Greta

See Farewell to Greta (File: FaE114)

Ned McCabe

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a fine old Irish laborer, from Ireland I came, To try me luck on Columbia's shore, and Ned McCabe's my name." His fortune has been hard, but he bears it with a smile. He has gone far to the west to log. He can drink twenty jiggers without stumbling
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1926 (Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra)
KEYWORDS: immigration lumbering work drink hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 60, "Ned McCabe" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [123 words]: Although this song is claims to be about a man who went from "the banks of the Mississippi" to the Black Hills, it clearly swallowed some other song about someone who went mining somewhere other than the Dakotas. The song says that the miner came to a point 500 miles from the Mines of Carribou by *ship*. In other words, by sea. The Dakotas are more than 500 miles from the sea in all directions. Presumably the miner came by boat up the Mississippi to Saint Paul. This would put him aout 625 miles from the Black Hills -- not too far from the 500 miles of the song. The song also claims there were "tigers in full view" on the path to the mines. I presume it goes without saying that there are no tigers in Minnesota or the Dakotas. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: RDL60

Needle-cases

See Needlecases (File: K233)

Needle's Eye, The

DESCRIPTION: "The needle's eye that doth supply The thread that runs so true, Oh many a beau have I let go Because I wanted you." The remaining verses describe how the singer(s) have courted and passed others by; the needle may have "caught" the (girl)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,So)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Randolph 545, "The Needle's Eye" (2 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 144-145, "The Needle's Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 9-10, "Needle's Eye" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 74, "The Needle's Eye" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 74, "The Needle's Eye" (1 tune plus a text excerpts)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 144, pp. 291-293, "Needle's Eye" (2 fragments)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 43-44, "The Needle's Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 72-73=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 196-197, "Needle's Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 131-133, "The Needle's Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 94-95, "The Needle's Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs, p, 36, "The Needle's Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 34, "Needle's Eye" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 90, "Needle's Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame pp. 42-43, "(The needle's eye that doth supply)" (2 texts)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #29, "Threading the Needle" (2 texts); #171, "The Needle's Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 288-289, "The Needle's Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R545 (Full)
Roud #4506
RECORDINGS:
Margaret MacArthur, "The Needle's Eye" [fragment] (on MMacArthur01)
NOTES [197 words]: According to Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, this song supplied the title for a novel called The Thread that Runs So True by Jesse Stuart. The LibraryThing database shows that this was popular enough to have been published in fifty editions or more and to have been turned into a play by Reginald Lawrence.
A publisher's blurb for the book reads "First published in 1949, Jesse Stuart's now classic personal account of his twenty years of teaching in the mountain region of Kentucky has enchanted and inspired generations of students and teachers. With eloquence and wit, Stuart traces his twenty-year career in education, which began, when he was only seventeen years old, with teaching grades one through eight in a one-room schoolhouse. Before long Stuart was on a path that made him principal and finally superintendent of city and county schools. The road was not smooth, however, and Stuart faced many challenges, from students who were considerably older--and bigger--than he to well-meaning but distrustful parents, uncooperative administrators and, most daunting, his own fear of failure. Through it all, Stuart never lost his abiding faith in the power of education." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: R545

Needlecases

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a peddler, is poor and hungry, and offers to sell the listener needlecases. He was once well-off, but is now homeless and friendless; once a farmer, now in rags. Since the listener won't buy, he's off, but asks listener to buy some if he returns.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a peddler, is poor and hungry, and offers to sell the listener needlecases. He was once well-off, but is now homeless and friendless; once a farmer, he's now in rags. Since the listener won't buy, he's off, but asks listener to buy some if he returns. Chorus: "Needlecases, will you buy one?/You will buy one, I'm sure/Won't you buy a case o' needles/From Jack that's so poor?"
KEYWORDS: poverty request clothes commerce hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South, North))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 234-235, "Needle-cases" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 152)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 647, "Needle-cases" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 233, "Needlecases" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1300
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Case of Needles
NOTES [14 words]: We haven't keywords for "peddler" or "street-cry," so "commerce" will have to do. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: K233

Needles and Pins

See (notes under) Hecketty Pecketty (File: ReSh042)

Neerie Norrie

See Four and Twenty Tailors (File: KinBB13)

Neevy Neevy Nick Nack

See Nievie Nievie Nick Nack (File: SuSm059B)

Neger Like de Bottley Oh, De

See Sailor Likes His Bottle-O, The (File: Hugi055)

Negro Cotton Picker

DESCRIPTION: Composite fragment of cotton-picking items: "Way down in de bottom, when de cotton's all rotten, Can't pick a hundred a day. Aught for aught, and figger for figger, All for de white man an' none for de nigger."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes discrimination
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 211, "Negro Cotton Picker" (1 fragment)
File: Br3211

Negro Reel

DESCRIPTION: "Laws-a-massey, what have you done? You've married the old man instead of his son! His legs are all crooked and wrong put on, They're all laughing at your old man. Now you're married you must obey... Kiss him twice and hug him too."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: marriage nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 134-135, "Negro Reel" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [23 words]: This is probably an odd version of "Sally Walker," but as it might be derived from "Oats and Beans" instead, I give it its own category. - RBW
File: San134

Negro Song (Doodle Bug on a String)

DESCRIPTION: "Let's sing, What you gonna do.... Tie around a string. Sing, sing, what you gon'er sing? Doodle bug, doodle bug, tied on a string"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: bug nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 672, "Negro Song" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
NOTES [29 words]: There obviously isn't enough text here to identify the song, but in case anyone is trying to trace it, it's not the same as the Georgia Yellow Hammers "Doodlebug Song." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5672

Negro Yodel Song

DESCRIPTION: "I love my wife and baby, Each morning so soon. I love my wife and baby." In the Brown text, every other word, starting with "love," is yodelled.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 453, "Negro Yodel Song" (1 short text)
Roud #11794
File: Br3453

Neighbor Jones

See Gossip Joan (Neighbor Jones) (File: Br3144)

Neighbour Hark

See The Teem Wa's (The Toom House) (File: Ord089B)

Nein un neinzich (Nine and Ninety)

DESCRIPTION: German counting song. "Nein un neinzich, acht un neinzich, siwwe un.... Ja, ja, ich fiehle dass du mich liebe...." "Nine and ninety, eight and ninety, seven and ninety.... Yes, I've a feeling you love me...." "Nine and eighty, Eight and eighty...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 88-89, "Nein un neinzich (Nine and Ninety)" (1 German text plus English translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL088

Neist Market Day, The

See The Next Market Day (File: FSWB158B)

Nell Cropsey (I)

DESCRIPTION: One night Nell's former lover Jim (Wilcox) calls on her. She disappears for three months, then her mother sees her body on the river. Her lover winds up in prison
AUTHOR: credited to Bessie Wescott Midgett
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: homicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1901 - Murder of Ella Maud(e) "Nellie" Cropsey, presumably by her former lover Jim Wilcox
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 307 "Nellie Cropsey" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 307, "Nellie Cropsey" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 61, "Nell Cropsey, I" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 82-84, "Nellie Cropsey" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Brenda Joyce Quillin, "Nell Cropsey Died -- But How?", Vol. 22, No. 2 (May 1974), pp. 49-50, "(Nell Cropsey)" (1 text)
ST MN2082 (Partial)
Roud #4117
CROSS-REFERENCES:
"cf. The Jealous Lover (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II)" [Laws F1]
cf. "Nell Cropsey (III -- Swift Flowing River)"
NOTES [1122 words]: This song is item dF45 in Laws's Appendix II, but should certainly have been listed higher; he did not know the Brown version.
There are extensive historical notes in Brown, which concur with the song in saying that she was very pretty but list her age as 19, not 16 as in the text of the song.
Chappell has four songs associated by title with Nellie Cropsey, but only two (I and IV) mention her name: This one and the Nell Cropsey subfamily of "The Jealous Lover." (Interestingly, there is a mention of "Jim" in the NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal of Chappell's "Lone Green Valley" type, but none of Nell.)
To tell this from the Jealous Lover version, consider this first verse:
On the twentieth of November,
A day we all remember well,
When a handsome girl was murdered,
Of her story I will tell.
This story became the subject of a book, Bland Simpson, The Mystery of Beautiful Nell Cropsey: A Nonfiction Novel, University of North Carolina Press, 1993. It looks very un-scholarly, but obviously it is from a university press. Author Simpson was a member of the Red Clay Ramblers, but he was also a professor of creative writing; perhaps it shows. The book includes a photo of Cropsey; she doesn't appear as attractive as all the folklore implies. There is another "nonfiction novel," William E. Dunstan, Haunted: Jim Wilcox Remembers Nell Cropsey; I have not seen it.
Simpson, pp. 165-166, does give some useful dates:
1876 - Birth of Jim Wilcox.
1881 - Birth of Nell Cropsey, fourth child of her parents.
1898 - Cropsey family moves to North Carolina.
Nov. 20, 1901 - Disappearance of Nell, found dead in the Pasquotank river 37 days later.
1902 - Jim Wilcox sentenced to death for the murder of Nell, but the verdict is overturned because of demonstrations during the trial.
1903 - Wilcox retried, convicted of second degree murder, and sentenced to thirty years.
1918 - North Carolina Governor Bickett pardons Jim Wilcox.
1934 - Wilcox commits suicide.
Simpson also notes the interesting fact that Roy Crawford, who had visited Nell's older sister Ollie on the night of Nell's disappearance, killed himself in 1908, and that Nell's younger brother Will committed suicide in 1913. Thus there seems to real reason to wonder if Wilcox was the actual murderer.
A somewhat more reputable source is John Harden's The Devil's Tramping Ground, subtitled "And Other North Caroline Mystery Stories," University of North Carolina Press, 1949; it is one of the sources cited in the NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal article. His story of the Cropsey murder is on pp. 11-23. His outline of the case is as follows:
In 1898, the Cropseys, New York merchants, move from Brooklyn to the banks of the Pasquotank River in North Carolina (p. 12). Nellie, who was 16 or 17 at the time, is described as being very beautiful indeed. Jim Wilcox, the son of a former sheriff of Pasquotank County, was 25 years old when the Cropseys moved in, and began to court Nell almost at once (p. 13). But, after three years of courting, he had made no move toward marriage. Apparently Nell was getting restless by this time; the two quarreled on the night she disappeared.
Supposedly those involved had a discussion that night about how they would commit suicide if it came to that, with Wilcox preferring drowning and Nell freezing (Harden, p. 23). This would seem rather ironic in hindsight. Nell's sister Ollie said that Wilcox and Nell later went out to talk on the porch. She heard a thud, but apparently she was with her own beau and did not investigate, nor did she bother waiting for Nell to come home (Harden, pp. 23-24). No one really noticed her absence until there was a disturbance in the yard (Harden, p. 24). Then it was noticed that Nell was missing. Her father went off to find WIlcox -- and learned that he had been home for hours, but Nell was not there (Harden, p. 16). Awakened, Wilcox claimed he had left Nell on her father's porch at 11:15. Wilcox claimed that he had broken up with her and then left (Harden, p. 17). Portions of Wilcox's account could be verified -- he had claimed that he had returned an umbrella and photo to Nell, and the umbrella was there but the photo was not. Also, it appears there was a two hour gap on that night between the time he left the Cropsey home and when he reached his own (Harden, p. 18).
A search began. Dogs traced Nell to a boathouse by the river; there was no sign that she had left it. Wilcox was charged with abduction (Harden, p. 18), but in the absence of a body, no murder charge was filed at the time.
Then things really turned strange. A letter showed up, explaining that the commotion among the pigs arose because someone had been trying to steal one of the Cropsey's hogs, and Nell had tried to stop him, and he murdered her and dumped her in the river. Five days later, her body was found near that spot (Harden, pp. 18-19). A lynch mob came for Wilcox, but the Cropsey family begged them to let justice take its course, and the mob relented (Harden, p. 19).
The autopsy of Nell's body showed that she had been hit hard on the left temple by an object such as a blackjack (Wilcox was known to own a blackjack). There was no water in her lungs, meaning that she had not drowned; the blow to her head must have killed her before she was thrown in the river (Harden, pp. 20-21). It was later implied that she might have committed suicide -- but this of course does not explain the blow in the head or the lack of water in her lungs.
The case against Wilcox, as presented at trial, was that he had been the last to see Nell and that he had owned what could have been the murder weapon; the prosecutor argued that he had been tired of her. There seems to have been no direct evidence against Wilcox, but he never took the stand in his own defense. Wilcox was convicted of first degree murder, but the trial had been messy enough that he was granted another. This time, the sentence was second degree murder -- which still sent him to prison. He stayed there until pardoned in 1920 (Harden, p. 21). It is believed that Wilcox had told Governor Thomas W. Bickett some details of what happened that caused Bickett to pardon him. But Bickett never explained, and neither did Wilcox; he lived as a recluse for a years, then committed suicide (Harden, pp. 22-23).
To this day, no one really knows what happened to Nell Cropsey. Wilcox is the obvious suspect, but there seems to be no direct evidence implicating him; the alternate explanation (that Nell found someone raiding her father's pigs, and he killed her) is entirely consistent with the known facts. So Wilcox arguably was wrongly convicted. That's not to say that he was innocent -- odds are that he was guilty -- but we can't prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: MN2082

Nell Cropsey (II)

See Jealous Lover, The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C] (File: LF01)

Nell Cropsey (III -- Swift Flowing River)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, swift flowing river, A secret you hold, Way down in the depths Of the water so cold." The singer begs the river to tell its secret. A "fair girl" is missing, "stolen away in the night." "The secret, Oh River, You surely must know."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Elizabeth City _Daily Advance_); reportedly collected 1902
KEYWORDS: homicide river
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1901 - Murder of Ella Maude "Nellie" Cropsey, presumably by her former lover Jim Wilcox
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 62, "Nell Cropsey, II" (1 text)
ST ChFRA062 (Partial)
Roud #4117
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nell Cropsey (I)" (subject of some versions) and references there
NOTES [75 words]: Although Chappell lists this as a Nell Cropsey song, and the details (such few as the song contains) fit that case, Cropsey is not mentioned in the text; it might be about another murder.
Roud lumps this with all the other Nell Cropsey songs, but it is clearly distinct. The real question is, Is it traditional? The only collection is Chappell's, from a printed source, allegedly based on a poem (song?) taken down around the time of the murder. - RBW
File: ChFRA062

Nell Cropsey (IV)

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Nell Flaherty's Drake

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, my name it is Neil, quite candid I tell, And I lived in Clonmell, which I'll never deny, I had a large drake..." which she describes in loving terms. One day a thief steals (and kills) the drake. The rest of the song is an extended curse of the thief
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1851 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2612))
KEYWORDS: animal bird curse thief theft
FOUND IN: Ireland Australia Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 128-129, "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H228b, pp. 18-19, "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (1 text, 2 tunes)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 14-15, "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (1 text)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 68-69, "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (1 text)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 80-81, "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1566, p. 106, "Nell Flaugherty's Drake" (2 references)
DT, NELLFLAH*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 289, "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (1 text)
Roud #3005
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (on IRClancyMakem03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2612), "Nell Flaherty's Drake", M. Stephenson (Gateshead), 1838-1850; also 2806 b.11(218), 2806 c.16(21), Harding B 15(216b), 2806 b.11(279), 2806 c.8(306), Johnson Ballads 1220, Johnson Ballads 2696, Harding B 11(2610), Harding B 11(2613), Harding B 11(2614), Harding B 11(2615), 2806 c.16(3a), Harding B 11(2611), "Nell Flaherty's Drake"; 2806 b.9(236), Harding B 26(461), 2806 b.11(132) [lines only partly legible], "Nell Flagherty's Drake"
LOCSinging, as109390, "Nell Flaugherty's Drake", J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also sb30356b, "Nell Flaugherty's Drake"
Murray, Mu23-y1:062, "Nell Flaherty's Drake," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C; also Mu23-y4:054, "Nell Flaherty's Drake," unknown (Cork), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(142a), "Nell Flaherty's Drake," unknown, c. 1845
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wee Duck (The Duck from Drummuck)" (plot, subject?)
cf. "Betsy Brennan's Blue Hen" (plot, lines)
NOTES [310 words]: Tommy Makem describes this as a song about Robert Emmet (executed 1803). I can't prove it wrong -- but if so, it's the most indirect song I know. Certainly later singers (such as those in Australia) seem to have lost consciousness of any anti-British sentiment. For background on Emmet, see "Bold Robert Emmet" and the songs cited there.
Percy French wrote a song, "Flaherty's Drake," based loosely on this, but it is clearly a separate song. - RBW
I have not found "Nell Flaherty's Drake" collected in Newfoundland but Johnny Burke's "Betsy Brennan's Blue Hen" is so close that he must have known "Nell Flaherty's Drake." There is no entry for "Nell Flaherty's Drake" in Newfoundland Songs and Ballads in Print 1842-1974 A Title and First-Line Index by Paul Mercer.
Commentary to broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(142a): "'Nell Flaherty's Drake' is an anonymous Irish ballad from the nineteenth century. The drake of the title is believed to be a coded reference to Robert Emmet (1778-1803), who helped to plan and led an uprising against British rule in Dublin in 1803. The uprising went wrong after an explosion at an arms depot, and Emmet was captured and hanged for his part in the uprising and the assassination of the Lord Chief Justice. Irish Home Rule was a volatile subject in Britain in the nineteenth as well as the twentieth century, hence the coding in this song."
This song has the same relationship to "The Bonny Brown Hen" [this adds a villain and curses] that "Betsy Brennan's Blue Hen" has to "Blue Hen" on MacEdward Leach and Songs of Atlantic Canada site, copyright owner Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive.
Broadside LOCSinging as113120: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: MCB128

Nell Flaugherty's Drake

See Nell Flaherty's Drake (File: MCB128)

Nell of Narragansett Bay

See Little Nell of Narragansett Bay (File: Brew88)

Nellie 'Awkins

DESCRIPTION: "I first met Nellie 'Awkins down the Old Kent Road"; he hires her for a "tanner... 'Cos she was a low down whore." He goes to the doctor, who tells him, "The pimple on your winkle Will be bigger than a red, red rose."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: sex money whore clothes disease
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 23, "Nellie 'Awkine" (1 text)
Roud #10252
File: RuSo023

Nellie (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains about Nellie's choice of the lily over the rose. Mountain verses: blueberries grow, a castle light-house on top, at its foot the ocean where green-flagged gunships sail to Newry where his "unkind" sweetheart is.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection floatingverses nonballad wordplay
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,SOuth)) Canada(Mar) US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 136-137, "Faithful Emma" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 126, "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (1 text; the "A" text is "Nellie (I)"; the "B" and "C" texts are "The Streams of Lovely Nancy")
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 79, "Nellie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 29, "The Shipwreck" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, G L Kittredge, editor, "Ballads and Songs," Vol. XXX, No. 117 (Jul-Sep 1917), pp. 347-348 "The Green Mountain" ("On yonder high mountain there a castle doth stand") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18820
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (lyrics)
NOTES [309 words]: This song shares one verse with "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" [with which Roud at one time lumped it - RBW], which it corrupts:
At the top of this mountain a castle does stand,
It is decked round with ivy and back to the strand,
It is decked round with ivy and marble stone white,
It's a pilot for sailors on a dark stormy night.
Otherwise it shares a confused story line with that ballad but the confusions are not shared: I don't think this is a version of "Streams."
In the language of flowers the white lily stands for virginity and the red rose stands for love.
Newry is about 35 miles southwest of Belfast. - BS
Dornan's text begins "O sleep valiant mountain, it bears a great name" is, in one (so called) "Newry Mountain" text, "It is Slieve Gullion Mountain, oh that bears a great name"; Dornan's text mentions "Newry" twice.
Kittredge's version was "communicated by Professor Angelo Hall of Annapolis, 1914, as sung by his aunt, Mrs Elmina Cooley, who died twenty years before. Mrs Cooley got the song from her father, Theophilus Stickney, before 1833. He was born in Jaffrey, N.H., in 1814, and belonged to the Stickney family of Rowley, Mass." The dates are suspect since Mrs Cooley would have gotten the song from her father before he was 19 and she was ...? In any case, Belden notes that the words and tune were printed by Hall in a biography of his mother in 1908.
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs: "This fragment is either the beginning and end of one ballad, or the first three verses of one tacked on to the ending of another. The name of the song is that given to it by the choirman who sang it to Mr Sumner, though the connection between Emma's faith and Mary's fickleness is not apparent."
Faithful Emma, who does not appear in the Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs text does apparentlty appear in "Homeward Bound" (II). - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: CrMa079

Nellie (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Come, listen to me, a story I'll tell... I once loved and courted a dear little girl." But her parents are opposed, and she marries rich Mr. Brown. He is a drunkard and ignores her. She dies. The singer wants to die for love of her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (JAFL 45, collected from Mrs. Emory P. Morrow)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment drink death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 142-143, "Nellie" (1 text)
Roud #4212
File: MHAp142

Nellie (III)

See I'm Waiting for Thee, Nellie (File: HGam287)

Nellie Bly

See Nelly Bly (File: Arn064)

Nellie Coming Home From the Wake

See Nelly the Milkmaid (File: RL169)

Nellie Crospie

See Jealous Lover, The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C] (File: LF01)

Nellie Dare

See The Two Letters (Charlie Brooks; Nellie Dare) (File: R735)

Nellie Douglas

DESCRIPTION: "It's O and alas, and O wae's me," cries Nellie as she prepares to depart friends and employment. Young Abram bids her cease; she has his heart. She says she cannot wed him; he is above her station. He marries her anyway, and makes her a lady
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Harris manuscript)
KEYWORDS: love courting nobility marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 123, "Nellie Douglas" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 160, "They ca' me Nelly Douglas butt the hoose" (1 short text)
Roud #5547
File: Ord123

Nellie Far Away

DESCRIPTION: "This is my natal day Have you thought of home with sorrow, Of Nellie far away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: homesickness love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1252, "Nellie Far Away" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6788
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan6 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61252

Nellie Moore

DESCRIPTION: "In a low green valley where the birds so sweetly sing... Of a summer eve we' launch our little boat. The singer recalls happy days with Nellie, but "Oh, I miss you, Nellie Moore, and my hapiness is o'er... For you've gone from the little cottage home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 32-33, "Nellie Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7326
NOTES [35 words]: Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains suspects that this may be derived from "Darling Nelly Gray," and certainly there are quite a few verbal similarities. But this clearly qualifies as a separate song. - RBW
File: Shel032

Nellie Was a Lady

DESCRIPTION: "Down on the Mississippi floating, Long time I travel on the way." The singer mourns his love: "Nellie was a lady," but "Last night while Nellie was a-sleeping, Death came a-knocking at the door." He will leave Virginia because he mourns so deeply
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: death love home
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 122, "Nellie Was a Lady" (1 text)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 45a, "Nelly Was a Lady" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1570, p. 107, "Nelly Was a Lady" (3 references)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 8-9, "Nelly Was a Lady" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #126, "Nellie Was a Lady" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 16 and #1/64 p. 16, "Nelly was a lady" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 49, "Nellie Was a Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Dean122 (Partial)
Roud #4273
NOTES [71 words]: According to Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, p. 106, this was "Foster's hit in 1849, now chiefly known as a barber-shop favorite." (And, indeed, nearly every reference I found to it online was to barbershop arrangements).
According to Deems Taylor et al, A Treasury of Stephen Foster, Random House, 1946, p. 55, Foster gave this to Firth, Pond & Co. in return for fifty copies of the printed song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Dean122

Nelly Bly

DESCRIPTION: "Nelly Bly! Nelly Bly! Bring de broom along, We'll sweep de kitchen clean, my dear, and hab a little song." The singer tells how Nelly makes him happy -- she has the voice of a turtle dove, her step is music, and they have corn and pumpkins in the barn
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 407, "Nelly Bly" (1 fragment)
Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook 4, "Nellie Bly" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 80-81, "Nelly Bly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 64-65, "Nelly Bly!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 144, "Nelly Bly" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 9-10, "Nelly Bly" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1568, p. 107, "Nelly Bly" (4 references)
Dime-Song-Book #7/72, p. 11 and #7/64, p. 11, "Nelly Bly" (1 text)
OneTuneMore, p. 7, "Nelly Bly" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NELLYBLY*
Roud #13956
SAME TUNE:
The Zouave Boys ("Zouaves sly, shut one eye") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 185)
Biennial Jubilee Song [by Charles H. Owen, [class of 18]60] ("Sophs were groaning And condoling Round Alumni Hall") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 56)
Boating Song ("Lightly dipping, gaily skipping, How our oar blades gleam") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, pp. 63)
Foot-Ball Song ("Lightly bounding, dully sounding, See the Foot-ball roll") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 66)
Dedicated to Old Party Votes ("Ragged voter, ragged voter, Come see your redeemer") (Foner, p. 281)
NOTES [167 words]: Like several other characters in Foster songs, Nelly Bly was said by Foster's family to be a real person. According to Evelyn Foster Morneweck (Stephen Foster's niece), Chronicles of Stephen Foster's Family, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1944, pp. 373-374, Foster and several musical friends were having a musical gathering when "A comely colored girl poked her head out of the cellar door to listen to the music. Stephen observed her and asked Rachel, 'Who's that?' 'That's Nelly Bly,' replied Rachel Woods. The name caught Stephen's fancy, and when the visitors were invited into the house, he went immediately to the piano, and improvised and played and sand 'Nelly Bly' with almost the identical words and music afterward published and sung the world over. The daughter of a former slave, Nelly lived with the Woods family [the host of the gathering] for many years. She died at an advanced age and was always very proud of the fact that Stephen Foster had composed and named a song for her." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Arn064

Nelly Cartwright

DESCRIPTION: "Nell was a mountain maid Who always was afraid" of losing her virginity, so she uses sand to seal her nether regions, with uncomfortable results. A trapper tries to change her mind, but as she tries to clean herself up, she cuts off his manhood
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex warning
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 113-114, "Nelly Cartwright" (1 text)
Roud #10128
NOTES [17 words]: Morgan/Green-RugbySongs does not list a tune for this, but it seems clear it is sung to "Red Wing." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RuSoNelC

Nelly of the Top-Knots

DESCRIPTION: "Dear God, were I a fisher and back in Binedar, And Nelly a fish..." he would try to net her. He begs her not to flee him. He promises faithfulness. If he could find her, he would "coax her so well, I would tell he my story, And talk till I won her"
AUTHOR: Words: Douglas Hyde (source: Lyra Celtica)
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Hyde, Abhráin grádh chúige Connacht)
KEYWORDS: love courting fishing
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 284-284, "Nelly of the Top Knots" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Elizabeth A. Sharp, editor, with introduction and notes by WIlliam Sharp, _Lyra Celtica: An Anthology of Representative Celtic Poetry_, Patrick Geddes and Colleagues, Edinburgh, 1896 (available on Google Books), p. 130, "Nelly of the Top-Knots" (1 text)
Douglas Hyde, _Abhráin grádh chúige Connacht, or, Love songs of Connacht_, T. F. Unwin, 1893 (available on Google Books), p. 108n, "Nelly of the Top-Knots" (1 excerpt)
Roud #11706
NOTES [14 words]: For background on the work of Douglas Hyde, see the notes to "My Own Dark Maiden." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe283

Nelly Ray

See The Female Highwayman [Laws N21] (File: LN21)

Nelly the Elephant Packed Her Trunk

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Nelly the elephant packed her trunk And said goodbye to the circus, Off she went with a trumpety-trump, Trump, trump, trump"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: animal jumprope travel | elephant trunk circus
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #390, "Nelly the elephant packed her trunk" (1 text)
File: AJRR390

Nelly the Milkmaid

DESCRIPTION: Nelly, coming home from the wake (a country dance, not a funeral), is seduced, her ravisher, sometimes named Roger, assuring her he was merely "shooting at the cat." In some versions she gives birth to a son whom she names Shoot the Cat.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex seduction childbirth
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1481, "Coming Home from the Wake" (2 texts plus a single verse on p. 534, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 169-172, "Nelly the Milkmaid" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 49, "Johnny Rogers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 62, "Nellie Coming Home From the Wake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 12, "Nellie Coming Home from the Wake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1606
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "Nellie Coming Home from the Wake" (on Abbott1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.34(178), "The Milkmaid Coming from the Wake" ("Young Nelly the milkmaid right buxom and gay"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 40(3), "Coming Home from the Wake"; Firth b.33(47), "Nelly the Milk Maid"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mossie and His Meer" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
cf. "Young Roger of Kildare" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Young Helen
NOTES [42 words]: Bodleian broadside Firth b.33(47), printed by Thornton at Kenilworth, which Bodleian does not date, would seem by its font (non-final long "s," some arbitrary capitals but no italics), to be older than either of the dated broadsides [c.1770?-c.1830?]. - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RL169

Nelly Was a Lady

See Nellie Was a Lady (File: Dean122)

Nelson

See Nelson's Monument (File: VWP037)

Nelson's Death

See Nelson's Monument (File: VWP037)

Nelson's Death and Victory

DESCRIPTION: "Ye sons of Britain in chorus join and sing, Great and joyful news is come to our royal king." On October 21, Nelson ordered his ships into battle. The French and Spanish are defeated, but Nelson is killed. The singer hopes for peace
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Firth)
KEYWORDS: sailor death battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 21, 1805 - Battle of Trafalgar, in which the British defeat the French but Horatio Nelson is killed. Contrary to one verse of the song, Nelson was not killed by a cannonball; the following verse correctly says that he was killed by a shot from a musket
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 80, "Nelson's Death and Victory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 23-24, "The Battle of Trafalgar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18837
File: PaSe080

Nelson's Fame, and England's Glory

DESCRIPTION: Nelson's 27 ships, led by Victory, faced 33 ships of the combined Franch and Spanish fleet. Individual British victories are described. Finally, the Leviathan and Conqueror "came to our timely aid" and the British take 19 in tow "to show we won the day"
AUTHOR: William Welch? (source: Holloway and Black's broadside is "signed" "William Welch")
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan1); 19C (broadside, Holloway and Black)
KEYWORDS: battle navy sea ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 21, 1805 - Battle of Trafalgar
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #70, p. 2, ("It was daylight the next morning"); #158, p. 3, ("The Victory she came bearing down") (2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan1 146, "Nelson's Fame, and England's Glory" (1 text)
Roud #5821
NOTES [436 words]: Greig and Greig/Duncan1 are fragments; Holloway and Black, Later English Broadside Ballads Volume 2 68, pp. 174-175 is the basis for the description.
Compare the verse here [Greig #70]
Three were burned, and three were sunk,
And eight that ran away,
And other nineteen we took and towed,
To show we had gained the day.
with the verse from "The Royal Oak" [Greig #64]
Two we sunk, and two we brunt,
The fifth one she did win away;
And one we brought to Bristol town,
To show we had won the day.
There are no other common lines in more complete texts (for example, comparing VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 91, "The Royal Oak" and Holloway and Black).
As regards "nineteen we took and towed away," Holloway and Black notes "the British captured eighteen of the Franco-Spanish fleet's thirty-three ships."
Holloway and Black, noting that Nelson's death is not mentioned in their text: "This ballad may originally have been issued as a news-ballad immediately after the ballad and before the death of Nelson in it was known." - BS
According to John Keegan, The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare, Penguin, 1988, 1990, p. 90, the British did in fact deprive the Combined Fleet of 19 of the 33 French and Spanish ships at Trafalgar. However, Arthur Herman, To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World, 2004 (I use the 2005 Harper Perennial edition), p. 393, makes the number 18, presumably deducting the Achille which had exploded (Herman, p. 392). In addition, the largest of the Spanish ships, the Santissima Trinidad, was so battered that she sank -- which, as Keegan notes on p. 91, was an exceptional fate for a wooden ship of the period unless it caught fire.
Thus the British were "in possession" of 18 ships after Trafalgar, soon to be reduced to 17. However, a great storm followed, and in the end, only 18 of the 33 French and Spanish ships survived that, whether in British hands or in the hands of their own crews (Keegan, p. 96). The Combined Fleet suffered an estimated 4400 fatalities (Keegan, p. 96). British casualties were 449 killed and 1214 wounded; no ships were lost though quite a few losts masts and a few suffered damage to their hulls (Keegan, p. 94).
The notion that the publisher knew of the victory at Trafalgar but not of the death of Nelson is hard to sustain. Supposedly the first word to come to the Admiralty came from a lieutenant who arrived at the office and declared "Sir, we have gained a great victory but we have lost Lord Nelson" (Herman, p. 395). The two reports certainly arrived on the same ship. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD1146

Nelson's Glorious Victory at Trafalgar

See Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar (Brave Nelson) [Laws J17] (File: LJ17)

Nelson's Monument

DESCRIPTION: "Britons long expected great news from our fleet, Commanded by Lord Nelson, the French to defeat." Word comes: The French have been beaten at Trafalgar, but Nelson is dead. Nelson was beyond compare
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: navy battle death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1758-1805 - Life of Horatio Nelson, victor at Aboukir (the Nile), Copenhagen, and Trafalgar
Oct 21, 1805 - Battle of Trafalgar
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #37, "Nelson's Monument" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, p. 275, "Nelson" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 78-80, "Nelson's Death" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1552
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar (Brave Nelson)" [Laws J17] and references there (subject)
File: VWP037

Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar (Brave Nelson) [Laws J17]

DESCRIPTION: Nelson leads his English fleet to battle with the French and Spanish navies off Cadiz. "He broke their line of battle, and struck the fatal blow," but in the melee is shot. He dies knowing he has won and that Napoleon's threat to Britain is ended
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Logan-APedlarsPack)
KEYWORDS: war Napoleon injury death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1758-1805 - Life of Horatio Nelson, victor at Aboukir (the Nile), Copenhagen, and Trafalgar
Oct 21, 1805 - Battle of Trafalgar
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws J17, "Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar (Brave Nelson)"
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 67-69, "Nelson's Glorious Victory at Trafalgar" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 77, "Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar" (1 text)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 94, "Brave Nelson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #18, "The Battle of Trafalgar" (1 text)
DT 549, NLSNTRAF
ADDITIONAL: C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 301, "Nelson's Glorious Victory at Trafalgar" (1 text)
ST LJ17 (Full)
Roud #522
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nelson's Monument" (subject)
cf. "Bold Nelson's Praise" (subject)
cf. "The Grand Conversation on Brave Nelson" (subject)
"The Death of Nelson" (subject)
NOTES [280 words]: Napoleon dearly wanted to capture Britain -- and he was right to feel that way; Britain was his worst enemy and the one that finally defeated him. But he could not invade England unless the Royal Navy could be swept aside. Trafalgar was his attempt to do so, and it failed miserably. The Franco-Spanish navy, under Villaneuve, was slightly larger (33 ships to Nelson's 27), but poorly led and badly trained. Nelson not only had a better fleet, but new ideas. After a game of cat and mouse that had led the fleets all the way to the Americas, the two fleets finally met off Cape Trafalgar in 1805. Nelson's method of "breaking the line" worked, and he heavily defeated the French. In the midst of the battle, however, he was shot by a French sharpshooter and mortally wounded.
Even so, the French threat to Britain was permanently lifted.
Miscellaneous references in the broadside include:
"The hero of the Nile": Nelson's first great exploit against Napoleon occurred before the turn of the century, when he effectively destroyed the fleet that had carried Napoleon's expedition to Egypt. The conflict was known as "The Battle of the Nile" (August 1, 1798).
"Collingwood" was Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood (1758-1810), Nelson's second in command and Chief Assistant Hero of the battle. - RBW
A distinguishing characteristic of this ballad is that each verse ends "brave Nelson."
I haven't found this ballad among the broadsides in the Bodleian catalog though there are broadsides on the subject. See, for example, the chapbook printed by J. Pitts (London) with fifteen "admired songs, on the glorious victory off Trafalgar," Bodleian Curzon b.24(98) [not all of it legible]. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LJ17

Neptune (The Ocean King)

DESCRIPTION: "Ho ye ho messmates we'll sing The glories of Neptune the ocean king, He reigns o'er the waters, the wide seas his home." The landsmen know nothing of a sailor's life. "Oh, give me the ocean, naught but the salt sea"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1848 (Journal of the Nauticon)
KEYWORDS: sailor nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, p. 83, "Neptune" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 103-104, "The Ocean King" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2030
File: HGam103

Neptune, Ruler of the Sea

DESCRIPTION: "The Neptune, ruler of the sea, she rides in court today, Filled up with white-coats to the hatch and her colors flying gay.... While bats did rattle on their heads, the murder then began. " Captain Kane's ship returns home with 30,000 harp seals.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: hunting sea ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1873-1943 - Career of the sealer "Neptune"
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 81, "Neptune, Ruler of the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 119, "'Neptune,' Ruler of the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab081 (Partial)
Roud #9979
NOTES [1021 words]: There were at least three major Newfoundland ships named Neptune, the first of which, a passenger bark, was a famous shipwreck of 1830 (Baehre, pp. 189-212), and the second of which, a schooner, went missing in 1929 (O'Neill, p. 985), but their sealer namesake still had many more years of service ahead of her and was surely the best-known of the bunch. Greene, p. 53, declares that "The finest, if not the largest of [the wooden-walled sealers], were named the Terra Nova and the Neptune -- each of them having for many springs their fighting claims to be the Commodore of the Fleet's command."
Leach's text (the source also of Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff's) gives the ship's master as "Captain Kane." This is almost certainly an error -- in fact, probably a double error, one by the singer or author, one by the transcriber. The transcriber's error is the name "Kane"; it should be "Captain Kean," after Abram Kean (for whom see "Captain Abram Kean") and his many seal-hunting uncles, sons, and other relatives.
But although members of the Kean family commanded many, many ships over the years, none of them ever took charge of the Neptune. The list of her captains, on p. 93 of Feltham (and checked against Chafe, p. 102, for the years up to 1923, and against Winsor, p. 55), includes four members of the Barbour dynasty (probably Alphaeus, Baxter, George, and Samuel), the famous Robert Bartlett (for whom see "Captain Bob Bartlett"), William Winsor (for whom see see "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912"), Samuel Blandford (for whom see "Sealer's Song (I)"), Edward White Sr., and three others not quite so well known.
As a wild guess, perhaps the reference to Captain Kane is to Abram Kean in his unofficial role as commodore of the sealing fleet, which would explain the reference to "fly[ing] his long burgee." (Either that, or the line floating in from a song about a sailing club or something.)
The Neptune was built in 1872-1873 in Dundee, reportedly under the supervision of Captain Edward White (Ryan/Drake, p. 70; this page also has a picture of White), who commanded her 1873-1879 (Chafe, p. 102); she was rebuilt shortly before 1900, with her masts reduced so that she no longer took a full set of sails (Ryan/Drake, p. 20, who have a picture of her in her rebuilt state; Feltham, p. 177, and WInsor, p. 55, also appear to show her after her rebuilding. A third photo, on p. 185 of Feltham, shows her alongside two other sealers as they prepare to go to the ice. Candow, p. 56, shows her in 1901. Thorne, p. 102, says she was built with three masts but the middle mast was "soon" removed).
The Neptune was famous as the only ship to take more than a million seals in her career (Feltham, p. 92); eleven times in the period 1873-1900, she took more seals than any other ship in the fleet (Feltham, p. 93). She participated in the seal hunt for 66 years from 1873 to 1941, missing only 1904, 1932. and 1933 (Winsor, p. 55). She had a 120 horsepower engine, giving her a lot of power and making her unusually able to make it into the ice (Feltham, pp. 92-93). This probably contributed to her longevity (as did World War I, which saw many of the newer steel ships requisitioned for other uses or simply destroyed; Feltham, p. 95).
In addition to her sealing work, she did some arctic voyaging. Lubbock, p. 415, says that, in 1882, she was sent to supply Adolphus Greely's expedition to Lady Franklin Bay on Ellesmere Island (but failed to reach it, contributing to the tragedy described in "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay"); In 1905, Sam Bartlett (for whom see "Captain Bob Bartlett") brought her home to St. John's after making a trip to Hudson's Bay that took place later in the season than any other up to that time (Horwood, p. 91); Ryan-Ice, p. 393, says the trip was intended to maintain Canadian sovereignty.
There were varying opinions about the Neptune's condition by the time of her end; William Gillett said that she so rotten that you could pick the wood off her walls with your fingers, and she leaked so much that she couldn't sail in a gale (Ryan-Last, pp. 325-326). Thorne, p. 104, also calls her leaky. Arthur O'Neill says she "was the worst boat that Job's had. They said she was hogged [bent] four or five feed in the center of the keel" (Ryan-Last, p. 326). But Robert Louis Stevenson (yes, that's the name given) said that she remained fast and safe until the end (ibid). Given what most of those old sealers were like, I suspect the critics had the truth of it.
She finally was lost in a storm on March 4, 1943 while carrying coal (Winsor, p. 55); the tug sent to help her managed to take off her crew, but it was too late to save the leaking ship (Feltham, p. 97; Doyle Roberts, on p. 325 of Ryan-Last, seems to say she was deliberately sunk outside St. John's to prevent her from blocking the entrance to the port). That left only two of the old wooden walled sealers (for the final end, see "The Ice-Floes" and "The Last of the Wooden Walls"; also "The Terra Nova"). Thorne, on p. 105, has two photos of her as she sank; there are other photos of her on pp. 102 and 103. Thorne also has several photos of the Tenacity, the tug that tried and failed to save her (pp. 69, 71, 104).
In all, she took 1,230,731 seals in the course of 66 years (Feltham, p. 93) -- an average of 18,647 per year. Comparing this to some other long-lived sealers (data taken from various pages of Feltham), the Eagle (II) averaged 15,816 over 44 years; the Ranger managed 12,932 over 68 years, and the Terra Nova took in an average of 16,701 over 51 years (although she lost several of her best years to arctic missions). So arguably no ship was as successful for as long.
The Neptune is also mentioned in "Captains and Ships," "The Sealer's Song (II)," "Ballad of Captain Bob Bartlett," "Success to the Hardy Sealers," "Loss of the S. S. Algerine," and "Cotton's Patch (II)." See the latter song for her brief career as an "aircraft carrier." She is almost certainly also the Nipshun of "Success to Every Man." Ryan-Ice, p. 308, has another poem which mentions her. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: LLab081

Neptune's Raging Fury or, The Gallant Seaman's Sufferings

See You Gentlemen of England (File: WT201)

Nervous Family, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer's family: "if left in the dark, are all frighten'd at each other"; the dog is afraid of visitors; the cat is afraid of a mouse. Doctors, lawyers, watchmen, pills, cordials don't help. Suddenly, the singer feels better and may not go home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1842 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1322))
KEYWORDS: disability medicine ordeal humorous nonballad doctor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1780, "We're A' Nervous" (1 text)
Roud #12988
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1322), "The Nervous Family" ("We are all nervous, shake, shake, -- termbling [sic]"), T. Birt (London), 1833-1841; also Harding B 11(2625), "The Nervous Family"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We're a' Noddin'" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
cf. "The Crying Family (Imaginary Trouble)" (theme: much worry about nothing)
NOTES [12 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 25(1322) is the basis for the description. - BS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: GrD81780

Net for a Night Raven, A, or, A Trap for a Scold

DESCRIPTION: "Here is a merry song; if that you please to buy it, 'Twill show how you may money get...." Hearers are told of the high qualities of "Virginny": those who go there will be wealthy and happy. The husband of a scolding wife sends her there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1675 (Bodleian broadside 4o Rawl. 566(165))
KEYWORDS: exile husband wife money humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 17, "A Net for a Night Raven, or, A Trap for a Scold" (1 text)
Roud #41990
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 4o Rawl. 566(165), “A net for a night-raven; or, A trap for a scold, F. Coles, T. Vere, J Wright (London), 1663-1674
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Scolding Wife (V)" (theme)
NOTES [49 words]: Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs says that this is the same song as "The Scolding Wife (V)." It's the same general plot, but there are enough differences in both text and time that I've separated them. Roud does the same, although there are some entries in his list which are, at best, dubious. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PaSe017

Netherha'

DESCRIPTION: "The cookmaid and the cowboy, Like wise his gallant grieve, He has brough them owre the Cairnamount For aught that we believe. Cabbage kail and spruce beer, Was all our daily fare And marching on from field to field Was all our toil and care"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 367, "Netherha'" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #5910
NOTES [86 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "Netherthird" and "Netherha'" fragments "may belong to the same song, but, in the absence of overlapping material, it is not possible to be certain of this." They do share a nonsense chorus (." .. airie airitie adie adie Airie airitie an") and very similar tunes [vaguely like the tune used by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger for "The Monymusk Lads" (on "Classic Scots Ballads," Tradition TLP1015 LP (1959). If, in fact, they are part of the same song then "Netherthird" would provide the first verse. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3367

Nethermill

DESCRIPTION: The singer hires to Swaggers to be second man plowing. But first he is sent to the mill. They eat at seven, clean horses at eight, plow all day through leisure hour: "there is na time to spare." Beware of hiring to Swaggers at Netherhill.
AUTHOR: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
EARLIEST DATE: William Forsyth (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #19, p. 2)
KEYWORDS: farming work ordeal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #179, pp. 1-2, "Nethermill" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 387, "Nethermill" (1 text)
Roud #5921
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Swaggers" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Nethermill, Tarves
NOTES [37 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Nethermill (387) is at coordinate (h3-4,v8-9) on that map [roughly 18 miles N of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: GrD3387

Netherthird

DESCRIPTION: "As I gaed up through Lammas fair Ance on a day to fee Mony a grey-faced fairmer That day did look at me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #102, p. 3, "Netherthird" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 366, "Netherthird" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Roud #5909
NOTES [132 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 fragment from John Ord.
Candlemas [February 2], Whitsunday [May 15], Lammas [August 1] and Martinmas [November 11] were the four "Old Scottish term days" "on which servants were hired, and rents and rates were due." (Source: Wikipedia article Quarter days).
Greig/Duncan3: "Netherthird" and "Netherha'" fragments "may belong to the same song, but, in the absence of overlapping material, it is not possible to be certain of this." They do share a nonsense chorus (." .. airie airitie adie adie Airie airitie an") and very similar tunes [vaguely like the tune used by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger for "The Monymusk Lads" on SCMacCollSeeger01]. If, in fact, they are part of the same song then "Netherthird" would provide the first verse. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD3366

Neumerella Shore, The

See The Eumerella Shore (File: MA155)

Neuve Chappelle

DESCRIPTION: "For when we landed in Belgium, the girls all danced for joy, Says one unto the other, 'Here comes an Irish boy.'" The singer reports that the Irish won Neuve Chappelle. The Kaiser and Von Kluck lament that the Irish have arrived
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: war soldier battle derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 10, 1915 - Start of the Battle of Neuve Chapelle.
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H526, p. 182, "Neuve Chappelle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 220-221, "Neuve Chapelle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 78, "Neuve Chappelle" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: Jerry SIlverman, _Ballads & Songs of WWI_, Mel Bay, 1997, 2008, pp. 174-175, "Neuve Chappelle" (1 text, 1 tune, which appears to be a direct copy of the Henry version)
Roud #8004
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man)" (form)
NOTES [500 words]: Gale Huntington considered this to be an actual version of "The True-Born Irish Man." Given that the Henry text has only two verses, that strikes me as extreme. But it is clearly derived from that song.
The song describes Neuve Chapelle as a British victory. It was certainly a British battle, involving the British 7th and 8th Divisions, plus two Indian divisions. They attacked and smashed the equivalent of less than a German brigade, but then were stopped and the front stabilized. The battle had some effect on British morale (showing that the newly-arriving Territorial troops were solid), but British casualties were much higher than German; it was in no sense a victory for either side.
Forty, p. 286, describes how the Germans had made a salient in the British lines. "Sir John French [the commander of British forces in France] decided to scuff out this salient in the spring of 1915 and Haig's First British Army was tasked with carrying out the attack. At 7:30am on March 10 the British began their advance, supported by an artillery bombardment across the whole of the line. The initial progress was good; breaking through the front-line positions of Crow Prince Rupprecht's Sixth Army and capturing the village of Neuve Chapelle itself within a period of four hours. However, once the position was gained the British system of communication and supply broke down [which happened in almost all WWI battles; cf. Pope/Wheal, p. 338], allowing the Germans to counterattack on March 12. Although the British managed to hold their ground, further advances in this area were impossible and the battle ground to a halt on March 13."
Pope/Wheal, pp. 338-339, says the battle was "north of L Bassée and west of Lille, intended as part of a major Allied offensive in the Artois region in March 1915." The main attack was delayed because part of the forces were sent to the Dardanelles, The British went ahead in part to demonstrate their abilities. Four British divisions went after an area defended by a single German division. Pope/Wheal say that the British lost about 13,000 casualties (as did the Germans) and gained all of two square kilometers. They also used up 15% of their total artillery ammunition.
Von Kluck is General Alexander von Kluck (1846-1934), who at the start of the war was commander of the German First Army (the right flank element of the German force in France); his, more than anyone else's, had been the task of outflanking the French in 1914, and in this, he had failed.
Kluck continued in command until 1915, when he was wounded in the let and permanently invalided (Pope/Wheal, pp. 270-271), but he played no part in Neuve Chappelle (the real commander on the front by this time was simply defensive doctrine) and would not have been discussing it with the Kaiser. The Western Front was under what amounted to the direct command of the German commander-in-chief, Falkenheyn, who approved all plans and would have been responsible for any talks with Wilhelm II. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: HHH526

Never a Man Speak Like This Man

See I Never Saw a Man Speak Like This Man (File: Edwa033)

Never Be as Fast as I Have Been

See The Sporting Bachelors (File: LxU014)

Never Change the Old Love for the New

See My Blue-Eyed Boy (File: R759)

Never Get a Lickin' Till I Go Down to Bimini

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, when I go down to Bimini, Never get a lickin' till I go down to Bimini, Bimini gal as a rock in the harbor, Never get...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: nonballad fight
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 83, "Never Get a Lickin' Till I Go Down to Bimini" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #15651
File: LxSi083

Never Go Back on the Poor

DESCRIPTION: "In this world of sorrow, of toil and regret, There are scenes I would gladly pass o'er." A great ship sinks as it carries emigrants forced from home by poverty. Divers go to examine the wreck, but make little effort to recover the steerage passengers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck poverty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 31/Apr 1, 1873 - wreck of the Atlantic
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 116-117, "Never Go Back on the Poor" (1 text)
Roud #9594
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic (I)"
NOTES [46 words]: This song nowhere specifies the name of the shipwreck it describes, but it sounds to me as if it describes the Atlantic wreck of 1873: She carried emigrants, losses were large and affected the Steerage in particular, and the captain was asleep at the time of the collision. - RBW
File: Dean116

Never Interfere With Man and Wife

DESCRIPTION: Singer repeatedly gets in trouble trying to make peace between arguing husbands and wives: both sides attack him. "No matter who is wrong or who is right/ O just show your sympathy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Blind Blake Higgs: see WIHIGGS01; see notes)
KEYWORDS: marriage violence abuse nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Never Interfere With Man and Wife" (on WIHIGGS01)
NOTES [49 words]: According to Ethnic Music on Records: a Discography of Ethnic Recordings Produced in the United States, 1893 to 1942 by Richard K Spottswood (Urbana, c1990), Vol. 5, p. 2916, Sam Manning and his Orchestra recorded "Don't Interfere With Man and Wife": Bluebird D-4927, recorded June 4, 1934. - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: RcNIWMAW

Never Let Your Honey Have Her Way

DESCRIPTION: "John Henry's dead, And de las' words he said, 'Never let your honey Have her way." "'Way back, 'Way back, Way back in Alabama, 'Way back." "If you let her have her way, She'll lead you off astray." "De chickens in my sack, Bloodhounds on my track."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: death dog crime escape
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 221, "John Henry's Dead" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rabbit in the Log (Feast Here Tonight)"
NOTES [44 words]: I've heard this song (or something like it) sung as "Pay Day," in a version quite close to "Rabbit in the Log (Feast Here Tonight)." But I can't swear that that wasn't a modified version, so I'm filing it separately from both "John Henry" and "Rabbit in the Log." - RBW
File: ScNF221

Never Mind (If the Antrim Strikes a Mine)

DESCRIPTION: "If the Antrim strikes a mine, never mind, If we're always left behind, never mind. The skipper's name is Lunn, He's as cracked as old Ben Gunn...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: ship death derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 81, "Never Mind" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Though Your Heart May Ache a White, Never Mind/"If Your Face Should Lose Its Smile, Never Mind" (tune)
cf. "If the Sergeant Steals Your Rum" (tune)
NOTES [167 words]: The original song of which this is a parody, "Though Your Heart May Ache a While, Never Mind" (sometimes called "If Your Face Should Lose Its Smile, Never Mind") was written in 1913 by Harry Dent and Tom Goldburn. It is similar to the children's song "If You're Happy And You Know It."
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, in his notes to this song, observes that the Antrim never struck a mine, and never had a captain named Lunn. All true, as far as I can tell; according to David Wragg, Royal Navy Handbook 1914-1918, Sutton Publishing, 2006, p. 184, the Antrim was a member of the Devonshire class of cruisers of 1904-1905, and she survived the war.
But I note with interest that another member of this class of ships, the Hampshire, was mined off Orkney and sunk in 1916. And that the War Minister, Kitchener, sank with her. This was a notorious event, which might well cause the crews of the Hampshire's sisters to think about what would happen to their ships if they struck mines. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Tawn081

Never Mind Your Knapsack

See We Have the Navy (File: R212)

Never Said a Mumbalin' Word

See Never Said a Mumbling Word (File: LxU102)

Never Said a Mumbling Word

DESCRIPTION: "Oh they whupped him up the hill, up the hill... and he never said a mumbalin' word..... They crowned him with a thorny crown.... They nailed him to the cross.... They pierced him in the side.... Then he hung down his head and he died."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926
KEYWORDS: Bible Jesus religious death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 578, "He Never Said a Mumbling Word" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 102, "Never Said a Mumblin' Word" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 587-588, "Never Said a Mumbalin' Word" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 759, "He Never Said a Mumbalin' Word" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, p. 161, "(He Never Said a Mumblin' Word" (1 excerpt)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 60, (no title) (1 text)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, pp. 165-166, "An' He Never Said a Mumblin' Word" (1 text)
Roud #10068
RECORDINGS:
Vera Hall Ward & Dock Reed, "Look How They Done My Lord" (on NFMAla5)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Where My Lord Went to Pray" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Look How They Done My Lord" (verses)
NOTES [133 words]: According to the Synoptic gospels (Mark 15:5, etc.), Jesus said very little to Pilate (according to Mark 15:2, two words, SU LEGEIS, loosely, "You said [it].") John, however, records an extended conversation. All the gospels report at least one saying from the cross; this came to be regarded as "seven words" (i.e. sayings). Of course, there is no evidence that Jesus mumbled any of them....
LindaJo H. McKim, Presbyterian Hymnal Companion, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, pp. 96-97, suggests that rather than being based on the gospels, this derives from Isaiah 53:7, the "suffering servant," who is compared to a sheep let do slaughter yet "did not open his mouth." This is probably the inspiration for the synoptic claim that Jesus was silent, but I don't see it reflected in the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LxU102

Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door

DESCRIPTION: Singer, an Irishman, admonishes listeners to always keep a horseshoe over the door, and lists misfortunes that befell him when he failed to do so, including his wife's "bringing in a horde of her relations."
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan/Music: Dave Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (sheet music published by Wm. A. Pond & Co, New York)
KEYWORDS: humorous family magic
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #36, pp. 134-136, "Never Take the Horse-Shoe From the Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 85, "Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 102, "Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Harrigan, _The Mulligans_, G. W. Dilingham, 1901, p. 37, "(no title)" (1 fragment, of the chorus)
Roud #8839
RECORDINGS:
Mick Moloney, "Never Take the Horseshoe From the Door" (on HarriganBrahamMaloney)
Mixed Vocal Quartet, ("HarriganHartBraham melodies, no. 2," Songs of the past, no. 1") (Medley including bits of "Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door," "Babies on Our Block," and others) (Victor 35578)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.16(412), "Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mule (Never Take the Hindshoe from a Mule)" (parody of this song)
cf. "The Constitutional Movement" (tune)
NOTES [190 words]: The version in Beck is fragmentary; I suspect the original is a good deal longer. - PJS
Right you are.
For background on Edward Harrigan and David Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block." This particular song is from "The Mulligan Guards' Surprise," which premiered February 16, 1880; Moody, pp. 100-101. According to Moody, p. 101, "[Dan Mulligan's] troubles began 'when the wife that I adore brought in a crowd of her relations and I found the horseshoe laying on the floor.'" Franceschina, p. 127, says that this is "a jaunty patter song sung by Dan Mulligan at his surprise party."
Beck's version is unquestionably the Harrigan/Braham song, and it's only a little shorter than the original, but it has been heavily folk processed -- in essence, the mentions of Daniel Mulligan's family, found in the original, have been converted into generic references. A typical example is converting the name of "Cordelia [Mulligan]" to "the little wife."
This tune was used for a song about a moderate Irish freedom movement, "The Constitutional Movement," from the McPeake Family. That's all I know about the origin of the latter. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be085

Never Trust a Sailor

See Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: LK43)

Never Wed a' Auld Man

See Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man (File: K207)

Never Wed an Old Man

See Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man (File: K207)

New Ballad of Lord Lovell, The (Mansfield Lovell)

DESCRIPTION: "Lord Lovell he sat in St. Charles Hotel... A-cutting as big a rebel swell... As you'd ever wish to see." His thirty thousand soldiers dwindle away to a bare handful, and "gallant old Ben sailed in with his men And captured their great citee..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Cox); before 1880 (broadside mentioned on p. 89 of Edwin Wolf 2nd, _American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870_, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar parody humorous soldier
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 52-54, "Lord Lovel" (3 texts, of which the Ga text is this piece)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #8A-C, pp. 32-37, "Lord Lovell," "Lord Lovell" (3 texts, 1 tune, but the "C" fragment is this piece)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 236-237, "Lord Lovel" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 10-11, "(Lord Lovell)" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1308, p. 89, "Lord Lovell, No. 2" (1 reference)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 48, "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell" (1 text)
Roud #7942 and 48
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Lovel [Child 75]" and references there
cf. "The Capture of New Orleans" (subject of the capture of New Orleans)
NOTES [518 words]: Although the song provides few precise details, it clearly refers to the Federal capture of New Orleans in 1862. The Confederate commander was Mansfield Lovell (1822-1884). According to Foote, p. 360, Lovell was a "Maryland-born West Pointer who had resigned as New York Deputy Street Commissioner to join the Confederacy in September. Impressed with the Chapultepec-brevetted artilleryman's record as an administrator, [Jefferson] Davis made him a major general and sent him to... New Orleans."
By the time New Orleans was attacked by Farragut's naval forces, the regular garrison of the city had been stripped to reinforce Albert Sydney Johnston; most of them would fight at Shiloh (McPherson, p. 418). According to Carter, pp. 8-9, "On taking over in October 1861, Lovell found the city had been 'greatly drained of arms, ammunition, clothing, and supplies,' which had been sent to other war zones. His land forces, moreover, consisted of only 3,000 short-term volunteers, a 'heterogeneous militia, armed mostly with shotguns.'"
Naturally, these forces had little mobility or ability to fight in the field. The real defenses of New Orleans consisted of river forts and a few small ships. Yet, in 1861, Lovell found "Naval preparations were in equally poor shape" (Carter, p. 9). The Confederate attempts to build better, ironclad, ships faltered under their limited industrial capacity; the ships just weren't ready in time (McPherson, p. 419). The Federals failed to destroy the river forts with mortars, but Admiral Farragut was able to run his ships past them and deal with the small Confederate fleet (Foote, pp. 364-369), and that left New Orleans undefended under his guns. Rather than risk the destruction of the city, Lovell retreated with such mobile forces as he had. The garrisons of the river forts then collapsed (Foote, p. 370), and Federal troops were able to come up-river and occupy New Orleans even though the city didn't exactly surrender.
After New Orleans, Lovell briefly held what Boatner called a corps command (Boatner, p. 494) but was in fact a division. At the (second) battle of Corinth, that division remained largely inactive (Castel, pp. 115-116, 118-119, 124). His behavior was apparently never explained -- Castel suspects Lovell felt that he could not succeed at his task of assaulting Union entrenchments, and so stayed put -- but his inaction ended whatever hopes the Confederates had. With his record already blackened by New Orleans, political pressure forced the government to relieve him of command, although he did serve as a staff officer for a while thereafter (Boatner, p. 494).
"Gallant old Ben" is Benjamin F. Butler, the most-hated man in the Confederacy and possibly the worst general ever to serve under the American flag. "Sluggish and inept as an army commander, Butler owed his preferment to some administrative skill and politics; he was one of the most hated men in the Confederacy" (Dupuy/Johnson/Bongard, p. 116). Butler occupied New Orleans (and subjected it to something close to a reign of terror), but the military skill was all Farragut's. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: DarNS047

New Balow, The; or, a Wenche's Lamentation for the loss of her Sweetheart

See Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament (File: GrD81560)

New Born Again

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Hallelujah hallelujah! Newborn again Been a long time talking About starting on the way." Verse: "Free grace! free grace! free grace! brother (sister, mourner)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, pp. 6-7, "New Born Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John W. Work, American Negro Songs (New York: Crown Publishers, 1940 (republished by Mineola: Dover Publications, 1998)), p. 151, "New Born Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12237
NOTES [11 words]: The description is based on the Barton-OldPlantationHymns text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart006A

New Broom Sweeps Clean, A

See As I Walked Out (I) (A New Broom Sweeps Clean) (File: HHH109)

New Bully, The

See references under The Bully of the Town [Laws I14] (File: LI14)

New Bunch of Loughero, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a lady by the Danube saying "I have lost my Bunch of Loughero" She recalls Napoleon's victories and defeat at Waterloo. Her son says he will raise an army to rescue him. She says "I'll live like chaste Penelope, Still hoping for my Loughero"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1830 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Napoleon love dialog family political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1815 - Defeat at the Battle of Waterloo forces Napoleon into exile
1821 - Death of Napoleon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 32A, "The New Bunch of Loughero" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonny Bunch of Roses, O" (theme)
cf. "Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena)" (theme: Marie Louise's grief for Napoleon)
cf. "The Royal Eagle" (theme: Marie Louise's grief for Napoleon)
cf. "The Removal of Napoleon's Ashes" (theme: Marie Louise's grief for Napoleon)
NOTES [158 words]: Marie Louise of Austria (1791-1847) is Napoleon's second wife and mother of Napoleon II. She returned to Vienna in 1814 when Napoleon is defeated. (source: "Marie Louise of Austria" at Answres.com site)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: Loughero is from Irish luachair = rushes.
Note the difference between "The Bunch of Loughero" (Napoleon) and "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" (Britain) - BS
This song shares with "Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena)" and "The Royal Eagle" the theme of Marie Louisa's grief for her husband. This is romantic, but false; she refused to go into exile with him to Elba, let alone St. Helena.
In fact, even before Napoleon went to Elba, she is reported to have taken General Adam Adelbert Neipperg as a lover. When he came back during the Hundred Days, she not only refused to join him, she wouldn't even allow him to see his son. By the time Napoleon died, Louisa had borne two children to other fathers. - RBW
File: Zimm032A

New Bury Loom, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a weaver. He tells her "I am a good joiner by trade." "My shuttle ran well in her lathe" until, after one success, "My strength now began for to fail me." She asks him to try again but he says it will have to wait until he returns.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Elbourne)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy weaving
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Roger Elbourne, Music and Tradition in Early Industrial Lancashire 1780-1840 (Totowa, 1980), pp. 74-76, 135-136, "The New Bury Loom"
NOTES [25 words]: Bodleian, Harding B 16(167b), "New Bury Loom" ("As I walked between Bolton and Bury"), unknown, no date; also Johnson Ballads 2351, "The New Bury Loom"
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Elb136

New Buryin' Ground, The

See Way Over in the New Buryin' Groun' (File: San473)

New Burying Ground

See Way Over in the New Buryin' Groun' (File: San473)

New Carol of Our Lady, A

See Lords and Ladies All Bedene (File: EPLaLAB)

New Caroll of Our Lady, A

See Lords and Ladies All Bedene (File: EPLaLAB)

New Chum (I), The

See I'm a Young Man from the Country (File: MHAp253)

New Chum (II), The

See The Embryo Cockatoo (The New Chum II) (File: BaRo135)

New Chum Chinaman, The

DESCRIPTION: Irishman Pat McCann, newly arrived in Australia and unable to find work, sees the Chinese working (even if at horrible jobs). He decides to turn himself into "Ah Pat," Chinese immigrant. He describes the steps he will use to take on the part
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (collected by Ron Edwards from Mrs. V.Leonard)
KEYWORDS: foreigner emigration unemployment disguise China
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 102-104, "The New Chum Chinaman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 134-138, New Chum Chinaman"" (1 text)
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 17, page headed "After several social visits..."], "(no title)" (1 short text)
Roud #27769
File: FaE102

New Chum in the Country

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a new chum in the country, from Somerset I came." Soon after arriving in Australia, he runs out of money -- but finds various dodges to survive. He often has to shut down before the police catch him. At last he opens a lodging-house without success
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: immigration hardtimes trick police money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 166-168, "New Chum in the Country" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: AnSt166

New Chums at the Diggings

DESCRIPTION: "New chums start off for the diggings, But some of them never get there," and others despair on arrival. New chums miss their comfort, and arrive with many un-helpful items. Often they lose them (sometimes with help)
AUTHOR: Words: portions from "The Wakamarina for Me" by Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Thatcher, "Songs of the War"); this conflate version from Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry,1972
KEYWORDS: New Zealand gold work hardtimes theft
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 54, "New Chums at the Diggings" (1 text, 1 tune, probably composite) (p. 32 in the 1972 edition)
NOTES [101 words]: The description of this in Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry is confusing; it is "an adaptation of two distinct songs collected by Rona Bailey: One... from Mr. Butterworth of Westport; and the other, clearly derived from a longer song by Charles Thatcher, The Wakamarina for Me." But from the notes at the back it appears to have been collected from Geoffrey Butterfield. So which part came from where? I don't know.
For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Colq032

New Electric Light, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer's wife is desperate for electric lights. She wanders the streets seeking them. One night the singer finds a strange man in the house; it proves to be her cousin, who installs lights. She reportedly amuses herself with the light while he's gone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: technology humorous husband wife
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 489, "The New Electric Light" (1 text)
Roud #7585
NOTES [45 words]: There was a music hall song, "The New Electric Light," words by F. W. Green and music by Alfred Lee; it does not appear to be this song. The first line, as found in Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 146-147, is "Oh, have you heard the latest news Of how the world's to be?" - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: R489

New England Cocky, The

See The Inglewood Cocky (File: PASB109)

New England's Annoyances

DESCRIPTION: "New England's annoyances you that would know them, Pray ponder these verses that briefly doth show them; The place where we live is a wilderness wood." The poet speaks of hard work in the fields and of poverty, but suggests keeping "a contended mind."
AUTHOR: probably Edward Johnson (1598-1672), according to Lemay
EARLIEST DATE: 1774 (Massachusetts Spy, according to Lemay and Cohen); probably written c. 1643
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 42-43, "New England's Annoyances" (1 text)
NOTES [37 words]: Cohen, following J. A. Leo Lemay, suggests that this is America's first folk song -- that is, the first song of American origin that can be shown to have gone into oral tradition. But the tradition was pretty thin.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: CAFS1042

New Flash Song, Made on the Noted George Barrington, A

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you blades of England I prithee draw near, And of the noted Barrington now quickly you shall hear." Barrington committed many daring robberies, and is sentenced to transportation; he's lucky the prosecutor did not charge him with a capital crime
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland); Anderson estimates the broadside to be from c. 1790
KEYWORDS: crime punishment transportation trial
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 62-63, "A New Flash Song" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 269, "A New Flash Song" (1 text, with a tune on p. 579)
Roud #V20828
NOTES [220 words]: Henry Boylan, A Dictionary of Irish Biography, second edition, St. Martin's Press, 1988, p. 13, has a brief description of George Barrington, whom he describes as a "pickpocket and author." He was born in 1755 in Maynooth, County Kildare. His birth name was Waldron. Sent to a grammar school in Dublin, he ran away in 1771 after being flogged for disciplinary reasons, and took the name "Barrington" when he joined a traveling company.
By 1777 he was in England, picking pockets; he was caught and sentenced to three years' hard labour on a prison hulk, but released after just a year for good behavior -- but kept offending and being caught and given additional sentences. He was sentenced to seven years' transportation in 1789.
"His eloquence and gentlemanly bearing in court earned him considerable notoriety, and two contemporary accounts of his life and adventures sold widely. Sent to Botany Bay in New South Wales. In 1792 received first warrant of emancipation ever issued. Became superintendent of the convicts, high constable of Parramatta for a considerable period, and earned the regard of the governor. He published A Voyage to Botany Bay (1801), A History of New South Wales (1802), and A History of New Holland (1808). He lived to a very old age, and died at Parramatta, date not recorded." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AnFa062

New Garden Fields

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets Mary "pulling flowers" and asks to hold her hand. She refuses: "if I thought you in earnest I'd think myself blest." He complains that she has broken his heart. She relents and promises to go away with him to be married.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.17(115))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 96, "New Garden Fields" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 460, "New Garden Fields" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #19, "New Garden Fields" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1054
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(115) [missing the last two verses], "The Eighteenth of August" or "New Garden Fields" ("Come all you pretty fair maids, I pray now attend"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(1761), Harding B 11(3678), Harding B 11(3678A), Firth c.18(161), Harding B 11(2643), Harding B 11(3677), Harding B 11(2642), 2806 c.17(300), Firth c.18(162), Harding B 19(106), Harding B 26(463), Harding B 11(2644), "[The] New Garden Fields"; Johnson Ballads 567, "The New Garden Field"
LOCSinging, as109560, "The New Garden Fields" ("Come all you pretty fair maids, I pray now attend"), Taylor (London), no date
File: ReCi096

New Granuwale, The

See Granuwale (File: Zimm029)

New Ireland Song

DESCRIPTION: The clergy order "not to sell whisky upon a Sunday." Mike Leyden and Tim Long go from place to place in New Ireland looking for rum but only find tea. It being very cold, the boys finally give up and go to bed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 116, "New Ireland Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB116 (Partial)
Roud #2784
NOTES [74 words]: Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick: "New Ireland is a farming community near Elgin" [in south central New Brunswick less than 20 miles north of the Bay of Fundy]. - BS
This seems to be a local composition based on some other local song. The text is reminiscent of "Sweet Betsy from Pike," but the tune is more like "Darby O'Leary" (which is known in New Brunswick). Of course, the latter is rather like "Sweet Betsy" put in minor. - RBW
File: CrSNB116

New Jers-A

DESCRIPTION: "Come, kind friends, all draw near, The song that I'm about to sing, you every one should hear... I'll sing you a new song about New Jers-A." The singer tells of all that goes wrong there -- ships sunk, people killed. He proposes hanging the residents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1861 (broadside, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad prison execution ship fire disaster
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1575, p. 107, "New Jers-A" (2 references)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 125-126, "New Jers-A" (1 text)
File: CAFS1125

New Limit Line, The

DESCRIPTION: "Now we left our own homes, for the woods we were bent...." The singer describes hiring out to the New Limit Line. They reach the line with great difficulty, but work hard and are happy at the camp. Many of the other workers there are listed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work travel
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods # 12, "The New Limit Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FowL12 (Partial)
Roud #4369
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fox River Line (The Rock Island Line)" [Laws C28] (tune)
File: FowL12

New Market (The Call to the Races at New-Market)

DESCRIPTION: "To horse, brave boys, to New Market to horse, You'll lose the match by longer delaying." The gamblers set out for the races. The singer swears by Brown Bay, and describes the faults of the other horses -- but "now we're undone, and our guineas are lost."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Ashton)
KEYWORDS: racing gambling sports horse
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 301, "New Market" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 255-257, "The Call to the Races at New-Market" (1 text)
Roud #15020
File: JACB257

New Market Wreck (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "The Southern Railway had a wreck at ten o'clock one morn, Near Hodge's and New Market ground...." A conductor misreads his orders, and two trains collide. The singer hopes the other conductor is in heaven, and adds other details
AUTHOR: Robert Hugh Brooks
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 24, 1904 -- the New Market Wreck. The conductor of the #15 train admitted to misreading his orders and causing the wreck; reports say that at least 56 people died
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 227-231, "The New Market Wreck" (1 text plus an early sheet music print, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 276-277, "The New Market Wreck" (1 text plus part of the sheet music)
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 57-67, "The New Market Wreck" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a text of an unrelated song with no known author)
Roud #4904
RECORDINGS:
Mr. & Mrs. J. W. Baker, "The Newmarket Wreck" (Victor 20863, 1927)
George Reneau, "The New Market Wreck" (Vocalion 14930, 1924)
Mike Seeger, "The New Market Wreck" (on MSeeger02, ClassRR)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "New Market Wreck (II)" (subject)
NOTES [94 words]: According to Cohen, there is a second song about this event, "The Southern Railroad Wreck," by Charles O. Oaks. It seems to be rarely encountered; it is clearly not traditional. Lyle reports another song, "The New Market Wreck," perhaps by Josiah Adams, also poor and also not traditional. I'm not sure how traditional this song is, either, although there are a couple of reported collections.
There is at least one more book about the wreck, John P. Ascher, The New Market Wreck, America's Most Deadly Train Disaster, Family Railroad Organization, Inc, 2004. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LSRa228

New Market Wreck (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "One autumn morn in Tennessee, An awful wreck was heard, East of Knoxville and near New Market Was where the crash occurred." Two trains collide; seventy are killed and many more hurt. The song briefly tells of several tragic deaths.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: train wreck death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 24, 1904 -- the New Market Wreck. The conductor of the #15 train admitted to misreading his orders and causing the wreck; reports say that at least 56 people died
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 66-67, "The New Market Wreck" (1 text)
Roud #14013
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "New Market Wreck (I)" (subject)
File: LySc066

New Moon, New Moon, Let Me See

See New Moon, True Moon (File: MH238D)

New Moon, True Moon

DESCRIPTION: "New moon, true moon, Tell me who shall marry me; Tell me the color of his hair, The garments he shall wear." Perhaps to be recited if one sees the new moon over one's right shoulder.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Mrs. Henry C. Gray, or her maid)
KEYWORDS: marriage courting clothes hair nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 238, (no title) (1 short text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, p. 269, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 79, "(New moon, true moon, come unto me)" (1 short text, probably related)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 195, "(New moon, new moon, Let me see)" (1 short text)
File: MH238D

New Moon, True Moon, Come Tell to Me

See New Moon, True Moon (File: MH238D)

New Mown Hay, The

See The Tossing of the Hay (File: HHH635)

New National Anthem (Cowboy version, to the tune of My Country Tis of Thee)

DESCRIPTION: "My country, 'tis of thee, Land where things used to be So cheap we croak. Land of the mavericks, Land of the puncher's tricks...." The punchers have poor food and not enough. They threaten to leave if things don't improve
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 105-106, "New National Anthem" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, p. 221, "New National Anthem" (1 text)
Roud #8061
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)" (tune) and Same Tune references there
File: ThLo105

New Organ, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains about the new organ and choir being installed in the church. She's served the church for 35 years with money and time, "but now their old new-fangled ways Are coming all about And I right in my latter days Am fairly crowded out"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: music clergy rejection
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 863, "The New Organ" (1 text)
Roud #7534
NOTES [51 words]: I don't know how many old fogies (or old Baptists) were complaining about the installation of organs in the 1920s, but I know there are plenty of new fogies in the churches complaining that there isn't enough music and that these new ministers never play the familiar stuff. New era, same grumblers.... - RBW
File: R863

New Orleans Jail, The

See The Cryderville Jail (File: LxU090)

New Plantation, The

DESCRIPTION: "Our bonnie laddies are a' gaun awa' To plenish the new Plantation." After crossing the ocean they are welcomed with food and a girl. But the girls are yellow and "a piece of gold ... Was all they had for a napkin." The singer wishes he had never come.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: emigration settler
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #132, p. 2, "The New Plantation" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 536, "The New Plantation" (1 text)
Roud #6014
NOTES [15 words]: Just which "new plantation" is this? Someplace in America? West Indies? Cape Breton? - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD5356

New Policeman, The

DESCRIPTION: Michael Karney arrives fom Dublin and joins the police. He climbs into yards and garden and steals what he finds. He steals from anyone he finds sleeping. He's "in with every servant maid For mutton and love." "That's the life of a new Policeman"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1879 (broadside, LOCSinging sb30357b)
KEYWORDS: sex violence theft humorous rake police
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1750, "The New Policeman" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 649, "New Policeman" (1 text)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, pp. 38-39, "The Irish New Policeman" (1 text)
Roud #13133
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1790), "The Irish New Policeman" ("Your pardon gents and ladies all"), unknown, no date
LOCSinging, sb30357b, "The New Policeman" ("Oh good evening gentlemen to-day"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nora Creina" (tune, per broadside LOCSinging sb30357b)
cf. "Are You There Moriarity" (tune, per OLochlainn)
NOTES [49 words]: Greig/Duncan8 is a fragment; broadside LOCSinging sb30357b is the basis for the description. - BS
Broadside LOCSinging sb30357b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: GrD1750

New Prisoner's Song

DESCRIPTION: Singer has seven more years to serve, for knocking a man down and taking his watch. He recalls home and family. Chorus: "Sitting alone, sad all alone/Sitting in my cell all alone/A-thinking of those good times gone by me/A-knowing that I once had a home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Dock Boggs)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, in prison for seven years, has seven more to serve, for knocking a man down in the alley and taking his watch. He remembers his home and family, and wonders if they think of him. Chorus: "Sitting alone, sad all alone/Sitting in my cell all alone/A-thinking of those good times gone by me/A-knowing that I once had a home"
KEYWORDS: captivity homesickness crime prison robbery family prisoner
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 141, "Prisoner's Song" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 121, "The Prisoner's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11730
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "New Prisoner's Song" (Brunswick 133A/Vocalion 5114 [5144?], 1927); (on Boggs1, BoggsCD1)
Slim Smith, "Sad and Alone" (Vocalion 05082, c. 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Prisoner's Song (I)"
NOTES [112 words]: Although the plots are virtually identical, this is quite distinct from the "Prisoner's Song." That has the chorus "If I had the wings of an eagle," which this does not, although I strongly suspect it was composed in flagrant imitation. [Borrowing a few items from "Botany Bay" along the way. - RBW] Mike Seeger, incidentally, notes that there is at least one other recording of this song from the 1920s, presumably Slim Smith's. - PJS
Roud, of course, lumps this with the "other" Prisoner's Song. - RBW
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia has the "Lonely and sad, sad and lonely" chorus but also has as the final verse "I wish I had the wings of an eagle...." - BS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: RcNPS

New River Shore, The (The Green Brier Shore; The Red River Shore) [Laws M26]

DESCRIPTION: The singer is forced to leave his sweetheart (possibly due to manipulation by her parents). She begs that he return. When he does, he is ambushed by a band of men hired by her father. He wins the battle and goes on to claim the girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Moore)
KEYWORDS: separation love fight
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws M26, "The New River Shore (The Green Brier Shore; The Red River Shore)"
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 48, "The New River Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 85, "New River Shore" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 85, "New River Shore" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 56-57, "On the Red River Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 142, "The Green Brier Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 206, "The Red River Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 412, "Red River Shore" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 57, "Red River Shore" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT 329, GRNBRIER*
ADDITIONAL: Frank Moore, _Anecdotes, Poetry and Incidents of the War: North and South, 1860-1865_, Bible House, 1867, pp. 180-181, "The New River Shore -- A Ballad" (1 text)
Roud #549
RECORDINGS:
Bud Billings' Trio w. Carson Robison, "On the Red River Shore" (Montgomery Ward M-4101, 1933)
Patt Patterson & Lois Dexter, "On the Red River Shore" (Perfect 12650, 1930; Conqueror 7711, 1931; on MakeMe)
Art Thieme, "The Red River Shore" (on Thieme04)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Earl Brand" [Child 7]
cf. "Erlinton" [Child 8]
cf. "The Green Brier Shore (II)" (lyrics)
NOTES [43 words]: The title implies a relationship to "The Girl on the Greenbriar Shore," but the plot is noticeably different. One rather suspects that the latter piece is a fragment rebuilt almost from scratch (and then, perhaps, further modified by the Carter Family). - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: LM26

New River Train

DESCRIPTION: "(Honey Babe/Darling), you can't love one (x2), You can't love one and still have any fun, Honey Babe, you can't..." Similarly, "You can't love two and still be true..." "You can't love three and still have me..." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Henry Whitter)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad infidelity floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 466-471, "New River Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 103, "Darling, You Can't Love but One" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 "Darling, You Can't Love but One" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 124-125, "Honey Babe" (1 text, without the chorus, filed under Child #76 along with a "Pretty Little Foot" fragment and a version of "I Truly Undertand That You Love Some Other Man")
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, p. 73, "Darlin' You Can't Have One" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 158-159, "Darlin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #107, "New River Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, p. 19, "New River Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 74, "New River Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 143, "New River Train" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 104-105, "Honey Bee" (1 fragment, 1 tune, which appears to be either "Crawdad" or "New River Train," although it has a "Honey Bee" for the "Honey Babe")
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 282, 285, 289,387, "New River Train" (notes only)
Roud #4568
RECORDINGS:
Al Bernard, "New River Train" (Grey Gull 4150/Radiex 4150/Van Dyke 74150/Madison 1918, 1927)
Cauley Family, "New River Train" (Banner 33146/Melotone 13113/Perfect 13032/Oriole 8372/Romeo 5372, 1934)
Crazy Hillbillies Band, "Leaving on the New River Train" (OKeh 45579, 1934)
Vernon Dalhart, "New River Train" (Columbia 15032-D, c. 1925) (Herwin 75506, mid-to-late 1920s)
Sid Harkreader, "New River Train" (Vocalion 15035, 1925)
Kelly Harrell, "New River Train" (Victor 19596, 1925; on KHarrell01) (Victor 20171, 1926; on KHarrell01)
Iron Mountain String Band, "New River Train" (on ClassRR)
Monroe Brothers, "New River Train" (Bluebird B-6645, 1936)
Old Brother Charlie & the Corn Crib Trio, "New River Train" (Mercury 6206, 1949)
Ridge Rangers, "The New River Train" (AFS 1693 A2, 1939; on LC61)
Pete Seeger, "New River Train" (on PeteSeeger24), (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
Ernest V. Stoneman Family, "New River Train" (on Stonemans01); Ernest V. Stoneman, Willie Stoneman, and the Sweet Brothers, "New River Train" (Gennett 6619 [as by Justin Winfield] /Supertone 9400 [as by Uncle Ben Hawkins], 1929)
Wade Ward, "New River Train" [instrumental] (on Holcomb-Ward1)
Henry Whitter, "The New River Train" (OKeh 40143, 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mole in the Ground" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "My Last Gold Dollar" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Crawdad"
cf. "Going Around the World (Banjo Pickin' Girl, Baby Mine)"
NOTES [225 words]: "Honey Babe" and "New River Train" are two versions of the same set of verses, the difference being that the latter has a chorus about the "New River Train" ("Riding on that new river train (x2), Same old train that brought me here Is soon gonna carry me away").
It's not clear which is the original form, but I'm guessing the former. - RBW
Well, [you] may be wrong here; the "New River Train" version dates back to at least 1924 (Whitter's recording). And Fields Ward says he learned it c. 1895. - PJS
In any case, "New River Train" is now the more familiar version (see the recording list), so I eventually adopted that title.
Cohen has notes about the origin of the name "New River Train"; there apparently was no line with that name, but several railroads had track in the New River area and would presumably have been given that name informally. What's more, the earliest recordings he cites (Whitter's and Harrell's) are by residents of that part of Virginia. Vernon Dalhart's recording was similar to and likely based on Harrell's, and that no doubt helped put the song in popular consciousness.
Cohen does report, however, that few versions other than Ernest Stoneman's have much real railroad content. That is the main reason why I thought (and still sort of think) the versions without the New River Train chorus likely to be original. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: AF073

New Road, The

DESCRIPTION: "For fifty years I've known a woodland Of patriarchal trees, Their roots grown deep in good land, Boughs swaying in the breeze." The singer recalls how farmers came and made the land their own. But now their fields and homes are being separate by roads.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: home farming technology
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 261-262, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 260-261)
File: ThBa262

New Sea Song, A

See Hearts of Oak (II -- A New Sea Song) (File: AshS085i)

New Sea Song, A (Our Boatswain Calls)

DESCRIPTION: "Our boatswain calls out for his bold British heroes, Come listen a while to what I do sing." The girls on shore call to their men as they arrive at the dock. Then the ship is re-rigged and goes back to sea to fight the French and Spanish
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (FIrth)
KEYWORDS: ship battle France Spain
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 44, "A New Sea Song" (1 text)
Roud #V38019
File: PaSe044

New Shoes

DESCRIPTION: Dance tune. "Do you see them? Do you see them? Do you see my new shoes?" "With a hole in... With a hole in the toe?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong)
KEYWORDS: clothes dancing | hole in toe shoes
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 212, "New Shoes" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5251
File: NeDe212

New Song (I), A

See Well Met, Pretty Maid (The Sweet Nightingale) (File: K089)

New Song (II), A

See The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve, The (File: Beld431)

New Song (Ye Maidens Pretty)

See Sailor Dear (The Lovely Sailor; You Maidens Pretty) (File: HGam216)

New Song Called the Victory, A

See On Board of The Victory (File: Peac484)

New Song Made upon the Lads sent to Botany Bay, A

See Botany Bay (IV -- Come All You Young Fellows) (File: AnFa037)

New Song Maide, A

DESCRIPTION: "The 30th August, 'twas on that very day, Our captain came alongside; our orders was away." The Olive Branch sets out into a storm, which she survives. After a lot of wind and deck cleaning and repairs, they reach, then leave, Cape Ann
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (Journal of the Polly)
KEYWORDS: ship travel storm
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 94-95, "A New Song Maide" (1 text, 2 tunes)
File: HGam094

New Song on the Blandford Privateer, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye seamen who's a mind to go In pursuit of new adventures, Repair on board the Blandford With Captain Stonehouse...." The singer praises the ship, which sail from Bristol, and urges the hearers to come join the fun
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Firth)
KEYWORDS: sailor pirate battle ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1745-1747 - Career of the Blandford under George Stonehouse; in the latter year, Stonehouse was mortally wounded, and the ship later taken by the French
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 42, "A New Song on the Blandford Privateer" (1 text)
Roud #V33313
File: PaSe042

New Song on the Total Defeat of the French Fleet, A

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you valiant heroes and listen unto me" about the fight "Between brave Admiral Nelson and the proud Monsieur." Nelson follows the French from Toulon to the Nile and defeats them there; only four French ships escape
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: battle navy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 76, "A New Song on the Total Defeat of the French Fleet" (1 text)
File: PaSe076

New Song, Called the Frolicsome Sea Captain, or Tit for Tat

See The Sailor's Frolic (Tit for Tat) (File: PaSe055)

New Song, Called the Gaspee, A

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in the reign of George the third, Our public peace was much disturbed." The Americans are much provoked by regulations about smuggling. When the Gaspee goes aground while chasing the Hannah, they burn it. No one will reveal the attackers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (WInslow)
KEYWORDS: ship fire crime
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 8, 1772 - Burning of the Gaspee
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 59-60, "A New Song, Called the Gaspee" (1 text)
NOTES [593 words]: I have seen broadside of this. I was not able to examine it in detail (it was for sale, with a price of over $1000!), but no printer was listed. It was a strange piece of printing. The title said "King George's Crown -- Turn's Upside Down! / The GASPEE." The latter two words use at least two different fonts, and even the two capital E's look slightly different. And the graphic at the top was printed upside down. It says it was "Printed and Sold at No. 25 High Street, Providence, with 200 other kinds of Songs" but does not list a printer.
The Gaspee affair was one of those clear tokens that revolution was coming to the Americas. As well as of the fact that Americans just didn't like obeying rules.
The Gaspee itself was a two-masted schooler of 102 tons, designed for a crew of 30. The British Navy bought the ship in 1764 and assigned it to guard against smugglers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Paine, p. 199).
"The Rhode Island merchants conducted a lively trade, most of it legal though their reputation for illegality was formidable. The Royal Navy believed the reputation conformed to the facts and, after losing two small vessels in Narragansett waters, assigned the Gaspee there in late March 1772. Her skipper, Lieutenant William Dudington, seized several craft engaged in trade only to find himself threatened with arrest by the local sheriff" (Middlekauff, p. 213).
"In June, a zealous, arrogant Royal Navy lieutenant, William Dudington, who commanded a small patrol vessel, the Gaspee, assisting the English customs service, ran his ship aground not far from Providence, Rhode Island At the time, he was pursuing an American packet that he suspected was attempting to smuggle in tea from Holland" (Cook, p. 160).
"News of the stranded vessel quickly reached Providence and that night eight boatloads of colonists, led by the merchant brothers John and Nicolas Brown, moved to seize the vessel. As the colonists approached, they were ordered to identify themselves, but the only reply was 'God damn your blood, we have you now'" (Paine, p. 199).
"It suddenly found itself the hunted, not the hunter, and was boarded, captured, and burned to the water's edge" (Lancaster, p. 65). "Dudington tried to resist and received a bullet in the groin for his trouble" (Middlekauff, p. 215).
"But the investigation soon lost all headway, blanketed by what seemed to be a total loss of memory on the part of Rhode Islanders. At last, in apoplectic frustration, the commissioners reported that they could find no suspects, and hence could forward no prisoners for trial -- and probable hanging -- in London" (Lancaster, p. 65)
"After that Montague decided that Lieutenant Dudington had outlived his usefulness and sent him back to England to explain to a court-martial the loss of the Gaspee" (Middlekauff, p. 215).
"[A]lthough the Gaspee affair cooled, it had provided the impetus for organizing the thirteen Committees of Correspondence" (Cook, p. 165), helping the colonies organize for the coming struggle.
There are at least three recent books about the Gaspee affair:
-- William R. Staples (Introduced and Supplemented by Richard M. Deasy), The Documentary History of the Destruction of the Gaspee (Rhode Island Revolutionary Heritage Series No. 6, Rhode Island Publications Society, 1990
-- Rory Raven, Burning the Gaspee: Revoluton in Rhode Island, The History Press, 2012
-- Stephen Park, The Burning of His Majesty's Schooner Gaspee: An Attack on Crown Rule Before the American Revolution, Westholme Publishing, 2016; - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: CAFS1059

New Teacher

See I Shot My Poor Teacher (With a Big Rubber Band) (File: PHCFS093)

New War Song by Sir Peter Parker, A

See Sir Peter Parker (File: SBoa064)

New Yealand

See Lizie Lindsay [Child 226] (File: C226)

New Year's Sermon, The

DESCRIPTION: "Hello, Mr. Jones! We wish you a happy new year -- to you and your wife and your sons... And if our wishes find you good, 'Tis better than the year before the flood." Listeners are warned of times to come, including battles -- and then muskets are let off
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: nonballad recitation wassail
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 514, "The New Year's 'Sermon'" (1 text)
Roud #7830
NOTES [31 words]: A sort of a Missouri wassail, in which the performers went from house to house begging for entertainment -- but perhaps with a bit of a threat element, since they all had firearms.... - RBW
File: Beld514

New York

DESCRIPTION: "Knife and a fork and a bottle and a cork, That's the way to spell New York"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 103, "New York" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 28,"(A knife and a fork)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #298, "Knife and fork" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Chicago" (form)
File: ZiZa103E

New York Girls

See Can't You Dance the Polka (New York Girls) (File: Doe058)

New York to Queenstown

DESCRIPTION: Ship leaves New York Sunday, December 2 and runs into a heavy sea. "The companion and the wheel-house were swept right clean away." At Queenstown the captain reports to "an aged father ... 'Your son fell from our main royal yard, a victim to the sea.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship storm sailor father
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 20-21, "New York to Queenstown" (1 text)
Roud #20528
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Larkin (Bull Yorkens)" (theme)
File: Ran020

New York Trader, The

See Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B) [Laws K22] (File: LK22)

New York Volunteer, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in the days of seventy-six, When Freemen young and old, All fought for independence then." "Tis my delight to march and fight Like a New York Volunteer." The City Regiments will defend Washington. The conflict in Baltimore is recalled
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (The Campfire Songster, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April, 1861 - Clashes between Massachusetts troops and the residents of Baltimore.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1596, p. 108, "The New-York Volunteer" (3 references)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 187-188, "The New York Volunteer" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lincolnshire Poacher" (tune)
NOTES [136 words]: The Baltimore conflict mentioned in this song took place on April 19, between the 6 Massachusetts regiment and civilians. The soldiers, who were very inexperienced, were being taken though the town in horsedrawn railroad cars (the railroads from north and south of Baltimore did not connect, so cars had to be hauled from one terminal to the other) when the mob started stoning them. Eventually the troops fired back; four soldiers were reported killed and more than three dozen wounded. At least twelve civilians are said to have been hurt. Although no other clashes were so violent, "until the end of the war, Baltimore was treated as an occupied city." (Source: Patricia L. Faust, editor, Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War, Harper & Row, 1986 (I use the 1991 Harper Collins edition), p. 37.)
Last updated in version 5.0
File: SCWF187

New Zealand Whales

See The Coast of Peru [Laws D26] (File: LD26)

New-Chum's First Trip, The

DESCRIPTION: A young drover relates the events of his first drive, which has turned out to be harder work than he expected.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957
KEYWORDS: work travel
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 232, "The New-Chum's First Trip" (1 text)
Roud #8241
File: Hodg232

New-Fashioned Farmer, The

DESCRIPTION: "Good people all, I pray attend, And listen to my story, How the farmers used to live In our native country." Farmers used to wear long coats and ride old horses, but now they ride fine geldings. In many other ways they have become fancy and "up-to-date."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Vaughan Williams collection)
KEYWORDS: farming horse work hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #27, "The New-Fashioned Farmer" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #3, "The New-Fashioned Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1476
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve" (theme) and references there
File: PECS027

New-Mown Hay, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer walks out "one May morning" and spies "a pretty sweet maid All on the new-mown hay." She convinces him not to ravish her at once; "You'll spoil my maiden gown." She eludes him; he advises men not to worry about spoiling gowns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2661))
KEYWORDS: seduction trick clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Bronson 112, "The Baffled Knight" (40 versions) -- but #26-33 (his Appendix A) are "The New-Mown Hay," which we tentatively separate, and #34-#39 (his Appendix B) are "Katie Morey" [Laws N24] which is certainly separate
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #33, pp. 227-229, "The New-mown Hay" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 443-444, "The New-Mown Hay" (1 short text, which I suspect has been cleaned up)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 184, "The New-Mown Hay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 14B, "Blow Away the Morning Dew" (1 text, a composite of three texts. Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople p. 42: "no extraneous words or lines are interpolated.")
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #102, "Among the New-Mown Hay" (1 text, 1 tune, perhaps bowdlerized)
DT, MORNDEW3*
Roud #2941
RECORDINGS:
John Campbell, "There Was a Shepherd's Boy" (on IREarlyBallads)
William Rew ,"The New-Mown Hay" (on FSB2CD)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2661), "New Mown Hay" ("As I walked out one May morning"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 16(168b), "New Mown Hay"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Baffled Knight" [Child 112]
NOTES [108 words]: As far as the plot goes, this is exactly identical to "The Baffled Knight" [Child 112], and some (e.g. Bronson, Roud) have grouped them together (Roud now separates them, but it looks as if a few versions may be mis-filed). Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland, however, argues that they are separate, and the verse form implies he is right. To me, this looks like a cross between "The Baffled Knight" and "Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid)." - RBW
Separate from "The Baffled Knight"? Naah. Never mind "verse form" -- look at Kennedy's verse 3. I call that a smoking gun. - PJS
John Campbell's recording is macaronic, with only the chorus in Irish. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K184

New-Orleans

See The Hunters of Kentucky [Laws A25] (File: LA25)

New-Slain Knight, The [Child 263]

DESCRIPTION: A man sees a girl sleeping under a hedge. He tells her of a dead man in her father's garden. His description makes her think it is her love. She wonders who will care for her. The man offers to do so. She refuses him till he reveals himself as her lover.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1878; a possibly version is from c. 1818 (Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads)
KEYWORDS: trick disguise love death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 263, "The New-Slain Knight" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 218-219, "Ballad" (1 rather short text, about half of which is "pretty little foot"; it is hard to be certain if it is this ballad or just a compilation of fragments)
Greig/Duncan5 1049, "The New-Slain Knight" (1 fragment)
Roud #3887
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (floating lyrics) and references there
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] (plot) and references there
cf. "The Three Ravens" [Child 26]
File: C263

Newburgh Jail, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is arrested while in a bar. Held without trial for some time, he moves back and forth among prisons. At last he makes his escape (despite the shooting of the guards). He intends to keep moving and not be taken again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: prison escape trial
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 166, "The Newburgh Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC166 (Partial)
Roud #4606
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dE53 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: FSC166

Newburgh Salmon Dinner Song, The

DESCRIPTION: The men of Ythan are the best at their work. They win the best prizes at the Aberdeen cattle show and their marksmen always win good prizes. To see them at their best "come down whan they're met her first salmon to prie [taste] An mussels and toddy"
AUTHOR: William Forbes
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (McConnochie)
KEYWORDS: pride farming fishing drink food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 516, "O Canny an' Cute Men Ye'll Meet by the Dee" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Alex. Inson McConnochie, editor, The Book of Ellon (Ellon, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 103, "The Newburgh Salmon Dinner Song"
Roud #6000
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Contented Wi' Little" (tune, per McConnochie)
NOTES [34 words]: The Ythan, Dee and Don are rivers that flow into the North Sea near Aberdeen. Newburgh on Ythan is "a coastal village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland (source: Wikipedia article Newburgh, Aberdeenshire ). - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3516

Newcastle Is My Native Place

DESCRIPTION: "Newcassel is my native place, Where my mother sighed for me... Where in early youth I sported... But, alas! those days are gone and past." The singer tells of growing up, taking his first job, getting married -- and regrets the woe of the latter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: youth home work courting marriage lament drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 190-191, "Newcastle Is My Native Place" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR190 (Partial)
Roud #3180
NOTES [19 words]: This is a rather strange mix: Almost every line of it recalls happy days -- but the singer is grousing anyway. - RBW
File: StoR190

Newell, newell, newell, newell, This ys the salutacion of Gabryell

See The Salutation Carol (File: MsSalCar)

Newfoundland

See Bound Down to Newfoundland [Laws D22] (File: LD22)

Newfoundland and Sebastopol

DESCRIPTION: "Success to France and England! Hurray my boys hurray! Sebastopol is taken And we've nobly gained the day" on September 8, 1855. The battles are recounted. "Here's to the memory of our soldiers ... of that dreadful battle Of September, fifty-five"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: army battle war England France Russia memorial
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 9, 1855 - Fall of Sevastopol following an 11 month siege
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 152, "Newfoundland and Sebastopol" (1 text)
Roud #17747
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sebastopol (Old England's Gained the Day; Capture and Destruction of Sebastopol; Cheer, Boys, Cheer)" (subject, theme)
NOTES [19 words]: Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland['s version] has no mention of "Newfoundland" in the text. - BS
File: GrMa152

Newfoundland Disaster (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Captain Randall, commander of the Bill, abandons his voyage and rescues twenty-five survivors of the Newfoundland from the ice. Seventy-seven are lost.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: rescue drowning sea ship wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March/April 1914 - the Newfoundland Disaster
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 967-968, "The Newfoundland Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 94-95, "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Higgins: Pamela Higgins, _Perished: The 1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster_, Boulder Publications, 2013, p. 67, "The 'Newfoundland Disaster" (1 partial text, 1 tune, a reprint of Peacock)
ST Pea967 (Partial)
Roud #9932
RECORDINGS:
Joshua Osborne, "The Newfoundland Disaster" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. Pat Maher, "The Story of the Sealing Vessel, The Newfoundland" (on NFMLeach)
cf. "The Newfoundland Disaster (II)" (subject)
cf. "In Memorial of 77 Brave Newfoundland Sealers" (subject)
NOTES [9654 words]: Maher, on NFMLeach, does not sing the ballad but tells the story and tells a ghost story relating to that wreck. - BS
Other than the Greenland Disaster (for which see "The Greenland Disaster (I)"), no other event in sealing history seems to have inspired such an outpouring of poetry as the Newfoundland Disaster. The 1914 tragedy is the subject of three pieces in Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff: this, "The Newfoundland Disaster (II)," and "In Memorial of 77 Brave Newfoundland Sealers" (a fourth item, "The Sinking of the Newfoundland," is about a different ship). The latter two of these are too non-specific to really need checking for either truth or error (although eventually 78 sealers died of exposure, contrary to the "77" figure in "In Memorial"). This song, which refers primarily to the rescue rather than the disaster, is also basically factually correct except for what I suspect are transcriber's errors; the ship he called the Bill was actually the Belle, i.e. Bellaventure, and her commander was Isaac Robert Randell, not "Randall."
There are many articles and at least two books about this tragedy, Cassie Brown's Death on the Ice and Gary Collins's Left to Die: The Story of the SS Newfoundland Sealing Disaster. The latter is much newer (and written by a member of the family of Jesse Collins, of whom more below), but Brown's is acknowledged as a Newfoundland classic (Collins, pp. 18-19) and is much easier to find. Brown's other book, cited here as BrownWriting, contains several newspaper articles about the Newfoundland Disaster, including stories about two men who were involved, but has no real information not found in her main book; I found nothing useful in it at all except photos of Abram Kean and George Tuff (two of the men implicated in the tragedy) on p. 52, and various other photos related to the disaster on the following pages.
It should be noted that Brown's works are not always entirely fair (a point also made in Rosenberg, pp. 82-83); she refuses to accept that Newfoundland operated under severe economic constraints. The island was poor -- very poor. It had a bad climate, bad soil, and few accessible natural resources except the cod on the Grand Banks and the seals. It had no capital, either. Little wonder, then, that it had an almost medieval political system -- it had a medieval economy, and no way to get out. This meant that the island was reliant on the seal hunt (the islanders ate seals and sold the fat and the hides), and that little could be done to make this unsafe occupation safe.
There were two species of seals found around Newfoundland, hooded and harp seals (Ryan-Ice, pp. 47-49). It was the "harps" that most sealers were after -- the cute, utterly helpless little pups, known as "whitecoats" that have, in recent decades, caused the backlash against sealing. And rightly, since -- even in 1914 -- the population of "harps" was very much in decline; the seal harvest in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was too intensive for the population of seals to be stable.
Sealing was so vital to Newfoundland that, during the sealing season, they even pulled ships off other duties to do it -- e.g. the Florizel and Stephano, which came about as close to being luxury liners as anything Newfoundland had, were used as sealers during the season, then went back to ferrying passengers (see the notes to "The Wreck of the Steamship Florizel"). But, in addition to the fancy new steel ships, there were a lot of crummy old ships that went sealing. The Newfoundland was one such. She had been built as a yacht, and then converted to a mail steamer -- but that was all the way back in 1872; she was already fairly old when she became a sealer in 1893 (Feltham, p. 99). She was said to be the largest of the wooden sealers (Ryan/Drake, p. 31), but that doesn't mean the owners gave her the attention she deserved; on her very first sealing cruise in 1893, she reportedly had had several breakdowns (Ryan-Ice, pp. 176-177, although he adds that this may have been exaggerated by the Newfoundland media, which was upset because she was based in Nova Scotia at the time).
The ship had an interesting history; during the Spanish-American war, the Americans had held her for a time for running the Cuban blockade! (Ryan/Drake, p. 31).
Captain Westbury Kean, who had commanded her since 1911 (Feltham, p. 99), was not impressed with his ship, old, underpowered, and hard to maneuver in ice (Brown, p. 2; Collins, p. 128) -- although that description fit most of the wooden steamers. She didn't even have a thermometer to try to gauge the weather! (Brown, p. 37; Collins, p. 182, says that it was illegal for her to not have a thermometer to gauge temperature).
The Newfoundland also lacked wireless -- the owners had removed the equipment (Brown, pp. 22, 215); Collins, p. 129, says that the expense was not the wireless set but the operator, but without an operator, the set was useless, so they took it out to presumably make more space available for other things. Brown says that the wireless had been removed because it wasn't cost-effective; Looker, p. 18, says the wireless and thermometer were removed to equip one of the newer steel ships. It is ironic that the steel ships were able to bring in larger numbers of seals -- but were also more expensive to run, so that most of them were dropped from the sealing fleet during and after World War I (Chafe, p. 27). Wireless had first been installed in the Florizel in 1909, then in the Eagle, and the ships of Bowring's found it useful -- Florizel and Eagle in 1910 apparently took different tracks around the ice and kept each other informed of where the seals were, and had good years as a result -- Ryan-Ice, pp. 192-193. Harvey's which ran the Newfoundland, had a smaller fleet, and so would have been less likely to benefit from this.
But Westbury Kean, who was only 29, didn't have much choice about his ship. He was the son of the unofficial admiral of the sealing fleet, Abram Kean (Brown, p. 1; for Abram Kean, see "Captain Abram Kean"), but people said he wanted to get out from his father's shadow (Collins, p. 37) -- and in any case, even his father's influence counted for only so much; Westbury had to take what he could get.
Including a second captain aboard. Westbury (also known as "Wesley" or "Wes") reportedly had hated school (Collins, p. 92), and didn't have the education to have earned his master's certificate (he finally earned it in 1917; Kean, p. 37) and couldn't really navigate in the open ocean, so the owners, to fulfill the law requiring trained officers and navigators, chose Captain Charles Green, who had arctic experience, as the navigating captain. (Indeed, it appears he had commanded two sealers, the Kite and the Neptune, on northern voyages; Collins, p. 93. For the Kite, see "The 'Kite' Abandoned in White Bay"; for the Neptune, see "Neptune, Ruler of the Sea"). But Green, although he had commanded ships used in the seal hunt when they were on other duties, wasn't a sealer, and apparently was told to stay out of Kean's way (Brown, p. 18; he testified later that "Captain Kean does not want me there [on the Newfoundland]"; Ryan-Last, p. 29), and Kean seemingly wasn't willing to listen to him anyway (Brown, p. 50); although the only true navigator on board, he had no role in running the ship. Green probably would have been a fine skipper, with Wes just running the sealing, but Newfoundlanders didn't do things that way.
Wes Kean's second-in-command (known in sealing parlance as a "second hand") knew even less about ship-handling, so he wasn't much help; George Tuff was only slightly older, at 32 (DictNewfLabrador says he was born in 1881 and died in 1937), and although he had been a sealer for 17 years, and a Master Watch (sealing shift chief) for ten, it was his first season as second hand (Brown, p. 17). He had quite a history; in only his second year as a sealer, he had been part of the Greenland Disaster a decade and a half earlier (see the notes to "The Greenland Disaster (I)" and the songs cited there), and it sounds as if he developed post-traumatic stress disorder as a result (no one calls it that, but see, e.g., Brown, p. 18; Collins, p. 251). But, Newfoundland being Newfoundland, he didn't really have the option to change jobs. (He wasn't the only one; Brown, p. 32 notes that many of the sealers of 1914 had been involved in the Greenland disaster.) He apparently didn't want to be Kean's second hand, but was told he was being given the job, and he didn't have the moral strength to turn it down (Collins, pp. 54-55), even though the event would prove him unfit for the role.
The danger of sealing was the ice: the seals came up on the ice, where the sealers clubbed them and took the carcasses, or their fat, back to their ships. But it was a short season (three weeks at most), at a time when Newfoundland was still in the grip of winter; the ice was not safe and could come in and trap a ship (Brown, p. 10).
Sealing ships, as late as the mid-nineteenth century, were sailing vessels. Many of them were lost, but they were small, so casualties were relatively light. It was in 1863 that steamers joined the hunt (Brown, p. 11), and they soon took over the trade. Around 1900, the wooden walls began to give way (temporarily) to iron and steel. The transition to steam didn't reduce the ship losses; reportedly 41 of the first 50 steam sealers were lost at sea. But each change made the ships more expensive, and required larger crews. The first sealers were less than thirty tonnes, and there were hundreds of them -- supposedly 631 in 1840 (Brown, p. 10). These small vessels had perhaps twenty people aboard.
Not so with the steam sealers; as the songs in Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff show, the ships were numbered in the dozens (eventually, fewer than that), but had a crew, counting sailors and sealers (in Newfoundland, those were nearly the same thing) in the hundreds.
And there was surely competition between ships, since the crews were paid by seals taken, so captains were willing to do almost anything to get to the seals and keep other ships away. Which no doubt contributed to Wes Kean's sense of inferiority; Abram Kean commanded Stephano and Abram's son Joe Kean the Florizel (aboard which he would later die), much bigger, better ships than Westbury had been allotted (Ryan-Ice, p. 311).
The whole story of the Newfoundland's voyage sounds like a bad movie: soon after the start of the voyage, having had to retreat from the ice to a more secure anchorage, the crew found two stowaways; they were made to serve as stokers (Brown, p. 19). They would have been put off the ship, but the ice was so bad that Wes Kean skipped a planned stop at Fogo Island, meaning that he had no chance to leave drop them off. He was also supposed to pick up forty sealers at Fogo, so the decision not to visit the town got him to the ice sooner but left him forty men short of his planned complement (Collins, p. 121).
It was a bad year, weather-wise; even the steel ships suffered several collisions and substantial damage (Brown, p. 25). But, by March 20, most of the ships had found seal herds. The Newfoundland was one of the exceptions; although Westbury Kean was trying to trail his father (who had promised to signal him if he found seals, despite the fact that they worked for different sealing companies; Ryan-Ice, p. 311), the Newfoundland just couldn't handle the heavy ice that year (Brown, p. 33). Wes Kean was apparently going nuts trying to get to the seals, always testing the conditions, checking charts, climbing the masts to get a better look. Navigator Green compared him to Captain Ahab in his obsessive hunting (Collins, p. 184).
The hunting wasn't any better than the weather; after a full week, on March 27, the fleet was still trying to find a really good patch of seals (Brown, p. 34), and many ships were far below their usual haul (Brown, p. 38). But it was worse for the Newfoundland; she was stuck in the ice and wasn't even getting to the places the others were exploring (Brown, p. 35), and had only 400 seals (Brown, p. 45).
Westbury eventually managed to catch up with the main fleet, and father Abram Kean sent Wes's older brother Joe and the Florizel to talk with Wes. Wes suggested that the main patch was off to the west (which proved to be true; Brown, p. 48); Joe radioed Abram, and off everybody went (Brown, p. 46). Even the ships not under Abram Kean went where he was going because they believed in his reputation (Brown, p. 47). But the Newfoundland got stuck again (Brown, p. 50); she couldn't reach the patch that the other Keans located.
Wes Kean had a bright idea. He would send out his four shifts of sealers to walk to the seals, with two shifts spending the night on the Florizel and two on the Stephano (Brown, p. 51). After all, his father and brother commanded those two ships. They would take in his sealers, even though they belonged to a competitor.
Wes Kean apparently worried somewhat about the sealers' ability to navigate on the ice, but George Tuff -- who, as second hand, had the right (and arguably the duty) to stay with the ship, volunteered to lead them (Brown, p. 55; Ryan-Ice, p. 312, points out that it was unusual for the captain to send out his second hand for such duty, but Kean himself couldn't coordinate their work, so someone had to). It created an interesting conflict -- just who was in charge of the sealers when they arrived at the Stephano, Tuff or Abram Kean? The men didn't know; although they believed Wes wanted them to stay on the Stephano or Florizel for the night, not even the Master Watches who headed the four shifts were told so explicitly (Ryan-Ice, p. 312).
Wes told Tuff to go to the Stephano and get his instructions from Abram Kean. Tuff perhaps did not hear Wes Kean's instructions to stay on the Stephano if they could not reach the Newfoundland before night.
To make matters worse, Tuff did not take a compass (Brown, p. 56).
Meanwhile, the barometer on the Newfoundland was falling, but the recorded reading was still high; it was reported at the inquiry (by Captain Green, not Wes Kean) that it had read 30.4 inches early on March 31, but was down to 29.5 a day later, then started to edge upward (Ryan-Last, p. 28). If these numbers were right, then the pressure had gone from the "fair skies" range to "changeable" -- but the glass had not been checked for years, so its accuracy was uncertain (Brown, p. 59; Collins, p. 182, says that the barometer was an ancient aneroid model that probably was not reliable). The crucial observation should have been that it was falling fast, although the weather was warm enough that the sealers were discarding their heavy clothing as they went out on the ice (Brown, pp. 56-58), despite hints of storm clouds in the sky (Brown, p. 57).
The ice turned out to be very bad -- George Tuff said it was the worst he had ever experienced (Brown, p. 60). The men set out around 7:00 a.m. It took them more than four hours to reach the Stephano (Ryan-Ice, p. 312), so even though the distance was no more than seven miles, and possibly less (no one really knows), it was clearly a difficult trip.
As a result, the men became strung out. As more and more signs of bad weather appeared, men began to turn back to the Newfoundland (Brown, pp. 60-62). Eventually 34 men went back to the ship (Brown, p. 62; Collins, pp. 225-227), adding to Wes Kean's frantic irritation (Brown, pp. 70-71). But most kept on -- some of them, at least, because they were closer to the Stephano than the Newfoundland and thought it would be safer to head for the newer ship (Brown, pp. 62-63).
Abram Kean did not do as his son expected. He let the men grab some tea and shoved them back out on the ice (Brown, p. 72) -- having meanwhile steamed away from the point where he picked them up (Ryan-Ice, p. 312). George Tuff was surprised and worried; he expected to stay on the Stephano for the night (Brown, p. 74). But Abram Kean wanted to follow the Florizel, which was heading away from the Newfoundland -- too far for the Newfoundland's sealers to walk back to their ship. And Tuff regarded himself as being under Abram Kean's orders. He did argue a little -- the weather was looking bad. But Kean claimed that his barometer said otherwise (Brown, pp. 76-77) -- which was true but ignored the fact that it was falling quickly. So off Tuff and the Newfoundland's men went -- even though they could not so much as see their ship any more (Brown, p. 75). They had had only about twenty minutes to rest aboard the Stephano before Abram Kean went on about his own business (Brown, p. 77).
It is surely poetic justice to note that one of the men he shoved out on the ice was one of his own cousins, Eli Kean (Brown, p. 157). Eli would later be found dead by men from Abram Kean's own Stephano (Brown, p. 185).
There were 132 men on the ice, and as the Stephano sped off, they began to suspect she wasn't coming back -- and Tuff (who according to Brown was only starting to realize that he was in charge and had to manage the mess, and was overwhelmed by the responsibility) had to confirm it (Brown, pp. 78-79). To make matters worse, Tuff had been ordered to seek seals to the southwest, and the Newfoundland was to the southeast. Tuff was supposed to both seek seals and take his men home, and there was no path that would allow him to do both (Brown, pp. 79-80).
Master Watch Tom Dawson was already worried, and questioned what Tuff was up to (Collins, p. 235). Tuff fell back on his orders, even though they were Abram Kean's orders, not his own commander's: he took the party to the southwest, away from the Newfoundland. The men, many of them angry and scared, perforce followed (Brown, pp. 80-81). Tuff didn't come around until they had gone about a mile (Brown, pp. 82-83) -- a slow, wearisome task on the ice. By this time, although Tuff didn't admit it, they were probably lost -- in the storm which had blown up, neither the Newfoundland nor the Stephano was in sight.
After the first batch of men -- the ones who had turned back early -- reached the Newfoundland, Westbury Kean dressed them down and then went off watch (Brown, pp. 85-86). When the last of the returnees came in, the Newfoundland ceased sounding its whistle. The ship's log recorded "At 1:30 p.m., thirty-four men returned on board, remainder of crew having boarded S. S. Stephano" (Brown, p. 86; Higgins includes a copy of the relevant log pages between p. 44 and 45). The silencing of the whistle was vital, because it meant that the only way the other sealers could find the ship was by seeing her -- in a blizzard.
The storm was blowing up from the south. Back in St. John's, it was already so bad that business was ceasing. It continued to head north (Brown, p. 87). And the Newfoundland, with no wireless, had no way of knowing.
Something funny happened at this point, and it's hard to know what. Joe Kean, Abram Kean's oldest son, was in command of the Florizel (after the Stephano, the newest and best of the sealers), and he had been picking up the Stephano's sealers as the weather grew worse (Brown, p. 89). The claim is that Joe Kean wanted to send a message to his father: the Florizel would take care of the Stephano's sailors; the Stephano should take care of a small group from the Florizel plus the many men from the Newfoundland. That a message was sent seems certain -- but no copy was kept at the sending end (not too unusual) and none was kept at the receiving end either (Brown, p. 90) -- which was most unusual indeed. Abram Kean would claim that the message he got simply asked him to care for the Florizel's men and did not mention the Newfoundland's. Abram Kean picked up the watch from the Florizel -- and, being Abram Kean, went back to hunting seals (Brown, p. 91). Joseph Kean, perhaps afraid to testify against his father, claimed not to remember these events (Ryan-Last, p. 32).
The Newfoundland's men were straggling back to their ship, but none really knew where she was, and George Tuff was not taking the lead (Brown, pp. 91-93). Around 2:30, the storm turned into a blizzard (Brown, p. 93) -- meaning that the men could not see for any distance, and that it soon would be impossible to locate the path they had taken from their ship. Their only way of navigating was by compass.
There was an informal (and not always respected) rule among sealers that allowed a ship to leave a patch without taking up the seals as long as a flag was left to claim the carcasses. These flags could also be used as navigation guides by the sealers on the ice. And Abram Kean had left at least one flag on the ice without recalling that it was there (Brown, p. 54). As they trudged home, the Newfoundland's men found it, adding to their confusion about their location (Brown, p. 95). Watch master Thomas Dawson, to whom Tuff had delegated the task of leading the party while Tuff stayed at the back, had the men spread out and zigzag to look for signs of their path (Brown, p. 96). Already he had disobeyed Tuff slightly to take them closer to where he (correctly) thought their outward path lay (Brown, p. 96, etc.). And while Dawson found the path around 2:30 p.m., the shifting ice meant that it was getting somewhat confused and no longer led straight back to the Newfoundland -- and they were farther from the ship than they thought (Ryan-Ice, p. 313). As darkness arrived, Tuff decided to send a small party ahead to try to get help (Brown, p. 98).
The barometer had fallen about a third of an inch in this time. The storm was about to get worse (Brown, pp. 98-99).
Slowly concern grew on the Florizel and the Stephano. Joe Kean perhaps asked his father about the situation again, and was reassured (Brown, p. 101). The men on the Stephano also asked Abram Kean what was happening. But Abram's only action was to order the whistle to be blown regularly, and to slow down and look for men on the ice (Brown, p. 102).
That was more than the Newfoundland was doing. She remained stuck, and Wes Kean was convinced his men were on the Stephano. Or somewhere. He didn't see a need to sound the whistle. A junior officer on watch might have done it -- but most of the officers were out on the ice in the storm. The bosun -- who was not on watch -- asked the captain about it, and as an afterthought Wes Kean gave permission to blow the whistle once or twice. The bosun blew it twice, then stopped, and no one else sounded it (Brown, pp. 104-105). Once the whistle stopped, there was no way for the men on the ice to locate the Newfoundland. A few men had gone into the water by then; probably some of them were already dead. The rest heard the whistle, but still could not see the ship -- and then the whistle stopped sounding. And Master Watch Art Mouland had forgotten his compass, and Tuff didn't have one; they had no way to follow the sound once the whistle was silent (Brown, pp. 106-108). And then, in the snow, the trail vanished (Brown, p. 109; Collins, p. 244).
There was nothing to do but to try to build a snow wall to slow the wind, and huddle together for the night (Brown, pp. 110-111). They couldn't afford to all stay together, though; too many men on one ice pan could cause it to collapse (Collins, p. 246). So they had to separate and then build shelters. The master watches set their men to do so -- but all were tired. One master watch, Art Mouland, got work out of his men, but Thomas Dawson, who had led the return so far, was exhausted himself and couldn't get his men to do what he thought necessary (Brown, pp. 115-118). A third master watch, Sidney Jones, seems to have been completely useless; his men made no preparations at all, and tried to join Dawson's men (Brown, pp. 116-117, 122) -- which meant that the pan was too small for them to exercise enough to keep warm (Ryan-Ice, p. 314). (To be fair, in the process of this, Jones watched his best friend die -- Collins, p. 275 -- so perhaps he just wasn't thinking straight. And George Tuff's son said that Tuff only survived because Jones had forced him to stay awake; Ryan-Last, p. 336) The fourth master watch, Jacob Bungay, wasn't as parasitic but didn't do much to prepare. Tuff, who was with Bungay, was equally useless; all he could do was say, again and again, that they would be found (Brown, p. 134).
Wes Kean apparently didn't think the snow would be bad. The barometer (which, to repeat, was of dubious reliability) still implied good weather, despite the blizzard. In any case, he still thought his men were on the Stephano. He made no attempts to do anything, except make arrangements for who would take shifts now that all the officers except the bosun (and Captain Green, whom he ignored) were away from the ship (Brown, p. 112).
The first casualty, a fellow named William Pear who had been sick from the start, was definitely dead by then (Collins, pp. 250-251).
On the Stephano, many of the crew were now worried. But none dared talk to Abram Kean. He was that sort of officer.
At 8:00 a.m. on April 1, the Newfoundland recorded gale force winds from the north (Brown, p. 132). Wes Kean thought he could work the ship loose. He tried it. The steering chain failed; she was still stuck (Brown, p. 133). There was no way she could go to pick up her men.
By this time, men on some of the ships were comparing the situation to the Greenland disaster of sixteen years before (for which see "The Greenland Disaster (I)"). When Joe Kean (the only Kean to come out of the affair with any credit at all) asked one of his master watches about it, the master watch said that at least it was warmer (Brown, p. 121). But that meant that, in time, the snow turned to rain (Brown, p. 123). And that was in some ways worse than snow, because it penetrated clothing and stuck. And, meanwhile, the wind had started to shift at random, so that the snow walls provided shelter only intermittently. And then, very quickly, the temperature dropped from above freezing to about 15 degrees F (Brown, p. 124). The men tried to keep moving to stay warm, and they huddled together (Brown, pp. 125-126). It wasn't much help; some were so badly off that their eyes were freezing shut. A man named Jesse Collins worked tirelessly to lead and keep some of them alive (Brown, pp. 126-128; Ryan-Last, p. 332, has Cecil Mouland's account of Collins's works), but there was only so much that could be done. Even healthy men began to die that night. Among the most touching: Edward Tippett and his young relatives Norman and Abel died together, with Edward Tippett's arms frozen around the young men (Collins, pp. 294-295, Brown, p. 129, incorrectly implies that Norman and Abel Tippett were both Edward's sons). At least one man went insane before dying (Brown, p. 135). Most of the survivors were with Mouland; Dawson, who had led the return for so many hours, was frostbitten almost to death, and only three others were alive with him in his pan (Brown, p. 137). He only survived the second night because one of his men piled the bodies of dead comrades around him to give him shelter from the wind (Brown, p. 167).
George Tuff -- repeatedly confronted by his men -- apparently finally admitted it was a disaster and blamed it on Abram Kean; he expected everyone to die (Brown, pp. 138, 140). And he still didn't have any useful ideas; what little was being done was done by the master watches, especially Art Mouland. The weather on April 1 was so bad that not even Abram Kean sent his men out hunting, although he continued sailing and occasionally made his crews pick up seals by the ship (Brown, p. 141).
The bosun of the Newfoundland had managed to repair her steering chains; she tried again to move at 2:00 p.m. of the second day (Brown, pp. 141-142).
In the afternoon, Tuff thought he saw the Newfoundland, and he and a few others set out to find her so that they could rescue the others (Brown, p. 143). Tuff was wrong (Brown, p. 144). Then Tuff spotted another ship -- but not his own. The first ship the sealers saw was not the Newfoundland; it was the Bellaventure. George Tuff and Art Mouland both saw her, and they and others tried to attract her attention (Brown, pp. 145-152) -- but the Bellaventure, which had no reason to be searching for missing sealers, failed to see the lost men and sailed off (Looker, p. 21; Collins, p. 275). And Tuff and his men were too weak to pursue. They had to go back to their ice pans and shelters as men continued to die (Brown, p. 153). Tuff continued to make false claims of rescue, too (Brown, p. 156); I have to suspect all the false hopes he raised just made things worse.
Eventually the weather cleared, and the men saw the Newfoundland, which they estimated was four miles away (Brown, pp. 156-157; Collins, p. 276, says some thought it was just two miles). A dozen men straggled out to try to reach her, in three separate groups (Brown, p. 158). One of those who set out -- but collapsed along the way -- was Eli Kean (Brown, p. 159).
Right about then the Newfoundland finally broke free of the ice -- and started to sail away. That was enough that even George Tuff lost hope (Brown, p. 160); only Art Mouland was still trying. Then the Bellaventure showed up again -- and again failed to see the men (Brown, pp. 160-161).
By evening, the temperature was down to 9 degrees F, with the wind still high, meaning that it felt dozens of degrees colder (Brown, p. 162). No unprotected man could survive long in that. But, with all the ships too far away to reach, the men would have to spend a second night on the ice. They couldn't even start a fire; although most still had their wooden gaffs, no one had a match -- supposedly the last had been dropped because the men's hands were shaking too much to hold them (Collins, p. 277).
At 4:00 a.m. on April 2 -- almost two full days after dropping off his men -- Wes Kean thought the weather and the ice good enough to travel. The log of the Newfoundland declares his intent to reach the Stephano and pick up his men. It is the first time the log mentioned their absence. But she soon becomes stuck again (Brown, p. 170). Still, Wes Kean stayed in the barrel (the lookout's perch) to try to find his way loose (Brown, p. 172). And saw Art Mouland and some of his men (Brown, p. 173). At last someone on a ship realized the disaster.
Wes's first idea was to fly a distress signal to try to get help from the other ships. He didn't have the right equipment for the signal (another symptom of the cheap way in which the Newfoundland had been equipped.) He improvised, imperfectly. He then stumbled down to tell what he had seen. He seems to have been hysterical (Brown, pp. 173-174). It was bosun Tizzard who sent men out to rescue those who could be found. Wes Kean -- properly, I think -- turned command over to the despised Captain Green; he was too distraught to think (Brown, p. 174). At 6:00 a.m., Green, not Kean, recorded in the log that men had gone out to attempt a rescue of men they saw on the ice (Brown, pp. 174-175; looking at the copy of the log between p. 44 and p. 45 of Higgins, I find it hard to see a change in handwriting, but there is definitely a change in format: the reports on April 1 are laconic, little more than a note of the wind; that on April 2 overflows the page into the columns for noting weather and position and is probably six times as long as the prior entry).
When Abram Kean saw his son's distress signal, he didn't know what to make of it, because Wes Kean hadn't set it up properly due to the lack of equipment. So he sent two men to the Newfoundland to learn what was going on (Brown, p. 175). They confirmed to Wes Kean that all the Newfoundland's men had been sent (forced, really) onto the ice from the Stephano -- and that none had come back.
Art Mouland, helped by the rescuers Wes Kean had sent, was the first to reach the Newfoundland, under his own power, but only seven men, including Tuff, were close enough to be rescued by Kean's crew (Brown, p. 176). According to the Newfoundland's log, they were taken aboard around 8:00 a.m. (Brown, p. 178). They slowly told Wes Kean what had happened. And Wes realized that his father had largely been at fault. (One sealer also pointed out to Wes Kean the harm done by his failure to blow the Newfoundland's whistle; Brown, p. 177). Meanwhile, Abram Kean was trying to assemble a rescue, but the ice was still thick. It was not until 8:40 a.m. that the rescuers set out (Brown, pp. 177-178, 181).
Even though the Bellaventure missed the men the first time, it was a big part of the rescue. On April 2, at 6:30 a.m., Captain Isaac Robert Randell and his second hand Abram Parsons spotted a few men coming toward them, obviously in very bad shape (Brown, p. 179). The ship moved toward them as best it could in the tight ice (Rendell, 1871-1942, had been a ship's master since 1895 and explored the Arctic for Canada, according to DictNewfLabrador, p. 284, so odds are that he did the job about as well as it could be done. He would later become a director of A. H. Murray and Co. and a member of Newfoundland's House of Assembly). Eventually they picked up two men, Benjamin Piercey and Jesse Collins (who had done so much to keep several men alive); they reported at least fifty men dead. The ship prepared for a rescue; Parsons -- who was a personal friend of Newfoundland's Tom Dawson -- led them (Brown, p. 180). At 9:02 a.m., Randell sent a message to the Stephano suggesting it join the rescue. At 9:06 Abram Kean in the Stephano responded, and then signaled his son Joe in the Florizel about the matter.
The rescuers -- men who casually murdered seal pups without a qualm -- were horrified by what they saw. Some men were dying even as the men of the Bellaventure came to them (Brown, p. 182 -- although the fact that they gave them brandy rather than something warm or nutritious surely didn't help). Some of the dead men had had to be hacked from the ice with axes (O'Neill, p. 975; Brown, p. 183). Even the survivors were often snowblind, mad with cold, or so frostbitten that they would lose limbs (Brown, pp. 183-184).
Joe Kean's Florizel sent a chilling message to Newfoundland: "Fear terrible disaster. Newfoundland's crew caught out in last blizzard... Bellaventure found 50 men dead and dying" (Brown, p. 184; Feltham, p. 104). Joe asked that the local wireless office stay open to relay messages (none of the ships had long-range transmitters, so they needed a relay to get messages to St. John's). He also pointed out that it wouldn't have happened if the Newfoundland had had wireless. He said all three Keans were in a terrible state (Brown, p. 184) -- but, of course, he also started to establish an excuse.
Many ships did not have doctors; they merely had a crewman responsible for a supply of bandages. Bellaventure had a druggist named Harold Smith (Brown, p. 187). He had done things we might call surgery before this voyage, but nothing had prepared him for what he faced. At 5:44, in response to a message from Abram Kean, Bellaventure told Stephano they had 58 dead, 35 alive, of whom 15 needed a real doctor, and asked if Stephano or Florizel had a physician. It took Kean an hour to answer, but Stephano had a doctor, and after some difficulties (the doctor had never been on the ice, so he needed help moving between the ships), he was able to go to Bellaventure (Brown, pp. 189-191).
The plan was for Florizel, Stephano, and Bellaventure to go to the location of the Newfoundland to try to account for everyone (Brown, p. 191).
When the government heard, it asked Harvey's, the owner of the Bellaventure, to order her home (Ryan-Last, p. 27). They also prepared for casualties (Brown, p. 193). The Bellaventure, with as many men and bodies as could be gathered, would take the survivors, and the corpses, home. (Fortunately, she had already taken 13,690 seals, so she had at least a reasonable haul; Chafe, p. 98.) When they finally got a clear message to St. John's, it reported 58 dead and 35 alive on Bellaventure, five dead on Florizel, one dead and two alive on Stephano; the survivors on Newfoundland were not counted. So it was already known that there were 64 dead (Brown, p. 194). Abram Kean, having worked to compare rosters, soon after reported 47 alive, about 70 dead (Brown, p. 195. Even two decades later, he would undercount the casualties slightly; Kean, p. 31, claims there were just 73; the correct final tally was 78 men dead -- 77 on the ice and one after being rescued; Ryan-Ice, p. 315). Additional information slowly trickled in. All the survivors except Tuff, Art Mouland, and Mouland's brother were moved to the Bellaventure before she headed for St. John's (Brown, p. 196). When everyone came together, in addition to the living and the known dead, there were eight men missing (Brown, p. 197).
It will tell you something about Abram Kean that, as soon as he had finished his reckoning and fixed the steering engine that had been slightly damaged by all the pounding through the ice, he took the Stephano off to look for more seals. Even his own sealers were shocked (Brown, p. 197). But he wasn't the only one to keep on sealing (Brown, p. 200). At least one other captain, William "Billy" Winsor of the Beothic, more remote from the tragedy, was still looking to earn the honor of being the first man home (Brown, pp. 198-199). Winsor actually raced the Beothic into port ahead of the Bellaventure, which was the ship everyone wanted to see (Brown, p. 201).
The Newfoundland, which arrived later, arrived quietly, almost secretly, at evening; none of the flags that usually flew were raised for her (Collins, p. 308). On top of everything else, she had taken just 538 seals (Chafe, pp, 102-103; it was the second-worst year in her history and less than 5% of her career average of 11,817 seals per year).
To make the community's grief even worse, the Southern Cross was lost with all hands around this time (see "The Southern Cross (I).") When the Bellaventure arrived in St. John's, she was carrying 69 bodies (Feltham, p. 105). Thirty-three of the men who arrived on the Bellaventure had to be taken to hospital by ambulance; the handful who could move under their on power walked to the Seamen's Institute -- although even some of them were leaning on others (Brown, p. 202). Full lists of the dead (which differ slightly) are found in Brown, p. 267f., and Ryan-Ice, pp. 326-327 n. 180; Ryan-Ice has notes about the discrepancies.
Between the Newfoundland and the Southern Cross, 251 men were lost (give or take one or two, since were don't know exactly who was on the Southern Cross) -- or 0.1% of Newfoundland's entire population of about a quarter million. Ryan-Ice, p. 199, says that "confidence in the industry never recovered."
The sealers on other ships were so upset at still being stuck on the ice that some started to rebel. Seven men on the Diana mutinied (Brown, p 206), then thirteen on the Eagle; the latter were put on the Florizel, since she was ready to go home. And, on the Stephano, a sealer named Mark Sheppard defied Abram Kean to his face. Kean ordered him "logged" -- i.e. blacklisted and docked of his pay (Brown, pp. 206-207), but other men aboard were also rebelling, if less openly. And, on the Bloodhound, more than half the sealers went on strike to demand that they head for port; Captain Jesse Winsor tried to pick up a few more seals, but eventually gave up and went home (Brown, pp. 207-208).
There was, of course, an inquest, scheduled for April 6, and it was set up so that the survivors could testify (this by interesting contrast to the Greenland Disaster, where they were not called; Brown, p. 201). Wes Kean was the first and most important witness; his testimony took up 44 pages. Ryan-Last, p. 28, acidly remarks, "He does not impress the reader with his testimony, and the commissioners must have been equally unimpressed.... In fact, he showed a remarkable lack of knowledge and an inability to remember wind changes and ice movements that occurred before and during the disaster." To be fair, trauma often causes problems with memory.
Several survivors blamed Abram Kean -- for taking them aboard the Stephano, moving them away from the Newfoundland, shoving them off his ship after just minutes to rest, and giving them orders to head away from both ships -- although they also had harsh words for George Tuff (Brown, p. 208, although Collins, p. 324, says they weren't as hard on Kean as they probably wanted to be -- a man who truly spoke against Kean would surely face repercussions if he ever went sealing again!). Tuff, who was one of the men healthy enough to testify, admitted to mistakes but disagreed with his captain Wes Kean over whether Kean had ordered Tuff to have the men to stay on the Stephano overnight (Wes Kean, although still clearly distraught, insisted he had so ordered; Brown, pp, 208-209).
When Abram Kean finally showed up (reportedly upset at having been second in seals taken, trailing the Beothic; Brown, p. 209), he vigorously denied any fault and gave a detailed rebuttal (for which, however, he could offer no direct evidence; Brown, pp. 209-210, thinks he was wrong or lying -- but she also clearly does not approve of him). Kean contradicted both his sons (Wes and Joe) -- and even insisted that his actions were proper and noble (Brown, p. 211). Looker, p. 25, suggests that "his emphatic, detailed, and self-righteous testimony confused the commissioners, and they laid no official charges."
Kean never did admit fault; in his autobiography, he devotes just two paragraphs to the event -- then spends page upon page attacking Sir William Coaker, the advocate for sealers' rights. The first paragraph proclaims, self-righteously, "That part of my history which took place in 1914 and the succeeding years is one which I would willingly forget, but painful recollection must be sacrificed on the altar of truth. Through no fault of my own I was subjected to the most bitter attack launched on any man in this or any other country" (Kean, p. 31). He then outlines the disaster in a few sentences, claiming that there was no warning of the storm (false), that nothing could have been done (false), and that his first duty was to his own men (true, but by making a deal with Westbury about finding the seals, he had taken on responsibility for his son's men also); he also made several minor mis-statements of facts. I find the self-righteous sanctimoniousness of that page of his biography simply disgusting; a man who had any sense of humility at all would have at least considered the possibility that he could have done better!
"Ridiculously, the commission faulted George Tuff for not doing the unheard-of: refusing to take the old man's orders and keep the Newfoundland crew aboard the Stephano" (Cadigan, p. 186). Ryan-Ice, p. 315, reports that several commissioners wanted to blame Kean, but a minority disagreed, and apparently that was enough to scuttle any action (cf. Higgins, pp. 64-65).
The only direct result of the commission was a 1916 law requiring all sealing steamers to carry wireless (the Southern Cross, like the Newfoundland, had had no wireless set, according to Collins, p. 243, so the lack was clearly a problem) and mandating a few other protections for sealers (Brown, p. 214; Busch, p. 89).
William Coaker, head of the Fisherman's Protective Union (for Coaker, see "Coaker's Dream"), had actually gone on the seal hunt in 1914 (he had managed to get some reforms through the legislature early in the year -- Busch, p. 89 -- and wanted to see that they were implemented. Based on Higgins, pp. 12, 42, 60, 62, 64, etc., it appears they were not; in some cases, it sounds like it was due to the owners' cheapness, but in at least one case, it was probably just arrogance; "brewis" were not expensive, but the ship didn't serve them), Coaker was vituperative in his condemnation of Abram Kean (Feltham, pp. 106-107; Higgins, p. 63). His complaints were so strong that Kean filed two suits against the Mail, which had published Coaker's letters (Brown, p. 213; Higgins prints Coaker's diary thoughout her book; Kean, pp. 32fff. gives Kean's side of this story). Prime Minister Morris, his government under threat (Kean was a key supporter), managed to negotiate an out-of-court settlement for the bigger suit (Brown, p. 214), and Kean got a relatively nominal $100 out of the second, which he complained didn't even pay his lawyers (Brown, p. 217). It didn't affect Kean much; there were petitions and parades against him, and some sealers refused to sign up with him, but he still went out on the hunt in the Florizel the next year (the Stephano had been given over to war work; Kean, pp. 32-33, although his explanation is pretty garbled). He of course would continue as a sealing captain for decades (Feltham, p. 107); he even received the Order of the British Empire in 1934 after taking his millionth seal (Cadigan, p. 186). Cadigan suspects that it was World War I that turned attention from Kean's failures; I suspect it was a combination of that and the backroom dealing in the Newfoundland government that Coaker correctly despised. At minimum, the allowed sealing firm Bowring's to turn the Stephano to other duties and so "demote" Kean without really demoting him -- he still got the best available ship (Brown, p. 216).
A "Permanent Marine Disaster Fund" was launched at once, but for some reason or other never got much money to the crippled men or the survivors of the dead (Brown, p. 213).
Westbury Kean would have to wait until 1921 to get another sealing command (after he earned a master's certificate, his father bought him a schooner in 1917, which he promptly lost, then his father got him another; Kean, p. 38). It sounds as if Abram Kean used his reputation to get his son other ships after that (Kean, p. 41), but having earned his certificate, Wes was allowed to sail until 1939 (Feltham, p. 107), when, according to Lewis Sheppard, he was "involved in an accident and never got a ship afterward" (Ryan-Last, p. 310); on p. 182 of Ryan-Last, Sheppard said Kean's ship was involved in a collision. "Captain Wes Kean never got a ship in Newfoundland afterward. He went away").
He found himself in a different sort of trouble twenty years after the Newfoundland tragedy. "In 1934, he was master of the Portia, a government steamer, when he was accused of trying to smuggle beaver skins out of the country. The charges were finally dismissed three years later. Such was the resentment toward the Keans, there were rumours that the skins had been planted in Kean's cabin. A few years later, perhaps with a bad taste in his mouth, Kean moved to New York state, where he died in 1974" (Hanrahan, p. 39 n. 20).
Neary, pp. 66-71, has a report of this case, which "revealed most about the restless state of public opinion in Newfoundland" (p. 66). The Customs Department was tipped that, if they visited Westbury's cabin at a certain time, they would find beaver skins. They raided the cabin, and found three skins. Kean was charged with a customs violation and fired. He was acquitted at trial, but that didn't get him his job back. Kean kept appealing -- all the way to London, since Britain was by this time governing Newfoundland after the country went bankrupt (Neary, p. 67). Eventually a fellow named Ernest W. Gaze was charged with planting evidence against Kean, but he too was acquitted (Neary, p. 71). Kean eventually was re-hired in 1937, but he had been through three years of drama that had seriously affected the stability of Newfoundland's no-longer-elected government.
In 1915, the Newfoundland was sold, pronounced unseaworthy, then sold again and repaired. Job Brothers, which bought her, not surprisingly changed her name -- calling her Samuel Blandford after one of their most successful captains (Feltham, p. 107; Higgins, p. 9. For Samuel Blandford, she "Sealer's Song (I)"). Winsor, p. 56, claims they also rebuilt her upperworks heavily; if so, they didn't get much return on their investment. In 1916, the Samuel Blandford had a good seal hunt under William Winsor (Jr.) (another famous sailing captain, for whom see "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912"). But in August 1916 the Blandford struck a rock in St. Mary's Bay and sank (Feltham, pp. 107-108; Higgins, p. 9). Just as well, perhaps.
Brown clearly is convinced that the whole thing is Abram Kean's fault. It seems a lot more complicated to me; there were some people whose actions deserved praise, and some who deserved censure. I would say that the following came out looking bad:
- Harvey's, which commissioned the Newfoundland, for not equipping her with a wireless or checking her barometer. The company got out of the sealing business after 1915 (Ryan-Last, p. 39); perhaps just as well.
- Abram Kean, because he made arrangements to help his son find seals but felt no responsibility for the sealers, and did not care for them. But let's face it: the job of the sealers was mass slaughter. Sealing captains weren't sissies. Abram Kean was the toughest, nastiest, most inconsiderate of the lot -- and that is why the companies hired him. He was a jerk, but being a jerk was his job. They wanted a psychopath, and they got one. Bought and paid for. Any accusations leveled against Kean should also be leveled against those who hired him, i.e. Bowring's, owner of both the Stephano and the Florizel. Certainly he didn't learn anything from the disaster; he continued to treat men as something to be used or discarded; witness the event described in "The Terra Nova," which resulted in the deaths of three men and, according to Rosenberg, p. 86, caused the sealers to disdain him far more than the Newfoundland disaster did.
- George Tuff, for exhibiting no independence of judgment when it was vitally needed, and not having the brains to put Art Mouland or Tom Dawson in charge. Nor did he tell Abram Kean what Wes Kean had wanted the Newfoundland's men to do. He doesn't deserve as much blame as the investigative commission assigned him, but he deserves a lot. Dawson, for instance, declared, "In my opinion George Tuff was the responsible man for our crew, to look out for them. He was given charge of them. He should have informed Captain Kean that we had been five hours travelling to his ship..." (Collins, pp. 319-320). Other sealers were also bitter at Tuff for not demanding that Abram Kean give them more time to recover; Tuff admitted that he had not protested to Kean, but he defended himself by saying that none of the Master Watches objected either (Collins, p. 320). As if they even had time to do so! On the other hand, Abram Kean praised Tuff (Collins, p. 319). He would; Tuff never questioned Kean, which of course by Kean's standards made Tuff a great man.
Slightly unfavorable: Westbury Kean. He was not as careful as he should have been. (The whistle is an obvious case. Even if his men weren't on the ice, he should have blown it in case some other men were lost! And when he broke free of the ice, he went sailing off even though he had no clue where his men were. Suppose Abram Kean had taken them in the Stephano, and then sent them back to where the Newfoundland had been. What would have happened to them when the Newfoundland wasn't there? Wes Kean seems to have had no ability to see that things sometimes did not go as he planned for them to go.)
But, unlike his father, Wes had a conscience. The men liked him. Wilfred Andrews, who sailed with him in the Terra Nova in 1927, recalled 59 years later that "Wesley (sic.) Kean was our captain, captain of the Terra Nova. Kean was a good man, perfect man, couldn't get no better. He was good to his crowd and we could get along pretty good with him" (Ryan-Last, pp. 111-112); also "Captain Wesley (sic.) was a great captain, but he always felt blame for the Newfoundland disaster. But the disaster wasn't Wesey's fault; that was the old man's fault, old Abram. That disaster made Wesley very careful. He'd always say, 'Boys, if you see anything of a storm working up, coming aboard.' He always seemed to dread sending his crew on the ice' (Ryan-Last, p. 113). Nath Barrett said, "When I was with Captain Wesley (sic.) Kean, he always lectured us before we went out on the ice. He was concerned that we be very careful. I guess he never forgot when he lost the men in the Newfoundland Disaster" (Ryan-Last, p. 128). Wilfred Vincent also described the way "Wessie" talked: "He'd rather be lecturing than anything else. He was what you call a professor. But he was a nice man" (Ryan-Last, p. 395). Jacob Best said, "Captain Wes, he was very good. I liked him" (Ryan-Last, p. 139). Stephen Barry said "He was different from his father, Abram. He couldn't be no better to the crew." Pat Gosse called him "nervous" but "careful" because of his history but good to the crew (Ryan-Last, p. 309). Edgar Kean however said that he took to drinking in secret and sometimes was drunk on duty (Ryan-Last, pp. 309-310).
One could argue, too, that he got his punishment -- in 1914, he had the lowest pay ($47.56) of any sealing captain.
Slightly favorable: Joe Kean. He was the only captain in the entire fleet who truly tried to accomplish something, although he couldn't override his father. But it seems clear he would have been a better commodore. His father claimed that, after Joe died in the Florizel wreck, his "funeral was beyond all doubt the largest ever seen in Newfoundland" (Kean, p. 39) -- although even if true (and Abram Kean is a biased witness), that might have been partly a tribute to the Florizel, on which Kean died, not to Joe Kean -- plus all the sealers were in town, because it was right before the sealing fleet sailed.
Favorable: Art Mouland, Tom Dawson, Jesse Collins. Mouland kept most of his men alive. Dawson took George Tuff's instructions with a grain of salt; if he had gone exactly where Tuff had ordered, things might have been even worse. Collins spent incredible energy to keep men alive -- even Abram Kean said that "One man in particular, Collins from New Harbour, displayed some considerable courage in trying to preserve the lives of his fellow men.... One man said, 'I am alive, Captain, but I do not thank myself, I should have been dead long ago if it was not for Jesse Collins" (Collins, pp. 318-319). But not even Collins was willing to go back to the ice after the disaster; it was his last trip (Collins, p. 322).
In addition to myriad photos in Higgins, there is a photo of the Newfoundland on p. 176 of Feltham; p. 179 shows some of the bodies after their recovery, and some of the coffins that awaited them. Similar photos are on pp. 214-217, 220-224 of Collins. Brown has two photos of the ship in the photo section following p. 118; this also has two photos of Abram Kean, one of Joseph Kean, and a small one of Westbury Kean, as well as a photo of George Tuff, Robert Randell of the Bellaventure, and of the rescue, plus a photo of Master Watch Thomas Dawson -- who eventually lost both his feet -- being carried to hospital; this is also found on p. 23 of Looker and p. 219 of Collins. Kean, p. 10, has a photo of Newfoundland with an inset photo of a very young-looking Westbury; photos of the Kean family, including Westbury, are on pp. 106 and 116. Winsor, p. 56, has a photo of the ship, clearly taken late in her career. Collins, p. 156, shows the Newfoundland in the ice; p. 150, has photos of George Tuff and Jesse Collins; p. 151 has a photo of Abram Kean; p. 152 shows the photo of the Newfoundland with the inset of Westbury; p. 155 shows Captain Randell and the Bellaventure; p. 160 shows the sailors of the Bellaventure bringing in sealers. Pp. 209-213 have more of the Bellaventure and her part in the rescue. Ryan/Drake, p. 38, also has a photo of the Bellaventure, as does Winsor, p. 32.
Photos in Higgina include the Newfoundland (pp. 9, 32, plus a photo of a model reconstruction on p. 36). the Stephano (p. 9; also a painting of her on p. 35), the Adventure, Bellaventure, and Bonaventure side by side (p. 21), the Bellaventure alone (pp. 46, 67), the Bellaventure arriving at St. John's with crowds waiting (p. 51), a group of captains including Kean (p. 22), George Tuff (p. 34), Abram Kean (pp. 23, 35, 63), Joe Kean (p. 37), Westbury Kean (pp. 33, 65; these are not the same as the photo everyone else prints; that one is on p. 41 along with a picture of Robert Randell and the Bellaventure), a sealer's contract to serve under Wes Kean (envelope on p. 33), and the photo of Thomas Dawson being carried aboard ship on p. 38.
The Bellaventure served on the ice 1909-1916, when she, along with her sister Bonaventure and near-sister Adventure were sold to Russia. In those seven years, she brought in 112,135, a respectable but not spectacular number; in 1910, her best year, she managed 35,816 under Job Knee (Winsor, p. 32).
In addition to being mentioned in the songs about the Newfoundland disaster, the Newfoundland is also referred to in "Captains and Ships"; the sealer in "A Noble Fleet of Sealers" is a different ship.
To repeat what was said at the beginning, the text of this, as given by Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, refers to the sealers being rescued by "Captain Randall" of the Bill. This should be the Belle or Bell, as the Bellaventure was known (Brown, p. 282; Rosenberg, p. 87), commanded by Isaac Robert Randell. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Pea967

Newfoundland Disaster (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye sons of Newfoundland And shed a tear or two While I relate the hardships great Befell this steamship's crew." The Newfoundland is trapped by a gale, and "nearly 80" men are killed. Listeners are asked to mourn the heroes
AUTHOR: apparently George Humbey
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Harbour Grace Standard)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship disaster storm death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 1914 - Wreck of the Newfoundland (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 96, "The Newfoundland Disaster (2)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John Feltham, _Sealing Steamers_, Harry Cuff Publications, 1995, p. 106 "(no title)" (1 excerpt)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)" (subject)
cf. Pat Maher, "The Story of the Sealing Vessel, The Newfoundland" (on NFMLeach)
cf. "In Memorial of 77 Brave Newfoundland Sealers" (subject)
NOTES [16 words]: For background on the Newfoundland Disaster, see the notes to "The Newfoundland Disaster (1)." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: RySm096

Newfoundland Exile, The (The Emigrant from Newfoundland)

DESCRIPTION: "Dear Newfoundland have I got to leave you To seek a living on some foreign strand." The singer recalls hills, meadows, playing with other children, and watching the sealers go to sea. But the fishery is failing, and many are forced away
AUTHOR: unknown (possibly JT Kinsella)
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Murphy, Old Colony Song Book)
KEYWORDS: emigration hardtimes fishing
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, compiler/publisher, "(Old Colony Song Book: Newfoundland)," James Murphy, 1904 (available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site; the cover is missing, but I suspect it is a copy of "Songs of Our Land"), p. 59, "The Newfoundland Exile" (1 text)
Roud #26347
RECORDINGS:
Gerald Campbell, "The Emigrant From Newfoundland" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
NOTES [113 words]: According to the ITMA/CapeShoreNL notes for this song, "This song may have been composed by JT Kinsella when he emigrated from Newfoundland to settle in Boston, Massachusetts." - BS
I seem to recall several other pieces tentatively linked to Kinsella, with none of the connections ever proved. He seems to have been an elusive figure.
James Murphy, compiler, Songs & Ballads of Terra Nova, Evening Telegram publishing, 1903 (available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 36 has another poem entitled "The Newfoundland Exile," credited to "Mr. F. Merchant, F.S.C." It is not the same song; it opens "I remember it now, it was early in spring time." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: JMC059

Newfoundland Hero, A

See Captain William Jackman, A Newfoundland Hero (File: GrMa145)

Newfoundland Sailor, The

See Oh, No, Not I (File: DTmarryn)

Newfoundland Sealing Song

DESCRIPTION: The Greenland and Travan arrive at Harbour Grace "Chock up to every hatch" with fur seals pelts. On March 10 Greenland heads north again for hooded seals and "when the day was done Twice seven thousand pelts was flagged." "So now we're home for Easter"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: hunting sea ship shore sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 198-199, "Newfoundland Sealing Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2719
NOTES [17 words]: Harbour Grace on Conception Bay and Green's Pond on the Northern Peninsula are Newfoundland outports. - BS
File: CrMa198

Newfoundland's Maud Muller

DESCRIPTION: "Maud Muller on that summer day Spread the fish instead of hay" and waits for the government culler. When he arrives, she feeds him liquor until he passes most of the fish. But the trick doesn't work; when it comes to market, it is re-culled
AUTHOR: M. A. Devine (1857-1915) (source: Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 4th edition)
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 4th edition)
KEYWORDS: fishing drink trick commerce
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Newfoundland's Maud Muller" (1 text): p. 73 in the 4th edition, p. 59 in the 5th
Roud #7303
NOTES [77 words]: This is a bit of a curiosity. The 1966 and later editions of Doyle have the piece "Newfoundland's Maud Muller," and the famous bawdy songbook "Immortalia" in 1927 has a "New Maud Muller." They are clearly related (the "Immortalia" version, which is sexually explicit, begins "Maud Muller on a Summer's day, Raked the meadows sweet with hay"), but on the face of it, neither is directly derived from the other, and I've never seen an "original Maud Muller." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doyl4073

Newhills

See Newmill (File: Ord257)

Newlyn Town

See The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)

Newmill

DESCRIPTION: "It was to Newmill, ayont the hills, Last term I did fee." The master is a miser who feeds and rewards his workers badly: "I chased the barley roun' the plate, And a' I got was three." The master tries to cheat him for his work; he departs happily
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming hardtimes food money trick
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #92, p. 2, "Newmill" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 381, "Newhills" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 257-258, "Newmill" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, pp. 79-8-, "Newmill" (1 text)
Roud #5588
NOTES [36 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Newhills (381) is at coordinate (h1,v9) on that map [roughly 5 miles NW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Ord257

Newry Highwayman, The

See The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)

Newry Prentice Boy, The

See The Bonny Sailor Boy [Laws M22] (File: LM22)

News Time, One Cent

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme, perhaps from a taunt. "News time, one cent, Help your mother pay the rent, Your father's in jail, For stealing a pail, Nwws time, one cent."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (New York Folk Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope mother father prison | news
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #392, "News time, One cent" (1 text)
File: AJRR392

Newsboy on the Train, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was a long, long time ago, When I from pain was free, A happy boy was I at school...." The singer worked as a newsboy on the train, but "fell beneath the train"; now he is a cripple on crutches
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Stout-FolkloreFromIowa)
KEYWORDS: injury train hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 109, p. 138, "The Newsboy on the Train" (1 text)
Roud #4880
File: Stou108

Newsboy, The

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a lad, I had a bad dad... Every dollar and cent for liquor was spent, Till poverty opened our door." The boy is forced to go out looking for work. When he returns, his mother is dead. He is forced to sell news in the streets
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Stout-FolkloreFromIowa)
KEYWORDS: mother father children death drink hardtimes orphan
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 101, p. 126, "The Newsboy" (1 text)
Roud #4875
NOTES [16 words]: For background on newsboys in New York, see the notes to "Poor Little Joe (The Dying Newsboy)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Stou101

Next Market Day, The

DESCRIPTION: Woman going to the market meets a man. He gives her three guineas to pay for the yarn, that he might play her a new tune.She goes home with the tune in her head. She will seek him "by land or by sea/Till he larns me that tune called the next market day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Young woman going to the market at Comber, with three hanks of yarn to sell for her mother, meets a young man (apparently a musician), and dallies. He gives her three guineas to pay her mother for the yarn, that he might play her a new tune. They sit together; they gaze lovingly into each other's eyes, and she goes home with the tune in her head. She vows to seek him "by land or by sea/Till he larns me that tune called the next market day"
KEYWORDS: courting love sex commerce music
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1428, "The Neist Market Day" (1 text)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, p. 45, "The Comber Ballad" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 158 "The Next Market Day" (1 text)
Roud #6547
RECORDINGS:
Seamus O'Doherty, "The Next Market Day" (Columbia 33289-F, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Stonecutter Boy" (plot)
cf. "The Haselbury Girl (The Maid of Tottenham, The Aylesbury Girl)" (plot)
cf. "The Mower" (plot)
cf. "The Wanton Seed"
cf. "The Bonny Bush o' Broom' (seduction theme and three guinea payment)
File: FSWB158B

Next Monday Morning

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a young girl who says she will be married next Sunday (or other day). He asks her age; she is (12/16/other). He tells her she's too young to marry. She replies that she will be married that day and describes the festivities. End of story.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850
KEYWORDS: marriage wedding age
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,Lond),Scotland) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf) US(Ap,MW,NE,Ro,SE)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 38, "The Sign of the Bonny Blue Bell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 94, "The Sign of the Bonny Blue Bell" (1 text)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 53, "The Sign of the Bonny Blue Bell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 638, "Monday Morning" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 137, "Next Monday Morning' (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer, #86, "Tuesday Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 173, "I'm Going to Get Married Next Sunday" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 143, "I'm Going to get Married next Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 136-137. "As I Walked Out One Morning in Spring" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 225-226, 'Next Monday Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 150, "One Morning, One Morning, One Morning in Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #73, "I'm Going to be Married" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 165-166, "[I'm Going to Be Married on Monday]" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 150-151, "I'm Going to Get Married" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, p. 559, "Monday Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 464, "On Saturday night shall be my care" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #161, p. 119, "(On Saturday night shall be my care)"
DT, NEXTMOND* NEXTMON2*
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, pp. 240-241, "One Morning, One Morning, One Morning in Spring" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Mrs. M. G. Jacobs)
Roud #579
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "Monday Morning" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
W. Guy Bruce, "As I Walked Out One Morning In Spring" (on FolkVisions1)
Harry Cox, "Next Monday Morning" (on HCox01) (on FSBFTX13)
Mrs. Edward Gallagher, "I'm Going to Get Married" (on NovaScotia1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1654), "I Shall Be Married on Monday Morning" ("As I was walking one morning in spring"), Williamson (Newcastle), c.1845
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I'm Going to be Married on Sunday
NOTES [87 words]: The Brown text lacks the objection to the girl's youth. Perhaps a deliberate American adaption, where the availability of land meant that teenagers, especially in mountain areas, did marry quite young? - RBW
Perhaps, but the version in Sharp has the objection. - PJS
As do others -- indeed, Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah's version retains little but the objection. It clearly occurs in the American tradition; I just wondered if there might be some versions which take that out deliberately as opposed to accidentally. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: ShH38

Next Song on the Programme, The

DESCRIPTION: "The next song on the programme will be a dance Sang by a female gentleman Sitting on a corner of a round table, Picking carrots out of a sultana pie. Nancy Carter, she's the Tartar And I'm a tomato"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (recording, Albert Smith)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad nonsense paradox food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
RECORDINGS:
Albert Smith, "The Next Song on the Programme" (on Voice14)
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is almost all of the Voice14 text. - BS
File: RcNSOTP

Next Year I WIll Be in the....

See Running to School (Next Year I Will Be) (File: AJRR393)

Ni Thaithneann Liom Fear a Bhionn Sasta

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "The poet deplores the idea of staying in a rut," either by staying "with old ways" or -- for a man -- by "tying himself down with his first love"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 102, "Ni Thaithneann Liom Fear a Bhionn Sasta" (1 text)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC102

Niagara Falls

DESCRIPTION: "Don't you hear the water rolling?/Ho, ho, ho.../That we're riding off in trouble/Ho, ho, ho...)" Later verses take the form, "Don't you go and tell our father (mother, sister)/.../That we're riding off in trouble..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work disaster worksong
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 166, "Niagara Falls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3640
NOTES [23 words]: Sharp notes, "The words of the song refer to men on a logging raft, which has got out of control and is drifting toward Niagara Falls." - PJS
File: ShAp2166

Nice Little Jenny from Ballinasloe

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets and falls in love with Jenny. He declares his love. She says she is "never inclined to disdain or to tease" but she already has a lover and he has a large dog and gun. The singer bows out. "For ever I'll mourn for beauteous Jane Curran"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1835 (From a Waterford chap-book, according to Sparling)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection beauty dog lover
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 92, "Nice Little Jenny from Ballinasloe" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 103, "Nice Little Jenny From Ballinasloe" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 326-328, 513, "Nice Little Jane from Ballinasloe"
Roud #5305
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Nice Little Jenny From Ballinasloe" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [29 words]: Ballinasloe is in County Galway, Ireland.
Elizabeth Cronin's tune -- which is different from OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads -- is also used for "The Squid-Jiggin' Ground." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OLcM092

Nice Piece of Irish Pig's Head, A

DESCRIPTION: Irish pig's head is a better meal than Christmas goose, spring lamb, beef, mutton, turkey, or ham. It has been used to pay the rent. Frenchmen eat frog, Englishmen eat beef but give Pat pig's head cabbage and spuds, even as a spread for a wedding.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recording, "Maurice")
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #12932
RECORDINGS:
Maurice, "A Nice Piece of Irish Pig's Head" (on Voice07)
NOTES [71 words]: This probably consists of making the best of necessity. Even before the potato blights of the 1840s, so many Catholics were on such small farms that they could raise nothing but potatoes. Anything else, including meat discarded by the landlord, would be a treat. Yes, the boar's head was sometimes called a delicacy (see "The Boar's Head Carol"), but that seems to be mostly because the rest of the boar came with it.... - RBW
File: RcNPOIPH

Nice rice an' okra - Nana - Nana

See Eat Some and Leave Some (File: Parp226)

Nicht That Oor Mag Had Her Bairn, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm just gettin back fae a wee social crack" at the pub when Jim runs in to tell the singer he should have been home, "For yer Maggie she's hae'in her bairn." He runs about, drunk and having accidents, before finally locating the midwife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Catherer)
KEYWORDS: baby husband wife drink disaster money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 76, "The Nicht That Oor Mag Had Her Bairn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22223
File: Gath076

Nickel on the Drum

DESCRIPTION: "O hallelu, hallelu, Throw a nickel on the drum, Just to save a (dirty bum), Throw a nickel on the drum and be saved. Testimony time:" (recitation follows), then repeat chorus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (JournalOfAmericanFolklore)
KEYWORDS: money campsong clothes
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 107, "Nickel on the Drum" (notes only)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Jay Mechling, "Magic of the Boy Scout Campfire," Volume 93, Number 367 (Jan-Mar 1980), pp. 42-43, "Nickel on the Drum" (1 text)
NOTES [133 words]: The JournalOfAmericanFolklore version of this appears to be a composite. One is the true "(Throw a) Nickel on the Drum," which is a parody of Salvation Army practices. Only the chorus of this is used. In between are the "testimonies" (a format sometimes used with "Rum By Gum (Temperance Union Song)" also). The testimonies in JournalOfAmericanFolklore are a series of items which are booed and then cheered:
Leader: In our town, all the girls wear grass skirts.
ALL: Boo!
Leader: But the boys all have lawn mowers.
ALL: Yay!
I know I have seen this format used somewhere else, but I can't recall where; it must have been under some other name.
I have no idea if Averill's version uses this sort of "testimonies" or is just the chorus. Not surprisingly, few camps willingly printed the song.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: JAFThA5

Nickerty, Nackerty Now, Now, Now

See Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now (File: C277RR)

Nickety Nackety

See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Nicky Nicky Nu

See My Hand on My Head (Hand on my Heart, Nicky Nicky Nu) (File: ACSF285N)

Nicky Tams

DESCRIPTION: Singer works as a plowman, always wearing his nicky tams. He courts "bonnie Annie," who admires his nicky tams. A wasp flies up his pants in church; he won't go again without them. He thinks about other jobs, but he'll never forget wearing his nicky tams
AUTHOR: G. S. Morris
EARLIEST DATE: 1930s (composed)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes farming work humorous bug worker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland, England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 107, "Nicky Tams" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 37, "Nicky Tams" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1875
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy McBeath, "Nicky Tams" (on Voice05)
Jimmy Scott, "Nickie Dams" (on Borders1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Berryfields of Blair" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Berryfields of Blaie (File: K339)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Pair of Nicky Tams
NOTES [41 words]: According to MacColl & Seeger, "Nicky tams," aka "yorks," "yaks," or "wull-tams," were leather thongs worn buckled just below the knee, to prevent the trouser legs from dragging in the mud. They were essential parts of a ploughman's attire. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: McCST107

Nicol' o' Cod

See The Country Courtship (File: K127)

Nid de Fauvettes, Le (The Warbler's Nest)

DESCRIPTION: French. I hold this nest of baby warblers. They cannot escape. Their father and mother try to rescue them and I return them. Teach them to fly here and, next year, to sleep in the oak and they will compose songs of youth.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage lyric nonballad bird
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 791-792, "Le Nid de Fauvettes" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Cornelius Robin, "Le Nid de Fauvettes" (on PeacockCDROM)
File: Pea791

Nievie Nievie Nick Nack

DESCRIPTION: "Nievie nievie nick nack, Whit hand will ye tak? Tak the right or tak the wrong, And I'll beguile ye if I can." Or "Guessing game. "Nievie nievie nick nack, Which hand will you take? The right or the wrong, Or the old blind man?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty trick
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 59, "(Navy navy nick nack)" (1 text); p. 122, "(Nivy nivy nick nack)" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 47, "Neevy, neevy, nick nack" (1 text)
Roud #19144
File: SuSm059B

Nigger "'Lasses": Three-Block Bronco Buster

DESCRIPTION: "He ca-su-ied wid me, most ruinous, Till ma haid jest popped de ceilin'." "Oh, dere an't no horse what can't be rode, Dat's what de white foks say! En dere ain't a man what can't be throwed...." The Black man suffers while riding a restive horse
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: Black(s) cowboy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 106-108, "Nigger ''Lasses': Three-Block Bronco Buster" (1 text)
NOTES [38 words]: I must confess that this is one of the few Thorp poems that makes no real sense to me. But maybe that's because I despise the language so much. Ordinarily Thorp was more modern than this. I regret having to index the thing. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: ThLo106

Nigger and the Bee, The

DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever hear tellof the nigger and the bee?... How the bee stung the nigger and then he stung me." The Black(face) man tells the bee there are other places in the garden to visit. But the bee apparently keeps singing
AUTHOR: Charles H. Sheffer (source: sheet musing in the Library of Congress)
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: bug injury
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 750, "The Nigger and the Bee" (1 text, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
Library of Congress/American Memory Collection, "The nigger and the bee song and dance" (Hamilton S. Gordon, New York, 1888)
NOTES [32 words]: Schinhan suggests that this is a minstrel song, and he is almost certainly right; I know of no other traditional versions. The BrownSchinhan version is only a subset of the original text. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5750

Nigger Blues

See Blues Ain' Nothin, De (File: San234)

Nigger in the Woodpile

See Old Dan Tucker (File: R521)

Nigger Tune, The

See Push Along, Keep Moving (File: JHCox180)

Nigger, Nigger, Never Die

DESCRIPTION: "Nigger, Nigger, never die, Big flat nose and a shiny eye, Mouth as big...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 541, "Nigger, Nigger, Never Die" (1 fragment, partial tune)
NOTES [27 words]: The current text is all the text recorded in Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5. One may hope that the transcriber quit because it was so ugly. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5541

Niggers Am A'Risin'

DESCRIPTION: "Go tell Aunt Jane, go tell ever'body, Go tell aunt Jane the niggers am 'risin'." "Run get your shotgun, run get your rifle, Run tell the white folks the niggers am a'risin'." "Hitch up the team, load up the wagon, Run tell the sheriff the...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1994 (Abernethy)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 166, "Niggers Am A'Risin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Aber166

Niggl'jy Naggl'jy

See Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now (File: C277RR)

Night After Night and the Night Before

See Not Last Night But the Night Before (File: CarMF078)

Night Before Larry Was Stretched, The

DESCRIPTION: "The night before Larry was stretched (hanged), the boys all paid him a visit." They come to commiserate with Larry, the most gallant, sporting -- and rebellious -- of the lot. He dies gallantly, "grow[s] white" at the name of King William, and is buried
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 377); the tune seems to have been in use by 1803 (implied by its use in Jemmy O'Brien's Minuet, published in _Paddy's Resource or the Harp of Erin_)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution Ireland funeral
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1688-1702 - Reign of William III of Britain, whose victory at the Boyne (1690) solidified British rule over Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 95, "The Night Before Larry Was Stretched" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 208, "The Night before Larry was Stretched" (1 text)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 52A, "The Night Before Larry Was Stretched" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LARRYSTR*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 289-292, "The Night Before Larry Was Stretched" (1 text)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 475-477, 514, "The Night Before Larry Was Stretched"
Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 261-263, "The Night Before Larry Was Stretched" (1 text)
Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 38-40, "The Night Before Larry Was Stretched" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #37837
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 377, "The Night Before Larry Was Stretch'd"[last 5 lines missing], J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Harding B 28(199), "Night Before Larry Was Stretch'd"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Skipper's Wedding" (tune)
cf. "Saint Patrick of Ireland, My Dear!" (tune)
cf. "Jemmy O'Brien's Minuet" (partial tune)
SAME TUNE:
Saint Patrick of Ireland, My Dear! (File: CPS028)
Cats' Eyes (broadside NLScotland, L.C.1269(170b), "Cats' Eyes," Poet's Box (Glasgow?), 1858)
Crafty Codger, or The Placehunter Out (Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 111-113)
To G. K. Chesterton (Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 692)
Nichol the Newsmonger ("Come, Nichol, and gi'e us thy cracks) (The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany, p. 200)
NOTES [238 words]: Sparling, p. 514: "Hitherto the 'Night' has, through carelessness or ignorance, been printed incomplete, even by Graves, but the present version is unmutilated. It has been obtained by the careful collation of very many old chap-books and ballad-sheets." OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 52A is essentially the same as Sparling.
[Regarding the authorship:] Handy Andy is a novel Samuel Lover published in 1842. Discussing authorship of street ballads, a character says, on page 468, "'The Night Before Larry Was Stretched' was done by a bishop they say." (The edition is in the Irish Literature series published by PF Collier and Son, under The Selected Writings of Samuel Lover, Vol 6, Handy Andy part 2).
Sparling, p. 514: "Dublin street song, wrongly attributed to Dean Burrows; the only thing at all certain as to its origin is that he did not write it [supported by a reference to A.P. Graves].... The real writer was probably William Maher, best known as 'Hurlfoot Bill,' a worthy of the type he so well describes." - BS
Jim Dixon points out to me that the reference to Larry being stretched dates back to at least 1800; Robert Bisset, Douglas: or, The Highlander (London, C. Chapple et al; available on Google Books), p. 196, quotes the lines
The night before Larry was stretched,
The boys they did pay him a visit.
However, the text preceding it tells of Larry having an accident, not being executed. - (JD, RBW)
Last updated in version 5.0
File: PBB095

Night Express, The

DESCRIPTION: "One day I met a little girl beyond the railroad bridge" and asks her about her life and what she is doing there. Her father is an engineer on the train. He asks if she worries about her father. The girl says that God will protect him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Locomotive Engineer's Monthly Journal)
KEYWORDS: father children train virtue questions railroading family mother gods
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 567-570, "The Night Express" (2 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
[Wilmer] Watts & [Frank?] Wilson, "The Night Express" (Paramount 3007/Broadway 8113 [as by Watts & Wiggins], 1927)
Wilmer Watts & the Lonely Eagles, "Bonnie Bess" (Paramount 3277, 1931; on TimesAint05)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonnie Bess
NOTES [14 words]: No relation to either version of "My Bonny Black Bess." That one's about a horse. - PJS
File: RcTNiExp

Night Food

DESCRIPTION: The singer wants to know why "night food" is so expensive. One night a lady on her veranda invites him in for "warmth and food inside." They get into bed. She offers to "scratch your head." He is puzzled and says he wants to eat now. She drives him away.
AUTHOR: Everard Williams
EARLIEST DATE: 1955-1956 (Bedasse)
KEYWORDS: sex food humorous
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
RECORDINGS:
Alerth Bedasse and Calypso Quartet, "Night Food" (1956, on Kalypso 78 rpm XX01, 2001, "Boogu Yagga Gal," Heritage CD HTCD45)
NOTES [499 words]: This is the story of an innocent man who has heard that "night food" is very expensive and wants to find out why. When a prostitute invites him up to her place saying "this night food is very warm and sweet" he comes up. He asks for a knife and fork and she asks "how can any human be so dark? The food is right here in the bed." When she sees that he really expects to eat "she jumped up and then turned on the light And say Half a man get out of me sight."
I have included this song because of the part it plays in the history of commercial Jamaican music. For the context see the discussion of "Hold 'im Joe." It seems mild enough when compared to traditional Jamaican songs like "Fan Mi Solja Man" and "Lemme Go, Melda Marcy" but the people that were offended didn't care about that. They were upper-class Jamaicans interested in having music produced for tourists that wouldn't shame them.
"The record became an overnight sensation, but not without controversy. Despite a significant amount of public support for these records [including "Night Food"], Tacius Golding, the Member of the House of Representatives for Western St. Catherine, introduced a motion into the House (prompted, in part, by a resolution made by the Mother's Union Council and presented at a meeting of the Synod of the Church of England) in early 1956 to ban these records. The motion was quickly supported by religious and political leaders and in April, Will Isaacs, the Minister of Trade and Industry ... called for a boycott of stores that carried 'certain brands of calypso records.' Despite what I'm told was robust interest in these rude 'hits,' growing Parliamentary pressure caused a momentary loss of public confidence in this local calypso music that made [Jamaican] producers and artists more careful about the kinds of records they produced" (Daniel T. Neely, "Calling All Singers, Musicians and Speechmakers: Mento Aesthetics and Jamaica's Early Recording Inductry" in Caribbean Quarterly Vol. 53, No. 4 (December 2007 (made available online by JSTOR)), p. 11).
The writer, Everard Williams, responded to Isaacs's attack. He said he was sorry "if my song is causing trouble" but it was his first hit after first trying "very high-class calypsos" and then lowering his standards a little without making much headway. "I didn't make a hit until I wrote 'Night Food.'" He says he is a poor man just trying to make a living and "I thought I was giving real entertainment to the public -- because they accepted it -- but it seems that I was mistaken. But I am going to write different calypsos now and hope the public will think them very clean; but since it is my living I hope they will buy them as well as they do the ones some say are not so good." (Mike Garnice,"Chin's Calypso Sextet, Alerth Bedasse, Everard Williams and Ivan Chin's Label" in Mento Music site at http://www.mentomusic.com/ (specifically http://www.mentomusic.com/chins.htm last revised July 8, 2014, accessed February 22, 2015). - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: RcNighFo

Night Guard, The

DESCRIPTION: As cowboys relax around the fire, the night guard sings to the cattle and thinks of his sweetheart. At dawn, one of the steers attacks the guard's horse, which throws him; he is killed by the steer. The girl grieves and seems to grow old prematurely
AUTHOR: Unknown, possibly Jack Webb
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Jack Webb)
KEYWORDS: grief love death work animal lover cowboy worker
FOUND IN: US
Roud #11522
RECORDINGS:
Jack Webb, "The Night Guard" (Victor V-40285, 1930; on AuthCowboys, MakeMe, WhenIWas2)
File: RcTNiGua

Night Her Blackest Sables Wore, The

DESCRIPTION: "The night her blackest sables wore, All gloomy were the skies.... When at her father's gate I knocked, where I had often been... The fair one let me in." She gets pregnant, but he "wedded and conceal'd the crime"
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas D'Urfey (1653-1723) / Music: Thomas Farmer (source: Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
EARLIEST DATE: 1719 (Pills to Purge Melancholy)
KEYWORDS: love courting sex pregnancy marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 509-511, "The Fair One Let Me In" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic, pp. 34-35, "The Fair One Let Me In" (1 tune)
Roud #8645
File: CPMNHBSW

Night Herding Song

DESCRIPTION: The tired cowboy advises the herd, "O slow up, dogies, quit your roving around, You've wandered and trampled all over the ground." He tells how, whatever method he uses, he can never keep the cattle still. He again urges the cattle to relax
AUTHOR: Harry Stephens
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work animal request
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, p. 108, "Night-Herding Song" (1 text)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 26-29, "Night Herding Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 236-237, "(No title)" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 193, "Night Herding Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 82, "Night-Herding Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, p. 214, "Night-Herding Song" (1 text)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 16-19, "Night Herding Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 382-383, "Night-Herding Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 46-47, "The Night-Herding Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 91, "Night-Herding Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 23, "Night-Herding Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Night Herding Song" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 34)
DT, NITEHERD*
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 54-61, "Move Slow, Dogies, Move Slow" (1 text, 1 tune, plus various excerpts and a history of the song)
Roud #4444
RECORDINGS:
George Goebel, "Night Herding Song" (Conqueror 8157, 1933)
Harry Stephens, "The Night Herding Song" (AFS, 1940s; on LC28)
Marc Williams, "Night Herding Song" (Brunswick 497, c. 1931; on MakeMe)
File: LoF193

Night I Stole Old Sammy Morgan's Gin, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer steals a jug of gin from Sammy (Sandy) Morgan, drinks it all, and hallucinates -- seven bears, an owl taking tickets, an ape in britches -- before passing out. When he awakes, "someone had stole my head/And left an elephant's there instead"
AUTHOR: C. E. (Hank) Snow
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1936 (composed)
KEYWORDS: theft drink animal humorous
FOUND IN: Can(West)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, MORGNGIN
RECORDINGS:
Hank Snow, "The Night I Stole Old Sammy Morgan's Gin" (RCA Victor 21-0356, 1950; rec. c. 1947)
Stanley G. Triggs, "Sandy Morgan's Gin" (on Triggs1)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sandy Morgan's Gin
NOTES [48 words]: The Canadian country singer Hank Snow apparently wrote this before he first recorded in 1936, but didn't record it until 1947; before 1961, however, it had entered oral tradition, as Triggs notes "I learned this song in a logging camp in the Kootenays but know nothing of its origin." - PJS
File: DTMrggin

Night Last Ook Fan Growing Late, Ae

DESCRIPTION: A man rides to the gate with a letter from the ploughman singer's student son. He is proud "I've a scholar i' my kin" but thinks the letter may mock him, or maybe not. In the end it doesn't matter.
AUTHOR: William Lillie (source: Greig/Duncan3)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: father youth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 675, "Ae Night Last Ook Fan Growing Late" (1 text)
Roud #6099
File: GrD3675

Night of the Ragman's Ball, The

DESCRIPTION: The ragmen and women have a ball with fights, music, food and drink, and more fights. Many are named. "Black eyes they were in great demand, not to mention split heads at all, So anyone wants to commit suicide let them come to the Ragman's Ball"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: fight dancing drink food music party humorous moniker
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 62, "The Night of the Ragman's Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 42-45, "The Ragman's Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3006
File: OLoc062

Night of the Wake, The

DESCRIPTION: The night of the wake people marched in the road for prayer. Buller pulled a razor. The people scattered: some pulled daggers and others ran. The singer says "I was going down de road And Buller bar me on the road ... Buller is a stabber"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage01)
KEYWORDS: violence death
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Dixon [Ebenezer] Philip, "De Night a de Wake" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
File: RcDPNotW

Night Visiting Song

DESCRIPTION: Young man comes visiting his love's window, bidding her admit him. She does, and a good time is had by all until daybreak, when they part at the crowing of the cock
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: sex nightvisit chickens
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, NITEVIST
RECORDINGS:
Norman Kennedy, "Night Visiting Song" (on BirdBush2)
Louis Killen, "The Cock" (on BirdBush2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Grey Cock" (motif)
NOTES [40 words]: Lloyd notes that night-visiting and bundling were common customs in country villages until the rise of Puritanism, and that bundling was still remembered in the Orkneys. The mention of the cock's crowing provides a link to "The Grey Cock." - PJS
File: DTnitevi

Night Was Dark and the War Was Over, The

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "The night was dark, the war was over, The battlefield was soaked in blood, And there I saw a wounded soldier, A-lying, dying, as he said, God bless my life and dear old Scotland... God bless the men... holding up the Union Jack"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope soldier death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #394, "The night was dark and the war was over" (1 text)
Roud #18312
File: AJRR394

Night We Played Cards for the Little Boneen, The

See Little Boneen (File: RcLitBon)

Night-Gown of Blue

DESCRIPTION: "In my sweet little night-gown of blue, On the first night that I slept with you, I was both shy and scared... And you played peekaboo with my ribbons of blue... You said you adored it, but... you tore it, My sweet little night-gown of blue"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: sex clothes
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 134, "Night-Gown of Blue" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10425
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alice Blue Gown" (tune)
cf. "My Sweet Little Air Force Blue Suit" (tune)
NOTES [237 words]: Gardner, p. 328, estimates that "Alice Blue Gown," words by Joe McCarthy, music by Harry Tierney, was the thirty-fourth-most popular song in America in 1920; p. 447 says that it had a second peak in 1940, reaching #12 in May of that year. Presumably it was the second spike in popularity that inspired the parodies, since they are clearly from World War II.
Laufe, p. 465 says that "Alice Blue Gown" is from the musical "Irene," book by James Montgomery, lyrics by McCarthy, music by Tierney; the musical premiered in November 1919 and ran for 670 performances -- the longest run for a production of its type until "Oklahoma!" more than two decades later, according to Laufe, p. 10. It also was featured by many touring companies.
Laufe, p. 9, says that "Irene" was based on a Cinderella motif. "Poor but honest working girl" Irene O'Day makes a delivery to a rich man, Donald Marshall, who is able to find her a job as a model. Problems ensue when she borrows a blue gown from the shop, but eventually she and Marshall marry.
The original blue gown was presumably supplied by Lucille, Ltd., which supplied the women's costumes for "Irene."
The original Irene was Edith Day, who also recorded the song. There were apparently two movie versions. This was the only song from the production to be genuinely popular, according to Laufe, p. 9.
Wikipedia claims the title was inspired by the gowns of Alice Roosevelt Longworth. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hopk134A

Nightcap, The

DESCRIPTION: Phoebus, after a tiring ride, unhitches his horses for the night and asks Thetis for something worthwhile to drink. She gives him a cruiskeen of poteen and he goes to sleep happily ignoring the dampness of his bed.
AUTHOR: Thomas Hamblin Porter (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1820 (written in 1817 and printed in "a Dublin newspaper or magazine," according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: drink gods horse
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 92-94, "The Nightcap" (1 text)
NOTES [40 words]: Phoebus (Apollo), among his other tasks, drove the sun. The reference to Thetis is peculiar; as far as I know, she had nothing to do with Apollo. I suspect the reference is rather to Themis, who helped to care for Apollo in his youth. - RBW
File: CrPS092

Nightengale, The

See Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs) (File: R061)

Nightingale

See Sheepcrook and Black Dog (File: HHH030a)

Nightingale (II), The

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

Nightingale (III), The

See Well Met, Pretty Maid (The Sweet Nightingale) (File: K089)

Nightingale (IV), The (As I walked out one May morning my fortune for to seek)

DESCRIPTION: "As I walked out one May morning my fortune for to seek, It's who should I find but a fair pretty maid." The singer describes her beauty and asks to walk with her. He plays her a tune. She asks when they will be married. He rejoices in his quick courtship
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Journal of the Lydia)
KEYWORDS: love music marriage floatingverses beauty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 233-234, "The Nightingale" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #27545
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14]" (plot)
NOTES [130 words]: Huntington tentatively lists this as a version of "One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14]," but admits that it is "a strange and very different version." It is true that they share many plot elements. But this one has no nightingale, and it's not clear that the singer is a soldier or sailor (there is a confused final verse mentioning fife and drum, but as it stands it appears to defy the military, and it looks like a floater anyway -- it doesn't fit the rest of the song). The overall impression of this piece isn't much like the more popular ballad. Roud splits them, and I incline to agree, and so this has its own entry -- although, with no known tune (Huntington's are both from other sources), it's not likely that anyone will be singing this one. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HGam233

Nightingale in the East, The

DESCRIPTION: "On a dark lonely night on the Crimea's dark shore, There had been bloodshed and strife on the morning before." "Miss Nightingale" comforts the wounded and dying. "One of heaven's best gifts is Miss Nightingale."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1860 (Bodleian broadsides Harding B 11(2707) and Harding B 11(2708))
KEYWORDS: war injury nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1853-1856 - Crimean War (Britain and France actively at war with Russia 1854-1855)
Nov 5, 1854 - Battle of Inkerman clears the way for the siege of Sevastopol (the city fell in the fall of 1855)
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 152, "Nightingale in the East" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 155, "Nightingale in the East" (reproduction of a broadside page)
Roud #2655
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian,Harding B 11(2707), "The Nightingale in the East," A Ryle & Co. (London), 1845-1866; also Harding B 11(2708) [an issue nearly identical to the preceding; they may be part of the same run with a stop-press correction undertaken partway through the run]; Firth c.17(208), "The Nightingale in the East," W. S. Fortey, London, 1858-1885; Firth c.14(70), H. Such, London, 1863-1885
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cottage and Water Mill" (tune, according to Bodleian broadside Harding B 11(2708))
NOTES [166 words]: Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) was one of the few genuine heroes of the Crimean War; in 1854, she took a company of nurses to the Crimea, and her efforts beginning at the Battle of Inkerman at least slightly reduced the death toll (the Crimean War saw many new technologies come into play, and was fought by generals who did not understand them; the result was high casualty totals, often involving severe wounds -- and the British and French, fighting at the end of a long supply line, had too few surgeons, too few supplies, and a dreadful lack of camp sanitation. Almost any wound could be a death sentence in such conditions. Florence Nightingale couldn't cure all the problems, but she at least showed what might be possible if someone tired).
This song seems to have been quite popular with the broadside publishers; it came out soon after the war, There seems to be only one reference to it in tradition, and that dubious. When in doubt, we index -- but my doubts are pretty strong. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: BdNiItEa

Nightingale Song, The

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

Nightingale, The [Laws M37]

DESCRIPTION: A rich girl's parents force her poorer lover to sea aboard the Nightingale. When the ship sinks in a gale, the boy's ghost appears to the girl and accuses her parents of leaving his body to rot in the Bay of Biscay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847
KEYWORDS: ship love poverty death ghost wreck
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE) Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland,England(North)) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws M37, "The Nightingale"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #108, p. 2, "The Nightingale" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 18, "The Nightingale" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, p. 61, "The Nightingale" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 304-305, "The Nightingale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 217, "The Nightingale" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 49-50, "The Nightingale" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H75a, p. 145, "The Nightingale (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 34, "The Nightingale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 107-109, "The Nightingale" (1 text)
DT 589, NGALEWRK
Roud #1093
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y4:029, "The Nightingale," John Ross (Newcastle), 19C
File: LM37

Nightingales of Spring, The

See A Seaman and His Love (The Welcome Sailor) [Laws N29] (File: LN29)

Nightingales Sing, The

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

Nil Mo Shlainte Ar Fonamh

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer is convinced by clergy to give up drink. He relapses and "finishes with a blast against the clergy."
AUTHOR: Pead Bui O Loinse (source: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage drink clergy
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 104, "Nil Mo Shlainte Ar Fonamh" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Nil mo shlainte ar fonamh" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [28 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin and Elizabeth Cronin's introduction to the song on her recording. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC104

Nil Se Na La

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer is prompted to stop drinking, get dressed and go home, or not. He tells all the farming tasks he is avoiding by drinking. Getting dressed would be no easy task since "his socks are in the ale-house and his shoes in the pub."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage farming drink humorous animal dog sheep clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 105, "Nil Se Na La" (4 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Nil Se Na La" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [72 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. Joyce translates the chorus as "It is day, it is day, it is day -- in the early morning" answered by "Arrah, not at all my dear friend, it is only the light of the moon shining on high!" (P.W. Joyce,Ancient Irish Music (Dublin:McGlashan and Gill, 1873 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #57, pp. 57-58, "Thaunalaw. It Is Day"). - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC105

Nim Nim

See (references and notes under) This Is the Way the Ladies Ride (File: OO20290)

Nimrod's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye friends of Newfoundland Who have a mind to roam O'er the wild and stormy ocean...." The crew sails from Newfoundland to the ice. They have great trouble and sorrow. The crew are listed. The singer hopes Captain Barbour will find a better ship
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Murphy, Songs Sung by Old Time Sealers of Many Years Ago, according to Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship hardtimes moniker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 74-75, "The Nimrod's Song" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, editor, _Songs Sung by Old-TIme Sealers of Many Years Ago_, James Murphy Publishing, 1925 (PDF available from Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 1, "The Nimrod's Song" (1 text)
Roud #V44825
NOTES [1643 words]: Not related to "The Wreck of the Nimrod," which obviously is about a shipwreck; this is a song about a whaling ship that later became a sealer and then, later still, an Antarctic explorer. Nimrod was a good name for such a ship; Nimrod was "a mighty hunter before the Lord" (Genesis 10:9).
Despite the aspersions cast in this song, the Nimrod was by no means a failure as a sealer; Chafe, p. 36, reports that her 1871 trip, bringing in 28,087 seals, resulted in a record payout to the men. (The total seals she brought in were not many more than other ships that year, and her total was eclipsed by 1873 anyway -- Chafe, pp. 49-50, has the statistics -- but because she had a small crew, the payout per man was very high.) The real problem is, what had been a good ship in the 1870s was not necessarily a good ship in the 1900s.... And the notes in Murphy say that the song refers to her last trip to the ice, in 1907. Which fits with the record in Chafe, p. 88; Baxter Barbour commanded the Nimrod 1905-1907, without ever taking more than 8099 seals; in 1907, he took a disastrous 2508 "sculps" -- the fifth-lowest total in the ship's long history, based on Chafe, p. 102, and the lowest she ever collected apart from a spell of extremely bad luck in 1883-1887 under, I suspect, two bad captains (the second one was never given another command, and the first one had only a slightly longer career).
According to Paine, p. 359, the Nimrod was built in Dundee in 1865. She was built under the personal supervision of the well-known sealer Captain Edward White (Ryan/Drake, p. 70, which also has a picture of him); he also commanded her until 1870, when he transferred to the Neptune. The Nimrod was purchased by the sealing company Job Brothers -- one of Newfoundland's leading sealing firms -- in 1867 (Busch, p. 66; O'Neill, p. 963), making her one of the first dozen or so steamers to be involved in sealing; the very first time a sealer used steam had been just five years earlier. After forty years of that, although she had been re-engined in 1889 (Riffenburgh, p. 122), she was old enough that Job Brothers sold her.
Her last sealing skipper Baxter Barbour was a well-known name. The Barbours were something of a dynasty of Newfoundland sealer captains -- George Barbour was the captain mentioned in many "Greenland Disaster" songs, e.g., and Alpheus Barber is mentioned in "The Sealer's Song (II)." Baxter Barbour was not one of the more famous ones, but in "Captains and Ships" he is said to command the Labrador, and earlier to have commanded the Louise -- plus he was captain of the Diana in 1913-1914 (for the Diana see "Arrival of 'Aurora,' 'Diana,' 'Virginia Lake,' and 'Vanguard,' Loaded") and of the Kite in 1908 (Feltham, p. 83; for the Kite, see "The Kite Abandoned in White Bay") -- meaning that the song's wish that he get a better ship came true.
An online reference mentions a merchant Master, Baxter Barbour, who was lost with the vanished S. S. Dunelm (sailing from Sydney, Cape Breton to Manchester, England) on October 17, 1915 at the age of 38. (Feltham, p. 56, agrees that Barbour was lost on the Dunelm but lists her as the ship's captain.) A man who was 38 in late 1915 would have been 29 or 30 at the time of the Nimrod's last sealing trip -- and members of the great sealing families often were given charge of sealers while in their twenties, before they were fully qualified to be captains and navigators (see, for example, the case of Westbury Kean on p. 18 of Brown or in "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)"). Such a "captain," since he could not navigate, would have to serve as a Master on a sea voyage.
Baxter Barbour was also said to have been a scamp (Feltham, p. 56); there was even a rumor that, after his loss at sea on the Dunelm, he turned up as a translator on the German submarine that sank the Erik (Feltham, pp. 56-57. Feltham gives evidence that the man who told this story was unreliable; I'm not sure I trust Feltham's opinion, but if Barbour had turned up alive, surely there would be some record of it!).
The Nimrod was Baxter Barbour's first command; he commanded her in 1905-1907. None of those years was particularly good (Barbour, in fact, never took more than 8099 seals in a season, and in 1911, he lost the Harlaw), but 1907 was particularly bad -- as mentioned above, just 2508 seals (Chafe, p. 88). And she hadn't taken as many as many as ten thousand seals in any year since 1901. Perhaps little wonder that the owners were happy to get rid of her. So I think we can safely accept the date of 1907 as the date of this song, since that was her last and worst year under Barbour.
What happened to the Nimrod after her 1907 failure made her famous. Ernest Shackleton, who had gotten into a conflict with his ex-superior Robert Scott, wanted to go back to the Antarctic, and he needed a ship FAST (Riffenburgh, p. 117). He had a different vessel in mind -- but his fundraising hadn't been very successful; he couldn't afford her.
Unable to find an affordable vessel in Europe, he bought the Nimrod, sight unseen, for 5000 pounds -- less than half the price of the Bjorn, the vessel he had wanted (Riffenburgh, p. 122). Presumably he had heard of how well Newfoundland sealing vessels handled in the ice, and thought that the old clunker would live up to the reports. "We are led to believe that the explorer's heart sank when he first set his eyes on the little sealer in the Thames. Her decks were stinking and still covered with the remains of seal blood and blubber from the recent hunt. Her masts were rotten and her sails were in such poor condition that they were useless" (O'Neill, p. 963).
"The Nimrod was only half the size of the Norwegian ship and had a maximum speed of barely six knots under steam. Shackleton did not think much of her at first, recalling in Heart of the Antarctic, 'I must confess I was disappointed when I first examined the little ship, to which I was about to commit the hopes and aspirations of many years. She was very dilapidated and smelled strongly of seal-oil... my first impression hardly did justice to the plucky old ship.' Later, he described her as 'one of the finest I have known,' and confided in a letter that the Nimrod was a far stronger ship constructionally than his famous Endurance of 1914" (Watson, p. 175). (Which is probably true; she may have had a lousy engine, but they made those old whalers *tough*).
"On 15 June Nimrod arrived in the Thames, and Shackleton was horrified. The new ship (which formally belonged to sponsor William Beardmore, not Shackleton) appeared even smaller than her measurements had made her sound, she was extremely dilapidated, her masts were rotten, and from top to bottom she was filthy and stank of the seal oil [actually fat that was processed into oil on shore] that had for decades filled her holds" (Riffenburgh, p. 123). That, frankly, sounds typical of a Newfoundland sealing steamer; they never got decent maintenance, and they all stank because of the seal blubber and flesh. Shackleton probably should have known better, but he was stuck, and so his crews went to work. She wasn't just repaired; she was rebuilt -- converted from a schooner to a barquentine, plus she got new engines.
Some reports say they never did get the stink out of her, which I would believe, although I suspect that the real problem came as they entered equatorial regions; a third of a century later, the sealer Eagle was almost uninhabitable when the tropical heat caused the blubber to come out of her woodwork (Squires, p. 30 and elsewhere). Nimrod's departure for the Antarctic was delayed a few days so that she could take part in the 1906 Cowles Regatta, where King Edward VII, Queen Alexandra, and other royals could visit her and give the company a flag that might perhaps go to the South Pole -- and the royal company found the ship pungent and hard to get around (Larson, pp. 120-121).
I find myself wondering if, after all that work was done, Shackleton had actually saved money by using her. Certainly she was too small; he filled her till she was much too full, and still couldn't carry all that he needed. But he was committed by then.
So Shackleton took her south, on an expedition that set a new "Farthest South" record but did not reach the South Pole. She returned to England in 1909 (after doing some exploring that updated the charts of the southern seas; Riffenburgh, pp. 284-285; that may well have been more scientifically useful than Shackleton's polar trip). Shackleton sold her a year later to finance future expeditions (Paine, p. 359), including the ill-fated Endurance expedition of 1914. In 1911, she went on a Siberia expedition, then served in Britain as a coastal collier in World War I. On January 30, 1919, she was wrecked near Caister/Yarmouth; there were only two survivors (Tarver, p. 15; according to Riffenburgh, this was out of thirteen in the crew; Winsor, p. 57, calls the spot she went aground the "Barber Sand").
It's perhaps a little ironic that one of the commanders of the Nimrod when she was a sealer was Robert A. Bartlett (her skipper in 1903-1904; Chafe, p. 87), memorialized in "Captain Bob Bartlett." Bartlett became famous for his exploits in the arctic, but he was not part of the Nimrod's trips to the southern ice.
Riffenburgh's is the only book I could find that is explicitly about the Nimrod expedition. But it won't be much use to students of this song; it's much more about Shackleton than his ship. He does reproduce Shackleton's sketch plan of the ship on p. 124; this is of course as she was after her rebuilding.
There is a (very poor) photo of the Nimrod on p. 57 of Winsor and a better one on p. 943 of O'Neill, showing her in St. John's harbour. P. 71 has a photo of Baxter Barbour. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: RySm074

Nine Bonnie Laddies

DESCRIPTION: "My jolly auld mither rejoices tae see Nine bonnie laddies a-courtin at me There's tailors and sailors and sodgers a' three But it's the bonny mason laddie that I'm gaun wi'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #101, p. 2, ("My jolly auld mither rejoices tae see") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan4 844, "Nine Bonnie Laddies" (1 fragment)
Roud #6222
NOTES [20 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 fragment. - BS
Related, perhaps, to "The Bonnie Mason Laddie (I)"? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD4844

Nine Hundred Miles

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a walking down the track, I've got tears in my eyes, Trying to read a letter from my home. If that train runs me right I'll be home tomorrow night." The singer will pawn anything or do whatever is needed to get home (to his sweetheart)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (JAFL)
KEYWORDS: train love separation home
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 503-517, "Reuben's Train/Train 45/900 Miles" (2 texts plus exceprts equivalent to about three more, 2 tunes; the first text is close to "Reuben's Train," the second to "Nine Hundred Miles," but the article is mostly devoted to showing how the two songs mix)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 285, "The Midnight Dew" (1 text, with an unusual introductory verse but most of the rest goes here)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 285, "The Midnight Dew" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 236, "Reuben" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 79. "Seventy-four" (1 text, 1 tune, beginning with a "Five hundred miles from my home" stanza and with many verses which appear to float); p. 173, "Five Hundred Miles" (1 text, 1 tune, possibly influenced by Hedy West's version)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 165-168, "Reuben" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 73, "900 Miles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 32, "Old Reuben" (1 text, 1 tune, with so many verses characteristic of both "Reuben's Train" and "Nine Hundred Miles" that I'm filing it with both)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #95, "I'm Nine Hundred Miles from My Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 464, "900 Miles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 53, "Nine Hundred Miles" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 538, 540, 551, "500 Miles" (notes only, probably referring to the Hedy West version)
DT, MILES900
Roud #4959
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson "I'm Nine Hundred Miles from Home" (OKeh 40196, 1924)
George & Bobby Childers, "Five Hundred Miles" (on FolkVisions2)
Marianne Corbino, "500 Miles" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #631, recorded 08/10/2023; so short that it's not clear whether it is actually "Five Hundred Miles" or "Nine Hundred Miles," although the tune implies the former)
Woody Guthrie & Cisco Houston, "Nine Hundred Miles" (on AschRec2)
Riley Puckett, "Nine Hundred Miles from Home" (Columbia 15563-D, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rain and Snow" (opening lines of tune)
cf. "Reuben's Train"
NOTES [103 words]: Some versions of "Reuben's Train," such as the Grayson/Whitter "Train 45" recording, are so mixed with this song that it's literally impossible to tell whether they are versions of this song or that; those interested should consult the references to both songs. - RBW
"Five Hundred Miles," composed by Hedy West and popular in the 1960s folk revival, is essentially a rewrite of this song with a different tune, but several overlapping verses. - PJS
And I've filed it here on that basis, although it should be noted that "Five Hundred Miles" is a Hedy West song, not a traditional variant on "Nine Hundred Miles." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LxU073

Nine Joys of Mary, The

See The Seven Joys of Mary (File: FO211)

Nine Miles from Gundagai (The Dog Sat in the Tuckerbox)

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of his time as a bullock driver. His worst experience happened nine miles from Gundagai, in a cold storm, with the team bogged, the fire out, (the crew fighting). As a final insult, the dog sat (or "shat") in the tuckerbox
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Wannan)
KEYWORDS: Australia hardtimes dog
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 95-96, "Nine Miles from Gundagai" (1 text with no title given)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, p. 184, "Nine Miles from Gundagai" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, p. 132, "Five Miles from Gundagai" (1 text)
DT, GUNDAGRD*
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 114-115, "The Dog on the Tucker Box" (1 text)
A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, pp. 304-305, "The Dog on the Tuckerbos" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 301-302, "The Dog on the Tucker Box" (1 text)
Roud #10221 AND 9121
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "The Dog Sat in the Tuckerbox (Nine Miles from Gundagai)" (on JGreenway01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bill the Bullocky" (lyrics)
cf. "Camooweal Races" (tune, according to Beatty)
NOTES [389 words]: Gundagai was a town of no particular account in itself. Its position at the midpoint of the Sydney-Melbourne road has, however, made it the setting for many folk songs.
A statue in Gundagai commemorates a dog sitting forlornly on a tuckerbox (food box), guarding it for his master. According to Davey/Seal p. 89, it was made by a local sculptor, Frank Rusconi, and unveiled by Joseph Lyons, the Prime Minister of Australia, in 1932. There are photos of it on Google Maps; the tucker box is, quite literally, labelled "Tucker Box" (I'm amazed they didn't label the dog "Dog"); it is atop a stone block reading "Pioneer Monument / Gundagai." Below this is a plaque:
A tribute to our Pioneers
-- unveiled by --
THe Rt. Hon. J. A. Lyons, P.C
Prime Minister of the
Commonwealth,
28-11-1932
John Greenway, however, points out the falseness of this picture. He notes that bullock drivers and swagmen "kept dogs only to have something to kick."
He also notes, delicately, "That's what this song is about: a bullock driver who had the ultimate in bad luck -- not only did his wagon axle break and the team get bogged in the mud and his matches get soaked in the rain, but his dog capped the climax by s--itting (there is an aspirate missing) IN -- not ON -- the tucker box!"
Similarly Beatty, p. 302. Wannan, p. 115 footnote amplifies: "'Sat' is obviously a euphemism. See the volume of verses, Nine Miles from Gundagai, by Jack Moses."
Manifold, p. 97, declares, "The other favorite among bullocky songs is the one about the dog that misbehaved in the tucker-box nine miles from Gundagai. It is a great pity that Jack Moses and the composer O'Hagan should have conspired to put out a euphemistic version which robs the verse of its point." Manifold then goes on to quote a version he collected in 97 which uses, shall we say, the "sh" word (which Manifold was still required to censor slightly).
Davey/Seal, although they state on pp. 199-200 that this interpretation is correct, on pp. 89-90 claim that the "Dog Sat On" version (in which the dog is loyal) is the most popular, and in the entry on dogs (p. 90) claim that this is the most famous dog in all of Australian folklore. My guess is that the original bush version has the dog make the mess, but when city folks, who keep their dogs as pets, heard the story, they prettied it up. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: MA095

Nine Miles to the Junction

DESCRIPTION: "The troops from Rhode Island were posted along On the road from Anapolis Station." The 71st Regiment, hungry and tired, passes them and is told it is nine miles to the junction. After six hours, they reach their destination; they will march on if needed
AUTHOR: H. Millard, Co. A., 71st New York Militia? (Source: Williams)
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Williams)
KEYWORDS: soldier travel Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 21, 1861 - First battle of Bull Run/Manasses fought between the Union army of McDowell and the Confederates under Johnston and Beauregard. (There was a second Bull Run battle a year later,)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-CivilWarFull, pp. 38-40, "Nine Miles to the Junction" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, pp. 53-54, "Only Nine Miles to the Junction" (1 text, probably an excerpt)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Bull Run" [Laws A9] (subject: the battle of Bull Run) and notes and references there
NOTES [531 words]: Silber confesses to being unable to determine what event is involved here, but the references to the 71st regiment, Rhode Islanders, "the Junction," and Governor Sprague add up to a pretty clear picture. The 71st is, as Silber suggests, the 71st New York Militia (a three-month regiment, not to be confused with the later 71st New York regiment). This regiment, along with the 2nd New Hampshire, the 1st Rhode Island, and the 2nd Rhode Island, formed Col. Ambrose Burnside's brigade of Colonel David Hunter's division of Irvin McDowell's army that fought at First Bull Run (McDonald, p. 193).
The chronology here is somewhat confusing. Is this song an account of the regiment's march to Bull Run, or of its arrival in McDowell's army? Either is possible.
The mention of Annapolis in the song is somewhat confused, but not inaccurate; the 71st came down from New York by boat, and got off the transports at Annapolis on their way to join McDowell's army (NYReport, vol. I, p. 113). And the regiment did trail the Rhode Islanders for part of the march to Bull Run. What's more, this march is described as unusually long and hot. The regiment then marched to a place the officers called "Annapolis Junction" (NYReport, vol. I, pp. 113-114).
On the other hand, the mention of Governor Sprague is perhaps an argument that the song is about the actual Bull Run campaign, not the arrival in Maryland. "The Junction," therefore, might be Manasses Junction, the town for which the Confederates named the battle. The distances fit fairly well, too. Hunter's division was the lead element of McDowell's turning movement on the Confederate left, which involved a 14 mile flanking march (Boatner, p. 100, plus map). Thus, by the time the Federals were "nine miles [from] the junction," they would have marched quite a distance from their camp.
Governor William Sprague of Rhode Island (1830-1915) was instrumental in raising the Rhode Island troops, and came with them to Washington. He then served as an aid to Colonel Burnside at Bull Run (HTIECivilWar, p. 709). Thus it is perfectly reasonable to see him telling the troops which way to go at a crossroads. He in fact had been over the ground, having participated in a preliminary reconnaissance before the battle (McDonald, p. 34).
The 71st New York was actually lucky; it suffered only 10 killed, 40 wounded, and 12 missing at Bull Run; the other three regiments all suffered more, and the casualties included two of the other three regimental commanders.
The 1st Rhode Island, like the 71st, was a three month regiment, and did not re-enlist; the 2nd Rhode Island did re-enlist, and went on to a long career in the Army of the Potomac's Sixth Corps (Fox, p. 472); elements of it were still with the army at the very end. Fox, p.. 177, calls it "Rhode Island's fighting regiment. it fired the opening volley at First Bull Run, and was in the line at the final scenes of Appomattox." It ran through six different colonels commanding in those four years. The 2nd New Hampshire was also in service from Bull Run to the end of the war, though it didn't have such a stable assignment; it served in the Third and Eighteenth Corps (Fox, p. 137). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: SCWF038

Nine O'Clock Is Striking

See The Bells are Ringing (Eight O'Clock Bells) (File: MSNR086)

Nine Pound Hammer

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

Nine Questions

See Riddles Wisely Expounded [Child 1] (File: C001)

Nine Times a Night

DESCRIPTION: A handsome sailor named "Nine Times a Night" arrives in London after a voyage and is seen by a "handsome rich widow." She entices him to marry her. He "trimmed her sails" five times; she wonders why he can't manage the nine times of his name
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (the broadsides are almost certainly Victorian if not earlier)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy marriage sailor humorous
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, NINETIME*
Roud #18411
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(555), "9 times a night," unknown, n.d; also Harding B 17(219a), "9 times a night," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Miller's Daughter (II)" (theme: male sexual ability or lack thereof)
NOTES [1116 words]: Field collections of this seem to be relatively few; I might have suspected A. L. Lloyd of writing it had it not been for the broadsides. It's interesting to note that these generally don't admit of a printer -- perhaps to avoid prosecution?
Hints of the idea of this are very old; a piece called "The Court of Love" was falsely attributed to Chaucer by Stow in 1561 (Severs/Hartung, p. 1087), and it includes a section "The Twenty Statutes of Love" (loosely based on a part of Lydgate's The Temple of Glass); commandment #16 was "Please your mistress twenty-one times a night" (Severs/Hartung, p. 1089). Obviously the piece is satiric. It's easy to show that this doesn't happen...
WARNING: Clinical biology ahead. Sort of graphic, and also one of the areas of science some religions find offensive.
There are sound reasons of evolutionary biology why human males cannot do it "nine times a night." It has to do with something called "sperm competition" -- or, rather, the human lack of same. You can read about this in such places as Dawkins, pp. 203-211, and (with a more gruesome side quest into infanticide among monkeys) in Ridley, pp. 213-226.
Dawkins, p. 210, has an interesting little graph, of the ratio of body mass to testes mass in primates -- in effect, of how much sperm each species produces. The interesting thing about this ratio is that the species above average all engage in extremely high levels of sexual activity. Ridley's numbers: "a female gorilla will mate about ten times for every baby that is born [whereas] a female chimp will mate five hundred to a thousand times" (p. 217).
This correlates closely with behavior. Male gorillas, which have small testes and low sperm production, keep harems (if they're lucky) of six or so females. These harems are stable, at least in the short run; the female will have no other mate while part of one. So the male doesn't have to have much sperm; if the female get pregnant, he knows he's the father.
It's very different in chimpanzees. Male chimps have been observed to murder the offspring of a female who has not mated with them. The only way for the female to prevent this is to mate with as many male chimps in her troop as possible, so that every male has to feel that he might be the father of her child. So the males inevitably have evolved to produce as much sperm as possible in order to try to out-reproduce everyone else. Fatherhood, for chimps, is partly a matter of luck -- but partly a matter of being able to really take advantage of opportunity when it's offered.
This has been shown in many other species. Gibbons are monogamous and have small testes. Monkeys have all sorts of sexual patterns, with sperm production correlating with the number of partners.
Humans -- well, on the graph they are on the low end of the scale. Not as low as gorillas, but definitely among the species that don't engage significantly in sperm competition. That doesn't necessarily mean that we are meant to be monogamous, but it *does* imply fixed pair bonds -- if not lifelong monogamy, then at least something like (polygamous) marriage or serial marriage: Any male "expects" to have near-exclusive access to a female at the time she conceives. So there is no advantage to a male in doing it "nine times a night"; if the first one or two don't do it, the woman probably is at the wrong time of her cycle to conceive.
The result of all this: "while women are physiologically able to return to a state of sexual arousal and even to achieve orgasm again [in a short time], men experience what is called a postejaculatory refractory period. This may last several minutes [for the very lucky guys!], hours, or even days. During this time, men cannot experience another orgasm and have difficulty achieving and maintaining an erection" (Gray/Garcia, p. 201).
The conclusion is somewhat ironic: If women want men able to do it "nine times a night," they have to share their favors around a lot more. And, in that case, they wouldn't *need* someone capable of "nine times a night"; they just need the ability to attract lots of men.
And there is a down side: Chimps, because they engage so heavily in sperm competition, average only seven seconds from the beginning of contact to ejaculation! (Roach, p. 285). Allowing them four times as long to get out after that, "nine times a night," for a chimp, still totals only five minutes and fifteen seconds.
And, yes, I know full well I'm spoiling the song....
One thing that bears thinking about is that the human reproductive system seems to be changing rapidly. At least, Jones, p. 104, reports that a tenth of human sperm carry chromosome errors, and fully a third are abnormal in this or some other way. Such extreme rates of defect apparently have not been found in other species; chimpanzee sperm, for instance, seem to be fine. This clearly implies some sort of evolutionary adaption is happening; sperm design has not caught up with the demands placed on them. Maybe more and more women are demanding "nine times a night," and the testes are struggling to keep up as best they can....
As for the actual statistics, Judson, p. 31, notes that the typical human male stores sperm equivalent to one and a half ejaculations. So if Jack the sailor really did manage five times in one night, he had three times the average male capacity. Although Jones, p. 103, notes the curious fact that, when spouses are reunited after a relatively long separation, the male's output doubles (he is not clear on whether this is semen or sperm). On p. 105, Jones adds that a man who ejaculates six times in the course of 24 hours is "firing blanks" by the end -- i.e. although he may still be producing seminal fluid, of actual sperm there are almost none.
Interestingly, being a sailor helps, and for reasons not related to just having a lot of biological pressure to work off. Sailors generally ate a lot of fish, and fish is rich in zinc -- and zinc is important to the production of seminal fluid, according to Emsley, pp. 48, 69. A sailor might also have had higher exposure to other chemicals which might enhance sexual performance, but in this regard, much depends on where he actually sailed.
Finally, in the days of sail, sailors were unlikely to bathe, especially in hot water -- and regular baths in hot water can dramatically reduce sperm production (Jones, p. 120). And they generally dressed in loose clothing, and English sailors would not have encountered much extreme heat at sea. Heat depresses sperm production; fertility is lower in summer even in fairly cool climates (Jones, pp. 213-214). Thus a sailor, for many reasons, is likely to be more sexually effective than a landsman. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcNinNig

Nine-Thirteen Men, The

DESCRIPTION: "A famous oldtime racing crew... rowed the old 'Blue Peter' in the time of nine-thirteen." They set a record in the Regatta Day race on Quidi Vidi Lake. The singer wishes "those men of nine-thirteen," who are listed, will "ferry souls where Jordan rolls"
AUTHOR: "L.E.F. English, O.B.E."
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing)
KEYWORDS: racing sports moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 116-117, "The Nine-Thirteen Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [55 words]: Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing: "The 'BLUE PETER' made her record 'voyage' across Quidi Vidi Lake (pond), St John's, during the summer Regatta of 1901; her time of 9 minutes 13 4/5 seconds has never been surpassed, or even equalled." - BS
For background on the (Royal) St. John's Regatta, see the notes to "The Terra Nova Regatta." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Blon116

Nineteen Hundred Forty-Two

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Nineteen hundred forty-two, Truman lost a shoe, Went to France, Lost his pants, now he's in a zoo"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Musick, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope clothes | 1942 Truman shoe pants France zoo
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #396, "Nineteen hundred forty-two" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cock a Doodle Doo" (lyrics)
NOTES [36 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes thinks this is about Harry S Truman, and this would be possible by 1952, when he was president. But in 1942? He was just an obscure senator. I suspect either the name or the date got changed. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR396

Ninety and Nine, The

DESCRIPTION: "There were ninety and nine that safely lay In the shelter of a fold, But one went out on the hills astray." It is asked, are not 99 enough? "But the shepherd made answer...I go to the desert to find my sheep." He faces great trials in finding the sheep
AUTHOR: Words: E. C. Clephane / Music: Ira D. Sankey
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: religious sheep separation reunion
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 24, #2 (1975), p, 15, "Ninety and Nine" (1 text, 1 tune, the Frank Proffitt version)
Roud #13145
NOTES [146 words]: The story of the shepherd leaving 99 sheep to find one is found in Matthew 18:12-13, Luke 15:4-6 (and also is saying #107 in the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas). On the other hand, it feels a lot like John 10, in which Jesus is the Good Shepherd (and in 10:9 Jesus is hte gate of the sheep).
The feeling of the song sort of mixes the two gospel versions. In Matthew, the sheep "wanders" (King James version "goes astray"); in Luke, the sheep is lost. In Matthew, the shepherd seeks the sheep on the mountains (somewhat similar to the song); in Luke the sheep is in the wilderness (=desert). There may be a hint of Mark 6:31ff., where the disciples go by ship to a "desert place" (to be understood "deserted place").
Proffitt's version mentions "gates of gold." There is no such quote in the Bible. In Rev. 21:21, the heavenly Jerusalem has gates of pearl and streets of gold. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: SOv24n2a

Ninety-Eight

DESCRIPTION: "Ho! cease our mourning." The victories and defeats of 1798 are recalled. "Let the strife renew ... No longer dally, wake up and rally... What if defeated? Death comes -- then greet it -- Why all must meet it, aye, soon or late."
AUTHOR: "Ned of the Hill" (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion death nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 74, "Ninety-Eight" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cappa Hill" (tune)
cf. "Anach Cuain" (tune)
NOTES [69 words]: The "Ned of the Hill" is of course not Edmond O'Ryan, the hero of the song of that name, who died a century before 1798.
The timing of this call for rebellion is strange; by 1898, Irish nationalism had gone relatively quiet, and Gladstone had made his first attempts to pass Home Rule (though they had failed and cost the Liberals control of the British parliament). But, of course, there were always die-hards. - RBW
File: Moyl074

Ninety-Nine and a Half

See Trying to Make a Hundred (File: KiWa239T)

Ninety-Nine Blue Bottles

See Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer (File: R456)

Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer

DESCRIPTION: Need I really tell you? "Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, Ninety-nine bottles of beer, Take one down and pass it around, Ninety-eight bottles of beer...." And so on, ad nauseum, drunkenness, or exhaustion
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Randolph 456, "Ninety-Nine Blue Bottles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 190, "Ninety-Nine Blue Bottles" (1 text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 17, "Forty-nine Bottles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #546, "Ten black bottles, Sitting on a fence" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Gloria Dickens, "Childhood Songs from North Carolina" Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), p. 7, "(There are ten green bottles a-stainding on the wall)"; "(A hundred bottles of beer on the wall) (2 texts)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 20, "99 bottles of beer on the wall" (2 mentions, from user hailelib, John5918, posted August 28, 2021; in John5918's version it is "Ten green bottles, standing on a wall")
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 384-385, 535, "Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall"/"Ten Green Bottles"/"Forty Bottles of Beer on the Wall" (notes only)
DT, BOT99*
Roud #7603
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Eight Little Cylinders" (counting)
cf. "Ten Little Injuns" (counting)
NOTES [73 words]: Randolph's and Brown's texts, obviously, refers to "blue bottles" rather than "bottles of beer," and one of the NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal texts is about green bottles; might this be an attempt to clean up the song for a temperate audience?
I will admit amazement that neither Randolph nor Brown seems to know this in its common form -- but then, they probably were born in the days before school buses took students on field trips. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: R456

Ninety-Nine Years (I)

DESCRIPTION: Singer, while gambling, thinks about how the woman he loves ran away with another man. He kills him (or her), is arrested and imprisoned. He has served forty years, but "still has ninety-nine." When the train rolls by with the woman he loves, he cries
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Jess Hillard)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer sits down to gamble, thinking about how the woman he loves has run away with another man. He does something (kills her? kills her lover?), is arrested, tried and sentenced to prison. He has served forty years, but "still has ninety-nine." When the train rolls by with the woman he loves, he hangs his head and cries
KEYWORDS: grief jealousy infidelity love violence crime homicide prison punishment trial lover prisoner
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #15842
RECORDINGS:
Callahan Brothers, "Ninety-Nine's My Name" (Perfect 7-04-63, 1937)
Graham Bros. "Ninety Nine Years [pts. 1 & 2]" (Victor 23654, 1932) 2/23/32
Jess Hillard, "Ninety-Nine Years" (Champion 16398, 1932; Champion 45091, c. 1935; rec. 1931) (Champion 16617, 1933; rec. 1932)
Steve Ledford & Daniel Nicholson w. Carolina Ramblers String Band, "Ninety Nine Years" (Banner 32371/Oriole 8118/Perfect 12787/Romeo 5118/Melotone [Canada] 91283, 1932)
[Asa] Martin & [Bob] Roberts, "Ninety-Nine Years" (Banner 32426/Melotone M-12436/Perfect 12799/Vocalion 5486 [as Glen Fox & Joe Wilson]/Conqueror 7967, 1932)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner [Mac and Bob] "Ninety-Nine Years, Parts1 & 2" (Brunswick 588, 1932)
Fiddlin' Doc Roberts Trio, "Ninety Nine Years" (Banner 32609/Melotone 12520, 1932)
Vagabonds, "Ninety Nine Years" (Victor 23820/Bluebird B-5282/Montgomery Ward M-4307, 1933)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum) [Laws H2]" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Elton Britt, "The Answer to Ninety-Nine Years" (Banner 33033/Melotone M-12954/Melotone [Canada] 93086/Oriole 8315/Perfect 12986/Romeo 5315/Conqueror 8288, 1934; Minerva M-14024/ARC 6-02-55, 1936)
NOTES [35 words]: There is another song with the same title; that one can be identified by its opening lines, "The courtroom was crowded/The judge waited there" and by the line "Ninety-nine years, boys, is almost for life." - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Rc99Year

Nishi

See Cherokee Hymn (I Have a Father in the Prog Ni Lo) (File: Br3658)

Nivy nivy nick nack

See Nievie Nievie Nick Nack (File: SuSm059B)

Nix My Dolly Pals Fake Away

DESCRIPTION: "In a box of the stone jug I was born, Of a hempen widow the kid forlorn, Fake away... Nix my Dolly Pals fake away." The youth grew up poor but was a successful robber until his "nuttiest lady" betrayed him. He has escaped and continues "merry and free"
AUTHOR: G. H. Rodwell?
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Scott); supposedly first performed 1839
KEYWORDS: robbery betrayal escape freedom prison
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 128-129, "Nix My Dolly Pals" (1 text, 1 tune)
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 219-223, "The sprig of shillelagh" (1 tune, which the notes imply is used for this)
Roud #12735
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack Sheppard" [Laws L6] (subject)
cf. "The Sprig of Shillelah" (tune, apparently, according to Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats)
SAME TUNE:
Rush Away (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 36, listed as using the tune "Nix My Dolly)
NOTES [66 words]: Listed by Scott as from "Rodwell's Comic Opera, 'Little Jack Shephard," said to have been based on either Harrison Ainsworth's Rookwood (for which see "My Bonny Black Bess (II) (Poor Black Bess; Dick Turpin's Ride) "[Laws L9]) or Ainsworth's "Jack Shepherd." (Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats lists only Rookwood as a possible source.) For Shepherd himself see "Jack Sheppard" [Laws L6]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: ScES129

No Balls at All

DESCRIPTION: A young maiden weds a man with no balls at all. Her mother advises her to seek comfort from a young man. She does, and a "bouncing young baby was born in the fall to the wife of the man who had no balls at all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918
KEYWORDS: baby bawdy humorous husband wife
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US(MW,So,SW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 158-162, "No Balls at All" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II, pp. 677-678, "No Balls at All" (1 text)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 66, "No Balls at All" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 35, "She Married a Man" (1 short text)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 111-112, "No Balls at All" (1 text)
DT, NOBALLS*
Roud #10136
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singers, "No Balls at All" [two versions, by different singers] (on Unexp1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "An Old Man Came Over the Moor (Old Gum Boots and Leggings)"
cf. "I Wouldn't Have an Old Man"
cf. "Maids, When You're Young"
cf. "My Husband's Got No Courage in Him"
cf. "What Can a Young Lassie"
cf. "The Mormon Cowboy (II)"
cf. ""The Strawberry Roan" (tune, some versions)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
No Hips at All (marginally cleaned-up version)
NOTES [17 words]: This is one of a large group of traditional songs and ballads dealing with May-December marriages. - EC
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM158

No Boots

DESCRIPTION: "Down in the land of the Antipodites, Round the campfires that burn on a cold winter's night," bushmen report that ghosts walk "with no boots at all." A young man goes climbing without boots. He falls. Neither heaven nor hell will take him without boots
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1950 (Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: humorous clothes death Hell humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 80-81, "No Boots" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [24 words]: I rather suspect this was originally sung to "Vilikins and His Dinah," but this is not the tune given by Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Clev080

No Bread for the Poor

See The Orphan Girl (The Orphan Child) (File: R725)

No Depression in Heaven

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes the Great Depression in apocalyptic terms, predicting the end of the world. He says he is going to heaven where there's no Depression.
AUTHOR: J. D. Vaughan (1864-1941), according to Bill C. Malone, _Don't Get above Your Raisin'_
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (recording, Carter Family); reportedly written 1932
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 116, "No Depression in Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 227, "No Depression in Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17321
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "No Depression" (Decca 5242, 1936; Montgomery Ward 8006, 1939)
Charlie Monroe & his Kentucky Pardners, "There's No Depression in Heaven" (RCA Victor 20-2055, 1946)
New Lost City Ramblers, "No Depression in Heaven" (on NLCR09, NLCRCD1)
SAME TUNE:
No Disappointment in Heaven (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1)
NOTES [87 words]: The Great Depression is generally considered to have extended from the stock market crash of 1929 to the beginning of World War II in 1939. However, it is worth noting that conditions for farmers had already been depressed for several years before this. [Due in part to the revival of European agriculture after World War I. In Minnesota, the political side effects are still felt to some extent today, in the relative strength of third party politics.]
This is a reworking of the hymn "No Disappointment in Heaven". - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: ADR116

No Dominies For Me, Laddie

DESCRIPTION: A young minister proposes to the singer. She rejects him because he is poor. He said he would "fleece the flock" to become rich. She fears he might die young, leaving her and the children poor. Then she meets and happily marries "a gentleman dragoon"
AUTHOR: Rev. Nathaniel Mackay (source: Chambers)
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: age poverty marriage rejection humorous clergy soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 872, "But For Your Sake I'll Fleece the Flock" (1 text)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 319-324, "No Dominies for Me Laddie" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol I, pp. 142-144, "Nae Dominies For Me, Laddie"
Peter Buchan, Gleanings of Scarce Old Ballads (Norwood, 1974 (reprint of 1891 Aberdeen reissue of 1825 Peterhead edition)), pp. 172-175, "Nae Dominies for Me, Laddie"
ST GrD4872 (Partial)
Roud #6244
NOTES [35 words]: Chambers [1829]: "Written by the Rev Nathaniel Mackay, Minister of Crossmichael, in the Stewartry of Kirkeadbright, some time during the last century. He is not known to have written any other piece of merit." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4872

No Drunkard

DESCRIPTION: "I wouldn't be your sweetheart, I'll tell you the reason why, My Mama always told me To pass the drunkard by." She will never marry a drunkard; she will marry a man who will "love and protect me," then go to heaven where drunkards won't be found
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Roberts/Agey-InThePine)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection drink
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #121, "No Drunkard" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [13 words]: This is full of familiar phrases, but as a whole, it seems to be unique. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RAInP121

No Hidin'-Place

See No Hiding Place AND Sinner Man (File: FSWB370C)

No Hiding Place (I)

DESCRIPTION: "There's no hiding place down there (x2), I ran to the rock to hide my face, The rock cried out, 'no hiding place.'" "The rock cried out, 'I'm burning too... I want to go to heaven the same as you." "Sinner man he stumbled and fell...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Hell
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Bahamas,Tobago)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 616, "No Hidin'-Place" (2 texts, but the "B" text appears to be "Sinner Man")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 616, "No Hidin' Place" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 48, "The Sinner Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 370, "No Hiding Place" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, pp. 145-146, "No Hiding Place" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, pp. 35-36, "No Hiding Place" (1 text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Elsie Clews Parsons, "Spirituals and Other Folklore from the Bahamas," Vol. 41, No. 162 (Oct-Dec 1928), Anthems: Rum Cay #2 p. 464, ("I went to de rock, Time") (1 text)
Roud #3408
RECORDINGS:
Marian Anderson, "Dere's No Hidin' Place Down Dere" [medley with "Every Time I Feel the Spirit"] (Victor 2032, 1940)
Carter Family, "There's No Hiding Place Down Here" (Montgomery Ward M-4547, 1935)
Hampton Institute Quartette, "There's No Hiding Place Down Here" (Victor 27472, 1941)
Lulu Belle & Scotty, "There's No Hiding Place Down Here" (Conqueror 9695, 1941)
David Pryor et al, "Time" (AAFS 505 A1, 1935; on LomaxCD1822-2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Can't Hide Sinner" (theme, lyrics)
NOTES [218 words]: I am slightly hesitant about including the [David Pryor] recording of "Time" under this title. However, it has the recurrent verse, "I went to the rock...The rock cried out 'No hiding place,'" which is close enough for me. - PJS
The phrase "no hiding place" has a long history in Christianity. The so-called "Protevangelum of James," or "Infancy Gospel of James," which may date back to the second century, has an incident at the time of the Massacre of the Innocents. Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, knows that Herod's soldiers are coming to kill her son.
In the translation found on p. 71 of Bart D. Erhman, Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament, Oxford University Press, 2003, 22:3 reads, "when Elizabeth heard that they were looking for John, she took him and went up into the mountains, looking for a place to hide him. But there was no hiding place."
When she cried out, however, "the mountain split open and received her."
The "Protevangelium" was surprisingly influential in Catholic circles; it probably helped foster the myth of Mary's perpetual virginity (see the notes to "The Carnal and the Crane" [Child 55]). But Protestants rejected it utterly. So there is little reason to suspect a connection between that book and this song. But it's interesting. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB370C

No Hiding Place (II)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "No hiding place, No hiding place, Almost to the Judgment Bar, No hiding place." Verse: "Fox got a hole in the ground, Bird got a nest in the air, There's nare one thing got a hiding place But these sinners got none"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 33, p. 151, "No Hidin' Place" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [46 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. - BS
Matthew 8:20 in the King James Bible reads "And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr033

No Home

See The Orphan Girl (The Orphan Child) (File: R725)

No Irish Need Apply

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a decent boy just landed From the town of Ballyfad; I want a situation, yes, And want it very bad." He applies for various jobs, but is told time and again, "No Irish need apply." (At last he attacks one of the bosses and gains a job)
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: emigration discrimination Ireland nonballad work fight
FOUND IN: US(MW) Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 100, "No Irish Need Apply" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 65, "No Irish Wanted Here" (1 text)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 41-42, "No Irish Need Apply" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1607, p. 109, "No Irish Need Apply" (4 references)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 77, "No Irish Need Apply" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 364-366, "No Irish Need Apply" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 100, "No Irish Need Apply" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 292, "No Irish Need Apply" (1 text)
DT, NOIRISH*
Roud #1137
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "No Irish Need Apply" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a, AmHist1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "An Irish Laborer" (subject)
cf. "The Honest Irish Lad" (subject)
cf. "What Irish Boys Can Do" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
No Puppies Need Apply ("Gentlemen who seek a wife, pray just look at me") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 110)
Victorious General Grant ("'Tis of a noble soldier that now I am going to sing") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 165)
NOTES [478 words]: This is a bit of a conundrum, because this song seems to occur in two fairly distinct forms, which we might call "No Irish Need Apply" and "No Irish Wanted Here." In many of the former versions, the Irishman attacks the prejudiced employer. In some of the latter, there is none of that; the worker appeals to the work the Irish did in the Civil War to save the Union. The Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster is yet another form ("In the papers you have read, have you noticed what they said"); it appears is another appeal to what the Irish have done but mentions Waterloo, not the Civil War.
I was seriously tempted to split the two. But they have common lyrics; while I suspect a deliberate rewrite somewhere along the line, it is not really possible to tell where to draw the line.
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 109, lists two distinct songs printed in the nineteenth century with the title "No Irish Need Apply." The more frequently-printed began "I'm a dacint boy, just landed from the town of Ballyfad"; it is credited to John F. Poole and sung by Tony Pastor. The other, uncredited, begins "Oh 'twas yesterday that I was led on such a wild goose chase."
Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 290, says that a song "No Irish Need Apply" was published and sung by a self-proclaimed "Irish Vocalist" named Kathleen O'Neil in 1863, but it is has references to Sebastopol, which hints that it might be an expansion of a Crimean War original to which O'Neil added a reference to (Philip) Sheridan and the Civil War). It concludes by saying that, based on their war service, "All Irish may apply" -- which is hardly the common ending.
Finson, pp. 290-291, says that "The title of [O'Neil's] song originated in an advertisement from the London Times, according to a preface reprinted in the sheet music: 'WANTED. -- A smart active girl to do the general house work of a large family; one who can cook, clean plate, and get up fine linen preferred. N.B. -- No Irish need apply.'" This is curious, since the song is generally about a man.
As regards "No Irish Wanted Here," one might suspect it is the work of Edward Harrigan and David Braham, for whom see "Babies on Our Block," or at least that Harrigan popularized it. There are two reasons for this. First, the song was printed by Dean, and Dean had a lot of Harrigan/Braham/Hart material in his repertoire. Second, the Harrigan company addressed this topic in a drama. According to Richard Moody, Ned Harrigan: From Corlear's Hook to Herald Square, Nelson Hall, 1980, p. 239, "No Irish Wanted Here; or, Out on Strike took a serious turn. While Barney Farrell 'has sacrificed himself for the workingman,' his child has died of hunger. As he roams the town pleading for a job, all he hears is 'No Irish Wanted Here'...." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DTnoris

No Irish Wanted Here

See No Irish Need Apply (File: DTnoris)

No Ku Klux Out Tonight

DESCRIPTION: "At Mars Hill College on a moonlight night, Old Shep Deaver he took a flight." Chorus: "There ain't no Ku Klux out tonight" (x2). Shep Deaver and Rube Manning flee, Manning in response to a rebel yell. Others in the area are briefly mentioned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1984 (JonssLunsford)
KEYWORDS: nonballad moniker Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp. 4-5, "No Ku Klux Out Tonight" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [85 words]: This seems to be the sort of song that only makes sense if you know the local lore. Bascom Lamar Lunsford apparently had relatives who married into the Deaver family, and some of the events are real, but you'll have to read Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford for the details. It appears that Lunsford recorded this at least once (LOC 1822 B2) and possibly twice ("Such a Gittin' Up Stairs," Robert W. Gordon Collection A42 NC 63), but for obvious reasons it has not been widely released. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: JoLun004

No Letter in the Mail

DESCRIPTION: Singer hasn't received an answer to his love-letter. He has written that he was wrong and to blame, and that he loves her truly. He walks down the road, saying if he doesn't get a letter in the mail, he'll "bid this world goodbye"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recording, Happy-Go-Lucky Boys)
KEYWORDS: loneliness love abandonment suicide lover
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
Roud #11577
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff, "No Letter in the Mail" (Conqueror 9810, 1941/OKeh 06585, 1942)
Happy-Go-Lucky Boys, "No Letter in the Mail Today" (Bluebird B-8467, 1940)
Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys, "No Letter in the Mail" (Bluebird B-8611, 1941)
Martin Young & Corbett Grigsby, "No Letter in the Mail" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Letter that Never Came" (theme)
File: RcNLITM

No Man Can Hinder Me

DESCRIPTION: "Walk in, kind savior, no man can hinder me" (x2). "O, no man, no man, no man can hinder me" (x2). "See what wonder Jesus done." "Jesus make de dumb to speak." "Jesus do most anything." "King Jesus ride a milk-white horse."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment); 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus healing
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 10-11, "No Man Can Hinder Me" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 6, p. 202, "Ride In, Kind Saviour" (1 text)
Roud #11853
NOTES [155 words]: Most of the miracles cited in this song are attested: Jesus raised Lazarus in John 12; he made a crippled man walk in John 5, Mark 2:3-12 and parallels; he made the blind see in John 9:1fff., Matthew 9,27fff., Mark 10:46fff. and parallels, etc.
The case of curing a man who was dumb is more interesting. There is only one detailed miracle of this sort, in Mark 7:31-37. In this account, the man is deaf and has "an impediment in his speech." When Jesus treats him, he begins to speak "plainly" (Greek ορθως, orthws, i.e. rightly, properly, following the straight course). Thus the man Jesus cured was not actually mute but rather incomprehensible. Still, there is a short account of Jesus casting out a demon responsible for making a man mute in Matt. 9:32-33=Luke 11:14, (Don't ask me why dumbness is caused by a demon and requires an exorcism, while blindness is a genuine medical condition which is cured by physical means.) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: AWG010

No Man Is an Island

DESCRIPTION: "No man is an island, No man stands alone, Each man's joy is joy to me, Each man's grief is my own." "We need each other," so the singer will stand by all others, and will sing together with them.
AUTHOR: Peter Schickele (source: LyricFind), based on a lyric of John Donne
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 547, 548, "No Man Is an Island" (notes only)
NOTES [46 words]: One of the books I found this in claims it's from Nova Scotia, but I have no evidence of that. Note that this is not John Donne's poem; it merely starts from Donne's 1624 lyric. But it doesn't even quote Donne's complete first line "No man is an island entire of itself." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF547N

No More Auction Block

See Many Thousand Gone (Auction Block) (File: FJ030)

No More Booze (Fireman Save My Child)

DESCRIPTION: "There was a little man... He went to the Saloon on a Sunday afternoon And you ought to heard the bartender holler, No more booze... No more booze on Sunday... Got to get your can filled on Monday. She's the only girl I love.... O fireman, save my child."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: drink nonsense
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 208-209, "No More Booze (Fireman Save My Child)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NOBOOZE*
Roud #15928
RECORDINGS:
Radio Mac [pseud. for Harry McClintock], "Fireman Save My Child" (Victor V-40234, 1930)
File: San208

No More Cane on the Brazos

See Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos (File: LxA058)

No More Cane on this Brazos

See Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos (File: LxA058)

No More Good Time in the World For Me

DESCRIPTION: A composite lament of a man serving a life term. He laments his time on the Brazos, tells a girl not to wait, thinks about the time ahead of him, wishes he had a buddy or could escape, and says he will be hard to find if he does escape
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recorded from J. B. Smith by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 147-151,"No More Good Times in the World For Me" (1 text plus a fragment, both from the same informant; 1 tune)
NOTES [65 words]: This song, and several others by J. B. Smith, brilliantly illustrates the problem of classifying Black prison songs. This is clearly a personal song by Smith, who was serving a life term for killing his girlfriend, but the themes and many of the words come from other songs. Given the extent of Smith's rewriting, I classified it separately, but there is no good way to file such things. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM147

No More Irish

See No More Spelling, No More Books (File: SuSm063C)

No More Pencils, No More Books

DESCRIPTION: "No more pencils, no more books, No more teachers' dirty looks." Possible additional couplets: "School's out, school's out, Teacher let the news out." "Kick the table, kick the chairs, Kick the teacher down the stairs."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 48, "No More Pencils" (1 text)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, p. 89, "School's Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 121, "(No more pencils)" (1 text)
Roud #19384
NOTES [28 words]: I am surprised this is not more commonly printed. (Academic censorship? :-) Certainly I heard this little rhyme chanted at the end of every year of elementary school. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: SaKo121A

No More Rain Fall for Wet You

DESCRIPTION: "No more rain fall for wet you, Hallelu, hallelu, No more rain fall for wet you, Hallelujah." "No more sun shine for burn you." "No more parting in the kingdom." "No more backbiting in the kingdom." "Every day shall be Sunday."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment); 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 46, "No More Rain Fall for Wet You" (1 text, 1 tune); "I Want to Go Home" (1 text, without a real tune; although the authors list this as a separate song, the tune is only a chant, and most of the words go with the preceding, so I lump them.)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 8, p. 203, "I Want To Go Home" (1 text)
Roud #12002 and 12003
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "No Rain Gonna Wet Me" ("no rain will wet me" theme)
File: AWG046A

No More Shall I Work in the Factory

DESCRIPTION: "When I set out for Lowell, some factory for to find, I left my native country And all my friends behind." The worker lives a life driven by the factory bell. She plans to leave the factory and go home. She will soon be married and live a freer life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (JournalOfAmericanFolklore Vol. 28)
KEYWORDS: work worker hardtimes home weaving factory technology
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 15-18 "The Factory Girl" (1 text plus a reproduction of a broadside)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 122-124, "The Lowell Factory Girl" (1 text); pp. 125-126, "No More Shall I Work in the Factory" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 331-332, "The Factory Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 43, "The Lowell Factory GIrl" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 128, "The Factory Girl" (1 text)
DT, NOMOFACT
Roud #15534
RECORDINGS:
Dorsey Dixon, "The Factory Girl" (Testament t-3301, a version adapted by Dixon from a version sung by his sister Nancy)
Mike Seeger, "A Factory Girl" (on MSeeger02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Laundry Song" (lyrics)
cf. "The Laddie Wi' the Tarry Trews" (theme)
NOTES [148 words]: The oldest version of this song seems to be the "Lowell Factory Girl" text quoted in the description; this broadside is very full. Greenway believes this version originated before 1840; the wages mentioned fit 1830, and the Panic of 1837 killed off many of the small New England farms, meaning that the factory girl would have no home to which to return. Cohen dates his broadside print to the 1840s.
The localized "Lowell Factory Girl" gradually spread and generalized, producing the more universal text "No More Shall I Work in the Factory." As the latter consists almost entirely of verses found in the former, however, they can surely be considered one song.
For more about Lowell, see the notes to "Bread and Roses."
This should not be confused with the J. A. Phillips song "The Factory Girl" (c. 1895), which begins, "She wasn't the least bit pretty, And only the least bit gay." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Grnw122

No More Spelling, No More Books

DESCRIPTION: "No more spelling, no more books, No more teacher's dirty looks." Or variations: "No more spelling, no more French, No more sitting on a hard board bench." "Two more weeks and we shall be Out of the gates of misery."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1970 (personal recollection)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: US(MW) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 63, "(Two more weeks and we shall be)"; "(No more spelling, no more books)"; "No more spelling, no more French)" (3 texts)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 98, "(No more Irish)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: J. C. Reid, _A Book of New Zealand_ (Collins National Anthologies), Collins, 1964, p. 332, "Children's Games" ("Two more weeks and we shall be") (1 text)
NOTES [58 words]: One of those rare children's rhymes that I remember from elementary school, which presumably would be around 1970.
I find it quite humorous that the Irish version starts "No more Irish." This, of course, reflects the fact that everyone in Ireland speaks English but are forced to study Irish Gaelic because Ireland can't stand its own language. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SuSm063C

No More Will the Shamrock

DESCRIPTION: The singer says if he forgets his lover the shamrock will not seem green and the morning will not be wet with dew. He tells her to keep his heart and not break it. When they die "the sweet recollection of you" will remain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: love lyric
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1360, "No More Will the Shamrock" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #7238
File: GrD71360

No More, My Lord

DESCRIPTION: "No more, my Lord (x2), Lord, I'll never turn back no more." "I found in him a resting place And he has made me glad." "Jesus is the man I am looking for, Can you tell me where he's gone?" "Go down, go down in the floweryard And... you may find him...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 567, "Gwine Down to Jordan" (1 short text); 617, "No More! No More!" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 567, "Grine Down Jordan" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 15, (no title; the first line is "I'm gwine down to Jordan -- Hallelu!") (1 fragment, which could be anything; I'm filing it here in desperation based on the similarity to Brown's title)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 312-313, "No More, My Lord" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15975
RECORDINGS:
Madame Ernestine, "I'll Never Turn Back" (on Great Gospel Performers Document Records DOCD-5463 (1996))
Jimpson, "No More, My Lord" (LoC, 1947; on Babylon)
Sister Marie Knight, "I'll Never Turn Back No More" (Candy 4002, n.d. but post-World War II)
NOTES [18 words]: According to the editors of Brown, this may have inspired W. C. Handy's "I'll Never Turn Back No More." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: SBoA312

No More! No More!

See No More, My Lord (File: SBoA312)

No My Love Not I

See Oh, No, Not I (File: DTmarryn)

No Never Alone

DESCRIPTION: "I’ve seen the lightning flashing And heard the thunder roll," but the storm cannot conquer the singer, because "I heard the voice of the Savior, Telling me still to fight on, He promised never to leave me, Never to leave me alone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (source: hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 165-166, "No Never Alone" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #28851
RECORDINGS:
Artricia Gordon, "I've Seen the Lightning Flashing" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #89, recorded 12/29/2021)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I See the Lightning Flashing
File: Ow2E165

No One Can Come Out of Hell

DESCRIPTION: "No one can come out of Hell, For out of Hell there's no redemption. When you get there you get your pension. Tuppence a week (for working hard/and nothing more), For chasing the Devil around the floor."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: money Hell Devil | pension
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 59, "(No one can come out of Hell)" (2 texts, very similar)
Roud #38137
File: BAAI059A

No One To Welcome Me Home

See Liverpool Dock (File: R095)

No Payday Here

DESCRIPTION: "I used to weigh, two hundred, two hundred, now I'm skin and bone." "Well I asked the captain... Did the payroll come? What the hell you care, partner, I don't own you none." The singer complains about the conditions in his prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (recorded from J. B. Smith by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 164-166, "No Payday Here" (1 text)
File: JDM164

No Rain Gonna Wet Me

DESCRIPTION: "No rain gonna wet me When the roll is called (x2), No rain gonna wet me when I get up in the heaven. No rain gonna wet me when the roll is called." "No sun gonna burn me...." "Gonna shout Hallelujah...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (USSeaIsland03)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Minnie Gracie Gadson, "No Rain Gonna Wet Me" (on USSeaIsland03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "No More Rain Fall for Wet You" ("no rain will wet me" theme)
cf. "When That General Roll Is Called" (roll call theme in hymns) and references there.
File: RcNRGWMe

No Room at the Hotel

DESCRIPTION: "There was no room, no room, they had no room, There was no room, no room at the hotel." At the time Jesus was to be born, the hotel was full. The Virgin Mary was wandering in the night. The people were wicked. The hotel staff may be forgiven
AUTHOR: Song segment unknown; story by Vera Ward Hall (c. 1902-1964)
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (interview with Vera Ward Hall)
KEYWORDS: Jesus hardtimes religious hardheartedness poverty travel childbirth animal family
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 152-153, "No Room at the Hotel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13974
RECORDINGS:
Vera Ward Hall, "No Room at the Inn" (on LomaxCD1706)
NOTES [216 words]: This is very loosely based on Luke 2:1-7, which does indeed say that Jesus was born in a stable because there was no room at the inn (and it certainly would have been an inn, not the "hotel" of Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices's version -- the modern hotel concept did not exist at the time!). However, the song omits the census which allegedly caused the disruptions (and which is never mentioned in secular history and is highly unlikely with Rome and the Parthian Empire at dagger-points; Rome could not afford the disruption a census would have caused).
Also, Luke has only a single sentence about the inn being full. There is no hint that the inn's staff was wicked, or of a distinction between the workers and management. Inns at this time were almost certainly family businesses, with father, mother, and children doing the work; they might have a few employees, but the manager was part of the staff. Thus this song is guilty of many anachronisms, and almost all of them unfair.
The behavior of the animals in the stable is equally fictitious; the Lukan account not only doesn't mention animals, it doesn't even explicitly mention a stable! We call it a stable simply because it contained a "manger" (though the Greek word, φατνη, phatne, feed-trough, sometimes extends to mean a stable). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Rose152

No Room at the Inn (I)

DESCRIPTION: "When Caesar Augustus had raised a taxation, He assessed all the people that dwelt in the nation." Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem, but cannot find a place at the inn. They eventually find a stable, where Jesus is born
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1833 (Sandys)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible Jesus Christmas childbirth
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 114, "No Room at the Inn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 374, "No Room at the Inn" (1 text)
NOTES [91 words]: I find it hard to believe that this is actually a traditional song; the wording is too ornate and contorted.
The details in this song are either fictional or derived from Luke 2; the birth narrative in Matthew plays no part. Of course, we should also note that the account in Luke 2 is incorrect; there is no record of this particular census, and even if there had been such a census (possible, given the available documentation, but unlikely), the Romans would not allow such a mess in a frontier province threatened with Parthian invasion. - RBW
File: FSWB374A

No Room at the Inn (II)

See No Room at the Hotel (File: Rose152)

No Room for a Tramp

See Willy, Poor Boy (File: CSW112)

No Sign of a Marriage [Laws P3]

DESCRIPTION: The girl says she has been waiting long enough for marriage. Her sweetheart, who thinks marriage too "confining," suggests she find someone else. She does, and invites him to her wedding. He tries to talk her out of the marriage, but it is too late
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting wedding infidelity rejection
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws P3, "No Sign of a Marriage"
Greig/Duncan4 895, "The Tardy Wooer" (15 texts, 10 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 83-84, "The Tardy Wooer" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 233, "Down in the North Country" (1 text)
Randolph 111, "Polly and Willie" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 149, "Indeed Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 203, "No Sign of a Marriage" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 203, "No Sign of a Marriage" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 542-544, "A Lad and a Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 233-235, "A Lad and a Lass (No Sign of Marriage)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 725, NOSIGN
Roud #582
RECORDINGS:
Charlotte Decker, "A Lad and a Lass" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Pretty Polly
In London There Lived a Man and a Maiden
Down in Yon Meadow
In London of Late
When a Man's Married
NOTES [97 words]: This is another of the pieces that Laws assigns to Britain on little evidence (there is a mention of a promise of "five hundred pounds"). The only versions known to Laws or the editors of the Brown collection are the two North Carolina texts in Brown.
It may be, however, that this was an error in the printed edition of Laws, because there *is* a British equivalent in "The Tardy Wooer." I initially split these following Laws -- but in fact they even share lyrics, and so are now lumped. - RBW
Greig/Duncan4 quoting Gillespie: "Learned from mother fifty years ago. Noted 1905." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LP03

No Sir! (No Sir!)

See No, John, No (File: R385)

No Surrender (I)

DESCRIPTION: The song is about the breaking of the seige of Derry. "Walker's zeal, and Murray's steel Came in their need to cheer them, And sallies from open gate, Soon taught their foe to fear them" The Defenders held the city until relieved by "Browning's vessel"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: battle rescue death starvation patriotic youth
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 28, 1689 - Browning's ships break the 105 day seige of Derry (source: Kilpatrick [see Notes])
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 5, "No Surrender" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry" (subject: The Siege of Derry) and references there
NOTES [350 words]: Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark: "'No Surrender' is a phrase often used in Ulster. The song traces its origin to the Seige of Derry and names a few of the city's defenders who have been memorialized in Apprentice Boys Clubs." The chorus is "Then raise the cheer, to freemen dear, And toast each brave defender; For nought imparts to Derry hearts A thrill like 'No Surrender!'"
See Historical References to "The Boyne Water" for a summary of the war in Ireland between James II and William of Orange. [Or see the detailed duscussions under "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry" and "The Battle of the Boyne (I)." - RBW]
The Protestant Plantation of Ulster was created after the 1607 "Flight of the Earls" -- heads of the Ulster clans -- to Rome allowed James I to declare their lands forfeit to the Crown. In the Plantation, the City of Londonderry was fortified and gated walls built around it. When James II brought troops from Ireland [to England,] Londonderry was left unguarded. On December 7, 1688, Lord Antrim's Catholic "Redshanks" camped outside the city. With the city government undecided as to how to handle the situation, thirteen young "Apprentice Boys" seized the gate keys, drew up the drawbridge and locked the four gates. Antrim's troops withdrew. Lord Mountjoy's Protestant regiment was allowed to garrison the city.
To escape the war, residents surrounding areas flooded into the city. Reinforcements sent by William to relieve Derry in April turned away. Then James's attempt at negotiating with Derry failed. Colonel Murray led Protestant troops to the gate, which was opened for them, and the Derry government, which had been willing to negotiate with James, was overturned. Reverend George Walker and Colonel Henry Baker were appointed joint Governors. The seige began "in earnest" on May 5, 1689. On July 28 three ships on the Foyle broke the seige bringing food; captain of the Mountjoy was Michael Browning, who was killed in the battle. The beseigers left on August 1, 1689. (source: Cecil Kilpatrick, "The Seige of Derry: A City of Refuge" at the Canada-Ulster Heritage site) - BS
File: OrLa005

No Surrender (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Behold the crimson banner float" recalling "when Derry's sons ... sung out, 'No Surrender!'" and "her 'Prentice hearts the gate who barred" "Long may that crimson banner wave ... while Derry's sons alike defy Pope, Traitor, or Pretender"
AUTHOR: Lieut. Colonel William Blacker (1777-1853)(written 1817, source: Sparling)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1895 (Graham-TheOrangeSongster)
KEYWORDS: battle Ireland patriotic youth
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 7, 1688 - The "Apprentice Boys" close the Londonderry gates against Lord Antrim's "Redshanks" (source: Cecil Kilpatrick, "The Seige of Derry: A City of Refuge" at the Canada-Ulster Heritage site)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Graham-TheOrangeSongster, p. 3, "No Surrender" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 451-452, 495-496, "No Surrender"
Roud #V31389
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "No Surrender (I)" (subject)
cf. "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry" (subject) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Crimson Banner
NOTES [201 words]: The chorus ("Then here's to the boys that fear no noise And never will surrender, The gates we'll close against her foes On Eighteenth of December") uses the Gregorian Calendar (adopted in England in 1752) date, adding eleven days to the anniversary of December 7, 1688.
"This fraternity [The Apprentice Boys Of Derry] celebrates twice anually. This happens first at the "Closing of the Gates". Later comes the "Relief of Derry" parade .... The flag of the Apprentice Boys is a crimson banner, representing the blood that flowed in Derry for freedom and liberty. The Crimson banner is flown from the Memorial Hall in the city and from St Columb's Cathedral, which was built before the siege." (Source: Wikipedia article Apprentice Boys of Derry)
Sparling: "Written to a very fine old Irish melody (Joyce, p. 83)...." I don't recognize Graham-TheOrangeSongster's tune. "Joyce" is P.W. Joyce and the book Ancient Irish Music (Sparling, p. xxvii, refers to the 1878 edition. - BS
For the background of the Siege of (London)derry, see the notes to "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry"; also "No Surrender (I)". Blacker, in addition to this song, wrote the very well known "The Battle of the Boyne (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Grah003

No Telephone in Heaven

DESCRIPTION: "'Now I cannot wait on babies,' the smiling merchant said," as the child says that (s)he be allowed to call mother on the telephone. But there is no way to call her; there are "no telephones in Heaven." The child tells of the hard times (s)he faces
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs)
KEYWORDS: death mother children technology
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 108-109, "No Telephone in Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3523
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "No Telephone in Heaven" (Zonophone 4322)
File: Abrr108

No Time to Tarry Here

DESCRIPTION: "Brothers, oh, fare you well (x3), For I'm on my journey home." "No time to tarry here, No time to wait for you, No time to tarry here, For I'm on my journey home." Repeat with fathers, mothers, sisters, neighbours, sinners, probably cats and dogs....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: religious separation home nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "No Time to Tarry Here" (Piotr-Archive #317, recorded 10/26/2022)
File: DPio317

No to be Married Ava

DESCRIPTION: "Our Girzie was noo thirty-six, Though some rather more did her ca', And ane quite sae auld to get married Has little or nae chance ava." The old maid finds herself teased, and desperately offers to wed any man, whatever his faults, rather than stay unwed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (according to Ford)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid courting husband
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 308-310, "No to be Married Ava" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1379, "I'd Raither Be Married to Something" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 66-67, "The Old Maid" (1 text)
Roud #7161
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Maid's Song (I)" and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Wooed and Married and A'
NOTES [82 words]: Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong: "This humorous ditty, to the tune of 'Woo'd and Married and A'', was composed about the year 1826 or 1827 by a young probationer of the Church of Scotland, a native of Ayrshire, who is now settled as a minister of a parish in Aberdeenshire."
Ford: "The song first appeared, says the editor of Ayrshire Ballads, in a small weekly publication issued at Kilmarnock, in 1827.... [it] was latterly improved and set out in every-day Scotch, by Dr. A. Crawford...." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: FVS308

No Use to Rattle the Blind

DESCRIPTION: This song is part of a cante-fable in which the wife warns her lover that the husband is at home by singing a song.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy nightvisit husband wife infidelity
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 342-345, "No Use to Rattle the Blind" (3 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES [46 words]: This plot first appears in 1353 in Boccaccio's Decameron, Day VII, Tale I. It is Type 1419H in the Aarne-Thompson inex "Types of the Folktale" (Helsinki, 1961). - EC, RBW
Legman gives extensive notes to the folktale and cante-fable in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I. - EC
File: RL342

No You One Are Man

See Diamond Cook (File: ElCh051A)

No-e in the Ark

See Who Built the Ark? (File: RcWBTA)

No, Brother, I'll Never Be Better

See Christine Leroy [Laws H31] (File: LH31)

No, John, No

DESCRIPTION: The man asks the girl if she will marry. She informs him that her father has told her to answer all men's questions "No." After several exchanges, he asks something like "Do you refuse to marry me? Do you want me to leave?" She, of course, answers "No."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Burne)
KEYWORDS: courting questions rejection
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So) Britain(England(All))
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 90-91, "Twenty, Eighteen" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 138, "No Sir" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 46-47, "No, Sir! No!" (1 text, 1 tune, with the "No sir" refrain of "No, John, No" but the plot of "The Keys of Canterbury," including the "Keys of my heart" ending; it almost certainly combined the two songs)
Hamer-GreenGroves, p. 58, "Oh No John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 385, "No Sir! No Sir!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 102, "The Scottish Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 48, "No, Sir" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 29, p. 44 "O, No, John" (1 text)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 73-74=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, p. 144, "No Sir" (1 text, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 106, "(On yonder hill there stands a lady)" (1 short text, consisting of just the opening lines of either "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)" or "No, John, No," used as a game song)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 14, "No, Sir" (2 texts plus mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 14, "No, Sir" (3 tunes plus excerpts of text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #191, "Oh, No, John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 98, "'No, Sir, No!'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 81, "No, Sir; No" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 43-44. "O, No, John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #93, "No, Sir" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 68, "O No, John!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 139-140, "My Father Was a Spanish Merchant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 50-51, "Oh, No, No, Sir, No" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 100, "No Sir" (1 text)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 68, "O No John" (4 texts)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 161, "Uh-Uh, No" (1 text, 1 tune, probably with more than a little of "Wheel of Fortune" mixed in)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 154-155, "Oh, No, John!" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 345, "No John" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2244, "Pretty Betty, now come to me" (?)
DT, ONOJOHN*
ADDITIONAL: Charlotte Sophia Burne, editor, Shropshire Folk-Lore (London, 1883 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 551-552,652, "The Disdainful Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #146
RECORDINGS:
Emisly Bishop, "No Sir" (on FSBFTX13)
Ron & Bob Copper, "No, John, No" (on FSB01)
Sam Larner, "No Sir, No Sir" (on SLarner02)
Roxana Robinson, "O No, John" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #694, recorded 10/01/2023)
Pete Seeger, "No Sir No" (on PeteSeeger14)
Stoneman Family, "The Spanish Merchant's Daughter" (Victor V-40206, 1928; on AAFM3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Keys of Canterbury"
cf. "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)"
cf. "The Nonsense of Men" (theme)
NOTES [56 words]: A Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs fragment from Shropshire has the man give up "since I have no more to say"; the woman then says "'O turn again, young man, I'll have you,' But his answer was 'Nay, nay!'."
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople #68 is a composite of four texts. However, the original texts are listed on pp. 35-37. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R385

No, Lassie, No

See Oh! No, No (File: Ord136)

No, My Boy, Not I

See Oh, No, Not I (File: DTmarryn)

No, My Child

DESCRIPTION: "Mamma, mamma, may I go down to the corner to meet my beau?" Mother says she may not. She asks her father; he also says no. The girl goes to her grandfather; he tells her to remind mother and father that they went out courting when young
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Hoosier Folklore)
KEYWORDS: mother father children courting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 109, "No, My Child" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #354, "Mother, Mother, may I go?" (1 text)
Roud #25034
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Grandma's Advice" (theme)
File: ZiZa109A

No, My Love, Not I

See Oh, No, Not I (File: DTmarryn)

No, Never, No

DESCRIPTION: "They sat by the fireside, his fair daughters three, They talked of their father who sailed on the sea." Each list the gift she will give if he never again goes to sea. But he dies in a storm. Each verse ends with the phrase, "No, never, no."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart Songs)
KEYWORDS: death drowning gift father children sailor separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Heart-Songs, p. 147, "No, Never, No" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 556-557, "No, Never, No" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BNEF556

No, No, Never

See Wild Rover No More (File: MA069)

No, Not One! (Jesus Knows All About My Troubles)

DESCRIPTION: "Jesus knows all about our struggles / He will guide till the day is done / There's no friend like the lowly Jesus / No not one! No not one!"
AUTHOR: Words: Johnson Oatman Jr./Music: George C. Hugg
EARLIEST DATE: 1895
LONG DESCRIPTION: There's no friend like Jesus. "None else could heal all our soul's diseases." He is high and holy, yet meek and mild. He is with us every hour and cheers us in the darkest night. He is with every saint and sinner. He won't refuse us a Heavenly home.
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
James Mackey and the Moving Star Hall Singers, "Jesus Knows All About My Troubles" (on USSeaIsland02)
Moving Star Hall Singers, "Jesus Knows All About My Troubles" (on BeenStorm1)
Congregation of the Wesley Methodist Church, "Jesus Knows All About My Troubles" (on JohnsIsland1)
NOTES [99 words]: BeenStorm1, USSeaIsland02 and JohnsIsland are only the chorus, repeated until the pace becomes quicker and only the last two lines of the chorus are repeated. The current description is the chorus. The LONG DESCRIPTION describes the hymn as it was written by Johnson Oatman Jr.
The BeenStorm1 and USSeaIsland02 tracks' singing and syncopated clapping and stomping speed up as the song progresses. The Herskovits Trinidadian Spiritual Baptist account of "Jesus Lover of My Soul" fits this track as well. Although this is not a Sankey hymn, the performance style matches "Sankey into Shout." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcNNOJKA

No, Sir! No! (II)

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

No. 5. Squadron Song

DESCRIPTION: "You can talk about the Army And about their victories, You can brag about the Navy, but for baggin' subs, Our Cansos rule the seas." The singer describes the hunt for "Herr Hitler's submarines," and tells of the work of the various unit members
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier work technology flying | Hitler submarine
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 41, "No. 5 Squadron Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #29414
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Macnamara's Band" (tune)
NOTES [835 words]: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear calls this song "optimistic" about the results obtained by the Number 5 squadron (which was one of only two long-range reconnaissance squadrons in eastern Canada; Sarty, p. 127; for the other, #116, see the notes to "The North Atlantic Squadron"). In one sense, Hopkins is right; the planes did not themselves sink many submarines. However, this rather misses the point. The "Canso" is the Canadian name for the Consolidated PBY flying boat, better known to the British and Americans as the "Catalina." (So named by the British, since it was made by Consolidated; the British had a tendency toward alliterative names, such as Hawker Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire, Short Stirling, Fairey Fulmar, Consolidated Catalina; Creed, p. 246.) "One of the most famous and familiar aircraft of its time, the 'Cat' had a distinguished service record in many theatres of war with the U.S. and Allied forces. Having few equals for toughness and dependability, not to mention adaptability, the Catalina was noteworthy for its excellent range" (Munson, p. 45).
Wheal/Pope, p. 110, say that "The bulk of the 3,290 Catalinas of all types built in the US and Canada served the US Navy as bombers, torpedo carriers, convoy escorts, anti-submarine and air-sea rescue aircraft. Over 650 of various marks were eventually used by the RAF, while models in Canadian service were known as 'Cansos.'" (Creed, pp. 253-254, says that the Canadians had tried to buy Catalinas from Consolidated, but all available aircraft had already been allocated to other buyers, so Canadian firms were authorized to build their own; these Canadian-assembled PBYs were called "Cansos" to distinguish them from Consolidated's own machines. Creed, p. 253, says that when the Canadians decided to order the aircraft, they initially chose the name "Convoy" for the aircraft, "but, as it was easily confused with ship convoys, it was discarded in favor of 'Canso,' after the Strait of Canso between Cape Breton Island and the mainland of Nova Scotia.")
But although the Catalina/Canso occasionally served in combat roles, that really wasn't its purpose. A very slow plane (top speed 179 miles per hour, according to Munson, p. 45, with a crew of 8; Wheal/Pope, p. 110, say it had a top speed of 196 miles per hour, referring to a newer model), it was not well suited for attack -- even the typical biplane was faster. (Bercuson, p. 106, calls it "agonizingly slow; when German submarines spotted the lumbering Catalinas from the bridge of a surfaced U-boat, they usually had ample time for a crash dive before they were attacked.) Its chief attributes were the fact that, as a seaplane, it could be based anywhere with water (and come down on the water to pick up men or cargo) -- and its range of more than 3000 miles. It could go anywhere, and it could stay in the air for as much as 24 hours. This made it excellent as a search aircraft, and this was its primary role. Even in convoy escort, it often served best by spotting a submarine and calling in escort craft to sink it. As Creed says on p. 193, "Even though U.S. Navy PBYs in Iceland sank few U-boat, they did the next best thing: They stopped them from sinking Allied ships" -- simply by being around, they forced the submarines underwater, which made it harder for them to pursue convoys.
They also did yeoman service as marine rescue craft. No one knows how many people were rescued at sea by Catalinas, but it was many thousands -- one unit's rescue forces, the 5th Air Force ERS squadrons, saved more tan 1600 men from the sea all by itself (Creed, p. 243).
First placed in service in 1936 (Creed, p. 35), "the plane was obsolescent when World War II began; the prototype of an intended successor was already flying Even so, the Catalina was ready at the outbreak. It could be produced more quickly and in greater numbers than any other patrol plane, and it cold be used in many different ways. It became the Allies' most popular flying boat, largely because of its long range, its carrying capacity, its reliability, and its ability to land where there were no airfields, on any body of calm water. Many of those same qualities account for the fifty-year-old design continuing in civilian service today [1985]..." (Creed, p. 1).
That said, it was too slow to be a day bomber. It wasn't expected to attack! Thus, the fact that the Catalinas of Squadron 5 did not themselves sink many subs is no insult to its usefulness or to the crew's hard work.
As proof, I offer the fact that a Catalina was the first unit to spot the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Midway, allowing the American victory there (Lord, pp. 94-95); a Catalina was also the aircraft that spotted the Bismarck after she had eluded her pursuers, making it possible for the British to destroy her (Zetterling/Tamelander, pp. 229-232; Creed, p. 247).
Even so, according to Creed, p. 2, of the 55 Axis submarines sunk by aircraft in World War II, the Catalina was responsible for sinking twenty. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hopk041

No. 69 Are the Signal All Right

See Are the SIgnals All Right (File: High005)

Noah

DESCRIPTION: Chorus "He cried 'Noah Noah'; God's gonna ride 'n the rain and tide." God called Noah: "build an ark ... I want it to stand that rain and tide." Noah built it, "called in the animals two by two" and his sons. God "declared that this time would be no more"
AUTHOR: Willie Johnson (source: Matthew Barton, liner notes to LomaxCD1708)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #17304
RECORDINGS:
Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet, "Noah" (Bluebird B7962, 1938); as Golden Gate Quartet, "Noah" (Library of Congress AFC 1942/011 AFS 06093, 1940) accessed at https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/04/a-boatload-of-songs-about-noahs-ark/ November 25, 2016.
Peerless Four, "Noah" (on LomaxCD1708)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Didn't It Rain" (subject, patter+chorus format) and references there
File: RcNoahGG

Noah Built the Ark

DESCRIPTION: "Noah built his ark and he built it on the ground, the Lord sent a flood and turned it around. The door flew open and the beasts walked in." The story of the Flood, with chorus, "And I cannot stay away, my Lord, And I cannot stay away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Bible ship flood religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 212, "Noah Built the Ark" (1 text) (OakEd, p. 213)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Uncle Noah" (subject) and references there
NOTES [28 words]: For background on the Noah story, see the notes to "Old Uncle Noah."
This may be related to one of the other Noah songs, but it's short enough that it's hard to tell.. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa212

Noah, Noah

See Old Uncle Noah (File: E075)

Noah's Ark (I)

DESCRIPTION: Floating spiritual verses, most of which refer to inequities between the rich and the poor and the inevitability of death. Refrain refers to Noah and the ark but most of the verses don't mention it at all
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920
KEYWORDS: death nonballad playparty religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 36, "Noah's Ark" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3639
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Let the Dove Come In" (lyrics)
cf. "All My Trials" (lyrics)
cf. "De Fust Banjo (The Banjo Song; The Possum and the Banjo; Old Noah)" (theme)
File: WB2036

Noah's Ark (II)

See Old Uncle Noah (File: E075)

Noah's Ark (III)

See One More River to Cross (File: R294)

Noble Duke O'Gordon, The

DESCRIPTION: Betsy, a servant to Duke of Gordon, is seduced and made pregnant by Captain Glen. Lady Gordon suspects the Duke. Betsy names Captain Glen. When Glen returnd from sea he sends for a priest and marries Betsy. Betsy "is as happy as the duchess of Gordon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan1); 19C (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(46a))
KEYWORDS: marriage seduction accusation pregnancy sailor servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 53, "The Noble Duke O'Gordon" (13 texts, 9 tunes)
Roud #5807
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(46a), "Captain Glen" ("As I was walking to take the air"), unknown, c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie" (tune, according to Greig/Duncan1)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonnie Betsy Gordon
There Cam' a Ship
Bonnie Jeannie Gordon
NOTES [51 words]: Greig/Duncan1: Version B was from "about fifty years ago. Noted 29th July 1907." - BS
It's probably just coincidence that the captain in this song has the same name as the guilty officer in "Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B)" [Laws K22] -- but perhaps one suggested the other. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1053

Noble Duke of York, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the Noble Duke of York, He had (ten) thousand men, He marched them up to the top of the hill And he marched them down again. And when they were up, they were up, And when they were down they were down...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Northall), but see NOTES
KEYWORDS: army nonballad | marching Duke of York
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE,So) Britain(England(West),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1592, "The Grand Old Duke of York" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 70, "The grand old Duke of York" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 33, "(The Grand Old Duke of York)" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 99, "The Duke of York" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 99, "The Duke of York" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 14-15, "The Grand Old Duke of York" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 200, "A Duke in York" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 549, "Oh, the brave old Duke of York" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 45, "The Grand Old Duke of York" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #201, p. 138, "(Oh, the brave old Duke of York)"
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 42, "(The grand old Duke of York)" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 390, "The Noble Duke of York" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 52, "The Grand Old Duke of York" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 58, "The Grand Old Duke of York" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 2-3, "The Noble Duke of York" (1 text); p. 42, "The King of France" (1 text, probably a variation of this)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 133, 175, 263, 346, 348, 424, 431, 500, 510, 529-537, "Grand Old Duke of York" (notes plus 2 texts on pp. 536-537; the second changes the Duke to "The Great Apache Chief"; bibliography on pp. 702-707)
Tobitt-SkipToMyLou, p. 9, "The Noble Duke of York" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 10, "The Grand Old Duke of York" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: G.F. Northall, English Folk-Rhymes (London, 1892 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 98-99 (4 texts) (see Notes)
Tim Devlin, _Cracking Humpty Dumpty: An Investigative Trail of Favorite Nursery Rhymes_, Susak Press, 2022, pp. 33-38, "Grand Old Duke of York" (3 texts)
ST FSWB390B (Full)
Roud #742
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "The Noble Duke of York" (Piotr-Archive #282, recorded 10/03/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A-Hunting We Will Go" (tune of some versions)
cf. "The Famous Duke of York" (probable subject)
NOTES [1573 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 175, claims this descended from "A-Hunting We Will Go" (and "The Farmer in the Dell"), but the evidence is pretty strong that the dependence goes the other way. Averill, p. 702, claims the song goes back to 1620, but this is probably overreach.
Since the Dukedom of York is usually bestowed upon the Prince of Wales's oldest brother (that is, the second son of the reigning monarch), or other fairly senior prince, there have been a lot of them in history (Devlin, p. 33, counts 16), and many of them important. This makes it hard to be certain which Duke of York (if any) might be the subject of this little satire. I've seen suggestions over the years, but not one was convincing enough for me to remember it until I had to write this entry.
Although Kidson, e.g., believes this song refers to events in the reign of Henry IV of France (died 1610), and Devlin, pp. 36-38, considers Henry to be the subject of the original version, the standard suggestion seems to be that the Duke of York involved was Frederick Augustus (1763-1827), second son of George III, who was made a soldier in spite of what was regarded at the time as a clear lack of ability in this department (Devlin, pp. 34-36, lists many of the studies which have supported this interpretation, starting with the Opies). The Baring-Goulds go so far as to specify the hill as Mount Cassel in Belgium. But even they admit the rhyme does not resemble actual events -- and the Opies quote Burne's account of York's campaigns, which points out that Frederick of York's army never came within ten miles of Mount Cassel.
In any case, I can imagine candidates going back all the way to Richard, Duke of York from 1415. Or maybe even his uncle, who was killed at Agincourt and who was treated as something of a buffoon by later historians -- a Tudor account has it that he fell and was smothered because he was so fat, although contemporary sources do not support this (Barker, p. p. 303)
(We should note that the Shakespeare characterization of Richard of York, in the Henry VI plays, is all wrong. He *was* rightful King of England, but he never sought the throne until Margaret of Anjou forced him to do so. Hence a sufficiently anti-Lancastrian partisan could have mocked him for his hesitation. On the other hand, Shakespeare in Henry V is at least as close to the truth about Edward Earl of York as were the Tudor historians.)
According to Devlin, pp. 33-34, Sandy Leong in Warts & All made a case for Richard Plantagenet in 2018, claiming that the rhyme referred to the Battle of Wakefield in 1460 that resulted in Richard's death. (Sadly, on p. 34, Devlin cited Alison Weir, who pretends to be an historian but isn't, and who quotes contemporary figures for those engaged at Wakefield that are probably on the order of ten times the actual forces available.) I think it safe to cross off the Battle of Wakefield as the subject of this rhyme; it just doesn't fit. If -- and this is a tremendous "if" -- the rhyme is about Richard Plantagenet, I think it just about has to be about the Dartford Rising of 1452, before the Wars of the Roses really began and before York claimed the throne. York had a long list of justified grievances against King Henry VI and his extremely factional court. York assembled an army to try to get Henry to listen to him. (It wasn't really a rebellion -- yet.) Henry was able to assemble a larger army. York realized he had little chance of winning, and backed down (Wagner, pp. 73-74). To repeat, *if* the rhyme is about Richard Plantagenet, Dartford is by far the best fit. Having said that, I don't for a minute believe the rhyme is about Richard Plantagenet.
If we assume that the Noble Duke is indeed Frederick Augustus, as is widely assumed, we should note that this description of him is a little unfair. Perhaps it was just his general appearance. Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 119, who notes that he was groomed from an early age to be an officer, quotes Lord Cornwallis's description of him: "The Royal Person whom I saw does not give much hope, further than a great deal of good nature and a very good heart. His military ideas are those of a wild boy of the Guards."
As a field commander, he was genuinely poor. Frederick fought in Flanders from 1793 to 1794, when he was defeated at Turcoing and recalled. He also had a bad experience in the Low Countries in 1799.
Being a prince, however, he eventually was made a field marshal (Chandler/Beckett, p. 146). And, having achieved that rank, he proved himself a good manager, enacting needed reforms in the army when commander-in-chief (Chandler/Beckett, pp. 147-148). Keegan/Wheatcroft, p. 337, say that "As commander-in-chief... from 1798 until his death, he proved an efficient administrator and... apparently not a corrupt one. He was called 'the soldier's friend,' though probably not by the soldiers themselves."
Similarly Brumwell/Speck, p. 432, "Long ridiculed as the hapless 'Grand Old Duke of York'... [he] has more recently received recognition for his role in reforming the British army that was to emerge victorious during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars."
Haddick-Flynn, p. 211, gives a mixed description, saying "The Duke of York was intelligent, outgoing and boisterous.... He was a big, coarse man with a high-coloured face and an intimidating growl. In a throwback to an earlier age, he had been consecrated bishop of Osnasbruck when six months old, not because of an infantile religious disposition but because of the vast revenues attached to the office. In 1793 he commanded an expedition against the French in Flanders and, after a courageous cavalry charge at Beaumont in April 1794, went on to an astonishing defeat the following month at Turgoing."
In quoting the song, Haddick-Flynn, pp. 211-212, says that "[D]espite his reputation for rudeness, boozing and whoring, the Duke had his admirers, and some regretted that he was caricatured in the nursery rhyme.... He was responsible for a number of useful military reforms, and founded teh Duke of York's Royal Military School (later Sandhurst Military Academy)."
Chandler/Beckett, p. 141, credits him with helping impose the manual of maneuver used during the Napoleonic Wars (before that, local commanders drilled their men pretty much as they liked) and on pp. 142-143, with working to somewhat limit commission by purchase (although he couldn't eliminate it -- given the massive expense of the Napoleonic Wars, the government needed the money!).
But the public doesn't remember administrative accomplishments. What it would remember about the Duke of York was his failures in the field and, perhaps, a scandal involving his mistress and the purchasing of commissions (Keegan/Wheatcroft, p. 337; Brumwell/Speck, p. 432). Which might well be enough to make him the target of this song.
There is a biography by A. H. Burne, which I have not seen, entitled The Noble Duke of York.
Gomme describes this as the music for a game, "Find the Ring."
There is a nursery rhyme, "The King of France went up the hill" (Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes, #173; Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #209, p. 144) which looks as if it might be a parody of this -- although the Opies date it to the reign of Charles I. (Apparently it is from one of the Sloane manuscripts, which would certainly make it sixteenth or seventeenth century -- but they do not quote the Sloane form.) If the Sloane form is indeed the inspiration for the York version, then the parody is presumably the other way.
No matter which Duke of York it was, his hill also has its folklore. According to Kellett, pp. 52-54, ""The hill up and down which old Duke Frederick marched his 'ten thousand men' in the old song is said to have been the mound in Allerton Park (near the A1, north of Wetherby), on which stands the eighteenth century folly known as the Temple of Victory. Other traditions say the hill was at Crayke, N Yorks or Cassal, near Dunkerque." - RBW
Northall has the following texts:
"The King of France with twenty thousand men, Went up the hill and then came down again; The King of Spain with twenty thousand more, Climb'd up the same hill the French had climbed before."
"The King of France went up the hill with twenty thousand men, The King of France came down, etc., And ne'er went up again."
"The King of France and four thousand men, They drew their swords and put 'em up again."
"O, the mighty King of France/Duke of York, With his twenty thousand men .... (continues with the usual text). - BS
The version involving the King of France appears to be at least a quarter of a century older than Northall. According to Glatthaar, p. 243, in early 1863 a Confederate artillerist wrote, "we have been playing the part of the King of France, marched up the hill and then down again." I can't cite this as the earliest date, though, because I can't absolutely prove it an allusion to this song.
The inimitable Katherine Elwes Thomas has another idea: She cites Halliwell to the effect that this was written before 1642 -- then pushes it back three centuries before that, to the time of Edward the Black Prince and his victory over the King of France at Poitiers in 1356! (Thomas, pp. 36-37).
The obvious objection to this is that the rhyme is in Modern English, which didn't exist in 1356. As best I can tell, the only basis for this particular fantasy is whatever she was smoking at the time. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB390B

Noble Duke, The [Laws N15]

DESCRIPTION: A girl's lover has been pressed to sea. She carefully disguises herself as a duke -- with such success that the ship's crew is afraid of her. She accuses her lover of robbery. He denies it. She reveals herself, and there is a happy reunion
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: pressgang cross-dressing ship trick reunion disguise
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws N15, "The Noble Duke"
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H584, p. 331, "The True Lovers' Departure" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 76-78, "The Noble Duke" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 803, NOBLDUKE*
Roud #238
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Simple Ploughboy
The Pretty Ploughboy
File: LN15

Noble Eighth of December, The

DESCRIPTION: "When our fleet left Abrohlos rocks," they set out to find Graf von Spee. They arrive in the Falklands to avenge the Monmouth and Good Hope. The Germans are surprised when they arrive. The British ships sink most of the Germans
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: navy battle Germany
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 1, 1914 - Battle of Coronel. Admiral Graf von Spee sinks the HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth
Dec 8, 1914 - Batte of the Falkland Islands. Admiral Sturdee's British fleet sinks all but one of von Spee's ships, effectively ending the German threat in the South Pacific
FOUND IN: Falkland Islands
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 78-80, "The Noble Eighth of December" (1 text, with tune on p. 152)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Battle of the Falkland Islands" (subject of the Battle of the Falklands)
cf. "Coal Ship Song (III)" (subject of the ship Kent)
NOTES [4358 words]: Germany, when World War I began, was in an interesting situation. It had almost no overseas colonies -- but it had various ships on overseas stations. The Goeben and Breslau are the subject of "Dardanelles Patrol Song." But they were relatively close to home. The Germans ships based farthest from Europe were those of the East Asia Squadron of Graf Maximilian von Spee -- Germany's one and only foreign Kreuzergeschwander or cruiser squadron, based in what was then known as Tsingtao (Yates, p. 1) -- the modern Qingdao.
Graf Spee, born 1861, was the fifth son of a Catholic family that had been ennobled (granted the "von") in the early 1700s. He had joined the navy at the age of 18, and stayed with it despite contracting a "rheumatic fever" that periodically troubled him for the rest of his life. He married in 1889, having three children. His two sons, Otto and Heinrich, also joined the navy; at the time of this song, Otto was on the Nürnberg and Heinrich on the Gneisenau, both ships in their father's squadron. The elder Spee became a rear admiral in 1910, then was promoted to vice admiral in command of the China station in 1913 (Yates, pp. 28-29). His photos, with his handsome but stern face and short beard, show a man who seems to have been born to play Mephistopheles in a production of "Faust."
Graf Spee had five ships at his command, the armored cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the lighter Emden, Leipzig, and Nürnberg (Farquharson-Roberts, p. 52), plus some others in the Pacific but not part of his squadron. They were some of the best-trained, most professional ships in the German fleet. They were also, at a time when Britain had the largest fleet in the world by a large margin, little more than sitting ducks, too far from home to survive. At the time the war began, they were training in the Caroline Islands, well away from their base (Marder, p. 104). With no possible reinforcements closer than Germany, and located very close to Japan, which would soon ally with Britain and France (Tsingtao fell to the Japanese and British on November 7; Farquharson-Roberts, p. 54), they would easily be swept up if they returned to their base in China. Graf Spee himself said, "I am quite homeless. I cannot reach Germany. We possess no other secure harbour. I must plough the seas of the world doing as much mischief as I can, until my ammunition is exhausted, or a foe far superior in power succeed in catching me" (Yates, p. 78). So what should his squadron do?
Graf Spee decided on a bold course: he would attack. He sent the Emden off on what proved an incredibly successful raiding expedition (Farquharson-Roberts, p. 53) and took the rest of his ships, plus the Dresden which had been in the South Atlantic (Farquharson-Roberts, p. 55), toward the trade routes off South America. He didn't have much to fear as long as his location did not become known; except for one battlecruiser, HMS Australia, there was nothing in the Pacific as strong as his two biggest ships (Yates, p. 12).
The Germans raided several islands in the next few weeks (Yates, pp. 83-85), and because most of the places he hit did not have wireless, the British did not get word in a timely enough way to catch him. Spee reached the Chilean coast around the end of October (Marder, p. 104).
The British weren't entirely unprepared; they had a squadron in the area, consisting of the armored cruisers Good Hope and Monmouth, the light cruiser Glasgow, and the armed merchant cruiser Otranto (Marder, p. 104) under the command of Admiral Christopher "Kit" Cradock. The problem was, the squadron was basically junk. Otranto was so weak that Cradock refused even to commit her to battle (Beekman, p. 29). Good Hope was the strongest -- she had two 9.2" guns, and no other British ship had a gun heavier than 6" -- but she was also manned by reservists; Cradock had chosen her has his flagship not because he thought her any good but because she was the fastest of the few armored cruisers available to him, and he had earlier in the war failed to intercept an enemy and wanted to be able to keep up with the Germans in future (Yates, p. 106). But even Good Hope had only the two 9.2" guns; the rest of her weapons were 6" guns, mostly mounted in lower-deck casemates which reduced their range and left them hard to use in heavy seas. Monmouth had a lot of 6" guns, but again mounted low; Jacky Fisher said of this class of ships that "Sir William White designed the 'County' class but forgot the guns" and that "with their wretched pea-shooters, they can neither fight nor run" (Yates, p. 135).
The Admiralty knew that Cradock didn't have enough force to deal with Graf Spee, but rather than combine his tiny squadron with another, or send him a modern ship, they sent the Canopus, a pre-dreadnought battleship. She outgunned Spee -- her main armament was four 12" guns -- but her armor was poor, she was due for scrapping, and she had recently spent much time in dockyard hands and was manned by a bunch of reservists. Yates, p. 123, thinks her guns were so old that Graf Spee's lighter guns actually had greater range (although less punch), and certainly the German weapons were more likely to be accurate. Also, Canopus's speed had fallen off, and even at her best, she had been too slow to keep up with the Germans (Marder, pp. 104-106). Just how slow she had become would prove a crucial question in the coming weeks; the Admiralty thought she could manage 15 knots (faster for short bursts), but Cradock thought she was limited to 12 knots (Marder, p. 107; Yates, p. 130; on p. 134, Yates explains that her Chief Engineer suffered from delusions and did not even know the state of the engines, and so reported 12 knots as her maximum speed until others realized his problems and set him aside). Craddock was told of the 12 knot speed, which made her hopeless if Cradock was to pursue the Germans.
Cradock had at one time ordered the cruiser Defence to join him from another Atlantic squadron, which would have roughly doubled his squadron's effective strength -- enough to at least give him a chance against Spee. The Admiralty ordered her not to go to him (Marder, p. 108). Yet Cradock went out to fight.
It's not clear why Cradock did what he did -- he did not survive, and neither did any of his staff. Some have thought him too aggressive. Others think he felt he could at least do enough damage to the Germans to let other squadrons catch Graf Spee. But the navigating officer of the Glasgow, the one ship to survive the debacle, had another hypothesis, which many think correct: "The Defence was refused to him and he was as good as told he was skulking at [Port] Stanley. What else was there for him to do except go and be sunk? He was a very brave man and they were practically calling him a coward. If we hadn't attacked that night, we might never have seen [the German fleet] again, and then the Admiralty would have blamed him for not fighting." And we know Cradock was worried about how he would be treated, because he wrote another officer, "I will take care I do not suffer the fate of poor Troubridge" (Marder, p. 111; Yates, p. 131. Admiral Troubridge had been court-martialed for refusing to engage the German battlecruiser Goeben with a fleet of ships that were individually weaker but collectively, arguably, stronger, see "Dardanelles Patrol Song").
Whatever Cradock's thinking, he took his under-strength squadron to the waters off Coronel, Chile (about 500 kilometers/300 miles south of Santiago), where they met Graf Spee's force on the first day of November 1914. The result was "what [Winston] Churchill has called 'the saddest naval action of the war,' the Battle of Coronel" (Marder, p. 101).
Neither side expected the battle they got. The Glasgow, Craddock's fastest and newest ship, had been sent north to pick up messages, and heard radio chatter that turned out to be from the Leipzig. The Germans heard that Glasgow was in the area. So the Germans were coming to try to catch Glasgow; the British were coming to try to catch Leipzig. Instead, both fleets found the other (Marder, pp. 112-113; Yates, p. 136).
The table on p. 109 of Marder shows just how much of a mismatch the battle was. The German ships had a total weight of broadside almost 50% greater than Cradock's -- and that was counting all the British guns, many of which could not be fired in the rough waters of the South Pacific. Plus, the Germans had twelve 8" guns; other than the two 9.2" guns in Good Hope, Cradock had nothing better than a 6", so the Germans had him outranged (Marder, p. 113). And even if you ignore that, the Gneisenau had won prizes for her gunnery, and the Scharnhorst was almost as good, and the British ships weren't even manned by regulars and hadn't had any chances for gunnery practice! (Marder, pp. 109-110). And the German ships had better armor, which was probably strong enough to keep out 6" shells.
Cradock should have known better than to underestimate Graf Spee, too; the two had met each other at the time of the Boxer Rebellion, and were even said to be friends (Yates, p. 137. After the battle, when Spee visited Chile, he was at a banquet where a man cursed the British navy. Spee stood, lifted his glass, declared, "I drink to the memory of a gallant and honorable foe," drank the toast, and stormed out; Yates, p. 181).
When the two forces met about fifty miles to the west of the town of Coronel, Chile, Graf Spee's battle management was exemplary. Using his superior speed, he held off battle until even the light favored his ships (Beekman, p. 27). And his ships served him well. Scharnhorst's first salvo at Good Hope was short, the second long; the third hit -- and is thought to have destroyed one of Good Hope's two 9.2" guns (Yates, p. 139). Craddock's supply of useful weapons had been cut in half before he even opened fire. Gneisenau hit Monmouth at about the same time, before Monmouth even got close enough to fire. Within minutes, the two biggest British ships had suffered dozens of hits and were clearly ruined. After about fifty minutes, Good Hope apparently suffered a magazine explosion (Yates, p. 141).
The Otranto, a big slow target with few useful weapons, had already fled by then. The Glasgow had suffered several hits, one of which created a large hole above the waterline but did not slow her down. Cradock was gone. Captain Brandt of the Monmouth had stopped answering signals. Captain Luce of the Glasgow, although the junior captain, was on his own. He knew he had no chance of surviving if he stayed, and little chance of hurting the Germans, and someone needed to report the outcome. He fled at top speed (Yates, pp. 142-143). The battle of Coronel was over.
Graf Spee's ships suffered only trivial damage; their only casualties were two or three men on Gneisenau with minor injuries (Marder, p. 114). There were no survivors from either Good Hope or Monmouth (Farquharson-Roberts, p. 58). It is not even known where Good Hope went down, although the Monmouth was seen after the battle, in dreadful condition and unable to fire her guns but still afloat; the Nürnberg found her with her flag still flying, and since no one took the flag down, the Nürnberg sank her with all hands (Yates, p. 143).
It was not really a bad defeat; the British had lost two cruisers they would be better off without, and about 1600 men -- the latter harder to replace, but they were not well-trained, and this was World War I; if the British didn't want casualties, they would have done something about bloody-minded generals like Douglas Haig. The real problem with Coronel was that it was such a one-sided defeat: the British had lost two ships and had barely scratched the German vessels' paint. The psychological harm was much worse than the effect on the fleet. (And, similarly, the psychological boost to the Germans was out of all proportion; the Kaiser gave Spee the Iron Cross, first class, and told him to hand out 300 second class crosses to the men of his command; Yates, p. 186.)
Despite his victory, Graf Spee was starting to run out of resources; he had only about 900 8" shells left for his two big cruisers (Marder, p. 118), less than half of a full supply, and had sent away most of the colliers which had supplied him with coal so far. He needed to get home to resupply, particularly since the Admiralty was determined to deal with him. The problem for the British was, Graf Spee could go anywhere -- through the Panama Canal (perhaps to attack trade in the West Indies), or around Cape Horn (to patrol either the Latin American or African coasts), or back across the Pacific to haunt the Indian Ocean. Graf Spee would be overwhelmed -- if he could be found.
Spee made it surprisingly easy to find him. He decided to head for the Falklands, presumably to head into the mid-Atlantic. It was the main British base in the South Atlantic, but it was not very big or elaborate and was thought to be poorly defended; he could do some damage there even as he started for home.
The defenses were better than he thought. After he learned of Coronel, Captain Grant of the Canopus retreated to the Falklands; the ship eventually grounded itself, with the crew preparing defenses for the port. (Yates, p. 196). They probably wouldn't have been enough to prevent an invasion if left un-reinforced, but they could potentially give the Germans a nasty surprise. And the Admiralty's response was rapid and dramatic. Having refused to take Graf Spee seriously enough before the battle, they now took him perhaps too seriously and sent an overwhelming force. The battlecruiser Princess Royal was sent to the West Indies, and the battlecruisers Inflexible and Invincible were pulled out of the Home Fleet to the South Atlantic to catch Spee -- even though Invincible was in bad enough shape that the dockyards insisted she wasn't ready to sail (Wragg, pp. 64-65). The force was also allocated five cruisers, most of which had been in the area -- Coronel survivor Glasgow, plus Carnarvon, Kent, Bristol, and Cornwall (Farquharson-Roberts, p. 60). That was enough that they might be able to beat Graf Spee even without the big ships. Forces of cruisers were sent to the northern and southern coasts of Africa, to cover other points Graf Spee might attack (Marder, pp. 118-119).
To command the armada chasing Graf Spee, First Sea Lord Jackie Fisher chose Vice Admiral Doveton Sturdee. This wasn't because Fisher liked Sturdee; indeed, despised him, and held him to blame for the mis-allocation of forces that had led to Coronel (Farquharson-Roberts, p. 60; Massie, p. 525, explains that Sturdee had been chief of staff to Fisher's enemy Charles Beresford). Fisher's verdict on the earlier dispositions in the southern hemisphere was "Strong nowhere, weak everywhere!" (Marder, p. 120), which is absolutely correct and led to Cradock being so heavily overmatched, but how much of that is Sturdee's fault is a different question. I think Sturdee does bear some of the blame, but Winston Churchill, who was in charge of the Admiralty, deserves plenty of blame also.
Curiously, the Admiralty did not order Sturdee to hurry, or even to assure that his mission was secret; Sturdee almost went out of his way to advertise his voyage, even stopping to inspect merchantmen along the way south, and stopping at ports where there were German ships and ships of neutrals friendly to Germany (Yates, pp. 184-185).
Sturdee was very lucky, though. Graf Spee didn't hear of Sturdee's voyage, even though there were many wireless reports about it. Sturdee dawdled somewhat on his way south (which makes me think Fisher's charges about his competence at least partially true), finally arriving at the Abrolhos Rocks off Brazil for a supply stop on November 26 (Yates, p. 190), He still seemed inclined to dawdle -- he wanted to spend three days there -- but was convinced by Captain Luce of the Glasgow (Yates, p. 191) to accelerate his voyage; he arrived at the Falkland Islands on December 7. He immediately set about coaling his ships (Marder, p. 120).
It was lucky Sturdee had hurried on the last leg -- and lucky that bad weather around Cape Horn had caused the Germans to delay to rest (Yates, p. 191). By an incredible coincidence, Graf Spee arrived in the Falklands the morning after Sturdee.
Spee, who had performed so brilliantly to this point, had started making mistakes after Coronel -- Yates, p. 182, suggests that he was psychologically worn out after the long campaign. Around the time of Coronel, the German authorities had officially granted him the permission to come home. Yet he waited ten days before deciding on his next move, only then deciding to head home by way of the Falklands. It was the only British base in the south Atlantic (Yates, p. 193), and he wanted to destroy it even though the majority of his captains, including the exceptional Captain Maerker of Gneisenau, wanted to bypass it (Yates, p. 193).
At Coronel, Spee had done everything right. At the Falklands, he blew it. Having reached the islands, he sent two ships, the Gneisenau and the Nürnberg, to reconnoiter. Sturdee's own ships didn't spot them, but the other lookouts who had been set up by the Canopus did (including one near Sapper's Hill, as mentioned in the song; Yates, p. 198). The Canopus, with some difficulty, passed along to raise the alarm (the battlecruisers, wrapped around by the dust of their coaling, didn't see ordinary signals (Yates, p. 196). This alerted Sturdee, who was shaving at the time (Yates, p. 197); it also alerted the Germans (Marder, p. 121). Most commentators think that if Graf Spee had taken all his ships straight in and blockaded the narrow entrance to the harbor, he could have beaten the British ships in detail, despite the immense edge in gun weight of the British battlecruisers -- after all, the two big ships were not ready to fight; they would need two hours or so to get up steam (Yates, p. 198). But the observant German lookouts had seen tripod masts, which at this time were found only on heavy British ships, so they told Spee that there were battlecruisers in Stanley Harbor. Spee (who probably didn't believe it) ordered his scouts back and started to flee. He thought he would find Canopus-class ships, which he could not outfight but could outrun -- and so he decided to run (Yates, p. 199). But Sturdee's ships were faster than he thought. And, because the Germans were fleeing, the British could set out in an orderly way to follow the Germans.
Once his fleet as at sea, Sturdee arguably made another error that didn't cost him, ordering a "General Chase" rather than giving specific orders for a pursuit (Marder, p. 122). That order could have led to chaos. But, because his ships had such an edge in firepower, plus the battlecruisers were several knots faster than Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, Sturdee was able to catch up. When Sturdee's big ships finally got close enough to threaten the Leipzig, Spee made the odd decision to turn his two big ships around and fight in hopes the smaller ships would escape (Yates, p. 204). It was a strange battle, with Spee trying to get closer to the British so he could use all his weaponry, while the British tried to stand off (Marder, pp. 122-123). This spared the big British ships from damage, but the long range meant that relatively few of the British shells hit (the lesser British ships were stunned by the big ships' crummy shooting; Yates, p. 203); it took a very long time to sink Spee's ships. Sturdee's maneuvers didn't help, because he kept obscuring his gunsights in his own funnel smoke (Marder, p. 126); in the end, he used up so much ammunition that he might have been in trouble had he met a significant German force on the way home.
Ironically, when Spee became sure there was no hope for Scharnhorst, he apparently tried the same maneuver used by Cradock at Coronel: he charged his attackers as if to ram, while ordering Gneisenau to try to escape (Yates, p. 209). But it was too late. As for Gneisenau, she apparently fired until she had used up every 8" shell in her magazines (Yates, p. 210). When there was no further hope, Captain Maerker opened her seacocks and ordered her abandoned (Yates, p. 211).
When Spee had turned around to make his last stand, the smaller British cruisers went after the German small fry. That took longer, but Glasgow and Cornwall sank the Leipzig around 8:30 p.m. Two British ships that sailed later, Bristol and Macedonia, took care of several colliers (Marder, p. 122; see also the map on p. 205 of Yates). Most amazingly, the Kent managed to catch and sink the Nürnberg at 7:30 despite being slower and weaker (she, like the Cornwall, was a sister ship of Cradock's Monmouth). Kent's crew had gone all-out to catch up, even chopping up wooden furniture to try to raise more steam (Yates, p. 216). Only the Dresden the fastest German ship, got away, to be tracked down the next year; the others, after so long without dockyard maintenance, probably could not reach their design speeds (Yates, p. 213).
The Scharnhorst went down around 4:15 with all hands, including Graf Spee; 176 men were rescued from Gneisenau, which lasted until around 6:00 p.m. (Farquharson-Roberts, p. 60), meaning that the British, with no enemies left in the vicinity were able to pick up survivors after she sank. Both ships had had the chance to surrender (Marder, p. 123); neither did, even though their ships were obviously past saving and there was no point in continuing the fight. There were just eighteen survivors from Leipzig (Yates, p. 215). Only seven men from Nürnberg survived; she had done Kent enough damage that the British ship had only two boats left to lower, making rescue operations difficult (Yates, p. 218).
British casualties were light. Invincible took 22 hits but no casualties; Inflexible had taken three hits and had one man dead and two wounded (Yates, p. 212). Cornwall had suffered eighteen hits but no killed or wounded. Glasgow had suffered two hits, one to a boiler, and had one killed and four wounded (Yates, pp. 215-216). Kent, which had taken 38 hits, had sixteen total casualties, not all of them fatal (Yates, p. 218) -- although it took some time for her to report; her wireless had been knocked out and she had used so much coal that she had to steam back to Port Stanley at very low speed (Yates, pp. 219-220).
The British finally caught up with the Dresden in 1915; she was out of ammunition and coal. When she was found by Glasgow and Kent in the Juan Fernández islands, Captain Lüdecke raised the white flag after being hit by a few shells and sent Wilhelm Canaris, the future German intelligence admiral, to play for time while Lüdecke scuttled her (Farquharson-Roberts, p. 61; Yates, p. 234). She had seven killed and sixteen wounded; the British took the latter to hospital while the rest were interned (Yates, p. 235). Glasgow, which had been the only cruiser to survive Coronel, was thus present to see all five of Graf Spee's ships go to the bottom, and Captain Luce, who had done so well to escape Coronel and had convinced Sturdee to hurry to the Falklands, had the honour of being in charge of the squadron that finally tracked her down. The Chileans did protest Luce's actions as a violation of their neutrality, but accepted the British apologies (Yates, pp. 235-236).
Sturdee was given a baronetcy in the 1916 honours (Marder, p. 124), plus a grant of £10,000, making him financially secure for the rest of his life (Yates, p. 297). As Sturdee himself told his flag captain, "Well, Beamish, we were sacked from the Admiralty, but we've done pretty well" (Yates, p. 222). But there were many who thought it undeserved -- how much skill does it take to beat an enemy you have outgunned who kindly shows up on your doorstep all but begging to be destroyed? The doubts were such that he never again held another independent fleet command. He was made Admiral of the Fleet in 1921 (Yates, p. 297), but there was no German navy to fight by then!
As Marder, p. 126, observes, "The Falklands will never be cited in naval literature as an example of a tactical masterpiece. Strategically, however, the consequences were profound." It raised British spirits, and it all but eliminated German commerce raiders; British merchant ships were safe -- until the U-boats got into the act.
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy's two songs about this, this one and "Battle of the Falkland Islands," are both accurate enough as to sound as if they came from newspapers. "Falkland Islands" says that a lookout at Port Stanley saw ships and wondered if it was Spee, sent a message to flagship Invincible, states that the admiral (Sturdee) was shaving, lists the ships lost at Coronel as Good Hope and Monmouth, and hints that Spee will die -- all of which are true.
This song states that the fleet set out from Abroholos rocks (and who but a staff planner would even know that name?), was led by Invincible and Inflexible, dates the battle to the eighth of December, lists Sturdee as the commander, says he was in a battle cruiser, lists his cruisers as Bristol, Carnarvon, Cornwall Glasgow, and Kent, says they went to Port Stanley, states that the ships lost earlier were Monmouth and Good Hope, says that the Germans were seen from Sapper's Hill in the Falklands, correctly lists the five German ships (although the informant mispronounced Gneisenau), and lists exactly which British ships sank which Germans . It does get the distance from Portsmouth to the Falklands wrong (it's about 8000 miles, not 3000), but the 3000 figure might be the distance from someplace in the south Atlantic. It's an astonishingly detailed report; if Tawney didn't cite a recording of the song, I'd be inclined to suspect he wrote it.
Although it doesn't mention this battle specifically, see also "Coaling Song III" for the Kent. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Tawn060

Noble Fisherman, The, or, Robin Hood's Preferment [Child 148]

DESCRIPTION: Robin goes to sea as a fisherman. He is scoffed at as a lubber, but when the fishing vessel is approached by a French ship of war his prowess with the bow permits the fishermen to take it and its cargo of gold.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1663 (garland); a song that was likely this one was entered into the Stationer's Register in 1631
KEYWORDS: Robinhood ship battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 148, "The Noble Fisherman, or, Robin Hood's Preferment" (1 text)
Bronson 148, comments only
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 183-186, "The Noble Fisher-Man; or, Robin Hoods Preferment" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 124, "The Noble Fisherman or Robin Hood's Preferment" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN15, "In summer time when leaves grow green"
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 17-22, "Robin Hood's Fishing" (1 text, with substantial differences from the broadside and garland versions)
R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 180-182, "The Noble Fisherman (Robin Hood's Preferment)" (1 text)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 581-591, "Robin Hood's Fishing" (1 text, primarily from the Forresters manuscript rather than the broadsides used by Child)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item 4
Roud #3958
NOTES [601 words]: Rollins, p. 169, #1955, gives the Stationer's Register entry for what is presumably this song: "The Noble ffisherman or Robin Hoods great Prize," registered June 13, 1631 by "Fran. Coles & partners."
For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Dobson/Taylor, p. 179, say that Robin Hood has never "undergone a more bizarre transformation" than the one that sent him to sea, but the ballad nonetheless proved popular -- and it's worth noting that some similar outlaw tales also have interludes at sea.
Child mentions, in his notes on this ballad, that the romance of Eustac(h)e the Monk also has an episode in which the hero goes to sea. A stronger parallel might be the tale of Hereward the Wake, Hereward too takes on the disguise of a fisherman (chapter 25). Both the Hereward tale and Eustace's story are considered sources for the early forms of the Robin Hood legend (though not of later songs such as this). But I would incline to consider the Hereward tale a more likely source for this later ballad, even though the parallel may not be as close. The tale of Eustace survives in only a single manuscript, and is unlikely to have been well known in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century; Hereward's tale was always popular.
Chambers, p. 131, notes the existence of a ship Robyn Hude at Aberdeen in 1438, which is another interesting nautical link (cf. Knight/Ohlgren, p. 581), but the significance of this is unclear.
Similarly, Bett, p. 17, mentions a Robin Hood's Bay near Whitby in Yorkshire, but there are so many sites named for Robin Hood that they cannot all be associated with the original form of the legend (whatever that original form was).
For additional details on the Eustace version, see the summary in Cawthorne, pp. 121-131, or the translation in Knight/Ohlgren. For Hereward, see Linklater, pp. 238-239, Baldwin, pp. 35-26, or, again, the translation in Knight/Ohlgren.
Knight/Ohlgren, p. 582, suggest that this is sort of a "Robin Hood and the Potter" [Child 121] converted to a sea setting; they give it relatively high praise for one of the late ballads. It is true that Robin goes incognito and takes up a trade -- but the direction of the song is completely different. And I am not impressed with the internal logic of the piece.
To be fair, piracy was definitely a problem in the medieval period; with no international agreements and no world-spanning navy (no navies at all, really), it was often "every ship for itself." Hewitt, p. 24, notes fourteen known instances of piracy during the reign of Edward III, including five by English mariners in the year 1354 alone. Given the scantiness of our records, and the fact that many victims of pirates would not have survived to report it anyway, it would seem likely that there were in fact dozens of incidents involving English ships each year -- although in many cases the English were the pirates, not the victims.
The first few verses of this often contain a sort of an ode to the sailor's life, calling it a profitable calling. It can hardly have been more profitable than being an outlaw, if the "Gest" is accurate describing Robin's fortune. For that matter, according to Hewitt, p. 76, a sailor in the king's service early in the Hundred Years' War earned three pence a day. A good archer in Edward III's armies earned twice that. So it makes no sense for Robin to turn sailor even if he wanted to "go legit." I suspect these verses have floated in from a song praising fishermen. Possibly a fisherman decided that he wanted his own Robin Hood ballad.... - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: C148

Noble Fleet of Sealers, A

DESCRIPTION: "There's a noble band of sealers being fitted for the ice, They'll take a chance again this year though fat's gone down in price...." The ships set out to take the seal. When they get back to St. John's, the sailors hope for good luck and good food
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 3rd edition)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship travel
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 162-164, "A Noble Fleet of Sealers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "A Noble Fleet of Sealers" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 10-11 in the 3rd edition, pp. 15-16 in the 4th edition, pp. 16-17 in the 5th edition
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 74-75, "A Noble Fleet of Sealers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 114-115, "A Noble Fleet of Sealers" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Farley Mowat, _Wake of the Great Sealers_, with prints and drawings by David Blackwood, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1973, p. 64, "(no title)" (1 text)
ST FMB162 (Partial)
Roud #4530
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ferryland Sealer"
cf. "The Old Polina" (tune)
NOTES [1525 words]: Anna Kearney Guigné, in her article on the Doyle songsters, "Kenneth Peacock's Contribution to Gerald S. Doyle's Old-TIme Songs of Newfoundland (1955)" (published in Newfoundland and Labrador Studies, Volume 22, No. 1, Summer 2007) attributes this to Gerald S. Doyle himself (p. 123), and it does appear that his 1955 songster was the earliest publication, but she gives no basis for the attribution. Perhaps the best evidence is that described below: that it mostly describes relatively recent ships.
This song bears many resemblances, in the first verse and the melodic pattern, to "The Ferryland Sealer" -- which also derives from Newfoundland. But this piece has a different chorus, and the latter verses are different, so I tentatively distinguish them. If they are related, this is without doubt the newer song, since it mentions steam sealing ships; "The Ferryland Sealer" precedes the steamers.
This is also a very confusing song if you know the earlier, more familiar sealing pieces, because it mentions several names of ships that were famous at the turn of the twentieth century, but puts them under captains who never commanded them. For example, the first ship mentioned here is the Algerine; for the SS Algerine, see "Loss of the S. S. Algerine." If the ship involved were the SS Algerine that would force a date in no later than 1912, when that ship was lost. But the song lists the Algerine's skipper as Wilf Barbour -- a member of a famous family of sealers which also included among others George Barbour ("The Greenland Disaster (I)"), Alpheus Barbour ("Sealer's Song (II)"), and Baxter Barbour ("The Nimrod's Song"). The problem is, "Wilf Barbour" never commanded the SS Algerine (Chafe, pp. 87-88). My first guess was that "Wilf" was an error for "Alf"=Alpheus or perhaps "Will"=William. But neither Alpheus nor William Barbour ever commanded the Algerine either; indeed, no Barbour ever commanded her. The only commander with name anything like "Wilf Barbour" is Will(iam) Bartlett, commander of the Algerine in 1902-1903.
The next ship mentioned, the Viking, lasted longer, but no Captain Barbour commanded the SS Viking in the period that the Algerine was afloat; William Bartlett Senior skippered her 1904-1913, then William Bartlett Junior in 1914-1915, after which William Sr. took her back until 1927. I. Barbour commanded the Viking 1928-1929 (Feltham, p. 154). She blew up in 1931; see "To the Memory of the Late Captain Kennedy."
The SS Newfoundland is the subject of "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)." She was renamed in 1915 after the disaster, and sank the next year. At the time she sank, there had never been a sealing captain John Blackmore (Chafe, pp. 88, 97)
The Terra Nova isn't much of a dating hint; she first went to the ice in 1885 and mostly stayed there until shortly before her loss in World War II, apart from missing 1904-1905 and 1910-1913 to go to the Arctic and Antarctic. But she never had a Captain Charles Kean (Feltham, p. 134). She was, however, commanded by Abram Kean (the greatest of all the Kean family; see "Captain Abram Kean") 1906-1908, 1917-1926, 1932-1933 (and a few other Keans having her briefly in the 1920s).
All those ships were mentioned in earlier songs in Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, which puts its songs in roughly chronological order. You can imagine that I was getting very confused by all those ships and wrong captains. And it got worse when I looked up the Arctic Sealer, because there was no such steamer in the period of the Algerine and the Newfoundland.
I finally realized that the solution is to look at a later stage of the seal fishery, when it was much smaller and less well-known. By the 1940s, the steamers -- and, indeed, the Newfoundland sealing industry itself -- were almost extinct. The original Terra Nova was lost in 1943, leaving only the J. H. Blackmore to go to the ice in 1943, and only the Eagle (for which see "The Ice-Floes") in 1944 (Candow, p. 107). The J. H. Blackmore was the first example of the replacement for the old steamers -- the small "motor vessels," or MVs. And, yes, her captain was the John Blackmore mentioned in this song, who later became the captain of the Newfoundland mentioned in this verse; for more about him, see "The Sinking of the 'Newfoundland.'"
"The appearance of motor vessels sparked a transformation of the industry. Their numbers rose to 11 in 1946, 15 in 1947, and a historic high of 21 in 1948 [Busch, p. 244, says there were 25 in 1948 but may have had a different method of counting]. The rise of the motor vessels broke the St. John's monopoly of the industry" (Candow, p. 108). Not one of the five that sailed in 1945 came from St. John's, and the five together were smaller than the Eagle! (Busch, pp. 243-244). These were the first of the "long liners" that some readers may know, e.g., from Stan Rogers's "Make and Break Harbour." In 1946, twelve companies based in seven different ports sent out thirteen ships, with even more in the years that followed (Busch, p. 244).
So, for instance, an MV Terra Nova went out in 1948, commanded by Wilf Barbour; she was one of six MVs he commanded in his career (the others being Ice Hunger, Algerine, Arctic Prowler, Blue Seal, and Bessie Marie; Winsor. p. 101). There was also a Captain Charles Kean, who commanded the MV Terra Nova as well as the MVs Algerine and Blue Seal (Winsor, p. 104); there is a photo of Charles Kean on p. 73 of Winsor, and a photo of the new Terra Nova on p. 82); there was also an MV Catalina Trader as well as the MV J. H. Blackmore, which might help explain the references to Catalina and John Blackmore in the song (there is a very poor photo of the J. H. Blackmore on p. 80 of Winsor). In 1957, MV Algerine and MV Terra Nova went out, although not under Wilf Barbour; Wilf Barbour (of whom there is a photo on p. 72 of Winsor) commanded the Bessie Marie, with Harold Laite commanding the Algerine and Gus Carter the Terra Nova. The new Algerine was a 338 ton converted tug which had been built in 1943 (Candow, p. 146). I have no data when the MV Arctic Sealer sailed, but one of her captains was William Moss, who lived 1911-1969. And Sid Hill (1888-1961) also commanded her; having made his first voyage as a sealer in the Virginia Lake in 1907, his first command was of the steamer Eagle in 1933. (There was apparently another song about Sid Hill, and the Eagle, preserved in Hill's own family, that has never been printed; two verses are on p. 166 of Ryan-Last, and begin "Come all of you seal hunters and listen unto me, While I'll tell of the spring now in 1933.")
Hill soon was given command the much fancier ships Beothic and Imogene (DictNewfLabr, p. 155), then went on to command the MVs in the 1940s and 1950s. (Ryan/Drake, p. 82;). Among the ships he commanded after World War II were the Arctic Sealer and the Arctic Prowler (DictNewfLabr, p. 155; Winsor, p. 103, says he commanded the MV Arctic Sealer for five years but does not mention the Arctic Prowler).
The description of Hill as the "Sailor's Friend" seems to have been true; Lester Andrews, who sailed under him, declared (a quarter century after Hill's death, so he wasn't buttering up the boss) that "The captains were all good men, but I'm going to speak my mind, and Captain Sidney Hill was my favorite. He had great ideas, and he was a man who could almost read your mind. And he was a great old fellow for getting seals aboard" (Ryan-Last, p. 108). And Lane Watson said, "As far as I'm concerned, the man above couldn't make no better than Captain Sid Hill. I loved him. He was really a gentleman." There is a photo of Hill on p. 73 of Winsor.
Since the MVs/long liners could also catch cod, they seemed ideal for Newfoundland conditions (Busch, p. 244).
But it was a short boom. There were only four MVs in 1950, and no steamers. The numbers bounced around after that, peaking at 12 in 1951, but by 1959, only one MV left; the demand for sealskins was too low to support an industry based in Newfoundland (Candow, p. 109) -- although the Norwegians would keep it up for years, and there were also sealers from Halifax. In 1958, Bowring Brothers, which had been owner of the largest sealing fleet for most of the preceding century, announced that they would bow out of the business, although it was a few more years before they actually made their exit (Candow, p. 110). Sealing as a Newfoundland industry was effectively dead by then. So this song probably dates from around 1950-1952. Since Doyle published it in 1955, it must have been quite new, even if Doyle didn't write it himself.
"Brewis," mentioned at the end, are part of "fish and brewis," a Newfoundand staple: "cod-fish cooked with hard tack or sea biscuit" (StoryKirwinWiddowson, pp. 176-177; "brewis" being specifically bread [or hardtack or biscuit] soaked in boiling fat pottage, made of salt meat" (StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 65) -- ultimately, it was fish and biscuit cooked with the fish oil and water.
Winsor has photos of the MV Algerine and the Arctic Sealer on p. 79. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: FMB162

Noble Foxhunting, The

See The Duke of Buckingham's Hounds (File: Br3218)

Noble Huntly

DESCRIPTION: "Noble Huntly great in fame And great in warlike story" has called for volunteers to prepare to repel a Bonaparte invasion. "What needs we o' our fleets to voust [boast]? Should he invade our British coast We'll show him soldiers to his cost"
AUTHOR: William Lillie (source: Greig/Duncan1)
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (_The Aberdeen Journal_, according to Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: recruiting war Scotland Napoleon nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 74, "Noble Huntly" (1 text)
Roud #5797
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tullochgorum" (tune, according to Greig/Duncan1)
cf. "Simon and Janet" (subject: the threatened invasion by Napoleon)
NOTES [37 words]: Greig/Duncan1: "Major-General the Marquis of Huntly (George Gordon, later the 5th Duke of Gordon) was in command of the Northern Military District at this time [1803] and inspected volunteers in Aberdeen on November 22." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1074

Noble Lads of Canada

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye British heroes, I pray you lend your ears." The singer urges his comrades to defeat the Americans. They make for Plattsburg. The American fleet defeats the British. The British retreat and celebrate arriving home safely.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1847 (Forget-Me-Not-Songster); 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: war battle soldier drink
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug/Sept 1814 - Plattsburg campaign. As part of a three-pronged attack strategy (the other prongs being at Chesapeake Bay and the lower Mississippi), a British army of 11,000 regulars led by General Sir George Prevost and a naval force under Captain George Downie attack Lake Champlain.
Sept 6, 1814 - The British army reaches Plattsburg and awaits the navy
Sept 11, 1814 - Battle of Plattsburg. An American naval squadron under Captain Thomas Macdonough (1783-1825) defeats the British force in a fierce contest with very high casualties, compelling the British fleet to retreat in disorder. The British army, though under no military compulsion, retreats as well.
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 53, "Noble Lads of Canada" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 349-351, "Noble Lads of Canada" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 100-102, "Noble Lads of Canada" (1 text plus a broadside print)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 213-217, "Noble Lads of Canada" (1 text)
Roud #2827
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as109710, "Noble Lads of Canada" ("Come, all you British heroes, I pray you lend an ear"), L. Deming (Boston), no date; also as109720, as101420, "Noble Lads of Canada"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Siege of Plattsburg" (subject)
NOTES [41 words]: Although claiming to be by a British soldier, this is a patently American song celebrating an American victory. The known versions seem all to be American. For background on the Plattsburg campaign, see the notes to "The Siege of Plattsburg." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: CAFS1100

Noble Man, The

See A Gentleman of Exeter (The Perjured Maid) [Laws P32] (File: LP32)

Noble Ribbon Boys, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was on the first of May, my boys, in the year of thirty-one," 63 Ribbonmen went to the commons to fight Billies. On June 5 300 marched unchallenged to the commons. A health is drunk to those in jail and the "Manual and Platoon ... secrecy" is cited.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 39, "The Noble Ribbon Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V33209
NOTES [213 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 19: "In some parts of Ulster, Protestant and Catholic tenants were mingled and contended for the land; the peasantry was thus divided into two camps, each having its oath-bound association. This led to a sort of religious war. At the end of the eighteenth century the Catholic "Defenders" were opposed to the Protestant "Peep o'Day Boys" or "Orangemen." The "Defenders were succeeded by the "Ribbonmen," (song [Zimmermann] 39). In parts of counties Tyrone and Monaghan, according to Carleton [p. 19 fn. 14: W. Carleton's Autobiography, p. 83], the whole Catholic population was affiliated to Ribbonism, and it would have been dangerous to avoid being involved in the system." Zimmermann 34, "Owen Rooney's Lamentation": "My prosecutor swore so stout I was the man he saw, That encouraged all the Ribbonmen that came from Lisbellaw."
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "The 'Billies' were the Orangemen, whose hero was William of Orange." - BS
For another song of the Defenders and Peep o' Day Boys, see "Bold McDermott Roe." For other songs of the Ulster conflicts of this period, see "The Battle That Was Fought in the North," "Owen Rooney's Lamentation, "The Lamentation of James O'Sullivan," and possibly "March of the Men of Garvagh." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Zimm039

Noble Ship Catalpa, The

See The Fenian's Escape (The Catalpa) (File: FaE056)

Noble Skew Bald, The

See Skewball [Laws Q22] (File: LQ22)

Noble Skewball, The

See Skewball [Laws Q22] (File: LQ22)

Noble Sku-ball, The

See Skewball [Laws Q22] (File: LQ22)

Noble Twenty-Fourth, The

DESCRIPTION: "A story came one morning From a far and distant land, That savages had massacred A small but gallant band. 'Gainst 20,000 foreign foes... 500 valiant English fought, And nobly fighting fell." Hearers should honor the 24th and "avenge your countrymen."
AUTHOR: Words: G. C. Anewick / Music: V. Davies (source: Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats)
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats)
KEYWORDS: soldier death patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 22, 1879 - Battle of Isandlwana opens the Zulu War. Roughly 20,000 Zulus attacked some 2000 British and allied troops, killing almost all of the British including most of the 24th Regiment of Foot (2nd Warwickshire). (Source: Wikipedia)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 224-226, "The noble 24th" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22076
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blessed Zulu War" (subject of the Zulu War)
File: Wins224

Nobleman and the Thresher, The

See Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man) (File: R127)

Nobleman and Thrasher, The

See Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man) (File: R127)

Nobleman, A

See Alderman's Lady, The (File: Pea783)

Nobleman's Daughter, The

See Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold (Young Sailor Bold II) [Laws N17] (File: LN17)

Nobleman's Generous Kindness, The

See Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man) (File: R127)

Nobleman's Wedding, The (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31]

DESCRIPTION: A man disguises himself to attend the wedding of the girl he loved before he went away. He sings a song that reminds her of her unfaithfulness and promises to return her love token. She swoons and returns to her mother's home. She dies before morning
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: disguise wedding infidelity death grief hardheartedness jealousy love marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Laws P31, "The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 165-166, "The Faultless Bride" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 105, "The Awful Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 59, "The Famous Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #20, "The Bride's Death" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H60a, pp. 400-401, "An Old Lover's Wedding"; H60b, p. 401, "The Laird's Wedding" (2 texts, 2 tune, the second mixed with "All Around My Hat")
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 56, "The Nobleman's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #24, pp. 1-2, "The Orange and Blue" (1 text); #88, p. 2, ("Oh, how could you sit at another man's table?") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1199, "Down in Yon Valley" (24 texts, 14 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 132-133, "The Unconstant Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 21, "The Penitent Bride"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1, pp. 235-236, "The Wedding" (2 texts)
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, pp. 124-125, "Late Last Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 164, "The Nobleman's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 31, "Down in My Garden" (1 text)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 4, "All Around My Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 3, "All Round My Hat" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 201, "Broken Hearted Bride" (1 text)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 1, "Another Man's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 158-159, "Green Willow" (1 text, probably this piece though not so listed by Laws)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 75, "The Nobleman's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 691-697, "Nobleman's Wedding" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 30, "The Nobleman's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 142-143, "To Wear a Green Willow" (1 text)
DT 509, NOBLEWED
ST LP31 (Partial)
Roud #567
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "Another Man's Wedding" (on Voice06, IREButcher01)
Daisy Chapman, "Down in the Valley" (on SCDChapman01)
Sara Cleveland, "To Wear a Green Willow" (on SCleveland01)
Joe Heaney, "The Nobleman's Wedding" (on FSBFTX15)
Bride Power, "The Fatal Wedding" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Jim Rice, "The Nobleman's Wedding" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
F. Sutton, "Gay Wedding" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Maude Thacker, "The Famous Wedding" (on FolkVisions1 -- a very confused version)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel" ("change the green and yellow for the orange and blue") and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Green Willow Tree
The Forsaken Lover
The Inconstant Lover
The False Bride
NOTES [67 words]: According to Hazlitt's Dictionary of Faiths & Folklore, to wear the willow meant that one had been forsaken by a lover. For more in this theme, see the notes to "All Around My Hat (I)."
Roud lumps this with "All Around My Hat." That's *really* a stretch. - RBW
The "Awful Wedding" subgroup ("I'll tell you of an awful wedding"), despite the similarity in titles, is *not* "The Fatal Wedding." - PJS, RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: LP31

Nobody Cares for Me

See I Wish I Was a Little Bird (Nobody Cares for Me) (File: San338)

Nobody Coming to Marry Me

See My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher (Nobody Coming to Marry Me) (File: BrII185)

Nobody Knows

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains of being misunderstood: "Nobody knows how heavy my load, Nobody knows how thorny my road, Nobody knows cares if I'm troubled in the way, How dark the night, how dark the day." Only Jesus, who understands, will help
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 171, "Nobody Knows" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa171 (Partial)
Roud #7488
RECORDINGS:
Sue Thomas, "Nobody Knows" (on USWarnerColl01)
NOTES [21 words]: As Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl notes, this is NOT "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen." - RBW
File: Wa171

Nobody Knows de Trouble I See

See Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen (File: Arn110)

Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen

See Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen (File: Arn110)

Nobody Knows How Tired We Are

DESCRIPTION: "Nobody knows how tired we are, Tired we are, Tired we are, Nobody knows how tired we are, And nobody seems to care." Or "Nobody knows how dry we are...." Reportedly sung at the end of a march
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes drink soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 37, "Nobody Knows" (1 text)
Roud #10562
File: BrPa037D

Nobody Knows the Trouble I See

See Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen (File: Arn110)

Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen

DESCRIPTION: "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen, Nobody knows but Jesus." "Sometimes I'm up, sometimes I'm down, Oh, yes, Lord, Sometimes I'm almost to the ground...." The rest of the song describes the singer's life, usually in spiritual terms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (diary of William Francis Allen; printed 1867 in Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 55, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Had" (1 text, with some rather unusual verses but clearly this; 1 tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 232, "Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 181 in the 1874 edition)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 50, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See" (1 text); pp. 57-58, "Oh, Nobody Knows the Trouble I See" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 615, "Nobody Knows" (1 short text)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 211-212, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 68-69, "Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 110, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 97, "Nobody Knows" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 302, "Nobody Knows de Trouble I See" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 358, "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen" (1 text)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 92, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 55, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld, pp. 391-391+, "Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen"
DT, NBDYKNWS
ADDITIONAL: Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 136-137, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5438
RECORDINGS:
A. W. Adams, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" (OKeh 8361, 1926)
Marian Anderson, "Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen" (Victor 19560, 1925; rec. 1924)
Louis Armstrong, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" (Decca 2085, 1938)
Mildred Bailey w. Alec Wilder, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" (Columbia 35348, 1939)
Cotton Pickers Quartet, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" (Conqueror 8360, 1934; rec. 1931)
Vernon Dalhart, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See" (Edison [BA] 3470, 1918)
Elkins Sacred Singers, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" (Cameo 830, 1925)
Excelsior Quartet, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See" (OKeh 4636, 1922)
Fisk University Jubilee Singers, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See" (Rainbow 724, c. 1922)
Caroline & May Floyd, "Nobody Knows de Trouble I See" (Champion 15103, 1926)
Jimmie Gordon's Vip Vop Band ("Nobody Knows the Trouble I See", Decca 7764, 1940; rec. 1939)
Musical Artists Quartet, "Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen" (Columbia 1953-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Paramount Singers, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See" (Trilon 234, n.d. but probably c. 1939)
James Garfield Smalls, "Nobody Knows de Trouble I Seen" (on USSeaIsland03)
Paul Robeson, "Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen" (Victor 20068, 1926)
Southernaires Male Quartet, "Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen" (Decca 2859, 1939)
Edna Thomas, "Nobody Knows de Trouble I Sees" (Columbia 1863-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Tuskegee Institute Singers, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See" (Victor 18237, 1917; rec. 1915)
NOTES [44 words]: According to Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 235, Bob Coel's tune for Cole and Johnson's famous song "Under the Bamboo Tree" uses an inversion of the melody of this song.
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Arn110

Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out

DESCRIPTION: Singer recalls once living high, but is now broke; friends no longer come around. " If I ever get my hands on a dollar again/Gonna hold onto it till that eagle grins." " If I ever get back on my feet again/Everybody wants to be my long lost friend"
AUTHOR: probably Ida Cox - B. Feldman
EARLIEST DATE: Jan. 1929 (recordings, Aunt Jemima Novelty Four & Pinetop Smith)
KEYWORDS: poverty drink hardtimes friend
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, DOWNOUT
Roud #18521
RECORDINGS:
Aunt Jemima Novelty Four, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (Brunswick 7056, 1929)
Louis Jordan & his Tympani Five, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (Decca 29018, 1954)
Julia Lee & her Boyfriends, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (Capitol 1009, 1950; rec. 1947)
Bessie Smith, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (Columbia 14451-D, 1929; Columbia 37577, 1947)
Pinetop Smith, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (Vocalion 1256, 1929)
NOTES [103 words]: There seems to be some uncertainty about the authorship of this piece; the Digital Tradition lists it as by "Jimmy Cox." Given that it came out in early 1929, it might almost have been an anthem for the Great Depression -- except that hardly anyone could buy records then.
I was surprised at the lack of traditional collections. Maybe it's the unusual melody -- my traditionally-tuned voice finds it hard to follow the intervals despite hearing the song many times.
The notion that everyone deserts someone who turns poor is, not surprisingly, quite old; see the notes to "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" for exmples. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcNKYWYD

Nobody Likes Me

See Guess I'll Eat Some Worms (File: DTeatwor)

Nobody Washes in a Submarine

DESCRIPTION: "If you join submarines and you've got any pride, You won't use Persil and you won't use Tide" or make any attempt to clean up; "Nobody washes in a submarine." When three men "die of the stink," they aren't buried at sea lest they get clean
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: ship navy humorous derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 118, "Nobody Washes in a Submarine" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nobody Loves Like an Irishman" (tune)
cf. "Diesel and Shale" (subject of odors on a submarine)
File: Tawn089

Nobody's Business

DESCRIPTION: Singer confesses to all sorts of infractions -- rambling, drinking, gambling -- but says it's "nobody's business if I do." He says he might even kill somebody; his girlfriend "runs a weenie stand..." and drives a Cadillac, but it's all nobody's business
AUTHOR: Porter Grainger, Clarence Williams, Graham Prince, Everett Robbins?
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (JAFL)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer confesses to all sorts of infractions -- rambling, drinking, gambling -- but says it's "nobody's business if I do." He says he might even kill somebody; morphine, cocaine and women will drive him out of his mind; his money goes to buy his girlfriend fancy clothes; "she runs a weenie stand/way down in no man's land" and drives a Cadillac, but it's all nobody's business
KEYWORDS: sex homicide clothes gambling rambling drink nonballad whore
FOUND IN: US West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 34-35, "Nobody's Business" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Noel Dexter and Geodfrey Taylor, _Mango Time: Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), pp. 86-87, "Nobody's Business" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17344
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "Nobody's Business" (Vocalion 5230, 1928)
Jerry Behrens, "Nobody's Business" (OKeh 45564, 1932)
Tommie Bradley "Nobody's Business If I Do" (Champion 16696, 1933; Varsity 6055, n.d. [as by Big Richard]; rec. 1932; on GoodForWhatAilsYou)
Warren Caplinger's Cumberland Mountain Entertainers, "Nobody's Business" (Brunswick 224/Brunswick [Canada] 224, 1928)
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Nobody's Business" (on WIEConnor01)
Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Jordan & his Tympany Five, "Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do" (Decca 27200, c. 1950)
The Gaylads, "Nobody's Business" (2002, on "Ska Days," Soul Beat CD, 2002 [apparently a reissue of a Rolando & Powie 1964 45EP)
Boysie Grant with Reynolds' Calypso Clippers, "Sweet Charlie";"Mattie Rag";"Nobody's Business" (1952, on Motta MRS 06A, 2004, "Mento Madness, Motta's Jamaican Mento: 1951-56," V2 Music Ltd CD 63881-27201-2)
Alberta Hunter, "T'ain't Nobody's Biz-ness" (Paramount 12018, 1923)
Mississippi John Hurt, "Nobody's Dirty Business" (OKeh 8560, 1928; on MJHurt01, MJHurt02; on MJHurt05); "Nobody's Business" (on MJHurt04)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers, "Ain't Nobody's Business" (OKeh 45092, 1927, on Rough2)
[Billy] Jones & [Ernest] Hare, "Nobody's Business" (CYL: Edison [BA] 5115, n.d.)
Lulu Belle & Scotty, "It Ain't Nobody's Bizness" (OKeh 04962, 1939)
Sara Martin w. Fats Waller "'Tain't Nobody's Bus'ness If I Do" (OKeh 8043, 1923; rec. 1922)
Charles Nabell, "Nobody's Business" (OKeh 40389, 1925)
Riley Puckett, "Nobody's Business" (Bluebird B-6103, 1935; Bluebird B-8621, 1941)
Roy Sexton & his Arizona Hoedowners, "Nobody's Business" (Old Timer 8013, n.d.)
Bessie Smith, "Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do" (Columbia A3898, 1923)
Leo Soileau & his Aces, "Nobody's Business" (Decca 5101, 1935)
Peter Tosh, "Leave My Business" (on "Early Masters," (2009, on Goldenlane Records MP3 [recorded 1971; see NOTES])
Walker's Corbin Ramblers, "Nobody's Business" (Vocalion 01648, 1934)
Lena Wilson, "Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do" (Victor 19085, 1923)
Jimmy Witherspoon, "Ain't Nobody's Business, Pts. 1 & 2" (Supreme 1506/Swing Time 263, 1947)
SAME TUNE:
She Came from Kelligrews, She Likes Her Fish and Brewis (by Harry Mercer) (Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, p. 161)
NOTES [344 words]: This shouldn't be confused with Will E. Skidmore & Marshall Walker's 1919 "It's Nobody's Business But My Own," which concerned the extracurricular activities of a deacon. Skidmore and Walker copyrighted that song (and Bert Williams recorded it on Columbia A2750 the same year), but the JournalOfAmericanFolklore reference precedes that copyright, so it's likely they arranged and adapted a traditional piece. And, while I have not seen the sheet music to the copyrighted version, I strongly suspect it doesn't contain all the verses listed above. - PJS
THE JAMAICAN VERSIONS
The Gaylads' ska structure is the same as Dexter/Taylor and Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, with the chorus line being "nobody's business, business" and a verse of "if I marry a tiny girl/ or I marry a fat gal/ nobody's business but me own." Dextor/Taylor and Murray is in Jamaican patois with, partly, a similar theme to Gaylads' "if I marry a black man/ And left him for a Chinese man/...." This theme is also in - for example - Tommy Bradley's version: "If I dislike my lover/ And leave her for another/ Nobody's business if I do."
The structure of Boysie Grant's mento version and Peter Tosh's reggae version is like the U.S. recordings: the chorus line is simply "nobody's business" rather than "nobody's business, business."
Grant's verse, like all but Tosh's, has to do with trading lovers: a sailor man for a soldier man, and a Coolie [East Indian] man for a Chinee man.
Tosh's, like the U. S. versions, deals with hard times and shady business, among other things: "When landlord come collectiing rent/ Me not come beg you fifty cent/ That's nobody's business but my own" and "If I get high and fly like bird/ You should never say a word...." So does Dexter/Taylor, "Solomon granma swear she no go beg/ Tief 'way an Bra Sammy fowl an' egg/ Nobody's business but she own."
The date on the Peter Tosh recording is from KAZO, Bob Marley and the Wailers "Compared Discography", Issue 14(February 2nd, 2010) p. 52, downloaded March 14, 2015, from http://kazo.wailers.free.fr/. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcNobBu1

Nobody's but Mine

See Rabbit in the Log (Feast Here Tonight) (File: Br3166)

Nobody's Child

DESCRIPTION: The singer passes an orphan home to watch the children play. He asks one boy why he is not playing. The boy cries and says "People come for children and take them for their own But they all seem to pass me by and I am left alone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Recording, Hank Snow); in tradition, 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: lament nonballad children
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #10718
RECORDINGS:
Francis Dunphy, "Nobody's Child" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Hank Snow (The Singing Ranger) and his Rainbow Ranch Boys, "Nobody's Child" (RCA Victor 21-0143-A , 1949)
File: ML3NoChi

Nobody's Darling

See Nobody's Darling on Earth (File: R723)

Nobody's Darling on Earth

DESCRIPTION: "I'm out in this bleak world alone, Walking about in the streets... Begging for something to eat." The orphan lost mother at a very young age. Now "I'm nobody's darling on earth; Heaven have mercy on me, For I'm nobody's darling, Nobody cares for me."
AUTHOR: Will S. Hays
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (sheet music published by J. L Peters of New York; also Dime-Song-Book #26)
KEYWORDS: orphan poverty hardtimes begging
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 723, "I'm Nobody's Darling on Earth" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 471-472, "I'm Nobody's Darling on Earth" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 723A)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 54, pp. 73-74, "Nobody's Darling" (1 text)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 252-253, "Nobody's Darling" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 56, "Red River Valley" (3 texts, 1 tune, the "B" text belonging here)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 21-23, "Nobody's Darling" (1 text, 1 tune, plus the sequel "They Say I Am Nobody's Darling")
Dime-Song-Book #26, p. 24, "Nobody's Darling" (1 text)
Roud #4338
RECORDINGS:
Cumberland Ridge Runners, "Nobody's Darling" (Conqueror 8162, 1933)
Jimmie Davis, Nobody's Darling But Mine" (Decca 1504. 1937)
Grayson & Whitter, "Nobody's Darling" (Gennett 6304/Champion 15395 [as by Greysen Thomas & Will Lotty ], 1928)
Kelly Harrell, "Nobody's Darling on Earth" (Victor 20657, 1927; on KHarrell02)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Nobody's Darling on Earth" (Bluebird B-6460, 1936)
Wade Mainer & Zeke Morris, "Nobody's Darling on Earth" (Bluebird B-6423 [as "Nobody's Darling but Mine"]/Montgomery Ward 5028, 1936)
North Carolina Ridge Runners, "Nobody's Darling" (Columbia 15650-D, 1931; rec. 1928; on LostProv1)
SAME TUNE:
Gene Autry, "The Answer to Nobody's Darling" (ARC 6-08-51/Conqueror 8685/OKeh 03101/Vocalion 03101, 1936)
Gene Autry, "That's Why I'm Nobody's Darling" (ARC 7-05-73/Conqueror 8808/OKeh 03229/Vocalion 03229, 1937)
Patsy Montana & the Prairie Ramblers, "Woman's Answer to Nobody's Darling" (Perfect 6-08-52/Conqueror 8655 [as Salty Holmes w. the Prairie Ramblers], 1936)
Sally Foster [pseud. for Louise Rautenberg], "Woman's Answer to Nobody's Darling" (Decca 5239, 1936)
Jimmie Davis, "That's Why I'm Nobody's Darling" (Decca 5336, 1936; Melotone [Canada] 45220/Minerva 14073, 1937)
Tex Ritter, "Answer to Nobody's Darling But Mine" (Champion 45197, 1935)
NOTES [174 words]: Note that the Autry and Montana recordings [in the "Same Tune" field] have successive catalog numbers, and both were "answer" songs to the main entry. The record company was clearly milking this song for all it was worth -- and getting fresh copyrights, to boot.
I have no information about the relationship between the Sally Foster and Patsy Montana recordings. - PJS
The Fifes consider their "Little Darling" text ("Come sit by my side, little darling, Come lay your cool hand on my brow, And promise me that you will never Be nobody's darling but Mine") to be a Red River Valley variant. As, however, the chorus does not fit the "Red River Valley" tune, and the rest of the words go with this piece, I classify it here.
Spaeth (in Weep Some More, pp. 40-41) has another piece, "Driven from Home," which has the same theme and some of the same words, but no chorus; I can't tell if it's the same or not, or if it's traditional. - RBW
I suspect, without having heard the recordings, that "Nobody's Darling But Mine" is a Same Tune variant. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R723

Nobody's Dirty Business

See Nobody's Business (File: RcNobBu1)

Noddingham Town

See Nottamun Town (File: WB2006)

Noel Girl, The

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Non Capisce

DESCRIPTION: "Italiano lingue non capisch"; the soldiers still have memories of Egypt, but Arabic is no help in Italy. "Sunny Italy" is no such thing; he wishes for sand rather than snow. Cassino has fallen; Rome is next; "Tiny" (Gen. Freyberg) likes them to fight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (according to Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: soldier New Zealand home storm
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 115, "Non Capisce" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lili Marlene" (tune, plus cross-references to songs of the Italian campaign)
cf. "O'er the Hills of Sicily" (subject: the Italian campaign)
File: Clev115

None But the Righteous

DESCRIPTION: "Nothin' but the Righteous shall get in the gate (wear the crown)." "Teach me the way (Give me the faith) to get in the gate" "Give me the hands for to shout that day" "Slip an' slide those golden streets"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 29, "Nothin' But the Righteous" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [70 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. The form of each verse follows "Nothin' but the Righteous get in the gate (3x), O Lawd, how long?". The description shows the lead line for each verse.
For "none but the righteous" also see "Take Me to the Water" ("None but the righteous (x3) shall see God") and "Walking In the Light of God" (Dett: "Dat nothin' but de righteous shall go dere"). - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa029

None Can Love Like an Irishman

DESCRIPTION: "The turban'd Turk, who scorns the world, May strut about with his whiskers curled" and have a thousand wives, but he can't love like an Irishman. Neither can the French, the Dutch, the English....
AUTHOR: "Collins," according to Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (The Universal Songster, according to Steele)
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. xiii, "None Can Love Like an Irishman" (1 text)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Turbaned Turk He Scorns the World
File: Sandxiii

None Can Preach the Gospel Like the Mormons Do

DESCRIPTION: "We're going to preach the Gospel To all who want to hear, A message of salvation Unto the meek we'll bear... For none can preach the Gospel Like the Mormons do." The song outlines what the Mormons will teach
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious | Mormon teaching
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 142-143, "None Can Preach the Gospel Like the Mormons Do" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #10864
NOTES [227 words]: Since the Mormons have several books that they consider scripture that are not considered scripture by any other denomination, it goes without saying that no other Christians preach the gospels LIKE the Mormons. Whether the Mormons preach BETTER is another question.... Cheney's notes say that the Mormons "preach the gospel with conviction and forcefulness rather than with logic or from a background of scholarly training." This fits with the very foundation of Mormonism; Joseph Smith "did not follow the path of earlier Protestant reformers, like Martin Luther or John Calvin, learned men who reasoned their way to new interpretations of the Bible. Smith... had little schooling as a boy and rarely attended church.... Nothing prepared him to debate with the educated clergy as Luther and Calvin did" (Claudia Lauper Bushman and Richard Lyman Bushman, Building the Kingdom: A History of Mormons in America, Oxford University Press, 1999, 2001, p. 2). Instead, he claimed that he had been given direct revelation and proceeded from there. I can't personally understand why anyone would find this convincing, but no doubt I think too much.
The song contains one dramatic error derived from the King James Bible, in that it calls the God of the Old Testament "Jehovah" rather than the correct YHWH; for this, see the notes "Guide Me, Oh Thou Great Jehovah." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS142

Nonsense of Men, The

DESCRIPTION: "I hate to be teased by the nonsense of men," so the girl accepts her mother's advice to always say "No" to men. But young piper Donnelly wins her heart; after many requests, "I mistook and said Yes!" She lives happily and advises others to say "Yes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H472, pp. 258-259, "The Nonsense of Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1459
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "No, John, No" (theme)
File: HHH472

Nonsense Saw

DESCRIPTION: Nonsense rhymes showing how to pronounce "Arkansas": "I love a girl from Arkansaw, Who can saw more wood than her Maw can saw." "I sing a saw Of maid I saw In Arkansaw." "Her maw can saw, Her paw can saw, And she can saw In Arkansaw."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Allsopp)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonsense wordplay nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 195-196, "Nonsense Saw" (2 texts)
ST FORA195 (Partial)
NOTES [38 words]: Allsopp reports that there were problems in the 1840s with the pronunciation of "Arkansas." Hence this poem (or complex of poems). It's not clear that they were ever sung, but Allsopp reports that they were genuinely popular. - RBW
File: FORA195

Nonsense Song (I)

See Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

Nonsense Song (II)

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Noo I'm Just a Lassie in Want o' a Man

DESCRIPTION: The singer "would like to get marriet as sune as I can; I hae a' the perfections a man's heart could wish." She has oiled her hair, put her glasses away and bought a new gown. "Folk'll try mony a plan Fan they hae ony hope o' ensnarin' a man"
AUTHOR: Mrs Will of Alehousehill (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes hair nonballad oldmaid
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #38, p. 2, ("I hae looked in the glass"); #41, p. 3, "("Noo I'm just a lassie in want o' a man") (2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan8 1915, "Noo I'm Just a Lassie in Want o' a Man" (1 text)
Roud #16133
File: GrD81915

Noo Jock, my Man

DESCRIPTION: "Noo Jock, my man, sit doun by me, and harken to your mither!" She is old, and wants to see him married before she dies. She says to marry for money, to stay out of trouble, to shave his beard, "For it's nae joke, it's nae joke, the takin' o' the wife"
AUTHOR: Words: John Barr
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (Barr, Poems and Songs, according to Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: mother children marriage hair
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 29, "Noo Jock, my Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [74 words]: According to Gordon McLauchlan, editor-in-chief, New Zealand Encyclopedia, David Bateman Limited, 1984, p. 46, "BARR, John (1809-89) was born in Paisley, Scotland and emigrated to N[ew] Z[ealand] in 1852, settling in Dunedin. He became a well-known poet and songwriter, contributing to the Otago Witness and Saturday Advertiser. His Poems and Songs was published in 1861 and revised and reissued in 1874. He inaugurated the Burns Club. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Col2029

Noo, I'm a Braw Lassie

DESCRIPTION: The singer reviews her assets and skills: "I think a bit laddie could hardly de better Than tak me and mak' me his wife." She would marry a soldier, sailor, butcher, baker, sweep, mason,.... Nobody here wants her: "it's needless to stan ony langer"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: nonballad oldmaid
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1387, "Noo, I'm a Braw Lassie" (1 text)
Roud #7246
File: GrD81387

Noomanally Shore, The

See The Eumerella Shore (File: MA155)

Noonday on de Ribber

See Noonday on the River (File: CoBr074)

Noonday on the River

DESCRIPTION: "Noonday on the river, Fishing with a hook and line, Catfish in the river, Cain't kotch me this time. Nigger fall in the river, Lay on his back and he wink, Floating like a bubble on the water, 'Cause a tub of grease cain't sink."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, from Bim Mardfin)
KEYWORDS: fishing Black(s) nonballad river humorous
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, p. 74, "Noonday on de RIbber" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [8 words]: Very, very racist, but claimed as a folk song. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: CoBr074

Nor Will I Sin

DESCRIPTION: "Nor will I sin by drinking gin And cider, too, will never do Nor brewer's beer my heart shall cheer Nor sparkling ale my face to pale. To quench my thirst I'll... bring Clean water from the well or spring... I pledge... hate To all that can intoxicate"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Pinesville Democrat)
KEYWORDS: drink promise
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 336, "Nor Will I Sin" (1 fragment)
Roud #7808
File: R336

Nora Creina

DESCRIPTION: "Nora Creina, see the flowers, The lovely flowers that all seem'd perish'd" "Nora Creina, see the birds We thought forever flown away, love." "Nora Creina! Nora dear! Thus my love is thine forever... And still more fondly for the parting..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster) (the name was in use by 1833)
KEYWORDS: love separation flowers bird
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 198, "Nora Creina, See the Flowers" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
The New Policeman (File: GrD1750)
The Song of the Trap, Part IV (File: AnSt079)
Lansell's Case (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 106)
Lesbia hath a beaming eye (Nora Creina) (by Thomas Moore) (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 37)
NOTES [111 words]: I am not sure that this is traditional in itself, but the tune has been used so many times, for so many things, that I thought it belonged in the Index. Certainly the name is well-known; there is a place in Australia called "Nora Creina," There were several ships by that name.
The tune, in addition to the SAME TUNE items mentioned, was reportedly used by Beethoven.
"Nora Creina" does not seem to be proper Irish, but it has been suggested that it is a corruption of "Nora of my heart" or perhaps "Wise Nora." There is a Mudcat thread discussing all of this. The description is from one of the texts quoted there -- the one that seemed the most "tradition-ish." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: RcNorCre

Nora Creina, See the Flowers

See Nora Creina (File: RcNorCre)

Nora Daly

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets Nora Daly driving a donkey-cart on the way to the fair near Miltown Malbay. They part for fear of her father. "After years abroad sojourning" he returns to County Clare and they marry happily.
AUTHOR: Tomas O hAodha (Tom Hayes)(1866-1935) of Miltown Malbay (source: notes to IRClare01)
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (recording, Micho Russell)
KEYWORDS: love marriage return reunion separation father
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #8002
RECORDINGS:
Micho Russell, "Nora Daly" (on Voice01)
File: RcNoraDa

Nora Darling

See Barney McCoy (File: R776)

Nora McShane

See Norah McShane (File: HHH157)

Nora Nora

DESCRIPTION: "Nora Nora don't wake me foreday morning." Darling let me sleep past dawn. My boat is in the harbour. There is plantain to burn.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: request farming fishing tasks work nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 13, "Nora Nora" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ElTo013

Nora O'Neal

DESCRIPTION: "I'm lonely tonight, love without you... I love you dear Norah O'Neal." The singer's love he can never conceal. The nightingale's song reminds him of her. He says he will see her tomorrow; they will kiss. "I'll never be lonely again"
AUTHOR: Will S. Hays (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (sheet music published by J. L. Peters & Bro. of St. Louis), but see the NOTES
KEYWORDS: courting love nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 141, "Nora O'Neal" (1 text)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 63-64, "Norah O'Neale" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 248, "Norah O'Neal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs,pp. 470-471, "Nora O'Neal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 40, "Nora O'Neal" (1 text)
Roud #4976
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.26(298)[some words illegible], "Norah O'Neal" ("Oh! I'm lonely to night, love, without you"), T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899; also Harding B 11(3772), "Norah O'Neill"
LOCSinging, as109760, "Nora O'Neal," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
NLScotland L.C.1269(158a), "Norah O'Neil," Poet's Box (address illegible), 1869
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shamus O'Brien" (sequel to this song)
SAME TUNE:
Parody on Norah O'Neal, or Trying to Raise a Square Meal ("I'm thirsty, tonight, Jim, without you") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 124)
NOTES [159 words]: Source: Re author -- "The Music of William Shakespeare Hays 1837-1907" on PD Music site. - BS
William Shakespeare Hays was of course an American (born and died in Kentucky), as songs such as "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" attest, so this song is obviously "stage Irish" -- and yet, it seems to appear almost entirely in Irish collections.
There is a curiosity about the date. The sheet music says it's from 1866, and this is also the year given by Spaeth's History of Popular Music in America, p. 159. Yet Huntington says that it was found in the log of the Charles and Edward in 1858. I have to suspect that either the log is mis-dated or that the text was added to it later, but since I don't have access to the log myself, I can't prove it. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as109760: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon141

Norah

See Who Built the Ark? (File: RcWBTA)

Norah Darling

See Barney McCoy (File: R776)

Norah Darling, Don't Believe Them

DESCRIPTION: The singer must leave Norah "but I leave my heart with thee." He tells her not to forget him or to believe another suitor's "flattering wiles," "tale of love" or "treacherous whispers."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: courting love separation nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 149, "Norah Darling, Don't Believe Them" (1 text)
Roud #V3138
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.8(258), "Norah Darling, Don't Believe Them", unknown, n.d.
File: OCon149

Norah Hice duh Winduh

See Let the Dove Come In (File: CNFM045)

Norah M'Shane

See Norah McShane (File: HHH157)

Norah Magee

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Norah, dear Norah, I can't live without you... Come back to old Ireland, the land of our childhood...." The singer laments the absence of Norah, gone over the sea, and hopes she will return someday to Ireland.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation Ireland emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H778, p. 387, "Norah Magee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4718
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(86b), "Norah Magee," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
NOTES [80 words]: Sam Henry observed that this song was "in great vogue" around 1870, but I know of no other field collections. I do find myself strongly reminded of "Barney McCoy" -- but the similarity is at a level far removed from the details of the songs.
Poverty, of course, forced many Irish to migrate to America, and not just in the nineteenth century. It's not usual for the girl to go without the boy, but it's not unknown, either. And men need the chance to sing lost love songs, too. - RBW
File: HHH778

Norah Magee (II)

DESCRIPTION: Norah reads a letter from Terry who's better at fighting than reading and writing. She herself cannot read but can spell D, E, A, R and can guess "for he calls me dear Norah Magee" Terry says "he'd my name soon be turning To another than Norah Magee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 61, "Norah Magee" (1 text)
File: OCon061A

Norah McShane

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls leaving (Ballymoney), and admits to being "as wretched can be" in the new land. He misses buttermilk, the old mud house, peat fires, and of course Norah McShane. Even with no money, it was a better life than this
AUTHOR: Eliza Cook (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1841 380630); supposedly written 1838
KEYWORDS: emigration homesickness separation
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H157, p. 207, "Norah McShane" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 50-51, "Nora McShane" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 105, "Nora McShane" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 42, "Norah McShane" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1620, p. 110, "Norah M'Shane" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 17 and #5/64, p. 17, "Norah M'Shane" (1 text)
Roud #9059
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2717), "Norah Mc.Sheen" or "I Am Leaving Ballimoney," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also 2806 c.15(9/10)[some illegible words], "Norah MacShane"; Harding B 11(3881), 2806 b.11(10), Firth c.26(16), Harding B 11(56), Harding B 11(1814), "Norah M'Shane"
LOCSheet, sm1841 380630, "Norah McShane," C. E. Horn (New York), 1841; also sm1850 650070, sm1850 471280, "Norah McShane" (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
cf. "Lake Chemo" (parody)
SAME TUNE:
Petticoat Lane ("I've left dear old England a long way behind me; To better my fortune I've crossed the wide sea") (by Charles R. Thatcher, in "Thatcher's Colonial Songster") (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 52-54; Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 15-16)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Nora McShane
NOTES [71 words]: The LOCSheet broadsides note "poetry by [Miss] Eliza Cook" and music attributed either to W. J. Wetmore or Charles Horn Junr. - BS
Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 285, also attributes the song to Eliza Cook and Charles Horn, but does not state a source.
For background on Eliza Cook, see the notes to "Grandmother's Chair." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HHH157

Norah O'Neale

See Nora O'Neal (File: OCon141)

Norah, Hist the Windah

See Let the Dove Come In (File: CNFM045)

Nordfeld and the Raleigh, The

DESCRIPTION: The "Nordfeld" and the "Raleigh" are two ships wrecked close together in the Strait of Belle Isle. The singer tells of the scavenging of both ships and remarks that had he or his listeners been there, they would have partaken in the spoils.
AUTHOR: George Williams
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: wreck ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 1922 - Wreck of the Raleigh
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 142, "The Nordfeld and the Raleigh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Nordfeld and the Raleigh" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 47 in the 2nd edition
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 64, "The Norfeld and the Raleigh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6346
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Mayflower" (theme of wreckers) and references there
NOTES [2167 words]: The HMS Raleigh was a new light cruiser on a tour of the United States and Canada when the captain was persuaded to go off course through the Strait of Belle Isle for some good fishing. It wrecked near the Point Amour lighthouse in Labrador. For these and other details, consult David J. Molloy, The First Landfall: Historic Lighthouses of Newfoundland and Labrador (St. John's: Breakwater, 1994), pp. 94-96. Currant Island, the author's home, is on the Newfoundland side just south of the Strait and not particularly close to the events in the ballad. - SH
Although several sources call her a light cruiser, the Raleigh was designed and built with 7.5" guns (Jane's-WWI, p. 56), making her a heavy cruiser (although that term had not come into use when she was built). She was the sixth Royal Navy ship to be named after Walter Raleigh (Smith, p. 177). After World War I, she became part of the British North Atlantic squadron (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 57). This was not an area where there was much action (even by 1920s standards), so she did some touring and showing the flag -- a suitable use for a ship that was a good sea-boat, with high freeboards, good habitability, and good ventilation (Smith, p. 194) but that wasn't a good fighting ship. In 1922, that tour took her to Labrador. On August 8, she departed Hawke's Bay, Newfoundland, to go to Forteau, Labrador (Prim/McCarthy, p. 86; Forteau is in that little tiny corner of southern Labrador just east of the Quebec/Labrador boundary; it's the narrowest part of the Strait of Belle Isle).
Unfortunately, neither Captain Bromley nor any of the ship's officers had sailed the area before (at least according to Prim/McCarthy, p. 87; Rohmer, p. 29 says they knew the area), and none realized how treacherous the waters were, especially for a ship with such a deep draught. Plus it was a foggy day with extremely low visibility. Bromley wasn't even on the bridge for most of this period; a junior officer said he wasn't feeling well. The navigation officer, Leslie Bott, was left in charge of navigating the strait (Rohmer, p. 31), and chose the course that led to her destruction (Rohmer, p. 33).
The crew had little warning when an iceberg appeared off their bow. Desperately they steered around it -- and ended up in shallow water in fog so thick that they could not see or hear the lighthouse just a few hundred yards away (although Smith, p. 190, denies that the grounding was the result of seeing the iceberg). Although the ship slowed to just six knots (so Prim/McCarthy, p. 87) or eight knots (so Rohmer, p. 33 and Smith, p. 190; this seems to be supported by the official report on p. 36 of Rohmer), it was still too fast. She went hard aground about two hundred yards from the Point Amour lighthouse outside the entrance to Forteau's harbor (Prim/McCarthy, p. 87; Rohmer, p. 46, has a stunning photo of the ship and the lighthouse almost next to each other. Smith, p. 182, reports that the name L'Anse Amour was a corruption of "L'Anse aux Mort," "Cove of the Dead," because of the many shipwrecks there, but I suspect that's folklore).
There apparently was no possibility of using her boats to get her afloat; Captain Bromley reported that they all had holes in them (Rohmer, p. 37) -- which sounds as if she had not been properly maintained even before the grounding.
Captain Bromley at once called for volunteers to run a line to shore. The cutter they used capsized in the heavy seas. One officer got a line ashore, but ten men died in the process. They were the only casualties; everyone else made it ashore along the line (Prim/McCarthy, p. 88; Smith, p. 184, has a list of the casualties).
There were other ships in the Raleigh's squadron, and Admiral Pakenham's flagship Calcutta arrived the next day (Rohmer, p. 41), but no immediate arrangements were made for the crew. That put about 700 men ashore at Forteau (population 177) and L'Anse Amour (just a few houses). The men had to subsist for the most part on supplies taken from the ship until arrangements were made to take them home (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 59).
Although the fog didn't last long, the weather -- which is rarely good in Labrador -- stayed bad for many days, further damaging the ship and making it harder to do anything about it (Rohmer, pp. 55-57); it wasn't easy even to get the men on ships to take them home.
Two days after the wreck, a salvage ship, the Royal Strathcona arrived, and divers inspected the wreck, finding a large hole in the bottom (Prim/McCarthy, p. 89). The bilge keel was broken and the much of the ship flooded (Rohmer, p. 58). It was thought that it would take seven weeks to get her in condition to be floated off -- if the weather didn't make things worse. In essence, the ship could have been saved if she were near a decent port, but that condition did not apply. The salvage firm refused a "no cure, no pay" contract; they were not convinced the ship could be saved (Rohmer, p. 59). The Raleigh was eventually declared a total loss; although some equipment was taken off, there was no attempt to re-float the ship (Whitley, p. 80), even though she was still only about five years old.
Admiral Pakenham ordered a court of inquiry, using the captains of the other ships in his squadron, on August 17 (Rohmer, p. 52). Most of the blame went to Captain Bromley and Commander Bott, although they had a little left over for the Officer of the Watch because he didn't entirely understand the chain of command under which he operated (Rohmer, p. 53). The Board was critical also of the way the ship's equipment was managed. On September 12, the Admiralty officially paid off the ship's crew (meaning that they would not attempt to repair her) and ordered Bromley and Bott to be court martialed (Rohmer, pp. 70-71).
Bott's trial came first. Rohmer reprints on pp. 83-85 a list of particulars from the court-martial; it charges Bott with not warning the captain about the problems navigating in the conditions, for not using the sounding machines as much as he should have, for not slowing down enough, for not telling the captain about decreasing visibility, and for not telling the captain to get a visibility report by radio (I *think* that's what the last particular means; the phrasing is a bit strange).
Bott didn't offer much of a defense, except to say that the charts of the area were bad (Rohmer, p. 92; the Admiralty would dispute this point, but I think it's probably true). It was not defense enough; he was "severely" reprimanded (Rohmer, p. 107). That meant his career was over. There might have been further action taken against him, but he retired from the navy, bringing the action against him to an end (Rohmer, p. 109). Bromley's trial followed (Rohmer, p. 117), with Bott's testimony used against his captain as Bromley's had been used against Bott. Like his subordinate, Bromley had little defense except bad charts (Rohmer, p. 131). The court's language in its decision against Bromley seems to me a little less harsh (he was merely "reprimanded"), but it was the end of his sea career, too (Rohmer, pp. 133, 135).
Oddly. neither man was entirely forced out of public service. Bott was allowed to return to duty during World War II (Smith, p. 185), when presumably the Royal Navy needed every man it could get. Bromley didn't serve at sea again, but he was made a Rear Admiral in 1926 and officially placed on the retired list at that rank. He also became the eighth Baronet Bromley and served a bunch of positions in the royal hierarchy (Smith, p. 186) -- which, to me, shows the advantages of rank in inter-war Britain....
The problem after that was to figure out what to do with the ship. The locals were soon given official permission to salvage the ship, and of course they did so eagerly (Galgay/McCarthy, pp. 59-60). Supposedly the locals had started to strip her even before that -- first of food and leftover clothes and such, then of more valuable materials such as metals (Rohmer, p. 148). The Admiralty eventually tried to sell the salvage rights, with the restriction that the ship's big guns had to be returned to Britain. No one was willing to pay for cleaning up the wreck. Eventually the British gave up on trying to get money for the ship and simply paid to have the guns returned (Rohmer, pp. 148-149).
The next stage of the story is almost comic. The Raleigh continued to sit on the rocks, disarmed but otherwise looking mostly intact. The British Navy considered it embarrassing to have the ship sitting there; officials griped that "the wreck is MOST CONSPICUOUS" (Rohmer, p. 155). So they decided to blow it up! On July 1, 1926, official approval was given (Rohmer, p. 161;Galgay/McCarthy, p. 60) -- and it was decided to do it without cleaning up the hazardous materials still on board, because of the expense. "That decision was to have environmental consequences even when this book was written" (Rohmer, p. 162. The book was published in 2003). The job was assigned to Captain Andrew Cunningham of the Calcutta (later a famous admiral in World War II), who apparently described it in his book A Sailor's Odyssey (Rohmer, p. 169).
Cunninham, in one sense, did his job: he pushed enough ordinance into the ship to ruin her hull and upper works, so that she no longer looked like a navy ship. But he didn't remove her wreckage -- and all the live shells and cordite were left in the wreck (Rohmer, p. 173). At least one child apparently died after running across unexploded ammunition (Rohmer, pp. 176-177; Smith, pp. 192-193, says that a total of four locals were killed over the years), although it sounds as if what killed the child was small arms ammunition that would have been hard to clean up anyway. In 1994, Canada (which by then governed Labrador) was being told that something needed to be done (Rohmer, p. 179 -- although it sounds as if Rohmer was doing most of the telling). The decision to destroy the ammunition was made in 2002, with the first explosions taking place in 2003 (Rohmer, p. 195, 207). I don't know if that is the end of the Raleigh's story, but it seems likely.
Andrieux, p. 94, has a photo of the Raleigh on the rocks. Smith has two in his photo section, both from 1922, as well as several of her sister Effingham (which, curiously, also was lost as a result of going aground, although not until World War II). Rohmer has many pictures of Raleigh, from throughout her history, but the printing is incredibly poor.
Part of the reason the British gave up on the ship was probably the extent of the damage, and the location of the wreck can't have helped, but the British would likely have tried harder if the Raleigh had been more useful. The five-ship class to which she belonged (usually called the Hawkins or Frobisher class) had been designed to chase a particular type of German raider, which of course didn't exist any more after World War I (Whitley, p. 77). They indirectly led to the development of what came to be called "heavy cruisers," but they themselves were problematic (Worth, p. 99). One was converted into an aircraft carrier while building, and the others were rebuilt so heavily in the 1920s and 1930s that they in effect became other types of ships (Whitley, p. 79). They were among the oldest cruisers to serve in the British Navy in World War II, but they performed a "secondary role" (Worth, p. 99; according to Smith, p. 197, the Effingham, one of the sisters, had her 7.5" guns replaced by 6" weapons, turning her into probably the worst light cruiser in the Royal Navy). Probably most people in the Admiralty were just as glad to get Raleigh off their hands. It's just coincidence that she went down in an area where people were such vigilant scavengers.
To emphasize just how un-useful the Raleigh was, it's worth comparing her with the next class of British heavy cruisers, the Kents (data based on comparing the data in Whitley and Worth). The Kents did require a few more men, 784 versus 690 -- 14% more crew. But they had a weight of broadside that was 71% greater (2048 pounds per salvo versus 1200). They had 33% more torpedo tubes (eight versus six), and the torpedoes could be fired more easily. The Kents were a little faster (31.5 knots versus 30). The Kents had 73% more cruising range than the Hawkins class's 5400 nautical miles, and they were more fuel efficient -- 2.92 nautical miles per ton of fuel versus 2.08. If the British had been smart, they'd have sold off the remaining Hawkinses to anyone who would buy them....
I find no mention of the story that the Raleigh went off-course to go fishing.
Unlike the Raleigh, the Nordfeld doesn't seem to have attracted any attention from historians, presumably because she was "just another wreck," of which Labrador had had an abundance. The Raleigh was, I suspect, the largest ship ever wrecked off the Labrador to that time, having three times the tonnage of the largest of the coastal steamers, the Stephano. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy47

Norfeld and the Raleigh, The

See The Nordfeld and the Raleigh (File: Doy47)

Norfolk Girls, The

DESCRIPTION: "Our topsails reef'd and filled away, All snug aloft we know... Here's a health to all the Norfolk girls, And Portsmouth maidens too." The singer talks of the labors and dangers of a life at sea, always recalling the Norfolk girls and Portsmouth maidens
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Shay)
KEYWORDS: sailor work battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 172-177, "The Norfolk Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ShaSS172 (Partial)
File: ShaSS172

Norlan' Laddie, The

DESCRIPTION: "A Norlan' Johnnie" woos "a Southlan' Jenny." He is so bashful he can hardly speak "till blinks o' her beauty and hopes o' her siller" force him to speak. She agrees to go with him. It's not clear whether or not he backs down (see NOTES)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 864, "The Norlan' Laddie" (1 text)
Roud #6226
NOTES [27 words]: The Greig/Duncan4 text is missing lines. The last two lines comment that Southern lasses "are a' for dressing" but Northern lasses "mind milking and threshing." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4864

North American Rebels

DESCRIPTION: Troops prepare to sail to fight in North America. Women ask to be taken as well; the Captain says the ship is overloaded. They (the women?) are not afraid to go. After a bloody fight the soldier's wives and babies mourn their dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1855 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.14(199))
KEYWORDS: parting separation war America wife soldier Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 107, "North American Rebels"
Roud #596
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.14(199), "North of America" ("As we sailed out of Glasgow, being in the month of June"), E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Harding B 25(1378)[some words illegible], "North America"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell to Kingsbridge" (shared lines and general theme)
NOTES [76 words]: The troops may leave Glasgow or Plymouth, the fight may be against rebels or Indians, and the woman questioning the Captain may be named Polly or Nancy.
There are six lines shared between the Bodleian broadsides of "North American Rebels" and the "Ballad Sheet and Garland" text of "Farewell to Kingsbridge": wives "lamenting for their husbands" and children crying "mommy"; God bless the King, soldiers on land and sea, and our army in North America. - BS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: WWSR107

North Atlantic Squadron, The

DESCRIPTION: "Away, away, with fife and drum, Here we come, full of rum Looking for women to pat on the bum, In the North Atlantic Squadron." The singer tells of the hardship of the convoy routes, describes the battles, and complains about the available women in port
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: sailor courting sex ship war bawdy
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 52-57, "The North Atlantic Squadron," "North Atlantic Squadron -- Standard Version," "West Atlantic Squadron," "Old Destroyer Squadron" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 145, "The West Atlantic Squadron" (1 fragment)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 109-110, "The North Atlantic Squadron" (1 text)
Roud #10267
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Armored Cruiser Squadron" (form)
NOTES [218 words]: This is one of those songs, like "The Old Chisholm Trail," that can go on practically forever, with each verse more bawdy or scatological than the one before. That life on the convoy routes was difficult can hardly be questioned; for other songs on this topic, see "Destroyer Life" and the other various naval songs in Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear.
Hopkins calls it "Easily the most famous of Canadian service songs." It is interesting that it is rarely printed. It seems clear that it was simply too hardcore for most anthologies. The big question, to me, is whether it is, properly, a Canadian song; most of the versions I know of are from Newfoundland.
Hopkins attributes his first, extremely long (30 verses!), version to the 116th Squadron, although he does not explain the suggestion. Roger Sarty, War in the St. Lawrence: The Forgotten U-Boat Battles on Canada's Shores, Penguin 2012, p. 93, says that this was a squadron based at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and describes it as having Canso (PBY Catalina) aircraft; p. 123 reports that it went into action in mid-1941. Sarty, p. 127, says that it was one of only two long-range reconnaissance squadrons in the Eastern Air Command, the other being Squadron 5, for which see "No. 5. Squadron Song," which also has more details about the Catalina. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Hopk052

North Campaign, The (Gates's Song, A Song of Saratoga)

DESCRIPTION: "Come unto me, ye heroes, Whose hearts are true and bold. Who value more your honor Than others do their gold." (John) Burgoyne invades New York from Canada. Gates and his men defeat him. The singer toasts the American officiers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Stone)
KEYWORDS: battle patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 17, 1777 - Surrender of John Burgoyne at Saratoga
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: William L. Stone, _Ballads and Poems Relating to the Burgoyne Campaign_, 1893 (I use the 1970 Kennikat Press reissue), pp. 86-93, "(The North Campaign (A Song of Saratoga)"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fate of John Burgoyne" (subject: the Saratoga campaign) and notes there
NOTES [24 words]: Stone claims that this "was for a long period sung throughout New England." I have no evidence of this, but I'm including it just in case. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Sto086

North Carolina Hills, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the North Carolina Hills, How majestic and how grand, With their summits bathed in glory Like our Prince Immanuel's land." The singer repeatedly praises their beauty and their peoples; he must depart, but hopes to return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 402, "The North Carolina Hills" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 242-243, "The North Carolina Hills" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, D. K. Wilgus, "Note on 'The North Carolina Hills,'" Vol. IV, No. 1 (Jul 1956), p. 1, "(The Two Orphans)" (1 fragment, which Wilgus connects with Brown's "The North Carolina Hills")
Roud #11757
File: Br3402

North Country Collier, The

DESCRIPTION: "At the head of Wear Water about twelve at noon, I heard a maid a-talking...." She describes her handsome young collier who "sails the salt sea." She will build him a "castle." She may be a sheep-girl, but she can enjoy her husband just as a queen does
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Masefield, Sailor's Garland)
KEYWORDS: love sailor home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 87, "The North Country Collier" (1 text)
Roud #683
File: PaSe087

North Country Maid, A

DESCRIPTION: "A north country maid to London had strayed Although with her nature it did not agree." She laments the home she has left behind, its trees, its fields, its people. She hopes soon to be able to return home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A maid from northern England (Westmoreland), who has strayed to London, wishes she were home; she sings the praises of the north country and its ways; she vows that she'll not marry until she returns, preferring to wed a north country man. She hopes to return in less than a year. Chorus: "The oak and the ash and the bonny ivy tree/They flourish at home in my own country"
KEYWORDS: homesickness rambling
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 18, "A North-Country Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 14-15, "O the Oak, and the Ash, and the Bonny Ivy Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan5 1058, "My Ain Countrie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 62, "The Oak And The Ash" (1 text)
Wells-TheBalladTree, p. 277, "The Oak and the Ash"; "Goddesses" (2 tunes, with the latter being claimed as the source for the former)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 456-458, "I Would I Were i My Own Country" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 276-277, "Quodling's Delight" (1 tune, which appears from the index and notes to be intended as the melody for this piece)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 54-55, "The Oak and the Ash" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NCNTRYMD* NCNTRYM2*
ADDITIONAL: Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, pp. 77-78, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #1367
NOTES [146 words]: This looks like the source for the "oak and the ash" lines that appear in the choruses of many versions of "Rosemary Lane," "Ambletown," "Bell-Bottom Trousers," and other members of that most tangled of song families, typically with no relevance to those songs' plots. If I had my guess, I'd say the recombinant chorus was grafted onto those songs' common ancestor at some point early in its evolution. - PJS
For the complex relationship between this song, "Ambletown," and "Rosemary Lane" [Laws K43], see the notes to the latter song. - PJS, RBW
This song does not seem to have any "plot relationship" to the other two traditional songs; the common element is simply the chorus ("Oh the oak and the ash and the bonny ivy tree They flourish at home in my own country"). The language of this piece, however, hints at literary origin; indeed, it looks like a typical pastoral. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LK43B

North Highlands, The

DESCRIPTION: "Down in yon meadow, I chanced for to spy A bonnie young lassie that pleased my eye.... Bonnie lassie, come to the North Hielands wi' me." He offers lands and wealth; she says her parents would object. He turns to go; she consents to go with him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: love courting money father mother separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #55, p. 1, "The North Highlands"; #61, p. 2, "The North Highlands" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan4 853, "The North Highlands" (12 texts, 8 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 87, "Bonnie Lassie, Come to the North Hielands" (1 text)
Roud #5565
File: Ord087

North Shoreman's Line, The

See The Bonavist Line (File: Pea768)

North Star (II), The

See The Merchant's Only Son [Laws M21] (File: LM21)

North Star, The

DESCRIPTION: North Star sails from Ireland for America. On December 8, "close to the wild Welsh shore the North Star struck, that very night, upon that fatal rock ... Out of near five hundred passengers, but twenty-one were saved"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.9(261))
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 94-95, "The North Star" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #20534
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(261), "The North Star", J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899; also Firth b.27(109/110) View 1 of 2, "The North Star"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Vivandeer" (tune)
NOTES [11 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: Tune is "The Vivandeer" on p. 112. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran094

North Wind Doth Blow, The

DESCRIPTION: "The north wind doth blow, And we shall have snow, And what will poor robin do then? Poor thing! He'll hide in a barn, To keep himself warm, And hide his head under his wing. Poor thing!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (Songs for the Nursery, according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: storm bird
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 146, "The north wind doth blow" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 227, "The North Wind Doth Blow" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 533, "The North Wind Doth Blow" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #407, p. 193, "(The north wind doth blow)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 168, "The North Wind Doth Blow" (1 text)
Roud #19525
NOTES [113 words]: Although the obvious assumption is that the "robin" of this song is the bird, the inevitable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 155, converts it to a proper name, Robin, and says that Robin is Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the favorite of Elizabeth I. It's worth noting that Thomas, apart from the fact that she had more hallucinations than a magic mushroom addict, assumes a whole constellation of nursery rhymes about Dudley, who probably wasn't considered worth that much attention outside Elizabeth's court.
Having watched birds huddle and hide in bad weather, I really do think this is about birds. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OO2533

North-Country Maid, A

See A North Country Maid (File: LK43B)

Northamptonshire Poacher, The

See The Lincolnshire Poacher (File: K259)

Northeast Gale, The

DESCRIPTION: June 18, 1906 "one hundred sailors of fishing craft to Cape St Mary's go." They are caught in a gale and the men out in dories, which had been out to haul the trawlers, are lost. Survivors return to Golden Bay and mourn the loss.
AUTHOR: Walt Young (source: notes to ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
KEYWORDS: death drowning mourning fishing sea ship storm
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 1906 - Schooner Avenue lost off Cape St. Mary's, at the southern tip of the Avalon peninsula (per Northern Shipwrecks Database). According to the notes at ITMA/CapeShoreNL, "Several fishing craft from Placentia Bay that were fishing off Cape St Mary's were caught in the storm and men were lost at sea."
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #26873
RECORDINGS:
Denis McGrath, "The Northeast Gale" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
File: ITMANEGa

Northern Bonnie Blue Flag, The

DESCRIPTION: Northern answer to "The Bonnie Blue Flag": "We're fighting for our Union, We're fighting for our trust.... Hurrah, hurrah, For equal rights, hurrah! Hurrah! for the good old flag That bears the stripes and stars."
AUTHOR: (various)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar parody patriotic nonballad derivative
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 382, "The Flag with the Thirty-Four Stars" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 218-219, "The Northern Bonnie Blue Flag" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 358, "Bonnie Blue Flag" (1 text, a copy of a Johnson broadside)
Roud #7760
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES [872 words]: This is actually a complex of songs rather than a single piece; various poets evidently made answers to "The Bonnie Blue Flag." I've lumped them because they all had, at best, only the weakest holds on tradition.
The version in Scott, which gives this entry its title, is listed as by Isaac Ball, and is a very short piece praising the freedom fighters of the North. I doubt that it is traditional at all.
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's "Flag with the Thirty-Four Stars" technically came from oral tradition, but the informant probably learned it from print; there are just too many names to remember them all. And it was widely published; Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 44, lists nine broadside versions, all apparently without authors. Among the many names and places mentioned:
"McClellan of Bold Antietam Fame": George B. McClellan (1826-1885), who took over the Army of the Potomac after First Bull Run and led it to defeat in the Seven Days' Battle and marginal victory (despite overwhelming superiority) after Antietam. The approving mention of McClellan (and Burnside) probably dates the song to late 1862; the list by 1863 would have been very different.
"Hooker, Sigel, Kenly too": Joe Hooker (1814-1879), was in late 1862 the Army of the Potomac's most aggressive corps commander. He would go on to failure in high command.
Franz Sigel (1824-1902) commanded German troops all over the place, and almost always disastrously. The German troops never gave up on him; hence perhaps the approving mention.
Kenly: The Union had a general John Reese Kenly (1822-1891), who commanded troops in the Shenandoah Valley but who managed to not be involved in most of the big battles. His name is hard to explain. I suspect he might have been confused with Phil Kearny (1814-1862), who though only a division commander was widely regarded as the best officer in the Army of the Potomac -- but he was killed before Antietam. There was also a General E. R. S. Canby who held important posts in the west, but while he also spent time in the east, it was mostly in administrative posts.
"Foote, Dupont, Rosecrans": Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote (1706-1863) had led the fleets that attacked Forts Henry and Donelson in early 1862, giving the Union its first major successes in the war. Wounded at Fort Donelson, he never really recovered. It is interesting to note that U. S. Grant, the land commander at Donelson, is not mentioned -- another hint that the song is from 1862, when Halleck shelved him after the near-defeat at Shiloh.
Dupont: Samuel F. DuPont (1803-1865), another naval officer, commander of the fleet that took Port Royal (November 1861). In 1863 he failed to capture Charleston (the War Department gave him impossible orders), so his star too was clouded.
Rosecrans: William S. Rosecrans (1819-1898). An officer of promise as a subordinate, he had done good work in West Virginia in 1861 and successfully defended Corinth in October 1862. After that, he was given charge of the Army of the Cumberland, where he proved less successful, fighting a bloody draw at Stones River (December 1862) and losing Chickamauga (September 1863).
"Halleck, Burnside, Butler too": Henry W. Halleck (1815-1872) was theatre commander in the west, and after Grant's successes at Forts Henry and Donelson had led the slow advance to Corinth. He was then brought to Washington as General-in-Chief. On paper, his results looked good; in reality, he was far too cautious and never managed to get the Union war machine in gear. He was much more effective as (de facto) chief of staff under Grant. But in late 1862, he still looked like a winner.
Burnside: Ambrose Burnside (1824-1881) had led the successful attacks on the Carolina coast in 1862. He then joined the Army of the Potomac, and failed as a corps commander at Antietam, but was given command of the whole army and led it to defeat at Fredericksburg and the Mud March (late 1862/early 1863) -- still more evidence of a late 1862 date. Burnside's real problem seems to have been a complete inability to react to changing circumstances.
Butler: Benjamin F. Butler (1818-1893), a political general who was perhaps the worst soldier ever to wear a Major General's stars. In 1862, however, he had "captured" New Orleans (the entire work had in fact been done by Farragut's fleet), and so was an official hero. He was also earning a reputation among the occupied as "Beast" Butler.
"old South Mountain side": The Battle of South Mountain (Sept. 14, 1862) was the first real engagement of the Antietam campaign. McClellan, possessed of Lee's "lost order," knew that Lee's army was scattered behind the South Mountain range, with only a few troops to guard the passes. McClellan, who could have destroyed Lee's army by attacking boldly, instead brought minimal force to bear, forced the passes only because Lee had such weak forces there -- and then sat for two days when he could have defeated Lee piecemeal.
South Mountain did not drive Lee from the north; rather, it gave him time to concentrate his forces at Antietam. Where McClellan again failed to destroy him. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: SBoA218

Northern Lord and Cruel Jew, The

See The Knight in Green (File: FO184)

Northern Lord, The

See The Knight in Green (File: FO184)

Northern Tragedy, A

DESCRIPTION: "An old sour-dough prospector lay dying on the trail," with no women or young people around. He asks that a message be sent to his wife. He asks to be buried in the ice. The thermometer at the time "registered just seventy-two below."
AUTHOR: B. F. Clayton?
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Klondike Nugget, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: death mining hardtimes burial drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 675-676, "A Northern Tragedy" (1 text)
File: CAFS2675

Northessie Crew, The

DESCRIPTION: "As I gaed up to Aikey Fair, 'Twas for to get a fee; A farmer frae St Fergus Came steppin 'owre to me." The singer hires on for the season, "as I hae deen afore." A few of the crew are named and described.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work moniker nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #16, p. 2, "The Northessie Crew" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 412, "The Northessie Crew" (1 text)
Roud #5933
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hairst o' Rettie" (subject: harvest crew moniker song) and references there
cf. "The Boghead Crew" (subject: harvest crew moniker song)
cf. "The Kiethen Hairst" (subject: harvest crew moniker song)
cf. "The Ardlaw Crew" (subject: harvest crew moniker song)
NOTES [84 words]: Greig: "... 'The Northessie Crew' ... was composed last summer [1907]. When ... it gets taken up and sung over Buchan we shall have pleasure in printing it as a full-fledged song. Meantime we pick a few verses by way of specimen." These five verses are the basis for the description.
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; North Essie (412) is at coordinate (h5-6,v1) on that map [roughly 33 miles N of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3412

Northill May Song

See May Day Carol (File: JRSF238)

Northumberland Bagpipes, The

DESCRIPTION: "A shepherd sat him under a thorn, He pulled out his pipes and began for to play, It was on a midsummer's day in the morn." A girl comes by, hears him piping, and declares, "Iy thou wilt pipe, lad, I'll dance to thee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1701 (broadside NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(060))
KEYWORDS: music dancing
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 32-34, "The Northumberland Bagpipes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. "The Northumberland Bagpipes" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR032 (Full)
Roud #3055
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(060), "The Merry Bagpipes," unknown, 1701
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maggie Lauder" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
March Boyes (per broadside NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(060))
File: StoR032

Northumberland Betrayd by Dowglas

See Northumberland Betrayed by Douglas [Child 176] (File: C176)

Northumberland Betrayed by Douglas [Child 176]

DESCRIPTION: Northumberland flees to Scotland and is taken into custody. Despite his protestations of virtue, he is passed from hand to hand, ending in the custody of Douglas. Percy sets sail, believing he will be freed, but ends up under the control of Lord Hunsden
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: nobility rebellion escape trick ring wife betrayal prison
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1572 - Execution of the Earl of Northumberland
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 176, "Northumberland Betrayed by Douglas" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 217-226, "Northumberland Betrayd by Dowglas" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 279-294, "Northumberland Betrayed by Douglas" (2 texts, one being that in the Reliques and the other being the manuscript copy)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, p. 171, "Northumberland Betrayed by Douglas" (1 fragment, similar to the Child text but so short that it might, from its text, be something else -- e.g. some texts of "Mary Hamilton" have rather similar lyrics; the singer apparently knew more of the song but would not repeat it)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 129, "Northumberland Betrayed by Douglas" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 259
Roud #4006
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rising in the North" [Child 175] (subject)
cf. "The Earl of Westmoreland" [Child 177] (subject)
NOTES [213 words]: According to David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 158 n. 25, this is one of eighteen ballads in the Child collection found only in the Percy Folio. Percy claimed to have two copies, but no hint of another copy has been found, and Percy said this about other ballads as well.
For the background to Northumberland's flight to Scotland, see "The Rising in the North" [Child 175]. Having arrived in Scotland, Northumberland became a valuable pawn -- and in a nation with a child king and no real government, he wound up being passed back and forth until he came into Douglas's hands.
The Countess of Northumberland, in exile in Flanders, raised money to ransom him. But the English matched the ransom, and Northumberland was turned over to Lord Hunsdon in late 1571 and executed in 1572.
For the complete details of these proceedings, see the notes in Child.
Those desiring to see how Percy converted the folio text into of Percy's hack, see Nick Groom, The Making of Percy's Reliques, Oxford English Monographs, 1999, pp. 127 ffff. -- though Groom is far too sympathetic to Percy's hack-work. Percy claimed to have two copies, one from the folio, one not. He didn't; he had only the folio and an overactive imagination. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C176

Norway Bum, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a bum and addicted to rum." His father drove the singer from home because "I loved a fair lass far beneath my own class." They married; his wife and child died in a fire in Norway. "To drown sorrow I plunged into rum... And now I am only a bum"
AUTHOR: Joe Scott?
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (April 13 Rumford Falls Times, according to Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker)
KEYWORDS: grief love marriage death mourning drink wife children
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker, pp. 282-306, "The Norway Bum" (2 texts, 3 tunes plu smention of 24 versions)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 119-121, 251, "The Norway Bum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13992
NOTES [54 words]: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland: "No one was killed in the fire that destroyed much of Norway, Maine, in 1894, and there is no evidence to show that the song is based on a real person or incident, but, since Scott was not given to fiction, we can be reasonably sure that he thought his source ... was factual." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: IvDC119

Norwegian Collier, The

DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "In the early hours of morning in the foggy atmosphere Our ship was swiftly ploughing through the foam, When a big Norwegian collier, sailing from Quebec, Ran straight into our liner, bound for home,..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: sea ship wreck sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 127, "The Norwegian Collier" (1 text)
Roud #20540
File: Ran127C

Nose On My Old Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, it's the nose that grows on my old man And it's wonderful to see -- It will live for years in my garden of misery. For it's the one red nose that the boozer knows.... Amid the drink and curse there can be no worse Than the nose on my old man!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 232-233, "The Nose on My Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22604
File: FaE232

Nose, Nose, Jolly Red Nose

See Of All the Birds (File: ChWI141)

Nose, Nose, Nose, Nose

See Of All the Birds (File: ChWI141)

Not a Word of "No Surrender"

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears two Orangemen complain "we're ruined by Emancipation; ['Popish Daniel'] O'Connell brave and all his men They're a terror to the nation." About this, he hears not a word of "No Surrender"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond01)
KEYWORDS: political Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1829 - Irish Catholic Emancipation Act passes supported by Daniel O'Connell and the Catholic Association
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #6987
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Not a Word of 'No Surrender'" (on IRRCinnamond01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kerry Eagle" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
cf. "Our Orange Flags May Gang to Rags" (subject and some lines)
NOTES [296 words]: The Catholic Emancipation Act allowed Catholics to sit as MPs and made Catholics eligible for most public offices but disenfranchised many poor Irish (source: "Catholic Emancipation" on The Peel Web site). [I would consider it clearer to say that it failed to enfranchise many poor Irish; at this time, the poor were generally disenfranchised in all of Britain. - RBW]
This song shares a theme and at least four lines with Greig/Duncan3 691, "Our Orange Flags May Gang to Rags": "May the old Devil take partial Peel Why did he yield to popish Donnell [Daniel] And Wellington great laurels won How soon he's run for to join O'Connell." Nevertheless, the rest of the songs sharing no line or chorus, I think they should be separate.
Greig/Duncan3 p. 685, quoting Edwards, A New History of Ireland: "The reversal of Tory policy on the issue of Catholic emancipation can be ascribed to O'Connell's methods. Wellington, the victor of Waterloo, who became Prime Minister in 1828, was obliged to consider what would be the full consequences of a resort to force in Ireland over the Catholic question. The climax came when O'Connell was returned as a member of parliament for Clare and at the bar of the House of Commons refused to take the declaration against transubstantiation and the anti-Catholic oath of allegiance. Tory feelings were aroused to an intense heat, but in their wisdom, Wellington and his home secretary and political heir, Sir Robert Peel, forced George IV to give way."
"No Surrender" is a reference to the defiant declaration attributed to the Williamites defending Derry in 1688-1689. See "No Surrender (I)" and references there. - BS
See also "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry," plus the many Daniel O'Connell songs cited under "Daniel O'Connell (I)." - RBW
File: RcNaWoNS

Not for Joseph

DESCRIPTION: "Joseph Baxer is my name, My friends all call me Joe. I'm up, you know, to every game, And everything I know. Ah, I was green as green could be, I suffered for it though; Now, if they try it on with me, I tell them not for Joe."
AUTHOR: Arthur Lloyd (source: Scott)
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Oliver Ditson & Co, The New Comic Songster)
KEYWORDS: gambling nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 94-95, "Not for Joseph" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 47-48, "Not for Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1626, p. 110, "Not for Joseph" (1 reference)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 18, "Not for Joseph" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #21, pp. 54-55, "Not for Joseph: No. 2" (1 text, a sort of continuation in which Joseph continues to reject attempts to trick him)
Roud #13681
File: ScEB095

Not Know How to Court

See Aunt Sal's Song (The Man Who Didn't Know How to Court) (File: LoF101)

Not Last Night But the Night Before

DESCRIPTION: "Not last night but the night before, Twenty-four robbers knocking at my door." Continuations vary: "As I awoke I found this note... Spanish dancer, give a high kick...." or "I ran upstairs to wash my dishes, And by mistake I washed by britches"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing clothes humorous jumprope robbery | night
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,Ro,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 109, "(Last night and the night before)" (1 text)
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, p. 78, "(no title)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 62, "Not Last Night" (1 text); p. 107, "Billy Booster" (1 text, half this and half "Billy Booster")
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #22, "(Last night and the night before)" #37, "(Not last night, but the night before)"; "(Night after night And the night before)"; "(Not last night but the night before)"; #116, "(All last night and the night before)"; "(Wasn't last night but the night before)" (6 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes. p. 138, "Last night and the night before"; cf. p. 126, "Last night, the night before" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 41, "(Last Night and the night before)" (1 text, which appears to consist of two lines of "Not Last Night But the Night Before" followed by two lines of "Ginger Blue")
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 48, "(Not last night, but the night before)" (1 text, in which it is three tom cats rather than robbers who knock at the door)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #309, "Last night and the night before" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #79, "(Not last night but the night before)" (1 text)
Roud #19076
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Spanish Dancer" (lyrics)
cf. "Peel a Banana Upside Down" (lyrics)
File: CarMF078

Not Much of a Hand Aboard a Vessel

See The Sealer's Ball (File: Pea094)

Not So Particular 'Bout Shakin' de Hand

See Let Me Fly (Not So Particular) (File: KiWa250N)

Not So Young As I Used to Be

See If I Were As Young As I Used to Be (Uncle Joe) (File: R434)

Not the Only Turtle in the Tank

DESCRIPTION: You may think your honors and balance in the bank makes you special but there are others just as fine: "you're not the only turtle in the tank." "The world will move without you and you never will be missed"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed)
KEYWORDS: vanity money nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 116, "Not the Only Turtle in the Tank" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Ow2E116

Not the Swan on the Lake

DESCRIPTION: "Not the swan on the lake or the foam on the shore Can compare with the charms of the maid I adore." The singer praises the girl and her beauty, comparing her to Venus (the planet!), and says he "feast[s]... on the smiles of my love."
AUTHOR: words translated by Ewan MacLachlan
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: love beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H707, p. 227, "Not the Swan on the Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 544, "Not the Swan on the Lake" (1 text)
Roud #1525
File: HHH707

Not Weary Yet

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, me no weary yet (x2), I have a witness in my heart, Me no weary yet." "Since I been in the field to fight." "I have a heaven to maintain." "The band of faith are on my soul." "Ole Satan toss a ball at me." "He think the ball would hit my soul."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious devil nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 12, "Not Weary Yet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11850
File: AWG012

Not-Brown Maid, The

See The Nut-Brown Maid (File: OBB069)

Nothin' But the Righteous

See None But the Righteous (File: Edwa029)

Nothing At All

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes with his daddy to court Kate. He and she are too shy to speak at meeting, or proposal, or answering the parson at the wedding. The problem disappears within a week of the wedding and they offer their assurance to other young folks.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(271))
KEYWORDS: courting wedding humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1629, p. 110, "Nothing At All" (2 references)
Roud #1607
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Derry Down Dale" (on IRRCinnamond02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(271), "Nothing At All" ("In Derry Down Dale, when I wanted a mate"), J. Ferraby (Hull), 1803-1838; also Harding B 28(233), Harding B 25(1382)[many illegible words], "Nothing At All"
LOCSinging, sb30352a, "Nothing At all," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
NLScotland, L.C.1269(152a), "Nothing At All," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1855

CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter used in IRRCinnamond02) and references there
cf. "Things I Don't Like to See" (tune according to broadside NLScotland, L.C.1269(152a))
NOTES [60 words]: Broadside Bodleian Firth b.25(271) is the basis for the description: IRRCinnamond02 ends with the "love, honor, obey" at the wedding coming to "nothing at all."
Broadside LOCSinging sb30352a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: RcNoAtAl

Nothing But Peace in the Land

See Come and Go with Me to That Land (File: FSWB371)

Nothing Else to Do (I)

DESCRIPTION: On a nice day the singer skips work and "went to see my sweetheart, As I'd nothing else to do." They go for a walk, he kisses her -- having nothing else to do -- and proposes. She says, "perhaps I may my dear, When I've nothing else to do."
AUTHOR: unknown (New-Comic-Songster attributes the music to J. L. Hatton)
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #5)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage questions humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 143, "Nothing Else to Do" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 157)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 62, "As I'd Nothing Else to Do" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 67 and #5/64, p. 25, "Nothing Else to Do" (1 text); #19, pp. 60-61, "As I'd Nothing Else to Do" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #31, p. 55, "As I'd Nothing Else to Do" (1 text)
Roud #1265
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, Music A-1875, "As I'd Nothing Else to Do" ("'Twas a pleasant summer's morning"), Lee & Walker (Philadelphia), 1860-1869 (with tune)
NOTES [82 words]: A reference to this song -- or one closely related to it -- in an 1870 novel shows that it was well enough known to be mentioned in passing as an "ould song": "... isn't that the very thing the ould song advises us: 'Sure 'tis then I will get married, Whin I've nothing else to do, Whin I've nothing else to do; An 'tis then I will get married, Whin I've nothing else to do'?" (Source: (anonymous),In re Garland: a Tale of a Transition Time, (London, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 84) - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: WT143

Nothing Like Cider

DESCRIPTION: "In a neat little village not far from the sea Still leaves my old uncle, aged eighty-three." No one else makes cider like the uncle. The singer urges hearers to drink up. He praises the apple and asks to be buried under one when he died
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Baring-Gould, Devonshire Characters and Strange Events, according to Palmer)
KEYWORDS: drink family burial
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, _Ripest Apples_, The Big Apple Association, 1996, pp. 82-83, "Nothing Like Cider" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: xxNoLiCi

Nothing Song

See We Do Nothing (Nothing Song) (File: ACSF423N)

Nothing To Do With Me

DESCRIPTION: The singer will not denigrate others or interfere in business that has nothing to do with him. The rest of the song is gossip about his neighbors. A policeman, he hints, takes bribes. A girl married to an old man has a baby, he hints, not her husband's.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (recording, Martin Gorman)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad police infidelity accusation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
Roud #5315
RECORDINGS:
Martin Gorman, "It's Nowt To Do With Me" (on Voice14)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2958), "Nothing To Do With Me!" ("Kind friends for what I'm going to say on you I will not frown"), unknown, n.d.; also Firth c.26(252), "Nothing To Do With Me"
NOTES [14 words]: Broadside Bodleian Firth c.26(252) says "Sung by Harry Barber and George Gordon." - BS
File: RcNTDWM

Nothing Too Good for the Irish

See Nothing's Too Good for the Irish (File: Wa029)

Nothing's Too Good for the Irish

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls his grandmother's last words. She describes, with the full force of prejudice, the roles reserved for each people (e.g. "Negroes to whitewash, Jews for cash"), then turns to her own people, concluding, "Nothing's too good for the Irish"
AUTHOR: J. J. Goodwin/[Monroe H.] Rosenfeld (source: Spaeth, _A History of Popular Music in America_, p. 608)
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud); Spaeth lists it as published in 1894
KEYWORDS: death foreigner humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 102, "Nothing Too Good for the Irish" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 29, "Nothing's Too Good for the Irish" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa029 (Partial)
Roud #7468
NOTES [60 words]: Presumably the same as the 1894 song by J. J. Goodwin and Rosenfeld, but I can't prove it. For background on Monroe H. Rosenfeld, see the notes to "Those Wedding Bells Shall Not Ring Out!"
The chorus, in John Galusha's version at least (and also in Dean-FlyingCloud), may be the most concentrated dose of racism I've ever seen:It stereotypes *everyone*. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Wa029

Nottalin Town

See Nottamun Town (File: WB2006)

Nottamun Town (Nottingham Fair)

DESCRIPTION: The narrator goes to Nottamun Town, meets odd and mad people, and sees impossible and paradoxical sights: "In Nottamun town, not a soul would look up, not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down to show me the way to fair Nottamun town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 18(687)
KEYWORDS: madness nonsense paradox
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 69, "I'm Going Up to London" (1 text)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 6, "Fair Nottiman Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 446, "Nottingham Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 302-305, "Nottingham Fair" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 191, "Nottamun Town" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 69, "Nottamun Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 105-106, "[Nottamun Town]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 5, "Nottamun Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 8-9, "Nottamun Town" (1 text, 1 tune, called "Nottamun town" in the header though "Nottalin Town" in the notes and Index)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 105-106, "Noddingham Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 56, "Nottamun Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1711, p. 115, "The Old Gray Mare" (2 references)
DT, NOTTMUN*
Roud #1044
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(687), "The Old Gray Mare" ("As I was a going to Nottingham fair"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also Harding B 18(214), "The Gray Mare"
LOCSinging, sb30373a, "The Old Gray Mare" ("As I was a going to Nottingham fair"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also sb20153a, "The Gray Mare"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Black Phyllis" (lyrics)
cf. "Paddy Backwards" (theme, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Nottalin Town
NOTES [1253 words]: There were several episodes of mass insanity in Europe, probably caused by ingestion of ergot, a mold found on rye with hallucinogenic properties. - PJS
I have also heard this song explained as the effects of the delirium caused by the plague. (Indeed, MacInnis, pp. 217-218, suggests that some alleged plague outbreaks were in fact mass cases of food poisoning, although this strikes me as extreme.) This was formerly one of the explanations offered for the affliction of St. Vitus's dance (Runes/Schrickel, p. 974), which is associated with outbreaks of madness similar to the ergot outbreaks. Compare also the song "Black Phyllis," which uses some of the same words and which appears to be about syphilis.
The problem with both the ergot and plague hypotheses is that the sufferer would be rather unlikely to survive unless the outbreak was extremely mild -- which, admittedly, can sometimes be the case; Timbrell, p. 244, mentions an hypothesis that the Salem witch madness was encouraged by the sensations experienced people who had eaten a very small amount of bad grain, and Le Couteur/Burreston, p. 241, agree that the symptoms fit. The suggestion was apparently first made by Lindda Caporael in 1960 (Satin, p. 109), and has gained widespread although not universal support.
But relatively minor cases such as the possible instance in Salem are unusual; ergot is recognizable, and people normally ate it only if they had no choice. Usually, when ergotism hit, it hit hard. Several of the outbreaks of ergotism arose because of the conditions of the Little Ice Age, which caused many bad harvests and forced people to use old flour or non-cereals to make bread. Le Couteur/Burreston, p. 240, note accounts in the literature of 40,000 allegedly dead of ergotism in France in 994, and 12,000 deaths in 1129. Kelly, p. 62, thinks there were probably major outbreaks of ergotism in Europe in 1315-1322, a period of extremely wet, cold weather -- although he adds that some of the symptoms peope experienced were probably the result of starvation or vitamin deficiency.
Ergot, according to Satin, p. 96, is so-called because it resembles the leg spur of a rooster.
MacInnis, p. 213, reports that "Ergot replaces the seeds of rye, producing a purple lump that looks to the French like a cockspur, or ergot. The ergot looks quite unlike the true grain, but it was so common people thought it was part of the rye plant, until the 1850s when the true nature of ergot was understood." This even though, according to Le Couteur/Burreston, p. 239, ergot was first observed to cause problems for cattle during the Persian period (c. 400 B.C.E.). Satin, p. 96, reports that in really bad years (typically very rainy years) as much as a quarter of the grain harvest might be replaced by ergot.
Ergot, according to MacInnis, pp. 213-214, contains ergotamide (guess where the name comes from!) and a few other "active ingredients," which are related to LSD (the chemical diagrams on Le Couteur/Burreston, pp. 242-243, show that basic lysergic acid, LSC, ergotamine, and ergotamide all have the same basic structure of four carbon-and-nitrogen rings, differing only in the nature of one extended side chain) and have similar properties. Thus it can result in hallucinations. MacInnis, p. 215, notes that ergot had medical uses, especially for pregnant women, but was very tricky: "Just the right amount of the purple grain would hasten contractions; a little more and ergot was an efficient abortifacient; a little more and the woman suffered gangrene and convulsions." Ergotamine has also been used to treat migraine headaches in recent years (Timbrell, p. 247).
But getting the dosage right is tricky, since the amount of ergotamine varies with the batch, and errors can be fatal. another chemical usually found in ergot, ergometrine, constricts blood vessels, causing a gangrene-like condition which destroys the extremities (Timbrell, p. 244). Ergot contains other alkaloids which are apparently just plain poison. But it should be noted that alkaloids taste bitter; it would be easy to learn to avoid them. According to Le Couteur/Burreston, p. 238, the full list of symptoms associated with ergotism includes "convulsions, seizures, diarrhea, lethargy, manic behavior, hallucinations, vomiting, twitching, a crawling sensation on the skin, numbness in the hands and feet, and a burning sensation becoming excruciatingly painful as gangrene from decreased circulation eventually sets in."
Le Couteur/Burreston add on p. 239 that wet storage conditions (which would be particularly common during the Little Ice Age) could encourage the mold to grow even after the grain was harvested. On the other hand, Stevens & Klarner, p. 68, say that the ergot alkaloids disintegrate easily; grain that was deadly soon after harvest would be less so by spring. On the other hand, it wouldn't be very nutritious.
It is true that some hallucinations caused by ergotism were bizarre. Satin, p. 99, reports that people during the 1951 French epidemic would jump out of windows because they thought they could fly; others thought they were on fire. But this was based on eating a few baguettes made with relatively mildly contaminated flour. Even so, four people died. At higher dosages, there would have been a lot more deaths and fewer hallucinations.
Under the circumstances, possibly a better hypothesis to explain this song is that people were eating poppy products, rather than rye, to *avoid* ergotism. This too could lead to hallucinations.
Saunders, pp. 8-9, describes the symptoms: "Bread was also made from poppyseed, which had the effect of producing a 'drugged and paranoid' state. This was surely preferable to the effects of eating bread made with mouldy or contaminated grain, which could lead to ergotism (St Anthony's Fire), a disease which attacked the muscular system and induced painful spasms. Eventually, the contracting muscles cut off circulation of the blood to the extremities, which became gangrenous. One of the side-effects of ergotism was mind-bending hallucinations -- nature's gift, perhaps, to sufferers, who would otherwise have had to watch their limbs fall off in a state of sober despair."
Binney, p. 72, mentions an hypothesis that the idea of witches riding broomsticks arose because witch-wanna-bes would rub ergot into the sticks, which could result in hallucinations -- perhaps of flying.
Saunders, p. 141, also mentions that extreme hunger could produce hallucinations. And hunger was of course very common during the Little Ice Age.
MacInnis, p. 220, adds that ergotism also affected horses, causing them to come down with blind staggers; he wonders if this did not have effects on some military effects. On p. 221, he notes a major, although isolated, outbreak of ergotism as recently as 1951. Le Couteur/Burreston mention major outbreaks in Russia in 1926-1927 and in Britain in 1927.
Jean Ritchie thinks the song is from a mummer's play and not intended to be understood.
This song merges almost continuously with "Paddy Backwards," and there are probably fragments which might go with either song. - RBW
Broadsides LOCSinging sb30373a and Bodleian Harding B 18(687) are duplicates.
Broadsides LOCSinging sb20153a and Bodleian Harding B 18(214) are duplicates.
Broadsides Bodleian Harding B 18(687) and LOCSinging sb30373a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: WB2006

Nottingham Ale

See (notes under) Lilliburlero (File: FR286)

Nottingham Fair

See Nottamun Town (File: WB2006)

Nottingham Poacher, The

See The Nottinghamshire Poacher (File: E053)

Nottinghamshire Poacher, The

DESCRIPTION: The poacher goes out with his dogs to hunt. (One of his dogs is wounded, but) he catches a deer and takes it to a butcher to skin. When he attempts to sell the meat, he is arrested and tried, but finally set free. He vows to continue poaching
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(311b))
KEYWORDS: dog poaching trial accusation revenge animal judge
FOUND IN: US(MW) Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 53, "Thornymuir Fields" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 259, "The Old Fat Buck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 50-51, "The Nottinghamshire Poacher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 723, "Thorneymoor Wood in Nottinghamshire" ; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 724, "Thorneymoor Wood in Nottinghamshire" (2 texts)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #50, "The Nottingham Poacher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 71-72, "The Nottingham Poacher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #28, pp. 219-221, "Thornehagh-Moor Woods" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 434-436, "Thornehagh-Moor Woods" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 96, "Thornaby Woods" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #142, "Thorneymoor Woods" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 36-39, "Thornymoor Woods" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 18-20, "The Nottinghamshire Poacher" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST E053 (Full)
Roud #222
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs, "Thorneymoor Woods" (on Briggs2, Briggs3)
Jasper Smith, "Thornymoor Park" (on Voice18)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(311b), "Thorney Moor Wood" ("In Thorney moor woods in Nottinghamshire"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(3803), Firth c.19(58), "Thorney Moor Wood"; Harding B 25(1898), "Thorney-moor Woods"; Harding B 11(2692), Firth b.34(206), "The Lads of Thorney Moor Wood"; Johnson Ballads 887, Harding B 28(237), Firth c.19(57), "The Lads of Thorney Moor Woods"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lincolnshire Poacher" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Thorny Woods
Thornymoor Woods
NOTES [90 words]: [MacColl and Seeger report that] "Thorneyhaugh-Moor Woods is in the Hundred of Newark, Nottinghamshire, and was once part of Sherwood Forest." - PJS
Palmer also mentions this possibility, but notes that it was enclosed in 1792 and deforested, so it ceased to be a possible haunt for poachers. He prefers Thornehagh Moor Woods near Newark. Given that the song dates back to 1839, however, I think either site a possibility. James Dixon suggested THornehagh/Thornymoor in Northamptonshre, an area which had seen a large enclosure in 1797. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: E053

Nova Scotia Sealing Song

DESCRIPTION: In 1894 Director goes sealing, "bound for Yokahama." Before rounding Cape Horn they stop for seals at Staten Island where "for eighteen days we were hove to." They make Cape Flattery in sixty days. Now they are in Victoria waiting to finish the voyage.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: hunting sea ship shore ordeal sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 200, "Nova Scotia Sealing Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2720
NOTES [40 words]: Staten Island is Isla de los Estados, east of the Argentinian part of Tierra del Fuego. Cape Flattery is on the northwest coast of Washington state across the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Vancouver Island; Victoria is on Vancouver Island. - BS
File: CrMa200

Nova Scotia Song

See Farewell to Nova Scotia (File: FJ044)

Nova, nova: Aue fitt ex Eva

See Gabriel of High Degree (File: OBB106)

November Keady Fair

DESCRIPTION: The singer takes his nanny goat to the November fair at Keady. He sells her for half-a-crown. "She was nineteen times at Jim's auld buck." Now that she's gone he'll miss her wagging tail, her nipping kale in the garden, and their rows at the fireside.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: nonballad animal separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 56, "November Keady Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5311
NOTES [147 words]: Keady is in County Armagh. - BS
The Irish had a rule that a young man could not marry until he had land -- a fairly effective means of population control, since it resulted in a lot of late marriage. It's one reason there are so many songs about lonely young Irishmen out looking for girls. Makes you wonder if this guy didn't come up with a substitute....
The rows at the fireside are also not unreasonable. By the mid-nineteenth century, especially in Connaught, the land had been subdivided into so many small holdings that those who were relatively fortunate enough to own an animal would perforce keep it with them in their hovel (often little more than a sod shack). Pigs were more often kept than goats, from what I've read, but obviously goats were possible too. Though, in that context, it would be unlikely that the house would have kale; all land would go to potatoes. - RBW
File: McB1056

Now All You Lads

DESCRIPTION: "Now all you lads that go a-courting, Mind which way you choose a wife, For if you marry my wife's sister, You'll be a beggar for the rest of your life. Twenty, eighteen, sixteen, fourteen...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Copper-ASongForEverySeason)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage begging humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, p. 226, "Now All You Lads" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #1210
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)" (lyrics)
NOTES [48 words]: I strongly suspect that this is a verse that someone inserted into a "Wheel of Fortune" text as a (stupid) joke which managed to survive on its own. I almost decided to lump them. But since the Coppers are well known, I left it separate. If it vanishes, though, it would be no loss. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: CopSe226

Now bethenk thee, gentilman

See In the vale of Abraham (File: MsItVoAb)

Now Comes the Blast of Winter

See Mirie It Is While Sumer Ylast (Merry It Is While Summer Lasts) (File: DIMMIIWS)

Now friends, my heart is fu' o' glee

See The Young Farmer's Offer (File: HHH776)

Now Go and Leave Me If You Wish

See Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection) (File: R755)

Now He's Sorry That He Spoke

DESCRIPTION: "A dude into the country went to meet his cousin Pat, And there he saw an animal that he supposed a cat." But it is a skunk, and it did what skunks do, "And now he's sorry that he spoke." Similarly, a man lights a stick of dynamite -- and regrets it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: humorous animal warning
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 298-299, "Now He's Sorry That He Spoke" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: David C. Peterson, "Wisconsin Folksongs," chapter in _Badger History: Wisconsin Folklore_, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Volume XXV, Number 2, November 1973), pp. 62-63, "Now He's Sorry That He Spoke" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15668
File: Pet298

Now I Am a Big Boy (I)

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a little boy My mother kept me in, But now I am a big boy, Fit to serve the king." "I can fire a musket, I can smoke a pipe, I can kiss a big girl At ten o'clock at night."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: youth mother family
FOUND IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 358, "Now I Am a Big Boy" (2 texts, both fragmentary, and the "A" text appears to be "Shady Grove")
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 73, "When I was a little boy" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose, p. 27, note 5, "(When I was a little boy)"
ST R358 (Full)
Roud #7623
NOTES [33 words]: The Opies think this a prototype for a wide variety of self-identification songs. That there are many such is obvious, but it's hard to tell which are related, let alone which is the original. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: R358

Now I Am a Big Boy (II)

See Shady Grove (File: SKE57)

Now I Happened to Get Born Just the Time They Cut the Corn

See Killaloe (Teaching French in Killaloe) (File: KSUC064A)

Now I Lay Me (Lumberjack Version)

DESCRIPTION: "Now I lay me down to sleep, Where the lice and bedbugs creep, If I should die before I wake, Who in hell will blow my stake?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan)
KEYWORDS: bug death gambling
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, p. 122, "Now I Lay Me" (1 short text)
Roud #6507
File: BBun122A

Now I'm a General at the Ministry

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a lad, I went to war As an air mechanic in the Flying Corps," and kept the plains well. Promoted Sergeant Major, he made himself seen on parade. And so on up the ranks, until "now I'm a general at the Ministry."
AUTHOR: unknown b(Music: Sir Arthur Sullivan)
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (according to Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier derivative | promotion
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 116-117, "Now I'm a General at the Ministry" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Was a Lad" (tune)
NOTES [79 words]: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver lists the tune of this as Gilbert and Sullivan's "I am the Ruler of the Queen's Navee" from HMS Pinafore. But if somehow you don't know the tune and are looking it up, the correct name is "When I Was a Lad."
I do think this song sort of misses the point of the Gilbert and Sullivan original: In that song, Sir Joseph had no experience that was relevant to the navy, whereas in this song, the singer has actually flown a plane in combat. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW116

Now Is Christmas Ycome

See The Golden Carol (The Three Kings) (File: OBB107)

Now Is the Twelfth Day Ycome

See The Golden Carol (The Three Kings) (File: OBB107)

Now Let Me Fly

See Let Me Fly (File: FSWB364)

Now Let Us Sing Till the Power of the Lord

DESCRIPTION: "Now let us sing, Sing till the power of the Lord comes down. Now let us sing, Sing till the power of the Lord comes down. Lift up your voice, Lift up your voice, be not afraid. be not afraid. Now let us Sing till the power of the Lord comes down!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (source: hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 309, 494, "Now let us sing 'iil the power of the Lord" (sic.) (notes only)
File: ACSF309N

Now Mercy, Lord, and Gramercy (As I Wanderede Her Bi Weste)

DESCRIPTION: "As I (walked/wandered) here by west, (far/fast) under a forest side, I saw a wight, went him to rest, Under a bow he (be)gan [to] (a)bide." The man reports and laments all his sins, begging, "Now mercy, Lord, and gramercy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1400 (Vernon and Simeon manuscripts)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #374
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #631
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #30, pp. 54-57, "[Now mercy, Lord, and gamercy]" (1 text)
Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, _Middle English Lyrics_, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974 pp, 105-107, #104 (no title) (1 text) [based on the Vernon text]
Carleton Brown, editor, English Lyrics of the XIVth Century , Oxford University Press, 1924, #107, pp. 1164-167, "Merci God and graunt Merci" (1 text) [based on the Vernon text]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 145
MANUSCRIPT: {MSHeege}, The Heege Manuscript, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 19.3.1, folio 91
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Eng. Poet. a.1 (Bodleian 3938) [The Vernon Manuscript], folio 409
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Additional 22283 [The Simeon Manuscript], folio 131
NOTES [636 words]: It may seem strange to include a song in the index which exists only in medieval manuscripts, but there are hints that it existed in oral tradition. For starters, there is the fact that it exists in four medieval manuscripts:
-- Oxford, Bodleian Library Eng. poet. a.1 (SC 3938) (the famous Vernon manuscript, c. 1400, from the west midlands)
-- London, British Library Addit. 22283 (the Simeon manuscript, c. 1400, from the west midlands)
-- Oxford, Balliol College 354 (the great Richard Hill manuscript, from London, late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries)
-- Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates 19.3.1 (the Heege manuscript, late fifteenth century, thought to be from Nottinghamshire or thereabouts, containing only the first twelve lines)
This is really only three witnesses, since Vernon and Simeon were almost certainly part of the same project and copied from the same source. But still, three witnesses of a medieval poem is a high number. What's more, one of the three is Richard Hill's manuscript, which contains many folk songs. And the copies are from diverse parts of Britain (west midlands, Nottinghamshire, and probably London, although Richard Hill was apparently born in Hertfordshite). And they are separated by at least a century, perhaps as much as a century and a half. And there are substantial verbal differences between the Vernon/Simeon form and the Hill form, and the Heege form is said to be jumbled as well as short -- arguing for oral transmission.
Individually, none of these points is sufficient to argue for folk song status. Collectively, I consider them enough evidence that I include the piece, although I admit it's a marginal case.
This poem appears in the very last section of the Vernon Manuscript (folios 407-412; this poem is on p. 409, and is #13 in the series). According to John Burrow's article "The Shape of the Vernon Refrain Leaves," in Derek Persall, editor, Studies in the Vernon Manuscript, D. S. Brewer, 1990, pp. 187-199, this section contains 23 poems, all with stanzas of either eight or twelve lines, all derived from the French balade form (p. 187). The same 23 poems appear in the same order on folios 128v-133v of the Simeon manuscript, with only such differences as might occur when copied by two different scribes; clearly the 23 were originally found as a unit compiled by someone else. The form implies to Burrow (p. 188), that the poem is late fourteenth century, since the form does not occur in English before that.
Several of the other items in this part of the Vernon collection also appear in other manuscripts, almost always with differences in the form (Burrow, p. 189). Thus there may be several other orally-transmitted pieces in the collection.
The Heege manuscript, which contains this piece, also has #2 in the Vernon/Simeon collection (Burrow, pp. 189, 194). In both cases the poem is incomplete (#2 lacks two stanzas of the Vernon text; #13 is just a fragment). The Hill version of #13 is fuller, but lacks one stanza and rearranges the order of two others (Burrow, pp 194-195). In this case, Burrow thinks Vernon/Simeon have the best text, but elsewhere, the often have edited texts (Burrow, p. 196). This hints to me that none of the four copies is especially close to the original.
John J. Thompson, "The Textual Background and Reputation of the Vernon Lyrics" (Pearsall, pp. 201-224) says (p. 201) that all but three of the Vernon Lyrics have a refrain (in the Vernon copy, varying between "Ay, merci, God, and graunte merci" or "Nou merci, God, and graunt merci"). Thompson, p. 212, says that the Heege MS. copy of this poem was actually copied by John Hawghton, who worked with Richard Heege on the manuscript. Thus, most unusually, we know the names of two of the four scribes who copied this manuscript. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MsNMLaG

Now Our Camp Fire Fadeth

DESCRIPTION: "Now our camp fire fadeth, Now the flame burns low. Now all Camp Fire maidens to slumber land must go. May the peace of the lapping water, the peace of the still starlight... the peace of our fire-lit faces be with us through the night."
AUTHOR: Clara Halard Fawcett (1887-1983) (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: fire nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 463, "Now Our Camp Fire Fadeth" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Camptire Goodnight (Now as the Sun Sinks Slowly)" (frequently sung together)
File: ACSF463F

Now Our Meeting Is Over

DESCRIPTION: "Fathers, now our meeting is over; Fathers, we must part. And if I never see you any more, I'll love you in my heart. And we'll land on shore, Yes, we'll land on shore, We will land on shore, And be saved forevermore." Repeat with mothers, brothers, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 84, "Fathers, Now Our Meeting Is Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 49, "Fathers, Now Our Meeting Is Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 82, "Oh, Brothers Now Our Meeting's Broke" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 571, "Now Our Meeting's Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MEETOVER
Roud #5716
RECORDINGS:
Dillard Chandler, "Meeting Is Over" (on Chandler01, DarkHoll)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There Is No Place in the Height of Heaven" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Minister's Farewell" (lyrics)
File: Wa084

Now Robin, Lend to Me Thy Bow

DESCRIPTION: Wilkin: "Now Robin lend to me thy bow For I must now a hunting with my lady goe" to Uppingham. Robin: Take my hawk and hound also; your hunting doesn't please me; "beware thy babling hounds." Lady: let's agree that hunting is no sin
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (Ravenscroft, _Pammelia_)
KEYWORDS: hunting nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 79-80, "Robin, Lend To Me Thy Bow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic, p. 53, "Now, Robin, Led to Me Thy Bow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 207-208, "Robin Lend to Me Thy Bow" (1 text)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 54-55, "Now Robin, Lend to Me Thy Bow" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 57, "Now Robin, Lend Me Thy Bow" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _Selections from the Works of Thomas Ravenscroft; A Musical Composer of the Time of King James the First_, Roxburgh Club, 1822 (available on Google Books), No. 65 (no page number), "Now Robin, Lend" (1 text)
Roud #1373
NOTES [103 words]: Ritson: "A canon on the unison, for four voices, from 'Pammelia. Musicks Miscellanie. Or, Mixed varietie of Pleasant Roundelayes, and delightful Catches. of 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. parts in one. Lond. 1609. 4to.' That it was a popular song in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths reign appears from its being mentioned (amongst others) in ... [two citations]."
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs: "The inclusion of this fine canon may be pardoned, in view of the difficulty of finding any more direct representative of Rutland than the allusion to Uppingham [Ritson re Uppingham: "A market town in Rutlandshire]." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BrMa054

Now Run Along Home and Jump Into Bed

DESCRIPTION: "Now run along home and jump into bed, Say your prayers and cover your head. The very same thing I say unto you, You dream of me, and I'll dream of you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: home dream nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #259, p 64, "Run Along Home" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 192, "Now Run Along Home and Jump Into Bed" (notes only)
File: ACFS192N

Now sing we all in fere, Alma Redemptoris mater

See As I Lay Upon a Night (Alma Redemptoris Mater) (File: MSAILUaN)

Now So Merry We Have Met

DESCRIPTION: "Let us merry be, over a pint or a pot of strong beer." The singer says "after I'm dead not a tear shall be shed, Nor one letter of grief on my tomb. But to my coffin some inscription put on, And to say that my singing's all done."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: death drink music nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 49-50, "Now So Merry We Have Met" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 119)
Roud #1233
File: WT050

Now Springs the Spray

DESCRIPTION: "Now springs the spray. All for love I am so sick That sleepen I nay may." The singer is riding and hears a maid singing "the clot him cling" (seemingly a curse). He has changed. She hopes that he will rue the day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1302 (MS. London, Lincoln’s Inn Hale 135)
KEYWORDS: betrayal courting MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #450, p. 305, "Als I me rode this endre dai" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #360
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #614
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth Sisam, editor, _Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose_, Oxford, 1925, p. 163, "Now Springs the Spray"
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #38, pp. 98-99, "now springs the Spray" (1 text)
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #94, pp. 161-162, "(Als I me rode this endre dai)" (1 text)
R. T. Davies, editor, _Medieval English Lyrics: A Critical Anthology_, 1963, #19, pp. 77-78, "The Singing Maid" (1 text)
Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, _Middle English Lyrics_, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974, p. 16, #16 (no title) (1 text)
Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics 25, "(Now spryngeth the spray)" (1 text)
Carleton Brown, editor, _English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1932, #62, pp. 119-120, "Now Springs the Spray" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: London, Lincoln’s Inn Hale 135, folio 137
NOTES [449 words]: Let me state from the outset that I think it highly unlikely that this is a folk piece. But it will be seen that it has been very popular with anthologists (see the references), and it is claimed as a carol, despite a rather un-carol-like form. If it is a carol, it is one of the oldest extant, and so I have indexed it.
That it is very early is beyond doubt. The primary content of the manuscript is works by Henry de Bracton, who probably died toward the end of the reign of King Henry III (who himself died in 1272 and was succeeded by Edward I). The manuscript is said to have belonged to Alan de Thornton during the reign of Edward I (reigned 1272-1307).
This item is not in the hand that wrote the Bracton material; it is by a scribe who wrote about swans in year 31 of Edward's reign (i.e.1302/1303). So this likely originated in the thirteenth century.
It should be noted that there are several problems with the manuscript copy; the seven-line format used by almost all editors is to some extent a reconstruction. And there is disagreement about what portions of the text mean, although this might be a matter of bad copying.
See Brown, p. 214, for the first three verses of a parallel French chanson d'Aventure generally thought to be the source.
J. Burke Severs and Albert Hartung, editors, A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1500, in ten volumes with continuous page numbering; Volume 3 (edited by Hartung), Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1972, p. 720, has this to say of it (note the spelling used for the title:
"NOU SPRINKES THE SPRAI. Poet and forsaken maiden are the interlocutors in this chanson d'aventure, a charming and pathetic presentation of unrequited love. It resembles an Old French poem, 'L'autrier defors Picarnie,' but lacks the conclusion of that poem, in which poet is transformed into wooer, as in the pastourelle. This silence may be due to manuscript damage. Its late thirteenth- or early fourteenth-century date, its possible West Midlands origin, and its fresh lyric grace all suggest comparison with the Harley 2253 lyrics [for the "Harley Lyrics see, e.g., "Hind Horn" [Child 17], "The Seven Joys of Mary," and "Erthe upon Erthe (Earth upon Earth, Earth out of Earth)"], but it is actually found in MS. Lincoln's Inn Hale 135. Greene... and others reconstruct it as a carol, which means that the rubric here would be part of the burden. The true first line, "Als I me rod this ender dai / O mi [pleyinge], is a characteristic chanson d'aventure gambit shared with a Harley 2253 song on the five joys of the Blessed Virgin (Brown-Robbins no. 359). The reconstruction makes it three seven-line stanzas ababbba with aca burden." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: MSNoSpSp

Now spryngeth the spray

See Now Springs the Spray (File: MSNoSpSp)

Now syng we, syng we: Regina celi, letare!

See Gabriel That Angel Bright (File: MSGaTABr)

Now synge we with angelis: Gloria in excelcis

See A Babe Is Born To Bliss Us Bring (File: Gree042)

Now the Day Commences

DESCRIPTION: "Now the day commences. Let us make a prayer, Thanking God for all his gifts so rare. Thank him for the flowers, Singing birds, and trees. And his wondrous light that shines o'er land and seas. Amen. Amen."
AUTHOR: Jean Taylor (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 335, "Now the Day Commences" (notes only)
NOTES [34 words]: I had a hard time identifying this particular item in Averill, even though she lists it as quite common. I suspect that it used to be common but has largely been shut down because of its sexist pronouns. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF335N

Now the War Is Over (Mussolini's Dead)

DESCRIPTION: The text: "Now the war is over, Mussolini's dead, He wants to go to heaven with a crown upon his head, The Lord says no, he's got to stay below, All dressed up and no where to go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (on Lomax collection)
KEYWORDS: death war humorous political religious gods
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1945 - Death of Mussolini
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, WAROVR
ST DTwarovr (Full)
Roud #12945
RECORDINGS:
Scottish children, "Now the War is Over" (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743)
NOTES [281 words]: Well, it's a narrative, and it was collected from folk tradition, so what more do you want? Pity we don't have a keyword for rope-jumping songs. - PJS
Mussolini was deposed as Duce of Italy in 1943 (following the Allied invasion, in a staged coup which induced him to resign), but was "liberated" by German commandos led by Otto Skorzeny. He then set up a puppet republic in the north of Italy -- but the key word is "puppet"; he was purely and simply a German tool. (And there is reason to think he didn't like it much.)
In April, 1945, as the German resistance crumbled, the former il Duce was caught by Italian partisans, "tried," and executed. It's rather unfair that this song picks on him, rather than Hitler, who died just weeks later; Mussolini brooked no opposition, but he didn't build any concentration camps, either.
The explanation may lie in the composition of the British army: There were probably more Scots, proportionally, in Italy than on any other front. The North African army was disproportionately composed of Commonwealth forces, while the "British" force in Normandy eventually consisted of one Canadian and one British army. The British army in Italy had probably the highest proportion of home-grown units, including Scots.
Murray Shoolbraid notes that this is an update of a World War I rhyme in which the Kaiser is the intended victim:
When the war is over and the Kaiser's deid
He's no gaun tae Heaven wi' the eagle on 'is heid,
For the Lord says No! He'll have tae go below,
For he's all dressed up and nowhere tae go.
That version probably didn't endure as well, for the simple reason that the Kaiser survived World War I; he didn't die until 1941. - RBW
File: DTwarovr

Now the Winter Is Over (The Ploughboy)

DESCRIPTION: "Now the winter is over and the summer is come, Our fields look pleasant and gay." "Here is the little ploughboy so fresh as a rose... And the fairy maid sat milking her cow." She rejects his request to go with him, but they end up at church to marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Hammond collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage farming
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 2, "The Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1353
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Well Met, Pretty Maid (The Sweet Nightingale)" (form, theme)
NOTES [94 words]: This is so similar to "Well Met, Pretty Maid (The Sweet Nightingale)" in both form (four independent lines, last two syllables of the fourth line repeated, then the whole line repeated; they can be sung to the same tune) and theme that, if it had just been me, I would most likely have lumped them. But they do have distinct first verses -- or, rather, this has a first verse not found in "Well Met, Pretty Maid." Roud splits them, probably on that basis, and I have done the same, but I would not be even slightly surprised in they sprang from the same roots. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Dors002

Now the Winter Is Past

See Queen of the May (File: SWMS190)

Now We Take This Feeble Body

DESCRIPTION: "Now we take this feeble body And we carry it to the tomb, And we all leave it there, Hallelujah." "And a hallelujah, and a hallelujah, And we leave it there, hallelujah." "Now we take our dear old father...." Presumably can be repeated for others
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: death religious burial nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 59, "Now We Take This Feeble Body" (1 text)
Roud #12079
File: FSAN059

Now We've Met Let's Merry, Merry Be

See He That Will Not Merry, Merry Be (File: WT051)

Now Whitsuntide Is Come (Whaddon Whitsuntide Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Now Whitsuntide is come, You well do know, Come, serve the Lord we must before we go Come, serve him truly with all your mind and heart, And then from Heaven your soul shall part." "Now we have brought you this royal branch of oak... merry Whitsuntide"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Porter)
KEYWORDS: religious royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(London))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Enid Porter, _The Folklore of East Anglia_, Batsford, 1974, p. 63, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #3186 and 305
File: EPNWISWh

Now Winter Has Diminished

DESCRIPTION: "Now winter has diminished, Our shanty life is finished, From the woods we are banished." "At near approach of summer. We will select our timer... and make... rafts of pine." They will travel the river to market, where the lumbermen will drink and party
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Gard/Sorden)
KEYWORDS: river logger travel drink
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden, _Wisconsin Lore: Antics and Anecdotes of Wisconsin People and Places_, Wisconsin House, 1962, p. 110, "(no title)" (1 text, presumably from Wisconsin although no source is listed)
NOTES [24 words]: Gard/Sorden were told that this was the "favorite ballad" of some group of Wisconsin loggers. I don't recall encountering any other copies, however.
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GaSor110

Now You Are Married I Wish You Joy

DESCRIPTION: "Now you are married I wish you joy." You will have a girl and a boy. In seven years a son and daughter.
AUTHOR: Nicholls and Clendon, rewritten by Harry Wincott and Harry Leighton (source: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1884 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: marriage nonballad children husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, pp. 149-150, "Now You Are Married I Wish You Joy" (2 fragments)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Norris and Charles Herbert Mayo, editors, Notes and Queries for Somerset and Dorset (Sherbourne, 1890 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, pp. 133, 135, "[Query ]194. Children's Games," ("On the carpet you shall kneel") (2 texts)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Widow from Babylon" (one verse: Now you are married I wish you well")
NOTES [115 words]: The Norris and Mayo text describes a round ring dance. Once past the introductory couplets it includes the verse from Nicholls and Clendon: "Now you are married I wish you joy, First a girl and then a boy; Seven years after, son and daughter; Pray young couple, kiss together." If the description is accurate the text should significantly predate 1884: writing in 1890, "two or three years ago I wrote to a Dorsetshire woman, who was a nursery maid in our family when I was a child, asking her to write down all she remembered of the round game rhymes she used to teach us as children ...." The editor adds a local variation of the third line: "Seven years after, a poor man's daughter." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGap149

Now You're Married, You Must Be Good

See Oats and Beans (File: DToatsbe)

Now, Moses

DESCRIPTION: "Now Moses, what makes you so strange and forgetful? How is it you heed what I tell you no more?" Moses's wife is angry at Moses's unruliness and smoking and pie-stealing. She warns him, "Now Moses, you'll catch it! Now Moses, don't touch it!"
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (sheet music published by S. Brainerd's Sons with copyright by Root & Cady)
KEYWORDS: warning food drugs
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work, pp. 67-70, "Now, Moses" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Dime-Song-Book #17, p. 27, "Now, Moses" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #85, "Moses" (1 text)
Roud #5024
NOTES [62 words]: Some of Henry Clay Work's songs are pretty feeble, but of all those I've seen, this may be the strangest. I have no idea what the point is supposed to be. Interestingly, the Florida version, which seems to be the only one in tradition, is quite different from Work's original -- it is longer, and it does not mention Moses's primary fault, the theft of a cherry pie. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Morr085

Now, My Bonny, Bonny Boy

See The Bonny Boy (I) (File: FSC037)

Now, Robin, Lend to Me Thy Bow

See Now Robin, Lend to Me Thy Bow (File: BrMa054)

Now, Wullie was as Nice a Lad

See Willie Was As Fine a Sailor (File: MaWi101)

Nowell, Nowell

See The First Noel (File: FSWB376A)

Nowell, nowell, nowell, nowell, This is the salutation of Gabriel

See The Salutation Carol (File: MsSalCar)

Nowell, Nowell! This is the salutacion off the aungell Gabriell

See The Salutation Carol (File: MsSalCar)

Number Me One

DESCRIPTION: "Number me one"(x3), I'm going to the Judgment Bar." Verses: "Send for my leader (preacher) here (x3), I'm going to the Judgment Bar."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 45, pp. 188-189, "Nummer Me One" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [15 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr045

Number Nine

See The Wreck of Number Nine [Laws G26] (File: LG26)

Number Ninety-Nine

See Jinny Go Round and Around (File: R272)

Number Twelve Train

DESCRIPTION: "Number Twelve train took my baby, I could not keep from cryin'. (x2)" The singer's woman left him; he grieves so much he thinks he is dying. He vows that his next girl "will have to do what poppa say."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: love abandonment loneliness
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 81, "Number Twelve Train" (1 text)
File: FSWB081A

Numeralla Shore, The

See The Eumerella Shore (File: MA155)

Numerella Shore, The

See The Eumerella Shore (File: MA155)

Nummer Me One

See Number Me One (File: Parr045)

Nuptials of Mondamin

DESCRIPTION: "Listen! I shall tell you Of the nuptils of Mondmin, On the beautiful river Oheyu (Ohio?)." Two voices seek "Where the tasseled corn is growing." Finally, "the two shall dwell together." More a play than a song, and not traditional
AUTHOR: John C. French (?) (source: Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)"
KEYWORDS: food Indians(Am.) courting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 196-198, "Nuptials of Mondamin" (1 text)
File: Shoe196

Nurse Pinched the Baby, The

DESCRIPTION: When the nurse pinches the baby, "Mother [goes] down to the beer saloon to pray." When she catches "the rage from Doctor Dye-O," the same thing happens
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio)
KEYWORDS: drink baby humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 137, "The Nurse Pinched the Baby" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ST E137 (Full)
Roud #5337
NOTES [47 words]: Agnes Amelia Ransom Burton (died 1969) reported that she learned this song from her father before 1900, which is the earliest mention of the song from tradition. Although it isn't very evident from Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio's fragment, it appears to be a mock temperance song. - RBW
File: E137

Nut Song, The

See I'm a Little Acorn Brown (I'm a Nut) (File: ACSF283I)

Nut-Brown Bride, The

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Nut-Brown Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: The man claims that women, given the chance, are never true. The woman cites the case of the Nut-brown Maid. They play through the story. The woman will follow her man, even to the greenwood, and will fight for him, etc. The ballad ends by praising women
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537: Richard Arnold's "Chronicle" of c. 1521 (Chambers dates it c. 1503) and in Richard Hill's manuscript (Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354) before 1537; printed in 1707 in the Muses Mercury
KEYWORDS: infidelity love dialog outlaw MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume III, pp. 174-186, "The nutt browne mayd" (2 texts, the Percy Folio version in the main text and the Hill Manuscript version in the notes)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 31-47, "The Not-Browne Maid" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 14-28, "The Nut-Brown Maid" (1 text)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics XIX, pp. 34-48, "The Nutbrown Maid" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 69, "The Nut-Brown Maid" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #467
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #761
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. vi-xii, "(The Nut browne Mayde)" (1 text)
Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 450-451, "the Nut-Brown Maid" (1 summarized prose text, telling only the Maid's story without the enclosing dialog)
E. K. Chambers, editor, _The Oxford Book of Sixteenth Century Verse_, Oxford, 1932 (corrected edition, 1966), pp. 1-14, "The Nutbrown Maid" (1 text)
GArnett-IHearAmericaSinging/Gosse: Richard GArnett-IHearAmericaSinging and Edmund Gosse, _English Literature: An Illustrated Record_ four volumes, MacMillan, 1903-1904 (I used the 1935 edition published in two volumes), volume I, pp. 310-311 (1 partial text plus a facsimile of Arnold's printed edition)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 210
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 420
ST OBB069 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Jigge" (MSPercyFolio, page 294; Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 335-337, called by the editors a "sort of vulgar reproduction" of The Nut-Brown Maid)
NOTES [809 words]: Given its elaborate stanzaic structure, regular alternation of speakers, and elaborately formal language, it seems clear that this should be accounted a literary rather than a folk production. I know of no version in oral tradition, although Briggs, p. 451, notes a variety of partial parallels, such as "The Saucy Sailor," "Fair Annie" [Child 62], and "The Squire of Low Degree" (the latter itself, found in the Percy Folio among other places, being of dubious place in tradition; for a list of editions, see Rice, pp. 523-525).
Chambers, p. 120, reminds us, "The stanza-form of the poem is unusual. It is generally printed as in twelve lines. But two out of every three lines have internal rhymes, and on analysis it resolves itself into an eighteen-line variety of the rime couée, so beloved by popular singers, complicated by the use of two distinct refrains, which occur with very slight variation. The technical description is thus aa2b3cc2b3dd2b3ee2b3ff2g3hh2g3."
A parody of this song, "The New Nutbrowne Maid," occurs as early as 1520. Obviously this makes the original even older. The earliest date depends on the age of Arnold's Chronicle, which is undated. The latest date I have seen for it is the 1521 date cited above. Garnett/Gosse, which prints a facsimile, dates the Chronicle to 1502/3, and Briggs, p. 451, also says 1502. Parker, p. 78, suggests a first edition of 1502 and an expanded edition of 1521. However, Dyboski, p. xxx, thinks that the Hill copy is the oldest copy although the very same page suggests that it was copied from Arnold! (There is good external evidence that Hill knew Arnold's book; later in Hill's volume is a London chronicle for 1414-1536, and Parker, p. 78, says that "the bulk of the borrowing" was from Arnold's Chronicle.. It is even possible that Hill knew Richard Arnold; in 1494, Arnold had a neighbor named "Richard Hyll" -- Parker, p. 85 -- although our Richard Hill was probably very young at that time.)
Whatever the date of the Arnold Chronicle, there was another early printing; John Skot issued a copy during the short period that he printed at Fauster Lane in St. Leonard's Parish in London (Plomer, p. 214). From another book printed at this address, we know Skot was active in Fauster Lane in 1537. It will perhaps tell you what sort of printer Skot was if I inform you that both of the complete early versions of the morality play "Everyman" come from his press. (There were earlier printings by Richard Pynson, but we have only fragments of those. The texts you see printed today are essentially Skot's.)
In addition, there is a Stationer's Register entry for "the nutbrowne mayde" in the 1550s (Rollins, p. 172, #1983, says Jno. King was fined for printing this in 1558-1559).
There is a possibility that Queen Elizabeth herself heard this piece; according to Holt, p. 140, one Robert Langham was present when Elizabeth heard an entertainment in July 1575 at the Earl of Leicester's palace of Kenilworth which featured the "The Nut Brown Maid."
GArnett-IHearAmericaSinging is also quite effusive about the merits of the piece, but adds that "One famous ballad stands out prominently from the rest as being, so far as is known, the invention of the anonymous writer. It is The Nut Brown Maid...." The only anonymous ballad? Uh-huh.
Percy's version, from what I can tell, appears to come from the Chronicle text, only with several of Percy's pet archaizing tricks (he did at least improve the punctuation to something resembling sense).
Skeat, one of the greatest scholars of Middle English of the nineteenth century, regards this as "almost certainly written by a woman" (p. 110; a statement I would consider a little strong -- there were medieval authors who were sympathetic to women, including Chaucer -- but likely enough), and then claims it to be the third-oldest surviving English writing by a woman, following "The Flower and the Leaf" and "The Assembly of Ladies." Pearsall, p. 3, says of "The Flower and the Leaf," "Whether the poem is actually by a woman is a question which no ingenuity, it seems, could solve," and p. 31 says of "The Assembly of Ladies, 'Whether the author was indeed a woman is a question impossible to prove either way," adding that, contrary to Skeat, there were female poets in the fifteenth century, and men did mask themselves as women -- and ultimately expressing the opinion that the author is not a woman. Garnett/Gosse, p. 174, call the author of the "Flower" "he," but they may be using the masculine pronoun generically; they show no interest in the author's gender even while praising him(?) as a relatively worthy successor to Chaucer. But if the "Flower" and the "Assembly" are by men, it raises the faint possibility that this is the oldest surviving literary work by a woman in English. I don't believe it, but I'll mention it. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: OBB069

Nutbrown Maid, The

See The Nut-Brown Maid (File: OBB069)

Nuts in May

See Gathering Nuts in May (File: R561)

Nuts? I Like Nuts

DESCRIPTION: "Nuts? I like nuts. I like peanuts and walnuts and cashews. Cashews make me thirsty, so I drink lots of... milk. Milk has Vitamin C. C? C is for crazy. I was crazy once. I locked myself in a closet and swallowed the key.... It was nuts. Nuts? I like nuts"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2022 (Derek Piotr Archive)
KEYWORDS: humorous food bug wordplay | circular nuts ants closet key
FOUND IN: US(NE)
RECORDINGS:
Kenneth Roper, "Nuts? I Like Nuts!" (Piotr-Archive #214, recorded 08/17/2022)
File: DPio214

Nutt browne mayd, The

See The Nut-Brown Maid (File: OBB069)

Nutting Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: A young girl goes out to gather nuts. A farmer stops plowing and begins to sing. The girl hears his sweet voice, and "what nuts she had got, poor girl, she threw them all away." They lie together, then go their ways. The song warns girls against dallying
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1895; tune 1792 (Bunting)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction music harvest farming sex pregnancy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland(Aber)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 186, "The Nutting Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan7 1475, "A-Nutting I'll Not Go" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 214-215, "The Nutting Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 12-13, "The Nutting Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 652, "Nutting Girl" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #72, "The Nutting Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 15, "The Nutting Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 1, "A-Nutting We Will Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #83, "A Nutting We Will Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #84, "The Nutting Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 108-109, "The Jolly Plough Boy" (1 text, 1 tune, in which the plough boy and the squire's daughter end up getting married; I suspect two songs have joined)
DT, NUTGIRL*
Roud #509
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "A Nutting We Will Go" [incomplete] (AFS 4200 A2, 1938; in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Harlaw" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
cf. "Mowing Match Song" (partial tune, according to Palmer)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lie Owre
Young Jackie
NOTES [18 words]: The recording lists "Our Goodman" as an alternate title for Ford's recording, but "Our Goodman" it ain't. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K186

Nutting Maid, The

See The Nutting Girl (File: K186)

Ny Kirree Fo-Sniaghtey (The Sheep All Are Buried)

DESCRIPTION: Manx Gaelic. Nicholas Raby's 2000 sheep are covered by mountain snow drifts. Shepherds are called out with their poles and dog to find the breathing holes and save the sheep. The lambs are saved but some old sheep are lost.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage rescue death farming storm sheep shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 38-39, "Ny Kirree Fo-Sniaghtey (The Sheep All Are Buried)" (1 text, 1 tune, translated from Manx Gaelic)
Roud #1371
File: BrMa038

O 'Twas in the Broad Atlantic

See Married to a Mermaid (File: Harl174)

O A Iu, Nach Till Thu Dhomnaill (O A Iu, Will You Not Return?)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer meets Donald while traversing the moors. They flirt, "he threatened to tear my chemise to shreds.... That was not what you promised me ... a ceremony of marriage."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting promise accusation worksong
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 178-179, "Gaelic Milling Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [58 words]: The description is based on the translation of Creighton/MacLeod 69 in Gaelic Songs in Nova Scotia which is the same Gaelic text as Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs. Creighton/MacLeod: "There is a more complete version of this song in Craig's 'Orain Luaidh,' p. 66."
Creighton explains "this is a work song, used for milling, or shrinking, cloth." - BS
File: CrMS178

O Adam

DESCRIPTION: Dialog, in which Eve convinces Adam to eat the tree of knowledge. God orders them out of the garden. They lament, and hope to work their way back to Heaven
AUTHOR: W. W. Phelps
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Times and Seasons)
KEYWORDS: religious dialog punishment
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 455-456, "O Adam" (1 text)
Roud #7834
NOTES [92 words]: The story of the expulsion from the Garden of Eden occupies Genesis 3.
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety (who calls this a "mystery play") notes that the ending of this song is "curiously unbiblical," and links it with Mormon doctrine. That it is Mormon there is no doubt, and it is true that there is no evidence in Genesis that humans can ever return to the Garden (in ordinary Christian theology this is a form of the Pelagian heresy). But I've seen equally non-biblical statements in hymns used by most Protestant denominations. - RBW
File: Beld455

O Alla Tinka

DESCRIPTION: "O alla tinka, to do the Rumba ... I paula-tay paula-taska ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (_The Singing Street_, according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: nonsense playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 126, "O Alla Tinka" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [71 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "This song is included to show the persistence of scraps of rhythmic utterance, and the esteem in which they are held, as if they were magic incantations. ... The mumbo-jumbo of the second verse ["I paula ..."] was, however, being chanted at the evening sing-songs of the Holiday Fellowship before the First World War, in a part-song which went like this: Hi politi politaska, polita, polito...." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa126

O Bear Me Away on Your Snowy White Wings

See Angel Band (File: DTanglba)

O Belinda

DESCRIPTION: "Right hand up, O Belinda, Won't you be my darling?" Or "Bow, bow, bow, Belinda (x3), You're the one I love." ""Right hand round, Belinda." "Left hand round, Belinda." "Back to back, Belind." Left hand up, both hands up, back to back
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Beckwith & Roberts)
KEYWORDS: playparty love campsong
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord)) West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 46, "O Belinda" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 130, "Bow Bow Belinda" (notes only)
ADDITIONAL: Martha Warren Beckwith and Helen Roberts, _Folk-Games of Jamaica_ (Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1922 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #44 pp. 55-56, "Yes, Belinda" (1 text)
Roud #7404
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ten Little Injuns" (tune, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bow Wow Belinda
File: OpGa046

O Blessed Lord

DESCRIPTION: "O blessed Lord, in the way thou hast gone, Lead him straight to that land above. Give him cheer everywhere to the sad and the low. Fill my way every day with love...." The singer prays for love, help, hope, and guidance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 98, "O Blessed Lord" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16940
NOTES [24 words]: I suspect this of being an "occasional" item (though I vacillate between thinking it's for a baptism and for a funeral). But I can't prove it. - RBW
File: ChFRA098

O Bonnie Annie, Gin Ye Had Been Cannie

DESCRIPTION: "O bonnie Annie, gin ye had been cannie, Ye micht 'a been lady o' Lessendrum, But O bonnie Annie, ye never was cannie, Ye've gotten but Lesley's second son"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad nobility
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #143, p. 2, ("O bonnie Annie, gin ye had been cannie") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1191, "O Bonnie Annie, Gin Ye Had Been Cannie" (1 fragment)
Roud #6777
NOTES [74 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan6 fragment.
Maybe this is connected to "James Bisset, X. of Lessendrum. He married Anne Dun of Tarty (commonly called 'Bonnie Annie'), whose portrait, by Alexander, may be seen at Lessendrum. She died Feb. 22, 1782." (source: William Temple, St Margeret's Forgue with Notices of Frendraught, Lessendrum, Cobairdy, Templeland, and Auchaber (Aberdeen, 1881 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 57). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD61191

O Bonny Sandy

DESCRIPTION: Sandy's term day is near. His girl would follow him but it would ruin her name. He says another man will be hired and she'll find another man. She says she would follow Sandy instead -- "he's a handsome fellow" -- but she doesn't like his drinking
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love separation farming drink dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 902, "O Bonny Sandy," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "O Bonny Sandy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6256
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Term Lilt" (two verses) and notes there
NOTES [109 words]: Greig/Duncan4: "There is some similarity to the opening verses of 'Nellie Douglas' in Ord, p. 123." The similarity is really limited to the opening lines of Ord ("It's, O and alas, and O wae's me, The term time is drawing so near to me") and the theme of a female servant leaving a man behind. However, that ballad ends happily.
The Greig/Duncan4 text is not clear in that in some verses the girl is leaving and in other verses Sandy is leaving. The story makes no sense unless Sandy is leaving.
Seasonal hiring of servants and farm workers usually was for six months, beginning May and November, and the term day marked the end of the employment period. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4902

O Boys O

See Oh Boys Oh (File: McSc130)

O Brave Arthur of Bradley

See (notes under) Arthur O'Bradley's Wedding (I) (File: AdAOBW1)

O Brothers Will You Meet Me

See The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)

O Brothers, Don't Get Weary

DESCRIPTION: "O Brothers, don't get weary (x3), We're waiting for the Lord. We'll land on Canaan's shore (x2), When we land on Canaan's shore, We'll meet forevermore."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 95, "O Brothers, Don't Get Weary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12051
File: AWG095A

O Bud

DESCRIPTION: "I don't like no farmer's rule, says, 'Get up in the morning With the dog-goned mule.' Oh Bud, Bud, Bud, Bud, O Bud." "I'm going up the maple, Coming down the pine, Looking for a woman Got a rambling mind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 175, "O Bud" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa175 (Partial)
Roud #7491
File: Wa175

O Bury Me Beneath the Weeping Willow

See Bury Me Beneath the Willow (File: R747)

O Bury Me Not in the Deep Blue Sea

See The Ocean Burial (File: FR437)

O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie

See Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie [Laws B2] (File: LB02)

O But Ye Are Wan, Lassie

DESCRIPTION: "Ye're wan [pale], lassie, lying in a stange bed or with a strange man." "A juggie and a wee pap spoon, Ye see what's got by man"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: sex pregnancy nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1794, "O But Ye Are Wan, Lassie" (1 text)
Roud #13022
File: GrD81794

O Can Ye Sew Cushions

See Can Ye Sew Cushions (File: MSNR135)

O Canada!

DESCRIPTION: "O Canada! Terres de nos aieux...." "O Canada! Our home and native land." Both French and English versions praise the beauties and freedoms enjoyed by Canada, the "true North."
AUTHOR: French Words: A. B. Routhier / Music: Calixa Lavalee / English Words: Dr. R. Stanley Weir
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (English words composed 1908)
KEYWORDS: Canada patriotic nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 114-116, "O Canada!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 340, "O Canada!" (1 text)
File: FMB114

O Canny an' Cute Men Ye'll Meet by the Dee

See The Newburgh Salmon Dinner Song (File: GrD3516)

O Chester

DESCRIPTION: "O Chester, did you 'ear about Harry? He chest got back from the army"-. I 'ear he knows how to war a rose, Hip hip. hooray for he army."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: derivative army campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Harbin-Parodology #402, p. 98, "O Chester" (1 text, tune referenced)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 25, "O Chester" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 137, 393, "Chester"/"Chester Have You Heard about Harry?" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (tune) and references there
NOTES [128 words]: Averill's notes about this are confused. On p. 137 she says that a song called "Chester" is based on "Yankee Doodle" and is found six times in her records.
On p. 393 she refers to a song "Chester" that is known to Harbin -- but is found in her records 18 times, not just six. No other information is given about it.
Harbin has a song called "O Chester" to the tune of (the verse of) "Yankee Doodle." What's more, many of my recent camp songbooks include it. (Usually under Harbin's title of "O Chester" or "Oh Chester.") Clearly it is the same as the song on p. 137 of Averill, and it makes sense to assume that it's also the one on p. 393. Yet she lists different numbers of collections. I would guess it's just a mistake on Averill's part, but I can't be sure. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Paro402

O Come All Ye Faithful

See Adeste Fideles (O Come All Ye Faithful) (File: RJ19001)

O Come Away (Sweet Philomel)

DESCRIPTION: "O come, come away, from labor now reposing, Let busy care awhile forbear, O come, come away. Come, come, our social joys renew, And there let trust and friendship grow." As day ends, hearers are called upon to join in prayers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (Sacred Harp, according to Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 65, "Sweet Philomel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 303, "O Come, Come Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 51, "O Come, Come Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 33, "O Come, Come Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7526
File: Boet065

O Come, Come Away

See O Come Away (Sweet Philomel) (File: Boet065)

O Daniel

DESCRIPTION: "You call yourself church member, You hold your head so high, You praise God with your glitt'ring tongue, But you leave all your heart behind. O my Lord delivered Daniel, O Daniel... O why not deliver me?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 94, "O Daniel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12050
File: AWG094B

O David

DESCRIPTION: "O David, yes, yes, My little David, yes, yes, And he killed Goliath...." "My little David... Was a shepherd's boy...." "He killed Goliath... And he shouted for joy...." "O David... Play on, David...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 93, "David, David" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 237, "Evil Little David" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 204-207, "David, David, Yes, Yes" (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 206-209)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 130, "O David" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6683 and 7117
NOTES [75 words]: The story of David and Goliath (actually *two* stories, carefully blended together, in one of which David is Saul's aide/court musician and in another he is a shepherd visiting the battle) is found in 1 Samuel 17.
The versions of this are so diverse that Roud gave it multiple numbers, and I will allow that different songs about David and Goliath could easily have come into existence. But I don't see an obvious way to draw a line between them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LoF250A

O Day

See Yonder Come Day (File: SBoA321)

O de Robe

See The Robe (File: Parr042)

O Dear O

See My Husband's Got No Courage in Him (File: K213)

O Dear, What Can the Matter Be?

See Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be? (File: FSWB150B)

O Dinna Cross the Burn

DESCRIPTION: Willie's sweetheart asks him to stay with her -- "your folks a' ken ye're here the nicht, And sair they wad me blame -- instead of crossing the stream and going home in a storm. He leaves and is drowned. She goes crazy with grief.
AUTHOR: Words: William Cameron, music by MacGregor Simpson (source: Greig/Duncan6 quoting _Lyric Gems_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: grief madness love death drowning storm
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1243, "O Dinna Cross the Burn" (1 text)
Roud #6770
NOTES [42 words]: Greig/Duncan6: "Lyric Gems prints the song noting that it is by William Cameron, music by MacGregor Simpson. The note adds that, 'The song tells a melancholy story, but a true one, of an incident that happened on the river Stinchar in Ayrshire." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61243

O Du Glade Sjoman (O Ye Merry Seamen)

DESCRIPTION: Swedish shanty. Verses are of contented sailors sailing out with fond farewells to their sweethearts, and of the faith they have in their ship to bring them home again. Each stanza is repeated as a chorus.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty sailor farewell
FOUND IN: Sweden
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 493-495, "O Du Glade Sjoman" (2 texts-Swedish & English, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 33, "O Du Gade Sjoman" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Hugi493

O Erin, My Country

DESCRIPTION: "O Erin, my country, though strangers may roam, The hills and the valleys I once called my own, still, "Erin! Erin! My heart beats for thee." He has been long away, but he would not forget if he lived to a thousand. He will treasure the memory
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: home Ireland exile nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 17, "O, Erin, My Country" (1 text)
Roud #12874
File: HMHS017C

O Ev'ry Time I Feel de Spirit

See Every Time I Feel the Spirit (File: FSWB360B)

O Falmouth is a fine town with ships in the bay

See notes under Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: LK43)

O Fare Thee Well

See Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove) (File: Wa097)

O Fare Thee Well, My Dearest Dear

See Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove) (File: Wa097)

O Father, Build Me a Boat

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

O Fathers, It's High TIme You All Are Ready

DESCRIPTION: "O Fathers, it's high time you all are ready, When this world is at an end.... Oh, we do believe in bein' ready (x2), when this world is at an end." Similarly with mothers, brothers, sisters, children
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Granville Gadsey)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 216-217, "O Fathers, It's High Time You All Are Ready" (1 text)
File: MHAp216

O Freedom

DESCRIPTION: Recognized by its praise of freedom and the lines "And before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave, And go home to my Lord and be free." Most versions simply praise freedom; one speaks of the slave's dead mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: religious freedom slave slavery mother death nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 25, "Before I'd Be a Slave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 110, "Oh, Freedom!" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 114 in the 1901 edition)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 239-240, "Oh, Freedom!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 291-292, "Oh Freedom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, p. 33, "Oh Freedom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 70-71, "Oh, Freedom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 108, "O Freedom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 89, "Before I'd Be a Slave (Oh, Freedom)" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 354, "O Freedom" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 295, "Oh Freedom" (1 text)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p 73, "Oh, Freedom!" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Oh, Freedom!" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 50)
DT, OHFREEDM
Roud #10073
RECORDINGS:
John Handcock, "No More Mourning (Oh Freedom)" (AFS 3238 A1, 3238 A2, 1937)
Montgomery Gospel Trio, "I'm So Glad" [medley of that song -- 'I'm so glad I'm fighting for my rights' -- and "O Freedom"] (on WeShall1, DownHome)
SNCC Freedom Singers, "Freedom Chant/Oh, Freedom/This Little Light of Mine" (on VoicesCiv)
Hollis Watkins, "Oh Freedom" (on Voices Civ)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Free Slave"
cf. "The Slave's Lament (I)" (theme)
File: LxU108

O Gal When You Come Off the Island

DESCRIPTION: "O bring me a 'gator O gal when you come off the island A ring tailed 'gator O gal ... A Darien 'gator O gal...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad shanty animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 203, ("O bring me a gator") (1 fragment)
NOTES [15 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parp203

O Gin I Had a Canty House

DESCRIPTION: The singer has a humble but happy cottage with no cares and "yon sweet lass the mistress o't"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: love marriage home nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1271, "O Gin I Had a Canty House" (1 text)
Roud #7187
File: GrD71271

O Gin That I Were Mairrit

DESCRIPTION: "I'm now a lass of thirty-three, As clever a hizzie as ye'll see, And feint a ane a'er courtit me...." "(O gin that I were mairrit, mairrit, mairrit... I raley would do weel, O." The old maid lists her property and describes her skills
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: age loneliness marriage dowry clothes nonballad oldmaid
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 39-40, "O Gin That I Were Mairrit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3786
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "The Old Maid's Song (I)" and references there
NOTES [45 words]: This, to me, feels so close to "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" that I thought seriously about lumping them. But while the feeling is exactly the same, there aren't many words in common, and the ones that are are the sort you almost have to use in songs like this. - RBW
File: Ord040

O Give Thanks

DESCRIPTION: Round. "Oh, give thanks, oh, give thanks, oh, give thanks Unto the Lord, For he is gracious, and his mercy endureth, Endureth forever."
AUTHOR: Original tune: William B. Bradbury (source: The New Golden Shower #100; Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 ("The Social Singing Book," according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 434, 446, "O Give Thanks" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 13, "Oh, Give Thanks" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 31, "O Give Thanks" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "O Give Thanks" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 64)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 19, "O Give Thanks" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [85 words]: Essentially the same as Psalm 136:1, with a few words repeated to pad it out. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs says that her "O Give Thanks" is by Anne Hopson Chapin, but I'm guessing she arranged it.
It can be hard to identify this song, given that the only real words are "O give thanks." The 33MuchLovedSongs version, for instance, relegates the rest to the sopranos as a sort of descant, while the altos have to keep repeating "O give thanks." If you look at just the alto part, you can't recognize the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF434O

O Go Away Willie

See Go Away From Me, Willie (File: BoWo098)

O God of Bethel

DESCRIPTION: "O God of Bethel, by whose hand Thy people still are fed, Who through this weary pilgrimage Hast all our fathers led; "Through each perplexing path of life Our wandering footsteps guide; Give us each day our daily bread, and raiment fit provide."
AUTHOR: Words: Philip Doddridge (1702-1751)
EARLIEST DATE: 1736 (source: hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad food clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 108, "Through each perplexing path of life" (1 fragment)
Roud #25514
NOTES [152 words]: For brief background on author Philip Doddridge, see the notes to "The Last Words of Copernicus." It is not possible to list an author of the tune; the hymn has had multiple tunes, none of them at all dominant.
The title "God of Bethel" probably refers to Genesis 28 and 31; in chapter 28, who is fleeing his brother Esau, has a vision and calls the place where he has it Bethel ("House of God") -- Genesis 28:17. In Genesis 31:13, God comes to Jacob again, declaring himself the God of Bethel.
Of course, Alice Kane didn't remember that part. She remembered the "perplexing path[s] of life." Ironically, the word "perplexing" never occurs in the King James Bible (although "perplexity" and "perplexed" occur in Esther 3:15, Isaiah 22:5, Joel 1:18, Micah 7:4, Luke 9:7, 21:25, 24:4, 2 Corinthians 4:8); certainly there are no references to "perplexing paths." That's a Doddridge image, not a Biblical one. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC108A

O God, Our Help in Ages Past

DESCRIPTION: "O God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come, Our shelter from the stormy blast And our eternal home!" The singer hopes for help and protection from God, who has existed since before the world came to be
AUTHOR: Words: Isaac Watts (1674-1748) / Music: Credited to William Croft (1678-1727)
EARLIEST DATE: 1719 (source: Rudin)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 81, "O God, Our Help in Ages Past" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, ""O God, Our Help in Ages Past (1 text) (CC edition, p. 84)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 35, "O God, Our Help in Ages Past" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17837
NOTES [1270 words]: The history of this song is rather complex. Julian, p. 875, tells us that "This is the first part of his [i.e. Isaac Watts's] C[ommon] M[etre] rendering of Ps[alm] xc, in 9 st[anzas] of 4 l[ines], which appears in his Psalms of David, &C., 1719, p. 229, and entitled 'Man Frail, and God Eternal.'" Watts's original text began "OUR God, our help in ages past," and often was published with only stanzas 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and 9 of Watt's original nine. It was John Wesley who in 1737 published it with the first line "O God, our help in ages past," with some additional changes; this is probably the most familiar version today. Julian calls this one of Watt's finest compositions, and his best paraphrase, but that didn't prevent at least two other authors from grafting other material into it, although only the Wesley version seems to be remembered.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748) has been called the "father of English hymnody". His father was a Calvinist preacher who twice found himself in prison for his radical beliefs and eventually kept a boarding school at Southampton (Julian, p. 1236); his mother was from a Huguenot family, and sometimes took little Isaac with her when she visited his father in prison (Johnson, p. 34).
An excellent student and quick learner (Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 554), Watts studied Greek and Hebrew as well as Latin (Johnson, p. 34), turned down an offer of free school tuition if he would join the established church (EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 4190, and eventually became a pastor of a non-conformist church, but had to resign the post in 1712 (Johnson, p. 34) after "a fever shattered his constitution (Julian, p. 1236; according to EncycAmericanGospelMusic, he suffered from ill health all his life, and was very short), having apparently made earlier attempts to give up a post which he could not fill properly (Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 554). He spent the rest of his life working for Sir Thomas Abney as tutor and chaplain. He was given his "unsolicited" D.D. by the University of Edinburgh in 1728 (Julian, p. 1236).
According to Morgan, p. 25, he was dissatisfied with the musical materials available to him (Rudin, p. 9, says that musical participation by the congregation had all but been eliminated from Anglican services) -- and so "'invented' the English hymn" (although others say he took "his cue from Dr. John Patrick; Davidson, p. 166). He also produced a book, The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament -- which would better be called works vaguely inspired by the Psalms than actual imitations or paraphrases. "Joy to the World," which doesn't really bear much similarity to Psalm 98 on which it is allegedly based, is an example of this. Watts did come under criticism for this; Morgan reports that Thomas Bradbury called his writings "whims" rather than "hymns."
Despite these objections, Watts is credited with writing some 600 hymns, of which Julian, pp. 1237-1241, says 454 are in "common use"; on p. 1594, he adds that there are almost a hundred other Watts hymns in "some minor hymn-books." Among the most famous are this, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," "Hush, my dear, be still and slumber," and perhaps "Joy to the World." He also produced the well-known line "When I can read my titles clear to mansions in the sky," although that was taken in many different directions after his time.
NewCentury, p. 1141, says that, in addition to his hymns and books of religious instruction, Watts produced "'How doth the little busy bee,' one of his pioneering instructive poems for children." I would suggest that it did better at nauseating than instructing children; the only reason I can see for remembering it is that it inspired Lewis Carroll's "How Doth the Little Crocodile."
Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 554, makes the interesting comment that Watts was "almost if not quite a Unitarian, and extremely liberal in social as well as religious views" -- an attitude seemingly not known to many of the conservative denominations which sing his hymns. He also experimented significantly with meter and poetic forms, although these experiments seem to be forgotten.
Julian, pp. 349-350, says of him "Notwithstanding the contempt with which is name is often mentioned... few have left such a solid contribution to our best hymns as Isaac Watts... and no one has so deeply impressed himself on their structure.... Inheriting from the tradition of the metrical psalms a healthy strength of thought and a habit of broad and jubilant praise, impressed through the paraphrases with the necessity of a rich scripture groundwork, and supplied with a wide range of subjects by his immediate predecessors, he is in his best pieces gifted with a soft richness of diction, and a free vigorous rhythm.... His faults are bombast and doggrel. Turgid epithets and tawdry ornaments were the fashion of the time.... No one that has studied the hymns that preceded him will wonder that Watts was indifferent about doggrel.... It is due to Watts to point out how frequently in his prefaces he speaks of the 'fetter' of 'the old narrow metres,' the necessity of giving each line by itself a complete sense, and of 'sinking it to the level of a whole congregation as the accepted restraints under which he wrote.... Watts's place in this history is to be estimated not only by the pieces he has left us, but by his enduring influence on the structure of our hymns."
Rudin, p. 9, claims that the first book ever printed by Benjamin Franklin was a 1741 volume, "Watts's Psalms and Hymns."
Ironically for one of nine children, he never married and had no offspring of his own (Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 554).
Works of his in the Index include "O God, Our Help in Ages Past," "Through Every Age, Eternal God" (indexed as "Highbridge"), "Hush, My Dear, Lie Still and Slumber," "Ballstown (Great God, Attend)," "Birds In Their Little Nests Agree," and perhaps "When I Can Read My Titles Clear (Long Time Traveling)," "On a Dark and Doleful Night," and "Joy to the World."
The author of the tune, "St. Anne," is less certain; Stulken, pp. 376-377, reports that it was originally published anonymously in the Brady and Tate metrical edition of the psalms (1708), where it was used for Psalm 42 ("As pants the hart for cooling streams"), but that contemporaries attributed it to William Croft (1678?-1727). Reynolds, p. 159, notes that both Philip Hart's 1720 Collection and John Church's 1723 Introduction to Psalmody attribute it to Croft, and says that both Hart and Church knew Croft, so he is inclined to accept the attribution. He was that it is named for St. Anne's Church, Soho, where Croft was organist. He adds that the opening phrase seems to have been older and independently known, being used by Handel in the anthem "O Praise the Lord" and as the base theme of Back's Fugue in E flat, the "St. Anne Fugue." This obviously raises the possibility that someone else adapted that musical phrase before Croft worked on it.
Reynolds, pp. 290-291, says that Croft was born in Warwickshite in 1678 and died in Bath in 1727; he became organist at St. Anne's in 1700 (remaining there until 1711, according to McKim, p. 157), and later became organist for Westminster Abbey and composer for the Chapel Royal. Early in life he wrote some secular music, but later turned entirely to sacred music. Other than his "Funeral Sentences" and this tune (if he wrote it), very little of his work seems to be remembered.
Whether Croft wrote "St. Anne" or not, in addition to being the basis for Bach's "St. Anne's Fugue," it was used in Handel's "O Praise the Lord," according to McKim, p. 211. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: BdOGOHIA

O Good Ale, Thou Art My Darling

See Good Ale (I) (File: K273)

O Gott Vater ins Himmels Throne (O God, Father, in Heaven's Throne)

DESCRIPTION: Amish hymn in German.. "O Gott Vater in Himmels Throne, Der du uns hast bereit ein' Krone." "O God, Father, in Heaven's throne, You have have prepared a crown for us, As we... Suffer with him the cross and anguish..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1742 (Amish Ausbund, #55, according to Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 156-157, "O Gott Vater ins Himmels Throne (O God, Father, in Heaven's Throne)" (1 short German text plus not-very-literal translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL156

O Happy Is The Man, That Has No Beast

DESCRIPTION: The man with no beast, or place to house it, is free of responsibilities.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1654, "O Happy Is The Man, That Has No Beast" (1 text)
Roud #13050
NOTES [39 words]: Greig/Duncan8: "In the year 1830, a John Henderson [who lived in the 'moss o' Savock'] was tried for smuggling, at the J.P. court, Old Deer. He bought himself off by [a] bit of special pleading in rhyme [adducing his poverty]...." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81654

O Hard Fortune

See Kind Fortune (File: KaNew074)

O Haud Your Tongue, Dear Sally

See Sally's Love for a Young Husband (File: GrD71362)

O Holy Night

DESCRIPTION: "O holy night, the stars are brightly shining, It is the night of the dear Savior's birth." The world has been trapped in sin, but now that will change. Hearers are told to fall on their kneeds and listen to the angels. "Behold your king."
AUTHOR: Music: Adololphe Adam / French words: Placide Cappeau / English words: John Sullivan Dwight (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (source: Wikipedia; hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #216, "O Holy Night" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, pp. 106-107, "Cantique De Noel (O Holy Night)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25609
File: JMSo216

O I Believe in Jesus

See I Belong to that Band (File: Br3583)

O I Hae Seen the Roses Blaw

DESCRIPTION: "O, I hae seen the roses blaw, The heather bloom, the broom and a'... Yet Mary's sweeter on the green...." The singer praises the girl, wishes he could win her, says he would love anywhere she is, and declares he will wander till she loves him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: love rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 16-17, "Oh! I Ha'e Seen the Roses Blaw" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR016 (Partial)
Roud #2617
File: StoR016

O I Shall Have Wings

DESCRIPTION: "O I shall have wings, beautiful wings, I shall have wings some day, Bright wings of love from God above, Carry my soul away." "O hallelujah to the lamb, I shall have wings someday, Jesus made me what I am...." The singer looks forward to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 94, "The Good Old Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16938
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Good Old Way (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [44 words]: It is perhaps worth noting that nowhere in the Bible are angels promised wings; indeed, the word "wing" occurs only five times in the New Testament (it's more common in the Old Testament, but usually is used either of birds' wings or in a metaphorical sense). - RBW
File: ChFRA094

O If I Was at Home Again

DESCRIPTION: "In Mt. Pleasant I once did live and had a happy home"; he was "O happy Johnny P. Contented Johnny P. O if I was at home again, How happy I would be." But the talk of gold caused him to leave home and business and is wretched and poor in the goldfields
AUTHOR: Words: John P. Grantham (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Diary of Palmer C. Tiffany, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: home travel gold hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 41, "O If I Was at Home Again" (1 text, tune referenced)
NOTES [19 words]: This may well be a gold miner's genuine personal complaint, but I have no evidence at all that it is traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC041

O Jamie Man Tak My Advice

DESCRIPTION: "If you get a wife like mine You'll rue it till you dee." The singer's wife nags when he would drink and breaks teapots on his head. He warns Jamie against considering beauty: "look ye for ane that's mild an' meek"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness violence drink nonballad husband wife abuse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1296, "O Jamie Man Tak My Advice" (1 text)
Roud #7143
File: GrD71296

O Janet Bring Me Ben My Sunday Coat

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks that Janet bring his fine clothes, boots, "cutty pipe," and "snuffy boxes" for his appearance at the House of Lords, "the father o' the taxes." She says "Ye'll be lookin' like mortality Come out amon' the grave stanes"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: travel clothes dialog nonballad nobility
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 502, "O Janet Bring Me Ben My Sunday Coat" (1 text)
Roud #5987
NOTES [20 words]: I have to think this is a reference to some political event. But with so little to go on, it's hard to imagine what. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3502

O Jeannie My Dear Would You Marry Me?

DESCRIPTION: "O (Jeannie) my dear would you marry me, O Jeannie my dear would you go... Whether you're willint or no." "I've a pottie for bilin' my porridge, An' a skillit for bilin' my whey, I've a set o' new cups and saucers, Aye, an' a kettle for bilin' my tay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Jeannie Robertson)
KEYWORDS: marriage courting food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #1, pp. 111-112, "O Jeannie My Dear Would You Marry Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3362
File: RPG001

O Johnnie, My Man

See Farewell to Whisky (Johnny My Man) (File: K272)

O Johnny Come to Hilo

See Johnny Walk Along to Hilo (File: Doe072a)

O Johnny Come to Hilo (II)

See Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse) (File: Doe014)

O Johnny Dear, Why Did You Go?

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

O Judyas he wuz a 'ceitful man

See Judas Was a Deceitful Man (File: Parp247)

O Katy Connor, I Dote Upon Her

DESCRIPTION: "O Katy Connor, I dote upon her, Her big feet take up the street And stop the tramway cars. If she should take the notion to die into the ocean I'd never marry Katy Till there's whiskers on cigars."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: derivative love rejection marriage humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 100, "O Katy Connor, I Dote Upon Her" (1 text)
Roud #37299
NOTES [29 words]: This appears to be a parody of "Katy Connor," a music hall song Fowke attributes to Tom Leamore and Austin Rudd, but that song does not appear to have gone into tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC100B

O Kings

DESCRIPTION: "O Kings, you've heard the sequel Of what we now describe; It isn't just and equal To tax this wealthy tribe."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: money nonballad royalty
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 195, "O Kings" (1 fragment, fourth of seven "Quatrains on the War")
ST Fus196D (Full)
File: Fus196D

O Lady Moon, Your Horns Point to the East

DESCRIPTION: "O Lady Moon, your horns point to the East, Shine, be increased. O Lady Moon, your horns point to the West, Wane, be at rest."
AUTHOR: Christina Rossetti (1830-1890) (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | moon
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 138, "O Lady Moon, your horns point to the East" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, third edition, 1928, p. 690, "(The Pale Queen)" (1 short text)
Roud #1297
NOTES [28 words]: For some reason Roud files this with "There Was an Old Woman Tossed up in a Basket." It seems clearly distinct to me. Indeed, Alice Kane knew both and separated them! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC138B

O Lawd I Went Up on the Mountain

DESCRIPTION: "O Lawd, I went up on the mountain, looked at the risin' sun... I says, 'You can't do to me, oh, like Lorena done.'" He complains of being robbed, she travels, she complains, he is in Cummins (prison? graveyard?); he still loves her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from Kelly Page and others)
KEYWORDS: love clothes prison burial
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 394-396, "O Lawd I Went Up on the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15653
File: LxSi394

O Lillie, O Lillie

See Rye Whiskey; also The Rebel Soldier (File: R405)

O Little Town of Bethlehem

DESCRIPTION: The quiet little town of Bethlehem is described, with the note that "the everlasting light" shines in its streets. The song describes the reactions of those who know of the event, and prays for the help of the holy child
AUTHOR: Words: Phillips Brooks (1835-1893)
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 ("The Church Porch")
KEYWORDS: Christmas religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US Britain
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 138, "O Little Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #214, "O Little Town of Bethlehem" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 236, "O Little Town of Bethlehem" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 378, "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 402, "O Little Town of Bethlehem!"
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 102, "O, Little Town of Bethlehem" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 46, "O, Little Town of Bethlehem" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LTTLTOWN*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 132-133, "O Little Town of Bethlehem" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #55, "O Little Town of Bethlehem" (1 text)
Roud #24752
NOTES [325 words]: This poem is sung to different tunes in Britain and America.The American tune is by Lewis H. Redner (c. 1830-1908), who Reynolds, p. 161, had been asked to provide a melody. This tune is sometimes known as "St. Louis." In Britain, however, the text it is usually sung to "The Ploughboy's Dream" ("Forest Green"). McKim, p. 48, says that it was Ralph Vaughn Williams who fitted the tune to the words by Brooks. There is a third tune by Walford Davies, rarely sung in Britain and hardly at all in America.
Philiips Brooks was most noted as a preacher; he had several volumes of sermons published. Of his poems, only four are mentioned in Granger's Index to Poetry, and this is the only one to be widely reprinted. Reynolds, p. 274, says that he was born in Boston and studied at Virginia Theological Seminary; he was ordained in 1859 and took up a job as a minister in Philadelphia, then went back to Boston. In 1891 he became the (Episcopal) Bishop of Massachussetts.
Rudin, pp. 64-65, describes a visit Brooks made to the Holy Land (he was one of the few hymnwriters to actually go there); he visited Bethlehem for Christmas 1865, and watched the children there prepare for the holiday. On his way there for the service, he looked down on the small town at night, and saw its dark streets; hence this poem.
Redner, according to Reynolds, p. 407, was born and educated in Philadelphia, and did well as a real estate broker there, but still managed to have a strong interest in church music, serving several congregations as an organist, including Brooks's (which is why he was called upon to supply a tune; McKim, pp. 48-49). He never married, and died in New Jersey in 1908 after a brief illness.
Rudin, p. 65, says Brooks brought his text to Redner, his organist, who struggled to fit a tune, then has it come to him in a flash of inspiration in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve/Day, 1868. That story truly sounds too good to be true. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB378B

O Lizzie Lass I've Lo'ed Thee Lang

DESCRIPTION: The singer says he has loved and been true to Lizzie. He asks her to go with him "amang the heathery hills o' Dee. I'll row thee in my tartan plaid And keep the winter's cauld frae thee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1358, "O Lizzie Lass I've Lo'ed Thee Lang" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7236
File: GrD71358

O Logie O Buchan

See Logie o Buchan (File: SWMS197)

O Logie of Buchan

See Logie o Buchan (File: SWMS197)

O Lord What Harm I've Done

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "(O Lord)(x4) O Lord, O Lord, What harm I've done." Verse couplets include "I went to the window to look out, The ramhorn did blow and the children did shout." "I went to the mountain, Jehovah spoke, And out of the mountain came fire and smoke"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 264-265, "Oh Lawd W'ah Haa'm I Done" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR264A

O Lord, Won't You Come by Here?

See Come by Here (File: Br3621)

O Love Is Teasin'

See Love is Teasing (File: Rits024)

O Lulu

See O, Lula! (File: LxU077)

O Madam, I Have a Fine Little Horse

See The Courting Case (File: R361)

O Mary Mother

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Mary, mother, come and see, Thy son is nailed on a tree." John brings word to Mary of the crucifixion. She cannot rest, but hurries to the execution site. She and Jesus discuss his fate. He prays and prepares to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1372 (Commonplace Book of John de Grimestone, National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 18.7.21)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious mother MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #157, pp. 117-119, "(no title)" (4 texts)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics LXXX, pp. 146-147, "(no title)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1219, #2036, #2111, 3575
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2029, #3326, #3424, #5653
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #24, pp. 13-15, "(Mary moder, cum and se)" (1 text)
Edward Bliss Reed, editor, _Christmas Carols Printed in the Sixteenth Century Including Kele's Christmas carolles newely Inprynted reproduced in facsimile from the copy in the Huntington Library_, Harvard University Press, 1932, pp. 49-51 ([31-33]), "(Gaudeam[us] synge we i(n) hoc sacro tpere(??) Puer nobis natus e(st) ex Maria virgine)" (1 text)
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #44, pp. 104-105, "(Mary modyr, cum and se)" (1 text)
Karen Saupe, editor, _Middle English Marian Lyrics_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1998, #48, pp. 110-111, "(Mayden and mother,cum and see)" (1 text)
Carleton Brown, editor, _English Lyrics of the XIVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1924, #67, pp. 85-86, "Dialogue between Jesus and the B. V. at the Cross" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSGrimestone}, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 18.7.21, John de Grimestone's Commonplace Book, folio 121 [IMEV #2036]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 27 [IMEV #1219]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 23 [IMEV #2111]
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Additional 31042 [the London Thornton Manuscript], folio 94 [IMEV #2111]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 223 [IMEV #3575]
ST Gree044 (Partial)
NOTES [893 words]: This is one of several early carols in Greene that seem to have been sufficiently well-known that I include them in the Index. Note the many different manuscripts with versions -- four is quite a high number, and they include all three of the most important manuscripts of carols that seem to have gone into tradition: The Richard Hill manuscript (Balliol 354), the Sloane Lyrics (British Library, Sloane 2593), and Bodleian Eng. Poet. e.1. There is also a version in Richard Kele's Christmas carolles newely imprinted in the Huntington Library.
The earliest version is in the Commonplace Book of John de Grimestone, of 1372; for more on this book, see the notes to "The Coventry Carol" or Wilson or the Bibliography notes on this manuscript; this song is his #185, with notes (although not the text) on p. 39 of Wilson. The fifth manuscript, the London Thornton Manuscript, is more miscellaneous. Robert Thornton made (at least) two manuscripts, now known as the Lincoln and London Thornton Manuscripts, with romances and poems and odds and ends that struck his fancy. To find a carol like this in it is quite interesting, and is further testimony to its popularity. Any song with this range of attestation surely deserves indexing.
The post-Grimestone versions are all quite different, and have different choruses. Both Greene and the Index of Middle English Verse file them under different numbers. There isn't really much question that they are the same song, though. Greene discusses the matter on pp. cxxxv-cxxxvi; his suggestion on the latter page is that the original resembles the John de Grimestone text, which has no burden, and that several writers converted it to a carol by adding (existing?) refrains. I suspect that there is truth in this, although I am not certain the process was deliberate. Woolf, p. 250, says of the process, "The poem [as found in the Grimestone version] is apparently written in couplets, thouogh, out of thirty-six lines, sixteen could equally well be in mono-rhyming quatrains. In fifteenth century manuscripts it was turned into carol form through rearrangements and additions.
Woolf, pp. 250-251, mentions this as a member of a small genre of "drama[s] in the sense that there is no narrative and three people speak," the three being Jesus, Mary, and John. She mentions as a prototypical example a Latin piece "Qui per viam pergitis" (although the version of this that I find online is actually dated after the Grimestone book).
Wenzel, pp. 156-157, considers this to have three parts, the first being addressed to Mary, the second being Mary's address to Jesus on the cross (asking in particular why he is there), and part three being Jesus's response -- although it isn't a response to her question; he speaks to John, Mary, the Father, and "man's soul." "It makes good sense to see in them an adaptive translation of at least four [of the nominal seven] Words on the Cross: Mulier, ecce fliius tuus [Mother, behold thy son] and ecce hic mater tua [behold thy mother], in reversed order, in lines 15-16; an allusion to Deus meus, Deus meus, ut quid me dereliquisti? [My father, my father, why hast thou forsaken me?] in 17-20; an expansion of Sitio [I thirst] in 21-26; and a similar expansion of Pater, in manus tuus commendo spiritum meum [Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit] in 27-30, which is then followed by a plea to mankind." That seems like a lot to wring out of the text, but Wenzel does note that the Seven Words were a very big deal in Catholic theology, and that there were other poems about the Seven Words.
The Grimestone text (Greene's D, even though it is the oldest of the four) is unlike the others in having parts assigned in the right margin: As printed by Greene, is has Jesus speak lines 1-8, Mary speak lines 9-14 (in itself implying some damage to the text, since all the other versions have four-line stanzas, but this gives Mary six lines rather than four or eight), then Jesus speak lines 15-36). Most agree that the attribution of lines 1-8 to Jesus is a mistake. But Wenzel, p. 158, says that the assignment to Jesus is a mistake; the text actually reads "Ihōēs" -- certainly not the abbreviation for Jesus, which would typically be IS. On its face, "Ihōēs" is "Ieonens," which is nothing. Wenzel says this is an "unequivocal contraction" of "Iohannes"=John. I don't think it's unequivocal, But I agree that John is probably what is meant.
Thompson, pp. 10-18, lists the contents of the London Thornton Manuscript. This is the tenth item out of 31, quite a few of which are long: an excerpt from the Cursor Mundi, a long poem on the Passion known in many other copies, the Siege of Jerusalem, the Siege of Melayne (Milan), the romance Roland and Otuel, the Virtues of the Mass, The Three Kings of Cologne, the romance of Richard the Conqueror (i.e. Richard I, Richard Yes-and-No, Richard the Lion-Hearted), The Parliament of the Three Ages, Wynnere and Wastoure. According to Thompson, p. 13, this is an addition to the manuscript by a somewhat later hand. Thompson's Plate 17 reproduces the text, which he regards as incomplete.
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115].
For more about the famous anthology Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Gree044

O Mary Stands a-Weeping

See What's Poor Mary Weepin' For (Poor Jenny Sits A-Weeping) (File: MSNR070)

O Mary, Come Down!

DESCRIPTION: Shanty, though just barely, really more of a call-out. "Oh Mary, come down with your bunch of roses, come down when I call, oh Mary. Oh Mary come down!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 368, "O Mary, Come Down!" (1 short text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 277]
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips p. 29, "A Sing Out" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #9165
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blood Red Roses" (lyrics)
NOTES [39 words]: The text of this looks very like a fragment of "Come Down You Roses/Blood Red Roses." But the tune looks different, and there is no chorus, and the purpose is different. Susan Lawlor split them, and I am very tentatively going along. - RBW
File: Hugi368

O Mister Moon

See Mister Moon (Kindly Come Out and Shine) (File: ACSF236M)

O Mither! Ony Body

DESCRIPTION: A girl would "rather lie through life my lane Than cuddle wi' a weaver." But a weaver is her only offer though she tries everything "that some ane might come to her aid." Failing at all she takes the weaver: "Sma' fish are better far than nane"
AUTHOR: Alexander Rodger (1784-1846) (source: Whistle-Binkie)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (_Whistle-Binkie_)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage rejection weaving
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 478, "O, Mither, Onybody!" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Whistle-Binkie [, First Series] (Glasgow, 1846), pp. 57-58, "O Mither! Ony Body"; also Whistle-Binkie, (Glasgow, 1878), Vol I, pp. 128-129, "O Mither! Ony Body"
Roud #5973
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sir Alexander McDonald's Reel" (tune, per Whistle-Binkie)
NOTES [71 words]: The description follows Whistle-Binkie.
Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(180), "O Mither! Ony body" ("O mither, ony body!"), The Poet's box (Glasgow), 1865 "To the tune of: Sir Alexander McDonald's reel," is this song but I could not download and verify it. Fortunately, a readable image of the same broadside is available as reference GC 398.5 GLA at "Mitchell Library, Glasgow Collection" at The Glasgow Story site. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3478

O Mither! Onybody

See O Mither! Ony Body (File: GrD3478)

O Muckle Deil Fat Has Come o' Ye

DESCRIPTION: Devil take the thieves that steal our strays. Take them immediately to Hell for they might find the exit gate from purgatory. The singer offers the Devil "guid whisky" to "take the villains frae our sight" whoever they are (Donald Boutcher?)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: theft farming humorous nonballad animal Devil
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 676, "O Muckle Deil Fat Has Come o' Ye" (1 text)
Roud #6100
File: GrD3676

O My Ain Wullie

DESCRIPTION: "O my ain Wullie, an' sae dearly's I love ye." The singer loves none better and "Over the salt seas I wad venture" to please him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1849, "O My Ain Wullie" (1 text)
Roud #13594
File: GrD81849

O My Bonny Highland Laddie

See The Tartan Plaidy (O My Bonnie Highland Laddie) (File: BrAPS495)

O My Honey, Take Me Back

DESCRIPTION: "O my honey, take me back, O my dahlin', I'll be true. I am moanin' all day long; O my honey, I love you." "I have loved you in joy and pain, In de sunshine and de rain, O my honey, heah me do, O my dahlin', I love you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 239, "O My Honey, Take Me Back" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #15194
File: San239

O My Lily O

See The Orange Lily-o (File: OLoc070)

O Naaman

See Go Wash in the Beautiful Stream (File: Br3575)

O Neebor Man

DESCRIPTION: "O neeborman will ye come doon" to join me in a meal. We'll eat and drink "helter welter on the table." The piper will play and we will twist to the Reel o' Bogie.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: dancing drink food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1875, "O Neebor Man" (1 text)
Roud #13575
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Sheriffmuir" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
File: GrD81875

O No My Love, Not I

See Oh, No, Not I (File: DTmarryn)

O No, John

See No, John, No (File: R385)

O Noble England, Fall Down upon thy Knee (A Joyful New Ballad)

DESCRIPTION: "O noble England, fall down upon thy knee, And praise thy God with thankful heart which still maintaineth thee." The pope blesses the [Spanish] armada. In Plymouth, they set out to defeat it. Several enemy ships and actions are briefly described.
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Deloney
EARLIEST DATE: 1588 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: navy battle Spain
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1558-1603 - Reign of Elizabeth (I)
1588 - Voyage of the Spanish Armada
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 6, "A Joyful New Ballad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V21737
File: PaSe006

O Pardon My Innocent Laugh

DESCRIPTION: "O pardon my innocent laugh -- Ha, ha. Do you know the notes of the staff? -- Ha, ha."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: music | laugh
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 49, "(O pardon my innocent laugh -- Ha, Ha)" (1 text)
Roud #20704
File: PKKB049C

O Patsy You're a Villain

See Paddy, You're a Villain (File: KSUC034B)

O potent ally Glendronach

See Glendronach (File: GrD3570)

O Prairie Land

DESCRIPTION: "We've reached the land of pleasant dreams, Of level plains and deep ravines, Where flowers abound on every hand, In this, our lovely prairie land." There are many flowers but few settlers. There is much wildlife -- including mosquitoes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba)
KEYWORDS: pioneer hardtimes derivative farming
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba, #13, pp. 78-82, "O Prairie Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4899
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beulah Land" (tune, form) and references there
cf. "Dakota Land" (tune, theme, lyrics)
NOTES [24 words]: Roud lumps this with the "Dakota Land" family. Certainly they are closely linked. But this looks like a deliberate rewrite, so I've split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Macl13

O Rare Turpin, Hero

See Dick Turpin and the Lawyer [Laws L10] (File: LL10)

O Rastle Jacob

See Wrestlin' Jacob (File: Br3656)

O Ride on Jesus

See Ride On, King Jesus (File: WarSp074)

O Ride On, Jesus

See Ride on, Jesus (File: Dett148)

O Row Thee in my Highland Plaid

DESCRIPTION: Donald asks "Lowland lassie wilt thou go" to the snow-covered hills where "the hardy shepherd tends his sheep?" He describes how they will spend the seasons. While "Lowland lads may dress mair fine" he boasts "an honest heart" She agrees to marry him.
AUTHOR: Robert Tannahill (1774-1810)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1838 (Ramsay)
KEYWORDS: courting lyric sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 865, "Lowland Lassie, Wilt Thou Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Phillip A Ramsay, The Poetical Works of Robert Tannahill (London, c.1838), pp. 53-54, "O Row Thee in my Highland Plaid"
Roud #6227
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Young Donald and His Lowland Bride
File: GrD4865

O Sally Brown, I Love Your Daughter

See Shenandoah (File: Doe077)

O Sally, My Dear

See Hares on the Mountain (File: ShH63)

O Saw Ye Our Lass Bess

See Ken Ye Na Our Lass Bess (File: LyCr2154)

O Saw Ye the Lass Wi' the Bonnie Blue Een

DESCRIPTION: Donald says, "O saw ye the lass wi' the bonnie blue een? Her smile is the sweetest that ever was seen." He describes her home in the valley. He will meet her "when night overshadows her cot in the glen"
AUTHOR: Richard Ryan (source: Whitelaw)
EARLIEST DATE: 1833 (Cartee); before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2757))
KEYWORDS: courting beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1842, "Hey to the Lass Wi' the Bonny Blue Een" (1 text fragment, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 74, "Oh, Saw Ye the Lass" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: C. Soule Cartee, The Souvenir Minstrel (Philadelphia, 1833 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 138, "Oh! Saw Ye the Lass"
Roud #13598
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2757), "Oh Saw Ye the Lass Wi' the Bonny Blue E'en" ("Oh, saw ye the lass wi' the bonny blue e'en?," G. Walker (Durham), 1797-1834
LOCSinging, as110030, "O Saw Ye the Lass Wi' the Bonnie Blue Een," L. Deming (Boston), no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jock Robb" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
NOTES [16 words]: Greig/Duncan8 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian B 11(2757) is the basis for the description. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD81842

O Shepherd, O Shepherd

DESCRIPTION: Shepherd's wife offers a breakfast of bacon and beans if he will come home; he refuses, he must tend his sheep. She offers a dinner of pudding and beef, then a supper of bread and cheese. Finally she offers clean sheets and a pretty lass. He accepts.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: marriage sex food dialog humorous wife shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(South))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 97, "O Shepherd, O Shepherd" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 176-177, "Shepherd, Come Home to Thy Breakfast" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 45)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 90, "Shepherd, Come Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan7 1513, "The Shepherd's Wife" (1 text)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 74-75, "O Shepherd, O Shepherd" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SHEPWILD SHEPWIFE (cf. the notes to BONSTJON)
Roud #1055
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Greensleeves" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Bonnie Saint John (DT, BONSTJON)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Shepherd, O Shepherd
NOTES [112 words]: This seems to exist in two forms, "O Shepherd O Shepherd" and "The Shepherd's Wife." The two have identical plots, but the latter -- at least as recorded by Gordeanna McCulloch, based on the version in Herd -- *feels* much bawdier, as well as more fun. (Anne Gilchrist thinks it may be derived from a singing game, and it does have rather that feel.)
The distinction is so strong that I thought of calling them separate songs, but I can't imagine a clear dividing line.
The tune of the "O Shepherd O Shepherd" versions is described as a "modal version of Greensleeves." This is a bit strong; the tune has been altered in more ways than the simple removal of accidentals. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: VWL074

O Shout Away

DESCRIPTION: "O shout (2), O shout away, And don't you mind, And glory, glory, glory in my soul. And when 'twas night I thought 'twas day, I thought I'd play my soul away...." "O Satan told me not to play,..." "And everywhere I went to pray,.. something was in my way"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Devil
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 71, "O Shout Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12030
File: AWG071

O Sinner Man

See Sinner Man (File: SKE61)

O Susanna

See Oh! Susanna (File: RJ19152)

O Susie Anna

DESCRIPTION: "I saw my boy friend walking down the street, O Susie Anna!" A box was in his arms, a dress in the box, a pocket in the dress, a note in the pocket, "Will you marry me" in the note. She replies, "Yes I will" They marry and have "four to five children"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage playparty children
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 141, "O Susie Anna" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fair Rosie" (tune, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
File: OpGa141

O Sweetly Sings the Burnie

DESCRIPTION: "O sweetly sings the burnie As it wimples doon the glen Where I meet my bonnie lassie When her minnie disna ken"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad mother river
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 800, "O Sweetly Sings the Burnie" (1 fragment)
Roud #6122
NOTES [76 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 text.
"Burnie" is probably stream.
This fragment seems not to be from William Neish's "The Burnie's Sang," which has as the seventh line of the first verse, "Oh hoo sweetly sings the burnie"; The eighth line is "At the breakin' o' the day." (Source: Robert Ford, The Harp of Perthshire: A Collection of Songs, Ballads, and Other Poetical Pievces (Paisley, 1893 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 389-390). - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4800

O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree)

DESCRIPTION: German Christmas song, known in English as "Oh Christmas Tree." In praise of the evergreen's ability to keep its needles all year long: "O tannenbaum, o tannenbaum, Wie treu sind deine blatter...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1799 (tune, "Melodien zum Mildheimischen Liederbuche"; lyrics published 1820)
KEYWORDS: Christmas nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Germany
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 374, "Oh Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree)" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 355-357, "Maryland, My Maryland -- (O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum!; Lauriger Horatius)"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 456, "O Tannenbaum" (notes only; Averill does not record scouts singing this song, but they heavily borrowed the tune)
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #56, "O Tannenbaum" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maryland! My Maryland" (tune)
cf. "Chamber Lye" (tune)
cf. "The Kinkaiders" (tune)
cf. "General Lee's Wooing" (tune)
cf. "Mule" (tune)
cf. "My Delaware" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Maryland! My Maryland (File: RJ19130)
Chamber Lye (File: RL659)
The Kinkaiders (File: San278)
General Lee's Wooing (File: SBoA233)
Mule ("The Mule He Is a Funny Sight") (File: MHAp225)
Softly Falls the Light of Day (File: ACSF456S)
The Song of Iowa (by S. H. M. Byers) (William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the United States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, p. 36; also in WIkipedia)
Lutefisk, O Lutefisk (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 20)
O Tom the Toad (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 50)
P.S. 52 (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 102)
National Embalming School (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 125)
New Mexico, We Love You (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 251)
The Red Flag (by Joe Hill) (William M. Adler, _The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon_, pp. 335-336)
Heaven, My Home ("There is a land of joy and peace") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 58)
Maryland ("Oh, how I wish that strife would cease") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 95)
Maryland, My Maryland ("The rebel horde is on thy shore") (by Septimus Winner) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 95)
My Fifty-Third ("Respectfully Dedicated to the 53rd Regt. P[ennsylvania] V[olunteers] by Levi J. Fritz") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 102)
My Maryland ("My barefoot bands are on they shore," by "Stone-Wall Jackson") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 104)
The People to the President ("Oh, let the Constitution stand") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 126)
Sheridan! Cavalry Sheridan! ("Come! Soldier's all, lets sing this song" [sic.]) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 140)
To Sauerwein ("The Union men have left the floor") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 195)
A Voice from the Old Maryland Line ("The Old Line's foot i on thy shore," by N. G. R[idgeley]) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 196)
Roosevelt 1912 campaign song ("Thou wilt not cower in the dust, Roosevelt, O Roosevelt!") (Paul F. Boller, Jr., _Presidential Campaigns_, second revised edition, Oxford University Press, p. 193)
The Song of Iowa (Iowa's state song; lyrics by Samuel Hawkins Marshall Byers, 1897) (see William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, p. 35; tune on p. 114)
Michigan, My Michigan ("A song to thee, fair State of mine") (William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, pp. 45-46. The notes claim a tune by William Otto Miessner, but although it may have been published with another tune, it was clearly modeled on "Maryland, My Maryland" and this melody)
Ode to New Jersey ("The rolling wave is on thy shore, Jerseyland, my Jerseyland") (William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, p. 53; tune on p. 160)
The Tide Rolls In ("The Prohibition tide comes in, It's rolling in, it's rolling in") (by H. Anna Brunner) (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 11)
Motherland (by Rev. Allan Eastman Cross) ("Oh beautiful! Beyond compare, Motherland, my Motherland!") (Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 168)
Epworth League, My Epworth League (Harbin-Parodology, #139, p. 42)
O Pumpkin Cards (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 457)
Pioneers, Oh Pioneers ("Oh, the finest army in the land, Pioneers, oh Pioneers") (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 82)
The Morning Prayer ("Lord, in thos morning hour I pray") (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 110)
NOTES [77 words]: Ian Bradley, in The Penguin Book of Carols, attributes the "O Tannenbaum" words to Ernst Anschütz in 1824, but Fuld offers the 1820 date, and I'm more inclined to trust him.
Both dates seem surprisingly early; according to Ruth Binney, Nature's Way: lore, legend, fact and fiction, David and Charles, 2006, p. 176, the Christmas tree (as opposed to simply bringing in evergreen boughs) was introduced to England by Albert, the husband of Queen VIctoria. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB374B

O Tell Me Will Ye Go

DESCRIPTION: "O tell me will ye go bonnie lassie O Where the Ugie waters flow?" The singer tells Jean "nae langer we'll be twa" and you will forever be "Ugie's peerless queen"
AUTHOR: Peter Still (1814-1848)
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Still)
KEYWORDS: courting lyric
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 863, "Ugie's Bonny Queen" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Peter Still, The Cottar's Sunday, and Other Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (Philadelphia, 1845), pp. 207-208, "O Tell Me Will Ye Go"
Roud #6254
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kelvin Grove" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4 and Still)
cf. "The Shearin's Nae for You" (tune) and references there
NOTES [41 words]: "The River Ugie (Scottish Gaelic: Uisge Uigidh) or Ugie Water is a river in Scotland. Located in the north east, it flows into the North Sea on the east coast at Peterhead, a little north of Aberdeen." (source: "River Ugie" at the Wikipedia site) - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD863

O That Lang Term Whitsunday

DESCRIPTION: "O that lang term Whitsunday will soon part's a', Then wha'll be my darling when Johnnie's awa'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting separation farming nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #59, p. 2, ("Oh that lang term Whitsunday Will soon pairt's a") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1796, "O That Lang Term Whitsunday" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #12996
NOTES [68 words]: Candlemas [February 2], Whitsunday [May 15], Lammas [August 1] and Martinmas [November 11] were the four "Old Scottish term days" "on which servants were hired, and rents and rates were due." (Source: Wikipedia article Quarter days ). [With, of course, the non-trivial footnote that Whitsun was a movable holiday that rarely fell May 15. - RBW]
The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD81796

O the Bonny Fisher Lad

DESCRIPTION: "O, the bonny fisher lad That brings the fishes frae the sea; O, the bonny fisher lad, The fisher lad gat haud o' me." The youth lives in Bamboroughshire; the singer met him while gathering cockles. She vows she will have the fisher lad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, p. 103, "O the Bonny Fisher Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR103 (Full)
Roud #3150
File: StoR103

O the Dying Lamb

DESCRIPTION: The reponse to each line is "O the dying Lamb." Verse lines include "I want to go where Moses trod." "For Moses gone to the promised land." "To drink from springs that never run dry." "Before I'll stay in hell one day." "I'm in hopes to pray my sins away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 11, pp. 204-205, "O the Dying Lamb" (1 text)
NOTES [52 words]: It should be noted that this song is wrong; Moses never entered the Promised Land. He was allowed to view it from Mount Pisgah but not to enter it, and was buried in an unknown grave (Deut. 34:1-6, etc.). Of course, later Jewish tradition gave him a place in the afterlife -- but the Hebrew Bible never says so. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: HiOtDyL

O the Oak, and the Ash, and the Bonny Ivy Tree

See A North Country Maid; also Ambletown, Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: LK43B)

O the Roast Beef of Old England: New Version

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing you a song it shall not be too long, If you go for your rights, you will not think it wrong." Our fathers owned the land and fought off their foes. But now the rich have taken the land and left workers with nothing. Workers should unionize
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Palmer)
KEYWORDS: derivative hardtimes labor-movement
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #35, "O the Roast Beef of Old England: New Version" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1481
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Roast Beef of Old England" (tune and inspiration)
NOTES [41 words]: I find no evidence that this was ever actually sung; it's a labor parody of "The Roast Beef of Old England." Palmer doesn't give a date for it, but a time around the 1880s seems likely. He seems to credit the words to "Benjamin Britten." Right. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: PECS035

O Then, O Then

See I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male) (File: R365)

O This Door Locked

DESCRIPTION: "O this door locked and the other one too, my mammy she'll kill me (x2), Come on here, No ma'am, O this door locked." "I'll hoist them windows and I will come out, my mammy she'll kill me...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians)
KEYWORDS: mother separation
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 253, 'O This Door Locked" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #3662
NOTES [27 words]: A fragment of a song about a girl wanting to come out and meet her lover, but confined by her mother? I don't know, but it seems the most likely explanation. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ShAp253

O Those Tombs

See Voice from the Tombs (Lonely Tombs) (File: Wa087)

O To Be in My Bed and Happit

DESCRIPTION: The singer would be in bed, "lockit in my lovie's arms" with the "household sleepin sound," the door locked, the key turned "and the night to be seven years long"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love sex nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 938, "O To Be in My Bed and Happit" (1 text)
Roud #6753
File: GrD5938

O Tommy's Gone and I'm Going Too

See Tommy's Gone to Hilo (File: Doe030)

O Ugie Tho Nae Classic Stream

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises Ugie "tho nae a classic stream" and "hast nane to gar thee glide Amang the rivers sung wi' pride"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: pride river nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 517, "O Ugie Tho Nae Classic Stream" (1 text)
Roud #6001
NOTES [41 words]: "The River Ugie (Scottish Gaelic: Uisge Uigidh) or Ugie Water is a river in Scotland. Located in the north east, it flows into the North Sea on the east coast at Peterhead, a little north of Aberdeen" (Source: Wikipedia article River Ugie ). - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3517

O Waly Waly

See Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) (File: K149)

O Wattie Manson, I Am Ashamed of You

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Oh, (Wattie Manson), I am ashamed of you, For leaving (someone) cross the ocean blue. Her heart is nearly broken, she's dying for a kiss, O (Wattie Manson), I am ashamed of this."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: jumprope separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #109, "O ..., I am ashamed of you" (1 text)
File: AJRR209

O Wha's at the Window

DESCRIPTION: Jamie Glen has come sixteen miles to take Jeannie away. "There is mirth on the green an the ha There's fiddling an flinging an dancing an singin Bit the bride's father's gravest ava" because "she'll aye be awa." It seems the wedding will go on.
AUTHOR: words by A. Carlisle, music by R.A. Smith (source: Greig/Duncan3)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: wedding dancing music father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 612, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "O Wha's at the Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2590
File: GrD3612

O whar gat ye that hauver-meal bannock

See Bonnie Dundee (II) (O whar gat ye that hauver-meal bannock) (File: Gath058)

O What a Parish (The Parish of Dunkeld)

DESCRIPTION: "O what a parish, a terrible parish, O what a parish is that o' Dunkeld, They hangit their minister...." After rebelling against the organized church, the people turn the site into a meeting place; the singer wishes that all parishes saw such fellowship
AUTHOR: Adam Crawford ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: clergy humorous execution friend party
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 171, "O What a Parish" (1 text)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 217-218, "O What a Parish" (1 text)
DT, PARDUNK*
ADDITIONAL: James Maidment, A North Countrie Garland (Edinburgh, 1884 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), pp. 62-63, "O What a Parish" (1 text)
Roud #13081
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonny Dundee (I)" (tune, per Maidment)
NOTES [55 words]: Ford suspects that this song was originally written not of Dunkeld but of Kinkell, where he claims events similar to this actually took place. He offers no dates, however. - RBW
In Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 and Maidment the parish name is Dunkell. Maidment has the most complete text of those listed here to date. - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: FVS217

O What Is That Upon Thy Head?

DESCRIPTION: "O what is that upon thy head, so dazzling and so bright? O what is that upon thy breast, Which shines so clear and bright? Upon my head there's glorious hope, upon my breast my shield, And with my sword I mean to fight Until I've gained the field."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Journal of the Folk-Song Society; reportedly originally collected c. 1852)
KEYWORDS: battle clothes religious
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 35, "O What Is That Upon Thy Head?" (1 text, only partly traditional, plus a Cornish translation, 1 tune)
Roud #3308
NOTES [45 words]: Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, liking the tune of this piece, expanded it based on Ephesians 6:13-17, the section on "the whole armour of God." It's an interesting continuation, but I'm not convinced that it really reflects the original intent of the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Gund035

O Where Are You Going? I'm Going to Linn

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

O Where O Where Has My Little Dog Gone

DESCRIPTION: "Oh where Oh where is my little dog gone, Oh where Oh where can he be?..." The singer describes the dog, then his tastes... lager beer, the dog, and of course sausage -- but "Dey makes um mit dog und dey makes em mit horse, I guess dey makes em mit he."
AUTHOR: Septimus Winner (1826-1902)
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (sheet music published by Sep Winner & Co, Philadelphia)
KEYWORDS: dog death food humorous
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 57-60, "Der Deitcher's Dog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #469, p. 31, "Der Deitcher's Dog" (1 reference)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, p. 29 (fragments filed under "The Orphan Boys")
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 139, "Oh where, oh where has my little dog gone?" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #873, p. 326, "(Oh where, oh where has my little dog gone?)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 139, "Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?" (1 fragment)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, p. 143, "Der Deitcher's Dog" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 144-145, "Der Deitcher's Dog" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 406, "Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone (Zu Lauterbach)"
Harbin-Parodology, #67, p. 22, "O Where, O Where?" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #30, pp. 23-24, "Little Wee Dog" (1 text)
DT, LITTLDOG*
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, pp. 34-35, "Dutch Warbler" (1 text, 1 tune) (part III, pp. 46-47 in the 1876 edition)
ST RJ19057 (Full)
Roud #18955
RECORDINGS:
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "Where Has My Little Dog Gone" (Brunswick 187/Vocalion 5183 [as the Hill Billies], 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dunderbeck" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
The Jackarse Eat It on the Way (Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 296-297)
Zu Lauterbach (Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #184; English translation, "Lauterbach Maiden," Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #114)
NOTES [108 words]: Septimus Winner for some reason put his own name on this piece and used the pseudonym Alice Hawthorne for his other hits ("Listen to the Mocking Bird" and "Whispering Hope"). Using the tune of the German song "Lauterbach," ("Zu Lauterbach"; "Zu Lauterbach Hab' Ich Mein Strumpf Verloren"; first published 1847), he created this ode (?) to an unfortunate dog.
"Deitcher" is, I believe, dialect for "German" ("Deutscher").
The Opies have notes about the history of this song on college campuses, but somehow fail to note the link between Septimus Winner and Alice Hawthorne. For more on Septimus Winner, see the notes to "Listen to the Mockingbird." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RJ19057

O Where Will Ye Be?

DESCRIPTION: "O where will ye be when the first trumpet sounds? O where will ye be when it sounds so loud? When it sounds so loud as to wake up the dead?" The singer will be "among the holy," "among the angels," wearing "a royal diadem," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 173, "Where Shall I Be When de Firs' Trumpet Soun'?" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 172 in the 1909 edition)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 83, "O Where Will Ye Be?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 761, "Oh, Where Shall I Be?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 4-5, "Where Shall I Be When the First Trumpet Sounds?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12344
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "Where Shall I Be?" (Victor Vi-23523, recorded 1930)
Mississippi John Hurt, "Where Shall I Be" (on MJHurt04)
NOTES [81 words]: The imagery here seems to be a bit of a conflation. The "first trumpet" phrase is suggested by Revelation 8:7, but that trumpet brings hail and fire mixed with blood. The trumpet as a symbol of resurrection is more reminiscent of 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
This seems to break up into at least two subfamilies. The Chappell text is a confident boast of salvation. The Carter Family version is much less certain; the singer is worried ("Where shall I be?") and warns of the world's sins.- RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: ChFRA083

O Where, O Where

See O Where O Where Has My Little Dog Gone (File: RJ19057)

O Who Will Play the Silver Whistle?

See The Silver Whistle (File: K009)

O Will Ye Gang, Love, and Leave Me Noo?

See The Rashy Muir (File: GrD61215)

O Yepo

See Epo i tai tai e (File: ACSF144E)

O You Nasty Black-a-tops (Bird Scarer's Cry)

DESCRIPTION: "O, you nasty black-a-tops (blackbirds), Get off my master's radish tops, For he's a-comin' with his long gun, And you must fly and I must run. Hello-o-o, Hello-o-o."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Palmer-ThePainfulPlow)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad food
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #1, Song I, "(no title)" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: PPai01I

O-hi-o, O-hi-o, My True Love and Me Will Go

See The Lovely Ohio (File: LoF039)

O-o-oh, Sistren an' Bred'ren

DESCRIPTION: "O-o-oh, sistren an' bredren, Don't you think it is a sin For to go to peel potatoes An' to cas' away de skin? De skin feeds de pigs, An de pigs feeds you, O-o-oh, sistren an' bredren, Is not dat true?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: food animal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 189, "O-o-oh, Sistren an' Bred'ren" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [15 words]: About as close as traditional music gets to an ecology song, when you think about it. - RBW
File: ScaNF189

O, Derry, Derry, Dearie Me

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls Derry in the springtime. He remembers the sights, swimming in the Moyle, wandering among the bogs. Even in London, he smells the peat and the sea; he wishes he were home
AUTHOR: James Warnock
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homesickness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H536, p. 209, "Oh, Derry, Derry, Dearie Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH536

O, Foo Will I Get Hame

DESCRIPTION: Jeannie Deans borrows money to buy a coat for her son but spends it on brandy. She sells her own clothes and the meal at home -- blaming rats and mice -- for drink. She has been shamed at church. She is afraid of falling into the river. "Will I win hame?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad river clothes food animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 583, "O, Foo Will I Get Hame" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #3135
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ask My Feet and Then My Noddle
NOTES [23 words]: Greig/Duncan3 compares this to "I'm Often Drunk, and Seldom Sober" but it shares no verses and one line of the chorus with that song. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3583

O, GIve Me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam

See Home on the Range (File: R193)

O, Good Ale

See Good Ale (I) (File: K273)

O, In the Moonlight

See Oh, in the Moonlight (File: ACSF126O)

O, Jeanie Dear

DESCRIPTION: "O, Jeanie dear, the flow'rs, the flow'rs are springing... the lark is winging... And to my ravished ear his wondrous singing Is all of love... and you." The singer details how nature rejoices in Jeanie -- and he rejoices even more
AUTHOR: Words: Andrew Doey
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love bird nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H545, pp. 225-226, "O, Jeanie Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7974
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Danny Boy (The Londonderry Air)" (tune)
File: HHH545

O, Jock the jolly plow boy

See The Jolly Plowboy (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy) [Laws M24] (File: LM24)

O, Li'l 'Liza Jane

See Liza Jane (File: San132)

O, Lula!

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Lula, oh Lord, gal, I want to see you so bad. Gonna see my long-haired baby (x2), Well, I'm goin' 'cross the country To see my long-haired gal." The singer tells how Mr. Treadmill had Mr. Goff pay the boys off; now he is home and happy with his girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Hurston, Mules and Men)
KEYWORDS: train love
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 77, "O, Lula!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 447, "O Lulu" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Zora Neale Hurston, _Mules and Men_ (New York,1990 (paperback edition of 1935 original)), pp. 261-263, "Going To See My Long-Haired Babe" (with tune)
File: LxU077

O, Mary Dear, Go Ask Your Mother

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

O, No, John

See No, John, No (File: R385)

O, Pretty Girls, Won't You List and Come

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, pretty girls, won't you list and come (x3), And follow the music of the fife and drum?" "The drum shall beat and the fife shall play (x3), And merrily on we'll march away." "Over the hill and a great way off (x3), O Don't you hear that Indian cough?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: music soldier Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 302, "O, Pretty Girls, Won't You List and Come" (1 text)
Roud #4216
RECORDINGS:
Pearl Jacobs Borusky, "O, Pretty Girls, Won't You List and Come" (AFS 4176 B1, 1941)
File: Pet302

O, Waly, Waly (II)

See Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)

O! Alle! O!

DESCRIPTION: Wheat-cutting song: "Watch me whet my cradle, O! Alle! O!" "I'll make it beat de beater, O! Alle! O!" "Watch me throw my cradle... I'se been all over Georgia... The storm clouds arising..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (White)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 325-326, "O! Alle! O!" (1 text)
File: DarN325A

O! Blarney Castle, My Darling

DESCRIPTION: Freemason Cromwell mounts a battering ram, grape shot, and bullets against Blarney castle. The Irish have bows and arrows. Cromwell "made a dark signal" freezing the defenders. He and his soldiers walk across the lake. He gives Jeffreys the Castle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (_Cork Southern Reporter_, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion magic Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1641-1653 - Irish Confederate Wars (Irish Roman Catholics rebellion against Protestant British settlers) (source: _Irish Confederate Wars_ at Wikipedia)
August 1651 - Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill defeats the Irish at Blarney after the Battle of Knocknaclashy (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland).
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 144-148, "O! Blarney Castle, My Darling" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Oliver Yorke, The Reliques of Father Prout (London, 1873 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 100-101, "Terry Callaghan's Song" ("O Blarney Castle, my darlint!") (1 text)
NOTES:
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O, Hold Your Tongue, Dear Sally!" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
NOTES [319 words]: Yorke: "Being a full and true Account of the Storming of Blarney Castle by the united forces of Cromwell, Ireton, and Fairfax, in 1628 [sic]."
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "Upon the allusion made to Oliver Cromwell in the second and sixth verses, it is necessary to remark that, according to the popular belief of the Irish peasant, Cromwell was endowed with supernatural powers; and that the fraternity of Freemasons, which was said to be founded by him, were supposed, from the secrecy and ceremonies obseved by them, to be dabblers in the black art."
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "The name of Cromwell, although associated both in song and story with the taking of Blarney Castle, is obviously used for that of his partisan, Lord Broghill (afterwards the Earl of Orrery). Cromwell, if indeed he ever was at Blarney, could only have paid it a short and peaceable visit."
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "The Editor has no doubt that this song, and ['Saint Patrick's Arrival'], came from the same pen." See that song if you are interested in Croker's speculations there. However, Croker notes that the song has been "unceremoniously appropriated by Father Prout [Rev Francis Sylvester Mahony (1804-1866)]." Croker prints alternative verses from Father Prout's version. In both versions the castle is given by Cromwell to Jeffreys but, according to Croker, the Jeffreys family purchased the estate from the crown (source: "Blarney Castle" in The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 14, No. 396, Saturday, October 31, 1829, on the Project Gutenberg site quoting Croker, Researches in the South of Ireland) - BS
For some background on the horrors inflicted on Ireland by Cromwell, see "The Wexford Massacre."
The fear and hatred Cromwell inspired is reflected in later Irish culture; mothers would threaten their misbehaving children: if they didn't stop, "Oliver Cromwell will get you." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: CrPS144

O! Dear O!

See My Husband's Got No Courage in Him (File: K213)

O! Let My People Go

See Go Down, Moses (File: LxU109)

O! Look-a Death

See Look At Death (File: Edwa013)

O! Molly Dear Go Ask Your Mother

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

O! They Marched Through the Town (The Captain with His Whiskers)

DESCRIPTION: The girl looks out her window as the soldiers march by. Her eye seizes upon the captain, though she conceals this from her parents. Later they meet at the ball. Though the soldiers later depart, the girl hopes that they will soon return with her captain
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Haynes Bayly / Music: Sidney Nelson ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Dime-Song-Book #9)
KEYWORDS: courting love soldier
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE) Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 69, "The Captain with His Whiskers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 228, "The Captain with His Whiskers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 214-215, "The Captain with His Whiskers" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 228)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 58-59, "Grandma's Song (Memories of 1846)"; p. 123, "The Captain With His Whiskers" (2 texts) (pp. 101-102 in the 1919 edition)
Greig/Duncan1 87, "The Captain With His Whiskers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H660, p. 273, "The Captain with His Whiskers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 38, "The Captain with His Whiskers" (1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #244, p. 18, "The Captain with the Whiskers" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 59, "The Captain" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 5, "Captain with His Whiskers" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Charles W. Joyner, "The Repertory of Nancy Jones as a Mirror of Culture in Scotland County," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), p. 93, "They came through the town with their banners so gay" (1 text)
DT, CAPTWHSK*
Roud #2735
RECORDINGS:
Aaron Campbell's Mountaineers, "The Captain with his Whiskers" (Chamption 45038, 91935)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.14(314), "The Captain With His Whiskers" ("As they marched thro' the town with their banners so gay"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1867; also 2806 c.8(256), Firth b.28(5a/b) View 4 of 8, "The Captain With His Whiskers"; Harding B 15(38b), "The Captain With the Whiskers"; Firth c.14(312), "The Captain With His Whiskers, Took a Sly Glance at Me"
LOCSinging, sb10059b, "The Captain With His Whiskers," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Titles of Songs (Song of Songs, Song of All Songs, Song of Song Titles)" (tunes of some versions, according to broadsides)
SAME TUNE:
The Mormons in the Mountains (File: LDC229)
Miss Jones, by Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) (a poem set to a medley of pop tunes, with this being the first) (Anne Clark, _The Real Alice_, Stein and Day, 1981, p. 82)
Combination Song (a combination by A. Anderson of "We Are Coming Father Abram" and "When This Cruel War Is Over," set to this tune; see Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 24)
Die Deutsche Companie ("Kind peope, vat you tinks, I trys to sing a song?") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 16)
Quodlibet ("'Tis September's golden month, when the opening is at hand") (by James K. Blish) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 73)
NOTES [159 words]: Although the original version of this song makes no mention of facial hair, it is the revised version ("The Captain with His Whiskers") that seems to have captured the popular fancy.
Of the illustration on the earliest sheet music printing known to them (apparently from 1861-1865), Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 120, declare: "The 'whiskers' are, as Hollywood would say, super-colossal.... This front cover would have made even Whistler whistle."
According to a broadside cited on p. 18 of Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, this was "sung by Mrs. W. J. Florence." - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb10059b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Wa069

O! Why Should Old Age So Much Wound Us?

DESCRIPTION: "Why should old age so much wound us?" The singer is happy with his "auld wife sitting by" surrounded by children and grandchildren. They are not wealthy and never had schemes to be wealthy. He hopes their simple home will last the rest of their lives.
AUTHOR: John Skinner (1721-1807) (source: Rogers, _The Modern Scottish Minstrel_, Vol. 1, published by Project Gutenberg)
EARLIEST DATE: 1809 (Skinner, _Poems_, according to Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: age home nonballad family money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 548, "The Auld Man's Sang" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: John Skinner, Songs and Poems (Peterhead, 1859), pp. 74-76, "The Old Man's Songs"
Roud #6024
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dumbarton's Drums" (tune)
File: GrD3548

O! Ye Mountains High (Zion)

DESCRIPTION: "O ye mountains high, where the clear blue sky Arches over the vales of the free, Where the pure breezes blow and the clear streamlets flow, How I’ve longed to your bosom to flee!" The singer is looking to Zion, "home of the free"
AUTHOR: Words: Charles W. Penrose (1832-1925) / Music: H. S. Thompson (source: Mormon hymnals)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle); Mormon hymnals date the music to c. 1852
KEYWORDS: religious home | Mormon mountains
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, p. 88, "(O! Ye Mountains High)" (1 partial text)
Roud #22658
File: FSSS088

O'Brien O'Lin

See Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn) (File: R471)

O'Brien with His High-Water Pants

DESCRIPTION: "My name is O'Brien from Harlem, I am an Irishman as you may see." As he travels around New York, people observe him and cry out, "There is O'Brien with his high-water pants." He does not seem to notice that he is being teased
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: clothes humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 92, "O'Brien with His High-Water Pants" (1 text)
Roud #9573
File: Dean092

O'Donnell Aboo (The Clanconnell War Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Proudly the note of the trumpet is sounding, Loudly the war-cries arise on the gale... On for old Erin -- O'Donnell Aboo!" Tirconnell, and all Ireland, are urged to join O'Donnell in his fight against the English
AUTHOR: Words: Michael Joseph McCann (1824-1883)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1843 ("The Nation")
KEYWORDS: Ireland patriotic battle rebellion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1594 - outbreak of war between the Irish of Ulster and the invading English. (England had already conquered most of Ireland and was attempting to enforce Protestantism. At this time Ulster is still independent, and is fighting to remain so.) The next few years see heavy guerilla war, with both sides devastating the others' property. On the whole the Irish have the best of it, as Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, fights the English when he can and carefully buys time (with parleys and even requests for a pardon) when he cannot
1598 - Tyrone and "Red Hugh" O'Donnell, by a pincer movement, defeat the English at Yellow Ford (this is the first major success of Irish arms). Tyrone is able to call on the rest of Ireland to rebel; he is very nearly the de facto King
1599 - Essex leads an army to Ireland. Outmaneuvered by Tyrone (who uses as "scorched earth" policy to starve out the English), he wastes his army on garrisons which Tyrone besieges and defeats piecemeal. Essex, miserably defeated, goes home to England (without permission), bursts in on Elizabeth -- and winds up completely out of favor (so much so that he eventually raises a failed rebellion).
1600- Essex is replaced by Mountjoy, who sets out to isolate the Irish by building strong positions around Ulster. Tyrone's position worsens as Mountjoy's blockade pinches the people who form his power base.
1601 - Battle of Kinsale. Some 4000 Spanish troops had landed in September but let themselves be besieged at Kinsale. Tyrone, O'Donnell, and the Spanish are defeated by the English. O'Donnell (whose over-aggressiveness provoked the action) flees to Spain and abdicates his title to his brother Rory (Ruaidri).
1602 - Rory O'Donnell surrenders in December
1603 - Tyrone makes peace with England (March 30). The English have already destroyed the O'Neills; Tyrone retains only his English title. The English now rule most of Ireland. Rory O'Donnell also becomes an English lord, Earl of Tirconnell.
1607 - Tyrone, Rory O'Donnell and other Irish leaders go into exile (Tyrone had been summoned to London and feared to come). The English seize their lands in Ulster and begin colonization. Later known as the "Flight of the Earls," this was popularly regarded as the end of Irish hopes, though in fact the 1603 capitulation broke the Irish resistance
1608 - O'Doherty's Rebellion. Sir Arthur Chichester, who was responsible for the government of Ulster, had proposed a limited colonization. O'Doherty's revolt was a pinprick, but it convinced London to take over Ulster and suppress the natives.
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 98, "O'Donnell Abu" (1 text)
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 12-13, "O'Donnell Aboo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 319, "O'Donnell Aboo" (1 text)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 34-35, "O'Donnell Abu!!" (1 text; tune on p. 20)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 20-21, "O'Donnell Abou" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ODNLABU
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 507-508, "O'Donnell Aboo" (1 text)
Roud #V12567
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "O Donnell Aboo" (on IRClancyMakem03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2769), "O'Donnell Abu," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also 2806 b.10(216), "O'Donnell Abu"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(75a), "O'Donnell Aboo!," unknown, c.1875
SAME TUNE:
New Words to the Tune of "O'Donnel Abu" ("Workers of Ireland, why crouch ye like ravens") (Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 717-718)
The Toilers of Men ("Swiftly the cause of the toiler is speeding, Onward and upward it shoots through the gloom") (by Patrick Carey) (Foner, p. 158)
NOTES [500 words]: Zimmermann, p. 112 fn. 100, "According to The Nation, 28th January, 1843, "O'Donnell Abu" was meant to be sung to the tune 'Roderick Vick Alpine Dhu' (the 'Boat Song' in Walter Scott's Lady of the Lake); it became famous with another tune composed by Joseph Haliday." - BS
First published c. 1843 as "The Clanconnell War Song." The NLScotland site accepts the attribution of the tune to Haliday; few other sources cite a composer.
Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004) says that "Abu" is shorthand for "Go Bua!" ("to Victory!").
"Red Hugh" O'Donnell's hatred of England was based on a personal experience; as a teenager, the English had gotten him drunk and taken him prisoner. He escaped a few years later (1591), but the unfair imprisonment affected his opinions for the rest of his life (see Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, A History of Ireland, pp. 127-128).
The "O'Neill" of the song is Hugh, third Baron of Dungannon and second Earl of Tyrone, one of the greatest Anglo-Irish barons of the time (1551-1616). He became O'Neill in 1593 when his brother Turlough resigned him the position. Prior to that, he had held the barony of Dungannon from 1569 and the Tyrone earldom from 1587 (see Mike Cronin, A History of Ireland, p. 56).
Hugh O'Neill cooperated with the English more than this song might imply. He was more comfortable with English than Irish ways, having lived in Kent when his father was murdered by his half-brother Shane O'Neill, who succeeded to most of the O'Neill lands before the English suppressed him (see Terry Golway, For the Cause of Liberty, p. 17; Fry/Fry, pp. 117, 125). Many historians think he was initially loyal, but the threat to his position (Tudor bureaucracy looked likely to overcome the ancient clan loyalties) eventually pushed him toward rebellion. If the rebellion could be said to have a commander (a debatable point), he was it.
The English grip on Ireland still wasn't strong in the aftermath of the rebellion, which is why Tyrone was permitted to keep his earldom after 1603. But in 1607 he was summoned to London (Cronin, p. 64). Too many Irish chiefs had been summoned to London and never returned. Instead of answering the summons, he fled.
The irony is, until the rebellion, Ulster was almost entirely free of English influence. The Flight of the Earls opened Ulster to settlement -- and of course many immigrants came, mostly from Scotland. So this campaign eventually produced the Troubles that still divide Ireland. Don't ask me why an Irish nationalist would write about this most destructive of Irish failures.
There is at least one song about the flight of the earls, called "The Flight of the Earls," on p. 211 of Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, but it does not seem t have become traditional.
It does reveal something about the typical pattern of Anglo-Irish relations, though: The British solved one problem (a bunch of rebellious noblemen) and created another (the Ulster plantation). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: PGa012

O'Donnell Abu

See O'Donnell Aboo (File: PGa012)

O'Donnell the Avenger

DESCRIPTION: Phoenix Park defendants are convicted by informer Carey's testimony. O'Donnell kills Carey on the ship Melrose Castle bound for Africa. O'Donnell is tried for the murder, convicted and executed. "As a martyr for his native land quite bravely he did die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: betrayal homicide trial execution Africa Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Chronology of the Phoenix Park murders (source: primarily Zimmermann, pp. 62, 63, 281-286.)
May 6, 1882 - Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and the Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke are murdered by a group calling themselves "The Invincible Society."
January 1883 - twenty seven men are arrested.
James Carey, one of the leaders in the murders, turns Queen's evidence.
Six men are condemned to death, four are executed (Joseph Brady is hanged May 14, 1883; Daniel Curley is hanged on May 18, 1883), others are "sentenced to penal servitude," and Carey is freed and goes to South Africa.
July 29, 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell kills Carey on board the "Melrose Castle" sailing from Cape Town to Durban.
Dec 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell is convicted of the murder of James Carey and executed in London (per Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 27-28, "O'Donnell, the Avenger" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Pat Critch, "O'Donnell's Execution" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Phoenix Park Tragedy" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders) and references there
NOTES [47 words]: Zimmermann p. 62: "The Phoenix Park murders and their judicial sequels struck the popular imagination and were a gold-mine for ballad-writers: some thirty songs were issued on this subject, which was the last great cause to be so extensively commented upon in broadside ballads." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: OCon027

O'Donnell's Execution

See O'Donnell the Avenger (File: OCon027)

O'Donovan Rossa's Farewell to Dublin

See Rossa's Farewell to Erin (File: OLoc034)

O'Dooley's First Five O'Clock Tea

DESCRIPTION: "O'Dooley got rich on an aqueduct job And he made a considerable pile." O'Dooley celebrates with a series of parties. Someone spikes the tea at one such event, and mayhem (or at least silliness) follows. O'Dooley vows revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (Prairie Home Companion Folk Song Book)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous party
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 29-31, "O'Dooley's First Five O'Clock Tea" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DOOLYTEA*
Roud #12778
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Jubilee" (theme) and references there
NOTES [24 words]: Traditional? I'm not sure. This sort of drunken-Irishman song was amazingly common, and of course the Pankakes give no source information. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: DTdoole

O'er the Crossing

DESCRIPTION: "Bending knees a-aching, Body wracked with pain, I wish I was a child of God, I'd get home by and by. Keep praying, I do believe, We're a long time waging of the crossing." The singer's mother has been long climbing. Thunder and lightning give warning
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment); 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 72, "O'er the Crossing" (1 text, 1 tune plus a variant strain)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 14, p. 207, "O'er the Crossing" (1 text)
Roud #12031
File: AWG072

O'er the Hills and Far Away (I)

DESCRIPTION: (Jocky) the piper "learned to play when he was young," but "the a' tunes that he could play Was o'er the hills and far away." Rejected by Jenny, he laments his fate, declares "I'll never trust a woman more," and intends to spend his life playing the pipes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1709 (_Pills to Purge Melancholy_, per Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection music dancing
FOUND IN: Britain Australia
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 330-334, "O'er the Hills and Far Away" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 248, "(O'er the Hills and Far Away)" (1 fragment)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 507, "Jockey was a piper's son" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 145-146, "Jocky Met Wi' Jenny" (1 text)
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 37-39, "Over the the hills and far away" (sic.) (1 tune, apparently this based on the attribution to _Pills to Purge Melancholy_)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 149, "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" (1 short text of "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (I)" plus a fragment of "O'er the Hills and Far Away (I)")
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 95-96, "Over the Hills and a Great Way Off" (1 text)
DT, OVRHILL4*
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scots Sangs (in three vols) (London, 1733 (ninth edition) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, pp. 192-194, "O'er the Hills and Far Away" ("Jocky met with Jenny fair") (1 text)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume I, #62, p. 62-63, "O'er the Hills and Far Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Arn017 (Full)
Roud #8460
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Over the Hills So Far Away" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
The Hubble Bubble (Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 196-198)
Indan War Song ("Over the hills with heart we go", a song of the British army that went on to suffer Braddock's Defeat, for which see "Braddock's Defeat") (Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 10)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jockey's Lamentation
NOTES [184 words]: It has been conjectured that this is descended from one or another version of "The Elfin Knight," with which it shares a few scattered lyrics and perhaps a plaintive feeling. But it is more likely that it was inspired by, rather than descended from, the older ballad, as this appears to have been originally a broadside.
Pieces with this name are common; John Gay had one in the Beggar's Opera. This version is characterized by the lines quoted in the description, which seem to show up even in the degenerate forms such as "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" (which appears to be nothing more than a dance tune; compare the Baring-Gould text). ˆ RBW
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes: "According to J.W. Ebsworth (Roxburghe Ballads) this was written by P.A. Motteux for D'Urfey's comedy, The Campaigners, 1698, but it is not in the published version of the play."
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong: "The song here given is, with the exception of the chorus, not properly a Scottish production, being rather a London imitation of Scottish song, brought out about the beginning of the last century...." - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Arn017

O'er the Hills of Sicily

DESCRIPTION: "O'er the hills of Sicily, up the toe of Italy, Came the Loyal Edmontons from over the sea, And they sang as the stuffed the bully in their haversacks, 'Who'll come a-marching to Berlin with me?'" About the Italian campaign in World War II
AUTHOR: Words: Maj. James Stone, Lt. "Duke" Kitching, Lr. W. Remple, Lt. Owen R. BRown (source: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 10, 1943 - British and American troops attack Sicily (Messina falls on August 17, but the Germans have evacuated)
Sept 9, 1943 - Allies invade the Italian mainland
June 4, 1944 - Allies enter Rome
June 6, 1944 - D-Day. Invasion of Normandy begins
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 36-37, "O'er the Hills of Sicily" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #24980
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Waltzing Matilda" (tune) and references there
cf. "The D-Day Dodgers" (subject: the Italian campaign)
NOTES [756 words]: Although titled "O'er the Hills of Sicily," that is the only mention of the Sicilian campaign; the rest is about the campaign in mainland Italy, and ends with a discussion of whether the troops will go to Burma to fight the Japanese.
The refrain about marching to Berlin is rather ironic: The troops fighting in Italy had no hopes of reaching Berlin (the Alps were just too much an obstacle to troop movement), and the whole Italian campaign had been a deliberate sideshow: The Americans wanted to invade France in 1943 (indeed, they wanted to invade in 1942), and Churchill knew they weren't ready for that, so they compromised on Sicily (Wheal/Pope, pp. 427-429). That went relatively well, so the Allies started into Italy -- and that did not go well at all; Italy, being long and narrow and hilly, is easy to defend, and the Germans took full advantage, and the Allies fought on a shoestring because they were trying to prepare for Normandy. The Italian campaign was probably the toughest fight in Europe for the Anglo-Americans. The officers who wrote this song had good reason to recall its difficulty.
It appears that Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King actually *wanted* Canadian troops in the invasion of Italy, to show that they were doing something (Milner, p. 126). Talk about a stupid political decision....
For background on the Italian campaign, see "The D-Day Dodgers."
The "Loyal Edmontons" of the song are the Loyal Edmonton regiment (no, as far as I know, there was no Disloyal Edmonton Regiment!), which Bercuson, p. 175, calls the "Loyal Eddies." They were part of the Canadian First Division that invaded Sicily (specifically, the 1st Battalion, along with the 1st Battalian of the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada and the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, for which see "The Ric-A-Dam-Doo (Ring-Dang-Doo (III))"; Holland, p. 510)). n Sicily, they were part of the 2nd Infantry Brigade of the 1st Canadian Divison (commanded by Major General G. G. Simonds), which was part of Oliver Leese's 30 Corps, along with the 51st Highland Division (d'Este, p. 586). The Highlanders were the subject of "Banks of Sicily (The 51st Highland Division's Farewell to Sicily)," which covers the Sicily campaign; the 30 Corps seems to have been a musical lot!
From Sicily, they went on to Italy, and spent the rest of the war there.
Not only did the Loyal Edmontons not see Berlin, many of them never saw Alberta again. The fighting in Italy was hard, and the unit was already under-strength when the First Canadian arrived below the Italian town of Ortona (Bercuson, pp. 175-176). The division commander at that time was Major General Christopher Vokes, who came to be known as "The Butcher" because he was so fond of frontal assaults (Atkinson, p. 302). The fighting to reach the outskirts of Ortona was slow and bloody, and the Loyal Edmontons were one of two battalions (the Seaforth Highlanders being the other) that eventually led the attack on the town itself (map on p. 303 of Atkinson). There, they had to fight the Germans house to house. Casualties were horrid. "Two dozen Edmontons were buried alive when a booby-trapped building near St. Thomas's collapsed. Germans showered would-be rescuers with stick grenades."
Both town and division ended up in ruins. The December campaign cost the 1st Canadian 2300 men (including 500 dead), about a quarter of them lost in Ortona itself. And, after all that, the campaign (which was supposed to take Ortona then cross the Appenines to attack Rome) had to be called off; the casualties had been too high and the terrain was just too rough (Atkinson, p. 306).
The statement that the Loyal Edmontons went "o'er the hills of Sicily" is more true of them than almost any Allied unit in the invasion. The Canadian division was on the far left of the British part of the line, one of the few parts of the British force to be in the hills west of Mount Etna rather than the coastal valleys to the east. To be sure, there were American forces in the hills as well -- but the Americans quickly managed to land most off their transport, so they forces in the hills could often advance by truck. The British had only about 30% of their transport ashore (Holland, p. 404), so it was all the British could do to keep their men supplied with food and ammunition (indeed, at times they failed to manage even that). None of their troops -- especially the Canadians who were most remote from the supply dumps -- had transport; they climbed those hills on foot in the high heat. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: Hopk036

O'er the Moor amang the Heather

See Heather Down the Moor (Among the Heather; Down the Moor) (File: HHH177)

O'er the Water to Charlie

See Over the Water to Charlie (File: Lins262)

O'er the Water to Charly

See Over the Water to Charlie (File: Lins262)

O'Halloran Road, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer thinks half a century back to "a cold Saint Patrick's Day, With my father and my mother then And children we just numbered ten." He thought they were lost until "I heard my father say, 'Here's the O'Halloran Road! This is the way [home]'"
AUTHOR: Dan Riley
EARLIEST DATE: 1996 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: home lyric family father travel
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 237-239, 252, "The O'Halloran Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13993
NOTES [54 words]: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland: "Gavin's Cross ['And when we came to Gavin's Cross Us children thought that we were lost'] ... is present day Bloomfield Corner ... where the O'Halloran Road branches off from the Western Road."
Bloomfield Corner is near the north coast of Prince County, Prince Edward Island. - BS
File: IvDC237

O'Houlihan

DESCRIPTION: "One day while walking down the street, I met O'Houlihan." O'Houlihan offers to place a bet on the races for the singer; the horse wins, but O'Houlihan never produces the cash. O'Houlihan finds other ways to bilk the singer. The singer promises revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: gambling trick clothes revenge
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 189-191, "O'Houlihan" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MCB189

O'Kelly Brothers, The

DESCRIPTION: The several O'Kelly brothers all get into scrapes -- one umpires a baseball game, one fights over drinks, one gambles. But, in each case, "The doctor thinks O'Kelly will recover, Though he may be laid up for a month or more...."
AUTHOR: C. C. Talbott
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: humorous injury doctor cards drink sports
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 249-251, "The O'Kelly Brothers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15677
File: Pet249

O'Reilly from the County Leithrim

See O'Reilly from the County Leitrim (File: HHH580)

O'Reilly from the County Leitrim

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a pretty girl and asks her to marry; she says she prefers to live single. He calls her beautiful, and wishes he had her somewhere else. She turns him down again; he is foolish to ask. He says his heart will break, and leaves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Joyce); c.1835 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 340)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H580, pp. 357-358, "Farewell, Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 94, "O'Reilly from the County Leithrim" or "The Phoenix of Erin's Green Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 128, "Young Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4720
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "Youghal Harbour" (on IREButcher01)
Mary Delaney, "Phoenix Island" (on IRTravellers01)
Martin Reidy, "O'Reilly from the County Kerry" (on IRClare01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 340, "Young Riley ("As I was walking through the county of Cavan"), Frederick Edwards (London), c.1835; also 2806 b.9(31), "O'Reilly from the Co Cavan" or "The Phoenix of Erius Green Isle," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; Harding B 26(486), "O'Reilly from the Co. Kerry" or "The Phoenix of Erin's Green Isle"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Peggy Gordon" (lyrics in common with the "Youth and Folly" texts)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
O'Reilly from the County Kerry
When First I Came to County Limerick
NOTES [192 words]: "O'Reilly from the County Leitrim" shares many lines with "John (George) Riley (II) [Laws N37]." The difference between the ballads is that in this one the man is not the Reilly she has been waiting for for five years so she won't go with him to Pennsylvania.
Maybe this is what Laws N37 points to for "John (George) Riley II": "According to Cox, this is a modified form of the "Young Riley" ballad found on broadsides by Catnach, Such, no. 83, and Fortey, no. 341 (Harvard VI, 186)."
The lyrics of the first four verses of Pete Seeger's "John Riley" on PeteSeeger02 [John (George) Riley (II) [Laws N37]] and Martin Reidy's "O'Reilly from the County Kerry" on IRClare01 are very close. As noted above, the ballad endings are completely different; in the middle, Seeger's Pennsylvania is "Phoenix Island" here.
Mary Delaney's "Phoenix Island" on IRTravellers01 ends with the rejected suitor wishing to witness the girl's funeral and the girl answering that that will not happen.
Also collected and sung by Kevin Mitchell, "O'Reilly from the County Cavan" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
File: HHH580

O'Reilly the Fisherman

See Riley's Farewell (Riley to America; John Riley) [Laws M8] (File: LM08)

O'Reilly's Daughter

DESCRIPTION: "As I was sittin' by the fire... I was taken by desire To go and shag O'Reilly's daughter." The narrator "shags" landlord or bartender O'Reilly's daughter, then assaults father, mother or both. O'Reilly is typically described as one-eyed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Russell)
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex family mother father homosexuality
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) Ireland US(MW,Ro,So,SW) New Zealand
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 101-105, "O'Reilly's Daughter" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 137-140, "One-Eyed Reilly" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 53, pp. 249-252, "One-Eyed Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 67, "One-Eyed Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 158, "O'Reilly's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp.104-105, "O'Reillly's Daughter"; p. 138, "The One-Eyed Riley" (2 texts)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, p. 838, "(One-Eyed Riley)" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment of a raftsman's song, so short that it might be this or something else. The lyrics are different, but the feeling is similar)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 172, "Reilly's Daughter" (1 text)
DT, REILLY1*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Edward Russell, _A-Rafting on the Mississip'_,, 1928 (republished 2001 by the University of Minnesota Press), p. 207, One-Eyed Riley" (1 short text, 1 tune, probably bowdlerized)
Roud #1161
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Went Down to New Orleans"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Reilly's Daughter
NOTES [175 words]: Annotator Legman (pp. 138-139) includes the text of "The Rover," which he dates to 1790, as the forerunner of the modern bawdy ballad. The "C" text in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I is only coincidentally "One-Eyed Reilly." - EC
This exists in an extremely bowdlerized version [in which the singer wants to "marry" rather than "shag" the daughter, and in which the daughter is the only one to receive his attentions], which was made popular by the Clancy Bros. in the 1960s. The [Silber] entry is that song. - PJS
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging observes that T. S. Eliot included a verse of this in The Cocktail Party
Even more unlikely is the fact that C. S. Lewis apparently sang the song happily. According to Wilson: A. N. Wilson, C. S. Lewis: A Biography, Norton, 1990, p. 131, Lewis regularly held an "English Binge" for his students. The purpose of this was apparently to get drunk and sing dirty songs. And, yes, this continued after he abandoned atheism. It seems Lewis was happily giving forth with this song at Christmas 1931. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM101

O'Riley Is Dead and O'Reilly Doesn't Know It

See McTavish is Dead (File: PHCFS122)

O'Ryan (Orion, The Poacher)

DESCRIPTION: "O'Ryan was a man of might when Ireland was a nation." A poacher, he gives a meal to St. Patrick and is promised a place in heaven in return. Told there is good hunting there, he accepts. Now the other constellations fear his shillelagh
AUTHOR: Charles G. Halpine (per O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: hunting food humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H823, pp. 58-59, "O'Ryan" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 23-24, "The Poacher" (1 text)
Roud #13364
NOTES [179 words]: Needless to say, the mythology in this song is distorted (as is the astronomy, for that matter; Venus, Mars, and Orion follow separate courses. Even so, the author must have known some astronomy, as he mentions "a lion, two bears, a bull, and cancer" among the constellations -- i.e . Leo, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Taurus, and Cancer the crab).
The story of Orion varies according to different sources, but it is generally agreed that the goddess Eos, not Aphrodite, went after him, and in the end it was Artemis who killed him.
The timing is also wrong, even if you allow that "Ireland was [once] a nation" (it wasn't). Saint Patrick was active in the fifth century of the Christian Era, and we have references to Orion as far back as Homer (Iliad xviii.486 [Lattimore translation] mentions his place in the constellations in the description of the shield of Achilles, and there is a mention in Odyssey v.274 [Lattimore], also in a description of constellations, and Odysseus encounters his spirit in Odyssey xi.572-575, where he is carrying a club and hunting in Hades). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: HHH823

O'Shaughanesey

See Brakeman on the Train (File: LLab099)

O'Shaughnessy

See Brakeman on the Train (File: LLab099)

O'Slattery's Light Dragoons

DESCRIPTION: "You have heard of Julius Caesar and of Great Napoleon too, And how the Cork militia beat the Turks at Waterloo," but none can compare with "O'Slattery's mounted foot." "Four-and-twenty" men have hilarious adventures mostly while drunk
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: soldier humorous drink
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 52-53, "O'Slattery's Light Dragoons" (1 text)
Roud #9620
NOTES [32 words]: I suspect this was made up as a parody of something or other (I was reminded of "The South Down Militia" as well as, of course, "The British Grenadiers"), but without a tune, it's hard to prove
Last updated in version 4.2
File: SBar052

O'Sullivan's Frolics

DESCRIPTION: Macaronic. Singer meets a 12-year-old girl who is going alone for a year to Cork. She would not have him without her parents' consent but he seduces her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (_An Gaodhal_, according to O Muirithe); 19C (broadside, Bodleian, 2806 c.8(159))
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting seduction sex youth
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 27, "As Bacchus Frequented His Frolics" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Diarmaid O Muirithe, An t-Amhran Macaronach (Baile Atha Cliath: An Clochomhar, 1980) #30, pp.73-74,201, "O'Sullivan's Frolics" ("As Bacchus frequented his frolics") (1 text).
Roud #16258
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.8(159), "O'Sullivan's Frolicks" ("As Bacchus frequentent his frolicks"[sic]), unknown, no date; also 2806 c.8(247), "O'Sullivan's Frolics"
NOTES [27 words]: Or maybe not. The song is macaronic, alternating lines in English and Gaelic. The Gaelic lines appear to affect the plot, but I am relying solely on the English. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC027

Oak and the Ash, The

See A North Country Maid; also Ambletown, Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: LK43B)

Oak Before the Ash, The

DESCRIPTION: Weather-forecasting rhyme: "The oak before the ash, Then we'll have a splash; The ash before the oak, Then we'll have a soak."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Rowling)
KEYWORDS: nonballad storm
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Marjorie Rowling, _The Folklore of the Lake District_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 101, ("The oak before the ash") (1 short text)
File: Rowl101

Oak Grows Big, The

DESCRIPTION: "The oak grows big, The pine grows tall; You are my choice Among them all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Henry, from Mary King)
KEYWORDS: love playparty
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 231, (second of several "Fragments from Tennessee") (1 fragment)
NOTES [21 words]: Although I don't recognize this and can't find another version, I would bet a good deal that it is part of a singing game. - RBW
File: MHAp231B

Oakey Strike Evictions, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was in November an' aw nivor will forget, The polisses an' the candymen at Oakey's Hooses met." Johnny the Bellman and the candymen set out to evict striking colliers. Their won't do much work, but the singer would still hang them
AUTHOR: Probably Tommy Armstrong
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (collected from Tommy Armstrong by A. L. Lloyd, according to Raven)
KEYWORDS: strike labor-movement mining
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 71-72, "The Oakey Strike Evictions" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: For (a little) background on author Tommy Armstrong, see the notes to "Durham Strike (Durham Lockout)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: JRUI071

Oakham Poachers, The

See The Bold Poachers (File: McCST098)

Oaks of Jimderia, The

See Long Eddy Waltz, The (File: FSC132)

Oats and Beans

DESCRIPTION: Playparty. "Oats, (peas/and), beans, and barley grow... Do you or I or anyone know... How oats and beans and barley grow." The farmer plants the seed and waits for harvest; young couples marry and must obey each other.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Burne)
KEYWORDS: playparty marriage farming
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All), Scotland) US(MW,NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 87, "Oats and Beans" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 94-96=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 211-212, "Thus the Farmer Sows His Seed" (1 text, omitting the "Oats and Beans" opening but clearly this)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 95-96, "Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 46-47, "On the Green Carpet" (1 text, 1 tune, which seems to mix "Green Carpet" and "Oats and Beans")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, pp. 514-515, "Oats and Beans and Barley" (3 short texts, 3 tunes)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 37, "Oats and Beans and Barley Grow" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #21, "Oats, Pease, Beans, and Barley Grow" (1 text plus excerpts, 1 tune)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, "Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 146-147, "Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 135, "Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grow" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 16, "Oats and Beans and Barley Grows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 84, "(Oats and beans and barley grows)" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 62, "The Farmer" (1 text, probably a fragment of this)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #398, "Now you're married And you must be good" (1 short text, probably a fragment of this)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Carl Van Doren, "Some Play-Party Songs from Eastern Illinois," Vol. XXXII, No. 126 (Oct 1919), #20 p. 494 "Oats, Pease, Beans, and Barley Grows" (1 text)
DT, OATSBEAN (OATSPEAS*)
ADDITIONAL: Charlotte Sophia Burne, editor, Shropshire Folk-Lore: A Sheaf of Gleanings (London, 1883 ("Digitized by Google")), #I.1 p. 508, "Oats and Beans and Barley Grow!" (1 text)
Roud #1380
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow" (Piotr-Archive #362, recorded 11/23/2022)
"Victor Band," "Looby Loo/Oats, Peas, Beans, Barley Grow" (Victor 20214-A)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "This Pretty Girl of Mine" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Oats, Peas, Beans
Oats and Beans and Barley Grow
NOTES [74 words]: Gomme has a table (Volume II, p. 11) showing the distribution of the various crops: Oats, beans, barley, wheat, groats, hops. The second Digital Tradition version comes close to the status of parody.
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren claims that there are French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Swedish parallels to this piece, but it appears that most of these are just descriptions of farming; I am not sure they are actual parallels. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DToatsbe

Oats and Beans and Barely Grow

See Oats and Beans (File: DToatsbe)

Oats, Peas, Beans

See Oats and Beans (File: DToatsbe)

Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow

See Oats and Beans (File: DToatsbe)

Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grow

See Oats and Beans (File: DToatsbe)

Oats, Pease, Beans, and Barley Grow

See Oats and Beans (File: DToatsbe)

Ocean Burial, The

DESCRIPTION: The dying sailor speaks of his loved ones and pleads with his shipmates not to be buried at sea. They do it anyway
AUTHOR: Words: Rev. Edwin H. Chapin
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Southern Literary Messenger; set to music 1850)
KEYWORDS: burial death dying sailor
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 162-163, "The Ocean Burial" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 437, "The Ocean Burial" (1 text)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 139-143, "The Ocean Burial" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 55, "The Ocean Burial" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 76-7, "The Ocean Burial" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 261, "The Ocean Burial" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 245-248, "The Ocean Burial" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 176-176, "The Ocean Burial or The Sailor's Grave" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 151-152, "Bury Me Not in the Deep Deep Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #93, "O Bury Me Not in the Deep Blue Sea" (1 text)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 153, "The Ocean Burial" (1 text, included in the entry for "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie [Laws B2])
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1644, p. 111, "The Ocean Burial" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, pp. 62-63 and #5/64, pp. 61-62, "The Ocean Burial" (1 text)
cf. Fuld, pp. 396-398, "Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie"
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, pp. 61-62, "The Ocean Burial" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FR437 (Full)
Roud #3738
RECORDINGS:
Eugene Jemison, "The Ocean Burial" (on Jem01)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1850 470190, "The Ocean Burial," Oliver Ditson (Boston), 1850 (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" [Laws B2] (rework of this piece)
NOTES [289 words]: The 1850 sheet music of this piece credits the entire thing to George N. Allen. Since the poem was published under Edwin H. Chapin's name (as "The Ocean Buried!"), this must mean that Allen set the music. Allen's tune, however, is NOT what we know as "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie." Nor is it the related tune Gordon Bok calls the "Texas Song" (see the index entry on "Going to Leave Old Texas (Old Texas, Texas Song, The Cowman's Lament)."
To add to the confusion, Belden lists the author as William H. Sanders, based apparently on Fulton and Trueblood's Choice Readings.
The singer Ossian Dodge is reported to have been performing the piece as early as 1845. I have been unable to determine the tune he used.
On the whole, I think we must list the author of the music to this piece as "unknown."
Laws does not include this piece as one of his ballads, but gives a text (from oral tradition!) in NAB, pp. 80-81. - RBW
And just to add to the confusion, see the sheet music for "The Sailor Boy's Grave" in the Lester Levy collection, where the boy asks *not* to be buried on land, but rather "let me sleep 'neath the silent waves/The sea-nymphs watching over me." That is credited to "J. Martin, Esq. (of Clifton)," and carries a date of 1841; it seems to be an "answer song" to "The Ocean Burial," although the latter had apparently not yet been set to music. The tune is not the same as "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie," and is in fact rather dull. - PJS
References for "The Sailor Boy's Grave":
LOCSheet, sm1841 381040, "The Sailor Boy's Grave," F. D. Benteen (Boston), 1841; also sm1841 381050, sm1845 401960, "The Sailor Boy's Grave" (tune)
LOCSinging, as112080, "The Sailor Boy's Grave," Thos. G. Doyle (Baltimore), 19C - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FR437

Ocean is Wide, The

DESCRIPTION: "The ocean is wide an' you cain't step over it, I love you true, an' you cain't help it." "Sure as the grass grows round the stump, You're my darlin' sugar lump." "The ocean is wide, an' you cain't jump it, If your folks don't like it, they can lump it."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: love playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 580, "The Ocean Is Wide" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 238, (no title) (1 short text, "The ocean is wide, The sea is deep, And in your arms I love to sleep." The form looks different from Randolph's, but with only three lines and a similar theme, I don't see how to split them)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 127, "(The road is wide"); p. 133, "(The river is wide)" (2 short texts)
Roud #7669
NOTES [61 words]: The first Solomon-ZickaryZan text is from an autograph album from the family of Kate, Ella, Lucy, Maggie, and Bessie Burton, compiled 1895-1905; the second is also said to be an autograph rhyme although no source is listed. Most autograph album verses were composed for the (small) format; this is an interesting example, because it looks as if it's from tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: R580

Ocean Queen

DESCRIPTION: Ocean Queen is lost in rough weather in winter on George's Banks. The crew are all drowned. The captain's wife is left alone; "there's fathers, sons, and brothers that drowned in the deep."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: drowning death mourning sea ship storm wreck wife family sailor disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 27, 1851 - The Ocean Queen, out of Gloucester, sinks at George's Bank (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 136, "Ocean Queen" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS136 (Partial)
Roud #1835
RECORDINGS:
Pat Critch, "Captain Spinney" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [256 words]: Although the Northern Shipwrecks Database may have found the original wreck described in this song (see the Historical References), there are difficulties. Berman does not list the wreck; neither does Hudson/Nicholls, though the latter is not intended to be comprehensive.
What's more, Ratigan, pp. 196-198, prints a different song (reportedly by Kate Weaver) about the wreck of a ship named Ocean Queen (which, in this case, perishes by fire). But Ratigan says there was no known disaster involving an Ocean Queen. Ratigan, p. 195, thinks the ship involved was actually the G. P. Griffith, which burned (according to Berman, p. 245) with the loss of 286 lives on June 17, 1850 -- almost the same time as the George's Bank wreck, note. One has to think there is confusion in there somewhere -- though more likely involving Ratigan's song than this one.
Incidentally, the name Ocean Queen seems to have been singularly ill-fated (a mariner might perhaps explain this on the grounds that the name would be an offense to the sea goddess); in addition to the ships listed above, Guttridge, p.120fff., tells of a mailship, the Ocean Queen, which suffered an attempted mutiny in 1864 -- almost the only genuine mutiny in American nautical history. - RBW
To pin this down further, Northern Shipwrecks Database has George Spinney as captain of the Ocean Queen; the MUNFLA/Leach version says the Ocean Queen was "commanded by young Spinney he left a loving wife." Creighton has "commanded by a captain who leaves a tender wife." - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.2
File: CrNS136

Oceana Roll

DESCRIPTION: "Billy McCoy was a musical boy On the cruiser Alabama, He was there on that 'piana' Like a fish down in the sea When he rattled off some harmony." Even the fish and worms respond to his playing, "There on the Alabama, Playin' the Oceana Roll"
AUTHOR: Words: Roger Lewis / Music by Lucien Denni (source: Sheet music published by Jerome H. Remick & Co)
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Copyright)
KEYWORDS: music ship dancing | fish
FOUND IN: US(MW)
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Collins, "Oceana Roll" (Columbia A1071, 1911)
Eddie Morton, "Oceana Roll" (Victor 16908-A, 1911)
Debra Sharpe, "Billy McCoy (Oceana Roll)" (Piotr-Archive #592, recorded 05/30/2023)
NOTES [246 words]: The obvious temptation is to think that this is about the Alabama, the famous Confederate raider. But, apart from the fact that that ship predated ragtime (and was unlikely to have a "piana"), the cover art from the sheet music shows what is clearly an ironclad vessel from the period c. 1890-1910: the ship has two masts of a sort typical of the period, two funnels, a forward main turret with two guns, and the side shows four casemate guns. According to Jane's, p. 138, the U. S. Navy had just such a ship named Alabama in 1911: displacement about 11,500 tons, two masts, two 13" gun turrets; by 1918, just eight 6" secondary guns in casemates (though they were bullt with more); the members of her class were built 1896-1901. The photo in Jane's shows the ships of this class having cage masts rather than pole masts, and they had only one funnell, but according to Preston, p. 230, the ships had been built with pole masts which were changed for cages 1909-1911. I don't think there is much doubt but that this is the ship intended.
Preston, p. 230, says that the Alabama was laid down 2 December 1896, launched May 18, 1898, and finished October 1900. Although technically in commission in World War I, she was used as a training ship. She was decommissioned in 1920 and used as a target in 1921; she never really served in battle.
She was considered a battleship, not a cruiser, but that distinction was perhaps not as well-known in 1911 as it would be later. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio592

Och Hey! Johnnie, Lad

See Hey How Johnny Lad (File: BrHHJL)

Och, Och, Eire, O!

DESCRIPTION: The Irish exile misses home and his "native bay." He recalls the races and games at Christmas. The new home is "lonely and drear"; there is no call of the corncrake. He wishes he had a boat to row back home
AUTHOR: English translation by Eleanor Hull
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (for the Gaelic version; Gaelic Journal)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H819, pp. 219-220, "Och, Och, Eire, O!" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH819

Ochenee, the Poor Banshee

DESCRIPTION: "Ochenee, The poor banshee, Many's a shift It's made for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: clothes | banshee
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 45, "(Ochenee)" (1 text)
Roud #22992
File: PKKB045J

Ochenee, When I Was Wee

DESCRIPTION: "Ochenee, when I was wee, I used to sit on granny's kee. Her apron tore; I fell on the floor. Ochenee, when I was wee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: clothes | grandmother apron tore floor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 48, "(Ochenee, when I was wee)" (1 text)
Roud #20699
File: PKKB048

Ocka Bocka Soda Crocka

See Ickie Bickie Soda Cracker (File: ZiZa072C)

Octogenarian Memories

DESCRIPTION: "A song for the early times in Pennsy, our green old forest home, A song for that gladsome life whose pleasant memories freshly yet (sic)." The singer remembers the old days in the untamed land "In the days when we were pioneers, fifty years ago"
AUTHOR: William D. Gallagher (1808-1894)
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: home work
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 55-56, "Octogenarian Memories" (1 text) (pp. 45-46 in the 1919 edition)
NOTES [213 words]: Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania speculates that this is "probably from some old New England poem." His speculation was correct: It is clearly derived from "Song of the Pioneers" by William D. Gallagher:
A SONG for the early times out West,
And our green old forest home.
Whose pleasant memories freshly yet
Across the bosom come:
A song for the free and gladsome life,
In those early days we led,
With a teeming soil beneath our feet,
And a smihng Heav'n o'erhead!
Oh, the waves of life danced merrily,
And had a joyous flow.
In the days when we were Pioneers,
Fifty years ago !
(There are five more verses; the final verse looks forward to the afterlife.)
There is no question that this is the same poem (I find no evidence that it was ever a song), but it has clearly been very much changed.
An Internet source claims this was published in Gallagher's 1881 book Miami Woods, A Golden Wedding, and other poems, but it's not in the edition on Google Books. So I don't know where or when it was first published.
There is a Wikipedia entry on Gallagher, but it is very short. He may have been popular in his time, but he was quickly forgotten; Granger's Index to Poetry lists only three of his works (this is not one of them), and has only one citation for each.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Shoe055

Od Bachelor's Mourn, The

See A Bachelor's Lament (II) (File: JHCox160)

Oddfellows Hall

DESCRIPTION: McKenna gives Dolan a ticket to a dance in Oddfellow's hall. McKenna upsets Dolan by dancing with Bridget. They fight and "clean up" the hall. Justice Duffy gives them ten dollars or ten days. They haven't the money so "we spent ten days on their island"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: fight violence prison dancing humorous judge
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18231
RECORDINGS:
Mr. Walsh, "Oddfellows Hall" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcOdHall

Ode to Corporal

DESCRIPTION: "Last night as I lay on my pillow, Last night as I lay on my bed, I dreamt our old corp'ral was dying, I dreamt the old bugger was dead. Send him, send him, Oh, send our old corporal to He-e-ell, Oh keep him... Oh, keep the old buffer in hell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier army Hell | corporal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 62, "Ode to Corporal" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (tune) and references there
File: AWBW062A

Ode to Guzz

DESCRIPTION: "Houses furnished with pusser's stores, The Hoe, littered with Plymouth 'hoers'" -- all these lazy, thieving people typify "Guzz" (Devonport). "Dockyard mateys, loafing bastards, Scrounging ticklers off their masters, This lot just about sums up Guzz"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: recitation worker crime
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 72, "Ode to Guzz" (1 text)
File: Tawn055

Ode to Newfoundland

DESCRIPTION: Known by the last verse, "As loved our fathers, so we love, Where once they stood we stand, Their prayer we raise to heav'n above, God guard thee, Newfoundland"
AUTHOR: Words: Sir Cavendish Boyle/Music (of most common version): C. Hubert H. Parry
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Murphy, Old Colony Song Book)
KEYWORDS: nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Ode to Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 7 in the 3rd edition, p. 9 in the 4th, p. 7 in the 5th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, Front-Cover, "The Ode to Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, p. 50, "Ode to Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
England-HistoricNewfoundlandAndLabrador, p. 49, "Ode to Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, compiler, _Songs & Ballads of Terra Nova_, Evening Telegram publishing, 1903 (available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 4, "Newfoundland" (1 text)
James Murphy, compiler/publisher, "(Old Colony Song Book: Newfoundland)," James Murphy, 1904 (available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site; the cover is missing, but I suspect it is a copy of "Songs of Our Land"), p. 4, "Newfoundland" (1 text)
Glenn Colton, "Imagining Nation: Music and Identity in Pre-Confederation Newfoundland" (article printed in _Newfoundland and Labrador Studies_, Volume 22, No. 1, pp. 33-34, "Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune, a setting by Charles Hutton); p. 37 (1 tune, the standard Parry setting)
Roud #7304
NOTES [412 words]: "The National Anthem of Newfoundland, written by Sir Cavendish Boyle ... while he was Britain's Governor of Newfoundland between 1901 and 1904 .... First public performance... 1902" [per GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site] - BS
It should be recalled that, at that time, Newfoundland was not a part of the Dominion of Canada. It was a separate British dominion. Boyle (1849-1916) was not a Newfoundlander; the "governor" was the British representative to the dominions. (Robert Bond was Primer Minister during Boyle's entire term.) Boyle had served in several other colonies before his time in Newfoundland. Despite not being a local, he had some actual role in governance, being involved in mediating the sealers' strike of 1902 (see "The Sealer's Strike of 1902 (The Sealers Gained the Strike)"). He apparently wrote many other poems about Newfoundland (see Robert H. Cuff, managing editor), Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador Biography, Harry Cuff Publications, 1990, p. 29, entry on Cavendish Boyle), but this was clearly his "hit."
According to Glenn Colton, "Imagining Nation: Music and Identity in Pre-Confederation Newfoundland" (article printed in Newfoundland and Labrador Studies, Volume 22, No. 1, pp. 28-29, the first performance of the piece was at the Casino Theatre in St. John's on January 21, 1902, using a tune set by E. R. Krippner. Colton, p. 31, has a copy of the sheet music cover. Other tunes were used over the years as well -- Colton on the following pages shows one by Charles Hatton although not that by Krippner; the article also includes the Parry tune that is now the standard. There was also an extremely long arrangement by Alfred Allen (Colton, p. 32).
Cavendish Boyle himself requested that Hubert Parry create a setting; this version was "widely known" by 1907. Apparently Boyle's niece, who was quite musical, urged him to seek a setting from a British composer (Colton, p. 35) -- although Colton suggests that this was not because there was anything wrong with the local tunes but because the niece was prejudiced against Newfoundlanders. Colton also observes the curious fact that Krippner held the right to set the words to music, but graciously released those rights.
The poem seems to have caught on quite quickly; note that James Murphy put it in his Newfoundland poetry collection just two years after it was offered to the public. It did not become Newfoundland's anthem until 1979, however (Colton, p. 36). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doyl3007

Odpoivam v Americkej pode

See He Lies in the American Land (File: RcHLITAL)

Of a Rose, A Lovely Rose

DESCRIPTION: "Of a rose, a lovely rose, And of a rose I sing a song." Listeners are told to hearken "How a rose began to spring." It had (five/six) branches. The branches reach throughout the world and heaven and hell. We, Mary, Jesus, all are blessed by the nativity
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Richard Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad flowers MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #175, pp. 131-133, "(Mary, the Rose)" (3 texts)
Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics 84, "(Of a rose, a lovely rose)" (1 text)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 9-10, "Of a rose, a lovely rose" (1 text)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics LI, pp. 103-104, "(no title)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1893, #1914
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3114, 3128
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #12, pp. 7-8, "(Off a rose, a louely rose)" (1 text, with a second text on p. 170)
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #47, p. 108, "(Of a rose, a lovely rose)" (1 text)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #185, pp. 429-430, "Of a Rose, a Lovely Rose" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 21 [IMEV #1914]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 6 [IMEV #1893]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, p. 462 [IMEV #1914]
NOTES [162 words]: Although not found in modern tradition, this piece is found in what are probably the three most significant manuscripts of Middle English carols, Richard Hill's manuscript and two others. I am very tentatively including it on that basis.
Greene, p. 389, says unequivocally that this refers to the (five) joys of the Virgin Mary, but only his first text (the MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 version) has five joys. The second text (Hill's) has *six* joys, with Greene explaining that the sixth is a summary of the five. The third text (Sloane) does not give a number of joys, but lists only three; Greene suggests that it has lost two verses. All possible, of course, but I'd allow for the possibility that the original did not define the number explicity.
For more about the famous anthology Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)."
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSOARALR

Of A' the Airts the Wind Can Blaw

DESCRIPTION: "Of a' the airts the wind can blaw, I dearly like the west, For there the bonnie lassies live, The lassie I lo'e best." His thoughts are "ever with my Jean." The flowers, the birds' songs, the fountains remind the singer of Jean
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Burns / Music: William Marshall
EARLIEST DATE: written 1788 (source: Kinsley); 1790 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad | wind
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #14, p. 41, "Of a' the Airts the Wind can Blow" (1 text)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 259-264, "Of A' the Airts" (1 text plus many additional stanzas)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #227, pp. 336-337, "I Love my Jean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #36213
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(222a), "Of a' the airts the wind can blow," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 25(1392) (ibid); also Harding B 28(18)=Harding B 28(220), "Burns's Lovely Jean," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 25(1163) (ibid); also 2806 c.11(171)=Firth b.25(287)=Harding B 11(3730), W. and T. Fordyce and J. Whinham (Newcastle and Carlisle), c. 1840; also Harding B 16(179c), "Of a' the airts," unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 11(4261), "Bonnie Jean," unknown, n.d.
NOTES [141 words]: According to Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, p. 52, reports, "Burns wrote in all fourteen songs commonly associated with Jean [Armour, his eventual wife]. Of these, by far the greatest is 'Of a' the Airts the Wind can Blaw,' of which Burns said: 'The air is by Marshall; the song I composed out of compliment to Mrs. Burns.' The song first appeared in 1790 in the Scots Musical Museum. The air first appeared as 'Miss Admiral Gordon's Strathspey' in William Marshall's Collection of Reels, 1781.
According to Lindsay, pp. 226-227, Marshall 1748-1833) was trained as a clockmaker, but found a career as butler to the Duke of Gordon, and published three books of tunes, in 1781, 1822, and after his death. Burns may have met him, but this is not certain. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DSB01441

Of All the Birds

DESCRIPTION: "Of all the birds that ever I see, the owle is the fairest in her degree, For all the day she sits in a tree... Te-whit, te-whow, to whom drinks thou... Nose, nose, nose, nose, And who gave thee thy jolly red nose? Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves."
AUTHOR: Thomas Ravenscroft?
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (Ravenscroft's Deuteromelia)
KEYWORDS: bird drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 75, "Of All the Birds" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 141-142, "Of All the Birds" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 53, "Of All the Brave Birds" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 130)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 50, "Of all the gay birds that e'er I did see" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #248, p. 155, "(Of all the gay birds that e'er I did see"); #138, p. 114, ("Nose, nose, jolly red nose")
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 119-122, "The Owl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #115, "The Owl" (1 text, 1 tune, with the first verse being "The Owl" verse from "Of All the Birds"(but mostly taken from print) and part of the rest being "The Lark in the Morning" or something related to it)
DT, ALLBIRDS
ADDITIONAL: Francis Beaumont, _The Knight of the Burning Pestle_ (see NOTES)
Roud #496
NOTES [1815 words]: This piece is a curiosity. Published by Ravenscroft, it is rare although not quite unknown in tradition (the Opies mention an 1842 Lincolnshire version). But, in John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont's 1611 play "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," Act I, scene v, lines 45-46, we find Old Merrythought singing,
Nose, nose, jolly red nose,
And who gave thee this jolly red nose?
Four lines later, Merrythought follows this up with
Nutmegs and ginger, cinnamon and cloves;
And they gave me this jolly red nose.
(Wine [which marks scenes], p. 316: Act I, scene v, lines 45-46, 51-52; KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway [n scene divisions], p. 30, Act I, lines 346-347, 351-352; KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner [no scene divisions], pp. 76-77, Act I, lines 349-350, 354-355, with tune and notes on p. 175. For more on "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," see the notes to "Three Merry Men.")
Merrythought's songs, where they can be identified at all, are mostly traditional pieces -- and we note that his words are not identical to Ravenscroft's, (though Zitner says that Beaumont often changed pronouns to make the song fit Merrythought and their context). Nor is the Baring-Gould text identical. This raises at least the possibility that the song is traditional. So I've include it here. - RBW
Re RBW comment, "I've never seen a collection from tradition" [now modified - RBW]: Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames writes, "I first heard this at Aston, afterwards at Inglesham, and I finally obtained the complete words of Mrs Bond, Quenington." - BS
The real question is the relationship between the stanzas. Ravenscroft includes "Of all the birds" and "Nose, nose, (jolly red) nose" in one item. The Opies and Baring-Goulds split them, but based on books more recent than Ravenscroft's (the Opies say the "Nose" stanza was independent by 1632). If they are songs at all, are they two joined by Ravenscroft or one split by tradition? Or was it simply such a hit for Ravenscroft that Beaumont and Fletcher latched onto it before it was forgotten?
One interesting point is that "spice lists" were a surprisingly common item in medieval English poems. Chaucer's "Sir Thopas," his spoof of metrical romances, includes two:
There spryngen herbes grete and smale,
The lycorys and the cetewale,
And many a cloe-gylofre;
And notemuge to putte in ale... ("Sir Thopas," lines 760-763; Chaucer/Benson, p. 214). That is:
There sprang herbs both great and small,
The licorice and the setwall [most sources think cetewale/setwall/sedewale is valerian; others suggest the tumeric-like zedoary]
And many a clove
And nutmeg to put in ale....
The second list of spices has some, but not all, the same elements:
They fette hym first the sweete wyn,
And mede eek in a mazelyn,
And roial spicerye
Of gyngebreed that was ful fyn,
And lycorys, and eek comyn,
With sugre that is trye. ("Sir Thopas," lines 851-855; Chaucer/Benson, p. 215). That is:
They fed him first the sweet wine,
And mead, also, in a mazer,
And royal delicacies:
Of (peserved) ginger that was full fine,
And licorice, and also cumin,
And sugar that is fine.
But what would make this funny, to Chaucer's contemporaries, is that such catalogs of spices occur in surprisingly many works. Bryan/Dempster offers spice lists from "Annot and Johon" (p. 552) which includes licorice, sugar, cumin, setwall, and ginger, as in Chaucer, plus canel=cinnamon and quibine, which has several meanings (possibly pepper)); "King Alexander" (p. 552) has nutmeg, canel, licorice, gilofres (cloves), mace, cumin, setwall; "The Land of Cockayne" has ginger, setwall, mace, canel, ginger, cucubes (pepper-like); the translation "The Romaunt of the Rose" sometimes attributed to Chaucer (p. 554; cf. Chaucer/Benson, p. 701, lines 1367-1370) has ginger, licorice, cloves, canel, setwall, and "greyn de parys"=cardamom.
What's more, the catalogs of spices are often close to catalogs of birds -- "Sir Thopas" has one in lines 766-771, right after the first spice list. Thus this piece might have links to those bird/spice lists.
On the other hand, this particular list isn't likely to be much older than the "Knight of the Burning Pestle," because of the mentions of nutmeg and cloves. Nutmeg, until transplanted, was found only on the seven Banda Islands in the Moluccas, and cloves only from the islands of Ternate and Tidore in the same chain (Le Couteur/Burreston, p. 26). The Moluccas were not known to Europeans until 1512, so the spices were very rare and expensive in Europe. The spices were expensive for many years after their discovery; in the 1660s, the Dutch were willing to trade their North American colonies for the one of the nutmeg islands the British controlled (Le Couteur/Burreston, p. 4). For those spices to be available to ordinary people implies a late date.
Cinnamon was somewhat better-known; Mancall, p. 22, says that a European recipe book of the year 1500 has 125 recipes featuring it. But it was still expensive, having to be imported long distances by wagon.
Interest in these spices was certainly high at the time Ravenscroft was writing. The East India Company had been chartered in 1600, and James I gave it a monopoly on pepper (another major imported spice) in 1609 (Mancall, p. 26) -- just about the time Ravenscroft was publishing his works.
In the footnotes-that-probably-aren't-important department, eugenol, the aromatic ingredient in cloves, and isoeugenol, which gives nutmeg its scent and taste, are chemically extremely similar, differing only in the location of a double bond in a short carbon chain (Le Couteur/Burreston, p. 29). Zingerone, which is the key ingredient in ginger, is also related, although not quite as closely (where eugenol and isoeugenol have a double carbon bond and a hydrogen atom, it has an oxygen atom. Vanillin, the main flavorant in vanilla, is also somewhat akin; Le Couteur/Burreston, pp. 129-130). Cinnamon is slightly more distinct, but cinnamaldehyde has a similar benzene core with a single long tail (Atkins, p. 134); it looks sort of like a molecule of eugenol stripped of most of the accessories, Ravenscroft of course could not know this, but it is interesting to see these four extraordinarily similar spices linked.
Perhaps some of it has to do with the fact that nutmeg also has intoxicant properties -- the consumption of a single whole nutmeg can cause nausea, high blood pressure, flu-like illness, and prolonged hallucinations (Le Couteur/Burreston, p. 31). Smaller quantities would not cause illness but probably could add to the effect of alcohol. Cloves, too, have their intoxicant effects -- and, until better remedies were discovered, were used as a remedy for sore teeth (Binney, p. 134). Cloves, nutmeg, and mace (another imported spice) quickly became significant elements in European medicine (Mancall, p. 23).
We also find cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves linked in a seventeenth century gout medication made by Adrian Mynsicht, which contained these spices along with sage, mint, pepper, and others, plus sugar -- yet, oddly, was called "elixir of vitriol" (Binney, p. 135) -- which probably tells us more about seventeenth century chemistry than about this song.
They are still mixed together today. What is now usually called "pumpkin spice" is a mix of at least three of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove, and allspice.
Another curiosity: Why is the owl declared the fairest bird? It was generally considered an ill-omened bird in Britain. Simpson/Roud, p. 270, tell us "[t]hat an owl's cry means death or disaster is an old and widespread motif, both as a folk belief and as a literary convention" -- adding that seeing the bird in daylight is especially bad. Hazlitt, pp. 468-470, gives numerous examples -- and points out that the feeling goes back to the Romans. He notes that "[t]the ancients held owls in the utmost abhorrence" and notes an instance when all Rome undertook a purification ceremony when one entered the capital precinct.
So why did Ravenscroft (or whoever) praise it? Three possible explanations occur to me. One is that this is the period when there was a revival of classical learning -- and the Greeks, unlike the Romans, did not despise the owl. Jones-Larousse, p. 338, observes that "it was the emblem of Athena and hence a symbol of wisdom (Athens was renowned for its profusion of owls)." An owl, in fact, may have indirectly saved Greece during the Persian Wars: Plutarch tells a tale of an owl being seen perched on the mast of Themistocles's ship, convincing the Greeks to go along with his plans -- and hence win the Battle of Salamis and the war (Plutarch/Scott-Kilvert, p. 89; section 12 of Plutarch's biography of Themistocles).
Alternately, I find myself thinking of "The Owl and the Nightingale," one of the earliest surviving Middle English poems. It is a dialog between the two birds, with the Owl representing the wisdom of the church and the Nightingale representing courtly love. As in the Athenian legend, the owl is wise (indeed, OwlNightingale, p. 174, connects this with the Athenian legend, but gives no justification) -- although not attractive, since it is an eater of the dead and active only at night, the time of evil (OwlNightingale, pp. 164-165). The Owl is found in an ugly setting in a chopped-down tree (OwlNightingale, p. 163).
On the other hand, the Owl's stump is surrounded by ivy, the symbol of life and growth. (Greene, p cii, points out that the owl is also associated with ivy in the early holly-and-ivy songs mentioned under "The Holly and the Ivy.") It urges a course of moderation rather than the nightingale's extravagance (OwlNightingale, p. 165). And, most notably, it is sitting a tree all day for the argument, which fits the song. And while the argument is more or less a draw (neither side backs down), the owl seems to come off as wiser -- but the poet's sympathies appear with the nightingale (CHEL1, p. 240).
The drawback to this connection is that "The Owl and the Nightingale" was written probably not long after 1200 (OwlNightingale, p. 155), and survives only in two thirteenth century manuscripts (CHEL1, p. 238), so while it has interesting links to this owl verse, Ravenscroft and his contemporaries would have found it nearly incomprehensible. I doubt it can be a direct source. The song and the poem would have to be based on a common legend -- and one that lasted for 400 years. A poor bet.
The final possibility that strikes me is that this is a sort of cuckoo analogy: The owl is seen as spending the days in someone else's bed, then flying off when the husband comes home. This would fit in with the love of cuckoldry jokes around 1600, but I will admit it is extremely forced.
A Welsh legend might have a similar point. Alexander, p. 201, records that "In Wales the hooting of an owl in a village did not herald disaster but signified that a girl was about to lose her virginity." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: ChWI141

Of All the Brave Birds

See Of All the Birds (File: ChWI141)

Of All The Gay Birds That E'er I Did See

See Of All the Birds (File: ChWI141)

Of All the Trades in London

See A-Begging I Will Go (File: K217)

Of Priests We Can Offer a Charming Variety

See Father O'Flynn (File: OCon029)

Of Saint Stephen

See Saint Stephen, God's Knight (I shall you tell this ylke night) (File: MSSSGK)

Of Saint Steven

See Saint Stephen, God's Knight (I shall you tell this ylke night) (File: MSSSGK)

Off For Philadelphia

DESCRIPTION: Paddy Leary is leaving Tipperary for Philadelphia "before the break of morning... without warning." He had hoped to marry Kate Malone but now "they told me I must leave the place... the tears will surely blind me." He'll return some day.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: courting love emigration farewell home parting separation travel sea America Ireland nonballad friend
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: J. Bodewalt Lampe, Songs of Ireland (New York: Remick Music Corp, 1916 (Digitized by Google), pp. 48-49, "My Name Is Paddy Leary (Off To Philadelphia)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18232
RECORDINGS:
The McNulty Family, "Off For Philadelphia" (on "Irish Folk Songs," Colonial Records COL-LP-121 LP (1957))
Jack Swain, "Off For Philadelphia" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
SAME TUNE:
We Must Close Our Little Store on Sunday Morning (by Johnny Burke) (Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 51) (Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #84, p. 125)
NOTES [25 words]: According to Lampe, "words revised by Stephen Temple, [tune] adapted from the arrangement of an old Irish melody by Battison Haynes (1859-1900)." - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: BdOffoPh

Off She Went Hunting

See The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20] (File: LN20)

Off to Dublin in the Green

See The Jolly Ploughboy (The Merry Plowboy, The Scarlet and the Blue) (File: Beha051)

Off to Epsom Races

See Epsom Races (File: K318)

Off to Flanders

DESCRIPTION: Will is going, as an officer, to Flanders to fight against the French with King William. He would have Jack join him. Jack chooses to stay at home, reaping and mowing, with his wife rather than "to go a-fighting, What I never took delight in"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1693 (Ebsworth)
KEYWORDS: war request rejection farming brother soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1688-1697 - War of the League of Augsburg (source: "Nine Years' War" in Wikipedia); for a Flanders reference see 1693 "Battle of Landen" (source: "Battle of Landen" in Wikipedia)
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 131, "Off to Flanders" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 108)
ADDITIONAL: J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1893 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. VII [Part 22], pp. 748-749, "The Farmer's Son of Devonshire" (1 text)
Roud #1260
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Don. b.13(35), "The Farmers Son of Devonshire" ("Well met brother Jack"), J. Deacon (London), 1671-1704
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Live Long" (tune, per Ebsworth and broadside Bodleian Don. b.13(35))
NOTES [326 words]: The description follows Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames. The differences from Ebsworth are described below.
The Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text seems, at first glance, ("Dear brother, farewell! I am now going to Flanders, Amongst bold commanders") to be a prequel to the Ebsworth text ("Well met, Brother Jack, I have been in Flanders, With valiant Commanders, and am returned"). However, of the 18 text lines in Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, only two are not close to lines in Ebsworth. Those two seem a slight, by brother Jack, of King Williams' bravery which is advanced so strongly by brother Will: "He ventured his life and why should not I? At the Royal Crown Inn our army was staying." The effect of both texts is the same: Will tries to convince Jack to join William's forces in Flanders and Jack decides to stay home with his wife and follow the plow.
The Ebsworth text is 63 lines (9 stanzas of 7 lines); Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames is 18 lines (3 verses of 6 lines, where the sixth line is equivalent to the last two lines of each Ebsworth verse). The differences -- that is, the lines "missing" from Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames -- begin with Will's statement that the war gives "the son of a farmer" the chance to be a squire or knight "to face the proud foe"; Jack makes fun of William's accent ("But, dear Brother Will, you are a vine vellow"), and asks what what if he, Jack, is killed? Will says that "all that goes are not slain" and that you lose your fear in the heat of battle and "Trophies of honour, In field we may gain"; besides, says Will, "when an army is lead, by a Crown'd Royal head, It baffles all fear"; Jack concludes that he would fight also if he were to be King, but "Till then ... leave me alone ... a fig for that honour, Which brings broken bones."
Ebsworth's description of the Roxburghe text and woodcuts conform to broadside Bodleian Don. b.13(35)). They seem like duplicates to me. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT131

Off to Sea Once More (I)

See Dixie Brown [Laws D7] (File: LD07)

Off to the Diggings

DESCRIPTION: "Some who at a spade would kick Or turn their nose up at a pick... They're off noo to the diggin's." Deacons, debtors, creditors, women, the mayor all go seeking gold. The singer advises all these new miners to listen to the old hands
AUTHOR: some words by "J. B. Kaikorai" (pseudonym, but we don't know whose)
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: mining humorous clergy
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 48, "Off to the Diggings" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Col2048

Officers' Wives (Puddings and Pies)

DESCRIPTION: "Officers' wives get puddings and pies, A sergeant's wife gets skilly, But a private's wife gets nothing at all To fill her empty belly."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier food wife
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 233, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Roud #10765
File: BrPa233B

Oft in the Stilly Night

DESCRIPTION: "Oft in the stilly night, Ere slumber's chain has bound me, Fond memory brings to light Of other days around me." The singer remembers the old days, the friends he had. The singer feels like the last one in an empty banquet hall
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #5)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 153, "Oft in the stilly night" (1 fragment)
Heart-Songs, p. 91, "Oft in the Stilly Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #83, "Oft in the Stilly Night" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 50, "Oft in the Stilly Night" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 25 and #5/64, p. 21, "Oft in the Stilly Night" (1 text)
Roud #25277
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 40(25b), "Oft in the Stilly Night," J. Pitts (London), before 1845; also also Firth b.26(40) (a cut-down version of the preceding); also Firth b.28(34), unknown, n.d.;
File: HeSo091

Ogalley Song

DESCRIPTION: "We left the Nueces River in April '81, With 3000 long-horned cattle, and all they knowed was run, oh." They travel from San Antonio past the Red River to "Dodge City on the Arkansaw," then to Smoky Hill. The boss calls it "the damndest country" he's seen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: cattle travel hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 152-153, "Ogalley Song" (1 text)
Roud #4893
File: SaKo152B

Oggie Song, The

DESCRIPTION: I song that appears to have been written by drunks for drunks: "Where be going to Jagger? I be going to Looe. Gor! Buggre Jagger! I be going there too." They will all go to Oggie Land, where they can't tell sugar from tissue paper from jam
AUTHOR: Ivor Bursten and Others (source: Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy); reportedly written 1943
KEYWORDS: drink travel sailor nonsense derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 62-63, "The Oggie Song" (1 text)
NOTES [30 words]: Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy lists a whole bunch of unlikely places where this... thing... continues to be sung, which I think proves that it's better to be lucky than good. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn045

Oh As I Was a Walking

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears "a beautiful fair one ... Crying, How happy ... should I be if my true love was near" Henry, "her true love," passes by. They kiss. "Now this young couple they are joined to the yoke," happily.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1778 (Carey)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 98, "Oh As I Was a Walking" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: George G. Carey, editor, _A Sailor's Songbag: An American Rebel in an English Prison, 1777-1779_, U of Mass Press, 1976, pp. 46-47, "A New Song No. 13 ("One evening so late as I walked along") (1 text)
Roud #1056
NOTES [11 words]: Carey believes the text was probably copied from a printed source. - BS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: ReCi098

Oh Babe, It Ain't No Lie

DESCRIPTION: Singer says that one old woman in the town is lying about her, and wishes the old woman would die. "Been all around this whole round world/I just got back today.... Oh, babe, it ain't no lie (x3), (Know) this life I'm living is very (hard/high)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (recording, Elizabeth Cotten)
KEYWORDS: lie nonballad floatingverses hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 121, "Oh Babe, It Ain't No Lie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 184, "Oh, Babe, It Ain't No Lie" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cotten, "Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie" (on Cotten01)
NOTES [48 words]: Elizabeth Cotten learned this song from country blues singers around Chapel Hill, NC. - PJS
I would note that the versions I've heard of this piece are very diverse; most seem to consist of floating lyrics (or at least themes) held together by the chorus "Oh babe, it ain't no lie." - RBW
File: CSW121

Oh Bonnie Laddie Be Mine

DESCRIPTION: "My dearest Abdebter I send you this letter To fix your affection on mine You may get a richer but never a better So oh bonnie laddie be mine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1833, "Oh Bonnie Laddie Be Mine" (1 short text)
Roud #13600
NOTES [38 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text.
Greig/Duncan8: apparently a verse for a valentine or album. - BS
With the name or word "Abdebter"? All of Google cannot find a single genuine instance of the term.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1833

Oh Boys Oh

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a servant lass of 28 years, quits to marry whomever will marry her. "I'm bound to say he'll bless the day." But he would have to give up rambling and send her his earnings on term day, and if he lifts a hand or foot to her he'll rue the day.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Mitchell and Mitchell SA1956.171)
KEYWORDS: marriage bragging warning work humorous children husband wife servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 130-131, 155, "Boys o Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Willie Scott, "Oh Boys Oh," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1986.132,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 14 September 2013 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/84820/1
William Sinclair Mitchell and Catherine Margaret Mitchell, "O Boys O," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1956.171,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 4 October 2013 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/49926/1
Roud #6937
NOTES [84 words]: Candlemas [February 2], Whitsunday [May 15], Lammas [August 1] and Martinmas [November 11] were the four "Old Scottish term days" "on which servants were hired, and rents and rates were due." (Source: Wikipedia article Quarter days). [With, of course, the non-trivial footnote that Whitsun was a movable holiday that rarely fell May 15. - RBW]
Seasonal hiring of servants and farm workers usually was for six months, beginning May and November, and the term day marked the end of the employment period. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: McSc130

Oh But I'm Weary

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, but I'm weary, weary waitin'... Oh, mither, gie me a man Will tak this weariness away." The mother suggests a plowman, mason, miller, etc.; the daughter rejects each (e.g. a plowman's wife works too hard); she wants a man who lives "by the pen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: mother children marriage work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #98, p. 1, "Oh, But I'm Weary"; #99, p. 2, "Oh, But I'm Weary" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan7 1332, "O But I'm Weary" (7 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 150, "Oh, But I'm Weary" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, p.75, "Oh, But I'm Weary" (1 text)
Roud #5555
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me)" (theme: professional comparison) and references there
NOTES [36 words]: One rather suspects this was written by some weedy young poet trying to convince a girl he was a better catch than a more handsome fellow with a lower-class job.
Wish I'd thought of that trick way back when.... - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Ord150

Oh California

DESCRIPTION: "I come from Salem City with my washbowl on my knee. I'm going to California The gold dust for to see." A parody of "Oh! Susanna," telling of the sea voyage to San Francisco. The singer of course expects to get rich
AUTHOR: Words: J. Nichols (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: gold derivative humorous ship travel
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1849 - California gold rush
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 114-117, "I Come from Salem City" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OHCALIF*
ADDITIONAL: Stewart Gordon, _A History of the World in Sixteen Shipwrecks_, ForeEdge, 2015, p. 175, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #8824
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Susanna" (tune) and references there
File: ShaSS114

Oh Charlie, O Charlie

See Charlie, O Charlie (Pitgair) (File: Ord216)

Oh Colly, My Cow

See Colly, My Cow (File: SCCR088)

Oh Cruel

DESCRIPTION: "Oh cruel were my parents that stole [imprest?] my love fae me," but he has returned safely. They go to Almeldrum, a poor town of little water, tasteless food, a frail bridge, and a council so down on sin they might let one baby cross but not twins.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3) [but note parodies printed before 1813]
KEYWORDS: courting parting return travel commerce humorous twins
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 513, "Aul' Meldrum Toon" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 324, "Oh Cruel" (1 text, possibly this or perhaps one of the parodies)
Roud #5997
NOTES [343 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "For the sub-title and opening stanza, cf. the song 'Cruel was my father' of which Greig received a version from Miss H. Rae." Since that verse is not reproduced in Greig or the Greig-Duncan collection we are left to guess what song that might be. It might be "Riley's Farewell" - though Greig does have that as "John Rylie" - which, in Greig's version includes the lines "Cruel were my parents to persecute my love" [by having him imprest]; that line in, for example, Ashton,Modern Street Ballads, "Riley's Farewell" is "Cruel was my father that thought to shoot my love."
There are different broadside parodies of "Oh Cruel." For example, see
Bodleian, Harding B 17(9a), "The Answer to 'Oh! Cruel'" ("Oh! cruel were my parents that envied our love "), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Firth c.13(91), Harding B 11(81), "The Answer to 'Oh! Cruel'"
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1396), "Another Oh, Cruel! A sketch of the life of Sammy Simple, a tale, alas too true!" ("O cruel was the serjeant who did my lovey list"), J.K. Pollock (North Shields), 1815-1855
Bodleian, Harding B 11(81), "Oh! Cruel" ("Oh! cruel were my parents, as tore my love from me")["Written and sung by a gentleman (In the Character of a Female Ballad Singer)"], J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Firth c.12(207), Firth c.12(205), 2806 c.18(220), Harding B 11(672), "Oh Cruel!"; Harding B 25(1930), "Tommy Strill"; Johnson Ballads 2304[some lines illegible], "The Answer to Oh! cruel"
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 250, "Dr. Shuffle" ("Oh! cruel 'twas of you pa, to force this job on me"), G. Stewardson (Norwich), no date
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Old Meldrum (513) is at coordinate (h2-3,v8) on that map [roughly 16 miles NW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 74-75, has a song, "Oh! Cruel Were My Parients" (sic.), which is reported to be "Sung by all the Comic Singers), which is "A Burlesque on the traditional words 'Oh! cruel was the Press Gang." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD3513

Oh Dear Doctor

DESCRIPTION: "Oh dear doctor, can you tell, What will make poor so-and-so well? She is sick and like to die And that will make poor so-and-so cry." Sometimes, the text continues that the boy has "the prettiest girl of Mrs so-and-so's daughters."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty doctor disease
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 32, "Oh Dear Doctor" (1 text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #36, "The Doctor's Prescription" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 540, "Oh, Dear Doctor" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 119, "(Doctor, Doctor, can you tell)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #350, "Mother, mother, can you tell" (1 text)
Roud #19115
NOTES [133 words]: The first four lines of Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame are the same as the fourth verse of Jean Olive Heck, "Folk Poetry and Folk Criticism, as Illustrated by Cincinnati Children in Their Singing Games and Their Thoughts about These Games" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XL, No. 155 (Jan 1927 (available online by JSTOR)), #24 p. 19 ("Rain, rain high, and the wind blows cold"). Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren's version is the same four line rhyme (see the first quote in the description. - BS
According to Newell, it wasn't just children who played this game; in France, it was played by adults, and the doctor's prescription was a kiss.
Roud lumps this with "Little Black Doctor," but I don't see much in common except the doctor -- and even that doesn't exist in some versions! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OpGa032

Oh Dear Me, Mother Caught a Flea

See One, Two, Three, Mother Caught a Flea (File: SuSm089A)

Oh Dear Mother

DESCRIPTION: "What a cold I've got." The singer asks the doctor whether s/he will die. The answer may be yes [eventually] or no; in any case, to cure this cold "take your medicine twice a day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: disease medicine nonballad doctor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1613, "Oh Dear Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13501
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Oh Mother Mother
NOTES [33 words]: Greig/Duncan8: "It is also similar to part of Opie, Singing Game, No. 147 'The Johnsons Had a Baby' and lines in 'Mistress Brown' referred to at [Greig/Duncan8] 1617 'Mrs Brown Went to Town'." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81613

Oh Dear, How I Long to Get Married

DESCRIPTION: "I am a damsel so booming and gay, Who along with the females must mingle." She is "compell'd to live single," but, "Oh dear, how I long to get married," for "I am tired of lying alone." Queen Victoria was able to marry, but the singer can't find anyone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1846 (Bodleian broadside Firth b.26(55)); first published c. 1842 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid royalty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, pp. 103-104, "Oh Dear how I long to get married" (1 text)
Roud #1647
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(55), "Oh Dear! How I Long to Get Married!," J. Paul (London), 1838-1845; also Harding B 11(2739); Harding B 11(619), Ryle and Paul (London) 1838-1859; Harding B 11(2738); Harding B 11(2741)
NOTES [74 words]: Although I have not found an attributed version of this song, all the Bodleian broadsides refer to Queen Victoria and say that she has two children. Her first two children were Victoria (1840-1901), later Empress of Germany, and Edward (1841-1910), later King Edward VII. Her third child, Alice, was born 1843. So this song was almost certainly written between November 9, 1841, when Edward was born, and April 23, 1843, when Alice was born. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: HenV103

Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be? (II)

See Seven Old Ladies (File: EM119)

Oh Death (I)

See Death and the Lady (File: ShH22)

Oh Death (II)

See Conversation with Death (Oh Death) (File: R663)

Oh Death (III)

DESCRIPTION: Known mostly by the chorus, "(Oh death/Lord), Spare me over till another year." Despite the worries about dying, the singer praises the afterlife; God or Jesus or someone will has "made for me a home in heaven," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: death religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 201-203, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 203-205)
DT, OHDEATH*
RECORDINGS:
Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "O Death" (on LomaxCD1712, recorded 1959)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Conversation with Death (Oh Death)" (lyrics)
NOTES [17 words]: Although this shares lyrics with "Conversation with Death (Oh Death)," the feeling is very different. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa201

Oh dem Golden Slippers

See Golden Slippers (File: RJ19144)

Oh Dickey, Oh Dickey

See Little Dicky Wigburn (File: WT293)

Oh Did Ye See a Bloody Knight

See Young Johnstone [Child 88] (File: C088)

Oh Dinna Quarrel the Bairnies

DESCRIPTION: "Oh dinna quarrel the bairnies, try till agree; Be kind to ane anither, be advised by me. Ye'll a 'gree thegither yet in far less room"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: nonballad children
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 671, "Oh Dinna Quarrel the Bairnies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6097
File: GrD3671

Oh Eve where is Adam?

See Adam in the Garden Pinning Leaves (File: CSW126)

Oh Fudge, Tell the Judge

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, fudge, Tell the judge, Mother's got a baby. Oh, joy, It's a boy, Father's nearly crazy." "Wrap it up in tissue paper, Send it down the elevator." "First floor, second floor... send it out the back door."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Mrs. Henry C. Gray, or her maid)
KEYWORDS: mother father baby judge nonballad | fudge
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 239, (no title) (1 short text)
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, pp. 79, "(no title)" (1 text)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 110, "(Fudge, fudge, tell the judge)" (1 text)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 14, "(Fudge, fudge, tell the judge)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 58, "Elevator"; p. 83, "Fudge, Fudge" (2 texst)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #63, "(Fudge, fudge, tell the judge)"; #79, "(Fudge, fudge, tell the judge)" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 118, "Fudge, fudge, tell the judge"; p. 127, "Fudge, Fudge, Tell the Judge" (2 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #148, "Fudge, fudge, tell (call) the judge" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Teri John, "A Collection of Jump Rope Rhymes," Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), pp. 15-16, "(Fudge, fudge, here comes the judge)"; "(Daddy, Daddy, Call the Doctor)" (2 texts; the second appears to be the same piece but doesn't mention fudge or the judge)
Roud #19318
File: MHAp239C

Oh Gin My Love War a Red Rose

DESCRIPTION: The singer says that if his love were a rose and he a drop of dew he would fall on her; if she were frozen ale her kiss would keep him warm; if she were locked up in a coffer and he had the key he would open the coffer twenty times a night.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting love flowers nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 936, "Oh Gin My Love War a Red Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6751
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Monthly Rose" (some verses)
cf. "My Lovie She's Little" (lyrics about ale warming on the coldest night)
NOTES [33 words]: The first verse was adapted by Burns for the beginning of his second verse of "O Were My Love Yon Lilac Fair" (Robert Burns, The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (New Lanark,2005), p. 383). - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5936

Oh Hae Ye Seen My Jamie?

DESCRIPTION: Have you seen my Jamie? He's gone on a spree.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1795, "Oh Hae Ye Seen My Jamie?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #12998
NOTES [47 words]: Greig/Duncan8: "April 1906. 'Sung at performance of "Gentle Shepherd" in Whitehill School, some thirty-five years ago.'" I don't find the song itself in Ramsay's play "The Gentle Shepherd" (Allan Ramsay, The Gentle Shepherd (Glasgow, 1743 (seventh edition "Digitized by Google")) - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81795

Oh Hallelujah

DESCRIPTION: "Oh hallelujah Oh lah di dah (x2). Well I been baptised in the water Oh hallelujah Oh lah di dah."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (USSeaIsland04)
KEYWORDS: ritual nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Gullah Kinfolk, "Oh Hallelugah" (on USSeaIsland04)
File: RcOHallg

Oh Have You Been In Love, Me Boys, And Have You Felt the Pain

See Garden Where the Praties Grow (File: San463)

Oh Hear That Trumpet Sound

See The Golden Axe (File: R284)

Oh How Can I Leave You

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves Liza and "long[s] for the day I can call you my own" He remembers a May meeting "when with you I sported among the new hay" and "a lone winter's evening" when "your smiles made me cheery"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 713, "Eliza" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6155
NOTES [15 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quoting Greig: "Said to be by Dr. [James] Robertson of Ellon [1803-1860]." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4713

Oh How Wonderful, Oh How Nice, It Is To Go To School

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! how wonderful, oh, ho nice It is to go to school, There you learn many things That make you nice and pious, Oh, how wonderful, oh, how nice, It is to go to school."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Stout-FolkloreFromIowa)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 103, pp. 127-133, "Early Iowa School Songs" (11 texts, of which "E" is this song)
Roud #21644
File: Stou103E

Oh It's a Lovely War

DESCRIPTION: "Up to your waist in water, Up to your eyes in slush, Using the kind of language That makes the sergeants blush." "Oh, oh, oh, it's a lovely war. Who wouldn't be a soldier, eh?" The soldier complains of food and poor pay while pretending to praise them
AUTHOR: J. P. Long and Maurice Scott (source: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (source: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: war soldier humorous food
FOUND IN: US Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 74-75, "Oh! Oh! Oh! It's a Lovely War!" (1 text)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 219, "(Oh, Oh, Oh, It's a Lovely War" (1 fragment)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 182, "Oh, it's a lovely war" (1 short text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp.47-48, "Oh! It's a Lovely War" (1 text)
Roud #9624
NOTES [77 words]: According to Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, this inspired Joan Littlewood's play "Oh! What a Lovely War," which in 1969 became a film produced by Richard Attenborough. Littlewood produced her play long after her divorce from Ewan MacColl, but they worked together for some time after the divorce. I wondered a bit if he had anything to do with the play, but it is not mentioned in his autobiography Journeyman. (Which is, to be sure, extremely selective.) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SBar074

Oh Jeannie, There's Naething to Fear Ye

DESCRIPTION: "O! My lassie, our joy to complete again, Meet me again in the gloamin, my dearie" to their "bed in the greenwood." The singer names things that might be frightening (bats, bogle, and brownie) but says there's nothing to fear: "Love be thy sure defence"
AUTHOR: James Hogg (source: Whitelaw)
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: courting sex lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1858, "Oh Jeannie, There's Naething to Fear Ye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 69, "O Jeanie" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, p. 433, "O! Jeannie, There's Naething to Fear Ye"
Roud #13212
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blue Bonnets Over the Border" (tune, per Whitelaw)
NOTES [62 words]: "The bogle or goblin was a mischievous, freakish spirit who took delight in frightening and perplexing rather than in helping or seriously injuring mankind.... The brownie, on the other hand, was a kindly spirit sincerely attached to the household" (source: James Cranstoun, editor, The Poems of Alexander Montgomerie (Edinburgh, 1887 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 324). - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD81858

Oh Jo, Set Me on the Po

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Jo, set me on the po, I'm not as young as I used to be Forty years ago."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: scatological age
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 52, "(Oh Jo, set me on the po)" (1 text)
Roud #22978
File: PKKB052C

Oh Judy, Oh Judy

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Judy [Judas], oh Judy, hit's time that I go, I know you will 'tray me though I love you so." Jesus tells Judas to buy food for the poor, but Judas sells Jesus. Jesus condemns Judas for his betrayal
AUTHOR: unknown ("collected" by John Jacob Niles)
EARLIEST DATE: 1961
KEYWORDS: Jesus betrayal death money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 16C, "Oh Judy, Oh Judy" (1 text, which Niles considers part of Child 23, but this is clearly not the case)
File: Niles16C

Oh Lawd W'ah Haa'm I Done

See O Lord What Harm I've Done (File: HPR264A)

Oh Lily, Dear Lily

DESCRIPTION: "My foot is in the stirrup, My bridle's in my hand, I'll go court another And marry if I can. Oh Lily, oh Lily, my Lily fare you well. I'm sorry to leave you, For I love you so well." "So fare you well, (Molly), I'll bid you adieu, I'm ruined forever..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920
KEYWORDS: love separation floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 731, "Oh Lily, Dear Lily" (2 short texts, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 139, "Sweet Lily" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 1, "Sweet Lily" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Charles W. Joyner, "The Repertory of Nancy Jones as a Mirror of Culture in Scotland County," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), p. 92, "They say I drink Victor, my money is my own" (1 text, about "Sweet Lily")
Roud #7583
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. ""The Wagoner's Lad" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Farewell, Sweet Mary" (floating lyrics)
cf. "My Foot Is in the Stirrup"
NOTES [73 words]: I don't think there is a single line in Randolph's texts that is not paralleled elsewhere. But he treats this as a separate song, and he collected it, so I follow his lead. Similarly the longer version in Brown; the editors give notes about all the various parallels. The possibility must be admitted, however, that this is a worn-down form of something else -- or even that Randolph's two versions, and Brown's one, are separate pieces. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: R731

Oh List to the Tale of a Poor Irish Harper

See The Bard of Armagh (File: FSWB320B)

Oh Look Misery

DESCRIPTION: Singer says, Johnny "wear my clothes ... eat my food ... smoke my pipe ... take my wife." "Johnny was hiding under my bed." Singer shoots Johnny. "The people are sorry to see The grave for Johnny and the gallows for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Blind Blake Higgs: see WIHIGGS01)
KEYWORDS: adultery infidelity marriage crime execution homicide friend husband wife clothes
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Oh Look Misery" (on WIHIGGS01)
NOTES [13 words]: The Higgs title is "Oh Look Misery" but it sounds to me like "Oh Love Misery." - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: RcBBOLoM

Oh Lord Ellie

See Swannanoah Tunnel (File: CW166)

Oh Lord, They Don't 'Low Me to Beat 'Em

See They Don't Allow Me to Beat Them (File: RcTDAMBT)

Oh Lord, What a Morning

See When the Stars Begin to Fall (File: LoF237)

Oh Lovely Appearance of Death

DESCRIPTION: "Oh lovely appearance of death, What sight upon earth is so fair? Not all the gay pageants that I breath Can with a dead body compare." Its pain is over. The singer longs to be free of the burdens of life
AUTHOR: George Whitefield (source: Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (collected from Mr. and Mrs. Boyd Haskins)
KEYWORDS: death religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 38-39, "Oh Lovely Appearance of Death" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15645
NOTES [39 words]: Although George Whitefield was a Methodist, and supposedly wrote this for his own funeral, it does not appear in the Methodist hymnals at my disposal. It is perhaps not too surprising that it was collected from hardshell Baptists. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LoSi038

Oh Ma'y Don't Cha Weep

See Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep (File: San476)

Oh Mary Mack Mack Mack

See Mary Mack (I) (File: CNFM158B)

Oh Molly, I Can't Say That You're Honest

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Molly, I can't say that you're honest, You've stolen my heart from my breast." "I know that you father is stingy... 'Tis mighty small change that you'll bring me Exceptin' the change of your name." He throws a rock at her window to say he was there
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: love courting father mother humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H82, p. 262, "An Irish Serenade" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 14, "Oh Molly, I Can't Say You're Honest" (1 text)
Roud #6918
File: HHH082

Oh Mother, Take the Wheel Away

DESCRIPTION: "Oh (mother/father), take the (wheel/cow) away And put it out of sight, For I am heavy-hearted And I cannot (spin/milk) tonight." A year ago, the singer thought "he" would marry. But then Mabel arrived, and now the girl's lover has married Mabel instead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Dime-Song-Book #19)
KEYWORDS: love separation work betrayal | spinning wheel
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #19, p. 53, "Susan's Story" (1 text)
Randolph 814, "Oh Mother, Take the Wheel Away" (2 fragments)
Roud #7430
NOTES [29 words]: Randolph's two texts preserve only a fragment of the plot, which apparently was anonymous even at the time Dime-Song-Book #19 was compiled, since it lists no permissions. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R814

Oh Mou'nuhs

See Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady) (File: San011)

Oh Mr. Fraser

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Mr. Fraser, won't you take us home? We've had enough, we want no more to roam. We've had all the sand, the sweat, the blood"; the New Zealanders want relief from the Italian front. They predict the troubles to follow if they aren't relieved
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (according to Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes political New Zealand home
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 114, "Oh Mr Fraser" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lili Marlene" (tune, plus cross-references to songs of the Italian campaign)
cf. "O'er the Hills of Sicily" (subject: the Italian campaign)
File: Clev114

Oh My Comrades You Must Know

See The Sailor's New Leg (File: GrD1147)

Oh My Darling Clementine

See Clementine (File: RJ19148)

Oh My Finger, Oh My Thumb

DESCRIPTION: "Oh my finger, Oh my thumb, Oh my belly And my rum-a-tum-tum"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | finger thumb belly tummy
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 45, "(Oh my finger)" (1 text)
Roud #19543
File: PKKB045I

Oh My Johnny Was a Shoemaker

See My Johnny Was a Shoemaker (File: OLcM044)

Oh My Little Boy

DESCRIPTION: "Oh my little boy, who made your britches? (x3), Mammy cut them out and Daddy sewed the stitches.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: children mother father clothes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 93, "Oh Mah Little Boy" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #14042
File: Arn093

Oh My Little Darling

DESCRIPTION: "Oh my little darling, don't you weep and cry/Some sweet day a-coming, marry you and I" "Oh my little darling, don't you weep and moan/Some sweet day a-coming, take my baby home" "Up and down the railroad, 'cross the county line..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (recorded from Thaddeus C. Willingham)
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness courting love marriage reunion separation dancetune nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Thaddeus C. Willingham, "Oh My Little Darling" (on AFS 3115 B1, 1939)
Mike Seeger, "Oh My LIttle Darling" (on MSeeger01)
NOTES [22 words]: Nonballad, but it's attained sufficient popularity among old-time musicians, beginning with Mike Seeger, to warrant its inclusion. - PJS
File: RcOMLD

Oh My Liver and Lungs

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, my liver and my lungs, my lights and my legs, They're paining me." Heart and head also hurt. The singer is burdened by endless work and the misery of life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (collected from Mrs. Frost Woodhull)
KEYWORDS: injury hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 272, "Oh My Liver and Lungs" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #15603
File: LoSi272

Oh My Lovin' Brothuh

See My Lovin' Father (When the World's On Fire) (File: R637)

Oh My Pretty Monkey

DESCRIPTION: "Down in sunny Mexico there lived an Indian maid." "Oh my pretty monkey, come and play with me." "Oh, my pretty monkey maid, I simply think you're grand." They will live together happily in "monkey land." When they cannot marry, he drowns himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Kelly Harrell)
KEYWORDS: love courting animal Mexico home rejection death river drowning
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 21, page headed "Home Rule for Ireland"], "Monkey Song" (1 fragment, which appears to be a much-distorted version of the chorus)
Roud #13156
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "Oh My Pretty Monkey" (Victor 40047, 1927; on KHarrell02)
File: RcOMPrMo

Oh My, Oh She Had Lovely Curly Hair

DESCRIPTION: The singer "really thought my bride I would make her" until he found out that she lived with "a dashin' flashin' Irish navigator"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting sex rake hair
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1210, "Oh My, Oh She Had Lovely Curly Hair" (1 text)
Roud #6798
File: GrD61210

Oh No John

See No, John, No (File: R385)

Oh Run, Let the Bullgine Run

See Run, Let the Bullgine Run (File: Hugi342)

Oh Say, Don't You Know How a Long Time Ago

See The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods) [Laws Q34] (File: LQ34)

Oh Sister Phoebe

See The Juniper Tree (File: R540)

Oh Stay, Said the Maiden, and Rest

See Upidee, Upidah (I) (File: KSUC159B)

Oh That I Had in My Coffin Been Laid

DESCRIPTION: The old man complains that his silly young wife won't let him sleep: "when she comes to bed to me she winna lie still." What does she want? He wishes he had died before he married, or that she "would but sicken and die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: age sex nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1309, "Oh That I Had in My Coffin Been Laid" (1 text)
Roud #7205
File: GrD71309

Oh the Miller He Stole Corn

See In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)

Oh the Rose

DESCRIPTION: A sailor, bound for the sea, asks a girl to leave her milk pails and go with him. She refuses. He sends her a letter that "he was going to serve the queen." She rejects him again. He says "Fare ye well ye saucy girl, It's better to go free"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting ring rejection farewell flowers sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #150, p. 2, "Oh the Rose"; #147, p. 2, ("There was a lad, a nice young lad") (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1218, "Oh the Rose" (6 texts, 7 tunes)
Roud #6312
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Broken Down Rose
The Lassie Wi' Her Milkin Pail
NOTES [58 words]: Greig/Duncan6 deduces that Greig's #150 text is a composite of two or three texts.
The Greig/Duncan6 title is from the chorus "Oh the rose, the broken down rose, The diamond of a ring! A broken heart will surely mend again, And maybe sae will mine." The diamond ring reference is from "He wrote a letter to his love, And sealed it with his ring." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD61218

Oh the Saviour Standing at the Door

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the Savior standing at the door (x2), Wilt thou enter in, He will cleanse thy sin, Oh, the Savior standing at the door. Art thour thirsty, Cooling water pure and free, Pure and free from the stream of life.... Trav'ler, drink and drink again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 83, "Oh, the Saviour (sic.) Standing at the Door" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7527
File: Boet083

Oh the Shamrock

DESCRIPTION: "Through Erin's isle, To sport awhile, As Love and Valour wander'd, With Wit the sprite, Whose quiver bright A thousand arrows squander'd....
O the shamrock! The green immortal shamrock! Chosen leaf of bard and chief -- Old Erin's native shamrock!
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Moore's Irish Melodies)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad | shamrock
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 148, "O the shamrock, the green immortal shamrock" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 81, "Through Erin's Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #37293
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alley Croker" (tune, according to Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
NOTES [19 words]: Very widely printed, but if there are any traditional versions other than Alice Kane's, I am unaware of them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC148A

Oh the Thunder and the Lightning and the Hail and the Snow

DESCRIPTION: "Oh the thunder and the lightning and the hail and the snow And the rain and the wind and the baby falling down the stairs"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: storm baby disaster
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 170, "Oh the Thunder and the Lightning and the Hail and the Snow" (1 short text)
Roud #25407
File: KSUC170B

Oh Then

See I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male) (File: R365)

Oh They Tossed Me in the Air

DESCRIPTION: "O they tossed me in the air and they rolled me in the mud, And then they tried to stop the circulation of my blood"; the singer vows never again to be "the referee at a football match"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: sports abuse
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 83, "Oh they tossed me in the air and hey rolled me in the mud" (1 text)
Roud #25375
File: KSUC083A

Oh Think of the Home Over Here

DESCRIPTION: "Oh think of the home over there, By the side of the river of light, Where the saints all immortal and fair Are robed in their garments of light." The singer's friends are there; the Savior is there; he will soon be there also
AUTHOR: Words: DeWitt Huntington / Music: Tullius O'Kane (source: cyberhymnal.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (High-OldOldFolkSongs); internet sources say it was written c. 1873
KEYWORDS: religious home nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 3, "Oh Think of the Home Over There" (1 text)
File: High003

Oh This Pretty Little Girl of Mine

See This Pretty Girl of Mine (File: GrD81572)

Oh Tibbie, Are Ye Sleepin'

DESCRIPTION: Charlie is cold and wet and waiting at Tibbie's door. If she's not sleeping he would have her come down and speak a minute. He says he won't see her so often now but will think about her as he passes her door.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting nightvisit nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 782, "Oh Tibbie, Are Ye Sleepin'" (1 text)
Roud #6196
File: GrD4782

Oh Timpanogas, Mighty Timpanogas

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Timpanogas, mighty Timpanogas, Timpanogas, mountain that I love, Mountain with your glacier (x2), Glacier, Glacier, Oh Timpanogas, mighty...." "Mountain with your waterfall..." "...emerald lake..." "...flowers rare..." Other verses could be improvised
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: travel | Timpanogas mountain
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 137-138, "Oh Timpanogas, Mighty Timpanogas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10862
File: ChMS137

Oh We'll Rant and We'll Roar Like True British Seamen

See Spanish Ladies (File: ShH89)

Oh Well, Oh Well

See The First Noel (File: FSWB376A)

Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'

DESCRIPTION: "There's a bright golden haze on the meadow (x2), The corn is as high as an elephant's eye." The singer declares "Oh what a beautiful mornin'... I've got a beautiful feeling Everything's going my way."
AUTHOR: Words: Oscar Hammerstein II / Music: Richard Rodgers
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Broadway debut of the musical "Oklahoma!")
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 237, 554, "Everything's Going My Way"/"Oh What a Beautiful Morning" (notes only)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 409, "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'-- Oklahoma!"
NOTES [185 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs refers separately to songs "Everything's Going My Way" and "Oh What a Beautiful Morning." I can't prove they're the same, but I can't find a camp song called "Everything's Going My Way," so I'm guessing they are.
It may be of interest to users of this index that the plot of the musical "Oklahoma!" is based on a book and play called "Green Grow the Lilacs" -- which used traditional songs, which Rodgers and Hammerstein replaced with their own compositions.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 467, estimates that this was the seventeenth most popular song in America in 1943 (probably mostly on the strength of a Bing Crosby recording), peaking at #4 in December 1943 (#1 for the year being Johnny Black's "Paper Doll," with the famous lines "I'd rather have a paper doll to call my own Than a fickle-minded real live gal").
I'm surprised to find that "People Will Say We're In Love" (also from "Oklahoma!") was an even bigger hit; Gardner estimates it was #2 for the year. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF237O

Oh What a Hell of a Wedding

See Blow, Boys, Blow (I) (File: Doe025)

Oh What an Afternoon

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing you a song of my Uncle Pete" who did outlandish things. "He polished his boots with pumpkin squash." He kept tame butterflies that he fed on "ticktacks, cinders and lard." He himself ate in "a common dinner pail"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: talltale food bug
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1708, "Oh What an Afternoon" (1 text)
Roud #13137
File: GrD81708

Oh What Care I for Your Weel-Made Beds

DESCRIPTION: "O what care I for your weel-made beds, Or gold rings to adore me? Weel micht I been a maiden the streen Gin Lord Huntly had never seen me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: sex rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1265, "Oh What Care I for Your Weel-Made Beds" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6794
NOTES [30 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan6 fragment. - BS
My gut tells me this is derived, somehow, from "The Gypsy Laddie" [Child 200], but I can offer no evidence. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61265

Oh What Has Changed You

DESCRIPTION: In the street, "a girl was weeping bitterly, her lover stood close by." She asks why he is deserting her and their baby. He hits her. She falls and is run over by a carriage. She forgives her lover, prays that heaven will protect her baby, and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach); (The broadsides from Frank Kidson Manuscript Collection had no imprint; Frank Kidson died in 1926)
KEYWORDS: courting love seduction abandonment death baby rake lover abuse
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #23269
RECORDINGS:
Ned Stamp, "Down the Streets in London" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Frank Kidson Manuscript Collection, FK/12/82/2, "Oh, What Has Changed You?" ("Out in the streets one night"), unknown, n.d., accessed 11 August 2018 at https://www.vwml.org/archives-catalogue/
Frank Kidson Manuscript Collection, FK/12/27/1, "Oh! What Has Changed You?" ("Out in the streets I heard a very mournful cry"), unknown, n.d., accessed 11 August 2018 at https://www.vwml.org/archives-catalogue/
Frank Kidson Manuscript Collection, FK/13/101/1, "Oh! What Has Changed You?" ("Out in the streets I heard a very mournful cry"), unknown, n.d., accessed 11 August 2018 at https://www.vwml.org/archives-catalogue/
File: ML3OWHCY

Oh When I Come To Die

See Give Me Jesus (File: WarSp036)

Oh Where Beest Gwying?

See (references to tune under) Mowing the Barley (Cold and Raw) (File: ShH60)

Oh Who Will Shoe My Foot?

See Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot (plus related references, e.g. The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76]) (File: C076A)

Oh Who Will Shoe Your Bonney Feet?

See Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove) (File: Wa097)

Oh Write Me Down, Ye Powers Above

See Come Write Me Down (The Wedding Song) (File: K126)

Oh Yah, Ain't Dat Been Fine

DESCRIPTION: "Now Katryn, my darling, come sig by my side... I's goin' to ask you, 'Won't you be my frau.'" "Oh, shame yourself Scharlie, don't speak out like that... I love you mit all the lova what I got." The two celebrate their love and discuss their life plans
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: humorous love marriage
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 148, "Oh Yah, Ain't Dat Been Fine" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Minnie Plimpton Pendleton, "Oh Yah, Ain't Dat Been Fine" (AFS 08431 A01, 1946; in AMMEM)
NOTES [41 words]: This is patently a stage "Dutch" song, with lines such as "We've got plenty of sauerkraut always on hand" and "Den I get some dresses what schtick out behind." I strongly suspect it comes from a stage show. But I haven't yet managed to find it. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet148

Oh Ye Young, Ye Gay, Ye Proud

DESCRIPTION: "Oh ye young, ye gay, ye proud, You must die and wear a shroud, Death will rob you of your bloom, He will drag you to the tomb, Then you'll cry I want to be Happy in eternity."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (The Saint's Harp, according to Hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 639, "Oh Ye Young, Ye Gay, Ye Proud" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 118-119, "Oh Ye Young, Ye Gay, Ye Proud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 73, "Happy in Eternity" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7564
File: R639

Oh You Caint Go to Heaven

See Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More (File: R300)

Oh You Who Are Able....

DESCRIPTION: "Oh you who are able go out to the stable And throw down your horses some corn If you don't do it the sergeant will know it And report you to General Van Dorn."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: Civilwar horse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 1862 - Earl Van Dorn appointed to command the Confederate armies in Missouri and Arkansas
Mar 7-8, 1862 - Battle of Pea Ridge/Elkhorn Tavern. Despite superior numbers, Van Dorn cannot dislodge the Federals
Oct 3-4, 1862 - Battle of Corinth. Van Dorn abandons the field after failing to break the Federal line. Although cleared of charges of mismanagement, he is transferred to a cavalry command, where his impetuosity is less of a liability
May 8, 1863 - Murder of Van Dorn, allegedly for seducing the wife of a local resident
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 250, "Oh You Who Are Able..." (1 fragment)
Roud #7716
NOTES [3031 words]: I can't escape the feeling that this song is somehow connected to Earl Van Dorn's reputation as a flashy ladies' man without a great deal of depth or ability (Foote p. 725, quotes an unnamed Confederate senator as saying, "He is the source of all our woes, and disaster, it is prophesied, will attend us as long as he is connected with this army. The atmosphere is dense with horrid narratives of his negligence, whoring, and drunkenness, for the truth of which I cannot vouch; but it is so fastened in the public belief that an acquittal by a court-marshal of angels would not relieve him of the charge." Indeed, Van Dorn would later be murdered by an angry husband who accused him of an affair with his wife (Boatner, p. 867). And he lost both of his major battles as an infantry commander, at Pea Ridge and Corinth). That said, I can't prove the connection based on the fragment I've seen.
Born in 1820, he came from a distinguished Mississippi family, one of a large flock of brothers and sisters, but his mother died when he was still fairly young and his father was distant (Hartje, pp. 5-7). He was apparently fascinated with the military from an early age. When his father died in 1837, he had made arrangements for Earl to go to a good private college, but Van Dorn utterly rejected the idea, and reached out to Andrew Jackson (to whom his mother was related by marriage) for an appointment to West Point. Jackson's term was over by the time Van Dorn's father died, but Van Dorn still got the appointment (Hartje, pp. 8-9. On pp. 11-13, Hartje says that West Point at this time heavily stressed small unit training and rapid movement, with little training in large-scale actions or planning, and that Van Dorn was successful at the former and a flop at the latter. Part of that was his character, I think, but his training did nothing to help with his impulsive characteristics).
Despite his eagerness to go to West Point, Van Dorn almost didn't graduate. He was bad in almost every subject except drawing (Hartje, p. 14; painting and drawing was apparently a lifelong hobby; Hartje, p. 44). In at least two years, he came close to being expelled because of demerits (200 demerits in a year meant automatic expulsion, and he had 193 in his third year and 183 in his fourth; Hartje, pp. 14-15). He eventually graduated, but he was #52 in a class of 56. Soon after, he courted and married a 16-year-old girl, Caroline "Carrie" Godbold, apparently against her parents' will (Hartje, p. 16) -- but his military service meant that they were seldom together (Hartje, p. 17).
Van Dorn was one of the officers in Zachary Taylor's army that, by its presence in or near Mexico (depending on which border you accepted) helped precipitate the Mexican War (Hartje, p. 21). He fought with Taylor's army through the great Battle of Monterrey, after which he and his unit, the 7th US Regulars, were transferred to the army of Winfield Scott (Hartje, p. 35). Van Dorn was promoted to first lieutenant around this time (Hartje, p.36). At a battle on the way to Mexico City, Van Dorn was credited with killing two men and was given a brevet promotion to captain (Hartje, pp. 37-39. Note that a brevet promotion was not a real promotion; it was the equivalent of a medal, not an increase in rank or pay) More courage -- he was one of the first to enter Mexico City -- resulted in him becoming a brevet major soon afterward (Hartje, p. 42).
His first child, a daughter Olivia, was born on April 1, 1852. A son, Earl Junior, soon followed (Hartje, p. 46). But Van Dorn wanted to get out and fight.
His reputation after the War was stellar, and he was given several responsible "desk" jobs -- which apparently drove him half-crazy; he hated sitting around (Hartje, pp. 44-45). So he surely welcomed it when the United States formed its first two cavalry regiments, largely to fight Indians, and promoted him to captain and gave him command of "A" company of the elite Second Cavalry (Hartje, pp. 49-50). While in that service, he was perfectly willing to help plan and take part in a massacre of Indians (Hartje, pp. 65-66), in which he was severely wounded (Hartje, pp. 67-68). In the summer of 1860, he was promoted to major (Hartje, p. 74),
Not surprisingly, Van Dorn, slave-holder, racist, Indian murderer, was all for secession in 1860. On January 3, 1861, six days before Mississippi even left the Union, he resigned his army commission (Hartje, pp. 76-77). Mississippi made him a general of their troops, #2 behind Jefferson Davis, and once Davis became Confederate president, Van Dorn became Mississippi's top soldier (Hartje, p.78). But he wanted action, so he soon quit the top job and took a job as a regimental commander in Confederate service (Hartje, p.79). He was soon sent to Texas to take charge of the state's forces -- and to recruit such soldiers as he could from the Federal regulars stationed there (Hartje, pp. 80-81). Van Dorn successfully captured many of the Federal troops in the state; in June, he was made a Confederate Brigadier General -- making him one of the most senior officers in the army (Hartje, p. 88). In August he was called to Richmond (Hartje, p.90), where he was promoted to major general and given command of one of four divisions in the army of Joseph E. Johnson (Hartje, p. 91). The other three division commanders were Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, James Longstreet, and Gustavus W. Smith. (Odd that two would go on to be two of the greatest generals in Confederate service and two would be among their worst flops.)
Ironically, the Virginia front was quiet for the rest of 1861, making Van Dorn itchy again. Thus it was, after two other officers turned it down, that he was sent west to take command of Confederate forces in Arkansas and Missouri (Hartje, pp. 103-105).
Van Dorn went to Arkansas with big plans, almost no staff, and complete ignorance ot the situation there (so much so that he even thought there were many Confederate sympathizers in Saint Louis, which he hoped to conquer; Hartje, p 111. In fact Saint Louis was the chief Union bastion in the state). Having arrived at his new headquarters of Pocahontas, Arkansas, he didn't take the time to remedy either his lack of staff or his ignorance; he just went charging off after the Federals who were invading Arkansas. It was there that his reckless ways finally brought him to disaster, starting with his complete mismanagement of the Battle of Pea Ridge; for background, see the notes to "The Battle of Elkhorn Tavern, or The Pea Ridge Battle" [Laws A12].
After Pea Ridge, he took his troops across the Mississippi to join the armies of Albert Sidney Johnston. He was too late for the Battle of Shiloh, where his troops might have given the Confederacy a victory, but he stayed east of the Mississippi, where he fought and lost the Battle of Corinth. Having lost two battles in a row, he asked for and got a court of inquiry -- but it was headed by his subordinate Sterling Price, who had been intimately involved in the Pea Ridge and Corinth losses. The court cleared Van Dorn (Shea/Hess, p.304), but in the circumstances, that doesn't prove much.
Van Dorn hardly wrote to his family in the period after Pea Ridge (Hartje, p. 171), which obviously raises questions about his relations with other women.
For a time after Shiloh, Van Dorn was one of the senior subordinates of P. G. T. Beauregard, who had succeeded Albert Sidney Johnson in charge of the Army of Tennessee. But when Beauregard was pushed aside and replaced by Braxton Bragg, the war department assigned Van Dorn to command of the Vickburg area, replacing Mansfield Lovell (Hartje, pp. 182-183. For more on Lovell, see "The New Ballad of Lord Lovell (Mansfield Lovell)"). While there, Van Dorn issued a proclamation of martial law, including restrictions on the press, on speech, and on prices that were so extreme that the resulted in a congressional inquiry (Hartje, pp. 192-193). He successfully fought off the first Federal attempt to take Vicksburg (Hartje, pp. 188-191, 197-204), but the War Department eventually overrode his martial law declaration and decided that generals should not have the right to make such declarations (Hartje, p. 195).
Having saved Vicksburg, Van Dorn set out to take more of the shores of the Mississippi. The campaign was a military failure -- the forces Van Dorn sent out were held to a stalemate in their only real battle, and his secret weapon, the ram Arkansas, had to be blown up when its engines failed (Boatner, p. 23). But the federals decided they had had enough, and retreated toward New Orleans, allowing Van Down to occupy the area from Vicksburg to Port Hudson near Baton Rouge (Hartje, pp.206-207).
In the aftermath, Van Dorn's district was reorganized. This led to a situation oddly reminiscent of that before Pea Ridge, in which two generals did not cooperate well -- except that, this time, it was not Sterling Price and Ben McCulloch who were at odds, with Van Dorn appointed over them, but Price and Van Dorn himself who were supposed to cooperate without having someone set over them (Hartje, p. 209). This caused a lot of inaction until Van Dorn was finally placed over Price -- and headed for the rail junction of Corinth, Mississippi, just south of the Tennessee border (Hartje, p. 213), which was held by Federal forces under William S. Rosecrans.
Van Dorn had served in the Corinth area, so he knew the geography. This led him to ignore the need for reconnaissance (Hartje, p. 217). There was a strange similarity between the Corinth and Pea Ridge campaigns: Just as at Pea Ridge, the Federals placed obstacles in his way (in this case, damaging bridges), and Van Dorn wasn't ready and his march slowed down (Hartje, p. 219).
None of that might have mattered had Van Dorn had a better plan. But what he ordered was a direct frontal assault on an entrenched Federal army, without enough reserves to exploit any breakthroughs they might make (Hartje, pp. 219-222). He ended up with another Pea Ridge result: His forces drove the Federals back but did not break them; eventually Van Dorn had to retreat amid acrimony among his officers (Hartje, pp. 234-235). The campaign had been a disaster. Hartje is not sure of Confederate losses but quotes the figures of Livermore, p. 94 of 473 killed, 1997 wounded, 1763 missing -- almost a fifth of Van Dorn's estimated 22,000 men. (Federal killed and wounded were almost as high -- 355 and 1841, respectively -- but they had less than a fifth as many missing, so Livermore's estimates put their casualties at just about 11%.)
The defeat was so devastating that junior officers tried to bring charges against him, from incompetence to drunkenness. The first seems pretty clear but isn't really a military charge; Hartje doesn't accept the latter. Van Dorn was formally cleared by another friendly court (Hartje, pp. 240-243). But the Confederate government decided that he wasn't the man to defend Mississippi; they promoted John C. Pemberton over Van Dorn's head to command the area, with Van Dorn allegedly the field commander of his army (Hartje, pp.247-248); later Van Dorn became a corps commander under Pemberton (Hartje, p. 254). Pemberton was not one of Jefferson Davis's more inspired picks; he would be the one who surrendered Vicksburg to Ulysses S. Grant.
Van Dorn himself was forced out of his base at Holly Springs, Mississippi (southeast of Memphis, and about a third of the way from that city to Tupelo) by Ulysses S. Grant's advance forces in late 1862 (Hartje, pp. 250-251). But at the end of that year, Van Dorn was given a cavalry command with which to attack Grant's long line of communications (Hartje, p. 255). His raid on Holly Springs was a complete success, with few Confederate losses and at least $400,000 of Federal property destroyed, plus many prisoners (Hartje, pp. 262-265). The raiders rode more than 500 miles in a two week campaign; Hartje, p. 267, calls it one of the "most humiliating defeats" the Union forces in the area suffered. (Although even on this raid Van Dorn was guilty of attacks on isolated garrisons without examining their defensive positions, and being repulsed as a result; examples on pp. 265-267 of Hartje.)
It is widely stated that the Holly Springs raid, combined with other raids by Nathan Bedford Forrest, completely spoiled the plan Grant then had to take Vicksburg (e.g. Hartje, p. 268). Finally Van Dorn had found something he was good at! (Hartje, p. 269). Van Dorn's reward was peculiar. They couldn't really promote him; if he became a lieutenant general, he would be too senior to command a cavalry division, which was where his talents lay. So instead he was transferred from serving under Pemberton to serving under Braxton Bragg (Hartje, pp. 272-273). On the one hand, this got him away from Pemberton, who had been promoted over his head. On the other hand, everyone who served under Braxton Bragg regretted it!
Van Dorn continued his raids early in 1863, but without having any more big successes like Holly Springs.(Hartje, pp. 274-279). Arguably the best thing he did in this time was let Nathan Bedford Forrest do Forrest's thing. Van Dorn apparently became rather cranky that he wasn't promoted (Hartje, p.296); he thought that his failure at Corinth was being unfairly held against him. (He was obviously half right: It was being held against him -- but it was entirely fair to blame him for what was, after all, a disaster.)
Foote, p. 278, says that at one time Van Dorn had a higher price on his head than General Beauregard, the commander of the attack on Fort Sumter, who was widely regarded as the Great Enemy of the north in late 1861 and early 1862. Abraham Lincoln himself called him a "pirate" (based presumably on the way he tricked the ships that were supposed to evacuate the Federal troops from Texas) and ordered a $5000 reward on his head, the same as placed on Jefferson Davis (Hartje, pp. 88-89).
Catton, p. 207, describes his better attributes: "a slim, elegant little soldier with curly hair, charming manners, and a strong taste for fighting. A West Pointer in his early forties, Van Dorn had an excellent record. He had been an Indian fighter of note, with four wounds received in action on the western plains, and he had done well in the Mexican War, taking another wound and winning promotion for gallantry." Catton regards him as very unlucky, however (p. 209).
Hartje, p. x, says that "From no officer was more expected at the outset of hostilities in 1861 than from Earl Van Dorn. Few men of his age had more military experience and prestige. His record of service in the Mexican War and on the Indian border indicated that he possessed courage and definite leadership possibilities. He could almost write his own ticket... But Earl Van Dorn lacked some vital quality as a man and as a general that kept him from achieving the success that his country expected." In assessing Pea Ridge, for instance, Hartje, p. 157, concludes that his overall strategy was sound, but his impetuosity and lack of regard for details, and logistics, cost him victory. I inline to agree.
And then there was his personal life: "His somewhat unsavory personal life caused his system systematically to destroy much of his correspondence that might otherwise have given important insights into his checkered career" (Hartje, p. xi). People at the time recorded that he was a "horrible rake" (Hartje, p. 308). People in Mississippi and Tennessee certainly believed it (Hartje, p. 309). Hartje, pp. 318-319, describes many newspaper reports attacking his behavtior.
HTIECivilWar observes in its entry on Van Dorn that he faced a charge of drunkenness at a court-martial after Corinth, notes that he was "frequently the center of controversy, both for his military tactics and the conduct of his personal life," and says that he "was killed by an irate husband at his headquarters in Spring Hill, Tenn[essee], 7 May 1863."
The "irate husband" was Dr. George B. Peters, who in addition to being a doctor was a slave-dealer and real estate investor (Hartje, p. 309), so probably not someone we would consider very respectable even though he was regarded as a good physician at the time.
Peters might almost have set himself up for betrayal. Jessie Hellen McKissack was his third wife; when he married her in 1858, he was 46 and she was twenty. And he spent most of the early part of the war behind Union lines -- seemingly voluntarily -- while his wife remained at home in the South (Hartje, p. 310). Which might not have mattered, except that Jessie, in addition to being young, was a "beautiful brunette" who was also quite outgoing. Some man was surely going to hang around her; apparently Van Dorn was the one to do so (Hartje, p. 311). And then Peters came home and, in April 1863, saw what Van Dorn was up to.
Peters would confess to the murder of Van Dorn, though his confession tells a very strange story of Peters demanding, at gun point, that Van Dorn release a statement exonerating Peters's wife of guilt. Supposedly Van Dorn agreed but reneged -- but took no precautions against Peters going after him again (Hartje, pp. 312-313). Whatever the actual course of events, Peters shot Van Dorn in the head, then made a carefully planned escape, fleeing to the Union lines. But he then returned to the Confederacy, was tried -- and was acquitted! (Hartje, p. 313). He then separated from but reunited with his wife -- but when he died, he was once again living with his second wife! (Hartje, pp. 314-320). Clearly he was a strange man, and one whose account of his actions cannot be taken entirely at face value.
There is a recent book about van Dorn's murder, Bridget Smith, Where Elephants Fought: The Murder of Confederate General Earl Van Dorn, Sunbury Press, 2015; it sounds rather wild, but I have not seen it. Probably more reliable is Arthur B. Carter, The Tarnished Cavalier: Major General Earl Van Dorn, C.S.A. University of Tennessee Press, 2013, but I haven't seen it either. Slightly older is Robert G. Hartje, Van Dorn:The Life and Times of a Confederate General, Vanderbilt University Press, 1994, cited above. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: R250

Oh-ho, There Goes Pa

DESCRIPTION: "Oh-ho, there goes pa Back to Washington, But he won't take ma! Oh-ho, here comes pa, Back from Washington! Too much ma."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
KEYWORDS: father mother separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 265, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Roud #10903
NOTES [28 words]: A reference, perhaps, to the repeated attempts of the state of Utah to be allowed to join the Union, which were rejected as long as the Mormons practiced polygamy? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GFGW265A

Oh, a-Rock-a My Soul

See Good Lordy, Rocky My Soul (File: FSWB357B)

Oh, Absalom, My Son

See David's Lamentation (File: FSWB412B)

Oh, Are Ye Sleeping, Maggie?

See Are Ye Sleepin' Maggie? (File: SaKo152A)

Oh, Baby, 'Low Me One More Chance

DESCRIPTION: "A burly coon you know Who took his clothes an' go, Come back las' night. But his wife said, 'Honey, I'se done wid coon, I'se gwine to pass for white.'" He promises to reform, to be satisfied with little, even to do the cooking. She does not relent
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: abandonment home rejection
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 275-276, (no title) (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?" (theme)
NOTES [20 words]: Sort of a "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?" with the gender roles reversed and the proper ending to the piece. - RBW
File: ScNF275B

Oh, Be Ready When the Train Comes In

DESCRIPTION: "We are soldiers in this blessed war, For Jesus we are marching on, With a shout and song." "We are sweeping on to claim the blessed promise... Oh, be ready when the train comes in." Harlots, idolaters, loafers, jokers will not be allowed aboard
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 258, "Oh, Be Ready When the Train Comes In" (1 text)
NOTES [60 words]: Very little of this is actually Biblical (smoking, e.g., is not mentioned in the Bible, and the Bible isn't entirely unhumorous -- the book of Jonah, e.g., contains many farcical elements). The one fairly clear allusion is to the "land of Beulah" -- a reference to Isaiah 62:4, where the King James version leaves the word beulah -- "married" -- untranslated. - RBW
File: ScaNF258

Oh, Bedad Then, Says I

See I Don't Mind If I Do (File: MA263)

Oh, Boney Was a Warrior

See Boney (File: Doe006)

Oh, Brother Will You Meet Me?

See probably The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)

Oh, Brothers Now Our Meeting's Broke

See Now Our Meeting Is Over (File: Wa084)

Oh, Can Ye Sew Cushions

See Can Ye Sew Cushions (File: MSNR135)

Oh, Captain, Captain, Tell Me True

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Oh, Charlie Is My Darling

See Charlie Is My Darling (File: FSWB140A)

Oh, Children, Won't You Come and Go Along with Me

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, (children/fathers/etc.), won't you come and go along with me, For heaven is my home. Jesus is gone, but he's coming back again, To take his children home." "He will raise up the crippled, gather the blind... And take them home to their God."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 91, "Oh, Children, Won't You Come and Go Along with Me" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7130
File: BuMa091

Oh, Come Roll Him Over

See High O, Come Roll Me Over (File: Hugi169A)

Oh, Come See Me When You Can

See Come Over and See Me Sometime (File: ScaSC048)

Oh, Dat Watermilion

See Watermelon on the Vine (File: Br3454)

Oh, de Downward Road Is Crowded

See The Downward Road (File: LoF256)

Oh, de Hebben Is Shinin'

See The Heaven Is Shining (File: Dett094)

Oh, Dear Doctor

See Oh Dear Doctor (File: OpGa032)

Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?

DESCRIPTION: "Oh dear, what can the matter be? (x3), Johnny's so long at the fair." Johnny had promised to bring the singer various gifts, such as "blue ribbons... to tie up my bonny brown hair," but he is long in coming
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1792 (British Lyre, according to Scott)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA,SE) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1685, "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 201, "Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be?" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 213)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 103, "He promised he'd buy me a basket of posies" (1 fragment)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 122, "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 122, "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 144-145, "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 83, "O Dear! What Can the Matter Be?" (1 text) (pp. 69 in the 1919 edition)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 85, "Oh Dear What Can the Matter Be?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 280, "Johnny shall have a new bonnet" (3 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #158, p. 118, "(Johnny shall have a new bonnet)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 138, "Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be?" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 732, "O Dear, What Can the Matter Be?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 42-42, "Oh Dear! What Can the Matter Be?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 140, "O Dear! What Can the Matter Be?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #226, p. 17, "Bunch of Blue Ribbons" (2 references)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 150, "Oh, Dear! What Can the Matter Be"" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, pp. 101-102, "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-FFM, pp. 398-399, "Oh! Dear, What Can the Matter Be?"
DT, ODEARWHA* ODEARWH2
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #78, "Oh! Dear1" (1 text)
Roud #1279
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(103/104), "Dear! What Can the Matter Be," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(2743), Harding B 11(2743), "Oh! Dear What Can the Matter Be"
LOCSinging, sb10024a, "Bunch of Blue Ribbons," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Sailor Boy (A Sailor Boy in Blue)" (theme)
cf. "Faithless Boney (The Croppies' Complaint)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Seven Old Ladies (File: EM119)
Faithless Boney (The Croppies' Complaint) (File: Moyl038)
I've Got a Brother (File: DPio307)
Bring Your Blueberries to Job's Store (by Johnny Burke) (Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #49, pp. 78-79) (Johnny Burke, _Burke's Popular Songs_, self-published, 1929 (a PDF is available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. [12]) (Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 21)
NOTES [127 words]: Fuld reports this song appearing, almost as if by magic, in sundry editions and manuscripts between 1770 and 1792. None list authors, and few can be dated exactly. The origin of this song, clearly more popular for its tune than its banal lyrics, must therefore remain a mystery.
The Opies note a clear resemblance with their #280, which begins
Johnny shall have a new bonnet,
And Johnny shall go to the fair,
And Johnny shall have a blue ribbon
To tie up his bonny brown hair.
The Opies call this "the nursery, and possibly original, version" of the song. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb10024a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB150B

Oh, Freedom!

See O Freedom (File: LxU108)

Oh, Genevieve

See Sweet Genevieve (File: RK19202)

Oh, Gin Ye Were Deid, Goodman

See I Wish That You Were Dead, Goodman (File: HHH531)

Oh, Give Me a Hut

See Give Me a Hut (File: MA137)

Oh, Give Me a Hut in My Own Native Land

See Give Me a Hut (File: MA137)

Oh, Give Me the Hills

DESCRIPTION: "Oh give me the hills and the ring of the drills, And the rich silver ore in the groun." "Oh give me the camp where the prospectors tramp." The singer intends to live and die among "the hils and the roaring stamp mills."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (California Folklore Quarterly 1, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: mining gambling wife nonballad derivative
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 591, "Oh, Give Me the Hills" (1 text)
File: CAFS2591

Oh, Give Thanks

See O Give Thanks (File: ACSF434O)

Oh, Give Way, Jordan

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Give way Jordan (x3), I want to go across to see my Lord." Verses: "Stand back Satan let me go by, I'm going to serve my Jesus till I die." "...my time was nigh... must be my Jesus in the cloud, never heard him speak so loud."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious Devil Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 96-97, "Oh, Give Way, Jordan" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 195 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #15258
NOTES [25 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "I want to go across to see my Lord." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett096

Oh, Hard Fortune!

See Kind Fortune (File: KaNew074)

Oh, Haud Awa'

See Haud Awa, Bide Awa (File: GrD4858)

Oh, He Raised Poor Lazarus

DESCRIPTION: Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind and enabled the cripple to walk. "Jesus been here one time ... He's coming again, Get ready and let us go home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 66-67, "Oh, He Raise-a Poor Lazarus (He Raise a Poor Lazarus)" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 116-117 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #15280
NOTES [23 words]: The Biblical references are John 11:1-45 (Lazarus), Matthew 9 and John 5, among others (healing the sick, curing the blind and crippled). - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett066

Oh, He Sleeps on the Bank of the River

DESCRIPTION: Congregational song. "Our brother is dead, he rests from he labor, And he sleeps (he sleeps, oh he sleeps) Wey de tall pines grow, On the banks of a river." "He trouble is gone." "Out of life's storm." He is with God and safe from trouble
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads)
KEYWORDS: religious death nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, pp. 23-24, "Oh, He Sleeps on the Bank of the River" (1 text)
File: RSmi023

Oh, Ho, Baby, Take a One On Me!

See Take a Whiff on Me; also perhaps Take a Drink on Me (File: RL130)

Oh, Honey, Where You Been So Long?

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, honey, where you been so long? Oh, honey, where you been so long? 'I been round the bend and I come back again, Oh, honey, where you been so long?" "Oh, honey, where you been so long? (x2) And it's when I return with a ten dollar bill, it's Honey..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad return money
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 317, "Oh, Honey, Where You Been So Long?" (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground" (lyrics)
NOTES [43 words]: Every word of Brown's text of this is found in "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground," and my first inclination was to include it as a worn-down version of that song. But the notes in Brown say there is a longer version in Gordon, so here it sits. Tentatively. - RBW
File: Br3317

Oh, how could you sit at another man's table?

See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

Oh, How He Lied

DESCRIPTION: An "old villain" sits by a girl and smokes his cigar. She plays her guitar. "He told her he loved her but oh how he lied." They agree to marry, "but she up and died." She goes to heaven, he to hell ("sizzle, he fried"), listeners are warned against lies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Joe Foss & his Hungry Sand Lappers)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage music death lie Hell humorous
FOUND IN: US Australia
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 130-131, "Don't Tell a Lie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 257, "She Sat on Her Hammock" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 31, "Oh, How He Lied" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 235, 239, "She Sat in Her Hammock" (notes only)
DT, HELIED*
Roud #13621
RECORDINGS:
Joe Foss & his Hungry Sand Lappers, "Oh How She Lied" (Columbia 15268-D, 1928)
Pete Seeger, "Oh How He Lied" (on PeteSeeger31)
NOTES [20 words]: Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2 notes that the tune for this is a waltz by Joseph Franz Karl Lanner. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB031B

Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning

DESCRIPTION: "The other day I chanced to meet, A soldier friend of mine"; he looks fit and healthy after his training, but when asked about his life, the soldier says, "Oh, how I hate to get up in the morning." He hates and envies the bugler who arouses him
AUTHOR: Irving Berlin
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (sheet music published, according to Fuld)
KEYWORDS: soldier nonballad music
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 163, "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 39, "Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 401, "Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning"
Roud #25947
NOTES [54 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 322, estimates that this was the tenth most popular song in America in 1918, peaking at #3 in November 1918 (#1 for the year being J. Will Callahan and Lee G. Roberts's "Smiles"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Coa163

Oh, How Lovely Is the Evening

DESCRIPTION: Round. "Oh, how lovely is the evening, is the evening, When the bells are sweetly ringing, sweetly ringing! Ding, dong, ding, dong, ding, dong."
AUTHOR: Music: Christian Johann Philipp Schultz (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Carl E. Zander and Wes H. Klusman, Camp Songs); music written 1826 (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 412, "Oh, How Lovely Is The Evening" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 435, 437, 443, 447, "Oh, How Lovely Is the Evening" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 109, "Lovely Evening" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 121, "Lovely Evening" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p.. 103, "Oh, How Lovely Is the Evening" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 51, "Oh, How Lovely Is the Evening" (1 text)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 46, "Die Abendglocken (Lovely Evening)" (3 texts, 1 German, 1 English, 1 French; 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 59, "Lovely Evening" (1 text, 1 tune)
SAME TUNE:
What a Grand and Glorious Feeling (Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 413)
File: ACSF435O

Oh, How They Frisk It

See Under the Greenwood Tree (File: ChWII053)

Oh, I Am As Happy, As Happy As Can Be

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I am as happy, as happy can be, There's o one so happy as my Fritz and me, For when the War's over to Old England we'll run, Oh, God bless Old England, the Home of the Hun."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: immigration war foreigner
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 190, "Oh, I am as happy, as happy can be" (1 short text)
Roud #25456
File: KSUC190B

Oh, I Used to Drink Beer

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I used to drink beer, But I throwed it all away (x3), Oh I used to drink beer, But I throwed it all away, And now I'm free at last." "Oh, I used to chew tobacco." "Oh, I used to love sin." "Oh, I gave hell a shake When I came out de wilderness."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 618, "Oh, I Used To Drink Beer" (1 text)
Roud #11920
NOTES [29 words]: The real keyword for this song should probably be "obnoxious-unconvincing-moralizer." I don't drink or smoke -- but this is the sort of song that almost makes me wish I did. - RBW
File: Br3618

Oh, I Wish I Was A . . .

See I Wish I Were a.... (File: ACSF228I)

Oh, I Wish I Were Single Again

See I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again (File: Wa126)

Oh, I'll get ribbons to my hair

See The Navvy (File: GrD5977)

Oh, I'll Never Go With Riley Any More

DESCRIPTION: Singer's friend Riley, just paid, invites him on a spree; they wind up in a fight. Riley punches a policeman; the singer ends up jail. Riley gets killed: "Oh, he thought the wire was dead/But it was full of life instead." Singer won't go with Riley again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (recording, Pat Ford)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer's friend Riley, just paid, invites him on a spree; they wind up in a fight. Riley punches a policeman but the singer, badly bruised, gets put in jail. Riley, meanwhile, gets killed: "Oh, he thought the wire was dead/But it was full of life instead." Singer says he'll never go out with Riley any more
KEYWORDS: fight prison death technology drink injury friend police
FOUND IN: US(MW)
Roud #15473
RECORDINGS:
Pat Ford, "Oh, I'll never go [out] with Riley anymore" (AFS 4211 A3, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
NOTES [18 words]: The [AMMEM] index includes the word "out" in the title, but the page devoted to the item itself does not. - PJS
File: RcOINGOW

Oh, I'm a Good Old Rebel

See The Good Old Rebel (The Song of the Rebel Soldier) (File: Wa193)

Oh, In the Moonlight

DESCRIPTION: "Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh In the moonlight, I wanna hold somebody's hand., Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh In the moonlight,I think you'll understand. All the little birdies, All the little beesies, Always go in twosies, Never go in threesies." Other critters may also be mentioned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: animal love campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #132, p. 40, "O, In the Moonlight" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 126, 156, 279, 516, "Oh, in the Moonlight" (notes only)
File: ACSF126O

Oh, It Was My Cruel Parents

See Sally's Love for a Young Husband (File: GrD71362)

Oh, It Was My Cruel Parents That Did Me First Trepan

See Sally's Love for a Young Husband (File: GrD71362)

Oh, It's Drive the General's Car, My Boy (But Don't Mention It Ten Years Later)

DESCRIPTION: "THe Admirals of Paris, the Crillon Gen'rals and such Are always telling others how to lick the bloody Dutch" -- but they can't possibly fight. The singer tells soldiers who want safety to drive the general's car, because they're safe and live a high life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: soldier technology humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 109-113, "(Oh, It's Drive the General's Car, My Boy (But Don't Mention It Ten Years Later)" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Christopher Columbo" (tune, according to Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
File: NiMo109

Oh, Jenny Brown She Baked My Bread

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Jenny Brown she baked my bread, And you bet she baked it well. She baked it hard as anything, She baked it hard as... Hallelujah! Keep your seats for I'm not swearing... Hallelujah! And the truth I always tell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: wordplay food humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 112, "Oh, Jenny Brown she baked my bread" (1 text)
Roud #25523
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hallelujah" (technique, lyrics)
cf. "Johnny Fell Down in the Bucket" (technique)
cf. "Hopalong Peter" (technique)
cf. "Teasing Songs" (technique)
cf. "Old Zip Coon (II)" (technique)
cf. "Old Lady of Amsterdam" (technique)
NOTES [36 words]: The form of this is so close to "Halleluhah" that I would probably have lumped them. But Roud splits them, and given that that is seemingly a political piece, there is probably a deliberate rewrite along the way. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC112A

Oh, Jerusalem in the Morning

DESCRIPTION: Single line followed by response "Oh Jerusalem in de mornin'." Single line sequence ... "baby born today" "born in a manger" "the stall was his cradle" ... repeated.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hughes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious baby Jesus childbirth | Jerusalem morning
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Robert Winslow Gordon, "Negro 'Shouts' from Georgia" in Alan Dundes, editor, _Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel_ (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1990) ("Mother Mary, what is de matter") p. 450 (1 text)
NOTES [49 words]: The title is taken from the text included in Langston Hughes's play, Black Nativity (Woodstock: Dramatic Publishing, n.d.), "Oh, Jerusalem in the Morning" p. 9 (1 text)
The Gordon text, from the Georgia Sea Islands, describes this as a ring shout song for Christmas Eve/Christmas day "watch." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: xxOJItM

Oh, Jerusalem!

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Oh, Jerusalem, Oh my Lord, I'm walking the road, Oh Jerusalem, walking the road, Oh, my Lord (x2)."Verses: The Lord comes steps down on a sea of glass mingled with fire -- "Good bye my brother I'm going on higher"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious floatingverses Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 190, "Oh, Jerusalem!" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 111 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #15239
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Standing on a Sea of Glass" ("sea of glass" theme) and notes there
NOTES [32 words]: Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's text includes the floater "Mind sister how you walk on the cross, Your foot might slip and your soul get lost." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett190

Oh, Johnny

See The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging) [Laws O33] (File: LO33)

Oh, Johnny, Johnny

DESCRIPTION: A conversation between two former lovers, comprised mostly of floating lyrics. The singer tells Johnny that she loves him; he was the first boy she ever loved. He tells her that she betrayed him, and he now has a new sweetheart. He regrets her infidelity
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection floatingverses
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H16, pp. 392-393, "Oh Johnny, Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Fair and Tender Ladies" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Tavern in the Town" (floating lyrics"
NOTES [89 words]: If one had deliberately set out to create an amalgam of every lost love cliche in folk song, one could hardly do better than this. Without even trying, I observe elements of "Waly, Waly," "Love is Teasing," the "Tavern in the Town" cluster, and "Fair and Tender Ladies," as well as parallels to everything from "Peggy Gordon" to "Barbara Allen."
I suppose one of these songs is the "original," and all the others simply offered verses to be incorporated into the whole, but at this point there is no telling the original source. - RBW
File: HHH016

Oh, Lawd, How Long

See Oh, Lord, How Long (File: R615)

Oh, Leave Not Your Kathleen

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, leave not your Kathleen to cross the dark sea, For she will be lonely, she cares but for thee. The scenes that were bright will fade from her view." In time both wlll forget: "When you part from your Kathleen we're parted forever."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 100, "Oh, Leave Not Your Kathleen" (1 text)
Roud #13875
File: HMHS100B

Oh, Lord, How Long

DESCRIPTION: "Before this time another year, I may be (dead and) gone, Down in some lonesome graveyard, Oh Lord, how long!" "Just as the tree falls, just so it lies; Just as the sinner lives, just so he dies." "My mother broke the ice and gone...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Edward Harringan, "The Mulligans")
KEYWORDS: religious death family nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph 615, "Oh Lord, How Long!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 586-587, "Oh, Lawd, How Long?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, p. 169, "Oh Lord, How Long?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 220, "This Time Another Year" (1 text)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 52, "Before This Time Another Year" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Harrigan, _The Mulligans_, G. W. Dilingham, 1901, p. 368, "(no title)" (1 fragment, of the chorus)
ST R615 (Full)
Roud #7546
RECORDINGS:
Sister L. Brown & congregation "Before This Time, Another Year" (on MuSouth09)
The Chosen Gospel Singers, "Before This Time Another Year" (Specialty 848, n.d.)
Cleveland Simmons and Mr. Taylor, "I May Be Gone" (AAFS 422 A2, 1935; on LomaxCD1822-2)
Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Before This Time Another Year" (on LomaxCD1712, recorded 1959)
Odette & Ethel, "Befo' This Time Another Year" (Columbia 14169-D, 1926)
NOTES [120 words]: This is really a chorus with extra lyrics. Bessie Jones sang a version with irregular lines (interspersed with the phrase "how long"?), which broke into the chorus at random intervals. The Lomax text proceeds in double lines, but of different lengths. Some of the versions are regular. But the song is recognized by the chorus "Before this time another year, I may be gone...."
This is quoted as an urban New York Black song in Edward Harrigan, The Mulligans, G. W. Dilingham, 1901, p. 368:
Oh, dis time anudder year!
We may be gone!
In some lonely grabeyard!
Oh, Lor', how long!
I find it fascinating that a New Yorker who spent his life playing mostly Irish characters would be the first citation of the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: R615

Oh, Lord, I Want You to Help Me

DESCRIPTION: "(O Lord, When I'm down here singing/shouting/praying/working) I want you to help me"(2x). Help me on my journey, Help me on my way, O Lord I want you to help me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Venus McIver, Freddie Palmer, Brenton Jordan and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Oh, Lord, I Want You To Help Me" (on McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts)
NOTES [12 words]: The description follows the McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts text. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcOLIWYH

Oh, Lord, I'se Steppin' HIgher

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Lord, I'se steppin' higher; Doan' let de ladder break. Saint Peter, open up de do' An' gib mah han' a shake!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 619, "Oh, Lord, I'se Steppin' Higher" (1 text)
Roud #11922
File: Br3619

Oh, Lord, Send Us a Blessing

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Lord, send us a blessing, And oh Lord, send us a blessing, And oh Lord, send us a blessing, And send it down today."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 649, "Oh, Lord, Send Us a Blessing" (1 fragment)
Roud #7570
File: R649

Oh, Love is Teasin'

See Love is Teasing (File: Rits024)

Oh, Lovely, Come This Way

DESCRIPTION: "I had an old shoe, it had no heel (x3), I looked like a preacher with a mouthful of meal." "Oh, lovely, come this way (x3), Never let the wheels of the church roll away." Other verses often extravagant and floating, e.g. "Whip old Satan round the stump"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty floatingverses devil clothes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 98, "Oh, Lovely, Come This Way" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 98, "Oh, Lovely, Come This Way" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #8372
NOTES [37 words]: About half of the verses in Brown are paralleled in the Woodie Brothers recording "Chased Old Satan Through the Door," but as that piece has a different chorus, form, and apparent purpose, I classify them separately. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3098

Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep

DESCRIPTION: "If I could I surely would Stand on the rock where Moses stood, Pharaoh's army got drowned, Oh Mary don't you weep." Verses describing the Exodus and how God cares for humanity, with the "Pharaoh's army..." chorus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (recording, Fisk University Male Quartette)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 545, "Pharaoh's Army" (4 texts, mostly short)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 545, "Pharaoh's Army" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 143, "Oh Ma'y Don't Cha Weep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 476-477, "Pharaoh's Army Got Drowned" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 200, "Pharaoh's Army Got Drownded" (1 short text, with chorus "Pharaoh's army got drowned In the deep blue sea"; it might be a separate song, but is too short to classify on its own.)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 78, "Oh, Mary Don't You Weep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 354, "Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep" (1 text)
DT, OHMARY
Roud #11823
RECORDINGS:
Biddleville Quintette, "Pharoah's Army Got Drowned" (QRS 7073, 1929)
Birmingham Jubilee Singers, "Pharoah's Army Got Drowned" (Columbia 14203-D, 1927)
Carter Family, "On the Rock Where Moses Stood" (Conqueror 8693/ARC 6-11-59, 1936) (song placed here tentatively)
Leo Boswell & Merritt Smith, "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" (Supertone 2825, n.d.)
Fisk University Male Quartette, "O Mary, Don't You Weep, Don't You Mourn" (Columbia A1895, 1915)
Georgia Yellow Hammers, "Mary Don't You Weep" (Victor 20928, 1927)
Mississippi John Hurt, "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" (on MJHurt04)
Morris Family, "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" (Vocalion 5465, 1940)
Richmond Starlight Quartette, "Mary, Don't You Weep" (OKeh, unissued, 1929)
Pete Seeger, "Oh, Mary Don't You Weep" (on PeteSeeger15, 2 versions) (on PeteSeeger17); "Mary Don't You Weep" (on PeteSeeger24); "O Mary Don't You Weep" (on PeteSeeger26)
Southern Four, "Good News, Chariot's Comin'! and O Mary, Doan You Weep" (Edison 50885, 1921)
Ex-Governor Alf Taylor & his Old Limber Quartet, "Pharoah's Army Got Drownded" (Victor 19451, 1924)
Virginia Female Jubilee Singers, "O Mary, Don't You Weep, Don't You Mourn" (OKeh 4430, 1921)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Wore Three Links of Chain" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Can'cha Line 'Em" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Keep Your Hand on the Plow" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Don't You Hear My Hammer Ringing" (lyrics)
cf. "Heaven and Hell" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Lord, I Never Will Come Back Here No Mo'" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Pharaoh's Host Got Lost" (Pharaoh's Army theme)
cf. "I Want to Die Like Weeping Mary" ("Mary weeping" theme)
cf. "Dark Day" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [192 words]: Although loosely based on the stories of the Exodus, there is a lot that is non-Biblical here (e.g. there is no reference in the New Testament to Mary ever wearing a chain. The closest reference I can think of is Luke 2:25, where Simeon tells Mary, "A sword will pierce your own soul too").
The reference to the "rock where Moses stood" is, I believe, to Ex. 17:5, where Moses stood on the rock and struck it to bring forth water.
Moses, according to modern interpretations, did not "smite" the Red Sea (or "Sea of Reeds"), but in Ex. 14:15 he may have stretched the staff over the sea (in Ex. 14:21, 26-27 he simply "stretched his hand over the sea"; it's worth noting that most scholars think there are two mixed accounts here, one where a wind blew the water aside and one where the waters miraculously parted).
God gave the sign of the [rain]bow in Gen. 9:13f. - RBW
In every version I've heard of this song, the word in the chorus is "drownded," not "drowned." - PJS
Same here. On the other hand, I've only heard Pop Folk sorts of versions. Of Brown's four versions, two (including the most substantial) have "drowned," two have "drowneded." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: San476

Oh, Mary, My Bonny, Bonny Mary

DESCRIPTION: Skipping rhyme. "Oh! Mary, My bonny, bonny Mary, All the boys and all the girls, They love Mary"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: love | skipping
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 69, "(Oh! Mary)" (1 text, tune referenced)
File: BAAI069

Oh, Mister Revel (Did You Ever See the Devil?)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Mr. Revel! Did you ever see the devil With wooden spade and shovel A-digging up the gravel With his long toe-nail?" (or "with his tail cocked up," etc.). The devil, or his wife, or his children, may dig potatoes, or tin (in Cornwall), or shoot birds
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Northall)
KEYWORDS: devil work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE) Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 141, "Oh, Mr. Revel" (2 short texts)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 284, (no title) (2 fragments)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 252, "Did Ye Ever See the Divil" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 68, "(Here's to the Devil, with his wooden spade and shovel)" (1 short text)
G. F. Northall, _English Folk Rhymes_, Kegan Paul, 1892, p. 306, "(Here's to the devil, With his wooden pick and shovel)"; "(Have you seen the devil, With his wood and iron shovel)" (1 text plus a fragment)
Roud #16319
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Did You Ever, Ever, Ever" (theme)
cf. "Did You Ever See the Divil?" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Yonder Comes the Devil" (theme, lyrics)
NOTES [87 words]: This is a very amorphous family of rhymes linked mostly by the first line "Did you ever see the devil?"; I probably gave it the wrong name because the first versions I encountered were both rather odd. It seems to be widespread but perhaps to have often been concealed from folklorists.
Christina Smith says that the lyric "Did you ever see the devil with his wooden spade and shovel, Did you ever see the devil with his ears sticking up" is a Newfoundland fiddler's mnemonic for a tune commonly called "Stack of Barley." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Br3141

Oh, Mr. Cobeau

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "Mr Cobeau want to kill out a we picking." The shantyman sings: The dog comes and sniffs the dead whale and the shark comes to eat it. It's so rotten that both get a headache, but Cobeau takes it anyway. "Please bring back"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: work sea shanty whale whaler children
FOUND IN: West Indies(St Vincent)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 108-109, "Oh, Mr. Cobeau" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [81 words]: "Mr Cobeau" is probably from "corbeau," French for raven; according to Abrahams, in St Vincent it is the black vulture. "John Crow" in Jamaica is the turkey vulture.
In this case, the "cobeau" is a whaler that is second on the scene and takes a whale that this crew harpooned first. "Picking" has a double meaning according to Abrahams: first, the "picking" is the catch; second, the "picking" is a standin for "pickney," that is, "child" or "children" from whom food is being taken. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS108

Oh, My God, Them 'Taters

See Whoa Back, Buck (File: LxU067)

Oh, My Little Soul's Going to Shine

See My Little Soul's Going to Shine (File: Dett122)

Oh, My Rolling River

See Shenandoah (File: Doe077)

Oh, My What a Rotten Song

See Knees Up, Mother Brown (File: Hopk017A)

Oh, No She Don't

See She Don't Wear No (File: Brne164)

Oh, No, John!

See No, John, No (File: R385)

Oh, No, No, Sir, No

See No, John, No (File: R385)

Oh, No, Not I

DESCRIPTION: A "Newfoundland sailor" and a noble lady meet. He asks her to marry; she say, "Oh, no, not I"; his birth is too low. When she bears a child nine months later, she writes to ask him to come back; he tells her, "Oh, no, not I," and bids her go begging
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1375))
KEYWORDS: pregnancy separation rejection marriage nobility
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South)) Canada(Newf,Que)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #56, "No, My Boy, Not I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 304-305, "Oh No, Not I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 112, "Hello, My Boy, Not I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 29, "No My Love Not I" (1 text)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 24, pp. 32, 51, "No, My Love, Not I" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 79, "O No My Love, Not I" (1 text)
DT, MARRYNO
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844_, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 66, "The Demon of the Sea"/Oh No my Love Not I" (reprint of a Pitts broadside)
Roud #1403
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "Oh No, Not I" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1375), "No, My Love, Not I," J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Firth c.18(293), Firth b.34(208), Firth b.34(97), Harding B 11(2715), Harding B 17(220b), "No, My Love, Not I"; Firth c.13(169), Harding B 25(1340), "The Newfoundland Sailor"; Firth c.18(292), Harding B 25(1422), 2806 c.18(223), Harding B 20(119), Harding B 11(1635), "O No My Love, Not I"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Yellow Handkerchief (Flash Company)"" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Courting Coat" (floating lyrics)
cf. "You Say You Are of Noble Race" (theme)
cf. "The Roving Shantyboy" (plot)
cf. "Barley Raking (Barley Rigs A-Raking)" (plot)
NOTES [77 words]: Recorded by Margaret Christl and Ian Robb, who in turn inspired Stan Rogers to record it (nearly the only traditional song he ever recorded). Kenneth Peacock found it in Newfoundland, and other versions are few (by my standards; Roud has many in his list, but many appear to be different songs with common lyrics). Fowke calls it a "neat localizing of a popular British ballad that appeared on many nineteenth-century broadsides as 'O No, My Love, Not I.'" - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: DTmarryn

Oh, Once I Had a Fortune

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes how drink has cost him money and sweetheart: "Oh, once I had a fortune, All locked up in a trunk. I lost it all in a gambling hall One night when I got drunk. I'll never get drunk any more...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: drink poverty gambling travel
FOUND IN: US(So) Australia
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 316, "Oh, Once I Had a Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 203-205, "I Had a Handsome Fortune" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 36, "I'll Never Get Drunk Any More" (4 texts, all mixed, but the "D" text is mostly this piece, and "C" probably originated with this also)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1010, p. 69, "I'll Never Get Drunk Again" (1 reference)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 28, "I Got Drunk Again" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #7792, 1993, 22611
RECORDINGS:
Ernest V. Stoneman and the Dixie Mountaineers, "Once I Had a Fortune" (Edison 51935, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5357, 1927); Ernest V. Stoneman and His Blue Ridge Cornshuckers, "One I Had a Fortune" (Victor, unissued, 1928)
NOTES [53 words]: The Roud Index seems to split this into all sorts of separate numbers. It's easy to see why it would be hard to remember all the versions -- after all, there are many, many songs about drinking, gambling, and then promising to straighten out! But the reference to a "handsome fortune" seems pretty characteristic. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: R316

Oh, Once I Loved a Lass

See The Light of the Moon (File: ReCi059)

Oh, Once I Loved an Irish Girl But She Was Fat and Lazy

See Haul Away, Joe (File: Doe004)

Oh, Once I Wuz a Schoolboy

See Heave on the Trawl (The Smacksman) (File: PaSe135)

Oh, Poor Cooner Johns

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, poor Cooner Johns, Farm, farm, my lady, Give poor Cooner one more cent, Farm, farm, my lady."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: farming
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Richard Walser, "His Worship the John Kuner" Vol. XIX, No. 4 (Nov 1971), p. 168, "(Oh, poor Cooner Johns)" (1 text)
NOTES [13 words]: Walser calls this a John Kunnering song. For other such songs, see "Juba!" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: NCF194PC

Oh, Poor Paddy Works on the Railway

See Paddy Works on the Railway (File: LxU076)

Oh, Pretty Polly

See When He Comes, He'll Come in Green (File: Br3070)

Oh, Religion Is a Fortune

See Sabbath Has No End (File: AWG069)

Oh, Rocks Don't Fall on Me

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, rocks don't fall on me (x3). Rocks and mountains don't fall on me." "Look over yonder on Jericho's walls, Rocks and mountains don't fall on me, See those sinners tremble and fall...." "In that great, great judgment day... Sinner will run...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 58, "Oh, Rocks Don't Fall on Me" (1 text)
Roud #11956
File: FSAN058B

Oh, Roll On, Babe

See Take This Hammer (see the notes on this song family for the place of this song) (File: FR383)

Oh, Say, Kid, What Do You Think I Did?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Oh, say, kid, What do you think I did? I upset the cradle And out fell the kid. The kid began to holler; I took him by the collar. Collar broke lose, And I got the deuce." Or may begin, "Virginia, Virginia, what do you think I did?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Journal of American Folklore)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | cradle holler
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #510, "Oh, Say kid" (1 text)
Roud #29376
File: AJRR510

Oh, See My Father Layin' There

See I Have No Loving Mother Now (Oh, See My Father Layin' There) (File: Br3622)

Oh, Sinner, You'd Better Get Ready

See Sinner You Better Get Ready (File: Bart026)

Oh, Sir Jasper

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Sir Jasper do not touch me (x3) As she slipped between the sheets with nothing on at all." "Oh Sir Jasper do not touch (x3), As she...." "Oh, Sir Jasper, do not..." "Oh, Sir Jasper, do..." "Oh, Sir Jasper...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (John Brunner, "The Number of My Days," Nebula Science Fiction 19 [December 1956], according to Jonathan Lighter)
KEYWORDS: wordplay sex derivative campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 168, 393, 394, "Oh, Sir Jasper"/"Oh, So Jasper" (sic.) (notes only)
DT, SIJASPR*
Roud #10311
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune) and references there
cf. "I Wear My Pink Pajamas" (lyrics)
NOTES [110 words]: The trick here, of course, is that each time through, one more word is left out (perhaps with muffled sounds replacing it), until the final sounds are almost orgasmic.
It really should end with a "Tee hee," at least if anyone knows Chaucer's "Miller's Tale."
I would love to know what camps allowed this thing!
Averill calls this sort of thing, where words are left out of a song, a "decremental song." All I can say is, in terms of cleverness, this stands head and shoulders above the rest, even if it is not usable in polite company.
"John Brown's Body" seems to be a popular tune for decemental songs, being used for both this and "John Brown's Flivver." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ACSF168J

Oh, Some Say That He Claw'd

DESCRIPTION: Donald and Maggie McCraw "claw'd ane anither an' a'." When Maggie got a flea on her rump it made a lot of work "for he claw'd and she claw'd She claw'd and he claw'd"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: violence humorous nonballad husband wife bug
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1507, "Oh, Some Say That He Claw'd" (1 text)
Roud #7168
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Sheriffmuir" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
File: GrD71507

Oh, Stand the Storm

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Oh, stand the storm, it won't be long, We'll anchor by and by (x2)."Verses: "My ship is on the ocean," "She's making for the kingdom", "I've a mother in the kingdom," "We're crossing over Jordan," "King Jesus is our captain"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: river sea ship storm nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 189, "Oh, Stand the Storm" (1 text) (1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: J. B. T. Marsh, The Story of the Jubilee Singers (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1903 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #31 p. 188, "We'll Stand the Storm" (1 text) (1 tune)
Roud #12232
NOTES [100 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, the verse line is repeated and every alternate line is "We'll anchor by and by."
The chorus is used in another hymn in William Booth, Salvation Army Songs (London: The Salvation Army Book Department, 1911 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #238 p. 166, ("My God, the spring of all my joys"); Work also has the chorus as a fragment (John Wesley Work, Folk Song of the American Negro (Nashville: Fisk University, 1915 ("Digitized by the Internet Archive")), p. 129, ("Stand the storm, it won't be long")). - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett189

Oh, Steal Away

See Steal Away (File: CNFM042)

Oh, Susanna (II)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Swedish version has a sailor leaving his true love and (for a change) actually returning after she has pined for a while. Another (English) fragment has two verses referring to "the Sovereign of the seas." Both use the familiar Foster tune.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: foc's'le sailor shanty return derivative
FOUND IN: US Sweden
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 116-117, "Oh, Susanna," "Susannavisan (The Susanna Song)" (3 texts-Swedish & English, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Susanna" (tune)
NOTES [178 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas got the Swedish version from Sang under Segel (Sternvall, 1935), which has notes claiming that this text and melody can be traced to the 1750s. If that's true it would put a rather different light on both the Stephen Foster and the gold rush connection. - SL
I have to admit that I don't buy this. I don't know what Sternvall's evidence is, but Foster exuded tunes the way a politician exudes falsehoods about what is mathematically possible. If he'd been better at writing lyrics, he'd have had probably twice as many hits. So I strongly doubt he would have had to steal a tune.
Could the dating somehow be related to The Sovereign of the Seas? There were sundry ships of that name, including an American clipper built in 1852 -- but the most famous ship of that name was Phineas Pett's great battleship of 1637. It was not a very successful ship -- it was too big for the shipbuilding techniques of the time, and as a result was very slow -- but it was so big that it established a reputation based on sheer size and gunpower. - RBW
File: Hugi116

Oh, the Anchor is Weighed and the Sails They Are Set

See Rio Grande (File: Doe064)

Oh, the Blood Done Sign' My Name

See The Blood Done Signed My Name (File: BSoF760)

Oh, the Boatmen Dance

See De Boatman Dance (File: BMRF566)

Oh, the Brave Old Duke of York

See The Noble Duke of York (File: FSWB390B)

Oh, the Heavens Shut the Gates On Me

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the heavens shut the gates on me, Oh, the due time, shut the gates on me, Sometimes I weep, sometimes I mourn, Sometimes I do nary one. Oh, the heavens shut the gates on me, Oh, the due time, shut the gates on me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 620, "Oh, the Heavens Shut the Gates On Me" (1 text)
Roud #11923
File: Br3620

Oh, the Moon Shines So Bright

See The Moon Shines Bright on Charlie Chaplin (File: BrPa040B)

Oh, the Trees Are Getting High

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

Oh, Them Golden Slippers

See Golden Slippers (File: RJ19144)

Oh, They Put John on the Island

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, they put John on the island When the Bridegroom comes, They put John on the island when he comes." "They put him there to starve him." "But you can't starve a Christian." "They fed him on milk and honey." "Oh, look down Jordan river."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (Deming)
KEYWORDS: religious food floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 546, "Oh, They Put John on the Island" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Newman I. White, American Negro Folk Songs (Hatboro) Folklore Associates Inc, 1965 (reprint of Harvard University Press, 1928) #35 p. 96, ("Oh, we'll put John on the island") (1 text)
Roud #11824
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't You Weep After Me" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Ten Virgins" (structure, chorus lines)
cf. "Put John on the Island" (theme, first line)
cf. "John on the Island, I Hear Him Groan" (theme)
NOTES [498 words]: This song contains an odd mix of elements -- the final verses in Brown seem to be imports, and insignificant. But the early verses seem a conflation.
According to Revelation 1:9, John was "on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus." Note that there is no sign he was exiled there; indeed, the general sense is that he voluntarily fled there (probably during the persecution of Domitian, reigned 81-96 C.E.).
Nowhere, however, do we read of John being miraculously fed, let alone with milk and honey (in 10:9-11, he is fed a scroll that tastes like honey, but that's hardly the same thing!). The closest parallel I can think of is in the gospels: In Matthew 4:11, after the temptation by the Devil, "angels came and tended [Jesus]." No mention of milk and honey, though. - RBW
The lines "When the Bridegroom comes" seems more appropriate in "There Were Ten Virgins."
Deming has the following verse from Mississippi, which, he writes, the singers associate with John the Baptist: "In de days of de great tribulation, On a big desert island de Philistines put John, But de ravens dey feed him till de dawn come 'round, Den he gib a big jump and flew up from de groun'. O come down, come down, John!" (Clarence Deming, By-Ways of Nature and Life (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1884 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 372). At the least this brings in Elijah, in God-directed exile from Ahab's control, who is fed by ravens (King James, 1 Kings 17:1-6). - BS
Of course, it also brings in the Philistines, who were no longer a significant people by the time of either John the Evangelist or John the Baptist. - RBW
What case can be made for John the Baptist being on an island fed by ravens? John of Revelation is on the island of Patmos (Revelation 1:9), but that would be a different John at a different time and place.
I am only using the King James text, because I assume that is the most likely text for a non-Catholic 19C hymn singer. [Indeed, there would be no other text accessible to an ordinary southern Protestant. - RBW] The speculation is my own.
First, John the Baptist is imprisoned (Matthew 14.3, Mark 1.14), but the text does not say where. Could be an island.
Second, the singer may follow the apostles in "understanding" John the Baptist to be the prophet Elijah, returned to "prepare the way" before the Messiah (Matthew 3:1-3, Matthew 11:13-14, Matthew 17:12-13).
Third, Elijah -- in hiding -- is fed by ravens (1 Kings 17:1-6).
By association, if God sent ravens to feed Elijah in isolation once, might He not send them again to feed Elijah as John the Baptist? - BS
I suspect Ben has retraced the logic correctly. However, it is worth noting that we do know where John the Baptist was imprisoned; it was in the Herodian fortress of Machaerus, which is not on or even near an island. However, this information comes not from the Bible but from Josephus (Antiquities XVIII.116-119), which, again, most hymn-writers would not have known. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Br3546

Oh, Touch Not the Wine Cup

See Touch Not the Cup (File: R330)

Oh, Wasn't Dat a Wide Riber?

See One More River to Cross (File: R294)

Oh, What a Beautiful City

See Twelve Gates to the City (File: PSAFB081)

Oh, What I'd Give for a Mother

DESCRIPTION: "An old man was seated one evening In an easy chair close by the fire" with a little child,."Please tell me, dear Grandpa, of mother, Her sweet face I never shall see.... Oh what I would give for a mother." Her father disappeared; her mother died of grief
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois)
KEYWORDS: mother children death separation grief
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 252-253, "Oh, What I'd Give for a Mother" (1 text)
Roud #4337
File: Neel252

Oh, When I Git My New House Done

See Sail Away, Ladies (File: CSW203)

Oh, Where Is My Sweetheart?

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, where is my sweetheart? Can anyone tell? (x3) Can anyone, anyone tell?" "He is flirting with another, I know very well." "He told me he loved me, he told me a lie." "I've found me another I love just as well." "...I love him, I wish he was mine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting betrayal
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 303, "Oh, Where Is My Sweetheart?" (2 text plus an excerpt)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 89, "Oh, Where Is My Sweetheart?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11319
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (subject) and references there
File: Br3303

Oh, Where Shall I Be?

See O Where Will Ye Be? (File: ChFRA083)

Oh, Whistle, Whistle, Daughter

See Whistle, Daughter, Whistle (File: R109)

Oh, Willie

See Beam of Oak (Rambling Boy, Oh Willie) (File: LLab015)

Oh, Won't You Sit Down?

See Set Down, Servant (File: LxU105)

Oh, Wretched Man That I Am

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, wretched man that I am (x3), Who will deliver poor me?" "I'm bound down with a burden of woe." "My heart's filled with sadness and pain."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 53, "Oh, Wretched Man That I Am" (1 text)
Roud #11951
File: FSAN053

Oh, Yarmouth is a Pretty Town

See Yarmouth is a Pretty Town (File: Grg032)

Oh, Ye've Been False, or, The Curse

DESCRIPTION: "As I cam' in by yon bonnie waterside... There I spied my ain dear love, And I left my heart wi' him." Finding him false, the singer curses the church where he will marry, hopes his wife buries five sons, and wishes mortal wounds to she who "sinnert" them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: betrayal curse rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 173-174, "Oh, Ye've Been False; or The Curse" (1 text)
Roud #5584
File: Ord173

Oh, Yes, I'm Going Up

See Going Up (File: Dett034)

Oh, Yes, Yonder Comes My Lord

See He's Comin' This Away (File: ScaNF259)

Oh, Yes!

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Oh, wait till I put on my robe." Verses: The singer looks forward to landing "on the other shore" and receiving a gold waist band and slippers and "palms of victory," a white robe and gospel shoes to "walk about heaven and carry the news"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 210-212, "Oh, Yes!" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 186-187 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #15273
NOTES [22 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses every line is followed by "Oh yes, oh yes!" - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett210

Oh, You Wobblies!

DESCRIPTION: "I've traveled north, I've traveled south... And every place I've set my foot I've met the same old pest." "It's Wobblies, Wobblies, everywhere, It's Wobblies night and day." They've organized workers all over. Even "The angels... Have joined the O.B.U."
AUTHOR: "Scottie" (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (New Songs for Butte Mining Camp, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement travel humorous | IWW
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, "Oh, You Wobblies!" (1 text)
NOTES [18 words]: O. B. U. = "One Big Union," the goal of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World, known as the Wobblies). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC543

Oh! 'Tis Pretty to be in Ballinderry

See Ballinderry (File: HHH080)

Oh! An Irishman's Heart

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! an Irishman's heart is as stout as shillelah." Invaders beware, "but the battle once over, no rage fills his breast." "Give poor Pat but fair freedom, his sweetheart and whisky, And he'll die for old Ireland, his king, and his friend"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad fight
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 117-118, "Oh! An Irishman's Heart" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kinnegard Slashers" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
File: CrPS117

Oh! Blame Not the Bard

DESCRIPTION: Don't blame the bard for his songs of love rather than glory. Don't blame him if he "should try to forget what he never can heal." "But though glory be gone, and though hope fade away, Thy name, loved Erin! shall live in his songs"
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Moore-IrishMelodies-1846)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad minstrel
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, pp. 45-46, "(Oh! blame not the bard, if he fly to the bowers)" (1 text)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, p. 77, "Oh! Blame Not the Bard" (1 fragment)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 43, "Oh, Blame Not the Bard!" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 180-181, "O, Blame Not The Bard"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 375-376, "Oh Blame not the Bard" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 269-270, (no title) (1 text)
Roud #V3131
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(281), "Oh! Blame not the Bard" ("Oh, blame not the bard, if he fly to the bowers"), unknown, n.d.
NOTES [39 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 77 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian 2806 b.9(281) is the basis for the description.
Zimmermann [uses] this song to illustrate his point that "the mission of the bard is to weep for his country." - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: BrdOBNtB

Oh! Breathe Not His Name

DESCRIPTION: Someone who must not be named has been buried "in the shade Where cold and un-honoured has relics are laid! ... And the tear that we shed, though in secret it rolls, Shall long keep his memory green in our souls"
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Moore-IrishMelodies-1846)
KEYWORDS: grief memorial nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, p. 6, "Oh! Breath not his Name" (1 text)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 159, "Oh! Breathe Not His Name" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 45, "Oh, Breathe Not His Name!" (1 text)
Roud #V972
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(20), "Oh! Breathe Not His Name" ("Oh! breathe not his name, let it sleep in the shade ," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
LOCSheet, sm1879 06663, "Oh, Breathe Not His Name ," Edw. Schuberth (New York), 1879 (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She is Far From the Land" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
cf. "When He Who Adores Thee" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
cf. "The Man from God-Knows-Where" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
cf. ""I Don't Mean to Tell You Her Name (I)" (theme of hidden name)
NOTES [428 words]: Zimmermann p. 77 Fn. 11 speculates that this is "perhaps inspired by Lord Edward Fitzgerald's death." Moylan 159 in The Age of Revolution: "This, the third of Moore's songs on [Robert] Emmet, seems to echo Emmet's dying request from the world for 'the charity of its silence'. [Lord Edward Fitzgerald [1763-1798], head of the military committee of the United Irishmen died June 4, 1798, in Newgate, Dublin after being wounded and arrested by Major Henry Charles Sirr on May 19; Wexford Rebellion begins May 26, 1798 (source: The Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco) site entry for [Lord] Edward Fitzgerald)] [Robert Emmet (1780-1803) "Irish nationalist rebel leader. He led an abortive rebellion against British rule in 1803 and was captured and executed." (source: "Robert Emmet" at the Wikipedia site)]
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 18(20): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
For the sad background of Robert Emmet's typically Irish story, see the notes to "Bold Robert Emmet." - RBW
The song is so short (two stanzas, neither of which describes the dead man beyond noting that he's dead) that we cannot be dogmatic about the man being memorialized. On the one hand, Emmet asked that no epitaph be written for him (see the notes to "Bold Robert Emmet"), but if he were meant, I'd think the song would be a little more specific. Still, if it is certain that Moore's other poems were about Emmet, then he seems the best candidate. And we should note that Moore knew Emmet; according to Kee, who quotes this song on p. 168 , Moore was "Emmet's old friend and fellow student at Trinity." Kee regards Moore as having "set the tone" for Emmet's legend; the phrase "set the tone" apparently is derived from Marianne Elliot (Edwards, p. 69).
Williams, p. 23, is also convinced the song is about Emmet: "Some of Moore's most deeply felt patriotic songs are opaque to anyone ignorant of their background. For example, 'Oh! Breath Not His Name,' published in the first series [of Moore's Irish Melodies], refers to his friend Robert Emmet...."
Williams, p. 25, makes the interesting point that, although Moore's Irish nationalism was relatively restrained and acceptable to English opinion, "The words
'free,' 'freedom,' and 'liberty' appear in thirty-six of Moore's Melodies."
There was a mid-nineteenth century song, "Oh, Breathe Not Her Name," by L. A. Jones and Frederick Buckley"; I would assume it was inspired by this poem. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: BrdOBNHN

Oh! Don't You Remember Sweet Alice

See Ben Bolt (File: RJ19030)

Oh! Gin I Were Where Gaudie Rins

See Where the Gadie Rins (I), (II), etc. (File: Ord347)

Oh! I Ha'e Seen the Roses Blaw

See O I Hae Seen the Roses Blaw (File: StoR016)

Oh! I Had a Good Woman

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I had a good woman (x2), And the fool laid down and died."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 751, "Oh! I Had a Good Woman" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [17 words]: The current description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5751

Oh! Mither I hae a batchelor been

See How Lang Have I a Bachelor Been (File: HLMM148)

Oh! My! You're a Dandy for Nineteen Years Old

See Oly Nineteen Years Old (File: RcOn19YO)

Oh! No, No

DESCRIPTION: "Come here, dearest Peggy, you're my whole heart's delight... So fain I wad bide, love, but away I must go." He says he would guard her if they were together. She goes into frenzies of grief; he stops her, saying he will not leave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation trick
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #107, p. 1, "Oh No, No"; #141, pp. 2-3, "Oh No, No" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan5 1053, "Oh No, No" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
Greig/Duncan8 1933, "No, Lassie No" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 136-137, "Oh! No, No" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #832
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Busk, Busk, Bonnie Lassie" (lyrics)
cf. "The Manchester Angel" (lyrics)
cf. "The Girl Volunteer" (theme: sweetheart tries to convince soldier to let her accompany him)
NOTES [319 words]: This guy is enough of a jerk to make John Riley look good.
Roud lumps this item with "Busk, Busk, Bonnie Lassie," and there are lyrics in common. But this has no chorus, and does have a happy ending -- if you believe that it's a happy ending when a man taunts a girl needlessly and then declares it a joke. There is kinship, but it doesn't look like the same song to me. - RBW
Greig/Duncan8 notes the similarity of the one verse of its text "to [Greig/Duncan5] 1053, especially to version F, [but] its different structure distinguishes it as a different song." Roud, who numbers the Greig/Duncan8 verse Roud #16606, apparently agrees. The verses in question, and Ord-BothySongsAndBallads p. 136, verse 1, do not seem to me to be different enough in structure to be classified as separate songs. Here is Ord:
Come here dearest Peggy, you're my whole heart's delight,
But the fairest of days love, brings on the dark night;
So fain I wad bide, love, but away I must go,
And ye canna win wi' me, love, oh! no, no.
Here is Greig/Duncan8 1933:
Farewell my dear jewel and whole heart's delight
The brightest of mornings fesses on a dark night,
And it's been cruel fortune that's caused it so
But will I win ye Johnie No lassie no,
But will I win ye Johnie No lassie no.
Which leads to the next question: is this related to "The Girl Volunteer" ("The Cruel War is Raging") [Laws O33]? Ord has a war connection ("You see yon soldiers ... So fain's I wad bide, love, but away I must go"; "If ye were in India, 'mong the frost and rain, Your color it wad fade love ... If I were in India, 'mong the frost and snow, I wad stand at your back lovie, and keep off the foe"). Maybe the end is enough to separate the songs: in "Cruel War" he sometimes lets her join him; in Ord he admits "I never intended away for to go." It's too bad that Laws did not say what British broadsides might have provided the source for his O33. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord136

Oh! Oh! Oh! It's a Lovely War!

See Oh It's a Lovely War (File: SBar074)

Oh! Silber Shining Moon

See Lucy Long (II) (File: R780)

Oh! Steer My Bark to Erin's Isle

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I have roamed o'er many lands ... In Erin's isle I'd pass my time." If the singer's home were England or Scotland, he'd love that home; "pleasant days in both I've past," But he'll "steer my bark to Erin's isle, For Erin is my home."
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Haynes Bayly
EARLIEST DATE: before 1869 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(537))
KEYWORDS: home travel Ireland lyric nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 155, "Oh! Steer My Bark to Erin's Isle" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 32, "Erin Is My Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10364
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(537), "Oh, Steer my Barque to Erin's Isle", J. Moore (Belfast), 1852-1868; also 2806 c.15(318), 2806 c.15(257), "Oh, Steer my Bark to Erin's isle"
NOTES [143 words]: Bodleian makes the author N.T.H Bayly; O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland has F.H. Bayly. - BS
The latter, of course, is an easy misreading of "T. H. Bayly." Spaeth's A History of Popular Music in America also credits the lyrics to Bayly (p. 85), adding that the tune is German, arranged by Ignaz Moscheles.
Curiously, the uncredited book The Library of Irish Music (published by Amsco) credits the *music* to T. H. Bayly with words by "S. Nelson"! (The BaylyNelson combination does seem to have been responsible for "O! They Marched Through the Town (The Captain with His Whiskers)," but Bayley was the lyricist.)
Incidentally, there seem to be conflicting dates for Bayly; Spaeth says he lived 1797-1829;Wikipedia gives 1797-1839. Nor can people seem to agree whether his surname was "Bayly" or "Bayley." Granger's Index to Poetry says "Bayly." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon155A

Oh! Susanna

DESCRIPTION: Nonsense song about a man going to see his beloved Susanna. The singer tells his love, "Oh Susanna, Oh! don't you cry for me, I've come from Alabama, wid my banjo on my knee." The song describes the impossible means he took to reach her
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1848 (sheet muysic by C. Holt Jr.)
KEYWORDS: love travel dream humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE)
REFERENCES (26 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 152-155, "Oh! Susanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 408, "Oh, Susanna!" (2 texts plus 2 excerpts and mention of 4 more; the "E" text has a chorus from elsewhere)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 408, "Oh, Susanna!" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 103, (no title) (1 fragment, with a verse probably from "Napper" but the chorus of this song)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 198, "Susanna" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 82-83, "Oh! Susanna" (1 text) (p. 69 in the 1919 edition)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 8-9, "O! Susanna" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 67, "(I dreamt a dream the other night)" (1 fragment)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 244, "Oh, Susanna" (1 text)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 46, "Oh, Susanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, p. 6, "Susanna" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 40, "Oh, Susanna!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 73-75, "Susanna (Oh! Susanna)" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 172-173, "Oh! Susanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 404-405, "Oh! Susanna"
Harbin-Parodology, #312, p. 75, "O Susanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 167, "Oh! Susanna" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 41, "Oh! Susanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 17, "Oh, Susanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 13, "Oh! Susanna" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 107, "Oh, Susanna" (1 text)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 28, "Oh! Susanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OSUSANNA*
ADDITIONAL: John Allen Wyeth, _With Sabre and Scalpel_ (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1914 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), ("Run, nigger, run; patter-roller catch you"), p. 63 (1 verse)
Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 78-79, "Oh! Susanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, plate 21, shows the original sheet music cover
ST RJ19152 (Full)
Roud #11745
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Oh Susanna" (Romeo 539, 1928)
Vernon Dalhart w. Carson Robison & Adelyne Hood, "Oh! Susanna" (Victor 21169, 1928)
Light Crust Doughboys, "Oh! Susanna" (Vocalion 03345, 1936)
Chubby Parker, "Oh, Susanna" (Silvertone 25013, 1927; Supertone 9191, 1928)
Riley Puckett "O! Susanna" (Columbia 15014-D, c. 1925; rec. 1924; Silvertone 3261 [as Tom Watson], 1926)
Rice Brothers Band, "Oh Susannah" (Decca 5804, 1940)
Pete Seeger, "Oh, Susanna" (on PeteSeeger18)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Prospecting Dream" (tune)
cf. "Oh California" (tune)
cf. "Oh, Susanna (II)" (tune)
cf. "Snowed In" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Oh California (File: ShaSS114)
Oh, Susanna (II) (File: Hugi116)
Song of the Death Valley Prospectors (File: CAFS2664)
The Empire Club (File: TPS063)
Snowed In (File: Clev046)
Trentham (File: Clev118)
The Mules Ran Off (by Pearl R. Nye) (File: Salt062)
The Shipping Agents (by Charles Thatcher) (File: BaRo047)
The Handcart Song (Missionary) (File: ChMS066)
I'm Off for California (File: CAFS652)
The Seven Devil Mines (File: LDC140)
There Comes a Reckoning Day (File: LDC480)
O Susanne! (a Danish song built around Fosters's tune but about a boy who became a sailor; Rochelle Wright and Robert L. Wright, _Danish Emigrant Ballads and Songs_, Southern Illinois University Press, 1983, #59, p. 137)
Old Mose Song ("I'm don on running with der old machine") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 115)
That Cottage Home (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 155)
Oh, Luella ("Oh, Luella, won't you mention me," referring to the ability of Louella Parsons to bring performers to fame and prominence) (Jacob Weisberg, _Ronald Reagan_ [a volume in the _American Presidents_ series edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.], Times Books, 2016 (references are to a 2015 advance reader copy that probably has the final pagination but lacks an index or other reader helps), p. 19)
I'm On My Way to Canada ("I'm on my way to Canada, That cold and dreary land; The sad effects of slavery, I can no longer stand") (Foner, p. 90)
"Song" (by T.R.) ("I dreamt a dream the other night, When everything was still; I dreamt I saw Ben Butler's boys Upon the White House hill.... O Blaine and Cleveland, why did they ever try?") (Foner, p. 260)
The Swiss Referendum ("Fair morning comes, behold the dawn Of Direct Legislation") (by B. M. Lawrence) (Foner, p. 282)
NOTES [567 words]: This song is one of the best examples of Stephen Foster's bad luck and lack of skill as a businessman. The first (unauthorized) printing never mentioned Foster's name, though it associates the song with the Christy Minstrels. Foster then gave the piece away; the next printing had his name on it, but if he received any money at all, it was a flat up-front fee. Howard, pp. 141-144, lists twenty different printed editions from 1848 to 1851, from ten different publishers; some are new arrangements, and the titles vary, but they're the same song. Howard says that most of the editions don't even mention Foster's name.
There is perhaps some sort of irony that that earliest, pirated, printing, by C. Holt Jr. of New York, is now immensely valuable; according to TaylorEtAl, p. 31, only three copies were known in the mid-twentieth century.
This was one of Foster's very earliest pieces, and (along with "Uncle Ned") one of his first big hits. According to DeVoto, p. 134, 'in March of [1846] a twenty-year-old Pittsburg youth failed of appointment at West Point, and so at the end of the year he went to keep books in his brother's commission house at Cincinnati. He took with him the manuscripts of three songs, all apparently written in this year, all compact of the minstrel-nigger tradition. One celebrates a lubly collud gal, Lou'siana Belle. In another an old nigger has no wool on the top of his head in the place whar de wool ought to grow.... And in the third American pioneering was to find its leitmotif for all time: it was 'Oh Susanna!'"
Morneweck, p. 313, quotes the announcement for what seems to be the world premier of this song, from the September 11, 1847 Daily Commercial Journal. It is an advertisement for Andrews' Ice Cream Saloon promoting a concert which featured, in addition to "The Old Iron City," "Away Down Souf," "Allegheny Belle," "Picayune Butler," "The Floating Scow," and "The gal wid de blue dress on," "SUSANNA -- A new song, never before given to the public" (Morneweck, pp. 313-314). One of the performers at this event was Nelson Kneass, who wrote the standard tune for "Ben Bolt."
The early popularity of this song seems to be indicated by the existence of a Gold Rush version, a fragment of which is quoted by Laura Ingalls Wilder in Little House in the Big Woods (chapter 13):
Oh, Susi-an-na, don't you cry for me,
I'm going to Cal-i-for-ni-a,
The gold dust for to see.
Emerson, pp. 39-40, notes that Foster has a musical sister, Charlotte Susanna, who died young. He seems to believe the verse
I had a dream de udder night, when ebry ting was still,
I thought I saw Susanna dear a coming down de hill
was inspired by her.
On p. 127, he declares that "September 11, 1847, is a firm date for the birth of pop music as we still recognize it today," when the Eagle Saloon debuted the song. Emerson goes on to declare the song to be more deeply rooted in American consciousness than any other.
Morneweck, volume I, p. 259, suggests that another line, "I jumped aboard de Telegraph, An trabbelleed down de ribber," was inspired by an actual boat, the Telegraph, which Stephen's brother Morrison had written. This might be a bit of family tradition, since Morneweck was Morrison Foster's daughter -- but it strikes me as equally possible that Stephen was just doing one of his bits of nonsense; if a message can travel by telegraph, why couldn't a person? - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: RJ19152

Oh! The Horse Broke Down

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! The horse broke down at Puchardstown And the horseman lost his whiskers, The horse took shy, And lost his eye, And had to get the loan of his sister's."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: horse injury
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 174, "Oh! The Horse Broke Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #38130
NOTES [40 words]: Brady-AllInAllIn does not put a name to the tune of this, but it appears to be very close to the "A" part of "Brighton Camp"/"The Girl I Left Behind Me." Which makes me wonder if there might not be a second part using the rest of the tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI174A

Oh! We All Got Religion

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "We all got religion, In that day (3x), We all got religion in that day. Wait on, the trump shall sound." Verses repeat a line 3x with a tag "When my Lord was there" (see notes). Final chorus replaces "we all got" by "the genuine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 36, "Oh! We All Got Religion" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [32 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. Verses include "My father (my mother, ..., you swearers, you mourners, ...) where were you?"(3x) "When my Lord was there" - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa036

Oh! When a Man Get the Blues

See When a Woman Blue (File: San236)

Ohio

DESCRIPTION: The singer remembers the dead at Stones River. He recalls finding a dying youth. The soldier sends greetings to his family, then dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar dying
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 31, 1862-Jan 2, 1863 - Battle of Stones River/Murfreesboro
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 127, "Ohio" (1 text, 1 tune)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 86-87, "Stone River" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST E127 (Full)
Roud #5343
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Stone River" (subject: The Battle of Stones River/Murfreesboro)
NOTES [178 words]: Salt's version of this is not the same as Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio's, and indicated no source; I am more than slightly dubious about its authenticity. But the plot seems to go here.
It is hard to say who won the Battle of Stones' River/Murfreesboro. The battle pitted William S. Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland against Braxton Bragg's Confederate army. Rosecrans had been advancing into Tennessee, and Bragg set out to stop him.
In the first phase of the battle, on Dec. 31, Bragg drove back but did not destroy Rosecrans's right. Jan. 1, 1863 was quiet, but Bragg tried again on Jan. 2. Again he failed to decisively defeat the Federals.
Although it was probably ahead "on points," after spending the day of Jan. 3 on the field, Bragg's army retreated. The federal army had been so badly mauled that it would be half a year before it moved again -- but Rosecrans held the field and his gains. So a marginal tactical defeat was hailed by Union supporters as a strategic victory.
For a fuller account of the battle, see "The Battle of Stone River" (sic.). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: E127

Ohio Canal, The

DESCRIPTION: "Up the Cuyahoga, far as Akron," the river passes "locks a-plenty." The singer tells hearers to float the boats through the locks as they head for "the valley." THey will keep the boats going "if we pump Lake Erie dry."
AUTHOR: John W. Beattie
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (The Ameican SInger, Book Six)
KEYWORDS: river ship nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 33, "The Ohio Canal" (1 text, not from tradition)
File: Grim033

Ohio Guards

DESCRIPTION: "You are wanted for one hundred days, Be ready in one minute, So General Cowen's order says... Ho, lads, untackle from the plow... To join the Union forces." The singer bids goodbye to family, kisses Mary, and heads off to save the nation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953? (Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection)
KEYWORDS: soldier farewell Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 38, "Ohio Guards" (1 text)
NOTES [199 words]: Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection says this is to the tune of "The Boyne Water," but I very, very strongly suspect that it is really "Brighton Camp/The Girl I Left Behind Me."
According to Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 157, "General" Cowen called out the Ohio militia in 1864 to serve as guards and otherwise protect the home front.
There are some minor problems with this account -- starting with the fact that Cowan wasn't a general. Benjamin Rush Cowen was a major, serving as an "additional paymaster." He was eventually made a brevet brigadier general, but that wasn't until March 13, 1865 (Phisterer, p. 293). Brevet rank was not the same as regular rank, and Cowen didn't earn his brevet until later anyway, so if Cowen is meant, this song must have been written well after the event Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection describes.
On the other hand, there was no other general, Union or Confederate, named Cowen.
There isn't much detailed information about Cowen available. Acording to Boatner, p. 205, he was born in 1831 and was a "journalist, legislator, and merchant." A check of seven other Civil War references failed to reveal any references to him. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.8
File: Grim038

Ohio Prison Fire

DESCRIPTION: "Locked in the cells of a prison, A prison much too small, Convicts jammed and crowded Within that cold grey wall." When fire strikes, the guards react slowly. Many die. The singer laments, "God doesn't want even convicts To die like rats in a hole."
AUTHOR: Carson J. Robison
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Carson J. Robison)
KEYWORDS: prison fire disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 21, 1930 - The Columbus Prison fire.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 404, "Ohio Prison Fire" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Carson J. Robison, "Ohio Prison Fire" (Columbia 15548-D, 1930)
NOTES [24 words]: There is a book about this event, Mitchel P. Roth, Fire in the Big House: America's Deadliest Prison Disaster, Ohio University Press, 2019. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: CAFS2404

Ohio River, She's So Deep and Wide

DESCRIPTION: "Ohio River, she's so deep and wide, Lord, I can't see my poor gal from the other side." "I'm going to river, take my seat and sit down, If the blues overtake me, I'll jump into the river and drown." "I've got the blues... I ain't got the heart to cry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: separation floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 81-83, "Ohio Rivuh, She's So Deep an' Wide" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10028
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Abilene" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Kansas City Blues" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [26 words]: This is one of those songs composed entirely of floating lyrics. But since there doesn't seem to be a dominant "ingredient," it gets listed separately. - RBW
File: MWhee081

Ohio, The

DESCRIPTION: "Just as soon as we get married, to Texas we will go. Settle on the banks of the Ohio, Where there's bear and buffalo, And all sorts of game Creeping through the cane on the Ohio. Come along here, my love... For I will take good care of thee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love courting travel river
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 35, "The Ohio" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11394
File: Brne035

Oi! (Song; Ka wai opuamakani o Wailua)

DESCRIPTION: Hawaaian: "Ka wai opuamakani o Wailua." "The wind-beaten stream of Wailua Is tossed into waves from the sea." A messenger warns of a coming storm. She despairs of support from the man, and laments, "I am wrong."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Emerson, "The Hula," Unwritten Literature of Hawaii, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love rejection
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 689, "Oi! (Song)" (1 Hawaiian text plus English translation)
File: CAFS689A

Oil in My Lamp

DESCRIPTION: WITrinidadVillage02 has "A little more oil in your lamp Keep it burning A little more oil in your lamp I say A little more oil in your lamp Keep it burning O keep it burning Till the break of day." Monty Morris has "my lamp" and "pray" instead of "say"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica,Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Eric "Monty" Morris with Byron Lee and the Dragonnaires, "Oil In My Lamp" (Atlantic 45 rpm AT 4003, 1964; on "Ska Down Jamaica," Hudson VanDam HVCD CD 5105-2, 1998)
Venice Talbot, Louise Neptune, Lovey Gilman, Martha Saunders, Henry Thomas, "A Little More Oil in Your Lamp" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [337 words]: Both the WITrinidadVillage02 and Monty Morris recordings are only the verse in the description, repeated. One of the remaining forms using the ska rhythm in Jamaica is the hymn (see Melvyn Lloyd Butler, Songs of Pentecost: Experiencing Music, Transendence, and Identity in Jamaica and Haiti (Ph.D. Dissertation, New York University, 2005), pp. 44 (fn 26), 182-183, 221).
The following information is from the Hymnary.org site https://hymnary.org/text/give%5fme%5foil%5fin%5fmy%5flamp%5fkeep%5fme%5fburning accessed 20 July 2023). There are at least two other hymns to the same tune and pattern: "Give Me Oil in My Lamp" shares its first verse with the Monty Morris version, has a chorus ("Sing hosanna"(3x) "to the King of kings" "Sing hosanna"(3x)" "Sing hosanna to the King") and adds three verses ("Give me love in my heart keep me sharing" "Give me joy in my heart keep me singing" "Give me faith in my heart keep me praying"); "Give Me Joy in My Heart Keep Me Praising" has its title verse, the "sing hosanna" chorus and two more verses ("Give me peace in my heart, keep me loving" "Give me love in my heart keep me serving"). The author/adapter of both is A. Sevison and the site has no hymnal appearances, for either, before 1950. Both have been recorded many times, sometimes as "Sing Hosanna"
Donald R. Hill and Lise Winer, liner notes for WITrinidadVillage02: "The lyrics of 'A Little More Oil' refer to Exodus 27:20 'and thou shall command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always' (see also Hebrews 1:9)."
On the other hand, the source of the theme may be the Matthew 25:1-13 parable of the ten virgins (see notes to "The Ten Virgins"). - BS
(For what it's worth, I was immediately reminded of the Ten Virgins, not the Exodus passage. My second thought would probably be of the Hannukah Oil, but that probably wouldn't occur to this sort of congregation. But I'm sure Exodus would not have come to mind unless directly reminded. - RBW)
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcOIMLam

Oil of the Barley, The

See (references to tune under) Mowing the Barley (Cold and Raw) (File: ShH60)

Oka, Bocca, Stona Crocka

See Ickie Bickie Soda Cracker (File: ZiZa072C)

Okey Kokey

See Hokey Pokey (II) (File: OpGa110)

Oklahoma

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the mistletoe grows in the tree tops, And the birds sing their sweet melody, Oklahoma, the state of them Indians, And we'll praise her wherever we go." It is a land of "beautiful highways." Singers will never forget the state's "good people."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recorded from Merle Lovell, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: home patriotic nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 513-514, "Oklahoma" (1 text)
Roud #16028
File: CAFS2513

Okoboji Song

See Kille Kille Wash Wash (Gilly Gilly Wash Wash; Hail to Our Wigwam) (File: ACSF148K)

Ol' A'k's A-Movin', The

See The Old Ark's A-Moverin' (File: LoF248)

Ol' Arboe

See Old Arboe (Ardboe) (File: HHH505)

Ol' Coon Dog

See Way Down in Rackensack (Old Coon Dog) AND Whoa Mule (The Kickin' Mule) (File: R350)

Ol' Dynamite

DESCRIPTION: "The outlaw stands with blindfold eyes, His feet set wide apart"; the puncher prepares to ride him. They take off the blindfold, and Old Dynamite starts to buck. Rider Buck manages to stay on, tips his hat to the crowd, and disappears
AUTHOR: Phil LeNoir (source: Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 113-115, "Ol' Dynamite" (1 text)
File: ThLo113

Ol' Gen'ral Bragg's a-Mowin' Down de Yankees

DESCRIPTION: The master (?) tells the slaves that Bragg is defeating the Yankees, and warns them to behave. But then the southern troops appear to be running. Master runs off to the swamps, "while Dinah, Pomp, an' Pete dey look As if dey mighty pleas'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar slave battle freedom
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 233, "Ol' Gen'ral Bragg's a-Mowin' Down de Yankees" (1 text)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 104-105, "Old Massa He Come Dancin' Out" (1 text)
Roud #6619
NOTES [195 words]: It is difficult to correlate this song with any particular Civil War battle. Braxton Bragg (1817-1876) commanded at four major conflicts: Perryville (Oct. 8, 1862), Murfreesboro/Stones River (Dec. 31, 1862-Jan. 2, 1863), Chickamauga (Sept. 19-20, 1862), and Chattanooga (Nov. 23-25, 1863).
None of these battles fit the song. Perryville ended with Bragg retreating, but it was a voluntary retreat -- and it was in Kentucky anyway, where the slaves were not freed by the Emancipation Proclamation.
Stones River also ended with Bragg retreating, but again, his forces retreated in good order; there was no running.
Chickamauga was an overwhelming Confederate victory; only the Yankees fled.
The best fit, then, is Chattanooga, where Bragg at first held the Federals easily -- he held an overwhelmingly strong position on the ridges above the town) but then saw his troops fall apart. (He was relieved afterward.) -- But the area through which the Confederates fled had been in Union hands previously, and was not good planting country; there were few slaves in the area.
According to Greenway, the mother of collector Merton Knowles learned the song after the Civil War. - RBW
File: BrII233

Ol' Hag, You See Mammy?

DESCRIPTION: "Ol hag, you see Mammy? No, no (x2), Mammy carry bubby goin' to ilant, Pappy goin' to seasho', Row boat for catfish, row boat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (collected from Aunt Stella Horry)
KEYWORDS: nonballad lullaby mother father fishing
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 95, "Ol' Hag, You See Mammy?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15606
File: LxSi095A

Ol' John Brown

See Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)

Ol' Mars'r Had a Pretty Yaller Gal

See Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal) (File: BAF904)

Ol' Mickey Brannigan's Pup

See Brannigan's Pup (File: FSC122)

Ol' Rattler

See Old Rattler (File: CNFM104)

Ol' Sheep Done Know de Road, De

See The Old Sheep Done Know the Road (File: Dett004)

Ol' Texas

See Going to Leave Old Texas (Old Texas, Texas Song, The Cowman's Lament) (File: FCW066E)

Ol' Virginny Never Tire

See Old Virginny Never Tire (File: ScaNF109)

Olban (Alban) or The White Captive [Laws H15]

DESCRIPTION: A young woman (Amanda) has been taken captive by Indians. She is about to be subjected to torture or death when one of the tribe (the chief, young Albion?) rescues her and brings her home, (asking no reward but his food)
AUTHOR: Rev. Thomas C. Upham
EARLIEST DATE: 1818 (The "Columbia Sentinel" of Boston)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) rescue
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws H15, "Olban (Alban) or The White Captive"
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 256-259, "The White Captive" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 674, "Her White Bosom Bare" (2 texts)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 158, "Amanda" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 160-163, "Young Alban and Amandy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #62, "Young Albin" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 130, "The White Captive" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 31-32, "The White Captive" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, "Bright Amanda" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 206-207, "The White Captive" (1 text)
DT 761, WHTCAPTV
Roud #657
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Lamanda" (AFS 4203 B1, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fair Captive" (theme)
NOTES [66 words]: Several scholars have sought for the events which lie behind this ballad. One even connected it with a story by James Fennimore Cooper! Given that all the accounts disagree, and that the Cooper story ("Wish-Ton-Wish") was not published until 1832, each must probably be taken with a grain of salt. - RBW
In Ford's version, Olban (called "Alvin") asks for food for his people rather than himself. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LH15

Old 97, The

See The Wreck of Old 97 [Laws G2] (File: LG02)

Old Abe Is Sick

DESCRIPTION: "Old Abe is sick (x2), Old Abe is sick in bed. He's a lying dog, a dying dog, With meanness in his head." "He wants our cotton... He shall have it, he will have it, Some tar and feathers too." "Down with Old Abe... And all his Yankee crew"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: political Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 388, "Old Abe is Sick" (1 text)
Roud #11754
File: Br3388

Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness

DESCRIPTION: "Old Abe Lincoln came out of the wilderness, Out of the wilderness, Out of the wilderness, Old Abe Lincoln came out of the wilderness, Down in Illinois." Possibly related: "Aren't you glad you joined the Republicans... Down in Illinois."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: political parody nonballad derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1809 - Birth of Abraham Lincoln in Kentucky . He later moved to Illinois
1860 - The Republicans, looking for a candidate who does not carry much baggage, nominate Lincoln for President. In a four-way race, Lincoln receives 40% of the popular votes and enough electoral votes to be elected President. The result is the Civil War
1864 - Lincoln is re-elected President
1865 - Lincoln assassinated
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 168, "Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 94-95, "Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, p. 17, "Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 287, "Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness" (1 text)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 53, (no title) (1 short text, probably a fragment of a modified version of this song) (OakEd, p. 64)
Additional: Paul F. Boller, Jr., _Presidential Campaigns_, second revised edition, Oxford University Press, p. 112 (partial text)
Roud #11629
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)" (tune)
cf. "I Wait Upon the Lord" (tune, structure)
NOTES [78 words]: This is clearly derived from "Ain't I Glad to Get Out of the Wilderness," currently filed as part of "The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse, The Little Black Bull)." The version of "Ain't I Glad" used for this song was probably the one printed, e.g., on p. 22 of Dime-Song-Book #4, which is a multi-part minstrel song and is clearly distinguishable from the "Old Gray Mare" texts. But the whole family is a mess that needs more effort than I'm willing to give it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: San168

Old Abe, or We Go Marchin' On

See Marching On (File: Wa130)

Old Abe's Elected

DESCRIPTION: "Old Abe's elected so they say Along with Darkey Hamlin, The Yankees think they'll gain the day By nigger votes and gamblin'." (To the tune of Yankee Doodle)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar political parody
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1861-1865 - Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin are President and Vice President
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 245, "Old Abe's Elected" (1 text)
Roud #7712
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Honest Abe" (subject)
NOTES [115 words]: Abraham Lincoln hardly needs introduction. Hannibal Hamlin was Lincoln's vice president; a former Democrat, he joined the Republicans over the issue of slavery. He was replaced as vice president, in Lincoln's second term, by Andrew Johnson.
This piece clearly shows the level of political rhetoric that was being fired about during the election of 1860; Hamlin was anti-slavery, but not radically so; certainly neither he nor Lincoln had, at that time, any plan to enfranchise the southern slaves. And, at this time, a referendum in New York to grant Blacks the franchise failed miserably. For background on the amazingly complex election of 1860, see the notes to "Lincoln and Liberty." - RBW
File: R245

Old Abram Brown

See Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead) (File: R428)

Old Adam

DESCRIPTION: "I'm very sorry for old Adam, Just as sorry as can be, For he never had no mammy For to hold him on her knee." "And I've always had the feeling He'd a-let that apple be If he'd only had a mammy For to hold him on her knee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: Bible mother
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 339, "Old Adam" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4566
File: San339

Old Adam (II)

See Old Adam and Eve (File: GrD71269)

Old Adam and Eve

DESCRIPTION: "The praise of dear women I'll sing." Adam had food, a garden, horses and foxes to hunt. His happiness was not complete until his wife was taken from his side to be his equal and partner. A man without a wife is a beggar; a beggar with a wife is blessed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (Fisher)
KEYWORDS: marriage Bible nonballad wife gardening animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #148, p. 2, "Adam and Eve" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1269, "Old Adam and Eve" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 215-216, "Old Adam" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 378)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #35, pp. 230-232,250, "Old Adam" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 451-452, "Old Adam" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 153-154, "When Adam Was First Created" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Fisher, The Honeymoon (London, 1840 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 164 [Note 3], ("When Adam was first created") (1 fragment (two verses))
Roud #728
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(242), "Adam & Eve" ("Both sexes give ear to my fancy"), W. Ford (Sheffield), no date; also Harding B 28(19), "In Praise of Dear Women I Sing ("Both sexes give ear to my fancy")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Adam Was Created (Wedlock)" (theme)
NOTES [130 words]: Greig/Duncan7: "Fifty-three years ago." [1905]
Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.13(192), "When Adam was first created" ("Both sexes give here [sic] to my fancy"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866 is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
The tale of the creation of the woman from the rib of the man is told in Genesis 2:21-22 (with the description of her as his partner continuing until 2:24, and the statement that none of the animals was a partner fit for him in 3:20). The other account of the creation, in Genesis 1:27, strongly implies that men and women were created at the same time (implying, obviously, a different sort of partnership). This account also places the creation of humanity at the end of the creation of life, not the beginning. . - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: GrD71269

Old Adam, the Poacher

DESCRIPTION: "Old Adam was a poacher, Went out one day at Fall To catch a hare for roasting." "A keeper that was passing" sees Adam, "Proceeding both to take. Hare noot his'n, So in prison Old Adam groaning lay." When released, Adam is "looking small"
AUTHOR: Words: Sabine Baring-Gould
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: poaching prison animal food | hare
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #120, "Old Adam, the Poacher" (1 text, 1 tune, the text seemingly entirely non-traditional)
Roud #13907
File: BGSW120

Old Alec Brown

DESCRIPTION: "Old Alec Brown has brought me here, Lie in jail all my days." "True love, true love, my darling child, What have I done to you?" The singer asks the girl to be true to him; she has caused him to weep and has turned her back on him. Many lyrics float
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Morris, Southern Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: love prison separation abandonment floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #44, "Old Alec Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5010
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lonesome Road" (lyrics)
cf. "In the Pines" (lyrics)
File: Morr044

Old and Gray

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis thee and not the roses, dear, That I have learned to love, Though now thine eyes are bright and clear... Yet should thine eyes grow dime with age I'll love thee all the way, For 'tis the head and not the heart That shall grow old and gray."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: age beauty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 712, "Old and Gray" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: BrS5712

Old and Only in the Way

DESCRIPTION: "When you walk along the street, how often do you meet Some poor old man who's getting old and gray?" Poor old men find that their children do not care for him, and rich old men have heirs waiting impatiently. The singer complains about the young
AUTHOR: P. J. Downey and L. T. Billings
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: youth age money work
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 83, "Old and Only in the Way" (1 text)
DT, OLD&GRAY
Roud #6440
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. For Luther Ossenbrink], "Old and Only in the Way" (Gennett 7154/Champion 15943 [as West Virginia Rail Splitter]//Supertone 9639, 1930; Champion 45192 [as West Virginia Rail Splitter], 1935)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Old and in the Way" (OKeh 40181, 1924) (OKeh 45273, 1928; rec. 1927) (Bluebird B-5959/Montgomery Ward M-4850, 1935)
Byron G. Harlan, "Always In the Way" (CYL: Edison 8501, 1903)
Kentucky Girls, "Old and Only in the Way" (Columbia 15364-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Oliver Moore [pseud. for Ted Chestnut], "Old and Only in the Way" (Challenge 422, 1928)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Old and Only in the Way" (Columbia 15672-D, 1931; rec. 1928; on CPoole03)
File: DToldgra

Old and Young Courtier, The

DESCRIPTION: "An old song made by an aged old pate, Of an old worshipful gentleman, who had a great estate." The story tells of the proper behavior of this old courtier. It compares him to a young courtier whose newfangled behavior is much less proper
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Bell)
KEYWORDS: royalty nobility nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 314-318, "The Old and Young Courtier" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XXXIV, p. 76, "The Old and Young Courtier" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 180-183, "The Old and Young Courtier" (1 text)
ST BeCo180 (Partial)
File: BeCo180

Old Ann Tucker

DESCRIPTION: Old Ann "was a wife, biggest old stup I saw in my life" She has a hump like a camel and a stupid son. "She tried to sleep but it was no use, For her legs hung out for the chickens to roost" "... want any more you must help yourself"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: derivative humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 142-143, "Old Ann Tucker" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 6)
Roud #390
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Dan Tucker" (source?: male version)
NOTES [82 words]: I think this is a clear derivative of "Old Dan [or Tan] Tucker" but Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames says, "I have heard many fragemnts of songs concerning a certain notable Ann Tucker. Sometimes, too, I have heard the name Dan Tucker, though I think it should really be Ann, not Dan." Of course, it's difficult to distinguish between "Ol' Dan Tucker" and "Old Ann Tucker."
The chickens roosting line is also found in "Old Dan Tucker": see, for example, Bodleian broadside Firth b.27(169). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT142

Old Apple Pie, The

See 'Neath the Crust of the Old Apple Pie (File: Paro093)

Old Arboe (Ardboe)

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks the powers to help him praise Ar(d)boe. He praises the land, the waters, the wildlife, the winds. He talks of the holy days they celebrate. The singer has traveled the world, but has seen no better place
AUTHOR: James Cairnes ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H505, p. 157, "Old Ardboe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 82-84, "Ol' Arboe" (1 text)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 20, "Old Arboe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2984
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Cross of Ardboe" (subject)
NOTES [162 words]: Sam Henry has notes on the various feast days mentioned in the song. These seem more accurate than the geography of the Biblical references to "the shores of Cana and Galilee"; neither name was proper in the author's time, and Galilee had no true seacoast (the "sea of Galilee" is a lake). Cana is not on any shore at all; it was half way between the Mediterranean and the Sea of Galilee. - RBW
For the cross reference [to The Old Cross of Ardboe"] see Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 38-39, "The Old Cross of Ardboe" attributed to "the 'Poet' Canavan." The songs are close in theme and approach, but share no lines. Here is a description of "The Old Cross of Ardboe": The singer bids farewell to the places in Tyrone "where I spent my childhood days" He wonders if he will ever return. "May the star of Freedom smile ... And the shamrocks verdant grow Green around those graves near Lough Neagh's waves, And the Old Cross Ardboe." - BS
File: HHH505

Old Arizona Again

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, it's old Arizona again, It's old Aricona again, It's a place where we all have been." The singer recalls "greasers and bad, bad men," "bears and rocky ground And the rattlers running round." "And if you get away, They will bring you back to stay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Dolph, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 292, "Old Arizona Again" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 534, "Old Arizona Again" (1 text)
File: CAFS2534

Old Ark's A-Moverin', The

DESCRIPTION: "O the old ark's a-moverin... an' I thank God." Sundry verses on the flood, salvation, and those who are too proud, e.g. "How many days did the water fall? Forty days and nights and all." "See that sister dressed so fine? She ain't got Jesus on her mind"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad flood
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 58-59, "De Ole Ark a-Moverin' Along" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 249-250 in the 1874 edition)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 73, "The Ole Ark" (1 text)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 213-214, (no title) (1 text, with this chorus though many of the verses are about Jesus; it may be conflate, but in the present state of Thomas's text it's hard to tell) (OakEd, pp. 213-214)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 7, (no title) (1 fragment, the "Paul and Silas bound in jail" lyric but with an internal chorus that might be this -- or might not); p. 28, "The Ol' A'k's A-Movin'" (1 short text, with a slightly different form but too similar to classify separately)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 248, "The Old Ark's A-Moverin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 77, "The Old Ark" (1 text, 1 tune, with first verse and chorus from "The Old Ark's A-Moverin'" and additional verses from "Song of the Fishes (Blow Ye Winds Westerly)")
Abbot/Swan-8Negro 3, "Ole Ark Movin' or Noah's Ark" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 360, "The Old Ark's A-Moverin'" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #344, p. 88, "The Old Ark's A-Movering" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Old Ark's A-movering" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 55)
Roud #11948
RECORDINGS:
Alphabetical Four, "The Old Ark's a-Moverin'" (Decca 7546, 1938; on AlphabFour01)
Atlanta Harmony Singers, "The Old Ark's a Moverin'" (Champion 15616, 1928)
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "The Ole Ark" (Victor 16840, 1911)
Homer Rodeheaver, "The Old Ark's a-Moverin'" (Silvertone 5141, c. 1927)
Virginia Female [Jubilee] Singers, "The Old Ark's a-Moverin'" (OKeh 4482, 1922; rec. 1921)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Built the Ark?" (floating lyrics)
cf. "See God's Ark A-Moving" (lyrics)
cf. "Bells in Heaven" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Pete Seeger, "We'll All Be A-Doubling" (on PeteSeeger48)
NOTES [52 words]: For the statement that the rain fell for forty days during Noah's flood, see Gen. 7:12 (the total duration of the flood is given in 7:17, 8:6? as 40 days and in 7:24, 8:3 as 150 days; the different numbers are believed to have come from different sources). The landing on Mount Ararat/Uratu is mentioned in 8:4. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LoF248

Old Arkansas

See The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II) [Laws H1] (File: LH01)

Old Arm Chair (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "I love it, I love it, and who shall dare To chide me from loving that old arm chair?" The singer calls it "sacred"; his mother sat in it -- and eventually died in it. "I love it, I love it, and cannot tear My soul from a mother's old arm chair"
AUTHOR: Words: Eliza Cook / Music: Henry Russell (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart-Songs)
KEYWORDS: mother love death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Heart-Songs, pp. 270-271, "The Old Arm Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #61, "The Old Arm-Chair" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 50 and #5/64, p. 50, "The Old Arm-Chair" (1 text)
ST HeSo270 (Partial)
Roud #13966
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(462)=Harding B 11(1138)=Johnson d.1773(p. 141v), "The old arm chair," Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Firth b.26(249), "The old arm-chair," A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1845-1859; also Harding B 11(1306), Firth c.17(59), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Firth b.26(109), "The old arm-chair," C. Paul (London), n.d.; also Johnson Ballads 697, "The old arm-chair," J. Paul and Co. (London), 1838-1845); also Harding B 11(3789), "The old arm-chair," W. S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; also Harding B 11(4402), "The old arm-chair," unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.13(184)=Harding B 26(479), "The old arm-chair," unknown, n.d.
NOTES [47 words]: For background on Eliza Cook, see the notes to "Grandmother's Chair." For background on Henry Russell, see "Cheer, Boys, Cheer (II)." I find myself wondering if they wrote both this "The Old Arm Chair (I)" and "Grandmother's Chair"; I suspect a confusion of authors and titles - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HeSo270

Old Arm Chair (II), The

See Grandmother's Chair (File: R467)

Old Armchair, The

See Grandmother's Chair (File: R467)

Old Aunt Dinah

DESCRIPTION: "Old Aunt Dinah, ho pee, ho pee... Gwine away to leave yer..." "Old Aunt Dinah -- sick in bed... Send for the doctor... You ain't sick... All you need... is a hickory stick." Alternately, Dinah may have four daughters and wants one to marry the singer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: separation doctor disease
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 126-128, "Old Aunt Dinah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 487, "Old Aunt Dinah" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 487, "Old Aunt Dinah" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 187-188, "Ole Aunt Dinah" (1 fragment, plus a second which inserts Aunt Dinah into an "Old Dan Tucker" stanza)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 117, ("Ole Aunt Dinah") (1 text)
Roud #11803
NOTES [109 words]: There is no particular reason to associate the Brown and Scarborough fragments, since they describe different events and have different nonsense refrains. But both are about Aunt Dinah, both are fragments, both have nonsense refrains, and both seem unique.
The fullest text is Jackson's, which is a song of Dinah and her children; she offers the singer money to marry one of them, but he prefers a different daughter. It ends with standard work song stanzas.
It would appear that Old Aunt Dinah is little more than a framework character. If we had more versions, we might split the songs, but with the versions as they are, there seems little point. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3487

Old Aunt Kate

DESCRIPTION: "Ole Aunt Kate she bake de cake, She bake hit 'hine de garden gate; She sift de meal, she gimme de dust, She bake de bread, she gimme de crust, She eat de meat, she gimme de skin, An' dat's de way she tuck me in."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Wyeth); 1855-1860 (see Notes re Wyeth)
KEYWORDS: food humorous
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 99, "Ole Aunt Kate" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Allen Wyeth, _With Sabre and Scalpel_ (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1914 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), "(Old Aunt Kate,)" p. 63 (1 verse)
Roud #11617
NOTES [45 words]: Wyeth learned "Old Aunt Kate" from the slave that tought him to make and play the banjo, in Tennessee, around 1855-1856. Wyeth sang and played the song for Scarborough. - BS
Scarborough reports that this is an "elaboration" from "Juba." Be hard to prove either way. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ScaNF099

Old Aunt Katy

DESCRIPTION: "Old Aunt Katy was a good old soul, Patched my breeches right full of holes." "Up the ridge and down the ridge And run old Katy home." "Old Aunt Katy was a good old soul, Crossed the bridge and paid her toll." "Old Aunt Katy dressed mighty fine...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 323, "Old Aunt Katy" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Roud #15889
NOTES [26 words]: The notes in Brown suggest that this is a play-party. It feels more like a fiddle tune to me. But with no tune and no gaming instructions, we can't say. - RBW
File: Br3323

Old Aunt Mariar

See Aunt Maria (File: BSoF705A)

Old Aunt Pearly

See Sugar and Tea (File: R531)

Old Bachelor (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer, an old bachelor ignorant of women, marries a 16-year-old, primarily to keep him warm at night. She wants more from him, which baffles him until her mother tells him the facts of life. He obliges; a fine son results, to his surprise and delight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: age marriage sex bawdy humorous mother bachelor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #19, p. 2, "The Auld Bachelor" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan7 1390, "I Am an Auld Bachelor" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #7162
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Old Bachelor" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man" (theme) and references there
File: RcTOB

Old Bachelor (II), The

See Stern Old Bachelor (File: R481)

Old Bachelor (III), The

See A Bachelor's Lament (II) (File: JHCox160)

Old Bachelor (IV), The

See The Brisk Young Bachelor (File: ShH69)

Old Bachelor (V), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer would not court a rich girl, and beautiful ones reject him. He would marry a well mannered farmer's daughter. He has a pleasant home with plenty of food and goods. "I wish that I may, get a prudent, chaste, and a virtuous wife"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad bachelor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1391, "The Old Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7249
NOTES [15 words]: Greig/Duncan7: "George Garioch: from P. Murray about sixty years ago. Noted 24 July 1907." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81391

Old Bachelor (VI), The

See I'm Goin' Away to Texas (File: R363)

Old Bachelor, The

DESCRIPTION: An old bachelor resolves to find a wife so perfect as "scarce walks upon the ground." He meets a woman that won't tell him her name, nor whether she is still a virgin, nor whether she would marry. "He that courts a bonnie lass Is sure to get the slip"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: age courting marriage virginity questions bachelor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 73, "The Old Bachelor" (1 text)
Roud #1649
File: LyCr173

Old Badman

See Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Old Bald Eagle

DESCRIPTION: "(Old/Big) bald eagle sailing 'round, day I's gone (x2)." "Lead her up and lead her down, day I's gone (x2)." "Backward and forward across the floor." "Sailing round Maggie, sailing found." "Just keep swinging till you get done."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains)
KEYWORDS: playparty bird food animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, pp. 34-35, "Big Bal' Eagle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 265, "Old Bald Eagle" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3425
RECORDINGS:
Patricia Campbell, "Old Bald Eagle" (Piotr-Archive #225, recorded 09/05/2022)
Fran Hendrickson, "Old Bald Eagle" (Piotr-Archive #287, recorded 10/07/2022, with words so quiet that I cannot really tell what they are, but it's probably this)
NOTES [34 words]: Roud lumps this with the "Bald Eagle" text in Roberts, but I think them only faintly related at best; I have split them. The Sharp text is too short to identify, but the form implies it belongs here. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Skea035

Old Bangum

See Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Old Bangum and the Boar

See Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Old Barbed Wire, The (I Know Where They Are)

DESCRIPTION: "If you want to find the privates, I know where they are (x3) -- They're up to their knees in mud (or: "Hanging on the old barbed wire"). I saw them...." Meanwhile, the captains, colonels, and generals enjoy themselves and stay away from the fighting
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: soldier war
FOUND IN: US Britain(England) Canada Ireland
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 442-443, "Where They Were" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, pp. 61-62, "The Old Barbed Wire" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 68-69, "Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire" (1 text)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 236-237, "Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. "If You Want to Know Where the Privates Are" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 59-62, "If You Want to Know Where the Privates Are (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 41, "I Know Where They Are" (1 short text)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 90-91, "Has Anyone Seen the Colonel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood "If you want the Sergeant-Major"/"Hanging on the old barbed wire" (1 text)
DT, BARBWIRE
Roud #9618
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Grouse, Grouse, Grouse" (theme of generals being safe while soldiers fight)
SAME TUNE:
Deep in the Dark, Dark Woods (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 94; Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 48)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
If You Want to See the Captain
I'll Tell You Where They Were
NOTES [103 words]: Internal evidence clearly dates this to the First World War, with its trenches and barbed wire and mud that threatened to swallow the Allied armies whole. Jerry Silverman includes it in his book Ballads & Songs of WWI, without indication of source. What's more, until WWI, officers -- including brigade and sometimes even divisional officers -- were expected to lead their men from the front. Only in the twentieth century did officers become so valuable that they were allowed to "lead" from the rear. Thus it can hardly be from before World War I, and the earliest collections show that it cannot be from after. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: San442

Old Barge Oliver Cromwell, The

DESCRIPTION: "On November first in eighty-nine from Port Huron we set sail." The barge Cromwell is hauled by the Lowell. They struggle with weather near Bay City and with snow near Tawas bay. They have to pump in the storm. The singer warns against lumber barges
AUTHOR: reportedly Hank Stone
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from A. P. Gallino and William J. Small by Walton)
KEYWORDS: sailor storm hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 144-146, "The Old Barge Oliver Cromwell" (1 text)
Roud #19856
RECORDINGS:
John Gallino, "The Old Barge Oliver Cromwell" (1938; on WaltonSailors; the tune does not match that printed in the text)
File: WGM144

Old Bark Hut, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, whose name varies, relates, "I once was well to do, but now I am stumped up, And I'm forced to go on rations in an old bark hut." There follows a list of the ways the singer makes do or tolerates the poor conditions
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 105-106, "The Old Bark Hut" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 151-154, "The Old Bark Hut" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 126-127, "The Old Bark Hut" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 298-302, "The Old Bark Hut" (1 text)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 87-89, "The Old Bark Hut" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 133-134, 290-291, "The Old Bark Hut" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 22-24, "The Old Bark Hut" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 288-291, "The Old Bark Hut" (1 text)
Matthew Richardson, _Once a Jolly Swagman: The Ballad of Waltzing Matilda_, Melbourne University Press, 2006, pp. 34-35, "The Old Bark Hut" (1 text)
Roud #22662
NOTES [190 words]: This is sort of the Australian version of "The Old Chisholm Trail," with nearly infinite verses. Henry Lawson reports riding on a train from Bourke to Sydney with a band of shearers, who sang the song the whole time without repeating a verse.
Manifold, p. 94, following Hugh Anderson, says that the "parent version" was written by William Perrie, and observes that several versions use London thieves' jargon, implying an origin among transportees.
Morris, p. 207, defines "Hut" as follows: "a cottage of a shepherd or a miner. The word is English but is especially common in Australia, and does not there connote squalor or meanness. The "Men's Hut' on a station is the building occupied by the male employees."
A "Bark Hut" was less exalted: "A [gold] digger's dwelling place constructed from bark. [The term was applied from the 1790s to a temporary shelter constructed by Aborigines; it was applied as well to a dwelling in which the walls and roof were made of bark. Such dwellings were common on the goldfields.]" (Moore, pp 6-7). Since most diggers had poor luck, a bark hut was thus a place where little comfort was to be expected. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: MA105

Old Bay State, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all good people from far and near... I will sing you the loss of the old Bay State that sailed in the Crawford Line." On the morning of November 2, she sets out and is never seen again. "It's hard to think so many lives down with her had to go."
AUTHOR: Thomas Peckham?
EARLIEST DATE: before 1952 (collected from John S. Parsons by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship death disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 2, 1862 - final voyage of the _Bay State_
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 225-226, "The Old Bay State" (1 text)
Roud #19864
File: WGM225

Old Beard a-Shakin'

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Old Beau Bill

DESCRIPTION: "Old Beau Bill was a fine old man, A-rigging and a-ragging in the world so long, But now his days have cone to pass, And we're bound to break up Beau Bill's class. So sit still ladies and don't take a chill, While the captain... ties Beau Bill"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Richard Walser, "His Worship the John Kuner" Vol. XIX, No. 4 (Nov 1971), p. 168, "(Old Beau Bill was a fine old man)" (1 text)
NOTES [35 words]: Walser calls this a John Kunnering song. For other such songs, see "Juba!".
Yes, the printed text gives the fourth line as "...Beau Bill's class." I would assume there are two extra letters in that last word. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: NCF194BB

Old Bee Makes de Honeycomb

See Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb (File: Br3479)

Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb

DESCRIPTION: "Old bee (makes the honey comb/sucks the blossom), Young bee makes the honey. (Poor man/Colored folks) plant the cotton and corn, (Rich man/White folks) make the money."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses work bug
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 479, "Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb" (1 fragment); also 480, "Hard Times" (1 text, massively composite: Chorus from "Lynchburg Town" and verses from "Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb" and the "White Folks Go to College" version of "Hard to Be a Nigger")
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 165, "Old Bee Make de Honeycomb" (1 text, with this stanza but many more associated primarily with "Raccoon")
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #107, "The Old Bee Makes the Honey Comb" (1 fragment)
cf. Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #194, p. 136, ("God made the bees")
Roud #5029
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Haul Away, Boys, Haul Away" (lyrics)
cf. "Bees of Paradise" (theme of the work of bees and money)
NOTES [63 words]: Reportedly found also in Uncle Remus, this is one of those floating verses that seems to exist in many songs. Since Brown has it as a standalone, it files here, with many cross-references.
The nursery rhyme version, which I suspect is close to the original, runs:
God made the bees
And the bees make honey.
The miller's man does all the work
But the miller makes the money.- RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Br3479

Old Beggar Man, The

See Hind Horn [Child 17] (File: C017)

Old Bell Cow

DESCRIPTION: Humorous description of a cow that's difficult to milk: "Went down to the cornfield to pick a mess of beans, Along come the bell cow a-pecking at the greens." "Some of these days when I learn how, I'm gonna milk that old bell cow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Dixie Crackers); possible version from 1927 (Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs)
KEYWORDS: farming work humorous animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 110-111, "Old Bell Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 98, "The Bell-Cow" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #17676
RECORDINGS:
Dixie Crackers, "The Old Bell Cow" (Paramount 3151, 1929; on CrowTold01)
Dan Gardella, Fran Block, "Old Bell Cow" (Piotr-Archive #528, recorded 03/09/2023)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Old Bell Cow" (on NLCR10) (NLCR16)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bell Cow
NOTES [46 words]: It has long been a custom to tie a bell around a cow's neck so she can be found easily. - PJS
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs's version of this is so short that it could be from almost anything, but it mentions a bell-cow and sounds improbable, so I filed it here. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CSW110

Old Betsy Lina

See Lead Her Up and Down (Rosa Becky Diner, Old Betsy Lina) (File: R552)

Old Betty Larkin (Betsy Larkin, You Stole My Pard, Steal Partners, Stole My Partner)

DESCRIPTION: "Hop around, skip around, old Betty Larkin (x3), and also my dear darlin.'" "Steal, steal, old Betty Larkin...." ""You take mine, and I'll take another...." "Needles in a haystack, old Betty Larkin."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting abandonment playparty dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 15, "Old Betty Larkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 586, "You Stole My Pard" (1 fragment)
Roud #7404 and 7673
NOTES [58 words]: Randolph's is only a two-stanza fragment: "You stole my pard to my dislike (x3), And also my dear darlin'." "I'll have her back or fight all night (x3), And also my dear darlin'." It may be a separate piece (Roud separates them). But that key line about the "dear darlin'" seems to me to link his text with the Ritchie Family "Betty Larkin" texts. - RBW
File: R586

Old Big Ram, The

See The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Old Bill

See Tell Old Bill (File: San018)

Old Billy Dugger

DESCRIPTION: "Old Billy Dugger he looks mighty cross; He shot at a man and killed Jack's hoss."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: soldier death horse
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 283, "Old Billy Dugger" (1 text)
Roud #6642
NOTES [16 words]: Reported to be based on a Civil War incident -- but it's a soldier's joke I've seen elsewhere. - RBW
File: BrII283

Old Billy Kirk

DESCRIPTION: "Now old Billy Kirk was a twenty-minute egg, With his flowing white beard and his one wooden leg." He is tiny. He travels New Zealand on horseback -- a great racer. He plays for dances. He lives to 105. The singer looks forward to seeing him after death
AUTHOR: "Cazna Gyp" (collective name of Bob Edwards and Mr. ad Mrs. Lew Williams, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: talltale horse travel New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 138-139, "Old Billy Kirk" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [40 words]: The New Zealand Folk Songs site claims, "This song is based on the life of a wagoner and jockey who became a legend in the days of the Otago gold rushes [1860s]." If there is any actual historical information about him, I haven't seen it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: BaRo138

Old Binnie

DESCRIPTION: Old Binnie is urged to come see the Irishman work with his penis
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: bawdy
FOUND IN: US(Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, p. 264, "Ditties," of which the first is "Old Binnie"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Washerwoman" (tune)
cf. "The Railroad Corral" (tune and references for the "Irish Washerwoman" tune)
File: EM264

Old Bitch Fox, The

See Cattistock Hunting Song (File: PCL012)

Old Black Alice

DESCRIPTION: "Old Black (Alice/Sally) are my name, Wellshot are my station. It's no disgrace, the old black face, it's the colour of my nation." The singer tells how she can dance, points out that God made her as well as whites, and notes the several men who like her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: Australia discrimination
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 92-93, "Old Black Alice" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads, pp. 8-9, "Goondiwindi" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: PASB092

Old Black Booger, The

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Old Black Bull, The

DESCRIPTION: "The old black bull came down from the mountain, Euston, Dan Euston, The old black bull... A long time ago." "There were six fine heifers in the pasture grazing." The bull gets all worked up, but (he fails?) and goes back to the mountain, head hung low
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: animal derivative travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 44, "The Old Black Bull" (1 text)
Roud #10554
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)" (form; probably also tune)
cf. "The Big Black Bull" (lyrics, form, theme)
NOTES [32 words]: I would be inclined to lump "The Big Black Bull" (explicitly bawdy) and "The Old Black Bull" (same plot and form, but not as dirty) as one song, but I've followed Roud in splitting them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: BrPa044

Old Black Crow, The

DESCRIPTION: "A boy to school was tramping, singing merrily," when a crow lands on a branch and begins to sing "caw, caw, caw." The boy does not like the song, so he throws a stone at the crow. It misses, and he falls in the mud, is late for school, and whipped
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Creighton collection)
KEYWORDS: bird humorous punishment
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 128-129, "The Old Black Crow" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [14 words]: Roud lumps this with "Carrion Crow." I don't see anything in common except a crow. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: PoEll128

Old Black Duck, The

See The Fox (File: R103)

Old Black Hen, The

DESCRIPTION: "Master had an old black hen, Black as any bear, Laid and set in an acorn shell, Eighteen inches square."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: bird
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 159, "The Old Black Hen" (1 text)
File: Br3159

Old Black Horse, The

DESCRIPTION: "I was walking one day Along a crowded way, A-strollin' with the girl of my heart," whose father owned a donkey cart. He sees the old, tired, one-eyes black horse. He drives the carriage when the singer marries the girl. The horse throws him. It dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Finger-FrontierBallads)
KEYWORDS: love courting horse death humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 60-62, "The Old Black Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8829
File: Fing060

Old Black Joe

DESCRIPTION: "Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay, Gone are my friends from the cotton fields away, Gone from the earth to a better land I know, I hear their gentle voices calling 'Old Black Joe.'" The singer, having outlived so much, says "I'm coming"
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (sheet music by Firth, Pond & Co.)
KEYWORDS: age nonballad death
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 156-159, "Old Black Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saunders/Root-MusicOfStephenCFoster-Vol2, pp. 99-102+428, "Old Black Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 126-127, "Old Black Joe" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1692, p. 114, "Old Black Joe" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 6, "Old Black Joe" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 20-21, "Old Black Joe" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 102-103, "Old Black Joe" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #122, "Old Black Joe" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 407, "Old Black Joe"
Harbin-Parodology #325, p. 325, "Old Black Joe" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 188, "Old Black Joe" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 15, "Old Black Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 7, "Old Black Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDBLACK*
ST RJ19156 (Full)
Roud #9601
RECORDINGS:
Criterion Quartet, "Old Black Joe" (CYL: Edison [BA] 3092, n.d.)
Edison Quartette, "Old Black Joe" (Edison 8823, 1904)
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "Old Black Joe" (Victor 35097, 1909)
Ford Hanford, "My Old Kentucky Home and Old Black Joe [medley]" (Victor 18767, 1921)
Peerless Quartet, "Old Black Joe" (Victor 5562, 1908; Victor 16531. 1910)
Riley Puckett, "Old Black Joe" (Columbia 15005-D, 1924)
SAME TUNE:
Come Up, Dear Dinner, Come Up (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 121)
Grange Benediction ("Praise Nature's God who rules above") (by A. P. Knapp) (Albert P. Knapp, _Grange Songster_, 1915, p. 6)
Dear Old Flag ("Gone are the days when thy folds were rent in twain") (by A. P. Knapp) (Albert P. Knapp, _Grange Songster_, 1915, p. 24)
The Poor White Slave ("Down where the coal mine lifts its ugly shaft, There stands a hut, beside a narrow lane") (Foner, p. 252)
We're Going ("We're going! we're going! Our evening meal is o'er") (Harbin-Parodology, #278, p. 68)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Poor Old Joe
NOTES [249 words]: By the time Foster wrote this piece, his parents were dead, his marriage was troubled, and he was in bad financial shape. It has been theorized that this put him in a nostalgic mood. As always, he set it on the plantation -- but for once not in dialect.
TaylorEtAl p. 135, report that "Foster's granddaughter, Mrs. A. D. Rose claimed that 'Joe' was a real person, a servant in the home of [Foster's future wife] Jane McDowell in the days when Stephen was courting her. Up to the time of Dr. McDowell's death, Joe drove Jane's father on his rounds.... According to Mrs. Rose, Stephen promised Joe that he would put him into a song. The old man was gone when the day of inspiration came, but today an perhaps always, Old Black Joe live again."
The extended Foster family apparently believed this also. Morneweck, pp. 372-373, also quotes Jessie W. Rose, calling him "the McDowell family butler and handy man." Apparently the Foster family did not sing "Old Black Joe" because they knew the back story.
It is perhaps an indication of how far Foster had fallen by the time he wrote this that he actually produced a sort of parody, "Poor Old Joe." According to Waites/Hunter, p. 80, the latter is "virtually identical to Old Black Joe. Probably [Foster] altered a few words and notes so that more than one publisher could issue the same song."
It's sad that Foster's last great melody had to be handled in such a way, and now generally can't be sung at all because of its associations with slavery. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: RJ19156

Old Black Joe from Mexico

See Cowboy Joe from Mexico (File: AJRR087)

Old Black Steer, The

See Windy Bill (II) (File: TF02)

Old Blackbird, The

See I Am a Young Maiden (If I Were a Blackbird) (File: FSC38)

Old Blacksmith's Shop, The

DESCRIPTION: "Some people ramble to lands far away... But the place I love best and am longing to see... And there I forever could stop... In the old village blacksmith's shop." The singer recalls visiting and playing with the blacksmith, but now the man is long dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: work worker loneliness age
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H541, p. 207, "The Old Blacksmith's Shop" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH541

Old Blind Drunk John

See Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

Old Blind Horse, The

DESCRIPTION: Old man's will leaves everything to Uncle Bill and an old blind horse. When the horse finally dies "we took his skin for to make some shoes" and give the rest to the crows who "crawed" as they flew by "old horse you had to die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: death horse bird
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 130-131, "The Old Blind Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2703
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Old Horse (III)" (theme)
NOTES [61 words]: Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs first verse "If you'll join the chorus whilst I sing This very night I'll make this old shanty ring" would seem to put it in a logging camp. The chorus, "And its come, come along with me For the moon is fast a climbing, Young girls, young girls, can't you see? For the dew on the grass is shining" is reminiscent of "Raise a Ruckus." - BS
File: CrMa130

Old Blue

DESCRIPTION: "I had a dog and his name was Blue...." The singer tells how Blue aided him in 'possum hunting, then goes on to describe Blue's death and burial.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913
KEYWORDS: dog death burial hunting
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Randolph 295, "Old Blue" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 63, "Old Blue" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 220, "Old Blue" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 74, pp. 201-202, "Old Blue" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 7, "Old Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 111-112, "Old Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 157, "Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 738, "Old Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, pp. 11-12, "Old Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 396, "Old Blue" (1 text)
DT, OLDBLUE
Roud #4313
RECORDINGS:
Jim Jackson, "Old Dog Blue" (Victor 21387B, 1928; on AAFM2) (Vocalion 1146, 1928)
Pete Seeger, "Old Blue" (on PeteSeeger09, PeteSeegerCD02)
Art Thieme, "The Split Dog" [combines song and tall-tale] (on Thieme01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Deep Blue Sea (II)" (floating lyrics)
File: R295

Old Blue Was a Gray Horse

See Skewball [Laws Q22] (File: LQ22)

Old Bo's'n, The

See The Boatsman and the Chest [Laws Q8] (File: LQ08)

Old Bob Ridley (Hobo Diddle De Ho)

DESCRIPTION: "When I was young we crossed the mountains, Crossed so many I quit a-countin', Hobo diddle de ho, An' a hobo diddle de ho." "We seen the buffalo a-comin', Seen so damn' many I couldn't count 'em...." "(Ho/oh), (old) Bob (Ridley/Bridely)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1853 550030)
KEYWORDS: travel humorous talltale
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(SE,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1898, "Bob Ridley" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 224-225, "Old Bob Ridley O" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 48)
Randolph 499, "Hobo Diddle De Ho" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 194, "Old Bob Ridley" (4 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 194, "Old Bob Ridley" (4 tunes plus text excerpts)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1693, p. 114, "Old Bob Ridley O" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 19 and #1/64 p. 41, "Bob Ridley" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 162, "(Old Rob Ridley)" (1 short text)
Roud #753
RECORDINGS:
Mary Anne Carolan, "Young Bob Ridley" (on Voice07)
Henry Griffin, "Holler Jimmy Riley Ho" (on HandMeDown1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(358), "Bob Ridley, oh!," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth b.27(30), "Old Bob Ridley O!," unknown, n.d.
LOCSheet, sm1853 550030, "Old Bob Ridley," J. E. Boswell (Baltimore), 1853 (tune)
LOCSinging, as110090, "Old Bob Ridley, O," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also cw104110, as110080, "Old Bob Ridley"; sb30400a, "Old Bob Ridley O"
NOTES [230 words]: This was a popular minstrel piece that crossed the Atlantic. - PJS
According to the notes in Brown, it became a corn-shucking song in the U. S. The North Carolina versions are certainly very diverse. The British version had talltale elements, with Bob Riddley doing the impossibly in humorous ways. - RBW
Hall, notes to Voice07, re "Young Bob Ridley": "American minstrels first visited Britain and Ireland in the mid-1830s and subsequently local professional and amateur minstrel troupes remained popular until the Great War, contributing tunes and ditties to the traditional repertory."
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(358) includes the verse
At boxing I am sure to gain on,
A tousand times I've lick'd Jack Heenan;
And for winding up the belt affairs,
Next I'm going to belt Tom Sayers.
Dis Bob Ridley, oh!
Since John C. Heenan fought Tom Sayers in 1860 the dating of the broadside is certainly incorrect.
Broadside printer John Pitts died April 15, 1844. While the old ballad stock continued to circulate the house name did not continue. (source: Leslie Shepard, John Pitts: Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844 (Private Libraries Association, c.1969), pp. 75,84).
Broadside LOCSinging as110090: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R499

Old Bob Ridley O

See Old Bob Ridley (Hobo Diddle De Ho) (File: R499)

Old Bog Hole, The

See The Ould Bog Hole (File: FVS290)

Old Bog-Hole, The

See The Ould Bog Hole (File: FVS290)

Old Boss Barry

DESCRIPTION: "There's a quiet little room at the back of the saloon... Where men from tenements hold lengthy arguments On everything besides the liquor bills." Then the "leader" comes,; they say, "Old Boss Barry, how d'ye do? Is there anything that we can do for you?"
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 ("Waddy Googan")
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. II, #148, pp. 226-227 "Old Boss Barry" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: William H. A. Williams, _'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream_, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 142, "Old Boss Barry" (1 excerpt)
Roud #V45198
RECORDINGS:
Mick Moloney, "Old Boss Barry" (on HarriganBrahamMaloney)
NOTES [188 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
"'Old Boss Barry' recalls Braham's patter parlando style, with repeated note-melody and schottische rhythms accompanying Harrigan's trenchant satire of Tammany-style politics" (Franceschina, p. 189).
Harrigan apparently did not hesitate to satirize Boss Tweed (Williams, p. 142), and "Harrigan provided one of the best portraits in song of the Irish political boss in 'Old Boss Barry' from Waddy Gogan (1988)" (Williams, p. 143).
An excellent portrayal of a city boss it may have been, and it featured Harrigan flipping from playing an Irishman to playing an Italian with great verve (Moody, pp. 181-182), but as a show it had a relatively short run -- apparently less than three months (Franceschina, p. 189).
There is a camp song, "Howdy Do," which runs
Howdy do, Mister Speaker, Howdy do?
Howdy do, Is there anything that we can do for you, do for you?
We'll do everything we can,
We are with you to a man,
Howdy do, Mister Speaker, Howdy do!"
Is there some sort of mixture going on? I don't know. The song is indexed as "How Do You Do?" - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: HaBr)lBB

Old Brass Wagon

DESCRIPTION: Playparty: "Circle to the left, Old Brass Wagon, You're the one, my darling." "Swing oh swing, Old Brass Wagon...." "Promenade home...." "Shottische up and down...." "Break and swing...." "We'll all run away with the old brass wagon...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (JAFL 24)
KEYWORDS: playparty travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 76-77=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 156-157, "Old Brass Wagon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 527, "The Old Brass Wagon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 159, "Old Brass Wagon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 153, "Little Brass Wagon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #127, "Old Brass Wagon" (1 text)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 129-130, "Little Brass Wagon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 388, "Little Brass Wagon" (1 text)
ST San159 (Full)
Roud #5034
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ten Little Indians (John Brown Had a Little Indian)" (tune)
File: San159

Old Brig, The

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Verses relate various problems with the ship, an inept and/or drunk bosun, captain and/or cook, bad food. The usual sailor complaints, some of them probably justified. Hugill had four different language texts for this, all basically the same song.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Opsang fra Seilskibstiden)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Verses relate various problems with the ship, an inept and/or drunk bosun, captain and/or cook, bad food. The usual sailor complaints, some of them probably justified. Hugill had four different language texts for this, all basically the same song. Different versions listed were "Svineper" (a.k.a. The Dirty Old Pig, The Old Brig)-Norwegian, "Den Gamla Briggen"-Swedish, "Die Gut Alte Brigg"-German.
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty ship cook
FOUND IN: Norway Sweden Germany
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 232-234, "Svineper" (2 texts-English & Swedish, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Waiting for the Day" (same theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Dirty Old Pig
The Old Brig
Den Gamla Briggen
Die Gute Alte Brigg
The Good Old Brig
NOTES [52 words]: A note in Knurrhahn says this is an "old Scandinavian sailor song, of about 1800; known to many old-time seamen in other languages."
To second PJS's comment [in the notes to "How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?"], if we can't have "bitching" as a keyword, how about "complaining," or even "whining"? - SL
File: Hugi232

Old Brigham Young

See Brigham Young (File: LxA432)

Old Brown Ale

See Good Ale (I) (File: K273)

Old Brown Coat, The

DESCRIPTION: "...Come listen while I sing about The old brown coat and me." Having worked long on his father's farm, the singer at last gets his own property. The girl he loves favored another, but he proved guilty of theft. She turns to the singer; they live happily
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: love courting clothes marriage family home work
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 791, "The Old Brown Coat" (1 text)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 40, "Old Brown Coat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #26, pp. 190-192, "My Old Brown Coat and Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R791 (Partial)
Roud #3114
RECORDINGS:
Lawrence Older, "My Old Brown Coat and Me" (on LOlder01)
File: R791

Old Brown Sat in "The Rose and Crown"

DESCRIPTION: Brown in the pub is talking about the war and drawing the lines on the table with beer. "Five minutes" is called. Not enough time, complains Brown. "'For another half pint and we'd been in Berlin. Do you want us to lose the war?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (recording, Albert Smith)
KEYWORDS: war drink humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
RECORDINGS:
Albert Smith, "Old Brown Sat in 'The Rose and Crown'" (on Voice14)
File: RcOBSIRC

Old Brown's Daughter

DESCRIPTION: "There lives an ancient party At the other end of town, He keeps a llittle chandler's shop, His ancient name is Brown." The singer admires his daughter and wishes he were Brown's son-in-law. Brown demands a lord. He hopes to run for parliament to win her
AUTHOR: G. W. Hunt? (1839-1904)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1900 (Bodleian broadside Firth c.26(310)); Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports says it was written in the early 1870s
KEYWORDS: love courting humorous nobility
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1926_, self-published, 1926 (PDF copy avallable on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), [no page number], "Old Brown's Daughter" (1 text, slightly adapted to Newfoundland)
Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 6, "Old Brown's Daughter" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #54, p. 86, "Old Brown's Daughter" (1 text)
Anna Kearney Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, "'Old Brown's Daughter': Re-contextualizing a 'Locally' Compose Newfoundland Folk Song" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, pp. 245-262 (1 text, on pp. 250-251, with excerpts from other versions and a sheet music cover)
Roud #1426
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.26(310), "Old Brown's Daughter," T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899
NOTES [179 words]: The article by Guigné cited in the ADDITIONAL references discusses how this went from being a popular song to being regarded as a local song in Newfoundland. Probably written by G. W. Hunt (whose only other song in the Index, as of this writing, is "Sarah's Young Man"), it was certainly popularized by Alfred Glenville Vance, "the Great Vance," who brought the song to the music halls in 1871. It reportedly occurred in a Poet's Box broadside in 1872.
So how did it end up in Newfoundland? Johnny Burke (1851-1930) almost certainly had a part in this (the song was rewritten for Newfoundland conditions, and Burke is a likely candidate for the man who rewrote it, and as the references show, he put it in many of his songbooks). As a result, he seems to have been regarded as the composer in Newfoundland. Indeed, based on dates, it is possible that he wrote the original and Hunt stole it from him. But Hunt of course established himself as a performer much earlier, and the British version about running for parliament makes more sense than the Newfoundland variation. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: JBX2601

Old Bullock Dray, The

DESCRIPTION: The bullock driver is preparing for a good life in the bush. He seeks a wife, and prepares to head out to find land. He urges others along: "So it's roll up your blankets, and let's make a push; I'll take you upcountry and show you the bush...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: Australia travel settler
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 127, "The Old Bullock Dray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 66-67, "The Old Bullock Dray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 34-35, "The Old Bullock Dray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 140-141, "The Old Bullock Dray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 143-149, "The Old Bullock Dray" (1 text)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 20, "The Old Bullock Dray" (1 text, 1 tune, but only the chorus is from Scott's informant)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, p. 54, "The Old Bullock Dray" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 42-43, "The Old Bullock Dray" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 53-55, "The Old Bullock Dray" (1 text)
A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, pp. 309-310, "The Old Bullock Dray" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 299-300, "The Old Bullock Dray" (1 text)
Roud #22603
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "The Old Bullock Dray" (on JGreenway01)
NOTES [510 words]: Settlers in Australia had two major problems: Lack of women (since most convicts were men) and lack of land (since the good properties had been snatched up by early settlers and the wealthy).
The lack of women is clearly revealed in the song: "Everything that has two legs presents itself to view, From the little padpymelon to the boxing Kangaroo." The paddymelon/pademelon is a small wallaby that lived along the eastern coast in forest areas (Parish, p. 25); the "boxing kangaroo" is probably the Red Kangaroo, the largest kangaroo and, indeed, the largest living marsupial (Parish, p. 27), or the Eastern Grey Kangaroo, somewhat smaller but a kangaroo that lives near the coast rather than in the outback (Parish, p. 27)..
As for acquiring land: In 1861, Sir John Robertson (the "Jackie Robertson" of some versions of the song; 1816-1891) promoted the New South Wales Free Selection Act, which made at least some land available to newcomers. Although it didn't really solve the problem, it promoted the era of good feeling apparently described in this song. Robertson was Premier of New South Wales 1860-1861, 1868-1870, 1875-1877, 1885-1886 (Learmonth, p. 455), so the Free Selection Act clearly cost his government dear. Still, the law took effect: "From the first day of January 1862 any person could purchase between forty and three hundred and twenty acres of crown land other than town lands, suburban lands, or proclaimed goldfields at twenty shillings per acre" with 25% down and the rest due within three years (Clark, p. 154).
Clearly, though, our bullock driver has little respect for this plan; I would guess he wanted to squat beyond the Robertson territory.
The "Depot" mentioned in some texts, called the "Factory" in others, is the compound at Parramatta where female immigrants were kept. Referred to as the "Female Factory," it allowed settlers to come in and seek wives. The mention of it appears to be an anachronism, since by the time of the Free Selection Acts, its role had changed; it was active 1804-1848, according to Learmonth, p. 188. For more about it, see the notes to "Botany Bay Courtship (The Currency Lasses)."
Of course, a visit to the Female Factory did not guarantee finding a wife. On the other hand, conditions there were so dire (cramped and dirty, without even a real bed unless the convict could pay for it) that many women would accept any man who came along -- and then leave him or go to one of the towns and work there (Hughes, pp. 253-257).
Other sundry references: Barramundi are a fish found along Australia's north coast, from the curve of Western Australia along the north coast around through most of Queensland. "During its life history it is found in freshwater billabongs, lagoond and rivers, then down estuaries into the sea" (Parish, p. 114). It is not found in New South Wales. Thus this is another inconsistency, since John Robertson's actions would not be relevant to the barramundi regions of Queensland.
Davey/Seal, p. 203, observe that "the song does not note if the bullocky was successful." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: MA127

Old Bumpy

See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Old Cabin Home, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am going far, far away to leave you now, To the Mississippi River I am going"; he will take his banjo and sing "'Way down in my old cabin home." He will go to the graves of his sister and brother. He will leave "with all this darky band."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Dime-Song-Book #15)
KEYWORDS: home death return river music
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #15, p. 8, "The Old Cabin Home" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 457, "The Old Cabin Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #128, "Old Cabin Home" (1 text)
Roud #17575
File: JMSo128

Old Camp Meetin'

DESCRIPTION: "Long ago, when but a boy, at old camp meeting time, How my heart would leap with joy...." "I like the old time preachin', prayin', shoutin', singin'...." The singer remembers his father celebrating
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (collected by Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains from Ruby Vass)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 93-94, "Old Camp Meetin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7334
File: Shel093

Old Canal, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a little silver ribbon runs across the Buckeye State, 'Tis the dearest place of all this earth to me." "Cleveland is the northern end and Portsmouth is the south." The singer describes the places along his "pal," the Ohio-Erie canal
AUTHOR: probably Pearl R. Nye
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (OHS)
KEYWORDS: ship travel
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: [no author listed], Scenes & Songs of the Ohio-Erie Canal, Ohio Historical Society, 1971, "The Old Canal" (1 text, 1 tune, from Pearl R. Nye)
NOTES [161 words]: According to the notes in the Ohio Historical Society booklet, Pearl R. Nye had about 80 verses of this song describing points along the Ohio-Erie Canal (not to be confused with the Erie Canal; it ran from Cleveland on Lake Erie to Columbus, Ohio and on down to the Ohio River at Portsmouth). They cut it down to six, and even that is probably more than a non-canaller would want to sing. One wonders if Nye's version was related to a piloting song, giving navigation hints for the canal.
Although called a "canal," much of the distance was actually along rivers, with canals connecting them. Based on various online maps, it appears it started in Cleveland running down the Cuyahoga River. A true canal took it generally south to the Tuscarawas. From there it wanders mostly west and a little south, partly by river, partly by various creeks, until it reached the Scioto River near Columbus. Then it went down the Scioto to reach the Ohio River at Portsmouth. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: OHSOldCa

Old Carathee

DESCRIPTION: Sean McNamara from County Down looks for a wife in Carathee. First, Red Danny shows him his selection. He picks Julia, a hawker. The first month they are happy. The second they argue. The third she beats him. You can find such a wife in Carathee.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (recording, John Reilly)
KEYWORDS: marriage violence humorous wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #3377
RECORDINGS:
John Reilly, "Old Carathee" (on Voice15)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Devilish Mary" [Laws Q4] (theme)
NOTES [91 words]: Hall, notes to Voice15: "'Old Carathee' tells of an Irish traveller, who chooses for a wife at a fair, thinking she would make him a good hawker."
Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Reviews - Volume 15" by Fred McCormick - 27.2.99: "John Reilly's 'Old Carathee,' is about a bachelor who obtains a wife at a horse fair and ends up with a less than blissful match. Matrimonial bargains of this kind were common in Ireland at one time and survive into the present with the famous matchmaking fair at Lisdoonvarna in County Clare." - BS
File: RcOlCara

Old Carolina State

See Dearest Mae (File: Br3405)

Old Cass, The

DESCRIPTION: "For six long months we heard the crash As pine trees met their doom. At night we sang the songs we learned When driving to the boom." In spring, they put the logs on the river, filling the banks. Every year, the river "claimed A driver for her toll."
AUTHOR: Henry Dodge (source: Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (JournalOfAmericanFolklore 59, according to Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: logger travel hardtimes death river lumbering
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 15, "The Old Cass" (1 text)
Roud #18195
File: BeLo015

Old Chesuncook Road, The

DESCRIPTION: "'They've changed some, I guess?' The tote roads der yer mean?" The singer explains how the old road has been cleared and improved. The singer describes the old days and how one now travels in an automobile along the rebuilt road
AUTHOR: William Moriarty, writing as "Nigh Bill" (source: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: technology travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 144-149, "The Old Chesuncook Road" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hoboes of Maine" (subject of travels in Maine)
cf. "The Old Pod Auger Days" (pod auger theme)
cf. "In Old Pod-Auger Time" (pod auger theme)
cf. "The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve" (good old days theme) and references there
NOTES [31 words]: For other poems attributed to William Moriarity in Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, see the notes to "Paul King." I have seen no evidence that any of them made it into tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EkSm145

Old Chimney Sweeper, The

See I'm a Poor Old Chimney Sweeper (File: Wa189)

Old Chisholm Trail, The

See The Chisholm Trail (I) (File: R179)

Old Chizzum Trail, The

See The Chisholm Trail (I) (File: R179)

Old Church Yard, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh come, come with me to the old church yard, I well know the path through the soft green sward, Our friends slumber there we were wont to regard." The singer recalls the dead, gone from their troubles, and points out that they will rise again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Frances E. Percival, "Sweet Home, or, Friendship's Golden Altar")
KEYWORDS: religious death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 620, "The Old Church Yard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 90-91, "The Old Church Yard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1716, p. 115, "The Old Kirk-Yard" (1 reference)
Roud #3386
NOTES [57 words]: Randolph was told that this was a Millerite (early Adventist) hymn. If this was typical of their music, that might go almost as far to explain the failure of the Millerites as the fact that Miller's predictions of the end of the world were consistently wrong. It appears in fact to be an Americanization of the song "The old kirk-yard." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: R620

Old Circus Song

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

Old Cloak, The

DESCRIPTION: In winter, the old wife urges the old man to go out and bring the cow in from the cold. He protests; his cloak is too old and thin. She reminds him of their history, and of the dangers of pride. At last he, to end the strife, goes out to care for the cow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1724 (_Tea-Table Miscellany_, according to Chambers)
KEYWORDS: dialog husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #71, p. 2, "Tak' Your Auld Cloak Aboot Ye" (1 fragment)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 91-92, "The Auld Cloak" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 195-198, "Take Thy Old Cloak About Thee" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques VII, p. 50, "Take Thy Old Cloak About Thee" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 188-189, "The Old Cloak" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 170, "The Old Cloak" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol I, pp. 139-140, "Tak Your Auld Cloak About Ye" (1 text)
Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland [second series] (Paisley, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 259-261, "Tak' Your Auld Cloak About Ye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scots Sangs (in three vols) (London, 1733 (ninth edition) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, pp. 114-115, "Take Your Auld Cloak About You" ("In winter when the rain rain'd caul'd") (1 text)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #250, pp. 258-259, "Tak your auld cloak about ye" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST OBB170 (Partial)
Roud #8207
NOTES [130 words]: Chambers: "From the Tea-Table Miscellany, 1724. This excellent old song, however, was probably written before the close of the sixteenth century' as its measure and versification unequivocally belong to that period."
There is an item currently on Google Books identified as the 1724 edition of The Tea-Table Miscellany by Allan Ramsay that does not include this song. However, the title page is missing and while the Preface is by Ramsay and is dated 1724, the exact same Preface and date is in the 1733 edition. - BS
One of Percy's stanzas, beginning "King Stephen was a worthy peer," is quoted in Shakespeare's Othello (II.iii.80). But this stanza has nothing to do with the general plot of this song; I can't help but wonder if it is not some broadside-maker's insertion. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: OBB170

Old Cock Crows, The

See The Country Life (II) (File: Grg169b)

Old Colonel, The

See Johnny Harte (File: HHH106)

Old Colony Times

See In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)

Old Coon Dog (I)

DESCRIPTION: "The raccoon is a cunning thing, He travels after dark, He never takes to a tree, But I hear old Ranger bark.... When I bust this punkin head, One, two, by three." "Somebody stole my own coon dog..." "Somebody stole my bunny pullet." Other verses float
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Roberts-SangBranchSettlers)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad dog animal bird travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #83, "Old Coon Dog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3436
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Raccoon" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Way Down in Rackensack (Old Coon Dog)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [59 words]: Just about every word of this is found in other songs. I could argue that it belongs with "Raccoon" or some such song. But the combination is unique, and the "punkin head" chorus is fairly distinctive. I split it not because I really consider it a separate song but because it's not clear just what to lump it with; I note that Roud also splits it off. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Robe083

Old Coon Dog (II)

See Way Down in Rackensack (Old Coon Dog) (File: R350)

Old Corn Licker

See Cripple Creek (I) (?) (File: San320)

Old Corn Whiskey

See My Lulu (File: San378)

Old Cotton Fields of Home

See Cotton Fields Back Home (File: DTcottnf)

Old Country Party, The

DESCRIPTION: "Say, did ye iver go till an ould country party." The singer describes his first. He describes the food and punch, music and dancing until "the bottle was dry." Now he's away from home and "the tears rushes into me eyes" when he thinks of those days.
AUTHOR: Harry M Palmer
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, LOCSinging sb30374b)
KEYWORDS: homesickness dancing drink music party nonballad moniker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 95, "The Old Country Party" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1700, p. 114, "THe Old Country Party" (2 references)
Roud #V27349
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, sb30374b, "The Old Country Party", H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also as202780, "The Old Country Party"
Bodleian, Harding B 18(380), "The Old Country Party", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Irishman's Shanty" (tune)
NOTES [38 words]: Broadsides LOCSinging sb30374b and Bodleian Harding B 18(380): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: OCon095

Old Couple and the Pig, The

See There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)

Old Cow

See All the Pretty Little Horses (File: LxU002)

Old Cow Died of Whooping Cough

DESCRIPTION: "Old cow died of whooping cough, Baby cow died of measles, Father died with a spoon in his mouth An carried it off to Jesus."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: cattle death father animal | spoon measles whooping cough
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 183, "Old Cow Died of Whooping Cough" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11368
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jaybird Died With the Whooping Cough" (theme of animal disease)
cf. "The Sow Took the Measles" (theme of animal disease, especially measles)
cf. "The Cat's Got the Measles and the Dog's Got Whooping Cough" (theme of animal disease)
NOTES [390 words]: Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric notes the similarity to "Jaybird Died With the Whooping Cough." I suspect this is derived from one or another "Whooping Cough" song, but with so little text, it's not possible to tell which.
Incidentally, internet sources report that whooping cough is a human disease which cannot be transmitted to and from animals (let alone birds, as in "Jaybird Died With the Whooping Cough"), but that there are conditions which can result in a mammal coughing in a similar way. I've never heard a bird cough, though.
A baby cow would not die of measles per se, since it's a human disease, but according to a science program I heard on the BBC in June 2020, measles is believed to be a close relative of the cattle disease rinderpest; the estimate is that the two split off around 2500 B.C.E. Thus it is perfectly possibly that the baby cow died of rinderpest, which would look like measles. Incidentally, it can't happen now; good sanitation measures rendered rinderpest extinct in 2011. Measles would be extinct also, were it not for anti-vaxers, but certain sub-types of humans are stupider than cattle....
Rinderpest is certainly highly virulent; it has great cultural significance, e.g., in South Africa, "where it broke out in 1896; described as 'the greatest cultural shock eer sustained by the agricultural community of S.A."; it was "deadly, implacable, moving faster than the railway, through lands where there were no railways, without a cure, without regard to political or other boundaries" (see Jean Branford, A Dictionary of South African English, Oxford University Press, 1978, p. 202).
Incidentally, if we look at a family tree for all the animals mentioned in "measles" songs, cows are closest to sheep, then pigs, then horses. That group then joins another group containing carnivorae such as cats and dogs. That brings us to a major split in the order mammalia, with rodents and primates on the other side of the split. In other words, to oversimplify dramatically, we have a tree that looks like this:
.
./--Cats, cows, dogs, horses, pigs, sheep
.|
.\--Humans, apes, monkeys, rodents, rabbits
.
Thus, as between measles and rinderpest, since pigs, sheep, cats, dogs, and horses are closer to cows than they are to humans, we can hypothesize that they are more prone to rinderpest rather than measles. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Brne183

Old Cow Died, The (Little Girl)

DESCRIPTION: Game song, solo question, group answer: "Annie/Little girl, little girl,' 'Yes, ma'am," "Did you go over the river?" "The old cow died, sail around." "Did you give her hot water? Yes, ma'am." "Did you send for the doctor?" "Did she die of the cholera?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal death dialog playparty food wedding food wine nonballad bird
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, pp. 114-115, "Shoo Turkey Shoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 396, "The Old Cow Died" (1 text)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 141-142, "Little Girl" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John Stewart, Bessie Jones: For the Ancestors (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983), pp. 69-71, "Shoo Turkey" (1 text)
Roud #11598
RECORDINGS:
Janie Hunter, Mary Pinckney, and their children, "Shoo Turkey" (BeenStorm1)
NOTES [143 words]: The Scarborough and Silber texts are noticeably distinct, Silber's being about the death of the cow while Scarborough's is intent upon the dialog and an adult asking a child about her activities (harvesting an egg, making corn pone, eating it, etc.) But the form is close enough that I've lumped them; the details of such songs are easily remade. - RBW
The "Shoo turkey" line is also in Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 #140, indexed as "Banbury Cross": "My turkey, your turkey. Shoo turkey, shoo!" The line seems out of place in Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 and may have floated there from this game.
BeenStorm1 liner notes have no performer credits for this song. Janie Hunter, Mary Pinckney, and their children sing the song in Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight and seem the likely performers on the record. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: FSWB396A

Old Cowboy, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the hardships of his life as a cowboy "I've drunk water from the cow tracks, boys, when you bet it tasted good"; "I've starved and ate of the prickly pear"; "Been tortured by the Apaches." But now new cowboys are replacing him.
AUTHOR: Charlie Johnson (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Bandera, Texas Frontier Times, November 1925, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work hardtimes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 110, "The Old Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 409, "The Old Cowboy" (1 text)
Roud #11088
File: FCW110

Old Cowman, The

DESCRIPTION: ""When the sap comes up through the cottonwood roots, And the first birds light 'mongst the quaking asp shoots," the singer becomes restless to meet his mates. He wants to be out on the range "Till the boss of all herders sings, 'Peace, be still.'"
AUTHOR: Scott Levitt (source: Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy travel death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 112-113, "The Old Cowman" (1 text)
File: ThLo112

Old Cromwell

See Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)

Old Cross Road, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, my brother, take this warning, Don't let Satan hold your hand, You'll be lost in sin forever" -- but you have the choice to take the Old Cross Road. One road leads to Heaven, the other "down below"; let Jesus take you by the right one
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Roberts/Agey-InThePine)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus | road
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #114, The Old Cross Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [74 words]: There is a moderately well-known hymn by James Rowe called "The Old Cross Road." This isn't the same; that begins, "There are man paths through this world of sin, But there's only one I shall travel in." Hymnary.org does not seem to have any versions of this hymn. I wonder, given the number of unique hymns in Roberts/Agey-InThePine, if there wasn't someone in that part of Kentucky churning out hymns that never spread outside the area. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RAInP114

Old Crumbly Crust

See Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)

Old Cuckoo's Nest, The

See see under Intery Mintery Cutery Corn and Charley Barley (File: OO2252)

Old Dad Morton

See The Cryderville Jail (File: LxU090)

Old Daddy AIken

See Auld Daddy Aiken (File: BAAI150B)

Old Daddy Fox

See The Fox (File: R103)

Old Dan Tucker

DESCRIPTION: Vignettes: Old Dan Tucker arrives to court the girls, sell his produce, and/or get drunk. Example: "Old Dan went down to the mill / To get some meal to put in the swill. / The miller swore by the point of his knife / He never seen such a man in his life."
AUTHOR: attributed to Daniel Decatur Emmett
EARLIEST DATE: 1841? (Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo says 1843)
KEYWORDS: bawdy playparty talltale
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So) Australia New Zealand
REFERENCES (39 citations):
Randolph 521, "Old Dan Tucker" (3 texts plus 2 excerpts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 431-433, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 tune, 3 texts)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 148-149, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 82, "Old Dan Tucker" (6 texts); 509, "Nigger in the Woodpile" (1 two-line fragment, probably this though the vulgar idiom of the title is obviously common to many songs)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 82, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 tuns plus a text excerpt)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 188, (no title) (2 fragments, one clearly this and the other a Dan Tucker stanza but with "Ole Aunt Dinah" in Dan's place); also p. 199, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, with a verse from this song though it has a chorus about "Sambo")
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 129, "Old Miss Wilson" (1 fragment, clearly this song although "Old Miss Wilson" has replaced "Old Dan Tucker")
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 219, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 short text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 86, "Old Dan Tucker" (4 short text)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 78-80=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 180-182, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 274, "(Old Dan Tucker)" (1 short text, probably localized)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 176-177, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 163, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 140, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 fragment)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #88, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 81, pp. 130-132, "Walk, Tom Wilson" (1 text, 1 tune, about half "Old Dan Tucker" and half "Walk Tom Wilson," with probably a few other stray elements as well)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 28-30, "Old Dan Tucker" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 155, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 78-81, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune, plus many sundry verses)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #200, "Old Dan Tucker" (3 texts)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 263, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 133, "(Dan, Dan, the dirty man)" (1 short text)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 160-162, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 27, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 258-262, "Old Dan Tucker" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 28-29, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 34-35, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 39, "(Sam, Sam, the soft soap man)" (1 fragment, with the first line about Sam rather than Dan, but the rest being the usual "washed his face in a frying pan... died of a toothache in his heel" lyric)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 431, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #12, p. 45, "Ole Dan Tucker" (1 text)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 52, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 240, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 81, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 174-175, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 text, 1 tune)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, posts 109-111, "Old Dan Tucker" (1 short text, from user Tess_W, with comments from others, all posted September 27, 2021)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Archie Green, "A Literary Contribution to the Creation of an American Folk Hero: Dan Tucker in Roakoke," Vol. XL, No. 2 (Summer-Fall 1993), pp. 49-69, (citations only)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 505, "Old Dan Tucker" (notes only)
DT, DANTUCKR
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 382-384, "Old Dan Tucker" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ST R521 (Full)
Roud #390
RECORDINGS:
Bentley Ball, "Old Dan Tucker" (Columbia A3087, 1920)
Harry C. Browne "Old Dan Tucker" (Columbia A1999, 1916; on Protobilly)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Old Dan Tucker" (OKeh 40263, 1925; rec. 1924)
Pat Ford, "Old Dan Tucker" [fragment] (AFS A 4211 B2, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Dan Gardella, Fran Block, "Old Dan Tucker" (Piotr-Archive #527, recorded 03/09/2023)
Fran Hendrickson, "Old Dan Tucker" (Instrumental only: Piotr-Archive #288, recorded 10/07/2022)
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "Old Dan Tucker" (Brunswick 295, 1929; rec. 1928)
Charlie Jones & his Kentucky Corn Crackers, "Old Dan Tucker" (Rondo R-168, n.d., prob. late 1940s)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Old Dan Tucker" (Vocalion 15033, 1925)
Pete Seeger, "Old Dan Tucker" (on PeteSeeger17)
Judge Sturdy's Orchestra "Old Dan Tucker" (Victor 20102, 1926; rec. 1925)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Old Dan Tucker" (Columbia 15382-D, 1929; rec. 1928; on Protobilly)
Dan Tate, "Old Dan Tucker" (on FarMtns2)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(227a), " Old Dan Tucker" ("Dan Tucker lived in a nice little hut"), Birt (London), 1833-1851; also Harding B 11(3639), Harding B 15(227a), Harding B 15(84a), "[Old] Dan Tucker" ("Dan Tucker lived in a nice little hut"); Harding B 11(952), "Old Dan Tucker" ("I came across de ocean wide"); Harding B 11(927), Firth b.28(38) View 2 of 2)[some words illegible] , "Ole Tan Tucker"("Ole Tan Tucker cum to town one night"); Harding B 15(227b), Firth c.17(70), "Old Dan Tucker" ("I came ober here de oder day")
LOCSheet, sm1843 031800, "Old Dan Tucker" ("I come to town de oder night"), F. D. Benteen (), 1843 (tune); also sm1845 791510, "Old Dan Tucker"("I come to town de udder night"), (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Clear the Track" (tune)
cf. "Johnny, Get Your Gun (II)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Across a Steeple" (lyrics)
cf. "The End of Big Bill Snyder" (tune)
cf. "Old Ann Tucker" (derivative: female version)
cf. "Sam, Sam, Dirty Old Man" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Clear the Track (I) (File: SCW48)
Bryan Campaign Song (File: Wels078B)
The End of Big Bill Snyder (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 30-31)
The Workingman's Train ("Ho, the car Emancipation, Leaves to-day, Industrial station") (by E. R. Place) (apparently derived directly from "Clear the Track (I)") (Foner, p. 132, with a broadside print on p. 133; Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 87-88)
Henry Clay (Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi, p. 211; cf. "Henry Clay Songs," File: SRW039)
A Song for the Campaign (File: TPS061)
Early This Spring We'll Leave Nauvoo (File: FSSS317)
Riot in the City Hall Park, June 18, 1857 (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 135)
Our Flag Is Up ("Come Whigs and Patriots, one and all, Our Suffering Nation gives a 'call'") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 320)
The New Party ("Come all ye who're fond of singing, Let us set a song a-ringing) (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 323)
John Merryman ("John Merryman, the Marylander") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 190)
Position and Call to Start a Tucker/Old Dan Tucker (square dance call) (Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, p.. 110-111)
The Pastor's Daughter Oh! Boatman Haste (words by George Pope Morris, 1844; cf. Jon W. Finson, _The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song_, Oxford University Press, 1994, p.31)
Association Song ("O come where love makes labor light, Where toil with pleasure we unite") (Foner, p. 47)
The Working Men's League ("Come all you who are fond of singing, Let us set a song a ringing") (Foner, p. 48)
Cordwainer's Rallying Song ("Band together Lynn cordwainers, All as one, and you'll be gainers") (Foner, p. 63)
NOTES [339 words]: Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I offers a few bawdy verses to this otherwise immaculate dance tune. - EC
This was originally published as by "Dan Tucker Jr.," but it is generally believe that it was by Dan Emmett -- his first significant work. For a description of the sheet music, see Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 52. - RBW
The broadsides are more varied than usual. Note the differences in titles and first lines. - BS
This was apparently the first song ever sung by Dan Emmett and the Virginia Minstrels in their very first audition in 1843 (see details in the notes on "Dixie"). The rest, obviously, was history.
There is dispute over Emmett's role in the composition. Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 178, says that it was first published in 1842 by Millet's Music Saloon, with no attribution. The 1843 version more strongly associated with Emmett has a different form; it makes Old Dan a "a primitive backwoodsman with awesome abilities." Finson's note 39 cites S. Foster Damon to the effect that Emmett wrote the song in 1830.
Perhaps the best-known verse today, about Dan washing his face in a frying pan, combing his hair with a wagon wheel, and dying with a toothache in his heel, is not in the earliest versions I have seen.
The most likely explanation for all this, it seems to me, is that Emmett originally wrote the song but had no way of publishing it. Someone put out what amounts to a bootleg edition. This may have been rewritten, or perhaps Emmett himself, once the bootleg came out, rewrote the song to allow a separate copyright. But I can't prove any of this. And I would certainly admit the possibility of earlier folktales about Old Dan. For examples of Old Dan's folklorization, see the Archie Green article in NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, which describes Dan's role in Calvin Henderson Wiley's 1849 book Roanoke. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R521

Old Darling

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a mule-driver, describes driving his team at a fast pace when Old Darling (the boss) reproaches him for breaking the rules. The singer offers to break Mr. Darling; then tells listeners not to tow to Slocum, because the food is rotten.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: warning work boss animal
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 31, "Old Darling" (1 text)
Roud #8855
NOTES [30 words]: In the early days, the teamsters in the pinewoods drove oxen, later horses and (less often) mules.
The last verse is almost certainly tacked on from a completely different song. - PJS
File: Be031

Old Dash

DESCRIPTION: "The bairns will miss you when you're dead, They'll mark the place where rests your head. And down their cheeks the crystal bead Will sure distill." "You've had your time and you must go." "But dogs and men must yield to fate."
AUTHOR: Words: John Barr (source: Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry; most Barr poems were published in "Poems and songs" in 1861)
KEYWORDS: death children dog
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 34, "Old Dash" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [74 words]: According to Gordon McLauchlan, editor-in-chief, New Zealand Encyclopedia, David Bateman Limited, 1984, p. 46, "BARR, John (1809-89) was born in Paisley, Scotland and emigrated to N[ew] Z[ealand] in 1852, settling in Dunedin. He became a well-known poet and songwriter, contributing to the Otago Witness and Saturday Advertiser. His Poems and Songs was published in 1861 and revised and reissued in 1874. He inaugurated the Burns Club. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Col2034

Old David Ward

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes working in a lumber camp for David Ward, including a thieving foreman, an unpleasant employer, and a crooked scaler. The singer vows to leave and not return.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: work lumbering logger nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 115, "David Ward" (1 text)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 14, "Old David Ward" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 230-33, "Old David Ward" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 117, "Old David Ward" (1 text)
Roud #6498
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" and references there
cf. "The Rigs of the Times" (lyrics)
NOTES [209 words]: David E. Ward lumbered much territory north of Cadillac, Michigan; a small island village in the Manistee River, "Deward," is named for him. - PJS
Bruce Catton, Michigan, A History, 1972, 1976 (I use the 1984 Norton edition), pp. 106-107, has a brief summary of how Ward became a force in the timber industry. He was a "land-looker" or a "timber-cruiser" -- that is, someone who scouted the woods of Michigan looking for quality pine groves suitable for logging. In 1854, he found a good pine stand "far up between the headwaters of the Manistee and Au Sable rivers, which was a long, long way from anywhere in those days" -- but, being by the rivers, was a place where logging could take place. Ward believed another land-looker, Addison Brewer, had also found the spot, so Ward had to somehow get back to Detroit to raise the money to register and pay for the find, then get to the land office in Ionia, Michigan. So he hikes eighty miles through un-tracked forest, then paddled eighty miles to Saginaw, went from there to Detroit to get the money, made an eighteen-hour coach run to Lansing, caught a stage to Ionia, and registered his claim. It took him more than a week, but he won the race -- and his reputation as a hard driver was established. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be014

Old Dead Horse, The

See Just Like Me (File: Newe086)

Old Destroyer Squadron, The

See The North Atlantic Squadron (File: Hopk052)

Old Devil, The

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Old Doc Jones

See Doctor Jones (File: Br3090)

Old Doctor Collins (Celie)

DESCRIPTION: "Old Doctor Collins, He's a merry man (x3), Old Doctor Collins, He's a merry man, What makes you treat me so?" "Young ladies all, see that... Come in my ladies' garden." "Sam Jones is bound, Come into...." "Swing your sweetheard, see that, Come into..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty dancing gardening
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #124, "Old Doctor Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 103, "To London" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11421
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Celie
Sealy
NOTES [83 words]: This is one of those pieces that has no unifying theme and no unifying character; at one end we have Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida's version that is about Doctor Collins; at the far extreme we have Abernethy-SinginTexas's that is about travel to London, with no characters at all except "Celie" ("Sealy," "Celia," "Cecilia"). The extreme versions look like different songs, but there are so many intermediate versions that there is no good way to draw a line. So I've followed Roud in lumping them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Morr124

Old Dog Blue

See Old Blue (File: R295)

Old Dog Tray

DESCRIPTION: "The morning of life is past, And evening comes at last, It brings me dreams of a once happy day... Sporting with my old dog Tray." The singer notes that people come and go, but dogs stay faithful. He concludes he will never have a better friend
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1853
KEYWORDS: dog age nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 67, "Old Dog Tray" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1701, pp. 114-115, "Old Dog Tray" (3 references)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, p. 52, "Old Dog Tray" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 156-157, "My Old Dog Tray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #68, "Old Dog Tray" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 58 and #1/64 p. 53, "Old Dog Tray" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 396, "Old Dog Tray" (1 text)
Roud #2667
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1853 740400, "Old Dog Tray," Firth, Pond and Co (New York), 1853 (1 text, 1 tune)
LOCSinging, sb30371a, "Old Dog Tray," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as110140, "Old Dog Tray"
SAME TUNE:
Old Dog Tray No. 2 ("The morning meal is past, the next is coming fast") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 115; Dime-Song-Book #X, p. 16)
The Volunteer Fireman ("The Evening hour doth wane") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 167)
Yankee Fixins ("I don't mind telling you I can bake and boil and stew") (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, p. 172; the song is in the "Victoria Songster" but is not said to be by Thatcher)
(Parody on) Od Dog Tray ("But, unless my watch is fast, The morning time is past") (by Charles R. Thatcher, in the "Victoria Songster") (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, p. 180)
NOTES [242 words]: "Tray" for some reason seems to have been a popular name for dogs in the early nineteenth century. Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) wrote a piece called "My Dog Tray," about a dog faithful to his Irish master, with enough thematic similarities to this that I suspect dependence. And there seems to have been another My Dog Tray" piece by John Bryon. Also, Henry Randall Waite, Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 17, prints a brief "Old Dog Tray" text: "Old dog Tray, ever faithful, Grief cannot drive him away...."
According to Deems Taylor et al, A Treasury of Stephen Foster, Random House, 1946, p. 103, "With the possible exception of Oh! Susanna, Old Dog Tray ranked next in popularity in the 1850's to Old Folks at Home and My Old Kentucky Home. In less than four years it earned over a thousand dollars. According to Stephen's brother, Morrison, 'Tray' was a real dog, a handsome setter which had been given to Stephen by Colonel Matthew I. Stewart, a friend of the Foster family. At that time the Fosters lived in a house facing the East Common of Allegheny, and Stephen loved to watch this dog playing with the children on the Common." - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb30371a: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB396B

Old Donoughmore

DESCRIPTION: Pat travels alone at night on his way home to Donoughmore. He stops to sleep on the ground. He dreams of playing games and frightens a weasel back to its lair. Then a pony kicks him and brings him back to reality.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: home travel dream horse injury
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 107, "Old Donoughmore" (1 text)
Roud #16262
File: OCC107

Old Doorstep, The

See Goodbye to My Stepstone (File: R853)

Old Dorrington

See Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)

Old Dumpty Moore

DESCRIPTION: (Old Dumpty/Darby) rides his mare everywhere, until it grows too (old/stubborn) to ride. The mare goes down into the swamp and dies. The neighbours cook it, and "From the top of her head to the end of her tail Old Dumpty ate his way!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: animal horse death food
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 427, "Old Dumpty Moore" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #7633
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)" (plot elements)
File: R427

Old Dun Cow, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the home of Dolly, "the girl I would like to make my spouse." He is bemused by the sight of her "milking her old dun cow." He hopes to win her love; "I'll get married very soon, tomorrow afternoon, for I feel in the humour now."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H492, p. 238, "The Old Dun Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9473
NOTES [10 words]: Not to be confused with "When the Old Dun Cow Caught Fire." - RBW
File: HHH492

Old Dundee Town Once More

See Swansea Town (The Holy Ground) (File: Doe152)

Old Dyer, The

See The Dog in the Closet (The Old Dyer) [Laws Q11] (File: LQ11)

Old Early Camped at Fisher's Hill

See Battle of Fisher's Hill (File: ThBa058)

Old Elm Tree, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls old elm tree by the mill where he courted Laura. They become engaged, he goes to sea. In his absence, others convince her he was untrue. She dies for love and is buried beneath the old elm tree
AUTHOR: Words: Sarah S. Bolton/Music: Joseph Philbrick Webster
EARLIEST DATE: 1871
KEYWORDS: courting sea death burial
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 27-28, "The Old Elm Tree" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 221, "The Old Elm Tree" (1 text)
Randolph 708, "The Old Elm Tree" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 174-176, "The Old Elm Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 47, "The Old Elm Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDELM*
Roud #2795
RECORDINGS:
Eugene Jemison, "The Old Elm Tree" (on Jem01)
File: R708

Old England Forty Years Ago

DESCRIPTION: England never accepted our independence forty years ago. Now Madison leads us against England again. Fighters and battles of the new war are named. "We've checked the rage of British pride"
AUTHOR: Words: Silas Ballou (1753-1837)( source: Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: war commerce America England moniker nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 48, "Old England Forty Years Ago" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 22-25, "Old England Forty Years Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2824
NOTES [163 words]: The organization of this song is interesting. After praising James Madison (president 1809-1817, but generally regarded as a poor wartime leader), it lists naval heroes -- (Stephen) Decatur, Isaac Hull (for whom see "The Constitution and the Guerriere" [Laws A6], (William) Bainbridge (hardly a great hero; see the notes to "Charge the Can Cheerily"), Perry (Oliver Hazard Perry, for whom see "James Bird" [Laws A5]), Mcdonough (Thomas Macdonough, for whom see "The Siege of Plattsburg").
Then the song quickly gets William Hull, who gave up Detroit, out of the way (for this see "Brave General Brock" [Laws A22]) and starts in on successful army commanders: Harrison (for William Henry Harrison's full career, see "Old Tippecanoe"); Miller, Ripley, Gaines, Scott, and Brown (most of whom served at Lundy's Lane; see the notes to "The Battle of Bridgewater"); and Jackson (see "The Battle of New Orleans" [Laws A7]).
Silas Ballou is also credited with writing "Bright Phoebe." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: TPS048

Old England's Gained the Day

See Sebastopol (Old England's Gained the Day; Capture and Destruction of Sebastopol; Cheer, Boys, Cheer) (File: SmHa041)

Old English Chantey

See The Sailor's Alphabet (File: RcTSAlp)

Old English Gentleman, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing you a good old song That was made by a good old pate, Of a fine old English gentleman Who had an old estate." He lived comfortably, and he fed the poor in winter. But he died, and now there are no gentlemen, young or old
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: death food hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 114, "The Old English Gentleman" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 18 and #3/62, p. 18, "The Fine Old English Gentleman" (1 text)
Roud #23518
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fine Ould Irish Gentleman" (lyrics, theme)
SAME TUNE:
The Fine Fat Saucy Chinaman (File: AnSt099)
The Fine Old English Labourer (File: PaPa016)
High-Toned Southern Gentleman (File: SCWF338)
Subsidy: A Goat Island Ballad (File: LDC069)
South Carolina Gentleman (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 149)
Life of a Warden [part II] (by Charles R. Thatcher, in the "Colonial Minstrel") (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 10-21)
The White-Washed Yankee ("I'll sing you quite a novel song, made by a colonial brick") (by Charles R. Thatcher, in the "Victoria Songster") (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 168-169;Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, 73-74)
Jim Garfield's at the Front ("Once more the grand old fight is on, the fight we've often fought") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 6)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Fine Old English Gentleman
NOTES [36 words]: The song "The Fine Ould Irish Gentleman" is clearly intimately related to this one (Roud lumps them), but since one is clearly a rewrite of the other (the Irish song probably being the parody), I keep them separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HenV114

Old Enoch

DESCRIPTION: The singer is a dabster at stealing. He steals Enoch and Bill's pork and John Wood's wheat, and sheep, and a beehive. He feeds his friends who'd never believe he's a thief "for I'm called a nice man"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: bragging theft food humorous thief
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 88, "Old Enoch" (1 text)
Roud #2851
NOTES [16 words]: Thompson-APioneerSongster: "The word 'dabster' means 'expert.'" [Compare "dab hand." - RBW] - BS
Last updated in version 2.8
File: TPS088

Old Eph Grizzard

DESCRIPTION: Song with sound effects: "Old Efp Grizzard (Fft!), Dead and gone (Fft!), Gone to the evil, Just as sho' as you' born! (Fft!) Eph! (Fft!) (x2), Gimme piece of beef! (Fft!), GImme piece of liver! (Fft!). Hung old Eph on the Cumberland River...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (collected from C. C. Walton by Boswell)
KEYWORDS: nonballad food execution river
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 62, pp. 102-103, "Old Eph Grizzard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11029
File: BoWo062

Old Erin

DESCRIPTION: "Old Erin, my country, I love the green bowers. No music to me like the murmuring rill. And the shamrock to me is the fairest of flowers... Oh, but where is the nation that could rival old Erin, Oh where is the country such heroes can boast?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Fowke collection)
KEYWORDS: Ireland patriotic
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 53, "Old Erin" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #23058
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin, My Country (The Harp of Erin)" (lyrics)
NOTES [39 words]: "Erin, My Country (The Harp of Erin)" shares some words with this, as well as the concept, but O. J. Abbott's text is only a fragment; without more text, it's hard to tell if they are the same. I have with some hesitation split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: bFo053

Old Erin Far Away

See The Dying Soldier (I) (Erin Far Away II) [Laws J7] (File: LJ07)

Old Family Toothbrush, The

DESCRIPTION: "[How dear to my heart was] The old family toothbrush (x2/x3), That hung by the sink. First it was father's, Then it was mother's, Now it is sister's, And soon 'twill be mine. Father misused it, Mother abused it, Sister refused it, And now it is mine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: humorous derivative mother father sister nonballad | toothbrush
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #2, p. 9, "The Old Family Toothbrush" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 160, "The Old Family Toothbrush" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 250, "The Old Family Toothbrush" (notes only)
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "The Old Family Toothbrush" (Piotr-Archive #329, recorded 11/02/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Oaken Bucket" (tune) and references there
NOTES [36 words]: Judy Cook's version shows tremendous folk processing from both the Harbin and Pankake texts, including a new half-verse. Clearly has passed through oral tradition, even if it doesn't show up in many collections. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: PHC160A

Old Farm Gate, The

DESCRIPTION: "The old farm gate hangs sagging down"; it is old, rusty, and almost useless. Once children played on it, lovers courted by it, funerals passed through it. But all this was long ago, and "Time passes so quickly away"
AUTHOR: L. C. Wegefarth ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 852, "The Old Farm Gate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 476-478, "The Old Farm Gate" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 852)
Roud #7452
NOTES [58 words]: This is not the same as Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1704, p. 115, "The Old Farm Gate," which begins, "Where, where is the gate that once used to divide, The old shaded lane from the grassy road side." The latter song, with words by Eliza Cook and music by Henry Russell, talks about a new, more attractive gate that the singer nonetheless dislikes. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: R852

Old Farmer (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "I hace been travelling (twenty) long years, I have rambled about in the world." "There's none can compare with the fellow that follows the plow." Farmers, millers, soldiers, parsons, excisemen all depend on the work of ploughmen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Barrett)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #24, "The Old Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1178
File: PECS024

Old Farmer (II), The

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Old Farmer John

DESCRIPTION: "Old farmer John expects a son Some time in this November"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: farming
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1924, "Old Farmer John" (1 fragment)
Roud #15123
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81924

Old Farmer of Tetford, The

DESCRIPTION: An old farmer keeps his seven servants "on rotten tup mutton and sour small beer." He has a maggoty mutton pie made "on the sly" of "an old yowe dead a week yesterday." Servants and horses are "all skin and bone." The servants complain but work anyway.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2)
KEYWORDS: greed farming food horse sheep servant humorous hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 33, "The Old Farmer of Tetford" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #34, "Mutton Pie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 17, pp. 22-23, 17, "Mutton Pie" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #1408
File: OSY233

Old Fashioned Couple, An

See Old Married Couple (File: RcOlMaCo)

Old Fat Buck, The

See The Nottinghamshire Poacher (File: E053)

Old Father Christmas

DESCRIPTION: "(Here I come/In come I), old Father Christmas, Perhaps welcome, perhaps not; I hope old Father Christmas Will never be forgot." A verse found in many mummers' plays.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Simpson)
KEYWORDS: recitation nonballad Christmas
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, p. 147, "(In come I, old Father Christmas)" (1 short text)
File: Simp157

Old Father Christmas, Guess What He Did

DESCRIPTION: "Old Father Christmas, guess what he did, Upset the cradle, Out fell the kid. The kid began to bubble, So he hit him with shovel, O-U-T spells out, And out you much go for saying so."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty baby Christmas
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 99, "(Old Father Christmas, guess what he did)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric) and references there
File: SuSm099B

Old Father Gray

DESCRIPTION: "You've all heard of old Father Gray, Traveled over land and traveled over sea. (Chorus:) Wheel around and drive the Yankees back And make them know their places." The Yankees are driven back, and the girls encouraged to give their seats to gentlemen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting battle playparty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 567, "Old Father Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7660
File: R567

Old Father Grimes

See Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead) (File: R428)

Old Father Time Is a Crafty Man

DESCRIPTION: "(Old) Father time is a crafty man And he’s set in his ways, And we know that we never can Make him bring back past days. So (campers), while we are here, Let’s be friends firm and true. We’ll have a gay time... For we all love to play with you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: friend nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 195, 341, 500, "Old Father Time" (notes only)
File: ACSF195O

Old Fish Song, The

DESCRIPTION: Humorous retelling of the Jonah myth. Jonah is ordered by God to preach repentance to Nineveh. Not wanting the job, he goes to sea. God raises a storm; the sailors throw Jonah overboard. He is swallowed by a whale. Children are warned to obey
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (field recording, Blind James Howard)
LONG DESCRIPTION: God sees that the people of Nineveh are wicked, and sends Jonah to preach to them. Jonah says he's a hard-shell Baptist and refuses to go, being against foreign missions. He gets on a ship, but God, angered, raises a storm and the sailors throw Jonah overboard, where he's swallowed by a whale. The whale has indigestion, and vomits Jonah back out; Jonah heads for Nineveh and preaches and prophesies until the population repents. The moral is that one should be obedient: "When you disobey mammy, remember this tale/When you run off from home, bud, look out for a whale/There's varmints to get you on sea and on land/And a boy can be swallowed lots easier than a man."
KEYWORDS: captivity travel prophecy Bible humorous religious whale gods
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 148-149, "Jonah and the Whale" (1 text)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 124-125, "The Old Fish Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDFISH
Roud #7522
RECORDINGS:
Blind James Howard, "The Old Fish Song" (AFS 74A, 1933; on KMM)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Old Fish Song" (on NLCR01, NLCRCD1)
NOTES [60 words]: This hilarious song almost certainly began its life as a printed "ballot."
Book of Jonah, ch. 1-3. In the Bible, of course, it's a great fish rather than a whale. - PJS
Interestingly, the story leaves out most of chapter 4 of Jonah, in which the repentance of Nineveh causes Jonah to get mad at God again. Perhaps it's the author who's the hard-shell Baptist. - RBW
File: CSW124

Old Fodder

See Bold Ranger, The (File: R076)

Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)

DESCRIPTION: The "darky" remembers the "old folks at home" on "de Swanee ribber." Now forced to wander, he still longs "for de old plantation." He recalls growing up on the plantation, playing with his brother, and listening to the banjo. He hopes to go home.
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (sheet music by Firth, Pond & Co.)
KEYWORDS: home exile family slave
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 163-166, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 125-126, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 320, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 218, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text)
Krythe-SamplerOfAmericanSongs 5, pp. 74-99, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 407-408, "Old Folks at Home"
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 83, "Swanee River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 268-269, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1707, p. 115, "Old Folks at Home" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 61, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 15-16, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 86, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 79-80, "Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 120-121, "The Old Folks at Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #123, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 17, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 258, "Old Folks At Home" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 188, "Swanee River" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 25, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 23, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 5, "Old Folks at Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDFOLK
ADDITIONAL: Harold Vincent Milligan, _Stephen Collins Foster: A Biography of America's Folk-Song Composer_, 1920 (I use the 2004 University of Hawaii reprint), pp. 60-60, "(no title)" (1 partial text, plus a photo of Foster's original manuscript)
William E. Strudwekk and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, [[. 28-29, "(Old Folks at Home" (1 text, the modified version Florida uses as its state song; tune on p. 97)
ST RJ19163 (Full)
Roud #13880
RECORDINGS:
Bowman Sisters, "Swanee River" (Columbia 15473-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Swanee River" (OKeh 45139, 1927; on TimesAint02)
Monroe Quartet, "Old Folks at Home" (OKeh 45133, 1927)
Riley Puckett, "Swanee River" (Columbia 15003-D, c. 1924)
Virginia Rea & Elias Breeskin, "Old Folks at Home" (Brunswick 10013, 1920)
Paul Robeson, "Old Folks at Home" (HMV [UK] B-3664, 1930)
Pete Seeger, "Swanee River" (on PeteSeeger24)
Unidentified quartette, "Old Folks at Home" (Imperial [UK] 44961, c. 1906)
Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, "Way Down Upon the Swanee River" (Vocalion 04387, 1938)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1232), "The Old Folks at Home!," J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1855-1858; also Firth b.26(85), Firth b.26(240), Firth b.26(339), Harding B 20(268), Firth b.27(171), Firth c.16(291), Firth c.12(366), Firth b.26(378), Harding B 11(2797), "The Old Folks at Home[!]"
LOCSheet, rpbaasm 0473, "Old Folks at Home," Firth, Pond & Co. (New York), n.d. ["written and composed by E.P. Christy"]; also sm1875 03964, sm1885 23541, "Old Folks at Home" ["by S. C. Foster"] (tune)
LOCSinging, sb30401b, "Old Folks at Home," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also as110190, "Old Folks at Home"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Refrain" (recalls this song)
SAME TUNE:
Song to Captain S. D. Oliver (File: HGam067)
The Factory Slave ("Toiling amid the smoke and clamor From morn till night") (Foner, p. 161)
Boatman Jim ("Up by Ohio's northern water, Boatman Jim was born") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 4)
Way Down the Road ("Way down the road at ???, Not so far away") (Harbin-Parodology, #214, p. 55)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Way Down upon the Swanee River
NOTES [476 words]: The first sheet music version of this piece credits it to E.P. Christy. This was with Foster's consent; he sold Christy the right to claim authorship for $5. (Fortunately, Foster at least got the royalties on the song.) It finally appeared under his name in 1879 when the copyright was renewed.
In Foster's first draft, the river was the "Pedee," but he concluded that that didn't sound right. So he and his brother Morrison scouted an atlas for a better name, finally distorting "Suwanee" (a river in south Georgia and northern Florida) into "Swanee."
For some reason, a lot of people know about that change, but don't know that the first draft makes less mention of the "old folks"; instead of areference to the "old folks at home" in the fourth line, Foster's first draft reads "Dere's wha my brudders play"; see John Tasker Howard, Stephen Foster, America's Troubadour, 1934 (I use the 1939 Tudor Publishing edition), p. 191.
Howard, p. 194, also says that some people have suspected that Henry Kleber had some involvement in the music for this song, but adds that there is no proof. Howard himself thinks it unlikely, and I agree -- the tune has the simplicity that marks much of Foster's earliest and best work. A more formally trained musician like Kleber probably would only have interfered.
Phillips Barry posits that this tune is derived from "Annie Laurie." If so, there was a lot of reworking done along the way.
An 1852 report says that this song had already sold 40,000 copies, and that with two, or even three, presses, the publishers still could not keep up with demand (Howard, p. 202).
Ken Emerson, Doo-Dah! Stephen Foster and the Rise of American Popular Culture, Da Capo, 1997?, p. 29, notes that Stephen Foster's parents lost their home very early in Foster's life, and suggests that "Foster would compose so many songs about home in part because he seldom knew one for long."
Accordng to William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology, The Haworth Press, 1997, p. 28, this is Florida's state song, although the state in 1978 altered it to read "dear ones" instead of "darkies." - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb30401b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
LOCSheet, sm1853 700590, "Old Folks at Home," Firth, Pond & Co. (New York), 1853 does not include words and has the attribution "Composed by Stephen C. Foster."
Another warning about relying on broadsides for anything: Bodleian, Firth b.27(171), "The Old Folks at Home!," unknown, n.d. has the note "AIR -- 'Old house at home.'" - BS
Dime-Song-Book #2, p. 39, "The Old Folks are Gone," appears to be a minor rewrite intended to let people sing this song without giving credit to Foster. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RJ19163

Old Folks Better Up and Git to Bed

DESCRIPTION: "Old folks better up and get to bed Before the young folks get the devil in their heads."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: age
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 752, "Old Folks Better Up and Git to Bed" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [17 words]: The current description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5752

Old Forty

DESCRIPTION: "I want to go further down the road." "I want to see my little baby so bad." "When Old Forty blows ran and close your door." "Some old rainy day my luck is bound to change." "Down the road sweet baby down the road"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (USFlorida01)
KEYWORDS: love parting rambling train nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Richard Williams, "Old Forty" (on USFlorida01)
File: RcOldFor

Old Four-Posted Beadstead, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls growing up in his grandfather's house and playing on the four-posted bedstead. He remembers his grandmother being sick and visited by the doctor and vicar/parson before she died in the bed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1880 13379)
KEYWORDS: home death family father mother doctor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 262, "The Old Bedstead" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 22)
Roud #1194
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2798), "The Old Four-Posted Bedstead" ("It was down in Bedfordshire in an old fashioned town"), unknown, no date
LOCSheet, sm1880 13379, "The Old Family Bedstead" ("It was down in good old Maine"), T. B Harms & Co (New York), 1880 (with tune)
File: WT262

Old French Trench, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh what a life, living in a trench, Under Johnny French in the old French trench, We haven't got a wife or a nice little wench, But we're still alive in the old French trench." Soldiering is hard, and there is no reward, which is unfair
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier France
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1914-1915 - Sir John French commands the British Expeditionary Force in World War I. In 1915, he is replaced by Douglas Haig
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 55, "The Old French Trench" (1 short text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p.80, "The Old French Trench" (1 text)
Roud #10549
NOTES [84 words]: The Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang and Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver texts are quite different, with the Brophy/Partridge text appearing to be little more than the chorus of the Arthur version. But the Brophy/Partridge text refers to John French, making it relevant only in 1914-1915. The Arthur text refers only to "the French," not "John French." So I have to think the Brophy/Partridge text is closer to the original, with the Arthur text a modification made after John French was set aside. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BrPa055A

Old Gallipoli's a Wonderful Place

DESCRIPTION: "Old Gallipoli's a wonderful place, Where the boys in the trenches the foe have to face, But they never grumble, they smile through it all, Very soon they expect Achi Baba to fall." They don't expect success "Where old Gallipoli sweeps down to the sea"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes food
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1915 - The Dardanelles campaign. British forces attack Gallipoli; the Australians and New Zealanders form the spearhead of the second phase of the attack, at Suvla Bay. All the attacks are bloody failures
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 100, "Old Gallipoli's a Wonderful Place" (1 text, tune referenced)
File: AWTBW100

Old Garden Gate, The

See The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)

Old Geezer, The

See The Old Tobacco Box (File: FSC143)

Old Geezers, The

See The Old Tobacco Box (File: FSC143)

Old General Lane

DESCRIPTION: "Here sits a young lady all down to mourn, She's mourning the loss of her own true love, It has been said that he was slain In the service of old General Lane (or "was shot A-fighting for old General Scott") Oh no.... He'll come back and be my beau"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: war battle death love separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 560, "Old General Lane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #940?
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonnie Light Horseman" (theme)
NOTES [149 words]: This piece instantly makes me think of the Napoleonic War-era piece "My Bonnie Light Horseman," but the link is tenuous.
If the soldier was shot in the army of General Scott, the war is presumably the Mexican War.
If instead we refer the song to "General Lane," it probably refers to General Walter Payne Lane, who fought in the Mexican War and later served in the Confederate cavalry in the west (Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge) and was commissioned Brigadier General in 1865. There were, however, several other Generals Lane in the Civil War: James Lane (brigadier in Lee's army), and John Lane (brevet Brigadier in the Army of the Cumberland). There was also Senator James Lane, who had been Major General of the (Unionist) Kansas Militia.
Roud files this with the song we've filed as "Sad Condition." There are some lyrical similarities, but that is a playparty; I think they should be split.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: R560

Old General Price

DESCRIPTION: "Old General Price is a mighty fine man, From women an' children he steals all he can, It's damn any man that will follow his trade... These hard times." Perhaps also a playparty: "General Price he made a raid... And lost many a soldier...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes Civilwar thief
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep-Oct 1864 - Sterling Price's raid in Missouri, which might or might not be the subject of this song
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 224, "Old General Price" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 102, "General Price" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7828
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sterling Price" (subject)
NOTES [167 words]: Sterling Price (1809-1867), a former governor of Missouri and Confederate commander of Missouri troops, was almost certainly not a thief. His troops, however, were undisciplined and therefore even more likely to loot than the average soldier. Their depredations may account for the attitude toward Price shown in this fragment.
I have the strange feeling that Randolphs' "Old General Price" and "Sterling Price" are a single piece, one being adapted from the other -- but since we don't have a single complete stanza of either, and only one tune, this is beyond proof. Abernethy-SinginTexas's game-song text is sufficiently different that it might be a distinct song, but with so little to go with, I've lumped them for now.
Abernethy-SinginTexas's version refers to Price's raid without any other detail, meaning that we can't be sure it refers to Price's Missouri raid, but it was famous (although it was a failure that didn't accomplish much), so if the song refers to anything, it's likely that. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: R224

Old German Musicianeer, The

See The German Clockwinder (File: K201)

Old Girder Bill

DESCRIPTION: "I'll write you a poem of an old mountaineer, Who spent his life hunting for raccoon and deer." Girder Bill goes hunting and sees a buck and doe; he shoots the buck and goes home, "A buck on his shoulder, a doe left for seed."
AUTHOR: Lije Littleton?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: hunting
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 124, "Old Girder Bill" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 131-132)
File: ThBa124

Old Girl of Cairo Town, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was an old girl who lived in Cairo town, And I wish to the Lord that she was dead. She puts so many notions into my girl's head That we can't get along...." The singer spent all he had on the girl, but she doesn't love him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois)
KEYWORDS: love money rejection
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, p. 268, "The Old Girl of Cairo Town" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 413-414, "The Old Girl of Cairo Town" (1 text)
ST RDBW413 (Full)
Roud #4345
File: RDBW413

Old Glory

DESCRIPTION: "Say, have you heard the joyful news of Burnside's expedition...?" "The other day at Roanoke... The boys, to play a Union joke, ran up the flag of glory." The singer praises the Union soldiers, taunts the Confederates, and calls for their hanging
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb. 7, 1862 - Burnside's North Carolina expedition approaches Roanoke Island
Feb. 8, 1862 - Burnside defeats Henry Wise's local troops to capture Roanoke Island
Mar. 14, 1862 - Burnside takes New Bern
Apr. 26, 1862 - Burnside captures Beaufort
July 3, 1862 - Burnside and some 7500 of his troops are transferred to the Army of the Potomac
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 71, "Old Glory" (1 text)
Roud #5461
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "As I Went Down to Newbern" (subject of Burnside's Carolina campaign)
NOTES [144 words]: Ambrose Burnside's expedition against the North Carolina coast was one of the first Union amphibious expeditions, and was quite successful (almost the only Union success in the war to this time). A large strip of North Carolina coast stayed in Union hands, which helped tighten the Union blockade.
This song was almost certainly composed in the early months of 1862 -- probably before the Battle of Antietam (Sept. 17, 1862), where Burnside had a chance to win the war, and muffed it. Certainly it must have been composed before the Battle of Fredericksburg that winter, when Burnside lost the last shreds of his reputation. The North Carolina campaign had been a pushover, requiring little but energy (which Burnside had). Defeating Robert E. Lee took brains (which Burnside didn't have).
For more on this campaign, see the notes to "As I Went Down to Newbern." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: JHCox072

Old Goose and the Gander, The

DESCRIPTION: "Way down yonder in Grandma's lot, The old goose laid and the gander sot [sat]. Gosling died, The old goose laughed [sighed? cried?] And the gander cried."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: bird death mourning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 110, "The Old Goose and the Gander" (1 text)
File: ZiZa110C

Old Gospel Ship, The

DESCRIPTION: "I have good news to bring and that is why I sing... I'm gonna take a trip on that old gospel ship And go sailin' through the air." The singer advises others not to be ashamed of him/her, and admits to an inability to wait
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 351, "The Old Gospel Ship" (1 text)
DT, GOSPSHIP GSPLSHIP
Roud #7383
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Gospel Ship" (Melotone 6-07-56/Conqueror 8692, 1936; rec. 1935)
Leverett Bros. "Old Gospel Ship" (Country Church CC3/4, n.d.)
Monroe Brothers, "On That Old Gospel Ship" (Bluebird B-7273/Montogmery Ward M-7312, 1937)
Speer Family, "Old Gospel Ship" (Columbia 20418/Columbia 38155, 1948; rec. 1947)
Ruby Vass, "The Old Gospel Ship" (on LomaxCD1704)
File: FSWB351B

Old Grampus

See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Old Granddaddy's Dead

See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Old Grandma

DESCRIPTION: In praise of Grandma, who raised 21 kids right and lived the good life. "Old Grandma when ... infants came and times got bad, She stuck right on to old Grand-dad." "But young girls now are the other way: They're up all night and sleep all day"
AUTHOR: Words: John I. White
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (_The Lonesome Cowboy_)
KEYWORDS: mother children family derivative
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf,West)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Peacock, pp. 81-82, "Old Grandma" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 94-95, "Old Grandma" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GRTGRNMA*
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 183-188, "Great Grandma" (2 texts, 1 tune, plus a history of the song)
Roud #4543
RECORDINGS:
Monica Rossiter, "Grandmere" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mrs. Rossiter, "Old Grandma" (on PeacockCDROM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Great Grand-dad" (tune)
NOTES [43 words]: White reports writing four verses of this song in the 1920s, set to the tune of "Great Grand-dad" (and intended to be about his wife). The song went into tradition very quickly; within a couple of decades, he reports versions with as many as nine verses. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: FJ094

Old Grandma Hones

DESCRIPTION: The Liza leaves Sydney for Halifax and "Missus Hone's." Grandpa Hones tells tales. The girls welcome the sailors home. Grandma goes to bed and "leaves us all night with her daughters to sport"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: sex ship shore humorous whore sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 83-84, "Old Grandma Hones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9952
RECORDINGS:
Patrick Rossiter, "Old Grandma Hones" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea083

Old Granite State, The

DESCRIPTION: "We have come from the mountains (x3) From the Old Granite State; With a band of music (x3) We are passing 'round the world." The song introduces the singers, their state of New Hampshire, and their progressive ideas
AUTHOR: Elaborated, and probably written, by the Hutchinson Family
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (sheet music published by firth & Hall of New York)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home family drink
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 13-15 "The Old Granite State" (1 text)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 304, "The Old Granite State" (1 text plus a copy of the sheet music cover)
DT, GRANITST*
Roud #V36573
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1843 391270, "The Old Granite State," Firth and Hall (New York), 1843 (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Ratification Song (celebrating the nomination of Winfield Scott as the Whig presidential candidate for 1852) (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 328)
NOTES [162 words]: The Hutchinson Family, according to Spaeth (A History of Popular Music in America, p. 95) used this song to introduce their act and their family.
The Digital Tradition says that the verse, "Yes, we're friends of Emancipation And we'll sing the Proclamation" is "an obvious later addition." This is not as clear as it sounds. It was Lincoln who put the two words together -- but the Hutchinsons were campaigning for emancipation (and other liberal causes such as temperance) well before the Civil War. The exact wording may date from 1862, but the family certainly was proclaiming abolition by the 1840s -- and would have felt Lincoln's half-emancipation completely inadequate.
The family's own history, by Joshua Hutchinson, credits the song to Jesse Hutchinson (the ninth child of Jesse Sr. and Mary Hutchinson), though the sheet music lists the whole family and is copyrighted by John (child #13; all told, the parents had 19 children, 16 of whom survived infancy). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: DTgranit

Old Granny Grey

See Grandmother Gray (File: BAAI149B)

Old Granny Wales (Granny O'Whale, Granua Weal)

DESCRIPTION: "Old Granny she rose in the morning so soon,.. Saying, 'They're wronging my children that's over the sea." She meets Lord Cornwall, Lord Bute, Lord North, Lord Granville, and complains about the Tea Act. They argue; she wishes her children success
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (Green Mountain Songster)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad America nobility
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 18, 1775 - Battle of Lexington. A British force routs the American Minutemen. The
colonials gain some revenge as the Redcoats advance on Concord
June 17, 1775 - American defeat at the Battle of Bunker Hill
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 36, "Old Grannau Weal" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, p. xvi, "Old Granny Wales" (1 text, a reproduction of the Green Mountain Songster version)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 298, "Revolutionary Song" (1 fragment)
DT, GRNWALE2 (cf. GRNWALE.NOT)
ADDITIONAL: Bessie Mae Stanchfield, "Old Granny Wales," California Folklore Quarterly, Volume 4, #4. (October 1945), pp. 393-397.
ST DTgrnwl2 (Partial)
Roud #2817 and 15026
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Granuaile" (character of Granuaile) and references there
cf. "Revolutionary Tea" [Laws A24] (subject of the tea tax)
NOTES [1205 words]: It appears that there is only one traditional collection of this song, by Bessie Mae Stanchfield, taken from Elma Snyder McDowell of Saint Cloud, Minnesota. Stanchfield published the text (but not the tune) of this version in California Folklore Quarterly. McDowell, according to Stanchfield's notes, had it from her father; this would appear to mean it was in circulation in Minnesota around 1880.
Stanchfield, in researching the song, consulted very many eminent folklorists (I have seen the letters she wrote; they are in the archives of the Minnesota Historical Society). The people she contacted proved very unhelpful; none of the people she consulted even noted the connection with Grace O'Malley, known as Granuaile (for whom see "Granuaile" and the related songs). Stanchfield's speculation was the Granny Wales either Benjamin Franklin (an "old granny" who was for a time, in effect, the American representative trying to negotiate with the British parliament) or perhaps the country of Wales itself.
I have no doubt, however, that Old Granny Wales is in fact Granuaile, and in this I am confirmed by Bruce Olson (Digital Tradition notes on Granny Wale), John Moulden (private communication), and Kenneth Porter (Notes and Queries, in Western Folklore, Volume 13, Number 1 (January,1954), p. 51; note that Western Folklore is the successor of California Folklore Quarterly). All four of us reached this conclusion independently: This is a song of the Irish wishing the Americans well in their rebellion.
The date of the song must obviously be after Bunker Hill, since it is mentioned in the song. I would say that it also must be before the Battle of Saratoga, at the very latest, because of the way that changed the war. I strongly suspect the original was written just after Bunker Hill, before news of the British response had reached the Americas. The British in fact were preparing to offer compromises at this time, but events on the ground overran them (Lyon, p. 298).
Apart from Granuaile, the characters and events mentioned in the McDowell text are:
Lord Cornwall: Cornwall is properly a duchy, and I know of no one named Lord Cornwall in this period; I suspect this is an error for General Cornwallis. (Unless it's a sort of geographical error for the Earl Dartmouth, Secretary for the Americas when the troubles began.) (In the Green Mountain Songster version, it's Lord Connor, which rings no bells for me.)
Lord North, Lord Granville, and infamous Bute: Frederick, Lord North, later second Earl of Guilford (1732-1792), was Prime Minister 1770-1782. His behavior toward the colonies was much better than this song might imply; he actually *repealed* most of the Townshend Duties which had made the colonies so restless, keeping only the tea tax as a sort of token of British sovereignty (the tea tax, Weintraub, p. 4, was a quarter of the tax charged in England; on p. 19, he notes that total taxes on Americans were only about ¹/₂₅ the effective tax rate paid by British subjects) and also as an attempt to get rid of a lot of tea stuck in East India Company warehouses (Cook, pp. 166-167; Marrin, p. 33). His real problem was that he was George III's Prime Minister, so he had to do something to keep that unwise monarch happy. For more on these guys, see "Taxation of America."
Lord Granville ("Grantville" in the Green Mountain Songster): presumably George Grenville (1712-1770), MP from 1741, Secretary of State 1761, Prime Minister 1763-1765. He came into office with a big problem: According to Middlekauff, p. 57, he came into office with the national debt up to 122 million pounds (the result of the expensive battles of the Seven Years' War/French and Indian War). Britain was taxed to the limit, and the government felt that it needed to keep troops in America. Somehow, they had to be paid for. It was decided that the Americans would have to pay a share. After some fiddling with various tarriffs, Grenville imposed the Stamp Act, which was the first major cause of American revolutionary unrest (Marrin, pp. 14-15). (It is ironic to note that he lowered other duties, such as that on molasses -- Middlekauff, p. 58 -- but did his best to make sure it was collected.)
Infamous Bute: John Stuart, Third Earl of Bute (1713-1792). Prime Minister 1762-1763. He had been the tutor of the future George III from 1755, and his influence with that monarch was felt to continue long after he left office (OxfordCompanion, p. 145). Earlier, he had been an advisor -- whispers said he had been a lover -- to George III's mother In the period after her husband Frederick died (Hadlow, p. 108). He was, however, hated by just about everyone except the King (Cook, pp. 30-31), and he drove many Lords out of government.
Middlekauff, p. 20, has much to say of Bute, "The friendship [between George III and Bute] seems to have developed easily -- in part, we may suppose, because George craved affection and kindness and Bute responded with both. Yet... Bute held the upper hand: he was twenty-five years older, strongly opinionated, obviously intelligent, and he was in charge of the prince's education.... Bute himself knew much but did not understand men or human conduct. His pride reinforced the prince's; his propensity to judge others by abstract principles... strengthened a similar tendency in the prince. Master and pupil then and later commonly mistook inflexibility for personal strength and character" (p. 20).
Despite his infamy, Bute arguably contributed more to humanity than most politicians; his extensive book Botanical Tables Concerning the Families of British Plants was a genuinely useful scientific work (Hadlow, p. 107). That hardly prepared him for a career in politics, however, particularly one where he controlled the King's mind -- and, to a large extent, he did; the letters cited on p. 111 of Hadlow show George III deeply respecting, almost worshipping, Bute.
It was Bute who first started building up the peacetime army, forcing the raising of money to maintain them. This started the cycle of taxes, continued by Grenville, which caused so much trouble with the colonies. Especially since Bute did nothing to make it clear why he did what he did.
Lexington Battle: The Battle of Lexington and Concord, April 18-19, 1775. Note that the colonists did not win at Lexington (where British regulars tore the Minutemen to pieces); the victory came in the guerilla actions on the way to Concord.
Bunker Hill: The Battle of Bunker Hill, fought on June 17, 1775 at Breed's Hill (not Bunker Hill). The British won, in that the Americans had to evacuate the site, The claim that 1200 Britons lay dead is exaggerated: This is about the number of actual casualties, but Cook, p. 226, says 232 British were killed and 950 wounded. For Bunker Hill, and Joseph Warren who died there, see "The Sword of Bunker Hill."
Darby, Bixby, and Graves: I'm guessing that Darby is Captain John Derby, whose ship brought the first word of Lexington and Concord to England (Cook, pp. 219-221). Bixby I can't identify, There were naval officers named Graves later in the war, though I don't know why they would be mentioned in 1775, which seems from internal evidence to be the date of this song. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: DTgrnwl2

Old Gray Goose (I), The (Lookit Yonder)

DESCRIPTION: Concerning a man's dead wife, whose return he fears: "On Saturday night my good wife died, On Sunday she was buried, But Monday was my courting day, And Tuesday I got married. Now, lookit here, and lookit there, and look way over yonder..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: wife husband death marriage humorous floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 147, "Lookit Yonder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 153 (last of several "fragments of Irish songs" - 1 text, which could be this or "My Wife Died on Saturday Night")
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 167, "When I Was a Little Boy" (1 text, 1 tune, which appears to open with part of "I Wish They'd Do It Now," includes floating verses which sometimes are found in "Lynchburg Town," and end with the "Saturday NIght My Wife Died" of "The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)" or similar)
DT, LOOKYOND*
Roud #3619
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Turkey Hen" (plot, lyrics; the two may be slightly modified forms of the same song)
cf. "I Had a Wife"
cf. "John Styles and Susan Cutter" (tune)
cf. "Way Down the Old Plank Road" (words)
cf. "My Wife Died on Saturday Night" (floating verse)
NOTES [121 words]: The first verse quoted here is the same as "My Wife Died on Saturday Night"; they are distinguished mostly by the chorus.
To add to the confusion, there is a nursery rhyme (Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #131, p. 106):
I married a wife on Sunday,
She began to scold on Monday,
Bad was she on Tuesday,
Middling was she on Wednesday,
Worse she was on Thursday,
Dead was she on Friday,
Glad was I on Saturday night,
To bury my wife on Sunday.
To this compare also Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes, #509, p. 410, which begins "Tom married a wife on Sunday, Beat her well on Monday," but the rest almost the same as the Baring-Gould version.
The Baring-Goulds also compare the well-known poem of "Solomon Grundy." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: FSC147

Old Gray Goose (II), The

See Go Tell Aunt Rhody (File: R270)

Old Gray Goose Is Dead, The

See Go Tell Aunt Rhody (File: R270)

Old Gray Horse (I), The

See The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)

Old Gray Horse (II), The

See The Drunkard's Horse (File: R318)

Old Gray Horse Come Tearin' Out o' De Wilderness

See The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)

Old Gray Hoss He Died in the Wilderness, The

See The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)

Old Gray Mare (I), The (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)

DESCRIPTION: Concerning an old gray mare (old gray horse, little black bull) that came out of the wilderness (down the meadow, etc.) in Alabam/Arkansas/A long time ago/On to Galilee. Other animals may also be involved. May be used as a playparty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1838 (William B. Smith; see Notes)
KEYWORDS: horse animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 92-93=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 185-186, "There Goes Topsy Through the Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 271, "The Old Gray Horse" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 1 tune); 559, "Out of the Wilderness" (1 short text, 1 tune); also possibly 429, "John the Boy, Hello!" (1 text, 1 tune, so short that one cannot tell whether it is the same piece or a different one)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 231-232, "The Old Gray Horse" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 271A)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 174, "The Old Grey Horse Came Tearing Through the Wilderness" (3 short texts; "A" adds an unusual chorus, "Roll, Riley, roll (x3), Oh, Lord, I'm bound to go")
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 13-14, "Old Gray Horse Come Tearin' Out o' De Wilderness" (1 text plus bits of others, 1 tune); p. 183, (no title) (1 short text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 102-103, "Old Gray Mare"; 164-165, "Hoosen Johnny" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #137, "The Little Black Bull" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 92-93, "Down in Alabama" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 65-68, "Down in Alabam' or Ain't I Glad I Got Out de Wilderness"" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 45, "In the Wilderness" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 336-338, "Tearin' Out-a Wilderness" (2 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 66, "(The old gray hoss he died in the wilderness)" (1 fragment)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 29, "The Old Grey Mare" (1 short text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 397, "Hoosen Johnny"; p. 398, "The Old Gray Mare" (2 texts)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 63, "The Old Grey Mare" (1 text, tune referenced)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 408-409, "The Old Gray Mare -- (Get Out of the Wilderness)"
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 22 and #4/64, p. 22, Ain't I Glad to Get Out of the Wilderness"" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: William B. Smith, "The Persimmon Tree and the Beer Dance" in _The Farmers' Register_, Vol. 6, No.1 (1838 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) (also available on Google Books), p. 59, "Who zen-John, Who-za" (1 fragment)
Roud #751 and 4252
RECORDINGS:
Gene Autry, "The Old Grey Mare" (Conqueror 8686, 1936)
Al Bernard, "The Old Grey Mare" (Vocalion 15643, 1927)
Milton Brown & his Brownies, "The Old Grey Mare" (Decca 5260, 1936)
Fiddlin' John Carson & Moonshine Kate, "The Old Grey Horse Ain't What He Used to Be" (OKeh 45471, 1930)
Lew Childre, "The Old Grey Mare" (Gennett 7312/Champion 16093/Supertone 9773, 1930)
[Arthur] Collins & [Byron] Harlan "Old Grey Mare" (Victor 18387, 1917) (Emerson 7298, c. 1917) (Columbia A2382, 1917) (Little Wonder 780, 1918)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Old Grey Mare" (Perfect 12421/Conqueror 7071, 1928) (Banner 2180/Jewel 5187/Perfect 12421/Regal 8469/Conqueror 7071/Conqueror 7169, 1928; rec. 1927)
Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band, "The Old Grey Mare" (Victor 18369, 1917)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers[/Clodhoppers], "Old Gray Mare Kicking Out of the Wilderness" (OKeh 45183, 1928; rec. 1927)
Jimmy Johnson's String Band, "Old Blind Dog" (Champion 16541 [possibly issued as by Andy Palmer], 1932; on KMM)
[Billy] Jones & [Ernest] Hare, "The Old Grey Mare" (Edison 51618, 1925)
Elmo Newcomer, "Old Grey Mare" CroMart 101, n.d. but prob. late 1940s - early 1950s)
Land Norris, "Old Grey Mare" (OKeh 45047, 1926)
Obed Pickard, "The Old Gray Horse" (Columbia 15246-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "The Old Gray Mare" (Columbia 15170-D, 1927)
University Quartet, "The Old Gray Mare" (Pathe 20267, 1917)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness" (tune)
cf. "Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts" (tune)
cf. "The Big Black Bull"
cf. I Ain't a-Scared of Your Jail (tune, structure)
cf. "Horsie, Keep Your Tail Up" (lyrics)
cf. "Go in the Wilderness" (tune, structure)
cf. "Old Virginny Never Tire"
cf. "The Old Black Bull" (form; probably also tune)
SAME TUNE:
Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness (File: San168)
Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts (File: PHCFS133)
The King's Navy (File: Hopk063)
Here We Sit Like Birds in the Wilderness (File: ACSF164H)
Swimming in the Delaware (Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 163)
Floatin' Down the Delaware (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 157; Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 163)
I Don't Give a Darn for the Whole State of Iowa (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 251)
I Ain't A-Scared of Your Jail (on PeteSeeger35)
Aren't You Glad You Joined the Republicans? (Republican campaign song, c. 1860; cf. e.g. Allan Nevins, _The Emergence of Lincoln: Prologue to Civil War 1859-1861_ [volume IV of _The Ordeal of the Union_] (Scribners, 1950, p. 315))
Old Joe Hooker, won't you get out of the Wilderness (Song supposedly sung by J. E. B. Stuart during the Battle of Chalcellorsville; see Stephen W. Sears, _Chancellorsville_, Houghton Mifflin, 1996, p. 335)
NOTES [321 words]: Roud seems to make this into two numbers, 751 and 4252, but I can't tell what the distinction is. But see Paul Stamler's note below....
The 1858 sheet music credits this to "J. Warner," but no information about Warner has been recovered, and there are indications that the song was in the Black traditional repertoire before the 1850s.
A common bit of folklore claims that this is based on the exploits (?) of an animal that took fright during the Second Battle of Bull Run in 1862. The date of the sheet music, of course, proves this false. - RBW
Sam Hinton traces this to an African-American spiritual, "I Wait Upon the Lord" ("If you want to get to heaven go in the wilderness... and wait upon the Lord"). - PJS [See now the Index entry for "Go in the Wilderness." - RBW]
Are you sure this is the same ballad as "Little black bull come down the meadow/Hoosen Johnny, Hoosen Johnny"? I think they're part of the same family, but maybe we should split them. By the way, there's a great bawdy version of "Hoosen Johnny" called "Houston, Sam Houston", with sound effects. - PJS
It's another case of the extremes being different but the intermediate versions being too mixed to clearly distinguish. Easier to lump the whole family here. If we don't, we *will* mess up. Or, at least, I will. The versions of this song are so diverse that it gets to the point of parodying itself....
It would be an interesting project, for someone, to determine whether these are two songs that mixed or one song that diverged to an extreme degree. - RBW
The William B. Smith text, published in 1838, refers to a plantation dance "some years" before."The ball was opened with great ceremony by singing a song known to our Virgina slaves by the name of 'who zen-John, who-za.'
'Old black bull come down de hollow,
He shake hi' tail, you hear him bellow;
When he bellow he jar de river,
He paw de yearth, he make it quiver.
Who-zen John, who-za'" - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R271

Old Gray Mare (IV), The

See Nottamun Town (File: WB2006)

Old Gray Mule, The (Johnson's Mule)

DESCRIPTION: "Mr. Thomas had an old gray mule, And he drove him to a cart, And he loved that mule and the mule loved him." The song describes how Thomas mistreats the mule (currying it with a rake, feeding it on boot tops). The mule kicks and eventually dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Pound)
KEYWORDS: animal death work
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 103, pp. 213-214, "The Old Gray Mule" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 186, "Johnson's Mule" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 512, "Johnson's Mule" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 512, "Johnson's Mule" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 126, "Johnson Had an Old Gray Mule" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 25-26, "Johnson's Old Grey Mule" (1 apparently composite text, 1 tune, with material from "Whoa Mule (The Kickin' Mule)" and "The Old Gray Mule (Johnson's Mule)" -- which easily mix anyway -- apparently deliberately mixed)
Roud #3704
NOTES [52 words]: Reading Pound's text, I can't help but believe that parts of it were originally about a goat, not a mule. But I can't locate similar "goat" stanzas. In any case, many of the same lines appear in Gardner and Chickering.
Brown's text is also about a mule, but the few lines it contains are all goat-applicable. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: LPns213

Old Gray, The

See The Drunkard's Horse (File: R318)

Old Grazin' Ben

DESCRIPTION: "In '76, or thereabouts, when the Black Hills made the strike," large ox trains brought in supplies -- and suffered in the drought along the way. The diggers couldn't have done without them. The singer asks three cheers for them and "for Old Grazin' Ben"
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: animal travel gold food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 115-116, "Old Grazin' Ben" (1 text)
File: ThLo115

Old Green Field

See Rocky Road (Green Green) (File: CNFM154)

Old Grey Beard

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Old Grey Duck, The

DESCRIPTION: "The old grey duck she stole her nest and laid up in the fields, And when the young ones they came forth they had no tails or heels." Many eggs don't hatch; the other ducklings die. They will tie up the old grey duck in the barn so it doesn't happen again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall)
KEYWORDS: bird death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 51, "The Old Grey Duck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3302
File: Gun051

Old Grey Goose, The

See Go Tell Aunt Rhody (File: R270)

Old Grey Horse Came Tearing Through the Wilderness, The

See The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)

Old Grey Man, The

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Old Grey Mare (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Once I had an old grey mare (x3), Saddled her and rode her there." "When I got there she got tired, She laid down in an old courtyard." The singers in the yard scare her, and she flees; she singer finds her "in a mud hole flat on her back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1913 (JAFL26)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "Once I had an old grey mare (x3), Saddled her and rode her there." "When I got there she got tired, She laid down in an old courtyard." The singers in the yard scare her, and she flees; she singer finds her "in a mud hole flat on her back." In other versions, the singer tells that the gray mare was blind and deaf; he takes her out to plow, but she doesn't know how; she runs away, he follows her and finds her on her back in a mudhole. She may get that good old-time religion. In some versions the mare becomes a Christian and "willmake some old horse a good old wife."
KEYWORDS: horse travel disability escape farming humorous animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 175, "The Old Grey Mare" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 175, "The Old Grey Mare" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 223, "The Old Grey Mare" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #94, "The Old Grey Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 71, "Once I Had an Old Grey Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 36-37, "Old Gray Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 113-114, "Wunst I Had an Old Gray Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3442
RECORDINGS:
Buell Kazee, "Old Grey Mare" (on Kazee01)
Maude Thacker, "Once I Had an Old Grey Mare" (on FolkVisions1)
NOTES [26 words]: This should not be confused with "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)"; in that song the horse comes out of the wilderness.. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Br3175

Old Grey Mare (III), The

DESCRIPTION: .".. of traitors now beware There's none but men would glory win can ride my old Grey Mare. In Erin's Isle in ancient times She was rode by Brian Boru" and other heroes and others "not long ago" and "Brave Bonaparte" as well.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads); first half 19C (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic talltale horse Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1014 - Battle of Clontarf; Brian Boru defeats a mixed force of Vikings and their Irish allies (but is killed in the battle)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 35, "The Old Grey Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 44B, "The Sporting Old Grey Mare" (1 text)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 164, "The Old Grey Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3039
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wonderful Grey Horse" (theme)
NOTES [50 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "The song probably has no emblematic meaning."
For a broadside with the same theme but different ballad see NLScotland, RB.m.169(243), "The Wonderful Grey Horse," unknown, c.1840. The similarity extends even to leading up to support of the Irish Home Rule Movement. - BS
File: OLoc035

Old Grimes (I)

See Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead) (File: R428)

Old Grimes (II)

See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Old Grimes Is Dead

See Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead) (File: R428)

Old Grumbler (I)

See Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)

Old Grumbler (II)

See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Old Gum Boots and Leggings

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Old Gum-Diggers' Bar, The

DESCRIPTION: "We would roll our swags on Friday, Leaving shanties near and far," to "gather round the barrel In the old gumdiggers' bar." That was long ago, and the shanties are gone, but the singer still recalls singing -- and drinking -- at the old bar
AUTHOR: Words: Dennis Hogan (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Hogan, Billy-Can Ballads, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: drink music worker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 146, "The Old Gum-Diggers' Bar" (1 text, tune referenced)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 246-247, ""(The Old Gumdiggers' Bar)" (1 text)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 44, "Old Gumdiggers' Bar" (1 text, 1 modern tune which is not the tune intended by the author)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Clementine" (original tune, according to Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
NOTES [16 words]: For background on the digging of kauri gum, see the notes to "The Old-Time Kauri Bushmen." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: BaRo146

Old Gumdiggers' Bar, The

See The Old Gum-Diggers' Bar (File: BaRo146)

Old Hal o' the West

See Henry Clay Songs (File: SRW039)

Old Hank

DESCRIPTION: "Driftin' along the rim-rock, old Camp-Robber and I," the poet thinks of the boss who is now rich -- and has had a religious conversion and is married. The boss still likes the poet even though "I haven't changed my damn religion"
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy boss marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 116-117, "Old Hank" (1 text)
File: ThLo116

Old Hannah

See Go Down, Old Hannah (File: LoF286)

Old Harrison

DESCRIPTION: "So early in the morning, Old Harrison he goes out, You'll always see a drop or two a-hangin' to his snout, His snout both long and crooked, a little Roman, too." "The Whigs' throats are all sore, their noses are all blue From shouting for hard cider"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad drink
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 2, 1840 - William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren
Mar 4, 1841 - Harrison (the first Whig to be elected President) is inaugurated. He gives a rambling inaugural address in a rainstorm and catches cold
April 4, 1841 - Harrison dies of pneumonia, making him the first president to fail to complete his term. After some hesitation, Vice President John Tyler is allowed to succeed as President
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, p. 22, "Old Harrison" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7017
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Tippecanoe (I)" (subject of the Harrison/van Buren election) and references there
NOTES [61 words]: Bush explains this as being from the presidential election of 1840, and since it mentions both the Whigs and "Old Harrison," it certainly is likely to be about William Henry Harrison, but I haven't seen it elsewhere, and it's just possible that it's about 1836, not 1840. The oddity is that it survived to be collected a century and a quarter after Harrison died. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BuWV1022

Old Hazeltine

DESCRIPTION: "It's of the Eau Claire River, a stream I'm sure you know, It's of a crew of shanty boys who worked through the snow, And as to old Hazeltine, he's a lousy son-of-a-bitch... For the cheating... and the stabbing of his crew, I think he's an old screw."
AUTHOR: probably Bert Taplin
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work accusation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 91, "Old Hazeltine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9071
NOTES [57 words]: It is curious to note that, although informant Bert Taplin claimed to have written this song (and even, while drunk, to have sung it in the presence of the man it insulted), the tune transcribed in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin fits only four of the six lines of text, and it does not appear that it could be adapted to fit the final two. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet091

Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Going to Crow

See Hen Cackle (File: RcOHCRGC)

Old Hewson the Cobbler

See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Old Hewson, the Cobbler

See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Old Hogan's Goat

See Bill Grogan's Goat (File: SRW141)

Old Holly, Crab, and I

DESCRIPTION: "We work for Hay and Company; we try to do what's right. We start at six in the morning and quit at six at night." The three workers, "old Holly, Crab, and me," work hard, then relax in the evening
AUTHOR: Ron Sisson ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger work lumbering
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #25, "Old Holly, Crab, and I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4465
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Work for Hay and Company" (subject)
File: FowL25

Old Home Jim

See You're Going to Leave the Old Home, Jim (Old Home Jim, Ragged Jim) (File: BuMa1020)

Old Honest Abe

DESCRIPTION: "Old honest Abe, you are a babe In military glory. An iron fool, a party tool, A traitor, and a Tory." The singer challenges Lincoln to "whup us if you're able." Scott and Wool cannot win his battles; Scott can never defeat his mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Songs of the South)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar political
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 356-357, "Old Honest Abe" (1 text)
Roud #7767
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Abe's Elected" (subject)
NOTES [179 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety says this song was published in Songs of the South in 1863. Internal evidence implies that it was written rather earlier -- my guess would be around September or October of 1861, after the Confederates had won Wilson's Creek (August 10) and first Bull Run (July 21), making possible the claim of beating the Federals in every battle, but before Winfield Scott gave up the Commander in Chief's post in November of that year.
The "Scott" of the song was of course Winfield Scott (1786-1866), the original commander in chief of the Federal armies, who was a Virginian (hence the gibe about his inability to defeat his mother). Although Scott was soon pushed aside, we might note that his "anaconda plan" was the basic scheme by which the Union won the war.
"Wool" is John E. Wool (1789-1869), like Scott a veteran of the War of 1812, and considered the #2 Federal officer starting the war. He would serve until he retired in 1863, but he didn't really do much in the War; at no point did he command an important army. - RBW
File: Beld356

Old Horny Kebri-O (Shaggin' Away)

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes out and has "good luck," having sex with 14 women. He has less fortune at home, having only animals available. Other verses may involve other exploits of his "old horny kebri-o." Chorus: "Shaggin', shaggin', shaggin' away...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: sex animal whore bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA,So,SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 49, pp. 235-237, "Old Horny Kebri-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10104
File: Logs049

Old Horse (II)

See The Salt Horse Song (File: FO226)

Old Horse, Old Horse

See The Salt Horse Song (File: FO226)

Old Horse, The

See Poor Old Horse (III) (File: ShH85)

Old Hoss

See The Salt Horse Song (File: FO226)

Old Hoss Kick, The

DESCRIPTION: "De old hoss kick And a hippy-doodle. De old hoss kick And a hippy-doodle. The old hoss kick hard in the stable, And he couldn't git his foot out Because he wasn't able!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 185, (no title) (1 fragment)
File: ScNF185A

Old Hoss, Old Hoss

See The Salt Horse Song (File: FO226)

Old House at Home, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the old house at home where my forefathers dwelt, When a child at the feet of my mother I knelt," where his mother taught him to behave, and the flowers bloom. "Now the old house is no dwelling for me," but the singer still dreams of it
AUTHOR: Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839) ?
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside Bodleian Firth b.25(386), etc.)
KEYWORDS: home dream nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, "The Old House at Home" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13881
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(386)=Firth c.20(29), "Old House at Home". E. M. A Hodges (London), 1846-1854; Harding B 26(266), "Old House at Home, "The Poet's Box (Belfast), 1846-1852; Harding B 11(2804), "Old House at Home," J. Cadman (Manchester), 1850-1855; also Firth b.34(275)=Firth b.25(600/601), "The old House at Home," W. Ordoyno (Nottingham), n.d.; Firth b.25(597), W. Ordoyno (Nottingham), n.d.; Firth b.26(100), H. Paul (London), n.d.; Harding B 11(2192), J. O. Bebbington (Manchester), n.d.; Harding B 11(2803), J. Paul and Co (Seven Dials, London), n.d.; Firth b.28(38), unknown, n.d.; Harding B 11(1613), unknown, n.d.; Harding B 11(2805), W. Ford (Sheffield), n.d.; Firth c.20(95)=Harding B 11(1403), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; 2806 b.11(2), unknown, n.d.; Harding B 16(180d), unknown, n.d.; Firth b.27(172), unknown, n.d.; Johnson Ballads 339, Frederick Edwards (London), n.d.; Harding B 16(181a), E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854
NOTES [52 words]: "Home songs" are common, but I think this one of the stupidest I've ever seen. It's just barely traditional, which makes it interesting that Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle's version is a fragment that really consists of only one line. It's lost the entire rest of the song -- not that you'd notice the difference. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Boet037

Old House Carpenter, The

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

Old Hulk, The

DESCRIPTION: "When age has rendered some old hulk Unfit for merchant use, She's sold at auction, bought in bulk, Just for a whaling cruise." The singer described the dreadful conditions on a whaling ship, and laments that after all the toil he is still poor
AUTHOR: John A. Beebe? (source: Miller, And the Whale Is Ours)
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (Journal from the Governor Carver)
KEYWORDS: whaler work hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 32-33, "The Old Hulk" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Pamela A. Miller, _And the Whale Is Ours: Creative Writing of American Whalemen_, David R. Godine/Kendall Whaling Museum, 1979, pp. 139-140, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #2007
File: SWMS032

Old Hundred

DESCRIPTION: "All people that on earth do dwell, Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice." Alternately, "Make ye a joyful sounding noise, Unto Jehovah, all the earth." The listener is reminded that Jehovah is God, and is advised to enter "his courts with thankfulness."
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1560 (Psalms of David in English)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(NE)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 287, "Old Hundredth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 28-29, "Psalm 100 (A Psalm of Praise)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 366, "Old Hundred" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 409-410, "Old Hundred"
Thanks be to god who gave us this blessing Thanks be to god who gave us this bread Thanks be to god the spirit eternal Thanks be to god forever.
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 261, "The Doxology" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 110, "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow (Old Hundredth -- The Doxology)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, (OLDHUND*)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, _One Hundred and One Famous Hymns_ (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 26-27, "All People That On Earth Do Dwell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 6-7, "All People That on Earth Do Dwell" (1 text, 1 tune)
John Julian, editor, _A Dictionary of Hymnology_, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), pp. 43-44, "All people that on earth do dwell" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tallis's Canon" (words)
cf. "All People That on Earth Do Dwell" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Be Present at Our Table, Lord (File: ACSF261B)
Hymn for Syttende Mai (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 18-19 -- though the words have to be squeezed pretty hard to fit)
The Dogsology (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 156)
National Thanksgiving Ode ("Ancient of Days! before whose throne," by C. C. Haven) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 106)
Our Country ("Our Country! 'Tis of thee we sing") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 119)
Thanksgiving Song ("Ruler of Nations! Sovereign Lord," by C. C. Haven) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 155)
The Union Soldier's Prayer ("Almighty God! eternal friend") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 163)
Centennial Hymn ("Our fathers' God, we come to the; To thee our grateful voices raise") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 79)
Gratitude ("Father Supreme! as here we stand") (by Prof. Edward North, [class of 18]41) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 19)
Grange Benediction ("Praise Nature's God who rules above") (by A. P. Knapp) (Albert P. Knapp, _Grange Songster_, 1915, p. 6)
National Anthem -- God of the Free ("God of the Free! upon Thy breath, Our flag is still for right unfurled") (by William Ross Wallace) (Foner, p. 97)
Temperance Doxology ("Praise God, from whom all blessings flow, Praise him, who saves from deepest woe, Praise him who leads the Temperance host") (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 33)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Old Hundredth
NOTES [1604 words]: Heart-Songs, p. 369, has another song titled "Old Hundred," which is to this tune (more or less), but it has different words which it attributes to Isaac Watts.
This tune is now better known as "The Doxology," but those words are a relatively recent addition -- they are part of a work by Thomas Ken (sometimes spelled Thomas Kenn). According to Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 301, Ken was "one of the fathers of English hymnody," but few of his works are still used in any significant way. He lived from 1637 to 1711, perhaps lived for a time with Izaak Walton, and earned his M.A. in 1664. McKim, p. 313, says that King James II called Ken "the most eloquent preacher" among the Protestants of his time -- but given that James II was a Catholic, I'm not sure that should be considered praise.
The Doxology apparently is from his Manuel for Winchester Scholars of 1674. He drifted into, then out of, royal favor, and produced many other books but nothing else of great quality or historical significance.
Julian, p. 616, says "The bare details of B[isho]p Ken's life... [are]:-- Born at Berkhampstead, July, 1637; Scholar of Winchester, 1651; Fellow of New College, Oxford, 1657; B.A., 1661; Rector of Little Easton, 1663; Fellow of Winchester, 1666; Rector of Brightstone, 1667; Rector of Woodhay and Prebendary of Winchester, 1669; Chaplain to the Princess Mary [later Mary II] at the Hague, 1679; returns to Winchester, 1680; B[ishop] of Bath and Wells, 1685; imprisoned in the Tower, 1688; deprived [of his bishopric], 1691; died at Longleat, March 19, 1710/11.
"The parents of Ken both died during his childhood, and he grew up under the guardianship of Izaak Walton, who had married Ken's elder sister, Ann." Among his other acts of piety (?) was "refus[ing] Nell Gwynne the use of his house when Charles II came to Winchester" (where he was bishop. The hypocrisy is obvious: He welcomed Charles II, the serial adulterer, who had appointed him, but not the relatively impoverished Gwynn -- Fraser, p. 431 -- who didn't fool around the way Charles did and was just trying to make a living). To his credit, he did provide genuine support to those who were punished after the Battle of Sedgmoor in 1685, and was at the scaffold of the defeated Duke of Monmouth. (For background on this, see the notes on "The Monmouth Rebel.")
Apparently his literary reputation was sufficient that a great deal of stuff was published under his name after his death, and even his authentic works rewritten; Julian devotes much of pp. 617-621 to the history of this (with a supplement on pp. 1658-1659, which seems to indicate that the song dates back at least to 1674), and gives a detailed examination of the "Evening Hymn" from which the doxology comes. The first listed publication of the "Evening Hymn" was in Playford's Harmonia Sacra of 1688, where the text runs
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise him all creatures here below;
Praise him above, the angelick host,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."
Julian, p. 1537, adds that a biography of Ken by Plumptre was published in 1888.
Regarding the "doxology," Davidson, p. 111, reports, "DOXOLOGY... An ascription of praise addressed to the Trinity is a doxology. The term may refer to the ter sanctus and allelulia, but more especially to the Gloria an excelsis (the greater doxology) and the Gloria Patri (the lesser doxology). The practice of singing a doxology (usually the Gloria Patri) at the conclusion of the Hebrew psalms led to metrical versions of this doxology, which eventually transferred to hymns. One such metrical paraphrase which has gained great popularity is Thomas Ken's (1631-1711) "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." This versification together with the tune "Old Hundredth" is commonly called by many persons "The Doxology." This entity, used as an ascription of praise at the commencement of a service of worship, at the presentation of the offering, or at the end, came into this usage and title during the mid-19th century."
The source and age of the rest of the words are subject to debate. They were not, perhaps, originally meant to be a hymn -- as Morgan points out on p. 7, John Calvin did not approve of hymns, thinking that paraphrases of the psalms were sufficient.
Davies, p. 374 (article on "Metrical Psalms") reports that "The ancestor of the modern hymnal was the metrical psalter, comprising versifications of the psalms with simple strophic tunes designed to fit the metres employed. Perhaps the most familiar of the metrical psalm is the version of the hundredth psalm in which the original prose, 'O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands,' has become 'All people that on earth do dwell.' Included in almost every modern hymnal, and hence usually thought of as a hymn, these words first appeared in Fourscore and Seven Psalms of David published in Geneva in 1561. The tune always associated with them is from the still earlier Genevan Psalter of 1551. Thus both words and music take us back to the same source -- the English Protestant exiles who fled to Geneva in 1553 to escape persecution under Queen Mary."
Fuld too reports that the music is said to have been provided by Louis Bourgeois for Psalm 134 in the 1551 Genevan Psalter. However, no copies of this book survive, and the 1553 edition lacks the song.
The first certain printing, the 1560 edition "Psalms of David in English," has the piece with words credited to William Kethe (although Stulken, p. 320, notes another copy of Four Score and Seven psalmes of David in English Mitre which gives credit to one Thomas Sternhold). According to Johnson, William Kethe was a Scotsman, but apparently he ended up in England, because he "fled before the persecution of Mary 1555-1558 [i.e., by the dates, Mary Tudor of England, not Mary Stuart of Scotland] and found refuge in Geneva."
Although the attribution to Kethe is old, it is by no means found in all the early sources. Julian, p. 44, lists ten psalter editions from 1560 to 1587. These break down as follows:
- No attribution: Daye's Psalter (1560/61), Daye's Appendix (1564), Daye's Psalter (1565), Daye's Psalter (1566), Crespin's Psalter [Geneva] (1569), Daye's Psalter (1579)
- by "Tho. Ster.": (Sternholf) Anglo-Genevan Psalrter (1561)
- "W. Ke.": Britwell Psalter (1561), Scottish Psalter (1564)
- "I. H." (Hopkins): Daye's Psalter (1587)
On this basis Julian accepts the attribution to Kethe.
Little is known of Kethe; Julian, p. 623, says he "is said by Thomas Warton in his Hist[ory] of Eng[lish] Poetry, and by John Strype in his Annals of the Reformation, to have been a Scotsman. Where he was born, or whether he held any preferment in England in the time of Edward VI., we have been unable to discover. In the Brieff discours off the troubles begonne at Franckford, 1575, he is mentioned as in exile at Frankfurt in 1555, at Geneva in 1557; as being sent on a mission to the exiles in Basel, Strassbourg, &c. in 1558; and as returning with their answers to Geneva in 1559. Whether he was one of those left behind in 1559 to "finishe the bible, and the psalmes bothe in meeter and prose," does not appear. The Discours further mentions him as being with the Earl or Warwick and the Queen's forces at Nwhaven [Havre] in 1563, and in the north in 1569. John Hutchins... says he was instituted in 1561 as Rector of Childe Okeford, near Blandford.... His connection with Okeford seems to have ceased by death or otherwise about 1593."
Kethe was credited with 25 of the psalms in the Anglo-Genevan Psalter of 1561, but only nine of these made the English Psalter of 1562, with "All People" being added in 1562, and only his version of Psalm 100 and a modification of his Psalm 104 having any long life in church use.
Johnson reports that this song "was suggested to us by the McCormick Theological Seminary as expressing Calvin's and Presbyterian/Reformed hymn concepts in much the same way as A Mighty Fortress Is Our God could be said to represent Luther's."
NewCentury, p. 830, reports that the Kethe text of Psalm 100 "was at first known as the 'Hundredth,' but in 1696, when Nahum Tate and Nicolas Brady published their 'New Version,' the word 'Old' was used to show that the tune was the one which had been used in the previous psalter (Sternhold and Heplin's of the 16th century)." (For more on Tate, if it matters, see the notes to "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks.")
The version printed by Scott (from the Bay Psalm Book of 1640) has the curious trait of using the name "Jehovah" rather than the theologically correct "the LORD" or the phonologically correct "YAHWEH." This version does have the advantage of being noticeably closer to the Hebrew in meaning.
The Missouri Harmony has a song, "Old Hundred" (as well as a "New Hundred") which doesn't seem to match any version of this I've ever seen in either text or tune.
Reynolds, p. 32, claims that this is mentioned by Shakespeare in "The Merry WIves of Windsor," Acts II, scene i: "They do no more and keep peace together than the Hundredth Psalm to the tune of Greensleeves." An interesting link, although I'm not sure that's proof.
With all that controversy over the lyrics, the tune doesn't seem to get much attention, but McKim, pp. 164-164, says it "was composed or adapted by Louis Bourgeois" (c. 1510-c. 1561) as a setting for Theodore Beza's adaption of Psalm 134; it was combined with "Old Hundred" in the 1562 Psalter by Daye. He sounds like he had a very odd life, actually being prosecuted in Geneva for changing the tunes used for psalms, but being supported by Calvin himself (McKim, pp. 79-80). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: SBoA028

Old Hundredth

See Old Hundred (File: SBoA028)

Old Hungarian Round

See Hungarian Round (File: ACSF438H)

Old Identity, The

DESCRIPTION: "Mr. Cargill in the Council Made such a funny speech... That it devolved on each... To preserve... The Old Identity." Will Cargill demand that the old Scottish immigrants go back to kilts and porridge? Satirizes immigration controls and identity politics
AUTHOR: Words: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Thatcher's "Dunedin Songster," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ; Mike Harding, _When the Pakeha Sings of Home: A Source Guide to the Folk & Popular Songs of New Zealand_ specifies that it was Dunedin Songster #3)
KEYWORDS: political New Zealand clothes humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 45-46, "The Old Identity" (1 text, tune referenced)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 55, "The Old Identity" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 33 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 96, "(The Old Identity)" (1 text)
Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, p. 21, "(no title)" (2 excerpts); pp. 150-153, "The Old Identity" (2 texts, different poems but built around the same idea)
Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 133, "(no title)" (1 text, one of Thatcher's revised versions)
ADDITIONAL: Gordon Ell, _Kiwiosities: An A-Z of New Zealand traditions & Folklore_, New Holland Publishers, 2008, pp. 185-186, "The Old Identity" (excerpts of 2 versions of the song)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Duck Leg Dick" (tune)
NOTES [278 words]: According to Ell, Charles R. Thatcher is "credited with originating the expression 'old identity' in a song about Otago provincial elections." Ell, p. 185, says that the phrase "was used to distinguish between the founders of the Otago Settlement and the later comers.... As gold-miners from around the world rushed to Otago, Edward Bowes Cargill (1823-1903) son of the leader of the Otago Settlement, had implored the original settlers to stick together to preserve their identity." Hence Thatcher's piece.
The tune is listed as "Duck Leg Dick."
Hoskins, p. 20, says that this comes from Thatcher's first topical skit upon arriving in New Zealand from Australia. "A by-election had just seen Edward B Cargill returned to the Otago Provincial Council. In electioneering he had deplored the removal of established landmarks, and urged Dunedin settlers 'that, notwithstanding the great influx of rogues and vagabonds [diggers from Victoria] settlers should preserve their 'Old Identity.'" Thatcher -- himself from Britain via Australia although he hadn't come to New Zealand to dig for gold -- had little trouble making fun of ways the early Scots settlers might preserve their "Old Identity."
"If Thatcher ever coined a phrase it was the 'Old Identity.' It immediately became a catchword and was applied by the Victorian immigrants to the more conservative and old-fashioned local settlers" (Hoskins, p. 22). The phrase became popular enough that Thatcher apparently used it in other songs as well.
For brief background on Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo045

Old Indian (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you people far and near, A lamentation you shall hear" about a "lady gay" who ran away with an Indian. Her brother follows with a posse. They beat and confine the Indian and exile her, "But still the old Indian he kept her heart"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong)
KEYWORDS: love Indians(Am.) brother sister abuse prison horse
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 186-187, "The Old Indian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5243
File: NeDe186

Old Indian, An (The Indian Song)

DESCRIPTION: "An old Indian sat in his little canoe, / A-floating along o'er the water so blue. / He sang of the days when these lands were his own, / Before the palefaces among them were known." A lament for the loss of the Indians' land and culture
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) lament
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 30, "An Old Indian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 86-88, "The Indian's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 81, "The Indian's Lament" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 100, "The Indian's Lament" (1 text)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 54, "The Indian's Lament" (2 texts)
Peacock, pp. 157-158, "The Indian's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 121, "Indian Song" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
ST Wa030 (Partial)
Roud #1846
RECORDINGS:
Cyril O'Brien, "Indian's Lament" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mrs. Tom Sullivan, "The Indian's Lament" (on Ontario1)
Mrs. Thomas Walters, "The Indian's Lament" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Steals of the White Man" (theme)
cf. "Logan's Lament" (theme)
cf. "The Fair Captive" (plot elements)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Poor Indian
File: Wa030

Old Inishowen

DESCRIPTION: The singer says there is no place in the country to match Inishowen's beauty. He lists the places nearby: Tyrconnell, the castle of Cahir. He laments that O'Donnell (of Tyrconnell) and O'Doherty (of Inishowen) are dead. He blesses his home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H824, p. 166, "Old Inishowen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13477
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Meeting of the Waters" (tune)
NOTES [15 words]: For O'Donell of Tyrconnell, see the notes on "O'Donnell Aboo (The Clanconnell War Song)." - RBW
File: HHH824

Old Ireland

DESCRIPTION: "In the northwest of Europe there lies a green isle" land of majestic hills and fertile fields. The singer came from Columbia to view Ireland, and now praises Saint Patrick for a land without snakes. The singer bids farewell but says his heart will stay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home travel nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H658, pp. 175-176, "Old Ireland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13536
File: HHH658

Old Ireland Far Away

See The Dying Soldier (I) (Erin Far Away II) [Laws J7] (File: LJ07)

Old Ireland I Adore

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Erin's Isle, my heart's delight, I long to see thee free." O'Connell fought to make Ireland free. "If you were free as once we were How happy would we be! No foreign landlord then would dare To lord it over thee"
AUTHOR: James Walsh
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 12(242))
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1775-1847 - Life of Daniel O'Connell
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 113, "Old Ireland I Adore" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 84, "Old Ireland I Adore" (1 text)
Roud #V23210
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 12(242), "The Exile's Lament", J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also 2806 b.10(82), Harding B 11(2918), 2806 c.15(287), Firth c.26(235), "The Exile's Lament"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls" (tune)
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
File: OCon113

Old Ironsides

See The Main-Truck (A Leap for Life; The Captain's Son) (File: Shoe115)

Old Jack

DESCRIPTION: Charles thinks his horse Old Jack should win a silver cup. Old Jack is a bag of bones, always hungry to eat anything. Nevertheless, he wins a trotting match race.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: racing humorous horse food
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 85-86, "Old Jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9953
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Clara Stevens, "Old Jack" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea085

Old Jay Bird

See Jim Along Josie (File: R575)

Old Jesse

DESCRIPTION: "One cold and frosty mornin' Just as the sun did rise, The possum roared, the raccoon howled, 'Cause he'd begun to freeze... Old Jesse was a gentleman among the olden times." Remaining verses are floating stanzas about a Black's learning and life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible humorous animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 71-72, "Old Jesse" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ScaNF071 (Partial)
Roud #3439
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On a Cold Frosty Morning" (lyrics)
cf. "Walkin' in the Parlor" (lyrics)
NOTES [151 words]: This is one of those impossible items. Roud lumps Scarborough's text with "On a Cold Frosty Morning," presumably on the basis of the first line. But the next two verses ("Nigger never went to free school Nor any odder college..." and "Nigger used to pick de banjo, He play so berry strong...") are typical of "Walkin' in the Parlor."
The chorus, about Old Jesse (the father of David) is unique.
What's more, I have a recording of George and Gerry Armstrong, with the first verse and the Old Jesse chorus, combined with "Bye and Bye."
I really don't know what to make of the result. Separate song, or just a conflation? When in doubt, we split. If I had to file it somewhere, I would probably go against Roud and file it with "Walkin' in the Parlor" rather than "On a Cold Frosty Morning."
Dime-Song-Book #11, p. 14, has another song called "Old Jessy," about an aged Black man. It is clearly not this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ScaNF071

Old Jig Jog, The

See The Castlereagh River (File: MA045)

Old Jig-Jog, The

See The Castlereagh River (File: MA045)

Old Jimmie Sutton

See Old Jimmy Sutton (File: RcOJiSu)

Old Jimmy Johnson

DESCRIPTION: "Old Jimmy Johnson rolled a jug around the hill, I got a bottle and I want to get it filled." "Old Jimmy Johnson rolled a jug around the hill, I got an interest in a two dollar bill."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle)
KEYWORDS: nonballad drink money
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, p, 11, "Old Jimmy Johnson" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 60, "Old Jimmy Johnson" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7024
NOTES [9 words]: This sure looks like a fiddler's mnemonic to me.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Boet060

Old Jimmy Sutton

DESCRIPTION: Bill took the gun, Bill went a-huntin'/Bang went the gun, down went the mutton, baa!" and similar verses about an inept farmer. Cho: "Can't dance that, can't dance nothin'/I wouldn't give a blank for the old Jimmy Sutton, baa!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Grayson & Whitter)
KEYWORDS: hunting dancing food dancetune animal horse sheep farming
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 46-47, "Old Jimmie Sutton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7878
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ridge Buddies w. E. C. & Orna Ball, "Jimmie Sutton" (onCloseHomeMS)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Old Jimmy Sutton" (Gennett 6436, 1928, on GraysonWhitter01)
Vester Jones, "The Old Jimmy Sutton" (on GraysonCarroll1)
Glenn Smith, "Old Jimmy Sutton" [instrumental] (GraysonCarroll1)
NOTES [38 words]: Just enough plot to avoid the nonballad keyword by a whisker. - PJS
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 777 is "Jimmie Suttonton," a tune imperfectly transcribed and with no words. I've no idea if they are the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: RcOJiSu

Old Joe (There Was a Wealthy Irishman)

DESCRIPTION: "There was a wealthy Irishman On Cranberry Isles did dwell, He had a handsome daughter, Old Joe he loved her well." Because Joe is rich, all agree Sarah Ann should marry him. But she misses her old boyfriend and wonders at Joe's behavior
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: marriage money age
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1853 - marriage of 22-year-old Sarah Ann Bulger to 56-year-old Joseph Bunker
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 334-337, "Old Joe" (1 text)
Roud #4160
NOTES [7 words]: This is item dH41 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm334

Old Joe Camp

DESCRIPTION: "Old Joe Camp when he came to town, He enlisted under Captain Brown, Brown swore him on the very first slap, And sent him off to Manassas Gap." Brown rides Joe, who vows to desert, is captured (?), and is "fired back" to Brown
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: soldier Civilwar desertion
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 79, "Old Joe Camp" (1 text)
ST JHCox079 (Full)
Roud #5463
NOTES [121 words]: Despite the title, the stanza form implies that this is not a version of Old Joe Clark.
Cox's version is badly defective, and there don't seem to be other versions, so it's hard to tell what this is really about, except that it seems to involve an "old soldier" of the Civil War who does his best to avoid work -- and, when that fails, attempts to desert.
The only specific in the song is the reference to Manassas Gap; this is not enough even to allow speculation about the source of the song.
It was quite common, in the Civil War, for a well-to-do or well-connected man to volunteer to raise a company (or even a regiment), and become its commander as a result. It would seem that Brown was just such a company commander. - RBW
File: JHCox079

Old Joe Clark

DESCRIPTION: Old Joe Clark, a "fine old man" and a "preacher's son," lives an improbable life of courting, gambling, drinking, and sundry accidents. Versions range from the thoroughly clean (often involving animals) to the significantly bawdy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842
KEYWORDS: humorous talltale nonballad animal playparty floatingverses bawdy dancetune
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Randolph 533, "Old Joe Clark" (10 texts plus 2 excerpts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 399-401, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 533A)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 86, "Old Joe Clark" (5 texts); also 111, "Wish I Had a Needle and Thread" (7 text, of which only "E" is really substantial; it is certainly the "Italy" version of "Going Across the Sea." The other fragments contain verses typical of "Shady Grove," "Old Joe Clark," and others)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 86, "Old Joe Clark" (7 tunes plus text excerpts)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 140-145, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 428-430, "Old Joe Clark" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 157-159, "Old Joe Clark" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 99-101, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune, plus many extra verses)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 183, "Old Joe Clarke" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 21, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 22-23, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 25, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune -- plus the modern adaption "Round and Round Hitler's Grave")
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 277-279, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 814-818, "Old Joe Clark" (1 collated text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 174, "Old Joe Clog" (1 text, partly from "Old Joe Clark" and partly floating verses, several of them from "Shady Grove")
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 19-20, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 106-107, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune, with a lot of verses from "Cindy" or something like it)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 37-38, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 171-172, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 156-157, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #133, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, p. 89, "Old Joe Clark" (1 partial text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 149, "Old Joe Clark" (1 short text mixed with a "John Brown's Body" parody)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 35, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 249-250, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 206, "Old Joe Clark" (1 text)
DT, JOECLARK*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 209, "(Old Joe Clark)" (1 text)
Roud #3594
RECORDINGS:
James "Iron Head" Baker, "Old Joe Clark" (AFS 200 A3, 1933)
H. M. Barnes & his Blue Ridge Ramblers, "Old Joe Clark" (Brunswick 313, 1929)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Fare You Well Old Joe Clark" (OKeh 40038, 1924; rec. 1923) (OKeh 45198 [as "Old Joe Clark"], 1928, rec. 1927)
James Crase, "Old Joe Clark" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Da Costa Woltz's Southern Broadcasters, "Old Joe Clark" (Gennett 6223/Challenge 333/Herwin 75565, 1927; on GoingDown)
The Hillbillies, "Old Joe Clark" (OKeh 40376, 1925) (Vocalion 15369, 1926)
Vester Jones, "Old Joe Clark" (on GraysonCarroll1)
Bradley Kincaid, "Old Joe Clark" (Brunswick 485, c. 1930; Conqueror 8090, 1933)
Clayton McMichen & his Georgia Wildcats, "Old Joe Clark" (Varsity 5029, 1942)
John D. Mounce et al, "Old Joe Clark" (on MusOzarks01)
Glen Neaves & band, "Old Joe Clark" (on HalfCen1)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Old Joe Clark" (on NLCR05, NLCR11)
W. Lee O'Daniel & the Light Crust Doughboys, "Old Joe Clark" (Vocalion 02975, 1935)
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt, "Old Joe Clark" (AFS 197 A1, 1933)
Fiddlin' Powers and Family, "Old Joe Clark" (Victor 19434, 1924) (Edison 51662, 1925)
Riley Puckett, "Old Joe Clark" (Columbia 15033-D, c. 1925)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Old Joe Clark" (Victor 20302, 1926); Ernest V. Stoneman Trio, "Old Joe Clark" (OKeh, unissued, 1927)
Pete Seeger, "Joe Clark" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Old Joe Clark" (Columbia 15108-D, 1926)
Wade Ward, "Old Joe Clark" [instrumental] (on LomaxCD1702)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cuckoo Waltz" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Build a Brick House" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Fare You Well, Old Ely Branch (by Aunt Molly Jackson) (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 268-269; on PeteSeeger13)
NOTES [118 words]: Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I offers some of the rarely printed bawdy verses to this familiar square dance and quatrain ballad. - EC
Since this piece is often played as a fiddle tune, and since the verses are usually improbable, often come from other songs, and rarely show any connection to each other, this song has been suspected of having begun life as an instrumental. - RBW
Seeger states that Joe Clark was "an actual person, a veteran of the War of 1812." - PJS
I'd love to know what evidence there is to prove that this soldier inspired the song.... - RBW
This shouldn't be confused with the fiddle tune "Old Joe," which is separate. "Old Joe" is reported to have been a nickname for syphilis. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R533

Old Joe Clog

See Old Joe Clark (File: R533)

Old Joe Finley

See There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)

Old Joe Shuffle

DESCRIPTION: "Old Joe Shuffle, he walked with a limp, Old man Shuffle he walked with a stick... For he limped, and he kicked at a wheel." He was a potter, and "loved his corn likker" that he put in his own jug. He died at a wheel, seeing snakes, killing his own drakes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: work death drink disability
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (no author listed), "Old Joe Shuffle," Vol. V, No. 1 (Jul 1957), p. 6, "(Old Joe Shuffle he walked with a limp)" (1 text)
NOTES [45 words]: It's not clear, from the song, if Josiah Wedgwood Sheffield, "Old Joe Shuffle," died of delirium tremens, but it certainly sounds like a possibility. Why this made him worthy of a song I am not sure. It doesn't seem as if it circulated outside his immediate region. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: NCF5106

Old Joe's Barroom

See Saint James Infirmary (File: San228)

Old John Blythe

See (texts under) Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn) (File: R471)

Old John Booker

DESCRIPTION: "Old John Booker, call that gone!" (repeated frequently, usually in groups of three). "I'm goin' down to telephone!" "Old John Booker, he feel like this!" "I'm goin' down -- on the farm!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 187-188, "(Old John Booker)" (1 text); p. 287, "Old John Booker" (1 tune, partial text)
File: CNFM187

Old John Henry Died on the Mountain

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

Old John Wallis

DESCRIPTION: John Brown had an old mare. He wasn't bid one farthing for her at Caister fair. He had a cow that gave only enough milk for his sow. His hens got in his corn; he shot at them but killed his mare. He killed another mare running her head into a tree
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (recording, Bob Brader)
KEYWORDS: farming humorous nonballad nonsense chickens horse floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 73-74, "Old John Wallis" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #294
RECORDINGS:
Bob Brader, "Old John Wallis" (on Voice14)
NOTES [159 words]: John Wallis's part in this song is only to ask John Brown "do you think this mare will die?" The rest of the song has to do with John Brown's misadventures. I list only a few of those in the description. He has others that I don't begin to understand. For example,
Old John Brown he went to plough,
And when he got there he didn't know how.
At every end he gave meows
He said he could plough from light to dark.
and
Old John Brown he had two fools
And he said he would make them lead his winter cows.
And if they didn't get back by noon,
He would eat the treacle and swallow the spoon.
I hope this is not supposed to make sense. - BS
I wonder if it isn't some sort of "song of all nonsense songs," with some garbling as the various elements came together. Roud lumps it with "Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn)," which I flatly don't see. I'm reminded of versions of "The Swapping Boy." Mix in a little of "Little Brown Dog" and a dead horse song, and voila! - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcOlJoWa

Old Johnny

See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Old Johnny Booger

DESCRIPTION: Johnny Booger takes a wife. Doctor tells Johnny to rub her bad leg with gin. He thinks that a sin so he drinks the gin and rubs her leg with the bottle. Johnny falls in the river and there is no one to pull him out. He dies but can't get in heaven.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous wife death river drowning
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 304, "Johnny Bowker" (1 fragment) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 660, "Old Johnny Bowker")
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, pp. 62-63, "Old Johnny Bugger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1329
RECORDINGS:
Jack Elliott, "Old Johnny Booger" (on Voice14)
NOTES [136 words]: Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 14" - 8.9.02: "When I first came across this song, from a singer in Oxfordshire, the title was 'Old Johnny Bigger', the final word rhyming with the now unacceptable word 'nigger'. I presume that the song comes from the American Minstrel stage of the mid-19th century."
Jack Elliott's chorus on Voice14 is "Singing I do believe; I will believe. That old Johnny Booger was a gay old bugger And a gay old bugger was he."
It is tempting to lump this [Roud #1329] with "Johnny Booker" [Roud #3441] but the verses and tune here have nothing in common with what I've read and heard. Yet another complication is the relationship of this song to "Johnny Boker" (I) [Roud #353]; for tune, text and structure's sake, I would keep it separate as well. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcOlJoBo

Old Johnny Booker Won't Do

See Johnny Booker (Mister Booger) (File: R268)

Old Johnny Walker

DESCRIPTION: "Old Johnny Walker's dead and gone, dead and gone, dead and gone... He never died before." He had a wife who died, then he killed her, then she rose and had three more children. He children go sliding on thin ice; they all fall in or run away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Gardham-EastRidingSongster)
KEYWORDS: death husband wife resurrection children disaster humorous floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 5, "Old Johnny Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #764
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Three Little Girls A-Skating Went" (lyrics)
cf. "Bollochy Bill the Sailor" (lyrics)
cf. "Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey)" (theme)
cf. "Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead)" (lyrics)
NOTES [79 words]: This is confusing and no mistake. The opening "Old Johnny Walker" verse is often associated with "Bollochy Bill the Sailor"; I've never seen the middle elsewhere; the ending is "Three Little Girls A-Skating Went." Roud files it as #764, which equates very loosely with "Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead)" but is also sort of like "Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey)." The result is enough of a mess that I decided to just file it on its own. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Gard005

Old Johnston Thought It Rather Hard

DESCRIPTION: "Old Johnston thought it rather hard To ride over Beauregard; Old Johnston proved the deuce of a battle, And it's clear beyond a doubt That he didn't like the rout, And the second time he thought he'd try another." The Great Galena is also mentioned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 21, 1861 - First battle of Bull Run/Manasses fought between the Union army of McDowell and the Confederates under Johnston and Beauregard
April 6-7, 1862 - Battle of Shiloh. The army of U.S. Grant is forced back but, reinforced by Buell, beats off the army of A.S. Johnston. Johnston is killed. Both sides suffer heavy casualties (Shiloh was the first battle to show how bloody the Civil War would be)
May 15, 1862 - Battle of Drewry's Bluff
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 224, "Old Johnston Thought It Rather Hard" (1 fragment)
Roud #6618
NOTES [668 words]: The editors of Brown conjecture that the first verse of this song, at least, refers to the Battle of Shiloh, at which Albert Sidney Johnston commanded (and died). Given the fragmentary state of the text, this is possible, and A. S. Johnston had suffered much criticism in the aftermath of the loss of Forts Henry and Donelson (McPherson, p. 405) -- but I wonder.
There were two battles in the Civil War in which a southern general named Johnston was in command over Beauregard: At (First) Bull Run/Manasses, where the Johnston involved was Joseph E. Johnston (Boatner, pp. 99-101), and at Shiloh, where the Johnston was A. S. Johnston (Boatner, pp. 752-757).
To me, the song seems slightly more likely to refer to Bull Run. J. E. Johnston, arriving on the field with reinforcements, could have taken command over Beauregard, but generally deferred to his junior as Beauregard knew the ground. In addition, the Confederates at Bull Run were wavering when Johnston's troops arrived; there was no such rout at Shiloh. (There, it was the Union troops which ran.)
I hasten to add that this is pure conjecture. If true, however, the song may link vaguely with the "Bull Run" song of Cox; there are some metrical similarities.
If the song refers to the eastern campaigns, it would also explain the references to the Galena, a Union ironclad launched in 1862. She operated on the James River during the Peninsular Campaign, and she and the Monitor (either of which, though probably the latter, could be the "Naval Wonder" of the song) tried to ascend the river to attack Richmond after the destruction of the Merrimac/Virginia on May 9. (There were naval vessels involved at Shiloh -- the Lexington and Tyler were on the Tennessee River supporting Grant's troops; McPherson, pp. 410-411 -- but there was nothing unusual about either ship. To be sure, there had been ironclads in the fighting at Forts Henry and Donelson which led up to Shiloh.)
The attack on Drewry's Bluff failed; the Union vessels could not elevate their guns high enough to attack the Confederate works. The Monitor suffered little damage (except that her crew was driven inside by sharpshooters, leaving them breathing foul and very hot air; Holzer/Mulligan, p. 48), but the Galena proved very unsafe. Nelson, p. 89, records an officer writing of her, "She is not shot-proof; ball came through, and many men were killed with fragments of her own iron."
Soley-BL, p. 270., writes that in the battle of Drewry's Bluff, "In this position the Galena remained for three hours and twenty minutes until she had expended all her ammunition. She came out of the action badly shattered, having been struck 28 times and perforated in 18 places." In the end, she was converted to an unarmored gunboat.
Another perspective on Drewry's Bluff, however, comes from John Taylor Wood, who was first a lieutenant in the Confederate Navy and then a Colonel in the army. He declares that Drewry's Bluff had not been fortified until the Virginia was scuttled, and manned only by a few guns, served mostly by the Virginia's former crew. He considers the Galena to have been very skillfully handled, But his summary of the battle (Wood-BL, p. 108) is as follows:
"The Monitor, and others anchored just below, answered our fire deliberately; but, owing to the great elevation of the battery, their fire was in a great measure ineffectual, though two guns were dismounted and several men were killed and wounded. While this was going on, our sharp-shooters were at work on both banks.... Finding they could make no impression on our works, the Galena, after an action of four hours, returned down the river with her consorts.
"This was one of the boldest and best-conducted operations of the war.... Had Commander Rogers [of the Union navy] been supported by a few brigades,landed at City Point or above on the south side [of the James River], Richmond would have been evacuated. The Virginia's crew alone barred his way to Richmond...." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.6
File: BrII224

Old Jokey Song

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Old Jones

See Put the Traffic Down (File: R334)

Old Judas

DESCRIPTION: "Old Judas was a traitor and the worst of his kind. He had a bag of money that he carried all the time." The singer details Judas's betrayal of Jesus, and his death, wonders why Jesus chose such a disciple, and warns others against love of money.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Collected by Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains from John Daniel Vass)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious money lie betrayal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 87-88, "Old Judas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7336
NOTES [268 words]: The statement that Judas had "a money bag" seems to be based on John 13:29. where Judas is said to have what the NRSV calls "the common purse," and also John 12:6. This also refers to Judas having the common treasury, and refers to him as a thief who steals from it. 12;6 is also the verse in which, after the anointing of Jesus's feet, he complains that the money was not given to the poor. (In the version of the story of the anointing in Mark 14:3-9 and parallels, it is not Judas who questions the behavior, but the crowd in general).
There is no evidence that Judas had been a thief prior to his involvement with Jesus, except for songs such as "Judas" [Child 23].
It is not really clear whether Judas betrayed Jesus for a high price or a low. Only Matthew tells the story (Matt. 26:15), and the text says literally "thirty of silver" -- hence thirty silver coins, but it it not clear which sort of silver coins. If, as is likely, we are meant to think of the Greek denarius (which was a silver coin massing 3.8 grams), the price -- while not "lordly" as in the source in Zech. 11:13) -- was not trivial; it represented a month or more of income for a hired worker. And it was allegedly enough to buy a field near Jerusalem, where land prices must have been high (Matt. 27:7).
In Matthew 27:3-4, Judas tries to return the money before his death. The song tries to reconcile the two incompatible versions of his death; Matt. 27:5 says he hanged himself, clearly dying in the process, with no broken ropes involved; his death by violent disease, in a field he himself bought, is told in Acts 1:18-19). - RBW
File: Shel087

Old Judge Duffy

DESCRIPTION: Judge Duffy "knew nothing about rules of the law," but "of judges he was one of the best." When the town's only blacksmith is clearly guilty of murder, Duffy orders a Chinese laborer hanged instead, because the blacksmith is needed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: execution reprieve foreigner lie
FOUND IN: US(NW,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 51-52, "Old Judge Duffy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp 584-585, "Judge Martin Duffy" (1 text)
DT, JDGEDFFY*
ADDITIONAL: Tom Nash and Twilo Scofield, _The Well-Travelled Casket: Oregon Folklore_, Meadowlark Press, 1999, pp. 139-140 "Judge Martin Duffy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4806
RECORDINGS:
Cyril O'Brien, "Duffy's Blunder" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: MN2051

Old Keg of Rum, The

DESCRIPTION: "My name is old Jack Palmer, I'm a man of olden day, And so I wish to sing a song To you of olden praise. To tell of merry friends of old...." The singer describes his mates who gathered around "the old keg of rum," their work and their drinking
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: drink moniker
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 249-253, "The Old Keg of Rum" (1 text)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 78-79, "The Old Keg of Rum" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 14-16, "The Old Keg of Rum" (1 text)
NOTES [59 words]: The text in Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition appears likely to be based on "The Days of Forty-Nine," but without a tune, it's impossible to be sure. John S. Manifold, Who Wrote the Ballads? Notes on Australian Folksong, Australasian Book Society, 1964, p. 94, reports the tune as "Widgegoara Joe" or "The Hut That's Upside Down." - RBW.
Last updated in version 5.2
File: PFS250

Old Kentucky

DESCRIPTION: "You may go east, you may go west And sighs so grand you'll see. But after all, Kentucky is The place you'll wish to be." The singer describes the scenery, the "women always fair," the hospitality, the farming, etc. and hopes to be buried in Kentucky
AUTHOR: Billie Menshouse?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 174-175, "Old Kentucky" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 178-179)
File: ThBa174

Old King and His Three Sons, The

See In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)

Old King Buzzard

DESCRIPTION: "Old King Buzzard floating high, 'Sho do wish old cow would die.' Old cow died, old calf cried, 'Oh mourner, you shall be free.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: food bird animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 193, (no title) (1 fragment)
File: ScNF193A

Old King Cole (I)

DESCRIPTION: Cumulative: "Old King Cole was a merry old soul, and a merry old soul was he. He called for his pipe and he called for his bowl and he called for his --- three." Sundry (soldiers/courtiers) are called in, make suitable remarks, and wait for the next rank
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd); the nursery rhyme form is quoted in William King's "Useful Transactions in Philosophy" (1708/9)
KEYWORDS: cumulative soldier drink humorous bawdy royalty
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So) Britain(England(Lond,North,South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (30 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 302, "Old King Cole" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 661, "Old King Cole" (1 text)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #112, "Old King Cole" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 151-153, "Old King Coul" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1710, "Old King Cole" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 19, "Old King Coul" (1 text)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 107, "Old King Jimmy" (1 text, in which the same first stanza is repeated several times: "Old King Jimmy called for his wine And called for his fiddlers three," "Old Farmer Jimmy called for his wine..." "Old Preacher Jimmy..." "Old Sailor Jimmy...")
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, pp. 26-27, "Old King Quine (Cawein)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 39-41, "Old King Cole" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, p. 158, "Old King Cole" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 106-108, "Old King Cole" (1 text, quite dirty)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 117-118, "Old Kinkaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 633-635, "Old King Cole" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 171-173, "Old King Cole" (1 tune, which may or may not be related as no text is given)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 91, "Old King Coul" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 96-97, "Old King Cole" (1 text, 1 tune, which runs through the military hierarchy from privates to generals); p. 97, "Old King Cole -- 423 Squadron" (1 text, a version customized for the airmen of the 423 squadron)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 204-205, "Old King Cole" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 112, "Old King Cole" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #206, p. 143, "(Old King Cole)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 140, "Old King Cole" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 56, "Old King Cole" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 57, "Old King Cole Was a Merry Old Soul" (1 mention, from user John5918, posted August 31, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 263, 294, 295, 315, 395, "Old King Cole" (notes, with a partial text of a local version on p. 294)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 96-97, "Old King Cole" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #401, "Old King Cole was a merry old soul" (1 text)
OneTuneMore, p. 49, "Old King Cole" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 278, "Old King Cole" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Joan McCaskill, collector), "Rope-Skipping Games", Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 12, "(Old King Cole)" (partial text with game description)
DT, KNGCOLE* KNGCOLE2*
ADDITIONAL: Tim Devlin, _Cracking Humpty Dumpty: An Investigative Trail of Favorite Nursery Rhymes_, Susak Press, 2022, pp. 93-99, "Old King Cole" (3 texts)
Roud #1164
RECORDINGS:
Martin Gorman, "Old King Cole" (on Voice07)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 20(269), "Old King Cole," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866 ; also Harding B 11(2808), "Old King Cole"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old King Cole (II)" (character)
cf. "Old King Cole (III)" (character, form)
cf. "Old King Cole (IV -- Marching Cadence)" (character, form)
SAME TUNE:
Old King Cotton (Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II, p. 199)
NOTES [571 words]: Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I has a bawdy version of the drinking song and nursery rhyme. - EC
Various explanations have been offered for "King Cole." Colchester is said to have been named after a third century kinglet named Cole; Geoffrey of Monmouth's history, V.6, describes a "Coel Duke of Kaercolun/Colchester" as living in the time of Constantius the father of Constantine the Great -- but Geoffrey made up most of his history. (He also gave us King Lear and much of the basic story of King Arthur). As the Opies comment, "If the old chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth (1147) could be trusted, which he cannot be, King Cole had a daughter who was well skilled in music." They go on to note that the identity of Cole has been discussed at least since the early eighteenth century.
It might be worth noting that, although Geoffrey's history is almost all fiction, and we have no quality sources for British history in the period preceding Constantius, Geoffrey's work is very popular. So it might possibly have inspired this song even though it is not historical.
Scotland had a King Colin (967-971). Various merchants and minor noblemen have also been suggested, and Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel mentions the Celtic kinglet Coel Hen. Needless to say, none of these identifications is convincing.
Also: Pipe? As in tobacco? Remember, tobacco came from the Americas. (Devlin, p. 95, remarks that "pipe" might mean the musical instrument, not the thing you fill with tobacco. True, but how many kings were pipers?) And the violin was not invented until the sixteenth century; before that, there were viols, not fiddles. So if Cole was a real person from the era of Geoffrey or Colin of Scotland, he had a lot of anachronisms hung on him.
Devlin, p. 95, mentions as another possibility one Richard Cole, born 1568, who was a member of the gentry; chronologically he is a better fit, but of course wasn't a king. Another idea is that the song is about a twelfth century Thomas Cole, the subject of one of Thomas Deloney's songs, which brings back the problem of anachronisms and still doesn't make him a king.
I'm amazed no one has tried to change the name to "King Coal." A Newcastle rhyme, perhaps?
Devlin's conclusion, on p. 99, is that it really is about the Roman-era Coel. If so, it simply has to be by a more modern author. (English didn't *exist* in the third century!) So I'd be inclined to look for the author, not the meaning -- knowing the former would probably explain the latter. - RBW
Parody: Bodleian, Harding B 11(2809), "Old King Cole," J. Sharp (London), c.1845 - BS
David J. Bercuson, Maple Leaf Against the Axis: Canada's Second World War, 1995 (I use the 2004 Red Deer Press edition), p. 82, describes the 423 Squadron mentioned in Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear's "Old King Cole -- 423 Squadron" text: "No. 423 Squadron, formed in May 1942, flew the heavy four-engine Short Sunderland flying-boat on convoy escort and anti-submarine patrols until the end of the war. Its crews destroyed two U-boats and shared in the sinking of one other, beginning with U-753 on 13 May 1943." (This was the one it shared in sinking, according to Bercuson, p. 140.) Another U-boat it sank was U-439 -- although the U-boat, even while sinking, managed to shoot down the Sunderland, killing five of the crew and wounding the rest (Bercuson, p. 83). They flew from Castle Archdale, Northern Ireland (Bercuson, p. 143). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: K302

Old King Cole (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Old King Cole was a jolly old soul And this you may tell by his larnin', He eat corn bread till his head turn red And his old yellow cap needs darnin" Other verses are floaters: "My pretty little pink," "Coffee grows," "I'll take my knapsack on my back"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: nonballad royalty floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 42-43, "[Old King Cole]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 81, "Old King Cole" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1164
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old King Cole (I)" (character)
cf. "Old King Cole (III)" (character)
NOTES [74 words]: Roud lumps this with the standard "Old King Cole." But while the theme is similar, the lyrics and the meter are different. It's really more a floating verse collection than anything else; of Ritchie's 20 lines (five stanzas of four lines each), I would consider *at least* fourteen to be from other songs -- and I suspect in fact that the original was a composite song from which the singer forgot a few lines and patched in replacements. - RBW
File: JRSF042

Old King Cole (III)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Old King Cole Was a merry old soul, He tried to get to heaven on a telephone pole."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: jumprope royalty | Old King Cole telephone pole
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #148, "Ole King Cole" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #409, "Old King Cole" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old King Cole (I)" (character, form)
cf. "Old King Cole (II)" (character)
File: AJRV148

Old King Cole (IV -- Marching Cadence)

DESCRIPTION: Cumulative. Old King Cole was a merry old soul... He called for his pipe and he called for his bowl and he called for his Privates three. Beer! Beer! Beer! Said the Privates. What merry men are we! But none so fair that we can compare to the (somebody)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
LONG DESCRIPTION: To the tune of "Old King Cole": Old King Cole was a merry old soul,...
He called for his pipe and he called for his bowl and he called for his Privates three. 'Beer! Beer! Beer!' Said the Privates. 'What merry men are we!
but none so fair that we can compare to the (Airborne Infantry)/(Field Artillery)/(Men of the OTC)'"/etc. Cumulative, with additional lines, "'I need a three day pass,' said the Corporals," "'Left right left,' said the Sergeant," and on up the ranks, perhaps as high as the generals, e.g. "'We do all the work," said the Captains," "'Where's my star?' said the colonels," "'War, war, war,' said the generals"
KEYWORDS: derivative soldier drink humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p 133, "'Form fours to the right,' said the Sergeant" (1 text)
Roud #1164
NOTES [41 words]: Considering the large number of variants of this I've encountered over the years, I'm surprised it isn't in more folk song collections. No two versions are alike, although almost all involve somebody (usually the privates) calling for beer. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC183A

Old King Coul

See Old King Cole (I) (File: K302)

Old King Jimmy

See Old King Cole (I) (File: K302)

Old King Quine

See Old King Cole (I) (File: K302)

Old Kingston Jail

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the conditions in Kingston Jail. The inmates talk of their desire to leave. Most of the song is devoted to the varied characters found in the prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: nonballad prison moniker
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 25-27, "Old Kingston Jail" (1 text)
ST FO025 (Partial)
Roud #4675
File: FO025

Old Kinkaid

See Old King Cole (I) (File: K302)

Old Kitarden

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a restless logger, leaves "Kitarden" (Katahdin), Maine. Arriving in Michigan, he is set to cooking instead of logging; he reminisces; when he and his friends arrive in Saginaw they will "make the taverns roar" with toasts to Kitarden and the girls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a logger, leaves "Kitarden" (Katahdin), Maine, because he is restless. He arrives in Michigan, but his cohorts put him to cooking rather than logging; he reminisces about Maine, and vows that when he and his friends arrive in Saginaw they will "make the taverns roar" with toasts to Kitarden and the "girls that we adore."
KEYWORDS: lumbering emigration logger work home cook
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 44, "Old Kitarden" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 55, "Old Kitarden" (1 text)
Roud #8876
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy" (lyrics)
NOTES [19 words]: Maine, New Brunswick, and Ontario lumberjacks commonly came to Michigan for the season, or sometimes permanently. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be044

Old Lady Come from Booster

DESCRIPTION: "Old lady came from Booster, She had two hens and a rooster, The rooster died, toe old lady cried, She couldn't get eggs like she used to." "Ranky tanky, button my shoe." "Pain in my head, ranky tanky; Pain in my shoulder... Pain all over me, ranky tanky"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad chickens
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 113, "Old Lady Come from Booster" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 22, #2 (1973), p, 27, "Old Lady Come from Booster" (1 text, 1 tune, the Johns Island version)
RECORDINGS:
Mabel Hillery, Janie Hunter and her grandchildren, "Old Lady Come from Booster" (on JohnsIsland1)
Janie Hunter, Mary Pinckney, and their children, "Old Lady Come from Booster" (on BeenStorm1)
File: SOv22v2b

Old Lady Leary

See Mother Leary's Cow (File: ACSF110M)

Old Lady Murphy

See Mother Leary's Cow (File: ACSF110M)

Old Lady of Amsterdam

DESCRIPTION: "There was an old lady of Amsterdam, She was a fine old lass, And every time she turned around, She showed her great big... ankle bones." And similar verses about her son, her daughter, and her travels to town
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1)
KEYWORDS: humorous wordplay mother children
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 30-31, "Old Lady of Amsterdam" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hallelujah" (technique) and references there
NOTES [47 words]: The technique of the hidden word in this song is also found in songs such as "Hallelujah"; see the references there. This song is perhaps bawdier than most examples of the type, which may explain the references to Amsterdam, known as a home of prostitutes (see, e.g. "A-Rovin'"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BuF1030

Old Lady of Botany Bay, The

DESCRIPTION: "There came an old woman/man from Botany/Poverty Bay, And what have you got to give me today? And you mustn't say Yes, o or nay, black, white, or gray."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty wordplay colors
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 53, "(There came an old woman from Botany Bay)" (1 text)
Roud #5105
NOTES [30 words]: Roud seems to lump British versions of this with the song indexed as "Poor Widow." I can only say that the extreme versions, this and Sam Henry's, do not appear to be the same song.
Last updated in version 4.4
File: SuSm053A

Old Lady Sally Wants to Jump

DESCRIPTION: "Old Lady Sally wants to jumpty-jump, Jumpty-jump, jumpty-jump... And Old Lady Sally wants to bow." The singer says to throw in a hook to catch a girl, notes there are "many fishes in the brook," and describes a preacher trying to preach his way to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, children of Lilly's Chapel School)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 153-154, "(Old Lady Sally Wants to Jumpty-Jump)" (1 text); pp. 275-276, "Old Lady Sally Wants to Jump" (1 tune, partial text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 537-539, "Old Lady Sally Wants to Jump" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11003
RECORDINGS:
Children of Lilly's Chapel School, "Old Lady Sally Wants to Jump" (on NFMAla6, RingGames1)
File: CNFM153

Old Lady Sittin' in the Dining Room

DESCRIPTION: A ring-skipping song. "Choose the one the ring go round, Choose the one the morning, Choose the one with the coal black hair, And kiss and call her honey."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 705, "Old Lady Sittin' in the Dining Room" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [6 words]: Another "Weevily Wheat" variant? - RBW
File: BSoF705B

Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

DESCRIPTION: Singer says he knows an old lady who swallowed a fly; "I don't know why she swallowed that fly/Perhaps she'll die." She swallows a succession of animals, each to catch the last. At the end, "I know an old lady who swallowed a horse/She's dead, of course."
AUTHOR: Probaby Rose Bonne (words) and Alan Mills (music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (recording, Burl Ives)
KEYWORDS: death cumulative humorous animal bird bug horse campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 59, "(Old Woman Who Swallowed A Fly)" (1 mention, from user Tess_W, posted August 31, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 110, 392, "The Lady Who Swallowed a Fly"/"There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" (notes only)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #469, "Poor old lady" (1 text)
DT, SWALLFLY*
Roud #9375
RECORDINGS:
Amy Michels, Derek Piotr, "I Don't Know Why She Married A Ward" (Piotr-Archive #164, recorded 05/10/2022)
Pete Seeger, "I Know an Old Lady (Who Swallowed a Fly)" (on PeteSeeger08, PeteSeegerCD02)
Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry, "Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" (on SeegerTerry)
SAME TUNE:
Pete Seeger, "Young Woman Who Swallowed a Lie" [feminist parody] (DT, SWALLLIE; on PeteSeeger45; on PeteSeeger47)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
NOTES [145 words]: Wikipedia credits the pop version of this to Rose Bonne (words) and Alan Mills (music); it looks to me as if that version, recorded by Burl Ives, is the source of all later versions, and that the recordings by Ives and Seeger are responsible for its popularity.
I know nothing about Bonne, but Mills had a role in two books in the Ballad Index, Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland and Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong. He also released recordings of Canadian songs.
Fascinatingly, this seems to have been folk processed within two years of its composition. The Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes text runs
Poor old lady,
She swallowed a fly.
Poor old lady,
She's going to die....
Also, the Amy Michels version appears to be a humorous parody based on family history: So-and-so married a so-and-so; I don't know why (s)he married a so-and-so; maybe (s)he was something-or-other. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcIKAOLW

Old Lady, Old Lady, Lived in a Shoe

See There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe AND Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Go Upstairs (File: OO2546)

Old Lead (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John II)

DESCRIPTION: "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Killed Old Lead and home he run, Old Lead was eat, and John was beat, And Mary ran bawling down the street." How a drifter named John killed a tree dog named "Old Lead" and was punished for it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 76, (no title) (1 fragment)
cf. Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose p. 221, note 74 "(Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (I)" (lyrics)
File: ScaNF076

Old Leather Bonnet, The

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Old Leather Breeches

See The Old Leather Breeches (File: MCB232)

Old Leather Breeches, The

DESCRIPTION: "At the sign of the bell, on the road to Clonmel, Paddy Hegarty kept a night shaybeen." When a party arrives demanding food and drink, Paddy supplies liquor, but for food can only cut up his leather breeches. When the trick is discovered, a riot ensues
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (OConor); 19C (Wolf)
KEYWORDS: drink clothes party
FOUND IN: Ireland Australia Canada(Newf) Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 232-233, "The Old Leather Breeches" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 46-47, "The Leather Breeches" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 75, "The Old Leather Breeches" (1 text)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 67A, "The Old Leather Breeches" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 71-72, "Leather Britches" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 16, pp. 116-1190, "Paddy Hagerty's Old Leather Breeches" (1 text)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 37, pp. 123-125,171, "The Old Leather Britches" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 22-24, "The Ould Leather Breeches" (1 text)
Behan-IrelandSings, #66, "Oul Leather Britches" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1718, p. 115, "The Old Leather Breeches" (1 reference)
Roud #923
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "Paddy Hagerty's Old Leather Breeches" (on NFJDowney01)
Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), pp. 14-15, "The Ould Leather Breeches" (text, music and reference to Decca F-2266 recorded Feb 6, 1931)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as110230, "Old Leather Breeches!," unknown, 19C
NOTES [45 words]: Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday: "It is common throughout Ireland and I have heard [it] in the Border's of Scotland."
The date and master id (GB-2648-1/2) for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: MCB232

Old Leather Britches, The

See The Old Leather Breeches (File: MCB232)

Old Lee Blues

DESCRIPTION: "I had and old dog and his name was Lee, He was so dear to me. He took a run, went off one day...." The owner tries to keep the dog in; it keeps running. Finally he shoots the dog and buries it with a sign saying "He died with the runnin' blues"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Roberts/Agey-InThePine)
KEYWORDS: dog death burial | running
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #81, "Old Lee Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: RAinPi81

Old Log Cabin for Sale, An

DESCRIPTION: "While strolling alone in the country... I found an old log cabin, So beautiful there to behold." Someone there says "There's no place like home." The singer sees a time when the cabin and the "old oaken bucket and well" are sold because no one wants them
AUTHOR: Mrs. J. W. Payte (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Gospel Tide, according to Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
KEYWORDS: home commerce nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 20, "An Old Log Cabin for Sale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25819
RECORDINGS:
Whitey & Hogan, "An Old Log Cabin for Sale" (Decca 5817)
NOTES [64 words]: This was apparently recorded by Porter Wagoner, although I don't know the details.
Mrs. J. W. Payte was a sort of an in-house hymn-writer for some gospel publisher or other. Several other songs by her show up in obscure hymnals, although none seems to have made it big. I think it safe to assume that she never lived in a log cabin, else she would not have been so nostalgic for one. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ABLT020

Old Lord by the Northern Sea, The

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Old Lover's Wedding, An

See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

Old Low-Back-Car, The

See The Low-Backed Car (File: GrMa120)

Old Lullaby (I'm tired now and sleepy, too)

See Put Me In My Little Bed (File: Beld279)

Old Lyda Zip Coon

See Hallelujah (File: R421)

Old MacDonald Had a Farm

DESCRIPTION: (Old MacDonald's) farm features a wide variety of livestock, described cumulatively, e.g. with the pig making an oink here and an oink there, the cow a moo-moo here and there, etc. until the entire farm is sounding off
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Tommy's Tunes)
KEYWORDS: animal farming cumulative nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Randolph 457, "The Merry Green Fields of the Lowland" (1 text); 458, "Old Missouri" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 125, "McDonald's Farm" (5 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 125, "McDonald's Farm" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 83, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 389, "Old MacDonald Had A Farm" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 120, pp. 238-240, "Sweet Fields of Violo" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 410-412, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm"
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 17, "(Old Macdonald)" (2 mentions, from users TempleCat, John5918, posted August 28, 2021)
Harbin-Parodology, #400, p. 97 "My Grandmother Has a Very Fine Farm" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 119, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 191, 257, 258, 392, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" (notes only)
Roud #745
RECORDINGS:
Warren Caplinger's Cumberland Mountain Entertainers, "McDonald's Farm" (Brunswick 224, 1928)
John M. Curtis, "The Farmyard" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Englewood Four, "Old McDonald Had a Farm" (Champion 15451/Challenge 396, 1928 [as Henry County Four]; rec. 1927)
Sam Patterson Trio, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" (Edison 51644, 1925)
Dan Russo's Orioles, "Old MacDonald Had A Farm" (Columbia 2647-D, 1932)
Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers, "Old McDonald Had A Farm" (Columbia 15204-D, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Farmyard Song (I)" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Golly, Ain't That Queer (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 171-172)
Young McDonald Had a Horse (RECORDING: Jerry Abbott & the Main Streeters Standard, T-2071, rec. 1942)
The Burial of Old Slow Village League ("Old Slow Village Had a Church, Ee-I, Ee-I, O") (Harbin-Parodology, #403, pp. 98-99)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Farmyard Song
NOTES [256 words]: Are the pieces listed here really one song? It's not immediately obvious. The British and American versions are often very distinct, but there are intermediate versions, e.g. Randolph's. There may well be mixture with "The Farmyard Song (I)," and maybe "The Swapping Boy" as well; indeed, early versions of the Index lumped this with "The Farmyard Song (I)."
Neither of Randolph's texts conforms to the common version of "Old MacDonald," and "The Merry Green Fields of the Lowland," in particular, looks older (It probably derives from the George Christy version "In the Merry Green Fields of Oland," from 1865; compare Sharp's "Merry Green Fields of Ireland" and Pound's "Sweet Fields of Violo"). But the cumulative pattern is the same (indeed, something very like it is quoted in Pills to Purge Melancholy in 1707), so I assume the family is a unity.
Gilbert-LostChords claims the piece (in which "My Grandfather," rather than "Old MacDonald, is the farmer) comes from a busker of the 1870s called "the Country Fiddler," but gives no details to verify this.
I use the "Old MacDonald" title because it is the best-known, though Fuld reports that this version did not appear until 1917 (and even then, it was "Old MacDougal"). - RBW
The John M Curtis Newfoundland version replaces the leading "Old MacDonald had a farm" with "Aye bonny lassie will you come For to mind my father's (hens/geese/...)" and the trailing "Old MacDonald had a farm" with "Aye bonny lassie will you come to the bonny woods of ivy." Roud has this as #544. - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R457

Old Maid (I), The

See I'll Not Marry at All (File: E072)

Old Maid (II), The

See No to be Married Ava (File: FVS308)

Old Maid (III), The

See The Old Maid's Song (File: R364)

Old Maid and the Burglar, The [Laws H23]

DESCRIPTION: The old maid prepares for bed by removing her teeth, wig, and glass eye. She then discovers the burglar hiding under her bed. She threatens to shoot him if he will not marry her. He answers, "Woman, for the Lord's sake, shoot!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1901 (recording, John Terrell)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid robbery humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws H23, "The Old Maid and the Burglar"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 192, "The Burglar Man" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 192, "The Burglar Man" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 110, pp. 249-250, "The Old Maid and the Burglar" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 74, "The Burglar Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 34-35, "The Burglar Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 223-224, "The Jolly Burglar Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 30, "The Burglar Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 780, OLMDBURG
Roud #658
RECORDINGS:
Reubin [Reuben?] Burns, "The Burglar Man" (Champion 15376, 1928; rec. 1927)
Bob Carpenter, "The Burglar Man" (on LomaxCD1702)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Burglar and the Old Maid" (OKeh 45259, 1928)
Bill Clifton, "Burglar Man" (Blue Ridge 403, n.d.)
Frank Hutchison, "The Burglar Man" (OKeh 45313, 1929; rec. 1928)
Eddy Primroy, "The Burglar" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Riley Puckett, "Burglar Man" (Columbia 15015-D, 1925; rec. 1924)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "The Old Maid and the Burglar" (Edison 52369, 1928) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5531, 1928)
Arthur Tanner, "Burglar Man" (Silvertone 3514, 1926)
John Terrell, "A Bergular's [sic] Experience with an Old Maid" (Zon-O-Phone 1-9665, c. 1901)
Henry Whitter, "The Burglar Man" (OKeh 45063, 1926); Henry Whitter & Fiddler Joe [Samuels], "The Burglar Man" (OKeh, unissued, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Warranty Deed" (theme)
cf. "Bluebell (One Night I Thought I'd Enjoy Myself)" ("Woman, for the Lord's sake shoot" line)
File: LH23

OLd Maid in a Garret

See The Old Maid's Song (File: R364)

Old Maid of Fifty-Three, The

See Maidens of Sixty-Three (The Old Maid) (File: HHH679)

Old Maid Song (IV)

See I Wonder When I Shall Be Married (File: CoxII16)

Old Maid's Lament for a Husband, The

See The Old Maid's Song (File: R364)

Old Maid's Song (I), The

DESCRIPTION: An old maid laments her state, noting that her (two) sister(s were) popular, but she's been ignored all her life. She says she'd accept almost any man, and lists the good things she'd do for him
AUTHOR: Martin Parker (source: Kittredge)
EARLIEST DATE: 1636 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: loneliness marriage nonballad family oldmaid
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,NE,Ro,So) Ireland Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber,Hebr)) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 27, "The Spinster's Lament" (1 text)
Sturgis/Hughes-SongsFromTheHillsOfVermont, pp. 18-21, "The Spinster's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 65, "The Old Maid's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #82, "The Old Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H138, p. 256, "The Black Chimney Sweeper" (1 text, 1 tune, in which a "black chimney sweeper" finally marries her)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 87-88, "The Black Chimney Sweeper" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, p. 102, "Sisters Susan" (1 text)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 353-355, "The Old Maid's Lament for a Husband" (1 text, which is not lyrically similar to the usual versions of this song but has all the same plot elements)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 297-298, "Here's My Sister Betsy" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 208)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 133, "Tinker, Tailor" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 210, "The Poor Auld Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #17, p. 1, "The Old Maid's Lament for a Husband" (1 fragment which follows Logan-APedlarsPack's version)
Greig/Duncan7 1378, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Come Ye Inksmen" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 40, "Auld Maid in a Garrett" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, p. 461, "I Long to be Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 21, "Black Chimney Sweeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 26, "Come All You True Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 186, "Old Maid's Song" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, G.L. Kittredge, editor, "Ballads and Songs," Vol. XXX, No. 117 (Jul-Sep 1917, pp. 355-356 "The Old Maid's Song" (1 Kentucky text plus 5 related verses from Roxburghe)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 60, "Sister Sally" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDMAID1 (OLDMAID2) OLDMAID6*
Roud #802
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "I Long to be Wedding" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Joanna Leith, "The Poor Auld Maid" (on FSBFTX19)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2011), "Chimney Sweep's Wedding," J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1858-1861; also Firth c.20(31), "Chimney Sweeper's Wedding"; 2806 c.7(10), "Chimney Sweepers Weding"[sic]
LOCSinging, as102060, "The Chimney Sweepers Weding"[sic], P. Brereton (Dublin), n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Betsy Bell" (theme)
cf. "Darn the Man That I Can Get" (theme)
cf. "I'll Not Marry at All"
cf. "Time to be Made a Wife"
cf. "The Old Maid's Song" (II)
cf. "A'body's Like to be Married but Me"
cf. "No to be Married Ava" (theme)
cf. "I Wonder When I Shall Be Married" (theme)
cf. "O Gin That I Were Mairrit" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Take Her Out of Pity
The Old Maid's Lament
NOTES [223 words]: Kittredge: "The song, now in active oral circulation, is a re-arrangement of 'The Wooing Maid,' a ballad by the famous Martin Parker, which is preserved in a seventeenth-century broadside in the Roxburghe collection I:452-453 ('Roxburghe Ballads,' ed. Chappell, 3:51-56)" [Fn: "... The ballad was entered in the Stationers' Register to Thomas Lambert, 1633-36...."]
Also collected and sung by Ellen Mitchell, "An Old Maid in a Garret" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001))
Broadsides LOCSinging as102060 and Bodleian Harding B 11(2011) are duplicates. - BS
Some of the versions, such as Irish/Scottish "Old Maid in a Garret" texts, begin with lines such as "I have often heard it said by my father and my mother, That going to a wedding is the making of another, If that is so, I would go without a bidding...." The superstition about weddings coming together is attested by Iona Opie and Moira Tatem, editors, A Dictionary of Superstitions, 1989 (I use the 1999 Barnes & Noble edition), p. 433:
"c. 1635 M. Parker Wooing Maid (1 Roxburgh Ballads III.54) 'Tis said that one wedding produceth another."
"1713 Gay Wife of Bath I.1 One wedding, the Proverb says, begets another."
"1848 Dickens Dombey and Son XXXI. The cook says at breakfast-time that one wedding makes many." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R364

Old Maid's Song (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Father, I'm sixteen years of age; I'm weary of my life.... I think it's almost time for me to be made a wife." Her father calls men liars; she points out that her mother married younger and her sister also. She says, "Don't let me die a maid"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Gardiner MS)
KEYWORDS: marriage oldmaid
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 162-163, "Time to be Made a Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 79, "Young Men, Come Marry Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 102, "Time to be Made a Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDMAID5
Roud #1669
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Maid's Song (I)" and references there
File: FJ162

Old Maid's Song (III), The

See I'll Not Marry at All (File: E072)

Old Maid's Song (IV), The

See I Wonder When I Shall Be Married (File: CoxII16)

Old Maid's Song (V)

DESCRIPTION: "There's many a bachelor born to wed, Perhaps there's one for me. If so, white a nice little wife I'll be." "I'm willing to wait, I'm willing to wait, Just one short year or two more." She regularly meets men, but they step on her dress or her feet
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid courting injury | clothes handkerchief
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 207-208, "The Old Maid's Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5248
NOTES [52 words]: At the end of the text in Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, the singer is supposed to drop a handkerchief. I wonder if this might have begun life as a playparty, related to the Drop Glove game ("Hunt the Squirrel" or "Atisket, Atasket (I Sent a Letter to My Love)"), or perhaps to "Lady, Lady, Drop Your Purse." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: NeDe207

Old Maids

DESCRIPTION: "All you that are single and wild in your ways, Come sow your wild oats in your youthful days, And you shall live happy, You shall live happy when you grow old. The day is far spend and the night's coming on So give us your arm and go jogging along...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (JAFL, according to Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 150, "Old Maids" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #29460
File: Spurg150

Old Man and a Young Man, An

See I Wouldn't Have an Old Man (File: R401)

Old Man and His Mill, The

See The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)

Old Man and His Three Sons, The

See Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Old Man and the Door, The

See Get Up and Bar the Door [Child 275] (File: C275)

Old Man and the Oak, The

See Says the Old Man to the Oak Tree (File: BGMG071)

Old Man at the Mill, The

DESCRIPTION: "Same old man, sitting at the mill/Mill turns around of its own free will...ladies go forward and the gents fall back." This is followed by floating verses, many taken from "The Birds' Courting Song (Leatherwing Bat)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (recording, Clint Howard et al)
KEYWORDS: courting floatingverses nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #733
RECORDINGS:
Clint Howard et al, "The Old Man at the Mill" (on Ashley02, WatsonAshley01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [93 words]: This certainly shares a good deal with "The Birds' Courting Song (Leatherwing Bat)," but there are enough differences that I have split them. - PJS
Roud, interestingly, lumps it not with that song but with "The Miller Boy (Jolly is the Miller I)," presumably on the basis of the first verse. The result may well be a complex composite of the two. - RBW
In their notes to Ashley02 the Rinzlers attribute this "happy combination of two separate songs: a well-known play party, 'The Jolly Miller'; and 'The Bird Song' or 'The Leather Winged Bat'" to Ashley. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: RctOMatM

Old Man Came Home Again, The

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings)

DESCRIPTION: The singer's mother tells her to open the door to an old man. He is come to court her; she will not have him; he is too old. The girl's mother makes her to offer him various attentions; she does, and the old man spoils each. (At last he is sent home)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1733 (Ramsey)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer's mother tells her to open the door to an old man. He is come to court her; she will not have him; he is too old. The girl's mother makes her to offer him various attentions; she does, and the old man spoils each. (When the mother asks the daughter to kiss the old man, she says if her mother so likes him she can kiss him herself.) (At last he is sent home)
KEYWORDS: age courting rejection humorous clothes
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (47 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 264, "The Old Man's Courtship" (1 text)
Randolph 66, "The Old Black Booger" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 129-131, "The Old Black Booger" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 66C)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 6-7, "Old Black Booger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 22, "Old Shiboors and Leggins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 42, "An Old Man Who Came Over the Moor" (3 texts plus a fragment, 4 tunes)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 21, p. 30, "The Old Man Who Came Over the Moor" (1 fragment)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 171, "The Old Man" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 48, "The Old Man Who Vame Over the Moor" (2 texts)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 172-174 (2 texts, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 9, "The Old Man's Courtship" (5 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 9, "The Old Man's Courtship" (1 tune plus text excerpt)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #202, "The Old Man's Courtship" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 122, "Old Beard a-Shakin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, p. 217, "Old Shoe Boots and Leggins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #77, "The Old Man's Courtship" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 128-129, "The Carle He Cam' Ower the Craft"; p. 130, "The Dottered Auld Carle" (2 texts)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 457-458, "There Was an Old Man Came Over the Lea" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #149, p. 1, "The Auld Carle" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 815, "The Auld Carle wi' His Beard" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #50, pp. 205-206, "A Dottered Auld Carle"" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 100, "With His Owd Grey Beard New Shaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 152-154, "The Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 165, "Old Grey Beard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 9-10, "There Was an Old Man" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 18-19, "With His Old Shoes On and His Leggings"; pp. 20-21, "Crazy Old Man from China" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #43, "My Mother She Bid (She Told) Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 131, "Old Shoes and Leggings" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 408-409, "(no title)" (2 text, both short)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 307-308, "There Was An Old Man Came Over The Hill" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 169, "The Old Man Who Came Over the Moor" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 108, "My Mother Bid Me" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 34, "Ma, I Won't Have Him" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 87, "Mama Told Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 132-134, "Old Shoes and Leggin's" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 190-191, "The Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 40-41, "Billy Modick"; pp. 130-131, "The Old Man" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 73, "The Old Grey Man" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 161)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 76-77, "The Old Man from Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 22, "There Was an Old Man Came Over the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 139, "Old Grey Beard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #380, "My mother told me to bury him deep" (1 fragment)
DT, OLDSHOE*
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scots Sangs (in three vols) (London, 1733 (ninth edition) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, p. 126, "The Young Lass Contra Auld Man" ("The carle he came o'er the croft") (1 text)
W. H. D. Rouse, "Christmas Mummers at Rugby" in Folklore, Vol. X, No. 2 (Jun 1899 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 193-194 ("There was an old man came over the sea") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, pp. 107-108, ("There Was An Old Man Came Over the Sea") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, p. 63, "The Old Man's Courtship" (1 text)
ST R066 (Full)
Roud #362
RECORDINGS:
Frankie Armstrong, "The Old Man from Over the Sea" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2)
Burnett Bros., "Old Shoes a-Draggin'" (Victor 23727, 1932)
[The Stoneman Family and] Uncle Eck Dunford, "Old Shoes and Leggins" (Victor V-40060, 1928; on AAFM1)
Betty Garland, "Old Gum Boots and Leggings" (on BGarland01)
Otis High, "Old Gray Beard A-Flappin'" (on HandMeDown2)
Lawrence Older, "Old Shoes and Leggings" (on LOlder01)
Jeannie Robertson, "Old Grey Beard Newly Shaven" (on FSB01); "Old Grey Beard" (on FSBFTX13)
Betty Smith, "Old Shoes and Leggings" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #181, recorded 05/17/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man"
cf. "I Wouldn't Have an Old Man"
cf. "The Brisk Young Lad" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
An Old Man Came Courting Me
The Young Lass contra Old Man
The Carle He Came o'er the Croft
The Auld carle
I'll Not Have Him
The Old Man from Over the Sea
His Old Grey Beard Kept Waggin'
Overshoes and Leggin's
NOTES [81 words]: Roy Palmer's version of this song is included as a part of a Father Christmas play which "was performed every year at Christmastide at Newbold until the end of the nineteenth century." Unfortunately he gives no information on the source of the play, nor when it was first performed. - RBW
The Rouse text is an example of a song of courting, rejection, and, in this case death, inserted into a mummers' "wooing" or "plough" play. For other examples and some discussion see "Sweet Moll." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R066

Old Man Can't Keep His Wife at Home, The

DESCRIPTION: "The old man can't keep his wife at home, She dearly loves abroad to roam" and it picky about her food. She goes out eating and drinking. The old man sets a stone above the door; it hits the wife in the head and she died
AUTHOR: "reconstructed" by Sabine Baring-Gould
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: husband wife food drink separation homicide
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #118, "The Old Man Can't Keep His Wife at Home" (1 text, 1 tune, "reconstructed" to fill out a forgotten tale)
File: BGSW118

Old Man Daisy

DESCRIPTION: "Old man Daisy, what makes you so (lazy/crazy)? Up the ladder, down the ladder, One, two three, Bee-bee-bumble bee, Cedar Cider, Mustard pepper, One, two three."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: playparty food nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 104, "(Old man Daisy)" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 126, "Old Man Daisy, he went crazy" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #403, "Old Man Daisy (Lazy)" (1 text); #426, "One, two, three, Bumble, bumble bee" (1 text) is very possibly related
Roud #22200
File: McIn104D

Old Man Fox

See The Fox (File: R103)

Old Man from Lee, The

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Old Man from Over the Sea, The

DESCRIPTION: An old man courts a young woman, whose mother advises her what to do when they are married -- all to no sexual avail.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy marriage age
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 336-339, "The Old Man from Over the Sea" (2 texts, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man"
cf. "Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings)"
cf. "I Wouldn't Marry an Old Man"
cf. "I Wouldn't Have an Old Man"
cf. "My Husband's Got No Courage in Him"
NOTES [22 words]: Legman provides significant notes on, and references to, ballads about May-December marriages in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I. - EC
File: RL336

Old Man He Courted Me, An

See Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man (File: K207)

Old Man in a Wood, The

See Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)

Old Man in the North Countree, The

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Old Man in the North Country

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Old Man in the West, The

See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Old Man Kangaroo, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer and Bill Chippen are out of food when they spot a kangaroo. Chippen attacks the beast, which seizes him. The singer shoves his tucker-bag over the 'roo, then cuts off its tail. The animal drops dead; the two feed on its tail
AUTHOR: "Tom Tallfern," according to _The Australian Journal_
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (_The Australian Journal_, according to Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition)
KEYWORDS: animal fight Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 40-41, "The Old Man Kangaroo" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 303-305, "Tailing a Kangaroo" (1 text)
Roud #20409
File: MA040

Old Man Lazy

See Old Man Daisy (File: McIn104D)

Old Man Lived Under a Hill, The

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Old Man Once Courting Me, An

See Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man (File: K207)

Old Man Rocking the Cradle

See Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own) (File: R393)

Old Man Thought He Knew a Thing or Two

DESCRIPTION: "Old man thought he knew a thing or two Because he knew a thing or two he thought he knew. Old man thought he knew a thing or two. He made them all play ball."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2104 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonsense campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 127-128, "(no title)" (1 short text)
File: ACSF127A

Old Man under the Hill, The

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Old Man Who Came Over the Moor, The

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Old Man Who Lived in a Wood, The

See Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)

Old Man Who Lived in the West, The

See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Old Man Who Lived in the Woods, The

See Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)

Old Man, Old Man

DESCRIPTION: "Old man, old man, can I have your daughter? Yes sir, yes sir, take her if you want her." "Get her old duds and put her up behind"; whip her if she misbehaves. The singer hopes she will "bake my bread and carry my water." Animals go walking together.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage age animal floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 16-17, "Old Man, Old Man" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Roud #7026
NOTES [53 words]: This is a conundrum. Bush's version is a composite. Many pieces of it exist in other songs. Is it really one song? I rather doubt it, but the version printed in Bush, as a collective entity, does not seem to exist elsewhere -- so it file as its own song even though I doubt that this collective entity is traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BWV2016

Old Man, The

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Old Man's Advice

DESCRIPTION: "My grandfather worked when he was very young, And his parents grieved that he should." He worked hard for very little reward all his life. He joined the union, and stayed true all his life. His last words instruct his family to stick with the union also
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (collected by Palmer from Walter Pardon)
KEYWORDS: family hardtimes labor-movement work
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #36, "An Old Man's Advice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1482
File: PECS036

Old Man's Courtship, An

See I Gave My Love a Cherry
 (File: R123)

Old Man's Courtship, The

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Old Man's Lament (II)

DESCRIPTION: "When I was young and in my prime, I could get a hard on any time," but now he is old and is almost non-functional. The singer tells of all the things he used to be able to do, and warns listeners, "The time soon will ome when you'll be the same as I."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: bawdy age nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 50, pp. 238-240, "The Old Man's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10105
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Brown Jug" (tune)
File: Logs050

Old Man's Lament, The

See Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own) (File: R393)

Old Man's Song

See If I Live to Grow Old (File: BeCo460)

Old Man's Story, The

See I Once Loved a Beautiful Lady (File: MunLIOLB)

Old Man's Three Sons (Jeffery, James, and John)

DESCRIPTION: "There was an old (wo)man had three sons, (Jerry) and James and John. Jerry was hung, and James was drowned, John was lost and never found, And there was the end of (her) three sons, Jerry and James and John."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1632 (Choice of Inventions, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: mother father children death drowning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 540, "There was an old woman had three sons" (3 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #262, p. 160, "(There was an old woman had three sons)"
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 125-127, "Jiffery, James, and John" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #4661
NOTES [50 words]: Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes: "This is the first of fourteen verses in The Old Woman and Her Three Sons, a toy book with coloured illustrations published by John Harris in 1815. It is a verse which was certainly current in the reign of Charles I, and may go back to Elizabeth's time." - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: BGNG262

Old Mare, The

DESCRIPTION: Old mare is stuck in a bog "and they couldn't get her out." Finally they get her out but she makes her will and dies. The sheep dog will have her bones and the old mistress shall "have my skin to wrap herself"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2)
KEYWORDS: age death lastwill humorous farming horse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 34, "The Old Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2651
File: OSY234

Old Married Couple

DESCRIPTION: An old married couple think back to their marriage day "but now they're aged and feeble." When she dies he buries her and sits by the fireside remembering. "You gave me your love You took my name For forty years of married life"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: age love marriage wedding burial death
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
Roud #15747
RECORDINGS:
Daisy Chapman, "You Gave Me Your True Love (The Old Aged Couple)" (on SCDChapman01) [Recorded 1970]
Cyril O'Brien, "An Old Fashioned Couple" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mrs. John Powers, "Old Married Couple" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcOlMaCo

Old Marse John

DESCRIPTION: Lyrics about a slave promised freedom by his mistress -- but the freedom does not arrive as scheduled. Many floating verses about southern life. Chorus: "O mourner, you shall be free... When the good Lord sets you free."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925
KEYWORDS: slave freedom animal food clergy floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 271, "Old Marse John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 471, "Jigger, Rigger, Bumbo" (1 fragment)
Roud #6707
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Raise a Ruckus" (lyrics)
cf. "My Ole Mistus Promised Me" (lyrics)
cf. "Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Hard Time in Old Virginnie"
cf. "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [100 words]: About half of this song, as found in Lomax, is identical to "Raise a Ruckus." But the chorus is different, and the similarities could be due to the Alan Lomax's "improvements." So I've classified them separately.
The Brown fragments "Jigger, Rigger, Bumbo" is another mystery unto itself. It has the "Raise a Ruckus"/"My old marster promised me" opening, and a chorus, and that's it. At some point, there comes a limit on separating songs based on nonsense choruses. So I tossed it here. Roud appears to have a whole category (#11723) of fragments around the "My old master/mistress promised me." - RBW
File: LoF271

Old Massa He Come Dancin' Out

See Ol' Gen'ral Bragg's a-Mowin' Down de Yankees (File: BrII233)

Old Mayflower, The

DESCRIPTION: Mayflower runs ashore with its cargo of dry fish and ale. After the cargo is stolen we take the pail, jars, kettle, and, finally, the wood. "And that was the end of the old Mayflower"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck humorous theft
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 87-88, "The Old Mayflower" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9954
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Nellie Musseau, "The Old Mayflower" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mariposa" (theme of wreckers)
cf. "The Middlesex Flora" (theme of wreckers)
cf. "The Irrawaddy" (theme of wreckers)
cf. "Loss of the Anglo-Saxon" (theme of wreckers)
cf. "The Wrecker's Song" (theme of wreckers)
cf. "The Hoban Boys" (theme of wreckers)
cf. "The Nordfeld and the Raleigh" (theme of wreckers)
cf. "The Wreck of the Torhamvan (The Wreck of the Toravan)" (theme of wreckers)
cf. "The Teapots at the Fire" (theme of salvaged items although not wreckers)
NOTES [524 words]: I find myself wondering if Stan Rogers didn't have this or one of the other songs in the cross-references somewhere in the back of his mind when he wrote "The Wreck of the Athens Queen." It's interesting to see how many songs on the theme of, shall we say, extremely rapid and perhaps premature salvage come from Newfoundland.
As Ben Schwartz notes, citing Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast, "The general attitude toward wrecks was summed up for me by one man, who said, 'If the good Lord sees fit to wrack a vessel, we hope it'll be hereabouts; we can use anything on board.'"
Which is not to say that there weren't other places where wreckers worked. "The Old Mayflower" and "Loss of the Anglo Saxon" and "Mariposa" and "The Hoban Boys" and "The Nordfeld and the Raleigh" and "The Wreck of the Torhamvan (The Wreck of the Toravan)" are from Newfoundland and Labrador, but "The Middlesex Flora" and "The Irrawady" are about a ships wrecked in Ireland, And Vivian offers a whole book about Cornish wreckers, although he cites no songs.
Vivian, p. 5, writes, "The term ''wrecking' covers a wide range of misdemeanors, ranging from inshore piracy to the relatively innocuous gathering of flotsam and jetsam cast up by the sea after a storm. The wrecker of legend, who ured ships to destruction by exhibiting false lights on the coast, and murdered the hapless sailors as they struggled ashore, has, happily, been quite extinct for a very long time now; but the stripping of wrecked vessels still sometimes occurs; so that one can say that this ancient craft, unlike others far worthier which are now extinct, still flourishes in a restricted way. A good instance is that of the American steamer Bessemer City, lost near St. Ives in 1936, which provided many local inhabitants with tinned salmon, fruit, and other good cheer for the Christmas season."
Powers, p. 15, writes, "For centuries, the rugged coastlines of Europe and England -- particularly Cornwall with its treacherous rocks and strong winds -- were a haven for wreckers and smugglers, and these activities reached a peak in the eighteenth century. Seizing the opportunity to ease their miserable lives a little, ordinary folks and even a few clergy plundered wrecked ships to smuggle the 'saved' goods with unchecked enthusiasm. When one man interrupted a Sunday service to shout that a ship had just wrecked on the nearby rocks, the vicar was said to have begged his congregation to remain seated until he could take off his cassock 'to that we can all start fair.'"
The right of salvage is ancient, and so is its abuse. According to Gillingham, pp. 70-71, we find the English King Henry II rescinding the right of salvage at certain points along the Atlantic coast in the 1170s (to protect wine merchants, whose products floated and so could be re-collected even if their ship sank). Gillingham also mentions that the merchants thought he should have extended it even farther -- to Brittany, where the locals had a tradition of living off the proceeds of wrecks.
"The Hoban Boys" mentions the looting of a ship Mayflower. Whether they are the same ship I do not know. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Pea087

Old Mill Stream

See Down by the Old Mill Stream (File: ACSF423D)

Old Miller, The

See The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)

Old Miner, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh who'll replace this old miner, And who will take my place below... Oh, dear God, when I go? Who, dear Lord, who?" The miner wonders who will wield the pick, ride the train, mourn the dead. "For forty years I've lover the mine"; will anyone else?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands)
KEYWORDS: mining farewell work music disaster
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 94, "The Old Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1136
NOTES [10 words]: A very moving piece; I'm surprised it isn't better known. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: PSOM094

Old Miner's Refrain, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm getting old and feeble and I cannot work no more, I've laid my rusty mining tools away, For forty years and over I have toiled about the mines." He recalls buying a lamp at age 11, became a driver, a miner -- but now he must go to the almshouse
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining work hardtimes age
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 273-274, "The Old Miner's Refrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 377-379, "The Old Miner's Refrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 198, "The Old Miner's Refrain" (1 text)
Roud #7719
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train (III)" (lyrics, theme)
File: KPL377

Old Miser (I), The

See Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser) [Laws N6] (File: LN06)

Old Miser (II), The

See There Was an Old Miser (File: FSC048)

Old Miss Onion Died

See Old Mrs. McQuade's Dead (File: KSUC079A)

Old Miss Ruckett

DESCRIPTION: "Old Miss Ruckett she done kicked the bucket And gone to heaven above, Sitting up there on the topmost bough Singing like a turtle dove."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: death music
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 127, "Old Miss Ruckett" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11395
File: Brne127

Old Miss Wilson

See Old Dan Tucker (File: R521)

Old Missouri

See Old MacDonald Had a Farm (File: R457)

Old Moke Pickin' on the Banjo (Song of the Pinewoods)

DESCRIPTION: Singer lands in America in 1844 and works in the pinewoods. An Irish girl offers him whiskey and looks him over. He describes the teamsters with whom he works. Song may have many floating verses and a nonsense chorus.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work emigration floatingverses music
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 22, "Song of the Pinewoods" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 3, "Song of the Pinewoods" (1 text)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 340-341, "The Old Moke Pickin' on the Banjo" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 255]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, IV, pp. 4-5, "He-Back, She-Back" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDMOKE*
Roud #8862 and 930
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whoa Back, Buck" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I'm a Rowdy Soul" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Daddy Shot a Bear" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
He-bang, She-bang
Tapiocum
NOTES [189 words]: Clearly we have a muddle here. Beck notes that this song can have a huge number of verses, but he lists only four, and the song makes little sense as a result. The chorus, meanwhile, is a reworking of "Shule Agra", with a last line close to "Tighten on the Backband (Whoa Back Buck)." Ah, the folk process! - PJS
A muddle indeed, and one with bounds very hard to define. Beck's refrain for this piece runs
Shu-li, shu-li, shula-racka-ru
Hacka-racka, shacka-racka, shula-bobba-lu
I'm right from the pinewoods. So are you
Johnny, can't you pick it on your banjo?
The more common chorus to this seems to be something like
Hooraw! What the hell's the row?
We're all from the railroad, too-rer-loo,
We're all from the railroad, too-rer-loo,
Oooh! The ol' moke pickin' on the banjo!
This chorus occurs, with variations, in Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas and Sharp.
Steve Roud gives a different split than we do; #8862 is "Song of the Pinewoods"; #930 is most of the rest. - RBW
Hugill cites a Negro shanty titled "Tapiocum" found in v.3 of the Folk Song Journal. He only quotes one verse but believes that it is a variant of "Old Moke." - SL
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be022

Old Molly Hair

See Old Molly Hare (File: R277)

Old Molly Hare

DESCRIPTION: Fiddle tune with words, often of the form, "Old Molly Hare, What('r) you doin' there?" followed by a reply, e.g. "Sitting in the briarpatch, combing out my hair."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings)
KEYWORDS: animal fiddle nonballad dancetune
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Randolph 277, "Old Molly Hare" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 238-239, "Old Molly Hare" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 277)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 167, "Old Molly Hare (Mr. Rabbit)" (2 texts plus 4 fragments, 1 excerpt, and mention of 2 more; the "C," "D," and "E" fragments, plus probably "B," are "Old Molly Hare," "I" is "Mister Rabbit"; "A" and "G" mix the two)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 167, "Old Molly Hare (Mr. Rabbit)" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 283-284, "Old Mother Hare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 108-109, "Old Molly Hair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 71, "Mollie Hair" (1 text)
DT, MOLLHARE
Roud #7781
RECORDINGS:
Clayton McMichen & Riley Puckett, "Old Molly Hare" (Columbia 15295-D, 1928; on CrowTold01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Old Molly Hair" (on NLCR05)
Fiddlin' Powers & Family, "Old Molly Hare" (Okeh 45268, 1928; rec. 1927; on Cornshuckers2, StuffDreams2) )
Riley Puckett, "Old Molly Hair" (Columbia 15295-D, 1928)
NOTES [40 words]: Joel Chandler Harris quoted the first stanza of this song in "Mr. Rabbit Gorssly Decieves Mr. Fox," published in 1881 in Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings:
Ole Molly Har'.
W'at you doin' dar,
Settin' in de cornder
Smokin' yo seegyar? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: R277

Old Moly Rier

See Aunt Maria (File: BSoF705A)

Old Monk, The

See The Monk of Great Renown (File: EM037)

Old Mont Line, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come gather 'round me lads... Oh, maybe you don't believe me, lads... But ship in this starvation tow and you'll see the same as I." "There one Mont, two Monts, three Monts in a row." The sailors take a dull trip up the Lakes and grumble about the owner
AUTHOR: Captain F. W. Elliott and crew?
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from Elliott by Walton)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship hardtimes money
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 125-126, "The Old Mont Line" (1 test, 1 tune)
Roud #19849
RECORDINGS:
Ivan Watson, "The Old Mont Line" (fragment, 1938; on WaltonSailors)
NOTES [60 words]: According to Walton/Grimm/Murdok, the Mont Line operated a set of sailing barges (cut-down schooners) with such names as Monymorency and Monticello. Supposedly Captain Elliott and crew made up this song during a particularly boring trip. Grimm's notes compare the tune to "The Bigler," but it seems to me the dependence on "The Derby Ram" is stronger. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM125

Old Moses Smote de Waters

See Old Moses Smote the Waters (File: R290)

Old Moses Smote the Waters

DESCRIPTION: "Old Moses smote the waters, Hallelujah! Old Moses smote the waters, huh!..." "The waters they divided...." "The children passed over...." "Old Pharaoh's host got drownded...." "I see that ship a-coming...." "She'll take us on to glory...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious travel freedom
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 290, "Old Moses Smote de Waters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 [612], "Moses Smote the Waters" (1 fragment, printed in the notes to Brown #610)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 612, "Moses Smote the Waters" (1 tune plus text excerpts)
HIgh, p. 38, "Moses Smote the Water" (1 text)
Roud #7822
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sinful Army" (lyrics)
File: R290

Old Mother Crawley

DESCRIPTION: At Plymouth Mother Crawley welcomes a ship and offers goods to sailors. The next day she asks for her pay and complains that sailors pay their girls first. "Our ship she's got orders for Botany Bay, The girls and the bumboats must all lose their pay"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: commerce ship shore drink food whore sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 99, "Old Mother Crawley" (1 text)
Roud #1057
NOTES [67 words]: Bumboat: [noun] "a boat that brings provisions and commodities for sale to larger ships in port or offshore 'I bought a bunch of the tiny Azores bananas from a ~ under the side -- F.M. Ford.' 'Nelson's sailors had their ~ women who used to swarm aboard by rope's end and anchor chains -- H.W. Baldwin'" (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976). - BS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: ReCi099

Old Mother Fibbie

See The Juniper Tree (File: R540)

Old Mother Goose

DESCRIPTION: "Old Mother Goose, When she wanted to wander, Would ride through the air, On a very fine gander."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (Halliwell); the Opies think the oldest version was printed by Batchelar c. 1815
KEYWORDS: bird
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 364, "Old Mother Goose" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 85, "Old Mother Goose" (1 text)
Roud #20209
NOTES [18 words]: According to the Opies, this is the beginning of a chapbook poem on the goose that laid the golden eggs. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: OO2364

Old Mother Gray

DESCRIPTION: "Old Mother Gray, Can we go out to play? We won't get near the water To shoo the ducks away." "Chldren, where have you been? To Grandmother's house... What did she give you? Strawberries and cream. Where's my share? Up in the air."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty bird food
FOUND IN: US(Ap) New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 53-54, "Old Mother Gray" (1 short text)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 28, "Old Mother Gray" (1 short text)
File: SuSm053B

Old Mother Hare

See Old Molly Hare (File: R277)

Old Mother Head's

DESCRIPTION: Adventures of staff and guests at Mother Head's. "Nobody knows what the sailors eat; Cast no remarks about your meat; But eat your pie, and close your mouth, In the hungry starving boarding house"
AUTHOR: Joe Broadfield
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: food hardtimes humorous nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 11, "Old Mother Head's" (1 text)
Roud #9414
File: SmHa011

Old Mother Hooligan

See Roger's Courtship (File: HHH520)

Old Mother Hubbard

DESCRIPTION: "Old Mother Hubbard Went to the cupboard To get her poor dog a bone, But when she got there The cupboard was bare And so the poor dog had none." Additional verses tell of Mother Hubbard's efforts for the dog and how almost all fail
AUTHOR: unknown (many additional verses by Sarah Catherine Martin, 1768-1826)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1797 (cf. Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose)
KEYWORDS: dog death food humorous home commerce clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 365, "Old Mother Hubbard" (1 text plus some possibly-related fragments; also illustrations from several editions, including what seems to have been Sarah Catherine Martin's first publication)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #134, pp. 111-113, "(Old Mother Hubbard)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 143, "Old Mother Hubbard" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 87, "Old Mother Hubbard" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 177-178, "Old Mother Hubbard" (1 text)
cf. DT, MERRYLND
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, pp. 30-31, "Jack and Gill" (a combination of "Jack and Jill," "Old Mother Hubbard," and "Mother, May I Go to Swim," with a "Never Get Drunk" chorus)
Roud #19334
NOTES [311 words]: This is probably only a nursery *rhyme*, and not a nursery *song*, and so properly does not belong in the Index. But Tony and Irene Saletan recorded it as part of their version of "Hail to Britannia" (which includes many nursery rhymes), so it does have a musical tradition of sorts.
In addition, though most of us hear only one verse of this, the Baring-Gould text is 14 stanzas long, although many of the stanzas are silly:
She went to the tailors
To buy him a coat,
But when she came back
He [the dog, note] was riding a goat.
Still, there is a plot in the early stanzas. The whole looks like a song, if an absurd one. - RBW
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes: "It is now clear that the first three verses of Sarah Catherine Marin's 'Old Mother Hubbard' were taken from tradition, and that her contribution was to write eleven more verses, and to illustrate the whole. The first three verses had appeared in sheet-music form as one of Dr Samuel Arnold's Juvenile Amusements (1797), and were certainly not new then." - BS
Louis Untermeyer, The Golden Treasury of Poetry, credits the whole thing to Sarah Catherine Martin, and has a total of 16 verses. But he doesn't understand tradition very well. The Martin version is said to have been published in 1804.
Despite all this, the unquenchable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp. 95-96, prints twelve verses of this and says that they are about Cardinal Wolsey, even though nine or so of her verses were not written until more than two centuries after Wolsey's death. She does have evidence of a sort, for once: she read an account of a stained glass window of Wolsey, and another glass above it showing a dog gnawing a bone (Thomas, pp. 97-98). Of course, the whole point of the rhyme is that Mother Hubbard had no bone for the dog! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: BGMG134

Old Mother Mason Broke Her Basin

DESCRIPTION: "Old Mother Mason broke her basin, Traveling down to the railway station, How much do you think it cost? Penny, twopence...." Or, "Mrs. Mason broke her basin, Mrs. Frost asked how much it cost. Mrs. Brown said half a crown, Mrs. Flory said, What a story"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) New Zealand
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 101, "(Old Mother Mason)" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 344, "Mrs. Mason broke a bason" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #404, "Old Mother Mason" (1 text)
Roud #20156
File: SuSm101C

Old Mother Rich

See Winnie the Witch (File: BAAI065C)

Old Mother Riley

DESCRIPTION: "Old Mother Riley had a little kid, Poor little blighter, he wasn't very big. He wasn't very big, and he wasn't very small. Poor lightly blighter, He only had one ball."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: mother children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 64, "Old Mother Riley" (1 text)
Roud #10543
File: BrPa064B

Old Mother TIpsy-toe

DESCRIPTION: "I give you so much work to do, Use thimble, thread, and needle too, If you don't get it done before I come back, I'll give you a slap across your back. Old mother (Tipsy-toe/Tippety-toe)... I'll follow my mother wherever she go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty work mother
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #89, "Old Mother TIpsy-toe"
File: Newe089

Old Mother Twitchett

DESCRIPTION: Riddle song(?). "Old Mother Twitchett had bout one eye, And a very long tail which she let fly, Every time she went through the gap, She left a piece of her tail in the trap." Answer: a needle/a needle and thread
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1600 (source: Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: riddle nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 368, "Old Mother Twitchett" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #696, p. 273, "(Old Mother Twitchett Had But One Eye)"
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Peggy Cole and Sally Poole, informants), "Riddles," Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 28, "(Old Mother Twitchit)" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Joseph D. Clark, "More North Carolina Riddles," Vol. IX, No. 1 (Jul 1961), p. 15 (#76), "(Old Mother Twitchet)" (1 text)
Roud #20128
File: NCF1028F

Old Mother Twitchit

See Old Mother Twitchett (File: NCF1028F)

Old Mother Whittlehouse

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Old Mother Whittlehouse Had a big fit, First she did the merry-go-round, And then she did the split."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (California Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #406, "Old Mother Whittlehouse" (1 text)
File: AJRR406

Old Mother Witch

See Winnie the Witch (File: BAAI065C)

Old Mountain Dew

DESCRIPTION: The praises of mountain dew are sung. "Oh, they call it that good old mountain dew, And those who refuse it are few...." Doctor, preacher, conductor, lawyer (and, in some versions, Uncle Nort, Aunt June, Brother Bill) derive various benefits from it.
AUTHOR: Bascom Lamar Lunsford
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Bascom Lamar Lunsford)
KEYWORDS: drink family
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp. 36-38, "Mountain Dew" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 736, "Good Old Mountain Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 289, "Good Old Mountain Dew" (1 text, filed with "Real Old Mountain Dew"="Good Old Mountain Dew")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 236, "Mountain Dew" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 107, 114, 282, 289, 291, "Mountain Dew" (notes only)
DT, MTDEW3*
Roud #9133
RECORDINGS:
Delmore Brothers, "Old Mountain Dew" (Decca 5890, 1940)
John Griffin, "Real Old Mountain Dew" (Columbia 33145-F, n.d.)
Grandpa Jones, "Mountain Dew" (King 624, 1947)
Lulu Belle & Scotty, "Mountain Dew" (Conqueror 9249, 1939) (on CrowTold02; this may be the reissue of the Conqueror recording, but it's not certain)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Mountain Dew" (Brunswick 219, 1928); "Old Mountain Dew" (on BLLunsford01) (Rounder LP 0065, 1957)
NOTES [204 words]: Botkin's text is from a 1949 field recording. He says Lunsford composed and recorded it in the twenties, but that it has already changed substantially in oral tradition. - NR
Some have thought that Lunsford took a traditional song and made it his own. His recording, however, remains the first known version -- and there is no evidence that Lunsford did this with any other song. - RBW
Lunsford himself said he wrote it in the early years of this century, and that it was made up out of whole cloth, not adapted. It should not be confused with the traditional Irish song usually called "Real Old Mountain Dew" [or "Good Old Mountain Dew"]. - PJS
If Lunsford did have a model, it was perhaps the Harrigan/Braham song "The Mountain Dew" by Edward Harrigan and David Braham (for Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block.") Most of that song bear no relationship to this, but the first verse ends "When home you roll, come take a bowl of teh rale [real] old mountain dew." These lines are repeated in the second vese; the third ends "Then off with coat and wet your throat with the rale old mountain dew." For the Harrigan/Braham song, see Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #75, pp. 278-279. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: BSoF736

Old Mr. Fox

See The Fox (File: R103)

Old Mr. Kelly Had a Pimple on His Belly

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Old Mr. Kelly had a pimple on his belly, His wife cut it off and made it into jelly."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Evans, Jump Rope Rhymes, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food | ick pimple jelly
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #407, "Old Mr. Kelly had a pimple on his belly" (1 text)
File: AJRR407

Old Mrs Brown went up to town

See Mrs. Brown Went to Town (I) (File: GrD81617)

Old Mrs. Leary

See Mother Leary's Cow (File: ACSF110M)

Old Mrs. McQuade's Dead

DESCRIPTION: "Old Mrs. McQuade's dead." "How did she die?" The player may give any answer (perhaps ending with "like I"), e.g. "She died with her finger up like I."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: death game
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 79, "Old Mrs. McQuade's dead" (1 text)
Roud #25372
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Old Miss Onion Died" (Piotr-Archive #323, recorded 11/02/2022)
File: KSUC079A

Old Mud Cabin on the Hill

See The Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill (File: HHH207)

Old Nantucket Whaling Song

DESCRIPTION: Description of a whaling voyage. Crew faces months of cold and storms. Upon spotting a whale they give chase, harpoon and fight with the whale, trying to avoid being swamped or crushed. Gives detailed descriptions and is written in future tense.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips)
KEYWORDS: whaler ship sea work hardtimes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 216-219, "Old Nantucket Whaling Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9153
File: Harl216

Old Napper

See Old Tyler (File: JRSF069)

Old Ned's a Rare Strong Chap

DESCRIPTION: "When I were a lad we' me mam and me dad I never had no fun" so the singer runs away." He joins a factor; they declare him a "rare strong chap." He goes to church and is told to take off his cap; he takes from the collection. He sees the Lord Mayor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire)
KEYWORDS: children mother father home escape humorous work technology money travel theft | church collection factory
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, pp. 66-67, "Owd Ned's a Rare Strong Chap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #31231
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, ; Harding B 11(3218), "Owd Ned's a rare strong chap," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(350), "Owd Ned's a rare strong chap," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also 2806 c.17(322), "Old Ned's a rare strong chap," J. Kiernan (Manchester), n.d.; also Harding B 16(194c), "Owd Ned's a rare strong chap," unknown (n.d.); also Johnson Ballads 2738, "Owd Ned's a rare strong chap," unknown (n.d.); also Harding B 11(2897)=Johnson Ballads 2737, "Owd Ned's a rare strong chap," unknown (n.d.)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Leeds Old Church
File: MHFL066

Old Newfoundland

DESCRIPTION: The singer is in California remembering "friends I loved and youthful memories." "Take me back ... [to] the dear old hills of Newfoundland."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration home separation nonballad friend
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #26492
RECORDINGS:
F. Sutton, "Youthful Memories" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Jack Swain, "Old Newfoundland" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Flatrock Hills" (theme: Home sickness for the hills around St John's, Newfoundland)
cf. "Towering Heights of Newfoundland" (theme: Home sickness for the hills around St John's, Newfoundland)
File: RcOlNewf

Old Ninety-Seven

See The Wreck of Old 97 [Laws G2] (File: LG02)

Old Noah (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Old Noah built himself an ark, The good old Christian soul," with all the animals below. The animals do their business, and "in due tie old Noah knew each couple would be three." He is relieved to reach land. Hearers are told not to ship mated animals
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: flood sex humorous animal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 137-140, "Old Noah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5355
File: NiMo137

Old Noah (II)

See De Fust Banjo (The Banjo Song; The Possum and the Banjo; Old Noah) (File: R253)

Old Noah Built an Ark

DESCRIPTION: "Good old Noah built an ark, To save the soul of man; A vessel built of gopher wood, By God, the father, planned. Noah preached for years and years To change their awful ways." The flood comes; Noah is saved; listeners are advised to turn to Jesus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Bible ship flood Jesus religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 101-105, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 109-113)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Uncle Noah" (subject) and references there
NOTES [90 words]: For background on the Noah story, see the notes to "Old Uncle Noah."
This song has enough points of contact with that that I suspect common ancestry. But that song is humorous and this so brutally "straight" that I can't see any option but to split them.
Incidentally, "gopher wood" is not a reference to the small mammal. We don't know what sort of wood it is; the word occurs only in Genesis 6:14, and no cognates are known in related languages. So translations tend to just transliterate the word rather than guess at a translation. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa101

Old North

DESCRIPTION: "When the Mormons drifted southward, He was one of the ten-span team, The biggest ox" the locals had seen. When the rest of the team and the Mormon escorts die, Old North alone brings the wagon through. He is set free for what he did
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: animal death travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 117-118, "Old North" (1 text)
File: ThLo117

Old Oak Chest, The

See The Mistletoe Bough (File: R802)

Old Oak Tree, The [Laws P37]

DESCRIPTION: (Betsy) sets out from home to meet her love and never returns. Her widowed mother, after a long search, dies of grief. The girl's body is found during a hunt with the murderer's knife still there. He confesses the crime and (dies/kills himself)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: homicide suicide gallows-confession
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws P37, "The Old Oak Tree"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 283-285, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H207, pp. 417-418, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 57, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 15, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 49, pp. 141-143,175, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 11, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 33, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 55, "Squire Nathaniel and Betsy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 100-102, "Old Oak Tree" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 74-77, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 628-629, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 12, "The Old Oak Tree" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 80-81, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 66, "Eliza Long (The Old Oak Tree)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 514, OLDOAKTR
Roud #569
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Old Oak Tree" (on IRRCinnamond02)
Din Dobbin, "Old Oak Tree" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Warde Ford, "Beneath the Old Oak Tree" (AFS 4195 A1; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Mike Kent, "The Old Oak Tree" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only];"Betsey" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Tom Lenihan, "The Old Oak Tree" (on IRTLenihan01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Squire
NOTES [57 words]: Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue appears to have two broadsides for this ballad
Bodleian, Harding B 40(5), "The Old Oak Tree" ("The night was dark, cold blew the wind"), J.F. Nugent and Co.? (Dublin?), 1850-1899; also Harding B 26(481), "The Old Oak Three," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867
However, I was unable to read either of them. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LP37

Old Oaken Bucket (Whaling Parody), The

DESCRIPTION: "How dear to my heart are the scenes of the whaleship, When fond recollections bring them all back to me... The old oaken bucket, the tar-covered bucket, The ironbound bucket we all knew so well." Scenes from a whaling voyage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang)
KEYWORDS: whaler derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 71, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27512
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Oaken Bucket" (tune) and references there
File: HGam071

Old Oaken Bucket Which Hung in the Well, The

See The Old Oaken Bucket (File: RJ19167)

Old Oaken Bucket, The

DESCRIPTION: "How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood, When fond recollection presents them to view...: The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket, The moss-covered bucket That hung in the well." The singer recalls being refreshed by its water
AUTHOR: Words: Samuel Woodworth (1785-1842)
EARLIEST DATE: 1818
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 149, "A Medley" (1 text, 1 tune, starting with the chorus of "Sweet Adeline," then "The Old Oaken Bucket," "In the Evening by the Moonlight," "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown," and "Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground")
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 167-170, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 495, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #46, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1724, p. 116, "The Old Oaken Bucket Which Hung in the Well" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 52 and #3/62, p. 52, "The Old Oaken Bucket which Hung in the Well" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 256, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 16, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 413-414, "The Old Oaken Bucket"
Harbin-Parodology, #324, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 188, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 26, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OAKBUCK
ADDITIONAL: Michael R. Turner, _Victorian Parlour Poetry: An Annotated Anthology_, 1967, 1969 (page references are to the 1992 Dover edition), pp. 258-259, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text)
John Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1920_, self-published, 1918 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland site), p. 19, "Old Oaken Bucket" (1 text)
ST RJ19167 (Full)
Roud #27512
RECORDINGS:
David Bangs, "Old Oaken Bucket" (Berliner 0600, rec. 1895)
Columbia Stellar Quartet, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (Columbia A-1820, 1915)
Judy Cook, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #328, recorded 11/02/2022)
Jimmie Tarlton [Darby & Tarlton] "By the Old Oaken Bucket" (Columbia 15763-D, 1932; rec. 1930)
Edison Male Quartet, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (CYL: Edison 2216, 1897)
Haydn Quartet, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (Berliner 023-N, 1899)
Haydn Quartet w. S. Dudley, "Old Oaken Bucket" (Berliner 0873, 1898)
Honolulu Strollers, "Ole Oaken Bucket" (OKeh 45226, 1928)
Kaplan's Melodists, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (CYL: Edison [BA] 5155, c. 1926)
Knickerbocker Quartet, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (CYL: Edison [BA] 2046, n.d.)
Peerless Quartette, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (Zonophone 696, 1907) (Pathe 40032, 1916)
Standard Quartette, "The Old Oaken Bucket" (CYL: Columbia 2239, rec. c. 1895)
Anon. [Sterling Trio] "The Old Oaken Bucket" (Little Wonder 268, 1915)
SAME TUNE:
That Old Towpath (File: Salt065)
The Golden Bible (File: FSSS118)
The Old Family Toothbrush (File: PHC160A)
Nat Wills, "Parody on 'Old Oaken Bucket'" (Victor 16661/Victor 5659 [as "Old Oaken Bucket (parody)"], 1909)
The Old Oaken Bucket (As censored by the Board of Health) (Hazel Felleman, _The Best Loved Poems of the American People_, p. 386)
The Old Oaken Bucket (Whaling Parody) (File: HGam071)
The Beautiful Grange Hall ("How dear to my heart are the scenes in the Grange Hall") (by A. P. Knapp) (Albert P. Knapp, _Grange Songster_, 1915, pp. 10-11)
A Song of an Old Soldier ("Oh, dear to my soul are the days of our glory") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, p. 10)
The Chewing Gum Girl (Harbin-Parodology, #388, p. 94; cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 250)
The Moss Covered Onion ("How dear to my heart is the loud-smelling onion") (Harbin-Parodology, #276, p. 66; cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 250)
NOTES [136 words]: Samuel Woodworth's only other noteworthy composition was "The Hunters of Kentucky." His novels and plays are mercifully forgotten.
Woodworth originally published this poem under the title "The Bucket." It soon acquired several (rather feeble) tunes and the title "The Old Oaken Bucket." Around 1850, it was fitted to a tune by George Kiallmark; that somehow rescued it from the dustbin of nostalgia and made it into a highly popular song.
Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 163, have extensive notes on the history of the song; they mention among other things that the Kiallmark tuns does not seem to have appeared in print with this text until the 1870s; it was originally written for the Thomas Moore poem "Araby's Daughter." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RJ19167

Old Oaken Chest, The

See The Mistletoe Bough (File: R802)

Old Oaken Tree, The

DESCRIPTION: "Beautiful miss, fair little maid, Maiden with soft golden hair...." "Down by the lane and over stiles, Under the old oaken tree... There's somebody waiting for me." "Each evening she meets me... Sirs, listen, I'll tell you where."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois)
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 242-243, "The Old Oaken Tree" (1 text)
Roud #4335
File: Neel242

Old Orange Flute, The

DESCRIPTION: A Protestant man marries a Catholic woman, but his flute refuses to convert, and continues to play Orange songs. Ultimately it is burnt at the stake as a heretic.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1895 (Graham-TheOrangeSongster)
KEYWORDS: marriage music fire
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 216, "The Old Orange Flute" (1 text)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 50, "The Old Orange Flute" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 112-113, "The Ould Orange Flute" (1 text)
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 27, "The Ould Orange Flute" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-TheOrangeSongster, p. 12, "The Ould Orange Flute" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 318, "The Old Orange Flute" (1 text)
DT, OLDFLUTE*
Roud #3013
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Protestant Maid" (subject: religious conversion) and references there
NOTES [18 words]: OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads: "Learnt in Belfast about 1912; the tune is another version of Villikens." - BS
File: Hodg216

Old Orange Tree, The

DESCRIPTION: King William brought the Orange tree and planted it near London "and frighten'd Popery." He took the plant with him to the Boyne where it frightened King James and his men. Winter cropped the tree but in spring it will flourish, and bloom on July 12.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: England Ireland patriotic political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 38, "The Old Orange Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13425
NOTES [17 words]: For William of Orange and the Battle of the Boyne, see the notes to "The Battle of the Boyne (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: OrLa038

Old Paint (I)

See I Ride an Old Paint (File: LxU063B)

Old Paint (II)

See Goodbye, Old Paint (File: LxU063A)

Old Paint (III)

DESCRIPTION: "Every time I see an old paint horse, I think of you, Old paint horse of mine that used to be." "Old horse, you never failed to bring me home." He recalls their adventures. Now the horse is buried, but the singer still thinks of their adventures
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse death burial nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 119-120, "Old Paint" (1 text)
File: ThLo119

Old Palmer Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "The wind is fair and free, my boys... The steamer's course is north, my boys, And the Palmer we will see." The singer encourages his listeners to come with him to the gold fields; by working together, they can prosper
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: river gold travel mining
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1875 - Discovery of gold in the Palmer River in Queensland. The influx of people from all over the world meant that few grew rich -- and many starved in the inhospitable terrain
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 37-38, "The Old Palmer's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 38-39, "The Old Palmer Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 150, "The Old Palmer Song" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 307-308, "The Old Palmer Song" (1 text)
Roud #24815
File: PASB038

Old Parson Brown

See Parson Brown's Sheep (File: GrD2309)

Old Pete Bateese

DESCRIPTION: French-Canadian dialect song. Pete Bateese is chased by wolves. He climbs a tree. The wolves fetch beavers to gnaw it down. Pete pours out some "hooch"; the beavers get drunk and chew up the wolves instead. Pete comes down and cries for the wasted hooch
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
LONG DESCRIPTION: French-Canadian dialect song. Pete Bateese is chased by wolves one night; he climbs a tree, so the wolves fetch beavers to gnaw it down. Pete pours out some "hooch"; the beavers get drunk and chew up the wolves instead. Pete comes down and "cry and cry to t'ink for where/His one-quart hooch she go."
KEYWORDS: humorous talltale drink animal
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 75, "Old Pete Bateese" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 65, "Ole Pete Bateese" (1 text)
Roud #8851
NOTES [59 words]: I rather suspect this is one of William Henry Drummond's poems; Beck prints several of these ("The Wreck of the Julie Plante'," "'Poleon Doré," "De Camp on de 'Cheval Gris'") as traditional poems, and a Bateese is the main character of another Drummond poem, "How Bateese Came Home." But I don't find this in Drummond's well-known book The Habitant. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be075

Old Petticoat, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees "an old petticoat hanging high" and hangs his trousers near to "keep that old petticoat warm" He says "'Old trousers, I hope you're on form!'" "The night of the wedding ... the father he's dead; he was shot with a gun"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (recording, Paddy Tunney)
KEYWORDS: sex clothes humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 54-55, "As I Was Going into the Fair of Athy" (1 text)
Roud #12940
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, The, "The Old Petticoat" (on Voice10)
File: RcOldPet

Old Phoeba Ice

DESCRIPTION: "Old Phoeba Ice was strong as an ox, Quick as a wink and sly as a fox." The chorus tells us of her illnesses, but "She's a darn good gal for the shape she's in." She stays up late to play fiddle at dances, so now that she's gone, they name a tune for her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5)
KEYWORDS: music injury courting dancing
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 15-16, "Old Phoeba Ice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7051
File: BWV5015

Old Pike

DESCRIPTION: ""I once knew a man by the name of Pike, B'longed to the family of Riggins." Buying a mule, he heads to California to seek gold. He loses his mule trying to cross the Platte, and his supplies are lost. He turns around and goes home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: gold travel home humorous return
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 47-49, "Old Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3213
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel" (form)
NOTES [52 words]: The form of this says it is derived from "Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel" or one of its by-blows, but the plot is from "Sweet Betsy from Pike" or similar. I wonder if someone didn't hear "Sweet Betsy," but couldn't remember it, and so fit what pieces of it he could recall into a "hard road to travel" setting. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: McIn047

Old Plaid Shawl, The

See The Red Plaid Shawl (File: OCon084)

Old Pod Auger Days, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come and listen to my story Till I talk to you a while"; the poet will speak "Of the famous men and women Of the Old Pod Auger Days." People were more honest and capable. Animals were better. There were no automobiles. Shakespeare lived then
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Ives-LarryGorman)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 116-118, 198, "The Old Pod Auger Days" (1 text)
Roud #3739
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve" (theme) and references there
cf. "In Old Pod-Auger Time" (pod auger theme)
cf. "The Old Chesuncook Road" (pod auger theme, plus thoughts about the old days)
NOTES [110 words]: We really need a keyword "Whining-about-the-end-of-the-good-old-days." See the cross-references for similar songs.
I have no reason whatsoever to think this is traditional, but I've included it as one of only two Larry Gorman pieces for which Ives could locate a broadside copy, the other being "The Workman." There was a broadside of "The Hoboes of Maine" also, according to Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine's notes to that song.
Clearly Gorman was inspired by "In Old Pod-Auger Times." See that song for explanation of the title. Roud lumps the two, and certainly the ideas are very similar, but since the Gorman song is a clear rewrite, I've split them.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LaGo)PAD

Old Poley Cow, The

See Mustering Song (The Old Poley Cow) (File: SKeF019)

Old Polina, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a noble fleet of whalers a-sailing from Dundee... There's not another whaler that sails the Arctic Sea Can beat the old Polina, you need not try, my sons." The singer describes all the various ships which failed to outrace the Polina
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 3rd edition); certainly composed 1885-1887, probably in the first of those years
KEYWORDS: ship whaler racing bragging
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1888-1891 - Catpain William Guy commands the _Polynia_ out of Newfoundland
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 165-166, "The Old 'Polina'" (1 text, tune referenced)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 15, "The Old 'Polina'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Old Polina" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 44-45 in the 3rd edition, pp. 36-37 in the 4th; pp. 32-33 in the 5th
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 22-23, "Old Polina" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 22-23, "The Old Polina" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 134, "The Balena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 25, "The Balaena" (1 text, 1 tune); 26, "The Old Polina" (1 text, tune referenced)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 124-125, "Dundee Whalers" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Norman Watson, _The Dundee Whalers_, Tuckwell Press, 2003, pp. 66-67, "(no title)" (1 text, a "Balaena" version)
Nancy Rycroft (granddaughter of James Fairweather), _Captain James Fairweather: Whaler and Shipmaster: His Life and Carer 1853-1933_, Fairweather Books, 2005, p. 91, "The Old Polina" (1 text, the Gatherer version, repeating Gatherer's error that the tune is "The Balaena" rather than the reverse)
ST FMB165 (Partial)
Roud #285
RECORDINGS:
A.L. Lloyd, "The Balaena" (on Lloyd9)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Noble Fleet of Sealers" (tune)
cf. "Save Our Swilers" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Save Our Swilers (File: RySm156)
NOTES [5849 words]: GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site claims the song was written in the 1880s.
The notes to A.L. Lloyd's Leviathan! for "The Balaena" makes this whaler R. Kinnes's Balaena, the "largest and fastest" of the 1873 Dundee whaling fleet. According to the Dundee City Council site, it "sailed its last voyage in 1892 under Captain Alexander Fairweather." That's a different explanation than the sinking of the Polynia proposed by the GEST site. - BS
There seem to be a lot of errors in interpreting this song -- for instance, Lloyd's date for the Balaena's role in the Dundee fleet is off by two decades. The notes in Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong and in Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland agree with GEST in associating the song with the Newfoundland vessel Polynia, but Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong offer their own error -- they state the Polynia was lost in the Straits of Belle Isle in 1884. But the Polynia was not lost in 1884.
Curiously, different versions of the song refer to the Balaena and the Polina as the ship -- but, otherwise, have almost the same text. The best explanation is that they're both right.... The problem of whether the ship was the Polina or the Balaena appears to have arisen because there were two real whalers with very similar names -- and even some of the same captains.
Nonetheless, the internal clues in the song give us a information which allow us to date it fairly precisely -- and to conclude that the original ship was the Polynia, making "The Old Polina" the original title.
All versions agree that the vessel was based from Dundee, which is apt. Dundee was not particularly noteworthy as a whaling port in the early years of the industry. But when whalers converted from sails to steam, things changed. (And note that the ship in the song has an engine, so she must be a steamer.) Dundee "already had an experienced shipbuilding industry with nearly half a century of experience of steam ships" (Archibald, p. 44), so they happily started using their steam ships for whaling -- and sealing; the conversion to steam meant that ships could do both in one year rather than have to choose one industry. (Dundee, although regarded as a "whaling" port, actually produced more seal oil than whale oil in its heyday; Watson, p. 53. By the 1870s, most whalers were also sealers -- Lubbock, p. 461, for instance, has a table of whale oil and seal oil taken 1861-1881, and in nine of the 22 years, more seal oil was taken than whale oil. The table on p. 460 shows sealing ships outnumbering whalers in 11 of the 22 years, and no whalers at all going out from Britain in 1877 and 1879-1881. In 1878, Dundee built an oil processing plant specifically for dealing with seal fat; Watson, p. 90. The table on p. 88 shows that, by 1883, it produced two and a half times as much seal oil as whale oil -- and that at a time when almost everyone else was out of the arctic whaling business).
The change in the business model induced by steam meant that St. John's became an essential part of the operation: "From 1862 Dundee vessels began to operate regularly from St. John's in Newfoundland, with Polynia the pioneer" (Archibald, p. 45. They still needed Scottish engineers for some years, though, before the Newfoundlanders learned how to maintain the engines; Ryan-Ice, p. 230. Ironically, the Polynia broke her propeller in that year and had to retreat to St. John's for repairs; Watson, p. 118).
If the ships involved are sealers sailing from Dundee, that strongly implies a date after 1876; although the Polynia had gone sealing in Newfoundland in 1862, Dundee whalers did not become regulars at the sealing until 1877, when the Arctic and Aurora took part in the (by-then-well-established) seal hunt (Watson, p. 56; cf. Chafe, p. 52).
If 1862 is the earliest possible year we need to consider for this song, the last is 1917; the whaling fleet by then had been in decline for decades as the arctic whale population fell, and the First World War killed off the Dundee industry (Archibald, p. 49), with the Balaena being the very last ship of the bunch.
The Balaena (or, in some texts, Balena), like the Polynia, sailed from Dundee, and she too was a whaler -- in her first service in the Scottish merchant fleet, she was part of the Dundee Whaling Expedition of 1892-1893 that went to try whaling in the Antarctic (Tarver, p. 23; Archibald, pp. 98-99). According to Lubbock, p. 426, the other ships on that expedition were the Active, Diana, and the Polar Star, and the voyage was a disaster in terms of results; Watson, p. 141, says they took many seals but no whales at all. Despite vigorous attempts to use the seal hides and such, investors lost almost 43% of their capital (Watson, p. 142). The Balaena was commanded by Alexander Fairweather (1853-1896) on that expedition (Tarver, p. 227; Archibald, p. 217; Watson, p. 139). Only after her return did she settle down to regular whaling duty from Dundee, so if the ship is the Balaena, the date has to be after 1893.
Thus the Polynia=Polina is the older of the two ships named in the song, giving her a sort of prior claim, but obviously it would have been easy to confuse one name with the other. So to determine the history of the song, we need to we need to look for stories of the Balaena or the Polina, plus the other ships in the song, the Terra Nova, the Arctic, the Aurora, and the "Husky," in the years from 1862 to 1917. And, fortunately, except for the last, there is very little mystery about the ships involved.
As we saw, Polynia was noteworthy specifically because she was of one of the very first steam whalers to be a sealer as well. The Polynia was built at the Dundee shipyards of Alexander Stephen & Sons in 1861 for Dundee S. & W. Fishing Co. (Archibald, p. 175). She was listed as 146.2' x 29.0' x 18.1', and at 462 gross tons (Tarver, p. 207). Thus she went sealing in the very first season after her completion. She was only the fourth purpose-built Dundee whaling steamer, following the Narwhal and Dundee of 1859 and the Camperdown of 1860 (Watson, p. 83). She was one of just two ships to go to the Newfoundland sealing grounds in 1862 (sealing was well-established in Newfoundland by then -- see, for instance, "The Ferryland Sealer" -- but it was done locally, with sailing ships). Polynia continued to sail from Dundee for more than two decades; for much of this time, her whaling captain was David Kilgour (Archibald, pp. 86-87), although other officers commanded her while sealing. Polynia's first captain was Captain Penny, the son of the Captain William Penny who had earlier been involved in the Franklin search and is mentioned in many versions of "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream)" [Laws K9]. The elder Penny had also supervised the Polynia's construction (Lubbock, pp. 51, 53). Captains Gravill, Nicoll, William Walker, Kilgour, Yule, John B. Walker, and Burnett followed in command of the Polynia before William Guy took her; he commanded the Polynia in 1888-1891 (Chafe, p. 103).
But in 1884, the year (and indeed the month) Mills and co. say Polynia was lost, the Polynia went to the ice as a sealer under the command of J. B. Walker, and sailed from Newfoundland (Chafe, p. 103), not Dundee. She pursued the seal fishery 1884-1891, although with limited success (in her two years under Walker, she took only 1151 seals, so it's no surprise he wasn't back. Later captains did better, but never hit the 20,000 figure that marked a truly successful trip).
So: the Dundee Polynia was not lost in 1884, as claimed, but was transferred to a Newfoundland base. She wasn't lost until 1891, after the end of the sealing season (Chafe, p. 103); she was whaling in Lancaster Sound (Archibald, p. 247). This means that the Balaena was being acquired for whaling work at just about the time the Polynia was being crushed by ice. An odd coincidence....
Archibald, p. 176, describes Polynia's end as follows: "There was a tragedy in the 1891 season when a huge wave struck the Polynia, killing one man and injuring ten others and on 11 July that year Polynia was crushed by ice in Lancaster Sound. Her crew abandoned and she sank not long afterward. The Dundee ships Maud and Aurora [the latter, obviously, mentioned in the song] rescued her crew, some of whom arrived in Wick on the 3 October [sic]."
Stephen & Sons, which built the Polynia, also built other ships mentioned in the song, the Esquimaux Terra Nova, Aurora, and Arctic (Tarver, pp. 207-209). They did not built the Balaena; she was built in 1872 by Jorgensen & Knudsen of Norway and given the name Mjolne. She didn't join the Dundee fleet, or gain the name Balaena, until 1891. "Captain Guy" commanded her 1903-1908; also, Alexander Fairweather, who is also mentioned in the song, commanded her 1892-1896 (Archibald, p. 128). Her other captains, Thomas Robertson (1897-1901 -- he was fired in that year for hiding tobacco in his cabin, and also perhaps because of fights among his men), James Bannerman (1902), J. Murray (1909-1911), and W. Adams (1917) do not seem to be mentioned in this song. She returned to Norwegian ownership in 1917, and was a hulk by 1929 (Archibald, p. 129).
Archibald, p. 218, has a full list of whalers commanded by William Guy: the Nova Zembla 1878-1882, the Jan Mayen 1883, the Arctic II 1884-1887 (losing her in Foxe Channel in that year; Archibald, p. 125; Greene, p. 273, specifies that it was near Harrison Point in Cumberland Gulf), the Polynia in 1888-1891 (losing her in that year), the Eclipse in 1892, the Nova Zembla again 1893-1902 (losing her in that year), and then the Balaena until 1907. Note that, although he commanded the Polynia as both a sealer and a whaler, it wasn't always in the same years!
So which version came first, Polina or Balaena? After all, the same guy (or the same Guy, if you will) commanded both.
As secondary evidence, note that all Newfoundland versions refer to the Polina. The Scottish versions mostly refer to the Balaena, but one of Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee's texts refers to the Polina. This is evidence that the Polina versions are older; if the Balaena text had been the original, it would have had to go to Newfoundland, be converted to the Polina, after which the Balaena version would be forgotten in Newfoundland and the Polina version carried to Scotland. If the song originated with the Polina, in either Newfoundland or Scotland, then there was only one ocean crossing of the song, and the conversion from Polina to Balaena happened only in Scotland. This, plus the fact that the Polynia was the older ship, and sailed from both Newfoundland and Dundee (which the Balaena did not), are pretty decisive for the claim that the Polina is the original form, the Balaena the adaption. Also, the Polina versions seem to preserve the names (Jackman, Fairweather, etc.) a little better than the Balaena texts. Strong evidence, although it's not quite proof.
Although William Guy was the "hero" of this song, he certainly wasn't the most famous of the captains it mentions. One of the other officers mentioned is "Fairweather." There were at least three Captains Fairweather in this period (Ryan/Drake, pp. 24, 27, 29), although almost certainly only two of them concern us: James Fairweather (1853-1933) commanded the Aurora 1883-1888, and his older brother Alexander Fairweather the Aurora in 1880-1882 (so Rycroft, p. 54; Chafe, p. 90, has James in charge of the Aurora 1880-1888), after which Alexander moved to the Thetis in 1883 and the Terra Nova 1885-1888 (Chafe, p. 90). Rycroft, p. 5, traces the family back to Kirriemuir, Scotland, in the eighteenth century. (Some of this may be by confusion between sealing and whaling trips; according to Rycroft, p. 19, James Fairweather was one of the very few Dundee captains to command both. He would later command the Discovery as she went to hunt Shackleton's Endurance expedition, although he didn't play any role in the rescue; Rycroft, p. 139.)
The family had no history at sea; James Sr., the father of Alexander and James, had been a cabinet-maker until he suddenly went to sea as a carpenter in 1854, dying in Australian in 1857 with his wife and children still in Dundee! (Rycroft, pp. 9-10). Alexander (who was born around 1847) first went to sea at age 10 (Rycroft, pp. 11-12); James was still at home when his mother remarried in 1864.
Alexander Fairweather had an active life; having gone to sea at age ten (Watson, p. 75), he "died aboard his ship Balaena off Spitzbergen on May 31, [1896]" (Lubbock, p. 433). Watson has a sketch of him after p. 84, apparently showing him as he looked while commanding the Balaena. He was also arguably guilty of incest -- according to Rycroft, pp. 3, 8, he married the daughter of his mother's twin sister -- so at least his first cousin, and if the two twins were identical, then perhaps (from a genetic standpoint) his niece.
I'm quite certain that the "Art Jackson" mentioned in some versions should be "Art Jackman," since "Art Jackman" is referred to later in the song, and Arthur Jackman (1843-1907) commanded Newfoundland steamers from 1871 to 1906, spending time as captain of the Hawk, Falcon, Narwhal, Resolute, Eagle, Aurora, and Terra Nova (Chafe, p. 92). Based on the lists in Chafe, I can say categorically that no Newfoundland steamer had a "Captain Jackson," and Archibald doesn't list any Dundee whaling captain with that name, although his list is not as comprehensive as Chafe's.
Ryan-Ice, pp. 272-273 n. 23, says Jackman was "a legend in his own time. He was big, impressive, given to heavy drinking and violence, but very successful and usually generous and popular." And tough enough that, when he mangled one of his fingers, he took an axe and cut it off when one of his sailors refused to do so! In 1886, he accompanied Robert Peary on the latter's first trip to the Arctic (DictNewfLabr, p. 173) and came to be known as "Viking Arthur" because of his work in northern seas (Droge, p. 47). He spent some time as a whaler, but had an even longer and more famous career as a sealer; his obituary said that he commanded his first sealing ship at age 22 (Ryan-Ice, p. 380, who reprints the obituary found in the St. John's Evening Telegram of Jan. 13, 1907). Such was his fame that the Evening Telegram also published three poems or ballads about him in the weeks after his death (Ryan-Ice, p. 385). For Jackman, see also "Sealer's Song (I)," "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full," and "The Spring of '97."
Newfoundlanders continue to tell stories about the Fairweathers and the Jackmans. Young, p. 235, has one about a Fairweather (apparently James) and Art Jackman. Sealing ships had a tendency to follow the lead of the most noteworthy captain, since they were thought likely to find the seals soonest. One year (un-named), Jackman led the sealing fleet out of St. John's, and found the whole fleet following him. He shook off all but Fairweather. When Jackman spotted seals in the distance, he stopped the ship. Fairweather oh so kindly sent a message asking if Jackman needed help. Jackman told Fairweather he was stopped because of the weather; Fairweather said he would do the same, and asked when Jackman would start out in the morning. Jackman said he would hang a red light so Fairweather could see when he moved. In the night, Jackman headed away for the seals, leaving a red light on a pole to fool Fairweather.
No wonder they got into bar fights....
In another year, Jackman went into White Bay -- a dangerous decision, because the bay could be closed by ice if the wind blew in the right direction (for an instance of this, see "We Will Not Go to White Bay with Casey Any More"). But he had found seals, so he went in -- and he didn't want anyone else to follow him, so he had his engineers put up extra smoke. The other sealers thought he was jammed (or maybe on fire), and left him alone in the bay to clean up the patch (Ryan-Last, p. 58).
Jackman, in fact, was so notorious an individual that a year in which only one or two sealing steamers found success was known as an "Arthur-Jackman Year" -- a year in which the only captains who found success were those who went against the grain as much as Jackman (Greene, p. 17).
William Guy knew James Fairweather in Newfoundland. James Fairweather got in trouble for using violence against his own crew, and also for beating up the chief engineer of Henry Dawe's ship Esquimaux in 1886 -- and William Guy was there at the time! (Ryan-Ice, pp. 263-264). Both in fact faced charges; Fairweather was fined $4, though the case against Guy was dismissed. And the fight was over whether the engineer could get up steam in haste, to allow the men to go on some sort of drunken harbor cruise. Which makes it interesting, at least, that the Doyle version says, "Art Jackson [=Jackman] set his canvas, Fairweather got up steam, And Captain Guy, the daring boy, came plunging through the stream." It seems the two had semi-friendly competitions in many ways.
The Fairweathers certainly seem to have been hard drinkers; Alexander Fairweather died of delirium tremens (Archibald, p. 79) aboard the Balaena (Rycroft, p. 101, which carefully omits mention of the cause of death, as does the obituary she reprints on p. 181. An item on p. 185 says he had been ill for six days). He was also strongly superstitious -- he was afraid of the number 13, wouldn't hire crew on Fridays, and had his cabin decorated with red herring (Archibald, p. 217). One man who sailed with him described him as "a real buccaneer, and looked it. He was a quiet man on shore, but at sea something of a desperado" (Rycroft, p. 102).
There is a portrait of Alexander Fairweather on p. 103 of Rycroft.
The fourth captain is typically "Mullin(s)" or perhaps "Mallan," and there was no sealing/whaling captain Mullins, but we'll get to that....
The Doyle text mentions four ships, the Terra Nova, Aurora, Arctic, and Husky, along with the Polina. Several of these were famous sealing steamers. For the Aurora, see "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full." The Aurora served as a sealer 1877-1911 (Chafe, p. 98), and once made the voyage from St. John's to Dundee (i.e. the reverse of the direction in this song) in nine days, which was considered fast (Watson, p. 178); she eventually sank after a period involved in south polar exploration.
The Arctic II was built in 1875, serving under William Adams Sr. 1875-1883 (as a whaler) and from 1877 to 1887 as a sealer -- and served under William Guy 1884-1887 as a whaler (Archibald, p. 124) and 1885-1887 as a sealer (Chafe, p. 98). It's little surprise that she wasn't fast; in 1881, she had been so badly squeezed in the ice that it took a hydraulic jack to straighten her out (Archibald, p. 124; Lubbock, p. 411 reports that "She was so severely nipped in the ice that her hatches were squeezed into a diamond shape"), and surely her speed would have been affected by that even after the repairs! Nonetheless Watson, p. 133, says that she was "For some the finest of all the Dundee whalers."
The most famous of these ships was surely the Terra Nova, for which see "The Terra Nova." The Terra Nova was built as a whaler/sealer in 1885, came under Newfoundland ownership in 1898, went to Antarctica in 1903-1905 and in 1910, also served in the Arctic, then again went back to sealing until she was lost in World War II. In addition to doing more polar exploration than any other ship (sealer or not), only two ships took more seals in their careers, and those other two both spent many more years as sealers. She was the very last sealer to sail from Dundee, in 1895 (Archibald, p. 49) -- a strong hint that the song predates 1895.
Archibald, p. 197, says, "Known familiarly as 'Novey', Terra Nova was the last Dundee built whaling ship and arguably the best. She was built to replace the successful whaling ship Thetis, which had been sold to the United States Government. All the skill and experience of the previous two decades of whaling ship construction created what was undoubtedly a superb example of an Arctic-worthy hunting vessel.... Terra Nova was a fast ship, with a record passage of 11 days on her maiden voyage from Dundee to St. John's in February 1885." (But there would be no more, because the whale fishery collapsed from 1885; Watson, p. 93.) That's a distance of about 2300 miles (probably), so she averaged a bit less than eight knots. In 1910, she left London for Capetown on June 1 and arrived on August 15 (Fitzsimmons, pp, 212, 224), which works out to a bit less than seven knots with no help from the wind and with her boilers presumably not going full-tilt to save coal. That's not really fast, but whalers tended to be slow because they needed to be strong to withstand ice.
This leaves the problem of the Husky. There was no Dundee whaler or Newfoundland sealer by that name. But the answer comes from Bruce Laurenson's Balena version from the Shetlands. This converts Captain Jackman to "Bold Jacklin," but instead of "Mullins in the Husky" it offers "Mallan" of the Eskimaux -- that is, the SS Esquimaux, yet another Newfoundland ship (for her, see "Captain Bill Ryan Left Terry Behind"); one suspects that there might have been an intermediate version which called her the "Huskimaw" or similar, since that is a variant form of "Eskimo" (quite common in the nineteenth century) that could easily give rise to "Husky." The Esquimaux's Newfoundland captain, in 1885 and 1887-1890, was William Milne (Chafe, p. 99; Chafe, p. 94, shows that William Milne (1851-1937) never commanded any other sealer, but Archibald, p. 219, says that he was a whaler for 55 years; in 1903, as captain of the Eclipse, he was supposed to support Roald Amundsen's first North Pole expedition, although little came of that; Watson, p. 174). His name is obviously the source of both "Mullins" and "Mallan." (Indeed, as Peter Shepheard pointed out to me, the name "Milne" is often pronounced "Mallan" in Scotland.)
Milne (1851-1937) would later become famous for helping Roald Amundsen plan his first great exploit, the sailing of the Northwest Passage, and was knighted by the King of Norway as a result (Archibald, p. 48). He sounds like he was an interesting character, rising to command despite being extremely short and finding time to have ten children despite his time at sea (Archibald, pp. 79-80). He was unusual among Arctic travelers for his knowledge of the Inuit. He reportedly went to the Arctic 42 times in some capacity or other (Archibald, pp. 219-220).
There is a photo of Milne, with a big pipe and a reindeer head trophy, facing p. 448 of Lubbock. Watson, p. 166 says that there is a Cape Milne named for him -- although the only Cape Milne I can find is in New Guinea, which seems unlikely.
I doubt the Esquimaux was very fast; although built in 1865, and designed to have a screw propellor, it sounds as if it wasn't initially fitted (Archibald, p. 149), and retrofits almost never worked as well as engines which were part of the original design. She was the last whaler of the Dundee Seal and Whale Fishing Company to survive her arctic adventures; when the company was liquidated in 1894, with the Esquimaux sold "at a knockdown price" (Watson, p. 136), though she continued to serve as a sealer until 1900 (Chafe, p. 99). She was purchased for the 1901 Baldwin-Ziegler polar expedition, in which she was lost (Watson, p. 146).
Fascinatingly, the song omits a lot of Dundee whalers, but mentions all the Dundee whalers that usually went sealing -- in 1888-1890, for instance, there were just four Dundee whalers that went, the Polynia, the Aurora, the Esquimaux, and the Terra Nova (Lubbock, pp. 420, 422).
All this gives us a lot of detail on which to date the song. Since all the other ships except the Arctic outlasted the Polynia, they don't provide much dating help. But the mention of the Terra Nova proves that the song must be from after 1885. And the Polynia versions must be from 1891 or earlier. The Balaena versions must be after that. Can we say more?
Captain Guy, after he left the Polynia, took over the Balaena. Apparently he took the song with him! Palmer says that "The Old Polina" version refers to the years 1884-1887; Gatherer counter-proposes that the storm described as damaging the ship took place in 1891. This would, however, be after Polynia was transferred to Newfoundland ownership. In fact, the mention of Milne confines us to 1885 or 1887, probably the former. Further evidence that the year was not 1886 is the fact that the Aurora was very nearly lost in that year (Feltham, pp. 22-23, or see the notes to "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full"). Given the Aurora's troubles in 1886, and the damage she suffered, reducing her abilities in 1887, 1885 might be the best bet for the year. The fact that the Arctic was lost in 1887 also supports the 1885 date; while the Arctic sailed in 1887, her early loss would probably have caused a change in the song.
An 1885 date would also explain why the Terra Nova was called a "model" mail boat; she was brand new -- the latest model. And, of course, it was easy to call the TERRA a "TERROR of the sea"; the two are pronounced effectively identically in some dialects.
Another line in the song hints that the song isn't from much after 1885. That's the mention of the Arctic and Aurora being ships "they talk so much about." In St. John's, maybe... but the outside world was talking about them in the 1880s. Early in that decade, the Greely expedition had been sent to Lady Franklin Bay on Ellesmere Island -- but its supply ship of 1882, the Neptune (another Newfoundland sealer), hadn't made it. So there was a desperate rescue attempt in 1883. The Arctic and Aurora were connected with that expedition indirectly; although not the primary ships, in their service as whalers, they led the way north (Guttridge, p. 270); for background, see the notes to "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay."
This leaves one loose end in the Laurenson version, which is the mention of "Captain Burnett" commanding the Balena. She never had such a skipper; her captains, according to Archibald, p. 128, were Fairweather, Thomas Robertson, James Bannerman, Guy, J. Murray, and W. Adams. But Burnett did command the Polynia, if only for a year. So the Laurenson reference to Burnett would seem to be a hangover -- the song was written in 1885 about Captain Guy, then adjusted to Burnett in 1886, then corrected back to Guy in 1887, but someone forgot and left the mention of Burnett in there! Burnett seems to have been a very obscure captain; the pages of Archibald are littered with mentions of the Jackmans and Fairweathers and Milnes and several others, but the only other mention of Burnett (first name apparently unknown) is as captain of the Victor in 1881, and Watson (who also talks a lot about the Milnes and Jackmans and Robertesons and such) never mentions him. The Victor was destroyed in the Davis Strait in 1881 (Archibald, p. 208). She never served as a Newfoundland sealer, and Burnett never commanded a sealing expedition (Chafe, p. 97), so presumably he wasn't well-known in Newfoundland.
It is interesting to note that one of the ships on the Antarctic Whaling Expedition did suffer damage like that described in the song in 1892 -- but the ship wasn't the Balaena, it was the Active: "The rough weather... [cost] Active two boats, some sails and a section of bulwark" (Archibald, p. 100).
One of Art Jackman's ships, the Eagle, also suffered faintly similar damage on one of her voyages. In 1887, the sealing fleet left St. John's, led by Jackman and the Eagle (with James Fairweather in the Aurora right behind). Not long after, several ladders from the Eagle were found on the ice, and there were worries that the Eagle had been destroyed -- but Jackman later arrived with a fine load of seals; the ladders had become caught up in some ropes and were thrown overboard (Power, pp. 63-64).
But damage to whalers early in a voyage may have been almost routine, simply because of the state of the crews: according to Albert Markham, "The departure of a whaler is marked by a total incapacity of the crew to perform any duties whatsoever connected with the ship, in consequence of the numerous parting glasses of which they have partaken..." (Watson, pp. 59-60); there are several other references in Watson to drunken crews. Indeed, Captain James Fairweather affirmed that Dundee crews often were so drunk upon departure that the ship might have to halt in the Tay for a while so that the crew could sober up (Rycroft, p. 18).
The spelling Polina for Polynia may have derived from yet another ship. Power, p. 93, mentions a ship Polina being part of a traffic jam in the St. John's narrows in 1896. Since this was after the Polynia was lost, the name cannot be an error for the Polynia; it was a different ship.
The album "Another Time: The Songs of Newfoundland" tries to explain "The Old Polina" version by saying that is is a localized text of "The Old Balena," obviously assuming that the "Balena" versions are older. (And, indeed, there had been an earlier whaler Balaena, which was active in 1789 -- Lubbock, p. 131 -- but she obviously wasn't a steamer and didn't sail at the time of the other ships in this song.) But claiming "The Old Polina" as a localized "Balaena" doesn't explain the Newfoundland references, or the Newfoundland dialect phrase "you need not try, me sons." (In Gatherer's "Balaena" version, this becomes "ye needn't try her on," which is clearly an error for the Newfoundland phrase) -- and, to emphasize a key point, the Balaena sailed with the wrong ships!
Also, the Balaena was not a sealer; she was only a whaler (see the lists of sealing vessels in Chafe). This doesn't preclude her visiting St. John's -- whalers went there regularly to coal up -- but it makes it significantly less likely that she would spent substantial time there. If a whaler did go there, it would simply be to resupply. A sealer would also pick up crew members in Newfoundland. Even though this song says it is about a whaler, it does not describe whaling; it describes the trip to St. John's. There is every reason to believe ship involved was a sealer as well as a whaler.
To summarize: This song was written in 1885 about the Polynia's trip to Newfoundland under William Guy. After the Polynia was lost, Guy moved to the Balaena, and the song was adjusted -- but it still contains most of the references to the ships of 1885! So we can confidently claim that "The Old Polina" is the original title and ship.
It's hard to know if the song's claim that the Polina was fast fits the Polynia. She was known to be highly maneuverable (Candow, p. 42), which in a steamer is certainly a related ability. But the sources consulted by Archibald (p. 175) say that her engine was only 60 or 70 horsepower. That's not a big engine for a ship of 473 gross tons. Lubbock, p. 376, calls her "a fine full-rigged ship, capable of steaming 9 knots" -- a decent speed for the 1860s, but not likely to win races in the 1880s. If she was fast, it was probably because she was a good sailer, not because of her engine.
By contrast, there is every reason to think the Balaena was slow by the time she came into Dundee service. She was old, and she was so tired that her engine broke down on her very first attempt to leave Dundee (Archibald, p. 99; Watson, p. 116, dates a similar event to 1902).
The Balaena's crew on the Antarctic expedition was "a jolly motley crowd... men and boys... of every sailor type... Arctic whalers, red cheeked and bearded, tanned South Spainers... quiet men and boys from the east coast fishing villages and gentle men from the Shetlands" (Archibald, p. 99). No one from St. John's, though!
Lubbock, pp. 423-424, has a description of the Polynia's last voyage in the arctic in 1891: "When outward bound to the Newfoundland sealing, Captain Guy was steaming dead slow against a heavy head sea and a W.S.W. gale. At the change of the watch, when all hands were on deck, a huge sea -- which Captain Guy believed to have been a tidal wave -- swept over the ship, killing one man and seriously injuring ten others. The Polynia weathered it out, and at the sealing accounted for 16,535 seals.... [Interesting that that sounds so much like the incident in this song -- except that the Arctic had sunk by then!]
"The Polynia went on to the Davis Straits, and on July 10, during a strong N.E. gal, the ship was caught by the stern between two floes[.] Her crew of 37 men were obliged to leave her, and at six o'clock on the following morning the old ship disappeared beneath the ice, leaving her crew in a desperate situation on broken ice, 12 miles from the shore. In the afternoon the Maud was sighted, but could not force her way through the pack; however, on the morning of the 12th, the Aurora succeeded in getting to them by means of her powerful engines."
One wonders what the author of this song thought about his ship's crew being saved by the enemy in his little race....
One reason the song might have been transferred to the Balaena was the latter's longevity. By the early twentieth century, the Arctic whales were effectively extinct: "The last good catches in the Greenland Sea were made by Captain J. Murray of the Balaena, who in 1909 caught 4 whales and several narwhals... and in the following year also caught 5 whales in the same neighbourhood" (Lubbock, p. 450).
There is a photo of the Balaena facing p. 416 of Lubbock and one facing p. 149 of Watson; the latter shows her at Disco off Greenland, with the caption noting that, in 1918, she was the only surviving Dundee whaling steamer (although Watson, p. 184, says she was sold in 1916). The others were all in Newfoundland or out of the business -- or had been lost during the First World War; attempts to convert them to cargo carriers affected their stability, and several were lost almost without a trace (Watson, p. 150).
Rycroft, p. 17, has a drawing of the Arctic as a whaler.
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong list "The Old Polina" as being to the tune of "A Noble Fleet of Sealers." That the tune is the same is true. But an examination of "A Noble Fleet of Sealers" shows that it must date from the 1940s or later (see the notes to that song). So "The Old Polina" is the original, predating "A Noble Fleet" as well as "The Old Balena" versions.
Doyle's version is said to be from Captain Peter Carter of Greenspond. A Peter Carter (1869-1959) was a famous sealing captain who set the record for most seals in a single season in 1933 (Ryan/Drake, p. 80). I don't know if it's the same Peter Carter, but it seems likely. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: FMB165

Old Pompey

See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Old Ponto Is Dead

See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Old Port Rockwell

DESCRIPTION: "Old Port Rockwell has work to do, So he saddles his sorrel and rides away... the waiting wife... shrinks in terror as down the night Comes the wailing of Port's dread war cry, 'Wheat!'" Rockwell's cry means that a wife and children will be orphaned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide mother orphan
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1878 - Death of Orrin Porter Rockwell
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 114-115, "(Old Port Rockwell)" (1 text)
Cheney-MormonSongs, p. 192, "Wheat" (1 text)
Roud #10880
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Porter Rockwell" (subject of Orrin Porter Rockwell))
NOTES [4557 words]: Burt-AmericanMurderBallads lists Orrin Porter Rockwell (1813-1878) as a bodyguard to both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, but he was evidently a dangerous tough also. He was the most famous of the Sons of Dan, or Danites (Walker, p. 209), which also apparently included John D. Lee, the alleged main perpetrator of the Mountain Meadows Massacre (for which see "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19]).
Rockwell's cry "Wheat!" is reputedly derived from the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30): The wheat was to be kept, the tares (weeds) to be burned.
According to Stegner, pp. 37-38, "Rockwell had been promised by Joseph [Smith] that no bullet would ever touch him. He wore his hair long in remembrance of that prophecy, and in a long life that his enemies said included upwards of a hundred holy murders (his most scrupulous biographer guesses twenty) the promise held good. He was illiterate, nerveless, tireless, dedicated, an utterly dependable zealot." Even Fawn M. Brodie, herself a Mormon, calls his appearance "sinister" (Brodie, p. 322).
At the time Burt-AmericanMurderBallads and Stegner wrote, however, there do not appear to have been any really good biographies of Rockwell. The first appears to be Schindler,which is the primary basis for what follows. Dewey's biography is later and even fuller, but I wrote the article before I had seen it.
Little is known of Rockwell's early life, except what is found in church and other official records; he was born in 1813 in Belcher, Massachusetts, the second of nine children. At the age of ten, he broke a leg, and the doctor who set it did a poor job, leaving him with a lifelong limp (something he shared with his idol Joseph Smith). Early in life, his family moved close to the home of Smith, and he seems to have fallen under the Prophet's spell even while Smith was compiling the Book of Mormon, working in the fields to help the Prophet's work. Apparently the first record of him as an individual is as a rambunctious youth of 17, in 1831, as he is found running off his energy on a boat on the Erie Canal. He was already a Mormon at this very early date -- indeed, he was one of the first converts, and helped to bring his mother into the fold (Schindler, pp. 2-6).
Rockwell was one of the Mormons who moved to the colony in Independence, Missouri, where he married his first wife Luana Beebe in 1832 -- "the first Mormon wedding in Jackson County" (Schindler, p. 8). He came to work as a ferryman, which finally closed off any possibility of schooling; Rockwell never did learn to read or write (Schindler, p. 9). According to Schindler, pp. 10-11, it was Rockwell and his father who ferried the toughs who perpetrated the first assault on the Missouri Mormon colony. It was this that brought the state's Lieutenant Governor, Lilburn W. Boggs, to the area, where he made it clear that he wanted the church destroyed. The Mormons promised to get out, then sought relief from the courts -- and found themselves under even more severe assault.
The Missouri brutality was personal to Rockwell -- his brother-in-law and a neighbor were beaten in one of the assaults (Schindler, p. 15). A later attack destroyed, among others, the homes of Rockwell and his father (Schindler, pp. 16-17). The Mormons scattered to other parts of the state. Rockwell ended up in the Mormon Community of Far West in 1838; his wife had borne him two daughters, Emily and Caroline, in the interim (Schindler, pp. 23-24).
It was in this context that the Sons of Dan were formed. After some experimentation, they settled on their name based on Genesis 49:17, which calls Dan a serpent in the road that bites at horses' heels. It is also noteworthy that the name "Dan" means "judge" -- though that is not evident from the King James Bible, and there seems to have been no one in the Mormon church with the Biblical learning to realize that (had there been, someone would surely have told Joseph Smith of the fact that the Greek and Hebrew, unlike the King James Bible, are not full of archaisms; they were in the ordinary language of the times they were written. Maybe that someone would also have told him that Hebrew is an actual language, not something in which one could arbitrarily make up words).
Little is really known of the Danites; it's not even clear whether Joseph Smith was aware of their founding (Schindler, p. 32). It is known that, contrary to legend, Rockwell was not their chief (Schindler, p. 33). But we have testimony that they were sworn to work for the "utter destruction of apostates" and to keep the group's secrets at all costs (Schindler, p. 36).
Meanwhile, the sectarian war in Missouri was just getting hotter as the Mormons began to fight back seriously. Bands of Danites were important to this process. It is thought that Rockwell may have fought his first battle in a raid on the Crooked River, though we cannot be certain he was present (Schindler, pp. 45-46).
Lilburn Boggs [this is the spelling used in most histories; my Concise Dictionary of American Biography prefers "Lillburn"] made anti-Mormonism one of his key issues, and rode it to the Missouri governorship in 1836. In 1838, he issued an "Extermination Order" against the Mormons (DeVoto, p. 83; Schindler, p. 49, prints the order and notes that it was not rescinded until 1976!). We know that Rockwell was prepared to fight the battle which followed the Boggs order (Schindler, p. 52), but Joseph Smith decided to yield in Missouri.
Smith ended up in prison, where Rockwell visited him regularly (Schindler, p. 56). After that, Smith, Rockwell, and most other Mormons headed for Illinois.
Rockwell's father died in 1839, but Rockwell the Younger -- whose wife bore a son around this time -- was clearly becoming an important figure in the Church; when Smith sent a petition for relief to Martin van Buren (which the president rejected as politically inexpedient), Rockwell was one of those sent to convey it. It sounds as if his real role was bodyguard (Schindler, p. 59), but still, he was clearly a trusted bodyguard.
His looks probably contributed. By this time, he worse his beard long and his hair longer -- well below his shoulders; he really did have the look of an Old Testament prophet. The one problem with the image was his voice, which went into the falsetto when he became worked up. Schindler, p. 61, reports that he tried very hard to control his emotions as a result.
In 1842, with his fourth child about to be born, Rockwell headed back to Missouri to be with his wife and her parents. He was well enough known by now that he chose to use the pseudonym "Brown" rather than his own name (Schindler, p. 66).
Of course, returning to Missouri also brought him back into the state of Lilburn Boggs.
In 1842, someone attempted to kill Boggs by shooting through his window (Walker, pp. 207-208). If the murderer didn't manage to kill him, it wasn't for lack of trying; he had a heavy pistol loaded with buckshot, and fired it through Boggs's window. Boggs suffered four wounds, the worst being to his head and neck; he was thought to be doomed, and it was considered miraculous that his six-year-old daughter, who was in the room at the time, was not injured (Schindler, pp. 67-70). Boggs gradually recovered, but left Missouri in 1846 to settle in California.
Rockwell, who had been in Missouri for only a few months, was quickly blamed for the assassination attempt, though no absolute proof was offered at the time. Bagley, p. 13, is sure he did it; his note on p. 392 says, "While it may be impossible to prove Joseph Smith sent Rockwell to kill Boggs, a church newspaper called the shooting a 'noble deed.'" It is certain that Smith was widely blamed for the attempt against Boggs (Bushman, p. 31).
Still, Schindler is not entirely sure Rockwell committed the crime, though he cites strong evidence for it (p. 73). Brodie, pp. 323-324, notes only two points of evidence: That Rockwell had briefly visited Missouri at the time, and that Rockwell seemed to come into some money after his return -- and Smith had offered $500 for anyone who killed Boggs. But she also notes that Rockwell's improved circumstances seemed to be derived from the work he did for Smith, not from any payment for the attack on Boggs.
As a result of the attempted murder, a newsman dubbed Rockwell "The Destroying Angel." Rockwell later threatened the writer John Cook Bennett for the charges published against him (Schindler, p. 72) -- though much of Bennett's information in fact came from Boggs, who swore to an affidavit charging Smith with being an accessory to murder (Brodie, p. 324)
The Nauvoo authorities (in effect, Smith) ignored the charge against Rockwell (and against Smith himself), refusing to extradite them to Missouri (Schindler, pp. 74-76). Eventually Rockwell ended up with a price of $3000 on his head. Although he remained free, he was unable to find employment in the world outside the church, and spend some time wandering around the Midwest; his wife left him at this time (Schindler, p. 79). Eventually the Illinois authorities tossed out the warrant against Smith -- but Rockwell was apprehended (Schindler, p. 82). The trip back to Missouri had comic aspects; the driver was so drunk that he twice cracked up the stage, and Rockwell, with his knowledge of horses and carts, twice had to repair and rescue the vehicle (Schindler, pp. 84-85). He was imprisoned in dreadful conditions while awaiting trial (Schindler, pp. 85-87), attempted an escape which failed mostly because his companion was too slow (Schindler, pp. 88-89) -- and, upon his recapture, was shackled so tightly that he could not even stand up straight (Schindler, p. 90).
Ironically, Rockwell was eventually cleared of the murder charge, but was forced to stay in prison because he had attempted to escape (Schindler, p. 95). After much more maneuvering, an apparent attempt to kill Rockwell, and most of a year in prison, he finally came to trial. The case finally went to the jury, which sentenced him to "five minutes in the county jail" (Schindler, p. 99). After a few hours of last-minute attempts to file new charges, Rockwell went free. Of course, he was still stuck in Missouri, and vigilantes were after him. Broke, and with his shoes in tatters, he had to walk most of the way to Nauvoo (Schindler, pp. 100-101). This was considered to fulfill one of Smith's visions, though if God were really watching over Rockwell, I'd have to say, that should have included taking care of his badly injured feet....
When Rockwell arrived in Nauvoo, he went to visit a party being held by Smith. And it was there that Smith made his prophecy: "you -- Orrin Porter Rockwell -- so long as ye remain loyal and true to thy faith, need fear no enemy. Cut not thy hair and no bullet or blade can harm thee!" (Schindler, p. 102, who notes the obvious similarity to the tale of Samson -- who, in the Book of Judges, had superhuman strength and avoided capture and death until his hair was shaved).
The prophecy would come to inspire its own folklore; Schindler, p. 351 n. 52, tells two well-known stories about Rockwell which he understandably does not believe. In one, he put a gang of desperadoes to flight and then shook himself, to have several bullets fall out of his coat. According to the other, a man stuck a pistol in his face -- and Rockwell calmly asked if he would try to fire a pistol without a firing cap. While the other hesitated and glanced at the weapon, Rockwell shot him.
For a brief time, Rockwell served as a bartender in Smith's large hotel -- until Smith's wife Emma convinced the prophet that the head of a church shouldn't himself be serving liquor (Schindler, pp. 103-104). Smith then started a police force of sorts. Or perhaps we should call it a secret police (Schindler, pp. 105-108).
Rockwell's first unquestionably criminal act came as a member of this force. Joseph Smith's authoritarian rule of the Mormon Church led to the founding of a sort of opposition newspaper, the Nauvoo Expositor. Among other things, it carefully documented Mormon polygamy (see Brodie, pp. 374-375). Smith determined to suppress the paper, taking a posse to the offices, where the press was destroyed, the type pied, and the whole office burned (Brodie, p. 377). Rockwell was one of those involved in the destruction, reportedly kicking in the office door (Schindler, p. 116).
The affair was to prove a fatal mistake; Smith ended up in prison in Carthage, Illinois, where he was lynched (Brodie, pp. 382-395).
Rockwell had a curious part in this final tragedy. When Smith realized the Illinois authorities were coming for him, he decided to flee west, leaving his senior wife Emma and the entire Mormon colony behind to suffer the rage of the citizens of Illinois. Rockwell was one of the handful he took with him as a guide, and it was Rockwell who was to get them across the Mississippi. But before Smith left the western shore of the river, Rockwell was sent back to the Illinois side -- and brought back word of the fears of the people of Nauvoo. Smith relented and returned to his martyrdom (Brodie, pp. 384-386; Schindler, pp. 119-121). Rockwell was curiously passive in this, accepting whatever Smith decided -- but did not accompany Smith to Carthage, and so survived even though, in terms of raw violence, he was surely as guilty as the prophet. This was apparently at Smith's command; he wanted Rockwell in Nauvoo to rescue him if need be (Schindler, p. 121). Obviously that didn't work out.
Rockwell did end up being arrested not long after, but immediately escaped (Schindler, p. 136), His first unquestioned killing came soon after this: Lieutenant Frank Worrell, one of those who took part in the capture and killing of Smith, pursued Rockwell and a companion, and was fatally shot during the pursuit (Schindler, pp. 138-139).
Schindler notes that the death of Smith turned Rockwell "aggressive, even belligerent"; he went so far as to appropriate the wife of fellow Mormon Amos Davis at gunpoint (Schindler, pp. 142-143). This at least technically made him guilty of bigamy (polygamy being of course normal Mormon practice at the time), but his first wife, as we know, was no longer with him (Schindler, p. 145). Curiously, I found no mention of the former Mrs. Davis in Schindler's pages after this; she seems to disappear the moment he had won her favors.
When the Mormons began their exodus to Utah (for which see, e.g., "Brigham Young"), Rockwell was given the important task of carrying messages between those already on their way and those who had not yet departed; the logic seems to have been that he would be hard to stop along the way (Schindler, p. 146). Eventually he was captured by Gentiles in Nauvoo -- and found to have so many guns that he could have fired 71 rounds without having to reload (Schindler, p. 147).
Schindler, p. 148, describes this as a sort of publicity stunt. With Rockwell on trial, attention would be shifted away from the rest of the Mormons. The trial was moved to a neutral county, and there were no witnesses against Rockwell (Stegner, p. 90, though he seems to think Rockwell intimidated the witnesses while Schindler gives him a more complex defense). Rockwell went free. He then became one of the pioneers Brigham Young brought along to search for the site of the New Zion (Schindler, pp. 152-153). Rockwell did much hunting and scouting on this trip. When Young selected the site of Salt Lake City, Rockwell was chosen to accompany and protect Ezra T. Benson when the latter was sent to lead the remainder of the Mormon exodus (Schindler, p. 167).
Salt Lake City, of course, was barren, and the Mormons arrived with very little. It was a desperate time. Eventually, an expedition was sent to California to try to purchase much-needed supplies, with Rockwell along as a scout. The planning for this expedition was utterly botched (Schindler, p. 171), and in the end it wasted a lot of money without bringing in much in the way of food. Rockwell, before it was over, had parted company with the commander of the expedition (Schindler, p. 172).
Rockwell soon after went on another expedition to California, to collect tithes from Mormons there (Schindler, pp. 184-185). Rockwell, left on his own while the financial types did their work, apparently tried panning for gold, then brought in whisky for a saloon (Schindler, pp. 186-187). He also won a rifle contest, which resulted in his name (which he had concealed) being revealed (Schindler, p. 190); he barely avoided lynching. Charges of murder would greet him when he returned to Utah, but of course the Mormon hierarchy supported him.
It supported him also when he led a group to settle a contract dispute, and in the complications which followed, ended up executing four Indians (Schindler, p. 196).
In 1854, Rockwell married Mary Ann Neff, who was about half his age (Schindler, pp. 197, 205). She bore him a daughter in March 1855 (Schindler, p. 217), and another in August 1856 (Schindler, p. 238).
Soon after the birth of that first child came another Samson-like incident: He had, until then, worn his hair very long. On a trip to California, he met the widow of one of Joseph Smith's brothers, who had lost her hair due to illness. Having nothing else to do for her, he cut his hair to make her a wig. From then on, he claimed, he could no longer control his urge to drink and swear (Schindler, p. 220). Of course, he soon grew his hair out again.
Despite his reputation in the Boggs affair, Rockwell's career to this point had been relatively tame. But "as the year 1855 came to a close, Rockwell, now a man of forty-two, was entering the most exciting period of his checkered career -- a time when his name would become synonymous with the mysteries and terrors of Mormonism described in the dime novels of the day" (Schindler, p. 223). Though it appears that, at first, he was more sinned against than sinning. He was nearly lynched while carrying the mail between the Mormon colony and the rest of the United States (Schindler, p. 240).
That didn't last long; the Utah War soon followed, in which the United States tried to guarantee its control over the independence-minded Mormons. The Mormons were sadly deficient in trained military officers; theoretically their forces were commanded by a Lieutenant General (a typical piece of Joseph Smith fiction; he had appointed himself to that rank because it would make him senior to every officer in the United States Army), but their actual forces would have been more suitable to a brigadier -- if they'd had anyone competent even to that office (Schindler, p. 293, quotes Captain Albert Tracy, who observed their formations: "They little seemed to know or heed the modern system of deploying of skirmishing.... [T]he 'corrals' of rock which they had erected... would have been knocked about their ears, and rendered untenable in but a brief time...").
In such a setting, it is little surprise that Rockwell, though he had never commanded troops, was given command of a cavalry company (Schindler, p. 251); he may have been illiterate, impetuous, and not particularly bright, but he was a survivor and knew both horses and weapons.
"Selecting five reliable men, Rockwell set out on the first Mormon action against the United States government" (Schindler, p. 255). He started a panic among the expeditionary force's transport mules -- only to have the mules head back for the Federal lines when the soldiers sounded the Stable Call. To add to the embarrassment, the Mormon's own horses proceeded to follow the Federal mules back to camp, leaving the raiders without mounts (Schindler, p. 256). So they slipped into the Federal lines again, and stole horses for themselves -- only to be told on their return that the horses had earlier been stolen by the Federals from the Mormons (Schindler, p. 257).
Rockwell had better luck later; the Mormon plan was for a "scorched earth policy" to deny the Federals any supplies, and Rockwell was one of those involved in clearing the land of any useful material (Schindler, p. 260). He also was involved in additional raids on the federal supply line (Bagley, p. 181), depriving the Federals of much livestock; late in the year, he would lead over 600 head of cattle into the Mormon ranks (Schindler, p. 264).
This was the period of the Mountain Meadows Massacre (for which see "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19]). Rockwell does not seem to have had any part of it -- but he did participate in the killing of the Aiken party, a group of (apparently) gentile con artists who had hoped to get rich preying off the Federal army (Schindler, p. 276). It will tell you something about relations between the Mormons and Gentiles at this time that Rockwell, an active guerilla and now undeniably a murderer, was still permitted to preach in church (Schindler, p. 283 n.).
He did find himself again under federal charges. A federal judge with a grudge against the Mormons had induced a grand jury to frame treason charges against much of the Mormon community, mostly unnamed -- but Rockwell was one whose name was given explicitly (Schindler, p. 284). Fortunately for him, he was included in the amnesty which ended the Utah War (Schindler, p. 288). During the negotiations which followed, Rockwell continued to serve as scout, sentry, and messenger for Brigham Young; at the beginning of the negotiations, it was Rockwell who escorted the Federal commissioners into the Mormon camp (Schindler, p. 292). As relations improved, Rockwell -- who became the father of a son late in 1858, then another in early 1860 -- began to look for a way to pick up money, and went back to serving liquor (Schindler, p. 294).
Later in 1860, two men engaged in a scheme to produce counterfeit quartermaster's notes which they could use to requisition supplies. Both would end up dead by gunfire. Schindler, pp. 307-308, seems uncertain just what happened -- but it was possible that Rockwell fired the shots.
It is interesting that it is only on p. 309 that Schindler first mentions Rockwell's slogan "Wheat!" The famous explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton, who had earlier visited Mecca and who had an interest in non-standard religion, decided to see what he could learn in Salt Lake City. There he met and drank with Rockwell -- and the Mormon said "Wheat!" because he enjoyed the contents of his glass (Schindler, p. 309). Rockwell is also said to have used the phrase "Old wheat in the mill" in referring to an easy task (Schindler, p. 347), and to have said "Wheat!" when discussing a court case with his lawyers -- seemingly to indicate disinterest in the charges against him (Schindler, p. 365).
In this period Rockwell also worked to track criminals. Schindler, p. 317, describes him winning a shootout with one wanted fugitive, and tells (p. 319) how two of the fugitive's colleagues also ended up dead by gunfire, though not shorty until after Rockwell had turned them in.
After the Utah War, Rockwell found success managing a mail-carrying outfit as well as running his inn. Schindler, p. 321, writes, "This brief interlude in Rockwell's otherwise violent existence may have been his most enjoyable era, but destiny did not plan a quiet life for Orrin Porter Rockwell." As early as 1862, he was back to fighting Indians (in this case, the Shoshone); he was one of those who lured them into what proved to be a set-piece battle against United States (Schindler, p. 327 -- though Bagley, pp. 252-253, thinks that Rockwell may have been trying to lure the Federals into an ambush).
The result was a slaughter of the natives known as the Bear Creek Massacre, which resulted in the death of at least 250 Indians. But the Europeans came close to destruction themselves due to the weather; the commanders credited Rockwell with saving them by bringing up enough transport (Schindler, p. 331). Indeed, Rockwell and the federal officer became close friends -- so close that some sources claim Rockwell confessed to him of the attempted murder of Boggs (Schindler, pp. 332-333, though it sounds as if he doesn't believe it). He continued to work with the Federals in their Indian wars in the coming years, but managed to father another daughter on Mary Ann in 1863 (Schindler, p. 335).
The Indian conflicts had, however, resulted in the death of one of Mary Ann's close friends; she insisted on leaving the area, so Rockwell moved back to Salt Lake City, then filed a claim on some ranchlands west of Sheeprock Mountain (Schindler, p. 337).
His fame, or infamy, continued to grow. Newspaper reports at this time credited him with forty or more murders (Schindler, pp. 340-341), though this may have been just an attempt to sell more papers.
In 1866, Mary Ann experienced her sixth pregnancy, dying in childbirth on August 24, with the boy dying soon after (Schindler, p. 344). Rockwell then moved again, the better to handle his contract carrying the mail (Schindler, p. 346. It is not clear to me who was watching the children during all this. Rockwell eventually was involved in a dispute over payment, but his lawyers managed to collect in full; Schindler, p. 360). It appears, though, that he mostly sold alcohol, living as quietly as a man in that occupation can do (though he once threw one of his assistant bartenders through a window; Schindler, p. 355. This brought him up before the law). He did manage to get a stake in a silver mine that became the successful Rockwell Mining Company (Schindler, p. 356).
Through it all, he remained intensely loyal to Brigham Young. When Young was charged in a murder conspiracy, and the court tried to set thing up so that he would be found in contempt for not being in court on time, it was Rockwell who rode a race to inform the Prophet of the trap and hurry him back to the court (Schindler, p. 359).
In his later years, Rockwell turned to ranching (Schindler, pp. 361-362). He also, in 1870 or 1871, took a fourth wife (Schindler, p. 360), his former housekeeper, who was 34 years old (he was 59 at the time). She bore him three girls, though the first died shortly after birth.
As long as Brigham Young was alive, Rockwell was never brought to account for his previous activities. After Young died, however, Rockwell was charged with the murder of John Aiken and arrested in 1877. Released on bail, he died of natural causes in 1878 (Schindler, pp. 365-366) -- meaning that Joseph Smith's prophecy came true: No bullet did touch him.
I wish I knew what to make of Rockwell. Schindler's biography is unhelpful -- the only assassination he seriously discusses is that of Boggs, and he nowhere says that Rockwell did it (though he does leave the impression of Rockwell's guilt). Rockwell, it is true, shot at a few others, but all in legitimate circumstances. It is, I suppose, possible that Rockwell never did go after anyone else. But it feels as if Schindler is hiding evidence -- his portrait of Rockwell is just too favorable. Rockwell's reputation as an assassin was surely exaggerated, but presumably it was based on something.
Schindler, p. 362, lists two ballads about Rockwell: This one, which he knew from Burt-AmericanMurderBallads [Roud #10880], and one beginning "Have you heard of Porter Rockwell, the Mormon Triggerite?" [Roud #10879]. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Burt114

Old Prisoner's Song, The

See Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight; also Broken Ties (I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes) (File: R746)

Old Prospector's Crime, The

DESCRIPTION: "Gather round me, people, While I speak this last one word, I am on the gallows And I'll ne'er again be heard." The singer and Hard Rock Jim are miners; the singer finds a claim, tricks Hard Rock Jim into a fight with a bear, kills him, and is executed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide animal mining gold execution
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 90-91, "(The Old Prospector's Crime)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22301
File: Burt090

Old Prowler, The

DESCRIPTION: "Straight over to Andy's the dog he did go, I asked them his name but they said, 'We don't know.'" The dog always stays until given a bone. Eventually they trap it. The singer advises against letting a dog roam free
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ives-LarryGorman)
KEYWORDS: dog food warning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 74-76, 198-199, "The Old Prowler" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #25113
File: LaGoOlPr

Old Raccoon

See Possum Up a Gum Stump (File: R280)

Old Rafting Chant

DESCRIPTION: "Thus drifting to sea on a hick of white pine, For the grub and the wages we've paid... true to our course, though the weather be thick, We set our broad sail as before And stand by the tiller that governs the hick Nor care we how we look from the shore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: work ship
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 234, "Old Rafting Chant" (1 text)
Roud #15029
File: SHoe234

Old Rags, Bottles, Rags

DESCRIPTION: Perhaps the remnants of a ragman's cry: "O ray, buttah, ray!" (x3), i..e. "Old rags, bottles, rags!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries)
KEYWORDS: nonballad commerce
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (IV), pp. 156-157, "Old Rags, Bottles, Rags" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: CuBu156

Old Rattler

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Here, Rattler, Here." Rattler is a great tracking dog. When (Old Riley) escapes from prison, Rattler is put on his trail, and finds the man despite many distractions and even (the Brazos River) in the way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, George Reneau)
KEYWORDS: dog manhunt prison escape captivity worksong chaingang floatingverses prisoner
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 104-105, "(Here, Rattler, Here)" (1 text, perhaps composite, plus apparently a portion of another version)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 66-67, "Ol' Rattler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 282-285, "Long Hot Summer Days" (2 texts, 2 tunes); pp. 290-296, "Rattler" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, p. 29, "(Rattler Treed a 'Possum)" (1 short text, not typical of the versions of this song, but it mentions Rattler, so it goes here tentatively)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 26-27, "Old Rattler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (IV), pp. 155-157, "Hyah, Rattler!" (1 text, 1 tune, not much like the common version of this song but filed here because of the mentions of Rattler)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 66, "Old Reilly (In Dem Long Hot Summer Days" (1 text); p. 395, "Old Rattler" (1 text, with the chorus of this song though the verses are those of "Old Tyler")
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 38, "Old Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 409-411, "Here Rattler Here" (1 text)
Roud #6381
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cotten, "Here Old Rattler Here" (on Cotten01)
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt & James "Iron Head" Baker, "Old Rattler" (AFS 208 B1, 1934; on LC8)
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt, "Old Rattler" (AFS 205 B2) [this is a solo recording, as opposed to the duet with James "Iron Head" Baker]
George Reneau, "Here Rattler, Here" (Vocalion 14814, 1924)
John Snipes, "Old Rattler" (on ClassBanj)
Texas state farm prisoners, "Here Rattler Here" (on NPCWork)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Take This Hammer" (lyrics)
cf. "Long John (Long Gone)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Poor Lazarus (Bad Man Lazarus)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Here, Rattler, Here
NOTES [273 words]: The "Old Reilly" version is officially credited to Huddle Ledbetter. This looks to me like Lead Belly's adaption of "Long John" -- but of course there is Lomax influence. Given that "Long John" is also derived primarily from the Lomaxes, it's hard to have any confidence about the relationship between the songs, or even their folk status. - RBW
Seeger reports that the Texas state farm prisoners from whom he collected a version of the song believed it described the escape of the prisoner Riley from Clements State Farm. - PJS
To add to all the fun, Jackson thinks that the Leadbelly-type versions which combine "Old Rattler" verses with the chorus "In the long, hot, summer days" are a composite of "Old Rattler" with an independent song which he would title "Long Hot Summer Days." At first glance, this seems reasonable, since he has a "Long Hot Summer Days" version which never mentions Rattler. But it has a lot of "Godalmighty Drag" in it. And his other version does mention Rattler. So, in desperation, I'm continuing to file "Long Hot Summer Days" versions here until we find a pure "Long Hot Summer Days" version.
Jackson of course also has "Rattler" texts with no mention of "Long Hot Summer Days." He says that the convicts he talked to considered Rattler a sort of super-dog, capable of things most other dogs could not do. This does little to clarify matters, since these versions could easily be worn down from a version which did feature long hot summer days. - RBW
I think the field collections from Platt and Baker, Cotten, and the group of prisoners in Texas suggest that the song definitely comes from tradition. -PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CNFM104

Old Rattler (II)

See Old Tyler (File: JRSF069)

Old Rebel Soldier, The

See The Good Old Rebel (The Song of the Rebel Soldier) (File: Wa193)

Old Recruiting Soldier (Twa Recruiting Sergeants)

DESCRIPTION: Recruiter(s) from the Black Watch tell a ploughboy the advantages of enlisting. Leave your rotten food and work. "If you chance to get a bairn" or would leave "Three little weans and a wife" "we'll soon rid your hand of that"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: army recruiting humorous nonballad food wife children soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #176, p. 1, "The Recruiting Sergeant" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan1 77, "The Recruiting Sergeant" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 18-20, "Twe Recruiting Sergeants" (1 text, 1 tune)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #25, pp. 155-156, "Twa Recruiting Sergeants" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TWARECRU
Roud #3356
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wha Saw the Forty-Second" and references there (subject: The Black Watch)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Twas In That Year
NOTES [427 words]: Greig's first version "is made to apply to the days of Queen Victoria; but there are earlier versions." His second version refers to King George; Greig's correspondent "says that the song was popular about the time of the French wars."
Greig/Duncan1 quotes a song in which "words like the chorus appear in ... George Farquhar's play The Recruiting Officer (1706); the queen here is Queen Anne." - BS
For the typical British recruiting method of The King's Shilling and getting potential soldiers drunk, see the notes to "The Recruited Collier." The irony of this song is that the sergeant's recruiting technique consists mostly of telling the potential recruit of the dangers he will escape:
"O laddie, ye dinna ken the danger that ye're in, Gin yer hoorses was to flag... The greedy auld farmer he winna pay your fee...." True, of course, but pay in the British army was legendarily low and late.
"It's a slavery a' your life" to obey a farmer: And obeying a sergeant, and an officer who has the right to punish you with the lash, isn't? The British army controlled its recruits with savage disciplline.
"O laddie, gin ye hae a sweethairt or a bairn, Ye'll easily be rid o' that ill-spun yarn": The usual problem for soldiers, of course, was that they had to leave sweethearts behind. The British army in this period did make provision for bringing some wives along -- but not enough to let all the men stay with their women; competition was fierce for the few slots available for spouses.
"With your tattie porin's and yer meal and kale": Food for the plowboy at home may have been poor -- but the British hired out contracts for provisions, and the contractors often provided inadequate, rotten, and inedible food. (In the Navy, this would result in the Spithead and Nore Mutinies, for which see "Poor Parker.") Almost all formations in the British army suffered more casualties from diet-related disease than from battle.
"And it's over the mountain and over the main Through Gibralter, to France and Spain": An interesting lack of mention of India. And Sudan. And other such places, where the risk of disease and casualties were far higher, and where a soldier might spend years without seeing anyone he knew other than his messmates.
The ultimate irony, though, is that the Black Watch managed to maintain its numbers all through the eighteenth and nineteenth and even the twentieth century. Only in the twenty-first, when most of the above problems were solved, did it have to be dissolved. For background, see the notes to "Wha Saw the Forty-Second." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: GrD1077

Old Redskin, The

DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever hear the story of the old Redskin? She's on the Whale Back with her side stove in, Her captain's gone and her whole darn crew, and her hold's full of fish and I don't know what to do." The singer mentions some of the boat's crew
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Beck-FolkloreOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck moniker fishing
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 164-165, "The Old Redskin" (1 text)
NOTES [30 words]: Beck's text is short enough that it isn't really clear what is going on, but the remaining material looks like a moniker song about a shipwreck, so I have tagged it accordingly. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BeMa165

Old Reilly

See CNFM104 (File: CNFM104)

Old Reuben

See Reuben's Train (File: Wa133)

Old Riley

See Old Rattler (File: CNFM104)

Old River Driver, The

DESCRIPTION: "I hired out at Saginaw, To work with Avery's men, 'Twas on the north branch of the Cass." The men make several stops on the long trip to the camp. They drink at each hotel, and pour whiskey on their feet to ease the pain.
AUTHOR: Henry Dodge (source: Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan)
KEYWORDS: lumbering drink travel recitation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 36-37, "The Old River Driver" (1 text)
Roud #6514
NOTES [23 words]: Although Beck doesn't say so, I suspect this is incomplete. The men make an alcohol-splashed trip to the lumber camp, and then what? - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BBun036

Old Riverman's Regret, The

DESCRIPTION: "The romance has gone from the river towns, The rafts they come now more." In the old days, when the rivers turned brown, the logs came with them -- but those days are over, and the old loggers sit around and remember the "Golden Age"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: logger work river
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 258-259, "The Old Riverman's Regret" (1 text)
Roud #15011
File: Shoe258

Old Robin Gray

See Auld Robin Gray (File: Pea482)

Old Robin of Portingale [Child 80]

DESCRIPTION: Old Robin's young wife arranges with her lover Sir Gyles for 24 men to kill Robin. Warned by a page, he kills Gyles, then cuts off his wife's breasts and ears. He makes the page his heir, burns a cross into his shoulder and goes to the holy land.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: betrayal husband wife injury death fight travel lastwill
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 80, "Old Robin of Portingale" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 235-240, "Old Robin of Portinga[le]" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 50-58, "Old Robin of Portingale" (2 texts, the second being that of the folio manuscript and the first being Percy's rewrite)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 53, "Old Robin of Portingale" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 90
Roud #3971
NOTES [116 words]: This ballad is so thoroughly nasty, I'm surprised it isn't more popular. - PJS
The likely explanation is that it is literary; there is no evidence that it ever entered oral tradition. According to David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 158 n. 25, this is one of eighteen ballads in the Child collection found only in the Percy Folio. And the moral, that young women should not marry old men, is adequately taught in other songs.
Fowler also suggests that this is based in part on "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" [Child 81], but given that that ballad is clearly traditional, and this is not, it would be hard to prove the connection. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C080

Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey)

DESCRIPTION: (Old Bumpy) is dead and buried. An apple tree grows from his grave. An old woman comes to gather apples. Bumpy arises from his grave and kicks the woman for her temerity
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (sheet music); some similar text from 1849 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: burial humorous supernatural playparty | apple tree
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber,Hebr,High)) Ireland
REFERENCES (32 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1596, "Poor Gracie is Dead" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 94-95, "Oliver Cromwell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 509-511, "Old Grumbler" (3 texts plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 118-120, "Old Roger Is Dead" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 569, "Old Bumpy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 411-413, "Old Bumpy" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's #569)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 131, "Old Pompey" (1 text, 1 tune)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 3, "Poor Pompy Is Dead & In His Grave" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 138, pp. 284-285, "Old Grampus" (1 text plus mention of 4 more)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 124, "Cronie is Dead" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 236, "Old Grumbler" (1 short text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #199, "Old Pompey" (1 text plus an excerpt)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 136-137, "Old Ponto Is Dead" (1 text plus a fragment which might be part of this, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 65, "Old Granddaddy's Dead" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 292, "Old Willis is Dead" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 195-197, "Poor Robin" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 182-183, "The Tommy Song or Apples are Ripe" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 303-304, "The Old Woman Under the Hill" (1 text, of floating verses from all over; the general theme is probably closest to "Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey)," but the first verse is "There Was an Old Woman Lived Under a Hill," and it ends with the verse about the songbook being back on the shelf and if you want any more you can sing it yourself)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 186, "Old Grumbler" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 259, "Old Roger" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #224, "Old Grampus" (2 texts,1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, p. 585, "Pompey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 114, pp. 232-233, "Poor Robin" (1 text)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 16, "Poor Toby is Dead" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 57, "Old Roger" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #37, "Old Grimes" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 98-99, "Old Roger" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Pamela McArthur Cole, "An Old Nursery Rhyme," Vol. XIII, No. 50 (Jul 1900), pp. 230-231 ("Little Johnny Wattles he went to Whitehall") (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, E. J. Ladbury, "Scraps of English Folklore, VIII. Worcestershire," Vol. XXXV, No. 3 (Sep 1924), #16 pp. 268-269 "Cock Robin is Dead!" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: R.C. Maclagan, "Additions to _The Games of Argyleshire_" in Folk-Lore, (London, 1905 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XVI, pp. 200-202 "The Lodger is Dead" (2 texts)
Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, pp. 213-214, "Granddaddy Is Dead" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 93, "Old Grimes" (1 text, tune referenced)
ST R569 (Full)
Roud #797
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Old Roger is Dead (Poor Pompey)" (Piotr-Archive #279, recorded 10/03/2022)
Fran Hendrickson, "Old Roger Is Dead" (Piotr-Archive #289, recorded 10/07/2022; instrumental only, but probably this)
Dora Richards, "Pompey is Dead" (AFS, 1940; on LC55)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Old Limpy
Old Grimes
Old Johnny
NOTES [312 words]: Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio quotes John Powell as writing, "This is not a song but a singing game, 'Old Roger is Dead.' It is a relic of an ancient pagan ritual...." Randolph gives details on how the game is played.
Botkin believes this originated with "Pompey! A Famous End Song," with words credited to "Mrs. K. B." and music by W. R. Dehnoff. This is possible, as I know of no collections prior to the 1876 publication of that song. But the degree of variation makes me suspect it is older. The version in Henry Randall Waite, Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, is credited to "A. G. Green, [Brown class of 18]20." However, this appears to be a reference to "Bohunkus," even though that's is a different song (and Waite has it on the next page!).
The use of the name "Old Roger" in some versions is interesting. According to Carol Rose, Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia (originally published as Spirits, Fairies, Gnomes and Goblins: An Encyclopedia of Little People, 1996); I use the 1998 W. W. Norton paperback edition), p. 246, Old Roger "is the red-faced spirit of apples and the guardian of apple trees in some areas of England." Thus Old Roger might well be expected to guard apples.
This should not be confused with "Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead)," which also goes by the title "Old Grimes"; the forms are different, and "Bohunkus" has a plot about two competing brothers. - RBW
Cole, from Massachusetts, accompanies her version with the note that "I have heard my mother repeat the following rhyme as familiar from her childhood (she was born in 1797)." It inserts the following, after Johnny is laid in his grave -- "The Devil came after him, but could n't have him" -- into the usual course of events. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R569

Old Rosin the Beau (Bow)

See Rosin the Beau (File: R846)

Old Rub Alcohol Blues

DESCRIPTION: Singer's "darling threw me down." His pockets are empty; he won't work and is walking the railroad ties. "Peace on earth I cannot find." "... one more plan ... Soak up the old rub alcohol Ease all troubles off my mind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: grief love rejection rambling drink suicide nonballad lover hobo
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1919 - The Volstead Act establishes prohibition of "intoxicating liquors" to carry out the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
1933 - The 21st amendment to the U.S. Constitution ends prohibition.
FOUND IN:
Roud #12160
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "Old Rub Alcohol Blues" (on StuffDreams1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Got the Jake Leg Too" (Prohibition alcohol surrogates) and references there
NOTES [146 words]: During prohibition rubbing alcohol was among the surrogates people drank as a replacement for illegal "intoxicating liquors." It was intended as a massage liniment and was never safe to drink. - BS
Rubbing alcohol is usually isopropyl alcohol (isopropynol), C3H8O or CH3CHOHCH3; it differs from propyl alcohol in that the hydroxyl group -OH comes off the middle carbon, not one of the carbons on the end. Like most alcohols other than ethyl alcohol, it gives a brief buzz but is deadly if metabolized; indeed, it is a skin irritant. It was not widely available until after World War I, so somebody must have tried it out as an ethanol substitute quite quickly. For more on the use of alcohols other than ethyl alcohol, see "The Man that Waters the Workers' Beer"; for more about the various alcohol substitutes during prohibition, see the notes to "Got the Jake Leg Too." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcORuAB

Old Rugged Cross, The

DESCRIPTION: "On a hill far away Stood an old rugged cross, The emblem of shuffling and shame." The singer loves the cross, "Where the dearest and best For a world of lost sinners were slain." The singer will someday trade a cross for a crown
AUTHOR: George Bennard (1873-1958) (source: Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns)
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (source: Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 68, "The Old Rugged Cross" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, various authors, "A Singing Stream: A Black Family Chronicle" [an entire issue about a documentary of the Landis Family], Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 (Winter 1989), pp. 48-49, "The Old Rugged Cross" (1 text, contained in the script of the documentary)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp, 192-193, "The Old Rugged Cross" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22417
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Alligood, "The Old Rugged Cross" (Piotr-Archive #267, recorded 09/26/2022)
Chris Miles, "The Old Rugged Cross" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #546, recorded 03/14/2023)
SAME TUNE:
The Old Chevrolet/On a Hill Far Away Stood an Old Chevrolet (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 106; cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 259)
File: HymOlRuC

Old Rustic Bridge by the Mill, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm thinking tonight of the old rustic bridge... 'Twas there, Maggie dear, with our hearts full of cheer, We strayed 'neath the moon's gentle gleam." The singer recalls their happy meeting by the bridge, and all the joys they had there
AUTHOR: Joseph P. Skelly (source: Greig/Duncan6 and broadside LOCSheet sm1881 02090)
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1881 02090)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1254, "The Old Rustic Bridge" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 124, "The Old Rustic Bridge by the Mill" (1 text)
Roud #3792
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1881 02090, "The Old Rustic Bridge by the Mill," Spear & Dehnhoff (New York), 1881; also sm1884 04056, "The Old Rustic Bridge by the Mill"; sm1881 03842, "Heimweh [and] The Old Rustic Bridge by the Mill" (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (theme)
NOTES [382 words]: This feels so much like "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (right down to the name of the girl) that I have to suspect dependence. But they aren't the same song, though they're about equally sloppy.
This was one of the best-known songs of Joseph P. Skelly (though I think his best song may be his other item in the Index, "I'm Just Going Down to the Gate"). Norm Cohen's article "Henry J Wehman and Cheap Print in Late Nineteenth-Century America," found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition, Ashgate, 2014, on pp. 153-154 prints part of the New York Sun's July 2, 1895 obituary of Skelly. After he wrote this song, his mother died, and he seems never to have recovered. He clearly became an alcoholic, and at one time actually wrote a song at Henry J. Wehman's piano in return for a small payment that he promptly drank away -- and drank so much that he ended up in the hospital. It all sounds very like Stephen Foster (a point also made by Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, p. 218, but I noted the fact even before I read Spaeth's remark). except that Skelly clearly wasn't in the same league.
Spaeth, p. 218, says that Skelly was a plumber by training -- and has a tendency to try to pass off obscure British songs as originals.
Spaeth lists some of Skelly's other work. He wrote the tune for George Cooper's "Strolling on the Brooklyn Bridge" in 1883 (Spaeth, p. 172; did Cooper, who also worked with Stephen Foster, have a thing about alcoholic partners?). In 1874 he wrote "Down by the Old Stream," which, when rewritten with a mill added to the stream, became a hit. In 1876, "I've Only Been Down to the Club" was his preview for "I'm Just Going Down to the Gate" six years later. Spaeth claims that "My Pretty Red Rose" (1877) was Skelly's biggest hit; in 1879 he produced "The Gentleman from Kildare," "If My Dreams Would Come True," and "Pride of the Kitchen" (Spaeth, p. 218). Spaeth on p. 219 lists thirteen other songs, most of which sound like potboilers; the only ones that sound familiar are "A Boy's Best Friend Is His Mother" and "They're All Getting Married But Me," both of which are obviously easily-borrowed titles.- RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Ord124

Old Sailor's Song

DESCRIPTION: No tune given, basically a poem recounting the various travails of sailors. Nine stanzas; begins "Come listen unto me a while and I will tell you then, the hardships and the misery of life on a merchantman..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Colcord); collected c. 1920
KEYWORDS: sailor work hardtimes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 138-140, "Old Sailor's Song" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 196-197, "Old Sailor's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Colc138 (Partial)
Roud #4705
NOTES [141 words]: Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen says this was secured from Fannie Hardy Eckstorm, co-author of Minstrelsy of Maine (though it is not in that collection), which would date it to around 1927. - SL
Curiously, the song does not appear in Jean Patten Whitten's description of the Eckstorm folk song collection (Fannie Hardy Eckstorn: A Descriptive Bibliography), at least not under this title or filed under Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen's first line, but Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors confirms that Eckstorm collected it and gave it to Colcord.
The lyrics fit "Bold Jack Donahoe"/"Jim Jones at Botany Bay," and there are enough similarities that I think that may have been the tune intended. Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, however, plump for "You Gentlemen of England" (without being clear on which song of that name they mean). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Colc138

Old Sally Walker

See Little Sally Walker (File: CNFM157)

Old Sam Fanny

See There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)

Old San Fannie

See There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)

Old Satan's Mad

See Free at Last AND Down by the Riverside (Study War No More) (File: FSWB368A)

Old Scout's Lament

DESCRIPTION: "Come all of you, my brother scouts, And join me in a song." The singer notes that "but few" old scouts are left alive. But the elk and buffalo are gone, and the Indians driven away: "We won great homes for gentle ones, And now, our West, goodbye."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910
KEYWORDS: age Indians(Am.) animal cowboy work farewell
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 18, "The Old Scout's Lament" (1 text)
DT, OLDSCOUT
Roud #4631
File: Ohr018

Old Section Boss, The

See Jerry, Go and Ile that Car [Laws H30] (File: LH30)

Old Settler,The

See Acres of Clams (The Old Settler's Song) (File: LxU055)

Old Settler's Song,The

See Acres of Clams (The Old Settler's Song) (File: LxU055)

Old Settoo, The

DESCRIPTION: A rich farmer's daughter courts a beggar wearing an old settoo. Her father tries unsuccessfully to dissuade her. She joins the beggar begging. They get married. "The cold of winter she never knew, For every night I rolled her in my old set-too"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage clothes begging father
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 26A, "The Old Settoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The White Cockade" (tune)
cf. "A-Begging I Will Go" (theme and some lines)
NOTES [55 words]: OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 26A: "Settoo = Surtout, Overcoat."
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 26A shares lines with "A-Begging I Will Go": "Above all trades going sure begging is the best, When a man is tired he may sit down and rest," "When night comes on for lodgings we seek, They will put us in the barn us both to sleep" - BS
File: OLcM026A

Old Shawnee, The

See Banks of the Ohio [Laws F5]
 (File: LF05)

Old Sheep Done Know the Road, The

DESCRIPTION: "The old sheep done know the road (3x), The young lambs must find the way." Verse: "Shout my sister for you are free ... For Christ has bought your liberty" "Sooner in the morning when I rise ... With crosses and trials on every side"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious floatingverses Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 4-5, "De Ole Sheep Done Know de Road" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 198 in the 1874 edition)
ADDITIONAL: James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, The Books of American Negro Spirituals (New York: Viking Press, 1969 (copyright 1925, 1926)), Book 2, pp. 160-161, "De Ol' Sheep Done Know de Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12415
RECORDINGS:
Gullah Kinfolk, "De Old Sheep" (on USSeaIsland04)
James Garfield Smalls, "Hard Times/De Ole Sheep Done Know de Road" (on USSeaIsland03)
NOTES [60 words]: Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses include the floaters, "I do believe without a doubt ... The Christian has a right to shout" and "Better mind how you walk on the cross ... For your foot might slip and your soul get lost." The second and fourth line of each verse is "The young lambs must find the way." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Dett004

Old Sheep Went to Sleep

DESCRIPTION: "Old sheep went to sleep And left the lambs a-feeding, Little mouse jumped over the house And set his nose a-bleeding." Other verses also tell of off moments in animal life: A mare kicks a bear, a goat jumps into a boat, a goose breaks loose
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: animal sheep humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 191, "Old Sheep Went to Sleep" (1 text)
ST GC191 (Partial)
Roud #3709
File: GC191

Old Shiboots and Leggins

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Old Ship of Zion (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Following the form of "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain": "The old ship of Zion, when she comes, when she comes." "She rocks so steady any level when she comes." "Have your lamps trimmed and burning." "Have oil in your vessels."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 623, "The Old Ship of Zion" (3 texts, but only the "A" text is certain to be this piece)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 623, "The Old Ship of Zion" (5 tunes plus text excerpts)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 71, "The Ole Ship o' Zion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 240-241, "Old Ship of Zion" (1 text)
Roud #4204
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "Old Ship of Zion" (Vocalion 15033, 1925)
Ernest Phipps & his Holiness Singers, "Old Ship of Zion" (Victor 20927, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain" (form, tune, lyrics)
NOTES [26 words]: The references to a trimmed lamp and having oil in one's vessels are clearly an allusion to Jesus's parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, Matt. 25:1-13. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Br3623

Old Ship of Zion (II)

See The Ship of Zion (I, II, etc.) (File: FSC083)

Old Shoe Boots and Leggins

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Old Shoe, The

See The Half-Hitch [Laws N23] (File: LN23)

Old Shoes and Leggin's

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Old Shoes and Leggings

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

Old Simeon

DESCRIPTION: Simeon made cans of ale. His journeyman, Jenkin, drank from every can. Simeon asks Jenkin, "to whom drink you?" Jenkin replies, "to you." Simeon says, "I spy a knave [that is, Jenkin] in drinking, Come trole [pass] the bole [bowl] to me"
AUTHOR: William Child (source: Sandys)
EARLIEST DATE: 1652 (Hilton's _Catch That Catch Can_, according to Sandys) [but see notes for earlier references to the first line]
KEYWORDS: request drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 299, "Old Simeon" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 184)
ADDITIONAL: William Sandys, editor, Festive Songs Principally of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (London, 1848 ("Digitized by Google"), #45 pp. 60-61, ("Now God Be With Old Simeon") (1 text)
Roud #1338
NOTES [220 words]: "Samuel Harsnet, in his Declaration of Egregious Impostures, 1603, mentions a 'merry catch,' 'Now God be with old Simeon' (for which see Rimbault's Rounds, Canons, and Catches of England), which he says was sung by tinkers 'as they sit by the fire, with a pot of good ale between their legs'" (Naylor p. 17; cf. Elson, p. 75; Rimbault, pp. 28-29, refers to "Now God be with old Simeon' in Pammelia, 1609).
Here is a note I don't follow, but since it appears to refer to this catch it may be useful; the apparent reference is to Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 3, ll,55-63: "In 'Twelfth Night,' in the scene where the Clown, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and Sir Toby Belch, act 2, scene the 3rd, are singing catches, there is one 'To whom drinke thou, Sir Knave!' The whole of this will be found in a curious old musical work entitled, 'Pammelia Musicks Miscellanie, or mixed varietie of pleasant Roundelayes and delightful Catches, of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 parts. London, 1609, page 7.' Malone supposes Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Night in the year 1614, if so, this old work may be considered as containing the original catch; it begins, 'Now God be with old Simeon'" (FQRMaH, p. 137). - BS
That Shakespeare's and Ravenscroft's catches are the same is clear. Like Ben, I rather question the connection with "Old Simeon." -RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT299A

Old Simon

DESCRIPTION: Old Simon courts a young girl. She rejects him. He says he is rich. She says he is "not fit to wed with a young maid." He says he'll love her, be at her command and with riches she'll be like a queen. She agrees to "be married to your gold, you old man"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: age greed marriage dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 77, "Old Simon" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 462)
Roud #1248
File: WT077

Old Sir Simon the King

DESCRIPTION: "Old Sir Simon the king, And young Sir Simon the squire, And old Mrs. Hickabout Kicked Mrs. Kickabout Round about our coal fire."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1875 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: royalty injury
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 475, "Old Sir Simon the King"" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #327, p. 177, "(Old Sir Simon the King)"
Roud #19776
NOTES [107 words]: The Baring-Goulds claim that "Old Sir Simon" was a "Falstaffian gentleman who kept the Devil Tavern in Fleet Street and died in 1627." I can't prove it wrong, but that's an awfully long time for a name to be preserved when people didn't know the person to whom it referred.
It should probably be added that neither England nor Scotland ever had a King Simon. Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 262-267, has a piece, "Old Sir Simon the King," which is clearly not this but which might be the source of the name. The tune seems to have been used for all sorts of things; Chappell points out a probably use in "The Beggar's Opera." . - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: OpO0475

Old Sister Phoebe

See The Juniper Tree (File: R540)

Old Skipper, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm an old canal-boat skipper with black snake in hand, So fare you well darling, my mules will not stand." The singer loves working on the tow-path. He has been on many waters, but this is the best. He will not rove. He lists his cargoes
AUTHOR: Pearl R. Nye (source: Salt)
EARLIEST DATE: 1992 (Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory)
KEYWORDS: river travel home canal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 57-58, "The Old Skipper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #31279
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whiskey Waltz" (tune, according to Salt)
File: Salt057

Old Smite, The

See The Wreck of the Semmity (Yosemite) (File: Pea983)

Old Smokey

See On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)

Old Smoky

See On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)

Old Smoky Mountain

See On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)

Old Soap-Gourd, The

DESCRIPTION: "Here we go round the old soap-gourd, theold soap-gourd, the old soap-gourd, Here we go round the old soap-gourd, Earlye in the morning." "The old soap-gourd likes sugar in his tea" as he finds a girl: "Rise and give me your lily-white hands."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (copyrighted by Jean Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting drink
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 62, "The Old Soap-Gourd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7387
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (form)
cf. "This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes" (form)
NOTES [33 words]: This appears to be another variation of the "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush"/"This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes" tune group and game. But the lyrics are entirely different, so I split them. - RBW
File: RitS082

Old Soldier (I), The

See The Old Tobacco Box (File: FSC143)

Old Soldier (II), The

See Peggy and the Soldier (The Lame Soldier) [Laws P13] (File: LP13)

Old Soldiers Never Die (I)

DESCRIPTION: "There is an old cookhouse not far away Where we get sweet damn all three times a day. Ham and eggs we never see, damn all sugar in our tea, As we are gradually fading away. Old soldiers never die... They just fade away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: soldier army age
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 277, "Old Soldiers Never Die" (1 text)
DT, OLDSOLDR*
Roud #10521
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There Is a Happy Land Far Away" (tune)
cf. "Old Soldiers Never Die (II)" (lyrics)
NOTES [47 words]: The verse quoted above seems to be the only item truly characteristic of this piece. But other verses exist, often bawdy and/or scatological, describing the difficulties of army life or veterans' affairs. And, of course, the "Old soldiers never die" lyric is very widely known. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: FSWB277A

Old Soldiers Never Die (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Old soldiers never die, Never die, never die, Old soldiers never die, They just fade away." "Old soldiers never die, Never die, never die, Old soldiers never die -- Young ones wish they would." Perhaps add "This rain will never stop...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier age
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 59, "Old Soldiers Never Die" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 57, "Old Soldiers Never Die" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 183, "Old soldiers never die" (1 fragment)
Roud #10521
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kind Thoughts Can Never Die" (tune)
cf. "Old Soldiers Never Die (I)" (lyrics)
File: BrPa059A

Old Song, An (One Morning Being Fair... Sweet Combeana)

See Colleen from Coolbawn (Sweet Combeana) (File: HGam235)

Old Southwester

See My Father's Old Sou'wester (File: Doyl3042)

Old Sow (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "And the old sow went to the barn to pig, (whistling) barn to pig, And the old sow went to the barn to pig, But never cry di dry do cry da. For old Susanna is a pretty woman." The sow and piglets may try to escape, but are stopped by the wall.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: animal
FOUND IN: US(SE) Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 178, "The Old Sow" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 178, "The Old Sow" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Greig/Duncan8 1661, "Oor Little Pigs" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDSOW SOWSONG
Roud #1737
RECORDINGS:
Alessandra Delia-Lôbo, Cameo Delia, "Suzanna's a Funicle Man" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #389, recorded 12/18/2022)
Albert Richardson, "The Old Sow" (on Voice07)
Cyril Smith, "The Old Sow Song" (Castle [UK?] 1259, n.d.)
Rudy Vallee & his Connecticut Yankees w. Cyril Smith, "The Old Sow Song" (Bluebird B-7078, 1937)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Susannah's a Funny Old Man
NOTES [141 words]: The Brown text and that from the Digital Tradition have little in common, but they both mention Susanna, are about sows, and contain a lot of nonsense; it seems pointless to separate them.
The editors of Brown seemed helpless to expain their text (quoted in full in the description, though they note that several lines are apparently missing), notably the verb "to pig." I wonder if it isn't an error for "to dig." Alternately, presumably, it means "to live as a pig" or "to have piglets." - RBW
The latter, according to the Random House Dictionary. - PJS
The verse "There was an old farmer had an old sow, ow, ow, ow [with pig sounds], Susanna's a funicle/funiful/phonical man" is probably a rewrite, and I haven't seen enough text to know if it has a plot, but Steve Roud files it here and I have no better suggestion for where to put it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3178

Old Sow (II), The

See Three Pigs (File: LxA307)

Old Sow Song, The

See The Sow Took the Measles (File: LoF015)

Old Spencer Rifle,The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of Johnny's visit, and his "shooting" her with his gun, no less than seven times. John does the mother too and goes off with his gun-barrel bent.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (collected by Vance Randolph from Booth Campbell)
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 128-129, "The Old Spencer Rifle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11499
NOTES [193 words]: Annotator Legman in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I asserts that the melody of this apparently unique ballad is "unmistakably" similar to "Yankee Doodle." In fact, it directly quotes "Cotton-Eyed Joe." - EC
The mention of seven shots and the "old Spencer Rifle" would seem to be a reference to the Spencer repeating carbine of the Civil War era. According to Mark M. Boatner III, The Civil War Dictionary, 1959 (there are many editions of this very popular work; mine is a Knopf hardcover), p. 782, "SPENCER REPEATING CARBINE. The first successful breech-loading repeating rifled carbine was patented in 1860 by Christopher M. Spencer of Conn. By 1864 it had become the standard arm of the Federal cavalry and by the fall of that year brigades of infantry began to appear with it.... The carbin was loaded by a tubular magazine that passed through the butt of the stock and held seven copper rimfire 52 caliber cartridges." Although it lacked range and penetrating power, it became famous because it could be "loaded on Sunday and fired all week." Thus the reference would seem to imply that the song originated during or shortly after the Civil War. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: RL128

Old Spotted Cow, The

See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

Old Stable (Sable) Jacket, The

See Wrap Me Up in my Tarpaulin Jacket (File: FR439)

Old State Mill, The

DESCRIPTION: "It is pretty hard times for the farmer, Who lives by the sweat of his brow." He has to sell his cow to pay taxes, and can't pay the store But "The railroad bummers have lots of cash To spend at the Old State Mill." Times are hard many others as well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Dunn, _The St. Croix_, from an uncited source)
KEYWORDS: farming hardtimes worker railroading
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: James Taylor Dunn, _The St. Croix: Midwest Border River_, reprint edition with new introduction published 1979 by the Minnesota Historical Society press, pp. 256-257, [no title] (1 text)
NOTES [104 words]: Dunn cites no source for this song; it sounds to me as if it might be a Grange song. But it is not just about farmers; river men, tote teamsters, and "every day men" are also singled out as being in trouble. Dunn thinks the song dates from the aftermath of the Panic of 1873.
Searching the Internet, I was unable to locate an Old State Mill in Wisconsin (although there seems to be a famous one in Ohio, and several others of lesser note). However, the stanza about river men mentions the St. Croix and Clam rivers -- which clearly localize the song to northwestern Wisconsin (the Clam is a tributary of the Saint Croix). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: JTDST256

Old Stepstone, The

See Goodbye to My Stepstone (File: R853)

Old Stone Wall, The

DESCRIPTION: "Outside Casey's cabin there is an old stone wall." The singer recalls the sights the wall has seen: Friends meeting, youths singing, pipers playing, lovers meeting. He wishes he could live on the wall; not even a throne would be better
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H83, pp. 156-157, "The Old Stone Wall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13453
File: HHH083

Old Stormey

See Stormalong (File: Doe082)

Old Stormy

See Stormalong (File: Doe082)

Old Straw Bonnet

DESCRIPTION: "Come along, boys, and let's go to meeting (x3), And wear our old straw bonnets." "Come along girls, and let's go with them...." "Mama, o Mama, I won't go to meeting." "No, no, Johnny, you can't go to meeting." "Never mind, Johnny, I'll tell your papa"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 65, "Old Straw Bonnet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11323
File: Brne065

Old Strawberry Roan, The

See The Strawberry Roan [Laws B18] (File: LB18)

Old Stumper

DESCRIPTION: Leo B MacCormack and his brother Archie agree to dig Uncle Stones's well in exchange for "skin and bones" nag Stumper. When title is questioned Stumper asks "did you get a clear receipt?" At the trial title is settled in MacCormack's favor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: bargaining trial work humorous horse
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 17-18, "Old Stumper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12481
NOTES [9 words]: The song dates delivery of the summons March 17, 1892. - BS
File: Dib017

Old Swansea Town Once More

See Swansea Town (The Holy Ground) (File: Doe152)

Old T. I.

DESCRIPTION: "T. I. [Thursday Island?] my beautiful home, T. I. my home sweet home, Darling won't you take me Where the sun is sinking farewell." "The sun and the moon that shine Make me long for home." "I'll be there forever, Where the sun is sinking, farewell."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs)
KEYWORDS: home death separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 11, "Old T. I." (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Roud #22591
File: ScCol011

Old Tamarack Dam, The

See The Wild Mustard River (Johnny Stile) [Laws C5] (File: LC05)

Old Tar River, The

DESCRIPTION: Response lines alternate between "O-eee" and "Lord, Lord, the old Tar River." Leader lines include "Tar river runs black and dirty," "Tar river's going to run tomorrow," "Old Tar river is a healing water," "Old Tar river runs free and easy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: river nonballad shanty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 54, pp. 216-217, "Ole Tar River" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
John Davis and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "The Old Tar River" (on LomaxCD1713)
NOTES [16 words]: On LomaxCD1713 Davis says this is another song for working heavy timber, "some fifty feet long." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr054

Old TB, The

DESCRIPTION: "The story of two and they loved each other, More than anyone ever know; The girl, she took the old consumption." They go to the mountain to try to cure her. Both of them die. They are buried together.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2)
KEYWORDS: love death disease
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 98, "The Old TB" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7134
RECORDINGS:
Lilly Brothers, "They Sleep Together Now At Rest" (Page 505, 1948?)
File: BuMa098

Old Testament in Verse (The Books of the Bible)

DESCRIPTION: "In Genesis the world was made, In Exodus the march is told, Leviticus contains the law, In Numbers are the tribes enrolled." And so on to "...And Malachi of John his sign, The Prophets number seventeen And all the books are thirty-nine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 875, "The Books of the Bible" (1 fragment)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 204, "Books of the Old Testament"; p. 205, "Books of the New Testament" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #7540
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(073), "The Books of the Bible: A Literary Curiosity" ("In Genesis the world was made by God's creative hand"), Poet's Box (Dundee), n.d.
NOTES [258 words]: In general the summaries of Bible books in this song are accurate, though it is very clearly Protestant Christian -- the Catholics, e.g., add assorted deuterocanonical books to the Old Testament.
The Jewish canon contains the same books as the Protestant, but organize them differently. The number of books is not 39, but 24 (or 22): 5 books of the Law (Genesis-Deuteronomy), eight of the Prophets (Former Prophets=Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings; Later Prophets=Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve), and the rest, with some reorganization, form the Writings (note that Daniel is not one of the Prophets).
The texts in Pankake are *not* the same song as in Randolph, but they are so thematically close (and so unlikely to be looked up separately) that I just decided to lump them in here. Their two texts simply list the books of the Bible in order -- both in the Protestant order of the King James Bible (a traditional Greek Bible would put the "Catholic Epistles" of James through Jude with Acts, and might place Hebrews after 2 Thessalonians rather than Philemon).
A third anonymous poem on this general theme, "Names and Orders of the Books of the Old Testament," is found on pp. 602-603 of Hazel Felleman's The Best Loved Poems of the American People.
The greatest mystery of all may be the relationship between the Randolph text and the NLScotland broadside. They have very many common lyrics, but the Randolph text is in short lines and the Scottish version in long. A rewrite seems likely, but how it proceeded is unclear at best.- RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: R875

Old Texas

See Going to Leave Old Texas (Old Texas, Texas Song, The Cowman's Lament) (File: FCW066E)

Old Threshing Song

See The Dummer Sheener's Gang (File: CoSB274)

Old Timbrook Blues

DESCRIPTION: Race between Timbrook & Molly; Timbrook races "like a bullet from a gun", while Molly creeps along "like a criminal to be hung." Singer addresses jockey Johnny Walker. Timbrook beats Molly "to the hole in the wall." Singer says old mistress lost her "mon"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, John Byrd)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Race between Timbrook & Molly; Timbrook races "like a bullet from a gun", while Molly creeps along "like a criminal to be hung." Singer addresses jockey Johnny Walker, telling him to hold Timbrook's reins tight. On the windy race day, "you couldn't see old Timbrook as he come darting by." Everyone shouts, but Timbrook beats Molly "to the hole in the wall." Singer says he loves his racehorse; "old mistress went to the racecourse, lost all of her mon." Song also incorporates the "fourth day of July" verse from "The Cuckoo"
KEYWORDS: gambling horse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 4, 1878 - race between Ten Broeck and Miss Mollie McCarthy (won by Ten Broeck)
FOUND IN: US
Roud #2190
RECORDINGS:
John Byrd, "Old Timbrook Blues" (Paramount 12997, 1930; on StuffDreams1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Molly and Tenbrooks" [Laws H27] (subject)
cf. "Timbrook" (subject)
cf. "The Cuckoo" (inexplicable floating verse)
NOTES [103 words]: Obviously this describes the same events as "Molly and Tenbrooks" and "Timbrook." However, it does not share lyrics or tune with either of those songs, so I classify it separately. So far as I know, it's the only occurrence of the story in African-American tradition -- unless you count Henry Thomas's "Run, Mollie, Run," which includes the title phrase but none of the story.
The verse from "The Cuckoo" ("The cuckoo was a fine bird, hollered when he fly/But he never hollers cuckoo til the fourth day o' July") makes no sense until you note that the race between Ten Broek and Miss Mollie was held on July 4, 1878. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcOTimbB

Old Time Cowboy (Melancholy Cowboy)

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you melancholy folks wherever you may be, I'll sing about the cowboy whose life is light and free." We are told "his heart is gay," "they're a little bit rough... but if you do not hunt a quarrel you can live with them in peace," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Thorp)
KEYWORDS: cowboy nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XIX, pp. 240-243 (40-41), "Old Time Cowboy" (2 texts, 1 tune); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 121-122, "Old-Time Cowboy" (1 text)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 17, "Old-Time Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 340-341, "Old Time Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 33-34, "The Melancholy Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, p. 8, "Come All You 'Solemncholly' Folks
" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8046
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Come All Ye Melancholy Folks
NOTES [38 words]: ArkansasWoodchopper credits this to M. Segal but lists a 1931 copyright claim, and we know the song is older, so I don't think we can credit the attribution. Thorp attributes it to someone named Rogers but gives no details. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: TF19

Old Time Religion, (The)

See That Old Time Religion (File: R628)

Old Time Religion, Amen

See That Old Time Religion (File: R628)

Old Time Sealer's Song

DESCRIPTION: "We'll sound the hardy sealers praise, a wild and cheerful strain...." The singer notes that merchant vessels stop travelling in winter, but sealers work through all the dark. stormy months. At last they can come home from the ice
AUTHOR: "Mr. Webber... of Harbour Grace," according to Murphy
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (Murphy, Songs and Ballads of Newfoundland, Ancient and Modern); dated by Murphy to 1842
KEYWORDS: hunting ship work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 18-19, "Old Time Sealer's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, editor, _Songs Sung by Old-TIme Sealers of Many Years Ago_, James Murphy Publishing, 1925 (PDF available from Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 12, "Old Time Sealer's Song" (1 text)
James Murphy, _Songs Their Fathers Sung: For Fishermen: Old Time Ditties_, James Murphy Publishing, 1923 (PDF available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 1, "Old Time Sealer's Song" (1 text)
Levi George Chafe, _Chafe's Sealing Book: A History of the Newfoundland Sealfishery from the Earliest Available Records Down To and Including the Voyage of 1923_, third edition, Trade Printers and Publishers, Ltd., 1923 (PDF scan available from Memorial University of Newfoundland), p. 17, "(no title)" (1 excerpt)
ST RySm018 (Partial)
Roud #V44869
File: RySm018

Old Time Sealers, The

DESCRIPTION: "The bells they are ringing, the sirens are screaming... The sealing fleet's ready to leave port once more." As snow blows in, the fleet sails. The singer tells of the hunt; he says sealers face dangers greater than mountain climbers or big game hunters
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Newfoundland Stories and Ballads, according to Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship bragging
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 138-139, "The Old Time Sealers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V44869
NOTES [49 words]: Although full of sealing jargon, this really looks like a modern composition -- what Newfoundlander, in the heyday of sealing, would even think of mountain climbing or big game hunting? Even though no author is listed by Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, it's pretty clear this is not traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm138

Old Timer's Plaint, An

DESCRIPTION: "Some folks say there's no such thing as good or evil luck; Success depends on labor, backed by energy and pluck" -- but the singer has worked hard for fifty years and gotten nowhere. His friend never lives well but never works. Of course it's luck
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes clothes
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 56-57, "An Old Timer's Plaint" (1 text) (pp. 46-47 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #14098
File: Shoe056

Old Timer's Song, The

See The Day Columbus Landed Here (File: FJ178)

Old Tioga Counry

DESCRIPTION: "I've trampled around the country some, Twixt Mexico and Maine.... But 'Old Tioga County,' boys, She's good enough for me." Her scenery is better than the River Shannon's, her fruit is the sweetest, her daughters prettier than those of Paris
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: home patriotic nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 258, "Old Tioga County" (1 text)
Roud #15010
NOTES [46 words]: This could easily have been someone's zipper song: There are two mentions of "Old Tioga County" and no other references at all to where the singer resides -- and there is no rhyming on the name. So you could put in any other six syllables and have a praise song for anywhere. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe258A

Old Tippecanoe (I)

DESCRIPTION: "The times are bad and want curing, They're getting past all enduring, Let us turn out old Martin Van Buren, And put in old Tippicanoe." A political song, this piece points out the depressed economic conditions and Tippicanoe's humble origins.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Norton)
KEYWORDS: political hardtimes derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 2, 1840 - William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren
Mar 4, 1841 - Harrison (the first Whig to be elected President) is inaugurated. He gives a rambling inaugural address in a rainstorm and catches cold
April 4, 1841 - Harrison dies of pneumonia, making him the first president to fail to complete his term. After some hesitation, Vice President John Tyler is allowed to succeed as President
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 73, "Old Tippecanoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), pp. 66-67, "The Best Thing We Can Do" (1 text, tune referenced)
ST Wa073 (Full)
Roud #6950
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Won't Go Home Until Morning" (tune) and references there
cf. "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" (subject of the Harrison/van Buren election)
cf. "Tippecanoe" (subject of the Harrison/van Buren election)
cf. "Harrison Campaign Song" (subject of the Harrison/van Buren election)
cf. "Gold Spoons vs. Hard Cider" (subject of the Harrison/van Buren election)
cf.. "Harrison Campaign Song" (subject of the Harrison/van Buren election)
cf. "Election Campaign Song" (subject of the Harrison/van Buren election)
cf. "Old Harrison" (subject of the Harrison/van Buren election)
NOTES [923 words]: When Andrew Jackson stepped down as President, he hand-chose Martin Van Buren as his successor. It was Van Buren's misfortune to suffer the consequences of Jackson's questionable economic policies (Jameson, p. 480). May 10 -- less than ten weeks after Van Buren's inauguration -- is traditionally considered the first day of the Panic of 1837, in which hundreds of banks failed. Almost all halted specie payment at least for a while (Morison, p. 455). The economic consequences lasted until the early 1840s, and made Van Buren, and indeed the whole Democratic party, extremely unpopular.
Harrison's campaign, on the Whig ticket, was far from honest. (Morison, p. 456, calls the election of 1840 the "jolliest and most idiotic presidential contest in our history"). He ran as a frontiersman (his election strategy is referred to as the "Log Cabin and Cider" campaign) even though he was a southern aristocrat -- born in Virginia (DeGregorio, p. 139) although he spent much of his later life in the Midwest (he was Governor of Indiana Territory 1800-1812 and congressman and senatory from Ohio 1819-1828; DeGregorio, pp. 141-142). As Holt says on p. 106, "William Henry Harrison was neither poor nor the resident of a log cabin." But the Democrats had tried what we would now call negative campaigning, and the Whigs responded by making "log cabins, hard cider, and the accompanying coonskins... the dominant symbols of a symbol-laden campaign."
Holt notes (p. 100) that the Whigs, having been trounced by Van Buren in 1836, had little choice: "Harrison, recognizing the potential damage of [Whig defeats in local elections in 1838-1839], moved astutely to separate himself from the party's losses and to reemphasize his popularity among non-Whig voters. His message was clear. The Whig part could no longer win on its issues, but Harrison could still win on personal charisma." And he had a point: The Whigs in their roughly two decades of existence (they formed to oppose Jackson and fell apart after the election of 1852) managed to elect only two candidates, both generals: Harrison in 1840 and Zachary Taylor in 1848.
Harrison ran as a successful soldier, even though his only military exploits were the slaughter of Tecumseh's Shawnee and allies on the Tippecanoe River (and that only because Tecumseh himself wasn't present and in his absence the warriors attacked Harrison's defensive position; Mahon, pp. 24-27; also p. 63, which notes that Harrison actually resigned his commission due to the controversy over the battle) and some minor maneuverings on the Great Lakes during the War of 1812 after the Battle of Lake Erie (for which see "James Bird" [Laws A5]) had opened the way.
But it didn't matter; people would have taken anything in preference to Van Buren. This song, sung to the tune of "I Won't Be Home Until Morning/The Bear Went Over the Mountain," betrays the simplistic popular view of the campaign.
To be as fair as I can (probably fairer than Harrison deserves), his exploits against the Indians did open the way for much American expansion. Berton, pp. 53-68, tells how the great Shawnee Tecumseh, and his brother the Prophet, were gradually building a coalition of tribes that might be strong enough to halt American expansion. Harrison was determined to stop it -- and his timing was brilliant: He waited until Tecumseh was too far away to interfere, and then lured the Prophet into battle.
According to Berton, p. 69, "The Battle of Tippecanoe is not the glorious victory that Harrison, down through the years, will proclaim. It is not even a battle, more a minor skirmish, and indecisive, for Harrison, despite his claim, loses far more men than the Indians. Overblown in the history books, this brief fracas has two significant results: it is the chief means by which Harrison will propel himself into the White House... and, for the Indians, it will be the final incident that provokes them to follow Tecumseh to Canada, there to fight on the British side in the War of 1812.
"Tippecanoe is unnecessary. It is fought only because Harrison needs it to further his own ambitions." Furthering his own ambitions is something at which he was always amazingly successful.
Berton, pp. 75-76, describes the casualties of Tippecanoe as follows: "Harrison has lost almost one-fifth of his force [pf roughly a thousand men].Thirty-seven white corpses lie ssprawled on the battlefield. One hundred and fifty men have been wounded of whom twenty-five will die of their injuries.... No one can be sure how many Indians took part in the skirmish. Nobody know how many died. Harrison, like most military commanders, overstimates the enemy's losses, declar[ing] that the Prophet's casualties run into the hundreds. This is wishful thinking; only thirty-six Indian corpses are found." Harrison did, however, hold the field, and as a result was able to burn the Prophet's settlement -- and the food supplies left there; he may have caused more casualties by starvation than he did in the battle.
But he also increased Tecumseh's desire for blood, and Tecumseh was a much more formidable leader than his brother the Prophet could ever hope to be.
The 1840 election was full of rather silly campaign songs; Holt, p. 106, quotes another:
Farewell, dear Van,
You're not our man;
To guide the ship
We'll try old Tip.
According to Holt, p. 111, the Democrats responded with
Hush-a-by-baby;
Daddy's a Whig,
Before he comes home
Hard Cider he'll swig.
Then he'll be Tipsy
And over he'll fall;
Down will come Daddy,
Tip, Tyler and all. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: Wa073

Old Tippecanoe (II)

See Tippecanoe (File: Be3397)

Old Tobacco Box, The (There Was an Old Soldier)

DESCRIPTION: "There was an old (soldier) and he had a wooden leg. He had no tobacco; no tobacco could he beg." He asks a comrade for tobacco, and is refused. He is told to save; then he will have tobacco. He gets even by stabbing the other with a splinter from his leg
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Tony, the Convict)
KEYWORDS: soldier humorous begging drugs injury
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro) Ireland
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 182, "The Old Geezer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 143, "The Old Tobacco Box" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 363, "(no title)" (1 excerpt)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 93, "The Soldier's Song" (1short text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 432-433, "There Was an Old Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, p. 50, "The Auld Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 207-208, "There Was an Old Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, p. 32, "There Was an Old Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 91, "The Old Geezers" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 242, "There Was An Old Soldier" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 258, "The Old Soldier" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. ,143 "The Was an Old Geezer" (1 text, tune referenced; this is a partial parody but consists mostly of traditional elements)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 91, "Save up all your money" (1 fragment)
DT, (TURKST2)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Townsend, _Tony, the Convict_ (T. S. Denison & Company, Chicago, 1893; available on Google Books), p. 24, [no title] (2 verses)
Roud #3342
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Turkey in the Straw" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES [577 words]: This piece is often sung to the tune of Turkey in the Straw, and the lyrics often float back and forth, but also exists on its own with its own tune (as was vehemently pointed out by the Warners' informant, Tom P. Smith; Jerome S. Epstein calls it similar to "The Red Haired Boy," but it's Ionian).
It is often listed as a Civil War song, and probably is, but I have not been able to find any Civil War reference to this which clearly distinguishes it from "Turkey in the Straw."
On the other hand, the Civil War is one of the few wars in which a man with a wooden leg really could be on fairly active duty. As the war dragged on, and the number of crippled soldiers rose, the Union in 1863 decided to recruit an "Invalid Corps," later renamed the "Veteran Reserve Corps" (Catton, pp. 143-144). The men were classified as "first battalion" men, considered to be fit for garrison duty away from the front lines, and "second battalion" men, who were no longer fit enough even to carry a musket (they were supposed to serve in hospitals as nurses and cooks, according to Boatne's, article on the "Veteran Reserve Corps").
Yet Catton, pp. 144-146, tells how 166 of these poor second battalion men were once sent out to march and fight at Belle Plain. They naturally had to travel without knapsacks (more than half the men in their unit had been unable to march at all), so it would have been perfectly reasonable, on that occasion, for a soldier with a wooden leg to be in the front lines and begging for tobacco. I doubt that explains the origin of the song -- but it *could* have happened.
We might note that there were also a fair number of officers with wooden legs, the most senior being Confederate Lieutenant General Richard Ewell (who was wounded during the Second Bull Run campaign; Harpers, p. 385) and full General John Bell Hood (who lost the leg at Chickamauga; Harpers, p. 546. He had earlier lost the use of an arm at Gettysburg). As officers, however, they were permitted to ride rather than march -- Hood, in fact, had to be strapped to his horse, though Ewell was able to mount and dismount on his own. We might also add that, though both had been fine division commanders before being wounded, neither performed very well following amputation and promotion. Ewell's hesitation at Gettysburg may have cost the Confederates that battle; Hood's performance in the Atlanta and Nashville campaigns finally doomed the Confederacy.)
For whatever reason, the Union doesn't seem to have had as many active-duty officers who lost legs. At least, I can't recall reading of many. Daniel Sickles lost his at Gettysburg (Harpers, p. 512), but he was an incompetent and was put on the shelf after that -- indeed, it was his incompetent direction of his corps which cost him his leg. There was a young fool named Ulric Dahlgren who led a cavalry raid on Richmond after losing a leg, but he was only a colonel -- and was killed in the Dahlgren Raid, his only active service after his injury (Harpers, p. 523). There were some fairly senior men who had lost an arm -- Philip Kearney (who lost his left arm in the Mexican War; Boatner, p. 449) and Oliver O. Howard (who lost his right arm at Fair Oaks; Boatner, p. 413), But losing an arm doesn't seem to have been as debilitating as losing a leg. Hard to shoot a musket, though....
The versions called "The Soldier's Song" should not be confused with the song of that name which is the national anthem of Ireland. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: FSC143

Old Tom Bolen (Tom Boleyn II)

DESCRIPTION: "Old Tom Bolen, his horse Beaver, Forked Deer and Hatchee River, My wife's dead and I'm a widower, And I'll go back to Rollin' River."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: animal death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 425, "Old Tom Boleyn" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7632
NOTES [54 words]: Randolph tentatively links this song to the minstrel piece "Way Down South in Alabama," containing the lines "My wife's dead and I'm a widder, All de way from Roarin' Ribber." Since we're speculating, is there any possibility that these are the fiddler's mnemonic for "Forked Deer"? (I concede the tunes are not the same.) - RBW
File: R425

Old Tom Cat, The

DESCRIPTION: "An old lady sat by the fire, An she thought no one was nigh her... And she pulled up her petticoat higher." "The old tom cat saw something naked, an for a rat or a mouse did take it," and attacks, with raucous results
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: bawdy animal fight humorous
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 46, pp. 228-229, "The Old Tom Cat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10102
File: Logs046

Old Tom Wilson

See Walk Tom Wilson (File: BoWo081)

Old Tommy Kendal

See This Old Man (File: FSWB390C)

Old Towler

DESCRIPTION: "Bright Chanticleer proclaims the dawn" and dogs and huntsmen gather. "This day a stag must die." They drink, joke, and start the hunt. "Fleet Towler leads the cry." The stag is killed. "The huntsman's pleasure is no more. His joys were in the chase"
AUTHOR: Music: "Mr. Shield" (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1789 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal dog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 61, "Old Towler" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 510)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 663
ADDITIONAL: A Select Collection of Songs (Newcastle Upon Tyne, 1806) ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 66-67, "Old Towler" (1 text)
Roud #1240
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1415), "Old Towler" ("Bright Chanticleer proclaims the dawn"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also 2806 c.16(200), Harding B 28(113), Firth c.19(108), Firth c.19(109), Johnson Ballads 536, Harding B 11(1839), Firth b.26(477)[many illegible words], 2806 c.13(233), Harding B 11(2832), Harding B 11(2833), Harding B 11(620), Firth b.28(9a/b) View 5 of 8, Harding B 11(2830), "Old Towler"; Harding B 28(265), "A Celebrated Hunting Song"; Harding B 28(70), "Old Towler, a Favourite Hunting Song"
NOTES [176 words]: Jim Dixon sends this note on the background of this song:
The song is sung by the character Ellen in Act 1, Scene 4, of the play "The Czar Peter" by John O'Keefe. A notation on the title page of the play says: "Performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden, in 1789. - The musick by Mr. Shield." The entire play, including lyrics for several other songs, is included in "The Dramatic Works of John O'Keefe, Esq." Vol. 3. (London: T Woodfall, 1798). Lyrics of OLD TOWLER are on page 135.
The Levy Sheet Music Collection at Johns Hopkins University has 2 editions of the sheet music for OLD TOWLER, both undated, both attributed to "Mr. Shield."
One edition, published in Boston [USA], says: "Sung by Mr. Williamson at the Boston Theatre." The other edition, published in New York, says: "Sung by Mr. Tyler at the Newyork Theatre."- (RBW)
Amélie Addison tells me further that "'Old Towler' is from Czar Peter (1790) -- the production was a failure so the full score was never published, but that song was very well-received so was published separately." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: WT061

Old Travelling Man, The

See Traveling Man (Traveling Coon) (File: RcTMTC)

Old Trouble -- A L Ranch Colored Cook

DESCRIPTION: "Morn's breakin' over de ole Ranch before de moon's gone way," meaning frost is coming. In artificial black dialect, the speaker describes all the signs in nature which reveal that "dere's gwine to be some trouble mighty soon"
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: Black(s) warning nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 122-123, "'Old Trouble' A L Ranch Colored Cook" (1 text)
File: ThLo122

Old Tucker

DESCRIPTION: "All hands up and circle left; All the way round. Half way 'n back. Dance, Tucker, Dance. Swing your partner on a corner.... Dance, Old Tucker, While you're young, When you get old, you can't dance none... Gents choose a partner"; the one left is Tucker's
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 42, "Old Tucker" (1 text, with a note that any lively tune may be used)
File: Skea042

Old Turkey Hen, The

DESCRIPTION: "Seven years a-boiling, Ho-ma-hala-way, Seven years a-baking, Ho-ma-hala-way." "They blowed the horn for dinner... The people could not eat her." "They carried her to the old field... The buzzards could not eat her...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: bird food humorous
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 203, "The Old Turkey Hen" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 203, "The Old Turkey Hen" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #21018
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)"
NOTES [49 words]: Paul Stamler suggests that this is a version of "The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)." There are similarities of both plot and lyrics; he may well be right. In fact, I think it more likely than not that he's right. But just enough doubts remain that I'm tentatively keeping them separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Br3203

Old Tyler

DESCRIPTION: "Old (Tyler/Napper) was a good old dog, We thought he'd treed a coon, But when we come to find it out Old Tyler was barking at the moon...." The song tells of Tyler's eccentricities and how Allegheny finally shot the animal
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi)
KEYWORDS: dog death animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 76, p. 203, "Old Napper" (1short text, mostly floating verses)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 37, "Old Napper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 69-70, "[Old Tyler]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 395, "Old Rattler" (1 text, evidently this song from the verses, though it has the chorus from "Old Rattler")
Roud #5712
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Napper"
NOTES [86 words]: This is a bit of a conundrum. The Ritchie family's "Old Tyler" is a coherent song, but its first verse floats, and the other songs here are all mixed up. And, of course, the name of the dog varies, e.g. Hudson's text seems to call him "Napper."
Then there is the Brown collection, which has a pair of fragments about "Napper" or "Old Napper." It's clearly not the same as Old Tyler; Napper is a human who fools around with the singer's wife. But the form hints that there is continuous variation between the two. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: JRSF069

Old Uncle John and His Educated Wife

See The ABC Song (II) (File: BuMa1024)

Old Uncle Ned

See Uncle Ned (File: R261)

Old Uncle Noah

DESCRIPTION: "Old Uncle Noah built him an ark / He built it out of hemlock bark... The animals went in two by two / The elephant and the kangaroo... Mrs. Noah she got drunk / She kicked old Noah out of his bunk..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (College Songs)
KEYWORDS: Bible humorous nonballad flood
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro,SE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 181, (no title) (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 544, "Noah's Ark" (2 short texts, both of the "Gideon's Band" type)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 75, "Old Uncle Noah" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #179, "Noak's Ark" (1 text)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 44-45, (no title) (partial text, which may go here or elsewhere); pp. 246-247, "Noah, Noah" (1 tune, partial text, same as the reference on p. 44)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 6, pp. 10, 43, "Mr. Noah" (4 texts, 1 tune, all to the tune of "Go In and Out the Window"; the first text, on p. 10, has an "Old Uncle Noah" first verse and a "Go In and Out the Window" second verse but is given its own Roud number, #1405. the (A) text on p. 43, "Marry's Grandma," is a fragment that does not seem to occur elsewhere; (B) on p. 43 mixes verses about a lunatic asylum with "in and out the window" lines and is also unique; its Roud number is #1410. The final lyric on p. 43, (C), is a fairly normal "Go In and Out the WIndow" variant)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 24, "Keep Your Hat On" (1 text, 1 tune, of the "Gideon's Band" type, but probably rewritten for comic effect)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 106, "Dem Bone Are Gonna... Rise Again" (1 text, with verses typical of "Old Uncle Noah" but the chorus of "Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again" [Laws I18])
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, part I, p. 72, "The Ark" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 47, "Old Noah, He Did Build an Ark" (1 text, 1 tune, of the "Gideon's Band" type) (p. 39 of part III in the 1876 edition)
ST E075 (Partial)
Roud #5355 and 21054
RECORDINGS:
Al Hopkins & His Buckle Busters, "Gideon's Band" (Brunswick 295, 1929; rec. 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One More River" (lyrics)
cf. "Who Built the Ark?" (subject)
cf. "Old Noah Built an Ark" (subject)
cf. "Noah Built the Ark" (subject)
cf. "In Frisco Bay (A Long Time Ago; Noah's Ark Shanty)" (subject)
cf. "Please Lord, Don't Leave Me" (theme, some lines)
NOTES [202 words]: The account of Noah and the ark occupies Genesis 6-8. One should perhaps note that, while Genesis 6:20 records that Noah took two of every animal, 7:2 tells Noah to take SEVEN pairs of all clean animals.
The Bible also records that Noah "was the first to plant a vineyard" (Gen. 9:20 -- after the flood, one might note). 9:21 records his first episode of drunkenness -- but there is no record of his wife ever drinking; indeed, she is never mentioned in the Bible except in references to Noah's whole family.
The "Gideon's Band" subfamily (marked by the chorus "Do you belong to Gideon's Band, Here's my heart and here's my hand") is quite distinct and may contain verses not about Noah (as, e.g., in the Buckle Busters recording), but since it seems always to include the Noah's Ark verses also, it can't really be split off. It is interesting to note that College Songs lists the tune of this as "Gideon's Band."
Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 49, lists three broadsides of a song called "Gideon's Band." It is not clear that it is this song, but it looks like a minstrel piece. One edition was dated 1861. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: E075

Old Virginia Low Lands Low, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye Tars of Columbia, and listen to my song; It's of a Union battery, I won't detain you long: She was built by Ericcson, a famous man is he"; she fought the Merrimac after the latter beat the Cumberland and Congress "in the old Virginia lowlands, low"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1879 (de Marsan broadside)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 8, 1862 - Battle of Hampton Roads. U.S. frigates Congress and Cumberland sunk by the CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimack). The Minnesota runs aground; had not the Monitor arrived the next day, the Merrimac would have sunk that ship also
May 4-5, 1862 - Battle of Williamsburg
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1737, p. 117, "Old Virginia Low Land, Low" (3 references)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 68, "(Then up came Josy Hooker, with all his fighting train)" (1 fragment)
Roud #V6777
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 31(28), "Old Virginia Lowland, Low," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878 (almost illegible)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pompey Snow" (tune, according to Bodleian broadside Harding B 31(28))
NOTES [6730 words]: For background on the Monitor and the Virginia/Merrimac and the Battle of Hampton Roads, see the notes to "The Cumberland Crew" [Laws A18]. The Battle of Hampton Roads is clearly the subject of the usual version of this song, the version included in the de Marsan broadsides.
The Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest version of this is a conundrum in several ways. First, the lyrics it contains are not in the original broadside; the only thing that links them is the reference to "the old Virginia lowlands low." But it's a Civil War song containing that line; I am assuming identity until and unless another version shows up! The rest of this entry tries to de-mystify this single-verse fragment that may be a second part, or a rewrite, or even an almost-lost original of the song in the broadsides.
The conundrum in the Greenway version is the mention of "Josy Hooker" who "whipped them on the third day and walloped them over again." "Josy Hooker" is certainly Union general Joseph Hooker. The obvious assumption is that the verse refers to the battle at which he commanded the Union army, i.e. the Battle of Chancellorsville. But there are two problems with this. First, although the Chancellorsville campaign lasted a week (May 30-April 6, 1863), the real battle occupied just two days, with some cleaning up on the third day. But second, and more important, Hooker *lost* the Battle of Chancellorsville; he never whipped anyone on any day of the fight (Boatner, pp. 136-140).
The conclusion that I come to is that the reference in the Greenway text is not to Chancellorsville in 1863 but to the Peninsular Campaign of 1862, in which Hooker led a division in the Union III Corps. This makes sense in several other ways: First, the Peninsular Campaign was underway at the time of the Monitor/Merrimac battle, so a reference to the Peninsular campaign would be logical in a song about the Battle of Hampton Roads. Second, the Peninsula was indeed in the Virginia Lowlands (unlike Chancellorsville, which was well inland at a site significantly above sea level).
There were several battles in the Peninsular Campaign (Williamsburg, Fair Oaks/Seven Pines, Seven Days), but only the Seven Days had a third day. That day was the Battle of Gaines's Mill, but Hooker's Division was not in action on that day (Boatner, p. 321). Thus no battle of the campaign really fits the description in the song.
In the absence of clear evidence, logic leads me to conclude that the song refers to the Battle of Williamsburg. The actual fighting spanned just two days (May 4-5, 1862), but the battle was part of the Confederate retreat from Yorktown, which the Confederates had evacuated on May 3, so you could argue that May 5 was the third day of the fight. And Hooker's division was the single most important unit in the fight on the Federal side. I can't prove it, but Williamsburg seems the likeliest context for the song. So we'll take a look at Hooker's history, then at Williamsburg in detail and the other fighting in the Peninsula.
Joseph Hooker (1814-1879) had been educated at West Point (doing very well academically but earning a lot of demerits for bad conduct; SearsChancellorsville, p. 54). He had done good service in the Mexican War (where he in effect ran the commands of generals who were political appointees and didn't know what they were doing) and Indian fighting, but by the time of the Civil War, he had left the army. When the war started, he wanted back in. Making his way to Washington, he managed to talk his way into a brigadier generalship in July 1861 (dated to May 17. 1861; Hebert, p. 50). He received a brigade of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania troops (Hebert, pp. 51-52). On October 11, he moved up to command a division (Hebert, pp. 53-54). Early in 1862, against the will of army commander George McClellan, the Army of the Potomac was organized into corps, and (after a brief bit of reshuffling), Hooker's Division became the First Division of S. P. Heintzelman's Third Corps (Hebert, p. 72). Hooker would retain this post for the entire Peninsular Campaign, though he burned through several brigade commanders (Hebert, pp. 78-79, tells of Hooker's quarrels with his senior brigadier, Henry M. Naglee, until the latter was replaced by Cuvier Grover).
Although the Battle of Williamsburg took place after the Battle of Hampton Roads, the two are closely related, and Williamsburg was the next big event after Hampton Roads. It is easy to see why someone might add a Williamsburg sequel to a song about Hampton Roads -- or why the second part would be dropped be a publisher who wanted a short piece, because the Monitor/Merrimac battle was much better remembered than Williamsburg.
To understand the connection between the two battles, it's important to know that the Virginia Peninsula was the region between the wide tidal basins of the York River on the north and the James River on the south, with the James flowing into the sea at Hampton Roads. The Peninsula led straight toward Richmond, the destination of every Federal campaign in the east. Union commander George B. McClellan -- who was to reveal a strong disinclination to actually fight -- didn't like the idea of moving south from Washington to Richmond, which would force him to fight his way through a Confederate army that he thought far larger than it actually was. Instead, he would take his army of some 120,000 down the Virginia coast by sea and land in the Confederate rear.
McClellan's original plan had been to land his army to Urbanna on the Rappahannock River, but when Confederate commander Joseph E. Johnston -- who feared the Federal advance that McClellan was afraid to make -- retreated from Manasseh Junction in northern Virginia, that was no longer viable. McClellan needed another idea, and quickly came up with the notion to take his men to the Federal bastion Fort Monroe at the end of the Virginia Peninsula, and move to Richmond from there. Being a fine manager if a poor combat soldier, he did a good job of changing his destination, but it meant that he didn't know much about the roads and fortifications he would encounter (SearsGates, p. 29). The Peninsula was a straight path to Richmond, but the few roads would prove to be terrible. And it was relatively narrow, and one of the narrowest points was near Yorktown (which was, of course, on the York River, on the north side of the Peninsula), which meant that it was generally not possible to maneuver around a position.
This brings us to the distribution of Confederate forces in the area. The main Confederate army was not located in the Peninsula, but the division of John Bankhead Magruder was based at Yorktown to watch the Federals at Fort Monroe. The Virginia/Merrimac was not based in the Peninsula either; it sailed from Norfolk on the south side of Hampton Roads. But it was so unseaworthy that it couldn't proceed far; it was stuck using Norfolk as its base. Had McClellan been able to go to Urbana, this wouldn't have mattered; the Virginia couldn't get at him. Not so in the Peninsula.
This meant that Norfolk and Yorktown were, in an odd way, mutually supporting: If Norfolk fell and the Virginia lost, then McClellan could use Hampton Roads and the south side of the Peninsula to bypass Yorktown, but with the Virginia in place, this was impossible. Similarly, if Yorktown fell, the Confederates would be forced so far up the Peninsula that Norfolk would be untenable and have to be abandoned (at least, that was what the Confederate high command thought; SearsGates, p. 47). And Yorktown was also the lynchpin of the front line in the Peninsula, because if its naval defenses could be cleared, then the Federal navy could sail up the York River past the Confederate line and attack them in the rear (Freeman, p. 148). So Norfolk and Yorktown, even though they had no direct connection, guarded the flanks of the Confederate position, and if either fell, then the Confederates would have to fall back. And so, at the start of the Peninsular Campaign, everyone depended on Yorktown.
McClellan, after landing at Fort Monroe, headed for Yorktown with two corps in front and a lot of additional forces coming up behind. On his left, the James River side, was the fourth corps of Erasmus Keyes (almost certainly the worst of McClellan's corps commanders; McClellan tried to get rid of him -- SearsGates, p. 57 -- and he would be hung our to dry after the Peninsula Campaign; Warner, pp. 264-265). Heintzelman's Third Corps was on the right, toward Yorktown (SearsGates, p. 35). Heintzelman wasn't a particularly dynamic commander either (though probably better than Keyes), but his corps consisted of the divisions of Joseph Hooker and Philip Kearney, probably the two best division commanders in the army at this time, with troops worthy of their commanders.
When Heintzelman and (later) McClellan arrived before Yorktown, Magruder thoroughly deceived them, marching small units up and down the battlefield in such a way as to make it appear he had many more troops than he had (Catton-Lincoln, p. 108; SearsGates, p. 37). McClellan, who was never bold about anything except arguing with his superiors, was sufficiently taken in that he decided to stop his advance and conduct a siege of Yorktown.
When Confederate commander Johnston came to Yorktown, he found major problems with the defenses. One problem was that there weren't enough troops, but worse, the defenses were ill-designed and not complete.
Johnston thought it madness to fight on that spot. He could bring only four divisions to the immediate vicinity (G. W. Smith's, Longstreet's, Magruder's, and D. H. Hill's); all were unusually large, but even so, they mustered only about 56,500 men (Freeman, p. 156). Even those would take time to arrive; McClellan's probes began on April 6, and it was not until April 11 that Johnston and Magruder had even 34,000 men on the spot (SearsGates, p. 45). McClellan had too many troops (about 120,000) and too much siege artillery for Yorktown to be defended with the available Confederates. Johnston wanted to retreat at once to a more defensible position (Freeman, pp. 148-149). Against anyone but McClellan, he was probably right. (Johnston said at the time, "No one but McClellan could have hesitated to attack"; Freeman, p. 154; SearsGates, p. 45.) Against McClellan, if nothing else, Johnston had time; the Federals would not attack until McClellan had brought up every big gun he could emplace. The Confederate War Department didn't know this, but they still ordered Johnston to bring down his entire army and hold the Yorktown line (Freeman, p. 151). Nonetheless, the idea of strategic retreat was obviously on Johnston's mind. He would wait until McClellan was ready to flatten him, then pull out.
Interestingly, even as Johnston was bringing up troops to Yorktown, the Virginia sortied on April 11 (SearsGates, p. 45). The Monitor was still there, and the Federals had other ships with which they hoped to ram and sink the Virginia even if they couldn't damage her armored citadel. The Virginia's new commander was too cautious to accomplish much in the face of so much opposition, so she headed back to port. The game was repeated a few more times in the weeks that followed, with little result (SearsGates, pp. 45-46), but her later voyages might have helped inspire an addition to this song about the place where there was actual fighting going on.
Meanwhile, McClellan's hundreds of heavy guns were slowly but steadily being landed and put into place -- a not-insignificant feat of military engineering, though it would go for naught. Heintzelman's corps was in position to attack Yorktown as soon as McClellan gave the word (SearsGates, p. 61).
Johnston read McClellan very well. Supposedly the last Federal guns were six hours away from being in place when Johnston ordered the retreat on March 3, 1862 (Freeman, p. 155). McClellan, being McClellan, might have waited another day or two to start the big attack, but Johnston couldn't know that. Johnston ordered a lot of artillery fire to deceive the Federals (SearsGates, p. 61; Hebert, p. 80, says this fell primarily on Hooker's men), then pulled out, assigning D. H. Hill's division and the cavalry to cover the retreat (Freeman, p. 174).
When the morning came, there was silence at Yorktown. In an interesting technological twist, General Heintzelman actually went up in a balloon and saw that there was no one there (SearsGates, p. 62). Showing unusual initiative, he shouted out for his pickets to enter the Confederate lines -- where they found nothing except detritus (plus a sign that read "He that fights and runs away Will live to fight another day. May 3" -- SearsGates, p. 62). The siege had lasted exactly a month (SearsGates, p. 66). Joseph Hooker correctly forecast, "The retreat of the rebels I fear will play the devil with McClellan" (SearsGates, pp. 65-66).
In the short term, the Federals were quick to follow, even though it took Hooker until 1:00 p.m. to gather his scattered troops (Hebert, p. 80) and even though McClellan had no plans for an advance beyond Yorktown and had little cavalry organized for the task (SearsGates, p. 67). The Confederates had lots of time to escape -- but they didn't entirely succeed.
Slowing the Confederates was the fact that had only two roads to retreat by, and by May 5, the weather had settled into a steady downpour. The retreating Rebel supply train and artillery simply could not move quickly in the mud (SearsGates, p. 70). The Confederates needed to slow down the advancing Union soldiers. Outside Williamsburg, at a narrow point in the Peninsula, there were a some defensive works centered around a position called Fort Magruder, which Magruder had built months before as a fallback position (SearsGates, p. 70). Johnston ordered a couple of brigades to conduct a rearguard action from there, then decided to assign Longstreet's whole division plus additional troops (Freeman, pp. 175-179).
Meanwhile, the Federals were advancing with two separate divisions (Hooker's of the Third Corps and "Baldy" Smith's of the Fourth Corps) on two different roads (SearsGates, p 70); unfortunately, no one was exercising any real command over the two divisions (Heintzelman apparently tried to get the senior officer in the field, the doddering Edwin V. "Bull" Sumner, to do something, but Sumner couldn't figure out what was going on and did nothing; SearsGates, p. 74). Hooker and Smith were basically on their own, with no coordination between them (SearsGates, pp. 70-71). Hooker went in and found himself in the middle of a big fight, with no support in sight (SearsGates, pp. 73-74).
He was up against Longstreet's division. Longstreet's troops would mostly stay in Fort Magruder and its supporting works, but Hooker's under-supported attack was too tempting to simply await passively. One of Hooker's brigades, the "Excelsior Brigade," lost very heavily, with one of its regiments, the 70th New York, suffering close to 50% casualties (SearsGates, p. 74). Fortunately, Phil Kearny's division came up, and unlike Bull Sumner, he could see and act. Even though he was new to division command, he drove his troops forward and stabilized the situation (SearsGates, pp. 75-77).
The other Confederate troops, from D. H. Hill's division, on May 5 would engage in a counter-attack against Hancock's brigade of Smith's division on the other side of the field of battle. Smith had wanted to send reinforcements; Sumner ordered him not to (SearsGates, p. 78), and indeed ordered Hancock back; only the arrival of the Confederates prevented a useless retreat (SearsGates, pp. 79-80). Hancock's Federals won a tidy little victory. Jubal A. Early's brigade charged them, in the course of which it lost a quarter of its strength and accomplished very little; Early himself was wounded (Freeman, pp. 182-188). The Confederates suffered five times as many casualties as Hancock (SearsGates, p. 81). But one brigade by itself could hardly follow up the win!
After that, the Williamsburg troops, and all of Johnston's army, resumed their retreat (Freeman, p. 193). On the morning of May 6, Union pickets found no Confederates on their front (SearsGates, p. 82).
Overall, the battle was a very bad one for the Federals -- "Baldy" Smith considered the operation "a beastly exhibition of stupidity and ignorance." The Confederates took 1682 casualties, the Federals 2283 (SearsGates, p. 82), and if it hadn't been for Jubal Early's foolish assault, the ratio would have been on the order of 2:1 against the Federals. Two-thirds of the Union casualties were in Hooker's Division, according to BattlesLeaders, p. 200: Cuvier Grover's First Brigade had 33 killed, 186 wounded, 34 missing, for a total of 253; Nelson Taylor's Second Brigade (the Excelsior Brigade) lost 191 killed, 349 wounded, 232 missing (total of 772); Francis E. Patterson's Third Brigade lost 109, 353, 64 (total of 526); and the attached artillery lost 4 killed, 20 wounded (total of 24), making the total divisional loss 1575. Hebert, p. 87, accepts these figures and says they represented 20% of the division's strength for a battle that was "unnecessary" (Hebert, p. 89). McClellan puffed up his triumph to the newspapers (SearsGates, p. 83), but even he was apparently upset with Sumner (SearsGates, p. 84). Hancock got a lot of credit, which he deserved, but Hooker and Kearny justifiably felt slighted (Hebert, p. 89).
It is usually reported that Hooker's nickname "Fighting Joe Hooker" (which he hated) came out of this battle -- a newspaper report described the actions of various units, and included the words "Fighting -- Joe Hooker," and it stuck (Hebert, p. 91, although the same page says that there are some problems with this account). His division certainly fought; Hebert, p. 104, notes that, through the first day of the Seven Days' Battles, Hooker's Division had done more fighting, and taken more casualties, than any other in the Union army.
The next big battle in the Peninsula Campaign was the Battle of Fair Oaks/Seven Pines, a two-day event. Hooker's Division fought, but only on the second day, and its casualties were relatively light (153 killed, wounded, and missing, according to Hebert, pp. 96-97). I don't think this can possibly be the battle referred to in this song.
Then came the Seven Days' Battles. The main battle on Day One (June 25, 1862) was the Battle of Oak Grove (on the south side of the Chickahominy, away from where Robert E. Lee would soon attack the Federal right flank). This was the only time in the entire battle when Federal troops conducted any sort of offensive action, and it quite limited -- but it involved Hooker's division. He was initially told to make an advance, halted, told to pull back, then advanced again. It was not a great success; the Confederates took 441 casualties, the Union 626 -- and half of those were in Hooker's Division, since it had played the leading part (Hebert, p. 103; SearsGates, p. 189, with a map of what was going on on p. 185). But none of it mattered, because Lee's attack on the Federal right would soon render all actions on the Federal left, including Hooker's, irrelevant.
The situation was this: McClellan had brought his army very close to Richmond (about six miles away at some points on the front line). But he had divided the army: Most of it was south of the Chickahominy River, but -- for no good reason -- McClellan had left a reinforced corps, with between a quarter and a third of his total strength, north of the river. The two halves of the army were connected by a few bridges that allowed reinforcements to cross, but not quickly. The forces south of the river, which included Hooker's Division and all of the Third Corps, were the ones in position to attack Richmond. The forces north of the river couldn't do much of anything. And it was those that Robert E. Lee had determined to attack. Day Two of the Seven Days was the first day of Lee's attack, at Mechanicsville.
Lee's attack at Mechanicsville was a flop, and he had taken at least two-thirds of his forces north of the Chickahominy to make it. An aggressive Union general would have taken the chance to smash Lee's small forces south of the Chickahominy and entered Richmond behind him. But McClellan was not an aggressive general. And Lee had put John Magruder's division south of the Chickahominy, and Magruder again showed himself a master stage manager, making his forces seem much stronger than they were. So, on day two, the Federals south of the river sat tight. Hooker's men engaged in some contests of pickets with Magruder, but it was basically an off day for them (Hebert, p. 105).
And even though the attack at Mechanicsville failed to budge the Union lines, it broke George McClellans already-feeble will to fight: "[H]owever grim the failures of the day, General Lee had succeeded in one vitally important respect: he had captured the initiative. Equally important, he had indelibly impressed that fact on the mind of his opponent. Just five hours after the fighting at Mechanicsville ended, General McClellan determined he must retreat from Richmond" (SearsGates, p. 209).
The third day of the Seven Days was the Battle of Gaines's Mill. Once again Lee attacked the smaller part of McClellan's army north of the Chickahominy, and this time he defeated it, reinforcing McClellan's decision to retreat (SearsGates, p. 249, etc.; Boatner, p. 321). Hooker's Division was not involved. Phil Kearny, with some moral support from Hooker and Heintzelman, wanted to go for Richmond. McClellan basically ordered them to shut up and retreat (Hebert, p. 106). McClellan did order some reinforcements north of the Chickahominy (SearsGates, pp. 233-234), but not Hooker (or Kearney); Day Three was once again a quiet day for them.
Day four was a sort of pause; McClellan had pulled his army to a defensible position, and was trying to organize his retreat, while Lee was trying to figure out where McClellan would go next, so there was no major battle on that day although the armies were in contact and there were a few casualties (SearsGates, p. 255). Thus, even if the author of this song considered June 26 rather than June 25 to be the third day of the Seven Days, Hooker did not fight on that day. Day five brought the Battle of Savage's Station, a series of attempts by Lee to attack McClellan's rearguard; the Confederates inflicted substantially more losses than they suffered, but they didn't really change the situation much (Boatner, pp. 721-722), and Hooker was only marginally involved.
The Third Corps finally got into action on day six, the Battle of Glendale, June 30, when five Union divisions, including Hooker and Kearny, fought a rearguard action as the Union army retreated toward the James River and Lee's army tried to stop them (Hebert, pp. 108-109); this time, even McClellan gave Hooker credit (Hebert, p. 110): The Union line had been a jumble of units with no overall commander, but when the Confederates had broken the division of McCall in the Union center, Hooker on the left and Kearny on the right, acting independently, had held their lines and prevented a Confederate breakthrough that would have split the Union army in two (SearsGates, pp. 301-304). This would have been a good candidate for the battle in the song, except that there is no way it can be referred to the "third day."
On the seventh and last day, July 1, the armies fought the Battle of Malvern Hill, in which Lee's troops attempted to storm an impregnable position and were thrown back with immense losses; it was the most lopsided Federal victory on the Virginia front prior to the fall of Richmond. Hooker's troops were in the front line, though their part was relatively minor (Hebert, p. 111). Hooker got some press even so; the editors of the time demanded regular stories from their reporters, and the reporters were developing a tendency to follow Hooker around because he had done more fighting than most and also often provided good quotes; one New York correspondent actually gave Hooker credit for winning the battle -- in the process praising the Excelsior Brigade of New Yorkers, naturally (Hebert, pp. 111-112).
One wonders if Hooker also got credit from the press for fighting on the third day (even though he didn't), and if that contributed to this song.
At the end of July came word of a set of mass promotions to Major General (the highest rank then authorized in the United States Army). Until then, almost everyone in the Army of the Potomac except McClellan had been a Brigadier General. Phisterer, p. 252, lists the officers in this Great Promotion, which included (if I count correctly) 13 generals from the Army of the Potomac. Most of these had their promotions dated from July 4, but Hooker's promotion was dated May 5 (according to Hebert, 115, the date had been moved to that date as the anniversary of the Battle of Williamsburg). That change in date would prove significant for Hooker's career; when the McClellan clique was purged at the end of 1862, it left Hooker senior to almost everyone in the army and in line for higher command. (It will tell you how high the turnover in the Army of the Potomac was that, at Gettysburg less than a year later, only two of those 13 generals were still with the Army of the Potomac.) Hooker would command the Army of the Potomac by early 1863 -- but for the moment he remained a division commander under Heintzelman.
There was one more small skirmish in the Peninsula. McClellan had retreated to a place called Harrison's Landing on the James River. In early August, he ordered a probe toward the Malvern Hill battlefield, and gave the job to Hooker. Nothing much came of it, and McClellan was ordered to leave the Peninsula at about the same time, but Hooker's Division took about fifty more casualties (Hebert, pp. 114-117).
On August 21, Hooker's Division left the Peninsula (Hebert, p. 118). No one knew it, but within a month, Hooker would permanently give up command of the division. For the short run, the division fought near Bristoe Station before the Second Battle of Bull Run and took about 300 casualties (Hebert, p. 121), but it was out of the Virginia Lowlands; it would never return, at least as part of the Third Corps.
Hooker's last battle with his division was Second Bull Run, where John Pope made unsuccessful attacks against Stonewall Jackson's wing of Robert E. Lee's army until Lee arrived with Longstreet's wing and crushed Pope's army between the two halves. Hooker's and Kearny's divisions were both ordered, separately, to attack Jackson, and both managed to get troops into his line -- something no other Union forces managed -- but because of Pope's disastrous battle management, neither attack was reinforced and both were forced back (Hebert, p. 123), with Hooker's Division taking another 1200 casualties in the course of the campaign (Hebert, p. 126; that left the division so weak that even Hooker, who loved fighting, thought it unable to fight). That was basically the end for the old Third Corps command structure; Kearny was killed on September 1 (Warner, p. 259), Hooker promoted to command a corps, and Heintzelman reassigned. The Third Corps was not present at Antietam, and at Fredericksburg, it was commanded by George Stoneman, with Dan Sickles and David B. Birney commanding its divisions. Sickles would take over the corps before Chancellorsville.
Hooker's promotion to corps command took place on September 5, 1862 when he was assigned the command of Fitz-John Porter's Fifth Corps (Porter had been charged by Pope with disobeying orders and removed). The next day, George McClellan brought his friend Porter back and Hooker was moved to the First Corps, which he would command at the Battle of Antietam (Hebert, p. 130). Hooker's forces would open that bloody battle -- and be slaughtered, with Hooker himself taking a bullet through his foot that forced him into the hospital (Hebert, pp. 142-143); his battle career as a corps commander lasted for something like an hour. In any case, Antietam cannot be the battle in the song, since it took place in Maryland, not Virginia, plus it lasted only a day.
Shortly afterward, Hooker, a Major General in the Volunteer Army, was promoted to Brigadier General in the Regular Army (Hebert, p. 146) -- quite a high honor, because ranks in the Volunteer Army would go away once the war was over and the army went back to its regular size. Most of the generals in the war, if they were in the Regular Army at all, were captains or majors -- sometimes not even that! -- so to be a Regular Army brigadier was quite a big deal.
Hooker spent only a couple of months as a corps commander. After Antietam, there was talk of putting him in command of the army, but the Lincoln Administration didn't trust him and gave the job to the disastrous Ambrose Burnside. Burnside then appointed Hooker to lead one of his three "grand divisions" -- units of two corps (Hebert, pp. 151-152); an organization that would last only as long as Burnside (i.e. a few months -- which was a few months too long). After Burnside made a disaster of the Battle of Fredericksburg, then of the so-called Mud March, and managed his logistics so badly that his troops were starving, the Administration was forced to do something. They dithered for a time, not wanting to appoint Hooker to command the army but having no other good option, but he finally got the job (Hebert, pp. 166-167; the other two Grand Division commanders quit as a result -- but that hardly mattered, since Hooker had no use for the Grand Divisions anyway).
Hooker wasn't expected to be a good administrator, but in fact he proved excellent at it, improving the food and sanitation, improving the men's quarters, raising the standard of training, tightening up discipline but also instituting furloughs, and working to improve the quality of officers in the Army of the Potomac (Hebert, pp. 179-181; SearsChancellorsville, pp. 70-74). Because of his failure in battle, this work tends to be forgotten in shorter histories, but without Hooker, the army might have been too demoralized to have won at Gettysburg. As SearsChancellorsville comments on p. 54, "General Hooker understood a good deal more about commanding the Army of the Potomac than any general ho had held that post before him."
Eventually Hooker ordered his troops out on what became the Chancellorsville campaign -- and became the only Federal general ever to outsmart Lee: "Hooker's campaign plan was inspired -- ' decidedly the best strategy conceived in any of the campaigns ever set on foot against us,' said Confederate soldier and historian Porter Alexander -- and his opening maneuvers were brilliantly successful. After the war... 'I won greater success on many fields in the war,' [Hooker] wrote, 'but nowhere did I deserve it half so much..." (SearsChancellorsville, p. ix) -- SearsChancellorsville goes on to conclude that Hooker was "more sinned against [than sinning], by inept lieutenants and simple happenstance."
Hooker came up with a plan to force the Army of Northern Virginia out of its defensive lines at Fredericksburg and fight on ground of Hooker's choosing. The plan worked; Hooker had Lee trapped between the two wings of his army, and had only to complete his maneuver to destroy the Confederate army. Instead, he seemed to lose his nerve and stopped all his forces in place (Hebert, p. 200). It gave Lee the chance to turn on the wings of Hooker's army separately.
The Battle of Chancellorsville is considered the greatest of all Lee's victories -- outnumbered two to one, and surprised, he still inflicted a defeat upon Hooker. In fact the victory hurt Lee's army far more than Hooker's -- Lee's 13,000 odd casualties were more than 20% of his army, Hooker's 17,000 odd were only about 15% -- and Lee lost Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson to the bullets of his own men. Chancellorsville was a big step toward the end of the war -- in some ways, it improved the Union position more than Gettysburg did. It didn't matter. On the map, it looked like a loss. Pluss most of Hooker's corps commanders no longer trusted him, and the same was true of most of the government (Hebert, pp. 228-229). And certainly it is true that Hooker's nerves had let him down once, and might let him down again. The administration wasn't united enough to fire him -- but they kept interfering with his plans and giving him orders he didn't want to follow. As Lee's army headed north toward Pennsylvania -- the campaign that would culminate in the Battle of Gettysburg -- Hooker eventually got fed up. In a grandstanding move, he sent off his resignation -- and was shocked to find it accepted (Hebert, pp. 242-245). Hooker's connection with the Army of the Potomac was done; George Gordon Meade would lead it at Gettysburg.
Which didn't quite mean that Hooker's career was over, though he would never serve again in Virginia (meaning that this song has to be about something before this time). There was talk for a time of him being given a corps in the Army of the Potomac, but Meade was understandably opposed (Hebert, p. 248).
Then the Union Army of the Cumberland was defeated at the Battle of Chickamauga, retreated to Chattanooga, and was besieged. The Union high command had to scramble to rescue the army before it was starved into surrender. Troops were sent from various Union armies to help out. General Meade was told to send two corps from the Army of the Potomac to provide part of the relieving army.
What followed was pretty predictable. Meade chose his two worst and weakest corps (Catton-Never, pp. 243-245). One was the Eleventh Corps, which, after Meade thoughtfully took away one of its three divisions, was much the weakest in the army, and which was blamed (slightly but not entirely unjustly) for disasters at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg; the other was the Twelfth Corps, which was a little stronger, and certainly had better troops, but still weak -- plus it was commanded by Henry Slocum, who just happened to be the senior officer of the Army of the Potomac, senior to Meade, so he was embarrassing to have around (before Meade was appointed, Slocum had said that he was willing to serve under Meade -- SearsChancellorsville, p. 435 -- but people could change their minds!).
These two corps were so small -- just nine brigades -- that the logical thing to do would have been to organize them as one corps, but instead the high command kept them separate and put them under Hooker -- over the vociferous objections of both Slocum and Oliver Howard, the two corps commanders, who didn't want to serve under him after Chancellorsville (Hebert, pp. 250-251). The troops went west anyway, with Slocum and Howard attached although they didn't really have much to do because of the small size of the force. Hooker's troops helped to establish the "cracker line" that let Chattanooga be supplied, although his quarrels with his officers continued, and Grant (no judge of character or of soldierly quality, as his treatment of George H. Thomas showed) wanted to reorganize his troops and get rid of both Hooker and Slocum (Hebert, pp. 255-260).
Hooker wasn't quite done yet, though. It was his troops that took Lookout Mountains in the "Battle Above the Clouds" that opened the Battle of Chattanooga (Hebert, pp. 263-264). He also played a part in the pursuit of the defeated Confederate army, though this still didn't endear him to Grant (Hebert, pp. 266-267). At the end of 1863, after Meade had spent the whole fall season (for practical purposes) avoiding fights with Lee, there was actually talk of bringing Hooker back to head the Army of the Potomac. When Grant became General in Chief in 1864, he firmly squelched that! (Hebert, p. 170). Hooker was stuck with his equivalent of a corps. At about that time, it was reorganized as an actual corps, the Twentieth, which meant that Howard and Slocum were out from under Hooker (Hebert, pp. 272-273); Hooker himself served as corps commander under George H. Thomas in the Army of the Cumberland. But Grant's friend Sherman was placed in charge of all the Western armies, so Hooker was still distrusted by the army's high command.
Sherman's army had a strange organization. It wasn't actually termed an army; rather, it was three armies -- Thomas's Army of the Cumberland, by far the largest of the three, in which Hooker served; the Army of Mississippi; and the Army of the Ohio, which was just a glorified corps. The problem was not that that three parts were designated "armies"; it was that they were very unequal in size, which made operations complicated -- it was not possible to divide the army into equal thirds, or even equal halves. But these were the forces Sherman commanded as he tried to take the city of Atlanta. McMurry, p. 33, considers Hooker "by far the most capable of Thomas's corps commanders," and I think the evidence supports this. But, as the army was approaching Atlanta, James B. McPherson, Sherman's favorite and the commander of the Army of Mississippi, was killed. Hooker thought he deserved to replace him. He was right, really, but Sherman didn't want him (McMurray, p. 107 and elsewhere, refers to Sherman's "unfair and unbecoming" behavior toward Hooker) and appointed Oliver Howard instead, despite Howard's many military failings and religious hysteria -- and Hooker, for the last time, let his ambition overcome his common sense. As a grandstand play, he resigned his corps command (Hebert, pp. 284-285; Warner, pp. 234-235; Cox, p. 179), and Sherman of course did not argue. And that was that; Hooker's career as a field commander was over (Hebert. pp. 286-287). In a further irony, Hooker's replacement was Slocum, the other officer who had been moved to let Hooker command the combined Twentieth Corps.
I have no doubt, personally, that Hooker would have been a better commander than Howard, but there were two problems with him. First, he was senior to Thomas, and if there was one thing that everyone agreed on, it was that Thomas had to be Sherman's successor if something happened to Sherman. (Frankly, Thomas should have been in charge of the whole thing; he was the best general the Union developed in the war -- and he wasn't even as wildly ambitious as most Federal officers were.) And, second, Hooker and Sherman just didn't get along, and Sherman didn't need Hooker causing friction (cf. Cox, p. 179). Thus Hooker's relentless ambition cost both Hooker and the army.
He was eventually given charge of a behind-the-lines district, but he had nothing to do there except hunt for Confederate sympathizers and write aggrieved letters to politician friends (Hebert, pp. 288-289). He did get to play a role in the transportation of Abraham Lincoln's corpse back to Illinois (Hebert, p. 292). He also had time to court Olivia Groesbeck; the 50-year-old lifelong bachelor married her in September 1865 (Hebert, p. 293). It was not to bring either one much happiness. The ruddy complexion that had made Hooker look so alluring may have been a sign of a heart condition; in November 1865 he suffered a stroke (interestingly, it was at a reception for General Grant -- Hebert, p. 293 -- so perhaps he was feeling more irritated than usual). He would suffer another stroke in 1867, and his wife died in 1868 -- though she at least left him enough money to be relatively comfortable in retirement (Hebert, p. 294).
Not even a stroke could keep him from continuing to complain about superiors and colleagues like Grant, Sherman, and Howard, which engaged in for what was left of his life; he died unexpectedly on October 31, 1879 (Hebert, p. 295; Warner, p. 235), a general who had been very good for every day of his career except two, but who had blighted his career with his quarreling and inability to keep his mouth shut.
Unlike most major Civil War figures, there is apparently only one full-length biography of Joseph Hooker: Hebert's, the one cited here. Its maps are hand-drawn, and it is obviously very dated (e.g. its attitude toward Indians and Mexicans is dreadful). There aren't many books about the Battle of Williamsburg, either; perhaps it's no surprise that the Joe Hooker version of this song is almost forgotten. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: GFGW068A

Old Virginny Never Tire

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses: "There is a gal in our town... The hollow of her foot makes a hole in the ground." "As I was walking... I met a terrapin and a toad." Chorus: "Old folks, young folks, clear the kitchen (x2), Old Virginny never tire."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 413, "Clare de Kitchen" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 413, "Clare de Kitchen" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 109, "Ol' Virginny Never Tire" (1 text, 1 tune); also some fragments (of this or something) on p. 110; also pp. 110-112 (no title) (1 unusually long text, attributed to T. Rice; curiously, this appears to be identical except for orthography to the version in Hazel Felleman, _The Best Loved Poems of the American People_, pp. 466-467)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 98-99, "Cl'ar de Kitchen" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Joey B. Hubbell, "Note on 'Old Virginia Never Tire'," Vol. XII, No. 2 (Dec. 1964), p. 26, "(Old Baginny, nebber tire)" (1 text)
Roud #751
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Save de Union" (lyrics)
cf. "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)"
cf. "Charleston Gals" (style)
cf. "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Turkey in the Straw" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [152 words]: This, like "Charleston Gals," is one of those hard-to-assess songs, since nearly every word floats. Roud lumps it with the even more amorphous "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)" family. It appears to me, though, that the chorus is distinct enough and widespread enough that the two should be kept separate.
The key line about "Old Virginny Never Tire" probably derives from the political piece "Save de Union."
One alternate title, "Clar de Kitchen," is said to have been a very early minstrel piece, joining the repertoire soon after the "original" minstrel song, "Jump Jim Crow" (and indeed was sung by the original "Jim Crow," Thomas Dartmouth RIce"; see Harold Vincent Milligan, Stephen Collins Foster: A Biography of America's Folk-Song Composer, 1920 (I use the 2004 University of Hawaii reprint), p. 41. If it's the same song, then this song must go back to the 1820s. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: ScaNF109

Old Wether's Skin, The

See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Old Whiskey Jug, The

See We Are Anchored By the Roadside, Jim (File: RcWAABTR)

Old Wichet

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Old Wichet and His Wife

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Old Widow's Broom, The

See Courting the Widow's Daughter (Hard Times) [Laws H25] (File: LH25)

Old Wife of Slapsadam, The (The Wily Auld Carle; The Old Woman in Dover; etc.)

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Old Wife, The

See Auld Wife beyont the Fire, The (File: CW128)

Old Willis Is Dead

See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Old Witch (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Now all you children stay at home, And be good girls while I am gone; Let no one in... Especially you, my daughter Sue, Or else I'll beat you black and blue." A witch tries to lure the children away from the mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty children mother
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #154, "Old Witch" (1 text of "Old Witch" plus 1 text of "Chickee Chickee Ma Craney Crow (Hawks and Chickens)"); #190, "Old Witch" (no text, but apparently Newell considers it another version of this game)
cf. Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 297-300, "Old Witch" (1 text and description, with only a few words in common with Newell but several of the same concepts)
File: Newe154

Old Witch (II, Game: "Old Man Hippety-Hop Took My Child")

See All the Pretty Little Horses (File: LxU002)

Old Woman

See Crockery Ware (File: Pea257)

Old Woman All Skin and Bones, The

See Skin and Bones (The Skin and Bones Lady) (File: R069)

Old Woman and Her Pig (Cumulative Folktale), The

DESCRIPTION: A woman is bringing a pig home where her servant-boy waits. The pig won't cross a bridge. She tries to get a dog to scare it; the dog won't bark. A stick won't beat the dog. At last she finds enough tricks to get the pig across the bridge and go home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Roberts-SangBranchSettlers)
KEYWORDS: humorous cumulative animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #105, "The Old Woman And Her Pig" (1 text with a chorus)
NOTES [55 words]: Roberts-SangBranchSettlers notes that this tale is Thompson type #2030. Properly speaking, the Roberts/Couch version is not a ballad -- but it has a sung chorus, so I have included it. No attempt is made to include versions of the tale without a musical part. I find myself wondering if Rube Goldberg knew a version of this tale. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Robe105

Old Woman and Her Pig, The

See There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)

Old Woman and the Devil, The

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Old Woman and the Little Pig, The

See There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)

Old Woman and the Little Pigee, The

See There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)

Old Woman and the Peddler, The

See The Old Woman Who Went to Market (The Old Woman and the Pedlar) (File: Lins258)

Old Woman and the Pig, The

See There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)

Old Woman Clothed in Grey

DESCRIPTION: "An old woman clothed in grey, Whose daughter was charming and one, Chanc'd to be once led astray By Roger's false flattering tongue." The daughter gets pregnant. The mother demands Roger marry her, and gives him houses and lands in exchange
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
KEYWORDS: mother children pregnancy sex marriage bargaining age miller
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 455-456, "An Old Woman Clothed in Grey" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic, pp. 120-121, "An Old Woman Clothed in Grey" (1 tune)
Roud #1694
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.33(55), "An old woman cloathed in grey," unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.18(225), "The old Woman clothed in grey," unknown, n.d.; Harding B 25(1419) (apparently a cut-up version of the preceding); Douce Ballads 3(137), "The old woman cloathed in grey," unknown, n..
NOTES [32 words]: Very many of the references to this song seem to be to the tune only, presumably because of its rough subject matter. Note that none of the broadsides in the Bodleian list a printer's name! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: CPMOWCG

Old Woman Drinking Her Tea, The

DESCRIPTION: "If you marry a wife she'll have her own way, For she has such a habit of drinking her tea." They spend all your money on tea and leave the housework to you. "Bang the tea kettle and crockery ware, Break all the tea tackle that you can come near"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness nonballad wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 251-252, "The Old Woman Drinking Her Tea" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 408)
Roud #1310
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tay" (theme: husband dominated by tea-drinking wife)
File: WT251

Old Woman from Barbary, The

See Lady of the Land (Here's a Poor Widow) (File: BGMG641)

Old Woman from Boston, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Old Woman From Ireland, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Old Woman from Sandy Land, The

See Lady of the Land (Here's a Poor Widow) (File: BGMG641)

Old Woman from Slab City, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Old Woman in Dover, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Old Woman in Ireland

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Old Woman in Slab City

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Old Woman of Blighter Town, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Old Woman of Clinton, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Old Woman of Hyslop Town

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Old Woman of Slapsdam, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Old Woman Ran Up to the Top of the Hill, The

See The Fox (File: R103)

Old Woman Tossed Up in a Blanket, The

See There Was an Old Woman Tossed up in a Basket (File: OO2544)

Old Woman Under the Hill, The

See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Old Woman Who Bought a Pig, The

See There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)

Old Woman Who Went to Market, The (The Old Woman and the Pedlar)

DESCRIPTION: "There was a little woman, as I've heard tell, Fol loll, diddle diddle dol, She went to market her eggs for to sell." She falls asleep along the road. A peddlar cuts off her skirts at the knee. Panic ensues when she awakens
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Wallis, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: humorous drink theft thief disguise
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 258-259, "The Old Woman Who Went to Market" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 144, "There Is a Little Woman" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 108, "The Old Woman Who Went to Market" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 535, "There was a little woman" (1 text plus a text of "The Wee Wifikie")
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #257, p. 159, "(There was an old woman, as I've heard tell)"
SongsOfAllTime, p. 62, "The Old Woman and the Peddler" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume 2, pp. 539-540, "Lawkamercyme" (1 text)
Roud #3740
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(253), "The Little Woman and Her Eggs," J.Crome (Sheffield), c.1817
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wee Wifikie" (theme, lyrics)
NOTES [208 words]: This has to be related somehow to "The Wee Wifikie." But the nature and direction of the dependence is unclear. If I had to guess, I'd say this came first, because the idea of a peddlar cutting off the woman's *skirt* (which obviously has sexual implications) might be softened by having him cut off her hair.
A letter from Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) to his illustrator Arthur Burdett Frost shows that he knew this piece; in referring to one of Frost's sketches, he said it reminded him of "the condition of the 'little old woman' of the nursery-song, when the pedlar had 'cut short her petticoats round about'" (from a letter of January 30, 1879; Lewis Carroll & His Illustrators: Collaborations & Correspondence, 1865-1898, edited by Morton N. Cohen & Edward Wakeling, Cornell University Press, 2003, p. 56). Dodgson of course never used that particular poem for one of his parodies.
Briggs, p. 540, cites a great many parallels, especially Finnish, but without detailed references, I do not know how close they really are.
The incomparable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp. 101, claims that the peddler is Henry VIII and the woman whose skirt he cut was Wolsey. Uh-huh. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Lins258

Old Woman, Old Woman

See The Deaf Woman's Courtship (File: R353)

Old Woman, Old Woman, Shall We Go A-Shearing?

See The Deaf Woman's Courtship (File: R353)

Old Woman, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Old Woman's Blind Husband, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Old Woman's Story, An

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Old Yellow Slicker I Wore on the Range, The

DESCRIPTION: "It hangs in the bunkhouse right over the door, A relic of cow-punchin' trail days of yore... That old yellow slicker I wore on the range." The singer never went on the trail without it. It protected him from cold and rain. Now it brings back memories
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Powder River Jack Lee songbook)
KEYWORDS: clothes cowboy travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, p. 21, "That Old Yellow Slicker I Wore on the Range" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [20 words]: This reminds me of "My Dad's Dinner Pail," and the two match metrically, but I do not know if one inspired the other. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: PRJ021

Old Yellow's Dead

DESCRIPTION: "Allen says, 'Ma, bring here a pry, I think Old Yellow's a-going to die.' Louis says, 'What'll I eat with bread, For they tell me that Old Yellow is dead.'" The crew sets out to skin the animal; Allen blisters his hands tanning it; they haul the hide away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: animal death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 102-103, "Old Yellow's Dead" (1 text)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 24, pp. 126-127, "I Jing-a-ling" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Fus102 (Partial)
Roud #4285
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jawbone Song" (chorus form)
NOTES [54 words]: I have a strange feeling that this is somehow related to a historical event -- perhaps a political piece. But the references are too local for me even to hazard a guess as to what. It's one of those pieces that makes nonsense out of context.
If it is a political piece, it was probably built around "The Jawbone Song." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Fus102

Old Zachariah Fell in the Fire

See Aunt Maria (File: BSoF705A)

Old Zion's Children Marching Along

DESCRIPTION: "Old Zion's children marching along, marching along, marching along, Old Zion's children marching along Talking about the welcome day." "I hailed my mother (brother) in the morning." "Don't you want to live up yonder"
AUTHOR: Ralph E Hudson ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (WITrinidadBaptistMusic01)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: John W. Work, _American Negro Songs_ (New York: Crown Publishers, 1940 (republished by Mineola: Dover Publications, 1998)), p. 164, "Old Zion's Children Marchin' Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12230
RECORDINGS:
Leader Fitzroy Small and St. Francis Spiritual Baptist Church congregation, "Marching the Children Home" (on WITrinidadBaptistMusic01)
NOTES [45 words]: The description follows Work. I think the [St. Francis Spiritual Baptist Church congregation song] "Marching the Children Home" is this hymn but, though the tune seemed to match Work's I could not understand the words at all. Glazier's liner notes include no song words. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcOZCMaA

Old Zip Coon (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Ole Zip Coon he is a larned scholar (x3), Sings possum up a gum tree an coony in a holler." Chorus: "O Zip a duden duden duden zip a duden day (x4)." The remaining verses are quatrains about the people and animals of the south
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1834 (five different sheet music editions)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 8, 1815 - Battle of New Orleans. Americans under Andrew Jackson defeat British troops under Pakenham (the event is referred to obliquely in stanza 6 of the sheet music)
FOUND IN: US(NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 258-260, "Zip Coon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 101-103, "Old Zip Coon" (1 tune plus dance instructions)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 418, "Old Zip Coon" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 505-506, "Zip Coon" (1 text, minus the chorus but with the other characteristics of the piece)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 73-74, "Old Zip Coon" (1 text, in the notes to "Turkey in the Straw")
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 49, "Turkey in the Straw" (2 text, 1 tune, the second being "Zip Coon")
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 17-19, "Zip Coon" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 124-131, "(Old Zip Coon)," "(Turkey in the Straw)" (1 complete and 1 partial sheet music version of "Old Zip Coon," 1 text, 1 tune of "Turkey," both files under "The Miller Boy")
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 30-32, "Zip Coon" (1 text, credited to George Washington Dixon)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 58-61, "Zip Coon (Turkey in the Straw)" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 591-592, "Turkey in the Straw (Zip Coon)"
ST RJ19258 (Full)
Roud #4358
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Charlie [pseud. for Charlie Craver], "Old Zip Coon (Vocalion 5384, c. 1930; rec. 1929)
Hindermyer & Tuckerman [Goldy & Dusty], "Zip Coon" (Edison 51830, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Turkey in the Straw" (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "The Old Tobacco Box (There Was an Old Soldier)" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "The Ould Bog Hole" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Buckeye Song (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 275; the tune is not listed but is clearly this)
NOTES [351 words]: Generally regarded as a the forerunner of "Turkey in the Straw." And its lyrics are absurd enough to make "Turkey" seem eminently sensible.
At least three people have claimed authorship of the song: George Washington Dixon (mentioned but not credited on the earliest sheet music), George Nichols, and Bob Farrell. All three were early blackface performers of the piece (Farrell was actually called "Zip Coon," and is reported to have sung the song in 1834). The dispute over authorship probably cannot be settled at this time. For a description of what is believed to be the first publication (by G. Willig Jr. of Baltimore), which lists it as sung by "Mr. Dixon," see Dichter/Shapiro, p. 53.
Finson, , p. 170 says that Dixon began his career in 1828, and also played as "Coal Black Rose," and possibly originated another character whose song went into tradition, "Long Tail Blue."
Finson suggests that one line in this song, the claim that Old Zip "he is a larned skolar" came out of the controversies surrounding Andrew Jackson. Harvard in 1833 gave him an honorary law doctorate -- something they did regularly for presidents -- but the Whigs objected that he was just barely literate. So it was declared that Jackson was an "L. K. D. and an A. S. S." Some wit cracked that A. S. S. stood for "Amazin' Smart Skoller." The insult obviously did Jackson no harm, and the wisecrack at some point went into this song.
Shaw, p. 19, had seen it suggested that "Zip" is a sort of distorted short form of "Scipio," as in Scipio Africanus, and further holds out the possibility that "Zip Coon" is a double set of distortions for "Scipio Africanus." The latter idea I simply don't buy -- "Coon," clearly and despicably, means "coon." "Zip" for "Scipio" is more plausible, but I'm not as convinced as the secondary explanation that Zip was trying to assume a classical name to sound more highfalutin'. (Shaw's cited source appears to be at least a tertiary source.) Classical names such as "Scipio" were often given to slaves who were assigned to household duties. In any case, the level of racism is very high. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: RJ19258

Old Zip Coon (II)

DESCRIPTION: "White man in his cotton field, doin' pretty well; Nigger in his melon patch, givin' his melons -- Hallelujah, Old Zip Coon, keep singin'...." "Lord made Adam and Eve, An' they done pretty well, Soon as he turned his back on Eve, she gave them apples --"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: nonballad animal religious wordplay
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 293, "Old Zip Coon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4358
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hallelujah" (technique)
File: R293

Old-Fashioned Pep

See Pep (The Peppiest Camp) (File: ACSF138P)

Old-Time Cowboy

See Old Time Cowboy (Melancholy Cowboy) (File: TF19)

Old-Time Kauri Bushmen, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in the year of 1940, the day was calm and still When an old-time Kauri bushman wandered up a northern hill" to a kauri tree above his farm -- one of the last such trees. He plans to cut it down to build a home. He and the tree die at the same time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (source: Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ)
KEYWORDS: death home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 188, "(The Old-Time Kauri Bushmen)" (1 text)
NOTES [762 words]: Kauri trees are large and offer good wood; whalers and traders extensively used their wood for masts and spars in the early years of European exploration of New Zealand (Jackson/McRobie, p. 136). They are also the source of the "gum" (resin) that made gum-digging such a major trade in New Zealand. Little surprise that most of the trees were cut down, leaving only a few mature stands in wildlife refuges.
According to Ell, pp. 129-130, "The bleeding gum of the kauri tree (Agathis australis) was the basis of a major New Zealand industry from the middle of the 19th century into the 1930s. The gum was gathered by probing 'gumlands,' places where ancient kauri trees had fallen, and digging for it. The lumps of gum were scraped and washed for export, finding a ready market in the manufacture of varnishes, some paints and linoleum. Gumdiggers worked the bleak gumlands of the north Auckland region and also entered the forests, where some even bled the trees for quick reward. The practice of 'bleeding' was made illegal in 1905 as good trees became infected and began to die. The great days of the industry were the 1890s to 1910, but many men and women remained on the fields through the Depression of the 1930s, and some were still working there in the 1950s to 60s.... Synthetic substitutes killed the demand.... Find further detail in Bruce W. Hayward's pictorial history of the gum industry, Kauri Gum and the Gumdiggers (The Bush Press, Auckland, 2003).
NewZealandEncyclopedia, pp. 292-293, reports, "KAURI (Agatihs australis) is, on maturity, one of the largest trees found anywhere in the world, and one of the most commercially attractive, with a long straight, branchless trunk producing durable straight-grained timber, and a resin once greatly prized for the manufacture of high quality paints, varnishes and polishes. As a result, it was the basis of the first export trade from NZ and was cut and milled with a voracity hard to believe considering the technology of 19th-century NZ." In addition to its straight grain, it has few knots, so the Maoris prized it for canoes and the British, from the earliest times, used it for ships' spars. It also used to be used for homebuilding, but with the population so badly reduced, this is no longer permitted.
The tree is a conifer with relatives found in other Pacific regions; the New Zealand species is found mostly in the northern regions of the North Island. The largest one ever found is said to have had "a girth of 23.43 m[eters] and source 21.8 m[eters] to the first branch." The trees can apparently grow to be at least two thousand years old.
In 1844, John B. Williams, an American diplomat in New Zealand, wrote one of the first descriptions of the tree: "The Kaurie is a noble, majestick and stately tree, universally allowed to be the Queen of the forest; its noble looking head is seen towering above all the other trees of the forest, and it is easily distinguished from them by it bright green [color] and [is] generally pointed toward the top; its leaf is oval and it bears an extremely rich and beautiful [cone] in which the seed is contained under the scales. This valuable tree makes the best timber and boards in New Zealand. It saws easily and is a handsome wood lasting for some years, with the exception of knots it is not unlike the American hard pine, of a little different colour, shrinks in length, width and thickness; when exposed to the sun it warps very badly" (Williams/Kenny, p. 103). WIlliams says it was the most common structural wood in New Zealand, although he disliked it for that purpose, but says that "for spars none can be better."
"A Gum issues from this tree running down the branches & trunk, and fallen of[f] in large lumps imbeds itself in the earth, which makes quite good varnish. Some of the Gum is quite as transparent as Zanzibar Copal; some of it is opaque, caused by the length of time in the ground" (Williams/Kenny, p. 104).
In 1899, the busiest year for gum production, more than 11,000 tons were exported. With prices approaching £100 per ton, it was a major source of export income. (Jackson/McRobie, p. 136, says that it was the single biggest source of export income for New Zealand in the 1850s.) There were hundreds involved in the industry, many of them from Dalmatia.
Kauri trees depleted the soil, so at least they weren't cut to create farmland. But, where they had been cleared, the gum diggers came to recover the resin the trees had left behind. The Maori used raw gum as fuel, gum ash for tattoos, and even ate it on occasion. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Garl188

Old-Time Lumberjacks

DESCRIPTION: "We sit around the camp at night when the daily work is o'er And listen to the lumberacks who logged in days of yore." The old lumberjacks claim that everything was bigger in the old days. The singer doubts it, but expects to tell his own tales in time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1940 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: nonballad logger talltale
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 86, "Old-Time Lumberjacks" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: David C. Peterson, "Wisconsin Folksongs," chapter in _Badger History: Wisconsin Folklore_, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Volume XXV, Number 2, November 1973), pp. 59-60, "Old-Time Lumberjacks" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve" (theme) and references there
File: Pet086

Old-Time Rounders

DESCRIPTION: Verses end "all of you old time rounders You'd better lie down." Captain wakes us at four "can't see nothin' but stars and moon." Same old food. "If I'd known my captain was mean" I would have stayed in Florida; I'm going back "won't have to plow no mule"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (USFlorida01)
KEYWORDS: food work hardtimes nonballad animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #6364
RECORDINGS:
Emmett Murray, "Old-Time Rounders" (on USFlorida01)
File: RcOTRoun

Old-Time Sealing Fleet, The

DESCRIPTION: "Newfoundland has many stories that can make a heart beat fast." The singer recalls how the sealing fleet excited him as a boy. He tells how seeing seals inspired them, and of past disasters. He says that Newfoundlanders can still dream of heroic deeds
AUTHOR: Arthur R. Scammell (1913-1995)
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Scammell, Songs of a Newfoundlander, according to Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship disaster
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 140-141, "The Old-Time Sealing Fleet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V44748
NOTES [84 words]: For background on Arthur R. Scammell, see the notes on "The Squid-Jiggin' Ground."
Even at the time Scammell wrote this piece, it was becoming anachronistic; the sealing fleet was all but gone by the 1940s (see, e.g., the notes to "Last of the Wooden Walls" and "The Ice-Floes"). The mention of "Iron ships... and iron men" is even more anachronistic; steel ships had been all the rage around 1910, but they all but disappeared during World War I, sold off (mostly to Russia) for use as icebreakers. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm140

Oldbury Chant, The

See Billy Vite and Molly Green (File: FlBr109)

Olden Days

DESCRIPTION: Kate is married in "1602." There's a dance followed by drink, partying, and a friendly fight.
AUTHOR: Chris Cobb
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: wedding fight dancing drink music party humorous brawl
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, pp. 79-80, "Olden Days" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, p. 66, "Olden Days" (1 text)
Roud #9951
NOTES [39 words]: Peacock writes "Chris Cobb is, of course, kidding about the date '1602.' The wedding party actually took place in Barred Islands, and Cris composed this song to commemorate the event and to entertain the people who had been there." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Pea079

Olden Days of Lake Wakatipu

See Gold's a Wonderful Thing (File: Colq034)

Olden Memories

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls "thrilling stories of the past." "Round the cairns where great ones lie, Their bold requiem, 'No Surrender' lives while soulless slanderers die" Past heroic deeds are like seedlets that may flower in the present.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 1, "Olden Memories" (1 text)
NOTES [59 words]: Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark: "As the original air was unknown this song has been set to the Hornpipe, 'The Humours of Enniskean.'" Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark does not cite sources. It may not have been sung.
For the reference to "No Surrender," see "No Surrender (I)." - BS
(See also "The Siege of Derry," about the event which inspired the slogan. - RBW)
File: OrLa001

Oldsmobile, Chevrolet, Studebaker, Ford

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Oldsmobile, Chevrolet, Studebaker, Ford, Now I jump my shining cord."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Botkin, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope technology | automobile car
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #408, "Oldsmobile, Chevrolet, Studebaker, Ford" (1 text)
File: AJRR408

Ole Ark a-Moverin' Along, De

See The Old Ark's A-Moverin' (File: LoF248)

Ole Ark Movin' or Noah's Ark

See The Old Ark's A-Moverin' (File: LoF248)

Ole Ark, The

See The Old Ark's A-Moverin' (File: LoF248)

Ole Aunt Dinah

See Old Aunt Dinah (File: Br3487)

Ole Aunt Kate

See Old Aunt Kate (File: ScaNF099)

Ole Banghum

See Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Ole Dan Tucker

See Old Dan Tucker (File: R521)

Ole Egyp'

See In Some Lonesome Graveyard (File: Parr046)

Ole from Norway

DESCRIPTION: Dialect song in which Ole describes coming to the north woods and gives a few details of how he works driving logs down the river. "Ay yus come down from Minnesota/Ay been in this part 'bout three year" but protests that Ole is not his name.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 36, "Ole from Norway" (1 text)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 36, "Ole from Norway" (1 text)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 8, "Ole from Norway" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 62, "Ole from Norway" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 462, "Ole from Norway" (1 text)
ST Be008 (Partial)
Roud #8867
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Swede from North Dakota" (theme)
NOTES [72 words]: Without a tune it's impossible to be sure, but the verses suggest that this is a variant of "The Swede from North Dakota" with an added chorus. - PJS
I thought the same thing upon seeing it, but the version in Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy doesn't quite fit the tune of "The Swede." It may also be older; Rickaby's informant claimed to have learned it c. 1895. If anything, I suspect the dependence goes the other way. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be008

Ole Granny Rattletrap

DESCRIPTION: "Ole Granny Rattletrap, Settin' on a log, Finger on the trigger, And eye on a hawg."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Foster West, "Folklore of a Mountain Childhood," Vol. XVI, No. 3 (Nov 1968), p. 166, "(Ole Granny Rattletrap)" (1 text); article reprinted (with text reset) in Vol. LII, No. 3 (Nov 1968), p. 8
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Time Was: Its Lore and Language," Vol. XIX, No. 2 (Mar 1971), p. 43, "(Ole Granny Rattletrap)" (1 text)
File: NCG163OG

Ole Gray Mare

See The Old Grey Mare (II) (File: Br3175)

Ole King Cole

See Old King Cole (I, II, III) (File: AJRV148)

Ole Lady

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Ole Mars'r Had a Yaller Gal

See Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal) (File: BAF904)

Ole Marse John

See Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady) (File: San011)

Ole Massa's Going Away

DESCRIPTION: "Ole Massa's goin' away, boys, He's goin' to see his brother. We'll wait till he gets out of sight, Then we'll throw down the hoe and shovel."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: work slave brother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 215, "Ole Massa's Going Away" (1 fragment)
Roud #21033
NOTES [35 words]: Despite the fact that this seems to be spoken by slaves, I suspect this is a minstrel tune. Most slaves on a plantation large enough to have multiple field workers would be bossed by overseers, not the master. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Br215

Ole Mister Rabbit (I'll Get You Rabbit)

DESCRIPTION: "Ole Mister Rabbit, You're in a mighty habit, Gwine in mah garden, Cuttin' down mah cabbage. Um-hum -- um-hum." "Ole Mister Rabbit, Your hair look brown, You'se gwine so fas', You'se hittin' de groun'." The singer tries to get back at the rabbit
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal food nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 174-175, "Ole Mister Rabbit" (2 short texts, 1 tune)
ST ScaNF174 (Full)
Roud #10058
NOTES [58 words]: Roud links together several rabbit songs under one number: "Mister Rabbit," "Ole Mister Rabbit (I'll Get You Rabbit)," even "Rabbit Hash." All are about rabbits raiding gardens (something they certainly do) and the attempts to punish them for it (rarely successful, even with modern technology). But the forms are quite distinct, so I split them. - RBW
File: ScaNF174

Ole Oleanna

See Oleanna (File: LoF042)

Ole Pete Bateese

See Old Pete Bateese (File: Be075)

Ole Sheep Done Know de Road, De

See The Old Sheep Done Know the Road (File: Dett004)

Ole Ship o' Zion, The

See Old Ship of Zion (I), The (File: Br3623)

Ole Tar River, The

See The Old Tar River (File: Parr054)

Ole Tommy Finlayson

DESCRIPTION: "Ole Tommy Finlayson Is a bit of rusty tin, So stick him in the rubbish bin, And there'll be no more of him."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 131, "(Ole Tommy Finlayson)" (1 text)
File: SuSm131B

Oleana

See Oleanna (File: LoF042)

Oleanna

DESCRIPTION: The singer sings the praises of "Ole, Oleanna," where "land is free," the crops grow themselves, the livestock cooks itself, and "the poorest wretch... becomes a king in a year or so."
AUTHOR: Norwegian Words: Ditmar Meidell (English words by Pete Seeger and others)
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (Krydseren, March 5 issue)
KEYWORDS: emigration farming money talltale nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 42, "Oleanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 47, "Oleanna" (1 text)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 286, "(Oleana)" (1 fragment, a translation not derived from Seeger's)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 147, "Ole Oleanna" (notes only)
DT, OLEOLEAN*
ADDITIONAL:Theodore Blegen and Martin B. Ruud, editors & Translators, _Norwegian Emigrant Songs and Ballads_, University of Minnesota press, 1936/Arno Press, 1979, pp, 187-197, "Oleana" (1 Norwegian text with literal English translation, 1 tune)
Rochelle Wright and Robert L. Wright, _Danish Emigrant Ballads and Songs_, Southern Illinois University Press, 1983, #105, pp. 222-223, 274-275, "I Oleana Der Er Det Godt at Vaere" (1 Danish text with literal English translation, 1 tune)
Pete Seeger, _Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Musical Autobiography_, A SIng Out Publication, 1993, 1997, pp. 119-120, "Oleana" (1 text, 1 tune, the Seeger translation, plus some of the Norwegian words)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Oleanna" (on PeteSeeger10) (on PeteSeeger12)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Darling Neddeen" (absurdist sorts of claims for the town)
cf. "Oleona Hauling Song" (town of Oleanna/Oleona)
NOTES [404 words]: Ole Bull was a Norwegian fiddler who tried to found a colony in Pennsylvania. Despite his extravagant hopes for the settlement (satirized in this song), it was too poor and too far from transportation arteries, and eventually failed.
Bull, incidentally, was quite a character, playing both violin for classical pieces and hardanger fiddle for folk dances. He was a fervent Norwegian patriot, and Oleana (the usual spelling) was not his only attempt to help other Norwegians find a better life, though it was the most spectacular.
Bull inspired several books; the most recent, as far as I know, is Einar Haugen and Camilla Cai, Ole Bull: Norway's Romantic Musician and Cosmopolitan Patriot, University of Wisconsin Press, 1993. It devoted 22 pages to the short life of the Oleana colony, which theoretically was active from 1852 to 1857 but which really existed only for part of 1853.
It perhaps tells you something that Bull is not listed in (no author listed), Pennsylvania Biographical Dictionary: People of All Times and All Places Who Have Been Important to the History and Life of the State, American Historical Publications, Inc., 1989.
The original tune to this was apparently called "Rio Janeiro" (so Wright/Wright), but there are several tunes -- e.g. the one you've probably heard from Pete Seeger or his imitators is not the same as the one in Blegen, though they started from the same roots. The Danish tune in Wright/Wright diverges even more, to my ears.
Some of the jokes in this are ancient. The food that offers itself to you goes back to at least the fourteenth century; versions of the legend "The Land of Cockayne" describes "geese that fly into the mouth ready-cooked" (Thorlac Turville-Petre, Poems from BL MS Harley 913: 'The Kildare Manuscript', Early English Text Society/Oxford University Press, 2015, p. 3). Indeed, the version of that legend that Turville-Petre edited sounds surprisingly like this song, allowing for half a millenium of language change:
In Cokaigne is met and drink
Wiþute care, how and swink;
Þe met is trie, the drink is is clere
To none, russin and soper (lines 17-20; Turville-Petrie, p. 4), i.e.
In Cockayne is food and drink,
Without care, trouble, and work;
The food is fine, the drink is clear,
At noon, afternoon snack, and supper.
You can even sing it to the same tune! - RBW
The town now calls itself "Oleona," and contains a museum celebrating the colony. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LoF042

Oleona Hauling Song

DESCRIPTION: "And I lay ten dollars down, Will count them one by one, If any man will show me the man That struck Pete, Old Tom Morey's son."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: money fight
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 241, "Oleona Hauling Song" (1 fragment)
Roud #15028
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oleanna" (town of Oleanna/Oleona)
File: Shoe241

Oliver Cromwell

See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Oliver Cromwell Lost His Shoe

DESCRIPTION: "Oliver Cromwell lost his shoe (or "Queen Elizabeth lost her shoe") In the battle of Waterloo. It happened on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: playparty clothes
FOUND IN: New Zealand Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 99, "(Oliver Cromwell lost his shoe)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #476, "Queen Elizabeth lost her shoe" (1 text)
Roud #20511
NOTES [54 words]: This of course is historically inaccurate; Oliver Cromwell died in 1658, and the Battle of Waterloo was in 1815. Similarly, the Queen of England at the time of Waterloo was Queen Charlotte wife of George III, not "Queen Elizabeth." I wonder if there wasn't an earlier version in which it was Napoleon who lost his shoe. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SuSm099E

Oliver Jump

See Oliver Twist (File: AJRR410)

Oliver Twist

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Oliver jump, Oliver jump, Oliver jump jump jump. Oliver kick, Oliver kick, Oliver kick kick kick. Oliver Twist, Oliver Twist, Oliver Twist Twist Twist."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: jumprope nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #410, "Oliver jump" (1 text)
Roud #19229
NOTES [69 words]: Roud lumps the two pieces that I am calling "Oliver Twist" and "Oliver Twist You Can't Do This," but the forms imply otherwise. I strongly suspect that this was by origin a sort of "Simon Says" piece: The leader says "Oliver jump" and everyone jumps, then "Oliver kick" and everyone kicks, then other actions like "Oliver run" or the like, with the game closing with "Oliver Twist," after the Dickens character. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR410

Oliver Twist He Can't Do This

See Oliver Twist You Can't Do This (File: AJRR411)

Oliver Twist You Can't Do This

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Oliver Twist, he can't do this, So what's the use of trying?" "Number one, touch your tongue." "Number two, touch your shoe," etc., ending "Goodbye Oliver Twist."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Bluebells My Cockle Shells)
KEYWORDS: jumprope nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #411, "Oliver Twist, He Can't Do This" (1 text)
Roud #19229
NOTES [50 words]: Roud lumps the two pieces that I am calling "Oliver Twist" and "Oliver Twist You Can't Do This," but the forms imply otherwise. This looks like it might derive from "Policeman, Policeman, Do Your Duty" or "Spanish Dancer" or "Lady in the Tight Skirt" or one of the other "XXX can't do this" songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR411

Oliver's Advice (Barossa)

DESCRIPTION: As storm, night, and the enemy approach, the soldiers are advised, "Put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry." The soldiers are reminded of all God did for the Israelites. They should trust in God also
AUTHOR: Words: William Blacker ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1834 (Duffy)
KEYWORDS: soldier religious nonballad Spain
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 5, 1811 - Battle of Barrosa
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H98a, p. 64, "Barossa/Oliver's Advice" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 72B, "Oliver's Advice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 134, "Oliver's Advice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 20, "Oliver's Advice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp.35-38, "Oliver's Advice" (1 text; tune on p. 20)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 83-86, "Oliver's Advice"
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 453-456, 495-496, "Oliver's Advice"
Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 207-208, "Oliver's Advice" (1 text)
Roud #2182
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Barossa" (subject)
cf. "Barrosa Plains" (subject)
cf. "The Maid of Castle Creagh" (tune, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
NOTES [186 words]: The "battle" of Barrosa was more of a skirmish; the forces involved were small, though the British won a clear victory. Most short histories of the Napoleonic Wars don't seem even to mention it.
The 87th Royal Fusiliers (the regiment allegedly described in the song, though there isn't a single specific reference in the piece) was raised in 1793; its separate history ended when it was combined with the 89th foot in 1881 to form the Royal Irish Fusiliers. Barrosa was its second battle honor, and a tune called "Barossa" remains one of the Royal Irish Fusiliers' official quick marches.
The song is called "Oliver's Advice" because Oliver Cromwell is reported to have said, "Put your trust in God, but mind to keep your powder dry."
The song contains assorted Biblical references to God going before the Israelites as a "pillar of cloud... by day... and a pillar of fire... by night"; see, e.g., Exodus 13:41. For parting the Red Sea, see Exodus 14:21-29. - RBW
Nobody seems to attribute this to anyone except Colonel Blacker (1777-1855). Duffy and, probably as a result, Sparling date this "Orange Ballad" 1834. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HHH098a

Oma Wise

See Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise) [Laws F4] AND Naomi Wise [Laws F31] (File: LF04)

Omagh Town and the Bards of Clanabogan

DESCRIPTION: The singer "caroused and gambled" many places but his "heart was achin' for Omagh Town!" Even wined and dined in London and New York City he longs for Omagh Town. "When life is over ... I'll never grumble If Heaven's as charmin' as Omagh Town!"
AUTHOR: Michael Hurl (source: Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder)
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition)
KEYWORDS: homesickness rambling drink nonballad rake
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 66-68, "Omagh Town and the Bards of Clanabogan" (1 text)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition, p. 26, "Sweet Omagh Town" (1 fragment)
Roud #3383
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Sweet Omagh Town" (on IRRCinnamond03)
Roisin White, "Omagh Town" (on IRRWhite01)
NOTES [5 words]: Omagh is in County Tyrone. - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: TST066

Omaha Tribal Prayer

DESCRIPTION: "Wakonda dhedhu Wapadin atonhe (x2)." Or "Wakantanka, Wakantanka, Dé Doo, Aton-Hé, Wapatain, Aton-Hé. The singer prays to "the Father" (God? The Great Spirit?) that he is "needy" and stands before the Father
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Ernest Thompson Seton, The Book of Woodcraft and Indian Lore)
KEYWORDS: religious foreignlanguage nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 144-145, "Omaha Tribal Prayer" (notes only)
OneTuneMore, p. 59, "Omaha Tribal Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Ernest Thompson Seton, _The Book of Woodcraft and Indian Lore_, Doubleday Page & Company, 1912, 1921(available on Google Books), p. 61, "The Omaha Tribal Prayer" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [67 words]: It looks to me as if all widely-known versions of this derive from Seton's book, and it appears that Seton's version has been Christianized. But that is only a guess.
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 145, seems to imply that the scout anthem by Helen Gerrish Hughes which begins "We come, we come to our council fire" is derived from this. But the only real evidence is that both use the word "Wakonda." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF144O

Omie Wise

See Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise) [Laws F4] AND Naomi Wise [Laws F31] (File: LF04)

Ommie Wise

See Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise) [Laws F4] AND Naomi Wise [Laws F31] (File: LF04)

Omy Wise

See Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise) [Laws F4] AND Naomi Wise [Laws F31] (File: LF04)

On a Bright and Summer's Morning

See The Sally Buck (File: SKE70)

On a Cold December Night

DESCRIPTION: "It was on a cold December night, 'Twas the eve were Christmas morn," a wife and child wait in a hut with broken windows for their drunkard husband. After just ten years of marriage, their home is broken. The freezing boy declares he feels warmer and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Stout-FolkloreFromIowa)
KEYWORDS: mother father children death drink hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 102, pp. 126-127, "On a Cold December Night" (1 text)
Roud #4876
File: Stou102

On a Cold Frosty Morning

DESCRIPTION: "On a cold frosty morning a nigger feels good; He shouldered up his axe and went off to the wood." He all but freezes in the cold. (Various other observations about his life. The song may complain about white men's privilege)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: nonballad Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 283, "On a Cold Frosty Morning" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 474, "Cold Frosty Morning" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 474, "Cold Frosty Morning" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #89, "Cold Frosty Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 116, "Work Song"(1 short text,1 tune)
Roud #3439
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Jesse" (lyrics)
File: R283

On a Cold Winter's Eve

DESCRIPTION: "On a cold winter's eve when the snow was fast falling, In a small humble cottage a poor mother lay, Although wracked with pain, she lay there well-contented, WIth Christ as her friend...." She bids farewell and says her family will meet again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: death religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 33, "On a Cold WInter's Eve" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 203, "On a Cold Winter's Eve" (1 text, probably from the same source as Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads's)
Roud #12637
ALTERNATE TITLES:
One Cold Winter's Eve
File: Camb033

On a Dark and Doleful Night

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on a dark and doleful night, When power of hell and earth arose... And friends betrayed him to his foes." "Before the mournful scheme began, He took the bread...." "This is my body broke[n] for sin." "[He] took the cup...."
AUTHOR: Isaac Watts?
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Brown); fragment in the Missouri Harmony (1840)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus Bible food drink
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 626, "On a Dark and Doleful Night" (1 text)
Roud #11927
NOTES [186 words]: The story of the Last Supper is told in all four gospels, but the institution of the Eucharist is described only in Matthew, Mark, and Luke (with a partial parallel in 1Corinthians 11:23ff.) with significant verbal variations, often with variations from what we read here.
In Matthew 26:26f., Jesus's words over the bread were simply, "Take, eat, this is my body." Of the cup, the King James version says, "Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament" (i.e. "covenant," as the song renders is, but the best manuscripts omit "new") "which is shed for many, for the remission of sins."
Mark 14:22f. is closely parallel to Mark: "This is my body... This is my blood of the covenant [again, the KJV reads"new testament," based on late manuscripts] which is shed for many."
In Luke 22:19f, we find the phrasing "This is my body which is given for you." (Note that, even here, it's not given "for sin.") The cup is "the new covenant in my blood."
In the Missouri Harmony, the first verse of this appears with the tune "Bourbon."
For more on Isaac Watts, see the notes to "O God, Our Help in Ages Past." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Br3626

On a May Morning So Early

DESCRIPTION: "As I walked out one May morning, One May morning so early," he spies a pretty girl walking. He bids her stay and hear his tale of love. She answers, "My swain is true, I don't want two," and leaves him sad and alone
AUTHOR: Words: H Fleetwood Sheppard (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #73, "On a May Morning So Early" (1 text, 1 tune, the text not being traditional)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Seventeen Come Sunday" [Laws O17] (tune)
NOTES [47 words]: I would imagine Sheppard thought this was a serious song, but when I envision someone singing that like "My swain is true, I don't want two," I can't help but think listeners would crack up. Not all folk songs are particularly good, but few are as clumsy as this bit of fakery. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGSW073

On a Monday (I)

See Almost Done (File: LxU094)

On a Monday (II)

See Don't Talk About It (File: LoSi382)

On a Tropical Isle

DESCRIPTION: "In this wonderful isle Everyone is wearing a smile Come on enjoy yourself. Don't stay up there in the shelf ... native guitars ... take a buggy ride and watch the moon ... with your lover by your side"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Blind Blake Higgs: see WIHIGGS01)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad lover travel
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "On a Tropical Isle" (on WIHIGGS01)
NOTES [207 words]: The current description is based on Higgs: probably intended primarily for tourists.
"The goombay drum" is a feature of the Jamaican Maroon culture.
Pages references below are to Olive Lewin, Rock It Come Over (Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 2000).
Very briefly, the Jamaican Maroons originated as Spanish slaves who escaped when the British took Jamaica in 1655. Over the next two centuries there were guerrilla wars and accomodations between the Maroons and British that left the Maroons with independent enclaves within Jamaica. The Maroons in those enclaves were isolated, culturally, from other Jamaicans and remain so today, to an ever-shrinking degree. There was a distinct Maroon music and dance culture. [pp. 152-156]
"The most important Maroon drums are the prenting and the goombeh.... The drums were vital in relaying messages and inducing trances during which special persons went into a state of Myal and warned of impending [British] attacks.... Both drums are used on religious and secular occasions.... The goombeh is the prime symbol and revered instrument of Accompong Maroons.... Goombeh rhythms are quick and sharp, in keeping with the darting, angular dances that they accompany." [pp. 159-160] - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: RcOnaTIs

On a Wing and a Prayer

See Comin' In on a Wing and a Prayer (File: LTCSCIWP)

On Admiral Russel's Total Defeat of the French Fleet

See On Admiral Russel's Total Defeat of the French Fleet (File: AshS007)

On Board of a Man-of-War (Young Susan I)

See Young Susan (I) (File: GrD1179)

On Board of a Man-of-War (Young Susan)

DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears "a maid complain for the losing of her dear," gone to sea aboard a man-of-war. She dresses as a sailor to follow him. After seven years they come home and live happily ever after
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: sailor separation love cross-dressing disguise
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H556, p. 326, "On Board of a Man-of-War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #60, "Susan's Adventures in a Man of War" (1 text)
Roud #1533
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The British Man-of-War" (theme, lyrics)
NOTES [54 words]: This is closely related to the songs of the "British Man-of-War" family, and almost certainly derives from the same sources. But the two songs don't share many actual words, and this is one of several versions in which the girl dresses herself as a sailor to follow her love. I decided this was reason enough to split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: HHH556

On Board of a Ninety-eight

DESCRIPTION: The singer was a rake at sixteen when his parents, afraid he would waste all their money, ship him on a man-of-war. When battle begins, he wishes he could run away but at Trafalgar he fights well. Now "I'm too old to sail, for I'm almost ninety-eight"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2843))
KEYWORDS: age battle navy war father mother rake sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1805 - Battle of Trafalgar ends Napoleon's hopes of invading Britain
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 1012-1013, "On Board of the Ninety-eight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1461
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2843), "On Board of a Ninety-Eight," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Johnson Ballads 2728[a few words illegible], Firth c.12(398), "On Board of a Ninety-Eight"
NOTES [118 words]: "Ninety-eight" refers to the number of guns carried by the ship. For example, at Trafalgar, Nelson's flagship Victory, with 100 guns, led but with two ninety-eight gun ships, Temeraire and Neptune, in close support. Source: Horatio Nelson by Tom Pocock, quoted on The Nelson Society site. - BS
(We should note, incidentally, that the number of guns on a ship was somewhat nominal, with light guns, e.g., being under-counted; an official "98" might have in excess of 110 actual weapons. In addition, ships came in nominal rates -- 64 guns, 74 guns, 98 guns, etc. The 100 guns of Victory made it a heavy man-of-war, but there were more heavily-armed ships. Though usually not very seaworthy ones....) - RBW
File: Pea1012

On Board of the Victory

DESCRIPTION: "I am a young girl whose fortune is great." Her father has her lover, "below my degree," impressed. After a fight with the press-gang he is shipped aboard the Victory. She dreams of being with him on board and prays for his return.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.13(280))
KEYWORDS: courting war ship father mother sailor pressgang grief loneliness love navy separation sea lover nobility
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 21, 1805 - Battle of Trafalgar, the greatest naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars. H.M.S. _Victory_ is Nelson's flagship in that battle.
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Peacock, pp. 484-485, "On Board of The Victory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 41, "Victory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 42, "On Board of the Victory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 95-96, "On Board the Victory" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 81, "A New Song Called the VIctory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2278
RECORDINGS:
Grace Clergy, "On Board of the Victory" (on MRHCreighton)
Charlotte Decker, "On Board of The Victory" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.13(280), "On Board the Victory," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(898), Firth c.12(220), Harding B 11(1911), Harding B 11(2901), Harding B 26(474), "On Board the Victory[!!]"; Harding B 25(1420), Harding B 11(2846), Firth c.12(222), "On Board of the Victory"; Harding B 20(178), "The Victory"
NOTES [109 words]: Ironically, Mr. Clergy's family is of French descent. - PJS
HMS Victory was launched in 1765, commissioned in 1778, and served in the wars with France associated with the American Revolutionar. She served in the Mediterranean during the early phases of the French revolution. She was withdrawn from sea service in 1812, and dry-docked in 1922. It will be evident that many young men served on her at battles other than Trafalgar -- but, as most Napoleonic songs mention Waterloo, so most naval songs of the era seem to assume a setting at Trafalgar. - RBW
[In] broadside Harding B 20(178), [the girl's] sweetheart is killed with Nelson at Trafalgar. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Peac484

On Board the Bridget Ann

See The Bridget Ann (File: LaGo252)

On Board the Bugaboo

DESCRIPTION: Singer joins the Bugaboo at the James's Street canal. They "plow the raging surf ... to get a full load of turf." In a storm the captain, smoking in bed, starts a fire. The helmsman, asleep, lets the fire burn. The ship sinks with 1000 sods and 60000 men
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: canal commerce ship fire storm wreck humorous talltale sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 17A, "On Board the Bugaboo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9775
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The E-ri-e" (theme) and references there
File: OLcM017A

On Board the Gallee

See The Lover's Curse (Kellswater) (File: HHH442)

On Board the Kangaroo

See The Good Ship Kangaroo (File: MA060)

On Board the Leicester Castle

See Paddy, Get Back (File: Doe054)

On Board the Magalena

DESCRIPTION: Sam or Tom have "gone away On board da Magalena." The singer "wish ah was ah sailor On board de Magalena." "Ah wish ah was a cleaner On board de Magalena Would a-clean up every corner ... Would sail to every harbour"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea ship nonballad shanty
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 37, "On Board the Magalena" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sam Gone Away" (lyrics)
NOTES [43 words]: Is the the same as "Sam Gone Away"? ("I wish I was a sailor on board the man-of-war, Sam gone away on board the man-of-war, Pretty work, brave boys, pretty work I say, Sam gone away on board the man-of-war")? Without more traditional texts, I can't tell. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo037

On Board the Victory

See On Board of The Victory (File: Peac484)

On Braes o' Killiecrankie (III)

DESCRIPTION: "For on a thistle I sat doun, I nearly jumpit tae the moon (x2), For the lass that stole my hankie." Jean MacNeil is fair, fat, wears her hair open, has big feet and a flat face. When she cursed her bloomers fell and she stuck her arse out of the window.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (recording, Jeannie Robertson)
KEYWORDS: disability love sex curse hair bawdy nonballad derivative
FOUND IN: Britain (Scotland (Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #48, pp. 201-202, "The Braes o' Killiecrankie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3363
File: RPG048

On Buena Vista's Battlefield

DESCRIPTION: "On Buena Vista's battlefield A dying soldier lay, His thoughts was on his mountain home Some thousand miles away." The wounded soldier bids farewell to (family and) sweetheart and prepares for the end
AUTHOR: Words: Colonel Henry Petriken/Music: Albert G. Emerick
EARLIEST DATE: 1848 (Emrick's Songs for the People)
KEYWORDS: death war battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 22-23, 1847 - Battle of Buena Vista. 5000 troops under Zachary Taylor defeat 15,000 Mexicans under Santa Anna
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 340-341, "Buena Vista" (1 text, fragmentary)
Randolph 225, "The Battle of Vicksburg" (the second, fragmentary, text is "On Buena Vista's Battlefield")
Roud #2829
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Vicksburg" (tune & meter, theme)
cf. "Buena Vista (I)" (subject)
File: R225A

On Canaan's Happy Shore

See The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)

On Christmas Day It Happened So

DESCRIPTION: A farmer goes out to plow on Christmas day. Jesus meets him there and asks him what he is doing. The farmer nervously says that he needs to work. Obviously this is not acceptable; the farmer is swallowed up by the ground and his family dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Gillington, Songs of the Open Road)
KEYWORDS: religious work Jesus curse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #41, "On Christmas Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 54-55, "On Christmas Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 6, "In Dessexshire As It Befel" (1 text)
ST PBB006 (Partial)
Roud #1078
NOTES [217 words]: Yet another example of fine Christian charity. This one, fortunately, is apocryphal, with almost no parallel in scripture. There is one instance of the earth swallowing up people (Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Numbers 16:28-32). The rest has no parallel at all, except a curious passage in the early but periphrastic Gospel manuscript Codex Bezae (D/05). After Luke 6:4 it adds, "That same day, seeing someone working on the Sabbath, [Jesus] said to him, 'Fellow, if you know what you are doing, you are blessed, but if you don't know, you are cursed and a transgressor of the law.'"
I wonder if this didn't somehow arise out of the Puritan movement. During the commonwealth era in England, it was declared that Christmas was a work day, and those NOT working on that day would be punished. This produced a great deal of resentment -- but the policy long continued; Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol" partly in response to this.
Not all such stories are associated with Jesus himself. In Ireland, there is a field associated with the Irish St. Maeve. A ploughman once vowed he would plow the field despite its association with the saint. The ground is said to have swallowed horse, plough, and man, burying them in a depression still visible today. I'd love to know what the horse did to deserve that. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: PBB006

On Christmas Night All Christians Sing (Sussex Carol)

DESCRIPTION: "On Christmas night all Christians sing To hear what news the angles bring (x2), News of great joy and of great mirth, News of our sweet redeemer's birth. "Then why should men on earth be so sad?" "Then out of darkness we see light."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 108, "On Christmas Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 24, "Sussex Carol" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #597
File: KaCr108

On de Battlefiel

See I Am On the Battlefield for My Lord (File: ElCh062B)

On Eli's Sunny Hill

DESCRIPTION: "On Eli's Sunny Hill I stand, And cast a wicked eye, Down toward Bill McFarland's - don't let that hat pass by; Drop in a nickel, brother Burnett, 'Tis the river of Delight"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Stout-FolkloreFromIowa)
KEYWORDS: drink money
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 100, p. 125, "On Eli's Sunny Hill" (1 fragment)
Roud #4874
NOTES [30 words]: Stout-FolkloreFromIowa explains this as a fragment from a time when temperance was an issue in Iowa. This seems not unlikely, but it's hard to prove from his one verse fragment. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Stou100

On Erin's Green Shore

See Erin's Green Shore [Laws Q27] (File: LQ27)

On Friday Last at Half Past Two

DESCRIPTION: "On Friday last at half past two, two love stricken chaps... met for satisfaction raps; One of them Gus Healey was, the other Dooley Din... Miss 'Blank' green heart to win. The police intercede, and Din "got well oild off behind John Casey's barn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Galgay/McCarthy)
KEYWORDS: love fight drink police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 25, 1873 - Alleged date of the "duel" between Dennis Dooley and Gus Healey over a young woman (who reportedly rejected both)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Frank Galgay & Michael McCarthy, _Olde St. John's: Stories from a Seaport City_, Flanker Press, 2001, p. 63, "(No title)" (1 text)
NOTES [35 words]: The rest of this poem is every bit as forced as the excerpts quoted in the description; it certainly didn't deserve to be preserved. But Galgay/McCarthy hint that it's traditional, so I've included it here. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ADDOFLH2

On Gibraltar's Slopes

DESCRIPTION: "On Gibraltar's slopes so firm and steep, A lovely maid lay down to sleep, And as she lay in sweet repose, A gust of wind blew up her clothes" -- but a sailor who chances by, "to his despair, He was the red flag flying there."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: clothes bawdy derivative
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 67-68, "On Gibraltar's Slopes" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Red Flag" (tune)
NOTES [28 words]: Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy lists the tune of this as "The Red Flag." But it feels to me as if a likely tune was "O Tannenbaum" or one of its many derivatives. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn050

On Gravelly Bay

DESCRIPTION: "I was a handsome nice young man... And all day long I'd sport and play... Till I was sent to Gravelly Bay To work upon a dredge." He meets a girl. Her mother dislikes him. He concludes that the girl flirts to get gifts from many men
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1952 (collected from E. J. Buzzard by Walton)
KEYWORDS: sailor love courting rejection gift mother
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp 109-110, "On Gravelly Bay" (1 text)
Roud #19845
File: WGM109

On Ilkla Moor Bah T'at

DESCRIPTION: On the dangers of visiting the moor without a hat: One singer tells the other he has been (courting) on the moor without a hat. He is told he'll die of cold. They will bury him, and worms will eat him; ducks will eat them, people eat ducks, and so it goes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917
KEYWORDS: clothes courting disease death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Wales) Canada
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 303, "On Ilkla Moor Bah T'at" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hopkns, p. 43, "On Ilkla Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 26, "Ilkley Moor Baht 'At" (1 text)
DT, ILKLAMOR
Roud #2143
RECORDINGS:
Gareth Coles, "Ilkley Moor Bar Tat" (Piotr-Archive #36, recorded 07/01/2021, with wandering pitch)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks" (tune "Cranbook")
NOTES [121 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland reports, "The author of this local dialect song is supposed to have been a Thomas Clark who wrote it in 1805 to the hymn tune Cranbrook. Who he was or how the song came to be are not known. Yorkshire men all the world over regard the song with ritualistic respect."
On the other hand, I've seen Clark listed as the author of the tune "Cranbrook" (so, e.g., Arnold Kellett, The Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition, and Folklore, revised edition, Smith Settle, 2002, p. 128), leaving the lyrics of this song anonymous. Kellett says the lyrics were were a gag by un-named choir members, perhaps from Halifax, about a member of their party. So I'm listing the author as unknown. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K303

On Johnny Mitchell's Train

DESCRIPTION: "I'm an honest union laboring man, And I'll have you understand.... It was Baer and Morgan done it." Having nothing else to do, the singer will ride on "Johnny Mitchell's train." He mentions his troubles with (J. P.) Morgan and Schwab. He bids farewell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: mining strike labor-movement railroading travel money
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1899 - John Mitchell becomes President of the United Mine Workers of America. He devoted much of his energy to soothing tensions between Slavs and longer-settled workers so that the UMW could effectively strike against the mine owners
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 237-239, "On Johnny Mitchell's Train" (1 text, tune referenced)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 396-398, "On Johnny Mitchell's Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 211, "On Johnny Mitchel's Train" (1 text)
Roud #7725
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Good bye Mursheen Durkin" (tune)
cf. "Me Johnny Mitchell Man" (character of John Mitchell)
NOTES [28 words]: According to Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, p. 217, miners who had no money and hence rode freight trains called them "Johnny Mitchell Specials." Hence this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KPL396

On Jordan's Stormy Banks

See Bound for the Promised Land (File: LxU099)

On Lac San Pierre

See The Wreck of the Julie Plante (File: FJ174)

On Leome Is in this World Ilist

DESCRIPTION: "On leome is in this world ilist, Therof is muchel pris; Arisen is God and that is rist, From deth to lif." Christ suffered and rose for our redemption. Mary watched the crucifixion. We should be thankful.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1300 (ms. Cambridge Trinity College B 14.39, also sometimes called ms. Trinity Cambridge 323)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus death MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #293
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #493
ADDITIONAL: Carleton Fairchild Brown, _English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century_, Clarendon University Press, 1932, pp. 34-37, "(On leome is in þis world ilist) (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSCambridgeTrinity323}, Cambridge University, Trinity College MS. 323, folio 32
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Judas" [Child 23] (subject: The Earliest English Ballad) and references there
NOTES [410 words]: Despite giving the text of this as "On leome is in þis world ilist," the DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse files this under the title "An leam is in the world I-lit." The text actually begins
On leome is in þis world ilist
Þer of is muchel pris
A risen is god & þat is rist
From deþe to lif....
The piece is very old; it is in the same thirteenth/fourteenth century manuscript as "Judas" [Child 23]; see that piece for information about the manuscript source.
I do not think there is any particular reason to include this poem in the Index. It is only here because of a probable error. On the basis of the manuscript dating, Albert B. Friedman, The Ballad Revival, University of Chicago Press, 1961, p. 15, classes either this or "Wolle Ye Iheren of Twelte Day" among ballads older than 1500 [both of them are from the "Judas" manuscript). Friedman probably meant to cite "Wolle Ye Iheren," but his page numbers are wrong, making it just possible that this is the piece he intended.
And the language, to me, seems much more difficult than "Judas." Possibly this is just the dialect (not having an annotated text, I don't know what has been deduced about it). But it might be that it is actually older than "Judas." In which case it becomes yet another candidate for the "Oldest English Ballad."
So why hasn't it gotten more attention? Part of the reason is probably the obscurity of the manuscript; it should be recalled that Trinity College MS. B 14.39 was lost for some decades, so scholars, including Child, had to rely on inaccurate transcripts).
And it doesn't look like a ballad; it's in ten-line stanzas (twelve in all) with rhyme scheme ababccddcd. (Maybe Friedman would argue that it is a proto-ballad; on p. 37, he talks about how the rigid French form the "ballade" became the English ballad, and mentions an intermediate "pseudo-ballae" form with rhyme scheme ababbcbc, which looks a bit like the Latin version.) Brown, p. 182, says "The special form of the 10-line stanza employed in this piece is not frequent."
At least the first lines of those stanzas are in ballad meter, four stresses then three then four then three, although the later lines don't fit as well. It could be played as a ballad. And it is narrative, although the religious elements pretty well overwhelm the plot.
Am I convinced? No. I think it's just another religious poem. But I'm filing it here because we try to cover every candidate for "The Earliest English Ballad." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: BrRo293

On Longside Road (Auld Lang Syne)

DESCRIPTION: "On Longside Road I've often trod... 'Twas there I spied another maid In the arms of my dear." The singer hisses her anger: "You think I that I could love you still?" She is resolved "to shun your company." But she would take old lovers into her home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #97, p. 2, "On Longside Road"; #172, pp. 1-2, "Auld Lang Syne" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan6 1143, "Auld Lang Syne" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 172, "On Longside Road; or The False Lover" (1 text)
Roud #5583
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Auld Lang Syne" (some lines) and references there
NOTES [46 words]: In the course of the song, the girl says she would not forgive her false love were he "fair as Absalom." According to 2 Samuel 14:25, David's son Absalom was the most beautiful man in Israel. - RBW
Greig/Duncan6: "Learnt in Culsalmond sixty years ago. Noted September 1906." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord172

On Meesh-e-gan

DESCRIPTION: French-Canadian dialect song. Singer reports work in the Michigan lumber camps, but it's exhausting, the pay is irregular, there are diseases and snakes. Chorus: "Come all you great beeg Canada man/Who want fin' work on Meesh-e-gan...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
LONG DESCRIPTION: French-Canadian dialect song. Singer tells fellow Frenchmen there's work in the Michigan lumber camps, but it includes the exhausting job of "sacking", the pay is irregular, there are diseases and snakes. Chorus: "Come all you great beeg Canada man/Who want fin' work on Meesh-e-gan/Dere's beeg log drive all troo our lan';/You sure fin' work on Meesh-e-gan."
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 72, "On Meesh-e-gan" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 64, "On Meesh-e-gan" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 334-335, "On Meesh-e-gan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8856
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't Come to Michigan" (theme)
File: Be072

On Monday Morning

See The Holly Twig [Laws Q6]; also The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: LQ06)

On Moonlight Bay

See Moonlight Bay (File: DPio561)

On Mules We Find Two Legs Behind

DESCRIPTION: "On mules we find two legs behind And two we find before, We stand behind before we find What the two behind be for." Or listeners may be warned to "beware the two behind"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: animal warning campsong
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 126, 166, "Mules" (1 short text on p. 126, with notes elsewhere)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 202, "The Mule" (1 text, tune referenced)
Harbin-Parodology, #23, p. 13, "Mules" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT, MULEBEHD
Roud #15362
NOTES [36 words]: Although field collections of this are few, my father knew this, to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne," which is also the tune cited by the Pankakes and by Harbin. I believe my father learned it in college in Michigan. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF126A

On My Journey

See Don't You Weep After Me (File: R262)

On My Journey (II) [Mount Zion]

DESCRIPTION: Song of religious ecstasy. "On my journey now, Mount Zion/Well I wouldn't take nothing, Mount Zion/For my journey now." Singer is walking along, the "elements opened and the love come down"; he goes to the valley; "my soul got happy/And I stayed all day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Paul Robeson)
KEYWORDS: religious floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Paul Robeson, "On Ma Journey" (Victor 20013, 1926; Victor 25547, 1937)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesus Says 'You Goes and I Goes Wid You'" or "Jesus Says Go" (floating verse)
cf. "Hold the Wind" (floating verse)
NOTES [10 words]: Just enough of a narrative that I didn't use "nonballad." - PJS
File: RcOMJMZ

On My Journey Home (I)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I feel like, I feel like I'm on my journey home." Verses are floating: "When I can read my titles clear...." "Should earth against my soul engage...." "Let cares like a wild deluge come...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 126, "On My Journey Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6679
NOTES [21 words]: This appears to be a different song from "I'm On My Journey Home," which appears in various editions of The Sacred Harp. - PJS
File: LoF126

On My Way to Mexico

DESCRIPTION: "Well I woke up early this mornin', I was a-feelin' mighty wrong... that black gal, she had done gone." "She's gone to her mama." 'I knocked on Mama's door." "She said, 'Get away you mistreater.'" "On my way to Mexico" "I got arrested."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (recorded from Jesse Lee Warren by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: separation abuse prison
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 302-303, "On My Way to Mexico" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Black Gal (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [94 words]: Like so many prison songs, this seems to have had very fluid lyrics; Jackson mentions that he often heard it mixed with "Stewball" (but does not print any variants). I suspect that the original plot may have run something like this: The man wakes up and finds his girl gone. He traces her to her mother's house. The mother tells him to leave. He tries to break in, then flees when the police are called. He tries to escape to Mexico, but is caught and sent to prison.
The versions in Jackson, however, have done enough lyric-swapping that it is hard to be sure. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM302

On My Way to New Orleans

DESCRIPTION: Collection of floaters including "On my way to New Orleans, Black cat sitting on the sewing machine, Sewing machine ran so fast, Made ninety-nine stitches in the poor cat's...." For other floaters see notes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (VaWork)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad worksong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Lee Wynn and John Mantley, "On My Way to New Orleans" (on VaWork)
NOTES [310 words]: The floating verses in VaWork have so many different sources that lumping this song with some other would be too arbitrary.
The VaWork verse listed in the description illustrates censorship by singer or collector; Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs has an answer to that verse: "sewed so easy and he sewed so slow, Took ninety-nine stitches on the tom-cat's toe" (p. 91, "Tom Cat").
Another VaWork floater is "If I live, don't get killed, Make my home in Jacksonville" (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands p. 99, "Sangaree"; Howard Odum and Guy B. Johnson, Negro Workaday Songs (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1926 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 92-93, "He-i-Heira"; Newman I. White, American Negro Folk Songs ((Hatboro: Folklore Associates, 1965 reprint of Harvard University Press, 1928), #ix.57 p. 309 "... make my home in Thomasville").
VaWork also has "One of these mornings won't be long, You gonna look for me and I'll be gone" (Howard Odum and Guy B. Johnson, Negro Workaday Songs (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1926 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 139, "Some o' Dese Days"; John W. Work, American Negro Songs (Mineola: Dover, 1998 reprint of New York: Crown Publishers, 1940), p. 237, "Captain, O Captain"; The New Orleans reference in VaWork might be broken off a verse like "Captain, O Captain": "Wake up this mornin' feelin' mighty mean Thinkin' 'bout my good gal in New Orleans").
The VaWork "If I get up in the morning I'm gonna make me a diamond ring If that ring doesn't shine I'm gonna get me a five and dime" is a common floater from "Hush Little Baby"; for another worksong example compare USMenhaden02 "Mama Liza Jane" ("L'il Liza Jane"): "... Johnny's gonna buy you a diamond ring ... If that diamond ring don't shine ... Johnny's gonna take you to the five and dime." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcOMYTNO

On One Monday Morning

See Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)

On Patrick's Day in the Morning

DESCRIPTION: The singer, 20, meets a spinster, 70. He says he's wealthy. She proposes, having money of her own. On the way to a dentist to fix her only tooth they stop for a drink, jump into the river, "and I lost her forever, On Patrick's day in the morning"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage drink humorous oldmaid youth age river
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 5, "On Patrick's Day in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2895
NOTES [982 words]: May-December romances in which the man is the older (and usually incapable of performance) are common in folklore; see, e.g., the various cross-references under "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man". Old maid songs are also common. There aren't many where the old woman finds a young man, though.
Of course, he may have just been kidding her along. Or -- perhaps more likely -- going for her money. This phenomenon is relatively well-attested; an English example comes from the reign of Edward IV: "Sir John Woodville [the brother of Edward's wife Elizabeth Woodville] was given a marriage that even in that opportunistic age created a scandal: still in his teens, he wedded the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, a lady venerable enough to be his grandmother, but very rich" (Kendall, p. 61).
Ross-Edward, pp. 92-93, explains that this took place soon after King Edward married Elizabeth Woodville (itself a marriage which shocked Europe, since her social status was so far below his -- and he had married her secretly). Elizabeth came from a rather poor family, and the best way to increase their wealth was aristocratic marriages. Most of Elizabeth's brothers and sisters were married to eligible heirs. The case of John Woodville was the most extreme probably because he was the first of the men to be wed -- he married Katherine Neville only about half a year after Elizabeth's marriage to Edward IV was announced. It would seem Duchess Katherine was the first heiress available.
The details of this marriage are a little vague; Jenkins, p. 31, says that Woodville was twenty and the Dowager Duchess between seventy and eighty. Wilkinson, p. 291 says that the groom was twenty and calls the bride "the octogenarisn duchess of Norfollk." Ross-Wars, p. 60, says that she was "well into her sixties" and was "compelled to accept in matrimony one of the queen's brothers, John Woodville, who was still in his teens."
It appears the confusion arises in the original source, a Latin miscellany sometimes attributed to William Worcester and known as the Annales Rerum Anglicarum. Dockray, p. 48, translates the passage as follows: "In the month of January [1465] Catherine, Duchess of Norfolk, a slip of a girl of about eighty years old, was married to John Woodville, the queen's brother, aged twenty years; a diabolical marriage." The Annales, however, is very loose with numbers; it seems clear that the author did not know the actual age of Katherine Neville. All that can be said with certainty is that her father, Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, died in 1425, and that she was the daughter of his second wife Joan Beaufort; it is believed that her oldest full brother Richard, Earl of Salisbury, was born around 1400, and her younger sister Cecily Neville was born 1415 (Wagner, pp. 172, 180). Thus she was probably born between 1400 and 1410, meaning she was somewhere between 54 and 65 when she married John Woodville. Nonetheless many estimate make her age higher than that; Dockray, p. 42, says only that she was "at least 65"; Ross-Edward, p. 93, also says that she was "at least sixty-five." Castor, p. 197, says that she was in her late sixties. Whatever her age, there can be no question, however, that she was old enough to be her John Woodville's grandmother.
Hicks, p. 129, says that Katherine Neville's first husband had died in 1432, more than thirty years before she married Woodville; even their son and heir was dead by then. Turner, p. 75, believes she was 12 at the time of her marriage, and had her first child a year later. She had apparently been married twice after that -- there is some mystery about all this; Turner, p. 76, says "she seems to have been single in 1440, and in 1442 she was fined for not having acquired the necessary royal consent for her marriage to Sir Thomas Strangways [which I would guess was a love match since he was not of the nobility]. However, by August 1443, she had had two children with Sir Thomas, he had died, and she was married to a third husband -- John Beaumont. Either her second marriage was kept secret for some time or at least one of her children was illegitimate. Her third husband was killed in battle in 1460." Turner thinks Katherine was 60 at the time. I would guess that a little high, but only a little. There is no doubt that she was too old to bear children when she married John Woodville, hence there can be little doubt that Woodville was in it for the money. Most writers agree the Woodvilles set up the marriage to get their hands on her cash -- but, as Turner points out on pp. 76-77, Katherine was King Edward IV's aunt; would he really have forced her into marriage such a marriage against her will?
According to Jenkins, p. 53, Woodville eventually was executed for his behavior (by the Earl of Warwick, the nephew of the Dowager Duchess).
Thus, ironically, the Dowager Duchess outlived her strapping young husband. By more than half a decade, in fact; in the late 1470s, she was negotiating to marry her granddaughter Anne Mowbray (the heir to the Norfolk dukedom) to Richard of York, the younger son of Edward IV (Jenkins, p. 113), and apparently was still around for the coronation of her nephew Richard III in 1483 (Turner, p.77). Which implies that the Dowager Duchess was still of sound mind in the 1460s. (Which seems to me to be further evidence that she was a little younger than everyone thinks -- but still old enough to be her John Woodville's grandmother.)
There may have been an instance of this in the Roman Empire, too, because a legal memorandum by the Emperor Diocletian in 295 C.E. condemned men marrying their grandmothers (Potter, pp. 83-84).
For additional cases of a younger man being involved with an older woman, see the examples cited in "A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing)" [Laws O35]. In that song, however, the age gap is much smaller than in this. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: MorU005

On Saturday Night I Lost My Wife

See Saturday Night I Lost My Wife (File: KSUC104B)

On Saturday Night Shall Be My Care

See Next Monday Morning (File: ShH38)

On Some Foggy Mountain Top

See Foggy Mountain Top (File: CSW042)

On Springfield Mountain

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

On That Other Bright Shore

See The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)

On the 16th o' October

See On the Sixteenth o' October (File: GrD3383)

On the Banks of Allan Water

See The Banks of Allan Water (File: DTalanwa)

On the Banks of Sweet Dundee

See The Banks of Dundee (Undaunted Mary) [Laws M25] (File: LM25)

On the Banks of the Clyde

See The Lad in the Scotch Brigade (The Banks of the Clyde) (File: LLab133)

On the Banks of the Don

See The Banks of the Don (File: RcTBOTDo)

On the Banks of the Little Eau Pleine

See The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine [Laws C2] (File: LC02)

On the Banks of the Murray

DESCRIPTION: "In a neat little cot on the banks of the Murray Lived a wife of a family with children so poor." One lad is sent to the Dardanelles and fatally wounded. He makes his will and dies; his little daughter and the entire family grieve
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: Australia war death lastwill
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 258-259, "On the Banks of the Murray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 267-268, "The Banks of the Murray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5476
File: MA258

On the Banks of the Ohio (I)

See Banks of the Ohio [Laws F5] (File: LF05)

On the Banks of the Ohio (II)

See We Live on the Banks of the Ohio (File: Br3224)

On the Banks of the Old Mohawk

DESCRIPTION: "It's all about my sweetiest Julia, And she looked just as natural as she lie. They buried her deep... On the banks of the old Mohawk." The singer recalls the time they spent by the river. She was sewing when she became sick and died.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: death separation wife
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 123-124, "On the Banks of the Old Mohawk" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #15667
NOTES [75 words]: Dime-Song-Book #2, p. 11, has a song "Banks of the Old Mohawk," which has a very similar theme but isn't really the same as that in Peters -- e.g. it has no girl's name, it doesn't mention sewing, and it doesn't say that she was buried deep. Roud lumps them, but my inclination is to say that they are separate songs; perhaps the Peters version, from Lester Coffee, was a reconstructed version based on the memory of the nineteenth century song. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet123

On the Banks of the Old Omaha

DESCRIPTION: "I will sing you a song of sweet Julia... I never shall forget the first time we met On the banks of the old Omaha...." One day she heard a knocking at the door, and died that night. The singer's heart is still by her grave in that far-off valley
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: death separation love burial
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 260-261, "On the Banks of the Old Omaha" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA261

On the Banks of the Old Pedee

See Banks of the Ohio [Laws F5]
 (File: LF05)

On the Banks of the Old Tennessee

DESCRIPTION: If the singer were a bird, he would fly to his love; if a fish, he would take her hook. But now she is dead and buried, and he is no longer willing to stay "on the banks of the old Tennessee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting animal death burial separation family
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 700, "On the Banks of the Old Tennessee" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 515-516, "On the Banks of the Old Tennessee" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 700A)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 117, "On the Bank uv the Old Tennessee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7374
RECORDINGS:
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "On the Banks of Old Tennessee" (Victor V-40235/Bluebird 7072/Zonophone 4329, 1929; on GraysonWhitter01)
NOTES [156 words]: Randolph's four texts are rather confused, and not one tells the full story. The only common element is the line "on the banks of the old Tennessee." The chorus varies (one even borrows lines from "My Sweet Sunny South"!), as do the presence of the floating-verse-like stanzas about being beast or bird. Cohen thinks the "A" and "D' texts are one song, and "B" and "C" another, probably related to "Free Little Bird."
The Grayson & Whitter recording doesn't help much; the verses are stereotyped: "I have no (brother/sister/true lover/mother) in this world (x2), (He's) sleeping tonight where the moon shines so bright, On the banks of old Tennesee (x3), He's sleeping tonight... On the banks..."
Wheeler's version is just a fragment, and adds nothing to the discussion.
In other words, it's possible that this is more than one song. But I think it all goes back to one piece, with a lot of importation and forgetfulness along the way. - RBW
File: R700

On the Banks of the Pamanaw [Laws H11]

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees an Indian girl sitting alone but unafraid. She explains that her family is dead and her lover has abandoned her. He offers to take her "to a better land, to a pale-face countree." She will not come; she has vowed to stay there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) promise abandonment home family grief seduction lie lover
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws H11, "On the Banks of the Pamanaw"
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 451-452, "The Banks of the Pamanaw" (1 text)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 46, "On the Banks of the Pamanaw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 197-200, "On the Banks of the Pamanaw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 59, "On the Banks of the Pamanaw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 424-426, "The Banks of Penmanah" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 95, "Banks of Panama" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 792, PAMANAW
Roud #2196
RECORDINGS:
Leonard Hulan, "The Banks of Penmanah" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Pattie Maher, "Banks of Panama" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Banks of Pondamah
NOTES [63 words]: Just to prevent mistakes: Yes, that is "Pamanaw," not "Panama." - RBW
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast is indeed "Panama," not my typo.
The "Baltic Line" may refer to Admiral Charles Napier's Baltic excursion against the Russians in the Crimean War [cf. broadside Bodleian, Harding B 13(181), "Bold Napier," E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1855-1861; tune: "Low-Back'd Car"] - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: LH11

On the Banks of the Sacramento

See Ho for California (Banks of Sacramento) (File: E125)

On the banks of the Shannon when Shelagh Was Nigh

See Poor Dog Tray (File: HMHS075B)

On the Banks of the Stream Stood a Lad and His Lassie

See The Lad in the Scotch Brigade (The Banks of the Clyde) (File: LLab133)

On the Banks of the Sweet Dundee

See The Banks of Dundee (Undaunted Mary) [Laws M25] (File: LM25)

On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away

DESCRIPTION: "'Round my Indiana homestead wave the cornfields... But one thing there is missing from the picture, Without her face it seems so incomplete." The singer misses his mother and his sweetheart Mary, left in the graveyards of his home on the Wabash
AUTHOR: Paul Dresser (1857-1906)
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (sheet music by Howley, Haviland & Co.)
KEYWORDS: death mother love separation home rambling
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 117, "Banks of the Wabash" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 426, "The Banks of the Wabash" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #117, "On the Banks of the Wabash" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 45, "On the Banks of the Wabash" (1 text)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 166-169, "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 230-234, "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1899 sheet music)
Margaret Bradford Boni, editor, _Songs of the Gilded Age_, with piano arrangements by Norman Lloyd and illustrations by Lucille Corcos, Golden Press, 1960, pp. 30-32, "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, p. 34, "(On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away)" (1 text, tune on pp. 106-110)
Roud #9595
SAME TUNE:
On the Banks of the Railroad ("Away down in our homes in Alabama Us coons were contented to stay") (Foner, p. 210)
NOTES [389 words]: This piece is now Indiana's state song. Dresser (originally Dreisser; he was Theodore Dreisser's brother), who ran away to join a medicine show rather than enter the priesthood, was also the author of "The Letter That Never Came" and "The Pardon Came Too Late."
According to Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, pp. 276-277, Dresser was "widely remembered as one of the most lovable characters in the history of Tin Pan Alley. A huge mountain of a man, with a heart as big as his body, his generosity was notorious. Whatever he had he shared with others, and most of his debtors never paid him back.... Like most of the songwriters of his day, Paul Dresser had a throroughly naive outlook on life.... He believes the sentimentalities he put into his songs."
Spaeth considers 1895 to be the peak of his career; in that year he produced "Just Tell Them That You Saw Me," described as "enormously popular" though it has had little impact on tradition.
I've seen it said that it was Theodore Dreisser who suggested to his brother that he write a river song about Indiana, and this was the result. But according to Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 120, it was one Max Hoffman who pushed him to the final form: "Paul was mulling over a melody that was practically in finished form. But he did not have the words.... He had a sort of dummy refrain, which he was studying, but by the time he finished what he was writing down to my playing it was an altogether different lyric.
"When Paul came to the line, 'Through the sycamores the candle lights were gleaming [sic.],' I was tremendously impressed....
"I have always felt that Paul got the idea from glancing out of the window now and again as he wrote [while on a tour in Chicago], and seeing the lights gllimmering out on Lake Michigan."
Spaeth, p. 281, says that "by 1903 the Dresser gift had definitely declined," and he started to try to work the business end of the music trade. But Dresser, no businessman, managed to die in poverty in 1906 despite many hits. Spaeth, p. 282, claims that he died "at the home of his sister in Brooklyn, where he had been living for some time in obscurity. Regardless of any physician's diagnosis, his malady was a broken heart." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: FSWB045

On the Battlefield

See I Am On the Battlefield for My Lord (File: ElCh062B)

On the Bed Ground in a Cow Camp

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you tender college folk, if you should have some fun, Come out among the cowboys, they'll show you how it's done." They dance with girls at balls. Their language is rough. They gamble heavily but are always generous
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: cowboy dancing money
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 157-159, "On the Bed Ground in a Cow Camp" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4891
File: SaKo157

On the Benches in the Park

DESCRIPTION: "If I were a night policeman, You may bet I'd have a lark, Watching all the spooning couples On the benches in the park."
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: courting police
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 23, "If I were a night policeman" (1 short text)
Roud #25349
NOTES [178 words]: Edith Fowke, in her notes to Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, says that an American singer, R. G. Knowles, wrote a song "On the Benches in the Park." Knowles (1857-1919) did indeed sing such a song -- but it's not this. The song does not mention any night policeman; it begins as follows:
On a Summer's evening when the sun goes down
And you're tired of strolling around the town
Seeking recreation ere the day grows dark
Go and watch the babies playing on the benches in the Park.
Chorus:
On the benches in the Park, children love to play
Sweet little girls, with their bright sunny curls
And cheeks like the dawn of a mid-summer day
Maiden shy and bashful youth, come each night to spark
The man in the moon watches them while they spoon
On the benches in the Park.
What is more, the song was sung by Knowles, but the sheet music in the New York Public Library digital collection credits both words and music to James Thornton.
I would not be surprised if the Thornton/Knowles song inspired Alice Kane's fragment, but without a tune, we can't really know. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC023C

On the Bluff (Alligator Song)

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on the bluff In the state of Indiana, Dat's where I useter lib." The singer is a good fisherman, but partial to drink; he fights with an alligator, only to find it is a log. He hides from a white man by playing a mile-post. At last he buries master
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: river fishing drink slave humorous burial
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 72, "'Twas on de Bluff" (1 text)
ST ScaNF072 (Partial)
Roud #7493
NOTES [107 words]: There is a song in the Edith Fowke collection which appears to be a version of this, so it appears to have been known in Canada as well as wherever it was that Scarborough located it. But I can't absolutely prove it at this time.
It might be objected that Indiana is not a slave state, and this is true -- but it was also quite anti-Negro, and locals might have looked the other way at a slaveholder. Or, of course, the actual location of the song might have been Kentucky, across the river from Indiana. Though it's hard to imagine alligators on the Ohio River.
In any case, this looks more like a minstrel piece than a real folk song. - RBW
File: ScaNF072

On the Bonny Hills of Scotland

See The Paisley Officer (India's Burning Sands) [Laws N2] (File: LN02)

On the Booms

DESCRIPTION: "Oh the coxswain of the launch he didn't stand a chance, On the booms, on the booms." Similarly for the coxswains of other boats, e.g. the coxswain of the "pinnace... didn't finish"; "...whaler was up another sailor," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy ship bawdy sex
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 28, "On the Booms" (1 text, with tune on p. 149)
File: Tawn010

On the Charlie So Long

See Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)

On the Cumberland Land

DESCRIPTION: "When we were out in the ice and snow, It hailed and stormed, how the wind did blow... It was so cold we almost died." But they finally find safety in a lonely but fertile place, although religion is scarce. "Wish me safe to the Cumberland land"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5)
KEYWORDS: home travel hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 50-51, "On the Cumberland Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7055
File: BWV5050

On the Deck of the Willow Green (Faithful Edgar)

See Deck of the Willow Green (File: LLab089)

On the Dodge

DESCRIPTION: "Well, old horse, you've brought me 'cross the line, There's a sheriff's posse ridin' close behind" but it will stop at the Rio Grande. The singer is always in trouble. He sees a horse he used to own, repossesses it, and flees, but no one believes him
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy thief escape
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 123-124, "On the Dodge" (1 text)
File: ThLo123

On the Dummy Line

See The Dummy Line (II) (File: ScNS139A)

On the Eighth Day of November

See Saint Clair's Defeat (File: E116)

On the Eleventh of October in the Year Ninety Nine

DESCRIPTION: The Boer War begins 11 October 1899 "when Ireland was deprived of some brave Irishmen. Married or single to the war they must go To die upon the field or to conquer the foe." The Boers are coming and the slaughter is greater than any since Bonaparte
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: war parting death Africa nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1899-1902 - Boer War
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 110, "On the Eleventh of March in the Year Ninety Two" (1 text)
Roud #16260
NOTES [44 words]: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin has only the title "On the Eleventh of March in the Year Ninety Two" from Elizabeth Cronin's song-lists. OCroinin speculates that the song referred to may be this one "noted from Jerry Buckley of Cnoc Raithin, in 1961." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC110

On the First Day of Christmas

See The Twelve Days of Christmas (File: FO213)

On the First of November

DESCRIPTION: "On the first of November last, My love and I was parted." He goes to fight the French. Even as she begs to come with him, he is killed. "Then she took up his armour bright." She kills the man who slew her lover, and leads the English troops to victory
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Butterworth collection)
KEYWORDS: love death soldier war clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, pp. 30-31, "On the First of November" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1915
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Ambree" (plot: lover becomes officer)
cf. "The Female Warrior (Pretty Polly)" [Laws N4] (plot: lover becomes officer)
File: ButD030

On the Green Carpet

See Green Carpet; also Oats and Beans (File: Lins46)

On the Green Mossy Banks of the Lea

See The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea [Laws O15] (File: LO15)

On the Lake of the Poncho Plains

See The Lake of Ponchartrain [Laws H9] (File: LH09)

On the Lakes of Ponchartrain

See The Lake of Ponchartrain [Laws H9] (File: LH09)

On the Late Engagement in Charles Town River

DESCRIPTION: "Good people of old England, come listen unto me, All you who live at home at ease and from all dangers flee." The British fleet comes to Charles Town and the Bristol runs aground. They fight the "blacks and Indians" and shatter the town
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (First)
KEYWORDS: battle death patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 60, "On the Late Engagement in Charles Town River" (1 text)
Roud #V12546
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sir Peter Parker" (subject) and references there
File: PaSe060

On the Loss of the Royal George

See Sinking of the Royal George (File: LaBo076)

On the Mountain Stands a Lady

See Lady on the Mountain (I) (File: AJRV140)

On the Mountain Stands a School

See There Is a School (File: AJRR249)

On the Mountain Top Stands a Lady

See Lady on the Mountain (I) (File: AJRV140)

On the Plains of Manassas

See The Red, White, and Red (File: Wa022)

On the Plains of Mexico

See Santy Anno (File: Doe078)

On the Red River Shore

See The New River Shore (The Green Brier Shore; The Red River Shore) [Laws M26] (File: LM26)

On the Road Again

DESCRIPTION: Singer comes home, finds the window propped, the door locked, and another man in his bed. He fires a shotgun; the man runs off. Another man arrives. Chorus: "(S)he's on the road again (just as sure as you're born)/Nat'chl born easeman on the road again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Memphis Jug Band)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer says his woman's evil. He comes home, finds the window propped, the door locked, and another man in his folding bed. He fires a shotgun through the glass, and the man takes off running. Another man comes to call, the wife tells him her husband's on the way to the pen. Chorus: "(S)he's on the road again (just as sure as you're born)/Nat'chl born easeman on the road again"
KEYWORDS: jealousy adultery infidelity sex violence prison wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Memphis Jug Band "On the Road Again" (Victor V-38015, 1929; rec. 1928; on TimesAint01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16]," especially the "Kassie Jones" text (floating verses)
cf. "Skinner's Song" (form)
File: RcOtRAg

On the Road to Bethlehem

DESCRIPTION: A "merry company" comes to Bethlehem to obey the decree of "the governor." Mary and Joseph seek the inn, but there is no room. They go to a stable, where the baby Jesus is born. Eastern kings and shepherds come to visit
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Hugh Benson / Music: Sir R. R. Terry
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible childbirth
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H59, p. 76, "On the Road to Bethlehem" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9052
NOTES [50 words]: With the sole exception of the reference to "Eastern kings," every item mentioned in this song comes from the Gospel of Luke (chapter 2).
The form of this song, and the first couple of verses, don't seem quite suitable for the content; I wonder if the author didn't fix up a non-religious poem. - RBW
File: HHH059

On the Road to California

DESCRIPTION: "The Mormons, led by Colonel Cooke, while passing down St. Pedro's brook" are "On the road to California, on that hard and tedious journey." As they try to make their mules pull, bulls attack. When the battle is over, four mules and twelve bulls are dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle)
KEYWORDS: soldier travel animal injury | bulls mules
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1846 - Formation of the Mormon Battalion
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, pp. 319-320, "On the Road to California" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8594
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mormon Battalion Song (I)" (subject) and notes and references there
NOTES [38 words]: This is obviously a story of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War. The fight with bulls at the San Pedro was real, and was the only "combat" the Battalion saw. For background, see the notes to "Mormon Battalion Song (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSSS319

On the Road to Californy

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

On the Road to Gundagai

See Lazy Harry's (Five Miles from Gundagai) (File: DTgundag)

On the Road to Mandalay

See Mandalay (File: Fuld415)

On the Schooner Africa

DESCRIPTION: "We wallowed Lake Superior through, And then we reached Marquette, Where Billy Clark, our singing friend, By Charlie Turpin was shot." With Clark in the hospital and two other sailors ashore, the captain has to use the cook as a sailor and hire a woman
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from J. Sylvester Ray by Walton)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship cook injury
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, p. 111, "On the Schooner Africa" (1 fragment)
Roud #19843
File: WGM111

On the Schooner Hercules

DESCRIPTION: "On the eighth day of November In the year of ninety-one, The schooler Hercules set sail For the port of Parry Sound." The ship leaves Sarnia. The song describes the voyage and a storm. He names the sailors and bids good luck to captain Glass and crew
AUTHOR: probably Jimmie McQuarie
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (collected from John McDonald and Joseph Glass by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship travel cook storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 142-143, "On the Schooner Hercules" (1 text)
Roud #19857
File: WGM142

On the Schooner John Joe

DESCRIPTION: "Beware of George Farrin his schooner John Joe." Breakfast and dinner is fish soup. Supper is "thin hard bread." The singer had to fight George to get a decent meal from the cook. But, when he gets home it's back to "hard bread."
AUTHOR: Tom Evans (ca 1890 per Peacock)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: fight fishing sea ship food ordeal hardtimes
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 140-141, "On the Schooner John Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9966
RECORDINGS:
Leonard Hulan, "On the Schooner John Joe" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea140

On the Shores of Havana

DESCRIPTION: "Many hearts were filled with sorrow and with sadness, Many hearts were torn with anguish and pain... for the heroes of our battleship, the 'Maine.'" A brief account of the destruction of the Maine, with comments about the lives of the sailors killed
AUTHOR: Andrew B. Sterling
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (broadsides & songbooks)
KEYWORDS: sea disaster ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1895 - Cubans rebel against Spain
Feb 15, 1898 - Explosion of the battleship "Maine" in Havana harbor
April 25, 1898 - Congress declares war on Spain
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,SE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 21, "On the Shores of Havana" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 235, "The Battleship Maine (I)" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 195, "The Battleship, The Maine" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC021 (Partial)
Roud #4615
RECORDINGS:
Vince Ledwell, "Battleship Maine" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On the Banks of the Wabash Far Away" (tune & meter)
cf. "My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine" (subject) and references there
NOTES [67 words]: For background on the loss of the Maine, and the war that followed, see the notes to "My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine."
Andrew B. Sterling is best known for writing the words to "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis" and "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie"; also "Strike Up the Band (Here Comes a Sailor)," "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown (What You Goin' to Do When the Rent Comes 'Round?)," and others. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSC021

On the Sign of an Old Wiltshire Inn

DESCRIPTION: "Come, my dear brother, let's comfort each other; There's whisky and gin, and brandy within; There's ale and good cider, that's fit for a king."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad brother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 306, "On the Sign of an Old Wiltshire Inn" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 520)
Roud #22079
NOTES [35 words]: The current description is all of the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text. I included this just to have a complete record of Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames. Roud does not assign a number to this entry. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WT306B

On the Sixteenth o' October

DESCRIPTION: A day of work: plowing in the morning, bundling straw, eating, then cleaning the horses and plowing again in the rain. "Noo my day's wark is finisht, and I'll hae a smoke, An' I'm boun' for my bed, for it's past nine o'clock"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #153, p. 2, ("On the 16th October in the year 58") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 383, "On the 16th o' October" (2 texts)
Roud #5920
NOTES [33 words]: Greig: "The Rev. Dr Forrest, Lonmay, sends me a copy of some lines that were found written on the walls of the men's chaumer at Crichnalade in the parish of Fyvie, more than 50 years ago" [1910]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3383

On the Spree

DESCRIPTION: Mrs. Brown locks the doors and keeps the keys to keep the boys away from Maggie. Drunk Johnny comes down the chimney but gets stuck on the bar that holds the chain and pothook. He takes the chimney apart to escape. Beware of that bar.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting escape warning ordeal humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1509, "On the Spree" (1 text)
Roud #7170
File: GrD71509

On the Steps of the Dole Office Door

DESCRIPTION: "The songs that we sang were about old Jack Lang On the steps of the Dole Office door. He closed up the banks, it was one of his pranks, And he sent us to the Dole Office door. We molested the police till they gave us relief..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: unemployment hardtimes
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 225, "On the Steps of the Dole Office Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 138-139, "Clem Murphy's Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [50 words]: On the face of it, it is hard to equate the two Meredith versions of this song; all they have in common is a Depression setting. But Meredith, who has direct experience of the songs, thinks them one. Both fragments describe how people survived the depression and attempted to get by on the dole. - RBW
File: MA225

On the Sudden Death of Mr. Beriah Randall, of Easton

See My Neighbors Dear (The Falling Tree) (File: BeMe259)

On the Swag

DESCRIPTION: "His body doubled under the pack that sprawls untidily on his old back, the cold wet deadbeat plods up the track." The cook curses upon seeing him. The cook is urged to bring him in -- "for this is Christ"
AUTHOR: R. A. K. Mason (1905-?) source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Mason, "No New Thing," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: travel clothes hardtimes cook religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 160, "On the Swag" (1 text, 1 modern tune)
ADDITIONAL: J. C. Reid, _A Book of New Zealand_ (Collins National Anthologies), Collins, 1964, pp. 273-274, "On the Swag" (1 text)
NOTES [79 words]: This appears to be an allusion to Matthew's parable of the Sheep and the Goats, where Jesus promises a reward to those who were kind to the poor, but punishment for those who were not. Matt. 25:35 reads, "for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me." The blessed say they never helped Jesus, but in 25:40, Jesus says, "'Truly I tell you, just as you to the least of these my brothers, so you did to me.'" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo160

On the Tombigbee River So Bright

See The Gum Tree Canoe (File: R787)

On the Top of Mount Zion

See Top of Mount Zion (File: RcToMZi)

On the Trail to Mexico

See Boggy Creek or The Hills of Mexico [Laws B10b] (File: LB10B)

On the Twenty-First of May

See The Bold Pirate [Laws K30] (File: LK30)

On the Wallaby

See The Tent Poles are Rotten (File: FaE188)

On the Wallaby Track

See The Springtime It Brings on the Shearing (On the Wallaby Track) (File: MA186)

On the Wings of a Dove

DESCRIPTION: "On the wings of a snow white dove He sends His pure sweet love." Noah was not forgotten. "When trouble surrounds us when evils come... He does not forget us"
AUTHOR: Robert B. Ferguson (according to Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (date written per Wikipedia, accessed February 16, 2015 at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wings_of_a_Dove_(Bob_Ferguson_song))
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious bird
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 19, pp. 127-128, "On the Wings of a Dove" (1 text), with two verses repeated on p. 154
Roud #24301
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "On the Wings of a Dove" (on NFJDowney01)
File: BeDo127

On This Hill

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

On to Glory

DESCRIPTION: "Oh come my brethren and sisters too, We're going to join the heavenly crew, To Christ our savior let us sing And make our loud hosannas ring. O, hallelujah...." "Oh, there's (Bill Thomas), I know him well...." (The singer lists sinners and their sins)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 66, "On to Glory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12022
NOTES [62 words]: The notes to this song in Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates question whether this is of Negro origin but say that it "illustrat[es] the pressure brought to bear upon the wavering." I don't know about you, but if a preacher started picking on *me* that way, I'd walk out of the congregation. So I have to suspect the audience was, in some sense or other, captive. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG066

On to Richmond (II)

See We Have the Navy (File: R212)

On to the Morgue

DESCRIPTION: "On to the morgue, that's the only place for me (x2). Take it from the head one, he sure is a dead one. On to the morgue...." "Where will we all be one hundred years from now? (x2) Pushing up the daisies (x2), That's where we'll all be...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: death parody
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 199, "On to the Morgue" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #13614
NOTES [14 words]: Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag calls this a "travesty on the Chopin funeral march." - RBW
File: San199

On Tom Big Bee River

See The Gum Tree Canoe (File: R787)

On Top of Old Smokey

DESCRIPTION: "On top of old Smokey, All covered with snow, I lost my true lover, From courting too slow." The singer laments (her) lover's infidelity, saying that a "false-hearted lover is worse than a thief." (She) claims one cannot trust one in a thousand
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection lyric warning floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (42 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 473-476, "The Unconstant Lover" (3 texts, 1 tune, none of which mention Old Smokey; the second mixed with "The Cuckoo" and the third short enough that it might be any of the "never place your affection on a green willow tree" songs)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 253, "Old Smoky" (2 texts plus 3 excerpts and mention of 3 more); also 248, "The Inconstant Lover" (5 texts plus a fragment, admitted by the editors to be distinct songs but with many floating items; "A," "B," and "C" are more "On Top of Old Smokey" than anything else, though without that phrase; "D" is primarily "The Broken Engagement (II -- We Have Met and We Have Parted)," "E" is a mix of "Old Smokey" and "The Cuckoo," and the "F" fragment may also be "Old Smokey")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 253, "Old Smoky" (7 tunes plus text excerpts); 248, "The Inconstant Lover" (4 tunes plus text excerpts; the "B," "C," and "C(1)" tunes presumably belong with "On Top of Old Smokey"; "H" appears to be "Beware, Oh Take Care")
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #195, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, very mixed, containing fragments of at least three songs, "On Top of Old Smokey" being the largest element, plus "The Cuckoo" and something that begins "Johnny on the water")
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, p. 54, "Old Smoky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 50, p. 166, "Jimmy" (1 text, more this than anything else but starting with "A-walking, a-talking, a-walking foes I, To meet pretty Jimmy, he'll be here by and by" and continuing with many floating verses, e.g. "The cuckoo is a pretty bird," "If I am forsaken, I am not foresworn, And he is mistaken who thinks I will mourn")
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 20, "Jimmy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 95, pp. 147-149, "Sweet Willie" (1 text, 1 tune, with verses from "The Cuckoo" but also much material from "On Top of Old Smokey" or something similar plus one of "Farewell He" type)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 24, "Old Smoky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 49, "The Cuckoo" (4 texts, of which "A" is about half "Inconstant Lover/Old Smokey" verses and "B" never mentions the cuckoo and appears to be mostly floating verses; 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 117-118, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 49A)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 38, "Sweet Willie" (1 text, six verses derived from at least two and probably three or four songs; the largest portion is "On Top of Old Smokey" but there is a bit of "Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly)" and something from one of amorphous the "courting is a pleasure" group)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 2-3, "Old Smoky" (1 text, starting with a full "On Top of Old Smokey" text and then including a long set of verses from "The Roving Gambler" or perhaps "The Wagoner's Lad"); pp. 18-19, "Pretty Polly, Pretty Polly, I'm Going Away" (with five verses of "Old Smokey" preceded by two "Roving Gambler"-type floaters); p. 33, "Advice to Girls" (a pure "Old Smokey" version)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 272-282, "The Waggoner's Lad" (9 texts, 6 tunes on pp. 428-431, but the entry combines many songs; A (no title), B ("My Fortune's Been Bad"), and E ("My Horses Ain't Hungry") are extended versions of "The Wagoner's Lad"; C ("The Last Farewell") is a short text probably of "The Wagoner's Lad"; D ("Old Smokie") combined one "Smokey" verse with three "Wagoner's Lad" verses; "F" ("Old Smoky") is a very long "Old Smokey" text which seems to have gained parts of other songs; G ("A False Lying True Love") is "Old Smokey" minus the first verse; H ("I'll Build My Cabin on a Mountain So High" is "Old Smokey" with a first verse from a drunkard song and a final floating verse supplying the title; I (no title) is a fragment probably of "Old Smokey")
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 78, "I'm Going to Georgia" (2 texts, 2 tunes; as with many pieces listed above, I've filed the Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians "I'm Going to Georgia" songs here for want of a better place for them, using the "never place your affections" line as the delineator. - PJS)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #44, "Wagoner's Lad (Meeting Is a Pleasure) (Old Smokey)" (1 text, 1 tune, probably mixed, filed here because it has most of these verses although it never mentions Old Smokey)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 89, "The Unconstant Lover" (1 text, with no mention of Old Smokey and many floating verses)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 236-238, "Old Smoky Mountain" (1 text)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, pp. 101-102, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, with at least two verses that are "On Top of Old Smokey," two that might be from any of several abandonment songs, and a final verse that is "The Cuckoo")
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp.738-740, "The Wagoner's Lad" (2 texts, with the "B" text being a composite of "Wagoner's Lad" and "Old Smokey" verses)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #65, "Old Smoky" (1 text, 1 tune, another "Old Smokey"/"Wagoner's Lad" mix)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 1, "An Inconstant Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 119-120, "Old Smoky" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 50-51, "On Top of Old Smokey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 152-154, "Forsaken"; Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, p. 178, "On Top of Old Smoky" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 97, "On Top of Old Smoky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 18, "Old Smoky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 112, "Old Smokey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 60, "On Top Of Old Smoky" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 165, "On Top Of Old Smoky" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 143, "A Forsaken Lover" (1 text, which appears to be a compound: Three verses of a forseken lover song, followed by an Old Smokey text less the first verse)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #13, pp. 151-152, "Old Smoky" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 27-28, "(Old Smokey)" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 121, "The cuckoo is a merry bird" (text 2 is "The Forsaken Lover" which omits the "Old Smokey" lines; dated c.1780 (The Merry Gentleman's Companion, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes))
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #78, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, 1 tune, of four verses, all of which can float; one might be "Oh, No, Not I"; the second is clearly "The Cuckoo"; the third is perhaps from "On Top of Old Smokey"; the fourth is uncertain)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2398, p. 161, "The Unconstant Lovier" (1 reference, probably to this)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Daniel W. Patterson, "Archive Notes," Vol. XV, No. 1 (May 1967), pp. 21-22, "(The Inconstant Lover)" (1 text, 1 tune, probably this although it lacks the first verse)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 42, "On Top of Old Smoky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 416, "On Top of Old Smokey"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 56, 230, 238, 254, "On Top of Old Smoky" (notes only)
DT, OLDSMOKY
ADDITIONAL: [no author listed], Scenes & Songs of the Ohio-Erie Canal, Ohio Historical Society, 1971, "Johnny and Mollie" (1 text, 1 tune, from Pearl R. Nye; it never mentions Old Smokey and appears to have several stanzas added by Nye, but more of the many floating lines appear to belong here than anywhere else)
Roud #414
RECORDINGS:
Bob Atcher, "Old Smokey" (Columbia 20484, 1948; rec. 1947)
Cramer Brothers, [pseud. for Vernon Dalhart and -- probably -- Carson Robison] "On Top of Old Smokey" (Broadway 8071, c. 1930)
Gerald Duncan et al, "On Top of Old Smokey" (on MusOzarks01)
Nancy Finley, Samuel Finley, "On Top of Old Smoky" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #620, recorded 08/01/2023; it sounds as if it might be a parody, but the informant forgot the parodied parts)
I. G. Greer, "Old Smoky" (AFS; on LC14)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Old Smoky" (on Holcomb-Ward1, HolcombCD1)
Buell Kazee, "On Top of Old Smoky" [fragment] (on Kazee01)
Bradley Kincaid, "On Top of Old Smokey" (Supertone 9566, 1929)
George Reneau, "On Top of Old Smokey" (Vocalion 15366, 1926)
Pete Seeger, "On Top of Old Smoky" (on PeteSeeger17) (on PeteSeeger23)
Henry Whitter, "It's a Rough Road to Georgia" (on StuffDreams1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad"
cf. "The Little Mohee" [Laws H8] (tune)
cf. "Lee's Hoochie" (tune)
cf. "I'm Sad and I'm Lonely" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Blackbird and Thrush" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I Shot My Poor Teacher (With a Big Rubber Band)" (tune)
cf. "Sailing Out on the Ocean" (floating lyrics)
cf. "A Warning to Girls" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Once I Loved a Bonny Boy" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Courtin' Owre Slow" (theme: lover lost by courting too slowly)
cf. "William and Nancy (II) (Courting Too Slow)" [Laws P5] (theme: lover lost by courting too slowly)
cf. "Go Away From Me, Willie" (floating lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
I Shot My Poor Teacher (With a Big Rubber Band) (File: PHCFS093)
The Little Mohee (File: LH08)
Lee's Hoochie (File: EM407)
On Top of Spaghetti (File: NCF211TS)
On Top of Old Smoky ("On top of old Smokey, All covered with grass, I saw Davy Crockett") (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 111)
On Top of Old Smoky (All Covered with Blood) (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 126)
On Top of My Headache (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 111)
On Top of Old Baldy (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 144)
Song of the Grand Coulee Dam/Way Up in that Northwest (by Woody Guthrie) (Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 50-51)
Up in Old Loray (by Ella May Wiggins and/or Odell Corley; Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 135-136; NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Charles W. Joyner, "Up In Old Loray: Folkways of Violence in the Gastonia Strike," Vol. XII, No. 2 (Dec. 1964), p. 23)
NOTES [444 words]: The relationship between this song and "The Wagoner's Lad" is problematic. The two are occasionally listed as one song (e.g. by Leach, Scarborough, and implicitly by Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains; also, at least in part, by Roud); indeed, this was done in early versions of this Index. This was done under the influence of the Lomaxes, who classify the songs together.
Further study, however, seems to show that almost all versions which have common material are derived from the Lomaxes, and the minor exceptions are usually fragments of floating verses. (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida is an exception, but in his case, it looks as if two songs have been grafted together -- and Morris worked with John Lomax anyway.) The plots of the two songs are different, their tunes are distinct, and there does not seem to have been any overlap in ordinary versions. It would appear that the identification of the two is purely the result of the sort of editorial work the Lomaxes so often committed.
Due to this inconsistency, it is suggested that the reader check all versions of both songs, as well as both sets of cross-references, to find all related materials.
It also appears that certain key lines, beginning "A meeting's a pleasure, a parting's a grief, And an (unconstant young man) is worse than a thief," predate this song, as they appear in several British texts which otherwise bear little resemblance to "Old Smokey." For the moment, these British Isles variations are filed under "The Blackbird and Thrush," at least until I find a more authoritative source.
Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 61, mentions a broadside, "The Unconstant Lovier" (sic.), which begins "Oh! it's meeting's a pleasure, and it's parting's a grief"; this is credited to J. H. Collins, but I know nothing else about it.
Another interesting question: Does this song refer to the Great Smoky Mountains, which run along the North Carolina/Tennessee border? This seems reasonable based on the geographical distribution. The flip side is, the highest peak in the Great Smoky Mountains is Clingmans Dome, 6643 feet/2025 meters, the highest point in Tennessee. My information is that it is not snow-covered in summer; it is low enough and far enough south that the snow melts every year. Hardly anyone lives near Clingman's Dome, but if it's the highest point in the Smokys, what are the odds of year-round snow on some other peak in the range? Of course, the song could have taken place in winter, when there is snow in the Smokys, but it seems an odd way of identifying the place. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BSoF740

On Top of Old Smokey (II)

See The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)

On Top of Spaghetti

DESCRIPTION: "On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese, I lost my last meatball When somebody sneezed." It lands on the floor, or in the street, and goes rolling and has various adventures
AUTHOR: Tom Glazer (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs and others)
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: food humorous derivative
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Gloria Dickens, "Childhood Songs from North Carolina" Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), p. 7, "(On top of Spaghetti, all covered with cheese)" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 254, "On Top of Spaghetti" (notes only)
DT, OLDSMOK2
Roud #16483
File: NCF211TS

On Top of the Schoolhouse

See I Shot My Poor Teacher (With a Big Rubber Band) (File: PHCFS093)

On Yonder Hill There Sits A Hare

DESCRIPTION: A worried hare sits "o'er her lodgings." A huntsman sets his dogs on the hare. She escapes from the best dog. "Merrily as she trips the plain, And may she live to run again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (recording, Geordie Hanna)
KEYWORDS: escape hunting animal dog
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #5173
RECORDINGS:
Geordie Hanna, "On Yonder Hill There Sits A Hare" (on Voice18)
File: RcOYHTSH

On Yonder Hill There Stands a Lady

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) AND No, John, No (File: E098)

On, Two, Three, Bumble, Bumble Bee

See Old Man Daisy (File: McIn104D)

Once a Possum Hung A-swinging

DESCRIPTION: "Once a possum hung a-swinging with his tail around a limb, Ad a jaybird stopped his singing just to take a look at him," leading a buzzard to sing, "Carolina, Carolina, with the corn and cane, I'se a-coming"; the singer talks of life there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: nonsense travel animal bird home
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 57-58, "(no title, said to be 'Sung by a Homesick Southern Darkey Swamper'") (1 text) (pp. 47-48 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #14093
NOTES [22 words]: Despite Shoemaker's attribution of this to a "Homesick Southern Darkey Swamper," I strongly suspect this of minstrel show origin. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Shoe057

Once an Apple Met an Apple

DESCRIPTION: "Once an apple met an apple; Said the apple to the apple, 'Why the apple don't the apple Get the apple out of here?'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: food | apple counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 24, "(Once an apple met an apple)" (1 text)
File: WEMM024B

Once I could drive my four-in-hand

See Up a Tree (File: GrD3668)

Once I Courted a Charming Beauty Bright

See Charming Beauty Bright [Laws M3] (File: LM03)

Once I Courted a Damsel

See Charming Beauty Bright [Laws M3] (File: LM03)

Once I Courted a Fair Beauty Bright

See Charming Beauty Bright [Laws M3] (File: LM03)

Once I Courted a Pretty Little Girl

See The Bonny Boy (I) (File: FSC037)

Once I Did Court

See Charming Beauty Bright [Laws M3] (File: LM03)

Once I Had a Box of Colours

DESCRIPTION: "Once I had a box of colours, What colour do you think it was?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty colors
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 96, "(Once I had a box of colours)" (1 short text)
File: SuSm096A

Once I Had a Daughter

DESCRIPTION: Father has a daughter who leaves for Germany and returns and says "I have my sweetheart here." Father replies "I have no time to chat And I have no time to talk And I do not like the vagabond Who by your side does walk."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: love war soldier cross-dressing separation Germany
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 106, "Once I Had a Daughter" (1 text fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #2778
NOTES [16 words]: The current description is based on the Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick fragment. - BS
File: CrSNB106

Once I Had a Feather Bed

See Adieu to Old England (File: GrD61083)

Once I Had a Sweetheart (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Once I had a sweetheart, A sweetheart brave and true, His hair was dark and curly, His cunning eyes were blue." But her sweetheart wanted to roam; he gave her a ring and departed (to become a soldier). He is killed far from home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love separation mourning soldier battle death war
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 140, "Once I Had a Sweetheart" (1 text)
[Randolph 796, "Once I Had a Sweetheart" -- deleted in the second printing]
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 527-528, "Once I Had a Sweetheart" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 796A)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 19, "The Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4477
RECORDINGS:
Jimmie Rodgers, "The Soldier's Sweetheart" (Victor V-20864, 1927 -- a World War I adaption)
NOTES [28 words]: A generic plot, and floating lyrics too! But it seems to be a separate song -- though it's hard to believe it originated in the U. S., as the notes in Brown imply. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BrII140

Once I Had a Sweetheart (II)

See As Sylvie Was Walking (File: VWL014)

Once I Had an Old Grey Mare

See The Old Grey Mare (II) (File: Br3175)

Once I Had Plenty of Thyme

See In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme (File: R090)

Once I Had the Measles

DESCRIPTION: "Once I had the (measles/scarlet fever), I had them very long, My mother wrapped me in a blanket And threw me in the pram." They go to the hospital. The singer is there for a week or two, then bids farewell to the doctors and nurses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: mother children travel disease doctor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 94-95, "(Once I had the measles)" (1 text)
Roud #23421
File: BAAI094B

Once I Had Two Hands Full of Gold

DESCRIPTION: "Once I had two hands full of gold, Beside a plentiful store, But I didn't have a shoe to my foot, Nor a hat upon my head (x2)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: clothes gold hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 181-182, "Once I Had Two Hands Full of Gold" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
NOTES [33 words]: The fragment in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin is so short that it isn't really possible to tell what sort of song this is. A gold rush song? A morality tale? Presumably it's one or the other. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet181

Once I Knew a Little Girl

See The Rejected Lover [Laws P10] (File: LP10)

Once I Knew a Pretty Fair Miss

See Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection) (File: R755)

Once I Led a Happy Life

DESCRIPTION: "Once I led a happy life way out on the plains, Far away from city strife, with its grief and pain." The singer is "goin' back again, where I long to be. Goin' home, goin' home, Where the coyote howl and the cattle roam." He will not leave the range again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Powder River Jack Lee Songbook)
KEYWORDS: cowboy home travel return
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, pp. 46-47, "Once I Led a Happy Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: PRJL046

Once I Lived in Cottonwood

DESCRIPTION: "Once I lived in Cottonwood and owned a little farm, When I was called to Dixie it did me much alarm." On his way to "Utah Dixie" his wagon breaks down and everyone is exhausted. The land will not grow cotton. Life is miserable in the new place
AUTHOR: George R. Hicks? (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 ("The Keepapitchinin," according to Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: work travel home horse hardtimes farming
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #230, "Once I Lived in Cottonwood" (2 texts)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 118-120, "Once I Lived in Cottonwood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 248-249, "Once I Lived in Cottonwood" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Hubb230 (Partial)
Roud #8014
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Georgia Volunteers" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
NOTES [56 words]: Apparently based on a real event in which the Mormon Church sent a resident of the relatively fertile Cottonwood region to St. George in southwest Utah, which was far less pleasant. St. George was the subject of surprisingly many Mormon songs; For the town itself, and other songs about it, see the notes to "Saint George and the Drag-On."
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hubb230

Once I Lived in Old Virginia

See East Virginia (Dark Hollow) (File: JRSF134)

Once I Loved

See Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection) (File: R755)

Once I Loved a Bonny Boy

DESCRIPTION: The singer and her lover vowed to marry but "all vows and protestations between us he broke." He's on the ocean and, though some say he'll not prosper, she wishes him "safe sailing and a fair wind to blow." Meeting is pleasure, parting grief, and so on.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond03)
KEYWORDS: courting love parting warning floatingverses
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #6998
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Once I Loved a Bonny Boy" (on IRRCinnamond03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On Top of Old Smoky" (floating verses)
File: RcOILaBB

Once I Loved a Railroad Brakeman

See Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection) (File: R755)

Once I Saw a Little Bird

DESCRIPTION: "Once I saw a little bird Come hop, hop, hop, And I cried, 'Little bird, Will you stop, stop stop?" I was going to the window To say, 'How do you do?' But it shook its little tail And it flew away." (Or, "And away it flew, flew, flew," with gestures)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: bird | gestures flying
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 46, "Once I Saw a Little Bird" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 91, "I Saw a Little Bird" (1 text)
Roud #20625
File: OO20046

Once I Was Happy

See The Flying Trapeze (File: RJ19069)

Once I Was Single

See I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male) (File: R365)

Once I Was Single, Boo Hoo Hoo Hoo

DESCRIPTION: "Once I was single, boo hoo hoo hoo... I had nothing but peace and pleasure." "Now I've got married, boo hoo... Now I see nothing but a pack of trouble." When he said he loved her, it was only a story. He offers to go away; she tells him to keep going
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: marriage dialog rejection separation travel humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 62, "Once I Was Single, Boo Hoo Hoo Hoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11398
File: Brne062

Once I Was Young and Hadna Muckle Wit

DESCRIPTION: The singer says when she was young she "hadna muckle wit." Now, older, she "hinna muckle yet." She promises to get worse as she gets older "until I get some bonnie laddie tae lie langside o' me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: age sex nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1341, "Once I Was Young and Hadna Muckle Wit" (1 text)
Roud #7223
File: GrD71341

Once I Went in Swimming

DESCRIPTION: "Once I went in swimming, Where there were no women, Down by the deep blue sea, Seeing no-one there, I hung my underwear Upon a willow tree. Someone saw me there, And stole my underwear, And left me with a smile."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: clothes theft campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 230,"Once I Went in Swimmin'" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 170, 494, "Once I Went in Swimming" (notes only)
DT, ONCESWIM*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Leave Me With a Smile" (tune, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
File: ACSF170O

Once in a Manger Lowly (Angels Sang Out the Sweet Story)

DESCRIPTION: "Once in a manger lowly, hundreds of years ago, A little babe so holy came to this world below. Near was... Bethlehem dark and cold." "Angels sang out the sweet story." No one takes in Joseph and Mary. The Magi visit the "gift from the world above."
AUTHOR: probably T. B Weaver
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 143, "Angels Sang Out the Sweet Story" (1 text)
File: Grim143

Once More a-Lumb'ring Go

See Once More A-Lumbering Go (File: Wa031)

Once More A-Lumbering Go

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on "all you sons of freedom" to "range the wild woods over and once more a-lumbering go." He briefly describes the work of cutting the trees, the sleighing and hunting, and the joyful return to their families
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (Springer's _Forest Life and Forest Trees_, according to Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: logger work lumbering
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(West)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 31, "Once More A-Lumbering Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 18-21, "The Logger's Boast" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 41-43, "The Logger's Boast" (1 text plus some fragments)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 8-9, "The Logger's Boast" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 282-283, "Saranac River" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 83-85, "The Logger's Boast" (1 text) (pp. 70-71 in the 1919 edition)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 48, "Once More a-Lumb'ring Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 4, "Once More a-Lumbering Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 106-109, "Once More A-Lumbering Go" (1 text plus a variant stanza, 1 tune)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 10, "Once Moe A-Lumbering Go" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 85,"A-Lumbering We Will Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #4, "A-Lumbering We Go" (1 text, 1 tune, a mixed text starting with two stanzas of "Once More A-Lumbering Go" and continuing with a version of "Bung Yer Eye" minus the chorus)
DT, LUMBERN* LUMBRIN2*
Roud #591 and 7088
RECORDINGS:
Carl Lathrop, "Once More A-Lumbering Go" (AFS, 1938; on LC56)
Lawrence Older, "Once More A-Lumbering Go" (on LOlder01)
Pete Seeger, "Once More A-Lumbering Go" (on PeteSeeger29)
File: Wa031

Once There Lived a Captain

DESCRIPTION: A sea captain sails before he can marry. He returns and finds the girl has left her father's house for a nunnery. There he finds she has gone to an asylum. At the asylum he finds she died the previous night. At her side he kills himself with his sword.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (recording, John Reilly)
KEYWORDS: courting return separation death suicide father sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #3376
RECORDINGS:
Jean "Sauce" Driscoll, "The Sea Captain" (on IRTravellers01)
John Reilly, "Once There Lived a Captain" (on Voice17)
File: RcOTLACa

Once There Was a Chinaman

DESCRIPTION: "Once there was a Chinaman, his name was Chicka Chalucha Pan. His teeth were short and his nails were long, and this is the way he went along: Chicka Chalu.... When this poor old man did die, in his coffin he did lie. They shipped his coffin to Japan...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2021 (LibraryThingCampSongsThread)
KEYWORDS: China death travel foreigner
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 18, "(Once there was a Chinaman)" (1 short text, from user 2wonderY, posted August 28, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 420, "There Was a Poor Old Chinaman"/"The Chinaman Song" (notes only)
ST LTCSOWAC (Full)
File: LTCSOWAC

Once There Was a Little Kitty

See Long Time Ago (II) (File: LxA306)

Once There Was a Servant Girl Whose Name Was Mary Jane

See When I Was Young; also Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: EM075)

Once There Was an Old Man

See The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)

Once There Were Greenfields

DESCRIPTION: "Once there were greenfields, kissed by the sun, Once there were valleys, where river used to run... Once they were part of an everlasting love." But now the fields are gone, and so is his love; the singer hopes she will someday come back to the fields
AUTHOR: Terry Gilkyson,Frank Miller, Richard Dehr
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (recording, The Brothers Four)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 543-544, "Green Fields" (notes only)
DT, GREENFLD
File: ACSF543O

Once There Were Three Fishermen (The Three Jews)

DESCRIPTION: "Once there were three fishermen (x2), Fisher fisher men men men (x3) Once there were three fishermen." The three fishermen are named, and their voyages described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: fishing nonsense campsong
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp.161-162, "There were three Jews called Patriarchs" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 176, "The Three Old Jews" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 185, "The Three Jews" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #194, "Three Jews" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 85, "Three Jolly Fishermen" (1 text, tune referenced)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 240, "Once There Were Three Fishermen" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #127, p. 39, "Three Fishermen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 128-129, 192, 234, 310, "Three Fishermen" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 50, "The Three Fishermen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 4, "Three Jolly Fishermen" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 22-23, "Three Jolly Fishermen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3708 and 12776
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Three Fishermen" (Piotr-Archive #485, recorded 02/01/2023)
NOTES [225 words]: This is rather confusing, because the change of one word significantly changes the song. In several texts (Gardner and Chickering, Greenleaf and Mansfield), the three heroes are Jews (Kane has "three Jews called Patriarchs"). But in Pankake, as well as the version printed by Silber, they are fishermen. The latter version is very much a children's song, I've only encountered two versions of this, and they differ in most particulars: In the Silber version, the sailors are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they sail for Amsterdam (with resulting comments about naughty words); Ed McCurdy sings a version with different sailors, in which Halifax is the destination. It appears Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs also had the Amsterdam version.
(Judy Cook's version has them go to Jericho, which is Biblical, then has them wish to go to "Amster-shh!," taking advantage of the "bad word.")
The fact that the three sailors are "Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" in one of the "Fishermen" versions implies to me that the "Three Jews" version is older; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are, of course, the three patriarchs of the Jews, so if they show up in a "Fishermen" version, it's because the names were derived from a "Three Jews" version.
In this case, Roud splits the two versions. But the verse form, as well as the names of the characters, says they are the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB240A

Once They Said My Lips Were Red

DESCRIPTION: "Once they said my lips were red, Now they're scarlet pale, When I, like a silly girl, Beleiv'd his flattering tale. But he vow'd he'd never deceive me, And so fondly I believ'd he, While the stars and the moon So sweetly shone Over the willow tree"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (Ditchfield)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 302, "Morris Fragment" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 215, "Oh! Once They Said My Lip Was Red")
ADDITIONAL: P.H. Ditchfield, Old English Customs Extant at the Present Time (London, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 125, ("Once they said my lips were red") (1 text)
Percy Manning, "Some Oxfordshire Seasonal Festivals" in Folk-Lore, Vol. VIII (1897 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 321, ("Once they said my lips were red") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1331
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Willow Tree" (tune, per Ditchfield and Manning)
cf. "Willaim and Margaret" (one verse)
NOTES [98 words]: Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames lists this as a fragment but both Manning and Ditchfield have substantially the same text as a complete Morris song.
Ditchfield and Manning: Listed under "Whitsuntide Customs" for Bampton Morris Dancers.
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames: "The eleventh verse of the ballad, 'William and Margaret,' ... is similar ...." Versions vary but one text for the "William and Margaret" verse is "How could you say my lips were red, And make the scarlet pale? And why did I, young witless maid Believe thy flattering tale." Williams says his text may be older. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT302A

Once Upon a Time

See Three, Six, Nine (File: OpGa135)

Once You Get the Habit (You Can't Keep Still)

DESCRIPTION: "I've beat my way wherever any winds have blown, I've bummed along from Portland down to San Antone... For once you get the habit, why, you can't keep still." The singer describes both good places to visit and bad, but he always moves on
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (ArkansasWoodchopper)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ArkansasWoodchopper, p. 66, "The Habit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8036
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink] "The Habit" (Supertone 9664)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
You Can't Keep Still
File: ArWo066

One and Twenty

DESCRIPTION: "My father was a farmer gay, With beef and corn in plenty, I hoed, I mowed, I held the plow, And I longed for one and twenty." Of age at last, the singer enlists. Army life makes him wish for home. He loses a leg, is captured, and goes home crippled
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: farming youth soldier battle injury home disability
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1761, "My Father Was a Farmer Good" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 96, "One and Twenty" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST GC096 (Partial)
Roud #3367
File: GC096

One and Two and How Are You?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "One and two and how are you? I do very well, And I live by myself; My name is Mrs. Bell."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Gardiner collection, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #413, "One and two and how are you?" (1 text)
File: AJRR413

One Blue Beetle was Bleeding Blood

See Glory, Glory, How Peculiar (File: DPio379)

One Bottle More

DESCRIPTION: "Assist me, ye lads... To sing the praise of old Ireland's isle." England taunts our simplicity but we would share our last bottle. At Candy's six Irishmen had four bottles each, a fight brought a fifth and a resolve to have 12 bottles more the next night
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1815 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 10(10))
KEYWORDS: virtue drink Ireland
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 23, "One Bottle More" (1 text)
Roud #V18973
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 10(10), "Irish Hospitality", J. Whittle and R. H. Laurie (London), 1815
LOCSinging, sb40474a, "One Bottle More", Louis Bonsal (Baltimore), 19C
SAME TUNE:
Town and Country (broadside Bodleian Harding B 10(10))
File: OCon023

One Bottle of Beer

See One Bottle of Pop (File: DTpopbot)

One Bottle of Pop

DESCRIPTION: "One bottle (of) pop (or beer), Two bottles (of) pop, Three bottles (of) pop...." "Don't throw your junk (dust) in my back yard (dustbin)... my back yard's full." "Fish and chips and vinegar...." Composite children's round.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988
KEYWORDS: nonballad food humorous campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 232-233, "One Bottle Pop" (1 text, 1 tune)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 35, "(One bottle of beer)" (1 text, from user John5918, posted August 29, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 111, 123-124, 135, 163, 256, 286, 442, "Fish and Chips"/"One bottle of pop" (notes only)
DT, POPBOTTL
ST DTpopbot (Partial)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fish and Chips
Don't Throw Your Dust
Don't Throw Your Junk
NOTES [130 words]: Obviously quite recent (at least with the current words), but it seems to qualify as a children's folksong. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 111, claims to have found forty different versions.
I've filed this under the (approximate) title in Pankake/Pankake, because that's in print, but I very strongly doubt that this is the original (even though Sandy and Caroline Paton also sang it); it's a rewrite of the British original which John5918 preserved and which is in the Supplemental Tradition.
As John5918 notes, the three parts ("One bottle of beer..."; "Don't throw your junk in our dustbin"; "Fish and chips and vinegar") are sung to three different tunes. "Don't throw your junk" is probably the most familiar; it's "Ach, Du Lieber Augustine"/"Did You Ever See a Lassie?" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: DTpopbot

One Bottle Pop

See One Bottle of Pop (File: DTpopbot)

One Bright Day in the Middle of the Night

DESCRIPTION: "One bright day in the middle of the night, Two dead men stood up to fight, Three blind men to see fair play, Forty mutes to shout hooray... Drew their swords and shot each other"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: nonsense disability fight death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 101, "(One bright day in the middle of the night)"; p. 102, "One Bright Day" (2 texts; that on p. 102 being printed as prose)
File: ZiZa101B

One Bright Morning in the Middle of the Night

See One Fine Day (II) (File: AJRV038)

One Bright Summer Morning

See Bad Girl's Lament, The (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime) [Laws Q26] (File: LQ26)

One Bumper at Parting

DESCRIPTION: "One bumber at parting! -- though many Have circled the board since we met." "As onward we journey, how pleasant To pause and inhabit a while The few sunny spots like the present." So drink; there won't be that many more chances
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, pp. 109-111, "One Bumper at Parting" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 44-45, "One Bumper at Parting" (1 text)
Roud #12872
File: HMHS044C

One Cent for Coffee

DESCRIPTION: "It's one cent for coffee, Two cents for bread, Three for mince pie, And five for a bed. There's eighty-three boarders All packed at my door, And they paid their five cents For to sleep on the floor"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: home food money hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 228, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Roud #6603
File: TNY228A

One Cold Winter's Morning

DESCRIPTION: Singer laments having to leave his love, perhaps never to return. (Friends try to persuade him to stay.) "When I lie down at night all for to take my rest/Trouble and sorrow still rolls across my breast." "O she is the only girl all in this world so wide"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer laments that he must leave his love and travel far away, perhaps never to return. (Friends try to persuade him to stay.) "When I lie down at night all for to take my rest/Trouble and sorrow still rolls across my breast." "For the first time I saw her I gained her by my charm/The second time I saw her I rolled her in my arms/O she is the only girl all in this world so wide/She is the only girl can ever be my bride"
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness courting love marriage sex parting travel lover
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 146, (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #3626
NOTES [33 words]: Yes, the plot is well-worn and found in multiple other songs, but this one seems distinct; significantly, Sharp lists no relatives or antecedents, but he did find two versions, both in Kentucky. - PJS
File: ShAp2146

One Color, Two Color

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "One color, two color, Three color, four; Five color, six color, Seven color, more. What color is YOURS?" The player who is pointed at by YOURS names a color, and the leader spells it out to choose who is "It."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: colors | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 13, "(One color, two colors)" (1 text)
File: WEMM013

One Crow Sorrow

See One for Sorrow (Counting Magpies, Telling Fortunes) (File: BeFM079)

One Day A-E and Jimmy

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme and joke. "One day A-E and Jimmy were going to a movie. Jimmy found that he had no money. A-E said, 'I will borrow (sic.) you 25 cents. When the movie was over, Jimmy said, 'A-E, I-O-U 25 cents."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope wordplay money | movie
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #416, "One day A-E and Jimmy were going to a movie" (1 text)
File: AJRR416

One Day I Chanced to Rove

DESCRIPTION: The singer falls in love with a rich girl. Her friends slight him because he is poor. He says he is not interested in her gold. If she would agree "we'll live at our end aye each other please"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: courting love money nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #158, p. 2, ("As one day I chanced to rove"); #23, p. 2, ("One day I chanced to rove") (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan5 965, "One Day I Chanced to Rove" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 228-229, "As One Day I Chanc'd to Rove" (1 tune)
Roud #6767
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Shady Grove
NOTES [131 words]: Greig #23: .".. said to have been written by James Walker, Gonar Burn, and once popular in the New Pitsligo district. The first verse is as follows -- [text]. The stanza is the same as that of "Strichen's Plantins. I should not wonder if the tune was the same." Greig #158, quoting Christie's version in [Traditional] Ballad Airs [1876-1881]: "When we compare this ditty, which Christie takes to be incomplete, with "Brigtown's Plantins," we feel inclined to put the question -- Why should these two songs have so much likeness without having more?"
Christie: "The editor noted this Air, note for note, from the singing of 'Jennie Meesic' in 1851. The song given is what she sung to the Air. It appears to be a fragment." His version does not get beyond her disapproving friends. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD5965

One Day I Met a Wee Little Pig (Honk-Hiss-Tweet-GGGGGGGGGG)

DESCRIPTION: "One day I met a wee little pig, With a honk, hiss, tweet, g-g-g-g-g, Walking along the road." "Where are you going, my wee little pig? With a honk...." "The little pig answered me clear as a bell...." "So if you ever meet a wee little pig...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 ("Activity and Game Songs Volume II," recorded by Tom Glazer)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Wee Little Pig" (Piotr-Archive #396, recorded 12/21/2022)
NOTES [54 words]: A number of people on mudcat recall hearing this at some time in their youth. Not everyone recalls it from Tom Glazer's 1973 recording, but none could state an alternate source, so I incline to think it is the ancestor of most of their versions. Glazer does not list an author, but I have to suspect the song is modern. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio396

One day I was walkin' along the street

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

One Day More

See One More Day (File: FSWB086B)

One Day of Turkey and Six Days of Hash

DESCRIPTION: Philosophical; for every silver lining there's a dark cloud. "For one faithful friend there are dozens who sneer/For one happy laugh there is always a tear...For one gentle dog there are dozens that bite...For one day of turkey there's six days of hash."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: warning humorous nonballad food dog
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 92, "One Day of Turkey and Six Days of Hash" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 93, "One Day of Turkey and Six Days of Hash" (1 text)
Roud #8848
NOTES [27 words]: This cynical little masterpiece is worthy of Tom Lehrer. - PJS
Beck claims that this was heard in Florida and along the Mississippi, but offers no evidence. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be092

One Day, One Day

See Lonesome Dove (I - The Minister's Lamentation) (File: R607)

One Dern Eggplant

See Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary (File: OO2342)

One Dime Blues

DESCRIPTION: "I'm broke an' I ain't got a dime (x3) Ev'rybody gets in hard luck sometime." "You want your friend to be bad like Jesse James (x3) Git two six shooters, highway some passenger train." "One dime was all I had (x3) that was the meal before last."
AUTHOR: Blind Lemon Jefferson
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Blind Lemon Jefferson)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes poverty money
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 310, "One Dime Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ONEDIME*
RECORDINGS:
Blind Lemon Jefferson, "One Dime Blues" (Paramount 12578, 1927)
SAME TUNE:
Ramblin' Blues (by Woody Guthrie) (Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 18-19)
File: LoF310

One Elephant Went Out to Play

See One Little Elephant (File: OpGa099)

One Evening Fair For To Take the Air

DESCRIPTION: "One evening fair for to take the air" the singer strays by Dublin's Bay and sees "a female form... more brighter far than the evening star, and they call her the Cailin Deas"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 113, "One Evening Fair For To Take the Air" (1 fragment)
NOTES [67 words]: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin is a fragment of "The Cailin Deas" ("My true love's eyes are as bright" [p. 160]) recorded from Michael Cronin; as for Elizabeth Cronin's song-lists, this is only a title. In spite of shared lines, OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin says this fragment is "not to be confused with the Cailin Deas in no. 99 above ['My True Love's Face is as Bright']." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC113

One Evening So Clear

DESCRIPTION: "One morning so clear, In the meadows did pass, Her eye full of tear, A most beautiful lass." She asks, "O WIlliam... Why were you unkind? O why did you seek ANother than me?" She falls down in the grass and dies of love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Baring Gould collection)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment betrayal death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 29, "One Evening So Clear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3311
File: Gund029

One Fine Day (I)

DESCRIPTION: Floating verse song: "One fine day I went to mill, I got stuck on Badger's Hill; I hawed my horses... But to save my soul I couldn't get a start." "There was a frog lived in the spring." "The black cat spit in the white cat's eye." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Garnder/Chickering)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Floating verse song: "One fine day I went to mill, I got stuck on Badger's Hill; I hawed my horses... But to save my soul I couldn't get a start." "There was a frog lived in the spring." "The black cat spit in the white cat's eye." "Now maybe you think there's another verse To this here song, but there ain't." Chorus: "Oh where you come from, knock a nigger down, A wagon full of bum shells, knock...."
KEYWORDS: nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 201, "One Fine Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3711
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kemo Kimo" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Gray Cat on the Tennessee Farm" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [8 words]: No, the tune is *not* "Turkey in the Straw." - RBW
File: GC201

One Fine Day (II)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "One fine day in the middle of the night, Two dead boys got up to fight, Back to back they faced each other, drew their swords and shot each other, Two deaf policemen heard the noise... Ask the blind man, he saw it too."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: nonsense jumprope death police fight
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #38, "(One bright morning in the middle of the night)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #415, "One bright morning in the middle of the night" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #15, "(One fine day in the middle of the night)" (1 fragment)
Roud #19293
File: AJRV038

One Fine Summer's Evening

DESCRIPTION: "One fine summer's evening as I walked along," the singer hears a girl singing. Her true loer meets and embraces her. They walk to a shady green. One of them promises be true; only when the sun darkens, the stars fall, the earth moves will (s)he be untrue
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Nestler)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation promise
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), p. 92, "One Fine Summer's Evening" (1 short text)
ST Nes092 (Partial)
NOTES [85 words]: This has only four verses, and the only plot elements are the singer seeing the couple meet and they promising to be true. It is almost certainly a very defective version of something else, but most of the words are either commonplaces (e.g. the first line) or not like anything I can identify. Of all the countless songs of this type, the lyrics remind me most of "Tripping Over the Lea" [Laws P19] -- but that song is very rare in America. So I'm leaving this alone until and unless someone can identify it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Nes092

One Fine Summer's Morning

See The Banks of the Clyde (File: HHH812)

One Finger, One Thumb

See Fingers and Thumbs (File: WT079)

One Fish Ball

See One Fish-Ball (One Meat Ball, The Lone Fish-Ball) (File: SRW074)

One Fish-Ball (One Meat Ball, The Lone Fish-Ball)

DESCRIPTION: A single man (who perhaps has abandoned his wife?) wanders into a restaurant, but finds he has only money for one (meat/fish) ball. Waiters and company abuse him, and he is told, "You get no bread with one fish ball"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (parodied; see notes)
KEYWORDS: food poverty
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 74-75, "The Lone Fish-Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 580-584, "The Lone Fish-Ball" (2 texts, 1 tune, plus assorted items on the same theme)
Heart-Songs, p. 433, "The Lone Fish-Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 22, "One Fish Ball" (1 text, tune referenced)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 264, "One Fish Ball" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 15, "The Lone Fish-Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Marianne Corbino, "One Meatball" (Piotr-Archive #634, recorded 08/10/2023)
SAME TUNE:
Two Freshmen ("Two Freshmen once, as green as grass, By Riley's restarant did pass") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 65)
The Life Preserver ("There was a class went up and down") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 89)
NOTES [341 words]: According to the Caxton Club (Chicago) edition of Il Pescoballo (1899), the one-act opera buffa with Italian words by Francis James Child and English translation by James Russell Lowell was first performed in 1862 to raise money for the Civil War Sanitary Commission (precursor to the Red Cross). The authors of the jeu d'esprit, to quote Charles Eliot Norton's introduction, were originally given only as "Maestro Rossibello-Donimozarti."
"One Fish Ball," upon which the opera buffa was based, was written by a Harvard Latin professor, identified by Norton only as "Lane." It was a "local ballad which had had great vogue, written not many years before." Norton asserts Lane based the song on "an adventure of his own."
The Caxton Club edition prints a tune, crediting it as a "volkslied." - EC
Lewis Becker adds that Loesser's Humor in American Song dates the song to about 1854 and claims it is "Founded on a Boston Fact." It appears that this claim may derive from Waite, whih also says the story is "Founded on a Boston fact," and says it is printed by permission of R. Storrs Willis, who owned the copyright (but is not actually listed as the author).
Interestingly, although Waite says it is "Founded on a Boston Fact," the story he uses to explain the song is set in New York, where a certain restaurant served three buckwheat cakes for sixpence (sixpence? In a song placed in New York and written in the nineteenth century? Hm). A professor wants FIVE cakes. He is willing to pay ten pence -- i.e. two pennies per cake, which is the same per-cake cost as three for sixpence. But the professor is told that the restaurant only does transactions in multiples of sixpence, so he can have three cakes for sixpence, or he can have six for twelve, but not five cakes. He doesn't return.
It will be evident that it is rather a stretch to get from that to this song.
Dick Greenhaus reports that the "One Meat Ball" version was popularized by Josh White in the 1940s. Popularized enough, in fact, that they taught it in my grade school! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: SRW074

One for Sorrow (Counting Magpies, Telling Fortunes)

DESCRIPTION: "One for sorrow, two for joy, Three for (a girl), four for (a boy), five for (silver), six for (gold)," and so on up to seven or ten or twelve. For telling fortunes by counting birds (mapies or crows).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (Denham Tracts); earliest version c. 1780 according to Simpson/Roud
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad prophecy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North)) US(NE) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, p. 79, "(One crow sorrow, Two crows joy)" (1 short text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 21, "One for Sorrow" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #475 n. 32, pp. 210-211, "(One crow sorrow)"
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, p. 87, "(no title)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 37, "Magpies Seen" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud, _A Dictionary of English Folklore_, Oxford, 2000, pp. 222-223, (entry on magpies) (portions of four versions)
Marjorie Rowling, _The Folklore of the Lake District_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 106, "(One is for sorrow, but two for mirth") (1 text plus variants)
Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 66, "One [magpie] is sorrow, two is mirth" (1 excerpt)
Ron Young, _Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador_, Downhome Publishing Inc., 2006, p. 2836, "(One, for wet; two for dry)" (1 text plus an excerpt)
Gerald Thomas and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, _Studies in Newfoundland Folklore: Community and Process_, Breakwater Books, 1991, p. 82, "(One for Sorrow)" (1 short text)
Roud #20096
NOTES [564 words]: As a rhyme, this seems to have been very common, especially in the north of England. Most versions are about magpies, but Beck's Maine version, from an area without magpies, uses it to count crows.
I have not encountered this as a proper song, but Dave Dodds used it as part of the source for the song "The Magpie," so the piece should probably be indexed to show what the original looked like. Readers should see Simpson and Roud for a good idea of the range of possible prophesies.
For whatever reason, magpies seem to have been among the most "folkloric" of birds, and the stories seem to be ancient. They are not mentioned in the Bible (unless they are among the birds identified as unclean in Leviticus 11:13-19, Deuteronomy 14:12-18; several of these bird names cannot now be identified, but neither the King James Bible nor the New Revised Standard Version translate any of the names as "magpie" and the identifiable birds in the list are all flesh-eaters of the hawk and crow type; InterpretersDict, volume I, p. 439). But it is said to have been present in Noah's Ark -- and, depending on the version, either refused to enter the interior of the Ark, spending its time outside wisecracking (Simpson/Roud, p. 223) or was forced to leave the interior of the ship and journey on the mast because it chattered too much (Pickering, p. 183).
An Irish story reported by o Hogain, p. 36, says that the magpie is colored black and white because, when the birds went into mourning following the death of Jesus on the cross, the magpie did so only half-heartedly.
Supposedly a battle in the sky between magpies and jackdaws forecast a battle between French and Bretons in the reign of Charles VIII of France (Hazlitt, p. 383)
As in this fragment, seeing a single magpie is generally considered ill luck in Britain, but seeing two does not cause extreme misfortune (Simpson/Roud, p. 222). O hOgain, p. 36, reports that this belief is also found in Ireland -- and has a legend that the bird was brought there by Oliver Cromwell (this, presumably, reflects the Irish attitude toward the man who so abused them).
Briggs, p. 311, has a story of "The Good Magpie," from Nottinghamshire. A man passes a house where a boy cries out that his mother is going to roast him in the oven. The man thinks the boy joking, and rides on -- but a magpie harasses him to turn back. He does -- and finds that the boy was telling the truth.
Sometimes the word "magpie" was applied to things other than the bird. Partridge, p. 504, notes that it was sometimes used for Anglican bishops (presumably for their vestments), and that the word "magpie's nest" applies to the female genitalia.
In China, however, the magpie was said to be a bringer of good luck: "In popular parlance, the magpie has always been called xi-qiao, i.e. 'joy-bringing magpie'. Its call heralds good news or the arrival of a guest" (Eberhard, p. 174). On the other hand, Eberhard goes on to tell the tale of the Cowherd and the Spinning Damsel, who could only meet once a year because the magpie was forgetful. Once a year, on the seventh day of the month, the magpies would build a bridge over the Milky Way to let the lovers meet. A picture of twelve magpies was apparently a way to express twelve particularly good wishes (Eberhard, p. 175).
The magpie also plays a role in some Native American folktales (Jones-Larousse, p. 286). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: BeFM079

One for the Blackbird

DESCRIPTION: Folk wisdom: "One for the blackbird, Two for the crow, Three for the cutworm, An' the rest for to grow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923
KEYWORDS: harvest bird nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 275, "The Crow Song" (with only the "E" fragment belonging here)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 184, "One for the Hoe" (1 text)
Roud #21651
NOTES [46 words]: Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore explain this by saying, "Five grains of corn should be planted to each hill": they have one each for the hoe, crow, and cutworm, and two remaining to grow. Nonetheless it is clearly the same rhyme, if used in different circumstances. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: R275E

One for the Hoe

See One for the Blackbird (File: R275E)

One for the Money

DESCRIPTION: "One for the money, Two for the show, Three to get ready, And four to go" Perhaps used to start a race; possibly a jump rope rhyme.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Bolton)
KEYWORDS: wordplay racing nonballad jumprope
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 118, "(One for the Money)" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 384, "(One for the money)" (1 text in the notes to "One to make ready")
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #656 note, p. 259, "(One for the money)"
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 59, "Four to Go!" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #28, "(One for the money)" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 123, "One for the money"; p. 130, "One for the money" (2 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #419, "One for the money" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 540, "One for the Money, Two for the Show" (notes only)
Roud #16216
NOTES [77 words]: It is not clear if the song cited by Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs is this one or merely a song that quotes it. It is not Travis Edmonson's "One for the Money, Sing for a Penny," which Averill also cites but which does not meet the popularity criterion for inclusions in the Index. Ironically, I have found the Edmonson song (under the title "Travels," and with some oral changes) in a Girl Scout songbook, but have not found "One for the money, two for the show." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SaKo118A

One for Wet, Two for Dry

See One for Sorrow (Counting Magpies, Telling Fortunes) (File: BeFM079)

One Forsaken, The

See The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)

One God Made Us All

See Come All You Worthy Christian Men (File: ShH91)

One Horse Open Sleigh, The

See Jingle Bells (File: RJ19093)

One I Love, Two I Love

DESCRIPTION: Counting rhyme, usually for counting seeds or flower petals: "One I love, two I love, Three I love, I say. Four I love with all my heart, Five I cast away." And so forth, with different actions up to twelve or higher
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 382, "One I love, two I love" (1 text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #44, "Counting Apple-seeds" 1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #420, "One I love, two I love" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, p. 270, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 62, "(One, he loves)" (1 text)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 270, "(One I love, two I love, three I love, I say)" (1 short text, possibly derived from this)
Roud #19522
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Love my Love (II)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Counting Appleseeds
NOTES [85 words]: Jean Ritchie appears to have combined this with the lyrics of "I Love my Love (II)" to produce her song "One I Love." I am not sure this counting rhyme exists as a song on its own, but the connection to the Ritchie song was (just barely) enough reason to include it.
The Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest version is an interesting variant that might be independent; I'm honestly not sure:
One, he loves,
Two, she loves,
Three, they both love.
Four, he cones,
Five, he tarries,
Six, he courts,
Seven, they marry. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OOx382

One I See

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme/catch. "One I see, Two I see, Three I see... Nine I see, Tennessee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: jumprope wordplay | Tennessee
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #421, "One I See" (1 text)
File: JRR421

One Is for Sorrow, But Two for Mirth

See One for Sorrow (Counting Magpies, Telling Fortunes) (File: BeFM079)

One Kind Favor

See See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (File: ADR92)

One Little Candle

DESCRIPTION: "It is better to light just one little candle, Than to stumble in the dark!" If we all prayed the world would be free, then it would happen; if all would light a candle, the world would be well-lit
AUTHOR: Words: Joseph Maloy Roach / Music: George Mysels (source: mudcat.org thread "One Little Candle")
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (recording by Anita Bryant according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 547, "One Little Candle" (notes only)
File: ACSF5471

One Little Elephant

DESCRIPTION: "One elephant went out to play Upon a spider's web one day. He had such tremendous/enormous fun That he sent/called for another elephant to come." Repeat for two elephants, three elephants, ....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (cf. DT Notes)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal campsong | spider elephant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 99, "One Little Elephant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 285, 386, 519, 540, "The Elephant Song"/"One Elephant Went Out to Play"/"Three Elephants Went Out to Play" (notes only)
DT, ONELEPH
Roud #22569
File: OpGa099

One Little Frog

DESCRIPTION: "One little frog a-settin' on a log, Waitin' for its brother, Its eyes were red from the tears it had shed, And it jumped right into the water." Repeat indefinitely: "Another little frog a-settin' on a log...." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: animal brother separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 581, "One Little Frog" (1 text)
Roud #7668
File: R581

One Little Teensy-Weensy Bomb

See Flying Fortresses (File: Hopk061)

One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indian

See Ten Little Indians (John Brown Had a Little Indian) (File: R594)

One Man Shall Mow

See One Man Shall Mow My Meadow (File: ShH100)

One Man Shall Mow My Meadow

DESCRIPTION: Singer states that various numbers of men shall mow her meadow and gather it together, as well as shear her sheep. The song is cumulative, hypnotic, and loaded with symbolism.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: cumulative nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 100, "One Man Shall Mow My Meadow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 288, "Mowing Down the Meadow" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 280)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 291, "The Counting Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 100, "One Man Shall Mow My Meadow" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #2, "I Had One Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 90, "Me One Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 55, "(One man went to mow)" (1 text, from user Helenliz, posted August 31, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 385, "One Man Went to Mow" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 53, "One Man Went to Mow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 5, "One Man Went to Mow" (1 text)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 67, "One Man Shall Mow" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ONEMANMW
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928, notes to #218, ("One man shall mow my meadow") (1 text)
Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 50, "One Man Shall Mow My Meadow" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ShH100 (Partial)
Roud #143
RECORDINGS:
The Crofut Family, "One Man Shall Mow My Meadow" (Piotr-Archive #677, recorded 09/17/2023)
Christine Mary C. Morris, "One Man Went to Mow a Meadow" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #39, recorded 07/20/2021)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mower" (imagery)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Me One Man
Mowing Down the Meadow
One Man Shall Shear My Wethers
NOTES [97 words]: It's hard to decide whether there's a ritual element here, or whether the song itself is the ritual. -PJS
And here I thought it was just a dirty song covered with pastoral symbols....
At least some editors seem to think the same, because Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings cleans it up; it has a man and his dog go to the meadow!
The LibraryThingCampSongs version is interesting in that it has clearly been turned into something of a joke. This version is clearly an expansion of the Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings text (or a similar text from one of the other cap songbooks). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ShH100

One Man's Hands

DESCRIPTION: "One man's hands can't break a prison down, Two men's hands can't tear a prison down, But if two and two and fifty make a million, we'll see that day come 'round." Similarly, "One man's voice can't shout to make them hear," etc., with topical references
AUTHOR: Words: Alex Comfort / Music: Pete Seeger
EARLIEST DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 376-377, "One Man's Hands" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, (MANSHAND)
File: SBoA376

One May Morning

See Tripping Over the Lea [Laws P19] (File: LP19)

One Meat Ball

See One Fish-Ball (One Meat Ball, The Lone Fish-Ball) (File: SRW074)

One Misty, Moisty Morning

DESCRIPTION: Daniel courts Dolly, a milk maid. Before she will marry he must have her father and mother's consent. "Her parents being willing, all Parties was agreed, Her Portion thirtie shilling, they marry'd were with Speed" and have a public celebration.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1700 (Pills to Purge Melancholy, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes); tune from 1650 (Playford's The Dancing Master, according to Chappell); the Opies say that a broadside, "The Wiltshire Wedding" was printed c. 1680
KEYWORDS: courting dowry wedding father mother
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 359, "One misty, moisty, morning" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #140, p. 114, "(One Misty, Moisty Morning)"
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 107, "One Misty, Moisty Morning" (1 text, but of the first verse only and with echoed lines)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 145-147, "The Friar and the Nun" (1 text, 1 tune, the text being this despite the title)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 286, "The Friar and the Nun" (1 tune, which is clearly this although no lyrics are printed)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 26-27, "The Wiltshire Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HOWDYEDO*
Roud #20075
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(256b), "The Wiltshire Wedding Between Daniel Do-well and Doll the Dairy-maid" ("All in a misty morning"), unknown, n.d.
NOTES [120 words]: The description is from broadside Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(256b).
See "One Misty Moisty Morning" by Steeleye Span on "Parcel of Rogues." Chrysalis CHR 1046 (1973). - BS
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime (followed by the Digital Tradition and others) notes that this tune is used in the Beggar's Opera. This appears to be a reference to Act II, Air 5, "Before the Barn Door Crowing," which has the tune "All in a misty morning" and ends with the lines
WIth how do you do, and how do you do,
And how do you do again.
Although I know of no certain collections from tradition, there is significant variation in the texts quoted. It might just be people rewriting the text, but it might be the result of oral transmission. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: OO2359

One Monday Morning in Eighteen-EIghty-Five

See The Backwoodsman (The Green Mountain Boys) [Laws C19] (File: LC19)

One More Chance

DESCRIPTION: "Late last night, When the moon shone bright," the singer visits his honey. She declares she has gone to bed. He points out that he paid her rent, begs for one more chance, offers to take her to a ball. He then pulls out a ten dollar bill, and is admitted
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: sex courting home rejection money whore nightvisit
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 274-275, (no title) (1 text)
File: ScNF274B

One More Day

DESCRIPTION: Shanty: "One more day, me johnnies, One more day, Come rock and row me over, Johnny, one more day." The voyage has been hard, the captain cruel, but the sailors are almost home and soon will be able to visit their girls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Capt. John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man")
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor home hardtimes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 115, "One More Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 41-42, "One More Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 489-491, "Only One More Day," "Rock 'n Row Me Over" (3 texts, 3 tunes) [AbEd, 362-365]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XV, p. 18, "One More Day (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 88, "One Day More" (1 text, 1 tune, which, despite Shay's title, has the usual chorus "One more day... only one more day")
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 66, "One More Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 158, "One More Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 86, "Rock 'N' Row Me Over " (1 text)
DT, ONEMRDAY*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919)."One More Day!" is in Part 3, 7/28/1917.
Roud #704
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Charlie, One More Day
File: FSWB086B

One More Drink for the Four of Us

See Drunk Last Night (File: FSWB235)

One More Kiss Before I Go

DESCRIPTION: "Such a happy girl am I, And I'll tell you the reason why": She has a love who is always courting her and asking for "One more kiss before I go." They will marry soon. She tells boys that girls expect "a loving kiss And a word or two like this..."
AUTHOR: R. E. Bays (source: Bays-Richmond [broadside, LOCSheet sm1871 10419])
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (Bays-Richmond)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 168-169, "One More Kiss Before I Go" (1 text)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 164-165, "Bye Bye My Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 15, "The Merry Girl" (3 texts; the first text is from _Robert Jones Songster_ (New York,18__); the second is a fragment of the Norwood text from _Birch & Backus Songs of the San Francisco Minstrels_ (New York, 187?)); the third is #15A colected by Browne in Alabama, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Beard-Lunsford, pp. 617-618, "Goodbye Darling I Must Leave You" (1 text)
Crabtree, pp. 285-286, "Such a Happy Little Girl Am I" (1 text)
Norwood, p. 35, "Good-bye, Darling, I Must Leave You" ("Oh I love a charming girl") (1 text)
Wiseman, pp.14-15,"Good Nite Darling" ("Sich a happy girl am I") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6375
RECORDINGS:
John D. Foster, "Goodbye My Darlin'" (Gennett 753-A, 1927; on "Gennett Old-Time Music Classic Country Records 1927-1934," JSP Records JSP 77130 CD (2010))
Clarence Greene, "Goodnight Darling" (Victor V40141, 1927; on "Birth of Country Music," Vintage Masters MP3 (2012))
Lewis McDaniels & Walter Smith, "One More Kiss Before I Go" (Aurora 36-108, 1930; on "Walter Smith and Friends Vol.2 (March 1930-February 1931)," Document Records DOCD-8063 CD (2002) as Lewis McDaniel & Gid Smith)
Da Costa Woltz's Southern Broadcasters, "Merry Girl" (Gennett 6143, 1927; on "Da Costa Woltz's Southern Broadcasters," Document Records DOCD-8023 CD (1998))
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1871 10419, "Good-night Darling" ("Such a happy girl am I"), G.D. Russell & Co (Boston), 1871 (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [4635 words]: He has teeth as white as pearls
And such darling little curls
Should we consider a song with those lines to be -- using Browne's term -- a "genuine folk song"?
Owens writes about his experiences in the early 1930s:
"I tried to interest the boys and girls I worked with in my songs, but they had never heard of them and did not like what they heard from me. They were busy singing 'Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Sheean' and 'Yes, We Have No Bananas,' which were popular in the vaudeville shows at the Majestic Theater and on phonograph records" [fn.1].
A little more than thirty years before "Yes, We Have No Bananas" was first sung on a New York vaudeville stage "Good-night Darling" was being sung on an early New York burlesque stage.
Owens included "Good-night Darling" as "Bye, Bye, My Darling" in the first edition, only, of Texas Folk Songs [fn.2].
Browne, who also included the song, as "The Merry Girl," writes in his Introduction:
"[Pound and Barry] would accept as genuine folk song one which, regardless of origin, had (1) undergone certain textual and musical changes and had (2) become so much a part of folk culture that the members felt free to sing it as they had learned it without any self-conscious concern for its origin or its 'correct' version" [fn.3].
"Good-Night Darling" or "Bye, Bye, My Darling" or "The Merry Girl" meets that standard. The song text and tune are always recognizably some recasting of the writer-composer's original, but both words and tune change in every version.
This is what I know of the song's history.
In 1871 a songsheet of "Good-night Darling," written and composed by R. E. Bays, as sung by Adah Richmond, was printed in Boston [fn.4]. Richmond played in Boston and, in the same year, brought her early burlesque troupe to New York City [fn.5]. She was on the New York stage in the early seventies -- the period that concerns us -- and later [fn.6].
Almost the same version, again attributed to R. E. Bays, and sung by Alice Dunning Lingard, was printed in "The Faded Coat of Blue Songster" in 1873 [fn.7]. Alice Dunning Lingard was an English actress and singer who toured with the Lingard family troupe and was also on the New York stage in the early seventies and afterwards [fn.8].
In 1875 "Good-Bye, Darling, I Must Leave You," as "sung with great success by the late Eddie Norwood," was printed in the "There's Millions In It Songster" [fn.9]. Norwood's version is also printed in 1873 in "Jennie Engel's Bouquet of Melodies Songster" [fn.10]. It was printed, also "as sung" by Eddie Norwood, in Frank Dumont's "Birch and Backus' Songs of the 'San Franciso Minstrels' Including All the Continuously Popular Pieces That Have Been Received With Boundless Applause From Maine to California, When Sung By This Great Troupe" [fn.11]. If Norwood were a member of the San Francisco Minstrels, a very popular troupe on the New York Stage from 1865-1883 [fn.12], it should have given his version a great boost. I find nothing showing that Norwood ever performed with the San Francisco Minstrels [fn.13]. The Norwood version entirely replaces every verse of the Bays song so that the singer tells about his 'girl Liz'; it only keeps the Bays chorus. None of the other versions show any influence of the Norwood version.
Bays's song was well enough known to earn a black-face adaptation in "Goodbye Darling," printed in the "The Robert Jones Songster." The lover's name is changed from "Harry Mortimer de Vere" to "Lilly Dusky Moore," a play on "lily"/"little" "dusky moor"[fn.14]. The words are not in dialect but are less "artful" than Bays's: "I am engaged to such a dear" becomes "I'm engaged to something sweet"; "he comes nearly ev'ry day" becomes "and it seems as every day"; "Oh young ladies when you find A young lover true and kind" becomes "Ladies, if you want to find Some gents that's good and kind"; "'Tis so nice to have a beau" becomes "Ain't it nice to have a beau"; "He has teeth as white as pearls And such darling little curls" becomes "and his teeth are white like pearl And his darling little curl."
I don't know of any other texts from the nineteenth century.
The song appears to have been popular in some rural areas by the early nineteen hundreds. Bascom Lamar Lunsford (1882-1973) learned the chorus in 1904 and said it was a favorite with both boys and girls at outdoor gatherings [fn.15]. One of the two Alabama texts reported but not printed by Browne was learned about 1912 [fn.16] and the other was known by the contributor before 1903 [fn.17] [fn.18].
Owens (1905-1990) learned the song from his Oklahoma cousins [fn.19].
The spread of "Good-bye Darling" may illustrate points about distribution and change made by Cohen and Browne.
Cohen [fn.20] quotes an 1880 New York Herald article to illustrate the effect of troupe appearances on the popularity of "penny ballads" like "Good-night Darling" and -- with the history of "Grandfather's Clock" -- illustrates how a song no longer popular where printed can spread slowly throughout the rural areas where it has a chance to establish itself:
"This ['Scotch Lassie, Jean,' Roud #21539], like a majority of the songs that appear in the penny ballad series, owes its present favor to being sung by a prominent minstrel troupe. A majority of the purchasers of the ballads are working girls, boys and young men who hear the verses sung at a theatre or social gathering, where they catch the melody, and at the expense of a cent for the words, are enabled to try their own vocal powers.... Singularly enough the most popular song outside of New York at present [1880] is 'Whoa Emma,' of unpleasant memory. 'Grandfather's Clock' also, having run its course in the city, is only now ticking its way through the rural districts, and thousands of orders for it come in every week. Another odd thing about this popular song. It was brought from England and published by the publisher [Wehman] as a failure, when suddenly it made a hit, and some idea of its subsequent popularity may be formed from the fact that a single publisher of sheet music disposed of 50,000 copies in that form.... A new penny ballad is published every day, and the mails are busy distributing this remarkable literature throughout the country" [fn.21].
Aside from the Norwood version the "Good-night Darling" texts are interesting for how they have changed. Aside from verses forgotten or omitted the texts are surprisingly similar; even the versions that reverse the sex of the singer do not change the "sense" of the song: no floating or new verses have been added and the intent of almost all lines remains unchanged, but almost all lines have been changed in ways that do not affect the intent. Bays's song text remains recognizable, verse for verse, in every text except Norwood's, but the words of each line are fluid. Browne explains why he believes these published texts change.
"The fact that literary songs have an existence frozen in art form ... does not alter their status as genuine folk songs. Their inclusion in a songster or other popular song book, furthermore, would not act as a corrective or stabilizing force. On the contrary, the fact that they were included in these cheap books would probably be license enough for the folk to take liberties with them. Songsters were too ephemeral to be regarded as sacrosanct. They probably served rather to introduce songs into a community than to stabilize those which they brought in" [fn.22].
The fragile nature of songsters [fn.23] would underline their role as introducer of songs. Once introduced, a song's survival in any form is problematic.
Three of the four "country" recordings of the song were made in 1927 [fn.24]; the fourth was made in 1930 [fn.25]. They seem entirely independent of each other, differing in text, tune and presentation.
Lulu Belle Wiseman's adaptation [fn.26] was printed in 1937, but I can't find that the song was ever recorded by the Wisemans.
The text Browne printed as #15A he collected in 1953 from an Alabama singer; "she claims her mother wrote it" [fn.27].
The versions, excluding the Norwood version, all retain the "sense" and form of the song, but the details vary from version to version.
To find the "sense" of the song I paraphrase it, couplet by couplet, or--if that isn't fine enough--line by line. If we look at the "sense" of the texts, again excluding the Norwood version, from a distance by paraphrasing them they are remarkably similar. With the sole exception of Woltz -- which has a substitution -- the changes in "sense" from the Bays original are all losses of text.
[And scholarship has shown that, even in written transmission, loss of text is the single most common mistake. - RBW]
Here is the Bays-Richmond text paraphrase. There is a chorus and four verses.
[chorus] Good night; one more kiss; he'll return tomorrow or else he'll write.
[1] the singer is happy to be engaged; the lover comes every day; he whispers when he goes
[2] the lover has wonderful teeth and a darling curl; the singer tells the lover's name; when they are married she won't have to hear his words [the chorus]
[3] advice to ladies: when you find a lover who's true and kind it will make you happy to have a beau to pet and love you and kiss at the door.
[4] advice to gentlemen: when you must leave your sweetheart remember a kiss and say before you part [the chorus]
Here is a paraphrase of the Norwood text:
[chorus] Good night; one more kiss; he will return tomorrow or else he'll write.
[1] he loves a charming girl; he'll do nothing wrong; he brings her here every night to hear [the chorus]
[2] pretty Liz stole his heart; other chaps envy him that when they part he sings [the chorus]
[3] when he meets her he is sure to kiss her; such waist, cheeks and face: she's too good for this world.
[4] tonight he'll propose; he'll be happy when she agrees to wed and his cares will end.
[spoken] "Ah, my dear boys, I sha'n't have to say then" [the chorus]
The Bays-Richmond [1871] text is the earliest but also the "most complete" in the sense that none of the later texts--except Norwood--add verses.
Four of the other texts have the same paraphrased structure as Bays-Richmond: Lingard [1873], Henry [1930], Smith [1930] and Browne [1953].
At the paraphrase level, Woltz, Greene and Wiseman differ from Bayes-Richmond in what they lose from, or how they change, the "advice" verses [3] and [4].
Woltz, the closest to Bays-Richmond, retains [4] advice to gentlemen, but changes [3] advice to ladies
from
[3] when you find a lover who's true and kind it will make you happy to have a beau to pet and love you and kiss at the door.
to
[3] when you find a lover who's true and kind it will make you happy; every night he'll come and go; he'll give the word as he goes [the chorus]
Greene and Wiseman -- which are identical at the paraphrase level -- omit [4] advice to gentlemen, but take its ending to replace the ending for their [3] advice to ladies:
[3] advice to ladies: when you find a lover who's true and kind -- when you find one good and true -- remember a kiss and [he'll] say before you part [the chorus]
Crabtree, RobertJones and Foster are like Bays-Richmond in their treatment of [3] advice to ladies, but leave out other verses or parts of verses.
Crabtree drops [2] (describing the lover) altogether. Both RobertJones and Foster leave out [4] advice to gentlemen, and Foster truncates [2] the lover's description to
[2] the lover has wonderful teeth and a darling curl; the singer tells the lover's name.
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed has only the chorus and parts of the first two verses, and [2] precedes [1]
[2] the lover has wonderful teeth and a darling curl; the singer tells the lover's name.
[1] the lover comes every day; he whispers when he goes
Beard-Lunsford is just the chorus, which is included for Norwood as well as the other texts.
Imagine a tree that shows how the texts are related at the paraphrase level, but has nothing to do with how the texts evolved:
Beard-Lunsford, which is just the chorus, is just above the root. The chorus is in every text, so all routes from the root to the branch ends pass through Beard-Lunsford.
From there
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed branches one way;
Norwood branches another way.
The Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed branch itself splits:
through Foster, RobertJones and Crabtree;
through Greene/Wiseman, Woltz, and Bays-Richmond [and Lingard, Henry, Smith, and Browne, which have the same paraphrased structure as Bays-Richmond].
It is the Wiseman/Greene branch that reaches Bays-Richmond, the original text [fn.28].
The "paraphrase level" may seem too broad, grouping too many versions as "the same thing."
Comparing texts at the "detail level" may seem to be at the other extreme, separating versions on trivial grounds.
In comparing texts I ignore differences in spelling but not in how a line is phrased.
For example, the two versions that are based on Bays's sheet music are very close, but not identical.
The only difference that I found I disregarded as a "spelling difference":
Bays-Richmond: 'Tis the pleasure of my life
Lingard: It's the pleasure of my life
Two versions that are identical at the paraphrase level but differ at the detail level are Greene and Wiseman. They are close enough that Lulu Belle Wiseman's version may have been based on Greene's recording, though her tune is simpler.
[chorus]...; he'll write.
Greene: Just a word or two to let my darling know
Wiseman: A line or two to let my darling know
[2] the lover has wonderful teeth and a darling curl; the singer tells the lover's name; when they are married she won't have to hear his words [the chorus]
Greene: He comes home most every day
...
And such darling little curls
And his name is Harry Martin Davy-o
He's the joy of all my life
And I'm soon to be his wife
Then those words I'll no longer have to hear
Wiseman: He comes almost ev'ry day [a possible mondegreen copy]
...
And such darling yeller curls
And his name is Alexander David Lee
He's the joy of all my life
And I'm soon goin' to be his wife
Then those words I no longer have to hear
[3] advice to ladies: ....
Greene: Now young ladies bear in mind
Wiseman: Now young girls all bear in mind
Greene and Wiseman illustrate one of the common points of departure from an agreed upon reading; there is almost no agreement about the lover's name:
Bays-Richmond and Lingard: His name is Harry Mortimer de Vere [fn.29].
Browne: His name is Harry Martin ....
Foster: And her name excuse me friends I will not tell
Greene: And his name is Harry Martin Davy-o
Henry: And his name is written everywhere
Owens 1ed: And his name which I call o'er every day
RobertJones: And his name is Lilly Dusky Moore
Smith: And her love is with me every where I go
Wiseman: And his name is Alexander David Lee
Woltz: And his name I cannot tell you but I know
Smith and Foster would have a problem here because they have made the singer a man. While their paraphrase follows Bays-Richmond closely, their detail level resolution is to dodge the naming problem altogether.
For "the singer tells the lover's name," Browne and Greene are close but, as noted above, their paraphrase structure is significantly different. Perhaps that is just a function of forgotten verses and lines. I would expect them, having agreed on the name, to be very close on lines they shared. Here their common paraphrase lines are compared with each other amd with the original Bays text:
[chorus] ...; he'll return tomorrow or else he'll write.
Bays-Richmond: I'll be here tomorrow night
Browne: I'll be here tomorrow night
Greene: I'll be back tomorrow night
[1] ...; the lover comes every day; he whispers when he goes
Bays-Richmond: He comes nearly every day/ and when he goes away/ these words he always whispers in my ear
Browne: he comes nearly every day/ and when he goes away/ these words he always whispers in my ear
Greene: he comes home most every day/ and before he goes away/ he always whispers in my ear
[2] ...; when they are married she won't have to hear his words [the chorus]
Bays-Richmond: 'Tis the pleasure of my life/ That I'm soon to be his wife/ For these words I shall no longer have to hear
Browne: he's the pleasure of my life/ For I'm soon to be his wife/ Then those words I'll no longer have to hear
Greene: He's the joy of all my life/ And I'm soon to be his wife/ Then these words I'll no longer have to hear
[3] advice to ladies: when you find a lover who's true and kind it will make you happy to have a beau ....
Bays-Richmond: Oh young ladies when you find/ A young lover true and kind/ You cannot be more happy I am sure/ 'Tis so nice to have a beau
Browne: Oh young ladies when you find/ A young lover true and kind/ You cannot be more happy I am sure/ For it's nice to have a beau
Greene: Now young ladies bear in mind/ A true lover's hard to find/ When you find one you know / That's good and true
[4] advice to gentlemen: ...; remember a kiss and say before you part [the chorus]
Bays-Richmond: You had best remember this/ She expects a sweeter kiss/And a word or two like this before you part
Browne: You had best remember this/ She'll expect a sweeter kiss/ And a word or two like this
Greene: It is best remember this/ He expects another kiss/ And another word or two before he goes
Where lines are shared, Browne is very close to Bays-Richmond, and not so close to Greene. That is not too surprising since Browne and Bays-Richmond were identical at the paraphrase level.
As written by R. E. Bays, "Good-night Darling" is sung by a woman with a chorus "as if" sung by a woman. As a result it is a simple matter to change the verses so the song would entirely be "as if" sung by a man. Of the four recordings, all made by men, two -- Smith and Foster -- change the sex of the singer to male. They make simple changes to Bays text.
[1] the singer is happy to be engaged; the lover comes every day; he whispers when he goes
Bays-Richmond: Such a happy girl am I/ I will tell the reason why/ 'Tis because I am engaged to such a dear/ He comes nearly ev'ry day/ And when he goes away/ These words he always whispers in my ear
Foster: Such a happy boy [boid?] am I/ And I'll tell you the reason why/ Just because I go to see a pretty little girl/ Go to see her ev'ry Sunday night/ Just before I go away/ And this is what I whisper in her ear and say
Smith: Such a happy boy am I/ And I'll tell you the reason why/ Is because that I'm engaged to such a dear/ I go there most every day/ And when I go away/ These are the words I whisper in her ear
[2] the lover has wonderful teeth and a darling curl; the singer tells the lover's name; when they are married she won't have to hear his words [the chorus]
Bays-Richmond: He has teeth as white as pearls/ And such darling little curls/ His name is Harry Mortimer de Vere/ 'Tis the pleasure of my life/ That I'm soon to be his wife/ For these words I shall no longer have to hear
Foster: O her teeth are just like pearls/ She's a darling little girl/ And her name excuse me friends I will not tell/ Go to see her ev'ry Sunday night/ Just before I go away/ And this is what I whisper in her ear and say
Smith: She has teeth as white as pearls/ She is such a darling girl/ And her love is with me every where I go/ She's the joy of my life/ And she's set to be my wife/ And these the words I'll no longer have to say
Where lines are shared, Smith is closer to Bays-Richmond than to Foster. That is not too surprising since Smith and Bays-Richmond were identical at the paraphrase level. The Foster version has generally drifted further away from the original text.
I have tunes for Bays-Richmond, Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, Wiseman, and the four recordings: Woltz, Foster, Greene and Smith.
The tunes are all recognizably the same but Bays, with its succession throughout of dotted fourths and eighths, is the most complex.
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed and Wiseman simplify the tune into a succession of fourths. No one quite gets the first two lines of the chorus and no two tunes for those lines agree. Greene comes closest to the verse -- closer than Wiseman -- and that argues against Wiseman trying to cover Greene's version; on the other hand it may be that Lulu Belle Wiseman liked Greene's tune and decided to simplify it.
Browne, thinking to state Pound and Barry's position, "would accept as genuine folk song one which, regardless of origin, had (1) undergone certain textual and musical changes and had (2) become so much a part of folk culture that the members felt free to sing it as they had learned it without any self-conscious concern for its origin or its 'correct' version." "Good-night, Darling" began as a song on the Boston and New York burlesque stage, was printed with some adaptation on song sheet and songster, achieved some level of popularity in the South East, Applachians, and South, and was recorded four times we know of. The singers all retained the "sense" and form of the song, but the words and tune seem never to have been captured twice the same way. "Good-bye, Darling" seems to satisfy the test. Is that enough to allow us to classify this as a "genuine folk song"?
78 RPM references and dates for Da Costa Woltz, John D Foster, Clarence Greene and McDaniels and Smith from MeadeSpottswoodMeade, pp. 122-123. MeadeSpottswoodMeade is my primary source for references and recordings. - BS
FOOTNOTES
[1] Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, p. 17.
[2] Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 164-165.
[3] Browne, pp. 4-5.
[4] Bays-Richmond.
[5] Brown2, p. 389.
[6] NYTelegram-1897; NYClipper-1914.
[7] Lingard, p. 46.
[8] see Brown2, pp. 363, 392, 475, 544; Brown3, pp. 198, 207.
[9] Norwood, p. 35.
[10] Browne, p. 72.
[11] Browne, pp. 71-72.
[12] McCoy; Toll, pp. 149-152, 167, 186; Brown2, pp. 120-121; Brown3, p. 210; Rice, pp. 18, 46, 55, 58, 68-71, 78-79, 83-84, 104, 108, 111, 114, 116, 118, 122, 128, 130, 135-136, 142, 143-144, 147-148, 151, 156, 163-164, 170, 176, 182, 188-190, 191, 192-195, 198, 206, 210, 238, 250, 258, 264, 267, 288, 292, 342.
[13] Brown2, pp. 121-122 lists the members of the Minstrels in New York from 1865-1869; not found in Rice [fn.11 lists all references to members of the San Francisco Minstrels from the time they moved to New York]; there is a "Dutch" Eddie Norwood on the New York Stage in 1873: NYClipper-1873-1, NYClipper-1873-2.
[14] Through Calpe's straits survey the steepy shore;
Europe and Afric on each other gaze!
Lands of the dark-ey'd Maid and dusky Moor
Alike beheld beneath pale Hecate's blaze:
Byron, p. 72 Canto 2.22. [1812]
Whether or not "dusky moor" was a commonplace before Byron, it was one afterwards, in the United States as well as England, sometimes in describing Othello:
from a report from "Central Africa" in a journal of the American Colonization Society: "You see him [the Negro] mingling with the dusky Moor, the olive coloured Arab, and the tawney Egyptian...." AfricanRepository, p. 372 [1827];
from a direct quote of Byron in an American short story. Leggett, pp. 38-39 [1834];
from an American insurance agents' periodical: "Othello, when weaving his yarn in the presence of Desdemona and her father, says: 'Wherein I speak of most disastrous chances, of moving accidents by flood and field,' but he says nothing of having been insured against them. There were not so many accident insurance companies then as now, and all things considered we guess the pesky and dusky Moor was an extra hazardous risk anyhow." Kellogg, p. 116 [1896].
[15] Beard-Lunsford, p. 617.
[16] Browne, #15B, p. 73.
[17] Browne, #15C, p. 73.
[18] Browne #15B and #15C are references to versions Browne had when he edited the book; the texts are not available in the Ray B Browne Collection at Bowling Green University in Ohio according to personal correspondence Nov 6, 2014.
[19] Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, p. 164.
[20] Cohen, p. 154.
[21] NYHerald-1880.
[22] Browne, pp. 13-14.
[23] Cohen, p. 147.
[24] Foster; Greene; Woltz.
[25] Smith.
[26] Wiseman, pp.14-15.
[27] Browne, p. 72.
[28] The tree, as I describe it, is oversimplified.
There are at least two ways to interpret trees.
The "phenetic" way is to consider apparent similiarities among the texts in deciding how the texts relate to each other.
The "phylogenetic" way is to consider strictly evolutionary principles to determine how the texts developed sequentially.
In this case I am not interested in finding how the texts evolved and determining what the original text looked like. In a "phylogenetic" tree Bays-Richmond is at the root and later-developing texts are progressively further away from the root. In my "phenetic" tree Bays-Richmond and Norwood are furthest from the root, carrying -- as they do -- almost all the elements of different versions. Beard-Lunsford, as noted, being only the chorus, and the chorus being included in all other texts, is closest to the root. The remaining texts are progressively further from the root, and closer to Bays-Richmond, as they become more "complete" (In this approach, every text -- not acknowledged by the singer to be only part of what she knows as the text -- is considered to be complete).
Even so, people building trees, whether phenetic or phylogenetic, have the same serious problem: there are few cases in the real world that can accurately be represented as trees. Consider the phylogenetic problem of having the same mutation appear on two separate branches of a tree. Perhaps there has been a previously unsuspected hybridization, or perhaps there is something that makes the independent occurrence of the mutation likely, or perhaps this is just a chance occurrence. How should the tree be modified to reflect this situation? The "Good Night Darling" paraphrase level tree has an analogous problem. Woltz and Bays-Richmond are at the end of one branch and Crabtree is at the end of another. All three have [4] advice to gentlemen, and no texts closer to the root than they are have that verse. Of course, change by hybridization on the one hand and by forgetting on the other are accepted as frequent occurrences for song texts and there is no problem accepting those as causes of the change; the problem of representing the situation is exactly the same for phenetic and phylogenetic problems. In the "Good Night Darling" problem a solution would be to have cross-branches directly connecting Woltz and Bays-Richmond on one end to Crabtree on the other.
The software I use as an aid in comparing texts provides such cross-branches. At the paraphrase level, for this song, the result is a sort of web stretched between the Greene branch, ending at Bays-Richmond, and the Foster branch ending at Crabtree. At the detail level the picture is more complicated.
The software I use is SplitsTree4. If you care to investigate it I recommend starting with Huson-Rupp-Scornavacca.
[29] In Bays's Boston the de Vere name may have indicated "high class" but have had no such meaning on the streets of New York or in rural America.
A note from Bob Waltz: "The name 'de Vere' was probably chosen just for the rhyme, but there is a peculiar significance. The de Vere family held the Earldom of Oxford for *twenty generations* in the Middle Ages and after. The only family to have done something similar is the Howard Dukes of Norfolk, and that's much more recent -- they weren't all that close to the record when 'One More Kiss' was written. The tag phrase 'the Vere de Vere' refers to the ability of the de Veres to hang on to their earldom. To be the 'Vere de Vere' means to have an impeccable pedigree." - BS
DISCOGRAPHY [see RECORDINGS for details]
Foster: John D. Foster, "Goodbye My Darlin'"
Greene: Clarence Greene, "Goodnight Darling"
Smith: Lewis McDaniels & Walter Smith, "One More Kiss Before I Go"
Woltz: Da Costa Woltz's Southern Broadcasters, "Merry Girl"
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: MHAp168

One More River to Cross

DESCRIPTION: Counting up the contents of Noah's Ark: "The animals went in one by one... two by two... three by three...," often with odd groups listed. Chorus: "One more river, and that is the river Jordan, One more river (for) to cross." Or "Wasn't that a wide river"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment)
KEYWORDS: Bible animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 140-141, "The animals came in one by one" (1 text)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 98-99, "Oh, Wasn't Dat a Wide Riber?" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 194 in the 1874 edition; a "Wide River" type)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 10, p. 204, "One More River" (1 text)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 47, "Wide River" (1 text, a "Wide River" type)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 455, "One More River to Cross" (1 short text)
Randolph 294, "One More River" (2 texts, 1 tune, both "Ark" versions)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 250-252, "One More River" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 294A)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 60, "One More River" (1 short text, 1 tune); p. 62, "Jordan's River I'm Bound to Cross" (1 short text, 1 tune, too brief to determine whether it is this or something else; I would guess it is a mixture of two songs)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 10-11, "One More River" (1 text, 1 tune, an "Ark" version)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 308, "One More River" (1 text, 1 tune, an "Ark" version)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 392, "One More River to Cross" (1 text, an "Ark" version)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 397-402, 407-410, "One More RIver" (notes, with sample stanzas on pp. 398-399 and 3 texts [C, D, E] on pp. 407-410 that belong here although filed under "Rise and Shine")
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 24, "Noah's Ark" (1 text, 1 tune, an "Ark" version)
DT, ONEMORER
ADDITIONAL: Edward Harrigan, _The Mulligans_, G. W. Dilingham, 1901, p. 369, "(no title)" (2 verses plus the chorus, possibly rewritten)
Roud #4458 and 12088
RECORDINGS:
Lt. Jim Europe's Four Harmony Kings, "One More Ribber to Cross" (Pathe 22187, 1919)
Uncle Dave Macon, "One More River to Cross" (Bluebird B-5842, 1935)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Uncle Noah" (lyrics)
cf. "Who Built the Ark?" (floating lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
One More Battle to Fight ("The car of progress rolls along, One more battle to fight") (Foner, p. 166)
NOTES [91 words]: Cohen notes that a piece, "Dar's One More Ribber for to Cross" was composed in 1881, with words by James Husey and music by Thomas P. Westendorf. I am unable to verify that this is the same as this song.
Roud splits this into two pieces, both with the same chorus but with different verses. The Noah's Ark type texts appear to be #4458; those which speak primarily of the river itself ("Oh, wasn't that a wide river, River Jordan, Lord, Wide River") are #12088. I've tried to label the texts, but some are too short for this to be possible. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R294

One Morning Clear

See Searching for Lambs (File: LO09A)

One Morning in May (II)

See Bad Girl's Lament, The (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime) [Laws Q26] (File: LQ26)

One Morning in May (III)

See The Rebel Soldier (File: R246)

One Morning in May (IV)

See Bad Girl's Lament, The (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime) [Laws Q26] (File: LQ26)

One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14]

DESCRIPTION: A (soldier) and a pretty girl meet; they chat and he plays on the fiddle for her. When she asks him to play more, he says it is time to leave. She asks him to marry; he already has a wife and children
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: soldier courting separation marriage fiddle
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(Scotland,England(Lond,North,South)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (57 citations):
Laws P14, "The Nightingale (One Morning in May)"
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 185, "The Nightingales Sing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 210-211, "To Hear the Nightingales Sing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 495, "To Hear the Nightingale Sing" (1 text)
OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire 2, "The Bold Grenadier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #93, "The Grenadier and the Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 95, "The Watter Rattle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #77, "Bold Grenadier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 21, "Grenadier and Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 239-244, "The Nightingale" (3 texts plus 2 excerpts and a reference to 1 more, 2 tunes)
Randolph 58, "One Morning in May" (3 texts plus 1 fragment and 1 excerpt, 1 tune plus a fragment)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 14-15, "The English Soldier And The Irish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 13, "One Morning in May" (1 text plus a fragment and mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 13, "One Morning in May" (5 tunes plus excerpts of texts)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #192, "The Nightingale" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 23-25, "The Nightingale Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 97, "The Nightingale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 60-61, "I Was Out Walking" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 14, pp. 27-28, "One Morning in May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 95, "The Soldier and the Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 31, "The Soldier and the Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 310-311, "One Morning in May" (2 texts, with local titles "See the Waters Gliding," "One Morning, One Morning, One Morning in May"; 2 tunes on pp. 438-439)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 103, "One Morning in May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, pp. 81-82, "The Nightingale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 164-165, "The Banks of Low Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 594-595, "The Soldier and the Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 77, "The Nightingale" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 744-745, "One Morning in May (The Nightingale)" (1 text)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 68, "The Nightingale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 112-113, "Nightingale" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 92, "The Nightingale" (1 text)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #24A-C, pp. 94-98, "The Nightingale," "One Morning in May" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 73-75, "The Brave Volunteer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 122-123, "One Morning in May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 40, "One Morning in May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 130, "A Bold, Brave Bonair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 145, "The Nightingale" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 47, "The Nightingale" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 40, "The Bod Grenadied, or The Nightingale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wells-TheBalladTree, p. 222, "The Nightingale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 17, "The Bold Grenadier" (4 texts)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 40-41, "See the Waters A-Gliding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 136-138, "One Morning in May" (2 texts, 1 tune, but only the "A" text is this piece; the "B" text is "The Rebel Soldier")
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 198, "The Wild Rippling Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 52-53, "Fiddling Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 3, "The Wild Rippling Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 237, "The Wild Rippling Water" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 45, "The Lady and the Soldier" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 41-42, "One Morning in May" (1 text)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 68-70, "The Nightingale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 137-138, "One Morning in May" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 166, "One Morning In May (The Nightingale)" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Andra Joy Hamilton, "A Garland of Ballads from Caldwell County", Vol. 3, No. 1 (Jul 1955), p. 10, "One Morning in May" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 10, "One Morning in May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN277, "As I went forth one Sun-Shining day"
DT 340, NTNGALE NTNGALE2* NTNGALE3* NTNGALE4
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 22, #2 (1973), p, 18, "The Brave Volunteer" (1 text, 1 tune, the Bob Beers version)
Roud #140
RECORDINGS:
Raymond & John Cantwell, "The Soldier and the Lady" (on FSB02, FSB2CD)
Liam Clancy, "The Nightingale" (on IRLClancy01)
Coon Creek Girls, "The Soldier and the Lady" (Vocalion 05404, 1940; rec. 1938)
Bill Cox, "Fiddling Soldier" (Melotone 7-08-70, 1937)
Betty Garland, "One Morning in May" (on BGarland01)
Mrs. Jack [Vera] Keating, "The Weaver" (on Ontario1)
Neil Morris, "The Irish Soldier and the English Lady" (on LomaxCD1707)
Howard Morry, "The Soldier and the Lady" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
New Lost City Ramblers, "Soldier and the Lady" (on NLCR13)
Shorty & Juanita Sheehan, "The Soldier and the Lady" (on FineTimes)
Marvin Thornton & Fort Thomas group, "The Soldier and the Lady" (AFS, 1938; on KMM)
Doug Wallin, "The Nightingale" (on Wallins1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gentleman Soldier" (plot)
cf. "Across the Blue Mountains" (theme)
cf. "The Crystal Spring" (plot)
cf. "1913 Massacre" (tune)
cf. "Harbour Le Cou" (theme)
cf. "The Nightingale (IV) (As I walked out one May morning my fortune for to seek)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bold Grenadier
The Nightingale's Song, or the Soldier's Rare Musick and Maid's Recreation
File: LP14

One Morning in May (V)

See Across the Blue Mountain (File: AF014)

One morning in May as I chanced to pass, And there I beheld a most beautiful lass

See The Mantle So Green [Laws N38] (File: LN38)

One Morning, One Morning, One Morning in Spring

See Next Monday Morning (File: ShH38)

One Night As I Lay On My Bed

DESCRIPTION: Singer dreams of his love; the dreams torment him so much that he goes out and calls at her window, bidding her to let him in. She demurs, saying her parents will punish her. He says they're asleep and won't hear; she lets him in.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: courting sex nightvisit
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 79, "One Night as I Lay On My Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 425, "Whisper, My Love, Do" (1 text)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 81, "Go From My Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 101, "Open the Window" (1 text)
DT, LAYBED*
Roud #672
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "One Night as I Lay On My Bed" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drowsy Sleeper" [Laws M4]
cf. "Farewell to Bonny Galaway" (lyrics, theme).
cf. "Go From my Window, Go"
cf. "The Waters of Dee" (theme)
cf. "So Long I Have Lady" (theme)
NOTES [61 words]: [The earliest known version of this was a] fragment found by Burns [and] published in Johnson's "The Scots Musical Museum." - PJS
There is a hint of Song of Songs 5:2 here:
I slept, but my heart was awake.
Listen! My beloved is knocking.
"Open to me, my sister, my love,
my dove, my perfect one;
for my head is wet with dew,
my locks with the drops of the night." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: VWL079

One Night As I Lay on the Prairie

See The Cowboy's Dream (File: R185)

One Night in Cleveland (A Canal Dance)

DESCRIPTION: "One night in Cleveland we had a dance On the weight-lock platform we did prance." Even the mules and chickens try to join the festivities. Old men think they are young again. The singer, despite being "up in years," will stick with canalling
AUTHOR: probably adapted, and possibly written, by Pearl R. Nye
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (OHS)
KEYWORDS: dancing animal music nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: [no author listed], Scenes & Songs of the Ohio-Erie Canal, Ohio Historical Society, 1971, "A Canal Dance" (1 text, 1 tune, from Pearl R. Nye)
Roud #4953
File: OHSOnNCl

One Night Sad and Languid (Dream of Napoleon)

DESCRIPTION: "One night sad and languid I went to my bed... When a vision surprising came into my head... I beheld that rude rock... O'er the grave of the once-famed Napoleon." The singer recalls the deeds of Napoleon and how he was "sold... by treachery."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes); before 1854 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 16(77b))
KEYWORDS: Napoleon dream death freedom
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 215-216, "One Night Sad and Languid" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #63, "A Dream of Napoleon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 207, "Napoleon's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 135-137, "Napoleon's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 143, "Boney on the Isle of Saint Helena" (one fragmentary text in the notes to that song)
ST SWMS215 (Full)
Roud #1538
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(77b), "Dream of Napoleon" ("One night, sad and languid, I went to my bed"), Swindells (Manchester), 1796-1853; also Harding B 16(78a), "A Dream of Napolean"[misspelling in text as well as title]; Johnson Ballads 1146[last line illegible], Firth c.16(97), Harding B 26(153), "[A|The] Dream of Napoleon[!!!]"; Harding B 19(86), "Napoleon"
Murray, Mu23-y1:056, "Dream of Napoleon," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NOTES [232 words]: Napoleon says "The nations around you shall look with surprise, When freedom to you my descendant supplies.": Napoleon III[1808-1873; president 1848-1852; emperor 1852-1870] was the son of Napoleon's stepdaughter and, nominally, his brother Louis Bonaparte. (source: "Napoleon III of France" at the Wikipedia site). - BS
Napoleon III, like the first Napoleon, was rather contradictory in this regard. He has been called the "Bourgeois Emperor." He did end up a full-blown Imperial head of state (though under constitutional and parliamentary restrictions). But he also liberalized a lot of laws. If he had been smarter about picking his wars, his government might well have survived. But he fought the Crimean War, wasted a lot of energy installing the Habsburg princeling Maximilian in Mexico -- and then picked a war with Prussia. Or, as it would come to be called, Imperial Germany.
Naturally, he lost that, and was pushed from his throne. But the broadsides show that this song was written when he was still new and appeared a vast improvement over the reactionary Bourbon dynasty.
That seemed almost to be the story of the Bonaparte family. Napoleon himself started as a lawgiver, and ended up power-mad. His son the Duke of Reichstadt (1811-1832) was regarded as incredibly promising, but died young. And Napoleon III came in as a liberal reformer and ended up as another Emperor. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: SWMS215

One O, The

See Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs) (File: R061)

One O'Clock the Gun Went Off

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme? "One o'clock the gun went off, I dare not stay no longer, If I do my mother will say Playing with the boys up yonder." "Stockings red, garters blue... and a gold ring on my finger.... The only one I love best Is my bonny, bonny Johnnie-O"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Ritchie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope love mother clothes ring
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #423, "One O'Clock the Gun Went Off"; #531, "Stockings red and garters blue" (2 texts)
Roud #21731
NOTES [55 words]: Much of this looks like it comes from versions of "Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going)." The verse "Stockings red and garters blue, Shoes laced up with silver" also exists independently (it, not the "One O'clock the gun went off" stanza, is Roud #21731). But as a whole it looks like an independent piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR423

One of the Has-Beens

DESCRIPTION: "I'm one of the has-beens, a shearer I mean. I once was a ringer and I used to shear clean... But you may not believe me, for I can't do it now." The shearer recalls the greats he used to shear with, and remains determined to shear as long as he can
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Stewart/Keesing, _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: sheep work age
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 156-157, "One of the Has-Beens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 48-49, "One of the Has-Beens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 194-195, "One of the Has-Beens" (1 text)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 125-126, "One of the Has-Beens" (1 text)
ST FaE156 (Full)
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "One of the Has-Beens" (on JGreenway01)
NOTES [13 words]: Greenway's tune for this, at least, is "Polly Perkins of Paddington Green." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FaE156

One Of These Days (I)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Soon shall be done with the crosses (Trouble of the world, crosses) When the Lord calls me home." Verse: "Sister (Brother) x, one of these days, my sister (brother) one of these days (x2), When the Lord calls me home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 167, "One-a These Days" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Willis Proctor and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "One Of These Days" (on LomaxCD1712, recorded 1959)
NOTES [15 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parp167

One of These Days (II)

See Welcome Table (Streets of Glory, God's Going to Set This World on Fire) (File: San478)

One of Tonight

DESCRIPTION: "One of tonight! We will all pray togeyther Like de one of tonight." "Moan, oh, moan, We will all moan together... Ninety and nine and de ninety-ninth...." "Shout, oh, shout." "Bow... Like de Israelites bow." "Pray... Like de Israelites." "Cry...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 625, "One of Tonight" (1 text)
Roud #11926
File: Br3625

One ole man come ridin' by

See Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse) (File: Doe014)

One Penny Portion

See The Constant Lovers [Laws O41] (File: LO41)

One Pleasant Evening As Pinks and Daisies

See The Two Lovers' Discussion (U) (File: HHH164)

One Potato Two Potato

DESCRIPTION: "One potato, two potato, three potato, four, Five potato, six potato, seven potato, more." Other verses, if any, may refer to all good children going to heaven, or Nellie giving cherries to the poor. ("Tater" may be used for "potato")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Journal of American Folklore, according to Coffin & Cohen)
KEYWORDS: playparty food nonballad children
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So) Britain(Scotland) Ireland Canada New Zealand
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 94, "(One potato, two potato)" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 118, "(One potato)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 70, "Taters"; p. 71, "One Potato" (2 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 49, "One Potato, Two Potato"; p. 117, "One potato, two potatoes" (2 texts)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 12, "(One potato, two potato)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #424, "One potato, two potato" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 5, "One potato" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 79, "One potato, two potatoes, three potatoes, four" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 37,"(One potato, two potato, three potato, four)" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Rachel Cranford, collector), "Games and Game Rhymes", Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 14, "(One potato, two potato)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 190, "(One, Two Three)" (1 text)
Edith Fowke, _Red Rover, Red Rover: Children's Games Played in Canada_, p. 17, "One Potato, Two Potato" (1 text with description of how it is used as a counting rhyme)
Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, _A Guide to Australian Folklore_, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 77, "(One potato, two potato" (1 text
Roud #19230
NOTES [65 words]: Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo explains that this, to use this rhyme, players shaped their hands into fists, which were the "potatoes." The player would use the rhyme to count fists. In the version given my Withers, when the counter reached "More," that person's fist was withdrawn and the ritual repeated. I suspect most children just made the player who was counted as "More" become "It." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CoCo190

One Pound Two

DESCRIPTION: "Now, Maggy dear, it's I do hear you have been on the spree." Johnny asks his wife for an accounting of how she spends his salary of one pound two. She lists it all: meal, potatoes, sugar.... Nothing is wasted or unaccounted. He is satisfied.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1852 (broadside, NLScotland, LC.Fol.187.A.2(052))
KEYWORDS: virtue dialog wife money food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 20, "One Pound Two" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1754, p. 118, "One Pound Two" (1 reference)
Roud #V14294
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 20(126), "One Pound Two", J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866 ; also Harding B 16(190a), Firth c.20(127), Firth c.20(128), Firth c.26(129), "One Pound Two"
Murray, Mu23-y1:093, "One Pound Two," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, LC.Fol.187.A.2(052), "One Pound Two," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 1852-1859; also RB.m.169(058) [damaged copy of preceding], L.C.1270(007), "The One Pound Two," unknown, c. 1845
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Contented Wife and Her Satisfied Husband" (broadside NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(138a), "The Contented Wife and her Satisfied Husband" ("Ye married people high and low, come listen to my song, I'll show to you economy and not detain yu long"), Muir (unknown), c. 1850
File: OCon020

One Ship Drives East

DESCRIPTION: Round. "One ship drives east and one ship drives west, By the south-same winds that blow, Yet the set of the sails and not the gale (x20 Determines the way-i-aye-i-aye, That determines the way she goes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: ship nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 100-101, "One Ship Drives East" (1 text)
Roud #15670
NOTES [79 words]: Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin files this among the nautical songs. Yet every other song in this section of the book is well-attested -- a handful of shanties known (mostly from Walton) to have been sung on the Great Lakes, several midwestern occupational songs, and a number of old ballads. This song is none of those things. It is not found elsewhere, and doesn't appear suitable for shanty work. I think it is a children's game that just happens to be about a ship. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet100

One Slick Snake

See Glory, Glory, How Peculiar (File: DPio379)

One Solja Man

See Wheel and Turn Me (File: JaMu058)

One Sort, Two Sort

DESCRIPTION: "One sort, two sort, three sort, sand, Bob tail Dominie little taw tan, Virgin Mary, halem, caelem, siglam, zaglam, BUCK!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 222, "One Sort, Two Sort" (1 short tet)
NOTES [41 words]: I'm quite sure that this is a much-damaged version of some other counting song -- but it's so damaged (or mixed with a Catholic lyric about the Virgin Mary; note both the reference to Mary and the word "caelem," "heavens") that I can't tell what.
Last updated in version 5.2
File: KiWa222

One Sunday after Mass (Dermot and His Lass)

DESCRIPTION: "One Sunday after mass As Dermot and his lass Through the greenwood did pass, All alone and all alone." He asks for a "póg." She hits him. She asks why she is coy; she calls him rude. "He bribed her with nuts" till she gives him a kiss
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 181, "One Sunday after Mass" (1 text)
Roud #24353
File: HMHS181A

One Sunday Morn

See A Week's Matrimony (A Week's Work) (File: Pea322)

One Sunday Morning

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17]; also The Banks of Sweet Primroses (File: LO17)

One Thing or the Other, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer's mother tells him, at 21, to choose a wife; he's always thinking on "the one thing or the other." He courts a girl and marries her; she gets pregnant. It's twins; he complains of the squalling of the one thing and the other
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Sharp mss); 19C (Wolf)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer's mother tells him, at 21, to choose a wife; he's always thinking on "the one thing or the other." He courts a girl and marries her; they're happy in their daily occupation "at the one thing or the other." After a year, she gets pregnant. "It's a son", cries the sister; "It's a daughter" cries the mother; singer says it's the one thing or the other. It's twins; he complains of the squalling of the one thing and the other
KEYWORDS: courting marriage pregnancy baby mother wife humorous twins
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(South)) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 209, "The One Thing or the Other" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 94, "The Twins" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 312-313, "The One Thing or the Other" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1755, p. 118, "One Thing and the Other" (1 reference)
Roud #2131
RECORDINGS:
James Decker, "The One Thing or the Other" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Michael Gallagher, "The One Thing Or the Other" (on FSBFTX19)
File: K209

One Thursday Evening

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes to his lover's house but she is not home. He accepts her sister's offer to take him to see her and his rival. He spies on them and leaves when he hears how he is mentioned. He leaves, drinks whisky and leaves Scotland? Courts the sister?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity drink sister
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1204, "One Thursday Evening" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6800
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailor from Dover" (tune, per Greig/Duncan6)
NOTES [116 words]: There are a few lines that are puzzling in both of the Greig/Duncan6 texts. First, the singer refers to his lover as "gramachree" or "grammochree." In spite of the line "If e'er I return to Scotland again," this naming seems Irish (see "Gay Girl Marie" [Laws M23] and "Gra Geal Mo Chroi (II -- Down By the Fair River)" and other "Gramachree ..." broadsides (none of which, that I have seen, are this song). Second, maybe the "Scotland" reference is an add-on since it doesn't seem to make sense in this context ("But if ever I return to Scotland again From England from Ireland from France and from Spain I'll do my endeavor to alter my cause In case that new incomes may strike up new laws"). - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61204

One to Make Ready

DESCRIPTION: "One to make ready, And two to prepare, Good luck to the rider, And away goes the mare." (The New Zealand version adds, "Salt, mustard, vinegar, pepper.")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: playparty horse racing
FOUND IN: Britain US(So) New Zealand
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 103, "(One to make ready)" (1 text); also pp. 103-104, ("Onery, twoery, threery, same") (1 text, which combines the counting part of "One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann" with a "salt, mustard, vinegar, pepper" line also found in New Zealand texts of "One to Make Ready," "Baker, Baker, Bake Your Bread," and "Mabel, Mabel")
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 384, "One to make ready" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #656, p. 259, "(One to make ready)"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bluebells, Cockleshells" (verse regarding vinegar, salt, mustard, pepper) and references there
File: SuSm103A

One Two Three Four Five Six Seven, All Good Children Go to Heaven

DESCRIPTION: "One two three four five six seven, All good children go to heaven." "When they get there, God will say, Where's the diamond you stole that day? If you say you do not know, He will send you down below." "Penny on the water, tuppence on the sea"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty thief Hell jumprope | counting
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p, 89, "(One to three four, five, six, seven)" (2 texts)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 110, "(One-two-three-four-five-six-seven)" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 118, "(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 77, "(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 54, "(One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, All good children go to heaven)" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 61, "One two three four five six seven, All good children go to heaven" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 37, "(One, two, three, four, five, six seven)" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 116, "A penny on the avenue"; p. 116, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven"; p. 120, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven" (3 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #429, #430, #431, #432, #433, #434, all of which begin "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, All good children (people) go to heaven" (6 texts); #458, "Penny on the water" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 10, "(One, two, three, four)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #74, p. 67, "(One two three four five six seven)" (1 text)
Roud #19355
NOTES [247 words]: Not all versions of this include the "Penny on the water"/"Penny on the avenue" verse, and that verse seems to circulate on its own. I'm not sure if they are one item that split or two separate items that joined. I'm lumping them for consistency with the Roud Index, because you can obviously read the third line to figure out which is which!
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes has six different forms, his #429-#434, all of which have the opening "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, All good children [#433 has "people"] go to heaven." But the rest is different; we may catalog them as follows, based on the third and following lines:
#429 -- "All the rest go down below, To eat supper with Old Black Joe. How many bad ones to below."
#430 -- "No, yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, If you are bad you cannot go."
#431 -- "Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, All bad children suck their thumbs."
#432 -- "When they die their sin's forgiven, One, two, three, four, five, six, seven."
#433 -- "When they get there God will say, 'Where's the book you stole away?'" They may end up facing RED HOT PEPPERS
#434 -- "When they get there, the angels will say, (school's name) children, come this way."
And this isn't even close to the full list. And doubtless they can be sung together anyway.
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 10, has what seems to be presented as another rhyme but appears more like a second verse: "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, All bad children have to wait." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: McIn110B

One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door

DESCRIPTION: "One, two, three, four, Mary at the cottage door, Five, six, seven, eight, Eating cherries off a plate." Continuations vary: O-U-T spells out." "Fish, fish, in the dish, how many fishes do you wish?" "Out goes the rat, out goes the cat...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Carey)
KEYWORDS: playparty wordplay food
FOUND IN: US(MA) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 387, "One, Two, Three, Four" (1 text)
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, p. 77, "(no title)" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 89, "(Two, four six eight, Mary at the cottage gate)" (1 text); p. 97, "(Two, four, six, eight)" (1 text); p. 118, "(Two, four, six, eight)" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p.54, "(One, two, three, four, Jinny at the cottage door)" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 63, "One two three four" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p.37, "(One, two, three, four)" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 119, "One, two, three, four" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 8, "(One, two, three, four)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #573, "Two, four, six, eight, Meet me at the garden gate" (1 text)
Roud #19295
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ena, Mena, More, Mi" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric)
cf. "Ickle Ockle Black Bottle"("O-U-T spells out" lyric)
cf. "Spelling Game (Blue spells B-L-U-E; T-W-O Spells Two; My Mother and Your Mother)" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric)
cf. "Engine, Engine, Number Nine" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric)
cf. "Monkey, Monkey, Draw the Beer" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric)
cf. "Old Father Christmas, Guess What He Did" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric)
cf. "Bake a Pudding, Bake a Pie" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric)
cf. "William a Trimbletoe" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric)
cf. "Intery Mintery Cutery Corn" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric)
cf. "Ink Stink" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric)
cf. "One, Two, Three, Four, I Bumped My Nose Against the Door" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric)
cf. "Tilly on the Telephone" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric)
cf. "Little Black Doctor" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric)
cf. (notes to) "Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme)" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric)
f. "Lady Lady at the Gate" (eating cherries motif)
cf. "One, Two, Three, Mother Caught a Flea" (especially the version "Two, four, six, eight, Papa caught a rattlesnake")
NOTES [132 words]: The "O-U-T spells out" tag is so common in counting-out rhymes that the above list is surely not comprehensive; it can be grafted into everything. Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes in effect gives it its own number, #449. But at least this list gives you a start. It should not be assumed that any of these pieces always include the line.
It also seems to float loose; see Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 72, "Out Goes You."
Roud lumps "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door" and "Lady Lady at the Gate"; Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes splits them. I could argue either way, but I initially filed them separately, so I am retaining that. Abrahams has three different "Two, four, six, eight" rhymes, which likely all derive from this, but two have very different plots, so I've filed only one of them here. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CarMF077

One Zahl, Two Zahl

DESCRIPTION: Counting rhyme: "One zahl, two zahl, a-zig, a-zag, a-zang. Bob-tail guinea nigger, tic-a-ram-a-tang, Hail 'em, scale 'em, budge 'em, Mary, A-sink 'em, a-sank 'em, buck!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, J. O. Bailey, "Letter About a Folk-Rhyme," Vol. XIX, No. 4 (Nov 1971), p. 177, "One zahl, two zahl, a-zig, a-zag, a-zang" (1 text)
NOTES [75 words]: The author of this learned this from her mother, who was suffering from dementia and sang it without being able to explain why or where she learned it. Bailey asked Arthur Palmer Hudson if he could identify it, and he claimed he could, but the author never explained what it was or where! So it files as its own piece for the moment.
I wonder if Hudson was referring to "One-ery, Two-ery, Tickery, Seven" or one o the other versions of Roud #19296- RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: NCF194OZ

One-a These Days

See One Of These Days (File: Parp167)

One-Cent Herring, Two-Cent Grits

DESCRIPTION: "... one-cent herring ... two cent grits ... child like that, Can't do like this, Oh ray back Sam, Oh go on gal."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes food dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 21, "One-Cent Herring, Two-Cent Grits" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
NOTES [115 words]: The current description is based on the Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight fragment.
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, quoting Mrs Janie Hunter: "Used to have dances called Charleston, Pick Cherry, Alligator -- get down on floor and do 'gator tap-tap, tap on your heel and toe -- 'One-Cent Herring, Two-Cent Grits." While the title and first line parallel "Seven-Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat" the rest of the verse seems to be dance step calling, and the tune is something else entirely. If the idea of the first two lines follows that of "Seven-Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat" the original question was: if I only get one-cent for my herring, how can I afford two-cents for grits. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: CaCa021

One-ery, two-ery, hickary, hum

See One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann (File: GrD81641)

One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann

DESCRIPTION: "One-ery, two-ery, ikery on, Fillisy, follisy, Nicholas John, Query, quavey, Irish Mary, Stinkilum, stankilum, jolly-co, buck"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell, quoted by Bolton)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Que) US(MA,MW,NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1641, "Eerie, Oarie, Acktie, Ann" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 390, "One-ery, two-ery, ickery, Ann" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #628, p. 249, "(One-ery, two-ery)"
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #149, "Counting Rhymes" (8 texts of the "One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann" type, 4 of "Eenie Meenie Minie Mo (Counting Rhyme)", 1 of "Intery Mintery Cutery Corn", 1 of "Alphabet Songs", 1 of "Monday's Child", and 20 miscellaneous rhymes)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 67, "(One-ray, two-ray, Zick-ray, a a)" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 14, "(One-ery, two-ery, ickery Ann)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, 3147, "One-ery two-ery ickery Ann" (1 text)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 218, "One-ery" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 103-104, ("Onery, twoery, threery, same") (1 text, which combines the counting part of "One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann" with a "salt, mustard, vinegar, pepper" line also found in New Zealand texts of "One to Make Ready," "Baker, Baker, Bake Your Bread," and "Mabel, Mabel")
ADDITIONAL: Henry Carrington Bolton, Counting-Out Rhymes of Children (New York, 1888 ("Digitized by Google")), #444 p.94 -470 p. 96, [for example, ("Ery, iry, ickery, Ann"),("One-ery, two-ery, ikery on")]; #527 p. 100, ("One-ery, two-ery, zickery zan"); #9 p. 63, ("'Ekkeri, akai-ri, you kair-an"); p.1 (also p. 43) "One-ery, two-ery, ickery, Ann" (30 texts)
Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie (Cardiff,2001), #116 pp. 314-322, ("Ekkeri (or ickery), akkery, u-kery an") (3 texts)
James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1886 ("Digitized by Google")),#302 p. 167, ("One-ery, two-ery, hickary, hum")
Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 191, "One-ery, Two-ery" (1 text)
Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #73, "(Onery, twoery)" (1 text)
Roud #13059
NOTES [163 words]: The current description is all of a Bolton text from Rhode Island [#456]; the #446 Bolton text is from Montreal; #449 is from Ohio; #452 is from Texas, Missouri, Iowa and Kansas; #455 is from Connecticut. These are two of very many counting out -- that is, find out who is "it" -- rhymes in Bolton, many beginning "one-ery, two-ery," but distinguishable from these texts. Bolton #9 is Leland's Philadelphia text discussed both by Leland and Coughlin.
Halliwell's text is "used in Somersetshire in counting out the game of pee-wip or pee wit."
Coughlin's first text was reported by Leland in 1891 from Philadelphia, and included by Bolton on pp. 44, 63. Coughlin reviews at length the verse and its possible Gypsy roots as discussed by Bolton, the Opies, and others, and includes a proposed Romany translation that converts the nonsense to an intelligible counting out rhyme.
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes and Bolton find this "One-ery Two-ery" in Halliwell (1842). - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GrD81641

One-ery, Two-ery, Tickery, Seven

DESCRIPTION: "One-ery, two-ery, tickery, seven, Hallibo, crackibo, ten and eleven, Spin, span, muskidan, Twiddle-um, twaddle-um, twenty-one." Or, "...eleven, Pin, pan, muskyan, Tweedle-un, twoddle-um, twenty-one, lerie, Ourie, owrie, you are, OUT!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Gammer Gurton's Garland, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonsense nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,So) Britain New Zealand
REFERENCES (7 citations):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 102, "(Wonery, twoery, tickery seven)" (1 short text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 391, "One-ery, two-ery, tickery, seven" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #628, p. 249, "(One-ery, two-ery)"
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 57, "Zickary Zan" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 13, "(One's all, two's all, zick-a-zall zan)"; p. 14, "(One-ery, two-ery, zickery, seven)" (2 texts, the one on p. 13 so distinct that it might be something else)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 88-89, "(Onery twoery dickery seven)"; "(Onery, twoery, tickery, seven)"; "(Black fish, white trout)" (3 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #73, "(Onery, Twoery)" (1 fragment)
Roud #19296
NOTES [29 words]: McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks gives no explanation for this bit of nonsense, but I suspect it is a counting rhyme of some sort. The Opies file it as one. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: McIn102B

One-ery, Two-ery, Zickery, Seven

See One-ery, Two-ery, Tickery, Seven (File: McIn102B)

One-Eyed Reilly

See O'Reilly's Daughter (File: EM101)

One-Eyed Riley

See O'Reilly's Daughter (File: EM101)

One-Hung Lo

DESCRIPTION: Prostitute Hoo Flung Shit is masturbating when One-Hung Lo crawls in and insultingly asks her for sex. She tells him to "go fuck your hat"; he tries to have sex with his hat and mashes it; he falls on the floor; she urinates down his throat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (referred to by Jarvis)
LONG DESCRIPTION: In the "Street of a Thousand Arseholed," the prostitute Hoo Flung Shit/U Flung Shit is masturbating with a candle when the client One-Hung Lo crawls in and insultingly asks her to have sex with him. She tells him to "go fuck your hat"; he bangs his penis on the floor, tries to have sex with his hat and mashes it (the hat or the penis) in the door; finally he falls on his back on the floor, and she urinates down his throat
KEYWORDS: shrewishness sex request rejection bawdy recitation whore scatological
FOUND IN: US Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 29-30, "The Street of a Thousand ****holes" (1 text)
Roud #10126 and 21471
RECORDINGS:
Unidentified reciter, "In Crawled One-Hung Lo" (on Unexp1)
NOTES [82 words]: Whew. That this piece had entered oral tradition (if the phrase is appropriate) is shown by the memoirs of one William E. Jarvis, who recounts that when he served in the US navy at Shanghai, 1947, he had a friendship with a girl named Amy Lo, and his shipmates taunted him by referring to her as "One Hung." - PJS
Paul originally tagged this as a recitation, and no tune seems to have been preserved, but given that several sources list it as a song, I have tentatively removed that tag. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RcOnHunL

One-ray, Two-ray, Zick-ray, A A

See One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann (File: GrD81641)

One-Two, Button Your Shoe

See One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (File: BGMG615)

One, O

See Green Grow the Rushes-O (The Twelve Apostles, Come and I Will Sing You) (File: ShH97)

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

DESCRIPTION: "One, two, buckle my shoe; Three, four, (open/shut) the door; Five, six, pick up sticks; Seven, eight, lay them straight...." And so forth, to ten or twenty or even beyond; there is naturally increasing variation as the numbers grow larger
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (Songs for the Nursery, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,So,SW) Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 385, "One, two, Buckle my shoe" (1 text, plus excerpts from Bolton's text that goes all the way to thirty)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #615, p. 246, "(One, two, buckly my shoe)"
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 239-240, (no title) (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 118, "(One, two, buckle my shoe)"; p. 224, "One-Two" (2 texts)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 22, "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 55, "Buckle My Shoe"; p. 73, "Boys a-Plenty" (2 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 55, "One, Two, Buckle my Shoe" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #425, "One, two, buckle your (my) shoe" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 62, "One, two, buckle my shoe" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 37, "(One, two, buckle my shoe)" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 71, "(One, two, come buckle my shoe)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 187, "A Ball-Bouncing Game" (1 text)
Roud #11284
File: BGMG615

One, Two, Come Buckle My Shoe

See One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (File: BGMG615)

One, Two, Sky Blue

DESCRIPTION: "One, two, sky blue, All (in/out) (but/except) you." Or "One, two, sky is blue, Out goes you!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty colors
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) New Zealand US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 95, "(One, two, sky blue)"; "(Look up, sky blue)" (2 texts)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 72, "Sky Is Blue" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 6, "(One, two, sky blue)" (1 text)
Roud #19294
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sky Is Blue" (form)
NOTES [23 words]: I suspect this and "The Sky Is Blue" derive from the same original, but they are different enough now that I very tentatively split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SuSm095B

One, Two, Three

DESCRIPTION: The singer teaches his girl to dance. "'Twas easy just as easy as A B C, She'd done it when I taught her like one two and three." In demand by the ladies at a ball he realizes that "without her for a partner I would never dance again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (for USBallinsloeFair, according to site irishtune.info, Irish Traditional Music Tune Index: Alan Ng's Tunography, ref. Ng #2608)
KEYWORDS: courting love dancing
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Packy Dolan and The Melody Boys, "One, Two, Three" (on USBallinsloeFair)
File: RcOne23

One, Two, Three, a Bumblebee

DESCRIPTION: "One, two, three, a bumblebee Stung a man upon his knee, Stung a pig upon his snout, I'll be blamed if you ain't out."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: bug injury animal | bumblebee knee counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 7, "(One, two, three, a bumble bee)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One, Two, Three, the Bumblebee" (lyrics)
NOTES [20 words]: t should be noted that bumblebees very rarely sting, although, unlike ordinary bees, they do not die when they sting. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: WEMM007

One, Two, Three, Cats in the Well

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "One, two, three, Cats in the well, Four, five, six, Pick up sticks, Seven, eight, nine, Cut the clothesline, Nine, ten, eleven, Cat's gone to heaven"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Butler and Haley, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope animal | cat well counting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #427, "One, two three, Cats in the well" (1 text)
File: AJRR427

One, Two, Three, Four, Five

DESCRIPTION: "One, two, three, four, five, Once I caught a (fish/hare/mouse) alive, Six, seven, eight, nine, ten, Then I let it go again. Why did you let it go? Because it big my finger so. Which finger did it bite? The little finger on the right."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1765 (Mother Goose's Melody, according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal fishing injury
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 388, "One, Two, Three, Four, Five" (2 texts)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 23, "One, Two, Three, Four, Five" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #626, p. 249, "(One, Two, Three)"
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 69, "Let Him Go Again" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 55, "I Caught a Hare"; p. 119, "One, two, three, four, five"; p. 129, "One, two, three, four, five" (3 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #428, "One, two, three, four, five" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 9, "(One, two, three, four, five)"; p. 11, "(One, two, three, four, five)" (1 texts, the first one a mouse version, the second a fish version)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 80, "One two three four five" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 37, "(One, two, three, four, five)" (1 text)
Roud #13530
File: OO2388

One, Two, Three, Four, I Bumped My Nose Against the Door

DESCRIPTION: "One, two, three, four, I bumped my nose against the door. The door fell in, And I fell out. O-U-T spells out."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: game injury | door
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 54, "(One, two, three, four, I bumped my nose against the door)" (1 text)
Roud #19295
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric) and references there
NOTES [31 words]: Roud lumps this with "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door," which is understandable, since it has the same first and last line. But the key lines are different, so I've split them.
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI054B

One, Two, Three, Four, I Spy Pearl White

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "One, two, three, four, I spy Pearl White Sitting on a black horse, Knitting for the Red Cross."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (New York Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope horse | knitting
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #435, "One, two, three, four" (1 text)
File: AJRR435

One, Two, Three, Four, Jinny at the Cottage Door

See One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door (File: CarMF077)

One, Two, Three, Four, Jump the Circle, Shut the Door

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "One, two, three, four, Jump the circle, shut the door, One, two, three, four, Eat the apple, drop the core." Probably other verses were added or improvised.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food | apple core counting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #436, "One, two, three, four" (1 text)
File: AJRR436

One, Two, Three, Four, Mother Scrubbed the Kitchen Floor

See One, Two, Three, Four, Mother Washed the Floor (File: AJRV006)

One, Two, Three, Four, Mother Washed the Floor

DESCRIPTION: "One, two, three, four, Mother washed the floor, Floor dried, Mother cried, One, two, three, four."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: mother jumprope | counting
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 9, "(One, two, three, four)" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #6, "(One, two, three, four)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #437, "One, two, three, four" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One, Two, Three, Mother Caught a Flea" (lyrics)
File: AJRV006

One, Two, Three, Four, Skip and Skip Till You Can't No More

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "One, two, three, four, Skip and skip till you can't no more, Five, six, seven, eight, Skip, skip or you'll be too late. Nine, ten, start again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | counting skipping
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #438, "One, two, three, four" (1 text)
File: AJRR438

One, Two, Three, Get Out of My Father's Apple Tree

DESCRIPTION: "One, two, three, Get out of my father's apple tree Or you're IT."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | counting-out apple tree
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 8, "(One, two, three)" (1 text)
File: WEMM008

One, Two, Three, Mother Caught a Flea

DESCRIPTION: "One, two, three, Mother caught a flea, Flea died, mother cried, Out goes she." Or "(Mother/Ronny/etc.) caught a flea, Put it in a teapot And made a cup of tea."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty mother father bug food jumprope | flea rattlesnake
FOUND IN: New Zealand US(MA) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 89, "(One, two, three)" (1 text); p. 131, "(One, two, three)" (1 text); p. 133, "(One, two, three)" (2 texts)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 59, "One, two, three, My mother caught a flea" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 37, "(One, two three, My mother caught a flea)" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 45, "One, two, three" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 6, "(One, two three! Mother caught a flea)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #98, "O Dear me, mother caught a flea"; #439, "One, two, three"; #574, "Two, four, six, eight, Papa caught a rattlesnake" (3 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #5, "(Oh dear me! Mother caught a flea)" (1 text)
Roud #19254
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One, Two, Three, Four, Mother Washed the Floor" (lyrics)
NOTES [55 words]: I could argue that Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes #574, "Two, four, six, eight, Papa caught a rattlesnake" goes with "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door"; the form looks like that. But the plot puts it here, even though it involves a snake, not a flea. As so often, it appears to be a case of two jump-rope rhymes mixing. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SuSm089A

One, Two, Three, My Mother Caught a Flea

See One, Two, Three, Mother Caught a Flea (File: SuSm089A)

One, two, three, O'Leary

DESCRIPTION: Ball-bouncing game. "One, two, three, o'leary (x3), One, o'leary postman." Or "One, two, three, O'Leary, Throw the ball to sister Mary, Way down in Canterbury, Eating mandarines." Or, "...don't you think that I look cute In my papa's bathing suit"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty food clothes travel | counting postman ball
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Ireland New Zealand
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 118, "(One, two, three, o'leary)" (2 texts)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 56-57, "(My Mammy said)," (1, 2, 3, O'Leary)," (1, 2, 3, O'Leary)" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 80, "One two three O'Leary" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p.31, "(One, two, three, O'Leary)" (2 short texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 117, "One, two, three, O'Leary" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #441, "One, two, three, o'lary (O'Leary)" (1 text)
Roud #18310
NOTES [23 words]: There is a song from around 1870 called "One O'Leary's Cow" (Dime-Song-Book #31, p. 61). It's not this song; it's about the Chicago Fire. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: SuSm118A

One, Two, Three, One, Two, Three, If you are able to jump

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "One, two, three, one, two, three, If you are able to jump, You can jump, But this is the number you have to jump. One, two, three, four, five, six...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | counting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #442, "One, two, three, one, two, three" (1 text)
File: AJRR442

One, Two, Three, the Bumblebee

DESCRIPTION: "One, two, three, The bumblebee, The rooster crows, Out goes she."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)"
KEYWORDS: bug bird | counting-out bumblebee
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 6, "One, two, three, The bumblebee" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One, Two, Three, a Bumblebee" (lyrics)
File: WEMM006

One, Two, Three, Tommy Hurt His Knee

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "One, two, three, Tommy hurt his knee, He couldn't slide, and so he cried, Out goes he."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope injury | knee
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 7, "(One, two three, Tommy hurt his knee)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #444, "One, two three" (1 text)
File: AJRR444

One's All, Two's All, Zig-a-zall Zan

See One-ery, Two-ery, Tickery, Seven (File: McIn102B)

Onery Twoery Dickery Seven

See One-ery, Two-ery, Tickery, Seven (File: McIn102B)

Onery, Twoery, Threery, Same

See One-ery, Two-ery, Ickery, Ann (File: GrD81641)

Onery, Twoery, Tickery, Seven

See One-ery, Two-ery, Tickery, Seven (File: McIn102B)

Only a Brakeman

DESCRIPTION: "Far out in Texas... This boy fell a victim.... Only a brakeman, gone on before, Only a brakeman, we'll never see more." The accident that cost him his life is alluded to; his grieving family is mentioned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: death railroading train family
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 679, "Only a Brakeman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 445-447, "Only a Brakeman" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 679)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 173-174, "(Only a Brakeman" (excerpts from 7 "Only a Brakeman" songs; the last is this piece)
Roud #4147
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Only a Miner" [Laws G33] (theme, meter, floating lyrics)
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dG49 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: R679

Only a Cowboy

DESCRIPTION: "Way out in old Texas, that great Lone Star State... on the old NA range, That the boy fell a victim on the old staked plains." "He was only a cowboy that's gone on before." The crew mourns when he is killed. He leaves a wife and children
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: cowboy death family
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 438-439, "Only a Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4047
NOTES [7 words]: This is item dB45 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC438

Only a Face in the Firelight

DESCRIPTION: The singer, an old man dozing by the fire, thinks of a sweetheart of long ago: "a face in the firelight asking why we should part"
AUTHOR: Charles Shackford (source: notes to ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (recording by James McCook, according to notes to ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
KEYWORDS: age courting love parting dream
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #26944
RECORDINGS:
Petchie Nash and Frankie Nash, "Only a Face in the Firelight" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
File: ITMAOaFF

Only a Miner (The Hard-Working Miner) [Laws G33]

DESCRIPTION: A miner is trapped under a falling boulder; no one can help him. Most of the world doesn't care; he's "only a miner," though he leaves a wife and children
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Kentucky Thorobreds); John Garst has demonstrated that the "only a miner" verse goes back to at least 1902
KEYWORDS: mining family death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws G33, "Only a Miner (The Hard-Working Miner)"
Randolph 680, "Only a Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 141, "The Hard-Working Miner" (1 text)
Green-OnlyAMiner-RecordedCoalMiningSongs, pp. 63-65, "Only a Miner" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 160-161, "Only a Miner Killed in the Breast" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 437-438, "The Hard-Working Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 263, "Poor Miner's Farewell" (1 text)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 215, "Hard-Working Miner" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ONLYMINR (ONLYMNR2?)
Roud #2197
RECORDINGS:
Tilman Cadle, "The Hard Working Miner" (AFS 1401, 1937)
Ted Chestnut, "He's Only a Miner Killed in the Ground" (Gennett 6603 [as Ted Chesnut]/Champion 15587 [as Cal Turner]/Supertone 9180 [as Alvin Bunch], 1928; on KMM)
Findley Donaldson, "The Miner's Farewell" (AFS 1985, 1938)
G. C. Gartin, "The Hard Working Miner" (on LC60)
Goldie Hamilton, "The Hard Working Miner" (AFS2829, 1939)
James Howard, "The Hard Working Miner" (AFS 76, 1933)
Kentucky Thorobreds "Only a Miner" (Paramount 3071, 1928; Broadway 8070 [as Old Smokey Twins], n.d.; rec. 1927)
Lulu Lough & Selma Barker, "Only a Miner" (AFS LWO 1046, 1948)
Mike Seeger, "The Hard Working Miner" (on MSeeger02)
Susan Shepherd, "The Miner's Death" (AFS 1435, 1937)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Only a Brakeman" (theme, meter, floating lyrics)
cf. "Just a Poor Lumberjack" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Stand By Your Union (File: LDC165)
NOTES [94 words]: Greenway credits this to Aunt Molly Jackson. This can hardly be accepted. The version Greenway prints is, however, noticeably different from from the other texts listed; the final verse is unique, and the others show variants. Presumably Jackson touched up the existing song. - RBW
As enumerated by Green, the song was collected many times by the Archive of Folk Song and others, with various informants placing the date they learned the song in the 19th century, the earliest being 1888. - PJS
And it was apparently parodied by 1908; see "Stand By Your Union." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LG33

Only a Miner Killed in the Breast

See Only a Miner (The Hard-Working Miner) [Laws G33] (File: LG33)

Only a Rosebud

DESCRIPTION: "Ofttimes I fancy at the close of the day That she is waiting for me far away. Still in my mem'ry her sweet face I see, Smiling as when she gave this rose to me. Only a rosebud that she wore in her hair... Sweet faded flower that she left in my care."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love separation beauty flowers
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 112, "Only a Rosebud" (1 short text, 1 tune. N.B. The pagination in Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric is here confused; as it stands, it appears that the text on p. 288 goes with "Only a Rosebud" on p. 287, but in fact it is a continuation of "Welcome as the Flowers in May" on p. 289)
Roud #11397
File: Brne112

Only a Soldier

See The Bold Soldier [Laws M27] (File: LM27)

Only a Tramp

See Tramp on the Street (File: CrAGr41)

Only Daughter, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer lives with her father and works to support him, "for I am his only daughter." Ladies offer her work but she won't leave her father. Jockey asks her to marry; "should he ask me to go I could not say no ... But still I'm his only daughter"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 925)
KEYWORDS: age poverty courting marriage work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 228, "The Only Daughter" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 463)
Roud #1293
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 925, "I'm His Only Daughter" ("Down in the valley my father did dwell"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 17(136a), Firth b.26(169), Harding B 25(892), Harding B 11(1978), "I'm His Only Daughter"
LOCSinging, as115110, "I'm His Only Daughter" ("Down in the valley my father did dwell"), J. Pitts (London), no date
File: WT228

Only Nine Miles to the Junction

See Nine Miles to the Junction (File: SCWF038)

Only Nineteen Years Old

DESCRIPTION: Singer fell in love with, and married, "a virgin only nineteen years old." Next morning she took off her paint and revealed her hump, wig, false leg and fingers. Before marrying, he says, examine your intended: she may be ninety.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Journal of the Andrew Hicks)
KEYWORDS: age courting marriage beauty disguise money humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland US(Ap,SW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 15, "Only Nineteen Years Old" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 36, pp. 197-199, "Oh! My! You're a Dandy for Nineteen Years Old" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 318-319, "The Virgin Nineteen Years Old" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4792
RECORDINGS:
Carmen McCord Hicks, "The Patched-up Old Devil" (Piotr-Archive #478, recorded 01/29/2023)
Tom Lenihan, "Only Nineteen Years Old" (on IRTLenihan01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Warranty Deed (The Wealthy Old Maid)" [Laws H24] and references there
NOTES [23 words]: Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan: "Tom's sister Margaret used to sing this when she was home on holidays from America." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcOn19YO

Only Remembered

DESCRIPTION: "Up and away like the dews of the morning, Soaring from earth to its home in the sun, Thus would I pass from the earth and its toiling, Only remembered for what I have done." An exhortation to good works, with a promise of reward for those who do them
AUTHOR: Words: Dr. Horatio Bonar/Usual Music: W. W. Bentley (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (sheet music reprinted in Seeger, Where Have All the Flowers Gone)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 627, "Only Remembered" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ONLYRMBR*
ADDITIONAL: Pete Seeger, _Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Musical Autobiography_, A SIng Out Publication, 1993, 1997, pp. 176-177, "Only Remembered" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a sheet music print)
Roud #7557
NOTES [819 words]: For more about Horatio Bonar, see the notes on "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say,"
There have been several settings of Bonar's text. For a long time, I listed the tune as by W. W. Bentley. Pete Seeger, however, says that the "ancestor" of the tune is by John R. Sweney, and Sweney's does appear to be the earliest, since it was copyrighted in 1886. In a fascinating side note, Seeger says that Sweney was Joe Hickerson's great-grandfather.
Although this song has been fairly popular with folk revival singers, it bears noting that it does not conform with the theology of any major branch of Christianity. Catholics and Orthodox believe in the salvific power of the church, as do (for the most part) Anglicans. Lutherans believe in justification by faith alone (Luther in fact declared the Letter of James "an epistle of straw" because it seemed to support salvation on the basis of works); the Reformed churches (e.g. Presbyterians) believe in predestination to grace.
Indeed, as it says in Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you are being saved through faith... not because of works, lest someone should boast...."
The technical name for the heresy that men could accomplish their own salvation is Pelagianism, after its founder. Bettenson, p. 52, gives this capsule biography: "Pelagius was a British monk, probably of Irish origin. He came to Rome in 400 and was distressed at the low state of conduct there. Feeling that there was need of more moral effort, he was shocked by the prayer in S. Augustine's Confessions, 'Give what thou commandest and command what thou wilt.' His teachings seem to have aroused no stir until he went to Carthage after the sack of Rome in 410."
On p. 53, Bettenson quotes the key to Pelagius's doctrine: "Everything good and everything evil, in respect of which we are either worthy of praise or of blame, is done by us, not born with us." Thus Pelagius denied Original Sin, one of the key elements of orthodox Christian doctrine. (This is one of the reasons for the emphasis in many sects on the Virgin Birth, and the Catholic idea of the Immaculate Conception. It flows from the doctrine of Augustine, which was heavily based on the idea that men are born in sin. Jesus was free of this taint because was the son of a virgin herself born of a virgin; Christie-Murray, p. 88. Pelagius explicitly denied that human nature was inherently corrupt; Chadwick, p. 228.)
Qualben, p. 124, says, "Pelagian centered on the question: how is man saved? Three general answers were given. Pelagius ascribed the chief merits of conversion to man. Augustine gave God all the glory and made freedom the result of divine grace. The Semi-Pelagians co-ordinated the human will and the divine grace as factors in the work of salvation.
Boer, p. 161, has perhaps the best one-sentence summary of Pelagianism: "[Pelagius] taught that God gave to every man the *possibility* of living a sinless life."
According to O'Grady, p. 113, he "abjured" the title of monk, and held that anyone could be a teacher -- thus in effect anticipating Luther. He also anticipated Luther in claiming there was no difference in kind between priest and laity. Is it any wonder the clerical hierarchy sought to control him?
Pelagianism was formally condemned by the third council of Ephesus in 431 (Qualben, p. 125), even before Pelagius died (Qualben, p. 124, estimates his dates as 370-440). By then, he had done quite a job of producing controversy in the Larin church, with various popes and councils condemning or condoning him (Christie-Murray, pp. 90-91; Chadwick, pp. 196-198). Making matters worse is the fact that Pelagius's chief disciple Celestius settled at Carthage (Chadwick, p. 227), very near Augustine's home of Hippo. The need to respond to these two gave rise to many of Augustine's most fervent writings, in which he declared man utterly degenerate and gave forth (e.g.) the view that unbaptized infants are automatically damned.
Pelagius had no desire to create such conflict in the church, and a slightly more Pelagian doctrine might have been accepted in the West had the matter not caused so much controversy that the Imperial government exiled Pelagius (Chadwick, pp. 229-232). As O'Grady says on p. 112, "The Pelagian dispute did not arouse such fierce antagonisms among the people as did the disputes in the Eastern Empire [over Arianism and Monophysitism, e.g.]." But because Pelagianism was forced from the field, Augustine's views became Catholic doctrine -- and, because the doctrine is so radical, has left many people semi-Pelagian to this day (as this song attests). Christie-Murray, p. 95, notes a trace of Pelagianism in most of the Puritan sects.
Unlike most other early heresies, such as Arianism, Monophysitism, and Gnosticism, Pelagianism did not result in the formation of a separate church. I can't help but wonder if this isn't a major reason why it so readily re-emerges today. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: R627

Onward Christian Sailors

DESCRIPTION: "Onward Christian sailors, Scrub and wash your clothes. Where the dirties come from, Lord almighty known. I've got fourteen pieces And one hammock to scrub. But I cannot do it; Someone's got the tub... someone's pinched my soap"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor clothes derivative theft
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 39-40, "Onward Christian Soldiers" (sic.) (1 text, tune referenced)
SAME TUNE:
cf. "Onward Christian Soldiers" (tune)
NOTES [39 words]: Although Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy officially gives this the title "Onward Christian Soldiers," I think this should be regarded as a typo (assimilation to the familiar); the text consistently says "Onward Christian Sailors." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn022

Onward Christian Soldiers

DESCRIPTION: "Onward, Christian Soldier, Marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus Going on before." The Christian "army" is urged forward, bypassing temporary earthly structures for the eternal kingdom of God
AUTHOR: Words: Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924) / Music: Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900)
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Church Times)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 352, "Onward Christian Soldiers" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #40, "Onward, Christian Soldiers" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 416-417, "Onward, Christian Soldiers"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 262, "Onward Christian Soldiers" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 89, "Onward, Christian Soldiers" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 110, "Onward, Christian Soldiers" (1 text)
DT, ONCHRST*
ADDITIONAL: Ira D. Sankey, _Sacred Songs and Solos: Twelve Hundred Hymns_ (London: Marshall Morgan & Scott Ltd, 1921? ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #706, ("Onward, Christian soldiers! marching as to war") (1 text)
(author not listed), _Hymns Ancient and Modern_ (London: William Clowes and Sons, 1913), #391 p. 109, ("Onward, Christian soldiers") (1 text)
Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 80-81, "Onward, Christian Soldiers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 27, "Onward Christian Soldiers" (1 text, which appears to be the only unmodified text in the book)
Roud #V26738
RECORDINGS:
Haydn Quartet, "Onward Christian Soldiers" (Victor 521, 1901)
Old Southern Sacred Singers, "Onward Christian Soldiers" (Brunswick 166, 1927)
Stellar Quartet, "Onward, Christian Soldiers" (Puritan 11158, 1922)
Henry Williams, Henry Thomas, Margaret Wright, Edna Wright, "Onward Christian Soldiers" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
SAME TUNE:
Onward Christian Sailors (File: Tawn022)
Lloyd George Knew My Father (File: LTCSLlGe)
Forward Joe Soap's Army (File: AWTB127A)
Onward Yankee Soldiers (File: AWTB127B)
Onward, Christian Bedbugs (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 105)
Quartette, "Onward Valiant Klansmen" (KKK 75008, c. 1924)
W. R. Rhinehart, "Onward Christian Klansmen" (100% K-32, n.d., prob. 1920s)
Modern Missionary Zeal ("Onward, Christian soldiers, On to heathen lands! Prayer book in your pockets, Rifles in your hands") (Foner, p. 152)
Onward Boy Scouts (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 262)
NOTES [402 words]: Yes, the Sabine Baring-Gould who wrote this is the same fellow as collected English folksongs. And whose descendants are responsible for the Annotated Mother Goose cited frequently in this index. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1864, and produced quite a bit of Christian poetry and analysis, though this hymn is nearly the only part to have achieved any popularity.
Julian, p. 870, reports:
This most successful processional hymn was written in 1865, and first printed in 6 st[anzas] in the Church TImes during the same year. Usually st[anza] iv.,
"What the saints established
That I hold for true,
What the saints believed
That believe I too.
Long as earth endureth
Men that Faith will hold, --
Kingdoms, nations, empires,
In destruction rolled."
is omitted, and certainly to the advantage of the hymn. The form given to the text in [Hymns Ancient and Modern], 1868, is that in general use in all English-speaking countries.
On p. 1684, Julian notes another change to the original text; since the Church is no longer a single denomination, "We are not divided" was altered to "Though divisions harass."
Kellett, p. 199, reports that "[Whitsuntide] was until very recently observed by churches and Sunday schools walking round, sometimes with a banner, usually on Whit Monday, to sing hymns in the open air; the well-known Onward Christian Soldiers was specially written for the children of Horbury Bridge, near Wakefield, in 1865 for such an occasion.
Reynolds, p. 176, records that Sir Arthur Sullivan's tune was given the name "St. Gertrude," after Gertrude Clay-Ker-Seymer, at whose home the tune was written. Rudin, p. 60, says that Baring-Gould's text, when first written, was instead sung to "St. Alban," which did not have as much of a marching feeling; Sullivan wrote the melody in 1871, six years after the words were set down.
The idea of the piece is old. Seng, pp. 67-69, quotes a Tudor era piece which begins "Marche out gods soldiours, youre enimies be sure at hand, no doubte ye must have warres, se therefor lustlye tat ye stand," and that is headed "A ballet declaring how everye christian ought to perpare them selffe to warre & for to fight valiantly vnder the banner of his capton christ: to be Songe after Rowe well you maryners." - RBW
Also see The Methodist Hymn-Book (London: The Methodist Publishing House, 1954), #822 p. 314, ("Onward! Christian soldiers") (1 text). - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB352A

Onward We Go

DESCRIPTION: "When differences divide our way, Onward we go, When we can't find the words to pray, Onward... Faith that's like a mustard seed Grows as high as any tree." Continue through life with tolerance and hope, willing to learn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 499, "Onward We Go" (notes only)
NOTES [259 words]: Averill, as usual, is not clear about which song she means by "Onward We Go." There are at least two such. The one that is more common online is cited in the description; I am guessing that is the one she means. But OneTuneMore has a different one, with words credited to "Mr. and Mrs. David Macintosh." It is a round that begins "Work together for each other Onward we go, onward we go." I don't recall finding that elsewhere.
The parable of the mustard seed, the small seed which grows to be almost as big as a tree, is found in Matthew 13;31-32, Mark 4:30-32, Luke 13:18-19. Jesus also refers to faith like a mustard seed in Matthew 17:20=Luke 17:6. These are the only Biblical mentions of mustard [σιναπι, sinapi], believed to be a reference to Brassica nigra. The song, like the parable, exaggerates; mustard grows quickly, but is an annual, so it is never larger than a medium-sized bush. Birds could land in it, but there would not be time for them to nest in it once it reached a decent size. (So the article on "Mustard" in volume III of [George Arthur Buttrick et al, editor], The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, four volumes, 1962 (a fifth supplementary volume was published later)). The word is thought to be of Egyptian origin; there is a classical word for mustard that was considered a "better" word.
The emphasis is not on mustard as a seasoning but on the belief that the seed of the mustard plant was smaller than any other. This isn't technically true, but the mustard seed was apparently the smallest known to the ancients. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF499O

Onward Yankee Soldiers

DESCRIPTION: "Onward, Yankee soldiers, Onward as to war, You would not be conscripts Had you come before."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier derivative humorous | conscript
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 127, "Onward Yankee Soldiers" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Onward Christian Soldiers" (tune)
File: AWTB127B

Onward, The

DESCRIPTION: The Onward and her crew from Troon to Larne was bound"; she tries to reach Lamlash for shelter in a storm. "Between Dromore and the Ailsa Craig The Onward she went down... unseen all from the shore; no rescue life could save."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 90, "The Onward" (1 text)
Roud #20548
NOTES [35 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: "'The Onward' was wrecked off the Ayrshire coast of Scotland in 1881."
Troon is on the Ayrshire coast of Scotland; Larne is across the North Channel on the coast of County Antrim. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran090

Onwards to the Po

DESCRIPTION: "We will debauch into the valley f the Po, We will strike the Hun a mighty blow... And this we know, for Corps says so, Onwards to Bologna, onwards to the Po." The song describes the troops around them and the horrid life of the Italian campaign
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 111, "Onwards to the Po" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #29415
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lili Marlene" (tune, plus cross-references to songs of the Italian campaign)
cf. "O'er the Hills of Sicily" (subject: the Italian campaign)
NOTES [71 words]: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear attributes this song to the Fifth Canadian Armoured Division. There is no hint in the song of an identification of the singer's unit, although the other units mentioned fit with the Italian campaign.
According to David J. Bercuson, Maple Leaf Against the Axis: Canada's Second World War, 1995 (I use the 2004 Red Deer Press edition), p. 62, the Fifth Armored was formed in November 1941. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hopk111

Ooo I Want to Linger

See Mmm I Want to Linger (File: ACSF341M)

Oor Cat's Deid

DESCRIPTION: "Whirry, whirra, the cat she's deid, And whirry, whirra, there's a sod on her heid, And in a wee hole we'll bury them a', And for wee puss we'll sing for a'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: lullaby death burial animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H40b, p. 17, "A Child's Lullaby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13025
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lingle Lingle Lang Tang (Our Cat's Dead)"
File: HHH040b

Oor Dochter Jean

DESCRIPTION: "Oor dochter Jean cam hame yestreen, Wi' rosy cheeks an' lauchin' e'en." Asked where she has been, she replies, "Wi' Fermer Joe o Auchinglen." There is a ring on her finger. Fermer Joe arrives to ask her hand; all happily agree
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage farming
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 49-50, "Oor Dochter Jean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3789
File: Ord049

Oor Fairm Toon

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the goings on "at oor fairm toon." The fee'd help are strange but the kitchie lass is a beauty. Work starts early and food is meager. There's a new "thrashin' mull." "We'll shortly hae the plooin' deen"
AUTHOR: Mr Laird (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #92, pp. 2-3, "Oor Fairm Toon" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 403, "Oor Fairm Toon" (2 texts)
Roud #5411
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oor Kailyard" (tune, per Greig)
File: GrD3403

Oor Jock Cam Hame

DESCRIPTION: Jock comes home distracted but says he'll be better. He says that on the way home he met his Peggie. Then he put sugar in his egg, salt in his tea, used knife and fork to eat his brose, and cleared his nose with a spoon.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Jock comes home from work with a white face. The singer asks him what is the matter. Jock says he'd be better soon. The singer tells him supper and tea would do him good. Jock says that on the way home he met his Peggie. Then he put sugar in his egg, salt in his tea, used knife and fork to eat his brose [oatmeal and boiling water], and cleared his nose with a spoon. The singer is amazed.
KEYWORDS: love food humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1705, "Oor Jock Cam Hame" (1 text)
Roud #13524
File: GrD81705

Oor Little Pigs

See The Old Sow (File: Br3178)

Oor Treasures

DESCRIPTION: The singer and Willie have been married fourteen years. "We were rich in ane anither though richt scant in warld's gear." "Wid ye like tae see our treasures" -- she names and describes their children -- which God will "guide and shield forever"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: marriage nonballad children
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 1073, "Oor Treasures" (1 text)
Roud #6741
File: GrD51073

Oor Wee Little Tottum

See Toddlin' But and Toddlin' Ben (The Wee Little Totum) (File: Ord137)

Oosha Mary Murphy

See Lisa Mary Murphy (File: BAAI123A)

Oot spak' the auld guidwife

See Sandy's the Laddie That I'm Gaun Wi' (File: GrD4749)

Open Book, The

DESCRIPTION: "You've been tamped full of shit about cowboys; they are known as a romantic breed...." The reciter proceeds to dispel these myths, talking about cowboys' sexual exploits, their local peculiarities, and their folly
AUTHOR: Curley Fletcher
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging)
KEYWORDS: cowboy recitation nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 16, pp. 108-117, "The Open Book" (2 very long texts, one Fletcher's original bad-language version, the other his later cleaned-up text)
Roud #10092
File: Logs016

Open the Door

See A Rap At The Door (File: GrD4780)

Open the Door to Me Oh

DESCRIPTION: "O, open the door, some pity to show, Oh, open the door to me oh! Though thou has been false, I'll ever prove true." The girl is colder than the frost. He says he will leave forever. She opens the door "and sunk down by his side O never to rise again O"
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1793 (Kinsley)
KEYWORDS: love rejection death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 197-198, "O! Open the Door" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #403, p. 541, "Open the door to me Oh" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1793)
Roud #30952
File: HMHS197C

Open the Gate and Let Me Through

DESCRIPTION: Ball-bouncing game with a floating verse found in other games: "Open the gate and let me through, sir (x3), Early in the mornig."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty travel
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 118, "(Open the gate and let me through, sir)" (1 text)
File: SuSm118B

Open the Gates

See King William's Troops (File: OpGap37A)

Open the Windon

See One Night As I Lay On My Bed (File: VWL079)

Open Your Mouth and Close Your Eyes

See Open Your Mouth and Shut Your Eyes (File: SaKo122C)

Open Your Mouth and Shut Your Eyes

DESCRIPTION: "Open your mouth and shut your eyes, And you will get a big surprise." Or "...eyes, And I'll give you something to make you wise."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad | counting-out
FOUND IN: US(MW) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 122, "(Open your mouth and shut your eyes)" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 121, "Open your mouth and close your eyes" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 22, "Shut your eyes" (1 text)
John Julian, editor, _A Dictionary of Hymnology_, p. 46, "Open your mouth and shut your eyes" (1 text)
Roud #25368
NOTES [276 words]: The earliest version I've found of this collected in tradition is Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore's. But it is without doubt much, much older. When I was a child in the 1960s, my mother would haul this out at children's parties; she must have learned it in Illinois or Michigan some decades earlier. But that is by no means the earliest date. In July 1860, Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) posed a picture of Lorina, Alice, and Edith Liddell in the garden of the Christ Church deanery (the home of the Liddell girls, the daughters of Dean Henry George Liddell). Lorina, the oldest sister, is holding a pair of cherries, and Alice, the middle sister, has her eyes closed and appears to be about to eat them. (Edith is just sitting off to the side). The photograph is titled, "Open your mouth and shut your eyes." Thus Dodgson, who often created photos with "stories," must have been illustrating some version of this rhyme.
The photo has often been reprinted. A selection of published copies includes:
Roger Taylor and Edward Wakeling, Lewis Carroll: Photographer (Princeton University Press, 2002), p. 64.
Douglas R. Nickel, Dreaming in Pictures: The Photography of Lewis Carroll (Yale University Press, 2002), Plate 26.
Morton N. Cohen, Reflections in a Looking Glass: A Centennial Celebration of Lewis Carroll, Photographer (Aperture, no date), p. 63.
Colin Gordin, Beyond the Looking Glass: Reflections of Alice and Her Family (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982), p. 93.
Ann Clark, The Real Alice (Stein and Day, 1981), p. 69.
There are versions in many of Dodgson's biographies as well. Or just google "Open your mouth and shut your eyes Liddell." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SaKo122C

Opeongo Line, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the Opeongo Line I drove a span of bays One summer once upon a time For Hoolihan and Hayes. Now that the bays are dead and gone And grim old age is mine... Ay, dreaming, dreaming, I go teaming On the Opeongo Line."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: travel logger
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #65, "The Opeongo Line," (1 fragment)
Roud #4565
File: FowL65

Operator Blues

DESCRIPTION: Singer asks the operator "how long the train been gone," "It's been so long I can't hear the engine moan." See the notes for floating verses.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: grief love parting train suicide floatingverses nonballad lover
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Andrew and Jim Baxter, "Operator Blues" (on StuffDreams1)
NOTES [52 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought.
On the Baxters' track, floating verses include "If I had wings like Norah's dove I would fly away to the one I love" and "Gonna lay my head on some railroad line, Let some freight train satisfy my mind" - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcOperBl

Ophelia Letter

DESCRIPTION: "Ophelia letter blow away He blow 'way in Arima." "Ophelia where you' letter? He blow 'way in Arima."" "Ophelia where you' lover gone? He blow 'way in Arima."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: grief love death nonballad religious lover Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 14, "Ophelia Letter" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [56 words]: Life is like a letter that wind can blow away, but the person whose life has been lost is not dead but blown away to some other place, like Arima.
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "In 'Ophelia letter' we have a beautiful metaphor of a woman losing her husband or spouse and the sheer impossibility of saying just where the dead man is." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo014

Opossum, The

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Ops in a Wimpey

DESCRIPTION: To the tune of "Waltzing Matilda," the airmen describe the dangers of flying a Wellington over Germany. The song may ask whether an airman is willing to fly the "Wimpy," or describe the dangers encountered in bombing operations
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Pinto & Rodway, The Common Muse)
KEYWORDS: soldier war death technology flying Germany derivative
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 126-127, "Ops in a Wimpey" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: Albert Smith and Ian Smith, _Mosquito Pathfinder_, 2003 republished as Lewis Brandon, Albert Smith, Ian Smith, _Night Flyer/Mosquito Pathfinder: Night Operations in World War II_, Stackpole Military History Series, 2011, p. 315, "(Ops in a Wimpy, Ops in a Wimpy)" (1 fragment, but reported by someone who was actually part of a Wimpy's crew)
Roud #10390 and 29392
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Waltzing Matilda" (tune) and references there
NOTES [863 words]: There seem to be two collected forms of this, one in Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, one in Pinto & Rodway, and Roud gives them two different numbers (Hopkins's is #29392, the Common Muse version is #10390). And indeed they don't have many words in common. Yet they're both to the tune of "Waltzing Matilda," they're both about the Wellington, and they both describe the dangers of bombing Germany. Clearly there has been a rewrite along the way, but I'd still call it fundamentally the same song.
If I had to guess which version came first, I'd say the Pinto & Rodway text. It mentions raiding Hanover and Magdeburg, but not Berlin, That argues for a date relatively early in World War II. The Hopkins version is much less specific -- no particular raids mentioned, and indeed, nothing specific to the Wellington bomber except the name "Wimpy."
Nonetheless is is no surprise to find a song about the "Wimpy." The British started World War II with a plethora of two-engined medium bombers -- the Whitley, the Manchester, the Beaufort, the Blenheim, the Hampden, the Wellington. Most of them were flops of one sort or another. The Wellington was pretty definitely the best, and as a result, it remained in service long after the others.
"The Vickers Wellington -- or 'Wimpy' as it was universally and most affectionately dubbed by its myriad air and ground crews -- was almost unique in several respects. Its greatest claim to fame in the context of Royal Air Force history is usually considered to be the fact that it was produced in greater quantity than any other bomber ever to enter RAF service. Yet the Wellington's outstanding record did not rest simply on statistical prominence. Wellingtons saw active service in the RAF from 1938 to 1953, including operational service from the first to the last days of the 1939-1945 war.... In its prime bomber role the Wellington was unquestionable the real backbone of the RAF's bombing offensive against the Axis powers during the first three years of World War II" (Bowyer, p. 13) -- that is, until the Lancaster gave the British a good heavy bomber and the Mosquito gave them a fast medium bomber.
"The type had been in service since before the war; it was a pleasant aircraft to operate, good-natured and utterly reliable, though shatteringly noisy. Veterans who flew the Wellington in action still recall its ability to absorb horrific damage and remain aloft, thanks to its geodetic 'basket-weave' construction. The Wellington was unusual among modern aircraft in having a fabric skin stretched over its metal framework, through which the clumsier members of the ground crews frequently stuck their boots. The Wellington carried a crew of five: pilot, navigator, bomb-aimer, wireless operator, and [tail] gunner. [British aircraft usually did not have co-pilots; they had no station for a second pilot although the 'flight engineer' served some of those functions in larger aircraft.] ... The aircraft had a range of about 2,000 miles. Its top speed was in the region of 250 mph and it had a service ceiling of 22,000 feet. The Wimpy's defensive armament consisted of four Browning .303 machine guns in the rear turret and two in the nose turret. The Wellington could carry 4,500 pounds of bombs, a formidable load back in the early Thirties when the aircraft first flew" (Dunmore/Carter, p. 12) -- although that bomb total was only a quarter of what a Lancaster could carry by the end of the war.
Munson, p. 159, concurs with its ability to survive: "One of the outstanding aeroplanes of the war, the Wellington was noteworthy for the fantastic amount of punishment it could withstand, thanks largely to its revolutionary geodetic construction devised by Barnes Wallis of 'dams' fame. [Wallis would design the 'bomb-buster' spinning bomb that could take out targets, such as hydroelectric plants, that could not easily be destroyed by conventional aerial bombs.] ... Wellingtons made the first raid of the war, against Wilhelshaven, on 4th September 1939."
The nickname "Wimp(e)y" was not because the plane was somehow weak or cowardly; "The Wellington was [nick]named after a confederate of the popular cartoon figure Popeye (of contemporary wartime fame in the Daily Mirror newsletter); one J. Wellington Wimpy, a rotund, somnolent devotee of the American savory hamburger" (Bowyer, p. 14).
It's not too surprising that the Canadians knew this song; for much of the war, Canadian flyers had higher casualty rates and lower success rates than regular RAF crews (Dunmore/Carter, pp. 144-145) -- and so, it was rumored, weren't assigned to the higher-value Lancaster bombers; they were stuck with the old, easier to kill but easier to replace Wellingtons. It wasn't until the end of 1943 that the strategic bombing forces were entirely converted to the heavier Lancasters and Halifaxes (Dunmore/Carter, p. 194). Even then, the Wellington was used for tasks other than strategic bombing.
I've spelled the the aircraft "Wimpey" in the song title, because that's the title Hopkins uses, but Bowyer and others are adamant that it should be spelled "Wimpy." This is also the spelling used in Smith, and he fought in them. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: Hopk126

Opsang for Jonas Anton Hjelm

DESCRIPTION: Norwegian shanty. "Hurrah for Jonas Aston Hjelm, He was for Norway, helmet and spear, till at last he celebrated peace." Other versions are general sailing rhymes with a choruses of "Sing salio!" or "Sing sailor-O!" or "Singsalli-joh!"
AUTHOR: Henrik Wergelands
EARLIEST DATE: 1839
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty
FOUND IN: Norway
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 558-559, "Opsang for Jonas Anton Hjelm" (4 texts-Norwegian & English, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sing Salio
Siste Reis
NOTES [129 words]: Jonas Anton Hjelm was a Norwegian laywer who was instrumental in the fight for national control while Norway was under Swedish rule (1814-1905). In particular he argued in 1834 that the Act of Union provided that a Norwegian minister had to be present whenever the Swedish ministers discussed Norwegian affairs. Edvard Greig also wrote a piece called "Sailor's Song - Hurrah For Jonas Anton Hjelm," but the melody bears no resemblance to the tune given in Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas.
Hugill speculated that Wergelands may have based his poem on an earlier shanty (though the poem predates any available shanty collection). The possible earlier version Hugill gave was spoken from the view of a ship -- "The Resolution was a demon, and the name I got at baptism...." - SL
File: Hugi558

Opuceny Banik z Wilks Barroch (The Lonely Miner of Wilkes-Barre)

DESCRIPTION: Slovak. "Moja zena v starim kraju a ja tu hledam sebe v Americe robo tu." "While my life is in the old country, I am in America seeking work." The singer finds a job in the mines of Wilkes-Barre. He describes the awful work. He hopes he can go home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage mining work separation family
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 374-376, "Opuceny Banik z Wilks Barroch (The Lonely Miner of Wilkes-Barre)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, "The Lonely Miner of Wilkes-Barre" (1 text)
File: KPL374

Oran Do Cheap Breatainn (Cape Breton is the Land of My Love)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Now I live in the mountains but I am singing about "the land of the glens": birds, cows, thoughts of winter "the time for weddings and milling frolics" and people I knew in my youth who have died.
AUTHOR: Dan Alex McDonald (per MRHCreighton)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 184-185, "Oran Do Cheap Breatainn" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
John Ranny McReigen, "Oran Do Cheap Breatainn" (on MRHCreighton)
NOTES [17 words]: The description is based on the translation of Creighton/MacLeod 17 in Gaelic Songs in Nova Scotia. - BS
File: CrMa184

Oran Na Caillich (Our Auld Wife)

DESCRIPTION: Scottish Gaelic. My wife is dour, sour, and the devil's own. I must have been bewitched to be drawn to her. She's so ugly. I have to drink to stand it.
AUTHOR: Allan McDougall [Ailean Dall] (1750-1829)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage drink humorous wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 793-794, "Oran Na Caillich" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Alan MacArthur, "Oran Na Caillich" (on PeacockCDROM)
NOTES [121 words]: Peacock notes that this "is called a milling song ... used to accompany the work of shrinking wool homespun. The wet cloth is alternately kneaded and pounded on a large table by several people either seated or standing. A leader sings the verses, and everyone comes in on the chorus." "Milling wool" and "waulking tweed" is the same process. For a note on the process and the songs see "Waulking" by Craig Cockburn at the Silicon Glen site.
The description is based on a translation by Malcolm MacFarlane available in the hard-cover edition of The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Highlands ed Alfred Moffat (Bayley & Ferguson, London & Glasgow, ca 1908), pp. 76-77. This song is not in the soft-cover edition issued ca. 1960. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea793

Orange and Blue

DESCRIPTION: "When Brethren are met in orders so grand, What a beautiful sight for to view." Singer describes his induction, in code. But, "what a shameful disgrace on a lodge it doth bring To see Brethren each other subdue." Join "in defence of the Orange and Blue"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: ritual religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 34, "Orange and Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Grand Templar's Song" (Masonic symbolism) and references there
NOTES [115 words]: Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark: "Another much used song which has the effect of stirring the blood of those who sing it."
"Orange and blue were William III's colours, and they are still borne by the Orange lodges of Ireland, by which means they have become strongly associated with an anti-catholic spirit" (source: "Party Colours" quoted from Chambers' Journal in Littell's Living Age (Boston, 1873 ("Digitized by Google")), Fifth Series, Vol. I, p. 819).
"The cause it is good, and the men they are true, And the green shall outlive both the Orange and Blue!" (source: Samuel Lover, editor, Lyrics of Ireland (London, 1858 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 284, "When Erin First Rose"). - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: OrLa034

Orange and Blue (I), The

See Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs) (File: R061)

Orange and Blue (II), The

See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

Orange and Green

DESCRIPTION: "The night was falling dreary in merry Bandon town...." To an Orangeman's door comes a Green, pursued by an angry crowd. The Orangeman shelters him -- then learns he has killed his son. He still does not retaliate Years later, they meet in peace
AUTHOR: Gerald Griffin (1803-1840)
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (David Charles Bell, _The Modern Reader and Speaker_)
KEYWORDS: Ireland political homicide promise reprieve reunion
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 41-43, "Orange and Green" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 138-139, "Orange and Green" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859 (reprint of 1855 London edition)), Vol I, pp. 281-284, "Orange and Green" (1 text)
Roud #9556
NOTES [256 words]: Given that Dean-FlyingCloud's seems to be the only traditional text of this, and that I have found no sign of sheet music, I suspect this is actually a recitation rather than a song. I also suspect Dean took it from a literary source. Finally, I have to suspect its inclusion was inspired by the horrid Irish troubles that were taking place at the time Dean was assembling his book: The conflict of Orange and Green was at its worst, because by this time England would probably have walked away from Ireland -- except that the Orangemen of Ulster wanted no part of an independent Ireland.
Gerald Griffin had an interesting career: Born in Ireland, the ninth son of a brewer, his family moved to America to escape poverty (so it's just possible that he would have heard the story of Duncan Campbell which this so resembles). He spent time as a journalist in London, and finally ended up teaching in Ireland for the Society of Christian Brothers. His posthumous collected works occupied eight volumes, though most of his works have fallen into obscurity. (Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia, which is as close to comprehensive as any literary reference I've seen, doesn't even mention him.)
He did produce a version of "Eileen Aroon," reportedly taken from the Gaelic (see the Notes to that song); also, his novel The Collegians (1829) was made into a play, Colleen Bawn. Patrick C. Power A Literary History of Ireland, Mercier, 1969, calls it "a very good novel" but says that after that he "never again wrote anything as good." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Dean040

Orange Balls

DESCRIPTION: "Orange balls, here we are again." the last one to sit is out, or "Orange boys, let the bells ring ... who's the only king" or "... God save the King"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty political
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 53, "Orange Balls" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #22561
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Orange Boys
NOTES [28 words]: Just in case you didn't catch it, this appears to refer to William of Orange and the Glorious Revolution of 1688. I'm surprised this hasn't been collected in Ulster. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: OpGa053

Orange Blossom

See Rosey Apple Lemon and Pear (File: MSNR071)

Orange Lark, The

DESCRIPTION: The lark "is true Orange bird" who cheered William on July first and "sang him an Orange hymn." The nightingale sings sweetly but the lark's song comes "from the soldier's drum." The eagle is too aristocratic; the lark's "is the song of the free"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: Ireland patriotic bird
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 40, "The Orange Lark" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OrLa040

Orange Lily-o, The

DESCRIPTION: Did you go to the flower show? The prize is won by the Orange Lily. "The Viceroy there was so debonair ... And Lady Clarke" approached Ireland's Orange Lily.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1895 (Graham-TheOrangeSongster)
KEYWORDS: Ireland flowers political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 70, "The Orange Lily-o" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, p. 116, "The Orange Lily-O" (1 text)
Graham-TheOrangeSongster, p. 7, "The Orange Lily, O!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 186, "O my lily O" (1 fragment, possibly this)
Roud #3003
NOTES [551 words]: Georges Denis Zimmermann, Songs of Irish Rebellion , 2nd ed. (2002), p. 303: "The great emblem of the [Orangemen], the Orange lily, is celebrated like the shamrock in nationalist songs. [Fn.45 'The Orange Lily O!' in The Protestant or True Blue, pp. 45-46, and in every Orange song book thereafter.]"
What message is hidden here?
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads: "I heard an older and more pungent ballad but could not find it printed. All I remember is 'D'ye think I would let, a -- Fenian -- Destroy one flower of the Lily O?"
The "Songs Collected by Donagh MacDonagh" site has two versions. The first version is, essentially, the same as OLochlainn 70. A long description of version 2, as far as I can state it is:
At the show Lady Clarke approaches the lily. The viceroy is reluctant to give it the prize. Sir Charley is also unhappy but "horse master Billy" laughs to think his ex should be bothered by the lily. "With moistened eyes" the Viceroy gives the prize to the lily. "Toast the health of Billy" who won "on Boyne's red shore The Royal Orange Lily O!"
Which Viceroy and Lady Clarke? Who are Sir Charley and horse master Billy? And what is the Royal Orange Lily? And do these versions all refer to the same "flower show?"
The following notes, quoted with permission, are from John Moulden, researcher at the "Centre for the Study of Human Settlement and Historical Change" at National University of Ireland, Galway whose subject is "the printed ballad in Ireland":
"I take it that it is a satire concerning the reluctance of one of the Lords Lieutenant of Ireland (aka the Viceroy) to award first prize at a flower show to an Orange Lily. The distaste of the Victorian establishment for the Orange Order was much the same as today.
"The Orange Lily was a symbol of the Royal House of Orange, official or not, but clearly adopted as such in Ireland.
"Specifics are a bit more difficult - the likelihood is that Lady Clarke was Olivia Owenson, sister of Lady Morgan; c. 1785-1845, and that therefore the Viceroy in question was one of: [See Wikipedia for the list of the 16 Viceroys from Philip Yorke, 3rd Earl of Hardwicke: 27 April 1801 to William Court, 1st Baron Heytesbury: 17 July 1844] but obviously after Lady Clarke's marriage and probably after 1819 when she had a very poor play acted in Dublin.
"Horse Master Billy may refer to the equestrian statue of William of Orange which stood in St. Stephen's Green in Dublin until being blown up in the (I THINK) 1830s.
"There is of course a possibility that the song refers to an event other than a flower show, such as a parade of ladies.
"The Chief Secretaries at the same times were: [a list of 22 between 1798 and 1845, including a number of "Sirs" and a number of "Charles"--Charles Abbot 1801-1802, Charles Long 1805-1806 and Charles Grant 1818-1821] but there are no Sir Charleys among them."
The last verse from Graham-TheOrangeSongster may refer to King William: "Then come, brave boys, and share her joys, and toast the health of Willy, O! Who bravely wore, on Boyne's red shore, the Royal Orange Lily, O!" That is reminiscent of the last verse sometimes sung to "The Aughalee Heroes": "And when that we landed in Aughalee, Our brandy in gallons did shine, The toast we often repeated Was to William that crossed the Boyne." - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OLoc070

Orange Maid of Sligo, The

DESCRIPTION: A tiny boat is driven by wind onto the shore of the Bay of Sligo. "At the bow there sat a girl... the 'Orange Maid of Sligo.'" An Orange youth sees an orange lily on the water and gives it to her. They marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: marriage sea ship shore flowers Ireland patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 34, "The Orange Maid of Sligo" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ORGSLIG*
Roud #2910
NOTES [67 words]: The "aisling" is common on the Green side of the Irish conflict. Here the Orange Maid stands for Orange Ireland and the Orange Lily is its symbol. See the discussion of "aisling" in the notes to "Eileen McMahon." "The Orange Lily was a symbol of the Royal House of Orange, official or not, but clearly adopted as such in Ireland." (source: John Moulden; for the full note see "The Orange Lily-o"). - BS
File: MorU034

Orange Riots in Belfast, The

DESCRIPTION: "Emancipation first tortured them [Orangemen] sore But O'Connell's procession it grieved them far more," so they took it as an excuse to burn Dan's effigy and "to murder and tear Saint Malachy's Chapel." They should consider their own July 12 parading.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong); 19C (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.9(270))
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 8-23, 1864 - Belfast riots about Dublin Daniel O'Connell statue (source: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong).
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 42, "The Orange Riots in Belfast" (1 text)
Roud #V2931
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(270), "The Orange Riots in Belfast" ("Rejoice sons of Erin all over the land"), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of the Navvies" (subject)
NOTES [166 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: "The protagonists in these disturbances were the Protestants of Sandy Row and the Catholics of the nearby Pound area (now the Divis Flats area)." The Catholic navvies were "engaged in the excavation of the New Docks." "Never before had there been rioting on such a scale with widespread shooting, intimidation and looting of gunsmiths, resulting in death, injury and destruction."
The conflict began when the foundation stone for a statue of Daniel O'Connell was laid in Dublin. That evening Sandy Row Protestants burned an effigy of O'Connell in Belfast. St Malachy's Chapel was the meeting place for Catholic navvies reacting to the effigy burning. Following an attack by the navvies on Brown Square School, Protestants "headed for St. Malachy's to seek revenge." (source: Leyden) For notes on Daniel O'Connell see "Erin's Green Shore [Laws Q27]."
See the notes to "The Boys of Sandy Row" for comments on sectarian riots earlier and later in the same Belfast area. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Leyd042

Orange Yeomanry of '98, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer's father fought with the Orange Yeomanry in 1798. The Orange peasant and artisan imitate "the gallant Orange Yeomanry." The Orangeman "relies upon his Bible and his gun." Preferring peace, the Orangeman would fight if necessary
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (_The History of Orangeism_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion nonballad patriotic political derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 137, "The Orange Yeomanry of '98" (1 text)
Roud #V43602
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Memory of the Dead" (lyrics)
NOTES [104 words]: One verse
"Who fears to speak of Ninety-Eight?"
This was the silly note
Of one who was afraid to put
His name to what he wrote;
The reference is to John Kells Ingram's "The Memory of the Dead," which begins "Who fears to speak of Ninety-Eight?" The point is that Ingram's song was published anonymously. "The Orange Yeomanry of '98" was also published anonymously before Ingram openly acknowledged authorship of "Memory of the Dead." (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815) - BS
And, of course, this well sums up the attitude of groups such as the Orange Order, which eventually led to partition -- and the Troubles. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Moyl137

Orangeman's Apology, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a loyal Orangeman, in this I take delight, Though long before I firmly swore to those who did unite." Green being out of date, the singer calls the Pope a hog and swears what he's told. "For it's my rule, and I'm no fool, who's miller, I'll be dog"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1809 (Cox's _Irish Magazine_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: Ireland humorous nonballad political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 49, "The Orangeman's Apology for Quitting the Croppies and Turning Loyalist" (1 text)
File: Moyl049

Orangeman's Dream, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the day being gone and the night coming on... When an Orangeman have departed his life." He arrives before St. Peter. He admits to being an Orangeman. St. Peter sends him to eternal damnation with "'Lizbeth" and "Harry" and "King William"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1994 (Thomas and Widdowson)
KEYWORDS: death Hell rejection religious
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth S. Goldstein, "A Report on Continuing Research into 'Treason Songs': A Private Newfoundland Tradition," essay on pp. 126-153 of Gerald Thomas and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, _Studies in Newfoundland Folklore: Community and Process_, Breakwater Books, 1991, pp. 140-141, "The Orangeman's Dream" (1 text)
Roud #V26004
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(158), "The Rejected Orangeman" ("When fading Sol had closed the day"), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Prooshian Drum" (theme of an Orangeman trying to get into heaven)
cf. "Captain Fowler" (theme of an Orangeman trying to get into heaven)
cf. "The Boyne Water" (tune, according to Bodleian, 2806 b.10(158))
NOTES [22 words]: In Newfoundland, this was regarded as a "Treason Song." For background on Treason Songs, see the notes to "The Prooshian Drum." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: ThWi140

Orangemen of Cadiz, The

DESCRIPTION: An annual July 12 Orange lodge parade celebrates William's 1690 victory at the Boyne and ends in a fight with Irish Catholics. A politician who opposes Home Rule for Ireland is praised. The Protestant battle cry at the 1688 seige of Derry is recalled.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Orangemen, "stand for your friend Johnson" who "gained the day" in Parliament against the Home Rule Bill. July 12, 1872, 4000 Orangemen parading were "attacked by that hellish rival" but "we gained the day." Loyal Lodge 219 is the first in the field to fight "those bloody hounds." "Don't meddle with the Home Rule Bill the Orange rule to stain, Let 'no surrender' be the word Britannia rules the wave." The singer would have us "drink my health among you on the twelfth of July"
KEYWORDS: violence pride Ireland patriotic political
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 291-293, "The Orangemen of Cadiz" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25328
NOTES [319 words]: July 12 is the Gregorian Calendar (adopted in England in 1752) date for celebrating the victory of William II of Orange in the Battle of the Boyne, July 1, 1690.
"Johnson" is apparently William Johnston, an anti-Home Rule M.P. (see note to "William Johnston of Ballykilbeg")
For a note on William of Orange in Ireland see "The Battle of the Boyne" (I).
For notes on the Orange Order see "The Bright Orange Stars of Coleraine," "The Brilliant Light," "The Cromie's Orange Buck," "Dialog Between Orange and Croppy," "The Grand Mystic Order," "The Marksman," "Orange and Blue," "The Purple Boy" and "The Sash My Father Wore" (I).
For notes on July 12 marches and battles between Orangemen and Catholics see "The Battle of the Diamond," "The Battle That Was Fought in the North," "The Boys of Sandy Row" (with a comment on the 1872 riots in Belfast), "The Cavan Buck," "Dolly's Brae" (I) and (III), "The Lamentation of James O'Sullivan," "Lisnagade" and "Owen Rooney's Lamentation."
For notes on March 17 marches and battles between Orangemen and Catholics see "Defence of Crossgar," "The Parish of Inch" and "The Shambles Fight."
For notes on Irish Home Rule see "Advice to Paddy," "Balbriggen Landlord," "Dialog Between Orange and Croppy," "Home Rule for Ireland," "A Loyal Song Against Home Rule," "The Union We'll Maintain," "We Won't Let Our Leader Run Down" and "William Johnston of Ballykilbeg."
"No surrender" is an Orange cry dating to the 1688 Seige of Derry. See the notes to "No Surrender"(I) and "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry."
For another reference to possible conflict between Orangemen and Roman Catholics in Newfoundland see "In Lonely Belvedere."
For other songs of a specific Orange lodge see "Cowcadden's Heroes" (L.O.L. 162) and "The Parish of Inch" (L.O.L. 430).
Not only are there wide-spread Orange songs but individual lodges have their own. This song cites Loyal Orange Lodge 219. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Guig291

Orangemen's Song

DESCRIPTION: ""Some of my weary moments, I prone to solitude (sic.), I meditate on bygone days." A stranger asks why he is gazing at a rainbow. The singer had been a traveler, but his way was barred. He was shown Old Testament sights. Love should be like the rainbow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, pp. 73-75, "Orangemen's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [117 words]: This supposedly was sung at Orangemen's Parades. You'd think they could have found something easier to understand -- although the problem may be just that the informant bollixed his pronouns; it's hard to know who is talking when.
The song's imagery is mostly Old Testament: Jacob's Ladder (Genesis 28:12). The twelve stones at the crossing of the Jordan is Joshua 3:13f. (with a variant involving twelve stones taken from the Jordan in 4:3). Noah's flood and the rainbow is 9:13. I have no idea what "that glorious eight thirteen" in verse eight means; my guess is that it is an error for "nine thirteen," God's promise, symbolized by the rainbow, that there would never again be a great flood. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: COxN073

Oranges and Lemons

DESCRIPTION: "Oranges and lemons, Say the bells of St. Clement's. You owe me five farthings.... When will you pay me? Say the bells of Old Bailey...." "I'm sure I don't know, Says the great bell of Bow." A threat (to chop off a head) may follow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1744 (Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: money playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All)) New Zealand
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 392, "Oranges and lemons" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 7, "Oranges and Lemons" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #640, pp. 253-254, "(Gay go up and gay go down)" (a conflate version probably containing material not relevant to the song)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 146, "Oranges and Lemons" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 140, "Oranges and Lemons" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 100-101, "The Bells of London Town" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 31-32, "(Oranges and lemons)" (2 texts)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 4, "(Oranges and lemons)" (1 text, from user John5918, posted August 28, 2021)
DT, ORANGLEM
ADDITIONAL: Tim Devlin, _Cracking Humpty Dumpty: An Investigative Trail of Favorite Nursery Rhymes_, Susak Press, 2022, pp. 101-108, "Oranges and Lemonsl" (1 text plus many variants and alternate sources)
ST BGMG640 (Full)
Roud #13190
NOTES [450 words]: Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes: "Whether or not the terminating lines ['... Here comes a chopper to chop off your head'] have special significance, they do not appear in the song's earliest recording (c.1744)" - BS
Whatever the significance of the song, it appears to have inspired a lot of descendants (several of which are quoted by the Opies). Many folkies will know Idris Davies's "Bells of Rhymney," set to music by Pete Seeger. Eleanor Farjeon (of "Morning Has Broken") fame also used it as a starting point for a song about a memorial for World War I soldiers called "The Children's Bells": "Where are your Oranges? Where are your Lemons? What, are you silent now, Bells of St. Clement's?" For the full text, with background, see Walter de la Mare, Come Hither, revised edition, 1928; #184, "The Children's Bells."
According to Marc Alexander, A Companion to the Folklore, Myths & Customs of Britain, Sutton Publishing, 2002, p. 208, the students at St. Clement Danes Primary School to this day go to what was the church of St. Clement Danes and are given an orange and a lemon following afternoon services.
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel has information about six different churches that may be mentioned in the song. Dolby-OrangesAndLemons says the game is very similar to "London Bridge Is Fallng Down."
Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 240, connects a stanza of this with the reign of Charles II. (Devlin, p. 101, points out that Nell Gwynn was supposedly an orange-seller when Charles II saw her.) But Thomas is generally delusional.
Devlin, p. 103, mentions other suggestions that the reference to chopping off the head refers to one of Henry VIII's wives, either Anne Boleyn or Katherine Howard. But, as we've seen, the head-chopping lyric -- even if it's actually about some particular person -- is probably not an original part of this song.
Devlin, p .102, says that a tune called "Oranges and Lemons" was included in the 1665 edition of Playford's The Dancing Master, but it has no lyrics. I strongly, strongly doubt that the two should be associated; based on the modern transcription I've seen, Playford's tune is a bad fit for these lyrics. It is a dance tune; it even has square-dance-like directions.
Devlin's final conclusion is that, despite all the elaborate hypotheses about this rhyme, it is probably mostly about... church bells. I incline to agree,
Devlin, pp. 107-108, has an interesting and useful table of the various churches and bells, with background on each. One may disagree with some of his interpretations, but it is probably the most useful commentary on the list that I have seen. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BGMG640

Orchestra Song

See The Instruments (The Orchestra Song; Zur Feier, Die Geige) (File: ACSF315O)

Ordeal of Andrew Rose, The

See Andrew Rose (File: Pea825)

Order in the Court

DESCRIPTION: "Order in the court, The judge is gonna spit, If you can't swim, You shore (sure) better git." Or, "Order in the court, The judge is eating beans. His wife is in the bathtub Counting submaries."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: judge jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 78, "Order in the Court" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #447, "Order in the Court" (1 text)
File: ZiZ078F

Orders Came for Sailing

DESCRIPTION: "Orders came for sailing, flash up number one, Go and chase up Chiefy, the panic has begun. Tiffies are rushing here and there, It's hot down here, but the pigs don't care, We're flashing up regardless, We've got to go to sea."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor navy derivative
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 31, "Orders Came for Sailing" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lili Marlene" (tune)
File: Tawn015

Orderville Tragedy, The

DESCRIPTION: "Mary Steavens she had disappeared, And nobody knew where." When her body is found, shoe marks matching the shoes of Alvin Heaton are found. Despite limited evidence, Heaton confesses to getting her pregnant and murdering her. He is imprisoned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: homicide pregnancy prison punishment
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 195-197, "The Orderville Tragedy" (1 text)
Roud #10882
File: ChMS195

Ore Knob

DESCRIPTION: "Come, blooming youth in the midst of day And see how soon some pass away." Just before their shift ended, two miners, Sherley and Smith, die in a rockfall. The singer quotes the New Testament and says that it is all God's plan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: mining disaster religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 211, "The Ore Knob" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 211, "The Ore Knob" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Sam E. Phiher, "True Stories and Tall Tales of Early Mining in North Carolina," Vol. VI, No. 1 (Jul 1958), p. 11-12, "The Ore Knob" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Ed Cray), "Three Folksongs from North Carolina" Vol. XI, No. 1 (Jul 1963), pp. 1-2, "The Ore Knob Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6556
NOTES [69 words]: The editors of the Brown collection are unable to link this to any actual event, though it appears to be based on reality. Cray quotes a writing of the collector as saying, "The two men mentioned in 'The Ore Knob Song, Shirley and Smith, were killed in a mine at Ore Known in Ashe County, North Carolina, about 1897 or '98." The song probably would have been more successful if it weren't so sickeningly blatant. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: BrII211

Ore Knob Song, The

See Ore Knob (File: BrII211)

Oregon and Texas

DESCRIPTION: "Hark! Freedom's eatly loudly calls, His cry rings through our hill s and halls...." "March away, 'tis freedom beck us, On for Oregon and Texas." The singer condemns Mexico, recalls San Jacinto, and urges a fight for Texas and Oregon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1848 (Rough and Ready Songster, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: patriotic political battle war
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 633, "Oregon and Texas" (1 text)
NOTES [121 words]: In 1844, James K. Polk campaigned for President on the basis of annexation of Texas and demanding a large Oregon country -- that the U. S. should take the entire Oregon region up to latitude 54 degrees 40 minutes (hence the slogan "fifty four-forty or fight"). Polk was elected, and he did start a war with Mexico over Texas (or, rather, over California, which is what he really wanted) -- but he compromised over the Oregon boundary, knowing he could not fight two wars at once.
All the talk about freedom in this song is rather ironic, because one of the main reasons Texas rebelled against Mexico in the 1830s was because the American settlers there wanted to keep slaves. Mexico forbid slavery; the United States did not. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: CAFS2633

Oregon Gipsy Girl, The

See The Gypsy Maid (The Gypsy's Wedding Day) [Laws O4] (File: LO04)

Oregon Girls

See Wet Oregon (Oregon Girls) (File: OregF024)

Oregon Question, The

DESCRIPTION: "Good evening folks -- it's old Dan Rice, Just come to give you good advice, And tell the Senate to be sure Like Polk, to go for fifty-four." Listeners are urged to take an aggressive line with Britain on the Oregon boundary
AUTHOR: Dan Rice?
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1846 (Book of 1001 songs, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: political patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 631-632, "The Oregon Question" (1 text)
NOTES [80 words]: In 1844, James K. Polk campaigned for President on the basis of annexation of Texas and demanding a large Oregon country -- that the U. S. should take the entire Oregon region up to latitude 54 degrees 40 minutes (hence the slogan "fifty four-forty or fight"). Polk was elected, and he did start a war with Mexico over Texas (or, rather, over California, which is what he really wanted) -- but he compromised over the Oregon boundary, knowing he could not fight two wars at once. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: CAFS2631

Oregon Trail. The

DESCRIPTION: "Way down yander in the Wahee Mountains, Where folks don't know about books nor countin's, Here lived a Zeke, an old galoor," who shoots a "city feller" for courting his girl. The girl gets pregnant; the stork travels so far with the baby that it dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: humorous courting death bird baby
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 51, "The Oregon Trail" (1 text)
Roud #9619
NOTES [13 words]: Not to be confused with Woody Guthrie's "(I'm Gonna Hit That) Oregon Trail." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Sbar051

Organ Grinder, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer in successive stanzas has sex with his girl friend in various places, each more outlandish than the last.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous sex
FOUND IN: US(MA,So,SW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 341-344, "The Organ Grinder" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, p. 369-370, "My Little Organ Grinder" (1 text, 1 tune); II, pp. 592-594, "My Little Organ Grinder" (2 texts)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 65, "My Little Organ Grinder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18789
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Horny Kebri-O" (form)
NOTES [44 words]: There was a pop song of the 1860s, "The Organ-Grinder," beginning, "You see before you a young man Who mourns both night and day." (Found, e.g., in Dime-Song-Book #22, p. 44.) This obviously is not that; furthermore, it does not appear to be derived from it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: EM341

Origin of Ireland, The

DESCRIPTION: "I crave your attention, Before I shall mention Of Erin so dear, WIthout hesitation, [...], The cream of creation [...] the Queen." Ireland is famous for "beauty and murder and whisky and love."
AUTHOR: J. R. Thomas (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (sheet music published by William A. Pond & Co)
KEYWORDS: Ireland royalty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 325, "The Origin of Ireland" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #19, pp. 40-41, "The Birth of Green Erin" (1 text)
Roud #6653
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Little Bit of Heaven" (theme: The Creation of Ireland)
NOTES [38 words]: I suspected, based just on the text in Brown, that this was a stage song, and the text in Dime-Song-Book #19 confirmed it; the pseudo-Irish dialect is pretty thick. -The sheet music says it was "Composed for Mr. Dan. Bryant." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BrS4325

Origin of the Harp, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis believed that this Harp, which I wake now or thee, Was a Siren of old, who sung under the sea," who fell in love with a man on shore; she grieved so much that she was turned to a harp. But still she is beautiful
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: love beauty harp magic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, pp. 60-61, "The Origin of the Harp" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 60, "The Origin of the Harp" (1 text)
Roud #19483
File: HMHS060A

Original Talking Blues

See Talking Blues (File: LoF224)

Orkney New Year's Eve Carol

See Queen Mary's Men (New Year's Eve Carol) (File: MSNR200)

Orkney Style of Courtship, The

DESCRIPTION: Recitation: Speaker says that the Orkney style of courship looks odd from outside, but "let them court the way they choose." Others may sit around to court; he prefers to court by jumping in bed with the girl; it saves time after a long day at work.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
LONG DESCRIPTION: Recitation: Speaker says that the Orkney style of courship looks odd from outside, but he says to "let them court the way they choose." He says that those who like to court in an armchair after the old folks have gone to sleep are free to do so, but he himself prefers to remove his boots and coat and jump into bed with the girl. He explains that this saves time after a long day at work.
KEYWORDS: courting sex family nonballad recitation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Hebr))
Roud #3087
RECORDINGS:
John Findlater, "The Orkney Style of Courtship" (on FSB02, FSB2CD)
NOTES [4 words]: And I'm sure it does. - PJS
File: RcTOSOC

Orleans, Beaugency

See French Cathedrals (Orleans, Beaugency) (File: ACSF437F)

Ormond the Brave

DESCRIPTION: "I am Ormond the brave, did ye never hear of me, Who lately was driven from my own country" for being loyal to Queen Anne. He calls on Devon and Cornwall to rise "and follow me in chasing the Hanoverian rats." He is honest, unlike the Scots peers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: soldier Jacobite | James Butler Duke of Ormond
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1714 - Death of Queen Anne, the last of the Stuarts, succeeded by George I
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #13, "Ormond the Brave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #34490
NOTES [619 words]: According to OxfordCompanion p. 709, James Butler (1669-1745), second duke of Ormond(e), had an interesting political career. The grandson of the first duke (also James Butler; 1640-1688), a committed Protestant who had been a royalist during the Commonwealth era, the second duke fought for James II against the Duke of Monmouth in 1685 (for Monmouth, see the notes to "The Monmouth Rebel"), but then turned against James and supported William and Mary. He apparently supported George I, but the Whigs still threatened to impeach him, so he fled the country and became a Jacobite. "Jacobite failures to invade England deprived him of chances to display his military incompetence again, and he died exiled and insignificant."
He was part of the future Queen Anne's immediate circle, and had been since the revolution (Gregg, p. 36); his wife was one of the Queen's Ladies of the Bedchamber and was present in the Queen's final illness (Gregg, p. 392). Ormonde himself had earlier been one of those who held out for Anne's rights when Parliament had to decide the succession after the Glorious Revolution (Gregg, p. 69), so she had reason to be grateful to him. She found many uses for him -- e.g. when Lawrence Hyde, first Earl of Rochester (and Anne's uncle) was fired as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Ormonde took his place, a post he held until 1707 (Gregg, pp. 168, 263; it wasn't an unreasonable choice, since Ormonde was an Irish earldom). In that role, he appointed Jonathan Swift to be Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin (which is why we often call the author of Gulliver's Travels "Dean Swift") -- an interesting decision, because Queen Anne had explicitly refused to make the caustic Swift the Dean of Wells, a post he would have preferred (Gregg, p. 353).
He had certainly had his chance to show his military talents; a few years before the death of Queen Anne, when the Duke of Marlborough was dismissed as the head of the British army, Ormonde was given his place -- but with orders to not do much while the diplomats sought peace, which caused Parliament considered a motion to order him to pursue the War of the Spanish Succession more vigorously (Gregg, p. 357. It was probably fortunate for Ormonde that the war was winding toward its conclusion.) George I, as soon as he succeeded, fired Ormonde and put Marlborough back in his place (Hatton, p. 122).
His fear of impeachment didn't work out too well either: "Ormonde's flight in August 1715 was due to a loss of nerve and proved an unmixed blessing for the Whigs. Since March he had committed himself to support the Pretender's cause [i.e. the Old Pretender, 'James III'] and had planned risings in the south and west of England and in Wales, all areas where he had great influence. His precipitate departure (under fear of arrest) robbed the English Jacobites of a leader and made James III too dependent on a Scottish rising" (Hatton, pp. 175-176). Hatton thinks Ormonde wanted the Earl of Mar's rising in Scotland delayed, but it was too late; Mar raised his standard in September. "Ormonde's own efforts to rouse Devon (the first in October, the second in December) brought no response" (Hatton, p. 186). And Mar was no more competent than Ormonde; his campaign failed at Sheriffmuir (see "Will Ye Go to Sheriffmuir?"). One wonders what might have happened had the Old Pretender had a competent officer....
Ormonde kept his post in the Jacobite hierarchy; in the 1719 rebellion, he commanded a fleet that was supposed to invade Britain. A storm scattered the fleet; some ships were lost, many went back to Spain; a few Spaniards made it to the island of Lewis (Hatton, p. 239 note), but the 1719 was an even worse fizzle than the 1715 rebellion. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGSW013

Orphan Child (Cherokee)

DESCRIPTION: Cherokee. "I hesr Jesus's sorrowful voice" speaking to those who are orphaned. THe singer hopes Jesus will take them. There will be room for them in heaven.
AUTHOR: (English translation by Kathy Sierra)
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (Cohen)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 509, "Orphan Song" (1 text)
File: CAFS2509

Orphan Child, The (They Said I Was But Four Years Old)

DESCRIPTION: "They said I was but four years old When Father went away" to seek gold in California. Mother was already dead, so the child has waited four years alone. She wonders why he does not return. She sits by her mother's tomb and wishes she could help him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong)
KEYWORDS: mother father children separation gold death burial | grave
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 244-245, "The Orphan Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #37640
File: NeDe244

Orphan Girl (II), The

See The Orphan (File: Beld278)

Orphan Girl (III), The

DESCRIPTION: The ship Orphan Girl, out of London for Liverpool "with her cargo of cement," is "stranded on a place called Sea-field shore...; four of her crew were saved." A heroic boy is lost, the captain is cowardly, "but we may blame the Coast-guards."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 22, 1881: "... schooner Orphan Girl ... wrecked at Ballymoney"; the crew were rescued. (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 45)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 64-65, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #20517
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Alfred D. Snow" (tune)
NOTES [11 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: Tune is "Alfred D. Snow" on p. 116. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran064

Orphan Girl, The (The Orphan Child)

DESCRIPTION: The orphan girl at the rich man's door cries, "No home." Ragged, hungry, and cold, she begs for help, but the rich man turns her away. In the night she freezes to death, "but her soul has gone to a home above where there's room and bread for the poor"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (inscription in a book currently [2010] in the possession of Kirsten Wagmeister)
KEYWORDS: poverty orphan rejection death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (34 citations):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 309-311, "The Prince and the Orphan (The Orphan Girl)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 277-278, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text plus an excerpt from another, 1 tune)
Randolph 725, "The Orphan Child" (2 texts, 1 tune)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 20, "A Poore Orphant Left A Lone"; p. 43, "The Girl That Frose to Death" (2 texts)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 96-98, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 49, "Frozen Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 17, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 148, "The Orphan Girl" (3 texts plus mention of 11 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 148, "The Orphan Girl" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes, plus observations on a fourth)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 117, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #58, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 63, "The Orphan Girl" (3 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 238-242, "The Orphan Girl" (2 texts, 2 tunes, plus a 1909 sheet music copy)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 43, p. 61, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 177-178, "Orphan Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #23, "The Orphant Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 106-107, "The Little Orphan Girl" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 26-27, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 124-125, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 69, pp. 113-114, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 6, "The Orphan Girl"; pp. 18-19, "No Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 89-90, "The Orphan Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 364-366, "The Little Orphan Girl" (2 texts; 2 tunes on p. 454)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 281-283, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 168, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #99, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 316-319, "Mag's Song" (2 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 153, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 118-119, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 61, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 276-277, "The Coal Miner's Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 368, "The Coal Miner's Child" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 481, "The Orphan Girl" (source notes only)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 25, #5 (1977), pp, 26-27, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text, 1 tune, the Buell Kazee version)
ST R725 (Partial)
Roud #457 and 4193
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Orphan Child" (OKeh 7006, 1924)
Buell Kazee, "The Orphan Girl" (Brunswick 211, 1928; Supertone S-2045, 1930; on KMM)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "The Orphan Girl" (Vocalion 5369, 1929)
Len Nash & his Country Boys, "The Orphan Girl" (Brunswick 387, 1929)
Riley Puckett, "The Orphan Girl" (Columbia 15050-D, 1926; rec. 1925)
Ernest Stoneman, "The Orphan Girl" (OKeh 45044, 1926) (Edison 52077/Edison [BA CYL] 5367, 1927)
Rick Ward, "No Home" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #141, recorded 04/18/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sacker Shean's Little Girl" (theme)
NOTES [168 words]: Stephen Foster wrote a piece, "No Home, No Home" (1862), but this song is much more detailed and does not resemble Foster's.
The Darling text, "The Coal Miner's Child," has been localized to mining conditions without in any way distancing it from the other versions of this song. This adapted version, however, bears a special resemblance to "The Miner's Doom" [Laws Q36]. It appears, based on the notes in Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, that this adaption was created by Aunt Molly Jacskon, but the core of the song is still recognizable (as Jackson admitted).
Roud splits this into two parts, #457, recognized by the "No Home" lyric, and #4193. I think he's probably right, but it's very hard to separate some of the versions, so they are lumped until I can do a full investigation.
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana mentions sources crediting the tune to C. G. Smith and to T. B. Mosley, but I would guess the former is an arrangement and the latter is likely also a shape note arrangement. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R725

Orphan Gypsy Girl, The

See The Gypsy Maid (The Gypsy's Wedding Day) [Laws O4] (File: LO04)

Orphan, The

DESCRIPTION: "Will you hear my mournful story? All my friends are dead and gone. Father is no more, nor mother; I'm an orphan left alone." The singer recalls mother's death, and her dying injunction to obey the Bible. She visits the graveyard, and hopes to join mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: orphan mother death burial mourning
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 278-279, "The Orphan" (2 texts)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 152, "The Orphan" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 147, "The Orphan Girl" (1 text)
ST Beld278 (Partial)
Roud #4193
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fisherman's Girl" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Orphan Girl
File: Beld278

Orphan's Lament (Two Little Children, Left Jim and I Alone)

DESCRIPTION: "Two little children, a boy and a girl, Sat by the old church door." The ragged, dirty children tell of their poverty: "Papa was lost out on sea long ago... Mama's in heaven, angels took her away." They are too young to work. They die before morning
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: orphan death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 150, "Two Little Children" (1 text plus mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 150, "Two Little Children" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 32, "Two Little Children" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 17-18, "Two Little Orphans" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #80, "Two Little Orphans" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 178, "Two Little Children" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 287-290, "Two Little Children" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 126-127, "Two Little Orphans" (1 text)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 35, "Two Little Orphans" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ORPHNLAM
Roud #458
RECORDINGS:
Betty Garland, "Two Little Orphans (or Left Jim and I Alone)" (on BGarland01)
Ernest V. Stoneman and the Dixie Mountaineers, "Two Little Orphans -- Our Mama's In Heaven" (Edison 51935, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5338, 1927); "Two Little Orphans" (OKeh, unissued, 1927); Ernest V. Stoneman and His Blue Ridge Cornshuckers, "The Two Little Orphans" (Victor 21648)
Arthur Tanner, "Two Little Children" (Columbia 15180-D, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Row Us Over the Tide" (subject)
cf. "I Saw the Pale Moon Shining on Mother's White Tombstone" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
Two Little Strikers (by Ella May Wiggins) ((no author listed), _Let's Stand Together: The Story of Ella Mae Wiggins_, Metrolina Chapter, National Organization for Women (Charlotte, NC), 1979, p. 22) (Kristina Horton, _Martyr of Loray Mill: Ella May and the 1929 Textile Workers' Strike in Gastonia, North Carolina_, McFarland & Company, 2015, p. 195)
File: BrII150

Orphans, The

See The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods) [Laws Q34] (File: LQ34)

Orphant Boy, The

See McAfee's Confession [Laws F13] (File: LF13)

Orphant Girl, The

See The Orphan Girl (The Orphan Child) (File: R725)

Ossian's Serenade

DESCRIPTION: "Oh come with me and be my love For thee, the deepest depths, I vow, Oh come with me for I long to go." "Oh, I'll chase the antelope over the plain, And the tiger's cub I'll bind with a chain." The singer urges haste lest their love decay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #6)
KEYWORDS: love animal
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 147, "Ossian's Serenade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #6, pp. 15-16, "Ossian's Serenade" (1 text)
Roud #9067
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hiawatha's Wooing" (lyrcs, form)
NOTES [460 words]: Although the informant behind Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin's version, Winifred Bundy of Madison, mentioned Ossian and the Fenians, it nearly defies belief that this is actually by the historical Ossian (Oisan) -- who, after all, was a character in the Irish mythological cycle, the son of Finn Mac Cumhaill (O hOgain, p. 410).
If he actually existed, he probably dated from around the third or fourth century (Benet, p. 806), which makes references to tigers and antelopes quite improbable -- no one in Ireland would know of such things.
The poetry published under the name "Ossian" was in fact collected and (to a large degree) written by James MacPherson (1736-1796), who wasn't even Irish; he was Scottish and working from Scots Gaelic materials (Benet, p. 669). The most famous of these is "Fingal."
MacPherson apparently learned about Ossian in 1759 from John Home. Although not a Gaelic scholar, he was determined to show that Scotland was superior to other Celtic nations (Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 333), and so produced his forgeries. Some of these were extremely blatant -- e.g. Fingal supposedly conquered Rome. (Amazing that no one in Rome noticed.) Ossian was portrayed as Fingal's bard.
Williams, p. 131, comments on MacPherson's work as seen in the late nineteenth century: "Opinions of eminent Celtic schoalrs still differ as to whether the so-called Gaelic originals of his poems were genuine transcripts from ancient pieces, or were translations into the Gaelic from Macpherson's English composition made by his friends to conceal the fraud and maintain provincial pride. He himself never produced the originals of his poems, and took refuge in a silence which went far to onfirm the impression of fraud and forgery. But whether he had any direct originals or not, and the weight of probability is that he had not, his powems were unquestionably founded on the vast mass of Celtic poetry and legend existing in Ireland and Scotland in tradition and manuscript."
MacPherson never admitted to forgery (Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 334), but the controversy had been so hot that he had been forced to make up more and more material. Finally a comission was formed to determine the truth -- and it firmly declared the materials forged in 1805. Kunitz/Haycraft grant them some genuine merit -- but very little Ossianic content. And this song, it appears to me, doesn't even have much MacPherson content.
Nonetheless there is a poem known as "Ossian's Serenade," of which this is a version (the Peters text, interestingly, having quite a few changes to make it more down-to-earth). This may in turn have inspired Shoemaker's "Hiawatha's Wooing" (not the same as the Longfellow poem); see that also, although I'm not at all convinced that that is traditional. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Pet147

'Ostler Joe

See Hostler Joe (File: R830)

Ot Azoy Neyt A Shnayder (Weary Days Are a Tailor's)

DESCRIPTION: Yiddish: The immigrant singer tells of the hard work and long hours in a sweatshop: "From dawn till dusk he sews away." "Hunger and pain are all he knows." He thanks the union for better conditions
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes foreigner labor-movement nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 286-287, "Ot Azoy Neyt A Shnayder (Weary Days Are a Tailor's)" (2 texts (English & Yiddish), 1 tune)
File: SBoA286

Ot Kraya i Do Kraya (From Frontier to Frontier)

DESCRIPTION: Russian: The listeners across the land are called upon to take up rifles to defend their homeland. They are urged to fight "for country and for freedom." They are warned to be ready for danger and sorrow, and are asked to fight to the end.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940s (recording, Paul Robeson)
KEYWORDS: war political nonballad patriotic foreignlanguage
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 22, 1941 - German troops invade the Soviet Union without warning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 356-357, "Ot Kraya i Do Kraya (From Frontier to Frontier)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
From Border To Border
NOTES [82 words]: When the Germans first invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Stalin appealed to the people to save the Communist state. As propaganda, it failed miserably.
Eventually the Soviets started appealing to the people to save Holy Mother Russia. Songs like this were emblems of that appeal. Combined with widespread (and true) reports of Nazi atrocities against Slavs (whom Hitler regarded as only marginally human), Stalin eventually built up enough patriotic fervor to allow the nation to survive. - RBW
File: SBoA356

Other Bright Shore, The

DESCRIPTION: "I have a mother gone to glory (or: ...mother over yonder) (x3), On (that) other (bright) shore." Similarly with father, sister, etc. "Some bright day we'll go and meet them...." "Won't that be a happy meeting..." etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious death reunion family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 539, "John Saw de Hundred and Forty-Four Thousand" (1 text, perhaps not this song but too close to separate (it starts "John saw the Hundred and Forty-Four Thousand" and has the chorus "I can't stay away," but the rest appears to be this); also 576, "Gwine Down Jordan" (1 text, also possibly separate as it has the chorus, "I'me gwine down Jordan, hallelo," but the verses seem to belong here); also 648, "We Have Loved Ones Over Yonder" (1 text, which appears to be exactly this song except that it uses the phrase "over yonders ocean" rather than "on the other bright shore")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 539, "John Saw de Hundred and Forty-Four Thousand" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 90, "Over Yonders Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 611, "On That Other Bright Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 164, "On Canaan's Happy Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 228, "Some Have Fathers Over Yonger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 47, "I've Got a Mother Gone to Glory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 217-218, "Oh, Brother Will You Meet Me?" (1 text, 1 tune, in which all meet "On Canaan's happy shores.") (OakEd, p. 218-219)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 572, "The Other Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, p. 170, "Over Yonders Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 114-115, "Over Yonder" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jackson-AnotherSheaf, #14 p. 9, "O Brothers Will You Meet Me" (1 text fragment, 1 tune)
Jackson-SpiritualFolkSongs, #202 pp. 206-207, "Say Brothers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4213
RECORDINGS:
Rev. Howard Finster, "Some Have Fathers Over Yonder" (on FolkVisions2)
Cas Wallin, "Some Have Fathers Gone to Glory" (on FarMtns3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hear the Lambs a-Cryin'" (words)
cf. "Departed Loved Ones" (theme)
cf. "I Have a Father Gone to Glory (I Am Alone in this World)" (lyrics)
cf. "Some Have Fathers Gone to Glory" (lyrics)
cf. "Bring In That New Jerusalem" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Some Bright Day
Glittering Crowns
NOTES [289 words]: Roud lumps this with "Where Is Old Elijah? (The Hebrew Children, The Promised Land)," which seems a bit strong. But there is no denying that this is a song with a great willingness to transfer verses; it's possible that some of the items listed here actually derived from other songs.
The handful of hymnals that include this seem most typically to call it "Some Bright Day" or "Glittering Crowns" - RBW
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed and Jackson-AnotherSheaf are like Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky. The site at Hymnary.org -- specifically http://www.hymnary.org/text/tellmebrotherswillyoumeetme -- shows eleven gospel collections and the pages listing this song. The chorus there --though there is none in Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, Jackson-AnotherSheaf, or Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky-- is "glory, glory hallelujah (3x), Forever, evermore." A number of sources (for example see, at SecondHandSongs, http://www.secondhandsongs.com/work/43760, "Say Brothers, Will You Meet Us?") say "William Steffe claimed he wrote the lyrics in 1855 or 1856" to a tune that "appeared in Henry Ward Beecher's Plymouth Collection in 1852." The Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, Jackson-AnotherSheaf, and Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky tunes, which are similar, are not that "Battle Hymn of the Republic" tune; Jackson-AnotherSheaf notes that "the same text with a different tune -- the one made famous by its association with the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic' -- is in SFS[Jackson-SpiritualFolkSongs], p. 206." The chorus in Jackson-SpiritualFolkSongs is "Glory, glory halelujah! (3x) We are marching on."
An argument can be made to split "Say Brothers, Will You Meet Us?"/"Canaan's Happy Shore" from the rest of these texts. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: R611

Other Day I Met a Bear, The

DESCRIPTION: Lead-and-response song: "The other day (the other day) I met a bear (I met a bear), Up in the woods Away up there." The bear looks, sees the speaker has no gun, and starts to chase him. The singer jumps, catches a branch, hopes he won't see the bear again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: humorous animal escape campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 44-45, "The Other Day I Met a Bear" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 318-329, 346, 347, 431, 501, "The Other Day I Saw a Bear" (notes, with a sample stanza on p. 320 and two texts on pp. 325-329; the "C" version is "The Preacher and the Bear"; bibliography on pp. 678-680, but it is mostly "The Preacher and the Bear")
DT, IMETBEAR
Roud #37851
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sucking Cider through a Straw" (tune)
cf. "The Preacher and the Bear" (theme)
NOTES [99 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 319, suggests that "The Preacher and the Bear" may be the "precursor" of this. I wouldn't be surprised if the author of this had heard the other, but there really isn't much in common between the two except the idea of meeting a bear and ending up fleeing up a tree. It is possible that this might arise from a worthwhile attempt to clean up the racist references of the original. But, as Folk Revival versions show, that could be done without abandoning the humor of the original. This song has different jokes. I don't think there is significant dependence. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF318O

Other Day I Saw a Bear, The

See The Other Day I Met a Bear (File: ACSF318O)

Other Shore, The

See The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)

Other Side of Jordan

See Jordan Is a Hard Road to Travel (II) (File: CSW188)

Other Side of Jordan, The

See Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel (File: R305)

Otterburn

See Lady Jean (File: GrD1027)

Otto Wood the Bandit

DESCRIPTION: Otto Wood has a quarrel with and kills a pawnshop clerk. Sheriff arrests him; he's imprisoned. He breaks out but is recaptured (and shot). In another break, he's shot dead. Chorus: "Otto Wood why didn't you run/When the sheriff pulled out that 44 gun?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Slim Smith & the Carolina Buddies)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Otto Wood has a quarrel with a pawnshop clerk and pistol-whips (shoots?) him to death. Sheriff arrests him; he's sentenced to the penitentiary. He breaks out but is recaptured (and shot in the process). In another break, he's shot dead. "He loved the women and he hated the law/Just wouldn't take nobody's jaw." Chorus: "Otto Wood why didn't you run/When the sheriff pulled out that 44 gun?"
KEYWORDS: captivity crime homicide law manhunt prison punishment trial escape death police prisoner
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 8, 1895 - birth of Otis "Otto" Wood
Nov 3, 1923 - Wood robs and mortally wounds pawnbroker A. W. Kaplan
1926 - Wood writes "The Life Story of Otto Wood," published by the North Carolina Department of Corrections (!)
Jul 11, 1930 - Wood's last prison break
Dec 31, 1930 - Wood apprehended for the last time; he starts shooting rather than surrendering, and is shot dead (source: Sky)
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Patrick Sky, "'Otto Wood the Bandit': A North Carolina Ballad," Vol. XLI, No. 1 (Winter-Spring 1994), pp. 35-43, "Otto Wood the Bandit" (1 text plus extensive background)
DT, OTTOWOOD*
ADDITIONAL: Frances H. Casstevens, _Death in North Carolina's Piedmont: Tales of Murder, Suicide, and Causes Unknown_, History Press, 2006, pp. 117-118, "Otto Wood: The Bandit" (1 text, the Kid Smith version)
Roud #11543
RECORDINGS:
[Walter "Kid" Smith & the] Carolina Buddies, "Otto Wood the Bandit" ((Columbia 15652-D, 1931; rec. 1930; on RoughWays2)
Slim Smith [pseud. for Bernard Smith], "Otto Wood the Bandit" (Victor 23526, 1931)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Duncan and Brady" [Laws I9] (lyrics)
NOTES [1186 words]: Otto Wood was a local boy in the same area of North Carolina as Charlie Poole's band; the song tells his story pretty accurately.
Pity there isn't a keyword "ineptitude." - PJS
According to Casstevens, p. 86, Wood wasn't exactly inept -- just thoroughly out of it: "Wood escaped a total of ten times from prison. Four of those escapes were from the North Carolina State Prison, the rest from prison in Tennessee and Virginia. This record was remarkable in itself, and almost miraculous considering the prisoner had only one hand and a crippled foot" (Casstevens, p. 86). In telling his own story, he admitted to car theft, moonshining, and gambling while denying any sort of violence -- although a man he was fighting with did die (Casstevens, pp. 86-87; Sky, p. 35).
Wood seems to have been very, very messed up -- I obviously can't diagnose from here, but psychopathy, or at least its broader cousin antisocial personality disorder, seems likely. Since such people have no respect for truth, I'm not sure how far we can trust his reports of his behavior. But the report is that he ran away from home as early as age seven (Sky, p. 38), riding the rods out of North Carolina and ending up cadging food and lodging before being sent home. His parents, clearly fearing a repeat, advised the railroads not to let him ride. But he managed to run away again and ended up in the custody of his uncle, where he learned about moonshining and gambling (Casstevens, p. 87).
When he next visited his family, he stole a bicycle, even though he didn't know how to ride it! He was first sentenced to a chain gang at age twelve, but was sent home because he was still so small. He then stole a bunch of guns, and was caught and tried. The judge tried to put him back with his family, who said they couldn't control him. The judge sent him home anyway (Casstevens, p. 88).
Some time after this, Wood lost his hand, seemingly in legitimate work in a coal mine, although he does not give details (Casstevens, p. 88). Somehow, he managed to hook up with several girls -- and, having married one, was imprisoned for making false promises to another and getting her pregnant. After this, he managed his first escape from prison -- which resulted in his sentence being lengthened when he was recaptured. He escaped again, got into a gambling fight, and ended up in a shootout in which three others were injured as well as Wood himself (he claimed he took all the winnings; I suspect he cheated and was caught). Amazingly, he was allowed to go free, since he claimed self-defense. He married again, took to hauling drink, and added car theft to his rap sheet (Casstevens, p. 89).
Fool that he was, when he escaped from prison in Tennessee, he decided to head home to his mother's family -- and was picked up almost at once. But he escaped again, briefly, although he ended up getting injured in the process -- and adding horse theft to his record (Casstevens, p. 90).
When he ended up in jail in West Virginia, he recruited a young murderer to help him escape. They broke out on January 3, 1919. The kid was eventually captured, but Wood made it to North Carolina. He was arrested for moonshining and extradited to West Virginia (three states had warrants out for him, but they sent him to West Virginia because they offered the largest reward; Casstevens, p. 91). He was granted a pardon there but shipped off to Tennessee, where he was given a sentence of three year and treated harshly. His latest girlfriend, who had been with him in West Virginia, had borne him a child, so he decided to escape again and head west. He apparently spent a year or so rambling around the west coast (Casstevens, p. 92). On his way back, he got caught with stolen merchandise (which he claimed to have been trying to return to the rightful owner). He ended up wrecking his car in a chase, but escaped in the dark (Casstevens, p. 93).
Woods by this time had two children, and he had to care for them and their mother. He turned again to moonshining. He also pawned a watch, and then tried to reclaim it -- and got into a fight with the pawnshop owner. (This is perhaps the event referred to in the song, which obviously happened after his criminal career was well advanced, although it might be confused with the fight with A. W. Kaplan, who refused to buy various things Wood tried to pawn.) Somehow, Wood ended up shooting the owner. He then hijacked a car, but eventually was caught and put on trial for murdering a man (Wood hadn't even known the owner was dead; Casstevens, p. 94. In his autobiography, he claimed never to have hurt a man intentionally; Sky, p. 38). He was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to thirty years (his first really serious sentence). Not liking his treatment, he supposedly told the prison staff to lighten up or he would take matters into his own hands, and they dared him to try.
Wood took them up on it, once again recruiting a confederate and breaking out. They stole the prison doctor's car, then traded it for another, then another, taking the drivers of the latter two cars as prisoner and tying them up when they abandoned the cars (Casstevens, p. 95). But, of course, they were recaptured. Even his crazy girlfriend gave up on him and married another man. Naturally that meant that Wood had to break out again, to see her, but he was taken prisoner in North Carolina yet again. That was, by Casstevens's count, his eleventh arrest, following his eighth escape. It induced him to write his memoirs -- but not to listen to his own advise to stay out of trouble (Casstevens, p. 96).
Wood escaped yet again, apparently with inside help, and headed for the Midwest. He was shot while trying to rob a drug store in Indiana. He lived, and after a spell in solitary confinement in which he conveniently developed a severe cough, he was given relatively good treatment in prison. In July 1930, he made what is listed as his tenth and final escape (and his fourth from a North Carolina prison). By this point, people were sick of his escapades, and a reward was given for bringing him in dead or alive. He was located after six months, and R. L. Rankin, the police chief of Salisbury, North Carolina,caught him and called on him to give himself up (Casstevens, p. 97).
Wood, rather than give himself up, jumped in the officers' car and tried to force the officers to help him get away. Rankin jumped out of the car. Wood started firing at him. Rankin and his companion returned fire. Wood was mortally wounded; his companion, Roy Baker, went back to prison (Casstevens, p. 98). The first versions of this song were recorded soon after.
The author of the song cannot be definitely known, but Sky, p. 36, believes that it was Walter "Kid" Smith. Since Smith and the Carolina Buddies (Odell Smith, fiddle; Norman Woodlief, guitar; Smith, vocals) produced the first recording, I suspect he's right.
A new book about Otto Wood is due in September 2021; the tentative title is Trevor McKenzie, Otto Wood, the Bandit: The Freighthopping Thief, Bootlegger, and Convicted Murderer behind the Appalachian Ballads. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: DTottowo

Ou Som Souroucou

DESCRIPTION: Creole French. "Ou Som Souroucou, qui ca ou gagnien, gagnien pou' bpi' do l'eau?" Ou Som Souroucou, asked why he drinks so much water, replies that he has eaten corn and has to drink.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Peterson, "Creole Songs from New Orleans")
KEYWORDS: drink foreignlanguage nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 222, " Ou Som Souroucou" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LxA222

Oughta Been Arrested

See Two Little Niggers Black as Tar (File: Br4367)

Oughta Come on the River

DESCRIPTION: "Oughta come on the river Long time ago, I don't know partner, Say, you oughta know, You'd catch plenty trouble Everywhere you go." The Captain threatens the members of the gang. The singer dreams of freedom
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: work chaingang freedom
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 103, (no title) (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos"
NOTES [33 words]: There are many, many elements of "Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos/Go Down, Old Hannah" in this piece -- but it appears to be different. Assuming Courlander didn't cut something essential, anyway. - RBW
File: CNFM103

Oul Bog Hole, The

See The Ould Bog Hole (File: FVS290)

Oul Leather Britches

See The Old Leather Breeches (File: MCB232)

Oul' Dunloy

DESCRIPTION: The singer reports being sick of the city, and wishes he were back in Dunloy. The city is loud and strange, and the people look unhealthy. He misses his neighbors, who made life a joy. The corncrake cries, "Come back, come back to Dunloy."
AUTHOR: Andrew Doey
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homesickness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H498, pp. 211-212, "Oul' Dunloy" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH498

Oul' Rigadoo, The

See The Little Beggerman (Johnny Dhu) (File: K345)

Ould Bog Hole, The

DESCRIPTION: "O, the pigs are in the mire and the cow is at the grass And a man without a woman is no better than an ass." The singer courts Judy; she calls him a rake; he says he will be reform and hopes for as many children as there are "days in Lent." She consents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Wolf)
KEYWORDS: love courting humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 290-292, "The Ould Bog Hole" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 743, "The Old Bog Hole," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "The Old Bog Hole" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 65, "The Old Bog Hole" (1 text)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 36-37, "The Ould Bog Hole" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 249-250, "The Old Bog Hole" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 92, "The Old Bog Hole" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 154-155, "The Old Bog-Hole" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1694, p. 114, "The Old Bog-Hole" (1 reference)
Roud #6128
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 20(293), "Old Bog Hole", T. Taylor (London), 1859-1899; also Harding B 26(489), "Ould Bog Hole"; Harding B 17(228b), "Oul' Bog Hole"
Murray, Mu23-y1:013, "The Oul Bog Hole", J Bristow (Glasgow), 19C; also Mu23-y1:036, Mu23-y1:037, "The Oul' Bog Hole," James Lindsay, 19C [not the same as the preceding]
NLScotland, LC.Fol.187.A.2(067), "The Oul' Bog Hole," unknown, c. 1860
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Zip Coon (I)" (tune)
File: FVS290

Ould Father Dan

DESCRIPTION: "I once knew a dodger, whose name was Father Dan ... to purgatory he's gone long ago." "The Repealers of their cash were shorn And Repeal with Dan sent below." "There is no more rent for ould Father Dan, He is gone where the rest all will go"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: death Ireland humorous political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 28, "Ould Father Dan" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Grand Conversation on O'Connell Arose" (subject) and references there
NOTES [167 words]: Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark: "The song celebrates the death of Daniel O'Connell, leader of the mid-19th century movement aimed at breaking Ireland's integral union with Britain. The Repeal movement was financed with money raised from the Roman Catholic masses. The song points to the irony of a popular leader whose income derived from these collections and from the rents of his tenants." - BS
By the looks of it, this is a parody of "Uncle Ned." A vicious one, obviously. But probably produced almost the moment Stephen Foster's song came out; Daniel O'Connell died in 1847, and "Uncle Ned" was copyrighted 1848.
Incidentally, this is an illustration of how violently biased Irish Protestantism could be. I am not Catholic, and I find very many Irish nationalists to be utterly ridiculous -- but O'Connell sought only civil rights for the people, and did not believe in violence, and did not want separation from the British crown. It's hard to see how anyone even vaguely rational could condemn him. - RBW
File: OrLa028

Ould Heelball You're Boozing Again

DESCRIPTION: The singer, McShaw, is "a decent shoemaker ... but I've lately took on to the booze," as his friends comment at every chance. He was once well-to-do but now his wagon wheel is broken, his horses sold, and his wife has taken his watch and chain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: drink hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 48, "Ould Heelball You're Boozing Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2915
File: MorU048

Ould Ireland, You're My Darlin'

DESCRIPTION: "Ould Ireland, you're my jewel sure." The singer blesses "each manly son... But hang the knave and dastard slave So base as to deny thee." He pledges "a love that ne'er can perish."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 18(388))
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 126, "Ould Ireland, You're My Darlin'" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 148, "Ould Ireland! You're My Darlin'" (1 text)
Roud #V4326
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(388), "Ould Ireland You're My Darlin'", H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
NOTES [34 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 18(388): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon126

Ould Lammas Fair, The

DESCRIPTION: "At the Ould Lammas Fair in Ballycastle long ago, I met a little colleen who set my heart aglow." He recalls the girl even while looking at the lasses of Flanders. Now he is glad to be at home with her, playing the fiddle and recalling the fair
AUTHOR: John Henry Macaulay
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting fiddle reunion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H101, pp. 275-276, "The Ould Lammas Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 46, "Treat your Mary Anne" (1 fragment of the chorus)
Roud #7971
NOTES [59 words]: The reference to courting Flemish girls could date this to several wars, but the reference to "resting from the war," and the fact that the soldiers spent much time there, clearly implies a World War I date. As one would expect of a song composed during Sam Henry's collecting days.
Alice Kane must have learned it when the song was very, very new. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: HHH101

Ould Leather Breeches, The

See The Old Leather Breeches (File: MCB232)

Ould Man of Killyburn Brae, The

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Ould Orange Flute, The

See The Old Orange Flute (File: Hodg216)

Ould Piper, The

DESCRIPTION: An old Irish piper, who played before Moses, can only play one tune. He dies and goes to Hell The devil puts him in the frying pan; "This is another ould piper I've found/Put him down with the rest for to play." (For a chorus, the singer imitates pipes.)
AUTHOR: Carl Hardebeck
EARLIEST DATE: c.1912 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads learned from the author)
KEYWORDS: death music Hell Devil
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 70, "The Piper Who Played Before Moses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3091
RECORDINGS:
Frank McPeake, "The Ould Piper" (on FSB3)
File: RcTOlPi

Ould Plaid Shawl, The

DESCRIPTION: "Not far from old Kinvara in the merry month of May ... came ... a little Irish cailin in an ould plaid shawl" A man "enchanted with her beauty" greets her. She "shyly passed me by" He can't forget her. "I'll seek her all through Galway and ... Clare"
AUTHOR: Francis A. Fahy
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: love separation beauty courting
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 106, "The Ould Plaid Shawl" (1 text)
Roud #6351
NOTES [21 words]: According to the Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco) site, an arrangement by W.B. Haynes was published in London in 1896 - BS
File: GrMa106

Our Ain Mountain Hame

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye feeling faithful Saints who've crossed the prairie drear," get ready, those who are in Zion must prepare for those who are coming, the young and old and widows. They and others "Will come to see her glory in our ain mountain hame"
AUTHOR: John Lyon (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Songs of a Pioneer, according to Cheney-MormonSongs); reportedly written in 1855
KEYWORDS: home travel | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 59-60, "Our Ain Mountain Hame" (1 text)
Roud #10827
NOTES [38 words]: Don't ask me why the only dialect words in this whole song are "ain" and "hame." The obvious thought is that the (verbose) author was just a lousy writer, but I would not exclude the possibility that he was parodying something. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS059

Our Baby (Cheeks of Rose, Tiny Toes)

DESCRIPTION: "Cheeks of rose, tiny toes, Has our little baby, Eyes of blue, fingers too, Cunning all as may be." "Mouth so fair, skin so clear." "Thee I love, sweetest dove." "Crow and play, all the day, Happy little baby, May your life... Pure as 'tis today be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart-Songs)
KEYWORDS: baby nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Heart-Songs, p. 119, "Our Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [46 words]: Heart-Songs calls this a "French Folksong." It offers no French words, and I can't find a traditional version. I think I heard it somewhere, but that doesn't make it a folksong either. So I suspect the Heart-Songs attribution is wrong -- but I'm putting it in just in case. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: HeSo119

Our Baby Died

DESCRIPTION: Our baby committed suicide or died of spinal meningitis... to spite us... no one sent flowers because he was not ours.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2)
KEYWORDS: death suicide humorous nonballad baby bastard
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 68, "Our Baby Died" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24596
File: BrE2068

Our Boarding House

See I Know a Boarding-House (File: R479)

Our Boots Are Made of Leather

DESCRIPTION: Our boots/shoes are leather, stockings/socks are silk Our pinafores are white as milk, or I wash myself in milk. We go around until we touch the ground.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (A.E. Gillington, _Old Surrey Singing Games_, according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: clothes playparty
FOUND IN: US Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 49, "Our Boots Are Made of Leather" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook 15, "My Shoes Are Made of Spanish" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #448, "Our boots are made of Spanish (of leather)" (1 text)
Roud #13171
File: OpGa049

Our Boots Are Made of Spanish

See Our Boots Are Made of Leather (File: OpGa049)

Our Boots Are Made of Spanish Leather

See Our Boots Are Made of Leather (File: OpGa049)

Our Boys Gave Up Squiddin'

See When Our Boys Gave Up Squiddin' (File: Doyl3083)

Our Brave Scotch Lads

DESCRIPTION: "Scotch soldiers true, wi' bonnets blue ... They made the Russians rue, man, The bold attack which they did make On Balaklava's plain." Many died in the Crimea "the Sultan for to save." "They made the heart o' Menschikoff To sink on Alma's heights"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: war death Russia
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 157, "Menschikoff" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #5827
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(41), "Our Brave Scotch Lads" ("Scotch soldiers true, wi' bonnets blue"), J. Lindsay (Glasgow), 1851-1910
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scots Soldiers True" (shares first verse lines)
NOTES [74 words]: Greig/Duncan1: "The fragment relates to the Crimean War. Prince Menshikov was the Russian Commander-in-Chief."
Greig/Duncan1 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian 2806 c.14(41) is the basis for the description. - BS
For background on Menshikov/Menschikov/Menschikoff, and the Battle of Alma, see the notes to "The Heights of Alma (I)" [Laws J10].
This sounds to me as if it is built on the framework of "Tranent Muir." But that's just a feeling. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1157

Our British Troops

See The Dying British Sergeant (File: Wa010)

Our Captain Calls

See Our Captain Calls All Hands (Fighting for Strangers) (File: Pea416)

Our Captain Calls All Hands (Fighting for Strangers)

DESCRIPTION: "Our Captain called all hands and away tomorrow, Leaving those girls behind." She says "What makes you go abroad fighting for strangers?" Stay here "free from all danger." He leaves. In grief "she fell like one a-dying."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (Journal of the Polly)
KEYWORDS: grief love request rejection war parting death family lover separation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 34, "Our Captain Calls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 416-417, "All Hands Away Tomorrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 71, "Our Captain Cried All Hands" (2 texts)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 440, "Disconsolate Lover" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams #25, "Fountains Flowing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, "Our Captain Cried 'All Hands'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 99-100, "The Captain Calls All Hands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 162-163, "A Song Concerning Love (The Captain Calls All Hands)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #602
RECORDINGS:
Mrs Freeman Bennett, "All Hands Away Tomorrow" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Pop Maynard, "Our Captain Calls All Hands" (on Voice01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(636), "The Distressed Maid" ("Our captain calls all hands away to morrow"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also 2806 c.18(93)[a few illegible lines], Firth c.12(210), Harding B 25(525), "The Distressed Maid"; Firth c.12(208)[illegible lines], "The Distress'd Maid"
NOTES [125 words]: This is not "The Bold Privateer." [I agree, and so does Roud, though Huntington implies that they are the same. - RBW]
Vaughan Williams used the tune to set the words of John Bunyan's hymn starting "He who would valiant be 'gainst all disaster" (see Southern Life(UK) Sussex villages site for Monk's Gate)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople: "... Lucy Broadwood gave as its original a broadside entitled 'The Welcome Sailor.'" The only broadsides of that title I have found so far belong with "A Seaman and His Love (The Welcome Sailor)" [Laws N29]. - BS
The title "Fighting for Stranger" is not, to my knowledge, found in tradition, but since that is the title Steeleye Span used, in what is probably the best-known recording, I've listed it here. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Pea416

Our Captain Cried All Hands

See Our Captain Calls All Hands (Fighting for Strangers) (File: Pea416)

Our Chalet Song

DESCRIPTION: "High up, high on the mountains, we've founded Our Chalet (x2), Its sloping roof and wide shall shelter us without a care, And each Girl Scout and Guide shall find a welcome there." They live simple lives where all are welcome
AUTHOR: French words: Emilie-Marguerite Droin-de Moorsier / Music: Joseph Bover / English translation: Betty Askwith (source: ChansonsDeNotreChalet)
EARLIEST DATE: French version: 1932 (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs); English version apparently from the Kent County Songbook
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 464, "Our Chalet" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 15, "Our Chalet Song" (2 texts, 1 French, 1 English; 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 3, "Our Chalet Song" (2 texts, 1 French, 1 English; 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 8, "Our Chalet Song" (1 English text plus a single verse of the French; 1 tune)
File: ACSF464O

Our Cheerful Voices (Separation)

DESCRIPTION: "Our cheerful voices let us raise, And sing a parting song, Although, dear friends, I'm with you now. I can't be with you long." The singer hopes to meet friends again, wishes the Lord would come, and hopes to be taken away by the last Trump
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Granville Gadsey)
KEYWORDS: religious death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 204-205, "Our Cheerful Voice" (1 text)
Roud #13951
NOTES [26 words]: This piece is titles "Parting Friends" in the Sacred Harp, but is not to be confused with "Farewell My Friends (Parting Friends; I'm Bound for Canaan)." - RBW
File: MHAp204

Our Cherries

DESCRIPTION: An allegory. The fine cherries [of true religion] are guarded from birds and infidels by a finely woven net. Some would propose to loosen the net. The result would be that birds, Methodists, and Baptists would get the fruit -- an unacceptable result
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio)
KEYWORDS: religious political
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 141, "Our Cherries" (1 text)
ST E141 (Full)
Roud #4449
NOTES [113 words]: Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio, following Tolman, regards this as a bit of theological satire. I wonder if it's not a bit more complicated -- "Testy" is presumably the Test Act -- a law passed in Britain in 1673, requiring public officeholders to demonstrate a commitment to Anglicanism. The Act was repealed in 1829. The reference to Methodists implies a date not much before that. Perhaps this piece was involved (as a broadside?) in the efforts to repeal the Acts.
The reference to "Arian's flock" is, I presume, an error, referring to the Arian heresy (which held that God the Son was inferior to God the Father). The founder of this group was, however, Arius, not Arian. - RBW
File: E141

Our Father Which Art in Heaven (Lord's Prayer)

DESCRIPTION: "Our Father which art in heaven, Hallow-ed be thy name, Thy kingdom come Thy will be done Hallow-ed be thy name" "Hallow-ed hallow-ed hallow-ed hallow-ed Hallow-ed be Thy name, Thy kingdon come Thy will be done Hallow-ed be thy name"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad) US
Roud #15338
RECORDINGS:
Artricia Gordon, "Lord's Prayer" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #372, recorded 11/26/2022)
Venice Talbot, Louise Neptune, Lovey Gilman, Martha Saunders, Henry Thomas, "Our Father Which Art in Heaven" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [304 words]: King James Matthew 6:9-10: "After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed by thy name. Thy kindom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."
Herskovits has this as a Spiritual Baptist hymn; on WITrinidadVillage02 the verse and chorus, as in the description, are repeated as a quick hymn with clapping and beating a stick on the wood floor in rhythm. The tune is not the one I usually hear for this hymn. Zane discusses the hymn's importance among the St Vincent Converted [Spiritual Baptists] (Wallace W. Zane, Journeys to the Spiritual Lands (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 25, 27). - BS
There are of course many musical settings of the Lord's Prayer, which I make no attempt to distinguish even when they paraphrase slightly for the sake of meter or rhyme. Most are based on the King James Bible, though I wouldn't be surprised if there are Catholic versions with a different text. This is a little ironic, because the King James translation has a couple of peculiarities. One is the line "Give us this day our daily bread." The Greek word translated "daily," Greek επιουσιος, occurs only in Matthew 6:11 and the parallel in Luke 11:3; no one knows what it means. The Latin Vulgate translated "supersubstantial," which is hardly more meaningful (it looks like a fancy attempt at a calque of the Greek: epi-ousous=upon-being); the early Curetonian Syriac version offers "perpetual"; the Peshitta and Harkleian Syriac versions gave "necessary"; other ancient witnesses made other guesses. And the final phrase in the version in Matthew, "For thine is the kingdom..." is almost certainly a later liturgical addition; the earliest witnesses, ℵ B D Z 1 and most Latin translations, omit. So do most modern translations, including the New Revised Standard Version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcOFWAIH

Our Father's Gone to View That Land

See My Father's Gone to View That Land (File: Fus209)

Our Fathers They'll Be There

DESCRIPTION: "Our fathers, our fathers they'll be there, Yes, our fathers they'll be there, When we all meet around God's bright throne. What a meeting, what a meeting that will be... When we all meet...." Similarly with mothers, brothers, sisters
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 627, "Our Fathers They'll Be There" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 627, "Our Fathers, They'll Be There" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11928
RECORDINGS:
Dianne Ward-Hicks, "What a Meeting That Will Be!" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #190, recorded 06/06/2022)
File: Br3627

Our Feet's Cauld

DESCRIPTION: "My feet's cauld, my shoon's thin; Gie's my cakes and let me rin!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1832 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: request food begging nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 640, "Our Feet's Cauld" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: R[obert] Chambers, editor, The Book of Days: A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in Connection with The Calendar (London, 1832 ("Digitized by Google")),Vol. II, p. 788, ("My feet's cauld, my shoon's thin")
J. Christie in Scottish Notes and Queries (Aberdeen, 1888 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, No. 10, March 1888, p. 163, "[Query ]81. New Year Rhymes" ("Here comes in a guid new year") (1 text with 5 verses, 1 tune) [I consider this "Get Up Goodwife and Shake Your Feathers"; the last verse is the "my feet's cauld" couplet.
John Muir, "Notes on Ayrshire Folk-Lore" in [John Bulloch?, editor,] Scottish Notes and Queries (Aberdeen, 1895 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VIII, No. 3, August 1894, p. 40, ("My feet's cauld, my shin's thin")
R.C. Maclagan, "Additions to _The Games of Argyleshire_" in Folk-Lore, (London, 1905 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XVI, pp. 215-216 ("This night is called Hogmanay") (1 text: four verse epilogue to "The New-Year Mummer's Tale of Golishan" "'as it used to be said, sung, and acted all over Scotland, from Cheviot to Cape Wraith,' ... as communicated to the _Scotsman_ of 31st Dec, 1902.")
E.F. Coote Lake, "Folk Life and Traditions" in Folklore, Vol. LXVII, No. 1 (Mar 1956 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 45 ("Ma feet's cauld, ma shane's thin") (1 text: two lines)
Roud #5886
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Get Up Goodwife and Shake Your Feathers" (text) and references there
NOTES [221 words]: The current description is all of the Chambers entry.
Chambers presentation argues for keeping "shake your feathers" and "my feet's cauld" as separate entries. He lists "shake your feathers" and, as a different entry, the "get up, goodwife, and binna sweir" verse from MacLagan, and then introduces the "my feet's cauld" couplet as "the most favorite of all ... more to the point than any of the foregoing." Of the reports I have seen, only Christie and MacLagan have "my feet's cauld" in a combination with other verses.
MacLagan's example combines "shake your feathers" and "our feet's cauld" in a different way than Christie's text. The first verse is an introduction to the holiday and a "bless the master" verse. Then comes another "get up, guid wife" ("get up, guid wife, and binna sweir") that is usually reported as a separate rhyme, and concluding with "shake your feathers" and "our feet's cauld." Possibly, the formality of the mummer's play made combining usually independent verses attractive.
Muir points out that another rhyme, current among children waiting outside school on cold winter mornings -- "Master, master, let me in, My feet's cauld, my shin's din, If ye dinna let me in I'll be frozen to the shin" is similar but that the Hogmanay couplet is :much smarter, more laconic, and more to the point." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3640

Our Fifer Boy

See The Dying Fifer (File: BrII227)

Our Fleet

See The Dying British Sergeant (File: Wa010)

Our Foreman, Mr. Knight

DESCRIPTION: "Mr. Knight is our foreman's name, A good old soul is he. He works us from morning till night On potatoes, salt, and tea. But that's all right, It's Mr. Knight." If they're wet enough, he sends them inside among bedbugs and mice. The loggers won't forget
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan)
KEYWORDS: lumbering hardtimes food work
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 224-225, "Our Foreman, Mr. Knight" (1 text)
Roud #6504
File: BBun224

Our Goodman

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Our Grandfathers' Days

See In Our Grandfathers' Days (File: Hubb185)

Our Gude-man

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Our Gudeman

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Our Gudeman Cam' Hame

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Our Guest

DESCRIPTION: "Our Guest, may he again come soon, come soon, To us, to the lake and to the loon. From hill, or lake, or vale, The welcome will not fail. Our Guest, may he come again soon."
AUTHOR: W. H. Neidlinger (1863-1924) source: Niedlinger, Songs of the Camp Fire Girls of America)
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Niedlinger, Songs of the Camp Fire Girls of America)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 378, "Our Guests" (notes only)
NOTES [81 words]: W. H. Niedlinger's 1915 booklet was one of the first, if not the first, attempts to create song for a scouting group (the Camp Fire Girls). More than half of the songs Niedlinger published are cited by Averill -- but they consistently just *barely* met my threshold for inclusion. Which should not surprise anyone, because they are stilted, insipid, and -- in one case -- written in fake-minstrel dialect. I strongly doubt any of them went into actual tradition; they are too lousy. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF378O

Our Island Home

DESCRIPTION: "Then here's to ... Prince Edward Island, Sweet garden of sunshine, ... our beautiful Isle in the sea." The singer has "roamed far and wide over mountains and prairies" but prefers the people, the land and the beauty of "our Island"
AUTHOR: Father Mathias Smith
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: home lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 117-118, "Our Island Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12461
File: Dib117

Our Island Is Covered with Fog

DESCRIPTION: Spring. Snow melts. Frantic activities start now "our island is covered with fog": trouting, gunning, chopping; people and animals are rushing around
AUTHOR: Chris Cobb
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: fishing hunting humorous nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 89-90, "Our Island Is Covered with Fog" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [16 words]: Peacock: "The island referred to in the song is Fogo Island off Newfoundland's northeast coast." - BS
File: Pea089

Our Jack's Come Home Today

DESCRIPTION: Jack, (after many years at sea), is coming home (in some versions, "blind drunk"). Everyone rejoices at the sailor's return. His sweetheart, it is reported, "ne'er despaired, Though all hope within her died," but now the two will be married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: sailor separation return reunion marriage
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 169-170, "Our Jack's Come Home Today" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1983
File: Doe169

Our Lady of Knock

DESCRIPTION: An apparition in the church of Knock in County Mayo: Saint Joseph, Mary, and Saint John appear to a few. Now "hundreds come from far and near Our Lady's help to seek ... deaf and dumb ... born blind" and are cured. The three are asked to intercede
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: healing Bible religious
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 21, 1879 - "15 people, from the village of Knock, witnessed an apparition of Our Lady, St Joseph and St John the Evangelist at the South gable of Knock Parish Church." (source: Museums of Mayo site, Knock Folk Museum)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 11, "Our Lady of Knock" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 78, "The Lady of Knock" (1 text)
Roud #9759
NOTES [70 words]: For more information see The Apparition at Knock 1879 at Museums of Mayo site, Knock Folk Museum.
Apparently broadside Bodleian, Harding B 26(692), "A new song on the wonderful apparitions, of the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, and St. John, in Knock Chapel County Mayo" ("Attend you faithful christians give ear to what I say," J.F. Nugent and Co. (Dublin), n.d.) is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
File: OLcM011

Our Leaky Tents

DESCRIPTION: "In our leaky tents we sit, thinking of the good old times That in Springville City we spent so gay." But now they have "Snow, hail, rain, and windy weather Pelting our weather-beaten forms." But they remain in their tents so they can fight the Indians
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Daughters of Utah Pioneers, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) fight hardtimes | tent
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 288-289, "Our Leaky Tents" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" (tune) and references there
File: LDC288

Our Lord Has Risen

See When Mary Had Come, the Lord Jesus to Seek (File: RAInP108)

Our Maggie's Blue Drawers

DESCRIPTION: "Our Maggie's blue drawers (x2), There's a hole in the middle For Maggie to piddle, Our [of?] Maggie's blue drawers."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: scatological clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 52, "(Our Maggie's blue drawers)" (1 text)
Roud #22977
File: PKKB052D

Our Mary Ann

See Mary Ann (File: FJ142)

Our Motto

See Have Fun Our Motto Is (File: ACSF288H)

Our Orange Flags May Gang to Rags

DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears two Orangemen. One would rather die than surrender. He fears emancipation since "popish Dan ... Again has won the Clare election" and Peel and Wellington have joined O'Connell. Their Orange flags and drums must be put away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: Ireland political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1829 - Irish Catholic Emancipation Act passes supported by Daniel O'Connell and the Catholic Association
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 691, "Our Orange Flags May Gang to Rags" (1 text)
Roud #6113
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Not a Word of 'No Surrender'" (subject and some lines) and references there
NOTES [290 words]: For a reference to the Orange Drum see "You Ribbonmen of Ireland."
The speaker is talking to "dear Billy lad." Greig/Duncan3 notes comments in the text that would make "Billy lad" be William the 4th [reigned 1830-1837]. - BS
Daniel O'Connell (for whom see, e.g., "Daniel O'Connell (I)" and the myriad cross-references there) had obtained Catholic Emancipation in 1829, in the reign of George IV. But William IV succeeded soon after, and in effect had the task of implementing it. It was hardly to his liking; he was an old man when he came to the throne (born 1765), and -- like most of the Hannoverians -- stubborn without being very bright.
According to Philip Ziegler, King William IV, Cassell, 1971, p. 241, William was hardly happy at his role in the reorganization of Ireland. He rejoiced when O'Connell was arrested in 1831, and was unhappy when O'Connell was acquitted. In 1833, when the Whigs in parliament proposed to reform the official Church of Ireland (to which tithes were paid by the people even though the vast majority were Catholics rather than Anglicans), William was again unhappy (Zieger, p. 242). It was a period of much trouble between a King with conservative inclinations and a series of parliaments with many Whigs and few MPs who were entirely in support of the government. As a result, Williams tossed out most of the cabinet in 1834, but found he could not govern with Tories alone. It was a difficult time in Westminster -- which was, indirectly, good for the Irish and O'Connell, because the English couldn't come up with a concerted plan for halting O'Connell's plans for liberalization.
Of course, that which was good for the Irish as a whole was bad, or at least was seen as bad, for the Orangemen. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3691

Our Paddle's Keen and Bright

DESCRIPTION: "Our paddle's keen and bright, flashing like silver Swift as the wild goose flies, dip, dip, and swing Dip, dip, and swing them back, flashing like silver Swift as the wild goose flies....." To be repeated with voices getting louder and softer
AUTHOR: Margaret Bradshaw McGee (1889-1975) (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 415, 417, 445, 447, 470, 491, 515, "Our Paddle's Keen and Bright"/"My Paddle's Keen and Bright" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 62, "The Paddle Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 18, "Paddle Song" (1 short text)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 15, "Canoe Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 28, "Paddle Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Canoe Song" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 37) (12th edition, p. 28)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 15, "Canoe Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 8, "Canoe Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Our Paddles Keen and Bright
My Paddle's Keen and Bright
NOTES [60 words]: The tune for this is peculiar, although suitable for a round: The entire melody is built around a minor chord, and the only notes used are the tonic, the (minor) third, the fourth (rarely), and the fifth, even though the range of the song covers an octave and a fourth. I'm surprised that a tune that is both difficult and monotonous has become so popular. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF415O

Our Queen Can Birl Her Leg

DESCRIPTION: "Our (wee) queen can birl her leg, Birl her leg, birl her leg, Our (wee) queen can birl her leg, Birl her leg." "Our (wee) queen can tumble her pole...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 44, "(Our wee queen can birl her leg)" (1 text)
Roud #19545
File: PKKB044F

Our Queen Won the Medal

DESCRIPTION: "Our Queen won the Medal [or just "Our Queen won, Our Queen won"]. Heigh-ho! Bravo! Our Queen won."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: royalty sports nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 82, "Our Queen won" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 45, "(Our queen won)" (1 text)
Roud #19544
File: KSUC082B

Our Queen's Up the River

DESCRIPTION: "Our queen's up the river, with a fa-la-la (x2), Our queen's up the river And we'll keep her there forever, With a fa-la-la-la."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: river royalty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 44, "(Our queen's up the river)" (1 text)
Roud #19546
File: PKKB044G

Our Savior's Love

See Have You Not Heard (Our Dear Savior's Love) (File: HRUI164)

Our School Is a Very Good School

See Our Wee School (File: BAAI098F)

Our Sheepshearing's Done

DESCRIPTION: "Our sheepshearing done, to our master we come, Who enjoins us to sport as we please." The shepherdesses, beer, cider, wine, wool, and, most of all, cheese, are praised. "Join hands, ... drink 'May our Squire Live long, and enjoy his own cheese!'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
KEYWORDS: farming drink food nonballad sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 80-81, "Feast Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1379
NOTES [12 words]: Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs: "Sung at Frocester about 1840." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BrMa080

Our Ship Lays in the Harbour

See Our Ship She Is Lying in Harbour (File: SWMS124)

Our Ship Sails Ready to Bear Away

DESCRIPTION: The singer's ship prepares to sail. He bids Nora farewell and hopes to meet again. He thinks of all the places in Ireland he will miss: Dublin's hills, Killiney's mount, Wicklow, Avoca's Vale, Delgany, Bray,... and knows he'll remember Ireland.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond03); 19C (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(164))
KEYWORDS: love emigration farewell sea ship Ireland nonballad home
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #2995
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Our Ship Sails Ready to Bear Away" (on IRRCinnamond03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(567), "The Emigrants Farewell to his Country" ("Our ship is ready to beare away"), P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Remember Me" (shares opening verses)
NOTES [106 words]: Wright-Irish (Irish Emigrant Ballads and Songs) pp. 111, 170-173, has two versions of "Our Ship Sails Ready to Sail Away" and one of "Remember Me" and considers them to be variants of the same song. His longest version of "Our Ship ..." and his "Remember Me" share three verses almost exactly; "Our Ship ..." adds six 4-line verses and "Remember Me" adds five 4-line verses and, in these lines, the songs share no lines. "Our Ship ..." is a farewell to Nora, and besides to Dublin, Delgany and Wicklow; "Remember Me" is a farewell to old Ireland boys, and besides to Killarney. My inclination is to keep them as two separate songs. - BS
File: RcOSSRBA

Our Ship She Is Lying in Harbour

DESCRIPTION: The impressed singer, his ship ready to sail, hopes his girl will be safe. The girl laments the departed youth; the father is glad her is gone. Her love returns after seven years. The father offers her money not to marry him, but they are married anyway
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: sailor love separation pressgang father
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 124-125, "Our Ship She Is Lying in Harbour" ( text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 102, "Our Ship She Lies in the Harbour" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 63, "Our Ship She Lies In Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 58-59, "Our Ship she lies in Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 19, "Our Ship Lays in the Harbor" (1 fragment, 1 tune, padded out from other sources; the extant text is so short that the identification must be considered uncertain)
Roud #1011
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(686), "Willy's Return" ("Our ship lies in this harbour"), J Moore. (Belfast), 1846-1852
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lowlands of Holland" (lyrics)
NOTES [48 words]: There are several songs on this theme, but this doesn't quite seem to match any of them. Several early verses are found, almost verbatim, near the END of some texts of "The Lowlands of Holland." It's almost as if someone took the end of that song as the starting-off point for this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: SWMS124

Our Ship She Lies in Harbour

See Our Ship She Is Lying in Harbour (File: SWMS124)

Our Street Car

DESCRIPTION: In abysmal verse, the singer points out, "Let moderns preach, 'We need more street' With themes and schemes -- ah! scorner." The singer would rather praise "Our street car! Ours to honor." The singer describes its virtues and mourns its passing
AUTHOR: Lucie Mullan
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: technology nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 248-249, "Our Street Car" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 248-249)
NOTES [19 words]: Thomas implies that the author sang this piece, but I find it hard to believe this mess could fit a regular tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa248

Our Wedding Day

See She Moved Through the Fair (Our Wedding Day) (File: K165)

Our Wee Queen Can Birl Her Leg

See Our Queen Can Birl Her Leg (File: PKKB044F)

Our Wee School

DESCRIPTION: "Our [wee] school (the best wee school/a very good school), It's made of sticks and plaster/bricks and mortar. The only thing that's wrong with it Is the baldy-headed master."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: children | teacher
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 98, "(Our school is a very good school)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 41, "(Our wee school is a nice wee school)" (1 text)
Roud #19163
File: BAAI098F

Our Wee School Is a Nice Wee School

See Our Wee School (File: BAAI098F)

Our Wee Whiteford Is No Fool

DESCRIPTION: Verse on a boy's stool: "Our wee Whiteford is no fool, He puts his pennies in his stool."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: money | furniture
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 91, "Our wee Whiteford is no fool" (1 short tet)
Roud #25508
File: KSUC091B

Our Young Son John

See The Twa Brothers [Child 49] (File: C049)

Out and In at the Windows

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

Out in the Forest

DESCRIPTION: "Out in the forest a light is gleaming, A band of gypsies, shouting and singing, Boom ti airy airy (x3), Boom zip zip. What ho, my gypsies, where are you going? to spread camp spirit o’er all the wide world."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (SongsOfManyNations)
KEYWORDS: travel campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 146, 497, 513, "Out in the Forest" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "Out in the Forest" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 40)
NOTES [31 words]: The chorus here is that given by Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 146. Averill claims the song is "Eastern European"; SongsOfManyNations, says it's Polish but has only English words. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF146O

Out In the Moonlight (I Will Love Thee Always)

DESCRIPTION: The young man bids the girl goodbye in the moonlight, promising, "I will love you always... Through life and death I'm faithful to thee." Returning home (a year) later, he finds her married to another. He leaves a note and shoots himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Rutherford & Burnett)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage separation betrayal suicide
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 803, "Out in the Moonlight" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 723, "Standing by the Old Garden Gate" (1 fragment, 1 tune, possibly this)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #92, "Pale Moonlight" (1 short text, 1 tune, probably this)
Roud #3445
RECORDINGS:
Burnett & Rutherford, "Under the Pale Moonlight" (Challenge 420, 1928; on BurnRuth01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Skon Jungfrun Hon Gangar Sig Till Sogsta Berg (The Pretty Maid Climbs the Highest Mountain)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Forsaken Love
NOTES [65 words]: The Burnett & Rutherford version of this differs so strongly from the versions in Randolph (lacking, e.g., the suicide ending; also, the the girl is not yet married when he returns home) that I was sorely tempted to classify it as a separate song. The essential plot is the same, however, and some of the words, and I know of no other versions of the recorded song. So they stay together. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R803

Out of the blosme sprang a thorn

See Out of the Blossom Sprang a Thorn (File: MSOBlSpT)

Out of the Blossom Sprang a Thorn

DESCRIPTION: "Out of the blossom sprang a thorn, When God himself would be born." A spring (Jesus?) comes from a well (Mary?). Three kings come to visit, bearing their gifts. Refrain: "Deo patri sit gloria" or "That was born of Marie"/"And his mother Marie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1430 (British Library -- Sloane MS. 2593)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus travel MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #123, pp. 79-80, "(no title)" (2 texts)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 117-120, "Alleluia! alleluia!"; "Out of the Blossom Sprang a Thorn" (2 texts)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #2730, 3527
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #4333, #5566
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #24, pp. 12-3, "(Alleluya, Alleluia, Deo patri sit gloria)" (1 text)
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #28, pp. 86-87, "(Alleluya, alleluia)" (1 text)
Carleton Brown, editor, _Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1939, #88, pp. 126-127,"Balthazer, Melchior and Jasper" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 12 [IMEV #2730]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 222 [IMEV #3527]
NOTES [302 words]: Although no longer found in tradition, this seems to have been popular in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, surviving in two very important manuscripts. It is in the Hill MS. (Balliol College, Oxford, 354) and in Sloane MS. 2593, an important collection which contains many folk songs.
What is more, the two texts are so different as to have hardly a word in common (e.g. Sloane mentions the legendary names of the three kings, Balthazar, Melchior, and Gaspar; Balliol calls them the oldest, middle, youngest). There seem to be corruptions in both texts (e.g. Sloane, the earlier text, has in stanza 3 "Out of the welle sprng a streme From patriarck to Jerusalem" -- and no one seems to have a clue what "patriarck" is). And Greene, p. xcvii, suggests that the method of naming the kings is derived from the folk song method of incremental repetition of Forms (e.g. "There were three sisters lived in a hall").
What's more, Greene, p. 376, says the Sloane manuscript is "disturbed" here, implying that more might be learned if it were in its proper form.
On this very tentative basis I have included the song.
For more on the "three kings" (who may not have been three, and whose names are unknown) see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)."
Greene, p. 376, suggests that the blossom and thorn is a variation of the Rod/Root of Jesse symbolism.
Brown, p. 324, mentions a "figure of the Wounds [of Jesus] as wells." Brown does not apply the figure to this verse, but the well must mean SOMETHING. My first thought was that it meant Mary. Then I thought of Jesus as the source of Living Water in John 4:10-14. But the idea of the Wounds of Christ seems like a third possibility that fits well here.
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSOBlSpT

Out of the Wilderness

See The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)

Out of the Window

See She Moved Through the Fair (Our Wedding Day) (File: K165)

Out on the Lone Star Cow Trail

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a cowboy, meets a comrade and kills him although "he was dear to me." The judge sends him to prison. He asks listener to tell mother and sweetheart that he's in the "dark city jail"; his sweeheart should bail him out. Chorus: "Hoo-hoo-hooo-oo-oo"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Dick Devall)
KEYWORDS: captivity violence crime homicide prison punishment trial friend lover cowboy judge
FOUND IN: US(So)
Roud #633
RECORDINGS:
Dick Devall, "Out on the Lone Star Cow Trail" (Timely Tunes [Victor subsidiary] C-1563, 1931; rec. 1929; on MakeMe, WhenIWas1)
NOTES [45 words]: This should not be confused with "Lone Star Trail." - PJS
Roud lumps this with "The Wandering Cowboy (I)" [Laws B7], and the plot similarity is obvious, but there are enough different details that Paul Stamler, who has listened to most of the versions, splits them. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcOotLSC

Out on the Silvery Tide

See The Silvery Tide [Laws O37] (File: LO37)

Out to Dark Harbour

DESCRIPTION: "Now boys I'll tell you it's a wonderful time Out to Dark Harbour in the old summer time." The singer picks dulse and sells it at Eastport.
AUTHOR: John Guptill (of Grand Manan)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: sea commerce nonballad food
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 117, "Out to Dark Harbour" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB117 (Partial)
Roud #2785
NOTES [47 words]: Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick: "Dulse is an edible seaweed that grows in profusion on Grand Manan, and it is of such a high quality that it is shipped to world markets."
Grand Manan is an island at the southernmost end of New Brunswick, south east of Eastport, Maine. - BS
File: CrSNB117

Out With My Gun in the Morning

See The Contented Countryman (File: K245)

Outharbour Planter, The

DESCRIPTION: The narrator lights his pipe and extols the virtues of the "outharbour planter." This apparently dead breed of men was not well refined but had many virtues of industry and honesty.
AUTHOR: probably M. A. Devine (1857-1915)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Christmas Review, according to Ryan)
KEYWORDS: recitation virtue
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 136, "The Outharbor Planter" (1 text)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Outharbour Planter" (1 text): p. 78 in the 2nd edition
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, _Songs Their Fathers Sung: For Fishermen: Old Time Ditties_, James Murphy Publishing, 1923 (PDF available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 6, "The Outhorbor Planter" (sic). (1 text)
Shannon Ryan, _The Ice Hunters: A History of Newfoundland Sealing to 1914_, Breakwater Books, 1994, pp. 384-385, "The Outport Planter" (1 text)
Roud #6354
NOTES [202 words]: A typical song about the archetypal hardy Newfoundlander. The dictionary defines a "planter" as a person who settles or colonizes a new area. I believe that this is the closest definition here because the "outharbour" is probably synonymous with "outport" which is a very small settlement far away from cities. They are probably leaders of a kind because there are some references in the song being made to his selling and providing people with food and clothes and using his house as a meeting hall. - SH
According to Shannon Ryan, The Ice Hunters: A History of Newfoundland Sealing to 1914, Breakwater Books, 1994, p. 401 n. 110 , this first appeared in the St. John's Christmas Review in 1901 under the name of Absalom Hbbs, but Gerald S. Doyle credited it to M. A. Devine. Murphy also credits it to Devine. Ryan thinks Devine published it under a pseudonym. This seems not unlikely; according to (Robert H. Cuff, managing editor), Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador Biography, Harry Cuff Publications, 1990, p. 83, "Devine's literary efforts most often appeared anonymously." And he was a newspaper editor; it sounds as if he might have published the piece himself and not wanted to admit it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy78

Outlandish Knight, The

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Outlaw Dunny

DESCRIPTION: The cook's rattling arouses Dunny, and he and the rest of the herd take off. By the time the poet catches them, breakfast is cold. The boss then orders the poet to ride Dunny. He makes the attempt, but naturally is thrown. He quits on the spot
AUTHOR: Jim McElroy
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: horse cowboy recitation work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 75, "Outlaw Dunny" (1 text)
File: Ohr075

Outlaw Murray, The [Child 305]

DESCRIPTION: The King of Scotland demands that the outlaw pay him homage for his holdings in Ettrick Forest. Murray refuses; he won the land by his own valor. The King calls up his forces to attack Murray. A compromise is reached; Murray becomes sheriff of Ettrick
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1791 (Glenriddell mss.)
KEYWORDS: outlaw royalty bargaining reprieve
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 305, "The Outlaw Murray" (3 texts)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 349-355, "The Outlaw Murray" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 193-204, "The Sang of the Outlaw Murray" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 84, "The Outlaw Murray" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (Edinburgh: Longman and Rees, 1803 ("Digitized by Microsoft")) second edition, Vol. I, pp. 1-26, "The Sang of the Outlaw Murray" (1 text)
Roud #3296
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" [Child 287] (theme)
NOTES [93 words]: According to Mary Ellen Brown, Child's Unfinished Masterpiece: The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, University of Illinois Press, 2011, p. 128, Child was strongly inclined to omit this item from the ESPB, and included it only at the last minute. Hence its number as the very last of the Child Ballads. - RBW
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads follows Scott, one of the sources for Child's 305A. If you want to see Scott's text it's much easier to follow in Scott or Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads than it is to decipher Child's deconstruction notes. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: C305

Outlaw of Loch Lene, The

DESCRIPTION: The outlaw lives in the wood. "All the wealth that I sought, one fair kind glance from my love." His lover lives down by the lake. He remembers when his lover swam Loch Lene to find him. He imagines them alone, "far off on the deep"
AUTHOR: unknown (translated by J. J. Callanan)
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Sparling)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad lover outlaw separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 55, "The Outlaw of Loch Lene" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 228, 496, "Outlaw of Loch Lene"
Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, _The Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1958, 1979), p. 42, "The Outlaw of Loch Lene" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #365, "The Outlaw of Loch Lene" (1 text)
NOTES [126 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "One of J.J.[Jeremiah Joseph] Callanan's [1795-1839] best translations of Gaelic songs." - BS
There is a certain amount of confusion about this author. Most sources list his name as James Joseph Callanan, but he is also sometimes listed under the name "Jeremiah" (and, yes, it is known that it is the same guy). Most sources agree that he was born in 1795, but his death date seemingly varies; Hoagland and MacDonagh/Robinson give 1829. He wrote some poetry of his own, but is probably best known for his translations from Gaelic. Works of his found in this index include "The Convict of Clonmel," "The Outlaw of Loch Lene," "Sweet Avondu," "The Virgin Mary's Bank," "Gougane Barra," and a translation of "Drimindown." - RBW
File: OLcM055

Outport Planter, The

See The Outharbour Planter (File: Doy78)

Outward and Homeward Bound

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Verses enumerate the ports to be visited and the girls being left behind. The singer says the purser will supply their needs, and looks forward to returning home after (three) years. Chorus: "We're outward bound, Hurrah, we're outward bound."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1565))
KEYWORDS: shanty farewell travel floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 88, "When We Are Homeward Bound" (1 text)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 136-139, "Outward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 175, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune, probably this although it seems to have picked up much floating material and the editors changed the tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 541-543, "Outward and Homeward Bound" (2 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 387-389]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 37, "Outward and Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 147-148, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #65, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XVIII, pp. 29-30, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, probably this although it alternates an "outward bound" and a "homeward bound" chorus)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 88, "Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #927 and 18905
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1565), "Homeward Bound" ("Now to Blackwall docks we bid adieu"), H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Firth c.12(159), "Outward Bound"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down!" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Homeward Bound
NOTES [82 words]: Most if not all versions of this share a verse with "Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down!"; at one time I lumped Shay's version with that song. We've now split them, but it seems clear there is some sort of borrowing going on. Given that "Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down!" is apparently a composed song, the best bet may be that that is a rewrite of this.
Roud gives this two numbers, 927 and 18905, but I can't see the distinguishing feature; the whole family is an incredible mess of composites. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Hugi541

Outward Bound

See Outward and Homeward Bound (File: Hugi541)

Outward Bound (I)

See Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down! (File: Wa071)

Outward Bound (II)

See Homeward Bound (I) (File: Doe087)

Ouzel, The

DESCRIPTION: Ouzel sails from Dublin for Tripoli. "Somewhere down by Algiers, on the coast of Barbary, The Ringsend sailors fought and failed against black piracy." Years later they escape, take over Ouzel again, and return to Ireland with pirate gold.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: sea ship captivity slavery pirate escape
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1695 - Ouzel sails from Dublin for Smyrna but is not heard from until she returns five years later (see Notes)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 113-114, "The Ouzel" (1 text)
Roud #20543
NOTES [104 words]: "The crew said the ship had been captured by Algerian pirates who used it to terrorise the Mediterranean seas, although it was rumored in some quarters that Captain Massey might have been indulging in a spot of piracy himself!! The offic[i]al story went on to relate how the Irish crew, who had been spared, managed to escape from captivity and regained control of the ship and the pirate's booty" (source: site of The Ouzel Galley Society on IrishShips)
Irish Architecture Online site: "Ringsend is named from the Gaelic Roinn Aun, meaning Sea Point. In the 17th century it took over from Dalkey as Dublin's main port." - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran113

Ovaltine

See Uncle Joe and Aunty Mabel (File: EM374)

Over Hills and Mountains

DESCRIPTION: "Mony's the hill and valley that's atween my love and me Likewise the Sea in full flowing tide." The singer thinks and dreams about being with his "sweet bride." If he were emperor he'd "throw down the crown and go and beg with thee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1544, "Over Hills and Mountains" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #12959
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Belfast Beauty" (theme: singer would give up the crown or great wealth he doesn't have for love) and references there
cf. "The Braes o' Abernethy" (theme: singer would give up the crown or great wealth he doesn't have for love)
cf. "Limerick is Beautiful" (theme: singer would give up the crown or great wealth he doesn't have for love)
NOTES [3 words]: There's Many a Mile
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81544

Over In the Glory Land

DESCRIPTION: "Just over in the glory land" the singer will join "the happy angels' band" and stand "with the mighty host." He's on his way "to those mansions fair" "where the saints abide" where he'll be with Jesus forever.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 766, "There's a Place Prepared" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #39, "Glory Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3402
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Over In the Glory Land" (on MJHurt04)
J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Just Over In the Glory Land" (1938, Bluebird B 7730, 2009, "J.E. Mainer Classic Sides 1938-1941," JSP Records CD JSP77124A)
NOTES [38 words]: Roud lumps the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 with the amorphous song we have filed as "Welcome Table (Streets of Glory, God's Going to Set This World on Fire)," but it appears to me much closer to this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcOitGlL

Over in the Meadow

DESCRIPTION: Counting song. "Over in the meadow, in the sand, in the sun, Lived an old mother toad and her little toadie one. 'Wink,' said the mother. 'I wink," said the one. So she winked and she blinked...." Repeat with other animals in higher numbers.
AUTHOR: Katherine Floyd Dana ("Olive A. Wadsworth") (1835-1886)
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers)
KEYWORDS: animal bird bug
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #69, "Sing Said the Mother (Over in the Meadow)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook 12, "Over in the Meadow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12681
NOTES [87 words]: Widely sung as an "old folk song" (I heard it somewhere when I was young -- Ed McCurdy, perhaps?), field collections are very rare. I have not seen an actual book by Katherine Floyd Dana which contained the text, but several sources agree on the attribution: Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook, certain web sites, and Granger's Index to Poetry (which however gives the name as OLIVER A. Wadsworth rather than OLIVE A. Wadsworth.) It seems to be the only one of Dana/Wadsworth's works to have achieved any lasting currency. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: BrGr012

Over Jordan

See Wayfaring Stranger (File: FSC077)

Over the Garden Wall

DESCRIPTION: The young couple court "over the garden wall": "Over the garden wall, The sweetest girl of all, I'll never forget those eyes of jet, You may bet I'll never forget, Over the garden wall."
AUTHOR: Words: Harry Hunter / Music: G. D. Fox (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 867, "Over the Garden Wall" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 714, "Over the Garden Wall" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 20, "Over the Garden Wall"(1 text, 1 tune, plus excerpts from two songster versions)
Heart-Songs, pp. 346-347, "Over the Garden Wall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3765
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Over the Garden Wall" (Montgomery Ward M-7354. c. 1937)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Just Jump Over the Garden Wall" (theme)
File: R867

Over the Garden Wall (II)

See Jump Over the Garden Wall (File: KSUC101A)

Over the Garden Wall I Let the Baby Fall

DESCRIPTION: "Over the garden wall, I let the baby fall, My mother came out, And gave me a clout, Over the garden wall."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty baby mother
FOUND IN: New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 106, "(Over the garden wall)" (1 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #450, "Over the garden wall" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 44, "(Over the garden wall)" (2 short text)
Roud #19232
File: SuSM106C

Over the Hills and a Great Way Off

See O'er the Hills and Far Away (I) (File: Arn017)

Over the hills and far away

See O'er the Hills and Far Away (I) (File: Arn017)

Over the Hills and Lofty Mountains

DESCRIPTION: "Over the hills and lofty mountains, Where the fields are buried in snow, By the rumbling tumbling waters Where the crystal waters flow, Come, highlanders, now let's be marching." All should choose a love. A girl begs Johnnie to kiss her before he goes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Creighton collection)
KEYWORDS: love soldier travel separation
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 106-107, "Over the Hills and Lofty Mountains" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22142
File: PoEll106

Over the Hills at the Poorhouse

DESCRIPTION: "Over the hills at the poorhouse In the twilight so dim and so gray, A woman is quiely lying, Breathing her life away." She "blesses" her children while whining that they never listen; when she is buried, the children find excuses not to attend
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: mother death burial hardheartedness children rejection
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 280-281, "Over the Hills at the Poorhouse" (1 text)
Roud #5496
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "You'll Never Know What Time Will Bring" (theme of old people abandoned in poverty)
NOTES [91 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety notes that there is a poem by Will Carleton with a similar title and theme, but regards them as separate (the Carleton piece, which is 22 stanzas long, begins "Over the hill to the poor-house I'm trudgin' my weary way -- I, a woman of seventy, and only a trifle gray..."), and also (correctly) treats a piece in Brown and Dean (given here as "Over the Hills to the Poor-House") as separate. One rather hopes so; this strikes me as just another "young folks these days are so..." potboiler. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Beld280

Over the Hills So Far Away

DESCRIPTION: "Possum ran from under the barn, Fiddle bow under his arm, The only tune that be could play Was Over the hills so far away." (x3) "The old cow died in the forks of the branch, Over the hills so far away; Possum had a regular dance, Over the hills...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal music dancing
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 165, "Over the Hills So Far Away" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O'er the Hills and Far Away (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [25 words]: Almost certainly derived as some degree from "O'er the Hills and Far Away (I)," but since the outcome is an animal song, I classify this separately. - RBW
File: Br3165

Over the Hills to the Poor-House

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, yes, it is true they have driven Their father so helpless and old; Oh, God! may their crime be forgiven For driving him out in the cold." The father, "helpless and feeble," recalls his love for wife and children, and sadly sets out for the poorhouse
AUTHOR: Words: George L. Catlin / Music: David Braham (source: sheet music in the Levy Collection)
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (sheet music published by William A. Pond & Co.)
KEYWORDS: home betrayal children father poverty age
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 171, "Over the Hills to the Poor-House" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 121-122, "Over the Hills to the Poorhouse" (1 text)
Roud #5496
RECORDINGS:
Bert Peck, "Over the Hills to the Poor House" (Brunswick 522, c. 1930)
Peg Moreland, "Over the Hills to the Poorhouse" (Victor 21548, 1928)
NOTES [276 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety notes that there is a poem by Will Carleton with a similar title and theme, but regards them as separate, and also (correctly) treats this piece as different from the Missouri text ("Over the Hills at the Poorhouse") he himself printed.
For David Braham, who supplied the music for this piece, see the notes to "Babies on Our Block." By the time this was written, Braham had started to collaborate with Edward Harrigan, his long-time musical partner, but it was not yet an exclusive arrangement (see John Franceschina, David Braham: The American Offenbach, Routledge, 2003, p. 77); the team of Harrigan and Hart, while rising quickly, had not yet reached the level of fame that let them run their own theater company. At this stage, Braham, although known mostly as an orchestra conductor, was certainly as big a name as Harrigan (Franceschina, p. 82).
Franceschina shows the sheet music cover on p. 78, and prints much of the text. On p. 79 he says, "The music Braham created for this tearjerker employed a flowing arpeggiated accompaniment, anticipating that used in musical theater 'hymns' such as Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'You'll Never Walk Alone' from Carousel.... The simplicity of the melody and harmony in the chorus lend a subtle emphasis to the pathos of this composition, which more resembles a classical art song than the typical fare of the variety stage."
It was written for James W. McKee, and debuted in the 1874-1875 season at the Theatre Comique (Franceschina, pp. 79-80).
The song was a surprising hit; by 1879, it was already in its tenth printing (Franceschina, pp. 123-124). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: BrII171

Over the Hills to the Poorhouse

See Over the Hills to the Poor-House (File: BrII171)

Over the Left

See I'm Thine Over the Left (File: Neel235)

Over the Mountain (I) (Allanah Is Waiting for Me)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm always light-hearted and easy, Not a care in this world have I." The singer is joyful because he is so close to his love, even though she is over the (mountain/ocean). He is preparing for a reunion
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud); Caleb Johnson Burton apparently had a version in 1908
KEYWORDS: love home nonballad reunion
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 75, "Allanah Is Waiting For Me" (1 text)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 48, "Over the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7450
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ila, My Darling
NOTES [397 words]: This is an extremely mysterious song, because the versions are so diverse. The earliest version I've found was in an online manuscript of songs sung by Agnes Amelia Ransom Burton in 1957; the document claims she learned it in 1908 from her husband Caleb Johnson Burton. In that version, it's "Ila, My Darling," and it looks like an Irish emigration song, with the guy leaving the girl behind. Then comes Dean-FlyingCloud's text, in which the girl is "Eileen" (yes, the girl is "Allanah" in the title, but she's "Eileen" in the text. Wilgus thought the title an error); it's interesting to note that Dean knew many Irish and stage-Irish songs. Then Uncle Dave Macon had at it, and you can imagine the shape it was in after that!
O. J. Abbott's text clearly has Irish roots; there is a touch of Gaelic in the chorus. The girl here is "Eli," pronounced "Eelee," which is reminiscent of Burton's "Ila" as well as Dean's "Eileen."
Roud lumps this with Randolph's text "My Little One's Waiting for Me." There are a few similar words, but I don't see it. - RBW
RBW cites Wilgus. Anyone interested in this song should read D.K. Wilgus, "The Text Is The Thing" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. LXXXVI, No. 341 (Jul-Sep 1973 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 241-252. Wilgus traces "Over the Mountain" and its derivatives through six texts, and lists the words for all of them:
Date........Source and Title
n.d.(19c?)..Nugent Songsters: My Mountain Molly
1905........Irish manuscript: My Eily
1922........Dean Flying Cloud: Allanah Is Waiting for Me
1925........Fiddlin' John Carson: The Grave of Little Mary Phagan
1927........Earl Johnson: Little Grave in Georgia
1929........Dave Macon: Over the Mountain
The Meade Spottswood Meade entry for I-C75b "Grave of Little Mary Phagan" -- not to the same song as "Mary Phagan" [Laws F20] -- notes "adapted from 'Over the Mountain' [see II-G28] by John Carson, ca. 1917" (p. 92); their note for II-G28 "Over the Mountain" has that song being printed in songsters, beginning with William J. Scanlon's Peek-A-Boo Songster (1882) (pp. 230,906) [Guthrie T Meade Jr with Dick Spottswood and Douglas S. Meade, Country Music Sources (Chapel Hill:Southern Folklife Collection University of North Carolina, 2002)].
The Carson, Johnson and Macon cuts are available from iTunes. I haven't seen the Scanlon songster so I can't vouch for it. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: R850A

Over the Mountain (II)

See When the Boys Go A-Courting (Over the Mountain, Poll and Sal) (File: SWMS312)

Over the Mountain (III)

See The Trip Over the Mountain (File: HHH161B)

Over the Rainbow

DESCRIPTION: "Somewhere over the rainbow Way up high There's a land that I heard of...." If you don't know the rest, just wait for the next television rerun.
AUTHOR: Words: E. Y. "Yip" Harburg / Music: Harold Arlen (source: the movie)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (movie, "The Wizard of Oz")
KEYWORDS: home bird travel | rainbow
FOUND IN:
Roud #25659
RECORDINGS:
Jim Eldritch, "Over the Rainbow" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #663, recorded 09/13/2023)
NOTES [51 words]: It is noteworthy that Derek Piotr's informant Jim Eldritch learned this for a school pageant, not from tradition. I was surprised that it doesn't show up in Patricia Averill's camp song catalog. Possibly that first interval (some-WHERE, a leap of a full octave) makes it too hard for some people to sing. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcOverRa

Over the River and Through the Woods

DESCRIPTION: "Over the river and through the woods To Grandmother's house we go." The family travels (by horse) to Grandmother's (for Thanksgiving)
AUTHOR: Words: Lydia Marie Child (1802-1880)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978
KEYWORDS: nonballad food family
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 278, "Over the River and Through the Woods" (1 text)
OneTuneMore, p. 6, "Over the River" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Martin Gardner, editor, _Famous Poems from Bygone Days_, Dover, 1995, pp. 41-44, "Thanksgiving Day" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Esther Loizeaux den Breems, "Over the River and Through the Woods" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #448, recorded 01/25/2023)
NOTES [116 words]: Obviously primarily a popular song, sustained by recordings and print versions, and with no relevance outside the U.S. But the fact that it has been sung by so many families in cars implies that it is at least a marginal folk song. It has certainly undergone some evolution; the original is a dozen stanzas long, and I can't recall ever seeing some of the verses, such as that about "Old Jowler," before. And the first verse mentions going to GrandFATHER's house, not GrandMOTHER's.
Author Lydia Maria Child sounds like a rather formidable character, a feminist and an abolitionist. She wrote poetry, novels, and non-fiction, and founded an early children's magazine, Juvenile Miscellany. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: PHCFS278

Over the River Charlie

See Weevily Wheat (File: R520)

Over the River to Charlie

See Weevily Wheat (File: R520)

Over the River to Charlie's

See Weevily Wheat (File: R520)

Over the River to Feed My Sheep

See Weevily Wheat (File: R520)

Over the Road I'm Bound

See Down the Road (I) (File: CSW208)

Over the Sea to Skye

See Skye Boat Song (Over the Sea to Skye) (File: Brew79)

Over The Water and Over the Lea

See Weevily Wheat (File: R520)

Over the Water to Charlie

DESCRIPTION: "Come boat me o'er, come row me o'er, Come boat me o'er to Charlie." "We'll o'er the water, we'll o'er the sea, We'll o'er the water to Charlie." The singer tells her love for Charlie, laments his exile, says she would bear her sons again to die for him
AUTHOR: Robert Burns?
EARLIEST DATE: 1788 (Scots Musical Museum #187)
KEYWORDS: love Jacobites separation exile ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1720-1788 - Life of Charles Edward Stuart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie"
1745-1746 - '45 Jacobite rebellion led by Bonnie Prince Charlie
Apr 16, 1746 - Battle of Culloden. The Jacobite rebellion is crushed, most of the Highlanders slain, and Charlie forced to flee for his life.
Jun 28-29, 1746 - Aided by Flora MacDonald, and dressed as her maidservant, Charles flees from North Uist to Skye in the Hebrides.
Sep 20, 1746 - Charles finally escapes to France
FOUND IN: US(NE) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 38, "O'er the Water to Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 135, "O'er the Water to Charlie" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Greig/Duncan8 1733, "Owre the Water to Torry" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 186, "O'er the Water to Charly" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 262-263, "Over the Water to Charlie" (1 short text, 1 tune, with one verse of this and two of the "Charlie" verses of "Weevily Wheat")
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 52-54, "Over the water to Charlie" (1 tune)
DT CHARLOVER* CHARLOV2*
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #211,, pp. 319-320, "O'er the Water to Charlie" (1 text, from 1788)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #187, p. 195, "O'er the water to Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #729
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 26, "O'er the Water to Charlie" ("Come boat me o'er, come row me o'er"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Quaker's Wife" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
NOTES [150 words]: Roud lumps this (and several other Bonnie Prince Charlie songs) with the "Weevily Wheat" family. Certainly Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland's version is really just a "Weevily Wheat" variant which has swallowed a fragment of this song. But "Weevily Wheat" is a dancetune that mentions "Charlie" (not necessarily Charles Edward Stuart) incidentally, while this is a sure Jacobite song. As such, I separate them.
Just how much this piece owes to Burns is unknown to me; he surely had a hand in it, but it's interesting to note that there is a verse out there which he did not publish. - RBW
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2: "I do not know if the last two stanzas have ever before been printed, though they have often been sung." His final verse, "I ance had sons, but now hae nane; I bred them toiling sairly; And I wad bear them a' again, And lose them a' for Charlie," is not in the Burns version. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Lins262

Over There (George M. Cohan Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Johnny, get your gun, get your gun, get your gun, Take it on the run...." "Over there, over there, Send the word, send the word over there That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming... And we won't come back till its over, over there."
AUTHOR: George M. Cohan (source: Fuld)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: war patriotic travel nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 123-124, "Over There" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 167, "Over There" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 418-419, "Over There"
Roud #25459
RECORDINGS:
American Quartet, "Over There" (Victor 18333, 1917)
Nora Bayes, "Over There" (Victor 45130, 1917)
Enrico Caruso, "Over There" (Victor 87294, 1918)
Peerless Quartet, "Over There" (Columbia A-2306, 1917)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny Get Your Gun (I)" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
The Yanks Are Coming Over (File: KSUC188A)
NOTES [261 words]: There is little evidence that this is traditional, but it was certainly popular. Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 317, estimates that this was the most popular song in America in 1917, reaching the top of the charts in August of that year. The Nora Bayes recording was the most important of several recorded versions (her photo is on the William Jerome Publishing sheet music), including one by Enrico Caruso. Ironically, there does not seem to have been a George M. Cohan recording.
It was not so popular in Europe; Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver has a sarcastic parody verse ending, "And they won't get there till it's over, over there." This is understandable; although the Americans joined the Allies in 1917, they had no standing army and not much of a defense industry; even when the first few American divisions reached Europe, they had to get machine guns and artillery and aircraft from Britain or France.
When, in 1918, the Germans shipped troops from the Russian Front to participate in the great Ludendorff Offensives, it was the British and French who, at great cost in lives, were almost entirely responsible for holding them. The American did play a leading role in the counteroffensives which followed, which hastened the German surrender -- but the war clearly had to end anyway; both sides were going to pieces. If anything, the American participation just made the peace more punitive, thereby arguably helping to precipitate World War II. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWRBW123

Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the praties they grow small, Over there... Oh the praties they grow small, But we eat them tops and all...." Stories of the Irish potato famine. Localized versions preserve the theme of poverty but apply it to local conditions and places
AUTHOR: Alfred Percival Graves (1846-1931)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 ("In Old New England"); tune registered 1844
KEYWORDS: hardtimes farming food poverty starvation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1847/8 - Greatest of several Irish potato famines
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 41, "The potatoes they grow small over there" (1 sort text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 90, pp. 216-217, "Over There" (1 short text, with one humorous and one straight verse)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #236, "Over There" (1 text)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 14-15, "Romance" (1 text, 1 tune -- a strange piece with two verses of this song and three of some sort of courting song; there is probably a separate song mixed in there somewhere)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 250-251, "Over There" (1 text, 1 tune, regarded as entirely a parody, but enough like other versions of this song to list here)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 148-149, "The Praties They Grow Small" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 532-533, "Over There" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 30-31, "Over There" (1 text, 1 tune)
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, p. 44, "The Famine Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, p. 29, "The Pratie Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 24, "Over There" (1 text, 1 tune, with ordinary and parody verses)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 119, "The Praties" (1 text)
DT, OVRTHERE* PRATSMALL*
Roud #4455
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Emigrant's Farewell to Donegal" (subject: The potato famines)
cf. "Skibereen" (subject: The potato famines)
cf. "The Rotten Potatoes" (subject: The potato famines)
cf. "Did You Ever See the Divil?" (subject: The potato famines)
cf. "In Kansas" (tune & meter, floating lyrics)
cf. "Down on the Pichelo Farm" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [1178 words]: Zimmermann p. 16, fn. 7, writing in 1966: "Many recent anthologies quote wrongly as a song of the famine period 'Over Here' ('Oh, the praties they are small...'). The air was learnt in South America and does not sound Irish; the words were written by A.P. Graves, (see Miss H. Galwey Old Irish Croonauns, p. 16). It was first printed in 1897, in Graves Irish Folk Songs, pp. 76-77." - BS
I would note that, though it was not written during the blight, the song is certainly about the Irish dependence on the potato.
There is no clear dividing line between this and "In Kansas"; there are versions of this piece that are short enough and vile enough to belong with either. But, as often happens, we must classify them separately because the extremes are so distinct.
It is rather shocking to observe that Spaeth (who prints a rather corrupt version and remarks that "[t]he original words are silly enough to suit the most up-to-date interpreter") did not realize that this song connects with the poverty of the potato blight era.
The first of the blights occurred in 1845; the blight continued to strike for the next three years; not until 1849 was there a decent crop, by which time Ireland's population, which exceeded eight million before the blight (twice the current total!), had fallen to about six million; in very round numbers, a million had died and a million had emigrated.
The blight was a fungus, arrived from America, which caused potatoes to wither almost instantly.
To make matters worse, potatoes were the chief crop of Ireland. There were many reasons for this, including the fact that potatoes were easy to grow. But the basic reason was British rules. The Irish had been forced almost entirely onto small holdings, usually of five acres or less (according Edwards, p. 182, in 1841, over 80% of Irish farm families had property of 15 acres or less; 45% had five acres or less). Few families could feed themselves on such small fields using other crops. And if they had enough property to improve things, the British landlords took the excess in rent. So the Irish grew potatoes, and when the crop failed, they starved.
It didn't help that Ireland was among the most overpopulated countries in Europe. I read somewhere that there were over 300 people per arable acre *even in the countryside*. I wish I'd noted the source -- but if we divide the number of acres of land devoted to agriculture in the late twentieth century by the 1845 population, we still get about eight people per arable acre. Edwards, p. 179, notes that, in County Mayo in 1841, there were 475 people per square mile, and only 36% of the land was arable, meaning that in that county, there were 1300 people per square mile of arable land! If British pressure forced the Irish into smallholdings, it was overpopulation which made them microscopic.
And the Irish were true peasants -- among the last in western Europe. Where English tenants by now were growing food for market, the Irish were growing for subsistence, paying their rent with labor and eating every morsel they could scrape from the soil. It wasn't even a money economy -- "by the 1840s, [the potato] had become the sole diet for three million..." (Fry/Fry, p. 228). And "over two-thirds of the Irish people were dependent on agriculture for a living in 1841" (Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, p. 232). When the crop failed, they starved. No other outcome was possible. It was a Malthusian result, pure and simple.
It is sad to note that, by the 1840s, the antifungal effects of bluestone (copper sulfate) had been discovered -- but were not widely known (Coogan, p. 54). It was not until 1882 that Bordeaux Mixture became commercially available; see the notes on "Mary Anne McGuinan."
The failure of 1845 did not bring utter destruction because the British government of Sir Robert Peel sprang into action to relieve the distress. By 1846, however, Peel's government had fallen, and his successors let the Irish starve (Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, p. 234). It may have been "laissez faire" (though we note that, while the government didn't send food, it did pass coercive acts to repress riots; as usual "laissez faire" really meant "help the rich and stick the poor"); it may have been deliberate genocide -- whatever it was, it resulted in permanent alienation of the Irish.
Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, pp 238-239, remind us that there was much blame to go around: "The historian... will have an uneasy conscience about labelling particular classes or individuals as villains of the piece. The Irish landlords held the ultimate responsibility, but on the whole they were as much involved in disaster as their tenantry. The ministers of the crown who had to accept responsibility once the disaster occurred were callous, parsimonious, and self-righteous. Yet these are the very qualities which Charles Dickens, for instance, found so distasteful in men of their class, and they were exhibited as much to the English as to the Irish poor."
It will tell you something about the landlords of the time that Ireland was exporting food all through the blight -- Daniel O'Connell pointed out to the English Parliament that exports of many agricultural commodities from Ireland to Britain actually *increased* in 1845 (Kee, p. 247). Ireland at this time had, in effect, two economies, the Landlord class (not all of them Protestant, though a lot were) and the Tenants (all Catholic). The landlords had not interest in feeding the tenants; that, after all, didn't bring in any cash. "[H]ad all food been kept in the country, and home-grown grain and provisions been on sale, had private enterprise succeeded in functioning and supplies of cheap food been freely available, the Irish people would have been little better off. They were penniless; even if food had been abundant, they could not have bought it" (Woodham-Smith, p. 121).
Little wonder that it came to be called "The Great Hunger."
Woodham-Smith, pp. 404-405, notes that there were future failures: A bad round of blight in 1852, a worse famine in 1879. "When Irish people refer to 'the famine,' however, they mean the years of concentrated disaster in which blight first appeared, and in rapid succession the partial failure of 1845 was followed by the total failure of 1846 and the second total failure of 1848. The history of what then occurred is deeply engraved in the memory of the Irish race" (Woodham-Smith, p. 405).
"The famine ravaged Ireland from 1845 to 1848. That is a minuscule part of the 8,000 or so years of Ireland's history which are treated in this book. Yet it was probably the most cataclysmic event in that long period, and its effects are still with the Irish in Ireland and with people of Irish descent in many parts of the world" (Fry/Fry, p. 227).
The famine, and a cholera epidemic in 1849, was devastating. Fry/fry, p. 233, estimate the population of Ireland in 1845 as eight and a half million, and think it was down to six and a quarter million in 1850, due to starvation and emigration. Some sources make the casualties even higher. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: SBoA148

Over Yonder

See The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)

Over Yonder Where the Sun Will Never Shine

DESCRIPTION: Verses are: (line, "Where the sun will never shine")(2x). Lines include "I am going over yonder," "I'll be shouting/walking over yonder" and "Meet my mother over yonder"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (USMississippi01)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Rose Hill Church, "Over Yonder Where the Sun Will Never Shine" (on USMississippi01)
SAME TUNE:
Since I Laid My Burden Down (File: ADR70)
NOTES [48 words]: A similar hymn is The Swan Silvertones' "Over Yonder" (2005, on "The Swan Silvertones--1946-1951," Acrobat ADDCD 3004). The Rose Hill Church hymn uses "Where the sun will never shine" as a response for each line called; the Swan Silvertones' hymn uses each line as a call and response. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcOYWSNS

Over Yonder's A Park

See The Corpus Christi Carol (File: L691)

Over Yonders Ocean

See The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)

Overalls and Snuff

DESCRIPTION: "One day as I was walking along the railroad track, I met a man in Wheatland with his blankets on his back... I knew he was a Wobbly by the button that he wore." He tells stories of workers' troubles. They must help the imprisoned Ford and Suhr
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Cleveland "Solidarity," according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement prison
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1913 - Wheatland Hop Riot
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 496-497, "Overalls and Snuff" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Green" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
File: LDC496

Overgate, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a lass at the Overgate; she eats as much as an elephant, then invites him to her bed. A policeman pushes him downstairs. He complains that he's lost his valuables; she retorts that she's lost her maidenhead "and that's a damn sight worse."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (recording, Belle Stewart)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a lass at the Overgate (Dundee market) and takes her to a restaurant, where she eats as much as an elephant, then invites him to her house for the night. When he arrives, a policeman gives him a "whirly-jig" and pushes him downstairs. He complains that he's lost his waistcoat, watch and purse; she retorts that she's lost her maidenhead "and that's a damn sight worse." He envisions going home to Auchtermuchty and vows he'll never forget Dundee
KEYWORDS: sex robbery food humorous police warning money drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #51, pp. 207-208, "The Overgate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 187, "The Overgate" (1 text plus another in the appendix, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 47, "The Overgate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 31, "The Overgate A"; The Overgate B"; 32, "The Beefcan Close" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
DT, OVERGATE* OVERGAT2*
Roud #866
RECORDINGS:
Belle Stewart, "The Overgate" (on Voice20)
Belle Stewart & Hamish Henderson, "The Overgate" (on FSB2CD)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Seventeen Come Sunday" (tune, plot), plus all the other "seduced and robbed" songs
cf. "The Shift and the Apron"
NOTES [157 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland says that this may be based on "As I Roved Out" (his version of "Seventeen Come Sunday"). This is a bit strong; Kennedy has lumped obvious "Seventeen Come Sunday" variants under "The Overgate." But cross-fertilization certainly took place; the two share tunes, choruses, and theme. There are hints of elements from other songs of this type as well. - RBW
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 20" - 15.1.04: "The song 'A Waukrife Minnie,' which Burns sent to the Scots Musical Museum (1790) would seem to be an antecedent of the song." That may be true of "Seventeen Come Sunday" [Laws O17], but I think that's as close as it comes. - BS
I've lumped two versions together here; in one (Belle Stewart's) the young man is chased out by a policeman, while in the other (Jeannie Robertson's) he hides his money but awakens in an alley. Still essentially the same story. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: K187

Overland Stage Driver, The

DESCRIPTION: "I sing to everybody, in the country and the town... But plead for the cause of sticking to the box seat of a coach." The singer enjoys seeing the plains and the mountains; the weather doesn't bother him; he is proud to carry the mail
AUTHOR: Nat Stein (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (Montana Post [of Virginia City], April 8, 1865, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: work travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 56-57, "The Overland Stage Driver" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The High Salary Driver of the Denver City Line" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
File: LDC056

Overland Stage, The

DESCRIPTION: "They don't drive the Overland Stage no more Like they used to when I was young." The drivers take the stage out and talk of how they would face an outlaw. They pick up a young woman. She shocks them by holding them up. He blames it on women's suffrage
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy robbery trick
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 124-126, "The Overland Stage" (1 text)
File: ThLo124

Overlander, The

See Queensland Overlanders (File: FaE164)

Overlanders, The

See Queensland Overlanders (File: FaE164)

Overtures from Richmond

DESCRIPTION: "'Well, Uncle Sam,' says Jefferson D., Lilliburlero, old Uncle Sam, You'll have to join my Confed'racy...." The Confederates make demands for money, recognition, slavery, absolute power, and rewritten histories. Uncle Sam rejects the terms
AUTHOR: Words: Francis J. Child
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (F. J. Child, War Songs for Freemen, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar political parody nonballad derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 335-337, "Overtures from Richmond" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 46-47, "Overtures from Richmond" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lilliburlero" (structure, tune)
File: SCW46

Oville

DESCRIPTION: The singer's heart returns constantly to "Altmover's Fairy Glen and the cot where I was born." He recalls all the sights near Oville. Though others would differ, he will prefer visiting the Doo-an Rocks and other sites near home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H666, p. 170, "Oville" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13485
File: J666

Owd Johnny Bugger

See Old Johnny Booger (File: RcOlJoBo)

Owd Johnny Walker

DESCRIPTION: "Owd Johnny Walker went to Middleton Fair, Bowt three horses... One was blind and one couldn't see, And the other had 'is 'ead where is tail should be." The mare is hurt. He can't sell her. No one will buy. He goes home. Shee dies. He cries till he drowns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire)
KEYWORDS: horse commerce travel death drowning humorous food drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 64, "Own Johnny Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HFSL064

Owd Ned's a Rare Strong Chap

See Old Ned's a Rare Strong Chap (File: MHFL066)

Owen Rooney's Lamentation

DESCRIPTION: Rooney of Innismore, Fermanagh near Lough Erne, joins a fight and stands with the Catholics. Six of the opponents fall. Rooney is taken prisoner, tried and convicted; "my wife and children it grieved ... To see me transported at the age of fifty-three"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1830 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: violence transportation trial death Ireland political lament
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 34, "Owen Rooney's Lamentation" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle That Was Fought in the North" (subject: "party fights")
cf. "The Lamentation of James O'Sullivan" (subject: "party fights")
cf. "The Noble Blue Ribbon Boys" (subject: Ulster quarrels)
NOTES [61 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "This ballad is probably connected with the 'party fights' in County Fermanagh in July 1829." Zimmermann cites a report describing the "battle of Mackeen," July 13, 1829, following an Orange celebration of the Battle of the Boyne. "Several Orangemen were killed. A Rooney was among the nineteen Catholics deported after the trial." - BS
File: Zimm034

Owen Trainor

DESCRIPTION: Owen Trainor and two friends hire a boat that capsizes in a gale. Trainor dies after telling his friends to tell his sweetheart and comrades his dying thoughts. An Indian in a canoe rescues his friends.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck farewell rescue Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 65-68, "Owen Trainor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12465
NOTES [24 words]: Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland: "Owen Trainor worked in the Post Office in Charlottetown. The drowning occurred before 1900." - BS
File: Dib065

Owenreagh

DESCRIPTION: The singer, wandering by Owenreagh, recalls all the "comrades long absent from home." He admits that the land is barren and money hard to come by. He wishes them back; he stayed, and the land is beautiful, and money is fleeting. Perhaps they will return
AUTHOR: George BArnett-IHearAmericaSinging
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H542, p. 217, "Owenreagh" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH542

Owenreigh's Banks

DESCRIPTION: The singer, bound for America, bids farewell to Glenrannel, his friends, and his sweetheart most of all. His one true fear is leaving her, and having "the ties of love... rend in twain." He bids his friends drink, and promises to remain affectionate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H100b, p. 193, "Glenrannel's Plains" (1 text); H225, pp. 196-197, "Owenreagh's Banks"
Roud #13550
NOTES [44 words]: The editors of the Henry collection do not seem to have noticed that these two texts are the same song. But they have the same plot, and very many of the same lyrics; only the place has changed. I chose the "Owenreagh" title because it is the version with a tune. - RBW
File: HHH100b

Owl Among the Bushes Sat, The

DESCRIPTION: "The owl among the bushes sat, And when it rained it spoiled his had, But when it dried, said he, 'Oh, bosh! It's all the better for a wash. Twitter hooo-oo! (x2), We'll do as other people do." The owl sits on a wall hooting, then flies away with the moon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Mother Goose from Germany)
KEYWORDS: bird clothes | owl hat wall rain
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
ADDITIONAL: (No author listed), _Mother Goose from Germany_, Frederick Leypoldt, 1864 (available on Google Books), p. 64, "The Owl" (1 text)
Mary Wilder Tileston, _Sugar and Spice and All That's Nice: A Book of Nursery Rhymes and Verses_, Little, Brown, 1928 (originally published 1885), (available on Google Books), pp. 112-113, "The Owl" (1 text)
Detroit Public Schools, _Consonsnt Exercises for Speech Improvement, Book 2_, 1929 (available on Google Books) p. 85, "(no title)" (1 text, the first verse only, for teaching the sound "tw")
RECORDINGS:
Barbara Croft, "The Owl" (Piotr-Archive #662, recorded 09/05/2023)
File: DPio662

Owl and the Jay Bush, The

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

Owl and the Mice, The

DESCRIPTION: "The owl and the mice lived up in the barn, A dinky dinky doo dum dow; The owl eat(s) mice and the mice eat corn." The song of the owl causes the mice to come out and listen; the owl swoops down and eats them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (collected by John Daniel Vass)
KEYWORDS: animal bird trick music food
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 78-79, The Owl and the Mice"" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7339
NOTES [142 words]: One of the few folk song I've heard with an almost "ecological" theme. Sadly, it is very rare; Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains claims to have found another version, but I have been unable to verify this.
It is ironic to note that, of the two creatures in the song, it is not owls but mice that 'sing" (at an inaudibly high pitch, to be sure). Owl calls are in general quite unmusical. And, according to several bird guides (Peterson, National Geographic), the only American owl even faintly likely to roost in a barn is (logically enough) the Barn Owl, found throughout the southern United States. Roger Tory Peterson (Brids of Eastern and Central North America, fifth edition, 2002, p. 204) describes its voice as a "shrill rasping hiss or snore, kschhh or shiiish." Not the sort of thing that would lure *me* out of my nice safe hole. - RBW
File: Shel078

Owl in the Elms, The

See From Out the Battered Elm Tree (File: ACSF443)

Owl, The

See Of All the Birds (File: ChWI141)

Owlet, The

See Baby Owlet (File: ACSF342B)

Owre Don, owre Dee

See Blawin' Willie Buck's Horn (File: GrD81640)

Owre kynge went forth to Normandy

See The Agincourt Carol (File: MEL51)

Owre the Hills and Far Awa'

DESCRIPTION: The singer is sad that the wind has blown his plaid away. It was his sheet that protected him from wind and wet. "It's nae the plaid that I lament, But ochone, alas, my love was in't"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting sex parting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1408, "Owre the Hills and Far Awa'" (1 text)
Roud #7260
File: GrD71408

Owre the Water to Torry

See Over the Water to Charlie (File: Lins262)

Owre yon Hill

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) (File: E098)

Owslebury Lads, The

DESCRIPTION: 30 November 1830 a mob of Owslebury lads wreck machinery. Sent for trial to Winchester, "many was transported for life and some was case to die." Conditions in the jail are hard. "For all the poor in Hampshire for rising of their wages"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: poverty violence crime execution punishment sabotage transportation trial farming technology food ordeal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 19-25, 1830 -- Riots in Winchester district (source: Times of London)
Dec 30, 1830-Jan 3, 1831 -- Special Commission at Winchester (source: Times of London)
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 103, "The Owslebury Lads" (1 text)
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #8, "The Owslebury Lads" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 84-86, "The Owslebury Lads" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 37-39, "The Owslebury Lads" ("The thirtieth of November, Eighteen hundred and thirty") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17212
NOTES [399 words]: Raven's text is based on the same manuscript as is printed in Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle. I have cited it because it includes the tune and has a more detailed explanation of the situation than Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle. Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle's first line is "The thirtieth of November last eighteen hundred and thirteen," which, Reeves points out, should have noted the date as 1830, not 1813. When reading Raven note that the Winchester commission, convened December 18, 1830, covered many more "riots" than Owslebury. For background on this [p. 282] and similar occurrences, and the results of the subsequent Special Commission at Winchester, and Special Commissions for Wiltshire at Salisbury and other locations, see J.L. Hammond and Barbara Hammond, The Village Labourer 1760-1832 (Longmans, Green and Co, 1913 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 240-334, Chapters 11 and 12, "The Last Labourers' Revolt." Details of the Special Commission at Winchester are reported in the Times of London, Dec 22, 1830-Jan 3, 1831. For a summary of the "riot" activity see The Times of London, Wednesday, Dec 22, 1830; pg. 5; Issue 14416; Start column: C. (Copyright 2002 The Gale Group); the later issues cover the details of the Special Commission at Winchester's activities and indictments.
The machines being broken were primarily threshing machines. Two convicted thrashers at Salisbury were enlightened by the judge at sentencing: "You are both thrashers and you might in the perversion of your understanding think that these machines are detrimental to you. Be assured that your labour cannot ultimately be hurt by the employment of these machines. If they are profitable to the farmer, they will also be profitable to the labourer, though they may for a time injure him. If they are not profitable to the farmer he will soon cease to employ them" (Hammond, p. 295).
For all of the three weeks of Special Commissions, "In the riots ... the only man who had been killed was a rioter.... On the other side, not a single person had been killed or seriously wounded. For these riots, apart from the cases of arson, for which six men or boys were hung, aristocratic justice exacted three lives, and the transportation of four hundred and fifty-seven men and boys [to Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales], in addition to the imprisonment of about four hundred at home" (Hammond, pp. 307-308).- BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: ReCi103

Ox Driving Song

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of the hardships of ox-driving in the winter -- an occupation he intends to quit. "It would make any tender-hearted person weep To see my oxen pull and slip." "When I get home I'll have my revenge, I'll land my family among my friends."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (collected from Herman R. Weaver)
KEYWORDS: work cowboy animal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 233-234, "Ox-Driving Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 13, "Ox Driving Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 125, "The Ox-Driver" (1 text)
DT, OXDRIVE
Roud #3584
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Ox Driver's Song" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Whipped My Horse" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [99 words]: Perhaps it's hearing the Burl Ives version too many times, but this sounds recently composed to me. - PJS
Every version I've seen seems to go back to the same Lomax field recording. Possibly the informant had worked on it?
Roud lumps this with Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's piece "The Waggoners." There are a few words in common, but only a few, and those of the sort that could float or even occur to an author spontaneously; really, only thing they have in common that I can see is that both involve travel. -I can see Roud's point, but I'm not quite ready to agree. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: FCW013

Ox Plough Song

See Oxen Plouging (File: PECS002)

Ox Team Trail, The

DESCRIPTION: "Into the West when dawns, When dawned that fateful day, The Mormon host moved slowly... Toward our greatest goal." In the "barren sagebrush prairies" they will find a home for those "Who prayerfully kept plodding Along the Mormon trail"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes home | Mormon
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 51-54, "The Ox Team Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10823
File: ChMS051

Ox-Driver, The

See Ox Driving Song (File: FCW013)

Ox-Driving Song, The

See Ox Driving Song (File: FCW013)

Ox-Eyed Man, The

See The Hog-Eye Man (I) (File: RL401)

Oxeborough Banks (Maids of Australia)

DESCRIPTION: The singer settles under a tree to watch the girls bathe. One catches his eye -- and he hers. She calls him to rescue her from sinking. (He then "entered the bush of Australia.") Nine months later she bears a son whose dad "nowhere could be found"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recording, Harry Cox)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction pregnancy abandonment river sex
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England(Lond)) Canada(Newf) US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 44-45, "Maids of Australia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 269-270, "Maids of Australia" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 276-277, "The Gay Maid of Australia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 183, "The Maid of Australia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 27, pp. 163-166, "The Banks of My Native Australia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1872
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "The Gay Maid of Australia" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Harry Cox, "The Maid of Australia" (on FSB02, FSB2CD)
Unidentified Mississippi singers "The Fair Maids of Australia" (AFS 15014 A3, 1930s)
NOTES [13 words]: The Hawkesbury River reaches the sea north of Sydney at Broken Bay, NSW. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: FaE044

Oxen Ploughing, The

DESCRIPTION: "Prithee, lend your jocund voices for to listen we're agreed; Come sing of songs the choicest of the life we ploughboys lead." Ploughboys hear the birds as they work; they rest when it is hot; they go home to the girls and fires at evening; all need them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (Baring-Gould)
KEYWORDS: farming bird work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #2, "The Oxen Ploughing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 26, "The Oxen Ploughing" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 44, "(A Cornish Ox-Driver's Song)" (1 fragment, 1 tune, filed with a group of songs under the general heading "Crowdy Crawn")
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, p. 57, "The Oxen Ploughing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 72-73, "Ox Plough Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #686
File: PECS002

Oxen Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you bold ox teamsters, Wherever you may be...." "It's of a bold ox teamster, His name I'll tell to you, His name was Johnny Carpenter, He pulled the oxen through." Despite his prowess, the oxen wear out and the trips go slowly
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: logger work animal moniker
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 263-267, "The Oxen Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OXENDRV*
Roud #3751
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (theme) and references there
NOTES [30 words]: Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland mentions a claim that this was by Larry Gorman -- but, frankly, Gorman's songs tend to be better than this; the song really doesn't go anywhere. - RBW
File: Lins263

Oxford and Hampton Railway, The

DESCRIPTION: ""O, come and listen to my song... About the folks... Along the Oxford Railway." "Don't you wonder how it's done? Carriages without horses run...." Various people watch the train, celebrate it, ride it; "you can visit all your friends"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: collected by David Blagrove, according to Raven
KEYWORDS: nonballad railroading
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 50-52, "The Oxford and Hampton Railway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 226-228, "The Oxford and Hampton Railway" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: JRViI050

Oxford Boys Are Very Nice Boys

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Oxford boys are very nice (boys), Cambridge boys are better...." The rest is perhaps censored.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | Oxford Cambridge
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #451, "Oxford boys are very nice" (1 text)
Roud #22188
File: AJRR451

Oxford City [Laws P30]

DESCRIPTION: A servant asks a lady to wed; she put him off on the grounds that they are too young. When he sees her dancing with someone else, he poisons her wine. Feeling ill, she asks him to take her home. He reveals that both have drunk poison; they die together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(230a))
KEYWORDS: courting death poison homicide wine suicide
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Britain(Scotland,England(All)) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Laws P30, "Oxford City"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #137, pp. 2-3, "In Oxford Town" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 210, "In Oxford Town" (4 texts, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 83, "Oxford City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 212-213, "Poison in a Glass of Wine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 317, "Around the Grove as I Was Walking"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 12, "Twas Near Fleet Street" (2 texts)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 46-47, "Jealousy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 44-45, "Oxford City" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire 15, "Worcester City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 329, "Poison in a Glass of Wine" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 74, "Oxford City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 36, "The Poisoned Cup" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 82-83, "Oxford City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #128, "Oxford City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 18, "Oxford City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 92-93, "In Oxford City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 54, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 508, OXFJEAL*
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844_, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 119, "Oxford City" (reprint of a Pitts broadside)
Roud #218
RECORDINGS:
Garrett & Norah Arwood, "Poison in a Glass of Wine" (on OldTrad2, FarMtns3)
Gerald Aylward, "Wexford Girl" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Bill Bundy, "Poison in a Glass of Wine" (Unissued test pressing, 1928; on KMM)
Mary Doran, "Oxford City" (on FSB7)
Louie Fuller, "Young Maria" (on Voice13)
Roscoe Holcomb, "True Love" (on Holcomb-Ward1)
Bride Judge, "In Yorkshire City" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Little Glass of Wine" (on NLCR06)
Stanley Brothers, "The Little Glass of Wine" (Rich-R-Tone 423, rec. c. late 1947) (Columbia 20590, 1949) (Rich-R-Tone 1056 [as "Little Glass of Wine"], rec. 1952)
Joseph Taylor, "Worcester City" (on Voice03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(230a), "Oxford City" ("It's of a fair maid in Oxford city"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 11(2899), Harding B 17(229b), Johnson Ballads 245, Harding B 16(195c), Harding B 16(195b), Harding B 16(195a), Firth c.13(280), Harding B 11(2004), Harding B 25(1438)[some words illegible], 2806 c.19(29), Harding B 11(161), Firth b.34(220), Harding B 11(2064), Harding B 11(2901), Harding B 11(298), Firth c.18(57), Harding B 11(2900A), Harding B 11(2900), "Oxford City"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maria and William" (theme: poison in a glass of wine)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Jealous Lover
Jealousy
File: LP30

Oxford Girl, The

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Oxfordshire Captain, The

See A Gentleman of Exeter (The Perjured Maid) [Laws P32] (File: LP32)

Oxfordshire Tragedy, The

See (notes under) Love Has Brought Me to Despair [Laws P25] (File: LP25)

Oyster Fishers' Song, The

See The Herring Loves the Moonlight (The Dreg Song) (File: BGMG870)

Oyster Girl, The [Laws Q13]

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets an oyster girl and proposes that they take a room at the inn to discuss the sale. When they arrive, she picks his pocket and jumps out the window. He is left with a kettle of oysters and a bill to pay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904
KEYWORDS: courting robbery trick seduction
FOUND IN: US(SE) Britain(England(North,South,West),Scotland(Aber),Wales) Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws Q13, "The Oyster Girl"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #96, pp. 2-3, "The Girl and the Oysters" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 304, "Oysters" (12 texts, 10 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H725, p. 278, "The Basket of Oysters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 234, "The Oyster Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 669, "Oyster Girl" (1 text)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 34-35, "The Oyster Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 48, "The Oyster Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 48, "The Oyster Girl" (1 text)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 168-170, "The Oyster Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 170-172, "The Oyster Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 524, OYSTRGAL*
Roud #875
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Quare Bungo Rye" (mysterious--read female--"box" motif)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Creel and the Oysters
File: LQ13

Oyster Shell Bonnets and Chignons (The Dandy Chignon)

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the "queer fashion" of the (bonnet and) chignon. He tells how all the women are trying them out. Some even buy two; others get them made from odd materials. He clearly thinks the old ways (sunbonnets, etc.) were better
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: hair nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H227, p. 47, "The Dandy Chignon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13359
File: HHH227

Oyster Stew

DESCRIPTION: "A man happened to an accident upon a railroad train" and has his leg amputated; he sends a message to his mother, "Just tell them that you saw me... Her darling boy has one foot in the grave." An oyster sends a message, "Just tell... I was in the soup"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Camp Clavell and Girl Reserve Club Songs)
KEYWORDS: derivative humorous injury food
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 154, "Oyster Stew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harbin-Parodology, #62, p. 22, "Oyster Stew Song" (1 short text, with just the oyster-in-the-stew verse)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 94, 174, 285, 291, 344, "Oyster Stew"/"The Oyster Stew Song" (notes only)
Roud #11352
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Just Tell Them That You Saw Me" (source of this parody)
File: Brne154

Oysters, The

See The Oyster Girl [Laws Q13] (File: LQ13)

P. T. Barnum's Show

See At Barnum's Show (File: R450)

P.K. Chewing Gum

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "P.K. chewing gum, penny a packet/racket, First you chew it, then you crack it, Then you stick it in your jacket, P.K. chewing gum...." (Or, "Then your mother kick(s) up a racket."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Gardiner Collection, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food clothes mother | chewing gum
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #462, "P.K. chewing gum, penny a packet (racket)" (1 text)
Roud #19073
File: AJRR462

P'tit rocher, de la haute montagne

See Petit Rocher (File: FMB034)

Pa Rattin

DESCRIPTION: "Home came old Pa Rattin," drunk. He kills Ma, Grandpa, brother and baby Rattin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2)
KEYWORDS: homicide drink brother mother husband baby wife
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 51, "Pa Rattin" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BrE2051

Pace-Egging Song, The

DESCRIPTION: We have come pace-egging; give us eggs and beer and we'll not come till next year. A British tar who served with Nelson has returned to England pace-egging. A lady has run from her country and is here to collect eggs in a basket and drink neat gin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: Easter drink nonballad religious
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 22-25, "Peace-Egging Song" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #132, "Pace Egging Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #17, pp. 196-199,246-247, "The Maskers' Song" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 400-403, "The Maskers' Song" (1 text)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 58-59, "Pace Egg Song--I" (different enough from the standard version that it might be considered a separate song, or at least to have mixed with one); p. 60, "Pace Egg Song--2"; pp. 64-65, "Pace Egg Song--Chipping" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
DT, PACEEGG*
ADDITIONAL: Marjorie Rowling, _The Folklore of the Lake District_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 116, "(no title) (1 fragment with notes about the custom)
Roud #614
RECORDINGS:
Emma Vickers, "The Pace-Egging Song" (on Voice16)
NOTES [678 words]: Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 16" - 13.9.02: "Pace-Egging customs were once common throughout north-west England (the word Pace, meaning Peace, may be derived from the French word Pasque, which means Easter) and this song is used as an introduction to an accompanied Mummer's Play." - BS
Yates's derivation of "pace," which is repeated by Palmer, is oversimplified. Most agree that "pace" is from Middle English "paschal" -- which does clearly derive from either a late Latin or an early French root. But it's not a word for "peace"; it's derived ultimately from the Greek root underlying "passion." The Latin word "pascha," according to FreundEtAl, p. 1311, is exclusively derived from Greek πασχα, "pascha," and is used solely in Christian contexts, seemingly first by Tertullian in the third century, for the Passover; it is also used in the Latin translation of 1 Corinathians 5:7.
Nonetheless the idea of "peace" may be mixed in somehow. The Latin for peace is "pax," and one of the most familiar of all Latin liturgical phrases is surely "pace [pronounced, in Church Latin, 'pach-ay'] vobiscum," "peace to you."
The term "Pace Eggs," as opposed to "Easter Eggs," is mostly confined to the north of England, Upton/Widdowson, pp, 150-151, map the usage of the two terms. Unlike most cases where the dividing lines between terms are rather ragged, there is really only one line between "Pace" and Easter." The term "Pace" is used in Lancashire, Cumbria, Durham, Northumbria, and central Yorkshire; "Easter" is used everywhere else (except for a few areas in the south that don't have a name for these eggs).
Of course, none of this has anything to do with the actual custom of pace-egging.
Simpson/Roud, p. 105, note that eggs could not be eaten by Catholics during Lent, so eggs laid in that time were preserved for Easter. "In northern England they were called 'pace eggs,' 'peace eggs,' or 'paste eggs', corruptions of pasche, the Latin-based medieval word for Easter, here confused with pax='peace'." Hazlitt, p. 478, calls them "pasch eggs," although without adding anything except a citation of another book.
It should be pointed out that the Easter Bunny is a much newer phenomenon; rabbits were not introduced into England until the thirteenth century.
Egg customs are also late; although many cultures associated eggs with life (Jones-Larousse, pp. 159-160), they are rarely mentioned in the Bible, and in the early Old Testament period, there seem to have been no domesticated egg-laying fowl, although an egg eventually became part of the Jewish Seder celebration (InterpretersDict, volume 2, p. 38). In the New Testament, the word is used only in Luke 11:12, and in a saying of Jesus, not referring to an actual egg.
Alexander, p. 211, notes a custom of rolling pace eggs at Preston, but this seems to be more recent. Kellett, p. 132, says that they were rolled down a hill, and it was a sign of good fortune if they reached the bottom without breaking. He also says that they could be rolled on Monday (sometimes called "Troll Monday") rather than Easter Sunday.
Based on Kellett, there were in relatively recent times quite a few other Pace Egg customs in Yorkshire, including "Pace Egg Plays" (in which, e.g., Saint George kills an enemy, who then is revived by a magic potion), and "jawping" pace eggs in a conkers-like game.
Depending on the version, quite a few characters show up to beg for their eggs and beer, starting with Lord Horatio Nelson himself. For Nelson, see e.g. "Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar (Brave Nelson)" [Laws J17], which in some ways is similar to this in structure. We also meet (Vice Admiral) Lord (Cuthbert) Collingwood, Nelson's second-in-command at Trafalgar, and sundry anonymous sailors who are listed as serving under Nelson.
Hamer's "Pace Egg Song--I" is a partial exception to this; we are still introduced to various people (which is why I filed it here rather than splitting them," but none of them have names; they are just a sailor, a lady, and a jolly man. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcPaceEg

Pack of Cards, A

DESCRIPTION: "One night as I sat by my fireside so weary..... When all of a sudden I found my eyes resting On something that brought many scenes to my mind, 'Twas an old pack of cards." The singer tells talesof a gambler slowly dies from gambling and poverty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: gambling death hardtimes cards
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 117-119, "A Pack of Cards" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9535
File: SBar117

Pack Train

DESCRIPTION: "Welton Brown ran a pack train From his farm at the top of the hill, Brining supplies to the bush men who fell'd the trees." He carries food, mail, news in the rain. "It's been a hard slog with horses and dog, But where else would I rather be?"
AUTHOR: Words: Peter M. Gross / Music: Neil Colquhoun
EARLIEST DATE: 2003 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: travel food nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, pp. 94-95, "Pack Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Col2094

Pack Up Your Troubles

See Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag (File: SBoA334)

Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag

DESCRIPTION: "Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag And smile, smile, smile! While you've a Lucifer to light your fag, Smile, boys, that's the style; What's the use of worrying, It never was worthwhile; So pack up your troubles in your old kit bag...."
AUTHOR: Words: "George Asaf" (George Henry Powell) / Music: Felix Powell
EARLIEST DATE: 1915
KEYWORDS: nonballad war drugs campsong
FOUND IN: US Canada Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p, 21, "Pack Up Your Troubles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 29-30, "Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 184, "Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, p. 334, "Pack Up Your Troubles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 160, "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag and Smile, Smile, Smile" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 419, "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 168, "Pack Up Your Troubles" (notes only)
Roud #24977
SAME TUNE:
Pack Up Your Dishes ("Pack up your dishes on your pantry shelves") (Harbin-Parodology, #263, p. 65; Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 124)
Pack Up Your Wieners ("Pack up your wieners in your old knapsack and hike, hike, hike") (Harbin-Parodology, #246, p. 61; Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 124; cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 168)
Pack Up Your Duffle (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 168)
Pack Up Your Trouble in Your Little Compact (Harbin-Parodology, #4, p. 9)
Dump All Your Troubles ("Dump all your troubles in your own back yard And boost, boost, boost") (Harbin-Parodology, #143, p. 43)
Pack Up Your Troubles (Scouting Version) ("Pack p your troubles in your old kit-bag And smile, smile, smile. Now we're a-hiking on the old Scout trail") (BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 59)
NOTES [132 words]: According to Thomas S. Hischak, The American Musical Theatre Song Encyclopedia (with a Foreword by Gerald Bordman), Greenwood Press, 1995, p. 271, this "is the British hit song that was equally popular with American troops during World War One. Adele Rowland sang the Felix Powell (music) and George Asaf (lyric) marching song in Her Soldier Boy (1916), and the next year there were popular recordings by James F. Harrison and the Knickerbocker Quartet and by Reginald Werrenrath.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 317, estimates that this was the eleventh most popular song in America in 1917, peaking at #2 in June 1917 (#1 for the year being George M. Cohan's "Over There"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SBoA334

Package of Letters, A

See Little Rosewood Casket (File: R763)

Package of Old Letters, A

See Little Rosewood Casket (File: R763)

Package of Old Love Letters, A

See Little Rosewood Casket (File: R763)

Packet Ship

DESCRIPTION: "Bounty was a packet ship, Pump ship, packet ship, Sailing on a cruising trip, In the south Pacific!" "Billy Bligh(t), that silly man... was the master in command." The men mutiny and put Billy Blight off in a boat. The Bounty disappears
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor shanty mutiny
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1787 - The Bounty, under William Bligh, sets sail for the South Seas
Apr 28, 1789 - The Bounty mutiny, in which Bligh and 18 others are set adrift in a boat. They make it back to England; the mutineers settle in the South Seas
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 152, "Bounty Was a Packet Ship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 113-114, "Packet Ship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8235
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bounty" (subject of the Bounty mutiny)
File: HSoSe152

Packing My Things

DESCRIPTION: "When I came and took up my claim, Well, Bill Muggins was my name" but he's stuck rocking the cradle. He has hunted for gold and suffered through cold winters. But in "shanties where you spin away all your... tin" Nancy ensnared him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Collected from William Swan)
KEYWORDS: father children gold
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 58, "Packing My Things" (1 text, 1 "reconstructed" tune) (p. 30 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 72, "(Packing My Things)" (1 text)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 14-15, "Packing My Things" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Colq030

Packing Up, Getting Ready

DESCRIPTION: "Packing up, getting ready, Going to see King Jesus, I'm packing up, getting ready, Packing up, getting ready to go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Charles W. Joyner, "The Repertory of Nancy Jones as a Mirror of Culture in Scotland County," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), p. 94, "(Packing up, getting ready, going to see King Jesus)"/"(King Jesus is mine and I'm forgiven)" (1 short text, or possibly two independent fragments)
NOTES [34 words]: Aretha Franklin recorded a song, "Packing up, getting ready to go." It does not appear to be the same as this. I would assume that this is a hymn from... somewhere... but I have been unable to locate it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: NCF212PU

Packington's Pound

DESCRIPTION: Dance tune, with no real lyrics of its own, but used as a platform for a great variety of broadsides.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1596 (Barley's "New Book of Tablature")
KEYWORDS: nonballad dancetune
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 123-125, "Packington's, or Paggington's Pound" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 259-260, "Packington's Pound" (1 tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Praise of a Dairy (File: BeCo444)
Well worth[y] Predecessors, and Fathers by name/Pitties Lamentation (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2781)
Come listen a while and a Story you'll hear/The Murtherer Justly Condemned.. May, 1697 (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN629)
When England half Ruin'd had cause to be sad/Romes Beargarden (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2836)
Poor England thy sorrows this many a year/England's Mercies (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2214)
Come, John, sit thee down, I have somewhat to say/An Amorous Dialogue between John and his Mistress (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN616)
Come young men and listen to what I'le you show/A good wife is a portion every day (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN710)
All Company-keepers come hear what I say/Two-penny-worth of Wit for a Penny (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN61)
Come listen a while though the weather be cold/Blanket Fair (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN636)
I am a young blade that had money good store/The World turn'd up-side down (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1231)
All you that have stock, and are mad for a peace/The French Preliminaries (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN136)
Let England rejoyce with heart and with voice/A New Protestant Ballad.. Reign of King William (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1641)
Hold up thy head England, and now shew thy face/Englands Joy in a Lawful Triumph [on proclaiming Charles II King] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1158)
You Sabbath-day Tiplers, pray do not repine/A Caveat for Tiplers (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3103)
There was an old Knight liv'd in Sommersetshire/The Bountiful Knight of Sommersetshire (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2555)
A chimney-man lately in London did dwell/Chimney-man's Lamentation (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN486)
This nation long time hath been plagued with old rats/Come Buy a Mouse Trap/ [by Humphrey Crouch] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2582)
A new calculation of late has been given/A New Copy of Verses, of Monsieurs Boating (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1875)
By Brittains true Monarchs, Great William and Mary/The Proclamation For a General Fast in the Nation (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN457)
Ye Sages of London, of states high and low/City Justice (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2986)
Your scandalous lies I with patience have read/An Answer to the Packet of Advice (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3223)
Good people come hither come listen awhile/The Brickmaker's Lamentation from Newgate (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1049)
You free-men, and masters, and 'prentices mourn/London's Lamentation (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3245)
Ye Whigs and Dissenters I charge ye, attend/The Whigs Hard Heart for the Cause of the Hard Frost (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2987)
This Winter was sharp, it did plainly appear/London's Wonder [frost ending Feb. 4 1685] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2585)
Bold Titus he walkt about Westminster-Hall/Perjury Punished (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN411)
Come listen ye Whigs, to my pitiful moan/The Salamanca Doctor's Farewell (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN658)
Let England Rejoyce and all sorrows expell/The Princely Triumph..Birth of the Young Prince of Wales (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1639)
The world is orerun with enormous abuse/Fayre Warning (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2966)
Though the town does abound so with plots and with shams/The Protestant Cuckold [Ben. Harris and wife Ruth] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2599)
Now let us all true Protestants ever Rejoyce/...Prince of Orange's March (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1932)
London now smiles to see Oxford in tears/Oxford in Mourning for the Loss of the Parliament (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1703)
The manifold changes that have hap'ned of late/The High Court of Justice [trial of Regicides] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1748)
You Millers, and Taylors, & Weavers each one/The Crafty Maid of the West..Miller.. trapan'd (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN3071)
As through the City I passed of late/The Sorrowful Complaint of Conscience and Plain-Dealing (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN314)
The weather is clear, which was late over cast/Holland turn'd to Tinder..Third Great Royal Victory [Naval battle, July 25-6, 1666] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2760)
Let England, and Jreland, and Scotland rejoyce/The Royal Victory [over Dutch fleet, June 2, 3, 1665] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1636) (With the title "The Royal Victory" in C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , p. 58)
Lift up thy head England & lay by thy mourning/The Triumph of four Nations;.. [peace of Breda] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1690)
Of all the rich pleasures that ever was seen/Joyfull News to the Nation..[Crowning of] Charles the II. on the 23. of April (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2094)
Adiew vain delights, and bewitch us no more/Robbery Rewarded.. Five Notorious High-way-men's Exploits (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN15)
Come hither good fellows and hear what I say/A Groatsworth of Good Counsel for a Penny, Or The Bad Husbands Repentance (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN595)
Of late I did walk in a pleasant fair day/The Constant Couple, Or, The Glory of True Love (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2110)
The Jenny a small Picaroon in the Park/The City Caper; Or, The Whetstone-Park Privateer (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1541)
Forbear your vile plotting/The Plotter Executed (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN906)
All young men and maidens, come listen a while/The merry Pastime of the Spring (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN161)
Good people attend now, and I will declare/Mans Amazement..Thomas Cox.. (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1045)
When all hearts did yield unto Cupid as King/Pyramus and Thisbie (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2815)
You Bartholomew tapsters I first do advise/A Description of Bartholomew-Fair (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2991)
Come all you brave Sea-men of Courage so free/News from the coast of Spain (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN524)
Let all loyal subjects look well to their wits/Treason Rewarded at Tiburn.. executed [24th of January, 1679] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1619)
Fairest and dearest to thee I am bound/The Dying Lovers Reprieve (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN848)
For certain and sure, this Girl will go mad/The Young-Man's Answer to the Politick-Maids Device (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN903)
Farewel, worldly pleasures and fading delight/Sir Thomas Armstrong's Farewell [executed June 20, 1684] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN888)
Come, all loyal lovers, so courteous and free/Love and Constancy (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN503)
You bonny boon blades that are company keepers/The bad husband's Information of ill Husbandry (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2998)
Good fellows come hither, 'tis to you I speak/The Alewives Invitation to Married-Men, and Batchelors (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1005)
My dearest come hither and listen tome [sic]/The merry Discourse between two Lovers (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1799)
Come all loyal Subjects of every degree/Good News for the Nation..[new parliament] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN506)
Company of Gossips that love strong bub/The Merry Gossips Vindication (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN712)
Alas my dear husband, what is your intent/A Looking glass for all Good-fellows; or, The Provident Wives Directions (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN45)
Come all loyal subjects I pray you draw near/ Great Britains Joy (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN505)
A curse on blind Cupid his name I do hate/A Westminster Wedding, Or, A Whore-master Buried Alive (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN738)
Captain Harman, or, News from the Coast of Spain ("Come, all you brave seamen of courage so free") (C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , p. 83)
An Appeal to Loyalists ("The old English cause knocks at ev'ry man's door") (Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, pp. 64-65)
Unto the Prophet Jonas I Read (H. E. Rollins, A Pepysian Garland, Black-Letter Broadside Ballads of the years 1595-1639, chiefly from the Collection of Samuel Pepys, p. 67)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Digby's Farewell
NOTES [76 words]: Folklore has it that a fellow named Packington, in the reign of Elizabeth I, bet that he could swim the length of the Thames. But Elizabeth forbade the attempt, and Packington forfeited his pound. I have no way to verify this; I heard it on a classical music station.
This *tune* is almost certainly traditional, though the words have not endured. It is included in the Index because of the many broadsides set to its melody (see the Same Tune list). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ChWI259

Packman, The

DESCRIPTION: The ballad tells the story of an itinerant pedlar as he rises through hard work to wealth and honor. His sons become professionals. His daughter marries well. The Packman still works as hard as he ever did.
AUTHOR: Charles Murray (1864-1941)
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A popular pedlar buys and sells everything, knows everybody's business, and works hard to raise himself from poverty. Eventually he can buy a cart, and then a shop on which he raises the sign "Merchant." His wealth increases and he marries well. He becomes a church elder and banker. His three sons are sent to college and become a scholar, a lawyer and a doctor. His daughter, schooled in France, marries "a strappin' Deeside laird." The Packman still works as hard as he ever did.
KEYWORDS: marriage bargaining commerce children
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #130, p. 3, "The Packman"; #118, p. 3, ("There was a jolly pedlar loon") (2 text fragments)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Murray, "Hamewith" (London, 1920), pp. 20-28, "The Packman" (1 text)
NOTES [65 words]: Greig: "Mr Duncan says that the poem was circulated before its publication in book form, which, he thinks, may account for parts of it getting picked up. The fragment, which was picked up some years ago, was sung to a genuine folk-tune, with a refrain in the middle and at the end of the verse; which inclines one to think it just possible that the 'Pedlar Loon' was before the 'Packman.'" - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Grg130a

Paddle Song, The

See Our Paddle's Keen and Bright (File: ACSF415O)

Paddle the Road with Me

DESCRIPTION: A rambler invites a girl to marry him and join him on the road. The girl is not thrilled; winter is coming and her father has another husband in mind. The rambler declares that her fiance is worthless; the two set out happily on their rambles
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting rambling marriage
FOUND IN: US(MA) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #68, p. 1, "To Pad the Road"; #70, p. 2, "To Pad the Road" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan4 875, "Pad the Road" (6 texts, 3 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 78-79, "To Pad the Road wi' Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 32, "Paddle the Road with Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H18a, pp. 358-359, "Will Ye Pad the Road wi' Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa032 (Full)
Roud #4599
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Weaver and the Tailor" (tune)
cf. "Maid of Mourne Shore (II)" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Pad the Road wi' Me
File: Wa032

Paddle Your Own Canoe

DESCRIPTION: "I've traveled about a bit in my time And of troubles I've seen a few, But I found it better in every clime To paddle my own canoe." The singer advises loving one's neighbor, not being downhearted, and remaining as independent as possible
AUTHOR: Probably Harry Clifton
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2905))
KEYWORDS: nonballad work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 663, "Paddle Your Own Canoe" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 55, "Paddle Your Own Canoe" (1 text)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 116, "Paddle Your Own Canoe" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 286-287, "Paddle Your Own Canoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #16, p. 41, "Paddle Your Own Canoe" (1 text)
Roud #6093
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2905), "Paddle Your Own Canoe" ("I've travelled about a bit, in my time"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 26(492), Harding B 18(580), Firth b.34(222), "Paddle Your Own Canoe"
LOCSinging, sb30426b, "Paddle Your Own Canoe," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Bill Ryan Left Terry Behind" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Night Pat Murphy Died (by Johnny Burke) (Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #78, p. 119)
Peter Joy (by James Murphy?) ("Whenever you need a 'roast' or steak... Go call on Peter Joy") (James Murphy, editor, _Songs Sung by Old-TIme Sealers of Many Years Ago_, James Murphy Publishing, 1925 (PDF available from Memorial University of Newfoundland web site))
NOTES [146 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "Cf. Paddle Your Own Canoe written and sung by Harry Clifton (Hopwood and Crew, London, c. 1890)" -- but note earlier broadsides. - BS
For background on Harry Clifton (1824-1872), see the notes to "The Good Ship Kangaroo." Although the broadsides probably predate the first official publication of this song, Clifton's authorship seems likely. Heart-Songs lists "M Hobson" as being responsible for the tune.
Dime-Song-Book #6 has a song "I'll Paddle My Own Canoe." I'd consider them separate. The "Paddle Your Own Canoe" in Dime-Song-Book #16, also looks rather different, and surely rewritten, but probably from the same roots, so I've listed it here. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb30426b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Be3055

Paddy and the Gauger

See Pat and the Gauger (File: CrSNB078)

Paddy and the Three English Plagues (Three English Rovers)

See Campbell the Rover (File: K269)

Paddy and the Whale

DESCRIPTION: "Paddy O'Brien left Ireland in glee He had a strong notion old England to see." A whale attacks the ship, swallows him, and vomits him six months later. "The next time he wishes old England to see It will be when the railroad runs over the sea"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: travel escape drink England Ireland humorous whale
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 67, "Paddy and the Whale" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PADWHAL*
Roud #6342
RECORDINGS:
A.L. Lloyd, "Paddy and the Whale" (on Lloyd9)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (theme)
NOTES [26 words]: Obviously a variant of the Jonah legend, this seems to be found only in Canada. Although no one seems to have traced it, I suspect stage-Irish origin. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: GrMa067

Paddy Backwards

DESCRIPTION: Singer rides to market on a cow, which dirties his clothes and shoes. He looks up the magistrate, asking if he knows the place; when he arrives, he sees nothing but a thousand potatoes growing on a pear tree. Chorus: "Sing down, all you paddies, lay down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: travel nonsense paradox animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 110, "Paddy Backwards" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 110, "Paddy Backwards" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 82, "Paddy Backwards" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp.140-141, "Paddy Backwards" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 119, "Paddy Backwards" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PADBCKWD*
Roud #1687
RECORDINGS:
Alexander March, "Paddy Backwards" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nottamun Town (Nottingham Fair)" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "The Seven Wonders" (theme)
cf. "The Lofty Giant (Song of Marvels)" (theme)
cf. "Paddy's Ramble to London" (theme and some couplets)
cf. "Limerick Races" (theme)
cf. "Shon M'Nab" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
All You Paddies Lay Down
NOTES [651 words]: MacColl & Seeger lump this and other "marvels" songs with "Nottamun Town," but as the tunes, structures wonders cited are different I prefer to keep them separate. - PJS
This is another "Oh, dear." Looking at the version in the Digital Tradition, the plot is quite distinct from what is listed here, and it shares lyrics and a metrical pattern with "Nottamun Town" -- so much so that I almost filed *it* with Nottamun Town and called the MacColl/Seeger text a separate piece. Definitely a case of continuous texts, but with divergent extremes. - RBW
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland says "this is a variant of 'Paddy's Ramble to London' a favorite slip and broadside song of the first half of the nineteenth century."
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast agrees with Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland in that "an English broadside, 'Paddy's Ramble to London,' early nineteenth century, is probably the ancestor of this and of the various songs found in America with titles like 'Nottingham Fair,' 'Nottamun Torn.' It was a popular minstrel song.
If you follow this through the Bodleian archives, be careful not to be misled by broadsides with similar titles like "Paddy's Ramble THROUGH London" or "Paddy's VISIT to London" which are among the many country-bumpkin-comes-to-town-and-reveals-how-foolish-things-are-in-the-city broadsides. Bodleian includes "Paddy's Ramble to London" printed at Seven Dials between 1802 and 1844, shelfmark 2806 c.18(233). You can see a similar text as "Paddy's Ramble"["Says Paddy in Ireland no longer I'll stay"] printed in London between 1802 and 1819, shelfmark Harding B 16(198a).
Here is a Long Description of "Paddy's Ramble to London":
This is addressed to tars looking for a fight between wars, without swords or guns but arms "to kill all our friends that will do no harm."
Paddy has too much money and so can't pay his debts and decides to go to London, pass for a Lord, with his head under his arm, his wig and broad sword.
[The third and fourth verse are a clear source for Paddy Backwards]: He leaves Dublin for Manchester "next Michael last" where "My horse standing still throw'd me down in the dirt Daubed my Body and bruised my shirt, I being of good courage I mounted again, My ten toes I tripp'd over the plain, Where my knapsack and all I throw'd to the ground And away then I steer'd to fair London town"
At London "not a soul could I see" because the crowd was so thick so I stood still but my feet were worn and shoes were lame.
I choked on the dust in the day-long rain, had a quart "to drive gladness away" and since I had no money to pay with I took a coach and walked away.
[Lines from the next two verses also survive in Paddy Backwards]:"As I was a going through St. Jame's Park, In the middle of winter when noon it was dark, I met three making of hay in the middle of winter, One Midsummer's Day. To find out the place I was sad at a loss, When shutting my eyes on safe Charing Cross Where the King set on horseback all on the cold stone There was thousands all round him but troth never a one."
I'll play cards at the Ball and court a rich Lady worth nothing. At the marriage drum will ring, bells beat and fiddle sing.
I'll marry a Blackamoor Lady, the "fairest of creatures" and buy her a silver cup of horn.
Since I favor splitting "Paddy's Ramble to London" from "Paddy Backwards" I think it pays to compare the two more precisely. Among the four Newfoundland texts, the version of "Paddy Backwards" that is closest to the "Paddy's Ramble to London" broadside is on the MacEdward Leach and the Songs of Atlantic Canada site. The broadside has 20 couplets and the site has 14. They share five. The five couplets shared are the only ones found in Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland (3 couplets out of 12), Leach text A (4 out of 13 1/2) and Leach text B (3 1/2 out of 8). - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: McCST119

Paddy Carey

DESCRIPTION: Recruiting Sergeant Snapp meets Paddy Carey, a great favorite with the women. He enlists Paddy for a shilling "while Pat was coaxing duck-legged Mary." At that ugly widow Leary gives Paddy money for a ring. He outfits himself as a captain and leaves.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(232a))
KEYWORDS: courting army recruiting money humorous rake
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 20, "Paddy Carey" (1 text)
Roud #V1016
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(232a), "Paddy Carey" ("'Twas at the town of neat Clogheon"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also 2806 c.15(294), Harding B 11(2906), Harding B 12(71), Harding B 11(2907), Harding B 28(23), Harding B 25(1445), "Paddy Carey"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Limerick Races" (mentions this song)
NOTES [59 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 17(232a) is used as the basis for the description since O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland ends his song before widow Leary comes on the scene. - BS
It should be noted that this song was printed at a time when commission by purchase was still the norm in the British army; the practice was not abolished until 1871. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: OCon020A

Paddy Darry

DESCRIPTION: "Paddy Darry lived in Clary, Had a girl in Biddy Town, Her tongue was slit with the sierel larry, But she sang to Paddy a golden rune. Hey eye for the sierel-larry... Oh what's the use of going fast? He's sure to meet me on the way."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 293, "Paddy Darry" (1 text)
Roud #7952
NOTES [37 words]: This is perhaps the least-documented piece in all of Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety. He didn't take down the date or the tune, it's only a fragment, and neither he nor I knows another version of it. - RBW
File: Beld293

Paddy Doyle (I)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "We'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots." The boots may be referred to as stolen, or Paddy's boarding house may be described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart-Songs)
KEYWORDS: shanty clothes poverty
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE) Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 10, "Paddy Doyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 43, "Paddy Doyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, p. 32, "Paddy Doyle and His Boots" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 330-334, "Paddy Doyle's Boots" (3 texts, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 247-249]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXXVIII, p. 43, "Paddy Doyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 115, "Paddy Doyle's Boots" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H53c, p. 96, "Paddy Doyle' (1 text, 1 tune, a tiny fragment)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 28, "We'll Pay Paddy Doyle For His Boots" (1 fragment)
Bone-CapstanBars, p. 47, "Paddy Doyle" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #30, "Paddy Doyle's boots" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 31, "Paddy Doyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 237, "Paddy Doyle" (1 short text)
Heart-Songs, p. 433, "We'll Pay Paddy Doyle" (1 text, 1 tune, a single line)
DT, PADDOYLE
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). A fragment of "Paddy Doyle" is in Part 4, 8/4/1917.
Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, p. 199, "Paddy Doyle and His Boots" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4695
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Paddy Doyle's Boots" (on IRClancyMakem02)
Richard Maitland, "Paddy Doyle" (AFS, 1939; on LC26)
NOTES [122 words]: According to Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, Doyle was a boarding master. (A boarding master took in sailors and found them jobs at sea in return for a cut of their pay. In return, he was to provide them with necessary equipment such as boots; for background on the, see the notes to "Dixie Brown" [Laws D7].) Boarding masters expected to take a large profit, but apparently Doyle was more rapacious than most.
Terry says that the only line in some versions was the identifying lyric "We'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots," but happily for the sailors' sanity, some people came up with alternatives.
The Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine version is unusual in that they will "kill" rather than "pay" Paddy for his boots. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Doe010

Paddy Doyle (II)

See Doran's Ass [Laws Q19] (File: LQ19)

Paddy Doyle and Biddy O'Toole

See Doran's Ass [Laws Q19] (File: LQ19)

Paddy Doyle and His Boots

See Paddy Doyle (I) (File: Doe010)

Paddy Doyle's Boots

See Paddy Doyle (I) (File: Doe010)

Paddy Duffy's Cart

DESCRIPTION: "The many happy evenings I spent when but a lad On Paddy Duffy's lumber cart, quite safe away from dad," The singer recalls all the people, "Tommy Dobson, now a senator," "Henry Gleason, now a millionaire," and others less noteworthy
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 ("Squatter Sovereignty")
KEYWORDS: humorous lumbering home moniker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #73, pp. 266-270, "Paddy Duffy's Cart" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 118-119, "'Paddy Duffy's Cart" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Harrigan, The Mulligans , G. W. Dilingham, 1901, p. 437, "(no title)" (1 fragment)
Richard Moody, _Ned Harrigan: From Corlear's Hook to Herald Square_, Nelson Hall, 1980, after p. 68, "Paddy Duffy's Cart" (a copy of the sheet music)
Stanley Appelbaum, editor, _Show Songs: from The Black Crook to The Red Mill_, Dover Publications, 1974, pp. 28-33, "Paddy Duffy's Cart" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Roud #V1588
RECORDINGS:
Amercan Quartet (Billy Murray, Steve Porter, John H. Bieling, William F. Hooley), "Paddy Duffy's Cart" (Victor 17056)
NOTES [516 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
This is a curiosity -- it's a moniker song, but a moniker song about people who assuredly did not exist. It also seems to swallow Edward Harrigan's earlier piece "Little Fraud," which was (I think) originally a parody of "Little Maud."
The play "Squatter Sovereignty" was one of Edward Harrigan's biggest hits, running 168 performances (Moody, p. 125) -- a very high number at the time. Moody, p. 126, calls it a "documentary" of the Shantytown of New York, where in the 1880s "squatters" had transformed old boxes, barrels, and the like into shanties by Central Park. In a typical Harrigan twist, one of the major characters was a goat, Billy, the subject of "The Widow Nolan's Goat." The widow's daughter Nellie (played by Gertie Granville, Tony Hart's soon-to-be wife) is supposed to marry Terrence McIntyre, son of the "royal astronomer to the Duchess of Connaught" (Harrigan) who can show you "Uranus, Venus, Mars, and Jew Peter" for ten cents (Moody, p. 126). As is typical of Harrigan, the show involves misplaced love (Nellie loves Fred Kline, the son of a glue maker, not McIntyre), conflict between ethnic groups -- and live animals.
Franeschina, p. 144, says, "A contract is drawn up between the Widow [Nolan] and Felix [McIntyre, the astronomer, father of Terrens] in which she bestows her daughter with a dowry of bedding and a billy goat, while he gives his son a pig and a goose, with the understanding that if either child shold refuse the marriage, the parent would forfeit the dowry.... When the widow learns of her daughter's marriage to Fred Kline, she refuses to give up her goat to McIntyre, igniting a feud.... Before the curtain falls... both families find themselves in another characteristic Comique melee in which the widow's shanty is torn down and all the animals are let loose from their cages."
David Braham gave up his usual pattern of marches and schottisches (Franceschina, p. 144): "There were no songs and dances, walk-around, or military parades. Instead, Braham borrowed from European operetta and Irish jig patterns to create, arguably, his most original score to date.
"The runaway song hit from Squatter Sovereignty was "Paddy Duffy's Cart," an ensemble number used at the beginning of the third act to announce the arrival of Paddy Duffy (Eugene Rourke), a character of tangential importance to the plot. Particularly notable is the antiphonal choral writing in the second chorus, the melody and lyric of Harrigan and Hart's earliest theatrical success: 'Little Fraud,/ Little Fraud,/ She's the daintiest darling of all. As the widow Nolan, Hart [who often played transvestite roles] was provided with 'The Widow Nolan's Goat, an attractive Irish jig with a chorus in the minor mode and a rather conservative melodic compass."
According to Spaeth, p. 190, there was also an interlude after the first and third choruses: "After the first and third stanzas it was customary to sing [John P.] Ordway's Twinkling Stars are Laughing, Love [from 1855] in close harmony." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: HaBrPDCa

Paddy from Cork

See Paddy from Home (File: Yng251PH)

Paddy from Cork Has Never Been

See Paddy from Home (File: Yng251PH)

Paddy from Home

DESCRIPTION: "Paddy from home has never been, A railway train he's never seen, He longs to see the great machine, That travels along the railway." Or, "Paddy McQuark/from Cork was never seen, never seen, never seen... Travelling around the railroad."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: travel playparty train
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond)) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 74, "Paddy from Cork has never been" (1 short text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 34, "(Paddy from Cork has never been)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Ron Young, _Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador_, Downhome Publishing Inc., 2006, p. 251, "(Paddy McQuark Was Never Seen)" (1 short text)
Roud #13608
File: Yng251PH

Paddy Hagerty's Old Leather Breeches

See The Old Leather Breeches (File: MCB232)

Paddy Hart

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you gallus sporting men and boys that fall the pine, I hope you'll pay attention and just listen to this rhyme" iabout Paddy Hart, whose ancestry was noble. He loves fighting, drink, women. Left to freeze by a widow, he reforms and goes west
AUTHOR: unknown (but see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan)
KEYWORDS: humorous drink lumbering rejection travel
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 218-223, "Paddy Hart" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 105, "Paddy Hart" (1 text)
Roud #6502
NOTES [53 words]: Beck had this at about third hand from an informant who claimed this was written by "Big Head McGinness, who also wrote 'White River Drive.'" I know of no traditional song by that name, but the description of McGinness sounds a bit like the "Dan McGinnis" who wrote "Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl)" [Laws C25]. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: BBun218

Paddy In New York

DESCRIPTION: Pat lands in New York and finds a pub. The cost of Irish whisky is so high he accuses the landlord of trying to rob him, as the landlords did at home. They fight. Pat knocks the landlord down. 50 Yankees join the battle, but 50 Irishmen chase them away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
KEYWORDS: accusation fight violence emigration travel drink America Ireland humorous brawl
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #26623
RECORDINGS:
John Joe English, "Paddy In New York" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
NOTES [52 words]: This is more "the Irishman wins over the oppressors" than "the ignorant Irishman doesn't know what to make of the big city." The final lines of the ITMA/CapeShoreNL text are, "Success attend all Irish people, many a country they have roamed. But their courage is more dearer, when they're far away from home." - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: RcPaInNY

Paddy Magee's Dream

DESCRIPTION: An Englishman, Scotchman, and Irishman meet and pool their resources to buy a loaf. The loaf will go to the one who has the grandest dream. The Englishman and Scotchman have grand dreams but the Irishman dreamt he was hungry, woke and ate the loaf.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2917))
KEYWORDS: wager dream food humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US(Ro)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 99, "Paddy Magee's Dream" (1 text)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 72, "Johnny Bull, Irishman, and Scotchman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #191, "The Three Dreams" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST OCon099 (Partial)
Roud #3272
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2917), "Paddy Magee's Dream" , W.S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; also Harding B 11(2918), "Paddy Magee" ("John Bull he was an Englishman, he went on the tramp one day") or "The Three Dreams"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Bull Lives In England" (theme of national comparison)
File: OCon099

Paddy Magrue

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Paddy Malone

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! My name is Paddy Malone, or 'twas so in Tipperary," but he chose to emigrate to Australia and now regrets it: He lost his master's sheep, was kicked by his bullock team; he will now head to town to try something safer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson, _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: Australia emigration animal humorous
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 163-165, "(Paddy Malone)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 97-101, "Paddy Malone" (1 text)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 52-53, "Paddy Malone" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 16-17, "Paddy Malone in Australia" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 187-188, "Paddy Malone in Australia" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 273-275, "Paddy Malone in Australia" (1 text)
Roud #9111
File: PFS097

Paddy Malone in Australia

See Paddy Malone (File: PFS097)

Paddy McGinty's Goat

DESCRIPTION: Paddy McGinty buys a nanny goat for the milk but finds it is a billy. The goat eats folks' valuables and causes the Kaiser problems. The goat swallows gasoline, dynamite and a spark: if you see someone in heaven with whiskers it may be this goat.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Frank Quinn recording)
KEYWORDS: war clothes death humorous animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18235
RECORDINGS:
Pat Harrington, "Paddy McGinty's Goat" (Decca 18786, 1939; on "Come-All-Ye's and Other Irish Songs," Coral Records CRL 57367 LP (1961))
Jack Houlihan, "Paddy McGinty's Goat" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
The McNulty Family, "Paddy McGinty's Goat" (private tape collection, likely on Copley Records after 1943)
Frank Quinn, "Paddy McGinty's Goat" (Bluebird B-4959, 1926; on "Farewell to Ireland," Proper Records Proper Box3 P1111 CD (1999))
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bill Grogan's Goat" (theme)
NOTES [125 words]: The Quinn and McNulty records have one set of verses, all of which Houlihan includes and adds two more.
The Harrington recording shares two verses with Quinn/McNulty, adds one that Houlihan includes about the goat swallowing someone's horse race winnings, and adds one more I haven't seen elsewhere: Mrs. Burke's daughter leaves town in disgrace after being seen kissing a man with whiskers she insists is the goat; she returns with loot she didn't get from the goat. Houlihan's is alone among the four versions having the Irish guards taking the goat to France and gassing the Kaiser's troops. In 1939 Ireland is nominally neutral and there is no mention of Germans or submarines on Harrington's recording. The four recordings use the same tune. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcPaMcGo

Paddy McQuark

See Paddy from Home (File: Yng251PH)

Paddy Miles the Fisherman

DESCRIPTION: "Paddy Miles was a fisherman, young and light-hearted," who found that "all kinds of fish... came into his net." But he wants a wife. He meets a mermaid and tries to make out with her -- but finds her fishy hindquarters unsuited to his desires
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: fishing humorous mermaid/man
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 264-265, "Paddy Miles, the Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15679
NOTES [29 words]: There was a nineteenth century song "Paddy Miles" beginning "From the big town of Limerick lately I came" (see Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 123); it appears to be unrelated. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: Pet264

Paddy O'Rafferty

DESCRIPTION: Paddy O'Rafferty, marries Judy O'Doherty, a scold. "With pleasure I'd pay for a neat wooden suit for her." They go to dig turf. She falls in a hole; "Says I, there's an Irish divorce for you." He would dance on her grave but the mossy ground is too soft.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage abuse death humorous burial
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 118, "Paudeen O'Rafferty" (1 text)
Roud #16253
NOTES [32 words]: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin text is from Healy, The Mercier Book of Irish Street Ballads 4, pp. 134-135, "Paddy O'Rafferty." Elizabeth Cronin's song lists have only the title. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC118

Paddy O'Rourke

See Billy O'Rourke (File: E145)

Paddy on the Railroad

See Paddy on the Railway (File: MSNR151)

Paddy on the Railway (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Paddy on the railway, Picking up stones; Along came an engine And broke Paddy's bones." "O, said Paddy, That's not fair. O, said the engineman, You shouldna have been there."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Opie)
KEYWORDS: train injury jumprope
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, "(Paddy on the railway)" (1 text); p. 109, "(Polly on the railway)" (1 text)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 151, "(Paddy on the railway)" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 129, "Sitting on the railroad, picking up stones" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #460, "Piggy on the railway, picking up stones" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 11-12, "Paddy on the Railway" (1 text plus an extra verse, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 79, "Piggy on the railway" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 22, "(Paddy on the railroad)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Iona and Peter Opie, _Children's Games in Street and Playground_, oxford, 1969, 1984, p. 37, "(Paddy on the Railway)"
Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #46, "(Piggy on the Railway)" (1 text)
J. C. Reid, _A Book of New Zealand_ (Collins National Anthologies), Collins, 1964, p. 333, "Children's Games" ("Paddy on the Railway") (1 text)
Roud #13611
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Teddy on the Railway
NOTES [26 words]: The Opies in Children's Games classify this among the counting rhymes. It doesn't sound like it to me, but certainly it is primarily a children's rhyme. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MSNR151

Paddy on the Railway (II)

See The Greenock Railway (File: GrD2290)

Paddy on the Turnpike

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses about Paddy's difficulties as he travels: "I'm just Paddy on the turnpike, I'll just be on my way, I'll just paddle down the turnpike To pass the time away." He describes his travels, admits he has no wife, and laments growing old
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: floatingverses rambling age
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 43, "Paddy on the Turnpike" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [30 words]: Not to be confused with the fiddle tune of the same name. Ohrlin's version, as the notes admit, consists mostly of floating verses; I don't know if a coherent version exists. - RBW
File: Ohr043

Paddy Ryan

DESCRIPTION: "Way up in old Calgary over the line There came an old cowboy, his name was Pat Ryan. He looked at the cowboys a-workin' the chutes, 'Boys, watch these spurs on the heels of my boots.'" "Old Thief Duncan looks up and he squalls, 'Watch this boy....'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1896 - Birth of Pat Ryan
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 34, "Paddy Ryan" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune)
File: Ohr034

Paddy Ryan's Victory

DESCRIPTION: ""From round seventy-eight to eighty-six, Left room for to believe No Englishman could ever stand The weight of Paddy's sleeve." After a long boxing match, "Joe" is unable to come out to fight "Paddy," who wins the bout
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: fight Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 1, 1880 - bare-knuckle fight between Joe Goss and Paddy Ryan, won by Ryan after Goss failed to come out of his corner for round #87
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 232-233, "Paddy Ryan's Victory" (1 excerpt)
Roud #V36855
File: TNY232

Paddy Sheahan

See Patrick Sheehan [Laws J11] (File: LJ11)

Paddy Stole the Rope

See How Paddy Stole the Rope (File: OCon068)

Paddy West

DESCRIPTION: The singer stops at Paddy West's (boarding)-house. Paddy offers him a (bad) meal and induces him to go to sea. Paddy assures the recruit is qualified by sending him three times "around the horn" of a cow and having him furl the royal of the window blind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman)
KEYWORDS: sailor humorous shanghaiing
FOUND IN: US(MA) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 113-114, "Paddy West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 335-336, "Paddy West" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 250-251]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 80-81, "Paddy West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 113, "Paddy West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 136-1137, "Paddy West" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PADWEST*
Roud #3092
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tramps and Hawkers" (tune) and references there
NOTES [214 words]: Hugill claimed Paddy West was a real person, living probably on Great Howard Street in Liverpool. But he offers no further details. For the not-very-savory history of boarding masters in general, see the notes to "Dixie Brown" [Laws D7].
How much difference Paddy West's attempts to varnish his recruits made is far from clear. Richard Henry Dana Jr., who sailed in this period, wrote in the second paragraph of chapter one of Two Years Before the Mast, "The change from the tight dress coat, silk cap, and kid gloves of an undergraduate at Cambridge, to the loose duck trowsers, checked shirt, and tarpaulin hat of the sailor... was soon made, and I supposed myself to be looking as salt as Neptune himself. But it is impossible to deceive the practiced eye in these matters... I was, no doubt, known for a landsman by every man on board as soon as I hove in sight. A sailor has a peculiar cut to his clothes, and a way of wearing them which a green hand can never get.... Besides the points in my dress which were out of the way, doubtless my complexion and hands were enough to distinguish me from the regular salt, who, with a sunburnt cheek, wide step, and rolling gain, swings his bronzed and toughened hands athwartships, half open, as though just ready to grasp a rope." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Doe113

Paddy Whack

DESCRIPTION: Paddy Whack boasts of his Irish ancestry, his schooling (especially in fisticuffs), and his skill in war
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio)
KEYWORDS: Ireland
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 153, (first of several "Fragments of Irish Songs")
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 72-73, "The Gentleman of the Army" (1 text)
cf. Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 16, "Paddy Whack Let a crack On the Lord Mayor's Back" (1 text)
ST E153A (Full)
Roud #5353
NOTES [202 words]: There is a broadside, "Paddy Whack," beginning "Oh here I am and that is flat," from the nineteenth century (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 123), and another (p. 142), "Since I've Been in the Army," which starts, "I'm Paddy Whack, from Bally-a-hack, not long ago turned soldier," but I don't know if either is the same piece (it's the item cited from Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster). There are five versions of the latter in Wolf, which implies that Paddy the character, at least, was popular. Also, John Moulden reports that Samuel Lover wrote the libretto for an opera, "Il Paddy Whack in Italia," in 1841; according to William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 29, the libretto for this was by William Balfe.
Dime-Song-Book #31, p. 10, is "I'm a Paddy Whack, Just Landed."
According to Grant Uden and Richard Cooper, A Dictionary of British Ships and Seamen, 1980 (I use the 1981 St. Martin's Press edition), p. 557, "Whack" is an "old nautical term for proper share or due portion. 'A fair whack' referred to the provision of the correct ration of daily victuals aboard ship." So Paddy Whack might be an Irish sailor who demands his fair share. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: E153A

Paddy Works on the Erie

See Paddy Works on the Railway (File: LxU076)

Paddy Works on the Railway

DESCRIPTION: Paddy describes the working conditions on the railway: "In (1841), I put me corderoy britches on... to work upon the (railway)." He recalls the hard work, courting and losing a wife, and the drink he uses to relieve his burdens
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag); there is a clear reference from 1864 in a manuscript from the clipper _Young Australia_
KEYWORDS: railroading work marriage death drink hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(NE) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 547-552, "Paddy Works on the Railway" (1 text plus extended excerpts to illustrate variations in the song and a broadside print of "Mick Upon the Railroad," 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 356-357, "Poor Paddy Works on the Railway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 107-108, "Paddy Works on the Railway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips pp. 139-141, "Oh, Poor Paddy Works on the Railway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 155-156, "Roll the Cotton Down" (1 text, version "E" of "Roll the Cotton Down"); pp. 337-338, "Paddy Works on the Railway," "Poor Paddy Works on the Railway" (2 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 252-253]
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 77-78, "Paddy Works on the Railway" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, pp. 20-21, "Poor Paddy Works on the Railway" (1 conflated text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 670, "Paddy Works on the Railway" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 76, "Paddy Works On the Erie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 20-22, "Paddy Works on the Erie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 238, "Working on the Railway" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 254, "Working on te Railroad" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 438, "Paddy Works on the Erie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 43, "Fillimeeooreay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 42-43, "Pat Works on the Railway" (1 text)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 78, "Pat Works on the Railway" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 330, "Pat Works on the Railway" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 150, "Paddy Works on the Erie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 101 "Pat Works On The Railway" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 142, 163, 233, 289, 386, 394, 498, "Patsy Orry Aye" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 48, "Railroad Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PADRAIL1*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Paddy on the Railway" is in Part 3, 7/28/1917.
Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, pp. 344-345, "Oh, Poor Paddy Works on the Railway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 31-32, "Poor Paddy Works on the Railway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #208
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Paddy Works on the Railway" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bluestone Quarries" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Shaver" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Climbing Up the Ladder ("In nineteen hundred and twenty-one, I thought that Scouting must be fun") (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 89)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The American Railway
NOTES [265 words]: Greenway prints a three-verse version ending with complaints about the company store. It is not clear whether this is a parody or a natural addition -- or whether the Sandburg/Lomax versions have cleaned this up.
There is a broadside, NLScotland LC.Fol.178.A.2(086), entitled "Paddy on the Railway," beginning "A Paddy once in Greenock town, For Glasgow city he was bound." The chorus is "Engine, boiler, water tight, Driving in with all his might, Upon my soul it was a sight To see the Greenock railway." This may well be related; I wouldn't consider it the same song. Cohen thinks there is "no relation."
Cohen also discusses the origin of this song, observing that it has two basic forms, which might be distinguished by their choruses -- the one more common in old versions being "I'm weary of the railway, Poor Paddy works on the railway"; the other, which is the one they taught us in grade school, is "Fil-i-me-oo-ri-ee-ri-ay" or some such noise. Cohen hints darkly about the fact that the earliest source of the second tune is a Lomax book, and I can offer no contrary evidence. There is also evidence of mixng of versions; Cohen notes the similarity of these several Lomax verses to the undated broadside "Mick Upon the Railroad."
Shay describes his version as a capstan chantey. The only support for this is the last of his nine verses, in which the singer goes to work for the Black Ball Line in 1849 ("and that's the end of my monkeyshine"). It is clear that the song functioned as a shanty of some sort, though, given the number of sea song collections in which it is found. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LxU076

Paddy, Get Back

DESCRIPTION: Shanty, with long chorus, "Paddy, get back, Take in the slack, Heave away your capstan," etc. The song details how the poor boy has to go to sea to earn money, then suffers at the hands of weather, mate, and a long voyage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (but see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: shanty poverty sailor abuse
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Mar) Britain(England(Lond)) Ireland
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 54-55, "Paddy, Get Back" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 121-122, "Paddy Get Back" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 321-327, "Paddy Lay Back" (3 texts, 3 tunes with variants) [AbEd, pp. 241-244]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 32, "Paddy Lay Back" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 68-70, "Paddy Get Back" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 73-74, "Valparaiso Round the Horn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 124, "'Bout ship's stations, boys, be handy" (1 fragment)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 42-43, "Lay Out, Tack Sheets and Haul" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 141, "On Board the Leicester Castle" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PADLAYBK
ADDITIONAL: Carlton Dawe, _The Voyage of the "Pulo Way": A Record of Some Strange Doings at Sea_, R. F. Fenno & Company, 1899 (available on Google Books), "(Then stand back, take in the slack)" (1 fragment, probably this)
Roud #653
RECORDINGS:
George Ling, "On Board the Leicester Castle" (on Voice02)
Richard Maitland, "Paddy, Get Back" (AFS, 1939; on LC26)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Liverpool Song" (form, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mainsail Haul
The Liverpool Song
Valparaiso Round the Horn
NOTES [287 words]: Gibb Sahib, in a post on Mudcat.org, points out the article "On Shanties," in E(neas) S(weetland) Dallas, editor, Once a Week, New Series, Number 31, August 1, 1868 (published by Bradbury and Evans and available on Google Books), p. 92, which reads, in part, "There is an air of romance about California, the Brazils, and Mexico, that has a peculiar charm for Jack, and has made them the subject of many a favourite shanty, as Rio Grande, Valparaiso, Round the Horn, and Santa Anna." It is not clear whether this is meant to refer to three songs or four (and while the article quotes "Rio Grande" and "Santy Anno," it does not quote the ones in the middle), but Sahib thinks it likely that it is meant as a single title and refers to this song. I agree. So it is likely that the song was actively circulating in 1868,
The Dawe text from 1899 certainly appears related, although I wonder if the author had heard it and forgotten parts; it runs
Then stand back, take in the slack!
Heave around your caps'n, gail a pawl!
'Bout ship! Stations, lads -- be handy!
Let go your starboard brace -- your mainsa'l haul!"
(Thanks again to Gibb Sahib for finding this.)
Many early versions contain the words "heave a pawl," though this seems to have been lost in pop folk versions (perhaps because the singers themselves didn't understand it!). A pawl is a sort of ratchet mechanism on the capstan, which allowed it to turn one way but not fall back the other. There would be several pawls around the capstan; the sailors would normally haul for more than a single pawl's distance. But they needed to heave *at least* one pawl's distance to be sure that the rope they were hauling would not give back the progress they had made. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Doe054

Paddy, Lay Back

See Paddy, Get Back (File: Doe054)

Paddy, the Cockney and the Ass

DESCRIPTION: Pat Molloy meets a cockney and his ass in London. Forced to speak to the ass, Pat puts a pebble in its ear. Enraged, it upsets the cockney's cart. Taken in, Pat says he told the ass that the Irish had rid themselves of the landlords. Charges dismissed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Pat Molloy from County Clare goes to London and meets a Cockney with a cart and donkey. The Cockney won't let Pat pass until he speaks to the donkey. While speaking he puts a pebble in the ass's ear. The ass, mad, upsets the Cockney's cart. The Cockney has the peelers take Pat in. The magistrate asks Pat what he told the ass to make him mad. He says he told the ass that the Irish had rid themselves of all the landlords. The magistrate laughs and dismisses Pat.
KEYWORDS: England Ireland humorous animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 18, "Paddy, the Cockney and the Ass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3078
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Pat Molloy and the Cockney
Paddy and the Ass
NOTES [33 words]: Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan: "The slightly 'stagy' language used in the ballad might be an indication -- by no means an infallible one -- that the song originated in America." - BS
File: RcPaCoAs

Paddy, You're a Villain

DESCRIPTION: The young girl meets Paddy, and soon she declares, "Paddy, you're a villain, Paddy, you're a rogue. There's nothing o' ye Irish Except your name and brogue. You're killing me by inches, You're making me your slove." She hopes to dance on his grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: courting betrayal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 34, "O Patsy you're a villain" (1 text)
Roud #22768
File: KSUC034B

Paddy's Advice

DESCRIPTION: Paddy is advised "let men of all creeds and professions agree ... How easy old Erin we'd free." If you stand alone, the preachers will fleece you, you must pay landlords just to dig your land. "The system must fall ... if ye stick to each other"
AUTHOR: James Hope (1764-1847) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Madden's _Literary Remains of the United Irishmen of 1798_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 41, "Paddy's Advice" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Moyl041

Paddy's Curiosity Shop

DESCRIPTION: "Did you hear tell of Paddy's Museum?" It is filled with antiquities. Barnum's cannot compare. It has Adam's "mattock and spade," "King David's ould breeches,"... "I'll give you the second edition Some night when you drop in again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1879 (broadside, LOCSinging sb30404a)
KEYWORDS: humorous talltale Bible
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 145, "Paddy's Curiosity Shop" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1856, p. 125, "Pat's Curiosity Shop" (4 references)
Roud #15372
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(694), "Pat's Curiosity Shop", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878 [same as LOCSinging sb30404a]
LOCSinging, sb30404a, "Pat's Curiosity Shop", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878 [same as Bodleian Harding B 18(694)]
SAME TUNE:
The Pride of the Village ("I was born in the town of Kilhooley," by Eugene T. Johnston) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 129)
NOTES [84 words]: Although I know of no American collections, the song seems to have been printed frequently in the United States; Wolf-AmericanSongSheets lists two broadsides by de Marsan, one by Partridge, one by Wrigley, and there seem to have been multiple songs set to the tune. - RBW
Broadsides LOCSinging sb30404a and Bodleian Harding B 18(694): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: OCon145

Paddy's Green Country

See The Town of Antrim (File: HHH632)

Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of setting sail from (Londonderry), bound for America. He looks long on the beloved Irish coast he is leaving. A hard voyage brings him to America, where he and his friends say farewell. (He hopes to return home and marry his girl)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration parting ship separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H192, pp. 101-102, "The Shamrock Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 55, "The Shamrock Shore" (1 text)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 62, "The Shamrock Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PADDYGRN* PADDYGR2*
Roud #1419
File: HHH192

Paddy's Land

DESCRIPTION: The singer travels from Ireland to Scotland. He sees and falls in love with a beautiful girl. She asks him if he is Scottish. He tells her no, and asks if she will go to Ireland with him. She apparently refuses, for he returns to Ireland alone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection foreigner beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H473, pp. 354-355, "Paddy's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6876
File: HHH473

Paddy's Land (II)

DESCRIPTION: The singer is asked by a damsel "for a verse or two in praise of Paddy's land." He sings about pure air, pretty girls. The Irish are noble people driven from home by the failure of trade. Trade has now returned. He toasts Wellington, Duncan, and Jervis.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(233b))
KEYWORDS: emigration commerce Ireland
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1745, "Paddy's Land" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #12987
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(233b), "Paddy's Land" ("One evening all alone as I sat in my easy chair"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 25(1453), Harding B 16(197b), "Paddy's Land"
NOTES [197 words]: Greig/Duncan8 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Harding B 17(233b) is the basis for the description.
For more on trade problems at the end of the Napoleonic Wars see "The Ports Are Open."
Of the heroes toasted at the end of the song: Jervis is probably John Jervis, First Lord of the Admiralty (1735-1823) (source: Wikipedia article John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent); Duncan is probably Admiral Adam Duncan (1731-1804) who defeated the Dutch fleet at Camperdown in 1797 (source: Wikipedia article Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan of Camperdown).
The woman at the beginning of the song is familiar from the Aisling style of Irish poem [see "Granuaile"]; it would be unusual in that kind of poem for her to drop out of the text as she does in this song. - BS
Unusual, certainly, but it makes sense for a song that praises Wellington, Duncan, and Jervis to drop references to Granuaile, who stood for Irish independence. Wellington, Duncan, and Jervis were *British* heroes, implying that this is a song by a pro-Union, probably Protestant, Irishman.
Roud lumps this with a pro-Irish Freedom song called "Paddy's Land," but they don't have much in common in terms of content. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: GrD1745

Paddy's Land (III)

DESCRIPTION: "Come, all you songs of Paddy's land, who are inclined to roam To reap the English harvest so far away from home.... You'll have to fight both day and night 'gainst John Bull and his crew." They sail to New York, where they find many Irish already there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: Ireland emigration
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 112, 'Paddy's Land" (1 text)
Roud #12987
NOTES [30 words]: Roud seems to lump this with an item in Greig-Duncan about travel from Ireland to Scotland also called "Paddy's Land," but they don't have much in common in terms of content. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: HMHS112B

Paddy's Panacea

DESCRIPTION: Poteen is "the best thing in nature For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys." It cures cramp, colic and spleen, calms a baby when mixed in milk, sooths a mind at school, makes the dumb talk, the lame walk, and helped Brunel dig the Thames tunnel.
AUTHOR: Joseph Lunn (1784-1863) (source: O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous nonballad technology
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 3, "Paddy's Panacea" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 155-156, "Paddy's Panacea" (1 text)
Roud #3079
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "Paddy's Panacea" (on Voice13) (on IRTLenihan01)
NOTES [507 words]: Marc Isambard Brunel began construction of the Thames Tunnel in 1825. The tunnel was completed in 1842 and opened in 1843. (source: Thames Tunnel at the Wikipedia site. - BS
The history of the Thames Tunnel is complicated, and the Brunels (Marc Isambard, the father, and Isambard Kingdom, the son) were involved for only part of the time.
The idea for a tunnel went back to 1802, when one Robert Vazie suggested a tunnel between Rotherhithe and Limehouse. This was actually begun in 1805, but the river flooded it in 1808 and work was abandoned (Weinreb/Hibbert, p. 860).
Marc Isambard Brunel (1769-1849) became involved a decade later. He had already invented a system for mass-producing pulley blocks which made ship manufacture much faster and cheaper (Porter, pp. 103-104). A series of inventions to help other types of manufacturing followed (Porter, p. 104), but bad luck and incompetent partners drove him to insolvency.
By 1823, the idea of a Thames Tunnel was back, and Brunel invented what was called a "tunneling shield" to make it easier and safer to build the tunnel (Weinreb/Hibbert, p. 860). The idea was good, and has been used for tunneling ever since (Weinreb/Hibbert, p. 860). In 1825, work began on a 1200 foot tunnel between Rotherhithe and Wapping.
Unfortunately, while the tunneling shield worked, the tunnel itself -- the first ever constructed under a large, tidal river (Fox, p. 67) -- was problematic. The plan was to run the tunnel just 14 feet under the riverbed at one place (Porter, p. 104), and the support structures just weren't strong enough. There were problems with leakage -- and what was leaking was Thames water, and what's worse, water from the *bottom* of the Thames -- essentially, an open sewer with industrial chemicals thrown in to make the mix even more toxic.
Marc Brumel was so stressed by the work that he eventually had to turn it over to his son. Isambard Kingdom Brumel (1806-1859) joined the project soon after it began, and in 1826, he became the field manager of the project (Fox, p. 66). In 1828, the tunnel was badly flooded; Isambard was badly injured (it took him three months to recover, according to Fox, p. 67) and the project was once again shut down.
The project was shut down from 1828 to 1835, but then resumed again, with an improved tunneling shield and new managers (Weinreb/Hibbert, p. 860). It was finally finished in 1843 -- although there still wasn't enough money to build an approach for wheeled vehicles, so it was used only by pedestrians at first. In 1865, it was converted to use by trains (Porter, p. 104), and is now part of the London Underground.
Since the song mentions the Brunels, we can feel fairly confident it was written before 1835, and probably before 1828. It is hardly surprising to find a song about Irishmen working on the tunnel; the tunneling shield involved 36 workmen in dark, sticky conditions working hard to excavate the tunnel. Given the economic circumstances of the time, and the prejudices, it was an obvious job for Irishmen. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.6
File: RcPadPan

Paddy's Pastoral Rhapsody

DESCRIPTION: Pat asks Molly to marry. She says he is too young and too poor. He says "wealth is an invitation The wise should never mintion." Sparrows, bees and roses, he says, get by without wealth. He drinks to her "for when I'm drunk I think I'm rich"
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1885 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.28(6a/b) view 7 of 8)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting rejection drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 38, "Paddy's Pastoral Rhapsody" (1 text)
Roud #V2084
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(6a/b) view 7 of 8, "Paddy's Pastoral Rhapsody", R. March & Co (London), 1877-1884
NOTES [95 words]: Broadside Firth b.28(6a/b): "Sung by the Author in his Irish Evenings"; the broadside does not state who that Author might be but the Bartleby Great Books Online site quotes The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907-21).Volume XIV. The Victorian Age, Part Two. IX. Anglo-Irish Literature to attribute this to Samuel Lover (and quote the verse O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland omits, to boot). This broadside has a final verse omitted by O'Conor. The broadside is used for the Description (I guess "the Author" should know). - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: OCon038

Paddy's Ramble to London

DESCRIPTION: Paddy has too much money and so can't pay his debts and goes to London to pass for a Lord. He has strange, often paradoxical adventures. Finally he decides to marry a Blackamoor Lady, the "fairest of creatures" and buy her a silver cup of horn.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.18(233))
KEYWORDS: travel nonsense paradox animal
FOUND IN:
Roud #V7641
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.18(233), "Paddy's Ramble to London" ("Come listen awhile you frolicksome tars"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1844
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Donald's Visit to Glasgow" (theme: country folk in town)
cf. "Paddy's Voyage to Glasgow" (theme: country folk in town)
cf. "Paddy Backwards" and references there
cf. "Nottamun Town (Nottingham Fair)" (theme)
cf. "The Seven Wonders" (theme)
cf. "The Lofty Giant (Song of Marvels)" (theme)
cf. "Limerick Races" (theme)
cf. "Shon M'Nab" (theme)
NOTES [165 words]: One verse of Bodleian 2806 c.18(233) is close to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 93, "As I was going by Charing Cross" (earliest date in Opie is 1808).
Paddy's Ramble to London: "To find out the place I was sad at a loss, When shutting my eyes on safe Charing Cross. Where the King set on horseback all on the cold stone There was thousands all round him but truth never a one."
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 93: "As I was going by Charing Cross, I saw a black man upon a black horse; They told me it was King Charles the First Oh dear, my heart was ready to burst!"
Opie explains that "in 1675 the statue of Charles I, which had originally been erected in King Street (and may today be seen at the top of Whitehall), was re-erected on the site of the old Charing Cross ...."
On the same subject see broadside Bodleian, Antiq. c. E.9(97), "A dialogue between the old black horse at Charing cross, and the new one, with a figure on it in H--er square ," unknown, c.1702 - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BdBPRtL

Paddy's Voyage to Glasgow

DESCRIPTION: Paddy goes to Scotland for the harvest. He takes the steamboat from Belfast to Glasgow and does not understand paying fare. He is confused by the town and a public show, cannot sleep for the drunk telling the hour, and is happy to leave for the Lothians
AUTHOR: John Milne (source: broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(3605))
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: travel humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 293, "Paddy in Glasgow" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #5859
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3605) View 2 of 2, "Paddy's Voyage to Glasgow" ("When I took a notion from home for to stray"), unknown, no date ["Songs and poems by John Milne"]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paddy's Ramble to London" (theme: country folk in town)
cf. "Donald's Visit to Glasgow" (theme: country folk in town)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Broomielaw
NOTES [79 words]: Paddy is illiterate ("I never was learned my name for to spell"). He does not understand what he sees. The show he visits seems to him real: he first sees "wild beasts, few of them were tame, The nobles of Scotland came there to see them, Young Bonapart I on him did stare, I wondered what brought him from Germany there"; he is prevented by "a man with a red neck" from shaking hands with Bonapart.
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(3605) is the basis for the description. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2293

Padstow May Day Song

DESCRIPTION: Ritual song, for a hobby-horse, in English or Cornish: "Unite and unite, and let us all unite"..."Rise up, Mrs. __ and gold be your ring/And give to us a cup of ale the merrier we shall sing"..."Where are these young men that now here should dance..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Baring Gould MS)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Ritual song, accompanying antics of a hobby-horse; sung in English or Cornish: "Unite and unite, and let us all unite"..."Rise up, Mrs. __ and gold be your ring/And give to us a cup of ale the merrier we shall sing"..."Where are these young men that now here should dance?/Some they are in England and some they are in France"..."Now we fare you well and we bid you all good cheer/We'll call no more unto your house before another year"
KEYWORDS: ritual drink foreignlanguage moniker nonballad animal horse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,North))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 86, "Can Cala Me [May Day Song]" (1 text, 1 tune; the notes give a related text and a version of "The Old May Song")
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 104, "Padstow May Song" (2 texts)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, pp. 15-17, "May Day Song" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
DT, CORMMAY
ADDITIONAL: Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, pp. 129-131, "The Padstow May Song" (1 text, divided into "Night Song," "Day Song," and "Dirge")
Roud #305
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ribbon Hobby Horse Team, "May Day Song" (on FSB9)
People of Padstow, "Padstow May Day Song" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "May Day Carol" (subject) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Old May Song
Cornish May Carol
NOTES [2087 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland's Cornish words are a revivalist translation from the English. - PJS
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 48, has a thing which it calls the "Cornish May Song," which is a variant title of this. But it is clearly not this, and the words are listed as by Alexander Boswell. My guess is that Boswell took this tune and set his own words -- there is a copyright date affixed, although it's not clear if that is for the words or the arrangement. Boswell's words seem to be based on Maying customs, but I wouldn't call them worthy of preservation.
Some versions of this ask, "O where is Saint George" or equivalent. (The answer being, "He's out in his longboat, all on the salt sea, O.") It's an interesting question: As Stewart notes (p. 62), George was not a natural English saint; Edward the Confessor was long considered England's national saint (indeed, King Edward I was given such an un-Norman name only because his father Henry III revered Edward the Confessor) -- and in Northumbria, Saint Cuthbert was long revered. Saint Dunstan was also popular. Stewart notes that various authors date George's adoption as England's Patron at diverse times from 1220 to 1415.
It should be noted, however, that the tale of "St. George for Merry England" (Briggs, pp. 474-476) makes George a son of the Earl of Coventry. (An odd claim, given that Coventry was not an ancient earldom.)
The best-known version of the legend of George in medieval England would be that in the so-called "Golden Legend." George is #58 in Ryan's edition (pp. 238-242). It calls him a military tribune from Cappadocia. His exploit with the dragon is said to have taken place by a lake near "Silena in the province of Lybia." The dragon demanded two animals -- sheep or humans -- per day, and George arrived when the king's daughter (a king? Inside the Roman Empire?) was to be sacrificed. George hits the dragon with his lance and orders the girl to bind it with her girdle as a leash. He then converts the whole town. (The legend admits that there are variants in the story.)
After that the "Legend" tells how, in the time of the Emperor Diocletian, a "prefect Dacian" started a persecution. (Diocletian's persecution of Christians was the most severe in Roman history.) George therefore quit the army and gave away his possessions. Dacian orders George tortured, and this makes no impression on him. So Dacian calls in a magician to poison him, but the poison fails. So does persuasion. Dacian's wife tells him it is pointless, whereupon the wife too is tortured -- and George tells her that her blood "will be both your baptism and your crown."
George is then sentenced to be dragged through the streets and beheaded. He is said to have prayed that all who asked for his help receive their requests, and a voice from heaven said it would be so. George is then executed -- and lightning strikes and kills Dacian.
Stewart remarks that the Catholic church in 1969 effectively de-sanctified George, demoting him to local status only. This is frankly logical, since the records of his works, and even of his existence, are slight. As early as 494 C.E., Pope Gelasius had declared that George was "one of those saints whose names are justly revered by men but whose works are known only to God" (Alexander, p. 253). Chadwick, p. 155, thinks "the" Saint George is George of Lydda, a soldier -- but also thinks that his history has been mixed up with that of the Arian Bishop George of Alexandria (martyred 360), and that much of the tale of Saint George comes from the martyrdom of this heretic! Benet, p. 970, declares this to have been disproved, however, and the revised fourth edition of Benet, which shortens the entry on George (p. 393) does not even mention it. Similarly Hole, p. 104, declares that this story "carries within it the seeds of its own refutation." The story apparently was popularized by Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Hole, p. 106).
OxfordCompanion, p. 412, says that George was martyred at Lydda in Palestine in the fourth century, with the first signs of reverence in the sixth century. It suggests that the story of George and the Dragon is "a reminiscence of Perseus and Theseus" -- a statement that seems very likely, since the story is that the dragon, which was terrorizing a kingdom, demanded the daughter of the king as a meal, and George killed the beast instead (Alexander, p. 253). Eventually this fight came to be associated with Dragon Hill in Berkshire (Alexander, p. 254). Hole, p. 110, confesses that we do not know when he came to be known as a dragon-fighter, but the two had certainly been linked by the twelfth century. It is only with the Golden Legend, however, that we see George actually fighting the dragon, as opposed to defeating it by prayer.
George was not the only victim of Diocletian's persecution -- in Britain, saints Alban, Aaron, and Julius of Caerlon were said to have suffered (Hole, p. 105). Alban's story was particularly interesting, in that he had to make a miraculous river crossing to reach his own place of execution, and his executioner went blind as he struck the fatal stroke (DictSaints, p. 6). But that wasn't enough to make him Britain's patron saint.
OxfordCompanion adds that George was the patron of the Order of the Garter, founded by Edward III in 1348. It has met on April 23, St. George's day, ever since, except for a brief interruption during the reign of Edward VI (Hole, p. 116, who thinks Edward disliked St. George. There were also orders devoted to George in Aragon and Prussia; Hole, p. 115). Simpson, p. 105, says that Edward III added St. George's name to the English battle cry during the siege of Calais at about the same time. This doubtless helped make him popular in England.
Hole, p. 115, says that he was certainly England's patron saint by the time of the Battle of Agincourt (1415). It is possible that his cult is older; a legend eventually arose that Richard I had called upon St. George during the siege of Acre in the Third Crusade (Saul, p. 93; Hole, p. 114). Hole, p. 115, says that several of his alleged relics were brought to Europe following the First Crusade. And Hole, p. 103, says that George's legend was known in the time of the Venerable Bede. But Saul, p. 171, says that the evidence of Richard introducing George's cult into England is weak.
Simpson, p. 105, says that George was celebrated by a guild in Norwich by 1389, and they had equipment for an elaborate pageant by 1408. George's feast day was made an official holiday in 1415 (reign of Henry V). Alexander, p. 253, suggests however that he gained his fame at the time of the Third Crusade, since a soldier-saint would appeal to the British crusaders. We know that Richard III supported his cult in the 1480s (Saul, p. 195).
According to Simpson, p. 106, by 1532 the girl George rescued was reputed to be St. Margaret -- i.e. St. Margaret of Antioch, whose dates are unknown but who was a pagan converted to Christianity who was oppressed by her father and who was swallowed by a dragon which later threw her up (DictSaints, p. 152). This is the only St. Margaret associated with a dragon, although the ties with George are at best tenuous (and Simpson maintains Margaret was fictitious, which makes it interesting that Jean Darc once claimed to have heard her...). Margaret, like George, was found in the famous Golden Legend (Simpson, p. 107), one of the earliest printed books in English, so that may have cemented the link.
Alternately, Simpson, p. 115 (and preceding pages) mentions a sort of a "hobby dragon" tradition parallel to the hobby horse. She hints that this would cause Saint George the Dragon Slayer to be attracted to hobby horse celebrations.
Stewart, p. 63, is of the opinion that George is based on a pagan deity. This is perhaps an elaboration of the link to Perseus. But on p. 68, Stewart rings in fertility deities such as the Green Man. This is somewhat more logical than the other -- the Greek name "George" means "farmer." So he is associated with agriculture -- but hardly as a fertility deity!
It is curious to note that Greene, p. 227, observes that only one early carol about George has been preserved for us (it is Greene's #62, p. 124, beginning "Enfors we us with all our might To love Seynt Georg, Owr Lady knyght"). But he is hardly more popular in recent folk song. Could he have been less popular with the folk than the nobility?
Englebert, pp. 28-29, declares, "St. George suffered martyrdom at Lydda in Palestine shortly before the accession of the Emperor Constantine. These words contain all we certainly know of him whom the Greeks call 'the great martyr....'" He supposedly was celebrated in the east by the fifth century, and his cult reach France by the sixth. Oxford was celebrating him in 1222.
As mentioned above, Benet, p. 970, calls George a soldier in Diocletian's army, killed in 304, and the revised edition cuts this. The explanation of George and the Dragon also changes; the first edition, pp. 970-971, links it to various tales of Christian heroes slaying dragons, including the account in the Revelation to John of the Dragon (Greek δρακων, drakon) who contests with God in chapter 12 and after, and who is cast out of heaven by Michael in 12:7. The revised edition, while mentioning this, also brings in (Perseus and) Andromeda.
Finally, both editions of Benet mention that the Red Cross Knight in Spenser's Fairie Queene is Saint George.
Adding all this up, I wonder if the reference in this song is not to Saint George the (mostly fictional) saint but to Saint George's Banner, one of the naval flags. This would explain why Saint George was "out in his longboat." Although Stewart has an explanation for that, too -- or, rather, two of them. On p. 66, he thinks Saint George is to be identified with the brother in the bottomless boat of "Edward" [Child 13]. On p. 67, he suggests that the bottomless boat that we have no actual reason to believe Saint George is in is in fact a sacrifice to the mother deep. I leave it to you to decide how to apply Occam's Razor to that.... Somewhat more likely is Kennedy's suggestion that it is associated with St. George's Well near Padstow.
Since we're talking ancient legends anyway, another thought I had is that St. George being in his longboat might somehow be a confusion with the legend of Joseph of Arimathea, plus some subset of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus of Bethany floating to England after being driven out of the Holy Land.
Greene, pp. 9-10, would have us believe that the song must go back at least to the time of the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, because of the lines, "Where are the French dogs that made so great a boast, O, They shall eat the grey goose feather, And we will eat the roast, O." The goose feathers do sound like clothyard arrows, of course -- but as far as beating the French goes, the Napoleonic Wars are much more recent.
GreeneEarliest, pp. xxxii-xxxiii, connects this with the original "carole" dances: "The processional dance which accompanies the singing of the Padstow 'May Song' keeps to the present day this association of burden with movement and stanza with standing. As long as the 'hobby horse' and his companion dancers advance along the street or whirl about in it, the crowd of villagers sings the burden over and over again. The instant the dancers pause for breath, the singers change without other signal to the stanza, at the conclusion of which the dance is resumed." On pp. xxxi-xxxii Greene proposes that carols are ring dances; during the stanzas (verses) sung by the leader, the dancers stepped left. Then they would stop and dance in place for the burden. The hobby horse makes the dance linear, but the alternation remains.
Alexander, p. 134, has what strikes me as the most likely explanation of all. "There can be little doubt that the 'Obby 'Oss goes back to some long-forgotten pagan ritual but over the years the locals grew frustrated at not knowing the reason for their great day and several explanations evolved. The most popular is that a French warship attempted to raid Padstow in the fourteenth century when most of the men of the town were away at the siege of Calais [i.e. 1346-1347]. Some quick-thinking person rushed a hobby horse to the harbour, where the French thought it was the Devil come to protect the Cornish and turned about with all speed."
With that sort of hypothesis floating around, is it any wonder that the song got a bit strange too? - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: K086

Page from the Scrap-Book of Life

DESCRIPTION: "I stood in the glare of the city, And gazed on the passing throng... there in the crowd came a woman... I could trace upon her sad face, A tale of a happier day." "'Tis a page from the scrapbook of life." She was lured from home; her child grieves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois)
KEYWORDS: wife husband children separation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 258-259, "Page from the Scrap-Book of Life" (1 text)
Roud #4341
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Picture from Life's Other Side" (theme)
NOTES [23 words]: I can't prove it, since I know no other versions of this song, but I feel as if this was inspired by "A Picture from Life's Other Side." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Neel258

Page's Train Run So Fast

See Cotton-Eyed Joe (File: LxA262)

Paid O'Donoghue

DESCRIPTION: Anti-rebel forces range through Meath. Young Currogha smith Paid O'Donoghue forges rebel pike-heads. He is betrayed, taken and forced, before execution, to shoe the yeoman captain's horse. He kills the captain with his hammer and escapes on the horse
AUTHOR: Patrick Archer (1861-1919) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion betrayal escape death recitation horse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 59, "Paid O'Donoghue" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Moyl059

Painful Plough, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you jolly plowmen, of courage stout and bold... To crown them with contentment, behold the painful plow." The gardener and plowman discuss the antiquity of their profession. The plowman wins the argument because the plow makes all else possible
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Harding B 11(2936))
KEYWORDS: farming worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #2, pp. 167-169,245, "The Painful Plough" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 363-365, "The Painful Plow" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 242-243, "The Faithful Plough" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 430)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 33, "Ploughman" (1 text)
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #19, "The Painful Plough" (1 text, abridged from Barrett; 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 17, "The Gardener and the Ploughman" (1 text, 1 tune) [see Note]
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #61, "The Painful Plough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #101, "The Painful Plough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #66, p. 1, "The Painful Plough" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 448, "The Painful Plough" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 222-223, "The Painful Plough" (1 text)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 126-127, "The Painful Plough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #355
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2936), "The Painful Plough" ("Come all you jolly ploughmen of courage stout and bold"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Johnson Ballads 2086, Harding B 20(127), 2806 c.17(325), Firth b.26(485), Harding B 11(2935), "[The] Painful Plough"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Boy" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Plough
The Ploughman and the Gardener
NOTES [269 words]: OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 35 replaces the text for OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 17, a text mainly written by O'Shaughnessy.
Greig: "The expression 'painful plough' is very interesting, as illustrating how tradition may retain a word even after its original meaning has become obsolete and liable to be misunderstood. 'Painful' here means painstaking or laborious." - BS
This sounds reasonable -- but I wouldn't bet the farm on it. Note that one stanza of this song claims that "Adam was a plowman when plowing first begun." This is not scriptural; on the face of it, Adam was a hunter/gatherer. As the song says, the Bible describes Cain as a farmer (Genesis 4:2). But Genesis 3:17 declares, "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life." This is right after God declares that Eve shall suffer misery in childbirth. Sounds pretty painful to me (and most modern translations use the word "pain" or "painful" somewhere in Genesis 3:16-17, though the King James Version does not).
The exploits of Samson are in Judges 13-16. Solomon's wisdom is mentioned, e.g., in 1 Kings 3:12 (though in fact 1 Kings devotes more space to his folly than his wisdom). David's slaying of "his ten thousands" is mentioned first in 1 Samuel 18:7.
The exploits of Alexander the Great are not mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (except implicitly in veiled references in the second half of the Book of Daniel), though there are mentions in the Greek Old Testament (in 1 Maccabees); but the lack of explicit Biblical mention hardly matters, he was well-known to tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Ord222

Pains in My Fingers

DESCRIPTION: "Pains in my fingers, Pains in my toes; I sent for Doctor Brody To know what to do." Cho: "Sick him, Bobby, hoo-hoo, Sick him, Bobby, hoo! Oh, pore Mary Jane, He'll never come here no more." Other verses float
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: doctor injury animal floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 167-168, "Pains In My Fingers" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Raccoon" (floating verses)
File: ScaNF168

Pains o' Love, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is wounded by love and tortured "like to a salamander." He will wander aimlessly until "the maid whom I adore ... grants me my designing"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 935, "The Pains o' Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6750
NOTES [39 words]: My guess is that the torture "like to a salamander" is a reference to the mythical fire-breathing salamander. The torture is a heart on fire, or being burned. It all seems much too flowery for a folk song, whatever the author meant. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5935

Paint Ship Song (I)

DESCRIPTION: "You take the paint pot And I'll paint the brush, And we'll paint the ship's side together. When 'Jimmy' comes along We'll sing this little song. Thank the Lord we didn't join forever."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor work derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 23, "Paint Ship Song (I)" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Loch Lomond" (tune)
File: Tawn005

Paint Ship Song (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Just grey paint, just grey paint, We know where the paint comes from, Underneath the old pom-pom. Just grey paint, Makes things look like what they ain't. 'Jimmy' goes sick when he looks at the chit For just grey paint."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 23, "Paint Ship Song (II)" (1 text, tune referenced)
NOTES [105 words]: Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy says that this was sung on board the destroyer HMS Stuart. According to M. J. Whitley, Destroyers of World War II: An International Encyclopedia, Naval Institute Press, 1988, pp. 17-18, the Stuart was a member of the Scott class of World War I destroyers, 1580 tons; the Stuart herself had been commissioned in late 2018. Destroyers tended to age quickly, so by 1929 she would have been a candidate for a lot of paint and minor maintenance. She was transferred to the Australian navy in 1933. She served in World War II in the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean, and was scrapped in 1947. -RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn006

Paisley Officer, The (India's Burning Sands) [Laws N2]

DESCRIPTION: Henry, an officer from Paisley, meets and falls in love with Mary. His regiment having been called to India, (they are married and) she dresses as a soldier to accompany him. He is fatally injured; she is killed caring for him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, plus Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, who also mention a manuscript copy dated 1884); there are sundry 19C broadsides
KEYWORDS: courting marriage cross-dressing soldier death battle India
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws N2, "The Paisley Officer (India's Burning Sands)"
Greig/Duncan1 185, "The Paisley Officer" (2 texts)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 308-310, "The Paisley Officer" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H120, pp. 332-333, "Blythe and Bonny Scotland/India's Burning Sands" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 34, "India's Burning Sands" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen, pp. 65,75, "The Paisley Officer" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 192-193, "The Paisley Officer" (2 texts)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 158-159, "The Paisley Officer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 51, "Bonny Scotland" (2 texts)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 191-195, "In Bright and Bonny Scotland (The Paisley Officer)" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 153-157, "The Paisley Officer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 86, "The Village Pride" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 85-87, "In Blithe and Bonnie Fair Scotland" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 19-21, "India's Burning Sangs" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 438, PAISLYOF
Roud #550
RECORDINGS:
Sara Cleveland, "In Bonny Scotland" (on SCleveland01)
Charlotte Decker, "In Bright and Bonny Scotland" (on NFAGuigné01)
Warde Ford, "India's Burning Sands" [fragment] (AFS 4199Bx1, 1938; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Mrs. Ghaney, "Bonny Hills of Scotland" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
John James, "Bonnie Hills of Scotland" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
John Kehoe, "Bonny Hills of Scotland" (on MUNFLA/Leach)]
Eta Nash, "The Bonny Hills Of Scotland" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Theresa White, "On the Bonny Hills of Scotland" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(234a), "The Paisley Officer," Sanderson (Edinburgh), 1830-1910; also 2806 c.14(124), "The Paisley Officer"
NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(198), "The Paisley Officer," unknown, c.1840; also L.C.178.A.2(198); RB.m.169(070), "The Paisley Officer"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fare Thee Well, My Dearest Dear"
cf. "The Fair Town of Greenock" (theme)
cf. "The Lad in the Scotch Brigade (The Banks of the Clyde)" (theme)
NOTES [79 words]: The description of this song at the Bodleian site associates this with the Sepoy Rebellion (1857-1858) -- but note that the National Library of Scotland broadsides probably predate this. - BS, RBW
For notes on legitimate historical examples of women serving in the military in disguise, see the notes to "The Soldier Maid." - RBW
One of Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's texts is a verse from a Newfoundland version collected by the Fudges during the 1960s. - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: LN02

Paisley Wife, The

See The Weavers' Garland (File: DixP007)

Paistin Fionn

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, my fair Paisteen is my heart's delight, Her gay heart laughs in her blue eye bright." If he were in town with her on his knee, he would drink to her. He waited for her for nine nights; he will never abandon her "Till I lie in the coffin stretched."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: love death drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 49, "Pastheen Fion" (1 text)
Roud #32889
File: HMHS049A

Pakenham

DESCRIPTION: "Come, Packingham, and have a cup, Perhaps the last you will ever sup." The singer taunts the British soldiers coming to the battle of New Orleans
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: battle death soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 8, 1815 - Battle of New Orleans. Although a peace had already been signed, word had not yet reached Louisiana, which Pakenham sought to invade. Andrew Jackson's backwoodsmen easily repulsed Pakenham's force; the British commander is killed in the battle.
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 298-299, "The Hunters of Kentucky" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 1 tune, but the "A" fragment and part of "C" is "Pakenham")
Roud #2211
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hunters of Kentucky" [Laws A25] (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Battle of New Orleans" [Laws A7] (subject)
cf. "Molly Put the Kettle On (Polly Put the Kettle On)" (form)
NOTES [186 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety observes that the fragment he lists as "A" of "The Hunters of Kentucky," and several lines of the last stanza of his "C" text, do not appear to be part of "The Hunters." (And I heartily agree, though Roud lumps them.) And they *do* appear to be the same song. Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety therefore speculates that they are fragments of some lost song.
He appears to be right. Indeed, the chorus of the "A" fragment ("Jackson, put the kettle on, Coffee, blow the fire strong, Carroll, hands the cups around, The strangers must have tea") makes it nearly certain that it was built around "Molly Put the Kettle On." Whether it was truly traditional must wait on other information.
Jackson is of course Andrew Jackson, and "Packingham" is Pakenham, the British commander. "Coffee" is not the drink but John Coffee, Jackson's second in command in the Creek War (for background, see "Andrew Jackson's Raid"); Carroll is William Carroll (1788-1844), Jackson's successor in command of the Tennessee militia and later governor of that state. - RBW
File: Beld298

Pål siner høner

See Paul and His Chickens (File: RDL064)

Palace Grand

See Lady Mary (The Sad Song) (File: R698)

Pale Moonlight

See Out In the Moonlight (I Will Love Thee Always) (File: R803)

Pale Ring, The

See Hind Horn [Child 17] (File: C017)

Pale Was Her Face, She Hung Over My Shoulder

DESCRIPTION: The singer leaves Eldring and goes to war. The war ends and he had "escaped from the slaughter" but he returns home to find she had died of grief.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love return war separation death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1242, "Pale Was Her Face, She Hung Over My Shoulder" (1 text)
Roud #6783
File: GrD61242

Pale WIldwood Flower, The

See Wildwood Flower (File: JRSF248)

Palmer River Song, The

See The Old Palmer Song (File: PASB038)

Palms of Victory (Deliverance Will Come)

DESCRIPTION: "I saw a wayward traveller in tattered garments clad... His back was heavy laden, his strength was almost gone, He shouted as he journeyed, 'Deliverance will come!" Whatever the trouble, the traveller's refrain is the same.
AUTHOR: Rev. John B. Matthias
EARLIEST DATE: 1836 (original composition)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 626, "Palms of Victory' (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 437-438, "Palms of Victory" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 626)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 92, "Palms of Victory" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PALMSVIC
Roud #3540
RECORDINGS:
Linzy Hicks, "Palms of Victory" (on USWarnerColl01)
Homer Rodeheaver, "Palms of Victory" (Rainbow 1118, c. 1925)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Honest Farmer" (form)
File: R626

Pandora, The

DESCRIPTION: The Pandora "went down in Youghal Bay." On November 18 she sailed from Nova Scotia and, after seven days of heavy seas, sank after striking a rock. Captain Hardcastle "ordered out the longboat in hopes to reach the land" but many "perished in the deep"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 11, "The Pandora" (1 text)
Roud #20530
NOTES [116 words]: Youghal Bay is in County Cork. Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: "'The Pandora' was a Wexford vessel ... homeward bound with timber."
The only Pandora listed by Bourke is a Wexford brig that sank December 15, 1848 (see Bourke in Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast v1, p. 100)- BS
A more famous Pandora was an English warship sent out in late 1790 to search for the mutinous crew of the Bounty. On August, 1791 it struck a reef near the ill-fated island of Vanikoro and sank with large loss of life. Clearly not the inspiration of this song, but it might have added to the aura of ill fate about the name Pandora. There was also an 18-gun warship Pandora, wrecked February 13, 1811 off Jutland. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran011

Panic is On, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer says the country is falling apart; no one can get work; landlords are raising rents; women are selling fruit, booze, or "everything they can." I things don't change "there'll be some stealin' done." Cho: "Doggone...I mean the panic is on."
AUTHOR: Probably Hezekiah Jenkins
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Vic Collins [Hezekiah Jenkins])
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer says the country is falling apart; no one can get work, folks are homeless and walking the streets; landlords are raising rents and evicting those who can't pay; to support their men, women are selling fruit, booze, or "everything they can." Singer has pawned everything but his gun; if things don't change "there'll be some stealin' done." Chorus: "Doggone...I mean the panic is on."
KEYWORDS: poverty crime robbery unemployment hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, PANICON
Roud #15867
RECORDINGS:
Vic Collins [pseud. for Hezekiah Jenkins], "The Panic is On" (Columbia 14585-D, 1931)
NOTES [31 words]: The Great Depression is usually considered to have begun with the crash of the stock market in 1929; however, conditions in rural areas had been depressed for several years before then. - PJS
File: DTpanico

Pap's Old Billy Goat

See Bill Grogan's Goat (File: SRW141)

Papa, Papa, Build Me a Boat

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Papa's 'Bout to Get Mad

DESCRIPTION: Singer is lonesome since his lover left. He writes her a letter about the "cook" and a hen, who wouldn't lay eggs. If she doesn't lay "the cook's 'bout to get mad." "That cook has a great big axe." "Sweet mama, papa's 'bout to get mad."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Pink Anderson and Simmie Dooley)
KEYWORDS: loneliness warning separation nonballad lover chickens
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Pink Anderson and Simmie Dooley, "Papa's 'Bout to Get Mad" (Columbia 14336-D,1928; on USChartersHeroes)
File: RcPBtGMa

Papa's Billy Goat

See Bill Grogan's Goat (File: SRW141)

Papa's Going to Buy Me a Mockingbird

See Hush, Little Baby (File: SBoA164)

Paper of Pins, (The)

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

Papir Iz Doch Vays (Silver Is the Daylight)

DESCRIPTION: Yiddish: Daylight is silver, the sea is blue, and the singer's new love is bright. He hopes she will stay with him forever. None is as fair as she. He is tormented by love; all he wants is to be with her. If he is, any hut is a palace
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950
KEYWORDS: love courting colors foreignlanguage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 292-293, "Papir Iz Doch Vays (Silver Is the Daylight)" (2 texts (1 English, 1 Yiddish), 1 tune)
File: SBoA292

Par Derrier' Chez Mon Pere (The Prince's Three Daughters)

DESCRIPTION: French. Behind my father's house is an apple tree, Under it sleep the prince's three daughters. Their lovers are in battle; "If they win, they'll have our love so sweet...if they win or lose, they'll have our love forever"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes) (15th century?)
LONG DESCRIPTION: French. Behind my father's house is an apple tree, "Vole, mon coeur, vole (Fly, my heart, fly)". Under the tree sleep the prince's three daughters; the youngest wakens and tells the others that day is breaking. "Tis but a star in heaven .. a star to light love's way." One says that their lovers are in battle; "If they win, they'll have our love so sweet...if they win or lose, they'll have our love forever"
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love army battle war lover soldier
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Que) France
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 38, "Par derrier' chez mon pere (The Prince's Three Daughters)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [72 words]: Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes dates the song to the 15th century, but without documentation. They note that, in addition to Indiana, the song was popular in French-speaking areas of southern Illinois and Missouri. - PJS
I must say that the context does not sound fifteenth century to me. If it were, the war would probably be the Hundred Years' War, and there should be something about the English enemy. But that's not proof. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BerV038

Par Excellence

DESCRIPTION: "I am the gentleman whose name is known throughout the land." "I'm par excellence the creature of the day." He has to keep a book of the ladies he has conquered. "I've never earned a penny yet," but the ladies help him with "voluntary contributions"
AUTHOR: William Horace Lingard (source: Spaeth)
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (source: Spaeth)
KEYWORDS: courting money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
New-Comic-Songster, p. 20, "Par Excellence" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #25, pp. 14-15, "Par Excellence" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 208-209, "Par Excellence" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24456
NOTES [83 words]: It's hard for me to believe that this would ever go into tradition, but there is a fragment from East Anglia that may be this, so I've indexed it.
Incidentally, Spaeth's and the New Comic Songster version are substantially different. I wonder if performer and alleged author Lingard didn't fiddle with an existing text somehow -- or if the editors of New-Comic-Songster didn't do so to cover up plagiarism.
Dime-Song-Book #25 says this was "Sung by Howard Paul as a 'Swell of the Coming Period.'" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: NCSParEx

Parcel from a Lady, The (Under Her Apron)

DESCRIPTION: Singer is hailed by a lady who asks him to hold her parcel while she finds her sister. He holds the parcel until his arms grow tired. He sets it down; it emits a squall; he finds a baby. He advises young men never to take a parcel from a lady
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (recorded from Frank Hillier)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, walking down the strand, is hailed by a lady who asks him to hold her parcel while she goes to find her sister. He agrees, and holds the parcel until his arms grow tired. He then sets it down, and it emits a squall; he opens the parcel, and finds a baby. He advises young men never to take a parcel from a lady, or they might find themselves with an unwanted child
KEYWORDS: request warning abandonment humorous baby
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 328, "The Parcel from a Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #898
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Basket of Eggs" (plot) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rolled in her Apron
She roun't in her apron
NOTES [30 words]: While the plot is certainly similar to those of "The Basket of Eggs" and "Quare Bungo Rye", this song does not share any lyrics with them (except, of course, for the word "baby"). - PJS
File: K328

Parchman Farm Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Judge give me life this morning down on Parchman Farm (x2), I wouldn't hate it so bad, but I left my wife this morn." "Oh, goodbye, wife, all you had done gone." The singer warns hearers to avoid Parchman, and wishes for better times
AUTHOR: Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recording, Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White)
KEYWORDS: prison separation wife
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, pp. 181-182, "Parchman Farm Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Bukka White, "Parchman Farm Blues" (OKeh 05683, 1940)
File: BTN181

Pardon Came Too Late, The

DESCRIPTION: "A fair-haired boy in a foreign land at sunrise was to die." The solder is captured while trying to desert. The pardon does not arrive in time to save him. After his death, his comrades learn that he had been trying to return to his dying mother
AUTHOR: Paul Dresser (1857-1906)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927
KEYWORDS: death execution mother desertion soldier
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 709, "The Pardon Came Too Late" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 233-235, "The Pardon Came Too Late" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 311-312, "The Pardon Came Too Late" (1 text)
ST R709 (Full)
Roud #7375
RECORDINGS:
Vel Veteran [pseud. for either Arthur Fields, Vernon Dalhart or Irving Kaufman] "The Pardon Came Too Late" (Grey Gull 4237, 1928)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(123), "The Pardon Came Too Late," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1880-1900
NOTES [15 words]: For the story of Paul Dresser, see the notes to "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away." - RBW
File: R709

Pardon of Sidna Allen, The

See The Pardon of Sydna Allen (File: Rich034)

Pardon of Sydna Allen, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the state of old Virginny, In the year 1912, Was the famous Allen gangsters we all remember well." The judge is shot while Claude and Sydna are in court. Sydna is convicted and sentenced to 14 years, but the governor pardons him
AUTHOR: Carson J. Robison?
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs); also published by Robison around this time
KEYWORDS: prison fight trial feud
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1912 - Trial of the Allen family
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 34, "The Pardon of Sydna Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Robert M. Rennick, "The Tragedy of the Allen Family of Hillsville, Virginia,'" Vol. VII, No. 2 (Dec 1959), p. 14, "The Pardon of Sidna Allen" (1 text)
Roud #3117
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sidney Allen" [Laws E5] (subject)
NOTES [27 words]: For some background on Sidney Allen and the Allen Family, see the notes to "Sidney Allen" [Laws E5] or the NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal article cited above. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Rich034

Parents, Warning

See The Silver Dagger (I) [Laws G21] (File: LG21)

Parish of Dunboe, The

See The Banished Lover (The Parish of Dunboe) (File: HHH023)

Parish of Dunkeld, The

See O What a Parish (The Parish of Dunkeld) (File: FVS217)

Parish of Inch, The

DESCRIPTION: On St Patrick's day the Teagues assembled at Downpatrick fair: "Protestant traitors with papists united Unfurled their green banners at Ballynahinch" and were confronted by the members of Four Hundred and Thirty, "the True Blues of the Parish of Inch"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 22, "The Parish of Inch" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [179 words]: "Dictionary definition for 'Taig': Taig n. In Northern Ireland, a Protestant epithet for a Roman Catholic. Formerly, any Irishman. Also Teague." (source: Double-Tongued Word Wrester site.) "Lilliburlero" begins "Ho brother Teague, Dost hear de decree."
[The spelling "Teague" seems generally to be preferred; I suspect "Taig" is a result of local pronunciation. Eric Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, fifth edition, gives alternate spellings "Teg" and "Teigue," and derives it from the Irish surname "Tadhg," pronounced "Teeg." As "Teg," it appears in the anthology "Merry Drollery" in 1661; it is also used by Swift. Listed as archaic since 1879, but still used in Ulster as late as 1904. - RBW]
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark: "Inch had L.O.L. 430 and the song compares its gallant members with the bad Protestants 'who would change their faith for a British half-crown.' On a certain St Patrick's Day they proved their loyalty and dependability to the distress of their enemies."
For "True Blue" Masonic Lodges see Notes to "Derry Walls Away." - BS
File: OrLa022

Park in Portadown, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a woman who knows him by name. He asks her to walk with him in the park in Portadown. She refuses; she is waiting for her cousin James McKeown. He receives a letter from his "dear" as Mrs James McKeown. Beware of girls willing to spark.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: courting lie rejection warning
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 18, "The Park in Portadown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2892
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Watercresses" (theme: the married woman pretending to be single)
NOTES [15 words]: Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster: "Portadown ... is a market town just below Lough Neagh." - BS
File: MorU018

Parker

See Poor Parker (File: BrII117)

Parks o' Keltie, The

DESCRIPTION: Despite her mother's warnings a Perthshire maid walks in Keltie's parks. The Laird of Keltie rapes her. Her father sees the rape and threatens to "forfeit" the parks if not paid "her portion." The laird marries her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: marriage rape father mother nobility
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1487, "The Parks o' Keltie" (11 texts, 6 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 38, "The Laird o' Kelty"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1, pp. 238-239, "Pretty Parks of Cailty O" (2 texts)
Roud #3861
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1564), "The Pretty Parks of Cailty O" ("Where are you going my bonny lass, where are you going so late"), C. Croshaw (York), 1814-1850
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny Doyle" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
cf. "The Dainty Doonby" (theme of a laird raping a girl then marrying her)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Laird o' Geldie
The Bonnie Lands o' Keltie
The Bonnie Woods o' Keldie O
File: GrD71487

Parliament of England, The

See Ye Parliament of England (I) (File: FO195)

Parlor, The

See Sparking Sunday Night (File: R379)

Parody on Jock o' Hazeldean

DESCRIPTION: Wealthy Episcopalian Geordie would marry a Presbyterian lady who weeps to think of leaving Manse o' Deer. "The day was fixed the feast was spread ... But the bride she wisna seen Wi' a drunken pedlar she's awa To the jile at Aiberdeen"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting wedding escape parody
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 1030, "Parody on Jock o' Hazeldean" (1 text)
Roud #6722
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John of Hazelgreen" [Child 293] (basis for parody)
NOTES [91 words]: The mention that Geordie is Episcopalian while his intended is Presbyterian is interesting. The strongest conflict between Anglicans and Presbyterians was in the early seventeenth century, when Charles I and Archbishop Laud were trying to impose bishops on Congregational Scotland. That of course resulted in the rise of the Solemn League and Covenant -- and a lot of Anglo-Scottish conflict. But that was before Scott (re)wrote "Jock of Hazeldean." Perhaps the mention of Geordie as an Episcopalian is just to emphasize how Anglicized he was. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD51030

Parody on To the West

See To the West: a Parody (File: LDC011)

Parrot Song, The

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Parsley Vine, The

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Parson and His Clerk, The

See The Parson and the Clerk (File: K235)

Parson and Pigs, The

See The Parson and the Sucking Pig (File: WT197)

Parson and the Clerk, The

DESCRIPTION: Parson preaches against sin; clerk wants to do it. Parson denounces coveting gold, saying it's his fate to be well-paid. Clerk says, "Give it to me." Parson deplores boys kissing hussies; clerk says "I've done it myself and they're fond of it too." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (recorded from Phil Tanner)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Parson preaches against various sins; clerk says he wants to do them. Parson denounces coveting gold, saying it's his fate to be well-paid. Clerk says, "Give it to me." He tells those sinned against to turn the other cheek; clerk says, "I'll break his nose." Parson deplores young boys kissing hussies; clerk says "I've done it myself and they're fond of it too." Parson preaches temperance; clerk says "I am awfully dry."
KEYWORDS: virtue courting sin drink dialog humorous religious clergy worker
FOUND IN: Britain(Wales) Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 235, "The Parson and the Clerk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #29, "The Parson and the Clerk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, pp. 91-92, "The Parson and His Clerk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1154
RECORDINGS:
Phil Tanner, "The Parson and the Clerk" (on FSB10)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Soldier and the Sailor" (theme)
cf. "The Mare and the Foal" (theme)
NOTES [54 words]: Verse 6 of this song runs, "I bid you work and pray, And don't do all your parson does, But do as your parson say." Compare Matthew 23:3 -- "Do and obey what [the scribes and Pharisees] tell you, but not what they do, for they preach but do not practice."
It will presumably be obvious that "clerk" is pronounced "clark." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: K235

Parson and the Maid, The

See The Friar in the Well [Child 276] (File: C276)

Parson and the Sucking Pig, The

DESCRIPTION: A parson insists that a farmer's tithe be a plump sucking pig which he will feed some guests that night. He rejects the first offer and insists on making the choice himself. The old sow throws him in the mud and he runs away, swearing off "sucking pig"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Baring-Gould collection, according to Palmer)
KEYWORDS: farming humorous animal clergy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 197-198, "The Parson and the Sucking Pig" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO We 325)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #28, "The Tythe Pig" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #5, "The Sucking Pig" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #29, "The Tythe Pig" (1 shortened text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: George Griffiths, A History of Tong, Shropshire (London, 1894 ("Digitized by Google)), pp. 138-139, "The Tithe Pig" (1 text)
Roud #574
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(57), "The Parson and Pigs" ("All you who love a bit of fun"), unknown, no date
NOTES [25 words]: Griffiths relates this song to the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836. The parson insists on being allowed to choose the tithe: "you know it is my due." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: WT197

Parson Brown's Sheep

DESCRIPTION: A boy sings truly that his father killed the minister's wether. The minister hears the song and offers a reward to sing the song in church. The boy sings that he saw the minister in bed with his mother. The minister runs away. The family eats the wether.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1879 (broadside, LOCSinging sb30381a) [but notice that the earliest date on the sequel (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(82) is before 1867]
LONG DESCRIPTION: A family had nothing to eat for Christmas and followed the son's plan to lure and kill the minister's fat wether. Alone in the wood the boy sang about the deed. The minister heard the song and offered the poor boy a reward to sing that song in church. At Christmas service the minister promised the full congregation that a boy would come and sing a true song. The boy sang that he saw the minister in bed with his mother [Are we to assume that the minister's objective had been to eliminate the father's competition by having him hanged?]. (In other versions, the minister is in bed with "Molly" or some other girl.) The minister ran away with the boy running after claiming his reward [but, though he sang a true song, it was not the song contracted; we do not hear that he collected]. The family ate the wether.
KEYWORDS: adultery accusation promise theft trick food hardtimes humorous sheep family clergy recitation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 309, "The Minister's Wedder" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1725, p. 116, "Old Parson Brown" (1 reference)
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 173-174, "The Man That Stole the Parson's Sheep" (1 text)
Katherine Briggs, _British Folktales_ (originally published in 1970 as _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales_), revised 1977 (I use the 1977 Pantheon paperback edition), pp. 58-59, "The Man That Stole the Parson's Sheep" (1 text, the same as the preceding); see also p. 344, 'The Wee Boy an the Minister Grey" (1 text)
Roud #2498
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2955), "Parson Brown's Sheep" ("Not long ago in our town"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 11(2952), "Parson Browns' Sheep"; Johnson Ballads 2743, "Parson Brown"
LOCSinging, sb30381a, "Old Parson Brown," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Minister and His Wether
The Parson's Fat Wedder
NOTES [409 words]: The LOCSinging and Bodleian broadsides tell the story, alternating verse and prose, with many more details but sharing no lines with Greig/Duncan2 texts. In these the boy explains that the father is old and out of work; the parson sets the dog on the boy when he asks for help; the part about the parson overhearing the first song agrees well enough; the parson pledges to the congregation the truth of what is about to be heard ("it's of a most notorious and outrageous crime as ever was committed, and ought to be severely punished, and every word that he says is as true as the gospel I am now preaching"); the new song is not about the parson and mother but rather about the parson "Romping Molly on the hay." The Greig/Duncan2 texts seem to be a badly remembered retelling of "Parson Brown's Sheep," which seems to me a stage piece.
There is a sequel broadside as well for "Parson Brown's Sheep." See Bodleian, Harding B 11(82), "Encore Verses" or "The Answer to Parson Brown's Sheep" ("My thanks accept kind friends"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Bodleian, 2806 c.16(241), "Encore Verses" or "The Answer to Parson Brown's Sheep"; Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 678, "Second edition of Parson Brown's Sheep" [Parson Brown arranges that the boy marry Molly, upon whom the Parson has bestowed a dowery of three hundred golden sovreigns. They live happily ever after. Like the original, this piece alternates recitation and verse.]
H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
The Briggs version also differs somewhat from Greig/Duncan and the others while clearly being the same general story. I suspect that, as a combination of song and story, it was unusually easy for the text of this item to evolve.
The only versions of this I have seen in field collections are from the British Isles, but there is a strong hint that it, or the answer, has been found in Newfoundland as well. G. M. Story, W. J. Kirwin, and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, Dictionary of Newfoundland English, second edition with supplement, Breakwater Press, 1990, cites a verse from a collection at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, tape T2414-74:
As I went out in the field one day,
I saw our parson bright and gay,
Rampsin Molly on the hay [the verb "to rompse" is defined as "to romp and tumble"]
And he turned her upside down, sir! - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: GrD2309

Parson in the Pulpit, The

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "The parson in the pulpit Couldn't say his prayers, He gabbled and he gabbles Till he tumbled down the stairs. The stairs gave a crack, And he broke his old back, And all the congregation Gave a quack, quack, quack."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Opie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: clergy injury jumprope
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #452, "The Parson in the pulpit" (1 text)
File: AJRR452

Parson Upon Dorothy

See references under "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" [Child 110] (File: C110)

Parson With the Wooden Leg, The

DESCRIPTION: A wooden-legged parson promises to try to resolve differences between a couple he has married. The husband finds the parson and his wife together and kicks him out but his wife delivers a baby with a wooden leg.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1856 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(4307))
LONG DESCRIPTION: A wooden-legged parson marries Barber Briggs to Becky Bell. When Becky reveals herself to be a shrew Briggs asks the parson to undo the wedding. The parson says he can't undo the wedding but he'll do the best he can to convince Becky to change her ways. One day Briggs comes home and finds Becky on the parson's knee. He kicks the parson out. He and Becky get on better afterwards until, after nine months, Becky has a baby with a wooden leg.
KEYWORDS: shrewishness infidelity marriage wedding humorous clergy injury
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 36, "The Parson With the Wooden Leg" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #101, "The Parson With the Wooden Leg" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1508
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4307), "Wooden Leg'd Parson" ("A baaber [sic] there was named Timothy Briggs"), W. Jackson and Son (Birmingham), 1842-1855; also Harding B 16(313a), Firth b.34(318), Firth c.19(63), "Wooden Leg'd Parson"; Harding B 11(4306), "Wooden Leg'd Parson"
File: OSY236

Parson's Daughter Jean, The

See Richard (Irchard) of Taunton Dean (File: RcIOTD)

Parting (The Dying Girl's Farewell)

DESCRIPTION: "The time has come, dear Papa, when I must say goodbye; I feel the shadows thickening...." "I'll meet you at the portals, where the angels come and go." The singer bids farewell to mother and father and looks forward to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (collected from Myrtle Carrigan by Boswell)
KEYWORDS: religious death nonballad father mother
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 106, pp. 162-163, "Parting (The Dying Girl's Farewell)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11041
NOTES [33 words]: It's possible that this is the same as "The Dying Girl's Message," recorded by Ernest Stoneman and Vernon Dalhart, among others. Without hearing those records, however, it's impossible to tell. -PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: BoWo106

Parting Friends

See Farewell My Friends (Parting Friends; I'm Bound for Canaan) (File: LxA564)

Parting Glass, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer has done some ills and foolish things, but never with ill purpose and only to himself. He misses his girl. He would spend money on good company if he had it. Conclusion: "So fill to me the parting glass, Goodnight and joy be with you all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.15(114))
KEYWORDS: drink farewell nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1531, "The Parting Glass" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H769, p. 65, "The Parting Glass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 59, "The Parting Glass" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 69, "The Parting Glass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 573-574, "The Parting Glass" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PARTGLAS*
ADDITIONAL: Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 82-83, "The Parting Glass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3004
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Parting Glass" (on IRClancyMakem01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.15(114), "The Parting Glass," J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin) , 1850-1899; also Harding B 26(498), Harding B 26(499), 2806 c.15(13), Harding B 19(89), "The Parting Glass"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Over the Hills to My Nanny, O" (tune, per broadsides Bodleian 2806 c.15(114), Bodleian 2806 c.15(13), Bodleian Harding B 19(89))
cf. "Johnie Armstrong" [Child 169] (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Good Nicht an' Joy Be Wi' You A'
NOTES [261 words]: This song is lyric enough that it can import elements from almost anywhere; the Sam Henry version, for instance, starts with a verse best known from "The Barnyards o' Delgaty" ("I can drink and no be drunk..."), and also includes a bit of "My Dearest Dear." A bit of the chorus also drifted into (or out of) a version of "Johnie Armstrong" [Child 169]/ I suspect there are versions which elaborate on the girl the singer can't have. - RBW
An argument could easily be made that "Guid Nicht an' Joy Be Wi' You A'" and "The Parting Glass" are the same song. Two verses often show up in both songs: "All the money e'er I had, I spent it in good company, And all the harm that e'er I did, I hope excused I will be, And what I've done for want of wit, to my memory I cann't recall, So fill us up a parting glass -- good night and joy be with you all," and "If I had money for to spend, And leisure time to set a while, There is a fair maid in this town, that surely has me heart beguile: Her rosy cheeks - and her ruby lips I own she has my heart enthrall'd; Then fill to me the parting glass, Good night - and joy be with you all." The difference is in the remaining verses. "The Parting Glass" is concerned with a lover missed; "Guid Night, and Joy Be With You all" is about leaving a party, or emigrating, or dying, and leaving good friends behind.
Description from Peacock's version: She hopes he won't go far away. He intends to leave her "when and where all stormy winds blow." She dreams he has been "pressed ... gone on board ... to serve his royal majesty." - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: HHH769

Parting Hand

DESCRIPTION: "My Christian friends ... we must take the parting hand." "Your company's sweet." "How sweet the hours have pass'd away." "How would it would cheer my mind to stay but... we must take the parting hand"
AUTHOR: Jeremiah Ingalls (1764-1828) (source: Original Sacred Harp)
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (according to Original Sacred Harp)
KEYWORDS: parting nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Benjamin Franklin White, E. J. King, et al., Original Sacred Harp (Atlanta, 1911 ("Digitized by Google") [correction and enlargement of 1869 edition copyright J.S. James], p. 62, "Parting Hand" ("My Christian friends in bonds of love") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12186
RECORDINGS:
Southeast Alabama and Florida Union Sacred Harp Singing Convention, "Parting Hand" (on USFlorida01)
NOTES [120 words]: "One of the songs that traditionally ends a sing or convention, 'Parting Hand' (p. 62 in all editions of The Sacred Harp) holds a special place in the hearts of shape-note singers" (Doris J. Dyen, "Looking Back/Looking Forward: Sacred Group-Singing Traditions," USFlorida01 liner notes, p. 197). - BS
I'm not entirely confident of the attribution to Jeremiah Ingalls, who compiled a hymn book, The Christian Harmony/Songster's Companion, 1805, and supplied some of the tunes but wasn't known for his texts. Hymnary.org appears to credit him only with the tune, and it is not listed among his the list of his most popular songs in W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 193.
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcPartHa

Parting Kiss, The (The Lily that Bends)

DESCRIPTION: "The lily that bends to the breeze of the morning And yields its perfume to the trembling gale May join with the wild briar rose in adorning the moss-cover'd cottage that stands in the vale. But flowers fade. They will kiss and part
AUTHOR: Words: "Mr. Keene"? (source: sheet music in the Levy Collection)
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (New Negro Forget-Me-Not Songster)
KEYWORDS: love separation flowers
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 47, "The Lily" (1 barely legible transcription, 1 tune)
Roud #V58437
NOTES [13 words]: The sheet music says that this is to a "Tyrolese Air," but does not name it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe047

Parting Lovers, The

See Farewell, Sweetheart (The Parting Lovers) (File: R756)

Parting of Burns and Highland Mary, The

See Burns and His Highland Mary [Laws O34] (File: LO34)

Parting Words

DESCRIPTION: "When the parting words were spoken And I told him he was free... I am free, oh, free again...." She has seen him with another; accuses him of falsehood, says she will be true; he wipes away a tear, murmuring, "Life is nothing more to me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting betrayal floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 160, "Parting Words" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 160, "Parting Words" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Roud #6576
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (plot)
cf. "Ella Lea" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Thou Hast Learned to Love Another" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Faded Flowers" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [31 words]: A rather confused piece; the overall plot is very much like "Farewell He," but with the strange report of his despair at the end. Many of the lyrics float; see the cross-references. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: BrII160

Partizaner Lid (The Partisan)

DESCRIPTION: Yiddish: The guerrilla is advised to use (her) weapon well. A girl is going on her first raid. She kills an enemy soldier, and his vehicle crashes. She rejoices in her success in "a struggle all must share"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: war battle death rebellion foreignlanguage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 360-361, "Partizaner Lid (The Partisan)" (2 texts (1 English, 1 Yiddish), 1 tune)
NOTES [128 words]: World War II saw more partisan activity than any previous war, mostly because the Nazis so cruelly oppressed their victims. Perhaps the largest guerrilla forces were raised in Poland, where Jews were plentiful and even the Christians were treated as animals.
Toward the end of the war, as the Russians approached Warsaw, the Polish resistance arose and recaptured the city. This was the greatest accomplishment of the partisans in the entire war.
Sadly, at that very moment the Russians stopped their advance. Stalin said his armies needed to regroup. In fact, he was allowing the Nazis the chance to crush the Warsaw uprising so he wouldn't have to do it himself.
The Nazis did their part, then the Russians moved in. Tens of thousands of Poles had died for nothing. - RBW
File: SBoA360

Party at Jack Williams's, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was on a Sunday evening in the month of July We went out to Jack Williams's ourselves for to enjoy" Late arrivals -- "a sporting bunch belonging to Kilbride" -- took the floor, and when they left the locals danced the night away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: dancing party moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
RECORDINGS:
John Molloy, "The Gasker Song" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3PJWi

Party in Alpena, The

See Way Down Near Alpena (File: Be039)

Pass Around the Bottle (As We Go Marching Home)

DESCRIPTION: "Pass around the bottle and we'll all take a drink (x2) As we go marching home." "Pull out the stopper and fill it up again." "Hang John Brown on a sour apple tree." "Grasshopper sitting on a sweet potato vine." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers)
KEYWORDS: drink floatingverses Civilwar execution drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 296-297, "Pass Around Your Bottle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 34, "Pass Around the Bottle" (1 text)
Roud #7858
RECORDINGS:
Al Bernard, "Pass Around the Bottle" (Grey Gull 4210/Radiex 4210/Van Dyke 74210, 1928; Madison 5094, c. 1930)
Georgia Yellow Hammers, "Pass Around the Bottle" (Victor 20550, 1927; Montgomery Ward M-8054, 1939)
Sim Harris, "Pass Around the Bottle" (Oriole 916, 1927)
North Carolina Hawaiians, "Pass Around the Bottle" (OKeh 45405, 1930; rec. 1928)
Ernest Stoneman, "Pass Around the Bottle" (Banner 2157/Domino 3985/Regal 8346/Homestead 16490 [as by Sim Harris], c. 1929/Oriole 916 [as by Harris]/Challenge 665/Conqueror 7064/Conqueror 7755, 1931/Paramount 3021/Broadway 8054, c. 1930; rec. 1927) Pathe 32278/Perfect 12357/Cameo 8217/Romeo 597/Lincoln 2882, 1927); "Hang John Brown" (on Stonemans01); (Edison, unissued, 1927)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Pass Around the Bottle and We'll All Take a Drink" (Columbia 15074-D, 1926)
Walter Williams, "Pass Around the Bottle" (AFS, 1937; on KMM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marching On" (lyrics)
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES [71 words]: Since this is almost entirely floating verses, with a floating chorus, it probably is actually a version of something else. But without a tune, we can't really tell what.
Paul Stamler tells me that Gid Tanner recorded this to the tune of "John Brown's Body." However, this does not fit the text printed by Brown (which is only three lines long rather than four). The Lomax version, on the other hand, has four-line stanzas. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: Br3034

Pass Around the Grog (Here's a Health to Our Majesty)

DESCRIPTION: "Hear's a health unto our majesty, and long may she reign, Queen of all the seven seas and the pride of the Spanish main." "Here's a health to his Majesty, With a fa la la la la...." "So pass around the grog, my boy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
KEYWORDS: drink royalty nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 492, "Here'a a Health Unto His Majesty" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 18-19, "Here's a Health Unto His Majesty" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5384
NOTES [39 words]: I am far from sure that all the items Roud subsumes under #5384 are the same, and I'm by no means convinced that all of them are traditional, but I will lump them here because drawing a clear criterion for division would be too hard. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ChPMHHOM

Pass It On

DESCRIPTION: "It only takes a spark To get a fire going, And soon all those around Can warm up to its glowing." The original explains, "That's how it is with God's love," and offers examples. Camp song versions may replace this with scouting references
AUTHOR: Kurt Kaiser and Ralph Carmichael (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Kaiser and Carmichael's "Tell It Like It Is," according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious campsong nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 546, "Pass It On" (notes only)
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Alligood, "Pass It On" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #265, recorded 09/26/2022)
File: ACSF546Q

Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Saviour, Saviour / Hear my humble cry / And while others Thou art calling / Do not pass me by." Verses ask, "help my unbelief" and "whom have I ... but Thee."
AUTHOR: Fanny J. Crosby (1868), tune: William H. Doane (1870) (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (Sankey)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Ira D. Sankey, Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos [1200 Hymns] (London: Collins, 1921?), #488 (1880 #63), "Pass Me Not"
RECORDINGS:
Moving Star Hall Singers, "Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior" (on USSeaIsland02)
Trinidad Spiritual Baptists, "Singing at Shouters Service" (on "Cult Music of Trinidad" Folkways LP FE 4478 (1961 (recorded in 1960 by George Eaton Simpson)))
NOTES [173 words]: The USSeaIsland02 version includes three of Sankey's four verses and the chorus, and ends repeating the chorus again with increasing speed, clapping and beating on the floor.
See also The United Methodist Hymnal, (Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 1989), #351 p. 380, "Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior" (1 text, 1 tune).
The Herskovits Trinidadian Spiritual Baptist account of "Jesus Lover of My Soul" fits the USSeaIsland02 track as well. This is a Sankey hymn, and the writers of the WITrinidadVillage02 liner notes would characterize this track as "Sankey into Shout." - BS
For background on author Fanny Crosby van Alstyne, see the notes to "A Few More Marchings Weary." For composer William Howard Doane, see the notes to "Precious Name (Take the Name of Jesus With You)."
The reference to "Help my unbelief" is to Mark 9:23-24. A man has brought his sick child to Jesus to be cured. Jesus declares that "All things will be done for the one who believes." The boy's father replies, "I believe; help my unbelief!" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcPMN)GS

Pass the Ball

See Ball Gawn Roun' (The Ball Is Going Around) (File: JaMu016)

Pass the ball an' the ball goin' round

See Ball Gawn Roun' (The Ball Is Going Around) (File: JaMu016)

Pass the Drunkard By

See Short Life of Trouble (File: RcSLOT)

Pass Under the Rod

DESCRIPTION: The singer variously sees "a young bride in her beauty and pride," a "young mother in tenderness band," and parents falling victim to "idolatrous love," but a Healer came to rescue them, saying "I love thee, I love thee, pass under the rod."
AUTHOR: Mrs. M. S. B. Dana (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Heart Throbs)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 650, "Pass Under the Rod" (2 texts)
Roud #7571
NOTES [51 words]: As best I can tell, the phrase "pass under the rod" is an allusion to the King James Version text of Ezekiel 20:37, which refers to bringing transgressors back into the covenant. Leviticus 27:32 uses the same phrase (referring to the holy tithes of animals), but this strikes me as even more of a stretch. - RBW
File: R650

Passant par Paris (Passing through Paris)

DESCRIPTION: French capstan song. Singer is passing through Paris, when he's told that someone is courting his girl. He says he doesn't care, anyone can have her, and goes on to list all the other good things that he has/had.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Hayet, _Chansons de bord_)
LONG DESCRIPTION: French capstan song. Singer is passing through Paris, when he's told that someone is courting his girl. He says he doesn't care, anyone can have her, and goes on to list all the other good things that he has/had. Sung as a typical French call & response form where the first line of a verse is a repeat of the last line of the previous verse, with choruses interspersed. Chorus of this song is "Bon! bon! bon! Le bon vin m'endort, l'amour me reveille / Good! good! good! The good wine makes me sleep, but love wakes me up."
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty love bragging
FOUND IN: France
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 414-416, "Passant par Paris" (2 texts, French & English, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 92, "Passant par Paris" (2 texts, French & English, 1 tune)
File: Hugi414

Passengers Should Please Refrain

See Humoresque (File: EM235)

Passing of the Helvetia, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Russ Gibb must go.' The Commission willed it so, And the glory of Waimea is departed." "But you thirty true loves Shall never drink again In our beloved pub, the Helvetia." The locals lament the closed Helvetia hotel
AUTHOR: Words: Louis Magee (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1953? (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: drink commerce travel
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
10 Jun 1953 - The Helvetia Hotel, owned by Russ Gibb, closed down by New Zealand's (alcohol) Licensing Commission. Apparently there was no problem with the hotel except that there were too many other dispensaries
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 147, "The Passing of the Helvetia" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Loch Lomond" (tune)
File: BaRo147

Passing Policeman, The

See The Little Lost Child (File: R728)

Passing the Doctor

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Pass(ing) the doctor, one, two, three, Pass(ing) the doctor, Out goes she."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Bluebells My Cockle Shells)
KEYWORDS: jumprope doctor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #453, "Passing the doctor, one, two, three" (1 text)
Roud #20473
File: AJRR453

Passing Through

DESCRIPTION: "I saw Adam leave that garden with an apple in his hand"; the singer asks what he'll do now. Adam replies that he is just "Passing through... Tell the people that you saw me passing through." Jesus, FDR, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young are all passing through
AUTHOR: Dick Blakeslee (source: various internet sites)
EARLIEST DATE: 1948? (Blakeslee version); 1960 (Cheney-MormonSongs version)
KEYWORDS: travel humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 111-112, "Passing Through" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10850
NOTES [33 words]: This was apparently popularized by Leonard Cohen but written by Dick Blakeslee some decades before Cohen recorded it. I feel as if I've heard bluegrass versions, but I don't know where or when. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS111

Past Ten O'Clock

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas ten o'clock one moonlit night" when the singer's love comes tapping at the window. Her parents are awake; she dares not answer. Finally the parents fall asleep; she goes with her beau and they marry at ten o'clock the next morning
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (Bodleian broadside Harding B 11(2500))
KEYWORDS: love mother father elopement nightvisit
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, p. 128, "Ten O'Clock" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 47 and #3/62, p. 47, "Ten o'Clock; or, Remember, Love, Remember" (1 text)
Roud #2674
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 16, "Remember, love, Remember," J. Catnach (London), c. 1825; also Harding B 11(1538), J. Catnach; also Johnson Ballads fol. 19, "Remember, love, remember," J. Catnach (1825); also Harding B 11(3762), "Ten o'clock or Remember, love, remember," J. Cadman (Manchester), 1850-1855; also Firth b.28(41a), "Remember, Love, Remember," W. King (Oxford), c. 1835; also Harding B 11(3761), "Ten O'clock, or, Remember, love, remember," W. F. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; also Johnson Ballads 607, "Ten o'clock love remember," E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1846-1858; also Harding B 11(3417), "Ten o'clock love remember," E. M. A. Hodges; also Harding B 11(1060), "Remember, love, remember," A. Swindells (Manchester), 1796-1853; also Harding B 11(2500), "Past ten o'clock, remember, love, remember," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth b.27(67)=Harding B 11(3929)=Johnson Ballads 2939=Johnson Ballads 3376, "Remember love, remember," unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.17(416), "Ten o'clock or Remember love remember," W. Wright (Birmingham), 1820-1855; also Firth b.27(145), "Remember ten o'clock my dear," unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.13(156), "Remember ten o'clock, my dear," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(3252), "Remember ten o'clock my dear," unknown, n.d.
File: FMNS128

Pastheen Fion

See Paistin Fionn (File: HMHS049A)

Pastoral Elegy

DESCRIPTION: "What sorrowful sounds do I hear Move slowly along in the gale?... Sweet Coroden's notes are all o'er, How lonely he sleeps in the clay." Caroline describes the flowers by his grave and plans to haunt the woods "Since Coroden hears me no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1835 (Missouri Harmony, according to Pound)
KEYWORDS: death burial rambling
FOUND IN: US(NE,MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 95, pp. 203-204, "Pastoral Elegy" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 149-151, "Corydon and Caroline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4662
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Corydon and Phoebe" (theme)
NOTES [127 words]: This is clearly a folk remnant of the many Corydon-and-Phyllis/Phyllida/Chloris pastoral romances so common in the broadsides. I have not been able to find a broadside source, but this is nearly the only traditional survival of one of these pieces. (I thought the only one until Paul Stamler pointed out "Corydon and Phoebe.")
For which we should all be heartily thankful.
The song does appear, under the "Pastoral Elegy" title, in the 1835 edition of the "Missouri Harmony," and this, or some equivalent version, is probably ancestral to the text Pound collected. The Flanders version also appears to have its origin in print, in the 1840 Social Lyricist.
There are of course many other songs and poems called "Pastoral Elegy." Few if any are traditional- RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: LPnd203

Pastores, Los

DESCRIPTION: Spanish. "Ys se van los pastores a la Estremadura (x2), Ya se queda la Sierra triste y oscura (x2)." "Ye se van mardhando. Yas las pobres zagales se quedan llorando." The shephers leave Estremadura, leaving the Sierras sad. The girls weep
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cray-AshGrove)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage separation travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-AshGrove, p. 23, "Los Pastores" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: CrAGr23A

Pastures of Plenty

DESCRIPTION: "It's a mighty hard road that my poor hands has hoed." The singer describes the hard work in the fields and the life of the (migrant) field worker. The singer promises to fight if need be, "'Cause my Pastures of Plenty must always be free."
AUTHOR: Woody Guthrie
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (date of composition)
KEYWORDS: work farming travel migrant freedom nonballad derivative
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 293-294, "Pastures of Plenty" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 502, "Pastures of Plenty" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PASTPLEN
ADDITIONAL: Greg Vandy with Daniel Person, _26 Songs in 30 Days: Woody Guthrie's Columbia River Songs and the Planned Promised Land in the Pacific Northwest_, Sasquatch Books, 2016, p. 62 (copy of one of Woody's own typed texts)
Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 22-23, "Pastures of Plenty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16377
RECORDINGS:
Woody Guthrie, "Pastures of Plenty" (on AmHist2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pretty Polly (II)" (tune)
NOTES [40 words]: This is one of Woody's Columbia River ballads, from 1941, but most people aren't aware of this because it is not at all specific to the Columbia or the Bonneville Power Administration. Note however the reference to the Grand Coulee Dam. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Grnw293

Pasty-Seller's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: Street cry. "Hot pasty, pasty, Hot potato mutton pasty, Hot pasty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 44, "(The Pasty-Seller's Song)" (1 short text, 1 tune, filed with a group of songs under the general heading "Crowdy Crawn")
Roud #24349
File: Gund044E

Pat

See Campbell the Rover (File: K269)

Pat and the Gauger

DESCRIPTION: Paddy lands with a 6-gallon whisky keg. A gauger asks to see his permit. Says Pat, "It's unconvenient to show it." The gauger takes the "smuggled" keg and sweats lugging it toward Customs House. At his own house Pat shows the permit and takes the keg
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous trick work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1747, "Paddy and the Gauger" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 78, "Pat and the Gauger" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB078 (Partial)
Roud #2765
NOTES [36 words]: I repeat Bob Waltz's comment from "The Gauger": It appears, in this case, that "gauger" is used in its sense of "revenue officer," though the secondary sense of one who is very aware of his own interests also fits. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: CrSNB078

Pat Brady

DESCRIPTION: Pat Brady's father is taken prisoner and hanged without any crime. Pat vows revenge. He takes part in the rebellion at Gorey, Wicklow, New Ross, and Vinegar Hill, is taken in Rathangan, and condemned to hang for high treason.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.10(15))
KEYWORDS: rebellion battle death execution Ireland lament patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - the Irish Rebellion
June 4 - Wexford rebels capture Gorey (which loyalists had abandoned a week earlier)
June 5, 1798 - The Wexford rebels attack the small garrison (about 1400 men, many militia) at New Ross, but are repelled
June 9, 1798 - Battle of Arklow. Father John Murphy tries to fight his way into Wicklow, but fails and suffers heavy casualties
June 21, 1798 - The rebel stronghold a Vinegar Hill is taken, and the Wexford rebellion effectively ended
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 53A, "The Lamentations of Patrick Brady" or "The Heroes of Ninety-Eight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 67, "The Lamentation of Patrick Brady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3071
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(15), "Pat Brady" ("Ye true born heroes, I hope you will lend an ear"), W.S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; also 2806 b.10(13), "Pat Brady"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banishment of Patrick Brady" (theme)
cf. "Boulavogue" (historical setting)
cf. "Father Murphy (I)" (subject of Father Murphy) and references there
File: OLoc053A

Pat Malloy [Laws Q24]

DESCRIPTION: Pat, the singer, reports that his mother (burdened with thirteen children) at last had to send him out to fend for himself. He visits England and America, sending his earnings home. Finally he prepares to return to Ireland and his sweetheart Molly
AUTHOR: Words: DIon Boucicault / Music: Dan Bryant (1833-1875) (Source: Jon W. Finson, _The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song_, Oxford University Press, 1994)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, LOCSinging sb40549a)
KEYWORDS: mother emigration love return Ireland
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws Q24, "Pat Malloy"
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 116, "Pat Malloy" (1 text)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 333-335, "Pat Malloy" (1 text; tue on pp. 447-448)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 90, "Pat Malloy" (1 short text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 111, "Pat Palloy" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1848, p. 125, "Pat Malloy" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #16, pp 34-35, "Pat Malloy" (1 text)
DT 533, PATMOLOY
Roud #8809
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.9(28), "Pat Molloy," W.S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; also 2806 b.11(24), "Pat Molloy!"; 2806 c.8(191), Johnson Ballads 3061, "Pat Malloy"
LOCSinging, sb40549a, "Pat Malloy," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Return of Pat Molloy" (character of Pat Malloy/Molloy)
NOTES [155 words]: Laws calls this "Pat Malloy," which we follow, but the name "Pat Molloy" is at least as common -- and it seems to have been the basis for the (probable) sequel "Return of Pat Molloy." Laws mentions a sequel, "Molly's Welcone to Pat Malloy." This can be found, e.g., in Dime-Song-Book #29, p. 31. It is not the same as the song in the Index, "Return of Pat Molloy"; it speaks of the death of Pat's mother but does not mention the Fenians.
As justification for Laws's title, the earliest sheet music is called "Pat Malloy." Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, facing p. 177, has an 1865 sheet music cover showing Dan Bryant as Pat Malloy. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb40549a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LQ24

Pat Malone

See The Irish Wake [Laws Q18] (File: LQ18)

Pat Malone Forgot that He Was Dead

See The Irish Wake [Laws Q18] (File: LQ18)

Pat Malony's Family

DESCRIPTION: Mike Malony marries Molly Higgins. "She'd as many relations as fishes in the sea, They ate me out of house and home." The family, including the "seventeen hundred babies... grandmothers and mothers-in-law" are numbered and named.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: marriage humorous food clothes ordeal family moniker
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland p. 128, "Pat Malony's Family" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Poor Hard-Working Man" (theme)
File: OCon128

Pat McGuire

See Let Mr. McGuire Sit Down (File: RcLMMSD)

Pat Mullaly

DESCRIPTION: "There's Pat Mullaly who never kept tally, He would work a mule's work to get two men's pay"; the other workers write a letter to try to make him stop. "We'll combine, the union join, And work eight hours a day... and then they'll raise our pay"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: mining labor-movement worker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, p. 232, "Pat Mullaly" (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32] (subject: the Long Strike and the Molly Maguires) and references there
NOTES [29 words]: Korson lumps this in with songs of "The Long Strike," and I suspect he is right. For background, see "The Long Strike" and especially "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP232

Pat Murphy

See I Don't Mind If I Do (File: MA263)

Pat Murphy of Meagher's Brigade

See I Don't Mind If I Do (File: MA263)

Pat Murphy of the Irish Brigade

DESCRIPTION: "Said Pat to his mother, "It looks strange to see, Brothers fighting in such a queer manner." But Pat joins the Union army. He goes to battle still singing, but is shot and dies "far from the land of shillelagh."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 31(118))
KEYWORDS: Civilwar death battle foreigner
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 219-221, "Pat Murphy of the Irish Brigade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, p. 22-23, "Pat Murphy of the Irish Brigade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1849, p. 125, "Pat Murphy of Meagher's Brigade" (3 references)
DT, SHILLELA
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 23, #3 (1974), p. 18, "Pat Murphy" (1 text, 1 tune, based primarily on the early broadsides)
Roud #11630
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 31(118), "Pat Murphy of Meagher's Brigade", H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
LOCSinging, sb30412b, "Pat Murphy of Meagher's Brigade", H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "By the Hush" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
Think of Your Head in the Morning (per broadsides LOCSinging sb30412b and Bodleian Harding B 31(118))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Song of the Splintered Shillelagh
NOTES [224 words]: In at least one sense, this song is quite accurate historically. The Army of the Potomac's famous "Irish Brigade" (63 NY, 69 NY, 88 NY; 28 Mass and 116 PA added later) had the highest casualty rate of any unit in the army in the early years of the war. By Gettysburg, the brigade had only 530 men (out of more than 4000 originally enrolled), and the three New York regiments had fewer than a hundred men a piece -- a casualty rate in excess of 90%. For more on this, see the notes to "By the Hush." See also "The Irish Sixty-Ninth."
This song seems to have been moderately popular during the Civil War; Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 125, lists three different broadsides, one of them "sung with great success by the Comic Vocalist of the day, Tony Pastor."
William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 114, says that this "appears to have begun life as a comic piece to which some more serious verses were later appended." The tune is listed as "Think of Your Head in the Morning." - RBW
Broadsides LOCSinging sb30412b and Bodleian Harding B 31(118) are duplicates.
Broadsides LOCSinging sb30412b and Bodleian Harding B 31(118): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: SCW22

Pat O'Brien [Laws P39]

DESCRIPTION: Pat asks Nancy to meet him. Having decided not to marry her, he stabs her. Her ghost tells her mother of the crime. Her body is found and Pat arrested. The ghost keeps appearing to him, finally inducing him to confess. He is hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Graham's Illustrated Magazine, June 1858, p. 560, according to Jim Dixon; text poste to mudcat.org)
KEYWORDS: homicide ghost execution gallows-confession
FOUND IN: US(NE) Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws P39, "Pat O'Brien"
Greig/Duncan2 203, "Pat O'Brien" (1 text)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 10, "Pat O'Brien" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 131-135, "Pat O'Brien" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 300-302, "Pats O'Brien" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 516, PATOBRI
Roud #1919
RECORDINGS:
John Kehoe, "Pat O'Brien" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mrs. K. McCarthy, "Pat O'Brien" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Charlie Williams, "Patrick Power (Parker)" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (The Gosport Tragedy; Pretty Polly) [Laws P36A/B]" (theme)
NOTES [81 words]: "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" is just the first similar ballad that came to mind. As Munnelly notes, "it is a classic of the type of murder ballads which eminated from the popular broadsheet presses of the 19th century." Munnelly also remarks on the "popularity of this song in oral tradition." I don't have a broadside example yet.
The Charlie Williams MUNFLA/Leach recording at first names the ship's carpenter "Patrick Power (Parker?)" but later names the murderer "Pat O'Brien." - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LP39

Pat O'Donnell

DESCRIPTION: Pat O'Donnell, "a deathly foe to traitors," sails from Ireland for Capetown on the Melrose. The informer James Kerry is also on board. Pat kills Kerry in a gunfight and is convicted of murder, though he claims self defence.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: emigration homicide trial Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 6, 1882 - Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and the Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke are murdered by a group calling themselves "The Invincible Society."
January 1883 - twenty seven men are arrested.
James Carey, one of the leaders in the murders, turns Queen's evidence.
Six men are condemned to death, four are executed (Joseph Brady is hanged May 14, 1883; Daniel Curley is hanged on May 18, 1883), others are "sentenced to penal servitude," and Carey is freed and goes to South Africa.
July 29, 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell kills Carey on board the _Melrose Castle_ sailing from Cape Town to Durban.
Dec 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell is convicted of the murder of James Carey and executed in London (per Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
(Source for The Phoenix Park murders: primarily Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, pp. 62, 63, 281-286)
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 42, "Pat O'Donnell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 86, "Patrick O'Donnell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 33, "Pat O'Donnell" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 44A, "Pat O Donnell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 86, "Patrick O'Donnell" (1 text)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 54, pp. 150-151,176, "Pat O'Donnell" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 117, "Pat O'Donnell" (1 text)
ST LLab042 (Partial)
Roud #2794
RECORDINGS:
Marie Hare, "Patrick O'Donnell" (on MRMHare01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Phoenix Park Tragedy" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders) and references there
NOTES [50 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 62: "The Phoenix Park murders and their judicial sequels struck the popular imagination and were a gold-mine for ballad-writers: some thirty songs were issued on this subject, which was the last great cause to be so extensively commented upon in broadside ballads." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: LLab042

Pat O'Hara

DESCRIPTION: "I am an Irish boy, and my heart is full of joy... I'm the rattling, rowling, teasing Pat O'Hara." The girls are always chasing Pat. He loves Ireland "tho' the times have changed this while in dear ould Erin's isle, And many have had to wander"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.16(216))
KEYWORDS: bragging courting Ireland nonballad rake
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 20-21, "Pat O'Hara" (1 text)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 19, "Pat O'Hara" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9697
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.16(216), "Pat O'Hara", T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899; also Firth c.26(194), "Pat O'Hara"
File: OCon020B

Pat O'Reilly

DESCRIPTION: Pat O'Reilly intends to go to America, make a fortune, and return to Tyrone. Pat promises to marry Ann McCormick when he returns. She has him arrested and lies at the trial. He is condemned to "die on the gallows tree"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: courting accusation lie death lover trial execution emigration
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 159-160, "Pat O'Reilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland p. 35, "Patrick Reilly" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 7-8, "Patrick Riley" (1 text)
Roud #5494
RECORDINGS:
John Bulger, "Pat O'Reilly" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Emma Doyle, "Patrick Reilly" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
James John, "Pat O'Reilly" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: Pea159

Pat of Mullingar

DESCRIPTION: "They may talk of Flying Childers" and other fast horses but none compares to the filly that drags Pat Mulingar's jaunting car. She won cups but "lost an eye at Limerick and an ear at Waterloo... She's gentle as the dove sirs, her speed you can't deny"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1862 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 15(234b))
KEYWORDS: racing horse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 10, "Pat of Mullingar" (1 text)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 90, "Pat of Mullingar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3067
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(234b), "Pat of Mullingar", J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1858-1861; also 2806 c.15(130), Harding B 11(2967), 2806 b.11(121), "Pat of Mullingar"; Harding B 26(503), Harding B 19(91), "Pat of Mullinger"
NOTES [26 words]: Flying Childers, born in 1714, "is considered the first truly great racehorse in the history of the Thoroughbred." (source: Thoroughbred Heritage site) - BS
File: OCon010

Pat Reilly

See Johnny Gallagher (Pat Reilly) (File: Pea469)

Pat Works on the Railway

See Paddy Works on the Railway (File: LxU076)

Pat-a-Cake

DESCRIPTION: "Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man! So I will, master, as fast as I can: Pat it, and prick it, and mark it with T [or B], Put in the oven for Tommy [baby] and me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1698 (Tom D'Urfey's _The Campaigners_, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad baby
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(MA,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #2, pp. 2-3, "Pat-a-cake" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1693, "Pat-a-Cake" (1 text)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 113, "Patty-Cake" (2 texts)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 13, "Patta-Cake" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 396, "Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake, Baker's Man" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #600, p. 239, "(Patty Cake, Patty Cake)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 162, Pat-a-Cake, Pat-a-Cake, Baker's Man" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 1, "Pat-a-Cake" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, p. 454, "Patacake, patacake, baker's man" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1843 ("Digitized by Google")),#285 p. 161, ("Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man")
Roud #6486
NOTES [63 words]: The version I learned of this has a different second line than the version in most of the sources cited: "Patty-cake, patty-cake, baker's man, Bake me a cake as fast as you can...."
According to the Baring-Goulds, a Patty Cake or pat-a-cake is a small cake with currants. Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, however, describes actually patting the imaginary cake one is baking. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: GrD81693

Pat-a-Cake, Pat-a-Cake, Baker's Man

See Pat-a-Cake (File: GrD81693)

Pat's Curiosity Shop

See Paddy's Curiosity Shop (File: OCon145)

Pat's Wedding

DESCRIPTION: "O come in, man, and let's hear your cracks; I heard ye was o'er at the wedding O aye, man, indeed I was that, And I lent them a hand at the bedding." The singer describes Pat, "a comical body"; Rob, "the greedy hash"; etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: wedding food nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 166, "Pat's Wedding" (1 expurgated text)
ST GC166 (Partial)
Roud #3705
NOTES [47 words]: This may well be a fragment of some sort of song such as "The Blythesome Bridal," about an uproarious wedding. But it appears a bit fragmentary, and the omission of a verse at the end doesn't help. I file it separately until something clearly related shows up, and so does Roud. - RBW
File: GC166

Patacake, Patacake, Baker's Man

See Pat-a-Cake (File: GrD81693)

Patanio

See Pattonia, the Pride of the Plains [Laws B12] (File: LB12)

Patched-up Old Devil, The

See Only Nineteen Years Old (File: RcOn19YO)

Patches on My Pants, The

DESCRIPTION: "Of all the years since I began To mix in politics, The one that tries my inner man Is Eighteen Ninety Six... And count them all from hip to heel, The patches on my pants." He first put them on in 1888, when he voted for Harrison; now he regrets it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Nevada Folklore pamphlet; probably written in the 1890s)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad clothes hardtimes
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1888 - Benjamin Harrison elected President by the Electoral College even though Grover Cleveland won the popular vote
1892 - Cleveland wins the rematch with Harrison
1896 - William McKinley elected President for the first time, defeating William Jennings Bryan
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 76-77, "The Patches on My Pants" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Nebraska Folklore, Pamphlet Eighteen, "Farmers' Alliance Songs of the 1890's," Federal Writers' Project, 1938, p. 17, "The Patches on My Pants" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Auld Lang Syne" (tune)
cf. "Free Silver" (subject of William Jennings Bryan and the 1896 election) and references there
NOTES [13 words]: For more on the issues of the 1896 presidential election, see "Free Silver." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Wels078A

Paterson Fire, The

DESCRIPTION: "The fatal cry of fire it was carried through the air, And crowds of people they came rushing round. All Paterson is burning...." People "madly" try to save themselves. The fire causes great damage and disturbance
AUTHOR: Larry Lavake
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (Cohen); original publication c. 1902
KEYWORDS: fire disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 9, 1902 - The Paterson, New Jersey fire. Although damage is heavy, only two lives are lost.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 129, "The Paterson Fire" (1 text)
File: CAFS1129

Path of a Walking Man

DESCRIPTION: "So farewell to you Geraldine I am already down the track... Down the path of a walking man Treads a song for a working plan, If it ends in the way it began, It's the path of a walking man." The singer lists the places he will go before returning home
AUTHOR: At least partly Joe Fleming
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 72, "Path of a Walking Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: COl2072

Patie's Waddin'

See Patie's Wadding (Petie's Wedding) (File: HHH200)

Patie's Wadding (Petie's Wedding)

DESCRIPTION: Petie comes to Meg to ask if she will marry. She consents but directs him to her father. Petie asks her father, pointing out that he has relatively little. The father consents to the wedding, and to pay for the feast
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: wedding father food
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 616, "Patie's Wedding" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H200, pp. 470-471, "Petie Cam' ower the Glen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5514
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Patie Cam' Doon the Glen
NOTES [21 words]: One has to wonder what is going on beneath the surface here -- the father seems awfully eager to get rid of his daughter.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: HHH200

Patie's Wedding

See Patie's Wadding (Petie's Wedding) (File: HHH200)

Patie's Wedding (II)

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of attending Patie's wedding. There was lots of food but the singer sat next to a glutton. They had to give the fiddler a toddy so he could play. Everyone danced until "they'd a' got their fill," then "repaired to the beddin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: wedding dancing drink fiddle food music nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #151, p. 2, "Patie's Weddin'" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 607, "The Wedding" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #2620
NOTES [43 words]: Greig/Duncan3 and Greig suggest that Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 24-26, "The Skipper's Wedding" may be this song. I see no relationship between these songs (no shared lines, for example) except the subject: a wedding with lots of food. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3607

Patient Grissell

DESCRIPTION: "A noble marquess, As he did ride a hunting," meets Grissell. The story follows that in Chaucer and the Italien ancestors: He marries her or gets her pregnant, abuses her, casts her aside, and finally reunites with her when she stays faithful
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Bell); broadside believed to be from before 1590
KEYWORDS: love courting abuse rejection reunion
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume III, pp. 421-430, "Patient Grissell" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 73-81, "Patient Grissell" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 495
ST BeCo073 (Partial)
NOTES [384 words]: Even though this is found in the Percy Folio, there is no evidence whatsoever that this is traditional, although the tale of Griselda certainly is. Marquis Walter and Griselda are the subject of the "Clerk's Tale" in the Canterbury Tales.
Rollins, p. 215, #2486, is "The sonnge of pacyente Gressell vnto hyr make," registered by Owen Rogers in 1655/1656. I don't know that that is this song, but it seems likely, particularly since it is very nearly contemporary with the Percy Folio.
Although the story has had its admirers (I was astounded to learn that there are more manuscript copies of The Clerk's Tale than any of the other Canterbury Tales), most moderns regard it as monstrous. For a discussion of this, see James Sledd, "The Clerk's Tale: The Monsters and The Critics." This was originally published in Modern Philology LI (1953), and is now available in Wagenknecht, pp. 226-239. The two preceding essays in Wagenknecht, George Lyman Kittredge's "Chaucer's Discussion of Marriage" and Henry Barrett Hinkley's "The Debate on Marriage in The Canterbury Tales," are also worth seeing in this context.
The story originated with Boccaccio; Chaucer seems to have known it from Petrarch's Latin and from a French translation (Bryan/Dempster, pp. 288-290). He changed the details, though, moving the tale to Lombardy and making Walter much more vicious -- "more obstinately wilful, more heartlessly cruel," while cranking up our sympathy for Griselda, according to Bryan/Dempster, p. 290. Turner, p. 320, notes that Chaucer in the 1370s had visited the Italian lands of the Viscontis of Milan (in Lombardy) and had seen firsthand their tendency to create a complete tyranny. Her implication seems to be that Chaucer made his changes in the Clerk's Tale to show the dangers of absolute monarchy. (Dangers, we might add, which threatened England herself in the time of Richard II.)
This leads to an interesting speculation. The Percy Folio was finished some time between 1643 and 1660, which means that the latest pieces in it would have probably been from the 1630s and 1640s -- the time when Charles I was trying to be an absolutist king of England and Scotland. Might the author of this song have been trying to give the same message about absolutism as Chaucer two and a half centuries earlier? - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: BeCo073

Patient Jo

DESCRIPTION: Collier Patient Jo is mocked for his acceptance of any misfortune. Jo's life is saved and his taunter's life is lost when a dog steals Jo's lunch.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Patient Jo is "a collier of honest renown ... Whatever betied (sic.) him he thought it was right And providence still he kept ever in sight" One day at the pit "Tim Jenkins as usual was turning to jest Jo[']s notion that all things which happened were [for the] best" When a dog steals Jo's lunch, Jo follows the dog to retrieve his lunch while Tim laughs and swears from the pit. The pit falls in and Tim is killed, while Jo escapes harm by following the dog. Jo comments on Tim's death: "How could it appear to a short sighted sinner That my life would be saved by the loss of my dinner"?
KEYWORDS: virtue death mining religious
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 79, "Patient Jo" (1 text)
Roud #2845
NOTES [25 words]: The title is presumably a reduced version of "Patient Job" -- Job was famous for his endurance in misfortune, although in fact he complained a lot. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: TPS079

Patrick O'Donnell

See Pat O'Donnell (File: LLab042)

Patrick O'Neal

DESCRIPTION: Patrick goes to visit a cousin, and -- being mistaken for a sailor in disguise -- is taken by a press gang. Aboard ship, he proves utterly inept and meets many surprises. His ship defeats a Frenchman in battle. With peace, Patrick gets to go home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (Northern Minstrel)
KEYWORDS: ship pressgang sailor humorous escape
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H552, pp. 102-103, "Patrick O'Neal" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST, PATNEAL
Roud #13368
File: HHH552

Patrick Power

DESCRIPTION: Patrick Power robs his father for a girl he is courting. She advises him to kill his father, which he does. Patrick is arrested, tried, convicted, and condemned. He repents, says farewell to his mother and warns against "Satan's cursed art."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports; MUNFLA/Leach)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Patrick Power courts "a young woman who lived near us ... I often robbed my father to then spend it on my dear." She advises him to kill his father, which he does with a pitchfork while the Devil stands by him. His mother finds the pitchfork and Patrick is arrested, tried, convicted, and condemned. He repents, "an unworthy member of the faith of the holy church of Rome," blesses the priest and Ladies of Charity that attend him in his cell. He says farewell to his mother and warns "both young and old... beware of Satan's cursed art."
KEYWORDS: courting warning crime execution homicide prison punishment robbery trial death gallows-confession father lover mother clergy Devil
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 13, 1865 - Murder of Timothy Power
Apr 4, 1866 - Execution of Patrick Power
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 303-305, "Patrick Power" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #30112
RECORDINGS:
Patrick Power, "The Wexford Girl" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Ned Williams, "Patrick Power" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, Crawford.EB.3642, "The Lamentation of Patrick Power, Who Was Hanged for the Murder of His Father" ("You foolish wicked young men who have been led astray"), unknown (Dublin), 1866
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Patrick Power (Parker)" (subject)
NOTES [94 words]: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports: "The lyrics of this song pertain to the execution of Patrick Power, age twenty-one, of Cromogue near Newtonberry, County Wexford, on April 4, 1866, for the murder of his father, Timothy Power, on October 13, 1865, by a pitchfork."
My guess is that MUNFLA/Leach recording attributed to "Patrick Power" has the singer's name wrong, confusing it with the name of the subject of the song. The site lists the singer among those from Cape Broyle but has no live link to the singer. The song was recorded in Cape Broyle. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Guig303

Patrick Reilly

See Pat O'Reilly (File: Pea159)

Patrick Riley

See Pat O'Reilly (File: Pea159)

Patrick Sheehan [Laws J11]

DESCRIPTION: Patrick and his family are forced from their home by the landlord. His mother dies in the poorhouse. Patrick has little choice but to join the British army. He is blinded at Sevastopol, and ends as a wandering beggar
AUTHOR: Charles Joseph Kickham ("Darby Ryan, Junior") (1828-1882)
EARLIEST DATE: 1857 ("First printed in The Kilkenny Journal, 7th October, 1857," according to Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: war death family father begging injury
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1853-1856 - Crimean War (Britain and France actively at war with Russia 1854-1855)
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Australia Ireland Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws J11, "Patrick Sheehan"
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 64-65, "Patrick Sheehan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 88-89, "Paddy Sheahan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 63, "Patrick Sheehan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 39, "Patrick Sheehan" (2 texts, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 72, "Patrick Sheehan" (1 text)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 115-117, "Patrick Sheehan" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 3-4, "Patrick Sheehan" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 224-225, "Patrick Sheehan" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 208, "The Glen of Aherlow" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 481, "Patrick Sheehan" (source notes only)
DT 750, PATSHEEN*
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 214-216, 502, "Patrick Sheehan"
Roud #983
RECORDINGS:
Vincie Boyle, "Patrick Sheehan" (on IRClare01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(48), "Patrick Shean" or "The Glen of Aherloe," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also 2806 b.10(204), Firth c.14(124), "Patrick Shean" or "The Glen of Aherloe"; 2806 c.8(300), "Patrick Sheehan" or "The Glen of Aherlow"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lovely Jamie" (plot)
NOTES [492 words]: The author attribution to Charles Kickham is from the Bodleian broadsides cited.
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 8" - 1.3.03, re "The Glen of Atherlow" instrumental: "Text written by Charles Joseph Kickham (1828 - 1882), who based it on a true story of one Patrick Sheehan who was blinded at Sebastopol. Sheehan was later jailed for begging in Grafton Street, Dublin, his British army pension having expired after six months. Kickham's poem was first published in 1857."
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "On 28th September, 1857, The Freeman's Journal published the following information: 'A young man named Patrick Sheehan was brought up in custody of Police-constable Lynam, charged with causing an obstruction to the thoroughfare in Grafton-street. The constable stated that the prisoner was loitering in Grafton-street for the purpose of begging, having a placard on his breast setting forth that he had served in the Crimea in the 55th regiment; that he had lost his sight in the trenches before Sebastopol, and that he was discharged on a pension of six pence per day for nine months; and that this period being now expired, he was now obliged to have recourse to begging to support himself. A Crimean medal was found on his person... The prisoner was committed for seven days for begging.'"
Notes to IRClare01: "The ballad was soon to be heard in the streets all over Ireland, and was thought to have shamed the government into enquiring about the ex-soldier, to whom a life pension of a shilling a day was granted." - BS
Kickham's most important work is generally considered to be the novel Knocknagow. His dates seem to have caused some uncertainty; Laws quotes Barry to the effect that he was born in 1826; earlier editions of the Index quoted a birthdate of 1825, on what basis I no longer recall. But the majority of my references give his birth date as 1828.
Kickham had seemed destined for a career as a doctor when a shooting accident left him half-blind, almost deaf, and badly disfigured. He nonetheless became a successful author and poet -- and a vigorous nationalist, strongly attacking the Catholic church for its passivity in the quest for Irish independence.
By 1848, he was involved in nationalist causes. In 1861, he joined the Fenian Brotherhood, which evolved into the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Around 1873, he became president of the IRB's Supreme Council, holding the post until his death and rebuilding it after the debacle of the Fenian Rebellion.
It will be evident that his personal experiences contributed at least somewhat to the content of this song, though Kickham's family was sufficiently well-off that there was never any threat of him being forced from his home.
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 159-160, prints a piece, "The Immortal Kickham Is No More." There is no evidence that it's traditional, but it shows his historical importance. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LJ11

Patrick Spence

See Sir Patrick Spens [Child 58] (File: C058)

Patrick Spencer

See Sir Patrick Spens [Child 58] (File: C058)

Patrick's Day

DESCRIPTION: Singer cries because Jimmy left her and crossed the ocean on Saint Patrick's day. They had met on Saint Patrick's day. Her friends warned her to "banish him out of my mind" but she ignored the warning. She'll never forget his vows and promises.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: grief warning courting love emigration separation lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18236
RECORDINGS:
Will O'Brien, "Patrick's Day" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcPatsDa

Patrick's Day Parade

DESCRIPTION: "Saint Patrick was a gentleman, his name we celebrate, And on the 17th of March the Irish congregate." They'll "face the divil, friend or foe In the Patrick's Day parade." They cheer both America and their Irish heritage, and all who are in the parade
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (The Day We Celebrate; also sheet music by William A. Pond & Co.; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: Ireland patriotic nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #2, pp. 7-10, "Patrick's Day Parade" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Franceschina, _David Braham: The American Offenbach_, Routledge, 2003, pp. 81-82, "(The Patrick's Day Parade)" (before-and-after texts of the chorus, which was revised over the years)
RECORDINGS:
Mick Moloney, "Patrick's Day Parade" (on HarriganBrahamMaloney)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Saint Patrick Was a Gentleman" (opening line)
NOTES [279 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
The opening line "Saint Patrick was a gentleman" was in use by the 1830s, so Edward Harrigan clearly borrowed it. But it's not entirely clear whether he borrowed more of this song.
Williams, p. 111, says that the play "The Day We Celebrate" premiered in 1875; Moloney says 1874; it appears both are correct. "The song 'Patrick's Day Parade,' with music by Braham, was, in fact, a rewrite of Bob Hall's music for the same lyrics, arranged by M. De Donato, for 'The Day We Celebrate,' an earlier version of the sketch, and published in 1874..... But the differences in melodic contour and harmonic complexity are significant, particularly in the chorus, where Braham managed to convince Harrigan to rewrite the text to allow for a more varied and interesting melody" (Franceschina, p. 81).
The plot of "The Day We Celebrate," which was later renamed "Patrick's Day Parade," sounds as if it was lifted from "The Boatsman and the Chest" [Laws Q8] or one of the other adulterer-has-to-hide songs that have been traced back as far as Boccaccio's Decameron. Irish servant-woman Johanna McCann, thinking her boyfriend FItzgerald Conroy will be marching in the St. Patrick's Day Parade, invites Hogarth Higgins to visit. But Conroy arrives in turn, forcing Higgins to hide in a closet. Conroy finds his hat, eventually finds Higgins, and beats him (Franceschina, p. 81).
According to Blow, p. 296, Theodore Roosevelt knew this song, or at least the lines "Shout hurrah for Erin go Bragh And all the Yankee nation," and sang them as he and the Rough Riders approached the coast of Cuba in 1898. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: HaBrPaDa

Patriot Game, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you young rebels and list' while I sing, For the love of one's land is a terrible thing." 16-year-old O'Hanlon wanted to fight England and "free" Ulster. Now he lies with his body "all holes." He wishes he had accomplished more
AUTHOR: Dominic Behan
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: Ireland IRA political death war
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Behan-IrelandSings, #68, "The Patriot Game" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PATGAME1*
Roud #18464
SAME TUNE:
With God On Our Side (by Bob Dylan, and available in many pop songbooks)
NOTES [47 words]: Behan reports that this was inspired by the death of one Feargal O'Hanlon in 1957. It has been preserved mostly by pop folk singers (who seem to have adapted the message with regularity), but there are a handful of semi-traditional collections, so perhaps it belongs in the Index. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Beha068

Patriot Mother, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Come tell us the name of the rebelly crew Who lifted the pike on the Curragh with you.'" The captured rebel's mother tells the young man that she would rather see him dead than turn traitor. He holds fast and is hanged
AUTHOR: Mary Eva Kelly (1826-1910) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Sparling)
KEYWORDS: prisoner mother children Ireland patriotic execution
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 85-86, "The Patriot Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 54, "The Patriot Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 217, "The Patriot Mother" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 393-394, "The Patriot Mother"
NOTES [23 words]: Sparling, re Eva Mary Kelly (p. 502): "One of the poetesses of the Nation." Sparling does not credit her with "The Patriot Mother." - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: PGa085

Patriot Queen, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a beautiful woman who identifies herself as Ireland. "The bigoted tyrant I'll humble" "I have noble fine brave men ... Preparing to fight for my name; I have noble O'Connell my leader, And millions of heroes at home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: first half 19C (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: beauty Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 26, "The Patriot Queen" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pretty Maid Milking Her Cow"("Cailin deas cruidhte na mbo") (tune, per Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
cf. "Erin's Green Shore" [Laws Q27] (theme: beautiful woman to rally Erin)
File: Zimm026

Pats O'Brien

See Pat O'Brien [Laws P39] (File: LP39)

Patsy Fagan

DESCRIPTION: "I left my home in Ireland, 'twas many years ago... where the pigs and praties grow." "Hello, Patsy Fagan, you'll hear the girls all cry... You're a decent lad from Ireland." He hopes someone will marry him and accept him as a "decent boy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs)
KEYWORDS: emigration courting farming
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 17, "The Patsy Fagan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22590
File: ScCol017

Patsy Orry Aye

See Paddy Works on the Railway (File: LxU076)

Patta-Cake

See Pat-a-Cake (File: GrD81693)

Pattonia, the Pride of the Plains [Laws B12]

DESCRIPTION: Rangers at a frontier post are hard-pressed by Indians. The commander sends the singer to get help. His swift horse Pattonia carries him through to safety, even though an arrow has pinned his foot to the stirrup
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931
KEYWORDS: horse injury Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: US(MW,So,SW) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws B12, "Pattonia, the Pride of the Plains"
Randolph 207, "Pattonia, the Pride of the Plains" (1 text)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 116-118, "Plantonio" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 67, "Pattonio" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 23, "Platonia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 155-157, "Patanio" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 549-551, "Plantonio, the Pride of the Plain" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 264-265, "Plantonio, the Pride of the Plain" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 708, PATTONIO
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, pp. 6-7, "Platonia, The Pride of the Plains" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3236
NOTES [81 words]: As far as I know, no one knows the source of this ballad, and the author is unknown.
There is, however, a fairly close historical parallel told of none other than Wild Bill Hickok. Bill O'Neal, Encyclopedia of Western Gunfighters, pp. 135-136 (entry on James Butler Hickok), notes that, in 1868, Hickok was part of a party surrounded by Cheyennes in Colorado. Hickok was chosen to ride forth seeking rescue. He made it through the lines -- in the process suffering a foot wound. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LB12

Patty Cake

See Pat-a-Cake (File: GrD81693)

Patty the Piper

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets Pat Murphy the piper: "the sweet music he blew 'Twould have melted the heart of a stone." The singer followed Murphy for five years. Drunk, the piper "fell from a bridge ... dead as a nail in a door" The singer now plays Murphy's pipes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: drowning death drink music travel
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1260, "Patty the Piper" (1 text)
Roud #6792
File: GrD61260

Patty-Cake

See Pat-a-Cake (File: GrD81693)

Pattycake, Pattycake, Baker's Man

See Pat-a-Cake (File: GrD81693)

Paul and His Chickens

DESCRIPTION: "Paul let his chickens run down from the hillside"; he realizes from their actions that Reyard (the fox) is out. The fox has taken a chicken before Paul chases it off. Ashamed, he grinds some corn to earn enough that he can go home to his mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Rickaby collection, according to Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage animal chickens death work money mother
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 64, "Paul and His Chickens" (1 text)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, pp. 40-41, "Paul and the Chickens" (1 text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 32, "Pål sine høner - Paul's Chickens" (2 texts, 1 English, 1 Norwegian; 1 tune)
NOTES [74 words]: According to the notes in Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra, this is a translation of the Norwegian folk song "Pal pa Haugen," "Paul on the Hill." Based on ChansonsDeNotreChalet, this song was also known s "Pål sine høner." Leary says the Norwegian version was "widely sung," but I have no idea if it was truly traditional.
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, says that, while the song is Norwegian, the game is Danish. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RDL064

Paul and the Chickens

See Paul and His Chickens (File: RDL064)

Paul Bunyan

DESCRIPTION: Recitation. Singer works Paul Bunyan's camp, where everything is done on a grand scale (e.g. the pancakes are turned with a sidehill plow). Bunyan, needing a river to run his logs, has his huge ox plow the Big Manistee. Bunyan retires when the ox dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering humorous recitation talltale logger
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 96, "Paul Bunyan" (1 text)
Roud #8874
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Round River Drive" (subject of Paul Bunyan)
cf. "Paul Bunyan's Big Ox" (subject of Paul Bunyan)
cf. "Paul Bunyan's Manistee" (subject of Paul Bunyan)
cf. "In Old Paul Bunyan's Camps" (subject of Paul Bunyan)
NOTES [3659 words]: Paul Bunyan is sometimes derided as a phony folk-hero, and he's certainly been heavily commercialized, but Beck makes clear that these were genuine folk tales.- PJS
This is a complicated question, and I will admit to having doubts -- including questions about Beck's credibility, because he seems to be the only person who actually collected Bunyan poems, and he has no fewer than five different recitations.
Hoffman, p. 1, begins his book by saying, "Perhaps, once, long ago in the woods, there was a strong and skilled lumberjack who bore the name of Bunyan. Perhaps. We shall never know, for the origina of this hero is lost to us now that the woodsmen of the nineteenth century have all passed on. Nobody ever asked them about Paul Bunyan...."
On pp. 27-28, Hoffman notes the difference in style between Paul Bunyan tales and most logging folklore. Whereas loggers sing songs such as "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" [Laws C1] about the dangers of breaking a jam, a Bunyan folktale about a jam is a tall tale of thrusting the logs aside.
The first certain reference to Paul Bunyan is unquestionably literary. Risjord, p. 143, reports that "Paul Bunyan was popularized by a Detroit, Michigan, journalist, James McGillivray, who wrote a story for the Detroit News-Tribune on July 24, 1910 about a heroic lumberjack of immense size and strength." Similarly, Wyman,. p. 4, says that "The name on Bunyan appears for the first time in 1910 in the Detroit Evening News,, in the poem 'Round River Drive' by James McGillivray. [A full text of this, allegedly from oral tradition, occurs on pp. 77-80 of Gard/Sorden.]
It has been claimed that "Round River Drive" is older than this and was first printed in 1906. This alleged text was somewhat shorter than the 1910 version. But Hoffman, p. viii note 1, observes that the paper involved was published by McGillivray's brother -- and that their records were destroyed by fires. So, while this may push the date of the poem a little earlier, the evidence is weak and the writer is still presumably McGillivray.
Hoffman, p. 4, makes the interesting point that Paul is not the primary focus of "Round River Drive." It takes place in his camp, but most of the events involve other loggers.
Four years later Douglas McMallock rewrote the McGillivray story for the American Lumberman." A series of pamphlets and books followed in the 1920s, the most notable being Paul Bunyan by James Stevens (yes, "The Frozen Logger" author James Stevens), and eventually a Minnesota lumber company picked him up as a mascot.
There seems to be no evidence whatsoever that any of these stories were collected from loggers or based on lumbermen's tales, except for what Stevens states in his preface. In his second edition, Stevens, p. ix, states, "The Paul Bunyan legend had its origin in the Papineau rebellion of 1837. This was a revolt of the French-Canadians against their young English queen. [Victoria, who ascended in 1837.] ... Among [the rebels] was a mighty-muscled, bellicose, bearded giant named Paul Bunyan.... [He] raged among the Queen's troops like Sampson among the Philistines."
Bunyan, of course, is not a French name, but Havinghurst, p. 236, says that he was originally "Paul Bonhomme of the Two Mountain Country," and claims the stories were first told in the New Brunswick area. He cites no sources.
The Papineau rebellions were real; Louis J. Papineau struggled for decades to improve the political position of the residents of Quebec. Brebner/Masters, p. 220, notes that there had been bad harvests in 1836 and 1837, and the combination of hunger and rejection of their political demands led to uprisings. But Brebner adds that the "half-dozen skirmishes and pitched battles of November and December were pitiable, tragic affairs in which half-armed farmers faced regulars backed by artillery, and, after their defeats, saw their villages and farmsteads looted and burned by uncontrollable, vengeful volunteers."
There is no mention at all of a second Sampson. And Gartenberg, according to Hoffman, p. 97, searched for this Bonhomme character and couldn't find him in the records of the rebellion. Hoffman, p. 96, explicitly labels the Papineau hypothesis "fallacious."
Stevens, interestingly, admits that he got most of his stories from Louis Letourneau and his family, who came from Washington state (Stevens, p. x). There seem to be no evidence of a heroic figure in the records of eastern lumber camps.
I find it interesting to note that Carl Sandburg, in one of his letters (Sandburg/Mitgang, pp. 245-246), seems to be offering Stevens a tale (presumably about Paul Bunyan) which he made up himself -- an implication that Sandburg considered Bunyan mostly fake.
Garrison, p. 163, repeats a different story: "Nobody really knows for sure where Paul Bunyan came from or when. It's possible that French-Canadian fur trappers and traders of the Northwest told the earliest of all Paul Bunyan stories. They tried to resist when their territory was invaded by woodsmen who cut the trees that sheltered the animals. Telling about Paul Bunyan and Babe helped them work off some of their frustration. This theory is buttressed by the fact that Bon Jean, meaning 'brave John,' was often slurred so that it sounded a lot like Boneyaahn. Boneyaahn gradually became Bonikon and then Bunyon and eventually Bunyan, some scholars think." (Though no one seems ever to have seen the intervening forms.)
Gard/Sorden, pp. 70-71, seem to think Paul came from Wisconsin: "Professor Raney of Appleton says that the lumber camps of Wisconsin helped create an entire cycle of native American folklore. Paul Bunyan, the hero, was a mythical lumber operator who, according to Gene Shephard[,] had his camp about forty miles west of Rhinelander, Wisconsin.... After his work in Wisconsin was done, Paul Bunyan logged in the Dakotas (witness their present treeless condition) and in the Pacific Northwest." They go one to give "Paul Bunyan's Wisconsin Natural History," full of creates like "axehandle hounds," "hodags" (one of the few to be heard of outside the Bunyan stories, in my experience), giant "moskittos," and "hoop snakes," whose venom was so strong that it even made axe handles swell up.
A slight hint of support for this may come from the Wisconsin song (recitation?) called "Old-Time Lumberjacks." This item, collected "in the 1930's," does not mention the name Bunyan, but does have a line that the boasts of those old lumberjacks would "put ol' Paul to shame."
Wyman -- also of Wisconsin -- mentions that some of the people he talked to knew of a "big man" named "Joe Mouffreau." Stevens, p. xi, says that the name (which he spells Muphraw) is a variant of Murphy, and claims that he worked in Quebec some time after 1875.
Interestingly, Hoffman, p. 52, has a story in which Paul has an employee called "Sour-faced Murphy," which raises the faint possibility that he might have been an earlier incarnation of Paul. Laughead went so far as to people Paul's band with "two Joe Mufraws, one named Pete" (Hoffman, p. 80).
Stevens admits that two legends may have combined, but claims that Paul Bunyan stories were in circulation by 1860. On p. xvii, he states that "I must have known some [of the Bunyan stories] before 1910, but it was not until then that I heard a gifted and experienced bunkhouse bard give a genuine Paul Bunyan service."
One wonders who this bard might have been. I find it highly interesting that Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy has no songs about Paul Bunyan. Neither does Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman. Nor Fowke. Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin has only the one very oblique reference. Nute, p. 45, declares that the voyageurs "loved to pull the long bow [i.e. tell tall tales], especially about their own exploits, and though Paul Bunyan seems to be a very modern mythological hero of uncertain parentage, his prototype was every voyageur's conception of himself."
Hoffman also thinks the stories have older roots, although he would see the model more in the Yankee Trickster sort of tale (Hoffman, p. 48). He observes, p. 50, that (unlike, say, the Robin Hood corpus which features other genuine characters such as Little John), the Paul Bunyan tales have no other actors than Paul himself. This goes back at least to Laughead, who said that none of his informants had names for any of the actors but Paul.
Interestingly, Hoffman, p. 11, quotes a story which a logger claimed was from Joe Muffreau -- who, in this account was "camp cook to the master logger" and, seemingly, the last Paul Bunyan survivor. Hoffman, p. 45, also mentions a tale told of a logging thief, "Joe Munion." Could "Joe Muffreau" and "Paul Bunyan" be various distortions of "Joe Munion," or Munion a combination of the other two?
Hoffman, p. 54, also described one informant -- Perry Allen -- as a source of high-quality tales, often of Bunyan. But he notes on p. 55 that Alan Lomax had to work very hard to extract the tales from Allen. It appears, in any case, that much of Allen's material was derived from printed sources such as Laughead. Thus, as Paul Stamler said above, Paul Bunyan did become a folk hero -- but Allen's tales are not evidence that he originated as "folk."
Stevens, in the revised introduction to his second edition (p. xvi), acknowledges that the Paul Bunyan stories have come under attack, listing Stuart Sherman and Ben Botkin as those doubting their veracity. But he denies that the attacks have been successful. Stevens eventually admitted that most of his work was based on literary prototypes, not folklore (Hoffman, p. 99), but that's not quite an admission of fakery.
Agnes M. Larson, in surveying lumbermen for a history of white pine logging published in the 1940s, found that none of them knew about Paul (Lass, p. 183). Similarly, Wyman apparently had students look for traces of Paul Bunyan among loggers, and found some who thought they had heard of him in lumber camps, but many more claimed never to have heard of him there.
Blegen's massive tome, written by Minnesota's best historian who was also something of a folklorist, says on page 335, "Paul Bunyan has been presented as a myth, a folk tale, drawn from oral tradition in the lumber camps.... The stories have had wide circulation.... But there is scarcely a shred of evidence that the lumberjacks were familiar with Paul Bunyan, told stories about him, or indeed had ever heard of him.... The present author interviewed a lumberjack of rich experience in the 1920s, Wright T. Orcutt, who had written about lumberjacks and woods lore, and he had never heard a Bunyan story in the woods. And the Forest History Society in its far-ranging investigations of the sources for woods history has unearthed no evidence that Paul Bunyan was the subject of bunkhouse tales."
Gilman, p. 219, finds it hard to disentangle folklore from publicity. On the one hand, she says, "Yankee lumberjacks had their own her.... [H]e belonged to more than Minnesota. In forests from Maine to the Pacific Coast they told stories of Paul Bunyan. Many were about how he solved problems." Even though she claims a folklore origin, the story she retells is straight out of the popularized accounts. Yet she also says "Paul Bunyan was different. In 1914 the Red River Lumber Company of Minneapolis printed a pamphlet with stories about him. Paul's fame spread. Writers everywhere claimed him. They made up new stories and changed him from a clever Yankee lumberjack to a frontier giant."
Jamie Moreira reports that Sandy Ives found no Paul Bunyan tales at all among his New England informants. He also reports on a student collector who had the same experience.
Richard M. Dorson had a very critical appraisal of the legends in his book American Folklore; he includes Paul Bunyan as one of his key examples of "fakelore." Duncan Emrich, Folklore on the American Land, p. ix, says explicitly that the stories of Paul Bunyan "are not folktales."
Hoffman, while more sympathetic to Bunyan tales, notes (p. 35) that very many of them are not logging tales but are "typical of an American comic genre: the enlargement of natural objects, especially plaguey critters. This is often pushed to the grotesque. While the genre contributes some good Bunyan stories, it also exists quite independently of them...."
A pretty massive collection of authorities; I would be loathe to argue with them.
On the other hand, Bunyan's place in Minnesota's urban folklore seems clear -- you can hear screams all the way to Saint Paul any time anyone messes with a Paul Bunyan monument. The first one seems to have been put up in 1937 (Lass, p. 182). Minnesota in 1965 went so far as to publish a booklet about the "Paul Bunyan Trail," four interconnected loops leading to a lot of tourist destinations -- very few of which have anything to do with Paul and relatively few of which even have to do with logging.
Hardin, p. 296, says "The legends of Paul Bunyan are widely distributed throughout the lumber camps of the North," and claims to have assembled a batch of materials from 1916 -- though the book seems to use only one source, which looks secondary to me.
Havinghurst declares on p. 237 that "By 1870 [Bunyan] was a full-fledged deity, and in the next fifty years his fame completed its spread across the continent. Paul Bunyan became the logger's god from Maine to Oregon." Once again he supplies no source for this information.
Beck, collecting primarily in Michigan, gathered enough material to make a Paul Bunyan book, and to have some material left over for other collections. (In this context, it's interesting to note that Gardner and Chickering, who gathered much Michigan logging material, do not seem to have found any Paul Bunyan material.)
Norm Cohen cites the following from Leach's Standard Dictionary of Folklore: "As far as can be determined, the legend originated in Canada during the [nineteenth] century, and was considerably amplified as it spread west and south with the lumber industry, centering in the Lake states and the Northwest. In the course of his migration Paul Bunyan incorporated elements of local heroes like Jigger Jones (Johnson), Joe Mufraw, and Jean Frechette, whom he supplanted."
Cohen himself concluded, "He first appeared in print in stories published by James MacGillivray in 1910, but oral tales from lumbermen in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and the Northwest circulated considerably earlier.... Paul was first introduced to a general audience by W.B. Laughead, a Minnesota advertising man, in a series of pamphlets (1914-44) used to publicize the products of the Red River Lumber Company.... James Stevens, also a lumber publicist, mixed tradition and invention in his version of the story, Paul Bunyan (1925). Along the way, the Bunyan stories took on the character of lying contests -- who could tell the biggest whopper about the good-natured Paul."
Cohen adds, in a message to the Ballad-L mailing list, "In a letter to Louise Pound (SFQ 7) Laughead states that he began with what he 'remembered from Minnesota logging camps (1900-1908)... then picked up odds and ends from letters received....'"
Laughead also produced the first Bunyan illustrations, some of which are shown after the preface of the new edition of Hoffman. Interestingly, these illustrations -- with a mustache that sticks out almost like a cat's whiskers and no beard -- bear little resemblance to the standard Paul Bunyan I seem to recall from my youth. Laughead's book The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan does admit that the author "embellished" the tales.
Hoffman, p. 5, quotes a newspaper story in which Laughead admitted to mixing advertising copy with stories about Paul. Laughead also confessed to creating Babe the Big Blue Ox (according to Hoffman, p. 75, the ox had been mentioned as early as 1910, but Laughead supplied the name and various particulars). Hoffman, pp. 6-7, demonstrates how Laughead gradually popularized his picture; the first edition, of 1914, is full of lumbering terms and proved not very popular; the later editions reduced the logging vocabulary and started adding the vocabulary of ordinary business.
This was enough of a success that the Red River company started to call its produces "Paul Bunyan's Pine" (Hoffman, p. 74), which surely helped promote the tale. Because Laughead had claimed his stories were logger folklore, however, Paul Bunyan could not be copyrighted; others soon began to use the Bunyan name (Hoffman, p. 82). The legend quickly became popular; the first Paul Bunyan festival was held in Brainerd, Minnesota in the mid-1930s (Hoffman, p. 81).
To Laughead's credit, when folklorists started to question him about his work, he readily confessed to what he had done (unlike, say, Stevens). This does give some credence to his claim of having had some sort of legend to start from. He apparently was surprised by the extent to which it took off. (Hoffman, p. 83)
Although, as noted above, Edith Fowke found no Bunyan songs, Jamie Moreira points to her published report, "In Defence of Paul Bunyan" (New York Folklore 5, 1979, 43-52), which says that there were nineteenth century folktales about him.
Jonathan Lighter reports a speculation of Gershon Legman that Bunyan began as a figure of erotic folklore (which obviously would explain why he wasn't cited in the earlier collections). Legman on p. 227 of The Horn Book says that Bunyan was "an upstart in folklore, but folklore nevertheless" (though without explaining or justifying the statement).
Hoffman, p. 8, however makes an interesting point: There are unquestionably folktales about Bunyan *now*, but they all appear to derive from print. He cites a tale about Bunyan's macaroni farm. This is not lumbering folklore; it is a tall tale gone into tradition. If there is a traditional core, it is secondhand.
Hoffman, p. 65, says that the writers who, starting in 1912, contributed most to the Bunyan legend were W. B. Laughead, Ida Virginia Turney, Esther Shephard, James Stevens, Glen Round, and Harold Felton.
Turney, who wrote in 1916, tells a series of tales about Paul so close to Laughead's that they clearly show direct dependence (Hoffman, p. 83) -- if not direct plagiarism, then she took the tales from informants who themselves had read Laughead.
Esther Shepherd, who published a popular Bunyan book in 1924, used both popular and traditional sources, making no attempt to distinguish them (Hoffman, pp. 87-88); it thus served primarily to muddy the tradition.
Then came James Stevens, of whom Hoffman, p. 95, declares, "although [he] has departed furthest from his oral materials, he has taken the greatest pains of any popularizer to convince his readers of his roots in the old tradition." Hoffman, p. 100, contends that Stevens simply borrowed the Bunyan setting for his own fiction -- but admits that it was the logical next step in the popularization of the idea. While granting its popularity, Hoffman labels it "puerile," "vapid," and "overwritten." He also notes (p. 106) that Stevens took up a number of then-current issues, such as Prohibition) that could hardly have been part of the original Bunyan legend.
I must admit to agreeing. The opening chapters of Stevens, e.g., show Paul living in a cave as an independent "scholar" and living on the wild moose meat his dog NIagara hauled in (p. 7). It sounds like a tall tale when described, but it reads like bad fantasy.
Hoffman does say that the second Stevens book on Bunyan, The Saginaw Paul Bunyan, published in 1932, is better (Hoffman, p. 113), lacking the political overtones. Frank Shay's Here's Audacity, from 1930, includes Paul among other heroes such as Paul Bunyan; it qualifies as one of the few attempts to put Paul in the context of what Hoffman calls "frontier demigods."
Hoffman, p. 116, adds that The Saginaw Paul Bunyan was the last Bunyan book intended for an adult audience. From then on, the tales were pitched to children. By 1947, he had even worked his way into the Compton Encyclopedia for children (Hoffman, p. 120) -- in an article which, sadly, swallowed the Stevens explanation for Paul.
Harold Felton published the voluminous Legends of Paul Bunyan in 1947; according to Hoffman, pp. 123-124, this suffered from the usual problem of failing to distinguish folklore from fakelore.
Over this period, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, W. H. Auden, and Louis Untermeyer all produced Bunyan poems. Hoffman, p. 128, suggests that they were all trying to make a true American myth. Their efforts were probably better than the popularizers'. But hardly more folkloric.
Auden, indeed, seems to have tried to suppress his work, an operetta for which he supplied the words (Hoffman, pp. 143-144). Of Untermeyer, Hoffman says (p. 153), "In five hundred ways it repeats what had been written before by Laughead, Turney, Shephard, Stevens, Wadsworth, Rounds, and others, but always with a difference. The distinction is very simple: Mr. Untermeyer has one great advantage over the popularizers, and that is good writing."
Hoffman, p. xxvi, has what I think a fitting summary: "When Paul Bunyan became a popular rather than merely an occupational hero, he ceased to be the product of a homogenous folk society. In the popularization of Paul Bunyan not only were his adventures revised, but his character and the humor with which his exploits were told were altered still more. His changing lineaments reflect the changing values of American culture over the last half century."
I guess I'll have to leave it to you to draw your own conclusions beyond that.
Hoffman makes some other interesting points about Bunyan and his mythos. For instance, he observes on p. 43 that, unlike other mythic heroes, Bunyan embraces technology and even tries to enhance its application. But he adds on p. 62 that this simplifies the process of storytelling, because technology does not require characterization. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: Be096

Paul Bunyan's Big Ox

DESCRIPTION: Recitation aboutPaul Bunyan's giant blue ox ("...every day for dinner/He would eat a ton of hay"; "This big blue ox weighed fourteen tons/And every time he'd bawl/The earth would shake... timber it would fall." The ox dies by breaking its neck
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: recitation talltale animal death
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 97, "Paul Bunyan's Big Ox" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 46, "Paul Bunyan's Big Ox" (1 text)
Roud #4069
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paul Bunyan" (subject) and references there
cf. "The Derby Ram" (theme)
NOTES [24 words]: This recitation is item dC48 in Laws's Appendix II. For background (or, rather, speculation) about Paul Bunyan, see the notes to "Paul Bunyan." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be097

Paul Bunyan's Manistee

DESCRIPTION: "Paul Bunyan, the lumberman, came from St. Paul. he owned a big ox that was eleven feet tall." The singer, from Bay City, is out of work and joins Bunyan's crew. He greases Bunyan's huge griddle with ham strapped to his ankles and does other absurd jobs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: talltale work
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 73-75, "Paul Bunyan's Manistee" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps, pp. 121-122, "Paul Bunyan's Manistee" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 458, "Paul Bunyan's Manistee" (1 text)
Roud #6522
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paul Bunyan" (subject) and references there
NOTES [43 words]: Beck's version of this (seemingly the only one in existence) has this to the Derry Down tune. Yet I heard the first verse, at least, sung, with a tune very close to the verse of "The Strawberry Roan," and no refrain. WIsh I remembered where I heard it! - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: CAFS2458

Paul Jones

See Paul Jones's Victory [Laws A4] (File: LA04)

Paul Jones the Pirate

See Paul Jones's Victory [Laws A4] (File: LA04)

Paul Jones, the Privateer [Laws A3]

DESCRIPTION: John Paul Jones's American ship outruns a British man-of-war. Most of the ballad is devoted to describing the way the ship sails.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Williams)
KEYWORDS: sea navy ship escape | Ranger John Paul Jones
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1777 - The "Ranger" is commissioned
1778 - The "Ranger" outruns the British ship
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE), Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws A3, "Paul Jones, the Privateer"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 131-133, "The Stately Southerner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 126-127, "The Stately Southerner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 177-184, "The Yankee Man-Of-War" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp 145-146, "The Stately Southerner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 173-174, "The Stately Southerner" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 208-213, "The Stately Southerner" (2 texts)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 126-127, "The Stately Southerner" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 267-268, "The Stately Southerner" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 44, "Paul Jones, the Privateer" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 44, "Paul Jones, the Privateer" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 82-85, "Paul Jones" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 153-157, "The Yankee Man-of-War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 157-158, "The Stately Southerner" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, "The Yankee Man0if-War" (1 text)
DT 360, STATESTH
ADDITIONAL: Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, pp. 15-17, "The Yankee Man-of-War" (1 text)
Roud #625
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paul Jones's Victory" [Laws A4] (subject of John Paul Jones)
cf. "The Yankee Man-of-War (III)" (subject of John Paul Jones)
NOTES [246 words]: Although much is made of Jones's escape in this song, it really was not exceptional. The Ranger was a small commerce-raider, designed to be fast (and, according to Pratt, was also quite new, which would also tend to make her faster); heavy men-of-war were much slower, as they had to carry much more weight.
According to Millar, entry on the Ranger, the ship was an 18-gun corvette built at Portsmouth in 1777 and named after "the skillful riflemen who had played a crucial role in the great American victory at Saratoga." It adds that the ship was regarded as "exceptionally fast but 'over-hatted' (she had more sail area than was considered safe to carry)." Chapelle, p. 59, confirms that part of her history: "[T]he Ranger was the most famous [of three sloop-ships built at this time]; she was built at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1777. William Hackett seems to have been her designed, and his cousin, James K. Hackett of Portsmouth, the builder."
It is ironic to note that the Ranger (no longer commanded by Jones, of course) was captured by the British in 1780 at the fall of Charleston, and ended its career as HMS Halifax (and was quickly found unsuitable for British use; she was sold in 1781).
For a biography of Jones (who is the "stately southerner" referred to in Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman's version; the title does not refer to the ship, as the Ranger sailed out of New England), see the entry on "Paul Jones's Victory" [Laws A4]. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: LA03

Paul Jones's Victory [Laws A4]

DESCRIPTION: John Paul Jones's [Bonhomme] Richard encounters two British ships. Despite being outgunned, Jones manages to capture the larger of the British ships.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 247)
KEYWORDS: navy war ship battle | Bonhomme Richard Serapis John Paul Jones
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 23, 1779 - Battle between the Bonhomme Richard (40 guns) and the British Serapis (44 guns) and Scarborough (20 guns)
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE,SE) Britain(England(South,West)) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Laws A4, "Paul Jones's Victory"
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 24-25, "Paul Jones" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 109, "Paul Jones"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 231, "Paul Jones" (2 texts)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 66, "Paul Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #108, "Paul Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 220, "Paul Jones" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 220, "Paul Jones" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 225-226, "Paul Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 78, "Paul Jones" (2 texts)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 51, "Paul Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 24, "Paul Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, p. 713, "Paul Jones' (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 290, "Paul Jones" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 8, "Paul Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 47, "Paul Jones" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 153, "Paul Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 67, "John Paul Jones" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 81-83, "Paul Jones's Victory (Poor Richard and the Serapis and Alliance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 32-38, "Paul Jones (Paul Jones the Pirate)" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 233, (third of four "Fragments from Maryland") (1 fragment, consisting solely of the words "Paul Jones had a frigate"; I file it here because it looks more like this than the other John Paul Jones songs)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp.128-129, "Paul Jones" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 135-136, "Paul Jones" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 24-26, Paul Jones' Victory" (1 text)
DT 359, PAULJONE PAULJON2
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 259, "Paul Jones" (1 text)
ST LA04 (Full)
Roud #967
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 247, "Paul Jones" ("An American frigate, call'd the Richard by name"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Johnson Ballads 2804, Harding B 11(2974), Harding B 11(1906), Firth c.13(59), Firth b.26(273), Harding B 11(4314), Firth b.25(275), Harding B 11(2973), "Paul Jones"; Firth c.13(55), "Paul Jones the Pirate"
LOCSinging, as110810, "Paul Jones' Victory," Leonard Deming (Boston), 19C; also as111860, "Paul Jones"
Murray, Mu23-y1:061, "Paul Jones," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paul Jones, the Privateer" [Laws A3] (subject of John Paul Jones)
cf. "The Yankee Man-of-War (III)" (subject of John Paul Jones)
NOTES [1553 words]: The following biography has been heavily revised from that in earlier versions of the Ballad Index. I no longer know what references I originally consulted. I do know that Samuel Eliot Morison accuses earlier biographers of simply forging large parts of the Jones story, which makes me feel a little better.
John Paul Jones (1747-1792) was born in Scotland with the name John Paul (Morison, pp. 1, 3). The fourth of five children (Cordingly, p. 193), he went to sea at age 13 (Morison, p. 9), initially serving aboard merchant ships (Morison, p. 10), including time aboard a slaver (Morison, p. 13).
In 1768, John Paul saw both the master and mate of his ship die of fever. The only man aboard who could navigate, he brought the ship home and was given command of the John (Morison, pp. 13-14). He was 21. He served well in this role for five years (Morison, p. 20).
Then he killed one of his sailors.
It wasn't the first time he had been charged with brutality. In the course of a voyage in 1769-1770, Jones had had a sailor named Mungo Maxwell brutally flogged (Morison, p. 17). There had been some doubt about who was at fault in the Maxwell case; there was no question about this one. Calling at Tobago, John Paul had refused to pay his men an advance on their wages (which, we note, they had already earned, but which were not due until the ship returned to Britain). Several men apparently wanted to desert. John Paul stopped the mutiny by killing "the ringleader" (Morison, pp. 22-23). Legally, he was in the right, and would presumably have been cleared in court (Cordingly, p. 193) -- but it was definitely not a smart thing to do.
It is not clear what happened next, but somehow John Paul ended up in the colonies and started calling himself by the surname "Jones" rather than his birth name of "Paul" (Morison, pp. 23-24).
When war broke out with Great Britain, Paul Jones joined the navy, apparently being the senior lieutenant in the entire service (Morison, p. 29). (We should probably add that "lieutenant" was, in effect, a higher rank then than now -- the approved ranks were captain, lieutenant, master, and midshipman. Thus a lieutenant was the equivalent of a "commander" today, ranked high enough to command a sloop or even a small frigate though not a ship of the line.)
Not that the continental navy was a very impressive service at first; Pratt, p. 11, reports that "At the time the troubles broke out in Boston in 1775, there were not a few officers of the Royal Navy who came from the colonies, but... these officers stayed with the flag rather than join persons in revolt against due authority. A few men were available for the Continental Navy who had served with the Royal Navy earlier in their careers, but only one man is reported to have left the King's service to join the colonists in revolt, and his name has not survived."
The appointment process didn't help. According to Bryant, p. 79, "Never was the creation of a corps of naval officers handled with more regard for the political weight each aspirant carried; the commissions were frankly awarded on the basis of political expediency, and little regard for the appointees' abilities as leaders and marines." Pratt, p. 24, comments that the initial naval commands "were distributed on the combined principles of geography and nepotism, modified by political maneuver." Of the first batch of officers in the United States Navy, Bryant apparently considers Jones to be the only "happy choice," but such were this politics of the time that he would soon be known as the "North Carolina Captain."
He was first appointed to the Alfred, of 20 guns, as first lieutenant (Cordingly, p. 194), although the Alfred, called the first ship in the Continental Navy "was regarded as a dull sailer, and was almost useless as a warship." The British would capture the converted merchantman later in the war (Millar). Jones, however, was long gone, having served on several ships in 1775-1776 (Cordingly, p. 194).
In 1777, Jones was given command of the ship Ranger (Cordingly., p. 195), which he sailed with some success (see "Paul Jones, the Privateer" [Laws A3]). This was all the more impressive because, according to Bryant, p. 96, he had only one set of sails (and only one cask of rum, if you can believe that). But -- in one of those typically idiotic acts of the American congress -- he was deprived of command and put on the beach. (On the other hand, Pratt, p. 44, reports that he kicked one of his junior officers in the pants, which is hardly the way to win friends and influence people.)
He seems to have already been a romantic figure; at least, Cordingly, p. 195, claims he had an affair with a rich Frenchwoman while the Ranger was being repaired, and on p. 198 mentions other woman sniffing after him.
He (or, rather, the French) finally scrounged up the Bonhomme Richard, a converted merchant ship with forty guns so badly worn as to be rather dangerous. Bryant calls her a "floating antique with a castellated poop," and says that the former Duc de Durac was "worm-eaten, crank, her old timbers exuding a heardy aroma of arrack, cloves, and tea" -- a reminder of her days trading to the East Indies (Bryant, p. 97). Hendrickson, p. 189, declares that "Some of her timbers were rotten, and many of her 40 guns were condemned."
Paul Jones sailed her anyway, with a scrounged-up crew (Pratt reports that only 79 of his initial crew of 227 were Americans; Hendrickson, p. 189, says that the others consisted of 174 French and 59 British), naming her Bonhomme Richard after Benjamin Franklin's French rendering of "Poor Richard" (Paine, p. 67). She sailed with an assortment of five even more ill-favored consorts (Marrin, p. 168).
Even though two of his ships had to return to France, Jones commanded a squadron of four ships, 124 guns, at the time of this battle (the whole flotilla financed by the French), although only the Bonhomme Richard was completely engaged in the fight; his second-in-command, the French officer Pierre Landais, refused to take part. (Some even accuse him of firing on Jones, e.g. Cordingly, p. 197).
Jones won the battle by using his marines: He lashed his ship to the big 44-gun Serapis, and -- having made his famous remark "I have just begun to fight" when called upon to surrender -- continued the struggle until the British gave up. (The alternate version of Jones's line, which frankly sounds more likely, is "I'll sink, but I'm damned if I'll strike" [i.e. surrender]; Paine, p. 68).
The Richard had, however, been reduced to a sinking condition (among other things, several of those worn guns had blown up -- on only their second salvo, according to Paine, p. 68), and only vigorous work at the pumps kept her afloat long enough to take the Serapis. Indeed, Jones would never have been able to board had not the Serapis been so mis-handled as to bump into the Richard (Marrin, p. 172).
This time, Jones's brutality paid off: Some of his men, with their ship's guns silenced, the ship itself full of holes, the deck falling in, had tried to surrender. Jones knocked one of them unconscious and kept up the fight. You could make the case that he won because his men were too afraid to give in.
In any case, he succeeded only because of the British attitude toward prizes. Had the British navy paid sailors decently, and had a doctrine of just *sinking* the enemy, rather than capturing them, the Serapis would have won the fight and John Paul Jones would be a guy who sank with his ship. The Richard proved past saving and went down on September 24; had Jones not won, he would have been either a prisoner (possibly even regarded as a deserter, given that he was Scottish) or dead.
Plenty of his men were already dead. Paine, p. 68, says that 140 of his 322 crewmen were killed or mortally wounded. And the Serapis was damaged enough that Jones could not even reach France; he had to hole up in the Netherlands (Cordingly, p. 197).
(I can't help but think how much this sounds like it could have inspired the Stan Rogers song "Barrett's Privateers," only Rogers gave it the ending it deserved.)
Even this noteworthy success didn't got Paul Jones the influence he wanted; when the new ship America was finished, the command did not go to Jones (Cordingly, p.199). This marked the functional end of his career in the American navy. He wanted, and did not get, an admiral's commission (it would not be until the end of the Civil War that the American navy started commissioning admirals), so he went to Russia (Cordingly, p. 200). Then, in 1789, he was charged with having sexual relations with a ten-year-old.. Even in Tsarist Russia, that was enough to cause him to leave the country (Cordingly, pp. 200-201). He died in 1789, at the age of 45, having been driven out of two countries and having abandoned the third.
In recent years, some attempts have been made to find the wreck of the Bonhomme Richard. As far as I have heard, the attempts have failed.
Laws classified this as an American song, and it probably was so in origin -- but it will be seen that it was found in British and Scottish broadsides at least. - RBW
In the Bodleian broadsides, the frigate is named Percy, Rachel or Richard. The opposing ship, if named, is Caraphus, Ceraphus or Percy. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LA04

Paul King

DESCRIPTION: "I've been readin' Rudyard Kipling... 'Pears like Rud was stuck on Gunga Din... But when compared to our Paul King, We can beat him to a frazzle." King has worked everywhere, done everything; he could beat Jack Dempsey. Paul King is great, "sure t'ing"
AUTHOR: William Moriarty (source: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: humorous derivative fight food work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 149--151, "Paul King" (1 text)
NOTES [69 words]: Other poems attributed to William Moriarity in Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine include "The Old Chesuncook Road" and "As 'Twuz and as 'Tiz" I have seen no evidence that any of them made it into tradition. This particular item includes quite a few words from Kipling's "Gunga Din," including the next-to-last line "You're a better man than I am." I wonder how many of Moriarty's readers would have caught that. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSM149

Paul Vane

See Lorena's Answer (Paul Vane) (File: R757A)

Paul Venerez

See Bill Vanero (Paul Venerez) [Laws B6] (File: LB06)

Paul's Chickens

See Paul and His Chickens (File: RDL064)

Paul's Steeple

See references under The Husbandman and the Servingman (File: K226)

Paulie Say She Love Me

DESCRIPTION: Paulie told the singer that she loved only him but she has been courted by the fluter of the band. The singer is unhappy: "when she says she loves me / Then she tells a fib"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage01)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity love nonballad music lie
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Venive Talbott, "Paulie Say She Love Me" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
File: RcPaSSLM

Pauline

DESCRIPTION: "Pauline, Pauline, I don't love nobody but you." "Lord, I'm going to my shanty, I'm gonna lie down." "Lord, I'm going back home to Pauline." He has walked and cried all night long. "I'm gonna write one more letter, gonna write no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from Allen Prothero)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 402-404, "Pauline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15654
File: LxSi402

Pauper's Cowhides, The

DESCRIPTION: "Say, RIchards, have you seen the paupers With a mortgage on their lands, Going to congress with their cowhides." "Schemers" steal their crops; "Money-changers" will not yield, but "Thus must be the hayseed jubilo And the pauper's kingdom come."
AUTHOR: Words: Luna E. (Mrs. J. T.) Kellie (1857-1940)
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Farmer's Alliance, October 4, 1890 edition, according to Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore)
KEYWORDS: poverty derivative political money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 67-68, "The Pauper's Cowhides" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: Nebraska Folklore, Pamphlet Eighteen, "Farmers' Alliance Songs of the 1890's," Federal Writers' Project, 1938, p. 3, "The Pauper's Cowhides" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kingdom Coming (The Year of Jubilo)" (tune)
NOTES [213 words]: For background on Luna Kellie, see the notes to "Marching for Freedom."
(Bartlett) Richards, according to the Nebraska Folklore notes, was "president of the Nebraska Land and Feeding company and a much hated ranchman." According to Dorothy Weyer Creigh, Nebraska: A Bicentennial History, W. W. Norton & Co., 1977, p. 143, "In October 1903, Bartlett Richards and William Comstock, president and vice-president of the Nebraska Land and Feeding Company, were indicted in federal court on charges of illegally fencing government land. Their Spade, Bar C, and Overton ranches in Cherry, Sheridan, and Box Butte counties comprised one of the biggest spreads in the country." The two were also brothers-in-law. Creigh on p. 144 says that they pleaded guilty on November 13, 1905 to "having illegally fenced 212,000 acres of government land but asked for leniency inasmuch as they were removing the fences." They were fined $300 and court costs, and were put in custody for six hours (hours, not days, months, years) -- which they spent having lunch with their lawyer!
Everyone up to President Theodore Roosevelt was upset, and a new trial resulted in them being sentenced to a year in federal prison in 1910. Richards became ill in prison and died in 1911 while receiving treatment. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Wels067

Paw-Paw Patch, The

DESCRIPTION: Playparty, with lyrics such as "Where oh where is pretty little (Susie/Liza/Nellie) (x3)? Way down yonder in the paw-paw patch." "Pickin' up paw-paws, puttin' 'em in her pockets." "Come along, boys, and let's go see her...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad courting campsong
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 101-102=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 205-206, "Way Down in the Paw Paw Patch" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 218-219, "Pawpaw Patch" (1 text 1 tune)
Randolph 553, "Paw-Paw Peeling" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #115, "The Pawpaw Patch" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 151-152, "The Paw-Paw Patch" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 46, "The Paw-Paw Patch" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, pp.10-11, "Paw-Paw Patch" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 391, "Paw-Paw Patch" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 130, 259, "Picking Up Paw Paws" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 4, "Down in the Taro Patch" (1 text, which I suspect is rewritten)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 20, "Paw-Paw Patch" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5038
RECORDINGS:
Group of children, "The Paw Paw Patch" (on JThomas01)
Judy Cook, "The Paw-Paw Patch" (Piotr-Archive #322, recorded 11/02/2022)
Pete Seeger, "Paw Paw Patch" (on PeteSeeger22)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Where Is Old Elijah? (The Hebrew Children)" (tune & meter)
cf. "Going to Boston" (lyrics)
File: R553

Paw-Paw Peeling

See The Paw-Paw Patch (File: R553)

Pawkie Adam Glen

DESCRIPTION: "Pawkie Adam Glen, piper o' the clachan When he stoited ben, sairly was he pechin'." Old Adam goes out seeking a wife, settling on "auntie Madie." After a cheerful dance, "Madge is hect to Adam Glen, And sune we'll hae a weddin'."
AUTHOR: Alexander Laing ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: courting age dancing wedding
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 300-301, "Pawkie Adam Glen" (1 text)
Roud #13101
NOTES [30 words]: According to Ford, piper Adam Glen died in battle in 1715 at age ninety, having taken his seventh wife (who was half his age) some months previously. Believe that if you will. - RBW
File: FVS300

Pawkie Paiterson's Auld Grey Yaud

DESCRIPTION: "As I gae'd up Hawick Loan... 'Twas there I heard an auld yaud Gie mony a heavy grane... 'I'm Pawkie Patterson's auld yaud, See how they're guidin' mie.'" The aged horse describes its hard and bitter life, and leaves its body parts to various people
AUTHOR: George Ballantyne ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: horse age death lastwill hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 311-313, "Pawkie Paiterson's Auld Grey Yaud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 52-53, "Robin Spraggon's Auld Grey Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #175, p. 2, "Pawkie Paiterson's Auld Grey Yaud"; #176, p. 2, "Robin Spraggon's Auld Grey Mare" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
ST FVS311 (Partial)
Roud #3063
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Old Horse (III)" (theme)
cf. "Mon Cher Voisin (My Dear Neighbor)" (theme)
File: FVS311

Pawpaw Patch, The

See The Paw-Paw Patch (File: R553)

Pay Boy Pay Mango

DESCRIPTION: "Pay boy mango." "Papa say no go there." "Take you bare han cut timber"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: accusation warning nonballad father
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 11, "Pay Boy Pay Mango" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [68 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "'Pay boy pay mango' was collected from fishermen in Charlotteville on the north coast of Tobago. About what 'pay mango' means they were not clear but they felt it meant suffering for wrong done to one's parents.... There are many proverbs among the folk emphasizing the evils of 'hard ears', failure to be guided by the advice of elders especially men folk in one's family." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTO011

Pay Day

See Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy (File: Wa122)

Pay Day at Coal Creek

DESCRIPTION: "Pay day, O pay day, O pay day, Pay day at Coal Creek tomorrow." "Bye bye, good woman, I'm gone." "You gonna miss me when I'm gone" "She's a rider, but she'll leave that rail sometime." "Pay day won't come no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928
KEYWORDS: work mining separation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 274-275, "Pay Day at Coal Creek" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 146, "Pay Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 126, "Pay Day At Coal Creek" (1 text)
DT, PAYDAYCC
Roud #6685
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Pay Day at Coal Creek" (on SeegerTerry)
Pete Steele, "Last Payday at Coal Creek" (on PSteele01); "Pay Day at Coal Creek" (AFS, 1938; on LC02, KMM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Coal Creek Troubles" (subject)
NOTES [28 words]: While this has turned into a nonballad, it seems to have started off as an account of a bitter strike. - PJS
(For details, see the notes to "Coal Creek Troubles.") - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LoF146

Pay Me My Money Down

DESCRIPTION: "Pay me, O pay me, Pay me my money down... Pay me or go to jail. Pay me, mister stevedore.... You pay me, you owe me...." Almost anything may be included, but all on the theme that the boss has hired the worker and should pay him for his labor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944
KEYWORDS: work money nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 279, "Pay Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 501-503, "Pay Me My Money Down" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 370-371]
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 83, "Pay Me My Money Down" (1 text)
DT, PAYMONEY* PAYMONY2
Roud #21449
RECORDINGS:
Joe Armstrong and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Pay Me" (on LomaxCD1713)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf."Tie-Tamping Chant" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Darlin' (I)" (floating lyrics)
File: LoF279

Pea Ridge Battle, The [Laws A12b]

See Laws A12, "The Battle of Elkhorn Tavern" (File: LA12)

Peace I Ask of Thee O River

DESCRIPTION: "Peace I ask of thee, oh river, Peace, peace, peace, When I learn to live serenely Cares will cease. From the hills I gather courage, Visions of the days to be, Strength to lead and faith to follow All are given unto me."
AUTHOR: Glenora Gosling and Viola Woods (source: Tobitt)
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (copyrighted by Janet E. Tobitt, according to ChansonsDeNotreChalet)
KEYWORDS: river nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 195, 261, 339, 438, 458, 470, "Peace I Ask of Thee O River" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 91, "Peace of the River" (1 text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 21, "Peace of the River" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 7, "Peace" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Peace of the River" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 39)
DT, PEACEASK*
NOTES [9 words]: "Written on the Kentucky River," according to Tobitt. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF195P

Peace of the River

See Peace I Ask of Thee O River (File: ACSF195P)

Peace-Egging Song

See The Pace-Egging Song (File: RcPaceEg)

Peace, Be Still

See A Little Ship Was on the Sea (File: GrD81756)

Peace, Peace

See (notes under) Rose, Rose (File: ACSF346R)

Peaches in the Parlor

DESCRIPTION: Rope-skipping or counting game. ""Peaches in the parlor, Apples on the shelf, [name's] getting tired Of sleeping by herself. How many times did she sleep by herself? One, two...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: playparty food
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #455, "Peaches in the parlor" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Joan McCaskill, collector), "Rope-Skipping Games", Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 11, "(Peaches in the Parlor)" (1 text)
Roud #21856
File: NCFJ1PIP

Peaches, Plums, Pumpkin Butter

See Apples, Peaches, Creamery Butter (File: McIn108B)

Peacock that Lived in the Land of King George, The

See Hornet and the Peacock, The (File: E107)

Peanut Sat on the Railway Track, The

DESCRIPTION: "The peanut sat on the railway track, Its heart was all a-flutter. The train came roaring round the bend, Toot, toot... Peanut butter."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty food humorous
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 99, "(The peanut sat on the railway track)" (1 text)
File: SuSm099C

Peanut Song

See Jolly Neighbor (File: Arno071)

Peanut Stand, The

See The Ghost of the Peanut Stand (File: CrSNB070)

Peanut-Gal's Ghost, The

See The Ghost of the Peanut Stand (File: CrSNB070)

Peanut-Pickin' Song

DESCRIPTION: "You kin do jes'-a' what you please, I's gwine to pick off-a Massa's peas (x2), An' den I's gwine home." "I kin fill dis basket if I choose, Nen I's gwine home." Master gives him shoes and clothes. The singer hopes to catch a possum.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries)
KEYWORDS: work food clothes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (IV), pp. 127-139, "Peanut-Pickin' Song" (1 text with variants, 1 tune with variants)
Roud #17445
File: CuBu127

Pear Tree, The

DESCRIPTION: "Twa lads" go out one day, see a pear tree, and climb it. Lad and lass start to undress in the tree as the pears fall. The young man loses his coat. The singer calls into the tree about the coat; the couple in the tree do not answer. So he takes the coat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: courting sex humorous clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 69, "The Pear Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1713
NOTES [39 words]: One must obviously suspect this was somehow inspired by Chaucer's "Merchant's Tale," where the young girl May and the young man Damian are caught in the act by May's husband January -- who, however comes out the worst of the three. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Gath069

Pearl Bryan (I) [Laws F2]

DESCRIPTION: Pearl Bryan runs away to meet her lover Jackson, who, helped by Walling, takes her to Kentucky and decapitates her. Her body is discovered the next day. (The fate of the murderers may then be described)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: elopement homicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 1, 1896 - Discovery of the headless body of Pearl Bryan, killed along with her unborn child by Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling, near Fort Thomas, Kentucky
Mar 20, 1897 - Execution of Jackson and Walling
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws F2, "Pearl Bryan I"
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 61, "Pearl Bryan" (3 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 3 more; 1 tune; the "A" and "B" texts and the "F" fragment and tune are this piece; the "C" text is Laws F1B)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 343-352, "Pearl Bryan" (2 texts, 2 tunes plus a supplementary text that is a "Pearl Bryan" version of Laws F1)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 77, "Pearl Bryant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 789-790, "Pearl Bryan" (1 text)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 31, "(Pearl Bryan)" (1 short text, classified as "Pearl Bryan (I) [Laws F2] by Laws but as Pearl Bryan (V) by Anne B. Cohen)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 424-425, "The Ballad of Pearl Bryan and Her Sad Death in the Kentucky Hills at Fort Thomas" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 209, "Pearl Bryan" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 199-200, "Pearl Bryan" (1 text plus a fragment)
DT 751, PERLBRY1
ADDITIONAL: Anne B. Cohen, _Poor Pearl, Poor Girl!: The Murdered-Girl Stereotype in Ballad and Newspaper_, Publications of the American Folklore Society, Memoir Series, Volume 58, University of Texas Press, 1973, pp. 48-51, "Pearl Bryan I" (2 texts, one from Vernon Dalhart, the other independent of Dalhart's version)
Roud #2212
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Pearl Bryan" (Vocalion B 5015 [as "Jep Fuller"], 1927; recorded 1926) (Columbia 15169-D [as "Al Craver"], 1927) (Okeh 45090 [as "Tobe Little"], 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jealous Lover (I), The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C]" [Laws F1], particularly the "B" subgroup of Pearl Bryan ballads
cf. "Pearl Bryan III" [Laws F3]
cf. "Pearl Bryan IV"
NOTES [1575 words]: To tell this song from the other Pearl Bryan ballads, consider this first stanza (from Leach-TheBalladBook):
Now, ladies, if you'll listen, a story I'll relate
What happened near Fort Thomas in the old Kentucky state.
'Twas late in January this awful deed was done
By Jackson and by Walling; how cold their blood did run!
This particular murder seems to have attracted more local attention than any this side of the Lizzie Borden case; Cohen, pp. 3-4, says that for more than a year it monopolized the front pages of papers in Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio. Despite this, the story doesn't seem to have attracted books the way the story of, say, Maria Marten did. Polenberg, pp. 268-269, lists books by James McDonald and Joan Christen, and by Anne B. Cohen (cited here as Cohen), plus several long articles and web sites.
One of the two books mentioned above, James McDonald and Joan Christen, The Perils of Pearl Bryan: Betrayal and Murder in the Midwest in 1896, AuthorHouse, 2012, turns out to be historical fiction by a couple of authors who discovered the story because they were interested in the history of dentistry! It does have a handful of interesting illustrations, and the bibliography lists a few pamphlets about Pearl, but I doubt it can be relied on. Except maybe about teeth. On the other hand, Anne Cohen was the wife of Norm Cohen, so I think it safe to trust her reliability. There is also a Wikipedia article, but it didn't seem to have any other particularly valuable sources. Although I have quoted Polenberg as well as Cohen, I suspect Cohen is the ultimate source for almost all of what follows.
Polenberg, pp. 82-89, gives a summary, including a photo of Pearl on p. 83 and sketches of the murderers Jackson and Walling on p. 86; Cohen has newspaper sketches of all of them after p. 36
Pearl, the youngest child in her family, was born in October 1872, and was said to have been friendly and popular, a Sunday School and church worker (Polenberg, pp. 82-83). On the other hand, Cohen, pp. 16-17, says that "there was evidence that she had bestowed her favors on more than one man and that she was capable (in 1896!) of going off by herself to Cincinnati to have an abortion"; her account hints that the rosy picture portrayed, e.g., by Pohlenberg was the result of the papers trying to cast her as the "innocent victim" type.
Pearl's body was discovered early near Fort Thomas, Kentucky, early on the morning of February 1, 1896; the murder had probably happened the day before (Polenberg, p. 82). It would seem she did not carry obvious forms of identification; the investigators were able to identify her by tracing her clothing. Polenberg also says that "certain physical characteristics" helped identify the body. He does not say what he means, but Cox reported that she was "web-footed." Based on her photograph, she doesn't appear to have been particularly pretty.
It took some time for the identification to be made. The newspapers reported the discovery of the headless body, on land owned by John Lock, p. February 2, 1896 (Cohen, p. 10). The coroner's initial report said that she had not been raped but "had been a mother" -- which I interpret to mean that she was not a virgin -- and was dressed in cheap clothing (Cohen, pp. 10-11). The initial assumption seems to have been that she was a prostitute. Then the coroner realized that she had been about five months pregnant (Cohen, p. 11).
Once she was identified, people started tracing her history. A cousin of hers, Will Wood, had introduced her to Scott Jackson, who got her pregnant. (A story floated about for a while that Jackson had drugged her with cocaine when she came in for dental work, then had his way with her, but the dentist for whom Jackson worked showed that that was impossible; Cohen, pp. 17-18.)
Jackson seems to have been quite a piece of work; as a young man, he had been involved in embezzlement, but had turned states' evidence and avoided conviction (Polenberg, p. 83). Then he got Pearl pregnant. (Or someone did; Cohen, p. 27, mentions a possibility that Pearl also slept with her cousin Will Wood.) The only positive thing I can say about him is that he did try to find a way to terminate her pregnancy -- but turned to murder when that failed. He had already apparently thrown her over to go to dental school.
Alonzo Walling was Jackson's school roommate, and for some reason went along with Jackson's plan rather than trying to prevent it. Not even the prosecution could find a motive for his behavior; they had to argue that he did it as a favor for his friend! -- Cohen, p. 25. Cohen, p. 27, does mention one idea: That after Pearl and Jackson failed to find someone who could give her an abortion, they went to Walling to perform the surgery -- and it failed, injuring or perhaps killing Pearl, and suddenly Walling was on the hook for a crime too.
The two gave her a heavy dose of cocaine mixed with water, which made her sick and induced her to go with them; they carted her away in a hired cab (whose driver, confusingly, was also named Jackson; Polenberg, p. 84), then left the cab and murdered her. We of course cannot know what happened after that; Jackson and Walling both accused the other (Polenberg, pp. 84-85). The police inclined to believe Walling, who said Jackson did it, and certainly Jackson had the stronger motive.
If Jackson wanted to demonstrate innocence, he sure found complicated ways to do it, e.g. he wrote a message to Will Wood with several coded elements, including referring to Pearl as "Bert" (Cohen, p. 44).
Cohen, p. 85, reports that "Scott Jackson, established as principal murderer, was portrayed in the newspapers as cold, calculating, brutal, clever, conscienceless, and as a man of action and daring. His only saving virtue was a real concern for his mother. Walling, once he was established as a secondary murderer, was portrayed as weak and dull and tending toward vice." It sounds as if this is all invention, though; their true characters aren't really known.
Neither could offer much of a defense; they didn't really offer much in the way of an alibi, and there is a newspaper report of both accusing the other (Cohen, p. 30). Both were convicted in separate trials (Polenberg, pp. 87-88). Despite all the newspaper hoopla, attendance at Walling's trial was sometimes sparse; it appers that people really did think he was the second fiddle and less important (Cohen, p. 41), although for all we know he committed the actual murder.
All appeals failed; they were hung together (Polenberg, p. 88). Neither ever admitted anything; they would not even respond to Pearl's sister's request to reveal where her head was (Cohen, p. 31. The head was never located, even after they brought in bloodhounds, who led them to a reservoir, but draining it did not reveal a head; Cohen, p. 43). Being hung may have been a small mercy; there was a newspaper report that, on at least one occasion, a lynch mob was formed, and that it included members of the Bryan family (Cohen, p. 13).
Jackson, in his final days, spent much of his time playing music (he was a harmonica player); among the pieces he played with his bandmates in prison was, ironically, "A Mother's Appeal for Her Boy" (Cohen, p. 37, with a text in the note on the next page of the Charlie Poole version "The Mother's Plea for Her Son").
Polenberg, pp. 88-89, says that songs about Pearl Bryan are rare, but although none is individually as popular as, say, "Omie Wise," there are at least half a dozen Pearl Bryan songs all told. Clearly the macabre story took a strong grip on the public imagination.
Laws identifies only four Pearl Bryan ballads, some of them minor variations on older ballads, but Cohen, p. 45, who had access to 135 texts of Pearl Bryan ballads, argues that there are six. Cohen accepts Laws's designation of this as "Pearl Bryan I"; she considers 23 of her texts to be entirely this ballad and seven more to be mixed texts. Within this type she identifies two subgroups, one of which derives from the Vernon Dalhart recording and one from a separate, lost, original. She counts 11 texts of each type plus one that is mixed. I wonder a little about this; Dalhart recorded it as "Jep Fuller," and while a recording by Dalhart could put a song into tradition, would a recording by "Jep Fuller"? Also, Cohen and I independently suggested that Carson Robison rewrote the text a little, which hints that all the other versions could go back to the source version, not just some secondary original. Still, it's probably correct to classify as "Dalhart" and "non-Dalhart" types. Cohen on p. 52 lists the differences between the types; the one easiest to spot is that the non-Dalhart texts mention her missing head; the Dalhart texts do not. Also, Cohen, pp. 54-55, says that Dalhart used the tune of "Mary Phagan" [Laws F20]; the non-Dalharts use something else.
Cohen, p. 72, notes another interesting fact about this song, that it seems over time to have gradually written Walling out of the story. She argues -- I suspect correctly -- that Walling didn't fit the innocent-girl-and-murderous-cad stereotype, and so no one quite knew what to do with him, so they forgot him.
Of Cohen's five other types, Pearl Bryan II (i.e. the "Pearl Bryan" group of "The Jealous Lover (I) (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C]) is by far the most popular -- 65 of 135 texts, or almost half. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: LF02

Pearl Bryan (II)

See Jealous Lover, The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C] (File: LF01)

Pearl Bryan (III) [Laws F3]

DESCRIPTION: Pearl Bryan appeals to Jackson for help; he is not interested and, with (Alonzo) Walling, cuts off her head and abandons the body
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: homicide abandonment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 1, 1896 - Discovery of the headless body of Pearl Bryan, killed along with her unborn child by Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling, near Fort Thomas, Kentucky
Mar 20, 1897 - Execution of Jackson and Walling
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws F3, "Pearl Bryan III"
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 105, "A Fatal Acquaintance" (2 texts, but Laws considers only the B text part of this ballad; the A text may belong with Pearl Bryan II)
DT 755, PERLBRY3
ADDITIONAL: Anne B. Cohen, _Poor Pearl, Poor Girl!: The Murdered-Girl Stereotype in Ballad and Newspaper_, Publications of the American Folklore Society, Memoir Series, Volume 58, University of Texas Press, 1973, p. 56, "Pearl Bryan III" (1 text)
Roud #2213
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jealous Lover (I), The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C]" [Laws F1], particularly the "B" subgroup of Pearl Bryan ballads
cf. "Pearl Bryan I" [Laws F2]
cf. "Pearl Bryan IV"
NOTES [106 words]: To tell this song from the other Pearl Bryan ballads, consider this first stanza (from Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio):
In Greencastle lived a maiden
She was known the wide world o'er;
She was murdered by Scott Jackson
Whom she fondly did adore.
Comparison with Eddy's other text (which also lacks a melody) would seem to imply that the two could be one -- but Laws separates them, so the Index does the same. Anne Cohen also splits them. Cohen says that, of her 165 Pearl Bryan texts, she found only six of this, so it wasn't particularly popular.
For background on the Pearl Bryan murder see the notes to "Pearl Bryan (I)" [Laws F2]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LF03

Pearl Bryan (IV)

DESCRIPTION: A girl of Greencastle, Indiana loves a young man. (She becomes pregnant?, and) begs him to make good the wrong he has done her. He refuses and plans to depart. She follows him. He kills her. Young girls are warned by the example of Pearl Bryan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio)
KEYWORDS: love homicide abandonment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 1, 1896 - Discovery of the headless body of Pearl Bryan, killed along with her unborn child by Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling, near Fort Thomas, Kentucky
Mar 20, 1897 - Execution of Jackson and Walling
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 105, "A Fatal Acquaintance" (2 texts, but Laws assigns the B text to "Pearl Bryan III")
ADDITIONAL: Anne B. Cohen, _Poor Pearl, Poor Girl!: The Murdered-Girl Stereotype in Ballad and Newspaper_, Publications of the American Folklore Society, Memoir Series, Volume 58, University of Texas Press, 1973, pp. 59-60, "Pearl Bryan IV" (1 text)
ST E105 (Full)
Roud #2213
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jealous Lover (I), The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C]" [Laws F1], particularly the "B" subgroup of Pearl Bryan ballads
cf. "Pearl Bryan I" [Laws F2]
cf. "Pearl Bryan III" [Laws F3]
NOTES [259 words]: This song is item dF51 in Laws's Appendix II.
To tell this song from the other Peal Bryan ballads, consider this first stanza (from Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio):
In Greencastle, Indiana, a fair young maiden dwelled
Beneath a mother's loving care, a father's lavish wealth,
A mother's pride, a father's joy, by many friends esteemed,
From out her young handsome face the pure innocence gleamed.
Comparison with Eddy's other text (which also lacks a melody) would seem to imply that the two could be one -- but Laws separates them, so the Index does the same. Anne B. Cohen, Poor Pearl, Poor Girl!: The Murdered-Girl Stereotype in Ballad and Newspaper, Publications of the American Folklore Society, Memoir Series, Volume 58, University of Texas Press, 1973, p. 59, also splits them, and says that it is so rare that it may have barely gone into tradition; she found only two texts of this type plus one verse typical of it that had floated into another song. She notes that it is very difficult to sing -- not because of the tune, which seems to be unknown, but just because it's wordy and unmetrical.
Cohen, p. 88, believes this was written before the result of the court cases against Jackson and Walling (it just barely mentions Walling, and associated Jackson and Walling with Will Wood, who eventually was cleared).
Steve Roud seems to lump "Pearl Bryan (III)" and "Pearl Bryan (IV)," probably because both mention Greencastle, Indiana in the first line.
For background on the Pearl Bryan murder see the notes to "Pearl Bryan (I)" [Laws F2]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: E105

Pearl Bryan (V)

DESCRIPTION: Jackson and Walling agree to take Pearl Bryan for a ride. Pearl asks what she has done that Jackson would want to kill her. They murder Pearl; her head cannot be found. The two are hung despite Walling's mother's plea for her son
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Sharp collection, according to Cohen), but see NOTES
KEYWORDS: homicide trial execution punishment mother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 1, 1896 - Discovery of the headless body of Pearl Bryan, killed along with her unborn child by Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling, near Fort Thomas, Kentucky
Mar 20, 1897 - Execution of Jackson and Walling
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 31, "(Pearl Bryan)" (1 short text, classified as "Pearl Bryan (I) [Laws F2] by Laws but as Pearl Bryan (V) by Anne B. Cohen)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 61, "Pearl Bryan" (3 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 3 more; 1 tune; Anne B. Cohen considers "A" to be a mix off Laws F2 and "Pearl Bryan (V)")
ADDITIONAL: Anne B. Cohen, _Poor Pearl, Poor Girl!: The Murdered-Girl Stereotype in Ballad and Newspaper_, Publications of the American Folklore Society, Memoir Series, Volume 58, University of Texas Press, 1973, pp. 60-67, "Pearl Bryan V" (2 texts)
Roud #500 and 2212
NOTES [248 words]: To tell this song from the other Pearl Bryan ballads, consider this first stanza (from Cohen, as sung by Bascom Lamar Lunsford):
'Twas late one winter's evening
The sorrowful tale was told
Scott Jackson said to Lonz Walling
Let's go out for a stroll.
Observe that several of the texts of this were known to Laws, but he included them with "Pearl Bryan (I)" or "Pearl Bryan (II)" because they share verses with this song. Laws's failure to separate out this song isn't surprising, because so few texts of this have been printed (Cohen on pp. 124-126 lists 15 pure versions of this text and six mixed versions, but it appears only two of the pure versions were printed in a relatively accessible book). Apparently two of the 15 pure versions are duplicates, because Cohen on p. 60 claims that nine of the full-length versions share verses with other Pearl Bryan songs; just four versions are free of such verses. Easy to see how someone could fail to realize this is a separate song!
Cohen, p. 61, thinks that this song predates the Pearl Bryan versions of "Pearl Bryan (I)" and contributed to the creation of the Pearl Bryan form of that song; Cohen's earliest version is from a songster she dates c. 1910 (Cohen, p. 62)..
On the grounds that Cohen has done a more detailed examination than Laws, I have followed Cohen's classifications, but also in some places listed them where Laws lists them.
For background on the Pearl Bryan murder see the notes to "Pearl Bryan (I)" [Laws F2]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: PearBr5

Pearl Bryan (VI)

DESCRIPTION: The song relates the murder of Pearl Bryan in Kentucky. "Poor Pearl! Poor girl, she thought she was doing right. She had no dream of murder...." Scott Jackson bears much blame. Young girls should take warning
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (source: Cohen); the earliest version was dated by the informant to c. 1913
KEYWORDS: homicide mother father warning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 1, 1896 - Discovery of the headless body of Pearl Bryan, killed along with her unborn child by Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling, near Fort Thomas, Kentucky
Mar 20, 1897 - Execution of Jackson and Walling
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Anne B. Cohen, _Poor Pearl, Poor Girl!: The Murdered-Girl Stereotype in Ballad and Newspaper_, Publications of the American Folklore Society, Memoir Series, Volume 58, University of Texas Press, 1973, pp. 67-72, "Pearl Bryan VI" (2 texts)
Roud #500
NOTES [290 words]: It appears to me that what most distinguishes this from the other Pearl Bryan ballads is the chorus:
Poor Pearl, poor girl,
She thought she was doing right,
She had no dream of murder
On that dark and stormy night
She pleaded with her executioner;
Pleading was in vain;
It was the hand of Jackson
And that was all to blame.
Cohen believes there were six traditional Pearl Bryan ballads, four of them described by Laws and two added to the list by Cohen. I accept her classification of "Pearl Bryan (V)" as separate from the four types Laws described. I'm a lot less confident of this one. Cohen, p. 126, lists only three versions of this type -- one of twelve verses, the other two of six. Of the twelve verses she has identified, fully eight are found in the "Pearl Bryan (I)" type, where they adapt the "Jealous Lover" type of song. That leaves just four unique verses and the chorus -- less than half the song.
The key to Cohen's argument is that the full 12-verse version was dated by the informant to 1913. But it was not published until thirty years after that. I'm not sure, given the paucity of versions and the late dates of all all the others, that we can be confident this is distinct from Pearl Bryan (I). Until and unless that 1913 date can be supported, I'd incline to file this as a recension of Pearl Bryan (I). Cohen, p. 68, does point out that this text includes details of the crime that seem to have been forgotten in other Pearl Bryan ballads, and that seem to derive from contemporary newspapers. This may well argue for an early date -- as a broadside. Not as a traditional song.
Roud appears to lump it with Pearl Bryan (II).
For background on the Pearl Bryan murder see the notes to "Pearl Bryan (I)" [Laws F2]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: PearBr6

Pearl Bryant (I)

See Jealous Lover, The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C] (File: LF01)

Pearl Bryant (II)

See Pearl Bryan (I) [Laws F2] (File: LF02)

Pearly Mists

DESCRIPTION: "Pearly mists, high above, Songs and campfire flames rising And the campers pledge of love Floods the fragrant evening air.... Voices fill the deep night Songs of hope and good cheer, Let us then murmur low Comrades all good rest, good rest"
AUTHOR: Words: Mary Christine Ryan / Music: Johannes Brahms (the Brahms Lullaby)
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: campsong nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 462, "A Goodnight Camp Song"/"Pearly Mists" (notes only)
File: ACSF462P

Peas an' the Rice

See Peas and the Rice (File: Parr056A)

Peas and Rice and Cocoanut Oil

DESCRIPTION: People cruising to Nassau "get drunk... hear those natives singin'. Mandy don't want no peas no rice no cocoanut oil Just a bottle of brandy handy." People came for a race but got "whisky and champagne." "Mama got drunk but she wouldn't get drunk no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Rushing, Count Basie)
KEYWORDS: travel drink wine nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas,Jamaica,Trinidad)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Olive Lewin, Forty Folk Songs of Jamaica (Washington: General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, 1973), pp. 55-56, "Dandy Shandy" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Peas and Rice and Cocoanut Oil" (on WIHIGGS01)
James Rushing with Count Basie and His Orchestra, "Mama Don't Want No Peas an' Rice an' Cocoanut Oil" (1938, on Decca 78RPM 2030 B, 1992, "Count Basie - The Complete Decca Recordings" Decca CD GRD-3-611)
Vernon Hedley and Carl Monsegui, "We Don't Want No Rice" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
NOTES [206 words]: The description follows Higgs. The Hedley and Monsegui track is only the chorus (sung six times with no break between repetitions), and it is stew they want every day rather than brandy. Higgs's first verse of two is very close to the Count Basie version (Basie's "mama" becomes Higgs's "Mandy", and a few of Basie's "ands" become Higgs's "no's."
The liner notes to the Herskovits album: "Raymond Quevedo (Attila [sic] the Hun) notes this song as 'traveling down the islands from the Bahamas to Barbados and then to Trinidad,' being incorporated into the Trinidad calypso repertoire around 1937.... The song probably originated in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas during World War I, when cooking oils were difficult to obtain and the majority of cooking was done with cocoanut oil. The song entered main-stream U.S. popular music in the early 1930s. Most versions outside the Caribbean appear to be based on U.S. commercial recordings, such as Count Basie's Decca recording with Jimmy Rushing on vocal, cut in New York on June 6, 1938" (Donald R. Hill, Maureen Warner-Lewis, John Cowley and Lise Winer, liner notes to WITrinidadVillage01.
For Higgs, "Peas and Rice and Cocoanut Oil" is the first part of a track called "Peas and Rice." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcPaRaCO

Peas and the Rice

DESCRIPTION: "Peas and the rice... new rice and okra, eat some and left some... peas and the rice done done done"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: work food nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 58, pp. 226-226,232-233, "Peas an' the Rice" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [44 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. Parrish writes, "In her youth, Julia Walker employed these rhythmic lines to help in thrashing rice on the floor." "Eat some and left some" is also in "Eat Some and Leave Some" - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr056A

Peas in the Pot, Hoe Cake A-Bakin'

See Wake Up, Jacob (File: LoF184)

Peasant, The

See Shall I Show You How the Farmer (File: Lins050)

Peasant's Bride, The (Thady and I)

DESCRIPTION: "I was a simple country girl." She loves Thady: "with hook or scythe, with plow or spade, He'd beat ten men together" They marry and many nobles "would gladly give a crown of gold To be like me and Thady."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol II)
KEYWORDS: poverty love marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 120,123, "The Peasant's Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 153, "The Peasant's Bride" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol II, p. 84, "The Peasant's Bride"
Roud #V13704
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(9a/b) view 7 of 8, "Thady and I", R. March & Co (London), 1877-1884
File: OCon120

Peascod Time

See (references under) The Hunting of the Cheviot [Child 162] (File: C162)

Pease Porridge Hot

DESCRIPTION: "Pease porridge hot, Pease porridge cold, Pease porridge in the pot, Nine days old. Some like it hot, Some like it cold, Some like it in the pot, Nine days old." A clapping game, sometimes used to keep the hands warm
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1765 (Mother Goose's Melody, according to Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose)
KEYWORDS: playparty food nonballad | clapping
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #71, "Pease Porridge Hot" (1 short text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 502, "TInker, Tailor...." (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #599, p. 237, "(Pease Porridge Hot)"
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 24, "Pease Porridge Hot" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #45, "(Coffee hot, coffee cold)" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 160, "Pease Pudding Hot" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 18, "Pease Porridge" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #32, "Bean porridge hot"; #84, "Coffee hot, coffee cold" (2 texts)
Roud #19631
File: Newe071

Pease Pudding Hot

See Pease Porridge Hot (File: Newe071)

Peaslee's Lumber Crew

DESCRIPTION: The various characters on Peaslee's lumber crew are described.
AUTHOR: Fred Walker (source: Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (source: Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work humorous logger moniker nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 68, "Peaslee's Lumber Crew" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 108, "Peaslee's Lumber Crew" (1 text)
Roud #8842
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hall's Lumber Crew" (very similar structure)
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (theme) and references there
NOTES [56 words]: The "moniker song" consists mostly of listing the names of one's compatriots, and perhaps telling humorous vignettes about each; it's common among lumberjacks, hoboes, and probably other groups. Sometimes, as with this song and "Hall's Lumber Crew", it's clear the singer is plugging names and descriptions into a generic structure. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be068

Peat-Bog Soldiers, The

See Moorsoldaten, Die (Peat-Bog Soldiers) (File: SBoA354)

Peata an Mhaoir (The Kerry Cow)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "I wish I had the shepherd's lamb... And Katie coming after." "I wish I had the yellow cow And welcome from my darling."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting love farming nonballad animal sheep lover
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 167, "The Kerry Cow" (2 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "The Kerry Cow" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [46 words]: The description follows the English translation from Joyce provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin and P.W. Joyce, Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (Dublin: Hodges Figgis & Co Ltd, 1909 ("Digitized by Microsoft")) #46, p. 238, "I Wish I Had the Shepherd's Lamb." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC167

Pecos Punchers, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes his appearance ("I wear the high heels, also the white hat"), talks of the work of a cowboy, and lists the outfits he worked for. He decides to "go east like Wild Bill and there play the tough" -- but keep his saddle for use hereafter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Craddock, Publications of the Texas Folklore Society, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 112, "The Pecos Punchers" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 332-333, "Yellowstone Flat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8047
NOTES [111 words]: This posed a real conundrum for me. The Fife/Fife and Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest versions possess too many common lines to be independent songs; they have too many divergences for the differences to be purely the result of the folk process. One version or the other has unquestionably been rewritten. Properly they should be split. But then the Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest version would be functionally split off and would arguably lose its Roud number. Given the relative rarity of the song, I decided to keep them together -- particularly since I have not examined all the versions to try to figure out which is the rewrite. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FCW112

Pecos Queen, The

See Pecos River Queen (File: TF20)

Pecos River Queen

DESCRIPTION: "Where the Pecos river winds and turns its journey to the sea... Dwells fair young Patty Moorhead the Pecos River Queen." Patty's amazing skills are described. At last she "rode her horse... a lover's heart to test." "But the puncher wouldn't follow...."
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1908
KEYWORDS: cowboy love courting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XX, pp. 244-246 (39-40), "Pecos River Queen"; Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 126-127, "The Pecos River Queen" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, p. 206, "The Pecos Queen" (1 text)
Roud #8048
NOTES [38 words]: Like that other Thorp composition, "Chopo," there is no evidence that this piece ever actually entered oral tradition. Lomax printed it in "Cowboy Songs," but there is every reason to think he was lifting material off Thorp. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: TF20

Pecos Stream, The

See A Cowboy's Life (File: LoF187)

Pecos Tom

DESCRIPTION: "Where the old Fort Sumber Barracks look down on the Pecos wide," the speaker and Pecos Tom are telling tales when the speaker notices Tom has a fancy gun. It cost $15,000. The seller didn't think he could afford it -- don't judge cowboys by their clothes
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy money clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 127-129, "Pecos Tom" (1 text)
File: ThLo127

Peculiar Sermon for Shanty Boys, A

See Tobacco's But an Indian Weed (File: Log262)

Peddler and His Wife, The [Laws F24]

DESCRIPTION: An old peddler and his wife are riding in their wagon on a fine day when they are ambushed, robbed, and murdered
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Appalachian Vagabond [Hayes Shephard])
KEYWORDS: homicide robbery commerce
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws F24, "The Peddler and his Wife"
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 116-117, "The Peddler and His Wife" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 9, "The Peddlar and His Wife" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 70, pp. 166-167, "The Irish Peddler" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 260-261, "The Peddlar and His Wife" (1 text)
DT 762, PEDDWIFE
Roud #2262
RECORDINGS:
Appalachian Vagabond [pseud. for Hayes Shephard], "Peddlar and his Wife" (Vocalion 5450, rec. 1930)
James Howard, "The Peddler and his Wife" (AFS, 1937; on KMM)
File: LF24

Pedlar (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "The pedlar ca'd in by the house o' Glenneuk" and begins bargaining -- for his goods and the hosts' daughters. Although the parents discourage it, one daughter is interested. She departs with him; they are married; he proves very successful in business
AUTHOR: William Watt
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love courting rambling money elopement
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #96, pp. 1-2, "The House o' Glenneuk" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 280, "The Pedlar and his Pack" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 126-128, "The Pedlar" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 140-142, "The Pedlar" (1 text)
Roud #5552
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:081 "The Pedlar," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jolly Beggar" [Child 279] and references there
cf. "Come Under My Plaidie" (tune, according to Greig/Duncan2)
File: FVS126

Pedlar (II), The

See The Proud Pedlar (File: GrD265)

Pedlar (III), The (Russian)

DESCRIPTION: Russian. "Down the road my whole day long With my pack of goods for dame or maid... Oh, the weight on my aching shoulders, But to live a man must trade." A lady cannot afford his lace; he gives it to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (SongsOfManyNations)
KEYWORDS: commerce travel work money clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SongsOfManyNations, "The Pedlar" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 41)
NOTES [49 words]: Not, as far as I know, an English folk song (though they taught it to us in elementary school -- and I've remembered it for fifty years because of the excellent melody). But the melody was used as the theme for the game "Tetris," so a lot of people have hummed it without knowing the lyrics. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: SMNPedla

Pedlar and his Pack, The

See The Pedlar (I) (File: FVS126)

Peel a Banana Upside Down

DESCRIPTION: "Peel a banana upside down, Peel an orange round and round, If you count to twenty-one, You hall have another turn. Not last night but the night before, Three little gents came knocking at my door." They sang, "Lady, lady, lady, turn around...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Coffin & Cohen)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad food jumprope | banana
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, p. 5, "(Peel an orange Round and round)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #457, "Peel an orange" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 189, "(no title)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Not Last Night But the Night Before"(lyrics)
File: CoCo189

Peel an Orange Round and Round

See Peel a Banana Upside Down (File: CoCo189)

Peeler and the Goat, The

DESCRIPTION: The Peelers meet a goat and plan to jail him for being on the road. The goat says that he is honorable if houseless and that the road is his home. He expects to be acquitted. He says the peelers are drunk and could be bought for more poteen.
AUTHOR: Jeremiah O'Ryan ("Darby Ryan") (Source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Padraic Colum, "Broadsheet Ballads"); c.1830 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: prison drink humorous political animal police
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 74, "The Peeler and the Goat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 45, "The Peeler and the Goat" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PEELERGT*
Roud #1458
RECORDINGS:
Martin Reidy, "Peeler and the Goat" (on IRClare01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(510), "The Original Peeler and the Goat," unknown, n.d.; also 2806 b.9(266), "The Peeler and the Goat"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sow's Triumph Over the Peelers" (theme)
cf. "The Cavan Buck" (tune)
NOTES [141 words]: Sir Robert Peel established the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1812 and its success led, in 1829, to the Metropolitan Police Act for London. Originally the term "Peeler" applied to the London constabulary. (source: Sir Robert "Bobby" Peel (1788-1850) at Historic UK site.)
In this song the term is applied to the Bansha police in Bansha, County Tipperary.
Martin Reidy's tune on IRClare01 is the one used for "The Recruiting Sergeant" (on Robin Hall and Jimmy MacGregor, "Two Heids are Better than Yin!," Monitor MF 365 (1962)) - BS
Max Heiliger, who pointed out to be the 1913 Padraic Colum printing (available on Internet Archiva), also pointed to two references to a song by this title from 1884. As neither includes the lyrics, I cannot prove that they are the same song. But they probably indicate that the song was widespread in that year. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: OLOc074

Peelhead

DESCRIPTION: Peelhead owns the saw mill. "All the kind o' logs they got Was small rough saplin' pine." Hope for better times: "not like it was last summer When you said they'd be good times, And some o' your men you owe six months, And more you do owe nine"
AUTHOR: William McKay "of the Millstream" (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: lumbering hardtimes humorous moniker boss horse
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 37, "Peelhead" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi037 (Partial)
Roud #9208
NOTES [71 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "The song ... is a typical woods satire about a lumber operator, Isaac Anderson, nick-named 'Peelhead,' who flourished in the 1880's. There is a mention for everyone in the woods crew, including the horses, and the usual fling at the employer. Actually the reproaches in the last verse were not very serious complaints in the 1880's, when so much of the lumber business was done on credit." - BS
File: MaWi037

Peep Squirrel

DESCRIPTION: Singing game: "Peep squirrel, yang-dan-diddle-um (or other nonsense, e.g. Hop squirrel, eedle-dum-dum)" (x2 or x4). Similarly, "Run, squirrel...." "Catch the old squirrel...." "I give you fifty cents...."
AUTHOR: Squirrel
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal hunting playparty
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 119, "Peep Squirrel" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 91-92, "Peep Squirrel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 134-136, "Hop, Old Squirrel" (2 texts, the second with interspersed game instructions, 1 tune)
ST ChFRA119 (Partial)
Roud #7645
NOTES [63 words]: Roud lumps this with "Hunt the Squirrel" and similar items -- superficially reasonable, since they're both singing games about squirrels. But they don't have any lyrics in common.
Even I decided ot merge "Hop, Old Squirrel" with "Peep, Squirrel"; the forms are very different, but it appears that lyrics cross so much; my guess is that it's one song with two differen games. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: ChFRA119

Peer Peter My Neeper

See Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater (File: GrD81896)

Peerless Fishermen, The

DESCRIPTION: "Peerless," with a Nova Scotia crew, load their bait at Bay of Islands and reach the banks. Their dories are lowered but lost in a storm. The captain looks for the twelve lost fishermen but is forced to sail for Newfoundland.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: grief death drowning fishing sea ship storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
RECORDINGS:
Peter Molloy, "Ye landsmen and ye seamen come listen to what I write" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bank Fishermen" (subject)
File: ML3PeFis

Peg an' Awl

DESCRIPTION: "In the days of eighteen and one, Peg an' awl... Peggin' shoes was all I done, Hand me down my pegs, my pegs, my pegs, my awl." The singer describes his work(/play?), then tells how "They've invented a new machine.... Makes a hundred pairs to my one."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Carolina Tar Heels)
KEYWORDS: work technology unemployment worker
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 30-31, "The Ruint Cobbler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 144, "Peg an' Awl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 40 "Peg and Awl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 363, "Peg and Awl" (1 text)
DT, PEGNAWL*
Roud #4619
RECORDINGS:
Carolina Tar Heels, "Peg and Awl" (Victor V-40007A, 1928; on AAFM1; recorded Oct 11 1928)
Kelly Harrell, "Peg and Awl" (OKeh 40544, 1925; on KHarrell01)
Lawrence Older, "Peg and Awl" (on LOlder01)
Pete Seeger, "Peg and Awl" (on PeteSeeger13)
Hobart Smith, "Peg an' Awl" (on LomaxCD1702)
Clarence Ashley & Doc Watson, "Peg and Awl" (on WatsonAshley01)
NOTES [23 words]: The notes in Lomax imply that this is a bawdy song. I suppose it's possible, but I think this is a confusion with "The Long Peggin' Awl." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: LoF144

Peg and Awl

See Peg an' Awl (File: LoF144)

Peggie

See Lescraigie (File: Ord285)

Pegging Awl, The

See Long Peggin' Awl, The (File: RL280)

Peggy and the Soldier

See The Gallant Soldier (Mary/Peggy and the Soldier) (File: HHH782)

Peggy and the Soldier (The Lame Soldier) [Laws P13]

DESCRIPTION: Peggy leaves her husband and child to go with a soldier who offers her gold and a high life. The two soon quarrel; the soldier beats her and sends her back to her husband. She arrives home and begs her husband to take her back; he rejects her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1675 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(208a)); a song with this name was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: infidelity separation soldier rejection family
FOUND IN: US(MW) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws P13, "Peggy and the Soldier (The Lame Soldier)"
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 164-165, "The Lame Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan6 1129, "The Old Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 94-95, "Peggy and the Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1517, "It was a brave souldier that long liv'd in Wars"
DT 497, LAMESLDR* LAMESLD2
Roud #907
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(208a), "The Souldier and Peggy" ("It was a brave souldier that long liv'd at wars"), F. Coles (London), 1663-1674; also Harding B 39(151), Douce Ballads 2(209b), "The Souldier and Peggy"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosie Anderson" (plot)
cf. "The Brewer Laddie" (plot)
NOTES [15 words]: In the Bodleian broadsides and Greig/Duncan6, at least, Peggy's husband takes her back. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LP13

Peggy and the Squire

See Sweet Kitty (I) (File: PCL067)

Peggy Bawn

DESCRIPTION: An Irishman stops at a Scots farmer's house and courts daughter Jane. The farmer offers his daughter in marriage, money, and land. The singer thinks of Peggy and excuses himself: he must be off on the king's business. He will always be true to Peggy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1788 (William Shield's opera "Marion," according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: infidelity sex rejection separation Ireland Scotland father courting money
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(Lond,West))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 47-48, "Peggy Band" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 5, "Peggy Bawn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 162, "Peggy Bawn" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 134-135, "Peggy Bawn"
Roud #661
RECORDINGS:
Walter Pardon, "Peggy Benn" (on Voice01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1481)[many illegible words], "Peggy Band," D. Wrighton? (Birmingham)[hand-written note on broadside], 1810-1820; also Harding B 28(149), Firth b.25(391), Harding B 20(131), Harding B 11(2699), Harding B 11(2700), Harding B 11(2982), Firth c.18(244), 2806 c.17(329), 2806 b.11(232), "Peggy Band"; Harding B 25(1480), "Peggy Bann"
NOTES [164 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "Once very popular in Northern Ireland and among the Irish in Scotland.
Duffy (1845): "The existence of this ballad is traceable for a century -- it is probably much older. It bears strong evidence of having been written in Ulster, where it holds its ground with undiminished popularity to this day."
I have to admit to some confusion. It seems clear that Jane and Peggy are not the same person but some broadside lines make it seem otherwise: "With hat in hand I came away, And parted with each one, And especially the pretty girl Who was tired of lying alone. With hat in hand I came away, But in my mind it ran, That blithe and merry were the days I had with Peggy Band." The counter argument, from broadside Bodleian Harding B 25(1481), "Peggy Band's Answer," D. Wrighton? (Birmingham), 1810-1820 has Peggy relating that her Jemmy, "a SCOTISH Lady did adore, And offerred him her Hand, But he slighted all her Proffers For his dear PEGGY BAND." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: OLcM005

Peggy Gordon

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Peggy Gordon, you are my darling, Come sit you down upon my knee, And tell to me the very reason Why I am slighted so by thee." Spurned, the singer wishes he were far away, or drinking, or doing something to ease the pain of separation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: love separation rejection
FOUND IN: US(Ap) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 127, [No title] (1 fragmentary text)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, p. 164, (no title) (1 tune, partial text, probably this song)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 141, "Youth and Folly" (1 text, with many floating verses but such plot as it has derived from this song); 142, "Maggie Goddon" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 194-195, "Peggy Gordon" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 74-75, "Peggy Gordon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 475-476, "Love is Lovely" (1 text, 1 tune, strongly composite, starting with a verse perhaps from "Peggy Gordon," then the chorus of "Waly Waly (The Water Is Wide)," two more which might be anything, and a conclusion from "Carrickfergus")
DT, PEGGORDN*
Roud #2280
RECORDINGS:
Grace Clergy, "Peggy Gordon" (on MRHCreighton)
Ralph Pennell, "Keg of Brandy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fair and Tender Ladies" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I'm Deep In Love, My Mind Is Troubled" (lyrics)
cf. "O'Reilly from the County Leitrim" (lyrics in common with the "Youth and Folly" texts)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Maggie Gordon
File: Gil127

Peggy Howatt

DESCRIPTION: Howatt, a barkeep, is shot and killed by "a brave engineer." When St. Peter declines to admit Howatt, the late bartender replies with obscenity and scorn.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy homicide Hell
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 468-470, "Peggy Howatt" (2 texts, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Casey Jones (I)" [Laws G1] (tune)
NOTES [52 words]: Jim "Peggy" [from his wooden leg] Howatt sold liquor in Joplin, Mo., Picher, Okla., and Pittsburg, Kansas, until his death from tainted moonshine about 1924.
Annotator Legman posits this topical satire, sung to a set of the melody of "Casey Jones," was written by the composer of that ballad, Wallace Saunders. - EC
File: RL468

Peggy in Her Low Backed Car

See The Low Back Car (File: OCon087)

Peggy in the Mornin'

See Peggy in the Morning (File: Ord110)

Peggy in the Morning

DESCRIPTION: "Noo, mither, confess, a' the lasses ye saw... And wasna my Peggy the flooer o' them a'?" The mother says the girl is lazy and sleeps late. The lad says her father has promised a fine dowry. The mother admits, "Your Peggy's better noo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1894 (Murison collection, according to Lyle, _Fairies and Folk_)
KEYWORDS: love courting money dowry
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #37, p. 1, "Peggy in the Mornin'"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 37-38, "My Peggy" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan5 1002, "Peggy in the Morning" (9 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 110, "Peggy in the Morning" (1 text)
Roud #5541
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Billy Grimes the Rover" (plot)
cf. "Will Ray" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jacky's Choice
NOTES [39 words]: Sort of a Scottish version of "Billy Grimes the Rover," with the sexes reversed. - RBW
In the Greig/Duncan5 versions Johnnie and Peggy marry and, in 1002B, "he's Peggy until his airms And made her the mither o' three bonny bairns." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord110

Peggy o' Greenlaw

DESCRIPTION: "I am a bold, undaunted youth, George Hewitt is my name... And there I had a sweetheart... My Peggy o' Greenlaw." But bad company pulls him away; he falls in love with another, marries her in haste, quickly becomes disillusioned, and regrets losing Peggy
AUTHOR: Alexander Shaw
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: love courting abandonment betrayal marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 143, "Peggy o' Greenlaw" (1 text)
Roud #3949
File: Ord143

Peggy of the Moor

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you sporting young men and listen unto me, Come all you loyal lovers that live in unity...." The singer was one of many fascinated by Peggy of the Moor. A bold shoemaker will be successful with her. The singer wishes success to lovers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty drink
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H761, pp. 228-229, "Peggy of the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7979
NOTES [27 words]: It is not at all clear from the Henry text whether the singer is the "bold shoemaker" whose attention to Peggy will make all other lover's attentions "useless." - RBW
File: HHH761

Peggy on the Banks o' Spey

DESCRIPTION: The singer is enthralled by "Peggy on the banks o' Spey" bleaching her clothes. He thinks "she fain wad be my dearie." He imagines some night that he would "wed her frae her daddy O I'll kiss her ower and ower again And row her in my plaidie O"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: sex nonballad father clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1131, "Peggy on the Banks o' Spey" (1 text)
Roud #6846
File: GrD61131

Peggy Picken

See Whistle Owre the Lave O't (File: GrD71414)

Peggy Walker

See The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)

Peggy-O

See Bonnie Lass of Fyvie, The (Pretty Peggy-O) (File: SBoA020)

Peistie Glen, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer wanders by Peistie Glen and "imbibes meditation" urging him to "write measured words eulogizing" the place. He recalls the history of the place. Now the ship calls him away; he bids farewell to his home
AUTHOR: Frances Heaney ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home emigration nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H654, pp. 170-171, "The Peistie Glen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9685
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cailin Deas" (tune)
NOTES [19 words]: Yes, the first verse is as bad as the quoted excerpts imply. The rest is a little better, but only a little. - RBW
File: HHH654

Pelton Lonin

See Felton Lonnin (Pelton Lonnin') (I, II, III) (File: StoR150)

Pelton Lonnin'

See Felton Lonnin (Pelton Lonnin') (I, II, III) (File: StoR150)

Penal Servitude

DESCRIPTION: "I have just arrived from Australia, Where I have been for a change of air." He described the "jolly living" there "Where they feed you, and they clothe you Better than a working man or soldier." He tells his history and how he was transported
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland); Anderson dates his broadside c. 1830
KEYWORDS: crime travel transportation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 91-93 "Penal Servitude" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 55, "Penal Servitude!" (1 text)
Roud #V27681
File: AnFa091

Penguin Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever see a penguin come to tea? (Or, in the original, "Have you ever seen a penguin dancing here?") Penguins, attention! Penguins, begin!" The penguins dance, lifting left flipper, right flipper, left foot, etc. At the end, "Penguins, dismissed!"
AUTHOR: Min Seok Kim (source: musixmatch.com; this is for the version with the first line "ave you ever seen a penguin dancing here")
EARLIEST DATE: 2017 (earliest Internet citation I could find)
KEYWORDS: bird dancing food | penguin
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "The Penguin Song" (Piotr-Archive #324, recorded 11/02/2022)
NOTES [46 words]: This is patently modern, but it is widespread (I found dozens of internet citations, mostly on YouTube) and almost none of them seem to know who wrote it. Moreover, there are substantial differences between versions. So it would seem that it is a folk song in some sense. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio324

Peninsula Pike, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a railroad they call the Peninsula Pike -- Go get me the Bible and read it." The singer describes the "two streaks of rust" that mark the ill-maintained railroad, which he claims was built immediately after the flood
AUTHOR: Charley L. Grant (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (September 1914 Ilwaco Tribune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: train humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 81, "The Peninsula Pike" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 624-625, "The Peninsula Pike" (1 text)
File: CAFS2624

Penitentiary Blues, THe

See The Coon-Can Game [Laws I4] (File: LI04)

Penny Fair, The

DESCRIPTION: The Penny Fair drifts from the wharf. The crew are wakened and scramble to tie her up. Jack Lushman, on the ferry, not only sleeps through the hubbub but sleeps while the ferry runs aground. Everyone has a good laugh.
AUTHOR: Blanche Pink
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: sea ship ordeal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 86, "The Penny Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #26967
File: LeBe086

Penny for a Ball of Thread, A

See Pop Goes the Weasel (File: R556)

Penny for a Cotton Spool, A

See Pop Goes the Weasel (File: R556)

Penny Is a Hardy Knight

See Sir Peny (File: MSSrPen)

Penny on the Avenue

See One Two Three Four Five Six Seven, All Good Children Go to Heaven (File: McIn110B)

Penny on the Water

See One Two Three Four Five Six Seven, All Good Children Go to Heaven (File: McIn110B)

Penny Wager, The

DESCRIPTION: A traveller with one penny in his pocket stakes his purse in a pub wager. He wins; when he asks the landlord's wife what he owes, she tells him to give her a kiss and go. (He rejoices that he has won the wager; otherwise he'd have had to sell his horse)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3387))
KEYWORDS: wager travel gambling money landlord
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 280, "The Penny Wager" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 115, "The Penny Wager" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 4-5, "In the North Countrie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #26, "The Hearty Good Fellow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #393
RECORDINGS:
George Dunn, "My Little Grey Horse" (on Voice13)
Levi Smith, "One Penny" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3387), "Adventures of a Penny" ("Long time I've travelled the north country"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 16(2b), "The Adventures of a Penny"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
One Penny
Adventures of a Penny
File: McCST115

Pennyworth o' Preens, A

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

Pensioner's Complaint, The

DESCRIPTION: "You neighbours all listen, a story I'll tell." The Waterloo veteran has a pension of 18 pounds a year, and his wife takes too much of it. She drinks, she gossips, she does no work, leaving him cold and tired from his tasks. He wishes she were taken away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Hammond MS.)
KEYWORDS: soldier money wife hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 68-69, "The Pensioner's Complaint" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1663
NOTES [40 words]: Purslow suggests that this was originally meant to be sung to the "Limerick Rake" tune (also known as "Champion at Keepin' 'em Rollin'," "Champion at Driving 'Em Crazy," etc.). This seems likely, but it might also be "Arthur McBride." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: PCL68

Peny is an hardy knyght

See Sir Peny (File: MSSrPen)

People Are A-Coming, The

DESCRIPTION: ""I hearkened in the east and I hearkened in the west, And I heard a fifing and a drumming, and my heart bobbed up... For I knew that the people were a-coming" to support Lincoln. New York political establishments and the South are worried
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales); probably composed for the election of 1860
KEYWORDS: political nonballad derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 363-364, "The People Are A-Coming" (1 text)
Roud #V39414
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel" (tune) and references there
NOTES [27 words]: Thompson says he does not know what tune this was sung to, but it is quite clear that the melody was "Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel" or one of its variants. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: TNY363

People Who Live in Glass

DESCRIPTION: "People who live (x2)... should throw stones." Perhaps done as a round
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2023 (Derek Piotr archive)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home | proverb glass houses
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Anni Crofut, Susie Crofut, "People Who Live in Glass Houses" (Piotr-Archive #617, recorded 07/31/2023)
The Crofut Family, "People Who Live in Glass Houses" (Piotr-Archive #667, recorded 09/17/2023)
File: DPio617

People Will Talk

DESCRIPTION: "We may get through the world, but 'twill be very slow, If we listen to all that is said as we go"; people shouldn't get bogged down in worries and warnings even though people talk. So "the best way for you is to do as you please"
AUTHOR: Music: S. M. Grannis (source: New-Comic-Songster)
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Dime-Song-Book #14)
KEYWORDS: nonballad warning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #14, pp. 40-41, "People Will Talk" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 54, "People Will Talk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V24915
File: NCSPeWTa

Pep (The Peppiest Camp)

DESCRIPTION: "The peppiest (girls/camp) I ever saw, It never was a-pokin', If I were to tell you of the pep they've got, You'd think I was a-jokin'." "It's not the pep in the pepper-pot... It's good old-fashioned P-E-P" from somewhere or other
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: food wordplay campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #133, p. 41, "Old-Fashinoed Pep" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 134, 138-139, 175, 346, 424, 432, 501, "The Peppiest Camp"/"Pep" (notes plus 3 texts on pp. 138-139; bibliography on pp. 655-656)
Roud #37849
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Thinnest Man" (lyrics, form)
cf. "Polly Wolly Doodle" (tune of one version, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
cf. "Ain't Gonna Rain No More" (tune, according to Harbin-Parodology)
NOTES [99 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs's note on p. 134 thinks this may derive from, "or have a common ancestor with," "The Thinnest Man." I don't think there is much doubt; not only are the last two lines of the first verse essentially the same, but the scansion is identical. And while "The Thinnest Man's" attestation is relatively recent, this seems like a clear and obvious rewrite. Although Averill treats it as traditional, I somewhat doubt it; of her three texts, two are her own personal texts and one is only a fragment. It is one of those songs that traces its ancestry to Harbin-Parodology. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF138P

Peppiest Camp, The

See Pep (The Peppiest Camp) (File: ACSF138P)

Pepsi Cola Hits the Spot (Jump-Rope Parody)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Pepsi Cola hits the spot, Turn the rope and give her hot [i.e. Hot Peppers?]. H-O-T spells hot."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food | Pepsi-Cola
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #21, "(Pepsi Cola hits the spot)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #459, "Pepsi Cola hits the spot" (1 text)
File: AJRV021

Pera Lee

DESCRIPTION: Pera Lee's gone to the "worldly fair." She "ain't coming back no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt04)
KEYWORDS: courting separation travel nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Pera-Lee" (on MJHurt04)
File: RcPeraLe

Pere Marquette 18, The

DESCRIPTION: "Out through the piers at Ludington one dark September day, The Pere Marquette 18 steamed proudly on her way. Her captain, Peter Kilty, looked on his ship with pride," but the mate announces the ship is sinking. They call for help, but 28 drown
AUTHOR: Frank McCauley
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (collected from Manus J. Bonner, brother-in-law of the Pere Marquette 18's captain, by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship disaster death drowning technology
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 177-179, "The Pere Marquette 18" (1 text)
Roud #19834
NOTES [600 words]: Although this wreck is historical, there seems to be some uncertainty about the facts. I checked four sources: Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, Berman, Shelak, Thompson.
Berman's brief comment, p. 259, says merely that the Pere Marquette 18, 2090 tons, built 1902, foundered September 9, 1910, near Sheboygan, with the loss of 27 lives.
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors agrees with the tonnage and the date of sinking; it says that "more than two dozen" lives were lost, including Captain Peter Kilty. The ship foundered some twenty miles from Sheboygan. The remaining crew members were saved by the Pere Marquette 17, a sister ship.
The most detailed accounts are in Shelak and Thompson. Shelak, pp. 144-147, describes her as 338 feet long, with a beam of 56 feet and a draft of 20, and lists her as 2909 tons (it will be seen that this and Berman's figures are easy typographic variants of each other). The ship was a car ferry; there were reportedly 29 railroad cars aboard. The ship had been recently inspected, and the weather on her final voyage, though stormy, was not really extreme. Reportedly there were 62 passengers and crew, and two stowaways, aboard.
The voyage was a "routine cruise" from Ludington to Milwaukee. Shelak seems to say that the voyage began in the early morning of September 8, but gives no date for the actual sinking (though he claims the fatal leak was discovered around 3:00 a.m.)
When water started coming in, the first mate made an inspection and concluded it was "nothing more than a damaged deadlight or porthole cover." But the pumps could not handle the flooding. Not even pushing out nine of the loaded railroad cars could keep the ship afloat. Finally a distress call went out. The Pere Marquette 17 responded, but the 18 went down just before rescue operations could begin. Pere Marquette 6 and Pere Marquette 20 also arrived eventually. 33 passengers and crew were saved, but all officers were lost, and two crew from the Pere Marquette 17 died in the rescue attempts.
The cause of the disaster was never determined, but a likely culprit is the rear deck area where the railroad cars were loaded.
Thompson, p. 285, says "On September 9, 1911, the Pere Marquette Railroad's Pere Marquette 18 got caught out on the lake in a severe storm and began taking on water through a number of portholes that were smashed out by the pounding seas. When the pumps couldn't keep up with the incoming water and the stern of the ship continued to settle deeper in the seas, the captain had the radio operator send out a message in Morse code asking for help.
"The distress call was heard by the Pere Marquette 17, which arrived on the scene just as the flooded ferry sank.... [C]rewmembers from the Pere Marquette 17 managed to pull thirty-two people from the stormy waters. Twenty-seven others went down with the ship or drowned before rescuers could get to them."
Thompson has another account of the sinking, on page 27, which ways that "many lives" were lost in the sinking, but 35 were saved. This passage gives the date as September 9, 1910, as in all the other sources. It seems clear that this is the correct date, but apparently the number killed and the number saved is slightly uncertain.
Thompson also says that this was the first rescue on the Lakes made possible by radio. (There had already been one on the high seas.) Radios were still optional equipment on boats, but the Pere Marquette railroad company had voluntarily installed radios on their ship, and in this case it paid off handsomely. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM177

Perfect Posture

DESCRIPTION: "Perfect posture! Perfect posture! Do not slump, do not slump, You must grow up handsome, You must grow up handsome, Hide that hump! hide that hump!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: nonballad disability campsong derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 74, "Perfect Posture" (1 text, tune referenced)
Harbin-Parodology, #339, p. 84, "Perfect Posture" (1 text, tune referenced)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 121, "Perfect Posture" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 263, 379, 436, 514, "Perfect Posture" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Frere Jacques (Are You Sleeping; Brother John)" (tune) and references there
File: Paro339

Peri Meri Dixie Dominie

See I Gave My Love a Cherry
 (File: R123)

Perigoo's Horse

DESCRIPTION: Lawyer Walter Perigoo visits Whalen's Inn and puts his horse in the stable. Local boys (led by Whalen's son?) cut off the horse's tail and paint it red, white, and blue. Perigoo eventually finds the disguised animal and threatens retribution
AUTHOR: George or John Calhoun?
EARLIEST DATE: 1971
KEYWORDS: horse trick lawyer humorous disguise
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 266-268, "Perigoo's Horse" (1 text)
Roud #4165
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dH48 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Doe266b

Perjured Ship-Carpenter, The

See The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (The Gosport Tragedy; Pretty Polly) [Laws P36A/B] (File: LP36)

Perrie Merrie Dixi Domini

See I Gave My Love a Cherry
 (File: R123)

Perrie, Merrie, Dixi, Domini

See I Gave My Love a Cherry
 (File: R123)

Perry Allen

DESCRIPTION: "Merry little man with a twinkle in your eye, Indeed you hold my envy, and I will tell you why. I envy you the golden days that you have seen." The poet goes on to describe all the places Perry Allen has seen and the people he has men
AUTHOR: George A. Belding (source: Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: nonballad lumbering recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 118, "Perry Allen" (1 text)
Roud #18183
File: BeLo118

Perry Merry Winkle Domone

See I Gave My Love a Cherry
 (File: R123)

Perry's Victory

See The Battle of Lake Erie (File: CAFS2395)

Persia's Crew, The

See The Persian's Crew [Laws D4] (File: LD04)

Persian's Crew, The [Laws D4]

DESCRIPTION: The Persian sets out [from Chicago] and disappears on Lake Huron. Since nothing is known of the wreck, the singer can only wonder at and lament the fate of the lost crew. The mate, Daniel Sullivan, may be specially praised
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (published as a poem in the Buffalo Express, according to Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors; the first traditional version appears to have been Dean's)
KEYWORDS: ship storm death
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws D4, "The Persian's Crew"
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 203-204, "The Persia's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 46, "The Persian's Crew" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 46, "The Persian's Crew" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 29-30, "The Persian's Crew" (1 text)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 191-194, "Lake Huron's Rockbound Shore (The Ill-Fated Persian)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, "The Persia's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 86, "Lake Huron's Rock-Bound Shore" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 99, "Lake Huron's Rock-Bound Shore" (1 text)
DT 677, PERSIACR
ADDITIONAL: Patrick Fennell ("Shandy Maguire"), _Recitations, Epics, Epistles, Lyrics and Poems, Humorous and Pathetic_ (self-published, Oswego, NY, 1886), pp. 145-147, "Loss of the Schooner 'Persian,' on Lake Huron" (1 text) (available on Archive.org)
Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 33, #1 (1987), pp, 46-47, "Persia's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune, apparently the Stanley Baby version)
Roud #2230
RECORDINGS:
Stanley Baby, "The 'Persian's Crew" (on GreatLakes1)
John W. Green, "The Ill-Gated Persian" (1959; on WaltonSailors -- not the same as the text in Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors; it sounds as if two recordings have been combined due to Green's memory troubles)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maggie Hunter" (subject, tune)
NOTES [806 words]: According to Beck, possibly composed by the daughter of Dan Sullivan, the Persian's first mate. - PJS
I suspect something rather more complicated, given the handful of melodies for this piece. Laws lists four versions with melodies, two in Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy and one in Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen. Rickaby's first, from Dean, is approximately "Tramps and Hawkers." His second, from Art C. Milloy, has a somewhat similar shape but but is mixolydian and not necessarily related. And Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen has yet another tune with similar shape but distinct tonal differences.
Perhaps some of the variations are due to the fact that so little is known about what actually happened, which might have inspired rewrites. According to Ratigan, p. 98, "the schooner Persia went down with all hands" in November 1869 (a memorable storm which also destroyed the Volunteer and other ships), and inspired a song" (presumably this).
And yet, Berman, p. 257, does not even list the Persia as a Great Lakes shipwreck. He does note the screw steamer Persian (note the presence of the n at the end; the ship wrecked in 1869 was Persia, not Persian). The Persian burned near Long Point, Ontario, in August 1875. Long Point is in Lake Erie, not Lake Huron, but might it have contributed to some confusion?
Parker, p. 147, says that a schooner Persian was lost in 1868, not 1869, by collision, and "sank off 40 mile Pt., 10 lives lost."
Norm Cohen's research (which I would imagine exceeds that of all the others listed here) says that the song was by Patrick Fennell, and that the ships involved were the Persian and the E. B. Allen. He wrote an article on the subject for the December 1969 New York Folklore Quarterly
Fennell, who apparently appeared publicly as "Shandy Maguire," published a text in his book Recitations, Epics, Epistles, Lyrics and Poems, Humorous and Pathetic; this is, I believe, why Cohen cites him as the author. The book contains no background on the song, but it does seem to be an intact text; if it is not the original, it is very close. It is surprising to see the song go into tradition; Fennell wrote mostly about railroads, and frankly I wasn't very impressed by the other pieces of his in his book. Nor were publishers, apparently, since he had to self-publish.
I did find an item in The Railroad Trainmen's Journal, Volume VII, January to December 1890 (available on Google Books) about Fennell:
"Almost every reader of labor publications has read something from the pen of 'Shandy Maguire,' who, for many years past has furnished delightful entertainment for those who appreciate the music of words. But probably not all of them know that 'Shandy Maguire' is Patrick Fennell, a practical railroad man employed on the D. L. & W., and something about this railroad poet and his productions will be interesting and instructive to our readers. Mr. Fennell was born in Ireland in 1841, and became a resident of Oswego, N. Y., in 1849. In 1864 he began railroad life as a fireman on the Oswego & Syracuse and in due course of time became an engineer. After seven years' service at the throttle he was made Engine Dispatcher, which position he still holds. For the past nine years he has been Commissioner of the Common Schools of Oswego, and has served three terms as President of the Board of Education. Seventeen years ago Mr. Fennell appeared as a regular contributor to the Engineers' Journal, and as the advent of a real poet is a very unusual occurrence he at once attracted wide attention. In 1886 the demand for his productions justified the publication of a volume of four hundred pages, which was well received and has, we believe, reached its third edition."
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors generally agrees with Cohen about the story of the Persian, saying that there was a "persistent rumor" that the Allen had had a collision, possibly with the Persian (the name it uses) in 1869. The crew of eight, including captain and owner John Long, came from Oswego, New York. According to them, Patrick Fennell wrote the poem under the pen name Shandy Maguire, but later published it under his own name.
Solomon Foster, who contacted me to point out the Fennell book, notes that the wreck of the Persian that (presumably) collided with the Allen was found in 1991. An underwater image of the wreck shows what appears to be the mark of a collision between the two visible masts. - RBW
Northern Shipwrecks Database shows two Lake Huron shipwrecks outbound from Chicago. In November 1869 the Persia foundered in a storm. The comments are "See Persian 1868.09?" so the evidence is apparently questionable. The other entry, in September 1868 is for the Persian, bound for Oswego, a total loss and sunk after a collision. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: LD04

Personal Friend of Mine, A

DESCRIPTION: "It's easy to see she's not my mother, 'Cause my mother's 49. It's easy to see she's not my sister... It's easy to see she's not my sweetie, 'Cause my sweetie's too refined... She's just a personal friend of mine" who does not tell what they do together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: sex soldier courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 136, "A Personal Friend of Mine" (1 short text)
Roud #29416
File: Hopk136A

Personalia

DESCRIPTION: "I was born under a kind star In a green world withouten any War My eyes opened on great fields and hills Orchards and garden, primrose, daffodils...." The singer is thankful for being able to sing the song of a kind land
AUTHOR: Katherine Tynan (Hinkson) (1859-1931)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: flowers | kind star
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 174, "I was born under a kind star" (1 fragment)
Roud #25469
File: KSUC174A

Perthshire Pensioner, The

See references under The Forfar Soldier (File: FVS163)

Pery Mery Winkle Domine

See I Gave My Love a Cherry
 (File: R123)

Pescod Time

See (references under) The Hunting of the Cheviot [Child 162] (File: C162)

Pesky Sarpent, The

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

Pete and Repeat

DESCRIPTION: "Pete and Repeat sitting on the fence, Pete fell off and who was left? Repeat." And repeat ad nauseum.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: injury wordplay
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 106, "Pete and Repeat" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 165-166, "Pete and Re-Pete" (1 text)
File: ZiZa106D

Pete Knight

DESCRIPTION: "Pete Knight was a rider of horses, The best that I ever did see, But often a life in the saddle Is not what it's cracked up to be." "Ten thousand fans saw him carried Away from the field and the horse."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse injury death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1937 - Death of Pete Knight
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 31, "Pete Knight" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pete Knight, The King of the Cowboys"
cf. "Pete Knight's Last Ride"
NOTES [1608 words]: Pete Knight was born in Philadelphia, but lived for some years in Alberta, and seems to have been at least as famous in Canada as in the U.S.
Knight was one of the all-time horse-riding champions, and won top honors in 1932, 1933, 1935, and 1936. In 1937, however, he fell and was trampled by the horse "Duster," (not "Slow-Down," as the horse was called by Wilf Carter) and died of a punctured lung.
There are at least two books about Knight: Darrell Knight, Pete Knight the Cowboy King, Detselig Enterprises, 2004, and Jim Davis We Remember... Pete Knight Canadian Rodeo Cowboys' Association, 1976. Darrell Knigjht is Pete Knight's grand-nephew; he never met Pete, but he offers a lot of family tradition.
According to Darrell Knight, p. 23, "Pete Knight was the most accomplished bronc rider of the twentieth century, and the greatest hero that Alberta ever had or may ever have again. Wilf Carter's song "Pete Knight, the King of the Cowboys" was a radio staple in Alberta for more than two decades after Knight's death (Knight, p. 21). (On the other hand, Knight was not famous enough to earn an entry in the Macmillan Dictionary of Canadian Biography, which has more than five thousand entries in its fourth edition!)
Ironically, the great rider was not born to the trade. "The Knights were grain farmers, not ranchers, and certainly not cowboys, as successive legends have often depicted. They were Americans" who managed large farms and hired immigrant labor to harvest it (Knight, p. 21).
Pete Knight's grandfather, also named Peter, had migrated from England to the United States in the period after the Civil War. Pete Knight's father William was one who came with him. They settled in Kansas. William Knight married Katherine Carson in 1884, and moved to Philadelphia a few years later (Knight, p. 30). It was there that William and Katherine's sixth child, Peter Charles Knight, was born on May 5, 1903 (Knight, p. 31). A few years later, William -- who apparently was restless and got tired of his work as a weaver -- moved the family to Oklahoma; it was there that Pete was first exposed to horses (Knight, p. 32). Then William ran across promotions designed to lure Oklahoma farmers to Alberta, Canada. He was hooked (Knight, pp. 33-34). He rode the rails to Alberta, verified that land was good and available, and went back to convince his family. Some of his children, old enough to make up their own minds, stayed in the United States, but Pete was one of those who made the move, which began in 1914 though the family was not fully settled until 1917 (Knight, pp. 34-35). Pete supposedly was breaking horses by 1914 (Knight, pp. 36-37). In 1918, he started getting rodeo training from a man by the name of Dave Togstead (Knight, pp. 40-41).
In June 1918, Knight came in second in the Crossfield Rodeo bucking horse competition. The prize money went to help him establish his own string of bucking horses (Knight, pp. 42-43) -- although "Midnight," the horse apparently most associated with him, was not one of them; it was owned by one Jim McNab (Knight, p. 51). This horse is the subject of the song "Midnight."
In 1923, the year the Calgary Stampede went from being an occasional to an annual event, he was invited to take part by the event's manager (Knight, p. 48). In the parade associated with the event, though, Pete's horse went out of control and his left leg was broken (Knight, pp. 50-51).
Knight's first big moment came in 1924, when he came in second, a fraction of a point behind the winner, at the Calgary Stampede (Knight, p. 29). It sounds as if this was out of the blue, because his results to that point were not impressive. He had an impressive ride on a horse named Alberta Kid that was reckoned extraordinarily hard to deal with (Knight, p. 55). Knight in fact won the final round, but another cowboy had done well enough in a preliminary round that he edged Knight in the overall scores (Knight, p. 56).
It sounds as if Knight took home his first title early the next year, when he won the 1925 Crossfield Stampede (Knight, p. 58). The stage was set for the 1925 Calgary Slam. Knight failed to make the final round (Knight, p. 60), but it seems pretty clear that he was hooked. He managed to buy a used Model T Ford so that he could travel longer distances to compete in shows (Knight, pp. 60-61).
In 1925, the Canadian rodeo world changed when Peter Welsh created the Alberta Stampede Company, a traveling rodeo. This was a bit like the American Wild West shows, but with less play-acting and more actual bronk-riding. It was a genuine competition, too -- pay depended on results. Pete Knight was one of those invited to take part (Knight, p. 64), and he earned $1000 for winning the Edmonton event (Knight, pp. 66-67). This let him buy property to farm, as well as getting a newer car (Knight, pp. 68-69). But he kept on riding. He didn't win every time -- but he won enough to keep adding to his cushion. Later that fall, in Montreal, he finally took on the horse Midnight -- and was thrown (Knight, pp. 78-79). But he kept trying. In 1927, he finally won the "Prince of Wales Cup" (Knight, p. 85, has a photo of him with the trophy) and one other contest at the Calgary Stampede -- the first person to win multiple competitions there (Knight, pp. 85-87). The Alberta Stampede Company was now well enough known to head to the United States for the big money (Knight, p. 91). But it folded in 1928 (Knight, p. 94). Knight was by then basically a full time rodeo cowboy; his brothers farmed his land, and his father died that spring (Knight, pp. 94-95).
Although Knight would have us believe that Pete Knight was always soft-spoken and even-tempered, there is at least one instance which belies this; at one contest, he became so upset at a judge's scoring that he physically accosted the judge, then, when separated, went to the store and bought three generic pairs of glasses to present to the judges (Knight, pp. 98-99).
It was while touring (in 1930, if I understood this right) that he met Ida Lee, nicknamed "Babe," who would become his wife (Knight, p. 101). They started courting seriously in 1931 (Knight, p. 113); he proposed in 1932, and they married that same year during a rodeo in Texas (Knight, p. 115).
In 1930, Pete won the Prince of Wales Cup at the Calgary Stampede for the second time, becoming the first rider to win twice (Knight, p. 104). Prizes were falling because of the Depression. But Knight was now clearly one of the greatest bronc riders out there. It let him make a pretty good living -- Knight, p. 116, estimates his income as $7000 per year. A strict inflation calculation makes that $150,000 per year in 2022 dollars, but this was the Depression. He and Babe were sleeping at good hotels wherever they went; Knight was somewhere between well-to-do and rich.
He got to know some interesting people, too; Knight, p. 125, has a picture of him with Powder River Jack Lee and Kitty Lee. Tom Mix suggested that he might try Hollywood, but Knight concluded it was not for him (Knight, pp. 136-137). He met Wilf Carter ("Montana Slim") in 1933 when Carter was trying to become a bronc rider. They became friends even though Knight told Carter to stick with singing; Carter wrote his first song about Pete, "Pete Knight, the King of the Cowboys," in 1934 (Knight, p. 157).
He could also be very generous. When another rodeo rider, Harry Knight (no relation), was badly injured at a show, Pete paid the hospital bills (Knight, p. 147).
In 1932, he won an invitation-only event and the "Dempsey Trophy" (after Jack Dempsey); he was declared the "World Champ Bronc Rider" for 1932 (Knight, p. 122). In 1933, he was "World's Champion Bucking Horse Rider" (Knight, p. 136), and won the Prince of Wales Cup a third time, apparently letting him keep the cup (Knight, p. 141). He missed the Calgary Stampede in 1934 after taking part in a disastrous attempt to introduce rodeos into Britain, but he did make a voyage to Australia that year (Knight, p. 155). And so on, through a monotonous list of events won and titles awarded. He remained at or near the top in public esteem until his busy year of 1937. In April of that year, his wife bore him his only child, Deanna Thomasine Knight (Knight, p. 166). A month later, they went to the rodeo in Hayward, California.
The horse Pete rode there was named "Duster"; it was one he had ridden successfully before (Knight, pp. 166-167). Not this time. The horse threw him, and he landed on his back on the ground. But the horse did not run away, as uncontrolled horses usually did. It jumped one more time before running away -- and its hooves came down right on Knight's chest (Knight, p. 167; Knight, p. 169, has a photo of him on Duster shortly before he was thrown).
Knight knew he was hurt, but macho man that he was, he chose to walk to the ambulance as the crowd applauded rather than let them put him in a stretcher. He collapsed very soon after and died in the emergency room (Knight, p. 168). Knight does not list a cause of death, but it sounds like reasons might have included broken ribs, internal bleeding, and collapsed lung(s).
His remains were eventually moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, where Babe Knight lived in her later years (Knight, p. 172). Babe Knight died in 1987. Their daughter Diana was already gone by then, having died of cancer in 1982. She had one son and one daughter (Knight, p. 173), who are very likely still alive as of this writing.
Knight ended up in several rodeo halls of fame, the first big one bieng the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum of Oklahoma City in 1958 (Knight, p. 172). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Ohr031

Pete Knight, the King of the Cowboys

DESCRIPTION: "List a while to my story 'Bout a lad from the wide open plain Who has won a great name the world over, Pete Knight of rodeo fame." Knight's success as a rider is detailed; the song ends with his marriage
AUTHOR: Wilf Carter
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (source: Darrell Knight, Pete Knight the Cowboy King)
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse marriage
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1937 - Death of Pete Knight
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 32, "Pete Knight, the King of the Cowboys" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Darrell Knight, _Pete Knight the Cowboy King_, Detselig Enterprises, 2004, p 182, "Pete Knight The King of the Cowboys)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pete Knight"
cf. "Pete Knight's Last Ride"
NOTES [50 words]: For the history of Pete Knight, see "Pete Knight." This was apparently the first of several songs Wilf Carter ("Montana Slim") wrote about Knight. According to Darrell Knight, Pete Knight the Cowboy King, Detselig Enterprises, 2004, p.172, this was the more popular of Carter's songs about Knight. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Ohr32

Pete Knight's Last Ride

DESCRIPTION: The singer reports "My whole life's full of heartaches and sighs... For I've just lost a pal, like a brother to me...." Expert rider Pete Knight falls and dies; the singer hopes to meet him "on that heavenly range"
AUTHOR: Wilf Carter
EARLIEST DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse injury death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1937 - Death of Pete Knight
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 33, "Pete Knight's Last Ride" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Darrell Knight, _Pete Knight the Cowboy King_, Detselig Enterprises, 2004, p. 183, "Pete Knight's Last Ride" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pete Knight"
cf. "Pete Knight, The King of the Cowboys"
NOTES [43 words]: For the history of Pete Knight, see "Pete Knight." According to Darrell Knight, Pete Knight the Cowboy King, Detselig Enterprises, 2004, pp. 171-172. this was less popular than Wilf Carter's big song about Knight, "Pete Knight, the King of the Cowboys." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Ohr033

Pete Orman

DESCRIPTION: "I'll tell all you skinners from John Day to Bend That the road south o' Shaniko ain't got no bend." Pete Orman "never had time to get over the spree" but is sent out on the road. The drunken truckers (?) try to make a fast run.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Tennessee FOlklore Society Bulletin, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: technology travel drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 61, "Bill Orman" (1 text, tune referenced)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 638, "Pete Orman" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Siskiyou Miners" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
File: CAFS2638

Peter Ambelay

See Peter Amberley [Laws C27] (File: LC27)

Peter Amberley [Laws C27]

DESCRIPTION: Peter Amberly leaves Prince Edward Island to go lumbering in New Brunswick. Fatally injured in a logging accident, he bids farewell to the father whose unkindness sent him away, to his mother, sweetheart, and home
AUTHOR: John Calhoun (sometimes attributed to Larry Gorman)
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: logger death farewell father
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
around Jan. 1881 - Peter Amberly is fatally wounded. He is eighteen years old, and has been in the woods less than a year
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (27 citations):
Laws C27, "Peter Amberley"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 225-233, "Peter Emberley" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 63-69, "Peter Ambelay" (3 texts)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 98-103, "Peter Amberley" (3 texts)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 255-257, "Peter Amberly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 115-117, "Peter Emery" (1 badly damaged text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 164, "Peter Hembly" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 80-81, "Peter Amberley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 27, "Peter Emberley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 138, "Peter Rambelay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 118, "Peter Emberley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 102-103, "Peter Emberley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 306-308, "Peter Emberley (Peter Hembly; Peter Amberley)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 116, "Peter Ambelay" (1 text)
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, p. 33, "Peter Emberley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 235-236,252-253, "Peter Emberly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 99-103, "Peter Emberley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 38, "Peter Emberley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 5, "Adieu to Prince Edward's Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 269-272, "Peter Emily" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 270-273, "Peter Emberly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 9, "Peter Ambelay" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 31, "Peter Ambelay" (1 text)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #36, "Peter Emery" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 258-264, "Mary Hamilton" (the "C" fragment actually comes from a text of this song rather than a version of "Mary Hamilton")
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 181-182, "Peter Emberly" (1 text)
DT 608, PTRMBRLY* PTRMBRL2
Roud #668
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Peter Amberly" (on NFOBlondahl04)
John Conners, "Peter Hennessey" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Chris Greencorn, "Peter Amberley" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #687, recorded 09/26/2023)
Marie Hare, "Peter Emberley" (on MRMHare01)
Wilmot McDonald, "Peter Emberley" (on Miramichi1)
Pat Murphy, "Peter Amberly" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Marge Steiner, "Peter Emberley" (on Steiner01)
Annie Walters, "Peter Emberly" (on NFAGuigné01)
unidentified, "Peter Amberly" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Farmer and the Shanty Boy" (tune)
cf. "The Farmer's Boy" [Laws Q30] (tune)
cf. "John Ladner" (plot)
NOTES [151 words]: Details about this song are sketchy. The name of the youth was probably spelled "Amberley" but was generally pronounced "Emberly." (Paul Stamler points out that Louise Manny records the spelling "Amberley" on his tombstone, but it is not contemporary).
The original tune has also been lost; when John Calhoun asked Abraham Munn to set a tune, Munn also added a stanza, and Calhoun withdrew the modified text from circulation.
According to his tombstone Amberley was born in 1863. He died some time after Christmas Day, 1880. - RBW
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi has a detailed account of the accident and burial, the spelling and pronunciation of the name, and the replacement of the original grave marker with a monument. Warning: "A legend has grown up about the song -- that it is unlucky to sing it in the woods. If it is sung the night before a drive, the woodsmen say, someone is sure to be killed." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LC27

Peter Amberly

See Peter Amberley [Laws C27] (File: LC27)

Peter and I Went Down the Lane

DESCRIPTION: "Peter and I went down the lane, down the lane (x2), Peter and I went down the lane, And sister came behind." Both sisters love Peter. "Sister was bending over the well When splash, splash in she fell." The survivor marries Peter; he abandons her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: love courting death homicide betrayal sister
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 2, "The Two Sisters" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the "A" text is "Child #10, but the "B" text is this) {B=Bronson's #97}
Roud #8
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Peter & I" (Piotr-Archive #616, recorded 07/26/2023)
NOTES [45 words]: Gardner and Chickering file this as a version of "The Twa Sisters," and certainly it appears to be the same plot. But the tune approximates "London Bridge," and the story is simplified. While it's probably built upon "The Twa Sisters," I'd call it a separate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C010A

Peter and Lizzie

DESCRIPTION: Peter Davidson is a poor miller. He and Lizzie are in love. Lizzie is to be married to a rich man. Peter dresses neatly and attends the wedding with ten men. The bridegroom had thirty, or fifty, but Lizzie leaves with Peter.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting elopement wedding
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #174, p. 2, "Peter and Lizzie"; #177, p. 3, "Peter and Lizzie" (1 text plus 4 fragments)
Greig/Duncan5 1031, "Peter and Lizzie" (2 texts)
Roud #6290
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Peter Davidson
File: GrD51031

Peter and Paul

DESCRIPTION: "One summer day it came to pass That Peter and Paul upon an ass" go up to "Jerusalem the Golden" to drink. They see a pretty barmaid, and hope to pursue an acquaintance (ahem) when a monastery bell rings; they hurry home to army camp
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: soldier drink bawdy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 23-26, "Peter and Paul" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kathusalem (Kafoozelum) (II)" (form)
File: NiMo023

Peter Clarke

DESCRIPTION: Peter Clarke and Jimmy Clarke are stopped by a robber. Peter refuses to be robbed; rather than give up his valuables, he attacks the outlaw barehanded. The robber shoots Clarke, but Clarke has a hand on his throat. Clarke dies, but the robber is taken
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: outlaw fight death Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 100-102, "Bold Peter Clarke" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 75-77, "Galant Peter Clarke" (1 text)
DT, PETECLRK
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Peter Clarke" (on JGreenway01)
NOTES [91 words]: The facts about this case are a bit uncertain. Folklore does not give a name to the bushranger (unusual indeed in Australia!), and claims that Peter and Jimmy Clarke were unrelated.
John Greenway, however, reports that the two were brothers, and (along with their brother Acton and some others) were overtaken near Warland's Range by twenty-year-old Harry Wilson. (The time was April, 1864.) Wilson shot several members of the party, but could not release himself from Peter Clarke's dying grip. Wilson was tried and hung on October 4, 1864. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: MA100

Peter Coutt's Canis

DESCRIPTION: "Peter Coutts had seven bairns Nether sheet nor plaid upo' them, Ilka ane took up a neuk An' hauled on the canis o' them, Haul on, trail on, Peter Coutts's canis"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: farming harvest family clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1884, "Peter Coutt's Canis" (1 text)
Roud #13570
NOTES [25 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
Greig/Duncan8: "Canis as you must know was the canvas on which the winnowing was done." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81884

Peter Emberly

See Peter Amberley [Laws C27] (File: LC27)

Peter Emery

See Peter Amberley [Laws C27] (File: LC27)

Peter Emily

See Peter Amberley [Laws C27] (File: LC27)

Peter Fishing

DESCRIPTION: Peter catches a fish, which urges, "Take me home, Peter (x3), oh mah ding." Peter takes it hom; the fish says, "Kill me now." Then, "Clean me now," "Salt me now," "Cook me now," "Eat me now," "I got you now!" (and Peter vanishes)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Mrs. Walter Scott Jr.)
KEYWORDS: fishing food devil
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 221-222, "Peter Fishing" (1 text)
NOTES [28 words]: Henry's informant said that Peter was punished by the Devil for fishing on a Sunday. I'd be inclined to say that listening to a dead fish wasn't too smart, either. - RBW
File: MKAp221

Peter Go Ring Them Bells

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Peter go ring them bells (x3), I heard from Heaven today (x3), Thank God, and I thank you to, I heard from heaven today." Verses: "I wonder where sister Mary (brother Moses, ...) has gone"(x3) "I heard from heaven today"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 204-205, "I Heard From Heaven To-day (Peter, Go Ring Dem Bells)" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 174-175 in the 1874 edition)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 46, "Peter, Go Ring Them Bells" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: J. B. T. Marsh, The Story of the Jubilee Singers (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1903 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #108 pp. 270-271, "Peter Go Ring Them Bells" (1 text) (1 tune)
Roud #12081
NOTES [34 words]: Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute quotes Fenner's 1874 statement from J.M. Waddy: "A secret prayer-meeting song, sung by Thomas Vess, a blacksmith and a slave." - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Dett204

Peter Gray

DESCRIPTION: Peter Gray, of Pennsylvania, loves Lucy Annie Pearl. Her father sends her west; he considers suicide, but instead goes west himself and is scalped by Indians. She takes to her bed and dies. Chorus: "Blow ye winds of morning, blow ye winds heigh-o."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Duke University broadside, https://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/hasm_cP478G/)
KEYWORDS: courting separation father Indians(Am.) death humorous
FOUND IN: US(So,SW) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 252-253, "Peter Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 53, "Peter Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan8 1897, "Peter Gray" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 359, "Peter Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1870, p. 126, "Peter Gray" (1 reference)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 56, "Peter Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 240, "Peter Gray" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 33, "Peter Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #2/72, p. 45 and #2/64, p. 45, "Peter Gray" (1 text); #22, p. 37, "A Warning to Parients" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, part III, p. 38, "Peter Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSWB240C (Full)
Roud #4307
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Johnny Gray" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blow Ye Winds in the Morning" (chorus lyrics, tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Johnny Gray
NOTES [35 words]: Yes, I said humorous [in the keywords]; this is a reworking of a classic ballad plot unto the absurd. - PJS
And the versions I've heard sung are performed with great bathos, just to make sure we get the point. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB240C

Peter Hembly

See Peter Amberley [Laws C27] (File: LC27)

Peter Hennessey

See Peter Amberley [Laws C27] (File: LC27)

Peter Jones

DESCRIPTION: "Peter Jones was a Schenectay lad, and a lad both brave and bold," who "shipped before the mast on the Erie Canal." A "pirate," Bill Smith, lives by the canal; his daughter loves Peter. Smith breaks Peter's head then drowns in the canal
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (collected from Oliver Jenness by Flanders)
KEYWORDS: canal pirate children love fight death drowning injury
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1825 - Erie Canal opens (construction began in 1817)
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 187, "Peter Jones" (1 text, 1 tune, at least part of it invented by Fred Gosbee)
File: LaGo187

Peter Matrimity

See William a Trimbletoe (File: Skea018)

Peter Murphy's Little Dog

DESCRIPTION: This teasing song involves Murphy giving his girl friend a dog that wants to poke its nose into the woman's privates.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy dog humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 214-215, "Peter Murphy's Little Dog" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Teasing Songs" (specifically "Suzanne Was a Lady," "The Ship's in the Harbor," "There Once Was a Farmer," "Two Irishmen, Two Irishmen")
NOTES [22 words]: As is common with teasing songs, this is a fragmentary ballad at best, each verse ricocheting off the previous into a new direction. - EC
File: RL214

Peter on the Sea

See Who Did Swallow Jonah? (File: FSWB386B)

Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Picked Pepper

DESCRIPTION: "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of picked peppers, How many pickled peppers did Peter pick?" (Or: "Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1819 (Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation, according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: food wordplay
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 122, "(Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers)" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 406, "Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Pepper" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #740, p. 281, "(Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 182, "Peter Piper Picked a Peck (1 text)
Roud #19745
NOTES [131 words]: According to Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, the earliest printed source, Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation, included practice rhymes for every letter of the alphabet. But this was clearly the "hit" of the collection, and may well precede the other rhymes.
Despite this straightforward source and nineteenth century date, the remarkable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 154, informs us that Peter Piper was Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester in the time of Elizabeth I, and the pickled peppers were his relationships with various women. Even by Thomas's standards (and her ability to produce absurdities is beyond my mere mortal ability to fathom), that is far gone into ridiculousness. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: OO2406

Peter Pullin' Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Papa caught me in the loft, I'd just finished jackin' off." The father orders the boy to cease. He takes the boy, whose only other sexual experience is with a cow, to a whorehouse, where he proves highly interested but unable to perform
AUTHOR: attributed to Tex Fletcher by Jack Steele
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging)
KEYWORDS: bawdy whore warning animal sex
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 60, pp. 271-274, "Peter Pullin' Blues" (1 text)
Roud #10110
NOTES [36 words]: Despite the title, this is clearly not a blues, either in form or in content. And I couldn't bring myself to tag it "humorous," either. It's too crude; a slightly lighter touch would have been much more amusing. - RBW
File: Logs060

Peter Rabbit, Ha! Ha!

DESCRIPTION: "Peter Rabbit, ha! ha! Stole my cabbage, ha! ha! Caught him in the garden, ha! ha! Sop that gravy, ha! ha! Ain't he pretty, ha! ha!" "Peter Rabbit, ha! ha! Stole my cabbage, ha! ha! Caught him in the garden, ha! ha! Suck his bones, ha! ha! Ain't he...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth)
KEYWORDS: animal food nonballad playparty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth, pp. 6-7, "Peter Rabbit, Ha! Ha!" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: TrJo067

Peter Rambelay

See Peter Amberley [Laws C27] (File: LC27)

Peter Street

See The Shirt and the Apron [Laws K42] (File: LK42)

Peter Was a Fisherman

DESCRIPTION: Peter was a fisherman who preached and shouted on Pentecost. "The lily of the valley ... the lily stand in the valley ... green and fair."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage01)
KEYWORDS: flowers Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Michael Williams, "Peter Was a Fisherman" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "He's the Lily of the Valley" (theme)
NOTES [273 words]: A critic quoted in the liner notes ridiculed the idea of Peter equating himself with the lily of the valley (Donald R. Hill, Maureeen Warner-Lewis, John Cowley, Lise Winer, liner notes on WITrinidadVillage01). If we assume the lily reference is to the content of Peter's Pentacost sermon (Acts 2.14-30), and if we do not concentrate so on the word "of," then the reference can be to Luke 12.27-28 ("Consider the lilies how they grow ... If then God so clothe the grass ..."), rather than to Song of Solomon 2.1 ("I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys"). That would be a reference not in Acts, but a conflation of sermon texts.
Sankey #104 has "Through Jesus I shall safely reach the goal. / He's the 'Lily of the Valley,' the 'Bright and Morning Star'; He's the fairest of ten thousand to my soul!" (Ira D Sankey, Sacred Songs and Solos (London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott Ltd, 189?)). Booth #3 is entitled "He's the Lily of the Valley" (Evangeline Booth, The Salvation Army - Songs and Music (New York} The Salvation Army, 1922 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")): "The Lily of the Valley, in Him alone I see All I need to cleanse and make me whole". - BS
The word "lily" is used fifteen times in the King James Bible, and eight of these are in the Song of Songs (2:1, 2, 16, 4:5, 5:13, 6:2, 3, 7:2), it also shows up in 1 Kings 7:19, 22, 26, 2 Chronicles 4:5 as part of the description of the building of the Temple; in Hosea 14:5; and in Matthew 6:28, Luke 12:27, where it refers to the "lilies of the field" and Solomon. I doubt any of this is significant. As Ben says, this is just some texts jumbled together. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: RcPWAFi

Peter Wheeler

DESCRIPTION: Peter Wheeler comes to "this foreign shore, He lived close by little Annie's door" in Nova Scotia. He asks Anne to marry and she refuses again. He clubs her and cuts her throat. He is convicted, gives us good advice and bids us "a last good-night"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection execution homicide trial gallows-confession
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1895 - Anne Kempton murdered by Peter Wheeler at Bear River, Digby County (source: Mackenzie; Creighton says 1896)
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 91, "Peter Wheeler" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB091 (Partial)
Roud #2770
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bear River Murder" (subject: the same murder) and references there
File: CrSNB091

Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater

DESCRIPTION: Peter, a neeper [neighbor], pumpkin-eater, chimney sweeper, ... 'Had a wife and couldn't keep her." He put her away [in a wall, pumpkin shell] and mice eat her, or he treats her well. Or, didn't love her until he taught her to read and write.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 (_Infant Institutes, part the first_, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense husband wife food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1896, "Peer Peter My Neeper" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 88-89, "Ee-ver, Eye-ver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 405, "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater" (3 texts)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 32, "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #130, "Eaper, Weaper, Chimbley-sweeper" (1 text)
Roud #13497
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm a Poor Old Chimney Sweeper"' (tales of a chimney sweeper's family)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Heeper, peeper, Chimney-sweeper
NOTES [87 words]: There must be countless parodies like this one: "Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, Had a wife and couldn't keep her, Took an axe and smashed her bike, So she had to stay at home at night" (source: Edmond Redmond, Lyra Cyclus or The Bards and the Bicycle, (Rochester, 1897 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 90). - BS
And there are also the versions, like those cited by Abrahams, that don't involve Peter but involve a chimney sweeper. It can be very hard to tell these from "I'm a Poor Old Chimney Sweeper"; better to check both. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: GrD81896

Peter's Banks

DESCRIPTION: William Strickland and Goddard take the Lily out on Peter's Banks on May 21. They are lost in wind and fog for six days without food or water and Goddard dies. A fishing skiff from Ramea rescues Strickland.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: rescue death fishing sea ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 24, 1897 - Albert Goddard is lost on the Lily (source: Newfoundland Schoonermen -- Victims of their Trade per Robert C Parsons NF Shipwrecks on the WEB site)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 969-970, "Peter's Banks" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "Peter's Banks" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [29 words]: Peacock notes, "Peter's Banks is a fishing area off the south coast of Newfoundland near the French island of St Pierre. Ramea is an island port also off the south coast." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea969

Peterborough May Song

DESCRIPTION: "Good morrow, lords and ladies, It is the first of May. We hope you'll view our garlands." "To the greenwoods we will go." "This bunch of May... is but a sprout but it's well spread out By the work of our Lord's hand." Singers celebrate spring, ask alms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Dack, according to Palmer)
KEYWORDS: ritual religious bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #134, "Peterborough May Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #305
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "May Day Carol" (subject) and references there
NOTES [27 words]: Roud lumps a great variety of May songs (many of them clearly distinct) under his #305. I've split a lot of them, including this, but best to check them all. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: PECS134

Peterhead

DESCRIPTION: "A busy town was Peterhead ... In the days of long ago": lasses worked at looms, whaling ships sailed to Greenland, "fishermen went out to sea," "drifters were unknown." "Peterhead will flourish still As in the days of long ago"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: commerce fishing weaving nonballad whaler
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #86, p. 1, "Peterhead" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 515, "Peterhead" (1 text)
Roud #5999
NOTES [96 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Peterhead (515) is at coordinate (h4-5,v1) on that map [on the coast, roughly 28 miles NNE of Aberdeen] - BS
Peterhead was for a time famous as the place where the Old Pretender landed in 1715. As the song indicates, it was a leading whaling port. But first the arctic whales were hunted to near-extinction, and then the fish populations crashed. Peterhead was never to recover its prosperity (although I gather North Sea oil has helped somewhat). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD3515

Petie Cam' ower the Glen

See Patie's Wadding (Petie's Wedding) (File: HHH200)

Petit Couturier, La (The Little Dressmaker)

DESCRIPTION: French. A dressmaker goes to an inn; there are two lovely women there. He makes love with the smaller one; the larger offers the dressmaker 100 sovereigns to sleep with her. He declines, for honor's sake. She throws him out of the inn.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (BNP MSS)
LONG DESCRIPTION: French. A dressmaker goes to an inn; there are two lovely women there. He makes love with the smaller one; the larger, however, is searching for a husband, and offers the dressmaker 100 sovereigns to sleep with her. He declines, for the sake of his own honor and the smaller woman's. The larger woman throws him out of the inn. On the street, his knees begin to tremble; he says that if he were back at peace, he'd never refuse a damsel, but they have tricked him too much
KEYWORDS: jealousy courting sex rejection request foreignlanguage lover worker
FOUND IN: France Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 113, "Le Petit Couturier [The Little Dressmaker]" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: K113

Petit Mari, Le

DESCRIPTION: French. "Mon pere m'a donne-t-un petit mari." The girl complains that her father wed her to a tiny husband, "a manikin, not a man." She complains about all the problems this causes -- e.g. the cat confuses him with a rat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: humorous foreignlanguage husband wife animal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 189-190, "Le Petit Mari" (1 French text plus translation, 1 tune)
File: LoSi189

Petit Moine, Le (The Little Monk)

DESCRIPTION: French. The little monk finds a dairy-maid crying because she has trouble milking her cows. She offers a kiss if he does the job. The cow kicks over the pail, then kicks the monk into a ditch. The monk vows he'll never again help anyone milk a cow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (recording, Allan Kelly)
KEYWORDS: farming foreignlanguage humorous animal clergy
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
RECORDINGS:
Allan Kelly, "Le Petit Moine (The Little Monk)" (on Miramichi1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Deacon's Calf" (plot)
File: RcLPetMo

Petit Rocher

DESCRIPTION: Canadian French: The trapper, wandering in the forest, fears for his family's safety. He returns home, and arranges for his family's flight from marauding Indians. He remains and is mortally wounded. He prays for comfort in death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (Gagnon)
KEYWORDS: Quebec family death separation Indians(Am.) foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que,West) US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 24, "P'tit rocher, de la haute montagne (Little Rock Atop the Mountain Crest" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 34-35, "Petit Rocher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 18-19, "Petit Rocher de la Haute Montagne" (1 text+translation, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Grace Lee Nute, _The Voyageur_, Appleton, 1931 (reprinted 1987 Minnesota Historical Society), pp. 148-149, "Petit Rocher" (1 text plus English translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Haunted Wood" (plot)
NOTES [156 words]: This is said to be "the first Canadian song about a Canadian incident."
The song is supposedly based on the legend of the trapper Cadieux. In 1709 he went trapping along the Ottawa River. Returning to his camp and his family, he saw a band of Indians threatening the camp. He put his family in the canoe and stayed behind to slow
the attackers.
When his body was found, it lay in a grave he had dug with his own hands, and with his story written on birchbark with his own blood.
We must regretfully report that little if any verifiable evidence exists for this story. - RBW
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes gives the Cadieux story, but also mentions that one Frank Louvier, an elderly and "well-known folk singer of the region" around Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, stated that local legend placed the events on which the song was based in that community, founded by the French in the 1730s. No evidence beyond the assertion, unfortunately. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: FMB034

Petit Rocher de la Haute Montagne

See Petit Rocher (File: FMB034)

Petit' Navire, Un

See Little Boy Billee (Le Petite Navire, The Little Corvette) (File: K114)

Petite Navire, La

See Little Boy Billee (Le Petite Navire, The Little Corvette) (File: K114)

Petroleum Oiil

DESCRIPTION: "How strange! Why, old Fishkill is all in a blaze, And the people -- why, they the Old Nick will soon raise!" All "are prospecting for Petroleum Oil." Oil is everywhere -- even in the water and the whiskey. But at least they're getting rich
AUTHOR: "A. W. L." (source: Nestler)
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Nestler)
KEYWORDS: mining money drink
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1864 - the Fishkill oil "strike" (which seems to have been hoax)
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), p. 101, "Petroleum Oil" (1 text)
File: Nest109

Petticoat Lane (I)

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Petticoat Lane (II)

DESCRIPTION: A man from the country comes to town. His friend shows him the sights of Petticoat Lane. He is beaten at every turn and his pockets picked clean. The police charge him with killing a policeman. His policeman brother Darby gets him off. He goes home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1855 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2996))
KEYWORDS: travel violence homicide theft reprieve brother police crime brother
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 18-19, "Petticoat Lane" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1871, p. 126, "Petticoat Lane" (1 reference)
Roud #V20294
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2996), "Petticoat Lane" ("To London I came from the sweet county Down"), E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also 2806 b.11(167), Firth b.25(393), "Petticoat Lane"
NOTES [58 words]: Charles R. Thatcher wrote a song, "Encore Verses to Petticoat Lane" (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 174-175). I assume this is the "Petticoat Lane" he meant.
For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: OCon018A

Petty Harbour Bait Skiff

DESCRIPTION: A bait skiff sails from Petty Harbour to Conception Bay in the spring and encounters a storm on their return in the summer. A rescue party is dispatched, but only a young fisherman named Menshon is saved.
AUTHOR: John Grace
EARLIEST DATE: 1852 (source: Another Time: Songs of Newfoundland); first publication perhaps 1912 (Murphy)
KEYWORDS: wreck ship disaster rescue
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 13, "The Petty Harbour Bait Skiff" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Petty Harbour Bait Skiff" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 48-49 in the 2nd edition, pp. 46-47 in the 3rd, pp. 34-35 in the 4th, pp. 34-35 in the 5th
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 87, "The Petty Harbour Bait Skiff" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 99-101, "The Petty Harbour Bait Skiff" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 29-31, "Petty Harbour Bait Skiff" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BAITSKIF*
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, editor, _Old Songs of Newfoundland_, James Murphy Publishing, 1912 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 4, "Petty Harbor Bait Skiff" (1 text)
James Murphy, _Songs Their Fathers Sung: For Fishermen: Old Time Ditties_, James Murphy Publishing, 1923 (PDF available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 8, Petty Harbor Bait Skiff" (1 text)
Roud #4410
RECORDINGS:
Cyril O'Brien, "Petty Harbour Bait Skiff" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Pat Sullivan, "Petty Harbour Bait Skiff" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [163 words]: Doyle mentions that he received the song from someone who was still alive when the book was compiled and remembered the events fully. However, the recording, "Another Time: Songs of Newfoundland," notes that John Grace wrote the song in 1852, which was almost ninety years before Doyle published it. - SH
The attribution to John Grace is also found in Murphy's book, which seems to be the first actual publication. He says that the name of the sole survivor was "Menchington."
According to G. M. Story, W. J. Kirwin, and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, Dictionary of Newfoundland English, second edition with supplement, Breakwater Press, 1990, p. 15, a baitskiff is a "large undecked boat with 5 to 7 crewmen, propelled by oar and sail and employed to catch caplin, etc. for use in the cod fishery." These bait fish included herring, lance, squid and others; they were used to bait the lines used to catch cod, Newfoundland's chief food source and export (StoryEtAl, p. 14). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy48

Pewter Tailor, The

DESCRIPTION: The tailor, apparently needing money, enlists with Hugh Fraser. The captain warned him that he could not be a soldier if he is not sober. Someone tells the tailor's mother and his sister buys off the tailor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: army recruiting money humorous mother sister
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 76, "The Pewter Tailor" (1 text)
Roud #5795
NOTES [169 words]: I am too dense for this humor. The chorus is "O for lead and tin, Pewter, tin and siller; O for twenty pun, To buy the pewter tailor." First, I assume "pun" stands for "pundis" or "pounds" (source: "Glossary" at Wedderburn pages site). Pewter is a silvery alloy of tin, copper and lead. Pewter was used in counterfeit British coins in 18th century (source: "Counterfeit British Coppers" at The Coins of Colonial and Early America site). Is any of this relevant?
Greig/Duncan1: "There may possibly be a connection with the Hugh Fraser who was captain in the 78th (Highland) Regiment c. 1780" - BS
My speculation about the tailor being "pewter" has to do with the use of pewter as fake silver -- used for dinnerware, or (as noted) for counterfeit coin. The pewter tailor is an imitation soldier.
There is also the point that pewter eventually poisoned its users as the lead leached out. But the composer of the song would probably be less aware of that than of the use of pewter by those who couldn't afford silver. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1076

Phadrig Crohour

DESCRIPTION: "Phadrig Crohour was a broth of a boy, and he stood six foot eight" with strong arms; "...with one blow he stretched bold O'Hanlan for ever."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: violence death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1748, "Phadrig Crohour" (1 fragment)
Roud #13132
NOTES [15 words]: Although this sounds like a song about a murder, I suspect it is actually about boxing. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1748

Pharaoh's Army

See Sinful Army (File: MHAp199)

Pharaoh's Host Got Lost

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Pharaoh's host got lost, lost, lost, Pharaoh's host got lost In that Red Sea." The leader would have Moses "lay your rod" that the children cross. When the host was lost there was shouting and weeping.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (LomaxCD1712)
KEYWORDS: escape death drowning dying sea magic Bible religious soldier
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, p. 130-132, "Pharaoh's Host Got Lost" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
John Davis and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Moses, Don't Get Lost" (on LomaxCD1712)
Lawrence McKiver and the McIntosh County Shouters, "Pharaoh's Host Got Lost" (on McIntosh1)
Freddie Palmer and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Pharaoh's Host Got Lost" (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep" (Pharaoh's army theme) and references there
cf. "Old Moses Smote the Waters" (Pharaoh's army theme)
NOTES [32 words]: The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree/McIntoshShouters-RingShoutSongs text and track and LomaxCD1712 tracks are "ring shout" songs. The McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation video shows the shout. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcPhHoGL

Pheasant Plucker, The

DESCRIPTION: Tongue-twister. "I'm not the pheasant plucker, I'm the pheasant plucker's son. I'm only plucking pheasants 'til the pheasant plucker comes." The plucker's husband is a gamekeeper; they pluck together or separately. The singer may have a mother-plucker
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1997 (Digital Tradition)
KEYWORDS: bird wordplay | pheasant plucking
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, PHEASPLK
RECORDINGS:
Jane Prentice, "Pheasant Plucker" (Piotr-Archive #101, recorded 03/08/2022)
NOTES [64 words]: All sorts of Internet sources claim this dates to the nineteenth century if not earlier, and some of them give a back story. But since none of them seem to cite an actual source, I'm forced to date this to the demonstrable date of the Digital Tradition version. Mudcat has a long, uninformative, thread with some faintly related versions and odd (I'm tempted to say "loose") lyrics. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio101

Phelimy Phil

See Ballinderry (File: HHH080)

Phil the Fluther's Ball

DESCRIPTION: "Have you heard of Phil the Fluther, of the town of Ballymuch? The times were going hard with him, in fact the man was broke." So he holds a party, passing the hat, promising that the more he takes in, the better the music will be
AUTHOR: Percy French (1854-1920)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1920 (French died in that year)
KEYWORDS: music hardtimes humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
DT, PHILFLUT
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 32, #4 (1987), pp, 22-23, "Phil the Fluther's Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
James N. Healy, editor, _The Songs of Percy French_, 1955-1962, revised edition 1986; I use the 1996 Ossian paperback, pp. 17-18, "Phil the Fluther's Ball" (1 text)
James N. Healy, _Percy French and His Songs_, The Mercier Press, 1966, pp. 22-23, "Phil the Fluther's Ball (1 text, partial tune)
NOTES [45 words]: For background on Percy French, see the notes to "Ballyjamesduff."
Apparently this song was based on the story of a real person. Healy, p. 5, says "'Phil' was a real character on the Leitrim/Sligo border who gave parties in his home in an attempt to pay the rent." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: DTphilfl

Philadelphia

DESCRIPTION: "Philadelphia is a handsome town And so is Cincinnati; The streets are lined with dollar bills And the pretty girls they are plenty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians)
KEYWORDS: money playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 266, "Philadelphia" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5720
NOTES [38 words]: Roud lumps this with the "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss" family, and certainly the form fits. But I don't recall seeing these words in that song, and the tune is different from what I've usually heard. so I've split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ShAp266

Philadelphia Catechism, The

See Six Days Shalt Thou Labor (File: Br3228)

Philadelphia Lawyer, The

DESCRIPTION: "Way out in Reno, Nevada," the Philadelphia lawyer courts a "Hollywood maid." He tries to convince her to come back to Philadelphia with him. But her husband Bill, discovering them, kills the lawyer
AUTHOR: Words: Woody Guthrie (tune: The Jealous Lover)
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (composed)
KEYWORDS: homicide lawyer courting derivative cowboy infidelity
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 283-284, "The Philadelphia Lawyer" (1 text)
DT, PHILALAW*
Roud #500
RECORDINGS:
Woody Guthrie & Cisco Houston, "Philadelphia Lawyer" (on OrigVis, CowFolkCD1)
Maddox Bros. & Rose, "Philadelphia Lawyer" (on Four Star 1289, 1949)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Reno Blues
NOTES [32 words]: In one of the strangest lumps I've seen, Roud classifies this with the "Florella" family [Laws F1]. That, of course, provided some inspiration, but the actual text is pure Woody Guthrie. - RBW
File: Grnw283

Philadelphia Riots, De, or, I Guess It Wan't de Niggas Dis Time

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, in Philadelphia folks say how De Darkies kick up all de rows," but in the 1844 riots, "I guess it wasn't de niggas dis time." The "natives" (nativists) opposie the immigrant Irish, resulting in riots. The singer gleefully points out his lack of fault
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (Wolf); probably published c. 1844
KEYWORDS: emigration fight Black(s) political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1875, p. 126, "Philadelphia Riots" (1 reference)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 143-146, "De Philadelphia Riots, or, I Guess It Wasn't De Niggas Dis TIme" (1 text)
File: CAFS1143

Philander's March

DESCRIPTION: "Come, Philander, let us be a-marching, From the ranks there's no deserting, Choose your own, your own true lover, See that you don't choose any other. Now farewell, dear love, farewell, We're all a-marching, so farewell."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty love soldier separation
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #9, "Philander's March" (2 texts)
Roud #12426
File: Newe009

Philosophical Cowboy, The

See Root, Hog, or Die! (III -- The Bull-Whacker) (File: LoF171)

Phoebe (I)

See Bright Phoebe (File: FSC070)

Phoebe (II)

See Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)

Phoebe and Her Dark Eyed Sailor

See The Dark-Eyed Sailor (Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor) [Laws N35] (File: LN35)

Phoebe in her Petticoat

DESCRIPTION: "Phoebe in her petticoat, Phoebe in her gown, Phoebe in her petticoat, Going down to town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: clothes travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 237, "Phoebe in her Petticoat" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3623
File: ShAp237

Phoenix of Erin's Green Isle, The

See O'Reilly from the County Leitrim (File: HHH580)

Phoenix of the Hall, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets and falls in love with "the Phoenix of the Hall." He proposes. "Drop such speculation," she says, but he begs. She changes her mind. They marry and he now has money and land: "to her am obligated." "My foes I've exculpated."
AUTHOR: Domhnall O Suillebhain (Danny O'Sullivan) (source: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2921))
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage rejection money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 111, "One Day for Recreation" (1 text)
Roud #16259
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2921), "Phoenix of the Hall" ("One day for recreation and silent meditation"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 26(512)[some words illegible], "A new song entitled The Phoenix of the Hall"
NOTES [38 words]: Judge the style by these typical lines: "Being quite captivated, and so infatuated, / I then prognosticated my sad forlorn case, / I quickly ruminated, suppose I was defeated, / Would I be implicated or treated with disgrace." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC111

Phoenix Park Tragedy, The

DESCRIPTION: Burke and Cavendish are murdered in Dublin's Phoenix Park. The Lord Mayor and Irish MPs -- Davitt, Parnell, Dillon, Sexton -- condemn the assassins. "[L]et us hope and pray to the Lord each night and day, That no Irishman for this crime will be blamed"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: homicide Ireland political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Chronology of the Phoenix Park murders (source: primarily Zimmermann, pp. 62, 63, 281-286.)
May 6, 1882 - Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and the Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke are murdered by a group calling themselves "The Invincible Society."
January 1883 - twenty seven men are arrested.
James Carey, one of the leaders in the murders, turns Queen's evidence.
Six men are condemned to death, four are executed (Joseph Brady is hanged May 14, 1883; Daniel Curley is hanged on May 18, 1883), others are "sentenced to penal servitude," and Carey is freed and goes to South Africa.
July 29, 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell kills Carey on board the "Melrose Castle" sailing from Cape Town to Durban.
Dec 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell is convicted of the murder of James Carey and executed in London (per Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
FOUND IN:
Roud #V8799
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(362), "Lines on the Phoenix Park Tragedy" ("Pay attention young and old to these lines"), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Condemned Men for the Phoenix Park Murders" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders)
cf. "The Execution of Michael Fagan" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders)
cf. "Joe Brady and Dan Curley" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders)
cf. "The Men Awaiting Trial for the Murders in Phoenix Park" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders)
cf. "The Murder of the Double-Dyed Informer James Carey" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders)
cf. "O'Donnell and Carey" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders)
cf. "O'Donnell the Avenger" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders)
cf. "Pat O'Donnell" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders)
cf. "Skin the Goat's Curse on Carey" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders)
cf. "Dan Curley" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders)
cf. "Joe Brady" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders)
cf. "The Bold Tenant Farmer" (subject: Charles Stewart Parnell) and references there
cf. "Carey's Disguise" (possible subject of James Carey)
NOTES [1077 words]: Zimmermann p. 62: "The Phoenix Park murders and their judicial sequels struck the popular imagination and were a gold-mine for ballad-writers: some thirty songs were issued on this subject, which was the last great cause to be so extensively commented upon in broadside ballads." - BS
The Phoenix Park murders were, in the end, very costly for Ireland; at the very least, they destroyed her influence in the English parliament, and arguably cost them Home Rule and eventually resulted in the Civil War.
Though it doesn't seem to have bothered the more vigorous Irish nationalists, we should note that the Phoenix Park murders were incredibly brutal; Kee, p. 87, says that Cavendish and the Catholic Irishman Burke were "hacked to death by twelve-inch long surgical knives."
Lyons, p. 176, says that on May 6, 1882, "A new Chief Secretary, Lord Frederick Cavendish, arrived in Dublin to replace W. E. Forster who had resigned in protest at the Kilmainham 'Treaty' [under which British Prime Minister Gladstone freed Charles Stewart Parnell and gave concessions in return for political help]. Later on the evening of his arrival Cavendish and his undersecretary, T. H. Burke, were set upon by a band of assassins while they were walking in the Phoenix Park in Dublin and stabbed to death. The murderers belonged to a secret society, the Invincibles."
Fetherling, p. 72, reports that "[Joseph] Brady stabbed Burke in the back with a long surgical knife; Burke died immediately. Alarmed, Cavendish attempted to repel Brady with his umbrella but Brady stabbed him repeatedly, while [Tim] Kelly cut Burke's throat to make sure he was dead."
Sadly, the murders forced Gladstone's hands at a time when he was trying to improve Ireland's condition. It was not just the English who were upset; Charles Stewart Parnell -- who dominated Irish politics and held the balance of power in the English parliament -- offered to resign his leadership of the Irish party (Golway, p. 175).
Parnell, for the moment, stayed on. But Gladstone still had to be seen to do something -- that something being coercion. (Any scruples he may have had were probably lessened by the fact that Cavendish was Gladstone's nephew by marriage.) And when Gladstone finally managed to propose a limited Home Rule bill in 1886, it failed and Gladstone's government fell (Golway, p. 180).
We might add that Parnell himself was largely responsible for the sequel: His party fell apart not over Phoenix Park but his own adulterous affair (Fry/Fry, 259-260). Gladstone tried again for Home Rule in 1893; it was rejected in the Lords, and Gladstone sort of faded away. So did Home Rule.
And while Zimmermann is clearly right that this terrorist act caught the attention of the broadside press, it's worth noting that very little of this outpouring of venom seems to have made it into oral tradition. [One song that has been found in Newfoundland and the Canadian Maritimes as well as Ireland is "Pat O'Donnell" which tells only of the assassination of Brady at the very end of the story. - BS]
It did have its effects, though. According to Townshend, p. 6, the murder was carried out by "[t]he nearest thing to a home-grown terrorist group to appear in Ireland [prior to the twentieth century]... the shadowy Irish National Invincibles.... This ephemeral group carried out only one operation. All the same, that single operations... had a tremendous psychological impact. Together with the Manchester Martyrs, the Invincibles' drama became an enduring spur to later generations."
Coogan, pp. 12-13, gives another take, showing how the horrid events influenced a future Irish leader: "In the year [Eamon] de Valera was born, the desperation... led to some of the most horrific murders in Irish history. There were some sixty agrarian or politics-related killings in the first eight months of the year alone. Amongst these were the knifing to death on 6 May 1882, the day he arrived in Ireland, of the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, and of his Under Secretary, T. H. Burke...
"Some would argue that reaction in Britain to the deaths aborted progress to Home Rule for Ireland and so paved the way for revolution, partition and today's Provision IRA. Certainly, Parnell was so shattered by the assassinations that for a while he seriously contemplated resignation. Then, in August, there occurred the Maamtrasna murders in Co. Mayo: The Joyce family were slaughtered in a clay-floored hovel shared by humans and animals." Four people were killed, and two boys were mutilated and left for dead. "The neighbours, out of superstition and ignorance, left the boys in agony without doing anything to help them. One child died, and subsequently three men -- one of them innocent -- were hanged for the crime...."
Maamtrasna and the related events became the talk of Ireland, obviously adding to the tensions there.
Boylan, pp. 50-51, has a capsule biography of James Carey, one of the key figures in the Invincibles. Born in 1845, he was a bricklayer, like his father before him. Able to start his own business, he became a Dublin Councilman as well as joining the Fenians. After the Phoenix Park murders, he was one of seventeen men arrested. Carey turned Queen's Evidence, which resulted in five other men being executed. (Fetherling, pp. 71-72, lists the most important as Joseph Brady, 1856-1883, and Tim Kely, 1862-1883). Carey and his family were supposed to go to South Africa for their safety, but the remaining Invincibles learned of the plan. Patrick O'Donnell shot Carey on July 29, 1883 on the Melrose after the ship left Cape Town. Sent back to Britain, O'Donnell was executed at Newgate on December 17 of that year, without his Fenian connections being aired.
It is interesting to note that O'Donnell had cousins in American who were associated with another violent group, the Molly Maguires (Kenny, p. 207); for background on that, see the notes to "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E25]. Kenny seems to suggest that O'Donnell spent time in Pennsylvania and developed his hatred of informants among his cousins there.
For more on Parnell, see "We Won't Let Our Leader Run Down."
The Phoenix Park murders apparently inspired several books; the two most recent (both of them controversial, based on the reviews) appear to be T. H. Corfe, The Phoenix Park Murders, 1968; and Senan Molony, The Phoenix Park Murders: Conspiracy, Betrayal & Retribution, Mercier Press, 2006. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: BrdPhoeP

Phyllis and her Mother

DESCRIPTION: Phyllis hides in the woods. Her mother finds her asleep. The daughter drowsily says, "Damon, dear, how long you take." The mother, enraged, tells Phyllis she must go to a convent; Phyllis demurs: "And if love is wrong, said she/Tell me how I came to be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (recording [in German], Paul Reimers)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Waiting for her shepherd lover, Phyllis hides in the woods. Her mother looks for her and, finding her asleep, kisses her supposedly-innocent daughter. The daughter drowsily says, "Damon, dear, how long you take." The mother, enraged, tells Phyllis she must go to a convent; Phyllis demurs: "And if love is wrong, said she/Tell me how I came to be."
KEYWORDS: courting sex foreignlanguage mother
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Paul Reimers, "Phyllis und die Mutter" (Victor 45062, 1915)
NOTES [123 words]: The song is probably best-known, in an English translation, from the repertoire of revival singer Richard Dyer-Bennet. However, the 78 by Paul Reimers is evidence that the song circulated in German during the 20th century. Reimers seems to have been an American (or at least a resident), recording for Victor in New Jersey, and most of his recordings are of English-language popular music. Dyer-Bennet notes an anonymous publication of the song in Germany in 1799, but without further data I'm reluctant to list that as earliest date. - PJS
It seems pretty clear to me that it's an art song rather than of true folk origin (at least in the Dyer-Bennet form), but I'm in the same quandry as Paul: I can't do much to trace the history. - RBW
File: RcPhudM

Phyllis and the Shepherd

DESCRIPTION: A shepherd looking for a lost lamb falls in love with Phyllis, who he finds apparently sleeping in the shade with her flock. She reveals that she was not asleep and had been watching him. "He wooed her and won her, I can't tell you how" and they marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage sex sheep shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 38, "Phyllis and the Shepherd" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 363)
ADDITIONAL: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (facsimile of (Edinburgh,1776) with an "Appendix ... containing the pieces substituted in the 1791 reprint for those omitted of the 1776 edition, &c.") ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, Appendix p. 41 [2-44], ("Her sheep had in clusters kept close by the grove") (1 text)
Roud #1225
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 21(1), "Damon & Phillis" ("A shepherd in clusters crept close by a grove") , C. Sheppard (London), 1786; also Harding B 41(3v) , ("A shepherd in clusters crept close by a grove"); Harding B 25(1496)[many illegible lines], "Phillis and the Butterfly"
File: WT038

Phyllis and Young William

See William and Phillis (File: CrSNB033)

Picayune Butler, Is She Coming to Town

DESCRIPTION: Minstrel song, with chorus "Picayune Butler, Picayune Butler, Is she coming to town?" In traditional forms, the lyrics float, e.g. the terrapin and the toad, "My ole missus promised me When she died she'd set me free."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough); a song by this name was in existence by 1847, and Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury claims it was published around that year
KEYWORDS: floatingverses slave animal travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 164-165, (no title) (1 text)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. xiii, "(Picayune Butler)" (1 excerpt)
NOTES [253 words]: Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #C130B, p. 193, "Picayune Butler" ("Old Fuss and Feathers, as we knew before") uses the tune "All on Hobbies," but I have no idea if the two songs are related.
The broadside version was sufficiently well-known that Abraham Lincoln was reported by the newspapers to have known it, and asked to have it sung, in 1862. The report was, however, part of an attack on him by his political enemies, and the man who was said to have been asked to sing it denied the story. See Paul F. Boller, Jr., Presidential Campaigns, second revised edition, Oxford University Press, 1984-2004, pp. 119-120.
It is possible that this song was sung at the same event as the one where "Oh! Susanna" had its world premier. According to Evelyn Foster Morneweck (Stephen Foster's niece), Chronicles of Stephen Foster's Family, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1944, p. 313, there was in the September 11, 1847 Daily Commercial Journal an advertisement for Andrews' Ice Cream Saloon promoting a concert which featured, in addition to "The Old Iron City," "Away Down Souf," "Allegheny Belle," "The Floating Scow," and "The gal wid de blue dress on," the song "Picayune Butler" and "SUSANNA -- A new song, never before given to the public" (Morneweck, p. 314). One of the performers at this event was Nelson Kneass, who wrote the standard tune for "Ben Bolt."
The Civil War general Benjamin F. Butler was known as "Old Picayune"; I seem to recall reading, somewhere, that he was so nicknamed because of this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: ScaNF164

Piccolomini

DESCRIPTION: "Piccolomini, piccolomini; Piccolomini, piccole! Lomini piccolo; Mini piccolomini piccolomini pi! Colomini piccolomini piccolo; Mini piccolomini." Alternately, just keep repeating "Piccolomini."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonsense campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, "Piccolomini" (notes only)
NOTES [45 words]: Based on Averill's description, this is apparently a varied-stress song, one in which the point is to rotate through the syllables stressing different ones. The most familiar example of this, at least to me, is Meredith Wilson's "Gary, Indiana" from "The Music Man." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF419P

Pick "Em Up, Hot Potatoes (Bugle Call Lyric)

DESCRIPTION: "Pick 'em up, pick 'em up, Hot potatoes, hot potatoes, hot potatoes, Pick 'em up, pick 'em up, Hot potatoes, hot potatoes, oh!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier food nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 234, "(no title)" (1 short text)
File: BrPa234C

Pick a Bale a Cotton

See Pick a Bale of Cotton (File: LxU068)

Pick a Bale o' Cotton

See Pick a Bale of Cotton (File: LxU068)

Pick a Bale of Cotton

DESCRIPTION: "You got to jump down, turn around, Pick a bale of cotton...." A list of various people who can, alone or in combination, pick a bale of cotton a day. (In the more serious versions, the singer disclaims any ability to do such a thing.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recording, James "Iron Head" Baker & group)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad farming bragging
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 393-304, "Pick a Bale o' Cotton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 68, "Pick a Bale of Cotton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 231-233, "Pick a Bale o' Cotton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 99-101, "Pick a Bale a Cotton" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 54, "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 123, "Pick A Bale Of Cotton" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 55, 289, 420, 494, "Pick a Bale of Cotton" (notes only)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, p. 42, "Pick a Bale o' Cotton" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 13, "Pick a Bale o' Cotton" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PICKBALE*
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 56, "Pick a Bale of Cotton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10061
RECORDINGS:
James "Iron Head" Baker & group, "Pick a Bale o' Cotton" (AFS 195 A1, 1933; on LC53)
James "Iron Head" Baker, "Pick a Bale o' Coton" (AFS 721 B3, 1936) (AFS 3523 A3, 3523 B3, c. 1940)
Folkmasters, "Pick a Bale of Cotton" (on Fmst01)
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt, "Pick a Bale o' Cotton" (AFS 2643 A2, 1939)
Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry, "Pick a Bale of Cotton" (on SeegerTerry)
Pete Seeger, "Pick a Bale o' Cotton" (on PeteSeeger43)
NOTES [15 words]: Picking a bale of cotton in a single day is, for one picker, an almost superhuman task. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LxU068

Pick and Shovel

DESCRIPTION: "The pick and shovel are all that I know, I'm workin' the day-shift away down below, A mile underground I keep pickin' all day." "From Cornwall we have come to explore." The miners have been working since age six. He is grateful for his wife
AUTHOR: almost certainly Carl Nelson
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: mining wife work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 78-79, "Pick and Shovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: David C. Peterson, "Wisconsin Folksongs," chapter in _Badger History: Wisconsin Folklore_, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Volume XXV, Number 2, November 1973), pp. 53-54, "Pick and Shovel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9076
NOTES [44 words]: The inclusion of this song in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin is rather a curiosity. It is about miners from Upper Michigan, not Wisconsin, and it was found in a musical play, not composed for "folk" use. It does not appear to have found a place in tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Pet078

Pickaxe Too Heavy

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, dis pickaxe am too heavy, Dis pickaxe am too heavy, Dis pickaxe am too heavy To heavy for my strength."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 216, (no title) (1 fragment)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Take This Hammer" (theme)
NOTES [31 words]: This is obviously reminiscent of "Nine Pound Hammer/Take This Hammer" and the like. But the song applies to a different occupation, so -- for lack of additional words -- I split them. - RBW
File: ScNF216A

Picket Line Blues, The

DESCRIPTION: "Com all my friends if you want to know And I'll tell you about the C.I.O.... I'll tell you about the Ashland Strike." The workers picket, and some are arrested; the singer says he will not be discouraged, even though "I've got them picket line blues"
AUTHOR: Bunyan Day
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: strike labor-movement police trial lawyer
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 238-239, "The Picket Line Blues" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 238-240)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ashland Strike" (subject)
NOTES [105 words]: 1937 is listed by Thomas as the date of the strike mentioned in this song. This is supported by internal evidence: The song mentions the Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act), which legally protected collective bargaining; it was passed in 1935 and declared constitutional by the Supreme Court in 1937.
John L. Lewis (the "John L." of the song) originally served as president of the United Mine Workers, then came into the AFL as chief of the Committee for Industrial Organizations. This group proved too radical for the AFL, and so was expelled in 1937, whereupon Lewis remade it as the Congress of Industrial Organizations. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa128

Picket-Guard, The

See All Quiet Along the Potomac (File: RJ19002)

Picket's Last Watch

See All Quiet Along the Potomac (File: RJ19002)

Pickin' Out Cotton

DESCRIPTION: "Hello, my little girl, which away, which away... Mammy sent me pickin' out cotton." The girl and the singer converse about the state of the cotton and where she is going; the girl (?) concludes by asking for a chew of tobacco
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: work drugs farming
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 212, "Pickin' Out Cotton" (1 text plus an excerpt)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 212, "Pickin' Out Cotton" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
File: Br3212

Picking Lilies

See Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) (File: K149)

Picking Up Paw Paws

See The Paw-Paw Patch (File: R553)

Pickle My Bones in Alcohol

DESCRIPTION: A dying request, with the verse, "When I die don't bury me at all... Just pickle my bones in alcohol" (or, sometimes, corn pone). The rest of the song varies widely, usually with other requests for the burial; it may also have blues floating verses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink burial floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 38, "Pickle My Bones in Alcohol" (1 relatively full text, 3 fragments plus mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 38, "Pickle My Bones in Alcohol" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 24, "When I Die" (1 short text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, George W. Boswell, "Humor from the Kentucky Hills," Vol. XVII, No. 2 (Nov 1969), p. 74, "(When I die bury me deep)" (1 text)
Roud #727
RECORDINGS:
Edith Perrin, "When I Die" [fragment] (on USWarnerColl01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hard Times in the Mill (I)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [165 words]: This piece is one of those Big Problems, because the key verse ("When I die don't bury me at all") floats, and also has a variable ending. We do the best we can with it.
Edith Perrin's West Indian version is so distinct that I thought about calling it a separate song:
Mama, when I die
Don't you bury me at all
Just cure my bone and body in alcohol.
Two bottles of beer,
One at my head and one at my feet,
Then to show the world
That my bones can cure,
My bones can cure.
I suspect that this may have mixed in part of another song -- just possibly, in fact, a religious song, since the Bible tells, e.g., of the curative power of Elisha's bones (2 Kings 13:21). But we really need more text to prove it.
The NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal tet is
When I die bury me deep,
Put a bowl of gravy at my feet.
Put two biscuits in my hand;
I'll sop my way to the glory land.
This could be almost anything; I'm putting it here mostly because Brown has other When I Die items from North Carolina. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Br3038

Pickled Jew, The

DESCRIPTION: "Two middle-age brothers in New York once dwelt"; the two were Jewish merchants. One dies and leaves his property to his brother if he will bury him in England. The brother ships it to England as salt pork. The crew, in distress, unknowingly eats it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin); before 1863 (broadside, Bodleian Bod10069 Firth c.20(132))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Isaac and Moses are rich merchants in New York. Moses dies and his will leaves all his goods to Isaac if he is buried in "old English soil." No captain will carry the body of a Jew, so Isaac cuts and pickles the body and says it is a barrel of pork. The ship is becalmed and, provisions being short, they eat the "pork." Isaac explains that they have eaten his brother. The captain offers to pay for the body as if it were pork. Isaac feels he can't accept money for -- that is, sell -- his brother but accepts the payment as if for the barrel and brine.
KEYWORDS: Jew cannibalism sailor disaster humorous greed trick burial corpse death commerce sea ship food starvation America England humorous animal brother
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 290-291, "The Pickled Jew" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PCKLDJEW
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, Modern Street Ballads (London: Chatto & Windus, 1888 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 170-172, "The Barrel of Pork" ("Two Israelite brothers in New York once dwelt") (1 text)
Roud #15684 and 15912
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Duggan, "Barrel of Pork" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Bob Walker, "The Pickled Jew" (AFS 3290 B1, 1941)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod10069 Firth c.20(132), "The Barrel of Pork" ("Two Israelite brothers in New York once dwelt"), H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Bod4175 Firth b.27(107), "The Barrel of Pork"
NOTES [46 words]: Roud files the versions of this called "The Pickled Jew" as #15684; those labelled "Barrel of Pork" as #15912, but they have so much in common that I have concluded that they are one song. The long description is of a "Barrel of Pork" text, the short, of "The Pickled Jew." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Pet290

Picnic at Gros Haut, The

See The Picnic at Groshaut (File: Dib014)

Picnic at Groshaut, The

DESCRIPTION: The ladies prepare the picnic "upon the teagrounds at Gros Haut" but it rains until noon. "If it wasn't a success, 'twas a frolic nonetheless" The picnic is rescheduled for the next day with cider-drinking, dancing, and "scuffles" meanwhile.
AUTHOR: Lawrence Doyle
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: fight dancing drink music party
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 14-15, "The Picnic at Gros Haut" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 178-179,253, "The Picnic at Groshaut" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12483
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Cahill, "The Picnic at Groshaut" (on MREIves01)
NOTES [11 words]: Groshaut is in the northeast corner of Kings, Prince Edward Island - BS
File: Dib014

Picnic in the Northwest, The

DESCRIPTION: An August picnic in poor weather has some folks say they had other plans. Those who go row to the spot. Meal being over, they sweeten bad tea with four-cent syrup bought on credit. It being rainy they all get wet, put on dry clothes and go to a dance.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: clothes dancing food party sea ship shore humorous moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #26978
RECORDINGS:
Harry Curtis, "The Picnic in the Northwest" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3PitNo

Picnic, A

DESCRIPTION: "What's any better than a picnic? The victuals all on the ground, Flies in the buttermilk, bugs in the butter, And the skeeters humming around. Goin' down, children, Goin' down, I say, Goin' down, children, to have a holiday."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 191, "A Picnic" (1 text)
Roud #15772
File: Br3191

Picture from Life's Other Side, A

DESCRIPTION: "In the world's mighty gallery of pictures Hang scenes that are faded from life...." The song describes the pictures from life's other side: A gambler staking his mother's ring, a thief killing his brother for gold, a starving woman leaping off a bridge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes robbery suicide gambling death
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 603, "A Picture from Life's Other Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 422-424, "A Picture from Life's Other Side" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 603)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 265, "A Picture From Life's Other Side" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 153-154, "The Lights of London Town" (1 text, 1 tune, quite distinct from the common version)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 148, "Pictures from Life's Other Side" (1 fragment)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 58, "The Picture from Life's Other Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PICTLIFE*
Roud #3527
RECORDINGS:
Benny Borg (The Singing Soldier), "Picture from Life's Other Side" (Columbia 15183-D, 1927; Velvet Tone 7109-V/Clarion 5141-C, 1930)
The Blue Sky Boys, "Picture From Life's Other Side" (Bluebird 8646/Montgomery Ward M-8845, 1941; rec. 1940)
The Clinch Valley Boys, "Picture From Life's Other Side" (Champion 15316/Silvertone 5091/Challenge 393 [as Borton & Lang], 1927)
Vernon Dalhart, "Pictures from Life's Other Side" (OKeh 40696, 1926)
Hank & Slim, "Three Pictures of Life's Other Side" (Vocalion 02808,/Vocalion 02840, 1934)
Harkins & Moran [pseud. for Sid Harkreader & Grady Moore], "A Picture from Life's Other Side" (Broadway 8055, c. 1930)
Jenkins Family [or Jenkins Sacred Singers], "Pictures from Life's Other Side" (OKeh 45134, 1927)
Matt Judson, "Pictures from Life's Other Side" (Clarion 5141-C, 1930)
Kelly Family, "A Picture from Life's Other Side" (Decca 5054, 1934)
Bradley Kincaid, "A Picture from Life's Other Side" (Vocalion 5476, 1930; Conqueror 7983, 1932; Vocalion 4647, 1939)
Luke the Drifter [pseud., Hank Williams], "Pictures from Life's Other Side" (MGM 11120, 1951)
Frank Luther's Trio, "A Picture of Life's Other Side" (Decca 5039, 1934)
Old Southern Sacred Singers, "Picture from Life's Other Side" (Brunswick 115, 1926; recut 1932)
Sam Patterson Trio, "Pictures from Life's Other Side" (Edison 52085, 1927)
Goebel Reeves, "Pictures from Life's Other Side" (MacGregor 875, n.d.)
Smith's Sacred Singers, "Pictures from Life's Other Side" (Columbia 15090-D, 1926/Vocalion 02949, 1935) (Bluebird B-5606, 1934; Montgomery Ward M-4804, 1935)
Smoky Mountain Sacred Singers "'Tis a Picture From Life's Other Side" (Vocalion 5119, c. 1927/Domino 0186, 1927 [as Smoky Mountain Twins ,"A Picture From Life's Other Side"])
"'Tis a Picture From Life's Other Side" (Vocalion 5119, 1927; rec. 1926) (Domino 0186 [as Smoky Mountain Twins,"A Picture From Life's Other Side"], 1927/Challenge 667/Banner 6041 [both as Lonesome Pine Twins, "A Picture from Life's Other Side"], 1927; Banner 0586 [as :Smoky Mountain Twins, "Picture from Life's Other Side"], 1930)
Frank Welling, "Picture[s] from Life's Other Side" (Champion 15924 [as Clarence Young]/Supertone 9612 [as Frank Hill], 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Page from the Scrap-Book of Life" (theme)
NOTES [93 words]: The 1896 sheet music credits this to "Vaughn" (B. Vaughan?) -- but we all know what that is worth. Charles E. Baer is another suggested author.
The Australian piece, "The Lights of London Town," shares almost none of the words of the American texts, and lacks the image of the picture. But the details and feel of the song are so close that I really think they spring from the same roots. Meredith et al suspect their version of coming from the music hall. This strikes me as possible -- it may be a music hall rewrite of the American song, or vice versa. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: R603

Picture No Artist Can Paint, A

DESCRIPTION: "A quaint New England homestead Where a gray-haired couple dwell, Their heads are bowed with sorrow For the one they loved so well." Their daughter ran away from home after an argument. Her brother left to seek her. Neither has yet returned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Leake County Revelers)
KEYWORDS: family separation children brother sister
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 831, "A Picture No Artist Can Paint" (1 text)
Roud #7441
RECORDINGS:
Leake County Revelers, "A Picture No Artist Can Paint" (Columbia 15691-D, 1931; rec. 1930)
File: R831

Picture on the Wall, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's an old and faded picture on the wall, It's been hanging there for many, many years, 'Tis the picture of my mother, And I know there is no other." The singer is grown and has a family, but misses his mother, but will "meet my mother after all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
KEYWORDS: mother reunion
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 34, "The Picture on the Wall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11538
RECORDINGS:
Blue Sky Boys, "A Picture on the Wall" (Bluebird 8646)
The Carter Family, "Picture on the Wall" (Victor 23686)
The Georgia Yellow Hammers, "The Picture on the Wall" (Victor 20943)
Frank Welling & John McGhee, "Picture on the Wall" (Supertone 2641) (Perfectone 12687) (These two may be the same recording, but they have different "A" sides)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Old and Faded Picture on the Wall
NOTES [13 words]: Rare in tradition, but there sure are a lot of soppy old recordings of this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ABLT034

Picture that Is Turned Toward the Wall, The

DESCRIPTION: "Far beyond the glamour of the city and its strife There's a quiet little homestead by the sea." But a family daughter ran away, and "There's a name that's never spoken, and a mother's heart is broken... And a picture that is turned toward the wall."
AUTHOR: Charles Graham
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: separation abandonment children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 160-161, "The Picture That Is Turned Toward the Wall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 59-63, "The Picture That Is Turned Toward the Wall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 276-277, "The Picture That Is Turned Toward the Wall" (1 text)
DT, PICWALL*
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Picture That Is Turned Toward the Wall" (Columbia 15030-D, 1925) (Edison 51607 [as Vernon Dalhart & Co.], 1925)
NOTES [162 words]: Written by Graham after seeing the play "Blue Jeans," in which a father turns his runaway daughter's picture toward the wall. (Why not take it down? Don't ask me.)
The song sold extremely well, but as so often happens, Graham saw little of the proceeds, and died a pauper in 1899.
He also produced a sequel, "Her Father Has Turned the Dear Picture Again." Which had all the success it deserved.
To set a new record for Completely Useless Information Included in the Ballad Index, some students of Sherlock Holmes claim that the woman whose picture is turned toward the wall is none other than Irene Adler, the heroine of "A Scandal in Bohemia." The latter story was published in 1891, with an internal date of 1888 though Sherlockians have demonstrated that this date is not possible. For what little I can glean of this theory, see William S. Baring-Gould, The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Volume I, note 28 to "A Scandal in Bohemia" (p. 354 in the Wings Books edition). - RBW
File: SRW160

Pictures from Life's Other Side

See A Picture from Life's Other Side (File: R603)

Pie in the Sky

See The Preacher and the Slave (File: San221)

Pie, Pie, Come Out

DESCRIPTION: Game, usually played on a sandy beach. "Pie, pie, come out, I owe you half a clout."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: food game
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 21, "Pie, Pie, Come Out" (1 text)
File: BAAI021B

Pig and a Posset o' Whey, A

DESCRIPTION: The singer, it seems, would poison her husband, Arthur o' Broadley, with a witch's brew. She wants to be a widow. She likes "the yellow haired lad." Expensive meal will be cheap again and she won't mind if "farmers a' may hang themselves"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: farming poison humorous nonballad husband wife youth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1706, "A Pig and a Posset o' Whey" (1 text)
Roud #13525
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dear Meal's Cheap Again" (one verse; see the note below)
NOTES [103 words]: The verse, "The dear meal will be cheap again; The dear meal will be cheap again, The Farmers may go hang themselves; The dear meal will be cheap again" dates back at least to 1813. It is embedded in a medley in W. Beattie, Buchan Poetry. Fruits of Time Parings (Aberdeen, 1873 (Reprint of the 1813 edition ("Digitized by Google"))), p. 63). See "The Ports Are Open" for a discussion of grain prices after the Napoleonic wars. - BS
I'd love to know how getting rid of farmers would lower grain prices. I suppose the claim is that they are jacking up prices, but historically, it has rarely happened that way.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81706

Pig at Home in the Pen

DESCRIPTION: Floaters: "When she saw me coming, she hung her head and cried/Yonder comes the meanest boy that ever lived or died." "Next time said darling, pick a bed with me...." Cho: "Got that pig at home in the pen, corn to feed him on/All I want..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (recording, Arthur Smith Trio)
KEYWORDS: love sex rejection farming floatingverses nonballad animal
FOUND IN: US(SE,Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 52-55, "Pig in a Pen" (2 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Spud Gravely w. Glen Smith, "Pig in a Pen" (on Persis1)
Arthur Smith Trio, "Pig at Home in the Pen" (on Bluebird B-7043, 1937)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shady Grove" (lyrics)
File: RcPAHITP

Pig Got Up and Slowly Walked Away, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, drunk, walks down the street "in tipsy pride" and falls down in the gutter. A pig lies down beside him. A high-toned lady remarks that "you can tell a man who boozes By the company he chooses," and "the pig got up and slowly walked away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (copyrighted by Benjamin Hapgood Burt)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous animal
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro,SE) Britain(England) Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 58-59, "Friendship with a Hog" (1 text, 1 tune; the first two verses from this song but the last three might be informant John Daniel Vass's expansions of the piece)
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, p. 324, "The Boozer" (1 short text, 1 tune)
DT, PIGINEBR PIGINEB2 PIGENEB3
Roud #7322
RECORDINGS:
Dale Borusky, "Judged by the Company One Keeps" (Recitation: Piotr-Archive #564, recorded 04/19/2023)
Frank Crumit, "The Pig Got Up and Slowly Walked Away" (Decca 313, 1934)
Rudy Vallee, "The Pig Got Up and Slowly Walked Away" (Victor 25092, 1935)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Judged by the Company One Keeps
The Company One Keeps
Pig and the Inebriate
Pig Got Up and Walked Away
Friendship with a Hog
NOTES [113 words]: Judging by the results of a cursory Google study, this bit is passing into oral tradition fairly quickly. - PJS
There are quite a few questions about it. Paul credited it to Benjamin Hapgood Burt, with a 1933 copyright -- yet Hazel Felleman's Best Loved Poems of the American People, published 1936, lists no author. There are four citations, including Felleman's, in Granger's Index to Poetry (where it is titled "Judged by the Company One Keeps"), none of which mentions Burt; one attributes it to Aimor R. Dickson. My guess is that Burt rewrote an older piece. But it certainly seems to be traditional.
I'd guess it's originally an unusually creative temperance piece.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcPGUSWA

Pig in a Pen

See Pig at Home in the Pen (File: RcPAHITP)

Pig in the Parlor

DESCRIPTION: "My ma and pa was Irish (x3), And I am Irish too," "Your right hand to your partner/neighbor... And we'll all promenade." "We got a new pig in the parlor... and he is Irish too." "We kept the cat in the cream-jug... And it was Irish too." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad animal family
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MW,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1746, "My Father and Mither Were Irish" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 174, "Oh, my father and mother are Irish" (1 text)
Randolph 522, "Pig in the Parlor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 80, "Pig in the Parlor" (1 short text plus 1 excerpt and 1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 80, "Pig in the Parlor" (1 tune plus a partial text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #239, "That Was Irish, Too" (1 text)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 198-199, "The Pig in the Parlor" (1 text)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 183-184, pp. 81-82, "Pig in the Parlor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 313, "Pig in the Parlour" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 153-154, "Pig in the Parlor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 17-18, "The Pig in the Parlor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 65, "(My fither and mither were Irish)" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Mrs. L.D. Ames, "The Missouri Play-Party," Vol. XXIV, No. 93 (Jul 1911), pp. 297-298 ("My father and mother were Irish") (1 text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Leona Nessly Ball, "The Play Party in Idaho,", Vol. XLIV, No. 171 (Jan 1931 ), p. 12 "My Father and Mother Were Irish" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PIGPARLR*
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, pp. 70-71, "Pig in the Parlor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4251
RECORDINGS:
Chubby Parker, "And That Was Irish Too" (Conqueror 7896, 1931)
Pete Seeger, "Pig in the Parlor" (on PeteSeeger22) (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Won't Go Home Until Morning" (floating lyrics, form)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
We Have a Pig in the Parlor
File: R522

Pig Snout

DESCRIPTION: "Pig snout, Walk out" (or "You are out")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal
FOUND IN: New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 95, "(Pig snout)" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 21, "(PIg's snout)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 37, "(Pig)" (1 text)
NOTES [80 words]: The Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren version of this is so short that I hesitated over including it, and that in Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo isn't any longer. I finally decided to list it, for a peculiar reason. In the Harry Potter books, one of the passwords to the Griffyndor common room is "Pig Snout." Did J. K. Rowling know this rhyme? After all, those who need the password to the common room are "out" -- as in, locked out of the dormitory. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SuSm095E

Pig Went Into a Public House, A

DESCRIPTION: "A pig went to a public house To get a pint of porter. 'Where's your money?' 'In my pocket.' 'Where's your pocket?' 'I forgot it.' 'Please walk straight out."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: animal drink clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 50, "(A pig went into a public house)" (1 text)
Roud #19394
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rat a Tat Tat, Who Is That?" (lyrics)
NOTES [22 words]: This is so close to "Rat a Tat Tat, Who Is That?" that I would probably have lumped them, but Roud splits them. Take your pick. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI050B

Pig's Snout

See Pig Snout (File: SuSm095E)

Pigeon, The

DESCRIPTION: A woman asks where her lover is and why he hadn't returned. She sends a letter by pigeon. The pigeon flys through a storm; it "disdain'd To seek shelter ... It flew all around Till Colin he found." and dies from exhaustion while Colin reads the letter.
AUTHOR: Lady Anne Lindsay (Barnard) (1750-1825) (source: Wilson)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1819 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2362))
KEYWORDS: love separation death ordeal storm bird lover
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 231-232, "The Dove" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 284)
ADDITIONAL: James Grant Wilson, The Poets and Poetry of Scotland (London, 1876 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 334,336, "Why Tarries My Love?" (1 text)
Roud #1296
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2362), "The Pigeon("Why tarries my love a[h] where does he rove?"), H. Wadsworth (Birmingham), 1802-1818; also 2806 c.16*(154), Harding B 15(309b), 2806 c.18(244), Harding B 21(14), Harding B 11(2418), "The Pigeon"
NOTES [30 words]: Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO lacks Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames third verse in which the woman "tied to his wing this letter with a string, And kissed him and sent him away." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT231

Piggy on the Railway

See Paddy on the Railway (File: MSNR151)

Piggy Wiggy Track

See Spelling Game (Blue spells B-L-U-E; T-W-O Spells Two; My Mother and Your Mother) (File: SuSm096F)

Pigs Did Squeal, The (I Once Did Love a Girl Named Sal)

DESCRIPTION: "I once did love a girl named Sal, Each day and night I'd court her." He is about to propose when the pigs start squealing; the other animals add to the din. She feeds them; they squeal when he kisses her. He drops her rather than hear the squealing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: love courting animal humorous abandonment
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 410-411, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #6604
File: TNY410

Pilgrim of Sorrow, The

See Tossed and Driven (The Poor Pilgrim) (File: R610)

Pilgrim's Sea-Voyage and Sea-Sickness, The (Pilgrim's Song; Pilgrims to St. James)

DESCRIPTION: "Men may leve all gamys, That saylen to seynt James," because the sea voyage brings trouble. The work of the sailors is described. The passengers are unable to eat -- and the food is bad anyway. And the smell of the pump is awful
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1600 (MS. Cambridge, Trinity College R.3.19)
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes MiddleEnglish sea
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads I, pp.1-4, "Earliest Sea Song" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #2148
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3466
ADDITIONAL: Frederick J. Furnival, _The Stacions of Rome, Pilgims Sea-Voyage, and Clene Maydenhod_, Early English Text Society, Trüner & Co., 1867, pp. 36-40, "The Pilgrim's Sea-Voyage and Sea-Sickness" (1 text)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #236, pp. 500-503, "Pilgrims to St. James" (1 text)
Douglas Gray, _The Oxford Book of Late Medieval Verse and Prose_, Oxford University Press, 1985, pp. 25-26, "By Sea to Santiago" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, Trinity College, MS. R.3.19 (Trinity 599), folio 208
NOTES [793 words]: There is no reason to think this traditional, but Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads calls it the "Earliest Sea Song," so here it is. Despite Stone, obviously it isn't the first sea song, and I'm pretty sure it's not the oldest surviving sea song even in English.
It certainly doesn't look "folk," with its stanzas consisting of three-foot lines in eight-line stanzas rhyming aaabcccb.
So how old is it? The only hints we have are the language (which does not seem very old to me) and the manuscript, Trinity R.3.19, plus the fact that it describes a sea-voyage to Santiago de Compostela.
Santiago, which is in the far northwest corner of Spain, is not actually on the seacoast, but it's close; it's probably easier for pilgrims to reach it by sea than from most of what is now Spain. "In [the reign of Alfonso II "the Chaste," 791-842]... there occurred a religious event of great importance, -- the finding of what was believed to be the tomb and body of the apostle Santiago (Saint James) in northwestern Galicia. The site was made the seat of a bishopric, and a village grew up there, names Santiago de Compostela. Compostela became a leading political and industrial factor in the Christian northwest, but was far more important as a holy place of the first grade, ranking with Jeusalem, Rome, and Loreto" (Chapman, p. 55). According to Smith, p. 53, the "finding" of St. James took place between 808 and 814. A few centuries later, Bishop Gelmiraz even established his own private navy for the town, showing the importance of the sea to the pilgrim trade (Chapman, p. 95).
Thus the earliest possible date is in the ninth century, but given that the song is in relatively comprehensible English, it must be at least 400 years later, and even that seems early. As for the latest date, the fact that English pilgrims are going to a Catholic shrine obviously implies a date before the Protestant Reformation. So we can surely say that it is from before 1560, and probably before 1540. (In any case, the cult of Saint James at Santiago peaked in the twelfth through fifteenth centuries and was in decline in the sixteenth; OxfordSaints, p. 269).
The manuscript is written on paper, not parchment. The binding, which is not contemporary, has the arms of George Wilmer, who died in 1626 (Seymour, p. 95). Seymour, p. 136, suggests that at least one of the scribes was from the east Midlands working in London.
Manly/Rickert, p. 533, say that the various sections date from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. They think (p. 534) it might have been made in the shop of John Shirley, although after his death.
The manuscript is large and diverse; the Digital Index of Middle English Verse counts 59 items in its 248 folios (about a fifth of them blank, perhaps set aside for items that were not at hand when the text was originally written). But it has much Chaucer (the Legend of Good Women; the Parliament of Fowls, parts of the Canterbury Tales, and a few short items) and a lot of Lydgate, plus miscellaneous lyrics. It is, however, composite -- a collection of independent booklets (Seymour, p. 95). These remained separate for long enough that the outer pages of some of the booklets suffered soiling and damage. Seymour, in his content list on pp. 96-98, divides its 32 quires into 13 sections; Manly/Rickert, p. 533, suggest 14. Seymour, p. 97, places this poem in section 10 (quires 26-27, folios 205-217), along with seven other fairly short pieces: "Discriving of fayre lady" (IMEV #1300), "O mosy quince" (IMEV #2524), Lydgate's "Horns away" (IMEV #2625), "Looke well" (IMEV #1944), Lydgate's "They that no while endure" (IMEV #55), "Proverbs of Wisdom" (IMEV #3502), and "How the Good Wife" (IMEV #671).
Seymour, p. 23, declares that the text of Chaucer's Parliament is derived from Caxton's 1477-1478 edition, and pp. 136-137 say that theCanterbury Tales extracts are also from Caxton (the original 1478 edition rather than the corrected edition of 1483); Manly/Rickert, p. 533, agree. The fact that the two Chaucer poems are certainly from after 1478 is not definitive for this piece, since it's in a separate booklet, but Manly/Rickert, p. 533, think that the bulk of the Trinity manuscript, folios 55-213, are from a single cursive hand, using yellowish-brown changing to reddish-brown ink. Thus it is likely that the quire containing this piece is from the same scribe as the one who copied Caxton's Chaucer text, and probably from the same post-1478 period.
Thus a good approximate date for the manuscript is c. 1500. I would guess the poem, at least in its current form, not much older.
There is a published facsimile of the manuscript, B. Y. Fletcher, M.S. Trinity College R. 3. 19. A facsimile (1987). Good luck finding a copy. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: MSPSVASS

Pilgrim's Song

See Pilgrim's Sea-Voyage and Sea-Sickness, The (Pilgrim's Song; Pilgrims to St. James) (File: MSPSVASS)

Pilgrims to St. James

See Pilgrim's Sea-Voyage and Sea-Sickness, The (Pilgrim's Song; Pilgrims to St. James) (File: MSPSVASS)

Pin Dip

DESCRIPTION: "A pin or a bull or a button, To see a rary rary show, show, show"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty commerce
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 59, "(A pin or a bull or a button)" (1 text)
File: SuSm059C

Pin or a Bull or a Button, A

See Pin Dip (File: SuSm059C)

Pinch and a Punch, A

DESCRIPTION: "A pinch and a punch, For the end of the month." Supposedly used to justify the "associated behaviors" at the end of a month.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty injury
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 134, "(A pinch and a punch)" (1 text)
File: SuSm134B

Pinery Boy (I), The

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Pinery Boy (II), The

See The Shantyman's Life (I) (File: Doe211)

Pining Daily and Daily

DESCRIPTION: "I am pining day and daily this twelve months and above, I am pining day and daily, and all about my love My beauty it is fading... And I wish I was with my true love...." The singer's love has been unfaithful, but her words encourage him to return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H149, p. 456, "Pining Daily and Daily" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blacksmith" (plot)
NOTES [47 words]: Kennedy, seemingly followed by Brunnings, connects this with "She Moved Through the Fair (Our Wedding Day)." This, in my opinion, is an impossible degree of stretch. The lyrics have some similarity to "The Blacksmith"; I also find myself reminded of "I'll Weave My Love a Garland." - RBW
File: HHH149

Pink Pajamas

See I Wear My Pink Pajamas (File: PHCF034P)

Pint Pot and Billy

DESCRIPTION: The singer apparently struck it rich in Australia and returned to join the high society in Britain. But he hates it: "Now I am stranded on my own native shore, I'll go back to Australia to the goldfields again." No one understands him; he wants to go home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: Australia home gold
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 116-117, "Pint Pot and Billy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, p. 20, "Pint Pot and Billy" (1 text)
File: FaE116

PInto

See There's a Picture On Pinto's Bridle (File: RcTaPoPB)

Pioneer

DESCRIPTION: "If I had the strength of a pioneer (Pioneer) Up to the hilltops I’d climb (I‘d climb), There to remain a pioneer (Pioneer) Until the day that I’d die (I’d die), Chorus! Ooo la la Ooo la la Ooo la la Again! Ooo la la... Repeat! ... Ooo la la... The End!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 285, 423, "Pioneer" (notes, with an excerpt on p. 423)
File: ACSF423P

Pioneer Day 1870

DESCRIPTION: "Dear friends, I pray just lend an ear Whilst I relate a song, I do not mean disloyalty Or anything that's wrong... Uncle Sam has been unkind In denying us a state. The singer tells of all the troubles the Saints faced at the hands of the United States
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes | Mormon statehood Utah
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1857 - Mounting of the Mormon Expedition/Mormon War/Utah War, in which Federal forces were commanded by Albert Sydney Johnston
Jan 4, 1896 - Utah admitted to the Union as a state
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 105-108, "Pioneer Day 1870" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10848
NOTES [78 words]: Figuring out who the people in this song are proved quite a challenge. "Bracchus" was apparently a judge in Utah around 1850 who found himself in conflict with Brigham Young. 1857 was the time of the Utah War. "Jim Buchanan" is James Buchanan, president from 1857 to 1861 and hence the president responsible for the war. The "old battalion boys" apparently refers to the Mormon Battalion of the Mexican War, for which see the notes to "Mormon Battalion Song (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS105

Pioneer Preacher, The

DESCRIPTION: "As we were on the ice and snow, It rained, it hailed, and the wind did blow... We were so cold we almost died." "But thank the Lord, relief was found...." The singer will preach in Tennessee/Cumberland, where "Religion's scarce"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi)
KEYWORDS: clergy storm pioneer settler Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 82, p. 82, "The Pioneer Preacher" (1 short text)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 168-169, "The Evangelist's Song" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 173-174)
Roud #4493
File: Hud082

Pioneer Stage Driver, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going to tell a story, and I'll tell it in my song... It's about one of the old boys, so gallas (sic.) and so fine, He used to carry mails on the pioneer line." Four horsemen rob him of the Wells Fargo cash box. The singer sympathizes
AUTHOR: Charley Roades (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (broadside cited by Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: travel work money theft
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 53, "The Pioneer Stage Driver" (1 text)
File: LDC053

Pioneers, The

DESCRIPTION: The pioneers, the engineers, the cannoneers are very hardy, and very sexual.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous talltale sex scatological animal
FOUND IN: US(MW,SW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 228-231, "The Pioneers" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 510-512, "The Pioneers" (6 texts, 1 tune)
DT, PIONEERS*
Roud #10119
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier" (tune & meter) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Engineers
The M.P.s
The Infantry
The A.P.s
The Mountaineers
File: EM228

Pious Little Men, The

DESCRIPTION: "See the pious little men So faithful to their duty, Marching to a batter land In robes of shining beauty." "Lowly, lowly, lowly, low, I love to be a Shaker." (x2) "Be kind and be good... If you join the Shaker band You will be good forever."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 57, "The Pious Little Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21428
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lowly Lowly
File: Grim057

Piper MacNeil

DESCRIPTION: Piper MacNeil loves whisky. One night he staggers home falling-down drunk. His mother opens the door, sees his dirty clothes and curses whisky. He says she should not be angry because "as long as I live I aye will be, That I'll take a drap whisky-o"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (recording, Willie Scott)
KEYWORDS: drink mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 96-96, 153, "Piper MacNeil" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Willie Scott, "Piper MacNeil," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1962.027,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 14 September 2013 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/57704/1 [only the chorus]
Roud #5125
RECORDINGS:
Willie Scott, "Piper O'Neill" (on Voice13) [the title seems to be an errror for "Piper MacNeil" in the text]
File: RcPipMON

Piper o' Dumbarton, The

DESCRIPTION: "Saw ye Rory Murphy, Rory Murphy, Rory Murphy, Saw ye Rory Murphy, Comin' through Dumbarton?" Rory, "a piper guid," plays for his living and travels Scotland, but at last falls "doun a brae" while drunk
AUTHOR: David Webster ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: music death drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 138-141, "The Piper o' Dumbarton" (1 text)
Roud #13116
File: FVS138

Piper o' Dundee, The

DESCRIPTION: "The piper cam' tae oor toon, Tae oor toon (x2), The piper cam' tae oor toon, And he played bonnily." He plays inspiring Jacobite tunes, and many leaders gather to support the Stuarts. "And wasna he a roguey, The piper o' Dundee?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2)
KEYWORDS: music patriotic Jacobite
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 19, "The Piper o' Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 13, "The Piper o' Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PIPERDUN*
File: Gath013

Piper O'Neill

See Piper MacNeil (File: RcPipMON)

Piper of Crossbarry, The

DESCRIPTION: Piper Flor Begley volunteers to fight but his captain prefers that "Today you'll stride between our lines and martial music play." Tom Barry's fighters defeat 2000 British. "The Piper of Crossbarry, boys, had piped old Ireland free"
AUTHOR: Bryan Mac Mahon
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: rebellion battle Ireland patriotic IRA music
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 19, 1921 - Nationalist victory at Crossbarry
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 58A, "The Piper of Crossbarry" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boys of Kilmichael" (subject: The exploits of Tom Barry)
NOTES [682 words]: [On March 19, 1921], 104 men of the Third West Cork Flying Column of the IRA, under Tom Barry, defeat more than 1000 British and 120 Auxiliaries about 12 miles south-west of Cork city (source: Tom Barry Leads West Cork Flying Column To Victory at Crossbarry at Cork's War of Independence site).
The "Black and Tans" were British reinforcements to regular British soldiers sent to Ireland in 1920. The "Auxiliary Cadets" were veteran British army officers sent to help the Black and Tans. (source: Michael Collins: A Man Against an Empire copyright by and available on the History Net site) For more information see RBW note for "The Bold Black and Tan" - BS
Crossbarry was really two actions: Kee, p. 128, notes that "at Crossbarry... not only did Tom Barry and his flying column successfully ambush a convoy of nine military lorries but fought their way out of a massive attempt to encircle them afterward."
This was not the only victory won by Barry in 1920-1921, nor even his most notorious. He was also, according to OxfordCompanion:, p. 40, responsible for killing 15 Auxiliaries at Kilmichael on November 28, 1920 -- an event which also inspired a song.
Kee, pp. 120-121, reports of this action, "After a savage fight at close quarters in which three IRA were killed and, according to Barry, the Auxiliaries made use of the notorious 'false surrender' tactics, the entire convoy was wiped out, and seventeen of the eighteen auxiliaries were killed.... [T]he first British officer on the scene... said that although he had seen thousands of men lying dead in the course of the war, he had never before seen such an appalling sight... The doctor at the inquest, an Irishman, said that there was no doubt that some of the injuries had been inflicted after death."
Dangerfield's history of Irish rebellion does not list Kilmichael or Crossbarry but on p. 319 does mention an action of 1920: "On 9 December a flying column under Tom Barry, Commandant of Cork's No. 3 Brigade, and one of the most ruthless and successful of all guerilla leaders, ambushed two lorry loads of Auxiliaries, and wiped them out in circumstances of unusual savagery."
Although Barry's behavior was unconscionable, the reaction was also ugly, showing how bad conditions were in Ireland at that time: In December, pro-British forces (Auxiliaries and Black and Tans) destroyed a large part of the city of Cork (Kee, pp. 116-117).
Barry would later attack a police barracks in Cork (Kee, p. 128).
Younger, pp. 108-109, notes a case of Barry justifying the murder of a Catholic member of the R. I. C. as he went in to mass, though it doesn't tell whether Barry was actually the assassin.
It's probably no surprise that, when Irish leaders had to decide on the Treaty granting Ireland functional independence, Barry was against it (Murphy, p. 48).
Coogan, p. 169, sums up Barry and Crossbarry as follows: "Barry in fact was one of the bravest men in the war and probably the most successful field commander.... [H]e achieved a spectacular success at Crossbarry, County Cork, on 19 March 1921. In a day-long engagement, encouraged by the traditional pipes of Flor Begley, Barry and a force of about a hundred men broke through a more heavily armed British encirclement of ten times that number and got away safely...."
Ironically, Barry (1897-1980) had been in the British Army in Mesopotamia (Boylan, p. 15; Kee, p. 70), and had shown no evidence of nationalist sympathies at that time. But he would later become a high officer of the IRA, becoming its Chief of Staff for a time in 1937. But he quit the IRA the next year, disagreeing with their proposal to engage in terrorist bombings of England, since he thought it would kill innocent civilians. Which is not to say that he had turned peaceful; he wanted to make war in Ulster.
He eventually wrote a memoir, Guerilla Days in Ireland. published in 1949, and also a pamphlet, The Reality of the Anglo-Irish War, 1919-21, (1974), to counteract what he considered a false narrative by Liam Deasy (Boylan, p. 45). Born in County Cork in 1897, he died in 1980. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: OLcM058A

Piper Who Played Before Moses, The

See The Ould Piper (File: RcTOlPi)

Piper's Tunes, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes to town "to view the pretty lasses" and sees a famous Captain and Joe Blake. Blake the piper plays the favorite tunes and variations, all named. "Get up and shake your heels, 'tis better sport than any"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1855 (broadside, Johnson Ballads 602)
KEYWORDS: dancing music
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 11, "The Piper's Tunes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3030
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 602, "Sporting Irish Piper," E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also 2806 b.11(249), Johnson Ballads 603, "Sporting Irish Piper"; 2806 c.15(147), 2806 b.9(225), "The Rakes of Kildare"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bob and Joan" (tune, per OLochlainn)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John Murphy
NOTES [79 words]: The final line of the Bodleian "The Rakes of Kildare" broadsides is "Oh, tune up the old banjo, for that's better than any." OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads's town is Cove and his famous captain Burke of Grove; the broadsides town is Kildare and the famous captain Cornock of Cromwell's Fort. The Bodleian "Sporting Irish Piper" broadsides have no similar final line or famous captain, the town is Liverpool and the piper is John Murphy." The same tunes are played throughout. - BS
File: OLoc011

Pique la Baleine

DESCRIPTION: French. Rowing shanty. "Pour retrou ver ma douce amie." The whaler goes out to strike the whale, "for to find my love again." He sails many seas to find the whale, and will find the whale, his love, even if she is drowned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: whaler shanty foreignlanguage love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 128, "Pique la Baleine" (2 texts, French & English, 1 tune)
File: HSoSe128

Pirate Crew, The

DESCRIPTION: "O'er the wide world of waters we roam ever free: Sea-kings and rovers, bold pirates are we... We love the black storm as we rode o'er the billows... Hurrah! the black banner is nailed to the mast." "Dauntless and daring the deeds that they do."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (The Book of a Thousand Songs, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate nonballad ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 72, "The Pirate Crew" (1 text; #47 in the first edition)
Roud #V9212
File: FrPi072

Pirate Lover, The

DESCRIPTION: "Thou art gone from thy lover thou lord of the sea, The illusion is over that bound me to thee." The singer cannot forget her love -- but his "black vessel" is at sea. She thought him brave, and will not upbraid him, but as a pirate, he must die
AUTHOR: unknown (music by J. Akroid and J. G. Percival?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: pirate love separation ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 136-137, "The Pirate Lover" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 35, "The Pirate Lover" (1 text, 1 tune; #48 in the first edition, without a tune)
Roud #27513
File: HGam136

Pirate of the Isles, The

DESCRIPTION: "I command a steady band Of pirates so bold and free." The pirate rejoices at being ruler of his ship and men. He tells of his joy in the sea. At last, however, he is overtaken by a warship. Hit by a cannonball, he is dying. His crew surrenders
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: pirate ship battle death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 172-174, "The Pirate of the Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 74-77, "The Pirate of the Isles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 138-139, "The Pirate of the Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 44, "The Pirate of the Isle" (1 text, 1 tune; from Chappell; #37 in the first edition)
Roud #2024
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y4:026, "The Pirate of the Isles," unknown, 19C
NOTES [128 words]: Leslie Shepard, John Pitts, Ballad Printer of Seven Dials, London 1765-1844, Private Library Association, 1969, p. 65, quotes an interview by Henry Mayhew with the alleged author of this piece (who is, however, not named). He complained about the pay:
"The first song I ever sold was to a concert-room manager. The next I sold had great success. It was called the 'Demon of the Sea', and was to the tune of 'The Brave Old Oak.' Do I remember how it began? Yes, sir, I remember every word of it.... That song was written for a concert-room, but it was soon in the streets, and ran a whole winter. I got only 1 [shilling] for that. Then I wrote the 'Pirate of the Isles,' and other ballads of that sort. The concert-rooms pay no better than the printers in the sheets...."
Last updated in version 5.0
File: SWMS074

Pirate Smith

DESCRIPTION: Smith scoured the seas "with a noble crew of cutthroats." "He said that grabbing booty was a Briton's pleasing duty." He'd hang foreign foemen from his lanyards. At 37 he is killed by a Spanish bullet and goes to heaven "to rest in Nelson's bosom"
AUTHOR: T.D. Sullivan (1827-1914) (source: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship England humorous political pirate
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 65, "Pirate Smith" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [66 words]: Sullivan is the author of a number of Irish patriotic poems, of which "God Save Ireland" is probably the best-known. This is one of the few non-nationalist poems I've seen from his pen. Ironically, the Smith he commemorates does not seem to be very famous; there are several Smiths with entries in Rogozinski's The Wordsworth Dictionary of Pirates, but none of them fit the hero of this song. - RBW
File: OLcM065

Pirate Song (I), The

See The Bold Pirate [Laws K30] (File: LK30)

Pirate Song (II), The

See Bold Manan the Pirate [Laws D15] (File: LD15)

Pirate, The

See Captain Kidd [Laws K35] (File: LK35)

Pirate's Bark, The

DESCRIPTION: "Lightly thou art bounding, My bark upon the sea, Like an eagle on the mountain, Thou'rt rapid and as free." "Hurrah, hurrah, my rover, We're fleeting past the wind. The fancied danger's over, Thou'st left them far behind."
AUTHOR: Words: TJ. Burrington / Music: John W. L. Ash (according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 2011 (Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs), but probably from the 1830s
KEYWORDS: pirate ship escape
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 40, "The Pirate's Bark" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V13258
NOTES [29 words]: Amazingly, the sheet music to this lists three noteworthy performers who sang it. I'm amazed three people even managed to finish reading the first verse without gagging. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Fran040

Pirate's Call, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a prize upon the deep, boys, There's gold in the gathering gale, Then to your posts quick leap, boys... Awake, awake, bold pirates." The target is heavily-laden. A broadside causes her to give in. "The ocean shall be their shroud."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1845 (The Buccaneer Songster, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: homicide pirate ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 74, "The Pirate's Call" (1 text; #50 in the first edition)
Roud #V30992
File: FrPi074

Pirate's Chorus

DESCRIPTION: "Ever by happy and light as thou art, Pride of the Pirate's heart! Long be thy reign o'er land and main, By the glaive, by the chart, Queen of the Pirate's heart." The rest of the song mostly rearranges these words
AUTHOR: Michael William Balfe (1808-1870) (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (opera The Enchantress, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs); also in some versions of the Forget-Me-Not Songster
KEYWORDS: pirate nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Heart-Songs, p. 237, "Pirates' Chorus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 56, "Pirate's Chorus" (1 text, 1 tune; #33 in the first edition)
Roud #31314
File: FrPi056

Pirate's Deserted Bride, The

DESCRIPTION: "Far o'er the sea the bark is gone, with her blood red flag above; And I am left to weep along." The singer fears that her pirate lover will not return. In words so flowery as to approach incomprehensibility, she admits to sorrow
AUTHOR: Words: Harry Stowe Van Dyke / Music: William Christian Selle (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1832 (sheet music, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate marriage love separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 36, "The Pirate's Deserted Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V13709
File: FrPi036B

Pirate's Glee, The

See Blow On! Blow On! The Pirate's Glee (File: FrPi054)

Pirate's Serenade, The

DESCRIPTION: "My boat's by the tower, my bark's in the bay, And both must be gone ere the dawn of the day." The pirate waits for his bride. He asks that his roughness be excused. She shall "rule as Queen." He sees her signal that she is coming
AUTHOR: William Kennedy ? (source: Whistle-Binkie) / music: John Thomson (1805-1841) (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (_Whistle-Binkie_)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage ship pirate
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 152-153, "The Pirate's Serenade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 132, "Serenade Song of Hurrah for the Rover and His Beautiful Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 52, "The Pirate's Serenade" (1 text, 1 tune, #31 in the first edition)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 51 and #3/62, p. 58, "The Pirate's Serenade" (1 text, so different from the usual texts that I have to think it deliberately rewritten)
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Rodger, editor, _Whistle-Binkie_, Second Series (Glasgow, 1842), pp. 99-100, "The Pirate's Serenade"
Roud #2698
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(493), "The Pirate's Serenade," T.A. Jackson (Birmingham) , c.1860
NOTES [112 words]: See two very similar broadsides for "The Pirate's Serenade" attributed to Geo. A. W. Langford Fahie and with the tune "I Am Off for Baltimore": LOCSinging, as111010, "The Pirate's Serenade," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also sb30427a, "The Pirate's Serenade" - BS
According to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs, the text and tune of this did not often appear together, raising the possibility that the tune would not be widely known in tradition. And, indeed, although the Creighton tune starts like that in Frank, the rest looks significantly different, although I could believe that the one evolved into the other (e.g. by eliminating accidentals in the original tune). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CrMa152

Pirate's Song (III)

See To the Mast Nail Our Flag: The Pirate's Song (File: FrPi058B)

Pirate's Song (IV)

DESCRIPTION: "Come pass round the bowl and the festive board hail, We will drink deep tonight, for tomorrow we sail... We seek for an equal game, conquer or die." "The eagle aloft on Icarian flight Feels no more at home than we in the fight." They fight man and sea
AUTHOR: Words: George W. Frase / Music: Charles Leslie (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (sheet music, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate ship battle nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 60, "Pirate's Song (I)" (1 text, 1 tune; #34 in the first edition)
Roud #V26999
File: FrPi060

Pirate's Song (V), The

DESCRIPTION: "O Lady, come to the Indies with me, And reign and rule on the sunny sea." The singer tells of a gallant ship and hopes for "the foe on our lee." Neither French nor Americans frighten him. She will be "queen of the fathomless brine."
AUTHOR: Allan Cunningham (1784-1842) (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (Rinder's Naval Songs, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate courting battle nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 75, "The Pirate's Song (II)" (1 text; as "The Pirate's Song (III), it is #54 in the first edition)
File: FrPi075

Pirates Bold and Brave

DESCRIPTION: "Pirates, bold and brave, are we, Who sail on the snowy crested sea"; the ship waits in ambush, then plunders "the foe." The singer loves the sailing, spending the gold, and the free life of a pirate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1845 (The Pirate's Songster, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate ship fight gold
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 73, "Pirates Bold and Brave" (1 text; #49 in the first edition)
Roud #V36788
File: FrPi073

Pirates' Chorus

See Pirate's Chorus (File: FrPi056)

Piri-miri-dictum Domini

See I Gave My Love a Cherry
 (File: R123)

Pirn-Taed Jockie

DESCRIPTION: While a girl was kissing Jockey she stole his candy. When at a ball, he kissed Polly Procter; she ran off with an ugly soldier. At a market he swapped his nag, blind in one eye, for a Balaklava charger that was blind in both.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting bargaining trick party humorous soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #144, pp. 2-3, "Pirn-Tae't Jockie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1220, "Pirn-Taed Jockie" (2 texts)
Roud #6315
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Swapping Boy" (theme: bad bargains)
NOTES [24 words]: Greig/Duncan6: "Pirn-taed" means "pigeon-toed."
Greig: "Tune of verse - 'The girl I left behind me,' Tune of chorus - ;The white cockade'." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61220

Pisgah

See Remember Me (II) (File: RcJHReMe)

Pit the Lassie Till Her Beddie

DESCRIPTION: Put the lassie to bed. Her head and back are sore. "She'll need cock bree"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex pregnancy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1430, "Pit the Lassie Till Her Beddie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7268
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sandy's the Laddie That I'm Gaun Wi'" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
NOTES [22 words]: Greig/Duncan7 quoting Duncan: "The words are said to be objectionable." "No more remembered: the reference is of course indelicate." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71430

Pitcaithly's Wells

DESCRIPTION: "It fell aboot the Lammas time A fine time o' the year..." that the singer goes out and sees the girls "drink the waters clear." His eye lights on one in particular. He asks if she will marry; she refuses at first, but after a time of courting, consents
AUTHOR: Sixth Earl of Kinnoul (c.1660-1719) (source: Hecht-Herd)
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd, according to Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #20, p. 1, "Pitcaithly's Well"; #21, p. 3, "Pitcaithly's Wells"; #22, p. 2, "Pitcaithly's Wells" (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan4 925, "Pitcaithly's Wells" (8 texts plus 5 verses on pp. 578-579, 9 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 133-134, "Pitcaithly's Wells" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hans Hecht, editor, Songs From David Herd's Manuscripts (Edinburgh, 1904), #110 pp. 255-257,329-330, "Pitcaithly Green" (1 text) [Not yet indexed as Hecht-Herd 110]
Roud #5549
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Clyde's Water" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
NOTES [130 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads reports a legend that this was written, perhaps c. 1700, by the Earl of Kinnoul in honor of Jeannie Oliphant of Pitcaithly. This sounds like the usual sort of pretty legend. - RBW
Greig: "Pitcaithly, celebrated for its mineral wells, is situated near Bridge of Earn in Perthshire." - BS
Hecht: "In Herd's MS. there is the following remark under the title of the poem: 'This song was made by the auld Earl of Kinnoul (grandfather of the present Earl) upon Jean Oliphant, a daughter of the Laird of Pithcaithly and Kilcow, afterwards married to Mr. Bruce, a minister in Fife -- short time after the mineral of Pithcaithly was discovered.' We have thus to consider the sixth Earl of Kinnoul as the author of the poem (born about 1660, Earl 1706, died 1719)." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord134

Pitch It Right/Go in de Wilderness

See Go in the Wilderness (File: RcGITW)

Pitch, Patch, Patch My Britches

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Pitch, patch, patch my britches. How many stitches?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Folkways 3565)
KEYWORDS: jumprope clothes | patch britches
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #461, "Pitch, patch, patch my britches" (1 text)
Roud #21918
File: AJRR461

Pitch, You Old Piebally, Pitch

DESCRIPTION: "You've been roped and saddled, bridled and straddled, I've spurred and quirted you too." Despite the trouble the animal has caused, the singer says, "I'll ride you, ole hoss, till you drop." Half friendly, half exasperated, he says, "pitch, you piebally"
AUTHOR: attributed to Kearney Moore in the Powder River Jack Lee Songbook (but see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Powder River Jack & Kitty Lee Songbook)
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse work
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, pp. 38-39, "Pitch, You Old Piebally, Pitch" (1 text, 1 tune)
Federal Writers' Project [WPA], _Wyoming: A Guide To Its History, Highways, and People_ 1941 (available on Google Books), pp. 148-149, "[Pitch, You Old Piebally, Pitch]" (1 text)
NOTES [81 words]: The WPA Guide to Wyoming calls this "a variation of E. A. Brinistool's "A Corral Soliloquiy" and says it was popular in the Jackson Hole area. The latter poem was published in Trail Dust of a Maverick (p. 140) in 1914. The dependence is clear, but in the Brinistool version, the horse is a "pie-bitier" and the order of the lyrics somewhat different. Nor is a tune indicated. My guess would be that Kearney Moore rewrote Brinistool's poem, then Powder River Jack Lee fitted a tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: PRJL038

Pitgair

See Charlie, O Charlie (Pitgair) (File: Ord216)

Pitman's Courtship, The

DESCRIPTION: "Quite soft blew the wind from the west, The sun faintly shone in the sky, When Lukey and Bessie sat courting, As walking I chanced to espy." He reminds her that they have been together since childhood, and promises business and a fine wedding
AUTHOR: William Mitford
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland); Mitford died 1851
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 39-40, "The Pitman's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR039 (Partial)
Roud #3058
File: StoR039

Pitman's Happy Times, The

DESCRIPTION: "When aw wes yung, maw collier lads, Ne man cud happier be; For wages was like sma' coals then, An' cheps cud raise a spree." The singer recalls all afford in his youth, and notes in sad amazement all the changes since -- e.g. that all children can read
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: work age children food clothes money mining
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 167-169, "The Pitman's Happy Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3172
NOTES [13 words]: Never thought I'd see a coal miner reminiscing about the good old days.... - RBW
File: StoR167

Pitman's Love Song, A

See I Wish My Love (Pitman's Love Song) (File: RcIWML)

Pittenweem Fisher-Wife's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: The fisher-wife wakes her husband and three sons. The sun shines like gold in their boat and it is time, while they still live, to row out -- "were I a man I'd off to sea" -- and, when they return at night, she'll hear their "songs and tales"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea nonballad family
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1760, "Fisher Song" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Christopher Stone, Sea Songs and Ballads (Oxford, 1906 ("Digitized by Google")), #24 pp. 36-37, "We'll Go To Sea No More"
J. E. Patterson, The Sea Anthology: From the Earliest Times Down to the Middle of the Nineteenth Century (New York, 1913 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 182, "The Pittenweem Fisher-Wife's Song"
Roud #13136
NOTES [48 words]: The line about hearing songs is ironic if Greig's assessment is accurate: "There are not many traditional songs dealing with fisher folk; and as for fisher folk themselves they do not seem to have any old minstrelsy dealing with their special calling and interests" [Greig #153, p. 2]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81760

Pittsburg Is a Great Old Town

DESCRIPTION: "Pittsburg is a great old town, Pittsburg (x2), Pittsburg is a great old town, Solid steel from McKeesport down." "Pittsburg is a smoky old town... Coal piled high in great big mounds." Pittsburg is a river town, a hilly town....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home river technology
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 440-441, "Pittsburg Is a Great Old Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7747
File: KPL440

Pitty Patty Poke

DESCRIPTION: Game played while patting a baby's feet: "Pitty patty poke, Shoe the wild colt, Here a nail, there a nail, Pitty patty poke"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 119, "Pitty Patty Poke" (1 text)
Roud #7850
File: Br3119

Pity a Maiden

DESCRIPTION: A maiden in Bedlam blames her ruin on the press-master that took her Billy. She dreams that her work in Bedlam would allow her to fit out a man of war and go to him. She gets a letter from Billy saying he hopes to return and free her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1502))
KEYWORDS: madness love war prison death father mother
FOUND IN:
Roud #V19594
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1502), "Pity a Maiden" (Pity an innocent maiden in Bedlam I lay confin'd"), J. Pitts (London), 1820-1824
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nancy's Complaint in Bedlam" (theme of a maid in Bedlam) and references there
File: BdPitMa

Pity Poor Labourers

DESCRIPTION: "You sons of old England, now listen... Concerning poor lab'rers we all must allow Who work all day at the tail of the plow. Oh, pity poor lab'rers, oh, pity them all, For five or six shillings they work the whole week." The complaints of poor workers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Before 1855 (Bodleian broadside Harding B 11(2682))
KEYWORDS: poverty work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 18-19, "Pity Poor Labourers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #7, "Pity Poor Labourers" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 419, "The Poor Labourers" (1 text, with a tune on p. 600)
Roud #V8898
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2682), "A New Song: Pity Poor Labourer's" (sic.), E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Firth b.25(399)=Firth c.16(300)=Johnson Ballads 3356, "The Poor Labourers," G Henson (Northampton), n.d.
File: FaE018

Pity the Poor Seaman

DESCRIPTION: "O think on the mariner tossed on the billow Far from the home of his childhood and youth." He is in a "prison [that] floats at the sport of the wind." The singer hopes that heaven will "pour on his pathway... The radiant light of the gospel of peace."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1833 (Journal of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 131, "Pity the Poor Seaman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27514
File: HGam131

Pity the Robbers

DESCRIPTION: "I pity the robbers, I pity the crooks, I pit the person Who studies this book."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: thief
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 81, "Pity the Robbers" (1 text)
File: ZiZa081B

Place Where the Old Horse Died, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls a spot -- a spot he no longer visits: "The place where the old horse died." He recalls that final ride, where the horse, for no evident reason, stumbled. Rider soon arose, but the faithful horse never moved again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: horse death burial
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 279-281, "The Place Where the Old Horse Died" (2 texts, 1 tune)
File: MA279

Plaidie Awa, The

See The Wind Blew the Bonnie Lass's Plaidie Awa' (File: RcWBTBLP)

Plain Golden Band, The [Laws H17]

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls his parting from his former sweetheart and why she gave back her engagement ring. A young man comes to her and tells her stories of the singer's falsehood. She briefly dallies with him. Having stained the ring, she must return it
AUTHOR: Joe Scott
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Family Herald, according to Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker); thought to have been in tradition by 1911
KEYWORDS: farewell ring infidelity lie trick
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar,Newf,West)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws H17, "The Plain Golden Band"
Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker, pp. 191-227, "The Plain Golden Band" (4 texts, 2 tunes, with mentions of 7 versions)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 247-249, "The Plain Golden Band" (2 texts, 2 tunes, although Laws apparently does not include the first text and tune, which are fragmentary, with this ballad)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 149-151,253, "The Plain Golden Band" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 159-162, "The Plain Golden Band" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 39, "The Plain Golden Band" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 693, PLAINGLD
Roud #1963
RECORDINGS:
Mike Kent, "The Plain Golden Band" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [69 words]: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland: "Of all Joe Scott's ballads, this is the one most closely identified with him. Even people who didn't know the song itself would often tell me that it was about Joe's own life--that this Lizzie had jilted him and it broke his heart." - BS
Note that Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker labels the relevant chapter "'The Plain Golden Band': The Ballad As Autobiography." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LH17

Plains of Baltimore, The

DESCRIPTION: As the singer prepares to leave (Ireland?), his rich sweetheart promises to go with him and takes some of her father's money with her. They leave Ireland for America and settle down happily. Her father promises a reward when their first son is born
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration father love elopement
FOUND IN: US(MA) Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 5, "Plains of Baltimore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H553, p. 482, "Jamie, Lovely Jamie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 38, "There Was a Wealthy Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa005 (Full)
Roud #7457
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonny Labouring Boy" [Laws M14]
NOTES [68 words]: Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick has the money sewn into her dress: "This lovely maid was gaily decked most wondrous to behold, And in her dress a fortune sewed, five hundred pounds in gold." - BS
This is fairly typical of the versions, though the amount varies, as does the place of departure. The ending, in which the father forgives and offers more money once the son is born, seems fixed. - RBW
File: Wa005

Plains of Drishane, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer "roamed Eastwards to view navigations of the pleasin' grand scene" and other wonders "for this far famed dwelling station Whose proper appelation her name is Drisbane ... For grandeur it has taken the sway from them all"
AUTHOR: Sean O Tuama (Johnny Nora Aodha)? (source: OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer "roamed Eastwards to view navigations of the pleasin' grand scene" and other wonders "for this far famed dwelling station Whose proper appelation her name is Drisbane." He admires each plantation, the mill for gringing corn, the huge oxen, guinea-hens, peacock and swan. The trees are matchless. The castle "has baffled molestations and Cromwell's aspirations." Strangers "ponder in amazement whilst on it they are gazing." They tell "in all these foreign places, Spain, Germany and Gaul" that "for grandeur it has taken the sway from them all."
KEYWORDS: nonballad lyric
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 92-93,123, "The Plains of Drishane" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Groves of Blarney" (theme: extravagant praise of Cork) and references there
NOTES [138 words]: This, probably consciously, outdoes "The Groves of Blarney." For example, in "Blarney" the castle is attacked by Cromwell: "her he did pommel. And made a breach in her battlement." Cromwell's "molestations" are "baffled" at Drisbane.
OCanainn-SongsOfCork: The singer "tells me that Johnny Nora Aodha is said to have composed it while going by horse and cart to Drishane for lime. On his arrival he sang the song for the man who was to sell him the lime. Tradition has it that his composition was so well receivd that he got the lime free. It's a good story and deserves to be true!" Maybe so, but to my mind it's too good of a one-upmanship story over the writer of "Castle Hyde,' the "inspiration" for "The Groves of Blarney." And Aodha's song seems to me to one up "The Groves of Blarney" which, itself, one ups "Castle Hyde." - BS
File: OCan092

Plains Of Easter Snow, The

See Easter Snow (File: HHH066)

Plains of Emu, The (The Exile of Erin II)

DESCRIPTION: The Irish prisoner sadly recalls his home in Erin. The singer, though he claims he never received "a base-earned coin," has been transported for life. He fondly recalls his mother and his Nora. He says, "The tie is unbroken on the plains of Emu."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1829
KEYWORDS: prisoner transportation separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 36-37, "The Exile of Erin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 117-119, "The Exile of Erin on the Plains of Emu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 74-75, "The Exile of Erin on the Plains of Emu" (1 text)
Roud #4354
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Exile of Erin (I)" (theme)
NOTES [19 words]: Emu Plains was a prison farm outside Sydney, established to grow food for the large population of that city. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: FaE036

Plains of Illinois, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer urges "all you good old farmers that on your plow depend" to "come travel west and settle on the plains of Illinois." It is alleged that Adam would compare Illinois to the Garden of Eden. The state and its residents are glowingly described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag); Edwin Wolf 2nd, _American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870_, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 152, lists a broadside that is presumably from the mid-nineteenth century
KEYWORDS: Bible talltale emigration farming
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 89, "The Plains of Illinois" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 162-163, "El-A-Noy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 41, "El-A-Noy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 441-442, "The Plains of Illinois" (1 text plus a broadside print); pp. 454-455, "El-A-Noy" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 561, "El-a-noy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2247, p. 152, "State of Illinois" (1 reference)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 42, "Elanoy" (1 text)
DT, PLAINILL*
Roud #4605
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "State of Illinois" (on Thieme01) (on Thieme05)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
State of Illinois
File: FSC089

Plains of Mexico (I), The

See Santy Anno (File: Doe078)

Plains of Mexico (II)

See The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II) [Laws N9] (File: LN09)

Plains of Monaro, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh I ofttimes have heard of the plains of Monaro And I've longed in my heart for to spend my days there."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger)
KEYWORDS: travel home
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 18, page headed "Ditty: The plains of"], "The plains of Monaro" (1 fragment)
File: FaWTPOMo

Plains of Waterloo (I), The [Laws N32]

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a soldier, sees Sally lamenting for her Willie -- the wars are over but Willie has not returned. He tells her that Willie died at Waterloo after bidding her farewell, but then shows his half of a broken token and reveals himself as Willie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: brokentoken disguise mourning war soldier battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws N32, "The Plains of Waterloo I"
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 66, "The Plains of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 85, "The Plains of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 1014-1015, "The Plains of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 126, "Plains of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 56-57, "Plains of Waterloo" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 34, "Plains of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 69, "Waterloo" (1 text)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 21, "The Plains of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 61, "The Plains of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 189, "The Plains of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 46, pp. 137-138,173, "Smith at Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 459, PLNWLOO PLNWLOO2
Roud #960
RECORDINGS:
Caroline Brennan, "Fain Waterloo" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Amos Jollimore, "The Plains of Waterloo" (on MRHCreighton)
Tom Pennell, "Waterloo II" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
cf. "The Banks of the Clyde (I)" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "The Maid of Dunmore" (partial plot, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Smith at Waterloo
NOTES [423 words]: Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs: "I have two quite different songs by the same title." I believe Creighton's complete version and fragmentary text are both Laws N32.
Creighton's problem seems to come from the fragment's following "eighteenth of June" verse that matches no other "eighteenth of June" I've found for any Waterloo ballad or broadside; the sense of the verse -- that Willie was killed in battle -- belongs with Laws N32. In addition, the only other verse in the fragment also belongs to Laws N32.
"On the eighteenth day of June the battle was ended
Which caused many the British heroes to sigh and complain,
The drums they did beat and the cannons they did rattle
And by a French soldier your true love was slain."
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia: "The hypothesis that I have finally excogitated is that 'Waterloo' [Laws N32] is a fragmentary and modified version of the early nineteenth-century English ballad entitled 'The Mantle So Green,' [Laws N38] and that 'The Mantle So Green' is in its turn a modified version of the late eighteenth-century English ballad 'George Reilly.' [Laws N36]" Mackenzie's discussion includes a detailed examination of the three ballads.
Online, you can get some idea of the similarities by using these texts at one of the Digital Tradition sites [searching on the DT number works, for example #459]:
Laws N32: "Plains of Waterloo" DT #459.
Laws N38: "The Mantle So Green" DT #463.
Laws N36: "George Reilly (6)" DT #592 [unfortunately, as noted there, this one "sort of stops short," before the narrator tells of George's supposed dying words "Farewell, my dearest Nancy ...." Laws reveals the end: Finally he [the narrator] puts an end to the girl's grief by revealing that he is Riley."] - BS
Obviously there is a great similarity between these broken token songs, and the Waterloo-specific versions probably *are* more recent (since the Napoleonic Wars were the last great wars before the telegraph and railroad and widespread literacy). But the vast number of songs of this type (see the mass list under Laws N36) inclines me to think that they are not all related -- but that Laws N36 and "The Mantle So Green" [Laws N38], which are among the most popular, are at the heart of the tradition. - RBW
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "The Plains of Waterloo" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: LN32

Plains of Waterloo (II), The [Laws J3]

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of all the places he has fought, ending with his part at Waterloo (from which he is grateful to have emerged alive). He tells of Napoleon's success on the first two days of the battle and of Wellington's victory on the final day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Logan)
KEYWORDS: war Napoleon battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws J3, "The Plains of Waterloo II"
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 118-119, "The Battle of Waterloo" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #154, "The Plains of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 73, "The Plains of Waterloo," "Wellington and Waterloo" (2 texts)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 117-119, "The Battle of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 84-86, "The Plains of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 547, PLNWLOO3
ST LJ03 (Full)
Roud #1922
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Plains of Waterloo" (on Abbott1)
Amos Jollimore, "The Plains of Waterloo" (on MRHCreighton)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Plains of Waterloo (V)" (subject, plot)
NOTES [587 words]: The notes in Laws regarding this piece are somewhat confusing. He quotes Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia to the effect that this song "is plainly derived" from the much longer, more elaborate broadside piece we've listed as "The Plains of Waterloo (V)."
That the two are on the same theme is undeniable. But Bennett Schwartz, who has examined the matter with care, notes "I do not believe it was Laws's intent to consider these both the same, but rather to consider only the derivative as traditional. I think an argument can be made that J3 is not a derivative of this broadside at all."
Schwartz adds,
There are three other broadsides in Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue that describe the battle and go under the name "Plains of Waterloo." I do not believe they are the source of J3 either. Specifically,
"The Plains of Waterloo" beginning "The ancient sons of glory were all great men they say" (shelfmarks Harding B15(239b), Harding B 28(76), Harding B 11(3017), Harding B11(3018), Harding B 11(3019))
"The Plains of Waterloo" beginning "Assist me you muses while I relate a story" ( Harding B25(1501)[a hard-to-read copy])
"The Plains of Waterloo" beginning "On the Eighteenth Day of June, my boys, Napoleon did advance" (shelfmarks Firth c.14(7), Firth b.25(507), Firth c.14(28), Harding B11(91), Harding B 25(1503), Harding B 11(3020), Harding B 15(239a)) [Roud #5824]
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia's opening stanza for this song is presumably characteristic:
Come all you brisk and lively lads, come listen unto me,
While I relate how I have fought through the wars of Germany.
I have fought through Spain, through Portugal, through France and Flanders too;
But it's little I thought I'd be reserved for the plains of Waterloo. - BS, RBW
Although the "Battle of Waterloo" took place on June 18, 1815, it was actually the culmination of a several-day campaign. Napoleon, who had just returned from Elba, knew that all Europe would soon turn against him. His only hope was to defeat his enemies piecemeal -- starting with the Anglo-Dutch army of Wellington (the hero of the Peninsular campaign) and the Prussian army of Blucher.
Even though Napoleon started levying troops immediately, Wellington and Blucher together outnumbered the forces at his command by better than three to two. He had to separate them. He undertook this by dividing his army into two wings, the left under Ney and the right under Grouchy. (This was probably Napoleon's worst mistake of the campaign. He left his three of his best Marshals -- Soult, Suchet, and Davout -- in minor roles, while making the uninspired Ney and the inexperienced Grouchy his field commanders).
Napoleon struck first on June 16. Ordering Ney to attack Wellington's rearguard at Quatre Bras, Napoleon took Grouchy's reinforced right and attacked Blucher at Ligny. Ney's attack accomplished little, but Grouchy beat Blucher handily at Ligny.
Napoleon had apparently achieved his objective; Blucher was forced to retreat -- which took him away from Wellington. Napoleon therefore swung the larger part of his army back to deal with the British.
Unfortunately for the French, Blucher didn't retreat far. Even worse, Grouchy didn't follow him closely. Ney's errors topped things off. Given field command by Napoleon at Waterloo (June 18), Ney was unable to dislodge Wellington before Blucher returned to the battlefield. Since Grouchy did *not* show up, Blucher and Wellington swept Ney from the field, ending Napoleon's dreams forever. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LJ03

Plains of Waterloo (III), The [Laws J4]

DESCRIPTION: A boast of the bloody victory at Waterloo, telling of Mooney, who rides a milk-white steed as he rides his troops, and of General Hill, one of thousands of casualties
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: war Napoleon battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws J4, "The Plains of Waterloo III"
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 139, "Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 391, PLNSWLOO*
Roud #1923
File: LJ04

Plains of Waterloo (IV), The

DESCRIPTION: A very confused song. The singer goes to fight the French at Waterloo. He thinks of the mountains of Britain, and his parting from his girl. He receives a letter. Now the girl recalls her lover's departure and curses the man who killed him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: soldier death Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H608, pp. 87-88, "The Plains of Waterloo (IV)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 192, "The Plains of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1106
NOTES [69 words]: Sam Henry's text almost has to be a conflate song, combining two (or more) Waterloo ballads. Possibly they came together because both involved letters between lovers. But with only five stanzas of the combined piece, I haven't been able to identify the parts.
The best candidate seems to be Ford's song of the same name; they have similar opening lines, and Roud lumps the pieces. But the plots are different. - RBW
File: HHH608

Plains of Waterloo (IX)

DESCRIPTION: "The ancient sons of glory" were great but fame will proclaim those who fought at Waterloo. The English commanders, killed and wounded, are named. Napoleon runs to Paris to have his son crowned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(76))
KEYWORDS: war soldier death Napoleon battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 121-123, "The Plains of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 90, "The Battle of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #30109
RECORDINGS:
Pat Critch, "Waterloo" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(76), "The Plains of Waterloo" ("The ancient sons of glory were all great men, they say"), W. Armstrong (Liverpoo), 1820-1824; also Harding B 15(239b), Firth c.14(27), Harding B 11(3017), Harding B 11(3018), "[The] Plains of Waterloo"; Harding B 30(24), "The Battle of Waterloo"
NOTES [79 words]: Telling the various Plains of Waterloo songs apart is difficult, because they so often start with a statement that it was "On the eighteenth day of June"; it's what follows that differentiates the song. I won't guarantee that every version of these songs is properly filed. The broadside texts of this start with the reference to "The ancient sons of glory," but this was forgotten in the short version in Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands; it has an "eighteenth day" opening. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: KiTu121

Plains of Waterloo (V), The

DESCRIPTION: "On the sixteenth day of June, my boys, in Flanders where we lay," the troops are ordered to meet Napoleon at Waterloo. Napoleon urges on his men; Wellington just fights. When the British emerge victorious, they drink to King George
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Logan-APedlarsPack)
KEYWORDS: war Napoleon battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 106-109, "The Battle of Waterloo" (1 text)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 61-65, "The Plains of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 299-301, "The Plains of Waterloo" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 120-121, "The Plains of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 1016-1017, "The Plains of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 202-203, "The Battle of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune, short enough that it might be one of the other Waterloo songs but more likely this)
ST LJ03A (Partial)
Roud #1106
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "The Plains of Waterloo" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:033, "The Battle of Waterloo," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Plains of Waterloo (II)" [Laws J3] (subject, plot)
SAME TUNE:
Behold He Comes (per broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:033)
NOTES [421 words]: Laws mentions this piece in connection with Laws J3, "The Plains of Waterloo (II)," quoting Mackenzie's claim that this is the literary original of that ballad. Earlier editions of this index lumped the two (based on a lack of reliable texts of Laws J3 for comparison).
But, as Bennett Schwartz points out, they are not the same song as they stand now, and this piece may not even be the actual source of the Laws ballad; the material they both contain is largely commonplace. Thus we split them, though fragments might go with either one, and there will be editors who lump. - BS, RBW
Although the "Battle of Waterloo" took place on June 18, 1815, it was actually the culmination of a several-day campaign. Napoleon, who had just returned from Elba, knew that all Europe would soon turn against him. His only hope was to defeat his enemies piecemeal -- starting with the Anglo-Dutch army of Wellington (the hero of the Peninsular campaign) and the Prussian army of Blucher.
Even though Napoleon started levying troops immediately, Wellington and Blucher together outnumbered the forces at his command by better than three to two. He had to separate them. He undertook this by dividing his army into two wings, the left under Ney and the right under Grouchy. (This was probably Napoleon's worst mistake of the campaign. He left his three of his best Marshals -- Soult, Suchet, and Davout -- in minor roles, while making the uninspired Ney and the inexperienced Grouchy his field commanders).
Napoleon struck first on June 16. Ordering Ney to attack Wellington's rearguard at Quatre Bras, Napoleon took Grouchy's reinforced right and attacked Blucher at Ligny. Ney's attack accomplished little, but Grouchy beat Blucher handily at Ligny.
Napoleon had apparently achieved his objective; Blucher was forced to retreat -- which took him away from Wellington. Napoleon therefore swung the larger part of his army back to deal with the British.
Unfortunately for the French, Blucher didn't retreat far. Even worse, Grouchy didn't follow him closely. Ney's errors topped things off. Given field command by Napoleon at Waterloo (June 18), Ney was unable to dislodge Wellington before Blucher returned to the battlefield. Since Grouchy did *not* show up, Blucher and Wellington swept Ney from the field, ending Napoleon's dreams forever.
The other general mentioned in the song, Jerome, was Napoleon's younger brother. At Waterloo he commanded Ney's left, and failed completely to rout the British from their stronghold of Hougoumont. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LJ03A

Plains of Waterloo (VI), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of her love, a soldier. She describes his beauty. He fights in the peninsular war. He dies at Salamanca and Waterloo. She describes his last messages, then says she will remain faithful until her own death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: battle soldier death Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 22, 1812 - Battle of Salamanca
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #79, pp. 2-3, "The Plains of Waterloo" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 152, "The Plains of Waterloo" (8 texts, 7 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H15, p. 87, "The Plains of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 191, "The Plains of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2853
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(49), "The Battle of Waterloo" ("On the 16th day of June, my boys, in Flanders where we lay"), unknown, no date; also Johnson Ballads 2338[many illegible lines; "Written by two soldiers of the Highland Brigade"], "The Battle of Waterloo"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Waterloo
NOTES [95 words]: The Sam Henry version of this song seems to conflate the battles of Salamanca and Waterloo; the hero is fighting at the first when he dies at the second. Either the song has been strangely damaged in transmission (and it shows no other signs of damage), or it was written by someone with no real understanding of the Napoleonic Wars. My guess is the latter; I suspect this was written well after its alleged date. - RBW
Harding B 11(3020)Greig/Duncan1 152C verse 1 belongs to "The Plains of Waterloo (VIII)"; the other two verses belong to "The Plains of Waterloo (V)." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: HHH015

Plains of Waterloo (VII), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells about her lover who "fought in Spain and Portugal and was slain at Waterloo." When Ireland fell he joined Bonaparte, promising to return and marry. "When Bathurst was taken" he went to Waterloo. She'll have no other man.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: love battle soldier death Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 190, "The Plains of Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [303 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 considers this the same song as "The Plains of Waterloo" (VI), but then he argues against his own position: "Unlike most other Napoleonic songs found in Ireland and Britain, the hero of the song fights on Napoleon's side." Moylan's version of "The Plains of Waterloo" (VI) (Moylan 191) shares no lines with this ballad.
Moylan speculates that the Bathurst reference "may refer to Henry, the 3rd Earl of Bathurst, who was Secretary of State for the Colonies." There is a connection between "Bathurst" and Napoleon. The following statement is from the Napoleonic Society site: "It is our view that Liverpool, Castlereagh and Bathurst betrayed Napoleon by offering him asylum in England and then sending him off to St-Helena." Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh (Foreign Secretary 1812-1822), Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (Prime Minister 1812-1827), and Henry Bathurst (Secretary of State for War and the Colonies 1812-1827) are the parties mentioned.
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Love at Waterloo" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001))
Frank Harte's version resolves the Bathurst "problem." His verse is
When Badajoz was taken and our leaders all were dead,
The plain around in carnage lay to show how much we bled,
Ten thousand man lay in their gore and those who fled were few,
And we marched on to fight once more on the Plains of Waterloo.
Harte: "Badajoz ... is the capital of Badajoz province situated near the border with Portugal. The French captured it in 1811, and held it until the following year when it was retaken by the British, led by the Duke of Wellington." - BS
File: Moyl190

Plains of Waterloo (VIII), The

DESCRIPTION: "On the eighteenth day of June, my boys, Napoleon did advance." "The fight did last from ten o'clock until the close of day." The Belgians desert the Britons on the field but "the Prussians with the English join'd so nobly drubb'd their foe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1856 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(91))
KEYWORDS: battle France Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 153, "Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 204-206, "With Wellington We'll Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5824
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(91), "Plains of Waterloo" ("On the eighteenth day of June, my boys, Napoleon did advance"), W. Jackson and Son (Birmingham), 1842-1855; also Harding B 11(3020), Harding B 25(1503), Firth b.25(507), Firth c.14(28), Firth c.14(7), Harding B 15(239a), "The Plains of Waterloo[!]"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hanoverian March" (tune, per broadsides Bodleian Firth b.25(507), Firth c.14(28))
cf. "A-Hunting We Will Go" (tune, per Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs)
NOTES [344 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(91) is the basis for the description. - BS
The song conforms to the general outline of the Battle of Waterloo: Napoleon with most of his army attacked Wellington. He came fairly close to victory, but was defeated when the Prussian forces under Blucher arrived and gave the allies a decisive edge in numbers, guaranteeing a French defeat.
It should be noted that there was no nation of Belgium at the time of Waterloo; it was a later creation. Still, the army of Wellington did contain soldiers from this part of the Low Countries -- and he didn't trust them much, and made sure to alternate them with reliable English soldiers.
The times in the song are inaccurate. There was some minor fighting in the morning around the strong British position at Hougoumont (see David Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon, Macmillan, 1966, p. 1072, but Napoleon did not begin his big push until 1:00 p.m. on June 18, to let the ground dry out (Chandler, p. 1067). Few British forces were involved until the latter attack began. And even when Napoleon began his artillery bombardment, the British were mostly hidden behind a ridge line, keeping them safe (Chandler, p. 1073).
Fighting continued at some points of the line until 8:00 or 9:00 in the evening (Chandler, p. 1090), as the light faded. By that time, Napoleon's left was completely stalled (it had been stalled all day), his center had been repulsed, and his right had been bent back into a hairpin salient and was starting to crumble (see the map on pp. 1082-1083 of Chandler).
The French army was not completely ruined, as is sometimes asserted -- indeed, it did some good rearguard fighting -- but it was definitely defeated. Napoleon turned the task of rallying the troops over to Marshal Soult and prepared to head for Paris to try to hold his government together (Chandler, p. 1090). But though France was probably physically capable of fighting on, no one except Napoleon wanted to continue the fight. He ended up riding all the way into exile, and was sent to Saint Helena. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: GrD1153

Plains of Waterloo (X), The

See Lonely Waterloo [Laws N31] (File: LN31)

Plainte du Capitaine, La (The Captain's Lament)

DESCRIPTION: French. A wind blows the ship off course. The captain climbs the mainmast and finds the way home but is thrown into the sea. He is sorry to leave his family. At his burial he wants the crew to sing that he died on the deadly sea.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage death sea ship storm children mother wife sailor mourning separation funeral
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 161-162, "La Plainte du Capitaine" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Pea161

Plainy Clappy (Plainy Marmalade, Plainy Packet of Rinso)

DESCRIPTION: "Plainy, clappy, rolley, to-backy, Hippy, tippy...." Or "Plainy marmalade (x2), One of the nurses Lost her purses, Plainy marmalade." Or "Plainy packet of Rinso, Over packet of Rinso, Downy packet of Rinso, Dashy packet..., Right leg packet...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: nonballad food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 62, "(Plainy, clappy, rolley, to-backy)"; p. 64, "(Plainy marmalade)"; "(Plainy packet of Rinso)" (3 texts)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 31, "(Plainy, clappy, roly-poly)" (1 text)
Roud #19541
NOTES [39 words]: The texts of this are all very different, but all seem to be one-shots. Roud lumps them, and while I'm not sure I agree, I'm not sure they're worth splitting. The key word is "Plainy," found at the start of most if not all versions. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BAAI064A

Plainy, Clappy, Roly-Poly

See Plainy Clappy (Plainy Marmalade, Plainy Packet of Rinso) (File: BAAI064A)

Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee)

DESCRIPTION: Once the crop is gathered in, the illegal workers who harvested them can be sent back to Mexico. They are taken and separated and put on a plane across the border. The plane catches fire and crashes over Los Gatos; the Mexicans are killed
AUTHOR: Words: Woody Guthrie / Music: Martin Hoffman
EARLIEST DATE: 1961
KEYWORDS: death disaster foreigner work political flying crash exile emigration
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 28, 1948 - The Los Gatos plane crash
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 367-369, "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 294-295, "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos" (1 text)
DT, DEPORTE*
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Deportee" (on PeteSeeger41)
NOTES [315 words]: According to James Sullivan, Which Side Are You On?: 20th Century History in 100 Protest Songs, with a foreword by The Reverend Lennox Yearwood and Bill McKibben, Oxford University Press, 2019, p. 147, the plane in this song crashed near Coalinga, California. If you draw a line from Fresno, California, due southwest to the ocean, Coalinga is just about at the midpoint.
In the song, Woody says that the workers' "work contract's out and we have to move on" but calls them "Deportees." The former statement is more nearly true -- although the people on the plane were Mexicans, the majority were legal; they seasonal workers being sent back to Mexico once their work was done. Only a few were true deportees -- illegal immigrants being sent back. "Most news reports at the time of the crash gave the names of the pilot, the first officer, the flight attendant, and the immigration officer assigned to accompany the flight" -- in other words, the Americans. "But the rest of the occupants of the chartered DC-3 were commonly identified only as 'Mexican nationals.'"
Hence Woody's song.
Woody presumably had a tune for the song, but he obviously can't have written the song before 1948, and he never recorded after that. So it was left to Martin Hoffman to set a new tune to Woody's lyrics. He gave it to Pete Seeger when Seeger performed in Fort Collins, Colorado about a decade later, and Seeger spread it (Sullivan, pp. 147-148).
In 2013, a memorial was finally put up listing all the dead (Sullivan, p. 148). I have to suspect that Guthrie's words, and Hoffman's excellent tune, had a lot to do with that.
I find it slightly ironic that the only cemetery Google Maps shows in Coalinga, which I presume is the site of the memorial, is less than half a mile from the New Coalinga Municipal Airport, and appears to be right on the flight path of planes taking off and landing there. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SBoA367

Plant a Watermelon upon My Grave

See Put a Watermelon Rind Upon My Grave (File: NCF162PW)

Plant, Plant the Tree

DESCRIPTION: Freedom's sun is rising for Ireland. "Despotic sway from France is chas'd, And church delusion's vanish'd"; Ireland needs the same. "Plant ... fair Freedom's Tree." The French will help. "Erin Go Bragh" will replace "God Save the King." Wars will end
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1790s (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: rebellion France Ireland political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 5, "Plant, Plant the Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 19, "Plant, Plant the Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [91 words]: Evidently a reference to the events of the 1790s, when the French Revolution seemed to portend freedom for many nations. The irony is that instead it led to the Reign of Terror, and Napoleon, and not much else. Indeed, Ireland would see her freedom reduced; since 1782, she had had some internal autonomy under Grattan's Parliament (see the notes to "Ireland's Glory"). But the French were in fact very little help (see the notes to "The Shan Van Voght"), and Ireland would suffer first the 1798 rebellion and then the Union of the Parliaments. - RBW
File: Zimm005

Plantonio

See Pattonia, the Pride of the Plains [Laws B12] (File: LB12)

Plantonio, The Pride of the Plains

See Pattonia, the Pride of the Plains [Laws B12] (File: LB12)

Platonia

See Pattonia, the Pride of the Plains [Laws B12] (File: LB12)

Platonia, The Pride of the Plains

See Pattonia, the Pride of the Plains [Laws B12] (File: LB12)

Platte River Girl, The

See Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl) [Laws C25] (File: LC25)

Play on the Hill

DESCRIPTION: "There's a play on the hill tonight (x3), Don't let the Yankees know it. The Rebels are my delight (x3). Don't let the Yankees know it."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (collected from Donald Davidson by Boswell)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 53, p. 91, "Play on the Hille" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11030
File: BosWo053

Playing for the Boneen

See Little Boneen (File: RcLitBon)

Playing Shop

See Buy Away (Playing Shop) (File: BAAI029)

Playing the Game in the West

DESCRIPTION: "Since I've been in London, it's easy to see, There's no other johnny looks smarter than me.... I'm playing the game in the west, leading the life's that's thrilling, Out of a two-bob piece, all I've got left is a shilling." He has other costly adventures
AUTHOR: Alec Kendall (and George Formby Sr.?) (source: Fowke; monologues.co.uk)
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (source: monologues.co.uk)
KEYWORDS: humorous money police clothes drugs drink
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 34, "Playing the Game in the West" (1 fragment, a composite of several of the choruses)
Roud #25485
File: KSUC034A

Playmates

See See, See, My Playmate (File: OpGa148)

Plea for Mercy, A

See Rosedale Waters (The Skeptic's Daughter) (File: R601)

Plea for One World, A

DESCRIPTION: "A plea for one world Is heard in many different lands. This is the plea of a world That is hungry for peace. Let all men come together, Let all men live together, Striving to make the world better, Pledging their lives for peace."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 310, 444, 548, "A Plea for One World" (notes only)
DT, ONEWORLD
NOTES [54 words]: The Digital Tradition note on this song "thinks" this was translated from Russian but gives no source. Averill on p. 548 notes several instances of camps suppressing it because it was pro-United Nations or pro-universality. Which perhaps tells you everything you need to know about the sorry state of the present world. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF310P

Pleasant and Delightful

DESCRIPTION: On a "pleasant and delightful" midsummer's morn, a sailor bids farewell to his true love. She gives him a token, and begs to come along with him. He forbids it, but promises that they will be wed "if ever I return again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1841 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.18(276))
KEYWORDS: love farewell ring separation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 64, "The Sailor and His True Love" (12 texts, 10 tunes)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 466, "Sailor and His True Love" (1 text)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 64-65, "Pleasant and Delightful" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 82, "Pleasant and Delightful" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PLESDELT*
Roud #660
RECORDINGS:
Sam Larner, "Happy and Delightful" (on SLarner02)
Cyril Poacher, "A Sailor and His True Love" (on Voice02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.18(276), "The Sailor and his Truelove" ("As a young sailor and his truelove one morning in May"), J. Jennings (London), 1790-1840; also Firth c.12(147), Harding B 17(266b), "Sailor and his Truelove"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14]" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "The Bold Privateer" [Laws O32] (meter)
cf. "The Soldier and the Sailor" (meter)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mary Ann
Charming Mary Ann
NOTES [126 words]: This song shares many similarities with "Farewell, Charming Nancy" [Laws K14]; it is not impossible that they have a common ancestor. But the degree of difference is now so large that, until an intermediate version shows up, I must regard them as separate.
The song plays a small but significant role in Terry Pratchett's novel I Shall Wear Midnight, the fourth Tiffany Aching book (which, despite being a Discworld book, is more a romance than a comedy. Pratchett also has a tendency to refer obliquely to folk songs, but this is one of the rare cases where he quotes the song text, and does so without parody. I don't know if it was because he knew he was dying and wanted to be more serious, or if it is coincidence, but it is definitely unusual). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: DTplesde

Pleasant Month of May (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "The pleasant month of May is now a-coming on, The trees are in full bloom, So ye maidens and ye swains," so maidens and swains should go out to pay. "Now that I am single, And I can take no rest," she will seek her lover's arms. She enjoys married life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 64, "The Pleasant Month of May" (1 text)
Roud #1432
File: HenV064

Pleasant Month of May (II), The

See The Merry Haymakers (File: HHH697)

Pleasant Ohio

DESCRIPTION: "When rambling o'er these mountains And rocks, where ivies grow... great storms of snow, cold winds that blow... Says I, my boys, we'll leave this place For the pleasant Ohio." The singer is sad to leave friends behind, but looks forward to Ohio life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1992 (Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory)
KEYWORDS: home travel nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 394-395, "[Pleasant Ohio]" (1 text)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 34-36, "Pleasant Ohio" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1026
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lovely Ohio" (subject)
cf. "Chase the Buffalo (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [31 words]: Roud appears to lump this with "Chase the Buffalo (I)," and there certainly seems to be a relationship. But I'd consider this to be a deliberate localization, so I'm splitting them. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: CAFS2394

Pleasant Valley

DESCRIPTION: "When you go through Pleasant Valley, You take a sudden sally... If you got a big load, You better take the ridge road." The singer gives other advice about how to make the trip. There is no water; all in all, an unpleasant trip
AUTHOR: Lafe Jennings (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 133-135, "Pleasant Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10860
File: ChMS133

Please Get Off the Grass

See Please Keep Off the Grass (File: BAAI064E)

Please Have Mercy on a Longtime Man

DESCRIPTION: "Well I went to the Captain, with my hat in my hand, Said, 'A-Lordy, have mercy, on a longtime man.... He spit on the ground." The singer recalls the poor food, says that his parents lied about earning him a pardon, and complains of prison life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (vollected from Louis Houston and Matt Williams by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: prison nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 88-91, "Please Have Mercy on a Longtime Man" (3 texts, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Godalmighty Drag" (lyrics)
NOTES [79 words]: Jackson notes that his informants regard his three texts as three different songs. In terms of content, they are right -- each version is distinct, and while any two versions have words in common, there is hardly anything common to the three. But they have the same tune, and the rest seems to be more the result of the extreme fluidity of prison songs than anything else. Given that all three versions seem to be largely unique, it didn't seem worthwhile to split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM088

Please Keep Off the Grass

DESCRIPTION: "Please keep off the grass, sir, To let the ladies pass, sir, Ladies before gents, sir, So please keep off the grass, sir."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | grass
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 64, "(Please get off the grass)" (1 text)
Roud #19382
File: BAAI064E

Please Lord, Don't Leave Me

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Please Lord, don't leave me (alone) (x3), Guide me on my way." Verses are floaters about Noah's ark, "... two by two, ... kangaroo," the raven and dove, and "rainbow sign, It wouldn't be water but fire next time"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (USSeaIsland04)
KEYWORDS: Bible flood floatingverses religious animal bird
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Gullah Kinfolk, "Gullah Intro/Pleeze Lawdy" (on USSeaIsland04)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Uncle Noah" (theme, some lines) and references there
cf. "Don't Leave Me, Lord" (chorus)
NOTES [31 words]: While "Please Lord, Don't Leave Me" shares a chorus with "Don't Leave Me, Lord" the verse structure is different: "Please Lord, Don't Leave Me" verse has no repeated alternate line. - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: GuKiGLPL

Please Mama Stay Home With Me

DESCRIPTION: "A mother went out to a party, She left at home her dear son" even though he repeatedly said, "Please, Mama, please stay home with me." She eventually comes home to find her baby sick; the doctor can do nothing and the baby dies
AUTHOR: credited to Eddy Arnold / J. Graydon Hall / Wallace Fowler by secondhandsongs.com
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (recording, Eddy Arnold and his Tennessee Plowboys)
KEYWORDS: mother children death doctor drink warning party
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #122, "A Mother Went Out on a Party" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MOMMY*
Roud #26983
RECORDINGS:
Eddy Arnold and his Tennessee Plowboys, "Mommy Please Stay Home with Me" (Bluebird 33-0520-A, 1945; recorded 1944)
NOTES [73 words]: Although this song clearly puts the blame for the baby's death on the mother, and today we would assuredly blame her for leaving her child at home unprotected, it is most unlikely that the mother could have saved the child by staying home; if the poor boy died that quickly, he was already sick by the time the mother left. I'd file this under "bogus tear-jerkers," not because it isn't pathetic but because it isn't at all probable. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RAInP122

Please Mommy Stay Home With Me

See Please Mama Stay Home With Me (File: RAInP122)

Please to Remember

See The Fifth of November (Guy Fawkes Song) (File: OpEs119)

Please, Don't Burn Our Shithouse Down

DESCRIPTION: The singer pleads for his/her outhouse, chronicling the family's woes, and promises to pay [tax?]. Alternately, lists all the venereal diseases in the family, or says that there will be no choice left for sanitary functions except the yard
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1733 (Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius)
KEYWORDS: bawdy family humorous scatological
FOUND IN: Australia Canada Britain(England,Scotland) Ireland US(All) New Zealand
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 109-111, "Please, Don't Burn Our Shithouse Down" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 191-195, "Finest Fucking Family" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 167, "Times Is Hard" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Albert Smith and Ian Smith, _Mosquito Pathfinder_, 2003 republished as Lewis Brandon, Albert Smith, Ian Smith, _Night Flyer/Mosquito Pathfinder: Night Operations in World War II_, Stackpole Military History Series, 2011, pp. 246-247, "(no title)" (1 short text, sung on British air bases in the 1940s)
Roud #10270
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My God, How the Money Rolls In"
cf. "My Daddy's a Delver of Dykes"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Finest Fucking Family in the Land
My Father Was Hung for Sheep-Stealing (as a Horse Thief)
File: EM109

Please, Mister Barkeeper

DESCRIPTION: "Please, Mr. Barkeeper, has father been here?" The barkeeper directs the hoy to the policeman, and the policeman to the jailer; the man has been arrested (for drink?). The boy waits all day outside the prison. Finally someone promises to drink no more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: drink prison children
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 256-257, "Please, Mister Bartender" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4926 and 15678
NOTES [67 words]: This looks like a pretty standard nineteenth century temperance song, but the ending in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin is confused. As it stands, the boy awaits his father in vain, then goes home and promises to drink no more. I suspect two verses have been conflated: The boy probably waits all day, then the father is released (perhaps due to the boy's pleading) and promises to change his ways. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet256

Please, Mister Conductor (The Lightning Express)

DESCRIPTION: The conductor demands a boy's ticket. He has none. He went to work in the city to pay for his mother's care, but now she is dying. He has no fare, but is going to be with her; he begs the conductor to let him stay. The passengers chip in to pay his fare.
AUTHOR: J. Fred Helf (?) and E. P. Moran
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (copright)
KEYWORDS: mother disease age separation train help
FOUND IN: US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 321-325, "Please, Mr. Conductor/The Lightning Express" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 720, "Please, Mister Conductor" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 468-470, "Please, Mister Conductor" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 720A)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 39, "The Little Boy on a Train" (1 text)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 44-45, "Lightning Express" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 27, "Lightning Express" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7389
RECORDINGS:
Blue Sky Boys, "The Lightning Express" (Bluebird B-8369, Montgomery Ward M-8414, 1940)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Lightning Express" (OKeh 7008, 1924)
Johnny & Albert Crockett, "Lightnin' Express" (Crown 3074, 1930)
Pete Daley's Arkansas Fiddlers, "Lightning Express" (Varsity 5078, n.d.)
Vernon Dalhart, "Lightning Express" (Banner 1594, 1925) (Challenge 165/Challenge 320, 1927) (Champion 15017, 1925) (Victor 19837, 1925)
Byron G. Harlan "Please, Mr. Conductor, Don't Put Me Off The Train" (CYL: Edison 7219, 1903)
Jim Holbert, "The Lightning Express" (AFS 4130 B2, 1940; on LC61)
Frank Hutchison, "Lightning Express" (OKeh 45144, 1927)
Bradley Kincaid, "The Lightning Express" (Melotone 12184, 1931; Vocalion 02683, 1934)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner [Mac & Bob], "The East Bound Train" (Vocalion 5174/Vocalion 5200/Brunswick 169/Brunswick 326, 1928; Supertone S-2032 [as Kentucky Mountain Boys], 1930; rec. 1927)
Gene McNulty, "Lightning Express" (Decca 12202)
George Reneau, "The Lightning Express" (Vocalion 5056/Vocalion 14991, 1925; Silvertone 3045 [as George Hobson], 1924)
Mervin Shiner, "The Lightning Express" (Decca 46272, 1950)
Ernest V. Stoneman "The Lightning Express" (OKeh 40408, 1925)
Arthur Tanner, "The Lightning Express Train" (Puritan 9160, n.d. but prob. c. 1926)
Ernest Thompson, "The Lightning Express" (Columbia 145-D, 1924)
Wesley Tuttle, "The Lightning Express" (Coral 64068, 1950)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Going for a Pardon" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The East Bound Train
NOTES [93 words]: The sheet music of this is obscure enough (or illegible enough) that the first author is various listed as "H. Fred Delf" and J. Fred Helf. I've tentatively listed the latter in the "author" field, since it's the form Norm Cohen uses, and he's more authoritative than any of the other sources.
The memory of Delf/Helf and Moran is quite obscure; their copyright was not renewed, and we find the song being re-copyrighted in 1925 by Triangle Music Publishing, with no reference to the original authors; they credited to the universal pseudonym E. V. Body. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R720

Plee, Plee Blackie

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme(?). "Plee, Plee Blackie went to his garden, When he went to his garden the robber Was hiding behind the garage. Their mother came got Plee... He found Plee... was gone. The robber and Plee, Plee Blackie went to jail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Journal of American Folklore)
KEYWORDS: jumprope robbery
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #464, "Plee, Plee Blackie went to his garden" (1 text)
Roud #29380
NOTES [21 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes suggests this is "an improvisation." Which seems to be a polite way of saying it doesn't make sense. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR464

Pleeze Lawdy

See Please Lord, Don't Leave Me (File: GuKiGLPL)

Plooin' match here I'll insert, A

See The Tyrie Plooin' Match (File: GdD3424)

Plooin' Match, The

DESCRIPTION: The ploughmen meet at (Hilton) to have a contest. The various ploughmen are listed, along with the way they competed. The song concludes, "The judges cam frae far an' near... But some wad say their sicht was puir That day among the ploomen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming racing humorous moniker contest
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #163, p. 1, "The Plooin' Match" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 422, "The Plooin' Match" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 239-241, "The Ploughing Match" (1 text)
Roud #5581
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whistle Owre the Lave o't" (tune, per Greig)
cf. "The Fyvie Ploughmen" (subject: ploughing match)
cf. "Harrowing Time" (subject: ploughing match)
NOTES [62 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads observes that "When singing this song the singer generally puts in the names of persons known to his audience.... The locus of the match has also been forgotten." And, indeed, Grieg's versions have no name. - RBW
See Ord for the names of the participants. Greig and Greig/Duncan3 use letters, in sequence -- A.B., B.C., ... -- instead of names. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ord239

Plooman Geordie

See Geordie's Courtship (I Wad Rather a Garret) (File: Ord204B)

Plooman Laddie (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "My love's a plooman and follows the ploo, I promised to him and I'll keep it true.... What's better than a plooman?" The singer rejects many (e.g. "I micht hae gotten the miller... But the smell o' the dust wad had done me ill") and rejoices to be wed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: love courting farming rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #130, p. 1, "The Plooman Laddie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 445, "The Plooman Laddie" (5 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 223-224, "The Plooman Laddie" (1 text)
Roud #3447
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me)" (theme: professional comparison) and references there
cf. "The Rigs o' Rye" (tune, per Greig)
cf. "My Love's a Plooman" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Micht Hae Gotten
The Ploughman
NOTES [114 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads lists this as being sung to "The Rigs o Rye." The tune I've heard isn't quite that, though it's close. - RBW
Greig's text is "a piecing together of two or three versions, none of which is complete, but each of which provides something of its own." But at Greig #135, p. 3, "[M.S. (Mrs Sangster according to Greig/Duncan3)] says that the first verse 'My love is a ploughman and follows the plough, etc.,' is another song altogether from "I mith hae gotten the gairner o' yonder tree, etc.' although they were combined in our version. The songs are different, shes ays[sic], and have different tunes. This we can well believe, these songs get so mixed up." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord223

Plooman Laddie (II), The

See My Love's a Plooman (File: GrD3446)

Ploughboy (I), The

DESCRIPTION: In this confused composite of floating verses, the ploughboy courts Molly, but then departs to become a soldier. He will build Molly a castle and take her away. She nonetheless rejects him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection); c1810? (_English Minstrel_, according to Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 5" - 25.8.02)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection soldier flowers floatingverses
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H780, p. 345-346, "The Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #62, p. 226-227, "Lovely Molly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1446
RECORDINGS:
Lizzie Higgins, "Lovely Molly" (on Voice05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Blackbird and Thrush" (theme)
NOTES [113 words]: This song consists almost entirely of floating material (see the cross-references), and is fairly incoherent as a result. The largest element is "Green Grows the Laurel" (to such an extent that it's almost a version of that song), but there are plenty of other elements. The composite probably didn't circulate widely as an independent entity. - RBW
"[O]ne source credits Charles Dibdin as its author," according to Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 5" - 25.8.02. - BS
My guess would be that Dibdin is responsible for some of the floating material; on that basis, I have not listed him in the "author" field, even as a possibility. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: HHH780

Ploughboy (II), The

See The Lark in the Morning (File: ShH62)

Ploughboy (III), The

See The Brisk Young Plougboy (File: PECS004)

Ploughboy (IV), The

See Now the Winter Is Over (The Ploughboy) (File: Dors002)

Ploughboy of the Lowlands, The

See Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low [Laws M34] (File: LM34)

Ploughboy's Dream, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a ploughboy, recalls a dream: he tries unsuccessfully to plow hard ground and curses and beats his horses; an angel stops him warning "there's One that knows your crimes and sins." He warns other ploughboy lads to "let kindness your motto be"
AUTHOR: William Mason (source: broadside Bodleian Harding B 7(44))
EARLIEST DATE: 1795 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 7(44))
KEYWORDS: warning abuse farming dream religious horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #54, pp. 1-2, "The Ploughboy's Dream" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 491, "The Ploughboy's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #94, "The Ploughboy's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1545
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 7(44), "The Plow-boy's Dream" ("I am a plow-boy stout and strong"), J. Marshall (London), 1795; also Harding B 11(3032), "The Ploughboy's Dream"
NOTES [107 words]: This is surely a rewrite of the story of Balaam's Ass, applied to a farmer's situation. In Numbers 22:22-35, Balaam has been hired by the King of Moab to try to curse Israel. On the way, the donkey first turns off into a field, then crushes Balaam's foot against a rock, then stop still in the middle of the path. Balaam each time strikes it, but on the third time the donkey speaks, and an angel tells Balaam that the donkey had kept him from being killed by the angel. Balaam repents of his treatment of the donkey. The song lacks the incident of the horses talking, but the rest -- including the moral against sinning -- is the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: GrD3491

Ploughboy's Glory

See Come All You Jolly Ploughboys (Here's April, Here's May; The Two Brothers) (File: BuDa033)

Ploughboys, The

See The Lark in the Morning (File: ShH62)

Ploughing Match (I), The

See The Plooin' Match (File: Ord239)

Ploughing Match (II), The

See Then Some wi Pins (File: GrD3423)

Ploughing Match at Bucharn, The

DESCRIPTION: "John Geggie's man he cocked his hat When he began to smele thereat That he was foremost of the lot And judged to be the rarest."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: contest farming racing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1882, "The Ploughing Match at Bucharn" (1 fragment)
Roud #13568
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ah, Smiler Lad" (ploughing match)
cf. "Dalmuir Ploughing Match" (ploughing match)
cf. "The Inverquhomery Ploughing Match" (ploughing match)
cf. "The Plooin' Match" (ploughing match)
cf. "The Tyrie Plooin' Match" (ploughing match)
NOTES [28 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
The singer recalled that this fragment was from "an old song in regard to a ploughing match at Bucharn." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81882

Ploughman (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "The ploughman, he's a bonnie lad, And does his wark at leisure... Then up wi't noo, my ploughman lad, And hey my merry ploughman." The singer describes her ploughman's work, and the work she does to keep him well, and scorns those who scorn him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: in traditional form 1906 (Greig/Duncan3); Burns rewrote it for the Scots Musical Museum
KEYWORDS: work marriage nonballad farming
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 451, "Commend Me to the Plooman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 217, "The Ploughman" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 354, "The Ploughman" (1 text)
Roud #5582
NOTES [10 words]: The Greig/Duncan3 tune is very close to "The Boyne Water." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Ord217

Ploughman (II), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a ploughman, praises his fellows, his profession and his recreations.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904
KEYWORDS: work drink nonballad farming
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 122-123, "I Am a Pretty Wench" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 449)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 84, "The Ploughman" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PLOUGHM4*
Roud #2538
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I am a Pretty Wench"
NOTES [310 words]: This is a muddled song. As collected in 1904, the singer began with a verse from "The Condescending Lass" (a song in which the lass in question rejects the idea of marrying men of various professions). He veered off immediately, however, into a praiseful description of ploughmen, and the lass is not heard from again. [Vaughan Williams and Lloyd] excised the seemingly-unconnected first verse and assigned the present title (the singer had called it "Pretty Wench"). -PJS
[For that "Pretty Wench" song, see "I am a Pretty Wench." The title "The Condescending Lass" for the poem appears to be known primarily from broadsides; the typical traditional title is either "Pretty Wench" or "I Am a Pretty Wench." - RBW]
To tell this from other songs in praise of farmhands, consider this first stanza:
"A ploughman dresses fine, he drinks strong beer ale and wine
And the best of tobacco he do smoke;
Pretty maids don't think amiss a ploughman for to kiss,
For his breath smells as sweet as a rose, a rose, a rose
For his breath smells as sweet as a rose." - RBW
It appears Roud would have Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 525, "I am a pretty wench" be the verse excised by Vaughan Williams and Lloyd. Roud has other examples as well under #2538. Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes notes that this song is in Alfred Williams Folk-Songs of the Upper Thames (1923) and that Vaughan Williams did collect it. If we ever add one of those "The Pretty Wench" songs it should probably considered separate from "The Ploughman."
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames has the pretty wench compare weavers to carters ("The carter dresses fine, He drinks strong beer, ale, and wine, And smokes tobacco ...." and "his breath smells as sweet as the rose...."). It does begin with the "I Am a Pretty Wench" verse which matches the pattern of the rest of the song. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: VWL084

Ploughman (III)

See The Painful Plough (File: Ord222)

Ploughman Chiel and the Ploughman Laddie, The

DESCRIPTION: "The ploughman chiel and the ploughman laddie, Are you afraid of the ploughman laddie? Are you afraid that he'll do you wrong, Na nae a bit for he'll do me none"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming questions
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 416, "The Ploughman Chiel and the Ploughman Laddie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #5937
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ploughman Laddie
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 entry. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD416

Ploughman Lad for Me, A

DESCRIPTION: "Where first I saw my Jockie, Was at (Huntly) feeing fair." She praises his beauty, declaring, "So a ploughman lad for me." She cares not what her parents think, and is willing to work hard alongside him; his love is worth more than riches
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1860 (broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(023))
KEYWORDS: love courting farming
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 280-281, "A Ploughman Lad for Me" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(023), "The Ploughman Lads for Me," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 1852-1859 [despite the title, the song text refers "a ploughman lad," not "lads"]
NOTES [23 words]: Credited to John Wilson in the NLScotland broadside -- which, interestingly, leaves blank the name of the city in which the couple meets. - RBW
File: Ord280

Ploughman Laddie, The

See Collier Laddie, The (File: Ord040A)

Ploughman's Love to the Farmer's Daughter, The

See Flanders Shore, The (File: LyCr2090)

Ploughman's Praise, The

See The Useful Plow (File: BeCo365)

Ploughshare, The

See The Seasons of the Year (File: BrMa143)

Plowboy, The

See Cupid the Plowboy [Laws O7] (File: LO07)

Plowboy's Courtship, The

See Queen of the May (File: SWMS190)

Plowman's Praise, The

See The Useful Plow (File: BeCo365)

Pluie Tombe, La

DESCRIPTION: Creole French: "La pluie tombe, Crapeau chante, Oin, oin! oin, oin! oin, oin! M'a pale baigner moine, La pluie tombe, Marin-gouin crie...." As the rain falls, the frog an the mosquito call the singer into the water (and drown)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage animal bug drowning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 203-204, "La Pluie Tombe" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: ScaNF203

Plum and Apple

DESCRIPTION: "Plum and apple, Apple and plum, Plum and apple There is always some. The A.S.C. get strawberry jam And lashings of rum, But we poor blokes We only get Apple and plum."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier food drink hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 59, "Plum and Apple" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p.n84, "Plum and Apple" (1 text)
Roud #10545
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Just a Wee Doch-an-Dorris" (tune)
NOTES [73 words]: The text of the song does not refer to the brand of jam, but it is almost certainly Tickler's Jam; their apple-and-plum jam was typically the only one to reach the troops in World War I. (There was, obviously, a strawberry jam also, but the claim is that the supply people made off with that.)
Tickler's Jam is mentioned surprisingly often in other songs. See, among others,
- When the War Is Over, We Shall Have Some Jam
- Tittler's Jam - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BrPa059B

Plumb and Level, The

DESCRIPTION: "When Adam ruled the world" he and Eve "formed a bower to shade them from the weather's evil." "They lived in social harmony till madam longed for fruit ... And the bit she went out one morning for to meet the deevil"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: Bible Devil food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 472, "The Plumb and Level" (1 fragment)
Roud #5968
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.13(205), "The Tower of Babel" ("When Adam ruled the world by an order from the Grand"), unknown, no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Building of Solomon's Temple" [Laws Q39] (theme: Building the First Temple)
cf. "The Rules of Masonry" (theme: Building the First Temple)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Adam and Eve
NOTES [491 words]: Apparently Broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.13(205), "The Tower of Babel" ... is this song but I could not download and verify it. On the small image of the broadside that is visible, the broadside has at least eight verses compared to Greig/Duncan's 2 verses. The lines I can make out for verses one and two seem very close to Greig/Duncan3. - BS
I was able to download it, but large portions of the scan are unreadable. It lists as a tune "The old Orange [something]" (not "flute." "Order," perhaps?). The first verse tells the story of the fall of Adam and Eve, as described above; this tale is in Genesis 3 (though it never says Eve met the Devil; she met the Serpent).
Greig's decision to file this with the Masonic songs seems justified, since it refers to the "plumb gauge and level."
The next few verses refer to Noah building an ark with square gauge and level, and to forty days of rain. The tale of the flood occupies Genesis 6-8, with the "forty days" being mentioned e.g. in Genesis 7:4.
The next verse, which is probably about the Tower of Babel, has been obliterated. The story of the Tower is in Genesis 11.
Then we come to Solomon. This song, like "The Building of Solomon's Temple" [Laws Q39] and "The Rules of Masonry," hints at Solomon being a mason. But the building of the Temple is described in chapters 5-8 of 1 Kings (and 2 Chronicles chapters 2-6 with a foreshadowing in 1 Chron. 28-29). But it clearly was not built by masons; it was probably designed by Phoenicians (note that this song mentions "Hiram King of Tyre," the leading Phoenician monarch), and certainly constructed by slaves.
The final verse refers to "The widow's murdered son" who "masonic power displayed." I originally thought this is a reference to Jesus, who of course was considered to have been murdered. Legend, based on the fact that the gospels mention Mary but not Joseph during Jesus's adult ministry, has it that Mary outlived Joseph, making her a widow. As for Jesus showing Masonic power, John 2:19 has Jesus say, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (with verse 2:21 explaining that "he was speaking of the temple of his body"); in Mark 14:58 and parallels we read that Jesus was charged with saying "I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days build another not made with hands."
However, I was pretty clearly wrong. Rather, it is a reference to the legend of Hiram Abif, the "master builder" credited with building Solomon's Temple. Hiram Abif, whose actual name in 1 Chronicles was "Huram-abi" (2 Chronicles 2:13), who was "a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass [=bronze]: and he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass" (1 Kings 7:13). Masonic legend had it that he was murdered for refusing to reveal a deep secret. For more background, see the notes to "The Building of Solomon's Temple" [Laws Q39]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: GrD3472

Plumb the Line

DESCRIPTION: "Well, I'm so glad I can plumb the line (x3), It takes a number one (driver/tamper) to plumb the line." "Won't you come on, buddy, we can plumb the line." The singer describes his exploits, or asks for help in his work
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: work bragging prison nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 218-222, "Plumb the Line" (3 texts, 2 tunes); pp. 280-281, "Down the Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 9, pp. 67-70, "Plumb de Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10979
RECORDINGS:
Dock Reed & Vera Hall Ward, "Plumb the Line" (on NFMAla5)
NOTES [230 words]: Jackson thinks that "Plumb the Line" may have originated as a tie-tamping song, and I think it nearly certain that his version derives from a tamping text-- at least, it is certain that it has close analogies among tampers. But it seems to have become a specialized prison song.
Jackson's "Down the Line" is used for a different purpose (flatweeding rather than crosscutting), but in Jacskon's versions, the similarities are so great that they can still be treated as one song. Whether that would remain true after future evolution is another question, but given the rarity of both songs, it's not worth splitting at this time.
The Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands and Reed/Ward texts are religious; Ben Schwartz gave this description of the Parrish text: "The tag line of each verse is 'If you want to go to heaven you've got to Plumb the line.' Verses are 'O members (sister, deacon), Plumb the line" and "You've got to sing (shout) right, Plumb the line. The Dock Reed & Vera Hall recording has a different tag line: 'Anchor (?) in my Jesus, Plumb the line.'" It is not clear to me whether the religious or secular text is older; I lean slightly toward the religious version. Conceptually, they are different enough that they might be split, but there aren't enough versions of either to make it worthwhile. - RBW
Parrish includes this among her "ring shout" songs. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: JDM218

Plutocracy

DESCRIPTION: "The heir apparent's been and gone and the frenzied welcome's dead" but stories about the visit are still being published. The "piffle press" goes on about that, but won't tell of the sufferings of the lower classes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Transport Workers Songbook, according to Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: New Zealand royalty hardtimes nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1920 - the visit of the future Edward VIII to New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 106-107, "Plutocracy" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (tune) and references there
File: Clev106

Plymouth Sound

DESCRIPTION: "O the fair town of Plymouth is by the sea-side, The Sound is so blue and so still and so wide." The town has no equal. The "maidens" are "comely and sweet." He can't marry them all; perhaps it's just as well he's going away
AUTHOR: Words: Sabine Baring-Gould
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: home music courting | Plymouth
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #54, "Plymouth Sound" (1 text, 1 tune, the text being non-traditional)
Roud #6911
File: BGSW054

Po' Boy (I)

DESCRIPTION: "My mammy's in the cold cold ground, My daddy went away... now I've gone astray. I sit here in the prison, I do the best I can, But I get to thinkin' of the woman I love; She ran away with another man." The singer tried to rob a mail train, but was caught
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: prison crime robbery punishment separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 30-32, "Po' Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: San030

Po' Boy (II)

See The Cryderville Jail (File: LxU090)

Po' Boy (III)

See The Coon-Can Game [Laws I4] (File: LI04)

Po' Farmer

DESCRIPTION: "Work all week, don't make enough To pay my board and buy my snuff... It's a-hard on we po' farmers, it's a-hard." The farmer describes the long day's work -- only to come home to "peas in the pot and an old jaw-bone" and fifteen cents weekly pay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry; supposedly collected 1934)
KEYWORDS: work farming hardtimes poverty
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 280-281, "Po' Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 284, "Po' Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, POFARMER*
Roud #6709
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Humble Farmer" (theme)
File: LoF284

Po' Laz'us

See Poor Lazarus (Bad Man Lazarus) [Laws I12] (File: LI12)

Po' Li'l Ella

DESCRIPTION: "I'll tell you somep'n that bothers my mind: Po' li'l Ella laid down an' died." "I wouldn't a-minded little Ella dyin', But she left three chillum." "Judge, you dome me wrong, Ninety-nine years is sho' too long!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: death homicide children punishment prison judge
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 278-279, "Po' Li'l Ella" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [19 words]: Scarborough claims this is "a favorite in East Texas sawmill districts." But I've seen no other signs of it. - RBW
File: ScNF278B

Po' Lil Jesus

See Poor Little Jesus (File: LxU101)

Po' Liza Jane

DESCRIPTION: "Go long, po' Liza Jane (x2), I turned my head to the ole grey horse, Go long po' Liza Jane." "I ast her would she marry me; She ast me wasn't I shamed." "I went up to the new-cut road, And she went down the lane."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting horse floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 456, "Po' Liza Jane" (1 short text)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 172, "Liza Jane" (1 text, with a "Cindy...Cindy Jane" chorus)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 169, (no title) (1 text, with verses probably from "Raccoon," unless they just floated in, while the chorus seems to be "Po' Liza Jane")
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 237, (no title) (1 fragment, about a Yankee and a toad, which might be this or any of the songs to which the verse floats)
Roud #825
NOTES [33 words]: This reminds me a bit of "Goodbye Liza Jane (I)," but based on the short text in Brown, it does not appear possible to identify it with any of the other Liza Jane songs (though Roud lumps it). - RBW
File: Br3456

Po' Mournah!

See Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady) (File: San011)

Po' Shine

DESCRIPTION: "You can't do me like you done po' Shine, Paid off everybody and you didn't pay Shine." About the hard times on a work crew. Shine departs seeking better work, and finally the workers are paid. Some elements float
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes boss travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 17-18, "Po Shine" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MWhee017 (Full)
Roud #9995
File: MWhee017

Poacher (I), The

See The Lincolnshire Poacher (File: K259)

Poacher (II), The

See O'Ryan (Orion, The Poacher) (File: HHH823)

Poacher (III), The

See The Poacher's Fate [Laws L14] (File: LL14)

Poacher of Benabourd, The

See The Braemar Poacher (File: GrD2253)

Poacher's Fate, The [Laws L14]

DESCRIPTION: (Six) young men go out hunting. They are met by a gamekeeper, who vows to shoot one of them to end their depredations. The keeper fatally wounds "the bravest lad."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1842 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.34(118))
KEYWORDS: death poaching punishment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland,England(South)) US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws L14, "The Poacher's Fate"
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 248, "The Gallant Poacher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 576, "Gallant Poacher" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, p. 134, ("Come all you lads of high renown") (1 fragment)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 37, "The Poacher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, "Lads of High Renown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #4, "The Gallant Poachers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 40-42, "The Gallant Poachers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 351-352, "The Poacher's Fate" (1 text; tune on p. 451)
DT 351, POACHERF
Roud #793
RECORDINGS:
Walter Pardon, "The Poachers' Fate" (on Voice18)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.34(118), "Gallant Poacher" ("Come all you lads of high renoun"), Birt (London), 1833-1841; also Harding B 11(325), Harding B 11(3853), Firth c.19(49), "[The] Gallant Poacher"; Johnson Ballads 1394, "Gallant Poachers"
Murray, Mu23-y4:020, "Gallant Poachers," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Keepers and Poachers" (plot)
File: LL14

Poachers, The

See Van Dieman's Land (I) [Laws L18] (File: LL18)

Poaching Song

See The Lincolnshire Poacher (File: K259)

Poetry on the Death of Ezekiel Crane, and Execution of Indian John

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet poetry, my bosom fire, My mental and my muse inspire." Indian John declares that "Then me would kill all white men dead." He manages to shoot Ezekiel Crane, but is captured. Even the Indians are glad that he is to be executed
AUTHOR: Jason Smith
EARLIEST DATE: 1818 (source: Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: homicide Indians(Am.) execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1818 - Murder of Ezekiel Crane by "Indian John"
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 436-439, "Poetry on the Death of Ezekiel Crane, and Execution of Indian John" (1 excerpt, of 50 lines out of 280 in the original; that's about 49 lines too many....)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _Portrait and Biographical Record of Seneca and Schuler Counties, New York_, Chapman Publishing Co, 1895 (available on Google Books), pp. 185-187, "Poetry on the Death of Ezekiel Crane, and Execution of Indian John" (1 [monotonously complete] text)
NOTES [59 words]: For another account of this incident, almost as racist as this poem, see J.O. Noyes, The Lakes & Legends of Central New-York: A Virtually Unknown Rambling Account of Life and Times in Upstate, New York, 1857, W.E. Morrison & Co., 1973. Apparently the incident actually happened, and Indian John's skeleton was preserved and became a surgeon's model. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: TNY436

Point Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer's father was a farmer, but he must leave his home, his work, and his girl. As he makes his way to the port, he thinks of drowned sailors and his lost sweetheart. He hopes to return, though he would not care if the girl were with him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation farewell
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H42b, p. 197, "The Point Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH042b

Poison in a Glass of Wine

See Oxford City [Laws P30] (File: LP30)

Poison Serpent

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

Poisoned Cup, The

See Oxford City [Laws P30] (File: LP30)

Pokegama Bear

DESCRIPTION: Lumbermen encounter the Pokegama bear. Morris O'Hearne tells the men to run; (they have humorous accidents). Mike McAlpin kills the bear with an axe; the grease is divided up among the men, and the meat cooked and eaten.
AUTHOR: Frank Hasty (words)
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (composed)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A crew of lumbermen encounters the Pokegama bear. Morris O'Hearne, who first flushes him, tells the men to run; Jimmy Quinn runs into a porcupine. The bear heads for the swamp; O'Hearne follows, but slips and falls under it. Mike McAlpin chases down and kills the bear with an axe; the grease is divided up among the men, and the meat cooked and eaten. O'Hearne gets the skin; "Long life to you and long growth to your hair/When it's greased with the fat from Pokegama Bear"
KEYWORDS: lumbering work moniker animal logger worker humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "Pokegama Bear" (on Thieme06)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES [261 words]: Pokegama Lake is a very wide area of the upper Mississippi River. - PJS
Paul Stamler didn't list this as a humorous item, but the versions I recall hearing (I think from John Berquist, though I've heard other Minnesotans mention it) generally have comic aspects as the loggers flee the bear. The tune seems to have wandered a bit, too, though that may just be my memory.
It should be noted that it is highly unlikely that a really dangerous bear would be encountered in Minnesota. The only bears which come anywhere near the state are black bears; a gang of loggers could certainly handle *one* black bear! But the Pokegama region is features some of the harshest winter weather in Minnesota. Climatologist Mark W. Sealy, Minnesota Weather Almanac, Minnesota Historical Society, 2006, p. 55, writes of the weather station there, "The weather station at Pokegama Dam, along the Mississippi River, was established in April 1887.... Pokegama's reputation as one of Minnesota's coldest spots is bolstered by more than 30 low temperatures records, including the following: coldest temperature recorded in March... coldest-ever November temperature... and coldest-ever December temperature... Temperatures of -50 [degrees] F and colder have been recorded 30 times, the coldest being -59 [degrees] F on February 16, 1903. From January to February in back-to-back years, 1904 and 1905, Pokegama Dam recorded 31 consecutive days of temperatures below zero."
Thus one might suspect that the legend of the Pokegama Bear actually arose as an excuse to get out of the cold. - RBW
File: RcPokegB

Polar Bear and Crocodile

See We Sing of the Polar Bear (File: ACSF147P)

'Poleon Doré

DESCRIPTION: French-Canadian dialect song. Singer describes working in a lumber camp. Paul Desjardins falls into rapids; oars do not reach him. Napoleon Dore dives in. Both drown in a whirlpool. Their bodies are found in each other's arms. They are buried together.
AUTHOR: William Henry Drummond
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (Drummond, The Habitant)
LONG DESCRIPTION: French-Canadian dialect song. Singer first describes (at length) the pleasures and comradeship of working in a lumber camp, then tells story. Paul Desjardins falls overboard in rapids; after his workmates fail to save him with their oars, Napoleon Dore dives in, but both are caught in a whirlpool and drowned. Their bodies are found in each other's arms, and they are buried together.
KEYWORDS: lumbering work death friend logger drowning
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 74, "'Poleon Doré" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: William Henry Drummond, M.D., _The Habitant and other French Canadian Poems_, Putnam, 1897, pp. 37-43, "'Poleon Doré'" (1 text)
ST Be074 (Partial)
Roud #8869
NOTES [59 words]: Is there something left unsaid here? I can't tell. I do note that this is a composed piece, and I find no evidence of a tune; I'm not sure that it justifies its inclusion in Beck. William Henry Drummond also wrote "The Wreck of the Julie Plante," which is probably traditional, and "De Camp on de Cheval Gris," which is in the Index but probably isn't. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Be074

Policeman, Policeman, Do Your Duty

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Policeman, policeman, do your duty, There's a girl in town, She's an American beauty. She can wibble, she can wobble, She can do the twist, But I bet ten dollars She can't do this."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: police beauty jumprope | postman duty
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 61, "Policeman, Policeman" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #11, "(Postman, postman, Do your duty)"; #39, "(Policeman, policeman, do your duty)"; #57, "(Policeman, policeman, Do your duty)"; #65, "(Postman, postman, Do your duty)"; #86, "(Postman, postman, do your duty)"; #144, "(Policeman, policeman, do your duty)" (6 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #466, "Policeman (postman), policeman, do your duty" (1 text)
Roud #19234 (and 19335)
NOTES [53 words]: Roud lumps the "Policeman, Policeman, Do Your Duty" with "Policeman, Policeman, Don't Catch Me," which he splits from "Postman, Postman, Do Your Duty," but the form says to me that the "do your duty" part is more important than the mention of a policeman. I've also separated "Policeman, Policeman, Don't Take Me." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ZiZa062C

Policeman, Policeman, Don't Catch Me

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Policeman, policeman, don't catch/blame/take me, (Blame) that boy behind the tree, He stole sugar, he stole tea, Policeman, policeman, don't catch me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: police thief jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 63, "Don't Blame Me" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 40, "(Policeman, policeman, don't catch me!)" (1 text)
Roud #19335
NOTES [38 words]: Roud lumps this with "Policeman, Policeman, Do Your Duty," but they seem distinct to me, although perhaps from the same roots. It's closer to "Policeman, Policeman, Don't Take Me," but still different enough that I split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ZiZa063C

Policeman, Policeman, Don't Take Me

DESCRIPTION: "Policeman, policeman, don't take me, I have a wife and a family, How many children have you got? Twenty-four, and that's a lot."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: police wife children jumprope
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 97, "(Policeman, policeman, don't take me)"; "(Inspector, inspector, don't take me)" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #19335
NOTES [38 words]: Roud lumps this with "Policeman, Policeman, Do Your Duty," but they seem distinct to me, although perhaps from the same roots. It's closer to "Policeman, Policeman, Don't Take Me," but still different enough that I split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI097C

Policemn, Policeman, Don't Whip Me

See Teacher, Teacher, Don't Whip Me (File: ZiZa045A)

Polinky

DESCRIPTION: "Didja ever drink dat moo'shi' Lotsa people make? Better you drink de rop on rats"; the illegal drink makes you very quickly drunk. The undertake laughs. The doctor gives warnings about it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: drink warning humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 137-138, "Polinky" (1 text)
NOTES [21 words]: According to Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, p. 131, Polinky was made by mixing beer, whisky, and red pepper. Sounds painful. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP137

Political Jump-Rope Rhyme, A

See Down in the Meadow (Down in the Valley II) (File: SNR059)

Polk County Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Ain't nobody knows Polk County like I do; I walked Polk county through and through." "Woke up this morning feeling bad; Thinking about good time I used to have." Other verses float
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Recording, Eddie Kelly's Washboard Band)
KEYWORDS: rambling floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Willie Gillard, "Polk County Blues" (on USFlorida01)
Eddie Kelly's Washboard Band, "Poole County Blues" (Bluebird B7204, 1937)
Ella Mae Wilson and Richard Williams, "Polk County Blues" (on USFlorida01)
NOTES [64 words]: The Eddie Kelly record sounds as though his words are "Polk County" rather than "Poole County" [as in his title].
Floating verses include "If I'd been living like my mama said I'd been at home In my folding bed," "Going away mama it won't be long Sure as you're born," "If that's your woman better pin her to your side Because if she flags my train I'm sure going to let her ride." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcPoCoBl

Poll and Nancy Hogan

DESCRIPTION: In a town with a strange name live Poll and Nancy Hogan. She buys two pigs. Someone cuts off their tails. Nancy takes them to court. Everyone goes drinking after they leave court. Poll dies on a Saturday, Nancy the next Sunday. Give them a cheer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands)
KEYWORDS: home animal injury trial drink death | pig tail
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 80-81, "Poll and Nancy Hogan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1130
File: PFSM080

Poll and Sal

See When the Boys Go A-Courting (Over the Mountain, Poll and Sal) (File: SWMS312)

Poll the Grogseller

DESCRIPTION: "Big Poll the Grogseller gets up every day... She's turning in plenty of tin people say," for "Polly's good looking, and Polly is young, And Polly's possessed of a smooth oily tongue." When magistrates come in seeking illegal boose, she easily fools them
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Thatcher's Colonial Songster, according to Bruce Moore, _Gold! Gold! Gold!)
KEYWORDS: drink police trick money beauty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, p. 75 "Poll the Grogseller" (1 text, from "Thatcher's Colonial Songster")
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 85-87, "Poll the Grogseller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-GoldrushSongster, pp. 46-47, "Poll the Grogseller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, pp. 149, "Poll the Grogseller" (1 text)
Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 53-54, "Poll the Grogseller" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Phillip the Falconer" (tune)
NOTES [79 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong.
Bruce Moore, Gold! Gold! Gold! A Dictionary of the Nineteenth-century Australian Gold Rushes, Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 68-69, prints a dozen lines of the 1858 edition of this song as part of the definition of grog-seller = sly grog-seller, although saying the term goes back to 1827. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: AnSt085

Polly and Willie

See No Sign of a Marriage [Laws P3] (File: LP03)

Polly Bond

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Polly Brannigan (Molly Brannigan)

DESCRIPTION: The singer confesses that Polly Brannigan "stole me heart and I'll never be a man again." Now she has left him; he wishes that "when she got another heart she might send mine back home again." (Considering suicice, he hopes she will grieve when he dies)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Songs of Ireland and Other Lands)
KEYWORDS: love rejection suicide
FOUND IN: US(MW) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 34, "Purty Molly Brannigan" (2 texts, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 41, "Molly Brallaghan" (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 153, (fifth of several "Fragments of Irish Songs")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 181, "Molly Brannigan" (1 text)
DT, MOLLBRAN
ADDITIONAL: (No author listed_, _Songs of Ireland and Other Lands, Being a Collection of the Most Popular Irish, Sentimental, and Comic Songs_, D. & J. Sadler & Co., New York, 1847 (available on Google Books and on HathiTrust.org), pp. 82-84, "Purty Molly Brallaghan" (1 text)
Roud #13375
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "Purty Molly Brannigan" (on IRTLenihan01)
NOTES [107 words]: There is a sense that the singer is naive and that we are supposed, at least, to smile behind his back. For example, in Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan he asks advice of Father Mc Donald and Counsellor O'Connell who "told me promise-breaches had been ever since the world began: Now I've only one pair, ma'am, and they are corduroy! ... Must my corduroys to Molly go? ... I can't afford to lose both my heart and ould britches too." - BS
The "Songs of Ireland and Other Lands" text is attributed to "Miss M'Ghie," but I don't know if this is the alleged author or the singer. It is listed as sung to "Groves of Blarney." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: E153E

Polly Drinks Lemonade

See Margie Ate Some Marmalade (File: ZiZa050B)

Polly Gathering Flowers

See Come Write Me Down (The Wedding Song) (File: K126)

Polly Hopkins

See Tommy Tompkins and Polly Hopkins (File: MHAp227)

Polly in the Kitchen

See Granny in the Kitchen (File: AJRR022)

Polly Moore

See Sailor Taking Leave of his Mistress (File: ML3STLoM)

Polly of Plymouth

See Sweet Poll of Plymouth (File: AshS034)

Polly Oliver (Pretty Polly) [Laws N14]

DESCRIPTION: Polly loves a sea captain; her parents do not. She dresses as a man and follows her love. Still in disguise, she meets him at an inn. The captain wishes to sleep with her; she refuses, but appears the next day in her own clothes. The two are wed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(240b))
KEYWORDS: courting disguise marriage cross-dressing
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Laws N14, "Polly Oliver (Pretty Polly)"
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 671, "Polly Oliver" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 116-117, "Polly Oliver's Ramble" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 105, "Polly Oliver's Rambles" (1 text)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #72, "Polly Oliver's Rambles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 183-185, "Polly Oliver" (2 texts)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 145, "Polly Oliver's Rambles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H166, pp. 328-329, "Lovely Annie (II)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 122, "Pretty Polly" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 273-274, "Polly Oliver" (1 short text, 1 tune, ending with the meeting in the inn)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 185-186, "Pretty Polly" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 97, "Polly Oliver" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 97, "Polly Oliver" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 128, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 60, "Pretty Polly Oliver" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 133-134, "Polly Oliver" (1 short text, 1 tune, probably this although it's too short to be certain)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 14, p. 22, "Polly Oliver" (1 fragment, probably this although it's too short to be sure)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 195-198, "Pretty Polly" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 23, "Polly Oliver" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 344-345, "Polly Oliver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 28, "Polly Oliver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 55, "Polly Oliver" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 54, "Polly Oliver" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 676, "Pretty Polly Oliver" (1 text, not related to this by attributed to Lord Cantalupe, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, p. 181, "Pretty Polly Oliver" (1 tune, probably of this piece though the text is lacking)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2180, "One night as Polly Oliver lay musing on her bed"
DT 446, POLLOLVR*
ADDITIONAL: MacEdward Leach and Henry Glassie, _A Guide for Collectiors of Oral Traditions and Folk Cultural Material in Pennsylvania_, Pennsylvania historical and Museum Commission, 1973, pp. 29-30, "Pretty Polly" (1 text)
Roud #367
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Gilbert, "Pretty Polly Oliver" (on LomaxCD1707)
Peter Molloy, "Pretty Polly" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(240b), "Polly Oliver's Ramble," J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 17(241b), Harding B 16(205d), Harding B 11(3147), Harding B 25(1518)[some lines illegible], "Polly Oliver's Ramble"; Harding B 28(238), "Polly Oliver"; Harding B 17(241a), Harding B 16(206b), Harding B 15(241a), Harding B 15(241b), Firth c.26(50), 2806 c.17(337)[words missing], 2806 b.11(260), 2806 c.16(61), Firth c.14(169), Harding B 16(206a), 2806 c.14(10)[many illegible words], Harding B 15(240b), "Polly Oliver's Rambles"
SAME TUNE:
Parody on Polly Oliver ("O Pretty Polly Oliver one hot summer's day, To Milverton market was making her way") (Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 141)
File: LN14

Polly on the Railway

See Paddy on the Railway (File: MSNR151)

Polly on the Shore (The Valiant Sailor)

DESCRIPTION: The sailor warns others about bad company. While out roaming, he is pressed to sea. Soon his ship meets a (French) vessel; he is mortally injured. He recalls his beloved Polly on shore, says he is dying for her, and hopes the sailors will be remembered
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1744 (The Irish Boy's Garland)
KEYWORDS: sailor love pressgang farewell warning death fight dying
FOUND IN: US(NE) Britain(England(Lond)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 57, "The Press Gang Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 87, "The Neat Irish Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #68, "Bold Carter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 40, "The Valiant Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, (POLSHORE) PRSSGANG
Roud #811
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "Polly on the Shore" (on Maynard1, HiddenE, Voice12)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Press Gang
File: Wa057

Polly Perkins of Paddington Green

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes beautiful Polly, whom he vainly loved. She teases and flirts, but declares, "The man that has me must have silver and gold." He gives up his courtship -- but later learns that she did not marry a lord but a "bow-legged conductor."
AUTHOR: Harry Clifton (source: Greig/Duncan6)
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (referred to by Charles Dodgson); reportedly published 1856 (Greig/Duncan 6)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection money beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1212, "Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green" (3 texts)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H132, pp. 398-399, "Polly Perkins of Paddington Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 680, "Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green" (1 text)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 65, "Polly Perkins" (1 text)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 282-288, "The Butcher Boy" (8 texts; the "E" text is a single stanza which does not belong with the usual "Butcher Boy" versions and which does mention Polly Perkins, so it might be related to this song)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 176-177, "Polly Perkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #17, pp. 30-31, "Polly Perkins, of Paddington Green" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, pp. 43-44, "Polly Perkins of Paddington Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PLLYPRK*
ADDITIONAL: Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 72-75, "Polly Perkins of Paddington Green" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a plate of the color cover of the sheet music version)
Roud #430
RECORDINGS:
Tom Murphy, "The Broken-Hearted Milkman" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(314), "Polly Perkins of Paddington Green" ("I'm a broken hearted milkman, in grief I'm arrayed"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 16(206c), Harding B 11(3384), "Polly Perkins, of Paddington Green"
SAME TUNE:
Cushie Butterfield (File: DPio074)
Polly Perkins, of Washington Square ("I'm a broken-hearted butcher-boy") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 127)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Pretty Polly Perkins
Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green
NOTES [134 words]: Greig/Duncan6: "Composed by the music hall performer, Harry Clifton and published in 1856." - BS
According to Waites and Hunter, there was much dispute over whether this song or "Cushie Butterfield," with which it shares a tune, was the original. They note, however, that both use the tune of "Nightingales Sing," so one explanation is that both songs borrowed that melody. But since "Cushie Butterfield" seems to be a sort of answer to this song, others think "Polly Perkins" came first.
For background on Harry Clifton, see the notes to "The Good Ship Kangaroo."
This seems to have been very popular in its time, as the number of broadsides suggests, which perhaps makes it little surprise that Charles Dodgson ("Lewis Carroll") heard Florence Terry sing it; see his diary entry for April 7, 1865. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: HHH132

Polly Primrose

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet Polly Primrose, a girl of nineteen summers-o, Sure, I love my Polly better than all the wealth I own." Now she is at the bottom of the sea; she fell off a ship in rough waters. The singer wishes he were a fish, so he might see her as a mermaid
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: death ship separation mermaid/man drowning
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H734, p. 149, "Polly Primrose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9450
File: HHH734

Polly Sat Down and I Sat By Her

DESCRIPTION: "Polly sat down and I sat by her, These few words were just for to try her": he tells her it would be folly to marry him. Polly "smiles like a Venus" and says that, although he has little, she will have enough. He says he will go see Sallie; she grieves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: love courting money abandonment
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Charles W. Joyner, "The Repertory of Nancy Jones as a Mirror of Culture in Scotland County," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), pp. 95-96, "Polly Sat Down and I Sat By Her" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21654
File: NCF213PS

Polly Van

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Polly Vaughan

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Polly von Luther and Jamie Randall

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Polly Wants a Cracker

DESCRIPTION: "Polly wants a cracker, Polly wants a ball, Polly wants you to be First of all." Repeat, ending "...wants you to be Second of all," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: bird food | cracker counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 29, "(Polly wants a cracker)" (1 text)
File: WEMM029

Polly Williams

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls the listeners to hear Polly's tragedy. Her lover grows tired of her, and takes her off to the mountains to murder her. A great manhunt finds him. The singer expects him to be condemned, and warns young women against false lovers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: love courting homicide manhunt trial
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 159-162, "Polly Williams" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 35-36, "(Polly Williams)" (1 text, slightly shortened)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p, 136, "Polly Williams" (1 text)
DT, POLLYWMS*
Roud #4111
NOTES [141 words]: Bayard, who collected this song, reports that it is based on an actual murder committed in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, in 1810, in which the young man threw the girl's body over a cliff. Despite the song, the man is reported to have been acquitted, presumably due to the lack of direct evidence that he was the guilty party.
The girl's name was not Polly Williams; Bayard thought that the name was chosen as conventional; Dick Greenhaus suggests that it was for metrical reasons.
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads had another take on the matter: She claims the existence of a genuine Polly Williams who was living alone with a minor boy (presumably her son) in 1790. This Polly Williams was sufficiently well-off to have taken over a 400 acre property in 1794. But Burt cannot link the two beyond that.
This song is item dF39 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: LoA159

Polly Wolly Doodle

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I went down south for to see my Sal, Sing polly wolly doodle all day...." Sal is described in nonsense terms ("curly eyes and laughing hair"). Floating verses may describe the difficult journey
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (Harvard "Student's Songs")
KEYWORDS: love courting nonsense floatingverses campsong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 462, "Sing Polly Wolly Doodle" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 462, "Sing Polly Wolly Doodle" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 42, "Polly Wolly Doodle" (1 verse of a shanty version)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 82-83, "Polly-Wolly-Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 274, "Polly Wolly Doodle" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 43-45, "Polly Wolly Doodle" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 436, "Polly-wolly-doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #162, "Polly-Wolly-Doodle" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 240, "Polly Wolly Doodle" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 434-435, "Polly-Wolly-Doodle"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 118, 175, 240, "288, Polly Wolly Doodle" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 45, "Polly-Wolly-Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 16, "Polly Wolly Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 18, "Polly-Wolly-Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, POLYWOLY
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, pp. 78-79, "Polly-Wolly-Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11799
RECORDINGS:
Walter Coon & his Joy Boys, "Polly Wolly Doodle" (Gennett 7079/Champion 15896/Supertone 9680 [as "Polly Wally Doodle"], 1930; Superior 2671 , 1931; rec. 1929)
Vernon Dalhart, "Polly Wolly Doodle" (Edison N-20001, 1929)
Louise Massey & the Westerners, "Polly Wolly Doodle" (Vocalion 05296, 1939)
Pete Seeger, "Polly Wolly Doodle All Day" (on LonesomeValley)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Polly Woddle Doo" (Columbia 15200-D, 1927; rec. 1926)
Erica Warnock, "Polly Wolly Doodle" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #454, recorded 01/26/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fiddler's Bitch" (tune)
cf. "The Golden Axe" (floating verse)
cf. "Pep (The Peppiest Camp)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Fiddler's Bitch (File: RL346)
The Big Fat Boss and the Workers (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 250-251)
Our Cow ("We've got a cow down on our farm, Moo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo!") (Harbin-Parodology, #76, p. 24)
Little Red Box ("O, I wish I had a little red box To put Mister ??? in") (Harbin-Parodology, #211, p. 54)
File: SRW082

Polly Won't You Try Me O

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Polly-Wolly-Doodle

See Polly Wolly Doodle (File: SRW082)

Pom, Pom, Pompadour

DESCRIPTION: "Pom, pom, pompadour Richard, Calling (first player) to my door. (Second player) is the one who is having all the fun, So we don't need (first player) any more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Teri John, "A Collection of Jump Rope Rhymes," Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), p. 16, "Pom, pom, pompadour Richard" (1 text)
Roud #19934
NOTES [31 words]: I seem to recall hearing this somewhere in my youth, which would date this to the Upper Midwest before 1973, but I can't claim to be certain enough to list either the location or the date.
Last updated in version 6.1
File: NCF211PP

Pommelty, Pommelty, Apple Butter

See Apples, Peaches, Creamery Butter (File: McIn108B)

Pommy's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns against moving to Australia. He was well-off when he went, but his ship is nearly wrecked. He is robbed by an outlaw. There is no good land available. After further misadventures, he finds himself breaking rocks and wishing for home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: Australia poverty hardtimes emigration robbery
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 207-208, "The Pommy's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads, pp. 18-19, "The Pommy's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 30-31, "The Pommy's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I've Been to Australia, Oh!" (theme)
File: MA207

Pomona (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Pomona leaves Liverpool "bound for the land of plenty" and is wrecked "on Blackwater's shoals" in Wexford Bay by "fictitious reckoning." The crew of thirty-five and four hundred passengers are lost.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 28, 1859 - The Pomona wreck
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 62-63, "The Pomona" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7342
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Courtown Fishermen" (tune)
NOTES [64 words]: April 28, 1859: Pomona en route from Liverpool to New York "driven into sandbank seven miles off Ballyconigar" with nearly 400 lost (mostly emigrants). Reported in Wexford Constitution Apr 30th 1859 (source: RootsWeb.com genealogy site under shipping; Northern Shipwrecks Database; Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast; for details see Bourke in Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast v1, p. 70) - BS
File: Ran062

Pomona (II), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer and crew strike Blackwater sandbank. "We launched our jovial long boat and headed for the strand. We ran her down before the wind into sweet Wexford Bay, And wasn't that a dreadful sight, all on St Patrick's Day" Two of 12 escape.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 109, "The Pomona" (1 text)
Roud #7343
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Georgina" (subject)
NOTES [77 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: "[The singer] said that this was a ballad about 'The Pomona,' but there is internal evidence in the ballad which disproves this statement.... It seems to me that this ballad refers to 'The Georgiana,' which was wrecked on the Blackwater Bank on March 17th, 1844." The ballad does not name the ship. For the historical reference for Georgina see "The Georgina." For the historical reference for Pomona see "The Pomona (I)." - BS
File: Ran109

Pompey

See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Pompey Smash and Davy Crockett

See Davy Crockett (File: R423)

Ponder

See In the Shade I Lie and Ponder (File: ACSF540P)

Ponsaw Train, The

See The Lake of Ponchartrain [Laws H9] (File: LH09)

Pont d'Avignon, Le

See Sur le Pont d'Avignon (File: FSWB390A)

Pony Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Let the pony go fast as e'er it will ... What a merry ride ... snugly side by side and joining in a song. Jinkle bells, jinkle bells, jinkle all the way, Oh the funny ride we had down by Enniskea."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
KEYWORDS: nonballad horse music
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 7, pp. 16,102,157, "The Pony Song" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #2933
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jingle Bells" (approximate tune, theme, and some words)
NOTES [88 words]: Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday: "Here John remembers just a snatch of a song from his school days. The words and the tune obviously belong to 'Jingle Bells', but both have been adapted -- the last line ["down by Enniskea"] makes it 'belong' to that area [specifically, County Louth]." The words are sort of like "Jingle Bells" -- except the practically identical line "Jinkle bells, jinkle bells, jinkle all the way." Otherwise it shares no lines with the John Pierpont text of "Jingle Bells" on Digital Tradition. - BS
File: MoMa007

Poole County Blues

See Polk County Blues (File: RcPoCoBl)

Poor Alice Is A-weeping

See Poor Mary Sits A-Weeping (I) (File: Lins047)

Poor and Carefree Stranger

DESCRIPTION: Round. "A poor and carefree stranger Was weary from his wand’ring, his wand’ring Was weary from his wand’ring." "He had a flute and lost it, 'Twas from his hiking sack." "Don't worry, I have found it, Now play your music sweet."
AUTHOR: English translation credited to William Holladay (source: GirlScout-PocketSongbook)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (GirlScout-PocketSongbook); reportedly from the Swiss Girl Guides songbook "Pfadfinderinnenlieder")
KEYWORDS: travel music campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 446, "Poor and Carefree Stranger" (notes only)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 47, "A Poor and Carefree Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ACSF446Q

Poor and Foreign Stranger

See Wayfaring Stranger (File: FSC077)

Poor and Single Sailor, The

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Poor Anzo

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Poor Auld Maid, The

See The Old Maid's Song (File: R364)

Poor Aviator Lay Dying, A

See The Dying Aviator (File: MA142)

Poor Bill Brown

DESCRIPTION: On a stormy night Bill Brown, his friends, and their dogs go hunting hare. Bill and his dog are shot. He asks the singer to "revenge my death." The next night the singer shoots Tom Green
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2635))
KEYWORDS: promise homicide poaching revenge death dog animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 131-132, "The Death of Bill Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #609
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2635), "Poor Bill Brown" ("Ye gentlemen both great and small"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Firth c.19(48), "Poor Bill Brown"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bill Brown the Poacher" (subject)
File: KiTu131

Poor Black Bess

See My Bonnie Black Bess I [Laws L8] AND My Bonnie Black Bess II [Laws L9] (File: LL09)

Poor Boy (I)

See The Coon-Can Game [Laws I4] (File: LI04)

Poor Boy (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Very first day on the Brazos line, poor boy, on the Brazos line, Number One was a-buckin." The singer complains of the heat and hard work and wishes desperately for rest. He wishes he had listened to his parents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (recorded from J. B. Smith by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes work
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 61-66, "Poor Boy" (3 texts, 1 tune, but the "A" and "B" texts and the tune are "The Coon Can Game" [Laws I4])
File: JDM061

Poor Boy a Long Way From Home

DESCRIPTION: The singer leaves Louisiana for Texas: "I got to work or leave." He decides "my home ain't Texas," gets on a boat and now "my home's on the water and I sure don't like land." "Poor boy, poor boy, poor boy a long way from home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Odum and Johnson)
KEYWORDS: rambling home travel ship work nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Charles W. Joyner, "The Repertory of Nancy Jones as a Mirror of Culture in Scotland County," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), pp. 94-95, "(Poor boy, long way from home)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Howard W. Odum and Guy B. Johnson, The Negro and his Songs (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1925 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 5, ("Po' boy 'long way from home") (1 fragment)
Roud #17701
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Poor Boy a Long Way From Home" (on MJHurt05)
Ramblin' Thomas, "Poor Boy Blues" (Paramount 12722A, 1928; on "Anthology of American Folk Music - Volume Three: Songs," Smithsonian Folkways CD FP 253, 1997)
NOTES [15 words]: The description is based on the Ramblin' Thomas recording. Hurt sings only the chorus. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: RcPBLWFH

Poor Boy in Jail

See The Coon-Can Game [Laws I4] (File: LI04)

Poor Boy, Long Way From Home

See Poor Boy a Long Way From Home (File: RcPBLWFH)

Poor Bushman, The

See Humping Old Bluey (The Poor Bushman) (File: MA125)

Poor Chronic Man, The

DESCRIPTION: The "poor chronic man" from Athlone goes to visit a cousin in Belfast. Along the way he meets a girl, who wines him, beds him -- then puts him to sleep and steals his clothes and money. He is taken into custody, and wishes he had never left home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1911 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(56b))
KEYWORDS: whore trick prison
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 118, "The Poor Chronic Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 33, "The Connaught Man's Trip to Belfast" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC118 (Partial)
Roud #3341
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(56b), "The Connaught-man" ("I am a poor Connaught man, from the town of Athlone"), Sanderson (Edinburgh), 1830-1910; also 2806 c.15(119), Harding B 40(1)[last verse illegible], "The Poor Connaughtman"; 2806 c.15(23), Harding B 19(32), "The Connaughtman's Adventures in Dublin"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gold Watch" [Laws K41] (plot) and references there
NOTES [50 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong's Connaughtman visits Belfast; Harding B 17(56b) is about Glasgow; the other Bodleian broadsides take place in Dublin.
Leyden's text has the couple travel by steam coach, rather than steamboat, into Belfast. Leyden says that the steam train had been in operation since 1839. - BS
File: FSC118

Poor Dawkins

See The Eldorado Mining Disaster (File: FaE206)

Poor Dog Tray

DESCRIPTION: "On the green banks of Shannon, when Sheelah was nigh, No blythe Irish lad was as happy as I," with harp and dog Tray. Sheelah bids him care for the dog when they part. The dog comforts him when he is old. The dog is dead and he can't go home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: river separation dog death
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 145, "On the banks of the Shannon when Shelagh was nigh" (1 fragment)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 73-74, "My Poor Dog Tray" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 68 and #3/62, p. 46, "My Poor Dog Tray" (1 text)
Roud #2668
File: HMHS075B

Poor Ellen Smith (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Poor Ellen Smith, how was she found? Shot through the heart lying cold on the ground." The singer briefly outlines the facts of the murder, then claims his innocence though he expects to be convicted. (He says he would put flowers on her grave.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1893 - Peter Degraph (sometimes spelled De Graff) is sentenced to die for the murder of Ellen Smith
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 306, "Poor Little Ellen, or, Ellen Smith" (1 text)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 19, "Ellen Smith" (1 text, 1 tune, mislabelled Laws F2)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, p. 67, "Ellen Smith" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 20, "Ellen Smith" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #58, "Ellen Smith" (1 text, 1 tune, misidentified Laws F11)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 143, "Poor Ellen Smith" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 204-206, "Poor Ellen Smith" (2 text, of which the "A" text goes here and the "B" text with "Ellen Smith" [Laws F11])
DT, ELSMITH*
ADDITIONAL: Frances H. Casstevens, _Death in North Carolina's Piedmont: Tales of Murder, Suicide, and Causes Unknown_, History Press, 2006, p. 114, "Poor Ellen Smith" (1 text, possibly adapted by Tom Sauber)
Roud #448
RECORDINGS:
Green Bailey, "The Fate of Ellen Smith" (Gennett 6702/Supertone 9372 [as Harvey Farr], 1929; rec. 1928; on ConstSor1, KMM) [2 diferent but successive matrices]
Estil C. Ball, "Poor Ellen Smith" (on LomaxCD1702)
Homer Cornett, "Poor Ellen Smith" (on USWarnerColl01)
Dykes' Magic City Trio, "Poor Ellen Smith" (Brunswick 127/Vocalion 5143, 1927)
Texas Gladden and Hobart Smith, "Poor Ellen Smith" (disc ???; on USTGladden01)
Charlie Glenn, "Poor Ellen Smith" (Piotr-Archive #4, recorded 07/14/2020); Charlie Glenn, Shirley Glenn, Derek Piotr, "Poor Ellen Smith" (Piotr-Archive #192, recorded 06/06/2022)
Orville Hicks, Derek Piotr, "Poor Ellen Smith" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #204, recorded 06/27/2022)
Theophilus Hoskins, "Ellen Smith" (AFS, 1937; on KMM)
Travis Johnson, "Poor Ellen Smith" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #510, recorded 03/08/2023)
Vester Jones, "Poor Ellen Smith" (on GraysonCarroll1)
Amy Michels, "Ellen Smith" (Fragment further ruined by obnoxious dog: Piotr-Archive #166, recorded 05/10/2022)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Poor Ellen Smith" (on NLCR16)
Frank Proffitt, "Poor Ellen Smith" (on Proffitt03)
Hobart Smith, "Poor Ellen Smith" (Disc 6080, 1940s)
Pete Steele, "Ellen Smith" (on PSteele01, FMUSA)
Rick Ward, "Poor Ellen Smith" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #142, recorded 04/18/2022)
Henry Whitter, "Ellen Smith" (OKeh 40237, 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ellen Smith" [Laws F11]
SAME TUNE:
George Davis, "Why Are You Leaving?" (on GeorgeDavis01)
NOTES [78 words]: To distinguish this from "Ellen Smith" [Laws F11], refer to the stanza quoted in the description. This, or something similar, seems to be found in all versions of this ballad.
For historical background, see the discussion under "Ellen Smith" [Laws F11]. - RBW
In several versions of this song, the singer (presumably Peter De Graff) states that he is innocent; in some versions, he is not condemned, but instead sent to prison for twenty years and eventually freed. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CSW143

Poor Ellen Smith (II)

See Ellen Smith [Laws F11] (File: LF11)

Poor Ellen Smyth

See Ellen Smith [Laws F11] (File: LF11)

Poor Ex-Soldier

DESCRIPTION: "I'm just a poor ex-soldier, a-broken down in doom; I fought all in the great World for the old red, white and blue." The singer saw his buddy killed, but found no help at home. He declares "I'm a poor forgotten soldier boy who fought to save our land."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 172, "Poor Ex-Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16282
NOTES [111 words]: The soldier evidently fought in World War I. It is possible, since the song does not refer to any events after the war, that the soldier is simply suffering post-traumatic stress and having trouble returning to civilian life (a common enough phenomenon to cause references to a "lost generation"). But I rather suspect he was a member of the "Bonus Army" -- that large group of former soldiers who, in 1932, went to Washington to ask congress tp pay a benefit they were not scheduled to earn until the 1940s. This being still the Hoover administration, no help was provided -- and those who refuse to disperse were eventually attacked by soldiers in riot gear. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Rose172

Poor Fisherboy

See The Fisherman's Boy [Laws Q29] (File: LQ29)

Poor Fisherman's Boy, The

See The Fisherman's Boy [Laws Q29] (File: LQ29)

Poor Girl on the Town, The

DESCRIPTION: "I had a dear old father once, who gave me this advice," telling his son to find a wife and stay away from harlots. The son points out that his sisters might be "poor girls on the town" who become harlots. The son is then advised to patronize harlots
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (submitted to Logsdon by Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: father sister brother whore warning
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 45, pp. 226-227, "The Poor Girl on the Town" (1 short text)
Roud #10101
NOTES [65 words]: I've given the description of this based on the text in Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging, but I suspect the text is damaged. My guess is that there is a change of speakers: In the original, the father advises against whores, the son argues that even his sisters might end up whores, and someone else (my gut says an uncle) says, in effect, "Oh, go ahead, if you need to, visit a whore." - RBW
File: Logs045

Poor Goins [Laws F22]

DESCRIPTION: Goins runs into bandits but escapes. He meets Ely Boggs, who promises to help him escape but instead turns him over to the robbers. A bandit clubs Goins to death when the latter's horse bolts
AUTHOR: Gabriel Church?
EARLIEST DATE: 1908
KEYWORDS: homicide outlaw robbery horse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 1844 - Murder of Alexander Goins in what was then Lee County, Virginia (source: Cohen)
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws F22, "Poor Goins"
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 138-139, "Poor Goins" (1 text) (OakEd, p. 145-146)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 69, pp. 167-168, "Poor Goens" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 50, pp. 118-119, "Poor Goins" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 191-192, "Poor Goins" (1 text)
DT 801, GOINS
Roud #2260
File: LF22

Poor Gracie is Dead

See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Poor Greeting Wilsie

DESCRIPTION: Dialog between "kind hearted Nancy" and "cowardly Willsie": She is going to the wood. He asks if he can follow; nothing's to stop you. What if I lay you down? I can rise again. Where'll I tie my horse? To my/your big toe. If he runs away? Devil take him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: sex dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 42, "Poor Greeting Wilsie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 811A,811B, "I'm Gaun to the Wood" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #298
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rolling in the Dew" (subject, some verses, and dialog format)
cf. "Cockabendy" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
cf. "I'm Gaun to the Wood (I)" (dialog format and characters)
cf. "I'm Goin' Away to Texas" (dialog format, characters and attitude)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My Spouse Nancy
File: GrD4811A

Poor Hard-Working Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "I have to work so very hard To keep my family. There's eleven children and my wife... And my wife she often told me I am the daddy of them all." The grown boys work shining shoes, singing, and dancing, and the girls "dance and play and sing all day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: marriage work ordeal humorous wife family
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 144, "The Poor Hard-Working Man" (1 text)
Roud #3284
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pat Malony's Family" (theme)
NOTES [112 words]: Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia draws the parallel in theme to "Pat Malony's Family"; the analogy is not as close as Mackenzie might have us think. Malony's family came ready made; on the other hand, the family in this song are the singer's wife and his[?] eleven children. - BS
Although seemingly found only in Canada, the contents of this song seem to imply nineteenth century Irish origin, in that the grown boys are still at home; with so little land in Ireland, the children tended to stay at home until the girls married and the oldest boy inherited upon his father's death. This had a tendency to control population, but obviously not in this care.... - RBW
File: Mack144

Poor Howard

DESCRIPTION: "Poor Howard's dead and gone, Left me here to sing this song." "Who's been here since I've been gone? Pretty little girl with a red dress on." "Who's been here... Great big man with a derby on" And so forth, through as many visitors as desired
AUTHOR: Huddie Leadbetter
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: nonballad death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 63, "Poor Howard" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 21, "Poor Howard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11673
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Stavin Chain" (lyrics)
File: FSWB063

Poor Jack (I)

See Will You Wed with a Tarry Sailor? [Laws K37] (File: LK37)

Poor Jack (II)

See Jack Returned from Sea (File: AshS090i)

Poor Jack (III)

DESCRIPTION: "Go patter to lubbers and swabs, d'ye see, About danger and fear and the like." The singer will still go to sea, "For they say there's a Providence sits up aloft, To keep watch for the life of Poor Jack." He describes how he learns and tells of his safety
AUTHOR: Charles Dibdin (1745-1814)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: sailor religious navy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XXXIV, pp. 48-50, "Poor Jack" (1 text)
Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, pp. 144-145, "(Poor Jack)" (1 text)
Roud #24887
NOTES [14 words]: For more on probable author Charles Dibdin, see the notes to "Blow High Blow Low." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: NetPoJac

Poor Jack (Shrove Tuesday)

DESCRIPTION: "Shrove Tuesday, when Jack went to plough" his mother made pancakes for him but "she did not know how." "She put so much pepper she poisoned poor Jack"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Manning)
KEYWORDS: death farming poison food playparty mother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 36, ("Shrove Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, when Jack went to plough") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Percy Manning, "Stray Notes on Oxfordshire Folklore (Continued") in Folklore, Vol. XIV, No. 2 (Jun 1903 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 168, "Poor Jack" (Oxfordshire) (1 text)
J.B. Partridge, "The Game of 'Thread the Needle' and Custom of Church Clipping" in Folklore, Vol. XXIII, No. 2 (Jun 1912 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 198 ("Shrove Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, when Jack went to plough") (Wiltshire) (1 text)
Edward Vivian and F.W. Mathews, "The Folk-Lore of Somerset" in Folklore, Vol. XXXI, No. 3 (Sep 1920 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 247 ("Shrove Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, when Jack went to plough") (Wiltshire) (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Thread the Needle" (game) and references there
NOTES [90 words]: This is one of the "Thread the Needle" game texts. - BS
In at least one version it is not pepper but excessive butter which poisoned poor Jack. A foreboding of modern dietary advice? Probably not; according to Marc Alexander, A Companion to the Folklore, Myths & Customs of Britain, Sutton Publishing, 2002, p. 211, "The connection between pancakes and Shrove Tuesday goes back to the days whe fasting in Lent was strictly observed and pancake ceremonies provided an opportunity for housewives to use up their butter, eggs, and flour." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa036

Poor Jeannie Sits A-Weeping

See What's Poor Mary Weepin' For (Poor Jenny Sits A-Weeping) (File: MSNR070)

Poor Jenny Sits A-Weeping

See What's Poor Mary Weepin' For (Poor Jenny Sits A-Weeping) (File: MSNR070)

Poor Jim the Newsboy

DESCRIPTION: "Poor Jim the newsboy, one cold winter day... he had made little pay." When he goes home, father takes his money for drink and throws him out. Jim begs the saloon-keeper not to let father drink, then crawls into a basement and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong)
KEYWORDS: father children work hardtimes death drink | angels
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 246-248, "Poor Jim the Newsboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST NeDe246 (Partial)
Roud #5283
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jimmie Brown the Newsboy" (plot)
cf. "Poor Little Joe" (The Dying Newsboy)
NOTES [60 words]: This is so close to "Jimmie Brown the Newsboy," including even the name of the newsboy, that I thought about lumping them. But Jimmie Brown doesn't die, so I tentatively separate them.
This ends with angels carrying Jim to heaven. It really ruins the effect.
For background on newsboys in New York, see the notes to "Poor Little Joe (The Dying Newsboy)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: NeDe246

Poor Jock frae the Country

DESCRIPTION: "Ae nicht I bein' half fou and better, That nicht I bein' bent for a spree, I daundered awa' to the city In hopes for some fun I micht see"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: travel humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 294, "Poor Jock frae the Country" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #5860
NOTES [14 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan2 fragment, excluding the chorus. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2294

Poor Johnny

See The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging) [Laws O33] (File: LO33)

Poor Johnny's Dead

DESCRIPTION: "Poor Johnny's dead, I hear his knell, Bim, bim, bome bell! The bell doth toll, O may his soul, In Heacen for ever dwell!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1770? (see notes); 1825 (_The Kaleidoscope_)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 301, "Poor Johnny's Dead" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 185)
ADDITIONAL: The Kaleidoscope (1825, London ("Digitized by Google"), Vol. V, No. 257, (May 31, 1825), p. 406, "Poor Johnny's Dead" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas Ludford Bellamy, Lyric Poetry of Glees, Madrigals, Catches, Rounds, Canons, and Duets (1840, London ("Digitized by Google"), p. 356, ("Poor Johnny's Dead") (1 text)
Roud #1334
NOTES [125 words]: Oliphant: "Music by W. Cranford, one of the Singing-men of St Paul's Cathedral."
Wildridge at Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO quoting Williams: "They never popular with the ordinary village minstrels and were seldom, if ever, heard at the inns", referring to "Come Hither, Tom," "'Twas You, Sir," and "Poor Johnny's Dead." The Kaleidoscope: "A round"; Bellamy: "Catch, for 3 voices."
The current description is all of the Bellamy text.
Bellamy has the author as "Dr Hayes." The pdf 18th Century Secular Music Three and More Voices & BC (Amsterdam, 2006), p. 20, available at Muziekhandel Saul B. Groen site (copyright Meindert C Heer) lists "Poor Johnny's dead I hear his knell," a catch for three voices, as written by William Boyce, printed in 1770. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT301A

Poor Jolly Sailor Lads

See Jolly Sailors Bold (I) (File: Mack095)

Poor Kitty Popcorn

DESCRIPTION: The story of a "loyal cat...." She spends much of the war following her soldier boy. (After) the war her master dies and we see "Poor Kitty Popcorn, buried in a snowdrift now; Nevermore we'll hear the music of her charming song, Me-owww."
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (sheet music copyright by Root & Cady and published by S. Brainard's Sons)
KEYWORDS: animal death Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work, pp. 155-159, "Poor Kitty Popcorn, or the Soldier's Pet" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Dime-Song-Book #17, pp. 18-19, "Poor Kitty Popcorn" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 431, "Poor Kitty Popcorn" (1 fragment)
DT, KITTYPOP*
Roud #20051
NOTES [24 words]: Gag. - PJS
Well -- there are a zillion dog songs on this sort of theme. I suppose the cats deserve their chance to be disgustingly saccharine. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: San431

Poor Labourers, The

See Pity Poor Labourers (File: FaE018)

Poor Lazarus (Bad Man Lazarus) [Laws I12]

DESCRIPTION: Lazarus breaks into the commissary and flees. The sheriff orders that he be taken dead or alive. Deputies shoot Lazarus and bring him back. He asks for a drink of water and dies. Lazarus's sister tells his mother, who recalls how troublesome he was
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: robbery death family
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws I12, "Poor Lazarus (Bad Man Lazarus)"
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 86, "Po' Laz'us" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 91-93, "Po' Laz'us (Poor Lazarus)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 342-345, "Po' Laz'us" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 303, "Po' Lazarus" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Frye-TheMenAllSinging, p. 185, ("Go and bring me old bad Lazarus") (1 text)
GarrityBlake-FishFactory, p. 61, ("Didn't Lazarus shit on the commisary counter") (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 909-910, "Po' Laz'us (Poor Lazarus)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 179-181, "(Lazarus)" (1 text)
DT 661, (POLAZRUS?)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 400-402, "Poor Lazarus" (1 text)
Roud #4180
RECORDINGS:
Bright Light Quartet, "Po' Lazarus" (on LomaxCD1701) (on LomaxCD1705)
James Carter & prisoners, "Po' Lazarus" (on LomaxCD1705)
Vera Hall, "Po' Laz'us" (AFS 1320 A2, 1937) [Note: Dixon/Godrich/Rye also identifies this AFS number with a Vera Hall recording of "John Henry"; one of them is clearly in error, but I don't know which] (AFS 4050 A1, 1940)
Menhaden Fishermen, "Lazarus" (on USMenhaden01)
Henry Morrison, "Lazarus" (on LomaxCD1705)
William Thompson and Group, "Lazarus" (on VaWork)
NOTES [199 words]: The two Bright Light Quartet citations are different versions, recorded on separate dates. - PJS
The Menhaden01 version ends with the "every mail day," "ready made money," and "gonna roll here" verses from "Goin' Home."
At the beginning of the ballad -- before he "walked away" -- "Lazarus sit(ted) (USMenhaden01,VaWork)/ shit (GarrityBlake-FishFactory)/ walked (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry) / up (Morrison LomaxCD1705) on the commissary counter," he "broke in the commisary window (Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs)," or "commissary man swore out warrant for Lazarus (Harold Courlander, A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore)." As always, there is the question of censorship by singers or collectors.
As an example of how bits float from chantey to chantey Frye-TheMenAllSinging has this meld of "Mule on the Mountain" and "Poor Lazarus": "Old Lazarus the mule ... he shit on the commissary counter! ... he just walk away." Not knowing the prison song, Frye thought "Lazarus could have been the Biblical character, more likely the mule that plowed the garden at home, or a mine mule he [the singer] remembered if he had actually been to the mountains to dig coal." (pp. 184, 188). - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LI12

Poor Lil

DESCRIPTION: Lil, a beauty, lives in a house of ill repute. Her health declines and she loses her looks; a house physician recommends Scott's Emulsion, to no avail. She loses her clientele and dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous whore disease doctor drugs
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 200-201, "Her Name Was Lil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 248-249, "Poor Lil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 15, "Lil" (1 text)
DT, POORLIL1*
Roud #10310
File: RL248

Poor Little Angeline

DESCRIPTION: 16-year-old Angeline is spotted by a local squire, whose one desire is to have his way with her. The local blacksmith, who also wants her, breaks out of prison when he sees what is happening. He rescues her, and his, er, prowess leaves her content
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: sex nobility trick escape
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 97-100, "Poor Little Angeline" (1 text)
Roud #10144
File: RuSoPoLA

Poor Little Boy Without Any Shoe, A

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "A poor little bou without any shoe, One, two, three, and out goes you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: clothes | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 21. "(A poor little boy without any shoe)" (1 text)
File: WEMM021A

Poor Little Ellen

See Poor Ellen Smith (I) (File: CSW143)

Poor Little Ewing, A

DESCRIPTION: "I'm only a poor little Ewing." The singer complains about JR and claims the other characters are drunk, punk, "and Bobby lives under the sea"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 445, ("I'm only a poor little Ewing") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Ewan McVicar, Doh Ray Me, When Ah Wis Wee (Edinburgh, 2007), p. 163, "A Poor Little Ewing"
NOTES [42 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "In 1979, when a disreputable rhyme about the characters in the television serial Dallas was in circulation, seven-year-olds patted it into domesticity in the playground: [text] But such songs do not satisfy for long...." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGap445

Poor Little Fisher Boy, The

See The Soldier's Poor Little Boy [Laws Q28] (File: LQ28)

Poor Little Fisherman's Girl, The

See The Fisherman's Girl (File: E066)

Poor Little Girls of Ontario, (The)

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing you a song of a plaguey pest, It goes by the name of the Great North-West. I cannot get a beau at all. They all skip out there in the fall." The girl describes all the men she courted who have now headed west. She declares she will follow them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957
KEYWORDS: courting separation emigration
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont,West)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 147-149, "The Poor Little Girls of Ontario"; 150-152, "The Saskatchewan Girl's Lament" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
DT, GALONTAR
Roud #4513
RECORDINGS:
Ann Halderman, "A Poor Lone Girl in Saskatchewan" (on Saskatch01)
Mrs. Hartley [Ethel] Minifie, "The Poor Little Girls of Ontario" (on Ontario1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Brown Jug" (tune)
NOTES [23 words]: This sounds like it ought to be a humorous song about a woman who so scares men that they head west -- but it seems to be "straight." - RBW
File: FMB147

Poor Little Jesus

DESCRIPTION: "It was poor little Jesus, yes, yes, He was born on Christmas... And laid in a manger...." Describes Jesus's humble birth, the song goes on to relate his death and resurrection. Stanzas end with "Wasn't that a pity and a shame?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926
KEYWORDS: religious Bible Jesus poverty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 101, "Po' Lil Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 373, "Poor Little Jesus" (1 text)
File: LxU101

Poor Little Joe (The Dying Newsboy)

DESCRIPTION: The singer is in New York (or London) when he meets a (newsboy) -- "Although he was singing, he wanted for bread; Although he was smiling, he wished himself dead." The poor newsboy is ignored by the well-to-do, and is at last found dead in the street
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Journal of the Andrew Hicks)
KEYWORDS: death poverty hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Randolph 716, "Poor Little Joe" (1 text plus a fragment)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 152, "Poor Little Joe" (1 text)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #33, p. 209, "Poor Little Joe" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 48, pp. 64-65, "Poor Little Joe" (1 text plus a fragment)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, p. 254, "Poor Little Joe" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #101, "Poor Little Joe" (2 texts)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 243-244, "Poor Little Joe" (1 text, 2 tunes)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 482, "Poor Little Joe" (source notes only)
Roud #3111
RECORDINGS:
Red Patterson's Piedmont Log Rollers, "Poor Little Joe" (Victor 35874, 1928)
James Ragan [pseud. for Roy Harvey], "Poor Little Joe" (Challenge 394, c. 1928)
Earl Shirkey & Roy Harper [Roy Harvey], "Poor Little Joe" (Columbia 15376-D, 1928)
Arnold Keith Storm, "Poor Little Joe" (on AKStorm01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Won't You Buy My Pretty Flowers" (theme of a young person trying to sell something no one bothers to buy)
cf. "Poor Jim the Newsboy" (plot)
cf. "Jimmie Brown the Newsboy" (plot)
NOTES [208 words]: E. J. Kahn, Jr., The Merry Partners: The Age and Stage of Harrigan and Hart, Random House, 1955, pp. 18-19, writes:
"There had been no newsboys at all in the city [of New York] until 1833, at which time the Sun, departing radically from the view of all publishers that it was undignified to peddle their wares like tea-water or chestnuts, had appealed for venders. By 1873, when the unsettled post-war economic conditions had produced 10,000 homeless children in New York and when there were fifteen daily newspapers in the city, the streets swarmed with newsboys. They were a hardy lot, many of them orphans, who went by names like One-Lung Pete, Slobbery Jack, and Jake the Oyster, and who, if they toiled unremittingly and in good voice from four o'clock in the morning until after dark, could hope to earn a daily income of fifty cents or so."
That would be about the same amount of money as a private during the Civil War, but the private got food and clothing. Of course, the private might also have a family to support. The bottom line is, it wasn't really enough to live on unless one already had shelter.
Little wonder, then, that there are many songs about dying newsboys. The surprise is that the papers didn't print more of them! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R716

Poor Little Johnny

DESCRIPTION: The cotton is rotten, so Johnny "won't get his hunderd" (pounds) today.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: worksong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 742, "Poor Little Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [17 words]: John Lomax recorded this from Aunt Harriet McClintock, who said it was sung in the days of slavery. - NR
File: BSoF742

Poor Little Kitty Puss

DESCRIPTION: Fiddle tune with lyrics: "Pore little Kitty Puss, Pore little feller, Pore little Kitty Puss, Died in the cellar." "Pore little Fido, Pore little Fidie, Pore little Fidie Died last Friday." Possible chorus: "Don't you hear them wolves a-howling..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal death nonballad dancetune
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 108, "Poor Little Kitty Puss" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 108, "Poor Little Kitty Puss" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 146, p. 293, [no title] (1 fragment)
ST Br3108 (Full)
File: Br3108

Poor Little Lamb Cries Mammy

See All the Pretty Little Horses (File: LxU002)

Poor Little Laura Lee

DESCRIPTION: Floating stanzas of two songs which mention Laura Lee. The first seems to be a song of parting as Laura's lover goes to the wars (?), but with an "I won't marry" ending; the other perhaps involves a shotgun wedding.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting separation
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 102, "Poor Little Laura Lee" (2 fragments)
NOTES [31 words]: The Brown texts (the only ones I've seen) are very short and perhaps unrelated; the description is partly from the headnotes. This entry probably does not adequately describe the song. - RBW
File: Br3102

Poor Little Nellie

See Why Did They Dig Ma's Grave So Deep? (File: Stou071)

Poor Little Sailor Boy, A

See The Soldier's Poor Little Boy [Laws Q28] (File: LQ28)

Poor Little Soldier Boy, The

See The Soldier's Poor Little Boy [Laws Q28] (File: LQ28)

Poor Little Soldier's Boy, The

See The Soldier's Poor Little Boy [Laws Q28] (File: LQ28)

Poor Little Sweep, The

DESCRIPTION: "On a cold winter's morn as the snow was falling, When a child of misfortune so loudly was bawling," the "poor little sweep" begs for "compassion" and weeps when he finds none. A "kind hearted damsel" finally sees him; she takes him to her home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1847 (Forget-Me-Not-Songster)
KEYWORDS: worker hardtimes rescue
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 166-167, "Poor Little Sweep" (1 text)
Roud #2672
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1133), Harding B 11(1132), Johnson Ballads 252, "Poor Little Sweep," J Catnach (London)/W. Marshall (Bristol)/J. Sherman (Cambridge), 1813-1838; also Firth b.25(284), "The Poor Little Sweep!" W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle), 1832-1842; Harding B 11(1134), "Poor Little Sweep," J. Harkless (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(3089), "Poor Little Sweep," J. Jackson and Son (Birmingham), 1842-1855 (image missing); also Firth b.34(232) and Harding B 25(1532), Harding B 11(3086), Johnson Ballads 954, Harding B 11(3087) (image missing), "The Poor Little Sweep,"J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 19(56b), "The Poor Little Sweep," unknown, n.d. (image missing); also Harding B 11(2306), "The Poor Little Sweep" T. Hoggett (Durham), 1816-1843; also Harding B 40(13), "The Poor Little Sweep," J. F. Nugent and Co. (Dublin?), 1850-1899 (image missing); also Harding B 25(1531), J. K. Pollock (North Shields), 1815-1855; also Harding B 36(23), "Poor Little Sweep," J. Kiernan (Manchester), n.d. (image missing); 2806 c.16(262), Harding B 11(4037), J. O. Babbington (Manchester), 1855-1858; also 2806 c.17(342), "The poor little little sweep," unknown, n. d.
NOTES [2 words]: Blech. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: FMNS166

Poor little Zeddy they put him in the corner

See Little Sally Walker (File: CNFM157)

Poor Liza Jane

See Liza Jane (File: San132)

Poor Lonely Widow

DESCRIPTION: The "poor lonely widow" reports that "Three husbands I've had but they're all dead and buried." The first choked to death in bed, the second drank too much (?), the third hit her and she hit him back. She wonders "if anyone will marry me now."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: husband wife death loneliness oldmaid
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 228-229, "Poor Lonely Widow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1197
File: CoSB228

Poor Lonesome Cowboy

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a poor lonesome cowboy (x3) And a long way from home." "I ain't got no father To buy the clothes I wear." "I ain't got no mother To mend the clothes I wear." "I ain't got no sweetheart To sit and talk with me." (And so on for other missing persons)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: cowboy loneliness family
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 273, "Poor Lonesome Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 112-115, "Poor Lonesome Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 84, "The Poor Lonesome Cowboy" (4 texts, 1 tune; the "C" and "D" texts are Spanish -- "Soy Pobre Vaquero" -- but with plots similar to this piece)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 418, "Poor Lonesome Cowboy" (1 text)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 216-219, "Poor Lonesome Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune plus a text of "Soy Pobre Vaquero")
DT, POORLONE*
Roud #4643
File: San273

Poor Lucy Anna

DESCRIPTION: Shanty, Negro origin. "Oh the mounten's so high, an' de ribber's so wide, Poor Lucy Anna! De mounten's so high and de ribber's so wide, Ise just gwine ober de mountains." Sung in a slow 3/4 tempo.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Bullen, _Songs of Sea Labor_)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 378-379, "Poor Lucy Anna" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 287]
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, p. 57, "Judiano" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9127
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Susiana" (similar wording in some verses)
NOTES [51 words]: Bullen stated that this was so mournful a song that "one suspects it of being the lament of some just sold slaves sent from one state to another without reference to any human ties they may have possessed. This chantey was very seldom used except where negroes formed a considerable portion of the crew." - SL
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Hugi378

Poor Man

DESCRIPTION: "I worked all the winter time, I worked through the spring, I planted my corn and taters, Then it wouldn't rain. There ain't nothing for a poor man in this world." The singer catalogs his troubles: Drought, flood, poverty, and work every day
AUTHOR: Frank Proffitt
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: poverty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 117, "Poor Man" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 24, #2 (1975), p, 14, "Poor Man" (1 text, 1 tune, included in a memorial to Frank Profitt)
ST Wa117 (Partial)
Roud #5733
File: Wa117

Poor Man Blues

DESCRIPTION: "I never had a barrel of money... I'm gonna die and go to heaven, There I'll set and sing. Lord, this song ain't nothin'... But a poor man singin' the blues." The singer misses his girl. He will go home to East Virginia to stay. Other verses float
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: love separation home hardtimes poverty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 80, "Poor Man Blues" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boll Weevil [Laws I17]" (floating lyrics)
File: FSWB081B

Poor Man, O Poor Man

See Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man) (File: R127)

Poor Man, The

See Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man) (File: R127)

Poor Man's Family, The

See Longshoreman's Strike (The Poor Man's Family) (File: FSC101)

Poor Man's Labor's Never Done, The

See The Brisk Young Bachelor (File: ShH69)

Poor Man's Labour, The

See The Brisk Young Bachelor (File: ShH69)

Poor Man's Song

See Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man) (File: R127)

Poor Man's Sorrows

See The Brisk Young Bachelor (File: ShH69)

Poor Married Man (I)

DESCRIPTION: "You may talk about the joys of the sweet honeymoon... But almost every case they're gone too soon." The troubles and burdens of the married man are listed; "You can tell by his clothes wherever he goes That he is a poor married man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: marriage family hardtimes work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 309, "Poor Married Man" (1 text plus a fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 309, "Poor Married Man" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Roud #16861
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Married Man (II)" (theme)
cf. "I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male)" (theme)
NOTES [35 words]: The versions I have seen of this are so close to "Poor Married Man (II)" that I almost lumped them. But they don't seem to have actual lyrics in common, and Roud splits them. I follow his lead, very hesitantly. - RB
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3309

Poor Married Man (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Come listen to the doleful ditty of a poor married man, And when you've heard it you will pity a poor married man." His bills are overdue. His wife beats him. His six children don't resemble him. His daughter will make another fellow a poor married man.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes husband wife infidelity
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #133, "Poor Married Man" (2 texts, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Married Man (I)" (theme)
cf. "I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male)" (theme)
NOTES [35 words]: The versions I have seen of this are so close to "Poor Married Man (I)" that I almost lumped them. But they don't seem to have actual lyrics in common, and Roud splits them. I follow his lead, very hesitantly. - RB
Last updated in version 3.8
File: Hubb133

Poor Mary

See Poor Mary Sits A-Weeping (I) (File: Lins047)

Poor Mary Sits A-Weeping

See What's Poor Mary Weepin' For (Poor Jenny Sits A-Weeping) (File: MSNR070)

Poor Mary Sits A-Weeping (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Poor Mary sits a-weeping, A-weeping, a-weeping, Poor Mary sits a-weeping All on a summer's day." "I'm weeping for a sweetheart." "Pray, Mary, choose a sweetheart." "I'll chose (X) for a sweetheart."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Sutton-Smith)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,West)) US(NE) New Zealand
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 76, "Poor Mary" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 47-49, "Poor Mary Sits A-Weeping" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 23-24, "(Poor Alice is a-weeping)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Emma Elizabeth Thoyts, "Old Berkshire School-Games" in The Antiquary, Vol. XXVII (London, 1893 ("Digitized by Google")), June 1893, #12 p. 254, "Poor Mary" (1 text)
ST Lins047 (Partial)
Roud #1377?
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Three Dukes" (tune, per Thoyts)
cf. "What's Poor Mary Weepin' For (Poor Jenny Sits A-Weeping)" (lyrics)
File: Lins047

Poor Mary Sits A-Weeping (II)

See Little Sally Walker (File: CNFM157)

Poor Murdered Woman, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was Hankey the squire, as I have heard say," who rides out hunting. He finds nothing "but a poor murdered woman, laid on the cold ground." People gather to seek the murderer, but the crime remains unsolved
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (Broadwood)
KEYWORDS: homicide nobility hunting burial
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1834 - Discovery and burial of the anonymous murdered woman in Leatherhead Common (source: Broadwood)
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 70-71, "The Poor Murdered Woman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1064
File: LEBC070

Poor Naomi

See Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise) [Laws F4] AND Naomi Wise [Laws F31] (File: LF04)

Poor Nell

See The Lawyer and Nell (File: GrD2308)

Poor Old Couple, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was an old couple, and they were poor." The wife is afraid to stay alone; when the man goes away, she locks the doors and goes to bed. When he returns, she complains of his absence and asks for an (apple). He falls off the ladder. She insults him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: husband wife separation disease food age disease request dialog husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 94-95, "There Was an Old Couple" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 499)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 184, "The Poor Couple" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 76, "The Poor Old Couple" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #102, "It's Of an Old Couple" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 36, "The Poor Old Couple" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #821, pp. 305-306, "(There was an old couple, and they were poor)"
ADDITIONAL: James Orchard Halliwell, "Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales" (London, 1849 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 270, ("There was an old couple and they were poor")
Roud #491
NOTES [274 words]: It sounds like a "spark" is some sort of supernatural creature [in the Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians version, after she request the fruit, "up jumped a spark and he run like a hare"], but none of my dictionaries lists any such definition. Local dialect for "spook"? Or has the lady been two-timing the "poor old fool," and is the spark her paramour? Now if she'd asked the old man to fetch a cabbage-head, we'd know for sure. - PJS
My guess is that it's an error for "up HE jumped [like?] a spark...." Or maybe it's an oblique reference to Job 5:7, "Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward." - RBW
"Spark" indeed! Somewhere along the line the story seems to have been "severely censored," as noted in Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople. Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople #76 has the town clerk, who was "resolved with her to lie," come to visit at eight o'clock. He is still there when the husband comes home at twelve. To facilitate the clerk's escape she sends her husband to "fetch me an apple from yonder tree And I will come and let in thee, O yes I will said he." The escape is successful: "Now as he was grabbling under the tree Up jumped the town clerk and away runned he That's very well done, said she." She claims to have been sick in his absence. "Poor wife said he Poor cuckhold thought she."
The Halliwell version has no town clerk but retains the unsympathetic wife: when the old man tries to climb the tree for her apple "the ladder it fell, and down tumbled he. That's cleverly done! said she." - BS
Has anyone noticed how many elements of this song are reminiscent of Chaucer's "Merchant's Tale"? - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BGMG821

Poor Old Ernie's Dead

DESCRIPTION: "Poor old Ernie's dead, He died last night in bed. They put him in a coffin, He fell through the bottom, Poor old Ernie's dead."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty death
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 134, "(Poor old Ernie's dead)" (1 text)
File: SuSm134A

Poor Old Granuaile

DESCRIPTION: Granuaile appears in a dream. She supports those jailed "in O'Connell's time in '29 ... 'we'll Home Rule get.'" She plays the patriotic tunes. She says "we'll have freedom yet." The dreamer wakes in jail.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads); 1870s? (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Ireland patriotic prison dream
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 3A, "Poor Old Granuaile" (1 text)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 77, "Poor Old Granuaile" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Anne Chambers, Granuaile, 1986, pp. 197-198, "Poor Old Granuaile"
Roud #3068
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Green Shore" [Laws Q27] (theme)
cf. "Eileen McMahon" (aisling format)
cf. "Granuaile" (aisling format) and references there
cf. "Granuwale" (theme)
cf. "Erin's Lament for her Davitt Asthore" (theme)
cf. "The Blackbird of Avondale" or "The Arrest of Parnell" (theme)
NOTES [240 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 77: "This text was the new version of an older ballad (first half of the nineteenth century." There are only a few words difference between Zimmermann 77 and OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 3A. An early date for these texts is set by the mention of tunes played by Granuaile including "God Save Ireland" (1867).
Zimmermann p. 55: "At the time of the United Irishmen, Granu Waile standing for Ireland was already celebrated by broadsides in English."
Two similar but different broadsides:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(25), "Granauile" ("One morning fair to take the air and recreate my mind"), J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 507A, "Granawail" ("[Come] all you Irish hero's that's craving for liberty"), E. Hodges (London), 1855-1861
"Granuaile O'Malley (Or Grace O'Malley, or Gr.inne Ni Mhaille or Gr.inne Uaile) is among the most illustrious of O'Malley ancestors. She was a 'Sea Queen' and pirate in the 16th century." (Source: The Official Web Site of The O'Malley Clan Association) - BS
The Oxford Companion to Irish History gives her dates as c. 1530-c. 1603, observes that she was married twice and imprisoned 1577-1579 -- and notes that, on the whole, she strove for peaceful relations with the English.
For a discussion of this type of song as a example of the genre known as the "aisling," see the notes to "Granuaile." That song also has a few notes on Grace O'Malley. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: OLoc003A

Poor Old Horse (I)

See Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse) (File: Doe014)

Poor Old Horse (III)

DESCRIPTION: "My clothing once was linsey-woolsey fine, My hair unlinkt, and my coat it did shine; But now in open fields I'm forced for to go... Crying, 'Poor old horse, O poor old horse.'" The horse recalls the old days, and bequeathes its body to the huntsmen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland); the Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland versions apparently was published in Topliff before 1850
KEYWORDS: age ritual horse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North,South))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 135, "Poor Old Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 85, "Poor Old Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 77, "Poor Old Horse" (2 texts)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 106, "Poor Old Horse" (1 text)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 60-61, "The Poor Old Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #140, "The Old Horse" (1 text, 1 tune, with a musical "prologue")
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 404-406, "The Mummers' Song; or, The Poor Old Horse" (1 text)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #77, "Poor Old Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 128, "Lamentation of an Old Horse" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1902, p. 128, "Poor Old Horse Let Him Die" (2 references)
ADDITIONAL: Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, pp. 88-89, "Poor Old Horse" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #90, "Poor Old Horse" (1 text)
ST ShH85 (Full)
Roud #513
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)" (plot)
cf. "Pawkie Paiterson's Auld Grey Yaud" (theme)
cf. "Mon Cher Voisin (My Dear Neighbor)" (theme)
cf. "The Old Blind Horse" (theme)
cf. "The Auld Horse's Lament" (theme)
NOTES [144 words]: Hobbyhorse rituals have been commonplace in rural Britain for centuries. This song was sung as part of these rituals.
Although there are a few parallels between this song and "Poor Old Man" (notably the description of the horse's decrepitude), I believe that this is a related but separate song with a thoroughly different gestalt. As we are being splitters in this index, this song deserves its own entry. -PJS
Roud lumps the two; personally, I wonder a little if even this song might not need splitting. The description above is taken mostly from Stokoe's text; Sharp, which begins "When I was young and in my prime," has a quite distinct look -- but exactly the same plot, and apparently both were used for hobbyhorse rituals. Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd has yet another form, but I don't trust texts from that source enough to split them off! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ShH85

Poor Old Horse Let Him Die

See Poor Old Horse (III) (File: ShH85)

Poor Old Joe

See Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse) (File: Doe014)

Poor Old Lady

See Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (File: RcIKAOLW)

Poor Old Lazarus (I've Got a Home; Don't You See)

DESCRIPTION: "Poor ol' Lazarus, poor as I, Don't you see? When he had a home on high, Don't you see?" ""Rich man, rich man lived so well, When he died he had a home in hell, Don't you see, don't you see?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Wings Over Jordan)
KEYWORDS: religious death Bible home
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 628, "Poor Old Lazarus" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 628, "Poor Old Lazarus" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11929
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dives and Lazarus" [Child 56] (subject) and references there
NOTES [41 words]: Jesus's story of the rich man and Lazarus is found in Luke 16:19-31 (the Lazarus of John 11, 12 is unrelated).
It's worth remembering that this is not something that actually happened in the Bible; rather, it is a story Jesus told as a warning. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3628

Poor Old Maid

DESCRIPTION: "We're a lonely dismal crew, Poor old maid!/We're a lonely dismal crew/All dressed in yellow, pink and blue/Nursing the cats is all we do...." "Three scores and ten of us/And not a penny in the purse/So something must be done for us...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Christie, _Traditional Ballad Airs, vol. 1_)
KEYWORDS: loneliness poverty clothes money nonballad political oldmaid
FOUND IN: Britain(England), US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 229, "Poor Old Maid" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 12-13, "Poor Old Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #206, "Poor Old Maids" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #81, "Poor Old Maids" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 57, "Poor Old Maids" (2 texts, 2 tunes, plus mention of 1 more)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 45 and #4/64, p. 45, "Poor Old Maids" (1 text)
Roud #3337
NOTES [292 words]: Sharp refers to a manuscript in his collection with the additional lyrics, "We'll apply to George the Third/And our petition shall be heard./George the third unto us he said: 'And here's a penny to buy some bread.'" Sharp adds, "This is, no doubt, an allusion to the Bread Riots." He adds a verse from Christie, "But we'll apply to James our King/And to him a petition bring/That he may get us wed wi' ring/Poor auld maidens." - PJS
The "Bread Riots," also known as "Bread of Blood Riots," took place in 1816. In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, Britain's immense military spending led to an intense round of inflation, with devastating effects on the poor. The most intense uprising came in Liverpool, where protesters bore placards saying "Bread or Blood." 24 rioters were sentenced to death, though in the end only five were hanged and nine more transported.
This is in the reign of George III -- but the other side of the coin is, George III by this time was permanently insane (with what is now believed by some to have been porphyria, although this has been questioned); the future George IV had been regent since 1811 (and at times before that). So I rather suspect the song it older -- perhaps, as implied by Christie, going back to the reign of James I (1603-1625), the only significant King James of England, whose reign did see a lot of economic trouble, partly because of the high spending of Elizabeth's reign (which ended with an economic downturn) and partly because James didn't understand money at all well.
The American versions of course have none of this, and downplay the poverty; instead of the song being about a POOR old maid, it is about a poor OLD MAID -- that is, her loneliness rather than her poverty is stressed. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ShAp2229

Poor Old Maids

See Poor Old Maid (File: ShAp2229)

Poor Old Man (II)

DESCRIPTION: The poor old man warns the Connors's from Kerry that they will rue stopping in Ross Town. He barricades his door [in "real life" that apparently led to a disaster for him].
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: feud derivative
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #2509
RECORDINGS:
"Pops" Johnny Connors, "Poor Old Man" (on IRTravellers01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (form, tune) and references there
NOTES [52 words]: Jim Carroll's notes to IRTravellers01: "According to the singer, this song refers to a fight that took place in the town of New Ross, Co Wexford, sometime in the nineteen-thirties, between two travelling families.... The song is a parody of 'An Sean Bhean Bhoct,' (The Poor Old Woman) [The Shan Van Voght]." - BS
File: RcPoOMan

Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "For they say so and they know so... Oh, poor old (horse/man)." The sailor meets an old man with an old horse; they exchange comments about the horse's (and humanity's) fate. Alternate chorus: "And I say so/And we hope so"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 768)
KEYWORDS: shanty horse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(MA,NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 14, "Poor Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 63-64, "Poor Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 68-69, 84, "Poor Old Man," "The Dead Horse," "Poor Old Joe" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 14-15, "Poor Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 554-555, "The Dead Horse" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 389-392]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 185, "The Dead Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XLVII, p. 52, "The Dead Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 91, "Dead Horse"; p. 96, "Poor Old Joe" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 104-106, "The Poor Old Horse," "The Poor Old Man" (1 texts)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 134-135, "The Dead Horse" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 74, "Poor Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 406, "The Dead Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 226, "Children's Quatrains" ("One old man come ridin' by") (1 short text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 30-31, "Viggy Mitchy Kimeo" (1 text, 1 tune, which appear to combine a "Kemo Kimo" chorus and one or two verses with a single verse from "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)")
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 25, "Say Old Man" (1 text)
Bone-CapstanBars, p. 50, "The 'Dead Horse' Chanty" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 16, "The Dead Horse" (1 text)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #23, "The Dead Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #24, "O Johnny Come to Hilo" (1 text, which appears to mix the chorus of "Johnny Walk Along to Hilo" with words from "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)")
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 237, (no title) (1 fragment, probably this)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 155-156, "Poor Old Horse" (2 texts) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 217; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 312)
DT, DEADHORS*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Bell, editor, Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England (London, 1857 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 184-186, "The Mummers' Song; or The Poor Old Horse" (1 text) "as sung by the Mummers in the Neighbourhood of Richmond, Yorkshire, at the merrie time of Christmas"
Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). A fragment titled "Poor Old Joe" is in Part 2, 7/21/1917.
Roud #513
RECORDINGS:
Tom Cornelly, "Poor Old Man" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Capt. Leighton Robinson, "The Dead Horse" (AFS, 1951; on LC26)
Leighton Robinson w. Alex Barr, Arthur Brodeur & Leighton McKenzie, "Poor Old Man" (AFS 4229 B, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 768, "The Old Horse" ("My cloathing once was linsey wolsey fine"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth c.18(208), Harding B 11(3712), Harding B 25(1539), Johnson Ballads 2763 [some words illegible], Firth c.19(93), Firth c.19(94), 2806 c.17(345) [some words lost], "[The] Poor Old Horse"
LOCSinging, sb30437a, "Poor Old Horse let him die" ("My clothing once, alas my friends, was linsey woolsey fine"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also as100480, "My Old Horse" [fragment]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Old Horse III" (plot)
cf. "Old Marse John" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Charleston Gals (Clear the Kitchen)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Johnny Booker" (lyrics)
cf. "The Salt Horse Song"
cf. "I Whipped My Horse"
cf. "Dumpty Moore"
NOTES [410 words]: When a boarding master supplied a sailor to a ship, he received an advance from the sailor's pay (for background on this, see the notes to "Dixie Brown" [Laws D7]). Thus the sailor had to work for some weeks or months before he began to earn money for himself. This was known as "working off the dead horse." Often sailors celebrated in some way when the dead horse was finally disposed of, and this song celebrates the process. - RBW
Thirty days out, sailors would sometimes make a horse-figure from rags and tar, hoist it to the yardarm, cut it loose and let it drift away on the sea, a ritual known as "burying the dead horse." A good captain would break out a ration of rum at this time. A sailor of my acquaintance reported that 100 days out, on a U.S. Navy carrier, the men would be given a ration of two cans of beer, and this was still known as the "dead horse." - PJS
Bone-CapstanBars says of this that it is "the only chanty I know composed definitely for entertainment." - RBW
The Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 217 text adds a verse to the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text on p. 155. The Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 312 text adds a toast to the poor old horse to the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text on p. 156.
Bell (not cribbing this time from Dixon 1846): "As sung by the Mummers in the Neighborhood of Richmond, Yorkshire, at the merrie time of Christmas. The rustic actor who sings the following song is dressed as an old horse, and at the end of every verse the jaws are snapped in chorus. It is a very old composition, and is now printed for the first time. The 'old horse' is, probably, of Scandinavian origin, -- a reminiscence of Odin's Sleipnor." - BS
The link with Sleipnor strikes me as dubious at best -- Sleipnor, or Sleipnir, was a "magnificent beast," the offspring of Loki, ridden by Hermod when he went to Hel to try to release Balder from death (Sykes/Kendall, p. 179). In Snorri's Prose Edda, it is called the best of all the AEsir's horses and is said to have eight legs (Snorri/Young, p. 43). It appears Sleipnir is still alive at the end of the Edda (Snorri/Young, p. 66). Also, Sleipnir could run over sea as well as land (Benet, p. 1039). His teeth were somehow notable, but why is not clear (Edda/Terry, p. 164).
Broadside LOCSinging sb30437a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: Doe014

Poor Old Robinson Crusoe

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a lad, my fortune was bad, My grandfather I did lose." As in the book, he, Robinson Crusoe, is shipwrecked, lands on an island with gun and sword. He builds a hut, lives there with Friday, until he is rescued by a passing ship.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 (Oh poor Robinson Crusoe sheet music, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: rescue sea ship wreck
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 25, "Robinson Crusoe" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 162, "Poor old Robinson Crusoe" (1 short text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 455, "Poor old Robinson Crusoe!" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #216, p. 146, "(Poor old Robinson Crusoe)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 156, "Poor Old Robinson Crusoe" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2017, p. 135, "Robinson Crusoe" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #24, pp. 58-59, "Robinson Crusoe" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 10, "Robinson Crusoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5805
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(66), "Robinson Crusoe," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 28(66), "Robinson Crusoe"; Johnson Ballads 2559, "Life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe"
LOCSinging, sb40455b, "Robinson Crusoe," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also as203020, as111820, "Robinson Crusoe"
NOTES [113 words]: Robinson Crusoe was written by Daniel Dafoe and published in 1719. [Based loosely on the actual adventures of a sailor named Alexander Selkirk. - RBW]
The source for the description is broadside Bodleian Harding B 28(66).
Broadside LOCSinging sb40455b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
It should be noted that many of the traditional collections consist of only a stanza or two, along the lines of Alice Kane's:
Poor old Robinson Crusoe,
Poor old Robinson Crusoe,
They made him a coat of an old nanny goat,
I wonder how they could do so. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: OO2455

Poor Old Sailor, The

DESCRIPTION: An old sailor begging tells his story: his death, falsely reported, caused his wife to die of a broken heart and his daughter to wander "I know not where." A woman listening reveals herself as his daughter and she takes him home until he dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1846 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 457)
KEYWORDS: age disability begging children sailor reunion
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 59-60, "The Worn-Out Sailor" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1076, "The Poor Old Worn-Out Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 247, "The Worn-Out Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6764
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 457, "The Poor Old Worn-Out Sailor," E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1844-1845; also Harding B 11(3099), Harding B 20(177), Firth c.12(399), "The Poor Old Worn-Out Sailor"; Harding B 11(2622), Harding B 11(2623), "The Poor Old Worn Out Sailor"; Harding B 25(1540), 2806 c.18(253), "The Poor Old Sailor"
LOCSinging, cw106810, "The Worn Out Sailor," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
NOTES [113 words]: Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia: Fowke notes that "John Moulden has located a broadside copy entitled 'The Poor Old Sailor' in the National Library of Ireland." That led me to look for the same in Bodleian.
Bodleian, Harding B 40(12), "The Poor Old Soldier" ("'Twas on a summers eve all labour was o'er"), J.F. Nugent and Co.? (Dublin?), 1850-1899 appears to be the same -- or closely related--but I could not download the text image to verify that.
Broadside LOCSinging cw106810: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: SmHa059

Poor Old Slave, The

DESCRIPTION: "The poor old slave is dead and gone, We know that he is free. Disturb him not, but let him rest, Away down in Tennessee." "The poor old slave is gone to rest, No master does he fear, Disturb him not...."
AUTHOR: G. W. H. Griffin (Source: Huntington, based on Spaeth)
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (composed for Ordway's Aeolians, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs); in oral tradition by 1858 (Journal of the Pavilion)
KEYWORDS: slave death burial humorous wordplay
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 118, "Th Po' Old Slave" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, # 5, "The Poor Old Slave" (1 short text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 305-306, "Good Old Jeff" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 419, 424, 489, "Poor Old Slave" (notes only)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 7 and #1/64 p. 7, "Poor Old Slave" (1 text)
DT, POORSLAV
ST MWhee118 (Full)
Roud #10049
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Good Old Slave
NOTES [57 words]: The Digital Tradition has a camp? version of this in which the singer inserts nonsense syllables. But Wheeler's text, though short, seems to ensure that this is a parody -- or rather an expansion -- of a serious song (perhaps a spiritual). Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida's informant had an amazing story of it having been learned in Sierra Leone. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MWhee118

Poor Old Soldier Boy

See The Soldier's Poor Little Boy [Laws Q28] (File: LQ28)

Poor Old Woman

See The Housewife's Lament (File: FSC097)

Poor Old Worn-Out Sailor, The

See The Poor Old Sailor (File: SmHa059)

Poor Oma Wise

See Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise) [Laws F4] (also Naomi Wise [Laws F31]) (File: LF04)

Poor Omia Wise

See Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise) [Laws F4] AND Naomi Wise [Laws F31] (File: LF04)

Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise) [Laws F4]

DESCRIPTION: John Lewis, to free himself of his pregnant sweetheart, offers to marry her but instead plans to drown her. She begs for her life, promising to go begging, but he throws her in the river. The body is found and Lewis imprisoned. (He escapes into the army.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Craven)
KEYWORDS: pregnancy homicide rejection prison drowning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1807 (some sources, including her tombstone, say 1808, but see below) - Drowning of Naomi Wise in North Carolina
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,SE,So)
REFERENCES (36 citations):
Laws F4, "Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 322-324, "Oma Wise" (2 texts)
Randolph 149, "Poor Oma Wise" (5 texts plus 2 excerpts and 1 fragment, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 163-166, "Poor Oma Wise" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 149A)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 37-38, "Poor... Oma" (1 text)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 28, "Little Oma" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 56-57, "Little Lonie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 300, "Poor Naomi (Omie Wise)" (5 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 2 more; it appears that Laws places texts "A" and "D" here, but "H" is also this song, with "F" and "G" being "Naomi Wise" [Laws F31])
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 300, "Poor Naomi (Omie Wise)" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes, both probably this)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 786, "(no title)" (1 tune with no text, which Schinhan says is closely related to the tune in Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 28-29, "Poor Omia Wise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #38, "Naomi Wise" (2 texts, 1 tune, with the "A" text and tune, locally titled "Sweet William," being "Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise)" [Laws F4], while the "B" text is "Naomi Wise" [Laws F31])
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 63, pp. 187-188, "Poor Omie" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 64-65, "Omie Wise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 84-86, "Omy Wise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 169, "Pretty Molly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 30-31, "Oma Wise" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 73-75, "John Lewis" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 61-62, "Omie Wise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, pp. 52-53, "Omie Wise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 793-795, "Naomi (Omie) Wise" (2 texts)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 202, "Naomi Wise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 116, "The Ballad of Naomi Wise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p.111, "Little Onie" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 138, "Omie Wise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 51, pp. 119-120, "Poor Omie" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 123, "Poor Omie" (7 texts, 7 tunes)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 25-28, "Omie Wise" (1 text plus some fragments, 1 tune; also an excerpt from another Naomi Wise song, seemingly neither this nor Laws F31)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 232, "Poor Naomi" (1 text plus an excerpt of a second)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 143-144, "Omie Wise" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 200-201, "Omie Wise" (1 text)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 42 "Ommie Wise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 149, "Deep Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 225, "Omie Wise" ; p. 227, "Deep Water" (2 texts)
DT 627, OMIEWISE* OMIWISE2*
ADDITIONAL: Braxton Craven (writing as Charlie Vernon), _The Story of Naomi Wise_, The Greensville Patriot, 1874; republished in (Rotary Club of Randleman), _The Story of Naomi Wise and The History of Randleman_, 1944; reissued with a new Foreword 1962, p. 20, "Poor Naomi" (1 text)
ST LF04 (Full)
Roud #447
RECORDINGS:
Finley Adams, "Omie Wise" (AAFS 2796 B1)
Clarence Ashley, "Naomi Wise" (Columbia 15522-D, 1930; rec. 1929; on Ashley04)
Clarence Ashley & Doc Watson, "Poor Omie" (on Ashley03)
Dock Boggs, "Little Omie Wise" (on Boggs3, BoggsCD1)
Mrs. W. R. Buchanan, "Little Omie Wise" (AAFS 2857 B3)
Acie Cargill, Debra Cowan, Kristina Olsen, "Omie Wise" (on HCargillFamily)
Ruth Clark Cullipher, "Little Onie" (AAFS 1031 A1)
Morgan Denmon, "Naomi Wise" (OKeh 45075, 1927; rec. 1926)
Minnie Floyd, "Naomi Wise" (AAFS 1301 A1)
Cleophas Franklin, "Omie Wise" (AAFS 2891 B2)
Charlie Glenn, Shirley Glenn, "Omie Wise" (Piotr-Archive #182, recorded 06/06/2022)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Ommie Wise" (Victor 21625, 1927; on AAFM1, GraysonWhitter01, ConstSor1)
Goldie Hamilton, "Little Omie Wise" (AAFS 2829 A1)
Aunt Idy Harper & the Coon Creek Girls, "Poor Naomi Wise" (Vocalion 04354 [or 04345], 1938)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Omie Wise" (on Holcomb1, HolcombCD1)
A. J. Huff, "Omie Wise" (AAFS 2877 B3)
Sarah Ison, "Little Omie Wise" (AAFS 2810 B1)
Aunt Molly Jackson, "Oma Wise" (AAFS 824 B2, 1935) (AAFS 3340/3341 A)
Polly Johnson, "Poor Omie" (AAFS 2760 A4)
Mrs. Esco Kilgore, "Oma Wise" (AAFS 2772 A2)
Alexander Kirkheart, "Naomi Wise" (AAFS 1700 A1)
Alec Moore, "Poor Omie Wise" (AAFS 57 B1)
Johanna Shepherd, "Omie Wise" (AAFS 1405 B2)
Lillian Short, "Naomi Wise" (AFS; on LC12)
Della Sibert, "Omie Wise" (AAFS 1486 A2)
Rick Ward, "Omie Wise" (Piotr-Archive #136, recorded 04/18/2022)
Doug Wallin, "Omie Wise" (on Wallins1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Naomi Wise" [Laws F31] (plot)
cf. "Tragic Romance" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Naomi Wise
NOTES [1526 words]: Eleanor R. Long-Wilgus wrote an important monograph on this piece ,Naomi Wise: Creation, Re-Creation, and Continuity in an American Ballad Tradition. Chapel Hill: Chapel Hill Press, 2003. viii + 88 pp.
Dr. Long-Wilgus's monograph on Naomi Wise proceeds from the apparent original "True Account of Nayomy Wise" to show how both folksongs, "Poor Omie" (Laws F4) and "Naomi Wise" (Laws F32), grew out of this original under the influence of two broadsides (on other murders) from the 18th Century, both exemplifying the "murdered girl" narrative theme. The first printed version of "Poor Omie" was published by Braxton Craven in 1851, the second, "Naomi Wise," was recorded in 1925 by Carson Robison. But Long-Wilgus argues convincingly that the songs are older, modeled on the murdered girl theme (cf. Banks of the Ohio [Laws F5], the Wexford Girl [Laws P35], or Rose Conoley [Laws F6]), and while they show communalities with the eighteenth and nineteenth century broadsides, do not derive strictly from them, but rather increasingly fulfill the conventions of the "murdered girl theme" implied by that original "True Account." - DGE
Arthur Palmer Hudson called this North Carolina's "Principal contribution to American folksong" (Roote, p. 70).
A good brief account of the whole incident is on pp. 51-57 of Polenberg; there is a bibliography (far from complete, but a start) on p. 266, which indicates that the piece by Long-Wilgus is the only published book on the subject although there is a 1982 masters thesis by Robert Thomas Roote (which Polenberg considers the most important source for the song. This is not the Roote article cited here; I have not seen the thesis and am citing a 1984 summary).
Polenberg lists two early accounts of the Naomi Wise murder, with the first one, a poem by Mary Woody, being the "True Account of Nayomy Wise" mentioned above; the other, later and less accurate, was by Braxton Craven (whose family seems to have been involved in the story; at least, a "Mrs. Craven" is said on p. 14 to have encountered Lewis after the murder). This is the edition cited here as "Craven." Craven (born 1822) published his account in the January and February 1851 issues of Evergreen (Polenberg, p. 52; Roote, p. 70, who summarizes Craven's account on the next pages; the "About the Author" note in Craven, however, says that it was in the April 1874 Greensboro Patriot; presumably this was a reprint or revised edition).
Craven's booklet is not only unreliable but heavily fictionalized, including, e.g., conversations between Naomi and Lewis that could not have been preserved by anyone (pp. 10-12, for instance, quotes the words they spoke to each other as they rode to the murder site -- words that no one except Lewis could have reported, and he never did). Nonetheless it was used in the 1944 volume which Roote, p. 74, credits to "Randelman" -- i.e. the Rotary Club of Randleman edition cited here. Wellman, p. p. 190, also admits that Craven was his only real source -- and it shows; Wellman's tale is as inaccurate as Craven's.
Craven, p. 1, gives this description of Wise: "Her size was medium; her figure beautifully formed; her face handsome and expressive; her eye keen yet mild; her words soft and winning." (Wellman, p. ix, does remind us that "any woman involved in a major crime... is apt to be described as breathlessly lovely"; there seem to be no non-fictional descriptions of Naomi's appearance.) Similarly, on p. 2 Craven describes the Lewises as fond of no-rules fighting; they were "tall, broad. muscular, and very powerful men," "eminently pugnacious," and prone to drunkenness; they were wild men fond of raiding others and abusive of their children. But he gives no source for any of this information. And the writing is opinionated, bombastic, moralizing, and patently largely out of Craven's own head. (It's a dreadful read.)
Wise's tombstone (shown facing p. 1 of Craven) gives her dates as 1789-1808. This is probably the basis for the contention of Craven, p. 5, that she was 19 -- but the tombstone is wrong, because she was murdered in 1807! (The tombstone is not contemporary with her death; I wonder if Craven influenced it.)
Although Craven said Wise was 19, she was certainly older although her exact age is unknown (she was an orphan who had been raised and indentured as a servant by William and Mary Adams of Randolph County; Polenberg, p. 54). She already had two children by the time she became pregnant by John Lewis: a nine-year-old daughter Nancy and a four-year-old son Henry. The fathers (plural) were known but had not married her (Polenberg, p. 53).
John Lewis was 24 and lived in neighboring Guilford County. Although he had seemingly gotten her pregnant, he did not want to marry her. Craven's story, pp. 6-7, says that Lewis wanted to marry Hettie Elliot, the sister of his boss, who of course had more money -- but like all things in Craven, it can hardly be trusted.
Lewis reportedly took her away on his horse to the mill dam at Adams's Spring near her home (Polenberg, p. 52, has a later photo of this mill dam). Polenberg gives the year as 1807, although some still maintain the 1808 date. She was strangled and/or drowned; the commotion was heard although no one was able to reach the scene of the crime in the dark. (So, at least, Craven, p. 12, but this detail seems to be accepted by others.)
The Adamses searched the next morning and found artifacts; calling on neighbors, they eventually found Naomi's body (Polenberg, pp. 54-55).
A Grand Jury returned a bill on March 30, 1807 accusing John Lewis of murder (Roote, p. 74).
Eventually they located John Lewis and took him into custody (Polenberg, p. 55; Craven, pp. 14-15, makes it sound as if it happened very quickly). It is interesting, in light of the use of the name "Omie" in this song, that at least one of the court documents pertaining to his custody, refers to Naomi as "Omia Wise" (quoted on p. 74 of Roote). Lewis was in prison for eight months, but managed to escape (Craven, p. 16) shortly before going on trial (the trial was scheduled for October 26, 1807, and Lewis got away on October 9; Roote, p. 75). Probably he had help; several people got in trouble about it (Roote, p. 76). He emigrated to the west. Supposedly (believe this if you want to!) he was discovered when someone sang a song about Naomi (Polenberg, pp. 55-56). In any case, he was finally brought back to North Carolina, but did not stand trial until October 1813. Given the long time lapse and the lack of physical evidence, it apparently was not possible to prove the case (at least, Roote, p. 78, can find no records of a murder trial, though he allows the possibility that one took place; Craven, p. 19, says he was tried and acquitted). The only thing Lewis was convicted of was the minor crime of breaking jail. Having been given a month's sentence (he actually serve 47 days, according to Roote, p. 77) and shown that he did not have the money to pay his fine (the legal record is quoted in Craven, p. 210, he was freed and allowed to head west to return to the wife he had married in 1811.
Although he had escaped justice, he did not enjoy freedom for long; he died in 1817, still in his early to mid thirties (Polenberg, pp. 56-57). Craven, p. 19, claims he confessed to everything, and was haunted by memories of Naomi -- but if there were a confession, someone would have seen it, and the Lewis Craven describes would certainly never have felt any guilt; it's pretty definitely another Craven creation.
All of this happened in what is now the town of Randleman, but that down did not exist at the time; a cotton mill had been built at Naomi Falls in 1879, and it was combined with the businesses of John Randleman to form the town of Randleman in 1880 (Craven, p. 24).
The Deep River, where Naomi was murdered, has now been dammed above Randleman to form Lake Randleman, but "Naomi Falls," near where she was killed still exists in the Deep River Nature Trail through Randleman. (It's not an "official waterfall," apparently not being big enough, but it is possible to identify in photographs.) In Google Maps, go to Randeman, NC and look for where US Highway 220 (Business Route) crosses the Deep River. A little ways below that is the "Naomi Bridge," which takes "Naomi Street" across the river; the falls can be seen in the distance from there.
In addition to Naomi Falls and Naomi Street, there was for many years a Naomi United Methodist Church, but it is now gone (Craven, p. 47).
There are at least two novels about the Naomi Wise murder, Sandra Redding, Naomi Wise: A Cautionary Tale, 2013, and Thorn L. Kegley, When the Whip-Poor-Will Cried: The Murder of Naomi Wise, 2015. I have not attempted to see either; Kegley's capsule autobiography, at least, gave no hint of writing skills. It is also one of the stories told in Manly Wade Wellman's "Dead and Gone: Classic Crimes of North Carolina."
Another book is due in late 2022: Hal E. Pugh and Eleanor Minnock-Pugh, Naomi "Omie" Wise: Her Life, Death, and Legend. This one sounds more valuable, but it wasn't available at the time of this writing. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LF04

Poor Paddy Works on the Railway

See Paddy Works on the Railway (File: LxU076)

Poor Parker

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments, "Ye gods above, protect us widows!" She recalls her husband [Richard] Parker, "hanged for mutiny." She recalls how she was not allowed to his execution, and how she and friends dug up his grave and gave him a decent burial
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1824 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(42))
KEYWORDS: ship navy mutiny punishment execution husband wife burial mourning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1797 - Nore mutiny, ending in the execution of Richard Parker and others
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland) US(Ro,SE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 29, "The Death of Parker" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 117, Poor Parker"" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 117, "Poor Parker" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #136, "Parker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 58-64, "Death of Parker" (1 text)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #23, "The Death of Parker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 75, "President Parker" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 282, "The Death of Parker" (1 text, immediately following an anti-Parker song)
ST BrII117 (Partial)
Roud #1032
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.18(83), "The Death of Parker," Angus (Newcastle), before 1826; also Harding B 28(42), "Parker's Widow," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824 (barely legible); Harding B 25(490) (only a few words legible but probably this); Johnson Ballads 2447 (semi-legible); Harding B 11(843); Harding B 11(840)=Harding B 11(841), "The Death of Parker," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; Harding B 11(844), "The Death of Parker," J Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; 2806 c.16(207)=Harding B 11(3301), J. Walker (Durham); 2806 c.13(245) (only partly legible)
NOTES [4203 words]: Living conditions in sailing ships were rarely pleasant, but conditions in the British Navy in the late eighteenth century were particularly bad. Sailor's food, supplied by dishonest contractors (M/D, p. 45), was often insufficient and rotten (M/D, p. 43), and they were all but imprisoned on their ships. Plus, the sailors (most of them, of course, recruited by press gangs; Dugan, p. 58) were held in service for very long periods. Many were beaten mercilessly for bad reasons or none -- or, perhaps, "to encourage the others"; cruel officers were one of their chief causes of complaint (M/D, pp. 55-61).
Theoretically, rations were supposed to be adequate and fresh food offered when possible. But the Navy farmed out these services, and the contractors were generally corrupt and supplied bad food in inadequate quantities; Dugan, pp. 56-57. Even if the contractors had been entirely honest, it would have been hard for them to do their work well, because they, like the sailors, were not getting paid what they were owed; Dugan, p. 67.
Nor could the men hope to buy anything to improve their conditions; pay hadn't been raised for over a century (Guttridge, p. 46), and even those pitiful amounts often went unpaid; Dugan, p. 35, says that the total arrears as of the end of 1796 exceeded 1.4 million pounds -- a figure that could be multiplied by a factor of a hundred or so to reach modern dollars. M/D, p. 18, cites a source claiming some sailors had not been paid for decades, although no proof was offered.
And all this at a time when the British economy was teetering on the brink of collapse and revolution may have been in the air (Dugan, pp. 29-31); many of those sailors had families back home who were in extreme distress (Dugan, p. 66).
Dissatisfaction with naval policy was enough that, when the windows at Number Ten Downing Street were broken, the general feeling was that it was in response to the heavy demands of the press gang, though Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger brushed it off as "a single pebble" (Wilson, p. 278).
To top it all off, Britain was already war-weary from the contest with France, and was so broke that payment in specie had been halted in many cases (M/D, p. 6). The nation had little energy for reform -- especially since the Navy was considered to be doing a rather poor job (M/D, p. 4); why try to reform a service that was so wrong-headed? The fact that this was the fault of the antique senior officers, not the seamen, does not seem to have crossed Parliament's mind.
M/D, p. 246, note how Nelson repeatedly warned of problems with pay -- but, in 1797, no one cared about Nelson.
The result of all this, in 1797, was a series of mutinies -- at a time when Britain's very independence depended on the fleet holding off a invasion; Britain's land allies had been defeated by Revolutionary France, and the French were looking across the channel to eliminate their chief rival.
There had been several recent mutinies -- on Culloden and Windsor Castle in 1794, and of course on the Bounty in 1789 (M/D, p. 8), plus the dreadful case of the Hermione (for which see "Captain James (The Captain's Apprentice)"), but those had been treated as individual acts. The events of 1797-1798 were different. The sailors wrote to the Admiralty, and to their former commander Admiral Howe (M/D, pp. 21-25), begging for relief. When there was no response, they tried Parliament (M/D, p. 27). Still nothing. When orders came for the fleet to sail, the sailors refused (M/D, p. 32).
M/D, p. 245, declare that "There can be no doubt, to any fair mind, that the mutinies, especially that at Spithead, were thoroughly justified."
The first mutiny (April 16-May 14, 1797) took place at Spithead, the fleet base outside Portsmouth; Keegan, p. 38, describes it as "a strike (for better pay and conditions) rather than a rebellion," and most other authorities agree -- the delegates who organized it decided that officers would be obeyed and all orders respected except those for going to sea (Dugan, p. 92; Guttridge, p. 50; M/D, pp. 36-37). Even Wilson, who does his best to sweep the whole thing under the rug (he never so much as mentions the brutal treatment meted out to the ringleaders of the Nore revolt), admits that "order, maintained by the mutineers, was perfect. No seaman was permitted to go on shore without what was called 'a Liberty Ticket,' and the very idea of handing over even a single vessel to France was suppressed by the seamen themselves with resolute determination" (pp. 278-279).
The sailors in fact hung ropes from the yardarms, by orders of their delegates, to hang sailors who violated discipline (M/D, p. 39). The delegates even ordered several ships which had been designated for convoy escort, which wanted to stay in Spithead, to sail and do their duty (M/D, p. 40). There was on incident in which several sailors were killed, but the officer involved fired first, and the delegates ordered him to be spared (M/D, pp. 83-84).
As Stokesbury says on p. 188, "This was not red revolution, as had happened across the Channel... this was simply a desperate reaction by men who had been pushed farther than humanity and decency could stand. The sailors were ready to fight the French if they came out, but they had finally had enough of rotten conditions, meager pay and rations, and officers who were often martinets and occasionally brutes.... It was in fact less of a mutiny than it was a sit-down strike."
The Spithead mutiny temporarily ended, after repeated attempts to browbeat the determined sailors, when pardons were offered and more money promised (Dugan, p. 104, describes about a 15% pay raise).
The pardons came quickly (Dugan, p. 112, Guttridge, p. 53; M/D, p. 51, note that First Lord of the Admiralty Spencer himself brought the request to King George III). But it took parliament weeks to vote the funds (M/D, p. 70), and in that time, the mutiny heated up again (Dugan, p. 112) as sailors sought better food and less brutal officers.
Many officers were forced from their ships (Dugan, pp. 138-139; M/D, p. 89), and an admiral imprisoned in his cabin (Guttridge, p. 58; Dugan, p. 142; Davies, pp. 53-54; M/D, p. 81). Real trouble seemed likely if the government did not act (M/D, p. 92); there were moves on some ships to court-martial certain officers.
It is ironic to note that the Spithead strike was settled largely by the actions of Richard Howe (1726-1799), who previously had been co-commander with his brother William during the revolt of the American colonies; he was hauled out of retirement to deal with the Spithead problem (Dugan, p. 148). It was the last act 58 years of service to king and country. The Spithead outcome demonstrated fully his sympathy with ordinary people against the government of George III; even went so far as to set aside the bad officers (Guttridge, p. 58). Howe showed no respect for rank in the weeding process; those pushed aside included a Vice Admiral (John Colpoys, MP, KG, and former First Sea Lord), four captains, and 102 junior officers (Dugan, pp. 168-169), an average of somewhat more than two officers per ship. Some of the officers were re-employed, and all continued to be paid (M/D, p. 112), but Colpoys would never go to sea again (M/D, p. 97).
The promise of pardon for the mutineers seems to have been kept without any reservations. M/D, p. 118, report that there seem to have been no instances of retribution over Spithead; several of the fleet Delegates were in fact promoted. One even became a midshipman within a year.
To the greatest extent possible, news of Spithead was kept quiet -- both to keep the French from acting and to prevent more widespread rebellion (Dugan, p. 130). Spithead, after all, wasn't the only fleet base in Britain. But not even the vigilance of the leading admirals could entirely silence the news (Woodman, p. 112). So the Spithead strike inspired the Nore mutiny (May 10-June 16). M/D, p. 126, suggest that the Nore mutiny was a sort of sympathy strike to make sure the Admiralty got the point. But it escalated (in part, perhaps, because the Nore sailors did not get to do anything about bad officers).
The ships at the Nore, and many of those at Yarmouth, wanted the same terms ("We just want the same treatment as the Spithead people," an envoy told Howe -- Dugan, p. 172), including the right to dispose of officers (Guttridge, p. 69), and didn't get them, and what they got, they got slowly. Nor was it clear that the sailors at the Nore were covered by the Spithead pardon (indeed, it was eventually decided that they were not; Dugan, p. 212; Guttridge, p. 66). Left dangling in the wind, the Nore mutineers kept increasing their demands, including even calling for change in the Articles of War (Guttridge, p. 64; Cordingly, p. 38), which was patently out of the question.
Perhaps if there had been a Howe to deal with the Nore mutineers, things might have gone better. Even a sense of unit cohesion might have helped, since it would have promoted a greater sense of "family" between officers and men -- but there was none; the Nore was simply a place where a lot of ships gathered (M/D, p. 125). The men at the Nore were a very mixed lot. Many of the sailors there -- including Richard Parker, the titular leader of the coming mutiny -- were "quota men." With the navy being manned so heavily, it was almost impossible to impress enough sailors, so officials in all parts of Britain had to supply a certain quota of landsmen; they found them sweeping the streets and alleys and by paying bounties. Often the men they got were marginally fit -- older and unused to sea conditions. And more than a few were radicals; Thomas Payne's The Rights of Man was very popular at this time (Dugan, p. 63). Valentine Joyce, the leader of the Spithead protestors, was one such; he had been a Belfast tobacco seller before serving a sentence for sedition.
This lack of unity was due to the fact that the Nore (near the mouth of the Thames off the Isle of Sheppey) wasn't a fleet base the way Portsmouth was; it was a rendezvous point (Dugan, pp. 177, 227). It was not, in modern terms, a "home port" for any of the ships stationed there, and the docking facilities were limited (Herman, p. 351). The ships located there were mostly in transit, on their way to join some other fleet. The ships there were there, essentially, by chance. There was no competent admiral to convey their demands, either. So they mutinied.
M/D, p. 252, say, "It is difficult to feel the same way about the people at the Nore [as about those at Spithead]. One's sympathy they have, but less of one's admiration and respect. It was, from the beginning, a muddle-headed affair. One can see no error in their action as long as it constituted a sympathetic strike in favour of their brethren at Spithead; but their behavior after they knew that the mutiny there was settled... partakes of the wild and foolish. One may, indeed one does, feel very much for them; there were still many wrongs which they suffered.... One may even grant that there was just cause for another mutiny; their conduct of it is what provokes criticism. To begin with, there was hardly any preliminary organization...."
The Nore revolt was a more thorough mutiny than at Spithead; the men were rowdier and more officers were set aside (M/D, p. 135). Strangely, the mutineers seem to have had no specific demands at first (M/D, p. 136).
And, somehow, two days after the mutiny began, the disobedient crews put themselves in the hands of Richard Parker. Dugan, p. 187, tells of him being chosen delegate from Sandwich; later he was made "President of the Delegates of the Whole Fleet"; p. 198. He was an unusual man even in this mixed-up flotilla.
Our data about his personal life is limited. Cordingly, p. 36, guesses his birth data as 1764, based on the fact that he was said to be 33 at the time of his death. But M/D, p. 269, states that he was born in Exeter in April 1767.
Parker had actually served at one time as a junior ship's officer, but had been cashiered for what Guttridge, p. 62, calls an "obscure infraction" and Cordingly, p. 37, labels "immoral conduct." M/D, in their notes on his life on p. 269, list no details on what happened. Whatever it was, he sent to serve belowdecks; Guttridge, p. 62, says that "in 1784 [he] was discharged for either disobedience or nervous disorder, perhaps both." Here again, however, there is uncertainty; Dugan, p. 198, says he was discharged in 1794 for rheumatism; Cordingly, p. 37, simply says he was sick. M/D, p. 269 says that he was "discharged sick." Perhaps he suffered from mental illness; M/D, p. 122, describe what sounds like a suicide attempt. Having married (perhaps 1791; M/D, p. 269) and gone into farming, he ended up in debtor's prison (Dugan, p. 198).
Even though he was a "political," as we might say these days, he had sea experience, so he was accepted back into the navy -- to meet the quota. At least he knew his way around the ship. His enlistment bounty was used to pay his debts (Cordingly, p. 37).
We have little evidence as to his motivations. Davies, p. 54, calls him "a misguided man, who was undoubtedly a demagogue more interested in leading a rebellion than in correcting genuine wrongs." Dugan, p. 199, thinks he was given his position at the head of the mutiny because he was an intelligent, educated man; because he had that history of being court-martialed for insubordination (something that would have earned him respect from the ranks) -- and because he wanted the job (although he would later deny this; M/D, p. 135). Despite his later role, he seems to have been surprised at the outbreak of the mutiny (M/D, pp. 134-135). M/D, p. 135, conclude that he was not a good leader; he could not dominate others.
The Nore mutiny was organized under the Admiralty's nose, with sailors on the depot ship Sandwich preparing an oath and a series of demands, then convincing other ships to sign on (Dugan, pp. 179-181). Unlike Spithead, it was not a "respectable mutiny"; even at the very start, there were instances of British ships firing on other British ships (Dugan, p. 185). And the Admiralty was far less patient, calling up soldiers very quickly (M/D, p. 147).
The rebellion even affected the ships at sea watching the Dutch; Admiral Duncan's fleet, based at Yarmouth, was also afflicted by insubordination (M/D, pp. 171-181). Some of these went to the Nore to reinforce the "Floating Republic" (M/D, pp. 182-183). Parker at one point had 13 ships of the line (Dugan, p. 262), plus lesser vessels, under his command. (Though ships joined the rebellion and gave it up at odd intervals; by the end, only two ships were still under delegate control.) Many ships were "half in" from the start -- e.g. Circe, watching the Dutch fleet in the Texel, had a mutinous crew on the gun deck, but held to her duty because her officers and a few loyal sailors controlled her helm and sails; Dugan, pp. 255-256.
This time, the Admiralty took a hard line, saying all grievances had been addressed (Dugan, p. 227). Naturally the mutineers did not accept this brush-off, and continued their strike.
But the Nore simply could not support such an action; the facilities weren't there. The mutineers eventually found themselves starved out. They blockaded London (Guttridge, p. 68), although they let fresh food through (Dugan, p. 264; M/D, p. 251, offers this as evidence that the sailors were not revolutionaries, since they could have done more). The Admiralty cut off supplies in return (Dugan, p. 237), which had not been done at Spithead (M/D, pp. 161-162; M/D, p. 186, says that the government blockaded the ships first rather than the reverse). To make their problem worse, many of the ships in the rebellious fleet had been poorly supplied to begin with; water and candles were in short supply (Dugan, p. 262), and some ships were low on wood for the stoves. On at least one ship, water was not only rationed but closely guarded (M/D, p. 219).
Parker, by the time the embargo started, found himself in an impossible situation. The authorities didn't trust him -- but several of his rebellious ships were wavering; many wanted to return to government authority. Parker at one point asked the men of the Sandwich if they wished to give in, and they did (Dugan, p. 243) -- and the fleet delegates responded by inducing a system where they elected a new Fleet President every day! (Dugan, pp. 243-244). If Parker gave in, he would be set aside. Dugan thinks he wanted to take the pardon but could not.
Meanwhile, Parliament was working on an act which would treat every sailor on a mutinous ship as a pirate (M/D, p. 192). This even though the sailors continued to cheer the King at every chance -- despite the fact that the King involved was George III! With this sort of behavior going on, there was obviously little hope of compromise.
The situation was turning into a race against time, though the mutineers had no way of knowing it: Would William Pitt's government fall, or would the mutineers starve? Voices against Pitt were numerous (Dugan, pp. 259-261), and bond prices were at record lows (Dugan, p. 265), but George III sustained his Prime Minister and the government held on by the skin of its teeth.
The mutineers were also having troublemaking and implementing plans. They considered fleeing in their ships (M/D, pp. 207-208), but they could not agree on a destination (most were still too patriotic to surrender to France), and besides, they had no navigators. Increasingly, the leaders were clamping down on the rank and file -- in the early days of the mutiny, most of the punishments handed out by the delegates were for drunkenness or other genuine faults. By the end, the usual crime was "perjury," i.e. questioning their leaders (M/D, p. 218).
Gradually ships started slipping away from the Nore assembly (Guttridge, p. 67), though some were fired on as they sailed (M/D, p. 220). Parker tried to prevent bloodshed, but was ignored (M/D, p.. 220-221). Having failed to get the sailors to listen, Parker then followed their will and manned a gun himself, seemingly working it in a frenzy (M/D, p. 221).
The attempts to halt the exodus failed. Even some of the delegates gave up (Dugan, p. 269). There was a scramble to obtain terms of surrender (M/D, p. 225). Not that terms were given; the instructions given to the admirals on that spot said that "no encouragement" could be given to "any proposition short of unconditional submission" (M/D, p. 227). Parker himself gave up while half a dozen ships were still holding out. He seems to have made no attempt to escape the government's reach (M/D, pp. 232-233).
The government didn't take any of that into account. As far as they were concerned, it was mutiny, and someone had to be punished. And Parker was the official scapegoat.
What followed reflected badly on Georgian justice. M/D, p. 238, are sure that any court would have condemned Parker to death, but the Admiralty didn't risk it. M/D, p. 239, consider Parker's trial fair, but Dugan strongly dissents, noting in particular the following: Parker was charged with civil offenses, but was treated as a mutineer and subjected to court-martial rather than set him before a jury (which might acquit him). The officers trying him clearly had conflicts of interest. He had no lawyer. He was denied access to evidence -- including even the transcripts of the trial. He was given only a week to prepare his defence (Dugan, p. 329), and was in a dark prison when not in court (M/D, p. 235). All he could do was operate by memory. And the prosecution had assembled an absurd case; many of the witnesses called had absolutely nothing to say, since they had never met or dealt with Parker (Dugan, pp. 332-333).
The verdict, naturally, was just what was expected:
"The court has heard witnesses... [and] is of the opinion that the whole of the charges were fully proved against Richard Parker.
"The court, therefore have determined that the said Richard Parker shall suffer death, and that he be accordingly hanged by the neck until dead on such day, and on board such ship, as the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty shall appoint" (Dugan, p. 348).
Dugan's version of events is extremely anti-George and pro-Parker, but he gives the impression that, had Parker been granted a fair trial (which of course was unlikely), he would have been allowed to live by a jury of the time. An honest military trial today would probably result in a bad conduct discharge and related penalties. He was disobedient -- but he was not treasonous.
There was, of course, no possibility of appeal, save to the King, who had the brains of a sea slug (remember that this is George III, who had already caused the American Revolution, and the Spithead Mutiny, and was about to witness the 1798 Rising in Ireland). George a very high standard of personal sexual morality and absolutely no sympathy for anyone who did not think him the infallible viceroy of God on earth.
Logan-APedlarsPack seems to agree with Dugan that the trial was a mockery, though his view is less pro-Parker than Dugan: "Parker appears from the evidence to have obtained scant justice; and there can be no doubt that, being an educated man, and rather ambitious of being an orator, he was made the mouthpiece and the tool of harsher natures, whom even in death he did not betray" (p. 62).
On the other hand, Davies, p. 55, says of the trials, "Out of about four hundred [ringleaders], most were pardoned, some were flogged or imprisoned and twenty-eight were hanged. This may be considered a moderate response by the government since, strictly speaking, all mutineers were subject to only one punishment, and that death. On the other hand, even if it had wanted to, the government could not have hanged the whole navy."
The number of executions cannot be considered precise. Dugan agrees that over 300 of the 400+ alleged ringleaders were pardoned, but cites estimates of the number hanged ranging from 24 to 36 -- though mostly toward the high end of that range. Guttridge, who has no sympathy for the mutineers, claims on p. 72 that "sixty mutineers were condemned to death, imprisonment, or flogging. Probably no more than two dozen were hanged, most of them from the Sandwich [Parker's ship]." M/D, p. 242, say 400 were tried, 59 sentenced to die, 29 actually executed.
Such were the ways of Georgian justice that Parker's wife was never officially told he was on trial, and she was denied a final meeting with him. According to Cordingly, pp. 39-41, she hired three different boats to try to reach him; all were turned back. Her only communication with him after his condemnation was a letter he wrote (Dugan, pp. 351-352). Her only sight of him after he went off on his final trip was of his body hanging from a yardarm (Cordingly, p. 36).
Parker was hanged June 30. At the scaffold, there was hesitation about allowing him a final speech. But he cried out to the crowd at the last, avoiding any political references and appealed for mercy for all the other leaders of the revolt (Dugan, p. 356), obviously to limited effect.
The song reportedly describes the disappearance of Parker's body fairly accurately. Ann Parker had asked for the body and been refused; mutineers were denied proper burial (Cordingly, p. 42). He was to be left in unconsecrated ground, but the widow and others stole the body and spirited it away. The authorities did catch up with her, but the church where the body was taken permitted a proper burial with appropriate ceremonies (Dugan, pp. 359-362).
Such was the navy's desire to wash away the memory of the Nore that the Sandwich, where Parker has been President of the fleet, was broken up soon after (Dugan, p. 363. Although it was pretty close to a hulk already, so breaking it up was not unreasonable).
Mrs. Parker outlived her husband by nearly half a century; Dugan (p. 458) reports that, in 1840, she was "seventy, blind, and friendless."
A French invasion during the period of the mutinies might well have succeeded, but the French were too confused to bring one about. England, utterly mismanaged by her government, survived by raw force and a great deal of luck. And, once her sailors were back on duty, they did well; ships from Yarmouth and the Nore helped win the great Battle of Camperdown against the Dutch (M/D, p. 243), halting fears of invasion for a time.
There were any number of broadsides about the Nore and Spithead mutinies (Firth, p. 277, prints "A New Song" about Spithead, and on .p 280 has "British Tars Rewarded" on the same theme; p. 281 has "Parker the Delegate," an anti-Parker song to the tune of "The Vicar of Bray"), but few found their way into tradition, this amazingly widespread song being the primary exception. Dugan, p. 362, indeed notes that those who sold anti-Parker broadsides were attacked in the streets and their song sheets scattered and destroyed. That may be the best comment of all on the state of affairs in Georgian England; the Nore mutiny brought England close to disaster, yet so much was the government disliked that the mutiny's hero became a martyr. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: BrII117

Poor Pat Is Often Painted

See Where the Grass Grows Green (File: OCon144)

Poor Pat Must Emigrate

See The Irish Refugee (Poor Pat Must Emigrate) (File: OCon053)

Poor Pilgrim of Sorrow, The

See Tossed and Driven (The Poor Pilgrim) (File: R610)

Poor Pompy Is Dead & In His Grave

See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Poor Pussy

DESCRIPTION: "Pretty little pussy kitten, Frisky, full of fun and frolic, Mortal on the mice and rats; How I love the old black cat! Yes, I do! Ah, poor pussy! Poor old pussy! sitting so easy Under the stove." Boys attack the cat, sending her running back to her home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad animal abuse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1673, "Poor Pussy" (2 short texts, 2 tunes)
Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook 13, "Poor Pussy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13520 and 22135
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Frisky
File: Grd81673

Poor Rail Road Boys

DESCRIPTION: "Poor rail road boys ain't got no home, He's here today, tomorrow gone." "I looked at the sun, and the sun was low, I said to the boss man, 'I must go.'" "...give me my time. He clapped his hands and gave me a dime." "One of these... my name'll be called"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong)
KEYWORDS: railroading work hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 160-164, "Roll On, John, Poor Rail Road Boys" (4 texts, 2 tunes, of which at least the last is "Roll On, John"; the others might be "Take This Hammer" or a mixture)
Roud #16845
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Take This Hammer" (lyrics) and references there
NOTES [53 words]: This is one of the great amorphous mass of railroad songs that are almost unclassifiable; McNeil, I think, deliberately set out to offer hard-to-file variants. If you feel like re-classifying all this stuff, be my guess; my classification differs from Roud's, and in this case, I make no claim of being more correct. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: MSMF160

Poor Rebel Soldier

See The Rebel Soldier (File: R246)

Poor Richard and the Serapis and Alliance

See Paul Jones's Victory [Laws A4] (File: LA04)

Poor Robin

See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Poor Rosy

DESCRIPTION: "Poor Rosy, poor gal, Rosy broke my poor heart, Heaven shall be my home. Before I stay in Hell one day, Heaven shall be my home." The singer has "hard troubles," and "trials"; (he bids farewell to Brother Robert and Sister Lucy and turns to Heaven)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (J. McKim)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 7, "Poor Rosy" (1 text, 1 tune plus a variant form)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 199-201, "Poor Rosy" (1 text, probably retouched, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: J. McKim, "Negro Songs" in _Dwight's Journal of Music_, Vol. 21, No. 19 (Whole No. 540), pp. 148-149, "Poor Rosy, Poor Gal" (1 text)
Roud #11856
NOTES [169 words]: J. McKim's 1862 letter from Port Royal, writing about the songs he heard from the ex-slaves: There was one which on shore we heard more than any other, and which was irresistibly touching. It was a sort of ballad, known as 'Poor Rosy, Poor Gal.'" Like all the other work songs McKim heard there, used in rowing or grinding at the mill, its theme was religious.
In a later letter Lucy McKim explained how that adaptation worked. "As the same songs are sung at every sort of work, of course the tempo is not always alike. On the water, the oars dip 'Poor Rosy' to an even andante; a stout boy and girl at the hominy-mill will make the same 'Poor Rosy' fly, to keep up with the whirling stone; and in the evening, after the day's work is done, 'Heab'n shall-a be my home' peals up slowly and mournfully from the distant quarters." (Lucy McKim, "Songs of the Port Royal 'Contrabands'" in Dwight's Journal of Music, Vol. 22, No. 6 (Whole No. 553), (Boston, Nov. 8, 1862 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 255) - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: SBoA199

Poor Sailor Boy, The

See The Prince of Morocco (The Sailor Boy II) (File: LN18)

Poor Sally Sat A-Weeping

See As Sylvie Was Walking (File: VWL014)

Poor Schnapps

DESCRIPTION: A "dutch" song. Corporal Schnapps, who is perhaps not overly bright, patriotically enlists in the army. Having faced battle, horrid food, and the scorn (and spit) of southern women, he now faces the indignity of having his girl run off with another man
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (sheet music published by Root & Cady and by S. Brainard's Sons)
KEYWORDS: humorous foreigner Civilwar battle hardtimes courting infidelity elopement
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work, pp. 123-126, "Corporal Schnapps" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Randolph 218, "The Yankee Dutchman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 78, "Corporal Schnapps" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 94, p. 118, "Corporal Schnapps" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #14, pp. 6-7, "Corporal Schnapps" (1 text)
DT, CRPSHNAP*
Roud #4872
File: R218

Poor Shepherds

DESCRIPTION: "Good people all draw near, you quickly shall hear Of a copy of verses composed." Due to floods, the shepherds have no place to go. There are many tasks they must try. THeir eighteen pence a day is not enough to maintain a family
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (collected from Matthew Hunt by H. E. D. Hammond)
KEYWORDS: shepherd flood hardtimes work
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #14, "Poor Shepherds" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3323
File: PaPa014

Poor Sinner, A

DESCRIPTION: "Hark, sinner, hark, while I relate, What happened in Kentucky state. A poor young woman lately died; She dropped from all her wealth and pride." Led astray by a young man, she turned ungodly. Dying, she bids farewell; her mother says she will go to hell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: death hell
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 63, "A Poor Sinner" (1 text)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, p. 73, (no title) (1 short text)
ST Br3063 (Full)
Roud #7846
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wicked Polly" [Laws H6] (plot)
File: Br3063

Poor Smuggler's Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a boy who is mourning his father. The father was a smuggler; caught in a storm, their ship was wrecked and his father drowned. The boy has clung to a plank and been swept ashore. A rich lady hears his complaint and adopts him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Ashton)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, walking the beach on a stormy day, meets a boy who is mourning his father. The father was a smuggler who would, "venture out on the salt sea/For a keg of good brandy from the land of the free" (Holland). Caught in a storm, the ship has been wrecked and his father has drowned, despite the boy's efforts to save him. The boy has clung to a plank and been swept ashore. A rich lady hears his complaint, and adopts him
KEYWORDS: grief crime death drowning storm wreck father orphan
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #140, "The Poor Smuggler's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #618
RECORDINGS:
Bob Roberts, "The Smuggler's Boy" (on LastDays)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fisherman's Boy" [Laws Q29] (plot)
cf. "The Soldier's Poor Little Boy" [Laws Q28] (plot)
cf. "The Farmer's Boy" [Laws Q30] (plot)
cf. "The Fisherman's Girl" (plot)
File: RcTSmBy

Poor Soldier (I)

DESCRIPTION: "All out in the snow they are tonight, Far away from kin and home. God help the ones who fight for the right, And them who are done gone on. Poor soldier, hungry and cold (x2)." The girl recalls her soldier's departure and prays he is safe wherever he is
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: soldier separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 132, "Poor Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa132 (Full)
Roud #5734
RECORDINGS:
Frank Proffitt, "Poor Soldier" (on FProffitt01)
NOTES [76 words]: The Warners claim this is a Civil War song, and so does the tradition in Frank Proffitt's family. They're probably right, but there is no reason why it could not have been sung in any other U.S. war fought in a cold climate.
The musical notes in Warner comment on how irregular the tune and meter are to this piece. It's simple truth; Frank Proffitt didn't really seem to have a tune; more of a sketch which he fleshed out irregularly to fit the words. - RBW
File: Wa132

Poor Soldier (II), The

See The Bold Soldier [Laws M27] (File: LM27)

Poor Strange Girl, The (The Forsaken Girl)

DESCRIPTION: "Willy, O Willy, for your sake alone, I left my own country, and likewise my home... I am a poor strange girl, and far from my home." Floating lost love lyrics: He made her a promise. She will leave Kentucky. "Go build me a castle on yon mountain high"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2)
KEYWORDS: love courting abandonment travel floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 69-70, "The Poor Strange Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7032
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down in the Valley" ("Go build me a castle" lyric)
cf. "Poor Stranger, The (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone)" ("O X, O X, it's for your sake alone" lyric and others)
cf. "The Lost Girl" (lyrics)
cf. "Charming Beauty Bright" [Laws M3] ("Don't you remember last ...day night" lyric)
cf. "The Sweet Sunny South (I)" [Laws A23] ("Here's adieu to old [somewhere]" lyric)
NOTES [68 words]: Almost every word of this occurs in some other song. But there are so many floating lyrics, from so many places, that it's hard to call it a version of some individual other song. I finally gave up trying to find all the source texts. It's just a jumble -- and so gets its own listing. If I had to file it with one other song, it would probably be "The Poor Stranger (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BWV2069

Poor Stranger

See Poor Stranger, The (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone) (File: R059)

Poor Stranger a Thousand Miles from Home

See Farewell, Sweet Mary AND The Poor Stranger (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone) (File: E082)

Poor Stranger Far From Home, A

See Poor Stranger, The (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone) (File: R059)

Poor Stranger, The (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone)

DESCRIPTION: The singer wanders out alone and meets a girl, also alone. Each asks why the other is there. Both have had trouble with lovers at home and so ran away. They settle down to a happy life together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1814 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 365)
KEYWORDS: courting rambling
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So) Ireland Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #32, p. 2, ("The lads of sweet Ury are roving young blades") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan4 831, "I Am a Poor Stranger" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 487, "Poor Stranger a Thousand Miles from Home" (1 text, a short item which seems to combine "The Poor Stranger," "Farewell, Sweet Mary," and perhaps some floating items)
Randolph 59, "Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 107, "A Poor Stranger Far from Home" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 138, "The Happy Stranger" (1 fragment)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 157, "The Rebel Soldier, or The Poor Stranger" (7 texts, 7 tunes, but only "A" and probably "F" are this song; the rest are "The Rebel Soldier")
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 106-107, "It Was a Young Man" (1 text fragment, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 95, "A Stranger Far From Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 220-221, "The Poor Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cecil Sharp MSS, Folk Words p.3238 / Folk Tunes p.4648, Ellen Webb, "The Poor Stranger" at http://www.vwml.org/#, accessed 8 Sep 2014.
ST R059 (Partial)
Roud #272
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 365, "The Happy Stranger" ("As I was walking one morning in spring"), T. Evans (London), 1790-1813; also Firth c.26(56), Johnson Ballads 2505, "The Happy Stranger"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lost Girl"
cf. "The Rebel Soldier" (meter, floating lyrics)
cf. "She Has My Heart Enclosed" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
cf. "The Poor Strange Girl (The Forsaken Girl)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Poor Stranger
Sweet Europe
The Lads o' Sweet Newry
NOTES [580 words]: A common verse in this song is "The young men of Manory/Ury/Newry/..., they're all roving blades, They take great delight in courting fair maids; They'll hug them and kiss them and call them their own, And perhaps their own darling is moaning at home." Starting with Greig's fragment -- which is only that verse -- Steve Gardham made the connection for me to "The Poor Stranger" as well as to Christie and the broadside ballads. He goes on to note that "17thc contributors include 'The Wandering Maiden' in Pepys, and 'Shrowsbury for me' in Roxburghe and Pepys." In later notes he pointed out that Shrowsbury does not have that verse but is an ancestor of "Boys of Kilkenny," etc.
From what I've seen, "Shrowsbury For Me" does not belong here though it includes the verse "The young men of Shrowsbury are jovial blades, When they are in company with pretty maids. They court them completely with complements free, Then every man to his mind, Shrowsbury for me." I have added an entry to the Index for that song.
"The Wandring Maiden" seems a contributor to the theme and some lines, but not to .".. call you his own ... waiting at home." See Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth, editor, The Bagford Ballads: Illustrating the Last Years of the Stuarts (Hertford, 1878 ("Digitized by Google")), Second Division, pp. 572-575, "The Wandring Maiden" or "True Love at Length United," dated "certainly, before 1670.."
Digital Tradition, in a thread on "The Cuckoo and The Fourth Day of July" has a version of "The Cuckoo" with the lines "He'll hug you and kiss you, And call you his own, Perhaps his other darlin' Is a-waitin' at home." Tim Jenkins writes that "Lomax's The Folk Songs of North America has the identical verse for The Cuckoo 'as sung by Jean Ritchie..'"
For another [connection] between "The Cuckoo" and the cluster of songs including "The Poor Stranger," "The Wandring Maiden," etc. see "The Young Man's Lamentation" and follow Steve Gardham's discussion pointed to there.
It is very easy for the happy ending to be lost. After the man asks her to marry, the woman asks "where is your country... what's the misfortune you do undergo That cause you to wander so far from your home And made us meet strangers in this desert alone?" He says he is from Newry -- or some place name that sounds like Newry -- and she says she knows all about the roving blades from that infamous place and she goes into the rant of our first note for this song about his having another sweetheart at home. He pleads innocent -- "I never was married" -- and she agrees to marry him. Sometimes his reply is lost, there is no happy ending, and she complains of lovers' misfortune in being misled as usual. For example, the Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed fragment follows "perhaps his old sweetheart was living at home" with the "Wagoner's Lad" floater, "hard is the fortune of all womankind...." See the Ellen Webb text for another example.
Fred McCormick answered my query about the possible source of the Owens fragment and pointed me to "The Poor Stranger" with his own fragment from "the Boys of Cockaigny, which was popular on the English side of the pond some years ago":
The boys of Cockaigny are stout roving blades,
No doubt they'll go roving with some other young maids.
They will kiss them and caress them and call them their own
While perhaps their true sweethearts lie weeping alone
Not to be confused with Norma Waterson's "The Chaps of Cockaigny," which is a version of "The Boys of Kilkenny." - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: R059

Poor Thing

DESCRIPTION: "A maid all alone in a poor house did dwell.... Her hair was red and her age was nineteen -- Poor thing!" Her swain asks, "Will you fly by the light of yon star? For I am the i of the you that I are." Her father chases the man, who "flew up the flue."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi)
KEYWORDS: love courting nonsense wordplay
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 88, p. 215, "Poor Thing" (1 text)
Roud #4479
File: Hud088

Poor Toby Is Dead

See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Poor Tom

DESCRIPTION: Poor Peg knocks at the door and wants a shroud for poor Tom. "What shall us do?" "We'll take this cup and drink him up ... Poor Tom is dead and gone Boom (drink) Boom (drink) Boom (drink)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1679-1683 (according to Nicholson)
KEYWORDS: death mourning drink dialog nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 39, "A Harvest Song" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Edward W.B. Nicholson, editor, Golspie: Contributions to its Folklore (London, 1897 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 201-202, 345-348, "Poor Tom" (2 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1563
File: ReSh039

Poor Tom (II)

See Have You Seen the Ghost of Tom? (File: ACSF437P)

Poor Tom Brown, of Nottingham Town

See Van Dieman's Land (I) [Laws L18] (File: LL18)

Poor Tramp Has to Live, The

See Remember the Poor Tramp Has to Live (File: RcRtPTHL)

Poor Wayfaring Pilgrim, A

See Wayfaring Stranger (File: FSC077)

Poor Wayfaring Stranger

See Wayfaring Stranger (File: FSC077)

Poor Wee Jockie Clarke

DESCRIPTION: Jockie Clarke sells newspapers and goes ragged; his father is a drinker and a tyrant. Jockie asks his mother to make him a jacket from his father's old coat. Jockie tells his mother that he looks uncommon neat since she has made him up the jacket
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (MacColl)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Jockie Clarke sells newspapers and goes ragged; his father is a drinker, a tyrant to his wife and neglectful to his children. Jockie asks his mother to make him a jacket from his father's old coat; she does and it's a beauty, keeping him warm and holding plenty of potatoes in the pockets. Jockie tells his mother, 'You'd think I'd both mother, father, and a home," and that he looks uncommon neat since she has made him up the jacket
KEYWORDS: poverty pride request clothes commerce work father mother worker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 236, "Poor Wee Jockie Clarke" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2135
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Faither's Old Coat
Fairther's Old Coat
File: K236

Poor Widow

DESCRIPTION: Singing game: "Here's a poor widow, she (lives/lies) her lone... She wants a man and cannae get none." The widow or her daughter go seek a husband, "She may go round and choose her own"; the courting may or may not be successful
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H48f, p. 11, "Here's a Poor Widow" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST HHH048f (Full)
Roud #5105
File: HHH048f

Poor Working Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: "The poor working girl, may heaven protect her, She has such an awf'ly hard time, The rich man's daughter goes haughtily by, My God! Do you wonder at crime?" ("Her man drives his new model T And drinks rotten hooch till he's blind.")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: work poverty hardtimes crime technology
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 195, "The Poor Working Girl" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 151, "The Poor Working Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, p. 18, "The Poor Working Girl" (1 text)
Roud #4271
NOTES [17 words]: Not to be confused with the early twentieth century pop tune "Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl" - RBW
File: San195

Poor, But a Gentleman Still

DESCRIPTION: "Don't think by my dress that I come here to beg, Though the sharp pains of hunger I feel; The cup of misfortune I've drained to the dregs, Though poor, I'm a gentleman still." The singer describes how he became poor, pointing out that he is still honest
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (stage performance, per Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills)
KEYWORDS: poverty
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 103, "Poor, But a Gentleman Still" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 829, "A Gentleman Still" (1 text)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 84-85, "I'm Poor But a Gentleman Still" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 151-152, "Poor, but a Gentleman Still" (1 text)
ST FSC103 (Partial)
Roud #7337
File: FSC103

Poore Orphan Left A Lone, A

See The Orphan Girl (The Orphan Child) (File: R725)

Pop Goes the Weasel

DESCRIPTION: Words can be anything, as long as they have the phrase "Pop goes the weasel." The 1853 text talks of a weasel in a henhouse, temperance issues, and relations between Uncle Sam and John Bull
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (sheet music published by Berry & Gordon of New York)
KEYWORDS: animal technology nonballad nonsense humorous political
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (26 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 83-84=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 231-232, "Pop Goes the Weasel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 113-114, "Pop Goes the Weasel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 556, "Pop Goes the Weasel" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 408-409, "Pop Goes the Weasel" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 556A)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 93, "Pop Goes the Weasel" (1 fragment)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 107-108, "Pop! Goes the Weasel" (1 tune plus dance instructions)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 60-61, "Pop Goes the Weasel" (1 text, 1 tune, probably for dancing, with several imported verses)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 206, "Pop Goes the Weasel" (1 fragment)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 176-179, "Pop Goes de Weasel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #872, p. 325, "(Up and down the city road)"
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 47, "Pop Goes the Weasel" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 108, "(Round about the porridge pot)" (1 text)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 155, "Pop Goes the Wesel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 158, "Pop Goes the Weasel" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 107, "Pop Goes the Weasel" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #579, "Up and Down Jamaica Street" (1 short text, which appears to be a fragment or parody of this)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 39 and #3/62, p. 39, "Pop Goes the Weasel" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 69, "(All around the barbershop)/(A penny for a ball of thread)" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 40, "Pop Goes the Weasel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 36, "(A penny for a cotton spool)" (1 text)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, p. 66, "Pop! Goes the Weasel!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 34, "Pop Goes The Weasel" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 440-441+, "Pop Goes the Weasel"
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 118, "(Pop goes the weasel)" (1 mention, from user Tess_W, posted September 27, 2021)
DT, WEASLPOP* POPWEAS2*
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #108, "(How much wood would a woodchuck chuck)" (1 text), #168, "Half a pound of twopenny rice" (1 text)
ST R556 (Full)
Roud #5249
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:060, "Pop Goes the Weasel," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C, possibly a parody on another version of the piece
NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(032), "Pop Goes the Weael", James Lindsay (Glasgow), 1852-1859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Ripping Trip" (tune)
cf. "The D & H Canal" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Pop Goes the Coachman ("Mr. Boker's very blue, cause his daughter poached, man") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 128)
Pop Goes the Question "(Matrimony is a nut") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 128)
Pop Goes the Weasel (square dance call) (Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 112-113)
Bologna Song (Harbin-Parodology, #390, p. 95)
Atlantic Cable Parody ("Pay it out, oh pay it out, As long as you are able, For if you put the damned brake on, Pop goes the cable") (John Steele Gordon, _A Thread Across the Ocean: The Heroic Story of the Transatlantic Cable_, Simon & Schuster, 2002, p. 99)
NOTES [263 words]: The history of this piece is obscure. The earliest datable printings (British and American versions from 1853) have the tune; the American version also includes the phrase "Pop goes the weasel," but has little resemblance to the modern texts such as "All around the cobbler's bench The monkey chased the weasel" (this text does not appear until the twentieth century).
Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 193, 210, claims a political subtext to the 1853 American version; "The main body... concerns the issues of 1853. The second stanza is devoted exclusively to the various defects of Great Britain, beginning with English criticism of American slavery... the lyrics also warn Great Britain against supporting Spain on the question of Cuba." There is also a reference to Franklin Pierce, who was president from 1853-1857 and (despite being praised in the song) was a lightweight whose activities did much to bring on the Civil War. The third verse of this version goes after the temperance movement.
The English printing (the NLScotland broadside cited) is a dance tune with no text; it hints that the music is traditional. Interestingly, printer Lindsay has another version (the Murray broadside) which does have a text -- but it appears rewritten, since it refers to "Albert and the Queen" dancing to the tune, and girls being ruined by its melody.
It is generally agreed that, in the earliest versions, the "weasel" is the tool used by hatmakers, and to "pop" it is to pawn it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R556

Popeye the Sailor Man

DESCRIPTION: "I'm Popeye the sailor man, full stop, I live in a caravan, ..." He opens a door and falls through the floor, or when he goes swimmin' he kisses the women, or slept with Queen Mary, or with his granny and tickled 'er fanny, or came from the Isle of Man...
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty sailor courting | Popeye sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North)) US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 146, "Popeye the Sailor Man" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 116, "Popeye"; p. 117, "Bowlegged Women" (2 texts)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 59, "(I'm Popeye the Sailor Man)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Onwuchekwa Jemie, editor, Yo' Mama: New Raps, Toasts, Dozens, Jokes, and Children's Rhymes from Urban Black America (Philadelphia, 2003 (copyrighted material limited preview "Digitized by Google")) p. 107, "Popeye the Sailor Man" (1 text)
Roud #13511
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Popeye Went Down in the Cellar" (subject of Popeye)
NOTES [185 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "Recordings in the 1980s show that the punctuation endings are going out of favor, and the song is now often ornamented only by the ending 'Too too' or 'Poo poo!', an echo of the tugboat whistle in the original cartoon song written by Sammy Lerner in 1932."
Lerner's lyrics began "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man, I'm Popeye the Sailor Man, I'm strong to the finisch 'Cause I eats me spinach I'm Popeye the Sailor Man." The "toot, toot" was a sound effect (source: "Popeye the Sailor Man" on the National Institute of Health, Department of Health & Human Services (NIEHS) Kids' Pages site).
I'm sure Popeye lived in "a garbage can" and had no punctuation in Brooklyn in the 1940s, just as in Jemie. - BS
And Solomon-ZickaryZan has "Popeye the Jailor Man" live in "a garbage can," with variations; it also has him live in a "spinach can."
I suspect that several of these parodies actually arose separately; it's just too easy to parody this item. But since there is no way to trace origins of most of them, this item gets all the parodies that use the actual "Popeye the Sailor Man" tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OpGa146

Popeye Went Down in the Cellar

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Popeye went down to the cellar To drink some spinach juice. How many gallons did he drink? One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Journal of American Folklore, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food | Popeye cellar spinach juice counting
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #470, "Popeye went down in the cellar" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Popeye the Sailor Man" (subject of Popeye)
File: AJRR470

Popular Gag Song

DESCRIPTION: "I was born in Jersey City In Texas way down south And that is just the reason why My voice is in my mouth." Assorted verses of contradiction, exaggeration, tautology, and nonsense, e.g. "There was people dying lately Who had never died before."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonsense talltale
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 447, "Popular Gag Song" (2 texts, but the "B" text is "The Barefoot Boy with Boots On")
Roud #6675
File: R447

Popular Gag Song (II)

See The Barefoot Boy with Boots On (File: FSC154)

Popular Wobbly, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm as mild-mannered man as can be, And I've never done no harm that I can see..." but the singer ends up in jail, where "they go wild, simply wilder over me." They "go wild" because he is a union man; he suffers much in prison
AUTHOR: Words: T-Bone Slim
EARLIEST DATE: Early 1950s (recording - Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: IWW prison
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 70, "The Popular Wobbly" (1 text)
DT, POPWOBB*
Roud #9822
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "The Popular Wobbly" (on PeteSeeger05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "They Go Wild, Simply Wild Over Me" (tune)
NOTES [110 words]: The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or "Wobblies") was a radical syndicalist labor union. Founded in the late 1800s, it fought for the 8-hour day and for "One Big Union" rather than separate unions in various crafts or industries. It achieved its greatest successes in the American Northwest, particularly in the lumber trades (although it also fought hard in the textile-workers' strike in Lowell, Mass.) and inspired many songs and poems that have entered folk tradition. While membership has declined in recent decades, the union is still active and still radical.
"They Go Wild, Simply Wild Over Me" was a popular vaudeville song of the early 1900s. - PJS
File: FSWB070

Pore Mournah

See Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady) (File: San011)

Pork Chops

See Sweet Thing (I) (File: R443A)

Pork in the Cupboard

DESCRIPTION: "Oh there's pork in the cupboard, there's beef on the shelf If no one don't eat it I'll eat it myself." The rest is all "chin music."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad food
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 91, "Pork in the Cupboard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9956
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Nellie Musseau, "Pork in the Cupboard" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bridle and Saddle" (lyrics)
NOTES [127 words]: Most of Peacock's version is "chin music". Specifically, a text verse is "La da diddle la diddle la diddle dum da...." Peacock explains, "'Chin' or 'mouth' music is a vocal imitation of instrumental music and is used for dancing when a fiddle or accordion is not handy. Some singers ... become so proficient that they are often called upon even when instruments are available."
Newfoundland "chin music" is like, and serves the same purpose, as Irish "lilting" and Traveller "tuning." See, for example, Hall, notes to Voice11. - BS
This is evidently a local version of "Bridle and Saddle" or one of its equivalents. Ideally, we'd have a mechanism for tracking these floating elements. But we don't, and this version is localized enough to get its own entry. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea091

Pork, Beans and Hard Tack

DESCRIPTION: "Our volunteers are soldiers bold, so say the people all... They leave their homes on starving pay to take the nitchies' (Indians') life." Fed poor rations, they are sent all around Canada by train, boat, and foot
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes Canada
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1885 - Second Metis uprising, which collapsed despite the failure of Canadian troops to defeat the enemy
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 127-129, "Pork, Beans and Hard Tack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4516
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Riel's Song" and references there (subject)
NOTES [88 words]: For the historical background to the Metis uprisings, see "Riel's Song." This song (which appeared in the University of Toronto Songbook only two years after the revolt) accurately describes the fate of the soldiers sent to pursue Riel.
Sent west by rail, the troops had to finish their trek by boat and foot, with rations even worse than they enjoyed on the train. Having reached Metis country, they had great difficulty finding the enemy, and spent time as laborers. Then they were sent back, primarily by boat, to Winnipeg. - RBW
File: FMB127

Porter Rockwell

DESCRIPTION: "Have you heard of Porter Rockwell? He's the Mormon Trigger-right. They say he hunts for horse thieves When then the moon is shining bright. So if you steal a Mormon cow... Get the drop on Porter Rockwell Before he gets the drop on you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: crime punishment theft
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1878 - Death of Orrin Porter Rockwell
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #229, "Porter Rockwell" (1 short text)
Cheney-MormonSongs, p. 191, "Porter Rockwell" (1 short text)
Roud #10879
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Port Rockwell" (subject of Orrin Porter Rockwell)
NOTES [60 words]: For background on Orrin Porter Rockwell, a Mormon fanatic in just about every sense possible, see the notes to "Old Port Rockwell." Cheney-MormonSongs says that his version is from Nicholas Van Alfen, Porter Rockwell, The Mormon Frontier Marshall, p. 157 -- but the earliest date I've found for that book is 1964, so Hubbard's version appears to predate it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hubb229

Portions of the Female, The

DESCRIPTION: "The portions of the female That appeal to men's depravity Are fashioned with considerable care." Experts have come up with intricate Latin names for many of them, but an ordinary word "seems to fit the subject it describes"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: bawdy wordplay
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 102-103, "The Portions of the Female" (1 text)
File: RuSoPoFe

Portlairge

DESCRIPTION: Irish Gaelic: The singer stops in Waterford for drinks and at "the full house of women there." He is visited by four women and will take a girl with him to Carrick in the morning.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (IRClancyMakem01)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage drink sex
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Portlairge" (on IRClancyMakem01)
NOTES [26 words]: The description is based on the cover notes to IRClancyMakem01 by Patrick Clancy. "Portlairge" is one of the songs his grandmother learned at her pub. - BS
File: RcPortl

Portland County Jail

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a stranger to your city, My name is Paddy Flynn. I got drunk the other night; The coppers pulled me in. Had no one to... go my bail. They locked me up for ninety days In the Portland County Jail." The song describes the hard cases in prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 214-215, "Portland County Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 641, "Portland County Jail" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 323, "Portland County Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 69, "Portland County Jail" (1 text)
DT, PORTJAIL*
Roud #9858
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "Portland County Jail" (on Thieme04)
File: San214

Portmore

DESCRIPTION: "The lang woods o' Derry are ill to gae through." "My heart's in the Highlands wherever I go." He thinks of the valiant in Portmore: "O bonny Portmore, ye shine where you charm ... When I look from you, my heart it is sore."
AUTHOR: Donald Cameron (source: Buchan)
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: homesickness Ireland Scotland nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #32, p. 2, "Portmore" or "My Heart's in the Highlands" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter Buchan, Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1875 (reprint of 1828 edition)), Vol II, pp. 150-151, 313, "Portmore"
The Illustrated Book of Scottish Songs from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century, (London, 1854 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 297, "Portmore" [this is an acknowledged reprint, with some punctuation differences, of Buchan's text and note]
W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 180-181, "Portmore" or "My Heart's in the Hielans"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Strong Walls of Derry" (tune, per Christie)
cf. "Bonny Portmore" (derivative texts) and references there
NOTES [138 words]: Buchan: "It is well known to most poetical readers with how little success Burns endeavoured to graft upon this stock a twig of his own rearing ["My Heart's in the Highlands"].... The whole is now, for the first time, given complete from the recitation of a very old person."
See W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 262-263, "Bell Gordon of Portmore," in which the singer leaves Bell Gordon, with no word about the Highlands. It includes the lines "Oh, bonny Portmore, ye delight me wi' charms! The more I look to you the more my heart warms! But when I look from you, my heart it is sore, To part wi' Bell Gordon and bonny Portmore." Christie says this was long sung in Buchan and is his mother's text augmented by two other "copies." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Gr0Portm

Porto Rico [Puerto Rico]

DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "Must I go to Porto Rico/Must I sail the dark blue sea?/Must I fight for you, my darling/Until death shall set me free?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians)
KEYWORDS: love travel fight war battle death lover soldier nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1898: Spanish-American War, in which the U. S. captures Puerto Rico and other territories from Spain
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 249, "Porto Rico" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3659
NOTES [89 words]: Barely even a fragment, but I include it on the chance it may turn out to be part of a full song that we find some day. - PJS
Roud lumps this with a fragment in Brown, which mentions Virginia rather than Puerto Rico, and which otherwise looked to me like "East Virginia (Dark Hollow)." Which just shows how mysterious the thing is. As a wild guess, it's from the Spanish-American War, in which the United States invaded and took over Puerto Rico; it sounds like the sort of sentimental piece someone would have written at the time. - RBW
File: ShAp249

Portrush Fishing Disaster (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls going to sea in fine weather. As the ship sails home, a storm blows up. The singer asks that the sailors' names not be named, buds farewell to home, and tells his friends they will meet on "yonder shore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: death ship disaster wreck storm
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb. 24, 1826 - The Portrush Disaster
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H27b, p. 105, "The Portrush Fishing Disaster (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9047
File: HHH027b

Portrush Fishing Disaster (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls listeners to hear of four sailors who died at Portrush. The singer names the four. He notes that they died despite their skill; the wind was too strong. The singer hopes that the dead and their families will meet in heaven
AUTHOR: Daniel McIlreavy?
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: death ship disaster wreck storm
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb. 24, 1826 - The Portrush Disaster
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H27c, p. 105-106, "The Portrush Fishing Disaster (II)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9044
File: HHH027c

Ports are Open, The

DESCRIPTION: Closed ports ruined trade. Out of work tradesmen were wrecking steam looms, and could not pay high food prices. A royal "proclamation ... [will] admit foreign grain to our markets." "Farmers quite distracted they'll go" but tradesmen will find jobs.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1815 (according to Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: war commerce farming nonballad political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 36, "The Ports are Open" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The World It May Wag" (tune)
NOTES [894 words]: The song refers to the cause of closed ports as a "Corporation Bill" which "some hundreds did kill While others it kept in high station It shut up our ports against peas beans and oats And it ruined the trade of our nation." The end of the policy is a royal proclamation that "the ports will stand open Till the twenty-fourth of December So parliament then when they do meet again Hope that too the poor will remember."
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: "This song was written in 1815 after the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at the battle of Waterloo. During the war between England and France the Government imposed severe restrictions on the import of cereals into British ports -- 'It shut up our ports against peas, beans and oats'. The price of corn was high.... Farmers invested capital in developing inferior land...; yields increased and profits rose accordingly, but the ending of the war was to change all that. British ports were once more opened and the effect on home prices was dramatic.... The song celebrates the opening of the ports. Farmers, of course, were angry.... For ordinary people, however it was a very optimistic period...."
This forecast of things to come in the near future presents a different picture of the effect of war on the economy than we see later in "The Grand Conversation Under the Rose" ("Come stir up the wars, and our trade will be flourishing") in the light of longer range harsh reality; also see the notes to "Ye Sons of Old Ireland."
The Jevons Index numbers for cereal prices from 1807 to 1818 illustrate the problem. The base year (index=100) is 1782: 1807 (173), 1808 (201), 1809 (211), 1810 (203), 1811 (182), 1812 (272), 1813 (256), 1814 (165), 1815 (137), 1816 (148), 1817 (198), 1818 (209). (source: British Financial Experience 1790-1830 by Norman J Silberling in The Review of Economics and Statistics, October 1919, Vol 1 No 4, Table 2, p. 283). In 1815 a corn law was passed allowing no cereal imports unless the domestic price reached a floor of 80s for 28 lbs (source: The Corn Laws: the Formation of Popular Economics in Britain edited by Alon Kadish, (London, 1996), Vol 1, p. xi).
The general problem of overplanting is behind the broadside Bodleian, Harding B 16(59c), "The Corn-Factor's Dream," H. Watson (Newcastle), 1817, which begins
A Corn factor sly, as the story is told,
Had a great stock of grain in his lofts still unsold
When harvest came on, which adverse to his plan,
Seem'd inclin'd to turn out well and ruin the poor man. - BS
This is in any case a strange view of trade during the Napoleonic Wars. It is certainly true that Britain had a bad tendency to mess with Irish trade -- e.g. building up the linen industry and then destroying it.
But the real problem in the early nineteenth century was the war with France. According to GodechotEtAl, p. 124, the Berlin Decree was issued on November 21, 1806. The purpose of this, according to Herold, p. 179, was to defeat Britain by economic blockade.
GodechotEtAl, pp. 126-127: "After the peace of Tilsit, and for the fourth time since 1793, France and England stood alone as adversaries.... Napoleon could no longer contemplate an invasion of England [due to Trafalgar]. Ever since the two powers became active foes, each had brandished the usual economic arm. England declared the coast of France in a state of blockade, and France renewed her prohibition against the importation of British goods, a practice that had been decreed as early as 1793 under the National Convention. At the beginning, these measures had not been very effective. However, little by little, war by blockade was perfected.
"In France for more than a century the premise had been accepted that the power of Great Britain, based upon its economic organization, was fragile. French economists... considered her system of credit abnormal. Her industry could prosper only by virtue of exportation to Europe. It ought, therefore, to be relatively easy to break down the system by excluding her exports from foreign markets; Great Britain would then be ruined and would not be slow to capitulate."
It was not the last time an enemy tried to strangle Britain, but it proved unfortunate because the French could only ban shipments to Britain -- whereas Britain could physically *stop* shipments along the coast using her navy. It also passed the Orders in Council, which barred neutrals from trading to France unless they sent their goods through Britain (which, along with impressment, was one of the leading causes of the War of 1812; see Berton, p. 45). There was a great deal of smuggling, and many of the countries of Europe found their own trade messed up (in this pre-railroad period, large shipments generally went by water or not at all). Napoleon's Continental System would eventually collapse. But, before it did, it caused much hardship and poverty in Britain.
A second thing much restricting British trade was the shortage of sailors. To keep the Royal Navy up to strength, the press gangs were constantly active, grabbing sailors wherever they could find them (this would eventually be the primary cause of the War of 1812 with the United States). Even had the trade had been possible, there were not enough crews to supply all the merchant ships.
If there were no ships in Ireland, it was less because of British regulations than because of Napoleon. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: Leyd036

Portsmouth City

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) (File: E098)

Portsmouth Fellows

See Bold Ranger, The (File: R076)

Posey Boy

See The Swapping Boy (File: E093)

Possim Sits on 'Simmon Tree, De

DESCRIPTION: "De possim sits on 'simmon tree And feeds himself quite fat, Put Manly on de stump for me, I'm dog he'll soon leave dat." "I now must go an' pick my toof, It akes so very bad, but since Reid's our Governor forsooth, I feels my pain so bad."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (North Carolina Gazette)
KEYWORDS: animal political
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 164, "De Possim Sits on 'Simmon Tree" (1 text)
NOTES [75 words]: There is no reason to think this is a traditional song; it seems to have been a political piece from the 1850 North Carolina gubernatorial election, in which Democrat David Settle Reid (1813-1891) succeeded Charles Manley. If there was a significant issue in this campaign, I have been unable to discover it.
It does appear that Manley was a rather unimportant figure, compared to the distinguished Reid, who was congressman, governor, and Senator. - RBW
File: Br3164

Possom Song (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a tribe down in Cutler called Possum by name, And God only knows from what nation they came." They hunt birds at sea; if one is killed, the whole family descends upon it. Otherwise, they live half-starved and ill-clothed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: hunting food hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 337-338, "The Possum Song" (2 texts)
NOTES [22 words]: The notes in Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine don't list a tune for this, but it feels like "Villikens" (minus the chorus) to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm337

Possum Am a Cunning Thing, De

See Raccoon (File: R260)

Possum and the Banjo, The

See De Fust Banjo (The Banjo Song; The Possum and the Banjo; Old Noah) (File: R253)

Possum Pie

See We Had a PIece of Pie (File: WEMM025A)

Possum Song (II), The

See Carve that Possum (File: R276)

Possum Sop and Polecat Jelly

See Black-Eyed Susie (Green Corn) (File: R568)

Possum Up a 'Simmon Tree

See Possum Up a Gum Stump (File: R280)

Possum Up a Gum Stump

DESCRIPTION: "Possum up a gum stump, Cooney in a holler, Little gal at our house, Fat as she can waller." The first two lines are characteristic (though the animals can vary); the last two lines can seemingly be anything.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: nonballad animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 415, "Lynchburg Town" (3 texts plus 2 fragments, 2 excerpts, and mention of 2 more, all with the "Lynchburg Town" chorus, but "A" and "B" have verses from "Raccoon" and "Possum Up a Gum Stump and "D" and "E" are partly "If I Had a Scolding Wife" ("Lucy Long (I)"); only "C" seems to be truly "Lynchburg Town")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 415, "Lynchburg Town" (4 tunes plus text excerpts, corresponding to "A," "B," "E," and a "J" version that apparently is not cited in Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3); also p. 543, "Old Raccoon" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Randolph 280, "Possum Up a Gum Stump" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 161, "Possum Up a Simmon Tree" (6 texts, all of a single stanza; some are probably not this piece, but they're too short to classify)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 161, "Possum Up a 'Simmon Tree" (3 tunes, 1 text plus some excerpts)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 133, "Greenback" (1 text, 1 tune, with an unusual chorus but lyrics typical of this song; Roud, oddly, classifies this with "Lynchburg Town")
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 177, (no title) (1 fragment)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, pp. 20-21, "Heigh-Ho-Diddle-Um-De-A" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 238, "Little Gal at Our House" (1 text, 1 tune)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 106, "Possum up the Persimmon Tree" (1 text)
Roud #7782
RECORDINGS:
Hiter Colvin, "Rabbit Up the Gum Stump" (Victor V-40239, 1930/Montgomery Ward 8148, 1939)
Henry Truvillion, "Come On, Boys, and Let's Go to Huntin'" (AFS 3983 B2; on LC8)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Uncle Reuben" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Bile Them Cabbage Down" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [52 words]: Lomax reports this as a "patting chant" -- sung to the accompaniment of hands clapping or slapping against the thighs. Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 543, files the version on that page as a "recitation" but gives a tune and says there was a banjo accompaniment. Don't ask me to explain. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: R280

Possum up the Persimmmon Tree

See Possum Up a Gum Stump (File: R280)

Post-Rail Song

DESCRIPTION: "Put 'em up solid, they won't come down! Hey, ma laddie, they won't come down!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 138, "Post-Rail Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: San138

Postman, Postman, Do Your Duty

See Policeman, Policeman, Do Your Duty (File: ZiZa062C)

Postman's Bell Goes Ting-A-Ling-A-Ling

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "The postman's bell goes ting-a-ling-a-ling, The milkman's horse goes clippety clop, The horse's shoes go klack klock."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Those Dusty Bluebells)
KEYWORDS: jumprope horse | bell postman milkman
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #471, "The Postman's bell goes ting-a-ling-a-ling" (1 text)
File: AJRR471

Posture Song, The

See Are You a Camel? (File: ACSF142A)

Pot Wrassler, The

DESCRIPTION: The camp cook tells cowboys he spent years riding the range but "now I'm a-wrassling the pots for a change." He can make sourdough and sort the big rocks out of the beans, and doesn't wipe the frying-pan on his jeans. He's old now and prefers this life
AUTHOR: Curley Fletcher
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Curley Fletcher, "Songs of the Sage")
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a camp cook, tells cowboys he has put in a lot of years riding the range but "now I'm a-wrassling the pots for a change." He doesn't claim to be Delmonico, but he can make sourdough and sort the big rocks out of the beans, and doesn't wipe the frying-pan on his jeans. He's old and stiff now and prefers staying by the fire to riding and getting thrown
KEYWORDS: age disability work food nonballad cook worker
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
RECORDINGS:
Harry Jackson, "The Pot Wrassler" (on HJackson1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Punchin' the Dough" (theme)
NOTES [68 words]: The cook on a cattle run was usually an old cowboy who could no longer do the work. It's hardly surprising that he looked on the cowboys as "kids" -- nor that he used his control over the chuck to keep the cowboys in line.
"Delmonico" is Lorenzo Delmonico (1813-1881), a Swiss immigrant who came to the United States in 1832 and largely established the upscale restaurant as a business form in America. - RBW
File: RcPotWra

Pot'ead Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was August the tenth, nineteen fifty-five, The men gathered together like bees in the hive" to harvest the "pot'eads" (whales) in Trinity Bay. Their techniques are described, and the whalers themselves, including author Woodman, short and with a hump
AUTHOR: Aubrey John Woodman (source: Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport)
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport)
KEYWORDS: whaler moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, pp. 51-53, "The Pot'ead Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [82 words]: According to StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 389, a "pot-head" is a "Northern pilot whale (Globicephala melaena)" -- the whale known as "blackfish" in the United States. The term was in use from 1863.Young, p. 137, reports that "Up until 1972 potheads were hunted in Newfoundland and Labrador for their meat, which was mostly exported to fur farms. The most common method of taking potheads was to drive them ashore in groups. Almost always found in groups, potheads are very playful and vocal." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.3
File: CoxN051

Potato Bug, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's just past ten years ... Since we heard of that plague of a fly." Every morning "I'll shake every stalk" and the bugs fall into his pan. As quickly as he catches them "they'll be over the sides" and escape. He should "carry a pan of hot coals"
AUTHOR: Lawrence Doyle
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: farming ordeal nonballad bug hardtimes
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 202-203, 253, "The Potato Bug" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13994
NOTES [22 words]: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland: "[The potato bug] began arriving on the Island in significant numbers in the late 1880s." - BS
File: IvSC202

Potato, The

DESCRIPTION: "We have a loyal little friend, the potato," brought by Sir Walter Raleigh. Though there are varieties with fancy names, all are good. The singer hopes "our planters will plant more ... They are a vital food today in which we all must share"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: food Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 81, "The Potato" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Potato" (theme)
NOTES [177 words]: Was this song written before or after 1845? The answer would be interesting.
The legend that Sir Walter Raleigh brought the potato to Europe is just that: Legend. There is no doubt that the plant came originally from South America, but no one knows who transported it across the Atlantic.
The dependence of Ireland on the potato was of course not voluntary. With the English having subdivided the Catholic lands into areas too small for proper farming, and with the rent laws making land improvements impossible (if a Catholic improved the land, his rent went up), there was no choice but to grow potatoes; it was the only food productive enough to support a family on the tiny plots the Irish were allowed.
Of course, potatoes needed little help from the growers, so the English accused the Irish of laziness -- but they had little choice. Especially with the population so high; even on improved land, it would have been hard to support the people of Ireland in the 1840s without the potato.
All that, of course, changed with the Great Hunger in the 1840s. - RBW
File: OLcM081

Potatoes They Grow Small Over There, The

See Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small) (File: SBoA148)

Potter and Robin Hood, The

See Robin Hood and the Potter [Child 121] (File: C121)

Potterton

DESCRIPTION: There's no watch or clock needed at Potterton: "It was porridge time, and sowen time, And -- Come, lads, yoke." "Wi' cauld kail and tatties Ye feed us like a pig; While ye drink tay and toddy, And hurl [drive] in yer gig"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work food ordeal nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #161, p. 2, ("The folk o' the muckle toon o' Rora") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 392, "Potterton" (2 texts)
Roud #5924
NOTES [19 words]: Greig/Duncan3 385 quoting Robertson, Song Notes: ." .. a protest of servants against the treatment they got." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GdD3392

Poulduff Fishermen, The

DESCRIPTION: On July 11 "a maid divine in tears approached me." Three sons had been drowned when their boat struck the wrecked Perseverance and sank. Some were rescued by "James Fitzsimmons and ... his worthy crew." The drowned men are named.
AUTHOR: Mogue Doyle
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck fishing
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 1, 1880 - "Poulduff fishermen were lost ... when their craft struck the wreck of the Perseverance" (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 52)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 18-20, "The Poulduff Fishermen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #20529
NOTES [9 words]: Poulduff is on the northeast coast of County Wexford. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran018

Poulshone Fishermen, The

DESCRIPTION: A maid reports the disaster: April 3, 1863, at Courtown Harbour, four Poulshone boys drown "when a sudden squall capsized their yawl." Redmond and Kelly are rescued by "young Clancy and his crew" but Earle and Leary are lost.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck fishing
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 102-103, "The Poulshone Fishermen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #20547
NOTES [10 words]: Poulshone and Courtown are on the northern coast of Wexford. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran102

Pound of Tow, The

DESCRIPTION: "A single man is free from strife." Before he and his wife married she "could do all kinds of country work" including spinning a pound of tow every night. Now she won't spin and spends on fashion instead and pawns his clothes to support her pride.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1841 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.18(250))
KEYWORDS: marriage clothes husband wife money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1301, "The Weary Pun' o' Tow" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #435
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.18(250), "The Pound of Tow" ("Come all ye jolly batchelors that would married be"), J. Jennings (London), 1790-1840
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She's Aye Tease, Teasin'" (theme: the wife who won't spin) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Come All Ye Jovial Bachelors
NOTES [35 words]: Greig/Duncan7: .".. received by Mrs Harper from a sister of her father's, Mrs Jaffray, Mintlaw. Mrs Jaffrays mother (Mrs Harper's grandmother) had learnt it when a girl at Midmar: she was born about 1800." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: GrD71301

Pounding Rock into the Temple Foundation

DESCRIPTION: "Now I pray you be still and I'll hush your noise While I sing about Carter and the pounder and boys." The rock-pounding is very loud. The singer describes how it was done. The singer wishes success to those who did the work
AUTHOR: Charles L. Walker (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: work | Mormon temple
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, p. 125, "Pounding Rock into the Temple Foundation" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10855
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cork Leg" (tune)
NOTES [17 words]: For St. George, Utah, and other songs about it, see the notes to "Saint George and the Drag-On." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS125

Pounds, Shillings, and Pence

DESCRIPTION: "Pounds, shillings, and pence, The monkey jumped the fence. He went so high, he reached the sky, Pounds, shillings, and pence." Or, "I asked my mother for 15 cents, To see the elephant jump the fence... He didn't come back till the fourth of July"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal money | monkey elephant fence
FOUND IN: New Zealand US Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 101, "(pounds, shillings and pence)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #211, "I asked my mother for fifteen cents"; #472, "Pounds, shillings, and pence" (2 texts)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 56, "(Pounds, shillings, and pence)" (1 text)
Roud #22189
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Monkey, Monkey, Sitting on a Fence" (lyrics)
File: SuSm101B

Poupore's Shanty Crew

DESCRIPTION: Describing life at the lumber camp of Tom Poupore "on the twenty-eighth of October in 1884." The crew builds a shanty. They celebrate the cook. The leaders of the team, and some of the members, are named. The singer concludes with a toast to the crew
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger lumbering work
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #9, "Poupore's Shanty Crew" (1 text, tune referenced)
ST FowL09 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (theme, tune)
File: FowL09

Pourquoi

See The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat) (File: K295)

Poussie, poussie, baudrons, Where hae ye been?

See Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, Where Have You Been? (File: OO2428)

Poverty Knock

DESCRIPTION: "Poverty, poverty knock! Me loom is a-sayin' all day... Gaffer's too skinny to pay." "Up ev'ry morning at five, I wonder that we keep alive." The weavers are poorly paid and in pain. They get no help when injured. His daughter Lizzie is being courted
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (collected from Tom Daniel, according to Raven)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes injury weaving courting family
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 125-127, "Poverty Knock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 88-89, "Poverty Knock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3491
File: JRVI125

Powder Box, Powder Box

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Powder box, powder box, powder your nose, How many petals are in a rose?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Haines, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope flowers | powder nose petals rose
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #473, "Powder box, powder box, powder your nose" (1 text)
File: AJRR473

Powder Her Nose

See Cinderella Dressed in Yellow (File: CarMM079)

Powder Monkey, The (Soon We'll Be in England Town)

DESCRIPTION: Jim was powder monkey killed on board Victory. In '98 "we chased the foe right into Bourky Bay" and destroyed their flag ship Orient. Jim was killed by musket "as the fight was just on won." He asks the crew "Give a kiss to dear old mother."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia); 19C (broadside, Bodleian LOCSinging as111260)
KEYWORDS: battle navy death sea ship mother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 1, 1798 - Nelson defeats the French in Aboukir Bay, Egypt
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 57, "Chanty Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 148, "The Powder Monkey" (1 text, 1 tune-chorus only)
Greig/Duncan1 144, "The Battle of Aboukir Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS057 (Full)
Roud #1799
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as111260, "The Powder Monkey," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Heiland Laddie" (similar chorus)
NOTES [157 words]: Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia has a verse and chorus as a chanty.
The "powder monkey" job could be handled by women and boys "whose task it was to pass gunpowder up from the magazine to the gunners" (see source for Aboukir Bay, below)
Nelson in Vanguard led the defeat of the French and their flagship L'Orient at Aboukir Bay in the Egyptian campaign in August 1798. (Source: Nelson and the Nile; Part 3: A victory at Aboukir Bay by John Woolford "originally published in Military History Magazine August 1998" per the African History site)
HMS Victory, while commissioned in 1778, was not in service in 1798. Nelson's [service in] Victory began in 1803 and continued until his death at Trafalgar in 1805 (Source: HMS Victory site) - BS
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas calls this a "shore sea-song" possibly from the music-hall, believes that it dates from the 1840s, and that it bears some relationship to "Donkey Riding." - SL
Last updated in version 2.4
File: CrNS057

Powder River (I - Lazy River)

DESCRIPTION: "Last time on that lazy old river... I met a girl who was more like heaven And her smile will last forevermore." He courts her and plans to take her away from the river, but a "spirit of the water" struck back; he mourns her amid the ruins of the flood
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: love courting river disaster flood death grief
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 61, "Powder River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11076
NOTES [62 words]: The name of the river of this song is explicitly "Powder River," not "The Powder River"; the local custom is that you don't use an article before the name, ever. (See Helena Huntington Smith, The War On Powder River, University of Nebraska Press, 1966, p. 1). According to Smith, p. 9, the first big cattle drive on Powder River was organized by Moreton Frewen i 1879. - RBW
File: FCW061

Powder River Jack

DESCRIPTION: A description of Powder River Jack Lee, the cowboy singer, and his wife Kitty Lee. Jack was "not a boozer, and he never cared for cards," and he "loved his pretty Kitty" -- but "the old Sky Boss was needin' One more top hand," and Jack is killed
AUTHOR: "Colorado Bill"
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 ("Hoofs and Horns" magazine)
KEYWORDS: death cowboy recitation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1946 - Death of Powder River Jack Lee in a car accident
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 38, "Powder River Jack" (1 text)
File: Ohr038

Powder River, Let 'Er Buck

DESCRIPTION: "Powder river, let 'er buck, A surgin' mass of cattle, Roundup wagons full of chuck, Horns and hooves a-rattle...." A description of the cows, horses, and cowboys to be met during a cattle drive.
AUTHOR: Powder River Jack Lee?
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Powder River Jack & Kitty Lee)
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse work travel nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 40, "Powder River, Let 'er Buck" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, pp. 4-5, "Powder River, Ler 'er Buck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11524
RECORDINGS:
Powder River Jack & Kitty Lee, "Powder River, Let 'Er Buck" (Victor 23527, 1930; Montgomery Ward M-4462, 1934; on AuthCowboys)
NOTES [108 words]: The phrase "Powder River, let 'er buck" was the motto of a Wyoming division (comprised largely of cowboys) during World War I. Powder River Jack Lee claims to have composed the song, and there is no evidence to the contrary -- but the slogan must have come from somewhere.
Incidentally, the name of the river is explicitly "Powder River," not "The Powder River"; the local custom is that you don't use an article before the name, ever. (See Helena Huntington Smith, The War On Powder River, University of Nebraska Press, 1966, p. 1). According to Smith, p. 9, the first big cattle drive on Powder River was organized by Moreton Frewen i 1879. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Ohr040

Powderhorn

DESCRIPTION: "Out in the West you have often heard said The only good paint horse is one that is dead." The singer sets out to disprove the rule, describing the purchase of a cutting horse, Miss Aledo, that does a spectacular job
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: horse work cowboy commerce
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 70, "Powderhorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11075
NOTES [23 words]: A cutting horse is used to cut off a steer from the herd. A good horse can make a cowboy's task much easier by outguessing the cattle. - RBW
File: FCW070

Powellton Labor Train Explosion, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was a cold December morn, The hour was about six o'clock, There came a vast explosion," throwing the Powellton labor train engine into the air. Many are killed and injured; listeners are told that their train too might explode someday
AUTHOR: Charles A. Hudson (source: Lyle)
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (sent to James Taylor Adams by Elizabeth Hudson)
KEYWORDS: train death labor-movement warning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 27, 1934 - A train engine explodes near the mining settlement of Powellton, West Virginia, killing 17 and injuring 43 or more
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 202-203, "The Powellton Labor Train Explosion" (1 text)
Roud #14032
File: LySc202

Powers Above

See Come Write Me Down (The Wedding Song) (File: K126)

Powers of Whisky, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's nothing like whisky Makes Irishmen frisky" and girls also, even if sick. If a maid rejects you "drink enough, you'll find charms in a dozen beside ... you'll think you're in love with each girl that you meet." Whisky can subdue any grief.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: love drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 75-76, "The Powers of Whisky" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kinnegard Slashers" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
File: CrPS075

Prairie Grove

DESCRIPTION: "Come ye gallant sons of I-o-way, come listen to my song... About the gallant charge at Prairie Grove, An' we an' Southern rebels on equal numbers strove." The singer describes a federal victory, the burial of the southern dead, and their widows' mourning
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randoph)
KEYWORDS: battle soldier death Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 7, 1862 - Battle of Prairie Grove
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 222, "Prairie Grove" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 205-207, "Prairie Grove" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 222)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 31, "Battle of Prery Grove" (1 text)
Roud #4032
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Give the Dutch Room" (subject)
NOTES [1146 words]: The battle of Prairie Grove was one of the more confusing messes of the Civil War. It had little effect on the main war effort (though it contributed significantly to the Union conquest of Arkansas), and so is rarely mentioned in the histories.
McPherson, p. 668, gives this backdrop: "The transfer of Van Dorn's Confederate army [from Missouri/Arkansas] to Mississippi in the spring of 1862 had left northern Arkansas shorn of defenders. Samuel R. Curtis's small Union force began advancing toward Little Rock, slowed only by skittish militia and harassing guerillas. Into the Confederate breach stepped Thomas C. Hindman, a political general five feet tall who made up in energy what he lacked in size. Hindman enforced conscription with a will that created a 20,000-man army of lukewarm Arkansans, hardened Texans, and Missouri guerrillas. This force deflected the enemy campaign against Little Rock and went over to the offensive in the fall, driving the Federals north almost to Missouri."
The Federals managed to recover -- but they split their forces. Two Union divisions, under Herron, were located near Springfield, Missouri; another, under Blunt, was in an advanced position south of Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The Confederate general Hindman, observing this deployment, saw an opportunity to defeat the Unionists in detail. He took his force -- somewhat smaller than the combined Union forces but much stronger than Blunt alone -- and on Dec. 6 attacked Blunt.
Unknown to Hindman, Herron's force had been ordered forward a few days earlier. When Hindman learned that Herron was approaching, he tried to get between the two Union forces.
It didn't work. Herron managed to hold off Hindman until Blunt arrived. The Confederates -- many of them raw Arkansas troops who deserted at the beginning of the battle -- wound up abandoning the field. The battle was not a great Union success, but neither was it a great defeat. The Confederates retreated, and many of Hindman's conscripts deserted. In the aftermath, the Federals were able to occupy a large part of northern Arkansas. Herron received a promotion to Major General as a result -- being, at the time, the youngest Major General in the army (Warner, p. 228).
That seems to be typical of Hindman's history: Tucker, pp. 68-69, summarizes his career as follows:
"Thomas C. Hindman had been an enterprising soldier in the trans-Mississippi department, and his conduct in the later phases of the Chickamauga campaign was in sharp contrast with his lethargy in [a preliminary action at] McLemore's Cove. He had been an outstanding resident of Arkansas when the war broke and had played one of the leading roles with his stump speeches to take Arkansas out of the Union.
"Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, he had been educated in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, had been cited for conspicuous bravery in the Mexican War, had served in the Mississippi legislature as a staunch Jefferson Davis man, then had moved across the Mississippi River to Helena, Arkansas. A lawyer and a gifted speaker, he was sent by the Helena district to Congress in 1856.... Like George Pickett, he wore his hair in long curling locks and was something of a dandy in his civilian dress with his pink gloves and rattan cane. He has small and tended to be tyrannical.
"After secession, Hindman raised a regiment, commanded a brigade at Shiloh, where he was wounded, and because of his good fighting there became a major general. In command of the Confederate army at Prairie Grove, Hindman was at first aggressive and appeared to be winning, but he lost the battle by suddenly taking a defensive position and awaiting attack, thereby allowing his opponent, Brigadier General James G. Blunt, to unite his forces on the field. Hindman has been called a 'man of genius,' a man who would have been a good Secretary of War but was unable to command an army or plan a battle. However, he was to prove at Chickamauga that he could strike hard under competent leadership."
Woodworth p. 69, describes him this way: "As colorful a man as one could hope to find in this or any other army, Thomas C. Hindman was a Tennessee native who had served with distinction in the Second Mississippi Regiment during the Mexican War before moving across the river to Helena, Arkansas, to carry his political career to further heights, including the U.S. Congress. He could be a man of selfless devotion, as when he and fellow Helena lawyer Pat Cleburne stayed in town to nurse the victims of a deadly epidemic. He could also be outrageously provoking -- rude, insulting, and imperious -- and he received a pretty much continuous stream of challenges to duels. He turned them down, but sometimes his enemies were too enraged to take no for an answer, as on the notable occasion when he and Cleburne were allies against several of them in a high-noon shoot-out on the streets of Helena. That one left them both badly wounded. Hindman also tended to take the direct solution to every problem, as when he scaled a convent wall to get himself a wife."
Woodworth comments on the same page that "His most notable service had been in Arkansas, where his ruthless drive and efficiency had built him a respectably large army for that theater of the war and then his bull-headed impulsiveness had led him to wreck it in the unauthorized battle of Prairie Grove." He had shoulder-length curling hair who wore pink gloves.
The information in the song isn't really enough to identify the regiment involved here, but since the song is addressed to the people of Iowa, it presumably involved one of the Iowa regiments at Prairie Grove: 18th and 20th Iowa Infantry (of Huston's Division), and the 1st Iowa Cavalry and 19th Iowa Infantry (of Herron's Division). The 19th had the much harder battle (and war), so it might be the best candidate. According to Fox, p. 433, the 19th at Prairie Grove suffered 45 killed, 145 wounded (27 of whom later died, based on Fox, p. 18), and 3 missing at that battle -- so it fought quite hard. That total represents about a seventh of all Union losses at the battle, which totaled 1251, according to Fox, p. 544. Its other big battle was at Morganza, Louisiana, September 20, 1863, where it suffered 10 killed, 23 wounded, and 210 missing, presumably captured (Fox, p. 442). This is a battle better known as Stirling's Plantation or Fordoche Bridge. Herron's Division was sent from the Mississippi up the Red River. A portion of this force, a not-quite-brigade under Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Leake and including the 19th Iowa was sent on a detached mission. The Confederates were able to overwhelm this force, taking most of it captive including the largest part of the 19th Iowa. That was effectively the end of the war for it. In the course of the war, it had 92 men killed and 192 died of disease (Fox, p. 515)
This song is item dA38 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: R222

Prairie Song, A

DESCRIPTION: "The music springs under the galloping hoofs Out on the plains." Oh where are the traces of yesterday's ride?" "Oh, rest not my pony, there's youth in my heart... And there's room here to live and to love and to dare, Out on the plains"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: home horse travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 129-130, "A Prairie Song" (1 text)
File: ThLo129

Praise of a Dairy, The

DESCRIPTION: "In praise o a dairy I purpose to sing, But all things in order, first, God save the King." Eve was the first dairy-maid. Milk and honey existed before there was money. Milk is important in many excellent foods
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 444-446, "In Praise of a Dairy" (1 text)
ST BeCo444 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Packington's Pound" (tune) and references there
File: BeCo444

Praise of Christmas, The

See Drive the Cold Winter Away (In Praise of Christmas) (File: Log293)

Praise of Kinsale, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is "a poor fisherman" praising "his own native town of Kinsale." There's "a Royal Hotel," races, dances, billiards, and cards. There are cold baths for fitness, hot baths for cures, "or if you're in health, just come here for a frolic"
AUTHOR: John Lander (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (Haly broadside, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: commerce gambling sports dancing nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 215-217, "The Praise of Kinsale" (1 text)
NOTES [76 words]: Kinsale and Mallow are in County Cork.
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "This satirical song ["The Praise of Kinsale"], with the subsequent reply to it ["Kinsale versus Mallow"], are given from a broadside purchased by the Editor in 1831, at the shop of Haly, a ballad printer in Hanover Street, Cork. The were respectively entitled, 'Paddy Farrell, of Kinsale, to his Friend at Mallow;' and 'Answer of Thady Mullowny, of Mallow, to Paddy Farrell, Kinsale.'" - BS
File: CrPS215

Praise of Ploughmen, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye lads and lasses a' draw near, I'm sure it will delight your ear... To sing the praise o' ploughmen." Workers at other occupations may regard themselves as better, but the ploughman feeds them. The girl choruses, "Happy is the ploughman's jo."
AUTHOR: John Anderson
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3); Grieg reports that it was written c. 1850
KEYWORDS: farming worker food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #164, pp. 1-2, "The Praise of Ploughmen" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 447, "The Praise of Ploughmen" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 242-243, "The Praise of Ploughmen" (1 text)
Roud #5579
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Laddie That Handles the Ploo" (theme)
cf. "The Farmer is the Man" (theme)
cf. "Johnnie Cope" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
cf. "Come All You Jolly Ploughboys" (theme)
cf. "The Useful Plow" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Britain's Isle
The Labours o' the Plooman
The Plooman
NOTES [14 words]: Greig: ." .. written about the middle of last century, or perhaps somewhat earlier." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ord242

Praise of Sailors, The

See The Praise of Saylors Here Is Set Forth (File: PaSe011)

Praise of Saylors Here Is Set Forth, The

DESCRIPTION: "As I lay musing in my bed, Full warm and well at ease, I thought upon the lodging hard Poor sailors have at see." They face hunger, cold, and storm, although captain and boatswain and pilot fight hard against the seas. The singer wishes them well
AUTHOR: unknown (Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads suggests it might be by Martin Parker)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1680 (broadside Bodleian 4o Rawl. 566(157)
)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship hardtimes storm
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 11, "The Praise of Sailors" (1 text)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads VII, pp. 10-12, "The Praise of Saylors" (1 text)
Roud #V32242
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 4o Rawl. 566(157), "The praise of saylors here set forth," F. Coles, T. Vere, T. Wright, J. Clarke (London), 1674-1679; also Douce Ballads 2(173b), "The praise of saylors is here set forth," J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, T Passinger (London), 1684-1686
NOTES [66 words]: The two Bodleian broadsides are curiosities: each has three woodcuts; one is the same in each, a second appears to be a mirror image (which means it must have been re-carved). The typography is also similar. One suspects there is a back story here -- perhaps the printers of the Douce edition inherited parts of the business of the makers of the Rawlinson edition -- but I don't know what it is. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: PaSe011

Praise of Waterford, The

DESCRIPTION: "Waterford, thow loyall cytie" has been honored by Henry II, chartered by John, affirmed by Henry III, and so forth, through Henry VIII. "Quia to semper intacta manes" ends each verse echoing the Waterford motto.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (Ryland, _History of Waterford_, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: royalty political Ireland
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 312-320, "The Praise of Waterford" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 154-155, "The Praise of Waterford" (1 text, excerpted from Croker)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mayor of Waterford's Letter" (structure)
NOTES [3281 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "The motto of 'Urbs intacto manet Waterfordia' ... was conferred on the city, with other honours, by Henry VII., for the conduct of the mayor and citizens against Perkin Warbeck."
"... there was soon to be another impostor [to Henry VII's crown after Lambert Simnel (see 'The Mayor of Waterford's Letter')], Master Perkin Warbeck from Tournai, whom the men of Cork felt convinced was Richard of York, the younger of the Princes in the Tower." (Williams/Fraser, p. 171)
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "The date of this composition is satisfactorily fixed, by the twentieth and twenty-second verses, to be about 1545. In the former, Henry VIIIth's present to the city of Waterford of a sword of justice in 1523, is spoken of as "lately sent;" and in the latter, the term 'our triumphant king' (which would scarcely be applied to Edward VI), must have been written subsequent to 1541, when Henry assumed the title of King of Ireland." - BS
It seems unlikely (to put it mildly) that this was a genuine folk song -- but it is an interesting curiosity, because the manuscript of it contains marginal notes. These are not uncommon in manuscripts of, say, the Bible -- but rarely in poetry!
Still, if the scribe felt the urge for footnotes, how can I resist?
"Henry the Second, that noble Kinge" -- Henry II Plantagenet, reigned 1154-1189. Henry came to Ireland in 1171, taking advantage of local strife to build an enclave on the east coast; he invaded following the invasion of his own vassal the Earl of Pembroke, known as Strongbow (Golway, p. 11).
The reference to his son's honor is presumably to Henry's fourth son John, the future King John. Henry, during his life, divided up his kingdom (England, much of France, and Ireland) among his four sons. John was given Ireland -- though he quickly got himself in trouble by making fun of the native chieftains's appearance (Harvey, p. 52). John would reign over England and Ireland from 1199 to 1216, following the reign of his older brother Richard I (now usually known as Richard the Lion-Hearted, but at the time, he was likely to be called "Richard Yes-and-No," because he was so wishy-washy).
John's son was Henry III, who would face the rebellion of Simon de Montfort; he came to the throne as a boy, and so had a very long reign, 1216-1272.
Edward the First, reigned 1272-1307, was known for the work he did in organizing and codifying the laws of England; he did indeed grant many charters. "His son" was Edward II, reigned 1307-1327, when he was deposed.
"Edward the Third, of tryumph most abundante," was the son of Edward II, and reigned 1327-1377. His triumphs were indeed abundant, though they in the end amounted to little: He started the Hundred Years' War, in the process of which he captured the Scottish king David II (Seward-Hundred, p. 69) he won the great Battle of Crecy against the French in 1346 (Seward-Roses, pp. 63-68), captured Calais (Harvey, p. 141) and finally, after his son the Black Prince had captured the King of France at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356 (Myers, pp. 24-25), negotiated the Treaty of Bretigny which gave England theoretical sovereignty over a third of France (Seward-Hundred, pp. 99-101, plus the map on p. 266).
The flip side is, Edward's reign also witnessed the Black Death (Myers, pp. 23-24), which -- apart from killing a large fraction of the population -- devastated the already-strained English treasury; England captured much of France, but proved unable to hold it; by 1374, Edward was "drink-sodden and used up," (Seward-Hundred, p. 115), and there was a struggle over control of the government (Myers, pp. 28-29), which ended with the triumph of the king's son Edward the Black Prince -- who, however, died in 1376 (from what sounds rather like malaria, acquired perhaps in an invasion of Spain).
The conquest of France was already unraveling by the time of their deaths. Ashley, p. 604, says that Edward's "final year was spent in much loneliness and sadness aware that the administration about him was crumbling."
With the Black Prince dead, as well as Edward's second son Lionel (dead, perhaps of overindulgence, in 1368 shortly after wedding his second wifeViolante Visconte; Saunders, pp. 134-135; on page 138, Saunders mentions speculation that Lionel was poisoned to reduce English influence in Italy), the throne passed to the Black Prince's son, the boy Richard II (ascended 1377, deposed 1399, died, probably murdered, 1400).
Richard had a very difficult minority, with English conquests in France slowly being lost and his barons quarreling. It didn't help that he was without a true heir; his first marriage was childless and, when his beloved first wife died, he apparently almost went mad (Harvey, p. 156). He eventually took as his second wife a very young French princess who was years from childbearing age.
Harvey, p. 157, says that Richard made a very constructive visit to Ireland in 1394-1395, but soon after, he turned into a tyrant. When his uncle John of Gaunt died in early 1399, the last restraint on his behavior was lifted (Harvey, p. 159). Richard took over the vast Lancaster estates of Duke John (who had ruled what was almost a kingdom within a kingdom), thus disinheriting Gaunt's son Henry of Bolingbroke. Bolingbroke had already been exiled by Richard, and this was the final straw. When Richard took another trip to Ireland in 1399, Henry invaded England, and the despotic Richard had angered so many barons that Henry had no trouble taking over.
Henry ruled 1399-1413, but was never easy on the throne (Harvey, p. 163); he was not Richard's proper heir. (His claim, recall, came through Edward III's third son John, but the second son Lionel had left descendants by his first marriage. It's just that they were too young and powerless to be contenders for the succession in 1399.) Henry IV was unable to do anything about the disastrous situations in France and Ireland; it was all he could do to control his own barons and the Welsh revolt of Owen Glendower.
The song does not clearly distinguish between Henry IV and his offspring, but the "lusty Henry that conquered France" is Henry V (1413-1422). He didn't exactly conquer France, since there was still a portion that was independent -- but his battles did cause him to be declared the heir to the French throne in 1420 (Ashley, p. 611). Unfortunately, he died only two years later, leaving only a baby, the future Henry VI, as heir. (Incidentally, Henry V was *not* lusty; many English kings left a large collection of bastards, but Henry V seems to have been almost monkish in his habits; there is no record of any bastards, and little evidence of affairs; Earle, p. 87. He even dressed like a priest; Allmand, p. 438.)
If Henry V was less than worldly, Henry VI surely qualifies as the most out-of-it King in English history to that time. (The English did not start inbreeding the way most continental monarch did until the Hannoverian Succession in 1714. As a result, English monarchs were mostly sane, if often utterly wrong-headed. There were only two major instances of genetic defectives in the English royal family: Henry VI, who was the son of Katherine of France, the daughter of Charles the Mad -- and the descendants of Henry VII, who were *also* descendants of Charles the Mad; after Henry V died, Katherine formed a common-law marriage with Owen Tudor; their grandson was Henry VII.)
The song calls Henry VI "Henry the Holly [holy], that borne was in Wyndsore." This is perhaps an attempt to cover up his notorious incapacity. But it was just that -- incapacity. He may not actually have been mentally retarded, but he certainly lacked the power of decision needed to rule (Ashley, p. 614), and at various times in the 1450s, he went mad. Inactivity was confused for piety by some, but there is no actual evidence that Henry was in any sense extraordinary in holiness. And, because he was always being pushed around by his advisors, he could be made to decree anything.
The song completely fails to note that "Edward the Strong" (Edward IV, reigned 1461-1470 and 1471-1483) deposed Henry VI (though Henry was briefly restored 1470-1471 before being re-deposed -- and, this time, killed). Edward IV was certainly the rightful King of England -- but he was merely a third cousin, twice over, several times removed, of Henry VI. He was able to take the throne only because Henry was incompetent to keep it. Thus, citing both Henry VI and Edward IV is about like citing charters from both Ahura Mazda and Ahriman -- some owe allegiance to one, some to the other, but few will recognize the authority of both.
Of course, that's nothing to calling Henry VII "Henry the Valiant." The guy never truly commanded a battle; the only major fight where he was present was the Battle of Bosworth, where he overthrew Richard III -- and most authorities agree that it was the Earl of Oxford who had field command (e.g. Gillingham, p. 244; Kendall, p. 435, or the notes to "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34]). Henry's primary activity was to avoid getting killed when Richard III made his death-or-glory charge which was so noteworthy that not even Shakespeare could get it wrong. (Which is amazing, since the only other thing Shakespeare got right in "Richard III" was the names "Edward," "Henry," and "George.")
Valiant or not, Henry managed to take the throne (for details, see e.g. "The Rose of England.") But it was a shaky throne; he faced many revolts, and two major plus several minor pretenders. For the problems Henry faced up to the time of the first major pretender, Lambert Simnel [referred to in the song as "Lambart [who] was crowned by false advertence"], as well as how Waterford stuck by Henry, see the notes to "The Mayor of Waterford's Letter." But not even crushing two revolts (Stafford's and Lambert's) spelled peace for Henry VII; the country was just too restive and he was just too efficient about collecting taxes (it was in his reign that the infamous Morton's Fork was invented -- named for John Morton, who came to be Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor. The Fork was a trick used by tax collectors: If a man lived in luxury, he had money which could be taxed; if he lived in poverty, he was saving money which could be taxed). Much of the country, for one reason or another, wanted a different king.
Kendall, p. 477, says that there had been "at least three other 'feigned boys.'" But the three after Lambert were quickly dealt with. Not so imposter #5. In 1491, Henry was confronted with the most serious pretender of all, Perkin Warbeck (called "Parkin" in the song). Warbeck was an interesting case, because several witnesses said he actually looked like a member of the House of York (Weir, p. 239; Poole, p.17). It's not impossible that he was an illegitimate son of Edward IV (who sowed enough wild oats to supply an entire stable of horses), but there doesn't seem to be any evidence for this, and Weir, p. 241, thinks it unlikely. She mentions a possibility that he was Richard III's son (a possibility also mentioned by Poole, p. 17) -- but the one Plantagenet whom Warbeck did *not* resemble was the short, dark Richard III.
According to Seward-Roses, p. 322, "'Pierrequin Werbecque' was born in Tournai in about 1474, the son of a boatman. Weir, p. 241, says that he eventually admitted to being "the son of John Warbeck, or Osbeck, and Katherine de Faro, his wife, both converted Jews living in Tournai where John was a minor official. When Peter (or Peterkin, as he was known) was small, the family lived for a time in London, where John Warbek earned a living by suppling carpets to the royal court."
Whatever Warbeck's early history, he apparently arrived in Ireland in 1491 as the servant of a Breton silk merchant and, while walking through the streets of Cork dressed in his master's splendid clothes (Seward-Roses, p. 322; Weir, p. 242, describes him as modeling the outfits), was taken for a member of the Yorkist royal family."
Apparently that was enough for Warbeck and those around him. It was in Cork, in 1491, that he formally declared himself (Chrimes, p. 81). According to Weir, p. 236, he briefly claimed to be the Earl of Warwick, the son of King Edward IV's younger brother George of Clarence. Henry VII in his propaganda said that he also listed himself as the son of Richard III. But he soon settled upon the identity of Richard of York, the younger of Edward IV's two sons. (Probably he decided to adopt the persona of Richard, the younger of the Princes in the Tower, rather than Edward, the older, because they were close in age, or because Edward V had been known to more people. Chrimes, p. 82, also notes that it would be a bit embarrassing to return as a deposed King. But it is interesting to note that, if the bones said to be those of the Princes are indeed theirs -- and there can be no proof either way until the British Royal Family gives permission for DNA testing -- the elder suffered from dental problems that might well have killed him. So Richard was the prince more likely to still be alive. It is hard to imagine how Warbeck could have known that, however.)
Quite a few of the monarchs of Europe recognized him -- including, for a time, the King of France (Weir, p. 236), who received him with "appropriate honors" (Chrimas, p. 82). Henry finally talked Charles VIII out of supporting the pretender, but the Dowager Duchess of Burgundy, and her stepson-in-law, the Duke Maximillian, recognized him and gave him shelter in Flanders (Chrimes, p. 83). The Dowager Duchess was the sister of Edward IV, and must have known he was a pretender (Poole, p. 17, says that she in fact helped coach him) -- but evidently would have preferred anyone to Henry VII. Apart from being an usurper, Henry VII had confiscated her English estates, according to Poole, p. 18.
In 1493, Warbeck returned to Ireland, that hotbed of Yorkist sympathy (Weir, p. 237). Henry VII sent Lord Poynings to Ireland in 1494 to stop him (Chrimes, p. 84). Poynings was able to lift the Earl of Desmond's siege of Waterford, which lasted from July 23 to August 4 (Chrimes, p. 86). Poynings did not manage to catch Warbeck -- but he did drive him back to Flanders, plus he forced the Irish parliament to pass Poynings' Law, which all but destroyed the Irish parliament; the English crown was given the right to control its meetings and negate any legislation which affected anything outside Ireland (Fry/Fry, p. 103). This particular law was responsible for many of the problems of Ireland over the next three centuries.
By 1495, Henry had rounded up just about all of Warbeck's English followers (Weir, p. 237; Seward-Roses, p. 322, claims he learned who they were by bribing a former Yorkist knight), and even executed Sir William Stanley (Kendall, p. 457) -- the man who, a decade earlier, had killed Richard III and put Henry on the throne! (Seward-Roses, p. 322, considers it significant that Stanley,who always had an eye to his own profit, thought Warbeck enough of a threat to Henry as to support him. It certainly is interesting -- but I'm not convinced Stanley *did* support Warbeck. Being William Stanley, he may have simply tried to have a foot in both camps. But Henry -- unlike his relatively merciful predecessor Richard III, who always forgave the Stanleys -- wouldn't allow such things. Besides, he may have wanted Sir William's money; Poole, p. 18. For the whole Stanley mess, see the notes to "The Vicar of Bray" plus, again, the notes to "The Children in the Wood".)
When Warbeck attempted to land in England, he was driven off (Seward-Roses, p. 323); he then headed for Waterford, but Poynings drove him back. He ended up in Scotland, where James IV took him in and even married him to a relative (Chrimes, p. 88, who suggests that this means James thought he was legitimate; the poor woman, Katherine Gordon, would have three other husbands after Warbeck; Chrimes, p. 91 n. 2) -- but then came to dislike him and made him unwelcome; he headed once more for Ireland in 1497 (Weir, p. 238; Seward-Roses, p. 323). He finally managed to land in Cornwall (which had earlier risen in rebellion over Henry's impossible taxes; Chrimes, p. 90), but he didn't get much of a welcome (Chrimes, p. 91); when Henry's army arrived, Warbeck fled. He was captured, and for a time was treated well. But he tried to escape, and was captured again, tortured, and placed in close confinement near the very Earl of Warwick he had once impersonated (Seward-Roses, p. 323).
Weir, p. 238, speculates that this was deliberate -- the government was trying to lure them into a conspiracy. Certainly the government detected one -- even though Warwick was considered feeble-minded (Kendall, p. 349; Weir, p. 239; Seward-Roses, p. 324; Poole, p. 21 says that he was "of mediocre intelligence (if not a simpleton) and suffered from grave defects of character," while Potter, p. 168, quotes a contemporary report that he could not "tell a goose from a capon"). In 1499, Warwick was tried, and supposedly confessed; he was condemned to death. So was Warbeck.
As Poole, p. 21, says, Warwick's only crime was being the last (legitimate) male Plantagenet. At least, as a member of the nobility, he was merely beheaded (Chrimes, p. 92); Warbeck was hung, drawn, and quartered. To give Henry his minimal due, he was kind enough not to persecute Warbeck's wife (Poole, p. 22); he even gave her a pension.
Seward-Roses, p. 324, mentions Francis Bacon's belief that Warwick was killed because Ferdinand of Aragon had refused to marry his daughter to Henry VII's son until all possible Plantagenet pretenders were eliminated; as long as any were alive, there would be plots.
Before his execution, Warbeck confessed -- or at least was said to have confessed -- that he was not the son of Edward IV. Warwick's turn followed soon after (Seward-Roses, p. 324, mentions the coming of another false Warwick, named Ralph Wulford, as helping to prompt this), without any such notable confession. The last great threat to Henry VII's illegitimate kingship was done.
Could Warbeck have displaced Henry? It's an interesting question. After 1495, he had no chance. But there might have been a possibility in 1494 or 1495. So it was pretty significant when Waterford kept him from landing in Ireland.
Although one might argue that this marked the pinnacle of Waterford's career, the song does not end there. Having already praised the unwarlike Henry VII, it proceeds to the reign of his son Henry VIII (reigned 1509-1547), whom it calls "Henry the Tryumphant." Pretty good for a king who never really participated in a battle. (Maybe it refers to the fact that he didn't face any rebellions.) Henry VIII was the second son of Henry VII, and did not become crown prince until his older brother died, so he was given more clerical than military training (Ashley, p. 630). Henry did lead an army to invade France, conducting a couple of successful sieges and winning the so-called "Battle of the Spurs," (Ashley, p. 631) -- but this 1513 "victory" was really only a cavalry skirmish, and Henry then allowed himself to be bought off. A much more notable victory at this time was the English defeat of the Scots at Flodden (for which see, e.g., "The Flowers of the Forest"), but Henry had no part in that; it was the Howard Earl of Surrey who commanded the English force. Henry did go on to fight France in later years, but he did not lead the armies and there was little real fighting anyway.
It seems clear that Henry VIII was still king at the time of this song, though, so little wonder that it buttered him up. -RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.7
File: CrPS312

Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition

DESCRIPTION: "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition (x3), And we'll all stay free." The singer describes the mission he and his fellow soldiers are on and the dangers they face, but clearly expects to succeed
AUTHOR: Frank Loesser
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: soldier technology nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 30-31, "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24982
NOTES [160 words]: The story of this is that, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a chaplain was asked to say a prayer and came out with "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition" so he could man an anti-aircraft gun. Wikipedia has a whole entry on the song and the remark, none of which I find particularly convincing. But the tale inspired Frank Loesser to write a song, and Loesser being Loesser (he was, among other things, was responsible for the music of "Guys and Dolls," the most popular musical of the classic type in Broadway history), it was popular enough to apparently go into tradition in a small way.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 462, estimates that this was the fifteenth most popular song in America in 1942, peaking at #2 in November 1942 (#1 for the year being Eddie Seiler, Sol Marcus, and Bennie Benjamin's "When the Lights Go On Again"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Hopk030

Praise, Member

DESCRIPTION: "Praise, member, praise God, I praise my Lord until I die. Praise, member, praise God, And reach the heavenly home." "Jordan's bank is a good old bank." "O soldier's fight is a good old fight." "I look to the east and I look to the west."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad soldier floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 4, "Praise, Member" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11859
File: AWG004A

Praises of Limerick, The

DESCRIPTION: Limerick "for true generosity, honour, fidelity ... one of us is worth ten of you [from nearby towns]." Our shopkeepers "charge us extravagant" but never "more than his conscience should bear." Our proper wives are "so dressy, so flirtish, so talkative"
AUTHOR: Dr MacDonnell (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1793 (_Anthologia Hibernica_, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 228-230, "The Praises of Limerick" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Name is Molly Macky" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
NOTES [39 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland quoting the Memoirs of Sir James Campbell notes that MacDonnell's satirical song was not taken well in Limerick and "the young doctor was fain to make his escape in the night time, and never return." - BS
File: CrPS228

Pratie Song, The

See Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small) (File: SBoA148)

Praties They Grow Small, The

See Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small) (File: SBoA148)

Praties, The

See Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small) (File: SBoA148)

Pray All the Member

DESCRIPTION: "Pray all the member, O Lord, Pray all the member, Yes my Lord." "Pray a little longer." "Jericho da worry me." "Jericho, Jericho." "I been to Jerusalem." "Patrol all around me." "Thank God he no catch me." "Jump along Jericho."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 35, "Pray All de Member" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11990
NOTES [23 words]: Allen writes that "Pray All de Memeber" was used as a shout hymn on his plantation (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. xv) - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: AWG035

Pray for Us, Thou Prince of Peace

DESCRIPTION: "Pray for us, thou prynce of pes, Amici Christi Johannes." "To the now, Crystys der derling." John slept on Jesus's breast. He did not forsake Jesus when Jesus was before Pilate. Jesus was put into his care. So the song appeals to him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: XV century (Bodleian MS. Eng. poet. e.1 and others)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious carol foreignlanguage MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #103, pp. 66-67, "(no title)" (2 texts)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3776
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #6020
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #19, pp. 11, "(Pray for vs to the prince of peace, Amice Crysty, Johannes)" (1 text, with some variant readings on pp. 171-172)
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #21, p. 79, "(Pray for us, thou prynce of pes)" (1 text)
R. T. Davies, editor, _Medieval English Lyrics: A Critical Anthology_, 1963, #68, p. 157, "A Song to John, Christ's Friend" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 40
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, page 465
MANUSCRIPT: {MSCamTrinityO.3.58}, Cambridge, Trinity College MS. O.3.58
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Additional 5665, folio 37 (first copy), folio 48 (second copy, shorter)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Harley 4294, folio 81
ST BrR3776 (Full)
NOTES [674 words]: Although I know of no traditional collections, Greene, p. 199, reports, "This carol is found in more different texts (as a carol) than any other. Stevens (p. 117) points out that it is 'the only polyphonic carol found in three different musical settings.'" Greene's version is in the third person, the other texts in the first, so it has undergone modification over time, although it is not clear whether this was oral or written change.
Davies, p. 335, says that six texts are known:
- Bodleian MS Eng. poet e. 1, XV century (the basis of Greene)
- Balliol MS. 354 (folio 222 recto; this is the famous Richard Hill manuscript, with the components written by 1537)
- British Library MS. Harley 4294. Composite, with the first half from the sixteenth century and the second half from the fifteenth. Has only two carols, although it has much other material, some poetic.
- Cambridge, Trinity College O.3.58 (1230) recto (dated to the early fifteenth century). A scroll of carols, in East Anglian dialect, which also contains one of the few copies of "The Agincourt Carol" (which see).
- British Library MS. Additional 5665 (with music). There are two copies of this song in this manuscript, which contains many musical settings of carols (in two or three parts) and processional music. The names of many of the composers are known, but they are not of much note today. Many of the texts are in French or Latin. Early sixteenth century; it contains a note from 1510. Some of the texts are in red, now badly faded. The "Ritson Manuscript," because Joseph Ritson donated it. Although there isn't much evidence that the songs in this manuscript are traditional, they are of very high quality; reading the texts in Greene, I repeatedly found myself thinking that THIS was a really good one -- and looked and found it in Additional 5665. This makes me suspect that perhaps Additional 5665 is built upon a collection of a particular author's poems. We don't know whose. But perhaps the "5665 Poet" should be considered the author of this poem.
Given this strong popularity, it seemed to me that the song belonged in the Index.
The Latin "Amici Christi Johannes" means "Friend/Beloved (of) Christ John," i.e. "John the Friend of Christ." This is a reference to "the Beloved Disciple" of the Gospel of John. Nowhere is the Beloved Disciple named in that gospel, but it is a reasonable inference that it was John son of Zebedee -- Jesus's three closest disciples were Peter, James, and John, and it's not Peter (since Peter and the Beloved Disciple are distinguished on several occasions, e.g. John 21:20), and it is unlikely to have been James since James was probably the first of the Twelve to be executed (Acts 12:2). And Peter and John are often together in Acts (e.g. Acts 3:1), and Peter and the Beloved Disciple are often together in the Gospel of John. If the Beloved Disciple is indeed one of the Twelve listed in the three synoptic gospels, he almost has to be John.
Since the Beloved Disciple is mentioned only in John, naturally all the references to him in this carol are from that gospel. He "lay on Christ's breast" in John 13:23. When Jesus was before Pilate, it was the Beloved Disciple who gained admission for Peter (John 18:15-16, although the disciple is not there called "beloved"). And Jesus consigned his mother to the hands of the Beloved Disciple in John 19:26-27.
The name "The Beloved Disciple" is the usual one in English for this person, because the Greek says "the disciple whom Jesus loved," the Greek verb being αγαπαω, "agapao," the usual New Testament word for (non-romantic) love. Interestingly, in the Latin of John 13:23, 19:26, 21:20, the verb used to describe Jesus's feelings is not "amat" (related to "amici" as well as to our word "amor") but "diligebat"; the description of John as Jesus's "amici" is reasonable but not a direct allusion to the Latin of the Fourth Gospel.
For more about the famous anthology Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: BrR3776

Pray On (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Pray on, pray on, Pray on them light over us, Pray on, pray on, The Union break of day. My sister, you come to see baptize In the Union break of day; My loved sister, you come to see baptize, In the Union break of day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 97, "Pray On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12053
File: AWG097A

Pray On (II)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Pray on brothers, O hally hallelujah, Pray on brothers, It ain't too late." Verse: "I washed my head in the midnight dew, The morning stars a witness too." Many verses float
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 14, "Pray On" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [33 words]: Barton-OldPlantationHymns includes floating verses "If you get there before I do, Just tell them I am coming too," and "There grows a tree in Paradise, The Christian calls it the tree of life." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart014

Pray, Pretty Miss

DESCRIPTION: "Pray, pretty Miss, will you come out to help us in our dancing?" She says "no" They say she is naughty and ask another girl. She says "yes" and they are happy with "a good miss"/"Jolly old lass" for dancing.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (Allen)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1570, "Wha'll Come into My Wee Hoose?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 41, "Pray, Pretty Miss" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Miss Allen, "Children's Game-Rhymes" in [Relics of Popular Antiquities, &c.] The Folk-Lore Record (London, 1882 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. V, #16 p. 87, ("Pray, pretty Miss, will you come out to help us with our dancing?") "Yorkshire(Sheffield.)" (1 text)
Roud #12966
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nuts in May" (tune, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
File: GrD81570

Prayer at the Start of a Voyage, A

DESCRIPTION: "God keep these cheery mariners And temper all the gales That sweep against the rocky coast To their storm-shattered sails, And men on shore will bless the ship That could so guided be Safe in the hollow of his hand To brave the mighty sea."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (Journal from the Rebecca Sims)
KEYWORDS: ship travel religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, p. 7, "A Prayer at the Start of a Voyage" (1 text)
Tod-WhalingInSouthernWaters, p. 130, "A Prayer at the Start of a Voyage" (1 text)
File: TWSS130A

Prayer Is the Key To Heaven

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Prayer is the key to heaven (x3), Faith unlocks the door (x2)."Verses: The singer recalls when "Jesus freed this soul of mine," "My head got wet with midnight dew, The morning star was witness too"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 171, "Prayer Is de Key of Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 146 in the 1901 edition)
ADDITIONAL: John Wesley Work, Folk Song of the American Negro (Nashville: Fisk University, 1915 ("Digitized by the Internet Archive")), p. 120, ("Prayer is the key to heaven") (1 fragment)
Roud #15234
NOTES [23 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "Faith unlocks the door." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett171

Prayer of the Soldier and the Sailor, The

See The Soldier and the Sailor (File: Doe277)

Prayerbook, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer's sweetheart borrows his pretty prayerbook that had made him the target of every maid at Mass. She never returned it because her father parted them. Now, without his prayerbook, he waits for some kind maid to cure his heart and marry him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer had a pretty prayerbook so fine that at Mass fair maids would stare at him "in hopes to gain myself and same, we were so nice a pair." His sweetheart asked to borrow the prayerbook but kept it: "Since that time to me she did not spea.k" He says "It was your cruel father that first parted you and I." Now he waits "until some kind one takes me in hand and cures the heart that's sore.... The day's long passed away when I'd make you my bride... Some other lass will have the chance of wedding me some day."
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage rejection father
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 175, "The Prayerbook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9717
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "The Prayerbook" (on IRECronin01)
File: OCC175

Preacher and the Bear, The

DESCRIPTION: (Black) preacher goes hunting; he meets a grizzly bear. He climbs a tree and pleads with God (who delivered Daniel, Jonah, etc.) "if you can't help me/for goodness sakes don't help that bear" The limb breaks; he gets his razor out and fights
AUTHOR: Officially credited to Joe Arzonia
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (recordings, Arthur Collins, although he may have recorded it as early as 1903); for the idea, see "Allen's Bear Fight Up in Keene"; the song was reportedly published in 1904
KEYWORDS: hunting humorous animal clergy
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 425, "The Preacher and the Bear" (2 short texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 425, "The Preacher and the Bear" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 80-81, "The Preacher and the Bear" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 320, 329, "The Preacher and the Bear" (notes plus a text on p. 329 that is this song although it is listed as Version C of "The Other Day I Met a Bear")
Roud #4967
RECORDINGS:
Al Bernard, "The Preacher and the Bear" (Brunswick 312, 1929; Supertone S-2057, 1930; rec. 1928) (Harmony 645-H, 1928) (Vocalion 15643, 1927)
Virgil Childers, "Preacher and the Bear" (Bluebird B-7487, 1938)
Arthur Collins, "The Preacher and the Bear" (Victor 4431, 1905) (Victor 17221, 1912; Montgomery Ward M-8128, 1939; rec. 1908 [possibly with Byron Harlan]) (Zon-O-Phone 120, 1905) Columbia A307/Standard A307/United A307, 1909; Kalamazoo 7016, n.d.; Oxford 120, c. 1911; Aretino D-608, n.d.; rec. 1905) (Columbia A2290, 1917) (Busy Bee D-27, n.d.; Busy Bee A-1076, c. 1903) (Rex 5073, c. 1913) (Edison 50520, 1919) (Silvertone 2026, c. 1920) (CYL: Edison 9000, 1905) (CYL: Edison [BA]18, 1908) (CYL: Albany 3193, n.d.) (CYL: Edison [BA] 1560, 1912) (Majestic 105, 1917) (Par-O-Ket 28, 1917) (CYL: Columbia 32720, prob. 1905)
Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet, "Preacher and the Bear" (Bluebird B-7205, 1937; Victor 27322, 1941; Victor [Canada] 27322, 1941)
Honeyboy & Sassafras, "The Preacher and the Bear" (Brunswick 585, 1931; rec. 1930)
Kentucky Thorobreds, "Preacher and the Bear" (Paramount 3036, 1927; Broadway 8128 [as Old Smokey Twins], n.d.)
John McGhee, "The Preacher and the Bear" (Gennett 6403/Challenge 392 [as George Holden], 1928)
Poplin Family, "The Preacher and the Bear" (on Poplin1)
Jesse Oakley, "Preacher and the Bear" (Supertone 9256, 1928)
Riley Puckett, "The Preacher and the Bear" (Columbia 15045-D, 1925) (Bluebird B-8083/Montgomery Ward M-7904, 1939)
Uncle Joe & his Banjo, "The Preacher and the Bear" (Cameo 1272/Romeo 506, 1927)
Unidentified baritone [prob. Arthur Collins], "The Preacher and the Bear" (CYL: Busy Bee 241, prob. 1905)
Albert Whelan, "The Preacher and the Bear" (Zonophone [UK], 1911)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Allen's Bear Fight Up in Keene" (theme of a bear fight and a prayer to God to help the human rather than the bear)
cf. "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel" (theme)
cf. "The Other Day I Met a Bear" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Golden Gate Quartet, "Stalin Wasn't Stalling" (OKeh 6712, 1943)
NOTES [336 words]: According to a biographer of Arthur Collins, although the song is often credited to Joe Arzonia, he seems to have purchased the rights from the actual composer, George Fairman, a piano player who worked in the cafe Arzonia owned.
This song has become popular in the folk revival, inevitably without the reference to the preacher as a "coon" which places this in the minstrel tradition. (The Poplins use the word, though.) Its vaudeville/minstrel/coon song origins are clear in the earliest recording by Arthur Collins, a well-known performer in those genres.
Clearly Arthur Collins had little use for exclusive contracts in 1905 or thereafter.
The World War II parody, "Stalin Wasn't Stalling," has Hitler begging, "Oh Lord, if you can't help me, don't help that Russian bear." - PJS
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 320, credits it to Fairman, giving his dates as 1881-1962 (which would make him quite young when Collins recorded the song!) and says he was from Front Royal, Virginia
David A. Jasen, Tin Pan Alley: The Composers, the Songs, the Performers and their Times: The Golden Age of American Popular Music from 1886 to 1956, Primus, 1988, pp. 64-65, gives a completely different view of the authorship; he says that "Joe Arzonia" was the psuedonym of a Philadelphia music publisher named Arthur Longbrake, who would be a better bet for a composer. Certainly Longbrake published it.
Whoever wrote the song, the core idea is almost certainly older; supposedly it happened to one Anson H. Allen, a census-taker in New York in 1840; the event was chronicled in "Allen's Bear Fight Up in Keene," which includes the key line asking God not to help the bear.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 271, estimates that this was the 24th most popular song in America in 1905, peaking at #5 in September 1905 (#1 for the year being Harry H Williams and Egbert Van Alstyne's "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcPatB

Preacher and the Slave, The

DESCRIPTION: The preacher comes and tells the hungry, downtrodden workers, "You will eat, by and bye, In that glorious land above the sky. Work and pray; live on hay. You'll get pie in the sky when you die." The song calls on workers to overthrow the system
AUTHOR: Words: Joe Hill/Music: "Sweet By and By"
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (third edition of the Little Red Songbook, according to Stavis/Harmon; Foner, on p. 13 of The Case of Joe Hill, says it was composed "about" that year)
KEYWORDS: clergy political work food rebellion labor-movement IWW derivative
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 221, "The Preacher and the Slave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 222, "Pie in the Sky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 856-857, "Pie in the Sky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 146-147, "Pie in the Sky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 185, "The Preacher and the Slave" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 544-545, "The Preacher and the Slave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 17, "In the Sweet Bye and Bye" (1 fragment)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 375-376, "The Preacher and the Slave" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 306, "The Preacher and the Slave" (1 text)
DT, PRCHRSLV*
ADDITIONAL: (Barrie Stavis and Frank Harmon, editors), _The Songs of Joe Hill_, 1960, now reprinted in the Oak Archives series, pp. 10-11, "The Preacher and the Slave" (1 text, 1 tune)
William M. Adler, _The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon_, Bloomsbury Press, 2011, pp. 182-183, "(The Preacher and the Slave)" (1 text)
Gibbs M. Smith, _Joe Hill_, 1969 (I use the 1984 Peregrine Smith Books edition), pp. 232-233, "The Preacher and the Slave" (1 text, showing the original Little Red Songbook cover and version; pp. 231-237 includes a catalog of Hill songs in the Songbook); pp. 238-239, 1 text, the first edition to have Hill's name); pp. 240-241 (1 text, a sort of quasi-official version)
Kenneth Lougee, _Pie in the Sky: How Joe Hill's Lawyers Lost His Case, Got Him Shot, and Were Disbarred_, iUniverse, 2011, p. 69, "The Preacher and the Slave" (1 text)
Roud #9612
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Charlie (Charlie Craver), "You'll Get Pie In The Sky When You Die" (Brunswick 392, c. 1929)
Bud Billings [pseud. for Frank Luther] & Carson Robison: "You'll Get Pie in the Sky When You Die" (Victor V-40221, 1930)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Long Haired Preachers (Preacher and the Slave)" (on McClintock01) (on McClintock02)
Pete Seeger, "Pie in the Sky" (on PeteSeeger05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet By and By" (tune)
NOTES [188 words]: For the life of Joe Hill, see "Joe Hill."
According to William M. Adler, The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon, Bloomsbury Press, 2011, p. 12, Hill probably wrote this song in early 1911 while in San Pedro, California. Hill apparently worked as a longshoreman in this period; he also spent time at the local rescue mission, where the manager gave him access to the piano. So, presumably, the song was written at that piano.
Adler also notes that the song was included in Upton Sinclair's anthology "The Cry for Justice." It appears, based on Google Books, that Sinclair quoted it several other times, including in "The Profits of Religion" and "Oil!"
Adler, p. 130n., also observes that the first edition of the Little Red Songbook to contain this song credited it to "F. B. Brechler." Hill's name was used thereafter. Perhaps Hill used a pseudonym (after all, "Joe Hill" wasn't his real name either), but after he became famous, the IWW credited the song to him to strengthen his legend. I don't think there is any real doubt that Hill wrote it; it sounds like his work. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: San221

Preacher Dunn

DESCRIPTION: "I heard about this outlaw, They called Preacher Dunn, And everybody knowed him claimed he was the devil's son...." The singer goes to where Preacher Dunn is kept and offers to ride him. He fails -- but the boss pays him $50 for the entertainment value
AUTHOR: probably Powder River Jack Lee
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Powder River Jack & Kitty Lee Songbook)
KEYWORDS: horse cowboy humorous injury money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, pp. 34-35, "Across the Gread Divide" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Zebra Dun" (theme of the un-ridable horse)
NOTES [32 words]: The plot of this is mostly "The Strawberry Roan," with just a bit of "The Zebra Dunn," but the lyrics seem original, so I am inclined to accpt Powder River Jack Lee's claim of authorship. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: PRJL034

Preacher in the Dockyard Church, The

DESCRIPTION: "The preacher in the dockyard church One Sunday morning said" that one of the congregants had befouled himself. A sailor defiantly admits it. The preacher also insults a Wren and perhaps others
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: clergy sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 74-75, "The Preacher in the Dockyard Church" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Farmer's Boy" [Laws Q30] (tune)
File: Tawn057

Preacher in the Pulpit (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Preacher in the pulpit, Bible in his hand (x3), Devil in the meal-sack, shaking out bran." "Oh, Lordy, come this way (x3), Never let the (devil carry?) you away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious devil nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 342, "Preacher in the Pulpit" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 342, "Preacher in the Pulpit" (1 tunes plus a text excerpt)
File: Br3342

Preacher in the Pulpit (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Preacher's in de pulpit, Preachin' mighty bold, Preachin' for de money To save de sinner's soul." "I'm gwine de land on de shore (x3) And rest forevermo'." "When I gits in Heben, Want you to be there too; When I say, Thank God, I want you to say so too."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 343, "Preacher in de Pulpit" (1 short text)
Roud #11742
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Will Land on Shore" (lyrics)
File: Br3343

Preacher's Legacy, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, if poor sinners did but know How much for them I undergo, they would not treat me with contempt...." The preacher sets out to work in other areas, knowing that it will bring challenges. He hopes to go to heaven in the end
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922
KEYWORDS: clergy travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 105, pp. 216-217, "The Preacher's Legacy" (1 text)
ST LPnd216 (Full)
Roud #6560
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Preacher (Hick's Farewell)" (theme)
NOTES [38 words]: The nineteenth century seems to have seen several of these "departing-preacher-tells-folks-what's-wrong" songs. Reading this piece, I thought of a Baptist preacher who was kicked out by his congregation for being too strict. - RBW
File: LPnd216

Preaching for Bacon

DESCRIPTION: Tinker George, Methodist parson, often visited a farmer's wife to preach and get a piece of bacon. Her husband, "no Methodist he," sees his store of bacon shrink. He catches them at prayer, notices bacon in George's pocket and chases George away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.13(61))
KEYWORDS: greed farming food wife clergy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 278-279, "Preaching for Bacon" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 410)
ADDITIONAL: Notes and Queries (London, 1871 ("Digitized by Google")), January-June 1871, Fourth Series Vol. VII, p. 171, "[4th S, vi. 566]" "Parson and Bacon", ("A Methodist parson whose name it was George") (1 text)
Roud #1317
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.13(61)[only the last 6 of 9 or 10 verses are legible], "The Methodist Parson" or "Preaching for Bacon" ("A methodist parson whose name it was George") , J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth b.26(315), Harding B 16(212a), "Preaching for Bacon"; Harding B 17(97a) [some words illegible], "The Flitch of Bacon"; Harding B 25(1249), "A Methodist Parson"
NOTES [128 words]: Note that George being a tinker, stated in the second line of the text, immediately invokes the stereotype of the gypsy or thief.
The Bodleian 2806 c.13(61) and and Notes and Queries texts both use a "Derry down, down, down, derry down!" chorus, without stating that "Derry Down" is the tune.
Notes and Queries: "This was heard from a genuine Northman, about the year 1823.... This song would appear at times to have been in use both by Roman Catholics and Protestants, and, of course, with such variations as to suit the requirements of both parties."
Referring to the "Notes and Queries" note, said to be "a Lincolnshire song" (source: Notes and Queries General Index Series the Fourth (1868-1873) Vols. I to XII (London, 1874 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 110). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT278

Precious Jewel

DESCRIPTION: "A jewel on earth and a jewel in heaven/She'll brighten the kingdom around God's great throne." Singer mourns the girl who promised to marry him. "The angels called her to heaven one night." Earth has troubles and treasures, but is missing one jewel
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (recording, Roy Acuff)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer mourns girl he once loved; when she was 16 they courted, and promised to marry, but "the angels called her to heaven one night." He laments that Mother Earth has troubles and treasures, but is missing one jewel. Cho: "A jewel on earth and a jewel in heaven/She'll brighten the kingdom around God's great throne...She's broken my heart and she's left me to roam"
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness courting love ring death mourning lament lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff, "The Precious Jewel" (Conqueror 9324, 1939/Okeh 05956, 1940)
Frank Bode, "Precious Jewel" (on FBode1)
Elton Britt, "The Precious Jewel" (Bluebird B-8666, 1941)
Delmore Bros. "Precious Jewel" (Decca 5970, 1941)
Wade Mainer, "The Precious Jewel" (Bluebird B-8887, 1941)
Esco Hankins, "The Precious Jewel" (King 648, 1947)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roane County Strike at Harriman, Tennessee" (tune)
File: RcPrecJe

Precious Lord

DESCRIPTION: "Precious Lord, take my hand, Lead me on, let me stand, I am tired, I am weak, I am lost...." The sing prays that the Lord guide and protect him or her, and "lead me (home/on)" (to heaven)
AUTHOR: Thomas A. Dorsey (1899-1993)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Alphabetical Four)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 176-178, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 255-257, "(no title)" (1 text, probably partial; 1 tune)
DT, PRECLORD*
Roud #21783
RECORDINGS:
Alphabetical Four, "Precious Lord Hold My Hand" (Decca 7546, 1938; partial version on AlphabFour01)
Johnny Brown, "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" (on USFlorida01)
Elder Effie Hall & congregation "Precious Lord, Hold My Hand" (on MuSouth09, Babylon)
Five Soul Stirrers, "Precious Lord" (Bronze 103, n.d.)
Brother Joe May [Thunderbolt of the Middle West], "Precious Lord" (Specialty 815, n.d.)
Selah Jubilee Quartet, "Precious Lord" (Decca 48003, rec. 1939)
Kinsey West, "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" (on BlackAmRel1)
NOTES [122 words]: According to LindaJo H. McKim, Presbyterian Hymnal Companion, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, p. 281, Thomas A. Dorsey wrote this in 1932 when his first wife died (according to W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 106, this would be Nettie Harper, who married him in 1925 and helped him through a nervous breakdown and bout of depression in 1926-1928. According to McNeil, p. 107, his wife died in childbirth and the boy died the next day).
McKim claims is "the most popular black gospel song ever written" because it was favored by Martin Luther King.
McKim, p. 405, adds that the original tune was compased by George N. Allen (1812-1877) in 1842, but that Dorsey adapted it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: CNFM255

Precious Lord, Take My Hand

See Precious Lord (File: CNFM255)

Precious Memories

DESCRIPTION: The singer looks back on events of the past: "Precious memories, how they linger, How they ever flood my soul." The singer gives thanks for the reminders
AUTHOR: probably John B. F. Wright
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Harbor Bells)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 124-125, "Precious Memories" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 19, "Precious Memories" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4934
RECORDINGS:
Ellis & Dixon Spiritual & Vocal Group, "Precious Memories, pts. 1 & 2" (Chess 1642, 1956)
Wade Mainer, "Precious Memories" (Bluebird B-8848, 1941)
McDonald Quartet, "Precious Memories" (OKeh 45517, 1931; rec. 1930) (Banner 32592/Melotone 12520/Perfect 12852/Conqueror 8009, 1932)
Simmons Sacred Singers, "Precious Memories" (OKeh 45299, 1929; rec. 1928)
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, "Precious Memories" (Decca 48070, c. 1948)
Turkey Mountain Singers, "Precious Memories" (Bluebird B-5532, 1934)
Uncle Henry's Original Mountaineers, "Precious Memories" (Capitol 48035, 1949)
SAME TUNE:
Dreadful Memories (by Aunt Molly Jackson and/or Sarah Ogun Gunning) (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 274-275; DT, DREDMEM; Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 385-386)
NOTES [70 words]: Richard Dress writes, "Penned by Texas songwriter John Wright in 1877, this Roy Acuff hit and Wade Mainer favorite was first published in V. O. Stamps first songbook Harbor Bells in 1925. The McDonald Quartette recorded it for Banner in 1932, the Royal Quartet for Decca in 1935, Claude Sharpe & the Old Hickory Singers for Columbia in 1945, and the Johnson Family Singers for Columbia in 1951 (crediting J. Wright)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: oooPrecM

Precious Name (Take the Name of Jesus With You)

DESCRIPTION: "Take the name of Jesus with you, Child of sorrow and of woe, It will joy and comfort give you, Take it then where're you go. Precious name, O how sweet." It is hope, it is a shield from temptation; all should fall at his feet and crown him
AUTHOR: Words: Lydia Odell Baxter (1809-1874) / Music: William Howard Doane (1832-1915) (Souce: hymnal.net)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (High-OldOldFolkSongs); words reportedly written 1870 and the music in 1871
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 37, "Take the Name of Jesus With You" (1 text)
NOTES [298 words]: Julian, pp. 304-305, has this to say about the author of this tune: "Doane, W. H., b[orn] in Preston, Connecticut in 1831, and educated for the musical profession by eminent American and German masters. He has had for years the superintendence of a large Baptist Sunday School in Ohio, where he resides.... His most popular melodies include 'Near the Cross,' "Safe in the Arms of Jesus,' "Pass me not,' 'More Love to Thee,' 'Rescue the perishing,' 'Tell me the old, old story,' &c."
His work was as a composer, not a writer of lyrics.
EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 103, credits him with "well over two thousand gospel melodies" but describes this as a sideline: "He was a very successful manufacturer of woodworking machinery, the president of several businesses, and an inventor with more than seventy patents to his credit." His business success allowed him to become a substantial philanthropist later in life. He became a serious composer when he suffered a near-fatal heart attack at age thirty.
Julian, pp. 118, tells us that author Baxter, "an American Baptist, was b[orn] at Petersburg, N[ew] York, Sept. 2, 1809, married to Mr. Baxter, and d[ied] in N[ew] Y[ork] June 22, 1874. In addition to her Gems by the Wayside, 1855, Mrs. Baxter contributed many hymns to collections for Sunday Schools, and Evangelistic Services." Julian lists nine songs of importance from her pen: "Cast thy net again, my brother," "Go, work in my vineyard," "I'm kneeling, Lord, at mercy's gate." "I'm weary, I'm fainting, my day's work is done," "In the fadeless spring-time," "One by one we cross the river," "The Msater is coming," "There is a gate that stands ajar," and this. Of which it is said, "Written late in 1870, or early in 1871, for W. H. Doane, and pub[lished] in Pure Gold, 1871." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: High037

Pree Her Honey Mou'

DESCRIPTION: Boy meets girl on the way to Brewe. He begins to lift her apron and kiss her mouth. She rejects him. He would leave. She says, if he's kind, maybe she'll lift her apron. They have sex but he leaves her at the fair. Moral: don't let men lift your apron.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting sex warning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1407, "Pree Her Honey Mou'" (1 text)
Roud #7259
File: GrD71407

Prentice Boy (I), The

See The Sheffield Apprentice [Laws O39] (File: LO39)

Prentice Boy (II), The

See The Apprentice Boy [Laws M12] (File: LM12)

Prentice Boy (III), The

See The Sea Apprentice (File: HHH739)

Prentice Boy (IV), The

See Cupid's Garden (I) (Covent Garden I; Lovely Nancy III) (File: SWMS090)

Prentice Boy in Love, A

See The Sea Apprentice (File: HHH739)

'Prentice Boy, The

See The Apprentice Boy [Laws M12] (File: LM12)

Prentice Boy's Love for Mary, The

See The Sheffield Apprentice [Laws O39] (File: LO39)

Prentice's Drinking Song

See My Father Gave Me a Lump of Gold (Seven Long Years) (File: R834)

Presbyterian Cat, The (The Cameronian Cat)

DESCRIPTION: "There was an auld Seceder's cat, Gaed hunting for a prey, And ben the house she catched a mouse Upon the Sabbath day." The cat, returning home, is condemned by her owner for violating the Sabbath, read a lesson -- and executed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1819 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1)
KEYWORDS: animal trial execution clergy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 22, "The Cameronian Cat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan3 689, "The Presbyterian Cat" (1 text)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 319-321, "The Cameronian Cat" (1 text)
DT, CAMERCAT
Roud #4576
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Auld Seceder's Cat
NOTES [59 words]: Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1: "This is another popular country song, and very old.... [It] is always sung by the wags in mockery of great pretended strictness of the Covenanters, which is certainly, in some cases, carried to an extremity rather ludicrous.... The air is very sweet, but has a strong resemblance to one of their popular psalm-tunes." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: FVS319

Prescott's Confession

DESCRIPTION: Broadside. "Ye people all assembled here To see me suffer death, Draw near the guilty wretch and hear...." The singer denies insanity, tells how he lured his victim into the fields, describes his murder, and bids farewell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide punishment execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 1833 - "Prescott" murders his benefactor Sally Cochran and is apprehended by her husband
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 66-67, "Prescott's Confession of the Murder of MRS. SALLY COCHRAN, By a Private Individual at the Bar" (1 text, excerpted)
File: Burt066

Present from the Gentlemen, A

See Smuggler's Song (Watch the Wall While the Gentlemen Go By) (File: HHH494n)

Present Time is Oors, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come, let us a' be hearty boys, the moments we are here" because we may have only a few years, "maybe only hoors" Don't bother accumulating wealth. "Let ministers say what they will" but drink, as they do, "laugh and sing, The present time is oors"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: death drink music nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 550, "The Present Time is Oors" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6026
NOTES [49 words]: It is perhaps mildly ironic to observe that the singer says to ignore ministers, yet this is very much like the message of Jesus's parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:16-20), who builds barns for all his wealth, but then is told by God, "Fool! This very night your life is demanded of you." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3550

Present Times, or Eight Shillings a Week

See Eight Shillings a Week (File: PaPa010)

Presented at Court

DESCRIPTION: "I may be wrong, but I presume... There are very few here in this room now Who've had an audience with the Queen." The singer hasn't, but describes it anyway, including the fancy clothes and ceremony -- and the twenty shilling fine for the drunk
AUTHOR: Words: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Thatcher's "Songs of the War")
KEYWORDS: humorous royalty drink money clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 53-54, "Presented at Court" (1 text, tune referenced)
NOTES [29 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BaRo053

President Parker

See Poor Parker (File: BrII117)

President Wilson

DESCRIPTION: "Come out Virginia's noble son, We know that you are true, The people of our grand old land They have their hope in you... We'll cast our vote again." "A modest unassuming man." "And we shall win, our cause is just.... it's Wilson's name we hear."
AUTHOR: Words: John J. Friend
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1912 - Woodrow Wilson becomes the Democratic nominee for President, and wins when Taft and Theodore Roosevelt split the Republican vote
1916 - Wilson re-elected
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 180-181, "President Wilson" (1 text)
NOTES [3201 words]: Presumably a campaign song, but a very strange one, containing neither significant facts nor any real slogans. The only connection with reality that I can see is the mention that Wilson came from Virginia; according to DeGregorio, p. 411, (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson "was born December 28, 1856 at the Presbyteriian manse in Staunton, Virginia."
He wasn't much of a Virginian, however; his parents married in Ohio, then moved to Virginia, where Wilson was born on December 28, 1856. But in 1858, the Wilson family moved to Georgia (Brands, p. 2), and "Tommy" Wilson said that his first memory was when word came in Georgia that Lincoln had been elected President and that war was coming (DeGregorio, p. 411). His family later spent time in South and North Carolina. His father even served in the Confederate army in the Civil War (Brands, p. 2). Wilson regarded himself as a southerner, even though he went to Princeton in 1875 and spent most of his life in the North.
It showed. Chace, p. 43, says Wilson's father had no problems with slavery, and "Woodrow Wilson was in essence a white supremacist." A Black newsletter editor declared, "Both by inheritance and absorption, he has most of the prejudices of the narrowest type of Southern white people against the Negro." His favorite movie was reportedly D. W. Griffith's famous, but famously bigoted, "The Birth of a Nation" (Brands, p. 133). When he became Presient, "Wilson presided over a policy of draconian segregation in the federal government, resulting in a significant loss of black patronage jobs and the extension of Jim Crow laws into federal agencies" (Chace, pp. 243-244). He wasn't much more willing to accept Italians or Poles or Czechs (Chace, pp. 135-136).
Calling Wilson "unassuming" is a bit of a stretch; he didn't think much of his looks, or even of his ability to present himself (DeGregorio, p. 409), but he placed an extreme value on his moral judgment. This even though he had some sort of learning problem and did not learn to read until he was ten years old (Brands, p. 3). "The Wilson historian Arthur Link notes the 'curious limitations in Wilson's intellectual processes.' As he told a reporter in 1916, he hadn't read a serious book through in the fourteen years after accepting the presidency of Princeton." Thus he avoided exposure to anything that might broaden his narrow-mindedness.
Despite this, he became fascinated with writing and debating (Brands, pp. 4-6), and proved surprisingly good at both. Indeed, at times he almost seemed to *be* his rhetoric; he said himself that, by comparison to Theodore Roosevelt, "I am a vague, conjectural personality, more made up of opinion and academic presuppositions than of human traits and red corpuscles" (Chace, p. 3). He had few friends -- and very likely was too easily influenced by seeming friends such as Edward House as a result (Brands, p. 28 -- on p. 64, Brands suggests that he had no friends at all except for his wife, which is one reason why he became deeply depressed when she died, even though he had probably betrayed her not long earlier.)
Because his success was based on words rather than deeds, Wilson become noteworthy at a fairly young age. Jameson, p. 717, sums up the first forty years of his life thus: "Wilson, Woodrow, born in 1856, professor at Princeton College, has become prominent for his writings upon political science. He wrote 'Congressional Government, a Study in American Politics," and 'The State;' also a historical book, 'Division and Reunion, 1830-1880.'"
Wilson had a very unusual career before running for president. He tried law school but couldn't stand it and quit (Brands, p. 9); he did try to practice law, but was not comfortable with it (Brands, p. 10).
As a result, in 1883, he went to the new John Hopkins graduate school and studied political science (Brands, p. 11; Chace, p. 45). He went on to be a professor, lecturer, and author, not a politician (DeGregorio, p. 414). Ironically for the president in history's greatest war up to that time, he had no military experience at all -- he and his predecessor, William Howard Taft, were the only Presidents since Fillmore to have no military background at all when they became President. Wilson did apply for a State Department post in 1887, but didn't get it. His only political experience before becoming President, therefore, was his single term as governor of New Jersey (1911-1913) -- although he had also been President of Princeton for eight years (DeGregorio, p. 414). In that post, he spent most of his time cracking down on student behavior and trying to adjust the academic standards to meet his criteria (Chace, p. 39). (He had also changed what he called himself, ceasing to go by "Tommy" or "Thomas" and instead using the name "Woodrow"; Brands, p. 12).
Although sometimes regarded as a reformer, he was ultimately conservative -- he wanted to clean things up but not change things much, and "advocated one goal above all others -- social order" (Chace, p. 44). He generally did not side with unions and unionism, e.g. (Chace, p. 51), and supported "individual liberty" (Brands, p. 21), which would certainly be called a right-wing position today. He opposed a minimum wage (Chace, p. 206). "His treatment of crises in American History from Shays' Rebellion to the Pullman strike and the Haymarket affair was in the conventional ruling-class vein.... Wilson was not nearly so critical of the business community as of Populists and trade unions" (HofstadterTradition, p. 316).
Plus his Presbyterianism was fairly hard-line -- and very self-serving; he once told off a colleague to whom he owed a great deal that "God ordained that I should be the next president of the United States," In other words, he claimed that he could do what he wanted, including ignoring his political debts, because God had arranged that it would be so (Brands, pp. 24-25).
Stokesburt, p. 309, says of Wilson, "As a fervent believer in the most complete kind of democracy, he yet had a Cromwellian ability to conclude that whatever he himself wanted was what democracy wanted.... Wherever he went [during the post-World War I peace negotiations], he was haiied as a modern messiah, and he tended to take this as no more than his due."
Chace, p. 46, comments that he "was lucky to have a wife who catered to his violent mood swings." Among other things, she let him go to Bermuda, alone, in 1907. Where it seems likely that the Great Moral Leader had an affair (Chace, pp. 46-47; Brands, p. 63). Later, he would send the woman, Mary Hulbert Peck, a gift of $7000 (Chace, p. 250). Details of what happened are few, but there isn't much doubt that Wilson left himself open to major scandal in this period.
Ironically, when Theodore Roosevelt learned of Wilson's transgression, he refused to use it as a campaign issue, saying, "Nothing, no evidence could ever make the American people believe that a man like Woodrow Wilson, cast so perfectly as the apothecary's clerk, could ever play Romeo" (Chace, p. 206).
Ellen Axson Wilson died of kidney disease in 1914, which would affect Wilson's future behavior (Brands, p. 63; Chace, p. 250, says that it was specifically Bright's Disease), but of course no one could know of that in 1912.
He also had health problems. As early as 1896, he might have had a slight stroke, and another, perhaps worse, in 1906, along with a burst blood vessel in his eye. In 1908, he briefly lost the use of his right hand (Brands, pp. 122-123; Chace, pp. 45, 268).
By 1910, his attempts to bring changes to Princeton had aroused such opposition that he had little choice but to give up his post. He was fortunate that George Harvey wanted him to move to politics; this let Wilson resign with dignity to run for Governor of New Jersey (Chace, p. 50).
Wilson was very lucky to be nominated President. To give him his due, he did a good job of cleaning up the mare's nest of New Jersey politics (Morison, p. 839). But that was hardly enough to earn him a Presidential nomination -- except that the party was divided. It had "Bryan Progressives," it had Easterners (often immigrants), and it had the conservative South (Morison, p. 839). In 1912, a majority of the delegates were pledged to Champ Clark of Missouri. But the party required a two-thirds supermajority to nominate. And Clark could not achieve that, although he came very close -- so close that Wilson nearly dropped out of the contest. William Jennings Bryan, seeing that he could not earn the nomination himself, decided to back Wilson (Nevins/Commager, p. 405; Brands, p. 20; Chace, p. 155; for more details both on Clark and the Democratic nomination process, see the notes to "The Hound Dog Song").
It still took 46 ballots to nominate Wilson. Bryan gave Wilson his support on ballot #14; Wilson finally gained a majority on ballot #28, but still had only a slight lead on ballot #45, when suddenly everyone seemed to get tired and turn to him (DeGregorio, p. 415).
And, in 1912, earning the Democratic nomination meant being elected, because the Republicans were split. William Howard Taft had been Theodore Roosevelt's hand-picked successor in 1908, and in many ways he proved progressive; Nevins/Commager, p. 404, note that "He stepped up the prosecution of trusts; strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission.... expanded the merit system in the civil service; and sponsored enactment of two amendments to the Federal Constitution -- one providing direct election of Senators, another authorizing an income tax."
But he was a sort of a frumpy liberal; a few measures, such as a tariff he accepted even though he didn't like it (and then absurdly called it the best bill ever passed by the Republicans; Chace, p. 34), caused the progressive to turn against him. At the Republican convention of 1912, Theodore Roosevelt and Robert M. LaFollette both ran against him (it was LaFollette who really began the revolt, in 1911; Nevins/Commager, p. 404). Where popular vote elected the delegates, Roosevelt won overwhelmingly (according to Chace, p. 113, he had taken 278 delegates that way, to 48 for Taft and 36 for LaFollette) -- but the party bosses, who chose most of the delegates, backed Taft, and he became the Republican nominee (Morison, p. 838. There is some dispute about just how "legal" all the maneuvers of the Republican National Committee were, but there is no question but that Roosevelt felt robbed; Chace, p. 116).
Roosevelt wouldn't accept that; he accepted the "Progressive" nomination, although most people called him the "Bull Moose" nominee. Certainly his was the most progressive poitical contention; not only were there Black delegates, the Progressives even allowed women delegates (Chace, p. 161). Taft, unfairly, was "put in the position of the 'conservative' candidate" (HofstadterReform, p. 133).
Wilson, urged on by advisor Louis D. Brandeis, offered his vision of a "New Freedom," by which he did not mean, say, equal rights for women and minorities, or labor rights, but rather a control on monopolies (Chace, pp. 194-195). He openly scorned the idea of "government by experts" (Chace, p. 203), partly no doubt to appeal to populists but also (I suspect) because he had never himself managed to become expert on any subject that required interacting with actual facts.
At least Wilson campaigned. So did Roosevelt. Taft, who didn't like being President, mostly played golf (Chace, pp. 220-221).
In a truly complicating twist, there was an attempt to assassinate Roosevelt. He survived, but would-be assassin John Shrank did put a bullet in him. Roosevelt being Roosevelt, he actually went ahead with his planned speech (Chace, pp. 230-231). But eventually he had to rest. It resulted in a brief halt in the campaign (Chace, p. 235), which I suspect helped Wilson. Later, Taft's vice president James Sherman died (Chace, pp. 235-236) -- though that hardly mattered since Taft wasn't really campaigning anyway.
When the election came, Wilson won a mere 42% of the vote, with Roosevelt taking 27%, Taft 23%, and Socialist Eugene Debs 6% -- the best result ever for a Socialist, although it didn't win him any electoral votes (Chace, p. 238). Thus the two Republican candidates, who had once been close friends, garnered 50% of the total vote -- but Wilson had 435 electoral votes, to 88 for Roosevelt and 8 for Taft (DeGregorio, p. 417; Chace, p. 239). It was the lowest vote percentage for a winning candidate since Lincoln in 1860 (when there was a four-way party split), and America would not see the like until the election of Bill Clinton.
In the period before World War I, Wilson worked on systematic improvements in government. Some would be seen as very modern now, such as the actual implementation of the progressive income tax -- but it was a very small income tax, and it merely offset the reduction in tariffs (Brands, p. 34), which was a conservative proposal. He supported a watered-down version of Clayton Anti-Trust Act, which refined the scope of the older Sherman Anti-Trust Act but was not much different in intent (Brands, pp. 36-38). He founded the Federal Reserve, although it was some time before it really figured out its role (Brands, pp. 35-36). He also created the Federal Trade Commission (Chace, p. 244), but that too was of limited import. The Seventeenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, providing for direct election of senators, was approved early in his term, but it had been sent to the states before his election, so his credit for that is slight.
His outlook was quite parochial; he had studied American history, and it was his only real interest. Before his inauguration, he commented, "It would be the irony of fate if my administration had to deal chiefly with foreign affairs" (Brands, p. 42; Chace, p. 243). A year and a half later, said irony came to pass.... Indeed, almost from day one, he had to deal with the problem of a non-democratic Mexican government (Brands, pp. 44-45). His interventions there -- and his decisions to send troops to Haiti in 1915 and the Dominican Republic in 1916 (Brands, p. 50), demonstrate that his commitment to peace was not nearly as great as his supporters thought. But he was probably initially influenced by the pacifist William Jennings Bryan (Brands, pp. 54-55), who was his Secretary of State. All that would change when Bryan quit over the Lusitania sinking and Wilson's response (Brands, p. 62).
In late 1915, less than half a year after his first wife's death, Wilson remarried, taking Edith Galt as his second wife in December 1915 (Brands, pp. 67-68).
The song refers to casting "our votes again," implying Wilson is up for re-election, and also speaks of "soldiers coming back once more," implying that World War I has started. Plus Wilson is called "President," not "candidate" or "governor." This implies that Friend's broadside is from 1916, not 1912 -- but it truly does not mention any issues of the 1916 election.
That election was very close; Theodore Roosevelt, who could perhaps have made the Progressive party a permanent institution by running again, instead effectively shut it down by deciding to support the regular Republican candidate Charles Evens Hughes (Chace, p. 252). The Socialists had split, and Eugene Debs wasn't on the ticket, so they weren't a factor (Chace, pp. 254-255; Debs and the Socialists would get 3.5% of the vote in 1920, but it was all downhill from there; Chace, p. 259). Initial reports had Hughes winning the popular vote, and some newspapers thought Hughes had won the election. But late results, especially from the West Coast, let Wilson eke out re-election (Brands, p. 72. WIlson won only 49% of the popular vote, to 46% for Hughes, but Wilson won every state west of the Mississippi except Oregon, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa -- HammondAtlas, p. U-60 -- explaining his late surge).
The irony is that, before Wilson even started his second term, the Germans sent the Zimmerman Telegram to Mexico, and again geared up for unlimited submarine warfare, and Wilson had to decide how much provocation he would accept before he would go to war (Brands, p. 78). He asked for the declaration of war on April 2, 1917 (Brands, pp. 79-80).
In its aftermath came the draft (which Wilson had earlier opposed -- and Champ Clark, we might add, still opposed) and the sedition laws that resulted in the arrest of Eugene Debs among others (Brands, p. 84; Chace, pp. 256-258; Wilson seemed to like the law that muzzled his critics despite its obvious violation of the First Amendment). Wilson, the conservative-at-heart, was becoming a big-government man, though a rather corporate one. In 1918, the Democrats lost control of congress (Brands, p. 99) -- which cost Wilson much of his control over the peace process. His refusal to include Republicans in his negotiating team (Chace, p. 267) left them with no investment in the result, which surely cost the treaty votes. His blindness to others' thinking didn't help, either -- he couldn't keep up with slippery "allies" like Lloyd George and Clemenceau (Brands, pp. 109-111), so he ended up with a League of Nations which was too weak to actually promote collective security but not weak enough to satisfy his congressional opponents. And when he campaigned for it, he was confrontational and treated those whom he needed to convince as if they were opponents (Brands, pp. 118-119).
Wilson revealed some of his own opinions at the time: "'If I didn't believe that I was the personal instrument of God I couldn't carry on.' In contrast, Lloyd George remarked after the peace conference, 'I think I did as well as might be expected, seated as I was between Jesus Christ [presumably Wilson] and Napoleon [Clemenceau]'" (Chace, p. 268). You'd think, if God actually were using Wilson for something, that in addition to the call for the League of Nations, there would have been a message for Wilson not to be a bigot. And, perhaps, to stop being a jerk....
In the aftermath of all that effort, Wilson suffered another and worse stroke -- one so bad that it reportedly changed his personality (Brands, p. 123). But even that was just a foretaste of what was to come. It started with pain and shortness of breath. After hurrying back to Washington (he had been out campaigning for the League), on October 2, 1919, he fell in the bathroom, and thereafter was paralyzed on his left side. (Chace, pp. 124-125). His doctor, his personal advisors, and his wife never revealed how bad it was, but it was bad enough that Wilson never really fulfilled his duties again (Chace, p. 126). And, with the President unable to lobby for the League of Nations, and either unwilling or unable to compromise on the League treaty, the treaty failed (Brands, pp. 127-129; on p. 271, Chace comments that Wilson's "moral rigidity grew worse" after the stroke, which is amazing considering that he was already as ornery as a senile mule). So his best ever idea failed due to his health issue.
The conclusion on p. 131 of Brans is that "Woodrow Wilson lived too long and then died too soon." He lived untll February 3, 1924, but he was never able to do anything after his major stroke (Brands, pp. 133-135). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: Gray180

President's Proclamation, The

DESCRIPTION: "John brown died on a scaffold for a slave... Now God avenges the life he gladly gave... Freedom reigns today." "John Brown lives -- we are gaining on our foes." "John Brown's soul not a higher joy can crave -- Freedom reigns today."
AUTHOR: Words: Edna Dean Proctor
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar); almost certainly written 1862/1863
KEYWORDS: Civilwar Black(s) death execution memorial burial rebellion slavery
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1862 - Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
1863 - Emancipation Proclamation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 25, "The President's Proclamation" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune) and references there
NOTES [71 words]: It is one of history's noteworthy ironies that the Emancipation Proclamation, listed as freeing the slaves, did not immediately free any at all; it declared freedom only for the Blacks in rebel-controlled territories, who of course could not be freed until the lands were taken over. But it did change the course of the Civil War.
Of course, John Brown was a genuine fanatic, and he had very little to do with freeing anyway. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: CSWF025

Presidents, The (The Presidents in Rhyme)

DESCRIPTION: To the tune of "Yankee Doodle": "George Washington, first President, by Adams was succeeded, And Thomas Jefferson was next, For the people's cause he pleaded...." And so on, through as many presidents as the teacher can think up rhymes for
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: nonballad political derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1789-1797 - Administration of George Washington
1797-1801 - John Adams
1801-1809 - Thomas Jefferson
1809-1817 - James Madison. War of 1812. (1815: Battle of New Orleans, fought by Andrew Jackson)
1817-1825 - James Monroe
1825-1829 - John Quincy Adams
1829-1837 - Andrew Jackson (who previously won the Battle of New Orleans)
1837-1841 - Martin Van Buren
1841 - William Henry Harrison (died in office)
1841-1845 - John Tyler (filled out Harrison's term; he was a near-Democrat in Whig's clothing, and his succession led to constitutional and legislative crises)
1845-1849 - James K. Polk (began the war with Mexico and annexed Texas)
1849-1850 - Zachary Taylor (died in office)
1850-1853 - Millard Fillmore
1853-1857 - Franklin Pierce
1857-1861 - James Buchanan
1861-1865 - Abraham Lincoln (assassinated)
1865-1869 - Andrew Johnson (a Democrat who succeeded Lincoln. The partisan Republicans in congress impeached him on trivial grounds and tried to deprive him of office, failing by only one vote in the Senate)
1869-1877 - Ulysses S. Grant (the victor, more or less, at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862)
1877-1881 - Rutherford B. Hayes
1881 - James A. Garfield (assassinated)
1881-1885 - Chester A. Arthur
1885-1889 - Grover Cleveland (first term)
1889-1893 - Benjamin Harrison
1893-1897 - Grover Cleveland (second term)
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 877, "The Presidents" (1 text)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 390-391, "The Presidents" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 877)
Roud #7542
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (tune) and references there
NOTES [122 words]: This song probably originated some time in the nineteenth century, and has been periodically extended. Randolph's version, for instance, extends into the second administration of Cleveland, but it has been extended at least as far as Franklin Roosevelt. - RBW
It's been further extended, by Oscar Brand (up through Eisenhower) and yours truly (through Bush [Senior]). No doubt the Clinton verse will be, er, interesting. - PJS
Given the political tendencies of most folk singers, I suspect Bush Junior will get some interesting verses of his own....
Another anonymous poem on this general theme, "Our Presidents" (which runs through Wilson) is found on p. 603 of Hazel Felleman's The Best Loved Poems of the American People. - RBW
File: R877

Press Gang (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a press gang in London who ask if he'd join the fleet. He agrees after they tell "shocking lies" to him about life on board. Once on board he is flogged. He had run away from his wife but now would be happy not to go to sea again.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (ENMacCollSeeger02)
KEYWORDS: sea ship ordeal sailor pressgang lie abuse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 62, "Man of War" (1 text)
DT, PRSSGANG
Roud #662
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Press Gang" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
File: RcTPrGan

Press Gang (II), The

See Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser) [Laws N6] (File: LN06)

Press Gang Sailor, The

See Polly on the Shore (The Valiant Sailor) (File: Wa057)

Press On Your Way You Weary Soul

DESCRIPTION: Response: "Press on the way to Zion." Leader lines: "Press on your way, you weary soul," "I think I heard my leader (teacher, Jesus) say," "Little children don't cry (weep) for me," "Little children pray for me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Emile Paul, Carl Monsegui, Allan Lovelace, "Press On Your Way You Weary Soul" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [45 words]: The WITrinidadVillage02 recording features hand-clapping and bell-ringing, an early and current feature of Spiritual Baptist worship (see Eudora Thomas, A History of the Shouter Baptists in Trinidad and Tobago (Tacarigua: Calaloux Publications, 1987), pp. 17, 23). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcPOYWYW

Pretend You're Red Watch

DESCRIPTION: "Pretend you're red watch when you're blue, It isn't very hard to do. Your oppo's station card will do, my friend, If only you'll pretend."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor trick derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 49, "Pretend You're Red Watch" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pretend" (tune)
File: Tawn033

Pretoria

See Marching to Pretoria (File: Hugi425)

Prettiest Little Baby In The County-O

See What'll I Do with the Baby-O (File: R565)

Prettiest Little Gal in the County, O

See Prettiest Little Girl in the County-O (File: Rose111)

Prettiest Little Girl in the County-O

DESCRIPTION: "Prettiest little girl in the county-o, Papa and mama both said so. All dressed up in calico, I'm gonna take her to the party-o. "I can get her if I want her."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Gid Tanner, according to Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes beauty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 111, "Prettiest Little Girl in the County" (1 tune with a few lyrics quoted in the notes)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #136, "Prettiest Little Gal in the County, O" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5052
RECORDINGS:
Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers, "Prettiest Little Girl in the County" (Columbia 15315-D)
File: Rose111

Prettiest Little Song of All, The

DESCRIPTION: "When the pretty little birds are singing In the evening by the pale moonlight... It speaks to me in accents free Of one that's ever far and yet so near... The sweetest song I ever heard is one of home and mother."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: home mother nonballad separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 848, "The Prettiest Little Song of All" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7449
File: R848

Prettiest Little Tree

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

Pretty Betsey [Laws M18]

DESCRIPTION: Betsey loves William; her father so despises him that he brutally abuses Betsey. With Betsey's mother's help, William is able to pay a last visit, only to have Betsey die in his arms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952
KEYWORDS: courting abuse death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws M18, "Pretty Betsey"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 75, "Pretty Betsey" (1 text)
DT 722, PRETBETS
Roud #1911
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Andrew Lammie" [Child 233] (plot)
NOTES [38 words]: This presence of this song in Laws is rather a curiosity: Laws knows only of the copy in Brown, and the notes to that book admit of no other version -- but Laws not only lists it as traditional but as being of British origin. - RBW
File: LM18

Pretty Betsey the Milkmaid

See Pretty Betsy the Milkmaid (Blackberry Fold) [Laws O10] (File: LO10)

Pretty Betsy the Milkmaid (Blackberry Fold) [Laws O10]

DESCRIPTION: The squire sees Pretty Betsy, and offers to marry her. She begs him not to tease a poor girl. He gives her half of a broken ring as a token. He tries to seduce her, then rape her, but she fends him off. He gives in and marries her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(2146))
KEYWORDS: beauty courting seduction virtue marriage
FOUND IN: US(MW) Britain(England(All),Scotland) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws O10, "Pretty Betsy the Milkmaid (Blackberry Fold)"
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 91, "The Milk-Maid" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 314, "Blackberry Fold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #131, "Blackberry Fold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 23, "Blackberry Fold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 152-155, "Pretty Betsey the Milkmaid" (1 text)
DT 831, BESSMILK
Roud #559
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(2146), "Young Squire" ("It's of a rich squire in Bristol doth dwell"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 25(2147)[some illegible lines], "The Young Squire"; Harding B 28(140), "Squire and Milk Maid"; 2806 c.16(44), Harding B 25(1836), "Squire and Milkmaid"; 2806 b.11(240), Firth c.18(168), "Squire and Milkmaid" or "Blackberry Fold"
NOTES [103 words]: Not to be confused with "Blackberry Grove," despite their sharing a milkmaid and blackberries. Incidentally, one of the reasons milkmaids were held in such romantic esteem was for their smooth, fair, and un-pockmarked skin, which came from their contact with cowpox and resultant immunity to smallpox. - PJS
In most cases the milk-maid stabs the squire but a doctor is sent for and heals his wounds before they marry. In Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 91 there is neither recovery nor marriage: she leaves him bleeding on the green" and she and her master "hae thrown the squire's corpse Into yon river clear." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: LO10

Pretty Bird

See Little Bird (File: Fus089)

Pretty Boy Floyd

DESCRIPTION: "Come gather 'round me children, a story I will tell, About Pretty Boy Floyd, the outlaw; Oklahoma knew him well." The singer tells how Floyd turned outlaw when a deputy attacked his wife, and describes Floyd's many charities
AUTHOR: Woody Guthrie
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recording, Woody Guthrie)
KEYWORDS: outlaw police robbery help
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 227, "Pretty Boy Floyd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 296-297, "Pretty Boy Floyd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 325, "Pretty Boy Floyd" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BOYFLOYD*
Roud #11504
RECORDINGS:
Woody Guthrie, "Pretty Boy Floyd" (on Struggle2)
Pete Seeger, "Pretty Boy Floyd" (on PeteSeeger19) (on PeteSeeger41)
File: LoF227

Pretty Caledonia

See Canada-I-O (The Wearing of the Blue; Caledonia) (File: HHH162)

Pretty Caroline

DESCRIPTION: A sailor tells Caroline that her parents had "pressed me on board of a man-o-war from pretty Caroline." He has returned rich. She asks that he show the gold ring and lock of hair that would identify him. He does. They marry.
AUTHOR: G. Brown? (source: broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3147))
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3146))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage ring return sailor brokentoken
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 677, "Pretty Caroline" (1 text)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 88, "Pretty Caroline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 73, "Pretty Caroline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1448
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3146), "Pretty Caroline," Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(3147), Firth b.26(129), Firth c.13(265), Harding B 11(3148), Harding B 11(3149), Firth c.12(184), "Pretty Caroline"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(050), "Pretty Caroline," unknown, n.d.
File: LeBe088

Pretty Crowing Chicken

See The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father [Child 248] (File: C248)

Pretty Fair Damsel, A

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Pretty Fair Maid (II), A

See The Mantle So Green [Laws N38] (File: LN38)

Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42]

DESCRIPTION: A girl refuses to be courted by a stranger, saying she will wait for her love. The stranger counters that he may be slain, drowned, or unfaithful; she says she will be faithful anyway. He pulls out his locket, revealing him as her lost, and now rich, love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1822
KEYWORDS: courting separation brokentoken
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (71 citations):
Laws N42, "Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 148-151, "A Sweetheart in the Army" (3 texts plus references to 2 more, 1 tube)
Randolph 55, "The Maiden in the Garden" (3 texts plus 1 fragment and 1 excerpt, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 97-99, "The Maiden in the Garden" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 55A)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 11, "A Pretty Fair Maid" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 51, "A Pretty Fair Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 165-166, "The Broken Ring" (1 text, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 45-47, "The Sailor and the Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 92, "A Pretty Fair Maid in the Garden" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 12, "Madam, I Have Gold and Silver" (1 text, starting with "Wheel of Fortune" but ending with a "Ripest of Apples" verse and ending with a Riley stanza, from this or some other ballad of this type)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 92, "A Pretty Fair Maid Down in the Garden" (2 texts plus 12 excerpt, 14 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 68, "Betty Fair Miss" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 202, "The Pretty Fair Miss (Soldier's Return)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, #XV, "A Pretty Fair Miss" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #186, "Pretty Fair Maid" (2 texts, 1 tune); #201, "Sailor's Return" (1 text, which opens with a "No, John, No" stanza)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 36, pp. 160-151, "A Pretty Fair Maid" (1 text); also 37, pp. 151-152, "Annie Girl" (1 text, which conflates 2 verses of "The Drowsy Sleeper" [Laws M4], 2 or 3 of "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)" or "No, John, No: or similar, and 3 verses probably of this)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 72, pp. 118-119, "Pretty Fair Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 80-81, "Lover's Return" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp 7-9, "Pretty Fair Miss" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 89, "Pretty Fair Maiden" (1 short text)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 260-264, "The True Sweetheart," "Pretty Fair Maid," "A Pretty Fair Damsel," "A Lily Fair Damsel," The True Sweetheart" (5 texts, mostly rather short; 4 tunes on pp.423-425); in addition, p. 265, "A Soldier Boy," opens with stanzas from this song, but the conclusion is "William Hall (The Brisk Young Farmer)" [Laws N30]
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #14, "Sweetheart in the Army" (1 short text, 1 tune, likely this although it's short enough -- just three verses about a lover in the army who might be dead -- that it might be a similar song)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #39, "The Soldier's Return" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 98, "The Broken Token" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #34, "The Broken Token" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 134-139, "Broken Ring Song" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 28, "Broken Ring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 59, "Broken Ring Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 24, "Broken Ring Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 126-127, "Broken Ring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 584-589, "Seven Years I Loved a Sailor" (3 texts, 3 tunes; the "C" text, "Flowery Garden," grafts the "Poison in a Glass of Wine" theme (cf. "Oxford City" [Laws P30]) as the ending)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 65, "The Sailor's Return" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 63, "The Single Sailor" (2 texts)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 5, "A Sailor Walking in His Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 701-703, "A Sweetheart in the Army" (2 texts)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 15, "The Broken Token" (1 text)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #71, "Fair Maid Walking in Her Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 17, "A Fair Maid Walking All in Her Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 2, "A Lady Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 47, "The Lady Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition, p. 34, "A Lady Fair" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 184, "There Was a Lady In Her Father's Garden" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 45, "A Maid in a Floewery Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 7, "A Fair Maid Walking All in Her Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 88, "The Sweetheart in the Army" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 77-78, "Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (1 text, in which, despite the title, the soldier asks the girl to marry, not the reverse)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 64-65, "The Soldier's Return (A Pretty Fair Maid)" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 83, "The Cowboy's Return" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 91-92, "A Pretty Fair Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 46-48, "A Pretty Fair Maid" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 22, "Johnny Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 80-81, "Miss Mary Belle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 68-69, "A Pretty Fair Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 326-327, "The Brisk Young Sailor" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #23, p. 1, "The Sailor" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1038, "The Single Sailor" (26 texts plus a single verse on p. 617, 16 tunes)
Greig/Duncan6 1201, "She Put Her Hand into Her Bosom" (1 fragment)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #44, pp. 193-195, "A Pretty Fair Maid" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 89, "Mary and Willie" (1 text)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 104-105, "The Young and Single Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 625, "Maid and the Sailor"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 307, "Maid and the Sailor" (2 texts)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 117-118, "A Pretty Fair Miss All in a Garden" (1 text, 1 tune); also pp. 222-223 (1 tune, partial text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 92, "A Pretty Fair Maid" (2 texts plus mention of 4 more; the "B" text includes stanzas from "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)")
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 81-82, "A Pretty Fair Maiden In the Garden"; pp. 83-84, "A Pretty Fair Damsel" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 128-129, "The Fair Maid in the Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 41, "A Pretty Fair Miss" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H471, p. 317, "The Broken Ring" (1 text, 1 tune); also probably H818, pp. 317-318, "Green Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 27, "The Sailor's Return" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Elsie Clews Parsons, "Spirituals and Other Folklore from the Bahamas," Vol. 41, No. 162 (Oct-Dec 1928), Toasts and other verses: Abaco p. 467, ("One day I was walkin' along the street") (1 text)
DT 462, JREILLY* JREILLY3* JREILLY5
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 264-265, "The Poor and Single Sailor" (1 tune)
James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, p. 227, "A Fair Damsel in a Garden" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Pearl Jacobs Borusky)
Roud #264
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley, "Pretty Fair Damsel" (on CloseHomeMS)
Acie Cargill, Debra Cowan, Kristina Olsen, "The Unbroken Token" (on HCargillFamily) [this versoin seems to have been somewhat rewritten by someone in the Tyler family]
Mary Cash, "Lady in Her Father's Garden" (on IRTravellers01)
Daisy Chapman, "The Poor and Single Sailor" (on SCDChapman01)
Elizabeth Cronin, "There Was a Lady In Her Father's Garden" (on IRECronin01)
Cousin Emmy [Cynthia May Carver], "Pretty Fair Miss Out In the Garden" (Decca 24213, 1947; on ConstSor1)
Louise Foreacre, "Down in Grandma's Garden" (on Stonemans01)
Warde & Pat Ford, "The Soldier's Sweetheart" (AFS 4204 B1, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Sarah Hawkes, "Returning Sweetheart" (on Persis1)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Fair Miss in the Garden" (on Holcomb1) (on FOTM)
Maggie Murphy, "Seven Years Since I Had a Sweetheart" (on IRHardySons)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Pretty Fair Miss Out in the Garden" (on NLCR06)
Dellie Norton, "Pretty Fair Miss in Her Garden" (on DarkHoll)
Sarah Anne O'Neill, "Standing in Yon Flowery Garden" (on Voice10)
Mrs. Clara Stevens, "Seven Years I Loved a Sailor" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Mrs. William Towns, "A Fair Maid Walked in her Father's Garden" (on Ontario1)
Doug Wallin, "Pretty Fair Miss in a Garden" (on Wallins1)
Martin Young & Corbett Grigsby, "Pretty Fair Miss in the Garden" (on MMOKCD)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(180a), "The Loyal Sailor," J. Ferraby (Hull), 1803-1838; also Harding B 11(4354), Firth c.12(335), "Young and Single Sailor"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
cf. "The Bleacher Lassie" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sailor's Return
The Single Soldier
John Riley (III)
Flowery Garden
The Sailor Boy
The Sailor's Return
Seven Years I Loved a Sailor
A Lady in Her Garden Walking
A Fair Maid
A Lady Walking
NOTES [547 words]: Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio's version of this piece may be the only one of these disguised love songs in which the man admits what he is: A creep who sneaks up on his faithful true love.
The second Sam Henry version, "Green Garden," is marked as Laws N42 but with a question mark. I understand the editors' hesitation, but there are enough links to other texts of the song that I think we can list it here. It's not as if we need another Broken Token ballad....
Paul Stamler suggested filing Art Thieme's song "That's the Ticket" here. Since this index occasionally pretends to something resembling scholarship, I couldn't bring myself to do it. But if you want to see the essence of Broken Token absurdity, that song (on Thieme03) probably sums it up as well as is humanly possible. - RBW
The last three verses of Mary Cash's version on IRTravellers01 are the "Phoenix Island" verses from "O'Reilly from the County Leitrim": as a result, the suitor is finally rejected. Jim Carroll's notes to IRTravellers01 cite another version from Mary Delaney who "had the suitor even more fimly rejected:
For it's seven years brings an alteration,
And seven more brings a big change to me,
Oh, go home young man,
choose another sweetheart,
Your serving maid I'm not here to be."
Mary Delaney's "Phoenix Island" on IRTravellers01 is even more extreme (see notes to "O'Reilly from the County Leitrim," which generally ends unfavorably for the suitor).
Greig/Duncan6 seems a poorly remembered fragment of the Laws N42 broken ring verse with sexes reversed: "She put her hand into her bosom With fingers neat and small And pulled out the gay gold ring I gave her at the ball" instead of "He put his hand into his pocket, His fingers they being long and small, Pulled out the ring that was broke between them; And when she saw it she down did fall." If there had been another verse there might have been a reason to assign it somewhere else. - BS
The motif of a virtuous girl in a garden is an ancient one. A source that would have been well-known in medieval times is that of Susanna, found in the apocryphal/deuterocanonical additions to the book of Daniel. This story invited elaboration -- and, indeed, we find such elaboration in the Middle English alliterative poem "A Pistel of Susan." This was popular enough to survive in five manuscripts (which is a substantial number), with the earliest being from the late fourteenth century (see Thorlac Turville-Petre, Alliterative Poetry of the Later Middle Ages: An Anthology, Routledge, 1989, p. 120).
On p. 121, Turville-Petre adds, "Susan is based on the story of Susan and the Elders.... The poet makes two notable alterations. In place of the account of how the Elders secretly burned with lust for Susan.... (Daniel xiii.10-14), the poet substitutes an extended description of Susan's garden (ll. 66-117). He also adds a moving stanza describing Susan's farewell-meeting with her husband Joachim after her condemnation (ll. 248-60). The effect of both alterations is to focus attention and sympathy on Susan."
On p. 122, Turville-Petre declares that the story in the Pistel makes Susan a romance heroine, from which it is only one step to a ballad. He also compares the story of Emily in Chaucer's Knight's Tale, lines 1034-1055. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LN42

Pretty Fair Maiden

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Pretty Fair Maiden in the Garden, A

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Pretty Fair Miss All in a Garden, A

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Pretty Fair Miss, A

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Pretty Fair Widow, The (Lillie Shaw II)

DESCRIPTION: Pretty widow Lillie Shaw goes out one day but does not return. A search party fails to find her, but finally traces of blood are found, and then her body. "They searched the Preston house" and find her clothes; E.B. Preston is tried and hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: homicide trial execution
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 115, "The Pretty Fair Widow (or, Lillie Shaw)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa115 (Partial)
Roud #4628
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lillie Shaw" (subject)
NOTES [63 words]: Although there are two songs on this subject, and this one at least spread enough to be collected three times, no one seems to have found details on the fates of Lillie Shaw and Jim Wilcox/E. B. Preston.
Frank Proffit, who supplied the Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl ballad, claimed the murder took place in the 1880s in Mountain City, Tennessee. - RBW
File: Wa115

Pretty Fanny O

See Bonnie Lass of Fyvie, The (Pretty Peggy-O) (File: SBoA020)

Pretty Four-Leaf Shamrock from Glenore, The

See The Shamrock from Glenore (File: HHH034)

Pretty Four-Leaved Shamrock from Glenore, The

See The Shamrock from Glenore (File: HHH034)

Pretty Girl I Left Behind, The

DESCRIPTION: (The cowboy?) "is born to ramble And to leave the range he's rode so long." The singer will got to Coulter Canyon and cross Clark's Ferry. He'll meet the cowboys and miss the girl he left behind. He gives her a ring and hopes she'll think of him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: cowboy travel separation ring
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 150-151, "The Pretty Girl I Left Behind" (1 text, from a damaged recording; part of the first stanza is missing)
Roud #4894
File: SaKo151

Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow, The

DESCRIPTION: "O 'twas on a bright mornin' in summer When I first heard her voice singin' low As he said to a colleen beside him, 'Who's the pretty girl milkin' the cow?'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.26(457))
KEYWORDS: love work rejection
FOUND IN: US(MW) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 58-59, "The Pretty Maid Milking Her Cow" (1 text)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 57, "Cailin Deas Cruite Na MBo" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 14, "Cailin Deas Cruite na mBo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 13, "Cailin Deas Cruite na mBo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 40, "Who's the Pretty Girl Milkin' the Cow?" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 69-70, "The Pretty Maid Milking Her Goat" (1 text, 1 tune, clearly rewritten)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 370-371, "The Pretty Maid Milking Her Goat" (1 text, 1 tune, clearly rewritten)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 29, "Colleen Dhas Cruthin Amoe" (1 text, possibly a short form of this); pp. 47-48, "Pretty Maid Milking Her Cow" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1926, p. 129, "Pretty Maid Milking Her Cow" (1 reference)
Roud #3139
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "Cailin Deas Cruite Na mBo" (on IRClare01)
Michael Murphy, "The Pretty Fair Maid Milking Her Cow" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
J. W. Myers, "Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow" (Berliner 1772, late 1890s)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(457), "The Pretty Maid Milking her Cow," G. Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Harding B 25(1563), Firth c.18(163), Harding B 11(2386), Harding B 11(2846), "[The] Pretty Maid Milking her Cow"; 2806 b.11(99), "Colleen Dhas Crutha Na Mho" ("It was on a fine summer's morning"), W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 c.15(127), Harding B 19(79), "Colleen Dhas Crutha Na Mho"
Murray, Mu23-y1:029, "Colleen Dhas Crutha na Mho," James Lindsay Jr (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Peistie Glen" (tune)
cf. "Cailin Deas" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Poverty and Wealth ("How empty our freedom, oft vaunted, How hollow our liberty fair") (by Maurice Enright) (Foner, p. 250)
NOTES [184 words]: O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland seems more complete than Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag. He hears her singing and professes to be "your captive slave for the future." She is not taken in by his profession, nor by his claim that "The Indies afford no such jewel" or that he would trade "the wealth of great Omar... Devonshire's treasure ... the lamp of Aladdin" to "live poor on a mountain With colleen dhas cruthin amoe." He warns "a young maid is like a ship sailing, She don't know how long she may steer" and he asks her to marry.
Samuel Lover in Rory O'More (1836) quotes this fragment: "I saw a young damsel--'twas Noreen; Her ringlets did carelessly flow Oh: how I adore you, ma voureen Ma Colleen dhas crutheen na mbho." - BS
Some of the "Colleen Deas/Dhas" texts have no mention of the Pretty Maid or the singing; I'm not sure they're the same, but am listing them so you can decide for yourself.
Korson's text "A Pretty Maid Milking Her Goat," is clearly a rewrite with humourous aspects. I'd suspect it of being by William N. Allen (Shan T. Boy) if it were in Wisconsin; it has his feel. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: San040

Pretty Girl Milking Her Goat, The

See The Pretty Girl Milkin' Her Cow (File: San040)

Pretty Girls of Liverpool

DESCRIPTION: Sailors are at sea while landlubbers stay at home with their girls. In danger the captain says "don't be faint hearted, You shall see your girls again In spite of Bonaparte." We'll go home to our girls; when our money is gone we "plough the seas for more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (broadside, Bod17024 Harding B 25(1561)); 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: courting navy war parting money sea ship nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #V3382
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Duggan, "We'll Go To Sea No More" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod17024 Harding B 25(1561), "Pretty Girls of Liverpool," unknown, no date; also Bod13003 Harding B 11(3152), "Pretty Girls of Liverpool"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dixie Brown [Laws D7]" (lyrics)
NOTES [26 words]: In spite of the MUNFLA/Leach song title the text there agrees with the text of the broadside that "when our money is all spent we'll go to sea for more." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: MunLPGoL

Pretty Green Shawl

See This Lady She Wears a Dark Green Shawl (File: ScaNF142)

Pretty Jessie of the Railway Bar

See Jessie, the Belle at the Bar (File: R051)

Pretty Little Bird

See Free Little Bird (File: FSWB391A)

Pretty Little Black-Eyed Susam

See Black-Eyed Susie (Green Corn) (File: R568)

Pretty Little Black-Eyed Susie

See Black-Eyed Susie (Green Corn) (File: R568)

Pretty Little Blue Bird

DESCRIPTION: "Pretty little Bluebird, why do you go? Come back, come back to me: I go, sang the bird, as he flew on high, To see if my color matches the sky."
AUTHOR: W. H. Neidlinger (1863-1924) (source: Niedlinger, Small Songs for Small Singers)
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (Small Songster for Small Singers)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 464, "Pretty Little Blue Bird" (notes only)
ADDITIONAL: W. H. Neidlinger, _Sall Songs for Small Singers_, with illustrations by Walter Bobbett, G. Schirmer, 1896, p. 30, "The Blue-Bird" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: ACSF464P

Pretty Little Dear

DESCRIPTION: The singer decides it's time to wed. He meets a girl in London who has him spend a fortune for food and drink. He is beaten and sentenced to prison when a man says his girl is a thief. Now out of jail, he warns others against pretty ladies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 119)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer decides it's time to wed. He visits the Quadrant in London where he falls for a girl. They kiss and they go for a walk. She says she's hungry and wolfs a huge meal, and thirsty and drinks herself drunk. They meet a man who beats him because he is pals with the girl who had stolen his watch and ring. He complains to the magistrate who sentences him and the girl to six months hard labor. Now he is out of prison and says "I'll court a lass that's homely." He warns others against pretty ladies.
KEYWORDS: courting warning prison theft drink food humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1328, "Pretty Little Dear" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7146
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 119, "A Pretty Little Dear" ("One morning very early a strange thought came in my head"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(3155), Firth b.34(241), Harding B 25(63), "[A][The] Pretty Little Dear"; Firth b.25(333), "My Pretty Little Dear"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh Cruel" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 119)
cf. "The Black Velvet Band (I)" (theme: man imprisoned, woman thief)
cf. "The Half Crown Song" (theme: the date that eats and drinks unbelievable quantities)
cf. "Bill Morgan and His Gal" (theme: the date that eats and drinks unbelievable quantities)
NOTES [66 words]: Greig/Duncan7 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 119 is the basis for the description.
"The Half Crown Song" cross-reference is a Flanagan Brothers song not indexed yet. - BS
There was another nineteenth century popular song called "Pretty Little Dear" (e.g. in Dime-Song-Book #24, p. 30). It is clearly not the same; it is a story of a Black man rejected by a "yellow gal." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: GrD71328

Pretty Little Duck, The

DESCRIPTION: Quack quack cried the pretty little duck Chick chick cried the swan oh But the old crock crows, -- Everybody noos That we'll all get a egg in the morning"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1667, "The Pretty Little Duck" (1 text)
Roud #1752
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Green Woods o' Airlie" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
File: Grd81667

Pretty Little Girl with the Strawberry Curls, The

DESCRIPTION: "One day as I was walking my boyfriend was a-talking With the pretty little girl with the strawberry curls, And this is what he said to her, 'I L-O-V-E love you, I K-I-S-S kiss you." She says, "I have a boyfriend Sambo... from Alabambo...E-I-E-I-O Sambo"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: love hair courting rejection wordplay
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 116-117, "The Pretty Little Girl with the Strawberry Curls" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: NCF162PL

Pretty Little Miss

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, come along, my pretty little miss, Oh, come along, my honey, Oh, come along,my pretty little miss, I'll marry you next Sunday." "Oh, come along... I won't be home till Monday." "How old are you... I'll marry you next Sunday."`
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Owens, Swing and Turn)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting marriage nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 156, "Pretty Little Miss" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7938
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss" (lyrics, theme)
File: Spurg156

Pretty Little Miss [Laws P18]

DESCRIPTION: The singer courts a young girl, eventually talking his way into her bed. In the middle of the night he prepares to leave. She reminds him of his promise to marry her. He tells her that sleeping with him was her choice. She bewails her fate, or is murdered
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2) +1818 (Garret, _Right Choyse and Merrie Book of Garlands I_)
KEYWORDS: seduction separation betrayal pregnancy homicide
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So) Britain(England(Lond,North),Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws P18, "Pretty Little Miss"
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 88, "Fair Flora" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 67, "Too Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 27, pp. 35, 52-53, "The Lily-White Hand" (2 texts plus 2 fragments, 1 tune; the primary text is one of the rare versions which ends with a the man murdering rather than deserting the girl)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 107, "Good Morning, My Pretty Little Miss" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 49, "Good-Morning My Pretty Little Miss" (1 text, 1 tune -- an abridged composite version)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 38-39, "The Lily-White Hand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 57-58, "A Gentleman's Meeting (Down by Yon Riverside" (1 text, which starts out as "Pretty Little Miss" [Laws P18] but ends with 'The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo)" [Laws O3]; Roud lists it as a version of Laws P18, but it appears that the larger part of the text is O3 -- though the material in the middle could be from either)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 242-243, "The Distressed Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 500, PRETMISS
Roud #564
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosemary Lane" [Laws K43] (floating lyrics)
cf. "Seven Years O'er Young" (plot)
NOTES [99 words]: I place [the MacColl/Seeger song "Too Young"] with "Pretty Little Miss" (Laws P18) because MacColl & Seeger do, explicitly citing Laws. But it has few of the plot elements of the canonical Laws version, and tacks on a couple of stanzas that I'd swear came from "Blackwaterside." - PJS
Laws himself says the song has "much textual instability," even though he quotes only four versions -- two from Sharp and two fragments from JFSS. And his sample stanzas do look a bit like "Blackwaterside."
For additional notes on the problems with this piece, see the notes to "Seven Years O'er Young." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: LP18

Pretty Little Pink

See Black Is the Color (File: LxU016)

Pretty Little Yellow Bird

See Little Yellow Bird (Time to Rise) (File: Brne191)

Pretty Mahmee, The

See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Pretty Maid Milking Her Cow

See The Pretty Girl Milkin' Her Cow (File: San040)

Pretty Maid of Mohe, The

See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Pretty Maid, Come Along

See Well Met, Pretty Maid (The Sweet Nightingale) (File: K089)

Pretty Mary

See The Banks of Dundee (Undaunted Mary) [Laws M25] (File: LM25)

Pretty Mauhee, The

See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Pretty Milkmaid, The

See Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid) (File: R079)

Pretty Mohea, The

See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Pretty Mohee, The

See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Pretty Mollie (III)

See Farewell, Sweet Mary (File: E082)

Pretty Molly (I)

See Pretty Polly (II) [cf. Laws P36] (File: LP36B)

Pretty Molly (II)

See Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise) [Laws F4] AND Naomi Wise [Laws F31] (File: LF04)

Pretty Nancy (I)

See William and Nancy (II) (Courting Too Slow) [Laws P5] (File: LP05)

Pretty Nancy (II)

See Pretty Nancy of London (Jolly Sailors Bold) (File: R078)

Pretty Nancy of London (Jolly Sailors Bold)

DESCRIPTION: The singer writes to tell his love of the hardships endured by sailors. He describes a horrible storm he recently endured; "a sailor must yield to whatever may come." He assures Nancy he is remembering her as best he can
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: storm sea love separation floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond)) US(SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #36, "Pretty Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 78, "Pretty Nancy of London" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 568-570, "Nancy from London" (1 text, 3 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 53, "Nancy of London" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 130, "Sweet William and Nancy" (1 text, mixed with "Green Grows the Laurel" and other material)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 130, "Sweet William and Nancy" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 33, "Nancy from London" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 49, "Lovely Nancy from England" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 284-287, "Nancy of London (Nancy from Yarmouth)" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #407
RECORDINGS:
Kenneth Pink, "Fair Nancy from London" (on NFAGuigné01)
Cyril Poacher, "Nancy of Yarmouth" (on Voice12)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ye Gentlemen of England (I)" [Laws K2]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Tall Grow the Rushes
NOTES [163 words]: Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 49: "This song should not be confused with 'Nancy of Yarmouth' or 'Jimmy and Nancy,' and so forth. Although it borrows heavily from other songs, it is a distinct and separate piece."
The "green grow the laurels" verse is
Green grow the laurels and the tops of them small,
For love is a flower that hangs o'er us all,
For the green leaves will wither and the roots will decay,
But the red rose will flourish when my love comes from sea
The "ship in distress" theme is from "Nancy of Yarmouth". The "Green grow the laurels" verse has only those four words in common with Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs) - BS
Classifying versions of this song is indeed very difficult; Roud in fact includes a number of versions titled "Nancy of Yarmouth." The title also adheres frequently to "William and Nancy (II) (Courting Too Slow)" [Laws P5]. There are some fragments beyond classification. This is the best we can do. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: R078

Pretty Parks of Cailty O

See The Parks o' Keltie (File: GrD71487)

Pretty Pear Tree, The

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

Pretty Pearl of the White Mountain, The

DESCRIPTION: "Fourteen days, without lie. I spent on the mountain's side, Ever crying my cry." They say he has had his heart broken by the "Maid of O'Hanly's blood." He wishes he were a duck or a king or a winged mare, but he has lost his way
AUTHOR: Translated by Douglas Hyde
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Hyde, Abhráin grádh chúige Connacht)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 289-290, "The Pretty Pearl of the White Mountain" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Douglas Hyde, _Abhráin grádh chúige Connacht, or, Love songs of Connacht_, T. F. Unwin, 1893 (available on Google Books), p. 85, "The Pretty Pearl of the White Mountain" (1 text, apparently with an Irish original)
Roud #15019
NOTES [14 words]: For background on the work of Douglas Hyde, see the notes to "My Own Dark Maiden." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe289

Pretty Peggy (II)

See My Generous Lover (File: RcMGL)

Pretty Peggy of Derby

See Bonnie Lass of Fyvie, The (Pretty Peggy-O) (File: SBoA020)

Pretty Peggy-O

See Bonnie Lass of Fyvie, The (Pretty Peggy-O) (File: SBoA020)

Pretty Ploughboy (I), The

See The Jolly Plowboy (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy) [Laws M24] (File: LM24)

Pretty Ploughboy (II), The

See The Lark in the Morning (File: ShH62)

Pretty Ploughing Boy

See The Jolly Plowboy (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy) [Laws M24] (File: LM24)

Pretty Plowboy, The

See The Lark in the Morning (File: ShH62)

Pretty Poll

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Pretty Polly (I) (Moll Boy's Courtship) [Laws O14]

DESCRIPTION: A married man comes courting Polly. While she is attracted, she cannot wed a married man. He offers to kill his wife; she begs him not to, promising to wait seven years for him. His wife conveniently dies just before the deadline; the two are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage death floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE) Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws O14, "Pretty Polly (Moll Boy's Courtship)"
Greig/Duncan2 226, "Charming Mall Boy" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 35, "Mall Bowie" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 456-457, "Sir Arthur and Charming Mollee" (1 text)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 10-11, "Sir Arthur and Charming Mollee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers,pp. 93-94, "SIr Arthur and Charming Molly" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 56, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, with one floating verse from "The Cuckoo" and two from "On Top of Old Smokey")
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 68, "The Charming Moll Boy" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #182, "Charming Nancy" (1 text)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 348-349, "Moll Boy's Courtship" (1 text)
DT 594, PRETPOL
ST LO14 (Full)
Roud #195
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Noble Lord Hawkins
NOTES [74 words]: According to Stokoe (slightly amplifying Bell), "the Sir Arthur named is no less a personage than Sir Arthur Haslerigg, the Governor of Tynemouth Castle during the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell." Bell seems to be the only source for this assertion.
"Kittredge discusses the use of the cuckoo stanza (number 8 [in the Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio text]) in Journal 30, PP7 350-j52, i 'Ballads and Songs'" (note from the Digital Tradition). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LO14

Pretty Polly (II) [cf. Laws P36]

DESCRIPTION: Willie urges Polly to go riding with him "some pleasure [to] see" before they get married. Although she is "afraid of [his] ways," she comes, only to find her new-dug grave awaiting her. Willie kills and buries her and heads home (or out to sea)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: homicide burial betrayal
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,So) Canada
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 23, "Pretty Polly" (1 text)
Randolph 153, "Pretty Polly" (2 texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 64, "The Gosport Tragedy" (3 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more; Laws lists the "A" text as P36A, and the rest as P36B, but "D" and probably "C" are "Pretty Polly")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 64, "The Gosport Tragedy" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes; the "C" version is probably "Pretty Polly" and the others Laws P36B)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 67, "Pretty Molly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 64, "Pretty Polly" (1 text plus a fragment)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 698-700, "The Gosport Tragedy" (2 texts, but only the second goes with this piece; the first is, obviously, "The Gosport Tragedy")
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 79, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 110, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 69-70, "Pretty Polly" (1 text)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #11, "Purty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #42, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 12, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 140-141, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 89, "Come, Pretty Polly" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #17A-C, pp. 73-78, "Pretty Polly," "Come, Polly, Pretty Polly" (2 texts plus an excerpt, 2 tunes; the "A" text is the full "Cruel Ship's Carpenter" version; "B" is the short "Pretty Polly (II)"; the "C" fragment is too short to tell but has lyrics more typical of the latter)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 2-3, "Pratty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 67-68, "Pretty Polly" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp 172-174, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune, a composite version)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 53-54, "" (1 text, very short even by the standards of this worn-down song)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 128-134, collectively titled "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" but with individual titles "Pretty Polly," "Dying Polly," "Pretty Polly," "Pretty Polly," "Pretty Polly," "Oh, Polly!" (6 texts; 5 tunes on pp. 395-398; of these only the "C" text has a ghost; in "D" and "E" there is no ghost but Willie's ship sinks; these presumably should file with Laws P36, while "A," B," and "F" go here)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #26, "Pretty Polly" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 84, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 143-144, "Pretty Polly" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 227, "Pretty Polly" (1 text)
DT 311, PRETPOL2*
Roud #15
RECORDINGS:
Estil C. Ball, "Pretty Polly" (on LomaxCD1701, LomaxCD1705); "Pretty Polly" (AFS, 1941; on LCTreas)
Frank Bode, "Pretty Polly" (on FBode1)
Dock Boggs, "Pretty Polly" (Brunswick 132A, 1927); (on Boggs1, BoggsCD1)
Coon Creek Girls, "Pretty Polly" Coon Creek Girls, "Pretty Polly" (Vocalion 04659/OKeh 04659/Perfect 16102, 1939; rec. 1938)
Bill Cornett ,"Pretty Polly" (on MMOKCD)
Cranford & Thompson, "Pretty Polly" (Melotone 45092, 1935)
John Hammond, "Purty Polly" (Challenge 168, 1927)
Orville Hicks, "Pretty Polly" (Piotr-Archive #205, recorded 06/27/2022)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Pretty Polly" (Brunswick 116, 1927)
Ivor Melton & band, "Pretty Polly" (on Persis1)
Pleaz Mobley, "Pretty Polly" (on JThomas01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Pretty Polly" (on NLCR13)
Jean Ritchie, "Pretty Polly" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchieWatsonCD1)
Sauceman Brothers, "Pretty Polly" (Rich-R-Tone 457, n.d.)
Pete Seeger, "Pretty Polly" (on PeteSeeger16)
Lee Sexton, "Pretty Polly" (on MMOKCD, ClassOT)
B. F. Shelton "Pretty Polly" (Victor 35838, 1927; on BefBlues1)
Stanley Brothers, "Pretty Polly" (Columbia 20770, 1951)
Pete Steele, "Pretty Polly" (AFS 1587/1702, 1938; on PSteele01, KMM)
Turner & Parkins, "Pretty Polly" (Superior 2635, 1931)
Jack Wallin, "Pretty Polly" (on Wallins1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. esp. "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (The Gosport Tragedy; Pretty Polly)" [Laws P36A/B], from which this ballad is descended at a great distance
cf. "Fair Eleanor (II)" (plot)
cf. "Pastures of Plenty" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Pastures of Plenty (File: Grnw293)
NOTES [276 words]: This much-shortened form of "The Gosport Tragedy" has now taken on a life of its own. Although no clear line between the two can be drawn, I tend to call the piece "The Gosport Tragedy" if it includes the ghost and "Pretty Polly" if it omits.
Beth S. H. Brooks, "'Pretty Polly': A History of a Folk Song," article in Missouri Folklore Society Journal, Volume 27-28 (cover date 2005-2006, but published 2015), pp. 125-145, on p. 127 gives a sketch genealogy of the history of this song, starting with a 1720 broadside, "The Gosport Tragedy, or, The Perjur'd Ship-Carpenter," which was the direct source of "The Gosport Tragedy." This split into two lines of descent, the smaller being Laws P36A, "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter," the larger being "Pretty Polly," including Laws P36B. Brooks then classified some fifty versions of "Pretty Polly" into a "Standard Version" (18 examples), those with an "Altered Tune" (14 examples), and those with "Altered Lyrics" (18 examples).
One of Cox's texts (the C text, which also has a tune) was called by the informant "Young Beeham." There is no basis for this in the text of the song. One has to think this the result of some sort of confusion with "Young Beacham." - RBW
Many if not most American versions are probably traceable back to B. F. Shelton's recording, which was enormously (and deservedly) popular.
According to J. M. Jarrell of Wayne Co., WV, cited by J. B. Cox in "Traditional Ballads Mainly From West Virginia," in the early 19th century one Polly Aldridge was murdered by William Chapman, who was convicted and executed in Martin Co., KY, and this ballad was being sung about the killing c. 1850. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LP36B

Pretty Polly (III)

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Pretty Polly (IV)

DESCRIPTION: Polly will not marry the singer; his poverty would grieve her parents. He replies, "Some say I am rakey... But I'll prove... that I'm guilty of nothing but innocent love." He sets out for New Orleans to marry another, but decides he loves Polly too much
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: love courting separation virtue rambling return
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 133, p. 144, "Pretty Polly" (1 text)
Roud #4296
NOTES [23 words]: Although this piece consists largely of floating verses, the combined effect is unique and deserves to be considered a separate song. - RBW
File: CW133

Pretty Polly (IX)

See If I Were a Fisher (File: HHH709)

Pretty Polly (V)

See Creeping and Crawling (File: RL033)

Pretty Polly (VI)

See Polly Oliver (Pretty Polly) [Laws N14] (File: LN14)

Pretty Polly (VII)

See The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)

Pretty Polly (VIII)

See The Female Warrior (Pretty Polly) [Laws N4] (File: LN04)

Pretty Polly (X)

See I've Travelled This Country (Last Friday Evening) (File: Beld194)

Pretty Polly (XI)

See Come Write Me Down (The Wedding Song) (File: K126)

Pretty Polly (XII)

See As I Roved Out (I) (Tarry Trousers II) (File: LoF014)

Pretty Polly (XIII)

See The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)

Pretty Polly (XIV)

See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Pretty Polly and Her Crockery Ware

See Crockery Ware (File: Pea257)

Pretty Polly Anne

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Pretty Polly of Topsham

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye fair gallants, fair gallants attend." Polly promises to marry a sea captain, but he then goes to sea. Soon a minister courts here, and she turns to him instead. When the captain returns, he declares her false and will court her no more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection clergy betrayal
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp.60-61, "Pretty Polly of Topsham" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #19464
File: LaGo060

Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green

See Polly Perkins of Paddington Green (File: HHH132)

Pretty Polly, Pretty Polly, I'm Going Away

See On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)

Pretty Pond Lilies

DESCRIPTION: "Whilst waiting on the lane for you, darling, Ling'ring as the hours roll by," the singer sees lilies on the water and picks them. "Ah! pretty pond lilies, I've plucked them for you." "Take them from me as a token of love," because they are so sweet
AUTHOR: Lillie Hall (source: Bodleian broadside Harding B 11(2154))
EARLIEST DATE: before 1885 (Bodleian broadsides)
KEYWORDS: flowers courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 225-226, "Pretty Pond Lilies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5266
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2154), "Pretty Pond Lilies," T. E. Pinder (Leeds), n.d.; also Firth b.28(6a/b), "Pretty pond lilies," R. March and Co. (London), 1877-1884; also Firth b.28(10a/b) (ibid.)
NOTES [14 words]: The Bodleian broadside Harding B 11(2154) says this was "Sung by Master Bell." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: NeDe225

Pretty Sairey

See Pretty Saro (File: R744)

Pretty Sally

See A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.) [Laws P9]; also "The Brown Girl" [Child 295] (File: LP09)

Pretty Sally of London

See A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.) [Laws P9]; also "The Brown Girl" [Child 295] (File: LP09)

Pretty Sally's Answer

DESCRIPTION: Sally loves Johnny. His master beats him when he stops work to be with her. At midsummer his time will be out and they will marry "in spite of all our alley"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting love marriage work nonballad apprentice boss derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #31, pp. 223-226, "Pretty Sally’s Answer" (1 text)
Roud #V2828
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sally in Our Alley" (characters)
NOTES [7 words]: This is an answer to "Sally in our Alley."- BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: DixP031

Pretty Sarah

See Pretty Saro (File: R744)

Pretty Saro

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves Pretty Saro, but she shows no interest in him: "She wants a freeholder and I have no land." Nor can he write her a letter "in a fine hand" as he would wish to. In despair he vows to "wander by the river" (or kill himself?)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Lomax, North Carolina Booklet, according to Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love poverty river
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Randolph 744, "Pretty Saro" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune); cf. 745, "In Eighteen-Forty-Nine" (2 texts, 2 tune) and the Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi text cited below
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 11, "A Corting Miss Sarrow" (1 fragment, perhaps this although several lines could be from other songs)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 252, "Pretty Saro" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 252, "Pretty Saro" (6 tunes plus text excerpts)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 48, pp. 164-165, "Pretty Saro" (1 text, beginning with stanzas from "In Eighteen-Forty-Nine" and ending with "Pretty Saro," plus mention of 1 more text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 9, "Pretty Saro" (2 fragments, 2 tunes; the first text is solely this; the second begins with the first verse of "In Eighteen-Forty-Nine" and continues with a verse of "Pretty Saro")
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 327-328, "Pretty Saro" (2 texts, with local titles "Pretty Saro," "Pretty Sarah"; 2 tunes on p. 443)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 99, "Pretty Sairey" (1 text)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 168-170, "Pretty Sarry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 85, pp. 106-107, "Pretty Sarah" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 76, "Pretty Saro" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 39, "Pretty Saro" (1 text, 1 tune, with one stanza omitted)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 68, "Pretty Saro" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 115, "Lone Valley" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 35, "The Foot of Yonders Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 152-153, "At the Foot of Yonder Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 148, "Pretty Saro" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Rebecca Cushman, "Two Mountain Portraits," Vol. IV, No. 1 (Jul 1956), pp. 4-5, "Pretty Saro" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 2, "Pretty Saro" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PRETSARO* YONDRMTN
Roud #417
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "At the Foot of Yonder's Mountain" (on Barker01)
Glen Neaves, "1809" (on Persis1)
Ritchie Family, "Pretty Saro" (on Ritchie03)
Jean Ritchie, "Pretty Saro" (on RitchieWatsonCD1)
Pete Seeger, "Pretty Saro" (on PeteSeeger40)
Cas Wallin, "Pretty Saro" (on OldLove, DarkHoll)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In Eighteen-Forty-Nine" (floating lyrics, tune)
cf. "If I Were a Fisher" (floating verses)
cf. "Go Away From Me, Willie" (floating verses)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Pretty Sarah
NOTES [68 words]: This piece seems to break up into two families, "Pretty Saro" (which appears to be more popular) and "At the Foot of Yonder Mountain." In the latter, the woman is "Mary," not "Saro." Broadwood and Gilchrist argued that all this is based on an ancient hymn to the Virgin Mary. If so, that would argue that the "Yonder Mountain" form is older. But we all know how active some folklorists' imaginations are. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R744

Pretty Saro/Pretty Molly (II)

See In Eighteen-Forty-Nine (File: R745)

Pretty Sarry

See Pretty Saro (File: R744)

Pretty Squadron

See My Pretty Quadroon (File: Be079)

Pretty Susan, the Pride of Kildare [Laws P6]

DESCRIPTION: A sailor tries to win Susie's love; she rejects him because he is poor. Instead she gives her love to a rich man. The sailor goes back to sea but never finds another woman as beautiful as Susie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes); before 1844 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3331))
KEYWORDS: courting poverty beauty
FOUND IN: US(SE) Britain(England(South)) Canada(Mar) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Laws P6, "Pretty Susan, the Pride of Kildare"
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 681, "Pretty Susan, the Pride of Kildare"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 343, "Pretty Susan, the Pride of Kildare" (2 texts)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #1, The Pride of Kildare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #54, "Susan, the Pride of Kildare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 132, "Pretty Susie, The Pride of Kildare" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 131-133, "The Pride of Kildare" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 83, "Pretty Susan the Pride of Kildare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 48, "Pretty Susan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 72-73, "Pretty Susan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 88, "Pretty Susan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 24-25,83, "Pretty Susan, the Pride of Kildare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 32, "The Pride of Kildare" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 481, "Little Susin, the Pride of Kildore" (source notes only)
DT 724, PRETSUSI
Roud #962
RECORDINGS:
Angelo Dornan, "Pretty Susan" (on Miramichi1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3331), "Pretty Susan the Pride of Kildare," J. Howe (Hull), 1835-1843; also Harding B 17(246b), Harding B 11(3169), Harding B 11(3168), Firth c.18(89), Harding B 11(3167), 2806 c.16(68), Firth b.26(293), Johnson Ballads 3196, Firth c.16(437), Harding B 11(1717), Firth b.27(339), Firth b.25(496), Harding B 11(1110), Firth c.16(437), "Pretty Susan the Pride of Kildare"
Murray, Mu23-y1:118, "Pretty Susan the Pride of Kildare," unknown, 19C
File: LP06

Pretty Susie, the Pride of Kildare

See Pretty Susan, the Pride of Kildare [Laws P6] (File: LP06)

Pretty Sylvia

See The Female Highwayman [Laws N21] (File: LN21)

Pretty Three-Leaved Shamrock from Glenore, The

See The Shamrock from Glenore (File: HHH034)

Pretty Wench

See I Am a Pretty Wench (File: BGMG082)

Pretty yaller girls, Come down

See Blood Red Roses (File: Doe022)

Price of Freedom, The

DESCRIPTION: "The night is dark about me, I hear the midnight bell, Before another midnight, It will ring my funeral knell." The singer's children are afraid, but the singer says, "Weep not above my ashes." "We to buy the toiler's freedom will pay the price and die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Labor Enquirer)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement death execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1886 - Haymarket Riot
Nov 11, 1887 - Execution of Albert R. Parsons (who reportedly inspired this song) and four others for alleged complicity
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 446-447, "The Price of Freedom" (1 text)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 229, "The Price of Freedom" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Annie Laurie" (tune) and references there
NOTES [333 words]: Kenneth Lougee, Pie in the Sky: How Joe Hill's Lawyers Lost His Case, Got Him Shot, and Were Disbarred, iUniverse, 2011, pp. 29-30, discusses the legal situation of the American labor movement in the late 1800s. In particular, he cites Oliver Wendell Holmes on how the law was applied at the time, based on the "needs of the day," and applies this to the Haymarket Riot.
"In 1886, after more than a decade of increasingly violent labor protests, a meeting was held at Haymarket Square [in Chicago]. The police mobilized a large force, which moved in to break up the meeting. Someone (and that someone was never identified) threw a dynamite bomb into the police ranks. This led to a general outbreak of violence, with casualties on both sides.
"Unable to indict the bomb thrower, the authorities charged the labor organizers. Ultimately, eight were convicted, with seven sentenced to death. This was the first great labor trial. Mass movements organized against the execution. Two sentences were commuted to terms in prison. The governor supposedly said that he would have commuted the other sentences had the labor leaders requested his action. Ultimately, four were hung, and one committed suicide before execution. Governor Altgeld pardoned the remaining leaders in 1890.
"There are some things that may be said for certain about this sad matter. The most important is that the leaders were unquestionably innocent of throwing the bomb. The second is that the case is an example of the bitter contest between labor leaders and the establishment.... The [Illinois Supreme] court's opinion cites for page after dreary page statements of various labor leaders. It must be admitted that the labor movement was largely composed of anarchists, but it must equally be admitted that the leaders had tried and failed to win concessions within the confines of elections and strikes....
The civic leaders in Chicago well understood that they were using the court system to intimidate and control labor." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: CAFS2446

Prick'ty Bush, The

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Prickilie Bush, The

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Prickle Holly Bush

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Prickle-Holly Bush

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Prickly Brier, The

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Prickly Bush, The

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Pride of Glencoe, The

See MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe) [Laws N39] (File: LN39)

Pride of Glenelly, The

DESCRIPTION: In flowery verse and classical allusions, the singer praises the beauty of Glenelly and the woman who lives there. He describes her appearance. He claims that all the ancient beauties made their reputations with jewelry; the woman of Glenelly is real
AUTHOR: James Devine
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H607, pp. 249-250, "The Pride of Glenelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13339
NOTES [40 words]: Hard to believe that anyone voluntarily sing this thing. The words are incredibly ornate, and it's littered with classical allusions. And it doesn't even *say* anything. But Sam Henry reportedly got it from a source other than the author. - RBW
File: HHH607

Pride of Kildare, The

See Pretty Susan, the Pride of Kildare [Laws P6] (File: LP06)

Pride of Kilkee, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a maid going to Kilkee. He offers her a seat and asks her home. She rejects him as a seducer. He claims to be honorable. She agrees only to marry him. "Oh, her name I won't mention at all But I'll style her the Pride of Kilkee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 32, "The Pride of Kilkee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5217
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "The Kilkee Maid" (on IRTLenihan01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce hi (For Ireland I Will Not Tell Whom She Is)" (tune, according Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
cf. "Seek Not from Whence Love She Came" (motif: hiding a sweetheart's name)
cf. "The Lisburn Lass" (motif: hiding a sweetheart's name)
cf. "Tons of Bright Gold" (motif: hiding a sweetheart's name)
NOTES [179 words]: In spite of the line "Who would blame me to make her my own" it is not clear, at the end, that they marry.
Kilkee is in County Clare, Ireland.
For other examples of hidden names see "Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce hi (For Ireland I Will Not Tell Whom She Is)" and "Drihaureen O Mo Chree (Little Brother of My Heart)" and its notes. Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan: "Obviously, the writer of Tom's song ["the Pride of Kilkee"] was familiar with the English version of 'Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce hi.' Writing more than two decades after hearing these songs for the first time, I have not re-encountered them in oral tradition since, and know of no printed sources for either of them." But, in the notes to "Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce hi," Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan: "The Clare Gaelic scholar Eugene O'Curry stated that this song was written originally about 1810 .... The song in English which Tom sings has been about for a good many years likewise, as is witnessed by the similar version which Freeman noted down in London in 1915...." - BS
File: RcPriKil

Pride of Logy Bay, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is in love. His love's father comes to him and threatens to send his daughter away if the two continue to see each other. Her father arranges for her exile, but -- after many years of seeking -- the two find each other and are married.
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: love exile separation reunion father
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 61, "The Pride of Logy Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 47, "The Star of Logy Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 134, "The Star of Logy Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Star of Logy Bay" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 25 in the 2nd edition, pp. 59-60 in the 3rd; pp. 55-56 in the 4th; pp. 40-41 in the 5th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 110, "The Star of Logy Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
England-HistoricNewfoundlandAndLabrador, p. 58, "Star of Logy Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, STARLOGY*
ADDITIONAL: Newfoundland Stories and Ballads, Volume III No. 1 (Summer/Autumn 1956), p. 21, "The Star of Logy Bay" (1 text)
Roud #4421
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "The Star of Logy Bay" (on NFOBlondahl01,NFOBlondahl05)
The McNulty Family, "The Star of Logy Bay" (on "The McNulty Family Entertains with Irish Songs," Copley Records DWL 9-604 LP (n.d.))
Clare O'Driscoll, "The Star of Logy Bay" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
May Whalen, "The Star of Logy Bay" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid of Sweet Gurteen" (lyrics)
cf. "I Am a Newfoundlander" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
I Am a Newfoundlander (File: RySm089)
NOTES [272 words]: Logy Bay is in Newfoundland, a short way north of Saint John's - RBW
According to GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site the author is "unknown, but probably Mark Walker."
May Whalen's tune follows the McNultys's. Clare O'Driscoll's drifts but ends like the McNultys's. In any case, neither is like Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland.
The McNultys were popular in Newfoundland and their records were available in St. John's (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports pp. 266-268).- BS
The main source for the attribution to Mark Walker seems to be the article by Philip Hiscock, "Ten things to consider about "The Star of Logy Bay" in Canadian Folk Music Bulletin, Summer 2003, Vol 37.2, p. 7. Mark Walker is listed as the author of several popular Newfoundland songs, "Tickle Cove Pond," "Fanny's Harbour Bawn," "The 'Antis' of Plate Cove," and "Lovely Katie-O." Apparently it is family tradition that attributes this song to him. Hiscock's "ten things" are mostly pieces of evidence that support the possibility that Walker wrote this song. These are mostly stylistic. All would affirm his authorship, if we had anything other than family tradition to go on, but I do not find any of them individually compelling.
Michael P. Murphy, Pathways through Yesterday, edited by Gerald S. Moore, Town Crier Publishing, 1976, p. 147, has another attribution, to "Michael Power," but admits that the attribution has never been proved.
The Newfoundland Stories and Ballads magazine, which attributes almost everything else it prints, says it was "written many years ago" (as of 1956) but lists no author. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSC061

Pride of Newry Town, The

DESCRIPTION: Orphans William and Mary promise to wed, but poverty forces William to sea. He is long away, and Mary (thinking him dead) weds another. He returns; Mary drops dead when he arrives. Old and new suitors do battle; William kills his rival and returns to sea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry)
KEYWORDS: love separation sailor reunion husband death fight betrayal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H190, pp. 420-421, "Killeavy's Pride"; H798, pp. 421-422, "The Pride of Newry Town" (2 text, 2 tunes)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 103-106, "Killeevy's Pride" (1 text)
Roud #4390
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Susan Carr" (plot)
NOTES [25 words]: In "Killeevy's Pride" (Henry and Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry) Mary ends as "a victim to false love in the Asylum of Belfast." - BS
File: HHH190

Pride of Pimlico, The

DESCRIPTION: Kitty Quinn comes to town "And made of every other lass about the place a foe Because she took their sweethearts." The men can't work, the drinkers give up drink, and the teetotalers take up alcohol. Soon there'll be 10000 victims of the Pride of Pimlico.
AUTHOR: Arthur Griffith
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: love humorous drink
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads, pp. 265-266, "The Pride of Pimlico" (1 text)
File: OLcM265

Pride of the Prairie

DESCRIPTION: "On the wild and woolly prairie, Not far from old Pueblo town, Lived a little girl named Mary, Eyes of blue and tresses of brown." A cowboy comes up and asks her to marry him. They agree, and ride off stealing kisses
AUTHOR: Words: Henry J. Breen/Music: George Botsford
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: cowboy love marriage
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 25, "Pride of the Prairie" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Ohr025

Pride of the Shamrock Shore, The

See Mary, the Pride of the Shamrock Shore (File: Pea630)

Priest and the Nuns, The

DESCRIPTION: Pumping Shanty. A priest goes to France and finds seven nuns lying sick in the convent yard. He claims to be a doctor with a cane/stick that will cure them. He treats all the nuns and says he'll call again. choruses of "Ho, ho ho" and "Hal-ler-al-le-re."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips)
KEYWORDS: shanty bawdy clergy trick
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 166-167, "The Priest and the Nuns" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9146
NOTES [47 words]: The pattern of text and choruses is reminiscent of "Able Brown the Sailor" even though the words are completely different and for a shanty, rather tame. Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips gives no notes or history on this, though it would be easy to imagine much coarser versions. - SL
File: Harl166

Priest and the Parson, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye sons and daughters of each profession [denomination], Give ear and listen to what I'll say, It is of a dialogue" between Catholic and Lutheran clergy. Scripture shows that there is one Church and Jesus died for all. Therefore Catholics are right
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1994 (Thomas and Widdowson)
KEYWORDS: religious clergy dialog
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth S. Goldstein, "A Report on Continuing Research into 'Treason Songs': A Private Newfoundland Tradition," essay on pp. 126-153 of Gerald Thomas and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, _Studies in Newfoundland Folklore: Community and Process_, Breakwater Books, 1991, pp. 142-143, "The Priest and the Parson" (1 text)
Roud #26999
NOTES [174 words]: In Newfoundland, this was sometimes regarded as a "Treason Song." For background on Treason Songs, see the notes to "The Prooshian Drum."
The argument of this song is legitimately Biblical -- e.g. the statement in the song that "''Thou art Peter. All on this rock I will build my church' Did he mention churches?" (implying that only one Church could be meant -- which must therefore be the Catholic church) correctly cites Matthew 16:18. But Greek εκκλησια, "ecclesia" is not the same as English "church"; it means "assembly," and the meaning "church" is how the Christian church decided to understand it after it had become an organized body.
However, the argument that one church must mean the Catholic church is patently flawed. Even if one rejects Protestantism as an innovation (which, of course, a Protestant would not accept), the Orthodox church is just as ancient and original as the Catholic church, and it doesn't have a non-Biblical office such as a Pope. Whatever the religious truth of the matter, the argument is not logical. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: ThWi142

Priest of the Parish, The

DESCRIPTION: "The priest of the parish has lost his considering cap, Some say this and some say that, But I say number (X)." The child who is called must respond: "What, I, sir?" "Yes, you, sir." "No, not I, sir." "Who then, sir?" The new player then calls the number
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty clergy
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 149, "(The priest of the parish)" (1 text)
File: SuSm149

Primus Lan'

See Promised Land (File: HPR322P)

Prince and the Orphan, The (The Orphan Girl)

See The Orphan Girl (The Orphan Child) (File: R725)

Prince Boys, The

See The Bold Princess Royal [Laws K29] (File: LK29)

Prince Charles He Is King James's Son

See The White Cockade (File: R120)

Prince Charley

See Weevily Wheat (File: R520)

Prince Charlie

See Weevily Wheat (File: R520)

Prince Charlie (I)

See So Dear Is My Charlie to Me (Prince Charlie) (File: HHH533)

Prince Charlie (II)

See The Bonnie House o Airlie [Child 199] (File: C199)

Prince Edward Island Murder

DESCRIPTION: William Millman was "his mother's hope and joy" He "led [Mary Tuplin] astray," then murders her and sinks her body in the river with a heavy stone. The body is discovered and Millman executed on the gallows.
AUTHOR: Mrs. C. A. Barron? (Barren?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: seduction execution homicide mother punishment prison lover
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 28, 1887 - Murder of Mary Tuplin by William Millman
1888 - Execution of Millman
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 140, "Prince Edward Island Murder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 643-644, "Young Melvyn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 217-219, "The Millman Tragedy" (1 text)
ST CrNS140 (Partial)
Roud #1837
RECORDINGS:
Charlotte Decker, "Young Melvyn" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Millman Song" (subject)
cf. "The Murder of Mary Tuplin" (subject)
cf. "The Millman and Tuplin Song" (subject)
NOTES [174 words]: This song is item dF59 in Laws's Appendix II.
Roud has at least five different numbers for this event:
Roud #1837: Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 140, "Prince Edward Island Murder" [Laws dF59]
Roud #4129: Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 285-286, "The Millman Song" (also Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 180-181, "The Millman Murder Trial") [LawsdF60]
Roud #9179: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 46-47, "The Millman and Tuplin Song" (also Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 50, "Young Millman")
Roud #9552: Shea, pp. 174-179, "The Millman Tragedy"
Roud #12463: Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland pp. 72-73, "The Murder of Mary Tuplin" - BS
In the Peacock/Decker version, "Millman" has become "Melvyn" (an easy error of hearing), but the song is clearly this.
Creighton's informant Ben Henneberry said the song was by "Mrs. C. A. Barren" of Halifax. Shay says Mrs. C. A. Barron. I've tentatively listed the former spelling first on the grounds that Henneberry was relying on memory.- RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: CrNS140

Prince Edward Isle, Adieu

See The History of Prince Edward Island (File: Doe256)

Prince Heathen [Child 104]

DESCRIPTION: Prince Heathen takes a girl against her will. He rapes her and offers her extreme cruelty, all to break her will. She never yields. At last her babe is born. After further abuse, bringing her close to death, her spirit fails; at last he acts human
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1818 (Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads)
KEYWORDS: rape abuse pregnancy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 104, "Prince Heathen" (2 texts)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 153-154, "Prince Heathen" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1497, "Prince Heathen" (1 text)
DT 104, PRINHEAT
Roud #3336
File: C104

Prince Henry Song

DESCRIPTION: "Sing, sing, Prince Henry's side, The Jimmy looks on her with pride," because the ship is extremely clean. The officers are proud of the fact that "She's a tiddley ship," "For when she's in motion, She's the pride of the ocean."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: ship nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 44, "Prince Henry Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #29417
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She's a Tiddley Ship" (tune)
cf. "A Band of Banshee Airmen" (lyrics, tune)
NOTES [472 words]: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear's notes talk about the one major action the Prince Henry engaged in as a warship, but the song fragment itself mentions none of that, and includes no indication of date. Hers was a complicated history. Canada had very little navy between the World Wars, especially of true seagoing ships (the small ships her shipyards were able to build, minesweepers and corvettes, were intended to stay close to land, although the corvettes in particular eventually ended up in convoy export). When she needed a larger ship, she had to get it from Britain.
Once World War II started, the Canadians wanted more ships -- but the British needed every ship they had and couldn't spare any. The Canadians hoped to trade some of their small ships for something bigger. "In March 1940 those hopes were dashed. The barter scheme collapsed because an equitable exchange could not be found. The British softened the blow by allowing Canada to let contracts for two Tribals [large destroyers] in British yarts, with two more to follow in 1941. In the meantime, the RCN [Royal Canadian Navy] had to fill the void with the three small liners it had purchased for conversion to armed merchant cruisers, Prince Henry, Prince David, and Prince Robert. These 6000-ton vessels, with a speed of 22 knots and a range of 6000 miles, were the most powerful ships in the RCN until the first Tribal entered service in 1943" (Milner, p. 83).
That statement requires some footnotes. The "Princes" were the largest ships in the Canadian navy, but I doubt anyone would have traded them for the smaller but much more capable destroyers of the "River" class such as the Saguenay (for which see "The Saguenay Song"); the destroyers had torpedoes as well as guns, were much faster, and could fight submarines. As a result, the destroyers were constantly busy, while the "Princes" mostly did odd jobs: "The Prince ships served far and wide in the early years of the war. They patrolled the Pacific, captured several German merchant ships, escorted the ill-fated Canadian contingent to Hong Kong, supported operations against the Japanese in the Aleutian Islands, and served in the Caribbean" (Milner, p. 83).
But they didn't stay in that role for long. Once it came time to invade France, they were converted once again, to troopships: "[T]wo of the Princes, David and Henry, were converted to assault ships" (Milner, p. 130) and participated in the landings in Normandy (Bercuson, p 204; he labels them "infantry landing ships").
Given that the Canadians had such a small pre-war navy (there were only 1900 professional navy men, according to Bercuson, p. 11), it's no surprise that they were short of officers. Which perhaps helps explain why the officers of Prince Henry apparently confused cleanliness with effectiveness. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: Hopk044

Prince of Morocco, The (The Sailor Boy II) [Laws N18]

DESCRIPTION: A rich lady is in love with a sailor. Her father promises his daughter 12,000 pounds if she will leave her sailor. The sailor disguises himself as the Prince of Morocco to fool her father. They are married. The girl collects. The sailor reveals himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love disguise trick marriage
FOUND IN: US(NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws N18, "The Prince of Morocco (The Sailor Boy II)"
Randolph 88, "The Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 61, "The Young Prince of Spain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 182-183, "The Little Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 214-215, "The Sailor Boy" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 38-40, "The Poor Sailor Boy" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 63, "The Prince of Morocco; or, Johnnie" (1 text)
DT 449, PMOROCCO
Roud #554
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(64a), "The Sailor Boy," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890?
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kitchie-Boy" [Child 252] (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Poor Sailor Boy
File: LN18

Prince of Orange, The

See Nancy (II) (The Rambling Beauty) [Laws P12] (File: LP12)

Prince Robert [Child 87]

DESCRIPTION: Prince Robert asks his mother's blessing on his marriage; instead she poisons him. He sends for his wife. Arriving after the burial, she desires only a ring, but the mother will give nothing. She dies. From the graves grow a birch and brier which entwine.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: marriage poison homicide burial ring flowers stepmother
FOUND IN: US(Ap) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Child 87, "Prince Robert" (4 texts)
Bronson 87, comments only
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 146-147, "Prince Robert" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 453-454, "Prince Robert" (notes only)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 58, "Prince Robert" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 26, pp. 121-123, "Prince Robert" (1 text)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 61-62, "Harry Saunders" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 296-297, "Prince Robert"; pp. 297-298, "Earl Robert" (2 texts)
Roud #55
RECORDINGS:
Jim Kelly, "Lord Abore" (on IREarlyBallads)
Frank Feeney, "Lord O'Bore" (on IREarlyBallads)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Harry Saunders
NOTES [46 words]: According to the liner notes for the Jim Kelly and Frank Feeney recordings, "no [other] sung version of this ballad is known." Jim Kelly learned the song from Frank Feeney who learned it "from his wife who was a Carlow woman." Of the Child texts, theirs is closest to 87c. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: C087

Prince William and Lady Margaret

See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Princess Royal, The

See The Bold Princess Royal [Laws K29] (File: LK29)

Pris'ner at the Bar

See The Prisoner at the Bar (The Judge and Jury) (File: R828)

Prison Moan

See Chain Gang Song (Prison Moan) (File: LoSi361)

Prison of Newfoundland

DESCRIPTION: "... listen to my sad tale, While I relate the hardship attending St. John's jail." Doyle lands at "Harvey's Wharf a cargo for to land." A witness lies; Doyle is sentenced to six months. From a cell he watches "the lads and lassies" and dreams of Ireland
AUTHOR: Johnny Doyle?
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: homesickness prison trial shore sailor prisoner Ireland
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, pp. 48-49, "Prison of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 48-49 in the 3rd edition
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 90, "The Prison of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 46-47, "The Prison of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 312-314, "The Prison(er) of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PRSONEWF*
Roud #4409
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Prison of Newfoundland" (on NFOBlondahl02)
Eddy Primroy, "Prisoner of Newfoundland" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Monica Rossiter, "The Prisoner of Newfoundland" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [22 words]: Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing: "Mention of the Black Ball Line ... would seem to date the song in the vicinity of the late 1880's." - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doyl3048

Prisoner at the Bar, The (The Judge and Jury)

DESCRIPTION: "The judge was there, the jury too, And people from afar, A fair young lad of tender youth Was a prisoner at the bar." The young man's sweetheart argues the case; she simply asks judge and jury to remember their youthful love. The prisoner is freed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Peg Moreland)
KEYWORDS: love judge trial reprieve freedom crime
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #86, "Pris'ner at the Bar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 828, "The Prisoner at the Bar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 37, "Judge and Jury" (1 text, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 58-60, "The Prisoner at the Bar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 29, "The Prisoner At the Bar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3543
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "Prisoner at the Bar" (Gennett 7154/Supertone 9639, 1930)
Lulu Belle & Scotty, "The Prisoner At the Bar" (Conqueror 8594, 1935; Melotone 6-03-59, 1936; Vocalion 05487, 1940)
Peg Moreland, "The Prisoner at the Bar" (Victor 21548, 1928)
Doc Williams' Border Riders, "Prisoner at the Bar" (Wheeling DW-1016, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Geordie" [Child 209] (plot)
NOTES [22 words]: Barry, Henry, and Roberts thought this might be a derivative of "Geordie" (Child 209). To call this a stretch is to be generous. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R828

Prisoner for Life (II), A

See Irish Mail Robber, The [Laws L15] (File: LL15)

Prisoner for Life, A (I - Farewell to Green Fields and Meadows)

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell (to) green fields and (green) meadows, adieu; Your rocks and your mountains I now part from you." The singer, condemned to (life in) prison, laments all the various things -- nature, friends, whatever springs to mind -- he will be separated from
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Lomax - Cowboy Songs); 19C (Wolf)
KEYWORDS: prison separation lament
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 164, "A Prisoner for Life" (4 texts, 3 tunes, of which the "B," and "D" texts and the "C" excerpt go with this piece; the "A" text is "The Irish Mail Robber" [Laws L15])
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 13, "Fair Well Green Hills & Soft Meadows" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 170, "A Prisoner for Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1933, p. 130, "The Prisoner for Life" (1 reference)
DT, PRSNRLIF* PRSNRLF2*
Roud #4312
RECORDINGS:
Jules Allen, "A Prisoner for Life" (Victor V-40068, 1929)
Betty Laferty, "Farewell to Sweet Beaver" (on Crisp01)
NOTES [133 words]: Ozark folklore credits this to one William Alexander, who on January 21, 1890 was convicted of murder by Isaac Parker (known as the "Hanging Judge"). Originally sentenced to death, this was reduced to life imprisonment, and the story is that Alexander was eventually freed when the dead man turned up alive!
Several scholars have pronounced this story true, or at least possible, but Laws, and others, suspect this piece to be of Irish origin.
What's more, Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 130, notes a broadside, "The Prisoner for Life," which begins, "Adieu, ye green trees, ye sweet meadows, adieu," which probably predates Alexander. The tune listed for that broadside is "Hunt the Buffalo." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: R164

Prisoner of Chillon, The

DESCRIPTION: "My hair is grey, but not with years, Nor grew it white In a single night, As men's have grown from sudden fears." The poem goes on for almost 400 lines to describe prison life, but this was all Alice Kane remembered
AUTHOR: George Gordon, Lord Byron
EARLIEST DATE: 1816 (date of composition)
KEYWORDS: prison hair
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 56, "The Prisoner of Chillon [My hair is white]" (1 fragment)
Roud #25370
NOTES [43 words]: Although Byron's poem is long, a story of an actual monk who was imprisoned for four years, Alice Kane remembered only the first four lines -- and those were a recommendation of her father's of something to write were she given lines. Hardly traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC056A

Prisoner of Newfoundland (I), The

See The Prison of Newfoundland (File: Doyl3048)

Prisoner of Newfoundland (II), The

See The Convict and the Rose (File: ML3CoatR)

Prisoner's Hope, The

See Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! (File: RJ19214)

Prisoner's Song (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments his time in prison, and thinks of all that he would do if free. He recalls his crime. He misses his family and his sweetheart. He describes his hopes for freedom in complex metaphors: a ship on the sea, an eagle's wings, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: prison lament love family
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,So) Ireland Canada
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 100, "The Prisoner's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 746, "Meet Me Tonight" (4 texts, 1 tune, with the "C" text being probably this piece although the other three appear to go with "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight")
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 350, "The Prisoner's Song" (7 texts plus 1 fragment, 2 excerpts, and mention of 1 more; "A"-"C," plus probably the "D" excerpt, are "The Prisoner's Song (I)"; "E" and "G," plus perhaps the "H" fragment, are "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight"; "J" and "K" are "Sweet Lulur"); also probably 351, "Seven Long Years" (1 text, certainly mixed but containing elements characteristic of this song)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, p. 48, "The Prisoner's Song" (1 text, along with a text of "Meet Me in the Moonlight" and extensive history), culminating on pp. 50-51 with "Prisoner's Song (Tragic Romance)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 350, "The Prisoner's Song" (tune omitted to avoid copyright issues, but with a note and stanza showing that some of the words of the Dalhart song date to 1881); 351, "Seven Long Years" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #27, pp. 193-194, "The Prisoner's Song" (1 text, 1 tune, collected in 1925 and almost certainly Dalhart-influenced)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 62-63, "I Wish I Had Someone to Love Me" (1 text, 1 tune, almost certainly Dalhart-influenced)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 346-351, "New Jail/Prisoner's Song/Here's Adieu to all Judges and Juries" (1 text, not collected by Scarborough, of "Judges and Juries," plus 6 texts from her collections: "New Jail," "I'm Going To My New Jail Tomorrow," "New Jail," "Meet Me in the Moonlight," "The Great Ship," "Prisoner's Song"; 3 tunes on pp.449-450; the "A" fragment is probably "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight"; "B" and "D" are "New Jail" types; "C" is too short to classify; "E" is a mix of floating verse, "If I had a great ship on the ocean," "Let her go, let her go and God bless her," "Sometimes I'll live in the white house, sometimes I live in town..."; "F" may well have some Dalhart influence)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 143, "Meet Me in the Moonlight" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 218-219, "Seven Long Years in State Prison" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 35, p. 49, "The Prisoner's Song" (1 text, which appears to be directly due to Dalhart)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H746, p. 62, "Gaol Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 190-191, "Seven Long Years" (1 text, mostly "For Seven Long Years I've Been Married" but with two verses of "The Prisoner's Song (I)" or one of its various relatives)
ST FSC100 (Partial)
Roud #11730
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley & Tex Isley, "Prisoner's Song" (on Ashley01)
Wilf Carter, "The Prisoner's Song" (Bluebird 33-0503, 1942; Bluebird [Canadian] 55-3202, 1943; rec. 1941)
Carter Family, "Meet Me By the Moonlight Alone" (Conqyeror 8734, 1936/ARC 7-01-54, 1937; rec. 1935)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Prisoner's Song" (Victor 19427-B, 1924) (Columbia 257-D, 1924) (Perfect 12164, 1924) (Edison 51459 [as Vernon Dalhart & Co.], 1925; rec. 1924) (Brunswick 2900, 1925) (OKeh 40328 [as Tobe Little], 1925) (Bell 340, 1925) (Regal 9795, 1925) (Cameo 703 [708?], 1925; Perfect 12644/Supertone S-2000, 1930) (Apex [Can.] 8428, 1926) (CYL: Edison [BA] 4954, n.d. [as Vernon Dalhart & Co.]) (Ajax [Can.] 17115, 1925 - probably a reissue of another recording, but it's not clear which)
Kaplan's Melodists w. Vernon Dalhart, voc. "The Prisoner's Song" (Edison 51666, 1925)
Jimmie Davis, "The Prisoner's Song" (Decca 5966/Melotone [Canada] 45455, 1941)
Fats Domino, “Prisoner’s Song” (Imperial 45 X5526, rec. 1958)
Buell Kazee [untitled fragment, under "On Top of Old Smokey"] (on Kazee01)
Bill Monroe & his Bluegrass Boys, "The Prisoner's Song" (Decca 46314, 1951)
Ezra Paulette & his Beverly Hillbillies, "The Prisoner's Song" (Vocalion 03263, 1936)
George Reneau "The Prisoner's Song" (Vocalion 5056/Vocalion 14991/Silvertone 3045 [as George Hobson], 1925)
Arthur Smith, "Kilby Jail" (on McGeeSmith1)
The Texas Drifter, "The Prisoner's Song" (Panachord [U.K.] 25250, 1932)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (tune)
cf. "Botany Bay"
cf. "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight"
cf. "New Prisoner's Song"
cf. "The Prisoner's Song (II)"
cf. "Sweet Lulur" (floating verses)
NOTES [743 words]: Disentangling the sources and versions of this song is almost impossible. Cazden et al believe that it was formed by the collation of two songs, one belonging to the "Botany Bay/Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries" family and another being a variant of "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight/I Wish I Had Someone to Love Me." Various floating verses added to the mix, and a portion of "The Red River Valley" supplied the tune. (Others say the tune is "The Ship That Never Returned." Another part of the family, the "Seven Long Years in State Prison/I'm Going to the New Jail Tomorrow" group, uses a slightly regularized form of "My Bonnie.")
Such an elaborate reconstruction can hardly be proved, but there is no doubt that this song has complex roots. The relationships between the texts can hardly be proved; I just hope we locate all of them!
Plus, of course, almost any version collected after 1924 may have been influenced by the Vernon Dalhart recording, which was certainly the first million-selling country side (exact numbers are uncertain, but sheet music sales exceeded one million, and at least two million discs were sold; some estimates put the total at 25 million or more!). The Carter Family also had "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight" version, which adds to the complications.
The Dalhart version was copyrighted in 1924 by Dalhart in the name of Guy Massey, a cousin of the singer. At one point, Dalhart claimed Massey wrote the words and he himself the tune. On other occasions, Dalhart claimed the whole song. He also said at one point that it was public domain. Dalhart managed to collect author's royalties, though -- and gave very little to Massey.
It is fascinating to observe that the 1925 sheet music makes no mention of Dalhart at all. The cover page reads "The Prisoner's Song -- Ballad -- -- With Violin Obigato. Words and Music by Guy Massey." It was published by Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. It contains two arrangements of the song, a version for male quartette arranged by Jack Glogau and an uncredited piano arrangement. Contrary to the front cover, there is no part marked for the violin (although "a violin solo is suggested between the third and fourth stanzas"). There is a piano lead-in, which looks to me as if it may have been suggested by Adelyne Hood's and Carson Robison's fiddle-and-guitar performance -- at least, the bass line looks a lot like a guy strumming chords. The lyrics are identical to Dalhart's, The back cover features a sample of "The Convict and the Rose" by Betty Chapin (which *does* have a violin obligato). It looks as if it was rushed out once Dalhart had his hit, even though his name is not to be found on it.
The above (except for the description of the sheet music) is mostly from Walter Darrell Haden, in his biography of Dalhart in Malone & McCulloh, Stars of Country Music. But he also offers a more complicated tale:
When Dalhart planned to record "The Wreck of Old 97" for Victor (he had already recorded it for Edison, and it was his biggest success to that time), they needed a flip side. To that point, Dalhart had been doing mostly operatic pieces, and didn't have much of a country repertoire. He showed the studio's music director a few lines written out (but not necessarily composed) by Massey. The Victor official, Nathaniel Shilkret, padded out the text and added a tune.
Whatever the details of authorship (and I agree with Haden that this is a slightly-patched-up folksong), it launched Dalhart on a career in which he sold an estimated 50 million discs, cut some 3000 sides totalling about 1000 different songs, and recorded under dozens if not hundreds of names.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 359, estimates that this was the second most popular song in America in 1926, peaking at #1 in January 1926 (#1 for the year being Irving Berlin's "Always").
In an interesting folkloric touch, it is reported that the band at Belle Guinan's speakeasy the El Fay Club in New York would play "The Prisoner's Song" when someone turned up to try to enforce Prohibition (Deborah Blum, The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, Penguin, 2010, p. 52). - RBW
Mike Seeger classes "Kilby Jail" as being a variant of this song. The words don't look like it to me, but certainly the gestalt is the same, so I'll go along with him. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FSC100

Prisoner's Song (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer envies a sparrow its liberty. He describes the hard lot of the prisoners, "reduced to skin and bone," bound to ball and chain. He warns others not to keep bad company, or they'll be like him, serving 27 years in the penitentiary
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (collected from Christina McAllister)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer, a prisoner, strolls to see a sparrow, envying the bird its liberty; he imagines it saying, "Cheer up, my lads, and don't be sad; some day you will be free." He describes the hard lot of the prisoners, "strapping fellows reduced to skin and bone," bound to ball and chain. He warns others not to stay out late or keep bad company, or they'll be like him, serving 27 years in the penitentiary
KEYWORDS: captivity warning prison punishment freedom bird prisoner floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 99, "The Prisoner's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16638
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Prisoner's Song (I)" (subject)
cf. "The Boston Burglar" (lyrics)
NOTES [44 words]: Despite the identical title and subject, this is a completely different song from "The Prisoner's Song (I)"; the latter has the distinguishing verse beginning "If I had the wings of an eagle." It does share a final warning verse with many other songs, however. - PJS
File: McCST099

Prisoner's Song (III), The

See Sweet Lulur (File: BrIII350)

Prisoner's Song (IV)

See New Prisoner's Song (File: RcNPS)

Prisoner's Song (V), The

DESCRIPTION: "Within this prison cell so dreary, I mourn away my weary heart." The singer must forever part from "my only darling." His love sends him a rose, and thinks him innocent, though he has "no hope of pardon." He will wear the rose as he is executed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (collected by Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains from J. Ralph Vass)
KEYWORDS: prison love separation execution flowers
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, p. 74, "The Prisoner's song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7325
NOTES [30 words]: This, like almost everything else in the Vass Family repertoire, sounds half-familiar; I have to think it's another of their rewrites of something else. But it's not clear what. - RW
File: Shel074

Private Michael Cassidy

DESCRIPTION: "Assidy, assidy, Sergeant/Private Michael Cassidy, He's the boy, a wonderful sagacity, Sergeant Michael Cassidy."
AUTHOR: R. P. Weston and Jack Norworth (source: sheet music published by Francis, Day and Hunter)
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: soldier
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 156, "Assidy, assidy, Sergeant Michael Cassidy" (1 fragment)
Roud #25547
NOTES [136 words]: Edith Fowke's notes say that this is a version of "Private Michael Cassidy, V.C.," which was recorded by its co-author Jack Norworth on Columbia 2609 and Regal G712. The sheet music was published; I found catalog records in British and Australian libraries, but no one seems to have a scan, so I don't know what the song is about.
I do not find a Michael Cassidy among the winners of the Victoria Cross.
Of the songs in the Index, authors R. P. Weston was also responsible for "Anne Boleyn (With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm)," "Send Him a Cheerful Letter," "Rawtenstall Annual Fair," "The Gypsy Warned Me," "Where Are the Lads of the Village Tonight?" and "I'm Henery the Eighth I Am." Weston was also co-author of the fairly well-known "I've Got Rings on My Fingers" with Maurice Scott and Fred Barnes. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC156A

Private Still, The (The Gauger's Song)

DESCRIPTION: A guager believes a private (illegal) still can be found near Dublin. He asks Pat's aid, offering fifty pounds. Pat promises to lead him there. After a long trip, they see Pat's soldier brother: "They won't make him a corporal, so he's a private still"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1879 (broadside, LOCSinging sb30417b)
KEYWORDS: money drink soldier trick humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H103, pp. 55-56, "The Private Still" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 46, "The Gauger's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 22, pp. 51-52,112,165-166, "The Gauger's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 60, "A Private Still" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1936, p. 130, "A Private till" (1 reference)
DT, PRVTSTIL*
Roud #2342
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.14(272), "The Private Still" ("An exciseman once in Dublin at the time that I was there"), H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also 2806 b.11(41), 2806 c.16(279), Firth b.26(131), Firth c.20(100), Harding B 11(3991), "The Private Still"
LOCSinging, sb30417b, "A Private Still," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
NOTES [68 words]: Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster: "A 'Gauger' was a member of the Revenue Police, who until their disbandment in the mid 1850s, had been charged with the suppression of illicit distillation - poteen making." - BS
Broadside LOCSinging sb30417b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: HHH103

Privates Eat the Middlin', The

See Jinny Go Round and Around (File: R272)

Proddy Woddy on the Wall

DESCRIPTION: "Proddy woddy on the wall, a half a loaf would feed you all, A ha'penny candle would show you light, To read your Bible in the night."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: food Bible | wall candle light
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 172, "Proddy Woddy on the Wall" (1 short text)
File: BAAI172B

Prodigal Son (I)

DESCRIPTION: Prodigal son, starving, decides to return home. His father embraces him, saying, "Kill the fatted calf." The elder son is jealous, but the father reassures him that he will inherit. Chorus: "I believe I'll go back home/And acknowledge I've done wrong"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: homesickness jealousy home separation return reunion Bible family father brother
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 39, #4 (1995), p, 102, "Prodigal Son" (1 text, 1 tune, indirectly based on the Dock Boggs version)
Roud #4489
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "Prodigal Son" (on Boggs1, BoggsCD1)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Believe I'll Go Back Home
NOTES [102 words]: This should not be confused with Rev. Robert Wilkins' song "That's No Way to Get Along", also a retelling of Luke 15:11-32; Wilkins' song was recorded by the Rolling Stones as "Prodigal Son." - PJS
The song "The Prodigal Son" in the Missouri Harmony does not appear to be the same piece either.
In addition to the songs mentioned above, there are a number of hymns which speak of the prodigal son (a title not found in the Bible, we might note; a few translations mention the youth's "prodigal living," but the King James Version is not one of them), and the boy's exploits occasionally come up in other songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: RcPS1

Prodigal Son, The

See Hava Nashira (Come, Let's Be Singing) (File: ACSF443N)

Prohibition Boys, The

DESCRIPTION: "Here is a lesson for you prohibitioners; Some wisdom it will teach; That the prohibition boys ought To practice what they preach." The song details various prohibitionists trying covertly to acquire liquor
AUTHOR: Marshal Laughinghouse?
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 309, "The Prohibition Boys" (1 text)
Roud #6632
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Prohibition Whiskey" (theme)
File: BrII309

Prohibition Jingle of 1893, A

DESCRIPTION: "If you want to see your brother Fettered with a drunkard's chain, Vote for Kennedy Macdonald, Vote for Vogel an McLean. If you want to save your sister From disgrace and ruin and hell, Vote against the Liquor interest, Vote for Fraser, Stout, and Bell."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Auckland "New Zealand Observer," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: political New Zealand drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 94, "A Prohibition Jingle of 1893" (1 text)
File: BaRo094

Prohibition Whiskey

DESCRIPTION: "It's been ten years ago or more, If I've been rightly told, There was stealing done in Arapohoe Of whiskey old and new." A prohibitionist steals gin and passes it to his equally thirsty and dishonest friends. Brewers are warned about prohibitionists
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 310, "Prohibition Whiskey" (1 text)
Roud #6631
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Prohibition Boys" (theme)
File: BrII310

Promised Land

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "(I will meet you in the Promised Land) (x2) (I will meet you) (x3) Meet you, Meet you, I will meet you in the Promised Land." Singer has a "mansion up on high Not made by hand" and a "(sister/brother) in the new graveyard That outshines the sun"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 322-323, "Primus Lan'" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR322P

Promised Land (I), The

See Where Is Old Elijah? (The Hebrew Children, The Promised Land) (File: San092)

Promised Land (II)

See My Way Seems So Hard (File: RcBLQPL)

Promised Land, The

DESCRIPTION: "I have a father in the promised land (x2), My father calls me, I must go, To meet him in the promised land." I have a Savior in the promised land." "I have a own in the promised land... When Jesus calls me, I must go." "I hope to meet you..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (source: hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Heart-Songs, p. 473, "The Promised Land" (1 text)
NOTES [45 words]: There are several songs with this approximate first line. This refers specifically to the version that repeats the "I have a (X) in the promised land" *twice*, not once or three times. It is not, e.g., the one that usually has the tune "Martin" in shape note hymnals. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: HeSo473

Promises

DESCRIPTION: Round, based on "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening": "But I have promises to keep And miles to go before I sleep"
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Frost
EARLIEST DATE: as a song, 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs); the poem was written in 1922
KEYWORDS: campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 446, "Promises" (notes only)
File: ACSF446K

Prooshian Drum, The

DESCRIPTION: "An Orangeman lied and on his bed died And went to St. Peter for to let him in." He is denied entry because he was "cursed from... birth." A Freemason and Henry VIII have no better luck as the "rattled away on the Prooshian drum."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1984 (Thomas and Widdowson)
KEYWORDS: death Hell rejection religious
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth S. Goldstein, "A Report on Continuing Research into 'Treason Songs': A Private Newfoundland Tradition," essay on pp. 126-153 of Gerald Thomas and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, _Studies in Newfoundland Folklore: Community and Process_, Breakwater Books, 1991, pp. 127-128, "The Prooshian Drum" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
ST ThWi127 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Orangeman's Dream" (theme of an Orangeman trying to get into heaven)
cf. "Captain Fowler" (theme of an Orangeman trying to get into heaven)
NOTES [293 words]: According to Kenneth Goldstein's essay, a "Treason Song," in Newfoundland usage, was not a song supporting the overthrow of the government or the like, but (in effect) one that was very politically incorrect and not fit to be sung in open settings. Thus it might insult an individual who was still alive, or a particular class of people (Catholics, Protestants, Liberals, Conservatives, etc. Protestants seem to have been the most common target). The name "Treason Song" presumably arose because the songs were kept private.
Some Treason Songs were so rare that they were never found except under that category (and probably many have never been collected at all), but there are some fairly well-known songs that also were treated as Treason Songs by at least some of Goldstein's informants. Examples of the latter class include, e.g., "Bold McCarthy" and "The Croppy Boy." A few people even regarded "The Cumberland's Crew" as a Treason Song!
The phenomenon is widespread enough in Newfoundland as to earn an entry on p. 762 of StoryKirwinWiddowson: "a song or ballad of a sectarian nature; a satiric composition attacking or ridiculing an individual or group." They note that Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou also encountered such songs, which they weren't allowed to record; these either showed religious prejudice or were about people who were still alive.
It is ironic that the theology of this song, such as it is, is purely Protestant -- indeed, extreme Calvinist; only a radical predestinarian would say that a person was cursed from birth. Calvinists do not believe in limited atonement or unconditional election.
Manifold, pp. 21-41, has a whole section on treason songs in Australia; he considers songs about Jack Donohue to be typical of the type. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: ThWi127

Prop of the Land

DESCRIPTION: "Who is the prop and support of the land? Is it the rich or the poor I should ask?" "The prop of the land is the hard working man." He should have a fair day's pay for his work. Death calls all or the rich man would buy life while the poor would die.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1683))
KEYWORDS: poverty commerce work hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 105-106, "Prop of the Land" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 155)
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #15, "Prop of the Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1254
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1683), "Here's a Health to the Hard Working Man" ("Who is the prop and support of the land"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885
LOCSinging, as105290, "Here's a Health to the Hard Working Man" ("Who is the prop and support of the land"), Taylor's Song Mart (London), no date
NOTES [131 words]: Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames ends with toasts to the swan, "house of industry," "every poor man's wife that drinks a health to her country." "If life was a thing that money could buy, The rich would live and the poor might die." Toast lots of wine, beer, nice wife and 10000 a year. Roud assigns a separate number, Roud #1255, to the toast.
The sentiment, "If life was a thing that money could buy, The rich would live and the poor would die," is common enough. See, for example, "All My Trials" and "Prop of the Land" (and even "Wild Rover No More") in this index. One follow-on, though not here, is "But God's infinite wisdom has ordered it so, That the rich and poor to the grave must go."
Another "rich would live and the poor would die" indexed here is "The Panic Is On." - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: WT105

Prop of the Nation, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Who is the support of our country today, The rich or the poor?' you may ask. No, it is the man with the toil-hardened hand Who forever you'll find at his task." The song describes the various accomplishments of the worker, from farming to construction
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: work worker
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 74, "The Prop of the Nation' (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa074 (Partial)
NOTES [80 words]: Lena Bourne Fish, who sang this song for the Warners, thought it came from Rutherford B. Hayes's presidential campaign of 1876. There is, perhaps, some logic to this; Hayes, while not poor, was by no means as well-off as his Democratic opponent, Samuel Tilden. Hayes was also completely honest (a welcome change after the corruption of the Grant administration); it is sad to note that he became president as a result of Republican electoral chicanery in which he had no part. - RBW
File: Wa074

Prophet Brigham, The

See Where Now is the Prophet Brigham (File: Hubb219)

Prospecting Dream

DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams a dream of a miner's hard life. His long-tom falls in the river. His supplies are scattered. His girl is far away. His strike comes to nothing. He goes to town, gets drunk, is beaten, loses his equipment, and winds up a thief
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1854 ("Put's Original California Songster")
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a prospector, tells of dreaming that he had lost his equipment and provisions, struck a rich lead, written home bragging of his find, and blown all his money on a spree. He hires out as a hardware clerk, gets fired, and is caught stealing. Chorus: "Oh what a miner, what a miner was I/All swelled up with scurvy so I really thought I'd die"
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes drink dream poverty bragging theft disease
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 92-93, "Prospecting Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 56, "Propsecting Dream" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "Prospecting Dream" (on LEnglish02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Susanna" (tune)
File: FSWB056

Prospector, The

DESCRIPTION: "Twelve years have I lived in this desolate place, Far from all habitation -- not even a face Have I seen...." He has seen "visions of gold in those canyons unmapped." Even though he knows the visions are foolish, he will stay in "the land of illusions"
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: mining gold hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, p. 130, "The Prospector" (1 text)
File: ThLo130

Protestant Boys (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The Protestant Boys, "Orange and Blue," assemble to support the King. Appeal to William's spirit as model: "from Paypish or Frenchman ne'er to retire." "We hate [Catholics] as masters and love them as men," "God bless the people and God save the King!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (_The Protestant, or True Blue_, Dublin, according to Sparling)
KEYWORDS: Ireland political religious
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 122-123, "The Protestant Boys" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 457-458, 514, "Protestant Boys"
Roud #6531
NOTES [146 words]: Sparling: "In its original form dates back to 1689, but the version given is comparatively late. It is taken from 'The Protestant, or True Blue,' Dublin, 1826."
This is not the song usually referred to as "The Protestant Boys." That being the case it may be the song referred to by Colonel Blacker in Zimmermann's note below.
Zimmermann p. 297, fn 9, quoting William Archer Marching of the Lodges p. 193: "William Blacker, who also denied the existence of anti-Catholic songs in the Orange Lodges, cited as 'very much the reverse of uncharitable' a line from the charter song composed in 1796 by Captain Ryan: We hate them as masters [the Catholics], we love them as men" - BS
The reference to the French also hints at a date in the period 1795-1800, since this was the time when French intervention was constantly expected; see, e.g., the notes to "The Shan Van Voght." - RBW
File: HayU122

Protestant Boys (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "The Protestant Boys are loyal and true." They fought bravely at Derry, the Boyne and Aughrim against James who "with masses and Frenchmen the land would enslave." "Traitors shall tremble, Whene'er we assemble, For Protestant Boys shall carry the day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1895 (Graham-TheOrangeSongster)
KEYWORDS: battle Ireland nonballad patriotic religious
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 2, "The Protestant Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-TheOrangeSongster, p. 11, "The Protestant Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [179 words]: "The Protestant Boys" was the tune played by "The Old Orange Flute."
Zimmermann, pp. 296-297, quotes the Earl of Gosford's 1835 testimony to the House of Commons about disturbances in County Armagh: "There are very frequent disturbances there between the parties, and I have heard of parties of people going through the town and playing party tunes, which have been productive of annoyance. -- Q. What party? -- A. The Orangemen going through the town and playing party tunes. -- Q. What tunes? -- A. "Boyne Water", and "Protestant Boys", and "Croppies lie down". -- Q. Are those tunes deemed offensive by the Catholic people of that county? -- A. Yes, certainly."
The offense was freely given and advertised, as described in "The Aughalee Heroes": "It being the twelfth day of July, Our music so sweetly did play, And 'The Protestant Boys' and 'Boyne Water', Were the tunes we played going away." - BS
For the Siege of Derry, see "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry." For the Boyne, see "The Battle of the Boyne (I)." For Aughrim, see "After Aughrim's Great Diaster." - RBW
File: OrLa002

Protestant Dogs

DESCRIPTION: "Protesteant dogs Jump like frogs (stink like dogs, etc.), Do eat meat on Friday." Or "Proddy dog, proddy dog, Go to hell."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal food
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 127, "(Protestant dogs)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Catholic Dogs" (answer to this piece)
File: SuSm126G

Protestant Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: A Protestant maid marries a Catholic who has a priest help convince her to convert. The priest plans a transubstantiation demonstration. She adds arsenic to the cake and he balks at eating it. Her husband is convinced to convert to Protestantism.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "A pretty maid, a Protestant, got to a Papist wed" In spite of her husband's urging she would not convert. He brought a priest home to convince her. The priest planned a demonstration of transubstantiation. She agreed and volunteered to make the cake. As he prepared to eat it she told him she had added arsenic; if the cake was changed by transubstantiation, it should be harmless. The priest left without a taste, crying "'This is a cursed place.'" She replied, "'You are a cursed race." Her husband was convinced to convert "and quite forsake the system that's impure."
KEYWORDS: marriage trick poison ritual Ireland religious husband wife clergy food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 26, "The Protestant Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Orange Flute" (subject: religious conversion)
cf. "The Banks of Dunmore" (subject: religious conversion)
cf. "Garvagh Town" (subject: religious conversion)
cf. "Rosedale Waters (The Skeptic's Daughter)" (subject: religious conversion)
cf. "Silver Jack" [Laws C24] (subject: religious conversion)
NOTES [125 words]: This almost sounds like an answer to "The Banks of Dunmore" -- with the addition, amazingly, of an actual experiment. Of course, there is the complication that the body can become relatively accustomed to arsenic, so possibly in the process of transubstantiation, the arsenic would remain behind -- and the alleged body of Christ would merely be subject to a high arsenic level which would kill the consumers. It would be an interesting experiment to try on, say, a child-abusing priest.
But the idea that anyone would be convinced by this is highly unlikely. For a discussion of the myriad arguments over transubstantiation, which is one of the many hard-to-bridge divides between Protestant and Catholic, see the notes to "The Banks of Dunmore." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: OrLa026

Proud Flora

DESCRIPTION: November 8, 1802, the Proud Flora is freighted and leaves Jamaica. In a storm they "throw out some of the lumber ... then the pipes of good wine and rich brandy we were forced to throw into the sea." They land safely the next morning.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: sea ship storm sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 95-96, "Proud Flora" (1 text)
Roud #20535
File: Ran095

Proud Lady Margaret [Child 47]

DESCRIPTION: Knight comes to court Margaret; he will have her or die. She says better men than he have died for her. She asks riddles; he answers and asks more. She agrees to wed, and lists her wealth. He calls her a liar; he is her dead brother come to humble her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: death courting riddle ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Child 47, "Proud Lady Margaret" (5 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 47, "Proud Lady Margaret" (3 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 47, "Proud Lady Margaret" (1 version: #1)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 256-259, "Proud Lady Margaret" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 18-23, "Archerdale/The Knicht o' Archerdale" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1, with differences}
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 115-118, "Archerdale" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 336, "Proud Lady Margaret" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Dixon-ScottishTraditionalVersionsOfAncientBallads V, pp. 42-45, "The Bonny Hind Squire" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 183-186, "The Bonny Hind Squire" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 162-164, "Proud Lady Margaret" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 54-56, "Proud Lady Margaret" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 26, "Proud Lady Margaret" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 49, "Proud Lady Margaret" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 161-162, "Proud Lady Margaret"; pp. 162-163, "The Courteous Knight" (2 texts)
DT 47, PRDMARG
Roud #37
File: C047

Proud Nancy

See Nancy (I) [Laws P11] (File: LP11)

Proud Pedlar, The

DESCRIPTION: A pedlar offers his pack of gold to sleep with a lady. She accepts. He asks her to return his pack. She refuses. He tells her husband he had borrowed her mortar to grind spice with his pestle and she kept his Pack. The husband has her return it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1750 (_Roxburghe Ballads, v. iii p. 656, according to Farmer)
KEYWORDS: adultery sex gold husband wife commerce
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 265, "The Pedlar" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Stephen Farmer, editor, Merry Songs and Ballads, Prior to the Year 1800 (1897), Vol I, pp. 247-250, "The Proud Pedlar"
Roud #5852
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cluster of Nuts" (theme: cuckolded husband settles dispute/bet between his wife and her lover)
NOTES [11 words]: The sexual symbolism of mortar and pestle grinding spice is clear. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD265

Proud Were the Spencers

See (notes under) Hugh Spencer's Feats in France [Child 158] (File: C158)

Proude where the Spencers

See (notes under) Hugh Spencer's Feats in France [Child 158] (File: C158)

Provincial Characteristics

DESCRIPTION: "A Connaught man Gets all that he can ... bully and batter ...." "A Munster man Is civil by plan ... to cheat you." "An Ulster man Ever means to trepan ... insolence ...." "A Leinster man Is with all cup and can ... calls t'other provinces knaves"
AUTHOR: Dr John Brenan (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: between 1812 and 1825 (_The Milesian Magazine; or, Irish Monthly Gleaner_, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: Ireland humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 125-126, "Provincial Characteristics" (1 text)
File: CrPS125

Prune Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "No matter how hard a prune may try, he's always getting wrinkles, Ah baby prunes just like his dad, 'cept he ain't wrinkled half so bad, Wrinkles we get... Prunes they get them every place, No matter how hard a prune may try, he's always getting stewed"
AUTHOR: Frank Crumit and Harry da Costa (source: mudcat.org thread "Frank Crummit? / Frank Crumit (songs)")
EARLIEST DATE: 2005 (mudcat.org thread); the original Crumit recording is said by internet sources to be from 1928
KEYWORDS: food campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 126, 267, 416, "Prune Song" (notes only)
NOTES [66 words]: The mudcat.org thread "Frank Crummit? / Frank Crumit (songs)" contains a very full version of this, which is about cosmetic surgery and other modern advances, but I do not believe this can be what the campers cited by Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs are singing. The description quotes just the part I have found in camp songbooks. It is derived from the Crumit/DaCosta version, but much shorter. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF126P

Pryncyple Poynth of Charyte, A

See Be Merry, Be Merry (A Pryncyple Poynth of Charyte) (File: GREE017)

Psalm 100

See Old Hundred (File: SBoA028)

Psalm of Life, A

DESCRIPTION: "Tell me not in mournful numbers Life is but an empty dream, Chickens in their fitful slumbers, Are by no means what they seem." "Egg thou art and egg remainest." "Trust no hawk however pleasant." They leave "Hen tracks in the sand of time."
AUTHOR: unknown (parody of a Longfellow poem)
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Journal of the Pavilion)
KEYWORDS: chickens derivative humorous death bird home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 315-316, "A Psalm of Life" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #27313
NOTES [28 words]: Unlike most parodies, this one is genuinely funny. I'm amazed no one has picked it up.
This is, of course, a parody of Longfellow's "A Song of Life" (published 1838). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HGam315

Puddin-n-tane

See What's Your Name? (File: SaKo120B)

Puddock, Mousie, and Ratton

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Puddy He'd a-Wooin Ride

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Puff the Magic Dragon

DESCRIPTION: Puff the magic dragon "lived by the sea" and played with a boy named little Jackie Paper. They travel the world and have improbable adventures. But one day Jackie Paper stops visiting and Puff is depressed
AUTHOR: Peter Yarrow, based on a poem by Leonard Lipton (sources: Wikipedia and otehrs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: animal travel campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 107, 540, "Puff the Magic Dragon" (notes only)
DT, PUFFDRGN*
SAME TUNE:
Ralph the Magic Seagull (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 254)
NOTES [174 words]: Obviously a pure pop song. I never thought I would be including it in the Index! But Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs lists so many versions (29) that I'm reluctantly listing it here, in part to sneer about it. Averill lists no dates for these collections; I can't help but wonder how many were from the 1960s. If people were still singing it circa, say, 1990, I'd be a lot more impressed.
Averill notes that this was banned at many camps, because of the perceived connection with marijuana use. I'll admit I've always wondered about that. The hints in the lyrics are, obviously, strong -- but I've never heard of Peter Yarrow producing anything else on the topic. And note that Little Jackie Paper eventually gave up, er, puffing. So is that pro- or anti-marijuana? Yarrow and Lipton both said the song was not about drugs.
I've also heard that the "Honalee" in the song is a code for a girl named "Hannah Lee." This strikes me as not impossible, but given Yarrow's now well-documented relations with underage women, that may be unfortunate also. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: DTpuffdr

Puffer Billies

See Down at the Station (File: PHCFS196)

Pufferbillies

See Down at the Station (File: PHCFS196)

Pull Away Me Boy

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "Pull away me boy." The shantyman sings "And you hear me say." "And you do wha' me tell you." "And you go where me go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: work shanty
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 36-38, "Pull Away Me Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [7 words]: Abrahams has this as a Tobago rowing song. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS036A

Pull Doon the Chimneys

DESCRIPTION: "If ye live in the Whitfield hoosin' estate, If he live in Mid Craigie or doon the Seagate... Ye'll ken it's no' bonnie in Bonnie Dundee." Urban renewal has taken away most of the old town. Don't sit still or they'll pull YOU down and plant grass over you
AUTHOR: Catherine Smith (source: Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 78, "Pull Doon the Chimneys" (1 text, tune referenced)
File: Gath078

Pull for the Shore

DESCRIPTION: "Light in the darkness, sailor, day is at hand!" The sailor, clinging to the old boat (presumably meaning his sinful life) is urged to "cling to self no more" and "Leave the poor old stranded wreck, and pull for the shore."
AUTHOR: Philip P. Bliss (1838-1876)
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Bliss's collection _The Song Tree_, according to Julian)
KEYWORDS: ship religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
Roud #17400
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1874 06588, "Pull for the Shore," John Church & Co (Cincinnati)/ George F. Root (Chicago), 1874 (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shore Sailor" (tune, lyrics)
cf. "Launch Thy Bark, Mariner!" (theme)
cf. "Take Me In Your Lifeboat" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Shore Sailor (File: Tawn113)
Stand for the Right ("Hope for the future, toiler, help is at hand; Hear ye the battle-cry that rings through the land") (Foner, p. 163)
NOTES [351 words]: This song has, at best, a very limited place in tradition; I include it because it has some connection with the story of the Titanic. Also, it has been recorded by Tom, Brad, and Alice, which may make it known to users of the Index.
According to John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 150, "This hymn, 'The Life-Boat,' has attained to great popularity. The incident upon which it is based, that of the rescue of a ship's crew by a life-boat, is given in detail by Mr. Sankey in his Sacred Songs, &c. No. 99 (large edition)."
I'm surprised it isn't widely printed today; it wasn't in any of the nine early- to mid-twentieth century hymnals I checked (Baptist, Episcopal, two types of Lutheran, Methodist, Mormon, non-denominational military, Presbyterian, and one I'm not sure about). The tune is magnificent. Of course, the words are a bit un-hymn-like. And, with the exception of the phrase "bright and morning star" (for which see Rev. 22:16), the words do not appear directly Bible-inspired -- though the whole thing might be suggested by Paul's shipwreck in Acts 27.
That phrase "bright and morning star" is interesting, by the way. The literal Greek text of Rev. 22:16 reads "the star the bright the morning." This isn't as clumsy in Greek as in English, perhaps, but I think it is an indication of the Aramaic habits of the writer. The King James Bible tried to preserve the feeling with its "bright and morning star" rendering; most of the newer translations simply say "bright morning star."
There is an interesting note on the dating: Laura Ingalls Wilder quotes this in Little Town on the Prairie, chapter 6. And it is sung by several men from a saloon (ironic, that). She quotes it again, in a more suitable context, in chapter 23. Wilder claims to have heard it at a time that is after the song was composed (1881, I believe), but not much after; either it spread quickly, or Laura misremembered where she heard it.
For more on Philip P. Bliss, see the notes to "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BdPuFoSh

Pulling Hard Against the Stream

DESCRIPTION: "In the world I've gained my knowledge, And for it have had to pay... Do your best for one another... Help a worn and weary brother Pulling hard against the stream." The singer advises helping those in need
AUTHOR: Harry Clifton (per Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Spaeth); 19C (broadside, LOCSinging as110820)
KEYWORDS: nonballad help
FOUND IN: US(SE) Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 54, "Pulling Hard against the Stream" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 157-158, "Pulling Hard Against the Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 133-136, "Pulling Hard Against the Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 45-46, 149, "Pulling Hard Against the Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1958
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as110820, "Pulling Hard Against the Stream," unknown, 19C
NOTES [76 words]: Although the description sounds like a religious song, there are in fact no explicit Christian references in this piece. - RBW
Ives's attribution of authorship to Harry Clifton is supported by the "Song Writers of the Halls" article -- quoting The Melodies Linger On by Walter Macqueen-Pope -- on Harry Clifton at Frederick Denny's World of the Music Hall site. - BS
For background on author Harry Clifton, see the notes to "The Good Ship Kangaroo." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Br3054

Pullman Strike, The

DESCRIPTION: "Near the town of Chicago, where riot holds full sway, The workingmen of Pullman are battling for fair play." The White House has declared them lawbreakers. Troops are called in, even though the workers merely want "fair pay."
AUTHOR: unknown (Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury's version is attributed to "Willie Wildwave")
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (Delaney's Song Book #7, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: strike labor-movement railroading
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1894 - The Pullman Strike
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 451, "The Pullman Strike" (1 text)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 245, "The Pullman Strike" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A. R. U." (subject)
NOTES [11 words]: For background on the Pullman Strike, see the notes to "A. R. U." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CAFS2451

Pullman Train, The

See The Harvard Student (The Pullman Train) (File: R391)

Pump, Suck, Blow

DESCRIPTION: "Pump, suck, blow, Here we go, Diving is a hazard, Look at him Catch the trim, He's a silly bastard Flood from aft, Check main vents... Jimmy's got a bastard on And we don't give a toss"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy technology nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 115-116, "Pump, Suck, Blow" (1 short text, 1 tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. Heykens's "Serenade No. 1" (tune)
cf. "HMS Ariel Song" (tune)
File: Tawn086

Pumpe-Vise

DESCRIPTION: Norwegian pumping shanty, with chorus in English. "Blow, blow, blow, blow! Land is coming in a-lee." Verses have no story, just general sailing rhymes. Verses are repeated twice before the chorus is sung.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Brochmann's _Opsang Fra Seilskibstiden_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty ship
FOUND IN: Norway
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 507-508, "Pumpe-Vise" (1 text)
File: Hugi507

Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Round and Fat

DESCRIPTION: Clapping song/game. "Pumpkin pumpkin round and fat, Turn into a jack-o’lantern, Just like THAT!" (Jump and make a jack-o-lantern face.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2023 (Derek Piotr archive)
KEYWORDS: food | game pumpkin jack-o-lantern
FOUND IN: US(NE)
RECORDINGS:
Patricia Campbell, "Pumpkin, Pumpkin" (Piotr-Archive #500, recorded 02/23/2023)
NOTES [38 words]: Every version of this that I've found online has exactly the same text, and the few with tunes were all identical except for time signature. Presumably there is a recent common original. But I have not found any authorship claim.
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio500

Punch a 'Nella

See Punchinello (File: OpGa118)

Punch and Judy

DESCRIPTION: "Punch and Judy fought for a pie; Punch gave Judy a knock in the eye. Says Punch to Judy, Will you have any more? Says Judy to Punch, My eye is sore."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: injury food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 423, "Punch and Judy" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #223, p. 148, "(Punch and Judy)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 162, "Punch and Judy" (1 text)
Roud #12841
NOTES [66 words]: The inestimable (literally; I esteem her not at all) Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. p. 78, dates this back to the time of Henry VIII, with England being Punch, France being Judy, and the thing they fought over being Italy.
As usual, the only evidence Thomas has is whatever someone slipped into her morning coffee that day.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: OO2423

Punch and Judy Ran a Race

DESCRIPTION: "Punch and Judy ran a race, Judy stopped to tie her lace. Who won? Punch." (After which the one who says "Punch" gets punched.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: game racing clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 10, "Punch and Judy" (1 text)
Roud #29507
File: BAAI010B

Punch Ladle, The

See Fathom the Bowl (File: K268)

Punchin' Dough

DESCRIPTION: The cook points out to the cowboys that "While you're punchin' cattle I'm punchin' the dough." His life is much like theirs, except that he fights with food where they fight with animals. He intends to be "boss of this end of the show."
AUTHOR: Credited by Thorp to Henry Herbert Knibbs
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy cook food
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 131-132, "Punchin' Dough" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 37, "Punchin' Dough" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PNCHDOUG*
Roud #5098
RECORDINGS:
Jules Allen, "Punchin' the Dough" (Victor V-40263, 1930; rec. 1929)
Harry Jackson, "The Round-Up Cook" (on HJackson1, CowFolkCD1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Budd Lake Plains" (theme)
cf. "The Pot Wrassler" (theme)
NOTES [38 words]: The cook on a cattle run was usually an old cowboy who could no longer do the work. It's hardly surprising that he looked on the cowboys as "kids" -- nor that he used his control over the chuck to keep the cowboys in line. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: FCW037

Punchinello

DESCRIPTION: "What shall we do, Punchinello, ...?" "We'll do the same, Punchinello ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond)) Canada(Ont) US(MA) New Zealand
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 118, "Punchinello" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, pp. 76-77, "Punch a 'Nella" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 43-44, "(Look who is here)" (1 text)
Roud #13189
NOTES [9 words]: "Punchinello" is the "Punch" of "Punch and Judy." - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: OpGa118

Punctuality

DESCRIPTION: The singer is not like "fidgety folks ... famous for being too soon." "Punctuality's all very proper"; he is always "exactly ten minutes too late." He misses trains, arrives to propose after his rival, and at death's door will take his medicine too late.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 657, "Punctuality" (1 text)
Roud #6083
File: GrD3657

Pup from Claodach, The

DESCRIPTION: Irish and English. The borrowed pup was so badly treated, poorly fed, homesick, and unhappy that it broke its chain and ran home, crossing "those bleak and barren ranges of Claodach"
AUTHOR: Sean Eoin O Suilleabhain (source: OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage ordeal nonballad dog
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 94-95, "Pup from Claodach, The" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [48 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: [The song] "concerns a pup that was loaned to the McCarthys of Claodach, which is just over the [Cork] county bounds.... It seems that the animal was not well treated by the McCarthys and both they and Claodach come in for a fair amount of criticism in the song." - BS
File: OCan094

Purple Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: A girl asks her "Purple Boy" the secrets given man from "King Solomon's high Temple Throne." He cannot reveal them. "Those Ribbon rascals I would defy." She wishes she were a man "that I could join in your Orange band." Girls should choose a Purple boy.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: love ritual Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 133, "The Purple Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 33, "The Purple Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 21, "The Purple Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3478
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dialogue Between Orange and Croppy" (subject)
NOTES [236 words]: "Following an affray at Loughgall in Co. Armagh in 1795 the Orange Order was founded, while the Yeomen were also established in June 1796. These were made up mainly of men from the Orange Lodges." (source: The 1798 Rebellion on the Hogan Stand site)
Zimmermann p. 19: "In some parts of Ulster, Protestant and Catholic tenants were mingled and contended for the land; the peasantry was thus divided into two camps, each having its oath-bound association. This led to a sort of religious war. At the end of the eighteenth century the Catholic "Defenders" were opposed to the Protestant "Peep o'Day Boys" or "Orangemen." The "Defenders were succeeded by the "Ribbonmen"
Zimmermann, p. 303: "Other Protestant organizations, such as ... the Royal Purple Chapter, developed parallel with Orangeism...."
Within the Orange Lodges, "Purple Marksmen" refers to one of the Master degree, above "Orange" and "Orange Marksman," of the Orange Institution (source: "The Formation of the Orange Order 21st September 1795" in the anti-Orange Evangelical Truth at NIreland.com site). See Zimmermann's song references to "The Purple Marksman" [p. 315] and "The Purple Stream" [p. 303, fn. 39].
Tunney-StoneFiddle: .".. songs alluding to the ritual and secrets of the [Orange] Order are few and far between. Indeed, until 1952 when one William Coulter sang 'The Purple Boy' for Sean O Boyle, it was not sung outside the Lodge." - BS
File: TSF133

Purple Dress, The

See Mary Hamilton [Child 173] (File: C173)

Purty Molly Brannigan

See Polly Brannigan (File: E153E)

Purty Polly

See Pretty Polly (II) [cf. Laws P36] (File: LP36B)

Push About the Pitcher

DESCRIPTION: "The silver moon, that shines so bright" shows "we've time to drink another pitcher." He'd rather drink and have fun than "work all day, and sleep at night, to grow much richer" He'd love a man "who loves a lass .. and boldly calls for t'other pitcher"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1770 (broadside, according to Logan-APedlarsPack);1844 (_The Quavers_)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 234-236, "The Pitcher" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 92, "Joke and Push About the Pitcher" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 453)
ADDITIONAL: The Quaver; or Songster's Pocket Companion (London, 1844 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 126, "Push About the Pitcher" ("The silver moon, that shines so bright") (1 text)
ST WT092 (Partial)
Roud #1253
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl" (theme: drink and good fellowship)) and references there
NOTES [167 words]: Logan-APedlarsPack: "'The sneaking milksop, Jemmy Twitcher' referred to in the fourth stanza, was [Johm Montagu] Lord Sandwich, an unpopular member of the administration [of George III], whose connection with Miss [Martha] Reay [or Ray] was brought prominently before the public in consequence of her having been murdered [on April 7, 1779] ... by an insane Clergyman, the Rev. Mr [James] Hackman...." The bracket notes are from Martin Levy, Love & Madness (New York, 2004), pp. 1-6. Twitcher is also mentioned in Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames. The reference in the song says "I dearly love a hearty man (No sneaking [or sniggering] milksop Jimmy Twitcher) Who loves a lass and loves a glass ...."
The "joke" in the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames title is from the line "Let's joke and push about the pitcher"; The Quaver has "Let's jocund push about the pitcher," which would work better with "jocundly." Logan's text avoids the problem with "We've time to call for t'other pitcher." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT092

Push Along, Keep Moving

DESCRIPTION: The singer attempts various enterprises, all ending in failure (e.g. when he opens a "whiskey shop," his wife demands all the drink for herself); after each failure, he sets out on a new adventure. Moral/refrain: "Push along, keep moving"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (The Theatrical Budget)
KEYWORDS: humorous drink work
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 180, "The Nigger Tune" (1 text)
ST JHCox180 (Full)
Roud #5469
NOTES [52 words]: According to Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.'s The Age of Jackson, p. 4, "the celebrate Buffo singer" George Washington Dixon was making the song "Push-a-Long, Keep Moving" popular at the time of Andrew Jackson's 1829 inauguration; Dixon also sang "The Hunters of Kentucky" and, slightly later, "Old Zip Coon." - RBW
File: JHCox180

Push Boat

DESCRIPTION: "I'm working on a push boat from Catlettsburg to Pike... for old man Jeffies' Ike." The hard work and low pay of poling on the Big Sandy River are described. Much of the song is devoted to the relations between the singer and his girl, (Cynthie Jane).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: river ship work courting sailor
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 35-37, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 48-49)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, pp. 18-19, "Push Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 567, "Push Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, p. 17, "Pushboat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 48-49, "Working on a Pushboat" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PUSHBOAT*
Roud #8088
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Liza Jane" (lyrics)
NOTES [36 words]: This reminds me -- very strongly -- of "Liza Jane," and the two have assorted individual lines in common. I would not be surprised if they have a common origin. But they have drifted enough that we separate them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BMRF567

Push the Business On

DESCRIPTION: "Hire a horse," "steal a gig," "all the world shall have a jig." We do what we can to "pass the music on" or "push the business on"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (Hinkson)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1616, "To Pass the Music On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 105, "Push the Business On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-SkipToMyLou, p. 4, "Push the Business On" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Katharine (Tynan) Hinkson, "The Girls' Room" in Christabel R. Coleridge and Arthur Innes, editors, The Monthly Packet (London, 1897 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XCIII, p. 227, ("I'll hire a horse and steal a gig")
Roud #12981
NOTES [28 words]: Gomme's five versions (2.86-88) are pretty much the same. The "push the business on" in the game precedes a change in partners "until each girl has partnered each boy." - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: GrD81616

Push the Jug About, My Boys

See The Social Fellow (File: WT089)

Pussiker, Pussiker

DESCRIPTION: "Poussikie, poussikie, wow! Where'll we get banes to chow? We'll up the bog, And worry a hogg, And then we'll get bones enow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: dialog animal food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1674, "Pussiker, Pussiker" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 22, ("Poussikie, poussikie, wow")
Roud #13521
NOTES [9 words]: The current description is all of the Chambers text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Grd81674

Pussy Can Sit by the Fire and Sing

See The Cat That Walked By Himself (File: KSUC144B)

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, Where Have You Been?

DESCRIPTION: "Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been? I've been to London to look at the queen. Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you there? I frightened a little mouse under her chair"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (Songs for the Nursery, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: dialog animal royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 191, "Cheitie Cheitie Bawdrons" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 428, "Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been?" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #150, p. 116, "(Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been?)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 1, "(Pussy, pussy baudrons)" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 164, "Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 57, "Pussycat, Pussycat, Where Have You Been?" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")),")), p. 23, ("Poussie, poussie, baudrons, Where hae ye been?") (1 text)
ST OO2428 (Partial)
Roud #15094
NOTES [71 words]: According to the Baring-Goulds, there was an incident similar to this during the reign of Elizabeth I, and many have thought the song refers to that.
There is an English proverb, "A cat may look at a king," which is quoted, e.g., in Alice in Wonderland, chapter VIII, "The Queen's Croquet Ground." The idea also appears in Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #759, p. 759. Whether either is in any way related I do not know. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: OO2428

Pussy Song

See I Had a Little Puppy (Pussy Willow, Hot Dog) (File: PHCFS068)

Pussy Willow

See I Had a Little Puppy (Pussy Willow, Hot Dog) (File: PHCFS068)

Pussycat, Pussycat, Where Have You Been?

See Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, Where Have You Been? (File: OO2428)

Pussycat's Party

DESCRIPTION: A cat and her kittens have "a nice party to tea" one evening. "Then, in the midst of the fun, There came a loud knock on the door." They run away and don't come back.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: party humorous animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 120, "Pussycat's Party" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16254
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Pussycat's Party" (on IRECronin01)
File: OCC120

Put a Watermelon Rind Upon My Grave

DESCRIPTION: "Put a watermelon rind upon my grave and let the juice run through, Put a watermelon rind upon my grave, that's all I ask of you. When my mama bake a chicken then(?) she bake it very fine, But nothing can compare with a watermelon rind. Put a...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: burial death food campsong
FOUND IN: US(SE,SW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 126-127, "The Watermelon Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 2, "(no title)" (1 short text, from user 2wonderY, posted August 28, 2021)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 118-119, "Put Watermelon Rind Upon My Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 123, 165, "489, Plant a Watermellon"/"Plant a Watermelon upon My Grave" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 40, "Drool Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST NCF162PW (Partial)
File: NCF162PW

Put John on de Islan'

See Put John on the Island (File: Dett160)

Put John on the Island

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Hail Hail, Put John on the island, Hail hail, Weep low Judgement's coming" Verses: "You've got Jesus hold him fast, The grace of God you shall receive" "Didn't know Christ was in the field, Till I heard the rumbling of the chariot wheel"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 160, "Put John on de Islan'" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 122 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #11824
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, They Put John on the Island" (theme, first line) and references there
NOTES [75 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "Weep low, Judgment's coming." - BS
According to Revelation 1:9, John was "on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus." Note that there is no sign he was exiled there; indeed, the general sense is that he voluntarily fled there (probably during the persecution of Domitian, reigned 81-96 C.E.). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett160

Put Me In My Little Bed

DESCRIPTION: "Oh birdie, I am tired now, I do not care to hear you sing." The child asks the bird to go to sleeps, and requests, "come put me in my little bed." The singer recalls her mother telling her "never, never go astray"
AUTHOR: Words: Dexter Smith / Music: C. A. White
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (sheet music published by White, Smith & Perry of Boston)
KEYWORDS: orphan bird death mother
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 279-280, "Put Me In My Little Bed" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 38, p. 53, "Put Me In My Little Bed" (1 text)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 254-257, "Put Me in My Little Bed" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #95, "Come, Sister, Come" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 675, "Lullaby" (1 short text, 1 tune, which has the first verse but has lost the point of the song)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 131, ""Old Lullaby" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #29, p. 13, "Put Me in my Little Bed" (1 text)
Roud #4339
RECORDINGS:
Leake County Revelers, "Put Me In My Little Bed" (Columbia 15292-D, 1928)
SAME TUNE:
Parody on: Put Me in My Little Bed ("Oh! once I was a little dreary," by Morris Stransky") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 124)
NOTES [86 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's notes to this song are confused. He claims that Spaeth refers to this song in Read 'Em and Weep -- but there is no such reference, at least in my copy. Spaeth does, however, mention the song in A History of Popular Music in America as one of several hits by C. A. White.
White seems to have had a thing about birds; his first big hit was "Come, Birdie, Come."
Spaeth claims that this song was the forerunner of the more popular "Put My Little Shoes Away." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Beld279

Put Me Upon an Island Where the Girls are Few

DESCRIPTION: "Put me upon an island where the girls are few, Put me among the fiercest lions in the zoo, Put me upon a desert and I will not fret, But for any sake don't put me near a Suffragette!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: political animal | island suffragette
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 153, "Put me upon an island where the girls are few" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 59, "(Put me upon an island)" (1 text)
Roud #25542
NOTES [16 words]: I think it safe to say that this is a lot less funny than the original author thought it was. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: KSUC153C

Put My Little Shoes Away

DESCRIPTION: "Mother dear, come bathe my forehead For I'm growing very weak...." The dying child bids farewell to friends and family, and asks mother to "Put my little shoes away." They were brought by Santa, and can eventually be given to the baby
AUTHOR: Words: Samuel N. Mitchell / Music: Charles E. Pratt
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Chappell); 19C (Wolf); probably written 1873
KEYWORDS: death clothes family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Randolph 715, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (2 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 463-465, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 715A)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 6, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (1 text)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 10, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 116, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (1 text)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 257-258, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (1 text)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 67-69, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #126, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 25-26, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 12, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1942, p. 130, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (1 reference)
DT, PUTSHOES*
Roud #4340
RECORDINGS:
Big Slim Aliff, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (Decca 5329, 1937; rec. 1936)
Wilf Carter, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (Bluebird [Canada] B-4617, c. 1938; Bluebird B-9032 [possibly as Montana Slim], 1942; rec. 1936)
Chuck Wagon Gang, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (ARC 7-08-55/Vocalion 02983/OKeh 02983/Conqueror 8963, 1937; rec. 1936)
Cramer Brothers, [pseud. for Vernon Dalhart and -- probably -- Carson Robison] "Put My Little Shoes Away" (Broadway 8071, c. 1930)
Gentry Bros., "Put My Little Shoes Away" (Domino 0190 [as Smoky Mountain Twins]/Regal 8389 [as Smoky Mountain Twins]/Paramount 3040 [as Collins Bros.], 1927; Broadway 8071 [as Cramer Bros.], n.d.)
Girls of the Golden West, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (Bluebird 5226, 1933)
Lester McFarland & Bob Roberts, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (Brunswick 322, 1929; Supertone S-2038, 1930)
Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (Decca 29645, 1955); (Brunswick 05567)
Riley Puckett, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (Columbia 15125-D, 1927; rec. 1926)
Red Fox Chasers, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (Supertone 9535, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-4963, 1936)
Fiddlin' Doc Roberts Trio, "Put My Little Shoes Away" (Conqueror 8208, 1933)
Vagabonds, "Little Shoes" (Montgomery Ward M-4239, 1933)
Henry Whitter, "Put Away My Little Shoes" (Okeh 45046, 1926)
NOTES [53 words]: The era of this song may explain its odd request: By the time of the Civil War, factory-made shoes were available, but were quite primitive, with no left and right hand versions. Shoes thus were easily acquired, but well-made shoes were becoming more of a luxury as the factory shoes made life harder for cobblers. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R715

Put on the Silver Slippers

DESCRIPTION: Every other line is "Put on the silver slippers." Verses include floater "my old mistress promised me ... when she died she'd set me free ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 118, ("I do I do I tries to do") (1 text)
File: Paap118

Put on the Skillet

See Shortenin' Bread (File: R255)

Put on Your Bustle

DESCRIPTION: "Put on your bustle And get out and hustle, For tomorrow the rent man is due." The woman is urged to do what it takes to attract men. The second half of the song describes various lustful creatures
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: seduction whore animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 128-129, "Put On Your Bustle" (1 text)
Roud #10229
NOTES [11 words]: Roud combines this with "The Rajah of Astrakahn." I don't see it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RuSoPoYB

Put On Your Old Gray Bonnet

DESCRIPTION: "On the old farmhouse veranda there sat Silas and Miranda, Thinking of days gone by." They realize they have been married for fifty years. They leap up, forgetting the years, and go to town to celebrate all the happy times
AUTHOR: Words: Stanley Murphy / Music: Percy Wenrich
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic)
KEYWORDS: love marriage
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 89, "Put On Your Old Gray Bonnet" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 449-450, "Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet"
DT, GOLDWED3*
Roud #5491
SAME TUNE:
Put On Your New Blue Bonnet (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 150)
Get to Work/Booster Song ("Take off your coat and collar, Get to work, push and holler") (Harbin-Parodology, #146, p. 43; Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 51; Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 29)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet
NOTES [57 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 290, estimates that this was the third most popular song in America in 1910, peaking at #1 in March 1910 (#1 for the year being Beth Slate Whitson and Leo Friedman's "Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Dean089

Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet

See Put On Your Old Gray Bonnet (File: Dean089)

Put the Old Man to Sleep

See Luir A Chodla (Put the Old Man to Sleep) (File: LoF191)

Put the Traffic Down

DESCRIPTION: "Here comes Jones with his face so cross"; drink has left him destitute. "Here comes Squire Brown," rich from selling liquor. The singer calls for an end to the liquor trade: "Put it down, put it down, put the unholy traffic down!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Randolph); reportedly used by Holy Rollers in 1898
KEYWORDS: drink political money
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 314, "Put the Traffic Down" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 267-269, "Put the Traffic Down" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 314A)
Roud #7790
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Yorktown Rum Seller
Old Jones
File: R314

Put Yer Shoulder Next to Mine and Pump Away

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Formula verses about bringing a girl presents until she apparently allows herself to be seduced. Verse lines are repeated in choruses. Full chorus: "Put yer shoulder next to mine and pump away, pump away." (x2)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Formula verses about bringing a girl presents until she apparently allows herself to be seduced. Verse lines are repeated in choruses. Full chorus: "Put yer shoulder next to mine and pump away, pump away." (x2) Once I had a girl, had a girl, had a girl (x2) she had me in a whirl. Chorus. I brought her presents one... she said I shouldn't have done, etc. I brought her presents two... and her heart she let me woo." and so forth, until "I brought her presents nine... the baby's doing fine."
KEYWORDS: shanty courting gift cumulative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 508-509, "Put Yer Shoulder Next to Mine and Pump Away" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 374-375]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll Me Over" (tune)
NOTES [20 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas says this was popular only on British ships. Very likely gave rise to "Roll Me Over." - SL
File: Hugi508

Put You Into Limbo

See The Cohabs (File: Hubb222)

Put Your Finger in Foxy's Hole

See Put Your Finger in the Corbie's Hole (File: SuSm183C)

Put Your Finger in Tabby's Hole

See Put Your Finger in the Corbie's Hole (File: SuSm183C)

Put Your Finger in the Corbie's Hole

DESCRIPTION: "Put your finger in the Corbie's hole [or "in Tabby's house," or "in Foxy's hole"], Corbie's not at home. Corbie's at the back door, Picking at a bone." The game, if the victim does not escape soon enough, ends with the victim's finger being pinched
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Chambers, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: playparty bird animal trick food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 172, "Put Your Finger in Foxy's Hole" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #598, p. 237, "(Put your finger in foxy's hole)" (1 short text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 183, "(Put your finger in Tabby's hole" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 19, "(Put your finder in the crow's nest)" (1 text)
Roud #22997
File: SuSm183C

Put Your Finger in the Crow's Nest

See Put Your Finger in the Corbie's Hole (File: SuSm183C)

Put Your Hand in the Hand of the Man

DESCRIPTION: ""Put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the water, Put your hand in the hand of the man who calmed the sea." The singer was brought up to pray, and knows he is not the man he hopes to be,
AUTHOR: Gene MacLellan (source:Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (recording, Anne Murray, according to Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 546, "Put Your Hand in the Hand of the Man" (notes only)
NOTES [113 words]: Jesus calming the storm occurs in Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:37-41, Luke 8:22-25. Walking on the water with calming the storm occurs in Matthew 14:32, Mark 6:48-51, with a semi-parallel in John 6:19-21. The cleansing of the Temple is in Matthew 21:12 and parallels, plus John 2:13-16, which places it at the beginning rather than the end of his ministry.
The song was popular enough to be recorded by Elvis Presley and Bing Crosby among others, though folkies perhaps are most likely to have heard it from Joan Baez.
Author Gene MacLellan committed suicide in 1995. The listed cause was depression, but with a theology like this, it's easy to see how he could get down on himself! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF546P

Put Your Little Foot (Varsouvienna)

DESCRIPTION: "Put your little foot (x2) Put your little foot right there... Take a step to the right, Take a step to the left, But forever stay near." Further invitations to move closer follow: "Put... your arm around my waist... We will dance through the night."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 45, "Put Your Little Foot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 82, "Put Your Little Foot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 47, 79-80, 182, 218, 230, 241, "Varsovienna" (6 tunes)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 19, 31, 38, 66, 99-100, 137, "Varsoviana" (and variant spellings) (6 tunes)
RECORDINGS:
Glenn Ohrlin, "Varsouviana" (on Ohrlin01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Put Your Little Foot Right Out
Varsouvienne
NOTES [99 words]: The "Varsouvianna" (Varsouvienna, etc.; described as a variation on the mazurka) tune is very common, and is cited sporadically in the references here. How often it bears this particular set of lyrics is less certain; few if any of the Australian versions, for instance, have words. - RBW
Ohrlin remarks that "Put Your Little Foot" was usually the cue for a fight to start. - PJS
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, p. 48, has a fiddle tune titles "Foot Prints or Put Your Little Foot Right Here," which looks as if it is this tune, but without lyrics any such classification is of course tentative. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Ohr045

Putnam's Hill

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

Putting On Airs

DESCRIPTION: "No use talking (x2), The truth itself declares, If you act like the folks of fashion do, You're bound to put on airs." The singer doesn't want to mix in others' affairs, but he observes how both boys and girls dress up and put on airs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Dime-Song-Book #16)
KEYWORDS: clothes beauty courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #16, pp. 20-21, "Putting on Airs" (1 text)
Randolph 460, "Putting on Airs" (1 text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 82, "You've Got to Put on Airs" (1 text)
ST R460 (Partial)
Roud #3773
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boys Around Here" (theme)
cf. "Putting on the Style" (theme)
cf. "When Young Men Go Courting" (theme)
NOTES [30 words]: The last several verses of Randolph's text look almost like modifications of "Putting on the Style," but the first verse and chorus are different enough that I separate them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R460

Putting On Style

See Putting On the Style (File: R469)

Putting On the Style

DESCRIPTION: A series of comments on the folly of those who put on false faces. Example: "Young man in a carriage driving like he's mad... He cracks his whip so lively just to see his lady smile, But she knows he's only puttin' on the style."
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: humorous vanity pride
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Randolph 469, "Putting On the Style" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 320-322, "Putting On the Style" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 469A)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 29, "Putting on the Style" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 132, "Putting On the Style" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 109, "Puttin' On the Style" (1 text, 1 tune+variant form)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 263-265, "Putting On Style" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 184, "Putting On the Style" ( text)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 60-62, "Puttin' on the Style" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 68, "Putting On The Style" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 24, "Putting On The Style" (1 text)
DT, PUTONSTY PUTONST2*
Roud #3767
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Putting On Style" (Vocalion 15327, 1926) (Columbia 15082-D, 1926) (Edison 52118, 1927)
Warde Ford, "Putting on the Agony" [with half a verse of, "Our Goodman"] (AFS 4200 B3, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Pete Seeger, "Puttin' On the Style" (on PeteSeeger04); "Putting On the Style" (on PeteSeeger11)
[Ernest Stoneman &] The Dixie Mountaineers, "Puttin' on the Style" (Edison, unissued, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Putting on Airs" (theme)
cf. "Sweet Sixteen" (theme)
cf. "The Truth Twice Told" (subject)
NOTES [286 words]: Cazden et al have very extensive notes about the origins of this song, which largely boil down to, "Hey, we found this song, and it belongs to us and our informant!" Nonetheless, their notes, and the existence of the several versions in Randolph, demonstrate that the song has become a true folk piece. - RBW
Seeger dates this song from the 1880s, but offers no documentation. - PJS
The earliest claim I've seen is that it has the authors as Percy Wenrich and Edward Madden (1878-1952). But I haven't yet found sheet music. Madden was responsible for songs like "By the Light of the Silvery Moon," so he could write. So could Wenrich, perhaps best known for "Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet," and "When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose." But Wikipedia claims that Wenrich was born in 1887 (died 1952), so he could hardly have been responsible for nineteenth century versions! Other sources give slightly earlier birth dates, but still awfully late for a song supposedly found in the nineteenth century. And what are the odds that Madden and Wenrich -- both in their primes when Dalhart was recording -- would not have taken notice when such a big name recorded their song?
And the version in Cox, collected in 1917, was reported to be from the informant's mother, which makes a nineteenth century date highly likely. Indeed, the first verse begins,
Eighteen hundred seventy one,
January the first,
Thought I'd write a poem,
If I could or durst.
It will be noted, however, that this verse doesn't scan as well as the others. But Randolph's informant Doney Hammontree said it was in "all the popular songbooks" in the 1890s. Still, the biggest single factor in its popularity was probably the Dalhart recording. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R469

Pytoria (Run Come See Jerusalem)

See Run Come See (File: FSWB058)

Qu'avec-Vous, Oui, Belle Blonde

DESCRIPTION: French. "Je m'endors, (x2), et j'ai soif et j'ai faim." The singer is tired and hungry; the sun is down and his blonde is gone. He asks what is wrong. He dislikes the town of Crowley. He wants the blonde and ignores the brunette
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from Jesse Stafford)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage rejection
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 187-188, "Qu'avec-Vous, Oui, Belle Blonde (What's Wrong, Little Blonde)" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [47 words]: Although Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry does not say that informant Jesse Stafford wrote this, I rather suspect he did; it's hard to believe that such a shallow tale of a man who seems to do most of his thinking with something other than his brain could last long in tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LoSi187

Quack, Quack, Quack

DESCRIPTION: "Six little ducks That I once knew, Fat ones, skinny ones Fair ones, too, But the one little duck With the feather on his back He led the others With a quack, quack, quack." The one little duck leads them to the river, then leads them back
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: bird river campsong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 126, "Quack, Quack, Quack" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 171, 388, 513, "Six Little Ducks" (notes only)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 66, "Six Little Ducks" (1 text)
Roud #7848
NOTES [83 words]: Roud #32414 is a counting rhyme about five little ducks. I do not know if it is related.
This seems to have been recorded by many children's performers, but I haven't heard it.
The tune is said to be Moe Jaffe's version of "Bell-Bottomed Trousers."
In a nitpicky footnote, the fact that the ducks say "quack, quack, quack" implies that they are either mallards or domestic ducks (which are the same species). Most other ducks have non-quacking calls (e.g. a wood duck call is more of a keening). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Br3126

Quaker (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Verily high! Verily oh! Vivity vob like the shaker. All this wealth is awfully wrong And it terribly puzzles the quaker."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (recording, Bampton Morris and Jinky Wells); 1907 (_Fores's ..._ fragment); 1880 (_"Brummagem" Bright_ "parody?)
KEYWORDS: nonballad recitation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
RECORDINGS:
Bampton Morris and Jinky Wells, "The Quaker" (on Voice16)
NOTES [101 words]: The current description is all of the Bampton Morris and Jinky Wells version on Voice16.
This is a dance tune. The words, which could be sung to the tune, may suggest the step.
The lines are quoted as "Oh, this world is awfully rum, It terribly puzzles the Quaker!" in Fores's Sporting Notes & Sketches, (London, 1907 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XXIV, p. 33. A political verse - "In '74 the Tories came in, 'Oh Britain! what will awake her?' 'They're just as strong as ever they've been,' That's what puzzles the Quaker" - is in "Brummagem" Bright, (London, 1880 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 26.- BS
File: RcTQuak1

Quaker (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The Quaker is a ship with five hundred and fifty seamen. "By those blooming French dogs, we'll never be controlled." We fought them "till they could no longer stay." The war is over. A health to true girls and Lord Nelson "the best of all our crew"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (recording, Freddie James, RQMS Williams, G.W. Greening and Harry Hawkins?)
KEYWORDS: battle navy sea ship patriotic
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
Roud #3093
RECORDINGS:
Freddie James, RQMS Williams, G.W. Greening and Harry Hawkins?, "The Quaker" (on Voice16)
NOTES [380 words]: A ship with 550 sailors would have to be a Ship of the Line. I can't find a line battleship named Quaker in any British records, pre- or post-Trafalgar. The closest I can see to a similarly-named ship is the 64-gun Caton. But that's hardly the most famous ship in the navy. We should probably just treat the ship name as an error.
But it is probably not an error for the Caton. The song tells us several things: The ship fought the French, and it mentions Nelson. That means it has to be a ship from the Napoleonic Wars, and it probably fought at the Nile, Copenhagen, or Trafalgar, with the last being the most likely.
And that, I think, solves it. *If* this song is historical -- and I do not claim that it is -- then the ship is almost certainly HMS Conqueror, which fought at Trafalgar under Captain Israel Pellew. According to Wikipedia, it had 573 sailors aboard at Trafalgar, which is a good match for the song's 550. And her role in the battle was significant and did result in a sort of surrender by the French. According to John Keegan, The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare, Penguin, 1988, pp. 75-76, "Conqueror's broadside seems to have been the decisive stroke [against the Bucentaure, badly mauled in the battle], the one that caused Villeneuve to have the imperial eagle thrown overboard."
Accordng to David Howarth, Trafalgar: The Nelson Touch, Galahad Books, 1969, p. 182, Conqueror was the ship that shot away the Bucentaure's main- and mizzen-masts, leaving her unable to maneuver and effectively unable to fight. On p. 184, Howarth reports that Conqueror's marine captain James Atcherley had charge of the boat that accepted Bucentaure's surrender and took the French commander Villeneuve off his flagship to surrender.On pp. 184-185, Howarth adds that Conqueror had a major role in disabling the Santisima Trinity, the largest ship to take part in the battle. Thus, although Conqueror did not achieve the fame of ships like Victory and Royal Sovereign, it played a very major role at Trafalgar, well worthy of mention in song.
And "Conqueror" is a name that would not sing well; it would probably have been pronounced "Conq'ror," from which it takes only the slightest error of hearing to get "Quaker." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: RcQuak2

Quaker Courtship

See The Quaker's Courtship (File: R362)

Quaker Meeting

DESCRIPTION: Game which goes around a circle until all are nodding. "Neighbor, neighbor, how art thee? Very well, I thank thee. How is neighbor next to thee? I don't know but I will see."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: game
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 83, "Quaker Meeting" (1 text)
Roud #25505
File: KSUC078B

Quaker, How is Thee?

DESCRIPTION: "Quaker, Quaker, how is thee? Very well, I thank thee. How's thy neighbor, next to thee? I don't know, but I'll go see."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #66, "Quaker, How is Thee?" (1 short text)
File: Newe066

Quaker's Courtship, The

DESCRIPTION: The Quaker comes to court the girl. He offers her a ring and money; she tells him she wants a man to call her honey. He tells her she is pretty; she calls him a flatterer. He gives up; she tells him to "Find a Quaker girl to marry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: courting discrimination ring
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,So) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 41, "The Quaker's Wooing" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 265, "The Quaker's Wooing" (1 text, lacking any reference to a Quaker but probably this)
Randolph 362, "The Courting Song" (4 texts, 2 tunes, though Randolph's "A" text is rather tenuously related to the others); 363, "I'm Going Away to Texas" (3 texts, 1 tune, the "C" text appearing to belong here; "A" is I'm Going Away to Texas" and "C" is perhaps "The Quaker's Courtship" ))
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 295-297, "The Courting Song" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 362C)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 4, "Madam Mozelle, I've Come Courting" (1 fragment, too short to identify with certainty but perhaps this song); 8, "The Quaker's Wooing" (1 text, also short)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 525, "Quaker Courtship" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #203, "The Quaker's Courtship" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 101, "The Quaker's Wooing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 276-278, "The Quaker's Wooing" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 154-155, "The Quaker's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 23, "Quaker's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 158, "The Quaker's Wooing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 2-3, "Quaker's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 36, "A Sport Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 407-408, "The Quaker's Wooing" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 176, "The Quaker Song" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 162, "Father Sent Me here A-Courting" (1 text, 1 tune, clearly this although no Quakers are mentioned)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 35, "Madam, I Have Come A-Courtin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 199-200, "Quaker's Courtship" (1 fragment, 1 tune, which might be either this or "Wheel of Fortune")
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 12, "The Quaker's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, p. 587, "Quaker's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 108, pp. 223-224, "The Quaker's Courtship" (1 text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #31, "Quaker Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 410-411, "Sober Quaker" (1 text)
ST R362 (Partial)
Roud #716
RECORDINGS:
Buell Kazee, [Madam, I Have Come A-Courting] (on Kazee01)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1878 x0003, "The Quaker's Courtship," Alex Forbes (unknown), 1878 (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Keys of Canterbury"
cf. "No, John, No"
cf. "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)"
cf. "Jonathan's Courtship" (general tone and plot)
NOTES [136 words]: The "courting songs" listed in the cross-references have cross-fertilized heavily; one should examine texts carefully to see where a particular variant belongs.
One form of this in particular, "Madam, I Have Come A-Courting," has worn down so much that it some versions almost no elements left to allow identification. An example is Buell Kazee's version:
Madam, I have come a-courting, Oh dear, oh dear me. Come a-courting, not a-sporting....
Well if that is your desire, Fa da link dum, fa da day, You can sit and court the fire....
I've a ring worth many a shilling... You can wear it if you're willing....
I'll not have your ring or money... Want me a man to call me honey....
Intermediate texts such as Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's, though, imply that such items probably belong here. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: R362

Quaker's Wife, The

DESCRIPTION: "The (Quaker's/Baker's) wife sat doon to bake, With all her bairns about her, She baked them every one a cake...." "And then the miller sat doon to play A tune upon the spinnet." "Merrily danced the Quaker's wife, And merrily danced the Quaker."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (_Songs for the Nursery collected from the Works of the Most Renowned Poets_, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: cook food dancing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1734, "The Quaker's Wife" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 61, "The Quaker's Wife" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 432, "The Quaker's wife got up to bake" (2 texts)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 87, "(The Quaker's wife sat doon to bake)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, p. 594, ("The quaker's wife sat down to bake")
Roud #6479
File: MNSR087

Quaker's Wooing (I), The

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) AND "The Quaker's Courtship" (File: E098)

Quaker's Wooing (II), The

See The Quaker's Courtship (File: R362)

Quand j'etais fille de quinze ans (When I Was a Fifteen Year Old Girl)

DESCRIPTION: French. When I was a girl all the boys came to my house to laugh and go to the ball and dance. No longer. I have a household to maintain and children to look after. Chorus: "When I was a girl, Oh! What delightful joy to be a girl fifteen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage marriage wife youth
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 581, "Quand j'etais fille de quinze ans" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Mme. Josephine Costard, "Quand j'etais fille de quinze ans" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea581

Quand la Guerre Est Fini (Those Terrible Americans and their Souvenirs)

DESCRIPTION: Bastardized (literally) French: "Quand la guerre est finis, Les Americans parti, Laisez les pauvres Francaises Un souvenir Bebe." Verses tell the same story in different words: When the war ends, the American soldiers will leave French girls with babies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: soldier foreignlanguage baby adultery abandonment bastard
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 55-57, "Quand la Guerre Est Fini (Those Terrible Americans and their Souvenirs)" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: NiM055

Quand le Boiteuse Va-t-au Marche (When the Lame One goes to Market)

DESCRIPTION: French shanty. No particular story, each verse line is repeated as a refrain. Full Chorus: "Ah! ma doue, quel trésor d'avoir épouse (2x), Un coeur tout en or!" "Oh, my dear, what treasure to have married, to have wed (2x) a heart of gold!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Hayet, _Chansons de bord_)
LONG DESCRIPTION: French shanty. No particular story, each verse line is repeated as a refrain. Full Chorus: "Ah! ma doue, quel trésor d'avoir épouse (2x), Un coeur tout en or!" "Oh, my dear, what treasure to have married, to have wed (2x) a heart of gold!" Some of the verses are reminiscent of "The Fire Ship" in the use of naval euphemisms, i.e. (in translation) "and then he furls her petticoat, clewing up her lower sails," "then to get goin' the smart topman, send up her the main topmast."
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty bawdy
FOUND IN: France
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 514-515, "Quand le Boiteuse Va-t-au Marche" (2 text, French & English, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 110, "Quand la Boiteuse Va-t-au Marche" (2 texts, French & English, 1 tune)
File: Hugi514

Quantrell

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you bold robbers and open your ears, Of QuantrelI the lion-heart you quickly will hear." Quantrell raids and burns Lawrence, Kansas, but allegedly he supports to the poor, and "a brave man or woman he'll never annoy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Council Grove Press, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: outlaw
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 21, 1863 - Quantrill's Raiders destroy Lawrence, Kansas, killing about 150 men.
May 10, 1865 - Quantrill is mortally wounded on his way to Washington (where he hoped to stir up trouble by assassination). He dies 20 days later.
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 132-133, "Quantrell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 493-494, "Quentill's Raid on Lawrence" (1 text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 64-65, "Quantrell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 314-315, "Quantrell" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, QUANTRLL*
Roud #4094
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Quantrell" (subject) and references there
NOTES [85 words]: As is so often the case with outlaw ballads, this paints much too pretty a picture. For a brief background on Quantrill (the name used in Confederate records), see the notes to "Charlie Quantrell."
To tell this song from other Quantrell pieces, consider this first stanza:
Come all you bold robbers and open your ears
Of QuantrelI the lion-heart you quickly will hear
With his band of bold raiders in double-quick time
He came to burn Lawrence just over the line.
This song is item dE33 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LoA132

Quantrell (II)

See Charlie Quantrell (File: LoF179)

Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence

See Quantrell (File: LoA132)

Quare Bungle Rye

See Quare Bungo Rye (File: Log416)

Quare Bungo Rye

DESCRIPTION: Sailor Jack meets a girl, who offers to sell him "old bungo rye." Jack thinks it a whiskey, and buys her basket. In it he finds a child. Jack declares the child to be "quare bungo rye," and has the child christened with that name
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Logan-APedlarsPack)
KEYWORDS: sailor drink children baby trick clergy
FOUND IN: Britain Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 416-421, "Bung Your Eye" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 305, "Bung Your Eye" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H700, pp. 277-278, "Mind Your Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 895-896, "Young Bung-'er-eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 39, "Jack the Sailor" (1 fragment, probably this though the chorus has swapped off somewhere, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 211-212, "Blow the Man Down" (1 text, version "F" of "Blow the Man Down" sung to the tune of "Lowlands Low") [AbEd, pp. 166-167]
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 160-161, "Bung Yer Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, QUARERYE*
ST Log416 (Full)
Roud #2404
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Bungle Rye" (on IRClancyMakem02)
Jacob Noseworthy, "Bung Your Eyes" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Anthony Power, "Bungle Rye" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Basket of Eggs" (plot and baby in basket motif) and references there
cf. "The Child in the Budget" (baby in basket motif)
cf. "The Oyster Girl" [Laws Q13] (mysterious--read female--"box" motif)
cf. "Bung Yer Eye" (chorus lyrics)
cf. "The Charming Young Widow I Met on the Train" (theme of the female leaving a baby)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Queer Bungo Rye
Quare Bungle Rye
The Exciseman
Bangeria
NOTES [183 words]: Re:the mysterious box motif. The Lesley Nelson-Burns site Folk Music of England Scotland Ireland, Wales & America collection includes a page by John Renfro Davis with text for this ballad as "Quare Bungle Rye" and a note that "This is a variant of The Oyster Girl." The note goes on to cite a Bodleian broadside for The Oyster Girl. It also cites as "variants and alternate titles" The Basket of Oysters, Bungerye, Queer Bungle Rye, Quare Bungo Rye, Young Bung-'er'Eye, The Basket of Eggs, and Eggs in Her Basket.
The Oyster Maid/Basket of Eggs connection similarities are based on the motif of a sailor being fooled by a woman into taking something hidden in a basket which, in some versions, turns out to be a baby. While the parallels -- including the sexual symbolisms -- are obvious, these should be treated as three different ballads because of the differences in the punch lines.
The motif of the "box" with *censored* contents that cannot just be thrown away is even closer to the 1950 Phil Harris hit "The Thing" written by Charles R. Grean and set to the tune of "The Chandler's Wife." - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Log416

Quart Bottle

DESCRIPTION: "Hand me down the quart bottle... Here's four quarts of whiskey... As sure as that midnight train goes out I'm gonna get drunk again... when I get the fighting blues I'll sometimes think of you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2)
KEYWORDS: love train drink nonballad floatingverses separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 54, "Quart Bottle" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [39 words]: Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 includes the following floating verse -- "Some say love's a pleasure" -- and floating lines "I hear the train a' comin' Comin' round the bend," though the tag line is changed from the usual floater. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: BrE2054

Quarter Master's Stores, The

See The Quartermaster Corps (The Quartermaster Store) (File: FSWB272A)

Quartermaster Corps, The (The Quartermaster Store)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, it's beer, beer, beer that makes you feel so queer, In the corps, in the corps." "My eyes are dim, I cannot see, I have not brought my specs with me." Similarly, "...cheese... brings you to your knees," and so forth with other army items
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook)
KEYWORDS: army soldier food disease nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 84-85, "The Quarter Master's Stores" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 62, "(There were rats, rats)" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 272, "The Quartermaster Store" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 4, "The Quartermaster's Store" (1 text, from user John5918, posted August 28, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 98, 277, 289, 310, 384, 387, "Quartermaster's Store" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 36-37, "The Quartermaster's Store" (1 text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Jay Mechling, "Magic of the Boy Scout Campfire," Volume 93, Number 367 (Jan-Mar 1980), pp. 43-45, "Commissary Store" (1 text)
DT, QMCORP*
ST FSWB272A (Partial)
Roud #10508
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Power in the Blood" (tune)
cf. "My Eyes Are Dim" (lyrics, sort of)
SAME TUNE:
The Valley of the Ruhr (File: Hopk120B)
NOTES [32 words]: Someone -- I think Ed Cray -- told me that this "should" be called "The Quartermaster Corps," so that is the title I used, but "The Quartermaster's Store" seems much the most common title. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB272A

Quartermaster's Store, The

See The Quartermaster Corps (The Quartermaster Store) (File: FSWB272A)

Quasebe

DESCRIPTION: Dialect: "Vat de matter lady," he says, do something for me; my heart's breaking for Quasebe. Look at his face. He looks like an overseer. He takes what he wants. Beat him well.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 185, "Quasebe" (1 text)
Roud #15521
NOTES [58 words]: I'm not sure I understand any of this. There's little if any Scottish in this. Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 has no glossary for whatever dialect this is supposed to be. - BS
It looks rather "Dutch" to me (that is, imitation German, not a legitimate dialect). Could it possibly be a Jacobite dialect song about George I and his Germans? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2185

Quay of Dundocken

See The Isle of Man Shore (The Quay of Dundocken; The Desolate Widow) [Laws K7] (File: LK07)

Quays of Belfast, The

See The Isle of Man Shore (The Quay of Dundocken; The Desolate Widow) [Laws K7] (File: LK07)

Que Bonita Bandera

DESCRIPTION: Spanish language; Puerto Rican patriotic song: "What a beautiful flag, it is the flag of Puerto Rico"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (heard by Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: patriotic nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 14, "Que Bonita Bandera" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: PSAFB014

Quebec

See Brave Wolfe [Laws A1] (File: LA01)

Quebec Town

See Marching Down to Old Quebec (File: R519)

Queen Amang the Heather

See Queen Among the Heather (File: K141)

Queen Among the Heather

DESCRIPTION: Young man, hunting, spies a girl herding sheep among the heather. He is smitten; she is "the bonniest lassie that e'er I saw." He asks her to go with him; she demurs, saying he's a squire and she but a shepherd's daughter. He perseveres and succeeds.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: courting love beauty farming lover nobility worker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(MW) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 141, "The Queen Among the Heather" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #44, pp. 1-2, ("Far up yon wild and lofty glens") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 962, "The Lass Amang the Heather" (3 texts)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 433, "My Lovely Nancy" (1 text)
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, pp. xiii-xiv, "Queen Amang the Heather" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 115-117, "Herding Lambs Among the Heather" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 74, "Herding Lambs Amongst the Heather" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 51, "The Laird o' Drum" (1 fragment, listed as Child #236 but clearly a version either of this or "Heather Down the Moor"; the stanza form tentatively places it here)
ADDITIONAL: Chris Wright, "'Forgotten Broadsides and the Song Tradition of the Scots Travellers" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, pp. 87-90, "The Shepherd's Daughter" (2 texts plus a reproduction of a Poets Box broadside)
Roud #375
RECORDINGS:
Harry Lauder, "Queen Among the Heather" (Victor 60010, 1910)
Jeannie Robertson, "The Queen Among the Heather" (on FSBFTX13)
Belle Stewart, "Queen Amang the Heather" (on Voice15)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.15(240), "The Blooming Heather" ("As I was coming home, from the fair of Ballymena"), unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 11(331), 2806 c.14(60), "The Blooming Heather"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Heather Down the Moor" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "Bonnie Lass Among the Heather" (subject)
cf. "The Laboring Man's Daughter (The Knight's Dream)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Skippin' Barfit thro the Heather
Queen Amang the Heather
NOTES [206 words]: This song is very close to "Heather Down the Moor (Among the Heather; Down the Moor)"; they have similar plots and occasional common lyrics. Roud lumps them. There will be versions where it is almost impossible to tell which is which. I thought about listing them as one song.
But on consideration, "Heather Down the Moor" has two characteristics rarely seen in "Queen among the Heather." First, "Heather Down the Moor" tends to follow a complex stanza pattern of eight-line stanzas with complex internal chorus and repeats (see sample with that song). "Queen among the Heather" usually has simple four-line stanzas.
"Heather down the Moor" also tends to end with the lines
But if I were a king, I would make her a queen,
The bonnie lass I met among the heather
Down the moor.
In "Queen Among the Heather," he *is* a nobleman, so that obviously isn't a concern. - RBW
Note that the Lauder recording predates not only the otherwise-earliest collection we have found for this song, but also the earliest citation we've found for its sibling, "Heather Down the Moor". - PJS
Also collected and sung by Ellen Mitchell, "Queen Amang the Heather" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: K141

Queen Anne

DESCRIPTION: "Queen Anne, Queen Anne, you sit in the sun, As fair as a lily, as white as a wand, I send you three letters, and pray read one, You must read one, if you can't read all, So pray, Miss or Master, throw up the ball."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1900 (Halliwell, according to Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose)
KEYWORDS: playparty royalty nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose (note to) #187, p. 134 ("Queen Anne, Queen Anne, you sit in the sun")
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #98, "My Lady Queen Anne" (1 text)
Roud #12755
NOTES [84 words]: This is connected by folklore to Anne of Great Britain (1665-1714; reigned 1702-1714), who is reported to have enjoyed sitting in the sun in gardens. But it can't have been an eyewitness account, since Anne was hardly fair of face and not particularly fair of hue.
To be sure, Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 309, instead of "as white as a wand," gives the fourth line as "as brown as a bun." But that's not really accurate either. RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: BGMG186N

Queen Anne's Dead

DESCRIPTION: About the death of someone (Queen Anne, Mrs. McKenzie, etc.). "'Queen Anne's dead.' 'How did she die?' 'With her right eye, Le kai, le kai."" Or "...die? One finger up." Used with various games
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty royalty death dialog
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 140-141, "(Mrs. McKenzie's dead)"; "(Queen Anne's Dead)" (2 short texts)
File: SuSm140

Queen Caroline

DESCRIPTION: "Queen, queen, Caroline, Dipped her hair in turpentine, Turpentine made it shine, Queen, queen Caroline"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1762-1830 - Life of King George IV
Apr 8, 1795 - Marriage of George, Prince of Wales (the future George IV) to Caroline of Brunswick. The marriage was a complete failure
1820 - George IV succeeds his father George III
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1643, "Queen Caroline" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 57, "(Gipsy, gipsy, Caroline" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #535, "Sweet, sweet Caroline" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #8, "(Queen, queen, Caroline)" (1 text)
Henry Carrington Bolton, Counting-Out Rhymes of Children (New York, 1888 ("Digitized by Google")), #785 p.116, ("Queen, queen, Caroline")
Roud #13061
NOTES [5208 words]: The current description is all of a Bolton text from Edinburgh. Except for spelling and punctuation differences, it is the same as Greig/Duncan8."And so began the mad, fantastic summer of 1820, the summer when international politics, sport and even the London season were forgotten. The Queen was the only subject of interest....
And in all four kingdoms the younger generation were chanting
Queenie, queenie Caroline
Washed her hair in turpentine
a song which is heard in the slums of Dublin today" (Source: Joanna Richardson, The Disastrous Marriage; a Study of George IV and Caroline of Brunswick (1960, London), pp. 137-138.) - BS
American versions differ only slightly, e.g.
Queen, queen, Caroline,
Washed her hair in turpentine
Turpentine to make it shine,
Queen, queen, Caroline.
Few versions have any additional lines. In this form, it is fairly popular as a counting-out and jump-rope rhyme; Abrahams and Rankin cite half a dozen uses as a counting-out rhyme and Abrahams has one as a jump-rope rhyme, though it features "Sweet, sweet Caroline." There are some other versions that don't refer to QUEEN Caroline; some mention "Can Can Caroline" or "Gipsy Caroline." But the majority seem to reference "Queen Queen Caroline," and that phrasing more easily could degenerate into the other forms than they give rise to it. I think "Queen Queen Caroline" is likely the original, or at least the earliest surviving version, and so needs explanation.
There were in fact two British Queens Caroline, great-grandmother-in-law (if there is such a thing) and great-granddaughter-in-law. Caroline of (Brandenburg-)Anbsbach, 1683-1737, was the wife of George II; Caroline of Brunswick (1768-1821) was the wife of George IV, the eldest son of George III (who was the grandson of George II).
George II and Caroline of Anspach got along pretty well despite his infidelities. George IV was also a womanizer, and he and Caroline of Brunswick did *not* get along; OxfordCompanion, p. 169, calls their marriage a "spectacular disaster. According to her own testimony, intimacy was confined to the first night, and certainly the couple separated after the birth of their first daughter." Hibbert, p. 149, says that the Prince's feelings turned to "positive hatred" soon after the child was born -- a fact which did not help his reputation with the common people. It reached the point where she requested orders "in writing," and he in fact supplied those written orders (Hibbert, pp. 152-153).
Probably the marriage should not have taken place. But George, as Prince of Wales, had built up tremendous debts (and also married -- horrors -- a Catholic; for background on this, see the notes to "The Ass and the Orangeman's Daughter"). The only way George III was willing to pay his son's debts was for him to marry a nice respectable Protestant princess and get on with the business of producing an heir. (Never mind that the younger George was already married, albeit in a marriage that he legally could not contract -- the royal heir could not marry a Catholic, and could not marry until he reached age 25 without his father's consent; Fraser, p. 34. The government ignored his marriage, and George was temporarily bored with his first wife Maria Fitzherbert. And he really did need help with his debts; he seems to have been unable to manage money at all; Hibbert, p. 135. Indeed, Fitzherbert apparently had to "lend" him money at times -- Fraser, p. 39 -- even though he had all the resources of the Principality of Wales at his disposal. The man was a menace. George III eventually declared the marriage null and void -- Fraser, p. 41 -- but it would have been fascinating to see what would have happened had the Anglican church not gone along supinely. Fraser thinks Prince George knew this would happen and had been maneuvering to get into Maria Fitzherbert's pants without having to take responsibility for it. I can't prove it, but he was certainly a very irresponsible man.)
(When he had made his unofficial marriage, George had been content to let the throne pass to his younger brother's children, but it turned out that his younger brother -- like most of George III's children -- proved unable to produce a legitimate child. Queen Victoria, who succeeded in 1837, was the daughter of George III's fourth son; the three older brothers all left no heirs. Fraser, p. 296, says that when George's daughter Princess Charlotte went into labor in 1817, it was the first time there was a legitimate birth in the royal family since Charlotte herself had been born 21 years before! Much of this was the fault of George III, who basically locked up his daughters and required his sons to marry only Protestant German princesses; Holme, p. 24. So the sons found mistresses and didn't make much attempt to marry until George III wasn't in position to do much about it.)
The most available princess was apparently Caroline of Brunswick (Smith, pp. 70-71), even though, at age 26, she was approaching old maid status (Smith, p. 70; still, she was half a dozen years younger than George) -- plus she was his first cousin (Hibbert, p. 133; the genealogy on p. xiv of Fraser shows that Caroline's mother Augusta was the sister of George III, of George IV. They were also third cousins in a different line of descent going back to George I). They had never met.
Several reports describe her as being quite pretty as a teenager (Fraser, pp. 22, 25), and was still decent-looking at the time of her marriage (Fraser, p. 56), but it sounds as if she aged rather rapidly. Lady Charlotte Campbell said her head was too large for her body and her neck too short; others thought her dumpy (Fraser, p. 56). When growing up, "She was an odd girl, precocious, pert, with a freakish and rather cruel sense of humour" (Holme, p. 2). When Lord Malmesbury was sent to bring her to England, he was worried; he considered her looks (minimally) acceptable, but she displayed "skitttish behavior, gossipy manner, and a certain lack of hygiene in person and dress" (Smith, p. 71; Fraser, p. 52, also emphasizes the fact that she probably smelled very bad). He thought she had "some natural but no acquired morality, and no strong innate notions of its value and necessity; warm feelings and nothing to counterbalance them; great good humour and much good nature -- no appearance of caprice -- rather quick and vive, but not a grain of rancour" (Plowden, pp. 12-13). And she had "a silly pride of finding out everything" (Plowden, p. 14). Nor was she likely to be much of a help to George; except for music, her education had been badly neglected (Fraser, p. 21. Plowden, p. 96, says her voice was "untuneful," but she apparently had a piano, harp, hand-organ, and "other musical instruments," according to Fraser, p. 330, and there is a painting of her tuning her harp while her daughter Charlotte looks on).
George had strange tastes in women, but he was a bit of a dandy, and Malmesbury's attempts to clean Caroline up apparently failed; when George first saw her, three days before the wedding, he had no sooner tried an embrace than he fled and demanded a drink (Smith, p. 72. Her response -- in French, since she was just starting to learn English -- was "My God! Does the prince always act like this? I think he's very fat and he's nothing like as handsome as his portrait"; Hibbert, p. 144. That at once summed up her dilemma and showed how freely she gave voice to thoughts perhaps better kept secret).
The marriage followed on April 8, 1795, but even at the ceremony, George was looking at other women and was so drunk that he could not consummate the marriage (Smith, pp. 72-73; Hibbert, pp. 146-148). After finally managing to perform his duty, he went back to his current mistress (Smith, p. 73). Fortunately, Caroline quickly became pregnant; unfortunately, the daughter -- the only child Caroline ever had -- would not outlive her father. So the British succession did not pass through Caroline's descendants. Or George's. (But, despite all the claims about Caroline playing the field, it seems almost certain that George was the father; they were married on April 8, 1795 and Fraser, p. 62, estimates based on the date of birth that the baby Charlotte was conceived on around April 16, 1795.)
After months or trouble, Caroline finally moved out of George's residence at Carlton House in February 1797 -- although George III never granted a formal separation (Smith, p. 77). At about the same time, George IV was trying to get back with his morganatic wife Maria Fitzherbert (Smith, p. 79). Maria actually wrote to the Pope to try to figure out what to do. He told her to regard herself as George's only true wife (Smith, pp. 80-81). She was old enough by then that children were perhaps not likely, but I shudder to think what the constitutional situation would have been had she had any. George didn't finally split with Maria until 1811, when he was about to become Regent (Smith, p. 119).
George IV continued to persecute Caroline even after she moved out, e.g. trying to deny her any part in the education of their daughter (Smith, p. 103).
Lofts, p. 151, says that her behavior once she and her husband parted was so scandalous as to prompt an investigation, although it found that she was merely indiscrete, not adulterous (the "Delicate Investigation" was so high-stakes that the Prime Minister was actually part of the committee, though it did not allow Caroline to present a defense; Plowden, pp. 62, 68). It seems as if she and George Canning, the future Prime Minister, were actually seriously involved (Fraser, pp. 123-125), but he broken it off to marry another.
Later, her indiscretion apparently reached the point of appearing topless in public (Lofts, p. 153; according to Plowden, p. 179, this was at a ball in Geneva when Caroline was in her forties. I have to think there was an explanation, if probably a strange one, but I suspect no one dared ask. She was described at about this time as "a short, very fat, elderly woman with 'an extremely red face'" -- Plowden, p. 180 -- so it is unlikely that she was trying to attract men even if you ignore the fact that she was probably committed to her Italian friend Pergami. Plowden comments that she was "fast approaching, if she had not already crossed, the boundary which separates the licensed eccentric from the true outcast." Eccentric she certainly was -- e.g., in her later years, she was said to wear a half pumpkin on her head t keep it cool -- Fraser, p. 291).
Worse, from a legal standpoint, it was reported that various men had slept in her home without chaperonage. There was even a claim that she had gotten pregnant in 1802 -- indeed, she seems once to have pretended to be pregnant (Plowden, p. 54), and there was a child who some claimed was hers, though in fact she merely treated another woman's baby, William Austin, as her son. (It's worth remembering that anyone who actually got her pregnant would almost certainly have faced a treason charge -- as could Caroline herself -- with a death sentence almost guaranteed. Caroline apparently wasn't aware of this until after the engagement; Holme, p. 14. Caroline seems often seems to have spent long periods alone with men -- Plowden, pp. 63-64 -- but I doubt any of them were stupid enough to risk sleeping with her.) The child William Austin was a boy, which meant that, were he George's, he would be senior in the succession to the Princess Charlotte, so this had complicated political implications before it was demonstrated that the child was not Caroline's (Smith, p. 113; Fraser, pp. 137, 167, and Plowden, pp. 64-65, describe how a new mother had, in effect, let Caroline adopt her baby because the family could not afford to bring up the child).
Caroline certainly hadn't behaved well. But for all the rumor about her, there wasn't anything concrete. (As Caroline supposedly quipped, that "her only real sin was to commit adultery with Mrs Fitzherbert's husband"; Plowden, p. 95.) All the Prince accomplished was to make himself look bad again when a new, more pro-Caroline government came in in 1807 (Smith, p. 115). George's boorishness never ceased; he didn't even inform Caroline when their daughter Charlotte died in 1817 after giving birth to a stillborn child; Caroline learned of it from the newspaper (so Plowden, p. 210; Smith, p. 166) or a courtier who was taking the news to others and only accidentally provided it to her (so Fraser, p. 298). It was a severe blow (after all, she had hoped to be Queen Mother when George died), and it seems to have put Caroline into a bout of depression, in which she stopped traveling and largely isolated herself at her home in Italy (Fraser, pp. 298-301).
Poor Princess Charlotte died when she was barely into her twenties, having married in part to try to escape her father's tyranny; she had already had two miscarriages before her fatal pregnancy (Plowden, p. 201). Her death looked like a disaster in the making; with Charlotte gone, George III had no legitimate grandchildren at all until several, including the future Queen Victoria, were born in 1819 (Fraser, p. 320). George, now Prince Regent and soon to be King, apparently cranked up his attempts to get a divorce when Charlotte died, but it was awfully late in the day for him to father another child, and in any case he had no one who particularly wanted him as a husband.
Caroline in these years traveled all over Europe, and blew through the limited budget allotted her (Fraser, p. 279) -- but no one ever really dared call her on it, because if the government cut off her funding, they were afraid she would return to England! (Fraser, p. 281). Her behavior was considered unacceptable, but for her to return to her nominal home was worse.
She was popular both in England and beyong; it was hard to get evidence against her in her new home in Italy, because her charity and interest in ordinary people made her popular (Fraser, p. 314). Investigators sent to Italy tried to buy evidence against her, and managed to obtain some, but of course such evidence was very tainted and unreliable (Fraser, pp. 313-314).
George tried to have Caroline convicted of treason -- under the bigoted laws of the time, for the consort of the king or crown prince to commit adultery was treason, but there was no punishment to the monarch who cheated -- but there was no proof of adultery. So he tried to claim that her adultery gave him the right to a divorce (Smith, p. 114) -- absurd, since the adultery still hadn't been proved. (In an ironic twist, they couldn't go after her paramour, a handsome Italian named Pergami, because he was a foreigner; Fraser, p. 378-379.) By 1818, she was willing to divorce if he would pay her a reasonable pension; she was happy with her household in Italy (Fraser, pp. 320-321) -- but the Church required a fault to allow a divorce (Smith, p. 177), and the fault was George, and he wasn't going to admit anything! (Fraser, p. 324.) So talks ground to a halt -- until, in early 1820, poor old George III died after the longest reign in British history to that time. So George IV was suddenly King, and Caroline was still legally his wife. She had been negotiating a settlement, but the talks had broken down -- in no small part because the man who had claimed to represent her interests,Henry Brougham, was playing both sides (Fraser, pp. 351-353 and elsewhere). She had already been planning to come to England to demand her rights (Smith, p.178); now her arrival brought a tumultuous welcome (Plowden, p. 212).
She did a good job of publicity; leaving Calais on the morning of June 5, she arrived at Dover in early afternoon -- and, when told she could not dock until 5:00 p.m., insisted on going ashore in an open boat, which courageous act was commemorated in a series of "Queenite" memorial items (Fraser, pp. 363-364). She also received a gunnery salute from the confused garrison commander who didn't know what to do when a queen-under-investigation landed.
George insisted on pushing a Bills of Pains and Penalties (the proper name for a Bill of Attainder that does not involve an execution: it is a form of punishment without trial by parliament). "The Bill's title stated its purpose all too clearly: 'An Act... to deprive her Majesty Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of the Title, Prerogatives, Rights, Privileges and Exemptions of Queen Consort to this Realm, and to dissolve the Marriage between his Majesty and the said Caroline Amelia Elizabeth.' Its preamble related her engagement in 1814 of Pergami, 'a foreigner of low station,' whom she had promoted, and alleged that she had conducted herself towards him 'with indecent and offensive familiarity and freedom, and carried on a licentious, disgraceful, and licentious intercourse' with him" (Fraser, p. 400). But the Lords still had to discuss it. It was a fascinating situation: The Lords often took the summer off, if they attended Parliament at all -- but, this time, they were *made* to attend, on penalty of a substantial fine (Fraser, p. 410); George didn't want anyone trying to dodge his revenge. They actually had to build temporary annexes to the building to provide space for all the extra peers.
The trial began August 17, 1820, according to Fraser, p. 413, who has the best account, and was so controversial that companies of constables, and even Life Guard units, were brought in to guard the proceedings. The crowd that gathered outside to support Caroline numbered at least ten thousand (Fraser, p. 414).
I can't help but note that one of the arguments used against her, by government solicitor-general: "The purity of women was prized in society, said Copley, precisely because men could not aspire to that honour and grace... Hence, to safeguard that purity, adultery in women was a crime, and a ground for divorce, while it was condoned in the stronger sex" (Fraser p. 421). Seems to me that the moral crime here is letting people like that anywhere near a court case. If you can't trust men, why are you letting them be kings? But, of course, that particular form of hypocrisy was standard for the time.
The trial brought much evidence against Caroline -- most of it of very low quality. Henry Brougham's defense team was able to offer evidence that the government suborned perjury, coached witnesses, hid its evidence from the defense, blocked defense witnesses from entering the country, and conducted a level of surveillance against Caroline that clearly violated her rights. And still they had only inferential proof. (See Fraser, pp. 422-444).
Did they have enough evidence to prove that Caroline slept with Pergami, despite all the defense objections? Most of us would probably say no, with one caveat which I'll get to below. But it was really, truly, ugly, tainted evidence -- the only thing it proved absolutely was that George IV would do anything to convict his wife. (A single witness eventually turned up who claimed to have seen Pergami having sex with her, but it was after the trial; Fraser, p. 446.)
The Lords discussed at length, and even though there was much evidence of "scandalous" behavior on Caroline's part, the bill against her barely passed, with only a nine vote majority. The government withdrew it rather than watch it go down in flames in the Commons (Smith, p. 181; Fraser, p. 443; Plowden, p. 214). Caroline was still the (uncrowned) queen.
Anderson, p. xi, has an interesting quote from Henry Mayhew about the vulgar press and the trial: "The best known, and the most successful printer and publisher of all who... [supplied].... the 'paper' in demand for street sale, and in every department of street literature, was the late Jemmy Catnach, who was said to have amassed upward of 10,000 pounds in the business. He is reported to have made the greater part of that sum during the trial of Queen Caroline, by the sale of whole-sheet 'papers,' descriptive of the trial and embellished with 'splendid illustrations.'"
In the end, though, no one was really happy with the outcome. George of course went ballistic, and threatened to abdicate. He tried to change governments -- but no other faction wanted to do his hatchet work, so there was no change. Henry Brougham, whose legal skill had saved Caroline but who had done it for his sake not for hers, failed to secure a change of government he wanted and failed to increase his own power. And Caroline, although she hadn't been convicted, didn't get any more consideration out of the government (Fraser, pp. 447-448).
Caroline was still written out of the liturgy of George's coronation and other ceremonies (Plowden, p. 212). She would not be allowed the privileges of a queen. She did get the offer of an annuity, which she took, but nothing else -- the coalition behind her fractured; she had only been a figurehead for various opposition forces who didn't agree on what they wanted (Fraser, pp. 452-453).
When she was barred from the coronation, she tried to attend anyway and was turned back -- George actually hired prizefighters to bar the door! It was her last public act; that very night, she was evidently having strong enough intestinal pains that she took a dose of magnesia and laudanum so large that it made her attendants fear for her (Fraser, p.457). She died suddenly just weeks after George's coronation (Smith, p.189), which no doubt saved everyone (except her) a good deal of grief. She had suffered severe intestinal pain for a time before the end, trying intense quantities of calomel and castor oil as a treatment; Plowden, p. 217, somehow concludes from this that she had cancer. (She had had a severe bout of rheumatic fever shortly before coming to England -- Fraser, p. 354. No one seems to connect the two, but I wonder. The first stomach attack came soon after; Fraser, p. 355. It doubtless didn't help that they not only stuffed her full of purgatives but bled her enough to supply a small hospital; Fraser, p. 460. Fraser, p. 461, mentions the idea that she might have had a tumor but says the evidence is insufficient; I think that is true. Fraser thinks that, apart from physical problems, she may have lost the will to live, which seems not unlikely.)
She asked to be buried in Brunswick. George IV did not think the nation should bother with a public mourning ceremony, but was convinced to allow a minor events. He was not there for it; he was making a visit to Ireland (Fraser, pp. 462-463). There were riotous incidents as her remains were taken to the ship that would take her to Germany (Fraser, pp. 463-465), though no one seems to know exactly why. Fraser claims, p. 466, "Her high-spirited, even reckless, response to her predicament brought her unprecedented liberty, as she confounded the machinations of her husband and of governments in England and on the continent to bring her to book. But in the end Caroline's breathtaking audacity had fatal consequences, contributing to the loss of her daughter, her crown and her life."
I'm not sure that that last sentence is entirely true, but it certainly caused her to be talked and written about, with both friendship and hostility -- and sometimes, perhaps, some of both. Around the time of the coronation, for instance, one wit wrote,
Most Gracious Queen, we thee implore
To go away and sin no more,
But if that effort be to great,
To go away, at any rate (Smith, p. 183; Plowden, p. 215).
A story from 1821 gives an idea of how George IV felt about Caroline at that time. Word had just reached Britain of the death of Napoleon on Saint Helena. The first messenger to reach George, instead of giving the news directly, is reported to have said, "Sire, your great enemy is dead!" And George supposedly responded, "Is she, by God" (Smith, p. 193).
(Curiously, almost all the sources I've read seem to think George IV was more sinned against than sinning. I simply cannot agree. Even if we accept, for the sake of the argument, that Caroline slept around, well, guess what: George IV spent his life hopping from mistress to mistress. And he was a bigamist. Is it "worse" when a woman commits adultery than when a man does? I do not agree. But the main point is, he spurned her, for no reason except pique. Even if he found he didn't like her and they kept separate establishments, he didn't need to persecute her. He was the aggressor and the bully. The fault is his. Period. As his daughter Charlotte is once reputed to have said, "My mother was bad, but she would not have become as bad as she was if my father had not been infinitely worse"; Plowden, p. 87).
Does any of that explain this song? No doubt, given her odd behavior, Caroline was quite capable of using turpentine to try to color her hair -- or maybe Malmesbury tried it to cover her body odor. But... "It was rumored that Lady Jersey [George's current mistress, whom he had made one of her "ladies" in one of the most tactless moves that this boor of a prince had ever made] had gone so far as to deposit some evil-smelling substance in [Caroline's] hair to increase the prince's distaste, had put Epsom salts into the pastry which she had for dinner, and had dropped strong spirits into her wine to make the Queen think she was a drunkard" (Hibbert, p. 145). If that doesn't sound like the source for this rhyme, what would?
Macalpine/Hunter, pp. 247-250, suggest that Caroline's problem was porphyria, a disease she supposedly shared with her uncle George III and her first cousin and husband George IV. Fraser, p. 461, declares this "unconvincing," and I agree. That George III had mental problems is certain; that the cause was porphyria (a genetic disease which both might have inherited from their common ancestors) is likely but in need of demonstration by DNA testing. As for George IV having porphyria, I think it much more likely that the condition he suffered from was "being a jerk." (If you truly want a diagnosis, maybe narcissistic personality disorder.) And we'd need a lot more evidence to say that so many of his relatives had it!
All of Caroline's characteristics -- including the bad hygiene, as well as her overly-large head (Hibbert, p. 136), her tendency to ask impolite questions (Hibbert, pp. 136-137), the fact that she was extremely impressionable (Hibbert, p. 137), her intellectual precocity (Holme, p. 2), what her doctor called her "sort of irrational bravery" in the face of what proved her final illness (Fraser, p. 458), and her collector's mania (Plowden, p. 44, although what she collected was babies!) -- would be a very good fit for autism. If Fraser, p. 461, is right that Caroline eventually lost the will to live, that too would fit. And apparently she had suffered intestinal problems long before her death (Fraser, p.461), and gastrointestinal problems are extremely common in autism -- the estimate is that they occur in at least a third of cases, and it may be more because so many autistics can't really communicate how they feel. It is true that the fact that one of her brothers was considered mentally defective (Holme, p. 4) does hint at a genetic condition. Of course, autism is almost as genetic as porphyria.... If, as seems to be the general consensus, Caroline did not suffer from intellectual disability, and hence is not likely to have had Down Syndrome, then autism seems by far the explanation (as an autistic myself, I felt like I recognized her). Malmesbury had said that "with a steady man she would do vastly well" (Fraser, p. 143); I think this is exactly right, but it was her incredibly bad luck to end up with a boor who never figured out that whipping a slave will not make her obey you.
This is also my one caveat to the idea that Caroline slept with Pergami (except for the fact that such a handsome young man probably wouldn't be much interested in a fat, strange woman who didn't really speak his language): People with autism are often incredibly loyal to their friends, in such a way that it can look like love to someone who doesn't understand them, and people with autism often behave in ways that others don't understand. So if Caroline had autism, it might (I stress *might*) provide an alternate explanation for all the evidence brought against her at trial.
Autism might even explain a willingness for Caroline to put turpentine in her hair; autism often affects the sensory system, so it might not have smelled as objectionable to her as it does to most people.
For a child whose mother was peculiar and whose father was scum, their daughter Charlotte seems to have turned out relatively well -- she was a very pretty child by all accounts (although portraits of her as an adult don't strike me as being especially attractive), and she seems to have been both clever and charming when she was calm (though her early education seems to have been extremely poor; Plowden, p. 82). But she was prone to meltdowns (Plowden, p. 76), and of a sort that again hint at autism. And she had terrible relations with her father, who had a bad tendency to try to control everything about her life (at one time, in response to one of his numerous carping criticisms, she said "he is compleatly poisoned against me"; Plowden, p. 131; on another, she made a serious attempt to run away from home; Plowden, p. 154 and following). We can't really know how she would have turned out, though, given that she died so young. What is certain is that the nation mourned her death deeply (Plowden, p. 208), as they never cared about her father.
Of course, it doesn't really matter what Caroline's (or Charlotte's) modern diagnosis would be; what matters is that people at the time thought Caroline very strange.
Which doesn't change the fact that the public preferred her. The papers put almost all the blame on him -- deservedly, I think, in that if George had not squandered everything he had twice over, there would have been no need for his bad marriage. But it really hurt his reputation. In the year George III died, for instance, an opposition paper called Caroline "this injured woman -- the victim, first to unbridled lust, and now to despotism... This innocent, injured, and unfortunate Princess had her future happiness sacrificed at the altar of profligacy" (Smith, p. 173). Even before that -- from the moment George had started talking about separation -- the public was on her side, as e.g. when they cheered her when she appeared at the Opera (Plowden, p. 37).
Bottom line: Although Caroline of Brunswick, George IV's wife, was only Queen (as opposed to Princess of Wales) for a handful of months, and never actually fulfilled the functions of a Queen, or even of a Princess of Wales, the rumors about her seem such a good fit in other ways that I am inclined to think this is about her if it is about anyone. Of course, I'm far from sure it's about anyone.
There were a number of broadsides about Caroline's life; Fraser, facing p. 299, shows an amazingly big one with eleven woodcuts, a poem, a dirge, and a prayer. It was printed by James Catnach on December 10, 1821. Sadly, I can't find a copy in any of the online broadside collections.
Of all the books about Caroline, or about George IV, I think Fraser is by far the best; I just didn't have time to fully process it for this entry. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: GrD81643

Queen Eleanor's Confession [Child 156]

DESCRIPTION: Queen Eleanor, dying, calls for two friars. King Henry decides to substitute himself and Earl Marshal. Eleanor confesses to many sins against Henry, often with the Earl. Henry reveals himself and wishes that he could tell the world what Eleanor said
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1723
KEYWORDS: trick humorous royalty disease clergy disguise
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1189 - Death of Henry II
1204 - Death of Eleanor of Aquitaine
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(Lond))
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Child 156, "Queen Eleanor's Confession" (7 texts)
Bronson 156, "Queen Eleanor's Confession" (1 version)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 156, "Queen Eleanor's Confession" (1 version)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 200-203, "The Queen's Confession" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 208, "Queen Eleanor" (2 texts)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 462-465, "Queen Eleanor's Confession" (notes plus a text of Child A)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 127-132, "Queen Eleanor's Confession" (1 text, from "The Charms of Melody" rather than tradition)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 164-168, "Queen Eleanor's Confession" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XVV, p. 65, "Queen Eleanor's Confession" (1 partial text, 1 tune) {Bronson's (#1)}
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 35, "Queen Eleanor's Confession" (notes only)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 174, "Queen Eleanor's Confession" (1 excerpt, 1 tune) {Bronson's (#1)}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 431-433, "Queen Eleanor's Confession" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 181-182, "Queen Eleanor's Confession" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 72, "Queen Elenor's Confession" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 48, "Queen Eleanor's Confession" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2274, "Queen Elenor was a sick Woman"
DT 156, QECONFES
ST C156 (Full)
Roud #74
RECORDINGS:
Roxana Robinson, "Queen Eleanor" (Piotr-Archive #698, recorded 10/01/2023; although reportedly learned from tradition, it is effectively verbatim from the standard pop folk recordings)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosamund Clifford" (subject)
cf. "Fair Rosamond" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Dying Queen
NOTES [11947 words]: Although this song cannot be shown to have existed before the seventeenth century, there are some who think it is older. It has been suggested that it helped give rise to George Peele's 1593 play "Edward I" (Severs/Hartung, volume 6, pp. 1788-1789). This play is vicious toward Edward I's wife Eleanor of Castile. But it could just as well be based on general anti-feminism, or perhaps on a broadside piece, "A Warning Piece To England Against Pride and Wickedness," which explicitly targets Eleanor of Castile (Roud #V13609) -- but which is clearly not this ballad and shows no sign of ever having been traditional.
According to Garnett/Gosse, p. 182, Peele (1558?-1597?) was perhaps the best-educated of the Elizabethan dramatists, having a BA and MA from Oxford (Garnett/Gosse, volume II, p. 182), and was known for his wit and creativity, as well as for largely staying away from politics (Garnett/Gosse, p. 183), but "In his other tragedies, Edward I and The Battle of Alcazar, Peele essayed a department of the drama for which his genius did not qualify him. Both are occasional pieces, and Edward I is disgraced by libels on one of our most illustrious Queens, Eleanor of Castile, who, partly indeed upon the authority of an ancient ballad, suffers for the unpopularity of her countrymen" (Garnett/Gosse, p. 184).
As for this ballad, it is generally assumed that it refers to the relationship between England's King Henry II and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine. If so, the element of error in this ballad is immense. Note the following:
* Eleanor (1122?-1204) outlived Henry Plantagenet (1133-1189) by fifteen years.
* Neither Earl Marshal nor King Henry took Queen Eleanor's maidenhead; she had previously been married to, and had two daughters by, Louis VII of France.
* Eleanor could hardly have poisoned Henry's mistress Rosamund Clifford; by the time Rosamund died, Henry had placed Eleanor under close arrest.
* Many versions refer to Whitehall. Whitehall was built for Anne Boleyn in the sixteenth century, three and a half centuries after the death of Henry II (Lofts, p. 85).
* William the Marshal was not an earl at the time Henry II died; he became an earl in the reign of Henry's son Richard I.
* Eleanor calls for a pair of friars to hear her confession. Presumably she wanted friars because they were itinerant; other clergymen would be permanently attached to an English diocese. But, according to Chambers, p. 156, friars were not supposed to hear confession. And certainly not two of them! This lack of knowledge of Catholic practice indicates that the song is post-Reformation.
So we must admit that the details are wrong. Could there, perhaps, be a faint bit of truth at the core? This is a long story -- and a difficult question to answer definitively. Reliable information about Eleanor is often lacking -- starting from the very beginning of her life. As Owen says on p. 3, "There is no certainty as to the date and place of [her birth], though it is most commonly thought to have taken place in 1122, either in Poitiers or in the castle of Belin near Bordeaux."
Checking other sources shows just how much uncertainty there can be even about something as seemingly straightforward as this. OxfordCompanion, p. 359, gives her birth date as "c. 1122"; so too Meade, p. viii, and Ashley, p. 521. Warren-Henry, pp. 43-44n., says probably 1122 and no later than 1124. Kelly, p. 1, says 1122. Markale, p. 14, says probably 1122, possibly 1120. Harvey, p. 48, says she was eight years older than Henry II, which probably means 1125. McLynn, p. 8, says 1124, and defends this date on p. 28 (although the argument is based mostly on the date when her youngest son was born). Fawtier, p. 139, says she was 80 when she died, implying 1123 or 1124. Dahmus, p. 154, says she was 67 in 1189, and 82 at the time of her death, implying a birth date of 1121 or 1122.
Her name, "Eleanor," has been said to be properly "Alia-Aenor," "the other Aenor," after her unloved mother Aenor (Meade, p. 18). I wonder about this, however, since the name "Eleanor" was common in the following years -- unlikely if Eleanor of Aquitaine, that most-reviled woman, had been the first Eleanor.
Aquitaine, her duchy, had been a sort of autonomous fragment of Charlemagne's empire. In 951, William I became its duke, founding the line from which Eleanor sprang (Owen, p. 4). Over the next century and a half, the Dukes of Aquitaine increased their reach to include, e.g., Gascony. In 1071, this line gave birth to William IX, known as the "first of the troubadours" (Markale, p. 14). He did much to promote the ideal of Courtly Love (which, in an era when most marriages were political, in effect meant "fornication"). Owen, p. 7, quotes a thirteenth century source which calls William IX "one of the most courtly men in the world and one of the greatest deceivers of women."
William IX died in 1127, and his son William X in 1137 (Owen, p. 10; Markale, p. 17, says that William X died very conveniently, on a pilgrimage to Compostella, but can offer no actual evidence of funny business). Until then, there had been hope that he would beget a male heir, but his death obviously ended that possibility. That left William X's teenage daughter Eleanor as heir to Aquitaine, which by this time was actually larger -- and richer -- than the personal fief of the King of France (Kelly, p. 4). True, the Duchess of Aquitaine was a subject of the King of France -- but the King of France had only nominal authority over most of his dukes (Normandy too was only theoretically subject to French control; its Dukes generally ignored the French king).
From the moment her father died without a male heir, Eleanor became the most sought-after woman in Christendom. Some of that was because she was young and pretty -- but mostly, she was *rich*. Aquitaine was hard to control, but since when did that bother a medieval nobleman? There seem to have been multiple plots to kidnap her in the weeks after her father's death (Kelly, p. 2). The best one, however, was that engineered by the old French king Louis VI. He arranged to have Eleanor married to his son Louis. He pulled it off just in time; Louis VI promptly died, and by the time the younger Louis and his new bride entered Paris, he was King Louis VII and she was his queen (Owen, p. 14; Kelly, p. 8).
The marriage, however, was not a success. Although both were young, they were very different. Eleanor was vivacious, intelligent, and a natural schemer. Louis -- who had been intended for the church until his older brother died (Kelly, p. 3) -- was neither clever nor lively; the most that can be said for him was that he was pious -- and even that was intermittent; he was much too easily angered, and occasionally involved in conflicts with the church (Owen, p. 20). Eleanor, according to Markale, p. 19, introduced daring fashions to Paris (Boyd, p. 34, suggests that the origin of Cinderella's lost slipper came from one of these items, although that is a long time for a folk motif to float).
She also introduced a number of rather frivolous games -- one of which was promptly banned as too risque. Louis the Boring can hardly have been pleased. (Many accounts report that Eleanor once said she had married a monk, not a man; Markale, pp. 27, 33, etc. Boyd, p. 51, gives his fourth chapter this title and suggests on p. 60 that Louis and Eleanor rarely slept together).
Even so, the marriage might have limped along had Eleanor borne Louis a son -- and had it not been for the Second Crusade.
The First Crusade had resulted in the creation of four Crusader States, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli, and the County of Edessa. The latter three ran along the Mediterranean coast, with Antioch in the north, Tripoli in the middle, and Jerusalem in the south. The three states were entirely independent and weren't always friendly, but when it came to defending themselves from attack, their geography meant that they were mutually supporting, especially when they had naval help.
Not Edessa. The frontier of the Crusader States, it jutted off northeast from Antioch, with no direct access to Tripoli or Jerusalem and with Moslem emirates on three sides (see map on p. 109 of Runciman or on p. 301 of Oldenbourg).
In 1144, Zengi, the first great leader of the Islamic counterattack on the Crusader States, besieged Edessa. There were few defenders; its count, Joscelin II of Courtenay, had stripped the walls to build up a field army (Runciman, p. 235). The Byzantines refused to help; so did the people of Antioch. A force from Jerusalem came too late. On December 26, 1144, Edessa fell after a month-long siege. The Islamic reconquest had begun (Oldenbourg, p. 320).
Western Europe had never really supported the Crusader States properly (Runciman, p. 249). To build a strong state many colonists were needed -- and never came. (Even those who went on the First Crusade had mostly died along the way or been killed by the Turks.) Nor were many knights willing to make the long trip to Palestine to serve for a year or two. Outremer as constituted was sure to fall as soon as a strong enemy developed. But the loss of Edessa shook the Europeans out of their lethargy. The Second Crusade came about when a number of European leaders decided to take the cross and try to retake Edessa.
It should have been a brilliant chance. Zengi was murdered a year and a half after the capture (Runciman, p. 239), and his lands divided between his sons -- the elder had Mosul, the younger Aleppo (Oldenbourg, pp. 321-322). Nur-ed-Din, the new ruler of Aleppo, was to cause the Franks more trouble than ever Zengi did -- but first he had to consolidate his power. Had the Crusaders moved effectively, they might have kept him from amounting to much.
But the Crusaders did not move effectively. A premature counterattack on Edessa made by the locals resulted in the remaining Christians being expelled from the city (Runciman, pp. 239-240). German crusaders under the Emperor Conrad were defeated and dispersed by the Turks (Oldenbourg, pp. 326-327), with the German Emperor himself abandoning the Crusade after barely surviving with a handful of his knights (Boyd, p. 89).
The Crusades always lost heavily in transit, and the French crusade was no exception; the management was bad and famine and bad weather took their toll along the way (Boyd, pp. 90-91). A portion of the French crusading force arrived safely in Palestine, but, not knowing the local conditions, was talked into attacking the Kingdom of Damascus (Oldenbourg, pp. 330-332). It seems to have been chosen because "there was no apparently softer target and the Europeans could not simply go home without doing anything" (Boyd, p. 107).
It was just too bad for Damascus, which was a relatively tolerant place, inhabited by Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. It wasn't any good to the Crusader States, either, because Damascus was independent of Nur-ed-Din; the attack -- which failed -- merely softened up a potential ally so that it later fell to the Zengids (Oldenbourg, pp. 332-334).
And the whole fiasco had torn the marriage of Louis and Eleanor to shreds. Eleanor and Louis had gone on the crusade together (Runciman, p. 262), although we don't know whether she talked him into it or he demanded it.
Explanations for her act are many; perhaps she wanted to follow in the footsteps of her grandfather William IX, who had gone on the First Crusade (Markale, p. 15); perhaps Louis didn't want to be parted from her (Markale, p. 25); perhaps he didn't trust her (Owen, p. 22; Boyd, p. 69, in fact has a report that Louis took an oath of chastity for the duration and wanted to make sure she didn't fool around); perhaps he thought her presence would make more of her subordinates serve in the Crusade (Markale, p. 26; Boyd, p. 73, credits her with recruiting many of her vassals); perhaps it was just that she had extreme influence over him (Fawtier, p. 27, although the sequel seems to demonstrate that this was not true); maybe the high-spirited but sheltered queen simply thought it would be a grand adventure (Boyd, p. 69).
Eleanor didn't like the Crusade much, as it turned out -- and, along the way, there were rumors that she had had an affair with her uncle, Raymond, Prince of Antioch. (Markale, p. 17, suggested that Eleanor and Raymond, her father's younger brother who had formerly been known as Raymond of Poitiers, may even have had a relationship before he set out to claim the Principality of Antioch. They may have been friendly, but Eleanor was probably too young for a physical relationship -- and even the gossips apparently said that *she*, not he, declared against pursuing it farther, since they obviously could not marry.)
(It will tell you something about the attitudes of the time that Eleanor would later be accused of infidelity with a different uncle, even though she was in her forties and pregnant at the time; Boyd, p. 172.)
Probably the best chronicle for Outremer in this era is that of William of Tyre. He explicitly accuses Eleanor of infidelity (Meade, p. 106; Owen, p. 105). But he was writing twenty-odd years after the fact, and not of his own knowledge (Kelly, p. 62, argues that his data came from French royal sources, i.e. Eleanor's enemies) -- and, like many churchmen, he may have had a prejudice against women. William's statements do seem to prove that, by his time, Eleanor's reputation in Outremer was very bad (ironic, in that she was the mother of Richard I, and that it was her husband, not she, who decided against the assault on Aleppo).
We don't really know what happened in Antioch. Oldenbourg, p. 328, says, "There has been a good deal of argument about the nature of Eleanor of Aquitaine's relations with her uncle. Raymond, although he was getting on for fifty [most sources make him younger; Boyd, p. 64, says he was ten years older than Eleanor; Kelly, p. 30, makes him only eight years older than Eleanor, which would make him about 34 in 1148], must still have been a handsome man and was certainly more attractive than the dull, morose Louis. On the other hand, the Prince of Antioch was reputed to be a most faithful husband, and considering that he had not shown much interest in amorous exploits so far, it seems hard to believe that he should have tried to seduce his own niece. Whatever the truth of the matter, by explaining to the Queen the advantages of a campaign against Aleppo, Raymond of Poitiers drew on himself the jealousy of the King."
Boyd, p. 101, comments that Eleanor never really seems to have understood it when people started whispering about her. So she never did much to protect herself.
It probably didn't help that Eleanor and Raymond doubtless conversed in their native Provencal rather than French (Kelly, p. 56). There had already been friction between the French- and Provencal-speaking Crusaders, and the former now came to despise the "degenerate" locals as well (Boyd, p. 100).
Similarly Runciman, p. 279, "In the end, a purely personal motive made up the King's mind for him [to go to Jerusalem instead of attacking Aleppo at once]. Queen Eleanor was far more intelligent than her husband. She saw at once the wisdom of Raymond's scheme; but her passionate and outspoken support of her uncle only aroused Louis's jealousy. Tongues began to wag. The Queen and the Prince were seen too often together. It was whispered that Raymond's affection was more than avuncular. Louis, alarmed for his honour, announced his immediate departure; whereat the Queen declared that she would remain in Antioch, and would seek a divorce from her husband. In reply Louis dragged his wife by force from her uncle's palace and set out with all his troops for Jerusalem." The attack on Damascus would follow.
Boyd's account on p. 103 is even more dramatic: "In the middle of the night, Eleanor was seized in her apartments and taken at sword-point by Galeran's men to St. Paul's gate." From there she was forced to accompany the procession to Jerusalem.
As Meade says on p. 107, "One would get the impression from these happenings that logic played little part [in Louis's decisions]. The situation was even more absurd, for underneath the welter of all the bickering and political maneuvering hid the real reason for Louis's inexplicable decision: the familiar emotion of jealousy. Put at its simplest, the king suspected that Eleanor had taken the prince as her lover."
There is at least one problem with Louis's hypothesis: according to Markale, p. 29, Eleanor and Louis spent only ten days in Antioch. Hard to have much of a relationship in a week and a half! And Raymond really does seem to have believed in moderation in all things; not only did he not fool around, he was highly unusual among noblemen of the time that he didn't even drink much (Kelly, p. 54; William of Tyre described him as "no glutton or drunkard or womanizer," according to Boyd, p. 98).
Markale, p. 30, claims that Eleanor declared that not only would she stay in Antioch, but she would withhold her vassals from the Crusade to use them against Aleppo. This would explain Louis's reaction, since withholding her forces would badly weaken the already depleted Crusading army. Boyd, p. 102, also suggests this. The more sober historians are less sure.
Markale declares on pp. 25-26 that "these rumors show that Eleanor was not greatly liked by a certain part of the clerical establishment -- or, at the very least, her attitude offended the right-minded, who are always predisposed to feel proper. In fact, there is no reason to suspect that that Eleanor was fickle or untrue to the king before the expedition to the East." The French writers may have been particularly predisposed against her because there was a history of conflict between the Church and the House of Aquitaine (Kelly, p. 19).
Boyd, p. 111, reports a rumor that she had a bastard child by Raymond that was murdered and buried. But there is no official record of this, and surely a charge that weighty would have been recorded!
This was going on in 1147-1148, when William the Marshal was probably a babe in arms and the future Henry II was just entering his teens.
All sources seem to agree that Louis and Eleanor's marriage never recovered, despite an attempt by the Pope to intervene (Owen, p. 28) which was successful enough that Eleanor bore a second daughter in 1150 (Markale, p. 33; McLynn, p. 9, suggests that the Pope told Eleanor that he sided with Louis in the matter of the divorce, which caused her to temporarily yield again to Louis. Boyd, p. 116, however suggests that the girl may have been born too soon to be the child of this reunion -- which, given his view of the situation, would almost hint that Louis raped his own wife...).
Whatever the state of their relations, the two left the Crusader States in separate ships (Markale, p. 32). Louis may still have loved her, in his clumsy way (Owen, p. 29), but they clearly didn't understand each other. Boyd, pp. 103-104, thinks he was already trying to decide between divorce and some sort of treason trial -- and that he might have chosen the latter had they had a son.
Ordinarily, the solution to the royal couple's marital problems would have been to shove Eleanor in a nunnery, or perhaps keep her under guard (as Henry II was later to do). There was just one problem: Louis had no successor. Eleanor had given him two daughters, one before and one after the crusade (Owen, p. 29), but no son. He needed an heir (Warren-Henry, p. 44), and while France had not yet invented the Salic Law, it was clear that no one was prepared to have a daughter succeed. Louis had either to father a son by Eleanor, or have the marriage ended so that he could have a son by some other wife. And, obviously, whichever he did, it would be easier to do it with Eleanor's cooperation.
Kings rarely had trouble obtaining divorces at this time, and Louis and Eleanor could claim consanguinity as grounds. The problem with divorce was that it would force Louis to give up Eleanor's lands. (To be sure, Fawtier, p. 24, says that Louis hadn't been able to control Aquitaine anyway, so it was no loss. But if Eleanor's next husband had a son, then Aquitaine would go to him, rather than Louis's daughters by Eleanor; Warren-Henry, p. 44). Louis had no good choices. After much delay, he finally decided on divorce. In this he was probably encouraged by the famous Bernard of Clairvaux, Louis's famous (and famously sanctimonious) clerical advisor, who earlier had gone after Peter Abelard and who strongly disapproved of Eleanor (Kelly, p. 79).
It was about this time that Count Geoffrey of Anjou and his son Henry visited the Parisian court. Nominally vassals of King Louis, Geoffrey (like many French vassals) was effectively independent, so this was rather unusual. Gerald of Wales, who did not like Eleanor, claims she took Geoffrey into her bed (Owen, p. 30), even though Geoffrey's wife Matilda, the mother of Henry, was still alive. (It is interesting to note that both Geoffrey the father and Henry the son had wives who were much older than they -- and both quarreled violently with those wives, but never divorced them.)
The idea of sleeping with the Queen certainly fits Geoffrey's character; he was known as a seducer. Still, the sources for the claim are suspect (Kelly, p. 77). But it would be little wonder if Eleanor found the Angevins -- the strongest French rivals to Louis -- attractive. It was not yet clear that Henry would become King of England, but just the combination of Anjou and Maine (Geoffrey and Henry's inheritance), Normandy (conquered by Geoffrey), and Aquitaine would be plenty to cause trouble in France. This is why Harvey, p. 49, calls the annulment "a step of inconceivable folly" by Louis. But he surely did not realize who would be Eleanor's next husband....
As soon as Eleanor obtained her divorce, people again started trying to kidnap her into marriage (Owen, p. 31; Markale, pp. 36-37; Warren-Henry, p. 45, Dahmus, p. 142, say one of those trying to capture her was none other than Henry Plantagenet's younger brother Geoffrey, who at 16 was only about half her age, according to Boyd, p. 122); clearly she needed a husband, if only to get them off her back.
So she promptly married Henry, even though he was about eleven years younger -- and a close enough relative that Henry had been barred from marrying Eleanor's daughter! (Kelly, p. 82). Romanticists claim they fell in love at first sight (McLynn, p. 9), which seems unlikely. But they certainly saw advantages to combining their forces (Kelly, p. 77). And, if nothing else, Henry was a lot smarter and more interesting than Louis (Markale, p. 39).
As Boyd says on p. 123, marrying him "not only solved her pressing need for a spouse strong enough to protect her domains from pressing enemies, but owed her a lifelong debt of gratitude for making him the most powerful man in France. Ironically, he would become in the course of time her mot implacable enemy of all."
The marriage took place in May 1152, eight weeks after the divorce, even though King Louis -- whose ward Eleanor theoretically still was -- had not approved (Owen, p. 32; Fawtier, pp. 139-140). The French were angered by the haste of the marriage -- although, in years to come, Louis VII would marry his third wife only five weeks after his second died (Fawtier, p. 51; Boyd, p. 162, seems to hint that this raised suspicions of foul play), and at a time when he should have still been in mourning (McLynn, p. 10).
Many think the marriage had been arranged even before Eleanor's marriage to Louis was dissolved (Markale, p. 85), although there is no direct evidence for this. It was a gamble for Henry, in that he, like Louis, needed a son from her -- but what she could not do for Louis, Eleanor did repeatedly for Henry; they had five sons, four of whom (Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, and John) lived to adulthood.
In early 1153, having mostly pacified his continental domains, Henry invaded England (Warren-Henry, p. 49), to which he was proper heir (his mother Matilda had been the only surviving son of King Henry I. King Stephen, a younger son of Henry I's sister Adela, had gained the throne because no one wanted a female monarch). Late in 1153, after Stephen's oldest son Eustace died (Warren-Henry, p. 51), it was agreed that Henry would be accepted as Stephen's heir. In late 1154, Stephen died, and on December 19, 1154, the 21-year-old Henry was crowned King of England. Eleanor was crowned Queen at the same time (Warren-Henry, pp. 52-53).
She had already borne Henry a son, William (Boyd, p. 133), and although he died young, others would follow to formally join Aquitaine to the English crown.
Whereas Louis had kept Eleanor under his eye for almost their entire marriage, Henry II frequently left her behind as he went on his wanderings, at times even giving her some share in the government (Owen, p. 45), although he more often merely left her to sit and do nothing (Owen, p. 49); Warren-Henry, p. 260, says of her role, and that of the Queen Mother Matilda (who also had spells as regent), "their authority seems in practice to have been largely formal."
The fact that Henry so often left her behind would seem to imply that, in the early years of their marriage, he was not concerned about her fidelity, even though he didn't pay much attention to her or her opinions -- and was anything but faithful himself. As McLynn notes on p. 12, she was "almost permanently pregnant," making a high degree of carousing unlikely. They did apparently spend every Christmas together until 1165 (Boyd, p. 172).
To be sure, Henry would later on put her under close guard -- but that was for rebellion, not infidelity; she was by then past childbearing age. The flip side of this is, according to Markale, p. 41, he usually left her in England or Normandy, rather than Aquitaine, meaning that she could not conspire with her own vassals and was not around the people with whom she shared a culture.
The years after about 1160 were difficult for Eleanor. As the conflict between Henry II and Louis VII sharpened, she found herself with hostages to fortune on both sides: Her children by Henry were of course part of the English camp -- but her two daughters by Louis remained in France. (Louis had a similar conflict, in that one of his daughters by his second wife was in English hands, as wife to the future Richard I, but it doesn't seem to have changed his behavior; Owen, p. 49).
Boyd, p. 175, suggests that Henry in this period contracted a venereal disease and passed it to Eleanor. That he contracted one is certainly possible, but there seems little evidence that she caught it as well. Certainly it didn't shorten her life!
Boyd, p. 177, suggests that the estrangement between Henry and Eleanor became complete in 1167, the year Henry's mother Matilda died.
It was perhaps in 1166 that Rosamund Clifford first entered Henry's life (Owen, p. 56; Markale, p. 46; McLynn, p. 43, says 1165). Our details of her life are few. Owen, p. 114, suggests she was born c. 1140, but surely she would have been married by age 26; I suspect she was nearly a decade younger. Her father Walter de Clifford lived near the Welsh border; perhapsHenry and Rosamund first saw each other during the Welsh campaign of 1165.
Henry had many mistresses in his life (at least, most authorities claim so, although Warren-Henry, p. 119, says that the evidence is insufficient, noting that his only two properly-documented illegitimate sons were probably conceived before he married Eleanor. Dahmus, p. 154, cautiously declares that Henry "may have been unfaithful to her before John's birth; he surely was afterward"), but the liaison with Rosamund was unusually overt. Gerald of Wales didn't comment on the match until 1174 (Owen, p. 115), but then fulminated that Rosamund should not have been called Rosa-mundi, the Rose of the world, but the Rose of unchastity, Rosa-immundi (Kelly, p. 150).
For all that Kelly and Markale are convinced that Eleanor resented Rosamund, they have no real evidence. Certainly there is no reason to think Eleanor acted on such feelings. Kelly, p. 153, observed that whatever vengeance Eleanor took was aimed at Henry, not Rosamund, and suggests that this was her reason for taking part in the rebellion of 1173. And Kelly admits on p. 152 that "[t]he story of the Queen's proffer of the dagger and the poison bowl must... be discarded," and that there was no maze in which Rosamund was hidden (cf. Markale, p. 47). Warren-Henry, p. 119, says that "Nothing, indeed, can be recovered for certain about Henry's relations with his wife until their obvious estrangement in 1173"; he argues that Eleanor would not have resented Rosamund because taking mistresses was so common at the time.
The maze at Woodstock was first mentioned in a 1378 translation and expansion of Gerald of Wales (Owen, p. 116) and elaborated in Fabyan's Chronicle of c. 1500 (Owen, p. 118 -- we note that Fabyan wasn't very accurate even for Fabyan's own time, let alone centuries earlier), while the bit about the dagger and poison comes from a fourteenth century London chronicle -- which, however, was so confused that it referred the whole affair to the reign of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence and dates it to 1262, more than half a century after the death of Eleanor of Aquitaine! (Owen, pp. 116-117).
Barber, p. 66, says "With Eleanor [of Aquitaine]'s imprisonment in 1173, Henry almost certainly grew unfaithful.... One of six children of Walter de Clifford, a knight with lands in Shropshire, [Rosamund] was openly acknowledged as the king's paramour only a little while before her death as a nun at Godstow in 1176, where she is buried. So much is within the bounds of history; but the stories of the maze at Woodstock which Eleanor penetrated in Henry's absence to offer her the choice between poison and the dagger, and of the wondrous casket kept there, are so much embroidery on a slender groundwork of reality. Although she may have lived at Everswell, Henry's pavilion near Woodstock, the chamber at Winchester named after her eighty year later is unlikely to have existed in her day. By them 'camera Rosamunda' had become the euphemism for the royal mistress's quarters."
We do note the interesting coincidence is that Chretien de Troyes, at about this time, was writing his Cliges, an Arthurian tale involving a woman in a labyrinth (Owen, p. 119) -- but he probably got this from Greek myth and later people applied it to Rosamund.
Rosamund went on to become extremely famous; Owen devotes pp. 121-148 to literary works about her, although the only one of these many poems and plays that shows any hint at all of being traditional is the one indexed as "Fair Rosamund." And, according to Owen, it was not until the fifteenth century that the song of "Fair Rosamund" was written.
Rosamund died in 1176 or 1177, having gone into a nunnery. Thus Eleanor could not have killed her, since the Queen was a captive at the time (Warren-Henry, p. 119). It is possible that Rosamund took the veil in despair -- because Owen, p. 73, suggests that this was the period when Henry II started paying attention to Alais/Alice, the daughter of Louis VII who had been betrothed to Henry's son Richard. Most of what we know about this is gossip -- although Richard eventually rejected Alice as his wife because his father had taken her (Gillingham, p. 160). There isn't even a firm date for this purported liaison; Boyd, p. 231, says she had a child by Henry but that the baby died, then on p. 250 reports that there were two children. McLynn, p. 91, suggests that the affair did not start until 1180. And Warren-John, p. 37, suggests that Philip Augustus made up the story and passed it on to Richard to make Richard rebel against his father. Barber, pp. 65-66, wonders if it even happened; he suggests it might have been a fiction used by Richard and/or Philip to end a match that was "no longer of advantage for either"; he mentions on p. 227 a claim that Alice was a "very ugly woman."
Even though Henry and Rosamund were probably linked romantically by the late 1160s, it was not until 1173 that relations between Henry and Eleanor really turned bad. In that year, Henry's three oldest sons turned on their father. Owen, pp. 68-69, does not seem to think Eleanor had any part in encouraging the revolt, which began with a quarrel between the Old and Young Kings (no less a source than Dante blamed that on the troubadour Bertrand de Born, whom he placed in the eighth circle of hell as a result. In Dante, Bertrand "set the young king on to mutiny" according to the Ciardi translation of the Inferno -- see canto 28, lines 120-end. McLynn, p. 60, also considers de Born to have been a major influence on Henry the Younger; cf. Kelly, p. 223). Boyd, p. 204, also thinks the boys started it and Eleanor simply went along, and he suggests (p. 220) that Bertrand was stirring up trouble to cover an attempted affair.
Kelly, p. 150, says that "there was something very special about the famous case of Rosamund Clifford that deeply aroused the Plantagenet queen," and thinks this explains her revolt But McLynn points out on p. 43, Eleanor and Henry had married largely for political purposes; Eleanor must have known that it was likely that he would have affairs. McLynn, p. 44, suggests that Eleanor feared Aquitaine being absorbed into the Angevin Empire. This doesn't wash either, however, since Eleanor worked hard, in the reigns of Richard and John, to hold the Empire together.
If Henry the Younger rebelled on his own, Gillingham, p. 64, is of the clear opinion that Eleanor encouraged the rebellion of at least Richard the second son and Geoffrey the third. This seems to be the consensus view; it is supported, e.g., by Markale, p. 48, and McLynn, pp. 40-41 (although he admits that Geoffrey was slippery enough to take any chance he could find to assert his own power). Warren-Henry, p. 119, says that no one at the time could understand Eleanor's part in the rebellion, and very tentatively suggests on p. 121 that it was because she had been so completely blocked from power. If so, then it makes sense that she might have encouraged her sons.
Eleanor's decision to rebel along with her sons Henry the Young King, Richard, and Geoffrey had the peculiar effect of causing Eleanor to side with her ex-husband Louis against her current husband! (Warren-John, p. 29). But Henry II prevailed -- Boyd, p. 204, suggests that this was due to unity of command on his side; the rebels had many leaders and no overall commander -- and Eleanor, realizing the rebellion had failed, and supposedly fled Aquitaine dressed as a man (Markale p. 51; Kelly, p. 183; Tyerman, pp. 195-196). The disguise failed; she was quickly captured.
It is interesting to note that Henry made terms with his sons, who remained free and even were given some additional money (Dahmus, p. 183), but punished Eleanor by putting her in confinement (Owen, p. 69). She would stay under close guard for about a decade, until after the death of the Young King in 1183 (Owen, pp. 71-72), although we know almost nothing else about her condition in this time. Owen, p. 72, notes that she was not even permitted to attend the funeral of her son.
Markale, p. 52, and Kelly, pp. 189-190, claim that Henry considered trying to get a divorce, presumably on the basis of consanguinity (plus treason). Kelly, p. 192, also suggests that Eleanor might have been forced into a monastery, with or without a divorce -- an idea which clearly had no appeal to her.
But Henry's situation in 1173 was unlike Louis's two decades earlier: He had plenty of sons -- if anything, too many, given their rebellious tendencies. No need to lose Aquitaine. What he might have done had Eleanor been childless, or not Duchess of Aquitaine, is anyone's guess -- but irrelevant. Kelly on p. 192 suggests that Henry wanted the divorce so that he could marry Alice of France -- but the chronology of this doesn't work well, since Alice was only about 13 in 1173, and by the time she and Henry were really involved (if they were), Henry seems to have settled down to keeping Eleanor as his wife, but imprisoned. Boyd, p. 207, thinks he offered her a choice of retiring to an abbey or imprisonment, and that she chose imprisonment, but he offers no supporting data.
Boyd, pp. 212-213, says she was imprisoned, with few if any servants or companions, at Old Sarum near Salisbury, a tightly-guarded fortress with few comforts and few people nearby. His suggestion, p. 215, is that Henry wanted to force her to consent to an annulment of their marriage so that he could marry again -- and then disinherit her sons.
What is clear is that, in such close imprisonment, Eleanor could not have killed Rosamund, nor even arranged for the killing even if someone had been foolish enough to commit murder on her behalf.
Not everyone was happy about her treatment. Provencals wrote what, if the translation does not mask too much, was probably quite beautiful poetry about her fate (paraphrased from Owen, p. 72, and Meade, p. 279):
Where is the living she once enjoyed to the music of flute and drum?
Where is her court? Where is her family?
Captive of the King of the North Wind,
She lies, overcome by sorrow.
But let her not despair.
Return, O captive, if you can....
After the Young King's death, Eleanor was given slightly better treatment, although still carefully watched (Owen, p. 74; Markale, p. 54, and Boyd, p. 227, think this was just Henry using her again because of succession issues involving Richard and Aquitaine, but adds on p. 229 that she was given a little more freedom after she started cooperating with Henry). Her movements were still restricted -- e.g. when her third son, Geoffrey, was killed in a tournament accident (apparently trampled to death by horses; Boyd, p. 230), she was again denied the right to attend the funeral (Owen, p. 76). McLynn, p. 118, suggests she was again closely confined in 1188, when Henry II and Prince Richard had their final quarrel, but the evidence for this is weak.
Then Henry II died in 1189, cursing his sons for betraying him (Owen, pp. 78-79). Eleanor soon faced a new sorrow when her daughter Matilda died -- but she also regained her freedom when her favorite son Richard became king. (According to Kelly, pp. 248-249, it was none other than William the Marshal who was sent to free her -- but she had already been released by the time he reached her. And we should note that Richard promptly married the Marshal to the heiress of Gloucester, making him an earl for the first time. The Gloucester heiress was reportedly young and quite beautiful, and I know of no evidence that Marshal was unfaithful.)
Eleanor was not only free, she was now a power in the land -- Boyd, p. 239, remarks that her "mental and physical vigour on release was remarkable" for someone so old and so long imprisoned. She apparently had a seal made and used it to seal charters in England, where she had no formal authority except as delegated by Richard (Boyd, p. 240).
In her first years of freedom, she probably helped arrange Richard's marriage (Owen, p. 82), and helped run the kingdom while he was on crusade (Markale, p. 56, calls her the "true mistress of England" -- but this seems unlikely just because Richard wouldn't want to rely too much on a woman in her sixties who might die at any moment). She seems to have been instrumental in controlling the rebellion of Richard's brother John (Owen, p. 86). She may have cut back her involvement in affairs when Richard came home -- but only briefly. In 1199, Richard I died, a victim of his own combative instincts -- he was besieging a castle, and went too close to the walls, and was hit by an arrow -- and poor medical practice (Owen, p. 92).
Richard had never declared whether John, Henry and Eleanor's last son, or Arthur, the young son of Henry and Eleanor's third son Geoffrey, should succeed. Arthur had stronger hereditary right, but that did not mean much then (of the last seven English kings, Harold II, William I, William II, Henry I, Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, at least five had not had hereditary right). And Arthur was still a boy, and under French influence anyway. Different parts of the Angevin Empire chose different kings (Warren-John, p. 51). Eleanor was influential in gaining support for John over Arthur in Aquitaine and elsewhere (Owen, p. 94; Tyerman, p. 196). Interestingly, William Marshal also helped tilt things John's way (Warren-John, p. 49). In the end, however, John had to make some concessions to Philip of France. They looked minor, but they were an omen of things to come (Warren-John, p. 55).
Markale, pp. 68-69, suggests that Eleanor decided to back John because she thought she could control his bad behavior. This makes no sense. Eleanor was by this time in her late seventies; John was 32 -- and had no children. She could not possibly hope to keep control until John's children were old enough to succeed. McLynn, p. 77, makes the even stranger claim that Eleanor "despised John," which makes it hard to believe that she would have supported his succession (McLynn can only justify this on the grounds that Eleanor hated Arthur more -- blaming her hatred on the trivial fact that the boy's mother Constance had named her son Arthur; McLynn, p. 90). John was to prove a disastrous king -- but at least some of that was due to the fragile situation left him by Richard; Arthur would likely have been as bad or worse.
1199 was a sad year for the dowager queen; her youngest daughter Joanna (born 1165) died shortly after Richard (Owen, p. 96), supposedly in childbirth after being separated from her husband (Boyd, pp. 308-309). Eleanor was left with only two living children, Eleanor (born 1161, and by this time Queen of Castile) and John; the latter two would outlive their mother. But even now, at the age at least 74 and probably 77, she continued to do diplomatic work for her children, for example helping to arrange a marriage between her granddaughter Blanche of Castile and the son of King Philip of France (Owen, pp. 96-97). Thus, even though none of Eleanor's children ever sat on the throne of France, her great-grandson did (Markale, p. 47).
Already by 1200 they were calling the new king "John Softsword" (Warren-John, pp. 56-57). Warren argues that the Angevin military machine was best suited to defence, not offence. But John, with an economy battered by Richard's constant need for funds, couldn't even defend very well. Richard had survived partly because Henry II had left him a substantial financial reserve (Warren-John, p. 61) and partly by selling every saleable item in England -- and, even so, he had had to make a new Great Seal in 1198 so he could repudiate his debts! (Warren-John, p. 62). John had no bank balance to fall back on, and no offices to sell; to his cost, he simply couldn't conduct operations on the same scale Richard had.
It is interesting to note that John's greatest military success was to save his mother. In 1201, Philip of France attacked Aquitaine and trapped Eleanor at Mirebeau. According to Warren-John, p. 7 1, she was by now bedridden, and certainly too old to make the sort of daring escape she had managed earlier in life. John made a forced march to rescue his mother (Owen, p. 99). In the process, he trapped a number of French soldiers and briefly caused Philip to halt his attacks (Warren-John, p. 79).
It was the last great moment of Eleanor's life. Not even she could not control what came next. One of those captured in the rescue of Mirebeau was Arthur of Brittany, the disappointed claimant to the throne. (Defenders of Arthur should note that he had agreed to attack his own grandmother! -- Markale, p. 73)! If Arthur was anything like his father Geoffrey, the one Plantagenet whom *all* the historians seem to condemn (e.g. McLynn, p. 67, considers him to have combined the traits of his brothers Henry and John: Henry's handsome, convincing exterior and John's sneakiness and untrustworthiness), then he was a genuine threat to the public order.
But if Arthur might have been a lousy king, he was a good symbol. We don't know what happened to him, but he definitely was not seen after 1203 (Owen, p. 100). If John did not kill him, one of his vassals almost certainly did. The Bretons rose up to get their duke back in 1203, and John did not, and probably could not, produce him (Warren-John, p. 81). Warren's guess (Warren-John, pp. 82-83) is that John had personally killed Arthur while in a drunken rage. But exaggeration is easy; Markale, e.g. (p. 74) knows two near-contemporary accounts of Arthur's end (that John ordered him blinded and castrated, and that John killed Arthur himself) -- and makes up enough details to allow both to have happened.
Even if the disappearance of Arthur could be excused, John also refused mercy to many others who were at Mirabeau (Davis, p. 18). Many of those in the French territories turned against him.
Warren-John, p. 80, considers the elimination of Arthur one of John's biggest mistakes. Mirebeau gave John several advantages -- and threw them away. People in England didn't care much about Arthur, and when, a decade later, the French king tried to bring it up with the Pope, the Pope officially branded Arthur a rebellious vassal and told the French to drop the issue (Warren-John, p. 84). But his death led the Bretons and others to turn firmly against John. And it was too late for Eleanor to rescue her last wayward son.
Owen, p. 101, makes the fascinating observation that, as Eleanor's life faded out, so too did the Angevin Empire. John had held his boundaries in 1201-1203, but in early 1204, the French attacked Normandy. Tthere was very little resistance (Warren-John, pp. 88-89, suggests that Richard I's harsh hand had turned the Normans against the Angevins). Richard I's great defensive work, the Chateau Galliard, fell in March (Warren-John, p. 95), ruining John's plans to recover his losses. The road to Rouen -- the key to Normandy -- lay open, and so did the path to the Norman hinterland. Philip proceeded to capture the towns toward the coast, knowing that if he held western Normandy, John could not support an army sent to reinforce Rouen (Warren-John, p. 97). Rouen itself, surrounded by French outposts, surrendered on June 24 (Fawtier, p. 149). Normandy -- the home of William the Conqueror's dynasty, and the first major region over which Henry II had ruled directly -- was gone.
Even as that was happening, on April 1, 1204 (or perhaps during the night before), Eleanor of Aquitaine died. She was probably between 80 and 84 years old, and had been Duchess of Aquitaine for almost exactly 67 years, and Queen (either Queen of France, or Queen of England, or Dowager Queen) for all but a few months of that time. No English queen -- not even Queen Victoria -- held her title that long..
Eleanor is buried in Fontrevrault Abbey, near her husband and son Richard (Saul, p. 48); she may have died there, having finally retired from the world, although this is disputed (Owen, p. 102). It is interesting to note that the effigy on her tomb shows her holding an open book. An earlier sculpture of her, with Louis, also shows her holding a book (Boyd, p. 27; shown in his illustration 3). We don't see many others portrayed that way in this period -- e.g. John's wife Isabella, whose remains are in the same hall, is shown with her hands clasped. Richard I and Henry II, also buried there, hold scepters.
Without her, John seemed to lose whatever effectiveness he had formerly had. Warren-John, p. 99, notes that while even Richard would likely have lost Normandy, he would have been in the thick of the fighting against the French. But "John stayed in England biting his nails." Little wonder the Normans gave in easily. The English did not give up hopes of regaining Normandy until after the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, and continued to claim the duchy until Henry III formally yielded it in 1259 (Fawtier, p. 149), but England was too enfeebled to mount a counterattack.
Personally, I can't help but have mixed but mostly positive feelings about Eleanor. Take away all the late accretions and you have a rich but sad story. She was frivolous in her youth, and her struggles against her husbands hurt them both -- but she was more sinned against than sinning. She clearly became a stateswoman in her later years, and probably would have been just as good when younger if only anyone had listened to her; she obviously had more brains than Louis at least. She clearly deserved a great deal of respect. But, in a misogynist world, respect is just what she didn't get. To this day, historians can fall victim to this; Harvey, p. 48, comments that "even the lapse of centuries is unable to blur altogether the sharp outlines of her impetuosity."
Yet Meade, p. xi, points out a credit to her given to few women: "Despite her association with these four kings [Louis, Henry, Richard, and John], she struggled to retain her own identity, and it is a measure of her success that 772 years after her death she survives not as Queen Eleanor of England or Queen Eleanor of France but simply as Eleanor of Aquitaine."
She certainly attracts lovers of scandal. Three of the biographies cited in this document (Kelly, Markale and Meade) strike me as more gossip than anything else, even though Kelly and Meade are reasonably well footnoted. I'd also consider McLynn far too willing to accept a possibility as a certainty.
Some of the authors admit the problems of seeing through their sources. Markale, p. 192, says that "the stories of Eleanor could be entitled altogether, 'Adultery Considered as One of the Fine Arts.' The hate and distrust she inspired is not sufficient to explain the number of love affairs attributed to the queen-duchess." He thinks that Eleanor was a woman who wanted freedom and was condemned as a result. Markale adds that the comparisons to the vicious and oversexed Roman empress Messalina (wife of Claudius I) are unfair; "Eleanor's case is entirely different -- and the adulteries she is assumed to have committed are far from proved." On pp. 196-197 he notes that the French in particular had a motivation to smear her, because her divorce from Louis so weakened the French monarchy.
Over the years, stories of Eleanor's infidelity multiplied -- Owen, pp. 104-112, documents how each chronicler seemed to make her blacker than the one before. An early biography of the troubadour Bernard of Ventadour suggests that Eleanor slept with him (Owen, pp. 40-41). Another French singer would accuse her of wanting to leave Louis for Saladin during their quarrel on the Crusade -- yet another absurdity, since Saladin at the time of the second crusade was an unknown youth of probably no older than thirteen and perhaps as young as ten (Meade, p. 106; Kelly, p. 62; Owen, pp. 105-106). Owen, p. 54, mentions a rumor that she was involved with another uncle, Raoul de Faye, in the 1160s -- although she was pregnant at the time.
As McLynn comments on p. 14, "Certainly there was something about Eleanor that could provoke people to hatred. Some described her as a latter-day Messalina while others said that the legend of Melusine [the demonic wife of a Count of Anjou] was a foretelling of her reign."
Much of the second half of Markale is about legends of Eleanor; on p. 194, he derives the stories of Eleanor from the "Adulterous Queen" motif in early Celtic legend, making her part of a fertility cult. Right.
So strong was the legend that, in later years, Anthony Munday in his plays about Robin Hood (written c. 1600) would present Eleanor as trying to seduce Robin (Dobson/Taylor, p. 222), even though she was in her sixties at the time of the action of the play.
Somehow, no one seems to have noticed these affairs at the time. To be sure, Markale, p. 13, says that Chretien de Troyes used Eleanor as the model for his Guinevere, and hence presumably for Guinevere's affair with Lancelot. But Markale, pp. 79-80, notes that when Eleanor's marriage to Louis was dissolved, the council involved formally refuted the charge of adultery. Although this might have been a political decision -- divorce on the grounds of adultery would have rendered her children illegitimate and would surely have caused her to contest the case.
Shakespeare made her a "cank'red grandam" in Act II, scene I of "King John," but given Shakespeare's record of falsehoods, that may be a compliment.
Moderns have a strong tendency to link Eleanor with the troubadours and the idea of Courtly Love -- which said, in essence, that love couldn't exist in marriage; only unattainable love was real. The link is certainly possible -- the troubadours, after all, originated in Aquitaine, and Eleanor's own grandfather was one of the founders of the movement. And Boyd, p. 29, says that one of Eleanor's "less glorious distinctions is to be the only woman recorded as having unleashed a war in support of a sister's right to marry the man she loved."
But Owen, p. 152, points out that the stories of Eleanor managing "Courts of Love" are exaggerated -- the main account is from one Andrew the Chaplain (cited on pp. 153-154 of Owen), and the "cases" Eleanor judges are too conveniently like the Queen's own history to be believable. Tyerman, p. 197, adds that some of the details about Eleanor's practices are "fiction"; she wasn't where the tales put her when they put her there.
And if Eleanor encouraged the troubadours, or even composed herself, that doesn't mean she engaged in actual hanky-panky.
What's more, Eleanor had a real reason to be against the conventions of courtly love -- because her grandfather had abandoned her grandmother and openly taken up with a concubine (Meade, pp. 15-16). Given all the trouble that caused, Eleanor would have had every reason to have tried to maintain a stable married life.
Warren-Henry, p. 583, comments that stories of Eleanor presiding over "courts of love" or the like "may have owed something to the flirtatious, romantic young woman who had at one time graced the court of Paris... but owed nothing to the matriarch and hard-headed politician that Eleanor became in later life."
Might Eleanor have slept with the future Earl Marshal? She did show him favor (Owen, p. 57). He helped rescue her from an ambush in 1168 (Kelly, p. 154), and when he was captured (after being stabbed from behind after unhorsing six enemies while himself fighting on foot, according to McLynn, p. 63), she contributed to his ransom (Boyd, p. 183). But he spent more time serving Henry II.
Although we don't know his exact age, it is surely relevant. Powicke, p. 17, says he was about 80 when he died in 1219, meaning he was born in 1139 -- but "eighty" is suspiciously round; I strongly suspect it was a chronicler saying simply that he was "very old," based on the Biblical "three score and ten" or even "four score." Plus, in 1189 while guarding Henry II's rearguard from an attack by Prince Richard, the Marshal was still skilled enough to deliberately kill Richard's horse while not injuring the Prince (McLynn, p. 114). This would be tricky for a 50-year-old; a later date for Marshal's birth seems far more likely. Kelly, p. 248, and Boyd, p. 236, make him only 35 in 1189 when Henry II died. This would mean he was born in 1153 -- almost impossibly young, since he was able to fight off six men in 1168. The best guess is that William Marshal was born in 1147 (so OxfordCompanion, p. 622; Tyerman, p. 285), although Owen, p. 57, implies he was a few years older.
If the 1147 date is correct, that makes the Marshal 25 years younger than Eleanor (he would outlive her by 15 years, dying in 1219). Even if we say he was born in 1139 (the earliest possible date) and Eleanor was born in 1125 (the latest possible date), she was 14 years older. Eleanor's oldest child, Marie, was born in 1145 (Owen, p. 20) -- quite possibly before the Marshal was born. Eleanor and Henry had married in 1152, when the Marshal was no more than 13 and probably only about five. Those facts obviously make it impossible for him to have taken her maidenhead. That doesn't make it impossible that he slept with her. But, even granting that Eleanor was considered a great beauty in her day, what are the odds that the Marshal would have wanted to sleep with a woman who was old enough to be his mother?
Marshal was only a younger son of a minor nobleman; he did not become an earl until 1189, after Henry II died, when Richard I allowed him to marry Isabella, the heiress of Pembroke (OxfordCompanion, p. 622). (Thus his proper title was "Earl of Pembroke," not "Earl Marshal." But everyone seems to have called him the "Earl Marshal"). But Henry II never knew him by that title.
Nor would King Henry's promise not to write anything down have cut much weight, since his word was not particularly good.
I note that the Marshal fell out of favor with King John soon after Eleanor died, not to be restored until near the end of the reign. But the reason did not involve Eleanor: Marshal had conceded the loss of Normandy and done homage to the French for his estates there (Warren-John, pp. 114-115).
Although he was first famous as a fighter (Boyd, p. 188, says that he captured more than 500 men in tournaments!), Marshal also was noted as an honorable man, and came to be regarded as wise. When King John died in 1216 and someone was needed to govern the country during the minority of Henry III, the Marshal was not only given the job, he was given unusual powers: "The wish of those gathered together at Gloucester was that the old earl marshal should assume the responsibility for the protection of Henry and his kingdom. The marshal was reluctant.... [After a second request backed by Earl Ranulf of Chester, who arrived late], the marshal agreed. In the words of his biographer, he was given the baillie of the kingdom.... The marshal became rector of king and kingdom. He is so styled a few days later in the first reissue of [the Magna Carta]" (Powicke, p. 2).
(The mere fact that he had a biographer is interesting; Tyerman, p. 286, says that he was "the subject of the first medieval biography of a layman who was not a king." Although it's a pretty folkloric biography; early in life, Marshal was taken prisoner by King Stephen, who threatened to hang him unless his father behaved. The father supposedly answered Stephen that he could produce even greater sons -- and Stephen led the lad live; Davis, p. 34. But this same story is told of other nobles, e.g. of Lord Strange, the son of Lord Stanley, when Lord Stanley was rebelling against Richard III. I'll believe such tales when they are properly documented....)
When John died, he had lost most of England; the Welsh were attacking across the Marches; the Scots had taken control of the northern counties, and either the French or rebel barons held London, Winchester (the site of the richest bishopric in the country; in effect, the second financial center), and Lincoln, plus all of the ports on the coastline toward France except Dover (Davis, p. 29). As a nation, England seemed doomed to be taken over by France. John's death helped, since it eliminated the personal animosities that led to the rebellions. But it was William Marshal who saved England.
The Marshal drove the invading French out of England, mostly by capturing the fortresses of Kent and the southeast and so cutting their communications with France (Powicke, pp. 9-10) and then winning a battle at Lincoln (Powicke, pp. 11-12), causing many of the rebellious English barons to return to their allegiance. The English paid a fairly big monetary settlement to speed the French on their way (Powicke, p. 14). Would the barons have trusted Marshal with their money if he were scandal-tainted?
The Marshal died in 1219 -- and declared that he should have no successor as regent, possibly to keep people from conspiring for the job (Davis, . 49). As he lay dying, he consulted a number of spiritual advisors. He was worried about the wealth he gained at tournaments. He said farewell to his wife and daughters. He called upon the Papal legate Pandulf to help govern the kingdom until the young Henry III reached his majority. He made other arrangements (Powicke, p. 17). If he said anything at all about Eleanor, the record does not survive.
It is well-known that John was Henry II's favorite of his four sons (e.g. McLynn, pp. 76-77). But he was the baby of the family, born in 1166 (so Kelly, p. 103; Markale, p. 44; McLynn, p. 26; Owen, p. 55) or perhaps 1167 (so some chronicles). Since Eleanor and Henry were together relatively rarely in the 1160s, John was the obvious candidate for the cuckoo's egg. Would he have been Henry's favorite had there been any possibility he was illegitimate?
(Note that, while John was not as tall and splendid as his older brothers, he certainly had Angevin traits such as violent rages. McLynn, p. 94, describes what sounds like an obsessive-compulsive tendency toward biting his fingers when enraged which John shared with Henry II.)
Before you ask -- as far as I know, no DNA testing has been applied.
Bottom line: Although it is possible that Eleanor of Aquitaine had extramarital affairs (possible, but beyond proof), we have no evidence of it. (If you want my personal opinion -- I don't think she did. Yes, Eleanor schemed, and yes, she tried to manage her husbands, without success, and her sons, with better success. That doesn't make her a philanderer. Women are generally not as tempted to sleep around as men -- and the risk for them was higher.) And if she did sleep around, it probably wasn't with the Marshal.
Of course, it doesn't matter what she actually did -- what matters is what the person who wrote this ballad *thought* she did. And they thought the worst. More than a century ago, Bishop William Stubbs accurately wrote, "Few women have had less justice done them in history than Eleanor" (cited by Meade on p. ix).
In a footnote, although Marshall almost certainly did not sleep with a queen, his descendent did. Marshall had a daughter Eva, whose daughter Maud de Braose was the grandmother of Roger Mortimer of Wigmore (Mortimer, pp. 11-12). Mortimer would later become involved with Isabella of France, the wife of King Edward II -- and would be instrumental in the overthrow of Edward II.
I have to mention another possibility, having to do with Courtly Love. The quasi-official doctrine of this movement was that "One cannot love one's own wife but must love the wife of some other man" (Wagenknecht, p. 243). Could this song be a send-up of the Courtly Love notion which somehow survived? The obvious difficulty being that this would require a very long survival of a song that would likely have originally been French. I don't really consider it likely.
Still, the chronology makes it certain that, if "Queen Eleanor's Confession" is based on actual fact, then Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine cannot possibly be the monarchs involved. Are there other possibilities to explain the song?
If one moves the story to the time of Henry III (reigned 1216-1272), who married Eleanor of Provence, we should note that by the time the third Henry married Eleanor at the age of 28 in 1236, the Marshal line was on the brink of extinction; Henry had hounded Richard the third Earl to death, leaving the earldom in the hands of his brother Gilbert (Davis, p. 100), who in turn was quarreling with Henry by Christmas 1238 (Davis, p. 122) and died in 1245 (Davis, p. 154). Besides, Henry and Eleanor seem to have had a good marriage (Davis, p.109); she was only twelve or thirteen at the time of her marriage, and seems to have been quiet and unassertive (Davis, p. 110); the two never became involved in scandal. And after that, there are no instances of a King Henry marrying an Eleanor. (I do note, however, that Margaret of Anjou the wife of Henry VI was widely believed to have had an affair with a member of her court.)
The case of Margaret of Anjou, in fact, has a lot of similarities to this song -- enough that I almost wonder if it didn't contribute to it. Margaret was married to a Henry -- in this case, Henry VI. Unlike Eleanor, she was only in her mid-teens when she married, so she probably was a virgin at the time of her marriage. The context of the marriage was the Hundred Years' War -- the English were trying to hold Henry V's conquests in France, and failing, and were negotiating for a French marriage to try to obtain peace.
Henry himself was not involved in the negotiations. Instead, he appointed his friend, the Earl of Suffolk, to head an embassy. Suffolk made a deal. A proxy marriage followed, with Suffolk standing in for Henry VI (Griffiths, p. 487). Thus, as a sort of formal equivalency, Suffolk could be said to have married Margaret, and hence in a sort of formal way to have had her maidenhead. And, because Suffolk was so close to the royal family, and because Henry VI was utterly incompetent, it was rumoured that Suffolk had an affair with the queen and was the father of her only child, Prince Edward.
What's more, when Henry VI appointed Suffolk to his embassy, Suffolk -- knowing there was trouble brewing -- made conditions. He "requested a public declaration to him and his companions that no blame should attach to him and his companions should their mission fail, and this the king provided by letters patent under the great seal" (Griffiths, p. 484). And when Suffolk made the deal with the French, one of the concessions he made was to turn the county of Maine -- the key to holding Normandy -- over to the French. Also, it should be remembered that Henry VI claimed the crown of France. By negotiating as he did, Henry in effect conceded his right to that crown. Thus Henry VI, by marrying Margaret, in effect pledged "my living and my lands, my sceptre and my crown," as in the song.
All of which is interesting, but hardly enough to parallel the song. The key is an incident that took place when Margaret first came to England, before she met Henry VI. According to one chronicler, she was unwell when she arrived after a rough passage, and Henry took the opportunity to inspect her without her knowing what was going on: "When the queen landed in England the king dressed himself as a squire... Suffolk doing the same, and took her a letter which he said the King of England had written" (Griffith, p. 488).
The parallels are not perfect, but we have a King Henry in disguise, an earl thought to have had an affair with the Queen, and a king who gave that earl a promise. Quite a combination.
It occurs to me, furthermore, that there is a just-barely-possible explanation for this song, which actually fits the twelfth century, except that it does not involve King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Henry and Eleanor's eldest son was Henry "the Young King" (so-called because he was crowned as his father's successor while Henry II was still alive; Ashley, p. 522). Henry the Younger was married to Margaret, a daughter of French King Louis VII by one of his later wives (Ashley, p. 522).
What makes it interesting is that Gillingham reports (p. 89) that in the 1180s -- shortly before the death of Henry the Young King -- there were rumors that William the Marshal (not yet an earl) was the lover of Margaret the wife of Henry the Younger. And Margaret, although she had no power at all (Henry the Young King had very little, and she didn't share what he had), had been officially crowned as his Queen.
Henry had probably been jealous of Marshal even before that, since Marshal had a much stronger reputation as a fighter, and also was considered better surety for debts (McLynn, p. 64). When even his wife seemed to be showing a liking for Marshal (although there is no hint that it was sexual), the Young King dismissed Marshal from his entourage (McLynn, p. 65). But Henry "could neither put a stop to the gossip nor put William on trial" (Gillingham, p. 89). As Warren-Henry puts it on p. 582, "Henry the Younger, refusing either to disbelieve the charges or to allow William to prove them false, deprived himself of the one man who could perhaps have dissuaded him from the ultimate foolishness of his behavior in 1182-1183."
Marshal, incidentally, offered to take on any three accusers (one at a time, of course), in a trial by ordeal to prove his innocence (Kelly, pp. 209-210). Because Marshal was such a noteworthy warrior, no one dared take up the challenge. And not even Henry the elder seemed to take the gossip seriously; when the younger Henry died, he gave Margaret a pension (Warren-Henry, p. 609).
Thus, if we replace Henry II with Henry the Young King, the Earl Marshal with William the Marshal who would later be earl, and Queen Eleanor with Queen Margaret, this song becomes possible.
Apart from the pesky detail that Margaret outlived the Young King, anyway. And that Marshal was given his earldom by Richard I after both Henry the elder and Henry the younger were dead (Gillingham, p. 125).
Henry the Younger was eventually reconciled with Marshal. According to McLynn, p. 73, in the 1183 conflict between the Old King and his sons, the man who had accused Marshal of adultery concluded that Henry II would win their conflict and fled the Young King's entourage. The Young King concluded that the fellow was lying, and therefore that theMarshal was innocent -- although it hardly mattered at that point, since the Young King died so soon after.
A slightly more reasonable possibility arises if we wait a generation. There *is* a link between an Earl Marshall and an Eleanor of the English royal family. The second Earl Marshal married Eleanor, the sister of Henry III (and hence the granddaughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine) in the 1220s (Davis, p. 65) -- although the relationship didn't last long; Marshal died in 1231, shortly after another marriage between the families; Marshal's sister married Henry III's brother Richard of Cornwall (Davis, p. 84). Eleanor Plantagenet then married Simon de Montfort (Davis, p. 117), who would later come very close to overthrowing Henry. Thus Eleanor Plantagenet might well have turned against Henry III, but she could hardly have cuckolded him since she never married him!
The second Marshal's brother Richard, who became the third earl, ended up being branded a traitor by Henry III in 1233 (Davis, p. 93) -- which naturally forced him into rebellion, the first foretaste of the many troubles Henry would experience in his 56 year reign. Eventually Richard Marshal died, suspiciously, after a surgical operation (Davis, p. 98). Is it possible that the marriage of an obscure Earl Marshall and an obscure Eleanor (the sister, rather than the wife, of a King Henry) got projected back onto a more famous Henry, Eleanor, and Earl?
In any case, Owen, p. 161, says that for most of the Eleanor stories, "history has been the starting point for legendary development. With 'Queen Eleanor's Confession' the process has been reversed. There a popular tale had brought to the mind of some balladeer memories of the English queen as he understood her to have been; and he amused himself and us by casting her in the ready-made role he found there. Her 'confessions' are, of course, part of her legend; but the frame-story is from another, independent tradition." On p. 160 he notes that the theme of a husband hearing his wife's confession are found in a French fabliau and in Boccaccio. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C156

Queen Elizabeth Lost Her Shoe

See Oliver Cromwell Lost His Shoe (File: SuSm099E)

Queen Elizabeth's Champion, or Great Britain's Glory

See The Young Earl of Essex's Victory over the Emperor of Germany [Child 288] (File: C288)

Queen Jane

See The Death of Queen Jane [Child 170] (File: C170)

Queen Jane (II)

See The King's Dochter Lady Jean [Child 52] (File: C052)

Queen Jean

See The Death of Queen Jane [Child 170] (File: C170)

Queen Mary (Auld Maid's Lament)

DESCRIPTION: The girl (perhaps "Queen Mary") is of an age to be courting but has no suitors. She dresses well, and goes out when she can, but finds no takers. Her mother laments the girl's fate, as does the girl herself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 ("G.W.," "Girls' Game, from the Banks of Forth" in _Scottish Notes and Queries_)
KEYWORDS: loneliness courting playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber,High)) Canada(Newf) US(SW)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1373, "Nae Bonnie Laddie Will Tak Me Awa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan8 1605, "Queen Mary" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 62, "The Scotch Lassie" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 46, "The New Dress" (1 fragment, which appears to be this but might be "Nae Bonnie Laddie...")
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 79, "Queen Mary" (6 texts, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #385, "My name is sweet (Jennie), my age is sixteen" (1 text)
DT, QUENMARY
ADDITIONAL: Ed Cray,"Jump-Rope Rhymes from Los Angeles" in Western Folklore, Vol. XXIX, No. 2 (Apr 1970 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 124, ("My name is Queen Mary") (1 text)
Katharine (Tynan) Hinkson, "The Girls' Room" in Christabel R. Coleridge and Arthur Innes, editors, The Monthly Packet (London, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XCII, pp. 346-347, "Queen Mary" ("My name is sweet Mary, my age is sixteen")
Edward W.B. Nicholson, editor, Golspie: Contributions to its Folklore (London, 1897 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 198-199, ("My name is Queen Mary") (1 text, 2 tunes)
G.W., "Girls' Game, From the Banks of Forth" in [John Bulloch?, editor,] Scottish Notes and Queries (Aberdeen, 1889 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, No. 6, November 1888, p. 91, "Sweet Mary" ("Sweet Mary, Sweet Mary! my age is sixteen") (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; note to #389, ("Queen Mary, Queen Mary, my age is sixteen") (1 short text)
Roud #6281
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away (I)" (theme, lyrics)
NOTES [78 words]: The relationship between this piece and "Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away (I)" is extremely vexed -- to the extent that it is impossible to tell which fragments go with which song. Frankly, I'd probably lump them if Roud didn't split them (and then, seemingly, mis-file some of the versions -- aided and abetted by Ford, who had two songs of this type). As a starting point, playparties and courting games go with this piece; full-fledged songs with the other. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: HHH230

Queen Mary's Men (New Year's Eve Carol)

DESCRIPTION: "This is good New Year's Even-night, We are all Queen Mary's men, And we've come here to claim our right, And that's before Our Lady." The singers travel the town asking for gifts of food. The offer good wishes for the residents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: food carol
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #152, p. 1, "Queen Mary's Men" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 641, "We Are A' Queen Mary's Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 200, "Queen Mary's Men" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 406-407, "Fragment of the Hagmena Song" (1 text)
DT, MARYMEN
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 167-169, ("This night it is guid New'r E'en's night")
Roud #4584
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Besuthian" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Orkney New Year's Eve Carol
NOTES [203 words]: This song seems to be known mostly in the north of Scotland, where Catholicism held on long after the Reformation, so the refernce to "Our Lady" probably does not indicate an early date.
The reference to "Queen Mary" is not very helpful in dating. Counting backward, queens of Britain named Mary were:
Mary of Teck, wife of George V (1867-1953)
Mary II Stewart, wife of William III (joint monarchy; reigned 1689-1694; born 1662)
Mary of Modena, second wife of James II (1658-1718); if she were meant, this would be an overtly political song, which seems unlikely
Queens Mary of England after 1400 were:
Mary I, queen regnant 1553-1558 (1516-1558)
Queens Mary of Scotland after 1500 were:
Mary Stewart/Stuart, queen regnant 1542-1567 (1542-1587)
Mary of Guise, wife of James V and mother of Mary Stuart (1515-1560; she was de facto or de jure Governor of Scotland for much of the last decade and a half of her life)
Mary of Gueldres, wife of James II (died 1463)
All of these save Mary II were Catholic (well, I'm not sure about Mary of Teck, but she's presumably too late, since she became queen in the year Greig/Duncan collected the song), but few of them are convincing candidates for the Queen Mary of the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: MSNR200

Queen of All the Fairies

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, she was a cripple with only one nipple," so her child was disadvantaged; "he'll never play rugger Or grow up big and strong." He's grown older, but little has changed: "Twenty-one, never been done, Queen of all the fairies."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: disability
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 127, "Queen of All the Fairies" (1 text)
Roud #10230
File: RuSoQoaF

Queen of Babylon

See KIng of the Barbarees (King of the Barbican, Will You Surrender, Queen of Babylon) (File: SuSm040)

Queen of Dover, The

See Here Comes a Queen from Dover (File: WOlf055)

Queen of Elfan's Nourice, The [Child 40]

DESCRIPTION: The Queen of Elfland awakens to hear her child's (wet)-nurse weeping. The Queen of Elfland asks the reason; the nurse says that she is crying for her own son. The Queen of Elfland sets the nurse on the right road home (and on to heaven).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802/3 (Skene ms.)
KEYWORDS: separation children magic abduction
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 40, "The Queen of Elfan's Nourice" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's (#1)}
Bronson 40, "The Queen of Elfan's Nourice" (1 version)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 40, "The Queen of Elfan's Nourice" (1 version)
Greig/Duncan2 328, "The Queen o' Elfin's Nourice" (2 fragments, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #1}
Wells-TheBalladTree, p. 240, "The Queen of Elfan's Nourice" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson does not print this tune but calls it a "happy borrowing from a Gaelic song on the theft of a child by the fairies}
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 7, "The Queen of Elfland's Nourice" (1 text)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 136, "(I heard a cow low, a bonnie cow low)" (1 fragment of two stanzas, with no plot; it simply mentions the lowing cow, and might be an independent item grafted into the Child ballad)
DT 40, ELFANURS*
ADDITIONAL: Emily Lyle, _Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition_, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, pp, 142-145, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune with variant forms)
Roud #3723
NOTES [232 words]: Tradition has it that fairies much preferred to have human women nurse their babies; according to Marc Alexander, A Companion to the Folklore, Myths & Customs of Britain, Sutton Publishing, 2002, p. 184, the earliest recorded English tale of a changeling was the story of Malekin, which was recorded by Ralph Coggeshall in the 1200s. Hence the legends about changelings and also odd stories such as this one about a human woman being kidnapped to Elfland. It strikes me that even the well-known tale of Rumpelstiltskin might be a variation on this.
For discussion of this see Emily Lyle, Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, p. 128
Lyle discusses this ballad in particular on pp. 140-148. On pp. 140-141, she observes that Bronson's discussion of his one tune is not entirely accurate, because he did not have full details of how it was collected. See now Lyle's account for the correct history.
Lyle also suggests (p. 145) that the last ten lines of the text in the Skene manuscript (Child's sole text) do not belong with this ballad but come from "Tam Lin" [Child 39]. Child thinks they are from "Thomas Rymer" [Child 37]. Certainly they are inessential, as they discuss the roads to heaven and hell, whereas presumably the Queen of Elfland could simply set the nurse on the direct path and not reveal these secrets. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: C040

Queen of Hearts

DESCRIPTION: "To the Queen of Hearts goes the Ace of sorrow... Young men are plenty but sweethearts few; If my love leaves me, what shall I do?" The singer talks of her wealth and family, "But I'll leave them all to go with you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: love courting family travel
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #114, "The Queen of Hearts" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 153, "Queen of Hearts" (1 text)
DT, QUNHEART*
Roud #3195
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:105, "The Wheel of Fortune," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C [extremely mixed, with the "Wheel of Fortune" verse, a thyme stanza, a bit of "Fair and Tender Ladies," a "Queen of Heart" verse, and more]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Know My Love"
NOTES [37 words]: Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd suggests that this has "a flavour of the period of Charles II." I see no reason for this speculation, and have encountered no hints of its existence before the nineteenth century. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB153

Queen of Hearts, She Made Some Tarts, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts, All on a summer's day. The Knave of Hearts, he stole the tarts, And took them right away. The King of Hears called for the hearts, And beat the knave full sore. The knave... vowed he'd steal no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1782 (European Magazine, acording to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: royalty theft cards
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 434, "The Queen of Hearts" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #235, p. 152, "(The Queen of Hearts)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 166, "The Queen of Hearts" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 60, "The Queen of Hearts" (1 text)
Roud #19298
NOTES [192 words]: I don't know how popular this was before Lewis Carroll used it as the basis for the trial of the Knave of Hearts in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but of course it has been incredibly well-known since then. The Baring-Goulds (note 37, beginning on p. 149) print the whole European Magazine version of 1782, which is much longer than the common version, and involves the other suits as well as the hearts -- e.g. the King of Spades "He kissed the maids, Which made the Queen full sore...."
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel claims that Dodgson's take on the legend parodies Queen Victoria. But Dodgson was an extreme conservative, and strong monarchist; I flatly don't believe it.
The incomparable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 219, completely ignoring the parts of the poem not about the Queen of Hearts, claims this is about the "Winter Queen," Elizabeth, the daughter of James VI and I, who was briefly Queen of Bohemia and was grandmother of the future George I of England. As usual, Thomas's evidence consists of whatever it was she was smoking at the time she dreamed this up. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: OO2434

Queen of Scotland, The [Child 301]

DESCRIPTION: The Queen tries to seduce Troy Muir; he denies her. To punish him, she has him lift up a certain stone under which a serpent waits. A passing girl draws off the snake by cutting off her breast. Troy Muir marries her. Her breast regrows to suckle their son
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: seduction rejection trick animal injury rescue marriage childbirth royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Child 301, "The Queen of Scotland" (1 text)
Roud #3878
File: C301

Queen of the Desperadoes

DESCRIPTION: "She was a two-gun woman, Belle Shirley was her name." Belle marries Jim Reed who was killed by "Morris." She then marries Mr. Starr and "moved to Younger's Bend." Her six other husbands and her dominance over them are briefly described.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: love marriage death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 97, "Queen of the Desperadoes" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #11090
File: FCW097

Queen of the May

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a young woman. She says she has come to gather may. He asks to go with her; she refuses, for fear of being led astray. He kisses her; they wander through the meadows as he picks may. Next morning he marries her to preserve her reputation.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1832 (Journal from the Bengal)
KEYWORDS: courting love sex marriage wedding
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 190-192, "Queen of the May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 300, "Johnny the Ploughboy" (1 fragment) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 235)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 54-55, "The Queen of May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 53, "As I Walked Through the Meadows" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 58, "As I Walked Through the Meadows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 6, "As I Walked Through the Meadows" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 107, "Queen of the May" (1 text)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 18-19, "The Queen of the May" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #35, "Queen of the May" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, QUEENMAY*
Roud #594
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.18(154), "The Queen of May" ("When the winter is gone and the summer is come"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(299), Harding B 11(2727), Johnson Ballads 3069 , Johnson Ballads 804, Firth c.14(85), Johnson Ballads 1510 View 1 of 2[many lines illegible], "The Queen of May"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Green Bushes" [Laws P2] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Now the Winter Is Past
The Handful of May
The Plowboy's Courtship
NOTES [203 words]: This reminds me a lot of "Green Bushes" (Laws P2). The imagery is largely the same, and there are reminiscences in the wording. But the end results are different. - RBW
Although it's never made explicit, especially in Cecil Sharp, I know a line of asterisks when I see one! -PJS
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 254-256, has a piece titles "Upon a Summer's-Day" and beginning "Upon a time I chanc'd To walk along a green, Where pretty lasses danced In strife, to choose a Queen." I don't think it's the same piece, but one might have influenced the other.
Note that this is not to be confused with Tennyson's poem "The May Queen" ("You must wake and call me early, Call me early, mother dear; To-morrow'll be the happiest time Of all the glad new-year, -- Of all the glad new-year, mother, The maddest, merriest day; For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May.") -- a poem which, it seemed, inspired both Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and his contemporary Julia Margaret Cameron to create photos of "The Queen of the May." Dodgson's was of Alice Liddell herself. That poem appears to have been sung at some stage (it's in Dime-Song-Book #6), but I don't know what tune was used. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: SWMS190

Queen Sally

See The Death of Queen Jane [Child 170] (File: C170)

Queen Victoria's Welcome to Deeside

DESCRIPTION: "Ye hills and ye mountains surrounding Balmoral, ye groves and ye valleys, ye surely can tell." "The eighth of September will ne'er be forgotten... We ran and we jumpit... to welcome the Queen." Victoria and Albert's visit are toasted
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: home royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 8, 1848 - Queen Victoria takes possession of Balmoral Castle
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 139, "Queen Victoria's Welcome to Deeside" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 337, "Queen Victoria's Welcome to Deeside" (1 text)
Roud #5605
NOTES [316 words]: The details in the song are not really enough to date it (no real indication of place; a date on the eighth of September, but no year), but it does mention "the Queen and her consort and three bonnie bairnies," as well as mentioning that the queen's husband in Albert. Thus Queen Victoria (1819-1901; reigned 1837-1901) and Prince Albert (1819-1861) are clearly indicated.
There is one minor curiosity in the song. Balmoral had been tenanted by Sir Robert Gordon until 1847, when that worthy died unexpectedly. Victoria and Albert then leased the house. They in fact first arrived on September 8, 1848. But the song mentions only three children; by 1848, Victoria had no fewer than six: Victoria (future Empress of Germany), Edward (future Edward VII), Alice, Alfred, Helena, and Louise, with the oldest, Victoria, still a few months shy of eight years old.
One suspects a political motive to the song. This was the era of the Highland Clearances, and not everyone in northern Scotland was happy with the English monarchy....
There seem to have been a *lot* of songs written about Queen Victoria's visits to Scotland. Broadsides on the theme include:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.74(218), "The Queen's Visit to Scotland" ("The Queen is coming here they say, / To Scotland coming down"), unknown, n.d. but probably published in connection with an 1842 visit; also as Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 2781
NLScotland, ABS.10.203.01(128), "The Queen's Welcome to Scotland" [by Andrew Park] ("The queen she is coming, hurra! hurra! / To the land of the thistle, hurra! hurra!"), unknown, n.d.; same broadside as L.C.Fol.74(219b)
There are also broadsides on Victoria's trip to Ireland, plus there is a sort of a parody on these praise ballads, Harding B 14(123), "The Queen's Return from Scotland," J. Paul (London), n.d.; also 2806 c.16(121a), "The Queen's return from Scotland," G. Jacques (Manchester), etc. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ord337

Queen, Queen, Where Did You Get Your Chicken?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Queen, Queen, Where did you get your chicken, Queen, Queen, where did you get your duck? Queen, Queen, where did you get your goat? I got my chicken out of the yard... my duck out of the pool... goat out of the garden
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Journal of American Folklore, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope royalty chickens | Queen duck goat
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #477, "Queen, Queen" (1 text)
File: AJRR477

Queen's Birthday, The

See The Twenty-Fourth of May (File: MaWip35)

Queen's Confession, The

See Queen Eleanor's Confession [Child 156] (File: C156)

Queen's Garden, The

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Queen's Marie, The

See Mary Hamilton [Child 173] (File: C173)

Queen's Maries, The

See Mary Hamilton [Child 173] (File: C173)

Queen's Mary, The

See Mary Hamilton [Child 173] (File: C173)

Queenie Eye O

See Alla Balla (Ella Bella; Queenie, Queenie) (File: SuSm071)

Queenie, Queenie

See Alla Balla (Ella Bella; Queenie, Queenie) (File: SuSm071)

Queensland Drover, The

See Queensland Overlanders (File: FaE164)

Queensland Overlanders

DESCRIPTION: The singer reminds the listeners of the well-known life of the Queensland drover. He describes the various men who engage in the profession, and their visits to town. The chorus is a toast: "Tonight we drink the health of every overlander."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: Australia travel work
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 218-225, "The Overlander I," "The Overlander II," "The Overlander III" (3 texts, 3 tunes, very diverse [see the notes])
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 164-165, "The Overlanders" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 114-116, "The Queensland Drover" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 230-233, "The Overlanders" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 39-41, "The Overlander" (1 text)
DT, QNSLNDOV
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 70-71, "The Overlander" (1 text)
A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 22, "The overlander" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 297-298, "The Overlander" (1 text)
Roud #9107 and 24817
NOTES [378 words]: The versions of this are sufficiently diverse that I think deliberate rewriting almost certain. But there is no clear data on the relationship between the versions, so I'm lumping them. I frankly was going to split the three versions in Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong -- the first is about how the overlander quarrels with stockmen and ordinary people, but they all take his checque; the second is about how men of every nation are overlanders but the girls don't like them; the third is what I personally consider "Queensland Overlanders." But having started by lumping the songs in orher sources, it's now very hard to split them.
John S. Manifold, Who Wrote the Ballads? Notes on Australian Folksong, Australasian Book Society, 1964, p. 93, also regards the items as recensionally different. He takes the three versions printed by Anderson in Colonial Ballads and says that the first was printed in 1865, the second is a songster version from 1889 and regards it as a different song: "If there is a connection [between the two], I think it lies in plagiarism. The author of the 1889 version seems to me to have lifted such incidents as he wanted from the older song, probably because he had no droving experience of his own to draw on." In a way, though, it hardly matters, because only the third version was collected in the field.
Roud seems to consider most versions to be his #9107, but one "Queensland Overlander" version got tagged as #24817.
The term "Overlander" is perhaps a dating hit. According to Brian Murphy, Dictionary of Australian History, McGraw-Hill [of Australia], 1982, p. 208, the term dates from the period when the Australian colonies were expanding; "the overlanders moved stock and blazed the trail for settlers. They took on something of the role of explorer, squatter, trader and pioneer. The Port Phillip district (Victoria) was settled by overlanding from southern New South Wales in the 1830s." It was also how South Australia was settled. But the practice, and hence the term, gradually died out; the last major overlanding trip was made in the 1880s (and that was from New South Wales to Western Australia; Queensland was not involved). On the other hand, some of the overlanding trails remained in use as stock routes. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FaE164

Queenstown Mourner, The (In the Town of Danville) [Laws H14]

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of his courtship to a fine young girl, stressing his unworthiness and poverty. They are wed even so, but the wife dies suddenly. The ballad stresses its moralistic conclusion that life is short
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (copy of broadside)
KEYWORDS: courting poverty death mourning
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws H14, "The Queenstown Mourner"
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 29-33, "In the Township of Danville/The Queenstown Mourner" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT 683, QTNMOURN
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 21, #2 (1972), p, 22, "The Queenston Warning" (1 text, 1 tune, the Sara Cleveland version)
Roud #2195
File: LH14

Queenstown Warning, The

See The Queenstown Mourner (In the Town of Danville) [Laws H14] (File: LH14)

Queer Bungo Rye

See Quare Bungo Rye (File: Log416)

Queer Folk i' the Shaws, The

DESCRIPTION: "I thocht unto mysel' ae day I'd like to see a Race... Sae up I gat, an wash'd mysel', put on my Sunday braws, An' ... started for the Shaws!" He likes the races, but in his ignorance ends up in trouble with the law, and vows not to return again
AUTHOR: Janes Fisher ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: racing horse drink money police prison punishment injury
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 97-99, "The Queer Folk i' the Shaws" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #121, pp. 1-2, "The Queer Folk o' the Shaws" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 237, "The Queer Folk i' the Shaws" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
DT, FOLKSHAW*
Roud #3803
File: FVS097

Queer Folk o' the Shaws, The

See The Queer Folk i' the Shaws (File: FVS097)

Quern-Lilt, The, or, Grinding Song

DESCRIPTION: "The cronach stills the dowie heart, The jurram stills the bairnie, But the music for a hungry wame's The grinding o' the quernie." Though people rejoice in other things, the grain from the quern keeps many fed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: work food nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 245, "The Quern-Lilt, or, Grinding Song" (1 text)
Roud #3938
NOTES [34 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads believes that Jamieson produced this as an imitation, or perhaps an improvement, of an actual grinding song. It seems likely enough. I know of no purely traditional collection. - RBW
File: Ord245

Questionnaire Blues

See I Got My Questionnairy (File: CNFM137)

Questions

See Conundrum Song (File: Paro082)

Quhan I Was a Wee Callan

See When I Was a Little Boy Strikin' at the Studdy (File: GrD81688)

Qui Veut Manger du Lievre (Those Who Wish to Eat Some Hare)

DESCRIPTION: French. Game song; "Those who wish to eat some hare / Need only for it run." Players portray hare and hunter. Ch.: "La belle, en vous amant / Perdrai-je mes peines?" "Since you don't love me, why am I wasting my time on you?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad playparty love animal
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada France
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 81, "Qui veut manger du lievre (Those Who Wish to Eat Some Hare)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
File: BerV081

Quick, Quick, Quick

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

Quiet Village Tilting, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells about a "false, fickle maid" he loved in Tilting. But he is hopeful. "My bright hopes though shattered, they might yet revive, And kind fortune bring me a faithful young bride"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 91, "The Quiet Village Tilting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #26620
File: LeBe091

Quigley and Picco

DESCRIPTION: "Come all good people, please pay attention Unto the lines which I write in grief; It's about a hero who is worse than Nero," John Picco. Quigly, far from home, sees Picco's light -- but is refused shelter because he's an Irish Catholic. He curses Picco
AUTHOR: Johnny Quigley (source: Michael Murphy)
EARLIEST DATE: 1891: "Originally published in the St John's Evening Telegram on 24 December 1891 (vol. 13/291:19) and reproduced as 'Quigley on Picco' in James Murphy's Old Songs of Newfoundland (1912)," according to the notes at ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes travel rejection
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth S. Goldstein, "A Report on Continuing Research into 'Treason Songs': A Private Newfoundland Tradition," essay on pp. 126-153 of Gerald Thomas and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, _Studies in Newfoundland Folklore: Community and Process_, Breakwater Books, 1991, pp. 144-146, "Quigley and Picco" (1 text)
Michael P. Murphy, _Pathways through Yesterday_, edited by Gerald S. Moore, Town Crier Publishing, 1976, pp. 162-164, "Quigley and Picco" (1 text)
Roud #30677
RECORDINGS:
Bernard Nash and Tom Murphy, "Quigley And Picco" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
NOTES [156 words]: According to Michael P. Murphy, p. 147, Johnny Quigley and John Picco were real people. Quigley was born in County Wexford, Ireland, and came to Newfoundland in the early nineteenth century, working there s a carpenter, dying many years later in St. John's. Given the religious strife that afflicted Newfoundland, it is perhaps not too surprising that Picco refused Quigley shelter; Quigley frankly did not help his cause by (it would appear from the song) being a little too eager to talk about his heritage.
Murphy calls Quigley a "ballad writer of note," but the only other song I've seen attributed to him is "Jack Hinks." Most sources for that song spell his name "Johnnie Quigley," but of course that is a trivial distinction in nineteenth century Newfoundland, which was mostly illiterate.
In Newfoundland, this was sometimes regarded as a "Treason Song." For background on Treason Songs, see the notes to "The Prooshian Drum." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Murph162

Quil O'Quay

See Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Quilting Party, The

See Seeing Nellie Home (File: RJ19229)

Quilty Burning, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh the burning of Quilty, you all know it well; When the barracks took fire Where the peelers did dwell." Everyone scurries to save what can be saved. "This old barracks is no harm to be gone, For many a poor fellow was shoved in there wrong"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (IRClare01)
KEYWORDS: prison fire moniker police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1920-1921 - The Black and Tan War
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #18471
RECORDINGS:
Mikey Kelleher, "The Quilty Burning" (on IRClare01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cod Liver Oil" (tune) and references there
cf. "The Burning of Rosslea" (subject)
NOTES [71 words]: Notes to IRClare01: "The incident that gave rise to this song ... took place around 1920, when the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) barracks at Quilty, a fishing village a few miles south of Miltown Malbay, was set alight by the Republicans."
"Peelers" are police. Apparently, the barracks served also as a jail. (For more on "peelers" in general, and the RIC in the context of the Black and Tan War, see "The Rineen Ambush") - BS
File: RcQuiBur

Quilty Fisherman, The

DESCRIPTION: The French ship Leon strikes a rock off County Clare. "Eighteen men in six canoes," fishermen from Quilty, "cross the wild and stormy sea," "three miles," and "saved the captain and twelve men from the sinking ship"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (IROConway01)
KEYWORDS: sea ship storm wreck rescue Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 3-4, 1907 - French ship Leon XIII, bound for Shannon, "was lost in a hurricane on the Irish coast near Quilty, County Clare"; the crew of thirteen was rescued by eighteen fishermen from Quilty. (Source: "Brave Irishmen Rescued Sailors," _The Binghampton (N.Y.) Press_, Nov. 9, 1907, citing _The Clare Champion_ of Oct. 12, 1907)
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #25070
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Conway, "The Quilty Fisherman" (on IROConway01)
File: RcTQuiFi

Quincyland, My Quincyland

See Dakota Land (File: San280)

Quitting Time Song

DESCRIPTION: Call and response cornfield holler. "Oh oh oh oh, I won't be here long. Oh oh oh oh, Dark don't catch me here." That's about it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: nonballad work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 744, "Quitting Time Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Arwhoolie
Hoolie
File: BSoF744

Quo the Man to the Jo

See Four and Twenty Tailors (File: KinBB13)

Quo' Nell my wife the other day

See Matty Broon's Soo (Tam Gibb and the Soo) (File: HHH671)

Quo' the Haddock to the Skate

DESCRIPTION: Disconnected couplets, lines, halflines, names and places. One coherent example: the eel, haddock and skate comment that London is far away so the haddock advises the eel to "crook your tail weel"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense fishing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #22, p. 2, ("Quo' the haddock to the skate"); #24, p. 2, ("The carle sits upo' the sea, A' his can'les on his knee") (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan8 1644, "Quo' the Haddock to the Skate" (2 texts)
DT, CARLSEA
Roud #13058
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Herring Loves the Moonlight" (The Dreg Song)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Carle Sits Upon the Sea
NOTES [260 words]: The two Greig/Duncan8 texts are not very similar: 1644A has 37 lines; 1644B has 19; 5 lines are sort of common to both. There is a pattern repeated in 1644A that does not appear in 1644B: the last word(s) of one line begins the next, followed by "and" and alliteration. For example, "Cam' to warn Wullie Tod, Wullie Tod an' Wullie Tey," "Staw the rumples fae ma tyke, Fae ma tyke an' fae ma tum," "Ca' my mither Jerry King, Jerry King and Jerry Couth" and "Rang the bell o' Dousie, Dousie and Dulzie." The result is a strange linking of couplets; for example, "Ye's three an' I's fower; Shaw's the gate tae Aiberdour -- Aiberdour an' Aiberdeen, Cragleith upo' the green, Craigleith and Wullie Fair...." There are additional pairs of lines in 1644A that are close to the pattern. One of those close to the pattern - "Kent ye John Auld; John Auld and Jeelsie" -- is the odd line sort of shared in 1644B: "Kent ye John Young, John Auld?" The other shared lines are the conversation among the haddock, eel and skate.
There seem few outright nonsense words. If more texts are found, or someone with the time, knowledge and inclination to review both texts cares to make a detailed analysis, the texts may be split. - BS
This sort of linking of last word of one stanza to the first line of the next is in fact an ancient device; I wonder if some relatively modern poet did not imitate it. In the version of this sung by Cilla Fisher, at least, it is highly effective. For more on this problem, see the notes to "The Herring Loves the Moonlight (The Dreg Song)." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81644

Quodlibet

See The Instruments (The Orchestra Song; Zur Feier, Die Geige) (File: ACSF315O)

Quodling's Delight

See see under A North Country Maid (File: LK43B)

R.F.C.

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you poor distressed people And lend a willing ear to me; Your suffering will soon be ended For now we have the R.F.C." The government is helping the poor and homeless and hungry
AUTHOR: Buddy Preston
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes help political nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 235-236, "R.F.C." (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 236-237)
NOTES [107 words]: This probably sounds like a New Deal song, but in fact the Reconstruction Finance Corporation was proposed by Herbert Hoover on December 8, 1931; it was approved by Congress in January 1932 and the RFC opened for business in February.
The RFC, however, was not a relief program as such; rather, it was intended to prop up the banking and insurance system. Its financing ($500 million in government money and authorization to borrow up to $2 billion more), while adequate to keep the financial system working, was not enough to actually stimulate the economy, and it was really a failed half measure.
Still, the RFC was retained until 1957. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa13

Rab

DESCRIPTION: "Rab, Rab, Lead off, head! Come by, ladies, come by! Hit him in the head with a pone of bread... Pretty little girl to go with me... I'm gonne leave old Tennessee!... Rabbit soup's not good to eat... Rabbit soup'll rot your teeth."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (McDowell/McDowell, Folk Dances of Tennessee, according to Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty)
KEYWORDS: playparty food animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 157, "Rab" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Spurg157

Rab Rorison's Bonnet

DESCRIPTION: Rab Robison's bonnet covered his and his wife's head from the rain, was under his knees at church, was waved in the air when he swore, or as a bellows for fire, .... "It wasna the bonnet but the bean that was in it Made the hale parish talk"
AUTHOR: Robert Tannahill (1774-1810)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1838 (Ramsay)
KEYWORDS: clothes nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1695, "Rab Rorison's Bonnet" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Phillip A Ramsay, The Poetical Works of Robert Tannahill (London, preface 1838), pp. 40-41, "Rab Rorison's Bonnet"
Roud #13037
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3266), "Rab Rorison's Bonnet" ("Ye'll a' hear tell o' Rab Rorison's bonnet"), Stephenson (Gateshead), 1821-1850; also Harding B 17(249a), 2806 c.14(114), "Rab Rorison's Bannet"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Auld Wife o' the Glen" (tune, per Ramsay)
NOTES [127 words]: Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(13), "Rab Rorison's Bonnet" ("Ye'll a' hear tell o' Rab Rorison's bonnet"), unknown, no date is this song but I could not download and verify it. According to the Bodleian notes the broadside has the following note: "Sung in the streets of Edin. Oct. 1826."
The Greig/Duncan8 fragment is a verse that is not in Ramsay but is in the Bodleian broadsides. While the broadsides are clearly intended to be humorous and are almost entirely about the hat, Tannahill's poem is mostly about "the head that was in it." How serious is Tannahill's poem? While the rest of the song seems serious enough, Tannahill says "Yet o' what kind o' wisdom his head was possest Nane e'er kent but himsel', sae there's nane that will miss it." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81695

Rab the Rover

See The Banks of the Roses (File: Doe315)

Rabbi's Daughter

DESCRIPTION: "You are a Rabbi's daughter, And as such you must obey Your father without question...." "If a Christian you should marry, Your father's heart would break... You must leave him for my sake."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales); collected by Rickaby before 1925
KEYWORDS: clergy Jew love
FOUND IN: US(MA,SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 51, "The Rabbi's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune, but collected in California from a Michigan informant)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 391-392, "The Rabbi's Daughter" (1 text)
Roud #6605
File: Pet051

Rabbie Burns Was Born in Ayr

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Rabbie Burns was born in Ayr. Now he's in Trafalgar Square. If you want to see him there, Jump on a bus and skip the fare."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: jumprope travel | Robert Burns Trafalgar Square bus
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #478, "Rabbie Burns was born in Ayr" (1 text)
Roud #18311
File: AJRR478

Rabbit Chase

DESCRIPTION: Humorous cante-fable description of chasing a rabbit. Part of the humor is that, unlike "fox chase" songs, not much happens: The old wife wants a rabbit (though she hardly knows what one is); the old man and dog blunder around preparing to catch it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Charlie Parker)
KEYWORDS: hunting humorous animal dog family age
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 106-107, "Rabbit Chase" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "Rabbit Chase" (on NLCR10)
Charlie Parker & Mack Woolbright, "Rabbit Chase" (Columbia 15154-D, 1927, on Cornshuckers1)
NOTES [24 words]: Cohen notes that when he played this song for mountain people, they found it so amusing that they pulled out a tape recorder and taped *him*. - PJS
File: CSW106

Rabbit Hash

DESCRIPTION: Patting Chant: "Oh rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, Rabbit a-hash An' polecat smash; Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit a-hash. Rabbit skip an'-a rabbit hop, An' a-rabbit eat my turnip top. Oh, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit a-hash! Oh, rabbit a-hash."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal food nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 238-239, "Rabbit Hash" (1 text, 1 tune, though the tune is really just a single note fitted to the music)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 168, "The Rabbit Skipped, The Rabbit Hopped" (1 short text)
Roud #10058
NOTES [110 words]: This is a sort of a dubious lumping of Lomax's and Brown's versions; Brown's text consists simply of the lines "The rabbit skipped, the rabbit hopped, the rabbit bit off the turnip top," and Brown did not note it as a patting chant. But it's easy to see how it could have shifted from one form to the other.
Roud links together several rabbit songs under one number: "Mister Rabbit," "Ole Mister Rabbit (I'll Get You Rabbit)," even "Rabbit Hash." All are about rabbits raiding gardens (something they certainly do) and the attempts to punish them for it (rarely successful, even with modern technology). But the forms are quite distinct, so I split them. - RBW
File: LxA238

Rabbit in the Log (Feast Here Tonight)

DESCRIPTION: "Rabbit in the log And I ain't got no dog." The singer, apparently poor and a rambler, perhaps a poacher, imagines how to catch the rabbit and describes how he will cook and enjoy it. He will sleep in a farmer's shed, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal food hunting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 166, "Rabbit in the Log" (1 fragment)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 72-73, "Nobody's But Mine" (1 short text, 1 tune, which may be combined with "Nobody's Business But Mine")
RECORDINGS:
Monroe Brothers, "Have a Feast Here Tonight" (Bluebird 7508)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Never Let Your Honey Have Her Way" (lyrics, form)
cf. "Rabbit in the Rail Pile" (theme)
File: Br3166

Rabbit in the Rail Pile

DESCRIPTION: ""Rabbit in the rail pile, search him out quick, Gather, twist around him with a long pronged stick, Catch him on the north side, catch him on the eye, There you chase 'em to eye, eye, eye."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1992 (Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes)
KEYWORDS: animal hunting
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, p. 13, "Rabbit in the Rail Pile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25014
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rabbit in the Log (Feast Here Tonight)" (theme)
File: PoEll013

Rabbit Skipped, The Rabbit Hopped, The

See Rabbit Hash (File: LxA238)

Rabbit Stole de Greens

DESCRIPTION: "Rabbit stole de greens (x2), Break down, Molly, hoo, hoo (x2)." "Big pot o' punkins, Little pot o' peas; De ole har smile To see de pot bile. Break down, Molly, hoo, hoo. (x2)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: food animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 169, "Rabbit Stole de Greens" (1 text)
File: Br3169

Rabble Soldier

See The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)

Raccoon

DESCRIPTION: "Raccoon has a bushy tail, Possum's tail is bare. Rabbit has no tail at all, 'cept a little bunch of hair." Verses about love, animals, anything at all: "Love it is a killing thing, Beauty is a blossom, If you want your finger bit, Poke it at a possum"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: animal love nonsense floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Randolph 260, "Kitty Cain't You Come Along Too?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 162, "De Possum Am a Cunning Thing" (2 short texts plus mention of 1 more); also 163, "The Raccoon Has a Bushy Tail" (1 text plus 2 fragments; the "C" text has the chorus of "Cindy"); also 415, "Lynchburg Town" (3 texts plus 2 fragments, 2 excerpts, and mention of 2 more, all with the "Lynchburg Town" chorus, but "A" and "B" have verses from "Raccoon" and "Possum Up a Gum Stump and "D" and "E" are partly "If I Had a Scolding Wife" ("Lucy Long (I)"); only "C" seems to be truly "Lynchburg Town"); also 17, "I Wouldn't Marry" (7 text (some short) plus 6 excerpts, 1 fragment, and mention of 5 more, of which "A" appears to mix this with "Coming Around the Mountain (II -- Charming Betsey)" and "I Won't Marry an Old Maid")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 162, "De Raccoon Am a Cunning Thing" (1 tune plus a text excerpt); 163, "The Raccoon Has a Bushy Tail" (2 tunes plus text excerpts); 415, "Lynchburg Town" (4 tunes plus text excerpts, corresponding to "A," "B" (which go with this song), "E," and a "J" version that apparently is not cited in Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 226, "Children's Quatrains" ("De raccoon's tail am bushy") (1 short text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 83, "Raccoon's Got a Bush Tail" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 186, "Raccoon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 12-13, "Raccoon" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 225, "The Squirrel" (3 short texts, 3 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 76, "The Squirrel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 105, "Raccoon Lullaby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, p. 11, (no title) (1 fragment, 1 tune on p. 385. A single stanza: "Jay-bird pulled a two-mule plow, Sparrow, why don't you...."; this verse seems to float but has been found in songs of this typle)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 165, "Old Bee Make de Honeycomb" (1 text, with most of the verses appearing to go here even though it has the "Old Bee" stanza also); also p. 169, (no title) (1 text, with verses probably from "Raccoon," unless they just floated in, while the chorus seems to be "Po' Liza Jane"); also sundry stanzas on pp. 169-170
Abbot/Swan-8Negro 4, "Squirl he tote a bushy tail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 398, "Raccoon's Got A Bushy Tail"; p. 401, "The Squirrel" (2 texts)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (no author listed; collected Leonidas Betts, "Love,'" Vol. XX, No. 3 (Aug 1972), p. 144, "Love's a little thing Shaped like a lizard, Runs around your heard And jumps through your gizzard" (1 short text, a floating verse that is similar to many songs; the first line might be best known as "Love it is a killing thing")
ST R260 (Partial)
Roud #3444
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Raccoon's Got a Bushy Tail" (on PeteSeeger08, PeteSeegerCD02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kemo Kimo" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Pains in My Fingers" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I Went to My Sweetheart's House" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Rat Coon, Rat Coon" (theme)
cf. "Bile Them Cabbage Down" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Mabel" (lyrics)
cf. "Old Coon Dog (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [74 words]: As with all these floating-animal-verse songs, it's hard to tell where one begins and another ends. I group them as best I can.
It's interesting to note that both Randolph and the "A" text of Brown's "De Possum Am a Cunning Thing" share part of a chorus, "(Oh/Do) come along, Sandy Boy," even though this is clearly not integral to the song. Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana's chorus is "Get along home, home, home (x3), Down the riverside." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: R260

Raccoon Am a Cunning Thing, De

See Raccoon (File: R260)

Raccoon Has a Bushy Tail

See Raccoon (File: R260)

Raccoon Lullaby

See Raccoon (File: R260)

Raccoon's Got a Bushy Tail

See Raccoon (File: R260)

Raccoon's Tail Am Bushy, De

See Raccoon (File: R260)

Race Between a Ford and Chevrolet

DESCRIPTION: Various string band musicians from the North Georgia region, such as Clayton McMichen and Riley Puckett, wager a jug of liquor on the outcome of the race between a Ford and a Chevrolet. The race is a tie, so the onlookers split the contents of the jug.
AUTHOR: Probably Oscar Ford
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Oscar Ford)
KEYWORDS: wager drink humorous racing technology
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #15876
RECORDINGS:
Oscar Ford, "Race Between a Ford and Chevrolet" (Columbia 15634-D, 1930)
NOTES [15 words]: It is doubtful that the musician Oscar Ford was an objective observer of this contest. -PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcRBFaCh

Race of the Terrapin and the Deer

DESCRIPTION: The terrapin challenges the deer to a race. The deer agrees; the terrapin asks terrapins to hide by the path. When the deer calls out, "And where are you, terrapin?" the nearest terrapin answers, causing the deer to run faster till it is exhausted
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: animal racing trick recitation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 504, "Race of the Terrapin and the Deer" (1 text with musical elements)
Roud #7818
NOTES [16 words]: This is a widely-known folktale, but here presented with music, so into the Index it goes. - RBW
File: Beld504

Race, A

DESCRIPTION: Recitation. Deerfoot John brags that he's the champion foot-racer; Windigo challenges him to a 500-yard race. Deerfoot, running stark naked and with a 40-foot starting lead, runs well, but loses. Deerfoot swears that next time he'll run with his pants on.
AUTHOR: Attributed to Long Joe, from the town of Cedar, Michigan
EARLIEST DATE: April 28, 1878 (published in newspaper)
KEYWORDS: bragging contest clothes racing sports recitation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 36, "A Race" (1 text)
Roud #8852
NOTES [13 words]: Beck quotes an informant to the effect that this is a versified news story. - PJS
File: Be036

Rachel Dear/The Maine Water Side

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the sad day Rachel fell into the river Maine and drowned. She is found by her cousin. Her family, friends, and sweetheart mourn. The song closes with a description of her beauty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: river death
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H62, pp. 148-149, "Rachel Dear/The Main Water Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9451
NOTES [18 words]: One of the Sam Henry colums claims this is a true story and gives circumstantial details, but no dates. - RBW
File: HHH062

Rackets Around the Blue Mountain Lake, The

See Blue Mountain Lake (The Belle of Long Lake) [Laws C20] (File: LC20)

Rackyman Doo (Ring-Dang-Doo (II))

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a young fellow, and asks whether he'd like to have a game on her rackyman doo. He asks what it is; she explains that it's soft, with hairs all round and split in two. She takes him to her father's cellar, gives him drink, and asks again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: early 1960s (collected from Caroline Hughes)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England), US(MW), West Indies
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 40, "Ring Dang Doo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1880
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ring-Dang-Doo (I)" (euphemism) and references there
NOTES [43 words]: I separate this from "Ring-Dang-Doo (I)" because it doesn't contain any of the plot elements of that song -- prostitution, pox, etc. No question but they're related, of course. Also, I use the name "Rackyman Doo" because that was Hughes' title for the song. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: McCST040

Radcliffe Highway

See Ratcliffe Highway AND Blow the Man Down (File: Doe114)

Radical Gypsy David, The

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Rafferty and Cafferty

DESCRIPTION: Parody of a stump speech: "My name is Barney Rafferty, that is my cognomen, Though some folks call me Barny, they're of the lower sort." Rafferty's only enemy is Mikey Cafferty; he urges voters to support Rafferty, not Cafferty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad humorous recitation
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 12, page headed "Mr. Watson then recited..."], "Rafferty & Cafferty" (1 text)
ST FaWRafCa (Partial)
Roud #22600
File: FaWRafCa

Raffle at Kilbride, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer attends a dance, with a raffle to follow. When two bidders tie they fight -- "they smashed up lamps and crockery" -- and Hogan takes the prize: an ornery mare.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: fight violence dancing humorous moniker horse
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30142
RECORDINGS:
Mr. Powers, "The Raffle at Kilbride" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3RaaKi

Raft-man's Song

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Raftsman Jim

DESCRIPTION: "So her pop says, 'Nay,' and he lopes right away, And bobs right back the very next day; And he shuts one eye, And looks very sly, She gives her pop the sweet bye-bye." Chorus: "There ain't no cub as neat as him, Dandy, handy raftsman Jim!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Russell)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor courting father
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, p. 840, "Raftsman Jim" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Edward Russell, _A-Rafting on the Mississip'_,, 1928 (republished 2001 by the University of Minnesota Press), pp. 209-211, "Raftsman Jim" (1 text, scattered across several pages, 1 tune)
NOTES [63 words]: Walter Havinghurst, Upper Mississippi: A Wilderness Saga, Farrar & Rinehart, 1937, 1944, titles a chapter on river life "Raftsman Jim," and quotes the chorus of this on p. 252. Russell's chapter of river songs is also titled "Raftsman Jim." Although Russell's seems to be the only full text collected, it appears that Raftsman Jim was fairly well known in river folklore. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BAF840

Raftsman, The

See The Bold Soldier [Laws M27] (File: LM27)

Raftsmen, The

DESCRIPTION: French: "La ous-qu'y sont, tous les raftsmen?" The raftsmen are on their way to winter camp. They arrive, suffer the usual poor food, work in the woods, go home, and "to greet them come their ladies gay, Who help them spend their hard-earned pay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925
KEYWORDS: logger work foreignlanguage worker lumbering
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 74-75, "The Raftsmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 171-173, "The Raftsmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 99 "The Raftsmen (Les Raftsmen)" (1 English and one French text)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 14-15, "Les Raftsmen" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
Roud #2318
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Les Raftsmen" (on PeteSeeger29)
File: FJ074

Raftsmen's Song (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "I believe some dust of the wanderlust has been molded with my clay. Though I long to come to my home sweet home, it's never long I'll stay." The singer describes his travels, talks of troubles faced by raftsmen, and considers the raftsman's afterlife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger work travel
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #64, "The Raftsmen's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4360
NOTES [22 words]: Fowke speculates that this is composed, and I think this certain; both the long lines and the style are completely un-folk-like. - RBW
File: FowL64

Raftsmen's Song (II), The

See We Sailed Around Old Butler's (File: TNY280)

Rag Pat

DESCRIPTION: The singer is trying to make a living selling flowers. It is his only choice; father was a drunkard. One day he returns home to find mother dead. Chorus: "Flowers, bouquet, flowers I cry... My clothes don't look neat While struggling for mother and I."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: flowers drink orphan poverty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 320, "Rag Pat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 107, "Ragged Pat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5118
File: R320

Ragged and Dirty Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Well I'm ragged, I'm hungry, I'm dirty too... If I clean up, sweet mama, can I stay all, all night with you?" The poor, homeless, orphaned stranger hits on the woman and complains that he wants to die. Then he decides to leave her whatever it takes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929
KEYWORDS: hardtimes hobo rambling courting train poverty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 319-320, "Ragged and Dirty Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Broke and Hungry
File: SBoA319

Ragged and Torn and True

DESCRIPTION: "I am a poor man, God knows, And all my neighbors tell, I want both monty and clothes, And yet I live wond'rous well" because he is content. He lists the things"better" people must do to maintain their station; he prefer to be "ragged and torn and true"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
KEYWORDS: poverty clothes nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 267-269, "(I am a poor man)" (1 text, 1 tune, filed as a relative of "Old Sir Simon the King")
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 281, "(I am a poor man)" (1 short text, associated with the tune of "Old Simon the King")
Roud #27968
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ragged and True
File: CPMO0267

Ragged and True

See Ragged and Torn and True (File: CPMO0267)

Ragged Beggar Man, The

See The Jolly Beggar [Child 279] (File: C279)

Ragged Coat, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, once poor, receives a large inheritance. As an experiment, he goes out in poor clothing -- and is despised. As soon as he displays money, he is treated kindly. He repeats the test, then notes "Many an honest heart beats beneath a ragged coat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850
KEYWORDS: poverty money clothes
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 102, "The Ragged Coat" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1950, p. 131, "The Ragged Coat" (2 references)
ADDITIONAL: John Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1920_, self-published, 1918 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland site), p. 11, "The Ragged Coat" (1 text)
ST FSC102 (Partial)
Roud #30113
RECORDINGS:
John Connors, "Ragged Coat" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Don't Despise a Man Because He Wears a Ragged Coat
NOTES [20 words]: According to a broadside listed in Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, this was "As Sung by Ned Riley, with Unbounded Applause." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: FSC102

Ragged Jim

See You're Going to Leave the Old Home, Jim (Old Home Jim, Ragged Jim) (File: BuMa1020)

Ragged Leevy

DESCRIPTION: A slow leader line followed by response "O Ho" and a fast line. "Ragged Leevy ... Ragged like a jay bird" "Sweet potato ... Two in the fire" "Mr. x ... Going to build me a store fence" (see notes)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad shanty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 52, pp. 212-213, "Ragged Leevy" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
John Davis and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Raggy Levee" (on LomaxCD1713)
NOTES [31 words]: Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands: "Used when 'blockin' heavy timber." Lomax, on LomaxCD1713: "Who was Raggy Leevy anyway?" John Davis: "He was the raggedest man on the job." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr052

Ragged Pat

See Rag Pat (File: R320)

Raggedy

DESCRIPTION: "Raggedy, raggedy are we, Just as raggedy, raggedy can be. Well we don't get nothing for our labor, So raggedy are we." Similarly, "Hungry, hungry are we"; "Homeless, homeless are we"; "Landless..."; "Pitiful..."
AUTHOR: John Handcox
EARLIEST DATE: 1936
KEYWORDS: hardtimes poverty nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 337-338, "Raggedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 219-220, "Raggedy Raggedy" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 137, "Raggedy" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Raggedy" (on PeteSeeger13, AmHist1)
File: SBoA337

Raggedy Raggedy

See Raggedy (File: SBoA337)

Raggedy-Assed Cadets, The

DESCRIPTION: "The raggedy-assed cadets are on parade, on parade (x2), They joined the army for the air, But they'll play hell in getting there.... Rolling on, rolling on, By the light of the Silvery moon, A ha ha ha ha... The raggedy-assed cadets are on parade."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: soldier nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 181-183, "The Raggedy-Assed Cadets" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15441?
File: NiMo181

Raggle Taggle Gypsies, O, The

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Raggy Leevy

See Ragged Leevy (File: Parr052)

Raghad-sa O Thuaidh Leat A Bho

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "A milking-woman sings to her cow, wishing it safe from any harm."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage animal nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 121, "Raghad-sa O Thuaidh Leat A Bho" (2 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Raghad-sa O Thuaidh Leat A Bho" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC121

Raging Can-all, The

See The Raging Canal (I) (File: San178)

Raging Canal (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Come listen to my story, ye landsmen one and all, I'll sing to you the dangers of that raging canal." When the mules trip on a stormy night, the crew faces a wreck. The usual exaggerations, e.g. the cook's dress on a pole, are employed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (Journal of the Three Brothers); probably published 1844 (cf. Dichter/Shapiro)
KEYWORDS: canal storm humorous cook
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 178-179, "The Raging Canawl" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 464-465, "(Erie Canal)" (2 texts, the second of which goes here; the first is "A Trip on the Erie (Haul in Your Bowline)"); pp. 471-474, "The Raging Can-all" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 214-215, "The Raging Canal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 238-241, "The Raging Canal" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1952, p. 131, "Raging Canal" (1 reference)
DT, RAGCANAL*
Roud #6611
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The E-ri-e" (theme) and references there
SAME TUNE:
A Life on the Raging Canawl (parody presumably to this tune) (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 254)
NOTES [174 words]: The Erie Canal, as originally constructed, was a completely flat, shallow waterway. The barges were drawn along by mules. Thus, apart from getting wet, storms posed little danger. As for needing a distress signal, one could always step off onto dry land....
The Lomaxes, in American Ballad and Folk Songs, thoroughly mingled many texts of the Erie Canal songs (in fairness, some of this may have been the work of their informants -- but in any case the Lomaxes did not help the problem). One should check all the Erie Canal songs for related stanzas.
Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 48, mention sheet music of a song, "The Raging Canal!" This was published by C. G. Christman in 1844, and is described as "A Comic Song. Written and Sung by that Most Celebrated omi Singer P. Morris." Badly printed, the illustration shows a boat being tossed about by high waves on the canal. I would assume that is the ancestor of this song, but I cannot prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: San178

Raging Canal (II), The

See Coffee Grows (Four in the Middle) (File: R524)

Raging Canawl, The

See The Raging Canal (I) (File: San178)

Raging Sea

See The Mermaid [Child 289] (File: C289)

Raglan Road

DESCRIPTION: "On Raglan Road of an Autumn day, I saw her first and knew, That her dark hair would weave a snare That I might someday rue." "I loved too much, and by such and such Is happiness thrown away." The singer warns of the dangers of courting "an angel."
AUTHOR: Patrick Kavanagh (1904/05-1967)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Harte)
KEYWORDS: love beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, RAGLANRD*
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 14-15, "Raglan Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [50 words]: Although I know of no traditional collections, Harte thinks this is becoming a traditional song.
There is an interesting reference to "The Queen of Hearts still making tarts." Is this a reference to "Alice," or to the rhyme Carroll used as the basis for the adventures in Wonderland? It's not clear. - RBW
File: Har014

Rags (A Dog Named Rags)

DESCRIPTION: "I know a dog and his name is Rags, He eats so much that his tummy sags, His ears flip-flop and his tail wig-wags, And when he walks he goes zig-zag." " He goes flip-flop, wig-wag, zig-zag, (x3), I love Rags and he loves me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: dog love campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 130, "Rags" (notes only)
File: ACSF130R

Ragtime Cowboy Joe

DESCRIPTION: "The roughest, toughest man by far" in Arizona is Ragtime Cowboy Joe, who got his name because "He always sings raggy music to the cattle... On a horse that is syncopated gaited." But folks are advised not to cross him; his gun will make them dance
AUTHOR: Words: Grant Clarke / Music: Lewis F. Muir and Maurice Abrahams
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: cowboy music nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 107, "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 107, "Rag Time Cowboy Joe" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 239, 318, 490, 500, "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" (notes only)
DT, RAGTMJOE*
Roud #11097
RECORDINGS:
Girls of the Golden West, "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" (Columbia 37724, 1947)
Ranch Boys, "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" (Decca 5074, 1935)
SAME TUNE:
Doc Roberts, "Ragtime Chicken Joe" (Conqueror 8566, 1935)
NOTES [75 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 297, estimates that this was the twenty-ninth most popular song in America in 1912, peaking at #12 in October 1912 (#1 for the year being I. Wolfe Gilbert and Lewis F. Muir's "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee"); p. 500 says that it also reached #19 in October 1949, probably based on a recording by Jo Stafford. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FCW107

Ragtime Flying Corps, The

DESCRIPTION: "We are the Ragtime Flying Corps, We are the ragtime boys, We're respected by every nation, And we're loved by all the girls (I don't think)...." The members of the R. F. C. are known wherever they go; they "don't care a damn for Germany"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: technology | airplane
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 114, "We Are the Ragtime Flying Corps" (1 text)
Roud #10762
NOTES [13 words]: In proper British usage, of course, R. F. C. stands for ROYAL Flying Corps. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW114

Ragtime Tiffy, The

DESCRIPTION: "He's a ragtime tiffy, ragtime tiffy, Early every morning with a spanner in his hands, Walking round the engine room tighteing up the glands... Happy as the flowers in May, But if you ask him,,, what he'd doing, He don't know what the bloody hell to say"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor navy work technology
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 33, "The Ragtime Tiffy" (1 text)
File: Tawn018

Rah, Rah, Rah! for Belinda

See Vote, Vote, Vote (File: AJRV085)

Raid of the Reidswire, The

DESCRIPTION: "The seventh of July, the suith to say," A raiding party gathers. Carmichael is the warden. All the folk of Liddesdale gater. Those who participate in the raid are listed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1712-1724 (Bannatine MS); 1724 (Ramsay); 1803 (Scott) [see NOTES]
KEYWORDS: moniker battle borderballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 5, 1575 - the Reidswire battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 365-370, "The Raid of the Reidswire" (1 text)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 64-69, "The Battle of the Reidswire" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: George Bannatyne and James Barclay Murdoch, editor, The Bannatyne Manuscript Compiled by George Bannatyne 1568 (Glasgow: Hunterian Club, 1896 ("Digitized by Intenet Archive")) Vol.IV, Appendix III, #20 pp. 1097-1104, "The Song of the Rid Square Fought on the 7 of July, 1576" (1 text) [added to the MS 1712-1724; see Notes]
Allan Ramsay, The Ever Green [being a collection of Scots Poems, wrote by the ingenious before 1600] (Edinburgh: Allan Ramsay, 1724 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) Vol. II, pp. 224-232, "The Ballat of the Reid-Squair fought on the 7th July 1576" (1 text)
Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (Edinburgh: Longman and Rees, 1803 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. I, pp. 111-121, "The Raid of the Reidswire" (1 text)
Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), p. 91, "Raid of the Reidswire" (1 excerpt); pp. 241-245 (1 full text)
ST MBra92 (Partial)
Roud #2863
NOTES [252 words]: Scott: "This poem is published from a copy in the Bannatyne MS. in the handwriting of the Hon Mr Carmichael, advocate. It first appeared in Allan Ramsay's Evergreen, but some liberties have been taken by him in transcribing it; and, what is altogether unpardonable, the MS, which is itself rather inaccurate, has been interpolated to favour his readings; of which there remains obvious marks" (p. 111). If you compare the three texts -- Bannatyne, Ramsay, and Scott -- line for line you will see differences, but few that affect the meaning.
The Bannatyne MS came into Carmichael's posession in 1712, so the dating of the earliest text we have so far is not earlier than 1712 nor later than 1724, when Ramsay printed it. Keep that date in mind as you compare ll.81-84, without the long-s typography.:
Bannatyne (c. 1712):
Up rose the laird to red the cumber,
Which would not be for all his boast;
What should we doe with such a number,
Five thousand men into ane hoast?
Ramsay (1724)
Up raise the Laird to red the Cumber,
Quhilk wald not be for all his Boist,
Quhat suld we do with sic a Number,
Fyve thousand Men into ane Hoist?
Scott (1802)
Up rose the laird to red the cumber,
Which would not be for all his boast;
What could we doe with sic a number?
Fyve thousand men into a host.
Besides the differences caused by Ramsay's antiquing or scotticizing and Scott's editing, there are a few differences between Ramsay's and Scott's reading of Carmichael's handwriting. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: MBra92

Railroad Accident at Richmond Switch, THe

DESCRIPTION: "On April nineteenth, seventy-three, Of this affair we heard, The worst disaster, said to be...." A bridge is out near Richmond Switch, and the Steamboat Train goes into the stream. The singer tells of unknown losses and wishes a mail train had gone first
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (Cohen)
KEYWORDS: train disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 19, 1873 - The Richmond Switch accident
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 73-75, "The Railroad Accident at Richmond Switch" (1 text)
File: CAFS1073

Railroad Bill (II)

See Right On, Desperado Bill (File: Rose200)

Railroad Bill [Laws I13]

DESCRIPTION: Railroad Bill "never worked and never will"; he drinks, steals, and travels from town to town. His career finally ends when he is shot (and/or arrested). To the very end, all he does is "ride, ride, ride"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Odum, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: rambling robbery crime death train
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 7, 1897 - Death of Morris Slater, known as "Railroad Bill"
FOUND IN: US(SE) New Zealand
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws I13, "Railroad Bill"
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 122-131, "Railroad Bill" (2 texts plus many excerpts, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 384-385, "Railroad Bill" (1 text, 1 tune -- perhaps bowdlerized to eliminate Bill's death)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 504, "A Thirty-Two Special on a Forty-Four Frame" (1 two-line fragment, with lyrics sometimes associated with this song)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 504, "A Thirty-two Special on a Forty-Four Frame" (note only, stating that the tune cannot be found)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 194-195, "Railroad Bill" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 251-253, "It's Lookin' fer Railroad Bill" (2 texts plus some small pieces, which might be "Joseph Mica" rather than this)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 304, "Railroad Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 118-120, "Railroad Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 201-202, "(Railroad Bill)" (1 text)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 79, "Railway Bill" (1 text, 1 tune, short and with little plot except a statement that Bill doesn't work like other railroad employees, but it has this chorus) (p. 57 in the 1972 edition)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 329-330, "Railroad Bill" (1 text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 48-49, "Railroad Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 148, "Railroad Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 240-242, "Railroad Bill" (2 texts)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 99 "Railroad Bill" (1 text)
DT 662, (RRBILL*)
Roud #4181
RECORDINGS:
Marilyn Bennett, "Railway Bill" (on NZSongYngCntry)
Vera Hall, "Railroad Bill" (AFS 1315 B2, 1323 A3; 1937)
Willie Hill, "Railroad Bill" (on FolkVisions2)
Frank Hutchison, "Railroad Bill" (OKeh 45425, 1930; rec. 1929)
John Jackson, "Railroad Bill" (on ClassAfrAm)
Otis Mote, "Railroad Bill" (OKeh 45389, 1929)
Riley Puckett, "Railroad Bill" (Columbia 15040-D, 1925; Silvertone 3258, 1926)
Roba Stanley, Bob Stanley & (?) Patterson, "Railroad Bill" (OKeh 40295, 1925; rec. 1924)
Hobart Smith, "Railroad Bill" (on LomaxCD1705) (Disc 6081, rec. 1946)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Right On, Desperado Bill" (character of Railroad Bill)
NOTES [240 words]: Burt-AmericanMurderBallads reports that Morris Slater, known as "Railroad Bill," "terrorized" Florida and Alabama from 1894 to 1897, initially robbing freight trains, but later perhaps branching out; an Alabama deputy was killed during the saga, and Slater was blamed.
Slater was eventually surrounded and surprised in a grocery, "eating crackers and cheese"; he probably could have been taken, but the posse shot him instead.
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads's version of the ballad specifically mentions the crackers and cheese, but Laws is rather cautious in reporting Burt-AmericanMurderBallads's story, and I have to agree with him: I don't think we can prove Burt-AmericanMurderBallads's Alabama version (published 1927) to be the original.
Cohen adds even more data, noting a number of the parts of "Railroad Bill" seem to precede Slater. Either there was another "Railroad Bill," or the song adapted a large number of other railroad bits.
A photo of Slater's corpse, being examined or guarded by Leonard McGowan (a sheriff and one of the men who killed him) can be found on p. 135 of Richard Polenberg: Hear My Sad Story: The True Tales That Inspired Stagolee, John Henry, and Other Traditional American Folk Songs, Cornell University Press, 2015. Polenberg also has a list of articles on the subject; the literature on Railroad Bill seems surprisingly short for someone so widely known and feared. Maybe it's because he was Black. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: LI13

Railroad Blues (I)

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses; "Went to the depot and I looked up on the board, It read, good times, children..."; "Where was you, mama, when the train left the shed..."; "Met a little Gypsy in a fortune telling place/She read my mind, and then she slapped my face."
AUTHOR: unknown (probably fixed up by Sam McGee)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (recording, Sam McGee)
KEYWORDS: railroading nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, p. 111, "(Railroad Blues)" (1 text)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 190, "Railroad Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 402-403, "The Railroad Blues" (1 excerpted text, 1 tune -- a subset of a song collected in 1915 and printed in JAFL, with fully 80 four-line stanzas, most of which could however be treated as double two-line stanzas and therefore sung as a true blues. It has floating verses from everywhere, which perhaps means it should file here. I don't list it as the Earliest Date, though, because it's so anomalous)
Roud #17787
RECORDINGS:
Jelly Roll Anderson, "Good Time Blues" (Gennett 6181, 1927) (Herwin 92014, 1927) (one of these two successive cuts is on TimesAint03)
Willie Hill, "Good Old Birmingham" (on FolkVisions2)
Daddy John Love, "Railroad Blues" (Bluebird B-6624, 1936)
Sam McGee, "Railroad Blues" (Champion 45033, 1935; Decca 5348, 1937; rec. 1934) (on TimesAint05); (on McGeeSmith1)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Railroad Blues" (on NLCR03, NLCR12, NLCRCD1)
Art Thieme, "Railroad Blues and Nine Pound Hammer" [medley] (on Thieme01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Baby, All Night Long" (words)
File: CSW190

Railroad Blues (II)

DESCRIPTION: "I got the blues, but I haven't got the fare (x2). I got the blues, but I'm too damned mean to cry." "Some say the rolling blues ain't bad..." the singer concludes they have some other sort of blues. He laments his dead mother and sister gone astray.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: railroading death mother
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 243, "Railroad Blues" (1 text)
Roud #11646
NOTES [38 words]: As with most blues, this is a rather disjointed piece; it may be a version of "Railroad Blues (I)." But as that piece is more or less a unity, and Scarborough's version has no lyrics in common that I can see, I split them. - RBW
File: ScaNF243

Railroad Blues (III)

See Alabama Bound (II) (File: PSAFB044)

Railroad Blues (IV)

DESCRIPTION: "Every time you hear me sing this song, You may know I've caught a train and gone." A letter tells the singer his love is sick. He tries to get home. The Big Four in Dallas has burned down. He will soon be gone; a man in trouble always takes a freight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Journal of American Folklore)
KEYWORDS: railroading nonballad love floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 216-219, "The Railroad Blues"(1 text, from "Floyd Canada," which is also called the "American Iliad" because of its long, wandering nature; it probably started with a shorter form of this blues and greatly expanded it)
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, pp. 74-75, "Railroad Blues" (1 text)
Roud #8902
File: CoCo074

Railroad Boomer, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come and gather all around me, listen to my tale of woe... Take a tip from one who's travelled, never start to ramblin' round, Yu're liable to get the wandr'rin fever." The singer plans to marry, but then hears a train; he asks to be buried by the tracks
AUTHOR: Carson J. Robison
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (copyright and first recording)
KEYWORDS: train travel rambling wife abandonment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 390-393, "" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24085
RECORDINGS:
Gene Autry, " Railroad Boomer" (OKeh 45417 [possibly as Johnny Dodds], 1930; rec. 1929
Frank Luther and Carson J. Robison, "The Railroad Boomer" (Victor V-40139 [as by Bud Billings and Robison], 1929) (Gennett 7019/Champion 15848/Champion 45020/Supertone 9567, 1929)
NOTES [45 words]: Somewhere in here, there's a joke about Robison writing a science fiction story about the future life of Woody Guthrie.
This is another of the songs in Cohen that comes from the railroad/hillbilly genre but that can't be shown to have circulated in oral tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: LSRai390

Railroad Boy, A

See The Butcher Boy [Laws P24]; also Tavern in the Town (File: LP24)

Railroad Boy, The

See The Bonny Laboring Boy [Laws M14] (File: LM14)

Railroad Bum, The

See Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum) [Laws H2] (File: LH02)

Railroad Cars are Coming, The

DESCRIPTION: "The great Pacific railway, For California hail! Bring on the locomotive, Lay down the iron rail; Across the rolling prairies By steam we're bound to go." Even prairie dogs wag their tails and antelope stand at attention when the trains come.
AUTHOR: Robert Snell? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: railroading train nonballad animal
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 358-359, "The Railroad Cars are Coming" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 96-97, "The Railroad Cars, They're Coming" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 271, "The Railroad Cars, They're Coming" (1 short text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 67-68, "The Railroad Cars Are Coming" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 603, "The Railroad Cars, They're Coming" (1 short text)
ST San358 (Full)
Roud #10812
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Echo Canyon Song"
NOTES [273 words]: The first Transcontinental Railroad in the Unitd States was the Central Pacific, completed in Utah in May 1860. This line went from Chicago to Omaha through Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada on its way to Sacramento and San Francisco.
But it cannot be the line referred to, since the song describes travelling through New Mexico. (At least in Sandburg's version; Cheney's and Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest's does not mention New Mexico. Perhaps the Mormon version is original and Sandburg's version was badly adapted to another railroad?)
Two major transcontinental lines went through the southern states. The Southern Pacific went from New Orleans though Houston, San Antonio, and El Paso to Los Angeles. This might be the reference, but this line barely touches New Mexico.
The Santa Fe railroad (or the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe) fits much better: Starting from Saint Louis as the Missouri Pacific, it passed through Kansas City and then headed west and south through Kansas, a corner of Colorado, and New Mexico, through Santa Fe and Albuquerque to Los Angeles.
The Santa Fe line makes sense in another way: It replaced the old Santa Fe trail, making its opening welcome even to the animals (since they didn't have to travel it). The line reached Santa Fe in 1880, meaning that its construction was still part of living memory when Sandburg was collecting songs.
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest credits this to Robert Snell but gives no further information about him. However, the version reprinted by Lingenfelter et al was printed in 1933, AFTER Sandburg. So I'm not sure I trust the attribution. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: San358

Railroad Cars, They're Coming, The

See The Railroad Cars are Coming (File: San358)

Railroad Corral, The

DESCRIPTION: "We're up in the morning ere breaking of day, The chuck wagon's busy, the flapjack's in play." The singer describes the hot, dusty, dirty work of the cowboy, and the long days and long trails. He rejoices to reach the end of the trip
AUTHOR: Joseph Mills Hanson (1876-)
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly); listed as a traditional song by Lomax in 1910
KEYWORDS: cowboy travel work food
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 132-134, "The Railroad Coral" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 77, "The Railroad Corral" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 185, "The Railroad Corral" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 113, "The Railroad Corral" (1 text)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 28-31, "The Railroad Corral" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 376-377, "The Railroad Corral" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 144, "Railroad Corral" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 64, "The Railroad Corral" (1 text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 61, "Railroad Corral" (1 text plus a partial translation into Swedish, 1 tune)
DT, RRCORRAL*
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 38-45, "Last Day with the Longhorns" (1 text, plus extensive discussion about how the song became popular)
Roud #4636
RECORDINGS:
Bill Bender (The Happy Cowboy), "The Railroad Corral" (Varsity 5148, n.d.; rec. 1939)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Irish Washerwoman" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Irish Washerwoman (no Index entry, since it has no lyrics; this is the cross-reference entry for this melody)
Botany Bay Courtship (The Currency Lasses) (File: FaE068)
Corporal Casey (File: OCon021)
The Hold-Up (File: RDBW394)
Irishman's Shanty (File: GrMa109)
McTavish is Dead (File: PHCFS122)
Old Binnie (File: EM264)
Starving to Death on a Government Claim (The Lane County Bachelor) (File: R186)
Gold's a Wonderful Thing (File: Colq034)
Things You Don't Often See ("There are strange sights in Auckland exciting surprise") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, p. 185)
The Irishman's Epistle to the Officers & Troops at Boston ("By my faith but I think ye're all makers of bulls") (Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, pp. 30-31)
NOTES [55 words]: The ChansonsDeNotreChalet version is just strange. The verses come from Lomax; no mystery there. But it's described as a "Danish Sea Song by Seedorff Pedersen"; "Adapted to Danish tune and original chorus added by Julian H. Solomon 1922." Thus the camp version is basically a composed song that borrows some words from Lomax. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LoF185

Railroad Daddy Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Every time I hear a freight train comin', Oh, I listen to the engine sob and moan. Lawd, Lawd, I've got them railroad daddy blues." The singer descries railroad life, wishes her daddy would come back, and rejoices when "my railroad daddy's home at last."
AUTHOR: Harve Burton?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: train separation reunion
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 259, "Railroad Daddy Blues" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 258-259)
File: ThBa259

Railroad Dinah Gal

DESCRIPTION: "As I went down to Simon's mill, There I found a very steep hill, The steers began to bellow and balk, And I began to cuss and talk. Railroad Dinah Gal, I'm going' over the mountains." "Me and old Dinah killed a sheep, Give old Dinah the head and feet."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: food animal railroading travel
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 493, "Railroad Dinah Gal" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 493, "Railroad Dinah Gal" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11763
File: Br3493

Railroad Man, The

See Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me) (File: R493)

Railroad Song (I)

See The Dummy Line (II) (File: ScNS139A)

Railroad Song (II)

See (File: LxU076)

Railroad to Heaven, The

See The Road to Heaven (File: R600)

Railroad Tramp

See Remember the Poor Tramp Has to Live (File: RcRtPTHL)

Railroader for Me, A

See Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me) (File: R493)

Railroader, The

See Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me) (File: R493)

Railroadin' and Gamblin'

DESCRIPTION: Uncle Dave Macon surrealism. Singer has been in the state house and the court house; he is broke from gambling. Chorus: "Railroadin' and gamblin'/Pickin' up chips for mammy/Lawd, lawd, lawd/Take your feet out the sand, stick 'em in the mud."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
LONG DESCRIPTION: More Uncle Dave Macon surrealism. Singer has been in the state house (prison?) and the court house, and is broke from gambling despite his mother's advice. "Lawd, that preacher got, ain't that a sin/Johnny get your whiskers cut, here comes the wind." Chorus: "Railroadin' and gamblin'/Pickin' up chips for mammy/Lawd, lawd, lawd/Take your feet out the sand, stick 'em in the mud." You figure it out.
KEYWORDS: prison gambling railroading nonballad nonsense
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "Railroadin' and Gamblin'" (Bluebird 8325, 1940; on RoughWays2)
NOTES [25 words]: Almost certainly of minstrel origin; a few lines are in dialect. While I use the keyword "nonsense," I suspect there was meaning in the song once. - PJS
File: RcUDRaG

Railroading on the Great Divide

DESCRIPTION: "Railroading on the Great Divide/Nothing around me but the Rockies and sky/There you'll find me as the years roll by...." Singer wanders the country before landing on the Great Divide, and tells of the rails and ties he has laid there.
AUTHOR: Sara Carter Bayes
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (record, A. P. Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: pride rambling travel railroading work nonballad worker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 528-529, "Railroading on the Great Divide" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
A. P. Carter Family, "Railroading on the Great Divide" (Acme 992, 1952)
NOTES [234 words]: Seldom cited, composed after World War II, but it has attained sufficient circulation in the revival that I index it. - PJS
This has been credited to Janette Carter, who recorded it in 1952 with her brother Joe and her parents A. P. Carter and Sara Carter Bayes; indeed, it was listed as by Janette in the earlier editions of this index. But Cohen corresponded with Sara Carter Bayes about the composition, so I'm following his lead.
This was recorded as part of a brief reunion of A. P. and Sara Carter (strictly musical, of course), which produced a handful of sides for the Acme label. The reunion cuts were not particularly successful (according to John Atkins, article "The Carter Family" in Bill C. Malone and Judith McCulloh, "Stars of Country Music," p. 110, Acme was a small label with no distribution channel and significant quality control problems; he also regards the instrumentation as weak in the absence of Maybelle).
A. P. kept at it with Acme until 1956, but with little reward; this was just about the only memorable product of the sessions. Had they tried the reunion a decade or so later, the folk boom might well have carried them to success -- but A. P. died in 1960. - RBW
A. P., Sara, Joe, and Janette recorded again in 1956, cutting an LP for Pine Mountain Records of Barbourville, KY. This song was also on that album, and in a spoken aside Sara proclaims her authorship. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: RcROTGD

Railway Bill

See Railroad Bill [Laws I13] (File: LI13)

Railway Spiritualized, The

See The Road to Heaven (File: R600)

Rain and Snow

DESCRIPTION: Singer's wife gives him trouble, runs him "out in the cold rain and snow." She comes downstairs combing her hair, saying she'll no longer be mistreated; he kills her (, lays out the body, then trembles with cold fear)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians)
KEYWORDS: marriage violence crime homicide corpse death wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 116, "Rain and Snow" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3634
RECORDINGS:
Dillard Chandler, "Rain and Snow" (on Chandler01, DarkHoll)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nine Hundred Miles" (tune)
cf. "Reuben's Train" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Cold Rain and Snow
NOTES [43 words]: The liner notes to Chandler's recording lump this with "Sporting Bachelors." I demur; that's a humorous cautionary tale, while this is a tragedy. - PJS
It seems to me I've heard this done with a somewhat humorous twist, but certainly it's a distinct song. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: RcRaAnSn

Rain Come Wet Me

DESCRIPTION: "Rain come wet me, Sun come dry me, Stand back, white man, Don't come a-nigh me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: storm
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 490, "Rain Come Wet Me" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 490, "Rain Come Wet Me" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11605
File: Br3490

Rain Fall and Wet Becca Lawton

DESCRIPTION: "Rain fall and wet (Becca Lawton) (x2) Oh, brother, cry holy. Been back holy, I must come slowly, Oh, brother cry holy." ""Sun come and dry Becca Lawton." "Do, Becca Lawton, come to me yonder." "Say, brother Tony, what shall I do now?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen, Ware, Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 21, "Rain Fall and Wet Becca Lawton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11973
NOTES [64 words]: I have a funny feeling that, if we could actually go back and ask the composer about this, it would have something to do with Noah's flood. But it's only a feeling; neither the word "flood" nor the word "Noah" occurs in the Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates version, and at least one of their informants claimed it had to do with a "prophetess" who baptized in the rain. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG021

Rain on the Roof

DESCRIPTION: "When the humid shadows hover Over all the starry spheres And the melancholy darkness Gently weeps in rainy tears, What a bliss to press the pillow Of a cottage-chamber bed, And to listen to the patter Of the soft rain overhead!' No sound is more pleasant
AUTHOR: Coates Kinney (1826-1904) (source: Wikipedia; Granger's Index to Poetry)
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (Dime-Song-Book #16)
KEYWORDS: nonballad storm
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #16, pp. 10-11, "The Rain on the Roof" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 118-119, "The Melody of Rain" (1 text) (p. 99 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #14087
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Darling Nelly Gray" (tune)
NOTES [93 words]: Coates Kinney was a lawyer, journalist, and paymaster in the Union army in the Civil War; he also had a minor career in Ohio politics. He also published two volumes of poetry -- but this seems to be the only thing he wrote that anyone remembers; Wikipedia (which has a short entry on Kinney) calls it his most popular poem, and it is the only one indexed in Granger's Index to Poetry. Wikipedia says it was set to music, but does not say by whom. Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania says there are two tunes, one of which is "Darling Nelly Gray." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Shoe118

Rain Rain the Wind Does Blow

See The Wind (Rain, Rain, the Wind Does Blow) (File: RcRRtWDB)

Rain, Rain My Savior

DESCRIPTION: "Takes a holy man to join us in the army of the Lord (x2), O rain, rain a rain, my savior, Rain, rain, the Lord sent it down, O rain, rain a rain my savior, Rain, rain, the Lord sent it down." "So glad I ever started in the army of the Lord...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 89, "Rain, Rain My Savior" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16936
File: ChFRA089

Rain, Rain, Come Down

DESCRIPTION: "Rain, rain, come down, I owe you half a crown, Rain, rain, go up, I owe you half a cup."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: money | rain
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 21, "Rain, Rain, Come Down" (1 text)
Roud #19096
NOTES [32 words]: Roud files this with #19096, which is mostly "Rain, Rain, Go Away"; he has some other things linked to #2649, "I'll Tell My Ma (I)." But this strikes me as separate, and I file it as such. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI021A

Rain, Rain, Go Away

DESCRIPTION: "Rain, rain, go away, Come again some other day." Additional stanzas may have additional suggestions, e.g. "Rain rain, go to Spain, Never show your face again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Opie & Opie); a probable ancestor quoted by Aubrey in 1687 and another by John Howell in 1659
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 136, "Rain, rain, go away"; "Rain, rain, go to Spain" (2 short texts)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 435, "Rain, rain, go away" (10 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #443, p. 205, "(Rain, rain, go away)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 169, "Rain, Rain, Go Away" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 167, "Rain, Rain, Go Away" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #161, "(Rain, rain, go way)" (1 text)
Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 50, "(Rain, rain, go away, For little Johnny wants to play)" (1 short text)
Roud #19096
NOTES [83 words]: My general assumption is that, if I learned something from other kids, with a tune, then it qualifies as "folk song." By that definition, this fits, silly as it is.
Aubrey's 1687 version, as quoted by the Baring-Goulds, is
Raine, raine, goe away,
Come again a Saterday.
Howell's version, quoted by the Opies, is
Raine, raine, go to Spain,
Faire weather come againe.
The Opies even quote a classical Greek text begging the sun to come out. However, it doesn't mention rain, and is surely unrelated. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BGMG443

Rain, the Rain, The Rain Blew High, The

See The Wind (Rain, Rain, the Wind Does Blow) (File: RcRRtWDB)

Rainbow 'mid Life's Willows

See Locks and Bolts [Laws M13] (File: LM13)

Rainbow (I), The

See Johnny German [Laws N43] (File: LN43)

Rainbow (II), The

See The Female Warrior (Pretty Polly) [Laws N4] (File: LN04)

Rainbow Division

DESCRIPTION: "And I'm one among the dying, A youth, not yet a man, From the old Rainbow Division, And a boy from Dixieland. His brother knelt beside him to hear what he might say." He asks that a message be sent to mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: soldier death mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 736, "Rainbow Division" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [83 words]: According to William Rose Benet, editor, The Reader's Encyclopdedia, first edition, 1948 (I use the four-volume Crowell edition, whihch I usually check it against the single volume fifth edition, but this entry was deleted, p. 904, the Rainbow Division was "The name of the 42nd Division of the United States Army which was made up of National Guard troops from all over the country. They were the first American troops in combat in World War I. Their insigne was a rainbow on a black field." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5736

Rainbow i' the Morning

See Red Sky at Morning (File: NCF193RS)

Rainbow in the Morning

See Red Sky at Morning (File: NCF193RS)

Rainbow Willow

See Locks and Bolts [Laws M13] (File: LM13)

Raining and Grousing

See Raining Raining Raining (Grousing, Marching, Starving) (File: BrPa045B)

Raining Raining Raining (Grousing, Marching, Starving)

DESCRIPTION: "Raining, raining, raining, Always bloody well raining, Raining all the morning, And raining all the day." "Grousing... Always bloody well grousing, Grousing a the rations, And grousing at the pay." "Marching...." "When the war is over ... march no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes food travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 45, "Raining" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 67, "Raining and Grousing" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10553
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Holy, Holy, Holy" (tune, according to Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Grousing
Marching, Marching, Marching
File: BrPa045B

Raise 'Em Up Higher

DESCRIPTION: "Raise 'em up higher, higher, drop 'em down (c3), Never know the difference when the sun goes down." "Twenty-one hammers fallin' in a line (x3), Nobody's hammer, buddy, ring-a like mine." The singer hopes his girl hears him and talks of work
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (various recordings from prisoners made by Bruce Jackson)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 275-280, "Raise 'Em Up Higher" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
NOTES [23 words]: As with so much in Jackson, these songs are grouped rather arbitrarily, and some might perhaps be split off or lumped with other songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM275

Raise a Ruckus

DESCRIPTION: A slave is told by his mistress that he would be freed when she died. The promise is long in coming true, and at last the singer takes things in his own hand. Having set off (down?)river, he intends to "raise a ruckus tonight."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: slave freedom escape party
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 499, "Raise a Ruckus Tonight" (2 texts plus 2 fragments; the "A" text, however, is "I'll Build Me a Boat")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 499, "Raise a Ruckus Tonight" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 26, "Raise a Rukus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 253-254, "Raise a Rukus Tonight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 299, "Raise A Ruckus Tonight" (1 text)
Roud #10054
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Bowman & his Brothers, "Gonna Raise the Ruckus Tonight" (Columbia 15357-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Warren Caplinger's Cumberland Mountain Entertainers, "G'wine to Raise a Rucas Tonight" (Vocalion 5222, 1928)
Carlisle Brothers (Cliff and Bill), "Gonna Raise a Ruckus Tonight" (Decca 5774, 1939/Minerva M-14158, c. 1941)
Bill Chitwood & his Georgia Mountaineers, "Raise Rough House Tonight" (OKeh 45236, 1928)
Hugh Cross & Riley Puckett, "Gonna Raise Ruckus Tonight" (Columbia 15455-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Folkmasters, "Raise a Rukus Tonight" (on Fmst01)
The Georgia Yellow Hammers, "Going To Raise A Ruckus Tonight" (Victor 20928, 1927)
Georgia Serenaders [pseud. for Caplinger's Cumberland Mountain Entertainers], "Gonna Raise a Ruckus Tonight" (Supertone 9473, 1929) [this is probably the same as the Warren Caplinger recording listed above]
Mobile Strugglers, "Raise a Ruckus Tonight" (on AmSkBa)
Norfolk Jubilee Quartet, "Raise Rukus Tonight" (Paramount 12032, 1923)
Patterson, Caplinger & The Dixie Harmonizers, "Gonna Raise a Ruckus Tonight" (Gennett 6872/Champion 15770 [as The Kentucky Serenaders]/Supertone 9473 [as The Georgia Serenaders], 1929)
Pete Seeger, "Raise a Ruckus Tonight" (on PeteSeeger05)
Southern Quartet, "Gonna Raise Rukus Tonight" (Columbia 14048-D, 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Marse John" (lyrics)
cf. "My Ole Mistus Promised Me" (lyrics)
cf. "Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Hard Time in Old Virginnie" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I'll Build Me a Boat" (lyrics)
File: LxU026

Raise a Ruckus Tonight (I)

See Raise a Ruckus (File: LxU026)

Raise a Ruckus Tonight (II)

See I'll Build Me a Boat (File: Br3499)

Raise a Rukus

See Raise a Ruckus (File: LxU026)

Raise a Rukus Tonight

See Raise a Ruckus (File: LxU026)

Raise Big Taters in Sandy Land

See Great Big Taters in Sandy Land (File: LxA236)

Raise Your Hands If They Are Clean

DESCRIPTION: "Raise your hands if they are clean, By your teacher to be seen; Raise them higher, turn them slow. They're almost white as snow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Stout-FolkloreFromIowa); said to have been learned in 1895
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 103, pp. 127-133, "Early Iowa School Songs" (11 texts, of which "F" is this song)
Roud #21643
File: Stou103F

Rajah of Astrakhan, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a rajah of Astrakhan, A most licentious lout of a man," who calls for his favorite concubine. But as they proceed about their business, the bed falls apart and both are injured. The singer's advice: Do it against the wall
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: royalty sex bawdy injury
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 126, "The Rajah of Astrakhan" (1 text)
Roud #10229
NOTES [11 words]: Roud combines this with "Put On Your Bustle." I don't see it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RuSoRajA

Rake and Rambling Boy, The

See The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)

Rakes of Mallow, The

DESCRIPTION: "Beauing, belleing, dancing, drinking, Breaking windows, damning, sinking, Ever raking, never thinking, Live the rakes of Mallow." This self-centered life continues until "they get sober, take a wife, Ever after live in strife"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: drink party wine rake
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 93, "The Rakes of Mallow" (1 text)
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 249-250, "The Rakes of Mallow" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 164, "The Rakes of Mallow" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 483-484, 514, "The Rakes of Mallow"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sandy Lent the Man His Mull" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
SAME TUNE:
Old Parson Brown ("Not long ago, in our town") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 116)
NOTES [95 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "In 1750, Dr Smith thus describes Mallow, which was then a very fashionable watering-place:'... Here is generally a resort of good company during the summer months, both for pleasure and the benefit of drinking the waters....'"
Sparling: "Eighteenth century. The 'Rakes' were the sons of the Protestant gentlemen who frequented the 'waters' of Mallow." - BS
Broadside Bodleian, Harding B 40(11), "The Rakes of Mallow" ("Beauing, belling dancing, drinking"), J.F. Nugent and Co.? (Dublin?), 1850-1899 could not be downloaded and verified. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: CrPS249

Rakes of Poverty, The

DESCRIPTION: Irish variant on "The Son of a Gambolier." The singer describes himself as "the rambling rakes of poverty... the son of a gambaleer." He likes drink, and lives shabbily, in used clothes and shoes. He wishes he had drink and sugar for all
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: drink rambling poverty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H741, p. 50, "The Rakes of Poverty" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SONGAMB2*
Roud #2964
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as109580, "New Orleans Song of the Times" ("I am a rambling rake of poverty"), unknown, no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier (I)" (tune) and references there
SAME TUNE:
The Freight Handlers' Strike ("It was at Cooper's Institute, Jack Burke and I chanced to meet") (by Andrew A. Walls) (Foner, p. 238, with a broadside print on p. 240)
NOTES [25 words]: This is so close to "The Son of a Gambolier" that I'm tempted to list them as one song. But they're usually listed as separate, so here it stands. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: HHH741

Rakes of Stony Batter, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you roving blades, that ramble thro the City" our time is coming to have our way with women. Lots of sexual symbolism. "Come let us take a roam, up to Stony Batter, Keep your Wife at home, for humpers will be at her"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7); 19C (broadside, Holloway and Black))
KEYWORDS: bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1455, "Hey for Stoney Batter" (1 fragment)
Roud #7153
NOTES [34 words]: Greig/Duncan7 is a fragment; Holloway and Black, Later English Broadside Ballads (Volume 1) 99, pp. 223-225 is the basis for the description.
Holloway and Black: "Stony Batter is a quarter of Dublin." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71455

Raking of the Hay

See Tossing of the Hay (File: HHH635)

Raking the Hay

See Joy After Sorrow (File: ReSh040)

Raleigh Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "What do we do when we leave the Raleigh? (x3), Early in the morning." "Run like hell for the nearest station." "Catch a train to civilization." "Run like hell to the nearest boozer." "Drink to the health of the boys of the Raleigh"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor navy travel drink derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 52, "The 'Raleigh' Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drunken Sailor (Early in the Morning)" (tune)
NOTES [82 words]: According to Smith, p. 177, there were six Royal Navy ships named Raleigh -- but Young, p. 132, shows that there was none in World War II. Does this mean that it is the same ship as that in "The Nordfeld and the Raleigh"? It would fit the Raleigh's service in the years after World War I; she served in the area of Newfoundland and Maritime Canada; if she stopped at a Newfoundland outport, which would be a very small town, there would be a real temptation to head somewhere bigger. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn037

Rally Round the Flag

See The Battle Cry of Freedom (File: MA034)

Rally-Roh

DESCRIPTION: Gerry Foley's stormy adventure while hunting an otter bring him to the attention of a "big vessel" captain. The captain tries but fails to lure Gerry to sea and is scolded by Gerry's wife.
AUTHOR: George Curtin (source: OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Gerry Foley tried kill a "water dog" [otter], but it escaped into the river. Gerry built a boat, loaded his rifle, and chased after the otter. After three weeks rowing he survived a gale, headed back to town, but ran into a rock on his way home. A captain of "a big vessel,' having heard of the adventure, came to Gerry's home and offered Gerry money, land and mansion to go with him to sea. When Gerry refused the offer the captain took offense, saying "I came here for you all the ways from Kinsale, And allow me to tell you, I'm not going to fail" Gerry's wife Joan -- "as you know she is wicked and terrible bold" -- scolded the captain
KEYWORDS: river storm wreck talltale animal wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 54-55,122, "Rally-Roh" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [119 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "A typical composition of George Curtin who picked on a minor incident that happened to his neighbor Ger Foley. The hard facts of the case were that Ger spotted an otter in the river and tried to kill it. George heard of the incident and transformed the simple event into a saga ....."
This is a ballad in the not-exclusively-Irish tradition of river and canal boat tall tales like "The Clonmel Flood" and "The Wreck of the Gwendoline." In this case we are in on the ship-building phase as well as the sinking.
The sea captain had come all the way from Kinsale, about 14 miles as the gull flies, to recruit Gerry.
The title is from the chorus: "Rally-Roh Fal-de-dah Rally Roh fal-di-dee." - BS
File: OCan054

Rally, Boys, Rally (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Lead your partner up and down, I thought I heard them say, Lead your partner... I thought I heard...." "Rally, boys, rally, I thought I heard them say...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi)
KEYWORDS: dancetune nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 150, p. 295, "Rally, Boys, Rally" (1 short text)
Roud #4508
NOTES [57 words]: There are two traditional songs entitled "Rally, Boys, Rally" -- one from Mississippi, printed in Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi; one from Tennessee, printed by Wolfe from Boswell's Tennessee collection. Both are very short, so it is possible that they are one song -- but the only words they have in common are the line "Rally, Boys, Rally." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Hud150

Rally, Boys, Rally (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Rally, boys, rally, the day is come at last (x2), Colored population can walk without a pass." "Had me an old shotgun, I called her Number One, Shot it at the rebels, you ought to see them run."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (collected from Willard Keen by Boswell)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 56, pp. 94-95, "Rally, Boys, Rally" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11031
NOTES [57 words]: There are two traditional songs entitled "Rally, Boys, Rally" -- one from Mississippi, printed in Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi; one from Tennessee, printed by Wolfe from Boswell's Tennessee collection. Both are very short, so it is possible that they are one song -- but the only words they have in common are the line "Rally, Boys, Rally." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BoWo056

Ram o' Bervie, The

See references under The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Ram o' Dirram, The

See The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Ram of Dalby, The

See references under The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Ram of Darby, The

See The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Ram of Derby, The

See references under The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Ram of Derbyshire, The

See The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Ram of Diram, The

See references under The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Ram She Add-a-dee

See Wop She 'Ad It-io (Rumpsy Addity, Ram She Add-a-dee, Once I Courted a Fine Young Lass) (File: CopSe241)

Ram Song (I), The

See The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Ram Song (II), The

DESCRIPTION: Pius bought a small, thin ram from Jenny. The boys play cards for the ram "but playing cards for rams in Lent -- it was a mortal sin." The ram grows big and fat and is slaughtered "to pay the boys to plow up the old graveyard"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: cards humorous animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, p. 97, "The Ram Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12451
NOTES [21 words]: Did something drop out of this song in which one of the gamblers dies? Until we find another version, we can hardly tell. - RBW
File: Dib097

Ram, The

See The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Ramble Away

See Rambleaway (File: ShH31)

Ramble-eer, The

See The Son of a Gambolier (I) (File: San044)

Rambleaway

DESCRIPTION: Young man meets young woman. He says he's known as "Rambleaway" (after his wandering habit). In some versions the last verse cautions girls about men like him; in others the woman slips away, and he rambles around searching for her in vain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3575))
KEYWORDS: courting rambling warning pregnancy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,North),Scotland(Aber)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1485, "Ramble Away" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 31, "Sweet Kitty" ; 75, "Brimbledon Fair, or, Young Ramble-Away" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 166, "Ramble-away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 683, "Rambleaway" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 32, "Derry Down Fair" (2 texts)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 150-151, "Brocklesby Fair" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #89, "Young Ramble Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 184-186, "Ramble Away" (1 text, 1 tune, with an odd opening set in "Verdun")
DT, RAMBLAWA
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, "'Birmingham Broadsides and Oral Tradition" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, pp. 48-49, "Young Ramble-away" (1 text)
Roud #171
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3575), "Young Ramble Away" ("As I was a walking down Birmingham street"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth b.34(247), Firth c.18(245), Harding B 11(4385), Harding B 25(2144)[some words illegible], Firth c.18(289), Harding B 15(149b)[torn; some lines missing], "Young Ramble Away"; Harding B 13(20), Harding B 13(19), "Young Ramble-away"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come All You Fair and Tender Girls" (theme)
cf. "When I Was Young (Don't Never Trust a Sailor)" (plot)
cf. "Yon Green Valley" (plot)
cf. "The Courting Coat" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "The Roving Shantyboy" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Derry Down Fair
Brimbledown Fair
Burlington Fair
Brocklesby Fair
File: ShH31

Rambler from Clare, The

DESCRIPTION: The rambler tells of beginning his career in the (County Tyrone), where (the women) first dubbed him the Rambler from Claire. Captured (by the English, he faces a stiff sentence) but escapes to America (and continues to pursue the women)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3218)); beginning 19C (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: rambling emigration
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(NE) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 68, "The Rambler from Clare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 20, "The Rambler from Clare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 46, "The Rambler from Clare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 59, "The Rambler from Claire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1961, p. 132, "The Rambler from Clare" (1 reference)
DT, RMBLCLAR*
Roud #1531
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3218), "The Rambler From Clare," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(3219), 2806 b.11(9), 2806 c.15(250), 2806 b.9(267)[some words illegible], Harding B 19(9)[some words illegible], Harding B 11(3217), Harding B 26(553), 2806 c.15(184), 2806 c.15(327), 2806 b.11(14), "The Rambler From Clare"
Murray, Mu23-y1:008, "The Rambler From Clair," unknown, 19C; also Mu23-y4:026, "Rambler From Clare"
NLScotland, RB.m.169(104), "The Rambler from Clair," Robert M'Intosh (address obliterated), c.1855
NOTES [55 words]: In some texts, the rambler is an Irish rebel, and is forced to flee Ireland to escape prosecution. In others, he is a deserter from the English army. In many versions, however, he is just a young man out to have as much fun with the ladies as possible.
And yes, the Warners spell it "Claire." Maybe that's the girl he was dating. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: Wa059

Rambler Song

DESCRIPTION: "He rambled across the seas, to see the firstline (front line?) French, And there were all the Kapps Sigs, a-gossiping in French; And what they had to say that day is more than I can tell, But they all did promise faithfully to give the Kaiser hell."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Dr. Finis K. Farr)
KEYWORDS: war travel France
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 250, "Rambler Song" (1 fragment)
NOTES [29 words]: I suspect this is a World War I version of "The Rambling Wreck from Georgia Tech" or a related song, but with only one stanza and no tune, I can't actually equate them. - RBW
File: MHAp250

Ramblin' Blues

See Beale Street Blues (Ramblin' Blues) (File: CAFS1277)

Ramblin' Reckless Hobo

See Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum) [Laws H2] (File: LH02)

Rambling Beauty, The

See Nancy (II) (The Rambling Beauty) [Laws P12] (File: LP12)

Rambling Blues

See Rambling Round (File: CSW118)

Rambling Boy (I), The

See The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)

Rambling Boy (II)

See My Ramblin' Boy (File: FSWB061)

Rambling Boy (III), The

DESCRIPTION: Jack the sailor and his girl spend the night and stop in a Green Street tavern where he is beaten by "turks and heathens." He is taken and "transported for theivery" to Van Diemans Land. Now in "transport blue," he will write her a letter if she is true.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond03)
KEYWORDS: sex fight farewell theft transportation unemployment sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
ST RcRCTRaY (Full)
Roud #3083
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Rambling Youth" (on IRRCinnamond03)
NOTES [131 words]: The description is based on John Moulden's transcription from IRRCinnamond03 included in the Traditional Ballad Index Supplement.
There appear to be missing pieces to the story. The text says Jack "can find no employ" [is a robbery missing at this point?] and he "took ... flight" with his "darling"; after their night together "she proved my overthrow." Were the "turks [cruel men] and heathens" in the tavern police? - BS
More likely they are Catholics, I think. According to Eric Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, a "Turk" was a gutter word for Irishmen. If "Turk" is used in that sense, it seems reasonable to assume that Jack is English, and Protestant, and is claiming to have been attacked by Irish Catholics. No doubt a convenient excuse.... - RBW
File: RcRCTRaY

Rambling Boy (IV), The

See Beam of Oak (Rambling Boy, Oh Willie) (File: LLab015)

Rambling Boys of Pleasure, The

See You Rambling Boys of Pleasure (Down by Sally's Garden) (File: FowM059)

Rambling Comber, The

DESCRIPTION: "You combers all, both great and small, come listen to my ditty." He is proud to be able to read, drink and fight; his failing is "I love strong beer; I am a rambling comber." He could comb "A dozen of wool," but his clothes are ragged; he seeks a girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Lucy Broadwood collection)
KEYWORDS: work drink clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #13, The Rambling Comber" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1473
File: PECS013

Rambling Cow-Boy, A

See Come All Ye Lonesome Cowboys (File: R189)

Rambling Cowboy, The

See The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)

Rambling Female Sailor, The

See Female Rambling Sailor (File: DTrmbsl3)

Rambling Gambler, The

See The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)

Rambling Irishman (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a rambling Irishman, in Ulster I was born," but being poor, he leaves Lough Erne for Amerikay. He spends his last night with his darling. On his way, he dreams of his Nancy. When he arrives in Philadelphia, he urges every lad to "link with his lass"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman)
KEYWORDS: love emigration separation dream
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 63, "The Rambling Irishman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3572
File: GrHo063

Rambling Irishman (II), The

See True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man) (File: MA062)

Rambling Miner, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm only a rambling miner, I work where I like best, In the coal mines of Kentucky, Or the copper mines in the west." But wherever he goes, the singer is gambling his life in the mines. He says he is doing it "So that the women and kids may eat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: mining rambling nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 248, "The Rambling Miner" (1 text) (OakEd, p. 248)
NOTES [32 words]: It is rather unfortunate that Thomas did not preserve a tune for this piece. The first two stanzas appear to be built upon "The Roving Gambler," but the final two look like something else. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa248A

Rambling Robin

DESCRIPTION: "When first from my childhood I came to a man, The nation to ramble through I soon began." He is called "Rambing Robin." He never worries. His parents grieve. After 16 years, his mother dies. His father seeks him and dies. He returns to find them dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (various Harkness broadsides)
KEYWORDS: rambling children mother father death return
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 68, "Rambing Robin" (1 text, 1 modern tune)
Roud #V5416
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 20(145), "Rambling Robin," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(3225)=2806 c.13(198) (partly illegible), "Rambling Robin" (ibid.); also Harding B 16(220c), "Rambling Robin," T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899
File: HFSL068

Rambling Round

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes rambling around cities and towns, and his life as a migrant fruit picker. He wishes he could settle down, but "I am just a refugee/As I go rambling round, boys."
AUTHOR: Woody Guthrie
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Columbia River collection)
KEYWORDS: loneliness rambling work worker migrant
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 118, "Rambling Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GORAMB
ADDITIONAL: Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 36-37, " Ramblin' Round" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17658
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Goodnight, Irene" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rambling Round Your City
As I Go Rambling 'Round
NOTES [86 words]: This song verges on the status of an autobiography of Woody Guthrie, and to the best of my knowledge has never been found in tradition.
This is one of Woody's Columbia River ballads, from 1941, but most people aren't aware of this because it is not at all specific to the Columbia or the Bonneville Power Administration. It is in any case likely that he wrote it earlier and simply submitted it along with the other Columbia River songs.
The tune is an adaption of Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter's "Goodnight Irene." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: CSW118

Rambling Round Your City

See Rambling Round (File: CSW118)

Rambling Rover

See You Rambling Boys of Pleasure (Down by Sally's Garden) (File: FowM059)

Rambling Royal, The

See James Ervin [Laws J15] (File: LJ15)

Rambling Sailor, The

See The Rambling Soldier (File: ShH43)

Rambling Shoemaker, The

See James Ervin [Laws J15] (File: LJ15)

Rambling Soldier (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Soldier (sailor) describes the joys of rambling the countryside (of England): "I once was a seaman stout and bold, Ofttimes I plowed the ocean... For honor and promotion." In some versions he brags that he has a license to ramble, granted by the king.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 256); c. 1817 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle broadside transcription)
KEYWORDS: rambling nonballad sailor soldier injury
FOUND IN: US(SE) Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland(Aber)) Australia
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 367, "The Jolly Soldier" (1 fragment plus mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 367, "The Jolly Soldier" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #235, "Billy, the Rambling Soldier" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 43, "The Rambling Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 85, "The Rambling Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 36, "The Rambling Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 684, "Rambling Sailor" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 109, "The Rambling Sailor" (2 texts)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 63-65, "I'm a Bold and Rambling Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #110, "The Rambling Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 12-13, "The Rambling Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #87, "The Rambling Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #16, "Rambling Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 174-175, "The Rambling Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan7 1477, "The Rovin' Sailor" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 326, "Dicky Johnston, or, The Roving Sailor" (1 short text)
Hamer-GarnersGay, "The Rambling Soldier" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 50-51, "The Rambling Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 92, "The Rambling Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 110-111, "The Rambling Soldier" (1 text)
DT, RAMBSAIL* (RMBSAIL2*)
Roud #518
RECORDINGS:
Chris Willett, "The Rambling Sailor" (on Voice12)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 256, "The Rambling Sailor" ("I am a sailor stout and bold, long time I have ploughed the ocean"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.12(275), Johnson Ballads 1230, Harding B 11(1670), Firth b.25(378), Harding B 11(3226), Harding B 11(4288), Harding B 15(250b), Johnson Ballads 966, Johnson Ballads 559, Harding B 20(142), Firth b.34(302), "[The] Rambling Sailor"; Harding B 11(3228), "The Rambling Soldier" ("I am a soldier blithe and gay"), W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle), 1832-1842; Firth b.26(329), Harding B 11(835), Harding B 16(221a), Harding B 11(3227), Harding B 15(251a), Harding B 15(251b), Harding B 15(252a), Harding B 20(143), Harding B 17(251a), "Rambling Soldier"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rambling Comber"
NOTES [180 words]: Sharp notes that on the older broadsides, the rambler was a soldier; in the newer ones, he is a sailor. - PJS
Sharp may be right about which version is the older. The Bodleian broadsides give no clear-cut answer; however, Harding B 16(221a), "Rambling Soldier" lists the tune as "Rambling Sailor"; it also lists the author as John Morgan. - BS
In Brown's version (which is only two stanzas), it appears that he is a sailor who later enlists in the American Revolutionary army. This may be a rewrite, but the text it too short to be sure.
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads's text says that the sailor has been granted a license to beg *because he has lost a limb.* Ordinarily I would consider this a significant enough distinction to split the songs, but the rest is the same; the lost limb appears (or fails to appear, perhaps) in only a single line. Exactly the same is true of Hamer's hort text (which Roud files separately under the number #21266). Perhaps a mixture with something like "The Forfar Soldier," or even a case of an injured veteran adopting the piece to his own case? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ShH43

Rambling Soldier (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a rambling soldier, From (Tipperary) come to (France), And poverty compelled my To fall out into ranks." "Cold weather is approaching, And I have no clothes to pack... They are all upon my back." The singer tells how he acquired his ragged outfit
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Fred May's Comic Irish Songster, according to Brown)
KEYWORDS: clothes soldier rambling
FOUND IN: US(SE,Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 369, "The Rambling Soldier" (1 text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 54, pp. 91-92, "The Rambling Soldier" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11032
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier (I)"
NOTES [156 words]: The notes in Brown quote the Fred May's Comic Irish Songster version, in which the singer apparently sailed from Tipperary and now is selling song sheets of the song. They suggest it as the ancestor of "The Son of a Gambolier (I)" -- with which song I lumped it until the second traditional version, in the Boswell collection, turned up.
It is interesting to note that neither the Brown nor Boswell versions have preserved the name "Tipperary" (Brown makes the singer's home "Tripling"; in Boswell, it's "Tiplin Cain"), but both have him go to France. This obviously suggests that the hero of the song, originally a poor emigrant, has enlisted in the British army. Since the song cannot be traced before 1862, and the last time British troops fought against the French was in 1815, I wonder if there might not have been a (lost) version in which the singer enlisted in the British army in World War I and ended up in the trenches. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Br3369

Rambling Suiler, The

See The Jolly Beggar [Child 279] (File: C279)

Rambling Young Fellow, A

See Wrap Me Up in my Tarpaulin Jacket (File: FR439)

Rambling, Gambling Man

See The Roving Gambler [Laws H4] (File: LH04)

Ramillies

See Hey Bonnie Laddie, Mount and Go (File: GrD71361)

Ramsey County Jail

See Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail) [Laws E17] (File: LE17)

Ramsey Ram, The

See The Derby Ram (File: R106)

Ranchy Tanchy Teen

See Three Dukes (File: R551)

Randal, My Son

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Randy Dandy O

DESCRIPTION: Capstan or pumps shanty. Chorus: "Heave a pawl, o heave away. Way ay roll an' go. The anchor's on board an' the cable's all stored, timme rollockin' randy dandy o." Rhyming verses about sailing and women.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Robinson)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 116, "Galloping Randy Dandy O!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 167-168, "Randy Dandy O" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 135]
DT, RANDDAND*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Galloping Randy Dandy O!" is in Part 3, 7/28/1917.
Roud #4702
NOTES [19 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas says that he and his sources cleaned this one up a good deal before printing. - SL
File: Hugi167

Randy Riley

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Rang-a-Tang-Too, The

See The Ring-Dang-Doo (I) (File: EM182A)

Range of the Buffalo, The

See The Buffalo Skinners [Laws B10a] (File: LB10A)

Range Rider's Appeal, A

See The Cowboy's Prayer (II) (File: Ohr077)

Ranger, The

See Bold Ranger, The (File: R076)

Ranger's Command

See A Fair Lady of the Plains (Death of a Maiden Fair) [Laws B8] (File: LB08)

Ranger's Prayer

See The Dying Ranger [Laws A14] (File: LA14)

Rangey Ribs, The

DESCRIPTION: Patrick Cowley deals in cattle. He recalls the sickly scrawney "Rangey Ribs" Mickey Dubh sold to him as a thoroughbred. Pat couldn't sell him. His only use was to hang the wash. But when he died neighbors came to the burial from miles around
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: death commerce humorous animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 58, "The Rangey Ribs" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [48 words]: McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen: "The song is well known in other parts of the country and has been recorded extensively in Co. Clare. Place names matter not. The song is part of the genre popular throughout the country in which broken down cattle are ridiculed." - BS
File: McB1058

Rank Strangers to Me

DESCRIPTION: "I wandered again to my home in the mountains, Where in youth's early dawn I was happy and free, I looked for my friends, but I never could find them. I found they were all rank strangers to me." He is told all of them are gone. He will see them in heaven
AUTHOR: Albert E. Brumley (1905-1977) (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (recording, The Stanley Brothers)
KEYWORDS: separation death travel friend
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 8, "Rank Strangers to Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13162
NOTES [45 words]: Although not traditional in origin, and rarely if ever found in oral tradition, this is so well-known in bluegrass circles (due primarily to the recording by the Stanley Brothers) that it is widely regarded as traditional by people who listen to that kind of music. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ABLL008

Ranso Ray

See Ranzo Ray (File: Hugi247)

Ransum Scansum

DESCRIPTION: "Ransum scansum, through yonder, Bring me a gourd to drink water. Dis way out and t'other way in, In my lady's chamber, Dis way out and t'other way in, In my lady's chamber."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 131, "Ransum Scansum" (2 short texts, 1 tune; the second fragment has no title, but probably should be called "Aransom Shansom")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Do, Do, Pity My Case" (lyrics) and references there
File: ScaNF131

Ransum, Tansum

See Three Dukes (File: R551)

Ranter Parson, The

DESCRIPTION: "It is of a sly ranter parson, For preaching he lived in great fame,.. but I must not mention his name." The parson desires a farmer's wife. The wife offers to sleep with him but slips a swarm of bees into the bed; he is left lovelorn and much bestung
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Vaughan Williams)
KEYWORDS: infidelity sex clergy husband wife trick bug injury humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #89, "The Ranter Parson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2530
NOTES [56 words]: The similarity to Chaucer's "Merchant's Tale" will presumably be obvious, although this sort of trick is so common in folklore that there is no need to presume dependence. I suspect a recent broadside source, given the length of the piece and the fact that the informant said he often learned songs from (presumably printed) "ballets." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: VWP089

Rantin Willie Mair's Wife

DESCRIPTION: "Rantin Willie Mair's wife's awa wi' young MacKeelikin." She would not have been so foolish, says the singer, if she had been beaten when they met.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: infidelity marriage violence nonballad abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1214, "Rantin Willie Mair's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6771
NOTES [20 words]: Greig/Duncan6: "Said to refer to a local person whose wife eloped with a military man, returned, and went away again." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61214

Rantin' Auld Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, "a rantin' old maid," goes to a singing class to catch a man. One asks her questions: which way do you go home; what's your lover like; what's your name; am I the lad you love? She answers each and says, at last, "ye've guessed richt noo"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting dialog oldmaid questions music
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1388, "The Rantin' Auld Maid" (1 text)
Roud #7247
File: GrD81388

Rantin' Laddie, The [Child 240]

DESCRIPTION: The lady has "played at the cards and the dice" with the rantin' laddie; now she has a child and is scorned. She sends a letter to the rantin' laddie -- who proves to be the Earl of Aboyne. He marries her and all are happy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Skene ms.)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage adultery bastard cards
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,NE)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Child 240, "The Rantin' Laddie" (4 texts)
Bronson 240, "The Rantin' Laddie" (6 versions+1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 240, "The Rantin Laddie" (3 versions: #1, #3, #5)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #154, pp. 1-2, "The Rantin Laddie"; #156, pp. 2-3, "The Rantin Laddie" (3 texts plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan5 976, "The Rantin Laddie" (5 texts plus two fragments from Greig on p. 604, 3 tunes)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 303-304, "The Rantin' Laddie" (1 fragment, 1 tune, a single "Rantin' Laddie" stanxa with a "hush-a-bye" chorus perhaps from the mother to her bastard baby) {Bronson's #6}
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 78-79, "The Rantin' Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 597-598, "The Rantin' Laddie" (2 texts)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 35, pp. 127-128, "The Rantin Laddie" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 57, "The Rantin Laddie" (1 text)
DT 240, RANTNLAD*
Roud #103
RECORDINGS:
Willie Mathieson, "The Bonny Rantin' Laddie" [fragment] (on FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #5.1}
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Binorie" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Aboyne's Bonnie Lady
NOTES [15 words]: The "rant" is a dance step, now found chiefly in Northumberland and surrounding areas. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: C240

Rantin', Roarin', Drunk on the Way

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of getting drunk with his friends (all of whom he names) on the way to the lumber camp at Upyongo. At the end of the season, at home, they reminisce about how they got "drunk on the way."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: drink moniker logger
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 65, "Rattlin', Roarin', Drunk on the Way" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 114, "Drunk on the Way" (1 text)
Roud #8845
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "How We Got Up to the Woods Last Year" (lyrics)
NOTES [69 words]: The "moniker song" consists mostly of listing the names of one's compatriots, and perhaps telling humorous vignettes about each; it's common among lumberjacks, hoboes, and probably other groups. - PJS
This particular song shares the general chorus with "How We Got Up to the Woods Last Year" (where it runs "Rant and roar and drunk on the way"), but the plots seem distinct enough that Roud and I both split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be065

Ranting Highlandman, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a Highlandman whose appearance and smile "my favour wan." He asks that she marry and "wee'l big a cot an buy a stock an do the best that ere we can." She expects him to return "though all my kin should scauld an ban" and she'd go with him
AUTHOR: John Hamilton (1761-1814) (source: Whitelaw)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: courting farming family
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 860, "The Rantin' Hielanman" (2 texts, 3 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 110, "The Rantin' Hielanman" (1 text)
Roud #6253
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Rantin' Highlandman
NOTES [59 words]: GregDuncan4: "From Mary Duffus, servant, about 1852. Noted 1905." - BS
Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(21), "The Ranting Highlandman" ("Ae morn last owk, as I gaed out"), Sanderson (Edinburgh), 1830-1910 is this song but I could not download and verify it [though the words I could make out in the reduced image make the identity very likely]. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD4860

Ranting Roving Lad

See The White Cockade (File: R120)

Ranzo

See Reuben Ranzo (File: Doe023)

Ranzo Ray

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. First refrain "Ranzo, Ranzo, hurray, hurray" (or "away, away), second refrain usually "Hilo me Ranzo ray." Verses tell of destinations and cargos, i.e. "we're bound for Yokohammer, with a load o' grand pianners."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
KEYWORDS: shanty ship commerce travel
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 247-249, "Ranzo Ray" (3 texts, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 179-182]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XIX, p. 22, "The Bully Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Ranso Ray" is in Part 1, 7/14/1917.
Roud #327
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Huckleberry Hunting" (similar refrain)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rando Ray
NOTES [31 words]: Bone, in his notes to "Reuben Ranzo," was of the opinion that the word "Ranzo" somehow seemed to suit the action of hauling, which might explain its use in both this song and that. - RBW
File: Hugi247

Ranzo's Son

See Reuben Ranzo (File: Doe023)

Rap 'Er to Bank

DESCRIPTION: "Rap 'er to bank, me canny lad! Wind 'er away, keep tornin! The bac-shift men are gannin' hyme...." The canaller recalls his father's life on the canal, and how he died in a fall of stones. The singer, too, is leaving the canal.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Raven)
KEYWORDS: canal work death father
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 74-75, "Rap 'Er to Bank" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1786
File: JRVi074

Rap At The Door, A

DESCRIPTION: A rake visits a girl but his reputation as womanizer has preceded him. He gets no sympathy from her for a supposed injury. She says her parents would beat her if she introduced him. She will not be his next victim. He feels slighted but not heart-broken.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Logan-APedlarsPack)
KEYWORDS: courting dialog humorous nightvisit father mother rake
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 363-364, "Indifference" or "A Rap at the Door" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #139, pp. 1-2, "Rap at the Door" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 780, "Open the Door" (3 fragments, 3 tunes)
ST GrD4780 (Partial)
Roud #6124
NOTES [114 words]: Greig: "We have at one time or another got bits of this song along with a record of the tune; but in default of a complete copy we have fallen back on the version given in Logan's Pedlar's Pack of Ballads."
This ballad shares the text, but not the meaning, of the following lines with "A-Growing" [Laws O35]: "The trees are high, the leaves are green, The days are past that we have seen." In this song the woman sings these lines gleefully.
The insults to the rake in the text are not sufficiently hinted at in the description. For example, "O young man, I value you not, Altho' the hangman had your coat ... And yourself in a bottomless boat, With the Devil to row you ashore." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4780

Rap-a-tap

See The Farm Servant (Rap-Tap-Tap) (File: DTraptap)

Rap-Tap-Tap

See The Farm Servant (Rap-Tap-Tap) (File: DTraptap)

Rarden Wreck of 1893, The

DESCRIPTION: A train heads for Cincinnati, but the engineer dies at Rarden station after jumping from the train when he saw an open switch. The fireman is crushed in the wreck. Chorus: "Did he ever come back? No, he never came back. His fate was easily learned...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1993
KEYWORDS: train wreck disaster death
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, pp. 121-122, "Rarden Wreck" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 215, "The Rarden Wreck of 1893" (1 text, filed with "The Wreck of the Old 97")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship that Never Returned" [Laws D27] (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "The Wreck of Old 97" [Laws G2] (tune, theme)
cf. "The Train that Never Returned" (tune, theme)
File: DarNS215

Rare Clonmel

DESCRIPTION: The singer is leaving his home in Clonmel. He thinks of the places there he loved. "In ev'ry fight for Erin's right, Foul tyranny to quell, First in the field and last to yield Are the boys of Rare Clonmel!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: farewell home lyric nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 20B, "Rare Clonmel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9778
NOTES [20 words]: Clonmel is on the river Suir, South Tipperary. OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads has no information about the song. - BS
File: OLcM020B

Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie [Child 215]

DESCRIPTION: Willie drowns in the (Yarrow). (Details of how and why vary greatly). His lover dreams a dream of woe. She sets out and finds Willie's body, and uses her hair to pull him from the water. In many accounts she (promises to) die for sorrow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1733
KEYWORDS: death mourning courting drowning
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(MW,So) Canada Ireland
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Child 215, "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie" (9 texts)
Bronson 215, "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie" (9 versions)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 152-153, "Willie's Drowned in Yarrow" (1 text); also pp. 154-155, "The Braes of Yarrow" (a "modern ballad" on this theme by Rev. John Logan)
Dixon-ScottishTraditionalVersionsOfAncientBallads XII, pp. 66-67, "The Water o' Gamery" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 22-24, "The Water of Gamery" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #113, pp. 1-2, "Willie's Drowned in Gamerie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1227, "Willie's Lost at Gamery" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 124-126, "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 22, "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow" (1 text, 1 tune, erroneously listed as Child 214) {Bronson's #4}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 571-572, "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 99, "The Braes o' Yarrow" (1 text which is mostly Child 214 but incorporates parts of Child 215)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 454-455, "Willie's Drowned at Gamerie" (1 text)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 78, "Willie Drowned in Ero" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 229-230, "Willie's Drowned in Gamery" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 93, "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 62, "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow" (1 text)
DT 215, YARROW2* YARROW3*
ADDITIONAL: Peter Buchan, Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1828 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol I, pp. 245-248, 315, "Willie's Drowned in Gamery" (1 text)
W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 64-65, "Willie's Drowned in Yarrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; notes to #425, "But think na' ye my heart was sair?" (1 text)
Roud #206
RECORDINGS:
Chris Miles, "Willie's Rare" (Piotr-Archive #550, recorded 03/18/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow" [Child 214]
cf. "Susan Strayed on the Briny Beach" [Laws K19] (plot)
cf. "Willie's Drowned in Gamerie" (story)
cf. "Willie Drowned in Yarrow" (story)
NOTES [445 words]: Several scholars, among them Norman Cazden, have claimed that this song is the same as Child 214, "The Dowie Dens o Yarrow/The Braes o Yarrow." Certainly there has been exchange of verses. However, I (following Leach), would maintain that there is a difference: "The Dowie Dens" is about opposition to a marriage; "Willie Drowned" is about the loss of a love.
A brief summary of the whole discussion is found in Coffin's notes in Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3. It's not clear what he believes, except that the two songs are a mess and quite mixed. Which can hardly be denied.
Palgrave's Golden Treasury includes a piece (item CLXIII) titled "The Braes of Yarrow," credited to J. Logan, which is clearly built upon this theme -- but it looks like a literary rewrite. Palgrave's next item (CLXIV), "Willy Drowned in Yarrow," is the real thing, though probably somewhat touched up by his (unnamed) source.
Child lists "Annan Water" as an appendix to this ballad, though it appears to me that, if it's related to any of the Child ballads, it's #216, "The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water." - RBW
Greig: "These two ballads ['Willie's Drowned in Yarrow' from Whitelaw's text, and 'Willie's Drowned in Gamerie' from Buchan's text] have got mixed up to some extent; but they are in the main so different that it is not easy accounting for the connection." And there is also Greig #87 "Willie's Drowned in Gamerie," indexed by that name, of which Greig's correspondent says, "it can have no connection with the 'Willie's Drowned in Gamrie,' as given in Buchan's Ballads of the North, nor yet the Lovers who were drowned in Clyde's Waters.'"
Buchan is Greig's source. Buchan has the story (also quoted by Child): "The unfortunate hero of this ballad, was a factor to the laird of Kinmundy. As the young woman to whom he was to be united in connubial wedlock resided in Gamery, a small fishing town on the east coast of the Murray Frith, the marriage was to be solemnized in the church of that parish, to which he was on his way, when overtaken by some of the heavy breakers which overflow a part of the road he had to pass, and dash, with impetuous fury, against the lofty and adamantine rocks with which it is skirted. The young damsel, in her fifteenth year, also met with a watery grave, being the wages of her mother's malison. This ballad will remind the reader of the Drowned Lovers, who shared the same fate in the river Clyde [see Child 216, 'The Mother's Malison, or Clyde's Water']."
Re Greig's comment above, compare Buchan's text to Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 456, "Willie's Drowned in Yarrow," cited for "Willie Drowned in Yarrow." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C215

Rare Willie's Drowned in Ero

See Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie [Child 215] (File: C215)

Rarey's Hill

See The Back o' Rarey's Hill (The Jilted Lover) (File: Ord156)

Rashie Moor, The

See The Rashy Muir (File: GrD61215)

Rashy Muir, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls making love in the hills one night and helping his sweetheart to dress. When they got to town "I saw another did my love attend". "Wid ye forsake a' yere former vows An break the heart o a lover true?" She would, maybe for money.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1894 (Murison collection, according to Lyle, _Fairies and Folk_)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity sex promise floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #118, p. 2, "The Rashie Moor" (1 text); #121, p. 2, "The Rashie Moor" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1215, "The Rashy Muir" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #6261
ALTERNATE TITLES:
O Will Ye Gang, Love, and Leave Me Noo?
Will Ye Gang, Love
NOTES [45 words]: Greig/Duncan6: "Noted by George F. Duncan from mother's singing in 1875."
The most common floating verse in the Greig/Duncan6 texts is "I lent my back against an oak I thought it was a trusty tree But first it bowed an then it break And so has my false love to me." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD61215

Raslin' Jacob

See Wrestlin' Jacob (File: Br3656)

Raspberry Lane

See Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: LK43)

Raspberry Tart, The

DESCRIPTION: "She was a raspberry tart In her little poke bonnet, With a great big bunch Of thing-a-mees upon it; With a pinafore dress That was just the thing And a little toy dog On the end of a string... Bow wow!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: nonballad dog clothes
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 29, "The Raspberry Tart" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [8 words]: Reportedly a fragment of a music hall song. - RBW
File: MCB029

Raspberry, Strawberry

DESCRIPTION: "Raspberry, strawberry, (Blackberry/Gooseberry Jam), Tell me the name Of your young man." Or, "Apple jelly, jam tart." "Does he like you?" "Will he marry you?" "What will he marry you in? Silk, satin, cotton, rags." "How will you get to the church?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth)
KEYWORDS: playparty food courting clothes travel children home | fortune-telling
FOUND IN: New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 107, "(Raspberry, strawberry)," "(Apple jelly, my jam tart)" (2 texts)
Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth, pp. 26-27, "Strawberry Jam, Cream of Tartum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 90, "Apple Jelly" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 25, "(Strawberry, apple, blackberry tart)"; ("Apple jelly, black currant jam)" (2 texts, the second surely this; the first might be "Strawberry shortcake")
Roud #19383
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She Loves Coffee and I Love Tea" (lyrics, style)
cf. "Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who)" (food fortunetelling)
cf. "Does He Love Me?" (fortune-telling lines)
NOTES [118 words]: Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren seems to say that this is the same as "She Loves Coffee and I Love Tea," and certainly they share a lot of questions. It looks to me more like they are separate songs that cross-fertilized, but you should probably see both. Roud separates them, but this is one of those cases where the extremes are clearly different but there is a lot of confusing stuff between the extremes. I'd be more inclined to lump with "Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who)"; it is often impossible to tell which one a piece should file with. In a few cases, I've just filed the piece in the same place Steve Roud did, more for consistency than from conviction. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SuSm107A

Raspel Pole, The

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Rastlin' Jacob

See Wrestlin' Jacob (File: Br3656)

Rat a Tat Tat, Who Is That?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Rat-a-tat-tat, who is that? Only Grandma's pussy cat. What do you want? A pint of milk. Where's your money? In my pocket. Where's your pocket? I forgot it! O you silly pussy-cat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas)
KEYWORDS: jumprope clothes food money | pussy cat milk pocket
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #479, "Rat-a-tat-tat, who is that?" (1 text)
Roud #22244
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Pig Went Into a Public House" (lyrics)
NOTES [22 words]: This is so close to "A Pig Went Into a Public House" that I would probably have lumped them, but Roud splits them. Take your pick. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJR479

Rat Coon, Rat Coon

DESCRIPTION: "Rat coon, rat coon, can you-all dance? No Why? Cause my tail's too short. Putty addy bum-bum bum-bum bum-bum. Putty addy bum-bum bum-bum bum.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914
KEYWORDS: animal nonsense
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 265, "Rat Coon, Rat Coon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7815
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Raccoon" (theme)
NOTES [34 words]: This could, from its text, be a fragment of "Raccoon" (or almost anything else). But the metrical pattern is different, so -- given that Randolph offers only one verse -- I classify the two as separate. - RBW
File: R265

Rat-a-Tat-Tat, Who Is That?

See Rat a Tat Tat, Who Is That? (File: AJR479)

Rata-tat-tat (Railroad camp shack rouser wake-up song)

DESCRIPTION: Couplets followed by "rata-tat-tat" with a stick beat on the shack door. "Wake up buddy it's hard but it's fair You had a good home but you wouldn't stay there." "Wake up buddy and sit on the rock It ain't quite day but it's four o'clock"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 246, ("Wake up buddy") (1 text)
NOTES [15 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parp246

Ratcatcher's Daughter, The

DESCRIPTION: "Not long ago, in Vestminster," a beautiful ratcatcher's daugher is courted by many. She prefers a sand-seller. They plan to marry. She falls into the Thames and dies (of the foul water?). He kills himself. The inquest says she died of "too much vet."
AUTHOR: reportedly Edward Bradly & Sam Cowell with additional lyrics by Charles Sloman, according to various non-scholarly internet sources
EARLIEST DATE: before 1866 (Bodleian broadside Harding B 11(416), etc.) (but see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: love courting suicide death river humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1966, p. 132, "The Rat-Catcher's Daughter" (2 references)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 51, "The Ratcatcher's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 69 and #5/64, p. 14, "The Rat-catcher's Daughter" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 152, "The Ratcatcher's Daughter" (reproduction of a broadside page)
Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 69-71, "The Ratcatcher's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a reproduction of an early sheet music cover)
Roud #13883
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian,Harding B 11(416), "The Ratcatcher's Daughter" ("In Westminster, not long ago "), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth b.34(253)=Harding B 11(3233)=Harding B 15(252b)=Johnson Ballads 3320 ("Not long ago, in Vestministier"); Harding B 19(29); 2806 c.13(120); Harding B 11(415); Firth c.18(229); Harding B 11(3234); 2806 c.15(24); Firth c.18(228); Firth b.27(457/458)
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(081) , "The Rat-Catcher's Daughter," unknown, n.d.
SAME TUNE:
Who Wouldn't Be a Digger ("A decided stop there's been of late To the tide of emigration") (by Charles R. Thatcher, in the "Colonial Minstrel") (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 6-7)
NOTES [143 words]: According to one of the broadsides listed on p. 132 of Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, this was "Sung by John Winans of the Bowery Theatre, With Tremendous Applause." He was not, however, the original singer; that distinction appears to have belonged to Sam Cowell (for whom see the notes to "Billy Barlow (II)".
Whatever its source, the piece was popular enough that, in 1858, Charles Dodgson ("Lewis Carroll"), when taking a series of photos of the actor Quintin Twiss in the summer of 1858, included one titled "The Rat-catcher's Daughter"; a small reproduction is in Roger Taylor and Edward Wakeling, Lewis Carroll: Photographer, Princeton University Press, 2002, p. 152 (which also claims that there was a "verse mime by Harold E. Priestley" which inspired the photo. A very quick Google search failed to turn up any sign of such a piece by Priestley). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BdRatDau

Ratcliffe Highway

DESCRIPTION: The sailor wanders down Ratcliffe Highway (and stops at an ale-house. What happens thereafter varies, e.g. he meets a girl, he fights with the landlady, etc.). After his business is done, he welcomes the chance to return to sea, even on a lousy old tub
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905
KEYWORDS: sailor courting whore fight
FOUND IN: US(MA) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 114-116, "As I Was A-Walking Down Ratcliffe Highway" (2 text, 2 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 200-201, "Ratcliffe Highway" (1 text plus 3 fragments, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 155-157]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 74, "Ratcliffe Highway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 137-139, "Ratcliffe Highway" (1 text, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 85, "Ratcliffe Highway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 353, "Down Ratcliffe Highway" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 75-76, "Ratcliffe Highway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs, "Ratcliffe Highway" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RATCLIF* RATCLIF2*
Roud #598
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blow the Man Down" (floating lyrics; the songs often cross-fertilize)
cf. "The Deserter"
NOTES [258 words]: Ratcliffe Highway is a road in London near Limehouse Reach. It ran near the docks of the British East India Company. Its was hardly the best part of town -- the "Ratcliffe Highway Murders" are mentioned in the Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet, and formed a backdrop for Thomas De Quincey's Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts. Seven people were killed in two incidents in December 1811, according to Weinreb/Hibbert, p. 638. This eventually became one of the justifications for the foundation of the Metropolitan Police.
Cordingly, p. 7, says "This street lay to the north of the wharves on the riverfront at Wapping. It was described in 1600 by John Stow as 'a continual street, or filthy straight passage, with alleys of small tenements or cottages builded, inhabited by sailors and victuallers.' Most sailors... were looking for women and drink, and the establishments along the Ratcliffe Highway provided for their needs."
Benet, p. 909, says that the highway ran "from one end of the place of execution at Wapping along the Thames into the city."
Ratcliff (the spelling used in Weinreb/Hibbert) is now part of the borough of Stepney, according to Weinreb/Hibbert, pp. 632-633, and -- being a slum area -- suffered many fires and disasters as well as the crimes so widely remembered. The area's reputation eventually became so bad that the road was renamed St. George's Street. - RBW
One version of "The Deserter" has the man recruited on Ratcliffe Highway, and that version is also known by the name of "Ratcliffe Highway." - PJS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: Doe114

Rathaspeck Boys, The

DESCRIPTION: Thomas Power and James Kehoe from Rathaspeck had "gained an honest livelihood by toiling on the land." They take a boat out in Wexford Harbour "to pass away their evening, engaged by line and hook." They can not swim and drown when their boat capsizes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck fishing
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 68-69, "The Rathaspeck Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #20515
File: Ran068

Rathlin Song, A

DESCRIPTION: "Where the fulmar flies on Rathlin head O'er the lake on the cliff by the sea, My love and I, in days that are dead, Watched the white clouds floating free.... But my love flew away... And I sob like the mateless dove." She prays her love will return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H696, p. 290, "A Rathlin Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6893
File: HHH696

Ration Blues (I Wonder What's the Matter)

DESCRIPTION: "Well, I wonder what's the matter, What's the matter with Captain Mac, He done got mad.... I've got the ration blues...." The singer tells of being sent out to cut wood, and sugar, but the land apparently does not yield even when cleared
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (recorded from Jesse Hendricks by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: work prison hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, p. 85, "Ration Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [108 words]: Jackson, noting that the Texas prison system did not ration prisoners' food, speculates that the version he recorded from Jesse "G. I. Jazz" Hendricks comes from a popular song which he cannot locate.
However, I note another Texas prison song, "I Wonder What's the Matter," recorded by the Lomaxes in 1934. I incline to think that that may have been the origin of this song. Perhaps commodity rationing during World War II would have brought in the references to rationing? Prisoners, after all, would have a harder time swapping things, or buying them on the black market, than those outside, and so would be more affected by the restrictions. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM085

Ratta Madan-Law (Rat's Mother-in-Law)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: Rat's mother-in-law cuts Rat's shirt; Rat laughs. Rat's brother-in-law cuts Rat's waistcoat; Rat laughs. Rat's father-in-law hits Rat in the belly; Rat laughs so hard he falls down as if dead. Mongoose comes and kills Rat.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: hate marriage death humorous animal injury
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 31-32, "Ratta Madan-Law" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Ratta Madan-Law" (on WIEConnor01)
File: JaMu031

Rattle Snake (II)

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

Rattler

See Old Rattler (File: CNFM104)

Rattlesnake

DESCRIPTION: Various animals are asked about their characteristics, e.g. "Muskrat, muskrat, what makes you smell so bad? I've been in the bottom all my life Till I'm mortified in my head." "Rattlesnake, rattlesnake, what makes your teeth so white?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Land Norris)
KEYWORDS: animal questions dialog nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 83, "Rattlesnake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 394, "Muskrat" (1 text)
Roud #6395
RECORDINGS:
Land Norris, "Muskrat" (OKeh 40404, 1925)
Rick Ward, "Muskrat" (Piotr-Archive #139, recorded 04/18/2022; includes verses written by the singer)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mister Rabbit" (theme)
File: LoF083

Rattlesnake Bill

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Rattlesnake Bill, I was raised in a rattlesnake den, My daily occupation all of my life, Was taking women from good old men. And I wonder how long they're gonna let me live." The singer kills a lion; people flee from him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986(McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong)
KEYWORDS: seduction talltale animal bragging
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 29-30, "Rattlesnake Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: McSMB029

Rattlesnake Mountain

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

Rattlesnake Song

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

Rattlesnake Song, The

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

Rattlin' Roarin' Willie

DESCRIPTION: Rattlin' Willie goes to the fair to sell his fiddle. Someone urges him, "O, Willie, come sell your fiddle... And buy a pint o wine!" He refuses; "The warl' would think I was mad." He plays in "guid company"; his wife(?) says "Ye're welcome hame to me."
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scots Musical Museum, #194)
KEYWORDS: music commerce drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 776, "Rattlin Roarin Willie" (1 text)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 91, "(Johnny, come lend me your fiddle)" (1 text, which appears to mix elements from "Rattlin' Roarin' Willie" with something rather like "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?")
DT, RTLNROAR
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #194, p. 202, "Rattlin, roarin Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6192
NOTES [179 words]: Like most Burns pieces, this has a traditional stub -- there is an item in Gammer Gurton's Garland,
John, come sell thy fiddle
And buy thy wife a gown.
No, I'll not sell my fiddle
For ne'er a wife in town.
(Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #91, p. 86; Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 267, pp. 239-240).
I suspedt there was a second intermediate state, however. Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, p. 113, says that "Burns celebrated Dunbar's rumbustious good humour by adapting the Border Ballad 'Rattlin', Rovin' Willie."
The Dunbar of this quote was William Dunbar (died 1807), a distant relative of the Earls of Dunbar, and a younger son who probably wasn't very well-off but who was involved in a number of civic groups and apparently worked as a lawyer. He and Burns had a modest correspondence, with Burns apparently wanting it to be more active.
The Baring-Goulds mention a note by Sir Walter Scott that Willie was a real fiddler who was tried and executed for murder. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: DTrtlnro

Rattling Bog, The

DESCRIPTION: Cumulative song about the "great chain of being." Sample: "On this branch there was a twig/Rare twig, a rattling twig/Twig on the branch and the branch on the tree and the tree in the bog/Bog down in the valley-o." Most versions complete a circle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Miss M. H. Mason, _Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs_)
KEYWORDS: ritual cumulative nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland(Aber)) Wales US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (43 citations):
Randolph 459, "The Green Grass Grew All Round" (1 text)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 27-28, "The Rattling Bog" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 133, "The Pretty Pair Tree" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 133, "The Pretty Pair Tree" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #220, "The Tree in the Wood" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 193, "And the Green Grass Grew All Around" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 141-143, "Prettiest Little Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 87-88, "The Green Grass Grew All Around" (1 text)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #93, "Tree in the Mountains" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 25, "The Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 174-175, "The Tree in the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 206, "The Tree in the Wood" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 98, "The Tree in the Wood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 116, "The Tree in the Wood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 72-74, "Was wachst uff diesem Bam? (What Grows on This Tree?)"; pp. 75-77, "Was wachst in diesem Wald? (What Grows in This Forest?)" (2 German texts plus non-poetic English translations, 2 tunes)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 104, "The Tree in the Wood" (2 texts)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 36, "The Everlasting Circle" (4 texts)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 182-183, "Down in the Lowlands There Grew a Tree" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 396)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #147, "The Tree in the Wood" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 53, "The Tree On the Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, pp. 56-57, "The Tree on the Hill" (1 text plus Cornish translation, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #114, "The Tree in the Wood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 58, "The Tree in the Wood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #59, "The Tree in the Wood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 258-260, "The Tree in the Bog" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 92, "On This Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 54-55, "The Tree in the Bog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 107, "The Stump" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 88, "The Tree in the Wood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 200, "The Tree in the Wood" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 96, "An Wedhen War An Vre (The Tree on the Hill)" (1 Cornish text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #86, p. 2, ("In the Bogie there was a tree"); #87, p. 2, ("Down in yon valley there grows a tree") (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1668, "There Was a Tree" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #46, "There was a Tree Stood in the Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 391, "The Green Grass Grew All Around" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 57, "The Rattlng Bog" (1 text, from user John5918, posted August 31, 2021; this particular version may have been pop-derived)
Harbin-Parodology, #115, p. 35, "The Tree in the Wood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 126, "The Tree in the Wood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 392, "There's a Tree in the Wood" (notes only)
DT, RATLNBOG*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 38, #4 (1994), p, 80, "Hi! Ho! The Rattling Bog" (1 text, 1 tune, indirectly from Seamus Ennis)
Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, pp. 72-73, "The Everlasting Circle" (1 text)
Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 6, prints a Danish text, "Langt Udi Skoven," with a loose English translation, which is a similar cumulative song about a tree, but the idea is so simple that they might be independent
Roud #129
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "The Green Grass Grew All Around" (Piotr-Archive #301, recorded 10/11/2022); "The Tree in the Woods" (Piotr-Archive #316, recorded 10/26/2022)
Doney Hammontree, "The Tree in the Wood" (AFS; on LC12)
Mike Kent, "The Tree" (on NFMLeach); "Tree On a Hill" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Old King Cole, "And The Green Grass Grew All Around" (Edison 52310, 1928)
Premier Quartet, "And the Green Grass Grew All Around" (CYL: Edison [BA] 1808, n.d.)
Kenneth Roper, "The Rattlin' Bog (Bog Down in The Valley-O)" (Piotr-Archive #356, recorded 11/12/2022, with wandering pitch)
Pete Seeger, "Green Grass Grows All Around" (on PeteSeeger20)
Uncle Don, "The Green Grass Grew All Around" (Conqueror 9013, 1938)
Theresa White, "Upside Down Story" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Derriere Chez Nous (Behind Our House)" (theme)
cf. "Little Bird" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
The Ford Song ("Now on the ground there were some wheels, The finest wheels that you ever did see") (Harbin-Parodology, #392, p. 95)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Tree and the Branch
NOTES [46 words]: The Cornish words printed by Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland are by Talek, based on English texts with some Breton influence.
The "Rattling Bog" title is obviously rare, but I used it because it seemed the most popular pop folk title. I may have been wrong about that. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ShH98

Rattling Railway Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer left home at twenty two. He went from town to town working on the railroad with his "whole estate" in his handkercheif. His money went for drink. He met and married a girl but left her in May. She tells her baby "Your daddy's a Railway Boy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: marriage rambling abandonment railroading baby rake wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 59, "The Rattling Railway Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: McB1059

Raven and the Crow, The

DESCRIPTION: "The corbie with his roupie throat Cried frae the leafless tree... Come o'er the loch wi me!" The crow asks why he should come. He is told a farmer has plowed his field and seeded it; there is much corn to be had. The farmer shoots both birds
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Montgomerie)
KEYWORDS: bird death food farming
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 34, "The Raven and the Crow" (1 text)
NOTES [16 words]: I haven't met this elsewhere, but it feels enough like a traditional song that I'm indexing it. - RBW
File: MSNR034

Ravenal, The

DESCRIPTION: The trawler Ravenal, returning to St Pierre from the Grand Banks, is lost in a storm. "Wreckage was found on Lorie's shore. She may have struck a sunker, but such things we'll never know; We only know her eighteen men died in the waters cold"
AUTHOR: Isaac Harris
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 31, 1962 - Ravenal is "missing. Presumed iced up & capsized" (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 92, "The Ravenal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #28986
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Schooner Marion Rogers" (tune)
NOTES [92 words]: According to Frank Galgay and Michael McCarthy, Shipwrecks of Newfoundland and Labrador, [Volume I], Harry Cuff Publishing, 1987, p. 89, the Ravenal was a "Trawler, sailed out of St. Pierre. Wreckage recovered 31 Jan 1962 near Lories, Burin Peninsula. Presumed lost with all hands."
Lories Beach is in Placentia Bay on the south Newfoundland coast.
Sunker: "A submerged rock over which the sea breaks, familiar form of SUNKEN ROCK, BREAKER, GROUNDER" (Source: Dictionary of Newfoundland English at site of Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage). - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe092

Rawtenstall Annual Fair

DESCRIPTION: "Down behind the gasworks, down in Rawtenstall... Last Saturday night, me and the lads, Ee by gum we 'ad some reet good cheer." They see a fat girl, the house of mystery, a mermaid, a tattooed lady -- "till someone shouted, 'Don't go down in the mine"
AUTHOR: R. P. Weston (1878-1936) and Bert Lee (1880-1946) (source: various web sites)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1932 (composed)
KEYWORDS: home drink
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 6, "Rawtenstall Annual Fair" (1 mention, from user John5918, posted August 28, 2021, after which he supplied the text in the SuppTrad)
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, pp. 70-72, "The Rawtenstall Annual Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RAWTEN*
ST LTCSRaAF (Full)
Roud #23927
NOTES [82 words]: Of the songs in the Index, authors R. P. Weston and Bert Lee were also responsible for "Anne Boleyn (With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm)," "Goodbye-ee," "Send Him a Cheerful Letter," "Lloyd George's Beer," and "The Gypsy Warned Me," and Weston also co-wrote "I'm Henery the Eighth I Am," "Where Are the Lads of the Village Tonight?" and "Private Michael Cassidy." Weston was also co-author of the fairly well-known "I've Got Rings on My Fingers" with Maurice Scott and Fred Barnes. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LTCSRaAF

Raz-Ma-Taz-A-Ma-Tee

See Three Dukes (File: R551)

Razors in the Air

DESCRIPTION: "Come, my love, and go with me, Ah, my love, I'll meet you, Take you down to Tennessee, Meet you by and by." "Hoe de corm... Get away from dat window... Come some other night, For dar's going to be a fight, Dar'll razors a-flying in de air."
AUTHOR: unknown; sheet music reports it was "sung with great success by Barry Maxwell" but is copyrighted by William H. Kennedy
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (sheet music published by Oliver Ditson & Co.)
KEYWORDS: love courting slave farming
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 245-252, "Razors in the air" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 155, "Remember Me" (1 short text, 1 tune, lacking the chorus and hence the mention of razors)
Roud #16086
NOTES [119 words]: This was recorded by the Kingston Trio in a version that doesn't seem particularly racist, but the original sheet music is clearly a minstrel song, in dialect. The sheet music says it was sung by "Barry Maxwell with the Haverly Mastodon Minstrels."
The title alone is indicative. According to Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 220, "razors [were] weapons usually associated with blacks in 'coon' songs." As an example of a razor song, he cites Monroe H. Rosenfeld's "Come Along Sinners," published in 1881 (the year after this song), which instructed Blacks to leave their razors if they wanted to attain salvation. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Wins245

Re-chnoc Mna Duibhe (The Dark Fairy Rath)

See Reidh-chnoc Mna Sidhe (The Dark Fairy Rath) (File: OLcM043)

Reach Up to the Sky

DESCRIPTION: "Reach up to the sky, and open up your eyes And, let your troubles fade away, Dream those dreams today And melt your cares away And open up your heart and sing. Live your life for everyday, The old one is gone, So don’t let this one slip away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 538, "Reach Up to the Sky" (notes only)
File: ACSF538R

Read 'Em John

DESCRIPTION: Leader sings: John brought the letter, put it on the table, and all the members read it. It said, "let me go!" Responses are "read 'em," "read 'em, let me go"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Davis and Georgia Sea Island Singers recording)
KEYWORDS: slavery freedom nonballad Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, p. 139-141, "Read 'em, John" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
John Davis and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Read 'Em John" (on LomaxCD1713, recorded 1959)
Lawrence McKiver and the McIntosh County Shouters, "Read 'Em John" (on McIntosh1)
Freddie Palmer and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Read 'Em John" (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation)
NOTES [32 words]: The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree/McIntoshShouters-RingShoutSongs text and track and LomaxCD1713 tracks are "ring shout" songs. The McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation video shows the shout. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcReEJoh

Ready or Not

DESCRIPTION: Variation on the "Ready or not, here I come" game cry: "Ready or not, if I come and find you, You are It. And if I don't I'll still be It, So I'd better find you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, p. 88, "Ready or Not" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16815
File: List088A

Real Old Mountain Dew

See Good Old Mountain Dew (File: LxA180)

Reap, Boys, Reap (Cold Stormy Weather, Who'll Be the Binder?)

DESCRIPTION: "It rains, it hails, it's cold stormy weather, In comes the farmer drinking all the cider, You be the reaping-boy and I'll be the binder. I've lost my true love and don't know where to find her." "Go into the ring and see if you can find her."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty farming food separation love storm
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #22, "Who'll Be the Binder" (3 short texts, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, pp. 527-528, "It Rains and It Hails" (2 short texts, 2 tunes)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 68, "(It's raining and it's hailing)" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 271, "Reap, Boys, Reap" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #64, "Reap Boys Reap" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #3651 and 7920
ALTERNATE TITLES:
It Rains, It Hails
I'll Be the Reaper
NOTES [62 words]: Roud seems to divide this into two songs, "Reap, Boys, Reap" (#3651) and "It Rains And It Hails" (#7920). Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren's three texts are all very short but seem to partake of both forms. I've tentatively lumped them until I see a clear dividing line.
One of the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 tunes is very close to "Dixie." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Newe022

Reaphook and Sickle, The

DESCRIPTION: Harvest time. "With reaphook and sickle so well we'll clear the land." The farmer provides good brown beer. Singer's "charming creature," Nancy, binds the corn and brings it to the waggoner. Harvest done, threshing begins. "A health to all you farmers"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Sumner-TheBesomMaker)
KEYWORDS: farming harvest drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 66-67, "The Good Old Leathern Bottle"; p. 148, "The Reaphook and the Sickle" (2 texts, 3 tunes)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #14, "The Reaphook and Sickle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p.77, "Reaphook and Sickle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sumner-TheBesomMaker, pp. 13-14, "The Reaphook and the Sickle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1375
File: BrMa066

Reason I Stay on Job So Long

DESCRIPTION: "Reason I stay on job so long, Lawd, dey gimme flamdonies an' coffee strong." "Reason I love my captain so, 'Cause I ast him for a dollar, Lawd, he give me fo'." "Reason why I love Boleen, She keeps my house An' shanty clean." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: work
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 46-47, "Reason I Stay on Job So Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15568
File: LxA046

Reason Why, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is picked up by a beautiful woman. She takes him to a house and then to bed: "You are the nicest boy I've seen today... I would love a jewelled ring." In the morning a man comes in and kicks him into the gutter. He pays and doesn't ask why
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1884 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3238))
KEYWORDS: love sex violence prison punishment trial beauty drink food wife children whore ring
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
Roud #1745
RECORDINGS:
Walter Pardon, "One Cold Morning in December" (on Voice15)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3238), "The Reason Why" ("One night in cold December, I've reason to remember"), H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Firth b.28(13), Firth c.17(151), 2806 c.15(284), 2806 c.15(284), "The Reason Why"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Annie of the Vale" (tune, per broadsides Bodleian Harding B 11(3238), 2806 c.15(284) and Firth b.28(13))
cf. "The Young Man Badly Walked" (plot)
NOTES [129 words]: The description is based on Walter Pardon's version on Voice15.
The following description, based on broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(3238), tells a story with a different ending: The singer was picked up by a beautiful woman. She took him in tow. He paid for brandy and oysters. A dandy kicked him into the gutter. The police took him to the station-house. Before a magistrate, his wife and children he is sentenced to 30 days.
Keywords combine both stories.
Walter Pardon's version has a simple chorus:
And she said, "Come, come along, old boy,
And don't look so bashful and shy
She really was a beauty. I thought it was my duty,
So I paid and never asked the reason why.
The broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(3238) version has each "chorus" modified to advance the story. - BS
File: RcTReWhy

Rebawn Again

See Reborn Again (File: ScNF256B)

Rebel Acts of Hyde, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's now I will relate, Though in a broken way, How the rich in Hyde Did carry the poor away." The singer tells how the people of the deep south and the rich carried the area from the Union, alludes to its recapture, and says that some stayed true
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar political
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 281, "The Rebel Acts of Hyde" (1 text)
Roud #6644
NOTES [231 words]: The secession crisis of 1860/1861 proceeded in two stages: The seven deep southern states seceeded before Fort Sumter. The border states (Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina) stayed loyal until Lincoln called for troops after Sumter.
All four of the latter states had strong pockets of unionism. In Virginia, they were mostly in the western part of the commonwealth, and eventually gained their own state (West Virginia). The same might have happened in east Tennessee had Union troops been able to capture the area sooner. Arkansas unionism was mostly in the Ozarks, too remote for anyone to notice.
North Carolina was more complicated. It didn't have a concentrated Union area, so Union forces could not hold. But unionism was probably stronger in North Carolina than any other Confederate state, and not confined to the mountains as in Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas.
Hyde County and the town of Hatteras, the site of this song, are in fact on the eastern coast of North Carolina, Hyde County being on the north short of Pamlico Sound and Hatteras actually on the outer banks.
Hatteras itself was captured by Union forces on August 28-29, 1861, the first real amphibious operation of the war, and conquest of the Pamlico area continued from there. This song almost sounds like a local's protest of loyalty in an attempt to curry favor with the occupying authorities. - RBW
File: BrII281

Rebel Soldier, The

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses about this lonely soldier's life. "It's grapeshot and musket, And the cannons lumber loud. There's many a mangled body with blankets for a shroud." Characteristic line: "I am a rebel soldier and far from my home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar separation home
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Randolph 246, "The Rebel Soldier" (1 text)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 277-278, "The Rebel Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 157, "The Rebel Soldier, or The Poor Stranger" (7 texts, 7 tunes, but A and probably F are "The Poor Stranger (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone)")
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 50, "The Rebel Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune -- an abridged composite version)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 76, "The Rebel Soldier" (2 texts, but only the first belongs here; the second is The Sweet Sunny South (I) [Laws A23])
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 117, pp. 258-259, "O Lillie, O Lillie," mostly "Rye Whiskey" but with some verses belonging here; also 116, p. 258, "I'll Eat When I'm Hungry" (1 fragment, a single stanza based on "Rye Whiskey" but probably belonging here: "I'll eat when I'm hungry, I'll drink when I'm dry, If the Yankees don't kill me, I'll live till I die")
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 91, "One Morning in May" (1 text, in which it is a "poor stranger" rather than a "rebel soldier" and with many floating lyrics)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 136-138, "One Morning in May" (2 text, 1 tune, but only the "B" text, "The Troubled Soldier," belongs here; "A" is "One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing)" [Laws P14])
Silber-CivilWarFull, pp. 215-216, "The Rebel Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 72-73, "The Rebel Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 211-213, "Jack o' Diamonds" (1 text; this particular Lomax offering contains elements of "Jack o Diamonds/Rye Whisky," "The Wagoner's Lad," The Rebel Soldier," and others)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Daniel W. Patterson, "A Remarkable Collection of 'Song Ballets...'," Vol. XIV, No. 2 (Nov. 1966), pp. 35-36, "Song Ballet Rebel Soldier" (1 text, extremely mixed)
Roud #259
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Poor Stranger (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone)" (meter, floating lyrics)
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Jack of Diamonds" (floating lyrics)
cf. "In Eighteen-Forty-Nine" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Blind Fiddler"
NOTES [90 words]: Randolph's version is specific to the Missouri campaigns of General Sterling Price, but more generic versions of the song are abundant.
The first line, interestingly, seems to float; Sharp, Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana, and Cox each have version from "One Morning In May" or the like (One morning, one morning, one morning in May, I heard a poor soldier lamenting and say"; another text (to the tune of "Rye Whisky") starts with lyrics from "Banks of the Nile" or something similar ("Oh Polly, oh Polly, it's for your sake alone"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: R246

Rebel Soldiers

See The Texas Rangers [Laws A8] (File: LA08)

Rebel's Escape, The [Laws A19]

DESCRIPTION: The soldier relates the tale of his desertion. In prison, he gets the guard drunk and sneaks off. He crosses a river on a raft. Reaching home, he wakes his wife and children, who give him a meal and advise him to "go to Dixie's land."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Thomas, "Devil's Ditties")
KEYWORDS: prisoner escape war abandonment Civilwar desertion
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws A19, "The Rebel's Escape"
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 534-535, "War Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 146-147, "War Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 74-78, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 84-87)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, p. 65, "Come All Ye Jolly Soldiers" (1 text, 1 tune, clearly the same as the BalladMaking version but much shorter)
DT 807, REBESCAP* WARSONG*
Roud #2207
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "James MacDonald" [Laws P38]
NOTES [282 words]: Desertion was a chronic problem during the Civil War (which is the probable, though not certain, source of this song). Both armies were subject to disease and deprivation (the Southern due to lack of resources, the Northern due to pure incompetence and stupidity). And neither had a real system of leave, or a way to bring soldiers back to the colors.
This song, therefore, probably does match the experience of a fair number of unenthusiastic soldiers (especially as the draft took effect in the North).
On the other hand, deserting to the South probably wasn't a good idea; it left the soldier's family without his paycheck, it would subject him to punishment after the South lost -- and quite possibly it would force him into the southern ranks, where conditions were even worse. The South was so short of soldiers and supplies that they eventually started demanding deserters join their army.
According to Mark M. Boatner III, The Civil War Dictionary, 1959 (there are many editions of this very popular work; mine is a Knopf hardcover), p. 322, such men were known as "Galvanized Yankees," and they did eventually serve in combat for the Confederacy. There were a few "Galvanized Confederates" or "Galvanized Rebels" as well, but the Union had enough soldiers that it could set such soldiers to border duties where it wouldn't do as much harm if they again changed sides.
Though perhaps based on a historical incident, this of course is built around older materials. Thomas's informant, "Rebel Jack," claimed John T. Williams was his captain, but while he offered many details about Confederate army life, I failed to notice any documentation of the regiment in which Jack served. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LA19

Rebellion in Harbour Grace

See Harbour Grace Affray (File: ThWi147)

Rebellion of 1798, The

DESCRIPTION: Rebel exploits, poisonings and massacres are recounted, from Lord Edward Fitzgerald to Father Murphy, and their defeat at each turn by yeomen and Orangemen, in Kildare, Antrim, Ballynahinch, Wexford and Kilkenny. "Down, down, croppies lie down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (_Falkener's Dublin Journal_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion battle death patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule (source: "1798 - Calendar of Events" at IrelandOn-Line site)
May 19, 1798 - Lord Edward Fitzgerald arrested
June 2-3, 1798 - Rebel defeat at Kilcock, Co. Kildare
June 7, 1798 - Rebel defeat at Antrim
June 13, 1798 - United Irishmen under Henry Monro defeated at Ballynahinch
June 21, 1798 - Government recaptures Wexford
July 2, 1798 - Father Murphy (1753-1798) captured, executed, and cremated.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 50, "The Rebellion of 1798" (1 text)
NOTES [76 words]: It may not be clear from my description that this ballad is against the rebellion. The tag line of each verse is the chorus of the Orange song "Croppies Lie Down." - BS
It sounds to me as if this might be a sort of an answer to "Croppies Lie Down (II)."
For the career of Edward Fitzgerald, see the notes to "Edward (III) (Edward Fitzgerald)." For Ballynahinch and Henry Monro(e) see "General Monroe." For Father Murphy, see especially "Father Murphy (I)."
File: Moyl050

Reborn Again

DESCRIPTION: "Reborn, soldier, going to reborn again, Oh, going to reborn again...." "Reborn again, reborn again, Oh, you can't get to Heaven till you're reborn again." "Paul, and Silas, dar in de jail... One watch while de other pray."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Bible floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 256-257, "Reborn Again" (1 text)
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 15, "Reborn Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 316-317, "Rebawn Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Benjamin Bilgen, "Reborn, Reborn Again" (on BeenStorm1)
NOTES [166 words]: The King James Bible refers to the need to be "born again" in John 3:3, 7 -- though most scholars now consider this a mistranslation. The Greek word (ανωθεν, "anothen") means "again" and "from above," with the latter being the primary meaning, and the structure of the passage makes it clear that this is deliberate wordplay: Jesus is saying "You must be born from above"; Nicodemus interprets it as "born again." (The Gospel of John uses this sort of wordplay frequently.) - RBW
Benjamin Bilgen leads a congregation on BeenStorm1. The response to his lead is the clearest example I've heard to illustrate Sea Island "cross-rhythmic clapping." Dargan stresses the point in his book and writes, "The question arises as to why a shout style with various cross-rhythmic clapping patterns should be found only in Gullah-speaking coastal areas. In sum, the singing is no less unique than the language." [William T Dargan, Lining Out the Word (Chicago: Center for Black Music Research,2006), p. 41]. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: ScNF256B

Recent Kanab Tragedy, The

DESCRIPTION: "In Kanab they will remember This Twenty-Fourth of July." "For two of the town's best men are lying In their coffins awaiting earth." "It happened because of hot anger -- A quarrel about their water right." Roundy kills Seegmiller, then kills himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide suicide family farming
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 23, 1899 - The Kanab murders
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 243-244, "(The Recent Kanab Tragedy)" (1 text)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 194-195, "The Kanab Tragedy" (1 text)
Roud #10881
NOTES [86 words]: In Utah, water was (and is) a precious commodity; Burt-AmericanMurderBallads explains that each farmer was given a certain period of time to use the water in irrigation ditches. The Roundy/Seegmiller quarrel arose when Roundy accused Seegmiller of withholding some of the water he was due. Roundy murdered Seegmiller, and took his own life when he heard that one of Seegmiller's hands was coming after him.
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads believes her mother, who certainly transcribed the piece, might be the author. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Burt243

Recessional (Camp Fire Recessional)

DESCRIPTION: "Go we forth from our council fire Into the night, into the night. In our hearts renewed desire, Burning bright, burning bright. Loveliness of thought we've found, warmth and friendship's love." May the camp's blessing be on them as they leave
AUTHOR: Words: Helen Gerrish Hughes (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs); several associated song were published 1954
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 463, "Recessional" (notes only)
File: ACSF463R

Rechess Oh Rechess Boy

DESCRIPTION: Rechess (Richard) "walk are dip and are roll ... like a good sailin' boat." "Rechess no ha' foot fo' work nigger ground ... ha' foot fo turn Bella yeye [eyes]."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: disability courting farming nonballad youth
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 5, "Rechess Oh Rechess Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [48 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "...Obviously this man suffers from partial palsy. Despite this however, the man's private life is respected. Although he 'no get foot' to work on the farm he can charm Bella, whom -- Elder's informant said -- he eventually married and they raised a family. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo005

Record Makers

DESCRIPTION: "As we roll along we are all record makers, Records black and white, in the wrong or the right." Hearers are advised to be "ready when the train comes in."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death train
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 128, "Record Makers" (1 short text)
File: Grim128

Recruit, The

DESCRIPTION: "Sez Corporal Madden to Private McFadden, 'Bedad, yer a bad'un! Now, turn out yer toes, Yer belt is unhookit...." The corporal rags on the recruit for all sorts of things -- until he gets thirsty; when the private buys him a drink, he relents
AUTHOR: Robert William Chambers (source: Shay and other poetry collections)
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: soldier drink recitation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, ppp. 208-209, "The Recruit" (1 text)
Roud #9549
NOTES [22 words]: Although this seems to be fairly popular as a poem, I have no reason to think it was ever sung -- or passed on by oral tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: SBar208

Recruited Collier, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of her lover, a collier now in the army. She is terrified; he's looking forward to the adventure. She points out the coals her family burns, which his hands hewed. He bids her farewell, asking her not to forsake him; she says her life is over
AUTHOR: unknown (see notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Pinto & Rodway, _The Common Muse_)
KEYWORDS: loneliness love army parting mining lover soldier worker trick drink recruiting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 28-29, "The Recruited Collier" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RECRUCOL*
Roud #3503
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs, "The Recruited Collier" (on IronMuse1, Briggs3, Briggs4)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jimmy's Enlisted
NOTES [608 words]: In the versions of this song that I've heard, the collier took the shilling after a sergeant got him drunk.
According to Chandler/Beckett, p. 168, "In the view of contemporaries, prevailing methods of enlistment, in which liquor and deception played a prominent part, adversely affected the number and quality of recruits. Though the regular resort to 'seduction, debauchery, and fraud' was persistently criticized, the traditional methods of inveigling 'the foolish, the drunken, the ungodly, and the despairing' into the army were not abandoned until after 1867.
Haswell, p. 56, writes, "The politicians' dislike of the army ensured that the soldiers remained poorly treated and poorly paid. They had probably been induced to join up by unscrupulous recruiting sergeants who had filled them with drink until they had become too befuddled and confused to resist. Once recruited, they were decked out in clothes that were too elaborate and too tight for comfort, hopelessly impractical for the tasks given to them. Believed to be incapable of thinking for themselves [which to some extent was true, given the quality of the recruits], they were told nothing of their immediate future or of their commander's intentions. Several contemporary French military writers comment on the fact that, without officers to lead them, British soldiers, even in the middle of a battle, appeared to be lost.... It is hardly surprising that at the slightest opportunity they drank themselves into oblivion."
Pope, p. 118, speaking of the British army in the Napoleonic Wars: "Though its troops were the best (and most regularly paid) in Europe, the army attracted far fewer volunteers than the navy, partly because soldiers and marines were less well cared for, but also because they attracted none of the popular respect enjoyed by the sailors. Without the benefit of press gangs or conscription, regiments could only recruit from the very poorest sections of society, frequently resorting to sweeps of prisons and other illegal expedients." Even the regular pay was new; historically, Parliament had tended to under-pay its soldiers, going all the way back to the Commonwealth era.
This situation persisted for about two centuries, from the time Cromwell's New Model Army started to disintegrate (Haswell, p. 30) until the 1867 reforms. Little wonder Parliament had to pass a Mutiny Act every year from 1689 to 1879 (Haswell, p. 31; they couldn't pass one prior to that because the standing army did not exist until the time of the Commonwealth, and did not really come under parliamentary control until the Glorious Revolution; Miller, p. 35).
Despite what the girl said, the recruit feels perhaps less enthusiastic than determined to make the best of it. He certainly had no chance of becoming a brigadier, but a grenadier was perhaps possible -- if he was tall enough. (Grenadiers were elite troops, and size was one of the criteria.) Grenadiers didn't get much in the way of rewards -- but, since they were more trusted, they might at least be safer from the lash.
Though the traditional texts seem most often to be known as "The Recruited Collier," two of the three texts cited in Grangers's Index to Poetry are filed under "Jimmy's Enlisted." There is no indication of authorship. I've seen Internet claims that the original was written by Robert Anderson -- but the common version was remade by A. L. Lloyd. Curiously, the version in Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs claims that it was written by Karl Dallas and copyrighted in 1955. Possibly Dallas too rewrote it, but we know the song (at least in the version attributed to Anderson) is older. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: DTrecruc

Recruiting Sergeant (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Seargeant: "Mower, take my shiners bright," be a hero and mow down your enemies. Mower: No. If I go "the sword of war may mow down me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: rejection army recruiting dialog nonballad farming
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 182, "The Recruiting Sergeant" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 141)
Roud #1275
NOTES [18 words]: Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames: "Verses on an illustrated handbill, printed and distributed about 1800." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT182

Recruiting Sergeant (II), The

See Arthur McBride (File: PBB093)

Red and Green Signal Lights, The

See The Child of the Railroad Engineer (The Two Lanterns) (File: R685)

Red Apple Juice

See Sugar Baby (Red Rocking Chair; Red Apple Juice) (File: ADR82)

Red Bird

DESCRIPTION: "Red bird soon in the morning (x2), Red bird, red bird soon in the morning. (x2)" "What's the matter with the red bird soon in the morning?" "Cat got the red bird soon in the morning." "Hog got the red bird soon in the morning."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 405, "Red Bird" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, pp. 90-91, "Red Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11682
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Red Bird" (on PeteSeeger21)
File: FSWB405

Red Cap's Hole

DESCRIPTION: Ships caught in a gale are too far out to make Avondale or Harbour Main and ride out the weather in Red Cap's Hole. "When news got to their native homes" the "gallant band marched down by land To help the toilers home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing)
KEYWORDS: help sea ship storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 95-97, "Red Cap's Hole" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [14 words]: The only names I recognize here, Avondale and Harbour Main, are in Conception Bay. - BS
File: Blon095

Red Flag, The

DESCRIPTION: "The working class Can kiss my ass, I've got the foreman'sjob at last. I'm out of work... You can stuff the red flag Up your hole." The singer recalls seeing a girl at Gibraltar. The wind blew up her skirt, but there was a red flag there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: worker unemployment hardtimes clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 22, "Red Flag" (1 text)
Roud #10214
File: RuSo022

Red Green

See Rocky Road (Green Green) (File: CNFM154)

Red Herring, The

DESCRIPTION: Song describes the uses made of various parts of the herring, e.g., "Herring's eyes, puddings and pies/Herring's head, loaves of bread."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 ("Cape Cod Dialect"); Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook claims a manuscript version from 1831
KEYWORDS: fishing ritual cumulative nonballad humorous animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All)) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 167, "The Jolly Red Herring" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 360)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, p. 68, "Red Herring" (1 text, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 86-87, "The Red Herring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 110, "The Red Herring" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 296, "The Herring Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #26, "The Jolly Harrin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 118, "The Jolly Herring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 79, "The Red Herring" (1 text)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 23-24, "The Herring's Head" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 126, "The Red Herring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, pp. 24-25, "The Herring's Head" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #138, "Herrings' Heads" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 5-6, "The Red Herring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 3, pp. 7, 42-43, "The Herring's Head"; "Bolliton Sands"; "The Dead Pig" (3 texts, 1 tune; the first two are "The Red Herring" but 3B, "The Dead Pig," is "The Sow Took the Measles")
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 16-17, "The Jolly Herring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #109, "The Herring's Head" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 578-579, "The Herring Song" (1 text)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 50, "The Herring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, pp. 27-28, "The Red Herring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #128
RECORDINGS:
Johnny Doughty, "Herrings' Heads" (on Voice07)
Mikeen McCarthy, "The Herring" (on Voice14)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sow Took the Measles"
cf. "The Mallard"
cf. "Alouette (I)"
cf. "The Farmer and the Crow"
cf. "The Derby Ram" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Herring's Head
The Herring's Heid
The Jovial Herring
The Jolly Red Herring
NOTES [93 words]: This is essentially the same song as the American "Sow Took the Measles" [and Roud lumps them - RBW]; "The Farmer and the Crow" (also American, but also found in Sweden) marries this song to "The Carrion Crow." -PJS
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland declares his "Herring Song" and "The Red Herring" to be the same. I'm not sure I agree; while the theme is the same, the lyrics and stanza form are different. But he's seen more versions than I have; I tentatively follow his lead. The danger, of course, is that Kennedy will lump anything with anything. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: VWL086

Red Hot Bricks

DESCRIPTION: Very fast jump-rope rhyme. "Red hot bricks, Gotta get over what the leader's is or else you're out."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | bricks
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #95, "(Red hot bricks)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #481, "Red hot bricks" (1 text)
File: AJRV095

Red Hot Pepper

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Red hot pepper, With an H-O-T. Ten, twenty, thirty, forty...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Journal of Health and Physical Education, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope wordplay
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #483, "Red hot pepper" (1 text)
File: AJRR483

Red Iron Ore [Laws D9]

DESCRIPTION: A sailor tells of a trip he took on the E.C. Roberts. They set out from Escanaba with a load of ore, and at last wind up in Cleveland. Life aboard an ore boat was not pleasant, but the sailor is proud of the good time the ship made
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: ship travel
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws D9, "Red Iron Ore"
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 45, "Red Iron Ore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 45, "Red Iron Ore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 12-14, "Red Iron Ore" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 98-99, "Red Iron Ore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 119-122, "Red Iron Ore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 55, "The E.C. Roberts" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 176-178, "Red Iron Ore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs, pp. 18-21, "Red Iron Ore (1)," "Red Iron Ore (2)" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 477-479, "Red Iron Ore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 63, "Red Iron Ore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 183-184, "Red Iron Ore" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 95, "Red Iron Ore" (1 text)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 93-94, "Red Iron Ore" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 612, REDIRON*
Roud #2233
RECORDINGS:
Stanley Baby, "The 'E. C. Roberts'" (on GreatLakes1); "Red Iron Ore" (on ONEFowke01)
Harry Barney, "Red Iron Ore" (1938; on WaltonSailors; a fragment with a chorus probably from a "Sailor's Alphabet" song)
James Putnam, "Red Iron Ore" (1938; on WaltonSailors)
Art Thieme, "Red Iron Ore" (on Thieme02) (on Thieme06)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Derry Down" (tune of some versions) and references there
cf. "Iron Ore by 'Fifty-Four" (tune)
cf. "Joe Livermore" (form, tune)
NOTES [894 words]: When this song was first indexed, I made several attempts to locate the E. C. Roberts, with partial success -- the Great Lakes has ships by that name, but I failed to identify one which was an ore carrier. Solomon Foster, using resources that hadn't been made available online when the Index was started, was able to identify it, but I'm going to leave my 2008 notes so you can know what not to look for:
There was an E. C. Roberts sailing Lake Michigan in 1871; she lost her jib boom in a collision near Chicago that April. An E. C. Roberts also grounded in the lakes in 1865.
Possibly the same as the preceding, and surely the best candidate, is an E. C. Roberts mentioned on page 18 of Julius F. Wolff, Jr., Lake Superior Shipwrecks, (Lake Superior Port Cities Inc., Duluth, 1990). She was carrying ore in 1872 when she stopped at Marquette, Michigan. A major storm blew up, and because she was unloading coal, there was no way to get her moving quickly. She (and one other ship) had to be scuttled on September 18.
Curiously, Walton/Grimm/Murdok, p. 119, says that "The Roberts, 273 gross tones, was built in Cleveland in 1856 for Brown and Reddington of that city for the general carrying trade. It remained on the lakes for over half a century." One of Walton's infomants claimed to have sailed on her when she served as an ore carried. I wonder if this is the right boat, though, since a general carrier would not make an ideal ore boat. And not even Walton can identify this particular trip.
Interestingly, Stanley Baby. who sang this song for Fowke, was the son of James Baby, who reportedly was mate on the E. C. Roberts in 1875, and another Fowke, informant C. H. J. Snyder also knew James Baby. But the data Fowke offers is not sufficient to identify the ship.
If we look for vessels named the Roberts but with variations in the initials, there was a boat the E. K. Roberts which sailed the Great Lakes in the late nineteenth century. According to Wes Oleszewski's Ghost Ships, Gales & Forgotten Tales: True Adventures on the Great Lakes (Avery Color Studios, 1995), p, 100, she was active at the time of the gale of November 10-11, 1883. I do find it noteworthy that a ship named the Escanaba was active at this time, hauling other ships around Mackinac. I would bet a great deal that it's the same Escanaba even if it isn't the same Roberts.
Google searches reveal the E. K. Roberts as a steamer launched commissioned in 1883; renamed City of Windsor in 1890 and Michipicoten in 1910, she burned in 1927; she was originally a fish tug but later carried passengers.
Now the solution to the conundrum, which was found by Solomon Foster. What follows is a slightly edited version of what Foster sent me:
I think we can say with some confidence that the E.C. Roberts is this ship -- http://greatlakeships.org/2897492/data?n=64 -- the 1856 one mentioned in Walton et al. According to the database she was owned by one H. Rumage from 1866 through 1873. Given that some versions of the song speak of "Captain Harve Rummage" and that time period overlaps nicely with the periods of service of the Escanaba, Kate Williams, and Exile (not to mention three Minches), it would be a fantastic coincidence if the song were about some other E.C. Roberts.
The other ships:
Tug Escanaba: http://greatlakeships.org/2901197/data?n=1
Schooner Exile: http://greatlakeships.org/2900874/data?n=1
The Minch is harder. I'm guessing it's
Schooner Charles P. Minch: http://greatlakeships.org/2903457/data?n=3
But based on the other dates I'm working with, it could conceivably be
Schooner Anne S. Minch: http://greatlakeships.org/2903457/data?n=3
Schooner Sophia Minch: http://greatlakeships.org/2902718/data?n=7
as they were both built in 1873, the last year H. Rumage was owner of the Roberts. (Though if the song was written at a time there were three Minches sailing out of Cleveland, it would be a bit odd to not be more specific naming her.)
The Exile was built in 1867, so combining that with the time H. Rumage was an owner gives us 1867-1873 as the time period for the events of the song. I don't see any obvious way to narrow it down further.
The 1866 owner is listed as "Rumage & Anderson". I've been assuming that was the same Rumage as "H. Rumage", but there was also a Solon Rummage active in Cleveland shipping. If that's the Rumage of Rumage & Anderson, then we'd have narrowed down the possible timeline to 1871-1873. But that's pure speculation.
(My thanks to Mr. Foster for freely giving me all these results!)
One of Walton's informants, J. Sylvester Ray, claimed that Billy Clark of Buffalo wrote the song, but a second informant, John W. Green, attributed it to Peter O'Donnell.
Walton lists this as second only to The Bigler in popularity with Great Lakes sailors.
The tune is a bit of a conundrum. Dean/Rickaby (whose version is reprinted by Lomax and Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin) and Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag use the Derry Down tune. The versions Walton collected do not have the Derry Down refrain, and are in major rather than minor; they seem to be based on "The Dreadnought" [Laws D13]. The by-blows listed in Walton ("Bound Away on the Twilight," "A Trip on the George C. Finney") seem to use the Dreadnought form. This is a matter which perhaps calls for further investigation. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: LD09

Red is the Rose

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises his love; they have promised faithfulness. But "It's all for the loss of my bonnie (brown)-eyes lass I'm leaving my homeland forever." Chorus: "Red is the rose that in yonder garden grows... But my love is fairer than any."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Sing Out!)
KEYWORDS: love separation emigration flowers
FOUND IN: Ireland US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
DT, REDROSE* REDROS2*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 28, #2 (1980), p, 22, "Red Is the Rose" (1 text plus a variant stanza, 1 tune, the Joe Heaney version, with the variants being from Sarah Makem)
Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), p. 93 "Come to the Highland" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Loch Lomond" (tune)
NOTES [136 words]: Joe Heaney and Makem and Clancy both thought this older than "Loch Lomond," with which it shares a tune. While possible, I think this pretty unlikely. Obviously this is an emigration song, which hints at a nineteenth century date. Loch Lomond is probably eighteenth century. In terms of documented collections, "Loch Lomond" wins by about a century.
Even if this is older, it may not be Irish. Note that Nestler's New York version, which has the Heaney/Clancy chorus and many of the same words, opens
Come to the highlands with me, my bonnie boy,
Come to the highland, my honey,
Come to the highland with me, my bonnie boy;
My love is fairer than any.
It also has an interesting verse in which the singer and Willy went walking: "He pulled the red flower and I pulled the blue; The blue is the fairest of any." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: So28n3a

Red Light Green Light

See Rocky Road (Green Green) (File: CNFM154)

Red Light Saloon, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes to (Bangor) on (July 4). (The train) being late, he is "forced" to visit the Red Light Saloon. Quickly recognized as a (logger/cowboy), liquor and women give him their attention. His "ellick" grows hard; he goes off with a five dollar girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: logger cowboy sex drink bawdy whore money
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US(MW,SW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 249-250, "The Red Light Saloon" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 11, pp. 74-76, "The Red Light Saloon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 267, "The Red Light Saloon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 49, "The Re-Light Saloon" (1 text)
DT, REDLIGHT* REDLITE2*
Roud #9424
NOTES [109 words]: In Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging's text, the singer ends up having sex with a five dollar whore. These days, that sounds cheap -- but Logsdon points out that that was a lot at the time apparently indicated in the song.
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman's and Logsdon's tets are so different that I thought about splitting the songs. But Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman has only three verses; I suspect it has been shortened, either by Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman or his informant. Beck's version is also different, with no mention of a train at the end, but he too was keeping his texts clean. So I'm lumping them. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Doe249

Red Lion

DESCRIPTION: "Red lion, red lion, com out of your den, Whoever you catch will be one of your men." The invocation for a game in which the designated lion attempts to tag or catch all the free players
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad animal
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #180, "Red Lion" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke, _Red Rover, Red Rover: Children's Games Played in Canada_, p. 27, "Red Lion" (1 text plus description)
Roud #22541
File: Newe180

Red Man's Wife, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis what they say, The little heel fits in a shoe." The singer loves the red man's wife. He's spent nine months in prison, but would leap the sea to be with her. The Day of Doom will come, earth will be destroyed; he'll still cry for the red man's wife
AUTHOR: unknown (English translation by Douglas Hyde, according to Hoagland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Hyde, Abhráin grádh chúige Connacht)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 281-282, "The Red Man's Wife" (1 text)
DT, WIFERED2
ADDITIONAL: ADDITIONAL: Douglas Hyde, _Abhráin grádh chúige Connacht, or, Love songs of Connacht_, T. F. Unwin, 1893 (available on Google Books), p. 99, "The Red Man's Wife" (1 text, apparently with an Irish original)
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 232-233, "The Red Man's Wife" (1 text, translated by Douglas Hyde)
Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, _The Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1958, 1979), pp. 128-129, "The Red Man's Wife" (1 text, translated by Douglas Hyde)
Roud #15013
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Red-Haired Man's Wife" (plot elements)
NOTES [109 words]: Shoemaker says this is from a Gaelic (presumably Irish Gaelic) original, but gives no information about it. Could it be another version derived from "The Red-Haired Man's Wife"? There are some thematic similarities, and no sign that the "red man" is an Indian; it sounds more like a European with reddish coloring. And it appears to have been translated by Douglas Hyde. Unlike "The Red-Haired Man's Wife," there is no hint whatsoever that this went into tradition. (Shoemaker does not count, because he lifted several Hyde pieces and presented them as traditional.)
For background on the work of Douglas Hyde, see the notes to "My Own Dark Maiden." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe281

Red Mantle, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer asks her husband for a red mantle to wear to the fair. He buys it; but when she arrives at the fair she discovers fashions have changed, and "green mantles carried the day." She tears the red mantle to shreds and goes home in tears
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (NovaScotia1)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer tells her husband her desire: a red mantle to wear to the county fair. He replies that money is scarce, but he will do what he can. He buys it for her; she sets out for the fair, but when she arrives she discovers fashions have changed, and "green mantles carried the day." She tears the red mantle to shreds and goes home in tears.
KEYWORDS: pride poverty request clothes colors husband wife vanity
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 107, "The Red Mantle" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST RcTReMan (Partial)
Roud #2777
RECORDINGS:
Angelo Dornan, "The Red Mantle" (on NovaScotia1)
NOTES [85 words]: Political allegory? Fashion statement? - PJS
It's too bad we don't have more versions, to give us a clue where the song came from. Angelo Dornan, I suspect, would have called it a statement on the fickleness of fashion and women's wants; his text seems to have no political statement as such. But if, as is sometimes true, green is the color of mourning, and red of course the color of war and British soldiers' uniforms, this could indeed be a report of a change from, say, pro-war to anti-war sentiment. - RBW
File: RcTReMan

Red Plaid Shawl, The

DESCRIPTION: "One summer's morning I took a ramble" and meet a girl in "a red plaid shawl." The singer wants a kiss; she wants a treat. He says he is a clerk. With his money spent, she knocks him out. When he wakes next morning his coat, chain and watch are gone.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: crime courting robbery clothes trick
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 84, "The Old Plaid Shawl" (1 text)
Roud #V8342
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 20(59), "The Red Plaid Shawl", unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 16(222b), Firth b.27(141), "The Red Plaid Shawl"
NOTES [43 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 20(59) seems more complete than O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland and is the basis of the description. I use the Bodleian Harding B 20(59) title as Name to try to avoid confusion with Francis Fahy's "The Ould Plaid Shawl." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: OCon084

Red River Shore, The

See The New River Shore (The Green Brier Shore; The Red River Shore) [Laws M26] (File: LM26)

Red River Valley, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer and his love are parting (either may be singing, and either may be leaving). "Come and sit by my side [ere you leave me]; do not hasten to bid me adieu; just remember the Red River Valley, And the (sweetheart) who loved you so true..."
AUTHOR: "The Bright Mohawk Valley" claimed by James Kerrigan, 1896, but this is almost certainly not the original
EARLIEST DATE: 1910
KEYWORDS: separation river farewell
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(West)
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Randolph 730, "The Red River Valley" (2 texts plus 2 excerpts, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 260, "Red River Valley" (1 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 260, "Red RIver Valley" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 182, "The Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #59, "The Red River Valley" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 81-82, "Red River Valley" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 88-89, "The Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 52, "The Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 56, pp. 74-75, "Red River Valley" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 130-131, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 65, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 274-276, "This Little Valley" (1 text, 1 tune, probably rewritten by or for Jennie Devlin)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 56, "Red River Valley" (3 texts, 1 tune; the first text is "Red River Valley" and the third is the variant "Lost River Desert"; the second is a variant of "Nobody's Darling on Earth"); also 102, "Red River Gal" (1 text, 1 tune, consisting of square dance instructions set to this rune)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 32-34, "The Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 511-512, "Red River Valley" (1 text)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 190-192, "Bright Sherman Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 98-99, "Bright Sherman Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 148-149, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 208-211, "Red RIver Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 124, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 46-47, "Red River Valley" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 115, "Red River Valley" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 146, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 27, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 457, "Red River Valley"
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 482, "Red River Valley" (source notes only)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 53, 176, 474, "Red River Valley" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 76, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 44, "Red River Valley" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 73-74, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 32)
OneTuneMore, p. 20, "Red River Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, REDRIVAL*
ST R730 (Full)
Roud #756
RECORDINGS:
Gene Autry, "Red River Valley" (Columbia 20085/Columbia 37184, 1946)
Bascom & Blackwell, "Sherman Valley" (OKeh 45008, 1925)
Beverly Hillbillies, "Red River Valley" (Brunswick 421/Supertone S-2049 [as Stone Mountain Boys], 1930;Vocalion 03164, 1936)
Bud Billings Trio, "Red River Valley" (Victor V-40267, 1930; Montgomery Ward M-4058, 1933) [Bud Billings is a pseudonym for Frank Luther; record may have been issued as by Bud Billings & Carson Robison]
Bob Brooks, "Red River Valley" (Columbia 15689-D, 1931)
[Bill] Childers & [Clyde] White, "Red River Valley" (OKeh 45208, 1928)
Luther Clarke & the Blue Ridge Highballers, "Bright Sherman Valley" (Columbia 15069-D, 1926)
Ned Cobben, "Red River Valley" (Harmony 901-H, 1929)
Arthur Fields, "Red River Valley" (Harmony 901-H/Velvet Tone 1901-V/Diva 2901-G/Puritone 1089-S, 1929)
Nancy Finley, Samuel Finley, "Red River Valley" (Piotr-Archive #626, recorded 08/01/2023)
Charlie Glenn, "Red River Valley" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #5, recorded 07/14/2020)
Sid Harkreader, "Red River Valley" (Paramount 3141, 1928; Broadway 8202, c. 1930)
Kelly Harrell, "Bright Sherman Valley" (Victor 20527, 1926; on KHarrell01)
Fran Hendrickson, Derek Piotr, "Red River Valley" (Piotr-Archive #415, recorded 01/05/2023. N.B. Hendrickson plays accordion, but it is Piotr who does all the singing, so the traditionality of the recording is uncertain)
Hill Billies, "Red River Valley" (Regal Zonophone [UK] MR-1698, 1935)
Bradley Kincaid, "Red River Valley" (Champion 15710 [as Dan Hughey]/Supertone 9403, 1929; Champion 45098, c. 1935) (Vocalion 5476, c. 1930/Vocalion 04647, 1939) (Decca 5048, 1934)
Dr. Lloyd & Howard Maxey [Massey], "Bright Sherman Valley" (OKeh, unissued, 1927)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Sherman Valley" (OKeh 45008, 1926)
Frank Luther & Zora Layman, "Bright Sherman Valley" (Decca 5028, 1934)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Red River Valley" (Victor 21421, 1928)
Lester McFarland & Robert A. Gardner, "Bright Sherman Valley" (Brunswick 169/Vocalion 5174, 1927; Supertone S-2031 [as Kentucky Mountain Boys], 1930)
Bill Mooney & his Cactus Twisters, "Red River Valley" (Imperial 1096, n.d. but post-World War II)
Holland Puckett, "The Bright Sherman Valley" (Challenge 329 [as by Harvey Watson]/Gennett 6433/Herwin 75562 [as by Robert Howell]/Silvertone 5064, 25064, 8153, 1927/Supertone 9254 [as by Si Puckett; issued 1929])
[Hugh Cross &] Riley Puckett, "Red River Valley" (Columbia 15206-D, 1927) (Bluebird B-8335/Montgomery Ward M-8481, 1940; rec. 1939)
Ranch Boys, "Red River Valley" (Decca 5045, 1934)
Goebel Reeves, "Bright Sherman Valley" (Melotone M-12186, 1931)
Texas Jim Robertson, "Red River Valley" (Victor 27552, 1941)
Carson Robison Trio, "Red River Valley" (Romeo 1233/Banner 0615/Perfect 12591/Jewel 5871/Conqueror 7492, 1930) (Clarion 5109-C, 1930) (Crown 3025, 1930)
Pete Seeger, "Red River Valley" (on PeteSeeger32)
Leo Soileau & his Four Aces, "Red River Valley" (Decca 5182, 1936; rec. 1935)
Carl T. Sprague, "Cowboy Love Song" (Victor 20067, 1926)
Ernest V. Stoneman and the Dixie Mountaineers, "Bright Sherman Valley" (Edison 51951, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5383, 1927)
Sunshine Sue w. Joe Maphis, "Red River Valley" (Astra 1215, n.d.)
Texas Drifter, "Bright Sherman Valley" (Melotone M-12186, 1931)
Art Thieme, "Red River Valley" [instrumental version] (on Thieme02)
Vagabonds, "Red River Valley" (Bluebird B-5297/Montgomery Ward M-4479, 1934)
SAME TUNE:
When It's Hogcalling Time (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 158)
Gene Autry & Jimmie Long, "Answer to Red River Valley" (OKeh 03101/Vocalion 03101/Conqueror 8485, 1935; ARC 6-08-51, 1936; Conqueror 9512, 1940)
Hartman's Tennessee Ramblers, "New Red River Valley" (Bluebird B-6162, 1935' Bluebird B-8894 [as Tennessee Ramblers], 1941)
NOTES [633 words]: The Fifes consider their "Little Darling" text ("Come sit by my side, little darling, Come lay your cool hand on my brow, And promise me that you will never Be nobody's darling but Mine") to be a Red River Valley variant. As, however, the chorus does not fit the "Red River Valley" tune, and the rest of the words go with this "Nobody's Darling on Earth," I classify it there.
The Lomaxes are responsible for the claim that the original of this was Kerrigan's "Bright Mohawk Valley" text.
Fuld reports a claim by Fowke that this song predates the Kerrigan text, and that the original was sung as early as 1869 in Canada, referring to the Red River of the North. I know of no direct proof of this claim, but certainly there are early Canadian versions. Plus the song was recorded repeatedly in the early part of the twentieth century, with major variants in text and few versions mentioning the Mohawk Valley; this is certainly indirect evidence that the song is older than the Kerrigan version and originally referred to some other river, presumably either the northern or the southern Red. Given the nature of the texts found by Fowke, I think the reference is indeed to the Red River of the North.
This claim has been strongly supported by John Garst, whose research is far more detailed than mine; he deserves credit for searching through Fowke's work and pointing it out to me.
In an interesting footnote, A. T. Emery and O. C. Jillson in 1863 published a song, "The Indian Lover," in which an Indian man courts a white woman. And Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 259, says that the tune of that piece "bears some resemblance to the tune of 'Red River Valley.'" Given that the Canadian versions involve an Indian WOMAN and a British MAN, did someone take the tune and reverse the roles? I don't know; I would say that the traditional song is much better, lyrically.
The "Sherman Valley" variant is interesting, because there is no significant river by that name. There is a town called Sherman in Texas, though, not far south of the Red River (it's almost due north of Dallas). There is also a Sherman Peak in Colorado, southwest of Denver; it has no connection with the Red River that I can see. - RBW
Polk Brockman, an early producer of country records, claimed to have changed the song's title to "Red River Valley" in order to make it more marketable, since there are so many Red Rivers in North America. His claim is not substantiated, and should probably be taken with many grains of salt.
[Similarly,] The record producer Frank Walker, who worked for Columbia during the 1920s, claimed in a 1962 interview that he had learned the song in his childhood and taught it to Riley Puckett as "Bright Mohawk Valley," but he (Walker) had changed the name to Red River Valley as that would appeal to more customers "because there was no one Red River in the United States but probably eight or ten. ... There is only one Mohawk River." Since Puckett's recording was made on November 3, 1927, and Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag had published it as "Red River Valley" earlier that year, Walker's claim is doubtful. Still, it's interesting that Puckett's 1927 Columbia recording (with Hugh Cross) seems to have been the first one to bear that title. -PJS
I'd consider Walker's and Brockman's claims (the same claim?) to be more than questionable. If someone had encountered a "Mohawk Valley" text, he might have changed it, but why go from "bright Mohawk" to "Red River"? Why not, say, "Ohio valley," which would be more familiar than all the Red Rivers combined? And while I can't prove the date of the Red River title (although I think Edith Fowke could have), the evidence is strong that it is older. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R730

Red Rock Canyon Fight, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in camp we lay as you quickly shall hear, McKenzie came to us and bade us to prepare." They are to fight Indians in Red Rock Canyon. The enemy is the Cheyennes who killed Custer. The singer celebrates a thorough victory
AUTHOR: Words: William Earl Smith?
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (but probably written 1876)
KEYWORDS: battle Indians(Am.)
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 25, 1876 - Battle between the American forces of Ranald S. Mackenzie and Dull Knife's Cheyennes on the Red Fork of the Powder River
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp 571-572, "The Red Rock Canyon Fight" (1 text)
File: CAFS2571

Red Rocking Chair

See Sugar Baby (Red Rocking Chair; Red Apple Juice) (File: ADR82)

Red Rocks of Bell Isle, The

DESCRIPTION: A Bell Island man is found wounded in a battle in which the Germans are defeated. He thinks of home and has a message to be carried to his mother and sweetheart at Wabana. "It's down with Adolph Hitler, God save our gracious King!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: war dying patriotic soldier | Hitler
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 93, "The Red Rocks of Bell Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27022
NOTES [12 words]: Wabana is on Bell Island in Conception Bay, not far from St John's. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LeBe093

Red Rose and the Briar, The

See Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)

Red Rose Top, The

See The Seeds of Love (File: K167)

Red Roses, Blue Roses

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Red roses, blue roses, yellow roses too. Have some jumps for Mrs. Blue. One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Western Folklore, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope flowers colors | roses counting
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #484, "Red roses, blue roses, yellow roses too" (1 text)
File: AJRR484

Red Rosey Bush

DESCRIPTION: "I wish I was a red rosey bush on thee banks of thee sea. Ever-ri time my true lover pased, He'd pick a rose off of me." "Wish I lived in a lonesome holler, where the sun..." "We have met and we had parted." "Wish I had a golden box to put my love in"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 62, "Red Rosey Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7529
NOTES [21 words]: This is so massively composite that I couldn't even figure out where to file it. Ditto Steve Roud. So it gets it own entry. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Boet062

Red Rosy Bush

See Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove) (File: Wa097)

Red Rover

DESCRIPTION: Team game in which one side sends a runner to try to free a captive while the other side tries to capture the runner. Each round begins with the cry, "Red rover, red rover, send (someone) on over."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, pp. 28-29, "Red Rover" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 139, "Red Rover" (1 short text plus description)
File: ZiZa028B

Red Rover's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "A merry life is ours, I trow, while o'er the billows' surge we go. Our birthright joy! to care unknown." "The skies may frown, or be they fair, we little look, and less we care." "But oh! our greatest joy will be: to feel, to know we're brace and free."
AUTHOR: words: Edmund Smith (1672-1710) / Music: Chevalier Sigismund von Neukomm (1778-1858) (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1843 (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 49, "The Red Rover Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V36074
NOTES [42 words]: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs calls lyricist Edmumd Smith an "English bard." I never knew the definition of "bard" was "someone who knows nothing about the sea and whose so-called verses induce nausea." We're in the William McGonagall league here, folks. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: FrPi049

Red Rubber Ball

DESCRIPTION: A song of separation: "I should have known you'd bid me farewell.... If I never hear your name again, it's all the same to me. And I think it's gonna be all right... The mornin' sun is shinin' like a red rubber ball." The other wasn't worth knowing anyway
AUTHOR: Bruce Woodley and Paul Simon (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (various albums, according to Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: love separation | morning sun
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Guy Wolff, "Red Rubber Ball" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #441, recorded 01/08/2023)
NOTES [52 words]: Emphatically a pop song, though composed by people considered "folk"; it even reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, according to Wikipedia. The only hint that it's traditional is the Guy Wolff fragment. Not enough evidence, I don't think. But better safe.
I was really tempted to give this the keyword "whining." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio444

Red Running Rue, The

See In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme (File: R090)

Red Sea

DESCRIPTION: "When Moses was leading the Israelites, Red Sea, Pharaoh tried to catch them just for spite, Red Sea. Oh, Pharaoh he got drowned...." The remaining verses are about Jesus and how he cares for and takes away the sins of the poor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious disaster death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 629, "Red Sea" (1 short text, with one stanza printed under #629 and the rest under #610!)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 70-71, "Red Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10021
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep" (lyrics)
NOTES [111 words]: It's possible that this is a much-evolved version of "Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep"; they have lyrics in common and are both about the Exodus (at least in their first verses). But they had separated enough that I would consider them separate songs.
It's worth noting that the Bible does not say that Pharaoh was drowned in the Red Sea (Sea of Reeds) -- though it doesn't say he wasn't, either. Exodus 14:27-28 reads "the Egyptians fled [into the sea], and YHWH scattered the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered Pharaoh's chariots and horesemen and all his army that had followed [the Israelites] into the sea; not one of them survived." - RBW
File: MWhee070

Red Sky at Morning

DESCRIPTION: "Red sky at morning, Sailors take warning, Red sky at night, Sailor's delight." The order of the lines may change, and it may be a shepherd or skipper or other occupation rather than a sailor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: sailor warning nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 136, "Red sky at night, sailor's delight" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #446, p. 206, "(Rainbow i' the morning)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, pp. 170-171, "Red Sky at Night" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Wayland D. Hand, "North Carolina Folk Beliefs and Superstitions Collected in California" Vol. XVIII, No. 3 (Nov 1970), p. 122 [#122-123], "Rainbow in the morning/Red sky at morning" (1 text)
Roud #25780
NOTES [419 words]: This is so well-known that even my mother learned it when young (presumably in Michigan in the 1940s), but it is usually a proverb, not a song. Since it has a Roud number, though, I'm indexing it.
Because it's so widespread, the list of citations here is surely incomplete. I did not index it until the Ballad Index was very far advanced.
I've seen many explanations for how sailors or shepherds or whoever came to speak these verses, but I've always thought them ultimately derived from Matthew 16:2-3 (partial parallel in Luke 12:54-56, which also refers to the Signs of the Times but not to the sky being red). The King James version reads,
[2] He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. [3] And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
Oddly enough, these words are very likely an insertion into the New Testament (could it be that the proverb is so old that it actually was floating around in Greek in the fifth century or so?). Although found in most English translations, the two oldest Greek witnesses to the passage, Siniaticus and Vaticanus (ℵ and B) omit "When it is evening...times." So do X Y Γ (ninth century), 157 (late but valuable), 579 (which however adds something similar after verse 9), the best of the group of manuscripts known as the Ferrar Group (f13, or φ), the two oldest translations into Syriac, the oldest three texts in Coptic, and the Armenian translation. The verse are found in C of the fifth century, D of the fifth or sixth (a very erratic text with interpolations from the Latin), N of the sixth, the vast majority of the manuscripts from the eighth century onward, and all Latin translations.
Westcott and Hort's text, which was the de facto standard from about 1890 to 1965, omits the words; so does the New English Bible. The United Bible Societies edition, which was the de facto standard from the 1960s to the present, places the words in brackets, meaning that they doubt their originality but aren't certain enough to omit them from the text. Hence their inclusion in the New Revised Standard Version and most editions made since 2000 or so. Personally, I incline to omit them. My guess is that this is a Latin proverb that was interpolated into the Latin Bible (things like that happened more than once), then was translated into Greek and interpolate Greek Bible. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: NCF193RS

Red Sky at Night

See Red Sky at Morning (File: NCF193RS)

Red Wagon

See You Can't Ride in My Little Red Wagon (File: ACSF415T)

Red Wing (I)

DESCRIPTION: Red Wing, "a pretty little Indian maid," is in love with a brave, but he has died in battle. "Now the moon shines down on pretty Red Wing... So far beneath the stars her love is sleeping, While Red Wing's weeping her heart away."
AUTHOR: Words: Thurland Chattaway / Music: Kerry Mills
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) death battle
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 50-52, "Redwing" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 50, "Red Wing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 39, pp. 207-210, "Red Wing" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "A" text is "Red Wing (I)" while the "B" text is one of the bawdy parodies)
DT, REDWNG*
Roud #4784
RECORDINGS:
George W. Ballard & chorus "Red Wing" (CYL: Everlasting 1150, n.d.)
Homer Christopher & Raney Van Vink, "Red Wing" (OKeh 45097, 1927)
Dudley & McDonough "Red Wing" (Victor 17233, 1912)
Redd Evans & his Billy Boys, "Red Wing" (OKeh 4836, 1923)
Fox Chasers, "Red Wing" (OKeh 45477, 1930)
Frankie & Johnny, "Red Wing" (Conqueror 7976, 1932)
Mississippi John Hurt, "Redwing" (on MJHurt05) (fragment)
Buell Kazee, "Red Wing" (Brunswick 210, 1928; Supertone S-2057, 1930 [as Buell Kazee & Sookie Hobbs])
Kendall & Kelly, "Red Wing" (Chamption 15582, 1928)
Fred Potter, "Red Wing, An Indian Fable" (CYL: Edison [BA] 541, n.d.)
Frederick H. Potter w. the New York Military Band, "Red Wing" (CYL: Edison [BA] 1543, c. 1912)
Riley Puckett, "Red Wing" (Columbia 15226-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
George Reneau, "Red Wing" (Vocalion 14896, 1924)
Walter Scanlan, "Red Wing" (Edison 52063, 1927)
[Frank] Stanley & [Henry] Burr "Red Wing" (Columbia 3681, 1907; Columbia A468, 1909) (CYL: Albany 1366, n.d.) (CYL: Columbia 33163, 1907, on Protobilly) (Standard 3681, n.d.)
Stone Mountain Entertainers [Blue Ridge Highballers], "Red Wing" (Broadway 8159, c. 1930; rec. 1927)
Floyd Thompson & his Hometowners "Red Wing" (Vocalion 5331, c. 1929)
Frank Welling & John McGhee "Red Wing" (Conqueror 7976, 1932)
Art Wenzel & his Ragtime Cowboys, "Red Wing" (Pan Am 027, n.d.)
Doc & Cy Williams & the Border Riders, "Red Wing" (Wheeling DW 1008, 1949; on Protobilly)
Male duet, "Red Wing" (Busy Bee A-128, c. 1907)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Red Wing (II)"
cf. "Union Maid" (tune)
cf. "Battle of the Falkland Islands" (approximate tune)
SAME TUNE:
Red Wing (II) (File: EM214)
Wreck of No. 3, The (Daddy Bryson's Last Ride) (File: LSRa274I)
The Moon Shines Bright on Charlie Chaplin (File: BrPa040B)
Union Maid (by Woody Guthrie) (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 300; Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 132; DT, UNIONMD; recordings on Almanac4, PeteSeeger01, PeteSeeger41, PeteSeeger48)
(Charlie Chaplin parody) (Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 211-212; see under "Red Wing (II"))
Come Over and Play With Me ("O, little boys, come over and play with me") (Harbin-Parodology, #162, p. 46)
NOTES [67 words]: For more on composer Kerry Mills, see the notes on "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis."
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 282, estimates that this was the seventh most popular song in America in 1908, peaking at #3 in January 1908 (#1 for the year being Will D. Cobb and Gus Edwards' "Sunbonnet Sue"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FCW050

Red Wing (II)

DESCRIPTION: Red Wing, the unafraid Indian maid, allows the cowboys intimacies, until she is made pregnant.
AUTHOR: original version by Kerry Mills and Thurland Chattaway
EARLIEST DATE: original version copyright 1907
KEYWORDS: bawdy parody whore childbirth Indians(Am.) derivative
FOUND IN: Australia US(MW,Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 214-216, "Red Wing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 566-570, "Red Wing" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 212, "Redwings" (sic) (1 tune, which Meredith et al seem to associate with the bawdy version)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 39, pp. 207-210, "Red Wing" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "A" text is "Red Wing (I)" while the "B" text is one of the bawdy parodies)
DT, REDWNG2*
Roud #4784
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Red Wing (I)" (tune, form) and references there
cf. "The Moon Shines Bright on Charlie Chaplin" (lyrics)
NOTES [156 words]: As with most bawdy parodies, there may be several elements combined here. Cray-EroticMuse's version and most of Randolph's involve the Indian Maid quickly losing that distinction at the hand of cowboys. Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2's fragment of text talks about the ragged clothes of Charlie Chaplin (presumably in his "Little Tramp" role). Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging's "B" text has the girl so "afraid some buckaroo would ram it up her flue" that "she crammed it full of sand" to make sure he would not "reach the promised land" -- but it has the Charlie Chaplin chorus. How these elements came to combine, or separate, would need a more detailed study than I am in position to give. The "Charlie Chaplin" verse circulates separately (see "The Moon Shines Bright on Charlie Chaplin"), usually sung to this tune, but one suspects that this song is older and that the Chaplin parody verse just floated in. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: EM215

Red-Haired Man's Wife, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks his sweetheart, by letter and in person, to leave her husband. She had sworn fidelity but married the red-haired man instead. She will not "break the command" He offers a way out: "For the Patriarch David had a number of wives"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2188))
KEYWORDS: courting rejection wife husband marriage hair Bible
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 97, "The Red-Haired Man's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 187, "The Red-Haird Man's Wife" (1 text)
DT, REDWIFE
ADDITIONAL: Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 60-62, "Bean an Fhir Rua" ("The Red-Haired Man's Wife") [Gaelic and English] (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3046
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2188), "The Red Haired Man's Wife," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth b.25(347), Harding B 26(564), Firth c.18(83), "The Red Haired Man's Wife"; 2806 c.16(206), 2806 b.9(113), Harding B 25(1603)[some words illegible], "The Red Hair'd Man's Wife"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Red Man's Wife" (plot elements)
NOTES [470 words]: According to Milner and Kaplan, A Bonny Bunch of Roses, this is based on a Gaelic song, Bean An Fhir Ruaidh.
The argument that the Patriarch David was repeatedly married has its problems. There is the nitpicky one that, based on the standard definition, he was not a Patriarch; the Patriarchs preceded the Judges, and David was after.
More to the point, while David had many wives, and they produced many sons, the sons fought over the inheritance; eventually the oldest three died at the hands of their relatives. Solomon, the survivor, also took many wives, but they "turned away his heart after other gods" (2 Kings 11:3). Indeed, when David died, one of the wives (Bathsheba) manipulated David to put her son Solomon on the throne (1 Kings 1:11-40), even though he was to prove unfit for the job. So multiple wives seem to have been rather bad news.
Various others in the Bible had multiple wives, but the only significant patriarch to have multiple wives *simultaneously* was Jacob, who had two wives (Rachel and Leah) and two concubines, who collectively gave birth to the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
I know of no instance whatsoever of a wife in the Bible with multiple husbands. Unless you count the Woman of Samaria, anyway (John 4:16-19); Jesus said that she had had five husbands and was apparently cohabiting with a sixth man. But this was presumably sequential marriage -- and Jesus pretty clearly disapproved.
There is one interesting sidelight: Recent research seems to indicate that women are most likely to have affairs when they are at the most fertile time of their monthly cycle. The rest of the time, they aren't interested. This is unconscious; the women themselves are not aware of when they are fertile. It just seems to be the urge (found in many apparently monogamous creatures) for the female to get the best male genes. Maybe the singer showed up at the wrong time. Or maybe he was as genetically hopeless as the song makes him sound.
To this compare "The Red Man's Wife," which is said to be also an English translation of a Gaelic original and has some similar elements. - RBW
The song translated from Gaelic in Bell/O Conchubhair is quite different from the "Englished" version. Further, there is a story to be told that sets the stage: "Our song is no simple tale of lust. Fair lad and red-head were apprentices to the rich tailor. His only daughter and the fair lad were in love, betrothed to be married.... The foxy boy stole some silver knives of the tailor's and hid them in his rival's baggage [cf. Genesis 44]. Discovered. Three years in gaol. Came out to find his love married to the rogue." Now the song starts in either version; in the Gaelic he has no answer from her but the outcome is likely the same.
Hoagland's version follows the story told in Bell/O Conchubhair commentary. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: OLoc097

Red-headed Peckerwood

DESCRIPTION: "Red-headed peckerwood, Pecking on a pine. Want a chew tobacco, But you can't chew mine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: bird drugs
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 84, "Red-headed Peckerwood" (1 text)
NOTES [39 words]: An interesting line. A "peckerwood" is usually a (poor) white person, perhaps similar to a redneck. But there is a bird known as a red-headed woodpecker, which of course pecks on wood. Might there be some mixture of meanings here? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ZiZa084B

Red-headed Sapsucker

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme or taunt. "Red-headed sapsucker, Sitting on a vine, Wants a chew of 'bacca But he won't get mine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Journal of American Folklore, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope bird drugs
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #480, "Red-headed sapsucker" (1 text)
NOTES [36 words]: it should be noted that there is no such bird as a "red-headed sapsucker." There are red-breasted sapsuckers, and red-headed woodpeckers (sapsuckers belong to the woodpecker family), but no combination of the two. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR480

Red-Hot in the Pot

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Red-hot in the pot, Twice as much as the leader's got."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (California Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: jumprope
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #482, "Red-hot in the pot" (1 text)
Roud #32396
File: AJRR482

Red-Light Saloon, The

See The Red Light Saloon (File: Doe249)

Red, Rosy Morning, The

DESCRIPTION: "The sweet rosy morning smiles over the hills." Rise from sleep and hunt the fox or stag. At day's end, sport being over, we drink. "Let love crown this night ... and sport crown the day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (Smith)
KEYWORDS: hunting sex drink nonballad animal dog horse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 58, "The Rosy Morn" (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 365); Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 58-59, "The Red, Rosy Morning" (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 186) (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Laura Alex. Smith, "Old Songs of the Chase" in The Idler (London, 1899 ("Digitized by Google") Vol. XV (Feb-Jul 1899), p. 850, "The Sweet Rosy Morning" (1 text, 1 tune).
Roud #21097
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Morning Was Charming" (same theme and shared lines)
NOTES [33 words]: The line "The merry merry Horn cries, come, come" is quoted in [anonymous], The Cheshire Huntress and the Old Fox Caught at Last, a Dramatic Tale (London, 1740 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 8. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT058

Red, White and Blue, My Mother Caught the Flu

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Red, white, and blue, My mother caught the flu. My father lost his walking stick, And I blame you!" Or "...and blue, Your father is a Jew. Your mother is a Japanese/Chinaman, And so are you!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: jumprope colors mother father disease Jew | flu walking stick
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #486, "Red, white and blue"; #488, "Red, white, and blue" (2 texts)
Roud #19441
NOTES [46 words]: Steve Roud lumps this with "Red, White, and Blue (III)," which is also a jump-rope rhyme starting "Red, white, and blue," but the stanza form is different, so I keep them separate. I have lumped two items that Abrahams splits, because the two do have the same stanza form.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR486

Red, White, and Blue (I)

See Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs) (File: R061)

Red, White, and Blue (II)

See Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean (Britannia, the Pride of the Ocean) (File: FSWB044)

Red, White, and Blue (III)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Red, white, and blue, Stars shining over you (or "I don't speak to you"), Red, white, and yellow, Who is your fellow, Red, white, and green, Who is your queen," etc., eventually breaking into a count or into A, B, C
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope courting questions colors
FOUND IN: US(Ro,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #33, "(Red, white, and blue)"; #139, "(Red, white, and blue)" (2 texts)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, "(Red, white, and blue)" (1 text, probably this)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #485, "Red, white and blue"; #487, "Red, white and blue" (2 texts)
Roud #19441
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who)" (lyrics)
cf. "Apples and Oranges" (lyrics)
File: AJRV033

Red, White, and Red, The

DESCRIPTION: The Confederate soldiers proudly boast of their new flag, "The Red, White, and Red!" They promise the guard their land, and proclaim, "They never will subdue us, that you will see. While there's Davis, Bragg, Beauregard, Johnson, and Lee...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar patriotic bragging
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 10, 1861 - Battle of Big Bethel. Although trivial in size (some 6000 troops engaged, casualties totalling about 110), it was the first land battle of the war. Federal troops under Benjamin Butler ("Old Picayune," almost certainly the worst general of the war) were easily defeated by Confederates under John Bankhead Magruder
Nov. 8, 1861 - The Trent Affair (The Mason and Slidell Affair): The two Confederate diplomats are taken off the Trent by Captain Charles Wilkes of the San Jacinto in clear violation of the then-current international policy regarding neutral rights
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 22, "The Red, White, and Red" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 223, "On the Plains of Manassas" (1 text, with a stray reference to Manassas but otherwise this song)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 375, "The Red, White, and Red" (3 texts; the "A" text, with mentions of Mason and Slidell and Manassas, seems to be a later, expanded version)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 375, "Red, White, and Red" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
ST Wa022 (Partial)
Roud #769
NOTES [358 words]: This song is item dA36 in Laws's Appendix II.
Among the figures mentioned in this song are:
Magruder - John Bankhead Magruder, winner at Big Bethel, set aside after the Peninsula campaign
Old Picayune - Benjamin F. Butler, a complete military incompetent who always kept his job because of his Republican political connections. He seems to have been given his nickname after a (female) character in a minstrel song, Picayune Butler (see "Picayune Butler, Is She Coming to Town").
Davis - Jefferson Davis, Confederate president (at this time still a provisional president)
Bragg - Braxton Bragg, at the time of Big Bethel a general commanding part of the southern coast. He later was appointed commander of the Army of Tennessee
Beauregard - P.G.T. Beauregard, who had directed the bombardment at Fort Sumter and later held field command at First Bull Run (though his later career was not overly successful)
Johnson - almost certainly an error, either for Albert Sidney Johnston (first commander of the Tennessee army, killed at Shiloh) or Joseph E. Johnston, who preceded Lee in command in northern Virginia and held a succession of later posts
Lee - Robert E. Lee (who did not achieve a significant command in the Confederate army until 1862)
Stonewall - Thomas "Stonewall": Jackson, at the time of Big Bethel commanding a small force near Harper's Ferry but destined to command a famous brigade at First Bull Run and, of course, become Lee's chief subordinate and a southern legend.
"The Mason and Slidell Affair": James Mason and John Slidell were Confederate diplomats who were bound for London and Paris, were on the British ship Trent when it was stopped by the U. S. S. San Jacinto commanded by Charles Wilkes. Wilkes took off the diplomats, prompting a furor. Washington eventually gave in to British and French pressure and sent Mason and Slidell on to their destinations.
McCulloch: Ben McCulloch, a general in the west, one of the co-commanders at Wilson's Creek, killed at Pea Ridge. Despite the song, he never gave evidence of enough competence to truly frighten the Yankees, and he never was sole commander at a major battle. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Wa022

Redbird and Jaybird

DESCRIPTION: "The jaybird sat on the redbird's nest. The redbird sat and mourned." Verses about the birds and their lives, with additional (floating?) material about partridges pulling a plow, a man riding a goose across a creek, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: bird courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 154, "Redbird and Jaybird" (2 texts; "A" appears to be mixed and "B" is a fragment)
NOTES [43 words]: Although the older of Brown's two sources lists the redbird as sitting on the jaybird's nest, the newer version, in which the jaybird moves in on the cardinal, is almost certainly correct. Jays are related to crows, and will make off with other birds' eggs. - RBW
File: Br3154

Redbreast, The

See Robin Redbreast's Testament (File: HHH527)

Redemption Song, The

DESCRIPTION: Adam and Eve squander "the heritage of heaven." Christ confounds the sages in the temple, heals the sick, shares "the Pasch," is crucified, rises and "redeemed us all." "We're safe from Satan's wrath." "That will lead us home to Heaven and our Salvation"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: death religious Jesus Bible
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 47-48, "The Redemption Song" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bean Dubh an Ghleanna" (tune, according to Tunney-StoneFiddle)
File: TSF047

Redesdale and Wise William [Child 246]

DESCRIPTION: Redesdale tells William that he can win any woman's favor "wi ae blink o my ee." William bets his head against Redesdale's lands that Redesdale cannot win his sister. Redesdale courts the sister, fails to win her (though he burns down her house)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1818 (Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads)
KEYWORDS: courting sex gambling virtue wager
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 246, "Redesdale and Wise William" (3 texts)
Bronson 246, "Redesdale and Wise William" (1 version, properly associated with "Johnnie Cock")
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 50-57, "Roudesdales" (2 texts)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 132-135, "Wise William and Redesdale" (2 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 144-146, "Reedisdale and Wise William" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 123-126, "Redesdale and Wise William" (1 text, 1 unrelated tune)
Roud #243
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fiddler's Bitch" (plot)
cf. "The Twa Knights" (plot)
File: C246

Redwing

See Red Wing (I) (File: FCW050)

Redwings

See Red Wing (II); also Red Wing (I) (File: EM214)

Reedy Lagoon, The

DESCRIPTION: "The sweet scented wattle sheds perfume around Delighting the bird and the bee, While I lie and take rest in my fern-covered nest." The rambler relaxes and thinks back on the friends and the girl he has left behind. He misses them, but cares little
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: rambling Australia separation
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 144-145, "The Reedy Lagoon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 52-54, "The Reedy Lagoon" (1 text)
DT, REEDYLAG*
NOTES [106 words]: Although the author of this seems to be unknown, Manifold in his various writings is somewhat sarcastic about how it is treated as a folk song despite a lack of real evidence of traditionality. I agree that it sounds composed.
Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 266, say of the Wattle "Folk name of the native [Australian] plant species Acacia. Wattle is a popular Australian icon, and is also favoured in folksong and popular verse for romantic and sentimental death scenes. Possibly due to this association, some people believe it is unluck to have wattle in the house. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: PASB144

Reedy River

DESCRIPTION: "Ten miles down Reedy River, a pool of water lies, And all the year it mirrors the changes in the skies." The singer recalls riding with Mary Campbell to the pool. They build a homestead. But now "The wattle blossoms golden above my Mary's grave."
AUTHOR: Words: Henry Lawson (1867-1922) / Music: Chris Kempster
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (recording, Bok/Trickett/Muir)
KEYWORDS: love courting river death burial racing farming
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, REEDYRIV
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 42, #1 (1997), p, 27, "Reedy River" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [140 words]: This is pretty definitely not traditional, but now well enough known among folkies that I included this entry as a placeholder to say it's not traditional.
Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 222, reports that "Reedy River" was a "Stage musical using Australian folk songs collected by actor John Gray and some composed pieces in folk style, with a script by Dick Diamond. First produced by the Melbourne New Theatre in 1953 and frequently revived."
Davey/Seal on p. 266 add of the Wattle "Folk name of the native [Australian] plant species Acacia. Wattle is a popular Australian icon, and is also favoured in folksong and popular verse for romantic and sentimental death scenes. Possibly due to this association, some people believe it is unluck to have wattle in the house. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: DTreedri

Reek and the Rambling Blade, The

See The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)

Reeking House, The

See The Teem Wa's (The Toom House) (File: Ord089B)

Reel o' Stumpie, The

DESCRIPTION: "Hap and rowe, hap and rowe, hap and rowe the feetie O, I thoucht I was a maiden fair Till I heard the greetie o't." The girl's father was a fiddle, her mother made mantie; she danced the "Reel o' Stumpie" and now must attend the child that is the result
AUTHOR: (adapted by Robert Burns)
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: courting sex children music
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 22, "The Reel o' Stumpie, O" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, STUMPREL*
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #573, p. 678, "The Reel o' Stumpie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7252
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hap and Row" (lyrics, tune?)
NOTES [53 words]: Roud lumps this with "Hap and Row," from which it is presumably derived, but Burns did rewrite at least somewhat. Interestingly, Burns's text begins "Wap and rowe, wap and row," but I've always heard it sun "Hap and row(e). Evidently the versions cross-fertilized, so having them under one Roud number perhaps makes sense.
Last updated in version 6.1
File: RBReeStu

Reel of Tullochgorum, The

See Tullochgorum (File: RPG023)

Reeling Song

See Linktem Blue (Reeling Song) (File: FlBr034)

Reform and Whigs

DESCRIPTION: A wife complains of politics which has driven her husband "clean dementit." He has no time for work "to save us frae starvation" for worrying about the nation's problems. She begs him "Leave them wha can to mak' the laws ... lat the nation look to itsel"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: nonballad political husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 596, "Reform and Whigs" (1 text)
Roud #6046
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Quaker's Wife" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
File: GrD3596

Reg'lar, Reg'lar Rollin' Under

DESCRIPTION: Response is "Gimme the gourd fuh drink water." The leader has lines like "Reg'lar reg'lar rollin' under" or "Don't need no gourd fuh drink water"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (LomaxCD1713)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | gourd water
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #21453
RECORDINGS:
Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Reg'lar, Reg'lar Rollin' Under" (on LomaxCD1713)
NOTES [124 words]: Alan Lomax and Anna L. Chairetakis, liner notes for LomaxCD1713 describe the recording as a made up song to go with what Lomax found as "what seemed the oldest published black dance song from Virginia." He taught the singers the tune and they improvised the words. The "gourd to drink water" is in a couple of the songs Scarborough collected: a version of what Scarborough considers "Buffalo Gals," Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 112-114 "sung at dances by the slaves on the plantation before the war" has verses with the tag line "Loan me dat gourd to drink wa-a-ter!"; both versions of the children's ring game "Ransum Scansum," Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 131, have the line, "Bring me a gourd to drink water." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcReReRU

Regalis

See The Loss of the Regulus (II) (File: ML3LoReg)

Regatta

See The Terra Nova Regatta (File: ML3Regat)

Reges de Saba Venient

See The Golden Carol (The Three Kings) (File: OBB107)

Regimental Song

See Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going) (File: SBoA050)

Regina celi, letare

See Gabriel That Angel Bright (File: MSGaTABr)

Regular Army O! The

See The Regular Army-O (File: LoF177)

Regular Army-O, The

DESCRIPTION: The volunteer joined the army three years ago, and has been suffering every since under "Sergeant John McCafferty and Corporal Donahue" as well as "forty miles a day on beans and hay." Captured by Indians, the soldiers at last escape army life
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: (adapted and arranged by?) David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (sheet music published by Wm. A. Pond & Co, New York
KEYWORDS: soldier army warning abuse
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #3, pp. 11-14, "The Regular Army O!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 67, "The Regular Army, Oh" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 177, "The Regular Army-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 279-281, "The Regular Army, O!" (1 text ago)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 124-126, "The Regular Army O!" (1 text)
DT, REGARMY*
ST LoF177 (Partial)
Roud #4747
RECORDINGS:
Mick Moloney, "The Regular Army O" (on HarriganBrahamMaloney)
NOTES [309 words]: For background on Harrigan, Hart, and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
According to Moody, pp. 52, 261, this was introduced in the sketch "The Regular Army O!" on October 19, 1874.It "introduced the high-stepping Skidmores, the blackfaced guard that was to march and sing through the Mulligan series." That is, the Skidmores were the rival marching company that contended against the Mulligan Guard that was the subject of most of Edward Harrigan's most-loved plays.
The tune of this, at least as sung by Mick Moloney, is very close to the one I know for "Let Mr. McGuire Sit Down." Which perhaps makes it interesting that the music of this is not listed as written by David Braham but just "adapted and arranged" by Braham. According to Kahn, p. 153, this was "an enormously popular tune that spoofed contemporary recruiting methods and was alleged by one Regular Army officer, Captain Charles King, a novelist as well as a soldier, to have grievously curtailed enlistments; but actually the composers had merely appropriated and revised an old soldier song that troops sniping at the Indians had been chanting for quite some time previous."
I have a very curious sheet music copy of this, on green paper, which appears to be a modified facsimile of the original, with the original printing copied but extra space added between the staves to insert an additional verse about the Indian Wars. A small blurb added to the cover "(This song was to the Indian Wars what 'Hinkey Dinky, Parlez Vous?' and 'Sound Off!' were to World Wars I and II." The bottom space on the remaining pages attempts to explain the text of the song, especially the added verse 5. It took a lot of hunting, but I finally noticed a footnote saying "1962 edition, with additions and glossary, copyright by Don Rickey, Jr." -- but it doesn't list a publisher.- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: LoF177

Regular Army, Oh, The

See The Regular Army-O (File: LoF177)

Reid Hoose

DESCRIPTION: "Reid Hoose it is a fairm toon It stands upon a knowe Ye maybe ken the fairmer o't For he's a muckle yewe."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 362, "Reid Hoose" (1 fragment)
Roud #5905
NOTES [42 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 fragment. - BS
I have a feeling this is built upon "The Earl of Errol" [Child 231] or one of its metrical offspring, but there is no evidence of this except the form of the Greig/Duncan fragment. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3362

Reid's Express

DESCRIPTION: "You'll get on board of Reid's Express to travel the icy rail" to the station at Badger Brook and lumber "just like a slave... 'twill carry you to your grave." "When I gets home no more I'll roam and the lumbering woods I'll shun."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: lumbering hardtimes logger
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 757-758, "Reid's Express" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9800
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "Reid's Express" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [182 words]: Badger Brook, later Badger, is not far from Bonavista Bay on the northeast coast of Newfoundland. - BS
The Reid Newfoundland Company built most of the Newfoundland Railway; hence the reference to Reid in the song title. For a bit more about the truly incredible bargain that put Robert Reid and his enterprise in charge of the Railway, see the notes to "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie." For the hard times experienced by the men who worked on the railway, see "The Bonavist Line."
The claim that the workers earned $23 for three months' work is perhaps indicative. Peacock, dividing $23 by 13 weeks, comes up with $1.77 per week, or 25 cents per day. In fact (see again the notes on "The Bonavist Line") their normal pay was $1 per day, which presumably means $6 per week (since they would have Sundays, but probably not Saturdays, off) -- but $2.50 per week was deducted for their lodging, leaving $3.50 per week. Which happens to be almost exactly twice $1.77. So the workers in this song were being paid half the amount paid the railroad workers. This probably tells us something. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea757

Reidh-chnoc Mna Sidhe (The Dark Fairy Rath)

DESCRIPTION: The singer "in search of my love" meets her and is warned. "'Touch me not, and approach me not near; I belong to this Rath, and the Fairy host here.'" He tries to hold her but she disappears.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (Mangan's translation _Poets and Poetry of Munster,_ according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: courting magic supernatural foreignlanguage abduction beauty separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 43, "The Dark Fairy Rath" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 122, "Re-chnoc Mna Duibhe" (7 texts)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 173, "The Dark Fairy Rath" (1 text)
NOTES [182 words]: The description follows the English translation in James Clarence Mangan, The Poets and Poetry of Munster (Dublin: James Duffy and Sons, 1884 ("Digitized by Microsoft"), Fourth Edition, pp. 216-219, "Reioh-chnoc mna Sighe (The Dark Fairy Rath)."
"The original Gaelic of this song is attributed to George Roberts about whom, if he existed, nothing is known" (source: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads). - BS
Ben's description of the Gaelic of this read "Gaelic. The singer meets and falls in love with a woman taken by the fairies. She discourages his advances but he puts his arms around her. "But, when I glanced up, behold! nought could I see. She had fled from my sight as a bird from the tree!"
In the earliest known phase of Irish mythology, the Sidhe (Aes Sidhe, the People of the Hills) were the remnants of the Tuatha De Danaan, who had been defeated and driven underground by the Celtic invaders. Later the name came to be used of any generic fairy or sprite -- but the first sense may have more meaning in context.
A rath was the Irish name for a fortification or earthwork. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OLcM043

Reign, Massa Jesus

See Reign, Master Jesus (File: FSAN072)

Reign, Master Jesus

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, reign, oh, reign, Oh, reign my Savior, Reign, Master Jesus, reign, Oh, reign salvation in my poor soul, Reign, Master Jesus, reign." "I tell you now as I told you before... To the promised land I'm bound to go." "I never shall forget that day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "O reign (x3) my Saviour, Reign Massa Jesus, reign, O reign salvation in my soul, Reign Massa Jesus reign." Verses: "I never shall forget that day ... Jesus washed my sins away" "I never felt such love before ... 'Go in peace and sin no more'" I tell you now as I told you before... To the promised land I'm bound to go."
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 72, "Reign, Oh Reign" (1 text)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 49, "Reign, Massa Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 175 in the 1909 edition)
Roud #15281 and 12082
NOTES [24 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "Reign Massa Jesus, reign." - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSAN072

Reign, Oh Reign

See Reign, Master Jesus (File: FSAN072)

Reiley's Courtship

See William Riley's Courtship [Laws M9] (File: LM09)

Reilly the Fisherman

See Riley's Farewell (Riley to America; John Riley) [Laws M8] (File: LM08)

Reilly's Daughter

See O'Reilly's Daughter (File: EM101)

Reilly's Farewell

See Riley's Farewell (Riley to America; John Riley) [Laws M8] (File: LM08)

Reily's Jailed

See William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial) [Laws M10] (File: LM10)

Reily's Releasement and Marriage with Cooleen Bawn

See William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial) [Laws M10] (File: LM10)

Reily's Trial

See William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial) [Laws M10] (File: LM10)

Rejected Lover, The [Laws P10]

DESCRIPTION: The girl tells the singer not to return; she prefers freedom to marriage. She later changes her mind; he is no longer interested. She warns others against her mistake
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection loneliness
FOUND IN: Ireland US(Ap,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws P10, "The Rejected Lover"
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #15, pp. 155-156, "You Can't Come Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 120-121, "The Rejected Lover" (1 text, 1 tune, although most of the lyrics float)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 66, "The Two Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune, probably this although the recording was imperfect and the song incomplete); p. 159, "The Rejected Lover" (1 text, 1 tune, Gainer's floating-lyrics text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 91, "Servant Man" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 91, "Servant Man" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 139-140, "Do Come Back Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 145, "You Can't Come Again" (1 short text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 109, "The Rejected Lover" (10 texts, 10 tunes, but version "A" is actually a mishmosh of floaters including "Who will shoe..." and "A-roving on a winter's night...")
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #36, "The Rejected Lover (Once I Courted a Pretty Little Girl)" (1 text, 1 tune, the mixed Sharp text cited above)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 50-51, "My Lost Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 136, "Once I Knew a Little Girl" (1 text, 1 tune, with gender roles reversed and many floating lyrics)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 136-137, "The Rejected Lover" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H589, p. 344, "The Rejected Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 495, REJCTLVR*
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, pp. 233-234, "I Once Knew a Little Girl" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Pearl Jacobs Borusky and also by Mrs. M. G. Jabobs)
Roud #412
RECORDINGS:
Eddie and Gracie Butcher, "Don't Come Again" (on IREButcher01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nancy (I)" [Laws P11] (plot)
cf. "Nancy (II) [Laws P12] (theme)
cf. "The Slighted Suitor" (plot)
cf. "Braes of Strathblane" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Alexander
NOTES [372 words]: The notes to Henry/Huntington/Herrmann question the connection between their "Rejected Lover" song and Laws P10. They have a point; there isn't much lyric similarity. The plots are alike, however, and the form -- and the two are so widely separated in space that great divergences are possible. Plus there are almost no other versions clearly associated with the Henry text. It seemed easier to lump them.
The Henry text contains several odd Biblical allusions. First, "I'll travel to Mount Nebo, where Moses viewed the Ark." This is patently absurd. Mount Nebo is in Moab, many hundreds of kilometres from Urartu (Ararat), the resting place of the Ark. What Moses saw from Mount Nebo was the future homeland of the Israelites (Deuteronomy 34:1-5).
Equally strange is the reference to Mount Ararat as the place "where Noah did embark." The ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat (plural! -- Genesis 8:4). But there is no reason to think he started there.
There are several mysteries about this song. Laws lists only the texts from Sharp, ignoring Brown and the various references there. The notes in Brown don't help; they link it with "The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter" [Laws H12] -- which it may have influenced, but which is clearly not the same song.
Cox's and Fuson's versions seem to form a subgroup (which may even be an independent song which has mixed with this one), marked by the steady use of the title line "(You/I) (can't/need not) come again." Both versions, though rather defective, stress an exchange of letters (perhaps the young man has joined the army?); this may have been imported from "A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.)" [Laws P9].
The Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin version, from Pearl Jacobs Barusky, is yet again different, in that the gender roles reverse and very many of the lyrics float. I thought about splitting it off -- especially since Laws didn't list a related version found in JAFL. And yet there are lyric similarities. Defining this piece is almost impossible; Roud before me threw up his hands and started lunping things like mad; I'm forced to do the same until someone can do a real study of the family. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LP10

Rejected Orangeman, The

See The Orangeman's Dream (File: ThWi140)

Relief of Derry, The

DESCRIPTION: "Dartmouth spreads her snow-white sail, Her purple pennant flying O: While we the gallant Browning hail, Who saved us all from dying" [Mountjoy] rams the blockade and seems stranded -- "we mourned our falling city" -- but "a favouring gale" frees it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: battle rescue death Ireland patriotic food
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 28, 1689 - Browning's ships break the 105 day seige of Derry (source: Kilpatrick [see Notes])
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 8, "The Relief of Derry" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry" (subject: the siege of Derry) and references there
NOTES [50 words]: On July 28, 1689 three ships -- Mountjoy, Dartmouth, and Phoenix -- on the Foyle broke the seige bringing food; captain of the Mountjoy was Michael Browning, who was killed in the battle. (source: Cecil Kilpatrick, "The Seige of Derry: A City of Refuge" at the Canada-Ulster Heritage site) - BS
File: OrLa008

Relieve-Ee-O

DESCRIPTION: Team game ending with "All in ! All in! The game is broken up" or lets players rejoin their teams when the leader shouts "Relieve-Ee-O." A game may start, "Down in the alley-o, Where we play relieve-ee-o. Up comes her mother-o...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: game mother | washing
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 146-147, "Relieve-ee-o" (1 partial text, 1 tune); p. 169, "Down in the alley-o" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #38157
File: BAAI146

Religion in Camp

See Silver Jack [Laws C24] (File: LC24)

Religion Is the Best of All

DESCRIPTION: "Oh it's come along fathers And don't you want to go, And join that happy company That's going on before." Chorus: "Religion is the best of all (x3), I feel it in my soul." Continues for mothers, brothers, sisters, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 656, "Religion Is the Best of All" (1 text)
Roud #7579
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Am Going to Heaven" (lyrics)
File: R656

Religion So Sweet (I)

DESCRIPTION: "O walk Jordan long road, And religion so sweet. O religion is good for anything, And religion so sweet." "Religion makes you happy." "O member, get religion." "O I gwine to meet my savior." "I seek my Lord and I find him."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 13, "Religion So Sweet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11847
RECORDINGS:
Lawrence McKiver and the McIntosh County Shouters, "Religion, So Sweet" (on McIntosh1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Religion So Sweet (II)" (lyrics)
cf. "My Bible Leads to Glory" (lyrics)
File: AWG013A

Religion So Sweet (II)

DESCRIPTION: Baptizing song/sermon: "Let's go down to Jurdon (x2)... De ol' ribber Jurdon is mighty deep, but 'ligion is so sweet." The candidates are told of the benefits of baptism, told that Jesus requires it, and reminded of the "sweetness" of religion
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 582-583, "'Ligion So Sweet" (1 text)
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, p. 134-136, "Religion, So Sweet" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Winslow Gordon, "Negro 'Shouts' from Georgia" in Alan Dundes, editor, _Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel_ (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1990) "Ligion So Sweet" p. 448 (1 text)
Roud #11061
RECORDINGS:
Lawrence McIver and the McIntosh County Shouters, "Rock That Religion So Sweet" (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutOnsiteVideo)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Religion So Sweet (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "Let's Go Down to the Water" (lyrics)
NOTES [59 words]: The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree/McIntoshShouters-RingShoutSongs text and track is a "ring shout" song. The McIntoshShouters-RingShoutOnsiteVideo video show the shout.
The Gordon text, also from the Georgia Sea Islands, describes this shout song as having "walk" verses -- "slow and dignified" -- and shout verses in "a double-quick tripping measure." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LxA582

Religious Use of Taking Tobacco, A

See Tobacco's But an Indian Weed (File: Log262)

Remember (Remember the Times You've Had Here)

DESCRIPTION: "Remember the times you've had here. Remember when you're away. Remember the pals you've made here. And don't forget to Come back someday. Remember we love you, campers; Remember counselors, too. For you girls belong to (XXX) And XXX belongs to you."
AUTHOR: based on "Rememb'ring" by Rosetta Duncan (1894-1959) and Vivian Duncan (1897-1986) (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Zander and Klusman)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 341, 468, 470, "Remember" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 85, "Remember" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: Carl E. Zander & Wes H. Klusman, _Camp Songs 'N' Things_, Institute Press, 1939, p. 85, "Remember" (1 short text)
NOTES [44 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs lists this as one of the most popular camp songs (64 collections), but I had to search many books to find a copy of it. Of course, it might have been easier to find if she had used a song name that gave some idea of what song it means! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF241R

Remember A, Remember B

DESCRIPTION: "Remember A, remember B, But first of all, remember me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Henry, from Mary King)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 232, (third of several "Fragments from Tennessee") (1 fragment)
NOTES [31 words]: This sounds like something from a greeting card to me, but Henry presents it as a fragment of a song, so we index it. Even though the above sentence is longer than Henry's fragment.... - RBW
File: MHAp232E

Remember Me (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer's ship is ready to sail. He hopes his sweetheart and old Ireland boys will remember him. They spend the night drinking together and he sails away. He bids Killarney farewell. "Alas my friends I am away, Here's my hand but you have my heart"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(567))
KEYWORDS: love emigration farewell sea ship Ireland nonballad friend drink
FOUND IN:
Roud #2995
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(567), "Remember Me" ("Our ship is ready to sajl [sic] away"), P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 c.8(216), 2806 b.9(3), 2806 c.8(290), "Remember Me"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Our Ship Sails Ready to Sail Away" (shares opening verses)
NOTES [106 words]: Wright-Irish (Irish Emigrant Ballads and Songs) pp. 111, 170-173, has two versions of "Our Ship Sails Ready to Sail Away" and one of "Remember Me" and considers them to be variants of the same song. His longest version of "Our Ship ..." and his "Remember Me" share three verses almost exactly; "Our Ship ..." adds six 4-line verses and "Remember Me" adds five 4-line verses and, in these lines, the songs share no lines. "Our Ship ..." is a farewell to Nora, and besides to Dublin, Delgany and Wicklow; "Remember Me" is a farewell to old Ireland boys, and besides to Killarney. My inclination is to keep them as two separate songs. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BdRemMeI

Remember Me (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Remember days past, Remember me ... Oh Lord, remember me." "Remember dying days ... Oh Lord, remember me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (USSeaIsland01)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Janie Hunter and the Moving Star Hall Singers, "Remember Me" (on USSeaIsland01)
Menhaden Fishermen, "Remember Me" (on USMenhaden01)
Southeast Alabama and Florida Union Sacred Harp Singing Convention, "Pisgah" (on USFlorida01)
NOTES [203 words]: The current description is based on the USSeaIsland01 text.
The humming is a form of "moan."
The USSeaIsland01 hymn is the first track on the album and was apparently the opener for the festival. That suits its place as a hymn. It is very slow, without clapping or acceleration. The words are followed by the tune, hummed. It is typical of the Devotion as opposed to the later Service. "[T]he relatively somber mood of Devotion yields to the Service, whose rhythmic songs and sermon bring down the Holy Spirit" [Walter F. Pitts, Old Ship of Zion: The Afro-Baptist Ritual in the African Diaspora (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 24].
This may be a modified chorus of a version of Isaac Watts's "Alas And Did My Savior Bleed." See, for example, William Booth, Salvation Army Music (London: The Salvation Army Book Department, 1900 ("Digitized by Microsoft")) #58 p. 55, "Remember me." The chorus is "Remember me, remember me, O Lord, remember me; Remember Lord, Thy dying groans, And then remember me."
The Menhaden01 verse "I once was lost But now I am found Was blind But now I see" is shared with "Amazing Grace." As on USSeaIsland01, the hymn is very slow, and sung without clapping or acceleration.- BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcJHReMe

Remember Me (III)

See Razors in the Air (File: Wins245)

Remember Me and My Old Woman

DESCRIPTION: "Remember me and my old woman Around the fire and it a boomen" (sic.; probably means "booming")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1891 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 134, "(Remember me and)" (1 text)
File: SaKo134R

Remember Me Early

DESCRIPTION: "Remember me early, remember me late, Remember the night we swang on the garden gate." Or, "...remember me late, Remember me as your own schoolmate."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: nonballad courting
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 239, (no title) (1 short text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 123, "(Remember me early)" (1 text)
NOTES [56 words]: This is one of many items Solomon-ZickaryZan'sextracted from the autograph album of Minnie Burton, which she maintained 1891 to 1896 or after. It appears in other autograph albums also. I don't know that Henry's version is from an autograph album, but there are several other autograph album poem that seem to have become traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: MHAp239A

Remember Me When Far Away

DESCRIPTION: "Remember me when far away And only half awake, Remember me on your wedding day And send me a slice of cake."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (J. S. Ogilvie, "One Thousand Popular Quotations... Suitable for Writing in Autograph Albums")
KEYWORDS: food wedding nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 123-124, "(Remember Me When Far Away)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 121, "(Dear friend, remember me when far away"); p. 129, "(Remember me when far far off)" (2 texts; the first line also occurs on p. 131)
ADDITIONAL: J. S. Ogilvie, _One Thousand Popular Quotations Comprising the Choicest Thoughts and Sayings of Eminent Writers of All Ages, Together With Nearly Three Hundred Original and Choice Selections, Suitable for Writing in Autograph Albums_, J. S. Ogivie, Publisher (New York & Chicago), 1884 (available on Google Books), p. 50 of Part II, "Remember Me When Far Away" (1 text)
NOTES [152 words]: This is one of many items Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore extracted from the autograph album of George Washington Franklin, which he maintained 1882 to 1895 or after. The first Solomon-ZickaryZan's version is also from an autograph album, that of Minnie Burton, from 1891-1896, the second from an autograph album from the family of Kate, Ella, Lucy, Maggie, and Bessie Burton, compiled 1895-1905.
Web searches for this quote turned up more than a dozen versions of this, one of which even showed up in a national news story (which was the chief source of hits). Since this is clearly a parody, it must have been in oral tradition, though I cannot prove that it is a song.
To the Ogilvie text, compare also a text on p. 58 of part II of Ogilvie: "Remember me when far, far of, Where the woodchucks die of the whooping cough." The woodchuck reference is also found in the version on p. 129 of Solomon-ZickaryZan. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: SaKo123S

Remember Me When Far Far Off

See Remember Me When Far Away (File: SaKo123S)

Remember the Alamo

DESCRIPTION: "When on the wide spread battle plain, The horseman's hand can scarce restrain, His pampered steed.... Remember the Alamo." The singer hears the bugle blast, and declares that many Mexicans will die. He urges others to arms
AUTHOR: Words: T. A. Durriage ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (Rough and Ready Songster, according to COhen)
KEYWORDS: battle war Mexico nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 515, "Remember the Alamo" (1 text)
File: CAFS2515

Remember the Barley Straw

See Davy Faa (Remember the Barley Straw) (File: K188)

Remember the Bible Text

DESCRIPTION: "Remember the Bible text And keep your light so shining Just a little in front of the next."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: Bible | light
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 24, "Remember the Bible text" (1 short text)
Roud #25359
NOTES [53 words]: It's by no means that this is a song -- Alice Kane called it a "lesson." But better to include it and be safe.
The Bible Text cited is, I think, Matthew 5:16, which in the King James Version reads "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC024A

Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave

DESCRIPTION: "Remember the glories of Brian the brave... To light us to victory yet." Tell the invading Danes that we prefer "to bleed for an age ... than to sleep but a moment in chains." Do not let those that died "upon Ossory's plain" have fallen in vain
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Moore-IrishMelodies-1846)
KEYWORDS: battle nonballad patriotic Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 23, 1014 - Battle of Clontarf. Victory and death of Brian Boru
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, pp. 8-10, "(Remember the glories of Brien the Brave" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 48, "Brian the Brave" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 48, "Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, p. 111, "Brian the Brave"
Roud #12820
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(75), "Brian the Brave", The Poet's Box (Belfast), 1846-1852; also Harding B 15(33a), "Brian the Brave"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Brien the Brave
NOTES [139 words]: Brian Boru (Bóruma), born c. 942, became king of Munster after the murder of his brother Mathgamain in 976, and then set out to become High King of Ireland. By about 1002, he was recognized as such by most major Irish lords.
Although Brian's enemies are called Danes in the song, in fact they were Viking raiders allied with rebels from Leinster (see, e.g. Mike Cronin, A History of Ireland, p. 8; Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, A History of Ireland, p. 56). The two sides met at the Battle of Clontarf, on Good Friday 1014, and Brian's Munster forces were victorious though he was slain. In practice, that was a defeat for Brian, since it ended the fragile Irish unity. The Vikings did go away, for the most part -- but that was more because Swein Forkbeard and his son Canute were conquering England than anything else. - RBW, (BS)
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon048

Remember the Glories of Brien the Brave

See Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave (File: OCon048)

Remember the Poor

DESCRIPTION: "Cold winter is coming with his keen cutting breath...." With the fields barren and the cold coming on, the listeners are urged to remember the poor. This is urged both because the listeners have something to spare and because it is the Christian thing
AUTHOR: Words: John Fielding / Music: H. T. Dyring (source: broadside LOCSheet, sm1877 01347)
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany)
KEYWORDS: poverty help religious nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South)) US(Ro,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 720, "That's the Time to Remember the Poor" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 170-171, "Time to Remember the Poor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 161, "The Snow Is on the Ground" (1 field text plus a songster version, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 164-165, "Cold Winter Is Coming" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1993, p. 134, "Remember the Poor" (1 reference)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 203-204, "Remember the Poor" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany: Containing a Selection of the Most Fashionable Songs, with Many Originals, Not Inserted in Ashburner's Vocal and Poetic Repository, G. Ashburner, Ulverston, 1812 (available on Google Books), p. 31, "A Winter Song" (1 text)
ST Wa161 (Partial)
Roud #1121
BROADSIDES:
Harding B 11(843), "Remember the Poor," Angus (Newcastle), 1774-1825
LOCSheet, sm1877 01347, "Always Remember the Poor", [publisher illegible] (Jersey City), 1877
Murray, Mu23-y1:079, "Remember the Pooor," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Cold Winter is Coming
NOTES [19 words]: According to the broadside in Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, this was "sung by Mr. T. Bryan, with unbounded applause." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Wa161

Remember the Poor Tramp Has to Live

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a tramp, tells how hard his life is, asks for understanding. Chorus ends "Remember that the poor tramp has to live"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Walter Morris)
KEYWORDS: poverty rambling begging hardtimes hobo
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 351-354, "The Poor Tramp Has to Live" (1 text plus a broadside print, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 357, "The Tramp Song" (1 text, a noticeably defective transcription)
Roud #11720
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ridge Singers, "The Tramp Song" (Columbia 15647-D, 1931; rec. 1930)
Dock Boggs, "Railroad Tramp" (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1)
Walter Morris, "The Railroad Tramp" (Columbia 15101-D, 1926)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "The Poor Tramp Has to Live" (matrix GEX 493-A recorded 1927, released 1927-1928 as: Herwin 75535 [as by Stoneman], Gennett 6044 [as by Ernest V. Stoneman and his Graysen County Boys], Challenge 324/Challenge 398/Champion 15233 [all as by Uncle Jim Seaney], Challenge 244/Silvertone 5001/Silvertone 8155/Silvertone 25001/Supertone 9255 [all as by Uncle Ben Hawkins]); "The Poor Tramp" (Victor 20672, 1927); Ernest V. Stoneman and His Dixie Mountaineers, "Remember the Poor Tramp Has to Live" (Edison, unissued, 1928); Ernest Stoneman [and Eddie Stoneman], "Broke Down Section Hand" (Vocalion 02655, 1934)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tramp (II)" (plot)
cf. "The Tramp's Story" (plot)
NOTES [210 words]: Boggs states he learned the song from a recording in the late 1920s, but as he doesn't give a name or title I left initially Boggs' recording as the earliest verified to date.
The Walter Morris recording is placed here tentatively; if it can be verified as this song, it would constitute the earliest verified appearance. - PJS
(John Green of Tennessee, who had access to a copy, tells me that it is "The Poor Tramp," so the date has been updated.)
I don't know what Boggs's source was, but Ernest V. Stoneman and the Stoneman Family recorded this on several occasions, the first in 1927. It appears possible that the Brown version (which comes from a manuscript collection) predates this, but unfortunately this is one of the many undated items in the collection; we don't even know when Brown received the manuscript.
The first appearance of the song Cohen could find was a Wehman broadside, apparently in print by 1886; it lists Billy Kearney as the author, and the tune as "True As Steel." It is very different from the Stoneman text and doesn't even mention railroads. I'd call them recensionally different -- perhaps even separate songs -- and so leave the Stoneman recording as the earliest date, subject to Paul's caveat about the Morris recording. - RBW
File: RcRtPTHL

Remember Well

See My Blue-Eyed Boy (File: R759)

Remember Well and Bear In Mind

DESCRIPTION: "Remember well and bear in mind, A faithful/gentle/honest/tender friend is hard to fine, But when you find one kind and true, Never change the old one for the new."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (autograph album of George Washington Franklin, according to Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: friend nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 123, "(Remember well and bear in mind)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 134, "(Remember well and bear in mind)" (1 short text, containing only the first couplet.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (lyrics)
NOTES [135 words]: This verse seems to have floated, in whole or in part, into several songs, including "My Blue-Eyed Boy," but it apparently exists in isolation as well, so I've given it its own entry.
This is one of many items Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore extracted from the autograph album of George Washington Franklin, which he maintained 1882 to 1895 or after. Solomon-ZickaryZan also list it as an autograph album verse.
Web searches for this quote find many people attributing this to Laura Ingalls Wilder (although none of them actually said where she published it!). But Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore's quote precedes any of Laura's published writings, and Brewster apparently picked it up in Indiana. I'd call that traditional, although I wouldn't bet on it ever having been sung except as part of "My Blue-Eyed Boy." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: SaKo123R

Remember Well and Don't Forget

DESCRIPTION: "Remember well and don't forget, You have a friend that loves you yet."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Henry, from Mary King)
KEYWORDS: love friend
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 231, (first of several "Fragments from Tennessee") (1 fragment)
File: MHAp231A

Remember, Love, Remember

See Past Ten O'Clock (File: FMNS128)

Remember, O Thou Man

DESCRIPTION: "Remember O thou man, O thou man, O thou man, Remember O thou man, thy time is spent, Remember... how thou art dead and gone, And I did what I can, therefore repent." The Fall is recounted; Jesus came to rescue Man from the effects
AUTHOR: Thomas Ravenscroft?
EARLIEST DATE: 1611 (Ravenscroft, Melismata)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 373-374, "Remember, O Thou Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 144-145, "Remember, O Thou Man" (1 text,`1 tune)
Noah Greenberg, ed., An Anthology of English Medieval and Renaissance Vocal Music, pp. 206-208, "Remember O Thou Man" (1 text, 1 tune with harmonization)
Roud #23782
NOTES [18 words]: There is no hint that this is traditional; I'm surprised it ended up in the Roud Index. Great tune, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ChReOTM

Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November

See The Fifth of November (Guy Fawkes Song) (File: OpEs119)

Reminiscences

See Titles of Songs (Song of Songs, Song of All Songs, Song of Song Titles) (File: R515)

Remon

DESCRIPTION: (Creole) French: "Mo parle Remon, Remon, Le parle Simon, Simon, Le parle Titine, Titine, Li tombe dans chagrin. O femme Romulus! O belle femme Romulus! O femme Romulus! O belle femme que ca voule mo faile!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 110, "Remon" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 215, "Remon" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LxA215

Removal of Napoleon's Ashes, The

DESCRIPTION: At Waterloo Napoleon was forced to yield. Marie Louisa wept and cursed the gold that bribed "False Grouchy." A monument is erected in Paris "to contain the ashes of his heart, And every Frenchman that passes by respectfully a tribute pays"
AUTHOR: John Morgan (source: broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(116), Harding B 13(205), Harding B 11(3256), Curzon b.41(63) and Harding B 15(256a))
EARLIEST DATE: before 1856 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(116)); c.1845 (broadside NLScotland L.C.1270(016)) [see Notes]
KEYWORDS: battle separation betrayal France wife Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
December 15, 1840 - Napoleon's ashes are returned to Les Invalides in Paris (source: "Hotel des Invalides" on Travel Channel site)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 206, "Napoleon Bonaparte" (2 texts, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(116), "Ashes of Napoleon," J. Cadman (Manchester), 1850-1855; also Harding B 15(256a), Firth b.34(197), "[The: Removal of Napoleon's Ashes"; Harding B 11(117), "The Ashes of Napoleon"; Harding B 13(205), Curzon b.41(63) [many words are difficult to read], Harding B 11(3256), "The Removal of Napoleon Buonaparte's Ashes"; Firth c.16(100), "Napoleon's Remains"; 2806 c.15(105), Harding B 19(14), "The Removal of the Remains of Napoleon, from St. Helena"
LOCSinging, as111620, "Removal of Napoleon's Ashes," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.1270(016), "The Ashes of Napoleon," James Kay (Glasgow), c.1845
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wheels of the World" (for the charge that Grouchy betrayed Napoleon)
cf. "Napoleon Bonaparte (III)" (for the charge that Grouchy betrayed Napoleon)
cf. "The Royal Eagle" (subject: Marie Louisa's grief for Napoleon)
cf. "The New Bunch of Loughero" (theme: Marie Louise's grief for Napoleon)
cf. "Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena)" (theme: Marie Louise's grief for Napoleon)
NOTES [138 words]: The commentary for broadside NLScotland L.C.1270(016) states "James Kay worked in Glasgow as printer during the mid-1840s." - BS
Emmanuel Grouchy (1766-1847) commanded one of the wings of Napoleon's army in the Waterloo campaign, and his failure to arrive at Waterloo may have cost Napoleon the battle. The charge that he betrayed Napoleon occurs also in "Napoleon Bonaparte (III)" (see that song for a discussion) and in "The Wheels of the World," but there is no reason whatsoever to believe that it is true.
Although the conceit is common in folk song, there is even less reason to think that Marie Lousia of Austria grieved for him, since she became involved with other men before he was even dead. (See the notes to "Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena)"; also "The Royal Eagle" and "The New Bunch of Loughero") - RBW
File: Moyl206

Renaldine, or The Mountains of Pomeroy

See Reynardine [Laws P15] (File: LP15)

Reno Blues

DESCRIPTION: "I come home this morning, when my clock was striking two (x2) The first thing I saw was another man's hat and shoes." The singer leaves his girl and says he is going to Reno. He is never coming back. He will travel until his shoes break down, then die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Three Tobacco Kings, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: love separation travel death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 614, "Reno Blues" (1 text)
Roud #21368
RECORDINGS:
Three Tobacco Tags, "Reno Blues" (Bluebird 7361, 1937)
File: CAFS2614

Repenting Sinner, The

DESCRIPTION: "In tears I now lament the sinful life I spent It's time for to repent." "That's cheating... cursing... envying our neighbors, Lust and fornication and vile insinuations." "Old and young prepare... Pray both late and early... for God to show us mercy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian Bod11415 Harding B 11(1109))
KEYWORDS: mercy nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30114
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. K. McCarthy, "The Repentant Sinner" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod23090 2806 b.9(208), "The Repenting Sinner" ("Good christains young & old give eure unto my scroll"(sic)), P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also Bod4008 2806 c.18(262), Bod3997 Harding B 26(569), Bod9050 2806 c.8(130), Bod21971 Harding B 26(568), "The Repenting Sinner"
File: ML3ReSin

Report Card

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope dialog. The jumper says "Goodbye Mama" and reports to school. The teacher asks where her report card is. Mother says the baby chewed it. The jumper is offered a "scolding or a whipping"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: jumprope dialog mother punishment | school report card
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #29, "(Good-by, Mama)"
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #155, "Good-by, mother" (1 text)
File: AJRV029

Report on the Condition of Locomotive #7

DESCRIPTION: "Thunder Lake Lumber Company, Rhinelander, Wisconsin" has an englne so bad that "the cylinders are oval where they ought to be round." Heating her up meant "every seam leaked and at every spot." But "she's a d-- good engine for the shape she's in."
AUTHOR: attirbuted to "'George Smith,' Engineer"
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Gard/Sorden)
KEYWORDS: railroading humorous derivative
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden, _Wisconsin Lore: Antics and Anecdotes of Wisconsin People and Places_, Wisconsin House, 1962, pp. 90-91, "Report on the Condition of Locomotive #7" (1 text)
NOTES [49 words]: Most of this can be sung to the tune of "Casey Jones," which I assume was the source. The first two lines, about the Thunder Lake company, may have been a patch-on to an earlier song (and might be the only contribution of the anonymous "George Smith" to whom Gard/Sodern attribute the piece). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GaSor089

Requiem for the Croppies

DESCRIPTION: "The pockets of our greatcoats full of barley," the croppies fought with pikes and would "stampede cattle into infantry." "Until, on Vinegar Hill, the fatal conclave.... And in August the barley grew up out of the grave"
AUTHOR: Seamus Heaney (1939-) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion battle death burial
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 21, 1798 - The Wexford rebels are defeated at Vinegar Hill
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 141, "Requiem for the Croppies" (1 text)
File: Moyl141

Rerenga's Wool

See The Maori's Wool (File: BaRo133)

Rest for the Weary

See There's a Rest for the Weary (File: RcTRftWe)

Rest of the Day's Your Own, The

DESCRIPTION: "One day when I was out of work a job I went to seek." He takes a job, is given a list of tasks and told that, once done, "The rest of the day's your own." The list is too long, so he messes up the tasks, is fired, and "The rest of my life's my own."
AUTHOR: J. P. Long and W. David, according to Palmer
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Old Time Comic Songs, No. 1., according to Palmer)
KEYWORDS: work humorous escape hardtimes money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #40, "The Rest of the Day's Your Own" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RESTDAY*
Roud #1485
File: PECS040

Rest, Sweet Nymphs

DESCRIPTION: "Rest, sweet nymphs, let golden sleep Charm your star-brighter eyes, While my lute the watch doth keep With pleasing sympathies. Lulla, lullaby. Lulla, lullaby. Sleep sweetly, sleep sweetly...." The singer wishes the "dear damsels" rest as he departs
AUTHOR: Francis Pilkington (died 1638)
EARLIEST DATE: 1605 (The First Booke of Songs or Ayres of 4 Parts)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | sleep
FOUND IN:
Roud #V70233
RECORDINGS:
Erica Warnock, "Rest, Sweet Nymphs" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #450, recorded 01/26/2023)
NOTES [59 words]: This is a beautiful piece if done right -- it seems to be considered Francis Pilkington's best work, based on Internet searches -- but traditional? It seems effectively certain that the Erica Warnock version derives from a recent recording. Note that Warnock gave Derek Piotr another early "classical" piece, "Come Again, Sweet Love Doth Now Invite." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcReSwNy

Restaurant Romance, A

DESCRIPTION: "A young man entered a restaurant To seek an evening meal" and orders "Salmonier," which is unavailable. He and the waitress argue and apologize and dream of their own restaurant and eventually become engaged
AUTHOR: M. A. Devine (1857-1915) (source: Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 4th edition)
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 4th edition)
KEYWORDS: food courting love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "A Restaurant Romance" (1 text): pp. 74-75 in the 5th edition
Roud #7306
File: Doyl4074

Resting In My Home

DESCRIPTION: When the singer dies the choir will sing, the preacher will preach and the singer will be buried but she won't be there. "I'll be resting in my home beyond the sky"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (USSeaIsland03)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Minnie Gracie Gadson, "Beyond the Sky" (on USSeaIsland03)
File: RcResIMH

Restless Dead, The

See The Unquiet Grave [Child 78] (File: C078)

Restless Night, A

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you good people, I pray you draw near, A comical ditty you shortly shall hear" about the singer's visit to a tavern in Missouri. The meal was all right, but the beds were full of lice and fleas. The singer is happy to leave Missouri for Arkansas
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs)
KEYWORDS: drink travel hardtimes bug
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 85-87, "A Restless Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 51-52, "Durie Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2976
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Comical Ditty (Arizona Boys and Girls)"
File: Abrr085

Resurrected Sweetheart, The

See The Unquiet Grave [Child 78] (File: C078)

Resurrection Morn, The

DESCRIPTION: "O run, Mary, run, Hallelu, hallelu, O run, Mary, run, Hallelujah!" "It was early in the morning." "That she went to the sepulchre." "And the Lord he wasn't da." "But she see a man a-comin'." "And she thought he was the gardener...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus resurrection Easter Bible
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 54, "The Resurrection Morn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12014
NOTES [202 words]: Tthis is a pretty close paraphrase of John 20:1-17, though interpreted in the light of the other gospels
* Mary (Magdalene) came to the tomb early on Sunday morning (John 20:1)
* The tomb was empty (John 20:2, though this verse does not use the word "empty"; as a matter of fact, none of the gospels use the word "empty" to describe the tomb!)
* "She thought he was the gardener": John 20:15 (though John never says that Mary saw Jesus approach)
* "Oh touch me not": John 20:17
* "For I am not yet ascended": John 20:17
* "Tell to my disciples": John 20:17 again, though the word used in the Bible is not "disciples" but "brothers" (which, in Christian context, is probably to be read as "comrades, members of the Church"). The King James Bible translates this properly; the use of the word "disciples" is probably a memory of Matt 28:19 or some such
* "That the Lord is arisen": This is the one phrase in the song with no real ties to John; Jesus says in 20:17 that he is *ascending*, but that presumably means ascending to heaven.
* "So run, Mary, run": Mary runs to Peter and the Beloved Disciple in John 20:2; she does not run in 20:18, but merely comes/goes (same word in Greek). Close enough, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: AWG054

Resurrection of Christ

DESCRIPTION: "Go and tell my disciples (x3) Jesus is risen from the dead." "Go and tell Sister Mary [and Martha]." "Go and tell poor sinking Peter." Pilate, Doubting Thomas, and others are to receive the message also
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads)
KEYWORDS: resurrection Jesus religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, p. 86, "Resurrection of Christ" (1 text)
File: ReSm086B

Resurrection, The

See Free Salvation (The Resurrection) (File: FSC079)

Retour du Mari Soldat, Le

See Brave Marin (Brave Sailor) (File: LeBe013)

Retour du Marin, Le

See Brave Marin (Brave Sailor) (File: LeBe013)

Retreat to Leeds

DESCRIPTION: "I'll be down to get you in a tram car, honey, Taxis cost too much money... We'll go down to the Robin Hood... Go in and have a few... Tomorrow night when I roll into Leeds." They will dance and cuddle even though he has a wife and kids at home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier dancing drink courting sex wife warning
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 134, "Retreat to Leeds" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #29418
File: Hopk134B

Retrospect

DESCRIPTION: "Was not the day (x3) dark and gloomy." "The enemy" built a position, "But Blessed be the Lord, the snare is broken." In language too reminiscent of the King James Bible, the singer gives thanks for military success and hopes for peace
AUTHOR: William Billings
EARLIEST DATE: 1778 (The SInging Master's Assistant, according to Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
KEYWORDS: war religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 182-183, "Retrospect" (1 text)
NOTES [12 words]: For more about composer William Billings, see the notes to "Chester." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: FlNG182

Return of Charlie Horse, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is spending an evening at Mahers and steps out for some air. Looking over Angel Pond, he sees the ghost of Charlie horse. When the mist closes in the singer loses sight of Charlie and goes back inside to tell the boys.
AUTHOR: Omar Blondahl
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing)
KEYWORDS: horse ghost
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 20-21, "The Return of Charlie Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Concerning Charlie Horse" (tune, chorus, subject and references there)
File: Blon020

Return of Pat Molloy

DESCRIPTION: Molloy returns to Dublin after four years in America and is stopped by "a castle-hack" who accuses him of being a Fenian. He is, but he has returned with money to take Molly and his mother to America. He and Molly marry and all move to New York.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1879 (broadside, LOCSinging as111690)
KEYWORDS: marriage emigration return reunion America Ireland patriotic money
FOUND IN: Ireland
RECORDINGS:
Brigid Tunney, "Wee Paddy Molloy" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
Paddy Tunney, "Paddy Molloy" (on IRPTunney02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pat Malloy" [Laws Q24] (character of Pat Malloy/Molloy)
NOTES [245 words]: Notes to IRPTunney02: "This is a song linked with the Fenian Rising of 1867. Many of the Fenians learned their soldiering in America during the Civil War and then returned to Ireland to fight their own battle."
Broadside LOCSinging as111690, which is longer than Paddy Tunney's version on IRPTunney02, is the basis for the description.
Broadside LOCSinging as111690: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadside LOCSinging as111690 includes the note "Sung, with unbounded applause, by William H. Lindsey."- BS
Most scholars don't seem to link this to Laws Q24, "Pat Malloy," though Laws notes a sequel to that ballad, 'Molly's Welcome to Pat Malloy." But in Laws Q24, we learn that Pat is in love with Molly, that he goes to America, and that he returns home at the end. This is a clear sequel to those events -- possibly a political rewrite, given the mention of the Fenians.
The Fenians were an organization devoted to freeing Ireland. The organization was founded in 1858 by James Stephens, and quickly spread; the British government felt the need to suppress the group in 1865. Stephens and others were taken prisoner; although he escaped, it turned him cautious; he no longer had the nerve to take aggressive action. That pretty well killed the group as an active set of rebels; their attempt at an Irish rebellion failed in 1867. - RBW
File: RcRoPaMo

Return of the Admiral, The

DESCRIPTION: The admiral sees a shark -- a harbinger of death -- following his ship. He tries to be bold but dies that night. His body is dropped overboard and "never from that moment, save one shudder in the sea" do they see the shark again.
AUTHOR: B. W. Proctor (source: Hamilton)
EARLIEST DATE: 1832 (New-York Mirror)
KEYWORDS: burial corpse death sea ship animal sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 44, "The Shark" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: The New-York Mirror (New York, Saturday August 25, 1832 (“Digitized by Google”)) Vol. X, No. 8, p. 62, “The Return of the Admiral” (1 text)
Walter Hamilton, Parodies of the Works of English and American Authors (London: Reeves and Turner, 1887 ("Digitized by Google)) Vol. IV, p. 207, "The Return of the Admiral"
Roud #12876
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3268) "The Return of the Admiral" ("How gallantly, how merrily We ride along the sea"), J. Catnach (London), 1819-1844; also Firth b.25(599), Firth c.14(273), Johnson Ballads 1552 [almost entirely illegible], "The Return of the Admiral"; Firth c.12(342), "The Admiral"
File: OSY244

Returned Soldier, The

DESCRIPTION: French. A couple takes in a passer-by because their son is also a soldier. They worry about the boy. The passer-by reveals that he is their son
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage soldier separation reunion
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 517, "The Returned Soldier" (1 text, reportedly incomplete)
NOTES [16 words]: Sort of a Riley ballad, only with the parents rather than the lover being the ones fooled. - RBW
File: Beld517A

Reuben (I)

See Nine Hundred Miles (File: LxU073)

Reuben (II)

See Reuben's Train; also Nine Hundred Miles (File: Wa133)

Reuben and Rachel

DESCRIPTION: Rachel speculates to Reuben about "What a good world this would be If the men were all transported Far beyond the northern sea." Reuben, shocked, tries to fathom the idea; at last he offers marriage. Rachel accepts
AUTHOR: Words: Harry Birch / Music: William Gooch
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (sheet music published by White, Smith & Perry of Boston)
KEYWORDS: dialog transportation courting love humorous marriage
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 180-183, "Reuben and Rachel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 168-169, "Reuben and Rachel" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 460, "Reuben and Rachel"
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 345, "Reuben, Reuben" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 86, "Reuben, Reuben" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #224, p. 57, "Reuben and Rachel" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 255, "Reuben and Rachel" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 47, "Reuben and Rachel" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, REUBRACH*
ST RJ19180 (Full)
Roud #15451
RECORDINGS:
Trevor McKenzie, "Reuben, Reuben" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #174, recorded 05/11/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Winnipeg Whore" (tune)
cf. "The Swede from North Dakota" (tune)
cf. "Napoleon (I)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
We Sing Nothing (File: ACSF415N)
Had a Little Dog ("I had a little dog and his name was Fido, He was nothing but a pup") (Harbin-Parodology, #21, p. 13; cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 422)
Sal and I ("Sal and I went to the circus, Sal got hit with a rollin' pin") (Harbin-Parodology, #22, p. 13)
Napoleon ("I had a horse and his name was Napoleon") (Harbin-Parodology, #108, p. 32; cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 255)
Curiosity/Wet Paint ("One dark night at the close of day, A curious man had lost his way") (Harbin-Parodology, #33, p. 15)
You're a Dandy ("???. you're a dandy, And when you are old and gray") (Harbin-Parodology, #177, p 48)
You're a Winner ("O ???. you're a winner, And we love you more every day") (Harbin-Parodology, #209, p. 54)
You're a Wonder (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 255)
I've Got a Ford ("I've got a Ford, and it's a wonder, It will give you shakes and thrills") (Harbin-Parodology, #391, p. 95)
NOTES [82 words]: There is a children's game, "Jacob and Rachel" or "Reuben and Rachel," printed in Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 305-306. It is not listed as a musical game, but perhaps it is related.
Rodeheaver suggests that this can be used as a canon -- take the first verse, and have the second part come in after two measures, i.e. after the line, "Reuben, Reuben, I've been thinking." One could in fact do it as a four-part round, with each part coming in after an additional two measures/one line. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RJ19180

Reuben James

DESCRIPTION: Describes the sinking of the destroyer "Reuben James" by submarines off the coast of Iceland, the loss of 100 men [and the rescue of 44]. Chorus: "What were their names, tell me what were their names/Did you have a friend on the good Reuben James?"
AUTHOR: Words: Woody Guthrie & Pete Seeger w. the Almanac Singers
EARLIEST DATE: November, 1941
KEYWORDS: battle navy war death rescue ship derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct. 31, 1941 - U. S. destroyer Reuben James, an old 4-stacker, is the first American ship sunk in World War II.
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 84, "Reuben James" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Pete Seeger, _Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Musical Autobiography_, A SIng Out Publication, 1993, 1997, pp. 26-27, "Reuben James (The Sinking of the Reuben James)" (1 text, 1 tune, with additional notes on p. 86)
Roud #17624
RECORDINGS:
Woody Guthrie, "Sinking of the Reuben James" (on AmHist2)
Pete Seeger, "Reuben James" (on PeteSeeger41)
Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry, "Reuben James" (on SeegerTerry)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wildwood Flower" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sinking of the Reuben James
NOTES [3240 words]: There is some dispute over the authorship of this song; most alumni of the Almanac Singers say that Guthrie wrote the verses, Seeger added the chorus, but Seeger insists that other members of the group also contributed lyrics. - PJS
Seeger, in Where Have All the Flowers Gone, p. 86, says that Guthrie wrote the lyrics but no chorus, and that the Almanacs told him that no one else would be willing to sing his version. So Guthrie came up with a chorus, and also trimmed the song. So the best explanation would seem to be that it's almost all Guthrie, but with a lot of suggestions from the Almanacs.
The Reuben James was named for the man who was credited with Stephen Decatur's life when both were serving on the Intrepid (Paine, p. 430) during the wars with the Barbary Pirates. Decatur was leading a small fleet of Neapolitan gunboats against a similar force of Tripolitan gunboats. Decatur's own vessel captured an enemy, but Decatur's brother James was tricked when another ship offered a false surrender; as James boarded the enemy, the captain shot him in the head. Stephen Decatur, enraged by this act of treachery, went after the Tripolitan ship with the men he had left after putting a prize crew aboard his first conquest.
Decatur's men were badly outnumbered, but Decatur went straight for the man who had murdered his brother, "and within minutes the two were rolling around the deck in a deadly embrace.... As Decatur struggled to stay on top of the enemy captain, a Tripolitan seaman attempted to save his leader by aiming a savage blow of his scimitar at Decatur's exposed head. But before the blow fell, one of the wounded American crewman -- Reuben James in one account, but Daniel Frazier according to another telling -- threw himself under the pirate's sword, took the blow, and, amazingly, lived to tell about it. Decatur was saved, and with his hand briefly freed as others tumbled upon him and the enemy captain, he slipped his hand into his pocket, cocked the hammer of his pistol, and through his pantaloons shot the pirate dead" (Utt, p. 83).
One has to suspect that James was really the one who saved Decatur, since the prejudice of the time might cause people to hid the heroism of a black man.
James continued to serve with Decatur for many years. He was captured by the British during the War of 1812, but he returned to the American navy when released after the war. In all, James suffered three injuries in combat, and retired from the Navy in 1836 (he had lost a leg); he died on December 8, 1838 (Parkin, p. 1).
There is a picture of the ship Reuben James facing p. 112 of Parkin; Bailey/Ryan, facing p. 155, shows her as she was in 1932; and Preston, p. 97, has a photo of her as she looked in 1939. She was one of the the four-stack flush-deck destroyers built by the U.S. Navy in the period 1917-1920, The ship was a member of the Clemson class (Bruce/Cogar, p. 306), which (according to Jane's, p. 144) were 310 feet long, 31 feet wide. Figures as to her displacement vary; Bruce/Cogar, p. 306, says 1190 tons; Paine, p. 430, 1090 tons; Worth, p. 308, 1100 tones; Jane's says the class was 1215 tons as designed. It was a huge class of ships; the Clemsons and the similar Wickes class totaled 273 ships, according to Parkin, p. 331 (for comparison, only 71 destroyers, in seven other classes, were built by the U.S. from 1923 to 1937; the Clemsons, despite their age, were the standard destroyers of the pre-World War II period). Because the ships were built in such large numbers, and so quickly (some in less than two months), they often were not very well-constructed (Alden, p. 3); there simply weren't enough construction sites to assemble high-quality ships at that pace.
There were many problems with the design; the boiler layout was inefficient, reducing their range, and the four stacks meant that they didn't have much deck space (Preston, p. 48) -- a real problem as they were loaded with more and more anti-submarine equipment! They also were armed only with 4" guns at a time when other navies were adopting 4.7" guns, and although they had lots of torpedo tubes, they were mounted on the beam rather than the centerline, making them less effective (since they could only be aimed to one side); they were "outmoded even by 1918 standards" (Whitley, p. 11)
The Clemson class as a whole was noted for being very "wet" forward, and for rolling badly even by destroyer standards; they also had "a turning radius larger than a battleship's" (Worth, pp. 308-309). They had been designed to have long range and be good at conducting torpedo attacks during a fleet action, so they were very long and lean -- and hence not maneuverable; "this suited them poorly for antisubmarine work where agility was needed" (Reilly, p. 11). Edwards, p. 109, claims that in addition their two propellers rotated in the same direction, which is hard to believe but would certainly make them even harder to maneuver. And they didn't even really have a very long range; on convoy escort, they didn't have enough spare fuel to make high-speed chases (MorisonAtlantic, p. 87). Nor was much done to improve them between the wars; there was no money for upgrades, and most of them spent at least some time rusting in the reserve fleet (Reilly, p. 12) -- indeed, some crews were assigned to crew two ships, alternating between two to keep both in some sort of working order (the "rotating reserve"; Alden, p. 17). When the Americans next designed a destroyer type, more than a decade later, they produced a new design with nothing in common with the four-stack classes.
The ships of the Clemson class were those that were "lent" to Britain before the U.S. entered World War II, although Reuben James was not one of the ships transferred. Although American critics dissented, the Americans really did have old destroyers to spare -- most of them had gone into mothballs before World War II, and needed real work to get back into sailing shape (Snow, p. 94), and a lot of them never did go back into service. But Britain had lost about half of the destroyers of its Home Fleet at Dunkirk; it needed ships desperately, no matter how broken-down and ill-made they were (Snow, p. 90).
The British, when they inherited some of them during World War II, had some scathing things to say about them:
Roll on the "Nelson," the "Rodney," the "Hood,"
This ship I'm on is no bloody good.
Roll on old peacetime and let us depart,
This four-funnelled bastard is breaking my heart. (Boase, p. 170. This is a version of "She's a Tiddley Ship"; see that song for other versions of this song).
This does not mean that the ships were entirely useless in World War II; the John D. Ford, in particular, was almost the only bright light in the horrid story of the Java Sea campaign of 1941-1942, where the Japanese swept aside a fleet of American, British, Dutch, and Australian ships; she received a Presidential Unit Citation for her service (Alden, p. 97; she survived the war, to be scrapped in 1945; Alden, p. 79). But the flush-deckers were so poor as destroyers that Alden, pp. 89-95, has an extensive list of those converted to other ship types: 22 minelayers, 14 seaplane tenders, 18 minesweepers, 36 high-speed transports, 42 "miscellaneous auxiliaries," and at least 14 unclassifiables such as target ships, water barges, and at least one fruit carrier!
All sources agree Reuben James was completed in 1920. She was initially fitted with four 4" guns and four sets of triple 21" torpedo tubes; her speed when new was 35 knots. She, like the other Clemsons, had no antisubmarine weapons when built (Alden, p. 30).
Immediately after World War I, Reuben James was involved in humanitarian missions and peacekeeping around Europe, and was one of the ships that celebrated the return of the Unknown Soldier to the U.S. (Parkin, p. 2). Later in the 1920s, she was frequently involved in United States interventions in Latin America (Paine, p. 430). In the years immediately before World War II, she was part of the Neutrality Patrol, being part of "Patrol 3" (MorisonAtlantic, p. 15n.) that watched over a region very roughly corresponding to the coasts of the Carolinas.
"The Rube" briefly went into mothballs in 1931, then guarded American interests in Cuba during the revolution there (Parkin, p. 2). She spent 1934-1939 in the Pacific before returning to duties in the Atlantic. Despite minor refits in the period between the two wars, by 1941, she was fairly "tired," and almost certainly somewhat slower than her 1920 speed (and probably less comfortable -- not that the flush-deckers had ever been comfortable).
In March 1941, she became part of Destroyer Squadron 31, one of three destroyer groups assigned to the "Support Force Atlantic Fleet" -- i.e. convoy protection. One of the groups was made up of new destroyers, but both Squadron 31 (led by Captain Wilder D. Baker) and Squadron 30 consisted of old destroyers, mostly Clemsons.
At the time of her sinking, she was commanded by Lt. Commander H. L. Edwards (MorisonTwo, p. 37) -- who sounds like a bit of a cowboy; he was known as "Tex" and had been an Olympic wrestler (Roscoe, p. 23). She was part of a squadron commanded by Commander R. E. Webb (MorisonAtlantic, p. 94). She was based at Hvalafjordur, Iceland (a base the Americans had occupied somewhat earlier, without noticeable enthusiasm on the part of the Icelanders; MorisonAtlantic, p. 74fff.), and she sank while escorting convoy HX-156 from Argentia, Newfoundland (Paine, p. 430. Parkin, p. 3, says she was one of five American destroyers in the convoy escort -- but only one of the five ships had radar, so they had little ability to find U-boats. To make it worse, the radar-equipped destroyer was at the back of the convoy, according to Roscoe, p. 24, so it probably couldn't spot anything anyway).
The escort was not zig-zagging (MorisonAtlantic, p. 94). Internet sources say that it was because the ships of the convoy were having trouble with station-keeping, the escort had to sail straight courses to prevent collisions. This obviously made the escorts a better target. And it was a slow convoy, sailing at just 8.8 knots (Roscoe, p. 23); these always tended to have high casualties.
Williams, p. 156, reports that the Reuben James was hit on the port side by a torpedo, and broke in two. The forward section promptly blew up. "The stern remained afloat for a further five minutes, as fuel split into the sea from the ruptured tanks and covered the survivors in a black, choking coat of oil. From the water men could hear the screams of those trapped inside as she sank. As the twisted remnants of the destroyer slipped under the water her depth charges exploded, killing many of those left struggling in the water. Only 45 of the 160-man crew were saved."
Snow, pp. 139-140, agrees that the Reuben James was guarding convoy HX-156 when Erich Topp's U-552 spotted her. He wanted to sink tankers, not destroyers, but the destroyer was in the way, so Topp fired two torpedoes into her. "The Reuben James was not a new ship; she was a four-stacker, older than many of the men who crewed her. She had no double hull, and fewer watertight compartments [than newer ships such as the Kearny, which had recently survived a U-boat attack; see below]. The torpedo ignited her forward magazine. The Reuben James split in two just in front of her fourth stack, and the forward part was gone in seconds, taking with it every officer and the captain, Tex Edwards. The stern stayed afloat for perhaps five minutes, giving some of the men there the chance to escape into the winter sea" (Snow, p. 140).
One of the survivors reported two explosions when the ship was hit (Parkin, p. 4), but that doesn't necessarily indicate two torpedo hits; explosion #2 may have been a secondary explosion. Crewmen on the aft section had time to take to life rafts, but soon after they got into the water, there was a third, underwater, explosion (as mentioned above, the crewmen thought it was her depth charges exploding as she went down; Parkin, p. 5), tossing the survivors back into the water. Still, the rafts may have saved some, since they weren't in the icy water as long as they would have been otherwise. The survivors were picked up by another destroyer, Niblack, which took them to Reykjavik; they were treated for their injuries and hypothermia and then sent back to the U.S. (Parkin, pp. 5-6; the Hilary P. Jones also was part of the search, according to Roscoe, p. 25).
Guthrie was (almost) correct in saying that 44 men were saved (give or take one), but since the ship's crew totaled 160 according to Williams, or 159 according to Paine, p. 430 (a very full complement; the ships were designed for a crew of about 100 in peacetime, 150-160 in wartime), the casualties actually totaled about 115, not one hundred. Observe that this means Reuben James had a full wartime crew aboard; she was not operating under peacetime conditions!
This is important because we need to keep in mind that the Reuben James was sunk five weeks *before* the United States officially joined the Second World War (Bruce/Cogar, p. 306). By this time, however, the U.S. Navy was unofficially escorting convoys to Britain. (Officially the navy was to take actions "short of war." But, as MorisonTwo observes on p.37, "'short of war' was not so very short for the Atlantic Fleet.") While U.S. ships normally did not sink submarines, they helped the British track them. Functionally, the American destroyers were making war on the German submarines. In fact, the U.S.S. Greer had actually fired on a German submarine (U-652) on September 4 (MorisonTwo, p. 36) after pursuing her for at least six hours (Williams, p. 154). (This was an extraordinarily complicated case where it's hard to say who really fired first -- a British plane had gone after the Germans and contacted the Greer; MorisonAtlantic, pp. 79-81). Thus German action against U.S. ships was not unjustified. "Admiral Raeder [commander of the German navy]... told Hitler that the president of the United States had declared war on Germany: 'There is no longer any difference between British and American ships!'" (Snow, p. 137). But Hitler did not, yet, agree.
The Reuben James was not the first U.S. naval vessel, let alone the first American ship, to be attacked by the Germans in World War II. On May 21, a U-boat had sunk the unarmed American freighter Robin Moor, abandoning her crew to die (although, by incredible luck, all lived to tell the tale); this somehow didn't attract much attention (Bailey/Ryan, pp. 138-139). The Greer incident, the first to involve the navy, was later, and in another part of the world. Apart from the incident between the Greer and U-652 (which, as Parkin points out on p. 3, could perhaps be justified because the Greer was another Clemson class ship, and so had the appearance of the many Clemson class ships the British were using), the destroyer U.S.S. Kearny (which could not be mistaken for a British ship) was badly damaged on October 17 (Snow, p. 138; the Greer was one of the ships that came to her aid; MorisonAtlantic, p. 93), and the oiler Salinas was torpedoed on October 30 (MorisonTwo, p. 37). When U-562 sank the Reuben James the next day, it was not really much of an escalation -- but it came as a shock to the American people.
The sinking of the Reuben James, we must emphasize, did *not* cause the U. S. to go to war (indeed, the U. S. didn't declare war on Germany; Germany declared war instead). Even if it had, Guthrie's confident prediction that American battleships would engage the Germans was short-sighted. Some people say falsely that battleships were useless in World War II -- but while they had their uses, fighting the German navy wasn't one of them. Battleships are useless against submarines, and at the time the Reuben James was sunk, there was not one American battleship fast enough to catch *any* of the handful of German surface ships. It wasn't until the 27.5 knot North Carolina finished fitting out some months later that the U. S. actually had a battleship "mighty" enough (read: fast enough) to fight even against German surface navy. The North Carolina was the first big ship of what Pratt, p. 218, calls the "Roosevelt Navy," which was already adding destroyers and cruisers to the fleet; had peace lasted, the Reuben James would probably have been retired in the next few years. The ironic bottom line: Reuben James was far more useful as a symbol of German aggression than as an actual warship.
Roscoe, p. 25, declares "One question... was definitely answered. The attacks on GREER and KEARNY might conceivably have been the work of hotheaded submarine commanders. But the attack on REUBEN JAMES was obviously deliberate." In other words, an act of war.
That being said, her sinking did not produce as much outrage as one might expect. Wortman, p. 313, says of the public response, "Rueful memories of the U. S. entry into World War One, driven by the same drip-drip-drip of torpedoed ships sinking beneath the Atlantic waves, muted the public outcry for revenge. As with the Panay on the Yangtze, many Americans continued to fault their own nation for having placed American ships in harm's way."
Although the U. S. did eventually put fast battleships to sea, there was never a serious conflict between major units of the American and German navies. The Germans had only a handful of major warships: The battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz; the battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gniesenau; the panzerschiff Deutschland/Lutzow, Graf Spee, and Admiral Scheer; and the heavy cruisers Admiral Hipper, Prinz Eugen, and Blücher. (Two other cruisers of this class, Seydlitz and Lützow, were not completed and never served in the German navy; Paine, p. 66). The British did most of the work of hunting them down. They sank the Bismark in 1941 before the Americans joined the war (Paine, p. 64, or see the notes to "The Sinking of HMS Hood"). The British forced the Graf Spee to scuttle in 1939 (see "The Sinking of the Graf Spee"). The Tirpitz, Lützow, and Admiral Scheer were destroyed by British aircraft (Paine, pp. 520, 314, 5). Gneisenau, mined and bombed by the British, was scuttled in 1945 (Paine, p. 211). A British fleet destroyed Scharnhorst in 1943 (Paine, pp. 463-464),
Of the cruisers, Hipper was sunk by British planes (Paine, p. 4), and Blücher was destroyed in the invasion of Norway (Paine, p. 66). Prinz Eugen was the only major German surface vessel to survive the war; it was used in the Bikini nuclear test, and eventually sank as a result of damage sustained (Paine, p. 407).
There was an ironic foreshadowing of the Reuben James's fate; in a 1939 pre-war naval exercise, she had been "sunk" by a submarine (Snow, p. 11).
Guthrie's original text was too long for singing, but might have made a decent epic poem; he not only listed every sailor, but described them, e.g.
There's Harold Hammer Beasley, a first rate man at sea
From Hinton, West Virginia, he had his first degree. (Snow, p. 141).
The last verse of this song as usually sung today ("Many years have passed...") was added by Fred Hellerman in the 1950s.
(And, sadly, we know the answer to Hellerman's question: The worst of men fight because it's an easy way to spread their genes.) - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: PSAFB084

Reuben Ranzo

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Ranzo, boys, Ranzo." Typically concerns the life of Reuben Ranzo, a landlubber who "was no sailor" but wound up aboard ship and had to learn fast -- or, perhaps, had enough schooling to turn to navigation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1882
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,SE) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (26 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 23-25, "Reuben Ranzo" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 104, "Reuben Ranzo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #23, "Ranzo's Son" (1short text, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm/Murdoch, pp. 63-64, "Reuben Ranzo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 54-56, "Ranzo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 70, "Reuben Ranzo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 89-91, "Reuben Ranzo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 240-244 "Reuben Ranzo" (2 texts & fragments, 1 tune - second text is in Swedish & English) [AbEd, pp. 175-178]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 126, "Reuben Ranzo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXXII, p. 37, "Poor Old Reuben Ranzo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 96-98, "Reuben Ranzo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 144-146, "Reuben Renzo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 50-53, "Reuben Ranzo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 101, "Reuben Ranzo" (1 text)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 76-77, "Reuben Ranzo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #22, "Reuben Ranzo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 143-144, "Reuben Ranzo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 124, "Hey for Reuben Ranzo" (1 fragment)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 560-561, "Reuben Renzo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 313-314, "Reuben Ranzo" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 83, "Reuben Ranzo" (1 text)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 36, "Reuben Ranzo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 38, "Reuben Ranzo" (1 text)
OneTuneMore, p. 28, "Reuben Ranzo" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RBNRANZO
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). A fragment of "Reuben Ranso" is in Part 2, 7/21/1917.
Roud #3282
RECORDINGS:
Noble B. Brown, "Reuben Ranzo" (AFS, 1946; on LC26)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brindisi Di Marinai' (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Brindisi Di Marinai (File: Hugi245)
NOTES [182 words]: Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland speculates that "Renzo" is a corruption of "Lorenzo," which is at least reasonable -- but then comments that "It is probable too that Lorenzo may be a mythical hero." For this supposition there is not a shred of evidence that I can find.
Hugill mentions the "Lorenzo" possibility, but notes that "Reuben" doesn't fit well in that case. He lists three other theories: That it refers to the Danish sailor Daniel Rantzau, that it was an Eastern European Jew with a name like Reuben Ronzoff, or that Reuben derives from the description "Rube" for an inexperienced hand. Evidemce is, of course, lacking.
The ending also varies; Terry mentions Ranzo marrying the Captain's daughter, or being thrown overboard (and having additional adventures undersea), and him being flogged as a thief.
Bone-CapstanBars, who has the virtue of actually getting this from sailors, was "inclined to think that [Ranzo] was born in the word alone," that is, that it's an invented name that works well in this context, noting that the word somehow seems to suit the action of hauling. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Doe023

Reuben Renzo

See Reuben Ranzo (File: Doe023)

Reuben Wright and Phoebe Brown

DESCRIPTION: Phoebe loves Reuben; her parents disapprove, and Reuben doesn't think much of them either. They determine to marry; her father grabs a shotgun. He accidentally kills his daughter. Reuben kills the father -- and awakes from his terrible dream
AUTHOR: Probably Sam Cowell (source: sheet music found by John Baxter)
EARLIEST DATE: 1852 (Lancaster Examiner, February 25, 1852, according to John Baxter)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Phoebe loves Reuben; her parents disapprove, and Reuben doesn't think much of them either. The young people determine to marry, and start for the parsonage in the rain, while her father grabs a shotgun. Instead of hitting Reuben, he kills his daughter. Reuben kills the father, tears his hair -- and awakes from his terrible dream
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness courting elopement love violence homicide revenge death dream humorous recitation father children
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 297-298, "Reuben Wright and Phoebe Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5414
RECORDINGS:
Hamilton Lobdell, "Reuben Wright and Phoebe Brown" (AFS, 1941; on LC55)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Young Sailor Bold (I) (The Rich Merchant's Daughter)" [Laws M19] (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Love, Murder, and Almost Matrimony
NOTES [73 words]: Each verse has the third line recited as prose, rather than sung. - PJS
John Baxter posted a full text of this on Mudcat, with some listed sources, and assembled a text of various versions. I had thought it American, based on where it was collected, but Sam Cowell's version of course would be British. But Baxter notes some other attributions: "Mr K Blifkins" and "HMT." One should probably see his notes at folksongandmusichall.com - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcRWaPB

Reuben, Reuben

See Reuben and Rachel (File: RJ19180)

Reuben's Train

DESCRIPTION: Lyric piece about Reuben's train and travels. Versions vary widely; most contain a verse something like this: "Reuben had a train and he put it on the track, Hear the whistle blow a hundred miles."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Grayson & Whitter, as "Train 45")
KEYWORDS: train nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 503-517, "Reuben's Train/Train 45/900 Miles" (2 texts plus excerpts equivalent to about three more, 2 tunes; the first text is close to "Reuben's Train," the second to "Nine Hundred Miles," but the article is mostly devoted to showing how the two songs mix)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 236, "Reuben's Train" (2 texts, with "A" being closer to "Nine Hundred Miles" than "B")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 236, "Reuben's Train" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 133, "Reuben's Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #64, "Old Reuben" (1 text, 1 tune, with an extremely high number of floating verses)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 32, "Old Reuben" (1 text, 1 tune, with so many verses characteristic of both "Reuben's Train" and "Nine Hundred Miles" that I'm filing it with both)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 34-36, "Reuben" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 302, "Reuben" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3423
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "Reuben Oh Reuben" (Paramount 3295, c. 1931; on BefBlues2)
Dock Boggs, "Ruben's Train" (on Boggs3, BoggsCD1)
Carolina Ramblers String Band, "Ruben's Train" (Banner 33085/Romeo 5345/Oriole 8345/Perfect 12818/Melotone M-13047; rec. 1932)
Bill Cornett ,"Old Reuben" (on MMOKCD)
Elizabeth Cotten, "Ruben" (on Cotten02)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Train 45" (Victor 21189, 1928, rec. 1927, on GraysonWhitter01) (Gennett 6320, 1927/Champion 15447 [as by Norman Gayle], 1928)
Vester Jones, "Old Reuben" (on GraysonCarroll1)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers [or Wade Mainer], "Riding on Train Forty-Five" (Bluebird B-7298, 1937; Victor 27493, 1941)
Wade Mainer & the Sons of the Mountaineers, "Old Reuben" (Bluebird B-8990, 1941)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Riding on That Train 45" (on NLCR06, NLCRCD2; on ClassRR [as "Train 45"])
Poplin Family, "Reuben" (on Poplin01)
Wade Ward, "Old Reuben" [instrumental] (on Holcomb-Ward1)
Doc Watson, "Old Ruben" (on Ashley02, WatsonAshley01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nine Hundred Miles"
cf. "Rain and Snow"
SAME TUNE:
Jack O'Diamond Blues (recorded by Blind Lemon Jefferson)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Old Reuben
NOTES [125 words]: I know two tunes for this piece. One resembles "Nine Hundred Miles" and "Rain and Snow"; these three songs seems to have cross-fertilized (so much so, in fact, that I literally cannot tell which one was the more direct ancestor of the Grayson & Whitter recording; I placed it there almost arbitrarily).
The other is that used by Frank Proffitt, who said of it, "This is one of the oldest simple banjo tunes.... It was generally the first tune learned, by playing two strings. There are about fifty different verses to this" (quoted by Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl).
G. B. Grayson is said to have turned "Reuben's Train" into "Train 45" -- but they are still so close that I think they can be considered one song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Wa133

Reveille in the Woods

See Shanty Boy's Reveille (File: Be017)

Review of the Year

DESCRIPTION: "This year's been one continuous trouble, Squatters fighting hand in hand." Squatters and shearers are quarreling over wages; times are hard throughout Australia. The singer expects to win, and urges hearers to join the (shearers') union
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: worker hardtimes labor-movement sheep strike
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 199-200, "Review of the Year" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: AnSt199

Revive Us Again

DESCRIPTION: "We praise Thee, O God! for the Son of Thy love, for Jesus who died, and is now gone above." "Hallelujah! Thine the glory. Hallelujah! Amen. Hallelujah! Thine the glory. Revive us again." "We praise Thee, O God! for Thy Spirit of light." Glory to the Lamb
AUTHOR: W. P. McKay (source: Hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (date of composition, according to: Hymnary. org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 357-358, "Revive Us Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27556
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (I)" (parody)
File: HGam357

Revolutionary Song

See Old Granny Wales (Granny O'Whale, Granua Weal) (File: DTgrnwl2)

Revolutionary Tea [Laws A24]

DESCRIPTION: Mother Britain is angry that her daughter America will not pay the tea-tax. The mother sends the daughter a great deal of tea and demands she pay the tax (on pain of a beating); the daughter dumps the tea into the ocean
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (Kemp's Old Folks Concert Tunes, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: political rebellion commerce money patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec. 16, 1773 - Boston Tea Party. Americans protest the British tax on tea by dumping a shipload into Boston Harbor
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont) US(Ap,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws A24, "Revolutionary Tea"
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #25, pp. 188-189, "Revolutionary Tea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 302-303, "There Was an Old Lady Lived Over the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #1, "Revolutionary Tea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 53-54, "Revolutionary Tea" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 59-61, "The Rich Lady Over the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 54-56, "Revolutionary Tea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 8-9, "Revolutionary Tea" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 368, REVTEA*
Roud #1934
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Granny Wales (Granny O'Whale, Granua Weal)" (subject: The Tea Tax)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Old Lady Over the Sea
NOTES [22 words]: For background on the Tea Tax, see the notes to "Old Granny Wales (Granny O'Whale, Granua Weal)"; also "Taxation of America." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: LA24

Revolutionary War Song

DESCRIPTION: "I'm almost ninety and nine, but I still remember the time, When the country was invaded by the British, One of freedom's noble sons, our brave George Washington, Made 'em skeeedadle from the happy land of Canaan. Ha ha (x4), Bound for the happy land..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: political age
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #3, "Revolutionary War Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5022
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Revolutionary Times" ("John Bull, don't you remember, now") (theme)
NOTES [53 words]: A nitpicky footnote: The song claims the British invaded America and George Washington made them flee. But the British did not *invade* America, since America was not an independent nation. The British stationed troops there. Of course, the British *would* invade (in 1812), but by then George Washington was dead.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Morr003

Reynardine [Laws P15]

DESCRIPTION: A lady meets Reynardine (the singer for most of the song). He courts her while bidding her not to reveal his name. He says he has a castle in the forest and that she can reach him by calling him. He then vanishes (?); she warns women against such rakes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Journal from the Sharon)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction supernatural warning betrayal
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England(South)) Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws P15, "Rinordine"
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 64-66, "Renaldine, or The Mountains of Pomeroy" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a rewrite by Dr. George Sigerson)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 286-288, "Rinordine" (2 texts plus excerpts from 1 more)
Randolph 99, "Rinordine" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 47, "Rinordine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 76, "Rinordine" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan15 , Rinordine"" (1 confused text, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 113, pp. 143-144, "Ryner Dyne" (1 text)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 108-109, "Rinordine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 222-223, "Rinordine" (1 text)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 112-113, "Rinordine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 32, "Rinordine" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 199-200, "Rinordine" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 138-139, "Reynardine" (1 text)
DT 341, REYNDINE* REYNDN2*
ST LP15 (Full)
Roud #397
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs "Reynardine" (on ESFB2, Briggs2, Briggs3, Briggs4)
A. L. Lloyd, "Reynardine" (on Lloyd2, Lloyd3)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.8(310), "Reynardine," unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.8(253), "Reynardine"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shannon Side" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "The Mountains of Pomeroy" (subject)
NOTES [196 words]: Although the name "Rinordine" is pretty definitely the older and more traditional, I've used the title "Reynardine" because that seems more common today.
Some have tried to connect this song in some way to the tale of the crafty Reynard the Fox. None of the links strike me as successful, though of course Bold Reynard may have influenced the shift from "Rinordine" to "Reynardine."
Marge Steiner sends me the following note, which perhaps offers a better explanation of the origin of the name:
[Phillips] Barry says that the ballad is based on a sixteenth-century Sicilian outlaw-hero, Rinaldo Rinaldini, and he cites an Italian romance, Storia di Rinaldino. There was a novel by Vulpius, which was translated into English and which is referred to in Moby Dick. Barry also quotes from a romance that would seem to parallel the ballad. When the tale of Rinaldini Rinaldini came to Ireland, it assumed various permutations, including Roynel Doine. George Sigerson re-wrote the old ballad as the poem, "The Mountains of Pomoroy." I hadn't heard anything of the Italian outlaw/hero/fugitive before. But this does make more sense than do connections with Reynard the Fox. - [RBW]
Last updated in version 6.0
File: LP15

Rheumatism

DESCRIPTION: "Rheumatism, rheumatism, How it pains, how it pains, Up and down the system, Up and down the system, When it rains, when it rains."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: disease derivative nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #328, p. 81, "Rheumatism" (1 text, tune referenced)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 121, "Rheumatism" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 255, 516, "Rheumatism" (notes only)
Roud #25810
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Frere Jacques (Are You Sleeping; Brother John)" (tune) and references there
NOTES [50 words]: This is an unusual example of one of Harbin's songs that seems to have been taken into tradition, at least in a small way; there is a typed copy in the James Madison Carpenter collection, item 11251 (?); the Vaughn Williams Memorial Library has a scan under JMC/1/7/3 (American Songs), Folder 162. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF255R

Rhyme for Entering Portsmouth Harbour

DESCRIPTION: "First the Nab and then the Warner, Blockhouse (Spit/Fort) and (Submarine) corner"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 40, "Rhyme for Entering Portsmouth Harbour" (2 short texts)
File: Tawn023

Rhyme of Old Steamboats

DESCRIPTION: Poem composed of the names of steamboats, rhymed with each other. Sample: "The Fred Wyerhauser and the Frontenac, The F. C. A. Denckmann and the Bella Mac, The Menomenee and the Louisville, The R. J. Wheeler and the Jessie Bill...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (The Burlington Post, according to Russell)
KEYWORDS: river recitation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 586, "Rhyme of Old Steamboats" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Edward Russell, _A-Rafting on the Mississip'_,, 1928 (republished 2001 by the University of Minnesota Press), pp. 345-346, "(no title)" (1 text)
Walter Havinghurst, _Upper Mississippi: A Wilderness Saga_, Farrar & Rinehart, 1937, 1944, pp, 247-248 "(no title)" (1 excerpt, presumably from Russell)
NOTES [50 words]: It's not clear whether this was ever sung, or just recited. - NR
So much for the theory that people made better use of their time in the days before television.
According to Russell, a Mr. F. C. Ralphe of Hastings, Minnesota, found this among "old papers" and sent it to the Burlingon Post in 1927. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BMRF586

Rhymes for a Race

See Up the Street, Down the Street (File: Newe072)

Rhymes on Johnnie and Annie

DESCRIPTION: "Who'll do their coutrin' With a right god will; Have courted long and have courted still? Johnnie and Annie." "Who never goes home until half past two? Johnnie." "Who thinks.... Young Jonnnie the most handsome and grand? Annie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Stout-FolkloreFromIowa); reportedly learned arboud 1875
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 103, pp. 127-133, "Early Iowa School Songs" (11 texts, of which "K" is this song)
Roud #21648
File: Stou103K

Rhynie

DESCRIPTION: Singer recalls his first job, working at (or for) Rhynie. The work is ill, the wages small, the rules onerous. The place is miserable, but he dare not leave before the season ends for fear of losing his fee. When it does end, he hits the road cheerfully
AUTHOR: John Riddel ? (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #9, p. 2)
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Ford 1899 series)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes abuse farming worker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 207-208, "Linten Lowrin" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 348, "Jock o' Rhynie" (7 texts, 3 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 268, "The Bogend Hairst" (1 text, a short version that might possibly be mixed with something else)
Roud #3090
RECORDINGS:
John Strachan, "Rhynie" (on FSB3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Barnyards of Delgaty" (tune, chorus, theme)
cf. "Linton Lowrie" (tune)
cf. "The Cockies of Bungaree" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rhynie's Jock
The Bonny Toon o' Huntly
NOTES [285 words]: I'm sorely tempted to lump this with, "Barnyards of Delgaty" -- they share the same theme, tune and chorus, and are clearly closely related. But there's no overlap in the actual words, and the man from whom, "Rhynie" was collected, John Strachan, also sang a separate version of "Barnyards," so I split them. - PJS
Greig #9 quoting a correspondent Mrs Corbet: "... I may mention that 'Jock o' Rhynie' and 'Bogieside' are both by the same author [John Riddel, again according to Mrs. Corbet, in Greig #28], but am of the opinion that he was not the author of the 'Barnyards o' Delgaty,' but rather that the author of that song has borrowed a good many of the verses belonging to 'Jock o' Rhynie,' with a few alterations." Greig/Duncan3 347 has more comments on the distinction between this song and "The Barnyards o' Delgaty" and, in Greig/Duncan3 348, quotes Duncan's note to Greig agreeing that the songs are not the same.
Greig/Duncan3: "Duncan wrote to Greig on 1 February 1908 saying: 'Your last correspondent's statements (and Mr Milne's [see note to [Greig/Duncan3] 347 'The Barnyards o' Delgaty']) about the song beginning, 'In New Deer pairis,' etc. ending in 'jock o Rhynie' and being different from 'The Barnyards' agree with my own information."
Greig/Duncan3: "Greig notes in Ob. 20 [I don't find it there] that the octogenerian William Forsyth told him 'that he remembers as a boy hearing his mother sing "Jock o' Rhynie." This would carry the song back say to 1830."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Mains of Rhynie (348,349) is at coordinate (h2-3,v5) on that map [roughly 31 miles WNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: RcRhynie

Ribber Ben Come Dung (River Has Come Down)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: Rattler can't cross the river. Then he takes a bamboo, log, stone, and makes a way to get across. Finally he comes over and dances on the river bank. The singer is glad he made it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: river flood ordeal worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica pp. 13-15, "Ribber Ben Come Dung"; pp. 47-49, "De Ribber Ben Come Dung" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, ("Ribber Ben Come Dung")",("De Ribber Ben Come Dung") (on WIEConnor01)
Louise Bennett, "How You Come Over" (on WILBennett01)
NOTES [5 words]: Call and answer digging song. - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: JaMu013

Ribbins O'Robbins

DESCRIPTION: "'There's a hen down yon lane,' says Ribbins O'Robbins (x2), 'So Johnny come home." "Let's catch it, let's catch it." "It's copt." "Let's pluck it." "It's plucked." "Let's cook it." "It's cooked." "Let's eight (eat) it." "It's etten."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire)
KEYWORDS: food chickens | cooking
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 73, "Ribbins O'Robbins" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cutty Wren" (probable source) and references there.
NOTES [95 words]: Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire says that this is "obviously a corrupt version of the Cutty Wren song," and I think that almost certainly true -- certainly the first thing I thought of upon reading it was "The Cutty Wren," particularly the "We will go to the wood, says Robin to Bobbin" form. But if you look at it, neither the form nor the plot match "The Cutty Wren." I'm nearly certain they are related, but "nearly certain" isn't enough reason to lump; I'm keeping them separate while admitting a high likelihood that this is a badly damaged version of that song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: HFSL073

Ribbon Blade, The

DESCRIPTION: Roman Catholic Mick Sheridan passes a parade of Yeomen. They surround him and Colston says "he commands the Ribbon Blades." They jail him in Ballina and, when bribery fails to convince him to "make discovery," hang him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: Ireland execution prison political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 132, "The Ribbon Blade" (1 text)
NOTES [172 words]: "Following an affray at Loughgall in Co. Armagh in 1795 the Orange Order was founded, while the Yeomen were also established in June 1796. These were made up mainly of men from the Orange Lodges." (source: The 1798 Rebellion on the Hogan Stand site)
Zimmermann p. 19: "In some parts of Ulster, Protestant and Catholic tenants were mingled and contended for the land; the peasantry was thus divided into two camps, each having its oath-bound association. This led to a sort of religious war. At the end of the eighteenth century the Catholic "Defenders" were opposed to the Protestant "Peep o'Day Boys" or "Orangemen." The "Defenders" were succeeded by the "Ribbonmen."
An example of the conflict is the "Battle of Crossgar," March 17, 1849 (source: 17 March 1849- Battle of Crossgar at the Orange Pages site).
Ballina is in County Mayo. - BS
For more on the Orange Order and its founding and the troubles it inspired, see e.g. the notes to "Dialogue Between Orange and Croppy, "The Grand Mystic Order' and"The Boys of Wexford," - RBW
File: TSF132

Ric-A-Dam-Doo, The (Ring-Dang-Doo (III))

DESCRIPTION: A version of "Ring-Dang-Doo (I)" localized to Canada: "The Princess Pat's Battalion They sailed across the Herring Pond... And landed there with the Ric-A-Dam-Doo." The song describes their disorderly conduct and some of the battalion's members
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier derivative war
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 48-49, "The Ric-A-Dam-Doo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1880
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ring-Dang-Doo (I)" (euphemism) and references there
NOTES [341 words]: This is obviously a member of the extended family of "Ring-Dang-Doo" songs, but it is entirely about one particular group of soldiers, and largely free of the sexual references in the main entry, so I've split it.
As the song says, the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry was created in the first world war, named for Princess Patricia of Connaught (1886-1976), the granddaughter of Queen Victoria by her third son Arthur, Duke of Connaught. She later became the Lady Patricia Ramsey. The organizers of the Canadian unit presumably chose to honor her because she was, for a member of Victoria's family, relatively modern and easy to sympathize with.
After World War I, most Canadian infantry units were shut down. According to David J. Bercuson, Maple Leaf Against the Axis: Canada's Second World War, 1995 (I use the 2004 Red Deer Press edition), p. 16, apart from reserves, there were only three active-duty regiments retained, the Royal Canadian Regiment, the Royal 22e Regiment -- and the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. It thus retained its coherence all the way until World War II, when one of its battalions was made part of the First Canadian Division -- the first Canadian unit designated for overseas deployment. Because of British and Canadian politics, it was some time before the First Canadian went into combat, but it was one of the units involved in the 1943 invasion of Sicily (Bercuson, pp. 152-153) -- an invasion mentioned in the next-to-last verse of Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear's text; one suspects that most of the rest of the song was written before that, when the division, and the Princess Pat's, were stuck in Britain waiting for something to happen. From Sicily, the Canadians went to Italy and became involved in the long slow slog up the peninsula. This was a very difficult, expensive campaign; the Princess Pat's were particularly hard hit in fighting along the "Hitler Line" near Aquino and the Liri River (Bercuson, pp. 187-188). But, like most Canadian units, they fought well. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hopk048

Rich Amerikay [Laws O19]

DESCRIPTION: A young farmer is leaving Ireland. His rich sweetheart urges him not to go to a foreign land, but Ireland is too impoverished for him. Seeing that she cannot change his mind, she at last decides to go with him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting emigration
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws O19, "Rich Amerikay"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 97, "Rich Amerikay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 27, "Wild Amerikay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1916
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Star of Donegal" (plot)
File: LO19

Rich and Rambling Boy, The

See The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)

Rich and Rare Were The Gems She Wore

DESCRIPTION: A knight meeting a beautiful lady wearing gems and a gold ring asks why she is not afraid to walk alone in Ireland. She answers: "No son of Erin will offer me harm; For tho' they love woman and golden store, Sir Knight! they love honor and virtue more!"
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Moore-IrishMelodies-1846)
KEYWORDS: virtue beauty gold Ireland patriotic knight
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, pp. 19-20, "Rich and rare were the gems she wore" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 111, "Rich and Rare Were The Gems She Wore" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 100, "Rich and Rare Were the Gems" (1 text); p. 189, "Rich and Rare Were the Gems She Wore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V13985
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(6a/b) View 6 of 8, "Rich and Rare Were the Gems She Wore", R. March & Co. (London), 1877-1884; also Firth b.26(338), "Rich and Rare Were the Gems She Wore"
NOTES [72 words]: Not one of Moore's hits; Granger's Index to Poetry doesn't mention a single anthology containing the piece, and I know of no traditional collections. Interestingly, however, Edward Harrigan, the New York writer of ethnic plays (for whom see "Babies on Our Block") quotes two lines of this in his book The Mulligans, implying some sort of folk currency. (See Edward Harrigan, The Mulligans, G. W. Dillingham, 1901, p. 51). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon111

Rich Counsellor

See The Lawyer Outwitted [Laws N26] (File: LN26)

Rich Farmer's Daughter, The

See The Highwayman Outwitted [Laws L2] (File: LL02)

Rich Irish Lady, A (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.) [Laws P9]

DESCRIPTION: Sally at first scorns a suitor, then changes her mind and calls for him. She admits that she is dying for love of him. He informs her that he intends to dance on her grave. She takes three rings from her fingers for him to wear while dancing, then dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1808 (journal by Hannah Lowell of Plum Island, Massachusetts)
KEYWORDS: courting dying funeral revenge sailor
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,MW,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (47 citations):
Laws P9, "A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.)"
Bronson 295, "The Brown Girl" (49 versions, but very many of these, #1, #3, #8, #13, #16, #17, (#19), #24, #25, #35, #36, #41, #44 are listed by Laws as "A Rich Irish Lady," as is #8 though it mixes with "The Death of Queen Jane"; #2, #5, #10, #15, #20, #21, #29, #32a/b, #34, #37, #38(a), #45, #47, #49 are apparently LP9 as well; #4, #6, #7, #11, #31, #38b, #39, #42 are fragments which appear more likely to be LP9; #14, #22, #23, #27 are fragments identified by Laws with LP9 though this cannot be proved; #9 (from Baring-Gould) is definitely the Child version, and #33, #48 probably; #18 is a fragment that might be part of "Glenlogie"; #26, #28 have no text; #30, #40, #43 might be either)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 295, "The Brown Girl" (5 versions: #1, #20, #26, #41, #47, of which #41 and #47 are clearly this and some of the others might be)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #79, p. 1, "The Sailor from Dover" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1219, "The Sailor from Dover," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bonny" (11 texts, 6 tunes)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 44, "The Brown Girl" (7 texts plus 4 fragments, 11 tunes, though the "D" fragment at least could be from "Glenlogie"; although listed as Child 295, every full text appears to be Laws P9; some of the fragments might be either) {Bronson's #17, #16, #14, #18, #42, [F not in Bronson], #36, #35, #41, #46, #22}
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 34-35, "Pretty Sally" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 418-425, "Sally and Her True Love" (2 text plus 2 broadside versions, 3 tunes; the "A" text has an artificial happy ending carelessly grafted on) {Bronson's #1, #1, #19}
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 111-118, "A Brave Irish Lady" (5 rexts, 2 tunes; it appears that Laws does not consider one of these versions, probably version E, to be this song, but it certainly belongs to the same family)
Randolph 40, "Pretty Sally of London" (5 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes; it is possible that the fragment is Child #295) {A=Bronson's #44, B=#24, F=#15}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 104-107, "Pretty Sally of London" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 40F) {Bronson's #15}
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 90, "A Brave Irish Lady" (3 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 90, "A Brave Irish Lady" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #177, "The Brown Girl" (1 text, titled "Pretty Sally," listed as Child #295 but properly this piece)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 27, pp. 128-130, "The Brown Girl" (2 texts, listed as Child #295 but clearly this piece)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 8, "The Rich Lady from London (The Brown Girl)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #25}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 50, "The Brown Girl" (8 texts plus 2 fragments, all versions of this rather than Child #295; 3 tunes, all entitled "The Brown Girl"; 1 more version mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #42, #31, #23}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 59, "The Rich Lady From Dublin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 37-38, "A Rich Irish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #45}
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 40-41, "A Rich Irish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, p. 98, "There Was a Young Lady" (1 fragment; tune on p. 389) {Bronson's #38b}
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 26, "The Brown Girl" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 160-161, "The Irish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 244-2426, "The Fair Damsel from London" (1 text from the Green Mountain Songster)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland4, pp. 285-291, "The Irish Lady, or Sally from London" (2 texts, one of them being from the Green Mountain Songster; 1 tune, lacking lyrics but said to be this piece)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 52, "Fair Lady of London" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 64, "The Brown Girl" (1 text, 1 tune, listed as Child 295)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 29, "Fair Sally (The Brown Girl)" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version) {Bronson's #1}
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 24, "Pretty Sally" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 114, "Pretty Sally" (4 texts plus mention of 2 more; Laws does not list the "B" text as belonging here, but it clearly does.)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 45-46, "A Rich Irish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 100-101, "Pretty Sarah" (1 text, 1 tune, which seems a little confused about who does the rejection but on the basis of lyrics belongs here rather than with Child 295)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 42-43, "Pretty Sally" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #19, "The Brown Girl" (1 short text)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 92, "The Sailor from Dover" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #10}
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H72, pp. 374-375, "Am I the Doctor?" (1 text, 1 tune -- a version with the hatred toned down and with verses reminiscent of "Glenlogie")
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 111-112, "Pretty Sally" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 678-680, "The Brown Girl" (2 texts, but "B" is Laws P9)
Aston-Sailor, #70, "Sally and Billy" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 135-136, "A Rich Irish Lady" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 146, "A Rich Irish Lady" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2324, "A seaman of Dover, sweet William by name"
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W Amos Abrams, "Della Adams Bostic: Sweet Singer of Old Songs," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), pp. 145-146, "Sweet Sally" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Pure Coincidence -- If Not, Why Not?," Vol. XXI, No. 4 (Nov 1973), p., 179-180 "Sweet Sally" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Horton Barker: Folk Singer Supreme," Vol. XXII, No. 4 (Nov 1974), p. 152, "Pretty Sally" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Paul Robertson, "Ballads & Bytes: The Digitally Reproduced Folksong Collections of Dr. I. G. Greer and Dr. W. Amos Abrams" Vol. LV, No. 2 (Fall-Winter 2008), p. 56, "The Brown Girl" (1 partial text, a reproduction of the last page of a decorated manuscript copy; based on the reproduction, it's hard to tell if it is Child 295 or Laws P9, but it's clearly one or the other)
DT (295), AMIDOCTR* BRNGIRL*
Roud #180
RECORDINGS:
Loman D. Cansler, "Sally" (on Cansler1)
Cas Wallin, "Fine Sally" (on OldLove, DarkHoll) {cf. Bronson's #14}
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(284), "The Sailor from Dover" ("There was a young sailor, from Dover he came"), unknown, no date; Harding B 25(1689), "The Sailor from Sunderland"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Brown Girl (I)" [Child 295]
cf. "Glenlogie, or, Jean o Bethelnie" [Child 238] (lyrics in some texts)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The English Lady Gay
Fine Sally
NOTES [178 words]: Considered by some to be a variant of "The Brown Girl" (Child #295). The plot is identical except that the male and female roles are reversed. Laws declares that the two should be considered separate but related ballads. This agrees with, e.g., Cohen, Cox, and Randolph, but disagrees with Pound, Sharp, Davis, Scarborough, Flanders (naturally; she's lumped more absurd things than this) and (tentatively) Hudson, as well as (implicitly) Hubbard, Bronson and Roud. - RBW
Some of the Greig/Duncan6 texts and the Bodleian broadsides actually end happily by adding a last verse along these lines:
On hearing this the sailor began much to rue:
Said he, my dearest Sally, I've long admir'd you;
Then lay aside your grieving, for I will constant prove,
To-morrow we'll be married, and happy live, my love.
Greig/Duncan6 deduces that Greig's text is a composite of Greig/Duncan6 1219K and 1219J.
In "The Sailor from Sunderland," the sailor relents and the couple are married. - BS
I added "sailor" as a keyword because at least some versions have a sailor as a protagonist. -PJS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LP09

Rich Lady From Dublin, The

See A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.) [Laws P9] (File: LP09)

Rich Lady Gay, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was of a rich lady she had gold in store. She was loved by the rich and was good to the poor." She meets a ploughboy and gives him a letter. Later she proposes. He says she's "too good for a poor man's wife." They marry. She takes up house-keeping.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1975 (recording, Harry Upton)
KEYWORDS: love marriage farming money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
Roud #1714
RECORDINGS:
Harry Upton, "The Rich Lady Gay" (on Voice05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cupid the Plowboy" [Laws O7] (plot)
NOTES [232 words]: Maybe this is related to "Cupid the Plowboy" [Laws O7]. Here is a comparison of Harry Upton's "Rich Lady Gay" on Voice05 with Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland "Cupid the Plowboy [Laws O7]" 79, "The Plowboy" and broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(773) "Cupid, the Pretty Ploughboy":
** Rich Lady Gay:
A rich lady sees a plowboy in the fields and falls in love with him.
She tells him she has a letter for him. He reads it and says it must be for "some other much higher renowned."
Another day she meets him in the field but he says "you're too good to be a poor man's wife"
He admits he loves her.
She agrees to marry him.
They quickly go to church and are married.
She takes up housekeeping and they live happily.
** Cupid the Plowboy:
A rich lady sees a plowboy in the fields and falls in love with him.
She considers writing him a letter and thinks he'll think her bold; nevertheless, she will do it.
She rejects a wealthy suitor because she loves Cupid, who "has caused me all this pain."
He hears her complaint and says he loves her.
She agrees to marry him.
They quickly go to church and are married.
They have plenty of gold and "each other do adore."
So far I have found no broadside for "Rich Lady Gay." Apparently, neither has Steve Roud.
The motif of the rich woman enjoying wifely chores not common among the wealthy is also in "The Golden Glove" [Laws N20]. - BS
File: RcRiLaGa

Rich Lady over the Sea, The

See Revolutionary Tea [Laws A24] (File: LA24)

Rich Man and Lazarus, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all thoughtless people by whom Adam came...." Listeners are reminded of Lazarus in heaven and the Rich Man in Hell. The song consists mostly of the lecture to the Rich Man which took place after he died.
AUTHOR: Edward B. Miller?
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad punishment Hell
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 55, "Dives and Lazarus" (1 text)
Roud #6567?
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dives and Lazarus" [Child 56] (subject) and references there
NOTES [133 words]: Jesus's story of the rich man and Lazarus is found in Luke 16:19-31 (the Lazarus of John 11, 12 is unrelated).
It's worth remembering that this is not something that actually happened in the Bible; rather, it is a story Jesus told as a warning.
The status of this piece is extremely dubious; it was reportedly collected from the author. Our general policy is to exclude such songs. But the whole story comes at so many removes that we can't prove Miller's authorship (or even, I suspect, his existence).
I nonetheless incline to agree that the song is not traditional; it's too weak.
I don't know if this is the Ed Miller who is also credited with "The Triplett Tragedy," but time and place make it possible. However, this Miller is listed as "Edward Miller," and that one is "Edmund Miller." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: BrII055

Rich Man and the Poor Man, The

See Hi Ho Jerum (File: FSWB025)

Rich Man Rides on a Pullman Car

See She Gets There Just the Same (Jim Crow Car) (File: DarNS355)

Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief

DESCRIPTION: "Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief, Doctor, lawyer, Indian chief." "Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief." Or other verses listing occupations. Often used as a counting-out rhyme
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell); something similar occurs in Caxton's _The Game and Playe of the Chesse_, c. 1475
KEYWORDS: playparty worker nonballad jumprope | occupations counting
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So) Britain(England(North)) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #42, "Flower Oracles" (1 short text plus excerpts)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 24, "(Telling Fortunes)"; p. 49, "RIch Man, Poor Man" (2 texts)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #25, "(Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #489, "Rich man, poor man, beggarman, thief" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 502, "TInker, Tailor...." (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #517 n. 56, pp. 216-217, "(My Belief)"
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, p. 268, "(no title)" (1 short text, used to determine the occupation of a future husband)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 58, "(Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor)" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 119, "(Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 49, "(Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor" (1 text)
cf. Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 139, "What will my husband be?" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Joan McCaskill, collector), "Rope-Skipping Games", Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 11, "(Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Marjorie Rowling, _The Folklore of the Lake District_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 131, "(Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor") (1 short text plus related divination rhymes)
Roud #802
File: Newe042

Rich Man's Daughter, The

See Captain Wedderburn's Courtship [Child 46] (File: C046)

Rich Merchant (I), The

See Young Sailor Bold (I), The (The Rich Merchant's Daughter) [Laws M19] (File: LM19)

Rich Merchant (II), The

See William and Harriet [Laws M7] (File: LM07)

Rich Merchant and his Daughter, The

See Young Sailor Bold (I), The (The Rich Merchant's Daughter) [Laws M19] (File: LM19)

Rich Merchant in Galway, The

DESCRIPTION: The sorrowful singer says "My love is tall and handsome, well shaped in every limb." Her father, a rich Galway merchant, advertises her 1400 pound fortune and sends her love "to plough the ocean"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond02)
KEYWORDS: grief love separation sea father lover sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #6999
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Rich Merchant in Galway" (on IRRCinnamond02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Disguised Sailor" (subject)
cf. "The Young Maid's Love" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My Love is Tall and Handsome
NOTES [53 words]: One factor distinguishing this ballad from other imprest-or-sent-away-lover ballads is that it is told by the woman. Cinnamond's version has only two verses but seems complete and, in any case, any additional verses do not seem likely to lead to a happy ending: "when I think of my darling boy my sorrows do renew." - BS
File: RcTRMiGa

Rich Merchant's Daughter (I), The

See Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser) [Laws N6] (File: LN06)

Rich Merchant's Daughter (II), The

See The Highwayman Outwitted [Laws L2] (File: LL02)

Rich Nobleman and His Daughter, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's of a rich nobleman lately, we hear." He has a daughter, who inherits when he dies. She falls in love with a (plowboy). She and her maid dress up as soldiers and "press" him with a "warrant of love." She appears in her own clothes. They happily marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Broadwood)
KEYWORDS: love courting disguise soldier cross-dressing trick marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 68-69, "The Rich Nobleman and His Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1063
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold (Young Sailor Bold II)" [Laws N17] (plot, lyrics)
NOTES [79 words]: My first glance at this instantly reminded me of "Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold (Young Sailor Bold II)" [Laws N17]. They are in fact in many ways distinct: The girl's father is already dead, the boy is not actually impressed, and the cross-dressing is a trick. But I suspect that this song (not very widely known) was inspired by the Laws Ballad. Or, perhaps, the longer ballad wore down to the point that the plot no longer made sense, and was rebuilt to become this. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: LEBC068

Rich Nobleman's Daughter, A

See Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold (Young Sailor Bold II) [Laws N17] (File: LN17)

Rich Old Farmer, The

See The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)

Rich Old Lady, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Rich Old Miser, A [Laws Q7]

DESCRIPTION: The singer has been courted by "a rich old miser" nearly four times her age. She marries him, but he becomes jealous without cause (and beat her). At last she retaliates by breaking a ladle over his head, teaching him to be civil
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: marriage age abuse punishment
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(MW,NE,Ro) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws Q7, "A Rich Old Miser"
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 304, "The Miser" (1 fragment) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 545)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 227-229, "The Ladle Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 46, "The Battle with the Ladle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 175, "A Rich Old Miser" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #129, "The Ladle Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 521, LADLESNG
Roud #1004
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In Duckworth Street There Lived a Dame" (theme of being hit over the head with cookware)
File: LQ07

Rich Rambler, The

See The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)

Rich Ship Owner's Daughter, The

See Willie o Winsbury [Child 100] (File: C100)

Rich Wedding Cake, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is offered a piece of cake. In it are "insides of old concertinas," flute keys, trout hooks...." They "blow a spot off of the side" with a cannon. When he bites into it "my tooth crumbled off on a button Of a trouser rolled up on the waist."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: wedding food humorous talltale
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 92-93, "The Rich Wedding Cake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6467
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "The Rich Wedding Cake" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Trinity Cake" (theme: an inedible cake)
File: Pea092

Rich Widow, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a rich widow, I live all alone, I have but one daughter And she is my own. Daughter, oh daughter, Go choose you a man, Choose you a good one, Or else choose none." (The widow marries off her daughter, says she's bound to obey, and wishes her well)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: courting mother children marriage playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord)) US(NE) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 198, "The Poor Widow" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 19-20, "I Am a Rich Widow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 23, "Here's an Oul' Widow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 40, "I Am a Poor Widow" (5 texts)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #186, "The Rich Widow" (1 text)
Roud #13181
File: Lins019

Rich Young Farmer, The

See William Hall (The Brisk Young Farmer) [Laws N30] (File: LN30)

Rich, Rich, Fell in the Ditch

See Winnie the Witch (File: BAAI065C)

Richard (Irchard) of Taunton Dean

DESCRIPTION: Herchard/Irchard/Richard courts Miss Jane, saying, "I can reap and I can mow..." and earn his ninepence every day. She replies that she needs silks and satins. He perseveres, saying he has pigs and will inherit more if they marry; she consents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland); before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(254a))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage bargaining farming
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #19, pp. 201-203,247-250, "Richard of Taunton Dean, or Dumble dum deary"; pp. 247-249, "Dicky of Ballyman, (Irish version of Dumble dum deary)" (2 texts)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 369-373, "Richard of Taunton Dean" (1 text plus a text of "Dicky of Ballyman" in the noted)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #163, p. 1, "The Minister's Daughter Jean," "The Parson's Daughter Jean" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan4 821, "The Minister's Daughter Jean" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 166-167, "Young Herchard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 386, "Dick of Taunton Dene" (1 text)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 110, "Dicky of Taunton Dean" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST RcIOTD (Full)
Roud #382
RECORDINGS:
Aunt Fanny Rumble, "Richard of Taunton Dean" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
Tony Wales, "Richard of Taunton Dean" (on TWales1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(254a), "Richard of Taunton Dean" ("Last new year's day, as I have heard"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 11(1343), "Richard of Taunton"; Harding B 25(1617), Harding B 17(253b), Harding B 11(3271), Harding B 25(1619)[mostly illegible], "Richard of Taunton Dean"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lucindy, Won't You Marry Me?"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
On New Year's Day
Dick of Taunton Dean
NOTES [153 words]: Greig: "Version A ["The Minister's Daughter Jean"] retains the English style and language, while B ["The Parson's Daughter Jean"] shows the Scotticising process."
Without exception, the Greig/Duncan4 and Bodleian texts have Richard rejected (broadside Bodleian Harding B 17(254a): "Dick's compliments were so polite, That all the family laughed outright; So when he had no more to say, He mounted old Dobbin and rode away"; Greig/Duncan 821C ends "Your answer, Jean, is quite a treat I'm happy for once at my defeat If this be all you've got to say I'll bid you goodnight for I must away.")
From an undated flier "English Folk-Songs given by the London Glee Singers" [with words to the song]: "An old Somersetshire Folk-Song dating probably from 1716." From The Library of Congress American Memory Courtesy of the Special Collections Department, University of Iowa Libraries. Search on the flier title as shown here. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcIOTD

Richard and I

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves poor Richard. Her parents will have him transported if she insists on marrying him. On "the day we had planned to wed" he is taken and sent to Van Dieman's land. She and her servant girl go to Van Dieman's land. She and Richard marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: love marriage emigration reunion separation abduction transportation family
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 49, "Richard and I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2279
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin's Lovely Home" [Laws M6] (theme) and references there
cf. "A Bonnie Laddie, But Far Awa (theme: parents drive lover away)
File: CrMa049

Richard of Taunton Dean

See Richard (Irchard) of Taunton Dean (File: RcIOTD)

Richard's Lady

See Richie Story [Child 232] (File: C232)

Richardson's Farewell

DESCRIPTION: "Injured Boston now awake While I a true confession make...." The singer, called "the Informer," got a "wretch of wretches" with child, but the crime was blamed upon a Parson. The singer confesses to every other evil and bids farewell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: pregnancy crime punishment execution clergy betrayal
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 179-181, "(The LIFE and humble CONFESSION of Richardson the Informer" (1 text); also p. 182, (no title) (a fragment of another broadside about Richardson)
NOTES [101 words]: This is one of those items that belongs in a bad songs contest. Ebenezer Richardson came to be known as "The Informer" during the 1760s as the American colonies tried to avoid British imports, and in the struggles of the time, Richardson accidentally shot and killed a boy named Christopher Sneider. Richardson was sentenced to death, but he eventually was pardoned.
The outraged populace could do nothing but pin every crime, natural and unnatural, on the fellow while dreaming of hanging him. This broadside is the result -- and it's as much a crime against humanity as anything Richardson ever did. - RBW
File: Burt179

Richat and Robet

See Hunt the Wren (File: K078)

Richie Story [Child 232]

DESCRIPTION: An Earl's daughter is courted by one or more noble lords, but loves none but her father's servant, Richie Story. He tries to dissuade her by pointing out his poverty. At last he gives in. She goes with him and is set to work in his household
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Skene ms.)
KEYWORDS: nobility love poverty servant courting family elopement
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 232, "Richie Story" (9 texts, but the text in the appendix is "When Will Ye Gang Awa'? (Huntingtower)" [Laws O23])
Bronson 232, "Richie Story" (9 versions, but #9 is "When Will Ye Gang Awa'? (Huntingtower)" [Laws O23], and #7 and #8 may be as well)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 232, "Richie Story" (2 versions: #3, #7)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #99, p. 2, "Richard's Lady"; #95, p. 1, "Richie's Lady" (2 texts plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan5 1051, "Richie Story" (7 texts plus a single verse on p. 633; 4 tunes plus two bars on p. 634)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 592-593, "Richie Storie" (1 text)
DT 232, RICHILAD*
Roud #97
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. When Will Ye Gang Awa'? (Huntingtower)" [Laws O23]
cf. "Matt Hyland" (plot)
cf. "The Kitchie-Boy" [Child 252] (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Castle Norrie
Campernaudie
NOTES [3085 words]: Child considers "The Duke of Athol" (="Huntingtower," Laws O23) to be a relative of this song, probably a rewrite. It should be noted, however, that the plots are by no means identical (and it appears that the influence, if any, goes the other way; "Huntingtower" ends with the revelation that the lover is rich, which feature Child considers an addition to "Richie Story"), and there is little lyrical similarity. - RBW
Greig: "In Sharpe's Ballad Book there is the following note on 'Richie Storie,' as he calls the ballad: - John, third Earl of Wigton, had six sons and three daughters. The second, Lady Lillias Fleming, was so indiscreet as to marry a footman, by whom she had issue. She and her husband assigned her position to Lieutenant Colonel John Fleming, who discharged her renunciation, dated in October, 1673."
Child's version F has Richie Storie reveal at the end that "Cumbernauld is mine" and his version G has the couple ride "to Ritchie's yetts." Child mentions, but does not print, a version in which "little she knew that her waiting-man was England's royal king." The royal disguise is in Greig/Duncan 1051A and G [also Greig #99], "Richard's Lady." Greig -- in #99 -- says, "This version takes us into England, and gives us a royal hero -- doubtless Richard the Lion-Heart, whose romantic career would give a good opening for the balladist." - BS
Which has the minor problem that Richard was very possibly homosexual. This is a very vexed question, which I am postponing to an addendum. Even if Richard was entirely heterosexual, he wasn't really available as a marriage prospect anyway; he had been betrothed in his youth to Alais/Alice, of the French royal family, but finally blew her off twenty years after the betrothal, as he was setting out on the Crusade (Warren-Henry, p. 611, who thinks he did so just because he was stubborn. According to Gillingham, p. 160, Richard did this because Henry II had taken Alice as his mistress, but while Henry II was a fairly lusty liege, even Henry would surely have been cautious about the political consequences of such an act! Boyd, p. 230, claims it was "common knowledge that Alais had been Henry's mistress for years," and on p. 250 says he had two children by her, but Warren-John, p. 37, goes so far as to suggest that Alice's brother Philip Augustus actually made up the story to make Richard rebel against Henry II. Saul3, p. 137, thinks Richard never explained it and the story was a rumor designed to explain the inexplicable. Barber, p. 227, thinks it was propaganda, "especially as the princess was reputedly 'a very ugly woman'").
Richard did eventually wed Berengeria of Navarre -- without telling Alice's brother Philip Augustus until the last moment (McLynn, p. 129) -- but the marriage may have been just a device to get his subjects off his back; they were bugging him about not having an heir as he went on crusade (McLynn, p. 130). This would fit with Owen's suggestion (p. 82) that Richard in effect just let his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine pick a wife for him; Boyd, p. 256 etc., goes so far as to describe her as tricking him into marriage.. Alternately, Saul3, p. 138, suggests that he wanted a Navarrese alliance to guard his territory from the Count of Toulouse while Richard was on Crusade.
This makes some sense, since Berengeria was in other respects a rather odd choice -- Boyd, p. 254, says that she was already 25 and apparently was not very attractive.
Even Gillingham's extremely laudatory biography, which denies Richard's homosexuality, admits that "The circumstances of their wedding were, to say the least, odd" (p. 139). In Gillingham's view (p. 140), Richard had been negotiating for Berengeria's hand for some time before the marriage -- but that makes him even more unavailable, because he was, in effect, engaged twice in 1189-1190.
We note that, when Richard was in captivity after the third crusade, we have no record of Richard sending any sort of message to Berengeria (Boyd, p. 277). This is not, however, proof that he ignored her, just an absence of evidence.
What is certain is that Richard and Berengeria had no children, meaning that his brother John succeeded him when he died (Berengeria outlived Richard by three decades, but in his entire reign never visited England; Ashley, p. 527. Boyd, p. 258, says that she was the first and only Queen of England never to set foot in the country). Richard himself was in the country for only about six months in his ten year reign; the rest of the time, he was on crusade or fighting in France. What's more, according to OxfordCompanion, p. 803, he was only twice in England even before he became king. There simply was no *time* for him to be chasing girls. Nor did he speak English to enable him to talk to English girls.(OxfordCompanion, p. 803 -- although an Earl's daughter in Richard's time would probably speak Norman French just as Richard did).
Of course, if the Richard involved isn't Richard I, our problem becomes worse, because there were only two other English Kings named Richard. Richard II was married very early in life, and his first marriage with Anne of Bohemia was singularly -- almost unbelievably -- happy (SaulII, p. 456). When Anne died while still in her twenties, Richard almost at once contracted a marriage to six-year-old Isabella of France (SaulII, p. 457). There are no reports of illegitimate children. Richard II is, it seems to me, impossible as a subject of this ballad.
That leaves Richard III. He was, unquestionably, both fertile and heterosexual (since he left three children by two different mothers, and not even his enemies, who blackened his name in every way they could, accused him of homosexuality. Incest, yes, homosexuality, no). As a matter of fact, there is reason to think that his illegitimate daughter Katherine was fathered while he was "in hiding," since his older brother Edward IV had been temporarily deposed. There is also a curious incident in Richard's career in which he had to go dig up his future wife, Anne Neville, who had been hidden by her sister and brother-in-law. (For details on all this, see the notes to "The Babes in the Woods," which are so huge that I'm not going to repeat all the citations.) Both Richard's affair with the mother of Katherine and his search for his wife have points of contact with this story.
Plus, in a most interesting twist, Richard in the last years of the reign of King Edward IV spent most of his time handling affairs in the north of England. Ross -- who is not friendly to Richard -- declares on p. 44 that "Richard III is unique among medieval English kings in the extent of his connectins with the north of England. By 1483 he had come to know the region and its people more thoroughly than any of his predecessors.... His wife and future queen, Anne Nevill, was heiress to the great northern connections of her family, stretching back for more than a century.... Further, Edward IV had made Richard heir to the Nevill affinity through the systematic grants to him of land and office formerly held by [Anne's father Richard Neville, Earl of] Warwick. By 1483 he had become the dominant figure in England north of the Trent."
Kendall, who is pro-Richard, has a more than fifty page section in his biography which he titles "Lord of the North" (pp. 122-180). Specifically (Kendall, p. 125), Richard was in charge of the West Marches toward Scotland; the East and Middle Marches being the charge of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland (who was under Richard's authority but maintained his county's internal affairs). In other words, not only was Richard's power base in the north, but of the two northernmost counties, *he was in charge of Cumberland* (which is not Cumbernaud, but close), while the Earl of Northumberland ran Northumberland.
Dockray, pp. 112-113, catalogs grants made to Richard (at that time still Richard Duke of Gloucester) by his brother Edward IV. In 1471, he was given Penrith in Cumberland as well as properties in Yorkshire. In 1472, he was made Keeper of the Forests north of the Trent (giving authority in Cumberland). In 1475 he was made Sheriff of Cumberland for life. In 1478 he was Warden of the West Marches. In 1480, he was King's Lieutenant in all the north, and commissioner of array for Cumberland and other counties.
As Pollard puts it on p. 81, "[Richard's] achievement was recognized and rewarded in February 1483 by the creation for him of a county palatine comprising Cumberland and a large stretch of south-west Scotland which it was his declared intention to conquer." Thus we have a perfect fit of the surviving details: In Child's "F," we have Richie the ruler of "Cumbernaud," easily confused with Cumberland. In the unprinted Child text, he is King of England -- in other words, King Richard. And we know from history that Richard III, ruler of Cumberland, searched among servants to recover his future wife Anne Neville (Kendall, p. 126). If these portions of the ballad are original and integral, then the king almost has to be Richard III (who also has the advantage of being the most recent King Richard, and the one about whom a ballad most easily would survive).
What's more, Anne Neville had earlier been married to Edward, the Lancastrian Prince of Wales (Ross, p. 18), although the marriage pretty definitely was not consummated. And, since she had no brothers, she was half-heir, with her sister Isabel, of the richest property of England (her father, in addition to being Earl of Warwick by marriage, had been Earl of Salisbury by descent, and according to OxfordCompanion, p. 968, held two other earldoms as well). Once Isabel married the Duke of Clarence, Anne became the most eligible heiress in the country -- half the lords in England must have been sniffing after her, which again fits the story perfectly.
Except -- would anyone want to tell such a tale of a king who came to be portrayed as the worst monarch in English history? The villification was unfair, to be sure (even the anti-Richard Ross says on p. 228 that "No one familiar with the careers of King Louis XI of France, in Richard's own time, or Henry VIII of England, in his own country, would wish to cast any special slur on Richard, still less to select him as the exemplar of a tyrant") -- but so what? It's the reputation that matters in ballads.
Or was that why the name of Richard was cut out of most versions of the ballad?
Once again, however, we must add a caution -- and a complicated one. Most versions of the song in Child refer to the Earl of Wigton. Wigton was, for starters, a Scots earldom. But even if we ignore that, it did not exist at a time when there was a King Richard. Poking around on the Internet, it existed briefly from 1341-1372, when Edward III was King of England, after which the property went to the Douglases and the title in effect died. The title was revived by James VI and I, but this is after the death of Richard III. It was given to the Fleming family, who also held the lordships of Biggar and -- notably -- Cumbernault. So this almost has to be the family referred to in the song. And, indeed, Child quotes Hunter referring to an event of 1673 which almost has to be this incident.
Child's conclusion is that the story of the courtier being a King is an accretion, and this is likely true. But, given the excellent fit of the details to the real situation of Richard III, I think we must allow at leat the possibility that a portion of an earlier song about Richard III and Anne Neville came to be grafted on to a more recent song about the Flemings of Wigton.
ADDENDUM: Richard I's sexuality
For much of the Twentieth Century, it was generally accepted that Richard I was homosexual. The evidence is equivocal. There are tales of him wildly chasing women (McLynn, p. 93; Tyerman, p. 258). He reportedly had an illegitimate son, Philip of Cognac (Ashley, p. 526), but that's nothing compared to his father's and brother's records of bastards. We don't even know who was the boy's mother; the evidence of his existence strikes me as inadequate to prove Richard was the father.
Markale, p. 58, says of this that "It was a certainty that Richard was capable of procreating; he had a bastard son from his youth, probably the result of a moment of straying, for he was staunchly homosexual" -- and adds that his mother did not want him to marry the French princess Alice because Eleanor knew the marriage would fail. (But I note that Markale is very much a scandal-monger.)
On the flip side, Richard did not marry until he was in his thirties, and other than the mother of Philip of Cognac, he had no known mistresses. Nor did he have any children by his wife Berengeria. Saul3, p. 161, says that they spent much of their married life apart, seemingly because Richard desired it so. This is one of the props of the claim that he was homosexual. The other, according to Gillingham, p. 161, is that a hermit once told him "Remember the destruction of Sodom and abstain from illicit acts." Richard later did a penance for those "illicit acts" -- according to Boyd, p. 258, he was flogged in his underwear.
Gillingham goes on to vigorously deny that the Old Testament links the destruction of Sodom to homosexuality. He is right in the sense that there are many mentions outside the Pentateuch of the destruction of Sodom, and few of them make reference to that city's sexual practices. In Genesis 18:21, God merely refers to an "outcry" against Sodom and Gomorrah.
But we have only one explicit description of sin in Sodom, and the sin is unquestionably homosexuality (Genesis 19:5). What's more, the men of Sodom want to rape two angels/messengers of God who had been sent to investigate Sodom's crime (Genesis 19:1). This is the only sin the messengers could have witnessed directly. I could build a case that the crime of Sodom was not homosexuality but rather homosexual rape -- but that it involved homosexuality is pretty much beyond doubt. So, e.g., Owen, p. 91, is sure that the hermit charged Richard with homosexuality although he is not sure the charge is true, and Tyerman, p. 258, also seems to think that this is what the hermit meant although Tyerman strongly doubts the charge.
Harvey, p. 65, notes that when he was in Sicily, on his way to the Crusade, Richard was given a penance for vice, which he suggests was also for homosexuality. All we can say about this is that it may be so but we can't prove it either way. Boyd, p. 299, claims that he had not made confession from that time until he was on his deathbed, and suggests that this was because he had not, until then, been willing to try to restrain from homosexual acts, but this isn't in the chronicles either.
We also have a report that at one time he was pushed to go and live with his wife (Lofts, p. 39). But this doesn't automatically mean that he had rejected her, just that he liked to be where heads were being bashed.
I would add two other points, although each is pretty minor: When Richard went on crusade, he appointed as one of his justiciars William Longchamp, described by Gillingham, p. 218 as "small, ape-like and excessively fond of boys." (McLynn, p. 136, also mentions that Longchamp was "pilloried as a simian paedophile," although in his zeal to deny Richard's homosexuality, he also seems to deny Longchamp's.) Obviously a heterosexual king might appoint a homosexual bishop to a high post -- but it's probably more likely that a homosexual king would do so. Especially since Longchamp was anything but a good official; despite having a good income from his bishopric, he had sticky fingers, and was a nepotist, appointing relatives to many posts (McLynn, pp. 132-133). According to William of Newburgh, he was as grasping as if he had two right hands (Boyd, p. 249).
Also, Saul3, p. 168, says that Richard was a strong supporter of monasteries and monasticism. A heterosexual king might of course feel that way -- but a homosexual king might be unusually supportive of organizations devoted to repressing ordinary sexuality.
And it's not absolutely clear, if Richard were homosexual, that we would have heard about it. The strong suggestion is that King William II Rufus was homosexual, but the chronicles don't says so. Edward II was accused of homosexuality, but even in his case, the word was rarely made explicit.
Gillingham, who sounds to me like a bit of a homophobe, loudly denies Richard's homosexuality on p. 162, and claims there were no references to it prior to 1948. OxfordCompanion, p. 804, accepts Gillingham's arguments. Tyerman, p. 258, says that "almost nobody suggested that Richard was a homosexual until the mid-twentieth century." Harvey, p. 66, thinks Richard fell in love with Berengeria at first sight -- but while this obviously makes him heterosexual, it doesn't explain why he spent most of his life separated from her. McLynn, pp. 92-93, admits that there is some evidence for homosexuality, but denies the significance of most of it (certainly most of it is fairly ambiguous) and comes down hard against homosexuality. Ashley, p. 525, is wishy-washy.
Runciman, writing probably in the 1940s when such references could have resulted in censorship, goes out on a limb to say Richard's "own tastes did not lie in the direction of marriage." Warren-John, p. 43, says Eleanor "bullied" Richard into marrying Berengeria, and also says that John until then thought it "inevitable" that Richard would die childless -- implying that he never expected Richard to marry, or have children by his wife. Markale, p. 54, brands Richard homosexual without qualification and without seeing need even to justify the statement (but shows in other areas a tendency to accept scandalous gossip as true). Boyd, p. 230, declares that Richard had "no desire for a wife."
I have to say that none of the evidence, in either direction, is convincing. Most of the statements of Richard's carnal exploits could in fact refer to his men. But the only direct evidence of homosexuality is the hermit's claim, which might be false. So I don't think we can definitively say whether he was heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual -- or asexual. The one thing that seems clear is that he spent very little time actually courting women, which makes it difficult to see him as the hero of this ballad. As McLynn says on p. 52 (quoting Gerald of Wales), Richard "cared for no success that was not reached by a path cut by his own sword and stained with the blood of his adversaries." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.1
File: C232

Richie's Lady

See Richie Story [Child 232] (File: C232)

Richlands Women Blues

DESCRIPTION: Her husband is gone for a while and she is all dressed up and ready to go with the first "dude" that will take her in a car. "Hurry down sweet daddy, Come blowing your horn, If you come too late, Sweet mama will be gone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt04)
KEYWORDS: infidelity clothes colors hair drink nonballad wife
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, RICHLAND
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Richlands Women Blues" (on MJHurt04)
File: DTrichla

Richmond Blues

See Baby, All Night Long (File: CSW172)

Richmond is a Hard Road to Travel

DESCRIPTION: Singer, ostensibly a soldier in the Union army, sings of the difficulties involved in attempting to capture Richmond, VA. The Union generals have all failed badly. The singer wonders who will try next, as the Confederates, "fight like the devil"
AUTHOR: John R. Thompson? / Music: Daniel Emmett
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (sheet music published by A. E. Blackmar, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, ostensibly a soldier in the Union army, sings of the difficulties involved in attempting to capture Richmond, VA. McDowell is defeated by Stonewall Jackson, Fremont gets lost, Banks loses his supplies, the Galena, Monitor and Naugatuck are driven off, McClellan finds it hard going. Lincoln issues his Emancipation Proclamation, Pope is defeated at the second battle of Manassas, and Burnside's men are slaughtered. The singer wonders who will try next, as the Confederates, "fight like the devil"
KEYWORDS: battle Civilwar war derivative
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 331-334, "Richmond Is a Hard Road to Travel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 67, (no title) (1 short text, perhaps this though it refers to Jordan rather than Richmond; it looks like a mix of the original and the parody) (OakEd, p. 77)
DT, RCHMNDHR*
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "Richmond is a Hard Road to Travel" (on NLCREP4)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as111720, "Richmond a Hard Road to Travel" or "The New Jordan," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel" (original song, tune)
SAME TUNE:
Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel (File: R305)
NOTES [1105 words]: This parody of Emmett's "Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel" was composed by an anonymous Confederate sympathizer, probably around 1864. - PJS
Actually, it was 1863. This is shown by the sheet music -- but also by the fact that the last battle mentioned is Fredericksburg (late 1862).
The verse which refers to McDowell is perhaps somewhat deceptive; Irvin McDowell was the first commander of what would later be the Army of the Potomac, and led it to defeat (over his protests) at First Bull Run/Manasses (July 21, 1861). The Confederates were commanded by Joseph E. Johnston, who arrived just before the battle with four brigades from the Shenandoah Valley, but the local commander was P.G.T. Beauregard, who usually gets most of the credit. (Though the real problem for the Unionists was that their troops were utterly raw.) Stonewall Jackson was only a brigade commander at Bull Run; his steadiness helped save the Confederates, but affected the overall battle only slightly.
"Wooley-Horse" Frémont and Nathaniel P. Banks commanded forces in the Shenandoah Valley in the Spring of 1862. Neither was competent, and there was no overall Valley strategy or commander, and as a result Stonewall Jackson was able to outmaneuver both (battles such as Kernstown, Mar. 23, 1862, though this was not part of the Valley Campaign proper, and a tactical defeat for the Confederates; McDowell, May 8, 1862; Front Royal, May 23; Winchester, May 25; Cross Keys/Port Republic, June 8-9).
Banks is called "Commissary Banks" because his supply wagons provided so much sustenance to Jackson's soldiers.
The verse about the 1862 campaign on the James River (mentioning the Galena, the Monitor, and the Naugatuck) also tells only part of the story -- omitting, e.g., the whole story of the blockade of Hampton Roads, including the battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac/Virginia (for these, see "The Cumberland Crew" [Laws A18]).
Drewry's Bluff was a high head above the James River below Richmond. It was the key position guarding Richmond against river assault. Union ships started in this direction early in the Peninsular Campaign, but no serious assaults could be contemplated until the waters of Hampton Roads were safe for Union vessels.
It was only after Norfolk was captured and the Merrimac scuttled (May 11) that the Federals were able to sail in force up the James River toward Richmond. The battle at Drewry's Bluff took place on May 15, 1862. The fleet included the new light ironclad Galena as well as the Monitor. (The Naugatuck was a non-ironclad, and of no particular account; in any case, according to Stephen W. Sears, The Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign, Houghton Mifflin, 1992, one of her big guns soon burst and she was out of action) The Galena was anchored below the guns on the bluff -- but her armor plating was not up to the job, and she had to retire damaged after using up her ammunition. The problems with her armor proved so bad that it was later removed and she served the rest of the war as a wooden boat. James L. Nelson, Reign of Iron: The Story of the first Battling Ironclads, the Monitor and the Merimack, Perennial, 2004, p.89, records an officer writing of her, "She is not shot-proof; ball came through, and many men were killed with fragments of her own iron."
This was hardly a surprise; Sears, p. 94, says: "The Galena was something of a makeshift, a conventional wooden gunboat with layered armor made of iron bars and plates bolted to the sides. She looked to a Union nurse 'like a great fish with iron scales.' Flag Officer Goldsborough was appalled when he first saw the Galena, calling her 'a most miserable contrivance' and refusing to send her into action until shields of boilerplate were installed inside the bulwarks to prevent the armor-securing nuts from flying off from the concussion of a hit and decimating the gun crews. Even with the improvement, Goldsborough said, 'She is a sad affair.'"
The Monitor also tried to take part in the attack on the Bluff, but her turret-mounted guns could not elevate enough to hit the target. (The other ships also had trouble in this regard.)
Thus the real moral of this story was not that the Union ships were inferior (in fact, their performance was better than Confederate equivalents) but that seagoing vessels were not equipped to assault land targets well above river level.
The reference to McClellan and the Peninsula is a reference to the Peninsular Campaign of March-July 1862. McClellan took the Army of the Potomac by sea down to the "Peninsula" between the James and York rivers, and set it marching northwest to Richmond. He was delayed for a long time at Williamsburg, where he prepared a regular siege -- but the defender there was Magruder, not Longstreet.
The Peninsula Campaign ended when Robert E. Lee (newly appointed to command the Army of Northern Virginia) tricked McClellan to giving up the siege of Richmond in the Seven Days' Battles (June 25-July 1). It was here that Longstreet (then a senior division commander) and the Hills (A.P. Hill and D. H. Hill, also division commanders) first came to prominence.
Pope is John Pope, appointed to command large portions of McClellan's forces after the Peninsular campaign. He managed to produce an amazing amount of bombast about having his headquarters in the saddle and seeing the enemy's backs -- but had his forces enveloped and smashed at Second Bull Run (August 29-30, 1862). Pope was relieved and sent west.
The song omits the Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862), in which McClellan threw back Lee's ill-advised invasion of Maryland, returning to the plot at the Battle of Fredericksburg (December 12, 1862), at which the new Federal commander Ambrose Burnside threw pontoon bridges across the Rappahannock River in order to attack Lee in a prepared defensive position. The result, unsurprisingly, was a slaugher.
The song concludes by asking who would be next; the answer was Joseph Hooker, who lost the Battle of Chancellorsville. He was succeeded by George Meade, who won Gettysburg and kept command of the Army of the Potomac until the end of the war.
The attribution of the words to John R. Thompson is based on E. Lawrence Abel, Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861-1865, Stackpole, 2000, p. 121. He reports that Thomson was the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger. This is apparently based on the 1863 sheet music, and we know how dubious those claims can be.... Abel observes that the poem gives most of the credit for the eastern victories to Stonewall Jackson rather than Robert E. Lee. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcRIHRTT

Richmond on the James

DESCRIPTION: The women mourn the fine men slain "On a blood-red field near Richmond, Richmond on the James." A soldier lies dying as his life-long comrade sadly watches. The dying man sends tokens to his family and sweetheart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: battle Civilwar death farewell
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1862 - Peninsula Campaign. The Union army approaches Richmond for the first time, only to be repelled by Robert E. Lee in the Seven Days' Battles
1864-1865 - Grant's campaign against Petersburg and Richmond, eventually leading to the fall of the city
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 229-230, "Richmond on the James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 64, "Richmond on the James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 181-183, "Fair Richmond on the James" (1 text)
DT, RICHJAME*
Roud #4811
NOTES [37 words]: The notes in Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl speculate that this is an offshoot of "The Dying Ranger" [Laws A14]. This is possible, but no more than that; songs like this are a dime a dozen. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Wa064

Rick Rick Toe

DESCRIPTION: "Rick, rick, toe, Here I go, If I miss, I come to this." Or "Tip, tap, toe," or "Tit, tat, toe," etc. Or "Tic, tac, toe, My first go, Three jolly (butcher) boys, All in a row. Stick one up, Stick one down, Stick one in the old man's crown."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 150, "(Tic, tac, toe)"; "(Rick, rick, toe)"; "(Tip, tap, toe)";"(Tit, tat, toe)" (4 texts)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 31, "(Tit, tat, toe)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ticky-Tack-Too" ("Tic Tac Toe" lyric)
cf. "Tic-Tac" ("Tic Tac Toe" lyric)
cf. "The Cobbler (III)" ("Tic Tac Toe" lyric)
File: SuSm150A

Rickety, Rackety Russ

See Rickety, Rackety, Rust (File: ZiZa084C)

Rickety, Rackety, Rust

DESCRIPTION: Rhyme for sports competitions. "Rickety, Rackety, Rust, We're not allowed to cuss, But, nevertheless, We must confess, There's nothing the matter with us."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: sports
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 75, "(Rickety, Rackety, Rust)"; p. 84, "Rickety, Rackety Russ" (2 texts)
File: ZiZa084C

Riddle Song, The

See I Gave My Love a Cherry
 (File: R123)

Riddle, The

See I Gave My Love a Cherry
 (File: R123)

Riddles Wisely Expounded [Child 1]

DESCRIPTION: A knight arrives to court three sisters. The youngest goes to bed with him. He promises to marry her if she can answer his riddles. She does, and he either marries her or is revealed as the Devil.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1680 (broadside, Bodleian 4o Rawl. 566(193)); c. 1450 (ms. Bodleian Rawlinson D.328)
KEYWORDS: courting Devil riddle marriage family questions MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,SE,So) Britain(England(North,West,South),Scotland) West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (44 citations):
Child 1, "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (5 texts)
Bronson 1, "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (7 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 1, "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (4 versions, #1, #3, #4, #5)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 45, "The Unco Knicht's Wooing" (1 text)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 6-7, "There Was a Lady in the West"; Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 7, "The Three Sisters" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 37, "The Knight" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 320)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 6, "The Three Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 429-430, "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (scraps and notes only)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 45-50, "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (1 text plus two riddle fragments possibly associated with this, 1 tune); also pp. 299-315, "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (3 texts plus two fragments, 5 tunes; the "A" text and the F fragment and tune are mixed with "Riddles Wisely Expounded")
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 47-51, "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (3 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 13-15, "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 116-118, "The Devil's Nine Questions" (1 text, 1 tune)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 1, "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (1 text; 1 tune entitled "The Devil's Nine Questions" and lacking the plot; the text is almost all riddles) {Bronson's #5}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 1, pp. 1-7, "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (1 text plus an excerpt from another, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 316, "Child RIddles" (1 text, 1 tune, lacking the plot but very close to the Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia version)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 1, "Devil's Nine Questions" (1 text)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 169-170, "The Devil's Questions" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 9, "The Riddling Knight" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 4, "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (2 texts)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 10, "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 1, "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (3 texts, 3 tunes, but only the first, "The Devil's Questions," is Child 1)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 86, "The Devil's Nine Questions" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 110-111, "The Devil's Questions" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 25 ,"Riddles Wisely Expounded" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 717, "The Devil's Nine Questions" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 86-87, "The Devil's Nine Questions" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 3, "The Devil's Questions" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 36, "Nine Questions" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #1, "The Devil's Nine Questions" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 530-531, "Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom" (1 censored text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #a, which he does not print but suggests is a rework of #1}
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 80-81, "Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom" (1 tune, partial text) {Bronson's #1, at least by origin}
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 56-57, "Lay the Bent to the Bonnie Broom" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #1 and its comments on Bruce/Stokoe}
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 7, "The Three Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 18-19, "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 23-24, "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Joseph D. Clark, "More North Carolina Riddles," Vol. IX, No. 1 (Jul 1961), pp. 19-20, "The Devil's Nine Questions" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 52, "The Devil's Questions" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2508, "There was a Lady of the North-Country"
DT 1, JNFRGNTL BONBROMQ* DEVLNINE *
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #4169
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #6685
ADDITIONAL: Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, pp. 75-76, "(Inter Diabolus et Virgo)" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #343, "There Was a Knight" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson D.328 (Bodleian 15444), folio 174 (the "Inter diabolus et virgo" text that is in Child's Addenda)
ST C001 (Full)
Roud #161
RECORDINGS:
Texas Gladden, "The Devil's Nine Questions" (AFS 5231 A1; on USTGladden01) {Bronson's #6}
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 4o Rawl. 566(193), "A Noble Riddle Wisely Expounded" or "The Maids Answer to the Knights Three Questions", F. Coles (London), 1674-1679; also Douce Ballads 2(168b), "A Noble Riddle Wisely Expounded" or "The Maids Answer to the Knights Questions"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Gave My Love a Cherry" (riddles theme)
SAME TUNE:
"Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom" (tune, per broadsides Bodleian 4o Rawl. 566(193) and Douce Ballads 2(168b) -- though that may be just the "tune name" for this song)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jennifer Gentle
There Was a Man Lived in the West
NOTES [830 words]: This ballad is also, as "Sven Nordmand," found in Danish tradition.
"Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom", cited in Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic, should not be confused with the version of "The Twa Sisters" that uses those words as a refrain. - PJS
In addition to the "Inter Diabilius et Virgo" text described below, Rollins, p. 170, #1959 is "A noble riddle, wisely expended" (registered March 1, 1675), which is thought to be this song although it's obviously beyond proof.
Chambers, p. 153, cites this as one of the two oldest verifiable popular ballads in the Child canon ("Robin Hood and the Monk" being the other). Both are found in manuscripts believed to date from c. 1450 -- in this case, Bodleian Rawlinson D.328. There are of course earlier pieces which have been claimed as ballads ("Judas," "St. Stephen and Herod," "Robin and Gandelyn"), but Chambers thinks the description misapplied in those cases. And certainly each of the three has un-ballad-like characteristics. Given that "Robin Hood and the Monk" [Child 119] appears never to have been found except in that one manuscript, "Riddles" is thus arguably the oldest ballad to have survived into the modern era of collecting. Fitting, then, that it is Child #1.
The caution is that Chambers is lumping the dialog "Inter diabilus et Virgo" with this (see Chambers, p. 156; to be fair, Child also included it). Given that that is mostly a riddle song, and our earliest riddle song is "I Gave My Love a Cherry" (sometimes lumped with "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship"), there is a real question of whether the two can be linked.
The article on this song by J. Barre Toelken makes the interesting observation that many of the riddles in this and other riddle songs permit of two answers, one clean (and hence safe for the woman) and one evil or sexually suggestive. Thus the woman must not only answer but give the safe answer.
Thompson, p. 43, says that the folk motif of the Devil's Riddles (his #812) is particularly common in Germany and the Baltic countries.
Bronson, pp. 97-98, makes another interesting point: Although the oldest recorded tune for this is that found in "Pills to Purge Melancholy," from the early eighteenth century, that melody "is patently related to 'The North-Country Lasse' (alias 'I would I were in my own country,' or 'The Oak and the Ash an the Bonny Ivy Tree')... and that again is clearly a variant form of 'Goddesses' in Playford's English Dancing Master, 1650, and this again relates to the Elizabethan tunes set for virginals by both Ralph and Giles Farnaby under the titles 'Fayne woulde I wedde' and 'Quodling's Delight.'" Thus, although we cannot know when melody and text came together, both are clearly very old. - RBW
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory's "The Three Sisters" is classified by Jekyll as an "Annancy" story. It is a cante fable following the Ashanti (West African) tradition: Three sisters all refuse to marry. Snake decides to try his luck, borrows fine clothes from a friend, and has an entourage carry him to the sisters' door -- which is barred with iron. He asks the eldest sister to unbar the door because "there is a stranger coming in." The youngest, who has supernatural powers, senses something wrong and sings that the door will remain barred. Snake then asks the middle sister and fails again when the youngest sister interferes. "An' the Snake turn to a Devil" and fails again with the youngest sister herself. The Devil sings "What is roguer than a woman kind" and the youngest sister answers "The Devil roguer than a woman kind." "Then the Devil fly from the step straight into hell an have chain round his waist until now." Among the Child texts this is closest to 1.C, which ends, "As sune as she the fiend did name, He flew awa in a blazing flame." Jekyll's tale seems affected by Revelation 20.1-3, quoting King James: "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. And cast him into that bottomless pit, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season."
Broadwood writes of Jekyll's "The Three Sisters": "Although the story of the monster outwitted by the maiden he tries to carry off is an almost world-wide motif, and is found in Africa among other countries, this particular version has evidently been in contact with European (English or Scottish) sources. This is shown not only by the fact that the suitor proves to be the Devil, but by the question and answer... This riddle appears in three versions of the ballad of [Child 1]" (Lucy E. Broadwood, "English Airs and Motifs in Jamaica" in Walter Jekyll, Jamaican Song and Story (New York: Dover Publications, 1966 (Reprint of David Nutt, 1907)), #7, p. 286, "The Three Sisters"). - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C001

Riddling Knight, The

See Riddles Wisely Expounded [Child 1] (File: C001)

Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross

See Banbury Cross (File: Br3140)

Ride Away to Aberdeen

DESCRIPTION: The old man rides "away to Aberdeen to buy fite breid" [white bread]. When he returns he finds the old woman dead. He hits her on the ear with his club: "rise ... an' ate yer fite breid"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: death food husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1690, "Ride, Horsie, Ride" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Walter Gregor, "Kilns, Mills, Millers, Mead and Bread" in Transactions of the Buchan Field Club 1892-1895 (Peterhead,n.d.), (30 Nov 1894), [Vol.III,] Bread and Games #4 pp. 157-159 (9 texts)
Roud #13034
NOTES [50 words]: Gregor: "This amusement may be made for the child by the mother or nurse dandling the child on her knee in imitation o friding, or, if the child is old enough, it receives a staff or piece of stick, which it puts between its legs, and then moves about as if riding, and repeats the words itself." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81690

Ride Away, Ride Away, Johnny Shall Ride

See Go to Berwick, Johnny (File: MSNR009)

Ride Dis Train

See Ride This Train (File: RcRiDTTr)

Ride in the Creel, The

See The Keach i the Creel [Child 281] (File: C281)

Ride In, Kind Saviour

See No Man Can Hinder Me (File: AWG010)

Ride of Paul Venarez, The

See Bill Vanero (Paul Venerez) [Laws B6] (File: LB06)

Ride On Conquering King

See Ride on, Jesus (File: Dett148)

Ride on, Jesus

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Ride on Jesus, Ride on, Ride on conquering King, I want to go to heaven in the morning (x2)." Verses: "If you see my mother (father, sister, brother), Tell her (him) for me, Meet me tomorrow in Galilee, Want to go to heaven in the morning (x2)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 148-149, "Ride on, Jesus" (1 text) (1 tune)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 43, pp. 182-184, "Ride On Conquering King" (1 text, 1 tune)
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (I), pp. 3-12, "O Ride On, Jesus" (1 text with variants, 1 tune with variants)
ADDITIONAL: Howard W. Odum and Guy B. Johnson, The Negro and his Songs (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1925 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 100, "In the Morning" (1 text)
Roud #12110
NOTES [110 words]: The reference in the verses is to Mark 16:7 (or the parallel in Matthew 28:7), "go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you." The chorus is probably a reference to the entry into Jerusalem (Mark 11:7 and parallels), where Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey (or, in Matthew 21:1-7, which interprets Zechariah 9:9 literally, riding on two donkeys at once. Which, if it actually happened, might explain why the crowd was cheering...).
Roud lumps "Ride On, Jesus" and "Ride on, King Jesus," for obvious reasons, but the form is different enough that I very tentatively keep them separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Dett148

Ride On, King Jesus

DESCRIPTION: "Ride on, King Jesus, no man can hinder me (x2)." "I was young when I begun, No man can hinder me. But now my race is almost done...." "King Jesus rides on a milk-white horse... The river of Jordan he did cross. "When I get to heaven gonna wear a robe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad horse clothes travel
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 184-185, "Ride On, King Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 74-75, "Ride On, King Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12110
RECORDINGS:
James Garfield Smalls, "O Ride on Jesus" (on USSeaIsland03)
NOTES [26 words]: Roud lumps "Ride On, Jesus" and "Ride on, King Jesus," for obvious reasons, but the form is different enough that I very tentatively keep them separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: WarSp074

Ride This Train

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Who Lord who Lord who who Lord who gonna ride this train (x4)."Verses: "Will my mother ride this train, Will my mother ride this train?" "I went in the valley one day to pray, Soul got happy I stayed all day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (USSeaIsland03)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Minnie Gracie Gadson, "Ride Dis Train" (on USSeaIsland03)
NOTES [17 words]: In Gadson's verse alternate lines are "Who gonna ride this train"
Gadson: "That's a shoutin' song." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: RcRiDTTr

RIde to Hell, The

DESCRIPTION: "VInce was a railroad engineer, His train a daily freight That roared through hills... Insanely testing fate." Vince the engineer is well known along his route. One day in 1923, running late, he hits a bad switch and dies. Now his ghost runs the route
AUTHOR: Denver Stull
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (West Virginia Hillbilly, according to Lyle)
KEYWORDS: train death ghost
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, p. 203, "The Ride to Hell" (1 text)
NOTES [20 words]: Clearly not traditional, and only marginally historic -- even the author wasn't sure he recalled the date of the wreck. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: LySc203

Ridge-Running Roan, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer vows to tame a wild horse. After 17 days of pursuit the cowboy ropes him, discovering that at some point he'd been saddled and bridled, but was still wild. The horse eventually throws him and runs back to the ridges with all of his gear
AUTHOR: Curley Fletcher
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Curley Fletcher, "Songs of the Sage")
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer hears of a wild horse and vows to tame it. After 17 days of pursuit the horse quits the ridges for softer ground and the cowboy ropes him, discovering that at some point he'd been saddled and bridled, but was still wild. Mounting, "I thought I was up on the hurricane deck/Of an earthquake and cyclone a-havin' a wreck." The horse eventually throws him and runs back to the ridges with all of his gear
KEYWORDS: work animal horse cowboy worker
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
RECORDINGS:
Beverly Hillbillies, "Ridge Runnin' Roan" (Brunswick 599, c. 1932)
Tex Fletcher, "Ridge Runnin' Roan" (Decca 5302, 1936)
Harry Jackson, "The Ridge-Running Roan" (on HJackson1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Strawberry Roan" (theme)
NOTES [22 words]: There's clearly a relationship to "Strawberry Roan" (also by Fletcher), but the plots are different enough that I've split them. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcTRiRuR

Ridin' in a Buggy

DESCRIPTION: "I'm ridin' in a buggy, O yes, O yes, It's a golden bright buggy... O Candy, Candy gal, Woncha hurry, Candy gal, Swing your partner, Candy gal... Now choose two partners... And I wants a good rappin'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: dancing courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 262, "Ridin' in a Buggy" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LoF262

Ridin' of a Goat, Leadin' of a Sheep

DESCRIPTION: "RIdin of a goat and leadin' of a sheep (x3), I won't be back till themiddle of the week."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: animal sheep travel
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 677, "Ridin' of a Goat, Leadin' of a Sheep" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #17391
NOTES [15 words]: The description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5677

RIdin' Old Paint

See I Ride an Old Paint (File: LxU063B)

Ridin' on a Humped Back Mule

See Humback Mule (File: BrS5745)

Ridin' on de Cable Car

DESCRIPTION: "Come hurry to de wicket And get a first-class ticket Risin' on de cable car." The singer describes the rider's experiences: Paying six cents to be jammed in a crowd on a hot day, having someone step on your toe, being harangued by a politician
AUTHOR: H. O. Lawrence?
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: travel technology
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 509, "Ridin' on de Cable Car" (1 text)
Roud #7593
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Climbing up the Golden Stairs" (tune)
File: R509

Ridin' the Smokestack

DESCRIPTION: "One night when logs were rafted Down to the planing mil The sparkling moonshine outside and in Was giving Del a thrill." Del sets out with a whoop; the log breaks loose -- but "Del found at port he'd ridden The shadow of the smokestack."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: humorous talltale trick logger
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 44, "Ridin' the Smokestack" (1 text)
Roud #18187
File: BeLo044

Riding a Raid

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis old Stonewall, the Rebel, that leans on his sword, And while we are mounting, prays low to the Lord." The cavalrymen are told to be ready; they are "riding a raid." The singer revels in the fighting capabilities of Stuart's cavalry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Fagan, Southern War Songs, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar); internal evidence implies a date before 1865
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 10, 1863 - death of Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson
May 12, 1864 - death of J. E. B. Stuart
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 82-83, "Riding a Raid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 404, "Riding a Raid" (1 text plus a copy of the sheet music cover)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonnie Dundee (I)" (tune)
NOTES [116 words]: It is generally said (e.g. by Silber) that this is about the cavalry of James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart, the commander of the cavalry in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. There isn't much evidence that it became traditional, but it was well enough known that Clifford Dowdey, Death of a Nation: The Confederate Army at Gettysburg, 1958 (I use the 1998 Barnes & Noble reprint), p. 65, cites it about one of Stuart's less successful attempts to show off.
The description of Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson praying is certainly accurate; the man was a religious fanatic -- so much so that I personally think he was mentally disordered. But disordered in a very useful way in military terms. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: SCWF082

Riding Boy from Powder River

DESCRIPTION: "Riding boy from Powder River Rides the broncs until they shiver, Rides the gals until they quiver, He's the riding boy!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse bawdy
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin 39, "Riding Boy from Powder River" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune)
NOTES [62 words]: The name of the river of this song is explicitly "Powder River," not "The Powder River"; the local custom is that you don't use an article before the name, ever. (See Helena Huntington Smith, The War On Powder River, University of Nebraska Press, 1966, p. 1). According to Smith, p. 9, the first big cattle drive on Powder River was organized by Moreton Frewen i 1879. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Ohr039

Riding Down to Portsmouth

DESCRIPTION: A sailor falls in love with a pretty maid while "riding down to Portsmouth." After he promises to marry she sleeps with him and steals his gold watch and purse. He leaves the landlord his pony in pawn till he returns from the war.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 20(41))
KEYWORDS: sex theft whore sailor horse trick promise
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 41, "Riding Down to Portsmouth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #40, "Riding Down to Portsmouth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1534
RECORDINGS:
Tom Willett, "Riding Down to Portsmouth" (on Voice02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 20(41), "Riding Down to Portsmouth," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(1453), "Riding Down to Portsmouth"
NOTES [10 words]: Probably just as well that wedding didn't come off.... - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcRdDTPo

Riding Herd at Night

DESCRIPTION: "Riding herd at night, a lonely exile singing," the singer falls into waking dreams of "the cot where my love lies dreaming of me." Even as he drives herds in Wyoming (a job he never imagined), his thoughts are in Ireland. He recalls the holidays there
AUTHOR: John Henry Macaulay
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration cowboy work separation homesickness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H588, pp. 220-221, "Riding Herd at Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [10 words]: Bet you never thought you would see an Irish cowboy song. - RBW
File: HHH588

Riding in a Sleigh

DESCRIPTION: "Hitch her up, hold your horses! Or they'll get away. Oh, isn't it pleasant to kiss your sweetheart, Riding in a sleigh?" She asks how many bridges they'll cross. As they cross the ridge, he kisses her. Soon they will ride in a sleigh with a preacher
AUTHOR: Will S. Hays (sourse: Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (original publication, according to Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage clergy travel
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 716, "Riding in a Sleigh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 27, "Riding in a Sleigh" (1 text, 1 tune plus mention of 1 more)
Roud #11400
File: BrS5716

Riding on a Donkey

See Hieland Laddie (File: Doe050)

Riding on That Train 45

See Reuben's Train (File: Wa133)

Riding on the Dummy

DESCRIPTION: "Of all the ways of travelling, by coach or carryall... the dummy beats them all." People step on each others' toes and bump into each other; people fall in each others' laps; etc. But the singer is happy "Riding on the dummy With the darling I adore."
AUTHOR: Words: Sam Booth/Music: Frederick G. Carnes
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: courting travel technology
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 511, "Riding on the Dummy" (1 text)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 485-490, "On the Dummy Line" (about "The Dummy Line (II)," but it includes a cover of the sheet music to this piece)
Roud #7595
NOTES [80 words]: Randolph reports, "The front part of the streetcars used in California in the early days was open and was called the dummy."
Randolph's text is a curious mixture of themes; the first two verses describe the dangers of riding the dummy; the chorus describes the sights seen from the train and the pleasure of riding with one's darling; the final verse describes the lovers' visit to a park. One suspects a composite text. - RBW
This should not be confused with "The Dummy Line." - PJS
File: R511

Riding on the Tramway

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a lady "looking out of a window at the New Tramway" The cost is only two pence. He gets on and sat next to her. He asks her to marry, she agrees, they marry and, he says, "we'll soon have fresh conductors on the New Tramway"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.16(155))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage technology
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 15, "The New Tramway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6988
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Horse Tramway" (on IRRCinnamond01) (fragment; only the chorus and one verse)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.16(155)[some words illegible] , "Riding on the Tramway" ("It was on one summer's evening, not very long ago"), T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899; also Firth c.26(5)[some words illegible] , "Riding on the Tramway"
NOTES [62 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: The horse-drawn Belfast Tramway system was opened in 1872. Unlike the horse-omnibuses, it ran smoothly on a metal track. "A journey in such a horse tram was much smoother, faster and quieter than that in a horse-omnibus jolting its way through cobbled streets."
Broadside Bodleian Firth c.16(155): "sung with immense success by Hyram Travers." - BS
File: Leyd015

Riel Sits In His Chamber o' State (The Marching Song; Capture of For Garry, or Riel's Retreat)

DESCRIPTION: "Riel sits in his chamber o' state, Wi' his stolen silver forks an' his stolen silver plate.... O hey RIel, are ye waking yet... For we'll take the fort this morning." Riel is defeated and embarrassed; the victors insult him and his failure
AUTHOR: Words: Alexander Hunter Murray
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba; reportedly written 1870)
KEYWORDS: derivative soldier prisoner Canada
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov. 2, 1869 - Louis Riel's men seize Upper Fort Garry, taking many prisoners. This song was written to be sung by a militia which hoped to retake the fort, but never got there
1870 - Collapse of Riel's rebellion
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba, #7, pp. 47-50, "The Marching Song" (1 short text, 1 tune); #9, "The Capture of For Garry, or Riel's Retreat" (1 text, t 1une)
Roud #25770 and 25771
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnnie Cope" (tune) and references there
cf. "Riel's Song" (subject of the Metis rebellion) and references there
NOTES [146 words]: According to MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba, Alexander Hunter Murray composed his first version of this, of a single verse and chorus, before a band of vigilantes went to try to rescue Riel's prisoners from Fort Garry. They failed. But Riel was later defeated, and Murray expanded his song, fiddling with the first verse and adding eleven more slanging stanzas but leaving the chorus alone. MacLeod considers the result two separate songs, and files them separately with a different song in between, and Roud follows this. I really don't agree; seven of the eight lines of the first version are retained in the second, and the eighth line is merely made more specific. The addition of the extra stanzas are much the same: Murray adds detail but doesn't change what the song is about. So I file the two together. In any case, there is little evidence that either is traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Macl07

Riel's Song

DESCRIPTION: French: "Quand je partis ma chere Henriette, Tu n'avais pas encore quinze ans." The singer (Riel?) left home before Henrietta was fifteen. With the fighting over, he has come home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: family sister home separation return foreignlanguage
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1870 - Riel's uprising
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 124-126, "Riel's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Chanson de la Grenouillere ('Song of Frog Plain,'Falcon's Song)" (subject)
cf. "Pork, Beans and Hard Tack" (subject)
cf. "The Toronto Volunteers" (subject)
cf. "Between the Forks and Carleton" (subject)
cf. "Chanson de Louis Riel" (subject)
cf. "Les Tribulations d'un Roi Malheureux (Misfortunes of an Unlucky 'King')" (background to Riel's Rebellion)
cf. "Chanson des Metis (Song of the Metis, or McDougall at the Border)" (background to Riel's Rebellion)
NOTES [449 words]: Tradition attributes this song to Louis Riel himself. Whether this is true we cannot tell, but the song fits the facts of Riel's life, and Riel is known to have written poetry.
Riel was born in 1844 to a Métis (French-Indian cross-breed) family. In the late 1860s, the new Dominion of Canada began to organize the Red River region. This organization would have broken up the farms and deprived the Métis of their livelihood.
When their protests failed, Riel led a group of Métis to organize a "Republic of the North-West," and set conditions for joining Canada. Unfortunately, Riel made the mistake of executing a man by the name of Thomas Scott. The government sent a force of 1200 men to clear up the situation. In August 1870, Riel fled to the United States and the rebellion ended.
Ironically, the Canadian government granted most of the rights Riel had demanded to the inhabitants of the hastily-reorganized Manitoba district. Riel was back in Canada by 1871, and earned the informal thanks of the government for helping repel a Fenian raid. But when he was elected to parliament in 1873 and 1874, he was not permitted to take his seat; from 1874 to 1879 he was under formal sentence of banishment. Riel spent the time teaching school in Montana, and for a while was confined to a mental hospital.
In July 1883 Riel returned to Manitoba to attend the wedding of his sister. But in 1884, at the request of the Métis of Saskatchewan (now being pushed out of that province as they had been pushed from Manitoba fifteen years earlier), he organized a second rebellion.
Although the Canadian army had trouble catching up with the Métis and their Indian allies, General Middleton fought skirmishes on April 24 and May 2, then defeated Riel at Batoche on May 12, 1885 when the entrenched Métis ran out of ammunition. After a trial which had something of the air of a circus (his attorneys claimed insanity; Riel himself said -- with some truth -- that he had only been responding to political necessity), Riel was hanged late in that year.
John MacDonald (1815-1891), the Canadian Premier, heard many appeals to commute Riel's sentence, but decided that Riel had to hang to keep Ontario happy. Quebec, however, was outraged, and some historians believe that the decline of the Conservative Party in Canada (until then the dominant political force) dates from Riel's hanging.
For songs about the second rebellion, see "Pork, Beans and Hard Tack," "The Toronto Volunteers," and "Between the Forks and Carleton."
Riel's career was poignant enough that it still inspires songs. Rather better than this, to my mind, is Bill Gallaher's "The Last Battle," recorded by Gordon Bok on "In the Kind Land." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FMB124

Rifle Boys, The

DESCRIPTION: A girl loves one of Lord Hopkin's grenadiers. Her mother asks how she will get by on so little pay. The girl is not deterred. Her mother would confine her. The drum major leads the grenadiers out of town, breaking every girl's heart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1855 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 15(257b))
KEYWORDS: courting parting army clothes Scotland mother soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 89, "The Hopkin Boys" (7 texts, 6 tunes)
Roud #588
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(257b), "Rifle Boys" ("The rout has come this afternoon, that we must march to-morrow"), E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Firth c.14(191), Firth c.14(192), Firth c.14(193), Harding B 11(1940), Harding B 15(257a), Harding B 15(258a), Harding B 11(3861), "[The] Rifle Boys"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lancashire Lads" (thene, plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lord Hopkin
The Grenadiers are Marching
NOTES [212 words]: Roud lumps "The Rifle Boys" and "The Lancashire Lads." There isn't much doubt but that they derive from the same original; they have several half-stanzas in common, and the plot is the same. But they also have substantial difference. I was undecided between splitting and lumping, and when in doubt, I split. But you should see both entries. - RBW
Greig/Duncan1: "The 'Hopkin' or 'Hopetoun' version of this song applies to the Hopetoun Fencibles (1793-8) who wore red coats with light grey-blue facings." In the texts, the uniform seems to be the main attraction. - BS
Though this raises a complication in the mention of rifles. It is no great surprise that the girls would be attracted to the grenadiers over other soldiers; grenadiers were specially selected, and were generally taller, stronger, and healthier than ordinary soldiers. But -- they didn't carry rifles!
Until the invention of the Minie bullet, and the adoption of rifle muskets which used it in the 1850s, almost all infantrymen used smoothbore muskets. There were a few riflemen associated with each army, but they were few -- it took about two minutes to load, aim, and fire a muzzle-loading rifle, meaning that a smoothbore could fire about five times as fast. So riflemen were specialists, and rare. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: GrD1089

Rifleman's Song at Bennington

DESCRIPTION: "Why come ye hither, redcoats? Your mind what madness fills?" The singer warns the British soldiers of danger in America. They are asked if there are no graves in Britain for them. He promises a quick death "If flint and trigger hold but true."
AUTHOR: Words: John Allison / Music traditional, set by John Allison
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: battle patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 16, 1777 - Battle of Bennington
Oct 17, 1777 - Surrender of John Burgoyne at Saratoga
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 25-26, "RIflemen's Song at Bennington" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 543-544, "Rifleman's Song at Bennington" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 280, "The Riflemen At Bennington" (1 text)
DT, RIFLEBEN*
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Riflemen of Bennington" (on PeteSeeger32)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fate of John Burgoyne" (subject: the Saratoga campaign) and notes there
NOTES [1067 words]: Recorded by John and Lucy Allison. There is no reason to believe this song ever circulated in oral tradition. Those interested in other non-traditional poetry about Bennington might wish to consult William L. Stone, Ballads and Poems Relating to the Burgoyne Campaign, 1893 (I use the 1970 Kennikat Press reissue), pp. 215-233, which contains eight pieces about Bennington.
The Battle of Bennington was part of John Burgoyne's campaign that ended at Saratoga, for which see "The Fate of John Burgoyne." Burgoyne had a long supply train, running back all the way to Canada, and he really didn't have all that he needed for the campaign. So he was forced to forage to supply his troops: "Confronted by shortages of all sorts, except ammunition, Burgoyne listened to [Baron von] Riedesel's proposal to send an expedition as far east as the Connecticut River to forage for cattle and horses. Riedesel recommended that a large body be sent out in the expectation that it would return with meat for the troops and mounts for his horseless Brunswick dragoons. These Germans had found the march to Fort Edward [just north of Saratoga] a torture. Burgoyne... needed food, and he knew that bringing it from Ticonderoga [at the north end of Lake George, dozens of miles away through hostile country] would be almost impossible" (Middlekauff, p. 377).
Choosing to raid Vermont, Burgoyne ordered Lt. Colonel Friedrich Baum -- a German who spoke no English! (Middlekauff, p. 377; Purcell, p. 20; Lancaster, p. 213, hints that this not only made it harder to talk to Americans they passed but even to deal with his own Indian allies) -- to take somewhere between 500 and 750 men to raid the Colonial supply center at Bennington. (Purcell, p. 20, estimates that Baum had 375 German mercenaries, 300 Canadians, Indians, and Tories, and just 50 British regulars; Jameson, p. 60, estimates 500 in Baum's force and 500 reinforcements). The Germans, being cavalrymen but having no horses, were weighed down with more equipment than infantry would have carried, and so moved slowly (Lancaster, p. 213). About twenty miles southeast of Saratoga, Bennington was the farthest British units advanced into the American colonies in the Saratoga campaign (see map on p. 375 of Middlekauff).
The colonial leader John Stark -- a good soldier (he had been a senior officer at Bunker Hill) although one who seemed constitutionally incapable of working with others (Purcell, p. 20; Marrin, p. 132, thinks he only rejoined the colors because he had heard an atrocity story) is believed to have had about 2000 men, although they were poorly organized (almost all were militia, which in the Revolutionary War translated as "individuals with guns who came and went as they pleased." Lancaster, p. 214, says that it was an army raised by New Hampshire, not the general colonial army, and raised mostly by one man, John Langdon). When Baum came in contact with these semi-soldiers, he dug in and called for reinforcements, but although Burgoyne sent about 600 men under Lt. Col. Heinrich Breymann, they were slow to arrive (Purcell, p. 21; Lancaster, p. 214, says they were slowed by rain that turned the roads to mud, plus Breymann kept insisting on parade formations, which meant that they could only move about half a mile an hour).
While waiting for them, Baum built defensive positions, but they were not mutually supporting (Purcell, p. 21). And Baum seems not to have realized that the men in civilian clothes who were coming closer and closer were in fact soldiers. He held his fire until they had in effect infiltrated and surrounded his position (Marrin, p. 132). They opened fire at close range, meaning that Baum's artillery was no help; he was surrounded by enemies who outnumbered him heavily.
The irregulars (Canadians, Indians, Tories) quickly fled, leaving Baum's regulars to keep fighting. The Germans eventually ran short of ammunition, and tried to cut their way out -- but then Baum was killed by a bullet to the head, and most of the remaining British and German forces surrendered.
When Breymann arrived, there was no one to reinforce, so he got into his own fight with the Americans. When he decided he had to retreat, it turned into a rout, although many of his men, unlike Baum's, made it back to Burgoyne. Purcell, p. 21, estimates British losses as 200 dead and 700 captured; American losses were less than 100. Jameson, p. 60, gives 207 British killed, 700 captured (so also Marrin, p. 134), 60-70 who returned to camp, against American losses of 14 killed, 42 wounded. Marrin, p. 134 says there were 30 American dead, 4 wounded (which is not a credible ratio, but the total could be right). Lancaster, p. 214, thinks Burgoyne lost 800 Germans -- perhaps his steadiest troops. Cook, p. 276, thinks the total was 900 lost -- 10% of the professionals in Burgoyne's army.
Which left Burgoyne having to decide what to do next. He hadn't gotten his supplies, after all, and his army was now significantly weaker. "[I]t is unlikely that Burgoyne would have halted his advance after Bennington to spend the winter in northern New York or to return to Canada. He was too proud and too savvy a political soldier.... Nevertheless, with his army now seriously weakened and his supply situation growing more precarious, he began messaging frantically to [General Henry] Clinton in New York [who was supposed to be approaching from the south to combine armies with Burgoyne]" (Cook, pp. 276-277).
Bennington had very nearly doomed Burgoyne's expedition. "The British were not isolated, whatever else they felt about their situation. But they were at a critical juncture and Burgoyne knew it. He had about a month's supply of food and his troops were in fairly good shape. They were far from the magazine on Lake Champlain, however, and with rather short supplies and lacking winter quarters they could not remain where they were -- on the east side of the Hudson and not close to Albany. Burgoyne might have pulled back to Ticonderoga, but he was averse to withdrawal, which everyone would have considered an admission of defeat. [Which, given his boasts earlier, would surely have cost him his job, and meant political trouble in London.] So he boldly and bravely decided to continue his drive to Albany" (Middlekauff, p. 377). He headed on -- into the arms of the American army of Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: BNEF543

Riflemen at Bennington, The

See Rifleman's Song at Bennington (File: BNEF543)

Rifles Have Stolen My True Love Away

See Some Rival Has Stolen My True Love Away (The Rifles, The Merry King) (File: BuDa005)

Rifles, The

See Some Rival Has Stolen My True Love Away (The Rifles, The Merry King) (File: BuDa005)

Rig-a-Jig

DESCRIPTION: "Rig-a-jij-jig and away we go, Away we go, Away we go; RIg-a-jig-jig and away we go. Heigh-ho, hiehg-ho, heigh-ho." Remaining lyrics may be repetitions of these words or may say that the singer met a pretty girl in the street
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, pp. 528-529, "RIg-a-Jig" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 343, "Rig-a-jig" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 44, "Rig-A-Jig" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 54, "Rig-a-jig jig" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Buffalo Gals" (lyrics)
NOTES [70 words]: As Schinhan notes, some versions of "Buffalo Gals" contain some of these lyrics; this piece may be related, but the form looks different. In the absence of a longer text than Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5's, I am forced to split it.
The Heart-Songs version, found also in Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, has verses about meeting a pretty girl who is a weaver's maid. This looks like something else again. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: BrS5528

Rig-a-jig Jig

See Rig-a-Jig (File: BrS5528)

Rigby Johnson Chandler

DESCRIPTION: Floating lyrics, united by the refrain "Rigby Johnson Chandler" or similar. Examples: Old man went out to plow And he hooked up a hog with a Jersey cow"; "Two old maids sitting in the sand"; "[My woman] went to the circus and ran off with the clown."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969
KEYWORDS: nonsense nonballad drink oldmaid floatingverses chickens
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 10, "Rigby Johnson Chandler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11084
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Salty Dog" (floating lyrics)
File: FCW010

Riggs of the TImes, The

See The Rigs of the Times (File: K237)

Right Elbow In

See Hokey Pokey (II) (File: OpGa110)

Right On, Desperado Bill

DESCRIPTION: "Railroad Bill was a desperado sport, Shot tin buttons off policeman's coat, And laid this body nowhere." "Railroad Bill, he's so mean, Stayed nowhere but down in New Orleans." "Some of the boys go sixty days, some got forty-nine... I got mine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: violence police prison
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 200, "Railroad Bill (II)" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [47 words]: Roud lumps Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices's "Railroad Bill" text with "Railroad Bill" [Laws I13], and certainly both involve a desperate character named "Railroad Bill," but Rosenbaum suggests it is a separate song, and the form is sufficiently distinct that I think he is right. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Rose200

Rights of Man, The

DESCRIPTION: Shiel dreams of a meeting at Athlone. Granua says "Britannia No more shall rob you of the rights of man." A man from the sky brings a shamrock. Granua promised to free them before long. The meeting parts "in exultation" at daybreak as Shiel wakes
AUTHOR: Richard Lalor Shiel (1791-1851)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.10(214))
KEYWORDS: dream Ireland patriotic religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 18, "The Rights of Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(214), "Rights of Man" ("I speak in candour, one night in slumber"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also 2806 b.9(62), Firth b.26(432), "Rights of Man"
LOCSinging, as111750, "Rights of Man," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, RB.m.143(013), "Shiel's Rights of Man," unknown, c.1870
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Eileen McMahon" (aisling format)
cf. "Granuaile" (aisling format) and references there
NOTES [393 words]: Sheil was Daniel O'Connell's chief assistant when O'Connell founded the Catholic Association in 1823. (source: "Roman Catholic Relief Bill" in The Catholic Encyclopedia at the New Advent site. Also see "Richard Lalor Sheil" at the same site.)
Broadsides LOCSinging as111750 and Bodleian 2806 b.9(62) appear to be duplicates.
Broadside NLScotland RB.m.143(013) commentary: "Granua (also spelt Grainne). The daughter of the mythical Irish warrior and folk hero, Finn McCool, Granua is also used as a symbol for Ireland - much like the figure of Britannia is employed as a symbol for Great Britain."
The man from heaven with the shamrock, "the three leaved plant ... it is three in one, To prove its unity in that community, That holds lenity the Rights of Man," could be Saint Patrick. Zimmermann p. 43: "According to a fairly recent legend, St. Patrick held a trefoil [shamrock] as an illustration of the Trinity. The plant had become a religious emblem and a badge of nationality about 1700. In 1778, the Cork Volunteers sang a song entitled 'The Shamrock Cockade', and by then the colour itself had acquired a political meaning."
Broadside LOCSinging as111750 is the basis for the description.
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Rights of Man" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998)) - BS
"Strongbow" is Richard de Clare (Richard FitzGilbert), one-time Earl of Pembroke (died 1176), who led the first English invasion of Ireland in 1170.
Tom Paine (1737-1809) published The Rights of Man in 1791-1792, and it was an inspiration to the more intellectual of the 1798 rebels; most histories of the period contain multiple references to his writing. It's ironic to note that Ireland's French allies would imprison Paine for a time during the the quasi-war with the United States -- and even more ironic that Paine's last major work before the 1798 was The Age of Reason, which attacked several important Catholic doctrines.
For a discussion of this type of song as a example of the genre known as the "aisling," see the notes to "Granuaile."
There is, of course, a fiddle tune, "The Rights of Man." There is no reason to think the two have anything to do with each other. - RBW
File: BrdTRoM

Rigs o' Gorrachree, The

DESCRIPTION: Near Gorrachree the singer overhears Sandy and a chambermaid. Sandy seduces her. She says, "My maidenhood has got a fright and gane awa frae me." He considers it a joke he's played on fairer maids. He "hunts the beggar wives and sets them agee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: seduction rake servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1468, "The Rigs o' Gorrachree" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #7184
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Corachree
File: GrD71468

Rigs of London, The

See Up to the Rigs (File: K192)

Rigs of Rye, The

See Two Rigs of Rye [Laws O11] (File: LO11)

Rigs of the Times, The

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Honesty's all out of fashion; These are the rigs of the times...." Detailing all the sharp business practices of the day, e.g. the butcher who charges two shillings a pound "and thinks it no sin" -- while placing his thumb on the scale!
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (Dime-Song-Book #1)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes poverty lie money landlord
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South)) US(MA,MW,NW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Newf) Australia
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 237, "The Rigs of the Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #25, "The Rigs of the Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #13, "The rigs of the times" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 31, "The Riggs of the TImes" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 433-434, "Song of the Times" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 332, "Hard Times" (2 texts plus a fragment and mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 332, "Hard TImes" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 89, pp. 215-216, "Hard Times" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan ,184 ""Hard Times (1 text, 1 tune)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 51-53, "Hard Times" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #186, "Hard Times" (3 texts)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 332-334, "Hard Times" (1 text)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 14-16, "The Rigs of the Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 206-208, "Hard, Hard Times" (1 text, 1 tune -- a Canadian adaptation created by William James Emberly in 1936 to describe conditions in the Great Depression)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 17, "Hard, Hard Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 57-59, "Hard Times" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 44-45, "Hard, Hard Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-ChapBook Flanders-VermontChapBook, pp. 38-45, "Hard Times" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 183, "Hard Times" (1 text, the first six verses being "Courting the Widow's Daughter" and the last seven being a reduced version, minus the chorus, of "The Rigs of the Times")
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 113-114, "Hard Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 13-14, "Hard, Hard Times" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Hard, Hard Times" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 28-29 in the 3rd edition, pp. 46-47 in the 4th, pp. 24-25 in the 5th
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 24 and #1/64 p. 24, "Hard Times" (1 text)
DT, RIGSTIME*
Roud #876
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Hard, Hard Times" (on NFOBlondahl01,NFOBlondahl02)
Ken Peacock, "Hard Times" (on NFKPeacock)
Mike Kent, "Hard Times" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Ned Rice, "Hard Times" (on PeacockCDROM)
J. W. "Charger" Salmons & friends: "The Rigs of the Time" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
Pete Steele, "The Song of Hard Times" (on PSteele01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't Come to Michigan" (lyrics)
cf. "Old David Ward" (lyrics)
cf. "How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?" (subject)
cf. "The Steam Doctor" (lyrics)
cf. "Fine Times in Camp Number Three" (lyrics)
cf. "Here's First to Those Farmers" (theme)
cf. "The Mare and the Foal" (theme)
cf. "The Merchant's Song" (subject: Newfoundland's truck system) and references there
NOTES [258 words]: Most scholars (e.g. Belden, Cox, Kennedy) assume that "The Rigs of the Times" (with chorus "Singing, Honesty's all out of fashion, These are the rigs of the times, times, me boys, These are the rigs of the times") is the same as "Hard Times" (with a short chorus such as "these times, these (hard/queer) times").
Personally, I'm not convinced, as the two seem to fall into very distinct groups. But because the equation is so common, I've followed it in the index. - RBW
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing: "This ... was sent in by Paul Emberly, who informs that the lines were written by his late father." - BS
The Newfoundland versions of this are perhaps particularly bitter in their references to the merchant. This is probably due to the particular circumstances of Newfoundland. Because most supplies had to come to an outport from elsewhere, there developed the so-called "truck system." The locals would set up an account with the merchant, who would give them supplies on credit. When they arrived with their loads of cod, the locals would give it to the merchant to pay off the debt -- assuming they had enough to pay off the debt. And it was of course the merchant, not the sometimes-illiterate fisherman, who calculated the amount of the debt, recorded it, and decided if the fisherman had paid it off. Many merchants were honest, but not all; little wonder if the Newfoundlanders viewed the merchants as a drought-stricken American farmer viewed the bank.... For more on this Newfoundland problem, see the notes to "The Merchant's Song." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: K237

Rigwoodie Carlin', The

See Tam Buie (Tam Bo, Magherafelt Hiring Fair) (File: HHH748)

Rigwuddy Carlin, The

See Tam Buie (Tam Bo, Magherafelt Hiring Fair) (File: HHH748)

Riley

DESCRIPTION: "Riley, Riley, where are you, Wo, Riley! Wo, ma-an!" "Riley's gone to Liverpool... Riley's gone an' I'm goin too." "Wish I were Cap'n Riley's son... I'd lay around and drink good rum." "Thought I heard my cap'n say... Tomorrow is our sailin' day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935
KEYWORDS: sailor ship work drink travel nonballad shanty
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 278, "Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 53, pp. 214-215, "Good-bye My Riley-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18160
RECORDINGS:
Joe Armstrong, John Davis and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Riley" (on LomaxCD1713)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ginny's Gone to Ohio" (lyrics)
NOTES [124 words]: I don't believe this is the same song we have indexed as "Jimmy My Riley." The response lines are close but the leader's lines are too short. - BS
This is a pastiche of verses from various songs, e.g. "Leave Her, Johnny," "Ginny's Gone to Ohio" (which also has some resemblance in the tune), etc. Lomax related it to "Stormalong" (a connection I don't see). You can probably find other relatives if you look hard enough.
Ben Schwartz gave this description for Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands's "Good-bye My Riley-O" version:
Response lines alternate between "O Riley O man" and "Bye bye my Riley o." Leader lines include "Riley, Riley, where are you", "Riley gone to Liverpool (London Town, Mobile Bay)," "Riley gone and I'm going too"
Last updated in version 5.2
File: LoF278

Riley and I Were Chums

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, RIley and I were chums and always shared... Take my word whatever I done, I handed it over to Riley." The singer gave Riley a share of his drink. When he is arrested, he gives Riley the warrant. When his wife is unpleasant, he gives her to Riley
AUTHOR: Words: (see NOTES) / Music: Felix McGlennon
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: humorous drink wife friend
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 57-58, "Riley and I Were Chums" (1 text,1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), Burke's Ballads , no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 61, "Riley and I Were Chums" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #91, p. 133, "Riley and I Were Chums" (1 text)
Roud #9080
RECORDINGS:
Frankie Nash, "Me and Me Chum Johnny Riley" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Handed It Over to Riley
NOTES [128 words]: This song seems to have been best known from the singing of Johnny Burke, and some suspect he wrote it as a result. However, a nearly-illegible songster I found online (the "Gimme My Money Songster") appears to credit the words to Frank Totisey. I cannot read the composer's name at all. but another Internet source credits Felix McGlennon. The lyrics are there credited to Albert Hall. The title given is "I Handed It Over to Riley." The copyright date is nineteenth century. Since Burke lived from 1851 to 1930, he could have written it, but I note that the White/Kirwin edition of Burke's songs puts it in the later part of the book, with the songs that are not as firmly established as being by Burke.
It does seem more like a Stage Irish song than a Burke song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Pet057

Riley Luffsey

DESCRIPTION: "O'Donald and Luffsey (first names Frank and Riley) And Wannigan, known as Dutch..." were true friends and "never too bashful to shoot." "The Marquis de Mores... had recently come from France"; Luffsey dies in a shootout; de Mores is acquitted
AUTHOR: Clell G. Cannon ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide foreigner trial accusation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 238-239, "(Riley Luffsay)" (1 text)
NOTES [54 words]: It's not as bad as that first line would make you think -- but it's close.
De Mores apparently was a French businessman who set up a cattle operation in North Dakota. It was a bit too big and bustling for the locals, who engaged in a certain amount of petty sabotage. De Mores perhaps fought back a little too vigorously. - RBW
File: Burt238

Riley Song

See Riley's Farewell (Riley to America; John Riley) [Laws M8] (File: LM08)

Riley to Ameriky

See Riley's Farewell (Riley to America; John Riley) [Laws M8] (File: LM08)

Riley, Riley (Ho, Riley, Ho)

DESCRIPTION: "Riley, Riley, where are you? Heh! Riley, Heh! Wish I was Captain RIley's son, Heh! Riley, Heh! I'd stand on the dock and drink good rum, Hey! Riley, Hey!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: soldier drink
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 232, "Riley, Riley" (1 short text)
Roud #18160
File: KiWa232R

Riley's Farewell (Riley to America; John Riley) [Laws M8]

DESCRIPTION: Riley and his sweetheart are forbidden by her father to marry. Aided by the girl's mother, Riley goes to America and buys a plot of land. He comes back; the two set out for America. Their ship is wrecked on the way. Before dying the girl blames her father
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: courting love mother father exile wreck death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(Lond)) US(Ap,MW,NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Laws M8, "Riley's Farewell (Riley to America; John Riley)"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #110, p. 2, "John Rylie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 22, "John Riley" (6 texts, 2 tunes)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 40, "Reilly the Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #56, "John Reilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 95-96, "John Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 114, "Young Reilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H468, pp. 441-442, "John Reilly the Sailor Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 7, "Reilly the Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 49, "O'Reilly the Fisherman" (1 text)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 37, "John Reilly the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 147, "John Reilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 39, pp. 89-90, "Jack Riley" (1 text, containing only the beginning portion of the song)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 37, "John Reilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 166-167, "Riley Song"; "William Riley" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune); pp. 168-169, "Bound for Amerikee" (1 fragment, 1 tune, certainly a Riley song although it might not be this one)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 139, "John Riley's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 105-108, "John Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 170-171, "Johnny Riley" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 102-103, "Young Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 60, "Johnny Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 90, "Riley to Ameriky" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 698-700, "O'Reilly the Fisherman" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 13, "John Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 45, "Reilly the Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 84, "O'Reilly the Fisherman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 67, "Will O'Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 43, "Reilly's Farewell" (1 text)
DT 463, RILYFRWL JREILLY4*
Roud #270
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Young Reilly the Fisherman" (on IRRCinnamond03)
Michael Flanagan, "O'Reilly to America" (on IRClare01)
Mrs. Edward Gallagher, "Young Riley" (on MRHCreighton)
Mike Kent, "John O'Reilly" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Jack Knight, "Willie Riley" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Sarah Anne O'Neill, "John Reilly" (on Voice04)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(257b), "Riley the Fisherman," A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1845-1859; also Firth c.12(287), Firth b.26(209), Harding B 11(1864), Harding B 11(1865), Harding B 11(3286), "Riley the Fisherman"; 2806 c.16(201), "Riley's Farewell"
Murray, Mu23-y4:036, "John Riely," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(072), "John Reily," James Lindsay, Glasgow, c. 1870
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "William and Harriet" [Laws M7]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Riley the Fisherman
John Rally
Willie Riley
Reilly
NOTES [33 words]: Not to be confused with the broken-token "John Riley." [Nor should the] "Young Riley" [versions] be confused with the "Young Riley" that's an alternate title to "O'Reilly from the County Leitrim." - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LM08

Rin Tin Tin Sat on a Pin

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme: "Rin Tin Tin/Tiny Tim/Tiger Tim Swallowed a pin, He went to the doctor, The doctor wasn't in. He opened the door And fell on the floor, And that was the end of Rin Tin Tin"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Opie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope dog doctor death | pin door floor
FOUND IN: US(MA) Britain(England) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 65, "Tiger Tim" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #490, "Rin Tin Tin" (1 text)
Roud #19612
File: AJRR490

Rinaway Bride, The

DESCRIPTION: A couple decide to marry but she runs away from the wedding. Her parents run after her through Tweed and Kelso, but don't catch her. The bridesmaids laugh at the groom for being silly but the bridegroom's man chalks it up to woman's flightiness.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1751 (Yair's _Charmer_, Edinburgh, according to Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: wedding abandonment Scotland humorous father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 124-125, "The Rinaway Bride" (1 text)
Roud #2876
NOTES [17 words]: Roud assigns this number to Ord's "The Runaway Bride" but that is a different song to the same theme. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: WhSo124

Rineen Ambush, The

DESCRIPTION: The IRA ambush Black and Tan lorries in Rineen, County Clare. "The Black and Tans put up their hands and the peelers too likewise." "Gallant Irishmen together should unite ... And have another ambush soon to fight the Black and Tans!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: rebellion battle patriotic IRA
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1920-1921 - The Black and Tan War
Sep 22, 1920 - A partly successful ambush of Black and Tans by the Mid Clare Brigade of the IRA was followed by a successful retreat (source: Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan).
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 26, "The Rineen Ambush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5222
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "The Rineen Ambush" (on IRTLenihan01)
NOTES [186 words]: Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan: "A large monument now stands at Rineen Cross in memory of that day's events and their appalling aftermath [reprisals by RIC and Black and Tans] which are still embedded deeply in the memory of the people of Clare.
Sir Robert Peel established the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1812 and its success led, in 1829, to the Metropolitan Police Act for London. Originally the term "Peeler" applied to the London constabulary. (source: Sir Robert "Bobby" Peel (1788-1850) at Historic UK site.)
In this song the term is applied to the RIC (Royal Irish Constabulary). - BS
The Black and Tans (for which see "The Bold Black and Tan") were a special English constabulary recruited to quell Irish violence. They failed, and in fact contributed to the brutality.
For one song about the aftermath to this event, see the notes to "Mac and Shanahan." It will tell you something of the violence of the period that none of the six histories I checked (including three devoted specifically to this period, one of which is largely a catalog of atrocities) mentions any of these events. - RBW
File: RcRinAmb

Ring a ring a rosie

See Ring Around the Rosie (File: PHCF227a)

Ring a Ring o' Roses

See Ring Around the Rosie (File: PHCF227a)

Ring Around a Rosy

See Ring Around the Rosie (File: PHCF227a)

Ring Around o' Rosies

See Ring Around the Rosie (File: PHCF227a)

Ring Around the Rosie

DESCRIPTION: Singing game, with lyrics something like "Ring around the rosie, A pocket full of posies, Ashes, ashes, We all fall down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (_Kate Greenway's Mother Goose_, according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England(All)) Ireland Canada(Newf) New Zealand
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 49-50, "Ring Around ' Rosies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 227, "Ring Around the Rosy" (1 text, tune referenced)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H48c, pp. 10-11, "Ring a Ring o' Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 12, "Ring-a-ring-a-rosie" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 69, "Ring-a-ring-a-rosy" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 443, "Ring-a-ring o' roses" (4 texts)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 48, "Ring a Ring o' Roses" (13 texts, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #62, "Ring Around the Rosie" (4 short texts, 1 tune)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 26, "RIng-around-the-Rosy" (1 text, buried in the notes)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 115, "Ring Around a Rosy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 536, "Ring Around the Rosy" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #639, p. 253, "(Ring-a-ring-a-roses)"
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 20, "(Ring a ring a rosie" (1 text plus a "Pop goes the weasel" variant)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 180, "Ring-a-RIng o' Roses" (4 texts)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 146, "Ring-a-Ring o' Roses" (2 texts)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 4, "(Ring-a-ring o' roses)" (1 short text, from user John5918, posted August 28, 2021)
ADDITIONAL: Ron Young, _Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador_, Downhome Publishing Inc., 2006, p. 259, "(Ring Around the Rosy)" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: Tim Devlin, _Cracking Humpty Dumpty: An Investigative Trail of Favorite Nursery Rhymes_, Susak Press, 2022, pp. 111-119, "Ring a Ring o'Roses" (1 text plus many variants and alternate sources)
ST PHCF227a (Full)
Roud #7925
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Ring Around the Rosie" (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
NOTES [281 words]: The words cited here are the ones I learned (I don't remember playing the game, but I've heard the song), and Pankake's text is almost identical. Presumably this is the form most common in the American Midwest. Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, however, cites older (and presumably more original) forms, and Gomme offers a variety with quite diverse refrains.
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose notes that some have connected this to the Great Plague, and Devlin, pp. 111-112, lists some of those who have suggested it. But the Baring-Goulds also observe that this is a very weak link, denied by most who have seriously studied the matter. The Opies merely state that it goes back the *time* of the plague -- and offer no direct proof even of that. The Opies also cite some possible non-English parallels; those which are in languages I can read do not strike me as truly parallel. But Devlin, pp. 115-116, also sees a strong parallel to the German version he prints on p. 116.
Devlin, pp. 117-119, has details on how the plague idea came to be popular in a very short span of time.
John Kelly, The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time, Harper Collins, 2005, pp. 20-21, has more explanation than most. According to him, the "ashes, ashes" of the third line are a reference to the bruiseline purple blotches which appeared on the bodies of some victims. These were known as "God's tokens" because they indicated that the sufferer was soon to die. He does, however, point out that this symptom is very rarely observed in modern plague. So this is a pretty weak link. Plus many versions don't have the "ashes" line. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PHCF227a

Ring Around the Rosy

See Ring Around the Rosie (File: PHCF227a)

RIng Dang Doo, The

See The Ring-Dang-Doo (I) (File: EM182A)

Ring Down Goliah

DESCRIPTION: On Sunday morning the singer, holding a bible, meets the devil.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1994 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Devil
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 16, "Ring Down Goliah" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
NOTES [114 words]: The current description is based on the Elder-FolksongsFromTobago fragment.
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "This song sometimes heard at wake-houses, other times among fisher folk, tells a tale about the devil and his fear of the Holy Bible. When the sailors sing it they tell the story about meeting the devil on board a haunted ship. On the other hand, The bongo kings tell the story of Goliah, a great master of the wake-house; Goliah who faces the Evil One in the form of an old bongo king and engages in a tournament of dancing the bongo all through the night. The devil cannot leave the compound where the wake is held because the Holy Bible is at the entrance to the compound." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo016

Ring is Round, The

DESCRIPTION: "The ring is round -- the bed is square You and I would make a pair"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad ring
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1834, "The Ring is Round" (1 short text)
Roud #13601
NOTES [20 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 text.
Greig/Duncan8: apparently a verse for a valentine or album. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1834

Ring My Mother Wore, The

DESCRIPTION: "This earth has many treasures rare In gems and golden ore, My heart hath one more treasure rare, The ring my mother wore." The child received it from the mother's dying hand, and will treasure it always
AUTHOR: Louis Della?
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Dime-Song-Book #12); reportedly copyrighted 1860
KEYWORDS: mother death ring
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 699, "The Ring My Mother Wore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 474-475, "The Ring My Mother Wore" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 699)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2013, p. 135, "The Ring My Mother Wore" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #12, pp. 44-45, "The Ring my Mother Wore" (1 text)
Roud #7372
RECORDINGS:
[Roy Harvey and the] West Virginia Ramblers, "The Ring My Mother Wore" (Champion 16456, 1931)
File: R699

Ring Rose

DESCRIPTION: "Ring rose, the one I chose (x3), It's the (latest/lady) from Baltimore." "She can rock, that lady, but she can't rock me (x3), It's the latest...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads)
KEYWORDS: playparty love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 127-128, "Buzz" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ByGo128

Ring the Bell, Verger

DESCRIPTION: "Down in the belfry chaffeur lies, Vicar' s wife between his thighs"; a voice orders him to stop driving the wife and start driving the car. A bell puller is told to stop pulling himself and pull the bell; an organist told to play the organ, not himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: humorous bawdy music infidelity
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 28, "Ring the Bell, Verger" (1 text)
Roud #10127
NOTES [34 words]: This looks like it should be sung to the tune of "Ring the Bell, Watchman" or one of its descendants, although a few lines are a bad fit. But since it appears no tune has been recorded, we can't be sure. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RuSo028

Ring the Bell, Watchman

DESCRIPTION: "High in the belfry the old sexton stands, Grasping the rope in his thin bony hands." He waits until he hears: "Ring the bell, watchman! ring! ring! ring! Yes, yes! the good news is now on the wing... Glorious and blessed tidings. Ring, ring the bell!"
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (sheet music published by Root & Cady and by S. Brainard's Sons)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work, pp. 115-117, "Ring the Bell, Watchman" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Dime-Song-Book #17, p. 16, "Ring the Bell, Watchman" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 113-114, "Ring the Bell, Watchman" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RINGBELL*
Roud #13630
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Click Go the Shears" (tune)
cf. "Strike the Bell" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Click Go the Shears (File: MA024)
Strike the Bell (File: PaSe123)
Oh Molly Reilly (Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 159)
Palmer's Suits (Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 180)
NOTES [252 words]: Like many Henry Clay Work songs, the lyrics to this were too vague to gain much hold in tradition, but the tune too good to ignore. There is a sailing parody, "Strike the Bell, Second Mate"; in Australia, it produced the well-known "Click Go the Shears."
In response to my comment above, Bob Bolton wrote the following:
"This is rather the reverse of the fact. H C Work's lyrics were, in fact, too *specific* to retain much hold in tradition! The song commemorates the moment when the Northern States' victory was announced ... in this case, by the ringing of the church bells. It probably sold... and was sung.... for a while after the Civil War - but quietly faded soon after as the country began to repair its formerly severed self. However, the song was already in print in other countries... in Australia certainly by 1868... and it entered into 'home songster' collections... and was still in the last version I saw (the one I bought a few decades back) of a collection published by Allens Music.
"On top of that... the tune proved to be a really good one for the newly popular Barn Dance ... and folklore collectors, working from the early 1950s report that this tune became the de facto standard for the Barn Dance in any country hall!
"Our Australian collecting experience was, initially confused by the fact that British sailors had also made a very popular parody of the same song... encouraging the Second Mate to ring the bell to call for a change of watch ... and a rest for the singers!"
- (RBW)
Last updated in version 6.6
File: DTringbe

Ring Ting, I Wish I Were a Primrose

See Wishing (I Wish I Were a Primrose) (File: KSUC146D)

Ring-a-ring o' Roses

See Ring Around the Rosie (File: PHCF227a)

Ring-a-RIng o' Roses

See Ring Around the Rosie (File: PHCF227a)

Ring-around-the-Rosy

See Ring Around the Rosie (File: PHCF227a)

Ring-Dang-Doo (I), The

DESCRIPTION: A young woman lets a lad ride her "ring dang doo," is kicked out of her house by her father for losing her maidenhead, and takes up prostitution. In some versions she gives her customers a social disease; in others her career ends when she dies of the pox
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous disease sex whore
FOUND IN: Australia Canada Britain(England) US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,So,SW), West Indies
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 182-186, "The Ring-Dang-Doo" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 147-151, "The Rang-a-Tang-Too" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 51, pp. 240-244, "London Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 140-141, "Ringy Dang Doo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 26-27, "The Ring Dang Doo" (1 text)
Roud #1880
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singers "The Ring-A-Rang-A-Roo" [fragment] (on Unexp1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rackyman Doo (Ring-Dang-Doo (II))" (euphemism)
cf. "The Ric-A-Dam-Doo (Ring-Dang-Doo (III))" (euphemism)
NOTES [27 words]: The first version in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I (p. 147) is to the unrecognized melody of "The Irish Washerwoman," the second to "The Arkansas Traveler." - EC
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM182A

Ringers of Egloshayle, The

See The Egloshayle Ringers (File: Gund022)

RIngy Dang Doo

See The Ring-Dang-Doo (I) (File: EM182A)

Rinky Dinky Di-Lo

DESCRIPTION: A man loses his "leg," shot off by his mother-in-law; the doctor makes a wooden replacement; but the man cannot wear a spur on it; and things in the family go from bad to worse.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy injury doctor family
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 358-360, "Rinky Dinky Di-Lo" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [29 words]: This is one of a group of "mal-mariee" songs and ballads, Legman notes in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, similar to "I Wish I Was Single Again," "Devilish Mary," etc. - EC
File: RL358

Rinordine

See Reynardine [Laws P15] (File: LP15)

Rio Grande

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "[Heave] away, Rio... And we're bound for the Rio Grande." Most versions revolve about a sailor preparing to leave port, and the girl (or girls) he is about to leave behind (with or without regret)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 ("One a Week")
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor parting
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England) West Indies(St Vincent) Ireland
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 64-66, "Rio Grande" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 34-36 "Rio Grande" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 114-115, "The Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 86-87, "Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 111-112, "Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 87-96, "Rio Grande" (8 texts plus several fragments, 2 tunes; the 5th text is a Norwegian version, "Opsang for 'Preciosa'") [AbEd, pp. 80-87]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 28, "Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXI, p.24, "Rio Grand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 66-68, "Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 125-126, "Oh, the anchor is weighed and the sails they are set" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 146-148, "Rio Grande" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp.197-198, "Rio Grande" (1 text)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 21-23, "Away, Rio!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 488-489, "The Rio Grande" (1 text+floating verses, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 20, "Bound to Rio" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 104, "The Rio Grande" (2 texts, 2 tunes); "I'm Bound For the Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #2, "Bound for the Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 82-83, "Royo Groun'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 34-35, "Away Rio" (1 text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 138-139, "RIo Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 451, "Were You Ever in Rio Grand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 140, "The Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 93, "Rio Grande" (1 text)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 70-71, "We're Bound for Rio" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 33, "Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 34, "Rio Grande" (1 text)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 6, "Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 27, "Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RIOGRAN
ADDITIONAL: "On Shanties," article in E(neas) S(weetland) Dallas, editor, _Once a Week_, New Series, Number 31, August 1, 1868 (published by Bradbury and Evans and available on Google Books), p. 92, "(To Rio Grande we're bound away, away to Rio") (1 excerpt)
Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Rio Grande" is in Part 2, 7/21/1917.
Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, pp. 321-322, "Rio Grande" (1 text, 1 tune)
George Allan England, _Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt_ (also published as _The Greatest Hunt in the World_), Doubleday, 1924, p. 267, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #317
RECORDINGS:
Almanac Singers, "Away, Rio" (General 5017A, 1941; on Almanac02, Almanac03, AlmanacCD1)
Tom Cornelly, "Rio Grande" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Fishermen's Group, Cadgwith, "Rio Grande" (on LastDays)
Joseph Hyson, "Rio Grande" (on NovaScotia1)
Minster Singers, "Rio Grande" [medley w. "Blow the Man Down"] (Victor 61148, n.d.; prob. c. 1903)
Capt. Leighton Robinson w. Alex Barr, Arthur Brodeur & Leighton McKenzie, "Away Rio" (AFS 4232 A, 1939; on LC27 as "Rio Grande"; in AMMEM/Cowell)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Away for Rio,
Bound for the Rio Grande
Oh, Aye, Rio
NOTES [27 words]: The "Rio Grande" of this song is almost certainly not the river of southwestern North America, but rather the province Rio Grande do Sul of southern Brazil. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Doe064

Riot in St. John's, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye Liberals all, on you I'll call, I hope you will attend." "On the nominating morning... The Tories heist their colours for St. John's East did flock." Protestants attack Catholics; Clifford and others are killed. The singer condemns violence
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1994 (Thomas and Widdowson)
KEYWORDS: political religious homicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 13, 1861 - the St. John's Riot
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth S. Goldstein, "A Report on Continuing Research into 'Treason Songs': A Private Newfoundland Tradition," essay on pp. 126-153 of Gerald Thomas and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, _Studies in Newfoundland Folklore: Community and Process_, Breakwater Books, 1991, pp. 146-147, "The Riot In St. John's" (1 text)
ST ThWi146 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In Lonely Belvedere" (subject)
NOTES [722 words]: In Newfoundland, this was sometimes regarded as a "Treason Song." For background on Treason Songs, see the notes to "The Prooshian Drum."
Newfoundland, for most of its history, was almost evenly divided between Catholics of Irish ancestry and Protestants of all stripes. The Protestants were not as united as the Catholics, but by 1855 they had the slight edge in numbers (Noel, p. 22), and Newfoundland politics came to be split almost entirely along religious lines, with the "Conservatives" being mostly Protestant, resulting in the "Liberals" being mostly Catholic. And the government structure -- which, e.g., for many years gave its educational funds to sectarian schools, making no attempt to found or support multi-religious schools -- didn't do much to heal the rift. And Responsible Government was still only a few decades old in 1861. So it is easy to see how conflicts could arise.
According to Cadigan, p. 128, the whole mess arose when Sir Alexander Bannerman, the Governor (British Empire representative) since 1857, took the excuse to dismiss a divided Liberal government that he seems to have personally disliked. (Noel, p. 83, calls Bannerman a "grossly prejudiced near-octogenarian who had shown nothing but malice toward his Liberal ministers and who had almost certainly engaged engaged in a conspiracy with the Conservative opposition to remove them.) He perhaps didn't have the authority to throw out the government, but it resulted in elections. "The only justification that an alarmed Colonial Office could find for his illegal and unconstitutional behavior was that it had better succeed -- meaning that the Conservatives had better secure a majority in the elections that were bound to follow" (Noel, p. 23). Cadigan, p. 129, describes the aftermath as follows:
Victory in the ensuing election hinged upon two districts in Conceptions Bay. Both sides used violence and intimidation, which quickly assumed class and sectarian overtones.... Tensions ran high throughout Carbonear and St John's, as Liberal supporters threatened or attacked the property of Conservative merchant candidates. Violence tainted the elections in the district of Harbour Main, where no Conservatives ran, and where rival groups of Roman Catholics fought each other.... The governor intervened, declaring the Harbour Main returns invalid. [In addition, the polls in Harbour Grace had never opened because of the acts of a local magistrate; Noel, p. 23.] The governor intervened, declaring the Harbour Main returns invalid. The Liberals believed they would have won the seats and, therefore, a majority in the House of Assembly. As it stood, the election result was fourteen Tory seats and twelve for the Liberals. When the legislature was called into session, [Catholic] Bishop Mullock and the Liberals encouraged public protest, which led to violence outside the Colonial Building. Troops dispersed the crowd by opening fire, killing three people [i.e. the Clifford, Fitzpatrick, and Father O'Donnell of the song] and wounding twenty, including a Roman Catholic priest."
Noel, p. 24: "On the day the legislature opened a mob formed around the Colonial Building, stoned the governor's carriage, and were finally dispersed only after the troops had opened fire. The loss of life was not great -- three were killed and twenty wounded, one of the latter being a Catholic priest -- but the effect on the community was profound. Sectarianism had reached its inevitable nadir. Thereafter the Conservatives could govern alone if they were determined to do so, but only with military support...."
Thus the song's implication that ALL fault belonged with ALL Protestants is somewhat unfair; the Protestants had indeed engineered the election, but the Catholics had been responsible for some of the election violence, and they had started the riot. And it was the military, not Protestants in general, who started the shooting, BECAUSE it was a riot. Still, the Protestants -- or, rather, Bannerman and the merchants who controlled the Conservative party -- had made the first move, so it's easy to see why the Catholics blamed them.
Insofar as there was a compromise, it came when the government made it a policy to extend patronage and government appointments on a sectarian basis (Noel, p. 24), which hardly offered a long-term solution! - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.5
File: ThWi146

Rip My Knickers Away

DESCRIPTION: "Be I Berkshire, be I buggery... Oi know a girl with calico drawers, and I knows how to tear 'em." In the chorus, the girl urges, "Rip my knickers away," but later (another girl?) says not to; "you'll get there by and byin'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: clothes sex bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 125, "Rip My Knickers Away" (1 text)
Roud #10228
File: RuSoRMKA

Ripe and Bearded Barley

See All Among the Barley (File: BdAAtBar)

Ripest Apple, The

DESCRIPTION: "The ripest apple the soonest rotted, The purest love the soonest cold, A young man's words are soon forgotten...." The singer asks that he speak her name kindly, recalls how they loved, says she will be true, and says she will never find his like
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown; probably transcribed 1915)
KEYWORDS: lover betrayal separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 165, "The Ripest Apple" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 165, "The Ripest Apple" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, _Ripest Apples_, The Big Apple Association, 1996, p. 12, "Ripest Apples" (1 text, 1 tune, with a chorus probably from "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)" but this first verse and a final stanza about how love changes)
Roud #6580
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Will Put My Ship In Order" (floating lyrics)
File: BrII165

Ripest Apples (I)

See Madam, Madam, You Came Courting (File: CrMa121)

Ripest Apples (II)

See The Ripest Apple (File: BrII165)

Ripest of Apples

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) AND The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: E098)

Ripon Sword-Dance

DESCRIPTION: "Christmas time has now been approaching." The characters have come from far away. Room is made for each and each has his lines: General "Warrington" from Waterloo, Hieland laddie, Tom the tinker, Beelzebub, Big Head, St George and doctor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (recording, The Ripon Sword Dancers)
KEYWORDS: Christmas humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
RECORDINGS:
The Ripon Sword Dancers, "Make Me a Room, For I Am A-Coming" (on Voice16)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Earsdon Sword-Dancer's Song" (theme) and references there
NOTES [174 words]: Hall, notes to Voice16: The Ripon Sword Dancers used this song in their Boxing Day mummers' play completed, in its entirety, in two minutes and fifty seconds.
For two similar examples of Christmas song/sword-dance/drama see Robert Bell, editor, [The Project Gutenberg EBook (1996) of] Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England (1857), "The [Wharfdale] Sword-Dancers' Song" ("The first that enters on the floor") and "The [Durham] Sword-Dancers' Song and Interlude" ("Good gentlemen all, to our captain take heed"). - BS
I find myself wondering if this might not be a sort of inland equivalent of thing like the "Pace-Egging Song," which introduces Lord Nelson, Lord Collingwood, and the hands serving under them. Here, it is Wellington ("Warrington,") the land her of Waterloo, as Nelson was the naval hero of Trafalgar.
There are a number of songs of this type, which Roud generally lumps under his #610. But they are at the very least different recensions of the same source. See the cross-references for other exaples. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: RcRiSwDa

Ripping Trip, A

DESCRIPTION: About the troubles of a sailing trip to San Francisco, each verse ending "Rip goes the --" (boiler, engine, your money, etc.). The trip features a defective engine, a savage captain, poor food, disease, and poverty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Put's Golden Songster)
KEYWORDS: sea gold mining hardtimes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 14, "A Ripping Trip" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 28-29, "A Ripping Trip" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RIPTRIP*
Roud #8059
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "A Ripping Trip" (on LEnglish02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pop Goes the Weasel" (tune) and references there
NOTES [29 words]: Although apparently first published in one of John A. Stone's (Old Put's) songsters, Old Put did not claim authorship of this one, and there seems to be no other claim. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FCW014

Rise and Shine

DESCRIPTION: "God said to Noah, there's gonna be a floody, floody.... (So) Rise and shine and give God the glory, glory... Children of the Lord." Noah builds the ark; the animals arrive, including elephants and kangaroos; it rains; it dries up
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious flood humorous Bible ship wordplay
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 198-199, "Rise an' Shine" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 212-213 in the 1874 edition)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 86-87, "Climb to Glory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 388, "Rise And Shine" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 105, 126, 133, 134, 175, 286, 346, 348, 397, 400-412, 431, 496, 501, 517, "Rise and Shine" (notes, with 7 texts on pp. 405-412, although "C" is something else, possibly "One More River to Cross" without the chorus, and "D" and 'E" are certainly "One More River"; bibliography on pp. 684-691, though much of it is for "One More River" or other topics)
SongsOfManyNations, "Rise and Shine" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 10 -- a very short version that has been converted to a round)
DT, RISESHIN
Roud #11968
RECORDINGS:
The Crofut Family, "Children of the Lord" (Piotr-Archive #671, recorded 09/17/2023)
Pete Seeger, "Children of the Lord" (on PeteSeeger11)
NOTES [90 words]: The DIgital Tradition calls this a jazzed-up version of Jacob's Ladder, but most versions seem to be entirely about Noah.
Averill treats this as a modification of "One More River to Cross." There are some common elements, but surely this is different enough to be considered its own song!
Averill, p. 397, suggests that the original spiritual was based on Isaiah 60:1, "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee." Very possibly, though I wonder if the kids who sing this would recognize the link. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB388A

Rise and Shine (Bold Pilgrim)

DESCRIPTION: "Good morning, brother pilgrim, sir, pray tell to me your name, And where it is you're going to...." The other says his feet are shod with gospel peace, he carries a sword to fight his way into Canaan, his name is Apollyon. The singer refuses to join him
AUTHOR: D. Tucker (according to Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee)
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Marshall W. Taylor, _A Collection of Revival Hymns and Plantation Melodies_, acording to Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad battle
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 102, pp. 156-158, "Bold Pilgrim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11040
NOTES [442 words]: I have to suspect that there is some confusion in the text collected by Boswell, because the third verse refers to the enemy (Apollyon) wearing Gospel peace but fighting his way into Canaan. It would make much more sense for the singer, not Apollyon, to be wearing the shoes of gospel peace.
The reference is clearly to the "whole armor of God," mentioned in Ephesians 6:11-13, which allows the wearer to "stand against the wiles of the devil." As part of this armor, the readers are told in 6:15 to have "the gospel of peace" as shoes on their feet.
The claim that the whole world belongs to Apollyon is reminiscent of the Temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4 and parallels -- the Devil offers Jesus "all the kingdoms of the earth" in that passage.
The name "Apollyon" for the Devil is attested in the Bible, although rare. The name means "destroyer," and is found only in Revelation 9:11, as an equivalent of Hebrew "Abaddon," which comes from a word for to perish or be lost and is used in the Old Testament as a name for the land of the dead. Although in early Hebrew usage the name seems to have been ethically neutral, it eventually came to mean a place where sinners are punished (InterpDict, p. 3). Ford, p. 145, observes that Abaddon is "personified in Job 28:22" but has little to say about the usage in the Apocalypse.
HastingsDict, p. 44, says that "As an angel Apollyon seems to have been regarded as equivalent to Asmodeus, king of demons, in Judaistic mythology, but our data are too few to warrant precise statements." In any case, the composer of this would be unlikely to know that. NicollEtAl, volume V, p. 408, suggests that the name "Apollyon" was a "gibe at Apollo... both Caligula and Nero aped the deity of Apollo." Again, however, the composer likely would not have known this.
Kiddle, p. 159, while acknowledging the possible connection with Apollo, thinks the author of the Apocalypse used the name "Apollyon" because it is linked to the word for destruction.
My collection of conservative Bible commentaries is not large, but Unger, p. 856, connects "Apollyon" with the mini-apocalypse of 2 Thess. 2:7-12. There are a few Greek parallels based on the word "destruction"; I doubt they would occur to someone working only with the King James Bible.
But why did the composer use "Apollyon" rather than "Satan" or "The Adversary" or some other such name? I can only suggest that the songwriter suffered from the same sort of love of obscurity that we find in the original author of the Apocalypse. This is typical of those who pay particular attention to this book that just barely managed to work its way into the Christian canon. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: BoWo102

Rise and Shine on the Black Ball Line

DESCRIPTION: "Rise and shine on the Black Ball Line! Show a leg for a sea-boot!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: ship clothes | Rise and shine Black Ball Line
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 123, "Rise and shine on the Black Ball Line" (1 short text)
Roud #25530
NOTES [112 words]: One has to suspect that Alice Kane's snippet is a fragment of a known shantey. But it's so short, and the Black Ball Line so widely mentioned, that there isn't really any way to say which shantey it comes from.
Or maybe it's a Royal Navy chant. David Phillipson, Roll on the Rodney: Life on the Lower Decks of Royal Navy Warships After the Second World War, Sutton Publishing, 1999, p. 83, mentions a Royal Navy chant used to get sailors out of their hammocks:
Wakey, wakey, rise and shine!
The morning's fine and you've 'ad your time!
'Eave-o, 'eave-o, 'eave-o
Show a leg, show a leg!
'Ands off cocks and on socks!
Look lively now,
'Eave-o, 'eave-o, lash and stow. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: KSUC123B

Rise Me Up from Down Below

DESCRIPTION: Shanty, with chorus "Whiskey-oh, Johnny-oh! Oh, rise me up from down below, down below, oh, oh, oh oh! Up aloft this yard must go, John! Rise me up from down below!" The verses describe "the world down below," where the "fires do roar," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: shanty Hell
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 47, "Rise Me Up from Down Below" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 281-282, "Rise Me Up From Down Below" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 207]
ST Doe047 (Partial)
Roud #9440
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whiskey Johnny" (identical chorus, different verses celebrating whiskey)
File: Doe047

Rise Out Your Bed

DESCRIPTION: The wife demands, "Rise out your bed, you worthless wretch, the sun's far in the sky." She has been working while he recovers from drink. They fight and argue -- until Craigilie comes by, when they declare the husband to be well
AUTHOR: Words: John Barr? (source: Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (Barr, Poems and Songs)
KEYWORDS: husband wife drink fight trick
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 27, "Rise Out Your Bed" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 18 in the 1972 edition)
RECORDINGS:
Barbie and Neil Colquhoun, "Rise Out Your Bed" (on NZSongYngCntry)
NOTES [74 words]: According to Gordon McLauchlan, editor-in-chief, New Zealand Encyclopedia, David Bateman Limited, 1984, p. 46, "BARR, John (1809-89) was born in Paisley, Scotland and emigrated to N[ew] Z[ealand] in 1852, settling in Dunedin. He became a well-known poet and songwriter, contributing to the Otago Witness and Saturday Advertiser. His Poems and Songs was published in 1861 and revised and reissued in 1874. He inaugurated the Burns Club. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Colq018

Rise Up Gudewife

See Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn) (File: R471)

Rise Up O Flame

DESCRIPTION: Sung to a campfire: "Rise up O Flame, By thy lights glowing, Show to us beauty Vision and joy."
AUTHOR: Music: Christoph Praetoris (source: GirlScouts-SingTogether; ChansonsDeNotreChalet)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Kent County Girl Guides songbook, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: fire nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 337, 438, 443, 471, "Rise up O Flame" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 11, "Rise Up, O Flame" (2 short texts, 1 French, 1 English; 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 10, "Rise Up, O Flame" (3 short texts, 1 French, 1 English, 1 German; 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 7, "Rise Up, O Flame" (1 short text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Rise Up, O Flame" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 32)
NOTES [32 words]: GirlScouts-SingTogether, GirlScout-PocketSongbook, and ChansonsDeNotreChalet all list this as an eight part round. I have to doubt any random collection of girl scouts could manage that feat. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF337R

Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover)

DESCRIPTION: The singer arrives at his love's window and begs to come in. She asks who is there. He identifies himself, and she allows him to enter. When he leaves, he rejoices, "For late last night I've been with my lass." In other versions, his ghost bids farewell.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: nightvisit courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #177, p. 2, ("Hearken, hearken, and I will tell you") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 783, "I Must Away" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 14, "The Wandering Lover" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 34, "The Ghostly Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 41, "I'll Go See My Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 89, "Hearken, Ladies, and I Will Tell You, Or The Constant Lovers" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 159, "A Health to All True-Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #50, "O Who Is That?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 63, "Here's a Health To All True Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22568
RECORDINGS:
LaRena [Mrs Gordon] Clark, "I'll Go See My Love" (on ONEFowke01)
Jimmy McKee, "A Health To All True Lovers" (on FSBFTX15)
John Reilly, "Adieu Unto All True Lovers" (on Voice10)
Belle Stewart, "Here's a Health to all True Lovers" (on Voice06)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Will Put My Ship In Order" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father" [Child 248] (plot)
cf. "Love Let Me In (Forty Long Miles; It Rains, It Hails)" (plot)
cf. "Let Me In This Ae Nicht" (plot)
cf. "Willy O!" (theme)
cf. "I'm a Rover and Seldom Sober" (two verses)
cf. "The Light of the Moon" (theme: night visit ended by a crowing cock)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Open and Let Me In
NOTES [881 words]: This is a difficult conundrum, in that there are versions of this song with very similar words but plots with very different directions: One is a nightvisiting song, the other a ghost returning to his love after long absence.
In earlier versions of the Index, I split these two ballads, as "Rise Up Quickly" and "The Ghostly Lover" -- after all, the ghost is a pretty significant change; this was in contradiction to Roud, who lumped them.
Making things trickier still, one important text (Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland's) is "I Will Put My Ship In Order" without the first and last verses. It's not just the same plot; it's the same *words*. The two assuredly have a common origin, though in fact the songs have different endings. But fragments could file with other songs.
It is amazing that Kennedy, who is an impossible lumper and included at least one completely unrelated text from Sam Henry in his notes, failed to observe the connection to "I Will Put My Ship In Order." Kennedy's text is incredibly composite in its choruses, taking items from "I'm a Rover and Seldom Sober" and "Love is Teasing." But the Ord-BothySongsAndBallads text implies that these are not an original part of the song. Many of the other versions have also picked up extraneous material.
The title I have assigned here is not based on any traditional version; I pulled it out of Kennedy's text because the extant titles were so unhelpful and inorganic to the texts.
Adding it all up, I wonder if this could possibly be a mix of "I Will Put My Ship In Order" and some lost Ghostly Lover song. Or is the "Ghostly Lover" version a mix of the nightvisiting version of this song with "The Grey Cock" or something of that type? In any case, it's a mess which admits of no easy solution. - RBW
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland names its text "The Ghostly Lover" though the ghost does not appear. "Although the words do not seem to bear out the title, the White girls insist this is a song about a lover who was drowned, but rose from his watery grave to see his sweetheart once again." Another ghostly example is John Reilly's "Adieu Unto All True Lovers" on "The Voice of the People, Vol 10: Who's That at my Bed Window?," Topic TSCD 660 (1998): here the text is clearly what we are calling "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In" with the "where is the blushes" verse from "Willy O!" added to provide the ghost. The discussion of the Costello version in the notes to "The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father [Child 248]" give a similar example in which verses of both "Willy O!" and "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In" are inserted unchanged into another ballad.
"Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In" has distinguishing lines that stand out when verses are imported into another ballad. For example,
... "Who's that at my bed window,
Disturbing me from from my long night's rest?"
"I am your lover; sure pray discover...."
"...I'm wet, love, unto the skin." [as opposed to "I've got wet through all my clothes" in "Love Let Me In (Forty Long Miles; It Rains, It Hails)"].
"I'll be guided without a stumble....
It may begin with a treacherous journey that might have led the traveller to stumble:
"Over hills and lofty mountains,
Oh dear! oh dear! I'm forced to go...."
"Let the night be dark as the very dungeon [or dunghill]..."
Greig/Duncan4: "There has been some crossing over of material between this night visiting song and [Greig/Duncan2] 338 'Willie O', which treats the subject of a dead lover's return." Greig/Duncan4 783B is very close to Ord's text.
The cold and wet theme seems common in non-ghostly night-visit songs. Besides Kidson's "Forty Miles" see "Hey Lizzie Lass" and "Oh Tibbie, Are Ye Sleepin'." While the night visitor of "When A' the Lave Gaed to Their Beds" does not complain of being cold or wet he ends by declaring "I care na' for the hardest work, Nor wind nor rain I'll fear, While I am welcome back again To the arms of my dear."
The first verse of Greig's version is almost the same as the first verse of his text for "Hearken, Hearken"; the non-revenant sense of this version is made stronger by the verse: "Hearken, hearken, and I will tell you Of a lad and a country lass; Seven long years they've been a-courting, Many a jovial hour betwixt them passed."
Another wet lover song is "I Will Put My Ship in Order."
Speculation in VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs suggests Costello's "I'm your love and don't discover" line may be "'but I can't uncover' (can't reveal myself)." That might tie in with the "Grey Cock" ghost theory. However, as pointed out in the discussion of Costello's text under "The Grey Cock," that text takes its first five verses from this song. Here the line becomes entirely innocent. Ord has "it's your own true lover," and Fowke has "It's your true lover, so now uncover."
Another mysterious line from the Costello version - "The burning Thames I have to cross" - becomes somewhat less mysterious in these texts. In Fowke the line is "The burning tempest I have to cross." Ord has "The storm and tempest I mean to cross," explaining why the lover says "I am weary of my long journey, Besides I'm wet, love, unto the skin."
Fowke's source learned the song from her Grandad Watson whose ancestors came from northern England." - BS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Ord089

Rise Up, Dear Love

DESCRIPTION: Ainger asks a girl to open the door and let him in on a cold night. She tells him to return to the girl he was with the night before. He says he loves only her; contrary reports are false. She lets him in. She wonders why she left him outside so long.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: dialog nightvisit
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 38-39, ("Rise up, dear love, and open the door") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 775, "Rise Up, Dear Love" (1 text)
Roud #6191
File: GrD4775

Rise up, dear love, and open the door

See Rise Up, Dear Love (File: GrD4775)

Rise Up, Shepherd

DESCRIPTION: "There's a star in the east on Christmas morn, Rise up, Shepherd, and follow." The shepherd is advised to "Leave your sheep and leave your lambs" and follow the star to where Jesus is
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious shepherd Christmas
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 79-79, App.IV, "Rise Up, Shepherd, an' Foller" (2 texts, 2 tunes; p. 173 in the 1909 edition)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 253, "Rise Up, Shepherd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 266, "Rise Up, Shepherd, an' Foller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 373, "Rise Up, Shepherd, And Follow" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #85, "There's a Star in the East" (1 text)
Roud #15289
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow" (on PeteSeeger37, PeteSeeger42)
NOTES [77 words]: Although everything mentioned here comes from the Gospels, there is no evidence that the shepherds behaved as described. The star is mentioned only in Matthew (2:2, 9-10), and it seems to have been visible only to the Magi ("Wise Men") -- at least, Herod and his advisors couldn't tell which star it was.
The shepherds who see Jesus, on the other hand, are found only in Luke (2:8-20). They are not guided by the star, but given explicit directions by an angel. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: LoF253

Rise Up, Shepherd, an' Foller

See Rise Up, Shepherd (File: LoF253)

Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow

See Rise Up, Shepherd (File: LoF253)

Rise Ye Up

See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Rise, My Soul, And Stretch Thy Wings

DESCRIPTION: "Arise, my soul, and spread thy wings, A better portion trace, Arise from transitory things To Heav'n thy native place." The universe will fade; listeners should prepare for another world. "Soon our Savior will return Triumphant in the skies."
AUTHOR: Robert Seagrave (source: Julian)
EARLIEST DATE: 1742 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad river
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 120-121, "Arise, My Soul, And Stretch Thy Wings" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8887 and 15084
NOTES [169 words]: According to John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), this first appeared in 1742 in Robert Seagrave's "Hymns for Christian Worship," in four stanzas of eight lines, with the title "The Pilgrim's Song." George Whitefield, a friend of Seagrave, published it in 1753 minus the third verse, which I suspect made it popular.
Julian, p. 1035, says Seagrave was born in 1693, educated at Clare College, Cambridge (graduated 1714), and became Vicar of his birthplace of Twyford. He was a Wesleyan pamphleteer. Julian says his texts deserve more attention, but the only other title he lists is "Now May the Spirit's Holy Fire," which I've never heard of.
The usual tune for this hymn is known as "Amsterdam," and this is the title under which it appears in many sources.
Charles Wesley wrote a poem, "Arise, my soul, arise, Shake off thy guilty fears"; while it appears to derive from the same impulse, I wouldn't consider it the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: ThDD120

Rise, My True Love

See Shoot the Buffalo (File: R523)

Rise, Ole Napper

See Napper (File: Br3123)

Rise, Shine, for Thy Light Is-a-coming

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, rise, shine, for thy light is a-coming (x3). My lord says he's coming by and by." "Oh, wet and dry I intend to try, My Lord says he's coming by and.... To serve the Lord until I die." "This is the year of Jubliee... The Lord has set his people free."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 49, "Rise, Shine, for Thy Light Is-a-coming" (1 text)
Roud #11968
File: FSAM049

Rise, Sugar, Rise

See Little Sally Walker (File: CNFM157)

Rising in the North, The [Child 175]

DESCRIPTION: The Earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland, suspected of treason, go into rebellion, bringing in others such as Master Norton. They gather their forces, but are delayed in besieging a castle. Loyal forces defeat the rebels
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: nobility rebellion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1558-1603 - Reign of Elizabeth I
Nov 14, 1569 - Beginning of the northern rebellion
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 175, "The Rising in the North" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 210-216, "Risinge in the Northe" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 266-278, "The Rising in the North" (2 texts, one being that in the Reliques and the other being the manuscript copy)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 484-488, "The Rising in the North" (1 text)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 97-103, "The Rising in the North" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: [Cuthbert Sharp], _The Bishopric Garland, A Collection of Legends, Songs, Ballads, &c Belonging to the County of Durham_, 1834 (references are to the 1969 reprint), p. 6, "The Rising of the North" (1 text, from Percy)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 256
Roud #4005
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Northumberland Betrayed by Douglas" [Child 176] (subject)
cf. "The Earl of Westmoreland" [Child 177] (subject)
cf. "Rookhope Ryde" [Child 179] (context)
NOTES [789 words]: According to Fowler, p. 158 n. 25, this is one of eighteen ballads in the Child collection found only in the Percy Folio.
The Percies of Northumberland and the Nevilles of Westmoreland were the great lords of the English north; on those rare occasions they agreed on anything, they could usually take Northumbria with them.
The north was also conservative; in the period after Henry VIII created Anglicanism, Catholicism remained the religion of much of the north. Which left them religiously isolated in the late 1500s; by 1569, Elizabeth was securely Protestant, and her (Catholic) heir Mary Queen of Scots was in her custody.
The "Rising in the North" did not actually begin in Northumbria; Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk, first contacted the Spanish about giving the throne to Mary Stewart (who by then had been deposed in Scotland and had fled into English custody). His interest, however, was political (he resented the power of Elizabeth's favorites the Cecils); he quickly backed down. (Though he would rebel again in 1571 and be executed.)
With the Duke of Norfolk out of the picture, the northern earls (Thomas Percy of Northumberland and Charles Neville of Westmorland) took over. They did not actually demand Elizabeth's overthrow -- but wanted Mary back on the Scottish throne and a restoration of Catholicism in England. The threat to replace Elizabeth with Mary was obvious.
"The northern rising in November, under the Catholic earls of Northumberland and Westmorland, did nothing to improve [the imprisoned] Queen Mary's lot. This rising, ill-prepared and ill-organized, was more in the nature of a separatist movement on the part of northern Catholics, than a revolt on behalf of Mary Queen of Scots. Queen Mary herself disapproved of it... on the very sensible grounds that she did not believe it would do her cause any good, since the moment was hardly ripe for such a demonstration" (Fraser, p. 420).
"By supporting Norfolk, the earls were not so much interested in enhancing the duke's position as in preserving their own. The control and influence their families had once exerted over northern England had been declining under the Tudors, and they were especially threatened by the centralizing policies of Elizabeth and her chief advisor, William Cecil. Many northern Catholics disliked the queen's Protestant Church, and the earls hoped to use this religious discontent to serve their own political ends" (Wagner, p. 213). Hence their willingness to continue their revolt even when Norfolk backed out. Also, since Norfolk had been taken into custody, they probably feared the same fate.
The northern Earls succeeded in raising the north (including even Yorkshire, led by its sheriff Richard Norton), but they did not capture Queen Mary and could not bring the rest of the country to their banner (Holinshed says they gathered about seven thousand men, but even this may be exaggerated; such reports often are).
However large the rebellion was, it was dispersed by the end of December, with the rebels in full flight. Leonard Dacre tried to fan the flames in 1570, but he was easily suppressed. Some eight hundred rebels were executed.
Both Earls fled to Scotland -- which, however, was close to England at the time. Westmoreland went on to the Netherlands, where the Habsburg government supported him; Northumberland was sold back to the English and executed in 1572 (Wagner, p. 213).
For the sequel to this, see "Northumberland Betrayed by Douglas" [Child 176] and "The Earl of Westmoreland" [Child 177].
The aftermath was interesting. Printing at this time was heavily regulated in England; in theory, everything that was published was supposed to be approved. Yet, according to Greg p. 43, "of the considerable number of publications concerned with such a dangerous topic as the rising in the North in the autumn of 1569 not one sought the protection or advertisement of official imprimatur[.]" Greg seems sure that some actually did, and the approval simply wasn't mentioned in the Stationer's Register (which is the basis for his statement), but it seems pretty clear that a lot of shady publications came out in this period. Could this be descended from one of them? I don't know.
There are several scholarly books about the 1569 Northern Rebellion; most are extremely rare or expensive or both. The most authoritative appears to be K. J. Kesselring, The Northern Rebellion of 1569: Faith, Politics, and Protest in Elizabethan England Palgrave MacMillan, 2007. There is also Cuthbert Sharp, The Rising in the North: The 1569 Rebellion (also sometimes titled Memorials Of The Rebellion Of 1569), 1840; reprinted, Shotton, 1975; plus a pamphlet by R. Reid, The Rebellion of the Earls, 1569. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C175

Rising of the Moon, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! Then tell me, Sean O'Farrell, Tell me why you hurry so...." The singer is told that the "pikes must be together at the rising of the moon." The pikes gather, but are spotted and defeated. The listeners are told, "we will follow in their footsteps."
AUTHOR: Words: John Keegan Casey (1846-1870)
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (reference in _The Nation_, Feb 23, 1867, according to Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion); c.1865 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish Rebellion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (10 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 111, "The Rising of the Moon" (1 text)
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, p. 35, "The Rising of the Moon" (1 text)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 67, "The Rising of the Moon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 69, "The Rising of the Moon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 117, "The Rising of the Moon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 322, "The Rising Of The Moon" (1 text)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 120-121, "The Rising of the Moon" (1 text, tune on p. 22)
DT, RISEMOON*
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 21-22, 497, "The Rising of the Moon"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 550-551, "The Rising of the Moon" (1 text)
Roud #9634
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Rising of the Moon" (on IRClancyMakem03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(189), "The Rising of the Moon," unknown, n.d.; also 2806 b.10(205), "The Rising of the Moon"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Green (I)" (tune) and references there
cf. "Bannow's Bright Blue Bay" (tune)
NOTES [443 words]: John Keegan Casey was a nineteenth century Irish patriot. He wrote this song in prison, where he died at the age of twenty-three. He was regarded as being very promising, but of course died very young; this is the only piece of his to have any wide circulation.
The reference to "pikes" accurately shows one of the problems of the 1798 rising. The rebels in Wicklow, for instance, had over ten thousand men enlisted to their cause -- and guns for only a thousand of them, and too little powder even for that thousand weapons.
Their alternative was the pike. These they had in sufficiency, since local blacksmiths could and did make them. And they also had the advantage of being easy to use: An illiterate farmer boys wouldn't know how to use a musket, but (in theory) anyone could figure out how to stick an enemy with a pike.
Of course, against real soldiers armed with firearms, they would have been quite useless. Pikes had been a genuine military weapon at the time of the last great battles in Ireland, the Boyne and Aughrim (see G.A. Hayes-McCoy, Irish Battles: A Military History of Ireland, pp. 219-220), but the ratio of musketeers to pikemen had been steadily rising; even at the Boyne, there were some regiments on the Williamite side with no pikes at all. And, by 1798, the bayonet had replaced the pike in all modern armies.
Still, the British were doing what they could to stop even pike production; Viceroy Camden was concerned about the way blacksmiths were turning them out (see Robert Kee, The Most Distressful Country, Volume 1 of The Green Flag, p. 68).
To add to the problems, the leadership of the United Irishmen were almost all in British custody by the time the of the 1798 uprising. The uprising was almost forced; the British were determined to root out all hints of rebellion; rather than be rounded up, the local cells went into revolt. But they no longer had leaders to coordinate their activities.
Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 34, says that in Casey's original, the rebels met by the Inny River, but he feared that this would bring extra British attention, so he changed it to the "shining river." - RBW
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads, pp. viii-ix: "John Keegan Casey's 'Rising of the Moon' had to be included for the spendid air my grandfather John Carr of Limerick had to it. (I hate to hear it sung to 'The Wearing of the Green' -- a tune which does not suit at all)." The OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads tune is very much the tune as I remember Richard Dyer-Bennet singing it in the early 1950's (probably the one available on the 1957 LP Dyer-Bennet 4000). - BS
File: PGa035

Rising of the North, The

See The Rising in the North (File: C175)

Rising Sun, The

See The House of the Rising Sun (File: RL250)

Risinge in the Northe

See The Rising in the North (File: C175)

Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now

DESCRIPTION: The singer marries a woman who, from laziness, ignorance or slovenliness, does nothing right (milks the cow in the chamber pot, churns butter in a boot). In some versions she dies of shame (because "she pishit in the bed").
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Sumner-TheBesomMaker)
KEYWORDS: marriage food humorous husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North,South),Scotland(Bord)) US(Ap,MW,NE,So)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 150, "Robin o Rasheltree" (1 text)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 92-93, "Robin-a-Thrush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #98, "Willie Went to Westerdale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sumner-TheBesomMaker, pp. 15-16, "Hobbelty Bobbelty How Now" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 111, "Robin a Thrush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, p. 112, "Nickerty, Nackerty Now, Now, Now" (1 text)
Randolph 439, "Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 36, "Niggl'jy, Naggl'jy" (1 text, 1 tune, which must be this based on its form although there is little sign of the conflict between husband and wife)
LPound #118 pp. 236-237 "I Bought Me a Wife" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 168-169, "Risselty Rosselty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #13A-C, pp. 57-60, "The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin," "Dandoo" (3 texts, 1 tune, but the "B" text omits the beating and has the husband run away; it may well be a version of this although it might alternately be Child #277 mixed with "Devilish Mary" [Laws Q4] or something like it)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, p. 21, "Nicketty-Nacketty" (1 fragment, 1 tune, so short that it might be this or "The Wife Wrapt" or just some floating verses with this chorus)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #31, "Risselty Rasselty"; "Nickety Nackety" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "B" text is "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin"; the "A" text and tune is "Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 327, "He Courted Her in the Month of June" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 66-68, "Ti Risselty Rosslety"; Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 69-70, "John Dobber" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #61, #62}
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 34-36, "Ti Risselty Rosslety" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 131, "Married Me a Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 66, "(I bought my wife two cows and a steer)" (1 text, which has the form of this song although there isn't much plot in it)
DT 277, RISSROSS
ADDITIONAL: Lucille Burdine and William B McCarthy, "Sister Singers" in Western Folklore, Vol. IL, No. 4 (Oct 1990 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 408-410 "There's a Piece of Bread A-laying on the Shelf" (1 text)
James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1886 ("Digitized by Google")) #477 p. 243, ("I married my wife by the light of the moon") (1 text)
J.A.C. Leland, "Two Folksongs from Ohio" in Western Folklore, Vol. VII, No. 1 (Jan 1948 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 65-66 "The Shiftless Wife" (2 texts, including one added by the editors from Halliwell 1886)
Lucille Burdine and William B McCarthy, "Sister Singers" in Western Folklore, Vol. IL, No. 4 (Oct 1990 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 408-410 "There's a Piece of Bread A-laying on the Shelf" (1 text)
Lucy E. Broadwood and J.A. Maitland, editors, English County Songs, (London, 1893), pp. 92-93, "Robin-a-Thrush" (1 text, 1 tune) [Not yet indexed as Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs pp. 92-93].
Roud #2792
RECORDINGS:
Chubby Parker, "Nickety Nackety Now Now Now" (Gennett 6077/Champion 15247 [as Smilin' Tubby Johnson]/Silvertone 5011, 1927; Supertone 9189, 1928) (Conqueror 7889, 1931)
Ridgel's Fountain Citians, "The Nick Nack Song" (Vocalion 5455, 1930; on CrowTold01)
Pete Seeger, "Risselty-Rosselty" (on PeteSeeger02, PeteSeegerCD01) (on PeteSeeger12)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" [Child 277] (theme: difficult wife) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Cooper of Fife
The Wee Cooper of Fife
Bandoo
Gentle Virginia
Kitty Lorn
Kitty Alone
Dan-you
The Old Man Who Lived in the West
NOTES [614 words]: This song is usually considered a variant of "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" [Child 277]. We (PJS and BS) believe this is a different song.
A text is "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" if:
* the wife is beaten under a sheep's skin, or
* the wife's relatives and class are mentioned, or
* the wife states high-flown reasons for not working [for example, she fears "soiling a gay gold ring" or "high heeled shoe" or "shaming her gentle kin"] or
* the wife's high class is an issue, or
* when the husband asks for dinner she tells him to make it himself, or
* the wife mends her ways, or
* the husband is a "wee cooper", or
* as a last resort for a small fragment, the chorus is a "Dandoo, dandoo ..." or "For gentle, for Jenny, my rosamaree ... As the dew falls over the green valley" variation.
If the wife is beaten the sheep's skin is crucial to distinguish the song from other wife beating songs like "The Holly Twig" [Laws Q6], "The Wicked Wife o' Fife" [Greig/Duncan7], "The Daughter of Peggy-O," or even Sumner's version of "Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now" [he beats her in the chorus, to no effect].
A text is "Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now" if:
* the wife is ignorant, slovenly, or stupid, but not shrewish or too fine to work, or
* the wife dies in bed
A "Risselty, Rosselty" wife never improves.
Most refrains follow the pattern also found in "The Wee Cooper of Fife" version of Child 277 -
"Nickety, nackity, noo, noo ... Sing, hey Willy Wallachie, how John Dugal alane, quo' rushitie rue, rue, rue" (Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads) -
but the usually nonsense words vary widely. For example
* "Nickety-nackety now, now, now ... Nickety-nackety hey John Dafferty, willopy, wallopy, rusty coke wallacky, nickety-nackety, now, now, now" (Chubby Parker)
* "Nickety nackety, now, now, now ... High, willy, wally, and Jenny bang, doodle, sandy go vestego, now, now, now" (LPound)
* "Nickety Nackety, no, no, no ... Hi Willy Wally and Charlie Bill Doodle and Sandy go, Rusty go, no, no, no" (Leland)
* "Nickety nackety, now, now, now ... Nickety nackety, age of laffety, whillecky whollecky, rusco quality, Nickety nackety, now, now, now" (Burdine/McCarthy)
* "Risselty-rosselty now, now, now ... Risselty-rosselty, hey bom-bosselty, nicklety, knacklety, rustical quality, willaby-wallaby now, now, now" (Pete Seeger)
* "Risselty-rosselty now, now, now ... Risselty-rosselty, hey
bombosity, nickety nackity, retrical quality, willaby wallaby now, now,
now" (also Pete Seeger)
* "Moppety, moppety, mono ... With a high jig jiggety, tops and petticoats, Robin-a-Thrush cries mono" (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
* "Neagletie, neagletie, now, now ... Heich, wullie, williecoat, bang John Douglas, Robin o Rasheltree, now, now" (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
* "Hobblety bobblety how now ... With a heigh down ho down duffle green petticoat Robin he thrashes her now now" (Sumner)
* "A tidy housewife, a tidy one ... And I hope she'll prove a tidy one" (Halliwell)
The Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 150 "Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now" text, "Robin o Rasheltree" [E. B. Lyle, editor, Andrew Crawfurd's Collection of Ballads and Songs, Volume 2 (1996)], includes verses like "My wife she's a hure of aw the sluts She roastit a hen baith feathers and guts." Maybe the common form of "Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now" was a bawdy text that editors and some singers cleaned up: "this song was made for gentlemen, If you want any more ...." [Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs]. Crawfurd seems never to censor a text. - BS, PJS
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs: "Sung by a nurse towards the end of 18th century." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C277RR

Rival Candidate, The

DESCRIPTION: "Since the days when diggers thronged the bars of fifteen-score hotels... Things in dreamy Hokitaka haven't ever been so brisk. 'Tis awakened by the Rival Candidate." There is much excitement as someone runs for parliament against Richard Seddon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Wellington "Evening Post," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: political New Zealand humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1893-1906 - Richard John Seddon (1845-1906) Prime Minister of New Zealand
1905 - the election described in the song. Harry Cowin runs against Prime Minister Seddon in the district of Westland. Cowin earns less than 10% of the vote as Seddon is overwhelmingly re-elected
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 105-106, "The Rival Candidate" (1 text)
NOTES [47 words]: In his later years in office, Richard John Seddon ceased to be a reformer -- and ruled his party with a heavy hand. So it is perhaps little surprise that there was much enthusiasm for the candidate who ran against him. For background on Seddon, see the notes to "Sir Joseph Ward." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: BaRo105

RIver Driver's Burial, The

DESCRIPTION: "They drew him from his watery bed, And shrouded him with kindly are." They bury the young driver. The song recalls what he was like before he died. "A dark young maid" was waiting for him, but "his hopes and schemes of earth [are] all o'er"
AUTHOR: John S. Springer?
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (Springer)
KEYWORDS: death burial love separation river
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 96-97, "The River Driver's Burial" (1 text) (p. 81 in the 1919 edition)
ADDITIONAL: John S. Springer _Forest Life and Forest Trees: Comprising Winter Camp-life Among the Loggers, and Wild-wood Adventure ; with Descriptions of Lumbering Operations on the Various Rivers of Maine and New Brunswick_, Harper & Brothers, 1861 (available on Google Books and Project Gutenberg), p. 163, "Burial of a River-Driver" (1 text)
File: Shoe096

River Drivers' Song

DESCRIPTION: Life in a North Woods lumber-camp, and some of the characters that might be met there. Chorus: "Roll, you drivers, roll/Roll, you heroes, roll/Roll all day, no sugar in your tay/while working for the White Boys' rollway."
AUTHOR: reportedly Jerome Ford, father of singer Warde Ford, and his friend Kimball
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (USWolfRiver); reportedly written c. 1905
KEYWORDS: work lumbering moniker derivative food
FOUND IN: US(MW)
Roud #5752
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "River Drivers' Song" (on USWolfRiver)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" (lyrics)
NOTES [36 words]: A variant of "Drill Ye Tarriers, Drill." In lumber-camps. a "rollway" was a flattened-out patch of ground, used for skidding cut logs into the water. In the recording the singer pronounces "White" as "Wait." - (PJS)
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcRiDriS

River Go Down

DESCRIPTION: "The river goes up, The river goes down; Please, Lord, make that river stay down, River stay down. Keep our land safe and dry, safe and dry. The water is scaring the people away. Please, Lord, make the river go down...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: river flood
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, p. 466, "River Go Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7754
File: KPL466

River in the Pines, The

See The River through the Pines (File: LoF056)

RIver Is Wide, The

See The Ocean Is Wide (File: R580)

River Jordan

See Welcome Table (Streets of Glory, God's Going to Set This World on Fire) (File: San478)

River Lea, The

DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. One fine day in May sailor finds himself broke and ships aboard the (River Lea). He spends the rest of the song (and presumably rest of the voyage) singing of all things he won't do any more once this voyage is over.
AUTHOR: Sam Peck ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor ship
FOUND IN: US Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp, 181-182, "The River Lea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 586-589, "The River Lea," "The Anglesey" (2 texts, 2 tunes -- the first being quoted from Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen) [AbEd, pp. 406-409]
ST Hugi589 (Partial)
Roud #351
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dixie Brown" [Laws D7] (similar story)
NOTES [68 words]: Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen says this was composed by a shantyman named Sam Peck. It obviously bears some relation to "Dixie Brown," though it has no mention of shanghaiing or robbery. Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas also mentions (though does not corroborate) Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen's claim, and states that it was quickly pulled into the popular shanty repertoire for use at the capstan. - SL
File: Hugi589

River Lee, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the Lee by moonlight. For example, sounds of the "gurgling brook" at night are compared to "the lute's harmonious languor" rather than "the trumpet's clangour, Or the nerve-wounding fife"
AUTHOR: Richard Alfred Millikin (1767-1815) (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1818 (_The Harmonica_, written c.1803, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: river lyric music
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 220-222, "The River Lee" (1 text)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
An Ode to Cynthia
NOTES [24 words]: Richard Alfred Millikin is best-known for writing "The Groves of Blarney"; of works in this index, he also wrote "The Groves of Blackpool." - RBW
File: CrPS220

River of Babylon

DESCRIPTION: The singer, in captivity, recalls the loss of Zion and the wickedness of the captors who now ask to be entertained by holy songs; how can we sing them "in a strange land." The singer asks that God find his words and [unstated] thoughts acceptable.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Lewin-Forty Songs)
KEYWORDS: captivity grief request rejection exile home harp music ordeal Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lewin-Forty Songs, pp. 85-86, "River of Babylon" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Melodians, Rivers of Babylon (1993, "The Story of Jamaican Music: Reggae Hit the Town (1968-1974)" Mango Records 162-539 935-2 518 399-2 CD2 518 401-2 CD)
NOTES [485 words]: Lewin p. 85: "['Rivers of Babylon' is a] Biblical reference by members of the Rastafarian cult who consider themselves Black Israelites." Lewin p. 19: "... all Rastafarians consider Ethiopia their homeland."
"River of Babylon" combines Psalm 19 and Psalm 137. The text I use for quotes in this note is JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1999) because I find it clearer than King James, especially in the parts hidden from clear view in the song.
Psalm 19 begins, "The heavens declare the glory of God" and goes on to extoll the teaching, decrees, precepts, instruction, fear and judgments of the Lord; "Your servant pays them heed; in obeying them is much reward. Who can be aware of errors? Clear me of unperceived guilt." And then, as in the words of Melodians recording, "let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart be acceptable in Thy sight." In Psalm 19 this ending refers back to the words already spoken and the thought intended by those words.
Melodian's words follow the sense of the beginning of Psalm 137: "By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down and ... wept when we remember Zion. But the wicked carried us away captivity require from us a song. How can we sing [Rasta] song in a strange land." The rest of Psalm 137 is not in the words of Melodians' or Lewin's texts. The text not sung begins with a refusal to sing holy songs for "our tormentors, for amusement"; harps are put away and before the singer would play or sing for their amusement his hand should wither, his tongue should stick to his palate, but -- in spite of not singing for them about Jerusalem -- he would "keep Jerusalem in memory even at my happiest hour." As for those "wicked: "Remember O Lord ... Jerusalem's fall; how they cried 'Strip her, strip her to her very foundations!' Fair Babylon, you predator, a blessing on him who repays you in kind what you have inflicted on us; a blessing on him who seizes your babies and dashes them against the rocks!"
Melodians, but not Lewin, follow "how can we sing..." by "let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart be acceptable...." But the singers know very well all of Psalm 137 that they have edited down. Instead of stating the rest of the psalm I believe they intend to imply it in the excerpt of Psalm 19 which asks for acceptance not only of the words they have sung, but of those they have thought but not sung. The song sounds innocent to those who don't know the references. - BS
Ben's notes make it clear that this is not the same as the "Waters of Babylon" song that I heard many, many years ago, "By the waters, the waters of Babylon, We lay down and wept, and wept, for thee Zion. We remember thee, remember thee, remember thee, Zion."
For those in the Orthodox Christian tradition, the psalm cited is numbered #136 rather than #137 as in the Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant traditions. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LFS085

River of Jordan, The

DESCRIPTION: Jesus meets John the Baptist, is baptized. King Naaman, a leper, calls for Elijah, he is to dip in Jordan and "wash your spots away." Jordan is far away, so the singer will find "an altar in an old-fashioned church/and my River of Jordan that will be"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (recording, Poplin Family)
KEYWORDS: disease Bible religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Poplin Family, "The River of Jordan" (on Poplin01)
NOTES [80 words]: Probably recently-composed, but it may be entering the tradition. - PJS
It certainly has enough errors to be traditional. The story of Jesus meeting John the Baptist is found in Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3; compare John 1.
Naaman's leprosy is found in 2 Kings 5. He was not a king but a general in the service of the King of Damascus. And he did not consult with Elijah but Elisha -- and Elisha volunteered to be consulted; Naaman had been sent to the King of Israel to be cured. - RBW
File: RcTroJor

River of Life

DESCRIPTION: "Soon we'll come to the end of life's journey, And perhaps we'll never meet anymore, Till we get to heaven's bright city, Far away on the beautiful shore." A description of the beauties of heaven, where the singer obviously expects to go
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 85, "River of Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa085 (Partial)
Roud #16394
RECORDINGS:
Buna Vista Hicks, "River of Life" (on USWarnerColl01)
File: Wa085

River Roe (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer wanders by the river, and comes by the Roe Mill, where Captain Moody and his workers are about their tasks. The singer must return home, but the Roe holds him entranced
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: rambling river nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H649, p. 171, "The River Roe (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13531
File: HHH649

River Roe (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks what place can "match the dark Roe." The singer recalls the history of Cooey na Gal and the church at Dungiven, then describes all the places along the Roe until the "tired" river flows into Loch Foyle.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: river nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H629, p. 171-172, "The River Roe (II)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13532
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of the Roe" (for Cooey-na-Gal) and references there
NOTES [15 words]: For "Cooey-na-Gal" O'Cahan and Dungiven Priory, see the notes on "The Banks of the Roe." - RBW
File: HHH629

River Roe (III), The

DESCRIPTION: A nobleman's son meets a servant maid he won't name. "But her master's habitation is on the river Roe." He proposes. She promises to meet him the next day. They meet, she agrees, and they marry the next evening. "She has servants to attend her"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(152))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage nobility servant river
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 47-48, "The River Roe" (1 text)
Roud #V1045
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(152), "The River Roe", H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also 2806 b.9(236), 2806 b.11(202), Harding B 19(79), 2806 c.15(78), Harding B 26(578), 2806 b.11(230), 2806 b.11(206), "The River Roe"
NOTES [59 words]: A number of Bodleian broadsides have dropped the first two lines (something like "As I went out one evening all in the month of May, When Flora's flowering mantle had deck'd the meadow gay", or lines ending in "June" and "bloom") and start with the third line in O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland: "I espied a lovely fair one, and her did not know." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: OCon047

RIver Sila, The

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

River through the Pines, The

DESCRIPTION: "O Mary was a maiden when the birds began to sing, She was sweeter than the blooming rose so early in the spring...." She loves (Charlie), a shanty boy; the two are married. But he dies at his work; they are buried together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage separation work logger death burial
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Ont,Que)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 30, "The River in the Pines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 30, "The River in the Pines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 56, "The River in the Pines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #37, "The River through the Pine" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
ST LoF056 (Partial)
Roud #669
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Town of Brandywine
NOTES [13 words]: As "The River in the Pines," this song is item dC33 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: LoF056

River-Driver's Lament, The (I Am a River Driver)

DESCRIPTION: I went lumbering at sixteen and courted a pretty girl who caused me to roam. "Sure I'm a river driver and I'm far away from home." "Now I'm old and feeble and in my sickness lie Just wrap me up in my shanty blankets and lie me down to die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: courting death lumbering drink rambling floatingverses logger
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf,Ont) US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 759-760, "The River Driver's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #59, "I Am a River Driver" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 61, "The River Driver" (1 text)
Roud #4564
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Peter Mushrow, "River Driver" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
John T. O'Quinn, "The River Driver's Lament" (on PeacockCDROM)
NOTES [127 words]: Floating verses include adaptations of "I'll eat when I'm hungry", "Build me a castle" and "I'm ... and a long way from home" and "wrap me up in my shanty blankets." - BS
Fowke's very short text ("I'll eat when I'm hungry and drink when I'm dry; If the water don't drown me I'll live till I die, If the water don't drown me while over it I roam, For I am a river driver and far away from home") could be just a lumberjack adaption of "Rye Whiskey," but it's close enough to Peacock to allow us to tentatively lump them.
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine claim this as a version of "Jack o' Diamonds," i.e. "Rye Whisky," and it obviously derives much of its content to that song. But I'd say that it has been sufficiently rewritten to deserve its own listing. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: FowL69

River, Stay Way

DESCRIPTION: "You keep going your way; I'll keep going my way; River, stay way from my door... You don't need my cabin; River, stay way from my door. Don't come up any higher; I'm so alone, just my bed and fire... Don't start breaking my heart."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Henry; collected by Susie A. Blaylock from an unnamed source)
KEYWORDS: river loneliness home nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 189, "River, Stay Away" (1 text)
NOTES [37 words]: This is one of those items that could easily float in and out of any bluesy semiballad. I suspect that it did so, and probably belongs with something else in the Index. but without a tune, there is no way to say what. - RBW
File: MHAp189

River's Up and Still A-Rising

DESCRIPTION: "River's up and still a-rising, Just got back from a negro baptizing." "Farewell, mourners (x2), Goodbye, I'se gwine to leave you behind." Most verses are about improbable dress: "Had an old hat, had no brim, Looked like a blue jay sitting on a limb."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: humorous river nonballad clothes bird
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 326, "River's Up and Still A-Rising" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 326, "River's Up and Still A-Rising" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #16840
File: Br3326

Riverhead La'nchin' on Jubilee Day, The

DESCRIPTION: Men come from all around St Mary's Bay and as far as St John's on Jubilee Day "for to help Uncle Steve get the craft under way." Once the ship was "out in Riverhead Arm... we cheered for the King." There are toasts all around.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: ship moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 882-883, "The Riverhead La'nchin' on Jubilee Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9809
RECORDINGS:
Nicholas Davis, "The Riverhead Launching" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Patrick Rossiter, "The Riverhead La'nchin' on Jubilee Day" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [22 words]: This must be the Silver Jubilee Day for King George V, May 6, 1935. St Mary's Bay is on the southern shore of the Avalon Peninsula. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Pea882

Riverhead Launching, The

See The Riverhead La'nchin' on Jubilee Day (File: Pea882)

Riverhead Line

See The Bonavist Line (File: Pea768)

Rivers of Texas, The (The Brazos River)

DESCRIPTION: The singer lists the various rivers of Texas he has seen, noting that "Down by the Brazos I courted my dear." But now she has left him, and "I never will walk by the Brazos no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation river
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 201, "The Brazos River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 41-42, "Down by the Brazos" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RIVTEXAS*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 36, #3 (1991), pp, 72-73, "Down by the Brazos" (1 text, 1 tune, from the Scragg Family)
Roud #4764
RECORDINGS:
Irene Carlisle, "The Brazos River" (AAFS-L30, 1942?)
Art Thieme, "Down by the Embarass" (on Thieme02) (on Thieme05)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Down by the Embarras (Illinois version)
The Rivers of Georgia
NOTES [216 words]: Paul Stamler notes that there are "non-Texas" versions of this song (see the alternate titles), though I have never encountered them. I know that at least one modern "folk" composer has created a localized version; I suspect the traditional versions are of similar origin. Though I am not sure which is the original. - RBW
As far as I can tell, the Texas version was first. I also gather someone tried to rewrite it for Nebraska, but they didn't have enough rivers to finish a verse. - PJS
An interesting point about this is that most of the river names are preceded by articles: "We crossed THE broad Pecos"... "down by THE Brazos I courted my dear." But one line reads "Red River runs rusty, the Wichita clear." This is apparently proper Texas usage: It is "Red River," not "The Red River" -- no matter what the context. There are several other Western rivers which are anarthrous (that is, do not take an article): Red River, Tongue River, Wind River, Powder River. (See Helena Huntington Smith, The War On Powder River, University of Nebraska Press, 1966, p. 1.) Why? I dunno -- but there are other nouns in English, or English dialects, which are arbitrarily anarthrous; consider the British versus American usage of the word "hospital" ("in hospital" as opposed to "in the hospital"). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: R201

Road and Miles to Dundee, The

See The Road to Dundee (File: Ord152)

Road is Rocky, The

DESCRIPTION: "The road is rocky, Lordy, But it won't be rocky long."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: worksong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 762, "The Road is Rocky" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [23 words]: The present description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment, said to have been sung by a road gang. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5762

Road Is Rugged, But I Must Go

DESCRIPTION: "Road is rugged but I must go, I must go to see my Lord." "It's a field of battle but I must go, I must go to see my Lord." "Got to pray so hard but I must go." "Jesus died and I must go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Diton, according to Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad travel
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 92, "Road Is Rugged, but I Must Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21331
File: Joyn092

Road Is Wide, The

See The Ocean Is Wide (File: R580)

Road tae Dundee, The

See The Road to Dundee (File: Ord152)

Road to Dundee, The

DESCRIPTION: "Cauld wind was howling o'er moor and o'er mountain" when the singer meets a girl asking her way to Dundee. He says he can't easily tell her, but will show her the way. As they approach the town, they exchange tokens and part. And no, they *don't* marry
AUTHOR: see NOTES
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: travel courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #51, p. 2, "The Road to Dundee" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 971, "The Road to Dundee" (7 texts plus a fragmentary text from Greig on p. 600, 4 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 152-153, "The Road to Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 63, "The Road tae Dundee" (1 text, 2 tunes)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 95, "Sweet Carnloch Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 7, pp. 83-85, "The Road to Dundee" (1 text)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 52, "The Road to Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ROADDUND* RDUND2
ADDITIONAL: Chris Wright, "'Forgotten Broadsides and the Song Tradition of the Scots Travellers" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, pp. 93-98, "The Road and the Miles to Dundee" (copy of a broadside print); "Road to Dundee" (copy of a broadside print); "(The Road to Dundee)"; "Grim WInter (1811)"; "Grim Winter (1841)" (3 texts plus the broadside prints)
Roud #2300
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "The Road to Dundee" (on NFJDowney01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lass o' Glenshee" (tune, per Greig)
NOTES [58 words]: OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads lists the author of this as "Mackay," but Chris Wright says that Charles Gray of Anstruther published his earliest text of "Grim Winter" in 1811. Wright observes that Gray's song -- clearly an art song -- was very flowery, so someone (maybe even someone named Mackay) might have pruned the shrubbery along the way. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Ord152

Road to Heaven, The

DESCRIPTION: "The road to heaven by Christ was made, With heavenly truth the rails are laid, From earth to heaven the line extends... I'm going home to die no more." The Christian life is compared to a railway: "The Bible is the engineer," "God's love the fire," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (Chamber's Journal, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: railroading religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 605-610, "I'm Going Home to Die No More/The Railway Spiritualized" (2 texts plus 2 broadside prints, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 53-54, "The Spiritual Railway" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 468, "The Railroad to Heaven" (1 text)
Randolph 600, "The Road to Heaven" (1 text)
Roud #7940
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ridge Gospel Singers (Buell Kazee, Lester O'Keefe, and others), "I'm Going Home to Die No More" (Brunswick 152, 1927)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(024), "The Spiritual Railway" ("The line to Heaven by Christ was made"), James Lindsay (Glasgow), c. 1855.
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Spiritual Railroad
NOTES [11 words]: FlandersEtAl report that the tune for this is "My Heavenly Home." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: R600

Road to Peterhead, The

DESCRIPTION: On the road to Peterhead the singer is invited to join a party of three score lads and lasses. He follows them to a house where he sees a bride. He joins the parade of "more than seven score and ten," and describes the feast and happy wedding
AUTHOR: William Lillie (source: Greig/Duncan3)
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: wedding dancing music
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast 52, p. 1, "The Road to Peterhead" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 613, "The Road to Peterhead" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5631
NOTES [32 words]: Greig/Duncan3 quotes a note written about 1860 that Lillie wrote the song "on visiting a Penny Wedding at Sandhole, Longside." - BS
For another Penny Bridal song, see "The Blythesome Bridal." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3613

Road to the Isles, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears "a far croonin'" calling him back to the Hebrides. He lists the places he will visit on his way home, and says, "If it's thinkin' in your inner heart the braggart's in my step, You've never smelt the tangle o' the Isles."
AUTHOR: Words: Kenneth Macleod
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides II, pp. 240-241, "The Road to the Isles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport,p. 59, "(The Road to the Isles)" (1 fragment, a fiddler's mnemonic for a tune called "The Road to the Isles," presumably this although the tune is not transcribed)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 282, "The Road to the Isles" (notes only)
DT, RDISLES*
SAME TUNE:
Beneath the Barber Pole (File:Hopk034)
The Far Northland (The Border Trail) (File: ACSF282F)
NOTES [71 words]: On its face, this is just another pseudo-folksong by Kenneth Macleod to a Hebridean tune, but my father seems to have learned it orally. I suppose it was from some radio program, but who can tell? When in doubt, we index -- and add apologetic notes like these. It was at least well enough known that a Canadian in World War II used it as the tune for "Beneath the Barber Pole," and Averill found camps that sang a parody. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: KFrII240

Road-Icer, The

DESCRIPTION: "There are some of us, I guess, Call ourselves self-made men an such, But then there was that other cuss Went out and iced the road for us."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan)
KEYWORDS: logger travel
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, p. 123, "The Road-Icer" (1 short text)
Roud #6509
NOTES [101 words]: The idea of icing a road seems mad today, used as we are to cars that skid on ice -- but it should be kept in mind that loggers were not carrying logs on wheeled trucks using paged roads; they were hauling them by human or animal power to a river. This meant that they needed as little friction as possible on the log-paths. Which means that the paths needed to be icy: "the logs were moved to the riverside by sleigh, in winter-time, because it was only on road of glare ice that land transportation was possible" (Bruce Catton, Michigan, A History, 1972, 1976 (I use the 1984 Norton edition), p. 105). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BBun123

Roaming in the Gloaming

DESCRIPTION: Singer recalls his "island cottage" far away where his "bonny Irish rose/Scotch bluebell" lived. Her parents were kind. "Almost every evening" the couple sat by the fire and sang about how they went roaming in the gloaming together.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad father mother
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30186
RECORDINGS:
Raymond Noseworthy, "Roaming in the Gloaming" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [14 words]: This is not to be confused with "Roamin' in the Gloamin'" recorded by Harry Lauder. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcRoitGl

Roaming in the Trenches

DESCRIPTION: "Roaming in the trenches, Ross rifle by my side, Roaming in the trenches, couldn't fire if I tried, It's worse than all the rest, the Lee-Enfield I like best, I'd like to lose it roaming in the trenches"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier technology derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 122, "Roaming in the Trenches" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roamin' in the Gloamin'" (tune, according to Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
File: AWTB022A

Roane County Strike at Harriman, Tennessee

DESCRIPTION: Singer calls Harriman a "beautiful town." Mill workers strike; the owners call in the Roane County law. The company gets an injunction; strikers are arrested but released on bail. Singer may have to leave; he'll remember home's beauty
AUTHOR: lyrics probably by Henry Garrett
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (field recording, Henry Garrett)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer praises Harriman, Tennessee as a "beautiful town." Mill workers there organize a union and strike; the owners call in the Roane County law. The company gets an injunction against the strike; the strikers are arrested but released on bail, "now we are out with our loved ones again." Singer says that if he has to leave "to seek re-employment" he'll always remember the beauty of his home.
KEYWORDS: strike travel factory labor-movement work police worker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 26, 1933 - workers at Harriman Hosiery Mill strike in an attempt to organize a local of the United Textile Workers of America as authorized by the new National Recovery Act. After nine months, the factory's "Blue Eagle" certification is removed, but the strike fails
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Henry Garrett, "Roane County Strike at Harriman, Tennessee" (AFS 3176, 1936)
Mike Seeger, "Roane County Strike ar Harriman, Tenn." (on MSeeger02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In the Hills of Roane County"
cf. "Precious Jewel" (tune)
File: RcRCSaHT

Roaring Boys of Pakefield, The

DESCRIPTION: "The roaring boys of Pakefield, Oh how they all do thrive, They had but one poor parson, And they buried him alive!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Porter); reportedly collected 1877
KEYWORDS: clergy drink humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Enid Porter, _The Folklore of East Anglia_, Batsford, 1974, p. 131, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #25978
NOTES [66 words]: Frightening as this story sounds, it apparently is innocuous enough. According to Porter, the parson of Pakefield became extraordinarily drunk and fell asleep beside the sea. Locals who found him, unable to rouse him, thought him dead, moved his "corpse" to a more sheltered point in a sandy hollow. They were coming back with help to bury him properly when they discovered he was still alive. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: EPor131

Roas-becka-lina

See Lead Her Up and Down (Rosa Becky Diner, Old Betsy Lina) (File: R552)

Roast Beef of Old England, The

DESCRIPTION: "When mighty roast beef was the Englishman's food, It ennobled our hearts and strengthened our blood." The singer complains about the new-fangled French ragouts, and recalls the good old days of Queen Elizabeth, the Armada -- and beef
AUTHOR: Richard Leveridge (c. 1670-1758)
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Chappell), but known to be in use at least a century before that
KEYWORDS: food royalty battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1558-1603 - Reign of Elizabeth (I)
1588 - Voyage of the Spanish Armada
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 636-637, "The Roast Beef of Old England" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 95-96, "The Roast Beef of Old England" (1 text, 1 tune)
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 269-270, "The roast beef of old England" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, pp. 128-129, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #V11585
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O the Roast Beef of Old England: New Version"
NOTES [181 words]: Not, as far as I can tell, an actual folk song -- but, prior to the adoption of "God Save the King," this was as close as England, and particularly the English navy, came to having an anthem. It probably belongs here on that basis.
There is some confusion about the authorship of the piece. All sources seem to agree that Richard Leveridge wrote at least the music. But some credit him with both words and music, some only the music. Henry Fielding is sometimes credited with the words. The likeliest explanation is that Fielding wrote some of the words for his play "The Grub Street Opera" (1731). Additional words came from others, possibly including Leveridge, in the decades which followed. Leveridge then supplied his new, and very popular, tune. Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime prints three texts, attributing one to Fielding and one to Leveridge.
According to Nettel, p. 133, "Richard Leveridge... was a bass singer who died in 1758 at the age of eighty-eight, and who offered at the age of sixty to sing a song with any man in England for a wager of a hundred guineas." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ChWII095

Roasting Little Chipmunks

DESCRIPTION: "Now, friends, if you'll listen, I'll try to explain The terrible times in taking up claims." The men set out with heavy loads into the wild. All seek a claim. The bugs are terrible. The men argue over claims while eating chipmunks and other poor food
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: logger travel food animal hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 39, "Roasting Little Chipmunks" (1 text)
Roud #18192
File: BeLo039

Rob Roy [Child 225]

DESCRIPTION: Rob Roy comes to the lowlands and captures a wealthy lady. He orders her to marry him; she refuses. He prepares to kidnap her, and allows no delay. They are married without her consent. He describes his valor and bids her be content
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803
KEYWORDS: marriage abduction rejection
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 8-9, 1750 - Abduction of Jean Key by Robert MacGregor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(High)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 225, "Rob Roy" (12 texts)
Bronson 225, "Rob Roy" (3 versions)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 155-157, "Rob Roy" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 128-129, "THe Lady o' Arngosk" (2 short texts)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 42-44, "Rob Roy" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine p. 296, "Rob Roy" (1 text, possiby derived from print)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 583-585, "Rob Roy" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 212-215, "Rob Roy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 225, ROBROY
Roud #340
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rob Roy McGregor-O" (character of Rob Roy)
NOTES [136 words]: This song is accurate enough as far as it goes, but far from complete. Rob Oig ("Young") was the fifth son of Walter Scott's Rob Roy, and a real desperado. In 1736 (when he was perhaps no older than twelve), he shot a trespasser and was outlawed when he refused to appear in court.
After spending time in the British army, he returned to England and married for the first time (despite still being outlawed). When this wife died, he and his brothers determined to marry him to Jean Key, a wealthy widow of nineteen. This rough wooing took place as described in the ballad.
In the sequel, the MacGregors were forced to release Jean Key (who died within a year), and both James MacGregor (who organized the plot) and Robert MacGregor were eventually brought to trial; James escaped, but Robert was executed in 1754. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C225

Rob Roy McGregor-O

DESCRIPTION: "Pardon now the bold outlaw, Rob Roy McGregor, O...." "Long the state has doomed his fall... Still he spurned the hateful law." "Scotland's fear and Scotland's pride... Your reward must now abide... Welcome now for auld lang syne"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Journal of the Galaxy)
KEYWORDS: outlaw pardon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 264-265, "Rob Roy McGregor-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27315
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rob Roy" [Child 225] (character of Rob Roy)
File: HGam264

Rob Roy Was a Tailor Bold

See The Irish Schoolmaster (File: LSUC067A)

Robber Hood's Death

See Robin Hood's Death [Child 120] (File: C120)

Robber, The

See The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)

Robbers of the Glen, The

DESCRIPTION: "Stand, stranger, stand, your jewels give, Your gold I must obtain.... Resistance is in vain... We are the robbers of the glen." The robber recalls how he lost all his wealth to gambling, and lost his wife to a friend. He rejoices with his fellow robbers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1864 (Journal of George M. Jones, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: robbery betrayal money gold gambling drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 82, "The Robbers of the Glen" (1 text; #60 in the first edition)
Roud #25316
File: FrPi082

Robbers' Retreat, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come fill up your glasses and let us be merry, For to rob bags of plunder it is our intent.... Then away, then away... To those caves in yonder mountains where the Robbers retreat.... Stand, stand and deliver, It is our watch-cry."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall)
KEYWORDS: robbery drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 60, "The Robbers' Retreat - The Cadgwith Anthem" (1 short text,1 tune)
Roud #3314
File: Gund060

Robbie an' Granny

See Robie and Granny (File: GrD3577)

Robbie Barron

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets and would have Robbie Barron, "a rovin' youth ... would have daizled both your eyes." Robbie asks that she walk with him "but other lasses followed us And that put Robbie mad." When he asks for a kiss she blushes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 765, "Robbie Barron" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6184
File: GrD4765

Robbie Reave Her Apron

DESCRIPTION: Robbie beat his wife and tore her apron. "Robbie reave and Geordie sewed, An' Robbie reave her apron" When Robbie vowed to kiss her she refused and he tore her apron.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: marriage rejection violence nonballad husband wife clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1307, "Robbie Reave Her Apron" (1 text)
Roud #7203
File: GrD71307

Robbie Tampson's Smitty

See Robin Tamson's Smiddy [Laws O12] (File: LO12)

Robe, The

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Oh the robe, the robe my Lord The robe is all ready now (x2)."Verses: "My mother's gone and left me here." "Christian trials just begun." "Ferry boat going to carry us over."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious clothes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 42, pp. 180-181, "O de Robe" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Parr042

Robert Barnes Fellow Fine

See John Smith My Fellow Fine (File: SNR026)

Robert Bruce's March to Bannockburn

See Scots Wha Hae (Bruce Before Bannockburn)r (File: FSWB299)

Robert's Farm

See Down on Penny's Farm (File: LoF147)

Roberta

See Alberta, Let Your Hair Hang Low (File: BMRF576)

Roberty Boberty

See Hunt the Wren (File: K078)

Robie and Grannie

See Robie and Granny (File: GrD3557)

Robie and Granny

DESCRIPTION: Robie and Granny go to town and spend half-a-crown on drink. On the way home Granny falls into a ditch. Robie tries to pull her out, falls, "cursed her and ca'd her an auld drunken soo" and all she could do is cry "Pu' Robie, pu' [pull]."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous abuse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #161, p. 2, "Robie and Grannie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 577, "Robie and Granny" (1 text)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 74, "Robbie an' Granny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1579
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Robbie and Grannie
File: GrD3577

Robin

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Robin, they tell me you're going away, And you've come to bid me goodbye." The singer knows what he will say, and hopes he will prove true. She knows he will see fairer, finer women. She begs him not to forget her and promises to dream of him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin), from a copy supposedly made c. 1900
KEYWORDS: separation dream clothes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 118, "Robin" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Pet118

Robin a Thrush

See Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now (File: C277RR)

Robin Adair

DESCRIPTION: "What's this dull town to me? Robin's not near." The singer laments her missing Robin Adair, who is her only source of joy and mirth, who "made this town heaven and earth."
AUTHOR: Words: Lady Caroline Keppel
EARLIEST DATE: 1793 (Edinburgh Musical Miscellany)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 468, "Robin Adair"
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2016, p. 135, "Robin Adair" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #12, p. 21, "Robin Adair" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 288, "Robin Adair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #102, "Robin Adair" (1 text)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 32-38, "Robin Adair" (1 text plus a parody or extension of the song by Robert D. Jamieson)
DT, ROBADAIR (cf. EILAROO.NOT)
Roud #8918
RECORDINGS:
Inez Barbour, "Robin Adair" (Phono-Cut 5198, c. 1915)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Eileen Aroon" (tune)
cf. "Sadly to Mine Heart Appealing" (portions of Stephen Foster's tune)
SAME TUNE:
Eileen Aroon (File: RcEilAro)
Newfoundland Love Song ("Meet me at the twilight hour, My Annie fair!") (James Murphy, compiler, _Songs & Ballads of Terra Nova_, Evening Telegram publishing, 1903 (available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 72)
Hard Times/No Cash Is Here ("What's this dull down to me? No cash is here! Things that we us'd to see Now don't appear") (Foner, p. 25)
Kathleen Aroon ("Why should we parted be, Kathleen Aroon!"; words by Louisa M. Crawford; music credited to Franz Abt in Heart-Songs) (Heart-Songs, p. 31; Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #91; Dime-Song-Book #19, p. 36; Roud #V942)
Soggarth Aroon ("Am I the slave they say?") (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 113; Roud #V21055)
NOTES [112 words]: This is perhaps not a folk song in its own right. But as it uses the same melody as "Eileen Aroon," which pretty definitely does belong, I thought it best to include it.
Lady Caroline Keppel fell in love with Robin Adair (a surgeon, and so presumably below her station) in the 1750s, and wrote this song in consequence. She was eventually permitted to marry him (only to die in 1769 at the age of 32), but at the time the song was written, she thought she would not be allowed to wed Robin, since they were of different social classes. According to Ford-SongHistories, this was written at a time when her family had taken her away from him in an attempt to distract her. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: DTrobada

Robin and Gandelein

See Robyn and Gandeleyn [Child 115] (File: C115)

Robin and John

See Robin Hood and Little John [Child 125] (File: C125)

Robin He's Gane to the Wude

See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Robin Hood and Allen a Dale [Child 138]

DESCRIPTION: Robin observes a young man cheery one day, downcast the next. He is Allen a Dale; his bride-to-be has been betrothed to another. Robin goes in disguise to the church on the wedding day, calls in his men, and ensures she marries Allen after all.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1663 (garland)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood disguise love marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Child 138, "Robin Hood and Allen a Dale" (1 text)
Bronson 138, comments only; cf. Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 173, "[Drive the cold winter away]"
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 138-141, "Robin Hood and Allin 'A' Dale" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 65-68, "Robin Hood and Allen-a-Dale" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 220-223, "Allan Adale" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #89, p. 1, "Allen-a-Dale" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 272, "Allen-a-Dale" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 397-400, "Robin Hood and Allen a Dale" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 121, "Robin Hood and Alan a Dale" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 68, "Robin Hood and Allen a Dale" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 51, "Robin Hood and Allen a Dale" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN8, "Come listen to me, you gallants so free"
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #24, "My Name is Allan-a-Dale" (1 text, which does not mention Allen though the plot is clearly this)
DT 138, RHALANAD
ADDITIONAL: R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 173-175, "Robin Hood and Allen a Date" (1 text, from a garland)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 486-492, "Robin Hood and Allin a Dale" (1 text)
Roud #3298
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Robin Hood and the Bride" (plot)
NOTES [543 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
This particular part of the Robin Hood story seems to have arisen in the seventeenth century. In the earliest versions of the legend (Sloane MS.), the betrayed lover is not Allen but Scarlock (Holt, p. 165), and Robin did not disguise himself as a minstrel but as a beggar (Dobson/Tarylor, p. 172). But by the nineteenth century, Allen's name had become a regular part of the legend.
The gimmick of the song, of a minstrel sneaking into the enemy camp to gather information, is of course far older than the song itself. In English tradition, we in fact find a story of King Alfred the Great of Wessex sneaking into the Viking camp in the guise of an entertainer to spy out their plans (Hindley, pp. 192-193). This is, however, a late anecdote -- and even if King Alfred would take such a risk, and even if he had the musical skills to pull it off (unlikely), there is the non-trivial problem that Old English and Old Norse, while related, were distinct languages by this time; a Norse army would not be likely to want to hear an English singer.
(To be sure, Hindley, p. 211, says that Alfred was fascinated by "Saxon songs," but it appears that this is simply based on Asser's story -- in the Life of Alfred, section 23; AsserAlfredEtc, p. 75 -- that Alfred, in his early life, was fascinated by the *appearance* of a book of English poetry, which he memorized and so induced his mother to give it to him. That might explain Alfred's interest in literature, but it doesn't make him a musician.)
Better-attested is the tradition that Richard I the Lion-Hearted was a troubadour -- and it is a simple fact that he once used disguise to try to sneak through Germany (Gillingham, pp. 223-224). I also read, somewhere, a report that, after his return from the Crusade, he disguised himself to recapture Nottingham. The attempt to sneak across Germany was, however, a complete failure; Richard was captured. The business did, however, cement the link of the king with minstrels, since a legend arose that a troubadour named Blondel wandered around Germany seeking Richard (Gillingham, p. 224), and locating him when Richard sang back a song that they, but no one in Germany, would know.
The first account of Blondel, however, occurs in a document written more than a half century after Richard's death. This tale, like the tale of Alfred, is merely folklore -- but it may have suggested plots like this one. It is interesting to note that the tale of Fulk Fitzwarin, which has many close links to the Robin Hood legend (again, see the information on the "Gest of Robyn Hode") contains a tale of a minstrel going to a castle in disguise and singing a song a prisoner is sure to recognize (Cawthorne, p. 107). This tale, surely, is related to the Blondel legend. Whether this particular item ever played a role in the Robin Hood story is altogether another matter.
Knight/Ohlgren, p. 486, claim that this plot became a Ballad Opera in 1751 -- but, given that the lovers were Leander and Clorinda and the old man who is Clorinda's unwanted fiancee is Sir Humphrey Wealthy, I incline to think that less a version of this ballad than just another retelling of the legend. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C138

Robin Hood and Allen-a-Dale

See Robin Hood and Allen a Dale [Child 138] (File: C138)

Robin Hood and Allin 'A' Dale

See Robin Hood and Allen a Dale [Child 138] (File: C138)

Robin Hood and Arthur O'Bland

See Robin Hood and the Tanner [Child 126] (File: C126)

Robin Hood and Arthur-a-Bland

See Robin Hood and the Tanner [Child 126] (File: C126)

Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne [Child 118]

DESCRIPTION: Little John and Robin separate; Little John is taken after trying to stop an invasion by the Sheriff. Meanwhile, Robin meets Guy; they fight, and Robin slays Guy. He then takes his clothes and horn and rescues John
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood outlaw fight rescue
FOUND IN: US(SE)?
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Child 118, "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne" (1 text)
Bronson 118, comments only; cf. Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 277, "The Chirping of the Lark" (1 tune)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 227-237, "Guye of Gisborne" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 102-116, "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne" (1 text, rewritten and with lacunae filled by Percy)
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 83-90, "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 32, "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne" (1 text, said in the Brown collection to "certainly derive" from this piece, but this is a stretch. It may be this, but it is only a disordered fragment, which looks to me to combine aspects of several Robin Hood ballads; the only real link with this is the reported title "Robin Hood and Guy of Gusborne")
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 334-340, "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 116, "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne" (1 text, probably a modernized version of Child's text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 68-76+320-321, "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne" (1 text, conflating Hales/Furnivall and Child)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 26, "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne" (1 text, probably a modernized version of Child's text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 396-397, "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne" (1 excerpt, 1 tune; Bronson correctly says that the linkage of text and tune is not only conjectural but impossible)
DT 118, RHGISBOR
ADDITIONAL: R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 141-145, "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne" (1 text, newly edited from the Percy manuscript)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 169-183, "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne" (1 text, newly edited from the sources)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 262
Roud #3977
NOTES [521 words]: According to Fowler, p. 158 n. 25, this is one of eighteen ballads in the Child collection found only in the Percy Folio.
It is considered by J. C. Holt (following Child and others), to be one of the five "basic" Robin Hood ballads. (The earliest known copy (from the Percy folio) is somewhat corrupt, but shows survivals of a much older text, and seems to be at least two centuries older than the manuscript. It is noteworthy that a fragment of the same story, in dramatic form, appears on the back of a slip of financial sheets from 1475/6 C.E. For more details on chronology see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]).
Observe that, although the modern version of the legend calls Guy of Gisborne "Sir Guy," implying that he is a knight, stanza 22 clearly says that he and Robin are both yeomen.
Even by the standards of early Robin Hood ballads, it's hard to say much about the origins of this poem. Part of that is because portions have been lost. Part of it is because the Percy Folio, our only source, is prone to rewriting the material it contains. And part of it is because, although the story goes back at least to the fifteenth century, the Folio is from the seventeenth, so there has surely been much evolution -- in form and dialect -- along the way.
Still, the name "Guy of Gisborne" is intriguing. Although our earliest Robin Hood texts are from the fifteenth century, there is good reason to think that they are reflections of the fourteenth (certainly not the twelfth and the reign of Richard I!). And the association with Yorkshire in the early ballads is strong.
And it so happens that there was, in Yorkshire in the fourteenth century, an important family named "de Gysburn." According to Christian D. Liddy on p. 80 of Goldberg, "John de Gysburn... had been the most influential citizen of York of his generation, gaining election to the office of mayor on four occasions between 1371 and 1380"; his son-in-law would repeatedly be mayor a generation later. And he had corrupt allies, and enemies in the town.
Sarah Rees Jones, on pp. 228-229 of Goldberg, calls him "Gisburn" and says that "His entire career in city politics was attended by pronounced conflict with other members of the civic elite, culminating in the riots in York in 1380-1 in which he was expelled from the city and violently sought to re-enter it." It sounds as if he beliged to an elitist faction. The dating makes it quite possible that his father, grandfather, or uncle could have been a yeoman who made his money hunting down outlaws.
Note that I do not claim that this ballad is "about" the de Gysburns. Just that they would likely have been remembered in fifteenth century Yorkshire -- and very likely remembered as enemies of the common people, since they were opposed to the faction of the martyred Archbishop Scrope, widely held to be a saint by the common people. (For background on Scrope, see the notes to "The Death of Archbishop Scrope.")
Bronson notes that Chappell associated a tune with this piece, but that the association was Chappell's own, on weak grounds, and therefore does not cite the melody. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: C118

Robin Hood and His Merry Men

DESCRIPTION: "Robin Hood and his merry men Went to school at half past ten. The teacher said, 'Late again!' Robin Hood and his merry men."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope Robinhood | school teacher
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #491, "Robin Hood and his merry men" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" (form)
NOTES [32 words]: I was very tempted to lump "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" and "Robin Hood and His Merry Men"; I strongly suspect they derive from the same original. But Roud splits them, so I do also. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR491

Robin Hood and Little John (II)

See Hal-an-Tow (File: K092)

Robin Hood and Little John [Child 125]

DESCRIPTION: Robin Hood meets John Little on a bridge. They agree to fight until one falls into the brook. Robin is dunked. He blows his horn for his men and offers John a place among them. John accepts and is re-named Little John, though he is seven feet tall.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1685 (broadside by W. Onley; title mentioned 1624 in the Stationer's Register); it was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: Robinhood outlaw fight
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MW,SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Child 125, "Robin Hood and Little John" (1 text)
Bronson 125, "Robin Hood and Little John" (2 versions+ 1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 125, "Robin Hood and Little John" (3 versions: #1, #2, #3)
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 202-207, "Robin Hood and Little John" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 296, "Robin Hood and Little John" (1 fragment) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 134)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, p. 67, "Robin Hood and Little John" (1 fragment)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 19-20, "Robin Hood and Little John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 9, pp. 20-21, "Robin Hood and Little John" (1 text, which looks like it was taken from a broadside and which does not seem to have had a tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 366-372, "Robin Hood and Little John" (2 texts)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 339, "Robin Hood and Little John" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 45, "Robin Hood and Little John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN22, "When Robin Hood was about twenty Years old"
DT 125, RHLITJON*
ADDITIONAL: R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 166-171, "Robin Hood and Little John" (2 texts, from a garland and American tradition)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 476-485, "Robin Hood and Little John" (1 text,based on the Onley broadside)
Roud #1322
RECORDINGS:
John Strachan, "Robin Hood and Little John" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #1}
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(125a), "Robin Hood and Little John," C. Sheppard (London), 1791 [barely legible]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Robin and John
NOTES [161 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Fully half the Robin Hood ballads in the Child collection (numbers (121 -- the earliest and most basic example of the type), 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, (133), (134), (135), (136), (137), (150)) share all or part of the theme of a stranger meeting and defeating Robin, and being invited to join his band. Most of these are late, but it makes one wonder if Robin ever won a battle.
This is one of the few Robin Hood ballads with a genuinely traditional tune (two, in fact), though one of the texts may have been influenced by print.
Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 199, #2309, lists "Robin Hood and little John" as having been registered June 29, 1624 by Jno. Alde. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C125

Robin Hood and Maid Marian [Child 150]

DESCRIPTION: Robin, while Earl of Huntingdon, woos Maid Marian. Then, outlawed, he keeps to the wood, disguised. She dresses as a page to seek him. They meet and fight, unrecognized, till both are wounded. He calls a halt, she knows his voice, they celebrate.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1795 (Ritson)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood love courting fight disguise
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 150, "Robin Hood and Maid Marian" (1 text)
Bronson 150, comments only
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 214-217, "Robin Hood Rescuing Maid Marian" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 423-425, "Robin Hood and Maid Marian" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN3, "A bonny fine maid of noble degree"
ADDITIONAL: R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 177-178, "Robin Hood and Maid Marian" (1 text)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 493-498, "Robin Hood and Maid Marian" (1 text,based on the Onley broadside)
Roud #3992
NOTES [1768 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
It is noteworthy that Marian is not an original part of the Robin Hood legend; other than in this late and feeble piece -- which notably is preserved in only a single broadside; it was not found in the garlands -- she is mentioned only twice in all the ballads printed by Child (#145A, stanza 9, and #147, stanza 1). In neither case is she described as Robin's wife or beloved; she could be one of his men's wives, or a member of his band.
I observe that, in the tales of Robin's demise in the "Gest" and in "Robin Hood's Death" [Child 120], Robin does not mention a wife or children when he dies -- even though he states that he never hurt a woman. Would he not commend his wife to John's care if he had one? Obviously she is a late addition to the tale. Where she came from must remain a matter of speculation.
It is widely believed that, in the May Games, Marian was initially the consort of the jolly, worldly, distinctly unchaste Friar Tuck (so, e.g., Child), and that she came to be Robin's prize based on their names.
Holt (p. 160) believes that the story of Robin and Marian derives from Adam de la Halle's thirteenth century play "Robin et Marion." In this romance, Marian is a shepherdess whose fidelity to Robin causes her to fend off a lusty knight. This legend entered the French May Games, and was used by John Gower. At some point Marian became Queen of the May Games. With Robin also a character in the games, their union was almost inevitable.
In fact, things may not be that complex. Mustanoja notes that Robin and Marion are typical names for rustic lovers in French and English romance. If Robin were to find a lover, the name Marion (Marian) was almost to be expected.
This pairing is also found in Scotland, although in slightly different form. Speaking of Robert Henryson (fl. 1462), Garnett/Gosse, pp. 295-196, write, "Perhaps the most important of Henryson's performances is the lyrical pastoral of Robin and Makyne, not so much for its own merit, though this is great, than as the first revelation of the vast material for popular poetry in Scotch rural life. It is the old story of cross purposes. Makyne loves Robin, Robin is indifferent. Makyne becomes desperate, lays open siege to him; Robin repels her. Makyne renounces him; Robin, piqued into love, strives to regain her, but only to discover that
"The man that will nocht whan he may,
Sall have nocht quhen he wald."
Those wishing to see Henryson's poem may find it in volume II of Percy's Reliques. It looks rather affected to me (Henryson was one of many Chaucer imitators in this period), although some of this may be the result of it being taken from a printed version rather than from manuscript -- plus Percy himself was good at making things look affected.
Henryson's tale was told after the origin of the Robin Hood legend, but before the linking of Robin and Marian; it serves as another illustration of the standard link between Robin and Ma(whatever).
Olson's Broadside Index notes that this piece is "Smithson's parody of Robin Hood ballads," and Child observes that the broadside is signed S.S.
The strongest link between Maid Marian and Robin comes from the plays of Anthony Munday, described in the notes to the "Gest." It was he who linked Marian with Matilda FitzWalter (Holt, p. 162), whose alleged father Robert FitzWalter was a real opponent of King John (Tyerman, pp. 307, 313) but of whom no such stories are told in genuine history.
The absurd lateness of this particular song is shown by the mention in verse 3 that "neither Rosamond nor Jane Shore" could surpass Marian in beauty. It would not be unreasonable to find a mention of Rosamund (Clifford) in a Robin Hood ballad; she was the mistress of King Henry II, the father of Richard the Lion-Hearted and the great-great-grandfather of Edward II (Kings widely associated with the Robin Hood legend).
The mention of Jane Shore, though, is astonishingly anachronistic. Elizabeth Lambert, known as Jane Shore (for her story, see the song "Jane Shore") was the mistress of King Edward IV (died 1483) and was probably born in the 1450s. Sir Thomas More, who tells us most of what we know about her, had actually met her in old age in the sixteenth century (Cheetham, p. 205). She thus was active fully a century after our first known mention of Robin Hood as a legendary figure. A song which mentions her could hardly come from before 1475.
What's more, it could be a lot later. In an age before photography, when portraits had to be painted and copied by hand, the assumption was that the most beautiful women were kings' mistresses. But, after the reign of Edward IV, there were few noteworthy royal mistresses. Edward IV's son Edward V was pre-pubescent when he was deposed (Ashley, p. 620). Richard III, who came next, lasted only two years and didn't have time for mistresses (and seems to have been puritanical anyway; Cheetham, pp. 204-205. His only illegitimate children were born long before he became king, and before he was married -- and we have no knowledge of the mother's name.). That strange, strange man, Henry VII, seems to have been very sexually unadventurous (Ashley, p. 624).
Henry VIII of course had mistresses, such as Bessie Blunt the mother of the Duke of Richmond, but they were forgotten in the tale of his many wives. Edward VI was a boy, too young for such things (Ashley, p. 636). Mary I and Elizabeth I were female; they obviously had no mistresses. James VI and I seems to have been homosexual; he had no known mistresses (Ashley, pp. 575-576). Charles I was another with a quiet home life (Ashley, p. 650). Thus the next king after Edward IV to have a noteworthy mistress was Charles II (ascended 1660), who had quite a collection, including Nell Gwin. So, since there were no noteworthy beauties for almost two centuries after Jane Shore, this rather feeble item could be very late indeed.
Fully half the Robin Hood ballads in the Child collection (numbers (121 -- the earliest and most basic example of the type), 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, (133), (134), (135), (136), (137), (150)) share all or part of the theme of a stranger meeting and defeating Robin, and being invited to join his band. Most of these are late, but it makes one wonder if Robin ever won a battle.
Knight/Ohlgren, p. 493, do make the interesting point that there is perhaps a feminist undercurrent here -- almost the only such in the Robin Hood corpus.
For those wishing to see how little Munday's play about Robin has to do with the actual Robin Hood legend, without wanting to waste money on a text of the horrid thing, I've taken the cast of characters from pp. xiii-xiv of Munday and annotated them based on whether they have a role in the "Gest":
CHARACTER OF THE INDUCTION (none of whom occur in the early Robin Hood ballads)
Sir John Eltham
Skelton
Little Tracy
Clown
Characters of the dumbshow
CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY ITSELF (supposedly in order of appearance, although this does not appear correct to me)
* Gilbert de Hood, Prior of York and uncle to Robert, Earl of Huntingdon [Gilbert of the White Hand appears briefly in the "Gest," but he is not called "Hood" or said to be a relative of Robin]
* The Sheriff. [There is a Sheriff in the "Gest" and many other ballads]
* Justice Warman, Steward to Robert, Earl of Huntingdon; later Sheriff of Nottingham [No such person in the "Gest," and Robin was a yeoman and would not have had a steward]
* Robert Hood, Earl of Huntingdon
* Little John, his servant [Little John is the first person mentioned in the "Gest" other than Robin, but he too is a yeoman and not Robin's servant]
* Marian, his betrothed (after [line] 781, Matilda, daughter of Lord Fitzwater) [Not in the "Gest"]
* Eleanor, the Queen Mother [not in the "Gest." This is presumably Eleanor of Aquitaine -- who, by the way, wouldn't have spoken English]
* Lord Sentloe, conspirator against the Earl of Huntingdon [not in the "Gest"]
* Sir Hugh Lacy, conspirator against the Earl of Huntingdon [not in the "Gest"]
* Sir Gilbert Broughton, conspirator against the Earl of Huntingdon [not in the "Gest"]
* Mistress Warman [not in the "Gest," although the Sheriff's Wife plays a substantial role in "Robin Hood and the Potter"]
* Prince John [not in the "Gest," and by the way, John the Brother of Richard was not a Prince; there were no principalities in the Angevin Empire]
* the Bishop of Ely [not in the "Gest"; such clergy as we see are mostly from Yorkshire]
* Much, the Miller's son, a clown [in the Gest, but no clown]
* a messenger from Ely
* Simon, Earl of Leicester (after 781, Lord Salisbury) [Not in the "Gest" under either name)
* Lord Lacy, brother of Sir Hugh and father of Marian (after [line] 781, Lord Fitzwater) [Not in the "Gest" under either name)
* Lord Chester [Not in the "Gest"]
* Friar Tuck [Not in the "Gest," the "Monk," the "Potter," or the "Death," although he seems to have been the earliest member of Robin's band other than Little John, Much, Scarlock/Scathelock, and Gilbert]
* Ralph, Warman's Man [No "Ralph" in the "Gest"]
* Scarlet [see below]
* Scathelock [Scarlet and Scathelock are listed as brothers, but in the "Gest," there is ONE character, Scarlock or Scathelock, who eventually evolved in the late ballads into "Scarlet"; Munday has turned one character into two]
* First Collier [not many colliers in the time of Richard I, Mr. Munday.]
* Second Collier [see previous comment]
* Widow Scarlet, mother of Scarlet and Scathelock [no one in the "Gest" has noticeable parents, and one wonders why she's called Scarlet when only one of her sons bears that name!]
* Sir Doncaster of Hothersfield [Sir Roger of Doncaster was involved in Robin's murder, but his name was Roger, not Doncaster, and he came from Doncaster, not Hothersfield, and he appears with the Prioress of Kirklees, whom Munday omits]
* Jinny, daughter of the Widow Scarlet [no sisters in the "Gest," either]
* a servant of the Prior
* another servant, messenger from York
* a Herald
* Earl of Leicester [we already had one of these, until he turned into Lord Salisbury!]
* Richmond [no Earl of Richmond in the "Gest"]
* Warman's Cousin
* Jailer of Nottingham
* Mistress Thompson [not in the "Gest"]
* King Richard [in the "Gest," the king is explicitly named "Edward"]
* Sheriff's men, Sir Doncaster's ruffians [in the "Gest," Sir Roger doesn't have any ruffians except the Prioress of Kirklees, with whom he is sleeping], Leicester's drum and ancient, soldiers, officers, attendants, Jailer's dog - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: C150

Robin Hood and Queen Catherine

See Robin Hood and Queen Katherine [Child 145] (File: C145)

Robin Hood and Queen Katherine [Child 145]

DESCRIPTION: The king proposes a wager with Queen Katherine, his archers against any she may choose. She sends for Robin and his men, giving them false names. They win and are revealed but the king has promised not to be angry with any in the queen's party.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1663 (garland); a song that was likely this one was entered into the Stationer's Register in 1656, and a broadside probably printed by 1655
KEYWORDS: Robinhood contest trick royalty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Child 145, "Robin Hood and Queen Katherine" (3 texts)
Bronson 145, (extensive) comments only
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 164-170, "Robin Hood and Queen Katherine" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 37-46, "Robin Hoode & Quene Kath[erine]
(1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 413-417, "Robin Hood and Queen Katherine" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN10, "Gold tane from the Kings harbengers"
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 53-61, "Robin Hood and Queen Catherin" (1 text, much longer than the printed versions known to Child)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 563-580, "Robin Hood and Queen Catherin" (1 text, based primarily on the Forresters manuscript)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 15
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item 9
Roud #72
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Robin Hood's Chase [Child 146]"
NOTES [513 words]: According to Knight/Ohlgren, this must have been in existence by 1655, because one of the Wood broadsides (Child's B.a) was printed by Grove, who ceased operations in that year. Given the uncertainty about most such dates, I decided to leave the other possible dates in the "Earliest Date" field. Rollins, p. 196, lists two broadsides which he thinks are this:
- #2266, "Renowned Robin Hood," registered March 12, 1656 by Francis Grove
- #2267, "Renowned Robin Hood," registered March 1, 1675
There is no historical "Queen Katherine"; the wife of King Stephen (reigned 1135-1154) was Matilda; the wife of Henry II (1154-1189, the first king usually associated with Robin Hood) was Eleanor of Aquitaine; Richard I (1189-1199) married Berengeria of Navarre; John (1199-1216) had as his primary wife Isabella of Angouleme; Henry III (1216-1272) married Eleanor of Provence; Edward I (1272-1307) married first Eleanor of Castile and then Margaret. Edward II married Isabella of France. Edward III married Philippa of Hainault. The first English Queen Catherine/Katherine was Catherine of Valois, daughter of Charles VI of France, who married Henry V of England in 1420 -- impossibly late for a historical Robin Hood, although she does precede the earliest known copies of the Robin Hood ballads. Nor was there a Scottish Queen Katherine.
Leach-TheBalladBook speculates that one of Henry VIII's wives (either Catherine of Aragon or Katherine Howard) is meant! This involves a major difficulty, pointed out in Cawthorne, p. 187: This ballad involves Friar Tuck, and while both of Henry VIII's Catherines were Catholic, friars would not have been popular in the reign of Henry VIII (especially in the time of Katherine Howard, after the dissolution of the monasteries. In any case, how can we possibly have a Robin Hood alive after the reformation?) Nonetheless, Knight/Ohlgren, p. 563, also think Catherine of Aragon is meant, because she was the one Queen Catherine who played an active role in English government -- and there are records of Henry VIII playing at Robin Hood.
I would have to say that Henry V seems genuinely more likely -- he of course was deeply involved in recruiting archers, and because his wife was not only foreign but a daughter of Henry's long-time enemy, she might well have been willing to show him up.
Ritson's answer is simpler; the several wives of Henry VIII named "Katherine" would have made the name "sufficiently familiar" to the writer of the text.
The sequel to this story is told in Child 146, "Robin Hood's Chase."
Most versions of the ballad are rather incoherent; it is possible that the broadside prints have been shortened. Knight, pp. 52-53, observes that the version in the Forresters Manuscript is about a dozen stanzas longer than most of the others (about a 20% increase in length), and that it resolves many of the inconsistencies.
For background on the Robin Hood legend, including a possible connection between this song and the story of Queen Isabella, the wife of Edward II, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: C145

Robin Hood and the Beggar (I) [Child 133]

DESCRIPTION: Robin meets a beggar who asks charity. They fight. The beggar wins. Robin gives him his horse and clothes, goes on to Nottingham in the beggar's attire. There he finds three of his band are to be hanged. He blows his horn to summon his men who rescue them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Before 1662 (Bodleian, Wood 401(23)); 1663 (garland)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood begging execution rescue disguise
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 133, "Robin Hood and the Beggar I" (1 text)
Bronson 133, comments only
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 191-195, "Robin Hood and the Beggar" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 385-388, "Robin Hood and the Beggar, I" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 13-18, "Robin Hood, A Beggar, & the Three Squires" (1 text, of Child 140, with a text of "Robin Hood and the Beggar"=Robin Hood and the Beggar (I) [Child 133] in the notes)
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 82-85, "Robin Hood and the Beggar" (1 text,very likely a composite from the broadsides)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item 13
Roud #3391
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Wood 401(23), "Robin Hood and the Beggar," F. Grove (London), 1623-1661;
NOTES [156 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Fully half the Robin Hood ballads in the Child collection (numbers (121 -- the earliest and most basic example of the type), 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, (133), (134), (135), (136), (137), (150)) share all or part of the theme of a stranger meeting and defeating Robin, and being invited to join his band. Most of these are late, but it makes one wonder if Robin ever won a battle.
Rollins, p. 199, #2312, believes that the "Robin Hood and the beggar" registered March 12, 1656 by Francis Grove is this. The Grove entry appears to be the same as STC p. 474, #20590, "Robin Hood and the butcher," which is the Bodleian broadside by Grove cited above. This is attributed to "T. R."; the STC does not suggest who this might be, but the Bodleian web site conjectures T. Robins. The STC does not list anything by a "T. Robins." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: C133

Robin Hood and the Beggar (II) [Child 134]

DESCRIPTION: Robin asks money of a beggar who answers disdainfully. They fight. The beggar wins and goes off. Robin is found by three of his men. He sends two to avenge his disgrace. They ambush the beggar, but he bribes and tricks them and gets away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1795
KEYWORDS: Robinhood fight rescue escape trick money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 134, "Robin Hood and the Beggar II" (1 text)
Bronson 134, "Robin Hood and the Beggar II" (1 version)
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 71-83, "Robin Hood and the Beggar" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 264, "Robin Hood and the Beggar" (1 fragment)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 388-397, "Robin Hood and the Beggar, II" (1 text)
Roud #3392
NOTES [82 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Fully half the Robin Hood ballads in the Child collection (numbers (121 -- the earliest and most basic example of the type), 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, (133), (134), (135), (136), (137), (150)) share all or part of the theme of a stranger meeting and defeating Robin, and being invited to join his band. Most of these are late, but it makes one wonder if Robin ever won a battle. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: C134

Robin Hood and the Bishop [Child 143]

DESCRIPTION: Robin sees a bishop with a large company and fears to be taken. He appeals to an old wife, trades clothes with her, returns to his men. She is taken for him, but they rescue her, take money from the bishop, make him say mass and ride away backwards.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1663 (garland); a song that was likely this one was entered into the Stationer's Register in 1656
KEYWORDS: Robinhood clergy disguise rescue
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Child 143, "Robin Hood and the Bishop" (1 text)
Bronson 143, comments only
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 119-122, "Robin Hood and the Bishop" (2 text)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, p. 117, "Robin Hood and the Bishop" (1 fragment of a single line, identified as this seemingly by title; there is no real reason to think it is this ballad)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 408-411, "Robin Hood and the Bishop" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 47, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (2 texts, 2 tunes, of which only the second could be this ballad, and even it is mixed with Child 140)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN5, "Come gentlemen all, and listen a while"
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 12-15, "Robin Hood and the Old Wife" (1 text)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 549-555, "Robin Hood and the Bishop" (1 text, newly edited from the sources)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item 3
Roud #3955
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford" (plot, lyrics)
NOTES [188 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Knight/Ohlgren, p. 554, mention a speculation that the secular powers shown by the Bishop here show this song to be a post-Reformation attack on Catholics. There is some sense to this, but some bishops did have secular powers. A notable example was the Bishop of Durham, whose position made him the de facto earl of Durham -- and who was based not too far from Robin Hood country.
On p. 555, Knight/Ohlgren suggest that the final elements of the forced mass and the bishop being mounted backward suggest a burlesque. Possibly -- but prisoners going to trial or execution were also sometimes mounted backward. To treat the bishop so would probably have been very frightening to him.
Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 200, #2311 says that Francis Grove on March 12, 1656 registered "Robin Hood and the Bishop," which Rollins presumes is this ballad. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C143

Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford [Child 144]

DESCRIPTION: The Bishop of Hereford enters Barnsdale and finds Robin Hood killing a deer. He tries to convince Robin Hood to come before the king. Robin refuses, gives the Bishop dinner, and then extracts the price -- several hundred pounds, plus a dance or a mass
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1670 (Forresters manuscript)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood hunting clergy money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Child 144, "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford" (2 texts)
Bronson 144, "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford" (3 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 144, "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford" (2 versions: #2.1, #3)
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 207-210, "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford" (1 text)
Wells-TheBalladTree, p. 39, "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 411-413, "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 120, "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 70, "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 395-396, "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
DT 144, RHOODBSH*
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 39-43, "Robin Hood and the Bishopp" (1 text, longer than Child's text based on the garlands)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item 7
Roud #2338
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Robin Hood and the Bishop" (plot, lyrics)
NOTES [1087 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. In that ballad, Robin's king seems to be Edward II, and the notes to that song detail some reasons why Robin -- if Edward II were his king -- might be particularly likely to pick on the Bishop of Hereford, who might (on this line of argument) have been Adam Orleton. the bishop in the 1320s: "Although Orleton had prospered under [Pope] Clement [V]'s regime and might have been elevated to the episcopal bench in any case, it was John XXII who regarded him with special favor, advancing him from one see to another and standing by his appointee in the teeth of Edward II's wrath" (Haines, p. 16).
In an interesting development, Orleton was in Rome negotiating with the Pope on behalf of Edward II when "during his return journey from Avignon [where the pope was then based]... the Earl of Pembroke [part of the same embassy] suffered the indignity of being waylaid at Etampes" (Haines, p. 17). It wasn't Orleton himself, but it was a member of his party.
Then, "on 15 March 1317 Richard Swinfield, bishop of Hereford, died. Exactly two two months later Pope John, claiming the reservation of the see, appointed Adam Orleton in his place" (Haines, p. 17). Edward, who had another candidate in mind, went ballistic, going so far as to order Orleton to refuse the post. It's a moot point whether Orleton would have obeyed; it is likely that he had been consecrated before Edward's order reached him (Haines, p. 18). Still, Edward had his eye on Orleton thereafter -- and Orleton would be a key factor in Edward's 1327 deposition. Soon after, the Bishop of Worcester (a richer see than Hereford) died; once again, the English had a candidate, but once again, the Pope gave the post to Orleton (Haines, p. 29). And then, when the diocese of Winchester -- the richest bishopric in England -- came open, the Pope again translated Orleton despite English opposition that meant he didn't gain the full perks of the diocese until 1334-1336 (Haines, pp. 36-37).
Since the king in the "Gest of Robyn Hode" was an Edward, probably Edward II, the king in that piece, at least, would certainly have regarded Adam Orleton of Hereford as his enemy -- and Robin, the loyal ally of Edward, would likely have done the same.
What's more, in the 1320s, Orleton's properties were raided by outlaws (Haines, p. 49), although the circumstances do not resemble those in this song. At least some of these raids happened in 1322 when Orleton was in Yorkshire (Haines, p. 140) -- which happens to be where Robin Hood was based in the "Gest," and 1322 happens to be just when Edward II was visiting that part of the country (and meeting Robin, if one assumes that the king did indeed meet Robin). Haines, p. 65, thinks that Orleton's bishopric was particularly troubled by outlaws in the 1330s and 1340s as well, although he admits that the point is hard to prove. Still, it sounds as if there might have been some outlaw with a vendetta against Orleton.
In addition, Robin in the "Gest" had trouble with the Abbot of St. Mary's in Yorkshire, and one of the foundations in Orleton's diocese was that of St. Mary's in Winchester, and like St. Mary's in Yorkshire, it had a bad reputation for licentiousness (Haines, p. 75). It's not the same house -- indeed, the one in Winchester was a nunnery -- but it's easy to see how a confusion could have arisen.
What's more, the vendetta against the Orleton could have continued after he was translated -- two of his nephews later became Bishops of Hereford (Haines, p. 88).
All this is, of course, purest speculation; we have no reason to think this song has any relation to the "Gest." But maybe a legend arose that the Bishop of Hereford was Robin's particular enemy. And, after his translation to Winchester, he was a particularly good target for robbery, just because he had so much money.
Orleton, who reported in 1338 that he was losing the sight in his left eye, became a semi-permanent resident of Farnham Castle in 1339, and died there in July 1345 (Haines, pp. 64-65)
The choice of the Bishop of Hereford is one of several hints that this song may be based on older materials than most of the late Robin Hood ballads. The fact that Robin is here based in Barnsdale, not Sherwood, is another. Although the attestation for the ballad is late (first known from the Forresters manuscript of c. 1670, and first published in the Aldermary garland of c. 1750), and the form of our extant copies is also late, the contents of the song give evidence of being early.
Another possibility for the Bishop of Hereford involved is John Stanbury, Bishop of Hereford from 1453 to 1474, or possibly one of his immediate predecessors. Stanbury was a member of the royal council of King Henry VI, and apparently attended council meetings regularly; (Wolfe, p. 275).
The significance of this is indirect. Henry VI's inept government had lost all its territories in France, except Calais, in the 1440s and early 1450s (Seward, pp. 242-262). Plus Henry had let government finances go to ruin. The crown was technically bankrupt by the 1440s, and in 1450, the royal debt was equivalent to at least eleven years' income (Ross, p. 26).
By 1450, this ineptitude resulted in the popular rising known as Jack Cade's Rebellion (Wagner, p. 133). And popular protests continued over the next decade. By 1461, Henry VI had been overthrown.
What is interesting is that, in 1469, there was a rebel who was called Robin of Redesdale, who also called himself Robin Mend-All (Wagner, pp. 234-235). Scott/Duncan, p. 531, calls him an "avatar" of Robin Hood, This is a little deceptive; he was almost certainly a political agent operating on behalf of the Earl of Warwick. But the name does seem to suggest that he was trying to equate himself with Robin Hood.
And if a rebel of 1469 could allude to Robin Hood, so could an outlaw of (say) 1454. So it is just possible that the real Hereford of Henry VI's reign had a run-in with someone calling himself "Robin Hood" -- such things certainly happened in those lawless times, and an associate of Henry VI would be particularly vulnerable. We know, in fact, that the town of Hereford was captured by associates of the Duke of York (who was Henry VI's enemy and potential heir) in 1452 (Wolffe, pp. 303-304).
This is all pure speculation. I know of no instance of such a robbery in the 1450s. Nor have I any reason to think this ballad is historical. The pieces fit, but that's all we can say. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: C144

Robin Hood and the Bishopp

See Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford [Child 144] (File: C144)

Robin Hood and the Bride

DESCRIPTION: Robin Hood's band meets a "prtty boy With a bow and bolt in his hand." The unnamed man laments that his love is to be married to another. They go to the church, and Robin arranges for the correct man to marry the girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1800 (Forresters MS, British Library Add 71158)
KEYWORDS: love marriage clergy Robinhood
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 7-9, "Robin Hood and the Bride" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item 2
Roud #3298
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Robin Hood and Allen a Dale" [Child 138] (plot)
NOTES [88 words]: The Forresters Manuscript version of this song is clearly based on the same plot as "Robin Hood and Allen a Dale" -- but it has been extensively rewritten. The young man is never named, and the wedding is celebrated by an actual priest, whereas in "Allen a Dale," Little John humorously does the honors. Although Roud lumps this with the Child ballad, Knight thinks, and I concur, that this should be considered a separate poem -- although it is an open question whether it ever circulated outside the Forresters manuscript. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: ForMS007

Robin Hood and the Butcher [Child 122]

DESCRIPTION: Robin goes to Nottingham in the guise of a young butcher who sells cheap and spends freely. The sheriff returns with him to the forest for bargain-priced cattle. He is shown deer, then captured and relieved of his gold. He is released for his wife's sake.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1662 (broadside Bodleian Wood 401(19))
KEYWORDS: Robinhood trick commerce robbery
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Child 122, "Robin Hood and the Butcher" (2 texts)
Bronson 122, comments only
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 122-126, "Robin Hood and the Butcher" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 19-25, "Robin Hood and the Butcher" (1 text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 11, pp. 23-24, "Robin Hood and the Butcher" (1 text, which which does not seem to have had a tune and which appears to start in the middle and has other defects)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 119, "Robin Hood and the Butcher" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN4, "Come all you brave gallants & listen a while"
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 45-51, "Robin Hood and the Butcher" (1 text, with substantial differences from both the Percy and garland versions)
R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 152-157, "Robin Hood and the Butcher" (2 texts, one from the Percy Folio and one from a broadside)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 7
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item 8
Roud #3980
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Wood 401(19), "Robin Hood and the butcher," F. Grove (London), 1623-1661; also Douce Ballads 3(114a), unknown, n. d.; Douce Ballads 3(115a), unknown, n.d.
NOTES [224 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. This particular song is very close in plot to "Robin Hood and the Potter" [Child 121], and the Percy folio version of the "Butcher" also shares some lyrics. Most scholars (e.g.Dobson/Taylor, pp. 150-151) think that the "Butcher" is a rewrite of the "Potter." But a number of the Percy folio pieces show some signs of editing; it is perhaps just possible that the "Butcher" is an independent song which at some stage was conflated with the "Potter."
Rollins, p. 200, lists two pieces with this title: #2312, "Robin Hood and the butcher," registered July 2, 1657 by Nath. Ekins, and "Robin Hood & the butcher," registered July 16, 1657 by Francis Grove. Rollins attributes it to Thomas Grove. It is interesting to note that the Stationer's Company let two pieces with the same title be registered just two weeks apart; it is also interesting that the two were registered probably just a few years after the Percy Folio was written.
The Grove entry appears to be the same as STC p. 474, #20591, "Robin Hood and the butcher," printed by Grove, a copy of which is in the Bodleian. This is attributed to "T. R."; the STC does not suggest who this might be, but the Bodleian web site conjectures T. Robins. The STC does not list anything by a "T. Robins." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: C122

Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar [Child 123]

DESCRIPTION: Robin learns of a friar's prowess and seeks him out. Each submits once to carrying the other over water, then the friar dumps Robin in. They fight long, then Robin's men and the friar's dogs enter the fray. The friar is invited to join the band.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1663 (garland)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood clergy fight outlaw
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Child 123, "Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar" (2 texts)
Bronson 123, "Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar" (1 version)
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 146-151, "Robin Hood and the Curtall Fryar" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 26-31, "Robine Hood & ffryer Tucke" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 361-365, "Robin and the Curtal Friar" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 118, "Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp.393-393, "Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar" (1 excerpt, 1 tune, which Bronson rejects as inauthentic to the piece -- perhaps invented by Rimbault)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN13, "In summer time when leaves grow green"
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 72-76, "Robin Hood and the Fryer" (1 text, similar to several of the broadsides)
R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 159-164, "Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar" (2 texts, from the Percy Folio and a broadside)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 458-468, "Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar" (1 text, conflated from the Percy and garland texts)
Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 135, "The Famous Battle between ROBIN HOOD and the Curtal Fryer" (reproduction of a broadside page)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 10
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item 11
Roud #1621
NOTES [535 words]: This friar is otherwise known as Friar Tuck, so called because his frock is tucked up. Child says Curtal relates to the keeping of the "curtile", or vegetable garden, but acknowledges that others thought it meant he had a curtailed, or shortened, frock. - KK
For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. Knight/Ohlgren however note that the song does not refer to Friar Tuck by that name, even though the Percy Folio calls the song "Robin Hood and Fryer Tucke."
There is a record of a "Friar Tuck," though not in any way associated with Robin Hood. Two writs of 1417 mention a man of that name who had gathered a gang of outlaws in Surrey and Sussex. He remained at large in 1429 (though nothing was heard of him in the interval); his true name was reported to be Robert Stafford.
The association of Robin Hood and the Friar may have arisen from the May Games (in which both a Friar and Robin were characters), and the Friar may possibly have been associated with Friar Tuck because the latter was an outlaw.
Dobson/Taylor, p. 158, declare that the Friar's association with Fountains Abbey "can only be a post-Reformation fabrication." They give no reason for this statement. Fountains Abbey certainly existed during the Robin Hood era; according to Tatton-Brown/Crook, pp. 112-115, it was a Cisterian community founded in 1152 (meaning that it existed even in the time of Richard I), and it is in Yorkshire.
On the other hand, the fact that it is Cisterian means that it was inhabited by monks, not friars -- indeed, the first friars did not reach England until much later; the first were the Dominicans, who came to England in 1221 (Powicke, p. 24). This doesn't eliminate the idea of a friar being associated with Fountains, but it makes it less likely -- and it does make it impossible to date the Curtal Friar and Robin to the reigns of Richard I (died 1199) or John (died 1216).
Another problem is finding a friar hunting with dogs. First, dogs were barred from the royal forests unless their foretoes were clipped, or "lawed," to prevent them chasing game (Young, p. 41), and second, the Third Lateran Council had tried to prevent hunting with dogs altogether (Young, p. 44).
I do note with interest that Fountains Abbey -- despite being founded on very poor land (Alexander, p. 98), apparently to ensure the poverty of its inhabitants -- seems to have spent a fair bit of money on minstrels, at least in the 1450s (Holt, p. 137). Could the Friar have come to be associated with Fountains because a minstrel came there and decided to praise his patrons?
Fully half the Robin Hood ballads in the Child collection (numbers (121 -- the earliest and most basic example of the type), 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, (133), (134), (135), (136), (137), (150)) share all or part of the theme of a stranger meeting and defeating Robin, and being invited to join his band. Most of these are late, but it makes one wonder if Robin ever won a battle.
Bronson has extensive notes on the dubious nature of the tune of this piece, which is from Rimbault based on an alleged handwritten copy no longer found in the book where Rimbault claimed to find it. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: C123

Robin Hood and the Curtall Fryer

See Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar [Child 123] (File: C123)

Robin Hood and the Duke of Lancaster

DESCRIPTION: "Come listen, my frieds, to a story so new, In the days of King John... How the bold little Duke, of the fair Lancashire, Came to speak to the King...." He arrives in a tizzy, and argues with the king about "Robin Hood," but they reach no conclusion
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1727 (broadside printing, according to Dobson & Taylor)
KEYWORDS: political Robinhood
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 191-194, "Robin Hood and the Duke of Lancaster" (1 text)
NOTES [407 words]: This is not a "true" Robin Hood ballad, even in the sense that the items in the various garlands are. It is, by consensus, from the reign of George I (reigned 1714-1727) or, just possibly, George II (reigned 1727-1760). Although it claims to be from 1202 (the third year of the reign of John, who was king 1199-1216), the reference to the Duke of Lancaster makes this absolutely impossible -- the title of "Duke" did not exist in the English peerage in 1202! "The title [of duke] was first conferred by Edward III in 1337 on the PRINCE OF WALES [i.e. Edward the Black Prince], making him Duke of Cornwall" (HistTodayCompanion, p. 249). The first Duke of Lancaster was Henry Plantagenet of Grosmont, who received the title in 1351 (HistTodayCompanion, p. 380). When he died in 1361, it went to his son-in-law John of Gaunt, Shakespeare's "time-honoured Lancaster," who was allowed to keep it even after his wife, Blanche of Lancaster, died (Hicks, p. 133).
After the death of Gaunt, the title should have passed to his son Henry of Bolingbroke. Henry however had to overthrow King Richard II to obtain his title (HistTodayCompanion, p. 376). Having gone ahead and rebelled, Henry went whole hog and took the throne himself, uniting the Lancaster dukedom and the crown. The Duchy of Lancaster is administered separately, but since that time, the reigning monarch has always been Duke of Lancaster (Kirby, p. 77). Thus there have been only two Dukes of Lancaster who have not been King of England: Henry of Grosmont and John of Gaunt. The only kings during their periods as Duke were Edward III and Richard II -- not John!
Gutch speculated that this was a political piece. Dobson and Taylor are more specific: The "Duke of Lancaster" is in fact the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Lord Lechmere (who thus had most of the powers of a Duke of Lancaster, but did not have Ducal honors). Robin Hood is the disguise for Robert Walpole, George I's primary minister; he apparently was called Robin Hood in other sources as well. Lechmere considered Walpole corrupt, and this is an allegory of Lechmere's confrontation with the King over the matter.
Even by the standards of the later Robin Hood ballads, it's pretty feeble. And it has no place in tradition. But I'm including it for completeness. For more on the genuine Robin Hood tradition, including his links with the Duchy of Lancaster, see the notes to "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: DTRoDLan

Robin Hood and the Forresters (I)

See Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham [Child 139] (File: C139)

Robin Hood and the Forresters (II)

See Robin Hood's Delight [Child 136] (File: C136)

Robin Hood and the Fryer

See Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar [Child 123] (File: C123)

Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow [Child 152]

DESCRIPTION: The sheriff of Nottingham plots to catch Robin by means of an archery competition. Robin and his men go, but dress differently and scatter in the crowd, so are not recognized. Robin wins. To gloat, he sends a letter to the sheriff, by arrow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1777 (garland); the Forresters Manuscript version is from c. 1670
KEYWORDS: Robinhood contest disguise
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 152, "Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow" (1 text)
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 223-227, "Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 25-33, "Robin Hood and the Sherriffe 1" (1 text, with substantial differences from Child's text as found in the garlands; Knight thinks some material has been included based on the "Gest")
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 541-548, "Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item 5
Roud #3994
NOTES [139 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
This ballad seems more directly linked to the "Gest" than most, since the golden arrow of the seventh stanza is described in terms similar to that used of a golden arrow in the "Gest." Child thinks that the first 23 stanzas of this song are derived from the "Gest." The plot of the remainder, however, is different (and probably not as good, unless you like the Robin-as-trickster motif which is almost invisible in the "Gest"). The whole effect of this ballad is very late and rather feeble.
The last stanza promises that listeners shall soon hear the "end" of Robin Hood. This is presumably a reference to the fact that, in the garland, "Robin Hood's Death" [Child 120] follows, which implies that this stanza, at least, is a rewrite. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C152

Robin Hood and the King

See King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood, The [Child 151] (File: C151)

Robin Hood and the Monk [Child 119]

DESCRIPTION: Robin Hood decides to take mass in Nottingham. He quarrels with Little John after a shooting match, and proceeds alone. A monk betrays him to the sheriff. John and Much trick the king into giving them his seal; they go to the sheriff and rescue Robin
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1475 (paleographic dating of ms. Cambridge Ff. 5.48)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood clergy captivity rescue MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Child 119, "Robin Hood and the Monk" (1 text)
Bronson 119, comments only; cf. Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 53-54, "Oh, How They Frisk It, or, Leather Apron, or Under the Greenwood Tree"
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 340-349, "Robin Hood and the Monk" (1 text, probably a slightly modernized version based on Child)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 96-108, "Robin Hood and the Monk" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 327, "Robin Hood and the Monk" (1 text, based on Skeat's transcript with some modernization and emendations from Child)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 52-65, "A Tale of Robin Hood" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 117, "Robin Hood and the Monk" (1 text, source not states; the spelling is modernized and some of the missing lines conjectured)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 42, "Robin Hood and the Monk" (1 text, 1 tune -- another questionable JJN collection; it appears to be a modern version created from whole cloth based on a summary of the plot in Child and with a few names distorted in an attempt at disguise)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 77-89+321-322, "Robin Hood and the Monk" (1 text. Source not stated, but probably Skeat, with some modernization)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 27, "Robin Hood and the Monk" (1 text, Child's text, modernized)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 81, "Robin Hood and the Monk" (1 text)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. pp. 25-34, "Robin Hood and the Monk" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1534
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2586
ADDITIONAL: R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 115-122, "Robin Hood and the Monk" (1 text, newly edited from the manuscript)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 31-56, "Robin Hood and the Monk" (1 text, newly edited from the manuscript)
Thomas H. Ohlgren and Lister M. Matheson, _Early Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Edition of the Texts, ca. 1425 to c. 1600_, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2013, pp. 3-21, "Robin Hood and the Monk" (1 text plus a fragment, in a transcript much closer to the original orthography than Child or most other editions)
Iona & Peter Opie, The Oxford Book of Narrative Verse, pp. 22-32, "Robin Hood and the Monk" (1 text. modernized from Dobson & Taylor)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #148, "In Summer" (1 fragment, consisting of the first five verses)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSCambridgeFf5.48}, Cambridge, University Library, MS. Ff.5.48, folio 128
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, Bagford Ballads i.6 (loose fragment)
Roud #3978
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Robin Hood and the Twenty Pounds of Gold (title used by Niles)
NOTES [3032 words]: This is considered by J. C. Holt (following Child and others), to be one of the five "basic" Robin Hood ballads. (For more details on the history of the legend see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]). It is also, in terms of the date of the manuscript, widely regarded as the oldest surviving Robin Hood piece (though in fact, except for John Jacob Niles's probable fake, it does not seem to survive outside the one manuscript). This point we will have cause to reconsider below.
Chambers, p. 153, makes another claim -- that this is, along with "Riddles Wisely Expounded" [Child 1] the oldest true popular ballad in the Child collection (both are found in manuscripts which have been dated c. 1450). All earlier ballad-like pieces he discounts as not truly folk. Since the text of "Riddles" he refers to is probably not ancestral to the later sung ballad, that would make this the oldest popular ballad in the Child collection.
Bronson observes that Chappell associated a tune with this piece, but that the association was Chappell's own, on weak grounds, and therefore does not cite the melody. The Opies, pp. 386-387, quote Dobson/Taylor, p. 113, to the effect that this was more likely recited than sung. This is clearly possible (indeed, the last stanza calls it a "talkyng," although that term can mean more than just speech), and certainly the length of the piece makes it nearly sure that it is a minstrel piece rather than a true ballad.
It has several times been noted (e.g. by Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 52) that this is much the most violent of the early Robin Hood tales, with no fewer than 15 people being killed, several of them, such as the Monk's page, being apparently innocent.
Apart from the loose page in the Bagford Ballads, which is too short to be of much help, we have only one copy of this, in the Cambridge manuscript.
The Cambridge manuscript, according to the Opies, p. 386, is sort of a do-it-yourself minstrel kit: 135 pages not only of tales but also prayers and prophecies, although Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 22, declares it as "a priest's anthology of texts which served his pastoral and personal needs."
According to Dobson/Taylor, p. 114, both these suggestions come from pp. 80-81 of Fowler (whose chapter 3, pp. 65-93, is entitled "Rymes of Robyn Hood), though Fowler's main claim is that it "seems to have served primarily as a priest's source book." I would have to say that, at first glance, the hypothesis that it is a minstrel's book seems far more likely, since it also contains a version of "King Edward and the Shepherd" (a variant on "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth" [Child 273]) and "The T[o]urnament of Tottenham," a humorous romance which Sands, p. 314, files under "Burlesque and Grotesquerie" and suggests is a spoof on chivalry. It is hard to imagine what use a priest could make of these materials. Moreover, there are only two tiny bits of Latin (Severs/Hartung, p. 1762). Those English pieces are so diverse that Severs/Hartung, pp. 1762-1763, would classify them under a dozen different genres.
Furthermore, the pages of the manuscript were not ruled (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 30). Professionally produced manuscripts tended to have lines and borders marked in with a sharp point or a piece of lead. The book does not appear to be the work of someone trained in a scriptorium -- an argument against a clerical source.
On the other hand, there were two main scribes involved in copying the manuscript (Ohlgren/Matheson,p. 29, although their assignment of scribes makes it appear that several folios were copied by a third scribe). This makes it effectively impossible to suppose that it is a single minstrel's collection of useful materials -- although it is possible that a later copyist took an existing book and added the final section (which contains "Tottenham," the "Monk," and several other pieces). However, the portions copied by both scribe A and scribe B are quite diverse and appear to represent similar interests. So odds are that both halves were compiled at the same time.
Ohlgren/Matheson, pp. 31-32, has a list of the manuscript's full contents; so also Hartshorne, pp. xi-xvii, with somewhat more detail. There are 28 surviving items by Ohlgren's count, 27 by Hartshorne's (there are no titles, so the divisions between items can be arbitrary). Nearly half are clearly religious (Ohlgren/Matheson, p.32, counts 11 religious items, including instructions for parish priests, plus three cautionary exempla, although I question one or two of these). Five are prognostications or prophecies. A few are reference works. And then there are the romances. It's a very mixed bag, with several items a minstrel is unlikely to need (although, as already mentioned, it's hard to imagine a priest using some of them, either).
Ohlgren has a strong argument for the view that it was assembled for a priest, in that the manuscript contains an inscription by Gilbertus Pylkyngton (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 21). If this is indeed the priest Gilbert Pilkington ordained 1465 in Lichfield, which seems reasonable, then the argument for a priestly owner is obviously very strong.
I should note, however, that the inscription (given on p. 33 of Ohlgren/Matheson) appears to be a scribal colophon rather than an inscription of ownership -- the formula is very close to that used at the end of Biblical manuscripts to declare the end of a book and give the scribe's name. Hartshorne, p. x, for instance, declares unequivocally that Pilkington is the scribe, not the owner (while denying the statement found in some sources that Pilkington authored the material in the manuscript).
What is more, it is not unknown for such colophons to be copied verbatim from a source manuscript to a copy. Yes, including the name of the original scribe! Ohlgren, pp. 33-35, mentions earlier discussions of this phenomenon, but doesn't really tell his readers how often it happened. Nor does he mention the existence of forged colophons. Colwell, pp. 142-147, demonstrates a case of a manuscript (designated 1505 in New Testament catalogs) written probably in or after 1445 C.E. which had a colophon claiming it was from the year 1084. The Latin Gospel Book of Dimma has a faked attribution to Dimma (Hopkins-James, p. xlvi). This list could easily be multiplied.
Odds are that Gilbert Pilkington was not famous enough to have manuscripts forged upon him. Still, that leaves us with three possibilities: That Pilkington owned the manuscript, that he wrote it, or that he wrote the copy of "The Northern Passion" to which the colophon is attached and which was copied verbatim into the Cambridge manuscript. As a minor variant on these, since the "Northern Passion" is a translation of a French original, it is not impossible that Pilkington was the translator.
Ohlgren/Matheson, pp. 24, 60-61, suggests that Pilkington was interested in the subject of sanctuary, which is abused in the "Monk," which is why he included the piece. This is possible, of course, but that's only a small part of the "Monk."
I am not saying that Ohlgren's suggestion is wrong; he may well be right. But the data is not sufficient to prove it.
If, however, the piece was copied because of the abuse of sanctuary, it might be a dating clue, because in 1471 the topic of sanctuary could have become very hot. In the aftermath of the Battle of Tewkesbury, a number of Lancastrian lords fled to Tewkesbury abbey. King Edward IV, who had firmly reclaimed his throne by winning at Tewkesbury, hauled them out, subjected them to brief trials, and executed them (Gillingham, p. 207; Wagner, p. 243).
There is agreement up to this point about Edward's actions. But there is no agreement at all as to whether Edward IV had the right to behave as he did. If Tewkesbury could be considered a sanctuary, then Edward's action was contrary to church and civil law. If this viewpoint is accepted, one might even consider the "Monk" to be a sort of allegory of Tewkesbury, only with a happy ending. Certainly the timing is about right.
Unfortunately for this argument, the issue of Tewkesbury as a sanctuary seems been more a matter of controversy to modern historians (most of them anxious to blacken Richard III, Edward's brother) than to contemporaries. Edward's contemporary apologist had pointed out that Tewkesbury abbey was not an accredited sanctuary, so Edward had the right to enter it and seize his opponents (Gillingham, p. 207; Kendall, pp. 119-120). Ross, p. 172, does not even mention the issue of sanctuary, although he does mention an oath by Edward IV to spare those inside (taken in ignorance that there were so many high-value rebels in the abbey). Warkworth's Chronicle, as cited by Dockray, p. 86, also mentions Edward's pardon but not the right of sanctuary. The Croyland Chronicle, one of the few inside sources, does not even mention the issue of the abbey (Dockray, p. 88).
On the whole, I think Ohlgren's argument about Sanctuary is weak, particularly since the "Monk" is from Scribe B and the "Passion" is from Scribe A, meaning that they might not have had the same interests. Yes, some churches had the right of sanctuary, and yes, there are instances of its abuse (both by those falsely claiming sanctuary and by those who forcibly took them out of sanctuary). But the Nottingham church mentioned in the "Monk" is unlikely to have had the right of sanctuary.
Ohlgren (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 62), devotes considerable detail to the wording of stanza 30/line 120, just before the first break in the text. He is convinced it reads that the first hand wrote that Robin ran into the STREET, but that this was corrected to into the CHURCH, implying that he sought sanctuary. But this is based only on visual scans of the old, damaged copy (more on this below).
On pp. 64-65 of Ohlgren/Matheson, Ohlgren suggests that the relationship between Robin and Little John has Biblical analogies, even mentioning Jesus and John the Baptist as an analogy. I firmly agree that there is much Biblical material adopted into the Robin Hood legend, especially the "Gest" (see the notes to the "Gest" regarding sources), but I really don't see any analogy in this instance, and even Ohlgren admits it is "not fully developed."
Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 47, suggests that the Tottenham material was included in the manuscript because the Church disapproved of tournaments and so would like a joke about them. Ohlgren on p. 55 points out that there are several Marian items in the Cambridge manuscript, so Robin's devotion to the Virgin might also explain why a priest would want such a piece.
Other notes about the manuscript: Sands, p. 313, says that "Tottenham" (which exists in two copies, both bad) is in a northern dialect, which is perhaps significant given that it is in the same manuscript as a Robin Hood poem. Matheson, in studying the "Monk" itself, notes that A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English declares another part of the manuscript, the "Northern Passion," to be in the dialect of west Derbyshire (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 194). On p. 199 of Ohlgren/Matheson, Matheson also declares for west Derbyshire as the source of the dialect in the "Monk" -- although we must always keep in mind that the dialect features might be from the author or from the scribe; all we can really say about the poem is that this seems to affirm a northern origin.
Although several sources have dated the manuscript c. 1450, as mentioned above, this dating is dubious -- sufficiently so that I have changed the "earliest date" from c. 1450 to c. 1475. Dobson/Taylor, p. 114, declare that the cursive style used in the book "would appear to date from the period after rather than before c. 1450, the date customarily assigned to it." And while I do not accept Ohlgren's hypothesis that Gilbert Pilkington wrote the volume, the fact that he was a scribe and is named in a colophon makes it highly likely that the book was written after his 1465 ordination. This means that a date of 1450 is impossibly early.(Which in turn raises the possibility that the "Monk" is not the oldest copy of a Robin Hood poem after all.)
Hartshorne, p. xii, writing of the "Tale of King Edward and the Shepherd" in the Cambridge volume, says that the language may be "as old as Edward IV" (reigned 1461-1470 and 1471-1483). Of course there is very little to distinguish the language of the time of Edward IV from that of his immediate predecessors, but if the poem is truly of the time of Edward IV, then the poem can hardly have been copied before that!
Another argument about date comes from the contents of the book. Stephen Knight opined that the "cumly King" of stanzas 83-84 must be Edward IV; others have argued that Edward III was known as the "Comely King" (a description also used in stanza 353 of the "Gest"). For reasons described in the notes to the "Gest," I do not consider this at all compelling. Neither is "King Edward and the Shepherd" a guaranteed reference to Edward IV, since there seem to be versions of this story pointing to kings as early as Henry II (there is some discussion of this in Fowler, pp. 84-93). But probably the most common king in the piece is Edward IV, who, to repeat, reigned 1461-1470 and 1471-1483. The combined indications are that the manuscript dates not from c. 1450 but from some decades later, during the reign of Edward IV or one of his successors. Certainly there is nothing in the writing to preclude this.
The primary manuscript is in very poor shape; not only have two sections of the poem been entirely lost, but most of the rest is badly stained (a photo can be found on p. 63 of Ohlgren/Matheson). Dobson/Taylor, p. 114, say that the damp which so affected the page has not really made the manuscript illegible -- but it wasn't just damp. The manuscript had already been damaged in the time of Jamieson, and he responded by applying chemicals to the text (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 30).
It appears Jamieson didn't know which glop he was putting on the manuscript -- he just bought it from a bookseller. This is extremely unfortunate. Some of the reagents used in the nineteenth century include ammonic sulphydrate, potassium nitrate, potassium bisulfate, and Gioberti tincture -- successive coats of hydrochloric acid and potassium cyanide (!).
Supposedly (according Thompson, p. 65), the "most harmless [reagent] is probably hydro-sulphuret of ammonia." Similarly, M. R. James wrote that "ammonium bisulphide... unlike the old-fashioned galls, does not stain the page" (unfortunately, I have lost the exact source of this quote). This will tell you how damaging were the other dozen or so reagents used in the nineteenth century. Hydro-sulphuret of ammonia is a hair dye, with acid properties. It is certainly capable of damaging manuscripts.
Whatever Jamieson used, it clearly stained the pages.
On top of everything else, Jamieson didn't know how to apply the reagent he was given. Reagents should never be painted or brushed onto the manuscript; they should be patted on. But Jamieson clearly brushed his glop across the page, smearing the ink. If he hadn't called himself a scholar, the word "vandalism" would surely have applied.
Ohlgren, who had access to the manuscript, laments that it hasn't been given a better examination. Any Bible scholar, who has had to deal with numerous damaged manuscripts and palimpsests, can second this; I really wish someone would give it a good going-over with all the other tools of modern manuscript studies. Someone really, really, needs to photograph the manuscript under ultraviolet and infrared light!
There is another book about the volume, Janay Young Downing, A critical edition of Cambridge University MS FF. 5.48 (1969). I have not seen it; it seems to be unobtainable.
One more curious note: Although the "Monk" and the "Potter" are in different manuscripts, there are significant similarities. Both contain "The Adulterous Falmouth Squire" and "The Lady Who Buried the Host." And both have versions, although not the same version, of the tale-type known as "The King and the Subject" (represented in the Child collection as "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth" [Child 273]). In the "Potter" manuscript, it's "The King and the Barker"; in the "Monk" manuscript, it's "A Tale of King Edward and the Shepherd" (Severs/Hartung, pp, 1762, 1765-1767). Does this hint that there was some sort of common influence on the two books? It would certainly be interesting if there were such!
A curiosity is that one of the lines is "And Robin was in merry Sherwood, As light as leaf on lynde." The "As light as leaf on lynde" line also occurs in "Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly" [Child 116], making me wonder if that piece didn't borrow it from a Robin Hood ballad. Furthermore, the next-to-last line of the "Clerk's Tale" in the Canterbury Tales runs "But ay of chiere as light as leef on lynde" (this is actually part of the envoy, not the tale -- Fragment IV, line 1211; Chaucer/Benson, p. 153). Was this borrowed by Chaucer from the "Monk"? Did the "Monk" borrow from Chaucer? (Chaucer wrote half a century before the proposed date of the manuscript of the "Monk," but of course the text of the "Monk" predates the copy.) Or did they both use a proverbial phrase?
In incidental footnotes, this poem is quoted as the headnote of Chapter 24 ("Nuthanger Farm") in Richard Adams's beloved novel Watership Down. And with regard to that line about the linden... I can't prove that they are connected, but one of J. R. R. Tolkien's earliest Middle-earth poems was "Light as Leaf on Lindentree," published in 1925 and apparently begun around 1919-1920 (ScullHammond, pp. 522-523). It is the first expression of the romance of Beren and Lúthien, one of the foundation-stones of his writings. Christopher Tolkien reprinted it in the third volume of "The History of Middle-Earth," The Lays of Beleriand, pp. 108-110. In plot, this is very close to the poem in the chapter "A Knife in the Dark" of The Lord of the Rings, and a few words were retained, but the version of thirty years later is vastly better; Tolkien was, I think, still learning to write poetry in the 1920s. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: C119

Robin Hood and the Old Maid

See Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires [Child 140] (File: C140)

Robin Hood and the Old Wife

See Robin Hood and the Bishop [Child 143] (File: C143)

Robin Hood and the Old Woman

See Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires [Child 140] (File: C140)

Robin Hood and the Pedlar

See The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood [Child 132] (File: C132)

Robin Hood and the Pedlars [Child 137]

DESCRIPTION: Robin Hood, Will Scarlett, and Little John try to stop three pedlars, succeeding only by sending an arrow into one of their packs. They fight. Robin appears to be slain. His antagonist administers a supposed healing balsam, making him puke on reviving.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Gutch)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood fight injury medicine trick humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 137, "Robin Hood and the Pedlars" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 626-632, "Robin Hood and the Pedlars" (1 textt, which is a modernized version of Child's transcription)
Roud #3987
NOTES [165 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Fully half the Robin Hood ballads in the Child collection (numbers (121 -- the earliest and most basic example of the type), 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, (133), (134), (135), (136), (137), (150)) share all or part of the theme of a stranger meeting and defeating Robin, and being invited to join his band. Most of these are late, but it makes one wonder if Robin ever won a battle.
This is perhaps the ultimate example -- it has gone from Robin the excessively pugnacious to Robin the drug-addled. The date cannot be absolutely proved; the manuscript containing it has materials copied as early as the seventeenth century and as late as the nineteenth. This alleged ballad (really a farce) is in the nineteenth century portion, And it certainly feels nineteenth century -- frankly, in reading this, I feel like I'm reading Edward Lear. Not the content, of course, but the style. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C137

Robin Hood and the Pindar of Wakefield

See The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield [Child 124] (File: C124)

Robin Hood and the Pinder of Wakefield

See The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield [Child 124] (File: C124)

Robin Hood and the Potter [Child 121]

DESCRIPTION: A potter defeats Robin. Robin disguises himself as the potter. He sells pots in Nottingham, giving some to the Sheriff's wife. She invites him home. He offers to take the Sheriff to Robin. Robin robs the Sheriff, sending him home with a horse for his wife
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1795 (Ritson); manuscript copy almost certainly made by 1505, and probably before 1470
KEYWORDS: Robinhood fight trick disguise gift MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Child 121, "Robin Hood and the Potter" (1 text, with "The Playe of Robyn Hode" in an appendix)
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 60-70, "Robyn Hode [and the Potter]" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 352-360, "Robin Hood and the Potter" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 44, "Robin Hood and the Potter" (1 text, 1 tune -- as dubious as any other JJN Robin Hood ballad. In this case, he claimed it was from, ahem, the wife of "Potsie" Cobb. Like the Niles text of "Robin Hood and the Monk," this text is a summarization of the plot of the Child version in what appears to be deliberately dumbed-down verse)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1533
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2585
ADDITIONAL: R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 125-132, "Robin Hood and the Potter" (1 text, newly edited from the manuscript); also a facsimile of the first page of the manuscript facing p. 124
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 57-79, "Robin Hood and the Potter" (1 text, newly edited from the sources)
Thomas H. Ohlgren and Lister M. Matheson, _Early Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Edition of the Texts, ca. 1425 to c. 1600_, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2013, pp. 23-38, "Robin Hood and the Potter" (1 text, in a transcript much closer to the original orthography than Child or most other editions)
MANUSCRIPT: {MsRichardCalle}, Cambridge, Cambridge University Library MS. Ee.4.35 (Part I), folio 14
Roud #3979
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Potter and Robin Hood
NOTES [5102 words]: This is considered by J. C. Holt (following Child and others), to be one of the five "basic" Robin Hood ballads. (For more details on the history of the early texts, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]).
Although early, the "Potter" can hardly be considered an original piece; there is a similar story told of Hereward the Wake, the English rebel against the Norman Conquest. Hereward, knowing an attack on his stronghold of Ely was coming, decided to try to spy out the plan. Leaving the island, he met a potter, and persuaded him to lend the outlaw enough pots to pretend to be a potter. Hereward then visited the Norman camp, and (pretending not to understand French) learned what he needed to learn to foil the plot (Keen, p. 18). On pp. 23-25, Keen notes that the story was also told of Eustace the Monk, who was constantly disguising himself in one way or another -- and Eustace wasn't even English; he was from Flanders. Clearly the tale was adapted to Robin Hood rather than original to him.
It is widely stated that "Robin Hood and the Butcher" [Child 122] is an updated version of this song. This is highly likely, but, given the number of similar tales, we perhaps must consider the matter not quite proved; the "Butcher" might just possibly be derived from a tale of Hereward or Eustace or someone.
Fully half the Robin Hood ballads in the Child collection (numbers (121), 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, (133), (134), (135), (136), (137), (150), with this one being the earliest) share all or part of the theme of a stranger meeting and defeating Robin, and being invited to join his band. Most of the others are late, but it makes one wonder if Robin ever won a battle. Paul Stamler offers the following only-mildly-exaggerated description of the typical ballad of this type:
"Robin Hood meets just about anyone and they quarrel about something really stupid. Robin picks a fight, and since the other person is always bigger, stronger, and a better fighter, he wins. Robin then makes nice with him and invites him to join all the other people who've beaten him up. Somewhere during all this, Robin raises an extremely symbolic horn to his lips. Privately, everyone in Robin's band agrees that Robin would do better if he stayed on his meds."
Common as the type became, this is probably the earliest, and in many ways the best, example of this genre, though it is hardly typical (since it has a second part dealing with the trick played on the Sheriff, and it long enough to qualify as a short romance rather than a ballad). This makes its date and origin a matter of real importance. In this case, we have more information than usual.
The sole manuscript of the Potter, Cambridge Ms. EE.4.35, appears to have been owned by someone who wrote his name, in Latin, as Ricardo Calle; his merchant's mark and signature ("Iste liber constat Ricardo calle") is in the manuscript (a copy can be seen on p. 71 of Ohlgren/Matheson).
The hand used for this colophon is not overly neat, and I notice some minor differences with the letterforms used in the text of the "Potter" itself (there is a specimen facing p. 124 of Dobson/Taylor, and Plate XVIII of Paston/Davis-II shows a letter written by Calle -- notably, Calle in his letter to Margery Paston used þ while the Potter manuscript used th; also, the Potter manuscript has much heavier, longer vertical strokes, though this might just be a difference in the type of pen and the style of the manuscript), but they are similar enough that they might be from the same scribe. (If so, then Calle was not the neatest writer; Dobson/Taylor, p. 124, say that the manuscript shows curious orthography and erroneous repetitions.)
I am not a paleographer, but the curved subscripts of the "Potter" manuscript clearly did not come into use until the fifteenth century and continued into the sixteenth (see the samples on pp. 480-490 and 540-560 of Thompson). Solely on the basis of the writing, a date c. 1500 for the manuscript (as given, e.g., by Child) seems about right. So we need to look for Calle in that approximate period.
So who was Ricardo Calle? Ohlgren believes the owner was a man he titles Richard Call, a servant of the Pastons of Norfolk (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 21). We know a good deal about this Richard Call from other sources, at least compared to most ordinary people of the fifteenth century. Few other modern authors spell the surname "Call"; most give him the name "Calle" -- so e.g. Paston/Davis-Selection, p. 178; Caster, p. 131; Kendall, p. 394; Bennett, 42; Curran, p. 18. Romanes gives the family name as "Call" but generally refers to Richard as "Calle." The Pastons sometimes called him by the initials "R.C." (Paston/Davis-Selection, p. 177=Paston/Davis-I, #332, p. 541), but often spell it out as "Richard Calle"; (e.g. Fenn/Ramsay, vol. I p. 109); in vol. I p. 36, we find the man himself signing his name "Richard Calle". There are quite a few letters from Calle in the Paston correspondence: Paston/Davis-II, p. xxvii, lists 26 letters from Calle (probably the most famous of all the Paston letters is his love letter to Margery Paston, quoted in part or in full, in the original language or modernized, in Paston/Davis-Selection, p. 178=Paston/Davis-II #861, pp. 498-500=Fenn/Ramsay, Vol. II, p. 25=Romanes, p. 30=Gies, pp. 210-212).
There are other hints that Calle might have known Robin Hood material. The earliest Robin Hood play, which parallels the story of "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne" [Child 118], also gives indications of being from the Paston archives, and we know that one of the Paston servants had played Robin Hood in a drama, or at least that the Pastons knew such dramas: on April 16, 1473, John Paston II wrote to his brother John Paston III that he was losing one of his servants: "I haue kepyd hym thys iij yere to pleye Seynt Jorge and Robynhod and the shryff off Notyngham, and now when I wolde haue good horse he is goon in-to Bernysdle, and I wyth-owt a kepere," i.e. "I have kept him this three year(s) to play Saint George and Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham, and now when I would have good horse he is gone into Barnsdale, and I without a keeper" (Paston/Davis-I #275, p. 461).
Thus there is a strong Paston link to our earliest substantial Robin Hood materials, supporting the hypothesis that the Pastons' Calle, or some member of his family, was indeed the owner of the manuscript. And we know that Richard Calle owned books; a French book of his was lost when enemies raided the Paston household (Curran, p. 117; Paston/Davis-I, Letter 195, p. 326; the book was said to be worth 3 shillings 4 pence, so it was a fairly substantial loss).
We have no birth or death notice for Richard, so his dates have to be conjectured from incidental references. Romanes, p. 15, thinks that Richard was one of eight children of John Calle (I), a grocer of Framlingham; there are four boys (John II, Regnold, Richard, and Nicholas, of whom John II succeeded his father as grocer) and four girls (Margaret and three others whose names are unknown although we know the names of most of their husbands).
Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 72, suggests that Calle died some time after 1504, and conjectures that he was born around 1431. Castor, p. 215, suggest that he was in his late thirties when Margery Paston was 20 or 21, which comes to about the same date. Curran's family genealogy on p.22 suggests he was born 1435 and died c. 1515.
Romanes called Richard Calle "Richard of Bacton," based on the town near Norwich where, according to Romanes, p. 21, he spent his later years. Romanes is able to trace Richard's descendants through eleven generations to himself, and then down to his great-granddaugher Eleanor Jean Romanes; odds are that if someone were willing to do the work, we could find Calle's living descendants of the fifteenth or sixteenth generation, although the last known descendant in male line died in 1883. Richard and Margery Calle's descendants outlasted the main Paston line; the last male Paston heir, William Paston, the second Earl of Yarmouth, died in 1732 leaving a daughter but no son -- and bankrupt, so there was no point in passing the earldom to his daughter's husband. (That doesn't mean that there are no descendants of the Pastons -- after all, the Calle line is descended from the Pastons! But while the family eventually achieved their goal of reaching the nobility, the earldom went extinct with William Paston.)
It has been suggested that Calle is first mentioned in one of the Paston letters from 1453 (so Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 72, based Paston/Davis-I, #147, p. 250, a letter from Margaret Paston to John Paston I dated July 6, 1453, although it merely mentioned "Richard" without a surname; Romanes claims a mention of "Calle" from c. 1448 and a letter from Richard in 1450, but wrote before Davis's careful dating of the letters). It is certain, though, that he was in service not long after. Paston/Davis-I p. lxxvi and Paston/Davis-Selection, p. 61 n. 3, says that he became bailiff of the Paston lands around 1455 (this based on a letter he wrote to John Paston I, Paston/Davis-II #519, p. 113, which Davis dates May 8, probably of 1455). He was hired based on the recommendation of the Duke of Norfolk (Richmond, p. 210 n. 165, based on Paston/Davis-I #65, pp. 114-116, line 47). Calle kept his post, off and on, for close to a quarter of a century -- possibly longer.
Four years after that 1455 letter, the death of the immensely rich Sir John Fastolfe in 1459, set in motion a decades-long inheritance problem involving the Pastons and, as a result, Calle. Fastolfe died without children, and it was claimed that on his deathbed he had named John Paston I (who had been his chief manager/lawyer for several years) his heir -- but there was no sealed will, just some statements by those who were there, so everyone tried to get their share of the Fastolfe/Paston lands. The Pastons spent many years struggling to make good their claim to the Fastolfe inheritance, with only very partial success (cf. Wagner, p. 196; Kendall, p. 394. According to Castor, pp. 155-156, Calle was imprisoned in 1461 as an innocent sort-of-bystander in the dispute),
In 1469, against the family's wishes, Calle married the oldest daughter of John Paston I and Margaret Paston, Margery, who can't have been much more than half his age when they became betrothed. (John Paston III exploded to John Paston II, "he shall never have my good will for to make my sister to sell candle[s] and mustard at Framlingham"; Paston/Davis-Selection, p. 177=Paston/Davis-I, #332, p. 541=Fenn/Ramsay, vol. II, p. 24=Bennett, p. 43. Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 73, suggest that the letter means Calle was a grocer as well as a Paston servant, but it is surely a reference to Calle's family and their grocery business). Castor, p. 215, thinks that the Pastons' anger was the result of a family which was itself newly risen in status, and struggling to retain it, not wishing to have any links to those of lower classes. Most sources seem to agree that it was the Paston family's own fault for keeping her at home too long; "Margery's not marrying until she married herself remains something of a mystery" (Richmond, p. 174). The Pastons tried for two years to hold off the marriage, hoping she would change her mind, and then called on the Bishop of Norwich to try to get their betrothal annulled -- only to have the Bishop conclude, reluctantly, that the two had made a commitment that could not be broken (Bennett, pp. 43-45; Curran, p. 149-155, who derives the information from Paston/Davis-I, #203, pp. 341-344).
(Castor, pp.216-217, is convinced that they consummated the marriage, and Gies, p. 209, thinks it likely. This contention, I think, we can ignore. If Calle had slept with Margery, there would be no debate over whether the marriage was real. The only question was what the Pastons would do to Calle in revenge. The fact that the Bishop of Norwich had to look into the situation proves Castor wrong.)
Rollinson, p. 30, quotes Gardner's reconstruction of what happened: Once the Bishop of Norwich, to whom the Pastons appealed, concluded that the marriage had taken place, the bishop perforce sent Margery to a nunnery until the marriage could take place, since the family rejected her. So:
"Calle, meantime unmarried, was staying at Blackborough Nunnery near Lynn, where is bride had found a temporary asylum. He was still willing to give his services to Sir John Paston, and promised not to offer them to any other unless Sir John declined them. They appear to have been accepted, for we find Calle one or two years later still in service of the family. But he never seems to have been recognised as one of its members."
There is no record of an earlier marriage for Calle, although it is hard to believe that a man who was seemingly adult in 1455 would have waited that long to become engaged. (Margery Paston was definitely much younger; Castor, p. x, estimates her as born c. 1448; Gies, p. 71, says "probably in 1448"; and most online estimates place her birth between 1447 and 1450. Curran, p. 30, says she was born c. 1449; Richmond, p. xviii, says "before 1450." She is first mentioned in a letter by Margaret Paston -- Paston/Davis-I, #141, pp. 242-243 -- dated to July 1451, in which Margaret Paston told John Paston I that both Margaret and "yowr dowghtere," i.e. the young Margery, have been "rygth evyll att ese," i.e. sick).
Although the Pastons seemed resolute against Calle at first, forcing him to take a temporary job as a received for the nuns of Blackborough (Richmond, p. 211 n. 166), he was willing to return to their service (Richmond, p. 211). And he was clearly a competent worker; given the state of the conflict between the Pastons and their neighbors, Calle was useful enough that they soon brought him back (Kendall, p. 400; Bennett, p. 46; Curran, p.159, suggests that he turned over his accounts for a time after the marriage, but chapter 33, note 2 [p. 170], says that they were again working together on land matters by 1472; Richmond, p. 211 n. 166 dates his return to 1472/1473. It can hardly be later; Paston/Davis-II, #728-729, pp. 356-358, are two letters from Calle to Margaret Paston about work for the Pastons, believed to be from November 27, 1472 and late 1473).
Calle worked for the Pastons until at least 1479 and probably until at least 1481; a letter from Margery Brews Paston (not to be confused with Margery Paston Calle) to her husband John Paston III is written in the hand of Calle (Paston/Davis-I, #417, pp. 664-665), and it must be after 1479 and is probably from 1481.
Richard Calle and Margery had three sons, John, William, and Richard (Curran, p. 22), before Margery Paston Calle died, probably in or before 1482 (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 73; Paston/Davis-Selection, p. xxix, states that she was dead by 1479, and Richmond, p. xviii, says "probably" by 1479; Castor, p. x, and Curran, p. 30, give her death date as c. 1480; Curran p. 162, thinks she died before their tenth anniversary). On p. 284, Castor adds that Margery was not included in her mother Margaret Paston's 1482 will -- although she admits this might have been a matter of long-held pique over Margery's marriage. Their oldest son may have been named for her Paston grandfather or uncles; at least, when Margaret the mother of Margery died, she left the substantial sum of 20 pounds to John Calle son of Richard (Kendall, p. 400; Castor, p. 284; Bennett, p.46)
By 1480, Calle was starting to lease land; seemingly he was coming up in the world (Richmond, p. 211 n. 166)..
After Margery Paston died, Richard Calle remarried and had two additional sons, Andrew and John. He must have been a fairly attractive figure, because his second wife was also above his station, although from a family that would not be popular with the Yorkist government: Margaret Trolloppe, the daughter of Sir Andrew Trolloppe (Romances, p. 33). Trolloppe's ancestry is unknown, and we have no information about his birth, but by the 1440s, he was fighting the French in Normandy; by 1453, he was a senior officer in the English garrison of Calais (Wagner, p. 273). He committed several acts of piracy in this period, which means he probably was fairly wealthy from the prize money (Griffiths, p. 733, 809). In 1459, he was the captain of the Calais force that the Yorkists brought to England to oppose King Henry VI -- but at Ludford, he brought the garrison over to the Lancastrian side, forcing the Yorkists to flee (Griffiths, pp. 822-823); this caused the Yorkists to put a price on his head (Ross, p. 35). He would later be one of the senior officers at the Battle of Wakefield, where Richard Duke of York was killed (Wagner, p. 273). Henry VI knighted him after the Second Battle of St. Albans in 1461 (Griffiths, p. 872 n. 94). Several of my books credit him with the strategies that won at Wakefield and St. Alban's, but given the sources of the period, I would not trust that very far. He would die at the Battle of Towton later in 1461 (Griffiths, p. 874; Ross, p. 37). Thus Margaret Trolloppe must have been born by 1461, and probably some years before that.
There are sundry references to Richard Calle in rental records from 1508/1509, and a chancery reference that can be dated sometime between 1500 and 1515. What Curran, p.163, regards as the last reference to him calls him a "gentleman," so it seems he rose somewhat in the world. Similarly the last reference to him by John Paston III, in 1503, which says that he is sufficiently well off to have a servant (Paston/Davis-I, #392, pp. 630-631.) (We should note that the 1508/1509 reference is to Richard Call, not Calle (but, of course, we've seen that confusion even in modern sources!). Romanes, p. 1, declares that "The Calls of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cornwall are an old English family who have taken part in many political and ecclesiastical struggles that have occurred in Britain" -- and prints a 1751 manuscript of his ancestor Martin Call who seems to trace this ancient family back to Richard Calle and Margery Paston (Romanes, p 2).
Although Ohlgren believes Richard Calle owned the "Potter" manuscript, the inscription in the "Potter" manuscript is not in the same hand as Richard Calle's letters in the Paston correspondence -- a point even Ohlgren admits (Ohlgren/Matheson, pp. 73-74), although his suggestion is that the scribe of the book added the inscription on Calle's behalf. This raises a real problem. Can we be certain that the Richard Calle of the Cambridge manuscript is the same as the Calle of the Paston letters? Many scholars have said they were not. It is true that there would not have been many literate Richard Calles in fifteenth and sixteenth century England -- but one who would have been literate was Richard Calle junior, the third son of Richard Calle and Margery Paston Calle.
This is an issue of significant concern, because there are three indications of date in the Cambridge manuscript. One, the weakest, is the handwriting, since it tells us little except that the book is probably fifteenth or sixteenth century. The second is the ownership mark of Richard Calle. The third is a precise but ambiguous date reference. The manuscript refers to the "espences of fflesche at the mariage of my ladey Margaret, that sche had owt off Eynglonde."
This has been taken to refer to the marriage of Margaret Tudor, the elder daughter of Henry VII of England, to James IV of Scotland in 1503 (Dobson/Taylor, p. 123). But if Ohlgren is right about Richard Calle Senior owning the manuscript, this would mean that Calle was about seventy at the time it was written -- which some think too old. But we know that Calle was still alive in 1503.
That of course does not prove anything about the ownership. There are two other possibilities: Either the Calle involved is Richard Calle junior (in which case all difficulties disappear, since he was probably born around 1475), or the book is Calle's but the Margaret is some other royal Margaret.
Ohlgren, even though he thinks Richard Calle senior was the owner of the book, plumps for the latter possibility. Ohlgren/Matheson, pp. 21, suggest that the wedding involved was that of Margaret of York, the sister of King Edward IV, who married Charles Duke of Burgundy in 1468 (Wagner, p. 160). This certainly fits Calle senior's dates -- Ohlgren suggests based on a few hints in the letters that Calle may even have been present (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 75) It is known that John Paston II and John Paston III were part of Margaret's marriage party (Paston/Davis-Selection, p. 164 n. 1; Castor, p. 194). This would also explain the slightly "rebellious" nature of the manuscript's contents: 1468 was around the beginning of Calle's romance with Margery Paston, which he must have known the family would not approve of.
But the phrasing of the inscription is interesting. It sounds as if this Margaret had to be given some sort of grant to pay her expenses. This fits an earlier royal wedding, that between King Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou. Margaret brought no dowry at all, except a brief truce in the Hundred Years' War (Gillingham, p. 59), and even that was at the cost of major territorial concessions. And, because the English were broke, she had to be granted property in Lancashire to pay her expenses (Rubin, p. 231). The whole wedding was so obscure that most chroniclers didn't even know where it took place! This fits the description in the manuscript very well.
Admittedly the marriage took place in the 1440s, which is before any known references to Richard Calle, but this is not impossibly early. Thomas Wright, indeed, referred the manuscript of the "Potter" to the reign of Henry VI (1422-1461, briefly restored 1470-1471). Wright also dated the "Monk" to the reign of Edward II, a dating of which Dobson/Taylor, p. 123n1, are frankly contemptuous, but in the case of the "Potter" Wright may have been onto something.
"Robin Hood and the Monk" [Child 119] is usually described as the oldest Robin Hood ballad. But the strong evidence (discussed in the entry on that ballad) is that it must date from 1465 or after, later than the usual dating cited by Child, etc. If the Margaret of the inscription in the "Potter" is indeed Margaret of Anjou, then we must redate the "Potter" early enough to make it probably the earliest Robin Hood ballad, and it might be the earliest even if the Margaret of the inscription is Margaret of York.
Ohlgren quotes Julia Boffey as saying that the manuscript of the "Potter" appears to be the work of "someone used to writing [but] not a professional scribe" (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 69). Based on the lack of ruling and other characteristics described by Boffey, this sounds right -- the scribe was literate, and indeed wrote quite frequently, but did not as a matter of course write books, and did not know the scribal methods of ruling the pages to assure an attractive result.
Turning to the manuscript's contents, Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 69, count no fewer than six different hands involved, although (based on Ohlgren/Matheson's folio count) the main hand is responsible for some 90% of the text, including the entire text of the "Potter" (the tenth of 17 items in the manuscript, based on the list on p. 70 of Knight/Matheson, and one of only two items in the book longer than three folio).
Several of the items are clearly for educating children. Others are religious -- one consists of four proverbs in English (at least two of which Richard Calle quoted to his wife in letters; Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 80). The texts of these appear, interestingly, to be from the Wycliffe translation -- which was, of course, very heterodox. It is also ironic, because "The Miracle of the Lady who Buried the Host" (Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #622) is a thoroughly unlikely justification of the doctrine of transubstantiation, which had been Catholic dogma since 1215 but which was denied by Wycliffe. All of these pieces, however, are short. The four longest pieces in the Cambridge manuscript are the most interesting:
* "The Adulterous Falmouth Squire" -- a tale known in eight copies, and seemingly intended as an exemplum, or story with a moral attached. The key story involves two brothers who die on the same day. The younger, who was innocent of fornication, is in heaven; the older, who was an adulterer, is in hell suffering extreme torture. Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2052/DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3348. For what it's worth, we know that John Paston II had a daughter Constance out of wedlock (Curran, p. 81); she was his only known child; he never married; when she died, Margaret Paston left "to Custaunce [Constance], bastard daughter of John Paston, knyght [=John Paston II], when she is xx yer of age x marc" [10 marks, i.e. 6 and two thirds pounds, the equivalent of several years' wages for a laborer] (Paston/Davis-I, # 230, p. 388), By contrast, John II's younger brother John Paston III married and carried on the Paston line (though there is a hint that he too had an illegitimate child; Castor, p. 188). (To be sure, John II was engaged for a long time to Anne Haute, and Richmond, p. 235, regards this as a marriage, but eventually the relationship was dissolved.)
* "The Cheylde and hes Stepdame" -- Otherwise known as "The Frere/Friar and the Boy." This too was popular enough to be found in multiple manuscripts, and was printed by Wynken de Worde, perhaps around 1500. A more recent version is found on pp. 250-254 of Briggs. Asbjornsen and Moe had a Norwegian version known in translation as "Little Freddie and His Fiddle." Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #977/DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1599; for more about it, see the notes on "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (II)."
This piece in particular is interesting in light of Calle's marital story, because it is a tale of a boy with a wicked stepmother, who one day shares his meal with a stranger and is rewarded with gifts (a bow that cannot miss, and a pipe that always makes the hearers dance, plus the power to cause his stepmother to break wind or, in cleaned-up versions, suffer laughing fits) which save him from his troubles. Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 85, say that the version in the Cambridge MS. has a different ending from the usual versions. It is fascinating to note that another copy of "The Friar and the Boy" was also bound with the Wynken de Worde print of the "Gest" (Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 117).
* "Robin Hode and the Potter"
* "The Kynge and the Barker." A unique text, printed by Child as an appendix to "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth" [Child 273], it is one of the many sorts of tales of a commoner meeting the king in disguise. Child considers it to be ancestral to ballad #273, although he says that it has been much modified over time. It is Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #4168/DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #6691; for discussion of it, see the notes on "King Edward the Fourth...."
Ohlgren sees many reasons why Richard Calle might have liked the tale of the "Potter." Ohlgren/Matheson, pp. 25, 82, suggests that Calle had reason to enjoy the idea of a sheriff being outwitted, having himself suffered badly at the hands of a sheriff during the interminable conflicts between the Paston family and the other Norfolk landowners -- he even expressed a hope for a better sheriff in future. And on pp. 80-81 Ohlgren argues that Calle would have liked the image of Robin flirting with the sheriff's wife, a woman above his station, just as Calle courted Margery Paston. He also thinks this might have influenced Calle's decision to include "The Cheylde and the Stepdame."
On the other hand, the "Potter" also sees Robin Hood violating the standards of the merchant class by selling pots too cheaply (charging just three pennies rather than the usual five). Ohlgren/Matheson, pp. 88-89, thinks Calle would approve of this trickery, but I strongly doubt that a man from a family of grocers would like being so badly undercut. And on pp. 89-90, Ohlgren starts edging toward claiming Robin Hood learned game theory, or at least Adam Smith style economics, in the course of the ballad. This would perhaps be possible in the Tudor era, when the great joint stock companies were formed, but this goes against Ohlgren's claim of a Yorkist date.
The history of the manuscript after it left Calle's hands is unclear and not much help. According to Ohlgren/Matheson, p. 94, it was given to Cambridge in 1715; it was part of the library of Bishop John Moore of Ely which George I donated to Cambridge upon Moore's death. Moore had it ultimately from the library of Thomas Knyvett. Knyvett was a relative by marriage of Edmund Paston, a descendant of Margery Paston Calle's brother William. Ohlgren on this basis conjectures that the Paston family had the manuscript until at least 1603. This seems likely, but how it went from the Calles back to the Pastons is not known. One might suspect that it was in 1546, when Richard Calle's son John (who by then seems to have been a substantial property owner, having roughly the equivalent of a knight's fee, based on the numbers on p. 35 of Romanes) and his family released to Sir John Paston (who I suspect was Margery Paston Calle's grand-nephew) their rights in Fleghall Manor, which they had had since 1515 (Romanes, p. 36).
Bottom line: Although there are strong arguments on both sides, the manuscript of the "Potter" is at least as likely to be fifteenth as sixteenth century, making it very likely the oldest surviving Robin Hood manuscript. And it comes from East Anglia, not Yorkshire or Nottinghamshire, implying that the story might be older still. So there is a very good chance that this, not "Robin Hood and the Monk," is our oldest Robin Hood text.
One more curious note: Although the "Monk" and the "Potter" are in different manuscripts, there are significant similarities. Both contain "The Adulterous Falmouth Squire" and "The Lady Who Buried the Host." And both have versions, although not the same version, of the tale-type known as "The King and the Subject" (represented in the Child collection as "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth" [Child 273]). In the "Potter" manuscript, it's "The King and the Barker"; in the "Monk" manuscript, it's "A Tale of King Edward and the Shepherd" (Severs/Hartung, pp, 1762, 1765-1767). Does this hint that there was some sort of common influence on the two books? It would certainly be interesting if there were such! - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: C121

Robin Hood and the Preists

See Robin Hood's Golden Prize [Child 147] (File: C147)

Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon [Child 129]

DESCRIPTION: Aragon has encircled London, demanding its princess, unless three champions defeat him and his two giants. Robin Hood, Little John, and Robin's nephew Will Scadlock do so, gaining pardon. Will gains the princess and is reunited with his father.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1749; it was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: Robinhood fight royalty pardon
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 129, "Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon" (1 text)
Bronson 129, "Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon" (1 version)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 233-240, "Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon" (1 text, 1 tune, which even the editors admit is full of absurdities and whose verses Bronson calls "rather deplorable") {Bronson's [#1]}
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN18, "Now Robin Hood, Will Scadlock, and little John"
Roud #3983
NOTES [271 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
This is an instance where oral tradition didn't do anything for a ballad; Child calls his text vapid, and the New Brunswick version from J. P. A. Nesbitt (found in Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth) could almost be held up as an example of "when ballads go bad."
It is probably obvious that there isn't a hint of history in this ballad; the attacker in the ballad is a Turk, but Aragon was a Christian state, centered around Barcelona. The Aragonese could not have have hoped to attack England until after the union with Spain.
The whole business might have been suggested by the bad blood between Spain and England over the marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon -- but that of course didn't end in invasion.
Oh, plus there was no earldom of "Maxfield" in the Robin Hood era.
There are any number of other anachronisms and absurdities in the ballad, but it's really not worth the effort to document them.
Personally, I suspect that name "Aragon" is an error of hearing for "Ottoman." This would explain how the prince can be an infidel. (True, Spain had been for a time held by Moslems, but it wasn't called Aragon then!). But what can we have but scorn for a balladeer who heard the name "Ottoman" and confused it with "Aragon"? Obviously there is no truth in the thing. Especially since the Ottoman Empire did not conquer Constantinople until 1453, well after Robin Hood's latest possible date, and although the Ottomans eventually threatened Christian Western Europe, they were no threat to the west until after Byzantium fell. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: C129

Robin Hood and the Ranger [Child 131]

DESCRIPTION: Robin is stopped from killing a deer by a forester. They fight. Robin is bested and offers the other a place in his band. He blows his horn to summon his men, the forester joins them, and all celebrate.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1777
KEYWORDS: Robinhood fight
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 131, "Robin Hood and the Ranger" (1 text)
Bronson 131, "Robin Hood and the Ranger" (2 versions)
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 198-201, "Robin Hood and the Ranger" (1 text)
Roud #933
NOTES [259 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
There is a curiosity about this piece, since the title in the garlands is "Robin Hood and the Ranger," yet the song consistently calls Robin's opponent a "forester." The latter is much the older title, dating back to Norman tmes; Charles R. Young, The Royal Forests of Medieval England, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1979, p. 163, notes that the office of ranger seems to have been instituted in the early fourteenth century, with the first clear and dated reference being from 1341. Thus if Robin meets a ranger, he cannot have been from the time of Richard I; he would have to be from the reign of Edward II or later, with Edward III the most likely king. But since the reference to a ranger is only in the title, which presumably was applied to the piece long after the history of rangers had been forgotten, it tells us nothing.
We do note that the office of ranger seems, from an early date, to have paid better than the office of forester (Young, p. 164). Thus a ranger would presumably be much less willing to join Robin's band than a forester.
Fully half the Robin Hood ballads in the Child collection (numbers (121 -- the earliest and most basic example of the type), 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, (133), (134), (135), (136), (137), (150)) share all or part of the theme of a stranger meeting and defeating Robin, and being invited to join his band. Most of these are late, but it makes one wonder if Robin ever won a battle. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: C131

Robin Hood and the Scotchman [Child 130]

DESCRIPTION: "Bold Robin Hood to the north he would go... with valour and mickle might... To fight and recover his right." Robin meets a Scotsman, and offers him a job providing he can pass a test of strength. The Scot pummels Robin and joins his band
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1663
KEYWORDS: Robinhood fight
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 130, "Robin Hood and the Scotchman" (2 texts)
Bronson 130, comments only
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, (no number given; should perhaps be ZRN24), "Then bold Robin Hood to the north"
Roud #3984
NOTES [82 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Fully half the Robin Hood ballads in the Child collection (numbers (121 -- the earliest and most basic example of the type), 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, (133), (134), (135), (136), (137), (150)) share all or part of the theme of a stranger meeting and defeating Robin, and being invited to join his band. Most of these are late, but it makes one wonder if Robin ever won a battle. - RBW
File: C130

Robin Hood and the Sheapard

See Robin Hood and the Shepherd [Child 135] (File: C135)

Robin Hood and the Shepherd [Child 135]

DESCRIPTION: Robin comes upon a shepherd and demands to know the contents of his bag and bottle. The shepherd defies him. They fight. The shepherd wins. Robin blows his horn. Little John answers the call but the shepherd thrashes him as well.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1663 (garland)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood fight shepherd
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 135, "Robin Hood and the Shepherd" (1 text)
Bronson 135, comments only
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 142-145, "Robin Hood and the Shepherd" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine p. 451, "Robin Hood and the Shepherd" (brief notes only)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN1, "All gentlemen and yeomen good"
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 34-37, "Robin Hood and the Sheapard" (1 text, shorter than Child's text based on the garlands)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item6
Roud #3985
NOTES [126 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Fully half the Robin Hood ballads in the Child collection (numbers (121 -- the earliest and most basic example of the type), 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, (133), (134), (135), (136), (137), (150)) share all or part of the theme of a stranger meeting and defeating Robin, and being invited to join his band. Most of these are late, but it makes one wonder if Robin ever won a battle.
Knight, p. 34, does make the interesting note that this is one of the few ballads of Robin meeting his match in which nothing happens afterward -- it is just a story about a fight. Child considered to be a particularly feeble example of the genre as a result. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C135

Robin Hood and the Sheriff

See Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires [Child 140] (File: C140)

Robin Hood and the Sherriffe

See Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow [Child 152] (File: C152)

Robin Hood and the Stranger

See Robin Hood Newly Revived [Child 128] (File: C128)

Robin Hood and the Tanner [Child 126]

DESCRIPTION: Robin Hood meets a tanner in the woods; they fight. After two hours Robin blows his horn. Little John comes running; Robin says the other has tanned his (Robin's) hide. Little John offers to continue the battle; Robin says no, praising the tanner's skill.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: probably 1657 (Stationer's Register)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood fight
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Child 126, "Robin Hood and the Tanner" (1 text)
Bronson 126, "Robin Hood and the Tanner" (3 versions+ 2 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 126, "Robin Hood and the Tanner" (3 versions: #1, #2, #5)
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 127-131, "Robin Hood and the Tanner" (1 text)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 31, "Robin Hood and the Tanner" (1 text, 1 tune entitled "Robin Hood and Arthur O'Bland") {Bronson's #3}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 35-36, "Robin Hood and the Tanner" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 372-376, "Robin Hood and the Tanner" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 4, "Robin Hood and the Tanner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 25, "Robin Hood and the Tanner" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 94, "Robin Hood and Arthur O'Bland" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 391-392, "Robin Hood and Arthur-a-Bland" (1 excerpt, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN12, "In Nottingham there lived a jolly Tanner"
DT 126, RHOODTAN*
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 118-122, "Robin Hood and the Tanner" (1 text, very close to the 1670 garland)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item 18
Roud #332
NOTES [285 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Fully half the Robin Hood ballads in the Child collection (numbers (121 -- the earliest and most basic example of the type), 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, (133), (134), (135), (136), (137), (150)) share all or part of the theme of a stranger meeting and defeating Robin, and being invited to join his band. Most of these are late, but it makes one wonder if Robin ever won a battle.
Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 200, lists as his #2314 "Robin Hood and the Tanner, or Robin Hood mett with his match," registered April 17, 1657 by William Gilbertson. Presumably that is this song; it is dated on that basis.
Bronson, in searching for the tunes of the Child Ballads, notes that many are the same tune, and that tune is most likely to be "Arthur A Bland." Which, if it is anything, is this. So this may be one of the "core" Robin Hood ballads. Except -- all this is based on a few tag lines, which are often unreliable.
The Opies (Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes, #12) speculate that the Arthur a Bland of this song may be the Arthur O'Bower of their nursery rhyme #12:
Arthur O'Bower has broken his band
And he comes roaring up the land;
The King of Scots with all his power
Cannot stop Arthur of the Bower.
This seems to be based solely on similarity of names, however. I would not be surprised if Arthur O'Bower has some deeper significance -- but I can't see any reason to link him to Robin Hood. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: C126

Robin Hood and the Three Squires

See Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires [Child 140] (File: C140)

Robin Hood and the Tincker

See Robin Hood and the Tinker [Child 127] (File: C127)

Robin Hood and the Tinker [Child 127]

DESCRIPTION: A Tinker asks help arresting Robin Hood for 100 pounds. Robin tricks him into drinking himself to sleep. On waking he learns his companion was Robin. He finds Robin; they fight. Robin yields, then blows his horn for reinforcements. The Tinker joins them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1777; c. 1670 (Forresters manuscript); it was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: Robinhood trick
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 127, "Robin Hood and the Tinker" (1 text)
Bronson 127, comments only
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 132-137, "Robin Hood and the Tinker" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 376-380, "Robin Hood and the Tinker" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN14, "In summer time when leaves grow green"
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 87-91, "Robin Hood and the Tincker" (1 text, probably a slightly edited version of the Pepys broadide)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item 14
Roud #3982
NOTES [94 words]: Child describes this as a "contemptible imitation of imitations." - KK
For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Fully half the Robin Hood ballads in the Child collection (numbers (121 -- the earliest and most basic example of the type), 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, (133), (134), (135), (136), (137), (150)) share all or part of the theme of a stranger meeting and defeating Robin, and being invited to join his band. Most of these are late, but it makes one wonder if Robin ever won a battle. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C127

Robin Hood and the Twenty Pounds of Gold

See Robin Hood and the Monk [Child 119] (File: C119)

Robin Hood and the Valiant Knight [Child 153]

DESCRIPTION: The king sends a knight with 100 to arrest Robin. The knight goes alone to Robin to request surrender. Robin refuses and battle ensues. The knight (retires/is killed) but Robin, wounded, sends for a monk whose bloodletting ends his life. The men scatter.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1741
KEYWORDS: Robinhood knight battle injury death clergy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 153, "Robin Hood and the Valiant Knight" (1 text)
Bronson 152, comments only
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 228-230, "Robin Hood and the Valiant Knight" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 184-186, "Robin Hood and the Valiant Knight" (1 text)
Roud #3995
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Robin Hood's Death" [Child 120] (subject)
NOTES [161 words]: We've all heard of revisionist history, but whoever heard of revisionist mythology? Child comments, "Written, perhaps, because it was thought that authority should in the end be vindicated against outlaws, which may explain why this piece surpasses in platitude everything that goes before." Dobson and Taylor declare, "this song certainly has strong claims to be regarded as the least distinguished Robin Hood ballad ever composed." And, indeed, how many ballads include a rhymed version of a epitaph?
It will be noted that this contradicts the standard legend of Robin Hood's death, long since established by Child #117 and Child #120.
I also noted that the metre matches that of the "Yarn of the Nancy Bell." Suitable, for such a piece of accidental humor. I find it amazing that it was actually printed multiple times. Forget the story. It just plain sounds stupid.
For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: C153

Robin Hood and the Widow's Three Sons

See Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires [Child 140] (File: C140)

Robin Hood and Will Scarlet

See Robin Hood Newly Revived [Child 128] (File: C128)

Robin Hood and Will Scathlock

See Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly [Child 141] (File: C141)

Robin Hood in Greenwood Stood

DESCRIPTION: "Robyn hod in scherewod stod hodud and hathud hosut and schod ffour, And thuynti arowus he bar In hits hondus." Or "Robyn hode Inne Grenewode Stode, Godeman was hee." Or he might stand in Barnsdale. Or elsewhere
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: Robinhood MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1830.5
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #4508 [the Barnsdale version, attributed to John Rastell], #4509 [the "schere wod"/Sherwood version
ADDITIONAL: R. M. Wilson: _The Lost Literature of Medieval England_, Philosophical Library, 1952, p. 140, (no title)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, p. 93, "(no title)" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Library, MS. Takamiya Deposit 51 [Sotheby’s, 24 June 1980, lot 33], folio 1 [DIMEV #4508]
MANUSCRIPT: Lincoln, Lincoln Cathedral Library MS. 132, folio 100 [DIMEV #4509, with Latin parallel]
NOTES [440 words]: This is an entry made based on speculation. There is no extant ballad "Robin Hood in Greenwood Stood." It was Wilson, p. 139, who suggested, correctly I think, that this text is all that remains of a lost ballad.
The evidence for oral transmission comes from the fact that there are diverse copies of the text.
The first text quoted in the description is from MS. Lincoln Cathedral 132, which also has the text in a Latin translation. They are written on what seems to have originally been a blank page. The fact that the Lincoln Manuscript places Robin in Sherwood is interesting, since most early ballads put him in Barnsdate, but unless the graffito can be firmly dated, it does not prove that Robin was associated with Sherwood at an early date. The best guess as to the date is early fifteenth century (Wilson, p. 140); Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 93, quotes a date of c. 1410. The only other piece of Middle English poetry in the manuscript is also an English/Latin diglot.
The second text in the description is from a Wiltshire parliamentary roll for 1432, which lists as participants "Adam, Belle, Clyme, Ocluw, Willyam, Cloudesle, Robyn, hode, Inne, Grenewode, stode, Godeman, was hee, lytel, Joon, Muchette, Millersson, Scathlok, Reynoldyn" (Public Records Office C219/14/3, part 2, number 101; Holt, p. 69; there is a very poor facsimile on p. 70). Thus in 1432, Robin wasn't in Sherwood, he was just in the greenwood in general.
The Barnsdale version also occurs in a manuscript fragment sold at Sotheby's in 1980 and now in the Yale University Library; I know very little about this particular version, which has a different second line, or the manuscript containing it.
In 1429, the phrase "Robin Hode en Barnesdale stode" was, for some reason, used as a legal formula (Dobson/Taylor, p. 3), and apparently was quoted many times in legal contexts after that, although no one seems to know why. This probably explains the John Rastell quotation cited in the references; Rastell printed a lot of legal books and may have been trained in the law (Plomer, p. 51).
Fowler, p. 70, mentions a version "Robyn Hode in Barnysdale Stood, mentioned in Nicholas Udall's 1542 version of Erasmi Apothegmata. Thus we eventually find Robin in both the forests he haunts in ballads, plus generically in the greenwood. Fowler, p. 159 n. 28 says that this was printed by John Rastell, who was not of the Wynkyn de Worde/Robert Copland/William Copland connection responsible for most of our early Robin Hood prints.
Thus, although we don't know what the original of this was about, or when it originated, it seems to have been widely perpetuated. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: UnRHIGS

Robin Hood in Sherwood Stood

See Robin Hood in Greenwood Stood (File: UnRHIGS)

Robin Hood Newly Revived [Child 128]

DESCRIPTION: Robin sees a young man skillfully kill a deer, offers him a place, is answered disdainfully. They fight. Impressed, Robin asks the stranger who he is. He is Robin's sister's son, who has slain his father's steward. Robin makes him next under Little John
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1663 (Garland)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood fight family
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 128, "Robin Hood Newly Revived" (1 text)
Bronson 128, comments only
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 152-163, "Robin Hood and the Stranger" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 380-383, "Robin Hood Newly Revived" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN7, "Come listen a while you Gentlemen all"
DT 128, RHNEWREV
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 101-104, "Robin Hood and the Stranger" (1 text)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 499-506, "Robin Hood and Will Scarlet" (1 text, based on the Onley broadside)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item 16
Roud #3956
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" [Child 132] (theme)
NOTES [237 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Fully half the Robin Hood ballads in the Child collection (numbers (121 -- the earliest and most basic example of the type), 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, (133), (134), (135), (136), (137), (150)) share all or part of the theme of a stranger meeting and defeating Robin, and being invited to join his band. Most of these are late, but it makes one wonder if Robin ever won a battle.
This particular Robin Hood ballad does have interesting aspects, however. Robin's unknown opponent turns out to be Young Gamwell, his nephew -- a name possibly related to Gandelyn, hero of the romance of the same name. And he is taken into the band as Will Scarlet -- and the earliest ballad versions of Robin Hood's band seems to have consisted of four men, Robin, Little John, Much the Miller's Son, and WIll Scarlock/Scathelock/Scarlet. This raises the possibility that there is some old tradition behind the broadsides. The language of the ballad, however, can hardly be older than the seventeenth century, and the poetry is poor.
There is some dispute about the relationship between this song and "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" [Child 132]; see the notes to that song.
The Forresters manuscript is one of several sources to call this "Robin Hood and the Stranger," but it is likely that several pieces used that name. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C128

Robin Hood Rescuing the Widow's Three Sons from the Sheriff When Going to be Executed

See Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires [Child 140] (File: C140)

Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires [Child 140]

DESCRIPTION: Robin learns from (a women/their mother) that three men are to be hanged for deer-killing. He meets a (palmer/beggar) who confirms this. Robin insists on trading clothes, goes disguised to Nottingham, blows his horn for his men, and rescues the three.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy Folio)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood execution disguise rescue
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland) US(NE,SE)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Child 140, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (4 texts)
Bronson 140, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (7 versions+2 in addenda) {Bronson's #3}
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 140, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (3 versions: #3, #5.1, #7)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 13-18, "Robin Hood, A Beggar, & the Three Squires" (1 text, with a text of "Robin Hood and the Beggar"=Robin Hood and the Beggar (I) [Child 133] in the notes)
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 210-214, "Robin Hood Rescuing the Widow's Three Sons from the Sheriff When Going to be Executed" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 243 (plus 1 verse on p. 547), "Robin Hood and the Squires" (2 texts)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 42, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #32, "Robin Hood and the Three Squires" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 78-79, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 2420-242, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 69-72, "Bold Robin Hood Rescuing the Three Squires" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 107-116, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (3 texts, with A1 and A2 being variant versions from the same informant, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2, with some small variants}
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 140, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (1 text with variants from several performances by the same informant)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 33, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 341, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 122, "Robin Hood and the Widow's Three Sons" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 69, "Robin Hood and the Sheriff" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 47, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (2 texts, 2 tunes, the second perhaps being mixed with Child 143)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 124-126, "Bold Robin Hood" (1 text, 1 tune, clearly this piece although it has many floating lyrics, e.g. from "The House Carpenter") {Bronson's #4}
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 16-19, "Robin Hood and the Three Squires" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 87-90, "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" (1 text)
DT 140, RH3SQUIR*
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 476-485, "Robin Hood Rescues Three Young Men" (1 text,based on one of the garlands)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 5
Roud #71
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Robin Hood and the Old Maid
Robin Hood and the Old Woman
NOTES [338 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Knight/Ohlgren, p. 513, notes the interesting fact that this is the only ballad incident to appear in the plays of Anthony Munday, who seems to have distorted the Robin Hood legend into a very different (and less attractive) direction after the appearance of his plays in 1598-1599. Knight/Ohlgren think that Munday borrowed the story. I am not sure I agree. The ballad feels like a seventeenth, or even eighteenth, century composition, by a literary hack who is trying to imitate true ballad style (and not succeeding very well). I would not be surprised if the poem takes the incident from Munday rather than the reverse.
And yet, it is Child's opinion that "Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly" [Child 141] is an "imitation" of this piece, which means it must predate the 1663 garland which contains "Will Stutly." Also, there are several garland prints of this, all undated, but this strongly hints at a date before 1675. Possibly well before.
Even so, it's odd that this relatively weak piece is one of the few Robin Hood ballads to survive into the twentieth century, and is one of the popular, if not the most popular, in the canon.
The relevant portion of Munday's "The Downfall of Robert, Earle of Huntington" is scene 7, starting on p. 329 in Knight/Ohlgren; the scene begins with line 910, and in the Knight/Ohlgren text opens
Warman
Master Frier, be briefe, delay no time.
Scarlet and Scathlock, never hope for life.
Here is the place of execution,
And you must answere lawe for what is done.
Note the curious fact that Munday has turned Scarlet and Scathelock (the forerunner of Will Scarlet; we meet Scathelock in the "Gest of Robyn Hode") into two separate people!
Both "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" [Child 140] and "Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly" [Child 141] open with variants on "Robin Hood in [the] greenwood stood," but this line is very much older; see the (shadow) entry for "Robin Hood in Greenwood Stood." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C140

Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly [Child 141]

DESCRIPTION: One of Robin's men, Will Stutly, is to be hanged. Robin and his men swear to rescue him or die trying. At the gallows Little John leaps from a bush, unbinds Will, and gives him a sword. They fight back to back as the archers chase the sheriff and his men
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1663 (garland)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood execution rescue fight
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Child 141, "Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly" (1 text)
Bronson 141, "Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly" (1 version)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 141, "Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly" (1 version)
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 178-183, "Robn Hoods (sic.) Rescuing Will Stutly" (1 text)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 32, "Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly" (1 text, 1 tune entitled "The Rescue of Will Stutly") {Bronson's [#1]}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 402-403, "Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly" (1 text)
Wells-TheBalladTree, before p. 213, "Robin Hood's Rescuing Will Stutly" (reproduction of a broadside text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN21, "When Robin Hood in the Green wood"
DT 141, ROBHDWST*
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 93-97, "Robin Hood and Will Scathlock" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript, item 15
Roud #3957
NOTES [159 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Child considers this to be an "imitation" of "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires [Child 140]." One or the other of these seems to have been known to the author of the Sloane MS. life of Robin (British Library, Sloane MS. 780), which presumably would date the story (as opposed to the song) before 1600.
Note that the Forresters version makes the victim "Will Scathlock," another name for the man whose name was eventually fixed as "Scarlet," rather than WIll Stut(e)ly, who is unknown in the older tradition.
The broadside in Wells-TheBalladTree lists the tune as "Robin Hood and Queen Catherine."
Both "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires" [Child 140] and "Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly" [Child 141] open with variants on "Robin Hood in [the] greenwood stood," but this line is very much older; see the (shadow) entry for "Robin Hood in Greenwood Stood." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C141

Robin Hood Side

See Scarboro Sand (The Drowned Sailor) [Laws K18] (File: LK18)

Robin Hood Was a Forrester Bold

DESCRIPTION: "O Robin Hood was a forrester good As ever drew bow in a merry greenwood, And the wild deer will follow, will follow." "Little John with his arms so long, He conquered them all with his high ding dong, And the bugles did echo, did echo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (_The Young Lady's Book_)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "(O/Bold) Robin Hood was a forrester good As ever drew bow in a merry greenwood, And the wild deer will follow, will follow." "Little John with his arms so long, He conquered them all with his high ding dong, And the bugles did echo, did echo." We'll follow the summons of the bugle to hunt the deer. A friar "absolves all your sins" and routs his squire's foes with his oak stick. Mary, the forester's pride, is "the queen of all beauty"
KEYWORDS: Robinhood
FOUND IN: US(Ap) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 34, "Robin Hood" ( text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 237, "Bold Robin Hood" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 390)
ADDITIONAL: _The Young Lady's Book_ (London, 1829 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 419, ("Oh, bold Robin Hood, was a forrester good") (1 verse))
The Quaver; or Songster's Pocket Companion (London, 1844 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 223, "Bold Robin Hood" (1 text)
Roud #1303
NOTES [131 words]: Cox's text is only a fragment of what was presumably a longer ballad (probably a late broadside, though I find no reference in the Broadside Ballad Index to this particular text). It doesn't look like any of the Child "Robin Hood" ballads, either. But it is traditional, so here it sits until someone figures out its ancestry. - RBW
If the Quaver text of three verses is the source for current versions it shows that this is not a Robin Hood ballad fragment. See the following note.
"The regimental march of the Royal Sherwood Foresters was arranged ... from the old English glee, 'Bold Robin Hood was a Forester good'" (source: A.E. Lawson Lowe, Historical Record of the Royal Sherwood Foresters; or Nottingham Regiment of Militia (London, 1872 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 60fn). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: JHCox034

Robin Hood, a Beggar, and The Three Squires

See Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires [Child 140] (File: C140)

Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Said Little John

DESCRIPTION: "Robin Hood, Robin Hood, said Little John, Come dance before the Queen, In a red petticoat and a green jacket, A white hose and a green."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1611 (Ravenscroft, Pammelia)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood royalty clothes dancing
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp.397-398, "Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Said Little John" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [31 words]: There is no evidence that this is traditional, and it's certainly not a ballad, but it's old, and it's about Robin Hood, so I'm indexing it. Even if I have nothing to say about it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: CPMRHSLJ

Robin Hood's Bay

See Scarboro Sand (The Drowned Sailor) [Laws K18] (File: LK18)

Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor, and Marriage [Child 149]

DESCRIPTION: Robin and his mother visit her brother, who makes Robin his heir and gives him Little John as a page. Robin takes Little John to his band in the forest. He meets shepherd Clorinda who impresses by shooting a buck. They go to Titbury feast and are married.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1716; Wing dated one of the broadsides before 1685, according to Knight/Ohlgren
KEYWORDS: Robinhood family mother brother servant outlaw marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 149, "Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor and Marriage" (1 text)
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 107-114, "RObin Hoods Birth, Breeding, Valour, and Marriage" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN17, "Kind gentlemen will you be patient awhile"
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 527-540, "Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valour, and Marriage" (1 text, based primarily on the Roxburghe copy)
Roud #3991
NOTES [445 words]: Child notes that this ballad has several elements at variance with the bulk of the Robin Hood tradition. - KK
That is being very polite to a rather dreadful piece of hack work. For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. As for this monstrosity, well, Child gave it a bit of what it deserves when he notes that "The jocular author of this ballad... would certainly have been diverted by any one's supposing him to write under the restraints of tradition."
Knight/Ohlgren, p. 527, note that the texts borrows many materials not in the Robin Hood tradition, and concludes with a hope that the King will have heirs. They suggest that this is a wish for Charles II (reigned 1660-1685), who in fact had no legitimate children, which caused the throne to go to his Catholic brother James and eventually producing the Glorious Revolution.
This seems highly likely, but is not a logical necessity, since there were other childless English kings. One of them, of course, was Richard I, who by the mid-seventeenth century had become the usual King of the Robin Hood story.
The ballad implies that Robin is no longer a pure yeoman, as he was in the early ballads; he is the nephew of a "Squire Gamwell" (compare the Young Gamwell of "Robin Hood Newly Revived" [Child 128]), and his mother is the niece of the romance hero Guy of Warwick (for whom see the entry on "Guy of Warwick"; since Guy didn't exist and doesn't have a date, this is perhaps possible in a certain sense).
The song rings in not only the Pindar of Wakefield but also Adam Bell and Company.
To top it all off, Robin's love is not Maid Marian (who, admittedly, is no part of the early legend, but at least comes from the May Games) but Clorinda (Queen) of the Shepherdesses.
Just in case that isn't unreality enough for you, consider the claim in the third stanza that Robin's father could shoot an arrow a distance of two miles and an inch. (It would never do to forget the inch!)
Of course, a little work with the basic formulae of physics shows that, if we assume no air resistance and that Robin's father shot at an exact 45 degree angle (the optimal angle for propelling an object the maximum distance), the arrow would have needed an initial velocity of about 177 meters per second to cover that distance before falling to earth.
That's about 635 kilometers per hour. Or 380 miles per hour.
I don't know the ballistic properties of an arrow well enough to calculate the effects of air resistance. but I would estimate that, in English conditions, the arrow would have to be fired at least 900 kilometers per hour/550 miles per hour to go that far.
Right. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: C149

Robin Hood's Chase [Child 146]

DESCRIPTION: Robin leaves London after the feats of Child 145. The king, repenting of his pardon, goes after him. Robin leads a chase through many towns, back to London, then to Sherwood. The king returns to London to learn cunning Robin had sought him there.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1663 (garland)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood royalty escape
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 146, "Robin Hood's Chase" (1 text)
Bronson 146 comments only
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 170-173, "Robin Hoods Chase" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 418-420, "Robin Hood's Chase" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN9, "Come you gallants all, to you I do call"
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 123-126, "Robin Hoods Chase" (1 text, close to the 1670 garland)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item 19
Roud #3989
NOTES [85 words]: It should perhaps be noted that the wife of Henry II (the "King Henry" of most Robin Hood ballads; reigned 1154-1189) was named Eleanor. The first Henry to have a wife named Katherine was Henry V (reigned 1413-1422); Henry VIII (1513-1547) marred several Katherines. But both these kings are far too late for Robin Hood's era. For further details, see the entry on "Robin Hood and Queen Katherine" [Child 145].
For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C146

Robin Hood's Death [Child 120]

DESCRIPTION: Robin Hood, feeling ill, travels to (Kirkly-hall) to be blooded. The prioress sets out to bleed him to death. Only as he nears death does Robin realize what is happening; he calls to Little John. It is too late to save Robin; he arranges for his burial
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy Folio), and the basic plot is in the "Gest of Robyn Hode" from 1534 or earlier; there is a possible Stationer's Register mention from 1691
KEYWORDS: Robinhood death burial medicine betrayal
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Child 120, "Robin Hood's Death" (2 texts)
Bronson 120, "Robin Hood's Death" (1 version)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 120, "Robin Hood's Death" (1 version)
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 231-233, "Robin Hood's Death and Burial" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 50-58, "Robin Hoode his death" (1 text)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 30, "Robin Hood's Death" (1 text, 1 tune entitled "The Death of Robin Hood") {Bronson's [#1]}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 349-352, "Robin Hood's Death" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 345, "Robin Hood's Death" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 125, "The Death of Robin Hood" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 43, "Robin Hood's Death" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 90-93+322-323, "Robin Hood's Death" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 94, "Robin Hood's Death" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 69-73, "Robin Hood's Death and Burial" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, (no number; perhaps should be ZRN23?), "When Robin Hood and Little John"
DT 120, ROBHDTH*
ADDITIONAL: R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 134-139, "Robin Hood's Death" (2 texts, corresponding to Child's A [Percy folio] and B [English Archer] versions, but independently edited)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 592-601, "The Deat of Robin Hood" (1 text, a composite of the Percy folio and English Archer versions)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 21
Roud #3299
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "The Death of Robin Hood" (on Thieme02) (on Thieme06) [with introductory verses from other Robin Hood ballads]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Robin Hood and the Valiant Knight" [Child 153] (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Robber Hood's Death
NOTES [809 words]: Although the earliest surviving text of this is from the Percy Folio (probably c. 1650, but this cannot be proved), and the datable English Archer version is even more recent, there is a likely Stationer's Register entry, "The death and burial of Robin Hood" (October 17, 1691, by Joseph Walker; Rollins, #499, p. 49).
This is considered by J. C. Holt (following Child and others), to be one of the five "basic" Robin Hood ballads. (For more details on chronology see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]). The earliest known copy (from the Percy folio) is very defective, but the general idea of the song seems to be at least two centuries older than the manuscript -- the basic story of the betrayal of Robin Hood by the prioress of Kirkless is also in "A Gest of Robyn Hode," which was first printed no later than 1534 and was probably written more than half a century before that. And Richard Grafton's chronicle of 1569 reports that he was killed at "a certein Nunry in Yorkhire called Bircklies" (for text see Knight/Ohlgren, p. 29).
Holt, pp. 200-201 n. 12, points out that Fowler suggested the "Death" was derived from the material at the end of the "Gest" rather than used as a source of the "Gest." Chronologically this is of course possible, but -- as Holt points out -- this is highly unlikely. There is too much in the "Death" which is not found in the laconic story in the "Gest." It is possible that both are derived from a common legend, but if there is dependence, the "Gest" is surely dependent on the "Death."
This is perhaps the most popular of the core Robin Hood ballads (note that it is one of only eight Robin Hood pieces for which we have an authentic tune, from Davis); fragments have been found in America as recently as the twentieth century. Still, none of the early ballads was widely known; the popularity of Robin Hood in song seems to derive from the early garlands, which omit this and all the other medieval Robin Hood stories.
Much of the early Robin Hood legend has parallels in the romance of Fulk FitzWarin, and the tale of the death may be an example. In the ballad, it is Red Roger/Roger of Doncaster who helps arrange Robin's death, and stabs Robin after he has been bled; Robin then decapitates Roger. In the tale of Fulk, that outlaw, in one of his innumerable conflicts with King John, finds himself in a fight. Sir Ber(n)ard de Blois attacks him from behind; Fulk spins around and kills him -- nearly cuts him in half, in fact (Cawthorne, pp. 145-146). The similarity to this story is obvious, although the general idea is so common that it might be coincidence. In any case, Fulk survives, which Robin does not.
The Percy version of this is very long, and badly defective, meaning that we are missing many details. Much that remains is confusing -- e.g. we meet an old woman "banning" Robin Hood. Why? We don't know. Most authorities assume she is cursing him -- but Knight/Ohlgren, p. 592, point out that it properly means "lament" -- possibly she is forecasting his death.
The tale in the "Death" goes far toward discrediting one modern "reconstruction" of the Robin Hood legend, which would have us believe that Robin died in 1247 at the age of 87. Ignore the fact that sick old men of 87 who are bled have a tendency to spontaneously die, so that murder is a gratuitous assumption (a point made on p. 86 of Hole). The key point is that Little John is still around and capable of breaking down locks. Every legend of Robin includes John. He may have been a few years younger than Robin, but not much. If Robin is 87, Little John is also too old to play the role he does in the "Death." So this reconstruction simply does not fit this ballad.
Child in his notes on the "Death" suggests a parallel to "Sheath and Knife" [Child 16], where the girl asks her brother to shoot her and bury her at a spot she chooses. It seems to me, however, that this in fact reverses the motifs. In "Sheathe and Knife," she chooses the spot, and the bow is relatively incidental (perhaps he uses the arrow so that he does not have to slay her with his own hand). In the "Death," the bow and arrow is essential and the spot trivial. If anything, the analogy is to something such as "John Henry" [Laws I1], who dies with his hammer in his hand.
Phillips/Keatman, p. 5, suggest another analogy, to the death of King Arthur in which the king returns his sword -- the gaining and losing his sword representing, presumably, the gain and loss of his power. One could see such a beginning-and-ending motif arising in the case of Robin Hood also, but it seems to me that it is in fact lacking -- we don't have half of the tale! We have no knowledge of how Robin became either outlaw or archer, and while the last arrow of some versions of this song is highly symbolic, it isn't found in the earliest text of the "Death.: - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: C120

Robin Hood's Death and Burial

See Robin Hood's Death [Child 120] (File: C120)

Robin Hood's Delight [Child 136]

DESCRIPTION: Robin Hood, Little John, and Will Scarlock are met in the forest by three keepers. They fight. The keepers get the better of it. Robin asks to blow his horn but is refused. Robin invites them to compete at drinking sack instead. They become friends.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1663 (garland)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood fight drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 136, "Robin Hood's Delight" (1 text)
Bronson 135, comments only
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 187-190, "Robin Hoods Delight" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN20, "There's some will talk of Lords and Knights"
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 142-134, "Robin Hood and the Forresters 2" (1 text, generally close to the garlands)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item 21
Roud #3986
NOTES [82 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Fully half the Robin Hood ballads in the Child collection (numbers (121 -- the earliest and most basic example of the type), 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, (133), (134), (135), (136), (137), (150)) share all or part of the theme of a stranger meeting and defeating Robin, and being invited to join his band. Most of these are late, but it makes one wonder if Robin ever won a battle. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: C136

Robin Hood's Fishing

See Noble Fisherman, The, or, Robin Hood's Preferment [Child 148] (File: C148)

Robin Hood's Golden Prize [Child 147]

DESCRIPTION: Robin, disguised as a friar, asks alms of two priests in the wood. They claim that they were robbed and have nothing. Robin follows them and forces them to reveal the gold they are carrying. He makes them vow never to lie or cheat in the future
AUTHOR: unknown (Wing suggested Laurence Price, whose initials appear in one early copy)
EARLIEST DATE: 1663 (garland); what seems to be this ballad was registered 1656 in the Stationer's Register and Wing dates one broadside version to 1650
KEYWORDS: Robinhood money clergy lie
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 147, "Robin Hood's Golden Prize" (1 text)
Bronson 147, comments only
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 174-177, "Robin Hood's Golden Prize" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 420-422, "Robin Hood's Golden Prize" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 123, "Robin Hood's Golden Prize" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN11, "I have heard talk of Robin Hood"
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 2-5, "Robin Hood and the Preists" (1 text, with few significant differences from the broadsides)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 556-562, "Robin Hood's Golden Prize" (1 text, newly edited from the sources)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item 12
Roud #3990
NOTES [291 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 200, #2315, is "Robin Hods goulden pryse," registered June 2, 1656 by Francis Grove.
Wing's attribution of this piece to Laurence Price seems to be widely accepted; Chappell mentioned it in his book on the Roxburghe Ballads, and Knight, p. 77, says that it is "apparently written" by Price. Dobson/Taylor, p. 48, seem to have no doubts in the matter. This would explain the strong anti-clerical tone of the piece; Price was active in the middle part of the seventeenth century (Chappell dates his work "before the restoration"), when England was extremely anti-Catholic.
Price himself is such an obscure figure that (as of October 2010) he doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry. Nor have I found biographies of him in my literary references. The few poems I've manage to find (such as those in Chappell) did not impress me. This is not among the broadsides attributed to Price on p. 467 of A. W. Pollard, G. R. Redgrave, et al, A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland & Ireland And of English Books Printed Abroad 1475-1640, The Bibliographical Society [of London], 1963. To be sure, Price could have written it after that.
Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866) wrote a piece, "Robin Hood and the Two Grey Friars," which looks as if it might have been inspired by this; Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory prints it on pp. 20-21 as "Bold Robin." It does not strike me as an improvement on the original. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: C147

Robin Hood's Hill

DESCRIPTION: "Ye bards who extol the gay valleys and glades.... never once mentioned sweet 'Robin Hood's Hill.' "Near Gloucester, it has a view, a clear spring, and good vegetation. Boys and girls sport there. The singer would not trade it for all the riches of Peru
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland); said in Notes and Querries to be from an eighteenth century manuscript
KEYWORDS: home money nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 461-462, "Robin Hood's Hill" (1 text)
ST BeCo461 (Partial)
File: BeCo461

Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham [Child 139]

DESCRIPTION: Robin at age 15 falls in with 15 foresters in Nottingham. He intends to enter a shooting match. They taunt him with his youth. He wagers on his ability and wins by killing a hart, but they refuse to pay. He kills them all, escapes to the merry green wood.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1663 (garland; title found 1656 in the Stationer's Register)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood hunting contest escape money youth
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US(SW)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Child 139, "Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham" (1 text)
Bronson 139, "Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham" (2 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 139, "Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham" (1 version: #1)
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 115-117, "Robin Hoods Progress to Nottingham" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 69-70, "Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham" (1 text (composite from 2 singers), 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 7, "Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 400-402 "Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN19, "Robin Hood he was a tall young man"
DT 139, RHPROGNT
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 2-5, "Robin Hood and the Forresters 1" (1 text, with substantial differences from Child's text based on the garlands)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 507-512, "Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item 1
Roud #1790
RECORDINGS:
Beulah Herrick, "Archer" (fragment in the John Daniel Robb collection, at https://econtent.unm.edu/digital/collection/RobbFieldRe/id/7993/rec/1 1952)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Wood 402(14, 15), "Robin Hoods Progresse to Nottingham," F. Grove (London), 1623-1661; also Wood 401(37) [partly illegible], "Robin Hoods Progresse to Nottingham"; Douce Ballads 3(120a), "Robin Hood's progress to Nottingham" [subtitle "Shewing how he slew fifteen foresters"]
NOTES [336 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. This seems to be the earliest ballad to explain why Robin Hood became an outlaw, but we note that it is much more recent than ballads such as the "Gest" and "Robin Hood and the Potter" [Child 121].
Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 200, #2317, is "Robin Hoods progress to Nottingham, in wch hee killeed 15 fforesters"; it was registers March 26, 1656. On March 1, 1675, someone registered "Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham." Presumably both are this ballad.
It is interesting to note that the Forresters Manuscript version of this (but not Child's texts) begin "Randolph kept Robin fifteen winters," since our first literary reference to Robin Hood is William Langland's line "But I kan rymes of Robyn Hood and Randolf Erl of Chestre." (Piers Plowman, Passus V, line 396, in the so-called "B" text as printed in A. V. C. Schmidt, editor, William Langland, The Vision of Piers Plowman: A Critical Edition of the B-Text Based on Trinity College Cambridge MS. B.15.17, 1978; I use the updated Everyman 1995 paperback edition, p. 82).
Knight speculates that the editor of the Forresters Manuscript (or someone) added the line about Randolph to link this ballad and Piers. This is certainly possible, but the line as it stands makes very little sense in the Forresters text; "Randolph" is not identified, nor his relationship to Robin. On the other hand, that first stanza follows a different form from the rest of the piece, so it does look editorial. - RBW
This, according to broadside Bodleian Douce Ballads 3(120a) and all other broadsides which list a tune, is to be sung to the tune of "Bold Robin Hood." But Bronson notes that this song cannot be identified, and that several Robin Hood ballads use the same stanza form. - BS, RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: C139

Robin Hoode and Quene Katherine

See Robin Hood and Queen Katherine [Child 145] (File: C145)

Robin Hoode his death

See Robin Hood's Death [Child 120] (File: C120)

Robin Lend to Me Thy Bow

See Now Robin, Lend to Me Thy Bow (File: BrMa054)

Robin o Rasheltree

See Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now (File: C277RR)

Robin Redbreast (I)

See The Banks of the Gaspereaux [Laws C26] (File: LC26)

Robin Redbreast (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Robin, robin redbreast, O robin dear, And robin singing sweetly, In the fall of the year."
AUTHOR: William Allingham (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: bird | robin
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 145, "Robin, robin redbreast" (1 fragment)
Roud #25395
File: KSUC145C

Robin Redbreast and Pussy Cat

See Little Robin Redbreast Sat Upon a Tree (File: DCCR041)

Robin Redbreast's Testament

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks the robin how long it has been there; it says twenty years, but now it's sick and would make its testament. He gives parts of his body to the Hamiltons, to serve them, and others to repair bridges. He scorns the wren who mourns for him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: bird death lastwill farewell
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 120-123, "Teedle ell O/Robin's Tes'ment" (2 texts)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #141, pp. 1-2, "Robin's Testament" (4 texts plus 1 fragment; the fifth of these is Herd's 1776 text)
Greig/Duncan3 646, "Robin's Testament" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 182, "The Redbreast" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 569, "The Robin's Testament" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H527, pp. 20-21, "Robin Redbreast's Testament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 194, "(Robin Redbreast's Testament)" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 45, "The Robin's Last Will" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ROBNTEST
ADDITIONAL: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, pp. 166-167, "Robin Red-breast" (1 text)
Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 38-40, "Robin Redbreast's Testament"
Roud #3900
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Robin
Robin Sick and Wearie
NOTES [165 words]: In the time-honored tradition of folklorists assigning big meaning to small verse, I suspect this has a political undertone. (Probably someone has talked about this before, but I haven't seen it yet.) My first thought was of the period at the end of the reign of Mary Stuart and the beginning of James VI and I in Scotland, when the Hamilton and Lennox factions were struggling over the regency. But the Hamiltons were not yet Dukes.
Testing additional versions, I think the likely time period is c. 1649 and the end of the reign of Charles I. The robin is said to be "e'en like a little king," which fits, and his reign of "mair than twenty year" fits Charles, who came to the throne in 1625 and was executed in 1649.
In that case, the Duke of Hamilton is James, First Duke of Hamilton (1606-1649). An indecisive and ineffective figure, he finally ended up leading royalist forces at Preston in 1648, where he was crushed by Cromwell. He was executed about a month after Charles himself. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: HHH527

Robin Ruff

See If I Had But a Thousand a Year (File: NCSIIHBT)

Robin Spraggon's Auld Grey Mare

See Pawkie Paiterson's Auld Grey Yaud (File: FVS311)

Robin Tamson's Smiddy

See Robin Tamson's Smiddy [Laws O12] (File: LO12)

Robin Tamson's Smiddy [Laws O12]

DESCRIPTION: The singer has been sent to the smithy to have the mare shod. While there he woos the smith's daughter behind her father's back. The girl dislikes his poor clothes; he says she can mend them. She decides to run off with him rather than live an old maid
AUTHOR: Alexander Rodger (1784-1846) (source: Whistle-Binkie)
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (in _Whistle-Binkie_, as "My Auld Breeks, air the Corn Clips")
KEYWORDS: clothes courting elopement horse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber)) US(MW) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws O12, "Robin Tamson's Smiddy"
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 365-367, "My Minnie Ment My Auld Breeks" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #139, p. 1, "Robin Tamson's Smiddy" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1009, "Robin Tamson's Smiddy" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 165, "My Mither Men't" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 82-84, "Robin Tamson's Smiddy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 4-5, "Robbie Tamson's Smiddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 67, "Robin Tamson's Smiddy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 39, "Robbie Tampson's Smitty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 14, "Robbie Tampson's Smitty" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 671, RTSMITTY
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Rodger, editor, _Whistle-Binkie_, Third Series (Glasgow, 1842), pp. 64-66, "My Auld Breeks"; also Whistle-Binkie, (Glasgow, 1878), Vol I, pp. 377-378, "My Auld Breeks"
Roud #939
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(573), "Robin Thompson's Smiddy," J. Moore (Belfast), 1846-1852; also 2806 c.16(207)=Harding B 11(3301), "Robin Thompson's Smiddy"; Harding B 11(2103), "Duddy Breeks" or "Robbin Thompson's Smiddy"; Firth b.26(528), "Robin Tamson"; Harding B 11(1018), Harding B 11(331), "Duddy Breeks"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(42b), "Robin Tamson's Smiddy," Poet's Box (Dundee), c 1880-1900
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cornclip" (tune, per Whistle-Binkie)
File: LO12

Robin the Smuggler

DESCRIPTION: Old Robin brewed "the pure mountain bead, The Forres and Elgin folk liked it gweed." "As the Tuesdays and Fraidays cam roon' The cairtie was packit [by Robin and his wife] wi' peats for the toon, Wi' a keg in the middle." They have not been seen recently.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: crime drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 261, "Robin the Smuggler" (1 text)
Roud #5851
NOTES [84 words]: Greig/Duncan2: "Cf. 'The Kellas Peatfutherer' in the Elgin Courant and Courier of 24 March 1939, where it is said that the song was written by James Simpson from Mortlach about 1850 and was usually sung to the air of 'Muirlan' Willie'. The subject was Robert or Robbie Milne (1792-1870), a crofter at Newton of Kellas."
Greig/Duncan2: "Learnt twenty-two years ago, from a man who had been feed in Morayshire and got it there. Noted 21st February 1907. This air is a version of 'Muirland Willie'...." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2261

Robin Wood and the Pedlar

See The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood [Child 132] (File: C132)

Robin-a-Bower Has Broken His Band

See Arthur O'Bower (File: OpOx2012)

Robin-a-Thrush

See Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now (File: C277RR)

Robin's Alive

DESCRIPTION: "(The bird/robin) is alive, and alive like to be, If it dies in my hand you may back-saddle me." A "hot potato" game in which a burning stick is passed hand to hand after the player with the stick repeats the rhyme
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty bird
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #76, "Robin's Alive" (1 short text)
File: Newe076

Robin's Last Will, The

See Robin Redbreast's Testament (File: HHH527)

Robin's Tes'ment

See Robin Redbreast's Testament (File: HHH527)

Robin's Testament, The

See Robin Redbreast's Testament (File: HHH527)

Robine Hood and ffryer Tucke

See Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar [Child 123] (File: C123)

Robins Death

See addendum under King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood, The [Child 151]; also Robin Hood's Death [Child 120] (File: C151)

Robinson Crusoe

See Poor Old Robinson Crusoe (File: OO2455)

Robyn and Gandeleyn [Child 115]

DESCRIPTION: Robyn hunts deer. Just after felling one he is himself slain by an arrow. His knave Gandeleyn seeks its source, finds Wrennok the Dane, challenges him, and avenges Robyn.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1430 (British Museum -- Sloane MS. 2593); printed by Ritson 1790
KEYWORDS: hunting death fight revenge MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Child 115, "Robyn and Gandeleyn" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 332-334, "Robin and Gandeleyn" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 71-74, "The Death of Robin Lyth" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 112, "Robyn and Gandeleyn" (1 text)
DT 115, RHGANDYN
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1317
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2194
ADDITIONAL: R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 256-257, "Robyn and Gandelyn" (1 text)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 227-234, "Robyn and Gandelyn" (1 text, newly edited from the sources)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #194, p. 437, "Robin and Gandelein" (1 text)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, pp. 82-83, "(Robyn and Gandelyn)" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 14
Roud #3976
NOTES [2441 words]: Dobson/Taylor, p. 255, declare -- correctly, I think -- that "Few medieval lyrics have been subjected to more diverse and often ludicrous interpretations" than this song. They mention Ritson's connection with one Robin Lyth who lived near Flamborough, and Robert Graves's suggestion that it is a New Year's wren song!
Fowler, p. 11, postulates that there was a *first* English ballad -- by which he does not mean a traditional song that tells a story but one that has music and certain stylistic characteristics. He is not referring to the oldest surviving ballad (whether that be "Judas" [Child 13] or something else), but the one that created the genre. He is not certain that this prototype ballad survives, but if it does, he suggests (note 21, and again on p. 42) that this might be it. Chronologically, maybe, since it is almost certainly older than the Sloane Manuscript that contains it, but the postulate that there was a single prototype ballad strikes me as very daring.
Chambers, p. 131, thinks that this is a sort of proto-Robin Hood ballad, with Gandelyn to eventually become "Young Gamwell" or "Gamelyn." Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 86, based on a form of literary criticism that strikes me as having about as much relation to valid criticism as numerology bears to algebra, also suggests that "it is probably not too farfetched to call the Sloane poem the first Robin Hood ballad." This even though Robyn in this song does not die at the hand of the prioress of Kirklees, one of the oldest characteristics of the tradition. Child dismisses this notion, and rightly I think. Dobson/Taylor, p. 256, also deny any connection with Robin Hood.
Chambers more significantly observes that the source (Sloane MS. 2593) contains many carols, and believes that this was intended to be sung at Christmas. This is basically bunk (it doesn't help that Chambers's definition of carols is based on dance, which is where carols started, but it isn't what is usually meant in popular speech).
Sloane MS 2593 *does* contain many religious works, including the well-known "Adam Lay Ybounden" and "I Syng of a Maiden That Is Makeles" and "Lullay My Liking" and others, as well as "Saint Stephen and Herod" [Child 22] -- but it has plenty of secular works as well, including "I Have a Yong Suster" (the earliest form of "I Gave My Love a Cherry"), a probable relative of "I Had a Little Nut Tree," some drinking lyrics, and at least a few riddles. Plus some rather dirty items, including "I Have a Gentil Cock" -- in fact, as the facsimile on p. 35 of Fletcher shows, "I Have a Gentil Cock" immediately follows "I Syng of a Maiden." (Although I note that the text of the manuscript clearly reads "I haue a gentil COOK." Fowler, p. 41 agrees that this is the reading; so does Rossell Hope Robbins. Not much doubt about what is meant, however.)
Items which are in the Index and are found in Sloane 2593 include:
• A Babe Is Born All of a May
* As I Lay Upon a Night (Alma Redemptoris Mater)
* As I Went Through a Garden Green (Verbum Caro Factum Est)
* Ave, Maris Stella (Hail, Star of the Sea)
• Blessed Be That Maid Mary
• A Carol for St. Edmund's Day
• As I Lay Upon a Night (Alma Redemptoris Mater)
• Father of Heaven, Blessed Thou Be (Make Ye Merry for Him That Is Come)
• The First Day of Yule
• I Gave My Love a Cherry (as " have a yong suster")
* The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)
• I Sing of a Maiden that Is Makeless
* If Thou Serve a Lord of Price (For Service Is None Heritage)
• In the Vale of Abraham
* In This Time Christ Hath Us Sent
• Jesu was born in Bethlehem Judea
• O Mary Mother
• Of a Rose, a Lovely Rose
* Out of the Blossom Sprang a Thorn
• Robyn and Gandeleyn [Child 115]
• Saint Stephen and Herod [Child 22]
• Saint Nicholas
• Saint Thomas of Canterbury
* Sir Peny
* Welcome Yule
The manuscript is dated c. 1450 by Child, a date followed by Dobson/Taylor, p. 255, and by Knight/Ohlgren, p. 227, but c. 1400 by Fletcher, p. 34; "earlier fifteenth century" by Davies, p. 153; similarly Greene, p. 173; and "fifteenth century" by Luria/Hoffman, p. 236. Sidgwick & Chambers claim the reign of Henry VI, i.e. mid-fifteenth cenury. I have used the compromise date of c. 1430. The manuscript is quite plain, and the writing appears to have been done rather quickly (it is much less elegant than the court hands of the period); I frankly think most of these datings rather more precise than the handwriting justifies. The name "Johannes Bardel" or "Bradel" appears on the last page, in a hand that many think is the same as the scribe of the manuscript (Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics, p. 303), but this does not seem to be widely accepted.
Greene, p. 173, says that the manuscript consists of texts without music. The manuscript is defective, having lost at least 47 leaves at the beginning. Greene believes it to be from Bury St. Edmunds, probably from the (Benedictine) monastery there. It has a carol in honor of St. Edmund, for whom Bury was named. The dialect is East Anglian.
Boklund-Lagopolou, pp. 64-66, summarizes the contents of the Sloane manuscript: 74 items, 57 of which meet her (and Greene's) definition of a carol. 41 of them (including 33 of the "carols") are about Biblical history, Jesus, Mary, or saints. Ten (including nine of the "carols") are exhortations to repent, often stressing the dangers of death and hell. So "religious" items. Ten more (nine "carols") seem intended to teach secular/worldly wisdom. Eleven are clearly secular items, often humorous. (I'm not sure what happened to the remaining two; I'm trying to summarize a catalog that is somewhat sloppy.) A few are in Latin or have Latin refrains. Since this is one of the secular songs, it is clear that it is part of a rather small minority of pieces in the manuscript, but not a trivial one.
If this isn't a Robin Hood song, it may nonetheless have some very indirect connections with that corpus. As with several of the older Child ballads ("Hind Horn" [Child 17], "King Orfeo" [Child #19], "Blancheflour and Jellyflorice" [Child 300]), this may connect with a Middle English romance.
The romance in this case is "Gamelyn," which can be found e.g. in Sands, pp. 156-181 (who mentions a critical edition published by Skeat in 1884 as The Tale of Gamelyn; there are a number of reprints. For a bibliography of "Gamelyn," see Rice, pp. 259-262).
The plot in brief: Sir John of Boundys, dying, leaves his property to his sons John, Ote, and Gamelyn. Gamelyn is set aside. Placed in bondage by his brother, he is freed by Adam the Spencer; they take revenge and flee to the greenwood. The oldest brother, now sheriff, declares him an outlaw. Gamelyn comes to the court, is taken prisoner, but is set free when Ote stands his bail. Gamelyn attacks the court, gains his freedom, and is pardoned by the King.
The similarities of "Gamelyn" to the Robin Hood cycle are obvious, and it is possible that "Robyn and Gandelyn" is a worn down version of the romance; they are about as close as "Hind Horn" and "King Horn" (i.e. not very). But that doesn't make the ballad an ancestor of the Robin Hood corpus; rather, it is at best a cousin.
More interesting is the relationship between "Robin and Gandelyn" and "Gamelyn." The author of "Gamelyn" is unknown, but the "language is generally that of Chaucer's time" (Sands, p. 155). This would make "Robyn and Gandelyn" more recent than "Gamelyn," but not by much. This does not of course tell us which plot is older.
"Gamelyn" is one of the best-attested of the Middle English romances, though the reason is "bizarre" (Chaucer/Benson, p. 1125): It's included in many manuscripts of Chaucer! The Cook's Tale ends abruptly (Keen, p. 78, speculates that Chaucer decided the story he had in mind was too raunchy to use), and it appears that some scribes, feeling the need to supply a complete story, plugging in this account -- a rather poor fit; the the seven-stress lines don't match the rest of the Canterbury Tales, and it features a lot of alliteration (Keen, p. 80), which is not at all typical of Chaucer. The temptation is to think that it is a modification of a poem in alliterative verse, presumably springing from the fourteenth century alliterative revival that produced "Piers Plowman" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight."
There are some 16 manuscripts in Manley and Rickert's "c" and "d" groups of The Canterbury Tales, the two groups which include "Gamelyn," though not all of these copies are complete; we also find it, e.g., in the well-known Harley 7334.
Even if "Gamelyn" were found in a larger fraction of Canterbury Tales manuscripts, or in better ones (it is not found in the great Hengwrt and Ellesmere copies), it would be hard to regard it as Chaucerian. Keen, p. 89, remarks that Gamelyn is a rough, common man, an opponent of the aristocracy -- a character who would certainly not appeal to Chaucer, who (while not a nobleman himself) spent his whole life in their company. I would add that Chaucer would surely not be fond of a hero whose only skill is with his fists.
Keen, p. 79, also notes that "Gamelyn" is an unusual romance in that it is surprisingly real -- it's about common people, living ordinary lives, and there is no magic. It even goes into details about the problems of moving about in an untended forest. This, obviously, is another reason why it is rather unlike Robin Hood; the core Robin Hood ballads ignore the difficulties of living in the greenwood.
None of this, to be sure, has any real connection to "Robin and Gandelyn."
Knight/Ohlgren, pp. 227, connect "Robin and Gandelyn" to Robin Hood not on the basis of the name Robin but rather the name "Gandelyn," plus the mention of Wrennock, which has associations with the tale of Fulk Fitzwarin, often considered a source for the "Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]. In the tale of Fulk, Wrennock was the son of Morris of Powys, one of Fulk's enemies.
I wonder personally if there isn't more going on here. I don't think the poem is about wrenning, but could Wrennock be a diminutive for a wren name? After all, Jenny Wren was the wife of Cock Robin. I do not claim that this is a song about a love triangle between Robin, Wren(nock), and Gandelyn, but it's easy to see how such an idea could arise.
And where is Donne? Doncaster? Any answers must be speculative, but it might be worth investigating.
The text of this ballad, existing in only one copy, is in rather bad shape. Not that there appears to be much missing, but there are a number of oddities in the text. Some have claimed that it was written as prose. It wasn't, really; there were symbols for line and stanza breaks. But most lyrics in the Sloane MS. have line breaks. Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 83, believes the difference in this case is because the Sloane MS. is small, and the lines in "Robyn and Gandelyn" were long, so the scribe had to write them continuously. Whatever the scribe's intent, Child made a number of emendations in the text, some accepted by those who came after him, some not. Among these:
Stanza 1, line 4: "Thynge" (subject, matter) for MS. "gynge" (gang, company?). A reasonable conjecture, but if "gynge" can mean "company," it is perhaps not needed.
Stanza 4, line 5: "gode Robyn." The MS. omits "Robyn." This might be an error, but perhaps another word is meant. We might even read "Gandelyn" instead of "gode Robyn."
Stanza 7, line 6: "Til I se [his] sydis blede." Not really a necessary conjecture on Child's part; if we add the word "his," then the line means, in effect, "Till I see [the murderer's] sides bleed"; if we omit, we have "Till I see [someone's] sides bleed."
Stanza 13, line 3: "sanchothys." An obscure word, and others have read the writing differently anyway. It seems pretty clear that it means the region between the legs, however.
One other connection with another piece: Severs/Hartung, Volume 6, p. 1758, sees a similarity between certain ballads, including this one, and an early modern English poem "The Fermorar and His Dochter." The similarity, however, is in form rather than plot; for that poem, see the notes to "Crow and Pie [Child 111]."
As a final note, I've been told that this is among the hardest Child ballads to understand (perhaps not surprising, given its age). So here is my attempt at a non-poetic version in Modern English:

Robin lies in [the] green wood bound.

1. I heard a song of a clerk
All at yon wood's end,
Of good Robin and Gandelyn
There was no other subject.
Robin lies in [the] green wood bound.

2. Active thieves those young men were not,
But bowmen good and noble;
They went to the wood to get some meat
If God would send it to them.

3. All day those two young men travelled
And meat found they none.
Until it was close to evening;
The young men wanted to go home.

4. Half a hundred of fallow deer
They came upon,
And all of them were fair and fat, I know,
But none of them were marked;
"By dear God," said good [Robin],
"Of these we shall have one."

5. Robin set his jolly bow,
Therein he set an arrow;
The fattest deer of all,
Its heart he cleft in two.

6. He had not flayed the deer
Not half out of its hide
[Before] there came an arrow out of the west
That felled Robert's pride.

7. Gandelyn looked east and west,
To every side,
"Who has my master slain?
Who has done this deed?
I shall never from the greenwood go
Until I see his sides bleed.

8. Gandelyn looked east and looked west
And searched under the sun;
He saw a little boy,
He was named Wrennok of Donne.

9. A good bow in his hand,
A broad arrow therein,
And four and twenty good arrows
Bound up in a sheaf.
"You beware, you [be]ware, Gandelyn,
Or you'll get some of this.

10. "You beware, you [be]ware, Gandelyn,
You'll get plenty of this."
"I'm up for another [contest]," said Gandelyn;
"Misadventure to the one who flees!"

11. "Where shall our target be?"
Said Gandelyn.
"Each at the other's heart!"
Said Wrennock again.

12. "Who shall fire the first shot?"
Said Gandelyn.
"And I shall fire before,"
Said Wrennock again.

13. Wrennock shot a very good shot,
And didn't shoot very high;
[It went] through the fork of his breeches;
It touched neither thigh.

14. "Now have you fired the first [shot at] me";
Thus to Wrennock he spoke.
"And through the power of Our Lady
A better shot I shall fire at you."

15. Gandelyn bent his good bow
And set therein an arrow;
He shot through his green kirtle;
His heart he cleft in two.

16. "Now you shall never boast, Wrennock,
At ale or at wife,
That you have slain good Robin
And his knave Gandelyn.

17. "Now you shall never boast, Wrennock,
At wine or at ale,
That you have slain good Robin
And Gandelyn his knave." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: C115

Robyn Hode and the Potter

See Robin Hood and the Potter [Child 121] (File: C121)

Rochdale Mashers, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, we are the two Rochdale Mashers, And we often go out on the mash... And it's seldom we have any cash." They are young and up to date. "All the ladies declare that we are a pair The two Rochdale mashers from Waterloo street"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire)
KEYWORDS: party clothes courting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, pp. 74-75, "The Rochdale Mashers" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HFSL074

Rock 'N' Row Me Over

See One More Day (File: FSWB086B)

Rock About My Saro Jane

DESCRIPTION: The singer, despite "a wife and five little children," decides to "take a trip on the big Macmillan." The troublesome operations of the boat are described. Chorus: "Oh, there's nothing to do but sit down and sing And rock about my Saro Jane."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: ship river love work
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 63, pp. 103-105, "Captain Tom Ryman (Rockabout My Saro Jane)" (1 text, 1 tune, reported to be the full Uncle Dave Macon which Macon never recorded)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 47, "Rock About My Saro Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax- FSNA 277, "Rock About, My Saro Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 747, "Rock About, My Saro Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 92, "Rock About My Saro Jane" (1 text)
DT, SAROJANE
Roud #10052
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "Rock About My Saro Jane" (Vocalion 5151, 1927; also probably issued as Brunswick B-1024, 1929, Brunswick 80091, Brunswick BL-59001, Coral MH-174, n.d.; on TimesAint03)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Rock About My Saro Jane" (on NLCR14)
NOTES [64 words]: Lyle Lofgren once searched for the "big Macmillan" mentioned in this song, with little luck. But Les Caraher eventually sent him data for a likely identification: "It turns out there was a boat that plied the Mississippi all during the Civil War as a supply boat. It was called the 'MOSES McLELLAN'. It is not hard to imagine that name changing to 'the big MacMillan' is it? - [RBW]
Last updated in version 2.8
File: LxU047

Rock All Our Babies to Sleep

See Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own) (File: R393)

Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme: "Rock and roll is here to stay, Here to stay, here to stay, Rock and roll is here to stay, Now work out....."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Keystone Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope music | rock and roll
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #493, "Rock-and-roll is here to stay" (1 text)
Roud #19963
NOTES [45 words]: After more than half a century, the thesis of this song -- that rock and roll is here to stay -- is clearly true. Ironically, the rhyme that makes the statement does not seem to have survived very well.
I suspect this was derived from "London Bridge Is Falling Down." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR493

Rock Beside the Sea, The

See My Lone Rock by the Sea (File: R842)

Rock Candy

DESCRIPTION: ""Johnny he did sell me, And Robert he did buy me, He took me down to Alabam', Learned me how to make rock candy. Rocked that lady, but you can't rock me (x3), Learned me how to make rock candy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty)
KEYWORDS: playparty food nonballad commerce
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 161-162, "Rock Candy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #28874
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alabama Gal" (lyrics)
File: Spurg161

Rock In the Weary Land

See Jesus Is a Rock (File: R657)

Rock Island Line (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "The Rock Island Line is a mighty good road, The Rock Island Line is the road to ride." About life in general, engineering on the Rock Island Line, and anything else that can be zipped into the song
AUTHOR: Clarence Wilson? (see NOTES) (heavily adapted by Huddie Ledbetter)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (recording, Kelly Pace et al)
KEYWORDS: railroading train nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 472-477, "The Rock Island Line" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 102, "Rock Island Line" (1 text)
DT, ROCKISLL
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, pp. 80-81, "Rock Island Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15211
RECORDINGS:
Lead Belly, "Rock Island Line" (on ClassRR)
Kelly Pace & group of prisoners, "Rock Island Line" (AFS 248 A1, 1934; on LC8, LCTreas)
NOTES [938 words]: How much of this is genuinely "folk" is hard to tell. The earliest version collected [was] at Cummins Prison Farm (Arkansas) in 1934. The collection was made by John & Ruby Lomax; Lead Belly was their driver. Working from this and perhaps some floating material, Lead Belly created a song which he interspersed with patter about railroad work. The Weavers regularized this, and Alan Lomax added "new material"; one wonders if the prisoners would have recognized the result. - PJS, RBW
The core of the song performed by Lead Belly on his Library of Congress and early Asch recordings hews pretty closely to the version recorded by the prisoners; the Lomaxes' additions, if any, seem to have been minimal.
One of the verses found in revival versions is present [in the Pace recording on 1934], ("Jesus died to save me in all of my sin/Glory to God, we goin' to meet Him again"), as is the standard chorus.
Mr. Pace's name is spelled "Kelly" throughout LC8, but,"Kelley" on LC10. - PJS
Norm Cohen spelled it "Kelly," and Stephen Wade, who knew several members of Pace's family, spells it "Kelly" as well; I'd consider that pretty definitive. Wade's full exposition is found in his book "The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience."
Cohen also documents the evolution of the song, starting from an Arkansas work song. Lead Belly, as noted, probably learned it in 1934. When he recorded it for the Library of Congress in 1937, he used a subset of the Pace verses, with a line of patter about cutting trees; the song is still a work song.
When Lead Belly recorded it again in 1944 for Capitol, he had added a couple of verses not from Pace ("I may be right and I may be wrong"; "A-B-C double X-Y-Z") and had a new line of railroad patter. Soon after, he recorded it for Folkways, in what seems to have become the canonical version, ending with him telling the rainroad agent, "I fooled you."
It's unfortunate we don't have more information about how Lead Belly performed the song in concert in these years. It's quite a demonstration of "live fire" folk process, though. - RBW
But we do; Lead Belly's only known live recording, made some six months before his death in 1949, includes "The Rock Island Line." He performs the patter as he does on his Folkways recordings, along with the additional "A, B, C" verse from the Capitol 78. He introduces the piece as a work song. -PJS
Although most sources don't trace this earlier than Pace's work song version, it turns out that there is a back story. I first met it in Billy Bragg's book, Roots, Radicals, and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World, Faber & Faber, 2017 (I use an Advance Reader Edition with no table of contents or index, so the pagination may be a little off), p. 8-15, has a story of this song's origin. He had his information from the Wade book cited above.
Bragg, following Wade, seems to say that the actual Rock Island Line, in 1930, reported that its employee Clarence Wilson, a wiper, had composed a song "Buy Your Ticket Over Rock Island Lines," which was sung by his group "The Rock Island Colored Quartet." The chorus of that was clearly the same as this (although not identical to Lead Belly's version). I hesitated over this story because it seemed to imply an extraordinarily fast spread of the song. According to Wade himself, this was my misunderstanding of Bragg. He wrote to me about this, saying in part, "I came upon engine wiper Clarence Wilson singing about the railroad as part of the booster song movement that his railroad fostered among its employees, If you go to my book, you'll see his lyrics, as well as discussion of how widespread this booster practice. Some of his lyrics mentioned management persons who were actually in the audience that night when he and his singing partners performed the song that I found. You'll see, too, that much of that detail gets washed away as the song changes hands....
"[I]t seems to me that the more gospel-rich versions that the two groups of Arkansas prisoners performed (it was recorded by another ensemble in the state system and in a different prison, shortly before Kelly Pace made his first recording). What you'll find across their versions and what Clarence Wilson had previously penned, was a more accessible and familiar gospel series of ideas, still in keeping with his creation, but clearly, in a musical form that all of them, Wilson included as a quartet singer himself, and then in a few years' time, that these inheritors drew upon. Their streamlining of his piece makes a lot of sense, starting from his....
"The foundations in the style were already there.... This was not a work song, it was a quartet song. Lead Belly's reworking of it, which I discuss later in the chapter, certainly makes sense within his artistic ambitions, let alone the constant emphasis that his patrons, John and Alan Lomax and the urban audience, placed upon him."
The Lead Belly version appears to derive from Pace. And, because Pace's version was only two verses long, Lead Belly riffed on it -- in stages; his several recordings all use the same chorus, but he used different filler material, and gradually built up a story about the song; the evolution of his version is as described above.
Bragg also states that Lonnie Donegan's recording of this was what started the whole skiffle boom in Britain. Odd, since Donegan's recording is both vocally and instrumentally inferior to Lead Belly's -- but of course most hadn't heard Lead Belly. And perhaps the British had trouble with Lead Belly's pronunciation. As a northerner, I know I do, on some of his songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB102

Rock Island Line (II), The

See Fox River Line, The (The Rock Island Line) [Laws C28] (File: LC28)

Rock Me to Sleep (on a Cradle of Dreams)

See Bed Is Too Small for My Tiredness (File: ACSF187I)

Rock Me to Sleep, Mother

DESCRIPTION: "Backward, turn backward, oh time in your flight, Make me a child again just for tonight, Mother, come back from the echoless shore... Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep." There is no love like a mother's
AUTHOR: Words: Elizabeth Akers Allen (source: Felleman) / Tune: Ernest Leslie (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #8)
KEYWORDS: mother death separation nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Heart-Songs, p. 432, "Rock Me to Sleep, Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 47, "Rock Me to Sleep, Mother" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hazel Felleman, Best Loved Poems of the American People, pp. 371-373, "Rock Me to Sleep" (1 text)
Roud #11721
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Backward, Turn Backward (I)" (tune)
cf. "Cowboy Again for a Day" (tune, lyrics)
NOTES [167 words]: This it is quoted by Laura Ingalls Wilder in chapter 19 of Little Town on the Prairie, but since Laura wrote that book much later, it cannot be used as a date peg.
This is fairly well-known as a poem (Granger's Index to Poetry has ten citations for it), and seems to have been a popular source for parodies. Granger's cites one that begins "Backward, turn backward, O time with your wheels," and J. S. Ogilvie, One Thousand Popular Quotations Comprising the Choicest Thoughts and Sayings of Eminent Writers of All Ages, Together With Nearly Three Hundred Original and Choice Selections, Suitable for Writing in Autograph Albums, J. S. Ogivie, Publisher (New York & Chicago), 1884 (available on Google Books), p. 101, has a piece, "Speed slowly and gently, oh Time, in thy flight, Let thy bounties be great and thy afflictions light. Deal out full measure from thy store of wealth, Give peace and plenty, success and good health."; another variant is on p. 24 of the second part of Ogilvie. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HeSo432

Rock o' Jubilee

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, rock o' jubilee, poor fallen soul, O Lord, do rock o' jubilee." "I have no time to stay at home." "My father('s) door wide open now." "Mary, girl, you know my name." "The wind blow east, he blow from Jesus."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 25, "Rock o' Jubilee" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: AWG025

Rock o' My Soul

See Good Lordy, Rocky My Soul (File: FSWB357B)

Rock of Ages (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me, Let me hide myself in thee." The singer admits to the inability to meet God's demands, and asks forgiveness and protection
AUTHOR: Words: Augustus Montague Toplady (1740-1778)/Music: Thomas Hastings (1784-1872)
EARLIEST DATE: 1775 (first stanza; remainder of text 1776, both in "The Gospel Magazine"; music published 1832)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 202, "Rock of Ages" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 296, "Rock of Ages" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 250-251, "Rock of Ages" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 421, "Rock of Ages" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 357, "Rock of Ages" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 469-470, "Rock of Ages"
Harbin-Parodology, #298, p. 72, "Rock of Ages" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 162, "Rock of Ages" (notes only)
DT, ROCKAGES*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 120-121, "Rock of Ages" (1 text, 1 tune)
John Julian, editor, _A Dictionary of Hymnology_, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), pp. 970-972, "Rock of ages, cleft for me" (1 text plus assorted variant stanzas)
Ira D. Sankey, _Sacred Songs and Solos: Twelve Hundred Hymns_ (London: Marshall Morgan & Scott Ltd, 1921? ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #237 (1880 #61), "Rock of Ages" ("Rock of Ages, cleft for me") (1 text)
(no author listed), _Hymns Ancient and Modern_ (London: William Clowes and Sons, 1913), #184 p. 53, "(Rock of ages, cleft for me)" (1 text)
Roud #5429
RECORDINGS:
Buice Brothers, "Rock of Ages" (Bluebird B-5722, c. 1934; rec. 1931)
Henry Burr, "Rock of Ages" (Columbia 1781, 1904)
Peerless Quartet, "Rock of Ages" (Paramount 33010, 1919)
Hamlin Male Quartet, "Rock of Ages" (Supertone 9267, 1928)
Henry Williams, Henry Thomas, Margaret Wright, Edna Wright, "Precious Gift for Me (Rock of Ages)" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rock of Ages (II -- Hide Me Over the Rock of Ages)"
NOTES [1021 words]: Augustus Montague Toplady (1740-1778) is most famous for writing the words to this song, which he published in his own Gospel Magazine in 1775-1776. (According to Reynolds, p. 186, he published one stanza in 1775 in an article signed "Minimus." The rest of the words came the next year.) The context of the full version is, to say the least, odd; it begins with a discussion of Britain's national debt, followed by some Calvinist rhetoric, both disguised as a dialogue, then the poem (Julian, pp. 970-971). This was in four stanzas; Toplady revised the fourth stanza in 1776. The text was later revised at several points by T. Cotterill, starting in 1815; still later, there was a Methodist revision.
According to Julian, p. 1693, there was a sort of a legend at Blagdon, where Toplady was curate from 1762 to 1764, that Toplady was once caught in a thunderstorm at Blagdon, took shelter between two great piers of rock in a glen, and was inspired to write this song as a result. But although Toplady was indeed curate at Blagdon, he did not publish the first verse of the poem for another eleven years after he left there, and the whole text did not appear until the twelfth year. Nor did Toplady ever mention any such thunderstorm. Nor is there any early evidence for the claim, although it apparently was widely known in the nineteenth century. Julian formally labels it unproved; the impression he gives is that it was simply false.
Toplady's article gives a different sort of context (Reynolds, p. 186): Toplady for some reason sat down to figure out how many sins a person would commit in a lifetime, and concluded that in eighty years a man would manage 2,522,880,000 sins. This, I suggest, tells us more about Toplady than about sins. One hates to think how many sins we commit today, with computers to make us more efficient....
Johnson, p. 120, gives a brief biography of Toplady which seems to consist mostly of denomination-jumping. He is said to have been "always in frail health," which explains his early death. The immediate cause of death, according to Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 519, was tuberculosis, which he contracted in 1775 -- the same year he published the first stanza of this song. This was 13 years after his ordination in 1762 (Stulken, p. 383).
Julian, p. 1182, gives this account of his early years: "THe life of Todlay has been repeatedly and fully written, the last, a somewhat discursive and slackly put together book, yet matterful (sic.), by W. Winters (1872). Summarily... he was born at Fareham, in Surrey, on November 4, 1740. His father, Richard Toplady, was a Major in the British army, and was killed at the siege of Carthagena (1741) soon after the birth of his son. His mother placed him at the renowned Westminster school, London. By-and-by circumstances led her to Ireland, and young Augustus was entered at Trinity College, Dublin, where he completed his academic training, ultimately graduating M.A."
He is credited with two volumes of religious lyrics. Nonetheless Granger's Index to Poetry lists only seven of his works which made it into their voluminous database (and it appears that two of those are actually alternate names for this piece). This is of course the one most cited (twelve times under various titles). It is also the only work of his cited by Benet (p. 1129), who does not call him a hymn-writer but does call him a controversialist.
The description seems apt. Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 519, say that he was "First converted to the ministry by a follower of John Wesley [one James Morris, according to Johnson], Toplady become the most extreme of Calvinists." Wesley and the Methodists were the most Arminian of denominations -- that is, they absolutely denied predestination. And predestination -- God arbitrarily and capriciously granting salvation at whim -- is the cornerstone of Calvinist doctrine (not that Calvinists put it that way, but we need to understand how each side saw it. Calvinists see Arminians as a bunch of sloppy bleeding hearts; Arminians see Calvinists as a bunch of Nazis with no compassion or flexibility.)
Christians can disagree on such things and perhaps still work together. Not Wesley and Toplady. As Kunitz/Haycraft continue, "[T]he rest of [Toplady's] life was devoted to a crusade against Wesley and Wesleyan doctrines. What is curious is that in this violent controversy both Wesley and Toplady, men of high principles, broad learning, and unimpeachable character, descended to a fish-wife level of public disputation." Similarly Stulkin, p. 383: "because of his extreme views and volatile temper he came into conflict with John Wesley... and the resulting bitterness lasted for many years."
The general tone of his writings is clearly revealed in the titles of some of his books (NewCentury, pp. 1081-1082): The Doctrine of Absolute Predestination, Stated and Assured (published when he was only 29), The Church of England Vindicated from the Charge of Arminianism (published in that same year of 1769), and Historic Proof of the Doctrinal Calvinism of the Church of England.
Toplady, incidentally, is wrong. Although the Anglican church was never as Arminian as the Methodists, neither was it historically Calvinist. The seventeenth century of course saw attempts to turn it in that direction, but the key point of the Puritan Movement, and the Civil War, and the Commonwealth, is that Calvinism ultimately *failed* to take over the Church of England. Toplady was arguing a case which had been lost eighty years before he was born.
For another song by Toplady, see "Jesus At Thy Command."
The composer of the usual music, Thomas Hastings, was far less controversial; he published the music for this song in 1832. Although prolific (Stulkin, p. 384, credits him with almost a thousand tunes), little of his music is remembered today.
Although Hastings composed the common tune, a Lutheran work, The Parish School Hymnal of 1926, gives a second melody, credited to Richard Redhead. - RBW
Also see The Methodist Hymn-Book (London:The Methodist Publishing House, 1954), #498 p. 191, "(Rock of Ages, cleft for me)" (1 text). - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB357C

Rock of Ages (II -- Hide Me Over the Rock of Ages)

DESCRIPTION: "Way down yonder in the lonesome valley, clef' for me, clef' for me (x2), Way down yonder in the lonesome valley, Let God's bosom be my pillow. Hide me over the rock of ages, clef' for me, clef' for me." "What you gon' do when the world's on fire?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 547, "Rock of Ages" (1 text plus a fragment and mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 547, "Rock of Ages" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 222, 'Hide Thou Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 204, "Hide Thou Me" (1 text, probably a mix, with the form of "Rock of Ages (II -- Hide Me Over Rock of Ages" but verses from "Jacob's Ladder")
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 61, "Rock of Ages" (1 short text, 1 tune, difficult to classify but with a "Hide Thou Me" refrain which perhaps links it with the Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands song)
Roud #5429
RECORDINGS:
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Rock of Ages" (Brunswick 190, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rock of Ages (I)"
NOTES [33 words]: The notes in Brown suggest that this is an "adaption" of the standard "Rock of Ages." Most likely, since the phrase "rock of ages" is assuredly not Biblical. But this is clearly a separate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3547

Rock the Cradle, John

DESCRIPTION: "Rock the cradle, John ... Mony [a] man rocks another man's child And thinks he's rockin his own ... Although the babe be not your own Oh rock the cradle"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: infidelity marriage nonballad bastard children husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1450, "Rock the Cradle, John" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 148, "Rock the Cradle, John" (1 fragment)
Roud #7278
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)" (theme)
cf. "Hushie Baa, Ee-a-Baa" (theme)
File: GrD71450

Rock to See the Turkey Run

DESCRIPTION: "Rock to see de turkey run, Run, run, run, run, run, run, Rock to see de turkey run, Run, run, run, run, run, run, Rock to see de turkey run, Run, run, run."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 196, "Rock to See de Turkey Run" (1 short text)
File: ScaNF196

Rock-a My Soul

DESCRIPTION: "Rock-a my soul in the bosom of Abraham (x3), Oh, rock-a my soul," "When I went down to the valley to pray... My soul got happy and I stayed all day." "When I was a mourner just like you... I mourned and mourned till I come through."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 73, "Rock o' My Soul" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 573, "Good Lordy, Rocky My Soul" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 306, "Oh, a-Rock-a My Soul" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 357, "Rock-a My Soul" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 104, 288, 313, 314, 444, 494, 515, "Rocka My Soul" (notes only)
Roud #11892
RECORDINGS:
Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet, "Rock My Soul" (Bluebird B-7804/Montgomery Ward M-7596, 1938; RCA Victor 20-2921, 1948; on Babylon)
Taylor sisters, "Rock-a My Soul" (on HandMeDown2)
NOTES [100 words]: The reference to Abraham's bosom alludes to the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). In 16:22, Lazarus dies and is carried to Abraham's bosom. Although the phrase does not occur elsewhere, it came to have the sense of "heaven."
It is interesting to note that the version they shoved down our throats as children ran "Rock-a my soul," which sounded like someone rocking on a rocking chair or in a cradle. But Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates give it as "Rock o' my soul" -- i.e. "Rock of my soul." This, as a reference to God, is more Biblical and much more comprehensible. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB357B

Rock-A-By Ladies

DESCRIPTION: "Four little prisoners here in jail, here in jail, here in jail, Four little prisoners here in jail...." The four are charged with shooting "the old man instead of the son." The required "dollar and a half to set them free" is given and they are released
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty trial freedom
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 579, "Rock-a-by Ladies" (1 text plus fragments from other sources)
Roud #502
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "London Bridge Is Falling Down" (tune & meter)
File: R579

Rock-A-Bye Baby

DESCRIPTION: The nursery rhyme: "Rock-a-bye baby on the tree top, When the wind blows, the cradle will rock...." Folk versions often add more verses (or make changes to the first), e.g. about the farmer who goes hunting to feed the baby
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: text: 1784 (Gammar Gurton's Garland, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes); tune: 1884 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: lullaby
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) Ireland Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 190, "Rocky By Baby, By-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan8 1552, "Hush-a-Ba Baby On a Tree Top" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H591a, p. 6, "Heezh Ba" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 138, "Siuba-in Baby" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 113, "Rock-a-Bye Baby in the Tree-Top" (1 text with variants)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 124-125, "Rockabye, Baby" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 86, "Rockaby Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 22, "Hush-a-bye, baby, on the tree top" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #550, p. 224, "(Hush a by Baby)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 184, "Rock-a-Bye, Baby" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 174, "Hush-a-Bye, Baby"; p. 176, "Rock-a-Bye, Baby" (2 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 1, "Rockabye Baby" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #492, "Rock-a-bye Baby, in the tree top" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 408, "Rock-A-Bye, Baby" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 468-469+, "Rock-a-Bye Baby"
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 235-238, "Rock-a-Bye Baby" (1 text, 1 tune, 1886 sheet music crediting words and music to Effie I. Canning)
ST Wa190 (Partial)
Roud #2768
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "What'll I Do with the Baby-O" (words)
cf. "Tony Went Walking" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Van Buren 1840 campaign song ("Hush-a-bye baby, Daddy's a Wig, Before he comes home Hard cider he'll swig") (Paul F. Boller, Jr., _Presidential Campaigns_, second revised edition, Oxford University Press, p. 75)
NOTES [367 words]: The first reported printing of the words to this piece is from about 1765, in "Mother Goose's Melody." It does not seem to have become a song -- or at least to have adopted its current melody -- until 1872, when Effie I. Crockett (1857-1940) allegedly sang it to an infant she was babysitting. The result was published in 1884, with Crockett adopting the pseudonym "Effie I. Canning."
In the Sam Henry text, the song starts with the singer recalling being "airy and handsome" and going out partying; but "noo I am auld... fittin' for nae thin' but rockin' the cradle. Rockin' the cradle is nae work, ava," then breaks into the standard lyrics. It's probably a composite, but with only six lines of the original, most of which are similar to floating material, the other half is probably beyond identification; there are points of contact with "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)."
The Montgomeries (Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes #134) have a piece which looks vaguely related, beginning, "Hoolie, the bed'll fall! Who'll fall with it? Two eyes, two hands, And two bonnie feet."
According to the incomparable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 288, this originally referred to the Old Pretender, James III son of James II of England, and the whole stanza refers to James II's deposition as a result of having a Catholic heir. Uh-huh. The only reason I can see for this is the fact that (according to the Opies) the melody is related to "Lilliburlero." Distantly related -- and, in any case, the setting of the tune is more recent than the words. For myriad other attempts to wring meaning from the lyrics, including even a link to the Egyptian god Horus, see the Opies' notes. - RBW
There are examples on the Library of Congress American Memory site of other melodies for the song and other texts incorporating the tree top verse:
LOCSheet, sm1881 16221, "Lullaby Baby Upon the Tree Top," White, Smith & Co. (Chicago), 1881; also sm1881 14963, "Lullaby Baby Upon the Tree Top" (tune)
LOCSinging, sb10078a, "Dig, Dig, Dig" or "Hush-a-bye Baby," unknown, n.d.; also as102980, "Dig, Dig, Dig" or "Hush-a-bye Baby" - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Wa190

Rock-a-Bye Baby in the Tree-Top

See Rock-A-Bye Baby (File: Wa190)

Rock, Chariot, I Told You to Rock

DESCRIPTION: Biblical statements linked by the refrain "Judgement goin' to find me!" E.g., "Rock, Chariot, I Told You to Rock, Judgement goin'... Won't you rock, chariot, in the middle of the air... I wonder what chariot comin' after me...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Rich Amerson et al)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 50-52, "(Rock, Chariot, I Told You to Rock)" (1 text); p. 227, "Rock Chariot" (1 tune, partial text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 1345-346, "Rock, Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10961
RECORDINGS:
Rich Amerson, Earthy Anne Coleman & Price Coleman, "Rock Chariot, I Told You to Rock" (on NFMAla2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel" (subject)
NOTES [18 words]: This is based on Ezekiel's vision in Ezekiel 1, but with hints of the Assumption of Elijah (2 Kings 2). - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: CNFM050

Rock'd in the Cradle of the Deep

DESCRIPTION: "Rock'd in the cradle of the deep, I lay me down in peace to sleep; Secure I rest upon the wave, For thou Oh! Lord, hast power to save." The singer reiterates a simple faith: God can save, the storms cannot harm me, I will sleep sound whatever happens
AUTHOR: Words: Emma Hart Willard / Music: Joseph Philip Knight
EARLIEST DATE: Words: 1832 / Music: 1840
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 184-189, "Rock'd in the Cradle of the Deep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 62-63, "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 196-197, "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2022, p. 136, "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #10, p. 64, "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 31, "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 170, "(no title)" (1 text)
Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, p. 56, describes the sheet music
Roud #23548
RECORDINGS:
James Cherry, "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep" (Berliner 0964X, 1896)
Edison Quartet, "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep" (CYL: Edison 2217, c. 1897)
William F. Hooley, "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep" (Victor 3067, 1904)
J. W. Myers, "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep" (Zonophone 322, 1905)
Original Bison City Quartette, "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep") (CYL: Ohio Phonograph Co., no #, c. 1893)
Standard Quartette, "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep" (CYL: Columbia 2247, rec. c. 1895)
Frank C. Stanley, "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep" (Victor 4867, 1906)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drover's Dream" (quoted in that song)
SAME TUNE:
Locked in the Stable with the Sheep (cf. Spaeth, _A History of Popular Music in America_, p. 84)
File: RJ19184

Rock's Poteen

DESCRIPTION: The singer's "soul for every ill prepares, Whilst I've poteen to cheer me." He prefers Rock's poteen to Briton's ale and beer. Wine is for "stupid sots." "Then fill your glass of sparkling juice That never met a gauger's nose."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 78-79, "Rock's Poteen" (1 text)
NOTES [70 words]: Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster: "A 'Gauger' was a member of the Revenue Police, who until their disbandment in the mid 1850s, had been charged with the suppression of illicit distillation -- poteen making."
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "From 1802 to June 1806 ... no less than 13349 unlicensed whisky-stills ... were seized in Ireland.... This song, in praise of poteen, is copied from Captain Rock in London, No.2" - BS
File: CrPS078

Rocka My Soul

See Rock-a My Soul (File: FSWB357B)

Rockabye, Baby

See Rock-A-Bye Baby (File: Wa190)

Rockaway (On Old Long Island's Sea-Girt Shore)

DESCRIPTION: "On old Long Island's sea-girt shore Many an hour I've whiled away, Listening to the breakers' roar That washes the beach at Rockaway." The singer describes the beach, the waves, the moon over the water
AUTHOR: Words: Henry John Sharpe / Music: Henry Russell (source: Sheet music in the Lecy collection)
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: nonballad sea
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 220, "(On old Long Island's sea-girt shore)" (1 fragment)
Roud #V14998
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4266), "Rockaway," E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Harding B 18(703), "Rockaway," H. de Marsan (New York), c. 1860
NOTES [116 words]: It's not obvious why the poet chose the particular beach at Rockaway. Rockaway Beach is in Queen's, New York. I'm a bit surprised to see it commemorated in such an early poem, since (based on Wikipedia) it didn't gain much attention until the late nineteenth century.
The piece is popular enough to have been parodized: "On old Long Island's sea-girt shore We caught a cod the other day; He never had been there before, And wished that he had stayed away."
For background on Henry Russell, see "Cheer, Boys, Cheer (II)."
Unlike Russell, Henry John Sharpe seems to have been pretty obscure; a casual search failed to turn up anything else he wrote. If this is a typical sample, I can see why. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe220

Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep

See Rock'd in the Cradle of the Deep (File: RJ19184)

Rocking the Baby to Sleep (I)

See Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own) (File: R393)

Rocking the Baby to Sleep (II)

See Show Me The Lady That Never Would Roam (File: OCC137)

Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)

DESCRIPTION: The old man laments "about rocking the cradle and the child not his own." Though at the time he had been happy to marry a lighthearted lass, he now finds her out at parties all the time (or keeping company with other men)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.9(282))
KEYWORDS: marriage age wife husband children infidelity bastard
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MW,SE,So) Britain(Wales) Canada(Newf) Australia
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Randolph 393, "Rock All Our Babies to Sleep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 166, "Show Me the Man Who Never Done Wrong (or, Rocking the Baby to Sleep)" (1 text, 1 tune -- a curious version in which it appears at first that it is the woman, not the man, who is betrayed)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 168-169, "The Wee One"; p. 266, "Rock All Our Babies" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 212, "Rocking the Cradle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 143-145, "Old Man Rocking the Cradle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 478-479, "The Milkman's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 240-241, "As I Went A-Walking One Fine Summer's Evening" (1 text, 1 tune); also pp. 242-244, "Run Along, Little Dogies" (1 text, 1 tune, mostly "Get Along, Little Dogies" but with lyrics imported from "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)")
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 192, "The Old Man's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune); also 190, "Run Along, You Little Dogies" (1 text, 1 tune, mostly "Get Along Little Dogies" but with a chorus partly from this piece!)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 20-21, "While I Rock Our Babies to Sleep" (1 text, 1 tune, probably slightly cleaned up and with an added yodel)
Hamer-GreenGroves, p. 53, "Lullaby" (1 fragment, 1 tune, too short to be properly identified)
DT, ROCKCRAD ROCKCRA2
Roud #357
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Rocking the Cradle" (on IRRCinnamond02)
John Doherty, "Rocking the Cradle" (on FSBFTX19)
Fay & the Jay Walkers, "Rock All Our Babies to Sleep" (Paramount 3100/Broadway 8093, 1928)
Richard Hayward, "County Mayo Fragment" (Rex 15016A/matrix DR 11812-2, 1947)
A. L. Lloyd, "Rocking the Cradle" (on Lloyd2, Lloyd4)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Tossing the Baby So High" (Vocalion 5013, 1926)
Neil Morris, "Rock All the Babies to Sleep" (on LomaxCD1707)
Charlie & Bud Newman, "Rock All Our Babies to Sleep" (OKeh 45431, 1930; rec. 1928)
Riley Puckett, "Rock All Our Babies to Sleep" (Columbia 107-D, 1924)
George Reneau, "Rock All Our Babies to Sleep" (Vocalion 14997, 1925)
Jimmie Rodgers, "Rock All Our Babies to Sleep" (Victor 23721, 1932; Regal Zonophone [UK] MR-2200, 1936; rec. 1930)
Paddy Tunney, "The Old Man Rocking the Cradle" (on Voice01); "Rocking the Cradle" (on IRPTunney01)
Dave Turner [pseud. for Dick Parman], "Rock All Our Babies To Sleep" (Supertone 9374, 1929)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(282), "Rocking the Cradle," J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899; also Harding B 19(65), 2806 c.15(202), "Rocking the Cradle"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Unhappy Jeremiah (The Brats of Jeremiah)" (plot)
cf. "Hush-a-Bye, Baby" (plot)
cf. "Show Me The Lady That Never Would Roam" (theme)
cf. "When I Was Single (II)"
cf. "How Sad" (theme of the husband having to do his wife's work and care for the baby)
cf. "Seoithin Seo" (tune, according to Sean O Boyle, notes to David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland")
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Tossing the Baby So High (Uncle Dave Macon version)
NOTES [120 words]: An Irish legend has it that the chorus, "Hi-ho, hi-ho, my laddie, lie easy, For perhaps your own daddy might never be known. I'm seein' and sighin' and rockin' the cradle, And nursing the baby that's none of my own," was sung by the Virgin Mary to the baby Jesus. In English, no doubt. - RBW
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "Rockin' the Cradle" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)) - BS
Hamer's single-stanza text is, flatly, too short to identify and may be an independent piece. Roud files it here on the basis of a few words, and I've done the same because I know of no clear versions of this text." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: R393

Rockingham Cindy

See Jinny Go Round and Around (File: R272)

Rocks and Gravel

DESCRIPTION: "Rocks and gravel makes a solid road (x2), Takes a do-right woman to satisfy my soul." Unrelated verses, largely about the ways a man can go wrong (and, perhaps, abandon his woman)
AUTHOR: Alan Lomax & W. B. Richardson ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: drugs gambling abandonment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 77, "Rocks and Gravel" (1 text)
File: FSWB077A

Rocks and the Mountains, The

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "The rocks and the mountains shall all flee away, And you shall have a new hiding place that day." Verses: "Doubter (Mourner, sinner, sister, mother, children) (x2), give up your heart to God, And you shall have a new hiding place that day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Marsh)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 161, "Oh, the Rocks and the Mountains" (1 text) (1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: J. B. T. Marsh, The Story of the Jubilee Singers (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1903 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #18 p. 175, "The Rocks and the Mountains" (1 text) (1 tune)
Roud #12105
NOTES [69 words]: The Biblical reference is Revelation 6:15-16: "And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb" (King James). - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett161

Rocks In De Mountens

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

Rocks of Bawn, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer warns fellow-laborers not to hire with any master without knowing what the work will be. He describes his decrepit condition, and declares that even the British army would offer a better life (but he has not been invited to join)
AUTHOR: Martin Swiney ? (attribution by Dominic Behan, according to Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Collected by Sam Henry)
KEYWORDS: disability poverty farming work army boss worker
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H139, p. 42, "The Rocks of Bawn" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 23, "The Rocks of Baun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 4, "The Rocks of Bawn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Behan-IrelandSings, #75, "The Rocks of Bawn" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
DT, ROCKBANN
Roud #3024
RECORDINGS:
Seamus Ennis, "The Rocks of Bawn" [incomplete] (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
Joe Heaney, "The Rocks of Bawn" (on Pubs1, Voice05)
Tom Lenihan, "The Rocks of Bawn" (on IRTLenihan01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lovely Jane from Enniskea" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Lovely Jane from Enniskea (File: MoMa005)
NOTES [122 words]: In the seventeeth century, Cromwell's army's drove the Irish "to Hell or to Connaught" -- to the submarginal lands of the western coast, where life was exceptionally hard. - PJS
Although it is quite true that the Irish were concentrated in the poorest lands, especially in the far west (note that almost all native speakers of Gaelic are in the west), Cromwell is hardly the only guilty party (though his guilt was extreme; see the notes to "The Wexford Massacre"). The British initially settled in the "Pale" around Dublin, and most later colonists also landed in the east. Thus there was a constant westward pressure on the native Irish -- especially those unwilling to accept British institutions such as the Anglican church. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: DTrockba

Rocks of Giberaltar, The

See The Lowlands of Holland (File: R083)

Rocks of Gibraltar, The

See The Lowlands of Holland (File: R083)

Rocks of Scilly, The [Laws K8]

DESCRIPTION: The singer leaves his new wife to go to sea. Lonely, he fears a disaster -- and meets one when a storm runs his ship onto the Rocks of Scilly. Another singer tells how only four sailors survive, not including the first singer. His wife dies of sorrow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(83)); a probable version is in "Four New Songs" (1796)
KEYWORDS: sailor storm wife death
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(South,West)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws K8, "The Rocks of Scilly"
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 51-53, "Rocks of Scilly" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #45, "The Rocks of Scilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 87, "Scilly Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #52, "The Wreck off Scilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 200-201, "Rocks of Scilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 62, "The Rocks of Scilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 50, "The Rocks of Scilly" (1 text)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 175-176, "The Scilly Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 167, "The Rocks of Scilly" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
DT 400, SCILLRCK
Roud #388
RECORDINGS:
Kate McCarthy, "Seafaring Song" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(83), "Rocks of Scilly," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Firth c.12(118), Harding B 17(261a), Harding B 16(231a), Harding B 11(3303), "[The] Rocks of Scilly"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gentle Boy (Why Don't Father's Ship Come In)" (theme)
NOTES [112 words]: "The Isles of Scilly -- 40 miles off the extreme western tip of England -- are a beautiful, sometimes wild, place where more ships have been wrecked than anywhere else in the world." (Source: Tresco Times -- The Last Piece of England quoted at the Tresco Isles of Scilly site) - BS
Michael Taft points out to me Four New Songs (Philadelphia: William Jones, 1796), pp. 2-4. "THE SHIPWRECKED SAILORS ON THE ROCKS OF SCYLLA" with the first line: "Come all you jolly sailors bold." The obvious strong supposition is that it is this song, which would make the EARLIEST DATE 1796. But all we have is the title and first line, not the text, so I can't absolutely prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LK08

Rockweed

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, SIldin he bring rockweed to A, B, and C. 'Now say, Brother Sildin, won't you bring a load for me?'" Sildin says the purchaser should buy this load, because rockweed is growing scarce at this particular coast
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
KEYWORDS: commerce sea
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 18, "Rockweed" (1 short text)
NOTES [66 words]: Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors believe this is humorous, and they're probably right (seaweed was not rare in most ports). But I didn't tag the song is humorous, because there are places where seaweed has been harvested (or poisoned) to such a degree that it has become scarce. Particularly since it is edible; in economic hard times, more people might eat it, causing the supply to decline. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LaGo018

Rocky Banks of the Buffalo, The

See Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14] (File: C014)

Rocky Brook

See Samuel Allen [Laws C10] (File: LC10)

Rocky By Baby, By-O

See Rock-A-Bye Baby (File: Wa190)

Rocky Island

DESCRIPTION: "Going to Rocky Island, Going away to stay, See my Candy darling, Ho-a-honey ho." "Go up on the mountain, hoe a little cane." "Peaches in the summer time." "Ho-a-honey, ho (x2), Going to Rocky Island, Ho-a-honey, ho."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Roberts/Agey-InThePine)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #134, "Rocky Island" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11578
File: RAInP134

Rocky Mountain Side

See The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)

Rocky Mountain Top, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh don't you remember that (rocky) mountain top, where we lay side by side?" One lover promised to marry the other but is now reneging. The singer rejects the false lover in turn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 112, "The Rocky Mountain Top" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Roud #3608
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "False Young Man, The (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out)" (lyrics)
NOTES [63 words]: It seems clear to me that this is a worn-down version of "The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out)," and earlier versions of the Index lumped them. But Roud has split this piece (his #3608) from the longer British song (#419). I have done the same so that this sub-family may be clearly identified. But I do not consider the distinction genetically valid. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ShAp112

Rocky Road (Green Green)

DESCRIPTION: Playparty, with several possible plots, but typical chorus "Green green, rocky road, Some (young) lady's green. Tell me who you love, tell me who you love...." In one game, a girl is called into a circle, calls a boy, and so forth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, children of Lilly's Chapel School)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 154, "(Green, Green, Rocky Road)" (1 text); p. 277, "Green Green Rocky Road" (1 tune, partial text)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore,pp. 227-228, "Old Green FIeld" (1 text)
Roud #15657 and 18175
RECORDINGS:
Children of Lilly's Chapel School, "Green Green Rocky Road" (on NFMAla6, RingGames1)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Green Green
Green Green Rocky Road
Red Green
Red Light Green Light
NOTES [84 words]: This should not be confused with the shape-note hymn "Rocky Road," nor with the pop-folk song "Green, Green", both of which are separate songs.
The version of this song usually sung by revival singers was adapted by Len Chandler from the traditional song found in Courlander. The folk-revival version also incorporates lyrics from "Rosie, Darling Rosie," which was also collected and recorded by Courlander. - PJS
Roud separates "Old Green Field" as #18175, but the two songs look very alike to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: CNFM154

Rocky Road (II)

See Rough, Rocky Road (Most Done Suffering) (File: Br3632)

Rocky Road to Dublin, The

DESCRIPTION: An emigrant from Tuam recounts his comical misadventures on the way to England. He is flirted with in Mullingar, robbed in Dublin, put with the pigs on board ship, and ends in a brawl with "the boys of Liverpool."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3304))
KEYWORDS: emigration humorous Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 207, "The Rocky Road to Dublin" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H44, pp. 178-179, "The Rocky Road to Dublin" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 19-20, "Rocky Road to Dublin" (1 text)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 51, "The Rocky Road to Dublin" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RCKYDBLN*
Roud #3012
RECORDINGS:
American Quartet, "Along the Rocky Road to Dublin" (Victor 17900, 2926; rec. 1915)
Sam Ash, "Along the Rocky Road to Dublin" (Little Wonder 254, 1915)
Liam Clancy, "The Rocky Road to Dublin" (on IRLClancy01)
Marguerite Farrell, "Along the Rocky Road to Dublin" (Columbia A1920, 1916; rec. 1915)
Osey Helton, "Rocky Road to Dublin" (Broadway 5122A, c. 1931)
Edward Herborn & James Wheeler, "Rocky Road to Dublin" (Columbia A2217, 1917)
Bill McCune & his Orch. "Along the Rocky Road to Dublin" (Vocalion 04281, 1938)
Premier Quartet, "Along the Rocky Road to Dublin" (CYL: Edison [BA] 2817, n.d.)
Allen Sisson, "The Rocky Road to Dublin" [instrumental] (Edison 51559, 1925)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3304), "Rocky Road to Dublin," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 18(417), Johnson Ballads 2804 [same as LOCSinging as203070]; Harding B 11(454), "Rocky Road to Dublin"
LOCSinging, as203070, "The Rocky Road to Dublin," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878 [same as Bodleian Harding B 18(417)]; also as111860, "The Rocky Road to Dublin"
NOTES [139 words]: [Tune listed in broadsides LOCSinging as203070 and Bodleian Harding B 18(417) as "Irish Jig." True, but hardly helpful.... - (RBW/BS)
Although presumably of Irish origin, this was known in the United States at an early date. Edward Harrigan, in his novel The Mulligans (G. W. Dillingham, 1901), p. 141, has this song being used in a parade of Irishmen. It was also cited as being played in Australia in Steele Rudd's On Our Selection no later than 1903. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as203070: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
There is a 1916 pop song, "Along the Rocky Road to Dublin," words by Joe Young, music by Bert Grant. It is not this, although the title may hae been inspired by this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Hodg207

Rocky Road to Georgia

See Rocky Road to Jordan (Long Summer Day) (File: R590)

Rocky Road to Jordan (Long Summer Day)

DESCRIPTION: "Out a sweetheart hunting, long a summer day." "Where shall I find her, long a summer day?" "Here is where I found her, Rocky road to (Jordan/Georgia)." "Walk and talk together...." "Hurry, boys, hurry." "Sailing 'round the ocean."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 590, "Rocky Road to Georgia" (1 text)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 133-134, "Long Summer Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7650
File: R590

Roddy McCorley

DESCRIPTION: "Oh see the fleet-foot host of men..." who are hurrying to stage a rescue. "For young Roddy McCorley goes to die on the bridge of Toome today." They are too late. The song recalls McCorley's actions; he would not turn traitor even to save his life
AUTHOR: Words: Ethna Carberry (1866-1902)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1798 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion death execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
February 28, 1800 - Rody McCorley hanged in Toome. (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 citing John Moulden)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 100, "Rody MacCorley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 17, "Rody Mac Corly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 123, "Rody MacCorley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 324, "Roddy McCorley" (1 text)
DT, RMCORLEY*
Roud #5279
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Roddy McCorley" (on IRClancyMakem02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rody McCorley" (subject)
NOTES [478 words]: The Fiddler's Companion site says "McCurley was a County Antrim rebel leader in the rising of 1798."
The rebels [were] defeated at Antrim in June 1798. If any of [the details in the song "Rody McCorley are] accurate he might have been executed Good Friday, April 6, 1798 or, more likely, March 22, 1799.
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "Rody McCorley was hanged c.1798." [But see Moylan's note.]
Stewart, p. 156, gives this account: "If the Toome rebels are remembered at all, it is because of Roddy McCorley. A young Presbyterian from Duneane whose family had been evicted from their farm after the death of his father, he was in hiding for nearly a year after the rebellion before being betrayed, tried by court martial at Ballymena, and hanged 'near the Bridge of Toome' on Good Friday, 1799." In the footnote to this paragraph, Stewart adds, "Though hardly mentioned in Presbyterian annals, Roddy McCorley is a major figure in nationalist martyrology because he became the subject of a famous song." Guess which one.
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "...by Ethna Carberry (Anna [Johnson] MacManus b. 1866), was written in the 1890s and may have been based on ["Rody McCorley"]. - BS
According to Hoagland, 1000 Years of Irish Poetry, p. 775, the name was spelled "Carbery" (a spelling supported by Granger's Index to Poetry and by Boylan) though Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads [third edition, Music Ireland, 2004], p. 112, has the spelling "Ethna Carbury"); her collected poems were published posthumously in The Four Winds of Erin. Granger's cites six of her poems; this, interestingly, is not among them.
Boylan does not have a biography of McCorley, but does (p. 50) have a short one of Carbery:
CARBERY, ETHNA: pen-name of Anna MacManus, née Johnston (1866-1911), writer. Born Ballymena, Co. Antrim [the scene of McCorley's fight, I note]. Her writing did much to stimulate the early Sinn Féin movement. She wrote many poems for the Nation, United Ireland, etc. and with Alice Milligan founded a monthly paper, the Northern Patriot, in conjunction with a Belfast workingmen's club" -- then split with the club and founded the Shan Van Vocht.
Boylan's death date appears to be an error. Hoagland gives her death date as 1902, and Power, p. 160, refers to "Ethna Carbery of Belfast whose theme is Donegal and whose fame rests on one volume alone -- The Four Winds of Erin. This was published posthumously in 1902. She essentially belongs to the nationalistic ballad tradition which goes back to the Nation writers. Among her ballads is Rody Mac Corley, a ballad which has been incorporated into the ballad tradition of the people, its authorship forgotten to a large extent. But the bulk of her verse evokes the landscape and life of the people of Donegal among whom she lived for the last few years of her short life." .- RBW..
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: FSWB324

Roderick McDonald

DESCRIPTION: "I met river-driver eleven years ago,"" brow wrinkled and with silver hair, with a Scottish brogue. He had much experience on the river, and boasted of even more. Now he's a boss, and tight-fisted. He hopes for a fine burial monument
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Ives-LarryGorman)
KEYWORDS: lumbering river boss
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 87-89, 199, "Roderick McDonald" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #25114
File: LaGoRoMc

Rodger the miller came a-courting of late

See The Gray Mare [Laws P8] (File: LP08)

Rodney's Glory

DESCRIPTION: "Good news to you I will unfold, 'Tis of brave Rodney's glory." In 1782 Rodney defeats De Grasse and the French fleet off Fort Royal. Five French ships are captured and thousands slain. "Now may prosperity attend Brave Rodney and his Irishmen"
AUTHOR: Eoghan Rua O Suilleabhain (Owen Roe O'Sullivan) (1748?-1784) (source: Hoagland; cf. Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.12(24))
KEYWORDS: battle navy death sea ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 12, 1782 - Admiral George Brydges Rodney defeats French Admiral the Count De Grasse at the Battle of the Saintes in the Caribbean and brings the captured French ships into Fort Royal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 8, "Rodney's Glory" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 349-351 "Rodney's Glory" (1 long text)
Roud #23749
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(24), "Rodney's Glory," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(133a), "Rodney's Glory," unknown, c.1890
NOTES [505 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "Serving with Rodney was a thirty-three-year-old Irishman -- the Gaelic poet Eoghan Rua O Suilleabhain from Sliabh Luachria.... He took part in the engagement with De Grasse and composed this song ... as a way of ingratiating himself with his commander and thereby obtaining his discharge. The ploy was apparently unsuccessful...." - BS
According to Herman, pp. 316-318, George Brydges Rodney (1718-1792) was anything but a good example: although he made captain at the astonishing age of 23, he "had an unquenchable greed for money that corrupted everything he touched. He stole from captured prizes... and cheated other officers out of prize money. He treated everyone with high-handed arrogance... He was also a degenerate gambler, and the outbreak of war found him in France, hiding from debtor's prison." Similarly Brumwell/Speck, p. 31, describe him as having "a difficult temperament and notorious hunger for prize money." He bankrupted himself with gambling and in bankrolling his campaigns for parliament.
But he was known as a fighter, so he was pulled out of retirement to command the Leeward Islands station during the late stages of the American Revolution. (He was thoughtfully supplied with several officers to watch over his accounts and actions.) It was a rather desperate time for Britain; the navy was still recovering from severe budget cuts under the Prime Minister Grenville in the 1760s (Cook, pp. 56, 114-115).
In 1780, at Cape Finisterre (the so-called "Midnight Battle"), he changed naval rules by attacking from the windward, making it impossible for a defeated enemy to simply flee. This was vital to saving Gibraltar (Brumwell/Speck, p. 331).
But his great victory was the Battle of the Saintes. Britain had lost at Yorktown the year before, and de Grasse's fleet which has won the naval part of the Yorktown campaign threatened to destroy the British position in the Carribean as well. Britain was in extreme danger -- the British had written off the American colonies, but the Spanish and others were now joining the French in their war on Britain (Stokesbury, pp. 168-169, 172).
De Grasse, based at Fort Royal at Martinique, was supposed to rendezvous with the Spanish and attack Jamaica. Instead, Rodney caught him on April 12. According to Dupur/Johnson/Bongard, p. 637, he sank one ship and captured five (a sixth of the French fleet). Keegan/Wheatcroft, p. 265, however, says he captured nine ships then and after. Stokesbury, p. 173, credits Rodney with capturing five shipes including De Grasse's flagship, "which they battered to a pulp. De Grasse was a broken man." Despite these discrepancies, every source seems to agree that his win at the Saintes allowed Britain to continue its mastery of the sea, allowing it to remain a great Colonial power even after the loss of the American colonies..
Rodney was rewarded with a peerage and a pension of 2000 pounds a year, although even this was not sufficient to pay his debts (Brumwell/Speck, p. 332). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Moyl008

Rody MacCorley

See Roddy McCorley (File: FSWB324)

Rody McCorley

DESCRIPTION: Rody McCorley is betrayed in Ballyscullion by Dufferin and McErlean. Testimony that he was "a foe unto the crown" leads to prison in Ballymena and hanging "upon Good Friday... Convenient to the Bridge of Toome"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: rebellion betrayal execution prison trial Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
February 28, 1800 - Rody McCorley hanged in Toome. (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 citing John Moulden) [but see NOTES]
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 21, "Rody McCorley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 122, "Rody McCorley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 13, "Come Tender-Hearted Christians" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5279
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roddy McCorley" (subject)
NOTES [288 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "This is the authentic 1798 ballad"
The Fiddler's Companion site says "McCurley was a County Antrim rebel leader in the rising of 1798."
The rebels [were] defeated at Antrim in June 1798. If any of this is accurate he might have been executed Good Friday, April 6, 1798 or, more likely, March 22, 1799 [but see Moylan's note].
The ballad is recorded on two of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Roisin White, "Rody McCorley" (on "The Croppy's Complaint," Craft Recordings CRCD03 (1998); Terry Moylan notes)
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Roddy McCorley" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998)) - BS
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman notes a newspaper report that it was ROGER MacCorley who was executed on February 28, 1800 and buried beneath the gallows by the Bann.
Few histories even mention McCorley. The only one I found to allude to him was A. T. Q. Stewart, The Summer Soldiers: The 1798 Rebellion in Antrim and Down, Blackstaff Press, 1995. On p. 156, we learn, "If the Toome rebels are remembered at all, it is beause of Roddy McCorley. A young Presbyterian from Duneane whose family had been evicted from their farm after the death of his father, he was in hiding for nearly a year after the Rebellion before being betrayed, tried by court martial at Ballymena, and hanged 'nera the Bridge of Toome' on Good Friday, 1799."
In the footnote to this passage (on p. 271), Stewart adds, "Though hardly mentioned in the Presbyterian annals, Roddy McCorley is a major figure in nationalist mythology because he became the subject of a famous song." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: OLcM021

Roger

See Roger's Courtship (File: HHH520)

Roger and Dolly (I)

DESCRIPTION: Roger taps Dolly's window; she won't let him in. He asks if he has a rival. She won't deny it. He starts to drown himself but, in the water, thinks better of it. Dolly wants Roger to return but he finds another lover. Dolly fears she will die an old maid.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1750 (Ramsay); 1886 (Halliwell: nursery rhyme version)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection farming
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 456, "Young Roger came tapping at Dolly's Window" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scots Sangs (in four vols) (London, 1750 (eleventh edition) ("Digitized by Google")), (Vol. IV,) pp. 370-372, "Roger's Courtship" ("Young Roger came tapping At Dolly's window") (1 text)
James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1886 ("Digitized by Google")), #471 p. 238, ("Young Roger came tapping at Dolly's window") (1 text)
Roud #19663
NOTES [26 words]: The nursery rhyme version is the first verse of Ramsay's: Roger taps Dolly's window; she won't let him in.
See "Roger and Dolly" (II) for a similar story. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OO2456

Roger and Dolly (II)

DESCRIPTION: Roger, "tripping it over the plain" bows to Dolly, "milking of the cows," and goes "tripping it back again." She asks him to come back "or else my poor heart will burst." He refuses to come back saying she may lack his company "until the last day you die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1750 (Ramsay)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection farming
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scots Sangs (in four vols) (London, 1750 (eleventh edition) ("Digitized by Google")), (Vol. IV,) p. 430, "Roger and Dolly" ("As Dolly was milking of the cows") (1 text)
NOTES [8 words]: See "Roger and Dolly" (I) for a similar story. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: TTM4430

Roger and Nell (Roger's Courtship)

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas early in the summer time and pleasant was the weather, When Roger would wooing go." He dresses in his best, with a rusty sword and a few pence; he offers Nell his home and horse and other furnishings; she accepts; they happily marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Purslow-TheConstantLovers)
KEYWORDS: love courting wedding money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 78-79, "Roger and Nell" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Roud #1666
File: PCL078

Roger the Miller

See The Gray Mare [Laws P8] (File: LP08)

Roger the Ploughboy

DESCRIPTION: Roger meets milk-maid Sue. He would take her to the fair to buy hair ribbons. She eventually agrees. In a grove "he gave her a ribbon to roll up her hair." She said it could not be bought at a fair. They marry. "Roger continues to roll up her hair"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2578))
KEYWORDS: love marriage seduction
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 141, "Young Johnny Was a Ploughboy" (1 text)
Roud #17772
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "The Lark in the Morning" (on Voice05) [a mixture of "The Lark in the Morning" and "Roger the Ploughboy"]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2578), "Roger the Ploughboy" ("Young Roger the ploughboy was a crafty young swain"), H., Such (London), 1863-1885; also Firth b.34(258)[some words are illegible], "Roger the Ploughboy"; 2806 c.16(113), "Roger the Plow Boy"
NOTES [61 words]: The description is based on broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(2578).
See recording Paddy Tunney, "The Lark in the Morning" (on Voice05). The first verse is a fragment of "The Lark in the Morning"; the second is a fragment of "Roger the Ploughboy." - BS
Is it just me, or does this sound like someone is trying to stick a happy ending on "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?"
Last updated in version 2.7
File: BdRotPlo

Roger the Tinker Man

See Jolly Old Roger (File: R496)

Roger's Courtship

DESCRIPTION: Roger's father instructs the boy in how to find a wife. He should dress in his best and kiss each pretty girl he meets. He meets (Grace/Nell), and tries his procedure. She slaps him. He asks how she dare reject such a fine specimen as he, then goes home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan4; Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection father clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #151, p. 1, "Roger" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 760, "Roger" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 171-172, "Old Mother Hooligan" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 166)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #31, "Jan's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H820, pp. 257-258, "Roger's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #575
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Roger and Nell
Robin's Courtship
I'll Awa to My Mither I Will
NOTES [12 words]: Greig/Duncan4: "Learnt from father forty-five years ago. Noted 1905." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: HHH520

Rogers The Miller

See The Gray Mare [Laws P8] (File: LP08)

Rogue, The

DESCRIPTION: The girl walks down the street "like a good girl should" followed by a rogue, a sailor, a knave or some such. She rather coyly seduces him. (He coyly gets her pregnant.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy Folio)
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex seduction pregnancy
FOUND IN: US(So) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook XXVII, p. 82-83, "The Knave" (1 text)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 187-190, "The Rogue" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT, KNAVEKN NAVENAVE*
ADDITIONAL: Frederick J. Furnivall, _Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript: Loose and Humorous Songs_, printed by and for the Editor, London, 1868, p. 108, "A Dainty Ducke" (1 fragment)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 487
Roud #8156 and 5132
RECORDINGS:
Lizzie Higgins, "Auld Roguie Grey" (on LHiggins01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Gob Is a Gob
Knaves Will Be Knaves
NOTES [41 words]: I think [Roud #5136 and #8156] are really the same song, and if I were calling the shots I would lump them under "The Rogue." Lizzie Higgins' version ends up after her "bairnie" is born with the "auld Roguie" returning to her and marrying her. - DGE
Last updated in version 5.3
File: RL187

Roi du Bal, Le (King of the Ball)

DESCRIPTION: French. Twelfth Night ritual song. Singers toast the "rights" of the King of the Ball, paying him honor. The king demands champagne, saying he can't sing without it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad request ritual drink wassail
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 92, "Le Roi du Bal (King of the Ball)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Somerset Wassail" (subject) and references there
NOTES [91 words]: According to Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, in the old Northwest (Indiana) territory, on Twelfth Night single people would gather at the home of the oldest lady of the community, who had baked a cake with four beans hidden in it. The four young men whose pieces of cake contained the beans would be acclaimed as kings, and would each put on a King's Ball, beginning the next day and continuing at weekly intervals. Each king would select a queen, presumably his sweetheart; the ladies furnished the refreshments while the men paid the fiddler. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BerV092

Roisin Dubh (Dark Rosaleen)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer laments being kept from his dark Rose. He warns that help is coming from the Pope but they will be apart. He would do anything if he could be with her. The end of the world will come before she would die.
AUTHOR: see notes
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (IRPTunney02)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love war separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 178, "Roisin Dubh" (1 English text, with the translator not indicated)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859 (reprint of 1855 London edition)), Vol II, pp. 19-21, "Dark Rosaleen" [translated by James Clarence Mangan (1803-1849)]
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 143-145, "Dark Rosaleen" [translated by James Clarence Mangan (1803-1849)]; pp. 145-146, "Roisin Dubh" [translated by Eleanor Hull]; pp. 146-148, "Roisin Dubh" [translated by Padraic Pearse]
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 134-135, 500, "Roisin Dubh" [translated by Thomas Furlong (1794-1827)]; pp. 136-139, 504, "Dark Rosaleen" [translated by James Clarence Mangan (1803-1849)]
Charles Sullivan, ed., Ireland in Poetry, p. 60, "Dark Rosaleen (1 text) [translated by James Clarence Mangan (1803-1849)]
Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, _The Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1958, 1979), pp. 56-58, "Dark Rosaleen" (1 text) [translated by James Clarence Mangan (1803-1849)]
Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 273-275, "Dark Rosaleen" (1 text) [translated by James Clarence Mangan]
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #192, "Dark Rosaleen" (1 text) [translated by James Clarence Mangan (1803-1849)]
Roud #32189
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "Roisin Dubh" (on IRPTunney02)
NOTES [337 words]: Hayes: "This impassioned ballad, entitled in the original 'Roisin Dubh' (or The Black Little Rose), was written in the reign of Elizabeth by one of the poets of the celebrated Tirconnellian chieftain, Hugh the Red O'Donnell. It purports to be an allegorical address from Hugh to Ireland, on the subject of his love and struggles for her, and his resolve to raise her again to the glorious position she held as a nation before the irruption of the Saxon and Norman spoilers."
Sparling: "Mangan ... always maintained that it was in reality a love-song with an infusion, but no more, of allegorical meaning."
Sparling p. 136 states that "Furlong's version is much more literal but this [Mangan's version] conveys a better idea of the intense fire and passion of the original."
Paddy Tunney sings a Gaelic three verse version on IRPTunney02. The notes to that album have a translation by either Tunney or Peter Boyle. The published translation among ADDITIONAL references closest to that translation is Eleanor Hull's seven verse translation [Hoagland pp. 145-146], though parts of other translations are recognizable. The description is based on Eleanor Hull's and James Clarence Mangan's version. - BS
Hoagland attributes this to Owen Row Mac Ward, who presumably is the poet of Red Hugh O'Donnell mentioned by Hayes. (For Red Hugh, see the notes to "O'Donnell Aboo (The Clanconnell War Song)"). It seems reasonable to attribute the poem to the sixteenth century, given the references to religious persecution, but while that is surely the earliest possible date, there is nothing in the song to prevent a seventeenth century date, or even one from the early eighteenth, I think. (Sullivan attributes it to the nineteenth century, which seems improbable.) Kinsella says that Mangan's translation is "from the Irish of Costello."
The translations are so diverse that it is sometimes difficult to see them as from the same original. Some of this may be because the translators (notably Paidraic Pearse) had axes to grind. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: RcRoiDub

Roll Along, Covered Wagon, Roll Along

DESCRIPTION: "Roll along covered wagon, roll along, To the turn of your wheels I sing a song, City ladies may be fine, but give me that girl of mine, Roll along covered wagon, roll along." The singer is "going home" in the wagon; "this cowboy was never born to roam."
AUTHOR: Jimmy Kennedy (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: cowboy travel return home | covered wagon
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
Roud #25741
RECORDINGS:
Will Noble, "Roll Along Covered Wagon" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #62, recorded 08/02/2021)
The Ranch Boys (Jack Ross, Joe Bradley, Ken Carson), "Roll Along Covered Wagon" (Decca 5113, rec. Apr. 16, 1935)
SAME TUNE:
Roll Along, Wavy Navy (File: Hopk074)
Roll Along, You Hungry Buggers, Roll Along (File: DPio311)
Will You Come to Our Wee Party? (File: PKKB057A)
Will You Come to Abyssinia? (File: PKKB057B)
File: RcRACWRA

Roll Along, Wavy Navy

DESCRIPTION: "Roll along, Wavy Navy, roll along (x2), If they ask us who we are, We're the RCNVR, Roll along, Wavy Navy, roll along." The sailors joined for pay, for glory, for the chance to go to sea, but have found very little of any of these
AUTHOR: Words: P. D. Budge and R. Pope (source: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (source: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: sailor navy hardtimes
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 74, "Roll Along, Wavy Navy" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: John D. Harbron, _The Longest Battle: The RCN in the Atlantic, 1939-1945_, Vanwell Publishing Ltd., 1993, "Roll Along Wavy Navy, The Unofficial Wartime Navy Song" (1 text)
ST Hopk074 (Partial)
Roud #29419
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll Along, Covered Wagon, Roll Along" (tune) and references there
NOTES [622 words]: The RCNVR was the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, the second string of reserves, behind the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and Royal Canadian Naval Reserve (RCNR).
Bercuson, p. 11, reports, "Like the army, the RCN consisted of a professional core and two militia-like auxiliary forces: the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve and the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve. The professional core numbered about 1900 at the outbreak of the Second World War. These men were careerists, but the training they received... was well short of what would be required when war broke out. The RCNR had been set up in 1923 with an authorized establishment of 500 men in nine ports. In fact, it was usually only half that size through most of the interwar period. RCNR members were required to have a maritime occupation in civilian life and to possess a professional knowledge of ships and the sea. They received four weeks of training each year aboard RCN vessels. Members of the RCNVR (referred to as the "wavy-navy" because of the wavy gold stripes on the cuffs of its officers' uniforms) came from virtually all walks of life.... They were treated to thirty evenings of training during the winter and two weeks at sea in the summer. There were never more than 1500 member of the wavy-navy between the wars."
Milner, p. 62, says that "The volunteer reserves formed the corps of [director of the Naval Service Rear Admiral Walter] Hose's new national navy. For the first time, citizens from all walks of life and from all across the country could participate in their navy. Naval reserve divisions were immediately opened in Halifax, Saint John, Charlottestown, Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, and Victoria. Most of these were 'half companies' of fifty men, officered by men of standing within the community who served without pay. Saint John and Winnipeg were allotted full companies, while in Montreal two half companies, one English and one French, were raised.
"By all accounts the volunteer reserve companies were an instant success.... [Pay Commander Woodhouse wrote that] 'Most of the companies have a waiting list of 40 to 50 men.' ... All this was done on a shoestring." Men were not paid, and most of the equipment was scrounged or bought by the officers; "By 1939 there were 113 officers and 1292 rating in the RCNVR... The hardest task for the tiny interwar RCN was to get all these would-be sailors to sea, 'which is regarded by them as the greatest pleasure of their service.'" [Compare this to the song's comments about lack of pay, glory, and time at sea.] It sounds as if this was really the main reason most of these inland boys joined; Milner, p. 63, tells a story of a half-company that was actually given a day's training aboard a Royal Navy vessel -- and heard the word "war" mentioned. Most of the reservists vanished immediately after.
This lack of training meant that the Wavy Navy crews often found themselves in way over their heads when World War II forced a dramatic expansion in the Canadian navy: "Crewing of the new ships therefore depended on the RCNVR, whose recruits usually had no previous marine experience. For many of the newly built warships, the only experienced office (sic.) available was often the captain, a member of the RCNR -- a merchant marine officer in civilian life -- whose knowledge of naval operations relied on courses and some service in small coastal or harbour defence vessels" (Sarty, p. 41).
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear describes the authors of this song as crewmen of HMCS Saguenay. For the destroyer Saguenay, one of the few significant ships in the pre-war Canadian navy, see "The Saguenay Song." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: Hopk074

Roll Along, You Hungry Buggers, Roll Along

DESCRIPTION: "Roll along, you hungry buggers, roll along, If you think you're going home, you've got it wrong. Blue strath fliers may be fine, but give me the Baron Line, Roll along, you hungry buggers, roll along."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2022 (Derek Piotr archive)
KEYWORDS: derivative ship
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
RECORDINGS:
Steve Gardham, "Roll Along You Hungry Buggers" (Piotr-Archive #311, recorded 10/11/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf.. "Roll Along, Covered Wagon, Roll Along" (tune) and references there
File: DPio311

Roll and Go (I)

DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. "O Sally Brown she promised me, a long time ago. She promised for to marry me, Way-ay roll and go." Combination of "Sally Brown" and "A Long Time Ago" with an entirely different tune.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor courting parting
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 167, "Roll and Go" (1 text, 1 tune -- quoted from Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys) [AbEd, p. 134]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, X, p. 12, "Roll and Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 107, "Roll and Go" (1 text, 1 tune, presumably this since it omits any mention of Sally Brown)
Roud #2628
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Long Time Ago" (refrain)
cf. "Sally Brown" (verses)
NOTES [73 words]: Sharp seems to be the only source for this. Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas classed it as separate from it relatives ("Sally Brown" and "Long Time Ago") though if it had to be declared one or the other, I'd put it with "Sally Brown" as they are both usually used as capstan shanties. - SL
Roud agrees; he lumps it with "Sally Brown."
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea's version is unusual; it doesn't mention Sally and is listed as a hauling shanty. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Hugi167A

Roll and Go (II)

See Sally Brown (File: Doe074)

Roll and Tumble Blues

DESCRIPTION: "I rolled and I tumbled and I cried the whole night long." The singer woke up not knowing right from wrong. His woman mistreated him but her "trouble come some day" He walked away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Hambone Willie Newburn)
KEYWORDS: sex rejection parting nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Hambone Willie Newburn, "Roll and Tumble Blues" (OKeh 8679, 1929; on StuffDreams2)
Moses Williams, "Rolling and Tumbling" (on USFlorida01)
File: RcRoTuBl

Roll Bele

DESCRIPTION: "Role bele for Jen Jen oh, O roll bele Ting a ling"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, pp. 52, 56 "Roll Bele" (2 texts, 2 tunes
NOTES [51 words]: The current description is based on the Elder-Charlottville text. Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 17, classifies this as "drum dance music."
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago, p. 35: Bele is a dance "associated with reel dance sessions which include British originated types like reels and jigs."- BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElCh5256

Roll Call Songs

DESCRIPTION: "There is Daniel Robb and Milly, Thomas Boswell, Jackson's Billy...." Or "Painter's Jake and Lawyer's Joe, Pat and Jack and Ervino...." The song, which obviously varies from school to school, lists and counts off the students in a particular class
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Stout-FolkloreFromIowa); versions supposedly date back to 1865
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 103, pp. 127-133, "Early Iowa School Songs" (11 texts, of which the "C" and "D" texts are this song type)
Roud #21645 and 21646
File: Stou103C

Roll de Ole Chariot Along

See We'll Roll the Old Chariot Along (File: Doe049)

Roll Down Dem Bales o' Cotton

DESCRIPTION: "Roll down dem bales o' cotton (x3), I ain't got long to stay here now."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 243, "Roll Down Dem Bales o' Cotton" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 243, "Roll Down Dem Bales o' Cotton" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
NOTES [44 words]: There was a 1914 pop song, "Roll Them Cotton Bales, " words by James Weldon Johnson and Bob Coles, music by J Rosamund Johnson. It doesn't appear to be this, but with this being such a small fragment, it's impossible to say categorically that they are different. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3243

Roll Down the Line

See Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line (File: ADR98)

Roll for Boston

See Going to Boston (File: SKE67)

Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Roll in my sweet baby's arms (2x)/Lay around the shack till the mail train comes back/Roll in my sweet baby's arms." Floating verses, e.g. "Ain't gonna work on the railroad/Ain't gonna work on the farm"; "Where was you last Friday night...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Buster Carter & Preston Young)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad floatingverses separation
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 178, "I'll Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 230-231, "Ain't Gonna Work on de Railroad" (1 short text, possibly this although it might be from one of the Lulu songs)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 159, "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms" (1 text)
DT, ROLLBABY*
Roud #17473
RECORDINGS:
Buster Carter & Preston Young, "I'll Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms" (Columbia 15690-D, 1931)
Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms" (Mercury 6372, c. 1951)
Monroe Brothers, "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms" (Bluebird B-6773, 1937)
New Lost City Ramblers, "I'll Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms" (on NLCR03)
Guy Wolff, "Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms" (Fragment (string breaks): Piotr-Archive #440, recorded 01/08/2023); (Piotr-Archive #445, recorded 01/08/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Late Last Night When Willie Came Home" (words)
cf. "My God, How the Money Rolls In" (words)
cf. "Free Little Bird" (approximate tune)
NOTES [25 words]: Paul Stamler lists this as a humorous song. I thought I should add that the versions I've heard have been done "straight," often with a blues feel. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CSW178

Roll Johnny Booger

See Way Down in Rackensack (Old Coon Dog) (File: R350)

Roll Me From the Wall

DESCRIPTION: The singer is courted by young men who wish to roll her from the wall. Her parents force her to marry an impotent old man. He dies and leaves her land and money. She marries a young man who does roll her from the wall but spends all her money.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: age marriage sex death money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 11, "Roll Me From the Wall" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, p. 62, "Roll Me From the Wall" (1 text)
Roud #8302
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Foot of the Mountain Brow (The Maid of the Mountain Brow)" [Laws P7] (tune)
cf. "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man" (theme) and references there
NOTES [154 words]: Jim Carroll's notes to IRTravellers01: "Arranged or 'made' marriages were very much an accepted part of rural life in Ireland up to comparatively recent times... Women from poor house-holds which were unable to support the whole family would readily marry older farmers looking for a housekeeper, or maybe widowers with young children to care for." - BS
There was an additional reason for this well-attested problem: The shortage of land in pre-famine Ireland. Since a boy could not marry until he had land to support his family, he had to wait until his father died -- and even that might not leave enough property for marriage. So there was a shortage of eligible young men, forcing the women either to wait themselves (which meant more burdens on their parents) or to marry a widower.
Of course, the plot predates Irish overpopulation issue. This is basically the story of Chaucer's Wife of Bath, minus a few husbands. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: MorU011

Roll Me Over

DESCRIPTION: The singer begins with number one, "when the fun has just begun," and progressing to number ten, when "it's time to start again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy shanty humorous
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US(All) New Zealand
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 325-327, "Roll Me Over" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 389-392, "Roll Me Over" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 135, "Roll Me Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp.123-124, "Roll Me Over in the Clover" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 104, "Roll Me Over in the Clover" (notes only)
Roud #10133
RECORDINGS:
Larry Vincent's Pearl Trio, "Roll Me Over" (Pearl 50, c. 1949)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yo Ho, Yo Ho"
cf. "Drive It On"
cf. "Put Your Shoulder Next to Mine and Pump Away" (tune)
cf. "Kissing Song (II -- She Just Kept Kissing On)" (form)
SAME TUNE:
Put Yer Shoulder Next to Mine and Pump Away (File: Hugi508)
NOTES [57 words]: This is perhaps the most popular formula song in the English language. - EC
Hugill thinks this derived from the shanty "Put Yer Shoulder Next to Mine and Pump Away," with which it shares a tune. I wouldn't be surprised if the kinship goes the other way. Even more likely to be a descendant is "Kissing Song (II -- She Just Kept Kissing On)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM325

Roll Me Over in the Clover

See Roll Me Over (File: EM325)

Roll On Columbia, Roll On

See Roll On, Columbia (File: SBoA348)

Roll On Silver Moon

See The Silvery Moon (File: R800)

Roll On Silvery Moon

See The Silvery Moon (File: R800)

Roll on the Aeroplane Navy

DESCRIPTION: "I'm sick and tired of the Navy, Of being a bloody AB... My chances in the Navy are small, So roll on the Aeroplane Navy, Were they won't want no flatfoots at all." He currently serves as a stoker, but in the Aeroplane Navy, there will be no need for such
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Hamphire Telegraph, according to Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: worker Navy technology nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 98-99, "Roll On the Aeroplane Navy" (1 text)
NOTES [269 words]: Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy suggests that the tune of this might be "Botany Bay." It looks like a better fit for "Rosin the Beau" to me, but I'm just guessing.
Tawney reports this came from a sailor in the Prince of Wales "when she arrived for the first time at Dover in 1909" and witnessed airman Louis Blériot cross the channel -- a first.
If the dating is right, the airman certainly was prescient, since the first time an aircraft took off from a ship was in 1910 (Preston, pp. 8-9), and it was 1911 before one managed a landing (Preston, pp. 9-10), and while seaplane carriers and cruisers with floatplanes came to exist in World War I, it wasn't until 1917 that a plane managed to land on the first prototype aircraft carrier, HMS Furious (Preston, p. 17-18), which marked the first time a ship could really take care of planes (the earlier experiments had involved temporary platforms which made the ships less capable in combat and so unacceptable in wartime).
The Prince of Wales that the writer supposedly served on was not the famous World War II battleship that fought against the Bismarck and was sunk by the Japanese in late 1941; rather, it was a ship that was already obsolete in 1909; she was a member of the Queen class of 1904. These were "pre-dreadnought" battleships, with four 12" guns and coal-burning triple-expansion engines (Wragg, p. 177); although ships of this class were still around as late as World War I, no one dared use them for much. But their inefficient reciprocal engines meant that they would require a lot of work by stokers, which helps explain this song. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn074

Roll on the Boat that Takes Me Home

DESCRIPTION: "I went ashore in Singapore, And there I broke my leave," to return to learn that "You're due for a forty-two And a mansion on the hill" -- i.e. a transfer. "Roll on the boat, the boat that takes me home, Free from this land of pox and fever"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy travel bug hardtimes home
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 64-65, "Roll on the Boat that Takes Me Home" (1 text)
File: Tawn047

Roll on the Ground (Big Ball's in Town)

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses: "Let's have a party, let's have a time/Let's have a party, I've only a dime"; "Work on the railroad, sleep on the ground/Eat soda crackers, ten cents a pound." Chorus: "Roll on the ground, boys, roll on the ground (x2)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (recording, Billy Golden)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Floating verses, mostly concerning high life: "Get on your big shoes, get on your gown/Shake off those sad blues, Big Ball's in town"; "Let's have a party, let's have a time/Let's have a party, I've only a dime"; "My love's in jail, boys, my love's in jail/My love's in jail, boys, who's going her bail?" And "Work on the railroad, sleep on the ground/Eat soda crackers, ten cents a pound." Chorus: "Big Ball's in Boston [Nashville], Big Ball's in town/Big Ball's in Boston, we'll dance around." Or, in the other common version, "Roll on the ground, boys, roll on the ground (x2)."
KEYWORDS: prison dancing drink humorous nonballad floatingverses dancetune
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 234, "Working on the Railroad" (1 text plus two unrelated fragments, the "B" and "C" fragments probably belong here; the "A" text is a jumble starting with "Working on the Railroad" but followed up by what is probably a "Song of All Songs" fragment)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 200, "Big Ball's In Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 199, "Roll On The Ground" (1 text)
DT, ROLLGRND*
Roud #12114 (and probably others)
RECORDINGS:
Warren Caplinger's Cumberland Mountain Entertainers, "Big Ball in Town" (Brunswick 241, 1928)
Delmore Brothers, "Big Ball in Texas" (Bluebird B-7560/Montgomery Ward M-7474, 1938)
Georgia Yellow Hammers, "Big Ball in Memphis" (Victor V-40138, 1929)
Billy Golden, "Roll on the Ground" (Berliner 0539, c. 1900; Victor A-616, c. 1901; rec. 1899) (CYL Albany 1131 [as "Roll On de Ground"], n.d.) (CYL: Lambert 5077 [as "Roll on de Ground"], n.d. but c. 1900) (Victor 16804, 1911 [as "Roll on de Ground"]; rec. 1905)
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "Roll on the Ground" (Brunswick 186, 1927)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Big Ball's in Town" (King 622, 1947)
Fate Norris & his Playboys, "Roll 'em on the Ground" (Columbia 15435-D, 1929)
Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers, "Big Ball In Town" (Columbia 15204-D, 1927)
Taylor-Griggs Louisiana Melody Makers, "Big Ball Up Town" (Victor 21768, 1928)
Thaddeus C. Willingham, "Roll on the Ground" (AFS, 1939; on LC02, LCTreas)
Unidentified artist [label reads "Negro Shout"], "Roll on the Ground" (Busy Bee 67, c. 1904)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Big Ball's in Boston
NOTES [89 words]: Harry Oster has reported an anti-Semitic variant from Louisiana, "Hook Nose In Brooklyn." - PJS
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook report "This tune is the sort that exists only for itself and its suitability on the banjo, the words being only very freely attached and often with reference to a drunken state." This seems to be true of most variants, except perhaps for the prejudiced version mentioned by Paul. - RBW
Maybe so; the piece, however, seems to have begun life as a "coon song" -- a popular minstrel piece. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: CSW200

Roll on the Nelson

See Roll on the Rodney (File: XRolRodn)

Roll on the Rodney

DESCRIPTION: Verses vary; recognized by the chorus: "Roll on the Rodney/the Nelson/the Hood/Renown, This (four-funnelled) bastard (is no god-damned good)/Is getting me down." "This is my story, this is my song, Been in commission for too long"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Philippson)
KEYWORDS: navy hardtimes derivative ship
FOUND IN: Britain
Roud #29721
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Bunch of Banshee Airmen" ("Roll on the [ship name]" lyric)
cf. "She's a Tiddley Ship" ("Roll on the [ship name]" lyric))
cf. "Blessed Assurance" (tune)
NOTES [519 words]: This item poses a conundrum: It seems to exist as a standalone fragment, with the tune of "Blessed Assurance" ("This is my story, this is my song, Loving my savior all the day long"), but also as a floating chorus used in several of the songs listed in the cross-references. I'm listing it here with its own Roud number, but I don't know if it can clearly be distinguished from the songs that borrow it -- which often change the tune.
The fact that it exists on its own seems to be proved by the existence of a book based on it: David Phillipson, Roll on the Rodney: Life on the Lower Decks of Royal Navy Warships After the Second World War. It uses the song lyric in the dedication, but ironically the index never mentions the Nelson, Rodney, or Renown, all of which survived World War II but were scrapped soon after.
Most of my notes on this song were originally from "She's a Tiddley Ship," which you should still see, but I will copy the relevant portions here, mentioning the ships which seem to have entered particular versions of this chorus. Some of these include:
Roll on the Nelson, the Rodney, Renown,
This four-funnelled bastard is getting me down.
or
Roll on the Nelson, the Rodney, the Hood,
This four-funnelled bastard is no bleeding good.
or
Roll on the Nelson, the Rodney, Renown,
You can't sink the Hood; she's already gone down.
Bradford, p. 16, has another variant,
Roll on the Nelson, the Rodney, the Hood,
This one-funneled basket is no mucking good.
All of these are dating hints. The Hood was a heavy battlecruiser/fast battleship launched in 1918 (Humble, p. 125) and famously sunk by the Bismarck in 1941 (Bradford, pp. 184-185, and indirectly covered throughout the book; there are at least three other books specifically about the Hood, and dozens more about the Bismarck and their battle). For more on her story, see "The Sinking of HMS Hood."
The Renown was a lighter battlecruiser, launched 1916; she survived World War II (Worth, p. 91).
The Nelson and Rodney were sisters, launched in 1927, after the Washington Naval Conference had restricted battleship tonnage (Worth, pp. 92-93; Ballard, p. 85, repeats an old joke that called the two the "Cherry Tree" class because they had been "cut down by Washington"). They carried the heaviest guns ever mounted on a British battleship -- 16"; no other British ship carried anything larger than a 15" gun for more than a brief time. They were the last major British ships commissioned before World War II (which revealed their design to be very damage-prone;, it featured a lot of weight-saving techniques that cost them, among other things, about five knots of speed and a rational distribution of turrets).
Thus from 1927 to 1941, the Nelson, the Rodney, and the Hood were the biggest, deadliest ships in the Royal Navy. After the Hood was sunk in 1941, the Renown became the biggest battlecruiser left in the fleet. All of them were scrapped soon after the war. So this chorus must date from after 1927, and the version in which the Hood has been sunk is from 1941-1945. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: XRolRodn

Roll On Weary River, Roll On

DESCRIPTION: "Roll on, weary river, roll on, Don't take me away with your song, Your waters are deep, many secrets they keep...." "I'm down by the river alone, No place on earth to call home...." The singer, poor and lonely, asks the river to stay away from her home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (recording, Hedy West)
KEYWORDS: river loneliness hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 28, #2 (1980), p, 27, "Roll On Weary River, Roll On" (1 text, 1 tune, as sung by Hedy West and learned from her grandmother)
File: Sov28n2b

Roll On, Boys

DESCRIPTION: "Roll on, boys, You make your time; I am so broke down, I can't make mine." "I once was young, As you must see; But age has got The best of me." "Someday you'll think Of me I know When you are old And cannot go." Other verses of hard work and old age
AUTHOR: adapted by John Daniel Vass?
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (collected by Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains from John Daniel Vass)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes age nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, p. 47, "Roll On, Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16845
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Take This Hammer" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [138 words]: This song is quite a conundrum. It seems clearly related to the "Roll On, Buddy" versions of "Take This Hammer," but it never uses either the words "Roll on, buddy" or "take this hammer," and much of the song is about the worker failing because of age.
Plus we know that the informant, John Daniel Vass, was capable of rewriting a song; Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains has several instances of items Vass reworked from traditional materials. Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains does not say that that happened here, but it seems the best explanation. On that basis, I'm classifying this very tentatively as its own song, but one that clearly should be linked with the extended "Take This Hammer" family.
Roud includes it in a song family that should perhaps be called "Roll on John," but it remains a conundrum. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Shell047

Roll On, Buddy (I)

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

Roll On, Buddy (II) [Roll On, Buddy, Roll On]

DESCRIPTION: Assorted verses: "I'm going to the East, Karo" "You'd better quit your rowdy ways/You'll get killed some day" "My home's down in Tennessee." Cho: "Roll on, buddy, roll on...You wouldn't roll so slow/If you know what I know/Yes, roll on, my buddy, roll on"
AUTHOR: Lyrics: Charles Bowman/tune: traditional
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Charlie Bowman & his Brothers)
KEYWORDS: travel death floatingverses nonballad home wife homesickness
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Bowman & his Brothers "Roll On, Buddy" (Columbia 15357-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Monroe Bros. "Roll On Buddy" (Bluebird B-6960, 1937)
Sam & Kirk McGee, "Roll On, Buddy"(on McGeeSmith1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms"
cf. "Rock About My Saro Jane" (tune)
cf. "Take This Hammer" (chorus -- the "Roll On, Buddy" variant)
cf. "Way Down in Tennessee" (II) (lyrics)
NOTES [110 words]: This should not be confused with the "Roll On, Buddy" variant of "Take This Hammer"; although it was assembled by Charlie Bowman, who also was involved in assembling "Nine-Pound Hammer" as a delimited song when he was a member of Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, this is an entirely separate song. I use "floatingverses" as a keyword mostly because of the "rowdy ways" verse; the rest don't seem to have exact analogues elsewhere.
Further research shows that the author, Charlie Bowman, was not only familiar with the other "Roll On, Buddy," but held the copyright on that song, having assembled it from traditional fragments in collaboration with Al Hopkins. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: RcROBRO2

Roll On, Columbia

DESCRIPTION: Tribute to the Columbia River, the development along it, and the Bonneville Power Administration that manages both: "Roll on Columbia, roll on (x2), Your power is turning our darkness to dawn, So roll on, Columbia, roll on."
AUTHOR: Woody Guthrie
EARLIEST DATE: 1941
KEYWORDS: technology nonballad river
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 26, 1856 - The siege of the Cascades
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 348-349, "Roll On, Columbia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 233, "Roll On, Columbia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 166-167, "Roll On, Columbia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 62, "Roll on Columbia" (notes only)
DT, ROLCOLUM
ADDITIONAL: Greg Vandy with Daniel Person, _26 Songs in 30 Days: Woody Guthrie's Columbia River Songs and the Planned Promised Land in the Pacific Northwest_, Sasquatch Books, 2016, p. x (copy of one of Woody's own typed texts of his original version); p. 126 (a copy of Michael Loring's version, which cut four of Woody's verses and added two of Loring's own)
Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 14-15, "Roll On Columbia, Roll On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tom Nash and Twilo Scofield, _The Well-Travelled Casket: Oregon Folklore_, Meadowlark Press, 1999, p. 41, "Roll On, Columbia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17660
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Roll On, Columbia" (on AmHist2) (on PeteSeeger41)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Goodnight Irene" (tune)
NOTES [4240 words]: I've seen people claim that the tune Woody used was "Goodnight Irene"; others say it's "My Bonnie." I guess he managed to modify it enough to fool at least a few people.... - RBW
"My Bonnie"? Naah. This is "Goodnight Irene", almost unchanged. - PJS
Obviously true of the chorus. The verse has been altered to a slightly greater degree. But not much, I agree. And it's pretty clear that that the "Irene" melody is what made this by far the most popular of Woody's Bonneville Power Administration songs. (To be fair to Woody, "Irene" had not yet become world-famous, so he wasn't blatantly ripping off a famous melody.)
What we sing today is not exactly Woody's original version, though -- which, like certain others of his songs (e.g. "Reuben James"), started out with too little broad vision and too much nitpicky detail. Vandy/Person lets us see something of how the song came to be as it now is. On p. 10 they reproduce a typed version of one of Woody's texts (dated 5-12-1941). The chorus is there, and there are eight verses. The order of the verses is as follows:
1. The familiar opening verse "Green Douglas Fir"
2. The familiar second verse "Other great rivers lend power to you"
3-6. Four verses about wars with the "Injuns" (yes, it say "Injuns"!), that mentions Sheridan, "Coe's little store," and a genocide of the natives. (Anybody who thinks Guthrie was entirely without prejudice should read this text! -- though it was Guthrie himself who finally cut it; Vandy/Person, p. 110)
7. The familiar verse "At Bonneville now there are ships in the lock"
8. The familiar verse "And on up the river is Grand Coulee Dam"
Note the absence of the often-heard verse "Tom Jefferson's vision would not let him rest" and of the less-common but still widely-known verse "These mighty men labored by day and by night." These verses, as we shall see, are by Michael Loring, not Woody.
Although the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 was one of the most important steps toward America becoming a superpower, most historians agree that Thomas Jefferson had had his eyes on "an empire... in the Pacific Northwest" before that, but perhaps as part of a sort of pseudo-Northwest Passage; Jefferson had been interested in that since at least the 1780s. The first American land claims were made by Robert Kendrick in the 1790s, at about the same time as the Columbia River was discovered (and by members of the same expedition), but Kendrick got there by sea, around Cape Horn, and acquired the land (by the sort of fake treaties with the Indians that were already becoming too familiar), and only then wrote to Jefferson about it (Ridley, 287-289).
The Louisiana Purchase was more an attempt to forestall France from building its own empire there (so, e.g., Appleby, p 63) -- though one suspects that had Napoleon managed to survive all the attacks on him, he would have found a way to pressure the Americans to get the Purchase back. But having made the Purchase, Jefferson had to do something with it, and so he sent Lewis and Clark (and Zebulon Pike, although that gets less publicity). Part of the Lewis and Clark expedition's purpose was to explore, but a lot of it was diplomatic, to open relations with the Indians (Appleby, p. 106). One suspects they would have been even less friendly had they known what would happen for the next hundred years....
Lewis and Clark certainly cannot claim to have discovered the Columbia River. In 1787, a group of Boston merchants sent a commercial expedition to the Pacific Northwest -- the edition led by Kendrick. One of the ships they sent was the Columbia, and one of the captains was Robert Gray. The voyage that followed is probably too complicated to explain here (some aspects of it are covered in "The Bold Northwestern Man" [Laws D1]; the Spanish, the English, and Americans under Gray and Robert Kendrick were all looking for land and profits), but the voyage, although not a financial success, was interesting enough that Gray and the Columbia having returned home, went out again in 1790, and Gray located the Columbia River and went a short distance inland (Avery, pp. 83-84; Ridley, p. 285). The river is of course named after his ship. Lewis and Clark do of course get credit for, as it were, mapping the connection between the Columbia and the territories of the United States.
If anyone can claim to have foreseen a Pacific Northwest empire, it was John Jacob Astor, who wanted the lands around the mouth of the Columbia for his fur trade business (Dietrich, p. 86); Jefferson in 1813 wrote to him that "I view it as the germ of a great, free, and independent empire on that side of our continent" (Ridley, p. 200) -- though Astor's attempts to explore and work the region didn't accomplish much. It wasn't until James K. Polk became President that an agreement was reached with Britain that definitively brought the western parts of what became Washington and Oregon into American hands.
The verses Woody originally wrote, that were replaced by the Tom Jefferson verse, refer to the Yakima War of 1855. The event Woody picked was relatively obscure; there were three Indian Wars between 1848 and the Civil War, and the Battle of the Cascades was only a single incident of the second war. But it was closely associated with the Columbia, and indeed with the region above the Bonneville Dam.
The Yakima, like every other native nation, had been abused and cheated by the Americans and forced onto reservations -- and settlers started encroaching on those lands just weeks after the treaty that put the Yakima on that reservation! (Dietrich, p. 158). The Americans had imposed their plans largely by force, but in 1855, the Yakima rebelled over a large part of Washington State.
There is dispute over who started the war. The Americans (who were having a small gold rush) were clearly guilty of invading Indian land -- and some Americans apparently abused and raped Indian women. The first murders came after that, of several miners and of Indian agent A. J. Bolon (Miles, pp. 2-3). Similarly, at the first battle, the Whites fired first, but only after an Indian had made what was interpreted as an intent to fight (Miles, pp. 6-7). And the fighting spread.
Needing troops to deal with the problem, General John E. Wool "removed all but one company of regular troops from Vancouver[, Washington] and left only nine men in the blockhouse at the Cascades on the Columbia River" (Avery, p. 183; according to Dietrich, the blockhouse was known as "Fort Rains"; it is just downstream from where the Bonneville Dam is now. Dietrich, p. 73, has a photo of the blockhouse; it looks like it is two stories, with the second story overhanging the first all around; there are only a few windows in the upper level. It must have been a horrid place to take shelter).
The Cascades was a strategic point, a portage with a White settlement trapped between bluffs (Dietrich, p. 158). It also was the link between two relatively low areas separated by mountains, meaning that the side that controlled it would be able to pass forces back and forth to fight in both places. (Although, as it turned out, internal disputes on the European side made that almost moot; their professional and volunteer armies wouldn't work together.) "[Yakima leader] Kamiakin [Ka-Mi-Akin] therefore decided to attack the Cascades. The Yakima, Klickitat, and Cascade Indians planned to wait until both of the small steamboats which ran between the Cascades and The Dalles were at the Cascades and them sink them so that they could not go for help....
"Fortunately for the whites, when the steamboats were attacked, a crewman of the Mary lay down on the floor of the pilot house to avoid the gunfire and backed the ship out into the river from that position. The Wasco also escaped, and the two ships went for aid" (Avery, p. 183). According to Dietrich, p. 159, the pilot was named Hardin Chenowith. His feat was the more impressive because, according to Miles, p. 35, both the captain and the first mate were away from the boat. When the steamboats reached Vancouver, they brought back a force of soldiers. This is, obviously, the inspiration of Woody's line "We won by the Mary and the soldiers she bore" (Woody did not italicize or underline the ship's name in his submitted copy).
"In the meantime, the Indians killed the member of one family, and many of the remaining settlers took refuge in a store, a two-story log house"; they were besieged and an attempt made to burn them in the building, but the Whites managed to hold them off (Avery, p. 183). Hence Woody's "Our loved ones we lost there at Coe's little store." Dietrich, p. 158, and Mile, p. 35, however, call it "Bradford's store"; more than forty people took shelter in the building, which (fortunately for them) held a few muskets that helped them hold of the attackers (Dietrich, p. 159).
The two attacks were roughly simultaneous and clearly coordinated, but the store and the blockhouse were about a mile and a half apart, so they couldn't help each other or unite their forces.
By the time it was over, 16 Whites and been killed and 12 injured (Dietrich, p. 160; Miles, p. 34, says three soldiers and 14 civilians were killed -- and doubts that Kamiakin ordered the affair, because he didn't attack civilians).
The store, and Fort Rains, were apparently the only places in which people held out. Two forces came to their rescue. One was the force in the steamboats. The other was a group of about forty soldiers under Army Lieutenant Phil Sheridan, who were told of the battle by a solitary refugee; they made it to the blockhouse first. His attack didn't come off as intended, because the other relief force gave things away (Avery, pp. 183-184; Miles, pp. 39-40 says Sheridan's men cheered, the other forces sounded a bugle to say they were coming, and the Indians took off), but his presence explains Woody's lines "It's there on your banks that we fought many a fight / Sheridan's boys in the block house that night." They did fight, without reaching the blockhouse, but their main value may have been that they distracted the Indians while other forces arrived (Miles, p. 37).
The soldiers then went looking for the attacking Indians, who had fled. "A group of Cascade Indians who had taken refuge on the island were all that could be found. Nine of them were hanged because their guns had recently been fired" (Avery, p. 184). Miles, p. 38, says that "Colonel George Wright conducted a military commission examining evidence and hearing testimony from cooperative local Indians. Nine Cascade men, including their chief, Chenowith, were found guilty of murdering civilians and hanged for war crimes." Hence Woody's lines "Remember the trial when the battle was won / The wild Indian warriors to the tall timber run, We hung every Indian with smoke in his gun." (According to Dietrich, p. 160, at least some of the nine men executed were probably innocent.)
According to Miles, p. xii, "At least 370 victims died violently in Washington Territory between September of 1855 and November of 1758 including soldiers, chiefs, warriors, volunteers, civilians, non-combatants, women and children." That, to be sure, was nothing like the Indian losses in the previous few decades; the reason the Americans were able to win the war was that over ninety percent of the original inhabitants ha died of the white men's diseases over the previous decades (Dietrich, p. 161).
Incidentally, the Cascades fight wasn't Sheridan's first action in the Yakima War; he had been leading dragoons from the beginning of the conflict (Miles, p. 15).
Although the Grand Coulee Dam is no longer "the biggest thing built by the hand of a man," more than three quarters of a century after Woody wrote this song, it is still reported (in 2019) to be the single most productive hydroelectric plant in the world, and Dietrich, p. 311, says that it produces nearly three times as much power as the next-most-productive dam on the Columbia. (The Bonneville Dam, by contrast, isn't a particularly big power producer, although the fact that it has covered the Cascades of the Columbia has made the river more navigable; prior to that, it had been almost murderous to use the river. The Columbia became the main hub of the northwest fur trade only because every other river was worse. According to Dietrich, p. 310, the Grand Coulee Dam "impounds sixty times as much water as Bonneville Dam." It's so big that the BPA operators actually have to time its releases to maximize not only its power output but those of the other Columbia dams!)
Woody said he wrote 26 songs for the Bonneville Power Administration (a couple of which have not been identified with certainty), but since this is the most famous, it's probably the best place to tell the story of Woody and the BPA. I probably should have asked Ed Cray to write this account, but I didn't know in time how complex the story was. So you'll have to accept me writing it...
The idea of damming the Columbia first came up when Woody was still very young, and the main goal wasn't electricity; it was irrigation. The Grand Coulee Dam is named for the Grand Coulee, which is a valley which would allow irrigation water to be brought to a lot of fertile soil in the northwest. The Grand Coulee is a northern extension of the Great Basin, the level region between the Rockies and the Pacific Coast ranges (Dietrich, pp. 28-29); the region is fertile but dry; by the 1930s, the region was losing population because there just wasn't enough water to support farming there (Dietrich, p. 31). The idea of a Grand Coulee Dam was first proposed in 1918 as a way to collect water which could be sent through the Grand Coulee (Vandy/Person, pp. 76-77).
In 1925, the Army Corps of Engineers came in and looked around, and realized the power potential of the area -- but the federal government wasn't going to interfere with the local power companies (Vandy/Person, p. 78). It wasn't until Franklin Delano Roosevelt became president that Washington got involved (Vandy/Person, pp. 78-79). But he moved quickly to get the project started, and by 1938 the Bonneville Dam was working (Dietrich, p. 407); Roosevelt himself flipped the switch that put it in operation (Vandy/Person, pp. 84-85). Hence Woody's line that the "at Bonneville now there are ships in the locks, The waters have risen and cleared all the rocks" (making the Cascades of the Columbia much more navigable).
In 1940, transmission lines were completed between Bonneville and Grand Coulee Dams, and the Bonneville Power Administration was truly in business (Vandy/Person, p. 87); the Grand Coulee Dam itself went into operation in 1941, about the time Woody was writing about it (Dietrich, p. 407). Many, many more dams would be built in the decades to come (there are now fourteen dams on the Columbia alone, twenty on the Snake, and hundreds of others elsewhere in the system; Dietrich, p. 42. Because of its large volume and sharp fall, the Columbia is thought to have 40% of the hydroelectric capacity of the United States!), but those two were the lynchpins of the whole system.
The Grand Coulee Dam was truly the Big One. As originally conceived, "The dam would create the world's largest artificial lake, require the world's largest concrete mixing plant, pour water down the world's biggest spillway, and lift water into the coulee with the world's most powerful pumps. It would be three times more massive than Boulder Dam (later renamed Hoover) rising on the Colorado River near Las Vegas. It would have three times the mass of the Great Pyramid of Cheops" (Dietrich, p. 32).
Woody ended up working for the Bonneville Power Administration for typical Woody reasons. He had just quit the best job he would ever have -- a radio gig,"Pipe Smoking Time," in which he played, joked, and sometimes got to bring in guests like Lead Belly -- though the producers didn't like Lead Belly at all (Cray, pp. 191-192, 194-195). He made between $180 and $350 a week at this time, which was an upper-middle to upper-class income (Cray, p. 197). But the radio people wanted Woody to restrain himself and follow the dictates of the sponsor. And, of course, he had that desperate urge to ramble One night he came home to his wife, ordered her to pack up, and headed off for California (Cray, pp. 198-200). At least, that was his destination. But what he was really driving toward was poverty. (Also divorce; according to Cray, pp. 201-207, this was the trip that caused his first wife, Mary, to finally give up on Woody -- who may have been a genius, but he was also incredibly irritating and unwilling to do real work to support his family. Woody's behavior in this time was actually criminal in several regards -- illegal occupancy, vandalism of property, absconding without paying debts; Cray, pp. 203-204, 206-207. He didn't see it that way, but that's what the law would have said.)
The Bonneville Power Administration people had decided to make a movie to publicize what they were doing, and they wanted a musician to fill in the gaps and (initially) to be the narrator. They applied to Alan Lomax in Washington for someone who could write the songs, and he suggested Woody (Cray, pp. 207-208).
Woody did his best to blow it. For starters, he had skipped town to escape his debts, so it took quite some time for the formal invitation to apply to rech him. Then he showed unannounced, with a beard, a work shirt, and work pants (Vandy/Person, p. 91). That alone would have given the producers a pretty good clue that he was a radical. They had wanted him for a year, but because of his politics, they didn't think they could bring him on as a permanent hire; the higher-ups simply wouldn't go for it. The rules allowed them to make temporary hires, for no more than a month, without going to the people in charge. So Woody, instead of getting a one-year job for $3200 or so, became a contract songwriter for one month for pay of $266 (Cray, pp. 208-209; his official title, according to Vandy/Person, p. 94, was "Information Consultant"). Woody still had to fill out enough paperwork to make him cranky, but the application, shown on pp. 96-97 of Vandy/Person, is interesting -- e.g. it gives proof that Woody left school after the tenth grade.
Although Stephen Kahn, the BPA publicity person who had dreamed all this up, had cut back Woody's role, he wanted to help Woody in every way he could. He had a man named Elmer Buehler drive Woody all over the Columbia Valley to get a picture of what he was to write about (Cray, p. 209; given what Woody had done to his own car, they didn't want to risk letting him drive a government vehicle! -- Vandy/Person, p. 101. It had advantages anyway, since it let Woody sit in the back seat and take notes or scribble lyrics or even play the guitar to try things out -- though it was hard on the driver, since Woody would not stay clean; Vandy/Person, pp. 102-103).
They visited one of the local Hoovervilles, to show how the dam projects would create jobs and also allow improvements to the shantytowns based on affordable electricity. They saw the Grand Coulee Dam being built. They visited the farm fields (Cray, pp. 209-210). Then Kahn, in effect, sat Woody down and told him to start writing, not realizing how quickly Woody could crank stuff out. Kahn also retained the right to edit the finished products (Cray, p. 210).
In the three weeks after he finished seeing the area, Woody cranked out 26 songs (Vandy/Person, p. 99, claim that this was the most productive period of his life, although given how much of Woody's work is lost, this is probably beyond proof), although some of them were rewrites of songs he had earlier written and some were relatively minor riffs on traditional ideas (Cray, p. 211). Not all were great, of course, but Kahn felt that ten to twelve were good enough to put in the film.
"Roll On, Columbia" was arguably the first of the bunch; Woody wrote part of it on his very first day on the job (Vandy/Person, p. 100).
Having a job didn't exactly solve Woody's financial problems; his almost-new car, which he had all but ruined with his careless ways, was repossessed (Vandy/Person, p. 100). In a way, this was almost an improvement -- he no longer had a way to pack up the entire family on some insane quest. But at least the family had enough to live on while he was working on the job (Vandy/Person, p. 99).
Once Woody's contract was up, he abandoned his wife and children and set off to hitchhike to New York, with no money except a gift of $20 from one of his co-workers. He and Mary Guthrie were formally separated by that fall and officially divorced by 1943 (Vandy/Person, pp. 112-113). Mary Guthrie by then had a better job than anything Woody ever managed; Woody had one of his various New Cookies, the future Marjorie Guthrie (Cray, pp. 266-267).
Woody had made low-quality recordings of his songs during his time in the Pacific Northwest, but no high-quality recordings were made. Kahn in 1942 caught up with Woody in New York and paid him $20 (plus a $10 tip out of his own pocket) to record three songs, but ironically, "Roll On, Columbia" was not one of them; the three were "Roll, Columbia, Roll," "Pastures of Plenty," and "The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done." The idea was to use them in the film -- but the film was on hold, because of the war and because there was no longer much question but that the war effort needed Columbia River electricity (Vandy/Person, pp. 115-117).
As it turned out, the film was not released until 1949, in much-reduced form and with a different purpose; World War II had changed everything, with Columbia River power being essential to the war effort. Woody recorded a dozen songs in 1942, but they were not released at the time (Cray, pp. 212-213 note). Kahn finally was able to make "The Columbia" in 1948, though it used only a few of Woody's songs and was taken largely from an earlier film, "Hydro," rather than being the big production Kahn had hoped for. Still, it was shown around the region (Dietrich, p. 302)
But not for long. Local power interests didn't want the government interfering with their program, and the Truman and Eisenhower administrations were not as interested in hydroelectric power as FDR had been. Eisenhower's Interior Secretary in fact ordered the film destroyed. But Kahn -- who had quit the Bonneville Power Administration a few years earlier when it was clear that he was not popular -- kept a copy, and Woody's old driver Elmer Bueler also salvaged a copy, and eventually a man named Bill Murlin managed to recover and fix up the hidden films and reccordings (Dietrich, pp. 302-303).
Ironically, even Woody seems to have forgotten about this song for a while. He didn't include it on his 1947 Disc recording of Columbia River songs, peculiarly titled "Songs from the Dust Bowl" (Vandy/Person, p. 124). When Pete Seeger wanted the text for People's Songs, Woody had to write to Michael Loring of the BPA to get the lyrics! (Vandy/Person, pp. 124-125). The copy that Loring sent to Seeger is reproduced on p. 126 of Vandy/Person; it has a hand-scribbled note saying that Loring had cut Woody's four Yakima War verses and added the "Tom Jefferson's vision" and "These mighty men labored" verses, which are by Loring (Vandy/Parson, p. 125). There is also a note from Loring to Pete explaining what he had done. There are a few other minor differences from Woody's version, e.g. in the list of rivers, he has "Sandy, Willamette, and Hood River, too" for Woody's "Williamette, Sandy, and Hood River, too."
I'm not sure Loring's "Tom Jefferson" verse makes the song better than just leaving it out, but it is definitely an improvement over Woody's Yakima War verses! Loring's version is effectively the canonical one, so in a way, this composed song has been folk processed. Vandy/Parson, p. 127, also note that the song became widespread even though there was no commercial recording until 1960; it was passed by oral transmission. It's just that we know that we know who it was that first started the process.
Even though they had gone into hiding for a time, the BPA songs represent an important part of Woody's legacy: "Pastures of Plenty," "Hard Traveling," "Grand Coulee Dam," and, of course, "Roll On, Columbia," one of Woody's half dozen or so greatest hits. And Cray, at least, think working on the project had helped Woody get out of a rut.
And eventually the state of Washington came around. It is not technically correct to say that "Roll On, Columbia" is the Washington State Song; they have an anthem called "Washington, My Home." But "Roll On, Columbia" is the "State *folk* song."
There has been dispute about the ownership of this and the other Columbia River songs. The federal government claimed them -- on its face, rightly, since the songs were written for them. But the Guthrie heirs were not ready to concede the point. A settlement was reached under which the Guthrie estate has copyright but the government can use the songs relatively freely (Vandy/Person, p. 140). Also, no one knew the tunes for four of them (though none of them very well known); Pete Seeger conjectured the tunes for four of them, probably correctly, and simply wrote his own for "Lumber Is King" (Vandy/Person, p. 142). My guess, based on only the briefest glance, is that the tune should be "Money Is King" or a variation on it. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: SBoA348

Roll On, Little Dogies

See The Cowboy's Dream (File: R185)

Roll Over

DESCRIPTION: "There were ten in a bed And the little one said 'Roll over, roll over.' So they all rolled over And one fell out." "There were nine in a bed...." And so forth until there was only one left, "And the little one said, 'Good night!'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook)
KEYWORDS: trick campsong nonballad humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 386, "Roll Over" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 285, 385, 515, "Ten in a Bed" (notes only)
NOTES [27 words]: I remember this from when I was young, which is not usual for me. The form quoted here isn't quite what I remember, but it's what I found in camp songbooks. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB386C

Roll the 'Tater

See Roll the Tater (Rolly Rolly) (File: R582)

Roll the Boat Ashore (Hog-eye I)

DESCRIPTION: Tales of sailing or mountain life, held together with a chorus such as "With a hog-eye! Roll the boat ashore and a hog-eye (x2). All she wants is a hog-eye man." Typical verse: "Who's been here since I been gone? (Someone) with his sea-boots on."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: nonballad shanty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 186, "Row the Boat Ashore" (1 text, with all the verses changed to land pursuits)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, p. 836, "The Hog-Eye Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 380, "Hog-Eye" (1 fragment, seemingly a ruined version of the chorus, 1 tune)
ST San380 (Partial)
Roud #331
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sally in the Garden" (many floating verses)
NOTES [135 words]: Paul Stamler points out a connection between this and "Sally in the Garden," which often mentions Sally being involved with a hog-eye man. Given that both songs are rather amorphous, it can be difficult in the case of short or excerpted texts to tell which is which (and, indeed, Roud appears to lump them).
Nonetheless I would maintain that they are separate songs, based on form. This one is a shanty. Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen's version is perhaps typical; it has a long (three and a half line) chorus, and the verses have more syllables than "Sally in the Garden." For an example, see the Supplemental Tradition.
Whall suggests that "hog-eye" in this case has nothing to do with the usual sexual meaning; a "hog-eye" reportedly was a California coastal barge, and the reference to the Gold Rush. - RBW
File: San380

Roll the Chariot

See We'll Roll the Old Chariot Along (File: Doe049)

Roll the Cotton Down

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Roll the cotton down." The young man (from Alabama) joined the (Black Ball) line (and now looks back and describes the curious doings on a Black Ball vessel)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 33-34, "Roll the Cotton Down" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 62-63, "Roll the Cotton Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 84-86, "Roll th' Cotton Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 62, "Roll the Cotton Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 144-145, "Roll the Cotton Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 152-158, "Roll the Cotton Down," "De Runer Von Hamborg (The Runners of Hamburg)" (9 texts-2 in German, 1 tune. The fifth version is basically "Paddy Works on the Railway," sixth is "A Long Time Ago." In the German versions the characteristic line "roll the cotton down" is frequently replaced with "Oh, come, a beer for me.") [AbEd, pp. 123-126]
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 98-99, "Roll the Cotton Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 3, "Roll the Cotton Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 124, "In Mobile Bay where I was born" (1 text)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 34, "Roll the Cotton Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 38, "Roll the Cotton Down" (1 text)
DT, ROLLCTTN* ROLLCOTT2*
Roud #2627
RECORDINGS:
Capt. Leighton Robinson w. Alex Barr, Arthur Brodeur & Leighton McKenzie, "Roll the Cotton Down" (AFS 4232 B2, 1939; on LC27, in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Long Time Ago" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "Roll, Alabama, Roll" (tune)
cf. "Lower the Boat Down" (similar tune)
cf. "Run, Let the Bullgine Run" (tune)
File: Doe033

Roll the Old Chariot Along

See We'll Roll the Old Chariot Along (File: Doe049)

Roll the Tater (Rolly Rolly)

DESCRIPTION: "Don't you think he's a nice young man? Don't you think he's clever? Don't you think that him and me Would make a match forever? Rolly roll, rolly roll, Rolly roll the 'tater." The singer likes music/dancing so much that she wants to join the Shaker band
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (JAFL 28)
KEYWORDS: courting dancing food
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 582, "Roll the 'Tater" (1 text)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 165-166, "Roll the 'Tater" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7670
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Weevily Wheat" (floating lyrics, meter)
NOTES [44 words]: Randolph believes this song completely unconnected to "Weevily Wheat." But my immediate reaction on reading the piece was to think of that song, and the tune printed by Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty is similar. No wonder ballad indexing is so hard! - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: R582

Roll the Union On

DESCRIPTION: "We're going to roll, we're going to roll, we're going to roll the union on." Verse: "If the (boss, scabs, etc.) get(s) in the way, we're going to roll right over him (them)...we're going to roll the union on"
AUTHOR: Probably John Handcock/Handcox
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (recording, John Handcock)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement nonballad boss scab worker
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, ROLUNION*
RECORDINGS:
John Handcock, "Going to Roll the Union On" (AFS 3237 A2, 1937)
Pete Seeger & Chorus, "Roll the Union On" (on PeteSeeger01)
NOTES [57 words]: John Handcox (with an X) was a sharecropper and organizer; he apparently based the song on the hymn "Roll the Chariot On" (which seems to be not the same as "We'll Roll the Old Chariot Along" as found in Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag; they share a verse, but not the tune or meter). I have been unable to find a copy of "Roll the Chariot On". - PJS
File: DTroluni

Roll the Woodpile Down

DESCRIPTION: Pumping or capstan shanty. Verse lines end with "way down in Florida" and "an' we'll roll the woodpile down." Full chorus: "Rollin' rollin' rollin' the whole world round. That brown gal o' mine's down the Georgia Line, an' we'll roll the woodpile down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 160-161, "Roll the Woodpile Down" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 128]
DT, WOODPLDN*
Roud #4443
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Haul the Woodpile Down
NOTES [154 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas states that this is the sea version of "Haul the Woodpile down." [Indexed as "Hold the Woodpile Down," which is a more Dave Macon-ish version of the title. - RBW] Probably originated in the West Indies of American south, and was popular at sea right up to the end, one of Hugill's sources remembers it sung on board as late as 1920. Technically this could have been entered under "Hold the Woodpile Down"; however that entry kept making references to "Roll the Woodpile Down" and there was no entry for that cross-reference so I decided to add one, especially since this is likely the original that Uncle Dave Macon's version came from. - SL
This is a complicated question; the original is by Harrigan and Braham, which perhaps got converted to this, which then got Dave Maconized. Probably the two should have been handled differently, but they're staying split for historical reasons. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Hugi160

Roll Them Simelons

DESCRIPTION: "O Miss Mary, I am so sorry, Bound for Texas, I am so sorry. Roll them simelons, roll 'em round, Keep them simerlons rollin' down. Roll them simelons, roll 'em down, All them pretty girls down town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 157, p. 302, "Roll Them Simelons" (1 short text)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 30, "Roll Them Simelons" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #4511
File: Hud157

Roll Your Leg Over

DESCRIPTION: In this quatrain ballad, singers hypothecate that if the girls were ducks, rabbits, bricks, etc., they would be drakes, hares, masons, and euphemistically enjoy lustful pleasures.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Australia [from an American student] Canada US(MW,So,SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 301-309, "Roll Your Leg Over" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II, pp. 643-647, "Roll Your Leg Over" (2 texts)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 167, "Roll Your Leg Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ROLYRLEG
Roud #10410
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hares on the Mountain"
cf. "Creepin' and Crawlin'"
cf. "The Twa Magicians" [Child 44]
NOTES [115 words]: This more or less recently composed bawdy song -- the earliest text recovered dates from the second world war -- is ultimately descended from "The Twa Magicians" (Child 44). See Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 306 ff.
G. Legman offers extensive notes in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II. - EC
Paul Stamler suggests that this is a strongly bawdy version of "Hares on the Mountain." The dependence, in lyrics and form, is obvious, but this text apparently has taken on a life of its own in army circles. I must admit that I question the connection with "The Twa Magicians." Cray concedes there are no intermediaries between "The Twa Magicians" and the "Hares on the Mountain/Sally My Dear" complex. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: EM301

Roll, Alabama, Roll

DESCRIPTION: The Alabama is built in Birkenhead by Jonathan Laird. After a long career of commerce-raiding, the Kearsarge catches her off Cherbourg and sinks her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925
KEYWORDS: shanty battle navy Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 15, 1862 - Launching of the C.S.S. Alabama
June 19, 1864 - The Alabama sunk by the U.S.S. Kearsarge
FOUND IN: US(MA) New Zealand
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 35-37, "The Alabama" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 65, "Roll, Alabama, Roll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 159, "Roll, Alabama, Roll!" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 126-127]
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 122, "Roll, Alabama, Roll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 122-123, "The Alabama" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 245-247, "Roll, Alabama, Roll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 350-351, "The Alabama" (1 text)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 252-253, "Roll, Alabama, Roll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, p. 70, "Roll, Alabama, Roll" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ROLLALAB*
Roud #4710
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll the Cotton Down" (tune)
cf. "Mars Forevermore" (form)
NOTES [1027 words]: When the Civil War began, the Confederates had neither navy, nor merchant fleet, nor significant shipbuilding capability; all rested in the hands of the North. Facing economic strangulation, the South explored every avenue to build a fleet. And in their Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory they had perhaps the most creative of all Jefferson Davis's cabinet officers; it is probably not coincidence that Mallory was the only Confederate cabinet officer to serve for the entire existence of the Confederacy
Early in the war, the British were willing to help the Confederates build a navy. One of the ships built for this purpose was the Alabama, a fast commerce-raider. Built by Jonathan Laird, Ltd. at Birkenhead near Liverpool, the Federals protested her building from first to last, but somehow the papers never quite came through in time. (Nevins, pp. 266-267, describes how American Minister to Britain Charles Francis Adams kept bringing new details to the British government about the Alabama. The British government theoretically agreed to try to stop work on the ship, but the local customs inspectors ignored their instructions. Stokesbury, p. 252, describes how Laird kept the whole thing quiet by simply calling the hull "No. 290.")
After the completion of the hull in 1862, the Alabama sailed for the Azores to pick up arms and her Captain, Raphael Semmes (brother of the Confederate General Paul Semmes, killed at Gettysburg), who was the former commander of the raider Sumter and considered "the most distinguished fighter in the Confederate navy" (RandallDonald, p. 450). The crew reportedly "was mostly English and included very few Southerners" (RandallDonald, p. 450).
Paine, p. 12, claims that the Alabama was, in terms of ships seized, the most successful commerce raider of all time; he credits her with destroying 55 ships and capturing ten more which were released on bond. McPhersonCry, p. 547, credits her with 64 victories in her two year career. Jameson, p. 12, lists her tally as "sixty-five vessels and $10,000,000 worth of property." RandallDonald, pp. 450-451, lists her as having taken 62 merchant ships plus the larger navy vessel Hatteras. Catton simply says (p. 386) that she sank more than "threescore ships" while noting (p. 128) that one of her victims was the Alert, the ship in which R. H. Dana served his "Two Years Before the Mast." Boatner, p. 4, claims she took care of 69 ships.
Although she once ran the blockade to enter the Confederate port at Galveston, the Alabama was generally unable to stop at Confederate ports, which were blockade; when she needed repairs in 1864, she stopped at the French port of Cherbourg. An American got off word of her presence there, and the Kearsarge was waiting when the Alabama sailed. Soon after the Alabama crossed the three mile limit, the Kearsarge moved in; the Confederate ship sank some forty minutes later. Her crew was rescued by a British yacht.
According to Pratt, p. 151-152, there wasn't much difference in actual fighting power between the Alabama and the Kearsarge. (Paine, p. 12, lists Alabama with 6 32-pounders plus a 110-pounder and a 68-pounder; she could steam at 13 knots and carried a crew of 148. On p, 285, Paine lists Kearsarge as having two 11" pivot guns and 4 32-pounders; her crew was 160 and her speed 11 knots McPhersonWaters. McPhersonWaters, p. 204 says Alabama had 6 32-pounders, a 68-pound smoothbore, and a 7-inch/110 pound Blakely rifle; the Kearsarge had four 32-pounders, two 11-inch Dahlgren smoothbores, and a 30-pound rifle).
But raw fighting power rarely settles battles. The Kearsarge was a well-drilled ship with properly-trained gunners. Alabama, which constantly had to change bases, could never lay in an adequate supply of powder and shot, so her gunners were much less accurate. Browne-BL, p. 584, declares "The firing of the Alabama was rapid and wild, getting better near the close; that of the Kearsarge was deliberate, accurate, and almost from the beginning productive of dismay, destruction, and death." Of course, Browne was the surgeon of the Kearsarge, so he was biased. But the assessment seems to be true; McPhersonWaters, p. 204, says "The Alabama fired faster but wider, logging 370 shots to the Kearsarge's more disciplined and accurate 173. One of the Alabama's 110-pound rifle shells smashed into the Kearsarge's sternpost -- a potentially fatal shot, but it failed to explode.". And Kearsarge had those two very heavy 11-inch guns -- Dahlgrens were "ship-killers." As a result, Kearsarge was able to score many more damaging hits and destroy her opponent while taking very little damage. Only three men on the Kearsarge were wounded (Browne-BL, p. 585), although one injury proved moral.
Both sides claimed that the other had fired after the Alabama ran up the white flag (Browne-BL, p. 586). But Alabama was already sinking, and only a few shots were fired.
The Alabama was a great success, but few ships followed her. The Americans demands for reparation, known as the "Alabama Claims," caused the British to stop building ships for the Confederacy. In all the claims covered the damage done by eleven ships; the total bill was $19,021,000, largely due to the Alabama, the Shenandoah, $6,488,320; and the Florida, $3,698,609 (according to Boatner, p. 5). The Americans were finally paid in 1873. Boatner, p. 5, says the amount was $15.5 million, which figure is also quoted by Stokesbury, p. 252; Randall/Donald, which devotes half a dozen pages to the neutral tribunal which adjudicated the claims, says that the figure was $1,929,819 in gold; I suspect some of the discrepancy lies in conversion rates.
According to Delgado, p. 122, the wreck of the Alabama was found off Cherbourg in 1984, and some artifacts have been recovered.- RBW
For a broadside on the same subject see
LOCSinging, as112570, "The Sinking of the Pirate Alabama," J. Magee (Philadelphia), 1864; also hc00026b, "The Sinking of the Pirate Alabama"; cw103190, "Kearsarge and Alabama"
attributed to Silas S. Steele, "Tune: 'Teddy the Tiler,' or 'Cannibal Islands.'" - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doe035

Roll, Boys, Roll

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Oh Sally Brown she's the gal for me, boys Roll, boys roll boys roll. Sally Brown she's the gall for me boys, Way high Miss Sally Brown."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 170, "Roll, Boys, Roll!" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 137-138]
NOTES [39 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas got this from his friend "Harding the Barbarian," a black sailor and shantyman from Barbados. Harding said it originated in the West Indies and was popular in ships which carried chequerboard crews. - SL
File: Hugi170

Roll, Jordan, Roll (I)

DESCRIPTION: "My brother sitting on the tree of life And he heard when Jordan roll, Roll, Jordan, Roll, Jordan, Roll, Jordan, Roll.""O preacher, you oughta been there." "My sister sitting on the tree of life." "He comes, he comes, the Judge severe." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Lucy McKim: see Notes)
KEYWORDS: river freedom religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 1, "Roll, Jordan, Roll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 52-52,App.I, "Roll, Jordan, Roll" (2 texts, 2 tunes; p. 165 in the 1909 edition)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 631, "Roll, Jordan, Roll" (2 short texts plus a fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 631, "Roll, Jordan, Roll" (1 tune, of the chorus only, plus a text excerpt)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp.195-196 , "Roll, Jordan, Roll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 240, "Roll, Jordan, Roll"; 241, "Roll, Jordan, Roll" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, p. 48, "Roll, Jordan, Roll" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 369, "Roll, Jordan, Roll" (1 text)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 22, "Roll, Jordan, Roll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 15, "Roll, Jordan, Roll" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 95, "Roll, Jordan, Roll" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H.G. Spaulding, "Under the Palmetto" in _The Continental Monthly_, Vol. 4, No. 11 (August 1863 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 198-199, ("Roll, Jordan") (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 57, "Roll, Jordan, Roll" (1 text, 1 tune) (pp. 128-129 in the 1876 edition)
Roud #6697
RECORDINGS:
Nathaniel Babb and Michael Williams, "Roll Jordan Roll" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
Elizabeth Bivens, "Roll, Jordan, Roll" (on HandMeDown2)
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "Roll Jordan Roll" (Victor 16453, 1910; rec. 1909); "Roll Jordon [sic] Roll" (CYL: Edison [Amb.] 980, rec. 1912)
Lt. Jim Europe's Singing Serenaders, "Roll Jordan Roll" (Pathe 22105, 1919) (Pathe 020851, 1923 [as Jim Europe's Singing Serenaders])
James Garfield Smalls, "Roll Jordan Roll" (on USSeaIsland03)
Tuskegee Institute Singers, "Roll, Jordan Roll" (Victor 18237, 1917; rec. 1915)
NOTES [659 words]: The texts of this piece differ significantly; the verse lines quoted above are typical but by no means universal. There seem to have been adaptions for particular situations. The line "Roll, Jordan, Roll" is, of course, characteristic. - RBW
"'Roll Jordan Roll' was collected by Lucy McKim during a three-week visit to the Union-occupied Port Royal, South Carolina, where Sea Island people sang it to her... McKim registered the song for copyright in District Court, Philadelphia, on December 27, 1862" (Donald R. Hill, Maureen Warner-Lewis, John Cowley and Lise Winer, liner notes to WITrinidadVillage01).
SCAFFOLDING OF BLACK SPIRITUALS, FIELD HOLLERS, BLUES AND R&B
SPECULATION ABOUT THE SOURCE OF A SPIRITUAL'S CHORUS: "ROLL JORDAN, ROLL"
Charles Carleton Coffin was a war-time correspondent for the Boston Journal. Early in 1863 he was in the Port Royal area, the Sea Island section of South Carolina captured by the Union troops in 1862. His notes include a few observations about "Roll Jordan, Roll." He makes the point so casually that it may have already been accepted as common knowledge.
Coffin visits a church used, separately, by whites and freedmen. On one Sunday morning he joins the white congregation. "The congregation were singing when we entered,--
Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood
Stand dressed in living green,
So to the Jews fair Canaan stood,
While Jordan rolled between."
This is the third verse of Isaac Watts's "There is a land of pure delight" (Watts, #66 pp. 413-414).
Coffin writes, "It was the well-known tune "Jordan," sung by millions in times past and present" (Coffin, p. 226).
A few pages later, from a plantation under Northern control, staffed by freedmen, Coffin writes, "The people of the plantation gathered for worship in the large parlor of the house, .... A favorite song was 'Roll, Jordan, roll,' ...." (Coffin, pp. 232-235)
Coffin does not make the connection between Watts's hymn and "Roll Jordan, Roll" explicit, but Eileen Southern does:
"The black Methodists in early Philadelphia earned a wide-spread reputation for composing their own religious songs and singing them instead of the official hymns of the Methodist denomination, much to the discomfiture of the leading white clergymen of the denomination.... In composing their songs, the black Methodists used verses from the Bible, verses from favorite Protestant hymns, and verses of their own composition -- then added refrains and choruses to the resulting conglomeration of poetic materials. Thus, it appears, was born the Negro spiritual! We can easily reconstruct the process. Here for example is the text of a hymn from Allen's collection:
There is a land of pure delight
Where saints immortal reign
Infinite day excludes the night
And pleasures banish pain
Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood
Stand dress'd in living green
So, to the Jews, old Canaan stood
While Jordan rolled between (Allen #27 p. 46)
This is a wonderful old hymn text, composed by the renowned English minister Isaac Watts. But its ideas are expressed in rather sophisticated terms, especially for a people newly freed from slavery who were, for the most part, illiterate. The black folk composers caught the spirit of the Watts hymn, but changed the words to suit their ideas about its basic meaning. Their version was more personal, more direct, more emotional, and easier to understand. All members of the congregation could join in the singing, even those who could not read. This is what they sang:
Oh, brothers, you ought to been there
Yes, my Lord
A sittin' in the kingdom
To hear Jordan roll.
Roll, Jordan, roll; roll, Jordan, roll
I want to go to heaven when I die
To hear Jordan roll.
We could point out similar relationships between other spirituals and the Protestant hymns or scriptures. Always the spirituals change the language of the source materials so that the words become the personal utterance of the singer." (Southern, pp. 27-28) - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: SBoA195

Roll, Jordan, Roll (II)

DESCRIPTION: Humorous verses for "Roll, Jordan, Roll," e.g. "Kate went a-fishing the other night, Roll sweet Jordan roll, She broke eleven hooks and never got a bite..." "[A chicken] sneezed so hard with the whooping cough It sneezed its head and tail both off."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad religious chickens | whooping cough
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 303, "Roll, Jordan, Roll" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 469, "Way Down Yonder on Cedar Street" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 469, "Way Down Yonder on Cedar Street" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #6697
NOTES [35 words]: Brown's six-line fragment is not in the same form as Randolph's song, and doesn't mention the Jordan. But they start with the same lines; in the absence of real data to classify the Brown text, I lump them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: R303

Roll, Julia, Roll

See The Liverpool Judies (Row, Bullies, Row; Roll, Julia, Roll) (File: Doe106)

Rolla Trudum

See Lolly-Too-Dum (File: LxU012)

Rolled the Stone Away

DESCRIPTION: "In ancient days, when Israel's host In darkest bondage lay, The mighty power of God was shown, He rolled the stone away. He rolled the sea away, He rolled the sea way. With Jesus ever near, No foe I have to fear. He rolls the sea away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 630, "Rolled the Stone Away" (1 fragment)
Roud #11930
NOTES [31 words]: The Brown text looks very composite (what exactly was rolled away -- the Red Sea or the stone closing Jesus's tomb?) -- but with so little text, we can hardly separate the components. - RBW
File: Br3630

Roller Bowler

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Short refrain: "Hooray you roller bowler." Full refrain: Timme high-rig-a-jig and a ha ha ha, Good morning ladies all." Verses concern courting or at least chasing women.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
KEYWORDS: shanty courting
FOUND IN: Britain West Indies
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 348-349, "Roller Bowler" (3 texts, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 260-263]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XII, pp. 14-15, "Roller, Bowler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8283
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Good Morning, Ladies All
NOTES [31 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas says [this is] of Negro-Irish origin. Sharp's version was collected in Bristol, but it was also well known among the West Indian Sugar and Rum Traders. - SL
File: Hugi348

Rollicking Bill the Sailor

See Bollochy Bill the Sailor (File: EM081)

Rollicking Boys Around Tandragee, The

DESCRIPTION: The song is about Tandragee, its "darling colleens" and "rollicking boys." Other places have their fine points but Tandragee has its wonderful dancers, bold men and rare singers. "The gem of oul' Ireland is Tandragee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (IRTunneyFamily01)
KEYWORDS: dancing music Ireland nonballad home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 91-92, "The Rollicking Boys Around Tandragee" (1 text)
Roud #3106
RECORDINGS:
Michael Gallagher, "The Rollicking Boys Around Tandaragee" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
Paddy Tunney, "The Rollicking Boys Around Tandaragee" (on IRPTunney03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bunch of Green Rushes that Grew on the Brim" (tune, according to Tunney-StoneFiddle)
NOTES [161 words]: This song strings together references to other songs: "The House That Jack Built," "The Praties They Grow Small," "Donnybrook Fair," "Irish Jaunting Car," "The Rakes of Kildare," ...; and famous men: Robert Emmet, Burke, Dan O'Connell and Thomas Moore.
Tunney-StoneFiddle: .".. a good-humoured swipe is made at quite a few sacred cows.... 'That', he [the singer] maintained, 'is the satire to slay all stage-Irishmen!'" - BS
Heather Preston tells us, "Tandragee (formerly known as Tanderagee) was nearly 90% Protestant and famous in Ireland for having very Puritanical attitudes toward things like singing and dancing, not to mention pubs. So the song was composed to annoy the heck out of the straight-laced citizenry of Tandragee; it's not just 'stage Irishmen' who would be slain by the level of satire." Those wishing to see supporting evidence about Tandragee may consult the "Demography" section of the Wikipedia article on Tandragee [checked February 2020]. -(RBW)
Last updated in version 5.1
File: TSF091

Rollie Trudum

See Lolly-Too-Dum (File: LxU012)

Rollin' Dough Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Been to your house ... been told ... You roll up that gal like grandma roll up her dough." "You take my rider ... can't keep her long ... she sure gonna come back home." He can't leave her because "she's got a dead man finger and a black cat bone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: infidelity love sex magic nonballad lover nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Jack Gowdlock, "Rollin' Dough Blues" (on StuffDreams1)
NOTES [18 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcRoDoBl

Rollin' Down the Line

See Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line (File: ADR98)

Rollin' Home by the Silvery Moon

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Chorus: "Rollin' home (x4) by the light of the silvery moon. Happy is the sailor who has shipped aboard a whaler, when she's rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin' home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Chorus: "Rollin' home (x4) by the light of the silvery moon. Happy is the sailor who has shipped aboard a whaler, when she's rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin' home." Verses run "Here's to the good ol' beer (claret, rum, etc) mop it down" (also x4). The verses get more bawdy after finishing with the available beverages.
KEYWORDS: drink sailor shanty bawdy
FOUND IN: US Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 180-81, "Rollin' Home by the Silvery Moon" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Hugi 180

Rollin' Sam

DESCRIPTION: "Rollin' Sam, Rollin'; Rollin' Sam, Rollin'; Some folks say, Rollin' Sam, Rollin'; Sam won't steal, Rollin' Sam, Rollin'; I caught Sam in my corn field; Rollin' Sam, Rollin'; Rollin' Sam, Rollin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 234, "Rollin' Sam" (1 short text)
Roud #18159
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Some Folks Say that a Preacher Won't Steal" (lyrics) and references there
File: KiWa234R

Rolling a-Rolling

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Rolling Down to Old Maui (Mohee)

DESCRIPTION: The sailors, having spent many months in Kamchatka and the Bering Sea, are happy to flee the northern gales and return to temperate climes in Maui/Mohee. The look forward to seeing the girls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Journal from the Atkins Adams)
KEYWORDS: whaler return sailor sea Hawaii
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 27-28, "Rolling Down to Old Mohee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp.53-55, "Rolling Down to Old Maui" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 197-198, "Rolling Down to Old Maui" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 228-230, "Rolling Down to Old Maui" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 120-121, "Rolling Down to Old Maui" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tod-WhalingInSouthernWaters, p.126, "Rolling Down to Old Mohee" (1 text)
DT, MAUI1* MAUI2* MOHEE3*
Roud #2005
RECORDINGS:
A.L. Lloyd, "Rolling Down to Old Maui" (on Lloyd9)
NOTES [468 words]: The anticipation with which the whalers viewed Hawaii in this song seems to be real, although it was usually Honolulu to which they sailed. Whipple, p. 183, writes of Honolulu, "Here the earliest whalemen of the nineteenth century found a somnolent tropic town with a beautiful and well-protected harbor. They turned it into the pesthole of the Pacific. 'Cape Horn,' the whorehouse district, was so named because of the truism that the whalemen hung their consciences on the Horn on the voyage out and picked them up again on the way home. The district was known all over the world for its riotous debauches, and the whalemen accordingly felt called upon to go on their wildest sprees in Honolulu."
Rickard, p. 129, says, "The great era of Hawaii as the principle base for the Pacific whaling trade came with the discovery around 1840 of new and rich grounds along the north-west coast of North America, in the Sea of Okhotsk and in the Arctic Ocean to the north of the Bering Strait. This brought a steady increase in the number of ships calling at Hawaii. A definite pattern soon emerged. In the early years, the whalers would round Cape Horn into the Pacific in winter, sail north and call at Hawaii in spring, spend the summer on the whaling grounds, and then return to their home ports, calling at Hawaii on the way. Then, as the system changed and voyages began to lengthen, ships took to spending the summer in the northern whaling grounds and the winter on the Equator. In spring and autumn they visited the islands to refit. Very often they left their oil and bone in storage at Honolulu or shipped it home as freight in ordinary merchant ships.
"There was a spectacular increase in the number of visits by whalers during the 1840's. In 1840 there were 86 arrivals at the two ports of Honolulu and Lahaina [on Maui, so presumably the destination of the ship in this song], in 1843 there were 383, and in 1846, which was the peak year, 596. This was the greatest number of arrivals in any year, though the actual value of the trade increased for about ten years afterward. During the decade 1851-1860 4420 arrivals were recorded.
"For years there was great rivalry between Honolulu and Lahaina.... Honolulu possessed by far the better harbour, but many whaling masters preferred Lahaina, as supplied were abundant and cheap there, and it offered fewer temptations to the sailors and less opportunity for drunkenness and desertion. Up to 1840 Honolulu had a clear lead, then for the next decade Lahaina did the better business. The leadership alternated for a few years after that, but from 1855 Honolulu rapidly outstripped its rival."
Thus, given that this song was first taken down in 1858, odds are that this early collection dates from no more than a decade or two after the song was writte. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: SWMS027

Rolling Home (I)

DESCRIPTION: The sailors are "Rolling home, rolling home, rolling home across the sea, Rolling home (to wherever home is)." They describe they voyage, the girls or whatnot they have left behind, and the joys of returning to home (and sweethearts)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906
KEYWORDS: ship travel return reunion
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Australia Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 155-160, "Rolling Home" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 52-55, "Rolling Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 133-136, "Rolling Home" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 182-191, "Rolling Home" (4 texts- 3 English, 1 German; 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 146-149]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 39, "Rolling Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 75-77, "Rolling Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 134-136, "Rolling Home"; "Sailing Home from England" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 141-143, "(Rolling Home)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 139140, "Rolling Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 54-55, "Rolling Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 95, "Rolling Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 40, "Rolling Home to Merry England" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 116, "Rolling Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 87-89, "Rolling Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 72-74, "Rolling Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 320-321, "Rolling Home" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 96, "Rolling Home" (1 text)
DT, ROLLHOME ROLLHOM2 ROLLHOM3
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 32, #4 (1987), p, 80, "Rolling Home" (1 text, 1 tune, as sung by Captain Leighton Robinson)
Roud #4766
RECORDINGS:
Morris Houlihan, "Rolling Home" (on NFMLeach; MUNFLA/Leach)
Capt. Leighton Robinson w. Alex Barr, Arthur Brodeur & Leighton McKenzie, "Rolling Home" (AFS 4230 A, 1939; on LC27; on LC27, in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kevin Barry" (tune)
cf. "Magelhan" (adaption of text)
NOTES [156 words]: Silber and Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs credit this to Charles Mackay, but the variety of verses known to me (most of which do not occur in Silber) implies that this is a genuinely traditional song. - RBW
Hugill in Shanties from the Seven Seas (Mystic Seaport,1994) p. 145 says "Its origin is a bit doubtful, but most collectors seem to think it is based on a poem of Charles Mackay, written on board ship in 1858.... No one has discovered as to whether it is mentioned in any books prior to 1858; if this was the case it would more or less prove that the shanty came first."
Mackay's chorus is "Rolling home, rolling home, rolling home, dear land to thee, Rolling home to merry England, rolling home across the sea" per Leach in notes to NFMLeach. Leach thinks "MacKay used the chantey refrain [rather] than that he contributed it. Certainly the Newfoundlanders think that this chantey is older than the middle of the [19th] century." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Doe155

Rolling Home (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Rolling home, rolling home, rolling home, rolling home By the light of the silvery moon! Happy is the day When you draw your buckshee pay And you're rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: home money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 43, "Rolling Home" (1 text)
Roud #10555
File: BrPa043A

Rolling Home to Merry England

See Rolling Home (File: Doe155)

Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid)

DESCRIPTION: Boy: Where are you going? Girl: Milking. Boy: May I come? Girl: Why not? Boy: What if I lay you down? Girl: Then you'll help me up. Boy: What if you get pregnant? Girl: You'll be the father....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell), according to Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland
KEYWORDS: courting love dialog seduction
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,So) Britain(England(Lond,South, West),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (36 citations):
Randolph 79, "The Milking Maid" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 52, "The Milkmaid" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 132, pp. 277-278, "The Milkmaid" (1 text plus mention of "numerous" others)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 100, "Mary Jane the Milkmaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #75, "Where Are You Going, My Pretty Maid?" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 137-138, "Where Are You Going, My Pretty Fair Maid?" (1 text)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 68-70, "Sacramento" (3 texts, 2 tunes, with the third text deriving its tune from this piece; the other two texts are independent)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 92, 210-211, "Rio Grande" (1 fragment, version "c" of "Rio Grande," with the text of this song and the chorus of "Rio Grande") [AbEd, p. 85]; "Blow the Man Down" (1 text, version "e" of "Blow the Man Down" sung to the that tune as well as those of "Rio Grande" and "Goodbye, Fare-ye-well") [AbEd, pp. 165-166]
Greig/Duncan4 811D, "I'm Gaun to the Wood"; Greig/Duncan4 812, "Rolling in the Dew" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #38, pp. 180-181, "Rolling in the Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 44, "Dabbling in the Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 24, "Dabbling in the Dew" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 27, "Dabbling in the Dew" (2 texts)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 238-239, "Rolling in the Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 407, "Mummers' Song" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 80, "Rolling in the Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 13, "The Milkmaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 28, "Where Are You Going?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #67, "Dabbling in the Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 189, "Rolling in the Dew" (1 text, 1 tune); also 94, "Pelea era why moaz, moes fettow teag? [Where Are You Going To, My Pretty Maid?" (1 text + Cornish translation, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 56, "Where Are You Going To My Pretty Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, p. 205, "The Milkmaid's song" (1 censored excerpt, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 112, pp. 228-229, "The Milkmaid"; p. 230, "The Pretty Milkmaid" (2 texts, neither of which recounts the seduction)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 125, "The Milkmaid" (2 texts)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 150, "Where Are You Going, My Pretty Fair Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 46, "My Pretty Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 317, "Where are you going to, my pretty maid?" (3 texts)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 43, "Where Are You Going to, My Pretty Maid" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #12, p. 64, "The Farmer's Daughter" (1 text,which appears to be a much-expurgated version of this)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN242, "As I walked forth one summers day" ("Dreadful expansion of 'Where are you going my pretty maid, I'm going milking sir, she said'")
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Herbert Halpert, "Some Ballads and Folk Songs from New Jersey," Vol. LII, No. 203 (Jan-Mar 1939), pp. 58-59 "The Milkmaid" or "A-Rolling in the Dew Makes the Milkmaid So Fair" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 34, "Heave Away, My Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune, which looks like a combination of the chorus of "Heave Away, Me Johnnies" with verses from a bowdlerized version of "Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid)")
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 53, "Where Are You Going, My Pretty Maid?" (1 text, 1 tune, probably bowdlerized)
DT, DABBLDEW* MILKMDFR*
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 14-15, "Dabbling in the Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #219, "Dabbling in the Dew" (1 text, probably cleaned up)
Roud #298
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "Rolling in the Dew" (on FSB2CD, Maynard1, Voice10)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(348), "Where Are You Going My Pretty Maid?," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Firth b.34(275) View 2 of 2, "Where Are You Going My Pretty Maid"
LOCSheet, sm1882 21563, "O Where Are You Going, My Pretty Maid?," J. M. Russell (Boston), 1882 (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Seventeen Come Sunday" [Laws O17]
cf. "The New-Mown Hay"
cf. "I'm Goin' Away to Texas" (dialog format, characters and attitude)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Where Are You Going, My Pretty Fair Maid?
NOTES [386 words]: A number of the versions of this piece, such as Pound's two and the main Opie text, end seemingly BEFORE the seduction; the man asks the girl about her wealth, and she replies, "My face it is my fortune," whereupon he abandons her. I suspect, however, that these versions are bowdlerized, with the seduction eliminated from the middle. There is of course no seduction in the versions for young people such as that in Tobitt-TheDittyBag, which doubles the first lines of the song rather than mention "rolling in the dew."
In some cases this may be editors' bowdlerization, but it may have happened naturally in a few instances (note that Laura Ingalls Wilder actually quotes such a version in chapter 13 of By the Shores of Silver Lake!). - RBW
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO has this as a Inglesham Mummers' Play Song. This is an example of a song of courting, rejection, and, in this case acceptance, inserted into a mummers' "wooing" or "plough" play. For other examples and some discussion see "Sweet Moll." - BS
One of the reasons milkmaids were held in such romantic esteem was for their smooth, fair, and un-pockmarked skin, which came from their contact with cowpox and resultant immunity to smallpox -- thus the milkmaid's remark, "My face is my fortune."
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland's Cornish words are a revivalist translation from the English. - PJS
There seem to be several pieces of this sort floating about. Gammer Gurton's Garland and others have one running,
Little maid, pretty maid, whither goes thou?
Down in the (forest/meadow) to milk my cow.
Shall I go with thee? -- No, not now;
When I send for thee, then come thou.
(See Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #101, p. 90; Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes, p. 280, #313.) I suspect it is actually this, not "Rolling in the Dew," that Kennedy is citing for his date. I also suspect it is a cleaned-up version designed for public consumption.
Similarly, I suspect that Cox, who cites the "Universal Songster" of 1829, was looking at a clean version.
Robert Burns, it appears, collected a true "Rolling in the dew makes the milkmaid fair" text (thanks to Jonathan Lighter for pointing this out), but he did not supply details of the collection. Nonetheless this makes it clear that the song dates at least to the eighteenth century. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R079

Rolling John

See Blow, Boys, Blow (I) (File: Doe025)

Rolling King

See South Australia (File: Doe071)

Rolling Log Blues

DESCRIPTION: Singer has been "drifting and rolling ... looking for my room and board" ... "drifting from job to job, Gonna fix it." "Get me a pick and shovel." Her man is in jail "and the judge won't let me go his bail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (StuffDreams2)
KEYWORDS: poverty love rambling work nonballad lover judge prisoner
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lottie Kimbrough, "Rolling Log Blues" (on StuffDreams2)
File: RcRoLoBl

Rolling Neuse, The

DESCRIPTION: "When Greene's horn blew a long, loud blast, At early day's bright dawning, In slumber my heart was pulsing fast. I was dreaming of the morning When Nancy would be my youthful bride." As he prepares to fight, he prays for her happiness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: battle love courting dream
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 366, "The Rolling Neuse" (1 short text)
Roud #11746
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wind That Shakes the Barley" (subject)
NOTES [132 words]: Brown's informant listed this as a fragment, and so it appears to be. As it stands, it looks rather like "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," though whether that comparison would stand in a full-length version is not clear.
Greene is doubtless Nathaniel Green (1742-1786), who had a long career in the Continental (American Revolutionary) army. In October 1780 he was given command of what would now be called something like the southern theatre of the war. He successfully lead Cornwallis around by the nose, and despite minor setbacks, captured most southern cities by the end of 1781.
The Neuse River flows into Pamlico Sound in North Carolina, but this cannot be used to date the song more precisely; the soldier seemingly is not serving on the Neuse but thinking of his home near it. - RBW
File: Br3366

Rolling of the Stones, The

See The Twa Brothers [Child 49] (File: C049)

Rolling over the Billows

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, rolling over the billows, rolling over the sea, rolling over the billows in the deep blue sea (x2)." "It's cheese, cheese, cheese that makes the mice go round." "It's mice... that makes the cats go round." "It's cats... that makes the dogs go round."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 387, "Rolling over the billows" (notes only)
File: ACSF387

Rolling River (I)

See Shenandoah (File: Doe077)

Rolling River (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Passing sheep and rocking pony, My wife died and no baloney, Ha ha ha, rolling river, My wife died and left me a widder." "All night long I want your daughter, To milk my cow and tote my water. "Some old man's gonna lose his daughter"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love courting river death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 68, "Rolling River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11373
File: Brne068

Rolling Sailor, The

DESCRIPTION: "Don't you see the ships a-coming? Don't you see them in full sail?" They are coming ith the girl's "little rolling sailor" aboard. She rejoices, and says sailors are better than soldiers. She hopes the wars end soon and the press gangs ended
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Palmer)
KEYWORDS: sailor separation reunion soldier pressgang
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 64, "The Rolling Sailor" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #379, "My mother sent me out a-fishing" (1 fragment)
Roud #3505
NOTES [54 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes's fragment runs "My mother sent me out a-fishing, Fishing cockles in the sea. My foot slipped and I tumbled in, Two little nigger boys laughed at me." I'm not sure I'd file it here, although there are similar lyrics in "The Rolling Sailor," but Roud lumps them, so I'm doing the same for simplicity. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: PsSe064

Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss, A

See Tooraloo (Boy With No Shoes, All Tattered and Torn, I Dreamt I Had Died) (File: Gard014)

Rolling Stone Will Gather No Moss, A

See The Rolling Stone [Laws B25] (File: LB25)

Rolling Stone, The [Laws B25]

DESCRIPTION: Hard times leave a husband wanting to move to (Kentucky/California/Wisconsin); his wife wishes to stay at home. She wins the argument by pointing out that they might be killed by Indians on their way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (The Complete Pocket Songbook)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes travel settler
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws B25, "The Rolling Stone"
Thompson-APioneerSongster 57, "Wisconsin" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 351-352, "The Rolling Stone" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Randolph 194, "The Rolling Stone" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 186-188, "The Rolling Stone" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 194A)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 100, "The Stone that Is Rolling" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 87, "The Rolling Stone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 106-108, "The Wisconsin Emigrant's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 14, "The California Song" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 43, "Away to Wisconsin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #162, "A Rolling Stone Will Gather No Moss" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 428-429, "[Wisconsin] Emigrant's Song" (1 text plus an excerpt and a text of a possible English source from 1734)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 18-19, "The Rolling Stone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 161-163, "The Wisconsin Emigrant" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 387, ROLLNGST*
ADDITIONAL: Eliphalet Mason, _The Complete Pocket Song Book_, Andrew Wright (Northampton, MA), 1802 (available on Internet Archive), pp 23-28, "The Rolling Stone" (1 text, 1 tune)
David C. Peterson, "Wisconsin Folksongs," chapter in _Badger History: Wisconsin Folklore_, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Volume XXV, Number 2, November 1973), pp. 50-51, "Away to Wisconsin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #710
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Husband's Departure" (form, lyrics)
NOTES [35 words]: The 1802 version of this has the emigrant heading for Kentucky; it would appear it was revised as the frontier moved west. Thanks to Michael Taft for pointing out the 1802 Complete Pocket Songbook edition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LB25

Rolling Wheels

DESCRIPTION: "Rolling wheels across the desert, Oh! How happy we will be, When we reach old Mserata On the road to Tripoli." As the singer rides the "Rolling wheels across Italia," he looks forward to seeing "blue Pacific waters" and thinks of those who won't return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: war travel nonballad New Zealand death
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 64-65, "Rolling Wheels" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Clev064

Rolling Your Hoop

DESCRIPTION: "Molly, I'd love to be rolling your hoop, Rolling your hoop, rolling your hoop, Molly, I'd love to be rolling your hoop, Down by the country garden."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | roll hoop country garden
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 46, "Rolling Your Hoop" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #38118
File: BAAI046

Rolly Roll

See Roll the Tater (Rolly Rolly) (File: R582)

Rolly Troodum

See Lolly-Too-Dum (File: LxU012)

Rolly Trudam

See Lolly-Too-Dum (File: LxU012)

Rolly Trudum

See Lolly-Too-Dum (File: LxU012)

Roman Charity (The Virtuous Wife)

DESCRIPTION: "In Rome I read a nobleman The Emperor did offend" and is sentenced to death by starvation and thirst. But one of the nobleman's daughters gains permission to see him as long as she carries no foodstuffs -- and keeps him alive with her breast milk
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1723 (A Collection of Old Ballads)
KEYWORDS: royalty punishment father children rescue food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 345-350, "The Virtuous Wife: A New Song" (1 extremely long texxt, 2 tunes)
Roud #27535
File: HGam345

Romish Lady, The [Laws Q32]

DESCRIPTION: A young woman is a closet Protestant (she reads the Bible and refuses to worship angels). Her Catholic mother has her imprisoned. Tried before the Pope, she is burned at the stake. She pardons her tormentors while blaming her mother for her fate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1586 (stationer's register)
KEYWORDS: religious death execution
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Laws Q32, "The Romish Lady"
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 2, "The Romish Lady" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 450-455, "The Romish Lady" (5 texts; it appears that Laws omits version "C" from his list, but it is clearly the same piece)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 19, "Romish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 97, "The Romish Lady" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 149, "An Account of a Little Girl Who Was Burnt for Her Religion" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 40-43, "The Romish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 604, "The Death of a Romish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 56, "The Romish Lady" (1 text with variant readings)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 56, "The Romish Lady" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #209, "The Romish Lady" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 28, pp. 137-139, "The Death of a Romish Lady" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 113, "The Romish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 284-285, "The Romish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 168-169, "The Romish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 175-178, "A Lady's Daughter of Paris," with local title "There Was a Romish Lady" (1 text; tune on p. 404)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 49, "The Death of a Romish Lady" (1 text plus a fragment)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 94-97, "The Romish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 25, pp. 63-66, "The Death of a Romish Lady" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1518, "It was a Ladies Daughter, of Paris properly"
DT 540, ROMSHLDY*
Roud #1920
NOTES [390 words]: This song obviously dates to a time when Catholic-Protestant tensions were high, though it is not clear whether this dates it from before Henry VIII's break with Rome (1533), or during the reign of Mary I (1553-1558).
The song is known to have been in existence in the time of Charles II, 1660-1685, and a fragment is apparently found in John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont's 1611 play "The Knight of the Burning Pestle." (I say "apparently" because the reference is extremely brief. All that we have are the title -- "A Lady's Daughter of Paris, Properly" -- and
part of the first line -- "It was a lady's daughter..."; it is unusual in that it is a ballad *not* sung by Merrythought.) (For more on "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," see the notes to "Three Merry Men." The text and context are in Acts V, scene iii, lines 67-69 on p. 377 of Wine; in KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, which does not mark scenes, it is Acts V, lines 225-226 on pp. 111-112; in KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, p. 157, it is Act V, lines 228-229, with a possible tune on p. 182 although I would consider it dubious; it is not from tradition)
Many of the charges leveled here are, sadly, true though overblown. The statute "De heretico comburendo" was enacted in England in 1401 (it had passed earlier in most continental countries) -- but very few English martyrs other than Tyndale were burned.
The Catholic laity was long forbidden to read scriptures -- but Catholic translations of the Bible into English first appeared in 1582.
Most of the other implied charges (e.g. worship of idols, slavish adherence to priests) are traits shared with at least some Protestant churches.
Curiously, in a piece so clearly controversial, there are no direct scriptural quotations. The claim "I'll live by faith forever" obviously is based on Romans 1:17 and its host of parallels; the phrase "the pride of life" is an allusion to 1 John 2:16 (KJV; NRSV renders "pride in riches"); the injunction "shed not a tear for me" may hark back to Luke 23:28; the statement "while my poor body is burning, my soul the Lord shall see" is reminiscent of the last minutes of Stephen (Acts 7:55f.); her forgiveness of her persecutors also refers back to Stephen (Acts 7:60) as well as Jesus's pardon of his killers (Luke 23:34 in the KJV; many early Bible manuscripts omit this verse). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: LQ32

Rondo for Sledging

DESCRIPTION: "For we're shy, single, disengaged, free as the stars above, Yes, we're shy.... looking for someone to love. There be rabbits in the mountains, shepherds in the hills, But red-headed Kitty sets the pace that kills, So we're shy, single... ."
AUTHOR: based on a piece by Charles Jefferson Tyus and Effie Tyus
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 140, "Rondo for Sledging" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8342
NOTES [77 words]: This appears to be a fragment of a 1921 foxtrot (with I think some ragtime influence), "I'm Free, Single, Disengaged Looking for Someone to Love," with words by Charles Jefferson Tyus and music by Effie Tyus; it is said to have been recorded by Fred Feild (yes, that is the correct spelling). I will believe that it is traditional when (A) Kinsey reports where he learned it, and (B) someone shows me any other traditional song with the word "disengaged" in it! - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Kins140A

Rookery, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a maid and accompanies her home "in Blarney Lane, convenient to the Rookery." She invites him to her room for sport and whisky punch. He wakes drunk, minus twenty pounds, a watch and coat. The neighbors laugh. Young men be warned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: sex seduction robbery drink whore warning
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 42-43, "The Rookery" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gold Watch" [Laws K41] (plot) and references there
File: OCan042

Rookhope Ryde [Child 179]

DESCRIPTION: The singer curses those who raid Rookhope. Northern thieves descend upon Rookhope when most of the high officials were away. But the raiders are seen, pursued, and taken in battle. The singer praises those who repelled the raid
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1792 (Ritson, collected from George Collingwood, who reportedly died 1785)
KEYWORDS: poaching robbery punishment
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 179, "Rookhope Ryde" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 384-387, "Rookhope Ryde" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: [Cuthbert Sharp], _The Bishopric Garland, A Collection of Legends, Songs, Ballads, &c Belonging to the County of Durham_, 1834 (references are to the 1969 reprint), p. 14, "Rookhope Ryde" (1 text)
Roud #4008
NOTES [68 words]: Child dates this "ryde" (raid) to the time of the Rising in the North (for background, see "The Rising in the North" [Child 175]), and this seems likely enough. However, neither the song itself nor outside sources give enough details to make this verifiable. The only other evidence is implicit: The Rising distracted or removed so many lords, sheriffs, and bailiffs that it made such a vast raid possible. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: C179

Rookie's Lament

DESCRIPTION: "I ain't been long in this here army, Just a few days since I arrive." The new recruit complains about sergeants, drill, hiking, cavalry, cavalry horses, military medicine, military discipline, and anything else that springs to mind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: army soldier hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 548-551, "A Rookie's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15543
NOTES [10 words]: All this whining and he didn't even mention military food. - RBW
File: LxA548

Room Enough

DESCRIPTION: "My Lord says there's room enough, Room enough in Heaven for us all. My Lord says there's room enough, So don't say away." Sisters, brothers, sinners, backsliders are told, "Don't stay away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Work)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 177, "Room Enough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 245, "Don't Stay Away, People" (1 text)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 94-95, "My Lord Says There's Room Enough in Heaven for Us All" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12313
NOTES [67 words]: Jackson notes that this is used as a church and camp song -- but also notes its suitability for field work because it is so easy to improvise; all the lead singer has to do is come up with a noun to start a line, and then repeat it a few times and go into the chorus.
The song perhaps is inspired partly by John 14:2, which says that "In my father's (house/mansion) there are many (rooms/mansions)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: JDM094

Room In Dar

DESCRIPTION: "O my mudder is gone, my mudder is gone, My mudder is gone into heaven my Lord, I can't stay behind. Dar's room in dar room in dar Room in dar in de heaven, my Lord, I can't stay behind." Repeat with father, angels; also "I've been on de road."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Higginson, according to Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina)
KEYWORDS: religious death mother father nonballad home travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 85, "Room in Dar" (1 text)
Roud #21327
File: Joyn085

Room In There

See I Can't Stay Behind (File: AWG006)

Room Was So Cold and Cheerless, The

DESCRIPTION: "The room was so cold and cheerless and bare," almost without furniture and with broken windows. The cradle sits empty, the woman is dying of hunger and cold. Her husband is a drunkard and will not reach Heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Henry, collected from Rachel Brackett)
KEYWORDS: death abandonment husband wife drink clergy Bible Hell warning | cradle
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 116-117, "The Room Was So Cold and Cheerless" (1 text)
Roud #18772
NOTES [133 words]: The song states in the final stanza, "A verse in the Bible, the minister read, 'No drunkard shall reach heaven," it said."
There is no verse in the Bible which uses those precise words. The reference is, I believe, to 1 Corinthians 6:[9-]10, which reads, "Fornicators, odolators, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, [10] thieves, the freedy, the drunk, the ill-tongued, bandits -- none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God." However, Paul goes on to say that the readers *used to be* these things, but were freed by the work of Jesus. Although all of these things are (seemingly) sinful, as I read the passage, it is not the sin but the attitude of the sinner which determines salvation. I grant that this is a fairly subtle distinction -- clearly it was lost on the author of this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: MHAp116

Rooms for Rent

See House to Let, Apply WIthin (File: SuSm100)

Rooms to Rent

See House to Let, Apply WIthin (File: SuSm100)

Roon-Moo'ed Spade, The

DESCRIPTION: "Geordie Mill wi' his roon moo'ed spade Is wishin' aye for mair fouk deid," because he hopes to sell the bodies to anatomists. When a porter brings a casket to his door, Geordie and Robbie set out to sell a body. Robbie eventually repents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (A. H. Miller, Haunted Dundee, according to Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: burial trick corpse humorous money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 8, "The Roon-Moo'ed Spade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22216
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Black Cook" (subject: sale of dead bodies for anatomical studies)
cf. "Burke's Confession" (subject: sale of dead bodies for anatomical studies)
NOTES [45 words]: The sale of bodies was depressingly common in Scotland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; doctors wanted them to demonstrate anatomy. For background on this, see especially "The Black Cook"; for the so-called "anatomist murders," see "Burke's Confession." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Gath008

Rooster Blues

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "'We got to rock tonight baby'(3x) We got to rock tonight." Animal A tells animal B something; then animal B answers animal A (See notes for examples).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (recording, Lightnin' Slim)
KEYWORDS: courting dialog humorous nonballad animal chickens
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi Fred McDowell and unidentified musician, "Little Red Rooster" (on USMississippi01)
Lighnin' Slim, "Rooster Blues" (Excello 2169, 1959)
NOTES [76 words]: For the most part McDowell follows Lightnin' Slims verses. For example: "The little red rooster told the little red hen, 'I ain't been to see you since God knows when.' The little red hen told the little red rooster, 'You don't come around, daddy, like you used to.'"; "The old black cat told the little grey mouse, 'I've got a mind to chase you round this house.' The little gray mouse told the old black cat, 'Look here daddy, don't tease me like that.'" - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcRooBlu

Root, Abe, or Die

See Root, Hog, or Die (Confederate Version) (File: R248)

Root, Hog, or Die (Confederate Version)

DESCRIPTION: Various cracks about the incompetence or cowardice of the Yankees, ending by saying "We'll make the Dutch (or Old Abe, or any other tempting target) root hog or die." Also praises the confederate armies in extravagant terms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (various Confederate songsters, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar parody patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 10, 1861 - Battle of Wilson's Creek
FOUND IN: US(So,SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 361-362, "Root, Abe, or Die" (1 text)
Randolph 248, "Root Hog or Die" (1 text, with an element of "The Bonnie Blue Flag" mixed in)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 372, "Root Hog or Die" (1 short text, perhaps mixed)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 372, "Root Hog or Die" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 240-242, "Flight of Doodles"; p. 243, "Root Hog or Die (Southern Version)" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT, ROOTHOG2*
Roud #7829
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die" [Laws B21] and references there
cf. "The Jolly Union Boys" and references there (concerning Battle of Wilson's Creek)
NOTES [147 words]: Randolph's version of this song is very specific to Missouri; see his notes.
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's version, at first glance, has almost nothing in common with Randolph's brief and mixed-up version. But both are from the Ozarks, and both involve the Missouri campaigns of Nathaniel Lyon and the Battle of Wilson's Creek. If they aren't the same piece, they are communal efforts on the same theme. Close enough.
Brown's short text is another matter; it seems more generically Confederate, and refers to Fort Sumter. But it's too short to file separately. And Silber's two texts are both clearly Confederate adaptions of "Root, Hog...."; they all seem to be one-shots, not worth separating out.
For the complex background to the Battle of Wilson's Creek, see the notes to songs in the cross-references, notably "The Jolly Union Boys" and "Joe Stiner." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: R248

Root, Hog, or Die (V)

DESCRIPTION: Minstrel song? "Root, Hog, or Die," with some "Walkin' in the Parlor" verses: "The greatest ole nigger that I eva' did see, Looked like a sick monkey...." "I come from Alabama with a pocketful of news..." Cho: "Chief cook and bottle washer...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 Dime-Song-Book #1)
KEYWORDS: cook work nonballad floatingverses food
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2026, p. 136, "Root Hog or Die! No. 2" (5 references)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 39, "Root Hog or Die, No. 2" (1 text; p. 40, "Root Hog or Die, No. 3," appears to be a further adaption of this with no sign of being traditional; similarly p. 41, "Root Hog or Die, No. 4)
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 161, ("Root, Hog, or Die")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die" [Laws B21] and references there
cf. "Walkin' in the Parlor" (lyrics)
File: FWA161A

Root, Hog, or Die (VI -- Cowboy Bawdy variant)

DESCRIPTION: The singer heads to Arizona to punch cattle. He takes a holiday in Phoenix, where was pretty girl says she will "see what I can do for your root, hog, or die." He contracts a venereal disease; "that's why I lost the head of my root, hog, or die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: bawdy cowboy sex disease disability
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 22, pp. 140-142, "Root, Hog, or Die" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3242
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gay Caballero" (theme of disease destroying sexual organs)
cf. "The Fire Ship" (plot) and references there
File: Logs022

Root, Hog, or Die (VII -- Sailor version)

DESCRIPTION: "'twas on the 24th of March we got underway, Bound to the Western Bank on a bright and sunny day." The sailor complains about his work, about getting wood from a fellow named Carter, and about the cook
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes derivative
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 328-330, "Root, Hog, or Die" (1 text)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 215-217, "Root, Hog, or Die" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 58-59, "Root, Hog, or Die" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4732
File: BeMe215

Root, Hog, or Die [Laws B21]

DESCRIPTION: The singer arrives in California broke and takes a job making hay. He soon gambles his pay away, gets drunk, and lands in jail. A friend pays his fine; he warns against the dangers of playing poker
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910
KEYWORDS: poverty drink gambling prison reprieve
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws B21, "Root Hog or Die"
Randolph 422, "Root Hog or Die" (5 texts, mostly short and perhaps excerpted, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 347-349, "Root Hog or Die" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 422C)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 57, "Root, Hog, Or Die" (1 text)
DT 598, ROOTHOG3
Roud #3242
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die (II)"
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die (III)"
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die (IV)"
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die (V)"
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die (Confederate Version)"
cf. "A Hit at the Times (Root, Hog, or Die VIII)"
SAME TUNE:
[All the other Root, Hog, or Die songs]
New Jers-A ("Come, kind friends, all draw near," by C. A. Boggs) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 107)
Union Root Hog or Die [1] ("Now gentlement all listen, a story you shall know") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 163)
Union Root Hog or Die [2] ("Away down in South Carolina, they're kicking up a muss") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 163)
File: LB21

Root, Hog, or Die! (II)

DESCRIPTION: A bull-whacker recalls good times in Salt Lake City when his Chinese whore could roll her hog eye, and he would root hog or die.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy whore foreigner
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 576-582, "Root, Hog or Die!" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 11, "Root Hog or Die" (2 texts, 1 tune, with the "A" and "B" texts being different forms of the song. "A" appears to be a cleaned-up version of this form.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die" [Laws B21] and references there
NOTES [94 words]: The supplemental texts supplied by Legman in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I are more interesting than the one stanza fragment that Randolph collected. - EC
[Note: Randolph actually collected five "clean" versions of this piece, but all -- except that listed as "Root Hog or Die (Confederate Version)" -- are quite fragmentary. - RBW]
I am not entirely sure that the Fife "A" text is a variant of this piece (though it starts in the same way). But if it isn't, it needs its own entry -- and I'm tired of the proliferation of "Root Hog or Die" versions.... - RBW
File: RL576

Root, Hog, or Die! (III -- The Bull-Whacker)

DESCRIPTION: A "Western" "Root Hog" version, with the singer herding cattle and keeping an eye out for local wildlife. He complains about the hard life and bad food, but also talks about the pretty girls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934; Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah's source claimed to have learned it around 1888
KEYWORDS: work travel animal whore
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #157, "The Bull Whacker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 61-63, "The Bull Whacker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 171, "Root, Hog, or Die" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 430-432, "The Bull-Whacker" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 11, "Root Hog or Die" (2 texts, 1 tune, of which the "B" text, "The Philosophical Cowboy," appears to belong here)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 58-59, "The Bull-Whacker" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ROOTHOG1*
Roud #4292
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die" [Laws B21] and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Philosophical Cowboy
NOTES [35 words]: The final verses of this version resemble the bawdy text (Root, Hog, or Die II), and one wonders if this version might not have been cleaned up (or "Mormonized"!). But the lead-in is completely different. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LoF171

Root, Hog, or Die! (IV)

DESCRIPTION: "I'll tell you all a story that happened long ago, When the English came to America... The Yankees boys made 'em sing 'Root hog or die.'" The singer describes various English defeats: the Tea Party, Bunker Hill, Yorktown, Baltimore, New Orleans
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (a text reported by Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety to be this was found in the 1859 Dime Song Book)
KEYWORDS: battle patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec. 16, 1773 - Boston Tea Party. Americans protest the British tax on tea by dumping a shipload into Boston Harbor
June 17, 1775 - Battle of Bunker Hill (fought on Breed's Hill, and won by the British, though at heavy cost)
Oct 19, 1781 - Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown (not really as a result of being defeated; his supply line had been cut by the French navy)
Aug 24, 1814 - A British force under Robert Ross captures Washington, D.C. after brushing aside the incompetent defenders. (Madison's administration had already fled). Two days later the British leave for Baltimore.
Sept 13, 1814 - Battle of Fort McHenry, which saves Baltimore from the British attack.
Jan 8, 1815 - Battle of New Orleans. Although a peace had already been signed, word had not yet reached Louisiana, which British General Pakenham sought to invade. Andrew Jackson's backwoodsmen easily repulse Pakenham.
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 334, "Root Hog or Die" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2025, p. 136, "Root Hog or Die" (5 references)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 38, "Root Hog or Die" (1 text)
Roud #4734
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die" [Laws B21] and references there
File: Beld334

Rop'ry

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Ropeman

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Rory O'Moore

See Rory O'More (File: OCon090)

Rory O'More

DESCRIPTION: "Young Rory O'More courted young Kathleen Bawn." He teases her. She says Mike loves her and dreams of hating Rory. Rory says "drames always go by contraries," After thrashing Dinny Grimes and Jim Duff he asks her to marry. They marry and retire to bed.
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3313))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage fight dream
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(MA)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 770, "Rory o' More" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 90, "Rory O'More" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 192-193, "Rory O'Moore" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2030, p. 136, "Rory O'More" (2 references)
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 217-218, "Rory O'More" (1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 202-204, "Rory O'Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 49-50, "Rory O'More" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #2/72, p. 36 and #2/64, p. 36, "Rory O'More" (1 text)
Roud #6125
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3313), "Rory O'More", J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth b.27(136), Harding B 11(1513), Firth c.17(129) [only partly legible], Harding B 11(2596), Harding B 25(72), 2806 b.11(243), Harding B 16(233c), Harding B 11(3312), Firth b.34(212) View 2 of 2, 2806 c.16(297), Johnson Ballads 342, 2806 c.15(328), "Rory O'More"
SAME TUNE:
Too-Ril-Te-Too (The Robin and the Cat) (File: Lins293)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rory O'Moore
NOTES [322 words]: Since O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland omits the fourth(final) stanza broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(3313) was used for the Description.
Greig/Duncan4, like O'Conor, omits the broadside's fourth verse. Since, other than that, the text matches the broadside very closely, this may be an example of intentional self-censorship although that fourth verse is mild: they marry and go to bed. - BS
At least one source sub-titles this "Good Omens."
There was an Irish nationalist, Rory O'More, who was a leader of the 1641 rebellion (and a grandfather of Sarsfield, for whom see "After Aughrim's Great Disaster"). It doesn't appear he is connected with this song, though. He is the subject of a poem "Rory O'Moore," printed e.g. by Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 191-192.
According to William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 66, "By the 1830s the Irishman was becoming a familiar figure in the American theater. In that decade, however, the combined talents of two men in London helped move Paddy from the periphery to center stage on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1836 Samuel Lover's Rory O'More, a song turned into a play, was among the first comedies to have an Irish peasant character as the hero. The play's success was guaranteed by the superb acting of the man who created the title role, Tyrone Power."
On p. 67, Williams adds that Lover sought to transform the figure of the Irishman: "Lover replaced the old savage element of the stereotype with a childlike naivete. According to [Sally E.] Foster, Lover cleaned up the stage Irishman and made him fit for respectable middle-class entertainment. In doing so, he gave Paddy a new lease on life."
This Tyrone Power (full name: William Grattan Tyrone Power, born in Waterford in 1797; he was lost at sea on the President in 1841) was the great-grandfather of the Hollywood star. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OCon090

Rory of the Hill

DESCRIPTION: The bold Tip mountaineer" "Rory of the Hill" asks if Scully is dead." Rory tells how Scully and the agent turned him and his mother out. Since then he, like Michael Hayes, shot a landlord or agent. He fled to New York, but has returned to Ireland.
AUTHOR: Thomas Walsh (according to broadside Bodleian 2806 b.10(137)) or I. Walsh (according to broadsides Bodleian Firth b.26(102), Bodleian Firth c.26(154) and Bodleian 2806 c.8(278))
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: emigration return homicide America Ireland
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 75, "Rory of the Hill" (1 text)
Roud #V2038
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(102), "Rory of the Hills" ("At Slievenamon the man who asked me was Scully dead?"), T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899 ; also Firth c.26(154), "Rory of the Hills"; 2806 b.10(137), "Rory of the Hill"; 2806 c.8(278), "Roary of the Hill"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Whole Hog or None" (tune, per broadsides Bodleian 2806 b.10(137) and Bodleian 2806 c.8(278))
cf. "The Battle of Ballycohy" (subject: the shooting of Billy Scully)
cf. "The Gallant Farmers' Farewell to Ireland" (subject: Michael Hayes)
File: Zimm075

Rory of the Hills

DESCRIPTION: A son asks why a "rake up near the rafters" is not used to make hay. His father, Rory of the Hill, takes him to meet his old comrades and then reveals that the rake hides a sword. He does his soldier's drill and says "You'll be a Freeman yet, my boy"
AUTHOR: Charles J. Kickham (1828-1882) (See Notes)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1885 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 40(2) View 1 of 4)
KEYWORDS: rebellion patriotic father farming
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 74-75, "Rory of the Hills" (1 text)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 128-130, "Rory of the Hill" (1 text)
DT, RORYOMOR*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 525-526, "Rory of the Hill" (1 text)
Roud #V4205
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 40(2) View 1 of 4, "Rory of the Hill" ("That rake up near the rafters"), J.F. Nugent and Co.? (Dublin?), 1877-1884
NOTES [86 words]: Broadside Harding B 40(2) View 1 of 4 has the lines strangely rearranged and some of the text is missing. Irish Minstrelsy by H. Halliday Sparling (London, 1888), pp. 28-30, 502, "Rory of the Hills" makes the attribution to Kickham. [Supported by Hoagland. - RBW] - BS
For the career of Kickham, an Irish nationalist who helped organize the Irish Republican Brotherhood, see the notes to "Patrick Sheehan [Laws J11]."
Healy, pp. 130-131, has a second "Rory of the Hill" song. It appears related only by title. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: OCon074

Rosa Becky Diner

See Lead Her Up and Down (Rosa Becky Diner, Old Betsy Lina) (File: R552)

Rosa Betsy Lina

See Lead Her Up and Down (Rosa Becky Diner, Old Betsy Lina) (File: R552)

Rosa Lee McFall

DESCRIPTION: Singer loves Rosa Lee McFall and sings her praises. He proposes to her; she accepts, but then dies. He vows to roam the world alone "'till God prepares my place in heaven With my Rosa Lee McFall"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: grief courting love death mourning travel
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Monroe & His Kentucky Pardners, "Rosa Lee McFall" (RCA Victor 21-0054, 1949)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Rosa Lee McFall" (on NLCR13)
NOTES [30 words]: This plot shows up enough times that I have the sneaking suspicion "Rosa Lee McFall" is a variant of another song. Since I don't know which, however, I've indexed it on its own. - PJS
File: RcRLMcF

Rosabeckaliner

See Lead Her Up and Down (Rosa Becky Diner, Old Betsy Lina) (File: R552)

Rosabella Fredolin

DESCRIPTION: Sailor sings about his "greatest delight," a rope maker's daughter who betrayed him when he sailed away. She tore up his letters to use as hair curlers. When he hears of this he writes a farewell to her and adds mention of her drinking and smoking habits.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844
LONG DESCRIPTION: Sailor sings about his "greatest delight," a rope maker's daughter who betrayed him when he sailed away. She tore up his letters to use as hair curlers. When he hears of this he writes a farewell to her and adds mention of her drinking and smoking habits. This was often sung to the tune of "Ane Madam," a Swedish version of "Blow the Man Down."
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage sailor courting rejection farewell hair drink
FOUND IN: Sweden
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 216-219, "Rosabella Fredolin" (2 texts, English & Swedish, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 104, "Rosabella Fredolin" (2 texts, Swedish and English, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ane Madam" (tune)
NOTES [27 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas took this from Sang under Segel (1935) where the compiler (Sternvall) says that it came from a seaman's song-book dated 1844. - SL
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hugi216

Rosalee

See Little Old Log Cabin by the Stream (Rosalie) (File: R710)

Rosaleen Bawn

DESCRIPTION: The singer wishes Rosaleen Bawn to come away with him. He tells how the May moon is the perfect time to escape. He tells her she will soon forget her home, and that he will make her happy and, apparently, rich
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting nightvisit elopement
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H63, p. 247, "Rosaleen Bawn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13337
NOTES [47 words]: It is by no means clear, from the song, whether the singer is rich, is handing the girl a line, or is just given to hyperbole. Sam Henry reports that the singer was courting the daughter of his employer, and had nothing to offer her. This doesn't really seem to suit the song. - RBW
File: HHH063

Rosalie

See Little Old Log Cabin by the Stream (Rosalie) (File: R710)

Rosalie the Prairie Flower

DESCRIPTION: "On the distant prairie, where the heather wild In its quiet beauty lived and smil'd," beautiful Rosalie lives in a little cottage. "But the summer faded, and a chilly blast O'er that happy cottage swept." She dies and is carried to heaven in a white robe
AUTHOR: Music: "G. F. Wurzel" (George F. Root) (See NOTES for the words)
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (source: Mudcat notes)
KEYWORDS: death beauty home
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 161, "Fair as a lily, joyous and free" (1 fragment)
Root-StoryOfAMusicalLife-GeorgeFRoot, pp. 237-239, "Rosalie, The Prairie Flower" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 717, "Rosalie, the Prairie Flower" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2032, p. 137, "Rosalie the Prairie Flower" (6 references)
Roud #4460
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, M1642.M, "Rosalie, the Prairie Flower" (John C. Schreiber & Son, Macon and Savannah, N.D.)
SAME TUNE:
Lonely Round the Portals ("Lonely round the portals Of the College halls, In the fading twilight Soft that falls") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 40)
NOTES [645 words]: George F. Root sometimes used the pseudonym "Wurzel" because "Wurzel" is German for "Root." He wrote in his autobiography, "I saw at once that mine must be the 'people's song,' still, I am ashamed to say, I shared the feeling that was around me in regard to that grade of music [i.e. that it was beneath him]. When Stephen C. Foster's wonderful melodies (as I now see them) began to appear, and the famous Christy's Minstrels began to make them known, I 'took a hand in' and wrote a few, but put 'G. Friedrich Wurzel" (the Germen for Root) to them instead of my own name. 'Hazel Dell' and "Rosalie, the Prairie Flower' were the best known of those so written" (Root, p. 83).
The lack of a "name" composer didn't hurt the song's sales; Finson, p. 87, says that "Rosalie" sold more than a hundred thousand copies.
The authorship of the words is a bit of a conundrum. Several sources, including Wikipedia, say that they are by Frances Jane "Fanny" Crosby. Yet I haven't seen this on any of the early sheet music or broadsides. Crosby did supply the lyrics for another Root hit, "There's Music in the Air." But Root's own sheet music of "Rosalie," on p. 237, lists only "Wurzel (G. F. R.)." The earliest sheet music I've found says "Poetry and Music by Wurzel" -- but the next one I've found, published by Richardson (which says it is sung by the Christy Minstrels), says it was "COMPOSED by Wurzel," not "WRITTEN and composed by Wurzel." Crosby is not mentioned on either. Indeed, I've never seen a broadside or early sheet music copy that mentions her name.
Nor does Root refer to Crosby when he describes the composition of the song. According to Root, p. 110, Nathan Richardson was trying to start a line of popular sheet music. Root gives the story on p. 111: "So the question came up between [Richardson and his brother] of getting something to publish that the people would buy. In this dilemma my friend came to me and asked if I would write him six songs. I laughed at him a little, but was very happy to do it, my three-years' engagement with [publishers] Wm. Hall & Son being just out. The songs were finished during vacation, and we tried them over at Willow Farm in manuscript. There were six of us, and I said, 'Let us choose from these six songs the one that we think will become most popular. The oldest shall choose first, then the next shall choose from the remainder, then the next, and so on down to the youngest.' The youngest was my sister Fanny, then a young girl, and when the choice came to her the only song left unchosen was 'Rosalie, the Prairie Flower.'
"When I took the songs to my friend he said he would prefer to buy them outright. What would I take for the 'lot'? There was a bit of sarcasm in the last word. 'Well,' I replied, 'as you propose a wholesale instead of a retail transaction, you shall have the 'lot' at wholesale prices, which will be one hundred dollars apiece -- six hundred dollars for all.' He laughed at the idea.... The idea of paying such a sum for these little things could not be thought of. 'Very well,' I said, 'Give me the usual royalty; that will suit me quite as well.' This was agreed to, and when he had paid me in royalties nearly three thousand dollars for 'Rosalie' alone, he concluded that six hundred for the 'lot' would not have been an unreasonable price."
Thus it doesn't sound as if Root thought Crosby had much to do with the piece! But on the other hand, on p. 112 he refers to writing words for his tunes, and says that at first it was hard. Note that this is after he said he wrote "Rosalie."
Spaeth, p. 127, seems also to give sole credit to Root.
Curiously, "The Hazel Dell," the second song Root listed as a well-known piece by Wurzel, is also credited to Crosby on her Wikipedia page! For background on possible author Fanny Crosby van Alstyne, see the notes to "A Few More Marchings Weary." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Wo2E2032

Rosalind's Complaint

DESCRIPTION: "On the bank of a river so deep," "faithfullest" Rosalind mourns the loss of "most fickle ... Damon her lover." Having seduced her, "his flame from that moment expir'd" and he has "gone, to deceive some fresh nymph"
AUTHOR: Baker (source: Struthers)
EARLIEST DATE: 1782 (_The Charmer_, according to Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1); possibly 1729 (Watts, according to Chappell)
KEYWORDS: grief courting love seduction sex virginity rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 6, "Fair Rosalind" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John Struthers, The Harp of Caledonia (Glasgow, 1821 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, pp. 197-198, "Rosalind's Complaint"
Roud #3852
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Grim King of the Ghosts" (tune, per Struthers)
SAME TUNE:
Grim King of the Ghosts (Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 129-130)
NOTES [123 words]: Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1, p. xxxv: "6 Fair Rosalind is part of a song of seven eight-line stanzas beginning 'On the bank of a river so deep' which appears in the second volume of a song-book called The Charmer (Edinburgh 1782 pp. 73-74)." Chappell [W. Chappell, Popular Music of the Olden Time (London, n.d. [1859 per Internet Archive]), Vol II, p. 493], discussing the tune "Grim King of the Ghosts" says the tune was "also printed in Watts' Musical Miscellany, i. 126 (1729) to a song entitled "Rosalind's Comp-laint," commencing, "On the bank of a river so deep." Both Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 and Chappell seem to be referring to the text quoted by Struthers and used as the source for the description. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr106

Rosamond's Downfall

See Fair Rosamond (File: Lins193)

Rosamund Clifford

DESCRIPTION: King Henry II loves Rosamund Clifford, and constructs a bower at Woodstock to guard her from Queen Eleanor's jealousy. The King and Rosamund talk at length. He departs for the wars. Queen Eleanor poisons Rosamund
AUTHOR: Thomas Deloney? (Bodleian attribution for the broadsides)
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy) (Broadside registered 1656)
KEYWORDS: love separation death poison royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1154-1189 - Reign of Henry II
c. 1176 - Death of Rosamund Clifford
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 154-164, "Fair Rosamund" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 253-259, "Fair Rosamond" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2820, "When as King Henry rul'd this Land/"; cf. Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2442, "Sweet youthful charming ladies fair"
cf. Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 361, "The Court Lady" (1 excerpt, 1 tune, said to be about Fair Rosamund)
cf. Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 163-164, "Rosamund" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3729
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Wood 401(7), "A Mournful Ditty of the Lady Rosamond, King Henry the Seconds Concubine, Who Was Poysoned to Death by Queen Elenor in Woodstocst [sic] Bower Near Oxford" ("Whereas king Henry rul'd this land"), F. Coles (London), 1658-1664; also Antiq. c. E.9(123), "A Lamentable Ballad of Fair Rosamond, King Henry the Second's Concubine"; 2806 c.14(196), "The Life and Death of Fair Rosamund, Concubine to King Henry II"; Harding B 5(61), Johnson Ballads 1366, Harding B 5(64), Harding B 5(62), "The Life and Death of Fair Rosamond, King Henry the Second's Concubine"; G.A. Oxon b.96(7), G.A. Oxon b.96(6)[some words illegible], Douce Ballads 3(25b), "A Lamentable Ballad of Fair Rosamond, Concubine to Henry 2nd"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Queen Eleanor's Confession" [Child 156] (subject)
cf. "Fair Rosamond" (subject)
cf. "Flying Fame" (tune, per Bodleian broadsides)
SAME TUNE:
When Anne, a Princess of renown/The Glorius Warriour (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2817)
NOTES [471 words]: Roud lumps "Fair Rosamond (I)" and "Rosamund Clifford." They are obviously about the same story, but I consider them distinct; the story was famous enough to attract many writers -- indeed, there seem to be other Rosamond poems that appear in popular music collections. I have lumped all these others here, excerpt for "Fair Rosamund," on the grounds that few can be demonstrated to be traditional.
Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 159, mentions two Rosamund ballads mentioned in the Stationer's Register: #1824, "A mournfull ditty of the Lady Rosamond," registered March 13, 1656, and #1825, "A mournfull ditty of the Lady Rosamond," March 1, 1675, but it's not absolutely clear which song is meant.
The versions listed above seem to fall into two families; the Percy text goes with the broadside "When as King Henry Ruled this Land"; Chappell's version is a "Sweet Youthful Charming Ladies Fair" type of text.
There are traditional elements to the songs, however, as the folk accounts do not match the actual facts. This possibly justifies their inclusion here.
The facts are these: Henry II truly did marry Eleanor of Aquitaine, and he truly did have an affair with Rosamund Clifford. Rosamund seems to have been the true love of Henry's life.
Beyond this, all is conjecture. We do not have dates of Rosamund's romance with Henry, and the evidence conflicts. Geoffrey, Bishop of Lincoln is said to have been their (second) son, born in 1159. But this conflicts with other evidence about Henry's amours. Also, Henry was still busily having children by Eleanor at that time. The last child of Henry and Eleanor was the future King John, born 1166/67. Henry was still a relatively young man of about 34, while Eleanor was about 45 and probably incapable of bearing further children.
Rosamund was the daughter of Walter FitzPonce, who took the surname Clifford upon gaining the title of Clifford Castle (by marriage) some time before 1138. The date of Rosamund's birth is uncertain. She died around 1176 or 1177, but the death was the result of natural causes -- and she was living in a nunnery at the time! Indeed, by the 1170s, Henry had Eleanor under virtual house arrest; even had she wanted to, she probably could not have arranged Rosamund's death.
For more on this, see the notes to "Queen Eleanor's Confession" [Child 156]; there is also some material, specific to Rosamund, in "Fair Rosamond."
Ritson and others attribute the text of this that begins "When as King Henry ruled this land" to Thomas Deloney, but several pieces with some traditional elements have been attributed to Deloney, so I have marked the matter as uncertain. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Perc2154

Rosanna (I)

See Farewell, Dear Rosanna [Laws M30] (File: LM30)

Rosanna (II)

See Fair Annie [Child 62] (File: C062)

Rose and the Thyme, The

See The Rue and the Thyme (The Rose and the Thyme) (File: Ord187)

Rose Blanche, La (The White Rose)

DESCRIPTION: French: "Par un matin je me suis leve (x2), Plus mantin que ma tante (x2)." The singer enters a garden and is picking white roses when her lover approaches. She falls and "breaks her ankle." The "doctor" tells her to bathe it in water and white roses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: love flowers courting injury foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 118-119, "La Rose Blanche" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: FMB118

Rose Bud Blooms But Once, The

DESCRIPTION: "I was a little girl with long curly hair" when her mother warned that "the little rose bud a-blooming there It will soon fade away." A miller's boy gets her pregnant and leaves. When her daughter grows up, she will warn her that beauty blooms just once
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (HCargillFamily)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty bastard abandonment children warning
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Sara Brown and Margaret Tyler, "The Rose Bud Blooms But Once" (on HCargillFamily)
File: RcRBBBO

Rose Conley

See Rose Connoley [Laws F6] (File: LF06)

Rose Connoley [Laws F6]

DESCRIPTION: The singer kills Rose by drugging her (with "burglar's wine"), stabbing her, and throwing her in the river. He commits the crime on his father's assurance that "money would set [him] free," but the assurance was false; he is to be hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: homicide drugs river execution wine
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws F6, "Rose Connoley"
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 110, "Rose Connally" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 249, "Rose Connally" (1 text plus excerpts from 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 67, "Rose Connally" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 38-39, "Down in the Willow Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 83, "Down in the Willow Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 137, "Rose Connelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 91, "Rose Connoley" (2 texts)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 63-65, "Rose Conoley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 48-49, "Down in the Willow Garden" (1 text, 1 tune, which he suspects derives from a recorded version)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #56, "Rose Connoley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #19, "Willow Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 202-203, "Willow Garden" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 223, "Down In The Willow Garden" (1 text)
DT (311), WLLWGRDN*
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, p. 237, "My Father Has Often Told Me" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Maud Jacobs and Pearl Jacobs Borusky)
Roud #446
RECORDINGS:
Texas Gladden with Hobart Smith, "Down in the Willow Garden" (Disc 6081, 1940s; on USTGladden01)
Shirley Glenn, "Down in the Willow Garden" (Piotr-Archive #9, recorded 07/14/2020)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Rose Conley" (Victor 21625, 1927; on GraysonWhitter01)
Charlie Higgins, Wade Ward & Dave Poe, "Willow Garden" [instrumental] (on LomaxCD1702)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers [or Wade Mainer & Zeke Morris], "Down in the Willow" (Bluebird B-7298/Montgomery Ward M-7307, 1937)
Charlie Monroe & His Kentucky Pardners, "Down in the Willow Garden" (Victor 20-2416, 1947)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Down in the Willow Garden" (on NLCR16)
Osborne Brothers & Red Allen, "Down in the Willow Garden" (MGM 12420, 1957)
NOTES [258 words]: Almost every version of this song contains a crux: Just *what* did the killer cause Rose to drink? Burglar's wine? Burgundy wine? Something else (Texas Gladden sung either "virgin" or "Persian"; one of Cox's informants had something like "merkley").
Burgundy, although it's a common reading, frankly makes no sense. The usual tune (as sung, e.g., by Grayson and Gladden) calls for two syllables, not three and burgundy isn't going to knock a girl out, either.
Problem is, the other main possibility is "burglar's wine," and no one knows what "burglar's wine" is. But that, of course, invites correction, perhaps to "burgundy." It makes no sense to assume that "burgundy" is original and corrected to "burglar's"; this produces a paradox. If "burglar's wine" is meaningless, a listener is not likely to hear the song as to make nonsense (it might happen once, but not several times, and Cox and Grayson show "burglar's wine" to be widespread). So if "burglar's wine" does exist, then it could be an original reading, but it is unlikely to be a derived reading.
Thus I do not doubt that "burglar's wine" is the earliest extant reading in the tradition. It may even be original; I seem to recall reading somewhere that it was a drugged wine. But I can't find the reference.
Lyle Lofgren, who has studied the piece, proposed an emendation which makes reasonable sense: "[Russell Bartlett's 'Dictionary of Americanisms'] gave me a candidate: 'burgaloo,' a popular pear variety at the time, identified in the dictionary as a variant of 'virgelieu.'" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LF06

Rose Conoley

See Rose Connoley [Laws F6] (File: LF06)

Rose in June

DESCRIPTION: "Was down in the valleys, the valleys so deep, To pick some plain roses to keep my love sweet, So let it come early, late or soon, I will enjoy my rose in June." "O, the roses are red, the violets blue." "O love, I will carry the sweet milking pail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Hammond collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting flowers lyric
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 256-257, "Rose in June" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 27, "My Rose in June" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 54, "The Rose in June, or Let it be Early, Late or Soon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1202
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roses Red, Roses White" (lyrics)
File: CoSB256

Rose In June (II), The

DESCRIPTION: Captain Davidson, his wife and crew pray before sailing. After a storm all vessels but his, Rose in June, return. On board the wreck Davidson leads the crew in prayer. He and his mate are washed off the wreck but the rest of the crew is saved.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: death drowning fishing sea ship storm wreck Scotland religious wife
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 17, 1872 - The fishing lugger Rose in June sinks in a gale at Elie Harbour, Fife, Scotland. The captain Andrew Davidson and mate John Allen drown. (source: Guigné)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 315-319, "The Rose in June" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25337
RECORDINGS:
Lawrence Hutchins, "The Rose in June" (on NFAGuigné01)
John A. McLellan, "Andrew Davidson" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: Guig315

Rose in the Garden (I), The

See The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)

Rose in the Garden (II)

See Sailing in the Boat (File: LoF013)

Rose in the Garden (III)

DESCRIPTION: "There's a rose in the garden for you, fair man, There's a rose in the garden for you, fair maid, There's a rose in the garden, pluck it if you can, Be sure you don't choose a false-hearted one. It's a bargain, it's a bargain for you, fair man...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty flowers love
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #45, "Rose in the Garden" (1 text plus fragments)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sailing in the Boat" (lyrics)
NOTES [29 words]: Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren considers this to be close to "Sailing in the Boat," but it appears to me that they are two songs fused rather than one that split. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: Newe045

Rose o' Dundee

DESCRIPTION: "Early one Monday morning as I walked Dundee street," the singer meets a beautiful girl whom he labels the Rose o' Dundee. He offers to watch over her. She says she has another man. The other man, a sailor, appears, and sailor and girl live happily
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty sailor rejection
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 64, "Rose o' Dundee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V4975
NOTES [57 words]: Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee puts this to the tune that old war horse "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah)" [Laws M31A/B], which clearly fits but is not listed as the original tune. But several lines in the song are more reminiscent of "Willie Archer (The Banks of the Bann)"; if there was an original tune, I suspect that was it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Gath064

Rose O'Grady

See Sweet Rosie O'Grady (File: Dean062A)

Rose of Alabama, The

DESCRIPTION: "Away from Mississippi's vale, With my old hat there for a sail, I crossed upon a cotton bale To Rose of Alabama." The singer courts Rose. His banjo falls into the stream. "And every night... To hunt my banjo for an hour... I meet... my flower."
AUTHOR: Words: Silas S. Steele
EARLIEST DATE: 1846
KEYWORDS: music courting love trick river
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 326-327, "The Rose of Alabama" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 214-215, "The Rose of Alabama" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 218-219, "The Rose of Alabama" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2035, p. 137, "The Rose of Alabama" (1 reference)
Roud #21417
File: SBoA214

Rose of Allandale, The

DESCRIPTION: "The sky was clear, the morn was fair, Not a breath came over the sea When Mary left her highland home And wandered forth with me." The singer recounts his travels and hardships, noting that the love of Mary, the Rose of Allandale, helped him through
AUTHOR: Sidney Nelson and Charles Jefferys (source: Gogan)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: love travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 17, "The Rose of Allendale" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 257-260, "The Rose of Allendale" (1 text, 1 tune); also p. 260, "(Mary's Cot)" (1 text, with the first verse belonging here though the rest is from "Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy")
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2036, p. 137, "The Rose of Allendale" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 14 and #5/64, p. 12, "The Rose of Allendale" (1 text)
DT, ALANDAL*
Roud #1218
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:118, "The Rose of Allandale," unknown, 19C; also Mu23-y4:036, "The Rose of Allendale," unknown, 19C
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sweet Rose of Allandale
Sweet Rose of Allendale
NOTES [41 words]: Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 128, is the source for the statement that this is by Nelson and Jefferys. I don't trust that too far, since he seems to think this patently Scottish song is Irish. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SWMS257

Rose of Allendale, The

See The Rose of Allandale (File: SWMS257)

Rose of Ardee, The

DESCRIPTION: When the singer came to this country he fell in love with Mary and would have married her. He curses the weaver who stole her. He will take his week's wages to the alehouse.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1821 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.17(366))
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity travel drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(MA)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 35, "The Rose of Ardee" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, p. 219, "The Rose of Ardee" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Barratt, EFDSS Archives HAM/2/9/26, "The Rose of Ardee," https://www.vwml.org/search?q=HAM/2/9/26&is=1 accessed 7/25/2023 (1 text, 1 tune)
J Woodrich, EFDSS Archives SBG/1/3/402, "The Rose of Ardee," https://www.vwml.org/search?q=SBG/1/3/402&is=1 accessed 7/24/2023 (1 text)
Roud #2816
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(366), "Rose of Ardee" ("When first to this country a stranger I came," G. Thompson (Liverpool), 1789-1820; also Firth b.26(484)[some words illegible], Johnson Ballads fol. 25, Firth b.25(83), 2806 c.17(365), 2806 b.11(113), Harding B 11(3331), Harding B 11(104), Harding B 11(9483), Firth b.25(269), Harding B 11(103), Harding B 11(363), Harding B 25(1655), Harding B 25(1660), Harding B 11(2944), "[The] Rose of Ardee"
LOCSinging, as112020, "Rose of Ardee," L. Deming (Boston), no date
VonWalthour, CD Drive>r>r(17), "Rose of Ardee" ("When first to this country a stranger I came"), L. Deming (Boston), no date
NOTES [119 words]: Broadsides LOCSinging as112020 and VonWalthour CDDrive>r>r(17) appear to be the same edition.
Is the commonplace "When first to this country a stranger I came," and its many close variants, to be taken to indicate immigration or seasonal work? The Thompson-APioneerSongster and Bodleian 2806 c.17(366) versions have the rejected young man planning a summer soldier tour: "I'll away to the army for months two or three." More reasonably, the LOCSinging text has "I'm bound to the city for months two or three" and then he can travel. Perhaps on the side of immigration is EFDSS HAM/2/9/26: "Now I will list in the Army for two years or three." Ardee is in County Louth, about midway between Belfast and Dublin. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: TPS035

Rose of Breton's Isle, The

See The Rose of Britain's Isle [Laws N16] (File: LN16)

Rose of Britain's Isle, The [Laws N16]

DESCRIPTION: Jane falls in love with a servant, who is then sent to sea. She follows him in disguise and is wounded in battle. Her secret having been revealed, her lover marries her. They return home to find her father willing to forgive
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: exile cross-dressing sea marriage father
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US(NE)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws N16, "The Rose of Britain's Isle"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 29, "The Rose of Britain's Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 50, "The Rose of Britain's Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 61-63, "The Rose of Britain's Isle" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 48, "Rose of Britain's Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 37, "The Rose of Britain's Isle" (1 text)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 90, "The Rose of Britain's Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 88, "The Rose of Breton's Isle" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 447, ROSEBRIT
Roud #1796
File: LN16

Rose of England, The [Child 166]

DESCRIPTION: A rose springs up in England, but is rooted up by a boar. The rose returns via Milford Haven, gathers his forces, wins the field, becomes king, and receives great praise.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: royalty rebellion flowers political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1485 - Death of Richard III. Accession of Henry VII
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Child 166, "The Rose of England" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume III, pp. 187-194, "The rose of Englande" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, p. 91, "The Rose of England" (1 fragment, with lyrics somewhat resembling Child's but so short that it may not be the same song)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 149-150, "The Rose of England" (1 text, the same fragment as Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 53-57, "The Rose of England" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3720
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #5919
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 423
Roud #4001
NOTES [1638 words]: According to David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 158 n. 25, this is one of eighteen ballads in the Child collection found only in the Percy Folio. Flanders and Olney obviously disagree, but I am far from confident that the Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland text is the same song -- and if it is, that it was not learned from one of the print editions of the Percy Folio.
E. K. Chambers, English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages, Oxford, 1945, 1947, p. 164, says that "The Rose of England, at least by title, [is] in Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas of about 1616." It is obviously possible that that is this ballad -- but once again I doubt it. This is largely a propaganda piece to justify the Tudor usurpation, and by 1616, with the Stuarts on the throne, that was hardly an issue any more. If the title were more specific ("Henry, the Tudor Rose" or some such), the probability would be higher -- but "The Rose of England" is too generic and could apply to many people other than Henry Tudor. Indeed, almost anyone taken off the street would be more rose-like than Henry VII.
To tell the history of the Wars of the Roses in less than thirty thousand words is impossible (especially since it involves the story of Richard III, who is perhaps the most controversial figure in all of human history), but here goes anyway:
In 1399, King Richard II was deposed (with good reason; he was an inept despot).
The throne, however, did not pass to his heir (his great-grand-nephew, a Mortimer) but to his cousin Henry IV. This was acceptable as long as Henry IV and his son Henry V were alive. But in 1422, just after he had been declared heir to the kingdom of France, Henry V died, leaving as his only heir a nine month old boy, Henry VI.
Without a strong king, England soon lost control of France (the last possessions outside Calais were lost by 1453). To make matters worse, Henry VI was feeble-minded, and was married to a tremendously ambitious queen, Margaret of Anjou. Their inept government descended into chaos when Henry went mad.
Eventually a civil war arose between Henry's partisans and the partisans of Richard Duke of York (the legitimate heir of Richard II). Richard of York probably didn't really want the throne, but when Margaret had him killed, Richard's son Edward had no choice but to seize power (1461). It took Edward (IV) ten years to gain a firm grip on power (it is probably not coincidence that Edward gained firm control in 1471, when his brother Richard turned 18. Richard was Edward's chief support in the last years of his reign). Edward reigned for another twelve peaceful years. Then disaster struck. Edward died young in 1483, leaving as his heir a twelve year old boy (Edward V) who was in the hands of a rapacious faction. When a rumor arose that Edward V was illegitimate, Richard seized the throne. (The fact that his seizure cost a couple of people their heads should not conceal the fact that it was arguably legal and undoubtably the best thing for England.)
The Lancastrian faction (which had earlier supported Henry VI) managed to find a new candidate for the throne in Henry Tudor, a semi-illegitimate descendent of Henry IV's father John of Gaunt. By a minor miracle, Henry defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 and became king as Henry VII. (Despite the song, it should be noted that Richard III was far more legitimate than Henry VII, was probably a better soldier, gave every evidence of being a decent man when politics wasn't involved, and based on contemporary accounts was *not* deformed although what is thought to be his corpse does show a spinal condition. Henry, by contrast, was a cheap, rather ugly coward.) To firm up his claim, Henry also had to marry Edward IV's daughter Elizabeth.
It is ironic to note that Henry was often proclaimed as a gift from God designated to rescue England from Richard. But Henry's arrival corresponded to the arrival of the "Sweating Sickness," which apparently killed tens of thousands of people by the time of the last known outbreak in 1551. (According to The Wordsworth Encyclopedia of Plague & Pestilence, there were outbreaks in 1485, 1507-1508, 1516-1517, 1529, and 1551). Thus the sickness was virulent just about exactly as long as there were male Tudors on the throne. No, I don't think the facts actually related. But it's something for the "divine intervention" folks to consider.)
The title "The Rose of England" came from Henry's adopted token of the red rose -- and also from the white rose that was the token of the House of York (the family of Edward IV, Richard III, and Elizabeth). Whether Henry VII was an improvement over Richard III can be debated -- but certainly he was no rose. Perhaps the best evidence of this is the company he kept: The three men most responsible for making him king were
- Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, who was murdered by his own people for his behavior
- Sir William Stanley, a multiple turncoat who had been spared by Richard and who saved Henry's life -- but was executed by Henry half a dozen years later for treason! (Of which more below.)
- Lord Thomas Stanley, Sir William's brother and Henry's stepfather, another turncoat whom Richard had spared. He lived to become Earl of Derby, but Henry kicked him out of his government
The two Stanleys are the ultimately the heroes of this, and more directly of "The Battle of Bosworth Field," another piece found only in the Percy Folio, which evidently had access to some sort of Stanley Family propaganda source.
Henry's Chancellor was John Morton, Bishop of Ely, whose chief accomplishment was his ability to extort money from Henry's subjects.
All in all, a man with very unpleasant associates. The best thing that can be said for Henry VII is that he was the grandfather of Elizabeth I -- but, of course, Edward IV was Elizabeth's great-grandfather, and Richard III her great-great-uncle.
The sundry references in this song include the following:
"A crowned king... ouer England, Ireland, and France": The kings of England had claimed the throne of France since the time of Edward III -- but in Henry VII's time, only Calais was still in Henry's hands, and the only use Henry made of the title was to use it to extort money for "invasions" he had no intention of carrying out.
"Milford Hauen": Milford Haven, the town in Wales where Henry VII landed when he set out to attack Richard III.
"Sir Rice ap Thomas": Rhys ap Thomas was a Welsh chieftain who brought his forces over to Henry Tudor (in return for promises of high office).
"Erle Richmond": The closest thing Henry Tudor had to a legitimate title; his father had been appointed Earl of Richmond by Henry VI in 1452. (Though Edward IV withdrew the title while Henry was still a boy; see Elizabeth Jenkins, The Princes in the Tower, Coward, McCann & Geoghan, 1978, p. 22).
"Sir William Stanley": As noted above, Sir William Stanley was the brother of Lord Thomas Stanley (c. 1435-1504; second Lord Stanley and by this time first Earl of Derby), who was the third husband of Margaret Beaufort, Henry's mother. Thomas Stanley was a member of Richard's government, but (for obvious reasons) the Stanleys would have preferred the Tudor on the throne.
The Brothers Stanley, however, refused to show their colors; both brought forces to the Battle of Bosworth -- and then refused to fight! A. H. Burne, The Battlefields of England (a compilation of two volumes from the 1950s, Battlefields of England and More Battlefields of England, with a new introduction by Robert Hardy), Pen & Sword, 2005. p. 289,, says that such a battle has never occurred in English history: Four armies forming a square, with Richard III and Henry Tudor facing each other and the two Stanleys taking the other two sides of the square between them. Only when Richard ordered his charge against Henry did William Stanley intervene; his forces killed Richard and probably saved Henry Tudor's life.
It surely says something about both William Stanley and Henry Tudor that, in 1495, Henry accused William Stanley of treasonable support for a pretender and had him executed. Henry's only sign of gratitute to the man who put him on the throne was to pay for Stanley's burial. (Though some suspect that Henry went after Sir William to get his hands on his money.)
"The Erle of Oxford": John de Vere (c. 1443-1513), the (Lancastrial) Earl of Oxford, and a sort of a "yellow dog Lancastrian": He'd support a yellow dog for king as long as it wasn't a Yorkist.
"King Richard": Richard III. The reference in the song to a boar who rooted up the rose of England is probably an allusion to Richard's emblem of the White Boar.
The part about rooting up the Rose of England doubtless refers to the disappearance of Edward V. Shortly after being set aside as King, Edward and his brother Richard disappeared. Their fate was and is unknown (there are a couple of skeletons that might be theirs, but Elizabeth II has refused to allow genetic testing to find out for sure). It is likely that Richard killed them -- but even Henry VII couldn't offer any proof of that; there are those who think he killed Edward V himself, and if those unknown skeletons are really those of the Princes in the Tower, it's also possible that Edward V died of dental problems. It's a mystery that simply cannot be solved.
I can't help but note the irony that a version of this says "The cronykle will not layne [lie]" (a line perhaps taken from "The Battle of Otterburn"), but the essence of chronicles of this period -- from both sides! -- is that they lie for political reasons.
For additional details on Richard III's story, see the notes to "The Vicar of Bray" and especially "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods) [Laws Q34]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: C166

Rose of Englande, The

See The Rose of England [Child 166] (File: C166)

Rose of Glenfin, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves Molly from Magherafin, "the Rose of Glenfin." She swears she would be his but marries another. He curses any young man "who'd shower on any woman too much affection"; when your money's gone she'll go "with some other man's son"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 61, "The Rose of Glenfin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10365
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Handsome Molly" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [80 words]: The verse that travels from "Handsome Molly" here takes the form
Don't you mind lovely Molly when you gave me your hand,
You swore on the bible that you would be mine.
But it's now you've gone and married and you broke all those vows,
I am sorry for to leave you, farewell a stor mo chroi.
McBride added two verses of his own but I think deleting them does not leave this song to be "Handsome Molly," "Went to Church Last Sunday" or any of their relatives.
Glenfin is in Donegal. - BS
File: McB1061

Rose of Glenshee, The

See The Lass of Glenshee [Laws O6] (File: LO06)

Rose of Killarney

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! promise to meet me where twilight is falling." A love lyric to the "sweetest and fairest of Erin's fair daughters, Dear rose of Killarney, Mavourneen Asthore."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: love lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 18, "Sweet Rose of Killarney" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 142, "Rose of Killarney" (1 text)
Roud #2788
NOTES [37 words]: There is another "Rose of Killarney" song, "Through Erin's green and bonny isle, From Coleraine to Killarney's waters," found e.g. in Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster (p. 200). I have no evidence that it is traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: CrSNB018

Rose of No Man's Land, The

DESCRIPTION: "I've seen some beautiful flowers Grow in my garden fair... But I have found another, Wondrous beyond compare. There's a rose that grows on No Man's Land... Mid the War's great curse, Stands the Red Cross Nurse, She's the rose of No Man's Land"
AUTHOR: Words: Jack Caddigan / Music: James Alexander Brennan
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (French sheet music)
KEYWORDS: flowers soldier | nurse
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 128, "The Rose of No Man's Land" (1 text)
DT, ROSENOMN
Roud #10704
NOTES [77 words]: The Wikipedia entry on the song (checked July 29, 2023) states that the French version of the song, "La rose sous les boulets," was published in 1918 with lyrics by Louis Delamarre. The English then was published by Jack Caddigan and James Alexander Brennan. It was not the only English translation, but it was the one that became best known. The Wikipedia article is very unclear about the publication history, but I have not seen it elucidated elsewhere. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW128

Rose of Tralee, The

DESCRIPTION: "The pale moon was rising above the green mountain." He describes his love's beauty. "Yet 'twas not her beauty alone that won me, Oh, no, 'twas the truth in her eyes Ever dawning, that made me love Mary, the Rose of Tralee."
AUTHOR: Words: C. Mordaunt Spencer/Music: Charles William Glover (1806-1863) ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia); originally published in London c. 1845
KEYWORDS: love lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 80, "The Rose of Tralee" (1 text)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 100-101, "The Rose of Tralee" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 141, "The Rose of Tralee" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2037, p. 137, "The Rose of Tralee" (1 reference)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 96, "The Rose of Tralee" (1 text)
DT, TRALEE*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 493, "The Rose of Tralee" (1 text)
Roud #1978
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B.11(1290), "The Rose of Tralee" ("The pale moon was rising above the green mountain"), H. Such (London) , 1863-1885
LOCSheet, sm1850 660580, "Rose of Tralee," Peters, Webb and Co. (Louisville), 1850; also sm1850 482010, "Rose of Tralee" (tune)
NOTES [248 words]: Source: Re author--"St Patricks Day--March 17, 2003" on the Eastern Illinois University site. - BS
The editors of Granger's Index to Poetry lists two possible authors, the first possibility being William Pembroke Mulchinock (1820?-1864; this claim is supported, and perhaps derived from, Hoagland) and our listed author Spencer the second. (The latter attribution is supported by the uncredited Amsco publication The Library of Irish Music, which however seems to me to be a rather poor source. Sing Out, Volume 38, #4 [1994] lists Glover as the author, not separating the words and music; it gives Glover's dates as 1806-1863.)
Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 18, supports the attribution to Mulchinock, and notes that he was a frequent contributor to the well-known Irish journal The Nation. But Gogan also tells a pretty folkloric story about the song: That Mulchinock, who was from Tralee, fell in love with a local girl, Mary O'Connor, and sent him away. When he returned home, he met the funeral procession for his beloved Mary, and wrote this song in her memory. Obviously it could have happened. But what are the odds in real life?
Neither proposed author wrote anything else that has shown any sign of enduring. Composer Glover also gave us "Jeanette and Jeannot."
The Sing Out! article reports that the song was sung by John McCormak in the 1930 movie "Song o' My Heart," which is what made the piece truly popular. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon080

Rose Smells Sae Sweetly, The

See The Cruel Brother [Child 11] (File: C011)

Rose That All Are Praising, The

DESCRIPTION: "The rose that all are praising Is not the rose for me; Too many eyes are gazing Upon that costly tree"; he prefers another rose. Similarly, he prefers a bird other than the bird that sings sweetly, and a gem that kings do not covet
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: flowers bird love
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 279-280, "The Rose That All Are Praising" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 138, "The Rose That All Are Praising" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27316
File: HGam279

Rose the Red and White Lillie

See Rose the Red and White Lily [Child 103] (File: C103)

Rose the Red and White Lilly

See Rose the Red and White Lily [Child 103] (File: C103)

Rose the Red and White Lily [Child 103]

DESCRIPTION: Rose and Lily are each loved by a son of their cruel stepmother, who attempts to part them. The girls disguise themselves as boys and go into service with their erstwhile loves. After much adventure they are revealed and reunited, each couple marrying.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783/1799 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: love stepmother separation disguise cross-dressing reunion marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 103, "Rose the Red and White Lily" (3 texts)
Bronson 103, "Rose the Red and White Lily" (2 versions)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 76-89, "Rose the Red & White Lily" (2 parallel texts plus a photo of the badly-transcribed tune; also a reconstructed tune on p. 262)
Greig/Duncan1 162, "Rose the Red and White Lily" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 55, "Rose the Red and White Lily" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 21, "Rose the Red and White Lily" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's #1}
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 127-130, "Rose the Red and White Lilly"; pp. 130-133, "Rose the Red and White Lillie"; pp. 133-134, "The Wedding of Robin Hood and Little John" (3 texts)
Roud #3335
NOTES [93 words]: David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, pp. 303-304, regards this as a Robin Hood ballad, a reworking of "Robin Hood and Maid Marian" [Child 150]. He doesn't have much company in that assessment, although it is true that Anna Gordon Brown's version was not taken down until after Ritson published his book on Robin Hood, making "Maid Marian" (a very minor Robin Hood ballad featuring a character not found elsewhere and not known to have been found in tradition prior to Ritson's publication) widely known. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: C103

Rose Tree, The

See The Juniper Tree (The Wicked Stepmother, The Rose Tree) (File: Cha047)

Rose, Rose

DESCRIPTION: Round. "Rose, rose, rose, rose, Shall I ever see thee red? Aye, marry, that thou will, If thou but stay." Or, "Rose, rose, rose, rose, Shall I ever see thee wed, I will marry at thy desire, At thy will
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Tobitt-YoursForASong)
KEYWORDS: flowers marriage nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 346, 348, 432, 447-454, 501-502, "Rose, Rose"/"Rose" (notes, plus 7 texts, mostly of a single verse, on pp. 452-454; bibliography on pp. 694-697)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 159, "Rose, Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 49, "Rose, Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ROSEROSE*
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, Dennis Cook, "Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose/Ah, Poor Bird" (Piotr-Archive #602, recorded 06/08/2023; medley of "Rose, Rose " and "Ah, Poor Bird," with the first sung to the tune of the "Souling Song")
SAME TUNE:
America, America (File: ACSF449A)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Peace, Peace
Love, Love
NOTES [431 words]: The lyrics on this seem very unfixed (it's not even clear whether it's "Rose, rose, rose, rose" or "Rows, rows, rows, rows" or "Row, row, row, row"). I would guess this is because the likely source text, Tobitt's, has no rhymes at all. The tune is also unusual. It's marked with no sharps or flats, starts on A, ends on the E below it, highest note is the E an octave above that, and uses a G# in the first measure (and no G naturals). So it's in A natural minor ending on the fifth. The internal harmonics are interesting too. It reminds me a bit of "Hey, Ho, Nobody Home," if you ignore the G#. I spotted this independently of the mention on p. 448 of Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs.
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 449, lists three derivative songs, "America, America," "Love, Love," and "Peace, Peace." The text I found of these gives them all as additional verses of "Rose, Rose"; I have indexed "America, America" separately because it is listed as the most popular, but I've skipped the others. The lyrics are as follows:
-- "America, America":
America, America,
Shall we tell you how we feel?
You have given us your riches,
We love you so.
-- "Love, Love":
Love, love, love, love,
The gospel in one word is love,
Love thy neighbor as they brother
And we'll have love
-- "Peace, Peace":
Peace, peace, peace, peace,
War will come and war will cease,
Love thy brother as thyself
And we'll have peace.
There is also a "Friend, friend, friend, friend" verse:
Friend, friend, friend, friend,
You have stood beside me forever
Someday soon I'll return the favor
You are my friend.
Also a "Ding, dong, ding, dong" verse about wedding bells, and the "Soul, soul, soul, soul" verse of "Hey, ho, nobody home."
Averill's version "G" has the three texts ("America, America," "Peace, Peace," and "Love, Love") together but does not include the "Rose, Rose" lyric. A complex conundrum.
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 448, reports that someone claimed that this is about the Wars of the Roses, suggesting that the line "Shall I ever see thee red?" was a question by a Lancastrian who wanted to overthrow the White Rose of York. This is extremely unlikely even if you ignore the fact that "The Wars of the Roses" is a modern title. Yes, the Yorkists had a white rose emblem -- but the Lancastrians did not use a rose emblem; it wasn't until the Tudor era that the red rose meant anything. And the rose emblems weren't important to either side even after the Tudors took over. The whole business of picking a colored rose to pick a side is from Henry VI, Part 1 (Act ii, scene iv), not from history. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF346R

Rosebud in June

DESCRIPTION: "Here the rosebuds in June and the violets are blowing, The small birds they whistle on every green bough." Singer celebrates joys of spring, dancing on the green, and sheepshearing. The song may describe the cycle of the seasons.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1840
KEYWORDS: ritual dancing nonballad sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 93, "It's a Rosebud in June" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 90, "It's a Rosebud in June" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #11, "The Rosebuds in June" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ROSEBUDJ*
Roud #812
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Here's the Rosebud in June
Rosebud in June
NOTES [61 words]: This song, a simple pastoral on its face, has ritual overtones. Note the chorus: "We'll pipe and we'll sing, Love/We'll dance in a ring, Love/When each lad takes his lass/All on the green grass/And the lads and the lasses to sheep-shearing go." Ring-dancing was characteristic of rituals in pre-Christian Europe. Other verses have hints of sympathetic magic as well. -PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: ShH93

Rosebuds in June, The

See Rosebud in June (File: ShH93)

Rosedale Shores

See Rosedale Waters (The Skeptic's Daughter) (File: R601)

Rosedale Waters (The Skeptic's Daughter)

DESCRIPTION: The skeptic's daughter sets out to refute the Christians. She is instead converted. Her father orders her to reject the faith. She refuses his order, and is cast from his home. But soon her parents come to her, begging her to return and convert them
AUTHOR: Music: F. T. Alexander?
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (manuscript known to Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious rejection separation help father children
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 601, "The Skeptic's Daughter" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 418-422, "The Skeptic's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 601A)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 328, "The Skeptic's Daughter (1 fragment, 1 tune); 774, "A Plea for Mercy" (1 fragment, 1 tune; the second verse goes with this although the first may be something else)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #119, "The Skeptic's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune, most of read by the informant from a printed ballet)
Roud #4644
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Protestant Maid" (subject: religious conversion) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rosedale Shores
NOTES [28 words]: This piece may have been used by Holy Rollers to try to convert souls, but all I can say is that its utter banality would be likely to convert me the other way.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R601

Rosemary and Thyme

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Rosemary Fair

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Rosemary Lane [Laws K43]

DESCRIPTION: A sailor meets a girl at an inn, and induces her to go to bed with him. In the morning he gives her gold and says, "If it's a boy, he will (fight for the king/be a sailor); if a girl, she will wear a gold ring."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: seduction separation clothes floatingverses
FOUND IN: Australia US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Queb) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (30 citations):
Laws K43, "Home, Dearie, Home (Bell-Bottom Trousers)"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #135, pp. 1-2, "Hame, Dearie, Hame" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1057, "Hame, Dearie, Hame" (10 texts, 11 tunes)
Greig/Duncan7 1429, "When I Was a Servant in Old Aberdeen" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 81, "Rosemary Lane" (3 texts)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 112, "Rosemary Lane" (1 text)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 25, "Bell-Bottom Trousers" (1 tex, 1 tune)
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 126-127, "Bell-bottom Trousers" (1 text, which may have been deliberately coarsened)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #51, "Rosemary Lane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 81-88, "Bell Bottom Trousers" (6 texts, 1 tune)
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 72-75, "Bell Bottom Trousers" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, pp. 68-69, "Never Trust a Sailor" (1 text)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 138, "Bell-Bottom Trousers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 34, "The Boy Child" (1 short text, which Laws calls a "ribald fragment." Fragment it is, with only two of the regular verses, including "If it be a girl...." But I suspect the other two verses are a mixture from another, heavily bawdy, song, which we might title something like "eleven inches in")
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 72, "Button Willow Tree" (1 text, 1 tune, with a cowpuncher as the visiting man!)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan ,165 "Jack, the Sailor Boy" (1 text)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 195-198, "Bell Bottom Trousers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 183-184, "Home, Dearie, Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 158, "The Oak and the Ash" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 43, "Rosemary Lane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 166, "Bell-Bottomed Trousers" (1 text)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 167-168, "Home, Dearie, Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 498, "Home, Dearie, Home" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 366]
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 146, "Bell-Bottom Trousers" (1 text; this follows a text and tune of "Home, Dearie, Home," i.e. "Ambletown," plus a stanza of Henley's adaption and an alternate chorus)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 83, "The Servant of Rosemary Lane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 144-146, "The Waitress and the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune, which seems to have been updated for the twentieth century but is still clearly this song)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 139, "Bell Bottom Trousers"
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Andra Joy Hamilton, "A Garland of Ballads from Caldwell County", Vol. 3, No. 1 (Jul 1955), p. 5, "At Home, My Lassie" (1 fragment, 1 tune, so short that it might be "Ambletown" or "Rosemary Lane" [Laws K43] or any other member of the family; there is no seduction, just the "Home... in your ain country" and the "If it be a boy" stanzas); Vol. 3, No. 2 (Dec 1955), p. 19, contains an "Additional Note" on the song but no additional text)
DT 319, BELLBTTM* HOMEBOYS* RASPLANE RASPLAN2* ROSELANE*
ADDITIONAL: Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 80, "(O Falmouth is a fine town with ships in the bay')" (1 excerpt, probably of the Henley poem described in the notes but treated as traditional; it might be an "Ambletown"/"Falmouth is a fine town" mix)
Roud #269
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs, "Rosemary Lane" (on Briggs1, Briggs3, Briggs4)
Liam Clancy, "Home Boys Home" (on IRLClancy01)
Jerry Colonna, "Bell Bottom Trousers" (Capitol 204, 1945)
Chris Willett, "Once I Was a Servant" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 624, "The Servant of Rosemary Lane" ("When I was a servant in Rosemary-lane"), J. Jennings (London), 1790-1840; also Harding B 15(279a), Harding B 11(4221), "The Servant of Rosemary Lane"; Bodleian, Harding B 17(130a), "Home, Dear Home" (with the "Home, Dear Home" chorus, several verses of this, and perhaps a rewritten ending)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Was Young (Don't Never Trust a Sailor)" (plot, floating lyrics)
cf. "Ambletown" (floating lyrics, theme)
cf. "Pretty Little Miss" [Laws P18] (theme)
cf. "A North Country Maid"
cf. "Hame, Hame, Hame" (structure and some lines)
cf. "A Maid A-Being Young" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "Fat'll Mak a Bonny Lassie Blythe an' Glad" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Oak and the Ash, The
Drury Lane
Raspberry Lane
Once When I Was a Servant
Old Aberdeen
NOTES [926 words]: The history of this song is extremely complex and obscure. The extended family is listed in the Index under three titles: "Rosemary Lane," "Ambletown," and "When I Was Young (Don't Never Trust a Sailor)." However, these may represent as many as five songs, or perhaps only a single one.
The three basic plots are as follows:
* "Rosemary Lane" (a title selected because, unlike Laws's title "Home, Dearie, Home," it is unique to this version) is a British ballad of a servant who is seduced and then abandoned by a sailor. It exists under many titles, e.g. "Bell-Bottomed Trousers."
* "When I Was Young" has the same plot but in a very reduced form; what matters is not the method of the seduction but simply that it happens. This song frequently has a bawdier feel. It ends with a warning, "Don't ever trust (a sailor) an inch above the knee."
* "Ambletown" (another title chosen because it is unambiguous) involves a sailor who learns from a letter that he is a father, and desperately wants to return home to see the child.
The greatest difficulty concerns the relationship between "Rosemary Lane" and "Ambletown." In plot, they are quite distinct. A comparison of the lyrics, however, shows that as much as half the material in "Ambletown" occurs also in "Rosemary Lane" (which is longer, seemingly older, and much more common). As many as three stanzas regularly "cross": "If it be a boy, he will fight for the king"; "And it's home, dearie, home"; and "The oak and the ash and the bonnie birchen tree." (The latter two may be derived from yet another song, "A North Country Maid" ).
It should also be noted that "Ambletown" could function as an ending to "Rosemary Lane," particularly if the warning about not trusting a sailor is not the original ending. This has not, however, been observed in tradition.
Extensive examination of the texts of the songs could not finally resolve the question. The Ballad Index Board is tentatively of the opinion that "Rosemary Lane" and "Ambletown" now are separate songs, which have cross-fertilized heavily but remain distinct. It is quite possible, however, that one (probably "Ambletown") is an offshoot of the other, with a new (clean) plot built around the same verses.
In addition, "Rosemary Lane" has undergone extensive evolution *after* the cross-fertilization stage. Our guess is that it began with a relatively "clean" broadside of seduction (now seemingly lost). This likely contained the "If it be a boy" stanza, but probably not the others. Tradition then mixes in the other common stanzas, and set to work on the song, producing both clean and bawdy versions. - RBW, DGE, PJS
An addendum: Don Duncan brings to my attention the poem "O Falmouth Is a Fine Town," by William E. Henley (1878), which has the following first verse:
O Falmouth is a fine town with ships in the bay,
And I wish from my heart it's there I was to-day;
I wish from my heart I was far away from here,
Sitting in my parlor and talking to my dear.
For it's home, dearie home--it's home I want to be.
Our topsails are hoisted, and we'll away to sea.
O the oak and the ash and the bonnie birken tree,
They're all growing green in the old countrie.
This can be found, e.g., in Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads (#C, p. 194).
Henley admitted that part of the song, including the chorus, was old. Duncan speculates that "Falmouth..." is the rewrite of "Rosemary Lane" we postulated above. This seems quite possible -- but if so, then Henley's poem has gone into oral tradition itself, and experienced a great deal of folk processing. Thus, the essential outline we described above seems to be accurate.
Just in case that weren't complicated enough, Allan Cunningham produced a poem, "Hame, Hame, Hame," which once again used some of the same lyrics: "Hame, hame, hame, hame, fain wad I be, O hame, hame, hame, to my ain countrie!" The rest, though, seems simply a hymn to home, "When the flower is in the bud, and the lead is on the tree, The lark shall sing me hame to my ain countrie...." For this text, see, the entry on "Hame, Hame, Hame."
The reference to "Rosemary Lane" is particularly interesting. "Rosemary" of course stood for remembrance in flower symbolism (cf. Binney, p. 86, who of course quotes Ophelia's "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance," plus some other evidence), which is very fitting in this context. But Cordingly, p. 7, notes that at one time the actual street had some significance to sailors. A brothel owner named Damaris Page was active in the 1650s and 1660s: "She had one on the Ratcliffe Highway that catered to ordinary seamen and dockworkers, and she also managed one on Rosemary Lane for naval officers and those who could afford the prices of the classier prostitutes."
Weinreb/Hibbert, p. 657, say that Rosemary Lane was once "an infamous street market for old clothes and frippery, familiarly known as RAG FAIR. It was run by Jews and supplied by itinerant collectors who gathered discarded or stolen clothes and rags. It was open every day and frequented mainly by local inhabitants." They do not mention either lodging houses or prostitution. The lane was eliminated from the map in 1850 when it became Royal Mint Street.
In 1945, Moe Jaffee produced a song called "Bell Bottom Trousers" which was recorded by several pop performers. It was, very loosely, based on this song (the chorus is "Bell bottom trousers, Coat of navy blue, She loves a sailor man And he loves her too"), but it is completely rewritten. I would not consider it to be a version of any of the various forms of this song. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LK43

Rosen Fra Fuhn

See Rosen Fra Fyn (File: ACSF141R)

Rosen Fra Fyn

DESCRIPTION: Danish round: "Rosen fra Fyn (x4)." Might come into English as "Roses from Fuhn," or be misunderstood as "Raisin Fried Prunes" or garbled as "Frozen raccoon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (GirlScout-PocketSongbook)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage flowers campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 141, 443-444, 450, "Rosen fra fuhn" (notes only)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 46, "Rosen Fra Fuhn" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Rosen Fra Fyn" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 32)
NOTES [35 words]: GirlScout-PocketSongbook points out that Fuhn was the home of Hans Christian Andersen. But most of the versions I found online gave the name as "Fyn," not "Fuhn." Perhaps this was to help with pronunciation. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF141R

Rosen the Bow

See Rosin the Beau (File: R846)

Rosenthal's Goat

See Bill Grogan's Goat (File: SRW141)

Roses are Red

DESCRIPTION: "Roses are red, violets are blue, (sugar/honey/gillyflower) is sweet and so are you." Or, "...blue, When I choose, it will be you," or "...blue, I love (someone) to jump in with me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammer Gurton's Garland)
KEYWORDS: nonballad flowers colors | roses violets counting-out
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 458, "The rose is red, the violet blue" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 238, (no title) (1 short text: "Roses red, violets blue, cucumbers green and so are you"!); p. 243 (no title) (1 short text)
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, p. 81, "(no title)" (2 short texts, "Roses are red, violets are blue, A face like yours Belongs in the zoo"; "Roses are red, violets are black, You'd look better with a knife in your back")
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 133, "(Roses are red and violets are blue") (1 text, identified as a autograph rhyme)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 120, "Roses are red"; p. 121, "Roses are red" (2 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #494, "Roses are red, violets are blue"; #495, "Roses are red, violets are blue" (2 texts)
Roud #19798
SAME TUNE:
Death of the Old Cat ("Roses are red, violets are pink, The old cat died in the kitchen sink") (Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 105)
NOTES [93 words]: Although this is widely known (i.e. even I heard it in youth), I have seen very little evidence that it is a song and not simply a rhyme. The Opie version is a gift song for Easter; I have not seen this elsewhere (nor seen any other version which mentions the gillyflower).
It certainly has inspired parodies -- e.g. Peter and Iona Opie, I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth, #146, offers "Roses are red, Violets are blue, The shorter the skirt, The better the view" and "Roses are red, Cabbages are green, If my face is funny, Yours is a scream." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: MHAp238A

Roses of Picardy

DESCRIPTION: "She is watching by the poplars, Colinette with the sea-blue eyes." "Roses are shining in Picardy, In the hush of the silvery dew, Roses are flow'ring in Picardy, But there's never a rose like you." Even years later, "He loves to hold her little hands"
AUTHOR: Words: Frederic Edward Weatherly (1848-1929) / Music: Hayden Wood (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love separation flowers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 40, "Roses of Picardy" (1 text)
Roud #25454
NOTES [356 words]: Although this was a popular hit, it seems to have made almost no impression in tradition -- Alice Kane mentions it (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 190), but she learned it in school, not from other children. I find it banal to the point of irritation.
For background on Fred E. Weatherly, see the notes to "Danny Boy (The Londonderry Air)."
Back in the days before all old sheet music seemed to be on the Internet, I managed to acquire the sheet music for two other Weatherly pieces, "Roses of Picardy" and "The Holy City."
"Roses of Picardy," published in 1916 with music by Haydn Wood, is interesting, because Wood's name is printed in far larger type than Weatherly's. Yet Wood was hardly a big name. I checked five musical references to learn about him. Only one had an entry, and it brief. Percy A. Scholes, The Oxford Companion to Music, ninth edition, corrected, Oxford, 1960, p. 1127, mentions him, giving as his whole biography, "Born near Huddersfield, Yorkshire, in 1882 and died in London in 1959, aged seventy-six. He had a double career as a solo violinist and as a composer some of whose lighter pieces (e.g. Roses of Picardy) had a great vogue." I do note that Jerry Silverman included the song in the Mel Bay book Ballads & Songs of WWI.
But "Roses of Picardy," as a poem, is banal (though I'd call it better than "The Holy City"); it's yet another song about an old man remembering his wife's early beauty and saying that, unlike the roses of Picardy to which he once compared her, he still loves her:
Roses are flow'ring in Picardy, but there's never a rose like you!
And the roses will die with the summertime, and our roads may be far apart,
But there's one rose that dies not in Picardy! 'tis the rose that I keep in my heart!
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, pp. 322, 344, estimates that "Picardy" was the fourteenth most popular song in America in 1918 (#1 for the year being J. Will Callahan and Lee G. Roberts's "Smiles") and also reached #7 in December 1923. But it didn't hold up after that.
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW040

Roses Red, Roses White

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme, which may open with the line "B-L-E-S-S-I-N-G." "Roses red, roses white, Roses in my garden; I would not part With my sweetheart For twopence, ha'penny farthing."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: money flowers love colors jumprope separation | rose red white
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #496, "Roses red, roses white" (1 text)
Roud #1202
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rose in June" (lyrics)
NOTES [39 words]: The basic lyric of this rhyme derives from "Rose in June," and Roud understandably lumps them. But this seems to exist on its own, as a jump-rope rhyme, so I have split them -- with the understanding that they are "really" one item. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR496

Rosetta and Her Gay Ploughboy

See The Farmer's Daughter and the Gay Ploughboy (File: ReSh236B)

Rosewater Bee, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Rosewater Bee is a dandy, I can't help but watch as he flies; He is steering straight for your brain, boys." The newspaper "is loaded with lies" the that Farmers' Alliance and the Independent party will fight; they will drive the bees from the hive
AUTHOR: Words; John King
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Farmer's Alliance, February 14, 1891 edition, according to Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore)
KEYWORDS: political farming
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 70-71, "The Rosewater Bee" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Nebraska Folklore, Pamphlet Twenty, "More Farmers' Alliance Songs of the 1890's," Federal Writers' Project, 1939, p. 15, "The Rosewater Bee" (1 text)
NOTES [39 words]: The Nebraska Folklore Project says that this was "Composed and sung by John King of Rock Creek precinct, Saunders County," which would seem to imply that it has its own tune, but I rather suspect it was sung to "Rosin the Beau." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: Wels070

Rosewood Casket

See Little Rosewood Casket (File: R763)

Rosey Anderson

See Rosie Anderson (File: Log392)

Rosey Apple Lemon and Pear

DESCRIPTION: Singing came of courting. "(Mary Wilson), fresh and fair, A bunch of roses she shall wear, Gold and silver byher side, I know who is her bride." "Rose, apple, lemon, or pear." "Take her by the lily-white hand."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Mason, _Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs_, according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1579, "Orange Blossom" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 33, "Rosy Apple" (2 texts)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 71, "Singing Game (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #497, Rosy apples, lemon and a pair" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edwin Sidney Hartland, editor, County Folk-Lore. Gloucestershire (Gloucester, 1892 ("Digitized by Google")), #6 p. 64, ("Golden apple, lemon and a pear") (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #41, "Rosy Apple, Lemon or Pear" (1 text)
Roy Palmer, _Ripest Apples_, The Big Apple Association, 1996, p. 12, "Rosy Apple" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6492
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wind Blows High" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
NOTES [60 words]: Some of the versions of this, such as the Montgomeries', appear to have mixed with "Weevily Wheat" or one of its relatives. With pieces like this, it's hard to tell.
Palmer links this to the legend of Saint Dorothea, a martyred virgin whose iconography included a basket of apples and flower. I can't see that that has anything to do with the song, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: MSNR071

Rosianne

See Lizie Wan [Child 51] (File: C051)

Rosibella

DESCRIPTION: Call-response. Calls: "Rosibel [I] talk you no hear." "Rosibel do you like it round here?" "Rosibel do not go, you're not here." Response: "Rosibell-o bell-o" and, sometimes, "Bell bell bell bell."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
RECORDINGS:
unknown, "Rosibella" (on JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
File: RcRosibe

Rosie

DESCRIPTION: "Be my woman, gall, I'll / be your man. Every Sunday's dollar / in your hand. Stick to the promise, gall, 'at / you made me. Weren't gonna marry till-a /I go free. Well Rosie / oh Lord gal, When she walk she reel and / rock behind..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: prisoner love abandonment
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 107, (no title) (1 text); pp. 262-263, "Rosie" (1 tune, partial text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 62-65, "Rosie" (1 text, 1 tune, probably composite)
Roud #15507
File: CNFM107A

Rosie Anderson

DESCRIPTION: Rosie marries Hay Marshall, but soon attracts the attention of Lord Elgin. Elgin dances with Rosie and takes her home. After more wantonness on her part, Marshall divorces Rosie. She is left to lament her fate (and court a soldier or become a prostitute)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Logan-APedlarsPack)
KEYWORDS: marriage adultery nobility betrayal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 184-187, "Rosey Anderson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 173, "Hie Marshall" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #127, pp. 1-2, "Rosie Anderson" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1462, "Rosie Anderson" (12 texts plus a single verse on p. 529, 10 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 91-92, "Rosey Anderson" (1 text)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 392-395, "Rosey Anderson" (1 text)
DT, ROSANDER
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, p. 220, ("Hay Marshall was as brave a lord") (1 tune) [first and last verse only; the rest, writes Christie, "is not suited for this Work."]
ST Log392 (Full)
Roud #2169
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:010, "Rosy Anderson," unknown (Glasgow), no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Peggy and the Soldier (The Lame Soldier)" [Laws P13] (plot)
cf. "The Brewer Laddie" (plot)
cf. "Tamiston" (theme: seduction by Lord Elgin)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hay Marshall
NOTES [90 words]: Logan-APedlarsPack has many details about the facts behind this ballad (though providing few dates). Rosie reportedly married Thomas Hay Marshall at the age of 16, urged on more by her parents than her own desires. The divorce was rather more messy than the ballad shows, as Marshall had neglected his wife. Sadly, the affair ended with Rosie walking the streets of London.
The Lord Elgin mentioned in this ballad is also the one who walked off with the Grecian marbles. All in all, not the sort of person I'd want to let into the house. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Log392

Rosie Ann

See Lizie Wan [Child 51] (File: C051)

Rosie Apple Went to Chapel

DESCRIPTION: "Rosie apple went to chapel, Riding on a pony, Get two sticks and knock her down And make her stand alone-y."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: travel horse injury | church pony sticks
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 9, "Rosie Apple" (1 text)
File: BAAI009B

Rosie Belle Teeneau, The

DESCRIPTION: In habitant dialect. The Rosie Belle Teeneau is manned by Jean Baptiste DuChene and family, and sails the Great Lakes. On one trip, they carry a cargo of gunpowder without knowing what it is. It, and DuChene, are blown up. Sailors are warned of explosives
AUTHOR: unknown (published by William Edward Baubie)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Baubie, French Canadian Verse)
KEYWORDS: humorous sailor ship death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 158-160, "Legend of hte Rosie Belle Teeneau" (1 text)
Roud #19882
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "De Scow Jean La Plante" (main character)
NOTES [111 words]: That this is a legend, and not fact, is obvious from the fact that gunpowder is not itself explosive; it *burns*, and must be primed. No such events are described in the song.
It is not clear to me that this poem/song is traditional. Walton's version is from print, and there is no mention of having heard even a portion of it from tradition. But the notes imply that the legend of DuChene and the gunpowder is traditional -- indeed, there is another poem about him, ""De Scow Jean La Plante," which involves a different boat and a different voyage but has a "Captain Batteece" and ends with the boat blowing up. This probably isn't folk song. It may be folk tale. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM158

Rosie Nell

DESCRIPTION: "How oft I dream of childhood days, Of tricks we used to play.... I'd rather be with Rosie Nell, a-swinging in the lane." But then "Aunt Jemima Brown" introduces Rosie to another fellow. The singer warns men against getting too involved with women
AUTHOR: Charles Carroll Sawyer (source: Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (The Champaign Charlie and Coal Oil Tommy Songster)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity warning
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 99, "Rosy Nell" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 114-116, "Rosie Nell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 871, "Swinging in the Lane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 57, pp. 75-76, "Rosie Nell" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 683, "Childhood Days" (1 short text, 1 tune, probably this); 789 "Singing in the Lane" (1 short text, 1 tune, again, probably this)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 37, "Swinging in the Lane" (1 tet plus 2 excerpts and mention of 3 more; 2 tunes)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp.137-138, "Swinging in the Lane" (1 text) (pp. 116-117 in the 1919 edition)
Dime-Song-Book #15, pp. 24-25, "Swinging in the Lane" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 482, "Rosie Nell" (source notes only)
ST San114 (Partial)
Roud #2870
RECORDINGS:
Walter "Kid" Smith & Norman Woodlief with Posey Rorer, "I'd Rather Be with Rosy Nell" (Gennett 6858/Challenge 431, 1929)
The Virginia Dandies [alternate name for Walter "Kid" Smith & The Carolina Buddies], "Rosy Nell" (Crown, unissued, 1931)
File: San114

Rosie Smell'd Sae Sweetlie, The

See The Cruel Brother [Child 11] (File: C011)

Rosie, Darling Rosie

DESCRIPTION: "Rosie, darling Rosie, Ha ha Rosie (x2)" "Way down yonder in Baltimore, Ha ha Rosie, Need no carpet on my floor." "Grab your partner and follow me..." "Some folks say preachers won't steal..." "Stop right still and study yourself..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, children of Brown's Chapel School)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 155-156, "(Rosie Darling Rosie)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 539-540, "Rosie Darling Rosie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11008
RECORDINGS:
Children of Brown's Chapel School, "Rosie, Darling Rosie" (on NFMAla6, RingGames1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Coney Isle" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Some Folks Say that a Preacher Won't Steal" (lyrics)
NOTES [27 words]: Lyrics from this song made their way into the folk-revival version of "Rocky Road (Green Green)," but they don't share lyrics in their traditional versions. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: CNFM155

Rosin Box, The

DESCRIPTION: A tinker comes to solder among the ladies with "his soldering-iron tool." An old woman asks that he solder her bones. "A country chap" takes the tinker's daughter but she is rescued. If a woman had been honest, she'd have "a baby belonging to me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (recording, Johnny Reilly)
KEYWORDS: sex tinker
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #2501
RECORDINGS:
Johnny Reilly, "The Rosin Box" (on Voice07)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rozzin Box
NOTES [61 words]: I won't pretend to understand how "the tinker he was nasty and was looking for a swap When up steps a country chap took his daughter in a truck" ties into the rest of this. On the other hand the sexual coding seems clear in the chorus "with his rosin box and itchy pole, his hammer, knife and spoon, And his nipper-tipper handstick and his soldering iron tool." - BS
File: RcRozBox

Rosin the Beau

DESCRIPTION: "Old Rosin," who has travelled the whole country/world, is preparing to depart from this life. He hopes that future generations will emulate him, and asks to be remembered (usually with alcohol). Details vary widely
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1838 (sheet music published by Osbourn of Philadelphia)
KEYWORDS: drink death party burial
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(MA,Ro,SE,So,SW) Ireland
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 255-258, "Old Rosin the Beau" (2 texts)
Randolph 846, "Old Rosin the Bow" (2 short texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 386-387, "Old Rosin the Bow" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 846A)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 158, "Old Rosin the Beau" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 159, "Old Rosin the Beau" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 32, "Old Rosin the Beau" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 32, "Rosin the Beau" (3 tunes plus textual excerpts)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 64, "Old Rosin the Beau" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 77, pp. 203-205, "Rosin the Bow" (2 texts)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 171-175, "Old Rosin the Beau" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 5, "Old Rosin the Beau" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 120-121, "Old Rosin the Beau" (1 text) (pp. 100-101 in the 1919 edition)
Greig/Duncan3 698, "Rosen the Beau" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 93-94, "Rosin the Beau" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 508)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 281, "Rosin, the Beau" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H698, p. 51, "Old Rosin the Bow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1728, p. 116, "Old Rosin the Beau" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 61 and #3/62, p. 61, "Old Rosin the Bow" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 37-39, "Old Rosin, the Beau" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 100, pp.209-211, "Rosin the Bow" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, p224, "Rosen the Bow" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 202, "Old Rosin The Beau" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Kern Lunsford, "Help Needed on 'Rosin the Bow,'" Vol. XX, No. 3 (Aug 1972), p. 119, "Rosin the Bow" (1 text)
DT, ROSINBOW*
Roud #1192
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Rosin the Bow" (on IRClancyMakem01)
A. L. Lloyd, "Rosin the Beau" (on Lloyd12)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as110360, "Old Rosin the Beau," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also sb40517a, "Old Rosin the Beau"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Acres of Clams (The Old Settler's Song)" (tune)
cf. "Lincoln and Liberty" (tune)
cf. "Sherman's March to the Sea" (tune)
cf. "Henry Clay Songs" (tune)
cf. "The Men of the West" (tune)
cf. "Straight-Out Democrat" (tune)
cf. "A Hayseed Like Me" (tune)
cf. "Tippecanoe" (tune)
cf. "He's the Man for Me" (tune)
cf. "Liberty Ball" (tune)
cf. "Here's to the Army and Navy" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Acres of Clams (The Old Settler's Song) (File: LxU055)
Lincoln and Liberty (File: San167)
Sherman's March to the Sea (File: SBoA248)
Just Tread on the Tail of Me Coat (File: R474)
Straight-Out Democrat (File: SRW043)
The Men of the West (File: PGa030)
A Hayseed Like Me (File: Grnw060)
He's the Man for Me (File: RcHtMfM)
Liberty Ball (File: TPS060)
Here's to the Army and Navy (File: DalC211)
The Song of the Trap (File: AnSt079)
Tippecanoe (File: Be3397)
The Mill-Boy of the Slashes (Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 39-40; cf. "Henry Clay Songs," File: SRW039)
Old Hal o' the West (Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 39-40; cf. "Henry Clay Songs," File: SRW039)
Tippicanoe (File: Be3397)
Old Tippecanoe III ("Ye Vanits of wide Pennsylvania") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, p. 6)
Have You Heard the Good News (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, p. 33)
The Hero of Tippecanoe ("Ye jolly young lads of Ohio") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p.52)
Hard Cider ("Come ye who, whatever betide her") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p.62)
Liberty Cabin Raising ("Come on, ye firm Whigs of old Crawford") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p. 87)
Song ("Come all ye young men of Missouri") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p. 100)
Little Vanny ("You can't make a song to Van Buren") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 287)
Song of the 1001 ("'Twas down by the foot of Mount Aetna") (Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden, _Wisconsin Lore: Antics and Anecdotes of Wisconsin People and Places_, Wisconsin House, 1962, p. 290, [no title]. The 1001 was said to be an organization which "made hoaxing the sole raison d'etre of their brotherhood.")
The Liberty Pole ("America's Bird has alighted") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 86)
My Girl with the Calico Dress ("A fig for your upper-ten girls") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 103)
The Red, White & Blue ("Come all ye good whigs of old '40") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 133)
Ye Jolly Young Lads of Ohio ("Ye jolly younh lads of Ohio, And all ye sick Jackson men too") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 287)
Democratic Ode ("November election is coming, To arms, all true Democrats, rise") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 315)
The Agrarian Ball ("COme all you true friends of the Nation, Attend to humanity's call") (Foner, p. 48)
NOTES [106 words]: Although this song is only moderately popular, and has been heavily folk processed, songs which have borrowed its tune were very common, particularly in the nineteenth century (see, e.g. "Acres of Clams," "Lincoln and Liberty").
Cohen cites Dichter and Shapiro to the effect that sheet music of this song (author not listed) was published in 1838. Whether this is actually the origin of the song (especially the tune) is not clear. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as110360: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R846

Rosin the Bow

See Rosin the Beau (File: R846)

Roslin on the Lee

DESCRIPTION: Sir Simon Fraser and Sir John Comyn led "ten thousand hielan' laddies Drest in their tartan plaidies." "For one hour and a quarter There was a bloody slaughter Till the English cried for quarter And in confusion flee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: battle England Scotland
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 111, "Roslin on the Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5785
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Battle of Roslin
NOTES [205 words]: Bodleian, 2806 c.11(109) ["Performer: Simpson, MacGregor"], "Roslin on the Lee" ("Just leave your tittle tattle"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1849-1880 appears to be this ballad but could not be downloaded to be verified.
Greig/Duncan1: "This Scottish victory over an English force took place at Roslin, south of Edinburgh, on 24 February 1303."
For some background on Scotland's rebellion against Edward I see "Scots Wha Hae (Bruce Before Bannockburn)." - BS
This is one of those cases where folklore significantly exaggerates. Yes, there was scattered opposition to the occupation by Edward I after the defeat of Wallace at Falkirk -- but there wasn't much. Sir Simon Fraser and John Comyn the Red were among the leaders -- but both would eventuallly submit to Edward I (see Magnus Magnusson, Scotland: The Story of a Nation, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000, pp. 151-152). It was, in fact, Robert Bruce's murder of the Red Comyn which formally started his war with Edward I (Magnusson, pp. 165-166).
Roslin was little more than a skirmish, involving far fewer men than this song would imply -- and was so minor that it was not even mentioned in the first six Scottish histories I checked. Its strategic significance was nil. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1111

Rossa's Farewell to Erin

DESCRIPTION: O'Donovan Rossa, on a ship, bids "Farewell to friends of Dublin." He will return sometime. He recalls joining the Fenian Brotherhood in 1864, curses "those traitors Who did our cause betray ... Nagle, Massey, Corydon, and Talbot" and sent him to jail.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads); c.1865 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: exile rebellion prison pardon Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 5, 1871 - Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa is freed from jail by amnesty on condition that he exile himself. He arrives in New York Jan. 19, 1871. (see Notes)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 34, "Rossa's Farewell to Erin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 70, "O'Donovan Rossa's Farewell to Dublin" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 136-137, "O'Donovan Rossa's Farewell (to Dublin)" (1 text)
ST OLoc034 (Partial)
Roud #3040
NOTES [701 words]: (Source Ireland's Own site "Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa (1831-1915)" from George Treanor, Irish Heritage Group): Formed the Phoenix Society of Skibbereen for the fight for independence. That organization joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), or Fenians, which formed in 1858. Rossa was arrested in 1858 for association with the Fenians, and again in 1865 after the Fenian Rising. His sentence was for writing seditious articles. He was treated badly in jail, and released in 1871 by amnesty on condition that he go into exile. In New York Rossa continued writing in support of the Fenian movement and was involved in planning bombing attacks in England. He died in the United States.
Rossa and four others -- the "Cuba Five" -- arrive in New York on January 19, 1871 on board the steamer Cuba (Source: History Cooperative site; Irish Culture and Customs site) - BS
Rossa was another of those Irishmen (like, e.g. Cathal Brugha) who changed his name to make it more "Irish"; according to Kee (p. 4), he was born Jeremiah Donovan Rossa (not O'Donovan) -- although Lyons, p. 126, has a different version: In this, he was born Jeremiah O'Donovan and added the name Rossa. Golway, p. 113, says that his father was one of those who starved to death during the potato famine (in Skibbereen, in fact, according to OxfordCompanion, p. 404).
In 1856, O'Donovan Rossa founded the Phoenix Society, a literary group devoted to resurrecting Irish culture and literature (Lyon, p. 126); and from 1863 he was one of the major forces behind the newspaper Irish People. The newspaper would be raided in 1865, resulting in O'Donovan Rossa's arrest.
In Charles Sullivan's Ireland in Poetry, p. 101, there is a poem, "The Returned Picture," credited to Mary O'Donovan Rossa (who was indeed a poet, having published Lyrical Poems in 1868). If this item is to be believed, Rossa's guards never let him see his wife, or the child still unborn when he was imprisoned, nor even let them see their picture. I cannot verify this,but it wouldn't surprise me.
Not that his behavior was exactly above reproach; Golway on p. 148 reports that he was known for flinging the contents of his chamber pot at his jailors. He wasn't much better when out of jail; Edwards, p. 16, reports that he was "Self-aggrandising, alcoholic, indiscreet and prone to helping himself to funds" and adds that "His plans included the assassination of Queen Victoria, the poisoning of the entire House of Commons, and the indiscriminate bombing of civilians." In context, one can hardly blame them for tying his hands behind his back for a month (Kee, p. 62). He was finally released in 1871. He went to American soon after (OxfordCompanion, p. 404).
In his life, Rossa wasn't a particularly effective figure in politics (although his writings had some influence), and he died senile in New York at the age of 84 -- but his body, shipped back to Ireland, proved a powerful rallying point for nationalists. (This even though Kee, p. 238, says that Rossa toward the end of his life inclined toward the moderate methods of John Redmond. It hadn't always been so; in the 1880s, he had organized bombings in England; OxfordCompanion, p. 404) Padraig Pearse gave his funeral elegy, and used it to call for Irish independence -- even as thousands of Irish boys were volunteering to serve in the British army.
The informers mentioned in the song are a varied lot. Corydon was a Fenian courier who worked for the headstrong Captain McCafferty, who revealed a plan to attack the Chester Castle military storehouse (Kee, p. 36). Nagle was a worker at the Irish People who was more spy than informant; he carried off correspondence coming through the paper's offices (Kee, p. 23). Thomas Talbot was a professional detective who infiltrated the Fenians under the name John Kelly (Kee, p. 25).
Gordon Massey was the most important but most equivocal; it's not sure if he turned informer before or after he was taken by the British (Kee, pp. 32-33). A Crimean veteran who had gone to America and changed his name several times; he was given high seniority in the Fenian movement based on his alleged command experience, but was betrayed by Corydon (Kee, p. 39). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.0
File: OLoc034

Rosy Apple, Lemon or Pear

See Rosey Apple Lemon and Pear (File: MSNR071)

Rosy Apples, Lemon and a Pear

See Rosey Apple Lemon and Pear (File: MSNR071)

Rosy Banks of Green, The

DESCRIPTION: Josephine and Charlie, a sailor, have been in love since they were in school. Her father shoots them. Josephine, dying, is glad she is going to meet her dead mother and Charlie. They "never shall be parted on the rosy banks of green"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: homicide courting love father sailor reunion
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf,Ont) US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Peacock, pp. 701-704, "The Rosy Banks of Green" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 136, "Rosy Banks of Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 25, "By the Rosy Banks So Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 200-201, "The Rosy Banks of Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4437
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Clara Stevens, "The Rosy Banks of Green" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Rosy Banks So Green
File: Pea701

Rosy Morn, The

See The Red, Rosy Morning (File: WT058)

Rosy Nell

See Rosie Nell (File: San114)

Rother Glen

DESCRIPTION: "When I was young in youth did bloom, Where fancy led me I did roam, From town to town, and country round, And to a place named Rother Glen"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes)
KEYWORDS: rambling
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, p. 93, "Rother Glen" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #1728
NOTES [12 words]: The current description is all of the Kidson-TraditionalTunes fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: KiTu093

Rotherham Statutes

DESCRIPTION: "Sam Firth to Rotherham Statis [sic.] went wi' Grace through Birley Moor, Wi' Rachel Stones and Yester Dent who ne'er had been before." Vignettes from the Rotherham Hiring Fair, where all sorts of people meet and have adventures
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (articles by Kidson in the Leeds Mercury, according to Palmer)
KEYWORDS: moniker work music dancing
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #111, "Rotherham Statutes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1511
File: PECS111

Rothesay-O

DESCRIPTION: "Last Hogmanay, at the Glesga Fair, there were me, mysel', and several mair, We a' gaed aff tae hae a tair And spend the nicht in Rothesay-O." And a tear it truly was, as they drank, sang, fought, slept, and were bitten by bugs in Rothesay.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: party drink humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 282, "Rothsay-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 205, "Rothesay, O" (1 text)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 61-62, "The day we went to Rothesay, O" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ROTHSAY-O*
Roud #2142
RECORDINGS:
Louis Killen & Pete Seeger, "Rothesay-O" (on PeteSeeger47)
Davie Stewart, "Rothsay-O" (on FSB10)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tinkler's Waddin (The Tinker's Wedding)" (tune)
cf. "The Day I Went to Rothesay O" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
The Tinkler's Waddin (The Tinker's Wedding) (File: RcTTWttw)
File: K282

Rothiemay

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises "bonnie Rothiemay" on the banks of the Deveron. He tells about the seasons' effects, Milltown, the churchyard and other landmarks including the "Hoose" that "shelter lent" Mary, Queen of Scots. He recalls growing up in Rothiemay.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: pride nonballad home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 518, "Rothiemay" (1 text)
Roud #6002
NOTES [194 words]: Mary, Queen of Scots, visited Rothiemay Castle in 1562 (source: "Mary's Progresses" at Marie Stuart Society site).
Milltown of Rothiemay is about 40 miles northwest of Aberdeen. - BS
Mary's visit to Rothiemay took place on the night of 4 September, according to Rothiemay's web site (http://tinyurl.com/tbdx-Rothiemay). The date is interesting. According to Magnus Magnusson, Scotland: The Story of a Nation, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000, p. 347, "In the summer of 1562 Mary went with Lord James Stewart on a campaign against the most powerful Catholic family in Scotland, the Gordons of Huntly; George Gordon, the fourth Earl of Huntley (the 'Cock of the North,' as he was called) and one-time Chancellor of Scotland, died of apoplexy after being captured in a skirmish in October."
George Gordon, it has been suggested, was the hero of "Geordie" [Child 209].
The events in "The Fire of Frendraught" [Child 196] also involved the lord of Rothiemay.
At least one of the landmarks in the song, the castle of Rothiemay, was demolished in 1963. But it appears, from the town web site, that they are still proud of their history. And there were many mills there. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3518

Rothsay-O

See Rothesay-O (File: K282)

Rotten Egg

DESCRIPTION: (Knock on the door:) "Who's there?" "The Devil." "Go back and wash your face and read the Bible." (Knocks again:) "Who's there?" "Angel." "Come in." "[I] want to buy some eggs." "What color?" (red/any color). They pick a child (egg) and ask questions
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains)
KEYWORDS: playparty dialog Devil food questions
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 30, "Rotten Egg" (1 text)
File: Skea030

Rotten Potatoes, The

DESCRIPTION: Tenants are starving. At all costs save your corn and meal. Sell your cattle. The politicians will have a plan. The rents will be reduced. Food will be had "from Russia and Prussia and Americay." Potatoes have failed since '45. Things will improve.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: starvation Ireland nonballad food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 58, "A New Song on the Rotten Potatoes" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small)" (subject: The Potato Famines) and references there
NOTES [67 words]: Although the singer hopes for help from the politicians, a change in government actually meant that Ireland was given *less* help as the famines stretched on.
The potatoes suffering from the blight didn't exactly rot. They just shrivelled away -- not that the difference made any difference. For details on the blight and its effects, see the notes to "Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small)." - RBW
File: Zimm058

Roudesdales

See Redesdale and Wise William [Child 246] (File: C246)

Rough and Rolling Sea

See Like a Rough and a Rolling Sea (Rough and Rolling Sea) (File: Dett229)

Rough Pavement

DESCRIPTION: The paved roads on the Island: "In springtime the potholes occur everywhere Oh that black roller-coaster will kill me." Mainland the roads are smooth. "My wife's not accustomed to such a smooth trip, So we pulled the car over and we followed the ditch!"
AUTHOR: Allan Rankin
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad technology travel
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 221-223, 253, "Rough Pavement" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13995
File: IvDC221

Rough, Rocky Road (Most Done Suffering)

DESCRIPTION: "It's a rough, rocky road, And I'm 'most done struggling/suffering (x3), I'm bound to carry my soul to the Lord. I'm bound to carry my soul to Jesus, I'm bound to carry my soul to the Lord." "My (father's/etc.) on the road, And he's 'most done...."
AUTHOR: J. C. Brown ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad travel Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 86-87, "Most Done Trabelling" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 215 in the 1874 edition))
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 632, "Rough, Rocky Road" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 632, "Rough, Rocky Road" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 25, "Most Done Ling'rin Here" (1 text, 1 tune, with a verse from "Run, Nigger, Run" plus the "If you get there before I do" floating verse and a chorus that might be this)
Roud #11832
RECORDINGS:
Alabama Sacred Harp Singers, "Rocky Road" (Columbia 15274-D, 1928; on AAFM2)
Emmett Brand, "Most Done Traveling (Rocky Road)" (on MuSouth06)
Fisk University Jubilee Singers, "Most Done Travelling" (Columbia A2901, 1920)
Tuskegee Institute Singers, "Most Done Trabelling (sic)" (Victor 18447, 1918)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Most Done Suffering
File: Br3632

Roun' the Wall

See Let's March Around the Wall (That Suits Me) (File: Rose116)

Round About the Ladies

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

Round About the Maypole

See Round About the Punchbowl (File: Leyd021)

Round About the Punchbowl

DESCRIPTION: "Round about the punchbowl," "First time never to fall," "Second time catching time," "Third time kissing time"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: nonballad drink playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1594, "Round About the Maypole" (1 text)
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 21, "Round About the Punchbowl" (2 texts)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 51, "Round About the Punch Bowl" (3 texts)
Roud #12974
NOTES [66 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong describes the ring game for this song.
Leyden's second version, "collected by Clara M Patterson at Ballymiscaw Primary School in the 1890s," adds floating lines "Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes" [see "Banbury Cross"] and "Up the heathery mountain and down the rushy glen We dare not go a-hunting for Conor and his men" [see, for example, "Shane Crossagh"] - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Leyd021

Round and Round the Butcher Shop

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Round and round the butcher shop, Can't stay any longer, If I do my mother said, I'm the butcher's daughter."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope mother | butcher
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #498, "Round and round the butcher shop" (1 text)
NOTES [18 words]: Presumably an offshoot of "Pop Goes the Weasel," but Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes does not make this explicit. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR498

Round and Round the Garden

DESCRIPTION: "Round and round the garden, Like a teddy bear, One step, two step, Tickle you under there." "Round and round the garden, Like a little mouse, One jump, two jump, And into the little house."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes); the Opies note that the mention of a teddy bear requires a date after 1903
KEYWORDS: animal playparty nonballad | garden
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 18, "(Round and round the garden)" (2 short text, not consecutive)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 177, "Round and Round the Garden" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 163, "Round and Round the Garden" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 6, "Round and Round the Garden" (1 short text)
Roud #19235
File: OO2177

Round and Round the Levee

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

Round and Round the Old Oak Tree

DESCRIPTION: Round the old oak tree, "I love the girls and the girls love me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty love
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 48, ("Round and round the old oak tree") (1 text)
File: OpGap048

Round and Round the Rugged Rock

See Round the Rugged Rocks (File: Dolb181)

Round and Round the Valley

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

Round and Round the Village

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

Round Apples

DESCRIPTION: "Round apple... As round as can be." Poor Annie "with a knife in her hand, You dare not touch her, or else she'll go mad" (be hanged). Her cheeks are like snow. She's dying. Wash her with milk, dress her in silk, write her name "with gold pen and ink"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Maclagan)
KEYWORDS: death playparty clothes | apples
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(High)) Canada(Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 174-175, "Round Apple I"/"Round Apple (II)" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 55, "Round Apples" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #499, "Round apple, round apple" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, F.W. Waugh, "Canadian Folk-Lore from Ontario," Vol. XXXI, No. 119 (Jan 1918), #649 p. 57 ("Round apples, round apples, by night and by day") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Craig Maclagan, The Games and Diversions of Argyleshire (London, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 85-86, "Round Apples" (1 text)
Roy Palmer, _Ripest Apples_, The Big Apple Association, 1996, pp. 26-27, "Round Apples" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13180 and 38106
NOTES [45 words]: Roud splits the Brady texts off as #38106. But it still has the knife in hand (although it's not Annie but her mother or father who has it) and, and the gold pen and ink appears in text #2. I think they are all the same song, just with substantial textual variants. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OpGa055

'Round Cape Horn

See A Song on the Nantucket Ladies (File: CAFS1049)

Round Cape Horn

DESCRIPTION: "I asked a maiden by my side, Who sighed and looked at me forlorn, 'Where is your heart?' She quick replied, ''Round Cape Horn.'" The singer warns boys to behave or he'll tell their fathers; they say he must go around the horn. One was born there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: travel separation sailor father
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 195, "Round Cape Horn" (1 short text)
Roud #6606
File: TNY195

Round Her Mantle So Green

See The Mantle So Green [Laws N38] (File: LN38)

Round It Up a Heap It Up

DESCRIPTION: Corn-husking song, "Round it up a heap it up a Round it up a corn, A joog-a-loa." "De big owl hoot and cry for his mate, My honey, my love! Oh, don't stay long, oh, don't stay late... It ain't so fur to de goodbye gate."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: food work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 201, "Round It Up a Heap It Up" (1 text, plus a "Juba" fragment)
NOTES [30 words]: The full stanza ("De big owl hoot....") is reported to come from Harris's Uncle Remus and His Friends. The relationship between that text and the traditional song is not clear. - RBW
File: Br3201

Round of Thanks (For Health and Strength)

See For Health and Strength (File: ACSF442F)

Round River Drive

DESCRIPTION: Recitation; multiple stories of Paul Bunyan
AUTHOR: original probably by James McGillivray; re-versified by Douglas Malloch
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Detroit Evening News, according to Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan and Wyman)
KEYWORDS: lumbering talltale humorous logger work recitation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 95, "Round River Drive" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 76-88, "Round River Drive" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 46, "Round River Drive" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 353-354, "(Round River Drive)" (1 excerpt with background notes; the book includes several short Paul Bunyan articles)
ADDITIONAL: Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden, _Wisconsin Lore: Antics and Anecdotes of Wisconsin People and Places_, Wisconsin House, 1962, pp. 77-80, "Round River Drive" (1 text, from Gene Shepard)
Daniel Hoffman, _Paul Bunyan: Last of the Frontier Demigods_, 1952; Bison Books edition with a new Introduction by the author 1983, pp. 37-38, "[Round River Drive]" (a short prose version from Perry Allen of Michigan summarizing the longer poem)
Roud #6523
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paul Bunyan" (subject) and references there
NOTES [75 words]: This is an encyclopedic collection of Bunyan tales, which despite its length made it into oral tradition. Paul Bunyan is sometimes derided as a phony folk-hero, and he's certainly been heavily commercialized, but Beck makes clear that these were genuine folk tales.- PJS
The story is in fact quite a bit more complicated than that; see the notes to "Paul Bunyan." It is very likely that this is the source, not the result, of the Bunyan legend. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Be095

Round Rye Bay for More

DESCRIPTION: "We'll go round Rye Bay for more, my tars, Round Rye Bay for more" South of the buoy at Rye Bay the singer lost his trawl where "Old Crusty he told me that I shouldn't stray." The singer will go back when our money's gone.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (recording, Johnny Doughty)
KEYWORDS: nonballad shanty sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
Roud #8095
RECORDINGS:
Johnny Doughty, "Round Rye Bay for More" (on Voice02)
NOTES [40 words]: On Voice02 Johnny Doughty sings the verse beginning "South of the buoy down Rye Bay way" as a parody of, and to the tune of, "South of the Border Down Mexico Way," by Jimmy Kennedy and Michael Carr, recorded by Frank Sinatra in the 1950's. - BS
File: RcRRBfM

Round the Bay of Mexico

DESCRIPTION: "Round the Bay of Mexico, Way, oh Susiana, Mexico is the place that I belong in...." The singer tells of courting girls "two at a time" and having them love him "because I don't tell everything that I know." He heads off to the fishing ground
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (field recording, Henry Lundy & David Pryor)
KEYWORDS: sailor courting
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 88-89, "Round the Bay of Mexico" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 83, "Round the Bay of Mexico (Bay of Mexico)" (1 text)
Roud #207
RECORDINGS:
Henry Lundy & David Pryor, "Round the Bay of Mexico" (AAFS 512 B2, 1935; on LC05, LomaxCD1822-2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cape Cod Girls" (lyrics)
NOTES [68 words]: This is listed as having "new lyrics" by Paul Campbell (the Weavers, collectively), and "music adaption" by Tom Geraci. I have seen relatively little of the material elsewhere; this looks more like a new song from traditional materials than a touched-up traditional song. - RBW
Nope -- the song as touched up by the Weavers and friends is still quite close to the field recording from the Bahamas in 1935. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: FSWB083B

Round the Blazing Camp Fire

See By the Blazing Council Fire (File: ACSF338B)

Round the Corn Sally

DESCRIPTION: "Five can't catch me and ten can't hold me, Ho, round the corn, Sally, Round the corn, round the corn, round the corn, Sally! Ho, ho, ho, round...." "Here's your iggle-quarter and here's your count-aquila." "I can bank, ginny bank, ginny bank the weaver."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: nonballad money
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 68, "Round the Corn, Sally" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12025
NOTES [35 words]: Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates can make little of the text of this, and I can't say I blame them -- but might that last verse have somehow floated in from the chorus of "Jenny Dang the Weaver"? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG068A

Round the Corner, Sally

DESCRIPTION: Short-haul or halyard shanty. "Round the corner we will go, round the corner Sally." Verses refer to women or places where women may be found.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor whore
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 45, "Round the Corner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 389-390, "Round the Corner, Sally" (2 texts, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 297-298]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XLII, p. 47, "Round the Corner, Sally" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RNDCORNR*
Roud #4697
NOTES [101 words]: According to Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas "round-the-corner-sallies" are at least loose women and often full-fledged prostitutes. - SL
Dana's Two Years Before the Mast lists a song "Round the Corner" as a favorite shanty in his sailing days. If it is this piece, it would provide an Earliest Date for the song -- but Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen notes that there is no reason to identiry them. Indeed, she seems to think them distinct -- but her reason is that this song is "almost too slight" to have merited mention. This would be a stronger argument if her text didn't look rather bowdlerized. - RBW
File: Hugi389

Round the Rugged Rocks

DESCRIPTION: Tongue-twister. "Around the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran." Or, "Robert Rutter dreamed a dream, He dreamt he saw a raging bear, Rush from the rugged rocks, And around the rugged rocks, The ragged rascal ran."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2012 (Dolby-OrangesAndLemons)
KEYWORDS: wordplay animal dream
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 181, "Around the Rugged Rocks" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #599 n. 57, pp. 239-240, "(Round and round the rugged rock)" (1 text)
File: Dolb181

Round-Up Cook, The

See Punchin' Dough (File: FCW037)

Round, Round Rosie

See Dingle Dingle Doosey (File: LyCr2175)

Rounder's Luck

See The House of the Rising Sun (File: RL250)

Rounding the Horn

DESCRIPTION: Sailor describes hard trip around Cape Horn (in the frigate "Amphitrite"), and the pleasures (mostly female) of shore-leave in Chile. The singer says that Spanish girls are superior to (English) women, who have no enthusiasm and steal your clothes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Journal of the Andrew Hicks)
KEYWORDS: travel sea ship shore drink sailor whore clothes theft
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 90, "Rounding the Horn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H539, pp. 97-98, "The Girls of Valparaiso" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 163-164, "The Chile Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 177-178, "The Girls Around Cape Horn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 127, "Rounding the Horn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 131-132, "The Gals Around Cape Horn" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RNDHORN* RNDHORN2
Roud #4706
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Round Cape Horn" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Amphitrite" [Laws K4] (subject)
cf "The Painful Plough" (tune)
cf. "Come All You Worthy Christian Men" (tune)
cf. "Van Dieman's Land (I)" [Laws L18] (tune)
NOTES [185 words]: The brig Amphitrite was built in 1820 and engaged in South American trade. A frigate of the same name was lost in 1833 while carrying female convicts to Australia (see "The Loss of the Amphitrite"). - PJS
Roud seems to occasionally file versions of this "The Loss of the Amphitrite" [Laws K4] and vice versa. They only common element I can see is the ship name. But this seems to be primarily Roud 4076.
The "Blue Peter" often mentioned in the second line was a signal flag. Grant Uden and Richard Cooper, A Dictionary of British Ships and Seamen, 1980 (I use the 1981 St. Martin's Press edition), p. 54, says the Blue Peter was "a blue flag with a white square in the centre (flag P in the International Code), hoisted as a signal that the ship is ready to sail."
The fact that the song actually calls the ship the Amphitrite is a bit curious and hints at broadside origin. Uden and Cooper, p. 321, note that British sailors, knowing nothing of classical mythology, had a tendency to convert classical ship names into something they knew, so "Amphitrite" became "Am and Tripe" ("Ham and Tripe"?). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: VWL090

Roundup in the Spring

DESCRIPTION: A group of cowboys meet in a hotel and swap tales. An old man listens eagerly. He was a cowboy, too, and recalls the work. He concludes, "I'd like to be in Texas for the roundup in the spring."
AUTHOR: claimed by Jack C. Williams and Carl Copeland
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Recording, Vernon Dalhart; also Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society, Vol. VI); the Copeland text copyrighted 1916
KEYWORDS: cowboy age work
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 20, "Roundup in the Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11309
RECORDINGS:
Leon Chappelear "I'd Like to Be In Texas (For the Roundup in the Spring)" (Champion 16497, 1932; Champion 45068, c. 1935; Montgomery Ward 4950, 1936)
Vernon Dalhart "I'd Like to Be In Texas" (Vocalion 5044, 1926)
Bradley Kincaid "I'd Like to Be In Texas" (Decca 12053, n.d.)
[Asa] Martin & [James] Roberts, "The Roundup in the Spring" (Perfect 12906/Melotone 12642 [as by Asa Martin], 1933; on WhenIWas1)
File: Ohr020

Roundup Lullaby

DESCRIPTION: "Desert blue and silver in the still moonshine, Coyote yappin' lazy on the hill, Sleepy winks of lightnin' down the far sky line, Time for millin' cattle to be still." The cattle are advised to stay calm until morning; everyone is waiting for morning
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Badger Clark
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Clark, "Sun and Saddle Leather")
KEYWORDS: cattle cowboy campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 418, 500, 506, "Roundup Lullaby" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 79, "Cowboy's Lullaby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 39, "Cowboy Lullaby" (1 text)
File: ACSF418R

Rouse, Hibernians

DESCRIPTION: "Rouse, Hibernians, from your slumbers! ... Our French brethren are at hand." Erin's sons defeat the tyrants now. "Apostate Orange ... Sure you might know how Irish freemen Soon would put your Orange down" "Vive la, United heroes"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Ireland nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 22, 1798 - 1100 French troops under General Humbert land at Killala Bay in County Mayo. He would surrender on Sept. 8, and by May 23 the Mayo rising had been suppressed with some brutality
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 18, "Rouse, Hibernians" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 113, "Rouse Hibernians" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Viva La!" (tune)
cf. "Men of the West" (subject)
NOTES [157 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion quotes Musgrave: "This was found on the mother of Dougherty, a United Irishman who was killed by Woollaghan at Delgany, in the county of Wicklow in autumn 1798. She was seen to throw it out of her pocket, yet she swore she never saw it." - BS
This is rather a curious piece, since the 1798 rebellion in Wicklow and the east was already over by the time General Humbert made the first French landing in the west of Ireland. For details on that event, see the notes to "Men of the West."
To this piece Hamish Henderson compares the song "Vive la Republican," collected from Bell Robertson by Greig. The similarity is more thematic than lyric; the version printed by Henderson has none of the ethnic/religious tension of the Irish. For discussion, see pp. 9-10 of Henderson's essay in Edward J. Cowan, editor, The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Zimm018

Rouseabouts

DESCRIPTION: "With swear and curse and oaths and worse, We sauntered to the she: We 'Ere, Sir," bawled, as names were called" as they set to work, "And wished the sheep were dead." The singer describes all the work the rouseabouts are made to do
AUTHOR: Words: George Meek
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Meek, Station Days in Maoriland); supposedly written c. 1910; collected 1967/1968
KEYWORDS: work sheep travel hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 96, "Rouseabouts" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Col2096

Rousie's Song

DESCRIPTION: "They shore them wet on Monday, And they shore them wet again; How in the hell can a rousie live On twenty points of rain?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: work sheep
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 278, "Rousie's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [88 words]: Meredith et al explain that rouseabouts were paid by the week, and were allowed to "laze about" -- and get paid! -- if the shearers declared it too wet to work.
This doesn't make sense, though -- if rain lets workers get a paid vacation, why should they complain about it? And if it doesn't rain, they can always finish up and go elsewhere. So I have to suspect that this predates the work of the shearers' union, and comes from the days when the workers were paid only for work done. I'll admit that I don't know, though. - RBW
File: MCB278

Roustabout Holler

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Po' roustabout don't have no home, Makes his livin' on his shoulder bone." The singer, loading sacks of cottonseed on the steamer Natchez, has no home and a sore shoulder, but does have a "little gal in big New Orleans."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (collected from Henry Truvillion)
KEYWORDS: work river
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 350-351, "Roustabout Holler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 571, "Roustabout Holler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15599
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Levee Camp Holler"
cf. "Steel Laying Holler"
File: BMRF571

Rout of the Blues

DESCRIPTION: The Blues have their orders and parade to the ship, rigged and ready to sail. "Lasses ... crying and tearing their hair" run home to mother and say they'll pack up and "march with the blues." All drink and cheer "success to King George and his Blues"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 16(285d))
KEYWORDS: army farewell ship drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 82, "Rout of the Blues" (2 texts)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 32, "Rout of the Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21098
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(285d), "Success to the Blues" ("As I was going down Rosemary-lane"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 15(321a), "Success to the Blues"
NOTES [34 words]: "The Blues" are the "Royal Horse Guards." "In 1750 the regiment became the Royal Horse Guards Blue and eventually, in 1877, The Royal Horse Guards (The Blues)" (source: Wikipedia, "Royal Horse Guards"). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ReSh082

Rover

See I Am a Rover (II) (File: ACSF540R)

Rover (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is leaving [for the army] but will return. Polly sits him down and reveals her love for him. He writes a song about her. Leaving, he crosses the moor and cries when he loses sight of her door. At least one of them thinks they will marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 977); before 1867 (broadside , Bodleian Firth c.18(241)) [see notes]
KEYWORDS: grief love farewell parting floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 83, "The Rover" (2 texts)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 411, "Rover"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 511, "Rover" (2 texts)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 147-148, "I Am a Rover" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 52-53, "I Am a Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1112
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 977, "The Rover" ("I am a rover 'tis well known"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth c.18(241), "I Am a Rover" ("I am a rover it is well known"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; Harding B 11(3345), "The Rover"; Harding B 25(1598), "The Rashiemuir"; Firth c.26(30), "The Bonny girl I left behind"
NOTES [195 words]: The five verse Bodleian Johnson Ballads 977, the earliest of the broadsides listed, only shares its first verse with the other texts; the remaining verses are made up of floating couplets ("Did you not mention his coal black hair His smiling looks doth my heart ensnare" [cf. "The Colour of Amber," "The Dark-Eyed Sailor"]; "I wish I was upon yonder hill I'd set me down and cry my fill" [cf. "Shule Agra"]; "That all the world might plainly see, That I lov'd a man that never loved me" [cf. "Effects of Love"]; "How could I act such a foolish part To love a young man who broke my heart" [cf. "The Butcher Boy" Randolph 45B per Mudcat Cafe]; "I wish I never lov'd at all Since Love has proved my downfall" [cf. "The Darling Boy"]) and ends differently from the main story line of this song: "If Cupid would but set me free, I would seek another that would love me.... But now Cupid has set me free, I will seek another who will love me."
The main story line may include one or more floating verse, by Polly: usually "... I wish I was a maid again ...."
The word "moor" in the description replaces "rashiemuir," "Belsimore," "Dollimoor," "Dulcimore" or "Dannamore." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: ReSh083

Rover (II), The

See Spailpin Fanac (File: RcSpaiFa)

Rover (III), The

DESCRIPTION: "I had a dog, his name was Rover; When he died, He died all over; All but his tail, And it turned over."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: dog death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 106, "Rover" (1 text)
Roud #16231?
NOTES [45 words]: The first four lines of this are pretty clearly to be associated with either "A Horse Named Bill" or "Crazy Song to the Air of 'Dixie,'" but the last two lies of the Solomon-ZickaryZan version cannot be sung to "Dixie," so I have very tentatively separated the two. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ZiZa106C

Rover Jenny Jenkins

See Jenny Jenkins (File: R453)

Rover of the Sea (I), The

See I'm Afloat, I'm Afloat (The Rover of the Sea) (File: FrPi046)

Rover of the Sea (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a rover of the seas, And chief of a daring band, Who obey all my decrees, And laugh at the law of the land." The singer is "King of the waves" and "terror of the main" and envies no other monarch; he lives a merry life, for "I can but die at last."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2011 (Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs), from a broadside perhaps of the 1850s
KEYWORDS: pirate royalty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 47, "The Rover of the Seat" (1 text, plus a broadside print)
Roud #V1192
File: FrPi047

Rover of the Sea (III), The

See The Bold Fisherman [Laws O24] (File: LO24)

Rover's Bride, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh if you love me, furl your sails, draw up your boat on shore, Come tell me tales of midnight gales but tempt their fate no more." The pirate says not to fear; he'll brink a prize. But his boat is gone; his body washes ashore. She kisses him and dies.
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839) / Music: Alexander Lee (1802-1852) (according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1836 (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate separation death battle
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 38, "The Rover's Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, "The Rover's Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22610
File: Fran038

Rover's Flag

DESCRIPTION: "O ever a Rover's life for me, A gallant bark and a rolling sea; On my own proud deck, like a King I'll stand Where brave hearts bow to their Chief's command." "With the black flag roving gallantly." "We'll shun no foe and strike to none."
AUTHOR: words: possibly Edwin Ransford (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1843 (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate travel ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 50, "The Rover's Flag" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V257
File: FrPi050

Rover's Glee, The

DESCRIPTION: "True rovers bold are we, Our home the rock-hid shore, We share our plunder merrily And dance to the oceal's roar." "We yield us to no power, Save the angry sea and sky." "We rovers know no fear... defiance is our cry."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1845 (The Pirate's Songster, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 76, "The Rover's Glee" (1 text; #55 in the first edition)
Roud #V39486
File: FrPi076

Rover's Home, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh talk no more of the tranquil shore, of the charms of hill and dale. We love to float in the rover's boat, borne on by the northern gale." "This is the life we love" -- to see the flag of "the enemy" and feel the storms; they expect to die at sea
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839) / Music: John Feltham Danneley (1786-1836) (according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1840 (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate separation death battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 39, "The Rover's Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V26508
NOTES [22 words]: Hard to believe anyone would take this seriously. But then, it's hard to believe anyone would take any pop-pirate song seriously. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Fran039

Rover's Serenade

DESCRIPTION: "Far, far to his billow The red sun has gone." "Then awake, dearest maiden, Bid slumber retire, The night is arrayed in her brightest attire." "My light bark shall dance o'er the silvery brine." "I'll bear thee o'er waters That care never sees."
AUTHOR: Words: Henry W. Challis / Music (lost?): Thomas Kilner (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1845 (The Pirate's Songster, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate courting home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 77, "The Rover's Serenade" (1 text; #56 in the first edition)
Roud #V30548
File: FrPi077

Rover's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Up, rovers, with sword and sail. True pirates, we ne'er will lag... Spread out our blood red flag." "See now, within gun shot she draws, Blaze in upon her lee. She feels our lightning." "Her treasures now our prize shall e, Her maids each rover's bride."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1845 (The Buccaneer Songster, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate ship battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 78, "The Rover's Song" (1 text, 1 tune; #57 in the first edition)
Roud #V32998
File: FrPi078

Rovin' Gambler

See (tentatively) The Roving Gambler [Laws H4] (File: LH04)

Rovin' Lizzie, The

See Bold Daniels (The Roving Lizzie) [Laws K34] (File: LK34)

Rovin' Sailor, The

See The Rambling Soldier (File: ShH43)

Rovin' Tam

DESCRIPTION: "Rovin Tam came doun the glen" and proposes to Nancy. She says, "Me be your dearie?" "Long he pled his cause in vain" and "plunged into Ugie's stream" At that she agrees to be his dearie. He drags himself onto the bank. Within a month they marry.
AUTHOR: Peter Still (1814-1848)
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Still)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #108, p. 1, "Rovin' Tam" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 912, "Rovin' Tam" (3 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Peter Still, The Cottar's Sunday, and Other Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (Philadelphia, 1845), pp. 196-197, "Rovin' Tam"
Roud #6259
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Duncan Gray" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4 and Still)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rovin Tam Came Doun the Glen
NOTES [33 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quoting a Greig correspondent: "My uncle [Kenneth Shirer] tells me he has heard that the song was composed by a lady ... And if his memory serves him right, it was a Miss Gordon." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4912

Roving Ashlaw Man, The

See True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man) (File: MA062)

Roving Bachelor (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Bachelors, be careful before you take a wife. Women are unpredictable. Even Samson and Aristotle erred in marrying. Consider the man who preferred hanging to marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadsides, Bodleian Harding B 15(263b), Bodleian Harding B 15(267a))
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage death humorous nonballad bachelor execution
FOUND IN: US(MA,Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 86, "Roving Bachelor" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #89, "The Roving Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2849
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(263b), "The Roving Bachelor" ("Come all you roving batchelors"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 15(267b), Harding B 11(3350), Harding B 25(1668) [many lines illegible], "Roving Bachelor"’ (see NOTES)
Bodleian, Harding B 15(267a), "The Roving Batchelor" ("Come all you roving bachelors"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(3942), Harding B 17(263a), "The Roving Batchelor[!]"; Harding B 11(1548), Harding B 11(3348), Firth c.26(23), 2806 c.16(268), 2806 c.16(301), Harding B 25(1670), 2806 c.17(370)[many lines illegible], Firth c.20(61)[some lines illegible], "[The] Roving Bachelor" (see NOTES)
NOTES [293 words]: While the "Harding B 15(263b)" and "Harding B 15(267a)" broadsides are clearly the same song and share some lines they have recognizably different sets of verses.
The "Harding B 15(263b)" set includes distinctive verses beginning "For when you think you have them won your business is not well begun," "If she be a beauty her servant you must be," "How she’'ll torment you afterwards of boasting of her bachelors," and "And for to meet a virtuous girl I know not where to find one."
The "Harding B 15(267a)" set includes distinctive verses beginning "The fairest of women kind has ne’er a fault but two," "Take my advice be ruled by me and single earn your bread," and "For they are such a foolish mind and heed not things of any kind."
Both sets end with the story of the man who would rather be hanged than marry, though the verses differ.
Thompson-APioneerSongster is closer to the "Harding B 15(263b)" set, including its version of the man going to be hanged, but has its own set of incomplete but distinct verses. - BS
In regard to the reference to Samson and Aristotle, both statements are a little glitchy. Aristotle's wife died young but does not seem to have been a burden on him. I incline to think the Aristotle reference is actually to Socrates and his alleged shrew of a wife, Xanthippe. (I say "alleged" because Socrates was poor, disorganized, stand-offish, and a lousy husband; odds are that Xanthippe was a far better wife than the stories about her imply.)
As for Samson -- he had woman troubles, but not really with his wive(s), because he never actually married. His first love, the Philistine woman, ended up being married to another (Judges, chapters 14-15), and his relationship with Delilah (Judges 16) was an even worse failure.... - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: TPS086

Roving Bachelor (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The bachelor comes to town determined to find a wife. Seeing a woman, he engages her in conversation and learns of her tastes and her fortune (as well as how she treats her family). (Since her wealth is enough and he suits her fancy, they get married)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Grieg)
KEYWORDS: rambling courting marriage dialog bachelor
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H650a+b, pp. 263-264, "The Roving Bachelor" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #1649
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Roving Journeyman, The
NOTES [126 words]: This is recognized less by the details of the plot than by the constant repetition of the phrase, "The next question that I asked/axed her...."
Creighton has a fragment also titled "The Roving Journeyman," but it looks more like a version of "With My Swag All On My Shoulder."
Henry's second version asks "did her father deal in flax?" This appears to be a reference to the several periods in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when the Irish linen industry tried to build itself up. Typically the British would open the markets, the Irish would try to build an industry, and the British would reimpose the tarriff walls, crushing the Irish flax farmers. It's not clear from the song whether it takes place during the up or down points of the cycle. - RBW
File: HHH650

Roving Blade, The

See The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)

Roving Cowboy (I)

See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Roving Cowboy, The

See Come All Ye Lonesome Cowboys (File: R189)

Roving Cunningham, The

See True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man) (File: MA062)

Roving Gambler Blues

See The Roving Gambler [Laws H4] (File: LH04)

Roving Gambler, The (The Gambling Man) [Laws H4]

DESCRIPTION: The singer freely admits his addiction to gambling, cards, and a roving life. But he also has an eye for the ladies. In one town he meets with a "pretty little girl" who takes him home and then decides to follow him wherever he goes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: gambling courting rambling floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So,SW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (29 citations):
Laws H4, "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 374-377, "The Guerrilla Boy" (4 texts, 1 tune, but only the first 2 texts are this piece)
Randolph 835, "The Guerilla Man" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 323-325, "The Guerrilla Man" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 835A. Cohen notes that the printed melody fits only the first verse; there is probably an error in the transcription, causing a line to be omitted)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 183-185, "The Roving Gambler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 85-86, "The Roving Gambler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 39-40, "The Roving Gambler"; "The Gamboling Man" (2 texts, 1 tune; the third text on the page, "The Roving Journeyman," appears to be a worn-down form of "True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man)")
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 49, "The Journeyman" (3 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 49, "The Journeyman" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 43, "The Gambler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 87, "The Blue-Coat Man" (1 text, a curious version in which the gambler, upon seeing enemies, "willingly shot them down"; 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 75, "The Roaming Gambler" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 261-262, "The Gambling Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 131, "The Gambling Man" (1 text, incorporating the "Pretty Little Foot")
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 84-85, "The Rovin' Gambler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #16, "Rovin' Gambler" (1 text, 1 tune); #54, "My Daddy Was a Gambler" (1 short text, 1 tune, which Roberts thinks is a "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Been All Around This World)" fragment although it looks more like "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man)" [Laws H4] to me)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #64, "Roving Gambler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 98-99, "The Roving Gambler" (1 text; a number of his other texts also have verses probably from this song; see the references under "On Top of Old Smokey")
Rosenberg, p. 142, "The Rovin' Gambler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 312-313, "The Roving Gambler" (3 texts, 1 tune. The "A" and "C" texts, clearly go here; the "B" text is possibly distinct though mostly floating verses; cf. "Yonder Comes a Yellow Gal")
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 150-151, "The Roving Gambler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 21, pp. 136-139, "The Buckskin Shirt" (1 text, 1 tune, a strange composite starting with "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man) [Laws H4]), breaks into a cowboy version of "Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me)," and concludes with a stanza describing the happy marriage between the two)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, p. 889, "The Roving Gambler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 592, "The Wandering Steamboatman" (1 partial text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 120-121, "The Roving Gambler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 226-227, "The Roving Gambler" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 54, "Rambling, Gambling Man" (1 text, with more than a little influence from the "I'm a Rambler, I'm a Gambler" texts of "The Wagoner's Lad"); p. 60, "Roving Gambler Blues" (1 text)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 122, "The Rustlin' Gambler" (1 text, probably a mix of this with other gambler songs) (OakEd, pp. 129-130)
DT 645, ROVINGMB
Roud #498
RECORDINGS:
Frank Bode, "Roving Gambler" (on FBode1)
Crockett's Kentucky Mountaineers, "Roving Gambler" (Crown 3159, 1931; Paramount 3302, 1932; Varsity 5082 [as Crockett Mountaineers], Montgomery Ward M-3025 [as Harlan Miners Fiddlers]/Homestead 23041/Continental 3012 [as Pete Daley's Arkansas Fiddlers], all c. 1931)
Vernon Dalhart, "Rovin' Gambler" (Edison 51584, 1925) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5027 [as Vernon Dalhart & Co.], n.d.) (OKeh 40479 [as Tobe Little], 1925) (Columbia 15034 [as Al Craver], 1925) (Grey Gull/Radiex 4135 [as Jeff Calhoun], 1927)
Hobart Delp & band, "Roving Gambler" (on Persis1)
Kelly Harrell, "Rovin' Gambler" (Victor 19596, 1925; on KHarrell01) (Victor 20171, 1926; Montgomery Ward M-4367, 1933; on KHarrell01)
Jack Mooney, "The Gambling Man" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Claude Moye, "Roving Gambler" (Champion 16118 [as Asparagus Joe], Supertone 9712 [as Pie Plant Pete], 1930; Superior 2643 [as Jerry Wallace], 1931; Champion 45063, Melotone [Can.] 45063 [both as Pie Plant Pete; as "Rovin' Gambler"], 1935)
RECORDINGS: J. J. Neece, "Old Gambling Man" (on CloseHomeMS)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Roving Gambler" (on NLCR01)
George Reneau, "Rovin' Gambler" (Vocalion 15148, 1925; Vocalion 5077, 1926)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "The Roving Gambler" (Columbia 15447-D, 1929)
Welby Toomey, "Roving Gambler" (Gennett 6005, Champion 15209 [as Herb Jennings], Silvertone 5006, Challenge 229 [as Clarence Adams], 1927; Silvertone 8151, Supertone 9252, 1928; Herwin 75532, n.d.; rec. 1926)
Doug Wallin, "The Roving Gambler" (on Wallins1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man)" (plot)
cf. "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Been All Around This World)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Almost Done" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Gambler" (theme, floating lyrics)
cf. "Sailing Out on the Ocean" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I Met a Handsome Lady" (lyrics)
cf. "The Soldier Boy (III) (The Texas Volunteer)" (lyrics)
cf. "I Am a Roving Peddler" (tune, some lyrics)
File: LH04

Roving Heckler Lad, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a roving heckler lad" and "travel the world all over." Health to hecklers "in the room that my love's in."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes)
KEYWORDS: weaving rambling love
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 146-147, "The Roving Heckler Lad" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #1111
NOTES [28 words]: Kidson-TraditionalTunes: "In the days of handloom weaving, a 'Heckler,' or 'Hackler,' was a man who heckled flax to make it ready for the distaff or spinning wheel." - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: KiTu146

Roving Highlander, The

See The Braemar Poacher (File: GrD2253)

Roving Irishman, The

See True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man) (File: MA062)

Roving Jack

See True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man) (File: MA062)

Roving Jack Tar

See The Saucy Sailor (Jack and Jolly Tar II) [Laws K38] (File: LK38)

Roving Jack the Baker

DESCRIPTION: Roving Jack the baker returns from war with a good pension. He meets a girl with 15 pounds of her own. He courts her with lies to get her money. He promises to marry her but hopes not to. He makes her drunk, takes her to bed, steals her money, and leaves.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: greed courting sex lie theft drink rake
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 32, "Roving Jack the Baker" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Merrily Kiss the Quaker" (tune, per Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
cf. "Gold Watch [Laws K41]" (plot, with sex roles reversed) and references there
File: Leyd032

Roving Joe (Wherever You May Wander)

DESCRIPTION: "Wherever you may wander And taste the nation's bounty, You'll find there is no place on earth Like good old Potter County."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Shoemaker)
KEYWORDS: home travel | Potter County Pennsylvania
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, "Roving Joe" (1 fragment) (p. 158 in the 1919 edition; not found in the third edition)
Roud #15008
NOTES [25 words]: Roud includes this with "Uncle Sam's Farm," found a few pages earlier in Shoemaker's first edition, but I think this is just a numbering glitch. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SMMP158Y

Roving Journeyman (I), The

See True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man) (File: MA062)

Roving Journeyman (II), The

See The Roving Bachelor (File: HHH650)

Roving Journeyman (III), The

DESCRIPTION: Jamie, a tradesman, left Nancy in Caledonia, promising to write. Now he works iron and steel from six in the morning til seven at night. He recommends others marry rather than leave their sweetheart behind. He toasts journeymen, his family, and Nancy.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: love emigration parting worker Scotland
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #107, p. 2, "The Roving Journeyman" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1539, "The Roving Journeyman" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #12958
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Caledonia
NOTES [31 words]: Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(49), "Caledonia" ("Come all you roving journeymen, whereever you be"), unknown, no date is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: GrD81539

Roving Navigator

See True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man) (File: MA062)

Roving Newfoundlanders (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, musing at home, thinks about all the Newfoundlanders who have sailed and fished in all parts of the world. They have also taken part in historic world events (mostly confined to the 19th century) The singer tells us he is from Harbour Grace.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: Canada patriotic bragging
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 183, "The Roving Newfoundlanders" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 15, "Roving Newfoundlander" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Roving Newfoundlanders" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 55 in the 2nd edition, p. 71 in the 3rd
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 320-322, "The Roving Newfoundlanders" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6362
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "The Roving Newfoundlander" (on NFOBlondahl02,NFOBlondahl05)
Martin Reddigan, "The Boys of Newfoundland" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Bob Bartlett" (character) and references there.
NOTES [104 words]: Judging by the historic events mentioned (the Boer War, the Spanish-American War of 1898 and going to the "Pole"), we can determine that the song is from the early twentieth century. Robert Abram Bartlett was born in Brigus, Conception Bay and began exploring the Arctic in 1897. He was with Admiral Robert Peary in 1909 when [the latter reportedly reached] the North Pole, being the commander of Peary's ship. - SH
For a good deal more on Captain Bob Bartlett, see the notes to "Captain Bob Bartlett"; also "Ballad of Captain Bob Bartlett, Arctic Explorer." For the quest for the Pole, see "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy55

Roving Newfoundlanders (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye roving boys of Newfoundland, come listen unto me." In 1863, Shea hires 55 men to work on the railway. They run away to Canada, work on a riverboat and are robbed, ship on the Morning Bloom which sinks on George's Bank; only seven reach St John's
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: death drowning commerce fishing river sea ship work ordeal storm wreck Canada sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 150, "The Roving Newfoundlanders" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 916-921, "George's Banks" (2 texts, 3 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 78, "George's Banks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6468
RECORDINGS:
Henry Campbell and Gerald Campbell, "Georges Banks" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
John James, "George's Banks" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Martin Reddigan, "Fifteen Men Lost on George's Banks" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Patrick Rossiter, "George's Banks" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Gordon Walters, "George's Banks" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Shea Gang
You Roving Boys of Newfoundland
NOTES [2118 words]: This is a tough one to pin down.
This is surely not about the Newfoundland Railroad which was not begun until 1881. The Windsor Branch Railway in Nova Scotia opened in 1856 and is at least possible as the railroad in question.
Peacock's versions of the song have the date as 1868 and he has "Shea's gang" building the Canadian Pacific Railway; but the Canadian Pacific Railway construction began in 1875 after scandals and false starts in the early Seventies.
As for the wreck of the Morning Bloom on George's Bank: I find no record of that[;] the Northern Shipwrecks Database 2002 lists well over 200 ships by name lost on George's Bank between 1822 and 1995.
A July 2002 note by Wilfred Allan at Nova-ScotiaSeafarers-L Archives site states "Georges Bank is at the edge of the Atlantic continental shelf between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia. Thus it straddles both the U.S and Canadian borders ... about 250 km by 150 km in area." - BS
We have four texts -- Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 150, Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 78, Peacock p916A and Peacock p919C -- and we're not likely to find more (cf. Mercer). This seems a good time to sum up.
In response to my query about railway history as it might relate to Peacock's version and comments, Dave Knowles, Librarian of the C. Robert Craig Memorial Library in Ontario -- established to collect, preserve and make available to the public materials that document the history of rail transportation in Canada -- was kind enough to join me in speculating about the railway and to suggest further paths to follow in researching this problem.
Mr Knowles's thoughts -- quoted by permission with the understanding that "so much of it is guesswork or gut instinct that it really doesn't qualify as research" -- follow and are interspersed among the comments on the railway section of this discussion. He writes, "On balance I suspect that the situation in the song is generic rather than specific. Given the song's length it probably developed over the years with consequent changes in names and facts in order to match the times, the tune, and perhaps even the audiences. In all probability many songs were melded together to create the epic."
While I don't go that far, I did become convinced that the ballad is a constructed "Odyssey" with episodes to work back to "Ithaca" rather than a retelling of an historic journey; why, for example, would even a storm-driven Gloucester fisherman work so hard to reach St John's rather than heading home?
As for the rest of the statement: certainly, the components were in the air for years and, as Greenleaf/Mansfield 183 illustrates, the idea of combining the different adventures of "The Roving Newfoundlanders" in a single song was not new (though Greenleaf/Mansfield 183 does not stitch them together into a single adventure).
Songs about work fill the collections. There are a few songs about fishing on your own in the season: "Rowing in a Dory" where you are "the captain and the crew," "The Fisher Who Died in his Bed," "John Yetman," "Western Boat," .... There are a few more about trying to get through the hard times at home off season like "Brown Flour" and "Fish and Brevis." There are far more about leaving home for seasonal fishing: "The Herring Gibbers," "Taking Back Gear in the Night," "High Times in our Ship," not to count the many "The Wreck of ..." and "The Loss of ..." that end in disaster.
There are many about leaving home for seal hunting, logging, hauling cargo etc.: "Maurice Crotty," "The Sealer's Song," "Twin Lakes," "Jerry Ryan," "The Badger Drive," and some about spiking on railways: "The Boys at Ninety-Five," "The Bonavist Line," "Drill Ye Heroes, Drill." There are ballads about leaving the island for seasonal work: "Labrador," "The Girls of Newfoundland," "The Track to Knob Lake,."... There are ballads about leaving the island for years to earn a stake, like "The Green Shores of Fogo" and "My Dear, I'm Bound for Canady." Finally there are ballads about emigrating when hard times are too much to bear, like "The Emigrant from Newfoundland" and "The Low-Backed Car."
This ballad has five episodes and they cover some of this variety of situation.
(1) In 1863/1868/1872 they (maybe 55 or 62) leave Newfoundland to get work.
My first problem was in taking this range of dates seriously. What was going on in those years? Is this is just meant to refer to "a ways back"?
(2) In three of the four versions, the first stop is to railway construction for Shea (maybe in "Canada"). The conditions being very bad, they run away.
Peacock puts this job at Crow's Nest Pass, and, in 1961, his seventy-seven year old informant reminisced about hearing the old-timers talk about that hard time. If Peacock was right then this episode referred to a Canadian Pacific Railway project in the winter of 1897-1898; Crow's Nest Pass -- or Crowsnest Pass -- is just east of the border between southern Alberta and British Columbia.
Dave Knowles continues on the subject of what workers were likely to be found on railway construction gangs between 1860 and 1900. My original question to him involved the likelihood that Newfoundlanders were contracted as a group in 1863-1872. "The dates cited in the song were in the sixties. There were many different railways built in what is today's 'Canada' beginning in the 1830s. The first railway into Ottawa was 1854, and the Grand Trunk between Montreal and Toronto was 'abuilding' in the 1856-8 period. Most of these early railways were short and soon ended up in the three major systems of Grand Trunk, Canadian Pacific and Canadian Northern....
"As far as labour is concerned most of it was local, contracted and sub-contracted out. Stone bridges, stations etc would require skilled stone masons and carpenters who were a higher level of worker than needed for the roadbeds. The Grand Trunk (between Montreal and Toronto), in contrast, however, was built by British railway contractors Peto, Brassey, Bates and Jackson who imported a crew (estimated at 3000) of the famous 'navvies' from Britain. They returned to Britain at the end of construction. The western end of the CPR in the early 1880s used labourers imported from China!
"In the days before steam or diesel powered construction equipment the work was hard and I gather the attrition rates were pretty high. Consequently labourers were sought from wherever they could be found. Many contractors were involved. I suspect that there were many 'Sheas' among the contractors and sub-contractors as well as in the labour force. In the Ottawa area the Royal Engineers had used many Scots and Irish stone masons on the necessary works of the Rideau Canal, and there was a substantial colony of Irish immigrants located to the west and south of Ottawa." He goes on to recommend Fleming and Coleman as sources for further information, both of which were very useful.
I followed Dave Knowles's lead to look at sources of railway labor throughout the period. The ballad holds together best if the railway work is actually in the East, on the Intercolonial in the Maritimes. The original Intercolonial plan had considered Imperial Government orchestration of Irish emigration to alleviate both the famine and shortage of labour (Fleming, pp. 49-50). I could find no reference to the actual source after 1862 (Fleming, pp 55-64).
The work on the Grand Trunk before the 1860s required temporary contracting of 3000 navies from England because "there was no local labour worth speaking of" (Coleman, pp. 183-184). English navies continued to be used. While "the navvy age" continued until about 1900 (Coleman, p. 20) the last "great work" in Britain was completed in 1875 (Coleman, p.192) and by 1888 "navvies from London were starving at Toronto" (Coleman, p. 191).
By 1880 use of Chinese labor had become a major issue in the west (Berton, p. 373). While locals were against the competition, the railway builders preferred Chinese labor. Not only were wages low for Chinese labor but there was "little to fear" in regard to working condition monitoring from a government and public hostile to the Chinese (McKee and Klassen, p.21). And, besides, in 1885, "Chapleau wrote that 'as a railway navvy, the Chinaman has no superior'" (Berton, p. 374). Restriction of Chinese immigration by imposition of a $50 head tax, in 1885, reopened the labor market to Canadians (18thC) as the navvy source dried up. By 1887 there were sites employing no Chinese (Turner, pp. 17-18).
By the time of the Crow's Nest Pass project working conditions for white workers were an issue and the description of the situation is very much like that described by the ballad. Thirty-five hundred were employed in construction (Cousins, p 32). "Complaints reached Ottawa, and in January 1898... a commission [was appointed] to inquire into the treatment of laborers in the Crowsnest construction crews. Its report, submitted in April, told a tale of poor accommodation, bad sanitary conditions, and low wages.... Cases of desertion and of nonpayment of wages by contractors were fairly frequent; there was some violence in the camps and occasionally a murder" (Lamb, p. 212).
Anyone in Ottawa, or near a Canadian library, wishing to investigate the Crow's Nest Pass project further might consider the following sources: Report of Commissioner N.W.M.P. 1898 (Ottawa: King's Printer, 1898), and Report of the Commission Inquiring into the Death of McDonald and Fraser of the Crow's Nest Railway, R.C. Clute Commissione. 1899 Ottawa. Sessional Papers No. 70 Vol. 33 No. 14, may be included in Government of Canada Files at [link expired, but the data has probably been moved to the Library and Archives Canada site, https://library-archives.canada.ca/eng (checked July 29, 2023, though I did not locate the papers) which has many references to the Pass project - RBW], Reference RG43, Railways and Canals, Series A-I-2, Volume 348, File 9080, Access code 90, File Title: Crow's Nest Pass Railway Co. - Labour Conditions. Keywords: Crow's Nest Pass Railway Co. Outside Dates: 1897-1907, File aiding number: 43-50.
(3) In the two versions for which 55 run away, their next job is on a riverboat in Canada (maybe around Montreal); until their money is stolen.
I have seen no other Newfoundland references to river boating. That is hardly surprising since there were no Newfoundland river boats. However, the story is different for the rest of what is now Canada. The first commercial steamboat voyage on the St Lawrence -- between Montreal and Quebec -- took place in 1809, two years after Fulton's Clermont went into service on the Hudson (Croil, pp. 50, 312).
By the time of the years actually mentioned in the ballad commercial steam powered river boats were common in Quebec and Ontario (Croil, pp. 307-332). At the time of the Crow's Nest Pass project "some of the finest river steamers in the Dominion" were on the Columbia River and Kootenay Lakes, about 160 miles away (Croil, pp. 338-339). And while river boats may not have been in Newfoundland, steamers were. Steam service began in the 1840's and steamers were used in seal hunting in 1862 (Croil, pp. 354-355). So Newfoundlanders were knowledgeable steamship hands throughout the period we are considering and steamships were used commercially where the events may be supposed to take place. Whether they actually took place in the context of the ballad is the question.
(4) They eventually go through Halifax to Boston (or Gloucester) and ship aboard the Morning Bloom (or Morning Glow) for George's Banks. On November 22, in a bad storm, either their ship, or Jubilee, lose 22 men (but no ship is mentioned as sinking).
There is no question about the dangers on George's Banks (cf. "Fifteen Ships on George's Banks" and "George's Bank (II)"). However, there is no record of a severe storm on some November 22, or thereabouts, that I can find in the Northern Shipwrecks Database for the period in question. Part of the problem may be that no sunk ships are named in the ballad and that the database only records lost ships. However, if the date referred to a real storm I'd expect some ship to have been lost and reported.
(5) Having escaped that storm they continue fighting strong seas. Eventually they see the lighthouse at Cape Ray (built 1871) or Cape Race (starts operation 1856) or Sarne's Point and, of the remaining crew of 18, only 7 survive to reach Cape Spear (built 1835) and St John's.
There's nothing here that we can say is evidence of some one historic event.
The John James version for MUNFLA/Leach has the starting date "in the year of ninety-two," which could have the railroad work be at Crow's Nest Pass. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.5
File: GrMa150

Roving Ploughboy, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks that her horse be saddled so she can follow the ploughboy. After sleeping last night "on a fine feather bed," she will sleep tonight in a barn in his arms. She says none can compare with him, and bids her home farewell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland)
KEYWORDS: love elopement worker farming farewell
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 260, "The Roving Ploughboy-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2138
RECORDINGS:
John MacDonald, "The Roving Ploughboy-O" (on FSB3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gypsy Laddie" [Child 200] (theme, lyrics, tune)
NOTES [112 words]: Paul Stamler suggests that this is a version (or, perhaps more correctly, a fragment) of "The Gypsy Laddie," and it's true that about half the lyrics appear in that song, and the general theme is the same, and there are similarities in the tune as well.
But the song seems to have circulated independently, and the key element of "The Gypsy Laddie" is missing: there is no sign of the wife abandoning her husband, or of him pursuing. Allowing the strong possibility that this is a fragment of the longer ballad, I still incline to split them.
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland associates this with Ord's "The Collier Laddie." That strikes me as much more of a stretch. - RBW
File: K260

Roving Ranger, The

See The Texas Rangers [Laws A8] (File: LA08)

Roving Sea Captain, The

See The Sea Captain and the Squire [Laws Q12] (File: LQ12)

Roving Shantyboy, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you tru-born shantyboys wherever you may be." The singer describes how he met a pretty girl and took her on my knee. The song shifts to the girl's viewpoint as she laments that "he was away by the first of may." She laments with her child
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: courting rambling pregnancy logger baby
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #57, "The Roving Shantyboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4359
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh No Not I" (plot)
cf. "Rambleaway" (plot)
NOTES [58 words]: Fowke considers this to be "adapted from an older British song, but here the original has proved harder to identify." It appears to me *very* similar to "Rambleaway," including that song's shift in viewpoint: The man describes the seduction, the woman the consequences. Though the lyrics have points of contact with "The Foggy Dew" and others. - RBW
File: FowL56

Row After Row

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a-thinkin of you, honey, Thinkin' 'case I love you so... As I hoe down row after row." "Row after row, my baby (x3)... When I think of her the rows get shorter...." "So I keep on a-hoein' an a-hoein', Thinkin' of Miss Lindy Lou."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: worksong farming love
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 211-212, "Row After Row" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ScaNF211

Row Boat (Ride About)

DESCRIPTION: "Row boat (or: "Ride About"), row, where shall I row?" The young man comes to Miss Mary's door and asks if she is in. She is, and the wedding is set for (the next day)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 678, "Ride About, Ride About" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune; the "B" text is mixed with "Uncle John Is Sick Abed")
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 73, "Row the Boat, Row the Boat" (2 texts plus a fragment)
Roud #13080
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wallflowers" (form, floating lyrics)
NOTES [60 words]: The editors of Brown claim that their texts are remnants of "Wallflowers." This is one of those unprovable things; what similarities they have are all floating elements. The "B" text in Brown, "Tommy Jones," has clearly been conflated with something else to make it a true, if somewhat incoherent, ballad -- but what that something else is I cannot tell. - RBW
File: R678

Row Dow Dow

See Row-Dow-Dow (File: K354)

Row the Boat Ashore

See Roll the Boat Ashore (Hog-eye I) (File: San380)

Row the Boat, Child

DESCRIPTION: The structure has a verse line, three times, and "Come row the boat child." The verse lines alternate with "Come row the boat child," three times, and "An' lemme go home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (LomaxCD1713)
KEYWORDS: sea work nonballad shanty ship
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Peter Davis and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Row the Boat, Child" (on LomaxCD1713)
NOTES [16 words]: Alan Lomax and Anna L. Chairetakis, liner notes for LomaxCD1713 have this as a "rowing song." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcRtBCh

Row the Boat, Row the Boat

See Row Boat (Ride About) (File: R678)

Row the Boat, Whittington

See Turn Again, Whittington (File: DTwhitti)

Row Us Over the Tide

DESCRIPTION: Two children come up to a boatman, asking him to "row us over the tide." The report that their mother is dead and their father has abandoned them; they have no home.
AUTHOR: E. C. Avis?
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recordings, Kelly Harrell, Bela Lam); Avis is said to have published the song in 1888
KEYWORDS: mother father orphan death separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp. 227-228, "Row Us Over the Tide" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ROWTIDE*
Roud #9132
RECORDINGS:
The Blue Sky Boys, "Row Us Over the Tide" (Bluebird B-6567, 1936)
Clarence & Claude Ganus, "Row Us Over the Tide" (Vocalion 5312, 1929)
Kelly Harrell & Henry Norton, "Row Us Over the Tide" (Victor 20935, 1927; on KHarrell02)
Bela Lam & His Green County Singers, "Row Us Over The Tide" (Okeh 45126, 1927)
Lulu Belle & Scottie (Okeh/unissued, 1940)
Mr. & Mrs. E. C. Mills, "Row Us Over the Tide" (Brunswick/unissued, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Orphan's Lament (Two Little Children, Left Jim and I Alone)" (subject)
cf. "I Saw the Pale Moon Shining on Mother's White Tombstone" (subject)
NOTES [109 words]: As far as I know, no version of this song reveals *why* the children want to cross the water. (Of course, the versions of the song aren't particularly coherent.) One suspects that, in the original, they interpreted crossing the tide as going to heaven.
Joan Sprung knew a report connecting this with the 1878 yellow fever epidemic (in which at least 20,000 people died, mostly along the Mississippi river between New Orleans and Memphis).
The Blue Sky Boys recording put a very different twist on this song, ending with a chorus about Jesus taking the children away to heaven. This is clearly a rewrite to give a potential tragedy a preudo-happy ending. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: DTrowtid

Row-Dow-Dow

DESCRIPTION: Singer, Clarkie, and two others go out poaching pheasants; keepers arrive, and the singer and Clarkie are captured. They are taken to Wandsworth Gaol. Released on Christmas eve, he has a drink and rejoices, but Clarkie doesn't get out until mid-January
AUTHOR: Words: Possibly Fred Holman
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (recorded from George Maynard); tune is older
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, his friend Clarkie and two others go out poaching pheasants; keepers arrive, the two other men leave, and the singer and Clarkie are captured and charged before the magistrate. Convicted, he asks to be fined but is sentenced to six weeks; his friend gets two months. They are taken to Wandsworth Gaol; he sneaks his tobacco in past the guards. He is put to work pumping water and grinding flour. Released on Christmas eve, he has a drink and rejoices, but Clarkie doesn't get out until mid-January
KEYWORDS: captivity fight poaching prison punishment trial freedom hunting drink friend prisoner
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 354, "Row-Dow-Dow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, "Row Dow Dow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 26-28, "Shooting Goschen's Cocks Up" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ROWDOWDW
Roud #902
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "Shooting Goshen's Cocks Up" (on Maynard1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bow Wow Wow" (tune) and references there
NOTES [96 words]: According to Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland, Goshen was either a local placename or the owner of a game preserve. The tune, variously known as "The Barking Barber" or "Bow Wow Wow," is said to date from the time of George II; Chappell published it in 1858. - PJS
Palmer reports that Fred Holman wrote the words to this after poaching on the lands of C. H. Goschen in the years preceding World War I, and later sold copies of the text in exchange for a pint of beer. I do not know if this has ever been verified, or if anyone has seen one of these handwritten copies. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K354

Row, Bullies, Row

See The Liverpool Judies (Row, Bullies, Row; Roll, Julia, Roll) (File: Doe106)

Row, Michael, Row

See Michael, Row the Boat Ashore (File: DTmichae)

Row, Molly, Row (Molly Was a Good Gal)

DESCRIPTION: "Molly was a good gal and a bad gal, too, Oh, Molly, row, gal." The captain and pilot make brief appearances: "I'll row dis boar and I'll row no more...." "Captain on the biler deck a-heaving of the lead... Calling to the pilot to give "turn ahead...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: river nonballad ship work
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 590, [no title] (1 text)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 120, "Molly Was a Good Gal" (1 text)
File: BMRF590A

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

DESCRIPTION: "Row, row, row your boat, Gently down the stream, Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1852 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1852 511180)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong | round
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 412, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 475-476, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"
Harbin-Parodology, #332, p. 82, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 120, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 68, "Row Your Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 33, "Row Your Boat" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 30, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 28, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" (1 text, 1 tune, with "Chew, Chew, Chew Your Food" as a second verse)
OneTuneMore, p. 38, "Row Your Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 128, 191, 394, 422, 435, 442, 447, "Row Your Boat" (notes only)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1852 511180, "The Old Log Hut" or "Row, Row Your Boat," Firth, Pond and Co. (New York), 1852; also sm1853 710040, sm1853 531440, "Row, Row Your Boat" or "The Old Log Hut" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Glub, Glub, Glub Your Boat (File: ACSF436G)
Rheumatism (File: ACSF255R)
Perfect Posture (File: Paro339)
Row, Row, Row Your Boat (Throw Your Teacher Overboard) (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 93)
Propel, Propel, Propel Your Craft (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 208; cf, Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 128)
How, How, How D'ye Do? (Harbin-Parodology, #176, p. 48)
Chew! ("Chew, chew, chew your food, Gently through the meal") (Harbin-Parodology, #261, p. 65; cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 436)
Come to League ("Come, come, come to League, Bring your chum along") (Harbin-Parodology, #326, p. 81)
Cheer Up ("Cheer up (someone), cheer up (someone), Smile a while, smile a while") (Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 121)
Black-Eyed Susan ("Black-eyed Susan, Black-eyed Susan, How are you, how are you?") (Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 121)
NOTES [134 words]: Fuld reports that this text, with a different tune, was published in sheet music form in 1852; this version had music by R. Sinclair, but the words were unattributed (said to be sung by "Master Adams of Kunkels Nightingale Opera Troupe").
Another melody was published in 1854; the common melody was first published in 1881, with a credit (not necessarily of authorship) to E. O. Lyte.
The early texts don't entirely resemble the round we sing today. The version in Dime-Song-Book #8, for instance, has two verses, the first beginning "Down by the river our log hut stands, Where father and mother once dwell...." It's a nostalgia song. The round that we usually sing it the chorus, and runs "Row, row, row, your boat, Gently down the stream, All that's past is gone, you know, The future's but a dream." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB412C

Rowan County Crew (Trouble, or Tragedy), The [Laws E20]

DESCRIPTION: An account of the Tolliver-Martin feud, which the legal system is powerless to end. Casualties of the fighting include John Martin, Floyd Tolliver, Sol Bradley (an innocent bystander), and Deputy Sheriff Baumgartner; even this does not end the feud
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: feud death fight injury
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1884 - Date of the Tolliver-Martin shootings
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Laws E20, "The Rowan County Crew (Trouble, or Tragedy)"
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 5-9, "Rowan County Troubles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 148-150, "The Rowan County Troubles" (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 18-22)
Randolph 169, "The Rowan County Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 324-326, "The Rowan County Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 61, pp. 161-162, "The Tolliver Song" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 39, "A Tolliver-Martin Feud Song" (1 text)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #1A-C, pp. 111-118, "The Rowan County Crew" (2 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #52, "Rowan County Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 196-197, "Rowan County Trouble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 257-258 "The Rowan County Crew" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 891-892, "Rowan County Troubles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 194-195, "The Rowan County Crew" (1 text)
DT 703, ROWANCRW
Roud #465
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "Rowan County Crew" (on Boggs1, BoggsCD1)
Ted Chestnut [as Chesnut], "The Rowan County Feud" (Gennett 6513/Champion 15524 [as Cal Turner], 1928)
Robert L. Day, "The Rowan County Crew" (AFS, 1938; on KMM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A West Virginia Feud Song" (theme, lyrics, metre)
cf. "Death of Samuel Adams" (lyrics)
NOTES [101 words]: Jean Thomas, who knew both James W. Day (who had been in the area when the feud started) and Lucy (Mrs. John) Martin, has extensive notes about the arguments which led to this feud.
Interestingly, Thomas attributes this song to James W. Day, not "Jilson Setters," even though she always calls him "Setters" elsewhere. I can't even find a hint in Thomas that the two were the same.
For what sounds like a legal analysis of this case, see L. F. Johnson, Famous Kentucky Tragedies and Trials, The Baldwin Law Book Company, 1916 (apparently a revised edition was put out by Henry Clay Press in 1972). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LE20

Rowan County Trouble

See The Rowan County Crew (Trouble, or Tragedy) [Laws E20] (File: LE20)

Rowdy Mob, The

DESCRIPTION: "This Ballarat's a curious spot, At least I'm sure I've found it so." He describes the hard times he's had mining. He courted a girl named Sal, but her boyfriend beat him up. Even the police chase him in Ballarat, which is governed by "a rowdy mob."
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Thatcher)
KEYWORDS: humorous mining courting hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 16-17, "The Rowdy Mob" (1 text, from the "Colonial Minstrel")
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 54-56, "The Rowdy Mob" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-GoldrushSongster, pp. 54-55, "The Rowdy Mob" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, pp. 22-24, "The Rowdy Mob" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grow the Rushes" (tune; although Thatcher is not entirely clear about this, it appears he means the Burns song)
NOTES [29 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: AnSt054

Rowdy Soul

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a rowdy soul (x2), Don't care whether I work or not." The singer raised no crop last year; he blames the poor soil. He hopes to build a better house, safe from yellowjackets. He describes his partying lifestyle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recording, Janie Scott Kincey)
KEYWORDS: work home hardtimes party floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 93-94, "Rowdy Soul" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10034
RECORDINGS:
Janie Scott Kincey, "Sometimes I Ride an Old Grey Mare (I'm a Rowdy Old Soul)" (AFS CYL-23-3, 1933)
Will Starks, "I'm a Rowdy Soul" (AFS 6653 B3, 1942)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whoa Back, Buck" (floating lyrics)
File: MWhee093

Rownd Yr Horn (Round the Horn)

DESCRIPTION: Welsh shanty. Describes a voyage round the horn. Ch. translates: "Come Welshmen all and listen to my tale, How we sailed our packet round the Horn! Twas the third day of the seek boys, When dawn was just abreakin', we passed the rocky shores of Anglesey!"
AUTHOR: Music: R.J. Tomas ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty ship travel
FOUND IN: Wales
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 563-564, "Rownd Yr Horn" (2 texts-Welsh & English, 1 tune)
NOTES [48 words]: This is the only sea shanty I've ever heard recorded with harp accompaniment (!) -- by Ar Log on "Ar Log II." According to their liner notes, R. J. Tomas (a Welshman living in America) wrote the tune unde the title "Annie Deg o'r Glen." The words were provided by "Dick Common Sense." - RBW
File: Hugi563

Rowser's

See We Won't Go Home Until Morning (File: RJ19226)

Roxie Ann

DESCRIPTION: "Roxie Ann's a foolin' gal, She fools me all the while, She's been a long time foolin', foolin', She's been a long time foolin' me." "She fools me in the mornin', She fools me in the night..." "I'm goin' to tell my maw on you, I'm goin' to tell my paw..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (JAFL 27)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting trick
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 539, "Roxie Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7647
File: R539

Roxy Ann

DESCRIPTION: "Roxy, she's a daisy, She wears a hat so fine, There ain't but one thing spoils her looks, She wears a number nine." "If she don't quit that fooling me... She'll be no gal of mine." "She fooled me in the 'lasses patch, The sweetest place of all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (collected from Mrs. Eugene Martin by Boswell)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 85, pp. 136-137, "Roxy Ann" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11016
File: BoWo085

Roy Bean

DESCRIPTION: "Cowboys, come and hear the story of Roy Bean in all his glory. 'The law west of the Pecos' read his sign." Bean runs most of the businesses in his part of the world, and uses them to enhance his power and increase his fortune
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Finger-FrontierBallads)
KEYWORDS: cowboy lawyer robbery
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 133-136, "Roy Bean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 413-415, "Roy Bean" (1 text)
DT, ROYBEAN
Roud #4629
RECORDINGS:
Marc Williams, "Roy Bean" (Decca 5010, 1934)
File: LxA413

Roy Neal

See Dublin Bay (Roy Neal) (File: R691)

Roy Neil and His Fair Young Bride

See Dublin Bay (Roy Neal) (File: R691)

Roy Neill

See Dublin Bay (Roy Neal) (File: R691)

Roy Rogers

See Movie Stars (File: AJRR500)

Roy's Wife of Aldivalloch

DESCRIPTION: "Roy's wife of Aldivalloch (x2), Wat ye how she cheated me As I came owre the Braes o' Balloch?" Singer complains that Roy's wife has cheated him; she has sworn she loves him and will be his, but instead she has robbed him and left him
AUTHOR: Mrs Grant of Carron [not of Laggan] (c.1745-c.1814) (source: Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1791 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: adultery infidelity marriage betrayal bawdy wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 748, "Roy's Wife of Aldivalloch" (2 texts plus a single verse on p. 534)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #54, pp. 213-214, "Roy's Wife of Aldivalloch" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 8, "Roy's Wife" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 125, "Roy's Wife of Aldivalloch" (1 text, with dialect retained; one suspects print influence)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2044, p. 137, "Roy's Wife of Aldivalloch" (1 reference)
Heart-Songs, p. 134, "Roy's Wife of Aldivalloch" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5137
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl, "Roy's Wife of Aldivalloch" (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743)
SAME TUNE:
Know Ye Not That Lovely River (by Gerald Griffin) (Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 422)
NOTES [213 words]: According to Lomax, this was originally a bawdy song in folk tradition; the words were sanitized by, "Mrs. Grant of Carron" [in the eighteenth century], and the song then drifted back into tradition. - PJS
According to the notes in MacColl, Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland, "John Roy of Aldivalloch was married to Isabel Stewart [on February 21, 1727). Roy was considerably older than his wife [who ran away with] David Gordon of Kirktown. She was pursued by Roy and brought back after a chase over the Braes of Balloch....
"Margaret Roy... said that the song had been made by a shoemaker living in the neighbourhood of Aldivalloch. The tune was first pubished in Walsh's 'Twenty-Four Country Dances' (1724) as Lady Frances Wemy's Reel, but is almost certainly considerably older."
There was an 1860 American printing of this by De Marsan, documented on p. 137 of Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963. I can't help but wonder what audience they were trying to reach. - RBW
Of the 138 entries in Roud, the vast majority are printed in chapbooks, songsters, and broadsides, suggesting a broad popularity. Such intense support from print surely played a role in stabilizing the text. - DGE
Last updated in version 6.0
File: RcRWOA

Royal Blackbird, The

See The Blackbird (I -- Jacobite) (File: R116)

Royal Eagle, The

DESCRIPTION: "A royal lady bewail'd her sad fate" near Vienna. "My Eagle, she cried, now lies in St Helena." She recalls how he left her, and his exploits and says she will look for help to rescue him. "If I cannot find him, I'll fly to old Erin."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1830 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Napoleon love political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1815 - Defeat at the Battle of Waterloo forces Napoleon into exile
1821 - Death of Napoleon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 31, "The Royal Eagle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 203, "The Royal Eagle" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Green Linnet" (theme: Napoleon)
cf. "Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena)" (theme: Marie Louise's grief for Napoleon)
cf. "The New Bunch of Loughero" (theme: Marie Louise's grief for Napoleon)
cf. "The Removal of Napoleon's Ashes" (theme: Marie Louise's grief for Napoleon)
NOTES [129 words]: Marie Louise of Austria (1791-1847) is Napoleon's second wife and mother of Napoleon II. She returned to Vienna in 1814 when Napoleon is defeated. (source: "Marie Louise of Austria" at Answres.com site) - BS
This song shares with "Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena)" and "The New Bunch of Loughero" the theme of Marie Louisa's grief for her husband. This is romantic, but false; she refused to go into exile with him to Elba, let alone St. Helena.
In fact, even before Napoleon went to Elba, she is reported to have taken General Adam Adelbert Neipperg as a lover. When he came back during the Hundred Days, she not only refused to join him, she wouldn't even allow him to see his son. By the time Napoleon died, Louisa had borne two children to other fathers. - RBW
File: Zimm031

Royal Family, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, how glorious 'twill be (x2) Dressed in white and crowned with glory With the royal family. We'll see Joseph Smith and Hyrum Dressed in white upon Mount Zion." They will also see Brigham Young, Heber, Paul, and Peter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: religious death clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #207, "The Royal Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10896
NOTES [57 words]: Joseph Smith was of course the founder of the Mormon church. Hyrum Smith was his brother, who didn't really have a big role in the church but suffered and died with his brother. Brigham Young was the leader of (the largest faction of) the church after Smith's death. I assume "Heber" is Heber C. Kimball, another important Mormon leader. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: Hubb207

Royal Fisherman, The

See The Bold Fisherman [Laws O24] (File: LO24)

Royal George (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "As we set sail from the Rock of Gibraltar" for Dublin Bay or other destination, the sailors know nothing of disaster that awaits. The ship is wrecked; many die. We are told of the sorrows of those left behind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Vaughan Williams/Palmer)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck death mourning travel
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 19, 1782 - Sinking of the Royal George with Admiral Kempenfeldt and most of her crew
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #80, "The Royal George" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #2529
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sinking of the Royal George" (probable subject)
File: VWP080

Royal George (II), The

See The Mermaid [Child 289] (File: C289)

Royal George (III), The

See Sinking of the Royal George (File: LaBo076)

Royal Light Dragoon, The

DESCRIPTION: When the Royal Light Dragoon comes to town women's "hay ricks," landlord's inns, and pretty girls are at risk. "'Tis death to ... oppose the Royal Light Dragoon" and relief when they are called away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Land ladies beware: "the Light Horse comes in to-day ... they'll pull your hay ricks down." The landlord feeds them well to keep them quiet "and from drawing the sword ... 'tis death to oppose the Royal Light Dragoon." "Girls do like to spend time with the soldiers"; if the girls complain to our officers "they will send us away Into some foreign country, where riots will be soon"; but, if we marry "we must rock the cradle" "Now the riot's come ... we must away"
KEYWORDS: courting sex army parting food nonballad rake soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 297, "Come, All You Saucy Landlords" (1 text fragment) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 330)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 113, "The Royal Light Dragoon" (1 text)
Roud #1323
NOTES [69 words]: Compare "Now the riot's come ... we must away" to "The rout has now begun, And we must march away" of "High Germany" at Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 447, "In High Germany" and "the rout is come this afternoon" of "Isle of Wight" at Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 133." "Route ... also rout ... 5 archaic: marching orders" (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976) - BS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: WT297

Royal Oak, The

DESCRIPTION: While sailing on the "Royal Oak", the singer and his fellows spy ten Turkish men-of-war. They sink three, burn three, drive three off, and capture the last, which they drag into Portsmouth harbor. The singer praises their skipper, Capt. (Wellfounder)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: fight navy sailor foreigner
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #64, p. 2, ("Two we sunk, and two we brunt") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan1 40, "The Marigold" (1 fragment)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 91, "The Royal Oak" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 42, "Turkish Men-o'-War" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 56, "The Marigold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 41, "Captain Mansfield's Fight with the Turks at Sea" (1 text)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #111, "The Marigold" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ROYALOAK*
Roud #951
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Turkish Men of War
NOTES [279 words]: [Lloyd repeats's Firth's suggestion that] the song is based on "Kempthorne's repulse of the seven Algerine ships, December 29, 1669." - PJS
Palmer also repeats it. Just for the record: I know of no instance of Turkish warships getting close enough to England to be hauled to Portsmouth.
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd refers to a ship called the Marigold in Hakluyt's Voyages, but the only similarity I can see to this tale is the ship name. Perhaps Hakluyt's ship suggested the ship name used in some versions of this song. - RBW
While Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast calls this "The Marigold," its ship's name is the Martha Jane, with "Captain White from fair Bristow" - BS
The name "White" in the Leach version probably isn't significant, but I will mention that there was a very famous Newfoundland captain, Edward White Sr. (1811-1886). He became famous as one of the first Newfoundland captains to command a steamship in the seal hunt; he was also a minister without portfolio in the Newfoundland government 1882-1885 (DictNewfLabrador, p. 357). He had been a sealing captain since 1836 (Ryan, p. 151). He wasn't a navy captain, and he didn't fight the Turks, so he can't have been the original captain in this song, but his fame might have suggested his insertion into a Newfoundland/Labrador text.
The name Royal Oak is a dating hint, although not much of one. The name is thought to have commemorated the oak in which the future Charles II hid from the Parliamentary soldiers in 1651. The first Royal Oak was apparently built in the 1660s and destroyed in 1667; the name was in almost continuous use after that (Uden/Cooper, p. 437). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: VWL091

Royal Prince Regent, The

See The Bold Princess Royal [Laws K29] (File: LK29)

Royal Rose, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "There is a flower in yon garden ... And I wish that flower were mine." The garden "with weeds is all o'ergrown." "He is a Rose, a royal Rose ... And is my choice above all those." If Providence ordains it, the Rose will be hers.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 762, "The Royal Rose" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 234-235, "The Royal Rose" (1 tune)
Roud #6182
NOTES [34 words]: The Greig/Duncan4 version is two verses which are included in Christie's four. The description follows Christie. - BS
This sounds like a Bonnie Prince Charlie song, although it is of course not specific. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4762

Royal South Down Militia, The

See The South Down Militia (File: OLoc090N)

Royo Groun'

See Rio Grande (File: Doe064)

Ruahine Run

DESCRIPTION: "Take shelter, take shelter, Pawelka has come, With barefoot unwelcome he'll shoulder his gun, At night you can hear all the shots, Across the Ruahine tops he will run!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: homicide playparty clothes
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1909 - Joe Pawelka marries Hannah Wilson (probably the "Harriet" of "Skip to Me"). After less than half a year, they separate; Pawelka attempts suicide and refuses to leave her alone. Discovered in possession of stolen property, he escapes from prison twice (the second time on Mar 23, 1910). Pawelka then tries again to reconcile with his wife. Other crimes follow. Captured again Apr 17, 1919, he is convicted of various crimes but soon escapes for a final time and is never seen again (source: Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 65, "Ruahine Run" (1 short text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Skip to Me" (subject of Joe Pawelka)
cf. "Joe's Train Journey" (subject of Joe Pawelka)
NOTES [27 words]: It appears there is a book about this fellow, Des Swain, Pawelka, Moana Press, 1989. But I have been unable to locate a copy outside New Zealand to check it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: COl2065B

Rub a Dub, Dub

See Rub-a-dub-dub (File: BGMG133)

Rub-a-dub-a-dub

See The Limejuice Tub (File: MA140)

Rub-a-dub-dub

DESCRIPTION: "Rub-a-dub-dub, Three men in a tub." They are the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker. They may have gone to the fair, or "jumped out of a rotten potato."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1797 (cf. Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose)
KEYWORDS: worker food playparty courting mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1619, "Rub a Dub, Dub" (1 text, 1 tune)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice, #6, "Rub a Dub Dub" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 18, "(Rub a dub dub)" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 109-110, "(The butcher and the baker)" (1 text. lacking the "rub-a-dub" mention and converted into a skipping/counting rhyme about being kissed in the corner)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #52, "The butcher and the baker" (1 text, the Sutton-Smith version)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 460, "Rub-a-dub-dub" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #133, p. 106, "(Rub-a-dub-dub)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 186, "Rub-a-Dub-Dub" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 33, "Rub-a-Dub-Dub, Three Men in a Tub" (2 texts)
Roud #3101
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rub a Dub Dub
NOTES [85 words]: According to the Opies, in the earliest version, it was not the butcher and all who were in the tub, but three giirls whom butcher, baker, brewer, candlestick-maker, etc. watched -- presumably at one of the less reputable corners of a fair. Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel goes farther and suggests a gay peep show.
Daniel Smith, The Language of London: Cockney Rhyming Slang, Michael O'Mara Books, 2011, p. 55, says that this rhyme was so well-known that it gave rise to the slang expression "rub-a-dub" for "pub." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BGMG133

Rub-a-Dub-Dub, Three Men in a Tub

See Rub-a-dub-dub (File: BGMG133)

Rubber Dolly

See My Mummy Told Me (File: OpGa134)

Ruby Lips Above the Water

See Clementine (File: RJ19148)

Ruby Were Her Lips

See The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)

Rudam Day

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17]; also The Banks of Sweet Primroses (File: LO17)

Rude and Rambling Boy

See The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: LP24)

Rude and Rambling Boy, A

See Beam of Oak (Rambling Boy, Oh Willie) (File: LLab015)

Rude and Rambling Man

See The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)

Rude Boreas

See The Tempest (Cease Rude Boreas) (File: SWMS070)

Rue

See Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme) (File: FSWB163)

Rue and the Thyme, The (The Rose and the Thyme)

DESCRIPTION: Told mostly in floating lyrics: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry that my fortune's been so bad, Since I've fa'en in love wi' a young sailor lad." They exchange letters and flowers; she says he may keep his rose and she will keep her thyme.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection virginity floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 187, "The Rose and the Thyme" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #87, p. 1, "The Rue and the Thyme"; #84, p. 2, "The Rue and the Thyme"; #72, p. 2, ("Keep ye your red rue, and I'll keep my thyme") (2 texts plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan1 52, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "The Young Sailor Lad" (6 texts, 5 tunes)
Greig/Duncan6 1139, "The Rue and the Thyme" (10 texts, 4 tunes)
Roud #858
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (lyrics)
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)" (lyrics)
cf. "Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme)" (theme, symbols, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry
NOTES [37 words]: Greig/Duncan1: "Often heard sung fifty and sixty years ago. Noted 1905."
Greig #87 quoting Mr Jas Mackie: "It is over 70 years since I first picked up snatches of this song, which was very common about that time." [1909] - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord187

Rue and Thyme

See Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme) and related songs (File: FSWB163)

Rue the Day

See My Husband's Got No Courage in Him (File: K213)

Rufford Park Poachers

DESCRIPTION: Forty poachers go out together because "they'd often been attacked when the number it was less." They believe that all game "was sent on earth for ev'ry one quite equal for to share." Keepers attack but are routed by the poachers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Taylor, according to OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire; the EFDSS item noted below)
KEYWORDS: fight poaching hunting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire 13, "Rufford Park Poachers" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Joseph Taylor, EFDSS Archives COL/2/39B, "Rufford Park Poachers," https://www.vwml.org/search?q=COL/2/39B&is=1, accessed 7/25/2023.
Roud #1759
NOTES [63 words]: O'Shaughnessy: "Mr Taylor could remember only three stanzas, nos. 2, 1 and 5, and sang them in that order [that agrees with the EFDSS cited above]. All three have been slightly amended here. As no other version of "Rufford Park Poachjers" has so far come to light, the song has been augmented with stanzas composed by the editor." The description is based on the ESDSS text. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OSLi13

Rufus Blossom

See Whistling Rufus (File: R285)

Rufus Mitchell

See I Picked My Banjo Too (File: Br3594)

Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown (What You Goin' to Do When the Rent Comes 'Round?)

DESCRIPTION: "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown, What you goin' to do when the rent comes round? What you goin' to say, How you goin' to pay?" As Rufus knocks on the door, the singer complains about Rufus's lack of sense and inability to maintain a decent home
AUTHOR: Words: B. Sterling Andrew / Music: Harry von Tilzer
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes campsong
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 149, "A Medley" (1 text, 1 tune, starting with the chorus of "Sweet Adeline," then "The Old Oaken Bucket," "In the Evening by the Moonlight," "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown," and "Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground")
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 169, 253, 314, "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown/What You Gonna Do When the Rent Comes Round" (notes only)
SAME TUNE:
Tall Girls, Short Girls (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 169)
NOTES [161 words]: A thoroughly racist piece, this nonetheless had some popularity because of the excellent Harry von Tilzer melody. According to Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, p. 309, von Tilzer also supplied the key concept of the song; he claimed to have heard the actual line on the platform of a train station in Miami. One has to suspect he improved the character's name, though.
Andrew B. Sterling is best known for writing the words to "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis" and "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie"; also "On the Shores of Havana," "Strike Up the Band (Here Comes a Sailor)," and others. - RBW
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 271, estimates that this was the eleventh most popular song in America in 1905, peaking at #4 in November 1905 (#1 for the year being Harry H Williams and Egbert Van Alstyne's "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcRuRaJB

Rufus's Mare

DESCRIPTION: Rufus sadly walks to town after his mare is stolen by Tozer. He tells his story: Tozer had given him a lame mare, which he cured, whereupon Tozer requisitioned the animal back. Rufus expects Tozer to end in Hell.
AUTHOR: George Calhoun
EARLIEST DATE: 1971
KEYWORDS: horse poverty injury hardtimes gift theft
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 264-265, "Rufus's Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4167
NOTES [85 words]: According to Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, this is a true story. Rufus Woodcock had lost his horse and was too poor to buy another. A nearby preacher, Reverend Tozier, had a lame horse that he could not cure. Rather than keep feeding the animal, Tozier gave it to Woodcock. Woodcock cured the horse, whereupon Tozier "borrowed" it back and never returned it. Rufus managed to reclaim the horse, but then Tozier came and again reclaimed it by force.
This song is item dH50 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Doe264

Rugby Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "If I were the marrying kind, Which thank the Lord I'm not, sir, For the rest of my life I'd...." A formula song in which the singer -- were she of a mind to marry -- asserts that the kind of man she would wed would play various positions on a rugby team
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Green, Rugby Songs); known to have been sung in World War II
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous marriage sports
FOUND IN: Australia Canada US(MW,SW) New Zealand
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 365-368, "The Rugby Song" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 120-122, "If I Were the Marrying Kind" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Albert Smith and Ian Smith, _Mosquito Pathfinder_, 2003 republished as Lewis Brandon, Albert Smith, Ian Smith, _Night Flyer/Mosquito Pathfinder: Night Operations in World War II_, Stackpole Military History Series, 2011, p. 267, "(If I was the marrying kind)" (1 short text)
Roud #10142
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "If I Were a Merry Maid" (form, theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
If I Were the Marrying Kind
NOTES [47 words]: "The Rugby Song" ("If I were the marrying kind") and "If I Were a Merry Maid" are clearly versions of the same song, rewritten for particular circumstances; I'd be seriously tempted to lump them. But they have separate Roud numbers, so I'll keep them separate for consistency. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM365

Ruggleton's Daughter of Iero

See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Ruint Cobbler, The

See Peg an' Awl (File: LoF144)

Rukumbine (Rude Combine, Recombine [?])

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: The singer asks how much Mother Cuba paid for her new shoes and hat. Train crosses a bridge "like a breeze," girl below "wash her chemise." Girl up a tree, boy below washing "khaki pants."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: bawdy nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, p. 33, "Rookoombine" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time - Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), pp. 100-101, "Rukumbine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jim Morse, _Folk Songs of the Caribbean_ (New York: Bantam Books, 1958), p. 91, "Rookoombine" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Rookoombine" (on WIEConnor01)
Shenley Duffus, Rukumbine (1964, on Island Records 45 rpm WI-186 A, 1991, "Skatalites and Friends: Hog in a Cocoa," Culture Press CP 43 311-2 CD)
NOTES [210 words]: For an instrumental track listen to Carlos Malcolm and His Afro-Jamaican Rhythm, "Rukumbine" (n.d., on SON 45 rpm WORL-1). Chang and Chen, commenting on Malcolm and the Afro-Jamaican Rhythms's track, write, "'Rukumbine,' their most famous song, is an old Jamaican folk song with a countless number of bawdy verses." (Kevin O'Brien Chang and Wayne Chen, Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998), p. 89). Perhaps, as a reference to "slackness" in an instrumental, the track introduction's second line ends on a sour note.
The description, based on Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica and Duffus, reflects couplets probably "cleaned up" by the singers. Morse adds two verses "in the spirit of the song," but they are about spending money in Kingston and drinking rum.
Dexter and Taylor add more innocent-seeming verses, with the most suggestive being "di coffee pon di fire an' di gyal a call mi liar, / So mi dip han' in she collar, hear di coward gyal a holler say: [chorus:] Rukumbine inna mi sampanteena ...." They translate "rukumbine" as "meaning unknown, but thought to refer to painful trouble of some magnitude" and "sampanteena" as "meaning unknown but thought to refer to some undefined part of the anatomy."- BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: JaMu033

Rule Death In His Arms

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Didn't Jesus rule Death in his Arms, Rule Death in His arms, On the other side of Jordan, Rule Death in His arms." Verses describe the division of sheep from goats at God's command, and relentless Death taking the sinner
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious death Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 22, "Rule Death In His Arms" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [49 words]: In Matthew 25:31-46, "When the Son of man shall come in his glory" he will gather the nations, and separate them as a shepherd does. He sets the sheep on his right hand for "life eternal" to "inherit the kingdom," and the goats on his left hand to go "into everlasting punishment." [King James] - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart022

Rule, Britannia

DESCRIPTION: "When Britain first at Heav'n's command Arose from out the azure main... This was the carter of the land: 'Rule, Britannia, Britannia, rule the waves: Britons never, never, never will be slaves."
AUTHOR: Words: David Mallett? James Thompson? / Music: Thomas Augustine Arne? (1710-1778)
EARLIEST DATE: 1740 ("Alfred: A Masque")
KEYWORDS: political England navy ship nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 686-689, "Rule, Brittannia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 191-193, "Rule, Britannia" (1 tune, partial text)
Erskine-TwentyYearsBeforeTheMast, p. 94, "(When Britain first at Heaven's command)" (1 text)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 50, "The core of tThe celebreated ODE, in Honour of Great BRITAIN called Rule BRITANNIA" (1 orchestral arrangement, a copy of a 1740 printing)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 160-161, "Rule Britannia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XXIX, pp. 42-43, "Rule Britannia" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2045, p. 137, "Rule Britannia" (1 reference)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #19, "Rule, Britannia!" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 477, "Rule, Britannia"
ADDITIONAL: Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 214-215, "Rule Britannia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, pp. 128-129, "(Rule, Britannia)" (1 text)
Roud #10790
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian Roud V593, Bod5357 Curzon b.24(99), "Rule Britannia" ("When Britons first, at heaven's command"), J. Evans (London), 1801-1805; also Bod2290 Harding B 11(3365), Bod12827 Harding B 11(3621), Bod12996 Harding B 22(192), Bod13777 Johnson Ballads 48, Bod7627 Harding B 11(1714), Bod8947 Firth c.14(288), Bod17614 Harding B 28(26), Bod18667 Firth c.13(98), Bod19744 Johnson Ballads 2059, Bod20469 Johnson Ballads 49, Bod20614 Harding B 11(2607), Bod20938 2806 c.13(122), Bod21138 Harding B 28(276), "Rule Britannia"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Married to a Mermaid" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Married to a Mermaid (File: Harl174)
An AMERICAN PARODY on the old Song of RULE BRITANNIA ("When Britons first, by Heaven's Comman") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 50)
Rule, Britannia ("Oh, 'twas on the broad Atlantic, In an equinoctial gale, That a fine young man fell overboard.... Rule, Britannia, Britannia rules the waves, And Britons never, never, never Shall be married to a mermaid at the bottom of the sea") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, pp. 66-67)
NOTES [808 words]: Not really a traditional song, but obviously a well-known one.
The irony is that, for most of its history, Britain had a weak navy, or no navy at all. (The result of this was a long series of invasions, often successful. In just the eleventh century, there was Swein Forkbeard's invasion of 1014, Canute's invasion of 1016, Harald Hardrada's invasion of 1066, and of course William the Bastard of Normandy's invasion of 1066 -- the one that earned him the name "William the Conqueror." All of these except Hardrada's were successful)
It wasn't until the sixteenth century that Britain firmly established its navy -- but, of course, there has not been a successful outside invasion of Britain since.
Various claims have been made for the authorship of this piece. All that can be said with certainty is that the first publication was in "Dr. Arne's" 1740 stage works.
The original text, correctly quoted in the description above, read "Britannia, rule the waves"; later, this was altered in some versions to "Britannia RULES the waves" -- a statement which was absolutely true only in the nineteenth century. Might be time to go back to the old form....
Kunitz/Haycraft, pp. 335-336, describe purported author David Mallett (or Malloch) as the son of a Scottish farmer who earned his way through the University of Edinburgh by working as a janitor and tutoring; he did not earn a degree at the time, although he was granted both a B.A. and an M.A. in later years. His first significant work was a play, "Euridice," produced in 1731 when he was about 26. Little of his work was noteworthy, and he is described as a "shameless opportunis[t]," but he and his classmate James Thomson produced a masque called "Alfred," which contained this piece. After Thomson died, Mallett claimed "Rule Britannia" as his own. He managed to snag a rich woman as his second wife, and supported his vanity off her money until he died, around the age of 60, in 1765.
NewCentury, p. 725, says that the music for "Alfred" was written by Thomas Arne, and that scholars still dispute whether Mallett or Thomson (1700-1748) wrote the words to "Rule, Britannia." It spells his name Mallet, and lists as his major plays "Eurydice," "Mustapha, " and "Elvira," and mentions the poems "William and Margaret," "The Excursion," and "The Hermit."
The figure of Britannia may have derived indirectly from the Greek goddess Athena, according to Cordingly, p. 162. As the British built more warships, more and more were given a figurehead of Athena. She was armed, and then her shield was painted with British emblems -- and so she became Britannia.
According to Nettel, p. 128, "The composer was Thomas Augustine Arne, and the occasion an entertainment given before Frederick, Prince of Wales, at Clivedon House, Maidenhead, on 1 August 1740. The famous song appeared at the end of a masque entitled Alfred, which was an attempt at a musical and dramatic entertainment following the style of Dryden and Purcell's King Arthur. The song we know Is simplified from the original Ode in honour of Great Britain, call'd Rule Britannia, which in its first form was an inspiring piece with splendid orchestral interludes." On p. 130, Nettel adds that Arne's wife Cecilia Young was a famous singer. P. 131 reports that he was "appointed composer to Vauxhall Gardens in 1745" and leader of the Drury Lane Theatre band. This despite limited musical training; Nettel, p. 133, says that Arne's father was an upholsterer who wanted no part of his son's music until he learned there was money in it. Susannah Maria Arne, his sister, later wife of Theophilus Cibber, was also a noteworthy singer, although her life was scandalous (Nettel, pp. 133-134).
Treasure, p. 72, says that Arne "was the greatest English composer after Handel. [Fans of, say, Henry Purcell or John Dowland might disagree....] For a century or more he was known chiefly by his Shakespearean songs and by Rule,Britannia, but modern critics see in some of his operas and masques technical virtuosity and a distinctively English simplicity of expression." He says that Arne managed to learn keyboards by dropping a handkerchief in his spinet to quiet it while he practiced. He also played violin (Treasure, p. 73). He spent time in Dublin, and abandoned his second wife there; Treasure calls him "an unfaithful, perhaps also a cruel husband." Perhaps it's fitting that he composed such a militant piece.
"Rule Britannia," for some reason, is item CLVIII in Palgrave's Golden Treasury. - RBW
In 1839 Erskine was part of an American crew that dropped into the Jolly Sailor's Inn in Sydney, Australia. "It was a large square room. On either side were a number of tables, over which hung various national flags." Crews at the tables sang their own Russian, English, French or U.S. songs. The Englishmen sang "Rule Britannia." - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: ChWII191

Rules of Marriage

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes his ideal mate. She must be good-natured, clever and handsome, and get up at dawn to make his breakfast. If he comes home drunk she must kiss him and put him to bed. If he runs out of money she must pawn her clothes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: marriage drink food humorous nonballad clothes beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1354, "Rules of Marriage" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #7232
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Come All Ye Gay Young Lasses
File: GrD71354

Rules of Masonry, The

DESCRIPTION: "None but an atheist can ever deny But that [masonry] came first from on high." God is "the first Great Master of Masonry." Adam first wore "a fig-leaf [mason's] apron." Solomon's temple conformed "to the just-formed rules of Masonry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #155, pp. 1-2, "Freemason's Song" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 468, "The Rules of Masonry" (1 text)
Roud #5967
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Building of Solomon's Temple" [Laws Q39] (theme: Building the First Temple)
cf. "The Plumb and Level" (theme: Building the First Temple)
NOTES [173 words]: It is technically true that the Masons had secrets -- rituals, handshakes, and even a so-called secret code of a very simple sort, based on a tic-tac-toe grid and an x, so that, e.g., the letter "o" was "|-|"; the letter "i" was "|-."; and the letter "w" was "\/" (for details, and clearer drawings -- the above are not quite right -- see Fred B. Wrixon, Codes, Ciphers, & Other Cryptic & Clandestine Communications, Barnes & Noble, 1998). But few of these secrets were really very secret.
I do find the idea of masonry coming "from on high" a little funny. The first real building project described in the Bible is the Tower of Babel (in Genesis 11), and look how *that* turned out.
As for Masons building Solomon's temple (a tale also found in "The Building of Solomon's Temple" [Laws Q39]), we find a description in chapters 5-8 of 1 Kings (and 2 Chronicles chapters 2-6 with a foreshadowing in 1 Chron. 28-29). But it clearly was not built by masons; it was probably designed by Phoenicians, and certainly constructed by slaves. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3468

Rules of the Road at Sea (Sailor's Rhymes)

DESCRIPTION: Not a song; a series of rhymes by which sailors would learn how to behave at sea. e.g. "When both side lights you see ahead, port your helm and show your Red. Green to Green or Red to Red, perfect safety, go ahead." Most concern weather prediction.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips)
KEYWORDS: sailor nonballad ship
FOUND IN: US Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 204-207, "Rules of the Road" (various short texts)
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, pp. 45-46, "Rules of the Road at Sea" (1 text)
NOTES [83 words]: I wasn't sure whether to include this, since it really isn't a shanty. However, it would seem that these rhymes served a similar purpose to the shanties in that they helped the work along. - SL
And indeed the "rules" vary from the universally familiar ("Red [sky] at night", which is traditional even in my family -- and I don't have many family traditions!) to some which appear to deal with conditions in a particular harbor. We'll just file this as a lumping entry for all sailors' rhymes. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: Colc204

Rullion Green

See The Battle of Pentland Hills (File: MBra166)

Rum and Coca-Cola

DESCRIPTION: "Since the Yankees came to Trinidad" they give mothers and daughters "a better price." The song gives examples of the disruption caused by the G.I.s
AUTHOR: Words: Rupert Grant ("Lord Invader") / Music: probably from L'Année Passée by Lionel Belasco (source: Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic), but see NOTES
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 ("Victory Calypsos 1943 Souvenir Collection": see NOTES)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The Yankees have Trinidad girls "going mad": they treat the girls nice "and they give them a better price." "They buy rum and coca cola Go down Point Cumana." Mothers and daughters are "working for the Yankee dollar." The singer's girl friend is taken by her mother into a car with some soldiers. A bride runs off with a soldier on her wedding day and her husband goes mad. A brothel is raided and the girls are drinking rum and coca cola.
KEYWORDS: sex drink humorous nonballad soldier
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 477-478, "Rum and Coca-Cola"
ADDITIONAL: Donald R. Hill, _Calypso Calaloo_ (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993), pp. 239-240, "Rum and Coca Cola" (1 text; 1950 version)
Lion and Atilla, Victory Calypsos 1943 Souvenir Collection, in Kevin Burke, "Calypso on Trial" at http://www.rumandcocacolareader.com/RumAndCocaCola/Calypso_on_Trial.html accessed February 22, 2015 (1943 version)
RECORDINGS:
Andrews Sisters with Vic Shoen and His Orchestra, "Rum and Coca-Cola" (1944, on Decca 18636A)
Lord Invader and Gerald Clark and the Band, "Rum and Coca-Cola" (1999, on "Calypso at Midnight," Rounder CD 11661-1840-2 [recorded 1946])
Lord Invader, "Rum and Coca Cola" on "Calypso Calaloo", (1993, on Rounder CD 1105 [reissue of 1950])
NOTES [719 words]: I have included this song because of the part it plays in the history of commercial calypso music. For the context see the discussion of "Hold 'im Joe." The song was a popular road march in Trinidad in 1943, presented at a calypso "tent" by M. H. Khan. At the time there were thousands of U. S. troops stationed in Trinidad and, not being confined to base, they frequented the calypso "tents." The story of Morey Amsterdam's visit to Trinidad as part of a USO show, his picking up the song, and its commercial recording the next year by the Andrews Sisters, with the song attributed to Amsterdam, is told by Hill, pp. 234-240, and Kevin Burke in "Calypso on Trial." A plagiarism suit was eventually settled in favor of Grant ("Lord Invader"). [Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 478, says however that Morey Amsterdam, Jeri Sullavan, and Paul Baron hold the copyright and continue to exercise it and claim authorship, and they, along with Lionel Belasco, are also the authors listed in Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 479. - RBW]
The Andrews Sisters sang the lines as "rum and Cocahhhhh-Cola, working for the Yankee dollahhhhhh." In his 1950 rendition, Invader sang "We haven't got no bad speaking Trinidadian / We never said, 'cacahh cola' / Neither did we say, 'Yankee dollahh' / We sang...."
In 1950, Edmundo Ros recorded the derivative, partly attributed to Morey Amsterdam, "Rum and Limonada."
By the time of the 1946 Town Hall Concert, "Rum and Coca-Cola" was universally known, and the Andrews Sisters' version made a point of it being a "calypso" song. So, when in 1947, there was a "Calypso Carnival" in New York's Carnegie Hall one of the headliners was "Lord Invader, author of 'Rum and Coca Cola'" ("Calypso Carnival in N.Y. on May 8," The Pittsburgh Courier, May 3, 1947, p. 17).
In 1967 Prince Buster recorded a rocksteady version relocated to Jamaica. Only the chorus and tune of the chorus remain of Invader's song. Mother and daughter are "fighting for the Yankee dollar" and "body line" shows up in the verse: "If you come down to Jamaica/ The girls there make you feel up/ The wind and wine and body line/ You'll give them all that you have in kind" (Prince Buster, "Rum and Coca Cola" Blue Beat 45 rpm BB-330 A, 1965).
There is another aspect of the "Rum and Coca-Cola" story that has to do with tune sharing. Before Invader's case was settled there was another involving the Amsterdam version. Lionel Belasco had already published the sheet music of "L'Année Passée," which he may have heard in the street and copied, or written himself. In any case, as you can hear (Patrick Jones, "L'Annee Passee" on "Calypso Calaloo," (1993, on Rounder CD 1105 [reissue of 1950]), the tune of the verse of that song, but not the chorus, is very close to the tune of the verse of "Rum and Coca Cola." The copyright holder of Belasco's sheet music won his case also (Hill, pp. 234-240). Hill writes, "... Invader conformed to the standard procedure of recycling old tunes with new lyrics.... In my opinion, no one had a claim to the tune of 'Rum and Coca Cola' -- it was in fact the Martinique folk tune [introduced in Trinidad in the 1890's] (Hill, pp. 234-235). The point is made again in the discussion of "Hold 'im Joe" that tunes in the West Indies, as in the Appalachians and elsewhere, are often recycled. Here's another example: between 1925 and 1928, West Indian Sam Manning recorded three tracks using virtually the same tune and one other very close to those ("Lignum Vitae" [1925], "Emily" [1926], "Lita" [1928]; close to "Sly [Slide] Mongoose" [1925]; n.d., on "Sam Manning Volume 1 (Recorded in New York 1924-1927)," Jazz Oracle CD BDW 8028; n.d., on "Sam Manning Volume 2 (Recorded in New York 1927-1930)," Jazz Oracle CD BDW 8029). - BS
The aforementioned book by Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, p. 479,, estimates that this was the seventeenth most popular song in America in 1945, peaking at #2 in March 1945 (#1 for the year being Bud Green, Les Brown, and Ben Homer's "Sentimental Journey"). In addition to the Andrews Sisters, there was a popular recording by Abe Lyman and Rose Blane. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcRumCoc

Rum By Gum (Temperance Union Song)

DESCRIPTION: "We're coming, we're coming, our brave little band, On the right side of temperance we do take our stand.... Away, away with rum, by gum, The song of the (Salvation Army/Temperance Union)." Various verses on the value of sobriety
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Welch & Moore, Michigan's Favorite College Songs)
KEYWORDS: drink political nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 317, "Temperance Song" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment without the chorus)
Cray-AshGrove, pp. 36-37, "Away, Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 6-7, "Away With Rum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 233, "Away With Rum" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 107, "Salvation Amy Song" (notes only)
DT, (AWAYRUM*) (AWAYRUM2*) (AWAYRUM3*) (AWAYRUM4*) (AWAYRUM5*)
ADDITIONAL: Roy Dickinson Welch & Earl Vincent Moore, _Michigan's Favorite College Songs_, First (?) Edition, University Music House, 1913 (available on Google Books), p. 158, "Away with Rum" (1 text, 1 tune, "arranged by Ruth Smith); Sixth Edition, 1921 (available on Google Books), p. 224, "Away with Rum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12765
NOTES [57 words]: Warning: All the Digital Tradition versions are parodies of one sort or another (AWAYRUM5 is 35 verses, almost all silly, almost all modern). Many singers today sing this as a joke. But the roots of this piece are almost certainly serious (compare Randolph's version).
Thanks to Jim Dixon for pointing out the Welch & Moore version. - (JD), RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R317

Rum Saloon Shall Go, The

DESCRIPTION: "A wave is rolling o'er the land With heavy undertow, And voices sounding on the strand, The rum saloon shall go. Shall go, shall go, We know, we know, A cry is sounding o'er the land, The rum saloon shall go." The song promises to lift the curse of drink
AUTHOR: Words: Jno. O. Foster/Music: Jno. R. Sweeney
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (copyright claim)
KEYWORDS: drink political
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 333, "The Rum Saloon Shall Go" (1 text)
Roud #7805
File: R333

Rummy Crocodile, The

See The Wonderful Crocodile (File: MA134)

Rummy Dummy Line, The

See The Dummy Line (File: DTdumyli)

Rumpsty-Bumpsty

See Wop She 'Ad It-io (Rumpsy Addity, Ram She Add-a-dee, Once I Courted a Fine Young Lass) (File: CopSe241)

Rumpsy Addity

See Wop She 'Ad It-io (Rumpsy Addity, Ram She Add-a-dee, Once I Courted a Fine Young Lass) (File: CopSe241)

Rumpsy-Bumpsy-Ay

See Wop She 'Ad It-io (Rumpsy Addity, Ram She Add-a-dee, Once I Courted a Fine Young Lass) (File: CopSe241)

Run Along Home

See Now Run Along Home and Jump Into Bed (File: ACFS192N)

Run Along, You Little Dogies

See Get Along, Little Dogies AND Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own) (File: R178)

Run Come See

DESCRIPTION: "It was in nineteen hundred and twenty nine, I remember that day pretty well...." The singer describes the great storm that threatened the Ethel, Myrtle, and Praetoria, sinking the last. The Captain, George Brown, calls on the passengers to pray
AUTHOR: claimed by "Blind Blake" Higgs
EARLIEST DATE: 1940s (recording, Blake Higgs)
KEYWORDS: religious ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1929 - The Bahamas are devastated by a hurricane with little or no advance warning. Three boats, the Ethel, Myrtle, and Praetoria, bound for Andros, are caught in the storm; the Praetoria sinks, and thirty-three are lost.
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 58, "Run Come See" (1 text)
DT, RUNCOME
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 131-137, "The Singing of the Pytoria" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Run Come See Jerusalem" (on WIHIGGS01)
John Roberts & group, "Pytoria (Run Come See Jerusalem)" (on MuBahamas2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Great Storm Pass Over" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Run Come See Jerusalem
NOTES [28 words]: John Roberts claims to have composed this song within four days of the ship's sinking, rather than Blake Higgs. On reading his account, I'm inclined to believe him. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: FSWB058

Run Come See Jerusalem

See Run Come See (File: FSWB058)

Run for Your Life

DESCRIPTION: "Didn't know Flynn? Flynn of Offaly, 'S long as he's been here?" "Here in this tunnel he was my partner, That same Tom Flynn." He holds back the "timbers ready to fall" in the mine, crying "Run for your life, Jake... Don't wait for me, And that was all"
AUTHOR: Bret Harte (as "In the Tunnel")
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (Poems by Bret Harte)
KEYWORDS: death mining escape
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 77, "Run for Your Life" (1 text, 1 modern tune) (p. 56 in the 1972 edition)
RECORDINGS:
Bruce Hall, "Run for Your Life" (on NZSongYngCntry)
NOTES [218 words]: Mitch Park writes to me with the following information about the source of this song: "This was originally collected in a field trip through the poetry columns of old newspapers, and I presume the documentation was a bit skimpy. Since those papers have been digitised as part of the Papers Past archive, it was easy to find the original poem, with its original title and author.
"Papers Past shows NZ publication under the title 'In the tunnel,' in the Mount Ida Chronicle 29 Sep 1871 ('by the author of "The heathen Chinee"'), then later in the Cromwell Argus 7 Nov 1871, where it was attributed to Bret Harte. It was published in 'Poems by Bret Harte.' - Boston: Fields, Osgood, 1871, which is the obvious source for the newspaper reprint.
"Colquhoun's version substitutes Offaly for Virginia, and the album notes [to the reissue of NZSongYngCntry] comment that the poem probably refers to the goldfield at Surface Hill near Naseby. There were indeed a number of deaths on the Surface Hill claims. But all were attributable to earthfall during hydraulic mining in which powerful jets of water were directed at rather loose alluvial deposits; no tunnelling involved."
Harte's original poem had six irregular stanzas. The Colquhoun version chops off the last two and a bit, and is probably better for it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Colq056

Run Here, Doctor, Run Here Quick

DESCRIPTION: Hammer song or similar: "Run here, doctor (huh), Run here quick (huh), Little Mary (huh) Swallowed a stick."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: doctor work injury
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 246, "Run Here, Doctor, Run Here Quick" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 246, "Run Here, Doctor, Run Here Quick" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 127, "Doctor, doctor, tell me quick" (1 text; compare the next item, "Doctor, doctor, tell no lie")
Roud #21048
NOTES [24 words]: The notes in Brown include various references which make it appear that they regard this as a version of "Shortenin' Bread." I don't see it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Br3246

Run In

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme and game: "Run in. Run in again. Run out. Then call another one to come in."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #501, "Run in" (1 text)
File: AJRR501

Run Mollie Run

DESCRIPTION: Verses from different songs. "Miss Liza was a gambler, learned me how to steal"; "I went down to Huntsville, I did not go to stay..."; "Oh, Liza, poor girl...she died on that train"; "Cherry like a rose"; "Run, Mollie, run/Let us have some fun"
AUTHOR: Henry Thomas assembled it, at any rate
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Henry Thomas)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Confused verses, mostly narrative, but apparently from different songs. "Miss Liza was a gambler, learned me how to steal"; "I went down to Huntsville, I did not go to stay/Just got there to do a little time, wear that ball and chain"; "Oh, Liza, poor girl...she died on that train"; "Cherry like a rose"; "Run, Mollie, run/Let us have some fun"
KEYWORDS: captivity love beauty prison death gambling cards floatingverses prisoner dancetune
FOUND IN: US(So)
RECORDINGS:
Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas, "Run Mollie Run" (Vocalion 1141, c. 1928 [rec. 1927]; on BefBlues1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Molly and Tenbrooks" [Laws H27] (lyrics)
NOTES [47 words]: This song's a mess -- a composite of several songs, about half of which are ballads, half not. But it seems important to include, if for no other reason than that it *is* a composite. I strongly suspect -- no, I'm certain -- this was a dance tune; the rhythm is certainly right. - PJS
File: RcRunMol

Run Mountain

DESCRIPTION: Dance tune with floating verses: "I went up on the mountain to get me a load of pine..."; "Me six miles from my home... Me upstairs with another man's wife..."; Chorus: "Run mountain, chuck a little hill (x3)/There you'll get your fill."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (recording, J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Dance tune with floating verses: "I went up on the mountain to get me a load of pine/I put it on the wagon, I broke down behind"; "Me six miles from my home and the chickens crowing for day/Me upstairs with another man's wife, better be a-getting away"; "I went up on the mountain to give my horn a blow/I thought I heard my true love say, yonder comes my beau"; "If I had a needle and thread as fine as I could sew/I'd sew my true love to my side and down the road I'd go." Chorus: "Run mountain, chuck a little hill (x3)/There you'll get your fill."
KEYWORDS: adultery love work dancing humorous nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 206, "Run Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers "Run Mountain" (King 819, 1949)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Run Mountain" (on NLCR04)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down the River I Go" (words)
cf. "Whoop 'em Up Cindy" (words)
cf. "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" [Child 81] (words)
cf. "The Hunt is Up" (words)
NOTES [37 words]: One of dozens of songs in southeastern and Appalachian tradition that reshuffle similar verses with new choruses and tunes. - PJS
Not to be confused with "Run, Mountain, Run," even though that too is a shuffled-verse song.
Last updated in version 2.6
File: CSW206

Run Old Jeremiah

DESCRIPTION: "Good Lord, by myself (x3), You know I've got to go, You got to run, I got to run, You got to run By myself (x3)." Song describes traveling, freedom, (God as) the rock, and other themes of the poor and oppressed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Field Recording, J.A./Alan Lomax)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 197-200, "(Run Old Jeremiah)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 368-369, "Run Old Jeremiah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15505
NOTES [32 words]: The Lomax field recording of this song is incomplete at both beginning and end, but it would appear that the complete song would simply have continued the themes found in the extant portion. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: CNFM197

Run to Jesus

DESCRIPTION: "Run to Jesus, shun the danger, I don't expect to stay much longer." The singer describes the difficulties of the path he must follow, but also the rewards to be found at the end. The refrain "I don't expect to stay much longer" ends each verse
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (J. B. T. March, "The Story of the Jubilee Singers")
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 15, "Run to Jesus" (1 text) (1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 89-90, "Run to Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 89, "Run to Jesus" (1 text)
Roud #15263
NOTES [27 words]: Reportedly sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, who had it from Frederick Douglass. Douglass remarked that this song prompted him to consider running from slavery. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Grnw089

Run to Jesus for Refuge

DESCRIPTION: "I'm gonna run to my Jesus for refuge, Run right along...." Verses include floaters "Mary wore a golden chain, Every link was Jesus name" and "When I read my title clear To mansions in the skies, I bid farewell to every fear And wipe my weeping eyes"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (LomaxCD1708)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #17292
RECORDINGS:
Charles BArnett-IHearAmericaSinging, "Run to Jesus for Refuge" (on LomaxCD1708)
NOTES [37 words]: You can find the "title clear" floating verse in Isaac Watts, Hymns and Spiritual Songs (New York: Samuel Parker, 1760 (18th edition, "Digitized by Internet Archive")) #65, p. 162, ("When I can read my Title clear"). - BS.
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcRtJfR

Run with the Bullgine

See Run, Let the Bullgine Run (File: Hugi342)

Run, Jinnie, run! I'm gwine away

See Juba (File: BSoF708)

Run, Let the Bulgine Run

See Run, Let the Bullgine Run (File: Hugi342)

Run, Let the Bullgine Run

DESCRIPTION: Shanty or railroading song. Refrain: "Run with/let the bulgine run. Way-yah oh-i-oh, Run with/let the bulgine run." Many verses repeat the "running" theme, i.e. "we'll run all day to Frisco Bay." Used as both a capstan and halyard shanty.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (L. A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong sailor nonballad railroading
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 64, "Run With the Bullgine" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 342-344, "Run, Let the Bulgine Run" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 257]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XIII, p. 16, "Let the Bullgine Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #21, "Oh run, let the Bullgine run" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Hugi342 (Full)
Roud #4711
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll the Cotton Down" (tune)
NOTES [31 words]: "Bullgine" was American Negro slang for a railway engine. - SL
(We might add that, in the early days of steamships, it was not unusual for railroad engines to be used in steamships.) - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: Hugi342

Run, Mary, Run

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Run Mary, run (3x), I know the other world is not like this." Verse: "Swing low, chariot, in the east, Let God's children have some peace, ... west, Let God's children have some rest, ... north ..., ... south, Let God's children sing and shout"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 18-19, "Run, Mary, Run" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 188 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #15264
NOTES [26 words]: Each of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verse lines is followed by "I know the other world is not like this." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett018

Run, Molly, Run

See Molly and Tenbrooks [Laws H27] (File: LH27)

Run, Mountain, Run

DESCRIPTION: Cho: "Well-a run, mountain, run (x2), No matter where in the world I go, I'm bound to have my fun." Verses often float: "I'm going to build me a scaffold on some mountain so high." "Love is like an onion, you smile.... you wonder, whatever made you bite."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (collected from Uncle Dave Macon by Boswell)
KEYWORDS: courting floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 86, pp. 137-138, "Run, Mountain, Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7052
NOTES [62 words]: Not to be confused with "Run Mountain, which -- like this piece -- is a banjo tune with a collection of incoherent and often floating verses, but which has a rather different form.
Round appears to lump this with "Coming Round the Mountain (II -- Charming Betsey)," presumably based on the floating verses and mountain references, but that strikes me as quite a stretch. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BoWo086

Run, Nigger, Run

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Run, nigger, run, The (calaboose/patter-roller) will get you. Run, nigger run...." Various verses on the life of the slave, usually pertaining to punishment and perhaps the run to freedom
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (Serenader's Song Book)
KEYWORDS: slave freedom escape nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 89, "Run, Nigger, Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 457, "Run, Nigger, Run" (4 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 2 more, all short and with hints of mixture but with this chorus)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 457, "Run, Nigger, Run" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Randolph 264, "Run, Nigger, Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 225-226, "Run, Nigger, Run" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 264)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 121, "Run, Nigger, Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 248, "Run, Nigger, Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 12, "Run, Nigger, Run" (1 text, 1 tune; it appears that this has mixed with something else, but the version isn't long enough to be sure what); also p. 24, "Run, Nigger, Run" (2 texts, 1 tune, both short); also p. 25, "Most Done Ling'rin Here" (1 text, 1 tune, with a verse from this plus the "If you get there before I do" floating verse and a chorus that might be "Rough, Rocky Road")
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #6, "Run, Nigger, Run" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the first appears very mixed but has this chorus; the second might well be a different song but, with only two verses, or a verse and a chorus, it is not possible to definitively split it)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #91, "Do Johnny Booger" (1 text, 1 tune, an incredible mess with the chorus and some words from "Johnny Booker (Mister Booger)," an ending which is from "Run, Nigger, Run," and a number of verses perhaps from "Old Dan Tucker")
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 228-231, "Run, Nigger, Run" (1+ texts, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, p. 906, "Run, Nigger, Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 106-108, "Run, Nigger, Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2047, p. 137, "Run, Nigger, Run! Or the M.P.'ll Catch You" (1 reference, probably rewritten)
ADDITIONAL: John Allen Wyeth, _With Sabre and Scalpel_ (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1914 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), ("Run, nigger, run; patter-roller catch you"), p. 63 (1 verse)
Roud #3660
RECORDINGS:
Dr. Humphrey Bate & His Possum Hunters, "Run Nigger, Run" (Brunswick 275, 1928)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Run Nigger, Run" (OKeh 40230, 1924)
Sid Harkreader & Grady Moore, "Run Nigger Run" (Paramount 3054, 1927)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Run, Nigger, Run" (Vocalion 15032, 1925)
Mose "Clear Rock" Platt, "Run, Nigger, Run" (AFS 196 A1, 1933; on LC04)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Run Nigger Run" (Columbia 15158-D, 1927)
Clint Howard, Gaither Carlton, Fred Price & Doc Watson, "Run, Jimmie, Run" (on WatsonAshley01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shortenin' Bread" (tune)
cf. "Some Folks Say that a Preacher Won't Steal" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Paddy-Roller
Pateroller Song
Run, Boy, Run
Run, Johnny, Run
Run, Slave, Run
NOTES [74 words]: In Lomax we find the following explanation (quoted at several hands' remove):
"Just after the Nat Turner Insurrection in 1832 the Negroes were put under special restrictions to home quarters, and patrolmen appointed to keep them in, and if caught without a written pass from owner they were dealt with severely then and there; hence the injunction to 'Run, Nigger, Run, the Patter-roller Git You' to the tune of 'Fire in the Mountain....'" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R264

Run, Sallie, My Gal

See Bugle, Oh! (File: Br3197)

Run, Tell Aunt Nancy

See Go Tell Aunt Rhody (File: R270)

Runaway Bride, The

DESCRIPTION: "If you go to the North Countrie... You'll hear how the bride from the blacksmith ran To be a liggar lady." Townfolk gather to the wedding; the bride is missing. The audience laughs at the groom's expense. Men are warned of Hieland lads luring their girls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: marriage abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 462-463, "The Runaway Bride" (1 text)
Roud #2876
NOTES [38 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads reports this to be based on an event which occurred "near the end of the eighteenth century." Given the song's history (analogs appear in Herd and the Scots Musical Museum), that date seems a bit late. - RBW
File: Ord462

Runaway Mare, The

See McCarthy's Mare (The Runaway Mare) (File: Shoe151)

Runaway Train, The

See The Little Red Train (File: EM224)

Runer von Hamborg, De

DESCRIPTION: German (Plattdeutsch). Halyard shanty. "De see geht hoch, de wind de blast. Kohm un Beer for mi!" The sea is foul. The captain calls all hands. They see the runners in Hamburg. The sailor needs clothes and soap; he hopes for kummel and a cigar
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor home drugs
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 63, "De Runer von Hamborg" (2 texts, low German [not standard German!] and English, 1 tune)
File: HSoSe063

Running to School (Next Year I Will Be)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme: "Running to school... Next year I will be in the First, second, third, fourth.... My teacher is H-O-T"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Folkways 7029, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope wordplay | school running teacher counting
FOUND IN: US(MW,So,SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #393, "Next year I will be in the" (1 text)
File: AJRR393

Rural Courtship

See The Monymusk Lads (File: Ord068)

Rural Dance About the May-Pole, The

See The Maypole Song (File: BeCo284)

Rural Sport

DESCRIPTION: How can you sleep when the hounds are out and the sun is shining? The singer leaves his wife behind in bed to hunt the hare. "No pleasure like hunting to pass a long day... At night to our supper we will dance... over a jug of brown ale"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2)
KEYWORDS: hunting dancing drink food animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 55, "Wharncliffe Highwood" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: William Hill, EFDSS Archives GG/1/18/1151, "Rural Sport," https://www.vwml.org/search?q=GG/1/18/1151&is=1, accessed 7/25/2023.
Roud #1869
File: OSY255

Rurey Bain

See Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Rush Fox

See The Fox (File: R103)

Rush to Coromandel, The

DESCRIPTION: "The stagnant state of Auckland now Gives sone dissatistfaction, But there's nothing like a good goldfield To give some satisfaction." The gold at Coromandel is all the rage and an economic boon. Mothers tell their babies that Daddy's gone to Coromandel
AUTHOR: Words: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Thatcher's "Auckland Vocalist," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: gold mining New Zealand humorous mother baby
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1861-1862 - the Coromandel gold rush, ended by the Maori conflict
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 56-57, "The Rush to Coromandel" (1 text, tune referenced)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 95, "(The Rush to Coromandel)" (1 excerpt)
Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, p. 41, "(Rush to Coromandel)") (1 excerpt)
NOTES [29 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BaRo056

Rushes and Reeds Are Bending

DESCRIPTION: "Rushes and reeds are bending, Rushes and reeds are bowing, My mother sits a-mending, My father goes a-plowing, In and out and all about, And curtsey as we go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty mother father clothes farming
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 35, "(Rushes and reeds are bending)" (1 text)
File: SuSm035

Russel's Triumph

DESCRIPTION: "Thursday in the morn, on the Nenteenth of May, Recorded be for ever the famous Ninety-two." Brave Russel sees the French fleet under Tourville. The fight is hard, but the English win. The singer blesses the King and "each brave English Tar"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton-RealSailorSongs)
KEYWORDS: navy battle political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1692 - Battles of Barfleur and La Hogue. The dates, in modern numbers, were 29 May-4 June, but since Britain still used the Julian calendar, the song dates the start of the fight to 19 May. Admiral Edward Russel, with abot 80 ships, beat the French under Tourville at Barfleur, and won a pursuing action at La Hogue; the victories ended any French hopes of an invasion that would restore James II to the British throne
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #7, "On Admiral Russel's Total Defeat of the French Fleet" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 29, "The Sea Fight in '92" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads LIX, pp. 109-111, "Admiral Russel's Scowering the French Fleet: or, The Battle at Sea" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 165-167, "The Battle of La Hogue" (1 text, 1 tune, plus reproductions of 2 broadsides tunes, 1 with a full text)
ST AshS007 (Partial)
Roud #18039
File: AshS007

Russia, Let That Moon Alone

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Russia, let that moon alone, Moon ain't worryin' you! God told you to till the earth, God didn't tell you to till the moon! You can make your sputnickles And your satellites, You can't get God's moon." The moon is for light, not exploration
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Courlander)
KEYWORDS: technology nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 78-79, (no title) (1 text); p. 260, "Russia, Let That Moon Alone" (1 tune, partial text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 341-342, "(no title)" (1 text)
NOTES [84 words]: It's hard to believe that this silly bit of Luddite-ism can be traditional; on its face, it must have been written between 1959 (when the Soviet Union sent up the first Luna satellites) and Kennedy's announcement that the United States would try to beat the Soviets there.
Courlander's notes imply that it is from a field recording, but I'm not sure how far to trust that.
I hope it goes without saying that the Bible says nothing, positive or negative, about lunar exploration, manned or unmanned. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: CNFM078

Russian Bear, The

DESCRIPTION: "The French he cries ye British rise Along with us prepare And go and help the gallant Turk To hunt the Russian bear." "The bear he is a sulky brute, And naething will he eat Unless he gets some Turkish wings, He likes a dainty treat"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: war Russia nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 156, "The Russian Bear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5826
NOTES [15 words]: The description is all of the Greig/Duncan1 text. The song refers to the Crimean War. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1156

Russian Convoy Escort's Song

DESCRIPTION: Cumulative song. "The first day from Iceland old AC-IC said to me, There's a Whitley up a gum tree." And so through ten days, adding various weapons, e.g. "Two Blohm and Voss," "Three Fokke-Wulfs," ending with "Ten Captains driving."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1946 (Gundry, according to Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy war cumulative derivative Russia
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 90-91, "Russian Convoy Escort's Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (tune)
cf. "The Kola Run" (subject of convoys to Russia in World War II)
cf. "The 23rd Flotilla" (subject: of convoys to Russia in World War II and the hard life of convoy escorts) and references there
NOTES [1159 words]: There was nowhere in the Atlantic where British ships were entirely safe from attacks by U-boats, but perhaps no ships were in greater danger than those on the run from Britain to Murmansk and Archangel in Russia. "During the winter the Arctic ice barrier moves so far south as to leave a navigable stretch of water barely 200 miles wide between it and Cape North. Convoys were in fact sailing past the Germans' doorstep while at the same time struggling to overcome extraordinary navigational hazards" (Pearce, p. 29). The Russian convoy route would come to be known as the "Gateway to Hell" (Pearce, p. 159).
Surprisingly, the first seven convoys to Russia all avoided attack. It was only with convoy PQ8, which sailed in January 1942, that one of the convoys faced the enemy.
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy offers two explanations for "AC-IC": "Admiral Commanding Iceland Convoys" or an aircraft identification officer. Given that not everything the ships in the song encounter is an airplane, I would incline to the former identification.
The aircraft listed weren't even all German. The Whitely, mentioned on day one, was (as you might guess from the name) a British plane made by Armstrong Whitworth. It was a two-engined bomber that was produced from August 1939 to June 1943 (Gunston, p. 328). It's an odd aircraft to mention; total production was relatively small (just 1737, according to Gunston, p. 329), and while they did some combat bombing and anti-submarine patrol, a lot of their work was in transport. They were also used for reconnaissance (Munson, p. 25); I'd speculate that that is why the plane is mentioned in the song, and why there is just one.
The mention of "two Blohm and Voss" is a little peculiar. Blohm und Voss was a major German industrial concern (e.g. their shipyard at Hamburg built the battleship Bismarck), but Munson, p. 31, reports that the Blohm und Voss Bv 138, a strange two-engine design nicknamed "The Flying Shoe," was "the only Blohm und Voss [aircraft] design to achieve quantity production status during the Second World War" -- and even so, only 276 were built, so it wasn't something you saw every day. On the other hand, "Its variety of duties included long range reconnaissance, convoy patrol and U-boat co-operation," so it wasn't good news for a convoy if one was spotted.
The "Three Fokke-Wulfs" were probably not the famous fighter the Fokke-Wulf 190 but rather the Fokke-Wulf 200 "Condor," a four-engined long-range aircraft: "Although originally a commercial aircraft, converted to military use, it was as a maritime patrol bomber that the FW 200 Condor made its mark.... In this capacity, acting in co-operation with U-boat packs, it formed one of the most effective Luftwaffe combinations of the way, and many a convoy was to rue the moment it first spied a Condor above the horizon" (Munson, p. 81). It was not fast -- top speed 240 miles per hour -- but it had a range of nearly 4000 miles, so it could do a lot of searching! Supposedly only 276 were manufactured (Gunston, p. 385), but six different Norwegian bases hosted the aircraft (Pearce, pp. 23-24).
"The "Four Eighty-eights" clearly refer to the Junkers Ju 88, a twin engined light bomber, (night) fighter, and reconnaissnce plane (Munson, p. 102). This was one of the best German planes; they manufactured more than 15,000 of them during the war (Munson, p. 103). "Parallel with the development of the Junkers Ju 88 as a medium bomber, the type was also being adapted to a variety of other roles, particularly those of night fighter, close support, and reconnaissance" (Munson, p. 103). They were deployed in the north of Norway; there was a squadron of Stukas and Ju 88s at Banak (Pearce, p. 23).
The "six Heinkels" are presumably one or another variant of the Heinkel 111 (a plane that is the subject of "I Was Chasing One-Elevens"). An two-engined plane with a very large glass nose, which in some models was asymmetric, "the first HE 111 was a graceful machine with elliptical wings and tail, secretly flown as a bomber but revealed to the world a year later as a civil airliner.... In February 1937 operations began with the Legion Kondor in Spain, with considerable success.... To a considerable degree the success of the early elliptical winged HE 111 bombers in Spain misled the Luftwaffe into considering that nothing could withstand the onslaught of their huge fleets of medium bombers" (Gunston, p. 400). But by the time of the Battle of Britain, "the He 111 was hacked down with ease, its only defence being its toughness and ability to come back after being shot to pieces. The inevitable result was that more and more defensive guns were added, needing a fifth or even a sixth crew-member. Coupled with incessant growth in equipment and armour the result was deteriorating , so that the record-breaker of 1936-1938 was the sitting duck of 1942-1945" (Gunston, p. 401).
Despite this, the Germans were unable to replace the Heinkel; they never developed a better alternative or a successful four-engined bomber. "By the middle of the war the He 111 was obsolescent, but the lack of success of its potential replacements... necessitated keeping it in production well into 1944" (Munson, p. 95). It was more popular for fighting against ships than ground targets, and the Norway defense forces had an "Air Torpedo Group of Heinkel 111 and 115 torpedo bombers" at Barduloss (Pearce, p. 23. The Heinkel 115, according to Munson, p. 96, was another two-engine plane, used mostly at sea; originally developed for the Scandinavian countries, the German air force acquired only about 300, so most Heinkel torpedo bombers were 111s).
The "seven merchantmen sinking" is, sadly, not an unreasonable number; "During the 1942-1943 period alone, over sixty-three Allied ships" were sunk on the Russian run (Pearce, p. 24). 1942 -- the year many of the "O" class destroyers were working in the arctic -- was particularly bad; Pope's Appendix 3 (p. 314) shows that convoy PQ 18, in late 1942, lost 13 of 40 ships. The convoy before that, PQ 17, was the worst of all, losing 22 of 33 ships (Pope, pp. 27-28), although this was due in part to British mismanagement.
"Eight U-boats strafing" is sort of half-right. There were many U-boats based in northern Norway -- Pearce, p. 24, says there were more than fifty. And they could operate in conditions that were hopeless for aircraft, and they could stay on-station day and night. They would not normally strafe convoys, however -- while most U-boats had guns (and often machine guns good for strafing), a U-boat on the surface invited destroyer attacks; indeed, even a merchant vessel could ram and sink a submarine. So the subs didn't strafe; they used their torpedoes.
Gundry, who collected the text used by Tawney, says this came from one of the "O" class destroyers, which seems likely, as they served extensively on the Russian convoy route; see the notes to "The Kola Run." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn068

Russian Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a pretty Russian girl. He asks her for a kiss but the one she gives him has no life. "So we both sat down together on a great big rolling stone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1329, "The Russian Girl" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7217
NOTES [14 words]: I have no idea where this fragment is going and Greig/Duncan7 notes are no help. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71329

Russian Jew, The

See Cumarashindu (File: GrD81902)

Russian Scare, The

DESCRIPTION: "The nations they are falling out, The Volunteers fall in... But ask me what 'tis all about -- I don't precisely now." Two nations are quarreling about land, or pride, or something; the militia are called up, but why "I don't precisely know"
AUTHOR: "Puzzlehead"
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (Lyttelton TImes, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: soldier New Zealand humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1885 - Russian War Scare (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 73-74, "The Russian Scare" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kumara Volunteers' Song" (subject of the Russian War Scare)
File: BaRo073

Russian Sing for Heaving the Anchor

DESCRIPTION: Tune only, no text. According to Hugill, Russian seaman had few real shanties and apart from the songs quotes by Smith there is nothing in the literature.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (L.A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad shanty worksong
FOUND IN: Russia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 572, "Russian Sing for Heaving the Anchor" (1 tune only, no text-quoted from Smith)
File: Hugi572

Russians Are Rushing the Prussians, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Russians are rushing the Prussians, The Prussians are crushing the Russians, Rasputin's disputin' and Italy's hootin', The Balkans are balking, Turkey is squawking, But God I am thanking the Yanks started yanking And yanked Kaiser Bill up a tree"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: war wordplay
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 188, "The Russians are rushing the Prussians" (1 text)
Roud #25458
NOTES [182 words]: This is such a tissue of anachronisms that I find it hard to imagine when it was written.
-- World War I in the east began in 1914 with the Russians invading Germany (Prussia in particular), with the Germans heavily defeating the Russians at the Battle of Tannenberg in late August. Russia didn't have much offensive luck thereafter until the Brusilov Offensive of 1916 -- which, however, was directed mostly against the Habsburgs, not Germany. The Germans had to help out the Austrians, though, and the Russian offensive finally failed -- and Russia collapsed in 1917
-- Rasputin was murdered near the end of 1916
-- Italy, originally allied with Germany and the Habsburgs, stayed neutral in 1914 and joined the Entente side in 1915
-- Turkey at this time did not exist; it was the Ottoman Empire until after the war (but it joined the German side in 1914)
-- There was always fighting in the Balkans, with the war starting with Austria-Hungary invading Serbia
-- The Americans joined the war in 1917
Thus there was no time when the Rasputin was alive and the Americans were in the war. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC188B

Rustlin' Gambler, The

See (tentatively) The Roving Gambler [Laws H4] (File: LH04)

Rustling Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Well, now, I've rustled the High Ore, I've rustled the Bell... And I landed a job in the Ellermerloo." "Too-ra-lay, Too-ra-lee, For how would ya, how would ya, like to be me?" There were miners from everywhere whom the boss put to work
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Western Folklore 9, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 152-153, "The Rustling Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LDC152

Rusty Jiggs and Sandy Sam

See Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail [Laws B17] (File: LB17)

Rusty Old Rover

See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Ryans and the Pittmans, The

See We'll Rant and We'll Roar (File: FJ042)

Rye Straw

DESCRIPTION: Dance tune: "Dog shit a ryestraw, dog shit a jackstraw/Dog tore his asshole tryin' to shit a hacksaw." "Dog shit a ryestraw, dog shit a minner/Dog shit a catfish big enough for dinner"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Uncle "Am" Stuart)
KEYWORDS: injury dancetune nonballad animal dog
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 246, "Rye Straw" (1 tune)
Roud #16847
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Rye Straw" (on BLLunsford01)
Clayton McMichen & Riley Puckett, "Rye Straw" (Columbia 15521-D, 1930, rec. 1929)
Doc Roberts, "Rye Straw" (Champion 16026, 1930)
Uncle "Am" Stuart, "Rye Straw" (Vocalion 14843, 1924; Brunswick [Canada] 1003, n.d.)
Unidentified singer, "Grubbing Hoe" (on Unexp1)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Joke on the Puppy
The Unfortunate Pup
NOTES [138 words]: With the exception of the anonymous version on "The Unexpurgated Folk Songs of Men" (Unexp1), none of the recorded versions includes the lyrics, although every American fiddler knows them. On the Skillet Lickers' recording, when the fiddler announces that the tune will be "Ryestraw," someone replies, "All right, but let your conscience be your guide." - PJS
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, in his recording of this song, noted "There are a lot of unprintable and unsingable stanzas to the old song. However, that is not confused with what we boys used to do in the old days, gather around... and possibly some of the boys would repeat maybe some questionable stanzas and follow it with 'Rye straw, rye straw, rye straw.'"
Incidentally, I've seen at least one "clean" mnemonic for this song, though presumably it is not the original. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: RcRyStra

Rye Whiskey

DESCRIPTION: A song of intense alcoholism: "Rye whiskey, rye whiskey, rye whiskey I cry; If I don't get rye whiskey I surely will die." "If the ocean was whisky and I was a duck, I'd dive to the bottom...." Many verses about how drink has affected the singer's life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: drink rambling floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (29 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 374-377, "The Guerrilla Boy" (4 texts, 1 tune; the first of two texts filed as "C" is this song)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #66, "O Lillie, O Lillie" (1 text, 1 tune, rather short, so it's hard to identify, but with words typical of this song; Roud classifies this and the Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi "O Lillie" version as #4512)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 50, "Jack of Diamonds" (4 texts, all short; some may be "Jack of Diamonds (II)")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 50, "Jack of Diamonds" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 236-237, "Farewell Sweet Mollie" (1 short text, which could be this or any of several other things)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 79, pp. 207-208, "Jack of Diamonds" (1 short text); 117, pp. 258-259, "O Lillie, O Lillie," mostly a "Jack of Diamonds" text but with verses which mix it with "The Rebel Soldier"; Roud classifies this and the Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida text as #4512; also 116, p. 258, "I'll Eat When I'm Hungry" (1 fragment, a single stanza based on this song but probably belonging with "The Rebel Soldier": "I'll eat when I'm hungry, I'll drink when I'm dry, If the Yankees don't kill me, I'll live till I die")
Randolph 405, "Rye Whiskey, Rye Whiskey" (6 texts, 1 tune); also 494, "Tie-Hackin's Too Tiresome" (1 fragment, 1 tune, an extract from a longer version)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 344-345, "Rye Whiskey, Rye Whiskey" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 405A); pp. 375-376, 'Tie Hackin's Too Tiresome" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 494)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 157-159, "His Wants," "My Welcome," "I'll Live Till I Die (second, ninth, and tenth of 12 single-stanza "jigs") (3 fragments, all sometimes found with this song though all are floating verses)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 128-129, "Way Up on Clinch Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #56, "Moonshiner" (1 text, 1 tune, with verses from many places, including probably "Moonshiner," "Rye Whiskey," and maybe even "Green Grows the Laurel")
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 161-163, "Some Say I Drink Whiskey"; Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 235-236, "Rye Whiskey" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 307, "Way Up On Clinch Mountain" (2 text, 1 tune, but only the "A" text belongs here; "B" is perhaps "Sweet Lulur")
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 112, p. 140, "I'll Eat When I'm Hungry" (2 fragments, the second certainly being this alrhough the first might be one of the related songs)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 64, "Rye Whiskey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 170-173, "Rye Whiskey" (1 text+minor fragments, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 152-157, "Rye Whiskey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 855-857, "Rye Whisky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 142-143, "Clinch Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 69, "Rye Whiskey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 92, "If the River Was Whiskey" (1 text, built around W. C. Handey's "Hesitating Blues" but with most of the verses from this song)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 286-287, "Jack o' Diamonds" (1 text, heavily mixed with "Logan County Jail"); pp. 287-288, "Rye Whiskey" (1 text)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 112-113, "Beefsteak When I'm Hongry" (1 text, 1 tune, a mixed fragment I file here on the basis of the first verse; the others are from elsewhere)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 121, (no title) (1 text, all floating verses, some of which are, or can be, part of "Rye Whiskey" and all of which are drink-related) (OakEd, pp. 129-130)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 233, "Rye Whiskey" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 5, "Rye Whiskey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 211-213, "Jack o' Diamonds" (1 text; this particular Lomax offering contains elements of "Jack o Diamonds/Rye Whisky," "The Wagoner's Lad," The Rebel Soldier," and others)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Charles W. Joyner, "The Repertory of Nancy Jones as a Mirror of Culture in Scotland County," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), p. 92-93, "Farewell, my dear true love, I'll bid you adieu" (1 text, two verses that might be "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" or "Rye Whiskey" or "The Wagoner's Lad" or, frankly, almost anything; there is a mention of emigration)
DT, RYEWHISK* MOONSHI4* (RYEWHISx)
Roud #941
RECORDINGS:
Jules Allen, "Jack O' Diamonds" (Victor 21470, 1928; Montgomery Ward M-4464, 1934; Montgomery Ward M-4779, c. 1935)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Drunkard's Hiccups" (OKeh 45032, 1926; rec. 1925)
Wilf Carter, "Rye Whiskey" (Bluebird [Canada] 58-0058, 1948)
Yodeling Slim Clark, "Rye Whiskey" (Continental 8012, n.d.)
Homer & Jethro, "Rye Whiskey" (King 571, 1947)
Harry Jackson, "Jack o' Diamonds" (on HJackson1)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers "Drunkard's Hiccoughs" (Bluebird B-8400, 1940)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Drunkard's Hiccups" (on NLCR08)
Elmo Newcomer, "Rye Whiskey" CroMart 100, n.d. but prob. late 1940s - early 1950s)
Bill Nicholson w. Zane Shrader, "Jack of Diamonds" (AFS; on LC14)
Deborah Paulukaitis, "Rye Whiskey" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #723, recorded 10/28/2023)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "If the River Was Whiskey" (with verses from this song though also related to "Hesitation Blues" or Handy's "Hesitating Blues"; Columbia 15545-D, 1930; on CPoole02)
Tex Ritter, "Rye Whiskey, Rye Whiskey" (Vocalion 5493, c. 1931; Vocalion 04911, 1939) (Edison Bell Winner [U.K.] W-21, 1933); "Rye Whiskey" (Capitol 40084, 1948)
Reaves White County Ramblers, "Drunkard's Hiccups" (Vocalion 5247, 1928)
Hobart Smith, "Drunken Hiccups" (on LomaxCD1706)
Pete Seeger, "Whiskey, Rye Whiskey" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b)
Jilson Setters [pseud. for James W. "Blind Bill" Day], "Way Up On Clinch Mountain" (Victor 21635, 1928; on RoughWays1, KMM)
Woltz's Southern Broadcasters, "Jack O' Diamonds" (Herwin 75561, c. 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Greenback Dollar"
cf. "Sailing Out on the Ocean" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Jack of Diamonds (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "Long Ways from Home" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jack O'Diamonds
Drunken Hiccups
NOTES [65 words]: This song merges almost continuously with "The Wagoner's Lad" (which itself has offshoots such as "I'm a Rambler, I'm a Gambler"); see that song also for the full list of variants.
The "Jack of Diamonds" subfamily of this song is well known, and perhaps would be considered by some a separate song, but contains so much mixture with this song that I don't see any way to separate them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R405

Rye Whiskey, Rye Whiskey

See Rye Whisky (File: R405)

Ryebuck Shearer, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes how anyone can gain respect if he is a ryebuck shearer. He is told that he will never be that good, but stoutly maintains that he'll get there someday
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (collected by John Meredith from Jac Luscombe)
KEYWORDS: sheep work
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 23, "The Ryebuck Shearer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads, pp. 22-23, "The Ryebuck Shearer" (1 text, 1 tune, "slightly censored")
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 144-145, "The Ryebuck Shearer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 118-119, "The Ryebuck Shearer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 196-197, "The Ryebuck Shearer" (1 text)
Roud #24820
NOTES [98 words]: A "ryebuck shearer" is an expert shearer (also called a "gun"), usually expected to shear a "century" -- a hundred sheep in a day. The name often referred specifically to the "ringer," or best shearer in the shed.
Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 226, claims this as a nineteenth century song. There is no reason why it could not be so, but I know of no evidence of its existence at that time.
According to Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads, it was "meant to be sung in the men's hut." I.e. not in mixed company. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: MA023

Ryner Dyne

See Reynardine [Laws P15] (File: LP15)

'S Lobg'sang (The Hymn of Praise)

DESCRIPTION: Amish hymn in German.. "O Gott, Vater, wir loben dich Und deine Gute preisen; Das du uns O Herr gnadichlich An uns neun hast beweisen." "O God, Father, we praise you, And love your many blessings, That you have proved so merciful to us...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1742 (Amish Ausbund, according to Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 143-144, "'S Lobg'sang (The Hymn of Praise)" (1 short German text plus not-very-literal translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [10 words]: This is said to be the most popular of all Amish hymns. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: KPL143

'S mise chunnaic an t-longnadh (Mermaid Song) (It Is I Who Saw The Wonder)

DESCRIPTION: In Scots Gaelic: "It is I who saw the wonder/One early morning as I was looking for sheep/A girl with flowing brown hair/Sat on a flat rock of the gulls." The mermaid and her brothers are involved in a mysterious, bloody fight in a rocky cave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recording, Penny Morrison)
KEYWORDS: fight mermaid/man supernatural
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Hebr))
RECORDINGS:
Penny Morrison, "'S mise chunnaic an t-longnadh [Mermaid Song] (It Is I Who Saw The Wonder)" [fragment] (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743)
NOTES [16 words]: Alas, Lomax provides only the introductory verses and a maddeningly brief summary of the song. - PJS
File: RcSMCATL

S-A-V-E-D

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains about the sins of others, spelling each out (e.g. they "d-a-n-c-e" while wearing a new "h-a-t"). The singer, though, need not worry about such things; "It's g-l-o-r-y to know I'm s-a-v-e-d."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad sin
FOUND IN: US Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 124, "S-A-V-E-D" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 185-186, "I Once Knew a Man (S-a-v-e-d ; I'm Saved)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 144-145, "Salvation Army SOng" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 349, "It's G-L-O-R-Y To Know I'm S-A-V-E-D" (1 text)
Roud #9539
RECORDINGS:
Jim Bennett, "I Once Knew a Man" (on NFAGuigné01)
The Blue Sky Boys, "I'm S-A-V-E-D" (Bluebird 8401, 1940)
The Georgia Yellow Hammers, "I'm S-A-V-E-D" (Victor 21195, 1928)
Karl & Harty, "I'm S-A-V-E-D" (Perfect 6-10-54, 1936)
Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers, "S-A-V-E-D" (Columbia 15097-D, 1926)
NOTES [48 words]: Obviously a composed song, but I've no knowledge of the source. I've heard it enough times that I suspect it belongs in the Index. There is a list of relatively recent recording by revival singers (along with an unattributed text and tune) in Sing Out!, Volume 38, #4 (1994), p. 68. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: FSWB349

S-C-H-double-O-L

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "S-C-H-double-O-L Spells school for you and me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope wordplay | school
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #511, "S-C-H-double-O-L" (1 text)
File: AJRR511

S-M-I-L-E

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, it isn't any trouble just to S-M-I-L-E (x2), So smile when you're in trouble, It will vanish like a bubble If you'll only take the trouble just to S-M-I-L-E." Similarly, one may G-R-I-N, grin, or L-A-U-G-H, or say Ha ha ha ha ha
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Camp Clavell and Girl Reserve Club Songs)
KEYWORDS: wordplay nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #420, p. 103, "It Isn't Any Trouble" (1 text, tune referenced)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 123, "A Laugh Provoker" (1 text, tune referenced)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 1, "S-M-I-L-E" (1 text, tune referenced)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 39, "Smile Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 125, 168, 263, 517, "It Isn't Any Trouble Just To S-M-I-L-E" (notes only)
Roud #27100
NOTES [92 words]: I find it hard to believe that this is truly traditional; it's one of those things that someone wrote, then various people recorded (Ed McCurdy being the one I remember it from; apparently Barney the Dinosaur did it decades later), and then it got into camps. But Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs found it to be quite common, and no one seems to know who wrote it (camp songbooks being amazingly lax about authorship), so here it is.
Harbin lists the tune as "John Brown's Body." The way I learned it is similar to, but not quite the same as, that melody. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF125S

S, A, I, L, O, R, Sailor

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "S, A, I, L, O, R, Sailor, 1, 2, 3, Sailor, 1, 2, Sailor. Sailor, sailor, sailor."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Bluebells My Cockle Shells)
KEYWORDS: jumprope wordplay sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #502, "S, A, I, L, O, R, Sailor" (1 text)
File: AJRR502

S. D. Knowles

DESCRIPTION: "This song is not a song of love, 'tis not a song of flowers... but 'tis of a hump-backed blowhard, his name is S. D. Knowles." The song tells how Knowles left Maine for Wisconsin, and insulting describes why no one wants to be near him
AUTHOR: W. N. "Billy" Allen (writing as "Shan T. Boy")
EARLIEST DATE: before 1926 (Rickaby)
KEYWORDS: farming travel warning
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 282-284, "S. D. Knowles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15683
File: Pet282

S. S. Vesteris

See The Sinking of the Vestris (File: MLSiVes)

Sa Up and Rise

DESCRIPTION: "Sa up and rise, my merry lads, For a' maun rise, for a' maun rise"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #163, p. 3, ("Sa up and rise, my merry lads") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 442, "Sa Up and Rise" (1 fragment)
NOTES [86 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 fragment.
Greig's correspondent, John Milne, has this fragment be the chorus of a song his grandfather sang "telling the joys to be derived from first-class farm-work, workmen, and working-gear" at "Mill of Boyndlie [sic]."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Mill of Boyndie (441) is at coordinate (h6-7,v6) on that map [near Banff, roughly 41 miles NNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3442

Sabbath Has No End

DESCRIPTION: Gwine to walk about Zion, I really do believe, Walk about Zion, I really do believe, Walk about....Sabbath has no end. I did view one angel In one angel stand, Let's mark him down with the forehead." "Going to follow King Jesus." "I love God certain."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 69. "Sabbath Has No End" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, pp. 37-38, "Sabbath Has No End" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 201, "Oh, Religion Is a Fortune" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 189 in the 1874 edition)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 39, pp. 172-173, "Sabbath Has No End" (1 text, 1 tune)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 48, "Oh, Religion Is a Fortune" (1 text)
Roud #11969 and 12027
NOTES [216 words]: There are several references in the Bible to people with special marks on their foreheads. In Ezekiel 9, a man clothed in linen is instructed to mark the foreheads of those who dislike idolatry, so that they may be spared persecution. But most of the mentions are in the Apocalypse.
In 7:3, the servants of God are to receive a mark on the forehead. In 9:4, those who do not have it are to be punished. In 14:1, the name of the Father and the Lamb are written on the heads of saints. Servants of God also have a mark on their foreheads in 22:4.
On the other hand, in 13:16, the servants of the Beast are marked so that they can engage in commerce. In 14;9, it is declared that these will be punished. This mark is also mentioned in 20:4. The Great Whore also has a name on her forehead in 17:5.
I guess this is what happens when you don't have tamper-proof ID cards....
It has become Christan tradition, on Ash Wednesday, to mark the penitents' heads with the burnt palm ashes, but this is not Biblical, Our knowledge of the history of early traditions such as Lent is very sketchy, but it is not based directly on the Bible. - RBW
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses end "O religion is a fortune, I really do believe, where Sabbaths have no end." - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: AWG069

Sabbath Morning Nov. 13th 1852

DESCRIPTION: "My thoughts now return to the home I love well, I hear the sweet sound of the church going bell." The singer sees the people head for church. Sailors cannot go to the church, "But the same God who looks upon them Is here and will ever with us be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1852 (Journal of the Catawba)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad sailor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 356-357, "Sabbath Morning Nov. 13th 1852" (1 text)
Roud #27317
File: HGam356

Sable Island Shore

DESCRIPTION: A tribute to the lifeguards at the Sable Island lighthouse who "glide from the beach to the roaring seas The lives of the crews to save ... They risk their lives in their daily work ... On the Sable Island shore"
AUTHOR: Ted Germain
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (NFOBlondahl04)
KEYWORDS: rescue ship shore wreck nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Sable Island Shore" (on NFOBlondahl04)
NOTES [150 words]: Ted Germain is a Nova Scotia musician. "One of his early compositions, Sable Island Shores, became a local hit and would lead Germain to a recording contract and a series of albums for London Records." (Source: From the East Coast Music Awards Canada site, re 2004 Stompin' Tom Award Recipients)
Sable Island, Nova Scotia, about 23 miles long, is about 110 miles, at its nearest point, from the Nova Scotia coast. According to the Sable Island Preservation Trust site: more than 350 wrecks have been recorded there since 1583; a lifesaving station operated there from 1801 until 1958.
Blondahl04 has no liner notes confirming that this song was collected in Newfoundland. Barring another report for Newfoundland I do not assume it has been found there. There is no entry for "Sable Island Shore" in Newfoundland Songs and Ballads in Print 1842-1974 A Title and First-Line Index by Paul Mercer. - BS
File: RcSaIsSh

Sable Island Song (I)

DESCRIPTION: "On the stormy western ocean ... Lies a barren little island." The singer signs to be government caretaker, wear government clothes, chase "crazy horses" and "wild cattle," swallow inedible food: "Get off Sable Island Or you'll be crazy in a year"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton - Nova Scotia)
KEYWORDS: work food ordeal animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 142, "Sable Island Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST RcSabIsl (Partial)
Roud #1838
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Sable Island" (on NFOBlondahl03)
NOTES [125 words]: Creighton-NovaScotia: "The author of this song is said to be one of the sons of the well-to-do in Halifax who was sent to Sable Island ... to be cured of his fondness for the cup."
Sable Island, Nova Scotia, about 23 miles long, is about 110 miles, at its nearest point, from the Nova Scotia coast.
Blondahl03 has no liner notes confirming that this song was collected in Newfoundland. Barring another report for Newfoundland I do not assume it has been found there. There is no entry for "Sable Island" in Newfoundland Songs and Ballads in Print 1842-1974 A Title and First-Line Index by Paul Mercer. - BS
The song in its current form, based on the information in Creighton, must be dated to 1904 or after, when Gordeau Park was founded. - (RBW, BS)
File: RcSabIsl

Sable Island Song (II)

DESCRIPTION: Hard times for "banned steeves" at Main Station. They steal from other boys "and only call that fun" but the busy-bodies "in the castle... their tongues were never still." The "steeves" nail a postal to their door and refuse to take it down.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: accusation hardtimes food theft
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 143, "Sable Island Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS143 (Partial)
Roud #1839
NOTES [136 words]: Creighton-NovaScotia. "In 1926 the wireless men lost some potatoes and accused Main Station men ["banned steeves"] of taking them.... The [people in the castle] are the wireless operator and his wife." I guess "postal" should be read as "post" [I take it to mean 'letter" or "accusation" - RBW]. See other Sable Island songs for confirmation of the hard times there. - BS
The Communal Composition advocates would love this. According to Creighton's notes, the Main Station staff each wrote a verse as a competition to see who could do best. Little surprise, then, that the result is ragged and tells an imperfect story. But as for Creighton's comment that "the song-making instinct is not dormant" -- no, it's not, as anyone who listens to rock music can tell. The instinct to make GOOD songs is another matter.... - RBW
File: CrNS143

Sacker Shean's Little Girl

DESCRIPTION: "Now I am only Sacker Shean's poor little girl, you know, Who was cast upon this cruel world, No home, no place to go." Her mother is dead, her father a drunk. Wandering in the streets, she is finally taken in by a kind lady who gives her a home
AUTHOR: Joe Scott
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Family Herald, according to Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker)
KEYWORDS: orphan mother death rescue drink rejection
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker, pp. 325-329, "Sacker Shean's Little Girl" (2 texts)
Roud #25146
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Orphan Girl (The Orphan Child)" (theme)
File: ISco325

Sacramento

See Ho for California (Banks of Sacramento) (File: E125)

Sacramento Gals

DESCRIPTION: Singer praises the beauty and elegance of Sacramento gals, with their bustles, hoops, and powdered, painted faces. Refrains: "Nipping around, around, around"; "As they go nipping around"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Put's Golden Songster)
KEYWORDS: beauty clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SW)
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "Sacramento Gals" (on LEnglish02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bobbing Around" (tune)
NOTES [56 words]: Among the verses cited, "They're here and there, like Santa Anna/They're fresh and mellow like ripe banana" stands out as an exemplar of how tastes in compliments have changed. I believe Walt Kelly parodied that at one point -- "Your eyes are warm as sweet manana/Soft and gooey like fried banana." Not a verse I'm likely to forget - PJS
File: RcSacrGa

Sad and Lonely Comrade

DESCRIPTION: Bobby dies and his father and mother mourn. "Prepare to meet your darling with Christ up in the skies. We all have loved ones sleeping, all in a churchyard bed, And why not try to meet them in a moment we are dead"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: death religious father mother
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 52, "Sad and Lonely Comrade" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab052 (Partial)
Roud #9987
NOTES [33 words]: Leach's informant thought this a local song about a Labrador event, though he didn't know details. I suspect he was right, though; the song is unsophisticated and the poetry neither good nor clear. - RBW
File: LLab052

Sad and Lonesome Day

See See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (File: ADR92)

Sad Condition

DESCRIPTION: "A young lady sat down in a sad condition/A-mourning the loss of her own true love/Some folks say that he was taken/In the wars with Germany/Hi-lee, 'tis not so/I'll turn back and be your beau/Turn my elbow to my wrist/I'll turn back in a double twist"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1907 (JAF20)
KEYWORDS: grief love war death mourning dancing playparty lover
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 263, "Sad Condition" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #940
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Killy Kranky" (lyrics)
NOTES [61 words]: This is a weird hybrid of what sounds like a remnant of a tragic lover-lost-in-the-army ballad and a few lines from a playparty, "Killy Kranky." But that has no narrative to speak of, and this one does, sort of, so it gets its own entry. Oh, the version collected by Sharp came from Hindman, KY, where various generations of Ritchies attended the settlement school. - PJS
File: ShAp2263

Sad Courtin', The

See The Suffolk Miracle [Child 272] (File: C272)

Sad Song, The

See Lady Mary (The Sad Song) (File: R698)

Saddest Face in the Mining Town, The

DESCRIPTION: A miner takes leave of his girl, noting that tomorrow they will be married, He goes down in the mine, which caves in. The bells, instead of tolling for a wedding, toll for his funeral. Years later, his body is found, and the white-haired bride knows it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: beauty mining death disaster corpse wedding
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 58, pp. 265-267, "The Saddest Face in the Mining Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10108
NOTES [94 words]: The deft work of this song is impressive: The contrast between the "fairest face in the mining town" and the "saddest face in the mining town,' and an overall air of understatement, make it especially poignant. Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging is reminded of an old ballad, but it strikes me as more parlor poetry (though exceptionally good of its kind). We might note that the idea of the wedding bell that instead rings a funeral note is hardly unique to this song -- A. E. Housman used it, with equal brilliance and images even more spare, in "Bredon Hill." - RBW
File: Logs058

Saddle to Rags

See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

Saddle Tramp (Saddle Bum), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of life as a "saddle bum" or "saddle tramp," riding the grub-line, moving from ranch to ranch, singing for his keep. When things get cool, he "forks his bronc" and moves on. Over winter, he stays with his Neta, and promises to be true to her
AUTHOR: Curley Fletcher
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Curley Fletcher, "Songs of the Sage")
KEYWORDS: rambling travel music nonballad animal horse lover hobo
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
RECORDINGS:
Harry Jackson, "The Saddle Bum" (on HJackson1)
NOTES [290 words]: The "grub line" or "chuck line" refers to the practice of offering itinerant cowboys or workers a few days' food and lodging as they passed through. - PJS
And it was controversial. In the last third of the nineteenth century, much of the American West was used as rangeland, but while many cowboys were needed in summer, the herds were allowed to roam in winter, and many of the cowboys were out of work and needed a way to survive.
Helena Huntington Smith, The War On Powder River, University of Nebraska Press, 1966, p. 110, points out that there were three ways a cowboy could get through the winter. He could hang around an empty camp and do the best he could, or he could file a homestead claim and live on it.
Or... "The third way of getting through the winter was to 'ride the grubline.' Mounted on his best horse and packing his bed and his 'forty years gathering' on another, he would visit from ranch to ranch, living by the old law of hospitality in the West. There were a few chronic 'saddle bums' and there were worse, but the average grubline rider was a decent sort who avoided staying too long in one place, carried wood and water for the cook, and was always welcomed by the bored and isolated men on the premises because he was a new face and brought news of the range. So he got through the jobless months somehow until the uncertain sun of April shown again and it was time to rehire the crew."
As ownership of cattle became concentrated in a few hands, they often tried to shut down the grubline as uneconomic (Smith, pp. 110-111), but this generally didn't work well because the cowboys needed to survive somehow. So Harry Jackson could still be singing this song long after the cattle boom and bust of the 1880s. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: RcSadTra

Sadie (I)

See Frankie and Albert [Laws I3] (File: LI03)

Sadie (II)

See Bad Lee Brown (Little Sadie) [Laws I8] (File: LI08)

Sadie Rae

See Sadie Ray (File: R770)

Sadie Ray

DESCRIPTION: "Near a cool and shady woodland Where the rippling streamlets flow Dwelt a maiden kind and lovely But 'twas in long years ago." He describes their love and plans to marry, "But she's dead, my Sadie Ray." He prepares to meet her in Heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: love death separation
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 770, "Sadie Ray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 718, 719, "Sadie Ray" (2 short texts, 2 tunes)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 30, "Sadie... Ray" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 116, "Sadie Rae" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4314
RECORDINGS:
[Clarence] Ashley & [Gwen] Foster, "Sadie Ray" (Vocalion 02900, 1935; rec. Sep. 5, 1933; on Ashley04)
NOTES [13 words]: Printed in one of the Hamlin's Wizard Oil songbooks, probably in the 1880s. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: R770

Sae Will We Yet

See And Sae Will We Yet (File: FVS256)

Safe at Home in the Promised Land

See Where Is Old Elijah? (The Hebrew Children, The Promised Land) (File: San092)

Safe in the Promised Land

See Where Is Old Elijah? (The Hebrew Children, The Promised Land) (File: San092)

Saguenay Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the Saguenay sailed through the blue Caribbean, The Saguenay sailed o'er the old Spanish main." "We'll zig and we'll zag al over the ocean, We'll zig and we'll zag all over the sea." But eventually a torpedo hits her. The ship manages to make it home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: ship war
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 38, "The Saguenay Song" (tune)
Roud #24983
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We'll Rant and We'll Roar" (tune) and references there
cf. "The Maple Leaf Squadron" (tune and some lyrics)
NOTES [653 words]: Canada, during the years prior to World War II, did not have the ability to build a ship larger than a corvette, so the handful of major units in her fleet were built in Britain. Among these were the Saguenay and the Skeena, which were members of the "A" class of British destroyers, which as built in 1930-1931 were 1350 tons, with four 4.7" guns, eight torpedo tubes, and a speed of 35 knots. Because they used relatively low-pressure boilers, they did not use their tonnage particularly effectively and had low habitability (Worth, p. 109). Their peacetime complement was 138. The two sisters differed slightly from the standard "A" class in that they were strengthened to deal with sailing in ice (Whitley, p. 25); Bercuson, p. 10, reports that they also differed from the standard in not being fitted with ASDIC ("Sonar").
The two sisters were the first new destroyers ever ordered by Canada (Milner, p. 66), although they had taken over a few old ships and would eventually acquire more. Macpherson, p. 11, calls Saguenay "The first made-to-order RCN [Royal CanadianNavy] warship," which helps explain why she and Skeena were chosen to attend King George VI's coronation review in 1936 (Macpherson, p. 13). The two sisters were among the largest vessels in Canada's navy when the war came, and were immediately put to work escorting convoys (Saguenary in fact escorted the very first convoy from Halixax, HX1; Milner, p. 81), then in 1940 became part of Escort Group C3 (for which see also "Beneath the Barber Pole"). It was while escorting convoy HG47 from Gibraltar that the Saguenay was torpedoed in 1940. She lost 21 men in the attack (Bercuson, p. 30). She survived and was repaired, but continued to be a hard luck ship; a storm in January 1942 almost destroyed her (Macpherson, p. 16). "Three months later she was back at sea. She became a regular sight on the 'Derry-Newfie' convoy run, easily identifiable by her scarred hull and brightly marked funnel that distinguished her as one of the early members of the famous 'Barber Pole Brigade.' She was affectionately known as 'Old Sag.'"
Still her luck was bad. She collided with the SS Azara off Newfoundland on November 15, 1942 and was badly damaged when her depth charges exploded. (Whitley, p. 25). Again she survived (according to Macpherson, p. 16, Azara, which he calls Azra, did not), but she was never fully repaired, being converted to the training ship Cornwallis (McKee/Darlington, p. 250). She was sold off for scrapping in 1945 (Whitley, p. 25).
This song obviously refers to the first time she was damaged, by the submarine Argo. Milner, p. 88, describes the incident as follows:
"On 1 December [1940], lookouts on Saguenay spotted the [Italian] submarine Argo lining up for a shot at convoy HG 37, 300 miles west of Ireland. Quick action from Saguenay drove the submarine down, just as a single torpedo struck the forward portion of the ship. As Saguenay's crew fought the fires, tended the wounded, and secured forward bulkheads, the bow of the ship -- shattered by the blast and seawater -- fell off. It took a commendable act of seamanship by Commander Gus Miles and his crew to get Saguenay home.... She was the first RCN [Royal Canadian Navy] ship damaged by enemy action."
Milner's photo insert has three photos of the Saguenay, one of them taken during her construction. Macpherson, p. 11 shows her in 1931, when new, and in the mid-1930s; p. 12 has a 1934 detail photo; p. 13 shows her in 1939 and 1940; p. 14 shows her in 1941 and 1942 as various changes were made in her; p. 15 has two photos after the 1942 loss of her stern; p. 16 has two photos of her after she was used for training. P. 17 has a weekly summary of her war service. PP. 98-99 has a diagram of a different member of her class as originally built. Foster, pp. 39-40, has a large photo of her and a smaller one of Skeena. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: Hopk038

Sahagun

See Lord Paget (The Battle of Sahagun) (File: Wins123)

Said Frohock to Fanning

DESCRIPTION: "Said Frohock to Fanning, 'To tell the plain truth, When I came to this country I was but a youth... And then my first study was to cheat for a hoss.'" Fanning and Frohock happily exchange tales of cheating those around them
AUTHOR: Rednap Howell? (source: Haywood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: political robbery
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 279, "Said Frohock to Fanning" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 279, "Said Frohock to Fanning" (notes only)
ADDITIONAL: Marshall DeLancey Haywood, _Governor William Tryon and his Administration in the Province of North Carolina, 1765-1771_, 1903 (I use the 1958 Edwards & Broughton reprint with a dust jacket that reads "Governor Tryon of North Carolina" although the interior uses the original title), p. 102, "(no title)" (1 excerpt)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "From Hillsborough Town the First of May" (subject)
cf. "When Fanning First to Orange Came" (subject)
cf. "Who Would Have Tho't Harmon" (subject)
NOTES [347 words]: One of four "regulator" songs in Brown. The regulators were a group of protesters against high taxes and fees, found mostly in North Carolina though some also were active in South Carolina. For more on the Regulators, see the notes to "When Fanning First to Orange Came." That song also gives background on Edmund Fanning.
The notes in Brown observe three men named Frohock held station in North Carolina. The Frohocks were a family from Rowan, North Carolina (Haywood, p. 84). The notes in Brown suggest Thomas Frohock is meant, but this is beyond proof.
I think a good case could be made for John Frohock instead. In 1766, North Carolina governor William Tryon was attempting to negotiate a border with the Cherokee. According to Haywood, pp. 56-57, in 1767, John Frohock was one of three commissioners who were to "run the boundary." And since Tryon didn't trust the Cherokee, he appointed a guard to go with them. John Frohock was a lieutenant colonel in this over-officered force, where Edmund Fanning was a colonel and adjutant. Thus John Frohock and Fanning could easily have met then. John Frohock also fought at the Battle of Alamances, for which again see "When Fanning First to Orange Came."
Haywood, p. 81, also reports that John Frohock was (District) Clerk of Rowan County for a time, and that a later writer reported that he "and Fanning made it a practice to charge fifteen dollars for a marriage license, when the law allowed a much smaller amount" -- although Haywood points out that dollars were not legal tender at the time, and charges were made in English money. John Frohock died in 1772 (Haywood, p. 84). John Frohock was also a town commissioner when the town of Charlotte was chartered (Haywood, p. 85).
Thomas Frohock, apparently the brother of John, was clerk of the Superior Court. According to his will, he had children Alexander and Elizabeth (Haywood, p. 85).
A third Frohock, William, served as a militia officer and local sheriff (Haywood, p. 85). He thus seems the least likely of the three to be meant, since he did not have a court office. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: BrII279

Said I, David Crocket

DESCRIPTION: "Said I, David Crocket, you're a Tennessee Screamah, He hauled off an' he hit me in the weemah, I drew back an' I hit him in de wizzen, He bit off mah head an' I swallowed his'n and we both locked arms." The singer claims to have won the fight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Harlow, "The Making of a Sailor")
KEYWORDS: fight
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, p.79, "(no title)" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: FPHS079

Said the Blackbird

See The Crow Song (I) (File: R275)

Said the Blackbird to the Crow

See The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat) (File: K295)

Saighdiuir Treigthe, An (The Forsaken Soldier)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Singer wakes and throws away his uniform. He hears gossip about his sweetheart and cuts off his finger. He will die before Easter but would return from the dead if she calls him. He curses his father for driving him to drink and the army.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love nonballad injury soldier death ghost separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 168-169, "An Saighdiuir Treigthe" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 115-116, "An Saighdiur Treigthe" ("The Deserted Soldier") [Gaelic and English]
NOTES [42 words]: Tunney-StoneFiddle includes both the Gaelic and Paddy Tunney's English translation. However, I used Bell/O Conchubhair for most of the description because it seemed a better match for what little Gaelic I could follow. Tunney has one additional verse. - BS
File: TSF168

Sail Away

DESCRIPTION: "Then sail away, saii o'er the ocean so blue. With the wind in our maintop we'll plow the way trough! The time is not far off when 'How do you do?' Will be sid by your sweetheart who has long watched for you."
AUTHOR: Amos Hanson? (source: Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
KEYWORDS: sailor return
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 34, "Sail Away" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
NOTES [68 words]: This fragment is so short that it could go with almost any sailing song, but Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors thinks it an independent song. If so, I strongly suspect the preserved fragment is the chorus.
Amos Hanson is credited with at least three songs in the Index, "The Schooner Fred Dunbar" [Laws D14], "A Trip to the Grand Banks," and the fragment "Sail Away." None is very well known or preserved. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LaGo034

Sail Away Ladies

DESCRIPTION: Dance tune with floating verses: "Ever I get my new house done/Sail away, ladies, sail away/Give the old one to my son/Sail away...." "Don't you worry, don't you cry... You'll be angels by and by" Etc. "Chorus: "Don't'ye rock 'em, di-de-o (x3 or x4)".
AUTHOR: Words assembled by Uncle Dave Macon
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Uncle Bunt Stephens)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Dance tune with floating verses, and some that should be: "Ever I get my new house done/Sail away, ladies, sail away/Give the old one to my son/Sail away, ladies, sail away"; "Children, Don't You Grieve and Cry/You're gonna be angels by and by"; "Come along, girls and go with me/We'll go back to Tennessee". Chorus: "Don't'ye rock 'em, di-de-o (3-4x)". "Sail away, ladies, sail away" is the verse refrain.
KEYWORDS: dancing drink humorous nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 203, "Sail Away Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 251, "Sail Away Ladies" (1 text)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 15-16, "Oh, When I Git My New House Done" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment with no chorus but verses similar to this)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 42, "Sail Away Ladies" (1 text)
DT, SAILLADI*
Roud #17635
RECORDINGS:
Henry L. Bandy, "Sail Away Ladies" (Gennett test pressing GEx14361, 1928; unissued; on KMM)
Logan English, "Old Doc Jones" (on LEnglish01)
Uncle Dave Macon & his Fruit Jar Drinkers, "Sail Away Ladies" (Vocalion 5155, Brunswick 80094, Brunswick BL-59000, Coral MH-174,1927; on TimesAint02, StuffDreams2)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Sail Away, Ladies" (on NLCR05)
Parker & Dodd "Sail Away Lady" (Banner 32817/Melotone 12745/Romeo 5250, 1933)
Uncle Bunt Stephens, "Sail Away Ladies" [instrumental version] (Columbia 15071-D, 1926; on AAFM2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down the River I Go" (words)
cf. "Carve That Possum" (portion of tune)
NOTES [56 words]: This started out as a fiddle tune, to which Uncle Dave [Macon] added his own unique brand of nonsense--some original, some floating verses. -PJS
Not to be confused with the song sung by W.C. Handy: "Sail away, ladies, sail away; Sail away, ladies, sail away. Never mind what de sisters say, Just shake your Dolly Varden and sail away." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: CSW203

Sail On, O Ship of State

DESCRIPTION: "Sail on, sail on, O ship of state! Sail on, O Union strong and great!" The fate of humanity rests o its success. "We know what Mster laid thy keel." We should not fear or doubt; our hearts go with the ship
AUTHOR: Words: Henry Wadworth Longfellow / Music: Charles William Bardeen (source: Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (source: Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
KEYWORDS: patriotic nonballad ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 249, "Sail On, O Ship of State" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [8 words]: Not traditional. For which I am truly grateful. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LaGo249

Sail, Baby, Sail

See Baby's Boat's a Silver Moon (File: ACSF191B)

Sail, O Believer

DESCRIPTION: "Sail, O believer, sail, Sail over yonder, Sail, O my brother, Sail over yonder." The listener is invited to join in the work and view the promised land. "For Jesus comes... And Jesus locks the doors... And carries the keys away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment); 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 24, "Sail, O Believer" (1 fragment plus a short text which they believe to be the same song, 1 tune)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 17, p. 208, "Bow Low, Mary" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 197-198, "Sail, O Believer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11976
NOTES [18 words]: The Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates "short text" is Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment's version. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: SBoA197

Sailing at High Tide

See Sailing in the Boat (File: LoF013)

Sailing Home from England

See Rolling Home (File: Doe155)

Sailing in the Boat

DESCRIPTION: "Sailing in the boat when the tide runs high, (x3) Waiting for the pretty girl(s) to come by and by." The rest is floating verses on courting, e.g. "Here she comes so fine and fair, Sky blue eyes and curly hair, Roses in her cheek, dimple in her chin...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (collected from Mrs. Charles Perrin, according to Coffin & Cohen)
KEYWORDS: courting ship nonballad playparty floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #168, "Sailing at High Tide" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 153, "The Sailor in the Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 13, "Sailing in the Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 812-813, "Sailing at High Tide" (1 text, 1 tune)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 25, "In This Ring Stands a Lady Fair" (1 text, 1 tune, with no mention of the boat but otherwise appearing to be this song)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, p. 16, "Four in a Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-SkipToMyLou, p. 12, "Four in a Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Aubrey M. Tizzard, _On Sloping Ground Reminiscences of Outport Life In Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland_ (edited by J. D. A. Widdowson), Breakwater Books, 1984, p. 128, "(Sailing in the Boat)" (1 fragment)
Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, pp. 185-186, "Rose in the Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LoF013 (Full)
Roud #6665
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rose in the Garden (III)" (lyrics)
NOTES [30 words]: Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren considers this to be close to "Rose in the Garden (III)," but it appears to me that they are two songs fused rather than one that split. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LoF013

Sailing Out on the Ocean

DESCRIPTION: Singer is sailing the ocean; says if he gets shot or drowned there will be no one to weep for him. Despite his mother's usual warning, he gambled and lost his life savings while drunk. The only girl he has loved has turned her back on him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Haskell Wolfenbarger)
KEYWORDS: loneliness warning gambling courting floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Haskell Wolfenbarger, "Sailing Out on the Ocean" (Vocalion 5390, 1930; on RoughWays2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On Top of Old Smoky" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man)" [Laws H4] (floating lyrics)
cf. "Rye Whiskey" (floating lyrics)
File: RcSOOtO

Sailing Trade, The

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Sailing, Sailing

DESCRIPTION: Known mostly for the lines in the middle of the chorus: "Sailing, sailing, over the bounding main, For many a stormy wind shall blow ere Jack comes home again." About the "bold and free" life of the sailor, and his true heart, and his return home
AUTHOR: Godfrey Marks
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: sailor sea ship nonballad home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Heart-Songs, pp. 390-391, "Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #154, "Sailing" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 89, "Sailing Sailing" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 483, "Sailing"
Harbin-Parodology, #319, p. 78, "Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 288, 346, "Sailing, Sailing" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 40, "Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 36, "Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 38, "Sailing" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 122-123, "Campfire Medley" (1 text, a combination of "Our Boys Will Shine Tonight," "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean," "Sailing, Sailing," and "Goodnight Ladies")
DT, SLNGSLNG
SAME TUNE:
Swimming, Swimming (file: ACSF263S)
Sailing the Union Way (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 235)
File: FSWB089

Saillers, The

See The Mermaid [Child 289] (File: C289)

Sailor

See Drunken Sailor, The (Early in the Morning) (File: Doe048)

Sailor (I), The

See John (George) Riley (I) [Laws N36] AND John (George) Riley II [Laws N37] (File: LN37)

Sailor (II), The

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Sailor and His Bride, The [Laws K10]

DESCRIPTION: The sailor's widow reports that her husband went to sea three years ago, after only three months of marriage. His ship was lost in a storm; she wishes that she could join him in his watery grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: sailor storm wreck death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Newf,Ont) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws K10, "The Sailor and His Bride"
Greig/Duncan1 19, "The Sailor and His Love" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 218-219, ("'Twas early spring, and the flowers were young") (1 text, composite)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 24, "The Sailor's Wife's Lament" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp.231-232, "The Sailor's Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 159, "The Sailor's Bride" (1 text, 1 tune, extremely composite)
Randolph 762, "My Lovely Sailor Boy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 63, "Early in the Spring When I Was Young" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 34, "The Sailor and His Bride" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 113, "The Sailor and His Bride" (2 texts)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 112, "The Sailor's Bride" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 112, "The Sailor's Bride" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 31, "Charlie and Mary" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 439-440, "Early Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 1, "The Sailor's Bride" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 558, SAILBRDE
Roud #274
RECORDINGS:
Charlotte Decker, "Early Spring" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sailor's Sweetheart
My Soldier Boy
File: LK10

Sailor and His Love, The

DESCRIPTION: A sailor asks his love, bound by iron, to dress as a sailor and follow him. She refuses: her father has heard from the sailor's crew that he is married. He swears he is free. She is convinced and says she'd follow him if he frees her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: elopement lie rescue cross-dressing ship father sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 1011, "The Sailor and His Love" (1 text)
Roud #6724
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Locks and Bolts" [Laws M13] (theme: girl locked away by father) and references there
NOTES [25 words]: The plot reads like an excerpt of "The Iron Door" but the text shares no lines with "Locks and Bolts," "The Iron Door," or "The Gallant Shoemaker." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD1011

Sailor and His True Love

See Pleasant and Delightful (File: DTplesde)

Sailor and his True Love (II)

See Farewell, Charming Nancy [Laws K14] (File: LK14)

Sailor and Nancy, The

See William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I) [Laws N8] (File: LN08)

Sailor and the Farmer's Daughter

See The Constant Lovers [Laws O41] (File: LO41)

Sailor and the Ghost, The [Laws P34A/B]

DESCRIPTION: A pregnant girl hangs herself after being abandoned by her lover. The guilty youth goes to sea to escape her ghost, but the spirit follows and finds him. She threatens the captain until he is produced, and then burns the ship with him aboard
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 10(68))
KEYWORDS: pregnancy abandonment ghost disaster suicide
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws P34A, "The Sailor's Tragedy (The Sailor and the Ghost A)"/P34B, "Handsome Harry (The Sailor and the Ghost B)"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #130, pp. 2-3, "The Ghost So Grim" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 341, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "The Ghost So Grim" (7 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 68, "Handsome Harry" (1 text, identified by Laws as P34B)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 151-154, "The Dreadful Ghost" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 116-117, "The Dreadful Ghost" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 398-403, "The Sea Ghost" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 18, "The Sailor's Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 92, "The Sailor's Tragedy" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 209-210, "(Handsome Harry)" (1 excerpt)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 108-109, "Handsome Harry" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 133-136, "Handsome Harry" (1 text)
DT 512, DREDGHOS
Roud #568
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 10(68), "The Sailor and the Ghost," Laurie and Whittle (London), 1805; also 2806 c.8(242), "The Sailor and the Ghost"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B)" [Laws K22] (Jonah theme) and references there
cf. "On One Thursday Evening" (tune, according to Greig/Duncan2))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Murdered Girl
The Spirit Grim
File: LP34

Sailor and the Lady, The

See The Jolly Young Sailor and the Beautiful Queen [Laws O13] (File: LO13)

Sailor and the Sea Captain, The

See The Sailor's Frolic (Tit for Tat) (File: PaSe055)

Sailor and the Shepherdess, The [Laws O8]

DESCRIPTION: A wandering young sailor, seeing a shepherdess asleep by the sea, goes up to her and kisses her. Surprised into wakefulness, she begins to cry, but the sailor offers marriage, and she accepts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1698))
KEYWORDS: sailor courting marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws O8, "The Sailor and the Shepherdess"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #117, p. 1, "The Handsome Shepherdess" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 968, "The Handsome Shepherdess" (2 texts plus a verse from Grieg #117 on p. 599; 2 tunes)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 608, "Twas of a Brisk Young Shepherdess" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 53, "The Sailor and the Shepherdess" (1 text)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 37, "The Shepherdess" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H104, p. 457, "The Gentle Shepherdess" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 473, SAILSHEP
Roud #959
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1698), "The Sailor's Courtship" ("As a pretty young shepherdess was minding her sheep"), J. Evans (London) , 1780-1812; also Harding B 16(239b), Firth b.25(330), Firth c.13(193), Firth c.13(194), Harding B 11(3262), "[The] Sailor's Courtship"; Harding B 16(238c), "Harding B 11(3374), [The] Sailor and Shepherdess"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Handsome Young Shepherdess
File: LO08

Sailor and the Soldier, The

See The Soldier and the Sailor (File: Doe277)

Sailor and the Tailor (II), The

See The Boatsman and the Chest [Laws Q8] (File: LQ08)

Sailor and the Tailor, The [Laws P4]

DESCRIPTION: A girl and a sailor agree to marry after he finishes his voyage. When he returns, he finds that she will soon marry a tailor. He meets them and persuades the girl to change her mind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: sailor wedding infidelity rejection love
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland) US(MA) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws P4, "The Sailor and the Tailor"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #101, p. 2, "The Tailor and the Sailor" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 73, "The Watchet Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 71, "The Watchet Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 167-168, "Jack the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 134-135, "Jack the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 403-404, "The Sailor and the Tailor" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 482, "The Sailor and the Tailor" (source notes only)
DT 492, SAILTAIL
Roud #917
RECORDINGS:
Cyril O'Brien, "Johnny the Troller" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "He Wears a Bonnet for a Hat" ("Maybe I'll Be Mairriet Yet" lines finish the song)
File: LP04

Sailor Bill

DESCRIPTION: "I've sailed to the east and I've sailed to the west, They call me Sailor Bill, I have come to seek my own blood kin That settled in the hills." The sailor tells how, after sailing far, he looks for his family and settles down "with my Preston kin."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: sailor home return reunion
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 32, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 44-45)
NOTES [22 words]: Thomas's informants thought this the work of William Calvert Preston. This seems possible, since that family gave her the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa032

Sailor Bold

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Sailor Bold (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The sailor "came to his true love to let her know That he once more to sea must go." She saysd "pray stay at home" with her because cannons may injure him. He says "pray stay at home" and she will always be in his mind. She watched him sail.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (according to Christie, 1881)
KEYWORDS: request war farewell separation wife sailor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 244-245, "The Sailor Bold" (1 tune)
Roud #V41196
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(104), "The Sailor Bold" ("A sailor bold the best of hearts"), G. Wood (Liverpool), c. 1814
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailor Bold (III)" (shares the first verse)
NOTES [39 words]: The description is based on broadside Bodleian Harding B 28(104)).
The usual warning for Christie about "improved" texts.
Christie: "The Editor in 1850 noted this Air exactly as it was sung by 'Jenny Meesic' to the Ballad here given." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BdSaBol2

Sailor Bold (III), The

DESCRIPTION: A sailor tells his sweetheart he must sail. He promises to be true. Perhaps says, "we shall return victorious men, The joy and pride of Christendom" She recounts the dangers of sailing and war. He leaves. She receives a comforting letter from him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: love war farewell sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 62, "The Sailor Bold" (1 text)
Roud #5813
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailor Bold (II)" (shares the first verse)
File: GrD1062

Sailor Boy (I), The [Laws K12]

DESCRIPTION: A girl asks her father to build her a boat so that she may search for her lover. She describes the boy to a passing captain, who tells her he is drowned. She gives directions for her burial, then dies of grief or dashes her boat against the rocks
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2298))
KEYWORDS: ship death lover drowning loneliness separation sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf,Queb)
REFERENCES (62 citations):
Laws K12, "The Sailor Boy I"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 186-191, "The Sailor Boy" (6 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph 68, "The Sailor's Sweetheart" (3 text plus 2 fragments, 4 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 68-70, "The Sailor's Sweetheart" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 68C)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 318-320, "Oh, Captain, Captain, Tell Me True" (1 text; tune on pp. 441-442)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 54, "Sweet William (The Sailor Boy)" (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 33, "Sweet William" (6 texts, 3 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 25, "The Sailor Boy" (1 short text; the first 6 lines are "The Sailor Boy"; the last twelve are perhaps "The Butcher Boy")
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 18, "The Pinery Boy" (1 text, 1 tune; also a fragment in the notes)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 18, "The Pinery Boy" (1 text, 1 tune; also a fragment in the notes)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 94, "The Pinery Boy" (1 text)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 30, "The Sailor Boy" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 736-737, "The Sailor Boy" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 9, "The Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 43, "Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 27, "Broken Ring Song fragment" (1 single-stanza fragment, 1 tune); 44, "My Sailor Lad, "Sailor Bold" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 53, "I'll Sit Down and Write a Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 106, "Sweet William" (12 texts, 12 tunes)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 72, "Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 35, "Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 36, "Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 127, "Sweet William" (2 texts)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 94, "A Sailor's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #91, "The Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 74-75, "Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #43, "Early, Early All in the Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 110, "Sweet William (The Sailor Boy)" (3 texts plus mention of 6 more)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 86-87, "A Sailor's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 135-136, "O Father, Build Me a Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 104, "The Sailor Boy" (5 texts, mostly short, plus excerpts from 4 more and mention of 2 more and 1 very short fragment; several texts, notably "C," are mixed with "The Butcher Boy"; "E" is a mix with something unidentifiable as only part of the song is printed; "H" is apparently a mix of floating material, only partly printed; "J" is mostly from some unidentified ballad; "L" appears to mix this with "The Apprentice Boy" [Laws M12])
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 104, "The Sailor Boy" (5 excerpts, 5 tunes)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 39, "The Sailor Boy" (2 short texts, 2 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 76, "My True Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 134-135, "The Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 88, "The Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 177-178, "The Soldier Boy" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 61-62, "Soldier Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #41, "The Sailor's Trade is a Weary Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 99, "Sweet Willie" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 39-40, "Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune, a composite version)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 55, "The Pinery Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 272-273, "A Sailor's Trade Is a Roving Life" (1 text, with the manuscript damaged by water)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 172, "Oh Captain, Captain Tell Me True (The Sailor Boy)" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 205, "The Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 7, "My Boy Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 56, "My Boy Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 34, "My Fine Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 75, "It Was Early, Early In the Month of Spring" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #64, p. 1, "The Sailor's Life"; #148, p. 2, "The Sailing Trade" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1245, "The Sailing Trade" (11 texts, 8 tunes)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 25, "Sweet William" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 13, "Early Early in the Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #63 insert, "The Sailor Boy" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 71, "A Sailor's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads LXXXVI, pp. 174-176, "The Sailor Boy" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 67, "A Song of the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 97-98, "Sweet Soldier Boy" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W Amos Abrams, "Della Adams Bostic: Sweet Singer of Old Songs," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), pp. 140-141, "Sweet Willie" (1 text)
DT 403, PINERYBY* SAILIFE*
ADDITIONAL: Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden, _Wisconsin Lore: Antics and Anecdotes of Wisconsin People and Places_, Wisconsin House, 1962, pp. 95-96, "(The Raftsman's Life)" (Excerpts of a sing that is clearly "The Pinery Boy," presumably from Wisconsin although no source is listed)
David C. Peterson, "Wisconsin Folksongs," chapter in _Badger History: Wisconsin Folklore_, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Volume XXV, Number 2, November 1973), p. 53, "The Pinery Boy" (1 text, 1 tune, which I strongly suspect has been shortened)
Frank Moore, _Anecdotes, Poetry and Incidents of the War: North and South, 1860-1865_, Bible House, 1867, p. 180, "Heart-Rending Boat Ballad" (1 text)
Roud #273
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best and Pamela Morgan, "A Sailor's Trade is a Weary Life" (on NFABestPMorgan01)
Dock Boggs, "Papa, Build Me a Boat" (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1) (a complex version, with this plot but many floating verses, e.g. from "The Storms Are On the Ocean")
Rufus Crisp, "Fall, Fall, Build Me a Boat" (on Crisp01)
John Joe English, "My Boy Willie" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Dan Hornsby Trio, "A Sailor's Sweetheart" (Columbia 15771-D, 1932; rec. 1931)
Liz Jefferies, "Willie, the Bold Sailor Boy" (on Voice03)
Mikeen McCarthy, "Early in the Month of Spring" (on IRTravellers01)
Maggie Murphy, "Willie-O" (on IRHardySons)
Mrs. Otto Rindlisbacher, "The Pinery Boy" [instrumental] (AFS, 1941; on LC55)
Phoebe Smith, "Sweet William" (on Voice11)
Art Thieme, "The Pinery Boy" (on Thieme04)
Rick Ward, "Sailor Boy" (Piotr-Archive #138, recorded 04/18/2022)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2298), "The Maid's Lament for her Sailor Boy," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.12(226), Harding B 11(3375), Harding B 25(1684), "Sailor Boy" ("Down by a chrystal river side"); Firth c.12(227), "The Sailor Boy and his Faithful Mary"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] (lyrics)
cf. "A Soldier's Life" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "The Deep Blue Sea (I)" (plot)
cf. "Tavern in the Town" (lyrics)
cf. "Darling Johnny O (I)" (lyrics, plot)
cf. "The Croppy Boy (I)" [Laws J14]" (tune, per Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 7)
cf. "Darling Johnny O (I)" (plot, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Pinery Boy
Papa, Papa, Build Me a Boat
A Shantyman's Life
I Have No One to Love Me
Captain Tell Me True
The Sailor Boy and his Faithful Mary
Sailin', Sailin's a Weary Life
The Broken Hearted Lover
NOTES [579 words]: Paul Stamler suggests that "The Deep Blue Sea" is a worn-down version of this song. He may well be right (see the notes to that song), but I believe that the characteristic of Laws K12 is the girl's request of a boat. Since "Deep Blue Sea" lacks that feature, I tentatively separate the songs.
The "Pinery Boy" versions are heavily localized to Wisconsin and the lumber business, and could almost be considered a separate song -- except that very many of the lyrics from "The Sailor Boy" still endure.
The "Pinery Boy" versions tend to mention Lone Rock and/or the Wisconsin Dells as the site of this tragedy, but the Wisconsin, River, according to Gard/Sorden, p. 95, was a very dangerous stream for raftsmen for much of its length: "[M]any of these danger spots, still bearing the names given them by the raftsmen, are points of interest along the Wisconsin River. Among these names are Sliding Rock, whose sloping sides make it impossible to gain any foothold; Notched Rock; the Devil's Elbow, a right-angle turn making passage very difficult; and the Narrows, where the River is said to be turned on its side, since its width is only fifty-two feet, and its depth is one hundred and fifty feet."
The whole Dells region must have been difficult, since the river goes through a series of rather sharp bends, and the riverbanks and the bed are rough.
The small town of Lone Rock is not properly part of the Dells; it is several dozen miles downstream, in a marshy, heavily wooded area. But it is on the Wisconsin River (and it has a Lone Rock Cemetery, according to Google Maps, so perhaps our hero was buried there). Ironically, the cemetery (off U. S. Highway 14) seems to be one of the few spots in the area which largely lacks trees.
Lone Rock the town, not surprisingly, is named for a rock named Lone Rock, a sandstone formation on the north bank of the Wisconsin that raftsmen used for navigation -- this far below the Dells, the Wisconsin is fairly straight. but there is a spot near the rock called Devil's Bend, and the current is swift. So Lone Rock was important to let the raftsmen know there were near a tricky place.
The Rock is no longer really visible, according to an online history of the area (http://tinyurl.com/tbdx-LoneRock). Much of the rock was taken and used for construction.
Lone Rock the town came into being in 1856. The name "Lone Rock" for the sandstone pillar is older, but it seems unlikely that they would have buried the Pinery Boy there had the town not existed.
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia shows a collector misled by a source. The version is only a single verse, identical to broadside Bodleian, Firth c.12(227), "The Sailor Boy and his Faithful Mary" ("A sailor's life is a merry life"), J.Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866. The singer, in this case, thought this was a returned lover ballad -- from Creighton's title -- of the broken ring type.
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "Early, Early All in the Spring" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)). Like Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 7, Hammond's version shares its tune with "The Croppy Boy (I)." - BS
The Dan Hornsby Trio recording is included by deduction; I have not heard it. - PJS
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin text is from Kidson, A Garland of English Folk-songs, pp. 92-93. Only the title is listed in one of Elizabeth Cronin's song lists. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LK12

Sailor Boy (II), The

See The Prince of Morocco (The Sailor Boy II) (File: LN18)

Sailor Boy, The

See The Faithful Sailor Boy [Laws K13] (File: LK13)

Sailor Boy's Dream, The

DESCRIPTION: "In slumbers of midnight the sailor boy lay," dreaming of home; he and his father see each other with delight. Then he is awakened by lightning and thunder. The masts are gone, the ship is foundering; "around thy white bones the coral shall grow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1847 (Forget-Me-Not-Songster)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship home father wreck death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 48-50, "The Sailor Boy's Dream" (1 text)
Roud #3691
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Oh Sailor Boy, Peace To Thy Soul
NOTES [59 words]: There is very little sign that this is traditional, but it was printed a lot! Whoever wrote it was pretty clearly thinking of Ariel's "Full fathom five" from Shakespeare's The Tempest (Act I, scene 2; lines 397-405 in the Riverside edition); both have references to bones and coral, and this has a line "full many a score fathom thy frame shall decay. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: FMNS048

Sailor Boy's Farewell, The

See The Forfar Sodger (File: FVS163)

Sailor Came Home Late, A

See Died for Love (V) (File: Gard028)

Sailor Courted a Farmer's Daughter, A

See The Constant Lovers [Laws O41] (File: LO41)

Sailor Courted, A

See The Constant Lovers [Laws O41] (File: LO41)

Sailor Cut Down in His Prime, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees one of his shipmates "wrapped up in flannel yet colder than clay." He dies, and details of the burial are given. His headstone warns sailors, "Never go courting with the girls of the city; Flash girls in the city were the ruin of me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: death disease whore burial funeral
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 201, "The Sailor Cut Down in His Prime" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 117, "The Sailor Cut Down in His Prime" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 86, "Sailor Cut Down in His Prime" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 114, "Sailor Cut Down in His Prime" (2 texts; the "A" text is "The Sailor Cut Down in his Prime"; "B" is "The Bad Girl's Lament, (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime)" [Laws Q26])
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #90, "Young Sailor Cut Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 132, "The Young Sailor Cut Down in his Prime" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 124-126, "The Young Sailor Cut Down in his Prime" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, YNGMNPRM
Roud #2
RECORDINGS:
Johnny Doughty, "The Streets of Port Arthur" (on Voice12)
Harry Upton, "The Royal Albion" (on Voice02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] (tune & meter, plot) and references there
cf. "The Unfortunate Rake" (tune & meter, plot)
cf. "The Bad Girl's Lament (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime)" [Laws Q26] (tune & meter, plot)
NOTES [72 words]: One of the large group of ballads ("The Bard of Armagh," "Saint James Hospital," "The Streets of Laredo") ultimately derived from "The Unfortunate Rake." All use the same or similar tunes and meter, and all involve a person dying as a result of a wild life, but the nature of the tragedy varies according to local circumstances.
For the treatment of syphilis prior to the twentieth century, see the notes to "The Unfortunate Rake." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LoF201

Sailor Dear (The Lovely Sailor; You Maidens Pretty)

DESCRIPTION: "Ye maidens pretty in towns and cities, Come hear with pity my mournful strain." The girl loved a "lively sailor." He is "crossed the ocean," having been pressed. Her father confined her to keep them apart. Now she is free and wealthy and hopes to marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (Journal of the Polly)
KEYWORDS: love courting sailor separation pressgang money father prison
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 216-217, "New Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #17, "Ye Maidens Pretty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6905
File: HGam216

Sailor Deceived, The

See Early, Early in the Spring [Laws M1] (File: LM01)

Sailor Fireman, The

See I'll Fire Dis Trip (File: Br3222)

Sailor Girl from Asia

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Sailor in Nagasaki, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the sailor looked and looked and looked, For Geishas and for sake, And almost gave up looking, when He came to Nagasaki." He finds a girl. The go to dinner. She gets him drunk. He is unable to perform.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: sailor whore drink sex
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 107-108, "(no title)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Christopher Columbo" (tune, according to Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
File: NiMo107

Sailor in the Alehouse, The

See Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)

Sailor in the Boat, The

See Sailing in the Boat (File: LoF013)

Sailor in the North Country, A

DESCRIPTION: A sailor and his beautiful wife meet a captain who is smitten with the lady. He summons the sailor and sends him to the West Indies. Within a few days of his leaving the captain makes a pass at the wife, who refuses him and pledges her constancy.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904
KEYWORDS: virtue adultery love marriage rejection parting separation wife sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 93, "A Sailor in the North Country" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1504
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "A Sailor in the North Country" (on Maynard1, Voice12)
File: VWL093

Sailor Laddie (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "I've been east and I've been wast" to Dundee and Montrose, "And the bonniest lad that ever I saw" "ploughs the raging sea" and "wears the tarry clothes." "So away with my sailor laddie Away with him I'll go"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 55, "The Sailor Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 16, "The Sailor Laddie (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5808
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jaybird's Altar (I've Been to the East)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dundee
NOTES [51 words]: There is a version of "The Gypsy Laddie" very similar to this in feeling and to some extent even in lyrics; I suspect this may be a rewrite of a version of that song. The American playparty we file as "The Jaybird's Altar (I've Been to the East)" appears to be yet a further alteration of this form. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: GrD1055

Sailor Laddie (II)

DESCRIPTION: "My sailor laddie's far away." He sends the singer a letter saying he's coming back, having left his current girl "on the railway track" "I love coffee, I love tea ... " and mother should "hold her tongue For she loved boys when she was young"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1925 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: courting return separation playparty mother sailor floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 89, "Sailor Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2601
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She Loves Coffee and I Love Tea" (four lines) and notes there
NOTES [17 words]: Coffee, tea, and mother's tongue are discussed with examples at "She Loves Coffee and I Love Tea." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa089

Sailor Laddie (III), The

DESCRIPTION: "He skips upon the plainsteens, He sails upon the sea, He's a bonny sailor laddie, The lad that I gang wi'." "His jersey's o' the bonnie blue." "I saw ma laddie gang awa... Awa to catch a whale." "He bade me aye keep up ma heart."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: sailor whale separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 17, "The Sailor Laddie II" (1 text)
File: Gath017

Sailor Likes His Bottle-O, The

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "So early in the morning the sailor likes his bottle-o! A bottle of rum, a bottle of gin, a bottle of old Jamaica Ho!" Verses carry on about all the things a sailor might love: women, tobacco, fighting, etc...
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (Alexander)
KEYWORDS: shanty drink sailor
FOUND IN: Britain West Indies US(MA) Guyana
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 75, "Bottle O!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 55-57, "So Early in the Morning" (3 texts, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 52-53]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XLVI, p. 51, "The Sailor Loves His Bottle-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 100-101, "The Sailor Likes His Bottle-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, p. 17, "De Neger Like de Bottley Oh" (1 fragment)
DT, SAILBOTL
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Sailor Like the Bottle O!" is in Part 2, 7/21/1917.
E.I. Barra, _A Tale of Two Oceans_ (San Francisco: Eastman & Co., 1893 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 84, ("The ladies like Madeira wine") (1 text)
J.E. Alexander, _TransAtlantic Sketches, Vol. 1_ (London: Richard Bentley, 1833 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 131, ("De bottley oh! de bottley oh!") (1 text)
Roud #314
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sailor Loves
NOTES [219 words]: Barra heard his "hoisting song" text -- "So early in the morning -- The sailor likes his bottle oh!" -- in Rio de Janeiro from a crew fitted out in Philadelphia in 1849. Apparently, the crew was white -- "as villainous a looking twenty men as I ever was shipmates with" -- excluding two Black cooks (pp. 54, 75).
Abrahams's version is quoted from Alexander, who heard his version -- "Right early in de morning, de neger like de bottley oh!" -- in 1831 from Black slaves of a British Guiana estate assigned to row his canoe.
There is a point to these comparisons. This is one of the early deep-water chanteys and there are still open questions about the origins of deep-water chanteys. For example, barring capstan chanteys and forecastle songs, are the call-response and lined-out forms based on African song forms never lost during slavery? To what extent are deep-water chanteys affected by the minstrel theatre, the Black hymns outside the church, the Irish famine, rowing songs, and the hardly ever recorded English work-song tradition. Do we start the clock in Africa, on United States docks where Black stevedores worked and sang in the 18th century, or only when the American packet ships were sailing after the War of 1812. Perhaps "The Sailor Likes His Bottle-O" details can help guide the discussion. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Hugi055

Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea (I)

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea (II)

See The Deep Blue Sea (I) (File: R794)

Sailor on the Sea

See The Deep Blue Sea (I) (File: R794)

Sailor on the Sea, The

See In London so Fair (File: HHH203)

Sailor Taking Leave of his Mistress

DESCRIPTION: Jamie is leaving Molly to go privateering on the Spanish Shore. He tells her not to worry about the dangers, or that he will find another girl on the Spanish Shore, and that they will marry when he returns. He returns, rich, and they marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Logan-APedlarsPack); in tradition, 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: love marriage promise farewell home parting return reunion separation travel sea ship lover mistress sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 64-66, "Sailor Taking Leave of his Mistress" (1 text)
Roud #26988
RECORDINGS:
Jack Myrick, "Polly Moore" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [103 words]: Logan-APedlarsPack, ignoring the words of the song, thinks this is about war rather than privateering. He writes, "The probability is... that it is referable either to the hostilities commenced by France and Spain against England in 1798, on an alleged violation of the Treaty of Peace of 1763, with regard to the Spanish colonies in South America and to the French subjects in the island of Grenada; or to the war which was declared between Spain and England in 1800, which culminated in the glorious victory of the British fleet at Trafalgar, on 21st October 1805, over the combined fleets of France and Spain." - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3STLoM

Sailor Walking in His Garden, A

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Sailor Went to Sea, A

DESCRIPTION: "A sailor went to sea ... To see what he could see ... all that he could see ... Was the bottom of the deep blue sea." He goes to "chop, chop, chop," ... to "knee, knee, knee," ... to "toe, toe, toe," ....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Western Folklore)
KEYWORDS: nonsense playparty sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Australia US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 144, "A Sailor Went to Sea" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #503, "The Sailor went to sea" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 80-81, "A Sailor Went to Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jean Feldman, Transition Time: Let's Do Something Different (1995 (copyrighted material limited preview "Digitized by Google")) p. 192, "A Sailor Went to Sea" (1 text)
Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, _A Guide to Australian Folklore_, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 151, "(A sailor went to see, see, see)" (1 short text, described as a handclapping game)
Roud #18338
RECORDINGS:
Alessandra Delia-Lôbo, Cameo Delia, "A Sailor Went to Sea" (Piotr-Archive #386, recorded 12/18/2022)
NOTES [86 words]: The second and subsequent verses are completed by replacing "sea" by "chop," then "knee," then "toe," etc. Only the first verse makes sense. In the last verse "A sailor went to sea, chop, knee, toe, ...." See Feldman for an example.
Another rhyme, sharing the first verse, but otherwise different in form and function, is in Frank Rutherford, All the Way to Pennywell (1971,Durham), pp. 38-39, ("I know a lad across the ocean"). Rutherford also reports the first verse as a stand-alone hand-clapping song (p. 77). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: OpGa144

Sailor Who Loved the Spanikin' Gals, The

DESCRIPTION: "A sailor who loved the spankin' gals Sailed off across the seas, He never set his rudder But was guided by the breeze." He searches out girls in every port. In Polynesia he finds a very special girl and asks why she shakes so. She says her bottom itches
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: sailor sex dancing
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 148-151, "The Sailor Who Loved the Spanikin' Gals" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27887
File: NiMo148

Sailor, The (The Sailor on the Ocean Wide)

DESCRIPTION: "The sailor on the ocean wide Thinks little of his life, He laughs to see the wind and tide Engaged in endless strife." The brave sailor is unconcerned by storm. The ship is well-maintained. The crew sings songs to defy future weather
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Journal of the Lydia)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor storm nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 110, "The Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27318
File: HGam110

Sailor's Adieu, The

See The Topsail Shivers in the Wind (File: SWMS059)

Sailor's Advice, The (The Land of Delight)

DESCRIPTION: "As you mean to set sail for the land of delight, And in wedlock's soft hammock to swing ev'ry night... Fill your sails with affection, and your cabin with love." Hearers must avoid the "shoals of indifference," or else they will "double Cape Horn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1807 (The American Songster, according to Thompson)
KEYWORDS: wordplay sailor love marriage warning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 196-197, "Cape Horn" (1 text)
Roud #V4157
NOTES [54 words]: Although it uses sailing metaphors, this is not a song about sailing, and there is no reason to think the reference to Cape Horn is to the actual place; Thompson believes (correctly, I'm sure) that it is a reference to cuckodry.
Despite Thompson, I really doubt that this was ever traditional. It's just too elaborate. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: TNY196

Sailor's Alphabet, The

DESCRIPTION: Capstan/pumping shanty; sailors remember the alphabet and tell of their, "merry" lives: "A is the anchor that hangs o'er the bow/And B is the bowsprit that bends like a bow.... So merry, so merry, so merry are we/No mortals on earth like a sailor at sea"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: sea ship work nonballad worksong sailor worker wordplay | alphabet
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) US(MA,MW,NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 52, "The Sailor's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, "The Sailor's Alphabet" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 194-195, "The Sailor's Alphabet" (1 text, incompletely remembered)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 233-234, "The Sailor's Alphabet" (1 text, without a chorus)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 75, "The Sailor's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 229, "Alphabet of the Ship" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 229, "Alphabet of the Ship" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #25, "The Seaman's Alphabet" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 885-886, "The Sailor's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 98, "Alphabet Song" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "C" text is "The Logger's Alphabet")
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, p.p. 88-89, "Sailor's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 52-54, "The Sailor's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 456-458, "The Bosun's Alphabet," "Old English Chantey" (2 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 341-342]
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 107, "The Sailor's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 125-126, "The Bosun's Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 36, "So merry, so merry, so merry are we" (1 fragment, of the chorus); p. 126, "A is the Anchor of our jolly boat" (1 fragment)
Roud #21100
RECORDINGS:
Clifford Jenkins et al, "The Sailor's Alphabet" (on LastDays)
Sam Larner, "Alphabet Song" (on SLarner01); "The Sailor's Alphabet" (on Voice12)
Martin Reddigan, "Sailor's Alphabet" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Capt. Leighton Robinson, "The Sailor's Alphabet" (on AFS, 1951; on LC26)
Leighton Robinson w. Alex Barr, Arthur Brodeur & Leighton McKenzie, "Sailor's Alphabet" (on AFS 4230 B, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Mrs. Gladys Snow, "The Sailor's Alphabet" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Logger's Alphabet" (subject, form) and references there
cf. "The Bargeman's Alphabet" (subject, form)
NOTES [22 words]: We've cross-referenced this enough that it deserves its own entry, although it's identical in form to "The Logger's Alphabet." - PJS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcTSAlp

Sailor's Bride, The

See The Sailor and His Bride [Laws K10] (File: LK10)

Sailor's Burial at Sea

See The Sailor's Grave (File: Wa155)

Sailor's Christmas Day, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come rouse ye, my lads, though no land we are near, We've old Christmas aboard us to give us good cheer." They have good food and a good captain. They drink to family at home. "Christmastide cheers the heart of a brave British tar."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor Christmas music food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 129, "The Sailor's Christmas Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V36903
File: PaSe129

Sailor's Come All Ye, The

See Hearts of Gold (File: SWMS068)

Sailor's Complaint, The (The True Character of a Purser of a Ship)

DESCRIPTION: "Of al the curst plagues that e'er fate did decree... There's none to compare with the purser, that evil Who'se worse than a jailer, a bum or a devil." He supplies rotten food. The sailor curses the purser in complex (and rather learned) ways
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1710 (broadside Douce Ballads 3(85b))
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes food curse
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 31, "The Sailor's Complaint, or, the True Character of a Purser of a Ship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V23540
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(85b), "The saylor's complaint: or, The true character of a purser of a ship, " W. Onley, London, 1689-1709
File: PaSe031

Sailor's Consolation

DESCRIPTION: Two sailors, Barney Buntline & Billy Bowline list the reasons they are lucky to be sailors, comparing the dangers of living on shore with the relatively free life they have. Sometimes has chorus of "With a tow row row-right to me addy, wi' a tow row row."
AUTHOR: Charles Dibdin (1745-1814) (also attributed to Pitt and Hood)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1814
KEYWORDS: sailor ship shore
FOUND IN: US Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 460, "Barney Buntline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 139, "Barney Buntline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 105-107, "Nauticle Filosophy (Barney Buntline)"; "Nautical Philosophy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #12825
NOTES [78 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas gives some references, in particular that the tune for this was taken by a Prof. J. Glyn-Davies and turned into a Welsh sailors' song (also known as a children's song) "Can Huw Puw." Glyn-Davies seemed to believe that the original song was quite old and that the tune was also used in a song, "Miss Tickle Toby" which dates to the 16th century. - SL
For more on probable author Charles Dibdin, see the notes to "Blow High Blow Low." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hugi460A

Sailor's Farewell (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Fare thee well my dearest friend, Thy husband now must go To greet his native element Where winds and tempests blow." The sailor blesses his wife and girls; his wish is that they find joy. They look forward to the port "where storms will cease to blow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1833 (Journal of the Lotos)
KEYWORDS: sailor wife children separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 125, "The Sailor's Farewell" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #27319
File: HGam125

Sailor's Farewell (II), The

See Napoleon's Farewell (Pretty English Girls) (File: AshS83)

Sailor's Farewell (III), The

See Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy (File: E153D)

Sailor's Frolic, The (Tit for Tat)

DESCRIPTION: A sea captain lusts after the wife of one of his sailors. He offers her 50 guineas to sleep with him while he supposes her husband is away. The sailor, as they are in bed, steals the captain's clothes and makes love to the captain's wife.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1841 (broadside Bodleian Harding B 25(1920)); reportedly copied by Thomas Nixon in 1780 (so Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
KEYWORDS: sailor trick adultery sex disguise
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 55, "A New Song, called the Frolicsome Sea Captain, or Tit for Tat" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 26-27, "The Sailor and the Sea Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12545
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1920), "Tit for tat; or, The sailor's frolic," J. Jennings (London), 1790-1840; also Johnson Ballads 993, "Tit for Tat," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; Douce Ballads 3(93b)=Douce Ballads 4(14) [Firth c.12(433) (mostly illegible) ?], "Tit for tat; or The merry wives of Wapping," Powell & Sympson (?) (London), n.d.; Johnson Ballads 2817, "The Sailor's Frolic," unknown, n.d.
File: PaSe055

Sailor's Grace, The

See The Salt Horse Song (File: FO226)

Sailor's Grave, The

DESCRIPTION: "Our bark was far, oh, far from land, When the fairest of our gallant band Grew deadly pale and pined away." Lacking "costly winding sheets," they wrap the dead man in his hammock and a flag and sadly bury him at sea
AUTHOR: Words: Eliza Cook / Music: John C. Baker
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1845 402000)
KEYWORDS: sea sailor death funeral burial
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,SE) Canada(Mar) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Australia
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 68, "The Sailor's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 700, "Sailor's Grave" (1 text)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 160-162, "The Sailor's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 162-163, "The Sailor's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 121-122, "The Sailor's Grave" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 55, "The Sailor's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 56, "The Sailor's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 155, "A Sailor's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 47, "Sailor's Burial at Sea" (1 text)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 31, "The Sailor's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2053, p. 138, "The Sailor's Grave" (1 reference)
DT, SAILGRAV*
Roud #2676
RECORDINGS:
Pat Ford, "The Sailor's Grave" (AFS 4211 B1, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3383), "The Sailor's Grave" ("Our bark was far, far from the land"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(27), Harding B 11(4264), Harding B 11(3382), Harding B 11(3383), Harding B 11(3384), Harding B 16(240b), Harding B 26(586), Harding B 11(2745), Firth c.12(445), "The Sailor's Grave"
LOCSheet, sm1845 402000, "The Sailor's Grave" ("Our bark was out far, far from land"), F. D. Benteen (Baltimore), 1845; also sm1845 791150, "The Sailor's Grave" (tune)
NOTES [35 words]: There is a parody of this ballad as broadside NLScotland, L.C.1269(176.a), "Parody On The Sailor's Grave,"Poet's Box (Glasgow?), 1863 - BS
For background on Eliza Cook, see the notes to "Grandmother's Chair." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Wa155

Sailor's Hornpipe in Caxon Street

See The Shirt and the Apron [Laws K42] (File: LK42)

Sailor's Hornpipe in Jackson Street, The

See The Shirt and the Apron [Laws K42] (File: LK42)

Sailor's Journal

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas post meridian, half past four, By signal I from Nancy parted"; she waits by the shore until he sails away. As the sailors sing with joy, the singer thinks of her. When he is thrown into the sea, he live because of her. Finally her returns to her
AUTHOR: Charles Dibdin (1745-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Stone-SeaSongsAndBallad)
KEYWORDS: sailor travel battle reunion wife
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XCIII, pp. 185-186, "Sailor's Journal" (1 text)
Roud #12834
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(270b), "Sailor's Journal," J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 28(71), Firth c.13(100), "The Sailors Journal," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 25(1709), "The Sailor's Journal," W. Armstrong (Livepool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 15(271a), "The Sailor's Journal," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also 2806 b.11(254)=Firth c.13(103)=Harding B 11(1786), "The Sailor's Journal," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also 2806 c.18(275), "The Sailor's Journal," unknown (n.d.)
NOTES [42 words]: The evidence that this song is traditional is very thin, but it has been printed so many times that Steve Roud gave it a number, and I'm including it for consistency.
For more on probable author Charles Dibdin, see the notes to "Blow High Blow Low." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: SSSB185

Sailor's Lament, The

See The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: LP24)

Sailor's Lamentation (Come All You Valiant Sailors of Courage Stout and Bold)

See Bay of Biscay, Oh (Ye Gentlemen of England II) (The Stormy Winds Did Blow) [Laws K3] (File: LK03)

Sailor's Life for Me, A

See A Life on the Ocean Wave (File: SWMS087)

Sailor's Life, A

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage, The

See Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser) [Laws N6] (File: LN06)

Sailor's New Leg, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer was a sailor at Trafalgar. With Nelson on the foredeck, he lost a leg to a cannonball. Dr Keg replaced it with one from "fighting Jim." Immediately he returned to the fight "and flew aboard the Frenchman like a rocket O!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: battle navy humorous sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 21, 1805 - Battle of Trafalgar
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 147, "The Sailor's New Leg" (1 text)
Roud #5822
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Oh My Comrades You Must Know
NOTES [61 words]: It probably goes without saying that the physician on the Victory was not named "Dr. Keg." John Keegan, The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare, Penguin, 1988, 1990, p. 102, states that the surgeon who was with Nelson in his last hours was Doctor William Beatty. In addition, Nelson at least was not killed by a cannonball but by a musket round. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1147

Sailor's onely Delight, The

See High Barbaree [Child 285; Laws K33] (File: C285)

Sailor's Only Delight, The

See High Barbaree [Child 285; Laws K33] (File: C285)

Sailor's Plea, The (Dear Sweetheart)

DESCRIPTION: "Dear sweetheart, as I write to you, My heart is filled with pain, For if these things... are true, I'll never see you again." The singer says, if she weds another, "My boat will never land." He recalls his work for her. He learns she still loves him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Henry, collected from Mabel Hall)
KEYWORDS: love separation sailor abandonment
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 151, "The Sailor's Plea" (1 text)
Roud #17050
File: MHAp151

Sailor's Rant, The

See Why Should We Quarrel for Riches (File: BeCo458)

Sailor's Return (I), The

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Sailor's Return (II), The

See Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)

Sailor's Return (III), The

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Sailor's Sweetheart, The

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Sailor's Tale, The

See The Bosun's Story (File: Harl157)

Sailor's Trade Is a Roving Life, A

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Sailor's Trade is a Weary Life, The

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Sailor's Tragedy, The (The Sailor and the Ghost A)

See The Sailor and the Ghost [Laws P34A/B] (File: LP34)

Sailor's Way, The

DESCRIPTION: The sailor tells of all the places he's been and seen: "I've sailed among the Yankees, the Spaniards and Chinese.... But I'll go to the dance hall and hear the music play, For around Cape Horn and home again, oh, that is the sailor's way!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Cantterbury [New Zealand] Times, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: sailor dancing rambling
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Mar) New Zealand
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 109, "The Sailor's Way" (1 short text, reference for tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 386-388, "The Sailor's Way" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 295-296]
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 140-141, "The Sailor's Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 41, "Around the World and Home Again" (1 text)
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 124, "I've Traded with the Maoris" (1 text, 1 tune, localized to New Zealand)
ST Doe109 (Partial)
Roud #8239
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dixie Brown" [Laws D7] (tune)
File: Doe109

Sailor's Wife's Lament, The

See The Sailor and His Bride [Laws K10] (File: LK10)

Sailormen What Sail the Seas

DESCRIPTION: "Sailormen what sail the seas, And keep the laws, And live on yellow peas."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: sailor food | yellow peas
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 132, "Sailormen what sail the seas" (1 short text)
Roud #25386
File: KSUC132C

Sailors Are All at the Bar, The

DESCRIPTION: "The sailors are all at the bar, They cannot get up to Newcastle, The sailors are all at the bar, They cannot get up to Newcastle, Up wi' smoky Shields, And hey for bonny Newcastle, Up wi'..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1834 (Sharp, The Bishoprick Garland)
KEYWORDS: nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: [Cuthbert Sharp], _The Bishopric Garland, A Collection of Legends, Songs, Ballads, &c Belonging to the County of Durham_, 1834 (references are to the 1969 reprint), p. 71, "A South Shields Song" (1 text)
Roud #10954
File: CDBG071

Sailors for My Money

See Saylors for My Money (File: PaSe013)

Sailors of the Present Day, The

DESCRIPTION: "Now the sailors of the present day, they are all right, They smoke cigarettes and part their hair in front." The sailors on leave use all sorts of modern tricks; "Such going-on are shameful to behold," says the singer who declares "I am a warrior bold"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor clothes travel drugs hair
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 50, "The Sailors of the Present Day" (1 text)
File: Tawn035

Sailors onely Delight, The

See High Barbaree [Child 285; Laws K33] (File: C285)

Sailors Sailing on the Sea

DESCRIPTION: "There were two sailors sailing on the sea" or "three wee Glasgae molls we can let you see." The singer challenges you to choose a partner: "me" or "the fairest one" or "the one wee moll"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 106, "Sailors Sailing on the Sea" (3 texts, 1 tune)
File: OpGa106

Sailors They Are Going Away, The

DESCRIPTION: "The (sailors/Gloucester Boys/etc.) are going away, They won't be back for many a day, They've put all the girls in the family way, To fight for England's glory."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: soldier sailor pregnancy
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 145, "The Sailors They Are Going Away" (1 fragment)
Roud #29968
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Gloucester Boys Are Going Away
File: Tawn112

Sailors They Are Such a Sort

DESCRIPTION: Mother: Don't marry a sailor; they drink and whore, spend all their money, and don't care for wife or child. Daughter: I will be "some gallant sailor's wife." Mother: Good idea; "I have been told the very most of them Are clever genteel smart young men"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Mother: Don't marry a sailor; when they are ashore they run around like madmen, drink and whore, spend all their money, and don't care for wife or child; a landsman, on the other hand, has "money to lend." Daughter: We would all marry a sailor if one would have us; I will be "some gallant sailor's wife." Mother: Since you have your mind made up marry one "as soon as you can All the money I have shall be at your command For I have been told the very most of them Are clever genteel smart young men"
KEYWORDS: marriage dialog humorous mother sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 87, "Sailors They Are Such a Sort" (1 text)
Roud #4739
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "As I Roved Out (I)" (theme: mother and daughter discuss sailors as husbands)
File: ReSh087

Sailors' Wives, The

DESCRIPTION: "The first one was the gunner's wife and she was dressed in green, And in one corner of her had she stowed the magazine." Other (sailors') wives also come forward in their colors and show what the have accommodated in their "clothing"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Folk Songs of Today, according to Palmer)
KEYWORDS: bawdy wordplay sailor clothes colors
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 147, "The Sailors's Wives" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 56-60, "Four Girls of Plymouth Town"; "Sailors' Wives"; "The Captain's Ball" (3 texts, with a tune for "Sailors' Wives" on p. 151)
Roud #5666
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Four Old Whores" (theme of comparison of body parts)
NOTES [54 words]: Roud lumps this with the "Four Old Whores" family and apparently with "The North Atlantic Squadron." The theme is obviously the same, but the format is so different that I cannot consider them the same song. One may have inspired the other, but whichever one is secondary was clearly created from the ground up. As it were. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: PaSe147

Saint Basil's Song (Αγιος Βασiλης Eρχεται)

DESCRIPTION: (Modern) Greek. A New Year's game. "Hayios Basilis erchete, Kai den mas katadedechete." Saint Basil comes from Cæsarea, telling fortunes and bringing luck for the new year. Christ came first. There are references to the start of the year
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2023 (Piotr archive)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage | New Year game fortunes St. Basil
FOUND IN: US(NE)
RECORDINGS:
Cindy Varlamos Ziemnicki with Eva Ziemnicki & Maria Giannoustos, "Άγιος Βασίλης έρχεται (Κάλαντα Πρωτοχρονιάς)" (Piotr-Archive #598, recorded 06/07/2023); "Άγιος Βασίλης έρχεται (Κάλαντα Πρωτοχρονιάς)" (Piotr-Archive #599, recorded 06/07/2023)
NOTES [286 words]: I can't help but wonder if this didn't begin as a hymn. If the first line read "Αγιος Βασiλευς ερχεται" rather than "Αγιος Βασiλης ερχεται," it would mean "(The) holy king comes" rather than "Holy/Saint Basil comes," which would obviously imply a hymn. It might also explain how a piece like this would survive in America; it would come from the Greek Orthodox church. But I do not know if there is such a hymn, or for that matter if there is a hymn about Saint Basel himself.
The Greek is modern; Basil himself lived long ago that Greek β was probably still pronounced "b," so his name would have probably been pronounced "Basil(es)," but in Modern Greek, β has become "v," and the song calls him "Vasil(es)."
Basil the Great of Cæsarea (born c. 330, died 379) was one of the great "Cappadocian Fathers," and was bishop of Cæasarea in Cappadocia in central Turkey. His major writings mostly deal with the Arian heresy; he was one of the great defenders of orthodox (Nicene) Christianity (Aland, p. 176; Christie-Murray, pp. 52-53). He was also important in creating the communal monastic movement (Loetscher, p. 113), so perhaps it makes sense that he would visit gatherings of people. His Greek writings are sufficiently important to have been included in the Loeb Classical Library, which also gives translations.
Celebrating St. Basil's day on January 1 is specific to the Orthodox churches; although both Catholic West and Orthodox East regard him as a saint, the feast day is different: "Feast in the West: formerly 14 June (his day of consecration), but since 1969 on 2 January with St Gregory Nazianzen [Basil's friend, another "Cappadocian Father"]; feast in the East: 1 January" (OxfordSaints, p. 45), - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcSBasil

Saint Clair's Defeat

DESCRIPTION: Saint Clair leads an army against the Indians "on the banks of the St. Marie." Hundreds of men are killed. Several noteworthy officers are among the casualties. Victims may be scalped or tomahawked. The rest make their way home as best they can.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1836 (songster, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov. 4, 1791 - The army of Gen. Arthur St. Clair, the first (territorial) governor of Ohio, is attacked by Indians on the banks of the Wabash.
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 150-151, "St. Clair's Defeat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 116, "On the Eighth Day of November" (1 text, 1 tune -- though only Eddy's first verse goes with this ballad. Verses 2 and 3 come from "James Ervin" [Laws J15])
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 102, "Sinclaire's Defeat" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of a 1938 broadside), p. 105, "St. Clair's Defeat" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 393-394, "Sinclair's Defeat" (1 text)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 31-32, "St. Clair's Defeat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST E116 (Full)
Roud #4028
NOTES [669 words]: St. Clair's expedition was mounted by President Washington to deal with the refusal of the British to evacuate certain frontier forts. St. Clair was to build a fort on the site of what is now Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Jameson, p. 570, gives this biography of St. Clair, which somehow manages to omit this battle: "St. Clair, Arthur (1734-1818), came to America as a British soldier in 1758. He served under General Amherst at Louisbourg, and distinguished himself at Quebec. Joining the American cause, he accompanied General Sullivan in the expedition to Canada in 1776. He commanded a brigade at Trenton and Princeton. He was appointed major-general and succeeded General Gates at Ticonderoga, which he surrendered [actually, evacuated] in 1777. He fought at Yorktown. He represented Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress from 1785 to 1787, and was Governor of the Northwest Territory from 1789 to 1802."
"Congress appointed Arthur St. Clair, a major general of the Revolution, as the [Northwest]] territory's first governor" (Peckham, p. 30). In the years that followed, there were many minor, and not-so-minor, fights with the local Indians in what is now western Ohio and Indiana. In one of these, one of the leading officers on the frontier, Josiah Harmar, was badly defeated (Burns/Dunn, p. 100). St. Clair decided to lead a force to avenge the defeat. The Miami indians were the particular target. He was supposed to build a series of small forts, anchored by a large one at the mouth of the Maumee (Peckham, p. 32), i.e. near what is now Toledo, Ohio.
St. Clair's force contained both regulars and militia, and as is typical of the militias of this period, they did not work together well. The militia were expected by the end of June 1791, but didn't show up until September, and were under strength. And the terms of some of their enlistments had expired, so they eft, and St. Clair sent some of his regulars after them while taking the rest of his force on his expedition. They ran into perhaps a thousand men under Little Turtle.
The exact magnitude of the defeat is uncertain; although St. Clair set out with a force variously estimated as from 2000 to 3000 men (including the entire U.S. regular army), he may have lost a thousand of those to disease and desertion along the way. Peckham, p. 33. estimates he had 1400 men when he was attacked, and says, "The militia fled, the guns were abandoned, the regulars were no match for the attackers, and soon the whole army was in retreat."
St. Clair's casualties have been variously estimated as 600 to 900 men. One account, Collins, p. 15, "Forces under the command of the territorial governor, Arthur St. Clair, had been walloped by the Indian chief Little Turtle in a fight that would come to be known as St. Clair's Defeat. It would go down in history as the worst loss ever to be suffered by white forces in the Indian wars -- and in fact, in terms of casualty rates, one of the worst defeats in all of American military history. Little Turtle's men, numbering fewer than five hundred, had killed 630 American soldiers -- nearly two-thirds of the total force."
Peckham, p. 33, says, "The killed and wounded amounted to 928, the worst defeat suffered by American arms up to modern times. Migration to the West was checked. President Washington was angry and chagrined. He appointed his old comrade Anthony Wayne to command the U. S. Army and reorganize it."
Burns/Dunn, p. 100, says there were 600 casualties, which they calculate as almost half the force.
Somehow, St. Clair, despite this, was still on the job for another decade! But it was Anthony Wayne's forces which won the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and forced a peace, in which the Indians "ceded over twenty-five thousand square miles of eastern and southern Ohio for $25,000 and a $9,500 annuity" (Burns/Dunn, p. 100). A history of mistreatment of the Indians by the United States government had begun.
As "On the Eighth Day of November, " this song is item dA30 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: E116

Saint George and Mormon Dixie

DESCRIPTION: "St. George is bright and sunny, Its cloudless skies are blue, Its flowers are fair and bonnie, Its faithful saints are true." Other traits of the area are listed. "For St. George and Mormon Dixie I'd rather live than die."
AUTHOR: Charles L. Walker (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: home derivative | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 117-118, "St. George and Mormon Dixie" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10852
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Annie Laurie" (tune)
NOTES [17 words]: For St. George, Utah, and other songs about it, see the notes to "Saint George and the Drag-On." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS117

Saint George and the Drag-On

DESCRIPTION: "Oh what a dreary place this was when first the Mormons found it; They said no white men here could live...." But Mormon industry has transformed it, and "St. George ere long will be a place that everyone admires."
AUTHOR: Charles L. Walker (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle); supposedly written c. 1870
KEYWORDS: home work | Mormon
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 26, "St. George and the Drag-On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 113-115, "St. George and the Drag-On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 16, "(no title)" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, pp. 330-331, "Saint George and the Drag-On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp.n252-253, "St. George" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8596
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "St. George and Mormon Dixie" (subject: The St. George/Mormon Dixie region)
cf. "Marching to Dixie" (subject: The St. George/Mormon Dixie region)
cf. "Once I Lived in Cottonwood" (subject: The St. George/Mormon Dixie region)
cf. "Lo a Temple" (subject: The St. George/Mormon Dixie region)
cf. "Pounding Rock into the Temple Foundation" (subject: The St. George/Mormon Dixie region)
cf. "Song for the Temple Volunteers" (subject: The St. George/Mormon Dixie region)
cf. "The Gift of the Sego Lily" (subject: The St. George/Mormon Dixie region)
NOTES [217 words]: After the Mormons settled in the Salt Lake City area, they set out to create additional communities in the area. According to Claudia Lauper Bushman and Richard Lyman Bushman, Building the Kingdom: A History of Mormons in America, Oxford University Press, 1999, 2001, p. 51, "To populate these settlements, Brigham Young called upon people to leave Salt Lake Valley and establish new towns. He read their names from the pulpit in general conference sessions, expecting them to pack up their belongings and set out." The Bushmans describe some people's grief at being so ordered, but when de Massa speaks, de Darkies obey.... At least they had the option to quit the church!
St. George is in southwestern Utah, just north of the Arizona border and not far from the Nevada boundary. It is not far from the Dixie National Forest (and the site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre); the Mormons referred to the region as "Dixie." It is perhaps a little more habitable than most of Utah -- and, of course, the Mormons, with their centralized, semi-communal society were very efficient at making a living in seemingly-impossible settings. On the other hand, it was smaller and less pleasant than the Salt Lake area, so we do see complaints about being ordered there, such as "Once I Lived in Cottonwood." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FCW26

Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena)

DESCRIPTION: A lament for Napoleon, "gone from his wars and his fightings." His past splendor is contrasted with his current fate. The sorrow of his wife Louisa is alluded to. His death is attributed to the malice of his enemies.
AUTHOR: James Watt? (source: broadside Bodleian Firth c.16(84))
EARLIEST DATE: 1830 (broadside cited by Samuel Lover; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: exile lament Napoleon death grief
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1815 - Defeat at the Battle of Waterloo forces Napoleon into exile
1821 - Death of Napoleon
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Ireland US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 209, "The Isle of Saint Helena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 96, "Lonely Louisa" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 146-147, "The Isle of St. Helena" (1 text plus reference to 1 more)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 30, "Napoleon Bonaparte" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 143, "Bony on the Isle of St. Helena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 205-207, "Bonaparte on St. Helena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 146, "The Isle of St. Helena" (4 texts, mostly defective)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 146, "The Isle of St. Helena" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes, with 2 of the tunes from C. K. TIllett but the "E" tune, and text, entirely unlike the others)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 109, "Napoleon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 173, "Boney's Defeat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boswell/Wofle 90, p. 143, "Bonaparte" (1 short text, 1 tune, clearly this but with most of the names badly damaged)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 111-112, "Napoleon Song," "Bonaparte on St. Helena" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 83, "Napoleon the Exile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 205-206, "Buonaparte on St. Helena" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 102-104, "Napoleon Bonaparte" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BNYSTHEL* BNYSTHE2
ST E096 (Full)
Roud #349
RECORDINGS:
Charles K. "Tink" Tillett, "Bony on the Isle of St. Helena" (on USWarnerColl01) [called simply "Bony" on the CD sleeve; the longer title is in the interior notes]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 205, "The Island of St. Helena," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(1517), Firth c.16(99), Firth b.34(201), Harding B 11(847) [some words illegible], Harding B 11(1810), Harding B 11(1811), "Isle of St. Helena"; Harding B 25(1716), Harding B 11(3955), "The Island of St. Helena"; Harding B 25(245), "Bonapate's Lamentation at the Island of St. Helena"; Firth c.16(84), "Bonaparte's Departure for St. Helena"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell to Mackenzie" (meter)
cf. "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris" (subject)
cf. "The Royal Eagle" (subject: Marie Louisa's grief for Napoleon)
cf. "The New Bunch of Loughero" (theme: Marie Louise's grief for Napoleon)
cf. "The Removal of Napoleon's Ashes" (theme: Marie Louise's grief for Napoleon)
cf. "The Braes of Balquhither" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Firth c.16(84))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Napoleon
Bone Part
NOTES [539 words]: The grief of Marie Louisa of Austria (Napoleon's second wife) has become the only surviving theme in certain American versions of this ballad. Historically, there is little basis for this; she refused to go into exile with him to Elba, let alone St. Helena.
In fact, even before Napoleon went to Elba, she is reported to have taken General Adam Adelbert Neipperg as a lover. When he came back during the Hundred Days, she not only refused to join him, she wouldn't even allow him to see his son. By the time Napoleon died, Louisa had borne two children to other fathers.
"Mount Diana," referred to in some texts, is properly Diana's Peak, the highest point on Saint Helena (about 825 ft/250 meters above sea level). The link of Diana with the moon clearly reveals that this piece began life as a broadside; someone was using classical analogies.
The "Holy Alliance" is the coalition formed immediately after Napoleon's downfall. Its purpose was to prevent the rise of any Bonapartist pretenders. Ironically for an alliance that called itself "holy," the primary nations involved (Austria, Prussia, Russia; England was not a member) were more regressive than France. In addition, it eventually failed of its purpose, as Napoleon III later took over France.
This song seems to be known mostly from broadsides in Britain; its popularity and firm hold in tradition in the U. S. probably derives from its inclusion in the Forget-Me-Not Songster.
Ben Schwartz brought to my attention the attribution of this song to James Watt found in broadside Bodleian Firth c.16(84). There are two poems on ths broadside (which is rare but not unknown), and this one has an extended prose introduction (which is even more rare). What is more, the two songs do not appear to come from the same printing house: "Bonaparte's Departure for St. Helena" appears to be self-published, while the accompanying item, "Napoleon is the Boy For Kicking up a Row," is from one of the Poet's Box outlets (though the exact one has been scratched out).
Is this the original? It lacks one of the six standard stanzas, and there are many verbal differences from the usual texts. Even more curious is the occasional hints of confornity with Scots dialect. I can only say that there appears to have been recensional activity -- but whether that activity was applied by Watt to create this text, or by the Forget-Me-Not Songster, or by someone else, I cannot tell. I'm not ready to concede authorship on the rather thin basis of one broadside.
That said, it appears that James Moulden accepts the attribution -- at least, he cites it while mentioning Samuel Lover's quotation of parts of the song; see John Moulden, "Ballads and Ballad Singers: Samuel Lover's Tour of Dublin in 1830," -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition, Ashgate, 2014, p. 139. - RBW
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "The Isle of St Helena" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: E096

Saint James Infirmary

DESCRIPTION: Big Joe McKennedy is in the bar, reporting that he "went down to St. James Infirmary, And I saw my baby there, Stretched out on a long white table...." He gambled, and now must pay. He prepares to die, makes requests for his funeral, (blames the woman)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: disease death funeral drink
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 94, "How Sad Was the Death of my Sweetheart" (1 short text, with few of the familiar words but the correct plot and the "Let her go, let her go" chorus)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 228-231, "Those Gambler's Blues" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #43, "St. James Infirmary" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 257, "Gambler's Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XIII, pp. 148-190 (29-30), "Cow Boy's Lament" (22 texts, 7 tunes, the "N" text being in fact a version of this piece)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 3, "St. James's Infirmary" (1 excerpt)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 9-10, "Gambler's Blues" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 76, "St. James Infirmary" (1 text)
DT 350, STJAME
Roud #2
RECORDINGS:
Louis Armstrong & his Hot Five, "St. James Infirmary" (OKeh 8657, 1929; rec. 1928)
Rube Bloom & his Bayou Boys, "St. James' Infirmary" (Columbia 2103-D, 1930)
Dock Boggs, "Old Joe's Barroom" (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1)
Chick Bullock, "St. James Infirmary" (Velvet Tone 7063-V, 1930/Diva 6037, n.d.)
Martha Copeland, "Dyin' Crap Shooter's Blues" (Columbia 14427-D, 1929; rec. 1927)
Snooks Eaglin, "St. James Infirmary" (on ClassAfrAm)
Rosa Henderson, "Dyin' Crap Shooter's Blues" (Pathe Actuelle 7535/Perfect 135/TMH 7535, 1927)
Mattie Hite, "St. Joe's Infirmary" (Columbia 15403-D, 1930)
Frankie Marvin, "Those Gambler's Blues" (Crown 3076, 1931)
Viola McCoy, "Dyin' Crap Shooter's Blues" (Romeo 453 [as Fannie Johnson]/Cameo 1225/Lincoln 2690, 1927)
Pete Seeger, "St. James Infirmary" (on PeteSeeger32)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bad Girl's Lament (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime)" [Laws Q26] (theme)
cf. "Dying Crapshooter's Blues" (theme, floating verses)
cf. "Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection)" (the "let her go" lyrics)
cf. ""Sweet Heaven (II)" (the "let her go" lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Old Time Gambler's Song
NOTES [139 words]: Many early jazz & popular recordings attribute authorship (of the popular version) to "Joe Primrose," a pseudonym for Irving Mills. His copyright, though, seems to have been registered in 1929, or after Armstrong's influential recording. Presumably he was registering ownership rather than authorship. - PJS
Roud lumps this with the large "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1]/"Unfortunate Rake" group; it probably comes from the same roots, but I would definitely consider it a separate song.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 384, estimates that this was the eighth most popular song in America in March 1930 (#1 for the year being Mary Hale Woolsey, Milton Taggart, and Robert Sauer's "When It's Springtime in the Rockies"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: San228

Saint John's Girl

DESCRIPTION: The singer happens to be in St John's and meets a pretty girl who drinks his champagne. He buys her a pair of kid gloves. Given a kiss and thinking to score, the singer looks to pawn his gold watch but finds she had already lifted it and his scarf pin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: seduction theft beauty trick drink clergy
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 87, "St John's Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab087 (Partial)
Roud #9975
NOTES [55 words]: Newfoundland had a long history of hostilities between "townies" (residents of St. John's) and "baymen" (people from the outports). I would guess that this started as an outport sailor's warning against the wiles of the people of St. John's. For a song about the problems between baymen and townies, see "Mussels in the Corner." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: LLab087

Saint Jonah

DESCRIPTION: "I sent Saint Jonah, I sent him down to the field ah, To see about his horses ah, I had to go after him ah, And you reckon where he as at ah?" He is on a log, playing a corn stalk fiddle and with the singer's wife's big toe
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: music worker
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 171, "Saint Jonah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11363
File: Brne171

Saint Keven and King O'Toole

DESCRIPTION: "Saint Keven once was traveling through a place called Glendalough, He chanced to meet with King O'Toole." The king mourns his sick gander. Kevin cures it for the land over which it flies. The king complains that it's too much land but yields
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "Saint Keven once was traveling through a place called Glendalough, He chanced to meet with King O'Toole." The king calls him a stranger but offers to share his pipe. The king mourns his sick gander. Kevin offers to cure it in return for the land over which it flies. The gander is cured, flies over "twenty miles of land"; the king complains but yields
KEYWORDS: royalty bird disease promise
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 159, "St. Keven and King O'Tool" (1 text)
Roud #31617 and V37545
NOTES [274 words]: Hard to believe this is traditional, but apparently there is an Irish manuscript copy that might be folk (that's Roud #31617), so I index it.
This is almost a prototype for legends of Saint Kevin: It happened at Glendalough, it involves an animal, and it has very vague historical roots. David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, fifth edition, 2003 (I use the 2004 paperback edition), p. 302. says of Keven/Kevin: "KEVIN (Coemgen) (d. c.618), founder and abbot of Glengalough (Co. Wicklow). The Latin and Irish lives all date from at least 400 years after his death, tell little about the saint, and were written to further the claims of Glendalough, by then an important monastery and diocese." According to the legends, his family was said to have included Leinster royalty but to have been displaced, and he is said to have been educated by monks. He became a hermit near Glendalough (there are some alleged Kevin sites there, none of which have any demonstrable accuracy).
His special skill with birds and animals is reflected in a tale of a blackbird that actually laid an egg in his hand while he prayed, and he stayed still until it hatched successfully. An otter is also said to have brought salmon which fed his community. He is said to have lived to the age of 120.
The "King O'Toole" of the song was presumably inspires by Laurence O'Toole. Laurence O'Toole, according to Farmer, p. 314, is historical but not a king and not contemporary with Kevin; born probably 1128, and having spent time at Glendalough, he was Archbishop of Dublin 1162-1180 (i.e. at the time of the English invasion); he himself was canonized in 1225. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: HMHS159A

Saint Louis, Bright City

See Behind These Stone Walls (File: R165)

Saint Nicholas

DESCRIPTION: "Saint Nicholas was of great post (?)." Three young women are told that they must leave their father, who can no longer care for them. All three pray to Saint Nicholas to be saved from prostitution. He sends arranges for them to find husbands
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1430 (British Museum -- Sloane MS. 2593)
KEYWORDS: money religious marriage gold father children whore MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #315, p. 218, "Seynt Nicholas was of gret poste" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3034
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #4738
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 2
NOTES [410 words]: This occurs in only one manuscript, but it is a very important one, Sloane 2593, which includes many items which seem to be of folk origin.
Moreover, the poem as it stands appears to contain several errors of memory. The form in most of the stanzas is for all lines of a verse to rhyme, but the first stanza runs
Seynt Nicholas was of gret post [Saint Nicholas was of great post (?), i.e. "high position" ?]
For he worchipid maydenis thre [For he worshipped maidens three]
That wer sent in fer cuntre [That we sent in/to (a) far country]
Common wommen for to be [Common women, i.e. prostitutes, for to be].
Similarly, the fourth verse reads
The eldest dowter swor be bred of qwete [The eldest daughter swore by bread of wheat]
"I haue leuere beggyn myn mete [I would sooner beg my bread]
And getyn me good qwer I may get [And get good where I may get (it)]
Thann ledyn myn lyf in lecheri." [Than live my life in lechery.]
The final line of this verse occurs also in verse five, where it rhymes properly. Thus it appears the original final line of verse four has been forgotten.
These are enough hints of oral tradition that I have indexed the song.
The song is a brief retelling, with the ending almost entirely lost (another hint of oral tradition), of perhaps the most famous story of Saint Nicholas. Philip D. Noble, editor, The Watkins Dictionary of Saints, Watkins Publishing, 2007, p. 173, sums it up as foows:
"When Nicholas heard that a merchant of Patara had lost all his money, thus depriving his three daughters of any prospect of marriage, he went at night with a bag of gold coins and lobbed it through their window. This provided enough for the eldest girl's dowry and she was duly married. Nicholas repeated this action with the second daughter and, when he attempted to secretly provide for the third in the same way, his generosity was discovered by her father who overwhelmed him with grateful thanks."
Sloane 2539 has another carol on Saint Nicolas ("Make ye merie as ye may"/"In Patras, there born was he"; Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols #316; IMEV #1522; DIMEV #2564) which also refers to this incident, as well as to Nicolas raising three clerks who had been executed and "wern in salt"), but that does not have such a folk-type stanza form or show the same signs of folk transmission, so I haven't indexed it (except, indirectly, in this note).
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MsSeyNic

Saint Patrick of Ireland, My Dear!

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls St Patrick's miracles while the liquor holds out: he arrived mounted on "a paving stone," drank a gallon of liquor from a quart pot, turned mutton to salmon on Friday, and drove out the snakes.
AUTHOR: Dr Maginn (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (_Blackwoods Magazine_, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: drink food Ireland humorous supernatural
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 28-33, "St Patrick of Ireland, My Dear!" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Night Before Larry Was Stretched" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
NOTES [215 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland discusses the miracles in some detail. Apparently, it was not Patrick himself but a leprous disciple -- refused passage on Patrick's ship by the crew -- who accompanied the ship on Patrick's stone altar thrown into the sea as a float for the purpose. Patrick, at one point, craves meat on Friday but an apparition has Patrick put the meat into water; when the meat turned into fishes Patrick was saved by the miraculous sign from sinning and never ate meat again. Dr Maginn's source for the "facetious" [Croker's term] song is Father Jocelyn who, Croker points out, did not mention the "miracle of the Saint's 'never-emptying can, commonly called St Patrick's pot'." In the last verse the singer wishes that he had such a pot so that he could continue the song. - BS
According to Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia, Dr. William Maginn (1793-1842) was the "Prototype of Captain Shandon in Pendennis by Thackeray." The New Century Handbook of English Literature lists him as the co-founder of Fraser's Magazine, and mentions among his works The City of Demons and Bob Burke's Duel with Ensign Bray. His most popular poem was probably "I Give My Soldier Boy a Blade," though I find myself more intrigued by the title "the Rime of the Auncient Waggonere." - RBW
File: CPS028

Saint Patrick Was a Gentleman

DESCRIPTION: "St. Patrick was a gentleman, and came of decent people"; they are named O'Houlihan, O'Shaughnessy... He preached from a high hill and "banished all the varmin!" Vermin's misfortunes are described. He planted turf, brought pigs and brewed good whiskey.
AUTHOR: Henry Bennett and Mr. Toleken (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)? (see NOTES re Zozimus)
EARLIEST DATE: 1814-1815 (according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous patriotic religious animal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 22-27, "St Patrick Was a Gentleman" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 105, "St Patrick Was a Gentleman" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 154, "Saint Patrick Was a Gentleman" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Gulielmus Dubliniensis Humoriensis [Joseph Tully?], Memoir of the Great Original Zozimus (Michael Moran) (Dublin,1976 (reprint of the 1871 edition, which is available on Google Books)), pp. 9-10, "St. Patrick Was a Gintleman" (1 text)
Roud #13377
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(241c), "St. Patrick Was a Gentleman", T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also 2806 c.18(277), Harding B 11(3395), Harding B 20(151), Harding B 11(2874), "St. Patrick Was a Gentleman"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Patrick's Day Parade" (opening line)
NOTES [330 words]: The Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland and O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland texts are very close, with a few place and person names changed and verse order changed. Croker would have considered the names of the Saint's parents on his father's side a significant change. Croker has that "His father was a Gallagher, His mother was a Brady"; both texts agree on his mother's side. Croker explains the pedigree: "St Patrick was an Irish [not French, Scotch, Welsh, ....] gentleman. The Gallaghers were a family of consideration in Donegal; the Bradys were the same in Cavan; the O'Shaughnessy, ditto in Galway; and the O'Gradys 'possessed that part of Clare which is now called the Barony of Bunratty.' This 'respectable' pedigree settles the matter."
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland says that two verses "were subsequent additions by other hands [than Bennett and Toleken]" Those are the verses missing from the broadsides. - BS
In this index, Toleken is also responsible for "Judy MacCarthy of Fishamble Lane."
The line "Saint Patrick was a gentleman" seems to have been a commonplace; Edward Harrigan used it as the opening of his song "Patrick's Day Parade." For Harrigan, see the notes to "Babies on our Block."
"Zozimus" also sang this song, and is sometimes given credit for it; for Zozimus, see the notes to "The Finding of Moses." The best evidence against his authorship is probably the song's early date; if it really goes back to 1815 or earlier, Zozimus was barely into his twenties when the song came out.
The claim that Saint Patrick had ancestors with Irish names is, of course, ridiculous. We don't really know much about the life of Patrick, but what we have is based on his own autobiographical accounts, which state quite clearly that he was born in post-Roman Britain and was taken to Ireland as a slave. It does appear that he was a "gentleman," in the sense that his family was fairly well-to-do, but if he had a family surname, it would have been a Roman name! -RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: OCon105

Saint Patrick's Arrival

DESCRIPTION: Saint Patrick exhortes the Irish to give up poteen and gives them other stuff to drink. They dump his stuff into a puncheon where it mixes with whisky. He tries to ask about the puncheon but they think he said "punch" and so name the drink.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Saint Patrick arrives in Bantry Bay "on the back of a whale" and is greeted by bosthoons, spalpeens, and other rustics. He promises to bring them together and rid them of their sins while he entertains them by driving the devil "beyond the Black Sea." Then he exhorts them to give up poteen. He sleeps and, when he wakes, is upset to find them with their cruiskeens and bags filled with whisky. He tries replacing their whisky with "something sweet ... [and] something sour" while they sleep. When they wske they dumped his stuff into a tub [puncheon] where it mixes with whisky. "By the side of this mixture Each man grew a fixture." Patrick is upset at his plan being foiled by this "spawn of Druids" He tries to ask about the puncheon but, in the uproar, only "punch" could be heard. The drinkers assumed that "punch ... is the name of this thing That is drink for a king."
KEYWORDS: drink Ireland humorous religious Devil talltale wordplay
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 16-22, "Saint Patrick's Arrival" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Patrick's Day in the Morning" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
NOTES [111 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "Explanatory of the Origin of the word 'Punch.'" Puncheon here is taken to be "a large cask of varying capacity" (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976; the same source has "punch, as "a hot or cold beverage ....," with a derivation perhaps from the Hindi or Sanskrit word for five, from "the number of ingredients.") - BS
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "The editor has been told that the author is a gentleman named Wood, an officer of the army; and that, some years since, the song was printed in the Cork Southern Reporter newspaper with the signature 'Lanner de Waltram.'" - BS
File: CrPS016

Saint Patrick's Day

DESCRIPTION: Ask Patrick's protection. He secured Ireland's faith for the Catholic church. We pray for his support for Irish independence. In 1800 Pitt managed parliament's dissolution. Our champions now are Dan O'Connell, Shiel, and tithe opponent Fergus O'Connor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political religious
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1759-1806 - Life of William Pitt the Younger, Prime Minister 1783-1801 and from 1804 until his death
1775-1847 - Life of Daniel O'Connell
1794-1855 - life of Fergus (Feargus) O'Connor
1798 - United Irish rebellion causes England to decide on Union with Ireland
1800 - Act of Union passed by British and Irish parliaments, causing a parliamentary Union to take effect in 1801
FOUND IN:
Roud #V39991
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(75), "St. Patrick's Day" ("Ye sons of this lovely but ill fated nation"), unknown, n.d.
NOTES [472 words]: The form and last line of each verse suggest that the tune is "St Patrick's Day in the Morning."
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 25(75) is the basis for the description.
The reference .".. our noble parliament then was dismembered ... pitt managed ...."[The broadside misses capitalization throughout] is to the 1801 "Act of Union" -- supported by Pitt and Robert Stewart (Lord Castlereagh) -- that formed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" and abolished the Dublin Parliament. (sources: Britain and Ireland by Marjie Bloy on the Victorian Web site;Robert Stewart, Lord Castlereagh on the Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos site)
The reference to tithe opposition suggests a date for this broadside before the end of "The Tithe War." Daniel O'Connell's Catholic Association was formed in 1823 to resist the requirement that Irish Catholics pay tithes to the Anglican Church of Ireland. The "war" was passive for most of the period 1823-1836, though there were violent incidents in 1831 (source: The Irish Tithe War 1831 at the OnWar.com site)
Shiel in this broadside is probably Richard Lalor Sheil, one of O'Connells lieutenants (see Zimmermann, p. 256). - BS
Fergus O'Connor was elected M.P. for Cork in 1832 and 1835 and, in 1832, was involved in passing the Reform Act. (sources: Zimmermann p. 212, "Feargus O'Connor (1794-1855)" at the BBC site) - BS
It should be noted that Saint Patrick did *not* secure Ireland for the Catholic Church -- that, in fact, was done by the English, who suppressed the practices of the Celtic Church; Henry II invaded, with the consent of Pope Adrian IV in the bull Laudabiliter (Fry/Fry, pp. 67-72; Golway, pp. 10-12). Patrick helped bring Christianity to Ireland in the sixth century (OxfordCompanion, p. 434), but distance from Rome had caused the local version to drift far from the Roman standard (something which had, incidentally, happened in England also, though England, being closer to Rome, had regularized things at the Synod of Whitby centuries before).
Despite the fact that, were Patrick around today, he would be labelled at least a schismatic and probably a heretic by the Catholic church, he was venerated from a very early period; the first hymn to him appears to date from the seventh century, i.e. within about a hundred years of when he was active (OxfordCompanion, p. 434). But OxfordCompanion, p. 66, notes that Saint Patrick's Day, although rooted in church custom, came to be primarily political.
For the Irish parliament destroyed by the Act of Union, see especially "Ireland's Glory." For the Act of Union itself, see "The Wheels of the World" and also "The Shan Van Voght (1848)." For Daniel O'Connell, see "Daniel O'Connell (II)" plus the many songs cited under "Daniel O'Connell (I)." For Fergus O'Connor, see "Fergus O'Connor and Independence." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: BdStPaDy

Saint Patrick's Day in Paris

DESCRIPTION: Let Irishmen and honest men, in Ireland or France, "religiously think 'Tis his duty to drink On St Patrick's day in the morning" War is past. "Can Wellington's glory be ever forgot On the banks of the Seine, or the banks of the Shannon?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: war drink France Ireland humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 33-34, "St Patrick's Day in Paris" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Patrick's Day in the Morning" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
NOTES [47 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "From a manuscript copy in the autograph of Sir Jonah Barrington, endorsed, 'Sung with great applause at a meeting which assembled in the City of Paris, to celebrate the anniversary of the Saint of Hibernia.' This was, probably, the 17th March, 1816." - BS
File: CPS033

Saint Patrick's Day in the Morning (I)

DESCRIPTION: Saint Patrick drove out the witches and necromancers. "This champion of Christ did their magic expel." "He showed ... the right way to live and the true way to die ... On Saint Patrick's Day in the morning"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: Ireland patriotic religious magic
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 129, "Saint Patrick's Day in the Morning" (1 fragment)
RECORDINGS:
Jack Myric, "Patrick's Day" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [12 words]: The current description is based on the Tunney-StoneFiddle fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: TSF129

Saint Patrick's Day in the Morning (II)

DESCRIPTION: "On St Patrick's day in the morning" there'll be music, dancing, fine food, and whiskey. St Patrick may not have made the blind to see but "many great things he did for his island." Celebrate the day. "All this to begin, sir, We think it no sin, sir"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(213))
KEYWORDS: dancing drink music Ireland humorous nonballad religious
FOUND IN:
Roud #V21514
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(213), "St. Patrick's Day in the Morning" ("Ye lads and ye lasses so buxom and clever"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824
NOTES [12 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 28(213) is the basis for the description. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BdSPDIM2

Saint Stephen and Herod [Child 22]

DESCRIPTION: Stephen sees the star of Bethlehem, and tells his master King Herod that he can no longer serve him because he must serve the better child in Bedlam. Herod says that the roasted cock will sooner crow. It does crow, and Herod has Stephen stoned.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1430 (British Library -- Sloane MS. 2593); printed by Ritson 1790
KEYWORDS: religious bird execution MiddleEnglish
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
4 B.C.E. - Death of Herod the Great
(not before) 30 C.E. - Death of Stephen
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Child 22, "St Stephen and Herod" (1 text)
Bronson 22, "St Stephen and Herod" (1 version)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 217-218, "St. Stephen and Herod" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's (#1)}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 239-241, "St. Stephen and Herod" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's (#1)}
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 123-124, "Saint Stephen was a Clerk" (1 text)
Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols, p. 126, "Saint Steuene was a clerk in yng erowdis halle" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 121-123, "A Carol for Saint Stephens Day" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 107-108, "St. Stephen and Herod" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 98, "St. Stephen and King Herod" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 1, "Saint Stephen and Herod" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 295-296+362, "St. Stephen and Herod" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, p. 127, "Saint Stephen and Herod" (1 text)
DT 22, STPHEROD*
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3058
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #4761
ADDITIONAL: Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #10, p. 56, "Saint Stephen" (1 text)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, p. 79, "(Saint Stephen and Herod)" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #255, "A Carol for Saint Stephen's Day" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 22
Roud #3963
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesu was born in Bethlehem Judea" (theme of the steward telling Herod of Jesus"
cf. "The Roasted Cock" (plot)
cf. "The Wife of Usher's Well" (plot)
NOTES [213 words]: For the stoning of Stephen (c. 30-31 C.E.) see Acts 7:54-8:2 (note that Herod had been dead for more than thirty years when Stephen was killed!).
For the birth of Jesus in the time of Herod (probably 6 B.C.E) see Matt. 1:18-2:23, Luke 1:5f.
For the cruelty of Herod, see also Josephus, Antiquities (the end of Herod's life is the primary theme of Josephus's book XVII, detailing, e.g., the executions of several of Herod's sons and the mass slaughter he planned to follow his death).
For the vexed question of the origin of the legend of the roasted cock, see the notes to "The Carnal and the Crane" [Child 55].
For a more accurate set of verses about the stoning of Stephen, that might be a traditional song or might be a religious poem, see Roman Dyboski, Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #41, p. 32, "[The Stoning of St. Stephen]" (1 text)
The only recent find of this, and the only version with a tune, is the version Flanders collected from George Edwards; she speculates that his source (his grandfather) may have learned it from print.
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C022

Saint Stephen Was a Clerk

See Saint Stephen and Herod [Child 22] (File: C022)

Saint Stephen, God's Knight (I shall you tell this ylke night)

DESCRIPTION: "Of Saint Stephen, God's knight, That preached the faith day and night, He told the Jews, as it was right, That Christ was born of a may." The Jews reject his claim; he argues. They stone him to death; dying,he forgives them and commend his soul to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1550 (Richard Kele's Christmas Carolles Newly Inprynted)
KEYWORDS: death religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #101, pp. 64-65, "(no title)" (2 texts)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1363.5
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2276
ADDITIONAL: Edward Bliss Reed, editor, _Christmas Carols Printed in the Sixteenth Century Including Kele's Christmas carolles newely Inprynted reproduced in facsimile from the copy in the Huntington Library_, Harvard University Press, 1932, pp. 51-53 ([33-35]), "Of saynt Steyen"; p. 60 [42], "(no title)" (2 texts)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Egerton 3307, folio 54
ST MSSSGK (Partial)
NOTES [380 words]: This is a curiosity: Richard Kele printed a volume of "Christmas Carols" c. 1545. This is not the earliest printed carol book in English -- Wynkyn de Worde had printed the first some decades earlier -- but it is the earliest to survive relatively intact. Kele's publication has two texts on Saint Stephen. They are clearly the same song (except that the second page of the second copy has been lost, so we don't know how it ended). But although clearly the same item, they are extremely different in detail:
* The one that appears earlier in the book has the burden, "To Saynt Steuen wyl we pray, To pray for vs bothe nyght and day"; the later one has the chorus "Blessyd Stephan, we the pray, Pro nobis preces funde."
* The first one opens "Of Saynt Steuen, Goddes knyght, That preched the fayth day and nyght"; the second, "I shall you tell this ylke nyght Of Saynt Stephan, Goddes knyght."
* The second verse of the earlier text has Stephen proclaim the Virgin Birth; this is omitted in the second.
* There are other differences in verse order, which might be more marked if we had all of both texts
It is evident that Kele had two quite distinct source for his two texts. How could such dramatic differences have arisen? Given the possibility that it was by oral tradition, I have indexed the song, despite the lack of field collections.
It should be noted that the longer version has the story of Stephen largely wrong. Yes, he was tried by the Jews for his Christianity, and stoned as a result; this story occupies Acts, Chapter 7. But Stephen never said a word about the Virgin Birth, at least in the account in Acts; the Virgin Birth is found only in the Gospel of Matthew. He did argue with his judges, but not in the way described here. And while Stephen forgave his murderers, he did not say "Forgyve the Jewes theyr trespace And gyue theym grace to se thy face" (though one hopes he would have agreed with the sentiment); what he actually said was, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." This is another indirect hint that this song went through oral tradition; this is a big enough divergence from the Biblical facts that one must suspect the song was written before the Bible was available in English to let the carol writer get it right. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSSSGK

Saint Thomas of Canterbury

DESCRIPTION: "Listen, lordings, both great and small" as the singer tells "a wonder tale" of the "clerk... of Canterbury." "Knights came from Henry King" to slay Thomas. He died in the "mother church." "Worship ye Thomas in all your life."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1430 (British Library -- Sloane MS. 2593)
KEYWORDS: religious death royalty MiddleEnglish
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1170 - Murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #114, pp. 72-73, "(A, a, a, a, Nunc gaudet ecclesia)" (1 text with variant readings)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1892
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3113
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #40, p. 31, "[The murder of Thomas a Beket]" (1 text)
Carleton Brown, editor, _Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1939, #123, pp. 189-190, "The Martyrdom of St. Thomas" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 227
MANUSCRIPT: {MSCaiusCollege383}, Cambridge, Gonville & Caius College MS. 383, page 68
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 23
MANUSCRIPT: London (Kew), Public Record Office C 47/34/1/12
NOTES [1880 words]: Greene's The Early English Carols lists four carols about Thomas Becket (the name "Thomas a Becket" is a late distortion; Tyerman, p. 202), #113-#116. This, #114, is by far the most popular, appearing in four different manuscripts; it appears that none of the others appears in more than one, and with the exception of #115, they don't appear in very "folk-ish" manuscripts.
Although this is a carol about an historical character, the text (at least as printed by Greene) has only the most limited actual historical references:
"The gretest clerk of al this lond, Of Cauntyrbery": Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury when he died.
"Knytes kemyn fro Hendry King": Becket was slain by four knights who responded to an outburst by King Henry II. Nominally the two English Archbishops, Canterbury and York, were of equal rank, but everyone knew that the see of Canterbury was richer, more populous -- and closer to the center of power.
"Thomeys"/"Thomas": the only real name used by Thomas himself; he did not like his surname Becket (Tyerman, p. 202).
"Worchepe ye Thomeys": Becket was made a saint soon after his death.
Greene, p. 374, mentions a few other words that match with the chronicles ("altar," "traitor"), but while these are genuine parallels, they frankly struck me as commonplaces. Still, his notes are worth reading.
Thomas Becket was born around 1120, and killed 1170. Thomas, son of Gilbert Becket, was anything but a natural choice for a saint or a bishop: "Chaucer's 'holy, blissful martyr' redeemed a life of fame, conflict, vanty, pride and failure by being hacked to bits by four probably rather drunk knights one dark December evening in Canterbury Cathedral [and became a legend as a result].... The reality, however, if not the stuff of legend, is almost that of fiction" [Tyerman, p. 202].
The Chaucer reference above is to line 17 of the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales; Chaucer/Benson, p. 23, gives the text of the line as "The hooly blisful martir for to seek" -- i.e. the Canterbury Pilgrims were bound for the shrine of Becket at Canterbury (although the earliest manuscript of the passage, in the Hengwrt manuscript, write the line as "The holy blisful martir for to seke..." -- and Chaucer/Andrew/Ransom/Moorman, volume 1A p. 129, shows no variation whatsoever in the text).
Becket -- who was Norman, not English -- had had some education in Paris (Warren, p. 56) and began his career as a mercer and worked for a banker (Tyerman, pp. 202-203; OxfordCompanion, p. 88). In 1145/1146, while in his mid-twenties, he joined the household of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, and proved an adept enough clerk that they sent him off for further education (OxfordSaints, p. 505). He was made Archdeacon of Canterbury in 1154 (Tyerman, p. 203).
Henry II (reigned 1154-1189) was the son of Matilda/Maud, the only legitimate child of King Henry I to live to have children; in 1128 she had been made to marry as her second husband Geoffrey of Anjou. It was not a happy match, but they managed to have three children (Brooke, p. 184; for more on the May-December marriage of Matilda and Geoffrey, see the notes to "A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing)" [Laws O35]), Matilda should have succeeded Henry I when he died in 1135, and her son Henry should have been her heir, but the barons of England, not wanting a queen to rule them, instead chose Stephen, the second son of William the Conqueror's daughter Adela (Brooke, pp. 39-49; genealogy on p. 9 of Warren). Stephen was a disaster; although he won a civil war with Matilda, he simply didn't know how to govern.
In the 1150s, the young Henry (born probably 1133) pursue his claim to the throne on his own. In 1152, he married Eleanor of Aquiitaine (for more on this, see "Queen Eleanor's Confession [Child 156]" and, again, "A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing)" [Laws O35]). In 1153, he invaded England. Stephen -- who had just lost his oldest son and heir, decided to accept Henry as his heir if allowed to serve out his reign in peace (Wilson, p. 14). In 1154, Stephen died and Henry II became king (OxfordCompanion, p. 888).
When Henry II became King, Theobald for some reason suggested that the worldly Thomas become Henry's Chancellor. He did that job in a rather desultory way, but became Henry's close friend and personal advisor (Tyerman, p. 204). "His zeal in the king's interests, even when they appeared to conflict with the church's, gave Theobald much cause for concern and, not surprisingly, led Henry to believe that Thomas was his loyal friend" (OxfordCompanion, p. 88). Henry found him so good a supporter that he showered him with gifts, and Becket acted more and more like a great magnate, even competing successfully in a tournament (Tyerman, p. 205).
A less likely archbishop can hardly be imagined, but when Theobald died in 1161, Henry decided to give the job to his close friend (Tyerman suggests that Theobald would have approved, but OxfordCompanion, p. 88, notes that the tradition was to choose a monk, which Becket was not. Becket himself supposedly warned Henry that choosing him could lead them into conflict; Warren, p. 449).
Becket served in the post from 1162, but Tyerman, p. 206, suggests that the fact that he was now, for the first time, his own boss caused him to lose his discretion. Warren, p. 450, quotes other explanations for why Becket changed -- e.g. he was like an actor slipping into a role. Whatever the reason, Becket went from being Henry's supporter to being Henry's mulish opponent. He fought with Henry even over trivia. By 1163, he and Henry were in open conflict (Becket was trying to assure that priests, no matter what their crime, were protected from secular justice; Wilson, pp. 18-19); in that year, Henry deprived him of the Chancellorship and his secular properties. Even most English bishops disliked his arrogance and obstinacy (Tyerman, p. 207). In 1164, in trouble with a council in England, he fled to the continent and conducted a propaganda effort to get his job back (Warren, pp. 491-494; OxfordSaints, p. 505).
He and Henry reached a partial reconciliation in 1170, which let him return home (Warren, pp. 506-507), but Becket hadn't really backed down. Among other things, he started excommunicating people who opposed him, including even the Archbishop of York who had crowned Henry II's son "Henry the Young King," which Beckett thought was his place (OxfordCompanion, p. 88; Warren, p. 502).
Henry II quickly realized that the New Becket was just like the Old Becket (Warren, p. 508). It's not entirely clear what Henry said -- the traditional "Will no one rid me of this turbulent/pestilent priest?" is poorly attested (Tyerman, p. 209; Warren, p. 508), but four knights, Hugh de Moreville, William de Tracy, Reginald FitzUrse, and Richard le Breton, set out to eliminate the problem. (Warren, p. 509, in essence calls them fools; the result probably proves him right.) They may have wanted to arrest Becket, but he would have none of it. The whole situation turned into a farce, with both sides blustering (Warren, p. 510), and when a drunken group of stupid knights bluster, the outcome can't surprise anyone. On December 29, 1170, they cut him down -- incompetently -- and butchered his corpse in Canterbury Cathedral.
"So Thomas Becket came to be regarded as a martyr, and as a saint, and as a folk hero. The reality became irrelevant" (Warren, p. 518). (Frankly, this is pretty typical; when famous people were murdered, they became saints, even when they were uncompromising zealots like Becket, or incompetents like Henry VI, or people who just didn't get it, apparently like Edmund of East Anglia.)
Tyerman, p. 209, calls it "The single most chronicled death in English history." Supposedly five people who were present wrote about it, John of Salisbury being the most important. The Pope threatened to excommunicate all England, though in the end he moved primarily against the murderers (Warren, pp. 519-520).
Supposedly 703 miracles were recorded by Becket's tomb in the first decade after his death (OxfordSaints, p. 506); little wonder he was canonized in 1173! Henry II did penance at his tomb in 1174, walking there barefoot and in sackcloth and submitting to a scourging (Tyerman, p. 210; Wilson, p. 30; I read somewhere that it is suspected that the flagellation involved was probably something of an act). A church was dedicated to him in near Dublin in 1177; in 1178, William the Lion of Scotland founded an abbey in his name (Chaucer/Andrew/Ransom/Moorman, volume 1B, p. 25; I personally suspect this was William taking a jab at Henry II). Chaucer/Andrew/Ransom/Moorman in the next sentence say that "Becket was undoubtedly the most popular saint of the Middle Ages after the Virgin Mary." But in practice, Becket's martyrdom did nothing to advance the liberty of the church (Tyerman, p. 211).
It did, however, all but displace all other Canterbury saints (OxfordSaints, p. 506), making him the object of regular pilgrimages, as in the Canterbury Tales (although, as Chaucer/Andrew/Ransom/Moorman, volume 1B, p. 25, notes, that one line is the only reference to Thomas in the entire Canterybury Tales! -- on the next page, they mention various suggestions that Chaucer was criticizing the Church, or Becket, or somebody. This fits in with various contentions of Lollard influence on Chaucer's thought, but I doubt it -- while Chaucer was extraordinarily original and open-minded, every such hint that has been suggested is subtle and dubious.)
"During his lifetime few churchmen thought that Becket's truculence did much to help the cause of Canterbury, of the English church, or of the church in general. Probably no one thought his conduct was that of a saint, even if he had taken to wearing coarse and lice-ridden undergarments. But his murder changed everything. It put Henry in the wrong. It forced him to do penance and make concessions, though none of lasting significance" (OxfordCompanion, p. 89).
It probably won't surprise you that that paragon of royal self-centeredness, Henry VIII, declared Becket a traitor and destroyed his shrine (OxfordCompanion, p. 89). That didn't by itself destroy his cult, but Anglicanism inherently placed less stress on saints than did Catholicism.
Although no longer found in tradition, there is good reason to think that it once was, given its presence in four different manuscripts, two of them quite important, and all the texts substantially different:
- Balliol MS. 354 (folio 222 recto; this is the famous Richard Hill manuscript, with the components written by 1537)
- British Library MS. Sloane 2593, another famous manuscript with many traditional pieces
- Cambridge University, Gonville & Caius College MS. 383 (fifteenth century. Very miscellaneous, with many Latin and French records, although it also has some English carols)
- Public Records Office, Chancery Misc. (fifteenth century; Greene would date c. 1400. Small format, badly stained and damaged. Written by a single hand, with Latin and English sections. Two folios only; the only other piece of possible interest is a short poem about Gabriel and the nativity).
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: MSSToCan

Sair Fail'd, Hinney

See Sair Fyel'd, Hinny (File: StoR048)

Sair Fyel'd, Hinny

DESCRIPTION: "(I/Aw) was young and lusty, I was fair and clear... Mony a lang year." "Sair fyel'd, hinny, sair fyel'd now, Sair fyel'd, hinny, sin' I ken'd thou." The singer looks back on his young days, and admits, at 65, to being both "stiff and cauld."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1834 (Sharp, The Bishopric Garland)
KEYWORDS: youth age
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, p. 48, "Sair Fyel'd, Hinny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan3 481, "The Shoemaker at His Last" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: [Cuthbert Sharp], _The Bishopric Garland, A Collection of Legends, Songs, Ballads, &c Belonging to the County of Durham_, 1834 (references are to the 1969 reprint), p. 70, "Sair Fail'd, Hinney" (1 text)
ST StoR048 (Full)
Roud #3062
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Says the Old Man to the Oak Tree" (lyrics)
NOTES [127 words]: At least some versions of this share the lyric "Says t'auld man to th' old tree" ("Says the Old Man to the Oak Tree), also found in Gammer Gurton's Garland, but I don't know if they were initially two which joined or one which split. I very tentatively split them because, well, we're splitters.
"Sair" is of course "sore," so "extremely, very." "Hinny" is a term of affection. Lindsay Marshall tells me that "fyel'd"/"fyeld" is dialect for "felled,"i.e."broken down." Hence "Sair fyel'd, hinny" is "basically, 'I'm knackered, pet' or 'I'm past it.' I doubt you'd hear anyone say Sair Fyeld these days though but people do say hinny still."  - RBW
The Greig/Duncan3 version is printed with strokes above the notes indicating a hammer stroke during singing. - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: StoR048

Sal and the Baby

DESCRIPTION: "I went down town to see my lady. Nobody's home but Sal an' the baby. Sal was drunk, and the baby crazy; All that comes of being so lazy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink baby
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 44, "Sal and the Baby" (1 text)
Roud #7863
File: Br3044

Sal's Got a Meatskin

DESCRIPTION: "Sal's got a meatskin hid away/gonna get a meatskin someday"; "Sal a-sailing on the sea/Sal got a meatskin a-waiting for me"; more verses along that line.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930s (recording, Carlisle Bros.)
KEYWORDS: sex virginity bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 8-9, "Sally Had a Meatskin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 94, "Sal's Got a Meat-Skin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 71, "Sal's Got a Wooden Leg" (1 short text, associated with "Great Big Taters in Sandy Land")
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 63, "Sal's Got a Meatskin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 156, "Sal Got A Meatskin" (1 text)
Roud #4201
RECORDINGS:
Arthur "Brother-in-Law" Armstrong, "Johnny Got a Meat Skin Laid Away" (AFS 3979 A2, 1940)
Cliff & Bill Carlisle, "Sal Got a Meatskin" (Panachord 25639/Vocalion 02740 [as Clifford Bros.], 1934; rec. 1933; on TimesAint03)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Sal Got a Meatskin" (on NLCR03, NLCR11, NLCRCD1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sal Got A Sugarlip"
cf. "Great Big Taters in Sandy Land" (floating verses)
cf. "Sally Anne" (lyrics)
NOTES [24 words]: A "meatskin" is fat pork, used to grease a pan and as an anti-inflammatory folk medicine. In this song, however, it refers to a maidenhead. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: CSW063

Sal's Got a Wooden Leg

See Sal's Got a Meatskin (File: CSW063)

Sal's in the Garden Sifting Sand

See Sally in the Garden (File: CSW067)

Sal'sb'ry Sal

See Speed the Plow (Sal'sb'ry Sal) (File: FlBr026)

Saladin Mutiny (I)

See Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson [Laws D19] (File: LD19)

Saladin Mutiny (II), The

See George Jones [Laws D20] (File: LD20)

Saladin's Crew

DESCRIPTION: Hazelton is waiting to be hanged. He hopes his parents do not hear of his death. He prays that God "can pardon us all ... Even Fielding ... that proved my downfall" He thinks of his youth and the girl "who taught me to love in a far distant land"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: ship mutiny execution farewell
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1844 - the former pirate Fielding convinces part of the crew of the "Saladin" to mutiny against the harsh Captain Mackenzie. The conspirators then turn against Fielding; they are taken and executed after the ship is wrecked off Halifax
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 111, "Saladin's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS111 (Partial)
Roud #1818
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charles Augustus Anderson" [Laws D19] (subject)
cf. "George Jones" [Laws D20] (subject)
NOTES [96 words]: This song is item dD45 in Laws's Appendix II.
Another of the Saladin conspirators speaks out (cf. "Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson [Laws D19]" and "George Jones [Laws D20]"). Here is John Hazelton. Hazelton -- like Anderson and Jones -- was convicted and hanged. Has William Trevaskiss, the fourth of the hanged mutineers, a ballad as well? (Source: Pirates of Canada by Cindy Vallar on the Pirates and Privateers site for the History of Maritime Piracy) - BS
For details on the Saladin Mutiny, see the notes to "Charles Augustus (or Gustavus) Anderson" [Laws D19] - RBW
File: CrNS111

Salangadou

DESCRIPTION: Creole French. "Salangadou-ou-ou (x3), Salangadou, Cote piti fille la ye, Salangadou, Salangadou?" "Salangadou, where is my little girl gone, Salangadou?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Peterson, "Creole Songs from New Orleans")
KEYWORDS: children separation foreignlanguage nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 223, " Salangadou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 339, "Salangadou" (1 text)
DT, SALANGDU*
File: LxA223

Salcombe Seaman's Flaunt to the Proud Pirate, The

See High Barbaree [Child 285; Laws K33] (File: C285)

Sale of a Wife

DESCRIPTION: A (ship carpenter), hard up for money for drink and tired of quarreling with his wife, puts her up for sale. After a lively auction, a sailor wins her. He takes her home and they live happily
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: abandonment humorous husband wife sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H226, pp. 511-512, "The Ship Carpenter's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 253-254, "Cabbage and Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CARPWIFE
Roud #2898
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "The Ship Carpenter's Wife" (on IREButcher01)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(119), "The Ship Carpenter's Wife," unknown, c. 1830-1850
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In Praise of John Magee" (plot/theme: sale of a wife)
cf. "Nebuchadnezzar's Wife" (theme: sale of a wife)
cf. "The Scolding Wife (V)" (theme: sale of a wife)
cf. "Danny Sim's Sow" (theme: sale of a wife)
cf. "John Hobbs" (theme: sale of a wife)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Auction of a Wife
John Hobbs
Wife for Sale
NOTES [485 words]: The National Library of Scotland site notes that this sort of thing actually did happen, and even includes a broadside (NLScotland, L.C.1268, "Sale of a Wife," W. Boag (?), Newcastle, describing an event of July 16, 1828) allegedly documenting such a sale.
Porter, p. 28, reports, "When divorce was prohibited by both Church and State, husband and wife could separate by the simple expedient of the former selling his partner to another man. The transaction was considered legal provided that more than a shilling was paid for her and that she was put up for sale with a halter around her neck, to indicate that she was being disposed on in the same way as horses or cattle might be." Porter reports several instances over the years, the most recent being in 1972 (!). The latter case, in Northumberland, frankly sounds like a version of the Swapping Song; the man sold his wife for a horse and cart, sold that to get an automobile, and sold that to get a motorcycle.
Palmer, p. 97, tells of an announcement in an Annual Register of 1773 of the sale of one Mary Whitehouse in Birmingham for one guinea. Palmer also has tales of a seller leading his wife by a halter and having to pay toll on the turnpikes. He goes on to cite other instances of the phenomenon. One wishes we had more insight into the feelings of the particular parties.
Briggs, pp.246-247, has a tale in which we do have some insight into how people felt. Titled "The Sale of a Wife," it reminds me a little of the famous "What Do Women Want?" question found in chivalrous tales (see, e.g., "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" [Child 31]). The wife's first husband treated her very poorly, and finally sold her (taking her to market in a halter, which apparently was a required part of the ritual). The second husband brought her home, and when she said, "You've got me and everything about me," he said something to the effect that he wanted only her. And she responded by pulling out a large pouch of money.
Deane/Shaw, p. 55, has a story from an old man (which they did not verify) that, although likely not true, shows how entrenched the custom was: A man would regularly take his wife to an auction and sell her -- and she would go home with the buyer, kill him, and steal his money. Then she would go home and the process would repeat until the wife was killed by the daughter of one of her new husbands.
Simpson/Roud, p. 390, have an article on wife-selling, stating that the practice was known for at least 300 years. It notes, however, that the transaction was usually agreed to quietly by wife and first and second husbands before the public auction. They note the first recorded instance seems to have been in 1553, and also observe that the custom is used in Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge. See their bibliography for additional sources on the ritual. Also see Simpson, pp. 95-96, for the examples that she herself assembled. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: HHH226

Salisbury Plain

DESCRIPTION: The singer and a handsome young man adjourn to an inn, eat, drink, and proceed to bed. He promises to support her by highway robbery. The next morning he robs the mail coaches. She laments that he now lies in Newgate Gaol, expecting to be hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904
LONG DESCRIPTION: While walking on Salisbury Plain, the singer meets a handsome young man. They adjourn to an inn, eat, drink, and proceed to bed. He asks her to undress; she consents, provided he will "keep all those flash-girls away". He consents in turn promising to support her by highway robbery. The next morning, he robs the mail coaches. In the last verse, she laments the fact that he now lies in Newgate Gaol, expecting to be hanged.
KEYWORDS: courting love sex bargaining execution prison robbery lover
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 95, "Salisbury Plain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 88, "Salisbury Plain" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #47, "Salisbury Plain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1487
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Le petit roysin" (tune; 15th cen.)
cf. "The Wild and Wicked Youth" [Laws L12] (theme)
cf. "It's Down in Old Ireland" (theme)
cf. "Gilderoy" (theme)
NOTES [27 words]: [The Vaughan Williams] version was collected in 1904; however, the singer clearly knew the song in 1893, when an unsuccessful attempt was made to collect it. -PJS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: VEL095

Salish Song of Longing, A

DESCRIPTION: "Yah-nay ha-nay hay Yah-nay ha-nay Yah-hay ay hee-nay Ah-ah nay-hay. Ah-nay hay-hee-nay-yeh!..." Translation: "Far far away, Far far away, Oh far far away Oh there my heart doth lay...."
AUTHOR: unknown (English translation by Alan Mills)
EARLIEST DATE: 1912
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) separation nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(West)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 4-5, "A Salish Song of Longing" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [55 words]: Colected by Marius Barbeau from an Indian delegation visiting Ottawa in 1912. its source was the Salish Indians of the Thompson River in British Columbia. (Salish is actually a language group of about twenty languages, used mostly by the natives of the Pacific Coast area.) The tune was used in the film "The Loon's Necklace." - RBW
File: FMB004

Sallie Goodin

See Sally Goodin (File: LoF121)

Sally and Billy

See A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.) [Laws P9] (File: LP09)

Sally and Her Lover

See The Lady Leroy [Laws N5] (File: LN05)

Sally and Her True Love

See A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.) [Laws P9] (File: LP09)

Sally Ann

See The Hog-Eye Man (I) (File: RL401)

Sally Anne

DESCRIPTION: "Oh where are you going, Sally Anne? (x3) I'm going to the wedding, Sally Anne. Oh shake that little foot, Sally Anne, (x3), You're a pretty good dancer, Sally Anne." "Did you ever see a muskrat, Sally Ann...." Other verses are equally unrelated
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad marriage courting animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 240, "Sally Anne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 63, "Sally Anne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 673, "Sally Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 82, "Sally Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 42, "Sally Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 38, "Sally Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 117, "Sally Anne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 53, "Sally Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 175, "Sally Ann" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, James Ruchala, "'Sally Ann' and the Blue-Ridge String-band Tradition," Vol. LIV, No. 2 (Fall-Winter 2007), pp. 29-75, "Sally Ann" (fragments of text on pp. 32, 34, 35, 37, 53, 54, 61; tunes on pp. 66-70; most are just a few lines, often fiddlers' mnemonics; some are "hog-eye man" fragments; many might file with "Sally Anne" or "Sally in the Garden")
Roud #3652
RECORDINGS:
Frank Blevins & his Tar Heel Rattlers, "Sally Aim [sic]" (Columbia 15765-D, 1932; rec. 1927; on LostProv1 as "Sally Ann")
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Sally Ann" (OKeh 40419, 1925)
Rufus Crisp, "Blue Goose" (on Crisp01)
The Hillbillies, "Sally Ann" (OKeh 40336, 1925) (Vocalion 5019/Brunswick 105 [as Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters], 1927)
Clint Howard et al, "Sally Ann" (on Ashley02, WatsonAshley01)
Snuffy Jenkins, "Sally Ann" (on ClassBanj)
Doc Roberts, "Sally Ann" (Perfect 15467, 1931)
Pete Seeger, "Sally Ann" (on PeteSeeger06, PeteSeegerCD01); Sally Ann" (on PeteSeeger18)
J. C. "Jake" Staggers, "Sally Ann" (on FolkVisions2)
George Stoneman, "Sally Anne" [instrumental] (on LomaxCD1702)
Art Thieme, "Sally Ann" (on Thieme01)
Wade Ward, "Sally Ann" [instrumental] (on Holcomb-Ward1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Great Big Taters in Sand Land" (tune)
cf. "Sal's Got a Meatskin" (lyrics)
NOTES [106 words]: Lomax says that this is the same melody as the fiddle piece "Sandy Land," in turn related to "Sally Goodin." [But Lomax wasn't a fiddler. The tune is related to "Sandy Land" (actually "Great Big Taters in Sandy Land"), but I draw the line at "Sally Goodin." I'm no fiddler, either, but I've backed up a lot of them. - PJS]
Certainly the banal and unrelated verses are what one would expect of a fiddle tune with words added. - RBW
The Rufus Crisp recording, "Blue Goose," is a conglomerate. But as we define it, "Sally Anne" is a song with this pattern, a lot of floating verses, and the name, "Sally Anne." What more do we want? - RBW, PJS.
Last updated in version 6.1
File: SKE63

Sally Around the Corner O

DESCRIPTION: "Sally O, Sally O, Sally around the corner O, All day we'll heave away And it's Sally around the corner O"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (NovaScotia1)
KEYWORDS: shanty work nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
RECORDINGS:
Joseph Hyson, "Sally Around the Corner O" (on NovaScotia1)
NOTES [133 words]: The current description is all of the NovaScotia1 fragment.
NovaScotia1 Joseph Hyson in the notes: "That was used for heaving up the ship's anchor. There'd be a whole crowd and there'd be a verse, and then we'd join on that chorus. I can't remember the verses."
NovaScotia1 notes: "By both words and tune, Sally Around the Corner O appears to be a different sea chanty from the one known as Round the Corner Sally."
I guess this is not "Round the Corner, Sally." Cf. "Round the Corner, Sally" in Stan Hugill, Shanties from the Seven Seas, pp. 297-298. The chorus there is "'Round the corner an' away we'll go, 'Round the corner Sally! 'Round th' corner where them gals do go, 'Round the corner Sally!" In that shanty Hugill says "The 'corner' indicated in this shanty seems to be Cape Horn." - BS
File: RcSATCO

Sally Brown

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic lines: "Way, hey, roll and go... Spend my money on Sally Brown." The singer describes Sally ("A Creole lady... She had a farm in Jamaica... She had a fine young daughter") and his (unsuccessful) courtship
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Robinson)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor courting parting
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Australia Canada(Mar,Newf) West Indies(Nevis,St Vincent) Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (27 citations):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 40, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 74-76, "Sally Brown" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 102-103, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 33-34, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune, though most of the lyrics seem to be from "Shenandoah")
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 97-98, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 82, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 87, 122, "Way Sing Sally," "Sally Brown (Roll and Go)" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 162-166, "Sally Brown," "Tommy's on the Tops'l Yard" (4 texts plus several fragments, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 129-134]; p. 254, "Hilo, Johnny Brown" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 184]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 103, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXVIII, p. 33, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 24-25, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 207, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 70, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 24, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp.193-194, "(Sally Brown)" (1 short text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 94, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 166, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, p. 55, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 53 in the 3rd edition
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 31, "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 108, "Sally Brown" (2 texts)
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 160-162 "Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #7, Sally Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 60-61, "Feeny Brown"; p. 117, "Roll and Go" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 92, "Sally Brown" (1 text)
DT, SALBROWN* SALBRWN2* (SALBRWN3)
Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). Two versions of "Sally Brown" are in Part 2, 7/21/1917.
Roud #2628
RECORDINGS:
J. M. (Sailor Dad) Hunt, "Sally Brown" (AFS, 1941; on LC02)
Leighton Robinson w. Alex Barr, Arthur Brodeur & Leighton McKenzie, "Sally Brown" (AFS 4231 A2, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll and Go" (verses)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Roll and Go
Walkalong, You Sally Brown
Stand to Yer Ground
File: Doe074

Sally Buck, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes hunting "one cold and winter day." (He tracks "the Sally buck all day.") Sundry adventures follow; the singer reports "of (15 or 20), ten thousand I did kill." The singer ends "If you can tell a bigger lie, I swear you ought to be hung."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: animal nonsense supernatural hunting talltale paradox
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 159, "Sally Buck" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 70, "The Sally Buck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 681, "Venison" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 217, "On a Bright and Summer's Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 102-103, "The Crooked Gun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 107-109, "[I Went Out A-Hunting, Sir]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 4, "A Hunting Tale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 58-60, "A Deer Hunt" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 154, "(As I Rode Out)" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Forbes (transcriber), "Songs Collected by Mr. Bascom,'" Vol. XXV, No. 1 (May 1977 -- special issue for Bascom Lamar Lunsford), pp. 15-16, "On a Bright and Summer's Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3607 and 8053
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "On a Bright and Summer's Morning" (LOC AAFS 104/AAFS L21) (Rounder LP 0065, 1957) (on BLLunsford01)
NOTES [145 words]: The variation in this song is immense; of the first four versions I saw, the only common element is the fact that the singer is a hunter and that at some point, "of fifteen or twenty" (or four-and-twenty, or some such), "a thousand (or ten thousand) I did kill." The variation is such that Roud files it under two numbers, 3607 and 8053, but I can't see much difference between the two except that #3607, often called "The Sally Buck," seems to be Appalachian and #8053, "A Deer Hunt," is more western.
Along the way the hunter meets various misadventures; these may be borrowed from other songs, and in any case take on local color.
The final stanza, along the line of, "The man who wrote this song, his name was (Benny Young/Bango Bang); If you can tell a bigger lie, I swear you ought (to be hung/to hang)," is characteristic but does not occur in all versions. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: SKE70

Sally Come Up

DESCRIPTION: A song in praise of Sally that manages to stress all her bad features: "Sally has got a lubly nose, Flat across her face it grows, It sounds like thunder when it blows.... Sally come up, oh, Sally come down, Oh, Sally, come twist your heels around...."
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 148, "Sally Come Up" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2056, p. 138, "Sally, Come Up" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #15, pp. 62-63, "Sally, Come Up" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, pp. 12-13, "Sally Come Up" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 206-207, "Sally Come Up" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V2841
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(429), "Sally, Come Up!" T. C. Boyd (San Francisco), c. 1860; also Harding B 18(710), "Sally, Come Up," De Marsan (New York), c. 1860; Harding B 26(588), unknown, n.d.; Firth c. 12(266), H. Such (London), 1849-1862; 2806 c. 13(24)=Harding B 11(3402), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; Johnson Ballads 1137, A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1845-1859; Harding B 11(4008), H. Such (London), after 1863
NOTES [344 words]: The earliest printed text of this piece credits the words to T. Ramsey and the music to E. W. Mackney, and this has been accepted by many authorities, but as early as 1862 other names began to appear. Paskman and Spaeth believe the song to be a spoof of "Sally in Our Alley." - RBW
Having finally read the lyrics to "Sally in Our Alley," I think Paskman & Spaeth are all wet. The only common element is the name "Sally." - PJS
Note that they don't call it a parody; it's just supposed to be based on the same character. Still a stretch, I allow.
There is a parody, though, by a well-known author -- none other than Lewis Carroll! Carroll's diary for July 3, 1862 mentions hearing the Liddell sisters singing this song (obviously implying some amount of oral currency by then):
"[F. H.] Atkinson and I went to lunch at the Deanery [the home of Henry George Liddell, Dean of Christ Church], after which we were to have gone down the river with the children, but as it rained, we remained to hear some music and singing instead -- the three [Lorina, Alice, and Edith Liddell] sang 'Sally Come Up' with great spirit." [Citing DodgsonWakeling4, p. 93.]
In the original draft of Alice in Wonderland, known as "Alice's Adventures under Ground," Carroll had this Mock Turtle's Song (page 84 of the manuscript):
Beneath the waters of the sea
Are lobsters thick as thick can be --
They love to dance with you and me,
My own, my gentle Salmon!
Salmon come up! Salmon go down!
Salmon come twist your tail around!
Of all the fishes of the sea
There's none so good as Salmon!
This was omitted from the final version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (replaced by "Will You Walk a Little Faster"), perhaps because it was too much of an in joke between Dodgson and the Liddell sisters.
Cazden et al list a number of other early parodies (including the above, though I originally my information from Martin Gardner's The Annotated Alice, which is more detailed. Gardner's More Annotated Alice, p. 102 n. 3 gives both the text of the parody and parts of "Sally Come Up"). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSC148

Sally Drinks Lemonade

See Margie Ate Some Marmalade (File: ZiZa050B)

Sally Go Round

See Sally Go Round the Moon (File: BGMG636)

Sally Go Round the Moon

DESCRIPTION: "Sally go round the (sun), Sally go round the (moon), Sally go round the (stars), On a Saturday afternoon." Sally may go around other things, e.g. the chimney pots.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme); c.1880 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: travel playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond)) Canada(Ont) US(MW,SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 112, "Sally Round the Sunshine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 75, "Sall Go Round the Sunshine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #636, pp. 251-252, "(Sally go round the sun)"
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 111, "Sally Go Round the Sun" (4 fragments, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #505, "Sally go round the moon, Sally" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 12, "Sally Go Round the Moon" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 47, "(Sally go round the stars)"
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Jean Olive Heck, "Folk Poetry and Folk Criticism, as Illustrated by Cincinnati Children in Their Singing Games and Their Thoughts about These Games," Vol. XL, No. 155 (Jan 1927), #47 p. 27 ("Mary, go round the sun"), (2 texts)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, F.W. Waugh, "Canadian Folk-Lore from Ontario," Vol. XXXI, No. 119 (Jan 1918), #641 p. 55 "Sally, Go Round the Sun" (1 text)
Roud #11591
File: BGMG636

Sally Go Round the Stars

See Sally Go Round the Moon (File: BGMG636)

Sally Go Round the Sun

See Sally Go Round the Moon (File: BGMG636)

Sally Go Round the Sunshine

See Sally Go Round the Moon (File: BGMG636)

Sally Gooden

See Sally Goodin (File: LoF121)

Sally Goodin

DESCRIPTION: "Had a piece of pie an' I had a piece of puddin', An' I gave it all away just to see my Sally Goodin." About how much the singer loves Sally, how he courts her -- with perhaps a few sundry comments about food and liquor along the way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (recording, Eck Robertson)
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad floatingverses dancetune
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 121, "Sally Goodin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 544, "Sally Goodin" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 403-404, "Sally Goodin" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 544A)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 89, "Sally Goodin" (5 fragments, though "D" and "E" might be other songs)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 89, "Sally Goodin" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 158, "Sallie Goodin" (seventh of 12 single-stanza jigs) (1 short text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 56, "Sally Gooden" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, p. 18, "Sally Goodin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 210, "Sally Goodin" (1 short text, 1 tune)
JonesLunsfor, p. 245, "Sally Goodin" (1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 71-72, "Sally Goodin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 255, "Sally Goodin" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 33, "Sally Goodin" (1 text)
DT, SALGOODN
Roud #739
RECORDINGS:
Clifford Gross & Muryel Campbell, "Sally Gooden" (Vocalion 03650, 1937)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Sallie Goodman" (OKeh 40095-A, 1924)
James Crase, "Sally Goodin" (on MMOKCD)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Sally Gooden" (Gennett 6733/Champion 15501 [as by Norman Gayle], 1928)
Vester Jones, "Sally Goodin" (on GraysonCarroll1)
Kessinger Brothers, "Sally Goodin" (Brunswick 308, c. 1929)
Neil Morris & Charlie Everidge, "Sally Goodin" [instrumental w. dance calls] (on LomaxCD1707)
John D. Mounce et al, "Sally Gooden" (on MusOzarks01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Sally Goodin" (on NLCR02) (NLCR16)
Pickard Family, "Sally Goodin" (Regal 8810, 1929; probably the same as Dad Pickard's recording, Banner 6434, 1929)
Fiddlin' Powers and Family, "Sally Goodin" (Victor, unissued, 1924)
Riley Puckett, "Sally Goodwin" (Columbia 15102-D, 1926)
Eck Robertson, "Sally Goodin" (Victor 18956, 1922)
Ernest V. Stoneman "Sally Goodwin" (Edison, unissued, 1927) (Edison 52350, 1928) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5529, 1928) (Edison 0000 [development disk], 1928)
Uncle "Am" Stuart, "Sally Gooden" (Vocalion 14841, 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cripple Creek (I)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [16 words]: Another piece that endures mostly as a fiddle tune. Given the lyrics, it's not hard to see why. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: LoF121

Sally Gray

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of his secret love for Sally Gray. They are both 17. It vexes him when she sits with others. He remains tongue-tied. If he were rich he'd give her presents. His fortune teller writes her initials. No girls can compare with her.
AUTHOR: R Anderson (1802) (source: Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (Anderson)
KEYWORDS: love beauty prophecy nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 8-9, "Sally Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: R Anderson, Ballads in the Cumberland Dialect (Carlisle, 1805 ("Digitized by Google")), #5 pp. 14-16, 126-128, "Sally Gray" (1 text)
Roud #1365
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mucking of Geordie's Byre" (tune, per Anderson)
File: BrMa008

Sally Greer

DESCRIPTION: The singer's parents "forced me to Americay, my fortune to pursue." As the ship crosses the ocean, he thinks of his beloved Sally Greer. The ship sinks, with only (13) of 350 surviving. The poor survivor hopes to return to Sally
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957
KEYWORDS: separation love emigration disaster wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 92-93, "Sally Greer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 358-359, "Charming Sally Greer" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FMB092 (Partial)
Roud #4084
RECORDINGS:
Mrs Mary Ann Galpin, "Charming Sally Greer" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Martin McManus, "Sally Greer" (on Ontario1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Glasgow" (theme, plus the girl Sally Greer)
NOTES [49 words]: This song is item dD39 in Laws's Appendix II. It reminds me of Laws K11, "Sally Munroe," but though there are several points of contact, the plot differs somewhat and there do not appear to be common lyrics.
Peacock notes that the various versions give different internal dates: 1833 and 1843. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: FMB092

Sally Had a Bike and the Wheels Went Round

DESCRIPTION: "Sally had a bike and the wheels went round ... On the last day of September"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty technology
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 51, ("Sally had a bike and the wheels went round") (1 text)
File: OpGap51A

Sally Had a Meatskin

See Sal's Got a Meatskin (File: CSW063)

Sally In Our Alley

DESCRIPTION: Johnny loves Sally. His master beats him when he stops working to be with her. On Sunday he leaves church early to be with her. When his apprenticeship is over they will marry and leave the alley with its unfriendly neighbors
AUTHOR: Henry Carey (1687-1743 per Wikipedia) (source: see Notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1783 (Ritson); reportedly written 1718
KEYWORDS: poverty courting love marriage work nonballad apprentice boss
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 645-648, "Sally in Our Alley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 117-119, "Sally In Our Alley" (1 text plus some later versins, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 402-402, "Sally in Our Alley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #77, "Sally In Our Alley" (1 text
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2056A, p. 138, "Sally In Our Alley" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #31, pp. 54-55, "Sally in our Alley" (1 text)
DT, SALLALLY*
ADDITIONAL: Joseph Ritson, Select Collection of English Songs (London, 1783), Vol. I, #40 pp. 212-214, "Sally in Our Alley” (1 text)
John Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1920_, self-published, 1918 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland site), p. 20, "Sally In Our Alley" (1 text)
The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany: Containing a Selection of the Most Fashionable Songs, with Many Originals, Not Inserted in Ashburner's Vocal and Poetic Repository, G. Ashburner, Ulverston, 1812 (available on Google Books), p. 111, "Sally in Our Alley" (1 text)
Roud #19807
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 101, "Sally in our Alley" (“Of all the girls that are so smart”), Laurie and Whittle (London), 1805; also Johnson Ballads fol. 371 View 1 of 2, Firth b.25(177), Harding B 11(3405), 2806 c.16(102), 2806 b.10(4), "Sally in our Alley"
LOCSinging, as112160, "Sally in our Alley", J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as112180, "Sally in our Alley"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pretty Sally's Answer" (characters)
SAME TUNE:
What Tho' I Am a Country Lass (Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 10-11)
Sally in our Alley [parody, "But of all ye songsters in ye land, There's none like Faranelli"] (Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 36-37)
NOTES [66 words]: Broadside LOCSinging as112160: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
According to Ebsworth Henry Carey wrote "Sally in Our Alley" in 1738 [J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VIII Part 1 [Part 23], p. 415] - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RSCE212

Sally in the Circle

DESCRIPTION: "Miss Sally in the circle and she can't get out (x3), I love Miss Sally Ann." "She got the wiggles when she walks (x3), I love Miss Sally Ann." "Around and around and around she goes (x3), I love Miss Sally Ann."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads)
KEYWORDS: playparty escape
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 125-126, "Sally in the Circle" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ByGo125B

Sally in the Garden

DESCRIPTION: Dance tune with chorus "Sally in the garden sifting sand/Sally upstairs with a hog-eyed man"; floating verses: "Chicken in the bread pan kicking up dough"; "Sally will your dog bite, no sir, no/Daddy cut his biter off a long time ago"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: sex dancing nonballad animal floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 67, "Hog-eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 232, "Sal's in the Garden Sifting Sand" (1 fragment)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 250, "The Hog-eyed Man" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 254-255, "Hogeye" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, James Ruchala, "'Sally Ann' and the Blue-Ridge String-band Tradition," Vol. LIV, No. 2 (Fall-Winter 2007), pp. 29-75, "Sally Ann" (fragments of text on pp. 32, 34, 35, 37, 53, 54, 61; tunes on pp. 66-70; most are just a few lines, often fiddlers' mnemonics; some are "hog-eye man" fragments; many might file with "Sally Anne" or "Sally in the Garden")
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, pp. 247, "Sally in the Garden (1 short text, 1 tune, sung by Mrs. M. G. Jabobs)
Roud #331
RECORDINGS:
Theophilus Hoskins, "Hog Eyed Man" (AFS, 1937; on KMM)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Hogeye" (on NLCR03)
Pope's Arkansas Mountaineers, "Hog Eye" (Victor 21295, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll the Boat Ashore (Hog-eye I)" (many floating verses)
cf. "The Hog-Eye Man" (words)
cf. "Granny Will Your Dog Bite?" (words, part of tune)
NOTES [162 words]: This is part of a cluster that includes the bawdy song "The Hog-Eye Man," another Arkansas dance tune "Hogeye" ("Row the boat ashore with a hogeye, hogeye/Row the boat ashore with a hogeye man"), "Granny Will Your Dog Bite" and others. I've used the "Sally in the Garden" title to differentiate the dance tune from the bawdy song, even though they're clearly siblings. - PJS
Paul in fact has strongly suggested merging "Sally in the Garden" and "Roll the Boat Ashore (Hog-eye I)." Roud appears to lump the two. There are verses floating freely between both, which means that fragments often cannot be identified with one or the other. Nonetheless, they appear to me to be different though related songs; the choruses are different, and if all the lyrics float, that is decisive.
Still, one should check the cross-references to be sure to find all the versions.
The mention of a tune from Arkansas is interesting, because Treat notes a town in Arkansas called "Hogeye." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: CSW067

Sally M'roe

See Sally Monroe [Laws K11] (File: LK11)

Sally Monroe [Laws K11]

DESCRIPTION: Blacksmith Jim Dixon sends a letter to Sally by a friend. The friend deceitfully hides the letter, but Dixon and Sally later meet and are married. They sail for Quebec, but the ship strikes a rock. Sally is drowned. Dixon lives; he grieves for her parents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (Broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(272b))
KEYWORDS: courting trick marriage emigration ship wreck death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Laws K11, "Sally Monroe"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 303-304, "Sally Monroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H571, p. 441, "Sally Munro" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #74, p. 2, "Sally Munro" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 23, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Sally Munro" (9 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 115-116, "Sally Munro" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 326, "Sally M'roe" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 57, "Sally Monroe" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 488-489, "Young Sally Monro" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 36, "Sally Monroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 88-89, "Sally Munroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 142-143,253, "Sally Monroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 35-36, "Young Sally Munroe" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 90, "Sally Munro" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 402, SALMUNRO*
Roud #526
RECORDINGS:
Harry Brazil, "Sally Morrow" (on Voice11)
James Maher, "Sally Monroe" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Patrick Rossiter, "Young Sally Monro" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(272b), "Sally Monro/Munro," unknown (Glasgow), 1854
NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(211), "Sally Munro," unknown, c. 1830-1850; also RB.m.169(128), "Sally Munro"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Young Sally Monroe
File: LK11

Sally Munro

See Sally Monroe [Laws K11] (File: LK11)

Sally My Dear

See Hares on the Mountain (File: ShH63)

Sally Rand

DESCRIPTION: "Sally Rand, Lost her fan, Run, run, run, As fast as you can."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: clothes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 78, "Sally Rand" (1 short text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #506, "Sally Rand has lost her fan" (1 text)
File: iZa078C

Sally Round the Sunshine

See Sally Go Round the Moon (File: BGMG636)

Sally to her Bed Chamber

DESCRIPTION: "Now Sally to her bed chamber this night she made great moan, Saying, 'Jimmie, lovely Jimmie, your pillow is quite alone. How can I rest contented and you so far awa'? Sure I thought I'd lived and died with you in sweet Erin go bragh'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 63, "Sally to her Bed Chamber" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #2758
NOTES [34 words]: The current description is all of the Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick fragment.
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick: "This is obviously an Irish song of lament for a husband far away." - BS
File: CrSNB063

Sally Walker

See Little Sally Walker (File: CNFM157)

Sally Walker Sells Fish

DESCRIPTION: "(Someone, e.g. Sally Walker) sells fish, Three ha'pence a dish. Cut the heads off, Cut the tails off, (Someone) sells fish."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: food commerce | fish
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 176, "(Name) Sells Fish" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 44, "Sally Walker Sells Fish" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 45, "(Sally Walker sells fish)" (1 text)
Roud #19286
File: BAAI176A

Sally Water

See Little Sally Walker (File: CNFM157)

Sally Waters

See Little Sally Walker (File: CNFM157)

Sally Went to Preachin'

DESCRIPTION: 'Sally went to preachin', she shouted and she squalled, She got so full religion she tore her stocking heel." "An a git a long home, nega, nega (x3), I'm bound for Shakletown." "Somebody stole my ol' coon dog...." "I'm gonna get some bricks...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: clothes robbery floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 458, "Sally Went to Preachin'" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 458, "Sally Went to Preachin'" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11796
NOTES [18 words]: This reminds me a lot of "Cindy (I)," but it's hard to tell if they are related based on the Brown text. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3458

Sally, Let Your Bangs Hang Down

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes former girlfriend Sally; he saw her changing; she caught him peeping. She's run off with Tony. Refr: "Sally, let your bangs hang down"; ch.: "Sally she can land 'em...I'll find out what Sally's got, makes the men think she's so hot"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (recording, Bill Cox & Cliff Hobbs)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer describes Sally, who was his girlfriend, as a hot girl; he saw her changing clothes, but she caught him peeping. She has always left him guessing, and has just run off with Tony. Refrain: "Sally, let your bangs hang down"; ch.: "Sally she can land 'em, she loves 'em and she leaves 'em...I'll find out what Sally's got, makes the men think she's so hot..."
KEYWORDS: jealousy courting sex abandonment bawdy lover clothes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, SALBANGS
RECORDINGS:
Carlisle Bros. "Sally Let Your Bangs Hang" (Decca 5742, 1939)
Bill Cox & Cliff Hobbs, "Sally Let Your Bangs Hang Down" (Melotone 7-08-70/Conqueror 8883, 1937; rec. 1936)
Maddox Bros. & Rose, "Sally Let Your Bangs Hang Down" (4-Star, n.d.)
Sweet Violet Boys, "Sally Let Your Bangs Hang Down" (Vocalion 05229, 1939; Columbia 20351/Columbia 37774, 1947)
NOTES [11 words]: Barely scrapes by as a ballad, but there *is* a narrative there. - PJS
File: RcSLYBHD

Sally, Molly, Polly

DESCRIPTION: Hog-calling chant: "Sally, Molly, Polly, O -- Come on -- git cawn! Little in the basket, more in the crib, Come on -- git cawn!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: food animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 209, "Sally, Molly, Polly" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 209, "Sally, Molly, Polly" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
File: Br3209

Sally, Sally Waters, Sprinkle in the Pan

See Little Sally Walker (File: CNFM157)

Sally's Cove Tragedy, The

DESCRIPTION: A few days after leaving home, "The rain and fog lay thick all around, the winds did howl and mourn." "Without fire, food, or water in that bitter piercing cold," two boys, Russ and Dennis, die leaving Eli Roberts to mourn.
AUTHOR: George Decker
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: death fishing sea ship ordeal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 971-972, "The Sally's Cove Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9933
NOTES [64 words]: I can't find a record of this loss. However, Peacock says Decker claimed to have written this ballad around 1909-1919. An Eli and Susan Roberts were married at Sally's Cove in 1893 [source: Newfoundland & Labrador Gen Web site] so a date of 1909 or 1910 seems reasonable for the incident.
Salley's Cove is on the west coast of Newfoundland in what is now Gros Morne National Park - BS
File: Pea971

Sally's Love for a Young Husband

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that her parents married her to a rich old man. She would prefer a "young man without a penny." When her old man dies she marries a young man who rolls her from the wall but kills her dog and breaks her china
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(955))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Although the singer would rather have a young man, she or her parents apparently find a marriage to the old suitor convenient when he offers Sally such things as a "jaunting car," muslin gowns, china or a lap dog. When her old man dies she marries a young man who rolls her from the wall but kills her lap dog and breaks her china.
KEYWORDS: age marriage sex money dog wife youth bargaining bequest husband youth
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,West),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1362, "To Row Me frae the Wa" (2 texts)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #43, pp. 190-192, "O Haud Your Tongue, Dear Sally" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #99, "Oh, It Was My Cruel Parents" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 40, "Oh, It Was My Cruel Parents That Did Me First Trepan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2897
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(955), "The Jaunting Cur" ("I have often heard of an old man"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Firth c.20(74)[some words illegible], Harding B 25(954), "The Jaunting Car"; Harding B 25(953), "The Jaunting Carr" or "Sally's Love for a Young Husband"
NOTES [284 words]: Among the identifying lines you may find in a version are: "It was my cruel parents, that first did me trepan" -- an apparent mangling of .".. as you may understand"; the title line that "I'll buy for you a lap-dog To follow your jaunting car"; and the complaint about an old man that "his pipes are out of order And his chanter ne'er in tune."
[The "trepan/trapan" line may be original -- one of the meanings of "trepan" is a trick. So the parents might have tricked the girl. However, this is a rare usage. - RBW]
The title of the earliest Bodleian broadside, "The Jaunting Cur," appears not to be a misprint. When the old man offers to buy her "a little lap-dog To follow you to the fair," she says "I do not value your lap-dog Nor you, you jaunting cur." The answer in later broadside becomes "To the Devil with your Lapdog, Your jauunting car also." In Greig/Duncan7 he buys her the dog and car but her young husband "killed my little wee lap dog and broke my jaunting car."
Greig/Duncan7 1362A tells the essential story. The broadsides may end with the singer's complaint about an old man (Bodleian Harding B 25(955) and Firth c.20(74)), or when she takes a young lover (Bodleian Harding B 25(953)), or with her old man's death and her marriage to a young man, or with her dissatisfaction, after all, with the young man she married (Bodleian Harding B 25(954)). The advice in the Greig/Duncan7 text is "Far better to be an auld man's pet with servants at my call For you can easily hire a young man to roll you from the wall." This solution to the problem is also in "The Whirley Wha." - BS
As Porter and Gower note, the song may have journeyed from Scotland to Ireland and then back (p. 192). - DGE
Last updated in version 6.7
File: GrD71362

Salmon Fishers

DESCRIPTION: "Cam ye by the salmon fishers? Cam ye by the roperee? Saw ye a sailor laddie Sailing on the raging sea?" The girl may describe the sailor she loves, or how they courted, or how they expect to marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: love courting sailor floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1607, "Cam' Ye By the Salmon Fishin'"; Greig/Duncan8 1608, "I'm Gaun Some Wye"; Greig/Duncan8 1609, "Tip for Gold and Tip for Silver"; (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 82, "The Salmon Fishers" (1 text)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 78, "(Cam you by the salmon fishers)" (1 text)
DT, SALMFISH
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #39, "Cam' Ye By" (1 text)
Roud #12978
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going)" (lyrics)
NOTES [198 words]: This is a difficult song to assess. The first stanza has relatively invariant. What follows is not. Several of the other versions (Montgomerie's, Gomme's II) follow this with stanzas straight out of "Katie Cruel/I Know Where I'm Going." Other texts have none of this -- but don't agree particularly closely, either.
Under the circumstances, any song starting with the "Salmon Fishers/Salmon Fishing" stanza must file here, but it must be accepted that any short "I Know Where I'm Going" might be a defective version of this, or of the "Katie Cruel/Leeboy's Lassie" type. - RBW
Greig/Duncan8, Gomme, and McVicar (Ewan McVicar, Doh Ray Me, When Ah Wis Wee (Edinburgh, 2007), pp. 317-319) point out the variability of the couplets attached to the first verse. Greig/Duncan8 has two fragments -- 1608 and 1609 -- that do not include the Salmon Fishers line but that "occur as accretions to" "Salmon Fishers." Greig/Duncan8 1608, Roud #13500, is a "Katie Cruel/Leeboy's Lassie" verse ("I'm gaun some wye, I Ken wha's gaun wi me") that is like lines included in "Salmon Fishers" II by Gomme 2.180; 1609, Roud #21190, is a pair of couplets included in "Salmon Fishers" III by Gomme 2.181. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: MSNR078

Salome

DESCRIPTION: "Down our street we had a little party, Everybody there was all so gay and hearty." It was uproarious, and they see "Salome, Salome, that's my girl Salome, Standing there with her arse all bare," who has an amazing sexual repertoire
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex drink party
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 178, "Salome" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10490
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Salome Was a Dancer" (character of Salome)
cf. "I'm Shirley Temple" (character of Salome in some versions)
NOTES [470 words]: I do not know if it is significant that Salome was the name (known from Josephus, not the Bible) of the "daughter of Herodias" who danced before Herod Antipas and so induced him to execute John the Baptist (Matthew 14:6ffff; the best manuscripts of Mark 6:22 make Herodias Herod's own daughter; so ℵ B D L Δ 565 -- a short list, but it includes the only two surviving fourth century manuscripts of Mark; the first manuscript to call her "the daughter of Herodias" is from the fifth century. On the other hand, Josephus, Antiquities XVIII.136, agrees with Matthew in saying she was the daughter of Herod Philip by Herodias).
The name "Salome" thus became associated with sexy dancing -- but the Bible never actually says her dance was erotic. Of course, it doesn't mention her name, either.... The Greek word ορχεομαι, "orcheomai" in fact is used of children's games elsewhere in the New Testament, and in classical Greek is also used of miming, and of jumping and bouncing around. Nonetheless the tradition is firm that Salome daughter of Herodias danced a lascivious dance before Herod Antipas and so induced him to offer her whatever she wanted And what other sort of dancing would so attract Herod's attention? -- can you imagine someone getting that excited about a pantomime?
Josephus does not say that Salome danced before Herod Antipas or asked for John the Baptist's head. And Salome was not the daughter of Antipas, which would be required by the Markan account. But most people assume that it was Salome who did the dancing.
As a result, Salome has become the subject of very many portrayals centered around her behavior and lack of attire. The earliest of these were literary, but Richard Strauss composed an opera "Salome" in 1905, based on a book by Oscar Wilde. "The Dance of the Seven Veils" is often said to have been danced by Salome (see the Wikipedia entry). - RBW
Note that Herod Antipas is not the same as Herod the Great, the king allegedly responsible for the Massacre of the Innocents (and certainly responsible for killing a lot of innocent people); Antipas was one of the younger sons of Herod the Great, and despite the impression given by the Bible, he doesn't seem to have been a particularly bad ruler except that, like all members of Herod's dynasty, his family life was disastrous.
Salome, presumably after this, married her great-uncle Philip "the Tetrarch." Philip died in 34 C.E., about five years after Salome's dance. They had no children; Salome then married Aristobulus, the son of Herod of Chalcis, a grandson of Herod the Great who was the nephew of Herodias. They had three children, Herod, Agrippa, and Aristobulus, who seem to have been non-entities (Josephus, Antiquities XVIII.137). So after a scandalous youth, Salome seems to have settled down to a fairly normal life.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Hopk178

Salome Was a Dancer

DESCRIPTION: "Salome was a dancer, She danced before the king, And every time she danced, She wiggled everything. 'Stop,' said King Herod, 'You can't do that here.' Salome said 'Baloney,' And kicked the chandelier."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Evans, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: dancing royalty
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #507, "Salome was a dancer" (1 text)
Roud #24174
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Salome" (character of Salome)
cf. "I'm Shirley Temple" (character of Salome in some versions)
NOTES [464 words]: Salome was the name (known from Josephus, not the Bible) of the "daughter of Herodias" who danced before Herod Antipas and so induced him to execute John the Baptist (Matthew 14:6ffff; the best manuscripts of Mark 6:22 make Herodias Herod's own daughter; so ℵ B D L Δ 565 -- a short list, but it includes the only two surviving fourth century manuscripts of Mark; the first manuscript to call her "the daughter of Herodias" is from the fifth century. On the other hand, Josephus, Antiquities XVIII.136, agrees with Matthew in saying she was the daughter of Herod Philip by Herodias).
The name "Salome" thus became associated with sexy dancing -- but the Bible never actually says her dance was erotic. Of course, it doesn't mention her name, either.... The Greek word ορχεομαι, "orcheomai" in fact is used of children's games elsewhere in the New Testament, and in classical Greek is also used of miming, and of jumping and bouncing around. Nonetheless the tradition is firm that Salome daughter of Herodias danced a lascivious dance before Herod Antipas and so induced him to offer her whatever she wanted And what other sort of dancing would so attract Herod's attention? -- can you imagine someone getting that excited about a pantomime?
Josephus does not say that Salome danced before Herod Antipas or asked for John the Baptist's head. And Salome was not the daughter of Antipas, which would be required by the Markan account. But most people assume that it was Salome who did the dancing.
As a result, Salome has become the subject of very many portrayals centered around her behavior and lack of attire. The earliest of these were literary, but Richard Strauss composed an opera "Salome" in 1905, based on a book by Oscar Wilde. "The Dance of the Seven Veils" is often said to have been danced by Salome (see the Wikipedia entry). - RBW
Note that Herod Antipas is not the same as Herod the Great, the king allegedly responsible for the Massacre of the Innocents (and certainly responsible for killing a lot of innocent people); Antipas was one of the younger sons of Herod the Great, and despite the impression given by the Bible, he doesn't seem to have been a particularly bad ruler except that, like all members of Herod's dynasty, his family life was disastrous.
Salome, presumably after this, married her great-uncle Philip "the Tetrarch." Philip died in 34 C.E., about five years after Salome's dance. They had no children; Salome then married Aristobulus, the son of Herod of Chalcis, a grandson of Herod the Great who was the nephew of Herodias. They had three children, Herod, Agrippa, and Aristobulus, who seem to have been non-entities (Josephus, Antiquities XVIII.137). So after a scandalous youth, Salome seems to have settled down to a fairly normal life.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR507

Salonika

DESCRIPTION: "My husband's in Salonika ... I wonder if he knows he has a kid with a foxy head" (;the slackers "puts us in a family way"). When the war's over slackers will have two legs but soldiers a leg and a half. With all the taxes they still can't beat the Hun.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: war nonballad political injury money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 60-61, "Salonika" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10513
NOTES [907 words]: The reference is to the First World War. On September 12, 1915 British and French troops attacked Salonika [Thessaloniki] in Greek Macedonia. (source: The Irish in Uniform 1915 The Fame of Tipperary Group at Eircom site); Wikipedia just says "a Franco-British force landed at Salonica in Greece to offer assistance and [unsuccessfully] to pressure the Greek government into war against the Central Powers."
A post-war verse: "Now never marry a soldier a sailor or a marine, But keep your eye on the Sinn Fein boy with his yellow white and green" - BS
The Wikipedia citation strikes me as somewhat more accurate than the Eircom description. The Salonika landing was not really a attack on the Central Powers; it was the preparation for an attack -- an attack that never came off. It was one of the most inefficient operations of the whole inefficient war.
According to Keegan, p. 236, the idea of a landing at Salonika was first suggested in late 1914. But there was no particular need for it at the time -- the idea was to reinforce the Serbs, but the Serbs were doing just fine against the Austrians on their own.
That changed in 1915, when the Germans decided to take care of Serbia. Unlike the Austrians, the Germans were highly efficient. In October 1915, the Salonika invasion gained interest as a way to defend the country where the war had started (Liddell Hart, p. 153). No matter that it mean landing in neutral Greece! (Keegan, p. 255). In all, three French and five British divisions were sent there in 1915 -- too late; Serbia had fallen to a combined attack by the Germans and the Bulgarians (Marshall, p. 186). But the Allies had lost far too many battles by then to want to suffer another propaganda blow; rather than risk admitting defeat; the troops stayed in Greece, where they were allowed to rot and suffer malaria. Indeed, over the years, they were actually reinforced.
This even though it would have been almost impossible for them to do anything had they wanted to; Marshall, p. 194, notes that "Salonika was an inadequate Greek port with only a single-track rail line running north into Bulgaria. To the logisticians it was perfectly clear that the locality could not support an advancing field army." He adds that "A few troops on the heights can hold back legions. Withal, the Salonika countryside is terribly unhealthy, malaria-ridden, subject to heavy flooding in winter and intense heat in summer. Why the Allies imagined it a pearly gate to opportunity is one of the war's enduring mysteries."
Worthless as the spot was, the "Army of the Orient" sat there until late 1918. There were no enemies to fight, and the invasion force did not cause the Germans to divert troops; a few Bulgarians sufficed to watch over the whole. Allied casualties to disease were ten times those due to combat, and the Germans are said to have called Salonika "the greatest internment camp in the world."
According to Stokesbury, p. 294, "through most of 1916 and 1917, the Allied commanders [in Salonika] had been more occupied with badgering the Greeks than with fighting the Bulgarians"; in 1917, they even forced the abdication of the Greek king. But they still didn't do anything. It wasn't until September 1918, when the Bulgarian and Austrian armies were collapsing, that the troops in Salonika -- Stokesbury says there were 700,000 of them by this time, including Italians and miscellaneous Slavs -- finally moved. Naturally the Bulgarian army collapsed almost without a fight. Bulgaria signed an armistice on September 29. Theoretically, it was a victory for the Allies; in practice, they had wasted a strong army for two years and subjected it to horrid losses. And, because Salonika was so far from England, communications with home were even worse than in the trenches.
I can't help but think that the Salonika farce was the ultimate proof of the bankruptcy of military command in World War I. There was every reason to think a crisis might arise in Serbia -- it was a country with a violent reputation, hated by Austria and supported by the Russians. Anyone with sense could see that it could entangle the Habsburg and Russian empires -- which, given the nature of the alliance system of the time, could bring in Germany and France also. Yet no one thought about how to reinforce Serbia -- even though it was a land-locked country with no direct connections even to Russia, let alone the sea; the only way to reach it from Britain or France (apart from the routes through Austria) was from the Adriatic through Albania, Greece, or Montenegro -- all very difficult routes due to the mountains. Someone should have made up staff plans, and negotiated with the local states, *before* the war began!
The charge of high taxes during the war is certainly true; the conflict broke the economies of every power involved. The real problem for Britain (and France), though, was the absence of competent generals. Germany had an army that was, man for man, better than that of the Allies (and, initially, much larger), and her generals could at least pull off an attack (as they showed by conquering Serbia and Romania). They didn't entirely understand trench warfare, but the Allies never did cease their tendency to assault trenches. The reference to mutilated soldiers is certainly dead-on; millions of women were left widows, and millions more found their husbands and boyfriends blind or maimed or with lungs damaged by gas. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: OCan060

Salt Beef

DESCRIPTION: "Salt beef, salt beef is our relief, Salt beef and biscuit bread, oh!" That's the sailor's diet. The sailor asks that those who eat better remember "your old shipmate." Similarly, their hammocks are wet and cold, while those at home sleep warm
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: sailor food hardtimes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 132, "Salt beef, salt beef is our relief" (1 fragment)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 141-142, "Salt Beef" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8355
File: Kins141

Salt Creek Girl, The

See Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl) [Laws C25] (File: LC25)

Salt Horse Song, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer conducts a dialog with an old horse, which has been salted and sent aboard ship. He is not too thrilled about such a diet, but there is little he can do. He proves that it is horsemeat by showing a horseshoe in the meat barrel
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (Journal of John Gorman of the transport ship Minden)
KEYWORDS: dialog horse ship
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, p. 226, "The Salt Horse Song"; pp. 226-227, "Old Hoss, Old Hoss" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 216, "Old Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 227, "Old Horse, Old Horse" (1 short text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 142-144, "Old Horse" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Brown-Maine, p. 194, "Old Horse" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 223-226, "Old Horse" (3 short texts from various sources plus extensive discussion)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 21-22, "Blow the Man Down (V)" (this last text combines the words of "The Salt Horse Song" with the tune & metre of "Blow the Man Down"); p. 160, "The Sailor's Grace" (2 texts, tune referenced)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 556-557, "The Sailor's Grace" (3 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 393-394]
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 279-281, "Old Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 44, "Old Hoss" (1 text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 62-63, "The Poor Old Horse" (1 text, probably this, although it lacks most of the characteristic words and might be "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)"; Roud files it with that song)
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, pp. 148-149, "(Old horse! old horse! What brought you here?)" (1 text)
Roud #3724
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse)"
cf. "Blow the Man Down" (lyrics)
NOTES [139 words]: Sailors referred to pickled beef as "salt horse," probably partly because it tasted so bad and partly because they suspected contractors of mixing in the occasional bit of horsemeat. From there it wasn't much of a stretch to this song.
A. B. C. Whipple, Yankee Whalers in the South Seas, Doubleday & Company, 1954, p. 164, reports, "It was not so much abuse and lack of freedom that bred rebellion among the whalers. The prime cause was the living conditions. The food of the isolated, wandering whaleship was usually garbage. The meat was salt pork and beef that had to be steeped in a tub for a day before it could even be used in a stew. Both were 'saltier than Lot's wife'; both were called by the generic term 'salt horse'; and both were the subject of a dirge sung in every forecastle" -- after which he quotes this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: FO226

Salt Makes You Thirsty

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Salt makes you thirsty, Pepper makes you sneeze. We'll make somebody Wobble at their knees."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: food jumprope | spices
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #9, "(Salt makes you thirsty)"
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #508, "Salt makes you thirsty" (1 text)
File: AJRV009

Salt, Mustard, Ginger, Cayenne

See notes under Bluebells, Cockleshells (File: SuSm104B)

Salt, Vinegar, Mustard, Pepper

See notes under Bluebells, Cockleshells (File: SuSm104B)

Saltpetre Shanty (Slav Ho)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "To ol' Callyo we're bound away, (Slav ho!/Oh Roll!) (repeat) We're bound away from Liverpool bay, them puntas o' Chili will grab our pay. Ch: Oh rooooll, Rock yer bars! Heave 'er high-o, rock 'er, oh, rooooll!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917
KEYWORDS: shanty ship travel
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 97, "Slav Ho!" (1 short text, 1 tune-quoting Robinson)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 518, "Saltpetre Shanty" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 377]
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "To the Spanish Main--Slav Ho!" is in Part 4, 8/4/1917
Roud #4692
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drei Reiter Am Thor" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Drei Reiter Am Thor (File: Colc096)
NOTES [220 words]: See also notes to "Drei ritten am Thor." Robinson gives an alternate refrain with imitative Spanish words "Slav Ho! Slavita, vraimentigo slee-ga, Slav Ho!" which Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen quoted and used to launch her explanation of how one song ends up being a new one. Her supposition being as follows:
Two ships, say, German and British, are moored near each other. The English shantyman hears the German sailors singing an old folk song. He doesn't understand the words, but likes the tune and starts humming or playing it to himself. Then (quoting from Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen) "he let it lie fallow till some words occurred to him would fit it. Naturally, they concerned the part of the world in which he found himself, and it mattered not at all to him that literary landsfolk reserve the term 'Spanish Main' for an different part of the world altogether. When it came to the chorus, he wanted some good rousing nonsense-syllables, and again he borrowed-this time from the Spanish tongue that he heard daily. The sailor was always immensely tickled by the sound of a foreign, particularly a Latin, language, and was given to clumsy paraphrases of it." - SL
For more on saltpeter, and how it made ports like Callao and Ilo very important, see the notes to "Chamber Lye" and "Tommy's Gone to Hilo." - RBW
File: Colc097

Salty Dog

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses linked by the words "Honey, let me be your salty dog," e.g. "Pulled the trigger and the gun said go/Shot rung over in Mexico"; "Two old maids lyin' in the bed/One turned over to the other and said/You ain't nothin' but my salty dog."
AUTHOR: Probably Charlie Jackson
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Papa Charlie Jackson)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE,Ap)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 184-185, "Salty Dog Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 79, "Salty Dog" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 520, "Salty Dog" (notes only)
DT, SALTDOG
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 41, "Salty Dog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11661
RECORDINGS:
Allen Bros., "Salty Dog Blues" (Columbia 15175-D, 1927); "A New Salty Dog" (Victor 23514, 1931; Bluebird B-5403, 1934; Montgomery Ward M-4750, c. 1945; RCA Victor 20-2132, 1947; on GoingDown; "Salty Dog, Hey Hey Hey" (OKeh 02818/Vocalion 02818, 1934)
Bo Carter [pseud. for Bo Chatmon] "Be My Salty Dog" (Bluebird B-7968, 1938)
Jimmie Davis, "Davis' Salty Dog" (Victor 23674, 1932)
Mississippi John Hurt, "Salty Dog" (on MJHurt05)
Papa Charlie Jackson, "Salty Dog Blues" (Paramount 12236, 1924; Broadway 5001 [as Casey Harris], c. 1930)
McGee Brothers, "Salty Dog Blues" (Vocalion 5150, 1927)
Morris Brothers, "Let Me Be Your Salty Dog" (Bluebird B-7967, c. 1938) "Salty Dog Blues" (RCA Victor 20-1783, 1945)
Paramount Pickers, "Salty Dog" (Paramount 12779/Broadway 5069 [as Broadway Pickers], 1929)
Jimmy Revard Oklahoma Cowboys, "Dirty Dog" (Bluebird B-6992, 1937; rec. 1936)
Clara Smith, "Salty Dog" (Columbia 14143-D, 1926)
Stripling Brothers, "Salty Dog" (Decca 5049, 1934)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rigby Johnson Chandler" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Bottle Up and Go" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Step It Up and Go"
cf. "Take Your Fingers Off It"
cf. "Johnny and Jane" (tune)
cf. "Candy Man" (assorted references)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A New Salty Dog
NOTES [55 words]: A "salty dog" was a sexual partner. - PJS
In bluegrass circles, this is credited to the Morris Brothers, but the Jackson recording seems to eliminate this possibility. - RBW
Several labels independently credit Jackson as the author. - PJS
I would love to know how summer camps explained this song to the kids they taught it to! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: CSW184

Salutation Carol, The

DESCRIPTION: "Nowell, Nowell,Nowell, Nowell! This is the salutation of the angel Gabriel." "Tidings true there be come new, Sent from the Trinity" by Gabriel to Nazareth. He does homage to Mary. She says she will obey whatever her Lord commands
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 36, "The Salutation Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #239, pp. 171-172, "(Tydynges trew ther be cum new, sent from the Trinite") (1 text with variants)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 35-36 "Nowell, nowell, nowell, nowell, This is the salutation of Gabriel" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 42, "Christmas Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 30-31, "Nowell, Nowell" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3736
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #5952
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book , Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #49, pp. 39-40, "[Newell, newell, newell, newell, This ys the salutacion of Gabryell]" (1 text)
Richard Greene, editor, A Selection of English Carols , Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #53, pp. 113-114, "(Nowell, Nowell! This is the salutacion off the aungell Gabriell)" (1 text)
Lady Caroline Kerrison, edited with notes by Lucy Toulmin Smith, _A Common-place Book of the Fifeenth Century: A Religious Play and Poetry, Legal Forms, and Local Accounts_, privately printed, 1886, pp. 122-123, "A Carol of the Annunciation" (1 text)
Rossell Hope Robbins, editor, _Early English Christmas Carols_, Columbia University Press, 1961, #21, pp. 62-63, 'The Salutation of the Angel" (1 text, 1 tune)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 41 (first copy); folio 52 (second copy)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 482
MANUSCRIPT: New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Library MS. 365 [olim Ipswich County Hall deposit, Hillwood; prior Brome Hall, Suffolk], folio 79
NOTES [622 words]: Loosely based on the story of the Annunciation in Luke 1, although there has been a lot of rephrasing along the way.
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic would date the piece to the reign of Henry VI, which seems not unlikely.
Although no longer found in tradition, this seems to have been popular in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, surviving in three manuscripts. It is in the Hill MS. (Balliol College, Oxford, 354), in Bodleian MS. Eng. poet. e.1 -- twice, in fact, one of them with music (although Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic seems to think this music imperfect, because it cannot be cast in perfect triple time) -- and in one other copy. The Oxford Book of Carols says that this third manuscript is the famous Sloane 2593, but this appears to be an error; Brown/Robbins lists the third as simply "Hamilton [olim Brome]," which is now New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Library MS. 365. It is sometimes known as "The Book of Brome." The Yale web page for this manuscript (https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Search/Results?lookfor=%22Beinecke+MS+365%22&type=CallNumber) dates the manuscript to the last quarter of the fifteenth century; it is old enough that it still uses yogh (ȝ) in some pieces. Digitized images are available on the Yale web site; a printed edition of the book is Lady Caroline Kerrison, edited with notes by Lucy Toulmin Smith, A Common-place Book of the Fifeenth Century: A Religious Play and Poetry, Legal Forms, and Local Accounts, privately printed, 1886; it is available on Google Books.
The book is paper, 81 leave of 8x5.5". There were two scribes who worked on the original manuscripts; about a century later, in the reign of Henry VII, one Robert Melton added notes and accounts records; these have some historical but no literary significance. One of the original scribes added a few ornaments. Now heavily stained. Lucy Toulmin Smith, in the book mentioned above (pp. 1-2) says that the book never mentions Brome, having references to Stuson, Suffolk and a few to Scole, Norfolk. At the time Melton wrote in it, it probably belonged to the Cornwallis family; they certainly held it for several centuries afterward, and were lords of the manors of Stuson, Brome, Okely, and Thranson (Smith, p. 6).
The Yale manuscript doesn't have as many poems as the other two manuscripts of this carol (a long section in the middle consists of account books, legal notes, and the like, occupying folios 45-78); among other things, it contains the 466 line Brome play of Isaac and Abraham, beginning "Father of heaven omnipotent," a 341 line version of "Owain Miles" (a story of the knight Owen, said to be based on "St. Patrick's Purgatory"), a Life of Saint Margaret, a poem of the Fifteen Signs of the End Times, and a several-page Legend of Ipotis (Ypotis), a popular instructional dialog. (The DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse lists it as also having the sixteen copies of Chaucer's popular poem "Lak of Steadfastness," but it's not listed by Toulmin Smith in the contents of the manuscript, and the Variorum Chaucer and Riverside Chaucer do not mention the manuscript as a witness to Chaucer.) It also contains what appears to be an ancestor or relative of "The Herring Loves the Moonlight (The Dreg Song)," beginning "The hart loveth the wood the hare loveth the hill." That is the first piece in the book; "The Salutation Carol" is near the end (folio 79 out of 81).
Such wide currency, to me, implies that this belongs in the Index, especially given the presence of a tune (one of very few in the Bodleian manuscript).
For more about the famous anthology Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: MsSalCar

Salutation of the Angel, The

See The Salutation Carol (File: MsSalCar)

Salutation, The

DESCRIPTION: "Aroun' Pat Murphy's hearth there was music, song, and mirch" when the traveler comes to the door. She announces the news: "The fairy queen intends for to occupy the Glens" and restore prosperity to Ireland. The Irish will always remember home
AUTHOR: Jaes O'Kane
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home Ireland nonballad gods
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H756, p. 60, "The Salutation" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13366
File: HHH756

Salvation Army Song

See Rum By Gum (Temperance Union Song) (File: R317)

Salvation Army Song (I)

See S-A-V-E-D (File: FSWB349)

Salvation Army Song (II)

See The Bells of Hell (File: BrPa055B)

Salvation Army's Free from Sin, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Salvation Army's free from sin, All went to heaven in a corned beef tin; The corned beef tin was made of brass, They all fell down and skinned their ass."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: humorous travel injury | irreligious heaven Salvation Army
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 56, "(The Salvation Army's Free from Sin)" (1 text)
Roud #16288
File: PKKB056D

Salvator Mundi, Domine

See Father of Heaven, Blessed Thou Be (Make Ye Merry for Him That Is Come) (File: MsFoHBTB)

Sam Bass [Laws E4]

DESCRIPTION: Sam Bass, a cowpuncher and at first a kind-hearted fellow, turns to train robbery. Betrayed by an acquaintance named Jim Murphy, he is killed by a Texas Ranger
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Thorp)
KEYWORDS: cowboy death betrayal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1878 - Death of Sam Bass near Round Rock, Texas
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (27 citations):
Laws E4, "Sam Bass"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 399-400, "Sam Bass" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Randolph 142, "Young Sam Bass" (1 text plus a long excerpt, 1 tune)
HIgh, pp. 17-18, "Sam Bass" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 165, "Sam Bass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 123-124, "Sam Bass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 168-169, "Sam Bass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 375, "Sam Bass" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 422-424, "Sam Bass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys X, pp. 112-120 (24-26), "Sam Bass" (3 texts, 1 tune); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 135-138, "Sam Bass" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 95, "Sam Bass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 158-161, "Sam Bass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 174-179, "Sam Bass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 81, "Sam Bass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 126-128, "Sam Bass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 66, pp. 149-152, "Sam Bass" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 35-37, "Sam Bass" (1 text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 66-71, "Sam Bass" (1 text with inserts of recitation)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 199-200, "Sam Bass" (1 short text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 421-422, "Sam Bass" (1 text)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp. 96-98, "Sam Bass" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 316-317, "Sam Bass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 9-10, "Sam Bass" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 190-191, "Sam Bass" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 196, "Sam Bass" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, p. 204-205, "Sam Bass" (1 text)
DT 621, SAMBASS*
Roud #2244
RECORDINGS:
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Sam Bass" (Victor 21420, 1928; on AuthCowboys, WhenIWas1)
Marc Williams, "Sam Bass" (Brunswick 304, 1929; rec. 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Way Out in Idaho (I)" (tune)
NOTES [412 words]: This song has been attributed (e.g. by Thorpe) to a John Denton of Gainesville, Texas, and supposedly written in 1879, but most scholars think that multiple hands have been involved.
According to Bill O'Neal, Encyclopedia of Western Gunfighters, University of Oklahoma Press, 1979, entry on "Samuel Bass," Sam Bass was born July 21, 1851 in Mitchell, Indiana. He was a "Farmer, teamster, gambler, cowboy, saloon owner, miner, bank and train robber, laborer." His parents died when he was young, leaving him in the care of an uncle. He left Indiana in 1869, went to Saint Louis, then Rosedale, Mississippi, where he worked in a sawmill. After about a year there, he went to Denton, Texas. One of his first bosses was Sheriff W. F. Eagan, who later took part in the manhunt for him. Until 1874, he was apparently a good employee, but in that year, he acquired a racehorse and took off on his own. Still, he seems to have stayed mostly on the right side of the law until 1876, when he went to Deadwood in Dakota Territory with his future gang mate Joel Collins; they ran a casino and saloon, then bought a mine that drove them to bankruptcy. That was when they turned outlaw, recruiting several others in the coming
Their first big heist was on September 18, 1877, at Big Spring, Nebraska; they took some $60,000 off a train. Most of the gang was killed and the money recovered in several incidents over the next few weeks; Collins was one of those who died. But Bass made it back to Texas and founded another gang. One of his gang members, Jim Murphy, betrayed him to the Texas Rangers. The gang was caught at Round Rock, Texas; although they tried to flee, Bass was hit first in the hand and then in the side; after riding a few hundred yards, he fell from the saddle and was taken. A fellow gang member, Frank Jackson, managed to rescue him, but Bass could not move and had to be left behind. He was found by a posse and taken to Round Rock, where he died on July 21, 1878, two days after the fight.
Other sources say that he died July 22 rather than July 21, but they all agree that he died on his twenty-seventh birthday.
There are several books about Bass and his life, but many of them appear to be "Western Thriller" books with no value whatsoever. The two that are best appear to be Rick Miller, Sam Bass & Gang, State House Press, 1999, a proper academic edition with a full set of endnotes, and Wayne Gard, Sam Bass, University of Nebraska Press, 1999. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LE04

Sam Cooper

DESCRIPTION: Sam Cooper is "up for a crime," "handcuffed and caught on the house on the hill," tried in Timmum, then Wexford, then Enniscorthy and "they couldn't find me guilty on every degree." He sings, "I'll make this Lar' now repent now for all he has done"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: crime manhunt trial
FOUND IN:
Roud #16726
RECORDINGS:
Bill Cassidy, "Sam Cooper" (on IRTravellers01)
NOTES [62 words]: Jim Carroll's notes to IRTravellers01: "It appears to have been exclusive to travellers. We recorded it from three different singers and in each case they told us that Sam Cooper was arrested for stealing oats, though this is not mentioned in any of the versions. They also said he was guilty as charged."
Timmum [Taghmon], Wexford and Enniscorthy are all in Co. Wexford. - BS
File: RcSamCoo

Sam Davis

DESCRIPTION: Sam Davis sits on his coffin and writes a letter to his mother telling her not to grieve and that his father can collect his bones in Pulaski, Tennessee. Union Captain Armstrong cries after the execution because Davis died so bravely.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1)
KEYWORDS: army Civilwar execution death America soldier mother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 27, 1863 - Confederate soldier Sam Davis is executed as a spy in Pulaski, Tennessee (Moore; see notes below)
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 30, "Sam Davis" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24155
NOTES [40 words]: The details of Davis's capture and execution are in Frank Moore, "Anecdotes, Poetry and Incidents of the War: North and South. 1860-1865" (New York: Bible House, 1867 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) pp. 403-404, "The Execution of a Spy". - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: BrE1030

Sam Griffith

DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams of seeing "Sam Griffith with a darky for a mate." Sam begs for a drink, claiming the squatters don't like a union man. The singer abuses him for his hypocrisy. Sam leaps to the attack; the singer wakes up
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953
KEYWORDS: work fight dream discrimination
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 25-27, "Sam Griffith" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA025

Sam Hall (Jack Hall) [Laws L5]

DESCRIPTION: (Sam Hall), about to be hanged, bitterly tells his tale, spitting curses all the while -- directing them at the parson, the sheriff, his girlfriend, and the spectators. He is guilty of killing a man, and goes to the gallows still blazing away
AUTHOR: C. W. Ross
EARLIEST DATE: 1719
KEYWORDS: curse execution gallows-confession prisoner punishment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1701 - Execution of Jack Hall, a young London chimney sweep, on a charge of burglary. His "last goodnight" hawked about as a broadside eventually became the blasphemous "Sam Hall."
FOUND IN: Australia US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,SW) Britain(England(All)) New Zealand
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Laws L5, "Sam Hall"
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 223, "Sam Hall" (1 text+1 fragment, 1 tune)
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 43-48, "Sam Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 117, "Sam Hall" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 81, "Jack Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 49, "Jack Hall" (1 text, a composite of two versions)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 78, "Jack Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 18, "Jack Hall" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 42-43, "Jack Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 84-85, "The Ballad of Sam Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 96-97, "Jack Hall" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 133-134, "Sam Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 322, "Jack Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 184-185, "Samuel Small" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 54, "Samuel Hall" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 266-269, "Sam Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 102-103, "Jack Hall"; "Sam Hall" (1 text plus a fragment)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 69, "Sam Hall"; p. 200, "Ballad Of Sam Hall" (2 texts)
DT 420, SAMHALL (TALLOCAN)
ADDITIONAL: Bertrand Bronson, "Samuel Hall's Family Tree,'" article published in the _California Folklore Quarterly_ (1942); republished on pp. 30-47 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009, discusses "Sam Hall," "Captain Kidd,,""Admiral Benbow," and related songs, with all or part of 16 texts and 9 tunes
Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, pp. 203-204, "(no title, but it is a music hall song about "Captain Hall")" (1 text)
Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 64-65, "Sam Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #369
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "Ethan Lang" (c. 1930; rec. 1928; on RoughWays2)
Bill Bender (The Happy Cowboy), "Sam Hall" (Asch 410-2/Stinson 410-2/Varsity 5130 [as "Samuel Hall"])
Brian Oxberry, "Sam Hall" (Piotr-Archive #55, recorded 07/27/2021, with a tune that seems to have borrowed a bit of "Kelvingrove")
Walter Pardon, "Jack Hall" (on Voice17)
Tex Ritter, "Sam Hall" (Decca 5076, 1935)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1849), "Jack the Chimney Sweep" ("My name it is Jack All chimney sweep chimney sweep"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(2840), Harding B 11(2841), "Jack the Chimney Sweep"; Harding B 15(145a), "Jack Hall"; Harding B 20(27), "Sam Hall Chimney Sweep"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sam MacColl's Song" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Knobby Hall (File: RuSoKnoH)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Samuel Hall
NOTES [202 words]: [D'Urfey's] Pills to Purge Melancholy includes new words set to the tune of "Chimney-Sweep," recognizably "Jack Hall." Therefore the song must have already been in circulation by that time, 1719. -PJS
There is also a book, Memoirs of the Right Villanous Jack Hall, a tale of a highwayman, published 1708. I know nothing of the book except its title and that it devotes some time to describing Newgate Prison.
Bronson's article "Samuel Hall's Family Tree" (p. 35 in the Cohen reprint) mentions Kidson's belief that it was the music halls which converted Jack Hall to Sam Hall. (Nettel said one W. G. Ross had a hit with "Sam Hall.") Jack Hall was a real chimney sweep who was hung in 1701 -- interestingly, the same year that Captain Kidd was hung. The other well-known song of this type, "Admiral Benbow," relates events of 1702. The obvious suspicion is that "Jack Hall," "Admiral Benbow, and "Captain Kidd" borrowed a popular tune and metrical form of around 1700.
Bronson ultimately traces the form back to an item beginning "All my lufe, leif me not," attested in 1567, and also mentions a single line in the famous Complaynt of Scotland of 1549, "My lufe islyand seik, send hym joy, send hym joy." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LL05

Sam Holt

DESCRIPTION: The singer reminds Sam Holt of the various events of his life: "Oh, don't you remember Black Alice, Sam Holt... [with] teeth like a Moreton Bay shark...." Stories about Sam's courtship amid ants, his cheating and cards, his mining fortune, and his travels
AUTHOR: see notes
EARLIEST DATE: 1857 (Melbourne Vocalist, fifth edition, according to AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: rambling cards courting Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 46-47, "Sam Holt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 98-99, "Sam Holt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 138-141, "Sam Holt" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 120-121, "A Ballad of Queensland" (1 text)
Roud #9097
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ben Bolt" (tune & meter)
NOTES [111 words]: Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong credits this to one T. D. English, and says it was rewritten by Charles Thatcher.
Patterson/Fahey/Seal credits this to "Ironbar" Gibson, but does not document the source of this claim. Manifold, p. 110, also attributes it to "G. H. Gibson, who wrote as 'Ironbark,"" and says it wwas originally called "A Ballad of Queensland, the title used in Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads. Davey/Seal, p. 38, says it was "Composed by G. H. Gibson and published in 1881" -- which, however, is a generation after Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong's date. Perhaps Gibson recast it? Whoever wrote it clearly based it on "Ben Bolt." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: FaE098

Sam MacColl's Song

DESCRIPTION: MacColl, whose penis is so large there is no room for a scrotum, boasts he services the girls until they weary, then tires horses, cows and sheep.
AUTHOR: Attributed to Jim Tully
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 ("Immortalia")
KEYWORDS: bawdy bragging humorous lie
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 48-49, "Sam MacColl's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10177
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sam Hall (Jack Hall)" [Laws L5] (tune)
File: EM048

Sam Simon

DESCRIPTION: "There was old Sam Simon And a young Sam Simon And young Sam Simon will be Sam Simon When old Sam Simon is gone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: father children death nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 160, "Sam Simon" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11356
File: Brne160

Sam, Sam, Dirty Old Man

DESCRIPTION: "Sam, Sam, dirty old man, Washed his face in a frying pan, Combed his hair with the leg of a chair/donkey's tail, (And scratched his belly with his big toenail), Sam, Sam, dirty old man"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: hair | dirt
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 47, "(Dan, Dan, the funny wee man)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #48, "(Sam, Sam, Dirty Old Man)" (3 short texts, one in the body and two in the notes)
Roud #19087
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wee Falorie Man" (form)
cf. "Old Dan Tucker" (lyrics)
NOTES [24 words]: I have to think that some versions of this were influenced by "Old Dan Tucker," but whether it was source or just an attraction I can't tell. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PKKB047H

Sam, Sam, the Soft Soap Man

See Old Dan Tucker (File: R521)

Sam, You Look Healthy Now

See The Drunkard's Dream (I) (File: R307)

Sam's "Waiting for a Train"

See Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum) [Laws H2] (File: LH02)

Sama Kama Wacky Brown

DESCRIPTION: "Eddie Koochy Katcha Kama Tosa Neera Tosa Noka Sama Kama Wacky Brown... Fell into the well, fell into the deep dar well." People try to pass the message so that someone can get him out, but it takes so long to say his name that he drowns
AUTHOR: George Goehring and Ed Warren (source: claim by Goerhring in mudcat.org thread "Lyr Add: Wacky Brown")
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (recording, The Brothers Four)
KEYWORDS: wordplay humorous drowning campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 152, "Andy Brown" (notes only)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Eddie Brown
NOTES [62 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs calls this "Andy Brown," but I can't find a single version under this title. I've used the name found on the album "The Brothers Four" because that seems most likely to be recognized and is apparently the original.
The plot was also used in a well-known children's book, Tikki Tikki Tembo, probably based on the song since it came later. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF152K

Samaritan Woman, The

See The Maid and the Palmer [Child 21] (File: C021)

Sambo's Right to Be Kilt

DESCRIPTION: "Some tell me 'tis a burnin' shame To make the naygers fight, And that the trade of bein' kilt Belongs but to the white." The soldier declares that he is liberal enough to let Sambo be killed in his place. After all, who do the critics want to be killed?
AUTHOR: Words: "Private Miles O'Reilly" (Charles Graham Halpine) (source: Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (sheet music published by William Hall & Son, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: soldier Black(s) Civilwar nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #15, p. 12, "Sambo's Right to be Kilt" (1 text)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 328-330, "Sambo's Right to Be Kilt" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [17 words]: For background on author Charles G. Halpine, see the notes to "We've Drunk from the Same Canteen." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SCWF328

Same House As Me, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer claims that "Many a man... would hang [himself] up... If [he] had half as much trouble as me." He and his wife have a young girl as a lodger; one night, coming home drunk from a concert, the singer goes to sleep in her bed. Mayhem follows.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: husband wife drink adultery humorous
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 269-270, "The Same House As Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MCB269

Same Train

See This Train (File: LoF255)

Sammy Ain't You Glad You Joined the Navy

DESCRIPTION: "When I was but a little lad, Way down in Joe Batt's Arm, For jigging squids I didn't care... I got a job to join a ship.... Sammy, ain't you glad you joined the Navy." The doctor inspects him. He travels to Halifax and gets in fights
AUTHOR: Johnny Burke (source: Murphy)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Duke of York Songster, according to Murphy)
KEYWORDS: navy travel humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #12, pp. 26-27, "Sammy, Ain't You Glad You Joined the Navy" (1 text)
Michael P. Murphy, _Pathways through Yesterday_, edited by Gerald S. Moore, Town Crier Publishing, 1976, pp. 156-157, "Sammy Ain't You Glad You Joined The Navy" (1 text)
NOTES [134 words]: For background on Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrews Soiree." The Glencoe, mentioned in the song, is presumably the ship of that name that was a member of the "Alphabet Fleet" that carried traffic around Newfoundland. According to Maura Hanrahan, The Alphabet Fleet, Flankers Press Ltd., 2007, p. 4, she was built in 1900, was a ship of 769 tons, and served for more than half a century -- though obviously Burke could not have known that in 1901! William Connors, By the Next Boat: A Photo History of Newfoundland Coastal Boats, Johnson Family Foundation, 2002, p. 20, says she was built in 1899 (probably the difference is between her start and completion dates), and saw sold in June 1959 and scrapped. For the Alphabet Fleet, see the notes to "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Murp156

Sammy Dead

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: Sammy was killed because he planted corn that flourished and his black neighbors could not stand to see another black man's success. Sammy's end in hell is not his fault.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: jealousy theft curse farming magic food hell
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 22-23, "Sammy Dead Oh!" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Sammy Dead Oh" (on WIEConnor01)
Eric "Monty" Morris with Byron Lee and the Dragonnaires, "Sammy Dead" (1964, on Kentone 45 rpm [no number], 2001, "Ska Down Jamaica," Hudson VanDam HVCD CD 5105-2, "Sammy Dead-O" on This Is Ska, Island Visual Arts Film, IVA/Maverick 1989 release, recorded 1964, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY0LIlcN_2I accessed May 22, 2015.)
Byron Lee and the Dragonnaires, "Sammy Dead-O" on This Is Ska, Island Visual Arts Film, IVA/Maverick 1989 release, recorded 1964, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY0LIlcN_2I accessed May 22, 2015.
This Is Ska, Film, IVA/Maverick 1989 release, recorded 1964, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY0LIlcN_2I accessed May 22, 2015.
NOTES [40 words]: By repeating only the first two verses, the Monty Morris ska version avoids verses about black jealousy and about Sammy ending in hell. After his corn planting succeeds, Sammy is killed because of unspecified neighbor envy [via obeah?]. - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: JaMu022

Sammy Ring the Bell

DESCRIPTION: "Sammy ring the bell (x2), Four hours on watch is a bloody long spell. Cold, hard and hungry, Bloody nigh dead as well, Ring, you rubber-necked, bootneck bastard, Ring that bloody bell!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy sailor hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 30, "Sammy Ring the Bell" (1 text, with tune on p. 149)
File: Tawn013

Sammy Shuttleworth's Party

DESCRIPTION: "Old Sammy Shuttleworth of Lancashire, He gave a party last neet... The guests they were fat and the house was small. They go stuck in the entrance hall." Many people come. There is much unusual food and drink, and unusual people go together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire)
KEYWORDS: party home humorous moniker doctor food drink courting dancing
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, pp. 76-77, "Sammy Shuttleworth's Party" (1 text)
Roud #31167
NOTES [34 words]: Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire calls this "Music Hall at its best," but no source I have seen mentions an actual music hall source. It does seem as if a lot of people in Lancashire knew the song, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: MHFL076

Samoa Song

DESCRIPTION: Farewell song in Samoan pidgin. "Goodbye, my felleni, o le a outea, Ae folue le vaa, o le Alii pule mellete. Sometimes with German words also. The sailor will not forget Samoa.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: sailor farewell
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 186, "Samoa Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HSoSe186

Sampan Girl

See Das Sampanmadchen (The Sampan Maiden) (File: Hugi569)

Sampanmadchen, Das (The Sampan Maiden)

DESCRIPTION: German or Swedish shanty. Pidgin English (or in this case, pidgin German), nonsense verses -- "I no likie you-hou, you no-ho likie me-hie." Versions of this were to be found in several languages. Chorus of even more nonsensical syllables.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Baltzer, _Knurrhahn_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty nonsense China
FOUND IN: Germany Sweden
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 569-570, "Das Sampanmadchen," "En Sjomansvisa Fran Kinakusten" (4 texts-German, Swedish, and English, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 189, "Sampan Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Chinee Bumboatman" (some similar verses)
cf. "Kinakusten" (general feeling)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
En Sjomansvisa Fran Kinakusten" (A Sailor's Song from the China Coast)
File: Hugi569

Samson

See Samson and Delilah (File: LoF251)

Samson and Delilah

DESCRIPTION: "Delilah was a woman, fine and fair, Very pleasant looks and coal black hair... If I had my way I'd tear the building down." Delilah tricks Samson out of the secret of his strength; he is captured, but manages to tear the building down.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Rev. T. E. Weems)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious death hair trick lie
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 6-8, "Samson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 251, "Samson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 49-50, "(If I Had My Way)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 312-313, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #6700
RECORDINGS:
Blind Gary Davis, "Samson and Delilah" (LP: on "Harlem Street Singer," Prestige Bluesville BV-1015, 1960; CD: on "Harlem Street Singer", Original Blues Classics OBCCD-547-2, 1992)
Blind Willie Johnson, "If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down" (Columbia 14343-D, 1928; Vocalion 03021, 1935; rec. 1927)
Celina Lewis, "Session with Celina Lewis" (on NFMAla6)
Rev. T. E. Weems, "If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down" (Columbia 14254-D, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "God's A-Gwine Ter Move All de Troubles Away" (lyrics and theme of the Samson story)
NOTES [275 words]: Most of this story is Biblically accurate. The story of Samson occupies chapters 13-16 of Judges. We may categorize:
* Delilah's beauty (not mentioned; we are only told that Samson loved her; see 16:4)
* Samson's birth: A miraculous event described in chapter 13
* "Strongest man that ever lived on earth": not explicit, but not totally unreasonable; tales of Samson's superhuman strength (and almost subhuman intelligence) fill most of chapters 14-16
* "He killed three thousand Philistines": No such number is given in the Bible. Judges 14:19 says he killed 30 in Ascalon, in 15:8 he commits a "great slaughter," 15:15-16 says he killed a thousand (exactly?), and at the end of chapter 16 he supposedly killed more than in his entire career up to then, but obviously there is no way to add that up to a particular total except that it must be greater than 2062 (which is twice 1000+3+1), assuming you take all those round numbers seriously. But there was a well-known tradition that he killed three thousand at the end -- e.g. Chaucer in "The Monk's Tale" (line 2088, p. 243 in The Riverside Chaucer) says that "thre thousand bodyes were ther slayn"
* The dead lion and the bees: 14:6, 8f.
* "They bound him with a rope" (first occurrence): 15:13
* The old jawbone, etc.: 15:15f.
* Samson told her, "Shave off my hair": 16:17
* "His strength became like a natural man": 16:19
* The final incident, where the blinded Samson is displayed before the Philistines, but has his revenge by pulling the building down on them, is told in 16:23-30.
There was a 1914 pop song, "If I Had My Way," words by Lou Klein, music by James Kendis. This is not it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LoF251

Samuel Allen [Laws C10]

DESCRIPTION: Samuel Allen is examining a rolling dam on the Rocky Brook. The dam falls apart, and Allen is drowned
AUTHOR: John Calhoun of Bouestown (1848-1939) (per Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswickm Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: logger death drowning
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws C10, "Samuel Allen"
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 49-53, "Rocky Brook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 40, "Rocky Brook" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 716, SAMALLEN
Roud #1944
File: LC10

Samuel Hall (I)

See Captain Kidd [Laws K35] (File: LK35)

Samuel Hall (II)

See Sam Hall (Jack Hall) [Laws L5] (File: LL05)

Samuel Small

See Sam Hall (Jack Hall) [Laws L5] (File: LL05)

Samuel Young

DESCRIPTION: Samuel Young, of Kentucky, is courting a girl against the wishes of her father; he arranges to have him sent to the Mexican War. He gets as far as Monterey when he takes sick and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: disease grief courting army war parting separation father lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 192, "Samuel Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SAMYOUNG*
Roud #3613
NOTES [163 words]: The theme of the father having his daughter's unwelcome suitor sent away, pressed into the army, etc., is of course common, but this is one of the few songs in which she doesn't follow him, and he does not return to claim the daughter/fight the father. It doesn't seem to overlap other songs, and I'd guess it was composed by a friend or relative of the fallen soldier. The part of North Carolina where the song was collected is not far from Kentucky. - PJS
The song is definitely curious, since the Mexican War did not involve a military draft. Perhaps the father demanded that the young man join the army as a condition for marrying his daughter?
Given the appalling sanitary conditions in armies of this period, it's no surprise that he died of disease.
I strongly suspect the song is modeled on something else. The words make me think of "The Suffolk Miracle," though the tune is close to "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie."
The song is item dA34 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ShAp2192

Samuel' Sistuh

See Samuel's Sister (File: HPR262A)

Samuel's Sister

DESCRIPTION: "Samuel's (sister/brother/mother/...) screaming and hollering (3x), My brother's dead, my brother's dead."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 262-263, "Samuel' Sistuh" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR262A

San Francisco Earthquake, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on a balmy April day, the springtime flowers in bloom." San Francisco is properous and happy. "But suddenly a rumbling sound, an earthquake...." Mothers cry out to God to save their children; families are parted; God's ways are mysterious
AUTHOR: Words: Fred Bessel
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Delaney's Songbook #45, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: death disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 18, 1906 - The San Francisco Earthquake
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 665, "The San Francisco Earthquake" (1 text)
File: CAFS2665

San Francisco Rag-Picker, The

DESCRIPTION: "O, ladies and gentlemen, list to my song! It's about a poor devil who can't get along." He's tried many businesses, without success -- chased away by the locals, cheated by his clerk, ignored by his audience. All that is left for him is rag-picking
AUTHOR: probably Fred Woodhull (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (but sung by Woodhull in the nineteenth century)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 517-518, "The San Francisco Rag-Picker" (1 text, tune referenced)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(431), "The San Francisco Rag-Picker," T. C. Boyd (San Francisco), c. 1860
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lather and Shave" (tune)
File: LDC517

San Juan

DESCRIPTION: "I located a claim in Creed, And my title did not stick," so the singer sells his traps and ends up at Cripple Creek, then sells out again to go to San Juan. He tells of deserts, and hostile Navajos; he and his party barely survive
AUTHOR: Barney Riley (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 ([Denver] MIner's Magazine, August 1901, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 111, "San Juan" (1 text)
File: LDC111

Sandgate Lass on the Ropery Banks, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the Ropery Banks Jenny was sittin'... And hearty I heard this lass singin' -- My bonny keel lad shall be mine." She is knitting the stockings she promised him. She recalls meeting him, and looks forward to bearing his children
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: love courting children clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 184-185, "The Sandgate Lass on the Ropery Banks" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR184 (Partial)
Roud #3178
NOTES [20 words]: For some reason, this reminds me very strongly of "Bring Back My Johnny to Me." But I can't point to common elements. - RBW
File: StoR184

Sandgate Lass's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "I was a young maiden truly, And liv'd in Sandgate Street; I thought to marry a good man... But last I married a keelman, And my good days are done." The girl lists all the men she thought of marrying, and then contrasts her ill-formed, evil keelman
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: marriage abuse lament work
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 162-163, "The Sandgate Lass's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR162 (Full)
Roud #3170
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Keel Row" (subject: Sandgate women and Keelmen)
NOTES [250 words]: A keelman is not one who is involved in shipbuilding; Lindsay Marshall explains that "A keelman [had] a very specific job on Tyneside in the north-east of England where Sandgate is located on the Newcastle quayside. A keel was a the boat used to ferry coal from mines to larger ships ('colliers') which could not get up the shallow undredged river.
It is interesting to note that "to keel" also has been used to mean "to mark down as worthy of contempt." So this may be a pun, or it might be simply that the singer has a truly low opinion of her husband.
Marshall also points out the web site https://twsitelines.info/SMR/6706, which says among other things, "Behind the beer-houses, lodging houses and shops on Sandgate there were numerous alleys, chares or entries, described by Knowles and Boyle in 1890 as 'dark' and 'dingy'.. 'crowded with the miserable dwellings of the very poor'. The keelmen colonised the Sandgate area in the eighteenth century. Bourne recorded that several thousand people, mostly those who worked on the river, lived in Sandgate and the lanes off it."
William Watson published a piece "Sandgate Lassie's Lament" in T. Thompson, J Shield, W. Midford, H. Robson, and others, A Collection of Songs, Comic, Satirical, and Descriptive, Chiefly in the Newcastle Dialect: And Illustrative of the Language and Manners of the Common People on the Banks of the Tyne and Neighbourhood, (John Marshall, Newcastle, 1827), p. 70, but it doesn't appear to be the same poem to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: StoR162

Sandy and Donald

See Crafty Wee Bony (File: GrD1151)

Sandy and Nap

DESCRIPTION: Napoleon and the Tsar quarrel. When Bony had raised his army Sandy warns Bony against attacking. Bony rejects the warning. At Moscow Bony told his starving men biscuits and brandy were near but saw them burnt. Bony escapes the Cossacks and frost.
AUTHOR: William Lillie (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (William Walker, _Bards of Bon-Accord 1375-1860_, according to Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: war fire Russia humorous Napoleon soldier food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #53, pp. 1-2, "'The Twa Emperors' or 'Sandy and Nap'" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 149, "Sandy and Nap" (6 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #2874
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Twa Emperors
The Siege of Moscow
NOTES [71 words]: Greig: "This piece refers of course to Napoleon's Russian campaign of 1812 -- his invasion of that country, the burning of Moscow by the Russians themselves, and the disastrous retreat of the French army."
Greig, writing in 1908: "The first appearance of the song in print was in the columns of a contemporary between forty and fifty years ago, when it was given as the composition of 'the late William Lillie, Inverugie." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1149

Sandy and Paddy

DESCRIPTION: "An uncle of mine, he's an old-fashioned chap. He sits all the day by the fire," telling of Britain's victories -- victories won by the Highland Brigade and Irish soldiers. "If it was nae for Sandy and Paddy, Where would old England be?" But many died
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman); a broadside version apparently dates from the 1920s or earlier
KEYWORDS: soldier England battle death patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 66, "Sandy and Paddy" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: GrHo066

Sandy Anna

See Santy Anno (File: Doe078)

Sandy Boy, De

DESCRIPTION: Shanty, negro origin. Singer is going down a river when a shark eats his boat. He travels from place to place looking for more boats, but the shark keeps showing up. Other verses have rhymes about girls.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Shanty, negro origin. Singer is going down a river when a shark eats his boat. He travels from place to place looking for more boats, but the shark keeps showing up. Other verses have rhymes about girls. Typical verses would be: "When I went down to New Orleans to see de boatman row, I set myself down on a rock an' played the old banjo." "Then I went to Alo, to buy a little goat, The ole shark came behind us a swallowed down the boat." Chorus: "Do come along, my Sandy boy, Do come along, oh, do! What will Uncle Gabriel say? Oh, Sally, can't you too?"
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor river ship
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 458-460, "De Sandy Boy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
File: Hugi458

Sandy Grant

DESCRIPTION: "Sandy Grant and (his/her) cousin's son" and some others "had some fun" but it turned out badly. They stay up late drinking and singing, rouse the ire of the townfolk; in the end they are referred to the police
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(219)
KEYWORDS: drink music police
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1770, "Sandy Grant" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13003
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.11(219), "Sandy Grant" ("Her nainsel' cam' frae the Hielan' hill"), Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1872
File: GrD81770

Sandy Lan'

See Great Big Taters in Sandy Land (File: LxA236)

Sandy Land

See Great Big Taters in Sandy Land (File: LxA236)

Sandy Maranoa, The

DESCRIPTION: "The night is dark and stormy and the sky is clouded o'er"; the drivers pack up go from Queensland to New South Wales, "Happy drovers from the sandy Maranoa." The singer describes the life as they travel with the cattle
AUTHOR: A. W. Davis (source: Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads)
KEYWORDS: travel work river cattle
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, p. 128-129, "The Maranoa Drovers" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 63-64, "The Sandy Maranoa" (1 text)
Roud #24814
NOTES [36 words]: Although no tune is listed for this, I'm pretty sure Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads's version, at least is meant to be sung to "Darling Nelly Gray." The Roud Index mentions "Little Sally Waters" as the tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Ward128

Sandy McFarlane

DESCRIPTION: Sandy McFarlane courts Jeannie Niel. His parents "ca'd her a wilfu' young jaud." "In spite o' the auld couple's girnin' and snarlin', Jeannie's persisted and stuck tae her darlin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting love money father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 1001, "Sandy McFarlane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6728
File: GrD1001

Sandy Stream Song

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you river drivers... listen unto me... Of the hardships that we underwent... to drive on Sandy Stream." Setting out, the loggers have a fight with an innkeeper. Fire destroys the camp; the loggers, guided by the owner, struggle home through snow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Lewiston Journal, according to Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, and Bangor Daily Commercial, according to Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: logger disaster fire hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 31-36, "Sandy Stream Song" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 51-54, "Sandy Stream Song" (1 text)
NOTES [74 words]: Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks's notes give a detailed description, supported by a newspaper account and map, of the events of this song. Strangely, however, he was unable to determine the exact date (he thinks the disaster of the Reed family's Sandy Stream operation began in 1874 and lasted three years). Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 51, say that it "must" be from the spring of 1875, but can't pin down any more details. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Gray031

Sandy Toy

See There Was a Man of Double Deed (File: OO20322)

Sandy's a Sailor

DESCRIPTION: Sandy is a sailor. He is paid Saturday and spends it on drink. Sunday at church "he takes the button off his shirt and he puts it on the plate." You'll not find him at his ship but in the bar drinking gin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (recording, Lizzie Higgins)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
Roud #12924
RECORDINGS:
Lizzie Higgins, "Sandy's a Sailor" (on Voice02)
File: RcSanASa

Sandy's at the Cauld Well"

See Sandy's the Laddie That I'm Gaun Wi' (File: GrD4749)

Sandy's Mill

DESCRIPTION: "Sandy had a nice little mill." "Sandy, quo he, Lend me your mill!" "Sandy lent the man his mill, And the man got a loan of Sandy's mill, And the mill that was lent was Sandy's mill, An the mill belonged to Sandy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Tobittt)
KEYWORDS: miller bargaining
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 72, "Sandy's Mill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 177, "('Sandy,' quo he, lend me your mill!')" (1 short text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #104, "Sandy's Mill" (1 fragment, 1 tune, linked to "Sandy's Mill" by the title and a few of the words but to "Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy" by the tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 315, 391,433, 496, "Sandy's Mill" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 32, "Sandy's Mill" (1 text, 1 tune, presumably the antecedent of the Camp versions, which appears to combine this chorus with a bit of "Three Blue Pigeons" and also seems to have a Winnie-the-Pooh "Tiddley-pom" line)
Roud #2875
File: MSNR177

Sandy's the Laddie That I'm Gaun Wi'

DESCRIPTION: "He's coming doun the Donside ... Wi' a feather in his bonnet and a ribbond round's knee, And Sandy's the laddie that I'm ga'en wi." The singer has no use for "Willie at the cauld wallie" or Johnnie "at the back door" or any other boy waiting.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig #157, pp. 2-3, "Sandy's the Laddie"; #115, p. 3, ("Oot spak' the auld guidwife") (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan4 749, "Sandy's the Laddie That I'm Gaun Wi'" (6 texts, 3 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 97, "Sandy's at the Cauld Well" (1 fragment)
Roud #6173
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Win' Blew the Bonnie Lassie's Plaidie Awa'" (tune, per Greig)
cf. "Fat'll Mak a Bonny Lassie Blythe an' Glad?" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
He's a Bonny Bonny Laddie That I'm Gaun Wi'
Sandy's at the Cauld Well
NOTES [76 words]: In another version Sandy is "sailin on the Jean" and "comin' doon the dykeside ... Wi' a ribbon at his bonnet and a buckle at his knee." The line "a feather in his bonnet and a ribbon at his knee" is also in "There Grows a Bonnie Brier Bush" (see Robert Burns, The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (New Lanark,2005), pp. 377-378)
In other versions, Sandy's left waiting with Jamie and Johnnie in favor of Willie, or with Willie in favor of Jamie. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD4749

Sandy's Wooing

DESCRIPTION: Sandy asks Jenny to marry him. She hesitates, pointing out examples of girls who have been betrayed and abandoned by men, perhaps for money. He says that he doesn't need riches; she agrees to marry him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H239, p. 469, "Sandy's Wooing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9455
File: HHH239

Sanford Barnes

See The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II) [Laws H1] (File: LH01)

Sang o Gude Wallace, A

See Gude Wallace [Child 157] (File: C157)

Sang of the Outlaw Murray, The

See The Outlaw Murray (File: C305)

Sangaree

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Oh Babe, Sangaree (x4)."Verses: "If I live, Don't get killed, I'm going back, Jacksonville." "My husband's got the shovel, And I got the hoe, If that ain't farming, I don't know."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 18, pp. 99-101, "Sangaree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11007
NOTES [25 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. In Parrish's verses, every line is followed by "Sangaree." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr018

Sanny Coutts' Little Doggies

DESCRIPTION: Sanny Coutts' little doggies licked his mouth. Sandy ran away with "the doggies at's back" barking.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: dog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #154, p. 2, ("Sanny Coutts' little doggies") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1662, "Sanny Coutts' Little Doggies" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #32, p.28, "Wee Doggies" ("Sanny Coutts' wee doggies")
Roud #13040
File: GrD81662

Sans Day Carol

See The Holly Bears a Berry (File: K091)

Santa Ana

See Santy Anno (File: Doe078)

Santa Anna

See Santy Anno (File: Doe078)

Santa Barbara Earthquake, The

DESCRIPTION: "Way out in California, among the hills so tall, Stands the town of Santa Barbara." Around daybreak, "the hills began to sway." Women and children scream; the people pray. The conclusion: "It's just another warning, From God up in the sky."
AUTHOR: "Carlos B. McAfee" (Carson J. Robison)
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: disaster warning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 28, 1925 - the Santa Barbara Earthquake
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 86-87, "The Santa Barbara Earthquake" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 666-667, "The Santa Barbara Earthquake" (1 text)
Roud #4752
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Santa Barbara Earthquake" (Columbia 15037-D, 1925)
NOTES [236 words]: There are several earthquakes on record affecting Santa Barbara, California, the earliest being in 1806, when it was little more than a mission in what was then Mexico.
It seems clear, however, that this song refers to the earthquake of June 1925, which was quite recent at the time this song was first collected. (I would bet a lot that there was a 78 recording of this song, though I haven't located it. According to the Old-Time Herald, Volume 11, #10, April-May 2009, p. 28, Bascom Lamar Lunsford on August 27, 1925 recorded "The Fate of Santa Barbara," but I don't know if that is this song.)
The earthquake has been estimated at 6.3 on the Richter scale. As the song says, it happened around dawn, before the workday started -- which was very fortunate, since damage in the large buildings of the commercial district was severe, but most of the houses suffered relatively slight damage. Casualties, as a result, were slight -- only thirteen people killed. They probably would have been worse had workers been crowded into the (large, hard-to-escape) commercial buildings.
The garbage at the end makes me wonder if the song isn't by Andrew Jenkins; it has something of his style, and the earthquake happened in the period when he was writing a lot of topical songs, sometimes by invitation of record executives. The author declares that the earthquake was a warning. A warning of what? Lousy songwriters? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: MHAp087

Santa Claus

See What's Your Name? (File: SaKo120B)

Santa Fe Trail, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks, "Say, pard, have you sighted a schooner Way out on the Santa Fe Trail?" In the company is "A little tow-headed gal on a pinto" whom he very much wishes to see. He describes her, though he will not give her name
AUTHOR: Words: James Grafton Rogers/Music: J. H. Gower
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: cowboy travel separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 85, "'Longside of the Santa Fe Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 548, "The Santa Fe Trail" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, pp. 28-29, "The Santa Fe Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5096
RECORDINGS:
Jules [Verne] Allen, "Longside The Santa Fe Trail" Victor V-40118, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-4344, 1933; Montgomery Ward M-4780, 1935; on WhenIWas1)
Bill Bender (The Happy Cowboy), "Santa Fe Trail" (Elite X16, n.d.; rec. 1939)
Glenn Ohrlin, "Santa Fe Trail" (on Ohrlin01)
Art Thieme, "The Santa Fe Trail" (on Thieme03)
The Westerners [Massey Family], "Santa Fe Trail" (Perfect 6-03-58/Melotone 6-03-58, 1936)
NOTES [63 words]: Although the sheet music of this piece was published in 1911, it seems that almost every version in tradition (even pop tradition) derives from Jules Verne Allen's 1929 recording.
There was another pop song, "Along the Santa Fe Trail," words by Al Dubin and Edwina Coolidge, music by Will Grosz, used in the movie "Santa Fe Trail" and sung by Big Crosby. It's not the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Ohr085

Santiana

See Santy Anno (File: Doe078)

Santianna

See Santy Anno (File: Doe078)

Santy Ana

See Santy Anno (File: Doe078)

Santy Anna

See Santy Anno (File: Doe078)

Santy Anno

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic lines: "Heave Away/Hooray, Santy Anno/Anna... All on the plains of Mexico." The body of the song devotes itself to the Mexican War and/or the California Gold Rush and the sailor's desire to get married and participate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 ("Once a Week")
KEYWORDS: shanty battle Mexico gold
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 24, 1846 - skirmish between U.S. and Mexican forces in an area of Texas generally regarded as belonging to Mexico. On April 26, General Zachary Taylor reports to President James K. Polk that "hostilities may now be considered as commenced."
May 3 - Mexicans attack Taylor's position at Fort Texas. Taylor moves to the rescue
May 8 - Taylor wins a minor battle at Palo Alto against a superior Mexican force
May 9 - Taylor defeats the retreating Mexicans at Resaca de la Palma
May 13 - War declared with Mexico
May 18 - Taylor crosses the Rio Grande and occupies Matamoros
June 14 - American settlers in California declare independence from Mexico. American forces under John C. Frémont and John Sloat arrive to support them. Stephen Kearney moves to take over the lands between California and Texas
Aug 17 - David Stockton formally annexes California for the United States and assumes the role of governor
Sept 14 - Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who as president of Mexico had lost Texas, takes command of the Mexican army
Sept 20-24 - Taylor captures Monterrey, Mexico after a bloody battle
Nov 16 - Taylor captures Saltillo
Nov 25 - Kearney, now governor of California, begins a campaign to drive the Mexicans under Flores out of southern California. He secures the entire state by Jan 10, 1847
Jan 3, 1847 - General Winfield Scott assumes command in Mexico, superseding Taylor
Feb 5 - Taylor, at odds with the administration and Scott, moves west
Feb 22-23 - Santa Anna confronts Taylor's 5000 men with 15000 and demands surrender. Taylor refuses, then beats Santa Anna at the battle of Buena Vista
Mar 9 - Scott lands at Vera Cruz to begin a campaign against Mexico CIty
April 18 - Scott defeats Santa Anna at Cerro Gordo
Sept 14 - After many minor battles, Scott captures Mexico City
Feb 2, 1848 - Treaty of Gaudalupe Hidalgo ends the war between the U.S. and Mexico, with the U.S. gaining most of what is now Texas, California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah (the remainder is acquired via the Gadsden Purchase of 1853), plus portions of other states
Nov 7 - Zachary Taylor elected President as a Whig
July 9, 1850 - After a disappointing fifteen months in office, Taylor dies and is succeeded by Millard Fillmore
FOUND IN: US(MA) Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 78-80, "Santy Anna" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 40-41, "Santa Anna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 129-130, "Santy Ana" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 84-85, "Santy Anna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 40-41, "Santa Ana (On the Plains of Mexico)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 82-87, "Santiana," "The Plains of Mexico," "Round the Bay of Mexico" (5 texts, some short and very mixed, 4 tunes) [AbEd, pp.76-80]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 34, "Santiana" (1 text, 1 tune)
Robinson/Bellman, Pt.3, 7/28/1917, "Santa Anna" (1 text-fragment only, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, I, p.2, "Santy Anna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 79, "Santa Anna or The Plains of Mexico" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #8, "Santy Anno" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 70-72, "Santiana" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 186-187, "Santy Anno" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 40, "Santy Anno" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 206-208, "Santy Anno" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 26, "Santy Anno" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, p. 835, "Santy Anna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 49, pp. 206-207, "Sandy Anna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H496, pp. 96-97, "Santy Anna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 27, "On the Plains of Mexico" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 99, "Santy Anna" (1 text)
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 82-84, "Santy Anna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 314, "Santa Anna" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 95, "Santy Anno" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 105, "Santy Anna" (1 short text, 1 tune)
DT, SNTYANNA* SNTYANN2
ADDITIONAL: "On Shanties," article in E(neas) S(weetland) Dallas, editor, _Once a Week_, New Series, Number 31, August 1, 1868 (published by Bradbury and Evans and available on Google Books), p. 92, "(Oh, Santa Anna gained the day, Hurrah, Santa Anna)" (1 excerpt)
Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). A fragment of "Santa Anna" is in Part 3, 7/28/1917.
Roud #207
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Carry Him To the Burying Ground (General Taylor, Walk Him Along Johnny)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Santiana
The Plains of Mexico
Old Santy Ana
NOTES [3827 words]: According to Wheelan, p. 41, "The amazing career of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna is so entwined with the early years of Texas and Mexico that it is impossible to tell their history without telling his. Born in 1794 in upland Jalapa into a venerable Spanish Castillian family, Antonio was a quarrelsome boy who matured into a fractious, luxury-loving man. Unquestionably courageous, he was also elegant and charming. His favorite amusements were... gambling, cockfighting, and dancing. He was ambitious, opportunistic, crafty, and egotistical."
Or how about this description from DeVoto, pp. 68-69, "Santa Anna is the set piece of Mexican history, complete with rockets, pinwheels, Greek fire, and aerial bombs. He had been president of Mexico, dictator, commander in chief, much too often and too variously for specification here. He had contrived to persuade a good many different factions that he was their soul, and never betrayed any of them till he had got their funds.... He had the national genius for oratory and manifesto, and a genius of his own for courage, cowardice, inspiration, and magnificent graft. [Since the Texas War for Independence,] he had procured further revolutions at home, had lost a leg defending his country against a French invasion, had established a new dictatorship, and had been overthrown by the uprising that put Herrera in power. His impeachment for treason and his banishment had followed."
Rippy, p. 205, has this account of Santa Anna and of Mexico at the time:
"The national government became a sort of flying trapeze -- which, however, some of the generals and occasionally a civilian ventured to ride repeatedly. Three white aristocrats... tried it twice each. The ardent anticlerical reformer Valentin Gomez Farias mounted it five times, and Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the shrewd militarist and deft pronunciamiento artist, displayed his skill on eleven different occasions and managed to hang on for as many years. A creole... Santa Ana was the worst of the group. Having neither principles nor a sense of direction, he fought on both sides of every issue that arose. He was a royalist before he was a patriot. He supported Iturbide and then helped depose him. He championed both federalism and centralism. He slyly permitted Valentin Gomez Farias to make the first serious attack on the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico in 1833 and then allied himself with the clergy and posed as the savior of Catholicism."
Looking at his portrait in Wheelan, I can't help but think how much he looks like Adolf Hitler minus the mustache. And, indeed, he had a lot of the same traits, including clawing his way to power and then biting off more than he could chew.
Plus being utterly brutal. It showed in his treatment of Texas. Mexico had allowed American colonists into the area on conditions: They needed to be Catholic and not hold slaves (Wheelan, p. 43). Unfortunately, the Mexicans winked their eyes at slavery while trying to genuinely exclude Protestants. Eventually, when the Mexican government became strict about imposing its rule, the Americans decided they wanted out.
The result was the successful Texas rebellion. In which Santa Anna was the chief Mexican general. He had an army of five thousand "conscripts and prison inmates" (Wheelan, p. 46), with which he took the Alamo, and slaughtered the defenders, then captured and slaughtered the garrison of Goliad (Wheelan, p. 47). Then, on April 21, 1836, Sam Houston's Texans routed the Mexican army at San Jacinto, capturing the general the next day (Wheelan, p. 48). Santa Anna saved his skin by giving the Texans independence, but of course his government could not withstand the blow.
The Mexican government never did really accept that Texas was independent. DeVoto, pp. 12-13, writes, "[I]t is a fundamental mistake to think of Mexico, in this period, or for many years before, as a republic or even a government. It must be understood as a late stage in the breakdown of the Spanish Empire. Throughout that time it was never able to establish a stability, whether social or political.... [N]o governing class arose, or even a political party, but only some gangs. Sometimes the gangs were captained by intelligent and capable men, sometimes for a while they stood for the merchants, the clergy, the landowners, or various programs of reform, but they all came down in the end to simple plunder."
Given that situation, border raiding was constant. In one of those border raids, Santa Anna captured a large force of Texas raiders -- and ordered every eleventh man shot, choosing the victims at random by having them pull white and black beans from a jar (Wheelan, p. 51).
Eventually the Mexicans got rid of Santa Anna, but the squabbles over Texas never ended. (This was to prove most unfortunate. Had Mexico recognized Texas independence, Britain and France would probably have guaranteed it, the United States would not have annexed Texas, and Mexico presumably would have kept California. Morison, p. 554, writes, "More sense of reality and less of prestige at Mexico City in 1844 might have changed the entire course of American expansion." But Mexico City had neither.)
DeVoto, p. 11, makes an interesting comparison to the Sudetenland. The parallels are there: Just as the Sudetenland had never been part of Germany proper (before the independence of Czechoslovakia, it was part of the Habsburg Empire), so Texas had never been part of the United States. But just as the Sudetenland was full of Germans who wanted to join Germany, so Texas was full of Americans at least open to joining the United States.
For, while Texas was independent after 1836, it was also sparsely populated and bankrupt. Various solutions were proposed -- there was actually a British idea of guaranteeing Texas independence if it would free its slaves (Morison, p. 554; Wheelan, p. 58). But the obvious answer was for Texas to join the United States.
This was more complicated than it sounded; President John Tyler tried get a treaty (actually, two different treaties) annexing Texas through the Senate, but could not command a two-thirds majority. He managed to pull it off at the very end of his term (after the 1844 election) by joint resolution of Congress (which required only a simple majority; Morison, p. 556).
The always-shaky Mexican government couldn't face this. It did not dare to admit that it had lost Texas, so naturally it could not admit that Texas had joined the United States. Their bluster might have worked against one of the weak American presidents of the 1850s. Unfortunately for Mexico, the new President was James K. Polk.
Polk was one of the most complex Presidents in American history -- literally; historians can't even agree on his legacy. I can't cite a source, because it was so long ago, but some time around the Reagan administration, a poll was taken among historians to determine the ten best and worst American presidents. Polk was the only president to make *both* lists.
He was a driven man. A sickly youngster, he was diagnosed at age 17 with urinary stones, and was subjected to an emergency operation without anesthetic to remove them; the operation in all likelihood left him sterile (Seigenthaler, p. 19). He had only the sketchiest of education in his early years, and grew up in a situation of religious controversy (Seigenthaler, pp. 12-13). The family came to be obsessed with obtaining as much property as possible (Seigenthaler, p. 17). It was a trait Polk would carry to an extreme; no other President except Thomas Jefferson acquired so much land for the United States, and there were no others who acquired so much by such vigorous means.
His methods were hardly the most honest; his enemies labelled him "Polk the Mendacious" (Wheelan, p. 54). And Seigenthaler, despite seeming to admire Polk overall, points up evidence of his deceptions, admitting that, to Polk, the end justified the means (pp. 100-101).
DeVoto, pp. 7-8, sums him up this way: "Polk's mind was rigid, narrow, obstinate, far from first-rate. He sincerely believed that only Democrats were truly American.... He was pompous, suspicious, and secretive; he had no humor; he could be vindictive; and he saw spooks and villains.... But if his mind was narrow it was also powerful and he had guts. If he was orthodox, his integrity was absolute and he could not be scared, manipulated, or brought to heel. No one bluffed him, no one moved him with direct or oblique pressure. Furthermore, he know how to get things one. He came into office with clear ideas and a fixed determination and he was to stand by them...."
On p. 201, in explaining why the American troops in the Mexican war were treated so badly, DeVoto adds, "He had no understanding of war, its needs, its patterns, or its results. The truth is that he did not understand any results except immediate ones." But he was very good at getting immediate results.
Polk made a career mostly as an ally of Andrew Jackson, who created his own controversies and was, if anything, even more prejudiced than Polk. (It is a bit ironic, in the face of current American politics where conservative political tribalism and evangelical religion are joined at the hip, that Polk -- probably the most conservative America-is-always-right man of his generation -- was a near-agnostic who was not baptized until he was dying. The man who brought the conservative state of Texas into the Union could not possibly be supported by a Texas delegation today. Nor was he much of a glad-handler in the modern sense; he disliked social engagements and, once in office, rarely left the White House; Seigenthaler, p. 103; Wheelan, p. 54. He would very nearly work himself to death as President. Seigenthaler, p. 119, in summing up the notes he kept as President, calls him "brooding and humorless.... Sometimes he presents himself as demanding to the point of unreasonableness, determined to the point of stubbornness, self-righteous to the point of paranoia.... More than anything else, he comes across as intensely partisan, at times blindly so.")
As Speaker of the House, Polk had run that organization like clockwork. He had then gone on to serve as Tennessee governor 1839-1841, but was defeated in his attempts to run for re-election (DeGregorio, pp. 166-167).
Polk's path to becoming leader of his country was more legal than Santa Anna's, but only slightly less peculiar. Martin Van Buren had been voted out of office in 1840, just as Polk had been ousted from the Tennessee governorship, but Little Van was expected to run again in 1844. Polk had presidential ambitions, but for the moment, he just wanted to be Van Buren's vice president.
But several funny things happened on the way to the convention. For starters, Van Buren and the likely Whig nominee, Henry Clay, had published on the very same day similar announcements saying they did not stand for annexation of Texas (Seigenthaler, p. 76). To this day, it is not certain if they had agreed on this, or if they did it independently -- but it was widely thought that they had made an agreement. And the American people, firm believers in Manifest Destiny, wanted Texas.
Despite the concern about a possible deal, Clay still managed to become the Whig nominee. But it cost Van Buren. There were two main candidates going into the 1844 convention: Van Buren and Lewis Cass. Van Buren had a majority of delegates on the first ballot, but the convention had adopted a two-thirds rule, and Van Buren never came close to that (Seigenthaler, p. 83). Polk didn't start getting votes until the eighth ballot, but once he had started, Polk's operators carefully manipulated the convention, and it became a bandwagon; he was nominated on the very next ballot. Polk, as a result, became the first "dark horse" presidential candidate -- though we should note that he was far better known nationally than such recent nominees as Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
The campaign which followed was pretty ugly -- e.g., though both candidates were slaveowners, Polk was accused (falsely) of branding his slaves (Seigenthaler, p. 96). And Clay made rather a hash of things, being very inconsistent in his utterances on topics such as Texas.
Unknown or not, slaveowner or not, Polk won -- if just barely; his margin in the popular vote was some 38,000 out of two and a half million ballots cast. As usual, the margin in the electoral college was much more decisive (Seigenthaler, pp. 98-99). And "probably no other President entered office with so clearly defined a program and accomplished so much of it as Polk (Current/Williams/Freidel, p. 364)
This was the man against whom the fragile Mexican government tried to negotiate. Or, rather, tried not to negotiate. It rejected Polk's attempts to buy California. Polk can't have been too unhappy; he was actually sending different teams with different instructions to various places to muddy the waters (Wheelan, p. 55).
Then, at the end of 1845, the Mexican government of President Herrera was overthrown by General Paredes (Morison, p. 560). The new government was no more willing to recognize the annexation of Texas than the old was willing to recognize its independence.
To make the whole situation worse, Polk wanted to annex not just the portion of Texas east of the Nueces (the part that was unquestionably independent) but greater Texas (all the way to the Rio Grande) and California (which not even the most arrogant Texan had claimed). Polk in fact made the absurd claim that Texas has always been a proper part of the United States! (Here again we see the analogy to the Sudetenland -- Texas was, in effect, the entering wedge.)
So Polk, in order to "ensure that Mexico [would] not" go to war, sent 3000 men under Zachary Taylor to Texas (Wheelan, p. 60). And Polk ordered General Taylor to cross the Nueces (the recognized border between Texas and Mexico, insofar as there was one). Initially Taylor based himself at Corpus Christi, at the mouth of the Nueces, putting him just south of the border (DeVoto, p. 28). Then Polk pushed harder, ordering Taylor to head for the Rio Grande (Wheelan, p. 63).
So disorganized was Taylor's force that it took him a month to get moving (DeVoto, p. 105), and there was much squabbling among the Americans along the way; amazingly, in all their time in camp, they had not practiced maneuvering together (DeVoto, p. 107). But they finally arrived. Faced with that provocation, the Mexicans decided to fight.
There was no single incident which could be called "the first shot"; there had been some small skirmishing starting almost from the moment Taylor reached the Rio Grande. But on April 25, Taylor sent out a small force of horsemen on a reconnaissance. This force managed to blunder its way into a fight and was overwhelmed (DeVoto, pp. 130-131), and from then on it was a full-blown shooting war.
This was fortunate for Polk; he had been preparing to declare war on Mexico without an incident, and it looked as if Congress might not consent. But he quickly gained a declaration of war after the shooting started (DeVoto, p. 184ff.) -- even though he had to undercut Secretary of State Buchanan, who wanted to avoid making any territorial claims (DeVoto, p. 187, who thinks this was one of Buchanan's periodic attempts to ensure his presidential nomination. Which failed, of course).
Most versions of this song credit Santa Anna with defeating Zachary Taylor, but -- as the historical record shows -- Taylor consistently beat the Mexicans, though some of the victories were expensive.
Although Taylor fought many battles in the Mexican campaign, few were against Santa Anna. Mexico at this time was anything but a stable nation. Santa Anna had been President of Mexico in 1836, when Texas rebelled, but had then been thrown out after the Texans won their battle for independence.
Most modern historians seem less than impressed with Taylor as a general, but, at age 61, he had been in the army for 37 years, having been commissioned in 1808 (Wheelan, p. 61). Despite a limited education (Wheelan, p. 62), he had fought bravely and risen steadily in the ranks while displaying a real concern for his men. Against a strong general, he might have been in trouble -- after all, his logistics were so bad that some of his soldiers actually suffered from scurvy! (DeVoto, p. 15) -- but against the rabble that formed the Mexican army, his steadiness was a great advantage.
(As DeVoto says on p. 189, Taylor "had no patience with textbook soldiers.... Well, what did he have? A sound principle: attack. A less valuable one which would serve him just as well in this war: never retreat. Total ignorance of the art of war. And an instinct, if not for command, at least for leadership.")
The first battle of the war was at Resaca de la Palma. The Mexican general Arista had planned a maneuver to put him on Taylor's line of communication, but when it came to battle, he found that his ill-equipped conscripts just couldn't fight. Taylor's men fought in place, and eventually the Mexicans retreated (DeVoto, pp. 188-191). The next day, the armies met again, and after a hard slog in which neither general exercised much control, the ill-fed Mexicans broke (DeVoto, p. 192, who notes that in some ways the most important thing about this battle was the number of future Civil War generals who saw combat for the first time. One of them was U. S. Grant).
It wasn't quite what Polk wanted; he still hoped to take California by purchase or local revolution; DeVoto, p. 197, comments that "Mr. Polk had lighted a firecracker and had a bomb explode in his face." But at least he was able to adapt. He started to build up the United States army (though he did nothing to produce a genuinely professional force; DeVoto, pp. 198-199, notes how every officer in one regiment was a political appointee and confesses that at this time "out military system was the worst possible" and could not have succeeded against a stronger enemy than Mexico).
Given limited reinforcements, Taylor would win several more minor victories on the scale of Resaca de la Palma. He became very popular as a result, leaving Polk worried about his political influence (quite correctly, since Taylor, a Whig, would follow the Democrat Polk as President). Polk put Winfield Scott in charge of a second Mexican expedition (Morison, p. 563), and it was Scott who eventually took Mexico City (as DeVoto writes, p. 200, Scott's "egotism was colossal, his vanity was monstrous.... But he was a great soldier. The campaign he was permitted to make was brilliant and victorious. He won the war").
In any case, Polk had had another string for his bow. He also overthrew the Mexican government, helping Santa Anna return to Mexico in September 1846 (an agent for Santa Anna had promised to bring stability to Mexico for a price; Polk accepted the deal even though he distrusted the messenger; see DeVoto, p. 69). The former Mexican president promptly resumed power (as Morison tartly comments on p. 560, revolutions in Mexico at this time were just about certain to succeed).
To make Scott's expedition strong enough to make its amphibious assault, Polk had cut back Taylor's force, ordering it onto the defensive (see Current/Williams/Freidel, p. 375). Santa Anna, seeing an opportunity (and needing a victory to strengthen his government), tried to improve his reputation by attacking Taylor at Buena Vista. It was a close thing, but Santa Anna failed to destroy Taylor. He had little choice but to turn back to try to stop Scott; he failed again, and Santa Anna again gave up power. Eventually a government was formed which reluctantly gave up Texas, New Mexico, and California (Morison, p. 565).
It will tell you something about the organization of the United States Army that total deaths in the war were about 13,000 -- 1700 killed in combat and 11,000 killed by disease and other non-combat causes (Siegenthaler, p. 145).
The war had a rather ridiculous end: Polk sent a negotiator named Nicholas Trist, who sat down with Santa Anna to work out a deal. Polk then fired Trist, but he kept negotiating anyway and worked out a deal (Siegenthaler, p. 151). Polk wasn't entirely happy with the treaty, but he sent it to the Senate -- and, lo and behold, they approved it.
The choice of Taylor to be the Whig presidential nominee to succeed Polk was ironic; according to Nevins1847, p. 195, a Whig operative talked to Taylor's brother, and was told that Taylor had no political convictions and rarely voted. But a man with no record was precisely what was wanted, and so Taylor was nominated -- and easily elected. According to Hammond-Atlas, p. U-49, Taylor earned 47% of the popular vote, Democrat Lewis Cass 42%, and Free Soiler Martin Van Buren 10%; in the electoral college, Taylor had 163 votes, Cass 127. Call it another victory for Taylor over Santa Anna, since Taylor was now the American president and Santa Anna was nothing.
Santa Anna did get the last laugh in a few things: Taylor died in 1850, and Santa Anna survived until 1876. And Santa Anna would come back in Mexico yet again; in 1853, he sold the United States the area known as the Gasden Purchase (Nevins1852, pp. 61-62).
"Corrupt, ruthless, and cruel, Santa Anna was also eloquent, dramatic, and clever. A soldier of fortune, he did nothing for his country but exploit it and disturb its peace. When he first became president in 1833, Mexico, in spite of the secession of Central America a decade before, ahd an area of well over 1,500,000 square miles. When he was finally deposed twenty-two years later, the national domain had shrunk to around 760,000. More than any other Mexican, Santa Anna had been responsible for this tragic loss of territory, which might have been avoided entirely (or possibly with the exception of Texas) if it had not been for the machinations, tyranny, and demagoguery of this unprincipled charlatan" (Rippy, p. 206).
Ironically, that land proved a poisoned pill for the Americans. The last word probably should belong to former president John Quincy Adams: "I have opposed [annexing Texas] for ten long years, firmly believing it tainted with two great crimes: one, the leprous contamination of slavery; and two, robbery of Mexico.... 'They have sown the wind...'" (Wheelan, p. 60). And the Democrats did indeed reap the whirlwind. Polk was dead by 1850, when the Compromise of 1850 temporarily patched up the wounds caused by the Mexican War. But eleven years later, with the wounds of the battle over slavery still fresh, a slave state which no longer considered itself part of the Union fired on Fort Sumter....
Bone-CapstanBars calls this "the most peculiar of all Chanties," and speculates, "I wonder if it was not at one time a seaman's prayer to Saint Anne, a bountiful Patron to Breton sailors? It is not easy to connect that supposition with the words as sung in later days for, in them, a negro influence is plain."- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Doe078

Saoirse (Liberty)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic and English. "My name is Freedom." Our first advance was in France. "When the orange tree drops its head Then liberty's sure to flourish." We'll drive out those who oppose us.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (O Muirgheasa's _Dha Chead de Cheoltaibh Uladh_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage France Ireland nonballad political freedom
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 27, "Saoirse" (1 text)
NOTES [37 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: This is a macoronic song "collected in Donegal in the early part of the twentieth century... It was probably made prior to 1798." The verses alternate Irish and English "translation." - BS
File: Moyl027

Sapsucker

See The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat) (File: K295)

Sara Jane

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes his girlfriend/wife in unflattering ways; she hits him, she's the "terror of New York"; in short, "My poor, silly Jane...She's my darling, she's my daisy, She's humpbacked and she's crazy... She's my freckled-faced consumptive Sara Jane"
AUTHOR: Lyrics: unknown; tune: Will S. Hays
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Cramer Bros.; Harbin-Parodology)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer describes his girlfriend/wife in increasingly uncomplimentary ways; she hits him, she's the "terror of New York"; she eats cake, eats a fly, and vomits; she's crosseyed and lame, her breath smells like onions, etc. In short, "My poor, silly Jane...She's my darling, she's my daisy, She's humpbacked and she's crazy... She's my freckled-faced consumptive Sara Jane"
KEYWORDS: madness shrewishness abuse humorous parody
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #88, p. 26, "Mary Ann" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 178-179 , "My Freckle-Faced Consumptive Mary Ann" (1 text, 1 tune -- the final verse and chorus of this song, which could circulate independently)
RECORDINGS:
Cramer Brothers, "Sara Jane" (Broadway 7578 c. 1927; Broadway 8059, c. 1932; rec. 1927)
J. D. Foster, "My Sarah Jane" (Gennett 6791/Supertone 9372 [as Sam Bunch], 1929)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Sara Jane" (Vocalion 5122, 1927; rec. 1926)
Blind Blake Higgs, "Consumptive Sara Jane" (on WIHIGGS01)
Smoky Mountain Twins, "Sarah Jane" (Conqueror 7065, 1928) [note: this record number was also used for "I Was Born 4000 Years Ago), but that may have been the same recording, as the songs can share a floating verse]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hungry Hash House" (floating verse, tune)
cf. "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song)" (Charlie Poole version - floating verse)
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune)
NOTES [139 words]: Not to be confused with Uncle Dave Macon's "Rock About My Saro Jane." Since it shares the "freckle-faced consumptive etc." verse with Charlie Poole's 1925 recording "I'm the Man Who Rode the Mule Around the World" and several recordings of "Hungry Hash House," one suspects it was composed as an extension of those appearances. Or does the whole song appear elsewhere, earlier?- PJS
I've no good answer to that question; we are, for the moment, filing loose verses about the freckle-faced girl here, but it's by no means clear where they actually originated. See, however, "Dennis McGonagle's Daughter Mary Ann" and "Sweet Mary Ann (Such an Education Has My Mary Ann)."
Not to be confused with "Sarah Jane," also a humorous song between lovers, but based on "Pop Goes the Weasel" and ending with him dead and her courting another. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcSarJan

Sarah Barnwell

DESCRIPTION: Sarah's brother disapproves of her love for Samuel. Samuel decides to face her brother "upon the mountains high" and disarms him; for Sarah's sake Samuel spares her brother's life. The brother approves the marriage and gives the couple half his lands.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 351)
KEYWORDS: courting fight brother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #159, p. 3, ("Gin ye'll gie me your hand, Sarah") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan2 218, "Sarah Barnwell" (1 text)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 115, "Young Barnswell" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 140, "Young Barnable" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 158-159, "Captain Barniwell" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 16)
Roud #955
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(2130)[final lines illegible], "Young Barnwell" ("Abroad as I was walking, I heard two lovers talking"), A. Swindells (Manchester), 1796-1853; also Johnson Ballads 351, "Captain Barnwell" ("Alone as I was walking on a summer's morn"), J. Evans (London), 1794; also Harding B 25(2130)[final lines illegible], "Young Barnwell"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Two Constant Lovers" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Upon the Mountains High
NOTES [115 words]: The description follows Karpeles, ed.,Cecil Sharp's Collection of English Folk Songs (London, 1974), Vol. I, #73, pp. 318-319, "Young Barnswell" (1906, Somerset) and broadside Bodleian Harding B 25(2130). - BS
"The Two Constant Lovers" is an earlier ballad sharing the plot, cast of characters, and a few phrases. Since little of the text is shared with "Young Barnwell" I consider these separate songs. - BS
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 189-190, "Over and Under," has the same first lines as some versions of this, the tune being described as a minor version of "When Jones's Ale Was New." Chappell has only a partial text, so I can't say with certainty if they are related. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: GrD2218

Sarah Bell

See Cheer Up, Sam (File: Hugi562)

Sarah H. Furber

DESCRIPTION: "A maid of twenty summers Went forth with joy and mirth... Amidst the din of earth." "A manly face and favor Attracted her free hears." She goes astray (pregnant?), but gains no aid from "men of art and science." She dies alone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 38-39, "Lines Composed on the Abduction and Cruel Murder of MISS SARAH H. FURBER" (1 text)
NOTES [59 words]: Despite the title, the text of this piece never describes a murder; frankly, it sounds as if the girl died of venereal disease, or perhaps pure poverty.
The item is a broadside, "price two cents." Burt-AmericanMurderBallads's comment is, "And not worth more, I should say." That was in 1958 dollars. It's still true in today's dollars, I should say. - RBW
File: Burt038

Sarah Jane

DESCRIPTION: (After an unrelated opening stanza), we find Sarah Jane and Samuel courting on the D & H canal. He, however "succumbed to hard times" and is buried. As for Sarah, within a week "She started keeping comp'ny with a junk dealer... in Rondout."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958
KEYWORDS: courting hardtimes death burial infidelity humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA) West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 173, "Sarah Jane" (1 text plus appendix; tune referenced)
DT, SARAJANE*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pop Goes the Weasel" (tune) and references there
cf. "The D & H Canal" (tune, floating lyrics)
NOTES [19 words]: Not to be confused with the song we index as "Sara Jane," which is a humorous song of conflict between lovers. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: FSC173

Sarah Mariah Cornell

DESCRIPTION: Reverend Avery seduces and then murders Sarah. He flees from justice, but is recaptured. Sarah's ghost (?) pleads for justice, warns girls not to be decieved by men, and asks for the listeners' prayers.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Journal from the Sharon)
KEYWORDS: homicide clergy seduction betrayal trial escape
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 156-158, "Sarah Mariah Cornell" (1 text)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 66, "Sarah Maria Cornell" (1 text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 195-196, "Sara Maria Cornell" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 63-66, "Sarah Maria Cornell" (1 text plus a photo of a broadside with two pieces about her)
Roud #2044
NOTES [41 words]: Huntington can find no other versions of this song, which I usually take to indicate that it is not traditional. But I feel sure I've seen it somewhere else. And it wasn't from the version in Cohen, which had not been published at the time. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: SWMS156

Sarah McKellie

See The Weaver and His Shuttle (File: GrD71330)

Sarah Scott

DESCRIPTION: Sarah dreams William, her shepherd lover, is untrue. She wakes and meets him. He says it is his wedding day: "for wealth I changed my love." She reminds him of the ring he gave her when he proposed. She goes home and dies of a broken heart.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: grief courting wedding infidelity death money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1164, "Sarah Scott" (1 text)
Roud #6818
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Deluded Lover" (theme: girl deserted by man who marries for money or land)
NOTES [26 words]: Greig/Duncan6 quoting Greig: "From Miss Ritchie, and her grandmother tells me she learned it when she was at the Barons in Auchnagatt some fifty years ago." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61164

Sarah the Whale

See Crazy Song to the Air of "Dixie" (File: San342)

Sarah Wilson

See The Effects of Love (File: GrD61160)

Sarah's Young Man

DESCRIPTION: The singer falls in love with Sarah, a domestic who "lives in a mansion near Manchester Square." One night he discovers her cozying with a soldier. The master comes home, the soldier and Sarah lose their position, and Sarah loses her suitor.
AUTHOR: G. W. Hunt, according to Oliver Ditson & Co, The New Comic Songster, 1870
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, Bodleian LOCSinging sb40501a)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity servant soldier humorous unemployment
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 130-133, "Sarah's Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2066, p. 138, "Sarah's Young Man" (1 reference)
New-Comic-Songster, p, 36, "Sarah's Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1957
RECORDINGS:
Cyril O'Brien, "My First Love Was Sarah" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(432), "Sarah's Young Man," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also Firth b.34(198), "Sarah's Young Man"
LOCSinging, sb40501a, "Sarah's Young Man," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also as112240, "Sarah's Young Man"
NOTES [52 words]: Broadsides LOCSinging sb40501a and Bodleian, Harding B 18(432): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadsides LOCSinging sb40501a and Bodleian, Harding B 18(432) are duplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: IvNB130

Sarasponda

DESCRIPTION: "Sarasponda, sarasponda, Sarasponda, retsetset," Additional lyrics vary but often involve some sort of drum-like sounds, "boom, boom, boom!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (SongsOfManyNations); Wikipedia says it was first printed in the 1940s
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Valerie Garrenton, "Children's Games," Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), p. 29, "Sarasponda" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 130, 141, 152, 314, 417, 441, "Sarasponda" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "Sarasponda" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 45)
NOTES [47 words]: According to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, this was listed as a "Dutch spinning song" in the camp songbooks that introduced it to America. It has now taken on life of its own in camp circles, often in versions that are so fast that I doubt they could be used for any sort of work. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: NCF211Sa

Sarie

DESCRIPTION: Singer loves Sarie, a fat co-worker on the farm. She has humorous and suggestive escapades. When they marry, the two will be one -- but there's enough of her to make two or three. Cho: "For she's proud and she's beautiful, she's fat and she's fair...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (recording, Tony Wales)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer loves Sarie, a fat co-worker on the farm; she has accepted his proposal. While milking a cow, she falls over and says she has hurt her arm, but that's not where she fell. She falls in the river; he pulls her out; she berates him for the places he grabbed her. When they marry, the two will be one -- but there's enough of her to make two or three. Ch.: "For she's proud and she's beautiful, she's fat and she's fair...."
KEYWORDS: love marriage humorous lover
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
RECORDINGS:
Tony Wales, "Sarie" (on TWales1)
NOTES [24 words]: Wales notes that several Sussex people knew fragments of the song, but most couldn't remember it in full. I'd guess at a music-hall origin. - PJS
File: RcSarie

Saro Jane (I)

See Liza Jane (File: San132)

Saro Jane (II)

See Dance Josey (File: Ow2E156)

Sash My Father Wore (I), The

DESCRIPTION: An Ulster Orangeman, tells his "British brethren" that his forefathers fought that he might wear the sash. "It is old but it is beautiful," was worn in 1690, his father wore it and he wears it July 12. If needed, we will fight again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (The Orange Lark)
KEYWORDS: clothes battle Ireland nonballad patriotic father
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 1 or 12, 1690 (Old Style or New Style dates) - Battle of the Boyne. William III defeats the forces of James II to firmly establish his control of Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 4, "The Sash My Father Wore" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SASHFTHR*
Roud #32245
RECORDINGS:
Liam Clancy, "The Sash My Father Wore" (on IRLClancy01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hat My Father Wore" (form)
cf. "The Sash My Father Wore (II)" (subject, chorus and tune)
NOTES [332 words]: IRLClancy01 includes only the chorus, used as an introduction to "The Scottish Breakaway." The source for the description is Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 4, "The Sash My Father Wore" [The Orange Lark (1987)].
Apparently the orange sash was worn by King William at the Battle of the Boyne. July 12 is the Gregorian Calendar (adopted in England in 1752) date for celebrating the victory of William III of Orange in the Battle of the Boyne, July 1, 1690. [I would assign less significance to this than to the various ribbons and sashes worn by the Ribbonmen, the Orange Order, etc. - RBW]
Zimmermann: "It has been noted that 'much of the pugnacity has gone from the music played on the 12th day of July' [S.H. Bell Erin's Orange Lily, p. 14]; there is a tendency to replace the most violent ballads by innocuous songs such as 'The Ould Orange Flute' or 'The Sash my Father Wore'. 'The Ould Orange Flute' appeared on nineteenth century broadsides. The other song ['The Sash my Father Wore'] is more recent; it was probably the paraphrase of a non-political song, 'The Hat my Father Wore'. A nationalist version, quite different in character but singable to the same tune, appeared in The Shan Van Vocht, August 1896." It is clear that "The Sash" is an adaptation of "The Hat," or vice versa.
Re Zimmermann's note: "Innocuous" depends on point of view. The tune only of "The Sash" is played as a march on Voice16; in that connection Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 16" - 13.9.02: "Once upon a time, folklorists drew out their blue pencils to excise any reference to sex in folksongs, while, at the same time, printing any number of songs concerning rape, murder and wartime pillage. Nowadays things have changed .... Personally, I'm amazed that Reg Hall could include ... 'The Sash My Father Wore,' which has come to symbolize Protestant bigotry in many parts of Ireland."
Searching the web for an "accepted" text I found both versions I and II. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RecSMFW

Sash My Father Wore (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is "a loyal Orangeman, just come across the sea." He loves to sing and dance and -- on the Twelfth -- wear his father's sash. He is returning to Dromore but he hopes to come back again to be welcomed by his brethren.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1895 (Graham-TheOrangeSongster)
KEYWORDS: clothes Ireland derivative nonballad patriotic father
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Graham-TheOrangeSongster, p. 21, "The Sash My Father Wore" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sash My Father Wore (I)" (subject, chorus and tune) and references there
cf. "The Hat My Father Wore" (many lines)
NOTES [39 words]: Searching the web for an "accepted" text I found both versions I and II. The text of this version is very close to that of "The Hat My Father Wore," sharing many lines in each verse and substituting Orange references for Green. - BS
File: Grah021

Saskatchewan

DESCRIPTION: "Saskatchewan, the land of snow, Where winds are always on the blow... And why we stay here no one knows. Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, There's no place like Saskatchewan...." The singer tells of the hard life during Depression and drought
AUTHOR: Words: William W. Smith
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: farming poverty hardtimes Canada
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 208-211, "Saskatchewan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 10, "Saskatchewan" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SASKATCH*
Roud #4525
RECORDINGS:
Jim Young, "Saskatchewan" (on Saskatch01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beulah Land" (tune)
cf. "Dakota Land" (tune, theme)
cf. "Webfoot Land" (tune, theme)
NOTES [80 words]: Saskatchewan, always dry and never rich, became Canada's dust bowl during the 1930s. Drought there was hardly unexpected, but drought, damaged topsoil, and a bad economy made times especially bad. William W. Smith's humorous lament fit right in with the feelings of the locals -- and even with their hopes, as the last verse shows:
But still we love Saskatchewan,
We're proud to say we're native ones,
So count your blessings drop by drop;
Next year we'll have a bumper crop." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: FMB209

Saskatchewan Girl's Lament, The

See Poor Little Girls of Ontario (File: FMB147)

Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down

DESCRIPTION: "Well, well, well, well, well, Now, God's got a kingdom (x3), But Satan's got a kingdom too." "I'm gonna pray till I tear that kingdom down, For I heard the voice of Jesus say, 'Satan, your kingdom must come down.'" "I'm gonna shout/sing till I tear..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Blind Joe Taggart)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #5737
RECORDINGS:
Frank Proffitt, "Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down" (on FProffitt01)
Blind Joe Taggart, "Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down" (Paramount 13081, 1931)
File: RcSYKMCD

Satan's a Liar (Ain't Gonna Worry My Lord No More)

DESCRIPTION: "Satan's a liah, and a conjuh too, if you don't watch out he'll conjuh you (x2), Ain't gonna worry my Lawd no mo' (x2)." "Goin' to heaven on an angel's wing; When I get there you'll hear me sing." "When I get to heaven I'm gonna sit yah down...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: religious Devil
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 250-251, "Satan's a Liah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 82-83, "Satan's a Liar" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Let That Liar Alone" (theme)
File: San250

Satan's Camp A-Fire

DESCRIPTION: "Fire, my Savior, fire, Satan's camp afire, Fire, believer, fire, Satan's camp afire."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen, Ware, Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious Devil nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 27, "Satan's Camp A-Fire" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11980
RECORDINGS:
Minnie Gracie Gadson, "Washboard/Satan Camp A-Fire" (on USSeaIsland03)
File: AWG027A

Satan's Kingdom

DESCRIPTION: "This night my soul has caught new fire, Halle-hallelujah. I feel that heav'n is drawing nigh'r... Shout, shout, we are gaining ground, Satan's kingdom is tumbling down." Evidence is offered that heaven will triumph
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Bible
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 36, "Satan's Kingdom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6668
NOTES [49 words]: Among the scriptural references in this piece are the following:
* Samson putting the Philistines to flight: see Judges 13-16
* "When Israel came to Jericho": see Joshua 6
* "Saint Paul and Silas bound in jail": Acts 16:19f.; see also 2 Cor. 11:13, where Paul mentions multiple imprisonments - RBW
File: LoF036

Satisfied

DESCRIPTION: Call-and-answer, with the refrain, "Satisfied." The text is at the leader's discretion, e.g., "I'm going up north, SATISFIED, I'm going down south, SATISFIED, Mama cooked a cow, SATISFIED, Gonna give all the girls, SATISFIED, Their bellies full..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: playparty work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 150-152, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune); cf. pp. 152-153 (apparently a combination of this song with "Easy Rider") (1 text, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 83-84, "Hey Little Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Children of East York School, "I'm Goin' Up North" (1950; on NFMAla1)
Children of Lilly's Chapel School, "See See Rider" (1950; on NFMAla1) -- not the popular blues song, but another version of the "Satisfied" chant)
File: CNFM150

Saturday Night

DESCRIPTION: "Saturday night and Sunday too, Pretty gals on my mind. Monday mornin' break of day, Old Massa's got me goin'." The slave works through the week while looking forward to spending the weekend with the girls. Also has sundry floating verses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting work slave animal floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 459, "Saturday Night and Sunday Too" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 459, "Saturday Night and Sunday Too" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 261, "Saturday Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 228, (no title) (1 short text, which also includes the "Little bees suck de blossoms" verse)
Roud #6704
File: LoF261

Saturday Night and Sunday Too

See Saturday Night (File: LoF261)

Saturday Night at Sea

DESCRIPTION: "A sailor loves a gallant ship And messmates bold and free And ever welcomes with delight Saturday night at sea." The sailor recalls the time when, if the weather is good, the crew is able to relax and enjoy themselves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Journal from the Florida)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 65-66, "Saturday Night at Sea" (1 text plus a supplementary stanza, 1 tune)
DT, SATSEA
Roud #2020
NOTES [108 words]: According to John Malcolm Brinnin, The Sway of the Grand Saloon: A Social History of the North Atlantic, pp. 73-75, a poem called "Saturday Night at Sea" was written in 1838 by Judge Joseph Howe aboard the brig Tyrian as she made a transatlantic voyage.
Brinnin quotes four verses. Apart from the words "Saturday Night at Sea," they have nothing in common with the poem in Huntington. Yet the theme is so similar that I have to think they are related. Given that the Florida version dates from 1843. my guess is that Howe heard the piece aboard ship, thought it unacceptable for some reason (perhaps it had bawdy lyrics?), and rewrote it. - RBW
File: SWMS065

Saturday Night I Lost My Wife

DESCRIPTION: "(On) Saturday I lost my wife, On Sunday morning I found her, Up in the moon playing a tune With all the stars around her."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: wife separation music
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 104, "On Saturday night I lost my wife" (1 short text)
Roud #20273
File: KSUC104B

Saturday Night is Hallowe'en Night

See Tam Lin [Child 39] (File: C039)

Sauchen Tree, The

DESCRIPTION: He asks her to remember their good times and go again with him "to yon saughen tree." She won't: her mother flytes [argues] against it and her father frowns. He proposes. She accepts. They marry and "jog on through life and think o' lang syne"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love marriage father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #29, pp. 1-2, "The Saughen Tree" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 984, "The Sauchen Tree" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #5636
NOTES [121 words]: The "sauch" or "saugh" seems likely to be "sallow" or willow, as I understand Webster's Third New International Dictionary. - BS
This is also the meaning supplied by Alexander Warrack, The Scots Dialext Dictionary, Waverly Books, 2000, p. 469 -- although "sauchen-toup" means a fool or one who is easy to trick (analogous to "blockhead," perhaps?), and there are secondary senses of "flexible" (like a willow wand) and a murmuring sound.
Douglas Kynoch, Scottish [Doric]-English/English-Scottish [Doric] Concise Dictionary, 1996 (I use the 1998 Hippocrene paperback), p. 77, gives "unsociable" as the only meaning for "sauchen," but allows that "saugh" (which presumably would be pronounced "sauch") means a willow. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5984

Saucy Arabella, The

See A-Rolling Down the River (The Saucy Arabella) (File: Hug178)

Saucy Dolphin, The

See The Dolphin (File: ChFRS066)

Saucy Essex, The

DESCRIPTION: "The saucy Essex, she sailed out, To see what she could do. Her captain is from Yankee blood And so are all her crew." She sails to the Galapagos "and nabbed the slippery whalers." John Bull traps her in Valparaiso Bay. The song glosses over her failure
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, pp. 7-8); mentioned in 1867
KEYWORDS: ship battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1799 - Building of the U. S. S. Essex
1814 - Essex forced to surrender to the Phoebe and Cherub
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, pp. 24-26, "(no title)" (1 text, probably excerpted)
NOTES [177 words]: According to Lincoln P. Paine, Ships of the World: An Historical Encylopedia, Houghton Mifflin, 1997, pp. 174-175, the U.S.S. Essex was build in 1799, and served successfully in the Quasi-War with France. Taken out of commission from 1806-1809, she began the War of 1812 under Captain David Porter, she initially served well, taking ten prizes including the 18-gun H.M.S. Alert.
The song says that the Essex took the whalers in the Galapagos, and Paine confirms that she "nearly destroyed Britain's South Pacific whale fishery" and took more prizes.
However, on February 3, 1814, she was blockaded in Valparaiso by H.M.S. Phoebe and Cherub, sent to track her down. On March 28, Porter tried to escape but lost her mainmast in bad weather. The British then attacked (Paine accuses them of violating Chilean neutrailty), and Porter was forced to surrender. Among the signals he raised during the battle was "Free trade and sailors' rights" -- one of the American war slogans. This incident is alluded to in the next to last verse of the Williams text. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: SFSPP024

Saucy Jack Tar, The

See The Saucy Sailor (Jack and Jolly Tar II) [Laws K38] (File: LK38)

Saucy Plough Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you pretty maidens gay And listen unto me, Will you wed with a saucy ploughboy Whose heart is light and free?" The boy describes his life and says it is merry, with dancing and frolic. The girl says she will "live and die" with him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1860 (Bodleian broadside Firth b.26(244)
KEYWORDS: farming courting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, (no number; p. 30), "The Saucy Plough Boy" (1 text, a reproduction of a broadside, which appears to be the same print as Bodleian Firth b.26(244))
Roud #1462
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(244) "The Saucy Plough Boy," T. Ryle & Co (London), 1845-1859; also Harding B 11(3427), "The Saucy Plough Boy," W. S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885
File: PaPap30

Saucy Sailor Boy, The

See The Saucy Sailor (Jack and Jolly Tar II) [Laws K38] (File: LK38)

Saucy Sailor, The (Jack and Jolly Tar II) [Laws K38]

DESCRIPTION: Jack the sailor admits his poverty to a girl, who scorns him and refuses his offer of marriage. He pulls out a handful of money and offers it to her; she instantly changes her mind. But Jack turns the tables; he has no need for a poor country girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1781 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting money
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Laws K38, "Saucy Sailor, The (Jack and Jolly Tar II)"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 294-295, "Jack Tar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 461-462, "The Saucy Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 343-344]
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 168, "The Saucy Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 45, "The Saucy Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 86, "The Saucy Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 115, "The Saucy Sailor Boy" (1 text)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #21, "The Saucy Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #17, "The Saucy Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 49, "The Saucy Sailor" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 123, "The Jack of Tar" ( text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #200, "Jack Tar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 151-152, "The Tar-ry Sailor" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 25, "Roving Jack Tar" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 202-203, "Saucy Sailor" (2 texts plus 1 excerpt, 2 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 316-317, "Tarry Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 62, "The Saucy Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 415, SAUCYSLR* TARSAIL2*
Roud #531
RECORDINGS:
Jim Bennett, "Tarry Sailor" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Johnny Doughty, "Come My Own One, Come My Fond One" (on Voice02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(333), "Saucy Sailor Boy," E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Harding B 11(3429), Firth c.13(252), Firth c.13(253), Firth c.12(331), Harding B 16(244a), Firth b.26(245), Firth c.13(197), "Saucy Sailor Boy"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Will You Wed with a Tarry Sailor?" [Laws K37] (plot)
cf. "Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36]" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Saucy Jack Tar
Jack Tar
I'm to Cross
NOTES [47 words]: Both Greig/Duncan1 fragments are too short to be clearly identified as Laws K38 but the ideas in each brief text are consistent with K38 texts I have seen even if the lines are not in any of those texts. However, they as easily fit (?) "Will You Wed with a Tarry Sailor?" [Laws K37] - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LK38

Saucy Ward

See Captain Ward and the Rainbow [Child 287] (File: C287)

Sauer Kraut

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, sauer kraut is hunky, boys, And sauer kraut is fine; I tinks I ought to know it 'Cause I eats it all der time." Aboard the Bella Young the crew fishes in summer, carries kelp in winter, and sells saurkraut by the barrel for Johnson or Zwicker.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: ship work food humorous nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 12, "Sauer Kraut" (1 text)
Roud #8890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sauerkraut" (subject)
NOTES [40 words]: This has enough in common with "Sauerkraut" that Roud lumps them. But "Sauer Kraut" is mostly about a sailing boat and "Sauerkraut" is about making the food; they may have a common origin, but at this point I'd consider them separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: SmHa12

Sauerkraut

DESCRIPTION: "Now if you'll only listen to what ye spake about, I'm going for to tell ye how to make the sauerkraut. The kraut's not made of leather as everyone supposes." It's made from cabbage, with salt; the singer eats it all the time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Thomas-DevilsDitties)
KEYWORDS: work food humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 158-159, "Sourkraut" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 146-147, "Sauerkraut Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SRKRAUT*
Roud #8890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sauer Kraut" (subject)
NOTES [40 words]: This has enough in common with "Sauer Kraut" that Roud lumps them. But "Sauer Kraut" is mostly about a sailing boat and "Sauerkraut" is about making the food; they may have a common origin, but at this point I'd consider them separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: PoEll146

Saughen Tree, The

See The Sauchen Tree (File: GrD5984)

Sault Ste. Marie Jail, The (The Albany Jail)

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments his time in prison. After getting drunk, he had to be forcibly taken into custody, and the bail was more than he could raise. Now he suffers prison food and confinement (as well as a preacher who keeps on "until my ears got sore")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes drink
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 168, "The Albany Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 48, "The Soo St. Mary's Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SOOSTMRY*
Roud #2324
NOTES [28 words]: Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario: "He [Dave McMahon] learned it in the lumberwoods back in 1921...." - BS
This song is item dE51 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: FSC168

Sausage Meat Machine, The

See Dunderbeck (File: R488)

Sauvagesse, La

DESCRIPTION: "Je suis du bord de l'Ohio, J'ai le courage pour noblesse...." A voyageur Come-All-Ye. La Sauvagesse tells of herself, her love of the canoe, her parentage (a Frenchman and a witch) and so on.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage river fishing family witch
FOUND IN: Canada(Queb)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 581, "La Sauvagesse (The Girl of the Wilds)" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BMRF581

Save de Union

DESCRIPTION: "A mighty angry quarrel rose Among the Tariff's friends and foes, And South Ca'lina, in a fit, De Union vows to curse and quit. But save de Union... Old VIrginny never tire." In the quarrel between Calhoun and Clay, Virginia will support the Union
AUTHOR: LeRoy Anderson (source: Richmond Enquirer, Oct. 25, 1833)
EARLIEST DATE: 1833 (Richmond Enquirer, according to Lawrence)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad commerce
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1832 - The tariff and nullification controversy. John C. Calhoun, a Democrat firmly in favor of States' Rights, argues that the states can overturn a federal tariff, and South Carolina threatens to secede. Henry Clay, a Whig, supports a tariff to strengthen the economy. Andrew Jackson, although a Democrat himself, will halt the problem by his resolve
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 295-296, "Old Virginny Never Tire" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Virginny Never Tire" (lyrics)
File: CAFS1295

Save Me, Lord, Save Me

DESCRIPTION: "I called to my father, my father hearkened to me, And the last word I heard him say Was, save me, Lord, save me." Repeat with mother, sister, brother, preacher, children, and anything else that springs to mind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads)
KEYWORDS: religious father mother nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, p. 85, "Save Me, Lord, Save Me" (1 text)
Roud #15307
File: ReSm085

Save My Father's Picture from the Sale

DESCRIPTION: "It was many years ago, in the time of frost and snow, My poor old father fell sick and died." The orphan is forced to watch as all (his/her) memories are sold. Finally he begs, "Save my father's picture from the sale!" and a pretty girl buys it for him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: death orphan commerce help
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 854, "Save My Father's Picture from the Sale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 478-481, "Save My Father's Picture from the Sale" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 854)
Roud #4459
NOTES [62 words]: Cohen notes that several songs from the 1880s -- "Save My Father's Picture from the Sale," "Don't Sell My Mother's Picture," and the parody "Save My Brother's Whiskers from the Pail" -- seem built around the elements of this song. Whether these ancestral to or derived from the song given to Randolph is unclear; his informant thought the song older than the copyrights. - RBW
File: R854

Save Our Swilers

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you Newfoundlanders and listen to my song About St. Anthony's visitors from 'away' and 'upalong.'" "They are out to ban the seal hunt." "We're the endangered species." Listeners are urged to vote for those who support the seal hunt
AUTHOR: Arthur R. Scammell (1913-1995)
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Decks Awash 6:4)
KEYWORDS: hunting political nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 156-157, "Save Our Swilers" (1 text)
Roud #V44740
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Polina" (tune)
NOTES [818 words]: This is clearly based on actual events, when outsiders tried to shut down the seal hunt. Brian Davis, the first person mentioned in the song as opposed to sealing, is mentioned also in "The Sealers of Twillingate and New World Island" (which see); he originally worked with the S.P.C.A. before becoming involved with Greenpeace and similar organizations. In 1976, around the time this piece was presumably written, he was planning to bring in a bunch of stewardesses to oppose the hunt (Wright, p. 24).
Franz Weber (1927-) is a Swiss activist who, according to WIkipedia, became active in ecology in 1965. "IFAW [International Fund for Animal Welfare, one of various organizations created by Davis] and Greenpeace were joined in 1977 by millionaire Swiss conservationist Franz Weber, head of the appropriately named Franz Weber foundation. Weber offered to pay the Candian government $2.5 million to stop the [seal] hunt, but he is best remembered for his proposal to establish an artificial-fur factory in Newfoundland to employ displaced sealers" (Candow, p. 124). He also tried to create a floating hotel for journalists so that they could see just how brutal the seal hunt was (Wright, p. 24) -- and it WAS brutal, although generally less brutal than, say, a cat playing with a mouse.
"Yvette" is actress Yvette Mimieux, who was enlisted by Davis; "Brigitte" is Brigitte Bardot, signed up by Weber (Busch, p. 249; Candow, pp. 124-125). According to Candow, p. 133, Weber didn't get much attention when he campaigned against sealing in 1977 minus Bardot.
The song is correct that there was a quota on seals -- of sorts (Candow, p. 121); it was called the Total Allowable Catch. It was debatable whether it was sufficient to maintain the population; there certainly had been studies that said the limits were sufficient, but I am not impressed with the methods used. What is certain is that seals were a lot more rare in the 1970s than the 1820s. Of course, a population can be sustainable and still be below its peak. The real problem in the discussion is that some people thought killing seals was the murder of a beautiful and fairly intelligent animal while others thought it was a means of making a living. The views were so divergent that neither side was really willing to listen to the other. Thus we see anti-Greenpeace protesters forming a group "Codpeace," which claimed that if the seals were left unchecked, they would kill off the cod that were even more important to Newfoundland (Busch, p. 253). The problem with this, of course, is that the cod did just fine, seals or no seals, before humans came along, and the cod stocks fell, seals or no seals, when humans fished them almost to extinction! Whichever population you cared about, the problem was humans, not the other critters.
One can see this in the discussion on pp. 22-25 of Wright's book, for instance; although he is trying to understand both sides, he simply can't accept the arguments of those who opposed sealing.
One of those who thought the sealing quota sufficient to maintain the population was the "Tommy Hughes" of the song. Tom Hughes was, in 1966, general manager of the Ontario Humane Society. He was a member of a team of observers who, in that year, went to observe the seal hunt to see if the regulations were working. The majority of the observers, including Hughes, said that they were, although they cast doubts on the humaneness of the killing (Candow, pp. 117-118) -- and Hughes would presumably have known, since he was a campaigner for more humane slaughter of domestic animals (Candow, p. 120).
The Cashins were an important family of Newfoundland politicians and developers; Michael Cashin was Prime MInister for a few months after World War I (Noel, pp. 290-291), and his son Peter was finance minister at the time of the Great Depression; his (justified) dissatisfaction with his Prime Minister Richard Squires helped bring down the government and force Newfoundland to realize how bad its problems were (Noel, p. 202). I haven't found anything about a Rick Cashin and sealing, though. I assume the reference is to Richard Joseph Cashin (born 1937), a lawyer and MP who was helped found the Newfoundland Fishermen Food and Allied Workers Union (DictNewfLabrador, p. 56).
Arthur Scammell's crankiness in this song didn't do any good; in 1978, the year after he wrote it, new protests arose against sealing. Davies had been muzzled by a court decision, but Greenpeace was still around, and they brought in actresses Monique van der Ven and Pamela Sue Martin, plus several American politicians (Candow, p. 130). By this time, no one seems to have wanted the seal products. Sealing, except as a local means of getting food (comparable to, say, deer hunting in the U.S.) was dying, no matter what Newfoundlanders thought.
For background on Arthur R. Scammell, see the notes on "The Squid-Jiggin' Ground." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm156

Save Up All Your Money

See The Old Tobacco Box (File: FSC143)

Save Your Kisses Till the Boys Come Home

DESCRIPTION: "All the girls are lonely, lonely everywhere." The girls' "best boy" has gone off; "He'll come back a military man." "Never mind, little girlie, never mind. "Save your kisses till the boys come home. She'll be proud in "just a while"
AUTHOR: Tom Mellor, Harry Gifford, and Fred Godfrey (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (sheet music; recording, Charles Harrison and Herbert Stuart)
KEYWORDS: soldier separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 4-5, "Save Your Kisses Till the Boys Come Home" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Charles Harrison and Herbert Stuart, "Save Your Kisses Till the Boys Come Home" (Columbia 46293, 1915)
NOTES [55 words]: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver credits this to Fred Barnes, but Wikipedia and others list it as by Tom Mellor, Harry Gifford, and Fred Godfrey. That team is also credited on the American sheet music published by Jerome H. Remick. I think the latter attribution definitive, given its attestation plus they were a well-known team. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW004

Save Your Money When You're Young

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes his wasteful youth as a lumberjack and impoverished old age, advising listeners to "Save your money when you're young, you'll need it when you're old." He advises married men to stay home, away from grogshops, and single men to marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: age poverty drink warning money logger
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 7, "Save Your Money When You're Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 7, "Save Your Money When You're Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 40, "Save Your Money When You're Young" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 35, "Save Your Money When You're Young" (1 text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 138-139, "Save Your Money When You're Young" (1 text)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #61, "Save Your Money While You're Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 53, "Save Your Money While You're Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 323-324, "Save Your Money When You're Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SAVEMONY
Roud #2325
RECORDINGS:
Jim Doherty, "Save Your Money While You're Young" (on Lumber01)
Amos Payne, "Save Your Money When You're Young" (on NFAGuigné01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Turfman from Ardree" (tune, per Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario)
File: Be040

Save Your Money While You're Young

See Save Your Money When You're Young (File: Be040)

Saved in the Promised Land

See Where Is Old Elijah? (The Hebrew Children, The Promised Land) (File: San092)

Saville the Brave Man

DESCRIPTION: "Saville the brave man, while other men trembled, Defied the fierce wind and the wild raging sea." In spite of storm warnings he and MacKenzie take Alma to fish the banks. Watchers from Cape Spry thought Alma could not be saved but Saville brings her in
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea ship storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, p. 51, "Saville the Brave Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 174-177,254, "Saville the Brave Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12468
NOTES [11 words]: Cape Spry is on the east coast of Kings, Prince Edward Island. - BS
File: Dib051

Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us

DESCRIPTION: "Savior, like a Shepherd lead us, Much we need thy tender care." "Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, Thou hast bought us." "Keep thy flock; from sin defend us." "Thou has loved us, love us still."
AUTHOR: Words: unknown (see NOTES) / Music: William B. Bradbury
EARLIEST DATE: 1836 (Thrupp, Hymns for the Young)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad shepherd
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp, 136-137, "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us" (1 text, 1 tune)
Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 64-65, "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [562 words]: I know of no field collections of this song, but I've heard enough old-time recordings that I decided to include it.
There seems to be no question that William B. Bradbury (1816-1868) composed the music; according to Reynolds, p. 188, Bradbury published the text with his new tune in Oriola in 1859. The tune sometimes goes by the name "Bradbury" as a result. But the author of the words is open to question. Julian, p. 996, notes that the earliest surviving publication is in the fourth edition of Dorothea Ann Thrupp (1779-1847), Hymns for the Young, published in 1836. But Thrupp, who wrote a certain amount of religious poetry, did not sign this particular piece (Reynolds, p. 444, says that none of the pieces in that particular book were signed). Some experts -- e.g. McKim, p 270 -- have attributed it to her even so, and Rudin, p. 37, seems to think it likely although not certain. In 1838, W. Carus Wilson's June edition of Children's Friend has it with the author listed as "Lyte," and the next publication lists "H. Lyte" (Henry Francis Lyte). The next two publications did not list an author. Julian's conclusion: "The most that we can say is that the evidence is decidedly against Miss Thrupp, and somewhat uncertain with regard to Lyte as the writer of the hymn."
For more on Thrupp, see "A Little Ship Was on the Sea."
There are several Biblical allusions to Jesus (or, at least, the Messiah) as shepherd, but the main one is John, chapter 10, including 10:11, "'I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.'"
Reynolds, pp. 271-272, reports that Bradbury was born in York, Maryland in 1816 (October 6, according to EncycAmericanGospelMusic); his family moved to Boston in 1830; starting in 1840, he worked as organist for various churches. He studied in Europe for two years starting in 1847. He and his brother formed the Bradbury Piano Company in 1859 (which built as well as selling the instruments). Between 1841 and his death he had a part in publishing fully 59 musical collections (EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 59, says that the first, in 1841, was The Young Choir; it says that the he actually published 67 collections -- 59 religious, eight secular. Three of them sold more than three million copies each). Rudin, p. 38, says that he studied with the famous hymnwriter Lowell Mason, and on p. 37 declares, he "did more perhaps than any other man in organizing singing classes for children."
Reynolds, pp. 272-272, counts nine Bradbury pieces in the Baptist hymnal, making him one of the most popular nineteenth century hymn-writers.
Bradbury, Mason, and the famous popular songwriter George F. Root would go on to found the New York Normal Musical Institute in 1853 (Root, p. 11).
He died on Montclair, New Jersey on Jan. 7, 1868 (Reynolds, pp. 272-272), of what EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 48, calls a lung disease probably brought on by overwork.
According to EncycAmericanGospelMusic, p. 48, his innate musical talent was that he was able to learn "every instrument that came his way."
Bradbury is also responsible for "Angel Band," "Marching Along," "The Evergreen Shore," "Just As I Am," and perhaps "Gently Lead Me" in the Index, and also for the tune to the infamous "Jesus Loves Me This I Know" by Anna Bartlett Warner and melodies for the well-known "He Leadeth Me" and "Sweet Hour of Prayer." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: XxSLASLU

Savior's Love, The

See Have You Not Heard (Our Dear Savior's Love) (File: HRUI164)

Savourneen Deelish

DESCRIPTION: "Oh the moment was sad when my love and I parted." The singer is called to fight across the ocean. The singer fights but saves his money and booty. When peace is declared he returns home to find she had died.
AUTHOR: George Coleman (1762-1836) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1791 (Coleman's play _The Surrender of Calais_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: love war separation death soldier
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 173, "Savourneen Deelish" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 13, "Savourneen Deelish" (1 text)
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 99-102, "Savourneen deelish" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 52, "Savourneen Delish" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2070, p. 139, "Savourneen Deelish Eileen Oge" (1 reference)
Roud #V938
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1851 680750, "Savourneen Deelish Aileen Oh," William Hall and Son (New York), 1851; also sm1851 491570, "Savourneen Deelish" (tune)
LOCSinging, as203250, "Savourneen Deelish Eileen Oge," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
Bodleian, Harding B 18(433), "Savourneen Deelish Eileen Oge," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also Harding B 11(3432), "Savourna Deelish" or "The Moment was Sad"; Harding B 11(2993), Firth c.14(215), "Eileen Oge!" or "Savourneen Deelish"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Savourneen Deelish Eileen Oge
NOTES [211 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "The song was immensely popular during the 19th century.... 'Savourneen Deelish' is an anglicization of ''s a mhuirnin dilis', literally 'and my own true love', the first phrase of the chorus of several Irish language songs."
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 18(433) and LOCSinging as203250: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 35, gives a slightly different form of the source phrase, "a mhuirín dílis," "my faithful sweetheart."
The popularity of the song may well be explained by its familiar theme. In Ireland there were few jobs available, especially to Catholics, except working on their parents' farm. And a young man without property, having no prospects, could not marry. So he either waited until his father died and he inherited some land, or he could join the army. And, in those days, joining the military usually meant a long stay far in a foreign land, with no communications with home; even if both he and his love were literate (unlikely), the mail was expensive and unreliable. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Moyl173

Savourneen Deelish Eileen Oge

See Savourneen Deelish (File: Moyl173)

Saw an Old Crow

See Carrion Crow (File: LoF072)

Saw Ye My Maggie?

See Sawna Ye My Peggy? (File: GrD71415)

Saw Ye My Peggy?

See Sawna Ye My Peggy? (File: GrD71415)

Saw Ye My Savior?

DESCRIPTION: An account of the death of Jesus. The opening verse states "He died on Calvary, to atone for you and me." The song goes on to mention the darkness on the cross, the earthquake, the pain, and his forgiveness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: dying Jesus religious Easter
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 122-123, "Saw You My Saviour" (sic.) (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FO122 (Partial)
Roud #4679
NOTES [124 words]: "Calvary" -- this name is not used in modern English versions of the New Testament. The King James version used it in Luke 23:33 (from Latin Caluaria)
"Darkness" -- "From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon" (Matt. 27:45 NRSV; cf.Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44)
"The solid rocks were rent" -- "At that moment [when Jesus died]... the earth shook, and the rocks were split" (Matt. 27:51)
"Thus behold my hands and side" -- [Jesus] said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side'" (John 20:27)
"I will forgive them" -- "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34 -- however, most of the oldest and best manuscripts omit this phrase) - RBW
File: FO122

Saw Ye Nae My Peggy

See Sawna Ye My Peggy? (File: GrD71415)

Saw you Eppie Marley, Honey

See Elsie Marley (File: StoR070)

Saw You My True Love John?

See The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father [Child 248] (File: C248)

Sawmill Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Mel Clark gets the cream of the berries, Tom Melanson don't think it no fun, Little Joe Dyer, in the pit a-hollerin', Wonders why the damn' thing don't run." The singer describes the work done (perhaps not very efficiently) in the sawmill
AUTHOR: Dana Cate ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland); informant claims to have written it c. 1909
KEYWORDS: work nonballad technology
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 280-283, "The Sawmill Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3741
File: Lins280

Sawna Ye My Peggy?

DESCRIPTION: Have you seen Peggy? The singer saw a woman "wi' her petticoats above her knee." They say she's pregnant but "I'm sure it nae to me" He slept with her three nights but "aye my back was tull her" until daybreak. She asked him to turn to her about daybreak.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Herd, according to Whitelaw)
KEYWORDS: sex pregnancy dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1415, "Sawna Ye My Peggy?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 158-159, ("Saw ye my Maggie") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, pp. 492-493, "Saw Ye My Peggy," Vol II, p. 493, ("Saw ye my Maggie")
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume I, #11, p. 12, "Saw ye mae my Peggy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST GrD71415 (Partial)
Roud #7156
NOTES [99 words]: Whitelaw: "This song, though old, was not inserted in any regular collection of Scottish songs till that of David Herd in 1769."
Whitelaw's and Chambers's ("Saw ye my Maggie") are in notes to "Saw Ye My Peggy" quoting Burns in Johnson's Musical Museum, vol. I., 1787. Johnson cites ("Saw ye my Maggie") as the original source of "Saw Ye My Peggy" (which is different enough from ("Saw ye my Maggie") that I would consider them separate songs). To be clear, I lump ("Saw ye my Maggie"), which Burns says is "a song familiar from the cradle to every Scottish ear," with Greig/Duncan7 1415. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD71415

Sawney Kail Cunnie

DESCRIPTION: "Sawney Kail Cunnie, the Laird o' Kail Caup' eat his brose [oatmeal] and drank his cup and spoon. He asked for more "kail-brose" when that was done.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: drink food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1692, "Sawney Kail Cunnie" (1 text)
Roud #13036
File: GrD81692

Sawney Ogilvie's Duel with His Wife

DESCRIPTION: "Good people, give ear to the fatalest duel That Morpeth e'er saw since it was a town... Poor Sawney... Miscarried and married a Scottish tarpawlin." Sawney ruins his prospects with his marriage; his wife regularly abuses him
AUTHOR: Thomas Whittle
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland); Whittle reportedly died 1736
KEYWORDS: marriage hardtimes abuse humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 124-125, "Sawney Ogilvie's Duel With His Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3156
File: StoR124

Sawyer's Exit

DESCRIPTION: "How bright is the day when the Christian Receives the sweet message to come To the mansions of glory And be there forever at home." "The angels stand ready and waiting, The moment the spirit is gone...." "The saints that have gone us before us...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Sacred Harp, according to Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina)
KEYWORDS: religious death nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 77, "Sawyer's Exit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21330
File: Joyn077

Saxon Shilling, The

DESCRIPTION: The martial parades "dazzled village youths to-day Will crowd to take the Saxon Shilling." Fools sell themselves "to shame and death," "crush the just and brave." "Irish hearts! why should you bleed, To swell the tide of British glory"?
AUTHOR: Kevin T. Buggy (Source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 ("The song was first printed in the _Belfast Vindicator_ in 1842," according to Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: army recruiting Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 49, "The Saxon Shilling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #43434
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(68), "The Saxion Shilling" [only misspelled in the title], unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.15(39), "The Saxion Shilling" [only misspelled in the title]
NOTES [163 words]: Broadsides Bodleian Harding B 19(68) and Bodleian 2806 c.15(39) are duplicates. The last two lines are identically mangled.
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "The man who enlisted as a soldier was given the 'King's shilling' by a recruiting officer."
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "The Saxon's Shilling" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
One suspects that author Buggy never missed any meals, which was the main reason Irish youth enlisted in the army. Though his source of income certainly wasn't his writing; I have been unable to find anything else he wrote, and he is not mentioned in Patrick C. Power's A Literary History of Ireland.
For the typical British recruiting method of The King's Shilling and getting potential soldiers drunk, see the notes to "The Recruited Collier." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Zimm049

Saxpence Lace

DESCRIPTION: She put "saxpence lace" around her "goon sae gran" and went to the castle looking for a man. She puts on an apron ....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #168, p. 2, ("Wi' the saxpence lace") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan7 1418, "Saxpence Lace" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Roud #7158
NOTES [66 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan7 fragments.
Greig: .".. a verse or two of what looks like a fisher song." I wonder what he means by that since the fragment has no element to suggest it to me. Greig #153, commenting on "The Bonnie Fisher Lass" says, "There are not many traditional songs dealing with the fisher folk." This looks to me to be a common leadup to a seduction. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71418

Say Brothers

See The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)

Say When

DESCRIPTION: "Say when, will we ever meet again (x3), Say when, my friend, say when." "Say why, do we have to say goodbye? (x3). Say why, my friend, say why." "Say where, and I’ll meet you right there (x3), Say where, my friend, say where"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: reunion nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 311, 387, "Say When" (notes only)
File: ACSF311W

Say, Darling, Say

DESCRIPTION: Song starts out with two verses of "Hush, Little Baby," but veers off: "All I've got is you in mind/Wouldn't do nothing but starch and iron"; "Starch and iron will be your trade/And I can get drunk and lay in the shade" Chorus: "Say, darling, say"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Ernest V. Stoneman)
KEYWORDS: work drink dancetune nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #470
RECORDINGS:
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Say, Darling, Day" (on Stonemans01); Ernest V. Stoneman, Willie Stoneman, and the Sweet Brothers, "Say Darling Say" (Gennett 6733 [as by Justin Winfield]/Supertone 9400 [as by Uncle Ben Hawkins], 1929; rec. 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hush, Little Baby" (lyrics, tune)
NOTES [47 words]: Roud, unsurprisingly, lumps this with "Hush Little Baby," since it has common lyrics and the tunes are close (though this is usually done much faster than "Hush Little Baby"). But the different ending, and the chorus, is enough to separate them in my book and in Paul Stamler's. - RBW
File: RcSyDaSa

Say, Say, Oh Playmate

See See, See, My Playmate (File: OpGa148)

Saying Nothing at All

DESCRIPTION: Pat would apparently go to Scotland to make his fortune. Moral for those who would do the same: "If you don't find it there you may just lose the bake [Greig/Duncan8: biscuit] And to Ireland return saying nothing at all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: travel Ireland Scotland
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1753, "Saying Nothing at All" (1 fragment)
Roud #13009
NOTES [74 words]: Does Pat go looking for a job for six months [see notes to "Hie Bonnie Lassie for feeing]? Does he get married [as in "To Reap and Mow the Hay"]? Or not [as in "Willie Rambler" and "Peggy Bawn"]? Does he have a strange adventure [as in "The Glasgow Barber" and "That Dang Boat that First Took Me Over"]? And why "saying nothing at all" [as in "Nothing At All"]? - BS
I would suspect he is embarrassed and doesn't want to tell of his adventure. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81753

Saylan

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Saylor's Complaint, The (The True Character of a Purser of a Ship)

See The Sailor's Complaint (The True Character of a Purser of a Ship) (File: PaSe031)

Saylor's Only Delight, The

See High Barbaree [Child 285; Laws K33] (File: C285)

Saylors for My Money

DESCRIPTION: "Countrymen of England who live at home at ease, And little think what dangers are incident of the seas, GIve ear unto a sailor...." who tells of the danger of the job and how they turn to God. He also describes their far travels
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs); the broadside apparently was printed before 1639
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes money storm
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 13, "Sailors for my Money" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V12093
File: PaSe013

Says T'auld Man tit Oak Tree

See Says the Old Man to the Oak Tree (File: BGMG071)

Says the Old Man to the Oak Tree

DESCRIPTION: "Says t'auld man t' the (old/oak) tree, Young and lusty was I when I kenn'd thee; I was young and lusty, I was fair and clear, Young and lusty was I mony a lang year, But sair fail'd am I, sair fail'd now, Sair fail'd am I sen I kenn'd thou."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1785 (Gammer Gurton's Garland)
KEYWORDS: age
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #71, p. 80, "(Says t'auld man tit oak tree)"
DT, MANOAK
Roud #20161
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sair Fyel'd, Hinny"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Old Man and the Oak. A North Country Son (Ritson's title)
NOTES [45 words]: Several versions of "Sair Fyel'd, Hinny" include this lyric essentially intact -- and in Northumbrian dialect. But I don't know if this split off and became a Mother Goose rhyme on its own, or if that song swallowed it. My decision to split them was very tentative. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BGMG071

SBA's Song

DESCRIPTION: "As I walked down the street the other day, A lady came up to me and she did say, 'Why aren't you in khaki or in Air Force blue?" He explains that he is not a civilian but an SBA, which he explains as "A Sailor with a Broken 'Art"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor war rejection clothes derivative
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 96, "SBA's Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Broken Doll" (tune)
File: Tawn072

Scab, The

DESCRIPTION: "I've travelled o'er mountains and hills and through valleys, Where the worker is crushed by the 'Lord of the soil,'" and everywhere known want -- because of the Scab. People suffer at the hands of the wealthy, because of scabs. The singer wants revenge
AUTHOR: John Brooks Hulbert
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Hulbet's "My Garden and Other Verses," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ), referring apparently to events of 1913
KEYWORDS: worker labor-movement hardtimes revenge scab
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 78-79, "The Scab" (1 text)
File: BaRo078

Scab's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "Once a little maiden climbed an old man's knee, And asked... Why are you lonely, why are you sad, Why do the miners call you a scab?" The old man recalls sympathizing with the Union, but then returning to his job; he wishes he hadn't left the Union
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1918 (New Songs for the Butte Mining Camp, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes labor-movement strike fight father derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 170-172, "The Scab's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 248, "After the Strike" (1 text)
]ADDITIONAL: Edward J. Cowan, editor, _The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History_ 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition), p. 167, "After the Strike Is Over" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "After the Ball" (tune) and references there
File: LDC170

Scabby Cousin Jack, A

DESCRIPTION: "It's great to be a miner bold And work upon the hill Protected by a rifle cold Held by a scissor bill... Because you haven't got the guts To be a man and strike." The singer warns the scab of what will happen later; he'd better "beat it down the pike"
AUTHOR: Words: Joe Kennedy (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1918 (New Songs for the Butte Mining Camp, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining warning scab labor-movement
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 173, "A Scabby Cousin Jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Auld Lang Syne" (tune) and references there
File: LDC173

Scady Rocks, The

DESCRIPTION: Three men and a girl from Cushendall are in Colonel Caufield's Maid of Youghal in a storm. The boat splits on Scady Rock near the Bridge of Toome over the River Bann. All are drowned. People mourn.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond01)
KEYWORDS: drowning ship storm wreck
FOUND IN: Ireland
ST RcScaRoc (Full)
Roud #6986
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Scady Rock" (on IRRCinnamond01)
NOTES [53 words]: The description is based on John Moulden's transcription from IRRCinnamond01 included in the Traditional Ballad Index Supplement.
There seems to be a gap in the text since there is no follow-up to the lines "very soon you all will hear Of the manhood of young Squire Jones." Cushendall and Toome are in Co Antrim. - BS
File: RcScaRoc

Scandalize My Name

DESCRIPTION: "I met my preacher the other day, I gave him my right hand, And just as soon as my back was turned, He scandalized my name. Do you call that religion (x3)...." The singer continues with other examples of those who defame him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (recording, Kitty Cheatham)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad lie accusation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 369, "Scandalize My Name" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 339 "(Scandalize My Name)" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Kitty Cheatham, "Scandalize My Name" (Columbia A5224, 1910)
Dizie Jubilee Singers, "Don't You Scandalize My Name" (Cameo 914, 1926)
Golden Crown Quartet, "Scandalize My Name" (OKeh 8739, 1929; on VocalQ2)
Kentucky Juibilee Quartet, "Do You Call That Religion" (OKeh 8509, 1927)
Mitchell Christian Singers, "They Scandalized My Name" (Melotone M-13162/Conqueror 8457, 1934/Banner 33195, 1935)
Monroe Brothers, "Do You Call That Religion?" (Bluebird B-7055, 1937)
Sunset Four Quartette, "Do You Call That Religion" (Paramount 12221, 1924)
NOTES [42 words]: This is sometimes listed, e.g. in the Folksinger's Wordbook, as a religious song. It has a religious theme (since it catalogs those who do not practice religion as the singer thinks they should), but is not really a religious piece but a complaint. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: FSWB369

Scant of Love, Want of Love

See Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man (File: K207)

Scantling Line, The

See Fox River Line, The (The Rock Island Line) [Laws C28] (File: LC28)

Scarboro Sand (The Drowned Sailor) [Laws K18]

DESCRIPTION: A Scarborough girl learns that her sailor love has been lost at sea. She asks the waters to bring her love ashore. She finds the body, kisses it, and dies. The two are buried in "Robin Hood's Churchyard."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1853 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 1956)
KEYWORDS: sea death burial drowning
FOUND IN: US(NE,SE) Britain(England(Lond,North,South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws K18, "Scarboro Sand (The Drowned Sailor)"
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 151, "Scarborough Sand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 37, "The Drowned Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 31, "The Drowned Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 105, "Scarboro Sand (Robin Hood Side)" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 105, "Scarboro Sand (Robin Hood Side)" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 39, "In Robin Hood's Churchyard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 52, "Robin Hood's Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #83, p. 2, "Scarborough Banks" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 20, "Scarborough Banks" (9 texts, 8 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 332-333, "Scarborough's Banks" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 112-113, "The Drowned Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #39, "The Drowned Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 24, "The Drowned Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 722-725, "Strawberry Tower" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 44, "Arbour Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 561, SCARSAND
Roud #185
RECORDINGS:
Charlotte Decker, "Strawberry Tower" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Sam Larner, "In Scarboro' Town" (on SLarner01; on Voice02 as "In Scarborough Town"); "The Drowned Lover" (on SLarner02)
Frank Verrill, "Stowborough Town" (on Voice12)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1956, "Stow Brow," John Ross (Newcastle), 1847-1852; also Harding B 11(3208), "Stow Brow"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Strawbello Strand
Scarberry's Shores
NOTES [71 words]: The reference to "Robin Hood's Churchyard" is almost certainly a reference to the village of Robin Hood's Bay, Yorkshire; some versions of the song set the events in that town rather than in Scarborough.
I do not know that the two Larner recordings are in fact different -- these two compilations drew from the same collection of field tapes -- but as the titles are given as different I thought it prudent to separate them. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LK18

Scarborough Fair

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Scarborough Settler's Lament

DESCRIPTION: "Away wi' Canada's muddy creeks And Canada's fields of pine. Your land of wheat is a goodly land, but ah! it isna mine!" The Scottish settler thinks back with sadness to the home he left behind -- but awakes in Canada, "three thousand miles 'frae hame.'"
AUTHOR: Sandy Clandenning
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: emigration homesickness Canada
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 94-95, "A Scarborough Settler's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 29, "The Scarborough Settler's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SCARSET*
Roud #4521
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Spancil Hill" (theme)
cf. "That Dear Old Land" (theme)
cf. "The Glenshesk Waterside" (theme)
cf. "Farewell to Sweet Glenravel" (theme)
cf. "Och, Och, Eire, O!" (theme)
cf. "The Call of Home" (theme)
cf. "A Shamrock from Tiree" (theme)
cf. "Farewell to the Banks of the Roe" (theme)
cf. "Banks of the Roe" (theme)
cf. "The Shamrock Shore (The Maid of Mullaghmore)" (theme)
cf. "Maguire's Brae" (theme)
cf. "Sweet Loughgiel" (theme)
cf. "Juberlane" (theme)
cf. "Glen O'Lee" (theme)
cf. "Sweet Glenbush" (theme)
cf. "The Hills of Donegal" (theme)
cf. "O, Derry, Derry, Dearie Me" (theme)
cf. "Cloughwater/The Shamrock Shore" (theme)
cf. "The Little Old Mud Cabin on the Hill" (theme)
cf. "Norah McShane" (theme)
cf. "Bonnie Lyndale" (theme)
cf. "The Song of the Emigrant" (theme(
NOTES [35 words]: Sandy Clandenning settled in Scarborough (near Toronto) in 1840. He set these words to the first half of the tune "Of A' the Airts the Wind Can Blaw." It has also been sung to "The Irish Emigrant's Lament." - RBW
File: FMB094

Scarborough's Banks

See Scarboro Sand (The Drowned Sailor) [Laws K18] (File: LK18)

Scarlet and the Blue, The

See The Jolly Ploughboy (The Merry Plowboy, The Scarlet and the Blue) (File: Beha051)

Scarlet Ribbons

DESCRIPTION: "I peeked in to say goodnight," and the singer hears his daughter praying to get scarlet ribbons. He tries all night to find one and is unable; the town is closed. He returns sorrowful, to find that, somehow, he bed is festooned with ribbons
AUTHOR: Words: Jack Segal / Music: Evelyn Danzig (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (source: Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: clothes campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 239, "Scarlet Ribbons" (notes only)
DT, SCARRIB
NOTES [109 words]: Note that, although this is often treated as a Christmas song, it contains no indication of season. And it's not actually religious, either, although it contains a seeming miracle. I'll admit that I've never understood why such a stupid song became so popular -- yes, it's sweet to see a little girl get her wish, but why not have her (e.g.) deserve a gift her family can't afford, and have the entire town contribute, or otherwise convey an actual positive message rather than a deus ex machina? It appears that, even in the camp repertoire, it was only moderately successful, although this might just be because of its association with Christmas. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF239R

Scarlet Town

See The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)

Scarlet Tree, The

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Scavenger's Brigade, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer joins "The Scavengers' Brigade" sweeping Belfast streets. They parade like soldiers with brooms on their shoulders. His family and sweetheart think he's in some army brigade and expect promotion and glory. He recommends it as an occupation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3); 19C? (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.16(409))
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer arrives in Belfast and finally finds work sweeping streets in "The Scavengers' Brigade." "With our brooms across our shoulders, That's our only uniform ... We're always on parade." His father reads his letters to the neighbors "for he thinks that I'm a sojer, with a gun." His mother wonders "if her darling is a kilty or dragoon" and expects he'll soon be a General. His sweetheart writes "that for my sake she's not afraid to leave her native land And risk a soldier's life whenever I get command" He tells everyone to save their pennies, come to Belfast, and "come and gain promotion in the Scavenger Brigade."
KEYWORDS: work humorous family clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 490, "The Scavengers' Brigade" (1 fragment)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 72-73, "The Scavenger's Brigade" (1 text)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 45, "The Scavengers' Brigade" (1 text)
Roud #5978
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.16(409), "The Scavenger Brigade" ("It's myself a dacent Irish lad, arrived from Donegal," unknown, n.d. [beginning lines illegible]
File: HayU072

Schaladi

See Young Charlotte (Fair Charlotte) [Laws G17] (File: LG17)

Schenectady Massacre, The

See The Battle of Schenectady (The Schenectady Massacre) (File: CAFS1097)

Schlof Mayn Kind (Sleep My Child)

DESCRIPTION: Yiddish: The mother urges her little child to sleep. She tells the child that someday it will understand why she weeps. Father has gone to America, seeking to earn the money to let them all emigrate. Till then, baby can only sleep and mother can only wait
AUTHOR: Words: Sholom Aleichem
EARLIEST DATE: 1950
KEYWORDS: family lullaby separation emigration foreignlanguage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 287-289, "Schlof Mayn Kind (Sleep My Child)" (2 texts (1 English, 1 Yiddish), 1 tune)
NOTES [67 words]: There seem to be two Yiddish songs by that title: this one (which is more completely titled "Schlof Mayn Kind, Mayn Treyst, Mayn Sheiner") and another that is sometimes called "Shlof Mayn Kind, Shlof Keseyder." [For which see the Folksinger's Wordbook, p. 408. - RBW] In the latter, the mother sings to the child bitterly about the differences between rich and poor; emigration is not mentioned. - PJS
File: SBoA287

Schnooglin'

DESCRIPTION: "Schnooglin'" is the process of keeping warm by necking, the singer asserts, adding the warning not to let a boy an inch above your knee.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: bawdy warning
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 252-253, "Schnooglin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10289
File: EM252

Schomberg

DESCRIPTION: This is a memorial to "William's true and gallant knight -- Schomberg, the bold and brave!" He'd had a "bright career ... But at the Boyne, for ever famed, He fell beside the wave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: battle death Ireland memorial patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 1 or 12, 1690 (Old Style or New Style dates) - Battle of the Boyne. William III defeats the forces of James II to firmly establish his control of Ireland
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 10, "Schomberg" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of the Boyne (I)" (subject: The Battle of the Boyne) and references there
NOTES [89 words]: For background on the Boyne, and on Schomberg, see the notes to "The Battle of the Boyne (I)." It might be noted that, although Schomberg had had an excellent career, his performance in Ireland was not very energetic (he was, after all, in his seventies); it was his failure to win the Irish campaign which forced William of Orange to come himself and fight at the Boyne. Some of Schomberg's problems were not his fault -- but many were; he made a hash of his logistics, resulting in his force suffering many useless casualties. - RBW
File: OrLa010

School Days

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis sweet to go back in memory To days of youth so dear to me When we could find a secluded spot And gather the blue forget-me-not." The singer recalls when "life was smooth as a poet's rhyme." He fondly remembers the old schoolhouse and childhood
AUTHOR: Edgar Hamm?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: nonballad youth
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 251-252, "School Days" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 251-252)
NOTES [18 words]: This sounds so nineteenth-century-parlor-song, it's uncanny. But I don't know of any sheet music version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa251A

School Days of Long Ago

DESCRIPTION: "Still sits the schoolhouse by the road Close by the old oak tree, Where many a boy has took a dose Of grim old hickory tea." The singer describes the strict methods of the old school, and laments the laziness of the students
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 872, "School Days of Long Ago" (1 text)
Roud #7538
File: R872

School Has Begun, So Come Everyone

DESCRIPTION: "School has begun, so come everyone, And come with smiling faces." The teachers are kind. Boys are advised to learn so that no one thinks them dunces; girls are advised to learn because worth and beauty are not enough
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Stout-FolkloreFromIowa)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 103, pp. 127-133, "Early Iowa School Songs" (11 texts, of which "G" is this song)
Roud #21642
File: Stou103G

School House on the Hill

DESCRIPTION: "Fond memory paints the scenes of other years"; the singer still remembers. They children swung on a swing, they gathered berries. "The school house that stands Upon the hill I never can forget."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recording, The Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 22, "School House on the Hill" (1 text)
Roud #16994
File: High022

School Ma'am on the Flat

DESCRIPTION: "McClellan was a cowboy of the wild and wooly west." He courts and seduces a "school ma'am." The enter into an unhappy marriage. "If John Henry gets to raring up, he will flog him with his hat Before he goes courting another school ma'am on the flat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: cowboy courting sex humorous
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 6, pp. 53-54, "School Ma'am on the Flat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Logs006 (Partial)
Roud #10087
File: Logs006

School Starts at What Time?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "School starts at what time? I don't know. It may be at one o'clock, two o'clock...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Keystone Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | school
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #512, "School starts at what time?" (1 text)
File: AJRR512

School's Burning

See London's Burning (File: Dolb136)

School's Out (I)

See No More Pencils, No More Books (File: SaKo121A)

School's Out (II)

DESCRIPTION: "School's out, school's out, Teacher, let the fools out, One went east, one went west, One went up the teacher's dress."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: clothes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 51, "School's Out" (1 text)
Roud #16816
File: ZiZa051B

Schooner Annie, The

DESCRIPTION: The cargo schooner Annie is caught in a November gale. The crew abandons her in a dory. The storm continues for days. McCarthy is washed overboard, but saved. The crew is rescued by the Monarch, under Captain Blackmore, and brought to land.
AUTHOR: Peter Leonard (source: notes to ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
KEYWORDS: rescue commerce sea ship shore ordeal storm wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov. 1915 - Schooner Annie lost off St. Shotts, at the southern tip of the Avalon peninsula (per Northern Shipwrecks Database). The notes at ITMA/CapeShoreNL have the Annie, bound from St. John's to Placentia Bay, lost in a gale; the crew was rescued by the Monarch (the song has that as Monaduck)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #3227
RECORDINGS:
Caroline Brennan, "The Schooner Annie" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
NOTES [98 words]: According to the notes to this song at ITMA/CapeShoreNL the original song title was "Jim McCarthy." - BS
The tune of this seems to be taken from "The Banks of Newfoundland." Peter Leonard is also credited with "The Hole in the Wall," "Soup Supper in Clattice Harbour," and "Tobias Murphy and Tom Hann," none of which seem to have been very well known. I can't find anything else about the Annie; although the attribution at the ITMA site seems likely, there were so many Newfoundland wrecks of boats named Annie (Annie Roberts, etc.) that there may have been some cross-fertilization. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: RcTSchAn

Schooner Bigler, The

See The Bigler's Crew [Laws D8] (File: LD08)

Schooner Blizzard, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns his comrades "not to sail in those mean packets where they put no food on board." He describes a trip that began with rotten food and no heat and ended with the steward jumping ship to get married
AUTHOR: Henry Burke and a shipmate
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes marriage warning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1889 - Reported date of this voyage of the Blizzard
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 198-200, "The Schooner Blizzard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9428
File: Doe198

Schooner E. A. Horton

See The E. A. Horton [Laws D28] (File: LD28)

Schooner Fred Dunbar, The [Laws D14]

DESCRIPTION: A sailor speaks of his vessel's travels, all the while advising the girls about the pleasures and advantages of going out with sailors
AUTHOR: Amos Hanson
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
KEYWORDS: sea sailor travel
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws D14, "The Schooner Fred Dunbar"
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 102-104, "The Schooner Fred Dunbar" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
DT 832, FREDDUNB*
Roud #2237
NOTES [34 words]: Amos Hanson is credited with at least three songs in the Index, "The Schooner Fred Dunbar" [Laws D14], "A Trip to the Grand Banks," and the fragment "Sail Away." None is very well known or preserved. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LD14

Schooner Helson

DESCRIPTION: "The vessel 'Schooner Helson' from Newport sailed away Arriving safe at Georgetown Without mishap that day." A storm on the way home wrecks the schooner. All three of the crew drown and only one body is found, "washed up by the waves"
AUTHOR: Charlie Howlett
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, p. 46, "Schooner Helson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12470
NOTES [20 words]: Newport and Georgetown are on the east coast of Kings, Prince Edward Island. Newport is a few miles north of Georgetown. - BS
File: Din046

Schooner Jenkins, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come, shipmates, listen to my story, I'll sing you one both sad and true, How dark one night... Sank John Brown and his crew." The ship sets out in November, and is sunk. The crewmen who died are described in rather conventional terms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Oswego Palladium-Times)
KEYWORDS: ship death moniker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 30, 1875 - Sinking of the Isaac G. Jenkins. 8 people die
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 220-221, 'The Schooner Jenkins" (1 text)
Roud #19867
File: WGM220

Schooner John Bentely, The

DESCRIPTION: Derived from "The Dreadnaught," but of about a bad boat. The singer gets drunk, then joins the Bentely on the Great Lakes. The sound of the pumps makes him sick. The bedclothes are "junk." The ship is slow. The food is bad. Finally they reach Gravelly Bay
AUTHOR: Jeremiah Cavanaugh?
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected by Walton from Jeremiah Cavanaugh)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes derivative
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 98-100, "The Schooner John Bentely" (1 text)
Roud #19892
NOTES [27 words]: According to Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, the Benteley was built in 1873 and had the "lines of a brick." Hence, presumably, this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM098

Schooner Kandahar, The

DESCRIPTION: The Kandahar's trip starts out happily, but then the vessel springs a small leak and runs into a smallpox epidemic. Despite a threat of quarantine, the ship reaches the Indies, then has a quiet trip back to Nova Scotia
AUTHOR: Sepley Collin
EARLIEST DATE: 1931
KEYWORDS: ship sea disease
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1896 - Voyage of the Kandahar
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 196-198, "The Schooner Kandahar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4085
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dD42 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Doe196

Schooner Marion Rogers, The

DESCRIPTION: Marion Rogers sails for the North from St John's and is lost near Trinity in a snow storm. The crew of seven is lost in "the most awful shipwreck, the worst one of the year"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 27, 1938 - Marion Rogers stranded (total loss) at Lighthouse Rocks reef in Trinity Harbour (Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 72, "The Schooner Marion Rogers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #28976
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ravenal" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Ravenal (file: LeBe092)
File: LeBe072

Schooner Mary Ann, The

See Bound Down to Newfoundland [Laws D22] (File: LD22)

Schooner Oriole, The

DESCRIPTION: "Attention give both young and old... While I relate the hardships and the dangers of the sea, I'll tell you of the Illinois and of her reckless crew, How she sank the schooner Oriole...." The ships collide, and twelve on the Oriole die; only one survives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Collected from Ben Peckham by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship death disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 8/9, 1862 - Collision of the _Illinois_ and the _Oriole_, resulting in the destruction of the latter
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, p. 216, "The Schooner Oriole" (1 text)
Roud #19870
NOTES [160 words]: According to Julius F. Wolff, Jr., Lake Superior Shipwrecks, Lake Superior Port Cities Inc., Duluth, 1990, pp. 8-9, the schooner Oriole left Marquette, Michigan on August 8 with about 500 tons of iron freight and 13 people aboard, including Captain Daniel McAdams, his wife, and his mother-in-law.
The ship soon ran into a heavy fog, but the captain did not slow down. Around 3:00 a.m., the Illinois rammed the Oriole. It was still foggy, and the Illinois took damage itself, so Captain Ryder headed on to Marquette without pausing to see what had happened.
He had, however, sliced the Oriole in half. Of the 13 people on board, only one survived: Cook Andrew P. Fleming managed to cling to wreckage until he made his way to the Oriole's stern, then still afloat, and lower a boat. He was rescued a day and a half later.
There would not be another accident on Lake Superior with such heavy loss of life until 1875, according to Wolff, p. 23. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM216

Schooner Thomas Hume, The

DESCRIPTION: "The schooner Hume is staunch and strong, She's weathered many a blow... She's bound for Buffalo." She sails on dangerous Lake Michigan. The captain takes her out on the lake. A great storm arises. Ship and crew are lost without trace
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Collected from William Nicolas by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 22, 1891 - Foundering of the _Thomas Hume_ off Holland, Michigan (Source: Bruce D. Berman, _Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks_, Mariner's Press, 1972, p. 245)
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 196-197, "The Schooner Thomas Hume" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #19885
RECORDINGS:
Ed Vandenberg, "The Schooner Thomas Hume" (1955; on WaltonSailors; this version, with guitar accompaniment, seems to be sung by a revival singer, not an original informant)
NOTES [97 words]: Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors note several contradictions between the song and the actual fate of the Thomas Hume -- notably that the boat was not full of wheat (it was in fact almost empty) and it was lost in May, not at the end of the shipping season.
I observe in addition that the name "Hume" is mentioned only twice in Walton's text, and never the "Thomas Hume." I rather suspect this was originally about some other boat, with the name of the Thomas Hume zipped in without the song being fully adapted to the actual circumstances of the sinking. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: WGM196

Schpinn, schpinn (Spin, Spin)

See Whistle, Daughter, Whistle (File: R109)

Schwiezemann hot Heisen a, D'r (The Swiss Wears Pants)

DESCRIPTION: German round. "D'r Schwiezemann hot Heisen a, (x2), Mit lauder ledene Benden dra (x2)." "The Swiss wears pants (x2), WIth all the strings of leather." "D'r Schwiezemann hot Heisen a, Mit lauder...." "The Swiss wears trouers, WIth all...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: nonballad clothes foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, p. 109, "D'r Schwiezemann hot Heisen a (The Swiss Wears Pants)" (1 German text plus English translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL109

Scientific Frog

See Funniest Is the Frog (File: Robe098)

Scilly Rocks, The

See The Rocks of Scilly [Laws K8] (File: LK08)

Scissor Bill

DESCRIPTION: "You may ramble 'round the country anywhere you will, You'll always run across that same old Scissor Bill." "He looks just like a human," but "He is the missing link that Darwin tried to trace." He hates foreigners and won't join the union
AUTHOR: Words: Joe Hill / Music: "Steamoat Bill"
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (I. W. W. Songbook, 5th edition, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement nonballad | IWW Darwin
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 547, "Scissor Bill" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: (Barrie Stavis and Frank Harmon, editors), _The Songs of Joe Hill_, 1960, now reprinted in the Oak Archives series, p. 29, "Scissor Bill" (1 text)
Gibbs M. Smith, _Joe Hill_, 1969 (I use the 1984 Peregrine Smith Books edition), pp. 246-247, "Scissor Bill" (1 text)
Roud #7991
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Steamboat Bill" (tune)
NOTES [57 words]: Although the listed tune of this is "Steamboat Bill," I suspect it was sung to "Casey Jones." Of course, those two are closely related.
One of Scissor Bill's lines is "This country must be freed From Niggers, Japs and Dutchmen and the gol durn Swede." Was the "gol durn Swede" Joe Hill himself?
For the life of Joe Hill, see "Joe Hill." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC547

Scoil Bharr D'Inse

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Local families gather at School of Barr d'Inse for an evening of singing and dancing. At the height of the party a local priest arrives and stops the dancing.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage dancing music clergy
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 124, "Scoil Bharr D'Inse" (1 text)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC124

Scolding Wife (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "I married me a scolding wife Some forty years ago And ever since I've led a life Of misery and woe." The abused husband details the various ways his wife chastises, injures, and neglects him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: husband wife abuse injury shrewishness
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(MW,NE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph 397, "The Scolding Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 214, "The Scolding Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 80, "My Scolding Wife" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 103, "My Scolding Wife" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 179, "A Scolding Wife" (1 short text plus mention of 1 more)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 325-327, "The Scolding Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2132
RECORDINGS:
Caroline Brennan, "The Scolding Wife" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Jack Knight, "The Scolding Wife" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Margaret MacArthur, "The Scolding Wife" (on MMacArthur01)
Bill Westaway, "The Scolding Wife" (on FSBFTX19)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Scolding Wife (IV)" (subject)
NOTES [71 words]: The notes in Henry/Huntington/Herrmann observe that this has the same subject and metrical pattern as "The Scolding Wife (IV)." But there seem to be no common lyrics at all; I (hesitantly) declare them separate. The chorus of this song runs something like
For she worries (or "hurries") me, she flurries me,
It is her heart's delight
To warm me with the fire-shovel
Round the room at night (or "in the middle of the night"). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: R397

Scolding Wife (II), The

See The Dumb Wife (Dumb, Dumb, Dumb) [Laws Q5] (File: LQ05)

Scolding Wife (III), The (A Woman's Tongue Will Never Take a Rest)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, you've often heard it asked Why a woman talks so fast Oh, she runs around with every bit of news." The singer claims "a woman's tongue will never take a rest"; she talks while he works. He advises marrying a wife who is "blind, deaf, and dumb."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: husband wife
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 201, "The Scolding Wife" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 201, "The Scolding Wife (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 143, "Chinning Music" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6585 and 11345
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Rice, "A Woman's Tongue" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Woman's Tongue Will Never Take a Rest
NOTES [42 words]: I should perhaps assign this song the keyword "humorous," since it was probably intended to be funny. But it isn't; it's just a whine. It's strange to note that the Brown, Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric, and Leach versions were all collected from women. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: BrII201

Scolding Wife (IV)

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye sprightly sporting youths, wherever you may be, You'll never know your misery till married that you'll be." The singer describes all the ways in which his wife makes his life miserable, and hopes she dies before she kills him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1849 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.20(109))
KEYWORDS: husband wife fight marriage courting abuse
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H145, p. 503, "The Scolding Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan7 1285, "She's Aye Scaulin' Me" (1 fragment)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 151, "The Bad Wife" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland [second series] (Paisley, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 88-91, "The Wicked Wife"
Roud #5556
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.20(109), "The Scolding Wife" ("When first I got married, a happy man to be"), J. Kendrew (York), 1803-1848
LOCSinging, as102540, "The Scolding Wife" ("I married with a scolding wife, full twenty years ago"), L. Deming (Boston), no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Scolding Wife (I)" (subject)
cf. "The Sporting Bachelors" (plot)
cf. "She's Aye Tease, Teasin'" (subject and form)
NOTES [87 words]: The notes in Henry/Huntington/Herrmann observe that this has the same subject and metrical pattern as "The Scolding Wife (I)." But there seem to be no common lyrics at all; I (hesitantly) declare them separate. The chorus of the Henry text is
For she's aye, aye scowlin', an' she's aye scowlin' me,
She's for everlasting scowlin' and she canna let me be.
Roud lumps this with "The Sporting Bachelors," and I cannot deny the close similarity in themes. But the two appear somewhat different in both form and emphasis. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: HHH145

Scolding Wife (IV), The

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Scolding Wife (V), The

DESCRIPTION: A weaver offers his loving but scolding wife to a captain. He tricks her onto the ship. The captain pays him fifty pounds. He bids her farewell on her trip to Virginia although she begs to be taken back "and I never will offend you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness abandonment wife sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #77, p. 1, "The Scolding Wife"; #84, p. 3, "The Scolding Wife"; #73, p. 3, ("The honest man, the honest man"); #72, p. 2, "The Scolding Wife" (1 text plus 3 fragments)
Greig/Duncan7 1284, "The Scolding Wife" (8 texts, 4 tunes)
Roud #2576
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sale of a Wife" (theme)
cf. "In Praise of John Magee" (theme: sale of a wife)
cf. "Danny Sim's Sow" (theme: sale of a wife)
cf. "The Dowie Dens of Yarrow" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
cf. "The Jolly Farmer's Son" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
cf. "A Net for a Night Raven, or, A Trap for a Scold" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Wiver an' His Wife
NOTES [44 words]: Greig/Duncan 1284A ends with some unspecified man, perhaps the captain, wedding her "and noo they live together Wi' neither sturt nor strife." This happy ending recalls "Sale of a Wife." - BS
For background on wife-selling, see the notes to "Sale of a Wife." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: GrD71284

Scolding Wife (VI)

See The Holly Twig [Laws Q6]; also The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: LQ06)

Scolding Wife (VII), The

See The Holly Twig [Laws Q6] (File: LQ06)

Scolding Wife (VIII), The

DESCRIPTION: "Some men they do delight in hounds, And some in hawks take pleasure," but "There's no such joy as chiding." As soon as the wife opens her eyes, she begins to chide her husband. She regrets that she cannot chide while sleeping
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1719 (Pills to Purge Melancholy)
KEYWORDS: husband wife | shrew complaint chiding
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 375-376, "The Scolding Wife" (1 text)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 156, "The Scolding Wife" (1 fragment)
Roud #5242
File: NeDe156

Scopes Trial, The

See The John T. Scopes Trial (File: CAFS1278)

Scornful Dame, The

See Come Write Me Down (The Wedding Song) (File: K126)

Scornful Lover, The

See The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter [Laws H12] (File: LH12)

Scotch Lassie, The

See Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away; also Queen Mary (Auld Maid's Lament) (File: HHH230A)

Scotch Medley

DESCRIPTION: "Was ne'er in Scotlan' heard or seen Sic dancin an' deray As at Pattie's weddin' on the green Tae bonnie Mary Gray." The remaining seventeen verses string together people and things that are the names of songs: Maggie Lauder, Tullochgorum, ....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: wedding dancing drink music moniker nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 605, "Scotch Medley" (1 text)
Roud #6053
NOTES [89 words]: For similar works see broadsides Bodleian, Harding B 25(1742), "Scotch Medley" ("As I came in by Calder fair and yout[sic] the Tappard lee, man"), C. Croshaw (York), 1814-1850 and NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(28b), "Scotch Medley" ("Gae bring my guid auld harp ance mair"),unknown, c.1890. There is also a broadside posing as a letter, along the same lines at NLScotland, L.C.1268), "Letter from a Friend on a Journey to the North, to an inhabitant of Auld Reekie; being a curious and entertaining medly[sic] of Scotch Songs,"unknown, 1822. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3605

Scotch Medley (II)

DESCRIPTION: A humorous song made up of titles and lines of other songs. So, "steer me back to Erin's Isle For I'm a Scotchman born," "'Oh Minnie wilt thou gang wi me?' Cries Jock o Hazeldean,"" and "get up, auld wife and bar the door For noo it's half past ten."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1901 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(28b))
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad wordplay
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 106-107, 154, "Scotch Medley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21764
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(28b), "Scotch Medley" ("Gae bring my guid auld harp ance mair"), Poet's Box (Dundee), 1880-1900
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Titles of Songs (Song of Songs, Song of All Songs, Song of Song Titles)" (song made of song titles) and references there
cf. "The Cannibal King Medley" (medley)
cf. "Scotch Medley (I)" (medley)
File: McSc106

Scotch Wooing of Willy and Nanny, The

See My Nannie, O (File: GrD4919)

Scotland's Burning

DESCRIPTION: "Scotland's burning, Scotland's burning, Look out, look out, Fire, fire, fire, fire, Pour on water, pour on water."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Brown); Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs seems to say it is in Thomas Lant's 1580 manuscript
KEYWORDS: nonballad fire
FOUND IN: US(NE,SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, p. 12, "Scotland's Burning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 150, "Scotland's Burning" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 150, "Scotland's Burning" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, p. 283, "Scotland's Burning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 412, "Scotland's Burning" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology #335, p. 85, "Scotland's Burning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 285, 432, 434. 435, "Scotland's Burning"/"Scotland It Burneth" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 120, "Scotland's Burning" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 48, "Scotland's Burning" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Helen Creighton, _A Folk Tale Journey through the Maritimes_, edited by Michael Taft and Ronald Caplan, Breton Books, 1993, p. 146, "(no title)" (1 text, with a frame story)
Roud #3752
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "London's Burning" (lyrics)
cf. "Mother Leary's Cow" (lyrics)
NOTES [40 words]: No doubt some enterprising folklorist has attributed this to one or another of Scotland's various political crises (e.g. the period between the death of Alexander III and the accession of Robert the Bruce). Me, I think it's just a round. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB412D

Scots Callan o' Bonnie Dundee

See Bonnie Dundee (II) (O whar gat ye that hauver-meal bannock) (File: Gath058)

Scots Pipers, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer says when he dies "I'll hae nane o' yer mournin' an' weepin'." "Convene me a score o' Scots pipers." When David was young he learned to play [bagpipe] while herding sheep. When Saul was possessed David sent the spirit to hell with his drone.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: death music Bible nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 699, "The Scots Pipers" (1 text)
Roud #6116
NOTES [372 words]: David's instrument was of course the "harp" (so the King James translation of 1 Samuel 16:16) -- an instrument which probably more closely resembled a lyre (and is so translated in, e.g., the New Revised Standard Version). Although we do not know the exact construction of David's instrument certainly wasn't a wind instrument such as a bagpipe; it had strings.
We should note that there are two versions of the story of David taking service with Saul, squished together in 1 Samuel 16-18; in one (16:14-23), David is hired as a musician to soothe Saul when the latter was possessed by evil spirits (1 Samuel 16:14, 23) and only later kills Goliath. In the other account (found primarily in 1 Samuel 17:12-31, 17:55-18:6, though portions of it may have been mixed with the material in 1 Samuel 17:1-11, 17:32-54), we have clearly a folktale independent of the more official account, in which David chances to be visiting Saul's army at the time of the fight with Goliath, and kills Goliath and only *then* enters Saul's service. Both accounts, to be sure, make David a shepherd (17:15 and 17:34), although in the version in 17:34, he had long since given up being a shepherd.
(If you want proof that the 1 Samuel story is conflate, note that the earliest substantial Greek translation of 1 Samuel, in the Codex Vaticanus, omits the folktale version. Amazingly, both the omitted text and the text Vaticanus includes tell *complete stories of Saul, David, and Goliath* -- extremely unlikely if some editor had simply been cutting out material. The material omitted in Vaticanus has every token of folktale -- e.g. Goliath taunts Saul's army for "forty days," as if the army could stay in place for that long. There is no question in my mind that it is a folktale added to the text of 1 Samuel at some time after the original composition.)
It is worth noting that, although David initially was successful in soothing Saul with his music, eventually Saul tried to kill David even while he was playing (1 Samuel 18:10-11). What this says about music and its effect on spirits I'm not sure. It is notable that we have other instances of prophets requiring music to summon the "spirit" of prophecy -- in particular Elisha in 2 Kings 3:15. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3699

Scots Soldiers True

DESCRIPTION: "Scots soldiers true, with bonnets blue ... made the French to run" at Waterloo. Bonaparte had been "haunted" by the Scots Greys in Spain and at Waterloo. Now Napoleon is dead and "Louise-Philippe and Britain's Queen Oft have an interview"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: battle France Spain Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 154, "The Battle of Waterloo" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #5825
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.14(284), "Scots Soldiers True" ("Scots soldiers true, with bonnets blue"), Sanderson (Edinburgh), 1830-1910
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Our Brave Scotch Lads" (shares first verse lines)
NOTES [279 words]: Greig/Duncan1 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Firth c.14(284) is the basis for the description. - BS
The reference to the Highlanders and Scots Greys at Waterloo is accurate; David Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon, (Macmillan, 1966), notes that the Scots Greys were in Wellington's army. They were among the forces who opposed the first French attack, launched by d'Erlon's corps.
I find myself wondering what is the purpose of this song, for it cannot have been written in the period immediately after Waterloo. After Napoleon's abdication, France was ruled by the restored Bourbons, first Louis XVIII (1814-1815 and 1815-1824) and then Charles X (1824-1830). Only after Charles X's abdication did Louis-Phillippe of the House of Orleans ascend the throne, reigning 1830-1848, when revolution forced him to abbicate also (clearing the way for Napoleon III). The presumption, then, is that the Queen of the song is Victoria (reigned 1837-1901). So the song in its broadside form must date from the period 1837-1848.
The charge of the Scots Greys at Waterloo was long remembered, however. In addition to this poem, there is a famous painting, "Scotland for Ever," about the event. It was painted by Lady Butler in 1881. John Keegan, The Face of Battle Viking Press, 1976 (I use the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition) includes a reproduction after p. 178, and notes that Lady Butler, whose husband was a general, actually convinced her husband to stage a cavalry charge at her so she could paint it accurately -- but Keegan says the painting is inaccurate even so. But, of course, what matters is that Lady Butler still found the event inspiring 66 years after Waterloo. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1154

Scots Wha Ha'e Wi' Wallace Bled

See Scots Wha Hae (Bruce Before Bannockburn)r (File: FSWB299)

Scots Wha Hae (Bruce Before Bannockburn)

DESCRIPTION: "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled, Scots, wham Bruce has aften led, Welcome to your gory bed Or to victory!" As the English army of Edward approaches, the Scots are encouraged to "do or dee" to retain their freedom
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (Currie)
KEYWORDS: battle Scotland war freedom political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1286 - Death of Alexander III of Scotland
1290 - Death of his granddaughter Margaret "Maid of Norway"
1292 - Edward I of England declares John Balliol king of Scotland
1296 - Edward deposes John Balliol
1297 - William Wallace, the Guardian of Scotland, defeats the English at Stirling Bridge
1298 - Edward defeats Wallace at Falkirk. Wallace forced into hiding
1305 - Capture and execution of Wallace (August 23)
1306 - Robert Bruce declares himself king of Scotland
1307 - Death of Edward I
1314 - Battle of Bannockburn. Robert Bruce defeats Edward II of England and regains Scottish independence
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 268, "Bruce's Address to his Army" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 429, "Bruce's Address" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #25, "Scots, Wha Hae wi' Wallace Bled!" (1 text)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 45, "Scots wha hae" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 299, "Scots Wha Ha'e Wi' Wallace Bled" (1 text)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 54-64, "Scots Wha Hae" (1 text plus some scattered additions)
DT, SCOTWHAE*
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #425, pp. 561-562, "Robert Bruce's March to Bannockburn" (1 text, from 1793)
Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 34-35, "Bruce's Address to his Army" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27546
RECORDINGS:
Henry Burr, "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace Bled" (Victor 4558/Victor 16062, 1906; ; rec. 1905; Victor 16062, 1919 (re-recording)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.169(138), "Scots, wha hae wi Wallace bled," J. Pitts (London), 1820-1845; also L.C.Fol.70(47a), "Scots wha hae," unknown (London)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Day of Waterloo" (tune)
cf. "Hey Tutti Taitie" (tune)
cf. "Maidens of England, Sair May Ye Mourn" (subject: Battle of Bannockburn)
SAME TUNE:
The Day of Waterloo (Ord, p. 303)
Henry Shall Be Mayor a Campaign Song ("Rouse, ye freinds [sic.] of Clay") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 58)
The South ("Sons of Secessia glorious land! Sons of The South -- noble band") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 387)
General Beauregard ("General G. T. Beauregard") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 189)
On! To Victory!! ("Whigs! whose sires for freedom bled") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p.73)
A Gone Case ("Have our fathers fought in vain? Must the knee be bent again?") (anti-Bank/pro-Jackson song) (Foner, p. 31)
Our Country's Gratitude (by E. Thompson), third part ("Patriots to to fame aspire, Freemen who your rights desire") (Foner, p. 34)
"Sons whose sires for Freedom bled! Whom Washington and others led!" (Labor song by "VIndex") (Foner, p. 156)
Crusaders -- A War Song (by Charlotte C. Eliot) ("Sons of free men, once again, Waken to a martial strain") (Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 169)
NOTES [655 words]: Titled, in Currie's publication, "Bruce to his Troops on the eve of the Battle of Bannock-burn."
The "Wallace" of the first line is of course William Wallace, the hero of "Gude Wallace" [Child 157], who had fought for Scottish independence after the British King Edward I had deposed John Balliol, the "Toom Tabard" (Magnusson, pp. 132-134, who however points out that many of the contemporary stories about Wallace are nonsense). Wallace's power was broken after the Battle of Falkirk (Magnusson, pp. 141-145), and Edward I eventually captured him and executed him with extreme torture (Magnusson, pp. 153-157).
Then, far too late, Robert Bruce asserted his claim to the throne -- with John Balliol considered to have abdicated, and his heirs thus disbarred, Bruce was the most logical successor. He finally made his claim in 1306. Edward I stormed north, but died in July 1307, never having caught up with the Bruce (Magnusson, p. 174). It was not until seven years late that his son Edward II took a large force north to try to regain Scotland.
By the time of Bannockburn, the Scots had been struggling against the English for twenty years, with relatively slight success overall. It was not the accession of Robert Bruce that turned the tide, but rather the death of Edward I. (Ashley, p. 3, speculates in fact that Robert Bruce started his rebellion in 1306 because Edward I clearly couldn't last much longer and his son was not in his league.) Edward I's successor, Edward II, was much weaker. When Edward II finally was induced to fight the Scots, he did little more than throw his troops at Bruce's army, leading to a catastrophic and unnecessary defeat.
Although Bannockburn was more Edward's loss than Bruce's victory, it became the defining event in the Scottish story, and hence the inspiration for this poem of Burns's (though there is no reason to think Bruce ever said anything like this, with the single exception noted below).
According to Brander, p. 30, the line, "Now's the time and now's the hour" actually goes back to the battle. As Robert Bruce was trying to decide whether to fight, a Scottish deserter from the English camp came in and gave him that advice. Bruce fought -- and of course won Scottish independence. Obviously this has the strong feeling of folklore -- but certainly it inspired Burns.
To be sure, Burns was writing about more than just Scottish history. Norman Buchan, in the article "Folk and Protest" printed in Cowan, declares, "This was not written about Bruce and Bannockburn at all; it was written precisely and specifically about much more dangerous events, 'struggles,' in Burns'[s] words, 'not quite so ancient.' He was referring... to the trials of the Friends of the People, of Thomas Muir, Palmer, Gerraed, Skirving and Margarot."
Brander, p. 33, says that this was "traditionally supposed to have been the tune of Bruce's battle march." Burns had apparently heard this, though he called the piece "Hey tutti tatie": "There is a tradition, which I have met with in many places of Scotland, that it was Robert Bruce's March at the battle of Bannockburn. This thought, in my yesternight's evening walk, warned [sic.] me to a pitch of enthusiasm on the theme of Liberty and Independence, fitted to the Air, that one might suppose to be the gallant Royal Scot's address to his heroic followers on that eventful morning" (Lindsay, p. 326).
Lindsay, p. 371, cites one of Burns's letters: "The two first books I ever read in private, and which gave me more pleasure than any two books I ever read again, were, the life of Hannibal and the history of Sir William Wallace ... The story of Wallace poured a Scottish prejudice in my veins which will boil along there till the flood-gates of life shut in eternal rest." According to Lindsay, the history of Wallace was William Hamilton's translation of Blind Harry's "Wallace" -- a source with no pretense to accuracy, but very stirring. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB299

Scots Wha Hae Wi' Wallace Bled!

See Scots Wha Hae (Bruce Before Bannockburn)r (File: FSWB299)

Scottish Drinking Song

DESCRIPTION: "Ol' 'ister McClaggle, Sa gala gala gu rum, Sa valla liga dinctum, Tharang, thang a non e o, Tha rankg, thang a non e o."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: nonsense nonballad drink
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 661, "Scottish Drinking Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: BrS5661

Scottish Merchant's Daughter, The

See No, John, No (File: R385)

Scout Leader's Prayer, A

DESCRIPTION: "Our Father in Heaven above us, We ask Thee for guidance In our daily task. May virtue and manhood Stand strongly amongst us.... The Scout Oath, the Scout Law, Our Motto, our Good Turn, May we live it and teach it, Great Spirit of Scouting, we pray."
AUTHOR: Words: Tallman H. Trask (1890-1974) / Music: "Marchéta" by Victor Schertzinger (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 334, "Scout Leader's Prayer" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 84, "The Scoutleader's Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 28, "Scout Leader's Prayer" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 55, "Scout Leader's Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [28 words]: Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings lists this as by Tallman H. Trask and Oscar B. Matthews, but it's not clear whether it associates Matthews with the words or the mustic.
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF334S

Scout Vespers

See Softly Falls the Light of Day (Girl Scout Prayer, Scout Vespers) (File: ACSF456S)

Scoutleader's Prayer, The

See A Scout Leader's Prayer (File: ACSF334S)

Scow Jean La Plante, De

DESCRIPTION: "I'll tol' of wan boat, de scow Jean La Plante, She's sail by Batteece, a Frenchman so quaint...." Her crew is captain, mate, cook, and dog. They race the Flying Cloud, and win when the latter snags a fishing line. A barrel of powder explodes the boat
AUTHOR: James J. Enright? (supposedly written 1867)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Detroit Free Press)
KEYWORDS: humorous racing cook dog ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 161-162, "De Scow Jean La Plante" (1 text)
Roud #19888
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rosie Belle Teeneau" (main character)
NOTES [84 words]: It is not clear to me that this poem/song is traditional. Walton's version is from print, and there is no mention of having heard even a portion of it from tradition. But the notes imply that the legend of Batteece and the gunpowder is traditional -- indeed, there is another poem about him, ""The Rosie Belle Teeneau," which involves a different boat and a different voyage but has a "Captain Batteece DuChene" and ends with the boat blowing up. This probably isn't folk song. It may be folk tale. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM161

Scow Look 'n' See, De

DESCRIPTION: "A scow kom sailin' down Lac Sainte Claire, Sheengle an' cordwood she's deck load ware." In a storm, the cordwood floats away. The captain worries about losing profit and his boat. He gives impossible orders to control the boat and save the cargo
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1952 (collected from Fred M. Delano by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship humorous hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 162-164, "De Scow Look 'n' See" (1 text)
Roud #19889
File: WGM162

Scow Nettie Fly, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, sailor, come gather and list to my ditty, To picture aright this hero I'll try. He seldom was sober... He's Captain Poulan of the scow Nellie Fly." In a storm, he drinks. He gives orders to the mate; both take a drink. When they arrive, he drinks
AUTHOR: supposedly Ralph Chene and other rivermen in the 1880s
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from Ralph Chene by Walton)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship drink humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 164-165, "De Scow Nettie Fly" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 40, #2 (1995), p, 93, "The Scow Nettie Fly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #19888
NOTES [54 words]: Walton gives no tune for this, but I strongly suspect it's "The Cumberland Crew."
The notes in Sing Out! (which transcribes Lee Murdock's version) do not say where the tune came from, either; the implication is that it's from the Walton collection, but I assume Murdock supplied it. It is not "The Cumberland Crew." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM164

Scow on Cowden's Shore, The

See The Scow on the Cowden Shore (File: Doe234)

Scow on the Cowden Shore, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer (expressly identified as Larry Gorman) sings of "the scow on the Cowden shore." He describes the international crew of loggers, including several of the more peculiar characters, and speaks of the quest for liquor
AUTHOR: words: Larry Gorman (1846-1917) / music & additional words: Willis Norrad
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: logger drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 234-236, "The Scow on the Cowden Shore" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 42, "The Scow on Cowden Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 180-182, "The Scow on Cowden's Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 62-64, 200, "The Scow on Cowden Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doe234 (Partial)
Roud #4529
NOTES [86 words]: During log drives, the boss of the drive, the cook, and other non-participants would usually follow the logs in scows. Since the boat carried their provisions, the logdrivers were often highly alert to its progress. - RBW
"Cowden Shore was part of the Cowden farm, where Scottish immigrants of that name settled in the early nineteenth century.... Cowden Shore was conveniently near the Sou'West Boom, where the logs driven down the [Southwest Miramichi River] were stored, awaiting distribution to their owners." - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Doe234

Scow Sam Patch, The

See Yim Yonson (File: WGM166)

Scramble for the Teapots at the Fire, The

See The Teapots at the FIre (File: Blon027)

Scranky Black Farmer, The

DESCRIPTION: "At the top o' the Garioch, in the lands o' Leith-hall, A cranky black farmer in Earlsfield did dwall; Wi' him I engaged a servant to be...." The singer describes the weary work and the bad company; when his time is up, he intends to return to the seaside
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: work farming hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #89, pp. 1-2, "The Scranky Black Farmer"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 21, ("Wi' him I engaged a servant to be") (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 357, "The Scranky Black Farmer" (7 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 213-214, "The Scranky Black Farmer" (1 text)
Roud #2872
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Gap o' the Garioch
At The Tap o' the Garioch
NOTES [69 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "The farmer is named as William Ironside at Gm 2.23dm and as Daniel Skinner at Gm 1.80c. William Ironside farmed at Earlsfield till 1863 and Daniel Skinner from then until 1882."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Earlsfield (357) is at coordinate (h3,v5-6) on that map [roughly 28 miles WNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord213

Scratch o' a Cat, The

DESCRIPTION: "The reason o' that was the scratch o' a cat, And I canna but lauch when I tell you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1782, "The Scratch o' a Cat" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #12991
NOTES [34 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
This sounds to me like the ending of a cumulative tall tale (along the lines of "For want of a nail...."), but that's just a feeling. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81782

Screw This Cotton (Cotton-Packing Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Screw this cotton (heh!), Screw this cotton (heh!), Screw this cotton (heh!), Screw it tight." "Screw this totton... With all your might." "Here we come... do it right." "Don't get tired... Time ain't long." "Keep on working... Sing this song."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (III), pp. 107-110, "Cott'n-Packin' Song" (1 text with variants, 1 tune with variants)
Roud #12324
File: CuBu107

Screw-Guns

DESCRIPTION: "Smokin' my pipe on the mountings, sniffin' the mornin' cool... With seventy gunners be'ind me, an' never a beggar forgets." "You can go where you please, you can skid up the trees, But you don't get away from the guns." The life of mountain artillerymen
AUTHOR: Words: Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear); the Kipling poem is from 1892 or earlier
KEYWORDS: soldier technology travel animal
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 67-69, "Screw-Guns" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Rudyard Kipling, "Barrack-Room Ballads," first series, 1892 (available in many editions including on Project Gutenberg)
Roud #29420
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Eton Boat Song" (tune
File: Hopk067

Screwing In Song

DESCRIPTION: "Before I work for a dollar a day. Down below, wey-hey, hey-hey. Grease my screws and put 'em away, Down below, wey-hey, hey-hey"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: nonballad shanty
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 45, "Screwing In Song" (1 text)
Roud #9416
NOTES [18 words]: Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia: "Cargoes were pressed down ... by screws." - BS
File: SmHa045

Scripture in the Nursery

See Green Grow the Rushes-O (The Twelve Apostles, Come and I Will Sing You) (File: ShH97)

Scrubber Murphy

DESCRIPTION: "Srubber Murphy was the captain of a steamer called Mohawk, And Scurbber is the scrubber about whom all sailors talk." In 1905 Murphy took command and set the sailors cleaning. The ship has a collision, but all Murphy cares about is his dog and scrubbing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected by Walton from Malcolm Graham)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes wreck ship
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 92-95, "Scrubber Murphy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #19846
RECORDINGS:
Ivan Watson, "Scrubber Murphy" (fragment, 1938; on WaltonSailors)
NOTES [40 words]: According to the notes in Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, the recording on WaltonSailors came about because Walton was testing his recording equipment. His version seemed to be to the tune of "The Gallant Forty-Twa." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM092

Scrumpy Wins

DESCRIPTION: "I went ashore last night, my pockets did jingle jang," where he drinks scrumpy wine until the pub closes -- and gets sick and wets his bed. It isn't the singer's first time getting in trouble; his superiors punish him vigorously
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor drink punishment derivative
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 54, "Scrumpy Wine" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #29985
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Summer Wine" (tune)
File: Tawn039

Sea Apprentice, The

DESCRIPTION: "When I first went a sea-apprentice bound, I sailed the salt seas all round and round." The singer falls in love with Anne. The captain calls him foolish; she will take another while he is at sea. But he offers her tokens, and she promises to wait
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #64, p. 1, "The Apprentice Sailor"; #67, p. 2, "The Apprentice Sailor" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan1 54, "The Apprentice Sailor" (11 texts, 8 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H739, p. 291, "The Sea Apprentice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 67, "The Sea-Apprentice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 107, "The Prentice Boy" (2 texts)
Peacock, pp. 575-578, "A Prentice Boy in Love" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 139, "Prentice Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 579, PRENTICE
Roud #1671
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Apprentice Sailor" (on IRRCinnamond03)
Charlotte Decker, "A Prentice Boy in Love" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Roisin White, "Apprentice Boy" (on IRRWhite01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Doffin' Mistress" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Doffin' Mistress (File: K220)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonny Anne
The Apprentice Boy
The Sailor Boy
NOTES [32 words]: The Digital Tradition version of this song, from Creighton, is listed as Laws M12, but it appears to be this song (Creighton also has a version of Laws M12, which may explain the confusion). - RBW.
Last updated in version 3.5
File: HHH739

Sea Captain (II), The

See The Maid on the Shore (The Fair Maid by the Sea Shore; The Sea Captain) [Laws K27] (File: LK27)

Sea Captain (III), The

See The Sea Captain and the Squire [Laws Q12] (File: LQ12)

Sea Captain (IV), The

See Captain James (The Captain's Apprentice) (File: SWMS054)

Sea Captain and the Squire, The [Laws Q12]

DESCRIPTION: The captain leaves his new bride to be seduced by a squire. The night the captain returns, all the women of the house give birth. The wife explains her state (the male servants had impregnated the maids); her captain forgives her (!) "for the joke's sake"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: seduction pregnancy separation adultery
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE) Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(South)) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws Q12, "The Sea Captain and the Squire"
Greig/Duncan7 1502, "The Blanket Curant" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 89, "The Sea Captain" (1 text)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 65, "The Roving Sea Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 121, pp. 138-140, "There Was a Sea Captain" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 66-67, "The Captain and the Squire" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 734, SEACAPT SEACAPT2
Roud #947
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, APS.4.86.3, "The Sea Captain," unknown, after 1820
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A War Bird's Burlesque" (plot)
NOTES [52 words]: In the NLScotland broadside the returned Captain explains that on the night of her indiscretion he had a "jovial" time at the corrant [dance] and that, when in the West Indies, "I met with a lady her beauty shone clear, I asked her the question she did not deny it, And for the same favour I gave her a boy." - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LQ12

Sea Crab, The

DESCRIPTION: A man stows a crab (lobster) in the chamber pot while his wife is asleep. She gets up to relieve herself; the crab grabs her "by the flue." He seeks to free her; the crab grabs his nose. Caught in this predicament, they send for a doctor to free them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy Folio)
KEYWORDS: animal bawdy humorous husband injury marriage
FOUND IN: Canada (Newf,Ont) Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland) US (Ap,MA,MW,Ro,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #104, "The Crabfish" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 1-4, "The Sea Crab" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 66-73, "The Sea Crab" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, pp. 49-50, "The Sea Crab" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 77, "The Crabfish" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 109, "The Crabfish" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 196, "The Crab-Fish" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan7 1277, "The Jolly Minister" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 277-278, "Whiskey Johnny" (2 texts, version "D" of "Whiskey Johnny) [AbEd, p. 206]
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 52, pp. 245-248, "The Sea Crab" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CRAYPOT, SHECRAB
ADDITIONAL: Renwick: Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, pp. 116-150, "'The Crabfish': A Traditional Story's Remarkable Grip on the Popular Imagination" (includes sample texts on pp. 117-118, "The Sea Crab"; pp. 120-124, "The Crab," a modern rewrite; p. 129, "The Lobster"; pp. 142-143, "Crabfish," a relatively clean versiion from Sharp)
Frederick J. Furnivall, _Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript: Loose and Humorous Songs_, printed by and for the Editor, London, 1868, pp. 99-100, "The Sea Crabb" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 462
ST EM001 (Full)
Roud #149
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Chettleburgh, "The Crab-Fish" (on FSBFTX19)
Ernest Poole, "Crab Song" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Dan Tate, "Little Fisherman" (on OldTrad1, FarMtns1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cod Fish Song"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Crayfish
The Fishy Crab
The Lobster
The Old She-Crab
NOTES [366 words]: This is one of the oldest of English language traditional ballads. F.J. Child deliberately excluded it from his canonical ESPB, presumably because of its indelicate nature. - EC
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland says of this piece, "...it seems likely to be either French in origin or in imitation of French balladry (at any rate this is a chance to disown it as an English composition)." Renwick notes a tremendous number of foreign equivalents, some so distant in time and space that they would almost certainly have to be independently created (unless the story originated back in the days of Homo Erectus. I agree that it's crude and primitive, but I doubt it's THAT crude and primitive!). He does note that the English versions are unusual in that the crab grabs the man by the nose rather than the sexual organs or by the lips. - RBW
Sharp's version differs from the canonical one in several ways, aside from having been cleaned up. The main theme of the song is that the woman is sick, and craves the crab, so the man goes and buys one. She goes to smell it, and it bites her, then him. Same song, very different emphasis. -PJS
In the illustrated children's booklet by John M. Feierbend, PhD (children's education?), The Crabfish, copyright 2005, is a brief children's poem of the ballad.  Per the blurb, he is an established collector of American songs and rhymes and is prof. and chair of music education.  
The brief introduction gives: "This story has delighted listeners for more than 600 years in spoken form and more than 400 years as a song.  Franco Sacchetti (ca 1330-1400) of Italy is the oldest known teller of the story. Although the story is found in many countries, the song is found only in English-speaking countries (Britain, Canada, Australia, and the United
States.)" - AS
The GregDuncan7 fragment is so brief ("There was a jolly minister, he had a jolly wife, He loved her, he loved her, he loved her as his life, Bawker oodle ....") that I'm not sure it belongs here. It does come close to the beginning of Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 77: ("There was a little man and he had a little wife, And he loved her as dear as he loved his life. Mash-a row ..."). - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: EM001

Sea Crabb, The

See The Sea Crab (File: EM001)

Sea Fight in '92, The

See Russel's Triumph (File: AshS007)

Sea Ghost, The

See The Sailor and the Ghost [Laws P34A/B] (File: LP34)

Sea Gulls and Crickets

DESCRIPTION: Famine threatens Mormon pioneers in the winter of 1849; spring brings new shoots, but crickets sweep down "like fog on a British coast." The pioneers battle them in vain, but flocks of seagulls arrive and devour the crickets; the harvest is saved
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recording, L. M. Hilton)
KEYWORDS: rescue farming harvest disaster animal bird bug pioneer settler
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, pp. 322-324, "Sea Gulls and Crickets" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 76-78, "The Seagulls and the Crickets" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 245, "Sea Gulls and Crickets" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 527-530, "The Seagulls and the Crickets" (1 text)
Roud #10833
RECORDINGS:
L. M. Hilton, "Sea Gulls and Crickets" (on Hilton01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Is the Story True" (story of the Crickets and Gulls)
NOTES [417 words]: Dorson includes an account of this supposedly-historical event. But he also notes that "Extraordinary swarms of birds" is a folklore motif common enough to earn the Thompson classification F989.16.
Cheney notes that crickets are well-documented in Utah, but that the coming of the seagulls mentioned in the song are not documented.
I had thought the story impossible because the Rockies generally aren't gull territory, but the area around the Great Salt Lake is an exception. Herring Gulls winter there, although they are not likely to be found in summer, and California Gulls are there all year. In any case, there are other birds much more likely to go after swarms of crickets. (But I doubt there were any ornithologists among the Mormons to identify the birds they saw.)
Despite all those cautions, Reeve/Parshall, pp. 110-111, say "The 'Miracle of the Gulls' refers to three weeks in June 1848, when flocks of seagulls ate the crickets that were ravaging the Mormons' first crop in Utah. In late May, what are now known as 'Mormon Crickets' -- actually a type of katydid -- began attacking crops in enormous migratory bands.... More than 4,000 Mormons desperately needed to save their harvest, since they had little reserve food.... In June, large numbers of seagulls... began eating the crickets." The entry does admit that not every witness reported the "miracle," and that gulls have been known to eat crickets in years other than 1848.
Bushman, p. 49, report the incident as fact, say that many considered it "a great miracle," and add that "a bitter joke had it [that the crickets] looked like a cross between a spider and a buffalo." They add that "the stately white birds have ever since been considered special friends to the Mormons."
The fact that Bushman refers to the gulls as "stately," and that other song about this incident, "Is the Story True," starts with a reference to a "gentle seagull," would seem to prove that the people involved had never met an actual seagull....
The one thing that seems certain is that the Mormons survived, and that the miracle many thought they had seen was remembered in Mormon folklore.
There is one additional irony: The Great Salt Lake is drying up, partly due to climate change but mostly due to the water the people of Utah are pulling out of the tributary rivers to grow crops. Those waters support the ecosystem which keeps the birds alive. The Mormons, by their faming practices, are killing the birds which (allegedly) saved their farms. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: RecSgaC

Sea Martyrs, The

DESCRIPTION: "Good people do but lend an ear And a sad story you shall hear." The seamen are what guard England from France. But their families starve due to lack of pay. The seamen demand what they are owed. They are condemned to death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (FIrth)
KEYWORDS: sailor mutiny crime execution money hardtimes battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 26, "The Sea-Martyrs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V40381
File: PaSe026

Sea Scout Chantey

DESCRIPTION: "A ship is wood and metal, Is metal, rigging and sail; She's but an iron kettle, When hearts aboard of her fail. To my way, aye, and yea, aye, We're bound away for many a day; A Sea Scout is a good Scout, So give us our sea-way." People are her heart
AUTHOR: James A. Wilder (source: Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings; Wilder is crediting with making the Sea Scouts an important organization)
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor technology campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 288, "Sea Scout Chantey" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 31, "Seascout Chantey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 30, "Seascout Chantey" (1 text)
File: ACSF288S

Sea Song (I've Seen the Sea as Blue as Air)

DESCRIPTION: The singer has seen the sea "as blue as air," "green as grass," "black as pitch," and "white as snow" but "never feared its raving yet From Yarmouth to the Bass" or "heaving yet Let the wind blow high or low"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: sea nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 8, "Sea Song" (1 text)
Roud #5800
File: GrD1008

Sea Song (I), A

See You Gentlemen of England (File: WT201)

Sea Song (II), A

See Britannia on Our Lee (File: SWMS049)

Sea Song, A (The Terrible)

See The Terrible Privateer (File: BdTerPri)

Sea-Apprentice, The

See The Sea Apprentice (File: HHH739)

Sea-Longing

See An Iounndrain-Mhara (Sea-Longing) (File: K011)

Sea-mans Compass, The

See The Seaman's Compass (File: PaSe016)

Sea-mans song of Dansekar the Dutch-man

See Dansekar the Dutchman (File: Fran010)

Sea-Song, A

See Britannia on Our Lee (File: SWMS049)

Sea-Tangle, The

See An Sgeir-Mhara (The Sea-Tangle, The Jealous Woman) (File: K003)

Sea, The

DESCRIPTION: "The sea, the sea, the open sea, The blue, the fresh, the ever-free, Without a mark, without a bound..." "I love, oh how I love to ride On the fierce foaming bursting tide...." The old seaman looks back on a tumultuous but happy life
AUTHOR: Bryan Waller Procter ("Barry Cornwall") (1787-1874) (source: NLScotland notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal by William Histed of the Cortes); probably written c. 1837
KEYWORDS: sailor sea nonballad age
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 63-64, "The Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 54, "The Sea, the Sea, the Open Sea" (1 text)
Roud #2019 and 31320
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 271, "The sea! the sea! the open sea!" J Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(3443), "The sea! the sea! the open sea!" (ibid.); also Harding B 11(3441), "The sea! the sea! the open sea! J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(1210), "The sea! the sea! the open sea!" J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(3440), E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1855-1861; also 2806 c.13(251)=2806 c.14(74)=Firth c.12(418), "The sea! the sea! the open sea!" J. Lindsay (Glasgow), 1851-1910; also Harding B 11(3442), "The sea, the sea, the open sea!" W. Dixon (Workington), n.d.; also ;Johnson Ballads 1283, "The sea! the sea! the open sea" O. Hodgson (London), n.d.; also Firth c.26(198), "The sea, the sea, the open sea," unknown, n.d.; also Johnson Ballads 2518, "The sea! the sea! the open sea!" unknown, n.d.; also Firth b.27(125), "The sea! the sea! the open sea!" unknown, n.d.
NLScotland, RB.m.169(139) , "The Sea!," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c. 1891-1894?
NOTES [41 words]: To me this looks like a professional piece which Histed copied down in his journal for some reason. But Huntington's notes left me with just enough doubt to include the song here. The Dime Song Book and broadside versions proved I was right.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SWMS063

Sea, the Sea, the Open Sea, The

See The Sea (File: SWMS063)

Seaboard Air Line

DESCRIPTION: "Seaboard Air Line Never on time; At half past nine Your headlight shines; In all my dreams Your whistle screams; You are the idol of my heart, Seaboard Air Line."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: train love
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 238, "Seaboard Air Line" (1 short text)
Roud #15773
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Adeline" (tune)
NOTES [143 words]: According to Aaron E. Klein, Encyclopedia of North American Railroads, Bison Books, 1985 (I use the 1987 printing), although the ancestor of the Seaboard Air Lie was founded in 1832, that line was known as the Portsmouth and Roanoake. By 1900 the line extended from Portsmouth, Virginia, through Weldon, North Carolina, on to Atlanta, Georgia, and was informally known as the Seaboard Air Line. In 1900, the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad was added to the network, and the name "Seaboard Air Line" became official. The line went bankrupt some decades later, but survived, and after a series of mergers, the line became the Seaboard Coast Line in 1967. In the early 1980s, the company became part of the CSX Corporation, and the "Seaboard" name disappeared, at least as a corporate title; a "Seaboard System Railroad" still existed after that. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Br3238

Seafaring Man

See The Silk Merchant's Daughter [Laws N10] (File: LN10)

Seafaring Song

See The Rocks of Scilly [Laws K8] (File: LK08)

Seagull of the Land-Under-Waves, The

See Snow Gull (File: KFrI084)

Seagulls and the Crickets, The

See Sea Gulls and Crickets (File: RecSgaC)

Seal Harbor Wharf, The

DESCRIPTION: "This is a fine wharf, It stands on a fine spot. God bless the owners, And all they have got. It bears a fine prospect, As it stands in from the sea, The steamers will come in WIth their helms to the lee."
AUTHOR: "Uncle" Jimmie Clement (source: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: ship nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 331-332, "The Seal Harbor Wharf" (1 short text)
File: EcSm331

Seal Hunting Song

See Hunting Seals (File: RySm133)

Sealchie Song, The

See The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry [Child 113] (File: C113)

Sealer Lad, The (The Fisherman's Son to the Ice is Gone)

DESCRIPTION: "The sealer lad from his home is gone, On board his ship you'll find him." The singer recalls the good old days of sealing, noting that now a load of seals "scarce pays Alfred's duty." He hopes the rich man at home will not longer profit
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Burke & Oliver)
KEYWORDS: hunting hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 69, "The Sealer Lad" (1 text); compare p. 134, "The Fisherman's Son to the Ice is Gone" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, editor, _Songs Sung by Old-TIme Sealers of Many Years Ago_, James Murphy Publishing, 1925 (PDF available from Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 7, "The Fisherman's Son to the Ice Is Gone" (1 text)
Roud #V44859
NOTES [201 words]: Ryan and Small did not indicate a tune for this, but the form implies "The Minstrel Boy," and Murphy's book confirms this.
Since the first publication is in Burke and Oliver's The People's Songster, Buyers' Guide and Gems of Poetry and Prose, there is a good chance it's by John Burke.
The second text cited from Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, "The Fisherman's Son to the Ice is Gone," slightly changes the occupation of the hero, and is much shorter -- but the two are clearly adaptions of each other. Either they're traditional, and one song, or, more likely, they aren't traditional, and might as well be lumped.
"The Sealer Lad" has no genuine date pegs, but there is a reference to paying "Alfred's Duty." I suspect the "Alfred" involved is the insidious newspaperman/lawyer/politician A(lfred) B. Morine, commonly referred to as "Alfred," who was at various times Newfoundland's colonial secretary, minister of finance, and head of the Conservative party. (This apart from being one of the most corrupt politicians in modern history.) The most likely time for the song is around 1897, when he was finance minister. For more on him, see "The Sealer's Strike of 1902 (The Sealers Gained the Strike)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm069

Sealer's Call

DESCRIPTION: "I must go up to the ice again, To the fields of purest white." The singer, though his hair has turned white, still hears the call of the seal, and will return to the work even though the pay is small, the cold terrible, and the comforts few
AUTHOR: Solomon Samson ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (A Glimpse of Newfoundlad in Poetry and Pictures)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship travel work nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 14, "The Sealer's Call" (1 text)
Roud #V44633
NOTES [47 words]: Not traditional that I can tell, and not a song either. Just one of those things editors inflict upon songbooks.
This seems clearly based on John Masefield's "Sea Fever" ("I must go down to the sea again, To the lonely sea and sky"), which has inspired other localizations as well. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm014

Sealer's Love Letter, A

DESCRIPTION: "Dear Miss: -- I know I can't mail this; Forgive me, it's all I can do, Out here at the ice-fields in Winter... For it's Easter good wishes I'm sending." He recalls leaving her to work as a sealer, compares their lives, and sends good wishes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 91, "A Sealer's Love Letter" (1 text)
Roud #V44741
NOTES [341 words]: The Terra Nova, mentioned in this song, is almost the only dating hint in the piece, but she isn't much of a hint; she first became a sealer in 1885, and, apart from breaks taken for tasks such as Antarctic exploration, remained in that role almost until she sank in 1943. So this piece could have come from any time over a span of more than fifty years! For more about the Terra Nova, see "The Terra Nova."
The song is correct in saying that many sealers spend Easter away from home, since the sealing ships almost never returned to port during a sealing voyage. And they normally sailed March 10 or slightly after (depending on the day of the week). Thus they left port before Easter. The return date is less certain, because it depends on their success, but Levi George Chafe, Chafe's Sealing Book: A History of the Newfoundland Sealfishery from the Earliest Available Records Down To and Including the Voyage of 1923, third edition, Trade Printers and Publishers, Ltd., 1923 (PDF scan available from Memorial University of Newfoundland) has a chart of when the ships returned to port. Using the data starting on p. 63, I determined the median return date for the fifteen years from 1896 to 1910. The dates:
1896: April 18
1897: April 23
1898: April 10/11
1899: April 6/7
1900: April 7
1901: April 2
1902: April 6/7
1903: April 14/15
1904: April 21
1905: April 22
1906: April 10
1907: April 18
1908: April 15
1909: April 28/29
1910: April 20
Using data from the web, I determined that the median date of Easter is April 7; the mode, according to a web source, is April 10. (These figures vary somewhat based on the range of years you use.) If we go by the median Easter date, in eleven of the fifteen years tested, the majority of ships were still in the ice on Easter Sunday; based on the mode, it's nine or ten out of fifteen. And sealers often needed a few days to get home after a seal hunt. So while some sealers made it home for Easter, in most years, especially years when Easter came early, the substantial majority did not.- RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm091

Sealer's Reply to His Wife, A

DESCRIPTION: "Now that March month has come, And spring's in the air, The old seals are swimming Up North to their lair... So Maggie my darling I must leave you alone." The old sealer explains to his wife the lure of the seal hunt, and promises to stay home someday
AUTHOR: Solomon Samson?
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (A Glimpse of Newfoundland in Poetry and Pictures)
KEYWORDS: hunting age
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 153, "A Sealer's Reply to His Wife" (1 text)
Roud #V44689
NOTES [17 words]: Explained as a 60-year-old sealer's answer when his wife tried to keep him from going to the ice. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm153

Sealer's Song (I)

DESCRIPTION: "The Block House Flag is up today to welcome home the stranger." The sealing fleet is returning. The ships are named, their feats recounted [how they "kill their foe"," i.e. the seals], and they go home to parties and dancing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 3rd edition), but written 1889-1890 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: bragging return hunting ship party dancing humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Sealer's Song" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 52-53 in the 3rd edition, pp. 44-45 in the 4th, pp. 44-45 in the 5th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 73-74, "The Sealer's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 33-34, "Sealer's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 40-41, "Sealer's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Feltham, _Sealing Steamers_, Harry Cuff Publications, 1995, pp. 77-78, "Sealer's Song" (partial text)
ST Doyl3052 (Partial)
Roud #7307
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "The Sealer's Song" (on NFOBlondahl06)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (tune)
NOTES [1298 words]: A very widely cited song, though the author is unknown. Anna Kearney Guigné, in her article on the Doyle songsters, "Kenneth Peacock's Contribution to Gerald S. Doyle's Old-TIme Songs of Newfoundland (1955),"(published in Newfoundland and Labrador Studies, Volume 22, No. 1, Summer 2007) attributes this to Gerald S. Doyle himself (p. 123), but the historical references make me think this very unlikely. Why would Doyle, in 1955, write a song that by its internal references dates from c. 1890?
My earlier notes on this song states, "The list of captains mentioned implies a date in the period between 1865 and 1880." I'm not sure where I found this information, but the song contains several dating hints. Just four of them allow us to set an absolute date of 1889-1890, with 1890 the better bet:
1. Verse 1, line 3 mentions "Stewart's House." According to Feltham, p. 77 n. 47, Stewart's was a sealing company that shut down in 1893. Compared to its rivals Bowring's and Job's (which lasted much longer), it was pretty small fry, with only three ships, the Walrus (for which see "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full"), the Proteus (which doesn't seem to have been mentioned in sealing songs), and the Ranger (for which see "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912").
2. Verse 1, line 4. There were several Captains Barbour (Alpheus Barbour, Baxter Barbour, George Barbour, Joseph Barbour, Thomas Barbour; Chafe, pp. 87-88), but because he commands the Ranger, the one in this song must be Captain Joe Barbour (also mentioned in the "Sealer's Song (II)" as captain of the Iceland), who commanded the Ranger 1882-1890 (Feltham, p. 78). Confirmation comes from the fact that J. & W. Stewart supplied (i.e. outfitted) the Ranger in those years (Chafe, p. 59).
3. Verse 3, lines 3-4; also verse 5 line 1. "Billy Knee the Jowler" (a "jowler" being a very successful captain) commanded the Kite 1889-1893 (Feltham, p. 78) as well as in 1877. Billy Knee's ship the Kite was one of the most-mentioned in sealing songs; see "The 'Kite' Abandoned in White Bay." Knee was another captain of a sealing dynasty; his brother (Kenneth) Knee is mentioned in "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912" and his son Job Knee in "The Sealer's Song (II)." William Knee certainly did take home a lot of seals; Chafe, p. 97, gives his career total as 201,493 seals over 16 years -- not record-breaking, but his yearly average of 12,593 seals appears to me to make him #27 in the list -- with very many of those who did better coming later and in better ships. Knee didn't have great success in 1890 (10,809 seals, according to Chafe, p. 59), which would make sense in light of the song's statement that they were stuck for two weeks.
Billy Knee does not seem to be mentioned explicitly in any other song, but the "Billy K." of "Uncle Bill Teller" seems like a good fit for Knee; see that song for background on Knee.
4. Captain Blandford (verse 2, line 1): There were at least four Captains Blandford (Samuel, Darius, James, and Joseph. Darius, James, and Samuel were brothers; Joe Blandford is mentioned in "Captains and Ships" and Darius Blandford in "Sealer's Song (II)"), but since (based on the combination of the first three items) we're looking at 1889-1890, it must be Captain Samuel Blandford (1840-1909), who had first gone to the ice under his father at the age of thirteen (Ryan, p. 227), and commanded the Neptune 1883-1903. In 1889, he took 28,103 seals, the second-highest total of the year. In 1890, he took 21,949 seals -- a lower total than in 1889, but in 1890, it was the best total of any ship. Support for the idea that it is Samuel comes from the fourth line of the verse, that Blandford "filled her to the hatches"; in 1884, Blandford had set a record for most seals in one trip -- which he himself broke in 1888 (Feltham, p. 94). Thus if the song was written in 1889 or 1890, Blandford was the record-holder for filling his ship. This is further confirmed by the fact that Job's supplied the Neptune in 1889-1890 (Chafe, p. 59).
Blandford would later serve in the Newfoundland House of Assembly (Chafe, p. 31; according to Ryan, p. 241, several other Newfoundland sealers would also go into politics as a result of their fame), and continued to command ships through 1906, when he retired due to illness (Ryan, p. 191). Ryan, pp. 382-383, has a copy of his obituary. See also the notes to "Neptune, Ruler of the Sea."
Unlike a lot of sealing captains, who could not navigate a ship, some of the Blandfords were actual qualified seamen; Darius Blandford would later captain the passenger liner Bruce (Hanrahan, p. 4). There is a photo of Samuel Blandford on p. 73 of Ryan/Drake and and another on p. 73 of WInsor, plus an 1899 photo of him, along with other sealing stalwarts such as Abram Kean and Arthur Jackman, on p. 25 of Winsor.
The combination of these mentions gives us a forced date of 1889-1890. Many of the other mentions accord with this date.
I'll try to take the other details of this song in order.
Verse 1, line 1: The "Block House Flag," according to Feltham, p. 77 n. 46, was raised when a sealer approached St. John's harbour, letting residents know so that they could watch the arrival.
Verse 3, line 2, "Jackman in the Howler." There were several Captains Jackman. For Captain William Jackman, see "Captain William Jackman, A Newfoundland Hero." For Arthur Jackman, probably the most noteworthy, see also "The Spring of '97," "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full," and especially "The Old Polina." But neither commanded a sealer called the Howler, because, according to Feltham, p. 78 n. 48, there was no such ship. Nor did a Captain Jackman ever command the Wolf, an obvious candidate to be nicknamed the Howler. I might wildly conjecture that Vanguard might be mis-heard as "Howler," but Jackman didn't command the Vanguard. Alternately, the Aurora was sometimes known as the Roarer (England, p. 118), and I suppose Roarer could be re-nicknamed Howler. But although Arthur Jackman commanded the Aurora 1894-1897 (Chafe, p. 92), that is after this song must have been written. There was also an SS Harlaw, which could easily be mis-heard as "Howler," but she didn't come into service until 1896 and her only commanders were D. A. Scott and J. Farguhar. And the SS Hector, which served 1871-1891, never had a captain Jackman either; in 1899, she was under B. Kean, and W. Barbour commanded her in 1890 (Chafe, p. 100).
Arthur Jackman in 1889-1890 commanded the Eagle, and she was supplied by Bowring Brothers in those years (Chafe, p. 59), so presumably that is the real "Howler." Possibly the name was simply made up to give a rhyme for "Jowler." The 1899 photo on p. 25 of Winsor also shows Captain Arthur Jackman (1843-1907), along with other sealing stalwarts such as Abram Kean. Ryan/Drake, p. 74, also has a photo of Arthur Jackman, who commanded sealers every year from 1871 to 1906. He had a somewhat checkered career, losing the Resolute in 1886 and the Eagle in 1892, and was once fined for violating the laws about sealing on Sundays -- but he was so tough that, when he mangled one of his fingers, he took an axe and cut it off when one of his sailors refused to do so! (Ryan, pp. 272-273 n. 23).
As for the Eagle herself (verse 7, line 4), there were two sealers named Eagle, the first being the one commanded for a time by Arthur Jackman. For these two ships, see the notes to "The Ice-Floes."
Verse 6, line 4: whoever "Walsh and Luke McCarthy" were, they were not ship captains at this time; there were two Captains Walsh, Samuel and Nicolas (Chafe, pp. 95-96), but they last sailed in 1882 in the Merlin. I have no clue as to McCarthy. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: Doyl3052

Sealer's Song (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "The Terra Nova, Captain Kean, With two hundred and three men, Went through the gap this morning To try their luck again." A total of 20 ships and captains set out for the ice. The singer hopes they all return safely and with large loads of seals
AUTHOR: Johnny Burke (1851-1930), according to Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, but see NOTES
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship moniker nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 79, "The Sealer's Song" (1 text\)
ADDITIONAL: Naboth Winsor, _Stalwart Men and Sturdy Ships: A History of the Prosecution of the Seal Fishery by the Sealers of Bonavista Bay North, Newfoundland_, Economy Printing Limited, 1985, p. 77, "The Ships That Sailed Today" (1 text)
Roud #7307
RECORDINGS:
Morris Houlihan, "Sealer's Song" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full" (ships)
cf. "Arrival of the 'Grand Banks' and 'Virginia Lake' With Bumper Trips" (ships)
cf. "Arrival of 'Aurora,' Diana,' 'Virginia Lake' and 'Vanguard,' Loaded" (ships)
NOTES [3391 words]: Although this deals with the same subject, and even some of the same ships, as "The Sealer's Song (I)," and apparently are lumped by Roud, the two are clearly distinct: this deals with the departure of the ships, that with their return. The song is even closer, in terms of ships named, to "Captains and Ships" -- not surprising, since the two songs describe events separated by just three years. This song, as we shall see, is clearly from 1907.
There are two basic versions of this, one printed by Winsor ("The Ships that Sailed Today") and one by Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff ("The Sealer's Song").
Although most sources, including Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, attribute this to Johnny Burke, it is not in his most extensive collection, Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981. For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree."
What's more, Winsor's text is credited to James Murphy and dated to 1907. It begins "I watched when they departed, 'Twas eight o'clock the hour, I saw them steaming down the shore With Tom Rose at the Cabot Tower. The echoes of their cheering In fancy o'er me steals As our young men so daring Went forth in quest of seals." It is in eight line-line stanzas rather than four, but the second stanza begins "The Terra Nova, Captain Kean, With two hundred and three men, Went through the 'gap' this morning To try their luck again" -- in other words, the same text as that of Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff. The following verses of the two texts are not identical, but the differences are entirely what we would expect of oral tradition, with the text in Winsor in much better shape than that in Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff.
James Murphy and Johnny Burke were collaborators; is it possible that Burke wrote the original, and Murphy perhaps re-wrote it? Or vice versa? And did Gerald Doyle, the source of the Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff text, learn it orally and transcribe it incorrectly?
At least Winsor's date of 1907 is confirmed by the contents of the song.
I'm going to give a collation of the two, showing substantial differences. This doesn't extend to spellings and punctuation, or even to minor words, but it will show the differences. Each line is cited by stanza and line; keep in mind, again, that Winsor uses eight-line stanzas, which Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff divide into standard four-line stanzas, so Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff have almost twice as many stanzas.
R/S 3.1, "Next came the stout ship Aurora"; Winsor 3.1, "There sailed the stout Aurora"
R/S 3.3, "And Capt. Bob Winsor"; Winsor 3.3, "With Captain 'Sam-Bob' Winsor"
R/S 4.1, "She aspied (sic.) a bold-eyed stranger"; Winsor 3.5, "Chased by the bold ice Ranger"
R/S 4.3, "No notice to her danger"; Winsor 3.7, "No novice to that danger"
R/S 5.1-2, "Darius Blandford sails the Vanguard The pride of Baine Johnson's ships""; Winsor 4.1-2, "Darius leads the Vanguard Of Baine, Johnsone's ships"
R/S 6.1-3, "There is another that can find them Where e're there to be found, That's bully young Bill Winsor"; Winsor, 4.5-7, "As good as they can find them -- I know where one is found -- 'Tis bully young Will WInsor"
R/S 7.1, "Joe Barbour sails the Iceland"; Winsor 5.1, "There's Barbour in the Iceland"
R/S 8.3-4, "You won't find one no smarter For to sail the Southern Cross"; WInsor 5.7-8, "There's not a man much smarter To sail the Southern Cross"
R/S have the two stanzas starting "George Barbour" as stanzas 9-10 (i.e. they would be stanza 6 in Winsor); Winsor has them as stanza 7 (i.e. they would be 11-12 in R/S)
R/S 9.3, "Jobie Kean commands the Eric"; Winsor 7.3, "Job Kean commands the Erik"
R/S 10.1, "That lucky ship Dianna" (sic.); Winsor 7.5, "While the lucky ship Diana"
R/S 11.3-4, "The first on charge is Harry Dawe[,] The latter by Jobie Knee"; Winsor 6-3-4, "The first in charge of Harry Dawe, The last by 'Jobey' Knee"
R/S 12.1, "John Parson in the Newfoundland"; Winsor 6.5, "The Newfoundland with Parsons"
R/S 13.3-4, "Our good friend Baird and Gordon Sent George Hand in the Labrador"; Winsor, 8.3-4, "And my friends, both Baird and Gordon, Sent George Hann in the Labrador."
R/S 14.1-3, "Jacob Kean command the Virginia Lake Makes up the twenty ships And my best wish may they all return"; Winsor 8.5-7, "While Jacob Kean in the Virginia Lake, Completes the twenty ships; And the wish of all -- may they return"
Winsor's is the better text (although even it appears defective at a few points), but scholars who are looking at this song will probably be looking at the Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff version, so I'm going to analyze its text rather than Winsor's (with reference to Winsor). Taking the ships in order:
The Terra Nova is the subject of "The Terra Nova." The Captain Kean who commands her is clearly Abram Kean (the subject of "Captain Abram Kean"); he commanded the Terra Nova 1906-1908 and then, when all the steel sealers were lost in World War I, again in 1917-1926 and 1932-1933; two of his sons commanded her in 1927 and for one of two trips in 1929 (Feltham, p. 134). The song correctly states that she carried 203 men (in 1907); this is also the figure on p. 74 of Chafe.
There were two sealers named Eagle. For these two ships, see the notes to "The Ice-Floes." The second Eagle was commanded by Joseph "Joe" Kean, the oldest of Abram's eight sons, from 1907 to 1911 (Chafe, p. 99). Joseph Kean is also mentioned in "Captains and Ships"; he died in the wreck of the Florizel (for which see "The Wreck of the Steamship Florizel").
For the Aurora, see "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full." Her captain Dan Green is also mentioned in "Captains and Ships." He commanded the Aurora 1906-1911; she was his last command (Chafe, p. 98).
The Algerine is the subject of "The Loss of the Algerine." S. R. Winsor (called "Bob Winsor" in Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff's text, but apparently the same as the "Sam Winsor" of "Captains and Ships," and given the correct nickname "Sam-Bob" in Winsor's text; for the Winsor Family, see "Captains and Ships" and "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912") commanded the Algerine 1907-1908 (Chafe, p. 98). Chafe, p. 74, confirms the song's statement that Algerine was supplied (outfitted) by Bowring Brothers.
For the Vanguard, see "Arrival of 'Aurora,' 'Diana,' 'Virginia Lake,' and 'Vanguard,' Loaded"; for the family of her skipper Darius Blandford, see "Sealer's Song (I)." Darius Blandford (1843-1917) commanded the Vanguard 1907-1909, losing her in the last of those years. Ironically, given the song's wish that he live long, his career was short -- having first served as a captain in the Iceland in 1898, he never commanded another sealer after the loss of the Vanguard, although the crew was rescued by the Algerine (Feltham, p. 151). Chafe, p. 74, confirms the song's statement that she was supplied by Baine, Johnston & Co. There is an 1899 photo of Darius Blandford, along with other sealing stalwarts such as Abram Kean and Arthur Jackman, on p. 25 of Winsor.
Despite his short sealing career, Blandford was a successful sea captain; having commanded the Dundee of the Alphabet Fleet. (For the Alphabet Fleet, see the notes to "the Wreck of the Steamship Ethie." A report at the time says that "Captain Darius Blandford is a genial host, and good humour beams from is countenance at all times. His principal aim is to make passengers enjoy the voyage" (Hanrahan, p. 4).
The original Bloodhound was, along with the slightly larger Wolf, the very first Newfoundland steamer to be used for sealing, in 1863 (Busch, p. 66; Chafe, p. 24; Feltham, pp. 70, 160; O'Neill, p. 916). She vastly exceeded the hauls of most sail-powered ships that went before her, averaging about 5900 seals per year before sinking off the coast of Labrador on April 4, 1872 (Feltham, p. 160; Mowat/Blackwood, pp. 44-45, gives an account of the several ships lost that year, fortunately with relatively slight loss of life). This was, to repeat, a higher total than the brigs that had preceded her, but a pitiful total compared to what the steamers would average over the coming decades. Nonetheless, after her loss, another Bloodhound was built in the following year (O'Neill, p. 916).
The reference in this song is clearly to the second Bloodhound, which made her first sealing trip in 1873, although she spent only a few years at it until being sold abroad, returning to Newfoundland ownership in 1904 (Winsor, p. 35). O'Neill, p. 916, says that this second Bloodhound lasted until 1917 (although on p. 971 he incorrectly says that she foundered in 1880), when she was lost off Point La Haye while carrying coal (Winsor, p. 35), so song's reference to her as "old" makes sense; even though she was the "new" Bloodhound, by the time of this song, she was one of the older steamers. The captain listed for her by Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, "Bill Windsor," is probably an error for William Winsor (no "d"), a member of a family of well-known sealing captains already mentioned above under the Algerine. Winsor's text correctly calls him "Will Winsor." William Winsor (for whom see "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912") commanded the second Bloodhound 1907-1908; Jacob Winsor commanded her 1909-1911 as his last command; Jesse Winsor (the "Jessie Winsor" of Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff; Winsor has the name right) was her skipper 1913-1914, and also ended his career after giving her up (Chafe, pp. 96. 98). There is a photo of the Bloodhound facing p. 36 of Chafe, and one on p. 26 of Ryan/Drake; Winsor, p. 35, has a photo of her alongside the Thetis from 1910.
For the Iceland see "Captains and Ships." Joseph "Joe" Barbour never commanded her (Chafe, p. 87), but James Barbour (whose only previous command had been the Diana in 1897) commanded the Iceland 1904-1907. (There are photos of both Joseph and James Barbour on p. 71 of Winsor), and Winsor's text omits the name "Joe," calling the captain simply "Barbour."
The Greenland was infamous for her part in the Greenland Disaster (see "The Greenland Disaster (I)"; see also "The Sealing Trip of the S. S. Greenland 1891"). The most famous Captain Bragg was Robert Bragg, who commanded the Walrus 1886-1891, 1902-1903 and the Ranger 1892-1897, but he never commanded the Greenland. Neither did Captain John Bragg, who commanded the Florencia for one year but took only 2090 seals and was not employed again (Winsor, p. 102). So the captain here must be Dan Bragg, an inexperienced skipper whose only previous command was the Southern Cross in 1905-1906 (Chafe, p. 88). Bragg lost the Greenland on his 1907 trip, his first year as her captain. Bragg was given the Iceland in 1908, but never commanded again after that. Thus it was reasonable to ask Bragg to show what he could do -- but what he did was fail.
For the Southern Cross see "The Southern Cross (I)." There is a photo of Peter Carter on p. 184 of Feltham , one on p. 76 of Winsor, and another on p. 80 of Ryan/Drake. His was a most unusual career for a sealing captain. Born in 1869 (Ryan/Drake, p. 80), and long associated with the cod fishery, he became a sealing captain relatively late, commanding the Southern Cross in 1907 (Chafe, p. 89). He didn't get another command until 1925, then served every year until 1931, missed 1932, and served three final seasons in 1933-1935. In 1933, he set a record for seals taken, mostly because he found a large patch of older seals. He died in 1959 (Ryan/Drake, p. 80). Although his 1933 trip set a record and made him famous, the seasons at the end of his career cannot be the subject of the song, because too many of the vessels mentioned had been lost by then.
Carter was popular with his men, though, which may explain why he is referred to as unusually smart. Jesse Codner, who sailed with him, said he "was the loveliest old man ever you see the like of, and he brought in just as many seals as the other fellows. And he looked after his men" (Ryan-Last, p. 149). Don Fowler also called him a "fine old man," and Arthur Rideout said "He was an all-right old lad" although he added that "He drank a lot" (Ryan-Last, p. 220).
The Neptune (one of two sealers of that name, but there is no doubt which one is meant) is the subject of "Neptune, Ruler of the Sea." George Barbour is discussed in "The Greenland Disaster (I)." He commanded the Neptune 1905-1908 and also 1916-1925 (Feltham, p. 93).
The Eric (actually Erikas correctly spelled in Winsor's texts) was sunk by a German U-boat while hauling coal on August 25, 1918, and was captained by Job Kean from 1902 to 1913; for both, see "Captains and Ships."
For the Dianna (properly Diana; here again, WInsor has the spelling right), see "Arrival of 'Aurora,' 'Diana,' 'Virginia Lake,' and 'Vanguard,' Loaded"; that entry also explains why she was called lucky. Alpheus Barbour of the Barbour dynasty commanded her from 1898 to 1908 (Chafe, p. 88). This is the only song I know to mention him by name, but note the mention of George Barbour above; see also "The Nimrod's Song" for another Barbour, Baxter. Alpheus Barbour had his first command in the Walrus in 1896 and his last in Bloodhound in 1915 (Ryan-Ice, p. 498). He is another of the captains pictured in 1899 on p. 25 of Winsor, as is George Barbour; there is another picture of both on p. 71 of Winsor. The whole dynasty, as the song says, was from Bonavista Bay.
The Adventure is the subject of "I Am a Newfoundlander." She had a relatively short sealing career; Henry Dawe commanded her 1906-1910, and Jacob Kean 1911-1915 (Chafe, p. 98). (There were actually two Captains Henry Dawe; this is the Henry Dawe of Bay Roberts.) Dawe first commanded in the Mastiff in 1879 and ended his career with this stint in the Adventure. This Henry Dawe is also mentioned in "The Sealing Trip of the S. S. Greenland 1891," "I Am a Newfoundlander," "The Bully Crew," and "Arrival of the 'Grand Lake' and 'Virginia Lake' With Bumper Trips," as well as being mis-called "Captain Doyle" in "Captains and Ships." Chafe, p. 31, says that he was a popular captain.
For the Grand Lake, see again "Arrival of the 'Grand Lake' and 'Virginia Lake' With Bumper Trips." Job Knee (the first of two captains of that name, who first commanded the Falcon in 1889 and was still sailing in 1923; Chafe, p. 93) commanded her in 1906-1908, when he lost her. He is also mentioned in "Captains and Ships." There is a photo of one or the other Job Knee on p. 75 of Winsor.
The Newfoundland is the ship of the Newfoundland Disaster of 1914, discussed in "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)." She was the first command of John Parsons, who had charge of her from 1906-1908 before moving to other ships (Chafe, p. 94). He is also mentioned in "Captains and Ships."
The Panther is also mentioned in "Captain Bill Ryan Left Terry Behind"; Jesse Winsor (the correct spelling; he was another member of the Winsor family mentioned above) commanded her 1906-1908, when she was lost; he also held commands in 1909 and 1912-1914 (Chafe, p. 96). For Jesse Winsor, and all the Winsors, see the notes to "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912." The song is correct in saying he was from Wesleyville; Ryan/Drake, p. 78, shows William Winsor's Wesleyville home.
The Walrus, one of the very first sealing steamers, is also mentioned in "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full," and obviously was listed under several of the captains above. Jacob Winsor -- yes, another member of the Winsor family! -- commanded her in 1907 and 1908; she was lost in the latter year (Chafe, p. 105). Chafe, p. 74, confirms that, in 1907, she was supplied by Bowring's.
The Labrador is also mentioned in "Captains and Ships" and in "Success to the Hardy Sealers." She first went to the ice under George Hann (1850-1942) in 1892, and remained his ship all the way until 1908; she then served under Baxter Barbour in 1909. Chafe, pp. 88, 101, and Winsor, p. 50, say Barbour commanded her in 1910 also, but Chafe, p. 74, says she was under George Hann in 1910. D. Martin took her over in 1911-1913; she was lost in the latter year (Chafe, p. 101; Winsor, p. 50, says she was caught in a blizzard in early march and ran aground; she was a total loss although all the crew survived). Hann (called "George Hand" in Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff but by his correct name "Hann" in Winsor's text) himself spent almost his entire career in the Labrador; his only other service was as captain of the Leopard in 1890-1891 (Chafe, p. 91); although his mention in the song seems to be an error, with Barbour the actual commander of the ship, it's noteworthy that Chafe made the same error; clearly Hann was strongly associated with the Labrador. Captain Hann is shown in the already-mentioned photo on p. 25 of Winsor, and there is another photo on p. 50 of WInsor. The latter page also has a photo of the Labrador herself.
For the Virginia Lake, see "Arrival of the 'Grand Lake' and 'Virginia Lake' With Bumper Trips." Jacob Kean (nephew of the famous Abram Kean; Kean, p. 19) commanded her in 1907-1909, succeeding the famous Captain Samuel Blandford, under whom he had been the second-in-command (Ryan-Ice, p. 191); she was lost in 1909 (Chafe, p. 104). She was Kean's first command, although he did so well (more than 20,000 seals in his first two years) that he had no trouble getting ships despite that. Jacob Kean (1864-1939) was still going to the ice as late as 1936, but spent most of his career commanding coastal steamers (starting in 1911; Tarver, p. 229). He had also worked some of the same mail ships as Uncle Abram (Kean, p. 19). The sealers had curiously mixed opinions of him; John Crawford says "He was as knowledgeable a man as was going out there," but Paul Healey described an indecisive man who was "just about crazy" and wondered if there was "something wrong" with him. Stephen Mullins called him a "wicked, wicked man" but also a "good man" and concluded he was "one of the uneasiest men in the world." Gordon Thorne said he "wasn't much of a captain." William Way said he was "all right" (Ryan-Last, pp. 307-309). It sounds to me as if he might have struggled with depression or some such (not unlikely, given that... some sort of curious psychological problems... ran in Abram Kean's family.).
The song claims to list twenty ships, but Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff's text lists only 19 (Terra Nova, Eagle, Aurora, Algerine, Vanguard, Bloodhound, Iceland, Greenland, Southern Cross, Neptune, Eric, Diana, Adventure, Grand Lake, Newfoundland, Panther, Walrus, Labrador, Virginia Lake). It appears based on verse four (which lists a captain but not a ship) that the missing ship was commanded by "a Bishop." This must be either Noah Bishop or Edward Bishop, since they were the only Bishops to command a sealer. Noah Bishop commanded the Algerine 1909-1912 (Chafe, p. 88) -- but it can't be him, since the Algerine is accounted for. Edward Bishop commanded the Algerine in 1906, the Ranger in 1907-1908, the Terra Nova in 1909, and the Eagle every year from 1912 to 1926 (Chafe, p. 88; Feltham, p. 47). All of those ships except the Ranger are accounted for in the song. So the ship must be the Ranger (and hence the year must be 1907). This implies that the fourth verse has been corrupted; we should emend "Ranger" for either "stranger" or "danger." And, in fact, the Winsor's text as we saw in the collation above, has "Chased by the bold ice Ranger" for "She aspied a bold-eyed stranger." Thus Winsor's text has the full set of twenty ships.
The reference to the Greenland under Bragg, as well as the Southern Cross under Carter, forces us to date this song 1907, and the combination of the other dates confirm this: every ship listed went to the ice in 1907, and several were not around for the 1908 hunt, and the Havana of 1906 is not mentioned. This backs up the 1907 date fourn in Winsor.
There were in fact 23 ships that went to the ice in 1907, not just 20 (Chafe, p. 74); the song has the Greenland, which is not in Chafe's list (presumably because she did not return), but omits the Nimrod, the Kite, and the Viking - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: RySm079

Sealer's Strike of 1902, The (The Sealers Gained the Strike)

DESCRIPTION: "Attention, all ye fishermen, and read this ballad down, And hear about the sealer's strike the other day in town." The sealers, led by "brave Colloway," unite and present their demands. A. B. Morine secures their demands
AUTHOR: Johnny Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Murphy, Songs Sung by the Old Time Sealers of Many Years Ago)
KEYWORDS: ship hunting strike labor-movement
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 8, 1902 - Beginning of the Sealer's Strike
Mar 12, 1902 - Sealers' demands granted
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 64, "The Sealer's Strike of 1902"; p. 63, "The Sealers Gained the Strike" (2 texts); also p. 66, "The Luck Went With the Sealers Since Brave Colloway Led the Strike" (1 text, a sequel to the above)
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, editor, _Songs Sung by Old-TIme Sealers of Many Years Ago_, James Murphy Publishing, 1925 (PDF available from Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 20, "The Sealers Strike of 1902" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 14, "The Sealers Gained the Strike" (1 text); also p. 15, "The Luck Went With the Sealers Since Brave Colloway Led the Strike" (1 text, a sequel to the above)
Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #22, p. 39, "The Sealers Gained the Strike" (1 text); #23, p. 40, "The Luck Went With the Sealers Since Brave Colloway Led the Strike" (1 text)
Roud #V44591
NOTES [3053 words]: Although all sources for this are printed and literary, the divergences between the first two texts in Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff may imply oral transmission. Murphy, who published the earliest version, seemingly was unaware of the attribution to Burke, even though they worked together frequently; possibly Burke didn't want to have his name listed and be seen as pro-sealer. For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree."
Sealing was a seasonal industry based largely on ships, with crews of sealers going out on each ship and getting a share of the profits on the seals that were harvested. By 1902, the year of the sealer's strike, this tradition dated back for several lifetimes.
According to Cadigan, p. 170, prior to the strike, the number of sealers who were able to go out each year had been declining -- with the seal herd shrinking, and the hunt necessarily being moved from small schooners and sloops to the large steamers that could carry many men and seal pelts, there simply weren't as many berths for sealers. And the steamers were expensive, and the industry was in a recession, with some companies going out of business (Ryan-Ice, p. 183, though he points out on pp. 183-184 that the problem wasn't as bad as they claimed), so the owners used various techniques to reduce their costs (Busch, p. 76; on p. 78, he argues that the basic problem was the weakness and specialization of the Newfoundland economy, which was being hurt by loss of revenue from cod). In return for granting a man a berth on a sealer, the owners required a so-called "coaling fee," for instance (Ryan-Ice, p. 343), and forced the men to buy certain equipment at inflated prices -- a technique known as the "crop" (Candow, p. 102. At least the owners had to cover the deficit if the sealers didn't take enough seals to cover the crop). The Appendix below describes the "crop" in more detail.
An even more objectionable way of raising money was "berthing fees" -- charging sealers a fee to serve on the sealing steamer, which would be deducted from their earnings. And the owners collectively decided how much pelts would be worth in that year, so the owners had come close to creating a "company store" type situation: They set the pay, and they decided what to bill the sealers for participating. Sealers on successful steamers still earned a reasonable payment -- but if a ship had a bad year, the sealers might end up with nothing at all. And the work was hard, dirty, and dangerous (the sanitary facilities didn't deserve the name, e.g.). And the ships were excessively crowded, meaning that the men into close contact, so it was easy for them to decide on collective action.
Worse, the owners were paying the sealers a smaller fraction of the value of the seals: "The Sealers were now only getting one third [of the value] of their catch in the steamers, whereas formerly in the sailing vessels they got one half... of their voyage" (Chafe, p. 38).
England, pp. 53-54, writing two decades after the strike, declares, "I have never known a country where employers enjoyed such a sinecure as in Newfoundland. Labour, there, has hardly begun to dream that it has any rights. And the game of exploitation goes merrily on." But even Newfoundland's disorganized sealers needed to eat! And there had been some labor activism in the years around 1900, although it involved trade unions rather than the highly individualistic sealers (Busch, pp. 82-83; Ryan-Ice, pp. 329-342, has a catalog of these labor actions).
As a result, in 1902, "211 sealers of the SS Ranger, a wooden-hulled steamer [for which see the notes to "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912"], left their vessel in St John's to protest their wages and sparked a wider strike by sealers from other vessels" (Cadigan, p. 170). "Men poured out of the various vessels so quickly that presumably there was some prearrangement" (Busch, p. 83) -- but no one has offered any actual evidence for this.
The two sides were far apart -- the merchants wanted to pay only $2.40 for each hundredweight (112 pounds) of seal fat, down from $3.25; the strikers privately wanted at least $4, and asked for more (Cadigan, p. 171). Both sides appealed to the government -- the owners for troops (Busch, p. 87), the sealers for support. The sealers, interestingly, went to the governor, i. e. the British representative, Sir Cavendish Boyle, rather than the head of the elected Newfoundland government, Premier Sir Robert Bond (Busch, p. 84; Ryan-Ice, pp. 363-365, thinks that was based on the support that the previous governor, Henry McCallum, had given the sealers, although Boyle did not prove as helpful. The irony is that Bond eventually came to be regarded as one of the most honest and capable of Newfoundland Prime Ministers. Perhaps the problem was that Bond and the sealers' spokesman A. B. Morine were anything but cordial -- which is actually another sign of Bond's honesty, because Morine was utterly corrupt).
Morine, who eventually represented the sealers, was born in Nova Scotia but had come to Newfoundland in 1883 to edit a newspaper (Cadigan, p. 148). He first ran for office in 1885 (DictNewfLabrador, p. 232; he lost on his first try but soon won a by-election). He was admitted to the bar in 1894, held various ministries after that, including Finance Minister 1897-1898 (DictNewfLabrador, p. 231), even serving as acting prime minister for a time while prime minister James Winter was out of the country (Harding, p. 82). During that time, he produced a government plan to sell or (mostly) give away a huge chunk of the island to Robert Reid, who was building Newfoundland Railway, and whom Morine represented (Hanrahan, pp. 11-12; for the Newfoundland Railway, and this deal, see also the notes to "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie"). When Winter got back and found what Morine had done, he "angrily demanded that Morine resign. This earned Morine the somewhat dubious honor of being publicly disgraced twice in one year. Winter went so far as to describe his erstwhile lieutenant as 'the greatest scoundrel who ever entered the Narrows'" (Harding, p. 82); Harding himself (p. 84), sums him up as "one of the most thoroughly unscrupulous opportunists to have ever disgraced a public office." I doubt anyone would disagree.
An editorial cartoon of the time (reproduced on p. 55 of Penney) shows Morine dressed as a saint with a halo -- but kneeling on a box labelled "Receiver General and Reid's Solicitor," Reid being the company which had the railroad franchise. This hints strongly that what Morine was praying for was, frankly, to receive even more graft. Similarly, a bit of political doggerel asked,
Will you let Reid's hireling lawyer
Barter homes and hearths away? [this because Morine's plan gave huge swathes of land to Reid's railroad]
Will you let him sell his country,
Sell you all for place and pay? (Hiller/Neary, p. 140).
In the election of 1901, after Morine's machinations came to light, Sir Robert Bond's party won 32 of 36 seats in the House of Assembly based on its opposition to Morine -- the most lopsided election result in Newfoundland history (Noel, pp. 30-31; the Reid company had campaigned for Winter's and Morine's conservatives, which probably made things worse; Penney, p. 70). The Reid company was forced to reorganize (it wasn't broke, but changing its structure made it easier for it to make deals; Penney, p. 70), and Morine was in disgrace. In 1906, the Reid organization would offer Morine $10,000 per year to absent himself from Newfoundland (Penney, p. 94). Morine went to Toronto for six years, then spent the remaining years of his life moving back and forth from Canada to Newfoundland (depending, I think, on where he was wanted less); toward the end, he spent much of his energy campaigning for "Confederation" -- i.e. having Newfoundland join Canada (DictNewfLabrador, pp. 232-233). But that was much later.
Morine's career was so complex that his entry in DictNewfLabrador, which is one of the longest if not the longest in the book, doesn't even mention his part in the sealer's strike. Morine came to represent the sealers even though he was "clearly part of the power structure" of Newfoundland (had the deal with the railroads worked out as intended, Morine expected to become Prime Minister; Penney, p. 66) and in fact he had a low opinion of most Newfoundlanders (Busch, p. 84). "The sealers had little choice, however, and Morine was colorful and able" (Busch, pp. 84-85). And, of course, Morine wanted the role as a way to clear his name and start rebuilding his political career.
At first, the owners wouldn't even meet with Morine, and set out to starve out the sealers (many of whom came from the outports and had no way to survive except by charity; Candow, p. 103); many ended up sleeping in the streets (in Newfoundland, in March! -- Busch, p. 85). One of the crustiest of captains, Arthur Jackman (for whom see, e.g., "The Old Polina") prepared to take the Terra Nova out to sea even so, and Sam Blandford (for whom see "Sealer's Song (I)") prepared to follow in the Neptune (Ryan-Ice, p. 344, attributes this to a rivalry between Jackman and Blandford -- Blandford wouldn't let Jackman get away unescorted). Things weren't so easy for the Neptune; the sealers put a hawser around the ship to hold her in place. Blandford cut it and got out (Busch, pp. 85-86; Ryan-Ice, p. 344), but the sealers were mostly successful in getting their point across. What's more, many ships couldn't sail because the firemen who kept the engines running had walked out with the sealers (Ryan-Ice, p. 344).
Morine apparently managed to convince Premier Bond to accept the compromise price of $3.50 per hundredweight and an end to berthing fees (Busch, p. 86; Cadigan, p. 171; Candow, p. 104), although the "crop" remained.
Not every sealer was satisfied with this offer; there were die-hards who held out for their original demands. They tried to prevent other sealers from boarding the ships. But, by this time, the town was concerned about all the sealers who were wandering about with no place to stay and nothing to do; the police had been called out to prevent disorder (Ryan-Ice, p. 345). Fears of violence had apparently caused a judge to order the saloons closed, but there was no actual bloodshed (Busch, p. 86). There weren't enough extremists to keep things going. And so the strike ended. There had been a slight delay in the start of the season, but the ships went out just two days after their expected start -- even the Terra Nova and Neptune came back to take full crews aboard (Ryan-Ice, p. 345).
It's fascinating to note that the most significant sealing captain of them all, Abram Kean (for whom see "Captain Abram Kean") had been crossing swords with Morine for a decade and a half; as early as 1885, they had contested a parliamentary seat, although Kean (who had a rather casual attitude toward the truth) claims they were the best of friends for decades (Kean, pp. 13-15).
Not every sealer was convinced that the berthing fees were gone; Thomas Bragg in his oral history complained that "You'd get a $9 crop, but you had to pay $12. See, one time you had to pay $3 for your berth. Then they got a union and they said they took off the $3. But what they did was give you a $9 crop and you used to have to pay $12. You were still paying $3 for your berth" (Ryan-Last, p. 232). This isn't entirely fair; the extra $3 was, in a way, insurance for all the times when the sealers could not pay off the $9 crop, but it's true enough, as the appendix shows.
Interestingly, all the accounts of the strike I've seen in histories of Newfoundland mention Morine, but very little is said about Calloway/Colloway, mentioned in the song as the leader of the strike (Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff's first version spells it "Calloway," the second and third "Colloway"). According to Busch, p. 83, his name was Simon Calloway, but that's all Busch says about him. And the two other sources I checked both have different spellings. According to Ryan-Ice, p. 342, "The sealers -- under their leaders Mercer, Robert Hall from Halls Town near Clarke's Beach, Conception Bay, and Simeon Calloway from Pool's Island, Bonavista Bay -- demanded to see the governor, Sir Cavendish Boyle, to whom they spoke" (Albert Mercer of Bay Roberts was the man who had led the sealers off the Ranger). DictNewfLabrador, p. 185, has yet a third version of the name, Simeon Kelloway (while saying that others wrote it "Calloway." Interestingly, there was also a sealing captain named "Kelloway").
Perhaps the reason Colloway doesn't get much mention is that he died the year after the strike. His entry in DictNewfLabrador doesn't say much else; he lived from 1858 to 1903, was born in Pool's Island, was an early settler of Badger's Quay, and died in the latter town. His ship was the Vanguard, under George Barbour; for the Vanguard, see the notes to "Arrival of 'Aurora,' 'Diana,' 'Virginia Lake,' and 'Vanguard,' Loaded"; for George Barbour, see also "The Greenland Disaster (I)."
The positive effects of the strike may not have lasted long; according to Ryan-Ice, p. 353, "Their brief success did little to improve their situation; although their incomes improved following the strike, the failure of the cod fishery in Norway, which had created an increased demand for seal oil, was the most important reason for this." And the sealing companies found ways to hit back; in 1905, they started having annual meetings to decide on their rules (Ryan-Ice, p. 185); obviously this collusion also made it easier for them to impose conditions on the individual sealers. It doesn't appear the sealers gained much money from the strike. On the other hand, they didn't lose much, and the owners realized that the sealers needed more consideration (Ryan-Ice, p. 347). And the strike did encourage Joseph Coaker, who later became a major labor organizer in Newfoundland (Busch, p. 87; for Coaker, see "Coaker's Dream").
It appears one song about Morine (not this one) may have gone into tradition; England, p. 128 quotes a sealer singing something called "Come on Down, Morine."
This song is apparently right in regarding the strike as a big deal for the sealers. England, p. 248, tells of hearing about it from senior sealer Joe Stirge more than twenty years later. Stirge also had a version of the story about the Neptune being forced to stay in port when the sealers tied a cable to her, although Stirge didn't name the ship. Maybe he wanted to keep it secret, because the Terra Nova, on which he was embarked when he talked to England, was also one of the strikebreakers.
APPENDIX: The "Crop"
StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 122, defines the "crop" (usually pronounced "cha(h)p") as "in sealing or fishing, the personal equipment or supplies issued against the profits of the 'voyage.'" Their first known usage is from 1854.
On pp. 122-123, they cite several derived usages: the "Crop Note," i.e. the paper form which the sealer was issued to track the spending; the "Cropping Shed," the place where the usual sealing supplies were stored by a merchant (in effect, a "store within a store" for sealers); "Cropping Time," the period before a sealing trip when sealers took their crop notes around to purchase their supplies.
Winsor, p. 113, shows an example of a Crop Note which shows how it all worked. It is from March 11, 1940, for the ship S.S. Ungava, supplied by Job Brothers. It is a standard pre-printed form, with the name of the ship and the supplier printed but the name of the sealer and the date hand-written; there is also an account number which I would guess was stamped in. Below this is a blank form for the merchants to fill in. The one in Winsor shows $3 for rubbers, $1.55 for oil jacket, $0.80 for tobacco, $2.25 for blanket, $1.05 for a fall jacket, $0.20 for a towel, $.015 for matches, grand total $9. The next line is "add 1/3," or $3, for a total of $12.00. Then $0.20 is added without explanation, for a total "tally" of $12.20. This was the amount to be taken from the sealer's payment. At the bottom is a pre-printed line, "CREDIT by share seals." This was the standard share of the sealing profit that each sailor on a particular ship got. In this case, the share was $53.83. So the final lines (although there weren't written this way) should read something like this
$ 53.83 SHARE SEALS
-$12.20 TALLY FOR CROP
----------
$ 41.63 SEALER'S TAKE HOME PAY
So it would appear the sealer was issued the note, and took it around to the merchants who wrote in what he bought, until he reached his $9 maximum. Once that was spent, the sealer was on his own for buying things. (I would guess that the $0.15 in matches at the end of this particular note was what the sealer bought to bring the total to exactly $9 -- if you didn't spend the whole $9, too bad; you didn't get any money back.)
The patent unfairness in this is that the sealer got only $9 worth of merchandise (which often was sold at inflated prices, because the merchants knew just when the sealers would come to town and could mark things up accordingly), but were charged $12 for it. The only good news is, if the ship they were on had a bad year and the sealers earned less than $12, they did not have to make up the difference; that was a loss to the outfitters. Still, it was a clear $3-per-sealer profit for the outfitters every time the ship sailed and pulled in a decent number of seals. How often did that happen? In 1940, the Ungava took 28,781 seals and the sealers earned $58.83. That means that, for the Ungava, the break-even point for sealers was around 6000 seals. (It would be different for other ships, since they would have different numbers of sealers.) In her twelve years as a sealer, the Ungava took more than 6000 seals eleven times (Feltham, p. 145). So the crop was certainly profitable to her owners -- about $6000 profitable, which was a lot in pre-war Newfouondland. To be sure, the Ungava was an unusually large, well-built sealer, with two excellent captains (William Winsor and Peter Carter), so she was unusually profitable. Other ships didn't do nearly as well. Still, the "crop" was a much better deal for the owners than the sealers. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: RySm064

Sealers Gained the Strike, The

See The Sealer's Strike of 1902 (The Sealers Gained the Strike) (File: RySm064)

Sealers of Newfoundland, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ho! We be the Sealers of Newfoundland! We clear from a snowy shore, Out into the gale with our steam and sail...." The singer describes life on a sealing voyage, and tells how tough the sealers are -- and how they rejoice to return home
AUTHOR: George Allan England
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (England, Vikings of the Ice); reportedly written 1922
KEYWORDS: hunting ship nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 108, "The Sealers of Newfoundland" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: George Allan England, _Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt_ (also published as _The Greatest Hunt in the World_), Doubleday, 1924, pp. 308-309, "The Sealers of Newfoundland" (1 excerpt)
Michael C. Tarver, _The S. S. Terra Nova (1884-1943)_, Pendragon Maritime Publications, 2006, pp. 184-186, "The Sealers of Newfoundland" (1 text)
Roud #V44687
NOTES [22 words]: Despite this having been reprinted several times, there is no evidence that it is traditional or that any actual sealer recited it. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm108

Sealers of Twillingate and New World Island, The

DESCRIPTION: The poet recalls the hardships faced by the sealers of 1862, then turns to the modern hunt, as SPCA planes fly overhead. He warns against actual interference with the hunt, and declares seal hunting both good commerce and a good source of food
AUTHOR: John C. Loveridge
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Loveridge, Story in Pictures and Poetry of the 1973 Seal Hunt....)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal political nonballad technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 150-151, "The Sealers of Twillingate and New World Island" (1 text)
Roud #V44688
NOTES [681 words]: Despite this song's vicious and inflated rhetoric, seal hunting has of course been restricted in the last 30 years -- in part because of opposition from animal rights' groups, but mostly because there is no longer demand for seal products, plus the sealers have destroyed the seal populations, and have been forced to cut back to preserve the herds.
Seals were indeed an important food source to the Newfoundland fishermen -- and even more to the Inuit. According to Bob Bartlett (who should know; see his biography under "Captain Bob Bartlett"), "The seal is the one indispensible animal of the Arctic. The flesh is by no means disagreeable, though it has a general flavor of fish, which constitutes the seal's chief food" (Bartlett, p. 54).
The several mentions of 1862 in the song are interesting. That was not the year Newfoundlanders started taking seals; they had been doing that for many years by then. But "In 1862 the Newfoundland seal hunt entered the steam age. That year, two Scottish steamers participated in the Newfoundland hunt as a complementary activity to the Davis Strait right-whale 'fishery'" (Candow, p. 41). One of those sealers was the Polynia, the inspiration for the song "The Old Polina." The steamers soon drove out the sailing vessels; except for a brief period around World War I when steel ships took a lead role, the wooden steamers, which also carried sail, dominated the seal hunt until the 1940s.
Brian Davies, mentioned in the song as the opponent of sealing, was a Welshman who came to Canada in 1955 and joined the New Brunswick SPCA in 1961. He turned his attention to the seal hunt in 1964, and witnessed it firsthand in 1965. The SPCA founded a Save the Seals fund, and Davies gave up his regular career to oppose it. In 1968, he led a press group from Europe to see the hunt, and the anti-sealing movement began (Candow, pp. 118-119). In 1970, he wrote a book, Savage Luxury: The Slaughter of the Baby Seals (Bush, p. 249). He eventually appeared on David Letterman's television show to argue against sealing (Busch, p. 256). Little wonder that the sealers themselves hated him. He's referred to, with equal distaste, in "Save Our Swilers."
We might mention, incidentally, that even those who opposed sealing often disliked the methods used by Davies. Greenpeace, which in the end did much more to oppose sealing than did Davies, referred to his efforts as a "Bambi cult" because he used the cuteness of baby seals as his main argument (Wright, p. 22).
The bitterness of the Newfoundlanders is shown in the summary on p. 309 of Major: "When founder Brian Davies retired as [head of IFAW, the organization he founded] in 1997, his wage settlement was reported to be $2.5 million. Such profit on the backs of sealers is impossible for any Newfoundlander to stomach, and the anger at the unfairness of it all impossible to suppress." This although Davies was not paid by locals -- Major notes, e.g., that more than half of IFAW's funding came from Britain.
DictNewfLabrador, pp. 203-204, lists six significant Newfoundlanders named "Lundrigan," many associated with Lundrigan's lumber enterprise: Arthur Raymond (1922-), son of William James, president of Lundrigan's 1967-1983; Harold Wilson (1928-), brother of Arthur, his successor as president of Lundrigan's; James (fl. 1820), who was apparently unrelated and got in trouble for minor debts; John Howard (1939-), a teacher who became an MP for Gander/Twilingate in 1968 and served until 1974, then spent several years in the Newfoundland cabinet; Joseph Roche (1948-), an NHL player; and William James (1901-1986), founder of Lundrigan's and father of Arthur R. and Harold W.
I would assume the "Lundrigan" of the song is John Howard Lundrigan, since he was was in Ottawa in 1973. But it's pretty silly to think that one MP could stop a law!
The song is supposed to commemorate the firm of E. J. Linfield. Google Books has an account of the firm of Edward J. Linfield, a general merchandiser in Twillingate, founded 1888, but I can find no references to the firm being active today. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm150

Sealers, The

See The Ferryland Sealer (The Sealers) [Laws D10] (File: LD10)

Sealers' Ball, The

DESCRIPTION: The sealers get their money at the wharf, more at the store, and "a couple of gallons" on Saturday evening. After the dance Jack Burke's girl was with Jim McGee. When their fight was over "they found the lady she'd a-gone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: courting fight hunting shore dancing drink party humorous brawl
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 94-95, "The Sealers' Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 123-124, "The Sealer's Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 8, pp. 86-88, "John Park He Had Nar' One" (1 text)
ST Pea094 (Partial)
Roud #9957
RECORDINGS:
Tom Cornelly, "Much of a Hand" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Jerome Downey, "John Park He Had Nar' One" (on NFJDowney01)
Hector MacIsaac and Jerome Downey, "Not Much of a Hand Aboard a Vessel" (on NFHMacIsaac01)
Tom Morry, "The Sealers' Ball" (on PeacockCDROM)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Be Ye Much of a Hand Aboard a Vessel
NOTES [752 words]: The MUNFLA/Leach text changes the last line of the chorus from "A-pelting the puppy swiles, sir" to "A-catching the codfish wild sir." Hardly worth mentioning except that the brawl is no longer at "The Sealers' Ball." - BS
Both the codfish and the "swiler" versions, however, refer to the main economic activities of Newfoundland: fishing cod and hunting seals.
The first line in Jerome Downey's version is "We got six dollars and a half When we landed at the wharf." This fits in with sealing: Hands were signed on for a share of the total catch. Each sealer got the same share, no matter how effective they were, so every sealer got the same amount. Six and a half dollars was not the total pay; the sealers might have been assessed a "berthing fee" for the right to join the sealing vessel.
Even after the berthing fees were abolished (for this, see the notes to "The Sealer's Strike of 1902 (The Sealers Gained the Strike)") before the voyage started, each man was assessed the "crop" -- an advance on his wages which he was *required* to spend with the St. John's merchants, at artificially inflated prices (he could buy $9 of goods but had $12 deducted from his pay), to buy his equipment for the voyage. (If he didn't spend it, tough luck; he didn't get the money back. For the "crop," see StoryKirwinWiddowson, pp. 122-123 and the notes to "The Sealer's Strike of 1902 (The Sealers Gained the Strike)").
Taking into account all the deductions, if a sealer was actually given $6.50, his nominal pay would have been a minimum of about $19.50 and a maximum of about $31.50. That's nowhere near a record -- in one extraordinary season in 1866, the men of the Retriever each earned $303 (Chafe, p. 36). But that truly was an extraordinary total; by the twentieth century, as ships got bigger and the seal herds declined due to over-harvesting, the figures fell dramatically. Chafe does not always have shares for every ship, but here are some samples of the average for particular years:
1892 (p. 60): average of $51.52, best ship $96.30.
1898 (p. 65): average of $27.97, best ship $47.74
1904 (p. 71): average of $38.77, best ship $81.22
1910 (p. 77): average of $59.24, best ship $148.36
1916 (p. 82): average of $107.24, best ship 233.78 (because of World War I, the sealing fleet in 1916 was only half the size of the previous average. Although the ships that sailed did very well, relatively few men shared the bounty, and much of the increase was due to a 30% increase in the price of seals)
1922 (p. 85): average of $42.40, best ship $74.90.
(Eventually things got better; Wright, p. 85, describes one of the last major sealing years, in which the sealers' share of pelts, plus odds and ends such as flippers and seal penises -- wanted by some superstitious Japanese or Chinese -- came to nearly $3000 even though it wasn't considered a great year. Of course, there had been a lot of inflation in that half a century.)
Thus the men in this song earned below the average over these years -- but not far below the average; they were at the low end of typical.
Downey's version also refers to paying the money to "Jamie Baird." Bennett/Downey has notes on James Baird (1828-1915); DictNewfLabrador has more on p. 10. Born in Saltcoats, Scotland, his family came to Newfoundland some time in the 1840s, and he served as a draper's apprentice. Started in 1853, he and his brother David worked as drapers and importers. In 1872, James founded his own business, as an importer and fishery supplier. He would later invest in Newfoundland businesses and utilities. He became a hero to Newfoundlanders for a legal case he brought against a British officer over fishing rights. In 1898, he became a member of the Legislative Council, staying there until he died in 1915. He eventually owned at least one sealing steamer, the Labrador, which he bought in 1909 (Ryan, p. 193).
It's interesting to see sealers frequenting his business; at the time of the 1902 sealer's strike, he argued that there was no way that sealers could be paid more, because profits in the industry were too low (Ryan, p. 183). This would certainly be true a few decades later, but in 1902, the sealing fleet was expanding, and Ryan, p. 184, says that the market for seal oil was expanding rapidly.
Given the names mentioned in the song, I suspect this is based on an actual incident, but the Downey and Peacock versions are similar enough, and non-detailed enough, that (without access to lists of ships' companies) I can't say more. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Pea094

Sealers' Song (III), The

DESCRIPTION: "It caused a great sensation ... To see those little puppy seals in Codroy River Bight." Those who go after them are not experienced sealers and have all kinds of disasters. Besides, it was out of season: "now the puppies must be spared"
AUTHOR: Hughie O'Quinn (according to Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
KEYWORDS: hunting injury ordeal law poaching river humorous animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 21, pp. 129-135, "The Sealers' Song" (1 text)
Roud #24302
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "The Sealers' Song" (on NFJDowney01)
Hector MacIsaac and Jerome Downey, "The Sealers' Song" (on NFHMacIsaac01)
Hector MacIsaac, "Sealing Song" (on NFHMacIsaac02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Green" (tune)
NOTES [266 words]: The song ends with a complaint against the seal hunting law, by analogy: "Why, I'm sure some day a demagogue will write up in a book The proper way to stun a cod before he takes the hook." - BS
Sealing was a Newfoundland tradition from the early days, and indeed, seal meat kept many people alive in Newfoundland springtime, and the oil and pelts were one of their few exports and sources of trade. Although not as important as cod, without seals, Newfoundand probably would not have been economically viable. But -- apart from the ethical issue of killing intelligent mammals -- the seals were overfished, and by the 1920s, the population was a fraction of what it had been a century before. There was a prolonged and bitter fight about just what level of harvesting was sustainable -- but there is no question but that the harvest had to be limited. But the sealers didn't at all like being told that.
This is obviously a song of "landsman hunting" -- that is, of people setting out to the ice from near their homes, rather than being employed in a large sealing boat. According to James E. Candow, Of Men and Seals: A History of the Newfoundland Seal Hunt, Canadian Parks Service, Environment Canada, 1989, p. 138, "The recent history of the Newfoundland seal hunt has been characterized by the increased importance of the landsman operation." This was particularly true for the people outside St. John's, according to Candow, p. 139, although he places it more in the north and northeast of Newfoundland, rather than the Cordray Valley area on the southwest where Jerome Downey lived. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: BeDo129

Sealing Cruise of the Lone Flier, The

DESCRIPTION: The song chronicles the life of sealers traveling from Twillingate to St. John's then north to the ice fields for seals. Miscellaneous mishaps and achievements are told during the song and many names and factual information mentioned.
AUTHOR: (supposedly the whole crew in question)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: sea travel hunting moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 123, "The Sealing Cruise of the Lone Flier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Sealing Cruise of the Lone Flier" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 14-15 in the 2nd edition
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 76-77, "The Sealing Cruise of the Lone Flier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 126-128, "The Sealing Cruise of the Lone Flier" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doy14 (Partial)
Roud #7308
NOTES [1181 words]: The cruise in question is reported to have taken place from March 10 to April 25, 1929.
Very formulaic introduction of the "come-all-ye" variety with the singer assuring that he will neither "offend" the listener or run too long. [This even though Doyle's version runs 16 verses! - RBW] This is a very typical humble attitude of singers from Newfoundland as shown in many songs. - SH
Starting in the 1860s, sealing had been done by large wooden steamers; in the early twentieth century, steel ships had started to join the hunt. All the latter were lost or sold by the end of World War I (the Russians bought them because they needed icebreakers; Candow, p. 45), and the wooden steamers began to fail also as the years wore them out; with demand for seals falling, and the seal population badly hit due to hunting, there wasn't much money to replace the big ships.
The Fisherman's Protective Union, or FPU (for which see "Coaker's Dream"), had an answer: instead of large steamers, which were expensive, or pure sailing ships, which just didn't have enough power, they came up with small schooners with auxiliary diesels. The first of these, Young Harp, went into service in 1927. It was a tremendous success, taking 4353 seals -- far fewer than the big steamers, but the big steamers had crews of 200 or so, and the Young Harp just 27 (similar to the 28 sealers mentioned in the twelfth verse of the song); on a per-man basis, the Young Harp was astonishingly successful. In 1928, her crew of 29 took 6175 seals on a first trip, and 2381 on a second, making her an even greater success (Ryan-Last, p. 448).
There is a photo of the Young Harp on p. 82 of Winsor.
In 1929, seven auxiliary schooners went to the ice, with the Lone Flier being one of them (Candow, p. 49). It proved a very temporary boom; there were six auxiliary schooners in 1930, but just two in 1931 (Candow, p. 50). This presumably because, in 1929, "The auxiliary sealing schooners met with poor success"; even the experienced Young Harp managed only 959 seals, and the Lone Flier, under Sol. White, managed just 900 (Ryan-Last, p. 449). Thus the 1929 dating seems very likely.
According to Galgay/McCarthy, p. 110, a ship named the Lone Flier was wrecked on North Penguin Island on July 10, 1941; I assume that was this ship.
I suspect the Harp, mentioned in the song, is actually the Young Harp. In any case, it's a logical name for a sealer, since the primary target of sealers was the species known as harp seals, especially the infant harp seals, known as whitecoats because of, well, their white coats.
These schooners didn't last long, but they arguably foreshadowed the Motor Vessels, or MVs, for which see "A Noble Fleet of Sealers."
The Nascopee is properly the Nascopie, which was one of the last attempts to revive the steel sealers. She was built in 1911-1912 at Newcastle and was lost in 1947, running aground near Cape Dorset on Baffin Island (Feltham, p. 91); she served as a sealer 1912-1915 and 1927-1930 (Ryan/Drake, p. 41). She was built for the Hudson's Bay Company to serve their northern posts in the summer, but the icebreaking abilities that served her so well in the north were also helpful for dealing with the ice where the seals whelped (Feltham, p. 86). In her 1912-1915 period as a sealer, when she was among the most successful ships in the fleet (WInsor, p. 54), her captain was George Barbour, for whom see "The Greenland Disaster (I)"; in her second stint, she was commanded by Abram Kean (Feltham, p. 86), for whom see "Captain Abram Kean." Except for a disastrous 1915, she took more than 17,000 seals in all her years in the ice, and she three times (1913, 1927, 1930) she took more than 30,000 -- a very good number indeed.
She is supposedly the only sealer -- indeed, the only ship -- to have replaced a propeller while at sea (Feltham, p. 88). She also had the unique distinction, for a sealer, of sinking a German submarine during World War I (using a gun installed for defensive purposes; Ryan/Drake, p. 41).
There is a book that is sort of about the Nascopie, i.e. Wild, but it is primarily about Smellie, not his ship, and devotes only a single paragraph to her service as a sealer before Smellie took command, saying that she had had one good year and "smelt like a sealer and was full of cockroaches" (Wild, p. 84. The same page explains that the Nascopie managed to sink that sub with her stern gun because the sub had to dodge an ice floe). She served well as an Arctic steamer under Smellie until 1945 (when he retired), and then was lost two years later under another master, but she did not return to sealing. (I found Wild very hard to read; he seems to worship Smellie, even though Dennis Jordan on p. viii of the Introduction declares he was a martinet.)
Feltham, p. 176, has a photo of the Nascopie, Kean has one on p. 30, WInsor on p. 54, and Ryan/Drake on p. 41. Wild has photos facing pp. 72, 73, 104, 169, but all of them are of her post-sealing days.
The third verse refers to the "crop." Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland give an explanation of this so short as to be almost deceitful. Each sealer had to have certain equipment -- a gaff, a hauling rope, a sculping knife -- and was expected to supply this. The sealers were not given an advance to buy the equipment; they were given what amounted to a voucher in the amount of $9 with which to purchase their supplies from the merchants of St. John's, at an inflated price. For this $9 worth of credit, the sealers had $12 deducted from their wages at the end of the trip. It didn't matter if they already had all their equipment and didn't need to buy anything; the sealing companies knocked $12 off their wages. The only consolation was that if the sealing trip went badly and the men failed to earn $12, they were not required to refund the rest. (Ryan-Ice, p. 185). It was nonetheless a clear abuse of the sealers, with the profits being split between the St. John's merchants and the sealing companies. For more on the "crop," see the notes to "The Sealer's Strike of 1902 (The Sealers Gained the Strike)."
The ninth verse refers to one man getting a "cat." That is not a reference to a feline; a "cat" was a stillborn seal pup, or one that died shortly after birth. They were desirable finds; cats had finer pelts than ordinary seals (Higgins, p. 34). And harps, to repeat, are harp seals, not stringed instruments. "Hoods" are the other species of seals the hunters sought; hood seals were more dangerous (instead of running, they fought to defend their babies, and they were bigger than harps, so they couldn't easily be killed with a gaff) and generally less desirable, but sealers turned to hunting "hoods" if they couldn't get enough whitecoats.
The "Mr. Ashbourne" of the last verse is probably Thomas George William Ashbourne (1894-1984), who was one of those who helped negotiate Newfoundland's entry into Canada; after his father William's death in 1923, he became president of the family's fishery supply firm (DictNewfLabrador, p. 6). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Doy14

Sealing Fifty Years Ago

DESCRIPTION: "'Four hundred sail of shipping fine Could then be seen at anchor Awaiting time to fall in line And for a sou'west spanker." Fifty years ago, they caught 600,000 seals a year; now, they catch half as much "with hearts not half so gay."
AUTHOR: James Murphy (1868-1931)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (The Duke of York Songster and Christmas Advertiser)
KEYWORDS: hunting nonballad hardtimes recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 63, "Sealing Fifty Years Ago" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Michael P. Murphy, _Pathways through Yesterday_, edited by Gerald S. Moore, Town Crier Publishing, 1976, p. 158, "(no title) (1 short text)
Roud #V44643
NOTES [198 words]: The "Terry" of this song is probably Captain Terrance Holleran, for whom see "Captain Bill Ryan Left Terry Behind." No steam sealer had a captain named "Holley" -- but there might well have been a sailing skipper by that name; as the song correctly notes, there had been about 400 sealing schooners around 1850, when the seals were still present in such large numbers that even small ships could collectively bring in half a million pelts a year. By 1901, when this song was published, just nineteen steamers went to the ice, and their total haul was less than 350,000 (see Levi George Chafe, Chafe's Sealing Book: A History of the Newfoundland Sealfishery from the Earliest Available Records Down To and Including the Voyage of 1923, third edition, Trade Printers and Publishers, Ltd., 1923 (PDF scan available from Memorial University of Newfoundland), p. 63), even though the steamers were much better at bringing in seals than the old sealing schooners.
It's not as clear to me that the sealers were actually less happy on the steamers than in the age of sail, but certainly there were fewer of them, making it harder to get a sealing job, which presumably led to competition. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm063

Sealing Fleet, The

DESCRIPTION: "What means this hurrying to and fro -- This busy stirring scene? "This scene laid now before you Is not of war or strife But 'tis a fight of honest men... They go to catch the northern seal...." The sealers are described; the singer wishes them well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (The Newfoundland Express)
KEYWORDS: hunting nonballad orphan
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 135, "" (1 text, apparently to the tune "Garryowen")
Roud #V44857
File: RySm135

Sealing Trip of the S. S. Greenland 1891, The

DESCRIPTION: "All ye who love old Newfoundland And her Sons who plow the sea... I will sing to you A song about the Greenland And her hardy sailing crew." The singer praises Captain Henry Dawe, describes the efficient steamer, and tells of a good seal hunt
AUTHOR: unknown (said to be by "one of her crew")
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Harbour Grace Standard)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 35-36, "The Sealing Trip of the S. S. Greenland 1891" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, editor, _Songs Sung by Old-TIme Sealers of Many Years Ago_, James Murphy Publishing, 1925 (PDF available from Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 8, "The Sealing Trip of the S.S. 'Greenland," 1891" (1 text)
John Feltham, _Sealing Steamers_, Harry Cuff Publications, 1995, pp. 66-68, "(no title)" (1 text)
Levi George Chafe, _Chafe's Sealing Book: A History of the Newfoundland Sealfishery from the Earliest Available Records Down To and Including the Voyage of 1923_, third edition, Trade Printers and Publishers, Ltd., 1923 (PDF scan available from Memorial University of Newfoundland), p. 46, "The Sealing Trip of the S. S. Greenland, 1891" (1 text)
Roud #V44609
NOTES [266 words]: I suspect the Van of this song is actually the Vanguard, for which see "Arrival of 'Aurora,' 'Diana,' 'Virginia Lake,' and 'Vanguard,' Loaded."
The Greenland of this song is the same as the ship of "The Greenland Disaster (I)," etc., but this is obviously a different event. For background on the ship, see "The Greenland Disaster (I)."
There were two Captains Henry Dawe, one of Bay Roberts, one of Port de Grave. The one from Bay Roberts, who went to the ice almost every year from 1879 to 1910, commanded the Greenland from 1890 to 1895. In 1891, he brought home an impressive 25,907 seals (see Levi George Chafe, Chafe's Sealing Book: A History of the Newfoundland Sealfishery from the Earliest Available Records Down To and Including the Voyage of 1923, third edition, Trade Printers and Publishers, Ltd., 1923 (PDF scan available from Memorial University of Newfoundland), p. 90) -- almost twice the total in the song and the second-highest total the Greenland ever took, although not the highest total for a ship in 1891. For more on him, see "The Sealer's Song (II)."
The claim of 14,000 seals may have been a memory of 1890, when the ship took 14,236 seals (Chafe, p. 100). Chafe, p. 60, confirms that the sealing fleet sailed on March 10 in that year. The same page indirectly supports the song's claim that the Greenland was based in Harbour Grace, since she is not on the list of ships that sailed from St. John's or environs.
For Henry Dawe, see also "Arrival of the 'Grand Lake' and 'Virginia Lake' With Bumper Trips," "I Am a Newfoundlander," and "The Bully Crew." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm035

Sealy

See Old Doctor Collins (Celie) (File: Morr124)

Seaman and His Love, A (The Welcome Sailor) [Laws N29]

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a girl wailing for her love, gone these seven years at sea. He offers a token from her love, saying he is dead and she should marry whoever carries it. She says she will mourn forever. The stranger reveals himself as her missing love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1620 (Stationer's Register -- apparently)
KEYWORDS: love separation brokentoken
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(MW) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws N29, "A Seaman and His Love (The Welcome Sailor)"
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 3, "Midst of Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 53, "A Seaman and His Love" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H581, pp. 318-319, "The Love Token" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 530-533, "Jimmy and Nancy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 58, "Down by the Seaside" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 77, "The Valiant Seaman's Happy Return to His Love, After a Long Seven Years' Absence" (1 text, presented as traditional though it includes references to Hero and Leander, "Ulisses" and Penelope, and Dido and Aeneas. Presumably it is a broadside reworking of a traditional text, this being the best candidate for the original)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #74, "The Welcome Sailor" (1 text)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads LXX, pp. 130-135, "The Valiant Seaman's happy return to his Love, after a long Seven Years absence" (1 text, similar to the literary Grigson text); LXXXVII, pp. 176-177, "The Welcome Sailor" (1 text, much more traditional-sounding than the other)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2883, "When Sol could cast no light"; ZN2884, "When Sol did cast no light"
DT 763, SEAMLOVE
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; notes to #189, ("The Sailors") (1 text)
Roud #604
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "The Nightingales of Spring" (on USWolfRiver)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(236a), "The Valiant Sea-Mans Happy Return to His Love, After a Long Seven Years Absence," P. Brooksby (London), 1672-1696; also Wood E 25(153), "The Valiant Sea-Mans Happy Return to His Love, After a Long Seven Years Absence"; Douce Ballads 2(237b), "The Valiant Seamans Happy Return to His Love, After a Long Seven Years Absence"; Bodleian, Firth c.13(188), "The Welcome Sailor" ("As I walked out one night, it being dark all over"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; Harding B 11(4088), 2806 c.17(462), Harding B 11(3681A), Harding B 25(2025), Harding B 11(949), "The Welcome Sailor"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there, especially N34
SAME TUNE:
"I Am So Deep In Love" or "Through the Cool Shady Woods" (per broadsides Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(236a), Bodleian Wood E 25(153), Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(237b))
NOTES [150 words]: Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(236a) broadside seems to be the version cited above for Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 77; the theme and some lines match Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs but, as the comment for Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 77 notes, there are a lot of additional frills. [There is also a pretty elaborate version in the Roxburghe Ballads - RBW.]
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "The Love Token" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
Of the later Bodleian broadsides, "The Welcome Sailor," all but Harding B 25(2025) have the anomalous line "soon as these words ["I'll wed no stranger"] she spoke her love grew stronger"; Harding B 25(2025) has "his love grew stronger" which agreees with the older broadsides. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LN29

Seaman and Soldier's Last Farewell to their Dearest Jewels, The

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell, my dearest dear, now I must leave thee; Thy sight I must forbear although it grieves me." "My fortune I will try upon the ocean, and fight most gallantly to gain promotion." "My dear, do not mourn." She should be patient until they meet again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor wife separation battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 18, "The Seaman and Soldier's Last Farewell to their Dearest Jewels" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V39372
File: PaSe018

Seaman of Dover, The

See The Beautiful Lady of Kent (File: BeCo304)

Seaman of Plymouth, The

DESCRIPTION: A sailor must go to sea before he can wed Susan. When she refuses to marry a rich man, her parents send her to Holland. The sailor, now rich, accidentally meets her; they return home; she disguises herself from her parents and they are wed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 4(91))
LONG DESCRIPTION: A sailor and beautiful Susan are to wed, but she becomes sick; he is forced to sail away. While he is gone, her parents try to wed her to a rich man; when she refuses, they send her to Holland. The sailor returns, having become rich, and is told she is dead. He sails away in grief, is shipwrecked in Holland, meets her, and they return home to wed. The girl arrives in disguise; her parents continue their play-acting. At last she reveals herself, and all ends happily
KEYWORDS: love courting sailor separation betrayal money disguise reunion marriage trick
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 141-147, "The Seaman of Plymouth" (1 text, 1 tune, very long and quite clumsy; there is probably a broadside version in its very recent ancestry)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 10, "William and Susan" (1 text)
ST FlBr141 (Partial)
Roud #2811
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 4(91), "Sweet William of Plymouth" ("A seaman of Dover, sweet William by name"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Harding B 4(96), "Sweet William of Plymouth" ("A seaman of Plymouth, sweet William by name")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beautiful Susan" [Laws M29] (plot, characters)
NOTES [14 words]: "Beautiful Susan" seems to me to have been derived from "The Seaman of Plymouth." - BS
Last updated in version 2.8
File: FlBr141

Seaman's Alphabet, The

See The Sailor's Alphabet (File: RcTSAlp)

Seaman's Compass, The

DESCRIPTION: "As lately I travelled towards Gravesend, I heard a fair damosel a seaman commend." She praises seamen, saying that she will not marry anyone not a seaman. She describes how other trades are dependent on the work of sailors
AUTHOR: Laurence Price (source: Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1657 (broadside printed by Francis Grove, according to Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor love marriage commerce
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads LXXV, pp. 144-149, "The Sea-mans Compass" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 16, "The Seaman's Compass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V32237
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 4o Rawl. 566(64), “The Sea-mans Compass,, F. Coles, T. Vere, J Wright (London), 1663-1674
NOTES [120 words]: Although Palmer -- very likely inspired by Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads -- attributes this to Lawrence/Laurence Price, a well-known seventeenth century writer of broadside ballads, A. W. Pollard, G. R. Redgrave, et al, A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland & Ireland And of English Books Printed Abroad 1475-1640, The Bibliographical Society [of London], 1963, p. 467, does not list it among Price's known works. And of the sixteen pieces they list as by Price, not one is printed by Francis Grove, from Palmer lists as the printer. Of course, Palmer attributes this to a period after the STC. But the Rawlinson broadside, at least, attributes it simply to "L. P.," not to Price specifically. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: PaSe016

Seaman's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "My seafaring comrades, attend to my lay, For death, that grim reaper, has taken away The fair Emmett Gallagher...." The Clifton leaves shore and encounters a storm. It tears open the Clifton. The singer tells of the sadness of relatives left behind
AUTHOR: Probably Frank McCauley
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (scrapbook of Charles C. Allers, according to Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship disaster death family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 21/22, 1924 - Loss of the _Clifton_
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 180-181, "The Seaman's Lament" (1 text)
Roud #19836
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Clifton Tragedy" (subject: The Clifton Wreck) and references and notes there
File: WGM180

Seamen Bold

See The Ship in Distress (File: ShH90)

Seamen's Distress, The

See The Mermaid [Child 289] (File: C289)

Seamen's Union, The

DESCRIPTION: "We are a band of seamen, A jolly, jolly crew, As ever sailed the ocean Or wore the jackets blue." "We are a band of seamen With a password and a sign (sign?)." Their banner shows shamrock, rose, and thistle. The singer offers a toast to sailors and girls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (collected from Henry McConnell by Walton)
KEYWORDS: sailor labor-movement nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, p. 114, "The Seamen's Union" (1 short text)
Roud #19841
File: WGM114

Seamen's Wives' VIndication, The

DESCRIPTION: "Why does the poets abuse us, we that are seamen's poor wives?" The singer lists all the charges made against them, and points out how difficult are their lives when their husbands are at sea. She declares that they have no reason to be ashamed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (FIrth)
KEYWORDS: sailor wife separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 30, "The Seemen's Wives' Vindication; or, an Answer to the pretended Frolic which was said to be by them over a Bowl of Punch" (1 text)
Roud #V11282
File: PaSe030

Sean a Duir a'Ghleanna

DESCRIPTION: The first verse describes an unsuccessful fox hunt: "for royalty is banished" Sean meets beautiful Anna who invites him to "take compassion" He takes off his beaver hat and, answering her invitation, introduces himself as "a Galway man by extraction"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 15(149b))
KEYWORDS: courting beauty hunting
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 81, "Sean a Duir a'Ghleanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Behan-IrelandSings, #78, "Sean O'Dwyer of the Glen" (1 text, 1 tune, a translation from Gaelic by Wolfe Stephens)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(149b), "John Adwire Anglanna," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 11(4385), "John Adwire Anglanna"; 2806 b.9(41), 2806 b.11(44), Harding B 19(42), "John O'Dwyer-a-Glana"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "After Aughrim's Great Disaster" (form)
NOTES [205 words]: The name of the song in both OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads and the Bodleain broadsides is from the last line: "I'm a Galway man by extraction, bred in Connamara, And [song title] they call me by name." It's easiest to find versions from the first line which is always close to "One morning I started From the arms of Morpheus."
The ornate descriptions and the ending with an introduction to a beautiful woman remind me of Thomas Moore's "Rich and Rare Were The Gems She Wore." Adding to my suspicion that there is more nationalism coded here than I understand is the OLochlainn note that 'the late Canon Sheehan wrote a fine song "After Aughrim's great disaster" founded on this ballad.'
In this connection see the Mudcat Cafe threads re "After Aughrim's Great Disaster" and "Sean O'Duibhir A Ghleanna." The text of "Sean O Duibhir An Ghleanna" ("Sean O'Dwyer of the Glen") listed there is either the source or derivative of this song and is clearly a song of desperation; the source there is Danny Spooner and Mick Farrell 'In Limbo and Other Songs and Places' Anthology AR003. The text of "After Aughrim's Great Disaster" refers to the battle of July 12, 1691: "Ah, Sean o Duibhir an Ghleanna, we were worsted in the game." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OLoc081

Sean A'Bhriste Leathair

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "A comic song in which the poet recounts his amorous successes from early youth, all supposedly due to his attractive leather britches! He finally wins the heart of a wealthy young heiress and weds her."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting wedding bragging clothes money humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 126, "Sean A'Bhriste Leathair" (2 texts)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC126

Sean Bean Boct, The

See The Shan Van Voght (File: PGa027)

Sean O'Dwyer of the Glen

See notes under Sean a Duir a'Ghleanna (File: OLoc081)

Sean O'Farrell

See Miss Green (File: RcMisGre)

Sean Treacy

DESCRIPTION: "We often heard our fathers tell How in the Fenian times The noblest of Tipperary's sons Imprisoned spent their lives." The police pursue Treacy; he kills two before being slain himself. The song reports, "He died for Ireland free."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Galvin)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion police death IRA
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 14, 1920 - death of Sean Treacy (Tracey)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 65-66, "Sean Treacy" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tipperary Far Away" (subject: the death of Treacy)
cf. "The Station of Knocklong" (for other activities of Treacy)
NOTES [679 words]: This English-language song conclude with the ironic words, "In our Gaelic tongue we'll tell our sons How brave Sean Treacy died."
It might be more interesting to start by telling why Treacy was pursued. According to the distinctly pro-Irish historian Calton Younger, p. 85,"Two Irish policement were shot dead at Soloheadbeg, on January 21st, 1919....
"[E]ight men of the south Tipperary Brigade of what was soon to be widely known as the Irish Republican Army... lay in ambush for five days waiting for a cart of gelignite [or 'blasting gelatine' -- nitroglycerine plus collodion, a shapable high explosive created by Alfred Nobel].
"[T]he car was guarded by two unwary constables, MacDonnell and O'Connell.... [Both] were popular enough in the district. With them were two employees of the South Tipperary County Council.... [They] were shot down by Sean Treacy, second-in-command of the South Tipperary Brigade."
Kee, p. 58, says of the reaction to this incident, "The two Irish constables, both Catholics, one a widower with four children, were very popular locally and had never had any connection with political prosecutions. Their deaths aroused widespread indication and horror, and there was a poignant moment at the inquest when one of McDonnell's sons asked if they had been given any time to surrender the explosives or if they had had a dog's chance."
It may be that the two made an attempt at resistance. But there is no question: Treacy was a terrorist. Fighting for an Irish republic, but a terrorist. He certainly aimed high, trying to plan an assassination of the Lord Lieutenant (OxfordCompanion, p. 550). In fact, in Younger's view at least, he was the prototype "freedom fighter"/militant: "[Treacy and Dan Breen] were the first to steel themselves to kill, to acquire the kind of mentality that men must acquire to win freedom" (p. 87).
The popular reaction was less positive. Kee p. 58 adds, "The action was condemned as a crime at the masses throughout Tipperary the following Sunday and the Archbishop of Cashel in Thurles Cathedral proclaimed it an offense against the law of God.... [A]nother cleric, Monsignor Ryan, cried, 'God help poor Ireland if she follows this deed of blood.'
"Nevertheless,in spite of an offer of [a thousand pound reward], the killers were able to vanish without a trace until an even more sensational appearance three months later."
Their bloody work did have some effect. Kee, p. 59, notes, "[t]heir objects were often more successfully served by the British authorities' reaction to Volunteer exploits than by the military results of the exploits themselves." Which, of course, is exactly what happened with the Easter Rebellion, too: The Irish despised the initial rebellious act, but despised the severe British response even more.
After many months on the run for this and other incidents (see also the notes to "The Station of Knocklong" and "Tipperary Far Away"), Treacy finally died in a shoot-out with police. He was 25 years old.
According to Younger, p. 121, "they had caught up with him, bringing an armoured car and two lorry loads of auxiliaries." Treacy opened fire, killing at least two of the attackers; they responded with machine gun fire, killing Treacy and two bystanders.
Younger adds that the woman "who identified his body saw that it had been impeccably laid out, and a soldier on guard gave her a lock of Treacy's hair." But Younger does not cite a single source with regard to the death of Treacy; I wonder if parts of his account, incluing the hair, might not be taken from this song and "Tipperary Far Away" (which mentions the hair business).
Kee, p. 116, adds that he "easily became a hero as legendary as Cuchulain." And yet, of eight histories I consulted, Kee is the only one to mention Treacy in three contexts (Knocklong, Soloheadbeg, and his death). One mentions Soloheadbeg and his death, two mention only Soloheadbeg (one of them mentioning him also in his role as part of the hit squad led by Michael Collins), one tells of Knocklong, and the rest don't mention him at all. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: PGa065

Seanduine Doighte, An

See The Burnt-Out Old Fellow [An Seanduine Doighte] (File: K045)

Search and Rescue, The

DESCRIPTION: On August 14, 1955, Daniel Morris and his wife are cod fishing off Souris. The engine dies. They anchor off Cape Spry's rocks in a heavy wind. They are finally rescued by two Mounties, Leonard MacDonald, and his big engine boat.
AUTHOR: Mrs. Dan Morris
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: rescue fishing sea ship storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 27-29, "The Search and Rescue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12476
NOTES [11 words]: Souris is in the northeast corner of Kings, Prince Edward Island. - BS
File: Dib027

Search of the Thomas J, The

DESCRIPTION: The trading boat Thomas J. returns from a supposed trip to Channel and is met by a revenue boat and searched for contraband. The captain says "it's pork and beef... spuds" "The three worst government men that's on the western shore" find nothing.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: crime commerce sea ship political police
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 328-329, "The Search of the Thomas J" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25300
NOTES [132 words]: Newfoundland songs about running rum during Prohibition include "The Brule Boys," "Young Chambers," "Kenneth Shephard" and "Captain Shepherd." Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports says "it is not clear what exactly was being smuggled on the Thomas J., but the reference to the French community of Port-au-Port [on the 'French shore' of the western coast of southern Newfoundland] in line three of stanza six suggests that alcohol was involved." I don't follow that connection unless the people in Port-au-Port maintained a connection, during Prohibition, with French St. Pierre off the south coast of Newfoundland, the source of rum in the other songs cited in this note. Channel, the supposed target port of the Thomas J., is in the western corner of Newfoundland's south coast. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Guig328

Searching for Lambs

DESCRIPTION: A young man meets a girl and asks her where she is going. She is going to feed her father's "tender lambs." He begs her to stay with him. They court for long. (He hopes that) they marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: sheep courting marriage love
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 48, "Searching for Lambs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 90, "Searching for Lambs" (1 text, a composite of five versions)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 49, "Searching for Lambs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H548, p. 341, "One Morning Clear" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 474, SRCHLAMB
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 43, "Searching for Lambs" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LO09A (Partial)
Roud #576
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Branded Lambs" [Laws O9] (theme)
NOTES [18 words]: For the rather vexed relationship of this song with "Branded Lambs" [Laws O9], see the notes to that song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LO09A

Searching for Lambs (II)

See Branded Lambs [Laws O9] (File: LO09)

Searching for Young Lambs

See Searching for Lambs (File: LO09A)

Seascout Chantey

See Sea Scout Chantey (File: ACSF288S)

Seasons in the Valley

DESCRIPTION: "Springtime in the valley, blossoms on the vine," it is time to plant, in "Oratia my valley, that's where I belong." Summer brings fruit. Autumn brings harvest, winter brings rain and houses warmed by fire. "Seasons in the valley, time goes drifting by"
AUTHOR: Rudy Sunde
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: nonballad farming work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 30, "Seasons in the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: COl2030

Seasons of the Year, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer cannot sleep because "this young damsel she runs in my mind." Instead of counting sheep he reviews the seasons' work: when sap runs they bark and saw wood; Then, in turn, comes haymaking, harvest, fall hedging and ditching, etc. until spring
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
KEYWORDS: farming harvest work drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 143, "The Seasons of the Year" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #1, "The Green Grass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 208-209, "The Ploughshare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #169
File: BrMa143

Seasons, The

See The Four Seasons of the Year (File: Leath207)

Seated One Day in a Beautiful Cafe

See Whisper Your Mother's Name (File: MN1098)

Sebastopol (Old England's Gained the Day; Capture and Destruction of Sebastopol; Cheer, Boys, Cheer)

DESCRIPTION: "Cheer lads, cheer! the enemy is quaking ... our foes we did defeat, ... Sebastopol is taken." Pellisier and Simpson lead the French and English "their cannons loud did rattle ... and the flags of France and England waved on Sebastopol."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: army battle war England France Russia shanty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 9, 1855 - Fall of Sevastopol following an 11 month siege
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 31, "Old England's Gained the Day" (1 text)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 428-429, "Sebastopol" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 322-323]
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 219, "Cheer, Boys, Cheer" (1 short text, speaking of England rather than the Civil War; I suspect it is a modified version of this song)
ST SmHa041 (Partial)
Roud #8293
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(215) , "Capture and Destruction of Sebastopol" ("Cheer lads, cheer! the enemy is quaking"), A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1855?; Firth b.25(586), "Capture and Destruction of Sebastopol"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Newfoundland and Sebastopol" (subject, theme)
cf. "Cheer, Boys, Cheer!" (tune, per broadsides Bodleian Firth b.26(215) and Bodleian Firth b.25(586))
NOTES [158 words]: Bodleian, Harding B 26(95), "Cheer, Boys Cheer, for the Fall of Sebastopol" ("Cheer lads cheer, for Brittannia's sons none bolder"), J. Moore (Belfast), 1846-1852 [not possible] is a similar broadside.
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia has this fragment as a capstan shanty. - BS
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas also has it as a capstan shanty, and calls it a "broken-down version of the original march, or rather of its chorus. The original march tune was known as the 'Loth-to-depart.'" - [RBW, BS]
There are quite a few other broadsides floating around called "Cheer, Boys, Cheer," celebrating other events. I haven't seen any evidence that they're traditional. Similarly, Charles Mackay wrote "Cheer Boys! Cheer! No More of Idle Sorrow," with music set by Henry Russell, but it never seems to have escaped from the straitjacket of sheet music. (If you want to see it, it's in Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 86-87.) - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: SmHa041

Secession Wagon, The

See The Southern Wagon (Union) (File: JHCox070)

Second Carol

See Awake and Join the Cheerful Choir (File: CoMo015)

Second of August, The

See The Battle of Boulogne (File: StoR178)

Second Story Window

DESCRIPTION: "The window, the window The second story window With a heave and a ho, And a mighty throw They threw it out the window."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 137, "Second Story Window" (notes only)
File: ACSF1372

Second-Handed Clothes

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, they sent for me to the old country, And how they got me here And the business they have got me in Is second-handed clothes." The driver has a red nose; he or his jackass has a big leg, but they are fine for the clothing business
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong)
KEYWORDS: clothes animal emigration
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 254, "Second-Handed Clothes" (1 short text)
Roud #5252
File: NeDe254

Secret Prayer, The

DESCRIPTION: Call and response. Verses are a single line, repeated. Responses alternate: "Ah-a-a" and "I've been on the secret prayer." Verse lines include "I've died once to die no more," "I've been down and viewed the cross," "I've been down to Jacob's well"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Bible
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 24, "Um Died Once To Die No Mo'" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [143 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well (John 4).
"Secret prayer" is in some hymn book hymns, though not in this context (see, for example, Starke Dupuy, Hymns and Spiritual Songs (Louisville: Morton and Griswold, 1841 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #110 p. 362: ("Let us ask the important question"), "'Tis to hear the Holy Spirit Prompting us to secret prayer To rejoice in Jesus' merit, Yet continual sorrow bear"). King James Matthew 6:6 has, "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."
The Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text seems to me more in the line of a recounting of a spiritual journey as among Spiritual Baptists. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa024

Section Gang Song

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, captain, captain, I'm goin' away to leave you (x3), By next payday, oh captain, next payday." The singer talks of work on the section gang, complains about not being paid, and declares that he will leave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (T. C. I. Section Crew, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: worksong railroading nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 647, "Section Gang Song" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Anderson, "Spotlight on Culture: Menhaden Chanteys - An African American Maritime Legacy" in Maryland Marine Notes, Vol 14, No 1 (Jan-Feb 2000) available at http://www.mdsg.umd.edu/maryland-marine-notes-archive accessed November 12, 2016, p. 5, ("Captain don't you know") (1 text)
Roud #17785
RECORDINGS:
Bright Light Quartet, ("Cap'n don't you know all your crew is goin' to leave you") (on LomaxCD1708)
T. C. I. Section Crew, "Section Gang Song" (Paramount 12478, 1927)
NOTES [310 words]: According to Cohen, this is one of only two railroad Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work released on a commercial 78 (the other being "Track Linin'," which appears to be a version of "Can'cha Line 'Em"). He thinks they may be the earliest worksong recordings of any sort. - RBW
Almost, but not quite; Robert Winslow Gordon was recording sea chanteys in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1920s" - PJS
Odum and Johnson have the following verses in a song among the set they refer to as worker and wanderer "'captain' songs": "Lawd, captain, captain, did you hear, Lawd, captain, did you hear about it? All your men gonna leave you, All your men gonna leave you on next pay day" "On next pay day, Lawd, On next pay day, Lawd. Captain, all your men gonna be gone On next pay day" (Howard W. Odum and Guy B. Johnson, Negro Workaday Songs (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 100-101, "Captain, I'll Be Gone" (1 text)).
The T. C. I. Section Crew recording has a leader lining out at least the beginning of each verse and the crew harmonizing. This brings up the question of how the song sounded when the men were working. When was the work done -- during the singing or between lines -- or between lines? If the work was a rest-while-singing-and-pull-between-lines then it is instructive to listen to the menhaden chantey versions, which are exactly like that. Further, the menhaden chanteys were harmonized, like church hymns, during the work.
The T.C.I. Section Crew recording includes the "told the high sheriff" verse of "Poor Lazarus." The menhaden chanteymen freely mixed songs that had the same line structure, and "Poor Lazarus" was a favorite among them.
The LomaxCD1708 song is part of the "Menhaden Chanteys" track.
See the notes to "Help Me to Raise Them" for information about menhaden chanteys. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LSRai647

Sedgefield Fair

DESCRIPTION: "Owd Dickie Thompson 'e 'ad a grey mare, 'E took 'er away to Sedgfield Fair" but could not get any money for her. On the way home, she runs into a tree. They have other problems with the mare and his hens; trying to to shoot the birds, he kills the mare
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Palmer)
KEYWORDS: humorous travel horse chickens
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #112, "Sedgefield Fair" (1 text 1 tune)
Roud #294
NOTES [57 words]: Roud lists this as a version of Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn), but the only similarity I can see is a series of stumbling adventures ending with the main character (in this case, Dick) making a comment. Palmer thinks it's a version of "Tom Pearce (Widdicombe Fair I)." That's closer, but the details are so different that I split the songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: PECS112

See a Pin and Pick It Up

DESCRIPTION: "See a pin and pick it up, All the day you'll have good luck, See a pin and let it lay, Bad luck you'll have all the day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 120, "(See a pin and pick it up)" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #111 n. 86, pp. 93-95, "(See a pin and pick it up)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 171, "See a Pin and Pick It Up" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 23, "See a Pin" (1 text)
Roud #20003
File: Dolb171

See Aunt Dinah

DESCRIPTION: Call and response. The response lines are "See Aunt Dinah ... See my Lord." The leader lines are couplets, frequently floaters like "Some of these morning and it won't be long ... Look for me and I'll be gone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (LomaxCD1713)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #21450
RECORDINGS:
Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "See Aunt Dinah" (on LomaxCD1713)
NOTES [95 words]: Alan Lomax and Anna L. Chairetakis, liner notes for LomaxCD1713 have this as "a ring play, in which black dancers swung and swapped partners ... version of the Virginia reel"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 487, indexed here as "Old Aunt Dinah," shares a couplet, "I'm going away," but the structure and use are different. "Aunt Dinah" is itself a floating reference. In Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3, for example, "Aunt Dinah" appears in #430 D "Ain't Gonna Rain No More" and #475 "Hung My Bucket on de White Folks' Fence." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcSeAuDi

See Four and Twenty Elders On Their Knees

DESCRIPTION: "See four and twenty elders on their knees (x2), And we'll all rise together and view the rising sun, O Lord have mercy if you please." "They are bowing round the altar...." "See Gideon's army bowing...." "See Daniel 'mong the lions...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 71, "See Fo' an' Twenty Elders" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 105 in the 1901 edition)
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 270-271, "Face duh Risin' Sun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15219
RECORDINGS:
Starlight Gospel Singers, "Lord, Have Mercy If You Please" (on MuSouth07)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Didn't Ol' John Cross the Water on His Knees" (lyrics, form)
NOTES [491 words]: The songs "See Four and Twenty Elders On Their Knees" and "Didn't Ol' John Cross the Water on His Knees" are so close that we seriously considered lumping them, but Roud splits them, so we have kept them very tentatively separate. - BS, RBW
Each of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses continues "on their knees, And we'll all rise together and view the rising sun, O Lord have mercy if you please"
In viewing the rising sun the worshippers will see Christ returning (Matthew 24:3: "And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world." 4: "And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you...." 26: "Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: Behold, he is in secret chambers; believe it not." 27: "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (King James) So, for example, the dead are buried so that when they rise they will face Jesus "when he appears in the east" (Wayland D. Hand, editor, The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore (Durham: Duke University Press, 1964), Vol. VII, #5482, pp. 91-92.)
A similar chorus, for a hymn to the tune of "The Resurrection," is "We'll all rise together in the morning, In the morning children, in the morning, We'll all rise together in the morning." with floating verses like "If you get there before I do, Look out for me, I'm coming too." (W. McDonald and S. Hubbard, The Wesleyan Sacred Harp (Boston: John P. Jewett & Co, 1857 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")),p. 149, ("Although you see me").
Biblical references, all from King James version:
The "four and twenty elders" are cited on Revelation 4:2-10 ("And immediately I was in the spirit: and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne... The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne ....").
The selection by Gideon of his army has all candidates bowing on their knees to take the qualifying test (Judges 7:4-7). [A rather peculiar interpretation, that -- the troops were told to take a drink, and both the Jewish Tanakh edition and the New Revised Standard Version agree that some knelt and some lapped up the water, but they were drinking water and selected by an arbitrary test. - RBW]
Daniel in the lion's den is Daniel 6. Daniel 6:10 has "Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his window being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, ...."
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang verses are "We will all (sing/drink wine/eat bread/pray) together on that day (2x) And I'll fall upon my knees And face the rising sun O Lord have mercy on me" - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Dett071

See God's Ark A-Moving

DESCRIPTION: The leader sings a line such as "Let me tell you the news." "God said to Noah." "Tell him to build an ark." "You know I gonna destroy the land." The congregation sings "See God ark" Leader: "Tell me how long." Congregation: "See God ark a'moving."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (USSeaIsland01)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Benjamin Bligen and the Moving Star Hall Singers, "See God's Ark A-Moving" (on USSeaIsland01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Ark's A-Moverin'" (lyrics)
NOTES [99 words]: The Biblical reference for Noah and the ark is Genesis 6-8.
The current description is based on the USSeaIsland01 text.
The USSeaIsland01 track is call-response. Syncopated clapping starts slowly and speeds up -- with the leader singing only "Ask my partner how long" "Ask my class how long" "Sister how long" followed by the usual three lines -- into what the liner notes describe as a "shout." The Herskovits Trinidadian Spiritual Baptist account of "Jesus Lover of My Soul" fits this track as well. Although this is not a Sankey hymn, the performance style matches "Sankey into Shout." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcSGAAM

See How Anansi Tie Tiger

DESCRIPTION: "See how Anansi tie Tiger (3x), Tie him like a hog, Tiger"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Beckwith-Ballad)
KEYWORDS: trick nonballad animal
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Martha W Beckwith, "The English Ballad in Jamaica: a Note Upon the Origin of the Ballad Form" in _Publications of the Modern Language Association_ [PMLA], Vol. XXXIXI, No. 2 (Jun 1924 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 458, "See How Anansi tie Tiger" (1 text)
NOTES [74 words]: Beckwith: "Old Forbes ended his rehearsal of the familiar [cante fable] Tiger my fader's Riding-Horse with [this] breakdown .... Such a conclusion is an invitation to the audience to get up and dance." See Martha Warren Beckwith and Helen Roberts, Jamaica Anansi Stories (New York: American Folklore Society, 1924 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #3, pp. 5-6, 235, "Tiger as Riding-horse," where Forbes does not sing this "breakdown." - BS
Last updated in version 3.8
File: MWBJa458

See Me Dance the Polka

DESCRIPTION: "A fig for your set of Lances, A fig for teh gay Quadrille." "You should see my coattails flying As I carry my partner around." The singer always dances when the music starts, "For the rare old, jolly old polka Is the merriest thing I know."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (sung by George Grosssmith, according to Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: dancing music | polka
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 71, "You should see my coattails flying" (1 short text, of the chorus)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 238-240, "See Me Dance the Polka" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #26986
File: KSUC071A

See me Here

DESCRIPTION: "See me here my (leader/Deacon/Preacher), See me here. All around the body, See me here"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: funeral nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 256-257, "Sim-me Yuh Muh Leaduh" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [40 words]: e description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect.
According to Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, "This spiritual is usually sung at wakes, while marching around the body." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR256A

See Saw Sacradown

DESCRIPTION: "See-saw, sacradown, Which is the way to London/Boston town? One foot up and the other foot down, That is the way to London town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammer Gurton's Garland, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: travel | London foot counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 309, "See-saw Sacradown" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #623, p. 248, "(See, saw, sacaradown)"
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p118, "See-saw Sacradown" (1 text)
Roud #20213
NOTES [13 words]: The Baring-Goulds suggest this was used by sawyers to keep time with a saw. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: OO2309

See See Rider

See Easy Rider (File: LxU022)

See That My Grave Is Kept Clean

DESCRIPTION: Singer, dying, asks that his grave be kept clean, that his grave be dug with a silver spade, and that he be lowered with a golden chain.
AUTHOR: probably Blind Lemon Jefferson
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Blind Lemon Jefferson)
KEYWORDS: death dying funeral nonballad religious floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 92, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 114-115, "Sad and Lonesome Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 139, "(One Kind Favor)" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 81, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" (1 partial text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 300-301, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" (1 text)
Roud #7382
RECORDINGS:
[Joe] Evans & [Arthur] McClain, "Two White Horses in a Line" (Oriole 8081/Perfect 182/Romeo 5081, 1931; on BefBlues1, as "Two White Horses" on StuffDreams2)
Blind Lemon Jefferson, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" (Paramount 12608B, 1928; on AAFM3; improperly listed as "Two White Horses" on the CD reissue cover though not in the notes; also on Jefferson01, JeffersonCD01)
Mike Seeger, "Sad and Lonesome Day" (on MSeeger01)
Hobart Smith, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" (on LomaxCD1704)
Ruby Vass, "Lonesome Day" (on Persis1)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Two White Horses In a Line
NOTES [149 words]: In 1870, Gus Williams composed an item "See that My Grave's Kept Green"; I have no idea whether it affected this song. - RBW
I've seen the sheet music for Williams's piece, and the only thing it has in common with this song is the title phrase. The rest is a sentimentally melancholy bit of Victoriana. - PJS
For those who want to hear the Williams song itself, there are several 78 recordings, one by Bela Lam & his Greene County Singers (OKeh 45126, 1927) and a variety by the Carter Family (Victor 23835, 1933; Zonophone [South Africa] 4379, n.d.; Melotone 7-04-53/Conqueror 8735, 1937). In all cases the Williams song is recorded under the "See That My Grave Is Kept Green" title. - RBW, PJS
Some have speculated that the Jefferson song is descended from an ancestral spiritual, and that Williams wrote his song in imitation of that spiritual. There is no evidence on that question. -PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: ADR92

See the Waters A-Gliding

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

See the Woman at the Well

DESCRIPTION: "Jesus going through the land and on his way got thirsty; He stopped at the well in Canaan's land The town was called S(y)myrna." The story of Jesus and the Woman of Samaria, with chorus, "Oh, there's no one can love you like Jesus."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 208-211, "See the Woman at the Well" (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 209-212)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well" (subject)
cf. "The Maid and the Palmer" [Child 21] (subject)
cf. "Lift Him Up That's All" (subject)
NOTES [94 words]: Although this doubtless sounds like a version of "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well," it appears from the lyrics that they are separate.
For the story of Jesus and the Woman of Samaria, see John 4:5-26. This song follows that account fairly closely except for the name of the town. John 4:5 gives the location of Jacob's Well as "Sychar" (well, a few unimportant manuscripts read something else, e.g. "Sychem," but none read Smyrna, a town in Asia Minor mentioned in the first two chapters of the Revelation to John). The King James Bible in any case says "Sychar." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa208

See This Pretty Little Girl of Mine

See This Pretty Girl of Mine (File: GrD81572)

See-Saw

See See-Saw, Margery Daw, Jacky Shall Have a New Master (File: GrD81683)

See-saw, Jack a Daw

DESCRIPTION: "See-saw, Jack a daw, Whit is a craw Tae dae wi her? She hasna a stockin Tae pit on her, An the craw hasna ane For tae gie her"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: poverty bird nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 335, "See-saw, Margery Daw" (1 text in footnote, p. 351)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #128, p. 72, ("See-saw, Jack a daw")
Roud #20216
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "See-Saw, Marjorie Daw, The Old Hen Flew over the Malt House" (lyric form)
cf. "See-Saw, Margery Daw, Jacky Shall Have a New Master" (lyric form)
NOTES [13 words]: A jackdaw is a kind of crow.
The description is all of the Chambers text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: ChMT128

See-Saw, Maggoty Daw

See See-Saw, Margery Daw, Sold Her Bed and Lay On Straw (File: DeSh092)

See-Saw, Margery Daw, Jacky Shall Have a New Master

DESCRIPTION: "See, saw, Margery Daw, Little Jackey shall have a new master; Little Jacky shall have but a penny a day, Because he can't work any faster." Additional verses may have sexual or other implications.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 335, "See-saw, Margery Daw" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1683, "See-Saw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #622, #624, pp. 647-248, "(See Saw)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 188, "See-Saw, Margery Daw" (1 text, probably combining versions)
Roud #13028
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "See-Saw, Marjorie Daw, The Old Hen Flew over the Malt House" (lyric form)
cf. "See-Saw, Margery Daw, Sold Her Bed and Lay On Straw" (lyric form)
NOTES [47 words]: Roud lumps the various Margery Daw rhymes, which is certainly understandable, but they do not normally seem to have circulated as one piece, so I'd call them separate.
For background on the complex, see the notes to "See-Saw, Marjorie Daw, The Old Hen Flew over the Malt House." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: GrD81683

See-Saw, Margery Daw, Sold Her Bed and Lay On Straw

DESCRIPTION: "See-saw, Margery Daw, Sold her bed and lay upon straw; Was not she a dirty slut, To sell her bed and lie in the dirt?" Or ""...and lay upon straw. Sold her bed and lay upon hay, Piskey came and carried her away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1765 (Mother Goose's Melody, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: home travel
FOUND IN: Britain(England) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 336, "See-saw, Margery Daw" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #624, p. 248, ("See Saw, Margery Daw)"; cf. #578, p. 233, "(See, saw, Margery Daw)"; cf #622, p. 247, "(See saw, Margery Daw)"
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 7, "See-saw, maggoty daw" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 18, "(See, saw)" (1 txt)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 188, "See-Saw, Margery Daw" (1 text, probably combining versions)
ADDITIONAL: Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 92, "(See-saw, Margery Daw)" (1 short text)
Roud #13028
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "See-saw, Jack a Daw" (lyric form)
cf. "See-Saw, Margery Daw, Jacky Shall Have a New Master" (lyric form)
cf. "See-Saw, Marjorie Daw, The Old Hen Flew over the Malt House" (lyric form)
NOTES [47 words]: Roud lumps the various Margery Daw rhymes, which is certainly understandable, but they do not normally seem to have circulated as one piece, so I'd call them separate.
For background on the complex, see the notes to "See-Saw, Marjorie Daw, The Old Hen Flew over the Malt House." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: DeSh092

See-Saw, Marjorie Daw (I)

See See-Saw, Marjorie Daw, The Old Hen Flew over the Malt House (File: BGMG578)

See-Saw, Marjorie Daw (II)

See See-Saw, Margery Daw, Jacky Shall Have a New Master (File: GrD81683)

See-Saw, Marjorie Daw, The Old Hen Flew over the Malt House

DESCRIPTION: "See, saw, Margery Daw, The old hen flew over the malt house, She counted her chickens one by one, Still she missed the little white one, And this is it, this is it, this is it."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (Halliwell, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: chickens nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 117-118, "See-Saw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 337, "See-saw, Margery Daw" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #578, p. 233, "(See, saw, Margery Daw)"; cf. #622, p. 247, "(See saw, Margery Daw)"; #624, p. 248, ("See Saw, Margery Daw)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 164, "See-Saw, Margery Day" (1 text)
Roud #13028
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "See-saw, Jack a Daw" (lyric form)
cf. "See-Saw, Margery Daw, Jacky Shall Have a New Master" (lyric form)
cf. "See-Saw, Margery Daw, Sold Her Bed and Lay On Straw" (lyric form)
NOTES [221 words]: Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes has two other entries with this first line: "See-saw, Margery Daw, Jacky shall have a new master" [Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 335] and "See-saw, Margery Daw, Sold her bed and lay upon straw" [Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 336], which see also.
In 1873, T. B. Aldrich wrote a story about Marjorie Daw (who did not actually exist); Benet, p. 691 (entry on "Marjorie Daw"). I don't know if the story inspired some of the rhymes, or whether they all predate it.
Thomas, p. 166, explains that "Margery Daw is an old English and Scotch term for idle vanity" -- but on the same page informs us that the 'Sold her bed and lay upon straw" version is about William Cecil, Lord Burleigh's entry into Gray's Inn in 1541 to study law. Since Cecil's title was "1st Baron Burghley," or "Lord Burghley," I leave it to the reader to decide how many of Thomas's hallucinatory ideas to swallow. The Opies, following the Oxford English Dictionary instead give "Daw" as a lazy person.
Daw is the name of the third shepherd in the famous Wakefield "Second Shepherd's Play," but I doubt that is relevant.
Roud lumps the various Margery Daw rhymes, which is certainly understandable, but they do not normally seem to have circulated as one piece, so I'd call them separate. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: BGMG578

See, See, My Playmate

DESCRIPTION: "See, see, my playmate Come out and play with me Under the apple tree." Bring your dollies, slide down the drainpipe or my rainbow, into the cellar door. We'll be friends forever more.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty friend campsong
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North)) US(MW,SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 94-95, "Come Over, Playmate"; pp. 99-101, "My Jolly Paymate"; pp. 105-106, "My Enemy" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 148, "See, See, My Playmate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 250, 499, 513, "Playmates" (notes only)
ADDITIONAL: Janet M. Cliff, "On Relationships between Folk Music and Folk Games" in Western Folklore, Vol. LI, No. 2 (Apr 1992 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 136 ("Say, say, oh playmate, come out and play with me") (1 text, 1 tune) [citing Carol Merrill-Mirsky, "Girls' Handclapping Games in Three Los Angeles Schools" in _Yearbook for Traditional Music_ 18 (1986)]
Roud #16805
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Oh Little Playmate" (Piotr-Archive #398, recorded 12/21/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard" (theme, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Say, Say, Oh Playmate
NOTES [141 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "The words of this clapping game have not drifted very far from its source, the popular song 'Playmates', words and music by Saxie Dowell, 1940: Play-mate -- come out and play with me..."
Dowell's lyrics begin, "Oh, playmates, come out and play with me, And bring your dollies three. Climb up my apple tree. Look down my rain barrel, slide down my cellar door, And we'll be jolly friends forevermore (source: Rammstein UK site). - BS
I'm also reminded of the song "I Don't Want to Play In Your Yard," reportedly written in 1894 by Philip Wingate (words) and H. W. Petrie (music), according to p. 274 of Spaeth's A History of Popular Music in America.: the fussy singer doesn't want to holler down the rain barrel or climb the apple tree. This connection is also made by List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: OpGa148

See, See, The Cape's In View

See So It's Pass (File: CrNS056)

Seeds of Love, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer "sowed the seeds of love to bloom all in the spring." She asks the gardener to choose flowers for her; she does not like his offers, but chooses the rose. This in turn brings her to the willow tree
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1689 (cited in Sharp; first full text from Campbell, 1816)
KEYWORDS: gardening seduction
FOUND IN: US(MW) Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland(Aber)) Australia
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 28, "Once I Had Plenty of Thyme" (2 texts, 1 tune, both texts being mixed with "In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme")
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 33, "The Seeds of Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 271-272, "The Seeds of Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 86-87, "The Seeds of Love" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 372.1)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #30, pp. 222-223, "The Seeds of Love" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #84, "The Seeds of Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 49-50, "The Seeds of Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 440-441, "The Seeds of Love" (1 text)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 37, "The Seeds of Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 91, "The Seeds of Love" (6 texts)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 116B and 116C, "The Seeds of Love"; Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 116E, "Dead Maid's Land"; Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 116 note, "The Maid's Lament for the Loss of Her Maiden-head" (4 texts)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 59, "The Seeds of Love" (1 text, 3 tunes)
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 14, "Seeds of Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #52, "The Seeds of Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #67, p. 2, "The Seeds of Love" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1180, "The Seeds of Love" (2 texts)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 167, "The Seeds of Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 162-163, "The Red Rose Top" (1 text, 1 tune, linked by the authors to this tune, although it's so short it might be part of "In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme")
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 55, "The Seeds of Love" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune, with some words similar to "The Seeds of Love" though the only surviving verse looks more like a courting song)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 54, "The Seeds of Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 520-523, "The Willow Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, pp. 6-7, "The Seeds of Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, (THYMTH2) (RUETHYME*)
ST K167 (Partial)
Roud #3
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "The Seeds of Love" (on Maynard1, Voice10, FSBFTX15)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1657), "I Sowed the Seeds of Love ("I sowed the seeds of love it was all in the spring"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(3855)[many lines illegible; title damaged], "I Sow[ed the] Seeds [of love]"; Firth c.18(98), 2806 c.17(381), "Seeds of Love"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "The Gowans Are Gay"
cf. "The Wanton Seed" (theme)
NOTES [110 words]: In flower symbolism, the rose stood for love and the willow for weeping. For a catalog of some of the sundry flower symbols, see the notes to "The Broken-Hearted Gardener."
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland reports that "the author of the song was Mrs. Fleetwood Habergham, of Habergham, in the county of Lancaster," but offers no date or supporting evidence.
Steve Roud lumps this with the mass of thyme songs, e.g. "Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme)." I understand why he doesn't want to try to split the (very similar) thyme songs, but this strikes me as truly distinct. - RBW
The Voice10 recording is as by Pop Maynard. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K167

Seeing Dem Lordy (Stain Dem Bloody)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Seeing them Lord and you seeing them dance about, seeing them." People are travelling up and down the road: to Galilee, to Zion, all over Canaan.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious travel
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Ebenezer Phil, "Seeing Dem Lordy (Stain Dem Bloody)" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [80 words]: This is a Spiritual Baptist hymn. That raises a question whenever travelling is featured: is this just incidental travelling to holy sites or is this a reference to, in Zane's words, "Journeys to the Spiritual Lands"? Each member of the community is a shaman-pilgrim to "spiritual lands," and reports to the congregation, "on my pilgrim journey, I found myself ...." (Wallace W. Zane, Journeys to the Spiritual Lands (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 18-22, 121-125.) - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcSDLSDB

Seeing Nellie Home

DESCRIPTION: "In the sky the bright stars glittered; On the bank the pale moon shone. It was from Aunt Dinah's quilting party I was seeing Nellie home." The singer professes his love for Nellie on the way. Evidently they get married, because they are now old together
AUTHOR: Words: F. Kyle / Music: John Fletcher
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (sheet music published by J. S. Paine of Portland, Maine)
KEYWORDS: love courting age party
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 79, "Seeing Nellie Home" (1 text)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 229-232, "When I Saw Sweet Nellie Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 289, "Seeing Nelly Home" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 403, "The Quilting Party" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #144, "The Quilting Party" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2570, p. 174, "When I Saw Sweet Nellie Home" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 5 and #5/64, p. 5, "When I saw Sweet Nellie Home" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 254, "Seing Nellie Home (Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party)" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #313, p. 76, "The Quilting Party" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, pp. 24-25, "Seeing Nellie Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, pp. 22-23, "Seeing Nellie Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 47, "Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NELLHOME
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 72, "The Quilting Party" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 23 of part III in the 1876 edition)
John Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1920_, self-published, 1918 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland site), p. 6, "When I Saw Sweet Nellie Home" (1 text)
ST RJ19229 (Full)
Roud #5492
RECORDINGS:
Floyd County Ramblers, "Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party" (Victor V-40331, 1930; Bluebird B-5107/Electra-Disc 2021/Sunrise S-3190, 1933)
Haydn Quartet, "Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party" (Victor 2456, 1903)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Seeing Nellie Home" (Brunswick 199, 1928; rec. 1927)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party
NOTES [175 words]: The early history of this song is slightly confused. It first appeared in 1856, but evidently in an unauthorized edition perhaps taken from a minstrel troupe performance.
In 1859 the composer, John Fletcher, issued an official edition (published by William A. Pond) -- complete with complaints about the previous editions. Yet in this text Nelly was not brought home from "Aunt Dinah's quilting party" but "from an august evening party." Jackson thinks this an error; it strikes me as possible that this was a deliberate change intended to differentiate the editions. Even stranger, the cover of the 1859 edition calls the girl "Nellie," but inside she is "Nelly." One can only suppose that neither she nor her swain could read too well.
Even the name of the author varies; the 1856 edition calls her(?) Frances Kyle; the 1859 edition omits the name; in 1884 the name is given variously as Frances and Francis.
Another early edition, listed on p. 174 of Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, says the song was "As sung by Charles Melville" but lists no author. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RJ19229

Seeing Nelly Home

See Seeing Nellie Home (File: RJ19229)

Seeing the Elephant (When I Left the States for Gold)

DESCRIPTION: "When I left the states for gold, Everything I had I sold." The singer encounters various troubles (and Mormons) on the way west, and warns, "Leave, you miners leave... Take my advice, kill off your lice...." (To the tune of "De Boatman Dance")
AUTHOR: Words: David Robinson? John A. Stone?/Music: Daniel Decatur Emmett
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes gold warning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 347, "When I Left the States for Gold" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 87-88, "Seeing the Elephant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7773
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "De Boatman Dance" (tune)
NOTES [69 words]: The history of this is a bit obscure. It was David "Doc" Robinson who founded the "Seeing the Elephant" show in San Francisco in 1850, and Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest credits the song to him. But this song, to the tune of "De Boatman Dance," appeared in Put's Original California Songster. I can't tell whether Put worked on something Robinson wrote, or just commemorated his performances. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Beld347

Seek and Ye Shall Find

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Seek and ye shall find, Knock and the door shall be opened, Ask and it shall be given, And the love comes trickling down." Verse: "My brother (my sister, Elder, Deacon, Preacher, ...) the Lord has been here, And the love comes trickling down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute); 1893 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 20-21, "Seek and Ye Shall Find" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 101 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 546, "Seek and Ye Shall Find" (notes only; I cannot be certain that it is this song, but the Biblical text is certainly the same)
Roud #15286
NOTES [54 words]: An allusion to Matthew 7:7. - RBW
The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "Seek and ye shall find" on page 101 (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 101. - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Dett020

Seek Not from Whence Love She Came

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves a colleen who's "happy in old Donegal." "Her figure is proper and tall,' her voice is "sweeter by far than the songbird." Singer says "I know she's an angel, And I'm not going to tell you her name." Soon they will marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (IRHardySons)
KEYWORDS: courting Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #17897
RECORDINGS:
Mary Anne Connelly, "Seek Not from Whence Love She Came" (on IRHardySons)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pride of Kilkee" (motif: hiding a sweetheart's name) and references there
cf. "Tons of Bright Gold" (motif: hiding a sweetheart's name) and references there
File: RcSNWLSC

Seemanns Trinkleid, Des

DESCRIPTION: Forebitter shanty. German. "Ein richtiger Seemanschwingt's GLas fein behend'." A "real sailor" "loves both the sea and the wine." Whatever his task at sea, he knows he'll get his grog soon. Once in port, he can drink even more freely
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: sailor shanty drink foreignlanguage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 169, "Des Seemanns Trinkleid" (2 texts, German & English, 1 tune)
File: HSoSe169

Segar, The

DESCRIPTION: "The old year is gone, and a new one begun, I'll set by the fire by my wife and my son. While others are playing destruction and war, I'll set by the fire and smoke my segar." The poet enjoys life with his cigar, and will take another when it is done.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (source: Flanders-ChapBook Flanders-VermontChapBook)
KEYWORDS: drugs wife husband nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders-ChapBook Flanders-VermontChapBook, pp. 22-23, "The Segar" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: FlaCh22

Sego Lily

DESCRIPTION: "Greeting to thee, Sego Lily, Blossom of the sagebrush desert, Lend us thy blessing dear." The singer asks its story: Did God send it to Utah as a pioneer? Will it be in heaven if the singer goes there?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious flowers | Mormon Utah
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 73-74, "Sego Lily" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12588
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gift of the Sego Lily" (subject of the Mormon lily)
NOTES [77 words]: The sego lily is a popular symbol in Utah; a Washington Post story ("This is Utah's new flag -- and here's why more states are mulling redesigns" by Kim Bellware; March 25, 2023) said that they are the flowers in the old Utah state flag. Of course, the reason the Post had the story was that Utah was planning to change its flag, mostly because it was too complicated. So the lilies are gone, but that doesn't really change their significance to the state. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS073

Seimidh Eoghainin Duibh (Dark-Haired Jimmy Owen)

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the fine clothing she would place on Jimmy Owen. She says how the girls would fight over him. She wishes he had been in battle with O'Donnell. She looks back on the days of a united Ireland, and thinks that Jimmy would have been king
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love clothes beauty royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1598 - The Tyrone/O'Donnell Rebellion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 46, "Seimidh Eoghainin Duibh (Dark-Haired Jimmy Owen)" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [88 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland describes this as "an entirely local song from west Donegal" (though the tune is known in Scotland). He is probably right; I've never seen any other versions. But the band Scartaglen (the group in which Connie Dover got her start) recorded a version, apparently derived from Kennedy, so I thought we should include the song just because people might look it up.
For the background on the rebellion referred to in this song, see the notes to "O'Donnell Aboo (The Clanconnell War Song)." - RBW
File: K046

Seine, The

DESCRIPTION: "One night along the river at St. Germainde Pre I first met my beloved at a small side walk cafe." The singer wonders when he will ever see her again by the Seine. They parted by the Eiffel Tower, and he will remember for years
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: love separation river France
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 543, 559, "The Seine" (notes only)
DT, THESEINE
NOTES [29 words]: Averill lists this as a camp song, but I didn't find it in any of my camp songbooks although there was a song listed to the tune of "The Seine." Whatever that tells us. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF543S

Seizure of the Cyprus Brig in Recherche Bay

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you sons of freedom, a chorus join with me, I'll sing a song of heroes and glorious liberty." Transportees who got in trouble are put on the Cyprus to be sent to a new prison. The prisoners rebel and gain their freedom
AUTHOR: "Frank the Poet" (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads)
KEYWORDS: transportation prison crime mutiny escape freedom
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1829 - the Cyprus Mutiny
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 65-67, "Seizure of the Cyprus Brig in Recherche Bay" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Geoffrey C. Ingleton, _True Patriots All: or News from Early Australia as told in A Collection of Broadsides_ ("Garnered and Decorated" by Ingleton), Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1988, p. 129, "Seizure of the Cyprus Brig in Recherche Bay" (1 text)
Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 487, "Seizure of the Cyprus Brig" (1 text, with a tune on p. 608)
Roud #9122
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cyprus Brig" (subject)
NOTES [716 words]: This song is about a true event, but the details are often a little hazy. Robert Hughes, The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding, Knopf, 1986, pp. 214-216, has a summary of the events involving the Cyprus, and quotes several stanzas of this song.
The convicts on the Cyprus had originally been sent to Van Diemen's Land, but committed additional offenses there and were to be sent to Macquarie Harbour, a harsher encampment. There were 31 of them. Contrary to the song, their crimes were not "little trifling offences"; most were capital crimes that had been commuted to secondary transportation (Hughes, p. 215).
William Swallow, the key figure, is perhaps a case in point. As early as 1810, he had "hijacked" a schooner at Port Jackson, which resulted in his transportation to Tasmania. Sent there aboard the Deveron, his actions during a storm saved the ship, so the crew rescued him after he was turned over to the authorities in Hobart. He made it all the way to Rio before the British caught him again. He escaped again, but rather than flee to someplace safe, he went to London, where he was caught and once again transported. So he ended up in Tasmania, where he managed to get in even greater trouble, resulting in his transfer to the Cyprus.
The officer in charge of the Cyprus was a Lieutenant Carew, who commanded not only the ship's crew but also sufficient soldiers to (it was thought) guard the convicts. Not even all the convicts wanted to rebel; 13 were not part of the plot. But, somehow, the rebellious convicts overpowered Carew, the soldiers, the crew, and the loyal convicts when they were at Recherche Bay near the southern tip of Tasmania. They then forced Carew and Co. to leave the ship.
In all, they sent 45 people over the side: Carew, his wife, the soldiers, the loyal convicts, etc. Despite having a large load of supplies for Macquarie Harbour available (supposedly a year's rations for 200 people), the mutineers left minimal provisions for the loyalists, who very nearly starved. A convict named Popjoy and Mrs. Carew managed to build a 12-foot coracle out of branches and old hammocks, and they were able to get help, just in time to save the survivors (Hughes, pp. 215-216). Popjoy was given a free pardon for his heroism and allowed to return to England.
The mutineers, meanwhile, had put Swallow in charge, presumably because of his sea experience. How he navigated the ship I don't know (being a sailor isn't the same as being a navigator!), but after making several island stops, they ended up in Japan in 1829. Several of the mutineers left the ship there, or even before they got there. (According to the Wikipedia article on the Cyprus mutiny, this part of the voyage, often dismissed as fiction, has now been corroborated by Japanese records.) Swallow and several others ended up in China, having abandoned or lost the ship. Swallow presented himself at Canton (the city properly known as Guangzhou) as a captain who had lost his ship, and managed to make it back to England *again*.
Swallow's stubbornness cost him. Astoundingly, Popjoy spotted him and his confederates in England, and they were taken into custody. Two of the remaining mutineers, George James Davis and William Watts, were hung -- but Swallow and Popjoy said that Swallow had been forced to run the ship because he was the only experienced sailor, and the court accepted it, at least enough to spare his life. So Swallow, for the third time, was transported. Sent to Hobart, he was transferred to Macquarie Harbour, then to Port Arthur when Macquarie was closed. There were no more escapes; he died there of tuberculosis (Hughes, p. 216).
"By the early 1830s [the Cyprus mutineers] had become the subject of one of the 'treason songs' or proscribed convict ballads" (Hughes, p. 214).
Hughes, in the photo section following p. 194, has a contemporary woodcut showing Lieutenant Carew's party trying to build their coracle. There have also been historical novels and dramas about the event.
There is at least one other song about it, too, "The Cyprus Brig/"
For background on the likely author "Frank the Poet" (who is credited with the song, e.g., in Ingleton's broadside, but that appears to be an editorial addition) see the notes to "Moreton Bay (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: StKF065

Seizure of the E J Horton

See The E. A. Horton [Laws D28] (File: LD28)

Selkirk, The

See The Glendy Burk (File: MA109)

Sellin' That Stuff

DESCRIPTION: "Aunt Jane had a dance and she had a crowd, She sold more whisky than the law allows. She's sellin' that stuff...." The song details her life selling it, and how Uncle Jim found himself in prison for drunkenness, and how Sister Lil sells it too
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Coffin & Cohen)
KEYWORDS: commerce drink prison
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 89, "Selling That Stuff" (1 text)
Roud #8901
File: CoCo89

Selling the Cow

See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

Send a Letter, Send a Letter

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Send a letter, send a letter, Be content in the weather."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | letter weather
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #513, "Send a Letter" (1 text)
File: AJRR513

Send Back My Barney to Me

See Bring Back My Johnny to Me (File: HHH007)

Send Em on Down, Lawd

See Send Him on Down, Lord (File: RcSHToDL)

Send for the Ladies

DESCRIPTION: "Send for the ladies, come to the ball, Don't come tonight, needn't come at all." Send for the ladies... Hiked up her left leg and showed it to us all." "Send for the ladies... Hiked up her shimmy tail and show it to us all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: dancing clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 177, "Sand for the Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11366
File: Brne177

Send Him a Cheerful Letter

DESCRIPTION: "I'm thinking, Mrs. Atkins, now that Tommy's gone away You will send him a letter from home." "Send him a cheerful letter, Say that it’s all OK. Tell him you’ve ne’er felt better, Though it’s all the other way." No matter how bad the news, say good things
AUTHOR: R. P. Weston (1878-1936), Bert Lee (1880-1946) , and Maie Ash (1888-1923) (source: Internet listing of songs of Weston and Lee at folksongandmusichall.com)
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier family home | letter
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 35-36, "Send Him a Cheerful Letter" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Carlton Trio, "Send Him a Cheerful Letter" (Winner[?] 3212)
NOTES [119 words]: In the First World War, the families of soldiers were urged to send their boys cheerful letters to help keep up their morale. Here, the advice is exaggerated to the point of absurdity.
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver reports that this was sung by Maie Ash (1888-1923).
Of the songs in the Index, authors R. P. Weston was also responsible for "Anne Boleyn (With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm)," "Private Michael Cassidy," "Rawtenstall Annual Fair," "Goodbye-ee," "Lloyd George's Beer," "The Gypsy Warned Me," "Where Are the Lads of the Village Tonight?" and "I'm Henery the Eighth I Am." Weston was also co-author of the fairly well-known "I've Got Rings on My Fingers" with Maurice Scott and Fred Barnes. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW035

Send Him on Down, Lord

DESCRIPTION: "Send him on down, Send him on down, Lord let the Holy Ghost come on down, We can't pray right until you send him on down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (USSeaIsland03)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Rosa and Joseph Murray, "Send Em on Down, Lawd" (on USSeaIsland03)
File: RcSHToDL

Send Out the Army and the Navy

DESCRIPTION: "Send out the Army and the Navy, Send out the rank and file, Send out the brave Territorials, They'll face danger with a smile (I don't think). Send out my mother, Send out my sister and my brother, But for Gawd's sake don't send me."
AUTHOR: Gitz Rice (source: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (sung by Alfred Lester, according to Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier mother brother
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 58, "Send Out the Army and the Navy" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 42-44, "For Gawd's Sake Don't Send Me" (1 text)
Roud #10546
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Send Out the Chryssy" (form)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Conscientious Objector's Lament (original title)
NOTES [28 words]: According to Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, this was written to ridicule conscientious objectors, but came to be widely sung by the soldiers who actually served. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BrPa057C

Send Out the Chryssy

DESCRIPTION: "Send out the Chryssy, The Moy, Ouse, and Issy, But for God's sake don't send me!" Reported to be a song about the Mediterranean Fleet.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: ship navy derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 145, "Send out the 'Chryssy'" (1 fragment)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Send Out the Army and the Navy" (form)
NOTES [303 words]: Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy believes the ships here were from World War II, and suggests the four ships he knew were target towing vessels. Certainly there were ships known by these names.
Chryssy = Chrysanthemum. "Flower" class corvette, built Belfast; transferred in that year to the French navy as Commandant Drogou; returned to the Royal Navy 1946 (Young, p. 53). The date of her building is disputed; Young says 1942, Jane's-WWII, p. 133, and Lenton, p. 23, say 1941. Probably this is by confusion of launching and commissioning dates, or the 1942 date on which she was transferred to the French.
Moy. Mersey class trawler, built 1917 as Alexander Hills; survived the war (Young, p. 117).
Ouse. Mersey class trawler, built in 1917 as the Andrew King, mined off North Africa, February 20, 1941 (Young, p. 120).
Issy = St. Issy. Saint class tug, built 1918, lost off Benghazi December 28, 1942 (Young, p. 138).
It will be observed that there is a chronological problem here: Even if the Jane's-WWII date is correct for the Chysanthemum is correct, she would not have been in service with the British fleet and did not go into service at all until after the Ouse was lost! Thus there is no possibility of these four ships being sent out together for any purpose. Of course, it is possible that one or another name is an error -- e.g. I thought of the Oursay for the Ouse or the Islay for the (Saint) Issy.
The other possibility that occurs to me is that the first ship is not the Chyssy=Chysanthemum but the Cressy. There was no World War II ship with that name, but there was a World War I cruiser that became famous for being sunk by a submarine. That would force us to find fits for the other names, of course. Ultimately, the question cannot be settled unless we find more text. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Tawn110

Seno Wreck, The

See The C. & O. Wreck (1913) [Laws G4] (File: LG04)

Sentry Box, The

See The Gentleman Soldier (File: VWL040)

Sentry, The

See The Gentleman Soldier (File: VWL040)

Seoithin-Seo (I) (Fairy Lullaby)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. On the first anniversary of her capture by fairies a woman is washing by a river and hushing a baby not hers. She asks a passer-by to tell her husband how to rescue her, if not the next day then never "for they'll make me Fairy Queen for ever"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage captivity request separation abduction rescue magic ritual baby husband supernatural royalty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 128, "Seoithin-Seo" (2 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Seoithin-Seo" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [45 words]: The description is a summary of the translation at George Sigerson, Bards of the Gael and Gall (London: T Fisher-Unwin, 1897), pp. 344-346, "Fairy Lullaby." Sigerson's version of the rescue is much briefer than but reminiscent of the rescue in Child 39, "Tam Lin." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC128

Seoithin-Seo (II)

DESCRIPTION: Macaronic. A mother sings her baby to sleep "free from sorrow... Bright thou'll open thine eyes tomorrow... Through the branchy trees the breeze is sweeping... And my baby dear is sweetly sleeping." "[May] I be never a sonless mother."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage lullaby nonballad baby mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 129, "Seoithin-Seo" (6 texts)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Seoithin-Seo" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [46 words]: The description follows the English verses of the macaronic OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin text and the translation at George Sigerson, Bards of the Gael and Gall (London: T Fisher-Unwin, 1897), pp. 343-344, "Irish Lullaby." The recording is entirely in Gaelic. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC129

Seoladh Na Ngamhan Faoi'n Bhfasaig

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "[The singer] sent his daughter to fetch the calves, but she fell into bad company... [apparently] had their way with her, and the father is now seeking redress"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage rape farming father
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 130, "Seoladh Na Ngamhan Faoi'n Bhfasaig" (2 texts)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC130

Seotho-Leo A Thoil

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "The poet laments a lost love and the fact that his poetry is no longer respected. He would prefer food and drink rather than vain composing such as he attempts"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love rejection drink food lover
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 131, "Seotho-Leo A Thoil" (2 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES [17 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC131

Separating Line

DESCRIPTION: "O (pray/preach/sing/shout/moan) right on, Just (pray/preach/sing/shout/moan) right on, I don't need this world any more Because when I cross that separating line I'm going to leave this world behind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 310-311, "Siporatin' Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR310S

Sept Ans Sur Mer

See La Courte Paille (File: FMB041)

Sequel to Come Under My Plaidie

DESCRIPTION: Johnnie decides he needs someone to care for him. Merrin slights him but Maclaren accepts and marries him. They live happily. Merrin marries an old rich man and mourns, "For the sake o' his treasure, I hae married a miser ... gweed for naething ava"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: age courting marriage money rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1304, "Come Under My Plaidie" (1 text)
Roud #7200
NOTES [47 words]: The Greig/Duncan7 title makes no sense based on the text since the phrase is not in the song. However, Bell Robertson [says of] this song [that] "The sequel to 'Come under my plaidie' was mother's. Mr Greig has never heard of it." The apparent prequel is "Come Under My Plaidie." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71304

Serafina

DESCRIPTION: Halyard shanty. "In Callyo there lives a girl named Serafina" who works very hard drinking, smoking, and robbing sailors of their money and clothes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty bawdy whore warning robbery trick
FOUND IN: West Indies South America
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 397-398. "Serafina" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 302-303]
DT, SERAFINA*
NOTES [32 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas says this is a "notorious" shanty from the west coast of South America, but this was the first time it had been printed because it was so hard to clean up. - SL
File: Hugi397A

Serenade Song or Hurrah for the Rover and His Beautiful Lass

See The Pirate's Serenade (File: CrMa152)

Sergeant and Three Constables, A

See Stringybark Creek (File: PASB070)

Sergeant Michael Cassidy

See Private Michael Cassidy (File: KSUC156A)

Sergeant Neill

DESCRIPTION: "If you want your praties sprayed, well you can call on Sergeant Neill. Oh he's the bot that'll do it well, and he'll not destroy your kale." Many of Neill's satisfied customers are named.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
KEYWORDS: farming moniker
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 12, pp. 29-30,105,160, "Sergeant Neill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2921
NOTES [84 words]: Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday: In County Fermanagh [ex-police] Sergeant Neill had a spraying machine for bluestone, a potato fungicide. Everyone called on him to do their spraying. "John tells me that it was sometime in the early 1920s that Sergeant Neill began his business enterprise." - BS
For more on bluestone, see the notes to "Mary Anne McGuinan." Given the date, one wonders if Neill wasn't a former member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Must have been quite a change of pace. - RBW
File: MoMa12

Sergeant Small

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I wish I were about fourteen stone And only six foot tall. I'd take the train back north, Just to beat up Sergeant Small."
AUTHOR: Robert Lane? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: train police railroading
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 209, "Sergeant Small" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [119 words]: Meredith's informant, Muriel Whalan, explained that Sergeant Small made a minor career during the depression of posing as a bagman in order to catch other travellers riding the rods of trains.
According to Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 230, Sergeant Small was an "Allegedly historical Queensland or northern New South Wales policeman notorious for ill-treatment of vagrants during the 1930s depression. 'Tex Morton' (Robert Lane) composed a song about the man and recorded it in 1938. The chorus [which is the text quoted in the description] ensured that the song passed into oral tradition and made the song a favorite of singers, young and old." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: MA209

Sergeant Tally-Ho

DESCRIPTION: Singer boasts of his travels; he's courted all over America, England, France and Spain. The colonel's wife, hearing of his prowess, wishes to see "the naked truth", so he pulls out his "lusty pin;" she says, "You shall be my handy man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Warde Ford)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer boasts of his wide travels, saying he's courted all over America, England, France and Spain. The colonel's wife, having heard of his prowess, wishes to see "the naked truth", so he pulls out his "lusty pin" as she leads him to the bedroom, saying, "You shall be my handy man." And, frustratingly, there the only recorded version of the song ends.
KEYWORDS: sex bragging request army travel bawdy
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Sargeant Tally-Ho" (AFS 4100 B1, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
NOTES [19 words]: I've not seen this anywhere else, and neither has Ed Cray. The magnificent tune is distinctly British-sounding. - PJS
File: RcSTH

Sergeant-Major's Having a Time, The

See Mademoiselle from Armentieres (File: RL513)

Sergeant, He Is the Worst of All, The

DESCRIPTION: "The sergeant, the sergeant he is the worst of all; He gets us up in the morning before the early call, With squads right, and squads left, and left front into line; Then the slimy son of a gun, he gives us double time."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: army soldier
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 435, "The Sergeant, He Is the Worst of All" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 32-33, "The Sergeant" (1 short text, tune referenced)
Roud #27871
File: San435

Sergeant's Lamentation, The

DESCRIPTION: The Sergeant of Grouse Hall answers the hackler's song. He rejects its accusations but acknowledges that the song is "the source of all my grief and shame." "This curst Grouse Hall caused my downfall" He would know the song writer before he leaves.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: prison drink Ireland humorous police
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 39A, "The Sergeant's Lamentation" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3070
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hackler from Grouse Hall" (prequel to this ballad)
cf. "Moses Ritoora-li-ay" (theme)
NOTES [406 words]: "The hackler was a distiller of high quality Poitin in 19th century Ireland" (source: Hearing before Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, US Patent and Trademark Office, January 6, 2000 in re United Distillers plc "On December 16, 1996 United Distillers plc filed an intent-to-use application to register the mark HACKLER on the Principal Register for 'alcoholic beverages, namely, distilled spirits, except Scotch whisky, and liqueurs.'....)
Apparently the more common definition is "one that hackles [to chop up or chop off roughly]; esp: a worker who hackles hemp, flax, or broomcorn." (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976); its this last definition that OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads follows.
OLochlainn notes to "The Hackler from Grouse Hall" and its answer, "The Sergeant's Lamentation," explain the Sergeant's deeds and the references to people named in both songs and happenings in County Cavan. His source for notes is the singer.
The occurrences appear to be during Arthur Balfour's tour as Chief Secretary of Ireland in the late 1880s [1887-1891; his repressive methods earned him the nickname "Bloody Balfour" - RBW]. See for example the reference to the 1888 imprisonment of Father McFadden of Donegal in Derry Prison "for an agrarian speech" (source: Chapters of Dublin History site, Letters and Leaders of my Day Chapter XXII "Parnellism and Crime" (1887-8), by T.M. Healy). I'd guess, no doubt naively, that the issue here is moonshining to defeat high alcohol taxation. - BS
The other possibility for the date is 1902-1905, when Balfour was prime minister in succession to his uncle Lord Salisbury. Gladstone's proposals for Irish Home Rule had of course failed, but the issue never entirely went away, and the Liberals were increasingly in favor of it in the early twentieth century.
Supporting this dating is the fact that, during the Balfour administration, there was a movement for "tariff reform" -- i.e. lowering of duties within the British Empire, which would have made it easier for the Irish to export to England. Balfour tried to calm the controversy, but succeeded mostly in turning his party purely protectionist, thus making the Liberals even more popular with the Irish, since they were more likely to favor both Home Rule and Free Trade. So the song might well look forward to the 1906 election which shunted the Conservatives from power. - RBW
File: OLoc039A

Sergent, Le

DESCRIPTION: Canadian French: The young boy runs off to America to fight the hated British. He joins the army and is made a sergeant, but is wounded and returns home. His father, who warned him against leaving, says "I told you so!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961
KEYWORDS: soldier injury home Canada foreignlanguage
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1775-1776: American attack on Canada. The chief battle of the campaign was fought outside Quebec on December 31, 1775
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 60-61, "Le Sergent" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [94 words]: During the American Revolution, the Colonials made an abortive attack on Canada, thinking that the French inhabitants would rebel against the British. It didn't happen; the French generally preferred the British (who at least guaranteed their religious liberty) to the unknown quantity that was the Americans. The Colonial assault failed before Quebec.
A few Canadians, however, decided they hated the British enough to return south with the Colonials and fight. As this song shows, those who stayed at home felt these soldiers to be more than a little foolish. - RBW
File: FMB060

Servan' Lasses, The

See The Braw Servant Lasses (File: Ord275)

Servant Girl's Holiday, The

See The Serving Maid's Holiday (File: RHRXV024)

Servant Man

See The Rejected Lover [Laws P10] (File: LP10)

Servant Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "My father kept a servant man." A gril loves him. Her father determines to send him to sea. She says she will be true even if she must go betting. She "saw his colours come and go." He returns, having risen from apprentice to butler, and marries her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Butterworth Collection)
KEYWORDS: servant love separation reunion drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 42, "The Servant Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonny Sailor Boy" [Laws M22] (plot)
NOTES [53 words]: This reminds me of many "Ballads of Family Opposition to Lovers," notably "The Bonny Sailor Boy" [Laws M22]. But it is short and peculiar enough that it is not obvious which song of this type it might derive from; the lyrics are often confused. Roud assigns it its own number, and I rather hesitantly do the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BuDa042

Servant of Rosemary Lane, The

See Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: LK43)

Servant-girl's Holiday, A

See The Serving Maid's Holiday (File: RHRXV024)

Serves Them Fine

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells how back in 1920, "The mills ran good and everyone had plenty;" in 1925, mountain people came to work there. Now it's 1930, and more people are unemployed than working. Singer tells fellow mountaineers to go back home and live as they used to
AUTHOR: Dave McCarn
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, David McCarn)
KEYWORDS: warning factory unemployment hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 234-235, "Serves Them Fine" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
David McCarn, "Serves 'em Fine" (Victor 23577, 1931)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Serves Them Fine" (on NLCR09) (NLCR12)
NOTES [31 words]: Mountain people moved to industrial towns in the boom of the 1920s, as the agricultural economy was already depressed; many of them were then stranded when the Depression hit industry. - PJS
File: CSW234

Service Is No Heritage

See If Thou Serve a Lord of Price (For Service Is None Heritage) (File: MSITSLOP)

Service of the Lord

DESCRIPTION: Every second and fourth line in verse and chorus is "I am bound to die in the army." Chorus: "I am bound to live in the service of my Lord (x2).""My Savior smiles and bids me come." "Sweet angels beckon me away"
AUTHOR: E. J. King (source: Original Sacred Harp)
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (according to Original Sacred Harp)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Benjamin Franklin White, E.J.King, et al., Original Sacred Harp (Atlanta, 1911 ("Digitized by Google") [correction and enlargement of 1869 edition copyright J.S. James], p. 80, "Service of the Lord" ("Farewell vain world I'm going home; I'm bound to die in the army") (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Southeast Alabama and Florida Union Sacred Harp Singing Convention, "Service of the Lord" (on USFlorida01)
File: RcSerotL

Serving Maid's Holiday, The

DESCRIPTION: Middle English. "Al þis day ic han souȝt." The maid has sought this day "for ioyȝe þat yit ys holyday"; she sets out even though her work is undone. She and Jack meet. Soon "my wombe began to swelle"; she dares not tell her mistress
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Before 1600 (Cambridge, Gonville & Caius College MS 383)
KEYWORDS: servant sex pregnancy MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #452, pp. 306-307, "All this day ic han sou[ght]" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #225
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #393
ADDITIONAL: Rossell Hope Robbins, _Secular Lyrics of the XIVth and XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1952, pp. 24-25, "The Serving Maid's Holiday" (1 text)
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #95, pp. 162-263, "(Rybbe ne ree ne synne yc ne may)" (1 text)
Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, _Middle English Lyrics_, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974, pp. 86-88, #88 (no title) (1 text)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse , Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #204, pp.452-453, "A Servant-girl's Holiday" (1 text)
Brian Stone, translator, _Medieval English Verse_, revised edition, Penguin, 1971, #58, pp. 104-105, "The Servant Girl's Holiday" (1 text, rendered in Modern English)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSCaiusCollege383}, Cambridge, Gonville & Caius College MS. 383, page 41
NOTES [320 words]: I have no particular reason to think this is traditional -- although the subject matter hints that it was preserved by the folk rather than the clergy! But a version both modernized and cleaned up was recorded by Maddy Prior and Tim Hart, so perhaps people should have references for the original song.
In addition, Richard Leighton Greene, editor, The Earliest English Carols, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1935, p. xcv, while admitting he has no proof, thinks this one of two carols in Cambridge, Gonville & Caius College MS. 383 that, "because of their homeliness, their directness of speech, and their theme of the betrayed girl, have a strong case for consideration as authentic folk-song" -- although E. K. Chambers, English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages, Oxford, 1945, 1947, p. 113, responds that "I see nothing in them but the work of some graceless minstrel." (Personally, I am more inclined to agree with Greene.) The other one, which also ends with a girl getting pregnant, is "Led I the Dance on a Midsummer's Day (Jack and the Dancing Maid)."
Greene thinks this is a Midsummer Day song, which makes sense since the couple lay down in the sand. ("Led I the Dance..." is certainly set on Midsummer's Day.) Greene dates the text to the fifteenth century. Sisam/Sisam, p. 596, estimates the date as c. 1475.
Despite its thoroughly secular content, the manuscript of this piece seems to have been written by a cleric, since he signs his name "Johannes." Apart from the Middle English lyrics, it contains grammatical treatises. The text is on page 41 of the manuscript.
The Index of Middle English Verse lists an even dozen poems in the manuscript, most of which (based on their descriptions in the Index) are secular but few of which look likely to have come from tradition. In addition to this and "Led I the Dance," a much less secular piece, "Saint Thomas of Canterbury," is also in the Index. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RHRXV024

Set Down, Servant

DESCRIPTION: "'Set down, servant.' I can't set down... my soul's so happy that I can't set down." The servant describes the various things God promises: A long white robe, a starry crown, a golden waistband, etc. An angel is instructed to supply all these
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 176, "My Soul's So Happy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 105, "Set Down, Servant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 584-585, "Set Down, Servant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 367, "Set Down, Servant" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 71, "Oh, Won't You Sit Down?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10076
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Can't Sit Down
File: LxU105

Set You Down, My Own True Love

See The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)

Settin' Down

DESCRIPTION: "Settin' down, settin' down, By the side of the lamb, the lamb. I'm gwine tell my Lawd, I'm gwine tell my lawd, Ay, mighty, I never heard nobody pray. Way down yonder, I never heard nobody pray, Nobody pray, I never heard nobody pray."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 39, "Settin' Down" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #16310
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" (lyrics)
NOTES [69 words]: I thought seriously about lumping this with "I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray"; Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama's text is short enough that it could well be a fragment of that song. But Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama's notes say that the line "I couldn't hear nobody pray" was understood to mean "I didn't have any examples of how to pray," so the intent is different. That is (just barely) enough reason for me to split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Arno039

Settin' on a Rail

DESCRIPTION: "As I went out by the light of the moon... Thar I spies a fat raccoon A-settin' on a rail." The singer pulls the coon off a rail and fights with it. In at least one version, the singer is a slave who helps his master on toward death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough); sheet music for a piece entitled "Settin' on a Rail" was published by G. Willig Jr. of Baltimore some time in the nineteenth century, accordingto Dichter/Shapiro, p. 53.
KEYWORDS: animal fight slave
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 177-179, "Settin' on a Rail" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ST ScNF177B (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Davy Crockett" (lyrics)
NOTES [41 words]: This shares a first line with a few versions of "Davy Crockett," which also involves a bare-hands fight with a coon -- but the overall form and feel is different enough that I think they're separate song which has cross-fertilized a little. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: ScNF177B

Settin' Side that Road

DESCRIPTION: "I'm settin' side that road with a ball and chain on my leg (x2), If I had my way I'd catch-a that westbound train." "That judge gave me six months because I didn't want to work (x3)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: work prison
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 314-315, "Settin' Side that Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: SBoA314

Settler's Lament, The (The Beautiful Land of Australia)

DESCRIPTION: "Now all intent to emigrate, Come listen to the doleful fate...." The singer sailed for Australia, was wrecked, was spared by cannibals as too thin, and had his sheep die of rot. Coming home, he will sell matches before returning to Australia
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (John Henderson's _Excursions and Adventures in New South Wales_); Anderson estimates his broadside is from c. 1842
KEYWORDS: emigration humorous hardtimes cannibalism return
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 101-105, "The Settler's Lament" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 20-21, "The Settler's Lament" (1 text)
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 181-183, "The Settler's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The King of the Cannibal Islands" (tune)
File: PFS101

Seven Blessings of Mary, The

See The Seven Joys of Mary (File: FO211)

Seven Brethren, The

See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Seven Brothers, The

See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Seven Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat

DESCRIPTION: The cotton farmer complains about dreadful prices; with "Seven cent cotton and forty cent meat, How in the world can a poor man eat?" With everything he has wearing out, replacements are too expensive. (He sees improvements under Roosevelt)
AUTHOR: Bob Miller & Emma Dermer
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Bob Ferguson)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes food clothes farming political money
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 877-878, "Seven-Cent Cotton and Forty-Cent Meat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 117, "Seven Cent Cotton And Forty Cent Meat" (1 text)
DT, SVNCENT*
RECORDINGS:
Loren H. Abram, "Eleven Cent Cotton -- Forty Cent Meat" (Supertone 2774, c. 1932; rec. 1931)
Vernon Dalhart, "Eleven Cent Cotton" (Victor V-40050, 1929; Bluebird B-8406, 1940) (Harmony 821-H [as Mack Allen], 1929; rec. 1928) (Edison N-20001, 1929)
Bob Ferguson, "Eleven Cent Cotton, Forty Cent Meat, pts. 1 & 2" (Columbia 15297-D, 1928)
Bob Miller, "'Leven Cent Cotton And Forty Cent Meat" (Radiex 5044, c. 1929); "Eleven Cent Cotton And Forty Cent Meat" (Okeh 45475, 1930)
Carson Robison, "'Leven Cent Cotton, Forty Cent Meat" (Champion 15746, 1929) (Pathe Actuelle 32438/Cameo 9092 [both as Carson Robison's Trio], 1929)
Pete Seeger, "Seven Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat" (on PeteSeeger13, AmHist1)
Hank Smith [pseud. for Al Bernard] "Eleven Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat" (Vocalion 5318, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Flies Are On the Tummits" (theme of poor living for farmers)
NOTES [315 words]: The 1928 recording by Bob Ferguson (recorded in August of that year) might seem to throw doubt on the authorship claim of Bob Miller. But his recording is on Radiex, part of the Grey Gull family of records, and dating those records is notoriously difficult and uncertain. For the moment, though, I've assigned the Earliest Date to the Ferguson recording, as it's the earliest for which we have unambiguous information.
Also, there's some ambiguity about Miller's 1930 OKeh recording; one source lists the title as "Four Cent Tobacco and Forty Cent Meat.
Interesting that most of these recordings appeared in 1928-1929, just *before* the stock market crash that most urbanites see as the beginning of the Great Depression. But times had been hard on the farms for several years before then. - PJS
And, of course, demand for recordings fell dramatically after the crash, so nobody was producing new versions.
Incidentally, low cotton prices were not a new phenomenon, and neither were wild price fluctuations. According to Nevins, p. 242, cotton in 1845 sold in the American south for sixteen cents a pound. By 1848, when the total production was half again as large, the price dropped to a mere four and a half cents a pound.
It is interesting to see this song become so popular in folk circles, because Bob Miller was a Tin Pan Alley songwriter. According to Doug deNatale and Glenn Hinson, "The Southern Textile Song Tradition Reconsidered," published in Green, p. 81, his other occupation songs were generally not accepted by the folk.
I wouldn't bet on this, but Green or his source might have lifted his slogan from a similar Newfoundland political tag. In the 1908, Edward Morris took as a slogan "$2 fish and $7 flour" (O'Flaherty, p. 242 -- the fish being the cod that the Newfoundlanders caught and sold to try to buy the flour that they couldn't grow on their infertile island). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: BAF877

Seven Daffodils

DESCRIPTION: "I do not have a mansion, and I haven't any land, Not even a paper dollar to crinkle in my hand, But I can show you morning on a thousand hills...." The singer offers beauty, love, and "seven daffodils"
AUTHOR: Lee Hays and Fran Moseley (but see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (recording, The Limeliters, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: love flowers campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 543, "Seven Daffodils" (notes only)
DT, SEVENDF2
NOTES [105 words]: Although every copyright notice I've seen on this says it is by Lee Hays and Fran Moselye, Doris Willens, Lonesome Traveler: The Life of Lee Hays, W. W. Norton, 1988, p. 180, says that the song is "a ballad (sic.) that Lee wrote with his sister, Minnie Frank, during her visit to Brooklyn." Since "Fran Moseley" and "Minnie Frank" have the same initials, I would assume the "Moseley" name is a pseudonym.
Although this doesn't get nearly as much attention as, say, "If I Had a Hammer," this was one of Hays's most popular songs, being recorded by The Limeliters, Leon Bibb, The Tarriers, The Brothers Four, and many others. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF5437

Seven Devil Mines, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye bold adventurers And listen to my song About the Seven Devil mines...." Don't complain about the snakes, or the hard work, or the hard rock that you have to blast, or the "money kings" who control things. They might still get rich;drink up
AUTHOR: H. F. Johnson (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (Johnson, Poems of Idaho, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining money drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 140-141, "The Seven Devil Mines" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Susanna" (tune) and references there
NOTES [28 words]: The Seven Devils mining district is in Adams County, Idaho, about 75 miles north of Boise near the Idaho/Oregon border. There are many mines in that area of Idaho. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC140

Seven Devils Mine, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye bold adventurers And listen to my song, About the Seven Devils mines -- I will not keep you long." The singer warns to keep snakebite on hand, urges listeners to work hard in the mine, and warns of those who grow rich and forget the past
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (Johnson, Poems of Idaho, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: work mining hardtimes money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp 581-582, "The Seven Devils Mine" (1 text)
File: CAFS2581

Seven Drunken Nights

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Seven Gypsies in a Row

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Seven Gypsies on Yon Hill

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Seven Irishmen, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns of what happened to seven Irishmen who sailed to America. They land in New York. They are tricked into the Army. They fight the soldiers who would train them. A "gentleman from Ohio" comes to their aid
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Sing Out!)
KEYWORDS: Ireland soldier emigration fight Civilwar
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 22, #1 (1973), p, 3, "The Seven Irishmen" (1 text, 1 tune, the Joe Heaney version)
Roud #3104
NOTES [353 words]: The notes in Sing Out! say that "60% of the Union Army was Irish or of Irish descent and 30% of the Confederate Army." It is true that the Civil War army had a lot of Irishmen -- but there weren't enough Irishmen in America to supply 60% of the Union army! (This would call for roughly 1.25 million Irishmen of military age in the North alone. That's out of a total population -- men, women, children, and the elderly -- of 22 million).
I suspect there is more going on here than the Irish singer understood. Many Irishmen, it is true, were recruited "off the docks" as they came to America (see "By the Hush" for an example of this). But the song seems to describe something like taking the King's Shilling (Lincoln's Shilling?). This would not be normal -- bounties flowed freely at the end of the war, but they were cash, not drink.
My guess is that the men were recruited not by army officials but by a substitute broker -- the Union draft allowed a man who was drafted to recruit another man to take his place -- a "substitute." The substitute broker was a man who swept the streets and alleys to find someone to sell to the reluctant conscript. The substitutes so hired were notorious for their lack of suitability -- many were drunks or cripples, and the substitute brokers would bribe doctors or recruiting officers to get them in.
The "gentleman from Ohio" who seeks to get them off is also interesting. I have to think this is Clement L. Vallandigham (1820-1871), a lifelong Ohioan who became a congressman in the late 1850s and argued strenuously for States Rights. He was the foremost "Copperhead" (Democrat who favored letting the South leave the Union) -- his opinions were so strong that he was for a time imprisoned, and at another time exiled to the Confederacy. Many "Peace Democrats" simply didn't think it was proper to fight the South, but Vallandingham, by the end, seemed actively pro-Southern; it would be no surprise to find him doing whatever he could to weaken the Union armies.
Adding it all up, I suspect that, somewhere behind this song, there is a political text. What, I do not know. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: SOv22n1a

Seven Joys of Mary, The

DESCRIPTION: The carol relates the (five, seven, nine) joys that Mary had: bearing Jesus, raising him, seeing his success and miracles, observing his crucifixion and resurrection, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1833 (Sandys)
KEYWORDS: carol Jesus religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE) Canada(Mar) Britain(England(South,West)) Ireland
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #8, "The Nine Joys of Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 17-18, "The Seven Joys of Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #148, "The Joys of Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 211-213, "The Seven Joys of Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 185-18, "The Joys of Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp.275-278 , "The Joys of Mary"; "The Blessings of Mary" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 172-173, "The Blessings of Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 105, "The Twelve Good Joys" (1 text)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 70, "Joys Seven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 200-201 "(no title)", pp. 201-202, "The Joys of Mary" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 31-32, "The Seven Joys of Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 135, "The Twelve Joys" (1 text)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #117, "Seven Blessings of Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 51, "The Twelve Blessings of Mary" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 51, "The Twelve Blessings of Mary" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 123, "The Seven Blessings of Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 262, "The Seven Joys of Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 363, "The Seven Blessings of Mary" (1 text)
DT, SEVNJOYS* SEVNJOY2
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 171-172, "The Seven Joys of Mary" (1 text)
Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 107-110, "Seacht Suailci Na Maighdine Muire" ("The Seven Beatitudes of the Virgin Mary") [Gaelic and English]
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #76, "The First Good Joy that Mary Had" (1 text)
Roud #278
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce adds. 137(19), "The Seven Joys," T. Bloomer (Birmingham), 1817-1827; also Harding B 7(34), Johnson Ballads 2833, Douce adds. 137(61), Harding B 7(28), Harding B 7(7), Harding B 7(66), Firth b.27(211), "The Seven Joys"; Harding B 7(65), Harding B 7(63), Harding B 7(30), "The Joys"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Joys Seven
NOTES [1873 words]: The cult of Mary was very old in the Catholic church; Woolf, p. 115, quotes some of the early writers whose works gave rise to the notion -- e.g. Augustine of Hippo wrote, "Eve by her disobedience merited punishment; Mary by obeying obtained glory," while Jerome, translator of the Vulgate that was the Bible of the Latin church, wrote, "Death by Eve, life by Mary."
What's more, it appears that some aspects of the cult, such as the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, were largely of English origin and were promoted by Englishmen (Woolf, p. 117).
The notion of Mary's joys goes back at least to the thirteenth (although the term "joys" was not then fixed; BrownXIII, pp. 65-67, has a poem that refers to her "five blisses"), and the notion of counting those joys apparently goes back to at least the fourteenth century. Praising Mary "through an enumeration of her five joys [was] one of the earliest of formalized meditative exercises, and probably the first to be embodied in the Middle English lyric" (Woolf, p. 134). There is a prayer on the Five Joys in the "Ancrene Wisse" -- the rules for anchoresses -- of the thirteenth century (Woolf, p. 117). The topic forms a major part of Woolf's book on religious poetry; she has two chapters "On the Virgin and her Joys": pp. 114-158 cover lyrics from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; pp. 274-308 deal with those of the fifteenth. Woolf, p. 114, considers lyrics on the Virgin's joys to be one of three major categories of Marian poetry, and calls them "semi-liturgical." Some examples of these pieces:
In the metrical tale "How the Psalter of Our Lady Was Made" (first found in MS. Digby 86, dated 1272-1283, and also in the Auchinleck manuscript of c. 1335), a monk was told to pray 150 aves a day; "The first fifty Aves were for joy at the annunciation that she should bear God-in-Man; the second fifty, that she should bear Christ; the third, that she should go to Him for bliss" (Wells, pp. 168-169).
The fullest collection of poems on Mary's joys known to me is Saupe's; on pp. 137-146, she has six pieces, although many of them clearly had no place in tradition. Ironically, none seems to be linked with this piece, or even to derive from similar sources.
BrownXIV also has several, scattered through the work: #11, pp. 13-14, from MS. Harley 2253, "Ase y me rod þis ender day" ("As I me rode this other day," Index of Middle English Verse #359); #31, pp. 44-46, from Göttingen MS. theol. 107 (a manuscript of the Cursor Mundi), "Haile be þu, mari maiden bright!" ("Hail to you, Mary maiden bright," Index #1029).
The idea clearly penetrated into popular culture. Robert Thornton, for instance, collected romances and advice and religious works in two great fifteenth century manuscripts, and there are several Joys of Mary references interspersed with the longer works, such as a couplet, "Lady for thy Ioyes Fyve, Wysse me the ways of Rightwys lyffe" -- "Lady, for your joys five, Teach me the ways of righteous life" (Fein/Johnston, p. 31).
As far as counting the joys goes, in the liturgical poem "Marie Moder, Wel Thee Be!" we find a reference to Mary's "joyes five" (poem known from some fifty texts. For full text see MS. Rawlinson liturgical g.2, the printing as #46 in Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics, or Carleton Brown, editor, English Lyrics of the XIVth Century, Oxford University Press, 1924, #122, pp. 216-217, "A Prayer by the Five Joys"). From the same manuscript as "Judas" [Child 23] comes a piece beginning "Seinte marie, leuedi brist, Moder þov art of muchel mist" ("Saint Mary, lady bright, Mother thou art of much might") which has five joys (BrownXIII, p. 27). MS. Cotton Caligula A.ii (fifteenth century) has a "Quinque Gaudia" piece with first line "Heyl! Gloryous virgyne, ground of all our grace, Heyl! modere of crist in pure virginite"; see Carleton Brown, editor, Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century, Oxford University Press, 1939, #30, pp. 53-54.
In the fifteenth century, there is a carol, "Of a rose, a lively rose, Of a rose I syng a song," which speaks of "five branchis of that rose"; see Greene, #47, pp. 108. Again, the poem "Hail be though, Mary, maiden bright" (Gottingen University MS theol. 107r, folio 169a; cf. Sisam, #82, p. 190) lists five joys. (Saupe, p. 27, suggests this is based on the five letters of the name "MARIA." We see an explicit example of this in Brown, Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century, #30, pp. 55-56, which has sections starting M-A-R-I-A, the first opening "Myldyste of moode & mekyst of maydyns alle."
The five joys are found in many other places. On p. 1747 of Severs/Hartung, Greene affirms that every medieval Joys carol has five joys. Greene, in his own book, p. 221, quotes Brown as saying "English tradition down to the end of the fourteenth century uniformly recognized Five Joys of the Virgin, viz.: the Annunciation, Nativity, Resurrection, Ascension, and [Mary's] Assumption, whereas on the Continent the number of Joys is regularly seven, through the addition of Epiphany and the Purification." (The same list is on p. 179 of BrownXIII.) Wells, p. 536 (entry on "The Five Joys of the Virgin") says that "The Joys vary in number, 5, 7, 8, 12, 15. In Middle English poetry (except in Harley 2253) they are five" (and goes on to list the same five as in Greene and Brown). He then lists eleven poems from the Middle Ages dealing with the Joys of Mary. His exceptional case, Harley 2253, still has five joys, but they are the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Epiphany, the Resurrection, and the Ascension of Mary (not of Jesus).
The Harley 2253 text has significant similarities to this poem; after four stanzas of introduction, it introduces the first joy by saying, "þe furst ioie of þat wymman" ("The first joy of that woman") -- but displays an interesting pattern of calling Mary by different titles: "þat oþer ioie of þat mai" ("that other joy of that may/maid"), "þe þridde ioie of þat leuedy" ("the third joy of that lady"), etc.
Although Middle English texts fixed on five Joys, the variety in number of joys is quite large. Even in the Middle Ages, we see a number of *mentions* of seven joys (BrownXV, #32, #34-36, pp. 56-65, offer "An Orison to Our Lady by the Seven Joys" and "The Seven Joys of the Virgin in Heaven I, II, III"; it's just that the actual joys aren't listed.) Post-medieval traditional texts have numbers as high as twelve, and French Books of Hours reportedly standardized on fifteen (see WEuropeanMSS, p. 100), I suspect the original of most of these songs had about seven -- not five and certainly not more. There are two reasons for this. We know that there were mentions of seven joys at least by the fifteenth century; a stained glass window of the reign of Edward IV (1461-1470 and 1471-1483) mentioned seven joys, although the window has now been destroyed and we do not know details. Mirk's Festial (c. 1400) and Fabyan's Chronicle also have seven joys, although two pieces perhaps by Lydgate and from the fifteenth century mention fifteen (Wells, p. 538; Woolf, p. 139, says that he managed this by pulling in legendary material other English writers avoided). It would be frankly typical of Lydgate to take an old idea and puff it up badly (for Lydgate, who probably holds the world record for droning on, see the notes to "The London Lackpenny").
Another possible origin for the number seven is that there were considered to be seven woes of the Virgin Mary, to match her seven joys; these were mentioned in the Latin hymn "Summae, Deus, clementiae, Septem Dolores Virginia," and eventually even became part of a required canonical office.
The other reason I suspect the original of this song had no more than seven joys is that so many of the joys in the long texts are forced, even unbiblical. Nor do they match the somewhat abstract theological joys listed above. We can demonstrate this point by marching down the joys compiled in Brown and Cox:
One -- To think that her son Jesus Was God's eternal son: Luke 1:15
Two -- Could read the Bible through. Luke 2:46-47 shows Jesus, as a boy, discussing scripture, but it doesn't say he read it. It's likely enough that he could read, though; most Jewish children could, and Luke 4:17fff. shows him reading from Isaiah.
Three -- Could make the blind to see. Repeated references to this; the most primitive is perhaps in Mark 8:22-30.
Four -- Could turn the rich to poor. No known Biblical evidence of this. James 5:1 says "Your riches have rotted," and Jesus has warnings for the rich (e.g. the Wise Fool, Luke 12:16-21), but we don't see Jesus doing anything about it, unless it's a reference to cleansing the Temple (Mark 11:15-17, etc.)
Five -- Could make the dead alive. See, e.g., the raising of Lazarus, John 11.
Six: -- Brown (cf. Cox) "Heal the lame and sick." Numerous examples. But we also see "bear the crucifix," which is complicated. John says he bore his own cross (John 19:17), but the other gospels say Simon of Cyrene bore it (Mark 15:21, etc.)
Seven -- Carried the keys of heaven. Not biblical, and of course the issue of who will be saved is a controversial one. Peter eventually was regarded as having the keys of heaven.
Eight -- Brown: "Make the crooked straight. Cox: "Open the gates of heaven." Obviously an attempt to force an explanation
Nine -- Turn water to wine. The wedding at Cana, John 2.
Ten -- Brown: "Was a friend to sinful men." Compare the sinner washing Jesus's feet, Luke 7:37-50, etc. Cox: "Could write without a pen." Perhaps a reference to John 8:6 (a passage not found in the earliest manuscripts), but singularly inept in any case.
Eleven -- Could open the gates of heaven. Haven't we been here before?
Twelve -- Brown: "Came down to earth to dwell." Basic doctrine. Cox: "Done all things well." Allusion to Mark 7:37 or parallel.
It is interesting and difficult to decide how old this song is. The modern form clearly goes back at least to Sandys. That there were medieval songs of joys is also clear. What is tricky is a fifteenth century carol found in Bodleian, MS. Eng. Poet e.1 and reprinted in Greene (#51, pp. 111-112), with a similar text in the Richard Hill manuscript, Bodleian MS. 354, and at least one other.
The burden is Latin ("A, a, a, a, Gaude celi domina"), as are the tags at the ends of the verses ("Tua quinque gaudia," "Ave, plena gracia," "Enixa est puerpera," etc.). The first verse begins, "Mary for the love of the(e)." But then it goes off into a five joys format: "The fyrste joy that came to the, Was whan the aungel greted the(e) And sayd, 'Mary, ful of charyte....'" Same song? Hard to tell unless we find some intermediate versions.... I eventually decided that it was significant enough to index, and since I'm not sure it's the same, I've filed it as "Mary for the Love of Thee (Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay)." - RBW
The Bell/O Conchubhair melody is not the one I know but O Conchubhair's notes make the connection. Here the seven joys are (1) That she bore Him in a lowly byre (2) That she travelled with Him along the road (3) That He'd gone by reading His book (4) When he turned the water into wine (5) When He made the dead to live (6) When He redeemed the world with his blood (7) When He raised her to heaven alive. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: FO211

Seven Long Years (I)

See My Father Gave Me a Lump of Gold (Seven Long Years) (File: R834)

Seven Long Years (II)

See My Father Gave Me a Lump of Gold (Seven Long Years) (File: R834)

Seven Long Years (III)

See The Prisoner's Song (I) (File: FSC100)

Seven Long Years (IV)

See For Seven Long Years I've Been Married (File: RcFSLYBM)

Seven Long Years I've Been Married

See For Seven Long Years I've Been Married (File: RcFSLYBM)

Seven Long Years in State Prison

See The Prisoner's Song (I) (File: FSC100)

Seven Old Ladies

DESCRIPTION: Seven old ladies, to the tune of "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be," encounter various difficulties in the lavatory, possibly while trying to have tea with the Vicar
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: humorous scatological age derivative
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US(MA,SW) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 119-122, "Seven Old Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 118-119, "Seven Old Ladies" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 53, "(Oh dear, what can the matter be)" (1 text, which claims to have three old ladies but in fact lists four, all named "Elizabeth")
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 120, "(O Dear What Can the Matter Be)" (1 fragment, from user John5918, posted September 28, 2021)
DT, SEVENOLD*
ST EM119 (Partial)
Roud #10227
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be" (tune & meter)
File: EM119

Seven Sailor Boys, The

See Willie o Winsbury [Child 100] (File: C100)

Seven Sleepers, The

See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Seven Sons, The

See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Seven Times One (The Song of Seven)

DESCRIPTION: "There’s no dew left on the daisies and clover, There’s no rain left in heaven; I’ve said my 'seven times' over and over, Seven times one are seven. I am old, I am old, I can write a letter...." The writer proceeds through life: seven times two, etc.
AUTHOR: Jean Ingelow (1820-1897) (source: Ingelow's _Poems_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (Ingelow's _Poem_; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: children age family sheep
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 60-61, "There's no dew left on the daisies and clover" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Jean Ingelow, _The Poetical Works of Jean Ingelow_ (sometimes published, or referred to, as _Poems_), T. Y. Crowell & Co., c. 1875 (the dedication is dated 1863), p. 126, "The Song of Seven" (1 text)
Roud #25493
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ages of Man" (theme)
NOTES [189 words]: Jean Ingelow's "Seven Times..." poem proceeds through life: Seven times one is a seven-year-old child just learning to read and write, a section called "Exultation." Seven times two is "Romance," then "Love," "Maternity," "Widowhood," "Giving in Marriage," "Longing for Home," each one seven years after the last.
It is one of only two Ingelow poems that is remembered at all, the other being "High Tide on the Coast of Lancashire," which I personally didn't like nearly as well. This one I like, even though it proceeds through life too quickly. It is ironic that Ingelow lived half again as long as the woman in the poem -- and never married, so she never experienced most of the life phases in this song. She wrote a poem about missing a sailor lost at sea -- just possibly Francis Crozier, the second-in-command to John Franklin in Franklin's Northwest Passage expedition (see the notes to "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream)" [Laws K9] for more about that).
In addition to her poems, Ingelow wrote the fairly well-known tale of "Mopsa the Fairy." But there is no hint of any of her other work going into tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC060C

Seven Virgins, The (The Leaves of Life)

DESCRIPTION: The singer, (Thomas), meets seven virgins, including the Virgin Mary. They are seeking Jesus, who is being crucified. Mary asks Jesus why he must suffer so; Jesus tells her it is for the sake of humanity. He dies. The singer commends God's charity
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (A Good Christmas Box, according to Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols)
KEYWORDS: Bible Jesus religious dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 187-188, "The Seven Virgin, or, Under the Leaves" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 57, "Under the Leaves (The Seven Virgins)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 145-146, "All Under the Leaves, and the Leaves of Life" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 111, "The Seven Virgins" (1 text)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 43, "The Seven Virgins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 4, "The Seven Virgins" (1 text)
DT, SVNVIRG SVNVRG2
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #479, "The Seven Virgins" (1 text)
Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, pp. 123-124, "The Leaves of Life" (1 text)
Roud #127
RECORDINGS:
May Bradley, "Under the Leaves" (on Voice11)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tam Lin" [Child 39] (tune)
NOTES [1000 words]: The idea behind this song is very old, although the song may be relatively recent in the form we know it. Greene, p. 24 n. 4, observes, "Only here and there can as much as a whole line of modern traditional song be recognized as actually surviving from a medieval carol. One striking example is the second line of the couplet burden of [Greene, The Early English Carols] No. 193, a lament of Mary over her crucified son:
For to se my dere Son dye, and sones have I no mo.
Greene also notes a similar Manx text from 1924.
This line of the song is based on the legend that Mary was a perpetual version; Matthew 13:55 lists Jesus as having brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas; Mark 6:3 lists brothers James, Joses, Judas, and Simon. (At least, these are the common readings; in Matthew, the manuscripts א D M 579 have "John," B C N Θ 1 33 have "Joseph"; K L W and most later manuscripts have "Joses." In Mark, the best manuscripts, B D L Δ Θ 33 565 579 have Ιωσητος, Iosetos=Joset; most later manuscripts, including A C M N W, read Ιωση, Iose=Jose(s); א reads "Joseph.") There are repeated references in Acts to James, the Lord's brother. InterpretersDict, volume II, p. 791, states, "The relationship between James and Jesus has been much discussed.... NT and early Christian writers refer to James as a 'brother' of Jesus, and the natural interpretation of the language of that period is the literal one, that James was a son of Joseph and Mary, younger than Jesus. Though this view was rejected by most of the ancient church, it is probably correct. Belief in the perpetual virginity of Mary led to the development of the view that Jesus and James were foster brothers," with James being the son of Joseph by a previous marriage.
The details in this song are generally from the Gospel of John. Only in John is Mary explicitly present at the cross, and John is the only gospel in which Thomas has a speaking role (though he was popular in the Apocryphal Gospels). Jesus's last words ("sweet mother, now I die," or similar) are perhaps closer to the fourth gospel ("it has been finished/completed/perfected," 19:30) than any of the other gospels.
In addition, Jesus's instruction to his mother to take John as her son is found only in the fourth gospel (John 19:26-27, though in fact the disciple involved is not named there; in fact, John is not even mentioned in the fourth gospel, though he is widely believed to be the "beloved disciple" referred to in chapter 19; Brown1, pp. xciii-cii).
One might note that there was a legend, based on a complicated analysis of the names of the women at the foot of the cross in the various gospels, that John and his brother James were Mary's nephews and Jesus's first cousins (Brown2, pp. 904-907; InterpretersDict, Volume II, p. 791, etc).
Some versions contain a line, "Oh the rose, the gentle rose, The fennel it grows so strong...." Binney, p. 107, reports that "The seeds of fennel, dill, and caraway... all contain natural oils that help soothe spasms in the intestine.... Bitter fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), whose seeds taste rather like celery, was considered sacred by the Greeks. They believes that the TItan Prometheus had hidden fire in the hollow stalks of the fennel plant in order to steal it from the gods and bring it to humans."
The idea that fennel was used for upset stomachs seems to be quite old. The "B" version of Langland's Piers Plowman, Passus V, line 306, reads "A ferthyngworth of fennelseed for fastynge dayes" (so Langland/Schmidt, p. 78; in Langland/Bennett, p. 46, it's line 313 but the text is the same except for orthography. In Langland/Donaldson, p. 49, it is modernized as "A farthingworth of fennel seed for fasting days" with a note that it was considered good for someone drinking on an empty stomach. The note on p. 172 of Langland/Bennett quotes a 1629 authority who said it was "of much use to expel wind"; that on p. 427 of Langland/Schmidt tentatively suggests that it could be chewed on a fasting day without breaking the rule against eating. The reading goes back to the "A" version of the poem (it's Passus V, line 155, on p. 103 of Langland/Knott/Fowler, but they offer no explanation).
On the other hand, Ault, pp. 69-73, quotes a piece from 1584, "A Nosegay Always Sweet, for Lovers to Send for Tokens of Loave at New Year's Tide, Or for Fairings," which includes a list of flowers and their symbols, e.g. "Lavender is for lovers true..."; "Rosemary is for remembrance..."; "Sage is for sustenance...." The fennel portion has "Fennel is for flatterers...."
None of this seems very relevant, but it certainly shows that fennel was well-known as an herb from an early time.
More interesting, in light of the notion of Mary's perpetual virginity, is the fact that silphium, a member of the fennel family, was reputed to be a workable form of birth control (Gray/Garcia, p. 227. It may even have been true -- we can't tell, because silphium was harvested to extinction).
The statement that Jesus was crucified on a yew tree is also interesting. The Gospels do not state the nature of the tree on which Jesus was crucified. Yew trees grow in parts of the Middle East, but they are never mentioned in the Bible. But yew trees came to be regarded as a symbol of the transcendence of death: "Evergreen tree that is widely associated with immortality and life after death, hence its presence in countless churchyards in the Western world and its consequent association with death itself" (Pickering, p. 322). On the other hand, Jones-Larousse, p. 465, says it was planted by churchyards to keep witches and demons away and keep them from animating the corpses. Which gives another twist on the idea of Jesus being crucified on a yew tree: He returned to life despite the yew!
Another possibly origin for the number seven is that there were considered to be seven woes of the Virgin Mary, to match her seven joys; these were mentioned in the Latin hymn "Summae, Deus, clementiae, Septem Dolores Virginia." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: OBB111

Seven Years

See The Maid and the Palmer [Child 21] (File: C021)

Seven Years I Loved a Sailor

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Seven Years in Dublin

DESCRIPTION: "My parents reared me tenderly I being their only heir, I lived with my grandmother, Of me she took great care, Seven years in Dublin I was taught in the academy, My learning might have served a knight Or a lord of high degree"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: home
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 108, "Seven Years in Dublin" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #2781
NOTES [16 words]: The current description is all of the Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick fragment. - BS
File: CrSNB108

Seven Years O'er Young

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in between twa bonnie woods and valleys Where I and my love aye met so rare" that the man asks the singer if she will wed. She says she is "seven years o'er young to wed." But he finally lures her into his arms, then says he has another love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1816-1818 (Alexander Campbell's _Albyn's Anthology_, according to Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #131)
KEYWORDS: courting sex abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #131, pp. 1-2, "Two Years Owre Young"; #135, p. 2, "Touch Not the Nettle" (2 texts plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan6 1187, "Two Years Owre Young" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 170-171, "Seven Years O'er Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #380
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pretty Little Miss" [Laws P18] (plot)
NOTES [123 words]: This is a bit of a problem song. Roud lumps it with "Pretty Little Miss" [Laws P18]. I have to wonder if MacColl and Seeger's "Too Young" might not also be this. This song has effectively the same plot as Laws P18, but no similarity in lyrics. Laws, however, admits that P18 is textually unstable.
The only additional point is that Laws does not cite this song with P18 (or anything else, e.g. P19, "Tripping o'er the Lea," which also has some contact with this song). On that basis, I split them -- but it's a very uncertain question, and readers probably need to study the matter carefully. - RBW
Greig: "As regards the age of the original song, it has to be noted that, nearly a hundred years ago, Hogg considered it to be very old." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord170

Seven Yellow Gipsies, The

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17]

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a pretty young girl. He gets acquainted by asking questions: "What are you doing?" "Where do you live?" "How old are you?" "May I visit you tonight?" She agrees to the meeting; they have their fun despite her mother's opposition
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1790 (Burns's "A Waukrife Minnie" in _The Scots Musical Museum_)
KEYWORDS: questions courting nightvisit
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(All),Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (40 citations):
Laws O17, "Seventeen Come Sunday"
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 74, "My Pretty Maid" (2 texts)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 140-141, "The Gypsy Laddie" (1 text, a short mixture of "The Gypsy Laddie" [Child 200] and "Seventeen Come Sunday" [Laws O17])
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 52, "Hi Rinky Dum" (1 text, 1 tune, much worn down; there is no nightvisit, and the two mutually decide against marriage)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 11, "Where Are You Going, My Pretty Maid" (2 texts, both very short)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 99, "My Pretty Little Miss" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 210-211, "My Pretty Little Miss" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #74, "One Sunday Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 106, "How Old Are You, My Pretty Little Miss?" (1 text, 1 tune -- a badly eroded version)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 128, "Where Are You Going, My Pretty Fair Maid?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 164-165, "I'm Scarce Sixteen Come Sunday" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 32, "I'm Seventeen Come Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 16, "Seventeen Come Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 284-286, "I'll Be Seventeen Come Sunday" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 127, "I'm Seventeen Come Sunday" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 61, "I'm Seventeen Come Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 52, "Seventeen Come Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 44, "I'm Seventeen Come Sunday" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 117, "Seventeen Come Sunday" (2 texts)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 42, "Seventeen Come Sunday" (1 text plus a Cornish translation, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #77, "Seventeen Come Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 11, "I'm Seventeen Come Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 75-76, "Seventeen Come Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #37, "Seventeen Come Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 54-56, "As I Roved Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 68, "Seventeen Come Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 126, "My Pretty Maid" (1 text)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #25, pp. 99-100, "The Modesty Answer" (1 text, 1 tune, in which the girl asks her mother if she may marry, is refused, and decides to run away to North Carolina and eat cream and honey!)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H152, pp. 266-267, "I'm Seventeen 'gin Sunday"; H793, pp. 267-268, "As I Gaed ower a Whinny Knowe";(2 texts, 2 tunes)
Greig/Duncan4 791, "The Soldier Lad" (14 texts, 12 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 181, "The Weil Payt't Dochter" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 44, "Seventeen Come Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 99-102, "My Rolling Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 697, "Rudam Day" (1 text)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 6, "As I Roamed Out" (1 text, 1 tune, listed by Dawney as "The Banks of Sweet Primroses" although the surviving text is quite close to the "As I Roved Out" versions of "Seventeen Come Sunday" [Laws O17]; Butterworth expurgated several verses which might have clarified the origin)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 128-129, "Seventeen Come Sunday"; "When Cockle Shells Make Silver Bells" (1 text plus a fragment)
Tobitt-SkipToMyLou, p. 3, "Sandy Land" (1 text, 1 tune, which appears to be composite -- the first verse is "Great Big Taters in Sandy Land," the second is is "Oe more river I'm bound to cross," and the last is a "Sixteen Come Sunday" verse)
DT 334, YONHIGH* ROCKYMT (TROOPRM2* -- apparently a cross between this piece and Child 299)
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson and William Stenhouse, The Scotish Musical Museum (London, 1839 ("Digitized by Google")[new edition of James Johnson, The Scots Musical Museum (Edinburgh, 1790)]), Vol. III, #288 pp. 8, "A Waukrife Minnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 45, 'Seventeen Come Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #277
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "Seventeen Come Sunday" (on HCox01)
Mary Delaney, "New Ross Town" (on IRTravellers01)
Seamus Ennis, "As I Roved Out" (on FSB01)
Bob Hart, "Seventeen Come Sunday" (on Voice10)
Joe Heaney, "Who Are You, My Pretty Fair Maid" (on Voice01)
Howard Morry, "I'll Be Seventeen Come Sunday" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Ken Peacock, "I'll be Seventeen Come Sunday" (on NFKPeacock)
Jean Ritchie & Doc Watson, "Where Are You Going?" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchiteWatsonCD1)
Tony Wales, "Seventeen Come Sunday" (on TWales1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.34(67), "Seventeen Come Sunday," J. Paul and Co. (London), 1838-1845; also Johnson Ballads 547, Firth b.34(264), Firth c.14(204), Harding B 11(690), "Seventeen Come Sunday"; Harding B 11(1732), "I'm Seventeen Come Sunday"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid)"
cf. "The Overgate" (tune, theme)
cf. "Courting the Widow's Daughter (Hard Times)" [Laws H25] (plot)
cf. "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss" (floating lyrics, some tunes)
cf. "I Love My Love (I) (As I Cam' Owre Yon High High Hill)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Light of the Moon" (theme: night visit ended by a crowing cock) [viz., "My Rolling Eye"/"A Waukrife Minnie"]
cf. "Ona May Morning So Early" (borrows this tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sixteen Come Sunday
Flash Girls and Airy Too
Blink Owre the Burn
NOTES [279 words]: There are versions of this song which have mixed with "Trooper and Maid" [Child 299]; these generally file under that ballad and are sometimes known as "As I Roved Out." The Sam Henry text "My Darling Blue-Eyed Mary" has lost the key question about the girl's age, but the rest is clearly this song. - RBW
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "As I Roved Out" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959))
Dick notes, "No. 187. Whare are you gaun, my bonnie lass. In the Interleaved Museum, Burns says, 'I pickt up this old song and tune from a country girl in Nithsdale. I never met with it elsewhere in Scotland.' It is thought that he amended some verses and wrote others. I can find no trace of any original prior to Burns (source: James C. Dick, The Songs of Robert Burns (Henry Frowde, 1903 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 414). Ford first published "My Rolling Eye" in 1899 (Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland [first series] (Paisley, 1899 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 102-105), and reprinted it in the reference listed above in 1904
The "Waukrife Minnie" text is "My Rolling Eye" stripped of the usual "Seventeen Come Sunday" banter. What is left is the night visit of "My Rolling Eye" in which the restless cock crows early, waking the girl's mother who beats the girl; as usual the soldier leaves. Of the six verses of "A Waukrife Minnie" only one differs substantially from Ford's text. Ford, commenting on "A Waukrife Minnie"/"My Rolling Eye" says "that it was known elsewhere than in Nithsdale, even in Burns's time is very likely." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LO17

Seventh King's Daughter, The

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Seventy-four

See Nine Hundred Miles (File: LxU073)

Seventy-Two Today

See I'm Seventy-Two Today" (File: R433)

Sew, Sew, Sew

See (game with lyrics filed under) What'll I Do with the Baby-O (File: R565)

Sewing Machine, The

DESCRIPTION: A soldier visits "the Heidelberg whore." He has sex with her, that is, he sews on her "sewing machine," and ends up cursing her for giving him "the clap and the blue-balls too."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Prob. 1940s (recording by unknown artist) but may be earlier
KEYWORDS: bawdy disease curse soldier
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 406-407, "The Sewing Machine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10406
RECORDINGS:
Unknown artist, "The Sewing Machine" (Party Platters 332a, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fire Ship" (plot) and references there
cf. "Charlotte the Harlot I, II, III, IV"
NOTES [66 words]: The reference to the Heidelberg whore suggests this song or version dates from the post World War II occupation of Germany. [It was] probably inspired by "Charlotte the Harlot." - EC
I'm not sure about placing this song during the occupation of Germany. The [Party Platters] record cited above doesn't mention the Heidelberg Whore, and it *may* be prewar. It'd be good to have a date for it. - PJS
File: EM406

Sexual Life of the Camel, The

DESCRIPTION: A sophisticated exposition of the supposed mating habits of the "Clipper Ship of the Desert" -- added comments about the homosexual proclivities of naval personnel, hedgehogs, Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and Cambridge.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous animal homosexuality
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US(MW,SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 243-245, "The Sexual Life of the Camel" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 137, "The Sexual Life of the Camel" (1 text)
Roud #10122
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Turalai" (subject of camel life)
File: EM243

Seynt Nicholas was of gret poste

See Saint Nicholas (File: MsSeyNic)

Sgeir-Mhara, An (The Sea-Tangle, The Jealous Woman)

DESCRIPTION: Scots Gaelic. A woman weaves a tangle of gold to bind another by the water. The bound woman awakes to find herself in danger of drowning. She begs for pity, but finds none, for her or her babes; the other will sleep with her man that night
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides)
KEYWORDS: jealousy homicide drowning children foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Hebr))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 3, "A Bhean Iadach (The Jealous Woman)" (1 text+English translation, 1 tune)
Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides II, pp. 55-63, "The Sea-Tangle, or, The Sisters (An Sgeir-Mhara)" (1 text+English translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Twa Sisters [Child #10]" (plot)
cf. "The Ghost's Bride" (theme)
NOTES [98 words]: The Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland and Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides texts between them parallel almost the entire plot of "The Twa Sisters": Kennedy's text is the exchange between the jealous sisters, while Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides is a tale of the murder attempt. The two have only slight overlap, but it seems clear they are fragments of a longer item.
If the references in Kennedy are to be believed (and they often aren't), this must be one of the most popular songs in the Hebrides; he lists fifteen versions from as far afield as Nova Scotia. - RBW
File: K003

Sh-Ta-Ra-Dah-Dey (Snagging the Klacking)

DESCRIPTION: "Sh-ta-ra-dah-dey, sh-ta-dey, Times is mighty hard. A dollar a day is all they pay For work on the boulevard." Alternately, "Hip-fa-lad-di-dee/Graybacks/Are mighty thick/A dollar a day/Is all they pay/For snaggin'/The Klacking Creek."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: work lullaby hardtimes lumbering nonballad logger worksong
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 36-37, "Sh-Ta-Ra-Dah-Dey" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 23, "Snaggin' the Klacking" (1 short text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, p. 42, "Snaggin' the Klackin'" (1 short text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 17, "Snaggin' the Klackin') (1 short text)
Roud #6515 and 8861
NOTES [85 words]: While Beck gives no information about the circumstances under which the song was sung, it sounds enough like a worksong that I've given it that keyword. - PJS
Whereas Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag lists his as a lullaby. I can't prove that these two are the same song -- but they're too similar to separate until fuller versions come along. Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan doesn't give a context, either, but he does describe snagging as one of the tasks of the logger, hinting that this is at least a song about work. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: San036

Shab-i-da Ru-dy

See I'll Not Marry at All (File: E072)

Shabby Genteel

DESCRIPTION: "Too proud to beg, too honest to steal, I know what it is to be wanting a meal, My tatters and rags I try to conceal, I'm one of the shabby genteel." The singer has seen better days and warns that bad fortune "may reduce one of you in the very same way"
AUTHOR: Harry Clifton (source: broadside, Bodleian Bod131779 Harding B 11(3459))
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Bod13177 Harding B 11(3459)); in tradition, 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: poverty virtue warning clothes food hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dime-Song-Book #26, p. 53, "Shabby Genteel" (1 text)
Roud #22504
RECORDINGS:
Leo Martin, "The Shabby Genteel" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod13177 Harding B 11(3459), "Shabby Genteel" ("We have heard it asserted a dozen times o'er), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Bod18255 Firth b.27(122), Bod13176 Harding B 11(3458), "Shabby Genteel"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor, But a Gentleman Still" (subject)
NOTES [69 words]: There was a whole movement, in the nineteenth century, of "shabby genteel" songs. Presumably this was one of the first, if not the first; Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, Random House, 1948, p. 173, says that the song belonged to "ht same school [of what Spaeth calls 'silly-ass character studies in the English manner'], with a rather individual attempt at combining a smile with a tear." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ML3ShaGe

Shack Bully Holler

DESCRIPTION: "Raise up, boys, raise up -- Breakfas' on de table an a coffee's gittin' col'." Bits and pieces of life in a levee camp: Poor food, not enough sleep, hard work, hard-driving White bosses. Much of the piece is recited rather than sung
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: work food hardtimes nonballad recitation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 45-46, "Shack Bully Holler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15531
File: LxA045

Shad, The

DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "Bait a hook to catch a shad/The first thing he bit was my old Dad/Pulled her away with all my might/Trying for to get the old man out/Fishpole broke and I got mad/Down to the bottom went old Dad"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: age fishing death drowning animal father
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 254, "The Shad" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3663
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lulu (II)" (lyrics)
NOTES [37 words]: Fragment it may be, but it has a coherent story. Most of the lyrics appear as floaters in "Lulu (II)," but that's a nonballad with a thoroughly different gestalt, and I assume the words floated over there on their own. - PJS
File: ShAp2254

Shades of Evening

See Isle of Beauty, Fare Thee Well (File: HMHS014A)

Shades of the Palmetto, The

See The Dying Ranger [Laws A14] (File: LA14)

Shadow of the Pines

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls walking with his love in the shadow of the pines. But "some hasty words were spoken...." and she departed in anger. Now he awakens from his dreams calling her name, and hopes that she will forgive him
AUTHOR: Hattie Lummis (pseud. for Luvena Buchanan) & G. O. Lang
EARLIEST DATE: 1895
KEYWORDS: love separation loneliness
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 135-136, "Shadow of the Pines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 694, "In the Shadow of the Pines"; 695, "In the Shadow of the Pines" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 99, "In the Shadow of the Pines" (2 texts plus mention of 4 more, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 197-200, "In the Shadows of the Pines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4289
RECORDINGS:
[Vernon] Archibald & [Royal] Fish, "In the Shadow of the Pines" (CYL: Edison [BA] 2073, 1913; on Protobilly)
Gene Autry, ""In the Shadow of the Pine" (Gennett 7265/Champion 16050Supertone 9704, 1930; Melotone [Canada] 45071/Champion 45071, c. 1935; Montgomery Ward M-4933, 1936; Decca 5464, 1937; Rex [UK] 9457, 1939)
Archibald & Fish, "In the Shadow of the Pines" (CYL: Edison [BA] 2073, n.d.)
Carter Family, "In the Shadow of the Pines" (Decca 5539, 1938; Montgomery Ward 8003, 1939; rec. 1936)
Texas Gladden, "In the Shadow of the Pines" (on USTGladden01)
[Byron] Harlan & [Frank] Stanley, "In the Shadow of the Pines" (Columbia 258, 1901)
Kelly Harrell, "In the Shadow of the Pine" (Victor 20657, 1927; on KHarrell02, Protobilly)
Carl Harris, "In the Shadow of the Pine" (Challenge 229, 1927)
Herb Jennings, "In the Shadow of the Pine" (Champion 15209, 1927)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers [or Dixie Clodhoppers], "In the Shadow of the Pine" (OKeh 45192, 1928; rec. 1927)
Buell Kazee, "In the Shadow of The Pines" (Brunswick 216/Vocalion 5221, 1928)
M. O. [Murray?] Keller, "In the Shadow of a Pine" (Brunswick 188, 1927)
Mike Kent, "Shadows of the Pines" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "In the Shadow of the Pines" (on BLLunsford01)
Fiddlin' Doc Roberts Trio, "In the Shadow of the Pines" (Silvertone 5006 [possibly as Dock Roberts, his real name]/Challenge 229 [as Carl Harris]/Champion 15209 [as Billy Jorday]/Gennett 6025, 1927; Supertone 9252, 1928; rec. 1926) (Conqueror 8208, 1933; Conqueror 8566, 1935)
Connie Sides, "In the Shadow of the Pine" (Columbia 15009-D, rec. 1924)
Ernest Stoneman, "In the Shadow of the Pine" (OKeh 45048, 1926) (Pathe 32380/Perfect 12459, 1928)
NOTES [78 words]: The liner notes to the Kelly Harrell album mention "somebody's happy idea of having Harrell sing the last line of the chorus out of tempo." This seems, however, to be a traditional approach to the song -- Lunsford also breaks the tempo, although in a different way. - RBW
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports writes, "'In the Shadow of the Pines' had certainly arrived in Newfoundland by the late 1890s, likely through the availability of sheet music." - BS"
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MN1135

Shadows of the Pines

See Shadow of the Pines (File: MN1135)

Shady Brookside

DESCRIPTION: Singer recalls "a parting long ago" when his little sister died. They used to roam by "the shady brookside where the water lilies grow" Now he is leaving his parents and siblings.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: farewell home parting separation travel death nonballad brother father mother sister
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18237
RECORDINGS:
Vince Ledwell, "Shady Brookside" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcShaBro

Shady Grove

DESCRIPTION: The singer talks about courting (in) Shady Grove. There is no particular plot. A typical chorus runs, "Shady Grove my little love, Shady Grove I say, Shady Grove my little love, I'm bound to go away." Shady Grove may be a place or a girl's name
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1893 (JAFL6)
KEYWORDS: courting love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,SW)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 57, "Betty Anne" (1 text, 1 tune -- an odd version which seems to have some foreign elements mixed in, and with the tune moved from minor to Mixolydian)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 120, "Shady Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 485, "Shady Grove" (2 texts, neither much like the standard version of this song, but even less like anything else); also 97, "Uncle Joe Cut Off His Toe" (3 texts plus mention of 2 more, but "B" is probably "Shady Grove"; "A" is an incredible mix with verses typical of "Raccoon," "If I Had a Scolding Wife," a "Liza Jane" song, a mule song, and "Shady Grove"); also 111, "Wish I Had a Needle and Thread" (7 text, of which only "E" is really substantial; it is certainly the "Italy" version of "Going Across the Sea." The other fragments contain verses typical of "Shady Grove," "Old Joe Clark," and others); also 286, "Fly Around, My Blue-Eyed Girl" (4 texts; "A"-"C" are "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss," but the "D" text is mostly "Shady Grove")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 485, "Shady Grove" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 46-47, "Shady Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 37, "Shady Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 5-6, "Shady Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 358, "Now I Am a Big Boy" (2 texts, both fragments; the "A" text is associated with this ballad, though -- as only a single verse -- it could go anywhere)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 88, "Betty Anne" (1 text, 1 tune, with lyrics from "Shady Grove," "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss" and "Going Across the Sea")
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, p. 10, "Shady Grove" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 175, "Shady Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 138-139, "Shady Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 195, "Shady Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 152, "Shady Grove" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 69, "Shady Grove" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BETTYANN* SHADYGRV*
Roud #4456
RECORDINGS:
Garrett & Norah Arwood, "Shady Grove" (on OldTrad2, FarMtns3)
Clarence Ashley & New River Jack Burchett, "Shady Grove" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01)
Rufus Crisp, "Shady Grove" (on Crisp01)
Goldie Hamilton, "Shady Grove" (AAFS 2787 A2)
Kentucky Thorobreds, "Shady Grove" (Paramount 3080, 1928; Broadway 8184 [as Old Smokey Twins], n.d.; rec. 1927)
J. M. Mullins, "Shady Grove" (AAFS 1566 A)
Dellie Norton, "Little Betty Ann" (on FarMtns4)
J. W. Russell, "Shady Grove" (AAFS 3162 B1)
Kilby Snow, "Shady Grove" (on KSnow1)
Pete Steele, "Shady Grove" (on PSteele01)
The Virginia Dandies [alternate name for Walter "Kid" Smith & The Carolina Buddies], "Shady Grove" (Crown, unissued, 1931)
Vernie Westfall, "Shady Grove" (AAFS 4118 B1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Black-Eyed Susie (Green Corn)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Going Across the Sea" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Kansas Cyclone" (tune)
cf. "Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind" (floating phrase)
cf. "Pig at Home in the Pen" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Mary from Dungloe" (floating verse)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Little Betty Ann
File: SKE57

Shady Road to Clane, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes an idyllic spot on "the shady road from Bodenstown to Clane." He meets a beautiful maid who asks "is this the shady road to Clane?" He assures her it is. She leaves. He is dejected. He must find "the maid that stole my heart"
AUTHOR: John Ennis (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Chicago IL Inter Ocean; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: love beauty separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 77, "The Shady Road to Clane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9769
NOTES [256 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads lists this as by "John Dennis," but this appears to be an error of hearing for John Ennis. Nick Whitmer send me this newspaper excerpt which gives background on the song:
The Revival of Erin's Language and Music in Chicago.
By John Ennis.
'Ballads Written by Chicagoans
"The Irish Music club is taking a practical and effective method of reviving and popularizing the old forgotten melodies by writing words to them after the style of the old time Irish ballads. The first of the songs to be published, and which will be out in a few days is 'The Shady Road to Clane.' The words have the ring of the once popular Irish love song. The music, which is a typically rich Irish melody and a delightful waltz, was arranged by Mr. Francis Murnihan, the official scribe of the club."
Mr. Whitmer tells me that the above comes from the Chicago, IL Inter Ocean, June 11, 1905, Magazine p. 2 column 1, and that eight verses of the text follow, meaning that this version is slightly fuller than the seven stanzas in OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads.
Mr. Whitmer also found a copyright record in Ennis's name: "Shady Road to Clane, song" was registered for US Copyright as a musical composition in June 1905 in name of John Ennis, Chicago. US Library of Congress. Office of the Register of Copyrights. Catalogue of Title Entries of Books ... V. 44, No. 28 p. 499. [Available on] Google Books."
Mr. Whitmer has compiled a short biography of Ennis; it can be found at http://livesofthepipers.com/2ennisjohn.html. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: OLcM077

Shady Valley

See The Jealous Lover (II) (File: E104)

Shady Woods of Trugh, The

DESCRIPTION: Before joining Owen Roe O'Neill to fight the English, M'Kenna rides from "the Shady Woods of Trugh" to bid farewell -- in case he were killed -- to Maureen McMahon at Glaslough castle. After the battle on Benburb's plains they are married.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: love marriage battle Ireland patriotic war reunion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 35, "The Shady Woods of Trugh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2911
NOTES [124 words]: Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster: "Trugh was one of the Baronies of Monaghan.... The McMahons and the M'Kennas are two of the leading families in the area.... Major John M'Kenna, perhaps the M'Kenna of our song, lost his life in 1689; his being the first blood of the Williamite campaign."
Owen Roe O'Neill defeated the Ulster Puritan commander Munroe at Benburb in the Spring of 1646 (source: "Owen Roe O'Neill - The Cavan Connection" by Jim Hannon at the Cornafean Online site). I assume that's the battle of this ballad. - BS
I think it must be, since, first, it does not seem to have been a disaster for the Irish, and second, there were no other memorable battles there. For more on Owen Roe O'Neill, see the notes to "General Owen Roe." - RBW
File: MorU035

Shake 'Em on Down

DESCRIPTION: "Get your nightcap, mama, and your gown, Baby, 'fore day we gonna shake 'em on down." "Too much of jelly to be throwed away." "I ain't been to Georgia, but I been told, Georgia women got the best jelly roll." "I done stopped holler'n. Must I shake...."
AUTHOR: Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (copyright, according to Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers)
KEYWORDS: sex drink nonballad floatingverses bawdy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, p. 173, "Shake 'Em on Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Bukka White, "Shake Em On Down" (Vocalion 03711, Conqueror 9072, Columbia 30139, 1937)
File: BTN173

Shake Hands Brother

DESCRIPTION: "Shake hands brother, You're a rogue and I'm another. You stole meat, I stole bone, You'll go to hell And I'll go home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: brother theft food Hell home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p.106, "Shake hands brother" (1 short text)
Roud #25369
File: BAAI106D

Shake Hands with Mother Again

DESCRIPTION: "Now, if I would be a-living when Jesus comes, And know the day and the hour, I'd like to be a-standing at mother's tomb...." The singer hopes Jesus will tell him to "shake hands with mother again"; he will tell her that of his life and never again part
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (recording, Asher Sizemore & Little Jimmie)
KEYWORDS: religious death nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #5741
RECORDINGS:
Happy Valley Family, "Shake Hands With Mother Again" (Perfect 6-03-54, 1936)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Shake Hands With Mother Again" (Bluebird B-6596, 1936)
Frank Proffitt, "Shake Hands with Mother Again" (on FProffitt01)
Asher Sizemore & Little Jimmie, "Shake Hands with Mother Again" (Bluebird B-5568, 1934)
File: RcSHWMAg

Shake Hands, Mary

DESCRIPTION: "Shake hands, Mary, dum-a-la-lum" (x2). (Chorus:) "Lum, lum, lum, lum, dum-a-la-lum" (x2). "Strut, Mary, dum-a-la-lum." "Dance, Mary...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth, pp. 18-19, "Shake Hands, Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: TrJo018

Shake Hans, Brother

DESCRIPTION: "Shake hands, brother, You're a rogue and I'm another."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 48, "Shake hands, brother" (1 text)
Roud #25369
File: KSUC048

Shake It If You Can

DESCRIPTION: "Going to Kentucky Going to the fair." "Met a senorita with flowers in her hair." "Shake it if you can" so the boys will follow. Instructions to "rhumba" and "shake it all around"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (JohnsIsland1)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad flowers
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Mabel Hillery, Janie Hunter and her grandchildren, "Shake It If You Can" (on JohnsIsland1)
File: RcSIIYCa

Shake It, Mister Gator

See Haming on a Live Oak Log (Mister Gator) (File: JDM240)

Shake the Blanket

DESCRIPTION: Rhyme to do what it says: "Shake the blanked, Shake the blanked, Turn the blanket... over."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | blanket
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 34, "Shake the Blanket" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #38116
File: BAAI034

Shaker Funeral Hymn

DESCRIPTION: "Our brother's gone, he is no more, He's quit our coast, he's left our shore, He's burst the bonds of mortal clay, The spirit's fled and soars away." All alike are told to be prepared; the righteous will triumph over death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1822 (George DeWitt Hymnal, according to Andrews)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 38, "Shaker Funeral Hymn" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Deming Andrews, _The Gift to be Simple: Songs, Dances and Rituals of the American Shakers_, 1940 (references are to the 1962 Dover reprint), p. 102, "Funeral Hymn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6670
NOTES [303 words]: The song's final reference to the sting of death and the victory of the grave is a reference to 1 Corinthians 15:55 (itself citing Hosea 13:14 as it occurs in the Greek Old Testament).
The citation exactly matches the King James Version of 1 Corinthians -- which, however, is translated from an inferior Greek text. The earliest Greek manuscripts read "Where, O death, is your victory; where, O death, is your sting"; another important group reads "Where, O death, is your sting, where, O Hades [i.e. "grave"], is your victory"; still a third has "Where, O death, is your sting; where, O death, is your victory."
If anyone actually cares about these things, the reading victory... death... sting is supported by P46 [second or third century], by the great fourth century Vatican manuscript B, by the first hand of the fourth century Sinai manuscript ℵ, by C of the fifth century, and by the first hand of the major manuscript 1739, as well as many Latin texts; the so-called "Western" manuscripts D F G, from the sixth century and after, read sting... death.... victory; several interesting manuscripts of the ninth and tenth centuries, with the symbols 0121 0243 33 and the second hand of 1739, read victory... hades... sting; the King James reading sting... hades... victory is read by probably at least 90% of all manuscripts, but the earliest appear to be the seventh century correctors of the Sinai and Alexandrian manuscripts, which are regarded as being of little value.
The Greek of Hosea reads something like Where, O death, is your punishment (Greek δικη, dik-e; "victory" is νικη, nik-e), Where, O Hades, is your sting. This is not too far from the Hebrew, which is very difficult (several editors emend it) but seems to mean something like Where, O Death, are your plagues, Where, O Sheol, your ravages. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: LoF038

Shaker Life

See Come, Life, Shaker Life (File: LoF037)

Shall Dorr Be Freed

DESCRIPTION: "Oh say shall the victim remain in his thrall, For maintaining a post which a people has given?" The song calls for the "liberation" of [Thomas Wilson] Dorr, asking Governor Jackson and the legislature for justice.
AUTHOR: "E. H. H."
EARLIEST DATE: 1992 (DeSimone & Schofield, The Broadsides of the Dorr Rebellion); probably written 1845
KEYWORDS: political prison
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1842 - the Dorr Rebellion. Thomas Wilson Dorr leads a revolt trying to broaden the franchise in Rhode Island
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 68-70, "Shall Dorr Be Freed" (1 text plus a broadside print)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Star-Spangled Banner" (tune) and references there (including Same Tune references)
File: CAFS1068

Shall I Die?

DESCRIPTION: "Believer, O shall I die? O my army, shall I die?" "Jesus die, shall I die? Die upon the cross, shall I die?" "Die, die, die, shall I die? Jesus da coming..." "Run for to meet him... Weep like a weeper..." "Mourn like a mourner... Cry like a crier..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 41, "Shall I Die?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11994
NOTES [22 words]: Allen writes that "Shall I Die?" was used as a shout hymn on his plantation (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. xv). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: AWG041A

Shall I Show You How the Farmer

DESCRIPTION: "Shall I show you how the farmer (x3) Sows his barley and wheat?" "It is so, so, that the farmer... Sows his barley and wheat." "Shall I show you how the farmer... Hoes his barley and wheat?" "Shall I show... Now will dance and be gay?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Mann and Peabody)
KEYWORDS: nonballad farming playparty food
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 50-51, "Shall I Show You How the Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 70, "The Peasant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 96-98, "Willst du weizen? (Do You Want to Know?)" (1 German text plus non-poetic English translation, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Mrs Horace Mann and Elizabeth P. Peabody, Moral Culture of Infancy (Boston, 1864 ("Digitized by Google")), #7 p. 4, "The Peasant" (1 text, 1 tune)
J.P. McCaskey, Franklin Square Song Collection No. 1 (New York, 1881 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 20, "The Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Lins050 (Partial)
Roud #12865
NOTES [107 words]: The "peasant" version, which I have lumped with the "farmer" version, seems just to replace "farmer" with "peasant." For example, "Would you know how does the peasant, (3x) Sow his barley and wheat?" "Look, 'tis so, so does the peasant, (3x) Sow his barley and wheat." (Mann and Peabody) - BS
I would guess the change went the other way; "farmer" sounds like a much more high-class occupation than "peasant." But the relationship seems clear.
I am not sure that Korson's Pennsylvania Dutch song is actually the same as the English song; the idea is so easy that it could well have arisen independently. But it's not worth a separate listing. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Lins050

Shall My Soul Pass Through Ireland

DESCRIPTION: "In a dreary British prison where an Irish rebel lay, By his side a priest waits... 'Father, tell me if I die shall my soul pass through Ireland?'" The rebel dies for Irish freedom; the singer asks that his prayer be granted
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, The McNulty Family)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion death prison
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, p. 67, "Terence McSwiney" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SOULPASS
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Shall My Soul Pass Through Ireland" (on NFOBlondahl03)
The McNulty Family, "Shall My Soul Pass Through Ireland" (Decca 12154, 1938)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kevin Barry" (tune)
NOTES [442 words]: Galvin reports this piece under the name "Terence McSwiney," connecting it with a Lord Mayor of Cork (properly Terence MacSwiney) who resisted British rule (more or less; he was found to be carrying notes for an anti-British speech), was imprisoned in London, and died after a 73-day hunger strike (1920).
It should be added that the British were right about his opposition to British rule: MacSwiney was a senior officer in the Volunteers (second in command in Cork, according to Tim Pat Coogan, Michael Collins, p. 122), and that he did not win election in Cork as such. Rather, his superior Tomas MacCurtain was elected Mayor in the great Sinn Fein election of January 1920. MacSwiney was appointed his deputy, and succeeded when MacCurtain was shot.
MacSwiney's slow death was part of a movement of hunger strikers, of whom McSwiney was the most notable but perhaps not the one who was making the greatest sacrifice; according to Calton Younger, Ireland's Civil War, p. 116, he also had tuberculosis -- and died in a hospital ward, not a prison, where he was treated with great care.
The British had originally tried force feeding the prisoners (which at the time meant pouring milk and beaten eggs down a tube forcibly inserted into the throat via the mouth or, if the prisoner would not open his mouth, the nostrils). Even in the hands of a good doctor, this inevitably resulted in bruising of the nose, mouth, and throat, and in the hands of an incompetent, the results could be disastrous. Another hunger striker, Thomas Ashe, had died of the effects of force feeding (see Robert Kee, Ourselves Alone, being volume III of The Green Flag, pp. 33-34). This caused a commission to declare force feeding barbaric; as a result, the British stopped using it, and hunger strikers started dying of hunger instead.
It is not impossible that the song is about MacSwiney, but supporting evidence is lacking. See also the notes on "The Boys from County Cork."
This is listed in at least one place as by "AE" (with no space). - RBW
Blondahl03 has no liner notes confirming that this song was collected in Newfoundland. Barring another report for Newfoundland I do not assume it has been found there. There is no entry for "Shall My Soul Pass Through Ireland" in Newfoundland Songs and Ballads in Print 1842-1974 A Title and First-Line Index by Paul Mercer.
Blondahl might have learned his version from the McNulty Family recording. The McNultys were popular in Newfoundland at the time Blondahl was there, and their records were available in St. John's (see Anne Kearney Guigné, The Forgotten Songs of the Newfoundland Outports, pp. 266-268). - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: PGa067

Shall We Gather at the River

DESCRIPTION: "Shall we gather at the river, Where bright angel feet have trod... Yes, we'll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river... That flows by the throne of God." A description of the happy life after death in the land of God
AUTHOR: Robert Lowry (1826-1899)
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (Lowry & Doan, _Happy Voices_, according to Reynolds)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 26-29, "Beautiful River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 297, "Shall We Gather at the River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 146-148, "Shall We Gather at the River" (1 text)
DT, GATHRIVR*
Roud #14037
RECORDINGS:
Alcoa Quartet, "Shall We Gather at the River" (Columbia 15022-D, 1925)
Chuck Wagon Gang, "Shall We Gather at the River" (Columbia 20630, 1949)
Kanawha Singers, "Shall We Gather at the River" (Brunswick 328, 1929)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Shall We Gather at the River" (Vocalion 5162, 1927)
Mr. & Mrs. Douglas Swagerty, "Shall We Gather at the River?" (OKeh 40216, 1924)
NOTES [182 words]: Reverend Robert Lowry (1826-1899) wrote this piece (which he titled 'Beautiful River") on a hot day in 1864. Although it is perhaps the most popular item Lowry ever produced, it is reported that he was not fond of it. Lowry was also responsible for "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight" and "How Can I Keep from Singing"; for more on him, see the notes to the latter.
William Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal, Broadman Press, 1976, p. 192, describes how Lowry came to write the piece: One day in July 1864, the weather was almost unbearably hot, and Lowry was feeling exhausted by the heat. He had what sounds like a fever dream of cool, clear water. Then he thought of the call-and-response "Shall we gather?" and "Yes, we'll gather," and gradually the elements came together.
The tune is sometimes known as "Hanson Place," after Hanson Place Baptist Church, where Lowry was pastor (Reynolds, p. 193)
Aaron Copland would eventually include this in his Old American Songs.
The original arrangement was by one E. Mack, and it is perhaps responsible for much of the piece'spopularity. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: RJ19026

Shallo Brown (Shallow Brown)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Shallo, Shallo Brown." The sailor admits that he is leaving, and regrets being parted from his wife and baby. In some versions he may be a slave sold for the "Yankee Dollar"; in others, he is a whaler going about his work.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1882
KEYWORDS: shanty separation family slave
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 44, "Shallo Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 61, "Shallo Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 126-127, "Shallow Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 257-260, Shallow Brown (4 texts, 4 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 188-191]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, LV, p. 60, "Shallow Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 22, "Shiloh Brown" (1 text)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 55, pp. 218-219, "Shilo Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SHALOBRN SHALBRN2*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). A fragment of "Shallow Brown" is in Part 3, 7/28/1917.
Roud #2621
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hullabaloo Belay" (character)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Challo Brown
NOTES [26 words]: According to Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, the name "Challo" used in some versions is "a West Indian word of Carib extraction meaning a 'half-caste.'" - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Doe044

Shallow Brown (II)

DESCRIPTION: Has the refrain of "Shallo Brown" but the solo text is taken from "Blow, Boys, Blow (I)" and the tune is the same as "Hilo, Boys, Hilo." The meter alternates from 3/4 to 2/4 throughout.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 257, Shallow Brown (1 text, 1 tune - quoted from Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys) [AbEd, p. 187]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXX, p. 35, "Shallow Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blow, Boys, Blow (I)" (text)
cf. "Hilo, Boys, Hilo" (tune)
NOTES [46 words]: Though it has the same title, this is so drastically different from "Shallo Brown" that I thought it warranted a separate entry. - SL
Entirely agreed. If it matters, this is what The Boarding Party called "Fast Shallow," to distinguish it from the more common "Slow Shallow." - RBW
File: Hugi257

Shallows Field

See The Battle of Vicksburg (File: R225)

Shalom Chaverim

DESCRIPTION: Hebrew round: "Shalom chaverim, Shalom chaverim, Shalom, Shalom, L'hit ra-ot, L'hit ra-ot, Shalom, Shalom." Camp (non)-translation: "Farewell, good friends (x2), Farewell, farewell, Till we meet again, Till we meet again, Farewell, farewell."
AUTHOR: unknown (English version used in camps attributed to "A. Z. D.")
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (ChansonsDeNotreChalet)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, pp. 413, 452, "Shalom Chaverim" (1 Hebrew text with translation)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 42, "Shalom Chaverim" (1 Hebrew text with camp translation, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 442, 443, "Shalom Chaverim" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "Shalom Chaverim" (1 Hebrew text with translation, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 17)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 30, "Shalom Chaverim" (1 English text, 1 tune)
File: ACSF442S

Shambles Fight, The

DESCRIPTION: St Patrick's day 3000 Ribbonmen march in Downpatrick with muskets. Their flags are pulled down in the Shambles. They run from Protestant guns. "The Police done their best the poor rebels to save, As the Protestant strength roll'd on like a wave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: violence Ireland patriotic political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 17, 1848 - "St Patrick's Day parades at Ballynahinch, Downpatrick and Hilltown ended in riots...." (source: Neil Jarman and Dominic Bryan, _From Riots to Rights; Nationalist Parades in the North of Ireland_ (1997), p. 11)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 12, "The Shambles Fight" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Croppies Lie Down" (tune, according to Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
NOTES [210 words]: Zimmermann p. 19: "In some parts of Ulster, Protestant and Catholic tenants were mingled and contended for the land; the peasantry was thus divided into two camps, each having its oath-bound association. This led to a sort of religious war. At the end of the eighteenth century the Catholic "Defenders" were opposed to the Protestant "Peep o'Day Boys" or "Orangemen." The "Defenders were succeeded by the "Ribbonmen, (song [Zimmermann] 39). In parts of counties Tyrone and Monaghan, according to Carleton [p. 19 fn. 14: W. Carleton's Autobiography, p. 83], the whole Catholic population was affiliated to Ribbonism, and it would have been dangerous to avoid being involved in the system." Zimmermann 34, "Owen Rooney's Lamentation": "My prosecutor swore so stout I was the man he saw, That encouraged all the Ribbonmen that came from Lisbellaw."
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark: "As their outrages were recognisably sectarian, the name came to be used as a blanket term for those who attacked Protestants."
"Situated at the junction which leads to Downpatrick Head, the Shambles is one of Ballycastle's oldest landmarks... It was erected between 1830's-1840's as a Co-Op for the buying of local farm produce." (source: "The Shambles" at Ballycastle Co. Mayo site) - BS
File: OrLa012

Shamrock

See The Loss of the Shamrock (File: Pea963)

Shamrock (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The bridegroom's father wears a shamrock. Bridegroom tells him to wear a rose: "that flower is out of place." "The old man said with tear dimmed eye I am glad your dear old mother didn't live to see this day" when you were ashamed to wear the shamrock
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: wedding rejection flowers Ireland patriotic father mother
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30144
RECORDINGS:
Ella Molloy, "Shamrock" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3Shamr

Shamrock Boys from Kill, The

DESCRIPTION: The Boys from Kill "march down by Lavey's Strand ... with O'Connell's likeness on their breasts, for to conquer Orange Bill." None fought at Tara as well as the boys from Kill. Many Protestant girls would have liked to be with a boy from Kill.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 36, "The Shamrock Boys from Kill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2912
NOTES [151 words]: O'Connell is Daniel O'Connell. Orange Bill is William of Orange. This appears not to be about any particular battle in spite of lines like "none could chase ould Luther's race Like the Shamrock boys from Kill."
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster: ."..there is a townland of Kill on the borders of Co. Cavan.... This song seems to me more militant than pure 'O'Connellism' would allow and not militant enough for 'Young Irelanders'. (Remember they bear 'O'Connell's likeness on their breasts'.) It may be that the Shamrock Boys from Kill were a sort of intermediate stage between the fall of O'Connell and the accession of Mitchel and 'Young Ireland'."
"Rebels posted on Tara Hill, County Meath, were routed on May 26 [,1798]." (Zimmermann, p. 155) - BS
I believe the reference to fighting at Tara is to the rally at that place described in "The Meeting of Tara," since that was organized by Daniel O'Connell. - RBW
File: MorU036

Shamrock Cockade, The

DESCRIPTION: "St Patrick he is Ireland's Saint And we're his Volunteers." We are ready to fight the French, if they invade. The Cork Volunteer societies are named: Union, True Blue, Boyne, Aughrim, Enniskillen and Blackpool.
AUTHOR: John Sheares? (see Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland note)
EARLIEST DATE: 1780 (_The Cork Remembrancer_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: France Ireland nonballad patriotic soldier
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 3, "The Shamrock Cockade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 42-46, "The Shamrock Cockade" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Green Cockade" (subject of the 1782 Volunteers)
cf. "The Song of the Volunteers" (subject of the 1782 Volunteers)
cf. "Ally Croker" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
NOTES [236 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 p. 1: "On St Patrick's Day, 1778, the first company of Belfast Volunteers was formed in response to the danger of a possible war between Britain and France. [According to Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, A History of Ireland, p. 186, the year was 1777, though few other companies formed until 1778.] The movement spread like wildfire and soon there were companies in all parts of Ireland."
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "Fitzgerald thus chronicles the matter in his 'Cork Remembrancer:'--'1780, March 17. The armed societies of this city paraded on the Mall with shamrock cockades, and fired three volleys in honour of the day."
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland has the text "from a manuscript copy in the autograph of Mr John Shears [executed in Dublin for high treason in 1798]" sung at the 1780 dinner. - BS
For more on the Volunteers and their effect on Anglo-Irish relations, see the notes to "The Song of the Volunteers." The reference to Saint Patrick may seem a little strange from a pro-British force, but many of the Volunteers were Catholic though the majority were Protestants. It should be remembered that the Volunteers helped encourage the formation of the independent Irish parliament -- and, since they were granted that parliament, they were relatively pro-British.
For John Sheares (the usual spelling), see the notes to "The Brothers John and Henry Sheares." - RBW
File: Moyl003

Shamrock from Glenore, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls his mother's speech as he set out walking on a Saint Patrick's Day: She plucks a shamrock and praises it. But she is old; he must cross the sea. Still he cherishes the token of mother and home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation homesickness mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H34, p. 213, "The Pretty Three-Leaved Shamrock from Glenore" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), p. 2, "The Three-leafed Shamrock from Glenore" (text, music and reference to Decca F-3283 recorded Aug 12, 1932)
Roud #8126
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Four-Leaved Shamrock from Glenore
My Little Four-Leaf Shamrock from Glenore
NOTES [24 words]: The date and master id (GB-4738-1/2) for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. - BS
File: HHH034

Shamrock from Tiree, A

DESCRIPTION: The singer, who will "see [Erin] no more," recalls the green fields, the red roses, the birds' songs. He dreams of home and its history -- the feasts in the halls of the O'Cahans, the playing of Rory Dall. All this was called back by receipt of a shamrock
AUTHOR: James O'Kane
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homesickness flowers bird emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H716, pp. 218-219, "A Shamrock from Tiree" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH176

Shamrock Shore (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Hard times and high taxes force the singer to leave Ireland for America. He and his friends spend six weeks in the woods, and the other three all die. He warns against coming to America. He hopes to return to Ireland
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration hardtimes death
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H69, p. 201, "The Happy Shamrock Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Irishman's Farewell to His Country
NOTES [40 words]: This is truly a curious song; how did the singer and friends get in trouble so quickly? Unless something has been lost, I have to suspect this was composed by someone who had never been to America, and thought it all a vast wilderness. - RBW
File: HHH069

Shamrock Shore (II), The

See Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore (File: HHH192)

Shamrock Shore (IV), The

See The Irishman's Farewell to his Country (The Shamrock Shore IV) (File: OLcM088)

Shamrock Shore, The (The Maid of Mullaghmore)

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on the muses to help him express his grief over leaving home. Having left Ireland for (Scotland), he says that (Glasgow) girls are pretty but they aren't the girl he left behind. He warns others against leaving their loves behind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(494))
KEYWORDS: love separation homesickness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H20a, p. 216, "The Maid of Mullaghmore" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 74, "The Shamrock Shore" (1 text)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 88A, "The Shamrock Shore" (1 text)
Roud #2287
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "The Shamrock Shore" (on IRPTunney01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(494), "The Shamrock Shore" ("In a musing mind with me combine"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also 2806 b.9(258), 2806 b.11(168)[Misprint in title--The Shamrore.coShk--and text], Harding B 26(598), "The Shamrock Shore" ("You muses nine, with me combine"); 2806 c.8(285), "The Shomrock Shore," printed at Cork between 1800 and 1899, shelfmark Harding B.26(598).
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
cf. "Girls of the Shamrock Shore" (theme of separation -- not transportation -- and one verse)
NOTES [50 words]: O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland includes "In the blooming spring, when the small birds sing, and the lambs did sport and play, My way I took, and friends forsook, till I came to Dublin Quay." - BS
Paddy Tunney's version on IRPTunney01 has the singer going to New York rather than to Glasgow. - BS
File: HHH20a

Shamrock Sod No More, The

See The Irish Emigrant's Lament (File: HHH235)

Shamus O'Brien

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Shamus O'Brien, I'm loving you yet, And my heart is still trusting and kind... Oh why did I let you get out of my arms Like a bird that was caged and is free." The singer promises extreme devotion and asks Shamus to return to her
AUTHOR: Will S. Hays
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love separation betrayal request
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 758, "Shamus O'Brien" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 69-70, "Shamus O'Brien" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 160, "Shamus O'Brien" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 52, "Shamus O'Brien" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #24, p. 37, "Shamus O'Brien" (1 text)
Roud #4975
RECORDINGS:
Ray Johnson, "Shamus O'Brien" (on "Ray Johnson at the Newfoundlander," Audat Records 477-9003 LP (1967))
The McNulty Family, "Shamus O'Brien" (Decca 12247, 1940)
Winfred Powers, "Seamus O'Brien" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nora O'Neal"
NOTES [77 words]: Randolph reports that this is the answer to an earlier Will S. Hays song, "Nora O'Neal." - RBW
There is a Missouri fiddle tune called "Shamus O'Brien's Waltz"; it's somewhat different from the tune to this song, but is perhaps a descendant. - PJS
Grove's Dictionary of Music also reports a "romantic comic opera in two acts" with the title "Shamus O'Brien"; the book is by J. H. Jessop and the music by "Stanford." But it didn't premiere until March 2, 1896. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R758

Shan Van Voch, The

See The Shan Van Voght (File: PGa027)

Shan Van Vocht, The

See The Shan Van Voght (File: PGa027)

Shan Van Voght (1828), The

DESCRIPTION: "O'Connell gained the day," "Catholic victory is shouted." Vesey Fitgerald and parson Fleury are vexed. "The Bible saints are routed" "Lord Tyrone, we will crack his collar bone, The County Clare will be our own, says the Shan Van Vught"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: pride Ireland nonballad political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 1828 - Daniel O'Connell defeats Vessey Fitzgerald as Westminster MP from County Clare.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 7B, "A New Song Called the Shan Van Vught" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Moulden, "Ballads and Ballad Singers: Samuel Lover's Tour of Dublin in 1830," -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, p. 137, "Shan Van Vogh!" (partial text with discussion; on p. 138 Moulden says Lover's text is not found elsewhere, but it's clearly an 1828 Shan Van Voght)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (1848) for Shan Van Voght song on another subject.
cf. "The Battle of Ballycohy" (1828) for Shan Van Voght song on another subject.
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" and references there, including Shan Van Voght broadsides on other subjects.
cf. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" (subject: Daniel O'Connell) and references there
NOTES [83 words]: "In a symbolic protest against the anti-Catholic oath MPs had to take on entering parliament, O'Connell stands for election in Co. Clare and defeats the liberal protestant incumbent, Vessey Fitzgerald" (source: The McClintock Bunbury Family History and other stories 1800 to 1899 on the Lisnavagh site). - BS
For the career of Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847), see e.g. "Daniel O'Connell (I)" and "Daniel O'Connell (II)"; also, for some context on the period, "Fergus O'Connor and Independence." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Zimm007B

Shan Van Voght (1848), The

DESCRIPTION: We'll defeat the Tories in this year of 1848. Pitt and Castlereagh "stole our Parliament away." The French drove out the royalists. Smith O'Brien and John O'Connell will do that here. The French are on the sea "to be here the 10th of May"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1848 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: rebellion France Ireland nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1848 - The Young Ireland uprising fails
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 7C, "A New Song Called the Shan Van Vocht" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Mitchel" and references there for the 1848 Irish uprising
cf. "Lament of John O Mahony" and references there for the 1848 Irish uprising
cf. "Skibbereen" and references there for the 1848 Irish uprising
cf. "The Wee Duck" and references there for the 1848 Irish uprising
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (1828) for Shan Van Voght song on another subject.
cf. "The Battle of Ballycohy" (1828) for Shan Van Voght song on another subject.
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" and references there, including Shan Van Voght broadsides on other subjects.
cf. "The Game of Cards" (II) for references to the "stealing" of Grattan's Parliament
cf. "The Wheels of the World" for Pitt and Castlereigh
NOTES [1066 words]: Among the European revolutions of 1848 was the French revolt driving Louis Philippe from Paris in February. Once again the United Irishmen looked to France as their model. The Irish famine persisted. When the government suspended Habeus Corpus in July the leaders of Young Ireland -- William Smith O'Brien, John Blake Dillon and Francis Meagher -- planned an uprising that failed. (source: The 1848 Uprising by Donagh MacDonagh at the Waterford City History site, copyright Waterford City History).
The reference "Billy Pitt and Castlereagh ... They stole our Parliament away ... The people's curse, I give my oath, caused Castelreagh to cut his throat" is to the 1801 "Act of Union" -- supported by Pitt and Robert Stewart (Lord Castlereagh) -- that formed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" and abolished the Dublin Parliament. [For the brief life of Grattan's Parliament, see the notes to "Ireland's Glory." Pitt and Castlereigh are explicitly linked in "The Wheels of the World" also. - RBW]
Castlereagh [1769-1822] committed suicide in 1822 by cutting his throat. (sources: Britain and Ireland by Marjie Bloy on the Victorian Web site; Robert Stewart, Lord Castlereagh on the Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos site). [The fault may have been genetic; his nephew Robert Fitzroy, one-time captain of the Beagle who would oppose evolution tooth and nail, would commit suicide in 1845; Herman, p. 437. - RBW]
John O'Connell is Daniel O'Connell's son and led the Repeal Association which differed in tactics but not objective from William Smith O'Brien's Young Ireland but both groups supported Irish independence. "Smith O'Brien led a delegation to Paris. Though rebuffed by Lamartine's new government, the delegates were intoxicated by the revolutionary atmosphere in France. On their return caution was thrown to the winds." O'Brien was one of the organizers of the 1848 uprising. (source:Young Ireland by Richard Davis on the Ohio University site) - BS
As so often, of course, when Ireland looked to other nations for help, they found none. 1848 -- "The Year of Revolution" -- did overthrow kings, but not nations. The Habsburg monarchy replaced the feeble-minded Ferdinand I (reigned 1835-1848) with the less addled by hardly more effective Franz Joseph. France got rid of Louis Philippe and eventually replaced him with Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) -- a man who liked independence movements but didn't like democracy at all. And so it went.
The revolution in France (February 24, 1848) did inspire the Young Ireland leaders, but they could do very little. Young Ireland leaders such as Thomas Francis Meagher (for whom see "The Escape of Meagher") and John Mitchel (for whom see the song by that name) urged revolt, and eventually brought in the more peaceful William Smith O'Brien (1803-1864). (Golway, pp. 115-116).
According to Kee, p. 276, even the beginning of the rebellion was an accident. On July 23, 1848, Smith O'Brien was visiting a friend in Wexford, when Meagher and John Blake Dillon arrived with word that habeas corpus had been suspended; there may also have been a warrant for Smith O'Brien's arrest. He had little choice but to scrape up what strength he could and fight to survive. But there was no organization and no plan; truly Smith O'Brien had been forced into violence. The "rebellion" followed.
Or, rather, collapsed. There was no help from France (presumably the reference is a hangover from one of the earlier Shan Van Voght songs). A few half-armed bands wandered around Ireland, and a few leaders tried to scrape up troops, but no one actually set out to fight the British. Smith O'Brien gave a lot of speeches, but was so cautious that he ended up visiting the same places several times rather than seek new recruits (Kee, p. 280). As Fry/Fry, p. 238 put it, "in July 1848 the 'revolt' collapsed in an inglorious scuffle in a widow's back garden patch at Ballingarry. O'Brien, Meagher and others surrendered, and mercifully were not put to death but transported to join Mitchel in Australia."
According to Golway, p. 121, "The Battle of Widow McCormack's Cabbage Patch" resulted in two people being killed, though they may not have been rebels." And that was it for armed conflict.
Laxton, p. 85, says that "On the last Saturday of July the remnants of O'Brien's force gathered in a field at Ballingarry, in Country Tipperary; there were not more than 40 men, only half with firearms. The rest were armed with home-made pikes or farmers' pitchforks, while others, possibly 80, were prepared to throw stones." Against such a rabble, the available police should have been more than adequate, but they decided to take shelter in the Widow McCormack's home (the widow herself was out, but her six children, from ages ten on down, were there). The rebels apparently prepared to burn the place down -- but, to read Laxton's account, the widow herself told them off upon returning from her shopping expedition, and the rebellion ended with just a few shots fired (Laxton, p. 86).
To give you an idea of how trivial the whole rising was, Foster mentions the Battle of Ballingary -- the site of the siege on Widow McCormack's house -- only in its chronology (p. 607), not in its text. Even its leader Smith O'Brien said that it was an "escapade" and that it "does not deserve the name of insurrection" (Kee, p. 286). OxfordCompanion doesn't even give it an entry, or mention it in its article on Smith O'Brien, though it does include a brief description in the article regarding the Revolution of 1848. Still, it's clear that the whole thing is remembered mostly because Young Ireland was first and foremost a literary movement. Odds are there were more Irishmen writing about the revolt in 1848 than actually participated.
Smith O'Brien's erratic behavior continued at his trial. He was, naturally, found guilty of rebellion, which meant that he was subject to the death penalty. The jury strongly urged mercy -- but Smith O'Brien refused to petition for clemency; it took a special act of parliament to allow him to be transported (Kee, p. 287). Even in Tasmania, he long refused to apply for a ticket-of-leave (parole). He was fully pardoned in 1854, and returned to Ireland in 1856. He generally stayed out of politics after that; people seemed to understand that he was a gifted speaker who somehow couldn't come up with much to say. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: Zimm07C

Shan Van Voght, The

DESCRIPTION: The Shan Van Vogt declares that the French are at hand, and will rescue Ireland. The troops are called together; they will wear green; they will free Ireland and proclaim liberty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 (Sparling)
KEYWORDS: Ireland freedom rebellion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1796 - A French fleet (carrying, among others, Wolfe Tone) sets out for Ireland. At Christmas, one of the ships is in Bantry Bay. Bad weather and incompetent French seamanship, however, keeps the fleet at sea, and the French (distracted by their ongoing revolution) do not pursue the matter
1798 - main Irish rebellion. Wolfe Tone tries again
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 32, "Shan Van Vogh" (1 text)
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, p. 27, "The Shan Van Vocht" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 60, "The Shan Van Vocht" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 7A, "The Shan Van Vocht" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 28, "The Shan Van Vocht" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 23, "Sean-Bhean Bhocht" (1 fragment)
Behan-IrelandSings, #80, "The Sean Bean Boct" (1 text, 1 tune, heavily modified)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 102-104, "The Shan Van Vogh" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 322, "Shan Van Voght" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 18-20, 514, "The Shan Van Vocht"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 297-299, "The Shan Van Vocht" (1 text plus a portion of a parody about Home Rule by Susan Mitchell)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 256-257, "The Shan Van Vocht" (1 text)
Roud #6529
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Escape of James Stephens" (tune)
cf. "Lord Wathe'ford" (tune and repeated lines)
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (1828) for Shan Van Voght song on another subject
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (1848) for Shan Van Voght song on another subject
cf. "General Wonder" (subject of Hoche's expedition)
cf. "Poor Old Man (II)" (tune, theme)
SAME TUNE:
The Bird Is Left His Nest (Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp.122-124)
Up for the Land (Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 151-152, apparently to this tune)
The Escape of James Stephens (File: OLcM003A)
The Next Landing of the French (by Percy French, and a joke about French's homecoming to Ireland) (James N. Healy, _Percy French and His Songs_, The Mercier Press, 1966, p. 118)
(Larry Gorman's) The Shan Van Vogh ("I am getting very gaunt, said the Shan Van Vogh) (Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 14-16, 200)
Thr T. B. C. ("Oh! Dan did you get out? Says the T. B. C.") (Gulielmus Dubliniensis Humoriensis [Joseph Tully?], Memoir of the Great Original Zozimus (Michael Moran) (Dublin,1976 (reprint of the 1871 edition, which is available on Google Books)), p. 28)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Shan Van Voch
NOTES [1222 words]: Sparling dates his text 1797 and says it is "the first song I can find with this refrain."
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p.56: "The name Shan Van Vocht (Seanbhean Bhocht: Poor Old Woman), Gaelic as it sounds, seems to have had a political meaning almost exclusively in songs written in English, and constantly adapted to new events. [Cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (1828), "The Shan Van Voght" (1848), "The Battle of Ballycohy"]
The most famous variant is said to date from 1797, though no text was printed before the 1840s. According to Donal O'Sullivan this name was borrowed from a non-political song; prior to the 1790's, 'there is no trace in Irish or Anglo-Irish literature of any such allegorical conceptions'. [D. Osullivan Songs of the Irish pp. 130-131]."
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 notes "Bunting collected a (non-political) song called "An tSeanbhean Bhocht" in 1792. By the end of the 18th century the air had become the bearer of political verses, this one the most famous. It did not see print, however, until the mid-19th century, when it was published in The Nation."
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Shan Van Vocht" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998)) - BS
Although the Irish often looked to the French for help (as in the case of the United Irish rebellion of 1798), the French supplied it for their own reasons. In this case, it was to distract Britain (as a result of the French Revolution, France was at war with most of Europe) and found a base at their back.
When the 1796 expedition under Hoche failed (due mostly to incompetent seamanship; France had purged most of its experienced naval officers), the French simply gave it up and went on to other things.
It was one of those things that had people talking about a "Protestant Wind," as in 1688. Hoche was one of the best, if not the best, young French general. But the wind that let the French fleet get out of Brest also scattered it. (David Davies, A Brief History of Fighting Ships: Ships of the Line and Napoleonic sea battle 1793-1815, Carroll & Graf, 1996, 2002, pp. 76-77, attributes much of this to the action of Sir Edward Pellew in the frigate Indefatigable, which during the night flitted in and out of the French fleet spreading confusion with spurious signals, but bad French seamanship and confused instructions from the admiral are generally considered more important).
Most of the fleet made it to Bantry Bay, but the ship with Hoche aboard was blown off-course. The fleet waited a day, hoping for its general -- and its admiral, who might have a better idea how to land on the rough coasts of the bay. Then the winds came and scattered the fleet. End of landing. Later French expeditions would be made with small raiding forces rather than true armies of invasion.
"Shan Van Voght" is the anglicized form of "Sean Bhean Bhocht," "poor old woman," a title for the oppressed Irish people. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, a Belfast literary journal would arise with the title Shan Van Vocht devoted to promoting an independent Irish culture.
Theobald Wolfe Tone was, interestingly, a Protestant (the whole 1798 rebellion was basically a Protestant idea), but wanted a free Ireland with equal rights for both religions. After a (much too brief) period of resistance with the pen, he turned to the sword.
After the fiasco of Bantry Bay, Tone would make two more attempts to invade Ireland. The first, in a Dutch fleet, was destroyed by the British at the Battle of Camperdown (October 11, 1797) -- by which time Tone had given up anyway; the army he and the Hoche had assembled had to be disbanded. Hoche died soon after, and he was the one committed Frenchman.
Tone had, by then, already set off to appeal to Napoleon. But Napoleon turned him down; an Irish expedition, even if it succeeded, would not be practical (read: cost-effective; there was no treasure to be collected in impoverished Ireland). Napoleon went to Egypt instead, and did not send a force to Ireland until after the 1798 rebellion had been crushed.
Still, three small French forces sailed in 1798: Three ships under General Humbert (see "The Men of the West"), one ship with Napper Tandy aboard (see "The Wearing of the Green"), and a large force -- ten ships and nearly 3000 men -- with Tone aboard.
Tone's force was caught by a superior British fleet off Donegal on October 12, 1798. Tone himself was taken and condemned to death by hanging (as a traitor). He requested that he instead be shot as a soldier. When this was denied, he cut his own throat. He was 35.
The sad irony is that the British government in Ireland, under Lord Grattan, was sincerely trying to improve conditions in Ireland at the time of the 1798 rising. As recently as 1782, Ireland had received the right to an independent parliament. (Prior to that, it had had a parliament, but it was under the thumb of the British parliament. For details on this, see the notes to "Ireland's Glory.")
But, of course, this was the era of George III, with all the Crown high-handedness that implied; a few local officials could hardly make up for the stupidity at the top. And the military under General Lake made things worse with a policy of pure brutality.
The rebellion generally put an end to that. (Nor was this the only time a rebellion slowed liberalization.) Indeed, the British decided that the problems had gone on long enough, and for the first time united Ireland with Britain.
The "Lord Edward" of some texts is Lord Edward Fitzgerald (1763-1798), one of the leaders of the United Irishmen and the last one to retain his liberty after the government cracked down (March 12). He doesn't seem to have been particularly smart, and was eventually wounded and captured (May 19); he died in prison of the effects of his wound. For more about him, see the notes to "Edward (III) (Edward Fitzgerald)." - RBW
Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue does not have broadsides for this song but has a number of songs modelled on it. For example,
Bodleian, Harding B 18(151), "The Escape of Stephens, the Fenian Chief," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
Bodleian, Harding B 19(87), "The Shan Van Vouch" ("Oh, the time is coming on ... News of battles won and lost ... The tax that's still to come..."), unknown, n.d.
Bodleian, 2806 c.8(54), "The Shan Van Vought ("I am sure you heard of Warner, says the Shan Van Vought"), unknown, handwritten: "A Fenian Ballad 1866"
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3483), "The Shan Van Vought on Garibaldi" ("I've a story to relate, says the Shan Van Vought"), T. Pearson (Manchester) , 1850-1899
Bodleian, 2806 c.8(49), "Shan Van Vought's Farewell to Ireland" ("My sons are going away says the shan van vought"), unknown, n.d.
Another Bodleian broadside version to "remember '98": 2806 b.9(68),"A new song call'd the Gay Old Hag" ("Will you come a boating my gay old hag"), P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also Johnson Ballads 2191c, "A new song call'd the Gay Old Hag"
Broadside Harding B 18(151): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: PGa027

Shanadar (I)

DESCRIPTION: Fragment only. "Shanadar is a rolling river, E-O... I-O... E-O... I-O..." May be a variant of "Shenandoah" but the meter is quite different, alternating between 2/2 and 3/2.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
KEYWORDS: shanty river derivative
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 178, "Shanadar" (1 text, 1 tune - quoted from Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, LIII, p. 58, "Shanadar (Second version)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #324
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shenandoah" (text)
NOTES [59 words]: Not too surprisingly, Roud lumps this with "Shenandoah," and I don't think there is much doubt that the two are related. But this does appear distinct enough (barely) to deserve its own listing. Note that there are "Shenandoah" texts with a "Shanadar" refrain -- but they're from Cecil Sharp, who may well have put "Shenandoah" verses to this chorus. - RBW
File: Hugi178

Shanadar (II)

See Shenandoah (File: Doe077)

Shanahan's Ould Shebeen (The Mornin's Mornin')

DESCRIPTION: "This is the tale that Cassidy told, In his halls a-sheen with purple and gold"; he has become rich, and has the best, or at least most expensive, of everything. But still he wishes "For the taste o' a morning's mornin' in Shanahan's ould shebeen!"
AUTHOR: Probably Gerald Brennan (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Journal of the Switchmen's Union abd the Plumbers's Trade Journal)
KEYWORDS: money drink
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 205-206, "Shanahan's Ould Shebeen" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _The Mixer and Server_ (Journal of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees International Alliance and the Bartenders' Internation League), Volume XXI, Number 1, Cincinnati, January, 1912 (available on Google Books), p. 51, "The Mornin's Mornin' (1 text)
(no author listed), _Journal of the Switchmen's Union of North America_ volume X, Number 1, November 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 151, "The Mornin's Mornin'" (1 text)
(no author listed), _The Plumber's Trade Journal_ July 1, 1907 edition (available on Google Books), p. 2, "The Mornin's Mornin'" (1 text)
Hazel Felleman, Best Loved Poems of the American People, pp. 250-252, "The Mornin's Mornin'" (1 text)
Roud #9605
NOTES [90 words]: There is dispute about the author of this. The Mixer and Server, which doesn't strike me as very reliable, credits Thomas Burke, Springfield, Ill., "in U. M. W. Journal." Felleman, whom I know to be unreliable, lists Gerald Brennan; so does the Journal of the Switchmen's Union and The Plumber's Trade Journal, as well as Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions. So that is probably the correct attribution. Whether it is a song, as opposed to a poem, is altogether another matter. As for why Shay printed it... got me. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: SBar205

Shanandore

See Shenandoah (File: Doe077)

Shandrum Boggoon

DESCRIPTION: There are no songs about Shandrum boggoon. "The reason is plain -- no praise did it need." The singer would trade Midas's touch for a touch for Shandrum boggoon. If the Devil tastes it a host of clergy will be needed to banish him.
AUTHOR: Edward Quin (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: food humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 287-289, "Shandrum Boggoon" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Black Joke" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
cf. "The Black Thing" ("Black Joke" tune) and references there
NOTES [28 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "Boggoon is the Irish for bacon.... Shandrum ... in the county of Cork ... [remarkable] for the excellence of the bacon produced there." - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: CrPS287

Shane Crossagh

DESCRIPTION: Squire Staples sets out to take Shane Crossagh, once a plowboy but now an outlaw "for the wearin' o' the green." Crossagh -- helped by his hound, who destroys the pursuing dogs -- escapes across the Roe. (Shane later is able to take revenge on Staples.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: outlaw manhunt escape dog
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H97, pp. 130-131, "Shane Crossagh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13373
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Is My Darling" (floating lyrics)
File: HHH097

Shanghai Rooster (Shanghai Chicken)

DESCRIPTION: "I had a farm out west, of farms it was the best, Had a cross-eyed mule... And one old Shanghai rooster with a wart on his left ear." But the rooster is dead. The singer recalls the bird, which fell in battle; all he has left is a feather
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: chickens farming death bird death
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 271, "The Shanghai Rooster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 187-188, "The Farm in the West" (1 text)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 195, "Shanghai Chicken" (1 short text, 1 tune, probably this although it's too short to be sure)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 203-204, "Shanghai Rooster" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: David C. Peterson, "Wisconsin Folksongs," chapter in _Badger History: Wisconsin Folklore_, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Volume XXV, Number 2, November 1973), pp. 52-53, "The Shanghai Rooster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5247
NOTES [24 words]: Roud includes several items under this number that I'm not convinced are related, but it does appear that this is a rather disjointed song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ScaNF195

Shankill Boozers, The

DESCRIPTION: "If you feel like getting full boys, the Shankill is your bet, Have a pint in ev'ry pub and see how far you get" "We'll start us off in North Street at the Elephant Bar ... [until] the Woodvale Arms, all things to an end must come."
AUTHOR: Bernard Keenan (source: Hammond-SongsOfBelfast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Hammond-SongsOfBelfast)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, pp. 48-49, "The Shankill Boozers" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [22 words]: Hammond-SongsOfBelfast: Written in 1966: "an accurate account of an alcoholic odyssey from North Street to Woodvale [Belfast]." - BS
File: Hamm048

Shannelly's Mill

See John Whipple's Mill (File: FSC171)

Shannon and Chesapeake (IV), The (She Comes in Glorious Style)

DESCRIPTION: Captain Broke encourages H.M.S. Shannon's sailors against U.S.S. Chesapeake: "success shall soon reward our toil" Lawrence encourages Chesapeake's sailors. Chesapeake is boarded, Broke is injured, Lawrence killed, but Chesapeake is defeated.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Erskine-TwentyYearsBeforeTheMast); before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Bod2315 Harding B 11(3474))
KEYWORDS: war navy ship battle death patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 1, 1813 - Battle between the Chesapeake and the Shannon
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Erskine-TwentyYearsBeforeTheMast, pp. 33-34, "(She comes, she comes, in glorious style)" (1 text)
Roud #V9697
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian Roud V9697, Bod2315 Harding B 11(3474), "Shannon and Chesapeak" or "She Comes in Glorious Style" ("She comes, she comes, in glorious style"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Bod13135 Harding B 11(3473), Bod21638 Harding B 13(5), "Shannon and Chesapeak" or "She Comes in Glorious Style"; Bod21638 Harding B 13(5), "The Shannon and Chesapeake"; Bod20967 Harding B 11(3475), Bod20431 Johnson Ballads 470, "[The] Shannon and Chesapeak"; Bod12907 Harding B 11(4231), "The New Shannon and Chesapeak"
NLScotland, Crawford.EB.3088, "The Shannon and Chesapeake" ("She comes, she comes, in glorious style"), Walker (Durham), c.1850?
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (I) (II), (III), and (V)" (plot)
NOTES [59 words]: For the background on the Chesapeake/Shannon fight, see the notes on "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (I)" [Laws J20]. - RBW
Erskine writes that at Rio de Janeiro he was part of the U.S. Navy expedition. He heard the crew of the English line-of-battle Thunderer sing this every night at eight bells, "which was very aggravating to American patriotism." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Ersk033

Shannon and Chesapeake (V), The (At Boston One Day)

DESCRIPTION: U.S.S. Chesapeake's captain plans to "take Commodore Broke, And add to our navy the Shannon," a "tight little frigate." After being boarded, the Chesapeake "struck to the Shannon." "Let America know The respect she should show" the British flag and cannon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Erskine-TwentyYearsBeforeTheMast)
KEYWORDS: war navy ship battle warning patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 1, 1813 - Battle between the Chesapeake and the Shannon
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Erskine-TwentyYearsBeforeTheMast, pp. 35-36, "(At Boston one day as the Chesapeake lay)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (I) (II), (III), and (IV)" (plot)
NOTES [92 words]: For the background on the Chesapeake/Shannon fight, see the notes on "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (I)" [Laws J20]. - RBW
The rhyme scheme of the ten- or eleven-line verse is a,a,"began on" or "cannon",b,b,"Shannon","Shannon",optional "Shannon",c,c,"Shannon". The stresses by line are 2,2,3,2,2,3,3,optional 3,2,2,3.
Erskine writes that, at Rio de Janeiro he was part of the U.S. Navy expedition. He heard the crew of the English line-of-battle Thunderer sing this every night at eight bells, "which was very aggravating to American patriotism." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Ersk035

Shannon and the Chesapeake, The

See The Chesapeake and the Shannon (I) [Laws J20] (File: LJ20)

Shannon Scheme, The

DESCRIPTION: The Shannon Scheme will "light our houses," "stitch our blouses," "milk our cows," "churn the cream," "reap and mow," "spin and sew," provide "more employment and more enjoyment and happier homes." A toast to the scheme and its promoters
AUTHOR: Sylvester Boland (source: notes to IRClare01)
EARLIEST DATE: 1992 (IRClare01)
KEYWORDS: river technology humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #18468
RECORDINGS:
Nonie Lynch, "The Shannon Scheme" (on IRClare01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Straightened Banks of Erne" (theme: Ireland's hydro-electrification)
NOTES [150 words]: Notes to IRClare01: "The Shannon Scheme for the Electrification of the Irish Free State, by harnessing the fall in the River Shannon between Killaloe and Limerick, was commenced in 1925 and completed in 1929 and, within six years, was supplying 85% of Ireland's electricity requirements. The song was written in 1927...." - BS
According to John A. Murphy, Ireland in the Twentieth Century(Gill and MacMillan, 1975, 1989), p. 65, "[T]he most far-sighted step in the development of natural resources by the state was the Shannon Scheme -- the beginning of the national supply of electricity -- and the establishment of the Electricity Supply Board in 1927, destined to be perhaps the most successful of those semi-state bodies which in future years became characteristic and indispensible features of the Irish economy."
For a later song about Ireland's electrification, see "The ESB in Coolea." - RBW
File: RcShaSch

Shannon Side, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in the month of April... I met a comely damsel Upon the Shannon side." He tries to seduce her, and fails; he throws her down against her will. He departs; six months later, pregnant, she begs him to marry; he says he is pledged to another
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting sex rape pregnancy betrayal rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1409, "Shannon Side" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 200-202, "The Shannon Side" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 467, "Shannon Side" (1 text)
Roud #1453
RECORDINGS:
Mary Delaney, "Peter Thunderbolt" (on IRTravellers01)
Phoebe Smith, "Captain Thunderball" (on Voice10)
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y4:028, "Shannon Side," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Reynardine" [Laws P15] (plot, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Captain Thunderbolt
NOTES [85 words]: This not only shares much of the plot of "Reynardine," the lyrics also overlap to a degree. I have to think there has been some sort of cross-fertilization. Still, they are clearly distinct songs. - RBW
In Broadside Murray Mu23-y4:028, [the Mary Delaney recording,] and Phoebe Smith's version on Voice10... the man gives his name as Captain, or Peter, Thunderbolt... "that's when my baby is born as that may be the same." I assume it is an integral part of the ballad when the text is well enough remembered. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord202

Shannon's Flowery Banks

DESCRIPTION: Teddy and Patty, the singer, exchange vows of "eternal truth." He is impressed "just when we named next morning fair To be our wedding day." At war's end he does not return: "my Teddy's false and I forlorn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: infidelity promise war separation pressgang
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 289-292, "Shannon's Flowery Banks" (1 text)
Roud #17000
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 22(361), "The Banks of Shannon" ("In summer when the leaves were green"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also 2806 c.18(13), Harding B 28(163), Harding B 28(62), Harding B 25(106)[some illegible words], "[The] Banks of Shannon"
NOTES [33 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "The music of this song was by Mr Carter, a member ofthe choir of Cloyne, who also composed the beautiful and well-known melody of 'O, Nannie, wilt thou gang with me?'" - BS
File: CrPS289

Shanty Boy and the Farmer, The

See The Farmer and the Shanty Boy (File: Wa033)

Shanty Boy and the Farmer's Son, The

See The Farmer and the Shanty Boy (File: Wa033)

Shanty Boy and the Mossback, The

See The Farmer and the Shanty Boy (File: Wa033)

Shanty Boy Dance Jingles

See Weevily Wheat; also Buffalo Gals (File: R520)

Shanty Boy on the Big Eau Claire, The [Laws C11]

DESCRIPTION: A girl loves a shanty boy. Her (father/mother) sends her away to keep them apart. She dies of disease and grief; her lover kills himself. They haunt her (father), whose business goes bankrupt. The moral: Don't fall in love with a shanty boy (?!)
AUTHOR: William T. Allen (Shan T. Boy)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: separation suicide ghost love father mother family humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws C11, "The Shanty Boy on the Big Eau Claire"
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 11, "The Shanty-boy on the Big Eau Claire" (2 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 11, "The Shanty-boy on the Big Eau Claire" (2 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 132-133, "The Shanty-Boy on the Big Eau Claire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 207-212, "The Big Eau Claire" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 183-184, "The Big Eau Claire" (1 text)
DT 819, EAUCLAIR
ADDITIONAL: David C. Peterson, "Wisconsin Folksongs," chapter in _Badger History: Wisconsin Folklore_, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Volume XXV, Number 2, November 1973), pp. 56-57, "The Shanty Boy on the Big Eau Claire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2219
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "The Shanty Boy on the Big Eau Claire" (on Thieme02) (on Thieme05)
NOTES [135 words]: Like many of William Allen's songs, this has a "serious" plot but is couched in humorous language, with lines such as:
Every girl has her troubles; each man likewise has his.
But few can match the agony of the following story, viz.
It relates about the affection of a damsel young and fair
Who dearly loved a shanty boy on the Big Eau Claire.
Allen reported writing this around 1875, but by the time Rickaby met him some forty years later, he had forgotten the tune he used.
Shoemaker's notes say this was written by "Charles Evans," but Shoemaker never bothers with background research; his attributions are unreliable, and the text of this screams William T. Allen's style of tragicomedy, peculiar wordplay, and oddball invocations of ballad commonplaces. I have no doubt whatsoever that Allen wrote it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LC11

Shanty Boy Wins, The

See The Farmer and the Shanty Boy (File: Wa033)

Shanty Boy, Farmer Boy

See The Farmer and the Shanty Boy (File: Wa033)

Shanty Boy, The

See The Farmer and the Shanty Boy (File: Wa033)

Shanty Boy's Ill Fate

DESCRIPTION: "Gather round me, you lumberjacks, And listen to my tale. I'll tell you of a shanty boy Whose name was Jimmy Hale." Jimmy leaves home to become a logger, and quickly learns the trade, but is killed by a branch. His body is taken to his mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: logger death mother
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 136-137, "Shanty Boy's Ill Fate" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 85, "Shanty Boy's Ill Fate" (1 text)
Roud #4071
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dC50 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: BBun136

Shanty Boy's Reveille

DESCRIPTION: "Beans are on the table/Daylight's in the swamp/You lazy lumberjack/Ain't you ever gettin' up?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 17, "Shanty Boy's Reveille" (1 short text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, p. 121, "Reveille in the Woods" (1 short text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 2, "Shanty-Boy's Reveille" (1 text)
Roud #8864
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wake Up Jacob" (theme)
File: Be017

Shanty Boys in the Pine, The

See The Lumber Camp Song (File: Doe210)

Shanty Boys, The

See The Lumber Camp Song (File: Doe210)

Shanty by the Way, The

DESCRIPTION: "It's in a first-rate business section Where four bush-roads cross and meet." The shanty features many sorts of drink, plus company and games. The landlord will happily take a customer's money. The customers spend their entire check and must seek another
AUTHOR: Words: based on "The 'Public' by the Way" by E. J. Overbury
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (publication of the Overbury poem); song collected 1940
KEYWORDS: work drink travel
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 63-64, "The Shanty by the Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 29-30, "The Shanty by the Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 82, 274-275, "(Shanties by the Way)" (2 texts plus additional verses)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 51, "The Shanty by the Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: J. C. Reid, _A Book of New Zealand_ (Collins National Anthologies), Collins, 1964, pp. 283-284, "The Shanty by the Way" (1 text)
NOTES [116 words]: E. J. Overbury was also responsible for the original words of "The Springtime It Brings on the Shearing (On the Wallaby Track)." Interesting to see the work of an Australian poet end up a folk song in New Zealand.
People from outside those two countries should probably be aware that a shanty was not a true pub; it was "A usually illegal public house on the goldfields," and might also be called a "grog shanty" or a "sly grog shanty" (see Bruce Moore, Gold! Gold! Gold! A Dictionary of the Nineteenth-century Australian Gold Rushes, Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 140). Since it was already illegal, it would not be a surprise if a shanty engaged shady activities beyond selling drink. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo063

Shanty in Old Shanty Town, A

DESCRIPTION: "It's only a shanty In old Shanty Town, The roof is so slanty it touches the ground, Just a tumbled down shack by an old railroad track, Like a millionaire's mansion it's calling me back." "There's a queen waiting there with a silvery crown"
AUTHOR: Words: Joe Young / Music: Little Jack Little and John Siras (source: Gardner)
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (various recordings)
KEYWORDS: love home separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, SHNTYTWN
Roud #42410
RECORDINGS:
Bar-X Cowboys, "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town" (Decca, unreleaed,1937)
Big Bill Broonzy, "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town" (unreleased, 1952; now in the Lomax Digital Archive)
Ambrose Haley and his Ozark Ramblers, "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town" (ARC, unreleased, 1937)
Rhoda Hicks, "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town" (Champion 16466, 1932)
Ted Lewis, "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town" (Columbia 2652-D, 1932)
Rice Brothers Gang, "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town" (Decca 5815, 1939)
NOTES [58 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 251, estimates that this was the most popular song in America in 1932, peaking in July of that year. It was featured in a film "The Crooner," and was recorded by Ted Lewis, who made it extremely popular. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio333

Shanty Man, The

See The Shantyman's Life (I) (File: Doe211)

Shanty Man's Life, The

See The Shantyman's Life (I) (File: Doe211)

Shanty Song

See Shove Around the Grog (File: FSC175)

Shanty Teamster's Marseillaise

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye gay teamsters, attention I pray, I'll sing you a ditty composed, by the way." The listeners are urged to cheer up in "this wretched country, the Opeongo." The new-hired crew, oppressed by the boss and Jerry Welch, walk out of their jobs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (G. F. Will, "Four Cowboy Songs," Journal of American Folklore vol. 26, according to Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
KEYWORDS: work logger hardtimes boss Indians(Am.) strike recitation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 28, "Shanty Teamster's Marseillaise" (1 text)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 28, "Shanty Teamster's Marseillaise" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 210-211, "Shanty Teamsters' Marseillaise" (1 text)
Roud #5091
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Canaday-I-O, Michigan-I-O, Colley's Run I-O" [Laws C17] (theme)
cf. "The Buffalo Skinners" (Laws B10a) (plot)
cf. "Boggy Creek or The Hills of Mexico" [Laws B10b]
NOTES [29 words]: This is item cC31 in Laws's Appendix II. Laws does not so identify it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it derives from the Canaday-I-O or Buffalo Skinners family of songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Rick113

Shanty-Boy's Reveille

See Shanty Boy's Reveille (File: Be017)

Shanty-Girl

See The Farmer and the Shanty Boy (File: Wa033)

Shanty-Man's Life, The

See The Shantyman's Life (I) (File: Doe211)

Shanty-man's Song, The

See The Logger's Alphabet (File: Doe207)

Shantyboy's Alphabet, The

See The Logger's Alphabet (File: Doe207)

Shantyboy's Song, The

See The Logger's Alphabet (File: Doe207)

Shantyman, The

See The Shantyman's Life (I) (File: Doe211)

Shantyman's Life (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "The shantyman's life is a wearisome one, Though some say it's free from care; It's the ringing of the axe from morning until night in the middle of the forest drear." The singer lists the hazards of his life; he plans to go home, marry, and settle down
AUTHOR: George W. Stace?
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: logger nonballad lumbering
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US(MA,MW,NE,NW,Ro) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 87-88, "The Shanty Man's Life" (1 text)
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 9, "The Shanty-man's Life" (2 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 9, "The Shanty-man's Life" (2 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 81, "The Shantyman's Life (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 103, "The Shantyman's Life" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 53-57, "The Lumberman's Life" (2 texts)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 33-36, "The Lumberman's Life" (3 texts)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 211-213, "A Shantyman's Life" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 66-67, "The Shantyman's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 274, "Shantyman's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 150, "The Lumberman's Life" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 1, "A Shantyman's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 256-257, "(no title)" (1 text)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, p. 348, "The Shantyman" (1 text, a slightly modified version which opens with the words "The shanty man is the man I do love best," which causes Roud to number it as #7756, but too much of it is the same as this song to really justify separation)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 261-263, "The Pinery Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 34, "The Shanty Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 390-391, "The Shanty-Man's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 567-568, "The Lumberman's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 6, "A Shantyman's Life" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 103-105, "A Shanty Man's Life" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 11, "A Shantyman's Life" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2085, p. 140, "A Shantyman's Life" (1 reference)
DT, SHNTLIFE*
Roud #838
RECORDINGS:
Pierre La Dieu, "The Shanty Man's Life" (Columbia 15278-D, 1928)
Pete Seeger, "The Shantyman's Life" (on PeteSeeger29)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Barbara Allen" (tune) (the usual tune for this piece is what Charles Seeger called the "type 1" Barbara Allen tune and Bronson labelled the "Group D" tune)
cf. "A Cowboy's Life" (tune & meter; lyrics)
NOTES [83 words]: Some versions of this song refer to a lack of liquor; Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman reports that strong drink was banned in most logging camps in the years after 1860. The only recourse was a "visit to the dentist" or the like -- an excuse that obviously could only be tried so many times.
The broadside version of this is credited to George W. Stace [or Stage] of "La Crosse Valley, Wis[consin]." For what it's worth, La Crosse is in the heart of what used to be the Big Woods country.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Doe211

Shantyman's Life (II), A

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Shantyman's Life (III)

See The Lumber Camp Song (File: Doe210)

Share 'Em

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I din' ka' how you share (shear?) 'em So you share 'em eben; Share yo' sheep and blankets -- Share 'em, share 'em, share 'em! If you want er see dem pretty gals, Look on Mon'lyn's Baniel."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: sheep
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 510, "Share 'Em" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 510, "Share 'Em" (1 tune, with no text; Schinhan observes that it does not fit the text)
Roud #5005
NOTES [28 words]: Roud lumps this with Morris's "Shear Um," probably because they both seem to be fragments about shearing, but I can't see much actual similarity, so I split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3510

Shaver, The

DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. Tells of going to sea "when I was just a hairless boy," getting kicked around, enduring bad weather, and jumping ship at the first chance. Cho: "When I was just a shaver, a shaver. Oh, I was fed up with sea, when I was just a shaver."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor homosexuality youth desertion abuse sex
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 338-339, "The Shaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9534
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paddy Works on the Railway" (Hugill's tune for "Poor Paddy")
NOTES [60 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas says he left out several unprintable verses dealing with homosexual themes which, however common in practice, were rarely sung about. - SL
It sounds, based on Hugill's notes, as if the original did not use the word "shaver," but rather an obscenity, presumably referring to a catamite. I have added keywords on that basis. - RBW
File: Hugi338

Shawneetown

DESCRIPTION: "Some rows up, but we floats down, Way down the Ohio to Shawneetown. And it's hard on the beech oar; she moves too slow, Way down to Shawneetown on the Ohio." The singer tells of life on an Ohio River keelboat: they sell drink for salt. It's hard to see
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1992 (Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory)
KEYWORDS: river travel drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, p. 47, "Shawneetown" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [25 words]: Because Salt does not list her source for this song, and I have not seen it elsewhere, I do not list it as being found in Ohio or anywhere else. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Salt047

Shawneetown Flood

DESCRIPTION: "In the town of Shawneetown, When the evening shades came down, On a quiet sabbath evening cold and gray," the bells ring to warn of a flood. Various people try to help, but many are killed. The song appeals for help for the victims
AUTHOR: probably G. B. Fields (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois); probably published 1898
KEYWORDS: river flood death disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 3, 1898 - A levee failure causes Shawneetown, Illinois, to be flooded. 25 people are said to have been drowned, 200 homes destroyed, and communication with the outside world was cut off, meaning that relief was slow in coming
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 264-265, "Shawneetown Flood" (1 text)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 13-14, "Flood of Shawneetown" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 449-450, "Shawneetown Flood" (1 text)
Roud #4343
NOTES [95 words]: Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois's notes say that this song commemorates a flood which took place in 1913. However, Cohen found a broadside dating from an 1898 flood, and McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks says that the song "Flood of Shawneetown," or "Broken Hearts and Homes," was written by G. B. Fields (of Fairfield, Illinois), and published by the author in 1898. I incline to believe this acount. It is possible, however, that the 1913 flood kept the song in circulation until Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois collected it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: CAFS449B

Shawneetown Is Burnin' Down

DESCRIPTION: "Shawneetown is burnin' down, Who tole you so? (x2)." "Cythie, my darlin' gal...." "How the hell d'ye expect me to hold her, Way down below, I've got no skin on either shoulder...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: fire nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 590, [no title] (1 text)
NOTES [38 words]: I suspect this is a variant of a song I learned as "Down by the River" (not to be confused with "Down by the Riverside"). But this version appears to have been bowdlerized, and lacks a tune, so I cannot tell this with certainty.
File: BMRF590B

She Bundled Me Into the Hog-tub

See Hog-tub, The (File: OO2298)

She Came Rollin' Down the Mountain

DESCRIPTION: A young woman takes a succession of men up the hills of West Virginny to engage in an act of prostitution, after which she comes rollin' down the mountain.
AUTHOR: Buddy DeSylva, Brown and Henderson
EARLIEST DATE: 1932
KEYWORDS: sex whore bawdy
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II, p. 604, "She Came Rollin' Down the Mountain" (1 partial text)
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ridge Mountain Girls, "She Came Rollin' Down the Mountain" ((Champion 16743, 1934; Champion 45094/Melotone [Canada] 45094, 1935; Montgomery Ward M-4934, 1936; rec. 1933)
NOTES [53 words]: There is an allusion to the onset of the Depression, dating the song to approximately 1930. This formerly popular song is of questionable oral currency. - EC
There's a commercial version, presumably cleaned-up (or the original from which the bawdy version is derived). See the Blue Ridge Mountain Girls' recording. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: RL604

She Comes, She Comes in Glorious Style

See The Shannon and Chesapeake (IV) (She Comes in Glorious Style) (File: Ersk033)

She Died on the Train

See Liza Jane (File: San132)

She Don't Wear No

DESCRIPTION: "She don't wear no -- yes she do, She don't wear no -- yes she do. She don't wear no -- yes she do. She don't wear no chim nor shoe." "She don't wear no -- yes she do (x3), Yes, she wears them drawers like you." Also a chorus: "I'm satisfied with my gal."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: clothes humorous love
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 164, "She Don't Wear No" (1 short text, lacking the chorus of the Bill Boyd verson, 1 tune)
Roud #11358
RECORDINGS:
Bill Boyd & His Cowboy Ramblers, "Oh, No She Don't" (Bluebird 6323, 1936; Montgomery Ward 4795)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I'm Satisfied With My Gal
File: Brne164

She Done Got Ugly

DESCRIPTION: "Says huh Julie, Hullo gal. Says early in the mornin' baby... I come to your window baby.... Says get away from my window baby... Says got another man baby, don't want you no more... You done got ugly... Hey rock that baby...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Archie Lee Hill)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 107-108, (no title) (1 text); pp. 263-264, "She Done Got Ugly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10991
RECORDINGS:
Archie Lee Hill, "She Done Got Ugly" (on NFMAla1)
File: CNFM107B

She Gets There Just the Same (Jim Crow Car)

DESCRIPTION: "The white gal smells like Castile soap, The yeller gal try to do the same, The poor black gal smell like little billy goat, But she gets there just the same." Verses comparing the methods and results of several groups
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: discrimination train clothes travel drink food money
FOUND IN: US(SE,Ap) West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 477, "White Gal, Yaller Gal, Black Gal" (5 texts plus 3 fragments; 3 of the texts have the chorus of "Coming Round the Mountain (II -- Charming Betsey)"); also 483, "Rich Man Ride on a Pullman Car" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 477, "White Gal, Yaller Gal, Black Gal" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 27-28, "My Gal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 355, "[no title]" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Olive Lewin, "Rock It Come Over" - The Folk Music of Jamaica (Barbados: The University of the West Indies Press, 2000), p. 175, "(I'm a white man, and I drive mi motor car)" (1 text)
Roud #7052
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Coming Round the Mountain (II -- Charming Betsey)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [187 words]: I've heard this sung by Sixties folk groups in a form which contrasts city and country girls. This may be the original form -- but I suspect it's a clean-up.
The version in Darling is only a fragment, but describes the fate of Blacks forced to ride "Jim Crow cars" on trains (poor-quality cars, often used to ship animals and, quite possibly, not cleaned out after being used for such a purpose).
Brown's verses are much more diverse: The White women ride cars, yellow women ride trains; Blacks are stuck in carts. Whites use cold cream, Blacks lard. Clothing, beds, alcoholic beverages -- in all cases, the Blacks have it worst, but they look good, sleep, get drunk just the same.
What appears to be a rewrite by Decie Smith appears on pp. 94-95 of Doug deNatale and Glenn Hinson, in their article, "The Southern Textile Song Tradition Reconsidered," published in Archie Green, editor, Songs about Work: Essays in Occupational Culture for Richard A. Reuss, Folklore Institute, Indiana University, 1993. It is a piece written in commemoration of Smith's half century in the mills, and is an ironic praise of the boss. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: DarNS355

She Had a Dark and a Rovin' Eye

See The Fire Ship (File: EM068)

She Hirpled But, She Hirpled Ben

DESCRIPTION: The lazy "bride o' Toddlichlie" limps around and will not rise. Someone (her mother?) tells her "mak' yer claes clean For the morn is yer marriage-day And we'll be quit o' ane"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: wedding nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1371, "She Hirpled But, She Hirpled Ben" (1 text)
Roud #7242
File: GrD71371

She is Far From the Land

DESCRIPTION: "She is far from the land where her young hero sleeps." She rejects other lovers. She sings wild songs he loved about home. "He had lived for his country, for his country he died." She will join him soon.
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (_Irish Melodies_ by Thomas Moore, according to Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: grief love death nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, p. 80, "She Is Far from the Land" (1 text)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 157, "She Is Far From the Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 50, "She Is Far from the Land" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 332-333, "She Is Far From the Land"
Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 267-268, (no title) (1 text)
Roud #V5570
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 20(142), "She Is Far From the Land" ("She is far from the land where her young hero sleeps"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth b.26(319), "She Is Far From the Land"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Emmet's Farewell to His Sweetheart" (subject of Robert Emmet and Sarah Curran)
cf. "Oh! Breathe Not His Name" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
cf. "When He Who Adores Thee" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
cf. "The Man from God-Knows-Where" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Island of Sorrows
NOTES [304 words]: Zimmermann p. 77 fn. 11 uses "She is far from the land" as an example of "songs [that] evoke prudently Robert Emmet's fate." - BS
If so, that gives an interesting possible dual meaning to this one. One part would refer to the many Irish exiles around the world. The other might refer to Sarah Curran, Emmet's sweetheart, who was disowned by her father for her closeness to the condemned rebel.
Moore, we should add, knew Emmet; according to Kee, p. 168, Moore was "Emmet's old friend and fellow student at Trinity." On p. 169 he reports that Emmet's girlfriend was Sarah Curran, daughter of the lawyer John Philpot Curran (1750-1817). Curran had defended the 1798 conspirators at their trials, and opposed the Act of Union -- but his daughter had gone farther, writing letters to Emmet which supported rebellion. Her father disowned her.
Boylan says of her, "CURRAN, SARAH (died c. 1808), youngest daughter of John Philpot Curran. Secretly engaged to Robert Emmet. When her father discovered this after the rising of 1803, he behaved so harshly to her that she was obliged to take refuge with friends in Cork. Here she met and married in 1805 a Captain Sturgeon. She died in England three years late. Moore's song 'She is Far From the Land' was inspired by her story."
Kee regards Moore as having "set the tone" for Emmet's legend.
For another song pertaining to Curran, see "Emmet's Farewell to His Sweetheart."
Although Moore had a tune for this, Gerry O'Beirne and Andy M. Stewart set a new melody, which Stewart recorded as "Island of Sorrows" on his album "Man in the Moon." - RBW
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "The subject of this song is Sarah Curran, Emmet's fiancee and daughter of John Philpot Curran, the lawyer who had defended Wolfe Tone." Hayes's notes are along the same line, but with more details. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: BrdSHFfL

She Is More to Be Pitied than Censured

DESCRIPTION: A pack of boys jeer at "a girl who had fallen to shame." An old woman declares "She is more to be pitied than censured," and points out that "a man was the cause of it all." A clergyman, too, hopes she will find God's pity
AUTHOR: William B. Gray (died 1932)
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (sheet music published by W. B. Gray & Co.)
KEYWORDS: infidelity help
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 190-191, "She Is More to Be Pitied than Censured" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 267, "She Is More To Be Pitied Than Censured" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 117, "(She is more to be pitied than censured)" (1 fragment, from user Crypto-Willobie, posted September 27, 2021)
DT, PITYCENS*
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 247-250, "She Is More to Be Pitied than Censured" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1898 sheet music)
Margaret Bradford Boni, editor, _Songs of the Gilded Age_, with piano arrangements by Norman Lloyd and illustrations by Lucille Corcos, Golden Press, 1960, pp. 92-95, "SHe Is More To Be Pitied, Than Censured" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST SRW190 (Partial)
Roud #15477
RECORDINGS:
Richard Brooks & Reuben Puckett, "She's More To Be Pitied Than Censured" (Brunswick 281, 1928; Supertone S-2075, 1930)
Four Aces, "She's More to be Pitied" (Bluebird B-7765/Montgomery Ward M-7724, 1938)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "She's More to be Pitied than Censured" (Melotone 12241 [may have been issued as by Bob Lester & Bud Green], 1931; Conqueror 8004 [as Mac and Bob], 1932; rec. 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Let Old Nellie Stay" (theme)
NOTES [147 words]: According to Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 79, author William B. Gray's first career was as a professional boxer. An interesting career change. Other songs in the Index by Gray include "Jack and Joe" and "The Volunteer Organist."
David A. Jasen, Tin Pan Alley: The Composers, the Songs, the Performers and their Times: The Golden Age of American Popular Music from 1886 to 1956, Primus, 1988, p. 28, says that "[Gray] published it with this note on the cover: 'The theme of this song is indeed a delicate one to handle, and is offered in sympathy, and not defense, for the unfortunate erring creatures, the life of one of whom suggested its construction.' It became the epitome of the tear-jerker. Today it has come down as a parody of itself. The Gay Nineties! Think again." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: SRW190

She Just Kept Kissing On

See Kissing Song (II -- She Just Kept Kissing On) (File: Br3313)

She Laid These Babes Across Her Lap

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

She Leaves Memphis

See Captain Jim Rees and the Katie (File: MWhee010)

She Lives With Her Own Granny Dear (She Lives With Her Own Grenadier)

DESCRIPTION: William returns from sea and asks if Annette is true. He is told she lives with "her own grannie dear." He hears that as "her own grenadier" When Annette greets him he confronts her. She admits that "my granny is old, So I live with my own granny dear"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 15(282b))
KEYWORDS: courting accusation humorous wordplay family
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1511, "Grannie Dear" (1 text)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 67, "She lives with her own Granny, dear" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #21, p. 50, "She Lives with her own Granny Dear" (1 text)
Roud #7172
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 15(282b), "She Lives With Her Own Granny Dear" ("Cri'd william, when just come from sea"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(4290), Johnson Ballads 1834, Johnson Ballads 273, Harding B 15(283a), Harding B 15(283b), Harding B 15(284a), Harding B 15(284b), Harding B 40(26a), Harding B 40(26a), Harding B 11(1393), Firth b.26(332), Harding B 16(248a), Firth b.25(227), Harding B 11(3491), "She Lives With her Own Granny[,] Dear"; Firth b.25(303), Harding B 11(2579), "My Own Granny Dear"; Harding B 15(129b), "Her Own Granny Dear"
NOTES [71 words]: There are two (e.g., Firth b.26(332)) and three (e.g., Harding B 15(282b)) stanza broadside versions. Though it is missing some lines, Greig/Duncan7 follows the three stanza version. Some, e.g., Harding B 11(2579), have a chorus: "Grenadier! did you say? did you say Grenadier, Yes, yes, the old gossip replied, She lives with her old Granny Dear."
If it isn't clear from the description, the misunderstanding is not resolved. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: GrD71511

She Loved Her Husband Dearly

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

She Loves Coffee and I Love Tea

DESCRIPTION: "I love coffee, I love tea, I love the boys and the boys love me, Wish my mama would hold her tongue, She loved the boys when she was young." "I wish my papa would do the same, For he caused a girl to change her name."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad mother father playparty | coffee tea
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 91, "She Loves Coffee and I Love Tea" (2 text plus 1 excerpt and mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 91, "She Loves Coffee and I Love Tea" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 274, "Some Love Coffee" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 107-109, "(I like coffee, I like tea)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 133, "(I love coffee, I love tea)"; cf. p. 58, "I Love Coffee"; p. 59, "How Many Boys?" (2 texts)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #51, "(I love coffee, I love tea)"; #119, "(I love coffee, I love tea)"; (2 fragment, so short that the might be any of several songs); #105, "(I love coffee, I love tea)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #244, "I love (like) coffee, I love tea" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 25, "(I love coffee, I love tea)"; p. 27, "(I love coffee)" (2 texts)
Roud #740
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Grandma's Advice" (theme)
cf. "Sailor Laddie (II)" (four lines)
cf. "Raspberry, Strawberry" (lyrics, style)
NOTES [406 words]: This looks like it might be a fragment of "Grandma's Advice" or something similar. Since, however, the Brown texts all seem to survive in similar form, I've given it a separate listing. - RBW
I concede that it is a stretch to make a connection with Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 386, "One, two, three": "One, two, three, I love coffee, And Billy loves tea, How good you be, One, two, three, I love coffee, And Billy loves tea" (earliest date in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes is 1842). - BS
Whatever the origin of the Opie item, it is also found in Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #629, p. 249-250. - RBW
There are lots of reports of skipping rope rhymes beginning "I love coffee, I love tea, I love the boys and the boys love me" (see, for example, E.C. Perrow, "Songs and Rhymes from the South" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXVIII, No. 108 (Apr 1915 (available online by JSTOR)), #58 p. 186 "I Love Coffee" (1 text); Robert Craig Maclagan, The Games and Diversions of Argyleshire (London, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 254, ("March, march, two by two, my little sister lost her shoe, I love coffee, I love tea, I love the boys and the boys love me" (1 text)), but I have only seen "I wish my mother ... when she was young" with "x loves coffee, etc.," in "Sailor Laddie."
On the other hand, the "hold your tongue" lines exist independent of "x loves coffee." For example, "Tell your mother to hold her tongue. She had a fellow when she was young. Tell your father to do the same. He was the one to change her name" (source: Ed Cray, "Jump-Rope Rhymes from Los Angeles" in Western Folklore, Vol. XXIX, No. 2 (Apr 1970 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 126, ("Tell your mother to hold her tongue") (1 text)). Another game has a mother refuse to allow her daughter to "go down to the corner to meet her beau"; her father says, "Yes my daughter, you may go Down to the corner to meet your beau. Tell your Mother to hold her tongue She had a beau when she was young!" (source: Loman D. Cansler, "Midwestern and British Children's Lore Compared" in Western Folklore, Vol. XXVII, No. 1 (Jan 1968 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 14). - BS
For another exaple of "I love coffee, I love tea, I love X," see Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 58, "I Love Coffee." In fact, Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes lists more than two dozen of this type of verse, though it's not absolutely clear how many are "really" this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Br3091

She Married a Man

See No Balls at All (File: EM158)

She May Have Seen Better Days

DESCRIPTION: "While strolling along 'midst the city's vast throng, On a night that was bitterly cold," the singer sees a crowd teasing a woman in tears. She has clearly fallen on hard times, but someone notes "she might have seen better days." The crowd is silenced
AUTHOR: James Thornton
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (sheet music published by Francis, Day & Hunter)
KEYWORDS: drink poverty hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 123-124, "She May Have Seen Better Days" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 251-254, "She May Have Seen Better Days" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1895 sheet music)
Roud #9582
NOTES [80 words]: According to Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, pp. 255-256, James Thornton was a very popular songwriter from about 1892 to 1898, producing such songs as "My Sweetheart's the Man in the Moon," "Don't Give Up the Old Love for the New," "Going for a Pardon," and (especially) "When You Were Sweet Sixteen." Spaeth, p. 256, notes that this song is "usually paired with William B. Gray's She Is More to Be Pitied than Censured" as the acme of the maudlin." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Dean123

She Moved Through the Fair (Our Wedding Day)

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets his love, who tells him it will not be long until their wedding day, then leaves and "moves through the fair." (Later, her ghost repeats that it will not be long until their wedding. Alternately, she deserts him and he enlists in the army)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Hughes)/1926 (Sam Henry)
KEYWORDS: love wedding death ghost nightvisit supernatural abandonment army
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 165, "Our Wedding Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H141, pp. 395-396, "Out of the Window" (1 text, 1 tune); H534, p. 454, "Our Wedding Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 153-154, "My Young Love Said to Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MOVEFAIR
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), p. 322, "She Moved Through the Fair" (1 text, the Colum recension)
Roud #861
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "She Moved Through the Fair" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742, Voice10); "She Moved Through the Fair (Our Wedding Day)"and "She Moved Through the Fair" [long version] (both on IRMBarry-Fairs; one of these is the same as the preceding); "She Moves Through the Fair" (on Pubs1)
Robert Cinnamond, "She Moves Through the Fair" (on IRRCinnamond02); "Our Wedding Day" (on FSBFTX15)
The Crofut Family, "She Moved Through the Fair" (Piotr-Archive #665, recorded 09/17/2023)
Francis McPeake, "Our Wedding Day" (on FSB01)
Santiago Quintana, "He Moved Through the Fair" (Piotr-Archive #642, recorded 08/11/2023; obviously with the gender reversed)
Pete Seeger, "She Moved Through the Fair" (on PeteSeeger14)
Paddy Tunney, "Our Wedding Day" (on IRPTunney01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Once Had a True Love" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [391 words]: [The well-known version "She Moved Through the Fair" is credited to Padraic Colum (lyrics) and Herbert Hughes (arrangement of traditional tune). This was published in 1909 in volume I of Hughes's Irish Country Songs. - RBW]
Colum and Hughes apparently pieced this together from traditional fragments. The Margaret Barry version has become canonical in the folk revival -- but she learned it from a John McCormack 78! - PJS
Proving exactly what happened here is a difficult task, because the first actual publication of the song was of the Colum/Hughes text in 1909. But it's noteworthy that traditional versions, such as Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland's and the Sam Henry "Out of the Window," are much longer than the Colum/Hughes text.
It would appear that Colum and Hughes did more cutting-down than actual reworking. If we compare the "standard" text of "She Moved Through the Fair" with, say, the Kennedy text, we find that Colum's first two stanzas are straight out of tradition. The final stanza, about the dead love, is largely from traditional sources -- but doesn't mention the dead love! And we see parallels to that verse in one of the Sam Henry texts (H534), though the latter may have been inspired by the published text.
Margaret Barry's version omits the third stanza of the Colum text. I observe that this verse doesn't scan very well to the tune; you can make it fit, but it sounds a bit unnatural.
Kennedy actually refers *five* texts in the Henry collection to this piece, but only the two above are properly this song; the others are of the "If I Were A Blackbird/Courting Too Slow" type (and filed on that basis); they may have influenced Colum's final verse (since there are lyric similarities), but they are assuredly not the same song.
I thought about listing "She Moved Through the Fair" and "Our Wedding Day" as two separate songs, but this would obscure the clear relationship between the two. I decided on the title "She Moved Through the Fair," even though it's not properly traditional, because it is so much more familiar. - RBW
Tunney-StoneFiddle: The first verse is identical to Padraic Collum's "She Moved Through the Fair." Tunney refers also to a Sam Henry version "but my mother's tune and indeed some of the words are quite different." The reference seems to be to H534, p. 454, "Our Wedding Day." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K165

She Moves Through the Fair

See She Moved Through the Fair (Our Wedding Day) (File: K165)

She Perished in the Snow

See Three Perished in the Snow [Laws G32] (File: LG32)

She Promised She'd Meet Me

See Hungry Hash House (File: San207)

She Put Her Hand into Her Bosom

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

She Said She Was Only Flirting

DESCRIPTION: "They stood on the beach at evening, Under the sunset so fair." He says he loves her; she says, "Oh sir, I was only flirting...." She says she is engaged to another, and goes her way. She is "a cold and elegant woman"; he is "Too soon grown worn and old."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting lie betrayal parting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 764, "She Said She Was Only Flirting" (1 text plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 166-167, "Flirtation" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 5, "Flirting" (1 text)
Roud #3759
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Willie Down by the Pond (Sinful to Flirt)" [Laws G19]
cf. "Juanita" (theme)
NOTES [34 words]: The middle stanzas of this piece are almost identical in meaning (except with genders reversed) to "Juanita," though the wording is somewhat different. The endings, however, are completely different. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: R764

She Said the Same to Me

See Twas in the Month of August In the Middle of July (She Said the Same to Me) (File: San038)

She Sat in Her Hammock

See Oh, How He Lied (File: FSWB031B)

She Sat on Her Hammock

See Oh, How He Lied (File: FSWB031B)

She Sleeps Beneath the Norris Dam

DESCRIPTION: "Way down in sunny Tennessee, Beneath blue Dixie's skies, In the silvery lake of Norris, Where my poor darling lies." The singer helped build the Norris Dam, and went boating on it with his love; she is thrown from the boat and loat. He wishes to die also
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (recording, Cope Brothers; reportedly written before 1940)
KEYWORDS: love technology death separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 283, "She Sleeps Beneath the Norris Dam" (1 text)
Roud #4911
File: CAFS1283

She Synes the Dishes Three Times a Day

See She Washes the Dishes Three Times a Day (File: LyCr2165)

She Tickled Me

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets Molly in Kent. Seeing her home they stop under a tree to avoid the rain. "She tickled me and I tickled her." After twelve months they marry. After dinner "we had a few games of card dice and chess and we both toddled off into bed"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 63, "She Tickled Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Tickled Nancy" (floating lyrics)
File: McB1063

She Waded in the Water

DESCRIPTION: "She waded in the water and she got her feet all wet (x3), But she didn't get her (clap, clap) wet. Yet." "Glory, glory... But she didn't get her (clap, clap) wet." And so on, through knees, thighs... until "She finally got her bathing suit wet."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook)
KEYWORDS: clothes humorous derivative campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 209, "She Waded in the Water" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 168, 389, 497, "She Waded in the Water:" (notes only)
Roud #36131
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune) and references there
File: ACSF168S

She Was a Rum One

DESCRIPTION: Singer falls in with a girl and asks why she walks in such an inhibited way. He says he can solve her problem; she says the problem lies between her thighs. He lays her down and provides a plaster, and says she's given him "a stable for my stallion"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, in the moonlight, falls in with a young girl walking and asks why she walks in such an inhibited way; she tells him to go away. He says he can solve her problem; she says the problem lies between her thighs, and its tickling keeps her from her striding. He lays her down and provides a plaster, whereby she can walk freely again. He says she's given him his winter's beef and fuel, but, better than that, "a stable for my stallion." Chorus: "She was a rum one, fol-the-diddle-di-do-day/But a bonny one, fol-the-diddle-di-do"
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1445, "She Was a Rum One" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 190, "She Was a Rum One" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RUMONE*
Roud #2128
RECORDINGS:
Jeannie Robertson, "She is a Rum One" (on FSB2CD)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Seventeen Come Sunday" (general situation)
File: K190

She Was Bred in Old Kentucky

DESCRIPTION: "As a lad I sat one day in a cottage far away... For my Sue with blushes red had just promised we would wed... She was bred in old Kentucky, where the meadow grass is blue." Her mother tells the singer he's lucky; many years later, he still agrees
AUTHOR: Harry Braisted and Stanley Carter (source: Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America)
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (source: Spaeth)
KEYWORDS: love courting mother
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 91, "She Was Bred in Old Kentucky" (1 text plus an excerpt and mention of 2 more, 2 tunes)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #115, "She Was Bred in Old Kentucky" (1 text)
Roud #4973
NOTES [69 words]: Spaeth, who gives a short history of this song (A History of Popular Music in America, p. 293), notes that it was popular with parodists, who paired the line "She was bre(a)d in old Kentucky" with lines such as "She was cake in New Orleans." This is hardly surprising; although the plot of the song is not any worse than any other wasn't-I-lucky-to-marry-her song, the lyrics are little better than doggerel. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Brne091

She Was Happy Till She Met You

DESCRIPTION: A young wife leaves her abusive husband and goes home to her mother. Eventually he shows up at the mother's door, asking her forgiveness. The mother sends him away, saying, "She was happy till she met you, and the fault is all your own...."
AUTHOR: Charles Graham and Monroe H. Rosenfeld
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: separation abuse abandonment husband wife
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 827, "She Was Happy Till She Met You" (2 texts)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 164, "She Was Happy till She Met You" (1 text)
Roud #6565
NOTES [16 words]: For background on Monroe H. Rosenfeld, see the notes to "Those Wedding Bells Shall Not Ring Out!"
Last updated in version 4.2
File: R827

She Was Poor But She Was Honest (I)

DESCRIPTION: A mock lament in which the village maid seduced goes to London to become a prostitute. While her customers prosper, she becomes a pox-ridden streetwalker burdened with piles. The moral: the rich takes their pleasures while the poor get the blame.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous sex children poverty hardtimes disease
FOUND IN: Australia Canada Britain(England) US(SW)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 128-132, "She Was Poor But She Was Honest I" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, pp. 69-70, "She was Poor, but She was Honest" (1 text)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 162-163, "It's the Syme the Whole World Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 108, "She Was Poor, But She Was Honest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 200-201, "It's The Syme the Whole World Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp. 15-16, "She Was Poor But She Was Honest" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 27, "It's The Syme The Whole World Over" (1 text)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 88-80, "She Was Poor But She Was Honest" (1 text, which appears to have been updated to reflect more recent British conditions)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 56-58, "It's the Sime the 'Ole World Over" (2 texts, 1 tune; the first a fairly normal version, the second an adaption in which Joe Johnson murders Sally Carter)
DT, SYMEOVR5*
ADDITIONAL: Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 62-63, "She Was Poor But She Was Honest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9621
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She Was Poor But She Was Honest (II)" (tune & meter)
cf. "It's the Sime the 'Ole World Over (II)" (tune)
NOTES [130 words]: The Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag text is described as "fortified in part by H.L Mencken and a contributor to The American Mercury."
Waites & Hunter say, "This is probably one of the most successful anonymous songs in the world. The tune repeats throughout the verses and the chorus, and is therefore exceptionally easy to pick up."
Jon Roche points out to me that Maurice Disher wrote (on p. 46 of "Victorian Song") that he first heard an "unprintable" song with the "She was poor but she was honest" line before any of the collections cited here. "My memories of it belong to the Grey Brigade of London volunteers after the South African War." But I can't use that as a date, partly because Disher is imprecise as to date and partly because I can't prove it's the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM128

She Was Poor But She Was Honest (II)

DESCRIPTION: An adaptation of the English original, this is a lampoon of a former governor of Alabama, "Kissing Jim" Folsom, who sired a child out of wedlock.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous political seduction
FOUND IN: US(SW,So,Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 132-133, "She Was Poor But She Was Honest II" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 286-288, "She Was Poor But She Was Honest" (1 text, 1 tune)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, posts 61, 93, "The Ballad of Big Jim Folsom)" (1 text, from user Crypto-Willobie, posted August 31, 2021)
DT, SYMEOVER* SYMEOVR4
ST EM132 (Full)
Roud #9621
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singer, "Big Jim Folsom" (on Unexp1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She Was Poor But She Was Honest (I)" (tune & meter)
NOTES [55 words]: For something so topical, this adaption survived a surprisingly long time. On August 31, 2021, the LibraryThing use Crypto-Willobie recalled a text learned from a parent, who apparently got it from oral tradition. So it was remembered for at least seventy years. That's comfortably longer than Folsom himself, who died in 1987. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM132

She Was So Good

DESCRIPTION: "She was so good and so kind to me, Just like one of the family, I shall never forget The first time we met, She was -- She was -- She...." (And then repeat the entire thing ad nauseum)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 38, "She Was So Good" (1 text)
Roud #10560
File: BrPa038B

She Washes the Dishes Three Times a Day

DESCRIPTION: Three verses: she washes dishes, bakes the bread, and washes the chairs three times a day.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 165, "She Washes the Dishes Three Times a Day" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 135, ("She synes the dishes three times a day") (1 text)
Roud #15117
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes" (form)
cf. "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (form)
NOTES [162 words]: Gomme 1.406-407 considers Chambers an example of "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" not far from "This is the way they wash the clothes, Wash the clothes, wash the clothes, This is the way they wash the clothes, And round the merry-ma-tanzie." [This particular family is in the index as "This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes" - RBW.] A verse in Chambers goes "She syncs the dishes three times a day, Three times a day, three times a day, She syncs the dishes three times a day, Come alang wi' the merry-ma-tanzie"; another is "She bakes the scones three times a day, ...." Compare this with Linscott "This is the way we bake the bread, etc., So early Saturday morning." Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 says the Chambers text "was apparently derived from Crawfurd." If the songs are not the same they are close.
Note the "merry man Tansy" chorus for both Gomme and Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2; the verses do not fit the "Merry-Ma-Tanzie" story line. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2165

She Wears Red Feathers

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "She wears red feathers and a hula-hula skirt ... lives on fresh coconuts and fish ... love in her heart for me." The singer says, "I work in a London bank, respectable position." But when the "native girl" smiles at him, he can't resist
AUTHOR: Bob Merrill (source: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame; see also Wikipedia entry "She Wears Red Feathers")
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: clothes derivative playparty food love wedding
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,West),Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 124, "She Wears Red Feathers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18994
RECORDINGS:
Dana Borusky, "She Wears Red Feathers and a Hula Hula Skirt" (Piotr-Archive #576, recorded 05/05/2023)
Dale Borusky, "She Wore Red Feathers and a Hula Hula Skirt" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #563, recorded 04/18/2023)

NOTES [217 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "The origin of even the most modern-sounding singing game can rarely be discovered to enable one to see the changes wrought by oral tradition. 'She Wears Red Feathers' was written and composed by Bob Merrill in 1952 (copyright Oxford Music Corporation, New York), but as the chorus possesses all the qualifications for a successful children's dance-song, and as the song has been heard frequently on the radio and published in song albums, changes over the past thirty years have been few." (you can find the lyrics to the Guy Mitchell March 1953 hit at -- for example -- "Gary and Mary's U.K. No 1 Lyrics Site"). - BS
Personally, I find the level of colonial ignorance in the text to be appalling. The girl is from Mandalay, which is in Myanmar (Burma), but not on the ocean, so she can hardly live on fish from the sea (and even coconut palms are listed as introduced). Yet she wears a "huly-huly" skirt, which is Polynesian. Oy.
The very fact that two of the Borusky siblings sang this, and learned it from their grandmother, is interesting, because it shows that Pearl Jacobs Borusky, although a great source for old songs, also sang current pop songs.
Bob Merrill also wrote "How Much Is that Doggie in the Window?"; he is reported to have committed suicide in 1988. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: OpGa124

She Went for a Ride in a Morgan

DESCRIPTION: "She went for a ride in a Morgan, She sat with the driver in front." The singer praises the girl and her beauty; the characteristic of the praise is that it always starts with a euphemism, then notes that "the more vulgar-minded" instead us a vulgarity
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: bawdy wordplay sex scatological
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 183, "She Went for a Ride in a Morgan" (1 text)
Roud #10151
NOTES [21 words]: None of the printed editions of this offer a tune, but it really feels as if it was sung to "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RuSoSWFR

She Won't Get Up

See Lazy Mary (She Won't Get Up) (File: R396)

She Wore a Wreath of Roses

DESCRIPTION: "She wore a wreath of roses The night that first we met, Her lovely face was smiling Beneath her curls of jet." Next he sees her with orange blossoms, and someone by her "to soothe her." Now he sees her in "a widow's somber cap"
AUTHOR: Joseph Philip Knight (Source: Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd)
KEYWORDS: flowers love wife death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #71, "She Wore a Wreath of Roses" (1 text)
Roud #13895
File: SoSWAWR

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

See Around Her Neck She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (File: Arn149)

She, a Jersey Cow

See They Strolled Down the Lane (File: Pank058T)

She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain

DESCRIPTION: "She'll coming round the mountain when she comes." The unidentified "she" arrives with great pomp and ceremony, and is greeted with celebration (e.g. the killing and cooking of the old red rooster). The song often is supplemented by summer camp nonsense
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Henry Whitter)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US(SE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 460, "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 460, "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 372-373, "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune plus a spiritual Sandburg describes as the source of the song)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 214 "She'll Be Comin' Around the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 276, "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 156, "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 26-27, "Coming 'Round the Mountain" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 496-497, "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain"
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 17, "(She'll be coming 'round the mountain)" (2 mentions, from users TempleCat, John5918, posted August 28, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 54, 114, 239, 262, 395, 494, "She'll Be Coming 'round the Mountain" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 14, "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 10, "Coming Round the Mountain" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 14-15, "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 28, "Comin' 'Round the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COMRND2*
cf. Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, p. 190, "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain" (reference only)
Roud #4204
RECORDINGS:
H. M. Barnes & his Blue Ridge Ramblers, "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain When She Comes" (Brunswick 310, 1929/Supertone S-2052, 1930)
Vernon Dalhart, "She's Comin' Round the Mountain" (Montgomery Ward M-8148, 1939)
Vernon Dalhart & Co., "She's Comin' 'Round the Mountain" (Edison 51608, 1925)
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" (Brunswick 181/Vocalion 5240 [as the Hill Billies], 1927)
Uncle Dave Macon & John McGhee, "Comin' Round the Mountain" (Brunswick 263, 1928; Brunswick 425, 1930)
John D. Mounce et al, "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" (on MusOzarks01)
Elmo Newcomer, "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" CroMart 100, n.d. but prob. late 1940s - early 1950s)
Parman and Snyder, "She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain" (OKeh 45302, 1929; rec. 1928)
Pickard Family, "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" (Oriole 1502/Conqueror 7251/Microphone [Canada] 22388, 1929; Challenge 992, n.d.; Broadway 8148 [as Pleasant Family], n.d.)
Red River Dave, "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain" (Musicraft 287, 1944)
Rhythm Wreckers, "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" (Vocalion 3341, 1936)
Carson Robison [Trio], "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" (Crown 3027, c. 1930)
Roe Bros. & Morrell, "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain" (Columbia 15156-D, 1927)
Pete Seeger, "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain" (on PeteSeeger03, PeteSeegerCD03) (on PeteSeeger21)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" (Columbia 15200-D, 1927; rec. 1926)
Henry Whitter, "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" (OKeh 40063, 1924)
Jimmie Wilson & his Catfish String Band, "She's Comin' Round the Mountain" (Victor V-40163, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Ship of Zion (I)" (form, tune, lyrics)
cf. "I Am Growing Old and Gray" (tune)
cf. "Drive It On" (tune)
cf. "Ye Cannae Shove Yer Granny" (tune)
cf. "Ding Dong Dollar" (tune)
cf. "Ballymurphy" (tune)
cf. "The Ten Virgins" (structure, tune)
SAME TUNE:
Ye Cannae Shove Yer Granny Aff a Bus (File: DTgranbu)
I'm Going to Ship on the Mike Davis (Wheeler, p. 115)
Skidding Down the Runway (File: Hopk121)
Bill Cox, "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain - No. 2" (Gennett 6974/Supertone 9556 [as Charley Blake], 1929)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The New 'Comin' Round the Mountain'" (Bluebird B-5401, 1934)
Mickey Katz, "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Katzkills" (Capitol 1718, 1951)
Anonymous singer, "There's a 'Skeeter" (on Unexp1)
Ding Dong Dollar (Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 250-252; Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 309, where it is incorrectly attributed to Hamish Henderson rather than John Mack)
NOTES [171 words]: Fuld reports that "substantially this melody" was in print in 1899 in "Old Plantation Hymns," but the text was "When the Chariot Comes." Fuld assumes the "Round the Mountain" lyrics are more recent (he knows of no printing before Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag).
The notes in Brown list it as a "parody or secularization of 'The Old Ship of Zion'" (included in the index as "The Old Ship of Zion (I), but note that the phrase is not found in Sandburg's spiritual version); Roud goes so far as to lump them. The Brown text does mention Mary, though it's not clear that this is the mother of Jesus. - RBW
The pattern and tune of "I'm Going To Walk With Jesus By Myself" and "When the Chariot Comes" are close to "She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain." - BS
The anonymous singer on Unexp1 sings "There's a 'skeeter on my peter, sweet Marie." Folk process. - PJS
Reginald Nettel, Seven Centuries of Popular Song, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 232, reports a verse, "They'll be flying in formation when they come." Again, folk process. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: San372

She'll Be Right

DESCRIPTION: "When you're hunting in the mountains and your dog puts up a chase" and a boar attacks, you'll eventually get pork. When you learn you dropped your socks in the beer you were brewing, there's a fix. And so forth. "So don't worry, mate, she'll be right."
AUTHOR: Peter Cape (1926-1979) (source: Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (source: Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ)
KEYWORDS: humorous disaster drink dog hunting technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 225-227, "She'll Be Right" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Roger Steele, editor, _An Ordinary Joker: The Life and Songs of Peter Cape_ (book with accompanying CD), Steele Roberts, Aotearoa, New Zealand, 2001, pp. 60-61, "She'll Be Right" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [289 words]: According to Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, this song is an "unofficial national anthem." I'm including it in the Index on that basis, though I know of no field collections. (It may be based on Peter Cape's own hopes; Cape/Steele, p. 21, says he wrote it with that idea in mind.) There is a 1979 recording by the Canterbury Bush Orchestra (a group which included Phil Garland) which implies the song has been folk processed a little. Garland does print several verses written by people other than original author Peter Cape. Cape himself recorded it on the EP "She'll Be Right" (Kiwi EA 54) around 1964.
The phrase "She'll Be Right" is certainly a folk phrase; Ell, p. 232 says that it "Epitomises the laid-back Kiwi attitude to problems or challenges. At best it reflects the positivism of the American expression 'No worries' or 'Don't worry.' At worst, and more frequently, it reflects a less-than-perfectionist attitude to getting things right."
The use of "she" for "it" is a common New Zealandism; NewZealandDictionary, p. 244, entry on "she," item 1, says the word is "Applied to things (both material and immaterial) to which femaleness is not conventionally attributed, often replacing the impersonal pronoun it." This leads to "the use of she'll be and she's with complements to introduce common idiomatic phrases expressing confidence or reassurance in an outcome," of which "she'll be right" is an example.
Don Toms, Cape's musical mentor, was an immigrant to New Zealand from Britain, arriving at Wellington in 1958, where he saw a banner saying "She'll Be Right" hung across the customs shed. It sounds, based on Cape/Steele, p. 21, as if he told Cape about this experience, and Cape produced this song as a result. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Garl225

She's a Big Fine Lump of an Irish A-gir-a-cultural Girl

See The Irish Agricultural Girl (File: OLcM066)

She's a Daisy

See Sweet Mary Ann (Such an Education Has My Mary Ann) (File: HaBrSEMA)

She's A Dear Maid To Me

See The Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds (File: OLoc066)

She's a Flower from the Fields of Alabama

DESCRIPTION: "It was one evening long ago" when the singer went to ask the hand of the girl. Her mother gladly consents. He looks back happily. Chorus: "She's a flower from the fields of Alabam, Take her for she loves you, yes I know...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Emry Arthur)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, FLWRALBM
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "She's a Flower from the Fields of Alabama" (Vocalion 5234, 1928)
[Richard] Burnett & [Leonard] Rutherford, "She's a Flower from the Fields of Alabama" (Gennett 6688/Challenge 420 [as Bunch & Jennings], 1929; rec. 1928; on BurnRuth01, KMM)
Sue & Rawhide, "She's a Flower from the Fields of Alabama" (OKeh 45577, 1934)
NOTES [66 words]: Given the near-lack of plot, I have to suspect that this is a nineteenth century parlour piece. But I can't trace it back past the Burnett & Rutherford recording (made at their last dated recording session in 1928). - RBW
I've traced it back a little farther; the Emry Arthur recording was made sometime in January, 1928, while the Burnett & Rutherford was made on October 29 of that year. - PJS
File: DTflwera

She's a Fool Gal

See She's a Fool, She Ain't Got No Sense (File: RcSaFSAG)

She's a Fool, She Ain't Got No Sense

DESCRIPTION: Every couplet is followed by "You's/he's/she's a fool, You/he/she ain't got no sense." Some couplets rhyme on color like "See that woman all dressed in red Going with a man will kill you dead" (see notes)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Ed Bell)
KEYWORDS: courting colors nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Ed Bell, "She's a Fool Gal" (Columbia 14595-D, 1930)
Emmett Murray, "She's a Fool, She Ain't Got No Sense" (on USFlorida01)
NOTES [74 words]: Couplets on color include "You may think because you're black I'm going to beg you to take me back"; "You may think cause I look green I never been down in New Orleans"; "See that woman all dressed in white Bet you five dollars she won't treat you right." Other verses include "Any time I go to town Meet my gal hanging 'round" and "I went down the smoky road Like to brought me back on a cooling board. I'm a fool but I ain't going no more." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcSaFSAG

She's a Lassie from Lancashire

DESCRIPTION: "From a dear little Lancashire town a boy had sailed away Across the briny spray, to toil in USA." Girls seek him out, but he says there is just one girl for him: "She's a Lassie from Lancashire." He works until he has enough money to sail home to her
AUTHOR: Dan Lipton (1873-1935), C. W. Murphy (1875-1913), John Neat (1876-1949) (source: Second Hand Songs site; Folk Song and Music Hall site)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (recording, Florrie Ford)
KEYWORDS: love separation work return
FOUND IN:
Roud #24008
RECORDINGS:
Florrie Ford, "She's a Lassie from Lancashire" (Zonophone X-43147, 1906)
Bob Graves, "She's a Lassie from Lancashire" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #41, recorded 07/21/2021)
Ella Retford, "She's a Lassie from Lancashire" (Ariel Grand Record 1820, 1912)
File: RcSALFL

She's a Tiddley Ship

DESCRIPTION: "She's a tiddley ship, through the ocean she'll flip, She's sailing by night and by day. And when she's in motion, she's the pride of the ocean... And 'Jimmy' looks on her with pride," but "This four-funnelled bastard is getting me down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy sailor work travel hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 23-24, "She's a Tiddley Ship" (1 text, with tune on p. 148)
Roud #32823
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Ships (I)" (mentions of HMS Nelson, Rodney, and Hood)
cf ."Roll on the Rodney" ("Roll on the [ship name]" lyric) and references there
SAME TUNE:
Prince Henry Song (File: Hopk044)
A Band of Banshee Airmen (File: Hopk060)
NOTES [679 words]: Uden/Cooper, p. 516, give this definition of "Tiddley (or tiddly): sailors' slang for smart and neat; applied to a best uniform, to a caboose, cabin, or any part of the deck made smart with extra touches of car."
"Jimmy" is presumably "Jimmy-the-one," the first lieutenant (Uden/Cooper, p. 237), who would be responsible for keeping ship and crew in good order.
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy's version of this refers to the ship Ariadne. The Royal Navy in World War II had a ship Ariadne but she was a minelayer built in the 1940s (Worth, p. 121); I doubt she was so much into spit and polish. There was also a World War I Ariadne, a cruiser of the Diadem class, built 1898-1900 (Wragg, p. 187), which made them almost obsolete by 1914 (indeed, the Ariadne was made into a minelayer, and the rest of the class mostly into training ships). And she had four funnels, as in the song. But she was torpedoed in 1917.
Which brings us to the chorus of this and most of its derivative songs (listed in the Same Tune field), which include lines such as
Roll on the Nelson, the Rodney, Renown,
This four-funnelled bastard is getting me down.
or
Roll on the Nelson, the Rodney, the Hood,
This four-funnelled bastard is no bleeding good.
or
Roll on the Nelson, the Rodney, Renown,
You can't sink the Hood; she's already gone down.
Bradford, p. 16, has another variant,
Roll on the Nelson, the Rodney, the Hood,
This one-funneled basket is no mucking good.
There is also a book, David Phillipson, Roll on the Rodney: Life on the Lower Decks of Royal Navy Warships After the Second World War. I don't know that the title derives from this chorus, but I suspect it was.
Apart from proving that this chorus was extremely well-known, all of these are dating hints. The Hood was a heavy battlecruiser/fast battleship launched in 1918 (Humble, p. 125) and famously sunk by the Bismarck in 1941 (Bradford, pp. 184-185, and indirectly covered throughout the book; there are at least three other books specifically about the Hood, and dozens more about the Bismarck and their battle). For more on her story, see "The Sinking of HMS Hood."
The Renown was a lighter battlecruiser, launched 1916; she survived World War II (Worth, p. 91).
The Nelson and Rodney were sisters, launched in 1927, after the Washington Naval Conference had restricted battleship tonnage (Worth, pp. 92-93; Ballard, p. 85, repeats an old joke that called the two the "Cherry Tree" class because they had been "cut down by Washington"). They carried the heaviest guns ever mounted on a British battleship -- 16"; no other British ship carried anything larger than a 15" gun for more than a brief time. They were the last major British ships commissioned before World War II (which revealed their design, which featured a lot of weight-saving techniques that cost them, among other things, about five knots of speed and a rational distribution of turrets, to be damage-prone).
Thus from 1927 to 1941, the Nelson, the Rodney, and the Hood were the biggest, deadliest ships in the Royal Navy. After the Hood was sunk in 1941, the Renown became the biggest battlecruiser left in the fleet. All of them were scrapped soon after the war. So this chorus must date from after 1927, and the version in which the Hood has been sunk is from 1941-1945.
All of which leaves the identity of the Ariadne a mystery. The four funnels fit the World War I ship, and Tawney thinks the lines were written before the larger ships were commissioned (perhaps by a sailor who wanted to be on a better ship), but the Ariadne and the Nelson and Rodney cannot possibly have overlapped. So it would seem either that the chorus came later or that the name Ariadne was zippered in. Which raises the question of which ship might originally have been the subject of the song -- but I doubt there is enough data to figure that out. It has been suggested that it refers to the four-funnel destroyers that the Americans lent the British; for those, see the notes to "Reuben James." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Tawn007

She's A Wrang for the Richtin ot

DESCRIPTION: "She's a wrang for the richtin o't" (x2).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Harris manuscript)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 161, "She's a wrang for the richtin ot" (1 fragment)
Roud #18044
NOTES [40 words]: The current description is all of the Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris text. I have this strange feeling that this is somehow related to "My Love She's but a Lassie Yet (I)/We're All Dry," but I can't prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HLMM161B

She's At The Bar Selling Soap Soda and Blue

DESCRIPTION: "She's at the bar, selling soap, soda and blue, And things too superfluous to mention to you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: commerce
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 135, "She's At The Bar Selling Soap Soda and Blue" (1 short text)
Roud #16238
NOTES [16 words]: The current description is based on the OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC135

She's Aye Scaulin' Me

See Scolding Wife (IV) (File: HHH145)

She's Aye Tease, Teasin'

DESCRIPTION: "I bocht my wife a steen [stone] o' lint [flax] As good e'er did grow, She carded it ... And let it in lowe [set it on fire]. She's aye tease, teasin', She's aye teasin me; This wicked wife she'll en' my life She winna lat me be"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness fire husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1338, "She's Aye Tease, Teasin'" (1 fragment)
Roud #7221
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Spinnin o't" (theme: the wife who won't spin, but sets the flax on fire)
cf. "The Wee Pickle Tow" (theme: the wife who won't spin, but sets the flax on fire)
cf. "The Pound of Tow" (theme: the wife who won't spin)
cf. "The Weary Pound o' Tow" (theme: the wife who won't spin)
cf. "Scolding Wife" (IV) (structure and subject)
NOTES [101 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan7 fragment; the [glosses are] from Greig/Duncan7.
Though the Greig/Duncan7 fragment shares a narrow theme with the listed cross-references neither its structure nor words are close enough that I can lump it with any of those songs. The closest is the Burns and Chambers text of "The Weary Pund o' Tow" that shares the first two lines of the Greig/Duncan7 text.
The structure of the Greig/Duncan7 text fits "Scolding Wife" (IV). If I could find a hint of the "She's Aye Tease, Teasin'" verse in any "Scolding Wife" texts I would consider them the same song. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71338

She's But My Auld Sheen When You've Gotten Her

DESCRIPTION: "She's but my auld sheen when you've gotten her."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #88, p. 2, ("She's but my auld sheen when you've gotten her") (1 fragment)
NOTES [337 words]: The current description is all of the Greig fragment.
.".. the same parish of Keith Hall disputes Galston, in Airshire, the honour of having given birth to the "Lass of Patie's [or Peaty's] Mill" [about 1550]. In the Statistical Account of this parish, it is said that her maiden name was Anderson. A great-grandson of her's [sic], aged eighty-nine, [born in 1703, and living in 1791] and a number of her descendants, reside in this district, and its parishes of Kinnellar and Dyce. Her father was prioretor of Patie's Mill in Keith Hall, of Tullikearie in try, and Standing Stones in the parish of Dyce. In ... her beauty or fortune, or from both causes, she had many admirers, and she was an only child. One Sangster, of Boddom, in New Machar parish, wished to carry her off, but was interrupted by a dog, and very roughly handled by her father, who was called Black John Anderson. In revenge, he wrote an ill-natured song, of which her great-grandson remembers these words, "Ye'll tell the gowk that gets her, He gets but my auld sheen" (source: The Beauties of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1806 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. IV, p. 422; inserted notes are from John Glen, Early Scottish Melodies (Edinburgh, 1900 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 65).
In eight versions of "The False Bride," Greig/Duncan6 1198, the jilted suitor "went up to the bridegroom, says I'll tell ye a guise I've lien wi' your bonnie bride aftener than thrice And she daurna deny in the bed where she lies, And she's but my auld sheen when ye've gotten her."
The old shoe metaphor is given a slightly different twist in "The Days Are Awa That I Have Seen," Greig/Duncan6 1136A ("But if she think's she's deen me muckle ill, she is fair misteen, For she is only dancin' in my auld sheen") and 1136B ("... begone bonnie laddie for I carena. Ye think that I'm carin' but I'm nae nane, For ye're only wearin' my auld sheen").
While Greig's fragment could easily just be folded into "The False Bride," Greig's story leads me to give it its own entry. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Grg088a

She's Gone to be a Mormonite

DESCRIPTION: "I'll tell you what I'm going to do And that without delay, I'll pack my trunk and I'll be off, I'll go this very day." The singer tells of a girl who's "Gone to be a Mormonite In the new Jerusalem." (He?) knows not where she is, except that she's Mormon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: separation travel marriage religious
FOUND IN: US(Ro,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 501, "She's Gone to be a Mormonite" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #221, "My Wife Has Become a Mormonite" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 218-219, "My Wife Has Become a Mormonite" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7640
NOTES [158 words]: Although I have no direct evidence of it, I suspect -- both for psychological reasons (why would a *girl* want to be a Mormon?) and the strange constructions in Randolph's text of the song -- that it was a man who was originally referred to in it. (In Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah's version, the singer misses his wife, who has vanished, probably to become a Mormon, and has taken his furniture.) How it came to refer to a woman I do not know.
To be fair, there was a legend that said that Mormon men were particularly sexually proficient (see the notes to "The Mormon Cowboy" in Logdson's The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing), and Fawn M. Brodie's biography of Joseph Smith, No Man Knows My History (1945, 1971; I use the 1995 Vintage Books edition), p. xii, notes that Smith had some fifty wives in his life, most of them voluntary -- and that over 200 wives "married" him after his death. (Of course, they were safe from him when dead.) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R501

She's Got the Money Too

See He's Got the Money Too (File: R299)

She's Like the Swallow

DESCRIPTION: "She's like a swallow that flies so high, She's like a river that never runs dry, She's like the sunshine on the lee shore, I love my love and love is no more." A lament for a lost girl: "She laid her down, no word she spoke, until [her] heart was broke"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: death separation loneliness
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Peacock, pp. 711-714, "She's Like the Swallow" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 140-141, "She's Like the Swallow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 63, "She's Like the Swallow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 83, "She's Like the Swallow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 57, "She's Like a Swallow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 120, "She's Like the Swallow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 150, "She's Like The Swallow" (1 text)
DT, SWLLOW*
ADDITIONAL: Neil V. Rosenberg, "'She's Like the Swallow': Folksong as Cultural Icon" (article printed in _Newfoundland and Labrador Studies_, Volume 22, No. 1, pp. 75-114; includes every known traditional text and tune)
Roud #2306
RECORDINGS:
The Crofut Family, "She's Like the Swallow" (Piotr-Archive #676, recorded 09/17/2023; incomplete and and with wandering pitch)
Anita Best and Pamela Morgan, "She's Like the Swallow" (on NFABestPMorgan01)
Omar Blondahl, "She's Like the Swallow" (on NFOBlondahl05)
NOTES [100 words]: Fowke observes, "The lines suggest an English origin, and probably they formed part of a longer song [perhaps similar to "The Butcher Boy"?], but the years have polished the fragment that survives until it approaches perfection."
The Rosenberg article cited above includes all traditional versions known (e.g. those collected by Karpeles, Peacock, and Fowke), and discusses how both Karpeles and Peacock fiddled with the texts of the versions they collected in their printed versions. Thus the famous recordings of this song are in fact modified versions. For details, see the Rosenberg article. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FJ140

She's Only My Auld Shoes

See The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass) (File: K152)

Shear Um

DESCRIPTION: "Makes no difference How you shear um; Makes no difference How or when; Makes no difference How you shear um Just so you shear um clean."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: sheep
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #99, "Shear Um" (1 short text)
Roud #5005
NOTES [28 words]: Roud lumps this with Brown's "Share 'Em," probably because they both seem to be fragments about shearing, but I can't see much actual similarity, so I split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: Morr099

Shearer and the Swaggie, The

DESCRIPTION: A gun shearer finishes his work, collects his pay, and takes to the road. He meets a swaggie; they camp. In the night, afraid for his pay, he flees at a noise. The swaggie also runs, afraid of the shearer. They meet again and wonder why they are running
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: money rambling hobo sheep
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 147-149, "The Shearer and the Swaggie" (1 tune)
File: MCB147

Shearer's Dream, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I dreamt I shore in a shearin'-shed, and it was a dream of joy, For every one of the rouseabouts was a girl dressed up as a boy." He dreams of clean sheep, of a cool, comfortable shed, of happy dances with the girls... and wakes to find it a dream
AUTHOR: attributed to Henry Lawson (1867-1922)
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (Lawson's _Children of the Bush_)
KEYWORDS: dream work sheep Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 116-117, "The Shearer's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads, pp. 14-15, "The Shearer's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 235-236, "The Shearer's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 164-165, "The Shearer's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 202-204, "The Shearer's Dream" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 155-156, "The Shearer's Dream" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 289, "The Shearer's Dream" (1 text)
NOTES [260 words]: Henry Lawson published this, but it is not clear from the extant records whether he actually wrote it or just touched it up. Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition mention an informant who claim to have learned it in 1884. It is worth noting that two different tunes are known (Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads attribute their melody, the one in major, to Charles Ayger).
John S. Manifold, Who Wrote the Ballads? Notes on Australian Folksong, Australasian Book Society, 1964, p. 138, has this to say of the matter: "'The Shearer's Dream' has grown two tunes also: one in the major mode, one in the minor. Once more we find a certain confusion about Lawson's degree of authorship. He quotes the words in the course of a story in Send Round The Hat, as a song sung by travelers camped in a creek-bed outside Bourke, while 'Mitchell and I listened.' The same words, slightly cut down, occur again in the McKee Wright edition of Lawson's Poetrical Works. In the first case there is an attempt to 'describe' the tune; in the second no tune is mentioned. Is the poem really just something that Lawson heard and polished up? Stewart and Keesing seem to believe that this is what he did with 'The Bunk in the Humpy.' I am inclined to think 'The Shearer's Dream' is all Lawson, and that he was trying to show in the first instance that he too could write a 'genuine' bush song.
"If that is so, then we may congratulate him on having succeeded. 'The Shearer's Dream' goes over with bush audiences as 'Freedom on the Wallaby' does not." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: MA116

Shearer's Hardships, The

See The Station Cook (File: PASB090)

NOTES [26 words]: Fowler's Bay is on the south coast of Australia, roughly 300 miles northwest of Adelaide. I'm guessing that "Pinyong" is Penong on the shores of the bay. - RBW
File: PASB090

Shearer's Song

DESCRIPTION: "We all are jolly shearers, and we like it very well." Health to our master, prosperity to his flock, and the shearers, and the man that winds the yarn. "We kiss the girls wherever we go and our wives at other times"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: farming drink nonballad sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 39, "Shearer's Song" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 468)
Roud #1226
File: WT039

Shearer's Song (II), The

See Four Little Johnny Cakes (File: PFS276)

Shearin's Nae for You, The

DESCRIPTION: The girl is urged to "tak the ribbons fae yer hair" or the "flounces frae yer gown," because her "belly's roarin' fu'." She blames the young man (soldier?) for seducing her. He urges her to mind her baby. Other mutual accusations may follow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Grieg collection)
KEYWORDS: sex seduction childbirth soldier dialog accusation abandonment clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1486, "The Shearin's Nae for You" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #37, pp. 179, "Tak' the Buckles Frae You Sheen" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SHEARNAE* SHEARNA2*
Roud #4845
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alford Vale" (tune)
cf. "Kelvingrove" (tune)
cf. "O Tell Me Will Ye Go" (tune)
cf. "Dearest Lassie O!" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonnie Lassie O
NOTES [255 words]: This song supplies the melody for a poem by Thomas Lyle, "Kelvingrove" or "Kelvin Grove," which apparently is sung in the Scottish schools despite being utterly disdained by folksingers. (According to Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 281, there are also Kelvingrove variants by John Sims and by Charles Edward Horn).
Lest we be too nasty about Kelvin Grove, we note that the Kelvin Stream (a small river near Glasgow) lent its name to William Thomson, who would in time become Baron Kelvin of Largs (commonly called Lord Kelvin). The Kelvin temperature scale of course is named after him.
And well deserved, because -- while Kelvin did not invent thermodynamics (depending on how you look at things, either Sadi Carnot or James Joule did that), he expanded on Joule's work and made it a part of the standard physics. Which is extremely important, since thermodynamics is pretty much the basis of all of physics (e.g. the inverse square law governing gravity and electromagnetism follows from the first law of thermodynamics -- think of a source giving off a pulse of gravity waves, which expand along the surface of the sphere. Since the total energy must be constant, and the surface area of a sphere increases according to the square of the radius, the potential must decrease with the square of the radius.)
So, anyway, though Kelvingrove the poem is unmemorable, Kelvin the place has a noble niche in the history of science. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: RcShNaYo

Shearing

DESCRIPTION: "All aboard! All aboard is the cry, There's a rippin' lot of shearers in the shed." Various shearers can be expected to set records. Big Mick and Barcoo Ben compete closely. The shearers are all happy at and clever in their work
AUTHOR: Words: David McKee Wright (1867-1928)
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (Wright, "Station Ballads," according to Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: worker sheep
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 87, "Shearing" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 49 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 148-149, "(Shearing)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: J. C. Reid, _A Book of New Zealand_ (Collins National Anthologies), Collins, 1964, pp. 137-138, "Shearing" (1 text)
File: Colq049

Shearing at the Castlereigh

DESCRIPTION: "The bells are set a-ringing and the engine gives a toot, There are five-and-thirty shearers here a-shearing for the loot." The shearers are reminded that London depends on Castlereigh wool. The boss complains that the shearers were "born to swing a pick"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia)
KEYWORDS: work boss sheep Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 275, "Shearing at the Castlereigh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, p. 88, "Shearing at Castlereach" (1 short text, 1 tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Irishman's Song (TrMe090)
File: MA275

Shearing in a Bar

DESCRIPTION: "My shearing days are over, though I never was a gun, I could always count my twenty at the end of every run." Despite his lack of success while actually working as a shearer, the singer never has trouble "when I'm shearing in a bar."
AUTHOR: Duke Tritton (source: Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (field recording of Duke Tritton)
KEYWORDS: humorous sheep worker drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, pp. 69-70, "Shearing in a Bar" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Matthew Richardson, _Once a Jolly Swagman: The Ballad of Waltzing Matilda_, Melbourne University Press, 2006, p. 54, "Shearing in a Bar" (1 excerpt)
Roud #24811
NOTES [27 words]: Although quite recently composed, I'm sure I've heard this somewhere, so it seems to have gotten passed around at least a little bit. I index it on that basis. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: TrMe069

Shearing's Coming Round, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a sound of many voices in the camp and on the track... For the shearing's coming round, boys, the shearing's coming round, And the stations... have begun to hear the sound." It's the talk of the entire region
AUTHOR: David McKee Wright (1867-1928) (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (Dunedin "Otago Witness," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: sheep worker nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 131, "Shearing's Coming" (1 text)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 19, "(no title)" (1 fragment, probably this); p. 150, "The Shearing's Coming Round" (1 text)
File: BaRo131

Sheath and Knife [Child 16]

DESCRIPTION: The princess (Jeannie) is pregnant by her brother. Rather than reveal the truth, the two leave for the greenwood, where he shoots her and buries her "with their bairn at her feet." He returns home, but even the joys of royalty cannot console him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: homicide incest pregnancy burial mourning royalty | infanticide
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 16, "Sheath and Knife" (6 texts)
Bronson 16, "Sheath and Knife" (2 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 16, "Sheath and Knife" (1 version: #1)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 140-148, "Sheath and Knife" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the "B" text is certainly "Sheath and Knife," but "A" mixes "Sheathe and Knife" and "Leesome Brand" and is filed as the latter by Roud)
DT 16, SHEATHKF* SHTHKNF2 SHTHKNF3
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #64, "Sheath and Knife" (1 text)
Roud #3960
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Leesome Brand" [Child 15] (lyrics about the "sheathe and knife)
cf. "The Bonnie Hind" [Child 50] (plot, lyrics)
NOTES [394 words]: On the scientific evidence that brothers and sisters raised apart are particularly likely to fall in love, and some further speculation as to why, see the notes to "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14]."
Child in his notes to "Robin Hood's Death" [Child 120] suggests that the penultimate scene here once followed the same course as in that ballad -- that is, presumably, instead of the girl choosing a spot and asking her brother to shoot and bury her there, that she once shot the arrow herself to choose her grave site. This is perhaps possible -- in each case, she chooses where she is buried -- but I doubt it. The effect is the same, but the symbolism is different. In "Robin Hood's Death," the bow itself is called upon to choose the burial place -- a strong symbol of Robin's career with the bow. In "Sheathe and Knife," the girl chooses the exact spot -- and then the boy shoots a silver arrow as the last gift, or tribute, he can give her. The emphasis is very different.
Some versions soften the plot so that she merely dies in childbirth rather than him killing her. But this, I think, loses the point of the song.
The symbol of a knife so fine that no smith can replace it occurs in at least two ballads, "Sheathe and Knife" [Child 16] and "Leesome Brand" [Child 15], also in the Percy Folio version of "The Squire of Low Degree," lines 121-126, though it is a woman in that case who has lost her "kniffe"; for this, see William Edward Mead, The Squyr of Lowe Degre: A Middle English Metrical Romance, Ginn & Company, 1904, p. 34. The relevant lines are as follows:
"For yesterday I lost my kniffe;
Much rather had I have lost my liffe!"
"My daughter," he sayes, "if it be but a blade,
I can gett another as good made."
"Father, she says, there is never a smith but one
[That can] smith you such a one."
The Percy Folio version of the "Squire" is much cut down; the longer text of William Copland's printed edition (which preceded the Percy Folio edition by a century or so) lacks these words, although it has the father see the daughter suffering, and offers her great gifts. Given that the Copland version is longer and older, it is likely that the words are an addition to the Percy Folio version. Did it derive it from this song, or from "Leesome Brand"? Or was the dependency the other way? It might be worth a detailed study. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C016

Sheelicks

DESCRIPTION: About a riotous wedding, attended by all whether invited or not, at McGinty's. A tailor with a wooden leg loses it in mid-dance; a cyclist is carried home in a wheelbarrow; a man comes with a hundred pounds, goes home with nothing. Plus the food is bad.
AUTHOR: George Bruce Thomson
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of a riotous wedding, attended by all whether invited or not, at McGinty's Meal and Ale. Mrs. McGinty trips over a pig; a tailor with a wooden leg loses it in mid-dance; a bicyclist is carried home in a wheelbarrow; another man comes with a hundred pounds, goes home with nothing. The food is bad, besides. Chorus: "Hi, hi, went the drum! Diddle, diddle, went the fiddle/.../And the jing-a-ring went roond aboot like sheelicks in a riddle"
KEYWORDS: disability wedding dancing drink food party humorous animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast 134, pp. 2-3, "Sheelicks" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 614, "Sheelicks" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 109, "Sheelicks" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MEALNAL2*
Roud #2518
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blythesome Bridal" (theme) and references there
cf. "The Deil Amon' the Tailors" (tune, per Greig)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
McGinty's Wedding
NOTES [61 words]: [MacColl & Seeger's] informant, Maggie McPhee, has evidently transplanted bits of another Thompson piece, "McGinty's Meal and Ale", into "Sheelicks." His compositions evidently entered tradition around the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, as Greig collected them from informants over a wide area. "Sheelicks", by the way, are husked grain; a riddle is a sieve. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: McCST109

Sheep a-shuckin' corn by the sound of his horn

See Sheep Shell Corn by the Rattle of His Horn (File: Br3196)

Sheep Crook and Black Dog

See Sheepcrook and Black Dog (File: HHH030a)

Sheep in the Meadow

See Little Boy Blue (I) (File: OO2074)

Sheep know his shepher's voice

See Sheep Knows His Shepherd's Voice (File: Parp226A)

Sheep Knows His Shepherd's Voice

DESCRIPTION: "Sheep know his shepherd's voice, Yes Lord I know the way... You know the way an' you wouldn't come home Yes Lord I know the way." The pace quickens "Make a jump, jump for joy" "Sheep jump, jump for joy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad religious animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, pp. 226-227, ("Sheep know his shepher's voice") (1 text)
NOTES [140 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. Parrish writes that this was sung by rice thrashers "for the rice dance." From Parrish's description the song seems to progress like a "shout." - BS
John 10:1-5 King James Version: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. [2] But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. [3] To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. [4] And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. [5] And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parp226A

Sheep Shearing (I)

DESCRIPTION: Wool "clothes the beggar and the King" and "infant babe"; "the last garments we shall have A shroud when we go to the grave." The singer prefers wool to silks and satins. The wool trade has increased "since Joshua [sic; Jason] stole the golden fleece"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: commerce nonballad sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople, p. 241, "Sheep Shearing" (1 text)
Roud #4743
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sheep-Shearing" (theme: praise of sheep and wool) and references there
File: ReSh241

Sheep Shearing (II)

DESCRIPTION: "How delightful to see in the evenings of spring, When the sheep are a-going to the fold." The sheep are shorn in the heat of June. The sheep are a blessing; the meat is good and wool is warm. The singer toasts the master and flock.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: shepherd work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 91, "Sheep Shearing" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 3, "The Sheep-Shearing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1582
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sheep-Shearing" (theme: praise of sheep and wool) and references there
File: KaCr091

Sheep Shell Corn by the Rattle of His Horn

DESCRIPTION: "Sheep shell corn by the rattle of his horn, blow, horn, blow, Send to the mill by the whippoorwill." "O! blow your horn, blow, horn, blow" (x2) Verses about life at corn-shucking time and a desire to have done for the day.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: work food animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 196, "Sheep Shell Corn by the Rattle of His Horn" (1 text plus 1 fragment and a mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 196, "Sheep Shell Corn by the Rattle of His Horn" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Celia M. Benton, "Corn Shucking in Sampson County," Vol. XXII, No. 4 (Nov 1974), p. 137, "(Sheep a-shuckin' corn by the sound of his horn" (1 short text, 1 tune))
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Bill Phillips, "The Hollerers from Spivey's Corner," Vol. XXIV, No. 3 (Nov 1976), p. 87, (Cows in the old field, don't you hear the bell)"" (1 text, possibly this and certainly a corn-shucking song)
File: Br3196

Sheep Stealer

DESCRIPTION: Will Marpass stole a sheep in the marsh Saturday night. He and some friends kill and skin it, distribute the parts and have a fine dinner Sunday.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: theft food sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 93, "Sheep Stealer" (1 text)
Roud #2410
NOTES [13 words]: Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople: "probably a fragment of a broadside ballad." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: ReSh093

Sheep Stealer, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes out in "the night when the moon do shine bright, There's a number of work to be done ... on another man's ground." He steals sheep and takes them home to be butchered by his children while he stands guard against the constable.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (ENMacCollSeeger02)
KEYWORDS: sheep children thief theft
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #12, "The sheepstealer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 89, "The Sheep-stealer" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SHPSTEAL
Roud #1667
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Sheep Stealer" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
NOTES [21 words]: From ENMacCollSeeger02 album cover notes: "H.E.D. Hammond recorded two Dorset sets of this curious song in 1905 and 1906." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcTShSte

Sheep Washer's Lament, The

See The Sheepwasher's Lament (File: PFS204)

Sheep-Nanny

DESCRIPTION: "Sheep-nanny! She-e-ep-nanny" "Baaa!" Game, in which a leader tries to pull a flock of sheep out of a circle and those inside try t pull them in.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 28, "Sheep-Nanny" (1 short text)
File: Skean028

Sheep-Shearing Song

See The Sheep-Shearing (File: ShH95)

Sheep-Shearing Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Our sheep-shear is over, and supper is past ... Here's a health to our Misteress"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
KEYWORDS: farming drink nonballad sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 149, "The Sheep-Shearing Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1385
File: BrMa149

Sheep-Shearing, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer praises sheep and shearing. The singer laments that the sheep must be sheared in the June heat. In some versions, the singer tells of the master's demands for more wool. The song ends "when all our work is done" and the crew goes celebrating
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1760
KEYWORDS: work nonballad sheep drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 95, "The Sheep Shearing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 267, "The Black Ram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #20, "The Sheep Shearing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 256-257, "Sheep-Shearing Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SHEEPSHR SHEEPSH2*
Roud #879
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sweet Nightingale" (tune)
cf. "Sheep Shearing (I)" (theme: praise of sheep and wool)
cf. "Sheep Shearing (II)" (theme: praise of sheep and wool)
NOTES [19 words]: "The Sweet Nightingale", with which this song shares a tune, is not to be confused with "One Morning in May". -PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: ShH95

Sheep-stealer, The

See The Sheep Stealer (File: RcTShSte)

Sheep-Washer's Lament, The

See The Sheepwasher's Lament (File: PFS204)

Sheep, Sheep, Come Home

DESCRIPTION: "Sheep, sheep, come home." "I'm afraid." Of what? "The wholf." "The wolf has gone (somewhere), so sheep, sheep, come home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal shepherd home
FOUND IN: Britain New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 92-93, "(Sheep, sheep, come home)" (3 texts)
Roud #22542
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Run, Sheepie, Run
Wolf, Wolf, Go Home
File: SuSM092

Sheepcrook and Black Dog

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks the girl to marry him. She says she is too young; she will work for a fine lady for a time. Later she writes to him to say that she is happy where she is and does not wish to wed a shepherd. He abandons his work and its tools
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1775 (broadside, "The Constant Shepherd and the Unconstant Shepherdess")
KEYWORDS: love betrayal work servant shepherd youth
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(South)) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) US(Ap)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 128-129, "Sheepcrook and Black Dog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H30a, p. 390, "My Flora and I" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 70, "Sheep-Crook and Black Dog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 98, "Sheep Crook and Black Dog" ; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 303, "Sheep Crook and Black Dog" (2 texts)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #83, "Sheepcrook and Black Dog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 480-481, "My Flora and Me" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 58, "Floro" (1 text, 3 tunes)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 82, "The Young Shepherd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 76, pp. 123-124, "My Pretty Flora" (1 text, 1 tune, with this plot although no references to black dogs or sheepcrooks)
Roud #948
RECORDINGS:
Nick Davis, "Young Flora" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Sheepcrook and Black Dog" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
Mike Kent, "Nightingale" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fine Laurel
The Unkind Shepherdess
File: HHH030a

Sheepfold, The

DESCRIPTION: "Whilst tyrants grasp with greedy aim ... As Friends of Freedom we aspire The Rights of Man for to require." Holy scripture tells "that all men shall be one sheepfold and under one great master." That time is coming and "we will strive to haste it faster"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (_Paddy's Resource_(New York), according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: nonballad political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 16, "The Sheepfold" (1 text)
NOTES [21 words]: The discussion of Jesus as Shepherd occupies most of John 10, with the reference to one flock and one shepherd in John 10:16. - RBW
File: Moyl016

Sheepskin and Beeswax

See Aunt Jemimah's Plaster (File: R414)

Sheepstealer, The

See The Sheep Stealer (File: RcTShSte)

Sheepwasher, The

DESCRIPTION: "When first I took the Western track, 'twas many years ago, No master then stood up so high, no servant stood so low." The singer recalls how he used to have a much better life. He urges ordinary Queenslanders to unite against tyranny
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook)
KEYWORDS: Australia hardtimes poverty work
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 138, "The Sheepwasher" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [98 words]: John S. Manifold, Who Wrote the Ballads? Notes on Australian Folksong, Australasian Book Society, 1964, says that "The vanished trade of sheepwashing has left us one ballad, 'The Sheepwasher's Lamen.' I am pretty certain that it was by reason of its unusually strong political feeling that this one stayed alive. The sheepwashing trade disappeared, but the shearers took up the ballad that suited the temper of the strikers of the '90s." But there seem to be two sheepwashing songs, "The Sheepwasher's Lament" and "The Sheepwasher" -- and the one Manifold prints is "The Sheepwasher." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: PASB138

Sheepwasher's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come now, ye sighing washers all, Join in my doleful lay, Mourn for the times none can recall." The singer remembers good days: "The master was a worker then, The servant was a man." But since the sixties, conditions have grown much worse
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes sheep work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 204-207, "The Sheepwasher's Lament" (1 text)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 154-156, "The Sheepwasher's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 179-181, "The Sheep-Washer's Lament" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 295-296, "The Sheep Washer's Lament" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie Irish Boy" (tune, according to Beatty)
NOTES [98 words]: John S. Manifold, Who Wrote the Ballads? Notes on Australian Folksong, Australasian Book Society, 1964, says that "The vanished trade of sheepwashing has left us one ballad, 'The Sheepwasher's Lamen.' I am pretty certain that it was by reason of its unusually strong political feeling that this one stayed alive. The sheepwashing trade disappeared, but the shearers took up the ballad that suited the temper of the strikers of the '90s." But there seem to be two sheepwashing songs, "The Sheepwasher's Lament" and "The Sheepwasher" -- and the one Manifold prints is "The Sheepwasher." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: PFS204

Sheet Mill Man

DESCRIPTION: "Go away, go away, you sheet mill man, There's a better job in a distant land." The singer plans to head for Knoxville, but arrives home "condemned to die." People cheat him of his pay. He asks to be buried with with "an old flat sheet"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: technology death burial hardtimes drink
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 12-13, "Sheet Mill Man" (1 text)
NOTES [122 words]: Nowhere in Henry's (seemingly unique) text does it explain why the sheet mill worker is condemned to die; he goes away to marry a wife in Knoxville, but he comes home sounding like a condemned prisoner. Is it that he cannot find a job elsewhere and so simply has to return to the old grind? Or is it perhaps an industrial accident? The informant learned it at an aluminum plant in Alcoa, Tennessee -- but, at the time this song was composed, there does not seem to have been any reason to think aluminum dangerous. John Emsley, Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements, Oxford, 2001, 2003, p. 22. reports that high blood levels of aluminum can cause "dialysis dementia," but this was not known until the 1970s. - RBW
File: MH012

Sheffield 'Prentice Boy, The

See The Sheffield Apprentice [Laws O39] (File: LO39)

Sheffield Apprentice, The [Laws O39]

DESCRIPTION: The singer abandons his work in London to go to Holland. His new mistress proposes marriage. He refuses her; he is already engaged. His mistress plants evidence on him and has him condemned as a thief. He bids his Polly farewell and is hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1804
KEYWORDS: travel courting farewell trick lie execution apprentice
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (32 citations):
Laws O39, "The Sheffield Apprentice"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 131-132, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (1 text)
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 90-93, "The Prentice Boy's Love for Mary" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 94-96, "In the Town of Oxford" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 55, "The Holland Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 80, "Way Up in Sofield (or, The Sheffield Apprentice)"; 152, "The Sheffield 'Prentice" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 83, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 120, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (1 text plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 120, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 70, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 80, "The Sheffield Prentice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 57, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 80-81, "Farewell, Lovely Polly" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 18-19. "The Apprentice Boy" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 16, "The Sherfield (sic.) Apprentice" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 97, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #33, "Sheffied Apprentice" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 56-57, "Soefield" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H31, p. 411, "The 'Prentice Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 192-194, "The Sheffield 'Prentice Boy" ( text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #45, p. 2, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 998, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (18 texts, 12 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 421-422, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 45, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #141, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 203-206, "The Sheffield Prentice" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 17, "The Sheffield Prentice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 709-710, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 132, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 244-245, "Sheffield Apprentice" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 133-135, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 489, SHEFFAPP*
Roud #399
RECORDINGS:
John Connors, "Lonely Sarah" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
George Reid, "The Sheffield Apprentice" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(23), "Sheffield Apprentice," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Firth b.26(316), Firth b.34(270), Firth b.26(499), Harding B 11(624), Harding B 15(281a), "Sheffield Apprentice"; 2806 c.16(20), Harding B 11(3489), Firth b.34(269), Harding B 25(1763), Harding B 17(282a), Harding B 28(235), Harding B 28(249), Harding B 11(4098), Harding B 11(3490)[a few illegible words], Harding B 15(282a), Harding B 20(127), "[The] Sheffield 'Prentice"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Child Owlet" [Child 291]
cf. "Nairn's River Banks" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Was Brought Up in Cornwall
The Apprentice Boy
Farewell My Dearest Polly
NOTES [15 words]: Compare this story to the biblical tale of Joseph and Potiphar's wife (Genesis 39:1-20) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LO39

Sheffield Highwayman, The

See The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)

Sheffield Prentice, The

See The Sheffield Apprentice [Laws O39] (File: LO39)

Sheila Nee Iyer

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets Sheila Nee Iyer. She tells him to leave off flattering and go away. He claims he would never prove false. "O had I the wealth of the Orient ... I would robe you in splendour"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1788 (broadside, British Library chapbook "Hush the Mouse Off the Hob ...); 1965 (IRPTunney03)
LONG DESCRIPTION: From the chapbooks cited below as BROADSIDES. The singer, out for a walk, meets Sheela na Guire "on a rosy green bower in rural attire." He is smitten but is afraid to approach her for fear of suffering Actaeon's fate (changed to a stag by Artemis and killed by his own hounds). He takes the risk and asks who or what she is, and she gives him her name. He fears rejection but tells her she outshines "fair Helen, sweet Venus, or fam'd Queen Demira." She is not fooled by his "admirable fine speeches": referring to ore "with fire refined," she says, "true love is the pleasure of a virtuous mind. Your love's like the dross that remains behind." She challenges him to improve his line. He risks "Priamus's" fate (Priapus's rejection by Hestia?) and tells her he will die without her and may he die like Hercules, frantic in the fire, if he is ever false to her. She is convinced and accepts him but warns that "the snowy white fleece if once stained, its purity can never be regained." They kiss. He doesn't need further riches: "No state nor ambition nor title require I've more than them all in my Sheela na Guira."
KEYWORDS: courting rejection money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 117, "Sheila Nee Iyer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3108
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "Sheila Nee Eyre" (on IRPTunney03)
BROADSIDES:
BritishLibrary, UIN BLL01002569577, "Hush the Mouse off the Hob, to which are added 2. The Lake of Kilarney 3. Sheela Na Guira 4. The Elegy of Sir J. Colthurst," W. Jones (Dublin), 1790?. Citation at https://tinyurl.com/yad3mk7w
BritishLibrary, UIN BLLO01000608378, "The Carlow Lass, to which is added, Patrick's Day, Sheela Na Guira," W. Groggin (Limerick), 1790. Citation at https://tinyurl.com/y99y9vqm
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Eileen McMahon" (aisling format)
cf. "Granuaile" (aisling format) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sheela na Guira
Sile Ni Ghadhra
NOTES [559 words]: As in "Lough Erne Shore" and "The Colleen Rue," there is no resolution for the Tunney-StoneFiddle version.
"Sheila Nee Iyer, is surely a brilliant parody of the hedge schoolmaster aisling." (source: For Want of Education:The origins of the Hedge Schoolmaster songs by Julie Henigan - 19.8.99 originally published in Ulster Folklife No 40 (1994): pp 27-38, reproduced at the Musical Traditions site).
Tunney-StoneFiddle, in a chapter titled "Gael meets Greek," writes "In the whole corpus of traditional song couched in the borrowed Bearla [English], there are none to compare with the high-minded effusions of our hedge-school-master poets. These songs are readily recognisable by the plenitude of classical allusions they contain and by the adaptation of the Gaelic assonantal rhyme, used extensively by the Gaelic Aisling poets of the eighteenth century." The songs in that chapter, illustrating his point, are "Lough Erne Shore," "Sheila Nee Iyer," "Colleen Rue" and "The Flower of Gortade"; the most extreme example among those is "Sheila Nee Iyer."
For discussion of aislings, see the notes to "Eileen McMahon" and "Granuaile." For a list of songs in the Index meeting the definition of the Aisling, see "Granuaile."
Tunney's "Sheila Nee Iyer" boils the 96-line chapbook version down to 20 lines, sharing 8 lines with the chapbooks and filling the gaps with lines in the spirit of hedge schoolmaster writing. In the shared lines Tunney sometimes has the classical reference right where the chapbook version is mangled. Here are the shared lines, with spelling preserved:
Chapbooks -
16. And in great confusion I asked her name
17. Were she Arora/Aurora, or fam'd Queen Demira
18. She answered I'm neither I am Sheela na Guira
75. May the sufferings of Assifal/Ashcal fall to my share
76. Or I the torment of Tantalus/Tartulu's bear
79. If e'er I prove false to you Sheela na Guira
93. Despising the wealth of the African shore
94. No Sion Peruval nor Mexican oar/ore
Tunney -
03. And in great confusion I did ask her name
04. Are you Flora or Aurora or the famed Queen of Tyre
05. She answered I'm neither I'm Sheila Nee Iyer
11. May sufferings of Sisyphus fall to my share
12. And may I the torments of Tantalus bear
15. If ever I prove false to you Sheila Nee Iyer
16. O had I the wealth of the Orient store
17. All the gems of Peru or the Mexican ore
Did Tunney correct the reference or was his source from a text that had bypassed the chapbooks?
Thanks to Steve Roud for the broadside texts and John Moulden for leads for this note. John Moulden has a poossible earlier chapbook: "Hush the mouse off the Hob. To which are added The Lake of Killarney, Sheela na Guira, The Police Guards Dublin by W Jones [c 1780?] [The catalogue notes ñ 'Only four verses of Sheela na Guira.'] Dublin City Library Gilbert Collection Songs 768/2/7a 17."
Steve Roud has the chapbooks in his Broadside index. "Hush the Mouse ..." is Roud #V31451 with a British Library reference 11622.df.34.(22); "The Carlow Lass ..." has British Library reference 11622.df.34(19). - BS
Ben, or his source, suggest that the reference to "Priamus's fate" is to Priapus's rejection by Hestia. I wonder if it isn't just a reference to Priam (Priamos) King of Troy, who suffered years of war, and the loss of almost all his children, before the city was sacked and he was killed. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: TSF117

Shells of the Ocean (I)

DESCRIPTION: "One summer eve, with pensive thought. I wandered on the sea-beat shore, Where oft in heedless infant thought" he had gathered shells. He dreams again of being young. Back then, he had thrown all his toys away; thus "we leave them... like a child"
AUTHOR: J. W. Cherry (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart-Songs)
KEYWORDS: dream children nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Heart-Songs, pp. 254-255, "I Wandered by the Sea-Beat Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 57 and #1/64 p. 39, "Shells of the Ocean" (1 text)
Roud #13817
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3494)=Johnson Ballads 1126, "The Shells of the Ocean," A. Ryle and Co, (London), 1845-1859; also Johnson Ballads 602, Johnson Ballads 603=Johnson Ballads 604, Harding B 15(286a)=Harding B 15(286b), 2806 b.11(249), "Shells of the Ocean," E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Harding B 11(4094), "Shells of the Ocean," J. D. Bebbington (Manchester), c. 1850; also Harding B 11(3493)=Johnson Ballads 2838=Johnson Ballads 2839, unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 11(3694), "Shells of the Ocean," J. Marks (London), c. 1855; also Harding B 11(542), "Shells of the Ocean," W. S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; also Firth b.27(52), "Shells of the Ocean," unknown, n.d.; Firth c.14(61), "Shells of the Ocean," W. R. Walker/B. Stewart (Newcastle/Carlisla), c. 1860; also Harding B 26(600), "Shells of the Ocean," J. Moore (Belfast), 1846-1852; also Harding B 11(2333), "Shells of the Ocean," H. Such (London), 1863-1885
File: HeSo254

Shells of the Ocean (II)

See I Never Will Marry [Laws K17] (File: LK17)

Shenandoah

DESCRIPTION: Usually has chorus "Away, you rolling river... Away, we're bound away, across the wide Missouri (world of Misery, etc.)" The basic text seems to have told of the white man who "loved the Indian maiden" but came from a different world and now is returning
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, p. 7)
KEYWORDS: shanty courting separation Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar) West Indies(St Vincent) Ireland
REFERENCES (39 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 77, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 36-37, "Shenandore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 104-105, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 83, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 112-114, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 173-178, "Shenandoah" (4 texts, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 140-143]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 29, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XI, p. 13, "Shanadar (First version)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 148-149, "Shenandoah or The Wide Missouri" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 243, "Shenandore" (1 text)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 66-67, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 72-73, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 24, "Shanadore" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 105, "Rolling River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 408, "The Wide Mizzoura" (1 text, 1 tune)
Terry-Shanty!, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 73-75, "Oh, My Rolling River" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 41, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 25, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 543-546, "The Wild Miz-zou-rye" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 546, "Shenandoah" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 1, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 127, "O Sally Brown, I love your daughter" (1 fragment)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 314-315, "Shenandoah" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 44, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 17, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 49-51, "Shenandoah" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 136, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 85, "Shenandoah" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 55, 230, "Shenandoah" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 35, "Shanandore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 33, "Shanandore" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 85, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 35, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 24)
33MuchLovedSongs, p.6, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SHENDOAH*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Shenandoah!" is in Part 2, 7/21/1917.
Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 48, "Shanadar" (1 text, 1 tune, from Sharp; I suspect it may be composite; see the notes to "Shanadar (I)")
Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, pp. 322-323, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doe077 (Full)
Roud #324
RECORDINGS:
[Al] Campbell & [Henry] Burr, "Shenandoah" (Columbia A-2300, 1917) (Victor 18327, 1917)
Minster Singers, "Shenandoah" (Victor 61147, n.d., prob. c. 1903)
Paul Robeson, "Shenandoah" (Victor 27430, 1941)
Pete Seeger, "Shenandoah" (on PeteSeeger18)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shanadar" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
World of Misery
Across the Wide Missouri
The Rolling River
NOTES [250 words]: Lewis H. Gray, Ill Wind: The Naval Airship Shenandoah in Noble County, Ohio, Gateway Press, 1989, p. vii, quotes an un-named librarian on the origin of the name "Shenandoah": "it is from an Algonquin Indian word 'Schind-han-dowi,' Star Daughter." A fascinating derivation, given that the singer in the song quotes Shenandoah's daughter, but I have to note that the range maps of the Algonquian languages that I have consulted do not include the Shenandoah region. They came to within a few hundred miles, but not the Virginia valley itself.
Bone-CapstanBars reports, "I have never heard this song sung at other duty than weighing anchor.... The very beauty of the air has even curbed the license of wild singers in the text. No bawdy lines, no plaint of mistreatment, no blasphemous exhortations were ranted in the singing of it." - RBW
The St Vincent shanty has some of the usual, if transported, lines -- "Salambo, I love your daughter ... Salambo, this white mulatta" and "Seven long years we toiled the ocean ... Seven long years I never wrote her" -- but a good deal about catching whales and the danger and hard times of the blackfish whaler's life. - BS
Edward Harrigan, The Mulligans, G. W. Dillingham, 1901, p. 428, quotes a verse of this:
Oh, Shenandoah! I love your daughter!
Hooray, you rolling river!
I love to plow the deep salt water
Ha! Ha! We're bound away on the wide Missouri!
He calls this a sailor's shanty but has it sung by people going on the Mulligan picnic in New York. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Doe077

Shenandoah (II)

DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. "Oh, Shenandoh, my bully boy, I long to hear you holler, Way-ay, ay ay ay, Shenandoh. I lub ter bring er tot er tum en see ye make a swoller, Way-ay..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (F.T. Bullen & W.F. Arnold, _Songs of Sea Labor_)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND IN: South America
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 177, "Shenandoah" (1 text, 1 tune-quoted from Bullen) [AbEd, p. 144]
Roud #324
NOTES [35 words]: According to Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, this was a Negro shanty, but not used so much as sea as when heaving at the winches when working cargo. Bullen collected it in Georgetown, Demerara, South Africa. - SL
File: Hugi177

Shenandoah, The

See The Gals O' Dublin Town (File: Hugi140)

Shenandore

See Shenandoah (File: Doe077)

Sheperd vpon a hill he satt, The

See Jolly Wat (File: OBB103)

Shepherd Adonis, The

DESCRIPTION: "Shepherd Adonis, being weary of his sport," lies down to rest; "He wanted no riches nor wealth from the crown." Neither has he ever wanted a girl -- until he sees Betsy. He concludes that he must be in love. He proposes; they quickly marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Copper-ASongForEverySeason)
KEYWORDS: shepherd courting marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 258-259, "Shepherd of the Downs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1215
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 39(189), "The contented lovers: or A pleasant courtship, between a shepherd and a nymph," L. How (London), 18th century?
NOTES [39 words]: This clearly originated as a broadside, "The Shepherd Adonis." Of course, no shepherd was ever named Adonis; this was obviously composed by a poet with more classical training than brains. But, for some reason, the folk adopted it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: CopSe258

Shepherd and the Maiden, The

DESCRIPTION: A shepherd gives up courting his "shepherdess among the swains" but encounters a lost maiden "wandering on the plain." He falls in love and offers her a drink. She grants him a wish and agrees to wed: "Receive me here ... [then] to my father's court"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: love marriage sex dialog shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 170-171, "The Shepherd and the Maiden" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 366, "Maid and the Shepherd")
Roud #1272
NOTES [39 words]: Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames: "This is a crude rustic play, rather than a song. It was acted at 'Bark Harvest,' the summer festival of the tanyard workers, at Cricklade, and at Christmas-time by players at the farm-houses." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT170

Shepherd Boy, The (David and Goliath)

DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams and sees a shepherd boy. The boy, David, is leaving his flock to go to the camp of Israel as they fight the Philistines. David kills Goliath with his sling. The singer drinks the health of the shepherd boy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1895 (Graham-TheOrangeSongster)
KEYWORDS: Bible fight soldier
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H803, p. 79, "The Shepherd Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-TheOrangeSongster, p. 6, "The Shepherd's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5667
NOTES [66 words]: The story of David and Goliath (actually *two* stories, carefully blended together, in one of which David is Saul's aide/court musician and in another he is a shepherd visiting the battle) is found in 1 Samuel 17.
This is reported to have originated as a Masonic song, but Moulden reports it is now sung by Orangemen, doubtless because of its theme of the small holding off the big and powerful. - RBW
File: HHH803

Shepherd Lad o' Rhynie, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come ye, oh come, my bonnie lass, We'll both join hands and marry." The girl wishes she could, but her father "keeps me under guard." Unable to win the girl, he jumps off a cliff in Rhynie. She dies for love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love courting suicide death father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1194, "The Shepherd Lad o' Rhynie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #61, p. 1, "The Shepherd Lad of Rhynie" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 466-467, "The Shepherd Lad o' Rhynie" (1 text)
Roud #5152
File: Ord466

Shepherd Laddie, The

See The Crook and Plaid (File: HHH617)

Shepherd of the Downs

See The Shepherd Adonis (File: CopSe258)

Shepherd on the Hill, The

DESCRIPTION: "Whaur Gairn's bonnie mountain strea Fa's into winding Dee, Aft 'mang the shady birks we've met, My shepherd lad and me." He sets out to meet her on a cold winter's night, but never appears. At last his frozen body is found.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love courting death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 293-294, "The Shepherd on the Hill" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #61, p. 1, "The Shepherd on the Hill" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1258, "The Shepherd on the Hill" (7 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #5646
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Young Charlotte (Fair Charlotte)" [Laws G17] (theme)
File: FVS293

Shepherd, Come Home

See O Shepherd, O Shepherd (File: VWL074)

Shepherd, Come Home to Thy Breakfast

See O Shepherd, O Shepherd (File: VWL074)

Shepherd, O Shepherd

See O Shepherd, O Shepherd (File: VWL074)

Shepherd, The

See The Young Shepherd (I) (File: CrMa108)

Shepherd's Boy, The

See The Shepherd Boy (David and Goliath) (File: HHH803)

Shepherd's Daughter (I), The

See The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter [Child 112] (File: C110)

Shepherd's Daughter (II), The

See Queen Among the Heather (File: K141)

Shepherd's Daughter and the King

See The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter [Child 110] (File: C110)

Shepherd's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: A (shepherd) and a young girl meet on a May morning. He wishes to marry, but she is too young and wishes to work as a servant. After she has left to go into the lady's service, he writes to ask her intent. She says that she never intended to marry him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1767 (Journal from the Vaughn)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation apprentice servant youth floatingverses
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 227-228, "The Shepherd's Lament" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Green Bushes [Laws P2]" (theme, floating lyrics)
NOTES [61 words]: This song consists almost entirely of floating material, with "The Green Bushes" being perhaps the largest single source (they also have some thematic similarities). But the result, in Huntington's opinion and my own, is a distinct song.
I don't know of any other pure versions, but it has so many traditional elements that I decided to include it in the Index. - RBW
File: SWMS227

Shepherd's Son, The

See The Baffled Knight [Child 112] (File: C112)

Shepherd's Song (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a shepherd and I rise ere the sun is in the skies." The singer describes the hard work caring for, feeding, and selling sheep. If his girl will name the day they'll marry. He warns other shepherds against "fiery liquor" at show or fair.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (recording, Willie Scott); c.1906 (according to Yates)
KEYWORDS: commerce work drink nonballad sheep shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 85-87, 152, "The Shepherd's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5124
RECORDINGS:
Willie Scott, "The Shepherd's Song" (on Voice20)
NOTES [28 words]: Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 20" - 15.1.04: "Willie (born 1897) learnt this sometime around 1906 from his brother Tom...." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: RcTSheSo

Shepherd's Song (II), The

See We Shepherds Are the Best of Men (File: RcWSATBM)

Shepherd's Song (III), The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a young shepherd a-tending of his sheep when a girl comes by. He play his pipes; she "turned her head then so modestly away." But she consents to marry, and he reveals that he is wealthy; they live a happy and wealthy life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Copper-ASongForEverySeason)
KEYWORDS: courting escape money marriage children
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, p. 216, "The Shepherd's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1208
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. cf. "The Jolly Beggar" [Child 279] (theme) and references there
File: CoSea216

Shepherd's Virtuous Daughter, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, fishing, is so taken by a girl he sees that he loses his line and hook in the brook. She is a shepherd's daughter come to bathe in the Boyne. He proposes. She suggest he have his parents find a more suitable bride.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection fishing
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 20, "The Shepherd's Virtuous Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2879
File: MorU020

Shepherd's Wife, The

See O Shepherd, O Shepherd (File: VWL074)

Shepherding

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the days when we went shepherding a long time ago...." The singer started digging at nine, and lived a carefree life when not working, harassing the Chinese laundrymen and being irresponsible. The days ended at four.
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Thatcher)
KEYWORDS: work mining
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 103-105, "Shepherding" (1 text, from "Thatcher's Colonial Songster")
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 41-43, "Shepherding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-GoldrushSongster, pp. 30-31, "Shepherding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 33-34, "Shepherding" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Days we went Gipsying" (tune)
NOTES [29 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: AnSt041

Shepherds Are the Best of Men

See We Shepherds Are the Best of Men (File: RcWSATBM)

Shepherds Arise

DESCRIPTION: "Shepherds arise, be not afraid, with hasty steps prepare [repair?] To David's city, sin on earth, WIth our blest infant...." The savior has come to save us from eternal death. "Sing... to our redeemer and our heavenly king."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Copper-ASongForEverySeason)
KEYWORDS: religious shepherd travel
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 212-213, "Shepherds Arise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1207
File: CopSe212

Sherfield Apprentice, The

See The Sheffield Apprentice [Laws O39] (File: LO39)

Sheridan's Ride

See Battle of Fisher's Hill (File: ThBa058)

Sheriff's Sale, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis misfortune o'ertook us, and a tale soon did tell; The Sheriff came in our old home for to sell." Mother and sister "prepare to depart from their old cottage door" but are spared: the purchaser of the auctioned home turns out to be a family member.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes help family home police
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 138-140, 255, "The Sheriff's Sale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4983
File: IvDC038

Sheriffmuir

See The Battle of Sheriffmuir (File: MBra193)

Sherman Cyclone, The [Laws G31]

DESCRIPTION: A great storm sweeps unexpectedly through Sherman, causing extensive damage and some loss of life
AUTHOR: Mattie Carter East
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed)
KEYWORDS: storm disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 15, 1896 - The Sherman tornado
FOUND IN: US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws G31, "The Sherman Cyclone"
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 163, "The Sherman Cyclone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 128-131, "The Sherman Cyclone" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 795, SHERCYCL*
Roud #3260
NOTES [23 words]: 1896 was apparently a bad year for tornadoes; on May 27 of that year a storm hit Saint Louis, killing 400 and leaving 5000 homeless. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: LG31

Sherman's March to the Sea

DESCRIPTION: "Our campfires shone bright on those mountains That frowned on the river below... When a rider came out of the darkness... And shouted... 'Sherman will march to the sea.'" The Atlanta campaign and the March to the Sea are briefly retold
AUTHOR: Words: Samuel H. M. Byers (1838–1933)
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (Sheet music published by Lee & Walker, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar patriotic derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 13-16, 1864 - William T. Sherman attacks J. E. Johnston's army at Resaca on the way from Tennessee to Atlanta. Sherman failed to move Johnston's army, but forced the Confederates to fall back by threatening their supply line
June 27, 1864 - Battle of Kenesaw Mountain. For the first (and only) time in the Atlanta campaign, Sherman tried a direct assault on Johnston's lines. It failed bloodily. Sherman then once again levered Johnston out of his lines by maneuver
(July 17, 1864 - Jefferson Davis relieves Johnston and replaces him with the more aggressive but less competent John Bell Hood. Hood's attacking strategy cost his army severely and by July 25 left him besieged in Atlanta)
Sept 1, 1864 - Hood evacuates Atlanta
Nov 15, 1864 - Sherman splits his army into two parts. One, under Thomas, was to defend Atlanta, while Sherman took nearly 60,000 men on the "March to the Sea"
Dec 10, 1864 - Sherman's forces reach Savannah
Dec 21, 1864 - Sherman captures Savannah
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 236-237, "When Sherman Marched Down to the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 305-306, "The Marching Song of Sherman's Army on the Way to the Sea" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 131, "When Sherman Marched Down to the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 261-263, "When Sherman Marched Down to the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 248-250, "Sherman's March to the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 97-98, When Sherman Marched Down to the Sea" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2103, p. 141, "Sherman's March to the Sea" (17 references)
Dime-Song-Book #16, pp. 18-19, "Sherman's March to the Sea" (1 text)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 206-207, "Sherman's March to the Sea" (1 text)
DT, SHERMSEA*
Roud #17738
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (tune) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
When Sherman Marched Down to the Sea
NOTES [600 words]: Silber lists this as having words by "S. B. M. Meyers" and music by W. Mack; the first source I saw (Cohen?) listed "Lt. Samuel Hawkins Marshall Byers." Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 141, describes a copy written by "Adjt. Boyers, of the 5th Iowa, while confined in the Rebel Prison Camp, Columbia, S.C."
It would appear one of these is an error of hearing for the others. Since the existence of Byers can be verified (one sheet music copy calls him adjutant of the Fifth Iowa Regiment), I decided to list the song by him despite Silber's claim to have seen the original sheet music.
Byers in fact has an article in the "Biographical Dictionary of Iowa." Born in Pennsylvania, his mother died when he was young, and his father took him to Iowa in 1851. He became a lawyer in 1861, but promptly joined the Union Army and became a member of the 5th Iowa. In late 1863, Byers and many others of the 5th Iowa were captured at the Battle of Chattanooga. He bounced around several prison camps. The Biographical Dictionary gives this account of how the song came to be:
"The Union prisoners, shut off from the outside world, had no idea how the war was progressing. A slave, assigned to carry food to the prisoners, hid an article from a South Carolina newspaper inside a loaf of bread. The article carried news of General William Sherman's victory at Atlanta and his triumphant march across Georgia to Savannah. Byers read the article and was inspired to write a poem that he titled 'Sherman's March to the Sea.' Another prisoner, W. O. Rockwell, set the poem to music, and soon the camp's glee club was singing it. The song rapidly worked its way through the network of prisoners. When another prisoner, Lieutenant Daniel W. Tower, was exchanged by way of an Alabama prison camp, he left the prison carrying a copy of the song with him, smuggled through the lines in his wooden leg. Once available outside the prisons, the song quickly became a national sensation. It gave Sherman's march its famous name and became a Union rallying cry."
The Biographical Dictionary lists several articles about Byers and this song; all are old enough that I expect they are quite hard to find.
Although Byers would life for almost seventy years after writing this song, nothing he did after that was as noteworthy. You can still find low-quality reprints of his book With Fire and Sword; he also published Pony Express and Other Poems, The Happy Isles and Other Poems, plus The bells of Capistrano and other romances of the Spanish days in California a A Layman's Life of Jesus, What I Saw in Dixie: Or, Sixteen Months in Rebel Prisons Twenty Years in Europe; A Consul-General's Memories of Noted People, Switzerland and the Swiss and perhaps others.
His "Song of Iowa," set to the tune of "O Tannenbaum," became the official state song in 1911; it begins "You ask what land I love the best, Iowa, 'tis Iowa. The fairest state of all the west, Iowa, O Iowa" (see William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, State Songs of the United States: An Annotated Anthology, The Haworth Press, 1997, p. 36; Wikipedia has a slightly different text). However, Studwell and Schueneman say on p. 34 that the "Iowa Corn Song" is better known and perhaps the most important Iowa song.
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs attributes it to Henry Clay Work, but I would assume this is by confusion with "Marching Through Georgia."
The song was popular enough that it actually had a new tune set to it by David A. Warden; this is Wolf's "c" text. Certainly there were a lot of copies printed; Wolf lists 17 editions in all. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SBoA248

Shew Me the Way to Wallington

See The Way to Wallington (File: StoR148)

Shew! Fly, Don't Bother Me

See Shoo Fly (File: R273)

Shickered As He Could Be

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Shilling or Twa (I), A

DESCRIPTION: Describing the blessings of having "a shilling or twa" in the pocket. One can settle troubles, avoid bankruptcy, fool creditors, and also stay happy: "Oh! what a grand thing is a shilling or twa... It's a round ready passport, a shilling or twa."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Poet's Box broadside, according to Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: money commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast 140, p. 3, "A Shilling or Twa" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 669, "A Shillin' or Twa" (2 fragments)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 388-389, "A Shilling or Twa" (1 text)
Roud #2177
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Shilling or Twa (II)"
File: Ord388

Shilling or Twa (II), A

DESCRIPTION: Probably derived from "A Shilling or Twa (I)." The singer declares "Awa' wi' your dearies and juice o' the vine... gie me the glint o' a shillin' or twa." He rejects honor and fame; all he wants is "A bonnie, bright siller white shillin' or twa."
AUTHOR: Words: William Fleming
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: money commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 389-390, "A Shilling or Twa" (1 text)
Roud #2178
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Shilling or Twa (I)"
File: Ord389

Shiloh

See Limber Jim (File: BMRF593B)

Shiloh Brown (I)

See Shallo Brown (Shallow Brown) (File: Doe044)

Shiloh Brown (II)

See Tommy's Gone to Hilo (File: Doe030)

Shiloh's Hill

See The Battle of Shiloh Hill [Laws A11] (File: LA11)

Shinbone Alley (Stay a Little Longer, Long Time Ago)

DESCRIPTION: "You ought to see my blue-eyed Sally, She lives way down in shinbone alley, No number on the gate, no number on the door, Folks around here are gettin' mighty poor." Unrelated verses about southern life, disasters, prison, rising creeks, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: home hardtimes poverty prison flood
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 422, "Shinbone Alley" (1 fragment)
~~~~~
Sources for "Stay All Night," the Bob Wills song:
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 23, #2 (1974), p, 1, "Stay All Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11769
RECORDINGS:
cf. Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, "Stay a Little Longer" (Columbia 37097, 1946)
NOTES [117 words]: The notes in Brown describe this as common, but cite only one possibly-traditional version (in Odum and Johnson).
The problem in fact is very complex: What is the relationship of this traditional song to Bob Wills's "Stay a Little Longer"? The one verifiable traditional collection is Brown's, which came a few years after the Wills recording, but is significantly different -- some lyrics Wills didn't use, added chorus, etc.
Paul Stamler thinks they're the same. I waver, since there are are few printed fragments which seem to predate Wills by many decades. For the moment, I'm still listing this under Brown's title, but listing the Wills version as a likely by-blow or perhaps even a source. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Br3422

Shine and the Titanic (Titanic #14)

DESCRIPTION: Recitation. Shine is aboard the Titanic when the ship hits an iceberg. The captain's daughter asks Shine's help; he says, "Pussy's good... but this is one time I'm gonna save Shine's ass." The captain receives the same reply. Shine survives the wreck
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (recording by anonymous artist)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Recitation. Shine, a black man, is in the hold of the Titanic stacking sacks when the ship hits an iceberg. The captain's daughter asks Shine to save her; he says, "Pussy's good, while it lasts, but this is one time I'm gonna save Shine's ass." The captain offers him money; he gives the same reply. "The last time I seen Shine, he was dead drunk upon a airline"
KEYWORDS: sex request rejection help rescue ship drink disaster wreck recitation worker Black(s)
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 14/15, 1912 - Shortly before midnight, ship's time, the Titanic strikes an iceberg and begins to sink. Only 711 survivors are found of 2224 people believed to have been aboard.
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 213-214, "Shine Reel" (1 fragment, 1 tune, mentioning being "Alabama Bound" but also mentioning some being on a boat that sank, so it might be part of this. Shine -- a name Scarborough connects with [shoe]shine -- is not mentioned by name)
RECORDINGS:
Unidentified reciter, "Shine and the Titanic" (on Unexp1)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Titanic Toast
NOTES [298 words]: Paul Stamler suggests that the Shine of this song is the same as that of "Po' Shine," "Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos," and "Travelin' Man." If so, he had more lives than a cat.
For the record, while Captain Smith of the Titanic did have a daughter, she was born in 1902 (see Stephanie Barczewski, Titanic: A Night Remembered (Hambledon Continuum, 2004, p. 163), so Shine would have had a significant problem had he touched her. But she wasn't aboard the Titanic anyway.
Nor could Shine have survived the wreck by swimming, as is found in some versions; the water at the time the ship sank was at a temperature of 28 degrees Farenheit, and exposure to it was fatal within minutes.
In any case, although historians have tried hard to find a Black aboard the Titanic, it appears that there were *none* on the ship. Zero. Quite certainly no American Blacks. (See, e.g., Steven Biel, Down with the Old Canoe: A Cultural History of the Titanic Disaster, Norton, 1997, p. 112).
According to Wyn Craig Wade, The Titanic: End of a Dream (revised edition, Penguin, 1986), pp. 318-319, this recitation was collected at least 15 times; he cites Sandburg to the effect that Black soldiers knew and recited it in World War I. It appears the name "Shine" was well-known at this time (presumably for shoe shiners or the like); according to Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, there had been a popular 1910 song, "That's Why They Call Me Shine" by Cecil Mack and Ford Dabney.
For an extensive history of the Titanic, with detailed examination of the truth (or lack thereof) of quotes in the Titanic songs, see the notes to "The Titanic (XV)" ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15) - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: RcShinTi

Shine Like a Star in the Morning

DESCRIPTION: John hears a voice, "I am Alpha Omega, the first and last/To conquer death in Hell did cast." Terrified, he sees Jesus crucified, falling into Hell, rising again. Chorus: "Shine, shine, shine like a star in the morning... All around the throne of God"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (recording, Joe Lee)
LONG DESCRIPTION: John is standing alone when a voice tells him, "I am Alpha Omega, the first and last/To conquer death in Hell did cast." Terrified, he has a vision of Jesus crucified, falling into Hell, then rising up again; he says, "God gonna take me from that earthly 'bode." Chorus: "Shine, shine, shine like a star in the morning...All around the throne of God"
KEYWORDS: resurrection death Hell Bible religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Joe Lee, "Shine Like a Star in the Morning" (AFS 745 B4, 1936; on LC10)
NOTES [107 words]: Most of this is, of course, taken from the Revelation to John (e.g. the reference to the Alpha and Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, occurs several times in that book, starting with 1:8).
An exception is the concept of the descent into Hell. Though firmly rooted in Catholic tradition, and mentioned in the traditional form of the Apostles' Creed (which is not Apostolic), there is no scriptural reference to such an event (unless you count Ephesians 4:9-11, which I would regard as a reference to the Incarnation, or other passages such as 1 Pet. 3:19, which may refer to proclamations of salvation to the damned). - RBW
File: RcSLaSiM

Shine on Me

DESCRIPTION: "Shine on me, oh shine on me/Let the light from the lighthouse shine on me." Jesus calls the hearers to rest. The singer may call for help in reaching God.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 ("Songs and Spirituals", Chicago, Overton-Hygienic Co.)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 76 "Shine On Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 119, "Shine On Me" (1 text)
Roud #10622
RECORDINGS:
Rev. Johnnie Blakey, "Let the Light Shine on Me" (OKeh 8758, 1930; rec. 1928)
Famous Garland Jubilee Singers, "Shine on Me" (Romeo 5135, 1932)
Blind Willie Johnson, "Let Your Light Shine on Me" (Columbia 14490-D, 1930; rec. 1929; on BWJ01, BWJ03)
Ernest Phipps & his Holiness Singers, "Shine on Me" (Bluebird 5540A, 1928; on AAFM2)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Let It Shine On Me
Let the Light From Your Lighthouse Shine On Me
NOTES [9 words]: Found in both Anglo- and Afro-American tradition. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.8
File: ADR76

Shine On, Harvest Moon

DESCRIPTION: "The night was mighty dark so you could hardly see... Couple sitting underneath a willow tree... Boy... Told the moon... Shine on, shine on, harvest moon up in the sky. I ain't had no lovin' since April, January, June or July." He hopes she'll say Yes.
AUTHOR: Words: Jack Norworth (1879-1959) / Music: Nora Bayes-Norworth (1880-1928)
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (source: Fuld)
KEYWORDS: love courting campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 497, "Shine On, Harvest Moon"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 170, 193, 465, "Shine On Harvest Moon" (notes only)
DT, HRVSTMN*
Roud #22317
NOTES [273 words]: According to David A. Jasen, Tin Pan Alley: The Composers, the Songs, the Performers and their Times: The Golden Age of American Popular Music from 1886 to 1956, Primus, 1988, p. 62, "Nora Bayes... was christened Dora Goldberg. Her big break in vaudeville came in 1902, when she was asked to perform Harry von Tilzer's 'Down Where the Wurzburger Floes' at the Orpheum Theatre in Brooklyn." She forgot the words, but he was there and sung them to her and the stunt made it a hit and her a star; "Bayes was known for years after as 'The Wurzburger Girl."
"She and her husband Jack Norworth wrote 'Shine On, Harvest Moon' and featured it in Ziegfield's Follies of 1908. It was their biggest song success. Later that year, Norworth wrote the lyrics for Albert von Tilzer's "Take Me Out to the Ball-Game,' and Bayes helped make it the standard it has become by singing it in her act for the next two years.:
Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, Random House, 1948, p. 358, says that this song "eventually [became] the title of a motion picture purportedly portraying their fantastic life together" (referring to Norworth and Bayes-Norworth); he adds that Ruth Etting later made the song a hit again. Spaeth adds that, in his later years, Norworth ran a novelty shop in California.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 287, estimates that this was the second most popular song in America in 1908, peaking at #1 in March 1909 (#1 for the year being Edward Madden and Gus Edwards' "By the Light of the Silvery Moon"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Fuld497A

Shiner, The

DESCRIPTION: "Uncrowned king of the knights of the banjo, Star of the great southern trail, With his blanket of blue, The Shiner fought through...." The Shiner takes all things in stride. He uses tricks and wits to survive. Now he "can bank on a well-deserved rest"
AUTHOR: Words: George Meek
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Meek, Station Days in Maoriland and Other Verses, according to Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: hobo travel trick
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 1840-1927 - Life of Edmund Slattery, known as "The Shiner"
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 44-45, "The Shiner" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [631 words]: Although Edmund "Ned" Slattery seems to have been a bum (in the technical sense of a rambling man who did not seek regular work), he was sufficiently clever that apparently he became a figure of folklore. There are at least three songs about him, this one, Phil Garland's "The Good Old Way," and the better-known "The Swag and the Shiner" by Paul Metsers, recorded by Graham Wilson and Gordon Bok among others. Apparently there is a deep desire among New Zealand folk poets to live by cheating others rather than by working.
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ has a whole chapter, entitled "Swags to Riches," about swagmen of this sort. Slattery gets the lion's share of it, pp. 118-127. Ell, p. 232, has a much shorter but, I suspect, more accurate account. In the entry "The Shiner," he writes:
"'Shiner' Ned Slattery was more than 50 years on the road avoiding work. John A. Lee [the other rambler in "The Swag and the Shiner"] recorded the folklore in two books about 'the champion of 'anti-sweat.' When Lee was a runaway from a boy's home, he met the Shiner, then an old man, and ever after collected yarns about him. Edmond Slattery was born in 1840 and reached New Zealand in time to become a figure on the road during the Otago gold rush of the 1860s; he died aged 87 with a reputation throughout the land, but largely earned in Otago and Southland. Slattery was a 'professional' tramp who bludged his meals and drink whenever he could, usually targeting publicans and others whom he thought above themselves. He would set up elaborate tricks to get a drink, for example pretending to survey a road through a bar and consenting to change direction only when appropriately bought off.... John A. Lee published the tales in Shining with the Shiner (N. V. Douglas, Auckland, 1950 [NewZealandEncyclopedia, p. 505, says 1944]) and later expanded on the theme with Shiner Slattery (Collins, Auckland, 1964)."
Another one of Slattery's pranks is described on p. 238 of Ell, in which he offered to pay for a drink with stamps, was taken up on it, and proceeded to "stamp" with his foot. All I can say is, if most of his tricks worked, New Zealand has the stupidest bartenders in the known universe.
NewZealandEncyclopedia, pp. 504-505, also has an article about The Shiner: "SLATTERY, Edmond (1840-1927) was the historical figure behind the legendary swagman known as 'The Shiner'. He was born in County Clare, Ireland, worked there as a ploughman and farmhand, emigrated with his family to Australian in 1869 and on to NZ in 1873. He was a tall, well-made, charming man who chose to live for more than 40 years as a swagger, mostly on the roads of South Canterbury, Otago and Southland, working only when he had to at seasonal tass on farms. He was a clown, practical joker and a charming rascal, a familiar figure at fairs and carnivals on his beat. He is buried at Andersons Bay Cemetery in Dunedin."
NewZealandEncyclopedia has a portrait of him on p. 505.
NewZealandEncyclopedia, pp. 312-313, also has an entry on Lee, who made The Shiner truly famous: "LEE, John Alfred Alexander (1891-1982) was one of the most remarkable New Zealanders of his time, spending time in prison as a young man, serving with distinction as a soldier in World War One, becoming an outstanding politician between the wars and, over nearly 50 years, writing fiction and political and social commentaries." Born in Dunedin, he was an ordinary laborer before the Great War, in which he won a Distinguished Conduct Medal and lost his left arm. He was an MP for most of the period 1922-1943 (although he was kicked out of the Labour Party in 1940). He began writing in the 1930s; his last book was published in 1981. The entry notes that "The Shiner stories are generally fictionalised tales about swaggers." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Clev044

Shining Dagger, The

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Shining Shore, The

DESCRIPTION: "My days are gliding swiftly by, And I, a pilgrim stranger, Would not detain them as they fly," because the singer is "on Jordan's strand" and sees "the shining shore" where friends are passing over. So take courage even in hard times
AUTHOR: Words: David Nelson / Music: George F. Root (source: Root-StoryOfAMusicalLife-GeorgeFRoot)
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Root-StoryOfAMusicalLife-GeorgeFRoot)
KEYWORDS: religious river nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Root-StoryOfAMusicalLife-GeorgeFRoot, p. 256, "The Shining Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 505, "Shining Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #28859
NOTES [284 words]: Root, p. 99, reports that one day, when he was working on material for his singing classes, his "mother, passing through the room, laid a slip from one of her religious newspapers before me, saying, 'George, I think that would be good for music.' I looked, and the poem began, "My days are gliding swiftly by.' A simple melody sang itself along in my mind as I read, and I jotted it down, and went on with my work. That was the origin of 'The Shining Shore.'
Later, when I took up the melody to harmonize it, it seemed so very simple and commonplace that I hesitated about setting other parts to it. But I finally decided that it might be useful to somebody, and completed it, thought it was not printed until some months afterward.... [When it became widely popular,] I tried to see why it should be so, but in vain....
"The newspaper slip containing this hymn which my mother handed me had no author's name attached. It was some years later before I learned that it was the Rev. David Nelson who wrote it."
Root then supplies a brief biography of Nelson (1793-1844) which was sent to him. He was a minister and, after owning a plantation in Missouri, later came out against slavery, and was driven out of Missouri as a result, settling in Illinois.
Root's melody, although the one that became widely known, is not the melody intended for the lyric. According to Julian, p. 794, "[Nelson's] hymn, 'My days are gliding swiftly by' (Death Anticipated), was written in 1835, to be sung to the tune of 'Lord Ullin's Daughter.' It is exceedingly popular." (Popular it may have been, but I find no mention of it in any of my modern hymn references. And Julian doesn't mention any other texts by Nelson.) - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: HeSo505

Ship A-Raging, The

See The Mermaid [Child 289] (File: C289)

Ship A-Sailing, A

DESCRIPTION: "I saw a ship a-sailing, A-sailing on the sea, And it was deeply laden with pretty things for me. There were comfits in the cabin and almonds in the hold." The sails are satin; the mast, gold; the sailors, white mice; the captain, a duck.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1815 (Family album, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: talltale playparty nonballad ship animal
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 284-285, "A Ship A-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 470, "I saw a ship a-sailing" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #271, p. 163, "(I saw a ship a-sailing)"
ST Lins284 (Partial)
Roud #3742
NOTES [91 words]: This seems to go back to Halliwell (1852), though Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland connects it with a game called the "Duck Dance."
The incomparable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 168, believed that the duck-Captain was Sir Francis Drake, while the "four-and-twenty white mice with chains about their necks" were slaves. I'd be more inclined to believe it if Thomas could bridge the more than two century gap between the actual song and the events it allegedly describes. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Lins284

Ship Came Sailing, A

See Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) (File: K149)

Ship Carpenter (I), The

See The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (The Gosport Tragedy; Pretty Polly) [Laws P36A/B] (File: LP36)

Ship Carpenter (II), The

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

Ship Carpenter (III), The

See The London Heiress (The Brisk and Lively Lad) (File: MoMa033)

Ship Carpenter's Love to the Merchant's Daughter, The

See The London Heiress (The Brisk and Lively Lad) (File: MoMa033)

Ship Carpenter's Wife, The

See Sale of a Wife (File: HHH226)

Ship Euphrasia, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all Christian people who do intend To know God's laws and his rights defend...." The singer tells of setting sail on a whaler, describes the horrid, rotten food, and complains of the isolation of the captain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Journal from the Euphrasia)
KEYWORDS: whaler ship food hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 47-49, "The Ship Euphrasia" ( text)
Roud #2013
File: SWMS047

Ship in Distress, The

DESCRIPTION: Sailors on a becalmed ship suffer starvation. They cast lots to determine which of them shall die to feed the rest. The one who is chosen asks that a sentry climb the topmast to search for aid while he prays. A ship is sighted and they are rescued.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Butterworth) plus 19th century broadsheets
KEYWORDS: ship disaster cannibalism reprieve rescue starvation sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 210-211, "Seamen Bold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 93-96, "The Ship in Distress" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 90, "The Ship in Distress" (1 text, 1 tune)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 96, "The Ship in Distress" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 143, "The Ship in Distress" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #44, "The Ship in Distress" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 69, "The Ship in Distress" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SHPDSTRS*
Roud #807
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Nau Catarineta" (Portuguese)
cf. "La Courte Paille" (French) (plot)
cf. "Little Boy Billee (Le Petite Navire, The Little Corvette)" (plot)
cf. "The Silk Merchant's Daughter (I)" [Laws N10] (plot)
cf. "The Banks of Newfoundland (II)" (plot)
cf. "The American Aginora" (plot)
File: ShH90

Ship Is All Laden, The

DESCRIPTION: "The ship is all laden and ready for sea, The foy boy is coming, away let us be." The skipper is confused. The men are groggy. The owner is upset. But presumably they get to sea, since the song ends with the ship happily back in port
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1789 (according to Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: ship travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 66, "The Ship Is All Laden" (1 text)
File: PaSe066

Ship Lady Sherbroke, The

See The Wreck of the Lady Shearbrooke (File: HHH570)

Ship Lord Wolseley, The

DESCRIPTION: The ship leaves Belfast for Philadelphia on the 18th of January under Cap'n James Dunn. Song describes several ports and storms and constantly makes references to the bravery and steadfastness of the crew and officers.
AUTHOR: Wm. R.B. Dawson
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips)
KEYWORDS: ship foc's'le sailor
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 181-183, "The Ship Lord Wolseley" (1 text, sung to "Yankee Man-of-War")
Roud #9149
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Man-of-War" [probably the song indexed as "The British Man-of-War"] (tune)
NOTES [319 words]: Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips says that the author Dawson was bo'sun on the Lord Wolseley when he wrote this.
Lord Wolseley was a four masted ship built in 1883 by Harland & Wolff, Belfast. She was sold and renamed several times, as Columbia, Everett G. Griggs, Wolseley (again) before being broken up and used for parts in 1928. - SL
I have to admit I find the name of the ship pretty ironic. Garnet Wolseley (1833-1913) was not a navy man but a soldier all his life, fighting in the Crimean War and thirty years of colonial wars before becoming army Commander in Chief in 1895. He was made a viscount in 1883 after winning the battle of Tel-el-Kebir in Egypt (1882). His most famous moment, perhaps, came two years later, when he tried and failed to rescue Gordon from Khartoum -- a rescue that might have succeeded had he understood river transport better.
For a summary of his career, see David Chandler, general editor; Ian Beckett, associate editor, The Oxford History of the British Army, 1994 (I use the 1996 Oxford paperback edition), pp. 191-193. For the Gordon affair, see Byron Farwell, Queen Victoria's Little Wars (1972; I used the 1985 Norton edition), pp. 281-294, or the notes to "Andy McElroe."
Odds are, however, that if you have met Wolseley, it was in another guise. He was the model for Major General Stanley (the Modern Major General) in Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance." At least, in the first British production, the character playing Stanley was costumed to look like Wolseley. Of course, the creation was very unlike the model for the Model -- they were almost inverses, with Wolseley's competence being almost solely military. Nonetheless, Wolseley supposedly enjoyed singing the Modern Major General's patter song (see Ian Bradley, editor, The Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan 1, Penguin, 1982 (I use the slightly revised 1985 edition), p. 118). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Harl181

Ship of Revolution, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis of a ship of revolution, a ship of great fame, Captain Bendigo commands her." A pirate attacks as they sail past "Cuby" (Cuba). Twice the pirate attempts to board and is beaten off. They are victorious even though they are only 28 men
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
KEYWORDS: ship pirate fight
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 86-87, "The Ship of Revolution" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In the Year of '39" (plot)
NOTES [34 words]: Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors tink this might be an "amalgam of 'Bold Daniels' and 'The Bold Pirate.'" It feels to me as if the form was at least partly inspired by "The Dreadnought" [Laws D13]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LaFo086

Ship of Zion (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "What is this ship you're going on board, oh, glory hallelujah (x2)? 'Tis the Old Ship Zion, hallelujah (x4) What colors does she hoist in time of war? oh, glory hallelujah (x2)? 'Tis the bloody robe of Jesus, hallelujah (x4)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (Bremer)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, pp. 102-103, "The Old Ship of Zion" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 81, "'Tis the Ole Ship of Zion (Ole Ship of Zion)" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 85 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]; Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 220-221, "Don't You View Dat Ship a-Come a-Sailin?" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 226-227 in the 1874 edition)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 28, p. 214, "The Ship of Zion"; Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 29, pp. 214-215, "The Ship of Zion" (2 texts)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 623, "The Old Ship of Zion" (3 texts, of which "A" is clearly "The Old Ship of Zion (I)" but B is an unidentifiable fragment; C, with references to India and the Ganges, may be a separate piece)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 623, "The Old Ship of Zion" (5 tunes plus text excerpts, several of which go here although at least one is "The Old Ship of Zion (I)")
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 23, "The Old Ship of Zion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 83, "The Ship of Zion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 366, "Old Ship of Zion" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Frederika Bremer, Mary Howitt translator, _The Homes of the New World_ Vol. 2 (London: Arthur Hall, Virtue, & Co., 1853 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), ("It's the old ship of Zion"), p. 418 (1 text)
ST FSC083 (Partial)
Roud #4204
RECORDINGS:
McFadden Gospel Singers, "Old Ship of Zion" (Coleman 5976, n.d.)
Southeast Alabama and Florida Union Sacred Harp Singing Convention, "The Old Ship of Zion" (on USFlorida01)
NOTES [107 words]: In the Sacred Harp, the tune to this is said tentatively to be by Thomas W. Carter.
White reports a whole class of "Ship of Zion" songs, not all of which can easily be distinguished. I've split off some with clear personalities, but some just have to be lumped here. - RBW
Bremer heard "Ship of Zion" in the African Methodist Church in Cincinnati in 1850.
The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "Ole Ship of Zion" on page 85 (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 85. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSC083

Ship Out

DESCRIPTION: "Nothing to do, sucker darling, Nothing to do today. Come take a trip to Oregon -- Fat shark will ship you there." Workers are offered jobs, but the pay is low and conditions bad. "Organize, and never ship out any more."
AUTHOR: Words: "Walquist" (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (I. W. W. Songs, third edition, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 519, "Ship Out" (1 text, tune referenced)
NOTES [49 words]: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest lists the tune of this as "School Days," but I doubt it is the song of that name found in the Index. The author is listed only as "Walquist"; given the quality of the piece, it's easy to understand why the author wouldn't want his full name on it! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC519

Ship Rambolee, The

See The Loss of the Ramillies [Laws K1]
 (File: LK01)

Ship Sailing Now

See The Ship That Is Passing By (File: CW191)

Ship Set Sail for North America, A

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Ship That Is Passing By, The

DESCRIPTION: "I once had a father but now I have none, He's gone to that beautiful home. O Lord, let me sail on that beautiful ship, The ship that is passing by. The days are so short and the night are so long And I am so lonely here." Similarly mother, brother, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Roberts/Agey-InThePine)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad family
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 316, p. 191, "The Ship That Is Passing By" (1 short text)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #111, "Ship That's Sailing By" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4303 and 16851
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ship Sailing Now
NOTES [74 words]: This is a rather amorphous song -- amorphous enough that it seems to have picked up two Roud numbers, 4303 and 16851. The latter versions tend to begin with the line "Oh the days are so (short/long) and the nights are so (short/long), They seem like weeks to me"; the former start with the "I once had a father but now I have none" lament. They are the same song, as an examination of the full text shows, but they don't look like it at a glance.
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CW191

Ship That Never Came, The

See The Gentle Boy (Why Don't Father's Ship Come In) (File: GrMa113)

Ship That Never Returned, The [Laws D27]

DESCRIPTION: A ship is preparing to sail. The lives of several of the passengers, their reasons for leaving, and their farewells to family and/or sweethearts are briefly described. But the ship disappears at sea, apparently with all hands
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (sheet music published by S. Brainard's Sons)
KEYWORDS: sea farewell wreck disaster
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Laws D27,"The Ship that Never Returned"
Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work, pp. 91-94, "The Ship that Never Return'd" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 82-83, "The Ship That Never Returned" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 690, "The Ship that Never Returned" (2 texts)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 45, "The Ship that Never Returned" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 25, "The Ship That Never Returned" (1 text plus mention of 10 more as well as a pair of offshoots)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 215, "The SHip That Never Returned" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 106, "The Ship That Never Returned" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 146-147, "The Ship That Never Returned" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #111, "The Ship That Never Returned" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #17, p. 7, "The Ship that Never Returned" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 92-93, "The Ship That Never Returned" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, p. 138, "The Ship that Never Returned" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 142-143, "The Ship That Never Returned" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 186-187, "The Ship That Never Returned" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 268, "The Ship That Never Returned" (1 text)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 197-226, "The Wreck of the Old 97" (6 texts plus excerpts, 1 tune, plus a sheet music cover and sundry excerpts from related songs including a text of "The Ship That Never Returned)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 482, "The Ship That Never Returned" (source notes only)
DT 618, NVRETURN* NVRETUR2*
Roud #775
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "The Ship That Never Returned" (on NFOBlondahl03) (on NFOBlondahl06)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Ship That Never Returned" (Gennett 3311, 1926)
Connie Foley, "The Ship That Never Returned" (Copley 9-179-B, 1953)
Bradley Kincaid, "The Ship That Never Returned" (Bluebird 5569, 1934)
Asa Martin, "The Ship That Never Returned" (Oriole 8163/Conqueror 8068 [as Martin & Roberts], 1932)
Gene McNulty, "The Ship That Never Returned" (Decca 12202)
Roe Bros. & Morrell, "The Ship That Never Returned" (Columbia 15156-D, 1927)
Charles Lewis Stine, "The Ship That Never Returned" (Columbia 15027-D, 1925)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1518, "The Ship That Never Returned," T. Brooks (Bristol), n.d.
LOCSheet, sm1885 21919, "The Ship That Never Returned," S. Brainard's. Sons (Cleveland), 1885 (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Train that Never Returned" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Wreck of Old 97" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Rarden Wreck of 1893" (tune & metre)
cf. "The Flying Colonel" (tune)
cf. "M.T.A." (tune)
cf. "Lovers Parted" (tune, lyrics)
cf. "Her Mighty Sails the Breezes Swell" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
The Train That Never Returned (File: R694)
The Wreck of Old 97 [Laws G2] (File: LG02)
The Rarden Wreck of 1893 (File: DarNS215)
The Flying Colonel (File: EM404)
Lovers Parted (File: BrII215A)
Did the Maine Go Down? (File: List329)
M. T. A. (File: ACSF055M)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Airship That Never Returned" (Columbia 15162-D, 1927)
Ernest Stoneman, "The Face That Never Returned" (OKeh, unissued, 1924) (OKeh 40288, 1925) [probably this tune, though we haven't been able to check]
NOTES [105 words]: This may be the best-selling tune of all time in terms of fraction of the population which experienced it; "The Ship that Never Returned" was a hit in sheet music, and "The Wreck of Old 97" and "M.T.A." (which also uses the tune) were hits on record. Sadly, Work made only a little money off the piece. - RBW
Blondahl03 has no liner notes confirming that this song was collected in Newfoundland. Barring another report for Newfoundland I do not assume it has been found there. There is no entry for "The Ship That Never Returned" in Newfoundland Songs and Ballads in Print 1842-1974 A Title and First-Line Index by Paul Mercer. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LD27

Ship That's Sailing By, The

See The Ship That Is Passing By (File: CW191)

Ship to Old England Came, A

DESCRIPTION: With 50 guns and 500 men an English warship meets five French men-of-war. Aloft, the cabin boy sees three English ships -- Oak, Sloe, and Unity -- that join the battle and "quickly made those French dogs flee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (recording, Walter Pardon)
KEYWORDS: battle navy England France
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
Roud #1424
RECORDINGS:
Walter Pardon, "A Ship to Old England Came" (on Voice02)
File: RcasTOEC

Ship Was Becalmed in a Tropical Sea, A

DESCRIPTION: "A ship was becalmed in a tropical sea, Away, away, blow the man down." "For three weeks no wind had she." The captain "prayed to King Neptune" for a breeze. Fish taunt the sailors; finally, a flying fish seems to promise help; the wind finally starts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: ship talltale animal gods
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 111-112, "A Ship Was Becalmed in a Tropical Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15664
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blow the Man Down" (tune and form)
NOTES [14 words]: This appears to be a sailor's tall tale based on the form of "Blow the Man Down." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet111

Ship's Carpenter (I), The

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

Ship's Carpenter (II), The

See The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (The Gosport Tragedy; Pretty Polly) [Laws P36A/B] (File: LP36)

Ship's in the Harbor, The

See Teasing Songs (File: EM256)

Shipping Agents, The

DESCRIPTION: "A shipping agent seems to me A kind of hungry shark... They crimp the sailors when they can And make them pay a fee." The sailors don't even know their destination. The food is awful and insufficient. There is no gold in the diggings they reach anyway
AUTHOR: Words: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Anderson, Goldrush Songster, but found in a nineteenth century manuscript)
KEYWORDS: travel emigration ship food gold hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 47-49, "The Shipping Agents" (1 text, tune referenced)
Anderson-GoldrushSongster, pp. 59-61, "The Shipping Agents" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, pp. 124-125, "The Shipping Agents" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, pp. 178-180, "The Shipping Agents" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Susanna" (tune)
NOTES [29 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BaRo047

Ships and Captains

See Captains and Ships (File: Doyl3019)

Ships in the Ocean

See The Wonder (Ships in the Ocean) (File: HGam115)

Ships that Sailed Today, The

See The Sealer's Song (II) (File: RySm079)

Shipwreck

DESCRIPTION: "From Queenstown we set sail with merry hearts." The captain soon exects a great storm. The storm causes the ship turns over and breaks a mast. Several people die. Henry Wales manages to save Jane Gibson but dies himself.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: ship death wreck storm
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #112, "Shipwreck" (1 text)
NOTES [28 words]: This sounds like it is probably about a real event, but Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah has not identified the event, and with few real details, I can't identify it. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: Hubb112

Shipwreck Near Gay Head, January 14, 1782

DESCRIPTION: "On the fourteenth day of January last, Be sure it was a dismal sight, The famous ship away was cast, It was somewhere before 'twas light." The captain is ill when a storm comes up. They are wrecked on the rocks. Only ten men survive
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang)
KEYWORDS: wreck storm disaster death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 87-90,"Shipwreck Near Gay Head, January 14, 1782" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27521
File: HGm087

Shipwreck on Long Island Shore

DESCRIPTION: "Ho, Mr. Editor, stay your pen, I've sorry news to tell." The Ocean Belle was sunk in a fierce storm along Long Island Shore. The poet found the body of sailor Walter Brown along the shore and is writing to tell of his fate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Journal of the Andrew Hicks)
KEYWORDS: death sailor wreck storm
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 101-102, "Shipwreck on Long Island Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27522
File: HGam101

Shipwreck on the Lagan Canal, The

DESCRIPTION: Captain McFall's ship sails "up the Lagan Canal," "bound for foreign countries," "with a cargo of Indian meal." In "a dreadful gale" they strike "a coral reef" and sink "to the shin." A coastguard rescues the crew "as none of us could swim"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1890-1918 (J Nicholson ballad sheet, according to Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: canal humorous storm wreck
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 38, "The Shipwreck on the Lagan Canal" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The E-ri-e" (theme) and references there
File: Leyd038

Shipwreck, The

See Nellie (I) (File: CrMa079)

Shirley Temple Takes a Bow

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Shirley Temple takes a bow, John Boles shows her how."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Journal of Genetic Psychology, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | Shirley Temple
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #515, "Shirley Temple Takes a Bow" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Shirley Temple" (subject of Shirley Temple) and references there
File: AJRR515

Shirley Temple Walks Like This

DESCRIPTION: "Shirley Temple (Charlie Chaplin, Dolly Dimples) walks like this, Shirley Temple walks like this, Shirley Temple smiles like this, Shirley Temple blows a kiss." May be a jump rope rhyme
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Opie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad jumprope | walk talk smile kiss
FOUND IN: New Zealand US(MW,NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 112, "(Charlie Chaplin walks like this)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #516, "Shirley Temple walks like this" (1 text)
Roud #20150
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Shirley Temple" (subject of Shirley Temple) and references there
File: AJRR516

Shirley Temple Went to France

See Charlie Chaplin Went to France (File: CarMF80A)

Shirt and the Apron, The [Laws K42]

DESCRIPTION: The sailor comes to shore and meets a girl who takes him to a dance, then to supper, then to bed. He awakens in the morning to find both his money and his clothes gone. He is forced to return to his ship in women's clothing -- to the amusement of the crew
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1890-1918 (J Nicholson ballad sheet, according to Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong); 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: sex robbery dancing clothes whore
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US(NE)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws K42, "The Shirt and the Apron"
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 31, "The Sailor's Hornpipe in Caxon Street" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 112, "The Shirt and the Apron" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 105, "Barrack Street" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 376-377, "Jack-All-Alone" (1 text) [AbEd, pp. 283-285 as "The New York Gals"]
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 188-189, "Peter Street" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer 137, "A Great Favorite Song, entitled The Sailor's Hornpipe in Jackson Street" (1 text, 1 tune)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp. 70-71, "The Shirt and the Apron" (1 text)
DT 418, PETERST
Roud #1902
RECORDINGS:
Jacob Noseworthy, "Peter Street" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Aiden Sullivan, "Dance in Peter Street" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gold Watch" [Laws K41] (plot) and references there
cf. "The Beggar Wench"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jack-All-Alone
The Shift and the Apron
Patrick Street
File: LK42

Shirt I Left Behind, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer quits Dan McCann's lodgings but leaves his shirt. McCann's daughter tells him to retrieve it. That night, drunk, he sees the shirt coming down the street, hit it with a brick, and kills McCann's daughter who was in it. He is fined ten quid.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: homicide clothes drink humorous derivative
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 64, "The Shirt I Left Behind" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Girl I Left Behind Me (II - lyric)" (tune) and references there
NOTES [44 words]: Maybe it needs to be sung to be "humorous." [Alternately, maybe one needed to know McCann and/or his daughter? Perhaps there is a reason the song is not widely known.... - RBW] The parody is only in the tune and "the shirt I left behind me" end of each verse. - BS
File: McB1064

Shirt of Lace, The

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Shirt, The

See Kate's Big Shirt (File: Pea069)

Shivering in the Cold

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls his parents, his wife, his children, his money -- all lost because of drink. He yearns to be free of his burden. Chorus: "Yes alone, all alone, And I feel I'm growing old, Yet I wander, oh how lonely, And I'm shivering in the cold."
AUTHOR: Mrs. Knowles Shaw
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Harvest Bells Songbook)
KEYWORDS: drink poverty captivity
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 327, "Shivering in the Cold" (2 texts)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 31, "I'm Alone, All Alone" (1 text plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 31, "I'm Alone, All Alone" (1 tune plus an excerpt of text)
Roud #7801
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Alone, All Alone (I)" (theme)
File: R327

Shoal Harbour Line

See The Bonavist Line (File: Pea768)

Shoals of Herring

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, it was a fine and a pleasant day, Out of Yarmouth harbour I was faring" on a ship seeking herring. The young sailor learns that it is hard work and a hard life: "Just to earn your daily bread you're daring." He earns his pay in his years of fishing
AUTHOR: Ewan MacColl
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (source: Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: fishing sailor hardtimes money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 154, "The Shoals of Herring" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SHOALHER*
Roud #10728
NOTES [252 words]: Palmer claims that this has gone into tradition in Ireland, but he offers no evidence, so I have not listed it as being found there. It is from Ewan MacColl's radio ballad "Singing the Fishing" -- technically the third of the radio ballads, but the first over which MacColl and Peggy Seeger had real artistic control.
According to Jean R. Freedman, Peggy Seeger: A Life of Music, Love, and Politics, Illinois University Press, 2017, p. 127, the tune of this is based on "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" [Child 106], with words inspired by Sam Larner. A better argument for traditional status may be the fact that Larner, upon hearing MacColl sing the song, said "I've sung that song all my life."
MacColl himself recalled this slightly differently. His autobiography, Journeyman: An Autobiography, re-edited and with an introduction by Peggy Seeger, 1990; revised edition, Manchester University Press, 2009, p. 313, records Larner saying, "I've KNOWN that song all my life."
This is one of the best-known, if not the best-known of the Radio Ballad songs, but MacColl had a lot of trouble with it. His autobiography, p. 312, says, "The writing of the songs [for "Singing the Fishing"] took me about a month, or maybe a little longer.... I wrestled with the ideas for 'Shoals of Herring' for over two weeks. Nothing came right. Every time I sat down to write, the economy and simplicity of the form I had chosen would elude me. When, finally, I hit the right note I completed the song in fifteen minutes." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: PaSe154

Shock Along, John

DESCRIPTION: Described as "A corn-song, of which only the burden is remembered": "Shock along, John, shock along; Shock along, John, shock along."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, "Slave Songs of the United States")
KEYWORDS: work
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 67, "Shock ALong, John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, p. 906, "Shock Along, John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12024
NOTES [19 words]: I wonder if this might not have started out as a "Walk Along, John" song. But with only five words, who can tell? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: BAF906

Shocking, Shocking, Shocking

DESCRIPTION: "Shocking, shocking, shocking, A mouse ran up my stocking, What did it see when it got to the knee? Oh, shocking, shocking, shocking."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: animal clothes | mouse stocking
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 55, "(Shocking, shocking, shocking)" (1 text)
Roud #22971
File: PKKB055B

Shoe and Her Ankle Too

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl and sees "shoe and ankle too likewise her lily white calf Oh! I could tell you a great deal more but I'd only make you laugh." Each verse ends with a bawdy hidden rhyme.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy wordplay
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 70, "Shoe and Her Ankle Too" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BrE2070

Shoe My Love (Shoo My Love)

DESCRIPTION: "Leila that's shoo my love (x2). Turn me in a hurry now. Shoo Dolly, shoo my love, Turn me in a hurry now. Shoo Dolly, shoo my love."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 549, "Shoe My Love" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: BrS5549A

Shoe Old Horsie

DESCRIPTION: "Shoe old horsie, Shoe old mare, Let the little coltie Go bare, bare, bare."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: horse nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 127, "Shoe Old Horsie" (1 text)
File: SaKo127A

Shoe-Lie-Lo

See Skip to My Lou (File: R516)

Shoemaker (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Make my Kate a pair of shoes, Make 'em out of the best of leather, I'll peg 'em well and stitch 'em tight (or: "Draw 'em around the firey side") And then they'll last forever." The singer seeks, by the making of shoes, to bind Kate to him (?)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: work courting clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap,MA,SE,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 566, "The Shoemaker" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 171, "The Cobbler's Boy" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 100, "The Shoemaker" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 100, "The Shoemaker" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H551, p. 40, "The Cobbler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 21, "The Cobbler" (2 texts)
DT, COBBLR*
Roud #837
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shoemaker's Kiss"
NOTES [53 words]: This may be a byblow of "The Shoemaker's Kiss"; there are common elements. But if so, the degree of sanitizing is so extreme that they can be counted as separate songs. - RBW
The entry in Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians is fragmentary and almost devoid of plot, but it mentions Kate, so I put it here. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.8
File: R566

Shoemaker (II) The

See The Shoemaker's Kiss (File: KinBB15)

Shoemaker (III), The

DESCRIPTION: "My mother sent me to the school To learn to be a stocking-knitter, But I went wrang and played the fool And married with a shoemaker." She complains of his looks, his tools, his stink, and the miserable life she leads: "Who would have a shoemaker?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: work marriage warning
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 114-115, "The Shoemakker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan3 479, "The Shoemaker" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ST StoR114 (Partial)
Roud #3152
NOTES [38 words]: In a number of versions of this song, including Stokoe's, the man's occupation is "shoemakker" (double k). This appears to be an attempt to show that the "a" is pronounced short -- he "maks" shoes, rather than "makes" them. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: StoR114

Shoemaker at His Last, The

See Sair Fyel'd, Hinny (File: StoR048)

Shoemaker Courted Me

See The Blacksmith (File: K146)

Shoemaker's Kiss, The

DESCRIPTION: The girl comes to the shoemaker and requests a pair of shoes. He thereupon "fits" the girl. (Forty) weeks later she brings forth a son. When mother asks where the boy came from, she says "the shoemaker's kiss."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: sex clothes pregnancy childbirth children
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland,England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook XV, pp. 55-57, "The Shoemaker" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 118, "The Shoemaker's Kiss" (1 text)
DT, SHOEKISS*
Roud #3807
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Trooper Watering His Nag" (chorus lyrics)
cf. "The Shoemaker (I)"
NOTES [59 words]: The "other" shoemaker song ("The Shoemaker (I)") has some elements in common with this song, and may be distantly related. But if so, there has been an extreme degree of sanitation in between.
Roud lumps this with "A Kiss in the Morning Early," which is also about relations between a girl and a shoemaker -- but the latter does not involve pregnancy. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: KinBB15

Shoemaker's Son, The

DESCRIPTION: "Young Jimmy was a shoemaker's son, And through this country his bread he won. Her father was of high degree, He was captain over some ships on the sea."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: love courting father
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 193, "The Shoemaker's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [31 words]: This is clearly a fragment of a longer ballad (probably telling of the father's opposition to the young people's marriage), but without a longer version, we can't tell much about it. - RBW
File: MA193

Shoemaker's Song

DESCRIPTION: "Married me a wife and I settled here for live. She had no shoes; I had no time to make them." "I didn't have but one old hen..., She sot for a week on a dozen eggs, and didn't hatch but one chicken." The singer also struggles with steers, cows, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: wife clothes hardtimes chickens
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 66, "Shoemaker's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11324
File: Brne066

Shon M'Nab

DESCRIPTION: Shon M'Nab fails at herding, fishing, and running a still. He goes to Glasgow and is overcome by the wonders he sees. He sees fire used all around and is convinced the people in Glasgow must be in league with the Devil. He prefers the old ways.
AUTHOR: Alexander Rodger (1784-1846)
EARLIEST DATE: 1838 (Rodger)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Shon M'Nab is 45 and has seen the world turned upside down: gentlemen become poor and beggars become rich, and Whig turn Tory, Tory turn Whig. He began by herding cows, then fishing in a herring boat. He tried fishing cod off Newfoundland until his boat overturned and he decided he'd fish for cod no more. Back home he had a whisky still until a revenuer had him sent to jail. Once out he went to Glasgow where he saw a thousand wonders: he saw a man, rather than a horse, pulling a cart; he saw a black man music grinder turning his "mill" about, putting nothing in but taking music out. He wondered that so many people had spoons "to sup teir pick o' meat" when, where he came from, a whole house might have only one or two spoons. What sin made the women ashamed to show their face that they covered it with "plack"?
He found it strange to be able to draw water "and ne'er rin dry" and to see lamps in long rows with no wick or lack of oil. The Glasgow folk must have dealings with the Devil for all their use of fire for every purpose "and some o' tem will eat ta fire, And no him's pelly purn [belly burn]"; they use fire to make a coach run on the railroad (M'Nab himself would rather have a horse); they use fire to make vessels run (at the Broomielaw he sees a ship "wi' twa mill-wheels [to] grund ta water sma'"). In Glasgow the houses stretch "mile and mair, Wi' names 'poon ilka toor." He wonders what the people do with all the things he saw; he'd prefer the old ways: brose [oatmeal and boiling water], kilt and hose, and barley brew.
KEYWORDS: clothes commerce farming fishing technology humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1764, "John MacNab" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Whistle-Binkie [, First Series] (Glasgow, 1846), pp. 29-32, "Shon M'Nab"
Alexander Rodger, Poems and Songs (Glasgow, 1838), pp. 53-59, "Shon M'Nab"
Roud #13012
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(147a), "John M'Nab's Opinion of the March of Intellect" ("Nainsel pe maister Shon M'Nab, pe auld as forty-five, man"), Sanderson (Edinburgh), 1830-1910
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "For A' That An' A' That" (tune, per Roger)
cf. "Paddy Backwards" (country man visits city theme) and references there
File: GrD81764

Shoo Flies, Don't Bother Me

See I Wouldn't Have an Old Man; also Shoo Fly (File: R401)

Shoo Fly

DESCRIPTION: "I think I hear the angels sing (x3), The angels now are on the wing. I feel, I feel, I feel like a morning star (x2)." "Shoo fly, don't bother me (x3), For I just been on a merry spree." (or "belong to Company G," or the like).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (Buckley)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense playparty religious
FOUND IN: US(MA,So,SW)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Randolph 273, "Shoo Fly" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 170-171, "Shoo Fly" (1 text, 1 tue)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 174-176, "Shoo Flies, Don't Bother Me" (1 text, 1 tune, with the chorus of "Shoo Fly" and the verses of "I Wouldn't Have an Old Man")
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 190-193, "Shew! Fly, Don't Bother Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 55-56, "Shoo, Fly, Don't Bother Me" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 200, (no title) (1 fragment, the "Company G" version)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #80, "Shoo Fly" (1 short text, 1 tune, lumped with "Shoo Fly" by Roud because it has the single chorus line "Shoo fly, don't you bother me" but which is otherwise "Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal)")
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 217-219, "Shoo Fly" (1 text, 1 tune, mostly "Shoo Fly" but with the chorus of "Jimmie Crack Corn"/"The Blue-Tail Fly" [Laws I19])
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 132, "Shoo Fly" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 164-165, "Shew Fly Don't Bother Me" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 388, "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #78, p. 14, "Shoo Fly" (1 short text, of just the chorus)
Tobitt-SkipToMyLou, p. 14, "Shoo Fly" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 32, "Shoo Fly" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: M.B. Buckley, Diary of a Tour in America (Dublin, 1886 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 224, "Shoo Fly" (1 text)
ST R273 (Full)
Roud #3433
RECORDINGS:
Crockett's Kenucky Mountaineers (Crown 3159/Homestead 23041/Varsity 3049/Joe Davis 3505 [both as Crockett Mountaineers]/Montgomery Ward M-3022 [as Harlan Miners Fiddlers])
Uncle Dave Macon, "Sho' Fly Don't Bother Me" (Vocalion 5010, 1926)
Pete Seeger, "Shoo Fly" (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
Jimmy Yates' Boll Weevils, "Shoo Fly!" (Victor 21753, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blue-Tail Fly" [Laws I19] (chorus lyrics)
NOTES [77 words]: Variously attributed. The 1869 sheet credits the words to Billy Reeves and the music to Frank Campbell. Another 1869 publication gives the author as Thomas Brigham Bishop. The latter, published by Bishop himself, claims that the piece comes from "the negro farce the 'Cook.'" The corroborative evidence for the claims is thin. - RBW
Buckley (1886): .".. a song which was in the mouths of everyone on the whole continent of America, it is called 'Shoo fly.'" - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R273

Shoo Fly (Cindy)

See Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal) AND Cindy (I) (File: BAF904)

Shoo Fly (II)

See Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal) (File: BAF904)

Shoo Turkey Shoo

See The Old Cow Died (Little Girl) (File: FSWB396A)

Shoo-Da

See Ju Tang Ju (Utang) (File: R576)

Shoo, Fly, Don't Bother Me

See Shoo Fly (File: R273)

Shoo, Shoo, Shoo-lye

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

Shoofly, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees an old woman lamenting, "Ochone! sure I'm nearly distracted! For it's down by the Shoofly they cut a bad vein...." With all the local mines closed, she and her family are in debt and out of work. She can only hope conditions improve
AUTHOR: Felix O'Hare
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch); reportedly written 1871
KEYWORDS: hardtimes mining
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1871 - Closing of the mine at Valley Furnace (in the Schuylkill Valley). The Shoofly colliery closed at about the same time.
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 380-382, "The Shoofly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 27-28, "The Shoofly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 276-278, "The Shoofly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7720
File: SBoA276

Shool

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

Shoot that Turkey Buzzard

See Turkey Buzzard (File: Br3105)

Shoot the Buffalo

DESCRIPTION: Playparty/dance tune: "And it's ladies to the center and it's gents around the row, And we'll rally round the canebrake and shoot the buffalo." Tales of courting and spitting tobacco
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (JAFL 24)
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing animal nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 334, "We'll Chase the Buffalo" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #27, "The Buffalo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 523, "Shoot the Buffalo" (2 texts plus 4 excerpts, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 149, pp. 297-298, "Shoot the Buffalo" (1 text)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 165, "Chase the Buffalo" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 143, "Hunting Ballad (We'll Shoot the Buffalo)" (1 text)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 149-150, "Shoot the Buffalo" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 172, "Shoot the Buffalo"; p. 194, "Up Jumped the Crow" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 262, "Chase the Buffalo" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 14-15, "Chase the Buffalo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 129, "Rise, My True Love" (1 short text, 1 tune, with some unusual lyrics about "Where Jim Hawkins shot Jim Buzzard, and Jim Buzzard shot Jim Crow"; these may come from some other lost song)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 29--30=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, p. 225, "Chase the Buffalo" (3 texts)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 32, "Shoot the Buffalo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 296-297, "Shoot the Buffalo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 98, "Shoot the Buffalo" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 2-3, "Shoot the Buffalo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 428, "Shoot the Buffalo" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 96, "Shoot the Buffalo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 563, "We'll Hunt the Buffalo!" (1 text, 1 tune, with the chorus of "Shoot the Buffalo" and lyrics from "The Lovely Ohio")
Roud #3644
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Prisoner for Life (I - Farewell to Green Fields and Meadows)" (tune, according to a broadside print)
cf. "Nathan Killed a Belled Cow" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hunt the Buffalo
NOTES [204 words]: Although it is hard to be absolutely sure, and the dating is not precise, there is reason to think that Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) knew this song in the 1840s. According to Stephanie Lovert Stoffel, Lewis Carroll in Wonderland; the Life and Times of Alice and Her Creator, Discoveries/Harry N. Abrams, 1997, p. 16, 'Apparently the Dodgson children had hidden away some sort of time capsule of treasures.... On a block of wood was inscribed, in what appears to be Charles's hand, this evocative verse: "And we'll wander through / the wide world / and chase the buffalo."
What's more, Dodgson made at least two references to buffalo in his later poetry -- in the White Knight's song and in the Mad Gardener's Song in Sylvie and Bruno: "He thought he was a Buffalo Upon the chimney-piece, He looked again, and found it was His Sister's Husband's Niece. 'Unless you leave this house,' he said, 'I'll send for the police!'" (see Derek Hudson, Lewis Carroll, Constable (MacMillan), 1954, p. 38. There are several other items in this "time capsule" which Hudson thinks influenced the "Alice" books, although most of the others are strained. The buffalo song in Sylvie and Bruno is in chapter 6, "The Magic Locket") - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R523

Shoot the Buffalo (II), The

See Lovely Ohio, The (File: LoF039)

Shoot the Turkey Buzzard

See Turkey Buzzard (File: Br3105)

Shoot Your Dice and Have Your Fun

DESCRIPTION: "Shoot your dice and have your fun, I'll have mine when the police come. Police come, I didn't want to go; I knocked him in the head wid a forty-fo'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: gambling police
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 51, "Shoot Your Dice and Have Your Fun" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore551, "Shoot Your Dice and Have Your Fun" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #7853
File: Br3051

Shoot! Bang! A House on Fire

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Shoot! Bang! house on fire. I spy a lark shining in the dark. Echo, echo, G-O stands for Go!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Daiken, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope bird fire
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #517, "Shoot! Bang! A house on fire" (1 text)
File: AJRR517

Shootin' Creek

See Cripple Creek (I); also Ida Red (I) (File: San320)

Shooting Goschen's Cocks Up

See Row-Dow-Dow (File: K354)

Shooting of Bailey the Alleged Informer, The

DESCRIPTION: Bailey informs in December about concealed arms. Those he informed on are now in jail. "On Saturday night he met his fate All by a pistol volley, By some one unknown, who did him hate, Down in Skipper's Alley." "Mind what you say." Don't be an informer.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: warning betrayal homicide prison revenge
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 25, 1882 - Bernard Bailey shot dead in Dublin (source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 82, "A New Song on the Shooting of Bailey the Alleged Informer" (1 text)
Roud #V41216
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(148), "A New Song on the Shooting of Bailey the 'Alleged informer'," unknown, n.d.
NOTES [99 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: No arrest was made. The Irish Republican Brotherhood is assumed behind the killing. - BS
One of the reasons for British success in Ireland was that the Irish never had any weapons. In the 1798, the British often found one or two pieces of artillery sufficient to disperse a force of rebels, who would have only a few muskets and little ammunition for what they had. As late as 1916 and the Casemate Affair, Irish nationalists were still trying to smuggle in guns. Naturally they were not too happy with people who cost them any part of their small collections. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Zimm082

Shooting of His Dear

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Shooting of the Bawks, The

DESCRIPTION: The narrator protests a law against killing bawks during the summer when they are most plentiful. He wonders how he is going to feed his family and sarcastically conjectures that the authorities will now provide the people with meat.
AUTHOR: Arthur R. Scammell (1913-1995)
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 2nd edition)
KEYWORDS: recitation law bird hunting
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Shooting of the Bawks" (1 text): p. 79 in the 2nd edition, p. 69 in the 4th, p. 62 in the 5th
Roud #7309
NOTES [295 words]: The author, Arthur Reginald Scammell, has written many poems, songs and even stories with Newfoundland themes. One of his more famous songs is "The Squid-Jiggin' Ground." Some collections of his works include: My Newfoundland: Stories, Poems, Songs (St. John's: Harry Cuff Publications, 1988) and Newfoundland Echoes (St. John's: Harry Cuff Publications, 1988). Collected Works of A. R. Scammell was also published by Harry Cuff in 1990.
Although I haven't been able to find the exact equivalent for the "bawk" it can be gathered from the song that it is a seabird present only in summer. Other birds mentioned are the "tur" which is related to the auk, "noddy" which is a kind of tern or small gull and tickleace which is another kind of gull. The poem gives instructions to sing it to the tune of "The Wearin' o' the Green." - SH
The Canadian Oxford Dictionary lists "bawk" as a Newfoundlander term, of unknown origin, for the Greater Shearwater. The Greater Shearwater is a fairly large bird which often occurs in flocks and frequently follows ships; they are therefore tempting targets. They breed in November-January in the Tristan da Cunha islands (far down in the south Atlantic, at about the latitude of Buenos Aires but roughly half way between Africa and South America), then spend the North American summer months off the American east coast. - PJS, RBW
I do not know the reason for the Canadian ban on shooting bawks (also known as the "hagdown," as in "Western Boat (Let Me Fish Off Cape St. Mary's"), but as their breeding grounds are small and under threat by man, and their summer feeding grounds are being heavily fished, I suspect it is to protect the species.
For background on Arthur R. Scammell, see the notes to "The Squid-Jiggin' Ground." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy079

Shooting Star, The

DESCRIPTION: A Halifax policeman is murdered on board of the Shooting Star. He has a summons for the captain but sailor Burdell stabs him. The captain and ship get away but "they caught Burdel at Boston and gave him fourteen years"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: homicide prison ship police sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 74-75, "The Shooting Star" (1 text)
Roud #1973
NOTES [46 words]: "The affair of the 'Shooting Star' took place in Halifax, November 1861. Policeman's name was Gardner ... stabbed by Edgar Burdell.... vessel ... ran ashore below George's Island & Burdell was arrested." (Source: Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia) - BS
File: SmHa074

Shopkeeper, The (There was a Rich Merchant)

DESCRIPTION: "There was a rich merchant in London did dwell" with a beautiful daughter who lives with her uncle for a year. Her love writes to her to ask her to come to him; she sets out. She dies on the road. When he find out, he says they will be buried in one grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Hill, Wiltshire Folk Songs and Carols)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation death burial
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 16-17, "There Was a Rich Merchant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1651
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Beautiful Damsel
File: CoMo016

Shore Around the Grog

See Shove Around the Grog (File: FSC175)

Shore Cry

See I'm Very Very Well I'm Glad to Tell (Shore Cry) (File: Garl048)

Shore Navy, The

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a boy it seemed likely to me That the logical place for the navy was to be at sea," so the singer went to sea -- and didn't like it. So "I went for a cruise on land" and is now a staff member, enjoying being part of the shore navy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: navy humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 98-105, "The Shore Navy" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: NiM098

Shore Sailor

DESCRIPTION: "Shore sailor, shore sailor, Pull for the shore. Pull like a son-of-a-bitch but don't break the oar. Safe in the lifeboat, clinging to sin more. Leave the dreary sinking wreck and pull for the shore."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor sin ship wreck nonballad derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 145, "Shore Sailor" (1 fragment)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pull for the Shore" (tune)
NOTES [36 words]: This is just close enough to "Pull For the Shore" that it might possibly be a much-coarsened descendant rather than a deliberate parody. But I think the latter more likely, and so have filed it as a separate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn113

Shore Shore If I Can't Get This Maid From the Shore

See The Maid on the Shore (The Fair Maid by the Sea Shore; The Sea Captain) [Laws K27] (File: LK27)

Shores of Botany Bay, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I'm on my way down to the quay, Where a big ship now does lay...." When the singer's boss tells him he will have to work harder to keep his job, Pat gives it up and heads for Australia. He rejoices to get away from brickwork.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback)
KEYWORDS: work Australia emigration
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 271-272, "The Shores of Botany Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, p. 84, "The Shores of Botany Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA271

Shores of Coolough Bay, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer "was one of the Urhan football team." "Now we are scattered far and wide from the shores of Coolough Bay". He has worked at many jobs in Ireland, Canada and, now, in the US. Best of all is the Shores of Coolough Bay. He is saving to return.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: home return travel sports America Canada Ireland emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 100-101, "The Shores of Coolough Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [79 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "This is a song about the Urban football teams of 1927, 28 and 29, who won the Cork County Intermediate Championships. Joe Murphy sang the song and thought it had been composed in New York by Maurice Power. Coolough Bay is an inlet off Kenmare Bay."
The singer lists some of his many activities since ending his football days: fishing with a seine-boat crew and enjoying dances at Coolough Bay; then mining, cowboying and working in a lumber shop. - BS
File: OCan100

Shores Of Grand Lake, The

See Twin Lakes (File: Doyl3079)

Shores of Michigan, The

See The Loss of the Antelope (File: RcLoOTAn)

Shores of Sweet Kenbane, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer rambles out and sits down to look at Kenbane. He will set his slight skills to the task of praising it. He describes the birds, fish, shores, castle, etc. In one cottage dwells a beautiful girl; he blesses the day he found her and Kenbane
AUTHOR: Dan White?
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love home rambling
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H648, p. 167, "The Shores of Sweet Kenbane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13479
File: HHH648

Short Jacket

See The Maid in Sorrow (Short Jacket) [Laws N12] (File: LN12)

Short Jacket and White Trousers

See The Maid in Sorrow (Short Jacket) [Laws N12] (File: LN12)

Short Life of Trouble

DESCRIPTION: "Short life of trouble, A few more words apart, A short life of trouble, dear girl, For a boy with a broken heart." The singer reminds the girl that she promised to marry him. He takes the train out of town and/or hopes the grave will be his home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Burnett & Rutherford)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 127, "Pass the Drunkard By" (1 text, with a first verse in which the girl describes Mama's advice against drunkards but otherwise like the usual versions)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee, 32, pp. 58-59, "The First Thing I Owned Was a Pistol" (1 text, 1 tune, with the "short life" chorus used as the second verse and several other verses which might have floated in)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #57, "Short Life of Trouble" (1 text, 1 tune, opening with a "Moonshiner" verse but the rest is "Short Life of Trouble")
ST RcSLOT (Full)
Roud #3418
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "Short Life of Trouble" (Paramount 3290, 1931)
[Clarence "Tom"] Ashley & [Clarence] Greene, "Short Life of Trouble" (Perfect 12800/Banner 32427/Romeo 5129/Oriole 8129 [all as Ashley & Green]/Conqueror 8149 [as Ashley & Greene], 1932; rec. Nov. 30, 1931; on Ashley04 as by the Blue Ridge Mountain Entertainers)
Blue Sky Boys, "Short Life of Trouble" (Bluebird B-8829/Montgomery Ward M-8849, 1941; rec. 1940)
Burnett & Rutherford, "A Short Life of Trouble" (Columbia 15133-D, 1927; rec. 1926; on BurnRuth01)
Charlie Glenn, "Short Life of Troubles" (Piotr-Archive #6, recorded 07/14/2020)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Short Life of Trouble" (Victor V-40105, 1928; on GraysonWhitter01, LostProv1)
Haywood County Ramblers (probably Clarence Ashley, Gwen Foster, Dock Walsh, ? Medford), "Short Life in Trouble" (Victor, unissued, recorded May 28, 1931)
Buell Kazee, "Short Life of Trouble" (Brunswick 214, 1928; on KMM)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers (or Wade Mainer), "Short Life and It's Trouble" (Bluebird B-6936, 1937)
Riley Puckett, "Short Life of Trouble" (Decca 5442, 1937)
Doc Watson & Arnold Watson, "A Short Life of Trouble" (on WatsonAshley01)
File: RcSLOT

Short'nin' Bread

See Shortenin' Bread (File: R255)

Shortenin' Bread

DESCRIPTION: The mother will make shortening bread. Its benefits, and the extent to which children like it, may be described. (The singer steals the skillet and the bread, and winds up in jail and faced with a fine.) Often in dialect, with assorted floating verses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (JAFL 28)
KEYWORDS: food prison robbery
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Randolph 255, "Shortenin' Bread" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 156, "Shortnin' Bread" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 461, "Short'nin' Bread" (2 texts plus 7 fragments and 1 excerpt; some of the fragments, especially "I," may be associated with some other song)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 461, "Short'nin Bread" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 149-153, "Short'nin Bread," "Short'nin' Bread," (no title), "Put on the Skillet" (4 texts plus some odds and ends, 3 tunes; it's possible that some of the fragments are something else)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, p. 55, "Wild Horse (Short'nin' Bread)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 81, "Shortenin' Bread" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 267, "Shortenin' Bread" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 234-236, "Shortenin' Bread" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 160, "(Shortnin' Bread)" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 52-53, "Short'nin' Bread" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 497-498+, "Short'nin' Bread"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 322, "Shortening Bread" (notes only)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Allen Davidson, Jr., "The Songs of Caleb Mashburn," Vol. XX, No. 1 (Feb 1972), p. 57, "Three little chil'red lyin' in bed" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #4209
RECORDINGS:
Cherokee Ramblers, "Short'nin' Bread" (Decca 5162, 1935)
Emma Jane Davis, "Shortenin' Bread" (AFS 6644 A1, 1942)
Dykes' Magic City Trio, "Shortening Bread" (Brunswick 125, 1927)
Ora Dell Graham, "Shortenin' Bread" (AFS, 1940; on LCTreas)
Mississippi John Hurt, "Shortenin' Bread" (on MJHurt04; on MJHurt05)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers, "Shortenin' Bread" (OKeh 45112, 1927)
Bobby Leecan's Need-More Band, "Shortnin' Bread" (Victor 20853, 1927)
Reaves White County Ramblers, "Shortening Bread" (Vocalion 5218, 1928; on TimesAint05)
Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers, "Shortening Bread" (Columbia 15123-D, 1927; rec. 1926)
Conrad Thibaud, "Shortnin' Bread" (Victor 24404, 1933)
Sonny Terry [pseud., Saunders Terrell], "Shortnin' Bread" (on Terry 01)
Tweedy Brothers, "Shortenin' Bread" (Supertone 9174, 1928)
Henry Whitter, "Hop Light Ladies and Shortenin' Bread" (OKeh 40064, 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Run, Nigger, Run" (tune)
NOTES [38 words]: Fuld reports that this tune appeared in 1915 (E. C. Perrow in the April-June 1915 JournalOfAmericanFolklore) under the title "Shortened Bread." Words and music first appear together in Scarborough, 1925, but are probably older. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R255

Shortnin' Bread

See Shortenin' Bread (File: R255)

Shorty George

DESCRIPTION: "Shorty George, he ain't no friend of mine... Taken all de women an' leave de men behind." (The singer goes bad as an orphan child. He finds a girl, but they go separate ways.) He learns his girl/mother is sick and arrives for her sad funeral
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recording, James "Iron Head" Baker)
KEYWORDS: orphan love death burial mother prison prisoner train
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 118-123, "Shorty George" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 23, "Shorty George" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 199-201, "Shorty George" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 79, "Shorty George" (1 text)
DT, SHORTGEO SHORTGE2*
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 69, "Shorty George" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10055
RECORDINGS:
James "Iron Head" Baker, "Shorty George" (AFS 210B, 1933) (AFS 202 A2, 1934; on LC53)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "He Was a Friend of Mine"
NOTES [75 words]: "Shorty George" is reported to be the name of the train that carried convicts' wives and sweethearts to and from the penitentiary for conjugal visits. - PJS, (RBW)
This legend, derives from the Lomax collections of this song. It is interesting to note that Jackson's informants knew of the train they called "Shorty George," but it did not come to the prison; it was merely a very small train (typically three cars) which passed precisely at 3:35. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: LxU023

Shot a Rooster

See Amen, Brother Ben (File: ZiZa077A)

Shot My Pistol in de Heart of Town

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Lawd, Shot my pistol In de heart of town. Lawd, de big chief hollered, 'Doncha blow me down.'" The singer (?) looks for his girls who "lef' here runnin'." He describes his love of cards. The story is not coherent
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Odum & Johnson)
KEYWORDS: cards separation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 52-53, "Shot My Pistol in de Heart of Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15570
File: LxA052

Shotley Stew

DESCRIPTION: "There's a half a pound of bully-beef left from the month before" and other unsavory items, all mixed together, "And when they finished boiling it, it tasted just like glue, They gave it to the Ganges boys And called it Shotley Stew"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: food cook navy hardtimes derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 48, "Shotley Stew" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Little Bit of Heaven" (tune)
NOTES [91 words]: Although this song refers to the Ganges, you'll look in vain for a British Navy ship by that name. HMS Ganges was a shore establishment, founded near the beginning of the twentieth century and lasting until 1976, where new sailors were given their initial training. It was near Shotley in East Anglia (hence the song name), close to the naval base at Harwich, where the Orwell and the Stour join close to the sea; the nearest major town is Ipswich, a few miles up the Orwell.
The Ganges is now memorialized by the HMS Ganges Museum at Shotley.
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn031

Shots Echoing 'Round the Mountain

See Zeb Tourney's Girl [Laws E18] (File: LE18)

Should A Been on the River in 1910

DESCRIPTION: (After an opening from "Ain't No More Cane on this Brazos" or "Go Down, Old Hannah," about driving women like men), the singer recalls a partner doing 99 years, recalls that his girl promised to visit but did not, and promises to "be around some day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recorded from Arthur "Lightning" Sherrod by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 77-75, "Should A Been on the River in 1910" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: JDM073

Shouly Linkum

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Shout All over God's Heaven

See All God's Children Got Shoes (File: CNFM067A)

Shout Along and Pray Along

DESCRIPTION: "Shout along and pray along, ye Heaven-bound soldiers! Shout along and pray along, I'm on my way! Pray on, (sisters/fathers/mothers/children", and don't get weary; Never get tired of serving the Lord. Shout along and pray along...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 633, "Shout Along and Pray Along" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 633, "Shout Along and Pray Along" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11932
File: Br3633

Shout Josephine Shout

DESCRIPTION: Chorus dialog: "Josephine?" "Ma'am?" "Want t' shout?" "Yes ma'am." "What time?" "Right now." "Shout Josephine Shout!" Verses: "Pain in the head (back, neck, hip, toe,...), Shout, shout, Shout Josephine, shout"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad dialog playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, pp. 106-107, "Shout Josephine Shout" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yes Ma'am" (form) and references there
NOTES [15 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Parrp106

Shout Jubalee

See Shout Jubilee (File: HPR306S)

Shout Jubilee

DESCRIPTION: Verse format: one line, repeated, followed by "Some going to be buried in the graveyard, Some going to be buried in the sea, Get up in the morning before day, I'm going to shout about Jubilee." See notes for verse lines.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: death burial nonballad religious Devil
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 306-307, "Shout Jubalee" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [49 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect.
Verse lines include "My Lord calls me, I must go," "Satan's got iron shoes," "My Lord calls me I'm going to church," "My Lord calls me on my knees," "Fire in the east, fire in the west." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR306S

Shout Lula

DESCRIPTION: Dance tune "Shout Lulu, shout shout/What in the world you shoutin' about?" "How many nickels does it take/To see little Lulu's body shake?/It takes a nickel and it takes a dime/To see little Lulu cut her shine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Samantha Bumgarner & Eva Davis)
KEYWORDS: sex money dancing bawdy dancetune nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 140, "Shout, Lulu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 201, "Lulie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #4202
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff & his Smoky Mountain Boys, "Shout, Oh Lulu" (Vocalion 04867/OKeh 04867, 1939; rec. 1938)
Clarence Ashley & Tex Isley, "Shout Little Lulu" (on Ashley01)
Clarence Ashley & Jack Burchett, "Shout Lulu" (on WatsonAshley01)
Homer Brierhopper, "Little Lulie" (Decca 5615, c. 1938)
W. Guy Bruce, "Shout Lulu" (on FolkVisions1)
Samantha Bumgarner. "Shout Lou" (Columbia 146-D, 1924; Harmony 5094-H [as Luella Gardner], n.d.)
Carver Boys, "Sleeping Lula" (Paramount 3199, 1930; rec. 1929)
Elizabeth Cotten, "Oh Miss Lulie Gal" (on Cotten02)
Rufus Crisp, "Shout, Little Lulie" (on Crisp01)
Louise Foreacre, "Shout Little Lulu" (on CloseHomeMS)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Shout Lula" (Gennett 6373/Champion 15501 [as by Norman Gayle], 1928)
Dick Justice, "Little Lulie" (Brunswick 336, 1929)
File: RcShLulu

Shout On, Children

DESCRIPTION: "Shout on, children, you never die; Glory hallelujah! You in the Lord and the Lord in you; Glory hallelujah." "Shout and pray both night and day, How can you die, you in the Lord?" "Come on, children, let's go home; Oh I'm so glad you're in the Lord."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 60, "Shout On, Children" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12020
File: AWG060A

Shout, A (Hod' Me, Sister Betsy)

DESCRIPTION: A "shout," spoken rather than sung: "Hol' me, sister Betsy, hol' me (x2), Hol' mah reticule, hol' mah shawl, But pray don't techa [touch] waterfall. Three miles to walk, three cows to milk. Hol' me, sister Betsy, hol' me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: recitation animal hair
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 91, "A Shout" (1 text, 1 tune included to imply vocal inflection)
Roud #16314
File: Arn091

Shout, Lulu

See Shout Lula (File: RcShLulu)

Shout, Shout, We're Gaining Ground

DESCRIPTION: "Shout, shout, we're gaining ground, Oh glory hallelujah, For the gospel ship is sailing by, Oh glory hallelujah!" "Shout, shout... For the grace of God is coming down" "It has come down and it will come down" "The Devil's mad and I am glad"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 633, "Shout, Shout, We're Gaining Ground" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #7561
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gospel Ship (I)" (lyics)
File: R633

Shove Around the Grog

DESCRIPTION: Brief stories of bringing lumber downriver. Chorus: "Shove [or "Shore"] around the grog, boys, Chorus around the room; We are the boys that fear no noise, Although we're far from home." The singer may tell of his girl in Lewiston Falls or elsewhere
AUTHOR: Boney Quillan ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: logger river love
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 175, "Shore Around the Grog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 74, "Lewiston Falls" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 50, "Shanty Song" (1 text)
ST FSC175 (Partial)
Roud #7090
File: FSC175

Shove Her Up!

DESCRIPTION: "Shove 'er up! Shove 'er up, Keep shoving of 'er up!... Shove 'er in the gangway! Shove 'er in the boat, I'd rather have a guinea than a ten pound note, Though a guinea it will sin And a note it will float, I'd rather have a guinea than a ten pound note."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: money nonballad work
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 245, "Shove Her Up!" (1 text)
Roud #23379
File: EcSm245

Shovellin' Iron Ore

See The Great American Bum (Three Jolly Bums) (File: FaE192)

Shoving Corduroy

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a "swamper," is building corduroy roads. He describes his work, the pay, and an incident where a workmate falls into a boghole. Finally, he expresses a desire for a pretty woman, and says he'll do anything to please her -- even shove corduroy.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work courting
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 25, "Shoving Corduroy" (1 text)
Roud #8859
NOTES [64 words]: A corduroy road was built by laying logs parallel to one another to make a roadway across a swamp. [There is some dispute about whether the roads or the fabric were named first, although the fabric is more likely. - RBW]
According to Beck, the swamper usually "cleared the underbrush and other obstructions for the teamster, or so that logs could be skidded to their destination." - PJS
File: Be025

Show Me The Lady That Never Would Roam

DESCRIPTION: "I am just (forty-five), with a dear little wife, who is just ten years younger than me." The singer wishes his wife "never would roam." His wife "causes me a lot of grief... oft from her home"; she goes out for fun while he "rocks the dear baby to sleep"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: marriage infidelity nonballad children wife
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MA,Ro)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 137, "Show Me The Lady That Never Would Roam" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #125, "When I Rock the Deer Snookums to Sleep" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 149-151, "Rocking the Baby to Sleep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4378
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)" (theme) and references there
File: OCC137

Show Me the Man Who Never Done Wrong

See Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own) (File: R393)

Show Me the Way to Go Home, Babe

DESCRIPTION: A lament on the effects of drinking and or rambling, perhaps with a request for forgiveness and/or floating blues lyrics. The whole is held together (if it is) by the chorus "Show me way to go home." The singer may have been drunk for many months
AUTHOR: Words: Archie Morrow / Music: Wilford Herbert (source: Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic)
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Brown); sheet music apparently published 1901
KEYWORDS: drink home floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 37, "Show Me the Way to Go Home, Babe" (7 short texts plus a single line fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 37, "Show Me the Way to Go Home, Babe" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Roud #7859
RECORDINGS:
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Show Me the Way to Go Home" (Columbia 15404-D, 1929)
Henry Whitter & Fiddler Joe [Samuels], "Show Me the Way to Go Home" (OKeh 45061, 1926)
NOTES [30 words]: Note that this is not the famous "Show Me the Way to Go Home" by Irving King and published 1925, although Fuld in his entry on the Kng song hints that it may be derived from this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Br3037

Show Me Your True Name, Kisander

See Kisander (File: RcKisand)

Show Pity, Lord (Supplication)

DESCRIPTION: "Show pity, Lord! Oh Lord, forgive! Let a repentant sinner live!" The singer abjectly confesses fault: "My crimes are great but can't surpass The power and glory of thy grace." The singer confidently expects salvation
AUTHOR: Words: Watts ? (to the tune "Windham?")
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Harmona Sacra)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 631, "Show Pity, Lord" (1 short text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Roud #7559
SAME TUNE:
Broad is the Road That Leads to Death (Windham) (Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 263)
File: R631

Show Your Teeth

See What Have You Got There? (File: Newe075)

Showing the Flag

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, a torpedo boat is the best thing afloat to take for a fair weather sail," but although they had calm seas while hunting Pancho Villa, conditions are much harder in World War I. Don't even think about life on a destroyed in bad weather
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: navy ship hardtimes storm
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 92-96, "Showing the Flag" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27877
NOTES [12 words]: For the difficulties of being a destroyer sailor, see "Destroyer Life." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: NiM092

Shrew Wife, The

See What Do You Think of My Darling? (File: Dib102)

Shrove Tuesday Song

DESCRIPTION: "Pat, pat the pan hot, I become a-shroving. A bit of bread, a bit of cheese, That's better than nothing. Eggs and lard and flour's dear, That makes me come shroving here."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad request
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-WCS, #131, "Shrove Tuesday Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1516
NOTES [26 words]: Roud's #1516 includes quite a few Shrove Tuesday/alms songs. It seems to me that this number includes several songs, but it is often hard to separate them. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: PECS131

Shrove Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday

DESCRIPTION: "Ash Wednesday, Shrove Thursday [or Fat Tuesday], When Jack went to school/plow, His mother made pancakes And left them to cool. She roast them, she toast them, She made them so hot, She used too much pepper/butter And poisoned poor Jack"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: mother food poison
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 74, "(Ash Wednesday, Shrove Tuesday)"; p. 75, "(Shrove Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday)" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #1516
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fat Tuesday
NOTES [43 words]: Roud's #1516 includes quite a few Shrove Tuesday/alms songs. It seems to me that this number includes several songs, but it is often hard to separate them. But the story of a mother poisoning her son seems distinct enough that I think it has to be split. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI074C

Shrowsbury For Me

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises Shrowsbury. He praises the churches and ministers, the "twice a week market," "gallant young men and maids," the trades-men and their wives, the fishing and fowling, shooting and bowling. "Who would not gladly live in this brave town?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1675 (broadside, Bodleian 4o Rawl. 566(26))
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer praises Shrowsbury. He praises the churches and ministers, the "twice a week market," "gallant young men and maids," the trades-men and their wives, the fishing and fowling, shooting and bowling. Even the sailors who have gone to the noble city of London freely return to Shrowsbury. There's no poverty in Shrowsbury: "all things are plenty and nothing is scant" "Who would not gladly live in this brave town ... The like of it is not in England to see" "Cast up your caps bravely for all men to see, And still cry with one accord, Shrowsbury for me"
KEYWORDS: pride commerce hunting river nonballad
FOUND IN:
Roud #V21423
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 4o Rawl. 566(26), "Shrowsbury For Me" ("Come listen young gallants of Shrowsbury fair town"), R. Burton (London), 1641-1674; also Wood E 25(44), Douce Ballads 2(206a), "Shrowsbury For Me"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonny Paisley" (some lines) and references there
cf. "Bonny Udny" (some lines)
NOTES [111 words]: Lines of "Shrowsbury For Me" have drifted to or from other songs. The title is from the last two lines of every verse except the last: "Then every man to his mind, Shrowsbury for me"; Bonny Paisley includes the line "of all the towns in ---, --- is for me." One line, "the young men of Shrowsbury are jovial blades," appears in a different context in "The Poor Stranger"; you can see more about that line in the discussion of "The Poor Stranger." Here the line introduces a compliment to Shrowsbury: "The young men of Shrowsbury are jovial blades, When they are in company with pretty maids. They court them completely with complements free, Then every man ...." - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BdShrFoM

Shu Lady

DESCRIPTION: Incoherent account, with many floating insertions, of an attack on Chandler's fish-dyke. The people who did the damage are brought to trial and forced to sell their cows to pay the fines. The song objects to the Freemason jury
AUTHOR: Ms. (?) Lawless?
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: fishing trial punishment
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 311, "Shu Lady" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 311, "Shu Lady" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Roud #6646
File: BrII311

Shub Her Down

DESCRIPTION: The first phrase of the shantyman's call is repeated as chorus. "Shub her down, shub her down, young man" ["Shub her down"] "Wheel away...." "Shub her out...." "Long and strong...." "We can do it...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: work shanty
FOUND IN: West Indies(Nevis)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 43-44, "Shub Her Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [28 words]: Abrahams has this as a Nevis shanty "for the purpose of pushing and lifting either a boat or a house [and it] describes the operation, with the usual encouragements." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS043

Shuck Corn, Shell Corn

DESCRIPTION: "Shuck corn, shell corn, Carry corn to mill. Grind de meal, gimme de husk, (Bake/break) de bread, gimme de crust, Fry de meat, gimme de skin -- And dat's de way to bring 'em in. Won't you git up, old horse, I'm on de road to Brighton."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: work food nonballad horse
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 200, "Shuck Corn, Shell Corn" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 89, "(We raise de wheat, Dey gib us de corn)" (1 text)
File: Br3200

Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier)

DESCRIPTION: The girl laments for her love, sent (to France) as a soldier. She says she will cry till "every tear would turn a mill." She will sell her spinning wheel to arm him. She will dye her clothes red and "round the world... beg for bread" till he returns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Waite) (but five broadside prints are listed in Edwin Wolf 2nd, _American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870_, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 78); a partial text is reported from 1823
KEYWORDS: loneliness separation foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England,Scotland) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (35 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1107, "Shule Agra" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 281-282, "Shule Aroon" (1 text)
Randolph 107, "Shule, Shule" (3 texts, 1 tune, though "A" is mixed with "Ease that Trouble in the Mind" or "The Swapping Boy" or some such, "B" is a nonsense fragment, and "C" is largely floating material); also probably the "A" fragment of 455, "When I Get on Yonder Hill" (2 texts)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 38, "Buttermilk Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 40, "Putnam's Hill" (3 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 296, "I'll Sell My Hat, I'll Sell My Coat" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 127, "Shule Aroon" (1 fragment, so short that it might just be nonsense though it is probably this song)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 130, pp. 275-276, "Shule Aron" (1 text, short and even more damaged than usual, to which is prefixed the rhyme "Snail, snail, come out of your hole, Or else I'll beat you as black as a coal," elsewhere filed as "Snail, Snail (I)")
HudsonTune 32, "Snail, Snail" (1 text, 1 tune, the version with the verse about the snail)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 172, "My Sweetheart's Gone to the Fair" (1 short text, 1 tune; the first verse metions the sweetheart going to the fair and is unique or nearly so, but the rest is this)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 93, "Putman's Hill" (1 fragment, 1 tune, which might mix verses from two different songs)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 139, "Siuil A Ruin" (4 texts, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 110, "Shule Aroon" (1 text)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 96, "Siul a Ghra" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 347, "Shule Agra" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 131, "I Dyed My Petticoat Red" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 24-25, "I Dyed My Petticoat Red" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 32-35, "Siubhal a Gradh (Come, My Love, Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 35, "Johnny Has Gone far a Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 20, "Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 298-299, "Shoo, Shoo, Shoo-lye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 12-13, "Shule Agra" (1 text, 1 tune)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 41-42, "Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN199 "As from Newcastle I did pass" (listed as "Traditional? Ancestor of Scots 'Dicky Macphalion' and Irish 'Shule Aroon'")
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1143, p. 78, "Johnny Is Gone for a Soldier" (5 references)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 19 and #4/64, p. 19, "Johnny is Gone for a Soldier" (1 text)
Behan-IrelandSings, #94, "Walk My Love" (1 text, 1 tune, claiming to be an independent translation of the Gaelic)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 68, "Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 79, "Shule Agra" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 280, "Buttermilk Hill" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 25, "Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SHULARN1* (SHULARN2*) SHULARN3 SHULARN4
ADDITIONAL: Diarmaid O Muirithe, An t-Amhran Macaronach (Baile Atha Cliath: An Clochomhar, 1980) #4, pp.40,196, "Siul, Siul, Siul a Ruin" ("Siul, Siul, Siul a Ruin") (1 text)
James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, p. 235, "I'll Sell My Hat, I'll Sell My Coat" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Mrs. M. G. Jacobs)
Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, pp. 32-34, "Shool" (a fragment which appears to have several added verses but which retains the second verse about the girl's lover being gone for a soldier); pp. 64-65, "Shule Aroon" (1 text, this the true song)
Roud #911
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best and Pamela Morgan, "Suil a Gra" (on NFABestPMorgan01)
Pearl Jacobs Borusky, "I'll Sell My Hat, I'll Sell My Coat" (AFS, 1940; on LC55)
Dana Borusky, "I'll Sell My Hat, I'll Sell My Coat" (Piotr-Archive #573, recorded 05/05/2023)
Debra Sharpe, "I'll Sell My Hat, I'll Sell My Coat" (Piotr-Archive #591, recorded 05/30/2023)
Porter Brigley, "I Died My Petticoat Red" (on MRHCreighton)
Robert Cinnamond, "Shule Agra" (on IRRCinnamond03)
Elizabeth Cronin, "Shule Aroon" (on FSB01);" Siuil A Ruin" (on IRECronin01)
Chubby Parker, "Bib-A-Lollie-Boo" (Gennett 6077/Silvertone 5012, 1927; Supertone 9188, 1928) (Conqueror 7891, 1931)
Ellen Emma Power, "Siul A Ghra" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Pete Seeger, "Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier" (on PeteSeeger31)
Art Thieme, "Bibble-a-la-doo" (on Thieme04)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Song of the Pinewoods" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Hey Bonnie Laddie, Mount and Go" ("I'll sell my rod, I'd sell my reel" lyrics)
cf. "My Mary of the Curling Hair" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Mickey's Gone for a Laborer ("Being out of work it was no fun") (words by John C. Cross) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 97)
NOTES [653 words]: In its earliest forms this song seems to have been simply a girl's lament for her departed lover. In many American versions (Randolph's 107 A and C, Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio's D) we find unrelated stanzas about the girl's "very cross" father.
Scott (following Joyce) theorizes that the song arises out of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The Irish supported James II, and were defeated at the Boyne. William III, who defeated James, offered forgiveness to the rebels who would swear loyalty to him, but many preferred exile. The only evidence for this theory, at least in English versions, seems to be the lines "But now my love has gone to France, To try his fortune to advance...."
It's hard to tell how much of this song was originally Gaelic. Although there are Gaelic choruses (e.g. from Barry, in JAFL XXII 15; Connie Dover's modern recording is as close to this as makes no difference), I've never heard a truly traditional Gaelic verse, and even the chorus is usually only a mangled imitation of Gaelic. (Of course, it doesn't help that Gaelic spelling is far from standardized.)
Jonathan Lighter notes that Bruce Olson found two verses that seem to be this in some 1823 correspondence by Sir Walter Scott:
I went to the mill, but the miller was gone
I sat me down and cried ohone!
To think of the days that are past and gone,
Of Dickie Macphalion that's slain.
Shoo, shoo shoolaroon
To think on the days that are past and gone,
Of Dickie Macphalion that's slain.
I sold my rock, I sold my reel,
And sae hae I my spinning wheel
And 'a to buy a cap of steel
For Dickie Macphalion that's slain.
Lighter notes that these were published the following year in Sharpe's Ballad Book.
Lighter also notes "he phonological similarity between
'For Dickie McPhallion that's slain'
and P. W. Joyce's phonetic rendering, for English speakers, of the Irish refrain as
'Is go dee tu mavourneen slaun.'"
I agree that they appear likely to be related.
Jonathan also notes that Thomas Moore set his poem "I Wish I was by That Dim Lake" to the tune "Shule Aroon" in 1824, and that this tune is similar to one of the tunes for this song. - RBW
The Thieme recording retains only the tune, chorus and two verses of "Shule Agra"; otherwise, it's humorous floaters. - PJS
Like another Newfoundland text, Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 96, the ITMA/CapeShoreNL text is 3 verses in English except for the last line -- which is Irish -- and the chorus is Irish.
One of two broadsides for this ballad as "Shule Agra"/"Johnny Is Gone for a Soldier" at Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue is printed in New York c.1860, shelfmark Harding B.18(326).
See three "Shule Agra"/"Johnny Is Gone for a Soldier" broadsides [America Singing: digital id sb40500a/as201910/cw103140] at the Library of Congress American Memory site. - BS
At least four texts, the version in Leary, the recording by Pearl Jacobs Barusky in AFS and printed in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, and the recordings by Dana Barusky and Debra Sharpe in the Derek Piotr archive, all titled "I'll Sell My Hat, I'll Sell My Coat," are clearly a separate recension about traveling west:
I'll sell my hat, I'll sell my coat,
To buy my wife a little flat boat,
Down the river we will float.... (with the typical pseudo-Gaelic after that)
I'll sell my pants, I'll sell my vest
To get enough money to go out west,
And there I think I'll do the best.
This arguably should be a separate song, but since everyone else lumps them, I do to.
Both Dana Barusky and Debra Sharpe learned the song from their grandmother, Pearl Jacobs Barusky, and Dana Barusky thought Pearl might have written it. However, the Leary version (which is the oldest, from 1932; Pearl Barusky's version is from 1940) was collected from "Mrs. M. G. Jacobs." That's still the same extended family, so I suspect Dana Barusky is right that it originated in the family -- but a generation or two before Pearl. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R107

Shule Aron

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

Shule Aroon

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

Shulls Mills

DESCRIPTION: The singer prepares to return to Shulls Mills. He talks of his relations with the girls, carried out largely on the basis of cash up front, because "the girls... think I'm purty damn mean." He concludes, "When I gets my pay, Hain't gonna work a-tall."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: logger whore
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 134, "Shulls Mills" (1 text, 1 tune; the text is composite though all verses come from Frank Proffitt)
ST Wa134 (Partial)
Roud #5735
File: Wa134

Shut Up in Coal Creek Mine

See Shut Up in the Mines of Coal Creek (File: RcSUIMCC)

Shut Up in the Mines of Coal Creek

DESCRIPTION: (Eleven) miners, trapped in the mines of Coal Creek, resign themselves to death but place their trust in Jesus. Their lamps are flickering, their food is almost gone; they say farewell to their wives and children, saying they will meet them in heaven
AUTHOR: Probably Green Bailey, though Darling lists it as by Norman Gilford
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Green Bailey under the pseudonym Dick Bell)
KEYWORDS: mining death farewell
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 9, 1911 - The Coal Creek explosion
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #59, "Shut Up in the Mines of Coal Creek" (1 text, 1 tune, incorrectly identified as Laws G9)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 272-274, "Shut Up in Coal Creek Mine" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 367-368, "Shut Up in the Mines of Coal Creek" (1 text)
Roud #844
RECORDINGS:
Dick Bell [pseud. for Green Bailey], "Shut Up in the Mines of Coal Creek" (Challenge 425, 1928; on KMM)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Shut Up in the Mines of Coal Creek" (on NLCR15, NLCRCD2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cross Mountain Explosion (Coal Creek Disaster)" [Laws G9] (subject)
NOTES [59 words]: The Coal Creek explosion of 1911 actually involved more than 100 miners; I am not entirely certain that it is the event described here (there was another disaster in 1902). But, of course, this song could be about certain of the trapped miners rather than the whole gang.
Roud seemingly lumps this with Laws G9, but it is patently a different song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcSUIMCC

Shut Up, Brenda

DESCRIPTION: "Shut up, (Brenda), Shut up, (Brenda), Keep your big fat trap shut"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, p. 87, "Shut Up, Brenda" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: List087A

Shut Your Eyes

See Open Your Mouth and Shut Your Eyes (File: SaKo122C)

Shutting of the Gates of Derry by the Apprentice Boys of Derry

See Derry Walls Away (File: OrLa006)

Shutting of the Gates of Derry, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls "how, in olden time, ... a band of boys closed the gates and "Antrim's 'Red-shank'd' crew retreats." In beseiged Derry "pestillence held awful sway - Gaunt famine reigned... till brave Downing" saved the city.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1869 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(603))
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls "how, in olden time, Boys gave fame to Derry" "This famed date in Fifty-eight, Foemen crossed the Ferry, O! And with yells of fiendish hate, Sought to enter Derry, O!" But a band of boys closed the gates and "Antrim's 'Red-shank'd' crew retreats." "James, their craven king" sent instructions to "his Popish Parliament" in Dublin to "raze the walls of Derry" In Derry "pestillence held awful sway - Gaunt famine reigned ... till brave Downing" saved the city. "Brave Thirteen, who closed the Gate In December hoary, O. In the Keep of Eighty-Eight Hallowed with your glory O"
KEYWORDS: battle rescue death starvation Ireland patriotic youth
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 7, 1688 - The "Apprentice Boys" close the Londonderry gates against Lord Antrim's "Redshanks"
Jul 28, 1689 - Browning's ships break the 105 day siege of Derry (source: Cecil Kilpatrick, "The Siege of Derry: A City of Refuge" at the Canada-Ulster Heritage site)
FOUND IN:
Roud #V40518
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(603), "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry" ("Brothers, up! the pealing chime"), J. Moore (Belfast), 1852-1868
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "No Surrender (I)" (subject: The Siege of Derry)
cf. "No Surrender (II)" (subject: The Siege of Derry)
cf. "Derry Walls Away" (subject: The Siege of Derry)
cf. "Anniversary of the Shutting of the Gates of Derry" (subject: The Siege of Derry)
cf. "The Relief of Derry" (subject: The Siege of Derry)
cf. "The Maiden City" (subject: The Siege of Derry)
cf. "Derry's Walls" (subject: The Siege of Derry)
cf. "The Gates of Londonderry" (subject; The Siege of Derry)
NOTES [828 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(603) is the basis for the description. The erroneous reference to [16]58 in the second verse is corrected to [16]88 in the last. - BS
The Siege of Londonderry was one of those defining moments in Irish history, though it didn't seem like a particularly big deal at the time. It was defining for the way it was remembered.
The context is the Glorious Revolution of 1688 (for which see, e.g., "What's the Rhyme to Porringer?" and "The Vicar of Bray"). The Catholic James II had been driven off the English throne, replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary and her Protestant husband (and first cousin) William III of Orange. But this was just a small part of the war between France and most of the rest of Europe; the French were supporting James in order to distract the British while they dealt with other nations (including, potentially, William III's Netherlands).
And James decided to take advantage of his support in Ireland, still mostly Catholic. He would not himself arrive until March 1689, but his followers were active. According to Fry/Fry, pp. 159-160, "Londonderry had shown its Protestant colours as early as September 1688, when the apprentices, the working lads of the city, had closed the gates against the Catholic earl of Antrim and his men; later, when Tyrconnell [James's Lord Deputy of Ireland, for whom see 'Lilliburlero'] had most unwisely withdrawn whole regiments from the north, the Protestant gentry had raised levies in support of William. Tyrconnell had defeated them in a confused engagement known as the 'break of Dromore,' whereupon those who could not get sea passage away from the country had crowded as refugees into the garrison town of Enniskillen, in Fermanagh, and into Londonderry. James, beneath the city walls, called repeatedly upon the citizens to surrender, promising them a free pardon for their rebellion."
(This had not been James's plan; he wasn't supposed to go to Ulster; Miller, p. 226. But he was told that Londonderry would surrender if he went there, so he did -- and, very possibly, convinced the defenders to keep fighting.)
"The city's thirty thouand civilians were reduced to eating rats, but when the city's commander, Robert Lundy, seemed ready to surrender, the populace turned on him. The cry of the besieged city was 'No Surrender!' It would become a Protestant motto" (Golway, pp. 30-31).
There were threats of atrocities on both sides. Conrad von Rosen, the commander of the attackers, threatened to gather all the local Protestants who were not involved in the siege and leave them under the walls, forcing the people of Derry to take them in and feed them or let them starve. Supposedly there were 4000 of them. The people of Derry said they would hang their prisoners if that happened. (Miller, p. 227). You can see why there are still bitter memories.
If James had had an army instead of a rabble -- if he had even had some competent officers to control his rabble -- things might have turned out differently. Fry/Fry, p. 160: "The besiegers had no chance of taking the city by assault. James'[s] troops were untried and ill-equipped; they had no spades and shovels for mining the city walls, and no guns heavy enough to breach them. They could only wait until the defenders were starved into submission. Refugees had swelled the population to 30,000 and food supplies soon began to run out; people were dying of starvation and the garrison was too weak to fight.... Then, in the middle of June, six weeks after the siege had begun, an English fleet arrived in Lough Foyle to relieve the city."
The lough, however, had been blocked by James's troops, so it was six weeks before the ships were able to reach the city. Once they did, though, that was the end of the fifteen-week siege (Wallace, p. 56); with food now available, the Catholic army saw no point in continuing the siege. While this was going on, the rest of Ireland started to split into Catholic and Protestant segments, and finally William III showed up, and both sides headed for the Boyne, the subject of so many Irish songs.
According to Bardon, pp. 157-158, "Derry was the last walled city to be built in western Europe. The siege of 105 days was the last great siege in British history, and the most renowned. 'Oh! to her the loud acclamations o the garrison soldiers round the Walls when the ships came to the Quay,' Ash wrote in his diary.'...The Lord, who has preserved this city from the Enemy, I hope will always keep it to the Protestants.' For the Protestants of Ulster this epic defence gave inspiration for more than three centuries to come."
You can generally tell the perspective of a commentator by whether he refers to the city as Derry (the Catholic title) or Londonderry (Protestant). I've called it Londonderry because, at this particular time, the Protestants were defending it. Though the area is in fact mostly Catholic.
For more background on the siege, see "Derry Walls Away." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: BrdSGD

Si Hubbard (Hey Rube)

DESCRIPTION: Two farm boys decide to visit the circus. They raise the money and go in to see the sights. After volunteering to take part in various escapades, they end up being carried off by a balloon. When at last they land, they wind up in jail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: humorous farming technology prison
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 350-352, "Si Hubbard" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST San350 (Full)
NOTES [25 words]: Another piece which may owe more to Sandburg's imagination than to tradition. Even Sandburg says that it came, indirectly, from a carnival barker. - RBW
File: San350

Si j'avais le Bateau (If I had the Boat)

DESCRIPTION: French. If I had the boat which my father had given me I could cross the water and the sea without boat. If I had children who would not call me mom I would often ask God that they would die suddenly. To the proprietor's honor, let's pop the cork.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage drink humorous nonballad nonsense
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 96-97, "Si J'Avais le Bateau" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Mme. Josephine Costard, "Si J'Avais le Bateau" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea096

Si J'Etais Petite Alouette Grise (If I Were Small Gray Lark)

DESCRIPTION: French. A young drummer/sailor returns from war. He asks a king's daughter to be his girl. She says he must convince the king he is very rich, which he does. The king agrees. The drummer/sailor thanks the king but leaves: he has prettier girls at home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage greed courting rejection gold father sailor royalty
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 889, "Si J'Etais Petite Alouette Grise" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Trois Jeunes Tambours (Three Young Drummers)
Une Jeune Tambour (A Young Drummer)
Belle Alouette Grise (Beautiful Grey Lark)
NOTES [94 words]: This ballad is common on the internet as "Trois Jeunes Tambours" -- for example at the site of "La Caverne de Cat."
The discussion of wealth is about three ships owned by the drummer/sailor:I have three ships on the sea: one has a cargo of gold, one has a cargo of pearls [or jewels], and the third is for my girl friend. The conversation about the ships may be between the drummer/sailor and the king's daughter.
The endings spoken to the king by the protagonist vary between: (1) Your daughter is something special (2) In my country there are prettier girls. - BS
File: Pea889

Sic 'Em Dogs On

DESCRIPTION: "Yes, I'm goin' downtown and the the chief police you siccin' your dogs on me." The woman apologizes, but the singer says she has his money and is loosing the dogs. He begs her to take him back. She says, "Don't you drive me round."
AUTHOR: Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (recorded by Bukka White for the Lomaxes)
KEYWORDS: police courting rejection dog
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, p. 175, "Sic 'Em Dogs On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18751
RECORDINGS:
Bukka White, "Sic 'Em Dogs On" (Herwin 92400, 1939)
File: BTN175

Sic a Wife as Willie Had (Willie Wastle)

DESCRIPTION: "Willie Wastle dwalt on Tweed." I "wadna gie a button" for his wife. "Tinker Maggie was her mither." One eye, few teeth, limping leg, hump on back and breast. Her actions are as crude as her looks. "Sic a wife as Willie had."
AUTHOR: (reweitten by Robert Burns)
EARLIEST DATE: 1792 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 132, "Sic a Wife As Willie Had" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WASTLE
Roud #2702
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4242), "Willie Wastle," W. Dixon (Workington), n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "King of the Castle" (lyrics)
NOTES [129 words]: Somewhere in the depths of my memory, there is a vague memory of a children's rhyme about Wullie Wastle, King of the Castle. The Opies print a different version as a form of Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes, #287, "I'm the king of the castle." Whether there is a relationship between that and this I do not know.
According to Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, p. 217, the Burns song, "Willie Wastle Dwelt on Tweed," was based on an earlier "Sic a Wife as Willie Had," and contains a mix of real and unknown places ("Linkumdoddie" being an example of the latter). But Willie Wastle's castle was real, the castle of Home in southeast Roxburghshire, but it was destoyed by Cromwell. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CrMa132

Sick Parade (Bugle Call Lyric)

DESCRIPTION: "Sixty-four, ninety-four! He'll never go sick no more; The poor bugger's dead."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 234, "(no title)" (1 short text)
File: BrPa234D

Sick, Sick

See Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon [Child 178] (File: C178)

Sick, Sick, and Very Sick

See Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon [Child 178] (File: C178)

Side by Side

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, we ain't got a barrel of money, Maybe we're ragged and funny, But we travel along, singing a song, Side by side." They can't predict the future, but the couple will continue together
AUTHOR: Harry M. Wooda (source: Gardner)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927
KEYWORDS: love money clothes travel
FOUND IN:
Roud #27087
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, Dennis Cook, "Ain't Got a Barrel of Money" (Piotr-Archive #603, recorded 06/08/2023)
Dan Gardella, Fran Block, "Side by Side" (Piotr-Archive #529, recorded 03/09/2023)
NOTES [60 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 365, estimates that this was the fifteenth most popular song in America in 1909, peaking at #3 in August of the year (the #1 song that year being something by the name of "Charmaine"). It had another peak in April 1953. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcSidByS

Sidewalks of New York

DESCRIPTION: Known by its chorus: "East side, west side, all around the town, The tots sang Ring-a-Rosie, London Bridge is falling down...." The verses describe courting in New York, and wax nostalgic for the days when the singer was one of those doing the courting
AUTHOR: Words: James W. Blake (1862-1935) / Music: Charles B. Lawlor (1852-1925)
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (sheet music published by Howley, Haviland & Co)
KEYWORDS: courting game children
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 48, "Sidewalks of New York" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 257, "The Sidewalks of New York" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 211-213, "The Sidewalks of New York" (1 text)
OneTuneMore, p.16, "East Side, West Side" (1 text, 1 tune, the chorus only)
Fuld, pp. 499-500, "The Sidewalks of New York"
DT, SIDWLKNY
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 259-262, "The Sidewalks of New York" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1899 sheet music)
William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, pp. 54-56, "(The Sidewalks of New York)" (1 text, tune on pp. 165-168)
Roud #22680
RECORDINGS:
Abner Burkhardt, "The Sidewalks of New York" (Champion 15279, 1927)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Sidewalks of New York" (Columbia 437-D, 1925; Columbia 15256-D, 1928 [as Al Craver])
George Gaskin, "Sidewalks of New York" (Berliner 0959, 1895)
Andrew Jenkins & Carson Robison, "Sidewalks of New York" (OKeh 45232, 1928)
Billy Jones, "The Sidewalks of New York" (Edison 51340, 1924)
SAME TUNE:
East Side, West Side ("East side, west side, All around the field") (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 105)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
East Side, West Side
NOTES [595 words]: For some inexplicable reason, this was Al Smith's 1928 presidential campaign song. - RBW
Well, Smith *was* the governor of New York. Of course, rubbing that in didn't endear him to the rest of the country, and anti-Catholic bigotry helped do him in. - PJS
Kahn, p. 73, has an explanation: "At the Democratic National Convention of 1920, held in San Francisco, Alfred E. Smith first became linked with the song, 'The Sidewalks of New York.' This association was the result of a bandleader's mistake. [Prohibition] had gone into effect few months earlier, and the convention, which ultimately selected James M. Cox as its candidate for the Presidency, was the scene of some sharp infighting between wet and dry forces.... Representative W. Bourke Cockram of New York... put into nomination the name of a resolute wet, Al Smith.Tthe usual ovation followed, and the band prepared to strike up a tune appropriate to the Smith cause. The bandleader knew two things about Smith: he was governor of New York, and he was a notorious devotee of the songs that had been sung by Harrigan and Hart and written by Harrigan and Braham. Forthwith, the bandleader instructed his men to play what he thought was an eminently fitting Harrigan-Braham song, 'The Sidewalks of New York.' Smith was stuck with it for the rest of his life." (The song, after all, wasn't by Harrigan and Braham.)
Moody, p. 2, says that the song Smith had actually requested in 1920 was a genuine Harrigan and Braham song, "Maggie Murphy's Home" (see the entry on that song), and that the band had been supplied with a variety of Harrigan and Braham tunes, but that "Sidewalks" got into the pile also, and when Bourke Cockran, who announce Smith, said, "We brought him here to you from the sidewalks of New York." Smith's musical fate was sealed. This even though Smith was actually "commodore" of the official Ned Harrigan fan club in 1910! (Kahn, p. 77).
Incidentally, the flip side of the Dalhart recording was "Al Smith for President." I don't know whether that's cause or effect. It's interesting to note that Herbert Hoover (Smith's opponent, who won the 1928 election) doesn't seem to have made any influence on oral tradition, but in addition to the Dalhart recording, Dave Macon sang an Al Smith song.
According to Studwell/Schueneman, p. 55, "In the true melting pot tradition of the city, New York native James W. Blake... collaborated with Irish immigrant Charles B Lawlor [to produce this song]."
Jasen, p. 26, reports that this was popularized in 1894 when it was sung by Lottie Gilson, known as "The Little Magnet" because of the crowds she drew.
Jasen, p. 28, reports, "Supposedly, [Charles] Lawlor, humming the melody, walked into the hat shop where [James] Blake was working, and asked him to write some lyrics about New York. Blake agreed then and there, writing the words down as he waited on customers. When the song was finished, Lawlor took it to Pat Howley, who bought it outright."
Kahn, p. 74, says that that bandmaster who played it for Al Smith wasn't entirely wrong about a Harrigan and Hart connection: "Lawlor and Blake are thought to have been inspired, consciously or subconsciously, by an 1879 tune from The Mulligan Guards' Ball, entitled 'The Babies on Our Block'" [Indexed as "Babies on Our Block"].
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 371, says that this was a hit in 1895, and then again in September 1928, when (he estimates) it was the ninth-most-popular song in America.
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Gil257

Sidney Allen [Laws E5]

DESCRIPTION: The Allen Family is in court; Sidney and the others break out by shooting the judge and starting a gunfight in the court. Recaptured and brought home, he is sentenced to a long prison term instead of being executed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: prison fight trial feud
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1912 - Trial of the Allen family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws E5, "Sidney Allen"
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 104, pp. 242-243, "Sidney Allen" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 140, "Sidney Allen" (1 text)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 155, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 160-161)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 113, "Hillsville, Virginia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 254-255, "Sidney Allen" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 208, "Sidney ALlen" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 191-192, "Sidney Allen" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Robert M. Rennick, "The Tragedy of the Allen Family of Hillsville, Virginia,'" Vol. VII, No. 2 (Dec 1959), p. 13, "Sidney Allen" (1 text)
DT 777, SIDALLEN
Roud #612
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Sydney Allen" (Columbia 15042-D, 1925) (Domino 3642, 1925; Banner 1672, 1926)
Henry Whitter, "Sydney Allen" (OKeh 40109, 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pardon of Sydna Allen" (subject)
cf. "Casey Jones (I)" [Laws G1] (meter)
cf. "Claude Allen" [Laws E6] (subject)
NOTES [998 words]: Most of the background to this comes from Robert M. Rennick's article in NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, so I'd suggest you read that if you want the fuller story; the full issue is on the web at the North Carolina Digital Collections site.
The members of the Allen family seem to have been the backest of backwoodsmen, and the sort of individualist conservatives who found right-wing militia, although they had done fairly well by themselves and some of them were educated. But they also had terrible tempers; Floyd had once had a shootout with his own brother Jack. A third brother was Sidney, whose name was apparently pronounced "Sidna" and sometimes spelled that way -- including by Rennick.
The events took place in 1911-1912 near Hillsville, Virginia, in the southwestern part of the state. Even today, it has a population of less than three thousand. It all started with a fight over a girl between someone named Thomas and Wesley Edwards (the 19-year-old nephew of Floyd and Sidney Allen, and the first cousin of Claude, Floyd's son). The fight took place in a church, so there were plenty of witnesses; Wesley and his 21-year-old brother Sidney Edwards faced charges over the altercation.
The Edwards brothers had lost their father some years ago, so Floyd had watched over him. He advised them to go to North Carolina until things blew over. They left, but were induced to return -- and were promptly arrested. When Floyd saw them handcuffed and bound (a precaution that was clearly warranted, given that they were fugitives from justice), he attacked the deputies who were transporting them and set the boys free.
Eventually retaken, Wesley and Sidney Edwards were sentenced to sixty and thirty days, respectively, served their time, and were freed. But Floyd now faced charges for his interference -- plus assault on officers of the court. All he was charged with was "malicious obstruction of justice"; I suspect the charges would be harsher today. Floyd Allen ended up on on trial, in March 1912, for "malicious obstruction of justice." (Sidney was also charged, but the charge was dropped; he had been nearby but apparently not taken part.)
Floyd's trial was postponed more than once, but on March 13, 1912, he went before the law. He was found guilty the next day, and was sentenced to a year in prison by Judge Thornton L. Massie. Massie agreed to hear new evidence presented by Allen's lawyer, but required Floyd -- who had, after all, been convicted -- to stay in prison for the night; the new evidence would be presented the next day. Floyd told the court, "Gentlemen, I just ain't going" -- whereupon the whole family started shooting and made their escape. Two shots, one supposedly from Claude and one from Sidney, hit Judge Massie; the second one was fatal. Floyd also started firing, and so did his nephew Friel and others. So indiscriminate was their fire that four people were killed, including a 17-year-old girl, Betty Ayres, who had been a witness for the defense. At least eight others were wounded -- bystanders, jurors, plus Floyd and Sidney Allen. Floyd's wound was bad enough that he was unable to make a getaway and was to a hotel instead, where he was eventually arrested.
The rest fled, supposedly making a pact not to be taken without a fight. It took week fo find them, but first Sidney Edwards, then Claude Allen, then Friel Allen (another son of Floyd) were found. Sidney Allen and his nephew Wesley Edwards managed to make their way to Des Moines, Iowa. But Wesley's sweetheart, Maud Iroler, decided to visit him -- and suspicious family had her trailed, and she led the authorities to where Sidney and Wesley were to be found.
That took long enough that Floyd had already gone on trial again, this time for the murder of the Commonwealth's Attorney in his first case, William M. Foster. The case was tried on April 30, 1912; Floyd was convicted on May 17 and sentenced to electrocution.
Claude (I read somewhere that it was spelled "Claud," but Rennick always uses the "e") was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to fifteen years. His lawyers wanted a new triel -- this ended in a hung jury. Public pressure was such that Claude was tried a third time -- and this time was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. Both Claude and Floyd were executed on March 28, 1913.
Sidney Allen was tried twice, on two different charges; he and Friel Allen were sentenced to to eighteen years, and separately, he and Wesley Edwards were tried for the murder of Judge Massie, with Sidney getting 35 years and Wesley 27.
Friel Allen was eventually pardoned and became a model citizen. Wesley Edwards, pardoned in 1926, also managed to live a decent life after release. Sidney Edwards, though he too was pardoned in 1922, couldn't clean up his act; two years later, he killed his wife and then himself. Sidney Allen was also pardoned in 1926 and seems to have lived relatively quietly for the rest of his life.
For substantially more detail about the Allens, see the NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal article cited above; in addition to texts, it has background on the family. Sidney Allen's story, Memoirs of J. Sidna Allen - A True Narrative of What Really Happened at Hillsville, Virginia was published by F. H. Lamb of Mount Airy, NC in 1929, and is now available on some reprint sites, but the quality of those things is consistently awful and the cost high. In any case, I doubt its reliability.
A more recent book is Jerry L. Haynes, Mountain Justice: A Search for the Truth in the Aftermath of the Carroll County Courthouse Tragedy, 2012, which seemingly tries to get at the politics of the situation. (The Allens apparently felt that all their troubles came because of the political attitudes of the county.) I have not found a copy.
There is also an historical novel, No Villains, No Heroes, by Thomas Moore, 2012. I have no idea if it's awful or merely bad or useless; it seems a safe bet that it is one or the other. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LE05

Siege of Moscow, The

See Sandy and Nap (File: GrD1149)

Siege of Plattsburg, The

DESCRIPTION: "Back side of Albany stands Lake Champlain." "On Lake Champlain Uncle Sam set his boats, And Captain McDonough to sail 'em." The British come to attack Plattsburg, but scare off the British governor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Newspaper, "Brother Johnathan")
KEYWORDS: war battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug/Sept 1814 - Plattsburg campaign. As part of a three-pronged attack strategy (the other prongs being at Chesapeake Bay and the lower Mississippi), a British army of 11,000 regulars led by General Sir George Prevost and a naval force under Captain George Downie attack Lake Champlain.
Sept 6, 1814 - The British army reaches Plattsburg and awaits the navy
Sept 11, 1814 - Battle of Plattsburg. An American naval squadron under Captain Thomas Macdonough (1783-1825) defeats the British force in a fierce contest with very high casualties, compelling the British fleet to retreat in disorder. The British army, though under no military compulsion, retreats as well.
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 510-512, "Siege of Plattsburg" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 351-352, "The Siege of Plattsburg" (1 text)
Roud #15541
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of Champlain" (subject)
cf. "Noble Lads of Canada" (subject)
NOTES [1379 words]: In 1814, with Napoleon temporarily under control after the Battle of Leipzig and, later, his abdication, the British decided to finally finish off the War of 1812 with the Americans. They decided on a three-pronged attack -- the northern force starting from the Great Lakes, the center heading for Washington D.C., and the southern attack being made on New Orleans.
Considering that the British would have more force available than ever before (because they could use the ships and men that had been fighting Napoleon), and that they had generally had the best of it to that time even with their minimal forces -- pushing back every American attack on Canada and eventually driving most of the small American fleet off the seas -- the results were disastrously bad.
Only the middle assault had any success, when Robert Ross's men burned many of the government buildings in Washington. Their move toward Baltimore, however, was stopped at the siege of Fort McHenry, commemorated in "The Star Spangled Banner."
The Battle of New Orleans (for which see, e.g., "The Hunters of Kentucky" and "The Battle of New Orleans" [Laws A7]) resulted in the death of the slow-moving British commander Pakenham and the defeat of his force. To be sure, that assault followed the attack on Baltimore -- and the peace treaty.
Plattsburg, though, was the real disaster, because the British had every advantage and managed to lose anyway.
General Sir George Prevost, the British commander-in-chief in Canada (and before that at varuous points around the Caribbean; Heidler/Heidler, p. 428) had done a good job to this point, but he had never actually commanded in the field; Isaac Brock had won the great victories of 1812 (see "The Battle of Queenston Heights" and "Brave General Brock" [Laws A22]), and Gordon Drummond had been field commander at Lundy's Lane in 1814 (see "The Battle of Bridgewater"). With the British finally going on the offensive now that extra troops were available, Prevost himself took charge.
Orders from London told him to advance toward Lake Champlain, which would among other things split Federalist New England (which had opposed the war and was still trying to trade with the British) from the more pro-war West and South (Borneman, pp. 199-200). Prevost had every advantage, too: The Americans, expecting more action on the Niagara front, had sent roughly half of the forces they had had in the Champlain area to Sacket's Harbor to meet a threat which never materialized (Hickey, p. 190; Heidler/Heidler, p. 420).
Prevost was hardly enthusiastic. Even though he had some 10,000 troops at his disposal (Jameson says 14,000), all regulars, meaning that he could sweep aside any force the Americans could put up, he wanted his ships to control the rivers. As a result, he dawdled (Borneman, p. 201). This even though the Americans had left in the Champlain region was a few thousand soldiers under Brigadier General Alexander Macomb (whose wife would eventually be credited with writing another song about this battle, "The Banks of Champlain"), plus the naval forces that 31-year-old Master Commander Thomas Macdonough could scrape up. These were inferior to the British forces (the British had captured two of the stronger American ships in 1813, giving them naval superiority; Hickey, p. 190), but Macdonough was to handle them brilliantly, and Prevost would do the rest.
Each fleet had one big vessel at Lake Champlain: The Americans had a 700-tonner named Saratoga, with 26 guns; the British had the strongest ship on the lake in the 1200-ton, 37-gun Confiance -- which was, however, so new that workmen were still aboard her as she headed up Lake Champlain! (Hickey, p. 190). Confiance was supported by the 16-gun Linnet and the 11-gun sloops Chub and Finch (the ships taken from the Americans the year before).
The American flagship Saratoga's consorts were the 20-gun Eagle, the 17-gun Ticonderoga, the 7-gun Preble, and a bunch of one-gun and two-gun small fry (the British had some of those, too; see Borneman, pp. 205-206). Most of these were slapped together in just two months, using construction shortcuts and unsuitable wood (Delgado, p. 111), although the Ticonderoga had already been under construction; she had been started as a steamship and was hastily converted to a schooner-rigged warship (Delgado, p. 110).
The weight of broadide of the two fleets was about even, but the American ships were short of sailors, they were manned with "soldiers, convicts from an army chain gang[,] and army musicians" (Delgado, p. 110). And the British ships, with more long guns, were much better for an action on open water (Heidler/Heidler, p. 420).
An action on open water was just what they didn't get. When it came time to attack the American position at Plattsburg, Prevost again wanted his navy to go first, even though the man who had built the British fleet and who knew the local waters, Lieutenant Daniel Pring, had been replaced as head of the fleet by Captain George Downie at the last minute (Borneman, pp. 204-205). Downie would play right into Macdonough's hands.
The American general Macomb had set up his lines on the edge of Plattsburg Bay. This let Macdonough put his forces at the head of the bay, making it difficult for the British to attack at long range; they almost had to turn into the bay, exposed to Macdonough's broadsides -- and, because they had to turn, they would lose most of their wind. Plus MacDonough had a trick: He had Saratoga tied to a series of winches so he could turn her around in place should her starboard side (facing the battle) be too damaged (Borneman, pp. 208-211).
The two lead ships, Saratoga and Confiance, were soon locked in battle. Saratoga probably took more damage (the British were firing heated cannonballs, which twice set her afire; Hickey, p. 191), but one of Saratoga's shots killed Downie, and at the key moment Macdonough spun his ship around. Confiance tried the same trick, couldn't manage it -- and took so much damage in the process that she had to strike her colors. Paine, p, 119, estimates that she took 105 hits from round shot, killing 40 of her crew and wounding 83. Saratoga was too damaged to fight an open-water action -- the two sides had roughly equal casualties -- but she had won. And, without Confiance, the rest of the British fleet was doomed. Linnet struck her colors about fifteen minutes later, and the battle was over (Borneman, p. 212).
Prevost still had at least a two to one edge on land, and it was probably closer to three to one (if Jameson's numbers are right, it was four to one) -- but he retreated anyway, without even seriously engaging Macomb (Borneman, pp. 213-214; Hickey, p. 193). The British thrust in the North -- the potential war-winner -- was at an end. Indeed, as it turned out, that was the effective end of the war on the Canadian frontier.
The American victories at Plattsburg and Baltimore, especially the former, were largely responsible for the end of the war; the Duke of Wellington told the British government that they needed naval superiority on the Great Lakes, and Plattsburg proved once and for all that they didn't have it. The Americans and British had been negotiating, but the two defeats caused the British to back off their harsher demands.
Ironically, the final Treaty of Ghent didn't even address the issues over which Madison had gone to war (impressment, etc.), though it did eventually result in some boundary clarifications.
Incidently, Paul Stamler tells me that they now spell the name of the town "Plattsburgh."
Macomb earned a major general's commission for Plattsburg, and eventually became commander-in-chief of the Unites States army from 1835 until 1841 (Jameson, p. 391). MacDonald, however, whose careful planning had been the key to the victory on the lake, soon contracted tuberculosis (if he wasn't suffering from it already), and spent most of the rest of his career ashore. He never rose above the rank of captain, and died in 1825 at the age of 41 (Heidler/Heidler, p. 313).
Archaeologists have now discovered the wrecks of several of the ships at Plattsburg, including Eagle, Ticonderoga, and Linnet. Presumably artifacts will someday show up in museums. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.0
File: LxA510

Siege of St. Malo

DESCRIPTION: "On the fourteenth of November, Straight to the French coast we did steer, All against the brave St. Malo, With our fleet we did steer... To burn St. Malo down." They bombard the town. The French ships and town are burned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (collected by Sabine Baring Gould from J. Peale)
KEYWORDS: battle France
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov. 16-19, 1693 - Admiral Benbow's bombardment of St. Malo
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 19, "The Siege of St. Malo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3309
NOTES [12 words]: For Admiral John Benbow (1653-1702), see the notes to "Admiral Benbow." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Gund019

Sierry Petes, The

See Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail [Laws B17] (File: LB17)

Sig-i-nal Hill

See Back Bay Hill (File: FJ165)

Sights and Scenes of Belfast, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer claims to be "a country clown" looking for work. He finds muddy streets, "scavengers" on strike, strange fashions -- "the Grecian Bend" -- hawkers that will "tear you limb from limb," drunkards and shirkers and artful dodgers.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: commerce humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 8, "The Sights and Scenes of Belfast" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [17 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong says that this is a "song that takes us on a tour of the city in the 1870s." - BS
File: Leyd008

Sign of the Blue Bell, The

See Next Monday Morning (File: ShH38)

Sign of the Bonnie Blue Bell, The

See Next Monday Morning (File: ShH38)

Sign On Day

DESCRIPTION: "It's sign-on day at the Dance Palais And we're down to a quid or two...." The singer describes the hard work of (sugar) cane cutting. "Our hands are raw, but two bob more Will make them seem like new. If we get enough pay we'll cut all day...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: work Australia harvest
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 198-199, "Sign On Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [47 words]: Cane-cutting was seasonal work, so cutters and farmers gathered for a "sign on day" at some local venue (such as the "Dance Palais" mentioned here). Cane-cutters were paid by how much they cut, so they would often work exhaustingly long hours, then crash once the season was done. - RBW
File: FaE198

Signing the Pledge

DESCRIPTION: "The old folks would be happy If they knew I'd signed the pledge, For my feet have long been straying On the brink of ruin's edge." He hopes, "God helping me," to stay free of drink, to help his parents as they grow old
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: drink family
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 328, "Signing the Pledge" (1 text)
Roud #7802
File: R328

Signs of Doom

See I've a Long Time Heard (File: CoCo071)

Silent Minister

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Silent minister, one, two, three. Elephant feet... Fairy feet...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Bluebells My Cockle Shells)
KEYWORDS: jumprope clergy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #518, "Silent minister, one, two, three" (1 text)
Roud #20477
File: AJRR518

Silent Night (Still the Night, Stille Nacht)

DESCRIPTION: German christmas song with multiple English translations, the most famous beginning "Silent night, holy night, All is calm, all is bright." The night of Jesus's birth is praised
AUTHOR: Music: Franz Gruber (1787-1863) / German Words: Joseph Mohr (1792-1848)
EARLIEST DATE: 1832 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: Christmas religious Jesus nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Germany Britain US
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Heart-Songs, p. 407, "Heart Songs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, "Silent Night, Holy Night" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 267, "Silent Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 384, "Silent Night" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 500-501, "Silent Night"
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 104, "Silent Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 43, "Silent Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SLNTNITE*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 64-65, "Silent Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #299, "Stille Nacht" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Soul Stirrers, "Silent Night" (Aladdin 2028, n.d. but post-WWII)
SAME TUNE:
The Sinking of HMS Hood (File: Tawn067)
NOTES [809 words]: Joseph Mohr, the assistant priest at a church in Oberndorf, Austria (Reynolds, p. 192) reportedly wrote these words in 1818. The tale of Gruber's music is the stuff of folklore: His church's organ was broken (damaged by mice), and could not be repaired until after Christmas. Therefore Gruber needed music for guitar and voice -- the only things he had available. On December 24, he wrote this music for Mohr's words.
According to Stulken, p. 168, "[Mohr and Gruber] sang the hymn that evening, with Gruber accompanying on the guitar, and the choir repeating the last two lines in four-part harmony."
It is said that the music was given to the world by the organ repairman, though this may be one cute story too many, as the song was not published until 1832 (indeed, even the broken organ story has been described as probably fictional). The truth, according to Johnson, is simply that the song was circulated privately for some years, until someone named Friese heard it, took it down, and had it published. It apparently took some time for Gruber and Mohr to get credit. It is interesting to note that Mohr wrote six verses (which, incidentally, never mention Mary!), but three of these have been completely ignored by later singers.
The first version published in America, J. W.Warner's "Silent night! Hallowe'd night" (published 1849 in The Devotional Harmonist) seems to have had no currency.
Julian, p. 761, lists no fewer than eight "common" English translations of these words and three that aren't in common use. There are really only three of much significance, though. The earliest, "Stilly night, holy night," by Emily Elliot, has since been largely forgotten. In the U.S., the form "Silent Night, Holy Night" is usual; it is often listed as anonymous though it's sometimes credited to John Freeman Young (e.g. Stulken, p. 129). Reynolds, pp. 470-471, also accepts the attributions, and points to an article in the October 1957 edition of The Hymn by Byron Edward Underwood, entitled "Bishop John Freeman Young, Translator of 'Stille Nacht.'" Reynolds reports that Young was born in Pittston, Maine, in 1820, and educated at Wesleyan University, but became an Episcopalian and attended Virginia Theological Seminary. He eventually became Bishop of Florida, and died in New York City in 1885.
In Britain, we often meet the version "Still the night." This too is often listed as anonymous, but Julian, p. 183, lists it as by Stopford Augustus Brooke (born 1832); I read somewhere that the translation was published in 1881, which would mean that it is from Brooke's Christian Hymns, which he published after becoming an Anglican in that year.
Neither "translation" actually represents the German words very well.
Spaeth reports that the song was popularized in the United States by the Reiner (Rainer) family, starting around 1841. Ian Bradley's Penguin Book of Carols also attributes its popularity to this group -- but in Austria.
Minnesota choral director Philip Brunelle makes the interesting point that we almost always hear this sung too slowly. Gruber's original arrangement was at a typical waltz tempo. The melody has also gotten a little less elaborate over the years; a couple of places where Gruber's melody cycled through a chord where we now stay on a single note.
Despite the famous story of the song's origin, some sources do not list Mohr and Gruber as the authors. Songs That Never Grow Old, which lists 1909 and 1913 copyright dates, calls it "Holy Night" and credits it to "Michael Haydn."
Also, there are other songs known as "Silent Night." H.S. Perkins, The Climax, 1883, p. 45, has an item that begins "Silent night! silent night! Starry lamps thy pathway trace, Look in heav'nly splendor bright...."
Julian, pp. 760-761, says that this is the only poem by Joseph Mohr ever translated into English, and reports that Mohr "was born at Salzburg, Austria, on Dec. 11, 1792. After being ordained priest on Aug. 21, 1815, by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Salzburg, he was successively assistant at Ramsau and at Laufen; then coadjutor at Kuchl, at Golling, at Vigaun, at Adnet, and at Authering; then Vicar-Substitute at Hof and at Hintersee -- all in the diocese of Salzburg. In 1828 he was appointed Vicar at Hintersee, and in 1837 at Wagrein, near St. Johann. He d[ied] at Wagrein, Dec. 4, 1848."
Reynolds, p. 323, says that Gruber was born near Hochbert in 1787, the son of a linen weaver who did not encourage his son's musical interests; he learned to play violin on his own, then studied organ. He was primarily a schoolteacher from 1807 to 1833, taking up the job of organist in 1816 to supplement his income. In 1833 he finally got a full-time position as organist and choir director at Hallein. In his life he is credited with some ninety compositions, but this tune is the only one that is remembered. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB384B

Silent Night, Holy Night

See Silent Night (Still the Night, Stille Nacht) (File: FSWB384B)

Silk Merchant's Daughter (I), The [Laws N10]

DESCRIPTION: A girl's parents send her lover away. She dresses in men's clothes and follows him. Their ship sinks. In a lifeboat, she is chosen by lot to be killed for food; he is to kill her. (She reveals herself); they spot (land or a ship) and all are saved
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (Journal of the Polly)
KEYWORDS: love exile cross-dressing ship wreck disaster cannibalism reprieve rescue sailor
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Newf,Ont) Britain(Scotland,England(South)) Ireland
REFERENCES (27 citations):
Laws N10, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter"
Greig/Duncan1 177, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 239, "As I Was A-Walking by Newgate One Day" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers,pp. 91-92, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #4, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 296-298, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 150-251, "The Jolly Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 184-185, "Constant Lovers (The Silk Merchant's Daughter)" (1 long but incomplete text, 2 tunes)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 25, "The Castaways" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 63-64, "The Merchant's Daughter Turned Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 1, "To Fair London Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 43, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 71, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 99, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (fragments of a text with narration of the plot as recalled by the informant)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 107, "The Silk-Merchant's Daughter" (2 texts)
Morri, #212, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 35, pp. 148-149, "The Silk-Merchant's Daughter" (1 text)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 29, "Seafaring Man" (1 text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 43, "The Silk-Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, which Laws describes as "almost completely rewritten"; the boy goes to sea to avoid the girl)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 10, p. 21, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 fragment, probably this)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #42, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 64, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #37, The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 64, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 61, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 441, SLKMRCHT
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), p. 78, "The Old Miser" (1 text, missing most of the action; it might be Laws N6 or Laws N10 or something else)
Roud #552
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "To Fair London Town" (on IRTLenihan01)
Dellie Norton, "The Silkmerchant's Daughter" (on OldTrad1, FarMts4)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2698), "New York Streets" ("As I was a walking up New York street"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(3744), "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" ("As I was a-walking up New London street", unknown, n.d.; Harding B 25(1778), "The Silk Merchant's Daughter"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship in Distress" (plot) and references there
cf. "MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe) [Laws N39]" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe) [Laws N39] (File: LN39)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jamie and Nancy of Yarmouth
New England
The Rich Merchant's Daughter
File: LN10

Silk Merchant's Daughter (II), The

See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Silkmerchant's Daughter, The

See The Silk Merchant's Daughter [Laws N10] (File: LN10)

Silly Bill

See Common Bill (File: R119)

Silly Doe, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, "a silly doe, From Elford town I strayed." The master has his keeper take his hounds to chase her down "for leaving of the bounds." The chase goes "for many miles" and she is caught, cut, and murdered by the Duke of Cornwall.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: death hunting animal dog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 119, "The Silly Doe" (1 text)
Roud #17213
NOTES [63 words]: Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle: "Chasing the doe is a common metaphor for sexual pursuit, and may have been used as a disguise for a local scandal involving an important personage." - BS
Given that the Duke of Cornwall is one of the titles of the Prince of Wales, I'd say so! Perhaps a story about one of those notorious womanizers, the future George IV or the future Edward VII? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: ReCi119

Silly Old Man

DESCRIPTION: "Here's a silly ould man that lies all alone He wants a wife, and he can get none." He chooses. "Now, young couple, you're married together ... must obey father and mother ... love one another ... kiss together"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1830 (Carleton)
KEYWORDS: courting floatingverses playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North)) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 40, "Silly Old Man" (5 texts)
ADDITIONAL: William Carleton, Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry (London, 1896 (reprint of 1830 Dublin edition ("Digitized by Google"))), p. 151, "The Silly Ould Man" (1 text)
Katharine (Tynan) Hinkson, "The Girls' Room" in Christabel R. Coleridge and Arthur Innes, editors, The Monthly Packet (London, 1897 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XCIII, pp. 345, "The Old Fishwife" ("Here's an old Fishwife left all alone")
G.F. Northall, English Folk-Rhymes (London, 1892 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 378-379, ("Silly old man he walks alone") (1 text)
Roud #13181
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nuts in May" (tune, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
cf. "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (tune) and references there
cf. "King William was King James's Son" (some lines)
cf. "Little Sally Walker" (some lines)
NOTES [97 words]: Among the "Silly Old Man" Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame texts are four that begin "One poor widow left all alone," "Here's a poor widow, she's left alone," "Two old bachelors left alone" and "Three old bachelors all in a row." The rest of each text follows the description above. The shared text includes something like "Choose to the east, and choose to the west, Choose the one that you love best"; Chamberlain starts with that text, with no one being alone; one problem is that it shares that text and the ending with "King William was King James's Son" and "Little Sally Walker." - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: OpGa040

Silly Old Man, The

See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

Silly Old Miser, The

See Darby O'Leary (File: CrSNB110)

Silly Sunday School, The

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Silver Bell, Cocker Shell

See Bluebells, Cockleshells (File: SuSm104B)

Silver Bells, Cockle Shells

See Bluebells, Cockleshells (File: SuSm104B)

Silver Dagger (I), The [Laws G21]

DESCRIPTION: Two young people wish to marry; the boy's parents are against it because the girl is poor. The heartbroken girl stabs herself to death. The boy, finding her dying, takes the dagger and stabs himself as well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin)
KEYWORDS: love poverty suicide family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (36 citations):
Laws G21, "The Silver Dagger"
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 57, "Come All Good People" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 123-126, "The Silver Dagger" (2 texts plus 1 excerpt and references to 5 more, 1 tune)
Randolph 139, "The Silver Dagger" (6 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 161-163, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 139A)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 75, "Katie Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 13, "Come Youth and Age" (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 102, "The Green Fields and Meadows" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 23, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 308-310, "The Golden Dagger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 161-161, "The Silver Dagger/To All True Lovers Whom Parents Will Part" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 72, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 72, "The Silver Dagger" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp. 205-206, "Young Man and Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #36, "SIlver Dagger" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 64, pp. 188-189, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 34-35, "Parents, Warning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 38, "The Silver Dagger" (2 texts plus mention of 2 more, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 730-731, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #30, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 52, pp. 121-122, "Silver Dagger"; pp. 123-124, "Silver Dagger" (2 texts)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 109, "The Silver Dagger" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 60-61, "Who's That Knocking at my Window?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 60-62, "Silver Dagger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 110-111, "Young Men and Maids" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 71-72, "Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies" (1 text, with the "Fair and Tender Ladies" first line but otherwise clearly this song)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 165, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes, but the "B" fragment is probably "Charming Beauty Bright" [Laws M3])
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #42, "The Bloody Warning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #62, "Silver Dagger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, p. 42, "(The Bloody Dagger)" (1 short text, omitting the suicides)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 40, pp. 71-73, "The Two Lovers (The Silver Dagger)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 31, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, p. 10, "Don't Sing Love Songs" (1 text, 1 tune, containing only the middle verses; it's almost a mix of this and "Fair and Tender Ladies")
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 221-222, "Young Men and Maids" (1 text)
DT 639, SILVDAG2*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 202-203, "(The Young Lovers)" (1 text)
Roud #711
RECORDINGS:
Blue Sky Boys, "Katie Dear" (Bluebird B-7661/Montgomery Ward M-7468, 1938)
Homer and Walter Callahan, "Katie Dear (Silver Dagger)" (Banner 33103/Melotone M-13071/Oriole 8353/Perfect 13017/Romeo 5353, c. 1934; Conqueror 9145, 1938; on GoingDown)
Sheila Clark, "Silver Dagger" (on LegendTomDula)
Betty Garland, "Never Make True Lovers Part" (on BGarland01)
Paul Joines, "Young Men and Maids" (on Persis1)
Tommy Moore, Clint Howard et al, "True Lovers" (on Ashley02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drowsy Sleeper" [Laws M4]
cf. "Greenback Dollar" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
An Awful Warning
O Parents, Parents, All Take Warning
NOTES [31 words]: For the relationship between this and "The Drowsy Sleeper," see the notes on that song. Several songs are filed there which contain nearly as much material from that song as from this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LG21

Silver Dagger (II), The

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Silver Dollar (A Man Without a Woman)

DESCRIPTION: "A man without a woman is like a ship without a sail, Is like boat without a rudder... But the saddest thing... is a woman without a man." "Now you can roll a silver collar cross the bar-room floor" but a woman won't miss her man until he is gone
AUTHOR: Jack Palmer and Clarke Van Ness? (sheet music found on YouTube)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology) internet sources, without documentation, say it was written in 1907
KEYWORDS: love courting separation drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 76, "Man Without a Woman" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Harbin-Parodology, #26, p. 14, "A Man Without a Woman" (1 short text)
Roud #11405
NOTES [43 words]: Apparently this was recorded by Bobby Darin in 1965, but this isn't responsible for it being in tradition; note that Harbin-Parodology printed it, and Browne collected it, before that. Browne suggested that his informant may have learned it in college. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Brne076

Silver Flagon, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Lift high,' shouts Clarke, 'the Silver Flagon...The gift of good John Jacob Astor... I drink the curse of hated savage."" When the flagon is found missing, Clarke hangs an Indian, despite a lack of evidence
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads); supposedly written 1914
KEYWORDS: theft punishment execution Indians(Am.) discrimination
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 133-134, "(The Silver Flagon)" (1 text)
NOTES [119 words]: The John Jacob Astor of this song is of course not the man who went down with the Titanic, but his great-grandfather of the same name (1763-1848), who came to the United States in 1784 and founded the family fortune in the fur trade. As the song says, he founded the city of Astoria in 1811.
According to Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, this piece arises out of an incident in one of Astor's fur expeditions. John Clarke, one member of the company, was responsible for transporting the flagon. On May 30, 1813, due largely to his own carelessness, it was stolen. Clarke saw an Indian sneaking about, and even though the unfortunate man did not have the flagon or any of the other items missing, Clarke hanged him. - RBW
File: Burt133

Silver Herring, The (Caller Herring)

DESCRIPTION: Peddler's song/street cry: "Who'll buy my silver herrings?/I cry from door to door". Verses tell different ways prepare herring, plus different names. Many enjoy eating herring; more weep for the fishermen who are lost catching them
AUTHOR: Carolina Oliphaunt, Lady Nairne ?
EARLIEST DATE: before 1800 (Nairne's publication), with the tune older; O. J. Abbott learned the traditional version c. 1890
LONG DESCRIPTION: Peddler's song/street cry: "Who'll buy my silver herrings?/I cry from door to door". Verses tell different ways to cook and eat herring, plus different names - Yarmouth bloaters or Digby kipper red. Many enjoy eating herring; many more weep for the fishermen who are lost catching them or fear for their loved ones' safety
KEYWORDS: grief death fishing work food nonballad animal sailor worker family
FOUND IN: Britain(England) Canada(Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 45, "Buy my caller herrin'" (1 text)
DT, CALLHERR
Roud #3824
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Silver Herring" (on Abbott1)
NOTES [228 words]: If, as I believe, O. J. Abbott's "The Silver Herrings" is a traditional version of Lady Nairne's "Caller Herring," it has a complicated pedigree. Lady Nairne wrote "Caller Herrin'" "toward the end of the 18th century" to help Nathaniel Gow (son of Neil Gow). Nairne set it to a harpsichord piece by the elder Gow, which itself was based on a fish-seller's call.
To make life even more complicated, Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) had his own herring cry ("Herrings"; see Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 324). This has lines such as, "Be not sparing. Leave off swearing. Buy my herring Fresh from Malahide, Better never was tried.... Come, sixpence a dozen, to get me some bread, Or, like my own herrings, I soon shall be dead." Possibly independent, but who knows....
Lady Nairne's version was well enough known that Charles Dodgson ("Lewis Carroll") alludes to it in a poem he sent to Clara Halyburton Cunnynghame entitled "To Hallie" (which, despite its title, I suspect of having been intended for the tune "Annie Laurie"):
A chord of "Caller Herrin";
A note of "Home sweet Home;"
A bar of Scotland's "Blue Bells;"
Will make my spirit roam.
(see Morton N. Cohen, editor, with the assistance of Roger Lancelyn Green, The Letters of Lewis Carroll, two volumes, Oxford University Press, 1979, volume I, pp. 110-112). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: RcSilHer

Silver Jack [Laws C24]

DESCRIPTION: Robert Waite condemns the Bible as fictitious and Jesus as "just a common man." Silver Jack proceeds to beat the "infidel" until he admits the error of his ways.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (article, John A. Lomax)
KEYWORDS: Bible fight
FOUND IN: US(MW,NW,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws C24, "Silver Jack"
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 32, "Silver Jack" (1 text)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 32, "Silver Jack" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 78, pp. 206-207, "Silver Jack" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 60, "Silver Jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 38, "Lumberjack's Revival" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 88-91, "Lumberjack's Revival or Religion in Camp" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 25, "Lumberjack's Revival" (1 text)
DT 606, SILVRJAK(*)
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, pp. 85-87, "Silver Jack" (1 text)
Hal Cannon, editor, _Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering_, Giles M. Smith, 1985, pp. 21-23, "Silver Jack" (1 text)
Roud #705
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Camp 13 on the Manistee" (subject of beating a non-religious man)
cf. "Clementine" (tune)
cf. "Bung Yer Eye" (character)
cf. "The Protestant Maid" (subject: religious conversion) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Silver Jack the Evangelist
NOTES [179 words]: John "Silver Jack" Driscoll seems to have been the subject of this ballad; a quarrelsome, fighting man from the Saginaw valley of Michigan, he apparently fought too hard one time, and was sent to prison. To quote T. G. Belanger: "He died with his boots off, in the Ottawa Hotel, in L'Anse, Michigan, April 1, 1895. Beside him ...were found the following: a bottle of cough medicine, $85.00 in bills, and a note: 'This will be enough to bury me.'" - PJS
This particular example of Christian charity and peacefulness is suspected by both Hudson and Lomax (without supporting evidence) of having been originally published in a newspaper. Given its anti-intellectual tone (stanza 1 describes Waite as "Kind of cute and smart and tonguey; Guess he was a graduate"), I am inclined to doubt this. - RBW
I'm not; newspapers could be rabidly anti-intellectual. Read the Chicago Tribune during the McCormick era, or the early Hearst press. - PJS
On consideration, Paul has a point. But would any newspaperman claim that "the spread of infidelity Was checked in camp that day"? - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: LC24

Silver Moon Is Shining, The

DESCRIPTION: "The silver moon is shining Upon the silent meadow, I walk adown the meadow With no one near me." The singer sighs as the nightingale sings. The moon is lovely. "My heart would ease its aching If thou wert near me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962? (SongsOfManyNations)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage bird love separation campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 195, 345, 416, "The Silver Moon Is Shining" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "The Silver Moon Is Shining" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 5)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 9, "The Silver Moon Is Shining" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [27 words]: The note in Songs of Many Nations says this is Italian. It is copyrighted, but no author is listed. At least one girl scout book specified that it is Sicilian. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF195S

Silver Pin, The

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

Silver Spade

See Dig My Grave with a Silver Spade (File: FSWB351A)

Silver Threads

See I Know a Boarding-House (File: R479)

Silver Threads among the Gold

DESCRIPTION: "Darling, I am growing old, Silver threads among the gold Shine upon my brow today; Life is fading fast away; But, my darling, you will be... Always young and fair to me." The singer describes how (his) belove will grow old, but he will love her anyway
AUTHOR: Words: Eben Eugene Rexford (1848-1916) / Music: Hart Pease Danks (1834-1903)
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (sheet music published by Chas. W. Harris of New York)
KEYWORDS: love age nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 194-197, "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 1-4, "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 259, "Silver Threads Among The Gold" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 170-172, "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #62, "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (1 text)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 11, "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 501, "Silver Threads Among the Gold"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 168, 199, "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (notes only)
DT, SILVTHRD*
ST RJ19194 (Full)
Roud #6403
RECORDINGS:
Henry Burr, "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (Victor 19131, 1923)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (OKeh 45488, 1930)
Nancy Finley, "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #624, recorded 08/01/2023)
Andrew Jenkins & Carson Robison, "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (OKeh 45246, 1928)
Frank & James McCravy, "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (Brunswick 197, 1928; rec. 1927)
McMichen's Melody Men, "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (Columbia 15247-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
Marie Narelle, "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (CYL: Edison 9162, 1905)
Riley Puckett, "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (Columbia 405-D, 1925)
Royal Hawaiians, "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (Broadway 8100, c. 1930)
Will Oakland, "Silver Threads Among the Gold" (CYL: Edison [BA] 1547, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Genevieve" (theme)
cf. "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
At the Boarding House (Silver Threads; While the Organ Pealed Potatoes) (File: DTbordho)
The Mushroom Song ("Mushroom is a vegetable, To select them few are able") (Harbin-Parodology, #82, p. 25; Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 8)
The Old Toiler's Mesage (Gibbs M. Smith, _Joe Hill_, 1969 (I use the 1984 Peregrine Smith Books edition), p. 254)
NOTES [302 words]: Jackson notes, "The fashionable message of the song -- that romantic love remains always young even though bodies wrinkle and age -- was apparently lost on Danks's wife; she left the forty-year-old composer the year after 'Silver Threads' appeared."
This was the only song by Rexford (1848-1916) that amounted to anything in its original form (but see "Bill Vanero (Paul Venerez)" [Laws B6]; also, according to John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 1587, he produced a number of minor hymns published by Ira D. Sankey in the late 1870s) -- but it by itself was enough to cause monuments to be erected to him in both his birthplace in New York and his primary place of residence in Wisconsin.
Danks (1834-1903) spent much of his life trying to make a career of music; he composed several other melodies and several stage pieces -- but, again, none of them amounted to anything.
According to James J. Geller's Famous Songs and their Stories, this collaboration came about in a curious way: Rexford was editing a Wisconsin farm magazine and, needing a space filler, threw in one of his poems (not this one). Danks saw it, thought it worth setting to music, and sent Rexford a small sum to purchase the rights. That song went nowhere -- but Rexford responded by sending Danks much of his other works. Among those songs was "Silver Threads." Danks supplied music, and the two had the only hit they would ever produce.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 295, estimates, despite its age, that this was the twentieth most popular song in America in 1911 (#1 for the year being Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RJ19194

Silver Tide, The

See The Silvery Tide [Laws O37] (File: LO37)

Silver Whistle, The

DESCRIPTION: Scots Gaelic, welcoming Bonnie Prince Charlie to Scotland: "Oh who will play the silver whistle? ... (when my) king's son to sea is going?" The singer describes those who will welcome Charlie, as well as the handsome prince himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides)
KEYWORDS: Jacobites ship return travel
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1720-1788 - Life of Charles Edward Stuart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie"
1745 - The (last) Jacobite Rebellion
1746 - Prince Charlie's rebellion crushed at Culloden.
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Hebr))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 9, "Co Sheinneas an Fhideag Airgid? (O Who Will Play the Silver Whistle)" (1 text+ English translation, 1 tune)
Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides I, pp. 134-135, "An Island Jacobite Song/The Silver Whistle (An Fhideag Airgid)" (1 text+ English translation, 1 tune)
DT, SILVWHIS
File: K009

Silvery Grass

DESCRIPTION: School rhyme: "Silvery grass will make you pass, A rusty nail will make you fail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 63, "(Silvery grass will make you pass)" (1 short text)
File: SuSm063B

Silvery Lee, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "never river saw I any Half so fair or dear to me As my own, the silvery Lee" He prefers it to the Rhine (and whisky to wine), the Tagus, Tiber, Danube, Seine and Elbe. But he is influenced by "her voice" who also favors the Lee.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1818 (Cork broadside, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: river drink wine nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 226-227, "The Silvery Lee" (1 text)
File: CrPS226

Silvery Moon, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a girl lamenting in the moonlight. Her lover was true and brave, "but now he is dead, the youth once so gay... And he silently sleeps while I'm left here to weep By the sweet silver light of the moon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 19)
KEYWORDS: love death separation
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(MA,MW,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Randolph 800, "The Silvery Moon" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 154-155, "Roll On, Silver Moon" (1 text) (pp. 132-133 in the 1919 edition)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 128, "By Thy Sweet, Silver Light, Bonny Moon" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 41)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 233-234, "Silvery Moon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 94, "Sweet Silver Light of the Moon" (1 text)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 123, "Roll On Silvery Moon" (3 texts)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2023, p. 136, "Roll On Silver Moon" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 23 and #5/64, p. 20, "Roll on Silver Moon" (1 text)
Roud #906
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 19 [words barely legible], "The Sweet Silver Moon" ("As I went to my cot, at the close of the day"), J. Catnach (London), 1825; also Johnson Ballads fol. 16, "The Sweet Silver Moon"; Firth b.26(337), Johnson Ballads 1016, Harding B 11(3819), Firth b.25(408), Harding B 17(306a), Firth b.28(39) View 2 of 2, Harding B 16(288b), Firth c.26(37), Harding B 26(636), 2806 c.8(275), "[Thy | The] Sweet Silver Light Bonny Moon"; 2806 c.17(391), "Silver Moon"; Johnson Ballads 1351, Johnson Ballads 12 View 1 of 2 [some words illegible], Johnson Ballads 2987, Firth b.27(396), Firth b.25(306), "[The] Bonny Moon"
NLScotland, RB.m.168(065) , "Bonny Moon" ("As I went to my cot, at the close of the day"), T. Birt (London), c.1840
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Roll On, Silver Moon
NOTES [87 words]: Broadsides Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 19 and Johnson Ballads fol. 16: "Altered from a song entitled 'come down, bonny Moon.'"
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(636) has five verses; the other broadsides have only three. The first added verse, verse 2, has Edwin show Jane the ring and pick the wedding date on the banks of the Shannon; the other added verse, verse 4, has Jane dream of holding Edwin but now, she says, "the willow I'll wear, I shall mark my despair Bewailing my lover's sad doom; But welcome cold death." - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R800

Silvery Tide, The [Laws O37]

DESCRIPTION: A nobleman courts Molly while Henry is away. The noble threatens to drown Molly if she will not marry him. She refuses. He strangles her and throws her in the sea. Henry finds her body and the noble's handkerchief. The nobleman is hanged, and Henry mourns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.13(172))
KEYWORDS: homicide love revenge execution
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland,England(South)) Ireland
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Laws O37, "The Silvery Tide"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 126-127, "Mary in the Silvery Tide" (1 text)
Randolph 93, "The Silvery Tide" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 60, "Out on the Silvery Tide" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 17, "The Silver Tide" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 246-247, "The Silvery Tide" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 282-283, "Mary on the Silvery Tide" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H77, pp. 418-419, "The Silver[y] Tide" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 472-473, "The Silvery Tide" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 142, "Silvery Tide" (1 text)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #125, "Mary in the Silvery Tide" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 125-127, "The Silvery Tide" ( text)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 206-209, "The Silvery Tide" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 52, "Mary on the Silvery Tide" (1 text)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 107-109,255, "The Silvery Tide" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 72-75,83-84, "The Silvery Tide" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 93, "The Silvery Tide" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 336, SILVTIDE*
Roud #561
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Breen, "On the Banks of the Silvery Tide" (on Voice10)
Sam Jagoe, "The Silvery Tide" (on Miramichi1)
Monica Rossiter, "Banks of the Silver Tide" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.13(172), "Poor Mary in the Silvery Tide," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth b.28(25a) View 2 of 2[partly illegible], Firth c.13(171), Harding B 11(3093), Harding B 11(3094), Harding B 11(3095), Harding B 11(3096), Harding B 11(3097), Harding B 20(276), "Poor Mary in the Silvery Tide"; 2806 c.16(275), "Poor Mary in the Silvery Tide!"; Firth b.27(202), "Poor Mary of the Silvery Tide"; Harding B 11(66), "Mary of the Silvery Tide"
File: LO37

Silvest

See My Brother Sylveste (File: Hopk180)

Silvy

See The Female Highwayman [Laws N21] (File: LN21)

Silvy Gay

See The Female Highwayman [Laws N21] (File: LN21)

Sim and the Widow

See Sim Courted the Widow (File: R371)

Sim Courted the Widow

DESCRIPTION: "Seven long years did Sim court the widder... Seven long years, and Sim didn't git her." Sim went home grieving -- but not before stealing a curry-comb. Forced to return it by "my son John," the rest of the song relates Sim's disjointed further adventures
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection theft humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 436-437, "Sim and the Widow" (2 texts)
Randolph 371, "Sim Courted the Widow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 301-302, "Sim Courted the Widow" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 371)
Roud #7621
File: R371

Sim-me Yuh Muh Leaduh

See See Me Here (File: HPR256A)

Simon and Janet

DESCRIPTION: Old man and wife, Simon and Janet, hear Bonaparte has landed. In spite of her dreams of his death, he goes to join the fight. The captain tells him to be ready next morning. It is a false alarm. They return from the war unscathed, cursing the French.
AUTHOR: Andrew Scott (1757-1839) (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #27, p. 2)
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: age army war Scotland humorous husband wife Napoleon
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #25, p. 1, "Simon and Janet" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 73, "Simon and Janet" (1 text)
Roud #5771
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Noble Huntly" (subject: the threatened invasion by Napoleon)
NOTES [30 words]: Greig/Duncan1: "The song refers to the false alarm of Bonaparte's landing when the beacons were lit by mistake in the Border counties of England and Scotland on 2 February 1804." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1073

Simon Brodie

DESCRIPTION: Symon Brodie is honest, stupid, old and confused; "I'll awa to the north-countree And see my ain dear Symon Brodie!" He lost his cow and couldn't find her but she "came hame and her tail behind her" His bonny wife used a dish towel to bind her hair.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd, according to Hecht-Herd)
KEYWORDS: clothes humorous nonballad animal wife hair
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1658, "Simon Brodie" (1 text plus a single verse on p. 396, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Hans Hecht, editor, Songs From David Herd's Manuscripts (Edinburgh, 1904), #54 pp. 173,303, "Symon Brodie" [Not yet indexed as Hecht-Herd 54]
Alexander Rodger, editor, Whistle-Binkie, Second Series (Glasgow, 1842), pp. 75-76, "Simon Brodie"
Roud #8531
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Bo-Peep" (theme: animal returns by itself, with its tail "behind")
NOTES [544 words]: Greig/Duncan8 has Simon lose a dove that also returns "into the doocot an' her tail behind her."
The Whistle-Binkie text adds a description of Simon Brodie. It includes adjectives like plump, cheerful, shrewd and, maybe, crack-brained. Physically, he is "in height an ell but an' a span [an ell is 45" and a span is 9"], An' twice as braid" with thin, grey hair.
James Hogg, Tales of the Wars of Montrose, (Philadelphia, 1836 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, pp. 28-79, wrote "A Few Remarkable Adventures of Sir Simon Brodie." He begins, "As I have been at great pains in drawing together all possible records and traditions during the troubled reign of Charles the First, and being aware that I have many of those relating to Scotland to which no other person ever had access, I must relate some incidents in the life of one extraordinary character so well known to traditionary lore, that I have but to name him to interest every Scotchman and woman in his heroic adventures. The hero I mean is Sir Simon Brodie, of Castle-Garl, whose romantic exploits well deserve to be kept in record."
The adventure runs from July 7 to September 16, 1644. Montrose, escaping to the Highlands of Scotland after the battle of Marston-moor, enlists loyalist Brodie, whom he has not met before, to raise a force to fight the Covenanters near Sterling. Brodie, though "enthusiastically, madly loyal," manifested "a singular vacancy and indecision of character. Indeed, he appeared ... to be rather what the Scots call a half-daft man." But, "he was a man like Leviathan, made without fear." He repeatedly enters a battle outnumbered, is taken prisoner, believes he has captured his captors, but is rescued or escapes without ever understanding the situation.
Montrose, to keep Brodie out of the way, sends him after Argyle, who escapes to sea. Brodie gets aboard Argyle's ship, the Faith, imagines he has taken all prisoner [again], and is thrown overboard to be rescued by a seal he takes for a mermaid. Put ashore at Inch-Colm -- a place reputed to be haunted -- he takes prisoner what claims to be the Covenanter ghost; this time his prisoner escapes. He is captured again by Covenanters he thinks are corpses; they consider him "altogether a fool ... and not one word that he says can be relied on. Think of his stories of taking 1200 men prisoners with his own hand; his pursuit and seizure of Argyle; and last of all, his being brought to our retreat hanging at the tail of a mermaid." He escapes to join Montrose again, and later escapes at Philliphaugh; ... "from that unfortunate day he never met Montrose again. He was exempted from Cromwell's act of grace, and wore out an old age of honest poverty among his friends in Aberdeenshire, his lands being confiscated to the State."
For more on Montrose, Argyle, and the Covenanters see "The Battle of Philiphaugh" [Child 202], "The Bonnie House o Airlie" [Child 199], "Bonnie John Seton" [Child 198], "The Haughs o' Cromdale" and "The Battle of Alford." - BS
It will perhaps demonstrate the power of folklore to create (and abolish) characters that I checked ten histories -- five of Scotland, two of Great Britain, two of the Stuart era, and one specifically about Charles I -- without finding mention of Brodie. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81658

Simon Slick

See Whoa Mule (The Kickin' Mule) (File: LoF231)

Simon Taylor

DESCRIPTION: Two-couplet verse. Each couplet is a call followed by the response "Simon Taylor, Hilo." See notes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Bolton)
KEYWORDS: ship shanty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1739-1813: life of Simon Taylor, wealthy Jamaica sugar plantation owner (see NOTES)
FOUND IN: Bermuda
REFERENCES (1 citation):
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, H. Carrington Bolton, "Gombay, a Festal Rite of Bermudian Negroes", Vol. 3, No. 10 (Jul-Sep 1890), pp. 225-226, "Simon Taylor" (5 texts)
NOTES [224 words]: Bolton's five fragments include calls about women -- "Nancy Green she dress so fine ... She dress herself in pumpkin vine," "Somerset girl ain't got no hair ... Take a bit of wool and stick it dere," "Paget girls are pretty girls ... Warwick girls, ugly girls"; daily chores -- "I caught that ship yesterday morning ... I took her about four o'clock in the morning" and "I'm gwine down de ribber to get some shads ... Mamie, Mamie give me some bread"; and the traveling verse "Hilo and away we go ... Hilo and away we go." Bolton always writes "high-lo" or "hy-lo" instead of "Hilo." As Stan Hugill writes, "it is on paper quite possible that many of these 'hilos' are nothing more than 'high-low' ... Take your pick." (Shanties from the Seven Seas (1994), p. 183). Of Hugill's "Hilo Group" this seems closest in form to "Can't Ye Hilo?"
"At his death he (Simon Taylor) was one of the wealthiest men in the British empire, and his massive personal fortune was built on the backs of the enslaved men, women, and children who laboured on the sugar estates and other properties that he owned or managed. He 'owned' over 2,000 slaves when he died." (Slavery and Revolution: Jamaica and Slavery in the Age of Revolution - Simon Taylor, @ https://blog.soton.ac.uk/slaveryandrevolution/simon-taylor-and-jamaican-slavery/ , downloaded Dec 28, 2019) - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: JAFSiTay

Simon the Cellarer

DESCRIPTION: "Old Simon the Cellarer keeps a rare store" of liquor, and drinks "his sober six flagons a day." "Dame Margery" also consumes heavily. It is suggested that the two would be good for each other. He says, "What, marry old Margery? No! no! no!"
AUTHOR: Words: W. H. Bellamy / Music: J. L. Hatton (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #5)
KEYWORDS: drink courting age
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
New-Comic-Songster, p. 10, "Simon the Cellarer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 348-349, "Simon the Cellarer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 71, "Simon the Cellarer" (1 text)
NOTES [21 words]: A piece by this name was collected in Virginia, which is why I have indexed it, although I have not seen the Virginia piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: NCSSiCel

Simon Too-Too

DESCRIPTION: Simon Too-Too sets bird traps instead of going to Sunday School. He catches a snake which is a spirit. The snake tells him to take it home, kill it, eat it, serve it to company. One bone is left and tells Simon to go to bed. He dies, a Sabbath violater
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Parsons)
KEYWORDS: sin death hunting magic food religious animal ghost
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Martha W Beckwith, "The English Ballad in Jamaica: a Note Upon the Origin of the Ballad Form" in _Publications of the Modern Language Association_ [PMLA], Vol. XXXIXI, No. 2 (Jun 1924 (available online by JSTOR)),d #11 pp. 461-462,482, "Simon Tootoos"; #12, pp. 462-462,482-483, "Time-an'-Tootoo" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Elsie Clews Parsons, Folk-Tales of Andros Island Bahamas (Lancaster: American Folk-Lore Society, 1918 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #30, pp. 62-65, "The Sunday Bird" (2 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES [75 words]: In the Beckwith version Simon begins to violate the Sabbath after his mother dies; the spirit that he catches is his mother, and she kills him. In the Palmer version Simon lives with his grandmother who thought she was sending him to Sunday school every week, but every week "De boy ain' goin' to school. Gone in de bush settin' bud trap." - BS
I find it interesting that it is a snake -- the tempter in the Garden of Eden -- which led Simon astray. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: SSSiToTo

Simon's Lady

See Willie's Lady [Child 6] (File: C006)

Simple Ballad, A (A Tall and Hearty Fisherman)

DESCRIPTION: "A tall and hearty fisherman for Campobello Island Resolved to try his luck...." He meets another fisherman whose boat was confiscated. They end up in court. Buying herrings is "hundoubted larceny," so one is convicted of arson for their court behavior
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (Eastport Sentinal, according to Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: fishing ship humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 317-319, "A Simple Ballad" (1 text)
NOTES [61 words]: I'm quite sure there is a back story to this, and I'm pretty sure the poet was making fun of something (hence my keyword "humorous"), but I think you had to be around at the time to actually have a clue what this was about. I note that Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine offers it without explanation; I'm almost certain they didn't know what it was about either. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm317

Simple Gifts

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis the gift to be simple, 'Tis the gift to be free, 'Tis the gift to come down Where we ought to be...." In praise of "simplicity" and love, which bring the hope of heaven
AUTHOR: unknown (a citation in Andrews says it was "composed by the Andrews Ministry June 28, 1848; Goodwille and Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird cite a widespread attribution to Elder Josecph Brackett of the Maine Ministry, also in 1848)
EARLIEST DATE: 1848?
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 258-259, "Simple Gifts" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 71-72, "Simple Gifts" (1 text)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 77-78, "Simple Gifts" (1 text, 1 tune, which I suspect includes non-traditional verses)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 545, "Simple Gifts" (notes only)
OneTuneMore, p. 60, "Simple Gifts" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SIMPLEGF*
ADDITIONAL: Edward Deming Andrews, _The Gift to be Simple: Songs, Dances and Rituals of the American Shakers_, 1940 (references are to the 1962 Dover reprint), p. 136, "Simple Gifts" (1 text, 1 tune)
Christian Goodwille, compiler and editor, with contributions from Joel Cohen, _Shaker Songs: A Celebration of Peace, Harmony, and Simplicity_, Black Dog & Leaventhal Publishers, 2002, pp. 82-83, "Simple Gifts" (1 text, 1 tune, plus an illustration of a manuscript copy titled "Quick Dance")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Will Bow And Be Simple" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
The Lord of the Dance (by Sydney Carter; DT LORDANCE)
NOTES [47 words]: This song has become one of the most popular in the Folk Revival. The idea of a simple life seems very refreshing in today's overcomplicated age. But I wonder how many of the people who have sung the song realize that "simplicity" means, among other things, abstinence from sex? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: DarN259A

Simple Little Nancy Brown

DESCRIPTION: Various girls go out, get in trouble, and find unexpected solutions. Example: "They went walking by the beach, Went in swimming, got out of reach; She lost her socks and evr'thing, So what d'ye suppose she came home in... She came home in the twilight."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905
KEYWORDS: humorous nonsense wordplay
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 149, "Simple Little Nancy Brown" (1 text plus assorted excerpts, 1 tune)
ST FSC149 (Partial)
Roud #4613
NOTES [25 words]: According to Cazden et al, this is an updated version, with new tune, chorus, and plot twists, of a piece published in 1905 as "Fol de Rol Dol." - RBW
File: FSC149

Simple Plowboy, The

See The Jolly Plowboy (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy) [Laws M24] (File: LM24)

Simple Simon

DESCRIPTION: "Simple Simon met a pieman, Going to the fair, Said Simple Simon to the pieman, Let me taste your ware." The pieman demands payment, which Simon does not have. He tries to catch a whale; he seeks plums on a thorn; he does not succeed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1764 (chapbook published by Dicey and Marshall, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: food injury fishing money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 476, "Simple Simon met a pieman" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #60, pp. 68-69, "(Simple Simon met a pieman)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 190, "Simple Simon (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 34, "SImpe Simon Met a Pieman" (1 text)
Roud #19777
NOTES [94 words]: The term "Simple Simon" seems to be very old, but that didn't prevent Katherine Elwes Thomas coming up with a crazy explanation for this rhyme; she suggested (The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 199) that it is an account of James VI moving south to become James I of England. Slightly more probable is Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel's note that St. Simeon of Ermesa was the patron saint of holy fools. On the other hand, neither of my dictionaries of saints mentions a sixth century St. Simeon, so he can't be very well known. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: OO2476

Simple Simon Met a Pieman

See Simple Simon (File: OO2476)

Simple Will

DESCRIPTION: Simple Will walks up the street looking at every girl. Kate smiles. He proposes. She agrees, intending to wear the breeches. They fight over his drinking. She beats him with a poker. He wishes he had wed "some country wench" and not a Glasgow lady.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage fight drink husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 959, "Simple Will" (1 text)
Roud #6743
NOTES [14 words]: This is like "The Wearing of the Britches" with the woman winning the britches war. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5959

Simpson Bush

DESCRIPTION: "Attention give while I relate Though horrible is the shame, I'll tell you of a doomed man, Bush they call his name." He is sentenced to die "for the murder of his own dear wife." The singer describes the methods of the murder, then moralizes
AUTHOR: James W. Day (Jilson Setters)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: homicide husband wife children
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 129-130, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 137-138)
NOTES [8 words]: Definitely not one of Setters's better songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa129

Sin-Sick Soul, The

DESCRIPTION: "Brother George is a-gwine to glory, take care the sin-sick soul" (x3).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 49, "The Sin-Sick Soul" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #12007
File: AWG049B

Sin's Reward

See The Fair Flower of Northumberland [Child 9] (File: C009)

Since I Laid My Burden Down

DESCRIPTION: Gospel song, describing singer's plans to meet with his mother and with Jesus, shake hands with angels, walk and talk in glory "since I laid my burden down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Elders McIntorsh & Edwards' Sanctified Singers)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE,So,MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 70, "Since I Laid My Burden Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 38-39, "Glory, Glory Hallelujah" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Burden Down" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 59) (12th edition, p. 56 -- text only)
Roud #17355
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff, "When I Lay My Burden Down" (OKeh 05587/Vocalion 05587/Conqueror 9433, 1940; Conqueror 9667, 1941; rec. 1940)
Bessemer Sunset Four, "When I Lay My Burden Down" (Vocalion 1488, 1930)
Church of God in Christ, "Glory, Glory (Lay My Burden Down)" (on USMississippi01)
Rev. Clayborn, "When I Lay My Burden Down" (Vocalion 1458, 1930; rec. 1929)
Roosevelt Graves, "When I Lay My Burden Down" (Paramount 12974, 1930; rec. 1929)
Gullah Kinfolk, "Burden Down Lawd" (on USSeaIsland04)
Mississippi John Hurt, "Glory Glory Hallelujah" (on MJHurt04)
Elders McIntorsh & Edwards' Sanctified Singers, "Since I Laid My Burden Down" (OKeh 8698, 1929; rec. 1928; on AAFM2, Babylon)
Turner Junior Johnson, "When I Lay My Burden Down" (AFS 6608 B3, 1942; on LC10, LCTreas)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Glory, Glory Halleluiah
Since I Laid My Burthen Down
File: ADR70

Since I Left Arkansas

See Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Been All Around This World) (File: R146)

Since James Went on the Stage

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Patrick Hogan, in this city I reside, I raised a son to manhood and he was my joy and pride," but now "me carpet is tore and me house is in a roar Since James went on the stage." The singer tells of the troubles caused by his son's acting
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: father children humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 62, "Since James Went on the Stage" (1 text)
Roud #5499
NOTES [13 words]: This looks like a stage song, but I have been unable to locate the original. - RBW
File: Dean062B

Since Love Can Enter an Iron Door

See The Iron Door [Laws M15] (File: LM15)

Since Me Born

DESCRIPTION: The singer claims he has never seen a toad wearing a beaver hat "since me born." A toad is wearing a beaver hat!? A plantain is growing under a bed? A woman has given birth to a coconut? A jackass is wearing a watch and chain?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: magic nonballad animal Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 29, "Since Me Born" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [57 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "'Since me born' exemplifies one of the standard tale-telling 'opening formulae'.... It consists of denying the credibility of an act or fact in order to emphasise the veracity of the tale-teller [reporting on the fantastic feat of some obeahman [shaman]]." This is "The Derby Ram" taken seriously. Or, maybe not. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo029

Since Me Leader Dead

DESCRIPTION: "Since me Leader dead an' gone, It is me one in the field"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 52, "Since Me Leader Dead" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ElCh052A

Since My Dear Laddie's Gane Far Awa'

DESCRIPTION: The singer thinks of the days when she and her sweetheart herded on the hills and "in his plaid he's sheltered me" Now he's left her, "oot owre the sea," "wi' grief an' care" and a baby. She'll have no other but him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: grief love sex separation nonballad baby shepherd clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1108, "Since My Dear Laddie's Gane Far Awa'" (1 text)
Roud #6837
File: GrD61108

Since She's Gone Let Her Go

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes to see his sweetheart but finds her "asleep in another man's arms." He complains that young women will "promise to thirty and prove constant to none... I'll have a good one if there's one to be found."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1207, "Since She's Gone Let Her Go" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #803
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Once Loved a Lassie
File: GrD61207

Since Terrence Joined the Gang

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Michael Slattery, and from Ireland I came." He has a son Terrence, who has "joined the gang" and now wears a "big watch and chain," talks back to his parents, steals, and has been convicted of theft
AUTHOR: Words: W. Scanlon / Music: William Cronin
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud); a broadside published c. 1870 by Bell & Company; probably found in Beadle's Half-Dime Singer's Library #5 of 1878
KEYWORDS: father children robbery prison
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 113-114, "Since Terrence Joined the Gang"
Roud #9580
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Since Terry Joined the Gang (broadside title)
File: Dean113B

Since the Chinese Ruint the Thrade

DESCRIPTION: "From me shanty down on Sixth Street, It's meself have jist kim down"; she came from Cork 18 years ago. She worked as a launderer, but needs help "Since the Chinese ruint the thrade." She's a widow. Her daughter has run off. Help her against the heathens
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest), but found in a nineteenth century songster
KEYWORDS: immigration work hardtimes | Chinese laundry racist
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 308, "Since the Chinese Ruint the Thrade" (1 text)
File: LDC308

Sinclair's Defeat

See St. Clair's Defeat (File: E116)

Sinclaire's Defeat

See St. Clair's Defeat (File: E116)

Sindbad

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, it's Sindbad [sic] the sailor and Robinson Crusoe, I left my native counterie a roaming for to go. I went to be a sailor returned just as you see, a mixture of an Indian, a Turk, and a Japanee. Oh, jeffer see my jibber ahoy...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen)
KEYWORDS: sailor shanty rambling
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 184, "Sindbad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4712
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sinbad
NOTES [35 words]: Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen included this as an example of Negro songs, but even she was doubtful of that origin. She says that it was sung by a Frenchman to Capt. Edward H. Cole, who then sang it to her. - SL
File: Colc184

Sinful Army

DESCRIPTION: "O fathers, ain't you glad you left that sinful army? (x2), The sea gave way -- Oh, mothers, ain't you glad the sea gave way? Oh, Moses smote the water And the children all passed over... And the sea gave way." "oh, brothers, ain't you glad...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Henry, from "a group of Negroes at Montreat, North Carolina")
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 199, "Pharaoh's Army" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Moses Smote the Waters" (lyrics)
File: MHAp199

Sinful Maiden, The

See The Fair Flower of Northumberland [Child 9] (File: C009)

Sinful to Flirt

See Willie Down by the Pond (Sinful to Flirt) [Laws G19] (File: LG19)

Sing a Song o Sixpence

See Sing a Song of Sixpence (File: GGGSiSo6)

Sing a Song of Sixpence

DESCRIPTION: "Sing a song of sixpence A pocket full of rye; Four and twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie." The pie is opened and the birds sing. The king is in the counting house, the queen in the parlour, the maid in the garden and a blackbird "snapped off her nose"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammar Gurton's Garland, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes; Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic attributes it to Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book c. 1744)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad bird royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 189, "Sing a Sing o Sixpence" (1 fragment)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 486, "Sing a song of sixpence" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #3, p. 26, "(Sing a song of sixpence)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 193, "Sing a Song of Sixpence" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 147, "Sing a Song of Sixpence" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 43, "Sing a Song of Sixpence" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 229, "Sixpence" (1 text, with a different ending: No King in the counting-house, and the singer is "Sitting on a stool... a-singing for a fool")
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 502, "Sing a Song of Sixpence"
cf. Dime-Song-Book #24, p. 18, "Hokey-Pokey" (1 text, which quotes this as a verse)
Roud #13191
SAME TUNE:
Three Brave Blacksmiths (File: OLcM071)
Sing a Song of Charleston (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 342)
(1880 Republican campaign song) ("Sing a song of shotguns, Pocket full of knives, Four-and-twenty black men, Running for their lives") (Paul F. Boller, Jr., _Presidential Campaigns_, second revised edition, Oxford University Press, p. 145)
The Tale of a Pig (by Kate Skates) (Les Cleveland, The Great New Zealand Songbook, p. 79)
Father Gander's Melodies ("Sing a song o' swindle, Safe full of stocks") (Foner, p. 155)
NOTES [495 words]: Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes: "It is well known that in the sixteenth century surprising things were inserted in pies.... The mention of a 'counting-house' ... also helps to indicate that the rhyme may be traced to the sixteenth century.... Kidson says that the air to which the words are generally sung is the old Scottish dance tune 'Calder Fair.'" - BS
The "surprising things" in the pie often were intended as a entertainment or reward (a theme which more recently inspired J. R. R. Tolkien's "Smith of Wootton Major," his last fantasy work). This tradition continued in Newfoundland ino the twentieth century; on Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday, locally called "Pancake night"), it was common to bake a cake containing a button, a coin, a ring, and sometimes a nail; the one who finds the ring will soon marry, the one who finds the coin will get money, the button forecasts never marrying, and the nail forecasts either an early death or marrying a carpenter (England, p. 215; Young, p. 193).
The notes in the Annotated Mother Goose mention a connection with Henry VIII, Katherine of Aragon, and Anne Boleyn. The source for this appears to be Thomas, pp. 68-69, who portrays Henry as the king counting the cash, Katherine the queen eating bread and honey, and Anne the maid attacked by the blackbird (though the attack somehow is supposed to refer to her broken-off relationship with the son of the Percy Duke of Northumberland.). But Henry VIII was the sort of monarch you wouldn't be likely to find in a counting house. If there were an English king involved, especially in the sixteenth century, it would doubtless be Henry VII, who was such a money-grubber that he would without doubt have had intimate relations with his cash had he figured out a way to do it.
One book I read seemed to be implying that this is about the Popes during the so-called "Babylonian Captivity" of the thirteenth century, when they resided at Avignon rather than Rome. Some of the Avignon Popes were indeed very concerned with money, but that seems extraordinarily early. And what does the text describe in that case? The Great Company invading the Papal territories? England taking possession of Aquitaine after the Treaty of Bretigny? All these things fall under the heading "possible but not at all convincing."
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, while mentioning the Henry VIII hypothesis, seems to be more interested in an explanation involving the pirate Blackbeard (for whom see "Teach the Rover"), although he admits he doesn't believe it.
As the Opies say, many of the suggested explanations are "not so easy to disprove" -- but even harder to prove.
The story may have undergone evolution over the years. Briggs, volume A.2, pp. 563-564, "A Thrawn Song," is clearly distinct, but contains enough analogous lines that I have to suspect some sort of dependence.
According to Davey/Seal, p. 187, this song inspired an Australian brand of meat pies called "Four'n Twenty Pies."- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: GGGSiSo6

Sing a Song, Blow-Along O!

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Way down in Dixie! Way down in Dixie, oh I had a gal. Ch: Sing a song, blow-along O!" Verses continue describing the aforementioned gal, the singer, and what they did (or would do) to each other.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p.417, "Sing a Song, Blow-Along O!" ( 1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 318]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Miss Lucy Loo" (chorus lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dixie Land
NOTES [26 words]: According to Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, this along with most West Indies shanties, was probably used as a cotton loading song before it went to sea. - SL
File: Hugi417

Sing Around the Campfire

DESCRIPTION: "Gather 'round the campfire, Singing all night long. With your friends beside you, We’ll sing a campfire song. Sing around the campfire, Sing around the campfire, Sing a campfire song."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: fire nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 337, "Sing around the Camp Fire" (notes only)
NOTES [18 words]: This is another case where I have had to take my best guess as to which song Averill means by her title. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF337A

Sing cuccu nu, sing cuccu!

See Sumer Is I-cumen In (File: FSWB260B)

Sing Fare You Well

DESCRIPTION: "Fare you well, I wish you well, Hurrah and fare you well, Fare you well till I return, Hurrah, sing fare you well." "Oh, fare you well, my bonny young girl." "As I walked out one morning fair... I met a lady fair," but the sailor must work on his ship
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: sailor travel farewell shanty
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 101-102, "Sing Fare You Well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #320
File: Kins101

Sing Ha-Ha, Come From China

DESCRIPTION: "My name Sing-Ha-Ha, come from China, Keep a little wash shop way down street. No like-a 'Melican man, too much chin-chin...." The singer is pursuing an Irish girl, but she is stolen away. He has also had trouble with the law
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1890 (sheet music for "Hong Kong," according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: China emigration humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 116-117, "Sing Ha-Ha, Come From China" (1 text plus a portion of the original "Hong Kong" text)
Roud #22304
File: CAFS1116

Sing Holly, Sing Ivy

See My Father Had an Acre of Land (File: K300)

Sing Ivy

See My Father Had an Acre of Land (File: K300)

Sing Lay the Lily Low

See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Sing One for Me

DESCRIPTION: "Down in the lonesome pine woods, This song is sung with glee. Now I have sung a song for you And you may sing one for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, p. 34, "Sing One for Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [19 words]: Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick quotes the singer: "Here's a verse that used to be sung sometimes after a song." - BS
File: IvNB034

Sing One, Two, Three, Come Follow Me

DESCRIPTION: "Sing one, two, three, Come, follow me, And so shall we Good fellows be"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 306, "Roundelay" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 694)
Roud #1347
NOTES [61 words]: "Anecdotes of the Late Earl of Mornington" in The Edinburgh Magazine, or Literary Miscellany (Edinburgh, 1786 ("Digitized by Google")), (February 1786) Vol. III, p. 82:: "... he soon learned the two old catches of 'Christ Church Bells;' and 'Sing one, two, three, come follow me;'"
The current description is all of the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT306R

Sing Out (I), A

See O Mary, Come Down! (File: Hugi368)

Sing Outs

DESCRIPTION: Likely the predecessor to the full shanty (which has discernable words and a division of solo & chorus parts). These are short phrases or vocalizations, often made up of nonsense syllables, and used for hauling.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: shanty work nonballad nonsense
FOUND IN: Britain US Canada
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips pp. 8-9, 20-21, 24, 29, "Handsome Charlie's Sing Out," "Hauling in the Slack of the Foresheet," "A Sing Out" (3 texts, 3 tunes & several fragments)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas pp. 573-579, "Sing-outs for Rope, Capstan, and Halyard Winch" (several fragments) [AbEd, pp. 398-401]
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman pp. 91-92, (no title, quoted from Capt. James P. Barker)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Haul Out
Sweat-in' Up Chants
Short Cries
Royal Artillery Man
St. Helena Soldier
Hauley, Hauley-Ho!
Holystoning
NOTES [40 words]: Several of the examples listed by Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas had titles, though the title and what there was of the text were generally the same. Many were quoted from other sources, and I've listed them in the alternate titles field. - SL
File: Hugi573

Sing Ovy, Sing Ivy

See My Father Had an Acre of Land (File: K300)

Sing Said the Mother

See Over in the Meadow (File: BrGr012)

Sing Sally Oh

See Sing, Sally O! (File: Hugi288)

Sing Song Kitty

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Sing Song Kitty, Won't You Ki-me-o?

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Sing Us Another One

See I-Yi-Yi-Yi (Limericks) (File: EM216)

Sing-Sing

DESCRIPTION: The singer and Johnny King are imprisoned in Sing-Sing. They make an attempt to break out, but they cannot create a large enough opening and are trapped. King is shot. Soon after, the singer is pardoned and gratefully bids farewell to prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: prison pardon
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 167, "Sing-Sing" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC167 (Partial)
NOTES [33 words]: Charles Hinkley, who gave the song to Cazden et al, claimed he was one of the two composers. The collectors admit the possibility, but only that.
This song is item dE52 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: FSC167

Sing, Sally O!

DESCRIPTION: There are two versions, one a halyard and the other a capstan shanty. Characteristic refrain is "Sing Sally O, an' a fol-lol-de-day." The verses of the capstan version have a general whoring theme and are speaking to a "Mudder or Mammy Dinah."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong whore sailor
FOUND IN: West Indies Britain
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 60, "Sing Sally O!" (1 text, 1 tune - 1 verse only, no choruses)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 388-389, "Sing, Sally O!" (2 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 296-297]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXXI, p. 36, "Sing, Sally O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 233, (second of four "Fragments from Maryland") (1 fragment, which I link to this on the basis of the mention of Mammy Dinah, though it might be anything)
DT, SNGSALLY*
Roud #4699
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hawl Away, Joe" (tune)
cf. "Sally Brown" (some verses)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mudder Dinah
File: Hugi288

Singa Hipsy Doodle

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Singapor-Sang (Singapore Song)

DESCRIPTION: erman shanty. Tired of tough meat, the steward of a ship buys a bull in Singapore. They manage to hoist it onto the ship but have considerable trouble killing it and the bull causes much damage before it expires. Last phrase of verses repeat as chorus.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Baltzer, _Knurrhahn_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty animal humorous food death
FOUND IN: Germany
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 566-568, "Singapor-Sang" (2 texts, German & English, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 79, "Singapor-Sang" (2 texts, German & English, 1 tune)
NOTES [21 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas said this was based on an actual incident that took place on board a ship called Arkona. - SL
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hugi566

Singin' Gatherin', The

DESCRIPTION: "Far back in the dusty hollow Where the trees grow straight and tall, Sits the Traipsin' Woman Cabin... Where in the June-time of the year Is held the folk-lore festival." The singer describes the event and the people who attend and praises the organizer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 260-261, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, p. 260)
NOTES [47 words]: There are many pieces in Thomas that I don't really trust -- but there is none I more suspect of being Thomas's own work than this (and "Wee House in the Wood," which bears the same traits). It's anonymous, it's about Thomas's own Festival, and it rather sounds like her style. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa260

Singin' Hinnie, The

DESCRIPTION: "Sit doon, noo, man alive! Te tell ye aa'll contrive O' the finest thing the worl' hes ivver gin ye, O. It's not fine claes nor drink, Now owt 'at ye can think Can had a cannle up ti singin'-hinney, O." The song tells how the singin' hinnie shapes lives
AUTHOR: "Harry Haldane"
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: technology
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 172-173, "The Singin' Hinnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2618
NOTES [77 words]: The title of this song is given as "The Singin' Hinnie," but references in the text call it a "Singin' Hinney."
I will admit that I'm truly not sure what this is about. Normally, a "singing hinnie (honey)" would be a musical loved one, but I have this funny feeling it refers to a piece of machinery -- probably a steam-powered pump or elevator.
Fortunately, we don't really have to figure it out; it appears this song has never been found in oral tradition. - RBW
File: StoR172

Singing Class, The

DESCRIPTION: The singers are listed. Josie Fowlie, "goodman o' Cadgiedykes," Sawners Fenty "Fleein' like a bird." "Some sang Bangor, And some sang bass, But bonny Mary Jamieson Sang munsy in the ase" [?]
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: music moniker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 625, "The Singing Class" (2 fragments)
Roud #6062
NOTES [117 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "The two fragments on this theme are given together here but it should be noted that, although they may be parts of the same song, it is not possible to be certain of this on the present evidence."
The following songs are all one or two verses or fragments with a verse beginning "[so-and-so he/she] was there": "Mary Glennie," "Jean Dalgarno," "The Singing Class" and "The Auchnairy Ball." Should two or more be considered the same song? - BS
This is possible, of course, but I suspect this is a separate humorous song, with the title genuinely describing the contents: A singing class, with "Bangor" being an error for "renor." I'm not sure what Mary Jamieson was singing, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3625

Singing in the Lane

See Rosie Nell (File: San114)

Singing is Good/Ebrytime I Feel de Sperit

See Every Time I Feel the Spirit (File: FSWB360B)

Singing Maid, The

See Now Springs the Spray (File: MSNoSpSp)

Singing of the Travels, The

See The Husbandman and the Servingman (File: K226)

Singing the Travels

See The Husbandman and the Servingman (File: K226)

Single Days of Old, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls "The merry days -- the days of old" when her husband loved her. With time, he grows more aloof and distant. Eventually "my health gave way, my spirits fled, They told him I would die." The husband again pays attention, and she survives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO)
KEYWORDS: husband wife disease
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 704, "Single Days of Old" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H659, p. 504, "Singles Days of Old" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2679
File: H659

Single Girl

See I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again (File: Wa126)

Single Girl, Married Girl

DESCRIPTION: "Single girl, single girl, go and dress so fine... Married girl, married girl goes ragged all the time...." The lives of single and married women compared: The single girl can go out (and perhaps even spend); the married girl must care for the baby; etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: marriage wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 128, "Single Girl, Married Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 102, "Single Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #98, "Single Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 87 "Single Girl, Married Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 84, "Single Girl, Married Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 185, "Single Girl" (1 text)
DT, SINGLGRL
Roud #436
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Single Girl, Married Girl" (Victor 20937, 1927; Montgomery Ward M-6445, 1936; on AAFM3) (ARC 7-04-53/Conqueror 8733, 1937)
Frank Profitt, "Single Girl" [excerpt] (on USWarnerColl01)
Ruby Vass, "Single Girl" (on LomaxCD1702)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again"
cf. "I Wish I Were Single Again (II - Female)"
cf. "Single Girl, Married Girl"
cf. "Sorry the Day I Was Married"
cf. "When I Was Young (II)" (theme)
cf. "For Seven Long Years I've Been Married" (theme)
cf. "Married and Single Life" (subject)
NOTES [148 words]: Roud lumps "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again" and "Single Girl, Married Girl" (and perhaps others). Definitely a stretch, though the songs can easily cross-fertilize.
The Carter Family version of this is one of the songs that they recorded at the very first "Bristol Session" -- the famous recording session at which Ralph Peer of Victor found both Jimmie Rodgers and the Carters. It was waxed on the second day that the Carters were in the studio -- and, according to Barry Mazor, Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Roots Music, Chicago Review Press, 2015, p. 109, says that A.P. Carter didn't show up on that day, leaving Sara understandably irritated. Peer suggested that Sara and Maybelle record this particular song for that session, letting Sara get some of her ire out. We can't know what the Carters would have recorded otherwise, but it was an interesting choice by Peer. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Wa128

Single Life She Choosed, A

DESCRIPTION: "The birds they sing so sweetly on every branch and vine, My joys would overdouble if you were only mine.... Oh love, if an answer I must give you, a single live I'll shoose, I never thought it suited for me to be your wife."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (High-OldOldFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: love rejection
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 9, "A.. Single Life She Choosed" (1 short text)
File: High009C

Single Life, A (Single Is My Glory)

DESCRIPTION: "Some do say there are good girls, Oh, where shall we find them? Some do say there are good boys, But never do you mind them." The singer warns of deceivers, concluding, "A single life I am to live, Oh, single is my glory... Then who will control me?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Roba Stanley)
KEYWORDS: nonballad warning courting
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 18, "A Single Life" (1 text)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 121-122, "Blue-Eyed Boy Is Mad At Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 54, "A Single Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4963
RECORDINGS:
Roba Stanley, "Single Life" (OKeh 40436, 1925)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Married and Single Life" (subject)
File: Br3018

Single Man Blues

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a single man, I'm a single man, I ain't doing nothing but going from hand to hand." The singer hopes to find a woman to love. He will go downtown to look for a woman. He will be a "'little 'tomic bomb" and hopes for divine support
AUTHOR: Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers)
KEYWORDS: love hardtimes loneliness nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, pp. 198-199, "Single Man Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BTN198

SIngle Men's Warning

See Be Careful in Choosing a Wife (File: ReSh095)

Single Sailor (I), The

See Willie and Mary (Mary and Willie; Little Mary; The Sailor's Bride) [Laws N28] (File: LN28)

Single Sailor (II), The

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Single Sailor (III)

DESCRIPTION: "I wadna gie a gless o' wine For my single sailor he's new come home; And he's bidden's spen' and nowise hain, And live most royally, Since my bonnie love's brought back his ship From the high streams of the sea"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: love return reunion money ship sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #103, p. 2, ("I wadna gie a glass o' wine") (1 fragment)
NOTES [99 words]: The current description is all of the Greig fragment.
Greig says "The first two lines [through 'new come home'] seem to have some connection with 'The Single Sailor,' which we once gave." Greig may be referring to "The Sailor" in Greig #23, indexed here with "Pretty Fair Maid" [Laws N42]. The similar lines he has in mind there may be from "Oh yes, I see yon high high castle, And how it glitters in the sun; But I'd rather drink one cold cup of water With my poor sailor when he comes home." If there's a connection it would have to be in verses sung after the single sailor reveals himself. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Grg103a

Single Sailor (IV), The

See Early, Early in the Spring [Laws M1] (File: LM01)

Sinking of HMS Hood, The

DESCRIPTION: "When HMS _Hood_ went down in the deep, That was the news that made most mothers weep." "They had a duty which they had to do," but still the British are sad. Many ships combined to "send Bismarck to hell." May the sailors sleep "in heavenly peace"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy death derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 24, 1941 - Battle of the Denmark Strait. The German battleship Bismarck and the cruiser Prinz Eugen sink the HMS Hood
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) Canada
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 89-90, "The Sinking of HMS 'Hood'" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: Andrew Norman, _HMS Hood: Pride of the Royal Navy_, Stackpole, 2001, pp. xi-xii, "Song of HMS Hood" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Commissioning of HMS Hood" (subject of the Hood)
cf. "Silent Night" (tune)
NOTES [6764 words]: Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy's is not the only song about the Hood that is said to be to the tune of "Silent Night." Norman, pp. xi-xii, has "Song of HMS Hood," which has a few similar lines but is not, to my mind, the same song. And I cannot for the life of me figure out how to sing Norman's text to "Silent Night," although there are some "Silent Night"-related words at the end. I suspect Norman picked up his "Hood" song somewhere, and understood there to be a song about the Hood sung to "Silent Night," and assumed they were the same. Nonetheless I've lumped them here because neither is widely known and they are about the same event.
The story of the Hood began before World War I, when Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany decided he wanted a big, fancy navy. The British, who were committed to having the world's best and strongest fleet, could not allow that. The result was the world's first real arms race, with Britain and Germany striving both to build better ships and to build more of them.
It is arguable that the Germans won the quality race; the British managed two tremendous breakthroughs (the Dreadnought of 1905 and the Queen Elizabeth class of a decade later -- the former the first "all big gun" battleship; the latter the first fast battleships and the first vessels to mount eight 15" guns). The British also invented the battlecruiser (a ship with heavy guns but light armor that allowed them to be much faster than properly-armored battleships) -- but British battlecruisers proved to be highly combustible. Three were lost at the Battle of Jutland (May 31-June 1, 1916), all to magazine explosions with the loss of almost all hands; the Germans lost only one, and it took two dozen hits from heavy guns to do her in (Beekman, p. 107).
The loss of those British battlecruisers would affect the design of the Hood significantly.
To this day, there is disagreement over whether to call Hood a battlecruiser or a fast battleship (Preston, p. 96; Worth, pp. 91-92) -- a question with a good deal of history behind it. She was initially ordered as a battle cruiser before Jutland -- but when the British Navy suffered the loss of those three battle cruisers, they decided it was time for a rethink. "After Jutland the weight of [the Hood's] armour was increased, but she still remained a battle-cruiser in conception, even though her armouring was now nearly as heavy as that of a contemporary battleship" (Bradford, p. 22). She was up-armored, but not redesigned from scratch; "the lessons which [Jutland] should have taught had not been completely incorporated into her design" (Bradford, p. 28) -- e.g., although she had a lot of armor, some of it was inefficiently allocated (Preston, p. 97). There simply hadn't been time to get it right if she were to be finished quickly. The irony was that she was not in fact to be involved in the Great War.
"HMS Hood was the largest, heaviest, and fastest armored warship in the world, at 860 feet long, with a beam of 104 feet, a draught of 32½ feet, a displacement of 44,600 tons, and a maximum speed of 32 knots.... Building of Hood began on September 1, 1916, at John Brown and Company's shipyard on Clydebank. [This is actually the date construction was restarted; Norman, p. 134, Preston, p. 96, and others say she was laid down starting May 31, but construction was immediately halted to assess the effects of Jutland.] She was launched two years later, on August 22, 1918, by Lady Hood, widow of Rear Admiral Horace Lambert Hood, who lost his life at the Battle of Jutland in his ship HMS Invincible. Over the following nineteen months, Hood was fitted out and, on March 29, 1920, was finally commissioned. Her original cost was £6,025,000" (Norman, p. 3).
Smith, p. 64, writes, "The 'Mighty 'ood' was Queen of the seas for 20 years and symbolic of everything that was best in the Royal Navy of the 'between war' period. She was perhaps one of the best loved warships of any era and certainly among the most beautiful warships to have graced the world's oceans.... [I]n the final count the greatest of British battle cruisers was to follow the Invincible, the first, in the same split-second annihilation."
Her modified, neither-fish-nor-fowl design might have mattered less if battleship-building had continued after World War I, but it did not. Her three sisters were all canceled when the British realized that the Germans had stopped working on certain of their big ships (Hoyt, p. 4), and there was little need for heavy ships after the war, when the German fleet was taken away from them. Then the Washington Naval Conference of 1920 resulted in agreements that restricted the building of future ships. The United States and Japan were allocated no additional battleships at all. Britain was allowed to scrap many old ships and build two replacements, Nelson and Rodney, completed 1927, but their tonnage was reduced by the conference (Worth, pp. 92-93; Ballard, p. 85, repeats an old joke that called the two the "Cherry Tree" class because they had been "cut down by Washington"). They had more and bigger guns than Hood, but they were much slower. So Hood alone, the biggest fast ship the British had, was called upon to show the flag all over the world. Which meant that she never had time for a major update (Worth, p. 92). "Magnificent she surely was, but time does not stand still, and over the long period of peace design moved on and no government was willing to pay for her to be kept in line. Finally, with war clearly imminent the money was voted for extra protection and modern anti-aircraft armament, but it was then too late" (Smith, pp. 64-65).
"Her obvious deficiencies prompted criticism -- outspoken, repeated, and blunt -- within the Admiralty. The rest of the world, though, took no notice. Between the wars, Hood reigned over the seas, revered as the most powerful warship afloat, the symbol of British naval might. Of course, she wasn't the most powerful; she was merely the heaviest.... So, overweight and sloshingly wet, Hood steamed unchanged into World War II, vulnerable according to standards that had been inadequate twenty years earlier" (Worth, p. 92). "In 1938 [the Director of Naval Construction] warned that HMS Hood was in poor mechanical condition and that her thin deck armour made her 'unfit for front line service' [but concluded that funding would not be available to upgrade her].... In an uncannily accurate prophecy he warned 'We may have eternal cause for regret'" (Preston, p. 99). She was "wet" indeed; she rode so low in the water that the seas often rolled over her stern in storms or when she steamed at high speed (which interfered with her gunnery as well as her handling). Her refits added so much topweight that "the ship became like a half-tide rock" (Bradford, p. 104); the waves not only swept her quarterdeck but sometimes her upper decks! By 1940, her top speed had fallen to about 28 knots -- a loss of three or four knots from her speed at launch (or more, if Hoyt, p. 46, is right in saying that she was only able to make 25 knots in 1939!). Almost all un-modernized ships lost speed, but her slightly older contemporaries the Queen Elizabeths had lost only about a knot and a half; Hood had suffered more than most.
And, of course, she paid for it.
World War II placed even stronger demands on the British navy than had World War I. The Hood was busy in the winter of 1939-1940, when both Nelson and Rodney were undergoing work, leaving Hood as the heaviest unit in the Royal Navy, though she had little contact with the enemy in that time (Hoyt, pp. 46-47). In hindsight, that probably would have been a good time to put her in dock as well, because the German navy still had no heavy ships, and Italy hadn't joined the war, plus the French fleet was available to help the British. As it was, Hood missed the invasion of Norway for a minor refit, although some of her hands were sent to Norway as part of the desperate defense of the country (Hoyt, pp. 51-63). When she came back into service, her next job was the disarmament of the French navy at Oran, which resulted in the British firing on the French vessels in the port (Hoyt, pp. 79-80). It was her first real sea battle, but it wasn't much of a test of her capabilities, since the French weren't ready to fight.
On February 15, 1941, Ralph Kerr took command of the ship -- the last captain in her long history (Hoyt, p. 101). This during a period when she rarely saw the enemy -- many alarums and excursions, but not much fighting.
Meanwhile, her conqueror was preparing for her first voyage.
After World War I, the German navy seemed to be out of business. Germany was forbidden to have large ships, submarines, or naval aviation. But in 1935 Britain decided to set all that aside -- the Anglo-German naval accord granted the Germans the right to have 35% of the British surface ships, and, incredibly, 45% of the submarines (Worth, p. 40). The Germans had already tried to sneak around the restrictions on them with the so-called "pocket battleships" (for which see "The Sinking of the Graf Spee"; also "The Jervis Bay") and by making submarines for other countries to test; after the agreement, they started building genuine capital ships -- first the battle cruisers/light battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, then the bigger Bismarck and Tirpitz.
The Germans had bigger plans. Hitler had told Grand Admiral Raeder, the naval commander-in-chief, that there would be no war with Britain before 1946, so Raeder came up with a plan to build up to a world class fleet in that year (Becker, pp. 32-34). Only to have the war arrive ahead of schedule. None of the big ships were ready. And in 1940, there was the invasion of Norway. The Germans lost only one big ship, the heavy cruiser Blücher (Becker, pp. 110-113), but almost everything else was damaged enough to be put out of action for a time. When Bismarck was completed, she was the leading ship of a fleet that had no chance of defeating the British in a straight-up battle. There never had been, and probably never would be, such a time -- and Raeder knew it.
But he also had an answer: Commerce warfare. Sending out his big ships on raids into the Atlantic and elsewhere, to starve the British. This was, of course, also the purpose of the U-boat war, but the surface ships gave him another way. The Graf Spee had been doing this at the very start of the war, and the Admiral Scheer did it in 1940 (Zetterling/Tamelander, pp. 42fff.; for part of this voyage, see "The Jervis Bay"). The Scharnhorst and Gneisenau also engaged in "cruiser warfare." In spring 1941, it was the Bismarck's turn.
There was "extraordinary admiration" for the Bismarck (Preston, p. 148); it is widely stated that the Bismarck was the strongest ship in the world -- e.g. Hoyt, p. 37, calls her the "most powerful warship afloat" and von der Porten, p. 146, calls her "the greatest warship in the world." This is understandable, because von der Porten wants to glorify the Germans and Hoyt wants to justify the loss of the Hood -- but it's not true. The Bismarck had eight 15" guns -- equivalent to the armament of Hood, and to the five British Queen Elizabeths and the five Revenge class, although Bismarck's guns were newer and more destructive than the British 15" weapons. Nonetheless, the British had Nelson and Rodney with nine 16" guns; they certainly outgunned Bismarck; it's just that they were much slower The Japanese had Nagato and Mutsu, with eight 16" guns (Worth, p. 179). And the Americans had the Colorado, Maryland, and West Virginia, also with eight 16" guns (Worth, p. 292). Indeed, Germany's ally Italy was bringing out the Littorio class, with nine 15" guns and a top speed effectively the same as the Bismarck's, though their armor was lighter (Worth, p. 144).
Thus, at the time the Bismarck was completed, there were seven ships in the world with heavier artillery, and three more with guns of the same caliber and more of them, and fully ten with a weight of guns equal to Bismarck. But none of the ships with heavier guns could hit 30 knots, and only the Japanese could hit 25. Thus Bismarck, it could plausibly be argued, was the most effective ship in the world at the time of her commissioning -- until the American North Carolina class was finished a few months later, with nine 16" guns and a speed of 28 knots (Worth, p. 294), followed by the South Dakota and Iowa classes, which were better still; also, the Japanese by this time were finishing off the Yamato class, with nine 18" guns. Until the Iowas were finished, the Bismarck could perhaps have outrun what she could not outfight, but she was never the strongest battleship afloat.
Plus she was an inefficient design (her 45,000+ tonnes carried less armament than the Americans managed on 35,000 in North Carolina), with poor fuel efficiency (Worth, p. 48) and obsolescent armor placement (Worth, p. 47), requiring far too many tonnes and men for her attack capability (she had a crew of over 2000; Preston, p. 151; Hood, which had the same main armament and about the same speed, had a crew of less than 1500). Frankly, Bismarck and Tirpitz were too much like World War I ships (in fact, they were based on a World War I design, the Bayern; Preston, p. 148). But the British also had a fleet of World War I battleships. Against the Americans or Japanese, the Bismarck might have had a lot of trouble. But she was better than anything the British had in 1941.
Worth, p. 48, suggests that the Bismarck class "may be the most over-rated warships of all time," and I incline to agree. For ships designed in the 1930s, her anti-aircraft armament was poor, too. Bismarck's only real virtue was the excellent buoyancy that kept her afloat after dozens of heavy shell hits at point-blank range. (Worth, p. 47, makes an interesting observation: all battleships by this time were built on the "citadel" concept: extremely heavy armor and subdivision around part of the ship -- the citadel being so large and so strong that even if the rest of the ship was blown to smithereens, the citadel could stay afloat and keep fighting. Bismarck took an amazing amount of punishment before sinking; her citadel may indeed have been stronger than anything except perhaps Yamato's. But the Bismarck's citadel was built low in the hull, below the main deck! This means that everything useful about her -- her guns and gunnery controls, her communications, her ability to maneuver -- were *outside* the citadel. In her final battle, the British found it almost impossible to sink her -- but found it almost trivially easy to silence her guns and render her uninhabitable. The Germans had built an unsinkable bubble of air and camoflaged it as a battleship.)
But if Bismarck was over-rated, so was Hood, which had gone two decades without a major update and was now "wet," much slower than her design speed, overweight, and full of minor defects.
"Operation Rheinübung" was an ambitious plan by the Germans -- sending out a brand-new battleship, the first of its type, on a major raiding cruise on her shakedown voyage, accompanied only by a cruiser that was itself new and that came from a class infamous for its engine problems -- Whitley, p. 59, calls the engines of the Hipper/Prinz Eugen class "fragile and uneconomic"; Worth, p. 53, labels their engines "extremely troublesome" and says that it cut their range (which was supposed to be about 6500 miles) to about 5000 miles. That's only a third of the range of the pocket battleships, and much less than Bismarck.
The raid ended up being delayed slightly; Prinz Eugen hit a mine on April 24, forcing a few weeks' delay in the operation (Hoyt, p. 107). Admiral Günther Lütjens, in command of the force, hoped that the delay would mean he would be allowed another ship, either the Scharnhorst or the Bismarck's nearly-ready sister Tirpitz, but they weren't available and Admiral Raeder didn't want to wait (Hoyt, pp. 107-108). The ships would sail on May 18, 1941 (Hoyt, p. 108). They initially had several destroyers for company, but the smaller ships soon turned back; they didn't carry enough fuel to go on long raids (Hoyt, p. 118).
The two ships were ordered to avoid fighting if they could: the orders to Admiral Lütjens included the instructions, "the primary objective is the destruction of the enemy's carrying capacity. Enemy warships will be engaged only in furtherance of this objective, and provided such engagement can take place without excessive risk" (Becker, p. 219). But, of course, it was hard to avoid fighting when most of the Royal Navy was searching for them!
The hunting wasn't easy. Lütjens and his force were starting from Norway. They had been spotted by British aircraft there, and a British aircraft later spotted that she had left (Norman, p. 55), so the British knew she was on her way to the Atlantic. But they did not know where she was, and there were many paths toward the convoy routes (Bradford, p. 149, counts five, and that doesn't even count the English Channel; there is a good map on p.116 of Zetterling/Tamelander). The English channel was surely out, and so was the passage between the Shetlands and the Scottish coast; they were too close to British air patrol routes. There was a 160 mile wide passage between the Shetlands and the Faroes, and a 250 mile wide passage between the Faroes and Iceland; the latter was a strong possibility, and the former might be safe if the weather made plane flights difficult. Finally, there was the Denmark Strait between Iceland and Greenland. The Greenland ice blocked one side, and there were known British minefields as well (Hood, in fact, had escorted some of the minelayers involved; Hoyt, p. 98), so it was only a few dozen miles wife, but it had the advantage of being far from British bases and of being very stormy, making it hard to spot ships there. Lütjens had gone that way before, when he had taken the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on a raid in January-March (see map on p. 65 of Zetterling/Tamelander).
Although the operation took place in May, these was much bad weather, hampering both sides' air operations. The Germans found it hard to learn when British ships left Scapa Flow, so they didn't know where the British ships might be. But it was far worse for the British, who had to find the Bismarck and couldn't fly many search missions. Since there was no telling which course Lütjens might take, the British had no choice but to try to cover all of them. Admiral John Tovey, commander of the home fleet, deployed the heavy ships at his command -- the Hood, the new battleship King George V (Tovey's flagship), the so-new-it-was-barely-functional battleship Prince of Wales, the old battlecruiser Repulse, and the new carrier Victorious -- for action in the North Atlantic, and sent cruisers to watch the main exit points from the north. The light cruisers Birmingham, Manchester, and Arethusa were sent to cover the Iceland/Faeroes waters; the heavy cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk, under Rear Admiral Frederick Wake-Walker, were assigned to the Denmark Strait (again see the map on p. 116 of Zetterling/Tamelander).
(Nitpicky footnote: it is often said that Suffolk and Norfolk were sister ships. They were not. The Suffolk was a member of the Kent class of 1924, the Norfolk, along with the Dorsetshire, of which more below, formed the Norfolk class of 1927; Whitley, pp. 83, 90. The Kents and the Norfolks had identical armaments of eight 8" guns, and almost the same dimensions, and all had three funnels, with the middle one larger than the others, which is why they and certain other ships are sometimes collectively referred to as the "County" class, but Norfolk was the lighter ship and, as a result, almost a knot faster than Suffolk -- the Suffolk was sometimes hard-pressed to keep up with the Bismarck. The "Counties" weren't a class; they were a type -- cruisers with eight 8" guns and speeds of 31-33 knots.)
Loosely speaking, Tovey set up two battle groups: Admiral Lancelot Holland, with the Hood and Prince of Wales, sailed first (Hoyt, pp. 116-117) and was located further west, to cover the Denmark Strait; Tovey, with the remaining large ships and several cruisers, stayed close to Scapa Flow, to cover the routes around the Faroes. Either could reinforce the other, given time, but it was clear who was primarily responsible for each passage. Holland's group had more gun power (although it lacked a carrier), but it was not very experienced. Captain Kerr, as we saw, was new to the Hood; Captain Leach of the Prince of Wales was of course new in his job -- and Admiral Holland was also new to his post; he had replaced Admiral Whitworth less than two weeks before, on May 11, and his previous experience had been with cruisers, not battleships (Norman, p. 80). Many of the Hood's crew were also new (Hoyt, p. 109). If he had had his way, Tovey would probably have preferred that his ships, not Holland's, found the Bismarck first.
It was not to be. On Friday, May 23, at 7:22 p.m., watchman Newell of the Suffolk sighted the German ships. For the first time, the British knew where to go.
Holland's initial plan appears to have been good; he was going to catch the Germans in such a way that the light would make it easy to see them, but they would find it hard to see him (Norman, p. 83). Unfortunately, helped by snow that interfered with radar (Bradford, p. 172), the Germans very briefly shook off their pursuing cruisers (for less than three hours, from 12:15 a.m. to 2:47 a.m.; Norman, pp. 84-85), and Holland, to make sure they did not escape, changed course before the Suffolk found them again, and Holland (who very likely expected the Germans to realize that they were not being tracked and therefore to change course; Bradford, p. 173) found himself out of position. His force could still intercept -- but no longer was he in his ideal position. He had hoped to spot the Germans around 1:45 a.m. Instead, the British heavy ships got close enough to spot them at 5:37 (Norman, p. 85).
Making things even harder for Holland's ships, they had to race forward as fast as they could to get to the range Holland wanted, meaning that only their forward turrets could fire until the British ships reached their preferred position to straighten up and fire full broadsides. (We don't know why Holland made his mad charge, but he was probably worried about the Hood's thin deck armor, wanting to get close enough that the Bismarck could not hit him with a plunging shell that could penetrate the armor; he was less worried about shells hitting the side of the ship, where the Hood was well-protected; von der Porten, p. 154)
In addition to having his T crossed, Holland made another mistake: He ordered his ships to fire on the "lead" German ship, which was the Prinz Eugen, not the Bismarck. (The two had similar silhouettes, although obviously the Bismarck was much larger.) The crew of Prince of Wales knew better, and Captain Leach ordered them to fire on Bismarck despite Holland's order, but Hood opened fire on the wrong ship before correcting its aim. Thus Hood missed its chance to hurt her enemy quickly (Becker, pp. 221-222; Norman, p. 92).
Holland, who had insisted on radio silence to make sure the Germans didn't know he was coming, also neglected to tell Wake-Walker's cruisers to join in the fight (no, they probably couldn't hurt Bismarck, but they could at least keep Prinz Eugen occupied. Given that the first hit on Hood was probably from Prinz Eugen -- Becker, p. 222 -- it might have mattered.) The first Wake-Walker knew of Holland's presence was when Holland sent a signal that he had spotted the enemy (Norman, p. 76). Holland didn't involve his destroyers in the action, either (Norman, p. 81; Hoyt, p. 129, says that they could not keep up in the heavy seas and Holland decided to go on without them); it was just Hood and Prince of Wales against Bismark and Prinz Eugen. It is also possible that Holland's decision to keep his two ships close together made it easier for the Germans to shift fire from Hood to Prince of Wales, allowing Bismarck to do more damage (von der Porten, p. 155).
The exact timing is hard to know, but Hood suffered a hit very early on, while still steaming straight toward Bismarck, and she caught fire as a result (Norman, p. 92).
About six minutes into the battle, Holland ordered his ships to turn, so that they could open with their full broadsides (Zetterling/Tamelander, p. 171). Norman, p. 94, describes what came next: "Within seven minutes, Hood had fired twelve four-shell salvos, Prince of Wales nine five-shell salvos, and Bismarck had just fired her fifth four-shell salvo. Now, as Hood turned, the guns of her X turret roared out, but for some reason, those of Y turret remained silent. Then [crewman Ted] Briggs saw a blinding flash sweep around the outside of the compass platform, and its occupants were once again thrown off their feet. The ship jarred, then slowly listed to starboard. Through the voice-pipe, the helmsman reported, 'Steering's gone, sir," to which Captain Kerr calmly replied, 'Very good. Change over to emergency steering.' Hood righted herself, but then began to list alarmingly to port.
"As she continued to list, those on the compass platform realized that she was not going to come back.... [Briggs] looked back to see the vice admiral slumped in his chair with a look of total dejection."
As well he might. Within seconds, the explosion had destroyed Hood (Becker, p. 222). Of the 1419 officers and men aboard, only three -were rescued: Midshipman William Dundas, signalman Ted Briggs, both of whom were on the compass platform with Holland and his staff, and Able Seaman Robert E. Tilburn, who was stationed by one of the antiaircraft guns (Norman, pp. 95-97. All were quite young -- between 18 and 20 years old -- which might explain how they survived the sinking and the time in the cold water until they could assemble the wreckage they were clinging to. Dundas, as senior, set them to singing songs such as "Roll Out the Barrel" while they hoped for rescue. They were eventually found by the destroyer Electra (Norman, p. 99).
(In an ironic footnote, the Electra was one of the ships sent to rescue survivors of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse when the Japanese sank them on December 10, 1941. But she herself was lost at the Battle of the Java Sea two and a half months later.)
Von der Porten, p. 155, suggests that "Admiral Holland had fought a very poor battle, and it was Captain Leach's insubordination that saved it from being completely futile." This is slightly unfair, since Admiral Holland's plan were disrupted by the cruisers' inability to track Bismark, but certainly the Hood had accomplished very little except to get sunk, and Holland's plan turned out to make things easier for the Germans.
Most books about the Bismarck and the Hood devote at least as much time to what happened to Bismarck after she sank Hood as to what came before, but this song is about Hood, so I will try to be a little more brief. The loss of Hood did not immediately end the Battle of the Denmark Strait; Prince of Wales was still in action, though she had to do a rapid dance to dodge the wreck of Hood (Norman, p. 101, who suggests that the turn affected her guns' accuracy). She of course could not stay to look for survivors; she had to fight.
She fought pretty hard, considering that she was really not ready for combat; she hit Bismarck twice, plus a shell that passed through a boat without igniting and did no real damage (Zetterling/Tamelander, p. 185). In return she was hit perhaps nine times (Becker, p. 223), but none of them vital, although they did kill most of the bridge crew and slowed her a little. What took Prince of Wales out of the fight was her own mechanical troubles; one by one, her guns went out of service, until she was no longer an effective ship. Captain Leach ordered her to break off the fight at least until she could get her guns un-jammed (Norman, p. 102). And Bismarck let her do so; no one knows why, but the guess is that Lütjens felt it was his task to continue commerce-raiding (Becker, p. 224). Admiral Wake-Walker ordered Prince of Wales to stay with him, to help him track the Germans and give him some protection, but she would not initiate another battle.
It looked like a lopsided win for the Germans, but they hadn't had it entirely their own way. One of the British hits had penetrated one of Bismarck's fuel tanks. Between contamination of the fuel and the fact that other fuel couldn't be pumped, her range was dramatically decreased -- and she had not been fully fueled before she left Norway. And she was leaking oil, which could be spotted, and the water she had taken on reduced her speed. She might have sunk Britain's most famous ship, and her guns were entirely intact, but her seakeeping had been significantly reduced. Admiral Lütjens decided it was time to head back to base (Bradford, p. 188 -- although he chose to head for France, which had repair facilities, not Norway, which didn't). And the British still had Norfolk, Suffolk, and Prince of Wales trailing her; if the British could get another battleship into play, they might yet sink her. Or maybe an aircraft carrier could hurt her.
One tried; the Victorious, which was as new as Prince of Wales and had a very inexperienced set of airmen, launched a flight of Swordfish torpedo planes. One apparently managed a hit on the Bismarck, but it hit her squarely in the armor plate and didn't even slow her down, though it did result in the first fatality she had suffered (Bradford, p. 190).
Admiral Lütjens then managed to throw off his pursuers; by a tricky little maneuver, he first cut loose the Prinz Eugen to cruise on her own, and later freed the Bismarck of her tails. If she could make it to France without being spotted, she could still be repaired and do much more damage. And although the British managed a radio fix on his location, the Admiralty misinterpreted the data, and the British ships all went the wrong ways. This left the path to Brest wide open even as it caused the British to waste a lot of fuel they desperately needed (the constant story of the hunt for the Bismarck was of British ships running short of fuel; both Prince of Wales and Repulse had to give up the hunt at this time for this reason; Zetterling/Tamelander, p. 214. It is ironic that the Germans, with such a small fleet, still managed to have refueling ships in the Atlantic, but the British had none).
When a Catalina flying boat finally spotted Bismarck (Bradford, p. 192; Zetterling/Tamelander, pp. 229-232; Taylor, pp. 100-101), she was far away from any ship that could safely fight her (von der Porten, p. 160).
Except one. The Admiralty had called out every available ship, including pulling the battleships Ramillies and Revenge away from their convoys. Not that they mattered; the "R" class were the dregs of the British battleship force, built during World War I, with eight 15" guns but only 21.5 knots of speed (Worth, pp. 90-91); had they somehow found the Bismarck, she would simply have sailed around them. The Rodney, slightly newer, slightly faster, much better armed, although in need of a refit, was also summoned (Zetterling/Tamelander, pp. 182-183). (For some reason, no one seems to have considered trying submarines, of which Britain had dozens and which accomplished very little during the war years.) Closer, and much faster, was Force H, normally based in Gibraltar and responsible for Africa and the western Mediterranean, which was ordered into the Atlantic to try to catch Bismarck. And although the only big-gun ship in the force was the tired old battlecruiser Renown, which was clearly not strong enough to fight the Bismarck (Bradford, p. 193; according to Zetterling/Tamelander, p. 235, the commander of Force H, Admiral Somerville, was ordered not to let the Renown engage), Force H had an aircraft carrier, the Ark Royal, with an air group both larger and better-trained than Victorious. Once again the British had a carrier that might slow Bismarck down down.
What her pilots almost did was sink the British light cruiser Sheffield, which Admiral Somerville had been ahead of Force H to shadow the Bismarck; no one had told the pilots that there was a British ship along their path (Taylor, p. p. 104; Zetterling/Tamelander, p. 235; apparently the message was sent to Ark Royal at low priority), so they all went after their own cruiser. Fortunately for all involved, the Swordfishs' torpedoes had been armed with magnetic firing pistols, which malfunctioned in the heavy seas (von der Porten, p. 162; Taylor, p. 106). So Sheffield survived undamaged, and the British realized they needed to use standard contact pistols, and the Swordfish flew another horribly difficult mission -- and, this time, were rewarded with a hit on Bismarck's rudder. (There may have been a second hit, on her armor belt -- Bradford, p. 196 -- but if there was, her armor again saved her; it was the hit on her rudder that mattered.) She was almost in reach of German air cover, but not quite, and now she was stuck. Her rudder was jammed, sending her around in slow, somewhat irregular circles, and she could not steer on her propellers. A flotilla of destroyers led by Captain Philip Vian harassed her all night; all their torpedoes missed -- the erratic movements of the rudders were good for something after all! -- but they kept everyone awake on board (von der Porten, p. 163) and made it hard to do any repairs because of the violent maneuvering (Zetterling/Tamelander, p. 254). VIan's ships also fired starshells to help other ships identify and find the Bismarck (Zetterling/Tamelander, p. 255). Most of Vian's destroyers suffered at least some damage at the battleship's hands, but all survived. And all Bismarck could do was steam in circles and wait for the end.
That end was supplied by King George V and the old Rodney (The Norfolk too had come up, though she probably didn't do much damage. The heavy cruiser Dorsetshire, which like Rodney had broken away from a convoy she was escorting, also arrived during the battle.) They came up on the Bismarck and pounded her into pulp -- the guns which had done so well against Hood seemed to have lost their ability to hit anything, probably because the ballistic computer was getting bad data from the broken steering mechanisms (Zetterling/Tamelander, p. 268). The worst damage to Rodney, e.g., came from the firing of her own guns! The Bismarck was soon an absolute wreck, although somehow she refused to sink. Admiral Lütjens was killed. It was also reported that Captain Lindemann was dead, but this was apparently retracted (Zetterling/Tamelander, p. 273, and Taylor, pp. 120-121 and Zetterling/Tamelander p. 282 describe him dramatically going down with the ship); her second-in-command, Commander Oels, finally ordered her scuttled and abandoned (Zetterling/Tamelander, p. 274). Even so, it took torpedoes from the cruiser Dorsetshire (the last British ship to have any) to finish her off (Bradford, pp. 197-198; Taylor, p. 120; Zetterling/Tamelander, p. 280). The British rescued about 110 men, but about 95% of her crew died, either on the ship or, often, in the water. The British had tried for a rescue, but had to cut it short when they thought they saw a submarine (Zetterling/Tamelander, pp. 284-285).
Most of the British ships then had to crawl home at low speed -- Tovey and King George V, e.g., didn't even have fuel to stick around and watch Bismarck sink (von der Porten, p. 165). She went down at 10:40 a.m. on May 27 (Norman, p. 110).
The Prinz Eugen fueled at a tanker, but was unable to go raiding because of engine problems (Taylor, p. 123), Despite this, she survived and made it to Brest on June 1 (Becker, p. 228) -- indeed, she survived the war, despite a lot of damage along the way, to be expended in a nuclear weapons test (von der Porten, p. 158) -- but doesn't seem to have accomplished much at this time or thereafter. And the British, after this, started rounding up the tankers and supply ships that had made all these German raids possible (von der Porten, p. 165; Zetterling/Tamelander, p. 294, says that this was possible because they cracked the German naval code). Without those ships, the German navy couldn't go raiding even if Hitler had allowed it, which he didn't.
That left only the question of what, exactly, had happened to Hood. Something had blown up, but what? A Board of Enquiry was soon formed, but it wasn't particularly inquisitive -- of the three survivors, it called only Midshipman Dundas. It nonetheless concluded that the cause was a magazine explosion (Norman, p. 113). The Director of Naval Construction counter-proposed that some of her torpedoes had cooked up (Norman, pp. 113-114). This conflict caused a second Board to be formed, which took much more testimony (Norman, p. 114) but could only conclude again that a magazine had exploded; they did not know which one, although they suggested it was that of her 4" secondary weapons (Norman, p. 115). Nor could they determine where the fatal shell had hit (Norman, p. 127). Norman lists many other possibilities on the following pages, but none of them is so convincing as to remove all doubts. His own proposal, on pp. 141-146, is that a shell went down one of Hood's funnels and set her fuel supply alight. Bradford, p. 208, thinks a German shell exploded her aft 15" magazine -- though the calculation he presents for the ability to hit the magazine appears to ignore the effects of air resistance.
To be fair, reliable information about what happened was thin and contradictory. According to Zetterling/Tamelander, p. 171, "Despite the fact that many thousand men fought in the battle, only a few of them actually saw the explosion and all of them experienced it differently." A curiosity is that all the observers agree that there was very little if any sound -- certainly no sound of an explosion (Zetterling/Tamelander, p. 172).
The wreck of the Hood was found in July 2001 (Preston, p. 101. The wreck of the Bismarck had been found twelve years earlier by Robert D. Ballard, who made it the subject of his book The Discovery of the Bismarck, which has many useful drawings and maps but which struck me as a little too casual to be cited in this article). The wreck showed pretty clearly that Hood did suffer a magazine explosion -- she was in three pieces -- but it still doesn't make it clear what caused it; very little exploration was done because it was a war grave site. Ted Briggs, who was still alive in 2001, was allowed to drop a plaque on the wreck site commemorating the dead at a memorial held on July 26, 2001 (Norman, p. 150).
There aren't many surviving folk songs about the Royal Navy's fights in World War II, but it's not surprising that there is one about the Hood. "To the British, the loss of the Hood was more than the loss of a warship, it was the loss of a symbol for the nation. She had been bigger, faster, and better armed than most warships. Suddenly she no longer existed.... Just as most Englishmen remembered what they were doing the day Britain declared war on Germany so many remembered what they were doing when they were told that the Hood had blown up" (Zetterling/Tamelander, p. 181).
The song as printed by Tawney doesn't contain many details, but what there are are accurate. The Hood was sunk in May. Six ships are listed as being part of the kill: King George the Fifth, Prince of Wales, Norfolk, Suffolk, Dorsetshire, Rodney. King George the Fifth, Rodney, Norfolk, and Dorsetshire were indeed the ships present at the kill, and she would never have been sunk had not Suffolk tracked her, and probably not without the damage done by Prince of Wales. Note, however, that the song omits the absolutely vital damage done by the aircraft from Ark Royal, and the Sheffield's role in guiding them. This hints that the song was written very early, before the full story had been discovered or publicized. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Tawn067

Sinking of the Cumberland, The

See The Cumberland [Laws A26] (File: LA26)

Sinking of the Graf Spee, The

DESCRIPTION: The Admiral Graf Spee, "built in Nazi Germany ... looted merchant men of every nationality." It lost a battle with three British "little cruisers" and "went to cover." The pocket battleship was scuttled "in Davy Jones's pocket"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: battle navy sea ship England Germany humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
December 13, 1939 - Three British cruisers battle the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee in the Battle of the River Platte.
December 17, 1939 - The Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled outside Montevideo harbor to avoid another battle
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 31, "The Sinking of the Graf Spee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 149, "The Sinking of the Graf Spee" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GRAFSPEE*
Roud #2909
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Golden Vanity" (tune)
cf. "The Battle of the River Plate" (subject of the Graf Spee)
cf. "HMS Exeter Song" (subject of HMS Exeter)
NOTES [6839 words]: One of the many, many causes of World War I was the great expansion of the German navy prior to the war, the result of the peculiar desires of Wilhelm II. Imperial Germany didn't need a big navy -- it had very few overseas colonies -- but even Wilhelm's mother admitted "Wilhelm's one idea is to have a Navy which shall be larger and stronger than the Royal Navy" (Keegan-Admiralty, pp. 112-113).
The Germans never quite managed to build a fleet to match the Royal Navy, but they came close enough to scare the British badly, and to win a tactical victory (though a complete strategic defeat) at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.
After the war, the British determined there would be no more of that. One of the conditions of the Armistice was that the major units of the German fleet (which by then was mutinous and hardly capable of fighting) be placed under guard in Britain. Half a year later, knowing that the ships would be surrendered, the German crews scuttled the entire fleet at Scapa Flow (Keegan-First, p. 420). And the German fleet from then on was to be restricted to a small, lightly-armed force, with no ability to fight a surface battle with the British.
The Germans, in the years after the Great War, did their best to figure out ways around the restrictions. The time eventually came when they started laying down new ships, and after a few small craft, they wanted something bigger. But they were trying it to do it on 10,000 tons, the upper bounds for a cruiser under the treaty (battleships by then were up to 35,000 tons, and even that was insufficient for what most designed wanted). Starting in 1923, the Germans looked at many ideas, most of which were simply not workable (Bennett, pp. 73-74; Grove, pp. 4-6). Eventually they came out with the concept of the panzerschiff, known in Britain as the "pocket battleship." (It's worth noting that these were not Nazi ships; they were designed and laid down before Hitler took power; even non-Nazis disliked the restrictions on them.)
The first ship of this type, the Deutschland (later renamed Lützow) caused "a sensation... for she was an expression of Germany's will to outflank the conditions of Versailles" (Preston, p. 133). Two more ships of the class, the Admiral Graf Spee (named after an admiral who had died in World War I) and the Admiral Scheer, followed. There might have been more, but Jackson, p. 9, says that the rise of the Nazis caused the navy to change plans.
From the start, though, the ship names showed that the Germans meant business with their navy, since the names Scheer and Graf Spee evoked the naval heroes of World War I (Smith, p. 32, says "their namesshould have been enough to sound alarm bells in the Admiralty).
The pocket battleships didn't really deserve either the name or the hype. They had six 11" guns (the bare minimum size to be considered a battleship, though a real battleship would have had at least eight of them), and the guns could be elevated very high to give the shells exceptional range -- although the guns had to be lowered back to rest position to re-load (Grove, p. 9), so her rate of fire at long range was low (based on the table on p. 41 of Worth, she needed 24 seconds between rounds; it was 11 seconds or less for the British ships). And although her fire control system was excellent, there was really only one of them for the main armament, so she could only fight one enemy at the time (Grove, pp. 10-11). And the first ship in particular had vibration problems so severe as to render the optics initially unusable (Koop/Schmolke, p. 218).
The secondary armament was much more problematic. There were eight 5.9" guns in four single turrets on each side, and far too few anti-aircraft guns, which weren't much good at their task anyway (Koop/Schmolke, p. 11). The 5.9" guns had a maximum elevation of 35 degrees (Koop/Schmolke, p. 26), giving them good range, but they couldn't be used against aircraft, and their single turrets (with open backs!) made them somewhat hard to aim and easy to damage. Far better would have been a battery of 12 or 16 true dual-purpose (i.e. anti-ship and anti-aircraft) guns in double turrets, such as the American 5" that was used in everything from destroyers to aircraft carriers, but such does not seem to have been contemplated; the Germans never came up with a good dual-purpose gun.
Although her guns were battleship-grade, her armor did not exceed three and a half inches (a battleship should have had at least three times that, and four was more typical). Her designers had wanted somewhat more (Woodman, p. 4), but given the 10,000 ton limit, something had to go, and the something was armor (Smith, p. 32). This meant that Graf Spee's armor was actually lighter, at some points, than her future adversary Exeter (Grove, p. 60), although Graf Spee had better armor on her turrets and some other vital spots.
In fact, even with the cutbacks to the armor, the three ships were certainly much heavier than their nominal displacement (Bruce/Cogar, p. 2, estimates roughly 12,000 tons; Paine comes up with over 15,000; Von der Porten, p. 5, says 11,700; Woodman, p. 4-5, comes up with 11,700 for the Deutschland, the first of the class, with the Graf Spee, which had heavier armor, being 12,500; Worth, p. 51, says 12,100; Showell, p. 128, offers 12,000 standard, 16,000 full load; Smith, p. 32, quotes a source that says 14,000 but on p. 33 says 12,400; Koop/Schmolke, p. 14, give a "standard" displacement of 14,890 and an "operational maximum" of 16,320; Bennett, p. 72 -- who is probably trying to make the British look good -- says 12,100 tons standard, 16.200 full load, and Grove, p. 8, accepts this figure, which would make her nearly as heavy as the first modern battleship, Dreadnought, which was less than 18,000 tons).
The Graf Spee had problems in heavy seas, being very "wet" and not handling well (Koop/Schmolke, p. 36, says that the problems were so bad that there were plans for a year-long refit, but she never got it); on one occasion, she had to simply sit for two days in the southern ocean (Woodman, p. 44). This may have contributed to problems with the accuracy of her guns (Grove, p. 26). What's more, she had vibration problems, particularly at high speeds, which could make the problems worse when fighting at high speed (Grove, p. 67).
The only really unusual feature of the Panzerschiff seems to have been that they could stay at sea for a very long time without touching a supply base due to their (experimental and cranky) diesel engines -- the Germans of course had no overseas bases after 1918. Their range was further extended by having special supply tankers -- the Graf Spee in 1939 would operate with the Altmark, which was unusual for a tanker in having a high top speed of 21 knots (22 knots according to Bennett, p. 73).
Even so, the "pocket battleship" design was basically an overgunned heavy cruiser. (Indeed, Grove, p. 11, calls her "fundamentally a 'light cruiser'!). Theoretically, she could "outrun what she could not outgun" -- overwhelming cruisers with her heavy guns and using her speed to get away from battleships. Except that she wasn't all that fast. There is dispute over her top speed -- Paine, p. 3, Bennett, p. 72, Jackson, p. 9, and Smith, p. 33 say 26 knots; Worth, p. 51, believes it was 27 knots; Von der Porten, p. 5, Grove, p. 9, and Showell, p. 128, say 28 knots; Draminsky, p. i, claims 28.5 knots; Woodman, p. 6, also says 28.5 knots on her trials. But that was in early 1936, before she had gone to sea. It seems that, by the end of her voyage, her engines needed a refit (Pope, p. 76, Woodman, p. 41; Grove, pp. 34-35); so that her best speed at the end was a mere 24 knots (Pope, p. 118) or perhaps 25 knots (Von der Porten, p. 49, although he blames it on hull encrustations rather than the engines). Her cooling system was also failing due to lack of refrigerant; the ship that was supposed to supply it had been captured (Bennett, p. 32), and this increased the odds of fire or a magazine explosion.
In any case, the British had three battle cruisers (Hood, Repulse, and Renown) which could outrun *and* outgun the pocket battleships, and the battleships of the Queen Elizabeth class were only two to three knots slower than the pocket battleships (assuming the 26 knot speed is correct). The French also had ships capable of dealing with them. And the battleships of the King George V class, which started to come off the stocks at the beginning of World War II, were also faster than the pocket battleships. Had the panzerschiff existed in World War I, they would have been revolutionary and been good leaders for cruiser squadrons. In World War II, they were pests, but hardly technological miracles.
(This was a constant problem for the German navy: they thought too much in World War I terms. Their alleged super-battleships, Bismarck and Tirpitz, were slightly improved versions of the World War I Baden class, relatively under-armed and with inefficient machinery that took too much space and weight for the power they produced. It has been claimed that the Bismarck was the strongest battleship in the world at the time of her maiden voyage. But vessels of the American North Carolina and South Dakota classes, and the Japanese Yamato, were all stronger, and all were in service by the end of 1942. (For a great deal more on this topic, see the notes to "The Sinking of HMS Hood.") Perhaps biggest advantage of the German ships was that -- unlike the major British ships -- they were still new. The Graf Spee had been commissioned January 6, 1936, and her only real action had been sailing near Spain during the Civil War there, according to Draminsky, p. i)
Whether overrated or not, even a cruiser could do major damage if it came across unprotected merchant ships (the Admiral Scheer once single-handedly knocked off six ships from an Atlantic convoy; Paine, pp. 4, 273-274), and could also disrupt shipping schedules just by their presence in the area (the "fleet in being" concept). So the Germans meant to use every vessel they could lay their hands on to attack British commerce (Humble, p. 140). When World War II began, the Germans sent out the pocket battleships to see what they could find. Their long range made them ideal for this duty, assuming one was prepared to accept that they were likely to eventually be run down and destroyed. They could be sent to out-of-the-way places like the South Atlantic, where they could sink a merchantman and disappear before a naval unit could find them (Pope, p. 9). These regions were better hunting grounds anyway; in the North Atlantic, the British turned to convoys when the war started, but ships still sailed individually in the more remote areas (Woodman, p. 14-15).
To help the Graf Spee in her task, she was also given a unit of intelligence specialists to decrypt and interpret British radio chatter (Woodman, p. 13). She left Germany on August 21, 1939 (Pope, pp. 11-12).
In one of history's little ironies, the Graf Spee headed for South America (Becker, p. 37), where the fleet of her namesake, Graf von Spee, had died when his small fleet of cruisers was destroyed at the Battle of the Falklands in 1914; for background on this, see "The Noble Eighth of December."
It was some time after the declaration of war before Gref Spee was given the all clear to start fighting -- and almost ran across a British cruiser while she waited (Pope, pp. 32-35; Grove, p. 23). But on September 26, 1939, the order came to begin attacking British shipping (Pope, p. 37), painting a false name on the ship to aid in deception (Pope, p. 39 -- although, as Koop/Schmolke note on p. 205, this deception might have worked better if they hadn't put the ship name Deutschland in quotation marks!). At first, it seemed the Germans had found the Happy Hunting Grounds; Graf Spee took nine prizes (Paine, p. 4) totalling about 50,000 tons, for the most part stopping them, sending off the crews, and then sinking them; many of the British sailors were put on the supply ship Altmark, while some were put on neutral ships that the Graf Spee encountered (Pope, p. 45).
British planning to catch the pocket battleship began on September 30, after the Graf Spee found her first victim, the steamer Clement (Pope, pp. 40-44. The sinking did bring the Graf Spee's crew a notice that they still had training to do; they had a very hard time hitting even a stationary target that was not resisting (although part of the problem may have been her poor seakeeping; Grove, p. 26). It is rather funny to learn that the Graf Spee nextdisguised herself as the Admiral Scheer; what was the point of having one pocket battleship pretend to be an identical ship? (Other than to confuse the British naval planners, but they must have seen through that!) A better trick was one she used when she sank the Newton Beach, sending false signals designed to make it appear she had been sunk by a submarine; Pope, p. 56. And, later on, Captain Langsdorff rigged a dummy funnel and even a dummy turret to make his vessel look more like a British ship; Pope, p. 77; Woodman has a photo of this mock turret, which looks surprisingly real. Unfortunately, it interfered with the ship's fire control, so eventually it was dismantled; Grove, p. 52).
It took many hours for the British to get the message about the Clement through a long series of relays, but when they did, they reacted with vigor, just as they had in 1914 in chasing Admiral Spee. A total of twenty ships (a few of them French) were formed into eight task groups to hunt the lone German ship (Humble, p. 140). The reinforcements sent to the South Atlantic included two old battleships, an ancient aircraft carrier, and five cruisers; they joined a force of four cruisers and some destroyers already there. Later, even more ships, including Britain's only new aircraft carrier, were assigned.
(Their net caused the Graf Spee at one point to head for the Indian Ocean, and seek prizes off southern Africa; Pope, pp. 70. She sank the Africa Shell there, and hoped it would cause the British to think she was heading for the Indian Ocean; Pope, p. 74. But she then headed back west.)
The British goal was to have at least two heavy cruisers, or the equivalent, in each task group (Pope, p. 56), since this (it was felt) would supply enough strength to deal with one pocket battleship -- or, at minimum, damage her enough that she could be run down by a stronger force (Grove, p. 50). But not all the groups were actually that strong. In the end, it was one of the weaker task forces that found her: The heavy cruiser Exeter and light cruisers Ajax and Achilles, commanded by Commodore Harry Harwood, who had correctly guessed where the Germans would head. It was a scratch force (they had first come together just one day earlier; Pope, p. 110), and there were no reinforcements within 2000 miles (Pope, p. 114), but they caught up with the German on December 13, 1939.
This force was not even as strong as it looked on paper; Graf Spee had a big edge in weight of shell and range of guns. Exeter was an under-armed ship for a heavy cruiser, with just six 8" guns (Paine, p. 178; Exeter was such a weak ship that Pope, p. 21, mentions a canard that the British designed her to be sold to a potentially hostile nation! The truth, according to Bennett, p. 70, was that the British government was so strapped in the late 1920s that it couldn't afford to build enough strong cruisers to meet all its needs, so it started building weaker, cheaper ships like Exeter; Worth, p. 102, says that Exeter was envisioned as being a commerce protector and so didn't need to be as strong, and notes defects in her armor protection as well as her armament). The two light cruisers had nothing heavier than a 6" gun, and only eight of those.
Thus the Germans had a big advantage in firepower. Pope, p. 126, calculates the Germans as having a broadside weight of 4140 pounds plus their secondary armaments (although Bennett, p. 77, claims the German secondary armaments scored no hits at all), while the British had about 3400 tons. The figures on p. 76 of Bennett are 4164 pounds for the Germans plus secondary armaments, to 3136 for the British. On the other hand, the British had more total guns to fire (a total of 22, to six big guns or 14 primary and secondary for the Germans) and so could perhaps expect more hits, plus they had more tonnage to absorb the hits. And the British could fire much faster, so that Grove, pp. 62-63, claims that the British could put 22,000 pounds of shells in the air in the space of a minute, to about 16,000 for Graf Spee. Similarly, Koop/Schmolke calculate the total broadside weight of Graf Spee (counting primary and secondary guns) as 2164 kg=about 4750 pounds; he works out the British broadsides as 1509 kg or about 3325 pounds -- but then notes that the British could fire faster, determining that the British could put 7663 kg of shells in the air per minute compared to 5056 kg for the Germans (interestingly, these figures are about a third less than Grove's figure). Still, all seem to agree that the Graf Spee should have won a pure slugging contest, because any hits she managed would cause tremendous damage.
(To put this in perspective, though, that 4140 pound broadside of the Graf Spee shows how short of being a battleship she was. Worth, p. 178, says that Japan's Kongo class, the weakest dreadnoughts to serve in World War II, had a broadside of 11,880 pounds; the typical American pre-war battleship had a broadside around 18,000 pounds, and Britain's new King George V class, derided as a weak battleship, had a broadside of 15,900 pounds. Thus Graf Spee had barely more than a third the weight of broadside of the weakest true battleship!)
And while some have argued that the Graf Spee should have run away, Grove, p. 166, quotes a calculation by one of the British officers observing that, if the Germans had run, their big guns would not have helped them much; Exeter's guns had a range only about 3000 yards less than Graf Spee's, and with a five knot speed advantage, could probably have brought Graf Spee into range before Exeter could have suffered much damage. The light cruisers would have needed longer to close the range, but Graf Spee would have had no way to fight them if she concentrated her rear turret on Exeter -- especially if she was running away, taking most of her guns out of action.
Perhaps the Germans should have run, but instead the Graf Spee played into the British hands. Her scout plane was out of commission (the design had a tendency to destroy the engine cylinders when it landed; Bennett, p. 79), and although the British had a few planes, they were somewhat short (the Achilles had lost hers, and one of Ajax's was out of commission, according to Bennett, p. 69; Grove, p. 63, adds that Exeter's flight crews were still learning to use their planes), so they were not used on the morning of the battle (Bennett, p. 33). As a result, all contacts were from the ships themselves. When the Germans spotted the enemy, they identified the force as consisting of the Exeter and two destroyers -- a force that could not defeat the Graf Spee but could shadow her until stronger units could come up. And it would be hard to defeat them while running away, because long-range gunnery wasn't especially accurate (Bennett, p. 35). And it was just daybreak, so it would be many hours before the German raider could hope to vanish in the dark. So, rather than flee and run the risk of being overtaken by ships he could not fight, Captain Langsdorff decided to attack in order to try to defeat the British and again disappear -- after finishing off the convoy Langsdorff guessed they were covering (Pope, p. 118; Woodman, p. 76, considers his decision to be a clear violation of his orders, and Grove, pp. 37-39, describes how he reinterpreted those orders now that his worn-out engines meant that it was time to end his patrol; since the cruise had to end anyway, he would allow himself to be more aggressive).
But Harwood had a trick of his sleeve. He had been thinking about the problem for many years (Grove, p. 55), and his consideration paid off. His force came at Graf Spee from two different directions, and the German ship had only two main turrets -- and, as the sinking of the Clement showed, the Germans were still learning how to aim them, although the German gunnery proved to be more accurate than the British (Bennett, p. 77, calculates that the Germans achieved one hit for every 41 shells fired; for Exeter it was one hit for every 64 shells, and the light cruisers -- which had fire control problems -- were even worse. All sides used torpedoes, but there were no hits; Bennett, p. 78. Koop/Schmolke, p. 179, give different numbers, claiming the light cruisers hit with 4.82% of their shells, Graf Spee with 3.48%, and Exeter, firing mostly manually, with a mere 2.66%). Graf Spee managed to silence Exeter's guns (and also kill almost all the bridge personnel, putting her out of control for a time; Pope, pp. 147-148), although the heavy cruiser did manage two hits on the German, one very damaging (Pope, p. 149). Achilles was almost untouched except for some splinter damage, but Ajax sustained damage in the battle from straddles (Paine, p. 10) and from one direct hit that very nearly caused a magazine explosion, although in practice the damage was relatively mild; two turrets were disabled, plus a hoist went out, leaving her with only three usable guns; Woodman, p. 108), but she could still move and fight (Pope, pp. 166-167). She also suffered a shortage of ammunition for her one fully functioning turret (Pope, p. 169). The battle had lasted almost an hour and a half (Von der Porten, p. 52), which was a very long time for a combat of this type.
The Ajax had seven killed, Achilles four, and Exeter, by far the hardest-hit, had more than fifty dead (Pope, p. 122, says 53; Woodman, p. 109, and Koop/Schmolke, p. 176, say 61); there were many more wounded, a few of them fatally. Exeter reportedly had suffered seven hits from 11" shells (although Koop/Schmolke, p. 178, claims that Graf Spee used the wrong type of ammunition, reducing the damage done); her "A" and "B" turrets were hit and put out of action, her bridge and other control positions damaged, she suffered fires, had a list due to flooding, and lost both telephone and wireless communications; orders had to be passed by messengers, and even the undamaged guns mostly could not be fired due to power problems or the like (Pope, pp. 159-161). The British airplane spotter, sent to call her back to action, reported that he had never seen a ship survive that looked so damaged (Grove, p. 85; Pope, p. 178). Ironically, it was a near miss, not a hit, that destroyed the power systems and took her out of the fight. Fortunately, her machinery worked; she could still move, and headed for the Falklands to make such repairs as she could.
But Graf Spee's armor was so thin that even the light cruisers could hurt her, at least if they hit her in the right spots. Woodman, p. 112, says she suffered two 8" hits from Exeter and 18 6" hits from the light cruisers; this agrees with the total of 20 hits mentioned by Von der Porten, p. 52. Koop/Schmolke, p. 176, suggest 17 6" hits and two 8" hits. Bennett, p. 85, has a diagram showing 19 hits, of which three were from Exeter. Grove, p. 86, claims "at least 23 hits," although he uses the same chart as everyone else. Pope, pp. 172-174, describes fifteen hits, and gives a full catalog on pp. 253-355 of the effects of 18 hits and some near misses, some of which did no damage but several of which disabled a large number of Graf Spee's secondary weapons; they also wounded Langsdorff (Koop/Schmolke, p. 178, believe this affected his thinking, and they note that his first officer wasn't trusted) and did a lot of damage to her communications, radar, airplane, rangefinders, and other equipment; there were six leaks below the waterline, although none was major, and apparently more than fifty holes in her of one sort or another (Pope, p. 197; most of these must have been splinter holes, and minor. Wortman, p. 48, claims "as many as seventy hits" on her, but this must have been a count of holes if it's a record of anything).
Her ability to fight was definitely affected. Her anti-aircraft guns (which were inadequate to begin with) were crippled, one of the big guns could not be aimed, the main director was damaged (meaning that the guns could not be aimed accurately; Grove, p. 167, notes that Graf Spee's shooting got worse as the battle went along), and the torpedo system was out (Grove, p. 87). And Grove, p. 105, says that although her engines had taken no damage, the demands of fast maneuvering, and their time away from repair facilities, had left them so debilitated that they were now only capable of 17 knots.
The German ship had 37 killed and 57 wounded (Pope, p. 175), and she was low on ammunition (only 31 shells remaining per gun of her main armament, or enough for a half an hour's battle, according to Bennett, p. 77. Grove, p. 105, says that what was left was almost all armor-piercing, which was actually less useful against the thin-skinned cruisers she faced). Plus her galley was wrecked, meaning that there could be no hot food, which would hurt morale if nothing else. And her desalination boiler was out (Grove, p. 87), meaning fresh water was short. Also she was said to be "not seaworthy for the North Atlantic," according to her navigator's report (Pope, p. 176); this was apparently due to holes in her bow, which were well above the waterline but which would take in water in high seas (Grove, p. 87) and which, it turned out, could not be properly repaired without a dockyard visit (Grove, p. 103). She fled to Montevideo harbor (Becker, p. 104) even as the Exeter (which had been hurt far more) limped off to the fuel depot at the Falklands. No one knew it, but the Battle of the River Plate was over.
At least one of the British cruiser captains thought they had lost (Pope, p. 177); with Exeter out of it, the Graf Spee could crush the light cruisers. Harwood, with Exeter out of the fight, had been prepared to break off action until nightfall, simply shadowing the Germans until evening (Woodman, p. 109). But Langsdorff was giving up -- one of his officers, talking about his injury, suggested that he was in shock; he had been knocked out briefly during the fight. (Von der Porten, p. 54, comments that he had "fought a fine campaign but a poor battle." Smith, p. 77, declares that the Graf Spee "had not been cracked, only her commanding officer.") And he chose to flee to Montevideo rather than the more German-friendly Buenos Aires because it had better access to the ocean; he was afraid his big ship would get its intakes filled with mud in Argentina (Woodman, p. 114).
There were a few more shots fired as the Graf Spee headed to Uruguay, which some call the "second battle" of the Plate (Woodman, p. 120), but the Germans made it safely into Montevideo harbor. Going there was probably a mistake (Pope, p. 198). Argentina and Uruguay were both neutrals, but Uruguay had cordial relations with the British, and would not be inclined to let the Germans bend the neutrality rules, so Graf Spee had to either repair her damage quickly and get out, or she had to accept internment. The repair estimate, though, was that she would need two weeks to get back into shape for sea (Pope, p. 199). That left the Germans with a problem: Even if they could stay in Uruguay without being interned, could they repair the ship before the British arrived with overwhelming force? Or should they leave with a damaged ship while the going was good?
They did manage in fairly short order to fix the desalination equipment, and to put temporary patches on the biggest holes (Grove, p. 122), which made her seaworthy but not really ready to fight.
The good news for the Germans is that they would have most of a week before serious forces arrived (although, once all the scattered forces arrived, they would be overwhelming -- two aircraft carriers, a battle cruiser, and eight cruisers; Bennett, p. 45). But they didn't take advantage of the respite. British intelligence and diplomacy first worked to keep the ship in place for several days (Pope, p 200), then tricked Captain Langsdorff into believing that they had overwhelming forces heading for him (Humble, p. 141). One account claimed that the Renown, a battlecruiser that was faster than Graf Spee and had six 15" guns in three turrets (meaning that she had a huge edge in firepower over the Germans) had arrived (Woodman, p. 123). In fact, no reinforcements could reach Harwood in less than five days (Pope, p. 196) except for the heavy cruiser Cumberland, which was making repairs in port but whose captain had correctly anticipated that he would be needed and arrived about a day after the battle (Pope, p. 193; Woodman, p. 110; Grove, pp. 85-86, notes that she actually set out before all her shafts were working; she actually was still engaging in repairs as she started her voyage north).
And the entrance to the River Plate was so wide that Harwood's two cruisers couldn't even patrol it all until Cumberland arrived (Pope, p. 191). And the British were short of both fuel and ammunition (Pope, p. 216). But the British managed enough tricks to make it sound as if major forces were coming on the scene. In fact, they had only the equivalent of the force they had had before the first battle -- one heavy cruiser (Cumberland) and the two light cruisers. Cumberland was stronger than Exeter (eight 8" guns rather than six, and better armor; Worth, pp. 101-102), but the other two now had damage.
The British ships did at least have a little more status; Commodore Harwood was promoted Rear Admiral for his role in the battle, and given a knighthood; his captains, although not elevated in rank, were also given honors (Pope, pp. 220-221; Woodman, p. 132).
Langsdorff asked for instructions from Berlin, suggesting that he try to reach Buenos Aires where he would likely have a better chance of making proper repairs and being interned in friendly circumstances where he could hope to escape (Pope, pp. 206-207; Woodman, p. 125; one suggestion was that the Graf Spee might be "given" to the Argentines but operated by the Germans -- a trick the Germans had used in World War One); this would have let him function as a "fleet in being," pinning down British ships. But the British cleverly sailed a merchant ship at this moment -- meaning that the Graf Spee was forced to stay in Montevideo harbor or violate the neutrality laws (which required giving merchant ships a 24 hour head start; Pope, p. 208). Langsdorff took this as dooming the Argentina plan. He wrote that he would sail his ship out to sea and sink her in shallow water to save his crew (Pope, p. 212, who suggests on p. 213 that the letter -- which levels many accusations at Uruguay -- was designed to be used as propaganda).
Having made his decision, Langsdorff put it into action and started to disable his ship, and he arranged for most of his crew to be taken off while appointing a few to do the last-minute tasks of scuttling. Then came the bombshell: the ships he had feared, Renown and Ark Royal, were at Rio, not outside Montevideo (Grove, p. 123). He could still escape -- except that he had now seriously disabled his ship, because he didn't want anyone salvaging her!
So Langsdorff went ahead with his plans and took the Graf Spee out into the estuary on December 17. Woodman, p. 133, says that Langsdorff wanted set it up so that he alone could pull a master switch and blow up the ship; there is a hint that he wanted to kill himself along with his ship (indeed, Grove, pp. 125, 128, says that his officers had to talk him out of it, and his second-in-command appointed a junior officer to keep watch on him). But the gunnery officer he consulted said that such a master control was not possible. Once he had gotten away from shore (although not yet out in deep water), he had a merchant vessel and tugs come alongside and take off the bulk of the crew while he and his select handful blew up the ship (Pope, pp. 224-225). Wortman, p. 49, says that twenty thousand people watched her last trip.
Not all the charges exploded (possibly those at the stern blew up first and interfered with those toward the bow; Grove, p. 130), so the front end for the ship was not as badly ruined as the back, but she burned for four days (Grove, p. 156); there was certainly no possibility of salvaging her.
Three days later, once his men were properly interned, Langsdorf committed suicide (Bruce/Cogar, p. 3. He was probably smart, given the reception he would have faced had he returned to Germany). It appears it took two shots; the first bullet barely grazed his head, but he had the nerve to shoot again, and that one was fatal (Grove, pp. 138-139). He had arranged it so that most of his men ended up in Argentina, not Uruguay -- although they were restricted more closely than he would have liked (Pope, pp. 232-233), and when Argentina eventually declared war on Germany, they became POWs (Woodman, p. 141). When they finally went home, ironically, the Germans were escorted home by the Ajax (Jackson, p. 20) -- although Grove, p. 144, reports that almost half decided to settle in Argentina after the war rather than return to a defeated Germany.
It is widely reported that Langsdorff, when he shot himself, had set it up so that his body fell on an ensign of the German Imperial Navy (i.e. the flag from World War I), not the Nazi flag (Pope, p. 235), although Grove, p. 139, denies this.
In terms of tonnage sunk, the Graf Spee had "paid for herself." But the British had had the last laugh, so they treated it as a moral victory, and the Germans as a defeat. On the other hand, some of the pocket battleship's officers managed to escape Argentina and do more damage -- one died on the Bismarck a year and a half later, and one captained a submarine that sank more tonnage than the Graf Spee herself (Woodman, pp. 141-142).
The commander of the support ship Altmark eventually tried to bring home the British sailors who had been captured and placed on his ship, apparently going against Langsdorff's orders to have them interned (Jacskon, p. 22). But a British destroyer group caught up with them in Norwegian waters and freed them (Keegan-Second, p. 50; Woodman, pp. 144-146; Jackson, p. 23). This had the side effect of boosting the prospects of Winston Churchill, who as the cabinet official responsible for the navy had ordered the move (Von der Porten, p. 61), so it arguably helped the war effort far more than just by freeing a few sailors. Since Norwegian waters were neutral (neither side should have had warships there), the British did not sink the Altmark; after a complex career, she sank due to an accidental explosion in Yokohama, Japan in 1942 (Woodman, p. 146).
Delgado, p. 159, notes that the location of the Graf Spee wreck is known -- indeed, parts of the ship remained above the surface until 1950 (Woodman, p. 138) -- and that a survey in 1997 found that much of the ship had vanished in ways that did not suggest battle damage. It has been suggested that the British did some clandestine dives to recover such things as the ship's radar. If so, the British search has never been documented. Grove, pp. 157-164, does document a complicated campaign by the British to gain ownership of the wreck, and they did gather some parts (e.g. of the radar), but it doesn't sound as if they really learned much.
The damage to Exeter was so severe that there was talk of scrapping her, but it was decided that she was too important psychologically to be gotten rid of. She was so heavily reworked that she was in the dockyard for more than a year, finally returning to service in early 1941 (Grove, p. 153), and joined the combined Dutch/British/American/Australian (ABDA) forces guarding the East Indies about a year later (NavalInt, p. 58) -- only to be damaged very early in the action at the Battle of the Java Sea. She was again the first cruiser damaged, and her catastrophic fragility perhaps cost the Allies what little hope they had. For one thing, she fell out of the battle line in a way that badly disordered the Allied formation. (NavalInt, pp. 66-68; Morison, p. 94). Plus she represented half of the 8" guns in the ABDA fleet (the damaged Houston had the other six working 8" guns), so her disabling meant that the Allied fleet, which until then had been able to fire almost as much metal as the Japanese, was now at a severe deficit. And, finally, the ABDA fleet had ships from three nations that spoke English, but did not share a codebook, and they were commanded by a Dutch admiral in a Dutch ship. The plan had been for Admiral Doorman's Dutch orders to be put into English and broadcast to Exeter, which would relay them to the English-speaking ships. With Exeter out, the Admiral could no longer communicate with his fleet! (Dull, p. 78); the Allies ships fought bravely, but almost all were destroyed in the next few days.
Unable to repair the damage and with her speed reduced to 16 knots, Exeter was sunk on March 1, 1942 (Morison, p. 100) -- making her one of the very few British ships to have the bitter distinction of being badly mauled by gunfire in both the Atlantic and Pacific (as far as I know, it's the only one -- although Prince of Waleswas damaged by the Bismark in the Atlantic and then sunk in the Pacific, she was sunk by aircraft; Exeter in both oceans was damaged by gunfire). Exeter and her escorts apparently went down so quickly that it wasn't until after the war that the Allies even found out what happened to them; NavalInt, p. 78, reports that they called in a sighting of the enemy and were never heard from again, and Parkin, p. 38, says that her crew's fate was not known until after the war when survivors were located in Japanese POW camps; with her speed reduced and her fire control system damaged, she couldn't flee quickly and couldn't fight well, and was sunk with her escorts by an overwhelming force. One of the escorts, USS Pope, fought so valiantly that she and her survivors were awarded three battle stars and a presidential citation (Parkin, p. 42) -- but they had accomplished little except to show that the Americans would fight, and fight hard.
The other three British ships most closely involved in the Grad Spee fight, Ajax, Achilles, and Cumberland, all survived -- the latter two, in fact, played themselves in a movie about the battle (Grove, p. 155). Achilles was the last survivor, serving in the Indian navy after 1948 and not being scrapped until 1978.
A longer-lasting accolade to Achilles is found in New Zealand. Achilles was officially a New Zealand ship, and many of her crew came from that country. After the battle, the New Zealand government honored the captain of Achilles, Edward Parry, by naming the Parry Channel after him (NewZealandEncyclopedia, p. 3). The Parry Channel is not shown on Google Maps as of this time, but it seems to be near Whangarei near the northern tip of the North Island.
It is interesting to note that, when the Exeter returned to Britain for repairs, Winston Churchill (then still the Navy boss, not the Prime Minister) was there to give a speech that included the line, "This great action will long be told in sound and story" ( Grove, p. 151).
This isn't the only song or poem written about the sinking of the Graf Spee; Bennett, p. 56, cites one by a high-ranking British officer, Ronald Hopwood, beginning, "There's a wreck at the mouth of a river, that once was the pride of her land." Major Ralph Furse wrote "I Saw Three Ships," a fantasy beginning "South steamed Ajax, Exeter, Achilles" and printed on pp. 16-17 of Winton. More likely to be traditional, and found in the Index, is "The Battle of the River Plate," published by Cyril Tawney.
There are many books about the Plate battle in addition to the three cited here (i.e. Bennett, Grove, and Pope), and several about the Graf Spee besides Draminsky and Koop/Schmolke. Exeter has her own list: Randall A. R. Tonks, Profile Warship 13: HMS Exeter, Royal Navy Heavy Cruiser, 1929-1941; W. E. Johns and R. E. Kelly, No Surrender : The Story of William E. Johns, DSM, Chief Ordnance Artificer and How He Survived after the Eventual Sinking of HMS Exeter in the Java Sea in March 1942; and at least one print-on-demand book that I suspect is just a reprint of the ship's Wikipedia entry. The Ajax is the subject of Jeff Stevens, HMS Ajax 1935-49. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: MorU031

Sinking of the Newfoundland, The

DESCRIPTION: "We have bred many sailors bold, Brave captains by the score, And ranking with the best of them Is Captain John Blackmore." After a long career of sailing and shipbuilding, he retires, can't stand it, builds the Newfoundland -- and sails her into a wreck
AUTHOR: Solomon Samson?
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (A Glimpse of Newfoundland in Poetry and Pictures)
KEYWORDS: age ship wreck rescue
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1954 - crushing of the "Newfoundlander"
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 130-131, "The Sinking of the 'Newfoundland'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V44735
NOTES [313 words]: Despite both being about the wreck of a ship named Newfoundland, this has nothing to do with the various songs about the "Newfoundland Disaster" (e.g. "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)"); that Newfoundland was commanded by Captain Westbury Kean. This is about the second Newfoundland, built and commanded by John H. Blackmore; this much newer ship is also mentioned in "A Noble Fleet of Sealers."
Most Newfoundland sealing songs came from the era of the sealing steamers, which began in the 1860s. Starting in the early 1900s, ironclads joined the fleet -- but all of them were lost or sold during World War I; the steamers were left in charge. But all of them were old -- usually pre-1900. By the 1940s, the steamers -- and, indeed, the Newfoundland sealing industry itself -- were almost extinct.
One of the old captains, John Blackmore, wouldn't give up. He built a diesel-powered boat, J. H. Blackmore (named for himself and his family, of course; there is a very poor photo of it on p. 80 of Winsor); it was the only Newfoundland ship to go to the ice in 1943 (Candow, p. 107). She was a model for the small "motor vessels," or MVs, which replaced the steamers in the 1940s -- in 1948, for instances, nine MVs, including the J. H. Blackmore, went to the seal fishery. But the Blackmore was lost in that year; the MVs were "genuinely accident-prone" (Candow, p. 165). In the 1950s, Blackmore commanded a ship called the Saint Adresse (Candow, p. 151). The Newfoundlander, which I assume is the ship mentioned in this song despite the difference in name. "was crushed in the Strait of Belle Isle; the crew of over 60 men walked across the ice to safety at Eddies Cove" (Candow, p. 165). Blackmore eventually abandoned the seal fishery in 1962 (Ryan/Drake, p. 82). That appears to be the subject of this song.
There is a photo of Blackmore on p. 72 of Winsor. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: RySm130

Sinking of the Pytoria, The

See Run Come See (File: FSWB058)

Sinking of the Reuben James, The

See Reuben James (File: PSAFB084)

Sinking of the Royal George, The

DESCRIPTION: "Toll for the brave, the brave that are no more. All sunk beneath the wave fast by their native shore." 800 are lost when Kempenfeldt's ship capsized. The singer hopes the ship may float again, but the sailors and their admiral are gone
AUTHOR: Words: William Cowper (1731-1800) (source: Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
EARLIEST DATE: 1782 (date written, according to various Internet sources)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 19, 1782 - Sinking of the Royal George with Admiral Kempenfelt and most of her crew
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 76-77, "The Sinking of the Royal George" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 155-156, "The Loss of the Royal George" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: William Cowper (William Hayley, editor), _The Life and Letters of William Cowper_, W. Mason (Chichester), 1809 (available on Google Books), pp. 61-61, "Song on the loss of the Royal George" (1 text plus Cowper's Latin version "In submersionem navigii, cui Georgius, regale nomen, inditum")
(no editor listed), _The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Dissemination of Useful Knowldege_, Charles Knight, 1832 (available on Google Books), p. 128, "(no title)" (1 text)
(no editor listed), _The Poetical Remembrancer_, Currier and Hal and Asa McFarland, 1835 (available on Google Books), pp. 194-195, "(no title)" (1 text)
Samuel Maunder, _The Universal Class-Book: a New Series of Reading-lessons ... for Every Day in the Year_ Longman, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1844 (available on Google Books), pp. 330-331, "The Royal George" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Royal George (I)" (probable subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Toll for the Brave
On the Loss of the Royal George
NOTES [808 words]: This was published a lot. Granger's Index to Poetry lists it in fourteen modern anthologies, which is a very high total. I've made no attempt whatsoever to list them all; I just listed a handful of the earliest ones found on Google Books.
The notes in Cowper's collected works say, "I add the following Song (adapted to the march in Scippio) for two reasons; because it is pleasing to promote the celebrity of a brave man, calamitously cut off in his career of honor, and because the Song was a favorite production of the poet'; so much so, that he amused himself by translating it into Latin verse. I take the version from one of his subsequent letters, for the sake of annexing it to the original."
It is usually called "The Loss of the Royal George" or "On the Loss of the Royal George," but I've used the title "The Sinking of the Royal George" because that is what is used in Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors.
The Royal George, according to Paine, p. 439, had a complicated history. Laid down in 1746 as the Royal Anne, it took ten years to finish her. During that long wait, she was renamed the Royal George (Uden/Cooper, p. 435, point out that there were a lot of ships eventually named Royal George, but George I had ascended in 1727, so the name was still fairly new when this one was built). At a nominal 100 guns and 2047 tons burden, she was the first warship to exceed 2000 tons. She was 178 feet long, had three masts, and had a nominal crew of 850.
She was Admiral Hawke's flagship at the great Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759 (for background on that, see "Bold Hawke"), but with the end of the Seven Years' War, she was laid up from 1763 to 1778. After that, during the wide-ranging wars surrounding the American Revolution, she was part of a relief expedition for Gibraltar. In 1782, she was at Spithead, preparing for another trip to Gibraltar.
Her ruin came as she was being prepared. Uden/Cooper, p. 435, blame "Admiralty neglect," but there seem to have been three factors to her loss. First, she had been tipped slightly (careened) to allow repairs below the waterline. Second, her lower gunports were not properly secured. And third, she was being loaded with rum for her voyage. Something, somehow, caused her to start to roll -- and the roll didn't stop, and down she went. The loss was estimated at 800, including 300 women and 60 children who were visiting the ship. Ritchie reports that her masts were still above water. He estimates the casualties at 900.
Since she had sunk in harbor, there were thoughts of raising her. A failed attempt was made in 1783. In 1834, diver Charles Deane visited her and started bringing up guns -- but he discovered the Mary Rose before he finished, and that took all his attention thereafter. The Navy finally blew up the wreck in the 1840s, presumably to clear up the channels at Spithead.
Uden/Cooper, p. 435, say that "Over the years many guns and other relics have been recovered from the anchorage... but the injudicious use of explosives has left what a modern diver described as 'no longer a ship but rather a compost heap of mud, clay, shingle.' A more enduring memorial may be found in Trafalgar Square."
The official cause of the sinking was given as the state of her timbers, but Treasure, p. 253, mentions suggestions at the time that someone on the Navy Board was guilty of neglect -- and adds that certain evidence from the court-martial was suppressed.
Admiral Richard Kempenfelt (1718-1782) had some combat experience, including as division commander at one of the expeditions to Gibraltar, but he seems to have been mostly an "ideas guy"; he gave consideration to the tactical effects of the new technique of coppering ships' bottoms (Rodger, p. 350), worked on new signaling systems (Keegan, p. 51; Rodger, p. 361), and considered new training methods (Rodger, p. 395). Treasure, pp. 252-253, says he was "one of the most thoughtful seamen of his time." His greatest success may have been dying when he did; Treasure, p. 252, says he "is more famous for the manner of his death than for what he did when he was alive." But he was an unusual British officer who rose solely on merit, without connections (Treasure, p. 253).
Dupuy/Johnson/Bongard say of Kempenfelt, "An intelligent and learned officer, Kempenfelt was noted as a scientist, scholar, and author, known both for his concern for his men's health and welfare, and for his scholarly approach to naval issues; his success at Ushant showed initiative, daring, and a clear grasp of strategy and tactics."
Uden/Cooper, p. 244, describe how his new signal system worked and quote a description of him as "a tall thin man who stooped a great deal."
For background on William Cowper, the author of this poem but known mostly for his religious verse, see the notes to "God Moves in a Mysterious Way." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: LaBo076

Sinking of the Titanic (Titanic #9)

DESCRIPTION: The Titanic leaves Southampton. After the ship strikes an iceberg, her officers call upon the Carpathia for help. The passengers and crew place women and children in the lifeboats, leaving the men to go down with the ship.
AUTHOR: Probably Richard Brown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Richard "Rabbit" Brown)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The Titanic leaves Southampton, bound for America with happy passengers and crew. After the ship strikes an iceberg, her officers call upon the Carpathia for help, but she is far away. The passengers and crew, realizing the ship is sinking, place women and children in the lifeboats, leaving the men to go down with the ship. The band plays "Nearer My God to Thee" as the ship sinks (Singer sings the hymn)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster death drowning religious
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 14/15, 1912 - Shortly before midnight, ship's time, the Titanic strikes an iceberg and begins to sink. Only 711 survivors are found of 2224 people believed to have been aboard.
FOUND IN: US(So)
ST RcTitaIX (Partial)
RECORDINGS:
Richard "Rabbit" Brown, "Sinking of the Titanic" (Victor 35840, 1927; on TimesAint01)
NOTES [158 words]: This song can be distinguished from the other Titanic songs primarily by its lack of a chorus, by its description of the SOS call to the Carpathia, and by the singing of "Nearer My God to Thee" at the end. - PJS
Richard Brown in fact not only sang "Nearer..." but did it in a sort of distorted voice, like music heard through water. A cute trick. Although the song was not recorded until 1927, Lyle Lofgren thinks it was written soon after the tragedy, because of the details it has, most of which (except for the playing of "Nearer...") are accurate. Despite this song (and other folklore), the band on the Titanic did *not* play "Nearer My God to Thee" as the ship sank. Instead, they played light music to prevent panic.
For an extensive history of the Titanic, with detailed examination of the truth (or lack thereof) of quotes in the Titanic songs, see the notes to "The Titanic (XV)" ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15) - RBW
File: RcTitaIX

Sinking of the Vestris, The

DESCRIPTION: Vestris sail proudly from New York into a storm: "wild waves... And in her side a hole was pounded" The captain's message for help is too late. "Well do we know that someone blundered. We must forgive after all For we are adrift on life's briny ocean"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: travel death drowning sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 12, 1928 - Steamship liner Vestris bound to Barbados from New York City capsized and sank at Hampton Roads, Virginia with 112 dead (per Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #22428
RECORDINGS:
Joe Sutton, "S. S. Vesteris" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [28 words]: Bruce D. Berman, Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks, Mariner's Press, 1972, p. 149, agrees with the date of the loss of the Vestris but says that 110 were lost. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: MLSiVes

Sinne, Sinne, Set Ye

DESCRIPTION: The herder welcomes sunset and complains that he has only a drop of corn husks to eat all day. When a cripple bird passes, dragging its wing he clubs it. The bird cheeps. The cock warns it "come na yon road again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: warning food bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1636, "Sinne, Sinne, Set Ye" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 27, ("Cleaverie, cleaverie, sit i' the sun")
Roud #13066
NOTES [60 words]: The description follows Chambers because I think I understand it better than I do Greig/Duncan8. As far as I can make out, Greig/Duncan8 has the herder going hungry until sunset, envying the chickens at home that have been eating all day; when he gets home he clubs a chicken, whom the cock upbraids, saying, "you should have come to bed when I told you to" - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1636

Sinner Man

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to? (x3) All on that day." The remainder of the song is variations on the theme, "Run to the (rock), Rock won't you hide me? (x3)... (rock) will be (a-melting)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: religious punishment nonballad sin
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 616, "No Hidin'-Place" (2 texts, with the "A" text being "No Hiding Place" but the "B" text, which is damaged, probably belonging here)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #45, "O Sinner Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 208, "Sinner Man" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 61, "Sinner Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 366, "Sinner Man" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 383, "Sinner Man" (notes only)
DT, SINERMAN SINERMN2*
Roud #3408
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Heaven Bell a-Ring" (lyrics)
cf. "Can't Hide Sinner" (lyrics)
NOTES [154 words]: Although there is surely no literary connection, the phrasing of this reminds me of a Talmudic story. Alan Unterman, Dictionary of Jewish Lore & Legend, 1991 (I use the 1997 Thames & Hudson paperback edition), p. 68, tells a tale of the first/second century rabbi Eliezer Ben Hyrcanus. Rabbi Eliezer was in a dispute over a point of law, and was unable to convince the others. He called on a tree to help him convince them, and the tree uprooted itself and moved, but the other rabbis said that trees proved nothing. Eliezer called on a stream, which flowed uphill, but the response was that streams proved nothing. He called on the walls of the academy, and they started to fall, but another rabbi told them to stop, and they did. Then Eliezer called on heaven to help him, and a voice from heaven said Eliezer was right. But the assembly still disagreed, and put him under a ban. Later, his views were said to prevail. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: SKE61

Sinner Man (II), The

See No Hiding Place AND Sinner Man (File: FSWB370C)

Sinner Saved, A

DESCRIPTION: "One night I was in sorrow, My heart with fear did ache, To think that on the morrow The thread of life might break. But soon the savior found me... And took me to his fold." "Each day I look for courage... To tell... His blood has washed each white"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 363-364, "A Sinner Saved" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27523
File: HGam363

Sinner Too Late

DESCRIPTION: The sinner is told what he needs to do, but he ignores the warnings. "Turn ... the sinner wouldn't turn." "My Lord call you -- wouldn't come." "Church bell ring -- you wouldn't come." "O too late, sinner, too late."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 225, ("Turn sinner turn - sinner wouldn't turn") (1 text)
NOTES [17 words]: Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands writes that this was sung while flailing the rice sheaf. - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parp225

Sinner What Are You Doing Down There

DESCRIPTION: "(Sinner, what are you doing down there?) (3x) Oooh, my Lord." First lines include "Doing my Master's work," "Haul in the plank and let us go," "This old world ain't my home," "Walking on the borrowed land," "Never miss my mother till she's gone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 238-239, "Sinnuh W'ah Yuh Doin' Down Dere" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR238A

Sinner Why Will You Die On That Day

DESCRIPTION: "When you (hear the trumpet blowing/hear the wind blowing/see the lightning flashing/hear the thunder rolling) on that day, on that day, Oh sinner, why will you die on that day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 250-251, "Sinnuh W'y Will Yuh Die on Da' Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR250A

Sinner Won't Die No More

DESCRIPTION: "O the lamb been down here and died (x3), Sinner won't die no more." "I wonder what bright angels, angels, angels, I wonder what bright angels, The robes all ready now." ""I see them ships a-sailing... The robes all ready now."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 85, "Sinner Won't Die No More" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12043
File: AWG085

Sinner You Better Get Ready

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Sinner you better get ready" (3x). "The hour is coming that a sinner must die" Verse (see notes: "The good old chariot passing by, Jarred the earth and shook the sky" "I looked at my hands, my hands was new, I looked at my feet, my feet was too."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious death floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 26, "Sinner You Better Get Ready" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 16-17, "Oh, Sinner, You'd Better Get Ready" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 208-209 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #19341
RECORDINGS:
Monroe Brothers, "Sinner You Better Get Ready" (1937, Bluebird B 7326-B, 1975, "Monroe Brothers - Feast Here Tonight," RCA LP AXM2-5510, 2003, "Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys 1937-1949," JSP Records CD JSP7712B)
NOTES [64 words]: The description is based on the Barton-OldPlantationHymns text. For the verse, every line is followed by "For the hour is coming that a sinner must die."
Barton-OldPlantationHymns verses include the floating verse "The tallest tree in Paradise, The Christian calls it the tree of life." Monroe Brothers include "God gave Noah the rainbow sign, Won't be the water but fire next time." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart026

Sinner, Please Don't Let This Harvest Pass

DESCRIPTION: "Brother, be sure you got your soul right, Sister, be sure you got your heart right, See the time is winding up, Don't let this harvest pass." Jesus is coming. God is a warrior. Jesus is a rock. The time is coming. So get moving!
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1997 (Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad farming Jesus
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 76-83, "Sinner, Please Don't Let Dis Harves' Pass" (1 text, 1 tune, arranged in such a way that it cannot be sung by a single musician)
Roud #12220
File: WarSp076

Sinner, Sinner

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "Sinner, sinner, Come to dinner. Half past two. Fried potatoes, Alligators, Out goes you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: food animal | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 22, "(Sinner, sinner)" (1 text)
Roud #20739
File: WEMM022B

Sinner's Redemption, The

See All You That Are Unto Mirth Inclined (The Sinner's Redemption) (File: OBC051)

Sinnerin o' Me and My Love, The

DESCRIPTION: The seventeen year old pregnant singer sees her false lover and curses the church and minister of his coming marriage, future wife and sons ["every year a burial"], farm and waters. "The woman never will follow you ... That will love you so well's I do"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity curse pregnancy nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #126, pp. 1-2, "The Sinnerin o' Me and My Love"; #121, p. 3, ("To-morrow's my lovie's wedding day") (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan6 1148, "The Sinnerin o' Me and My Love" (3 texts)
Roud #6325
File: GrD61148

Sinners Will Call for the Rocks and the Mountains

DESCRIPTION: "Sinners will call for the rocks and the mountains (x3) When the last trump shall sound." "Jesus will bear the Christians higher (x3) When the last trump shall sound." "Brothers, won't you go to glory with me (x2) When the last trump shall sound."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 651, "Sinners Will Call for the Rocks and the Mountains"
Roud #7572
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When the Stars Begin to Fall" (words)
File: R651

Sinnuh W'ah Yuh Doin' Down Dere

See Sinner What Are You Doing Down There (File: HPR238A)

Sinnuh W'y Will Yuh Die on Da' Day

See Sinner Why Will You Die On That Day (File: HPR250A)

Sintali

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "Sintali I-yah you know." The shantyman sings: Sintali was a poor fisherman who went to sea. He couldn't get bait so he took off his penis, his leg, and other parts of his body for bait. "What a great fishing guy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: poverty fishing ordeal shanty children father injury
FOUND IN: West Indies(St Vincent)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 114-117, "Sintali" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [39 words]: Abrahams quotes a blackfish whaler: "This shanty is about Sintali.... He could not get bait. But he insist that he must go fishing and get something for the children them. Have he cut off certain parts of his body, used as bait." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS114

Sioux Indians, The [Laws B11]

DESCRIPTION: A train of white settlers is bound for Oregon. While on their way they are attacked by a band of Sioux. Outnumbered, the whites are nonetheless victorious and finish their journey
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax, Cowboy Songs)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) battle settler
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1862 - Dakota Conflict
FOUND IN: US(Ap,Ro,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws B11, "The Sioux Indians"
Randolph 195, The Indian Fighters" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 148-149, "The Indian Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 14-15, "The Indian Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 134, "Sioux Indians" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #156, "Sioux Indians" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 142-143, "(The Sioux Indians)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 179-181, "Sioux Indians" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 43, "Sioux Indians" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 155-156, "The Indian Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 487-488, "Sioux Indians" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 259-260, "The Sioux Indians" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 379, SIOUXIND*
Roud #3235
RECORDINGS:
Eugene Jemison, "Crossing the Plains" (on Jem01)
Alex Moore, "The Sioux Indians" (LC -------, 1940)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Sioux Indians" (on NLCR14)
Cyril O'Brien, "Killing the Deer and the Wild Buffalo" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Pete Seeger, "Sioux Indians" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a, AmHist1)
Marc Williams, "Sioux Indians" (Brunswick 240, 1928) (Decca 5011, 1934; on BackSaddle)
NOTES [528 words]: Despite the title, the Jemison recording is not the same as the song we've called "Crossing the Plains," but is a version of "Sioux Indians," with the Kaw being substituted for the Sioux. - PJS
Jonathan Lighter pointed out an interesting note about the version of the song printed by Robert W. Gordon but collected by W. S. Charles (whom I presume wrote the note):
"I have heard snatches of this old song by old timers for years, but never was able to get it in total, in any form, until I met Mother Dorcas Lorana Hambleton, an old pioneer of Auburn mining days in Eastern Oregon. Her maiden name was Elliott. Her father was wagon master of a '48 wagon train which crossed the plains during Oregon Trail days. His name, I think, was William Elliott.
"'Mother Hambleton is not sure of her own age. But she does remember, as a young girl, the hardships of that trip. This was the train from which the Sioux Indians took a young man and skinned him alive for the wanton killing of an inoffensive Sioux squaw.
"'From Mother Hambleton's information the song was composed in 1861 or 1862. A member of their wagon train wrote it after their arrival at Pocahontas, Baker County, Oregon, a small pioneer settlement, now deserted.'"
If fhis is correct, then the year 1862 could be significant, because that is the year of Minnesota's "Dakota Conflict." In early 1862, the U. S. government cheated the Dakota of Minnesota of the benefits they had promised when forcing them onto a reservation.
Not all Dakota wanted to fight, but some did (led mostly by Little Crow), and the American forces under Henry Sibley defeated the Dakota and forced them west or (in several dozen cases) hung them in the period 1862-1863.
However, Lighter points out that Pocahontas, Oregon (originally Pine City), mentioned in the Hambleton text of the song and also in Lomax's, did not get its post office until 1863. Yet it was established when the party arrived. So, despite the Gordon/Charles date, it is unlikely that the song is older than 1863, and it could be newer.
A bigger problem is the mention of "Sioux" Indians, i.e. the people properly referred to as the Dakota. Because the Oregon Trail did not pass through the territory of the Dakota tribes.
If the Hambleton party followed the "standard" Oregon Trail along the Platte through Nebraska, as is stated in some versions of the song, they wouldn't have come anywhere near the Dakota lands; the Dakota areas never reached the Platte and barely reached northeastern Nebrasks. Still, the local tribes (some of whom, such as the Lakota, spoke languages of the Siouan language family although not Dakota itself) might have heard of the Dakota Conflict and been restive. And if the party instead followed the Missouri River into Dakota Territory (which had been organized in 1861), they might possibly have encountered very hostile Dakota who had actually fought in the Conflict.
We should further note that "Sioux" is an improper name, imposed by Europeans on the Dakota. So this song is arguably a double slur -- the murderous Indians, if they existed at all, cannot have been "Sioux," and the name "Sioux" is not their name anyway. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LB11

Siporatin' Line

See Separating Line (File: HPR310S)

Sippin' Cider through a Straw

See Sucking Cider through a Straw (File: San329)

Sipping Cider through a Straw

See Sucking Cider through a Straw (File: San329)

Sir Aldingar [Child 59]

DESCRIPTION: Aldingar, spurned by the Queen, puts a (blind/drunk) leper in her bed and shows the king. She will be burned and the leper hanged. She finds a (child) champion who defeats Aldingar. He confesses. (The leper is made whole, becomes steward.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy Folio)
KEYWORDS: royalty knight adultery trick disease reprieve
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 59, "Sir Aldingar" (3 texts)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 165-171, "Sir Aldingar" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 54-67, "Sir Aldingar" (2 texts, one the original from the Percy folio and the other the retouched version in the _Reliques_)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 185-196, "Sir Aldingar" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 4, "Sir Aldingar" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 163-167, "Sir Hugh le Blond" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 108-114, "Sir Aldingar" (1 text)
DT 59, SIRALDGR
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 166
Roud #3969
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Judas" [Child 23] (subject: The Earliest English Ballad) and references there
NOTES [3234 words]: The single most important book about this ballad is probably still Paul Christophersen, The Ballad of Sir Aldingar: Its Origin and Analogues, cited in the bibliography. It includes texts of the English-language versions, translations of the Scandinavian versions, source notes, and comparisons to sundry romances. On the other hand, it gets so deeply into the weeds of just how a particular name moved from one language to another that it frankly often seems completely irrelevant to the English ballad. And many of its conclusions are based on Chambers and Entwistle, also cited in the bibliography. I have referred to the discussion of Chambers and Entwistle, rather than Christopherson, as far as I can.
One interesting point that Christopherson makes, on p. 109, is that "the modern British versions show no verbal resemblance to the Scandinavian ballad; but what is more remarkable, they show no mutual resemblance. I cannot find a single line or phrase which the two British versions may be said to have in common." This raises a genuine question of whether the two are truly one song or are merely two different framings of the same legend. Frankly, knowing the nature of the Percy Folio, I am very open to the latter latter: There was probably once a romance of Aldingar, which the Percy Folio cut down (as it did with almost every other romance it contains), and there is a ballad, "Sir Hugh le Blond," on the same theme but otherwise unrelated.
The strongest argument that they're the same, it seems to me, is just the number of ways they both differ from the European analogues of the song (discussed on p. 110 of Christopherson). A rather weak case for unity.... Fowler, p. 161, suggests that this ballad is based on a lost metrical romance, which agrees with my own thought (and, again, I suspect that the Percy Folio might be a cut-down version of it); it might well be that this was the case for the Scandinavian ballad as well, which would explain the similar plots but unrelated lyrics.
The theme of the calumniated queen, specifically the queen and a servant being falsely accused of familiarity, is Thompson K2121.2, and is surprisingly common, although Thompson lists only two items, Icelandic (Þidric's Saga) and Hawaiian. There is apparently a whole book on it by Margaret Schlauch, Chaucer's Constance and Accused Queens. Fellows, pp. xvi-xvii and note 52, observes it in the Middle English romances of "Sir Tryamowre/Tryamour," "Octavian," "Emare," and "Valentine and Orson." In the case of "Sir Tryamour," Hudson, p. 145, notes also the theme of a faithful dog which occurs in this ballad as well. (There is a version of "Sir Tryamore" in the Percy Folio; Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 78-135; MSPercyFolio, p. 210. A somewhat similar item in the Folio is "The Emperoure and the Childe; Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 390-399; MSPercyFolio, p. 314, but it would be hard to sing.)
Child connects this ballad with the story of Gunhild, wife of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry III (reigned 1039-1056). Certainly the Scandinavian analogues mostly feature a woman named Gunhild or something like it (Christophersen, p. 16). A certain superficial similarity may be granted.
Gunhild (or Gunnhild, or Gunnhildr) was the daughter of King Canute (Cnut) and his more-official wife Emma of Normandy (see genealogy in O'Brien, p. viii). This made her the full sister of the future king Harthacanute (Harðacnut, Hardacnut, etc. -- I'm going to stop with the alternate spellings now) and the half-sister of Swein and Harold I Harefoot, who were Canute's sons by his less official wife Aelgifu of Northampton. (Canute had married Aelgifu as his first wife, out of love or at least lust, then married Emma, the second wife and widow of the old king Ethelred II "the Unready" out of politics -- Canute was a conqueror, and marrying the old king's wife smoothed his way. But he did not set aside Aelgifu).
Interestingly, there was folklore that Emma of Normandy was also accused of infidelity and subjected to a trial by ordeal (walking through fire), and also proved her innocence (Christopherson, pp. 33-34). Child mentions this, and briefly refers to a (lost) song about it. Christopherson, p. 34, suggests that this is the piece cited in Piers Plowman, which contains the lyric "Dieu vous saue, Dame Emme," which might be another candidate for Earliest English Ballad (or, at least, Earliest Ballad in England), if only we had its text. The line in Piers Plowman is found at:
A text: Prologue, line 103 (so Langland/KnottFowler)
B text: Prologue, line 224 (so Langland/Bennett) or 225 (so Langland/Schmidt)
C text: Passus I, line 225 (according to Christopherson, p. 34)
There was ballad on Emma's ordeal sung in 1338 (Christopherson, p. 34; Langland/Bennett, p. 103). However, Langland/Schmidt, p. 413 says the song in Piers Plowman "may allude to the 'wise woman' Dame Emma of Shoreditch referred to in [Passus] XIII 339 rather than Cnut's virtuous queen. In neither case, of course, does it refer to Emma's daughter Gunhild.
We do not know when Gunhild was born, but it obviously must have been after Canute assumed the throne of England in 1016. This would make her no more than ten in 1027 when she went to Rome with her father. She may well have been much younger. But she was probably betrothed there to Henry, son of the Emperor Conrad II. It was a logical match; Canute, as King of England, Denmark, and Norway (O'Brien, p. xvii) was one of the strongest monarchs in Europe. The marriage may have helped seal a bargain; the Emperor ceded the province of Schleswig to Denmark at that time (Linklater, p. 139)
But the marriage had not yet taken place when Canute died in 1035. This led to a real mess in England; the presumably-official heir, Harthacanute, had been governing Denmark for his father, and while he succeeded at once to the Danish throne, his absence allowed Harold Harefoot to take the English throne (O'Brien, p. xix). Suddenly Gunhild, as the half-sister of the king rather than his daughter, was worth less in the marriage market. But, somehow or other, the marriage went through (O'Brien, p. 169).
O'Brien, pp. 170-171, tells the rest: "According to William of Malmesbury, after a fairy-tale beginning Gunnhhild's marriage went horribly wrong. Although she was reputedly a dutiful wife, Gunhild was accused of adultery. In William's story she was offered a chance to prove her innocence through man-to-man combat. [This although trial by combat reportedly was not allowed in English law at this time; Head, p. 77.]
"Gunnhild herself was not expected to participate; the informant of her alleged infidelity would take on a representative to fight on her behalf. The accuser, William claims, was a man of gigantic proportions and against this daunting individual Gunnhild could find no one willing to defend her except a small pageboy, who was the keeper of a pet starling she had brought with her from England. However... the pageboy won and, triumphant, Gunnhild refused ever to sleep with her husband, Henry, again. William writes that she subsequently divorced him, become a nun, and lived 'to a leisurely old age...'"
She and Henry had stayed together long enough to have a daughter, Beatrice (Barlow, genealogical table I in endpapers), but the girl too ended up in the church (O'Brien, p. 171).
The marital alliance by then hardly mattered anyway. Harold I Harefoot had died in 1040. Harthecanute had followed him on the throne, but died in 1042. Canute's dynasty was extinct (except for poor Gunhild, whom everyone apparently ignored). The English witan gave the throne to Edward the Confessor, the son of the old English king Ethelred II. Edward was the son of Emma, so he was Gunhild's half-brother -- but Emma was by this time pretty much forgotten; the link meant very little politically, and Edward the Confessor probably wasn't close to her personally.
The similarities between Gunhild's story and the plot of this ballad are obvious, although we note that "Sir Aldingar" gives a motive for the accusation against the queen, while there seems to be none in the historical case.
Entwistle goes beyond even Child, ringing in William of Malmesbury's statement that a poem about this event circulated in England in his time (twelfth century):
"William of Malmesbury states definitively that a poem about Canute's daughter Gunhild, falsely accused before her husband the Emperor Henry III [emperor 1039-1057] and unexpectedly delivered, was 'nostris adhuc in triviis cantitata' (c. 1140). Brompton (c. 1350) names her accuser and defender, Roddyngar and Mimicon; Mathhew of Westminster gives us Mimecan. There is no doubt that these references are to a poem of traditional nature and content identical with the ballad of Sir Aldingar" (quoted by Chambers, p. 154; Cristopherson, p. 31, also seems to think several chroniclers referred to a ballad even if William did not). On p. vii of his revised volume, Entwistle draws a specific comparison of three versions, Middle English, Danish, and this ballad, arguing that the "Sir Aldingar" names came about because the king was identified as Henry II of England. In the Middle English version, the king is Emperor Henry III, in Spire; the accused is Gunhild daughter of Canute; the accuser is the giant Roddyngar, and the defender is a boy, Munecon/Mimecan. In the Danish, the equivalents are Duke Henrik the Lion, Gunhild (in Spire, Ravengaard/Raadengaard), and Mimering. In two English versions the king is always Henry II, the woman is either Elinor (Eleanor of Aquitaine) or just "Queen"; the accuser is Sir Aldingar or Roddingham, and the defender is a little child or Sir Hugh le Blond.
Christopherson, p. 17, points out that it was Percy who first connected the "Eleanor" of "Sir Aldingar" with Gunhild, claiming that Gunhild was somewhere called "Eleanor." Christopherson counters that he has nowhere found Gunhild called "Eleanor."
Entwistle also mentions the account of Matthew Paris, who says that accounts of this wedding feast were still circulating in his time, another three quarters of a century after William of Malmesbury (Entwistle, p. viii; Keen, p. 34).
About this Chambers is scathing: "But surely there could be no more gratuitous hypothesis than an assumption that a poem which, like Sir Aldingar, comes to us from the Percy MS. of about 1650 can be identical in style with one known to William of Malmesbury in the twelfth century." This is especially so since the English language changed dramatically between the reign of Canute and the time of the Percy manuscript -- the writer of the folio simply would not have understood the Old English poem. Chambers grants that there may be similar legends as the source. Fowler, p. 61 n. 31, follows Nygard in also regarding this assumption as extremely dubious.
Despite Entwistle's categorical statement (p. viii) that "These are not conjectures," I am not absolutely convinced even of the existence of those legends, although I grant the possibility; the similarity in names seen by Entwistle is certainly interesting. Entwistle adds that "the story of Gunnhild and Roddyngar was (1) performed popularly as a sung tale with musical accompaniment" (which in his definition makes it a ballad, although in mine it makes it a minstrel piece); he points out that the accounts also tell of Gunhild's vindication in a trial by battle and that it spoke of her splendid wedding. The Danish downplays the wedding but adds another motif, the champions' choice of swords. It is at this point that Entwistle makes his Big Conjecture, that the Middle English source which the chroniclers describe, but which is no longer extant, is of ballad proportions and in ballad style. I would consider this too much hypothesis, as is his suggestion that his listeners would have liked the David-versus-Goliath motif because the English felt oppressed by the Normans.
Still, accusations of unchastity against wives are not rare -- witness the fact that the Bible prescribes a trial by ordeal for women accused of hidden adultery (Numbers 5:11-31) -- almost the only instance in the Bible of guilt being assigned without actual evidence. Julius Caesar divorced one of his wives on mere suspicion of adultery (Langguth, p. 137). There are dozens of adultery ballads. The number of Scandinavian analogs to this piece cited by Child proves that there is no necessary dependence -- there are too many possible sources for something like this, including even the King Arthur legend. And the charge of adultery levied against one who will not commit adultery goes back at least to the story of Joseph and Potiphar's Wife in Genesis 39. Plus Chaucer has something similar in the "Man of Law's Tale" (LindahlEtAl, p. 4).
Indeed, the whole story of Gunhild is considered a standard folklore type, usually known as "The Accused Queen" or "The Maiden Without Hands" (LindahlEtAl, p. 4); it is Thompson type AT 706. (This is to be distinguished from the individual motif of The Calumniated Queen.) Ranke, p. 212, reports versions from "the Orient, West Asia, India, Japan, North Africa, and South and North America," and compares it with the tales of Crescentia, Hildegardis, Florentia, Sibylla, Genofeva, Helena, Violetta, Hilranda, and Octovianus -- although I have to say that many of these versions, including that on pp. 84-89 of Ranke, bear very little resemblance to either Gunhild or the story in Sir Aldingar.
Zipes, p. 26, says that the motifs often come from "Byzantine and Greek tales and Medieval legends. There is some connection fo the marriage customs in the ruling houses in the pre-Hellenistic period. Other important sources are the legend of the famous eighth century king Offa, John Gower's Confessio Amantis, written in the fourteenth century, and Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales." Many of these links, however, are to the incest motif, not the trial motif, and I assume the link to the Canterbury Tales is to the Clerk's Tale, where the queen is degraded but without cause.
(As a side note, the Gunhild I've been talking about was probably named for Canute's mother, another Gunhild -- who also was separated from her husband, Swein Forkbeard, and sent into exile; Ronay, p. 55. But that doesn't seem to have been a case of suspected infidelity; it appears that Swein, like many Danish monarchs before him, got bored with his wife and didn't pay any attention to any stupid laws forbidding bigamy or divorce.)
The use of a champion is historical -- and sometimes required by law. In the Angevin period (well after Canute's time, but well before the Percy Folio was written) it was even rather normal in certain types of cases: "Trials in cases of right was theoretically by battle. The demandant could not fight his own battle, unlike in criminal cases: he had to be represented by someone supposedly a witness to the basis of his claim. The defendant could have a champion; professional champions were disapproved of in the twelfth century but were common in the thirteenth" (Mortimer, p. 58). Thus the idea represented in this song could fit the era of William of Malmsbury -- or be rather later.
Nor are boy-champions unusual; we see a sort of twisted parallel in "The Boy and the Mantle" [Child 29]. But the whole business is so obscure that not even Gunhild's mother Emma, in her self-justifying book, mentions the poor girl (O'Brien, p. 124).
If there is a historical connection, it has been heavily distorted, because (to repeat) the king and queen in "Sir Aldingar" are Henry and Eleanor (either Henry II or England and Eleanor of Acquitaine, or Henry III and Eleanor of Provence). And, as Chambers points out on p. 157, William of Malmesbury was dead before even Henry II took the throne. One suspects, as Entwistle hints, that the tale was attracted to Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine because of the accusations (probably false) that Eleanor was unfaithful. (For this, see the notes to "Queen Eleanor's Confession" [Child 156]).
Nor was Gunhild's story well-known in England. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the primary source for English history at this time, never mentions Emperor Henry III by that name, although there are a few references to "the Emperor" in this period, and two manuscripts of the Chronicle mention his death in 1057, using his other name "Cona" (Swanton, pp. 186-187). Gunhild daughter of Cnut is not mentioned at all in the Chronicle (at least based on the index in Swanton and some online searches). There is a brief mention of Gunhild the niece of Cnut, daughter of an unnamed sister of that King by Wytgeorn king of the Wends (Barlow, genealogical table II in endpapers); Swanton, p. 157 note 15, says that her uncle sent her into exile because he feared her husband was conspiring against him; Barlow, p. 57, while agreeing that she was exiled, more logically dates this to the reign of Edward the Confessor in 1044 (since Edward the Confessor would fear a revival of Cnut's lineage).
Conclusion: While this story might possibly have its roots in the tale of Gunhild and Henry III, there are plenty of other sources from which such a tale might be assembled. If I had to suggest one source, it would be the Middle English romance of "Octavian." This derives from an Old French original, and was popular enough to have been translated twice. This gives us an English source, much more recent than the tale of Gunhild.
The parallels to Sir Aldingar are not complete, but they are substantial; "Octavian" features an accusation of adultery and a pretend lover falsely slipped into a lady's bed. For a text of the better-known of the English translations, see Mills, p. 75, or Hudson, p. 39 (the latter slightly more modernized than the former). Christopherson also discusses it on pp. 39-40, 147-149.
Christopherson cites many other parallels, English, Scandinavian, and (occasionally) otherwise. I think most of these are pushing it. In almost all cases, they have a Calumniated Queen Saved by a Champion section, but they almost all contain something else, too. The relationship between all these pieces is not literary; it's just that they all make use of a particular folklore motif -- one that goes back in part to the Biblical/Apocryphal tale of Susannah (in the Additions to Daniel, so it's not canonical to Protestants, but it was very popular with Catholics), so the fact that it's widespread doesn't need much explanation! I observed that linkage myself, before I read Christopherson, but he points out "The fact that the story of Susanna is centuries earlier than other treatments of the theme seems to me never to have been sufficiently stressed by writers on the subject of accused queens" (Christoperson, p. 114). He points out that that theme was also the topic of a Middle English writing attributed to "Huchown" (p. 115), although Huchown (who has been suggested, e.g., as the author of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight") is a very shadowy figure.
Despite the obscurity of "Sir Aldingar" itself, great things have been claimed for it -- Fowler, p. 172, suggests that "echoes" of it are found in "Glasgerion" [Child 67], "Old Robin of Portingale" [Child 80], "Child Maurice" [Child 83], and "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" [Child 81]. Of course, all of those pieces except "Little Musgrave" are pretty obscure themselves. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: C059

Sir Andrew Barton [Child 167]

DESCRIPTION: Merchants complain to the King that their trade is being disrupted. The King sends a crew to deal with Barton, the pirate. After a difficult battle marked by great courage and skill on both sides, Barton is defeated and killed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1723; a song with this name was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: sailor sea battle nobility pirate
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1509-1547 - Reign of Henry VIII (mentioned as king in some texts of the ballad)
1511 - Probable date of the death of Andrew Barton, one of three Scottish brothers named Barton who were involved in creating the navy of Scotland's King James IV
1513 - Battle of Flodden. James IV killed
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE,NW,SE)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Child 167, "Sir Andrew Barton" (2 texts)
Bronson 167, "Sir Andrew Barton" (10 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 167, "Sir Andrew Barton" (3 versions: #2, #5b, #8)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume III, pp. 399-417, "Sir Andrew Bartton" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 188-207, "Sir Andrew Barton" (3 texts, one from the folio manuscript and the other the completely rewritten version in the _Reliques_)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 323-331, "Sir Andrew Barton" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 248-258, "Andrew Barton" (3 texts); p. 483 (1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland4, pp. 15-44, "Sir Andrew Barton" "but including Henry Martyn" (11 texts plus a fragment, 10 tunes; in every text but "L," the robber is Andrew Bardeen or something like that, but many of the texts appear more Henry Martin-like) {K=Bronson's #2 tune for Child #167; B=#46, C=#31 for Child #250}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 467-475, "Sir Andrew Barton" (1 text)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #29, "Three Brothers from Old Scotland" (1 text, which has an opening typical of "Sir Andrew Barton" [Child 167] but ends with a verse of "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" [Child 287]
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 348, "Sir Andrew Barton" (1 text)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 2, "Sir Andrew Barton" (1 text, 2 tunes; the text is composite and neither tune direct associated with it; #2 in the first edition)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XLII, "Andrew Barton" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 130, "Sir Andrew Barton" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 130-141+329-331, "Sir Andrew Barton" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2850, "When Flora with her fragrant flowere"
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 58-69, "Sir Andrew Barton" (1 text)
DT 167, ANDBART* HENRMRT4*
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1621
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2714
ADDITIONAL: Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, pp. 181-190, "(Sir Andrew Barton)" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; notes to #418, ("But when hee saw his sisters sonne slaine") (1 long but incomplete text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 490
MANUSCRIPT: York Minster MS., number unknown (lost since at lesat 1890)
Roud #104
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Martyn" [Child 250] (plot, lyrics)
cf. "Captain Ward and the Rainbow" [Child 287] (theme)
SAME TUNE:
My bleeding heart, with grief and care/A Warning to all Lewd Livers (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1789)
As I lay musing all alone, Great store of things I thought upon/[Title trimmed. A comparison made upon the Life of Man? Stat. Register, July 16, 1634] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN229)
NOTES [2043 words]: In the present state of our knowledge, it is almost impossible to distinguish "Sir Andrew Barton" from "Henry Martyn"; the pirates' names exchange freely, and the basic plot is similar. What is more, the ballads have clearly exchanged elements, especially in America, where mixed versions are the rule. Child did not have to contend with this.
In Child, the basic distinction might almost appear to be length; the versions of "Andrew Barton" are 82 and 64 stanzas, while the texts of "Henry Martyn" do not exceed 13 stanzas. Thus the former looks more literary and the latter more popular. In addition, there are hints of historical background in "Andrew Barton"; more on this below, though much distorted.
Roud originally kept them separate but has now combined the two under #104. I incline to agree but am keeping the distinction for compatibility with Child.
See the notes to "Henry Martin" for a summary of opinions on the issue. Bottom line: it is best to check both ballads for a particular version.
There was a real Scottish captain named Andrew Barton, who was almost certainly the inspiration for this song -- e.g. Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution says that the song describes an event of 1511. Williamson, p. 77, says "The Earl of Oxford had long been lord Admiral, but the office was legal and administrative and not combatant, and Oxford did not go to sea. Henry, with a view to finding a successor with sea experience, picked out the two young Howards, Thomas and Edward, sons of the Earl of Surrey, and sent them to sea in 1511 to bring to account Sir Andrew Barton, a Scottish officer whose piracies were the complaint of English merchants. Barton was a servant of James IV and a commander of the new Scottish navy. The Howards fought and killed him and added his two privateers as prizes to Henry's fleet."
Rodger, p. 169, gives a different account of how the battle came about; "There had been several incidents of hostility [between Scotland and England], notably in June 1511 when the Lord Admiral of England, Sir Edward Howard, escorting a convoy to Zealand, accidentally encountered and killed the Scottish pirate Andrew Barton."
Cosh, p. 45, reports that Scotland's King James IV (died 1513) "set out to build a navy that would impress," though he was short of money, and Scotland was not noted for ship-building; he ended up purchasing ships abroad. Similarly MacDougall, p. 223: "In the middle of August 1506 James IV wrote to Louis XII of France reporting that the building of a fleet to defend Scotland was a project of long standing which he was bent on realizing." According to MacDougall, p. 228, annual spending on the navy increased roughly sixty-fold from the beginning to the end of the reign! Much of the money for it, ironically, came from the dowry he received for marrying Margaret Tudor, the daughter of Henry VII of England (MacDougall, p. 155).
MacDougall, p. 243, speculates that building his navy, in addition to giving James IV a shiny new toy, let James play a deep foreign policy game: James was able to maintain his treaty with England, which promised peace on land, while still making himself valuable to Scotland's long-time allies the French by building up a navy that pointed straight at England and could occasionally cause trouble for the English at sea.
Fortunately, James "had able captains, including John Barton and his three sons Robert, John, and Andrew." James actually bought half-ownership of a ship from Robert Barton, and Barton also organized supplies for James's ship-building efforts (Cosh, p. 48). John Barton Jr. captained some of these ships. Andrew was a recipient of lands in Fife (Cosh, pp. 48-49). John and Robert worked to acquire the wood needed for James's ship-building -- not an easy task, since Scotland had little of the sort of wood needed for shipbuilding (MacDougall, p. 232).
(It appears that the Bartons were an old seafaring family: In 1457, a large ship -- 350 tons! -- was at Sluys under the command of a Robert Barton, whom I would guess to be the father of John Barton Sr.)
One of the first services of the Bartons to the king was apparently in 1497, when Robert and Andrew Barton commanded the Cuckoo which took Perkin Warbeck, the pretender to the English throne, out of Scotland (MacDougall, p. 138). They were so close to the king that Andrew is reported to have played cards with his monarch (MacDougall, p. 240).
Originally Andrew Barton (and all his family) fought the Portuguese, not the English, after the Portuguese had attacked John Barton's ships. So James IV gave him a letter of marque to fight the Portuguese in 1507 -- only to suspend it in 1510 when Andrew got mixed up with what sounds like a mixed Portuguese/English fleet. The Bretons were also after him, so he and Robert Barton went to Denmark for a while (Cosh, pp. 49).
"It was... the third of the Barton brothers, Andrew, who caught the headlines. On 16 October 1510, for services which are not specified in the grant, James IV conferred some of the Fife lands of the hapless Earl of Rothes, with the considerable value of 222 marks [148 pounds], on Andrew Barton and his son Alexander [as well as the Letters of Marque].... It is difficult to escape the conclusion that, in renewing these letters of marque, James IV was seeking to reward the Bartons for their services past and to come, providing them, at no cost to himself, with a legitimate means of furthering their already considerable seaborne enterprises" (MacDougall, pp. 238-239).
The problem was that Andrew Barton seems to have enjoyed being a pirate; he refused to stop his activities ("These ground rules seem to have had little effect on the activities of Andrew Barton," according to MacDougall, p. 239, who says that the Danes as well as the Portuguese were after him.).
Apparently Barton was in Denmark in the Lion, a Barton family vessel, when he made off with money that King Hans had intended to use to hire him, and also nabbed another ship, the Jennet of Purwyn. "By this stage Barton had probably gone beyond what even James IV was prepared to contenance, and was threatening to become an international embarassment" (MacDougall, p. 240). James canceled his letter of marque on July 30, 1511.
The English responded by giving Sir Edward Howard more than £600 to fit out escort vessels to guard a convoy to Zealand. Barton was not their target, but he was operating in the vicinity (MacDougall, pp. 240-241). Edward's older brother Lord Thomas Howard was also aboard one of the escorts. So, when Edward Howard encountered Barton and the Lion and the Jennet of Purwyn, Howard attacked with his ships, thought to be the Barbara and the Mary Barking (MacDougall, p. 241), heavier ships than Barton's. He won the battle, killing Barton, and capturing most of his men (Cosh, pp. 49-50). The details of how it happened are not clear; the chronicles give conflicting accounts (MacDougall, p. 241, thinks Edward Hall has the best account, but even Hall embroidered the tale. Given that Hall was a liar and a brazen Tudor propagandist, I leave it to you to imagine what the other accounts are like....)
It should be noted that England and Scotland were officially at peace at this time; James IV had married Henry VIII's sister Margaret Tudor. The peace wouldn't last much longer. (Perry, p. 66, reports that Barton's death was one of the issues that led to a quarrel between England and Scotland -- the quarrel that eventually led to James IV's invasion and the battle of Flodden in 1513.) This makes it hard to determine Barton's true status. In a legal sense, he was probably a pirate, in that he attacked the commerce of a friendly power and had lost his status as a privateer, but he was also an officer of James's navy. Barton himself was dead, but the status of his surviving crew probably should have depended on James's response to Henry's complaints about the attack.
James protested to Henry about the state of Barton's crews, but didn't push too hard for redress (MacDougall, pp. 241-242) -- an indication, perhaps, that James knew Barton had been out of control.
It didn't hurt the other Bartons; John and Robert Barton remain in James IV's service, and Robert Barton was able to replace Andrew's ship Lion, which had been a small 120 ton vessel, with a 300 ton ship of the same name (MacDougall, p. 242)
Additional information about Barton can be found in Child. As for Edward Howard, note that his father Surrey was the man who, two years later, fought and won the Battle of Flodden (and was given back his Dukedom of Norfolk as a reward). The Lord Howard who led the English fleet against the Spanish Armada was also a member of this family. (It was a big family; Norfolk married twice and had more than twenty children in all.) Edward Howard himself, though, did not long survive his exploit. In 1512, he commanded the naval escort that took a British army to attack France, without any success (MacDougall, p. 263); "On 25 April [1513] the manic English Admiral Sir Edward Howard, short of victuals and desperate to bring the French to action, personally boarded [French Admiral] Prégent's galley in a struggle off Brest, was trapped aboard, and was thrown into the sea to his death" (MacDougall, p. 264); James IV wrote a sarcastic letter to Henry VIII about how Howard had been poorly employed. His successor as Admiral was none other than Thomas Howard (MacDougall, p. 273), the other commander in the attack on Andrew Barton. In addition to his naval duties, he served under his father at Flodden, and supposedly sent a message to James IV "that he would be found in the English vanguard and that when the armies clashed he would neither give, nor expect, quarter" (Phillips, pp. 118-119).
Incidentally, although the Bartons were important to the development of James IV's navy, another captain, Andrew Wood, was even more famous at the time -- and justly famous; he seemed to be everywhere, fighting the English and otherwise helping James. When MacDougall, p. 232, lists James's leading captains, he mentions the Bartons second behind Wood. I wonder if there might not have been some confusion between the two Andrews. (They don't seem to have worked together; according to MacDougall, p. 235, the Bartons were based at Leith and Wood at Largo.)
Note further that, although cannon had started to be carried aboard ships at this time, they were not generally the means of victory -- e.g. James's biggest ship, the Margaret (named for his wife Margaret Tudor) had an armament of one cannon, four "falcons" (light cannon), and twenty even lighter guns, probably handguns (MacDougall, p. 233). Even this flagship expected her marines to do most of her fighting, not her gunners.
Broadsides about the event, which one might suspect of being the ancestor of this ballad, go back to the early seventeenth century. Rollins has three candidates:
- p. 213, #2454, "Sir Andrew Barton," registered June 1, 1629
- p. 213, #2453, "Sir Andrew Barton Revived," registered July 16, 1634 by Jno. Wright and partners
- p. 236, #2731, "A true relacon of the life and death of S(i)r A. Barton," registered March 13, 1656
- p. 195, #2255, "A relacon of the life and death of S(i)r A. Barton," registered March 1, 1675
Many American texts refer to Barton fighting a Captain Charles Stuart (replacing the Lord Howard of earlier versions -- "Howard" being a reasonable name, even apart from the Barton battle cited above, since Earl Howard of Norfolk was Admiral of England at the time of the battle with the Armada). Gordon thinks this Charles Stuart was Bonnie Prince Charlie, but Barry et al point to the American Charles Stewart (1778-1869) who commanded the U. S. S. Constitution at the end of the War of 1812.
There is much mystery about the York Minster manuscript that is the presumed earliest copy. David C. Fowler, on p. 1776 of volume 6 of Severs/Hartung, "According to James Raine (Surtees Society 85.64) this manuscript, in a hand of the sixteenth century, 'was originally No. 25 of a ballad-book in small quarto.' Unfortunately the remainder of the collection is apparently lost. But we are fortunate to have here the earliest surviving text of Sir Andrew Barton...." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C167

Sir Andrew Bartton

See Sir Andrew Barton [Child 167] AND Henry Martin [Child 250] (File: C167)

Sir Arthur and Charming Mollee

See Pretty Polly (I) (Moll Boy's Courtship) [Laws O14] (File: LO14)

Sir Arthur and Charming Molly

See Pretty Polly (I) (Moll Boy's Courtship) [Laws O14] (File: LO14)

Sir Cauline

See Sir Cawline [Child 61] (File: C061)

Sir Cawline [Child 61]

DESCRIPTION: Sir Cawline falls ill for love of the king's daughter; she attends him. He desires to prove himself worthy of her; she sends him to vanquish the elvish king. He then defeats a giant threatening to wed her, and survives a lion attack before marrying her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio); the text of "Sir Colllyne," in Scotland National Archive MS. H13/35 is dated c. 1583 by Lyle
KEYWORDS: courting disease royalty knight battle marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Child 61, "Sir Cawline" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 61, "Sir Cawline" (2 versions, but #2 is "King Malcolm and Sir Colvin")
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 61, "Sir Cawline" (1 version: #1)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume III, pp. 1-15, "Sir Cawline" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 61-81, "Sir Cauline" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 12-17, "Sir Colin" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1, with differences}
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 3, "Sir Cawline" (1 text)
DT 61, SIRCAWL*
ADDITIONAL: Emily Lyle, _Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition_, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, pp. 85-93, "(Sir Colin)" (2 parallel texts, one the Percy text, one the "Edinburgh" version of c. 1583, plus on pp. 104-105a collation of Lyle's transcription of the Edinburgh text against Stewart's; the Harris tune is on p. 943)
Rhiannon Purdie, _Shorter Scottish Medieval Romances: Florimond of Albany, Sir Colling the Knight, King Orphius, Roswall and Lillian_, Scottish Text Society, Fifth Sieries, No. 11, 2013, pp. 241-248, "Sir Cawline" (1 text); pp. 104-111, "Sir Colling the Knycht" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 368
Roud #479
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "King Malcolm and Sir Colvin" (derivative, some lines, plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sir Collyne
Sir Colling
NOTES [986 words]: According to Fowler, p. 158 n. 25, this is one of eighteen ballads in the Child collection found only in the Percy Folio. That's perhaps a little oversimplified; the only copy of this that Child accepted as real is that in the Percy Folio (which Percy thoroughly corrupted), though Child prints two texts ("Sir Colin" and "King Malcolm and Sir Colvin," from the Harris ms. and Buchan respectively) in an appendix.
Percy's modifications to the text are so thorough that the 210 lines of the Percy manuscript are made into 392 lines in his text. Percy is even responsible for giving the heroine the name "Christabelle"; in the folio text, she is nameless.
Based on Child's notes, one would think that this song was never traditional as we would define the term; all the later versions were derived from the literary text as reworked by Percy. Bronson, however, pointed out that the Harris version *was* found in tradition, even if the text was influenced by Percy (Bronson adds that the result is in many ways simpler and superior to the Percy text; it also has a different ending). It seems that there were folk revivals before The Folk Revival. Also, the "Sir Colling" text, found in the 1970s, shows that the piece had a substantial history even before the Percy Folio text was written.
It appears (paraphrasing and expanding comments by Lyle, p. 93) that this ballad existed in two states: A full form, in which Sir Cawline/Colin/Colling fights an "elvish knight," a giant, and a lion; this is represented in the Percy and Edinburgh texts. There is also a short form, in the Buchan and Harris texts, in which the fight with the knight is the only major escapade. Although Child considered the long form to be the true version and relegated the other to the appendix, Lyle, pp. 93-94, suggests treating the long form as a "ballad romance" -- a strange term but not an unreasonable suggestion. Given the frequent connections between ballad and romance, a semi-literary origin seems likely.
I am less confident of Lyle's next stage, which consists of trying to identify and retrovert cases where original six-line stanzas of the romance were converted to four-line stanzas; it is her belief that the original "Sir Colin" romance was in six-line stanzas rhymed abcbdb and with a 434343 metrical pattern (Lyle, pp. 96-99). It takes an almost Percy-esque amount of fiddling to get there, though.
At that, it's simpler than getting from the "Sir Colling" romance to the ballad; as Severs/Hartung, p. 1785, notes, the romance is in the form ababcbdefe -- an extended ballad stanza followed by a standard ballad stanza. On the other hand, to cut that down to a ballad would involve just dropping two lines out of ten, not two out of six or performing radical surgery.
Purdie goes so far as to treat the Edinburgh text of "Sir Cawline/Colling" as a full-blown, if short, romance, and is much less confident of Lyle's complex suggestions. I too wonder if Lyle has been too ambitious. Purdie goes on to suggest that "Sir Cawline" itself is a derivative item, having elements in common with the well-known romance "Sir Eglamour of Artois" (which is also connected with "Sir Lionel" [Child 18]. This connection is also mentioned on p. xlv of Richardson' edition on, Sir Eglamour of Artois (for more details for "Sir Eglamour," see the notes to "Sir Lionel"). Also, "Sir Cawline" shares the slaying of an Elvish knight with the romance of "Eger and Grime," and even uses some of the same lyrics. Thus there is a real possibility that "Sir Cawline" is a derivative tale.
(For a bibliography of "Eger and Grime," see Joanne A. Rice, pp. 251-252. For bibliography of "Sir Eglamour," see pp. 415-416 of Rice.)
Which raises another interesting question. The Percy Folio has several cut-down romances -- that is, items which exist as a full-blown Middle English romance but which also have a shorter form in the folio. Examples of this include the romances of "Eger and Grime," "Guy of Warwick," "Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle," the various "Marriage of Sir Gawain"-type romances, and "The Squire of Low Degree." Could "Sir Colling/Cawline" be a cut down form of something else, and are the short forms a further shortening of "Sir Colling," or of the hypothetical original romance, or of something else? It may be time to give this ballad another hard look.
Severs/Hartung, p. 1786, suggests (following Stewart) that in fact "Sir Colling" is the ancestor of the Harris and Buchan texts, which are therefore the "real" "Sir Cawline," which implies that the Percy Folio text is another of its rewrite-and-abridgements of a romance. Which, given its history, makes some sense.
There is another interesting point about Child's text, which is that he chopped off the first two verses of the Percy Folio version, regarding them as part of another ballad which referred to Robert Bruce. But this material is in the "Sir Colling" text, except that it refers to Robert Bruce's brother Edward and his invasion of Ireland ("Vith Edvaird the Bruce he fuir to fecht /In Irland biyond the sie" -- lines 9-10 on p. 104 of Purdie). This implies that the lyrics are original to the ballad (cf. Severs/Hartung, volume vi, pp. 1784-1785), and that on this point at least "Sir Colling" is more correct than the Percy version (since Edward, not Robert, invaded Ireland). But it also gives us a date: Edward Bruce went to Ireland in 1315, and died there in 1318. Purdie suggests, therefore (p. 19), that "Sir Colling" is one of the various Colin Campbells, and that this is a sort of Campbell Family romance. Which makes some sense to me; some minstrel made it up for the Campbells of Argyll.
Purdie, p. 21, points out that the language of "Sir Colling," which seems to be the oldest copy, is much too modern for a fourteenth century event. This strikes me as further evidence that the piece was a latter attempt to glorify the early Campbells. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: C061

Sir Colin

See Sir Cawline [Child 61] (File: C061)

Sir Colling

See Sir Cawline [Child 61] (File: C061)

Sir Collyne

See Sir Cawline [Child 61] (File: C061)

Sir Donald and Eliza Lindsay

See Lizie Lindsay [Child 226] (File: C226)

Sir Edward Noel's Delight

See references under The British Grenadiers (File: Log109)

Sir Eglamour of Artois

See (notes under) Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Sir Francis Drake, or Eighty-Eight

DESCRIPTION: "In eighty-eight, ere I was born, As I can well remember, In August was a fleet prepared, The month before September." Spain and allies prepare an "Armado." They fail. "If they come again, a, They shall be served with that same sauce."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (Halliwell, Early Naval Ballads of England, according to Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: navy battle food
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1558-1603 - Reign of Elizabeth (I)
1588 - Voyage of the Spanish Armada
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 211-213, "Jog On, Jog On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 159, "Hanskin, or Jog On, or Eighty-Eight" (1 text, 1 tune, but the text is of a different song; only its presence in Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime allows us to know that the tune belongs here)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 7, "Sir Francis Drake, or Eighty-EIght" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XLIX, pp. 81-82, "Sir Francis Drake: or Eighty-Eight" (1 text)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 114-115, "The Defeat of the Spanish Armada" (1 text)
Roud #22269
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Spanish Armada" (subject of the Armada)
NOTES [71 words]: Palmer thinks this has been damaged by oral tradition. I wonder if it wasn't intended to be funny. It's certainly rather silly as it now stands.
Not to be confused with the "Jog on, jog on" song from Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale," which begins, "Jog on, jog on, the footpath way, And merrily hent the style-a." Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, p. 200, says that this was sung to the same tune, however. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PaSe007

Sir Gaunie and the Witch

See The Marriage of Sir Gawain [Child 31] (File: C031)

Sir Guy of Warwick

See Guy of Warwick (File: GuyWarwi)

Sir Hugh in the Grimes Downfall

See Hughie Grame [Child 191] (File: C191)

Sir Hugh le Blond

See Sir Aldingar [Child 59] (File: C059)

Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155]

DESCRIPTION: A child tosses the ball into a Jew's/Gypsy's garden. The Jew's daughter/wife lures him into the house, where she murders him, (for ritual purposes?). Dying, he gives instructions for his burial (with a prayer book at his head and a grammar at his feet).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: homicide death ritual Gypsy Jew lastwill burial
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord),England(All)) Ireland US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar) West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (64 citations):
Child 155, "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" (21 texts)
Bronson 155, "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" (66 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 155, "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" (7 versions: #1, #4, #5, #10b, #21, #25, #28)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 54-60, "The Jew's Daughter" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques II, pp. 46-47, "The Jew's Daughter" (1 partial text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #62}
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 189-`91, "The Jew's Daughter" (1 text)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 86, "Little Sir William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 254-255, "Hugh of Lincoln" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 10, "Sir Hugh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 121, "Sir Hugh" (1 text)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #119, "Hugh of Lincoln" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 461-462, "Sir Hugh, or The Jew's Daughter" (notes plus an excerpt from Child A)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 69-73, "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" (2 texts plus a fragment)
Randolph 25, "The Jew's Garden" (3 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #38}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 47-49, "The Jew's Garden" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 25A) {Bronson's #38}
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 8-9, "It Rained a Mist" (1 text, 1 tune) {compare Bronson's #35}
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 42-43, "It Rained, It Mist" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #45}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 33, "The Jew's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 20, "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #48}
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 30, "It Rained a Mist" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 198-199, "'Twas On a Cold and Winter's Day" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9]
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 30-32, "Little Harry Huston" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #66}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 119-126, "Sir Hugh, or The Jew's Daughter" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #66; B=#65 with verbal variants}
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 254-256, "The Jew's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #65, with minor variants}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 33, "Sir Hugh, or The Jew's Daughter" (13 texts, 7 tunes entitled "The Jew's Daughter," "It Rained a Mist," "A Little Boy Threw His Ball So High," "Sir Hugh, or Little Harry Hughes," Sir Hugh"; 3 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #39, #54, #3, #34, #6, #47, #53}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 30, pp. 229-238, "Sir Hugh, or The Jew's Daughter" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 34, "Sir Hugh; or, The Jew's Daughter" (4 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 34, "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, #XI, pp. 148-150, "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter (The Two Playmates)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #52}
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 258-259, "The Jeweler's Daughter" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #165, "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11}
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 19, pp. 116-117, "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" (1 short text, lacking the actual murder)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 1-2, "Little Son Hugh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 171-175, "Sir Hugh, or The Jew's Daughter" (3 texts, the first also in Davis, with local titles "A Little Boy Threw His Ball So High," "Little Sir Hugh," "Hugh of Lincoln"; 1 tune on p. 403) {Bronson's #3}
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 53-55, "A Little Boy Threw His Ball" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #25, "The Jew's Daughter" (1 text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 18, "Sir Hugh" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #44}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 425-431, "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" (4 texts)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 36-38, "Fair Scotland" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #61}
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 8, "Sir Hugh; or The Jew's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 147-149, "Sonny Hugh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 62, "Sir Hugh (The Jew's Daughter)" (3 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 79, "Hugh of Lincoln and The Jew's Daughter" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 31, "Sir Hugh" (7 texts plus 3 fragments, of which "I" in particular might be something else, 10 tunes){Bronson's #22, #20, #21, #23, #15, #10a, #16, #14, #8, #17}
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 8, "Little Sir Hugh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 273, "The Queen's Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 164-166+336, "Sir Hugh" (1 text)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 20, "Little Son Hugh (Sir Hugh)" (1 slightly edited text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #10}
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 70, "Sir Hugh (The Jew's Daughter)" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 22, "Sir Hugh" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 19, "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" (6 texts plus mentions of 8 more)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 68-69, "The Duke's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 14, "Sir Hugh" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 30-31, "The Jew's Daughter" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 81-83, "Hugh of Lincoln" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 5, pp. 13-14, "The Jewish Lady"; p. 15, "The Jew Lady" (2 texts)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #11, "Little Saloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #18, "Little Harry Hughes and the Duke's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 36-40, "Sir Hugh, or the Jew's Daughter"; "The Fatal Flower Garden"; "It Rained a Mist" (3 texts)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Elsie Clews Parsons, "Spirituals and Other Folklore from the Bahamas," Vol. 41, No. 162 (Oct-Dec 1928), Toasts and other verses: Watlings p. 470, "Dere is many fine ladies" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Walter MeCraw, "A Variant of 'Sir Hugh,'" Vol. VII, No. 1 (Jul 1959), pp. 35-36, "(It rained a mess, it rained a mess)" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Ben Gray Lumpkin, "Two Child Ballads from Stanly County," Vol. XVII, No. 2 (Nov 1969), pp. 58-60, "Sonny Hugh" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 155, SIRHUGH* SIRHUGH1* SIRHUGH2* SIRHUGH3
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #420, "Sir Hugh, or The Jew's Daughter" (1 text)
ST C155 (Full)
Roud #73
RECORDINGS:
John Byrne, "Little Sir Hugh" (on IREarlyBallads)
Cecilia Costello, "The Jew's Daughter (Sir Hugh)" (on FSB5 [as "The Jew's Garden"], FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #55}
[Mrs.?] Ollie Gilbert, "It Rained a Mist" (on LomaxCD1707) {Bronson's #35}
Nelstone's Hawaiians, "Fatal Flower Garden" (Victor 40193, 1929; on AAFM1) {Bronson's #12}
Debra Sharpe, "Twas on a Cold & Winter Day (Sir Hugh) C.155" (Piotr-Archive #595, recorded 05/30/2023. A recollection, not an actual version, but it implies that the song was passed on by Pearl Jacobs Barusky)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Twa Brothers" [Child 49] (lyrics)
NOTES [3188 words]: A.L. Lloyd reports, "In 1225, in Lincoln, England, a boy named Hugh was supposed to have been tortured and murdered by Jews. A pogrom ensued." - PJS
Although this song is often associated with the murder of Hugh, Fowler, p. 259, says -- correctly, I think -- "It seems to me quite unlikely, however, that such a ballad could have lasted in tradition for five hundred years leaving no trace of its existence, only to emerge suddenly from obscurity with the publication of [Percy's] Reliques in 1765." Fowler seems to think the ballad an eighteenth century composition (on p. 260, he suggests "The Cruel Mother" [Child 20] as the primary model, with "Sweet William's Ghost" [Child 77] supplying much of the second half); I wouldn't go that far, but I think any connection to the thirteenth century Hugh quite indirect. Fowler, p. 268, suggests that the initial tune was "The Bitter Withy," even though the first collection of "Sir Hugh" is much older. I grant that "The Bitter Withy" is almost certainly far older than the first collection, so the timing probably works, but all of this depends on "Sir Hugh" being a fake.
Also, Lloyd's dating is questionable. Benet (article on "St. Hugh of Lincoln") says 1255. So does Matthews, pp. 94-95, and Hoy/Stevens, p. 42, who note that Chaucer mentions the event at the end of the "Prioress's Tale." And Child cites the Annals of Waverly and the account of Matthew Paris in support of the 1255 date. The Annals of Waverly have major chronological problems and were probably written after the event (Prestwich, p. 356n; Powicke, p. 603n), but Paris's account was written within a few years of the tragedy, so I would consider it close to decisive.
And Lincoln Cathedral itself cites the 1255 date. Chaucer/Boyd, p. vii, cites this inscription from "the shrine of Little Saint Hugh [at] the Cathedral Church of Saint May, Lincoln": "Trumped-up stories of 'Ritual Murders' of Christian Boys by Jewish communities were common knowledge throughout Europe during the Middle Ages and even much later. These fictions cost many innocent Jews their lives. Lincoln had its own legend, and the alleged victim was buried in the cathedral in the year 1255." The notice adds, "Such stories do not redound to the credit of Christendom, and so we pray: Remember not, Lord, our offenses, nor the offenses of our Forefather."
An account of the many claims made against Jews can be found in Ridley, who on p. 172 reports on "27 analogues of [Chaucer's] Prioress's Tale and almost as many which dealt with Hugh of Lincoln and William of Norwich." Ridley also has a summary of what we know of these events. Chaucer/Boyd, p. 9, says that the earliest "blood libel" story goes back to a church historian named Socrates (c. 418). The false tale of Jews using Christian blood in a Jewish rite is Thompson motif V361; though false, it was often used as a justification for attacks on Jews.
Harvey, pp. 119-120, gives the following account of the pogroms:
"Edward [I] was not satisfied with this state of affairs, for the exorbitant interest charged for money [by the Jews, who alone were allowed to lend at interest at the time] had become notorious.... In 1275, he enacted laws forbidding usury and encouraging Jews to live by normal trade and labour. Unfortunately the Jews did not respond, and succeeded in charging even higher rates than before, and also formed a ring for clipping the coinage.... Adding to the economic difficulties [blamed on the Jews]... was a series of most sinister crimes committed against Christian children, including murder (allegedly ritual) and forcible circumcision. Whatever we may think of the evidence in favour of 'ritual murder'... a number of instances of mysterious child-murder undoubtedly did occur in twelfth- and thirteenth-century England, at least ten being well-documented between 1144 and 1290.
"The evidence against individual Jews was considered conclusive in the case of Hugh of Lincoln (Little Saint Hugh), murdered in 1255, when, after exhaustive trials before the justices, later adjourned before Henry III in person, certain Jews were convicted and hanged."
But also consider Prestwich, pp. 345-346: "There was undoubtedly very considerable prejudice against the Jews in England. There were stories of ritual child-murder and torture, which, although they now appear groundless on the basis of the recorded evidence, were generally believed. The most famous was that of the death of Little St Hugh in 1255, but there were others. The chronicle of Bury St. Edmunds recorded the crucifixion of a boy by the Jews at Northampton." (Rather absurd, since crucifixion was a Roman, not a Jewish, means of execution.)
Prestwich's cautions are quite proper -- there were only a few thousand Jews in England at the time (Prestwich, p. 344, estimates 3000; Morris, p. 86, suggests 5000); they could hardly have committed all the crimes charged against them. Despite that, they suffered severely at the hands of Edward I, being charged (along with goldsmiths) with being coin-clippers in 1278 (Prestwich, p. 245; Morris, p. 171, believes that Edward killed half the male Jews in England at the time). Indeed, Edward I had gone after the Jews even before he became king in 1272; in the late 1260s, as he was trying to raise money for a crusade, he proposed anti-Jewish legislation as a fundraising method (Morris, p. 85). His father had also put Jews in a bad position by allowing unscrupulous barons to buy up loans and foreclose them, in effect stealing land at bargain prices (Morris, p. 87). It not only harmed the Jews, it created unfortunate knock-on effects in the financial system. When Edward came to the throne, he destroyed the livelihood of many of the Jews by forbidding moneylending -- theoretically opening other jobs to them, but not supporting the change (Morris, pp. 125-126, who thinks Edward tried to protect the Jews, but I see no sign of it). Then he expelled them in 1290; the order, sent July 18, said they had to be gone by November 1: "For what was very definitely the final time, the Jews were made to pay the price for the King of England's insolvency" (Morris, p. 227). Bigoted as it was, the rest of the people liked it, and voted Edward generous subsidies as a result (Morris, p. 228).
And all so that he could go on Crusade and fight the people who belonged to yet a third religion.
Earlier, there had been major anti-Jewish riots in the period when Richard I was preparing his crusade, including an incident when 150 were killed at York, some of them after surrendering (Gillingham, p. 131, who blames the Crusade for whipping up passions about the Jews killing Jesus. According to McLynn, p. 120, the Jews were bringing a gift to the new king, but the mob assumed it was blasphemous).
If a Jewish murder of a Christian did happen, one can almost see it as a case of balancing things out for the treatment of the Jews, for -- in addition to the general prejudice against them -- the King was allowed to seize their property when they died (Mortimer, p. 49), although he usually settled for "only" a third (Mortimer, p. 50). Thus a Jewish death often brought not only mourning but impoverishment.
I do note with interest that Mortimer, p. 50, declares that the "most famous of all the great Jewish capitalists was Adam of Lincoln" (died 1186, near the end of the reign of Henry II).
But Powicke, who devotes roughly eight times as much space to the reign of Henry III as does Harvey, never mentions Hugh or the trials which followed, although he does note (p. 322) Edward I's anti-usury law of 1275 -- and its follow-up, a law of 1290 which expelled the Jews. (Stenton, p. 197, cynically notes that the Jews were no longer "useful" by then -- i.e. the crown had extorted so much money that they were no longer a significant source of revenue. Prestwich, p. 343, observes that Edward managed to make money even on the exiling of the Jews, because he used the occasion to wring an exaction from the clergy in return for the expulsion. Prestwich on p. 346 says that the expulsion was not officially reversed until 1656, although many Jews were tolerated by then -- it is said that Elizabeth I's physician was Jewish.)
I also note that ten unexplained child-murders in a century and a half is a rate far below what we experience today (and, frankly, I would be tempted to look at the Catholic clergy, not the Jews, for killing the poor children, given what we now know about the Catholic Church and young boys...). And murder was more common in the Middle Ages than today.
The death of Hugh and its aftermath did not stop the violence against Jews. "Between 1263 and 1267 there were massacres in, among other places, London, Canterbury, Winchester, Lincoln, Bristol, Nottingham and Worcester. Angry, fearful Montfortian knights [who had been on the wrong side of the civil wars of the period and were subject to large fines]... struck down their [Jewish] creditors in the hope of erasing the evidence of their indebtedness. The restoration of peace [after Henry III and the future Edward I defeated Simon de Montfort] had brought an end to these attacks, but the problems associated with Jewish credit remained" (Morris, p. 88).
One part of the prejudice against Jews that seems to be accurate is the charge of exorbitant interest. On p. 191 Stenton mentions a calculation that their average rate of interest was 43% (per year), with some instances in excess of 60%. The blame for this does not lie entirely with the Jews; the monarchy in effect was taking a cut, in the form of high licensing fees on the Jews (Stenton, p. 194; Morris, p. 86). So the Jews had to charge enough to live on *and* the pay the royal bribe. (I would love to have heard, say, Richard I explain how that was different from charging interest himself, but of course Richard would never answer to me.) Stenton, p. 193, also tells a tale which sounds surprisingly like this one:
"Already in 1144 Jews were accused in Norwich of the murder of a Christian boy named William, whose story was told within a few years of his death by Thomas of Monmouth, a Norwich monk. William was about 12 when he was found dead in Thorpe Wood near the city. His father... was already dead, but his mother Elviva was alive and had been offered for William a post in the kitchen of the archdeacon of Norwich. The man who made the offer took William away with him and called on William's aunt to tell her about it. She told her daughter to follow and see where William was taken. The child said he was taken to a Jew's house. William was next seen dead in Thorpe Wood. The credulity of the populace and their readiness to suspect the Jews made William a miracle worker and consequently a saint. Between 1144 and 1172 his body was four times translated, each time to a place of higher honour.... William was only the first of a series of English boys whose unexplained deaths were attributed to the Jews."
Porter, p. 116, says that Thomas of Monmouth was a monk of Norwich's Benedictine priory, and wrote his "history" in 1172-1173; Porter also says that William Thurby, Bishop of Norwich from 1144 to 1172, was convinced the boy was a saint. The whole thing, frankly, sounds like the result of psychosis on the part of either Thomas of Monmouth or of Thurby.
The legend of Hugh of Lincoln became popular in many forms of literature; Benet lists Chaucer's "Prioress's Tale," Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, and a 1459 piece called Alphonsus of Lincoln, which I have not seen.
The link to "The Prioress's Tale" is undeniable (Percy, in fact, referred readers to the Tale to learn the ending of the story; Fowler, p. 267), since lines 684-686 of the Tale (Chaucer/Benson, p. 212) explicitly compares the tale to that of "yonge Hugh of Lyncoln, slayn also With cursed Jewes, as it is notable, For it is but a litel while ago." (It's line 1874 in Chaucer/Boyd, p. 165, with discussion on pp. 166-167. To give Chaucer the only excuse we can -- and it a very feeble one -- he lived in an England where Jews were barred, and so perhaps had never met an English-speaking Jew!) I personally don't see much connection, except thematic, to The Jew of Malta.
But the link to "The Prioress's Tale" is only partial, although it has been affirmed by scholars going all the way back to Percy. Chaucer/Boyd, pp. 10-11, summarizes Carlton Brown's thematic analysis of "The Prioress's Tale" and its analogs, which he grouped into three types. All have, in essence, four parts: The young boy somehow offends a group of Jews, who murder him -- but he survives in some form to bring charges against the Jewish murderers, who are punished. "The Prioress's Tale" and this song have the middle parts (the murder and the boy's survival) -- but the first part is quite different (in the "Tale," he goes about singing a religious song in a way that I'd find obnoxious; in the ballad, his ball goes lands on Jewish property; also, "The Prioress's Tale" is NOT a tale of ritual murder; Chaucer/Boyd, p. 17); the final parts, the hunt for the boy and the punishment, varies greatly between versions -- both of the song and the miracle tale.
What's more, Chaucer's tale is set in "Asie" (Asia). It doesn't really have any Asian color (supposedly the setting has faint similarities to Bruges; Chaucer/Boyd, p. 21), but it doesn't matter if the setting is accurate; the point is, Chaucer explicitly denied that the events happened in England! (Also, many scholars now think "The Prioress's Tale" is a satire -- Chaucer/Boyd, p. 32 -- because the Prioress's attitude is contrary to the teachings of the Church, as Chaucer should have known. Sadly, though, I think this is the result of a desire to whitewash Chaucer; no one in the Canterbury Pilgrimage points out the heresy. The great ballad scholar George Lyman Kittredge was of the opinion -- Kittredge, p. 175 -- that "Of all the Canterbury Pilgrims none is more sympathetically conceived or more delicately portrayed than Madame Eglantine, the prioress" -- but of course Kittredge lived at a time when anti-Semitism was still basically acceptable. Perhaps the best way to understand Chaucer's tale, and this song, is for people of European descent to substitute "Muslim" for "Jew" and see how offended they fell....)
Child (who was a noteworthy Chaucer scholar) noted the parallels, but doesn't devote much space to it; he seems to consider the items to have mixed elements but to have independent parts as well. I agree.
That a boy named Hugh did die and get buried in Lincoln seems clear; there is a body in his crypt. But that doesn't mean the Jews of Lincoln were responsible. Joseph Jacobs in 1896 investigated the matter and concluded that Hugh, who was the eight-year-old son of a widow named Beatrice, accidentally fell into a cesspit near a Jewish residents on July 31, 1255. The body was not discovered for 26 days, when a group of Jews gathered to celebrate a wedding. Their one crime was that, having found the dead body, they dropped it down a well at some distance from where the boy had died, where it was discovered on August 29. No doubt, given the state of the body, there was some possibility that Hugh had been murdered (although there is no reason to suspect it) -- but even if he had been murdered, there is no evidence that the Jews were responsible (summarized from Chaucer/Boyd, p. 18).
In any case, the story of the murdered boy and the Miracle of the Virgin is first found in the Stella Maris of c. 1248-49 -- a dating which, if correct, places it before the death of Hugh of Lincoln! (Chaucer/Boyd, p. 64), which certainly should end any link between the Jews and Hugh.
The charge of ritual murder against the Jews lasted far too long. This song is not the first example, and it is far from the last.
Although Jews suffered regular persecution from Christians from the time the Roman Empire was converted, it was the Crusades which really seemed to start the tendency to attack Jews. Runciman, pp. 134-141, details the extreme misbehavior of the People's Crusade as it set out for Jerusalem in 1098-1099. (Interestingly, the particular mobs responsible for the atrocities almost all ended up being massacred themselves -- not by the Jews, but by Christians whom they also oppressed along the way. There seems to have been a particular sort of bone-headedness among Crusaders which caused them to think any furriner they saw must be a target worth attacking.)
Frey/Thompson, p. 56, note that the ritual murder charge was bandied about at the time of the Phagan case (for background, see the notes to "Mary Phagan" [Laws F20]), and on p. 57 Frey/Thompson mention the Beilis case in Russia, where there were attempts to blame the entire Jewish race for a murder they did not commit. (This case would go on to inspire some of Sholom Aleichem's Tevye stories, hence playing a part in the musical Fiddler on the Roof; Solomon, pp. 33-34).
The fame of "Little Hugh of Lincoln," who is sometimes called a saint, may be by confusion with another Hugh of Lincoln, the bishop of that city (died 1200 and canonized in 1220, according to DictSaints, p. 116). Chaucer/Boyd, p. 166, cites William Thynne as already pointing out this confusion in response to Speght's 1589 edition of Chaucer. Hassall, p. 103, indirectly affirms the confusion by warning that we should not confuse St. Hugh of Avalon, St. Hugh of Wells and Lincoln, or little St. Hugh of Lincoln. Warren, p. 70, says that "Hugh was famous for his saintly life, his great work as a pastor, his sharp tongue, and his pet swan. He had been one of the great characters of the 12th century episcopate." Indeed, he was regarded as a standard for other English bishops -- one they rarely met.
Kerr, p. 171, says that "The key [to the success of the city and diocese of Lincoln] lies with one man, Sir Hugh of Avalon, who was a competent and respected bishop during his episcopacy in 1186-1200 and, after his death, a popular author."
DictSaints, p. 116, says that upon being appointed bishop (a post he had to be pressured into taking) he "quickly restored clerical discipline, revived schools, and helped to rebuild the cathedral with his own hands."
Bishop Hugh also became the subject of legend -- e.g. Jones, p. 93, mentions a story (for which he does not cite a source) that he "was helped by an angel who cut off his manhood to relieve him of impure desires." (I must say that this strikes me as unlikely -- there were reports that the great scholar Origen had castrated himself, as did the Slavic Skoptsy sect, but this was not a common Christian behavior, and the Jewish Law explicitly forbids priests from having major mutilations.) Hazlitt, p. 333, says that he was the patron of shoemakers.
In the context, it is ironic to note that OxfordCompanion, p. 495, explicitly notes that Bishop Hugh "condemned the persecution of Jews which spread throughout England in 1190-1." Similarly DictSaints, p. 116: "He denounced the persecution of the Jews, repeatedly forcing armed mobs to release their victims, and was unafraid to correct both Henry II and King Richard the Lionheart." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C155

Sir Hugh, the Graeme

See Hughie Grame [Child 191] (File: C191)

Sir James the Rose [Child 213]

DESCRIPTION: James the Rose (has killed a squire, and) is forced to flee. He asks his leman's help. She, under pressure, tells his pursuers of his hiding place. James is taken and killed. His leman regrets her actions
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1781 (Pinkerton)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "O heard ye of Sir James the Rose ... he has killed a gallant squire An's friends are out to take him." He visits his lover, the nurse at the House of Marr. He tells her he is looking for a place to hide. Her pursuers ask if she has seen him. As they are about to leave she tells them where he is hiding. He tries to buy them off but they kill him and give his heart to his lover. In despair she drops from sight. "A traitor's end, you may depend, Can be expect'd no better."
KEYWORDS: love death betrayal revenge hiding
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Child 213, "Sir James the Rose" (1 text)
Bronson 213, "Sir James the Rose" (27 versions+1 in addenda, but a large fraction of these are "Sir James the Ross")
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 213, "Sir James the Rose" (3 versions: #6, #18, #20)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 19-21, "Sir James the Ross, the Young Laird of Balethen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 39-40, "Sir James the Rose" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 91-93, "Sir James the Ross" (1 text)
DT 213, ]JAMEROS2
ADDITIONAL: Peter Buchan, Gleanings of Scarce Old Ballads (London, 1825 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 9-11, "Sir James the Rose (Old Way)"
Roud #2274
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(50), "Tragedy of Sir James the Rose," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1869; also RB.m.143(157), "Sir James the Ross"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sir James the Ross" (general plot) and references there
NOTES [60 words]: Child has only one version of 213 ("O heard ye of Sir James the Rose") but acknowledges a different ballad: "'Sir James the Ross, A Historical Ballad' (sometimes called 'The Buchanshire Tragedy'), was composed by the youthful Michael Bruce (1767) upon the story of the popular ballad, and has perhaps enjoyed more favor with 'the general' than the original." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: C213

Sir James the Ross

DESCRIPTION: Matilda's father wants her to marry John Graham rather than James Ross. James kills John's brother and hides with Matilda while she sends her page to raise John's men. The page betrays James to John Graham. James is killed and Matilda commits suicide.
AUTHOR: Michael Bruce (1746-1767)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1825 (Buchan)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "Of all the Scottish northern chiefs... The bravest was Sir James the Rose." He leads 500 warriors. He loves Matilda, daughter of "Buchan's cruel lord," who prefers that she wed Sir John the Graham. John's brother Donald spies on James and Matilda and hears her say "the grave shall be my bridal bed If Graham my husband be." Donald confronts James and is killed. He tells Matilda he has killed Donald and must hide because his own men are "far far distant." He plans to go to raise his men but she convinces him to hide and send a page to raise his men. The page meets Graham and twenty of his men and tells where James is hiding. James fights bravely. Matilda pleas for his life but he is mortally wounded. She kills herself on James's sword. With his dying effort James kills Graham.
KEYWORDS: love death suicide betrayal revenge hiding brother father
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US(NE) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 315-321, "Sir James the Rose" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #39, pp. 1-3, "Sir James the Rose" (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan2 235, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "Sir James the Rose" (16 texts, many very short, 14 tunes) {A=Bronson's #7, C=#4, D=#3, E=#5, F=#11, G=#12, I=#1, J=#13, K=#10, L=#8, M=#20, N=#19; most of these have no text or only a few lines}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 284-291, "Sir James the Ross" (1 text from manuscript)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 147-154, "Sir James, the Rose" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #25}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 239-254, "Sir James the Ross" (3 texts, 1 tune; of the three texts, "C" is short, while "A" is based on penciled changed George Edwards wrote in the margin of Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine) {Bronson's #25}
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 75-79, "Sir James the Ross" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #27, 26}
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 23-25, "Sir James the Ross" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 7, "Sir James the Ross" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 715-719, "Sir James the Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 18, "Sir James the Ross" (2 texts, 3 tunes)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 11, "Sir James the Rose" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #16}
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 41-43, "Sir James the Rose" (1 text)
DT 213, JAMEROSE
ADDITIONAL: Peter Buchan, Gleanings of Scarce Old Ballads (London, 1825 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 11-18, "Sir James the Rose (Modern Way)"
Roud #2274
RECORDINGS:
John Molloy, "James the Ross" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Peter Ryan, "Sir James the Rose" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(50), "Tragedy of Sir James the Rose," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1869; also RB.m.143(157), "Sir James the Ross"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Child Maurice" [Child 83] (tune)
cf. "Sir James the Rose" [Child 213] (general plot)
NOTES [290 words]: Child has only one version of 213 ("O heard ye of Sir James the Rose") but acknowledges a different ballad: "'Sir James the Ross, A Historical Ballad' (sometimes called 'The Buchanshire Tragedy'), was composed by the youthful Michael Bruce (1767) upon the story of the popular ballad, and has perhaps enjoyed more favor with 'the general' than the original." Coffin, The British Traditional Ballad in North America (Philadelphia, 1950), pp. 128-129: "The Child 'Sir James the Rose' ballad is not in America. The American texts [including Pound's from Nebraska] are highly sophisticated and based on 'Sir James the Ross,' a song Child, IV, 156 thought to have been composed by Michael Bruce [disputed by Coffin citing Barry citing Keith 'that Michael Bruce is mistakenly considered the composer....']." Mackenzie regarding his two versions: "[They] represent 'Sir James the Ross,' an unacknowledged adaptation by Michael Bruce, of the old Scottish ballad 'Sir James the Rose' (Child, No. 213)." Confirming Coffin's observation, Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland, Peacock, Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick, and Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs all are derived from the same text as MacKenzie's.
Greig: "The version now generally known and sung is the one we give. Its composition is credited to Michael Bruce (1746-1767), the author of the well-known 'Ode to the Cuckoo.'"
Greig/Duncan2: "Greig does not give his source for the 53-stanza text he prints and, as it may have been a collated text rather than a version from tradition, it is not included here; it resembles A and B."
Greig's text follows Buchan with a few word and punctuation changes. Buchan's text is twenty-six and a half 8-line verses; Greig's is 53 4-line verses. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: C213A

Sir James the Ross, the Young Laird of Balethen

See Sir James the Rose [Child 213] (File: C213)

Sir John Barleycorn

See John Barleycorn (I) (File: ShH84)

Sir John Butler [Child 165]

DESCRIPTION: Men cross a moat by leather boat to Sir John Butler's hall. His daughter Ellen warns him his uncle Stanley is here. He says he is therefore doomed, and, indeed, he is murdered. His wife, in London, dreams his death, confirms it, seeks redress in vain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: family homicide dream
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1463 - The Butler Murder
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 165, "Sir John Butler" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume III, pp. 205-214, "Sir John Butler" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 114-116, "Sir John Butler" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 427
Roud #4000
NOTES [310 words]: According to David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 158 n. 25, this is one of eighteen ballads in the Child collection found only in the Percy Folio.
Child gives a good deal of background to this murder, while admitting to some very substantial questions about it. But he distinctly fails to give some additional background -- notably the fact that this happened during the Wars of the Roses, when battles between noble families were commonplace. And he makes, in my view, far too little of the complicated connections of the families involved.
Lord Stanley was Thomas Stanley, the future Earl of Derby -- and the future husband of Margaret Beaufort, the mother of the future King Henry VII. And Ellen Butler? Well, there was an Eleanor Butler -- born Eleanor Talbot, but called "Butler" after she married Thomas Butler -- who (at least acording to the Bishop af Bath and Wells and King Richard III) was betrothed to King Edward IV, who was king in 1463 -- and who, if she *did* have a relationship with Edward IV, was having it right about the time of this murder. (For more on the Stanleys, see e.g. "The Vicar of Bray"; for the whole mess of Eleanor Butler, see e.g. "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34].
I'm not claiming that any of this is necessarily meaningful -- for example, Thomas Butler, Eleanor's husband, died probably in 1459, and his father was named Ralph, not John -- and Ralph Butler died in 1473. But if anyone decides to try to learn more than Child had to say about this ballad, this probably needs to be looked into.
The latest reference on the topic, and probably the most authoritative (although it also contains far too much speculation for my taste) is John Ashdown-Hill, Eleanor, the Secret Queen: The Woman who put Richard III on the Throne, 2009. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C165

Sir John Gordon

See Thomas Rymer [Child 37] (File: C037)

Sir John Grehme and Barbara Allan

See Bonny Barbara Allan [Child 84] (File: C084)

Sir Joseph Ward

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a lad I served my term WIth 'Seddon & Co.,' then a rising firm." He shows such interest in his superiors "That now I am Sir Joseph Ward, you see." He becomes expert in politics and surpasses his mentor "Dick" and becomes a power in the land
AUTHOR: unknown (Sir Arthur Sullivan wrote the probable tune)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Election Fortune-Teller and Sketcher, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: derivative political New Zealand
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1893-1906 - Richard John Seddon (1845-1906) Prime Minister of New Zealand
1906-1912, 1928-1930 - Sir Joseph George Ward (1856-1930) Prime Minister of New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 104, "Sir Joseph Ward" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Was a Lad" (tune)
cf. "Vote for Joey Ward" (subject)
cf. "We'll Set the Children Free" (subject of Joseph Ward)
NOTES [877 words]: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ do not list a tune for this, but there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it was intended to be sung to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's "When I Was a Lad" from "H. M. S. Pinafore." Just like the "ruler of the Queen's Navee," Ward starts as an assistant, and the song ends with this verse:
Now, statesmen all, whoever you may be,
If you want to rise from obscurity --
If you don't want to be forever a tool --
Be careful to be guided by this golden rule:
Stick close to your guns whilst Dick's at sea,
And you'll all be "Sir Joe's," the same as me.
"Seddon & Co." is not an actual company; rather, it refers to Richard John Seddon (the "Dick" of the song), the leader of the Liberal Party, whom Sir Joseph Ward replaced as Premier upon Seddon's death. According to Ell, p. 132, he was known as "King Dick"; "Richard John Seddon was regarded as the uncrowned monarch of New Zealand during his years as Premier (1893-1906). A populist, his common-man approach appealed widely as did his government's championing of their causes. Seddon, who was born in Lancashire in 1845, went as a youth to the Australian goldfields, and made his mark in Westland.... It was Seddon who lead New Zealand's creation of its own Empire in the South Pacific, annexing the Cook Islands and Niue in 1901.... He died while in office, age 61, in 1906."
NewZealandEncyclopedia, pp. 492-493 tells us that he "was the longest-serving Prime Minister in NZ's history -- from 1 May 1893 to 10 June 1906." Born in Lancashire, he was such a bad student that he was encouraged to quit school at age 12. He held odd jobs, losing one for pay agitation, and went to Australia at age 18. [This was in 1863, according to Jackson/McRobie, p. 206.] Failure as a gold miner caused him to try New Zealand instead [in 1866, according to Jackson/McRobie], where he again failed as a miner. Nothing ever worked for him until he went into politics, serving in provincial offices before becoming the first mayor of the town of Kumara. He went broke in 1878 but avoided formal bankruptcy, and was elected to parliament in 1879. He became a cabinet member in the early 1890s then became Prime Minister when John Ballance died.
Ironically, the youthful agitator, who led a progressive party, had little to offer in the way of new legislation: "The progressive nature of the Liberal Party slowed down during the early years of the 20th century, as the autocratic Seddon gained complete dominion over his cabinet and caucus. As well as being Prime Minister, Seddon was Minister of Finance, of Education, or Immigration, of Labour, and of Defence." He did make it easier for children to go to school, but "otherwise his growing conservatism smothered the crusading zeal the party once had, and lead (sic.) indirectly to the establishment of the Labour Party."
He was "a tall, powerfully built man" who became obese as he grew older; he died on a ship called the Owestry Grange while returning from a government trip to Australia.
The authoritarianism mentioned above became proverbial; NewZealandDictionary, p. 144, has an entry "King Dick," referring to him; Seddon was called by that name at least as early as 1904. But he was a populist authoritarian: "[as] Premier, Seddon set the prevalent 'style' of New Zealand politics with its emphasis upon accessibility, egalitarianism, and 'righting wrongs'" (Jackson/McRobie, p. 206). He did promote such things as labor reform, women's suffrage, and land redistribution, but "In the process Seddon dominated most of his ministerial colleagues just as he dominated the country; it has been said of him that '(f)ew politicians have been so successful as he in applying the principles of democracy where others were concerned and simultaneously rejecting their application to his own actions" (Jackson/McRobie, p. 207; based on Reid, p. 74, the quote is from R. M. Burdon's King Dick).
Burdon, as quoted on Reid, pp. 74-75, also credits him with eliminating from New Zealand politics "what resemblance they had ever had to being the preserve of a privileged class" -- but "the same might be said of outstanding intellectual attainments." In other words, his populism was so strong that he discouraged creativity and intellectual skill, not just in politics but also in ordinary life. (How fortunate, then, that New Zealand's greatest scientist Ernest Rutherford had already established his abilities before Seddon could mess him up.) Reed, p. 275, says that he "was sometimes known as the 'fighting Premier.'"
Seddon seems to have had a curious sort of afterlife. NewZealandDictionary, p. 252, discusses "various [proverbial] phrases indicating a time in the distant past, alluding to the infrequency of the happening under discussion or review." Along with examples such as "since Adam was a cowboy" we find "since Dick Seddon died" and "since Dick Seddon was a boy."
Those involved in pop folk music may be interested to learn that Seddon's granddaughter Mary Seddon (died 2000) ran the coffee bar "Monde Marie," which was "the first home of folk music in Wellington" (Cape/Steele, p. 21).
For a song specifically about Ward, see "Vote for Joey Ward." Ward's government is also the subject of "We'll Set the Children Free." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: BaRo104

Sir Lionel [Child 18]

DESCRIPTION: (Sir Lionel) hears report (from a lady in distress?) of a murderous boar. Meeting the boar, he slays the beast. In the older versions, the boar's keeper then comes out to demand a price, and the knight then slays the keeper also.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy Folio), but see the notes about the "Bangum" versions
KEYWORDS: animal fight magic
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(High),England(West)) US(Ap,NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES (56 citations):
Child 18, "Sir Lionel" (6 texts)
Bronson 18, "Sir Lionel" (17 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 18, "Sir Lionel" (6 versions: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #10)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 74-78, "Sir Lionell" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 344-346, "The Jovial Hunter of Bromsgrove" (1 text); p. 470, "The Old Man and His Three Sons" (1 fragment)
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 203-204, "Brangywell"; p. 204, "Dilly Dove" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #5, 13}
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 118-119, "Bold Sir Rylas" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 322)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 76, "The Jovial Hunter of Bromsgrove" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 434-435, "Sir Lionel" (notes plus a partial reprint of Child A)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 60-61, "Old Bangum" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #17}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 226-229, "Sir Lionel" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #17}
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 29-31, "Sir Lionel" (2 texts, 1 tune, plus fragments of 1 stanza and 1 line respectively) {Bronson's #7}
Randolph 7, "Lord Bangum" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #14}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 8, "Sir Lionel" (7 texts, 4 tunes entitled "Bangum and the Boar," "Old Bang'em," "Ole Bangim," "Sir Lionel") {Bronson's #12, #10, #8, #15}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 10, pp. 72-78, "Sir Lionel" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 24-25, "Old Badman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 191-191, "Sir Lionel" (1 text reprinted from Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, and found also in Davis and Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, with local title "Old Bangum"; 1 tune on p. 407) {Bronson's #8}
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 51-52, "Old Bangum" (1 text, 1 tune, the same as that in Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains) {Bronson's #8}
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 9 "Sir Lionel" (4 fragments, 4 tunes) {Bronson's #16, #15, #11, #9}
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 85, "Bangum Rid by the Riverside" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 8, pp. 18-20, "Old Bangum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 44, "The Jobal Hunter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 10A, "Bangum Rode the Riverside"; 10B, "Old Bangum" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 100-103, "Sir Lionel" (2 texts)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 157-159, "Ole Banghum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 19, "The Jovial Hunter of Bromsgrove" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 149-150, "Old Bangham" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 272, "Old Bangum" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson't #8}
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 13, "Sir Lionel" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 126-127, "Old Bangum and the Boar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, p. 60, "Old Bangum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 117-119, "Sir Lionel" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 217, "Old Bangum" (1 text)
cf. Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 475-477, "Sir Eglamore" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 72-73, "Sir Eglamore" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 18, JOVHUNTR* OLBANGUM*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 24, #2 (1975), p, 5, "Quil O'Quay" (1 short text, 1 tune, from the singing of Nimrod Workman)
RELATED: Versions of the Romance "Sir Eglamour of Artois" --
Frances E. Richardson, editor, _Sir Eglamour of Artois_, Early English Text Society/Oxford University Press, 1965, (2 parallel texts, of Lincoln Cathedral MS. 91 and Cotton Caligula A.2, with an appendix containing British Library MS. Egerton 2862 and some readings from the other manuscripts; the two main texts are given a common numbering to bring the total to 1375 lines but L in particular omits some of these lines)
Harriet Hudson, _Four Middle English Romances: Sir Isumbras, Octavian, Sir Eglamour of Artois, Sir Tryamour_, second edition, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2006. Much of the material in this book is also available online), pp. 101-132, "Sir Eglamour of Artois" (1 text, of 1320 lines, based mostly on British Library MS. Cotton Caligula A.2)
(William Beattie), _The Chepman and Myllar Prints: A Facsimile with a Bibliographical Note by William Beattie_, Edinburg Bibliographical Society, 1950, pp. 53-88, "(no title)" (1 text, a facsimile of the Advocates Library copy, STC #7542 below)
John Edwin Wells, _A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1400_, 1916 (references are to the 1930 fifth printing with three supplements), pp. 115-116, "Sir Eglamour of Artois" (a prose summary)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1725
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2867
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 261 (Bodleian 21835), folio 26
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, University Library, MS. Ff.2.38, foio 71
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Cotton Caligula A.II, folio 5
MANUSCRIPT: {MSLincolnThornton}, Lincoln, Lincoln Cathedral Library MS. 91 [Robert Thornton MS. 1; Lincoln Thornton MS.], folio 138
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 296 (cf. Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 338-389, "Eglamore")
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Egerton 2862 (previously Sutherland, Trentham Hall], folio 148 (fragment, one leaf only)
MANUSCRIPT: Ann Arbor, University of Michigan MS. 225 (fragment)
EARLY PRINT EDITIONS:
Published by Wynken de Words, 1500? -- one leaf, not the first leaf, 1 line missing at the top of the page; begins "If that he be a crysten man") (STC #7542, p. 168)
Syr Eglamoure of Artoys, Published by Chepman and Myller, 1508 (STC #7542, p. 168)
Published by W. Copland (1548-1569) (STC #7543, p. 168)
Published by J. Walley (c. 1570?) and entered to J. Carlewood, Jan. 15, 1582 (STC #7544, p. 168)
Roud #29
RECORDINGS:
Bentley Ball, "Bangum and the Boar" (Columbia A3084, 1920)
Logan English, "Bangum and the Boar" (on LEnglish01)
Samuel Harmon, "The Wild Boar" (AFS 2805B; on LC57) {Bronson's #2}
Frank Hutchison, "Wild Hog in the Woods" (OKeh 45274, 1928)
Eunice Yeatts MacAlexander, "Wild Hog in the Woods" (on FarMtns1)
Jean Ritchie, "Old Bangum" (on JRitchie01)
Lonesome Luke [D. C. Decker] & his Farm Boys, "Wild Hog in the Woods" (Champion 16229, 1931; on KMM)
Unidentified group, "Old Bangum" (Piotr-Archive #77, recorded 08/29/2021)
G. D. Vowell, "Bangum and the Boar" (AFS; on LC57)
Rick Ward, "Jobal Hunter" (Piotr-Archive #131, recorded 04/18/2022)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Wild Hog
The Jovial Hunter
Rurey Bain
Bangum and the Bo'
Wild Hog in the Woods
Rackabello
NOTES [2746 words]: Many versions of this song have been stripped down to descriptions of the [boar] hunt and the fight. Others have subplots concerning Sir Lionel's brothers.
The versions of this called "Wild Hog in the Woods" should not be confused with the fiddle tune of the same name, which is unrelated to any tune I've ever heard with the ballad. Great tune, though - PJS
Fowler, p. 160, goes beyond what Paul says about the ballad being stripped down and cites Bronson as saying "that a ballad was re-created from the romance, probably in 1615 by Samuel Rowlands, and that modern survivals of the 'old Bangum' type, usually considered descendants of the [Percy] folio version, are actually independent of it." This in fact goes somewhat beyond what Bronson said; Bronson merely pointed out that serious versions are very rare, and that Rowlands produced a serious version, and the two types may be independent. Still, I think Fowler is largely correct: the connection between "Sir Lionel" and "Bangum" is slight.
Flanders, in her notes in "Ancient Ballads," makes the astonishing (for her) admission of how different the common version of this is from the alleged roots: "If 'Old Bangum' can be considered as a direct descendant of the romance Sir Eglamour of Artois, it is surely a classic example of degeneration through oral tradition.... Although the Child 'Sir Lionel' is probably related to the medieval romance, scholars have just as probably been over-enthusiastic in relating 'Old Bangum' songs too closely to 'Sir Lionel.' As Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, 29, suggests, a song-book or music hall rewriting may well lie between the two."
She adds, "The 'Old Bangum' texts are the only American forms of Child 18. They are known in... England as well, and are characterized by a nonsense refrain which Alfred Williams... notes is meant to sound like a bugle."
Note that D'Urfey's version (Bronson's #3; not given by Child) actually calls the hero "Sir Eglamore," although this might be editorial. I frankly agree with Child that the Pills to Purge Melancholy text (volume III, pp. 293-294) is not a version of Sir Lionel. In it, "Sir Eglamore, that valiant knight... He took up his Sword, and he went to fight." He comes across a dragon, and they fight. He is unable to pierce her hide, but eventually thrusts his sword... somewhere. (I suspect, from the description, that it is up her cloaca, assuming that dragons are reptilian and have that sort of plumbing.) She flies off, still with the sword in her back end, and he tells anyone who wants his sword can go take it. Reading that, I really, really suspect that it is a parody of knightly romances, with no real relationship to this song except the name "Eglamore," which may have been chosen because that romance was so well-known. It does not appear related to any of the other texts of either "Sir Lionel" or "Old Bangum."
Child mentions several analogies to the boar-hunting tale in the romances, including part of the story of "Culhwych and Olwen" in the Mabinogion (in which Culywych is given seemingly-impossible tasks in order to win Olwyn) and the tale of "The Avowing of [King] Arthur."
Louis B. Hall, p. 130 in his introduction to the "The Avowing of Arthur," says the following:
"With the wolf practically extinct in England, the wild boar had no enemies except the hunter, and a number of tales describe that hunt. The boar is a fearsome beast today and was even more so in the fifteenth century. Archaeological evidence indicates that it then stood four feet tall at the shoulder and weighted about 300 pounds. Its two tusks were like butcher knives, and the boar could use them to either stab or rip. Its successive layers of bristles, hide, muscle, and fat were impenetrable to arrows. To attack this beast alone with only spear and sword was exceedingly dangerous."
Of "Culhwych and Olwen" Child has little to say except to compare it with other tales of battles with a boar: "But both these, and even the Erymanthian, must lower their bristles before the boar in 'Kilhwch and Olwen,' Mabinogion, part iv, pp. 309-316." This is true as far as it goes; Ford-Mabinogi, p. 119, observes that "The story ostensibly deals with the love of Culhwych for Olwen, the giant's daughter, and describes how, with the help of his cousin Arthur, the impossible tasks imposed by the giant were accomplished and Olwen won... [but] the story is really about Arthur, his wonder-working retinue, and a series of exploits performed by them, culminating in the pursuit of the great boar, Twrch Trwyth. This last ends virtually in a draw between Arthur and the boar, although the carnage on both sides is great."
But the story may not have started there. Mabinogion/Davies, p. xxiii, points out that Arthur's boar hunt is mentioned in the ninth century History of the Britons. On p. 16 Ford-Mabinogi seems to suggest that the boar in "Culhwych" is a vague memory of a pig-god, which presumably makes his opponent semi-divine as well. This would fit well in a the world of giants and talking beasts of "Culhwych," less well with this ballad.
But Child fails to note that the fuller versions of "Sir Lionel," like "Culhwych," involves a giant, Olwen's father. This is not to suggest any direct dependence -- just that these tales of highly deadly boars often have giants somewhere in the vicinity as well.
Lionel himself is an Arthurian character, but a relatively minor one -- e.g. he does not have an entry in Lacy. Moorman/Moorman, p. 81, says of him, "In the Vulgate Lancelot, BOHORT's brother, LANCELOT's cousin. In the Queste del Saint Graal his fury almost leads him to kill BOHORT." Makes you wonder a little if Lionel and the boar didn't get their parts mixed up.
As for the romance of "Sir Eglamour," according to Hudson, p. 97, "Sir Eglamour of Artois tells a familiar story of lovers separated by a disapproving father, their vicissitudes, and their eventual marriage in a triumph of faithful love." To win the hand of Cristabelle, Eglamour has to accomplish a series of challenges set by her father, including a boar, giants, and a dragon; the father clearly wants Eglamour to fail, and probably die. When Christabelle gets pregnant, she and her son Degrebelle are set adrift. Eventually everyone is reunited after Eglamour has overthrown the wicked father and gone to Egypt to rescue Cristabelle (Hudson, pp. 97-98).
In the romance, the battle with the boar is in the middle of the list of tasks Eglamour must perform. "The boar is... in Sidon, and as Eglamour approaches, he finds the dismembered bodies of the beast's earlier opponents. The boar kills the knight's horse an requires three days to subdue, but his eradication is a great boon to the country which he had ravaged" (Hudson, p. 98).
The romance does have the interestingly "folk-ish" motif of a knight of (relatively) low status winning the hand of a girl of higher status. On the other hand, it is in the 12-line "tail rhyme" format, which for whatever reason is rarely used in romances that have relationships with ballads.
Unlike many Middle English romances, there does not seem to be a French equivalent of "Sir Eglamour." It is suggested that the piece was composed around 1350 in the northern Midlands.
There are no fewer than seven manuscripts and four early printings of the romance, making it among the most popular of all the Middle English tales, even though it has not been popular with modern editors, probably because of the "jingling verse and the general unrealness of the story" (Wells, p. 116). Derek Pearsall (Brewer, p. 31), sarcastically tells us that "Sir Eglamour is a mechanical shuffling-together of stock incidents, whisked vigorously and poured out at a pace that aims to provide little time for reflection on what rubbish it all is." This even though one of the manuscripts to include it is the famous "Percy Folio." The full list of manuscripts (from Richardson, pp. ix-xiv; see also Hudson, p. 100):
- British Library MS. Egerton 2862, c. 1400 (a fragment of the first 160 lines, often denoted "S").
- Lincoln Cathedral MS. 91, c. 1440, the "Lincoln Thornton Manuscript," after scribe Robert Thornton, who copied many romances and a few ballad-ish lyrics ("L").
- British Library MS. Cotton Caligula A.2, c. 1450 ("C").
- Cambridge University Library MS. Ff.2.38, c. 1460 ("F").
- Bodleian Library MS. Douce 261, 1564, from 1564 ("d")
- British Library MS. Additional 27879, the Percy Folio, c. 1650. ("p")
The early prints:
- National LIbrary of Scotland, Edinburgh, printed by Chepman and Myllar, 1508? (incomplete; titled "Sir Eglamore of Artoys") ("e").
- Cambridge University Library. Inc. 5.J.1.2, printed by Wynken de Worde, c. 1530? (fragment of fewer than sixty lines) ("g").
- Cambridge University Library, Syn 7.52.12, printed by Richard Bankes, c. 1530 (fragments totalling fewer than a hundred lines) ("b")
- Bodleian Library MS. Selden d 45(5), printed by William Copland, c. 1555 (this is very likely based on the Wynken de Worde edition, or perhaps an earlier, lost, Caxton edition) ("a"). There is good reason to think the Percy Folio version related to this; it contains several other romances found in Copland editions.
- British Library, C.21.C.59, John Walley, c. 1570? ("w").
It might perhaps be noted that Richardson's work was done as a thesis under none other than J. R. R. Tolkien (whose knowledge of folklore doesn't get enough attention), and it likely reflects many of Tolkien's opinions.
According to Richardson's descriptions and the stemma on p. xx, the manuscripts form three groups, S+L, the earliest and generally the best; C+F; and the late texts, e+g+w+b+a+d+p (with the Percy Folio p being especially close to a and w; Richardson in fact thinks p is derived from a, the de Worde edition).
Most printed editions have used L as their base text. Richardson prints L and C in parallel columns. Hudson, although agreeing that L is the best text, works from C because it is the fullest.
There is an interesting footnote to this, in that "Sir Eglamour" is one of the few places where we can test the quality of the text in the very valuable Percy folio. According to Richardson's stemma (p. xx), the Percy text is copied, at one remove, from the Bodleian Selden print by Copeland. Richardson, p. xix, calls it the worst of all the texts and lists a number of unique errors. We should perhaps take this with a grain of salt, since Richardson would also allow the possibility that the Percy text is derived from multiple sources, but if Richardson is correct, we should perhaps be cautious in the use we make of the Percy Folio.
Richardson thinks "Sir Eglamour" is a blending of three romance types, which he calls "Tochmarc Emire/The Wooing of Emer," "Degare," and "Octavian." In English, the first of these is best known from "Emare," the second from "Sir Degare" (Digory)." Richardson thinks the "Eglamour" poet knew specifically "Emare," "Sir Degare," and one or the other of the two English "Octavian" romances. The theme of tasks is from the "Tochmarc Emire/Emare" group; Richardson is not sure if his only source is "Emare" or if there is another source as well.
Mehl, p. 77, says sarcastically of the romance, "The story of Sir Eglamour deserves a brief examination, if only on account of its mediocrity and its highly eclectic character." On p. 78, he adds, "It would be easy to find analogues for all these motifs in earlier romance and to demonstrate that Sir Eglamour is a rather synthetic product. There are particularly close links with Guy of Warwick, Octavian, and Sir Ysumbras....
For a bibliography of references to "Emare," see Rice, pp. 253-254; for "Guy of Warwick," see pp. 277-280; for "Octavian," pp. 365-366; for "Sir Degare," pp. 409-414; for Sir "Isumbras," pp. 469-471; for "Sir Eglamour," pp. 415-416. Summaries of most of them are found in Wells.
I can't help but think, if two scholars both agree that "Eglamour" is derivative, but derive it from different sets of romances, then perhaps the actual sources are something different and now lost -- and if perhaps "Sir Lionel" is related to that.
Mehl, p. 82-83, goes on to suggest that "Eglamour" is a "minstrel poem" -- which, in this context, means a poem the outline of which was memorized but the details largely at the performer's choice, most of them being commonplaces or derived from oral tradition. And, of course, anything that borrows from tradition is likely to lend to it as well.
Or perhaps there is another, lost, "Eglamour" romance. The alliterative poem "The Parlement of the Thre Ages," has these lines:
Sir Eglamour of Artas, full euerous in armes,
And Christabelle the clere maye es crept in her graue;
(Turville-Petrie, p. 98; lines 622-623). The "Parlement" (which exists in two copies) cannot be certainly dated, but the best guess is late fourteenth century (Turville-Petrie, p. 67). The context is a list of famous lovers; Tristram and Dido are among the others mentioned.
Richardson, p. xlii, notes in addition a report of an Eglamore play that was staged at St. Alban's in 1442/43. On the same page, Richardson reports a reduced form of the story, in which Eglamour does little except kill a dragon, in Samuel Rowland's 1615 work "The Melancholy Knight," and a version from 1656 in "Wit and Drollery." Finally, Richardson mentions a version "still sung in schools and Boy Scout camps today." In the absence of a footnote, I don't know what that refers to; I would assume it's some version of this song. More secure is the link of the romance with "Sir Cawline" [Child 61], with which it shares plot elements and some lyrics. But it's an open question just how traditional "Sir Cawline" is; see the notes to that song.
Richardson, pp. xlv-v, suggests that "Sir Eglamour" also influenced the romance of "Sir Torrent of Portyngale" -- or, more correctly, that "Eglamour" influenced "Torrent" and that "Torrent" then influenced the manuscripts of "Eglamour." Wells, p. 113, says that "It has been claimed by some that Sir Torrent is a making-over of Sir Eglamour, and by others that the two are from a common source. He lists two main plot elements in both romances, the "Eustache" story of a family that is driven into poverty and exile and threatened with religious persecution and the "Constance" story of a girl whose father abuses her and forces her to flee to a foreign land where she marries a king and is again banished before reuniting with her husband; these themes are also found in the romance of Octovian, although it is clearly distinct textually, and also in Emare.
Alice B. Morgan, "'Honor & Right' in Arthur of Little Britain" (on pp. 371-384 of Benson) observes that the motif of one substituting for another in bed occurs in "Sir Degare," "Sir Torrent," "Sir Eglamour," and "Partenope of Blois," and also in the French "Arthur of Little Britain" (Benson, p. 377), which John Bourchier, Lord Berners, translated into English I the sixteenth century (Benson, pp. 371-374). So someone who researches "Sir Lionel" has a few more romance to dig into, at least casually.
The wooden knife used to kill the boar has folklore analogies. Simpson, pp. 31-32, has a story told of one Sir Goddard Oxenbridge of Brede (although she notes that it is demonstrably not true). He was somehow turned into a carnivorous giant who went around eating children. Nor could he easily be killed; he was said to be immune to normal metal weapons, plus a crow could warn him when he was about to be attacked. The children of Sussex brewed a huge vat of beer, got him drunk, and sawed him in half with a wooden saw.
A curiosity in all of this is the "Sir Eglamore" text printed in Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 475-477, opening something like "Sir Eglamore, that valiant knight, Fa, la, lnky down dilly, He took his sword and went to fight...." It is basically "Old Bangum" but with Sir Eglamore being the knight and fighting a dragon; in one sense, it's a link between the ballad and the romance, but it feels after-the-fact to me. Roud lists more than a dozen "Sir Eglamore" versions of this ballad, but most are from print; I really suspect they are literary work, and should perhaps be split off.
I think the funniest example of a "Sir Eglamore" text is in the 1949 Girl Scout songbook Sing Together, where it is suggested that it can be used as a dramatic skit in song. But it seems to have been quickly dropped from later songbooks. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C018

Sir Lionell

See Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Sir Neil and Glengyle [Laws M39]

DESCRIPTION: Ann is wooed by Sir Neil and Glengyle. Her brother, hearing a false rumor that Sir Neil has slandered his sister, demands a duel and is killed. Glengyle kills Sir Neil. Ann, horrified by the slaughter, will not have Glengyle and vows to die unwed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1801 (Hogg, Scottish Pastorals)
KEYWORDS: homicide brother sister courting death
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws M39, "Sir Neil and Glengyle"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #109, p. 1, "Sir Niel and M'Van" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 217, "Sir Niel and Macvan" (7 texts, 5 tunes)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 92-95, "Sir Neil and Glengyle" (1 text, 3 tunes)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 20, "Sir Neil and Glengyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 16, "Sir Neil and Glengyle" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 289-290, "Sir Neil and Mac Van" (1 text)
DT 590, SIRNEIL
ADDITIONAL: James Hogg, Scottish Pastorals (Edinburgh: John Taylor, 1801 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 49-55, "The Death of Sir Neil Stuart and Donald M'Vane"
Roud #1914
RECORDINGS:
Alexander March, "Glen Gyle" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [61 words]: Hogg's subtitle is "an auld tale made new again." He has as his tune, "Jonny Faa." But is Hogg the author? Greig/Duncan2 p. 531: "James Hogg, perhaps drawing on a chapbook source, included the song in his Scottish Pastorals...."
I was not able to read the one broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(44), "Glengyle & Sir Neil" ("In yonder isle beyond Argyle"), unknown, n.d. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LM39

Sir Neil and Mac Van

See Sir Neil and Glengyle [Laws M39] (File: LM39)

Sir Niel and M'Van

See Sir Neil and Glengyle [Laws M39] (File: LM39)

Sir Niel and Macvan

See Sir Neil and Glengyle [Laws M39] (File: LM39)

Sir Orfeo

See (notes under) King Orfeo [Child 19] (File: C019)

Sir Patrick Spence

See Sir Patrick Spens [Child 58] (File: C058)

Sir Patrick Spens [Child 58]

DESCRIPTION: The King, needing a good sailor, calls upon Sir Patrick Spens to sail (to Norway?) in the dead of winter. Though both Captain and crew fear the trip, they undertake it, and are drowned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: sea storm wreck death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1286 - Death of Alexander III of Scotland
1290 - Death of his granddaughter Margaret "Maid of Norway"
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA,SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (35 citations):
Child 58, "Sir Patrick Spens" (18 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Bronson 58, "Sir Patrick Spens" (12 versions+1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 58, "Sir Patrick Spens" (3 versions: #2, #3, #5)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 98-102, "Sir Patrick Spence" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques III, p. 47, "Sir Patrick Spense" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 3-11, "Sir Patrick Spens" (2 texts, 1 tune, plus a manuscript facsimile) {Bronson's #5, with differences}
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 128-134, "Sir Patrick Spens" (1 text)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 3-8, "Sir Patrick Spens" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, p. 155-158, "Patrick Spence" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 17, "Sir Patrick Spens" (3 texts, 2 tunes) {B=Bronson's #3}
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 6-7, "Sir Patrick Spens" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11, but a different transcription and not entirely identical}
Wells-TheBalladTree, p. 279, "Sir Patrick Spens" (1 partial text, 1 tune) {apparently Bronson's #3, but transposed and with different words}
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 16, "Sir Patrick Spens" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 16, "Sir Patrick Spens' (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, pp. 51-53, "Sir Patrick Spens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 179-184, "Sir Patrick Spens" (3 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 46-47, "Sir Patrick Spence" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 297, "Sir Patrick Spens (Spence)" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 75, "Sir Patrick Spens" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 66, "Sir Patrick Spens" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 25, "Sir Patrick Spens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols #41, "Sir Patrick Spens" (4 texts [3 from Child, 1 from Niles])
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 144-1445+331-332, "Sir Patrick Spens" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 25-27, "Sir Patrick Spens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 121, "Sir Patrick Spens" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 50, "Sir Patrick Spens" (1 text)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 2, "Sir Patrick Spens" (1 text, a recited version)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 9-12, "Sir Patrick Spens" (2 texts)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XL, "Sir Patrick Spens" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 20, "Sir Patrick Spens" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 60-63, "Sir Patrick Spens" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 24-26, "Sir Patrick Spens" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 74-76, "Sir Patrick Spence" (1 text)
DT 58, PATSPENS*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #418, "Sir Patrick Spence" (1 text, with several variants in the notes)
ST C058 (Full)
Roud #41
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lord Derwentwater" [Child 208] (opening lyrics)
cf. "Young Allan" [Child 245] (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Patrick Spenser
Sir Patrick Spence
NOTES [1491 words]: Whether this song is historical is disputed. If it *is* historical, it is based on one of the oldest incidents known to balladry: The succession of Scotland in the thirteenth century.
Alexander III of Scotland came to the throne in 1249, a boy not yet ten years old (Magnusson, pp. 96-97). Two years later, he went to England to be knighted and to marry Margaret, the daughter of the English King Henry III and the sister of the future Edward I (Magnusson, p. 97).
Alexander came of age in 1259. Within a couple of years, he was sending embassies to Norway, trying to gain control of the Western Isles and Orkney -- which for many centuries had given their allegiance, such as it was, to Norway (Magnusson, p. 97). Eventually negotiations gave way to war: Alexander wanted the Hebrides, while Norwegian king Haakon wanted to keep them and strengthen his control.
Fry/Fry, p. 74, report that one of Alexander's vassals attacked Skye in 1262. Our sources are all Norwegian, so we don't know whether Alexander was really involved, or how extensive the attack was. What is clear is that both sides sent forces to the western isles, though the ensuing Battle of Largs (1263) was more a series of meeting engagements than a full-scale battle. More damage was done to the combatants by a storm, and king Haakon, having seen his fleet badly damaged, headed for home and died soon after in the Orkneys (Mitchison, p. 33).
With Haakon dead, the Norwegians decided to negotiate once again. A treaty was concluded in 1266, by the terms of which Scotland in effect bought the Hebrides (and at a surprisingly low price; Magnusson, p. 103, thinks the Norwegians demanded the cash only so they could justify giving away land they were no longer willing to fight for).
In practice, the result didn't matter; the folk of the Isles "paid no more heed to their Scottish than they had to their Norwegian overlords" (MacLean, p. 33). But at least it ended the war. The countries became friendly enough that Alexander's daughter Margaret, by then 19 years old, was married to the 14-year-old grandson of King Haakon in 1281. Margaret's young husband was already Norway's King Eric II; he had ascended in 1280 (Mitchison, p. 37). Margaret didn't see much of his reign, though; she died in 1283, probably in childbirth; the baby girl would come to be known as "Margaret Maid of Norway" (Magnusson, p. 104).
At the time of the elder Margaret's betrothal, the Norwegian connection seemed minor; although Alexander III was a widower (his wife Margaret having died in 1275), he had two living sons. But the younger son, David, died in 1281, and then the heir, who would have been Alexander IV, died in 1284 (Magnusson, p. 105).
Alexander finally decided he had to marry again; he married Yolande (or Yolette) de Dreux in 1285. But it was too late for him. Indeed, the marriage brought his downfall, and led to the end of one of the few relatively peaceful period in Scottish history. On a dark night, on his way to visit his wife after a feast, he somehow fell from his horse and died in 1286 (Magnusson, pp. 106-107; Cook, p. 65). This, incidentally, led to one of Thomas of Ercildoune's most famous prophecies; see the notes to "Thomas Rymer" [Child 37].
When Alexander died in 1286, the only heir of his body was his granddaughter Margaret, daughter of the King of Norway by Alexander's daughter. She was four years old, but was made queen (not without some concern, since Scotland till then had never had a ruling queen; Cook, p. 65). Naturally there was a guardian council.
At first, Edward I of England left things mostly to the Scots; he and Alexander III had been cordial (Prestwich, pp. 357-360). But it should be recalled that Edward I had already conquered Wales, and claimed a degree of authority over Scotland. And Margaret was such a tempting target.... For one thing, she was a girl who could potentially be married to his son; for another, Margaret of Norway was not too distantly related to Edward himself, and a potential claimant to the English throne. And Edward, being Edward, had no respect for Scotland, or for anything else that stood in his way (Prestwich, p. 361). Edward firmly interjected himself into the process of trying to bring the girl back to Scotland (Cook, p. 69).
The negotiations were intricate (Magnusson, pp. 110-111; Prestwich, pp. 360-361), since Norway, England, and Scotland were interested in her dynasty (because she stood fairly high in the succession for each), and England, Scotland, and the Papacy were involved in negotiations for her marriage (since she and her proposed husband, the future Edward II, were within the prohibited degrees, being first cousins once removed. A dispensation was eventually obtained; Cook, p. 70).
Poor little Margaret! So much rested on her fate that the histories give us no idea of what she was like; on paper a queen, she was in fact a pawn. Oram says, p. 107, "There is surely no more poignant passage in Scottish history than the tragically short 'reign' of this child monarch." One can only feel sorry for her. She lost her mother, who was only 23, at birth (Oram, p. 107); heir to the throne of Scotland before her first birthday, she became queen of Scotland at three (Oram, p. 108). Her marriage was decided upon by the time she was six (Oram, p. 108), she left her childhood home at seven, and died at sea without even viewing the land of which she was titular queen! (Oram, p. 109). It was the forceful Edward I, not the Scots, who conducted most of the negotiations with the Norwegians. And one can't help but wonder if Edward's bluster didn't cause the Norwegians to drag things out. Eric II delayed Margaret's return for years.
Edward had theoretically agreed to leave Scotland an independent state after the marriage, and it was agreed that, if Margaret's marriage produced no heirs, Scotland would remain independent (Magnusson, p. 111). But it was quite clear that Edward had every expectation of running things (MacLean, p. 34); he was already acting as if he were regent of Scotland, even though there was a guardian council and the wedding between Margaret and Edward hadn't taken place anyway (Prestwich, p. 363).
Finally Edward fitted out a well-provisioned ship to carry the Queen, and perhaps her father (Cook, p. 71). Eric didn't like that; he preferred to use one of his own ships. It didn't help the poor girl; she died on the trip -- surrounded by the usual rumours of poisoning and murder. And then Scotland *really* had a succession problem. But that is an issue for another song.
Thus the texts of the ballad match some of the facts (fetching home "the king's daughter of Norrowa'"), but ignore the fact that the old king of Scotland was long dead when the Scottish ship sailed to bring home the princess. (Unless the "king" is Edward I, but in that case, he wouldn't have been in Dunfermline!)
Some have proposed emending the text to describe sending Alexander's daughter *to* Norway, noting that a ship containing several Scottish lords sank on the way home. This is ingenious, but does not seem to fit the rest of the ballad; I would regard this emendation as highly suspect. (Of course, I don't like emendation.)
The song was probably well known in the late eighteenth century. Coleridge's 1798 poem "Dejection: An Ode" opens by citing the ballad (the "Late late yestreen I saw the new Moon" verse) and opens "Well! If the bard was weather-wise, who made The grand old ballad of Sir Patrick Spence...." And Longfellow's "The Wreck of the Hesperus" borrows plot elements, and even a whole stanza, from this song.
The folklore of the new moon is still known today, in Newfoundland at least, where a rhyme maintains, "The old moon in the arms of the new Bodes no good for me nor you" (Young, p. 292).
The geography of the song is at least logical: Dunfermline is on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, and Aberdour is also on the shore of the Forth, a modest distance east (and hence closer to the North Sea).
Aytoun claimed that there was a grave reported to be that of Sir Patrick on the tiny island of Papa Stronsay in the Orkneys -- in one sense, a logical location, since Papa Stronsay is in the eastern part of the archipelago, and so would be near the path of a ship from Norway to Scotland. And there isn't much on the island (which is just 74 hectares=about 180 acres and which was eventually abandoned by its small population) except a small monastery. But I've found no reference since Aytoun to this place, and remember, the song says Sir Patrick's body lies at the bottom of the sea!
Just about every recording I've heard of this song seems to use the highly majestic tune sung by Ewan MacColl, which MacColl attributed to his father William Miller, but Bronson admits only one other traditional version with a tune akin to MacColl's; nine of his twelve versions are of a different type, and the twelfth (from Johnson) he believes inauthentic. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: C058

Sir Penny

See Sir Peny (File: MSSrPen)

Sir Peny

DESCRIPTION: "Peny is an hardy knyght, Peny is mekyl of myght, Peny of wrong ge makyt right" wherever he goes. "Go bet, peny, go bet, go." One who has Peny as a messenger will do well. Men like those with Peny. When he is without Peny, they reject him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1430 (British Library -- Sloane MS. 2593); printed by Ritson 1790
KEYWORDS: money humorous travel commerce nonballad MiddleEnglish poverty hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #393, p. 261, "(Peny is an hardy knyght)" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 115-117, "A Song in Praise of Sir Penny" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #2747
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #4361
ADDITIONAL: Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #196, pp. 441-442, "Penny Is an Hardy Knight" (1 text)
Rossell Hope Robbins, _Secular Lyrics of the XIVth and XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1952, #57, pp. 50-51 "Sir Penny, I" (1 text)
Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, _Middle English Lyrics_, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974 pp, 114-115, #119 (no title) (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 26
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Balliol College, MS. 8, folio 222 (fragment)
NOTES [309 words]: Based on external evidence, this does not meet my criteria for inclusion in the Index; it is found in just two Middle English manuscripts, and although one of them is the extraordinary manuscript Sloane 2593, the other, Balliol College MS. 8, has only two pieces of poetry in it, the other being only a stanza of a well-known song ("Sweet Jesu now will I sing," found in seven other manuscripts) written in a flyleaf.
However, this has been held up by several scholars as an extraordinary early carol, and certainly it is an early example of a song about the relationship between money and popularity. Then, too, it is very popular with modern anthologists. I have indexed it on that very tentative basis.
"Peny/Penny" is, of course, money -- and not a trivial amount in the fifteenth century; the silver penny was the basic coin of England for most of the medieval era, and fractions of a penny (farthings, groats) existed.
Greene, p. 429, says that "The personification of 'Penny' is met with in a number of medieval vernacular and Latin compositions. Chambers, p. 118, mentions a poem on the same theme:
Sir Peny over all gettes the gré [honor, goodwill],
Both in burgh and in ceté [city],
In castell and in towre.
Withouwten owther spere or schelde,
Es the best in frith [woodland] or felde,
And stalworthest in stowre [fighting].
The phrase "Go bet" probably does not mean "go gamble" but is rather a hunting chorus meaning something like "Hurry Up"; see the notes to "A Hunting Carol (At A Place Where I Me Set)," which also contains the phrase.
Yet another "Sir Peny" is found in Joseph Ritson, Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry, second edition, William Pickering, 1833, pp. 99-108; it opens "In erth it es a littill thing, And regnes als a riche king."
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSSrPen

Sir Peter Parker

DESCRIPTION: "Sir Peter Parker" relates how he attacked Sullivan's Isle outside Charleston. He receives no support from his superior, Clinton, so the rebels are able to beat off his ship Bristol. Parker decides it's time to return to base
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1777 (Philadelphia Advertiser) (Source: Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents)
KEYWORDS: rebellion war humorous injury
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 28, 1776 - Clinton and Parker's failed assault on Charleston
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 64-66, "Sir Peter Parker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 70, "A NEW WAR SONG by Sir Peter Parker" (1 text, tune referenced)
Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, pp. 34-25, "A New War Song by Sir Peter Parker" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NEWWAR*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "At Sullivan's Isle" (subject)
cf. "On the Late Engagement in Charles Town River" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A New War Song by Sir Peter Parker
NOTES [567 words]: The setting is, of course, the American revolution. Having been completely blocked by the colonials in 1775, the British decided on a two-part strategy in 1776. Most of the troops in Boston were shifted to New York (via Halifax), while a second force was sent to attack Charleston, South Carolina. It was to be a fiasco.
To be fair, the whole thing had been directed from London, and handled at too great a distance. According to Cook, p. 245, "orders were issued in December... to embark the Irish regiments at Cork and head across the Atlantic to rendezvous with a fleet in the American waters off Cape Fear, North Carolina. General Clinton would meet them at the end of February with additional reinforcements from Boston, and the combined armies would head for Charleston." Sir Henry Clinton was to head the army in the Charleston assault, while Sir Peter Parker was in charge of the naval forces. Since Clinton was already in America, and Parker was coming from England in nine ships spearheaded by the 50-gun Bristol, the two did not cooperate well (Stokesbury, p. 83).
The first problem was the timing. Atlantic weather saw to it that Parker's fleet, somewhat depleted, arrived in April, not February. This had the unfortunate effect of seriously weakening the troops, who had been at sea for eighty days (Weintraub, pp. 61-62). Some didn't even arrive for the campaign; the ships went back to Ireland (Stokesbury, p. 83).
Clinton, who had been on the scene, learned that no one even had an accurate map to use when planning the landing. It took a week just to get past the outer bar (Stokesbury, p. 84). So bad was the British information that, when they tried to bombard Charleston, most of the mortar shells landed in unfortified bogs, or at best in soft spots in the forts where they did no damage (Weintraub, p. 62). And as all this was going on, the Americans were bringing in defenders, including three regiments from out of state, as well as Charles Lee, one of the senior officers in the American army (Sstokesbury, p. 84).
Clinton got his troops ashore, but did not attack the crucial colonial position in Fort Moultrie. Indeed, the channels and low islands meant that he couldn't join in Parker's assault; he was stuck on land that had no access to the forts that Parker wanted to attack! (Stokesbury, p. 85). Clinton opposed the final plan, but Parker was in charge and ordered the assault to go ahead. Even this was delayed, by five days, by adverse winds (Stokesbury, p. 85). To get into the harbor, Parker had to try to batter the fort into submission. He failed (Kraus, p. 226), and in the process a colonial shot blew off his breeches (producing the reference to "the wind in my tail," and a sour joke beginning "If honour in the breech is lodged"; Weintraub, p. 62). Other losses were more significant than Parker's pants: Three frigates aground (two would escape, but one had to be destroyed), three ships damaged; the captain of the Bristol lost his right arm. 225 British soldiers and sailors were killed or wounded, compared to just three dozen American casualties (Stokesbury, p. 85).
Clinton and Parker returned to New York. It is likely that both should bear responsibility for the failure, but Parker seems to have borne the brunt of it; when General Howe was recalled from his post as commander of British forces in America, Clinton was chosen to succeed him. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.4
File: SBoa064

Sir Piggy

DESCRIPTION: "One morning Sir Piggy put on his fine clothes; Taking his cane, out walking he goes." He goes to a tavern, calls for wine, and goes to visit Miss Puss. Piggy and Towser duel over her; Piggy shoots off Towser's tail. A judge says Towser should ride a rail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: fight animal injury
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 184, "Sir Piggy" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11369
NOTES [31 words]: This sounds like the worn-down remnants of a much longer song about a pig and dog dueling over who will wed a cat. Too bad it's so short; I suspect the original was quite interesting. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne184

Sir Robert o' Gordonstown

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! wha has na heard o' that man o' renown -- The wizard, Sir Robert o' Gordonstown!" The wizard had cheated the devil of his soul but is tricked into accompanying the Devil to his death.
AUTHOR: William Hay (source: Cumming, Greig/Duncan8)
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Cumming)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The wicked wizard Sir Robert had cheated the devil of his soul. Afterwards, he didn't even have a shadow: "langsyne had he lost it in far foreign parts" Then he made "a fiend-salamander" in his furnace to learn secrets that allowed him, for example, to ride his coach across thin ice without falling through. One night the Devil disguised himself as the wizard's friend, the Parson o' Duffus, and they drank until the wizard became drunk and confused. "Duffus"'s shape changed to a charger. Apparently realizing that his soul was in danger again, and believing that safety lay in reaching the graveyard at Birnie, Sir Robert rode the [Devil] charger toward Birnie where "The spries o' the earth, an' fiends o' the air" were waiting. The Devil took Sir Robert's soul and that of the Parson of Birnie as well.
KEYWORDS: shape-changing death suicide magic drink horse clergy Devil witch
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1887, "Robert Gordon of Gordonston" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland [first series] (Paisley, 1899), pp. 155-159, "Sir Robert o' Gordonstown"
[George Cumming, editor,] The Lintie o' Moray being a Collection of Poems Chiefly Composed for and Sung at the Anniversaries of the Edinburgh Morayshire Society From 1829 to 1841, (Forres, 1851 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 55-58, 81-82, "Sir Roberts o' Gordonstown"
Roud #13117
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mistletoe Bough" (tune, per Cumming)
cf. "The Warlock Laird o' Skene" (motif: wizard rides across a frozen lake)
NOTES [245 words]: The ballad leaves holes in the story, which Cumming resolves by telling the whole story in an Appendix. The story, but not the ballad, explains that Sir Richard rode to Birnie because he had been advised by "Duffus" that "if he reached and set foot on the holy mould even of the [Birnie] kirk-yard, no power in hell could touch him." In the ballad "Duffus" is misleading Sir Robert into a trap. In the story the Devil follows and catches Sir Robert after being inadvertently misdirected by the drunk Parson of Birnie; that parson's error leads to his own death at the Devil's hands. In the ballad there is no chance that the Devil is misdirected since he is carrying Sir Robert; the death of the Parson of Birnie by suicide -- "for the Parson o' Birnie has put himself doon" -- in the ballad is not explained.
Cuming: "Sir Robert Gordon was second son ofthe Earl of Sutherland. He had received his education partly in Italy, and travelled abroad during his younger days. He was created a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1625, and in 1634 was a privy counsellor of Charles I. He was a man of uncommon genius, and in a knowledge of art and science, was far in advance of the age in which he lived. Hence he was deemed a 'wizard,' and was the terror of the common people who believed he was familiar with Satan." - BS
It is interesting to note a legend that a man without a shadow was said to have lost his soul. The loss of his shadow presumably predicted Sir Richard's end. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81887

Sir Robert Peel, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the pleasant month of May, 'twas the year of thirty-eight... It was down in the narrows where they watched for the eel Lay her majesty's steamer called the Sir Robert Peel." Forced to land in America, the ship is burnt to avenge the Caroline
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: ship battle political revenge
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 29, 1837 - The American vessel the Caroline, which had been transporting supplies to the Canadian rebels, is set afire and run over Niagara Falls by Canadians led by Captain Andrew Drew
May 30, 1838 - The Sir Robert Peel halts at Wells Island to take on wood. Raiders led by Bill Johnston attack her, take off her crew, and set her afire to avenge the Caroline
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 76-78, "The 'Sir Robert Peel'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4031
NOTES [33 words]: For the history of the Canadian rebellion, which led to the events in this song, see the notes on "An Anti-Rebel Song" and "Farewell to Mackenzie."
This song is item dA33 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: FMB076

Sir Roland

DESCRIPTION: "When he came to his ain luve's bouir," his "fair fause luve" admits him. It is Halloween, and she kills him. At a river, she meets a knight. Only one who is faithful can cross there. She tries to ride with him, and drowns. The knight is her lover's ghost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (Chambers-ScottishBallads)
KEYWORDS: death river betrayal homicide dog ghost revenge
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 231-234, "Sir Roland" (1 text)
Roud #9090
NOTES [44 words]: There seems to be only one text of this, from Motherwell, and it damaged -- it's not even clear why Motherwell called it "Sir Roland." It's unfortunate; there is enough left to give us the general idea of the song, and it sounds quite impressive in a spooky way. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ChaB231

Sir Steeple

DESCRIPTION: Sir Steeple courted "queer widow Glib" for her money and the chance for knighthood if they were married. "Together they gadded to concerts and halls." At the wedding the parson says "Your wife's rather short" "In choosing two evils I've chosen the least"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: greed marriage money humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 819, "Sir Steeple" (1 text)
Roud #6213
File: GrD4819

Sir Walter Raleigh Sailing i the Low-lands

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Sir Walter Raleigh Sailing in the Low-lands

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Sir William

See references under "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" [Child 110] (File: C110)

Sir William Gower

See Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B) [Laws K22] (File: LK22)

Sis Joe

See Tie-Tamping Chant (File: LxA017)

Sissy in de Barn

See Sissy in the Barn (File: TrJo002)

Sissy in the Barn

DESCRIPTION: "Sissy in the barn, O join the wedding, Sweetest li'l couple I e'er did see, O Bon Ton, put your arms around me! Say, li'l Sissy, Won't you marry me?" "Gety back, gal, Get yo' arms from around me!" The two children discuss courting
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty rejection
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth, pp. 2-5, "Bon Ton or Sissy in de Barn" (1 text, 1 tune with 2 arrangements)
Roud #16198
File: TrJo002

Sistah Ca'oline

DESCRIPTION: "Sistah Ca'oline, Sistah Ca'oline, can't you dance the peavine? See that water melyine, I'se gwine to have a home bye and by. My old mistress promised me, I'm gwinta have a home bye and bye, When she die she set me free, I'm gwinta have...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: dancing slave floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 94, "Sistah Ca'oline" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #16292
File: Arno094

Sister Cyarline

See Went to the River (I) (File: R258)

Sister Had a Date Last Night

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Sister had a date last night, Boyfriend held her very tight, Brothers made a friendly bet, How many kisses did she get?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope courting brother sister
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #519, "Sister had a date last night" (1 text)
File: AJRR519

Sister Mary

See We're Coming, Sister Mary (File: FSC084)

Sister Phoebe

See The Juniper Tree (File: R540)

Sister Sally

See The Old Maid's Song (File: R364)

Sister Seusan

DESCRIPTION: "Sister Sue and my (Aunt/gal) Sal, Gwine to git a home bime by-high. All gwine to lib down shin-bone al; Gwine to git a home bime by." Various verses on working, sailing, complaints. Noted as a Barbadian hand over hand.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Bullen, _The Log of a Sea Waif_)
KEYWORDS: worksong shanty
FOUND IN: US West Indies
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 200-201, "Gwine to Git a Home Bime By" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 390-391 "Sister Susan" (1 text, tune) [AbEd, p. 299]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Shinbone Al
NOTES [51 words]: Bullen transcribed this shanty, and described the time he first heard it in his book The Log of a Sea Waif. He also included it later included in his collection Songs of Sea Labor. Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas mentions that "Shinbone Alley" is a place name often referred to in American Negro songs. - SL
File: Hugi390

Sister Susan

See The Old Maid's Song (File: R364)

Sister's Husband, The

See Fair Annie [Child 62] (File: C062)

Sister's Murder, The

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Sit Down, Servant, and Rest A Little While

DESCRIPTION: See notes for format. Verses "Sit down servant," "I know you're tired," "I know you've been talked about," "I know you've been lied on," "You've come a mighty long way"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Rev. J. M. Gates)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious worksong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #12096
RECORDINGS:
Rev. J. M. Gates, "Sit Down, Servant, and Rest A Little While" (OKeh 8398, 1926)
Rev. Timothy Hayes and Group, "Sit Down Servant" (on VaWork)
NOTES [69 words]: VaWork is an oyster shucking work song. In this case the song is call-and-response. That is: a verse is a one-line call and the response is "sit down"; that is repeated three times, followed by the line "Why don't you sit down and rest a little while" where at least "sit down and rest a little while" is sung by all the workers. Singers work to their own rhythm rather than working to the rhythm of the singing. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcOK8398

Sit Yeh Down And I'll Treat Yeh Decent

See Muldoon, the Solid Man (File: Dean102)

Sittin' in de Cotton

DESCRIPTION: "When the cannonballs a-singing and the mustard gas is low, If I surely had my rothers, Alabama's where I'd go. Sitting in the cotton where you won't give a damn, SInging whoa buck." He thinks of all the deaths in the war and thinks even slavery is better
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: soldier animal death war home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 200-203, "Sittin' in de Cotton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27891
File: NiMo200

Sitting Here Thinking

DESCRIPTION: "I'm just sitting here thinking, thinking about the past." When the singer gets the blues and wants to feel good he would take his baby's hand. "I wouldn't be worried if I could only hold her hand."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (USChartersHeroes)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Memphis Willie B and Gus Cannon, "Sitting Here Thinking" (on USChartersHeroes)
NOTES [18 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcSiHeTh

Sitting in a Tree (K-I-S-S-I-N-G, First Comes Love, Dick and Jane)

DESCRIPTION: "Dick and Jane [or any other boy and girl] SItting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, First comes love, then comes marriage, Then comes (something) with a baby carriage." Sometimes used as a taunt, sometimes as a jump-rope rhye
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Carey)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting baby marriage jumprope | spelling kissing
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, p. 81, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 64, "K-i-s-s-i-n-g" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #1, "(John and Mary, Up in a tree") (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 139, "(Boy's name) and (Girl's name), Sitting in a tree" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #286, "John and Mary" (1 text)
Roud #19216
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fire Alarm" ("first comes love" lines)
NOTES [84 words]: I seem vaguely to remember this chant from... somewhere... so I have included it here. Considering how few traditional rhymes I learned from tradition, I would imagine it is very common -- but it rarely seems to be cited, perhaps because the names are always changing. In my experience, it's used to tease: children too young to be interested in the opposite sex use it to harass the children who are interested.
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes suggests it is an autograph album rhyme. Not where I came from.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: CarMF81A

Sitting in the Moonlight

DESCRIPTION: "Sitting in the moonlight, glimmer, glimmer, Here comes my boyfriend, slimmer, slimmer, Teeth knocked out and hair peroxided"; he's cross-eyed, his clothes a mess, he's lost a leg, "But I love him just the same"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: clothes nonsense love campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Linda Weaver, "Camp Songs: Reflections of Youth," Vol. XXII, No. 2 (May 1974), p. 78, "Sitting in the Moonlight" (1 text)
Roud #22407
File: NCFJSiMo

Sitting on a Stile

See I'm Sitting on the Stile, Mary (The Irish Emigrant II) (File: Pea462)

Sitting on the Corner, Chewing Bubble Gum

See Chewing Gum (III) (File: ZiZa104E)

Sitting on the Railroad, Picking Up Stones

See Paddy on the Railway (File: MSNR151)

Sitting on Top of the World

DESCRIPTION: Singer's woman leaves him, then says "Come back... I need you so". He spurns her: "If you don't like my peaches, don't shake my tree...." He'll find another woman. Ch.: "But now she's gone, and I don't worry/Because I'm sitting on top of the world"
AUTHOR: Probably Walter Vincson (Digital Tradition lists Lonnie Carter and Walter Jacobs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Mississippi Sheiks)
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness love travel abandonment floatingverses lover
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, STTNTOP*
Roud #7689
RECORDINGS:
Alabama Sheiks "Sittin' On Top of the World" (Victor 23261, 1931)
Beale St. Rounders, "Sittin' On Top of the World" (Vocalion 1555, 1930)
(Joe) Evans & (Arthur) McClain, "Sitting On Top of the World" (Banner 32211/Oriole 8079/Perfect 180/Romeo 5079, 1931)
Shelton Brothers, "I'm Sittin' On Top of the World" (Decca 5190, 1936)
Mississippi Sheiks, "Sitting on Top of the World" (OKeh 8784, 1930; OKeh 45506, 1931)
Scottdale String Band, "Sittin' On Top of the World" (OKeh 45509, 1931; rec. 1930)
Hobart Smith, "Sitting on Top of the World," (1969, on Hobart Smith, "The Old Timey Rap," Topic 12T187)
Doc Watson, "Sitting On Top of the World" (on WatsonAshley1)
Clarence Williams Jug Band, "Sitting On Top of the World" (OKeh 8826, 1930)
Moses Williams, "Sitting on Top of the World" (on USFlorida01)
Bob Wills, "Sittin' On Top of the World" (Vocalion 03139, 1936 [rec. 1935])
SAME TUNE:
Mississippi Sheiks, "Sitting On Top of the World #2" (OKeh 8854, 1931; rec. 1930)
NOTES [147 words]: This song should not be confused with the Tin Pan Alley song, "I'm Sitting on Top of the World" (which goes on, "Just rollin' along, just rollin' along"), although the Mississippi Sheiks may have been ironically quoting from it. - PJS
That the Mississippi Sheiks were alluding to it seems likely, since "I'm Sitting on Top of the World" (words by Sam Lewis and Joe Young, music by Ray Henderson; recorded by Al Jolson) was published in 1925 and became a hit in 1926; Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 358, estimates that this was it fifth most popular song in America in 1926, peaking at #2 in February 1926 (#1 for the year being Irving Berlin's "Always"). Since the Sheiks recorded their song in 1930, it was very likely written shortly after the pop song was widely known. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: dtSTTNTO

Siuba-in Baby

See Rock-A-Bye Baby (File: Wa190)

Siuil A Ruin

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

Siul a Ghra

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

Siul a Gra

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

Six Days Shalt Thou Labor

DESCRIPTION: "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thou art able, And on the seventh -- holystone the decks and scrape/scrub the cable" (or "the seventh the same, and clean out the stable," etc.) A (sailor's) complaint about hard work and dishonoring the Sabbath
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (Two Years Before the Mast)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 228, "For Six Days Do All That Thou Art Able" (1 text)
Roud #16857
NOTES [156 words]: The first two lines of this are quoted in various forms; the description contains the earliest form I know, from Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast. But it seems to have generalized.
Grant Uden and Richard Cooper, A Dictionary of British Ships and Seamen, 1980 (I use the 1981 St. Martin's Press edition), pp. 372-373, call this the "Philadephia Catechism," but do not explain the name.
We might add that, while some of the tasks described in the song are make-work, make-work was necessary at sea, especially aboard a naval vessel that had many more hands than were ordinarily needed to run the ship. Almost none of the sailors could read or do much except sail a ship; their only entertainment was grog (which had to be rationed, both because the supply was finite and because they had to be sober enough to work the ship) and maybe music. Had they not been kept busy, they would have gone stir-crazy -- or mutinied. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Br3228

Six Dukes Went a-Fishing

DESCRIPTION: (Six dukes) go fishing and find the body of the (some Duke). His body is brought (home/to London); the embalming is described in rather gory detail. His burial is described in language reminiscent of "The Death of Queen Jane"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1690 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: death burial nobility corpse funeral
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Bronson (170), 2 versions in Appendix B to "The Death of Queen Jane," though these are not all the versions of the song known to Bronson
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, p. 219, "Two Dukes" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 78-79, "Two Dukes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 159-160, "The Duke of Bedford" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #12}
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 48, "The Duke of Grafton" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 21, "The Duke of Bedford" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 35, "The Duke of Bedford" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11}
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 97, "Six Dukes Went a-Fishing" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 20, "Six Dukes Went a-Fishing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 150, "Six Dukes went a-fishing" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN316, "As two men were a walking, down by the sea side"
ST FO078 (Partial)
Roud #78
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Death of Queen Jane" [Child 170] (lyrics)
NOTES [1759 words]: The person referred to in this ballad is hard to determine. One text refers to the Duke as the "Duke of Grantham." There were three barons of Grantham (died 1770, 1786, and 1859; the third Baron was made earl in 1833), but their circumstances do not seem to fit the ballad. In any case, they were not dukes. - AS, RBW
In another text, the Duke is lord of Grafton. Grafton was a very late and temporary dukedom; Henry Fitzroy (the illegitimate son of Charles II) briefly held the title. Grafton is notable only for leading a Guards regiment during the Glorious Revolution, when he abandoned James II to support William and Mary. (There is, however, a broadside, Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2703, "Unwelcome Tydings over spreads the Land," entitled "Englands Tribute of Tears.. Death..Duke of Grafton.. 9th. of October, 1690.") A later Duke, Henry Fitzroy, third Duke of Grafton (1735-1811), was Prime Minister 1767-1770, and partly responsible for the colonial problems leading to the American revolution (Brumwell/Speck, p. 166), but this is obviously too late. So are his successors.
If we ignore the names and look at the internal evidence of the song, perhaps the least implausible candidate is William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk (1396-1450). This idea is mentioned, e.g., by Cooper, p. 118, though he does not document his source for the idea or the place where he found the verse he quotes.Suffolk, who had been captured by the French as early as 1415 (Griffiths, p. 682), had been the losing commander at the siege of Orleans, the turning point in the Hundred Years' War (WagnerHundred, pp. 259-260). Back in England, he was largely responsible for the increasing factionalism of the government; he also greatly enriched himself to the detriment of is government (Hicks, p. 273).
Worse, he was widely regarded in England as having sold Maine back to the French (Wolffe, pp. pp. 221-224, observes that the charge was false, since it was really King Henry VI's idea -- but Suffolk was still impeached for it. Storey, p. 59, observes that parliament knew he wasn't guilty of actual treason -- but he was guilty of perverting justice, but could not be convicted unless they forced the king to stop backing him. So parliament perverted justice by accusing him of treason because it was the only way they could nail him).
Suffolk's relations with his peers were so bad that he didn't even take advantage of his Magna Carta right of appealing to them for judgment (Griffiths, p. 684).
Henry ordered Suffolk's exile in 1450 (to spare his life), but the ship he was sailing on was intercepted and Suffolk taken off. Suffolk was beheaded by the ship's crew, incompetently, and his body thrown on the shore on May 2, 1450 (Gillingham, pp. 62-63). Supposedly the body lay on the shore for several days before finally being taken away by the sheriff of Kent (Royle, p. 125).
Rumor (probably false) had Suffolk linked romantically with Queen Margaret of Anjou, which would partly explain the line "royal Queen Mary went weeping away" in the "Grafton" text. Although the relationship probably wasn't sexual, it is said that Margaret took to her bed for some days after the shock (Royle, p. 125). And we know that there were mocking songs about his death; Royle quotes one (in modernized language). There were also tales, probably false, that he had raped a French nun (Griffiths, p. 682); the only thing worse than Suffolk's actual acts was his reputation.
Hicks, p. 274, however declares that Suffolk's execution "solved nothing, for King Henry transferred his confidence to other members of the faction, and allowed tensions to develop into the Wars of the Roses.
(It's interesting to note, incidentally, that de la Pole was married to Chaucer's granddaughter Alice Chaucer, according to Kerr, p. 111; Griffiths, p. 308. One might speculate that a member of the family might have originated this poem, except that there is no evidence that Chaucer's skills were passed on to his offspring -- although Alice Chaucer, according to Castor, p. 148, etc., proved excellent at managing her dead husband's estate and her children's prospects; her son in fact married into the royal family and her grandson was declared heir to the throne by Richard III. Alice Chaucer was very, very smart -- but there is no hint that she cares about poetry.)
Another possibility, which as far as I know is original to me, is that the reference is actually to Richard Woodville, first Earl Rivers (c. 1410-1469). Rivers was never a Duke -- indeed, he was only briefly an earl, and not a landed one. But he was the father of Queen Elizabeth Woodville (wife of Edward IV), which made him a sort of vague member of the royal family, which might cause him to be called a duke. Plus, he lived in Grafton Regis (Reid, p. 425; Hicks, p. 328). Rivers was executed in 1469 by members of the Neville (anti-Edward) faction in the second major phase of the Wars of the Roses (Ross, p. 80; OxfordCompanion, p. 809). And, because he was the king's father-in-law, his death was of unusual interest to the various royal dukes.
The period of the Wars of the Roses also suggests the case of Thomas Lord Scales. A veteran of the Hundred Years' War, in 1460 he defended the Tower of London for the government of the Lancastrian king Henry VI (Reid, p. 392). But London supported the Yorkists, and the Tower was besieged. An agreement was made with the Yorkists for Scales and his officers to leave the tower in safety. But Scales had bombarded London as part of his defense, and the Londoners caught up with him, killed him, and tossed his body on the banks of the Thames at Southwark (Castor, p. 137; WagnerHundred, p. 279; WagnerRoses, p. 244). So his fate fits the song, but he wasn't a duke and his body wasn't discovered by dukes.
It is interesting to note that the daughter of Scales married Anthony Woodville, the son of Rivers, who thus in turn became Lord Scales and eventually Earl Rivers. But he was executed by Richard III far from the ocean.
Since we're talking the Wars of the Roses anyway, let's throw in the case of Bishop Adam Moleyns, Bishop of Chichester (c. 1400-1450), who starting in 1444 was King Henry VI's Keeper of the Privy Seal (Hicks, p. 277). Moleyns had been one of Henry VI's envoys to France, and was considered to have helped surrender away the County of Maine, a key to the defense of Normandy. Although he may have tried to extricate himself from Henry's government in 1449-1450 (he resigned the privy seal before the actual revolts against Henry began; Griffiths, p. 287), he was murdered by soldiers at Portsmouth on January 9, 1450, supposedly after confessing to his role in the French debacle (Wolffe, p. 221), perhaps blaming Suffolk (Tuck, p. 296). Again, he was not a Duke, but he was a high lord of the church who was close to the King -- so close that, it seems, the signature of Moleyns was sufficient to move the great seal or authorize an exchequer writ; the King himself did not have to sign. And his murder was shortly followed by the arrest of Suffolk.
Similarly, William Ayscough, Bishop of Salisbury, ally of Suffolk, and confessor to Henry VI, was murdered by a mob while conducting a mass in Wiltshire (Tuck, p. 298). He wasn't thrown out on the seashore, but he was beheaded (Storey, p. 66); his fateshows the tenor of the times. And, like Suffolk, he seems to have enriched himself, since he was reported to have been plundered of 3,000 pounds.
Also coming at about this time was the case of Sir Humphrey Stafford of Grafton, who was killed in a scuffle with Jack Cade's rebels in 1450 (Royle, p. 129). He wasn't thrown on a beach, and he wasn't a duke -- but he was a kinsman of the Duke of Buckingham, and the name might have caused confusion.
All these early possible identifications suffer from the fact that, until relatively recently, England almost never had more than nine active Dukedoms (Buckingham, Clarence, Exeter, Gloucester, Lancaster, Norfolk, Somerset, Suffolk, York), and usually fewer (e.g. the only Dukes of Lancaster who were not also King were Henry of Derby and his son-in-law John of Gaunt, and the Dukes of Somerset tended to be very short-lived). England, until the eighteenth century, had a limited peerage; it was James VI and I who first started selling earldoms in exchange for ready cash (Lyon, p. 203; according to Gregg, p. 143, the House of Lords had just 59 members -- most of them not dukes -- when James VI and I took the throne in 1603; he created a net of 45 more peers, and by the end of Anne's reign in 1714 there were 168). And even James had some restraint; by comparison, the first three Georges nearly doubled the number of peers, creating the first significant class of landless Lords; the purposes, of course, were political.
The case of Suffolk, murdered in large part because he was a favorite, has been compared to that of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, the favorite of James VI and I and friend of Charles I, who was murdered in 1628 (Storey, p. 61; for background on this, see the notes to "A Horse Named Bill"). That case, however, came much later, and the details don't fit this song.
A good fit, both for the earliest broadside and the details, is Edward Montague, First Earl of Sandwich. In what Hutton calls the Second Dutch War and Wikipedia calls the Third Dutch War, he was one of the top commanders under James, Duke of York. At the Battle of Solebay in 1672, the Dutch defeated the English, and Sandwich was killed. His body was found at sea (Hutton, p. 288). He was thus a noble found in (almost) the right place, but he was an Earl, not a Duke, and sailors located him.
I guess it's safe to conclude that this story is badly garbled. I find myself wondering if this might not be a sort of a conflation of all those nobles murdered in the period 1450-1470: The Duke of Suffolk and Moleyns of Chichester combined perhaps with Rivers of Grafton to produce a Duke of Grafton murdered by the sea. - RBW
To these possibilities, Sharp's 100 English Folksongs adds the son of the fourth Duke of Bedford, killed by a fall from his horse in 1767. - PJS
And, in an interesting twist, the fourth duke of Bedford was part of the Grafton government of 1770, according to OxfordCompanion, p. 92. But this, of course, appears to be later than the earliest broadside texts. At least Bedford was a real dukedom, attested to in some versions of the text, so the song might have been adjusted. - RBW
See also Mary Rowland, 'Which Noble Duke?', FMJ 1965, available on JSTOR. - RBW, following WBO
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: FO078

Six Girls

See The Six Sweethears (File: HHH605)

Six Horse-Power Coaker, The

DESCRIPTION: An old run-down motor that still has a lot of life left in it fails one day as the weather worsens and they have a dory in tow. An orphan boy comes to the rescue in a skiff and is able to start the motor. They take on the boy from that time forward.
AUTHOR: Arthur R. Scammell (1913-1995)
EARLIEST DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: recitation technology talltale ship rescue
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Six Horse-Power Coaker" (1 text): p. 74 in the 2nd edition
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 68-69, "The Six-Horsepower Coaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 332-335, "The Six Horsepower Coker" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: A. R. Scammell, _My Newfoundland_, Harvest House, 1966, pp. 124-125, "The SIx Horse-Power Coaker" (1 text 1 tune)
Roud #7310
RECORDINGS:
Eddy Primroy, "Coaker" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Ned Rice, "Six Horsepower Coaker" (on NFAGuigné01)
NOTES [317 words]: The author, Arthur Reginald Scammell (mistakenly spelled with one "l" in [Doyle]), has written many poems, songs and even stories with Newfoundland themes. One of his more famous songs is, "The Squid-Jiggin' Ground." Some collections of his works include: My Newfoundland: Stories, Poems, Songs (St. John's: Harry Cuff Publications, 1988) and "Newfoundland Echoes" (St. John's: Harry Cuff Publications, 1988). Collected Works of A. R. Scammell was also published by Harry Cuff in 1990.
The boy in the song is referred to as being a "bedlamer boy" which is a corruption of the French phrase, "bête de la mer" used in Newfoundland to refer to half-grown seals and boys. See: Harold Horwood, Newfoundland (Toronto: Macmillan of Canada , 1969), p. 84. - SH
For background on Arthur R. Scammell, see the notes on "The Squid-Jiggin' Ground." - RBW
Bedlamers are second year seals, not yet fully mature but able to care for themselves -- sort of the seal equivalent of teenagers. The title is a description of age; a bedlamer may be either a "harp" or a "hood." The origin of the name is uncertain; some connect it with "bedlam," because they create bedlam, others with French "bête de la mer," "beast of the sea" (Young, p. 33; StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 37, prefer the "bedlam" sense, and first cite the term from 1766. Their second meaning, "bedlamer [boy]," refers to a youth approaching manhood; it is not attested prior to 1896. Scammell's 1940 publication of this poem is their second attestation; clearly "bedlamer" refers more often to seals than men).
StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 102, says that a "coaker" was a "gasoline fuelled engine used in fishing boat c1920, and named for Sir William Coaker, president of the Fishermen's Protective Union" (for whom see "Coaker's Dream"). The "coaker" engine was said to be a major improvement on the boat engines which had come before, being much quieter. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy74

Six Horsepower Coker

See The Six Horse-Power Coaker (File: Doy74)

Six Jolly Miners

DESCRIPTION: About "six jolly miners." They come from all over Britain, "but all of their delight was to split those rocks in twine." "Sometimes we have good credit, boys, sometimes we've none at all." "We'll call for liquors plenty and drink our healths all round."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle); c.1867? (broadside, Harding B 26(374))
KEYWORDS: work mining drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South)Scotland(Bord)) Canada(Mar) US(MA)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 238, "Six Jolly Miners (1 text with supplements, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 286-287, "Six Jolly Miners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 92, "The Miners" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #141, "Six Jolly Miners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, p. 176, "The Jolly Miner " (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 58, "Six jolly miners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 282-283, "I Love My Miner Lad" (1 text)
Roud #877
RECORDINGS:
Louis Rowe, "Six Jolly Miners" (on FSB9)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(374), "Lines written on the Six Jolly Miners" ("Its of six jolly miner lads six miners yo [sic] shall hear"), P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 c.8(197), "Lines wretten [sic] on the Six Jolly Miners"
NOTES [17 words]: The Brereton [broadside] date is problematic. Bodleian assigns c.1867 for all Brereton broadsides. - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: K238

Six King's Daughters, The

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Six Kings' Daughters

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Six Little Ducks

See Quack, Quack, Quack (File: Br3126)

Six Little Girls A-Sliding Went

See Three Little Girls A-Skating Went (File: R588)

Six Little Mice Sat Down to Spin

DESCRIPTION: "Six little mice sat down to spin; Pussy passed by and she peeped in. What are you doing, my little en? Weaving coats for gentlemen. Shall I come in... You'd bite off our heads... Oh, no, I'll not... That may be so, but you don't come in."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: animal clothes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #67, "Three Little Mice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 349, "Six Little Mice Sat Down to Spin" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #183, pp. 130-131, "(Six little mice sat down to spin)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 109, "Six Little Mice Sat Down to Spin" (1 text)
Roud #14008
File: OO2349

Six Men and One Woman Taken Off the Ice at Petty Harb'r

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you hardy Fishermen, And hark to what I say, And hear how six were rescued Near Petty Harbor Bay." Stranded overnight on the ice, they desperately signal for help. Spotted at last, the Ingraham comes to rescue them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Harbour Grace Standard)
KEYWORDS: wreck rescue
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 80, "Six Men and One Woman Taken Off The Ice at Petty Harb'r" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V44734
NOTES [60 words]: Although included in Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, I do not see why they consider this a sealing song. The Ingraham was not a sealing steamer, and there was no sealing captain named Dicks/Dix any time close to 1909, when this poem was published.
It is curious that the poem mentions the rescue ship's name, but not the name of the schooner that was wrecked. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm080

Six Months Ain't Long

DESCRIPTION: Singer reports that "all I've got's done gone"; he was framed by an upright judge and sentenced to six months in jail for shooting up the town. Ch.: "Six months ain't long, ain't long my dear...six months ain't long for me to be gone/oh darling...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Rutherford & Foster)
KEYWORDS: captivity love violence crime prison punishment trial judge prisoner
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Leonard] Rutherford & [John] Foster, "Six Months Ain't Long" (Brunswick 490, rec. 1930; on KMM)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Last Gold Dollar" (lyrics)
cf. "Six Months in Jail Ain't So Long" (subject)
NOTES [27 words]: The similarity to "Six Months in Jail Ain't so Long" is primarily in the situation, not the song. The lyrics are different, the tune is different, I split them. - PJS
File: Rc6MoLo

Six Months in Jail Ain't So Long

DESCRIPTION: "Six months in jail ain't so long, baby, It's workin' on the county farm. Got my pick an' shovel now, baby, Yo' true lub is gone. Who's gwine to be yo' true lub, baby, When I'm gone? Who gwine to bring you chickens... When I'm workin' on the county farm?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1923 (Abbot/Swan-8Negro)
KEYWORDS: prison lover food work
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 231, "Work-Song" (1 short text)
Abbot/Swan-8Negro 1, "Who Gon' Bring You Chickens" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (theme)
cf. "Six Months Ain't Long (subject)
NOTES [51 words]: This started a chain of songs; the Virginia-based folksinger and folklorist Paul Clayton adapted the song into "Who's Gonna Buy You Ribbons?"; Bob Dylan adapted that into "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right", which was then adapted into "Understand Your Man" by Johnny Cash. Sounds like a folk song to me. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: ScNF231A

Six Nights Drunk

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Six O'Clock Bells Ringing

See My Boyfriend Gave Me An Apple (File: Hamm011)

Six O'Clock Bells Ringing (II)

See The Bells are Ringing (Eight O'Clock Bells) (File: MSNR086)

Six Questions, The

See Captain Wedderburn's Courtship [Child 46] (File: C046)

Six Sweethearts, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls courting "six girls all at once." He enjoys it greatly until he starts to forget the girls' names. The girls unite to pay him back. He dreams of what else they might do -- and of being a Turk and marrying all of them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: courting betrayal dream
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H605, p. 340, "The Six Sweethearts" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 128, "Six Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2704
File: HHH605

Six Whistles

DESCRIPTION: "Six whisstles, six again -- the fatal call" which makes those who hear "Ask, 'What poor devil's got it now?'" Bill, a married man with children, is the dead man "the first this month." The loggers wonder who will be next
AUTHOR: Rona Morris Workman (source: Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: logger lumbering death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 68, "Six Whistles" (1 text)
File: BeLo068

Six-Bit Express, De

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the six bit 'spressmen sing this song, doo dah, oh, doo dah day. Oh, the six bit 'spress is a hundred miles long." They will run the train all night and day "In a dirty lousy dugout on a bed made of hay." The singer does well at craps.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: train war soldier gambling
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 212-214, "De Six-Bit Express" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27895
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Camptown Races" (tune) and references there
File: NiMo212

Sixpence

See Sing a Song of Sixpence (File: GGGSiSo6)

Sixteen Come Sunday

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)

Sixteen Men in a Pine-Slab Bunk

DESCRIPTION: "Sixteen men in a pine-slab bunk -- Gosh, how the bullies snore!" They sleep soundly to prepare for the next day's work. They are so crowded that they have to turn in their bed in unison. They wait, eat a lot, and head out into the woods to work
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: logger lumbering work derivative
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 32, "Sixteen Men in Pine-Slab Bunk" (1 text)
NOTES [47 words]: Clearly derived from Stevenson's "Fifteen men on the Dead Man's Chest," which mean it must have originated after Treasure Island was published in 1883; Beck says further that it is derived from Young E. Allison's 1891 poem "Derelict," an expansion of Stevenson's short text. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: BeLo032

Sixteen String Jack

DESCRIPTION: "A cloudy night, and pretty hard it blowed, The dashy, splashy, leery little stringer" takes his horse and goes seeking victims on the highway. He catches the Lord of Cashel, then a lady. Jack kisses her; she says she wouldn't mind being robbed again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: robbery horse clothes
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1750? - Nov 30, 1774 -- Life of John Rann, known as "Sixteen String Jack"
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 302-303, "Sixteen String Jack" (1 text)
Roud #15021
NOTES [819 words]: "Sixteen String Jack" is one of those famous highwaymen frequently mentioned in British folklore. There was an account of his alleged exploits published around the time of his death, An account of John Rann, commonly called Sixteen String Jack; being a narrative of his principal transactions and his amours, etc. (1774); it's available on Google Books. But it looks to me like one of those standard "biographies" that took a few facts known from Jack's trial and stuck them into a whole-cloth biography -- e.g. it insists that he was born of "very honest parents, on the 15th of April 1752."
What we can say with confidence is summed up in Benet, p. 1037: "Sixteen-string Jack. The almost affectionate nickname of a famous highwayman whose real name was John Rann and who is referred to in Boswell's Johnson. He was renowned for his affectation of fine clothes. His nickname was an allusion to the many 'strings' or ribbons he wore at his knees. He was hanged in 1774."
The citation of Boswell is in connection with a eulogy Samuel Johnson made of the poet Thomas Gray; Johnson say Gray's work "towered above the ordinary verse as SIxteen String Jack above the ordinary footpad" (Pringle, p. 251).
The folklore version of his history says that John Rann was born in 1750 in Bath in Somerset. At the age of twelve he was handsome and clever enough to be put into service. By the age of twenty or so, he was promoted to a coachman working in London (Brandon, p. 91; Pringle, p. 251).
It was there that temptation caught up with him. All accounts agree that he liked fine clothes, and he liked girls, and he needed a way to pay for both. So he turned highwayman.
He apparently worked with partners, at least occasionally; Pringle, p. 252, names three of them with whom he robbed the Hampstead stage-coach.
Supposedly he was taken into custody many times (Pringle, p. 252, says seven, although folklore claimed that it was sixteen times to go with his sixteen strings), the first time being in 1772. But because he was careful to mask himself (Pringle, p. 251), and always avoided directly dealing with a fence (Pringle, p. 252), he was able to avoid conviction (Brandon, pp. 91-92).
Only twice before his end was he really threatened with punishment. On the first, he was caught red-handed breaking into a house. He claimed that he was visiting a lady-friend, and was late, so the door was locked and he had to break in. The alleged lady friend showed up, dressed rather immodestly, to support his case, and Judge John Fielding, the "Blind Beak," let him off with a warning (Brandon, p. 93; Pringle, pp. 253-254). Which still meant he had to answer to his usual girlfriend Eleanor Roche, whom Pringle, p. 252, claims was a streetwalker.
Ironically, for a man credited with many robberies, he was once arrested for debts supposedly incurred while partying with Eleanor to take her mind off his visit to the other girl (Pringle, p. 254). But his friends paid the debt on the spot, so he got off -- but he still had the debt to pay, which caused him to go back to highway robbery.
His final crime came when he and a partner named William Collier up a minister named Bell in September 1774. They didn't get much money, but they took Bell's distinctive watch -- and the pawnbroker was able to trace it. It was enough evidence to pull Rann into custody. And although Bell could not identify Rann or Collier, another man had seen them in the vicinity at the time. Rann and Collier were sentenced to death (although Collier's sentence would be commuted), and Eleanor was sentenced to transportation (Pringle, pp. 256-257).
When he was finally sentenced to hang, he took it gaily, receiving many (mostly female) visitors as he waited to be hung, chattering with the hangman and the crowd on his way to the scaffold, and supposedly died wearing "a suit of pea-green clothes ordered specially for the occasion with a large nosegay as an accessory" (Brandon, p. 93).
Pringle, p. 251, gives a contemporary description: "He was about five feet five inches high, wore his own hair, of a light brown colour, which was combed over his forehead, remarkably clean, and particularly neat in his dress, which in two instances was very singular, that of always having sixteen strings to his breeches knees, always of silk (by which means he acquired his fictitious name) and a remarkable hat with strings, and a button on the crown. He was straight, of a genteel carriage, and made a very handsome appearance."
This song, at least as given by Shoemaker, doesn't seem to have much to do with the history related above; it claims Jack robbed "My Lord of Cashel," and the accounts do not mention that. But the song calls him "Rann," declares him a "little stringer," says he was "little," and hints that he was good at kissing. So I suppose it fits with the legend. I would not have associated it with Jack without Shoemaker's title. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe302B

Sixteen Thousand Miles from Home

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I'm sixteen thousand miles from home... To think that I should humble down To come out here stone-breaking." The new immigrant is met by a local contractor, who flatters him and tricks him into a menial job. (The singer prefers to join the army)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: emigration work
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 67, 131-132, "Sixteen Thousand Miles from Home" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 72-73, "Sixteen Thousand Miles from Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 46-47, "Sixteen Thousand Miles from Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 32-33, "Sixteen Thousand Miles from Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 195, "Sixteen Thousand Miles" (1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 122-124, "I'm Sixteen Thousand Miles from Home" (1 text)
File: MA067

Sixteen Tons

DESCRIPTION: "Now some folks say a man is made out of mud, But a poor man's made out of muscle and blood." The singer describes the hard life in the mines -- and the debts incurred. "St. Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go; I owe my soul to the company store."
AUTHOR: Merle Travis
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (recorded by author)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes poverty mining
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 154, "Sixteen Tons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Green-OnlyAMiner-RecordedCoalMiningSongs, p. 279-281, "Two by Travis": p. 295, "Sixteen Tons"(1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TON16
Roud #15162
RECORDINGS:
George Davis, "Sixteen Tons" (on GeorgeDavis01)
Tennessee Ernie Ford, "Sixteen Tons" (Capitol 3262, 1955)
B. B. King, "Sixteen Tons" (RPM 451, n.d.)
Merle Travis, "Sixteen Tons" (Capitol 48001, 1947; on 78 album "Folk Songs of the Hills", Capitol AD 50; rec. 1946)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "'31 Depression Blues" (lyrics)
NOTES [167 words]: According to James Sullivan, Which Side Are You On?: 20th Century History in 100 Protest Songs, with a foreword by The Reverend Lennox Yearwood and Bill McKibben, Oxford University Press, 2019, p. 41, this song "would become a massive, unexpected hit in the hands of country crooner Tennessee Ernie Ford, reaching the top spot on the Billboard pop chart in 1955. The coal industry had long set quotas for miners, which rose dramatically over the years. A miner who was required to extract two tons of coal per day in the 1860s was expected to produce sixteen tons each shift in the 1920s. 'You load sixteen tons, and what do you get / Another day older and deeper in debt,' Travis wrote, crediting the line to his brother John, who worked in the mines. Though a folk songwriter named George S. Davis would claim in the 1960s that he was the song's true author, Travis maintained that it was his father who provided the song's memorably rousing final line: 'I owe my soul to the company store.'" - RBW
File: LoF154

Sixteen Years, Mama

DESCRIPTION: The daughter says that at 16 it is time she was wed. The mother offers her daughter a sheep instead; daughter would weep. Mother offers a cow; daughter would frown. Mother offers a man; daughter says "as soon as ever you can... Married I'd like to be"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (IRClare01,Voice15)
KEYWORDS: dialog mother bargaining animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #12942
RECORDINGS:
Mary Delaney, "Fourteen Last Sunday" (on IRTravellers01)
Mikey Kelleher, "Daughter, Dearest Daughter" (on IRClare01)
Tom Lenihan, "Sixteen Years, Mama" (on Voice15)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle" (subject)
cf. "Lazy Mary" ("She Won't Get Up") (subject)
cf. "The Maid's Complaint to her Mother" (theme)
NOTES [38 words]: This is "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle" without the whistle.
The last verse of Mikey Kelleher's "Daughter, Dearest Daughter" on IRClare01 is the "father and mother in yonder bed do lie" verse from "Blow the Candle Out" [Laws P17]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Rc16YrsM

Sixty Years Ago

See Twenty Years Ago (Forty Years Ago) (File: R869)

Skeeter on My Peter

See There's a Skeeter on My Peter (File: Paro039)

Skeppet Bernadotte

DESCRIPTION: Swedish capstan shanty. Translation - Ship sails from Cardiff, runs into various mechanical problems and bad weather and are left with nothing but bread to eat.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty ship technology food
FOUND IN: Sweden
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 469-470, "Skeppet Bernadotte" (2 texts, Swedish & English, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 146, "Skeppet Bernadotte" (2 texts, Swedish & English, 1 tune)
File: Hugi469

Skeptic's Daughter, The

See Rosedale Waters (The Skeptic's Daughter) (File: R601)

Skerry's Blue-Eyed Jane

DESCRIPTION: The singer rides up to a "lovely maid," and asks if she will come away with him. She refuses; she loves another. He says her love is married. She says he lies, and if her love were here, he would slay the singer. The singer reveals that he is her love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation reunion disguise
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H737, pp. 309-310, "Skerry's Blue-Eyed Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3816
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
File: HHH737

Skew Ball

See Skewball [Laws Q22] (File: LQ22)

Skewbald Black, The

See The Horse Wrangler (The Tenderfoot) [Laws B27] (File: LB27)

Skewball [Laws Q22]

DESCRIPTION: (Skewball) and one or more other horses run a race; the crowd favors another animal. (Half way through the course), Skewball tells his rider he will win. He pushes on to victory (and drinks a toast with his rider)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B25)
KEYWORDS: horse racing promise
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,SE,SO) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws Q22, "Skewball"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 136, "Skew Ball" (2 fragments)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 136, "Skew Ball" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 51, pp. 88-89, "Skewball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 253, "The Noble Skew Bald" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 34, "Skewball" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 172-174, "The Noble Sku-ball" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 68-70, "Stewball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 62-64, "The Noble Skewball" (1 partial text plus a British version in a footnote, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 102-110, "Stewball" (4 texts, 1 tune, linked to this by the horse's name Stewball though the versions often seem to pick up pieces of other racing songs, notably "Molly and Tenbrooks" [Laws H27])
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 151-152, "Stewball" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 8, "Squeball" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 395, "Stewball" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 230, "Stewball" (notes only)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 90-91, "Big Day in Atlanta" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 349, STWBLHOR STWBLHR2
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 72, "Stewball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #456
RECORDINGS:
"Bowlegs" [no other name given], "Stewball" (AFS 1863 B4, 1933)
Texas Gladden, "Old Kimball" (AFS 5233 B; on USTGladden01)
Harold B. Hazelhurst, "Stewboy" (AFS 3143 B3, 1939)
Harry Jackson, "Old Blue Was a Gray Horse" (on HJackson1)
Ed Lewis & prisoners, "Stewball" (on LomaxCD1703)
A. L. Lloyd, "Skewball" (on Lloyd3, Lloyd06)
Memphis Slim & Willie Dixon, "Stewball" (on ClassAfrAm)
Pete Seeger, "Stewball" (on PeteSeeger43)
Guy Wolff, "Skewbald" (Piotr-Archive #469, recorded 01/26/2023)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 999[some lines illegible], "Skew Ball" ("Come gentlemen sportsmen I pray listen all"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 11(3533), Harding B 15(289a), Harding B 15(289b), Harding B 15(290a), Firth c.19(78), Firth c.19(79), Harding B 11(73), Firth b.26(236), "Skew Ball"; Harding B 28(274), Harding B 25(1784), Harding B 25(1785), Harding B 6(54), G.A. Gen. top. b.29(24/2) [some words illegible] "Skewball"; Firth b.25(297), Johnson Ballads 1406, 2806 c.18(282), Firth c.26(51), "Scew Ball"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Molly and Tenbrooks" [Laws H27] (plot)
cf. "Little Dun Dee" (plot)
NOTES [19 words]: This seems to have given rise to a work song fragment, "Old Skubald"; see Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 325. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LQ22

Skibbereen

DESCRIPTION: A boy asks his father why he left Skibbereen when he is always speaking of it. The father lists reasons: First came the blight. Then the landlord took the land. Then he joined the 1848 rebellion, and had to flee. The boy promises revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion hardtimes landlord exile starvation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1847/8 - Greatest of several Irish potato famines
1848 - Irish rebellion
FOUND IN: Ireland Australia Canada(Ont) US(MW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 52-53, "Skibbereen" (1 text)
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, p. 46, "Skibbereen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 163, "Skibbereen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 22-23, "Skibbereen" (1 text)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 18, "Skibbereen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 24, "Skibbereen" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SKIBREEN*
Roud #2312
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "Skibbereen" (on Abbott1)
Freddy McKay, "Skibbereen" (on Voice08)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small)" (subject: The Potato Famines) and references there
NOTES [347 words]: The 1848 Irish rebellion was the result of many factors. One was hunger -- the potato blight drove food prices beyond the reach of common people; in the end, millions died and many more went to America. For details, see the notes to "Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small)."
Another was land hunger; the preceding decades had forced many Irish smallholders off their lands while allowing the rich (usually English) to enlarge their holdings. By the time of the blight, most Irish were working holdings of five acres or less; there simply wasn't enough land for the population.
The image of the landlord squeezing the tenants is also accurate. Though landlords in Ireland were always unusually ruthless, things got worse in the post-blight period. The landlords preferred raising stock, with a prospect for selling it, to helping peasants (who supplied only labor). The poor laws of the period helped them clear off the land: A peasant who appealed for food because his crops were taken by the blight automatically lost his lease. Between 1851 and 1857, the number of smallholdings in Ireland fell by about a sixth.
Finally, revolution was in the air; almost all of Europe (except England) was in turmoil.
Unfortunately for the rebels, the very factors that caused the revolt meant that it had no strength and could gain no foreign help. And England, with a stable government at home and all her enemies distracted, could deal with the rebellion at its leisure.
I don't know that it's significant that Skibbereen is described as the rebel's home place. But it's interesting, since Skibbereen was where O'Donovan Rossa founded the Phoenix National and Literary Society -- which, despite its name, was an armed rebel group -- though this was abouta decade after1848. (For this story, see Terry Golway, For the Cause of Liberty, p. 131, or T. W. Moody, F. X. Martin, and Dermot Keough, with Patrick Kiely, The Course of Irish History, fifth edition, 2011 (page references are to the 2012 paperback edition), p. 243. For Rossa, see the notes to "Rossa's Farewell to Erin.") - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: PGa046

Skibbereen (II)

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells "what happened to me at the wake o' me cow" in Skibbereen. His "relayshuns ... in their thousands" drank up the still, fought, broke up the house and killed his sow. Next day all were sentenced to a week or two for fighting.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: fight violence trial drink party talltale animal family
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 88, "Skibbereen" (1 text)
File: OCon088

Skibboo

See Snapoo (File: EM379)

Skidding Down the Runway

DESCRIPTION: Complaints of the crew of a shot-up plane: "She'll be skidding down the runway when she comes." "She'll be needin' ammunition when she comss." "She'll be weepin' tears of oil when she comes. "She'll be plugged chock full of holes when she comes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: technology flying hardtimes soldier derivative
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 121, "Skidding Down the Runway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #29421
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain" (tune) and references there
File: Hopk121

Skidmore Fancy Ball, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, here we go so nobly, oh, de colored Belvederes, A number one, we carry a gun, we beat the fusileers." "Every coon's us warm as June, at de Skidmore fancy ball." "We're bon ton darkies all: Sweet Caledone, it gives a tone to de Skidmore fancy hall."
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (The Mulligan Guard Ball)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad Black(s)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #23, pp. 79-82, "The Skidmore Fancy Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 114-115, "The Skidmore Fancy Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Richard Moody, editor, _Dramas from the American Theatre, 1762-1909_, World Publishing Company, 1966; the play "The Mulligan Guard Ball" is on pp. 549-565 (this is the first printed edition, taken from the manuscript filed with the Library of Congress in 1879, and may not have matched the actual performances perfectly); this song is at the end of scene 4, on pp. 559, apparently led by Captain Sim Primrose
Edward Harrigan, _The Mulligans_ , G. W. Dilingham, 1901, pp. 127, 142, "(no title)" (2 fragments)
Roud #V15479
NOTES [326 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
This does not seem to have been collected in tradition, but it was very popular at the time it was composed; Spaeth, p. 187, refers to "musical hits [such] as The Skidmore Fancy Ball (a satirical treatment of a colored company)." I wonder if this (and another popular Skidmore song, "The Skidmore Guard") might not have been suppressed by liberal collectors -- because the Skidmore Guards were a Black target company, whose utterances were marked by strong dialect and who fought with razors. They and the Mulligan Guard, the company that Edward Harrigan made the subject of his most famous plays, had both rented the same hall for a ball, resulting in conflict over who would use the space (Franceschina, p. 118). Eventually the proprietor put the Mulligans downstairs, the Skidmores upstairs -- and the Skidmores broke the floor and fell on the Mulligans (Moody, pp. 5, 87-89), resulting in one of Harrigan's beloved Big Loud Spectacles.
According to Franceschina, p. 118, the song was sung by John Wild and Billy Gray, in blackface, with Wild playing Sam Primrose and Gray playing the Reverend Palestine Puter, who seem to have been allies in running the Skidmore Guard for their own benefit (although Harrigan eventually made Puter a criminal and Primrose an honest barber; HarriganMulligans, p. 450).
Spaeth, p. 187, lists a full catalog of Skidmore Guard songs: "Skidmore Guard" (1874; Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #4), "The Skidmore Fancy Ball" (1878;Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #23), "The Skids Are on Review" (1879; Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #31), "The Skids Are Out Today" (1879; Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #28), "The Skid Are Out Tonight" (1880; Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #52), and "The Skidmore Masquerade" (1880; Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #51). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: HaBrSFB

Skin a Ma Linka

See Skinny Malinky Long Legs (File: SuSm126B)

Skin a Rabbit

DESCRIPTION: Teasing game. "Skin a rabbit, skin a rabbit, Chop him off here." (After which the singer strikes or taps another in the arm.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 124, "(Skin a rabbit)" (1 text)
File: SuSm124

Skin and Bones (The Skin and Bones Lady)

DESCRIPTION: "There was an old woman, all skin and bones." The old woman decides to go to church. At the church she encounters a (rotting?) corpse. She asks the (parson/clock), "Will I be thus when I am dead." When told "Yes," she screams and/or dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Gammer Gurton's Garland, revised edition)
KEYWORDS: death questions
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 502-503, "Old Woman All Skin and Bone" (3 texts)
Randolph 69, "The Skin-and-Bone Woman" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 142, "Old Woman All Skin and Bones" (4 texts plus 2 excerpts and mention of 3 more; the "B" text seems to have picked up a "Worms Crawl In" chorus)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 142, "Old Woman All Skin and Bones" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 43, "There Was an Old Woman" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 123, "There Was an Old Woman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 84, pp. 135-136, "Skin and Bones" (1 text plus an excerpt from another, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 53, "The Skin-and-Bone Lady" (1 short text, clearly this though it lacks the "skin-and-bone" reference)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 86, "The Skin-and-Bone Lady" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 203, "Ghost Song" (1 text)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 11-12, "[Skin and Bones]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 20, "Skin and Bones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 167, "The Skin-And-Bone Lady" (2 texts)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 12-13, "Skin and Bones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 180-181, "The Old Woman All Skin and Bones" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 44-46, "Old Woman All Skin and Bone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 293, "There was a lady all skin and bone" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #92, pp. 86-88, "(There was a lady all skin and bone)"
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, p. 186, "The Old Woman All Skin and Bones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, p. 586, "Old Woman All Skin and Bone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 108-109, "An Old Woman All Skin and Bone" (1 text)
DT, SKINBONE
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, p. 529, "The Lady That Went to Church" (1 text)
Roud #501
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singer, "There Was an Old Woman All Skin and Bones" (on USWarnerColl01)
File: R069

Skin the Goat's Curse on Carey

DESCRIPTION: Skin the Goat says before he sails that he will give Carey, the informer, his curses, such as, "by some mistake may he shortly take A flowing pint of poison." Skin the Goat promises that "when I die, my old ghost will sit on his bed-post"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: transportation humorous betrayal curse Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Chronology of the Phoenix Park murders (source: primarily Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, pp. 62, 63, 281-286.)
May 6, 1882 - Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and the Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke are murdered by a group calling themselves "The Invincible Society."
January 1883 - twenty seven men are arrested.
James Carey, one of the leaders in the murders, turns Queen's evidence.
Six men are condemned to death, four are executed (Joseph Brady is hanged May 14, 1883; Daniel Curley is hanged on May 18, 1883), others are "sentenced to penal servitude," and Carey is freed and goes to South Africa.
July 29, 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell kills Carey on board the "Melrose Castle" sailing from Cape Town to Durban.
Dec 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell is convicted of the murder of James Carey and executed in London (per Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 85, "Skin the Goat's Curse on Carey" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Phoenix Park Tragedy" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders) and references there
NOTES [123 words]: For another broadside on the same subject see
Bodleian, Harding B 26(605), "'Skin the Goat's' Letter" ("You jolly old boys just hold your noise"), unknown, n.d.
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 62: "The Phoenix Park murders and their judicial sequels struck the popular imagination and were a gold-mine for ballad-writers: some thirty songs were issued on this subject, which was the last great cause to be so extensively commented upon in broadside ballads."
Zimmermann p. 284: "'Skin the Goat' was the nickname of James Fitzharris, the cabman who drove the murderers of Lord Cavendish and Thomas Henry Burke to and from Phoenix Park. He was sentenced to penal servitude for 'conspiracy' because he refused to identify his passengers." - BS
File: Zimm085

Skinamalinky Long Legs

See Skinny Malinky Long Legs (File: SuSm126B)

Skinnamarink

DESCRIPTION: "Skinnamarinkydinkydink, Skinnamarinkydoo, I... Love... You!" (repeat) "I love you in the morning and in the afternoon, I love you in the evening, underneath the moon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Camp Clavell and Girl Reserve Club Songs)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 125, 141, 149, 153, 175, 318, 417, 498, "Skinnamarink"/"Skinnamarink, I Love You" (notes only)
DT, SKINMRNK
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Skinny Merink a Dink
File: ACSF125K

Skinnamarink, I Love You

See Skinnamarink (File: ACSF125K)

Skinner on the Dock

DESCRIPTION: The singer leaves Lockport (on the Erie Canal), curses out Skinner, and describes some of his crewmates on the canal boat.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy canal moniker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1825 - Erie Canal opens (construction began in 1817)
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 466-467, "Skinner on the Dock" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [19 words]: Legman in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms posits that these are the "lost" first verses of "The Erie Canal." - EC
File: RL466

Skinner, Skinner, You Know the Rule

DESCRIPTION: "Skinner, skinner, you know the rule, Eat your breakfast and curry your mule, Curry your mules and curry them right, Let's get on the big boat next Saturday night." The singer complains about (work? and) his troubles with his woman
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad animal
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 23, "Skinner, Skinner, You Know the Rule" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9999
NOTES [5 words]: A "skinner" is a teamster. - RBW
File: MWhee023

Skinner's Song

DESCRIPTION: "I looked at de sun and de sun looked high, I looked at de captain and he wunk his eye, And he wunk his eye, and he wunk his eye, I looked at de captain and he wunk his eye." "I looked at de sun and de sun looked red... de captain... he turned his head."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: work
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 230, "Skinner's Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On the Road Again" (form)
NOTES [63 words]: A skinner is a teamster. Scarborough explains that "The Negro is not eager to work overtime." Understandable, since he certainly wouldn't get paid for it!
Scarborough's fragment doesn't look quite like anything else I've seen, but it feels as if it's derived from "On the Road Again," or something in the "Joseph Mikel" family. One of those railroad/rambler songs, anyway. - RBW
File: ScaNF230

Skinniest Man I Ever Knew, The

See The Thinnest Man (File: PHCFS175)

Skinny Leg Blues

DESCRIPTION: Singer is "a little bitty mama ... got everything a little bitty mama needs." "I've got little bitty legs ... something underneath works like a boar hog's eye." She makes her lover "whine" but she would cut his throat: " graveyard be your resting place"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: sex warning bawdy nonballad lover
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Geeshie Wiley, "Skinny Leg Blues" (on StuffDreams1)
NOTES [101 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought.
I need some help with the reference to "skinny leg." Singer is not a "Big Leg Woman." If she were, says Johnny Temple (Decca 7547, 1938) "if you roll her belly like you roll her dough, Let you down so easy till you want some more." Jerry Lee Lewis, in his cover (Sun SI-1119,1970) of Temple, says, "Big leg women keep your dresses down... You've got something up under there make me want to lay down" So, the singer here does not look like a big legged woman. Nevertheless, she will not be put down. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcSkLeBl

Skinny Malinky Long Legs

DESCRIPTION: "Skinny Malinky long/lanky legs, And big banana/umberella feet, Jammy face.... Went to the cinema, And fell through the seat" (or, ...to the pictures, And couldn't get a seat. When he got a seat, he fell fast asleep")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Folk-Lore 67, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: playparty jumprope nonsense | cinema seat
FOUND IN: New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 126, "(Skin a ma links)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #520, "Skinamalinky long legs" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 44, "(Skinnymalink, melodeon legs)" (1 text)
Roud #19020
NOTES [31 words]: Although Eilís Brady's All In! All In! does not seem to have a text of this song, on p. 15 it helps explain this meaning: a "tall skinny girl is called skinnymalink melodeon legs." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SuSm126B

Skinny Merink a Dink

See Skinnamarink (File: ACSF125K)

Skinnymalink, Melodeon Legs

See Skinny Malinky Long Legs (File: SuSm126B)

Skip to Me

DESCRIPTION: "Skip to my one and skip to me two, Harriet's other is looking at you, Skip to my three and skip to my four, who's that knocking at Harriet's door? Five... six... I love you but push you away quick..." The marriage was "only a dream"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: marriage home separation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1909 - Joe Pawelka marries Hannah Wilson (probably the "Harriet" of "Skip to Me"). After less than half a year, they separate; Pawelka attempts suicide and refuses to leave her alone. Discovered in possession of stolen property, he escapes from prison twice (the second time on Mar 23, 1910). Pawelka then tries again to reconcile with his wife. Other crimes follow. Captured again Apr 17, 1919, he is convicted of various crimes but soon escapes for a final time and is never seen again (source: Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 65, "Skip to Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ruahine Run" (subject of Joe Pawelka)
cf. "Joe's Train Journey" (subject of Joe Pawelka)
NOTES [27 words]: It appears there is a book about this fellow, Des Swain, Pawelka, Moana Press, 1989. But I have been unable to locate a copy outside New Zealand to check it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: COl2065A

Skip to My Lou

DESCRIPTION: Various stanzas, all with the chorus "Skip to my Lou, my darling": "Lost my partner, what'll I do?" "I'll get another one prettier than you!" "Flies in the buttermilk, shoo shoo shoo!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Ames)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (36 citations):
Randolph 516, "Skip to My Lou" (5 texts plus 2 excerpts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 395-397, "Skip to my Lou" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 516A)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 174-175, "Skip to My Lou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 520, "Skip to My Lou" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 99, "Shoe-Lie-Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 152, p. 300, "Skip to My Lou" (1 text)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 38, "Skip to My Lou" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #128, "Skip to My Lou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 166-169, "Skip to My Lou" (1 very full text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 131-132, "Skip to My Lou" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 19-20, "Skip to my Lou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 82, "Skip to my Lou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 33, "Skip-to-ma-loo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 159-160, "Skip to My Lou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 201-202, "Skip to My Lou" (1 text)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 89-90=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 198-200, "Skip-to-My-Lou" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 139-141, "Skip to My Lou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 215, "Little Red Wagon Painted Blue" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 167-168, "Skip to My Lou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 30, "Skip to My Lou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 294-295, "Skip to My Lou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 99, "Skip to My Lou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 78, "Skip to my Lou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 60, "Skip to My Lou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 193-199, "Skip to My Lou" (1 text, 1 tune, plus figures)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 38-43, "The Cowboy's Christmas Ball" (1 text, 1 tune, with elements of "Buffalo Gals" and "Skip to My Lou" as bridges)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 429-430, "Skip-to-my-Lou" (1 text broken up into excerpts)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 256-257, "Skip to My Lou" (1 text)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 90, "Skip To My Lou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 288, "Skip to My Lou" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 389, "Skip To My Lou" (1 text)
Tobitt-SkipToMyLou, p. 15, "Skip to My Lou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #145, "Flies in the Buttermilk" (1 fragment); #522, "Skip, skip, Skip to my Lou" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Mrs. L.D. Ames, "The Missouri Play-Party," Vol. XXIV, No. 93 (Jul 1911), pp. 304-305 "Skip-to-my-Lou (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SKIPLOU
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 53, "Skip to my Lou" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3593
RECORDINGS:
James Crase, "Skip to My Lou" (on MMOKCD)
Crockett's Kentucky Mountaineers, "Skip To My Lou" (Crown 3188/Montgomery Ward 3025 [as Harlan Miners Fiddlers]Varsity 5049 [as Crockett Mountaineers]/Continental C-3012 [as Pete Daley's Arkansas Fiddlers] (all c. 1931)
Pete Daley's Arkansas Fiddlers, "Skip to My Lou" (Continental 3012, n.d.)
Uncle Eck Dunford, "Skip to my Lou, My Darling" (Victor 20938, 1927; on CrowTold01)
Georgia Organ Grinders, "Skip To My Lou, My Darling" (Columbia 15415-D, 1929)
Spud Gravely & Glen Smith, "Skip to My Lou" (on HalfCen1)
John D. Mounce et al, "Skip to My Lou" (on MusOzarks01)
Ritchie Family, "Skip to My Lou" (on Ritchie03)
Pete Seeger, "Skip to My Lou" (on PeteSeeger08, PeteSeegerCD02) (on PeteSeeger17) (on PeteSeeger32) (on PeteSeeger21) (on PeteSeeger22) (on PeteSeeger23)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Waltz the Hall" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Chicken in the Bread Pan (I) (Square dance call) (Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 91-92)
File: R516

Skip-to-ma-loo

See Skip to My Lou (File: R516)

Skip-to-My-Lou

See Skip to My Lou (File: R516)

Skip, Hop, Hep, Hep!

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Skip, hop, hep, hep! This will give you lots of pep. If you do this twice a day, You'll be able to swim across the bay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (North Star Folk News, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | swimming
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #521, "Skip, hop, hep, hep!" (1 text)
NOTES [28 words]: Interesting that this was found in Minnesota, which is not on the ocean. There are plenty of lakes with bays, of course, some quite large -- but often quite cold.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR521

Skip, Skip, Skip to My Lou

See Skip to My Lou (File: R516)

Skipper Dan

DESCRIPTION: The Tiger is ready to go out. The singer on Sunday tries to borrow money from Skipper Dan. Skipper Dan refuses because the singer would get drunk. The singer replies that he will sell his rags to get money for liquor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: drink sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 97, "Skipper Dan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #28985
NOTES [208 words]: Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou: "No doubt more verses exist." - BS
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou also speculate that the "Tiger" of this song was the sealing steamer Tiger which served in Newfoundland from 1878 to 1884. There was also a Tigress, which served from 1873 to 1875. There is a problem, though, in the name "Skipper Dan." According to Chafe, p. 104, the skippers of the Tiger were James Joy (1878-1881), G. Hudson (1882), and Thomas Dawe (1883-1884). The only skipper of the Tigress was Isaac Bartlett. So neither ship could have had a "Skipper Dan." We must either find another ship or perhaps emend "Skipper Dan" to "Skipper Dawe."
It appears, however, that the Tiger may have had an earlier existence as a coastal steamer. At least, there was a Tiger which served on the coastal run until 1877 (obviously the year before the Tiger first went to the ice). That much I glean from Prim/McCarthy, p. 47; I do not know the name of the ship's captains during that period.
There was also a schooner Tiger lost in suspicions circumstances in 1893; it rather looks as if it was an insurance scam, since she had little cargo (I've lost my source for this). The captain's surname was Goodwin, but I don't know his first name. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: LeBe097

Skipper George Whitely

DESCRIPTION: Singer/writer, from Bellburns, warns "young girls ... Never go working with Skipper Whitely." To work at Forteau, "he promised to pay ten dollars [a month] but paid only seven"; instead of a ticket home only gave her a ticket to Port aux Choix.
AUTHOR: Clara House Stevens (source: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: warning money work worker
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 336-337, "Skipper George Whitely" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25331
NOTES [38 words]: Bellburns is midway down the west coast of the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland. Forteau is on the Labrador coast. Port aux Choix is across the Strait of Belle Isle from Forteau, and 30 miles or so up the coast from Bellburns. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Guig336

Skipper o' Dundee, The

DESCRIPTION: "The skipper brocht his guid ship hame, And he anchored aff the toun," and sees a fire burning. The skipper's mother Janet Grey, described as a witch, is being burned. The skipper curses the town and vows never to return
AUTHOR: unknown (tune added by Jim Reid)
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (Poems by Two, according to Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: sailor home mother homicide magic rejection abandonment witch
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 6, "The Skipper o' Dundee" (1 text, 1 modern tune)
Roud #31098
File: Gath006

Skipper Tom

DESCRIPTION: "I scarce been in bed three ticks of the clock When at me back door I heard a loud knock." Skipper Tom wakes the singer because he has a big fish on the line. The big fish gets away. They go closer to shore to get smaller fish.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea ship
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 143-144, "Skipper Tom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9967
File: Pea143

Skipper's Wedding, the

DESCRIPTION: "Good neighbours, I'm come for to tell you, Our skipper and Moll's to be wed; And if it be true what they're saying, Egad, we'll be rarely fed." The available foods are listed, as are the odd characters who will be present
AUTHOR: Words: William Stephenson ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland); Stephenson died 1836
KEYWORDS: marriage party music food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 24-26, "The Skipper's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR024 (Partial)
Roud #2620
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blythesome Bridal" (theme) and references there
cf. "The Night Before Larry Was Stretched" (tune)
File: StoR024

Skon Jungfrun Hon Gangar Sig Till Sogsta Berg (The Pretty Maid Climbs the Highest Mountain)

DESCRIPTION: Swedish shanty. A maid's her betrothed sails away. After (three) years she agrees to marry another. He returns just after the wedding, she laments it is too late, she thought he was dead. He says he will be soon, write her a farewell and kills himself.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Swedish shanty. A maid's her betrothed sails away. After (three) years she agrees to marry another. He returns just after the wedding, she laments it is too late, she thought he was dead. He says he will be soon, write her a farewell and kills himself. (In some versions it is the bride who commits suicide.)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty sailor separation suicide wedding return reunion betrayal
FOUND IN: Sweden
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 545-548, "Skon Jungfrun Hon Gangar Sig Till Sogsta Berg" (2 texts, Swedish & English, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 100-101, "Skon Jungfrun Hon Gangar SIg Till Hogsta Berg" (2 texts, Swedish & English, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Out In the Moonlight (I Will Love Thee Always)" (plot)
cf. "Susannah Clargy [Laws P33]" (plot) and references there
File: Hugi545

Skunk, The

DESCRIPTION: "I hunt ze bear, I hunt ze wolf... Las' week I take my ax An' hunt ze skunk polecat." He sneaks up on it from behind, and is sprayed. When he comes home, his wife sets the dog on him. Not even the hog will let him approach. No more skunk hunting for him!
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal humorous | skunk
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 67, "Ze Skunk" (2 texts)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 66, "(Go into old Ireland and soon you will know)" (1 fragment)
Roud #4254
NOTES [36 words]: Roud claims that the single-verse fragment "Go into old Ireland and soon you will know" is from this song. I have no supporting evidence, but I'll let it file here since it is clearly a fragment of something else. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BeLo067

Skunk's Hole, The

See The Woodpecker's Hole; also Crazy Song to the Air of "Dixie" (File: EM226)

Sky Ball Paint

See Skyball Paint (File: ACSF228P)

Sky Is Blue, The

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "The sky is blue. How old are you?" The response is used to continue the counting-out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: colors | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 33, "(The Sky Is Blue)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One, Two, Sky Blue" (form)
NOTES [24 words]: I suspect this and "One, Two, Sky Blue" derive from the same original, but they are different enough now that I very tentatively split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: WEMM033A

Sky-High

DESCRIPTION: "The scream of the outlaw split the air As we tied him hard and fast." The horse would be forced to learn to work. "Bugger" attempts to ride the horse, which goes wild. The rider stays in the saddle until the horse is too tired to continue
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: horse cowboy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 138-140, "Sky-High" (1 text)
File: ThLo138

Skyball Paint

DESCRIPTION: "Now Skyball Paint was a devil's saint, His eyes was a fiery red. Good men have tried this horse to ride But all of them are dead." The singer can't ride Skyball either. Finally he sells him to "old Sheriff Jim."
AUTHOR: Bob Nolan (source: Sons of the Pioneers recordings), although Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs seems to think it older
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sons of the Pioneers recording)
KEYWORDS: horse cowboy campsong
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 398-399, "Sky Ball Paint" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 133, 175, 228, 242-248, 346, 347, 348, 432, 500, "Skyball Paint" (notes, with 2 texts on pp. 246-248; bibliography on pp. 669-670)
Roud #37846
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Zebra Dun" (theme of the un-ridable horse) and references there
File: ACSF228P

Skye Boat Song (Over the Sea to Skye)

DESCRIPTION: "Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing... Carry the lad that's born to be king Over the sea to Skye." The singer grieves over the dead of Culloden, and wishes Bonnie Prince Charlie a safe escape
AUTHOR: Words: Harold Boulton / Music: Annie MacLeod
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: Jacobites ship escape sea royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1720-1788 - Life of Charles Edward Stuart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie"
1722-1790 - Life of Flora MacDonald
1745-1746 - '45 Jacobite rebellion led by Bonnie Prince Charlie
Apr 16, 1746 - Battle of Culloden. The Jacobite rebellion is crushed, most of the Highlanders slain, and Charlie forced to flee for his life.
Jun 28-29, 1746 - Aided by Flora MacDonald, and dressed as her maidservant, Charles flees from North Uist to Skye in the Hebrides.
Sep 20, 1746 - Charles finally escapes to France
FOUND IN: Britain US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 79, "Speed, Bonnie Boat" (1 fragment plus a copy of Boulton's original text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 61, "Flora MacDonald and the King" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 260, "The Skye Boat Song" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 18, "Skye Boat Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 58-59, "Skye Boat Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SKYEBOAT
Roud #3772
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(121) "Over the Sea to Skye," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Flora MacDonald's Lament" (subject)
cf. "Twa Bonnie Maidens" (subject)
NOTES [227 words]: It is ironic to note that, while this song had a certain vogue as an art piece, the only traditional collections seem to have been in North America.
Hugh Douglas, Flora MacDonald: The Most Loyal Rebel, Sutton Publishing, 1993, 2003, pp. 215-216, tells how this song came to be. "This song began from an old tune that Annie Cambell MacLeod heard sung by oarsmen as they rowed her from the island of Soay, off the south-west coast of Skye, to Loch Cornisk one day in 1879." That night, MacLeod took the tune she had heard and worked it up on the piano. MacLeod and Harold Boulton later worked on a book of songs; they came up with a sort of temporary set of words. Then the words "Over the sea to Skye" came to Boulton, and he worked up the rest so as to, in effect, justify that line.
Susan Maclean Kybett, in Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Biography of Charles Edward Stuart (Dodd, Mead, 1988), pp. 232-233, makes an interesting observation: Although the song says that Flora (MacDonald) will keep watch over Charlie during the passage: "It was actually the Prince who kept watch by Flora's weary head during their storm-tossed crossing of the sea of the Hebrides. Having been up the last two nights sewing, she fell asleep while Charles sang Jacobite songs, such as 'The Twenty-ninth of May' from the rising of 1715 and 'The King Shall Enjoy His Own Again....'" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Brew79

Slaap, Kindje, Slaap (The Dutch Lullaby)

DESCRIPTION: Dutch. "Slaap, kindje, slaap, Daar buiten luupt een Schaap....." "Sleep, child, sleep, Outside there runs a sheep. The sheep has four white feet, It drinks the milk so sweet, (So) sleep, little one, sleep."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage lullaby sheep
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 40, "The Dutch Lullaby" (3 texts, Dutch, English, and German)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 96, "The Dutch Lullabye" (1 text)
File: CAFS1085

Slack Away Yer Reefy Tayckle

See Let Go the Reef Tackle (File: Doe165)

Slack Your Rope

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Slago Town

See Sligo Town (File: CW145)

Slaney Side, The

See The Tan-Yard Side [Laws M28] (File: LM28)

Slap Bang

DESCRIPTION: "Slap, bang, here we go again Here we go again, Here we go again, Slap, bang, here we go again Jolly friends are we." "We laugh, we sing, We laugh, ha, ha." "Bang, slap, here we go again Tired old maids are we."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong oldmaid
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p, 417, 497, 516, "Slap Bang" (notes only)
File: ACSF417S

Slap Hands

DESCRIPTION: "'S'posin you had Lige on a housetop? S'posin I did? S'posin' you had Adam on a housetop? S'posin' I did. S'posin' you had Ben... What would you do with Ben Pitch him a piece of cornbread every now and then... Adam... Throw him off...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting food rejection
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 16, "Slap Hands" (2 texts)
File: Skea016

Slapander-Gosheka

DESCRIPTION: "What would my mother say to me, if I should come home with Big Billy? Chorus: Slappoo, slapeter, slap-an-der-go-she-ka, slappoo! I'd tell her to go and hold her tongue, for she did the same when she was young." Other verses have similar rhymes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips)
KEYWORDS: shanty nonsense
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 98-99, "Slapander-Gosheka" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9168
File: Harl098

Slaughter of the Laird of Mellerstain, The [Child 230]

DESCRIPTION: Fragment: A fair lady is heard lamenting for her slain husband, "John Hately, the Laird of Mellerstain." She laments that her ladies were not men who could have stood by him as he was killed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828
KEYWORDS: death mourning homicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 3, 1603 - Murder of "Johne Haitlie of Millstanes" by "William Home hes guidfather."
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Child 230, "The Slaughter of the Laird of Mellerstain" (1 text)
Roud #4020
NOTES [46 words]: According to Mary Ellen Brown, Child's Unfinished Masterpiece: The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, University of Illinois Press, 2011, p. 138, Child would have liked to place this ballad as #195, to keep it with similar pieces, but did not receive the text in time. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: C230

Slav Ho

See Saltpetre Shanty (Slav Ho) (File: Colc097)

Slave's Lament (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm standing as a free man upon the northern banks Of old Erie's fresh water see, And it cheers my very soul... to think like the waves I am free." The slave had been promised he would never be sold. He will never be a slave again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: slave freedom escape
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 223-224, "The Slave's Lament" (1 text)
Roud #11709
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O Freedom" (theme)
NOTES [25 words]: It seems to me that I've seen some of these words associated with "O Freedom." But this lacks the chorus, so I am tentatively keeping them separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe223

Slave's Lament (II), The

See The Virginian Maid's Lament (File: GrD61095)

Slavery Chain Done Broke at Last

DESCRIPTION: "Slavery chain done broke at last, broke at last, broke at last... Gonna praise God till I die." The former slave describes praying to God for relief from pain and oppression. God has answered with mighty armies; "He gave me liberty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: slave slavery freedom religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 112, "Slav'ry Chain" (1 text) (1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 299-300, "Slavery Chain Done Broke at Last" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, p. 41, "Slavery Chain Done Broke at Last" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 102, "Slavery Chain" (1 text)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 96, "Slavery Chain" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 299, "Slavery Chain Done Broke At Last" (1 text)
Roud #15257
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" (tune)
NOTES [33 words]: In 1880, Samuel Butler and James Bland published "De Slavery Chains Am Broke at Last." I would not consider it the same song, although obviously the one line from one might have inspired the other. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: SCW41

Slavery Days

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls slavery in Virginia: "they took away my boy"; they sold his wife; at night the wind seemed to say "you people must be free"; "our souls they were tied down"; "they'll never come again... cruel slavery days"
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (sheet music published by William A. Pond & Co.)
KEYWORDS: grief separation slavery children wife Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #8, pp. 29-31, "Slavery Days" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 9, "Slavery Days" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 106-107, "Slavery Days" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Wehman's [Universal Songster] Collection of 104 Songs No. 24 (New York, 1889 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 21, "The Unfortunate Lovers" (1 text)
Roud #12897
NOTES [248 words]: For background on composers Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
According to Franceschina, p. 85, this song is from a Harrigan and Hart sketch of the same name, which debuted in March 1875; Franceschina refers to the tune as "Stephen-Foster-like," but the text obviously has a lot more "Darling Nelly Gray" in it. As Spaeth, p. 185, says, "A great Harrigan-Braham song of 1876 was Slavery Days, in which an old Negro told his young companion of past horrors." The sketch was later upgraded into a full-scale drama, "Pete" (Franceschina, p. 184).
"In Pete, Harrigan returned to the melodramatic entanglements of his early plays. Colonel Coolidge has inadvertently married twice. His first wife has given him a child unbeknownst to him. His second wife is after his fortune. He's called up to join his regiment, is killed, and when the second wife tries to claim the plantation, she's foiled by his child Mary Morgan with the assistance of Old Pete [who is black]. The telltale document is the original wedding license. The witnesses' names have been shot away, but Pete has retrieved the wad from the bullet, with the names! It took three hours and ten minutes to ravel and unravel the story, explore related sub-plots, exhibit both threatening and entertaining spectacles, and introduce slavery songs and spirituals" (Moody, p. 176). According to Moody, p. 173, it was a "new kind of play."
For more on "Pete," see the notes to "Haul the Woodpile Down." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: IveMa09

Slaves to the World

DESCRIPTION: "Slaves to the world should be tossed in a blanket" like the mill wheel that rises and falls "the ground it touch until"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: abuse nonballad slave
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 306, "Slaves to the World" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 707 with tune)
Roud #1345
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There Was an Old Woman Tossed up in a Basket" (theme: tossing in a blanket)
NOTES [445 words]: "Wy, he ought to be tossed in a blanket; it fills a true Briton with shame" (Punch, p. 97).
"[In 1715] there were reports of [small arms] ... intercepted by the vigilance of a riding officer of the excise, who was afterwards tossed in a blanket on a moonless night, by an association of stout yeomen, for his officiousness" (Scott, p. 26).
Tossing in a blanket seems to be intended to humiliate for relatively minor offences, and adds a humorous touch in literature. Addison has a character threatened, "that if thou dost not do thy business well ... thou wilt be tossed in a blanket" (Addison, Act 3, Sc. 1, V. V, p. 185). "I have seen a tale-bearer in the village tossed in a blanket by the maids, as it is represented in 'Don Giovanni on London,' a scene in the King's Bench" (Jehoiada, V. II, p. 1562). Don Quixote upbraids Sancho Panza for complaining of being tossed in a blanket once while he, Quixote, has been thrashed a hundred times (Cervantes, V. III, p. 16 [Part II, Book 1]). "Voiture has left a letter describing how he was tossed in a blanket as a punishment for failing in a game of forfeits" (Yonge, V. XX, p. 85). Pope has a character tossed "from the blanket, high in the air he flies" (Pope, p. 22, Book 2, l. 131). "[Pope] Leo applauded and rewarded successful authors and actors, but he had a monk whose piece was a failure severely tossed in a blanket before him" (Van Dyke, p. 322).
Sometimes neither the offence nor punishment were so trivial: "The gatekeeper ... made secret arrangements to open the castle gates, and deliver it [the castle] into the enemy's hands. His treachery was discovered, however, and, in punishment, his master ordered him to be tossed in a blanket from the top of the castle tower into the midst of the enemy's camp, where he was so anxious to be" (Guerber, p. 164).
There is sometimes a religious meaning: "And in Vendee, the farmer's wife, as the corn-mother, is tossed in a blanket with the last sheaf to bring good luck in the subsequent threshing. Perhaps Caesius had some of this in view when he associated our sky figure [Virgo] with Ruth, the Moabitess, gleaning in the fields of Boaz" (Allen, p. 461).
It is also reported for an Orange Society initiation (Cleary, p. 118).
Prince Henry, son of James I, apparently had the court fool condemned to blanket tossing for his officiousness in making a joke at the king's expense (Jesse, V. I, .p. 166)
In the time of James II there are reports of mayors, unfriendly to the king's "endeavors to restore popery throughout his dominions," being tossed in a blanket (Dalton, V. II, p. xxvi). In this connection see "There Was an Old Woman Tossed up in a Basket". - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT306S

Sledburn Fair

DESCRIPTION: "I'd oft heard tell of this Sledburn fair, And fain would I gan thither." The singer's parents let him go there with Nell. They arrive at Sledburn, find an alehouse, and settle down to enjoy a fine dinner.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (de la Mare)
KEYWORDS: horse travel
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 80, "Sledburn Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #79, "Sledburn Fair" (1 text)
Roud #2543
NOTES [33 words]: By his placement and notes, de la Mare seems to think this a honeymoon song, but there is little direct hint of this except that the boy and girl go out together for (at least) a day unchaperoned. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: WdlM079

Sledmere Poachers, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer names one hunting dog and lists the woods and fields to hunt hare and pheasant but "our names we dare not tell, If we meet a keeper bold we'll cause his head to swell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Ingledew)
KEYWORDS: poaching dog animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, p. 133, "The Sledmere Poachers" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: CJ Davison Ingledew, The Ballads and Songs of Yorkshire (London: Bell and Daldy, 1860 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 308-311, "The Sledmere Poachers" ("Come all you gallant poaching lads, and gan alang with me") (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3546), "Sledmere Poachers" ("Come all you gallant poaching lads and gang alang with me"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Firth b.34(277), Firth b.34(124), Firth b.34(276), Harding B 15(294b), Firth c.26(225), Firth b.34(243), Firth c.19(53), "[The] Sledmere Poachers"
File: KiTu133B

Sleep, Baby, Sleep (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Sleep, baby, sleep, Thy father guards the sheep, Thy mother shakes the dreamland tree, And from it fall sweet dreams for thee; Sleep, baby, sleep, Sleep, baby, sleep." The moon is the shepherd, the stars sheep. The Lamb, she Savior, loves the sheep
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart-Songs)
KEYWORDS: religious baby nonballad sheep
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Heart-Songs, p. 323, "Cradle Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V42405
NOTES [40 words]: It's not clear that this is traditional, but there are just enough hints that I've indexed it.
Jesus as the True Shepherd is an analogy to John 10. Jesus is the Lamb of God in John 1:29 and repeatedly in the Apocalypse (e.g. Rev. 5:6). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: HeSo323

Sleep, Baby, Sleep (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Sleep, baby, sleep. Dad is not nigh, Tossed on the deep, Lul-lul-a-by. Moon shining bright, Dropping of dew, Owls hoot all night, To-whit! To-whoo!" Outside are glow-worms, stars; inside, the clock ticks and the fire dies. Daddy will come soon
AUTHOR: Words: Re-written by Sabine Baring-Gould
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: lullaby nonballad father travel clothes bird home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #49, "Lullaby" (1 text, 1 tune, mostly of the words being modern)
Roud #23220
File: BGSW049

Sleeping Beauty (Thorn Rose, Briar Rose)

DESCRIPTION: Singing game. "Fair Rosa was a lovely child... Fair Rosa slept a hundred years... A forest grew around her tower... A wicked fairy found her there... A noble prince came riding by... And now she's happy as a bride."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: magic rescue marriage beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H599, p. 12, "Fair Rosa/The Sleeping Beauty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 19, "Fair Rosa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 61, "Fair Rosie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 234, 518, "Fair Rosie" (notes only)
Roud #7889
RECORDINGS:
Patricia Campbell, "Thorn Rosa" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #232, recorded 09/05/2022)
NOTES [125 words]: Very common as a folktale, of course, and quite old. In the Grimm collection, it is "Briar-Rose" ("Dornröschen," #50, 1812, from Marie Hassenpflug); Perrault also had a version ("La belle au bois dormant"). The oldest version known is in the Volsung saga; in section 20, Sigurd awakens Brynhild by slicing away her enchanted armor.
Roud appears to lump this with a rare piece called "Melven Vine." This is possible, but I'd want more evidence.
I'm not sure this is what Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs means by "Fair Rosie," but as with all her many unidentifiable songs, this seems the best bet. There is a song "Rosa" in SongsOfManyNations that might also fit, but it doesn't seem to have been widely distributed and never calls the woman "fair Rosa." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: HHH599

Sleeping Beauty Thinks She's Cuties

DESCRIPTION: Jump rope rhyme. "Sleeping Beauty think she's cuties, All she wears is bathing suities. If she can jump to 24, She may have her turn once more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: clothes jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 57, "Sleeping Beauty" (1 text)
Roud #19262
File: ZiZa057C

Sleeping Beauty, The

See A Young Lady Sat Down to Sleep (File: Newe160)

Sleeping for the Flag

DESCRIPTION: "When the boys come home in triumph, brother, With the laurels they shall gain... We shall look for you in vain." The brave man lies dead "underneath the Southern tree." "Sleeping to waken in this weary world no more... Sleeping for the flag you bore."
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (sheet music published by S. Brainerd's Sons and copyrighted by Root & Cady)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar death burial soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work, pp. 39-42, "Sleeping for the Flag" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Dime-Song-Book #12, p. 24, "Sleeping for the Flag" (1 text)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 212-213, "Sleeping for the Flag" (1 text)
DT, SLEPFLAG*
File: HCW212

Sleepy Man Blues

DESCRIPTION: "When a man get trouble in his mind, he want to sleep all the time (x2)." "I'm feeling worried in mind, and I'm trying to keep from crying." "I want somewhere to go, but I hate to go to town." "I wonder what's the matter with my right mind."
AUTHOR: Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recording, Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, pp. 180-181, "Sleepy Man Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Bukka White, "Sleepy Man Blues" (OKeh 05743, 1940)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When the Sun Goes Down" (by Leroy Carr) (tune, according to Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers)
NOTES [83 words]: The notes in Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers (p. 179) observe that this "is one of the few blues to treat the subject of mental illness in some depth." This is certainly correct; depression can increase the need for sleep, or it can produce insomnia which leaves the person always sleepy despite what should be enough sleep time. It is interesting to note that the singer says he is "standing in the sunshine to keep from weaking down." Some people do become depressed due to lack of sunlight. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: BTN180

Sleepy Merchant, The

DESCRIPTION: The merchant comes calls for a bed and a girl. She gives him a sleeping drug. The next night, he pours out the drug and sleeps with her, but does not leave the gift he promised. Later, he arrives to find her pregnant and gives her his hand in marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The merchant comes to an inn and calls for a bed and a girl. She gives him a sleeping drug, and arises a maiden. The next night, he pours out the drug and sleeps with her, promising her a fine plaid. When he departs, she finds no plaid and curses him. Twenty weeks later, he arrives to find her pregnant. He gives her the plaid and his hand in marriage, and they live happily.
KEYWORDS: sex drugs drink pregnancy trick clothes reunion marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook II, pp. 4-11, "The Sleepy Merchant" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1498, "The Sleepy Merchan'" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #7164
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Broomfield Hill" [Child 43] (plot)
cf. "Bonny Glasgow Green" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Pedlar's Wife
NOTES [145 words]: Child mentions this song in his notes to "The Broomfield Hill," but writes it off as "a modern ballad" perhaps based on an Italian story.
I allow the possibility; "The Sleepy Merchant" seems a rather disjointed piece, with the first part being a tale of how the girl tricked the merchant into not sleeping with her (as in "The Broomfield Hill") and the second being your standard seduction-pregnancy-and-return sort of song, as in, e.g. "The Broom of Cowdenknows." But the piece feels more traditional than literary, so I've tentatively included it in the Index even though I've never seen its like. - RBW
Greig/Duncan7 1498A provides motivation missing in Kinloch: "A wager wi' him she did lay ... That she wad sleep a nicht wi' him And rise a maid again." There is also a bet in Child 43B "that a maid sha nae go to yon bonny green wood And a maiden return again." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: KinBB02

Sleepytoon (I)

See Sleepytown (File: RcSlepTn)

Sleepytoon (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Cam all my lads that follow the ploo:" the singer tells about the job at Sleepytoon. The foreman wakes you at five for porridge. The farmer's "weel respected" but his wife is an ugly, scowling, "argefying bitch"
AUTHOR: See NOTES
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (recording, John MacDonald)
KEYWORDS: farming food hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
Roud #9140
RECORDINGS:
John MacDonald, "Sleepytoon" (on Voice05)
NOTES [208 words]: Except for the title and general subject matter this seems to me to be entirely unlike "Sleepytown (I)."
The author, according to notes to Voice05, is George Morris. The Musical Traditions Notes attribution says that the song was "popularised on a 78 disc by the late George S Morris of Old Meldrum. (Reg Hall's comment that [George] Morris wrote the piece is incorrect)." My choice, with no information beyond what is in this note, is to follow Musical Traditions Notes. - BS
In accordance with the above observations, previous versions of the Index stated in the AUTHOR field that the creator of the piece was "probably Willie Clark (c.1854, according to Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 5" - 25.8.02)." However, Reinhard Zierke wrote to me that "According to Greig/Duncan Volume 3 page 623 the author of Sleepytoon G/D #356 B is William 'Poet' Clark.  It is rather unlikely that Clark wrote both Sleepytoon songs.
"Therefore I believe that Mike Yates mixed both songs up and that his comment on Sleepytoon in the Morning... that Morris wrote the piece is incorrect... and that George Morris is indeed the author of Sleepytoon in the Morning."
This seems reasonable to me, although I can't prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: RcSlee2

Sleepytown (I)

DESCRIPTION: Singer, tired of his old job, hires out as a laborer to farmer Adam Mitchell, of Sleepytoon. The farmer's work (no more than ten hours a day, but with strict rules and fines) is described; with the season ended, singer and friends are off to celebrate
AUTHOR: See NOTES
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work worker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #133, pp. 2-3, "Sleepy Toon"; #127, pp. 2-3, "Sleepytoon"; #123, p. 2, "Sleepytoon"; #102, p. 3, "Sleepy Town" (3 texts plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 356, "Sleepy Toon" (6 texts, 3 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp 225-226, "Sleepytown" (1 text)
ST RcSlepTn (Full)
Roud #3775
RECORDINGS:
J. C. Mearns and friends, "Sleepytoon" [2 verses missing] (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743)
NOTES [206 words]: In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Scottish workers hired out as contract farm laborers, living in "bothies," barn dormitories. Many "bothy ballads" were composed there, including this one. - PJS
Paul compares this to a wide variety of lumbering songs, which have the same theme of working too hard and then partying the off-season away. The song type is hardly limited to lumbermen; there are, e.g., many Australian shearing songs of the same type. Compare also Scottish songs such as "The Barnyards o Delgaty."
Reinhard Zierke writes to point out to me that "According to Greig/Duncan Volume 3 page 623 the author of Sleepytoon G/D #356 B is William 'Poet' Clark." But see also "Sleepytoon (II)." - RBW
Greig #124, p. 3: "...there is a good deal of material common to these ploughman ditties" ["Sleepytoon" and "Swaggers"].
Greig/Duncan3: "The farm was officially named Christ's Kirk, with Sleepytoon appearing as the title after 1870. Adam Mitchell, named in the song, was farmer from the 1840s to 1858."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Sleepytoon (356) is at coordinate (h2-3,v6) on that map [roughly 25 miles WNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: RcSlepTn

Sliab na mBan

See Sliabh na mBan (Mountain of the Women) (File: Moyl103)

Sliabh na mBan (Mountain of the Women)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. It is untrue that we fled like cattle on Sliabh na mBan. Had we waited patiently we'd have had support. Few retreated but many died or were imprisoned. If it's true that the French are coming to help the Gael we'll repay the robber Saxon.
AUTHOR: George Sigerson (1836-1925) (translator) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Behan-IrelandSings)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage rebellion battle Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 23, 1798 - General Sir Charles Asgill disperses a body of United Irishmen assembled on Sliabh na mBan mountain in Tipperary (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 103, "Sliabh na mBan" (1 Gaelic text, 1 tune); 104, "Sliabh na mBan" (1 English text)
Behan-IrelandSings #82, "Sliab na mBan" (1 English text, 1 tune, translated by Wolfe Stephens)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Slievenamon" (subject)
NOTES [155 words]: The description is from the translation by George Sigerson as Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 104, "Sliabh na mBan."
Zimmermann p. 207: "The original 'Sliabh na mBan' is one of the few traditional songs in Irish inspired by the rising of 1798."
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Aine Ui Cheallaigh, "Sliabh na mBan" (on "The Croppy's Complaint," Craft Recordings CRCD03 (1998); Terry Moylan notes) - BS
This event is obscure enough that I couldn't find mention of it in any of the Irish histories I checked. It was just one of those skirmishes that took place after the 1798 rising had largely collapsed. The one thing that's certain is that the brutal Asgill would not have stopped while there was a live enemy left to kill.
Behan-IrelandSings, interestingly, translates the title as "The White Mountains," not "Mountain of the Women." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Moyl103

Slidin' Delta (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer says his suitcase is packed and he's ready to go "up the country" on the Sliding Delta ("baby don't you want to go"). He complains that the "big Kate Allen" -- like a man -- will "steal your baby every time she lands"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt04)
KEYWORDS: courting travel nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Slidin' Delta" (on MJHurt04)
NOTES [16 words]: I've seen speculation that the "Sliding Delta" is a train and "big Kate Allen" is a steamboat. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: RcSliDel

Slidin' Delta (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Delta slide ... been here and gone" Singer wants to leave the delta before the water rises. "If I don't get drownded ... lose my mind." He won't come back
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: grief home travel flood nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Tommy Johnson, "Slidin' Delta" (on StuffDreams1,USChartersHeroes)
NOTES [46 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought.
In the notes to "Slidin' Delta" (I) I wrote, "I've seen speculation that the 'Sliding Delta" is a train...." I don't know where I found that but it fits here as well. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcSliDe2

Sliding Scale, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye jolly miners who love to hear a song, I will unfold a circumstance which to us all belongs." The owners have proposed pay based n a sliding scale. Now everything is being done by a sliding scale. The singer wishes sarcastic success to Gowen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining money hardtimes trick
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, p. 222, "The Sliding Scale" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blacklegs" (character of Franklin Gowen)
cf. "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32] (subject: the Long Strike and the Molly Maguires) and references there
NOTES [213 words]: For Franklin Gowen, the evil genius of the anthracite coal bosses, see the notes to "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E25]. The "sliding scale" arose out of a labor dispute in 1869. According to Kevin Kenny, Making Sense of the Molly Maguires, Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 132, labor was at that time trying to raise the price of coal by reducing the amount mined. They went on strike on May 10, 1869.
This work stoppage lasted about five weeks (Kenny, p. 133). They wanted "to tie the price of labor of coal. The proposed a 'sliding scale' whereby fluctuations in the price of the commodity produced by miners would be reflected in the remuneration they received," although with a floor below which their pay would not go. Most mines agreed to this by the end of summer, although there were holdouts.
The whole thing was rescinded unilaterally by the owners in 1870 (Kenny, p. 134). Since the song dates itself to 1869, it was presumably written before the scale was rescinded.
Franklin Gowen was already running much of coal country, so he played a large part in this. His part would be even greater in years to come, as he created the situation that resulted in the Molly Maguire violence and trials (for which, again, see "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E25]). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP222

Slieve Gallen Brae

DESCRIPTION: The singer urges the visitor from the city to view Slive Gallen Brae: the old dolmen, the chieftain's graves, the singing linnets, the flowers, the home of Rory Dall, the grave of Cooey-na-gall. He says that bards come from far away to find inspiration
AUTHOR: James O'Kane?
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home music
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H784, pp. 172-173, "Slieve Gallen Brae" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1420
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of the Roe" (for Cooey-na-Gal) and references there
NOTES [42 words]: Not to be confused with the emigration song, "[Farewell unto] [Bonnie] Slieve Gallen Braes."
For "Cooey-na-Gal" O'Cahan and Dungiven Priory, see the notes on "The Banks of the Roe." "Rory Dall" is of course the famous blind harper of the O'Cahans. - RBW
File: HHH784

Slieve Gallen Braes

DESCRIPTION: The singer walks out to view the beauties of Slieve Gallen Braes. He recalls walking and hunting in the past near his small farm. "But the rents were getting higher and I could no longer stay So farewell unto you bonny, bonny Slieve Gallen Braes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Carl Hardebeck in _Gems of Melody: Seoda Ceoil,_ according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: Ireland home exile hardtimes poverty emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 9, "Sliav Gallion Braes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 70, "Slieve Gallen Braes" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SLIEVGAL*
ADDITIONAL: Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 36-37, "Sliabh Gallen's Brae" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1420
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Exiled Irishman's Lament (The Exiles of Erin)" (theme)
File: DTslievg

Slieve Na Mon

DESCRIPTION: Tithes and taxes: "No more they're legal on Slieve na Mon." At Carrickshock we left "the rabble ... in death's cold agony." The accused are freed "by the means of our noble Dan." Soon "tithes no more will oppress the land" "We'll banish Brinswickers"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1832 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: violence trial death farming Ireland political police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 14, 1831 - Carrickshock, County Kilkenny: Peasants attack tithe process servers, killing at least 13 (source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 42, "Slieve Na Mon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V13221
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(81), "Slieve Na Mon" ("You banished sons of this injured nation"), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Carrickshock" (subject: The Tithe War and the Carrickshock Riot)
cf. "Sliabh na mBan" (tune)
NOTES [329 words]: The context is "The Tithe War": O'Connell's Catholic Association was formed in 1823 to resist the requirement that Irish Catholics pay tithes to the Anglican Church of Ireland. The "war" was passive for most of the period 1823-1836, though there were violent incidents in 1831 (source: The Irish Tithe War 1831 at the OnWar.com site)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 18: "In the early 1830's a veritable state of insurrection prevailed in Leinster and Munster, when the military and the police were called in to assist in collecting the tithes or seizing and auctioning the cattle or crops of those who refused to pay."
Zimmermann's description of the "Battle of Carrickshock": "a proctor tried to serve tithe processes at Carrickshock, County Kilkenny; he was accompanied by a police force of thirty-seven men. A party of peasants armed with scythes, spades and pitchforks attacked them. The proctor and at least twelve policemen were killed. The peasants charge with murder were skilfully defended by O'Connell, and the trial was abandoned."
The broadside description of the battle is graphic: "Who could desire to see better sport, To see them groping among the loughs, Their sculls all fractured, their eye-balls broken, Their great long noses and ears cut off."
Zimmermann states that a version was noted "from oral tradition c. 1900." - BS
For the overall history of the Tithe War, as well as more information on this song, see the notes to "The Battle of Carrickshock." The name "Brinswickers," i.e. "Brunswickers," was used as a generic term in Ireland for non-Catholics -- even though, ironically, the Germans were Lutherans, while the English were Anglican and the Ulster immigrants were Presbyterian (Reformed); neither of the latter two sects are, technically, Protestant. (A distintiction, I concede, of greater significance to non-Catholics than Catholics.)
There was a song by Charles Kickham called "Slievenamon"; I assume it was inspired by this. - RBW.
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Zimm042

Slievenamon

DESCRIPTION: "Two thousand men for Ireland, on splendid Slievenamon." They are a sign to every village and to Irish in America and "every clime." They put to shame "the blushless recreant." Push on "till every mountain in the land be manned like Slievenamon!"
AUTHOR: Dr. Campion (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion battle Ireland nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 23, 1798 - General Sir Charles Asgill attacks and disperses United Irishmen on Sliabh na mBan Mountain, Tipperary (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 105, "Slievenamon" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sliabh na mBan" (subject)
NOTES [54 words]: This event is obscure enough that I couldn't find mention of it in any of the Irish histories I checked. It was just one of those skirmishes that took place after the 1798 rising had largely collapsed. The one thing that's certain is that the brutal Asgill would not have stopped while there was a live enemy left to kill. - RBW
File: Moyl105

Slighted Girl, The

See Lonesome Dove (File: Br3262)

Slighted Soldier, The

See King David had a Pleasant Dream [Laws O16] (File: LO16)

Slighted Suitor, The

DESCRIPTION: A rich merchant's daughter has many suitors; she rejects them. One wins her heart, but she says, "I have no desire a single life to part." He courts another. She begs him to change his mind. He rejects her in turn. (She warns against doing as she did)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection abandonment
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H159a/b, pp. 396-397, "The Slighted Suitor" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 34, "The Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4715
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rejected Lover" [Laws P10] and references there
NOTES [38 words]: The notes in Henry/Huntington/Herrmann speculate that this might be a version of "The Rejected Lover" (Laws P10). The plots are indeed the same. But I see no points of contact in the lyrics; I think they are separate songs. - RBW
File: HHH159

Slighted Sweetheart, The

See Farewell, Sweetheart (The Parting Lovers, The Slighted Sweetheart) (File: R756)

Sligo Shore

See Susan Strayed on the Briny Beach [Laws K19] (File: LK19)

Sligo Town

DESCRIPTION: "O once I knew a pretty little girl When pretty little girls were but few; Ofttimes I've rolled her in my arms All over the fog and dew." After all this courting/rolling, he writes to ask if she will marry him. He wishes he were in Sligo with a girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967
KEYWORDS: courting love separation sex
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 180, p. 145, "Slago Town" (1 text)
Roud #558
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo)" [Laws O3] (theme, floating lyrics)
NOTES [31 words]: This piece is obviously derived from "The Foggy Dew," but it has picked up enough twists of its own that it deserves to be classified separately (though Roud, of course, lumps them). - RBW
File: CW145

Sling the Flowing Bowl

DESCRIPTION: "Come come my jolly lads the wind's abaft, Brisk gales our sails shall crowd...." "Then sling the flowing bowl. Fond hopes arise the girls we prize Shall bless each jovial soul." The sailors boast of their prowess while on patrol
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1809 (Hay, see notes)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor nonballad drink political
FOUND IN: US Britain(England)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 51-52, "Sling the Flowing Bowl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Erskine-TwentyYearsBeforeTheMast, p. 6, "(Then we'll sling the flowing bowl)" (1 text)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XXVII, "'Come, come, my jolly lads!'" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Hay, _Landsman Hay_ (Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing, 2010), pp. 153-143, "Then Sling the Flowing Bowl" (1 fragment)
Roud #2015 and 24416
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(998), "Jolly Lads," J, Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 11(2534), Firth c.13(127), and Harding B 15(294a), "Sling the flowing bowl," E. M. A. Hodges (London) 1846-1854; also Harding B 15(293b), "Sling the flowing bowl," unknown (n.d.); also Harding B 11(1278), "Sling the flowing bowl," R Stone & E Keys (Exeter & Davenport), n.d.
NOTES [175 words]: Huntington's versions are from American whalers, but it is clear that this song was originally sung by British sailors, probably from naval vessels, as it refers to patrolling the coast of Spain.
This has been printed so many times that I decided it needed inclusion, but there is little evidence that it is traditional, and I find that not in the least surprising. It's not good poetry, and whoever wrote it clearly had never worked a ship, and very possibly had never been on a ship. If you ignore the fact that it isn't very good, it sounds like something a crew of Gilbert and Sullivan sailors would have sung. Maybe by the crew of H. M. S. Make-Me-Sick. - RBW
From the British navy, on returning home from India, July 1809, and entering the English Channel, Hay writes, "All our favourite national songs were chanted that day with great good humour. One, 'Then Sling the Flowing Bowl,' in which occur the lines 'Bear a hand, be steady boys soon we'll see / Old England once again' was chorused and encored till the decks were made to ring." - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: SWMS051

Slippery Stane, The

See The Slippy Stane (File: GrD3666)

Slippin' and A-Slidin' with My New Shoes On

See Late Last Night When Willie Came Home (Way Downtown) (File: CSW166)

Slippy Stane, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's aye a muckle slippery stane at ilka body's door." If your neighbor slips "lend a hand to lift him up"; you may find yourself in his condition some day. "Kings and emperors hae fallen"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: virtue nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #111, p. 2, "The Slippery Stane"; #121, p. 2, "The Slippery Stane" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 666, "The Slippy Stane" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6092
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(125, "The Slippy Stane" ("Wade canny through this weary world"), Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Laddie Wi' the Tarry Trews" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Slippery Stane
NOTES [65 words]: Greig has Hamilton Nimmo (1836-1892) as the author. On the other hand, Greig/Duncan3 cites National Choir 1.339: "The song is said there to be by James Hendrie and to have been first published in The People's Friend in 1875." - BS
In either case, it sounds to me as if it might have been inspired by a meditation on Ecclesiastes 11:1-6, with perhaps a little of Luke 14:7-14 thrown in. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD3666

Sloan Wellesley

See The Drowning of Young Robinson (File: HHH585)

Slob Song, The

DESCRIPTION: The ship is loaded and heads to Forteau. It is caught in slob ice at Launce Amour cove. A rescue boat fastens a line from shore to the ship. While four men and three women hold the line the crew pull the ship to shore. Crew and cargo are safely landed.
AUTHOR: Leo O'Brien
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: rescue sea ship
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 73, "The Slob Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab073 (Partial)
Roud #9981
NOTES [124 words]: Forteau Bay and L'Anse Amour are on the lower Labrador coast on the Strait of Belle Isle. - BS
The version printed by Leach includes absolutely no specific details which could be used to identify the ship, but I can't help but notice how much the event described resembled the wreck of the Raleigh, which took place in the same place as the ship in this song, and in similar conditions, less than a decade before Leo O'Brien wrote his piece (for details, see the notes to "The Nordfeld and the Raleigh"). The only significant difference is that this ship was carrying "furniture." This song does not appear derived from "The Nordfeld and the Raleigh," but I wonder if it might not be a rewrite of some other piece about the Raleigh wreck. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: LLab073

Sloop John B, The

See The John B. Sails (File: San022)

Slow Men of London

DESCRIPTION: "There were three lads in our town, Slow men of London!" The three court a widow, and "left her undone." "They went to work without their tools." "They often tasted the widow's cheer." Eventually she sends them away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1840 (Buchan, Secret Songs of Silence)
KEYWORDS: sex separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Hanish Henderson, "The Ballad, The Folk and The Oral Tradition," in Edward J. Cowan, editor, _The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History_ 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition), p. 78, "The Wanton Trooper" (1 text)
Roud #12564
File: SloMnLon

Slower that the Fire Burns the Sweeter is the Maut, The

See The Deluded Lover (File: K150)

Slumber Boat, The

See Baby's Boat's a Silver Moon (File: ACSF191B)

Slumber My Pretty One

See Slumber, Slumber (Slumber My Pretty One) (File: ACSF196P)

Slumber, Slumber (Slumber My Pretty One)

DESCRIPTION: "Slumber, slumber, Float on the starry stream Worlds of wonder Fill your dream. Slumber, my little one, Slumber my pretty one, Float on the starry stream; Worlds of all loveliness, wonderful world... Slumber so peacefully, Lifted beyond the blue..."
AUTHOR: Words: M. Louise Baum (1867-1941) / Music: Arthur B. Targett (source: GirlScouts-SingTogether; ChansonsDeNotreChalet)
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 196, 342, "Slumber My Pretty One" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 121, "Slumber, Slumber" (1 text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 68, "Slumber, Slumber" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ACSF196P

Sly Wife, The

See The Wylie Wife of the Hie Toun Hie [Child 290] (File: C290)

Smacksman, The

See Heave on the Trawl (The Smacksman) (File: PaSe135)

Small Boys are Cheap Today

See Arseholes Are Cheap Today (File: RuSoAACT)

Smart Schoolboy, The

See The Fause Knight Upon the Road [Child 3] (File: C003)

Smarty, Smarty Had a Party

DESCRIPTION: "Smarty, smarty, had a party, Nobody there but smarty, smarty. Smarty, smarty, threw a fit, Smarty, smarty, you are it."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | smarty party counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 120, "Smarty, smarty, had a party" (1 text)
Roud #19428
File: DCCR120G

Smashing of the Van (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Two Fenian leaders, Kelly and Deasy, have been imprisoned; a party of Fenians led Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien, stop and break into the prison van and free them. But the rescuers kill a man, and in the end are executed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: prison Ireland rebellion execution death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 11, 1867 - Kelly and Deasy are arrested and rescued a week later by 30 Fenians
Nov 24, 1867 - Three of the ambushers are hanged (source: _The Manchester Martyrs_ on the Gorton Local History Group site)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 50-51, "The Smashing of the Van" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 14, "The Manchester Martyrs" or "The Smashing of the Van" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 72, "The Smashing of the Van" or "The Three Manchester Martyrs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3028
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Allen, Larkin and O'Brien" (subject: The Manchester Martyrs)
cf. "God Save Ireland" (subject: The Manchester Martyrs)
cf. "The Manchester Martyrs (I)" (subject: The Manchester Martyrs)
NOTES [681 words]: Ben Schwartz tells me that this is sung to the tune of "The River Roe," but I'm not sure which song of that name is meant.
The Fenians were a group of Irishmen (many of them living in America) whose purpose was to liberate Ireland. Whatever one thinks of their goal, their history was almost comic; they kept trying goofy ideas and nothing ever worked.
This incident is typical: in 1867, the Fenians were talking rebellion, though leader James Stephens (for whom see "James Stephens, the Gallant Fenian Boy") was trying to call things off. But the British continued to arrest potential rebels.
On September 11, two men were captured in Manchester and charged with loitering. An informer pointed out that they were Thomas J. Kelly, who had been proclaimed chief executive of the Fenian's Irish Republic (Kee, pp. 31, 33), and one Captain Timothy Deas(e)y (Kee, p. 45).
Kelly and Deasy probably were not in danger of losing their lives, but they were "rescued" anyway on September 18 by a crew of about thirty Fenians (Fry/Fry, p. 243). It wasn't that hard; the police wagon was unescorted. It was, after all, in England, not Ireland.
In the course of the "rescue," a police sergeant, Charles Brett, was killed. Kee reports that one Peter Rice (who later escaped, with Kelly and Deasy, to America) fired the fatal shot. Few other sources definitively list a name, but he is obviously the prime suspect.
The British, in their usual inept way in in such matters, hauled in a large crowd of Irish folk found near Manchester. Five men were put on trial for killing Brett. Rice was not among them. One of the five, Maguire, had no involvement in the rescue at all and was later given full pardon.
The other four prisoners, William Allen, Edward Condon, Michael Larkin, and Michael O'Brien, had taken part in the attack but almost certainly had not fired the fatal shot. Nonetheless they were convicted of the murder (officially Allen was regarded as the one who had done the shooting). Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien were executed on November 24 (so Kee, p. 47; and Golway, p. 147; the article The Manchester Martyrs on the Gorton Local History Group site says November 23).
The three men came to be known as the "Manchester Martyrs."
A rescue attempt failed, but was bloodier than the first try: This time, the Fenians managed to kill a dozen bystanders.
Even though the blood had been shed by the Irish, and the British had followed the law throughout (under both British and American law, one engaged in a felony in which a murder is committed is guilty of the murder even if one is not a murderer), both sides blamed the other, increasing Anglo-Irish tensions. The incident also increased rebel recruiting. Indeed, according to OxfordCompanion, p. 343, says that it "prompted a partial reconciliation between the Catholic church and Fenianism."
The description of the van being "smashed" is literally accurate: The van was locked, and Brett had the keys, so the Irish pounded on it with rocks to get it open. This failed, and Brett refused to yield, and so the fatal shot was fired. It is not known whether the bullet was aimed at Brett, or at the van's lock, or merely intended to intimidate; in any case, it proved fatal.
The trial of the martyrs also gave the Irish a memorable phrase: Edward Condon (the one raider who was condemned but *not* hung, because he was an American citizen) shouted out "God save Ireland!" during the proceedings, and it inspired the song of that name.
The British, having watched all these acts, plus another bungled rescue of a prisoner (Richard O'Sullivan Burke, for whom see the notes on "Burke's Dream" [Laws J16]) which led to the death of twelve English citizens and the maiming of dozens more (Kee, pp. 49-51; Fry/Fry, p. 244), were hardly in a mood for pity. But the Gladstone government, which came to power in 1868, released most Irish political prisoners in 1871.
For other examples of Fenian bungling, see the notes to "A Fenian Song (I)" and "The British Man-of-War." For their one big splashy success, see "The Fenian's Escape (The Catalpa)."
- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: PGa050

Smashing of the Van (II), The

DESCRIPTION: Ten Sinn Fein men smash a prison van on Glasgow's High Street to free a prisoner. The police arrest the Sinn Fein men and Father McRory "a mere clergyman." Counsellors McKane and Sandymen defend the accused and the verdict is "Not Guilty"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: violence crime trial clergy police IRA
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 4, 1921 - Attempted rescue of Frank Carty from a police van in Glasgow (source: Coogan)
FOUND IN: ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 65, "The Smashing of the Van" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3028
NOTES [316 words]: The song is about a failed rescue attempt of IRA commander Frank Carty while he was being transported in a police van to Duke Street prison. Inspector Johnson was killed. Father McRory, among others, was charged but all the accused were acquitted. "The trial, and in particular Father McRory's arrest, fanned sectarian tensions to white heat. However, the Anglo-Irish Truce of July 1921 helped to defuse the situation." (source: Tim Pat Coogan, Wherever Green is Worn (2001, New York), p. 243).
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen: "Fr. McRory, mentioned in this song was from the 'Parish', the rural area that lies north of Bunrana Town, hence the popularity of this short song in Inishowen."
McBride's text begins "It was on the twenty fourth of May nineteen and twenty one"; The Times of London supports Coogan's date of May 4, 1921 (source:"Irish Outrage in Glasgow Police Inspector Murdered", The Times, May 5, 1921, p. 7, Issue 42712, column D, Copyright 1921 The Times, Article CS119083173, Copyright 2002 The Gale Group). - BS
The index to Younger reveals that there were two Frank Cartys of interest during this period, one from Sligo, one from Wexford. Frank Carty of Wexford was an IRA brigade adjutant (Younger, p. 343), but it is Carty of Sligo who is meant here. Interestingly, Younger has far more references to Cary of Wexford than Carty of Sligo,mentioning this rescue only in passing. And most of the other histories I checked don't mention Carty at all.
I would not hasten to accept that Father McRory was a "mere" clergyman. I assume this is Joseph MacRory (1861-1945), archishop of Armagh from 1928 and cardinal from 1929 (OxfordCompanion, p. 339); he is said to have been "reluctant to condemn IRA activities." And he later inflamed the troubles with a statement that Protestant churche were not part of the true church of Christ (Murphy, p. 159). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: McB1065

Smeara, Na (The Blackberries)

DESCRIPTION: Singer, "with a wish for every woman": loved "a dark-eyed damsel" while "herding horny cows"; was engaged to Peg O'Doherty who "vanished with a vagabond"; hit on a widow who "nearly scalded me." He loves a girl among the blackberries at harvest time.
AUTHOR: J.P. Craig [in Gaelic] (source: Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder)
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction sex humorous nonballad rake harvest food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 9-11, "The Blackberries" (1 text)
File: TST009

Smeller Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a baby I was my mammy's joy, In fact the girls they all said I was a handsome boy." His problem is his "smeller," which "stuck out just a feet." He describes the troubles caused by a big nose, including knocking off his girlfriend's bonnet
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: humorous courting rejection mother children loneliness
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 80-81, "The Smeller Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5117
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wish They'd Do It Now" (theme of a man who was popular as a boy but not now)
File: Arno080

Smiggey McGuirrel

See Smiggy Maglooral (File: OCon143)

Smiggy Maglooral

DESCRIPTION: Smiggey marries a maid (or fights in Bull Run). The maid winds the clock and milks the cow "from the chimney top." She has a cramp (or gets the croup) and "they brought her to with some turtle soup." She meets Mose, they come to blows and home she goes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Greig/Duncan7); before 1865 (broadside, Bodleian LOCSinging as203350)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonsense disease injury animal food fight
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 30, "The Wee Wifie" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan7 1290, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "The Thrifty Wife" (3 texts, 4 tunes)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 71, "I Have a Wife" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 143, "Smiggy Maglooral" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2130, p. 143, "Smiggey McGuirrel" (2 references)
ST OCon143 (Partial)
Roud #7193
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(711), "Smiggey McGuirrel", H. De Marsan (New York) , 1861-1864 [same as LOCSinging as203350]
LOCSinging, as203350, "Smiggey McGuirrel", H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864 [same as Bodleian Harding B 18(711)]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Wee Wifie
NOTES [47 words]: Greig/Duncan7: "Sung by John Allan, Caysmill, 1849."
Broadside LOCSinging as203350 and Bodleian Harding B 18(711): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: OCon143

Smile Awhile

DESCRIPTION: "Smile awhile, and give your face a rest Raise your hand to the one you love the best Then shake hands with the one nearby And greet them with a smile awhile."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 263, 338, "Smile Awhile" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Till We Meet Again" (tune, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
File: ACSF263W

Smile Awhile and Give Your Face a Rest

DESCRIPTION: Motion song. "Smile awhile and give your face a rest, Stand up straight and elevate your chest, Reach your hands up to the sky... As you were, and now, before you sit, Reach right out to someone near, Shake his hand and smile."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #409, p. 101, "Smile Awhile" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 517, 524, "Smile Awhile and Give Your Face a Rest"/"Smile Awhile" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Till We Meet Again" (tune, according to Harbin-Parodology)
File: ACSF517G

Smile Song

See S-M-I-L-E (File: ACSF125S)

Smiles

DESCRIPTION: "Dearie, now I know, Just what makes me love you so... For life’s sadness turns to gladness When you smile on me." "There are smiles that make us happy, There are smiles that make us blue... And the smiles that fill my life with sunshine" are yours
AUTHOR: Words: J. Will Callahan / Music: Lee S. Roberts
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #54, p. 20, "Smiles" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 269, "Smiles" (notes only)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 166, "Smiles" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 507-508, "Smiles"
SAME TUNE:
Smiles That Are Best of All (File: Paro089)
Crowds ("There are crowds that make you grumpy") (Harbin-Parodology, #44, p. 18)
Leagues That Brag ("There are leagues that do a lot of bragging") (Harbin-Parodology, #147, p. 43)
There Are Leagues ("There are leagues that make you happy") (Harbin-Parodology, #148, p. 43)
Beds ("There are beds that make us cozy") (Harbin-Parodology, #236, p. 59)
There Are Eats ("There are eats that make us happy, There are eats that make us chew") (Harbin-Parodology, #282, p. 68)
There Are Germs (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 112)
There Are Ships (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 253)
NOTES [40 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 322, estimates that this was the most popular song in America in 1918, peaking at #1 September 1918. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CSF269S

Smiles That Are Best of All

DESCRIPTION: "There are smiles in Pennsylvania/Kentucky/X, There are smiles in Idaho... There are smiles all over this great nation... But the smiles you get while in (some preferred place) Are the smiles that are best of all
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #89, p. 26, "There Are Smiles" (1 text, tune referenced
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 253, "Smiles That Are Best of All" (1 text, tune referenced)
NOTES [30 words]: The Harbin and Pankake versions of this are so distinct that I concluded there must be oral transmission involved even though I can't demonstrate a version collected in the field. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Paro089

Smiling Potatoes, The

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet roots of Erin! we can't do without them; No tongue can express their importance to man ... Then here's to the brave boys that plant them and raise them."
AUTHOR: Rev. John Graham (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (Graham, _Poems, Chiefly Historical_, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: farming food Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 61-65, "The Smiling Potatoes" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dear Creatures, We Can't Do Without Them" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
cf. "The Potato" (subject)
NOTES [100 words]: The potato was, of course, both blessing and curse to Ireland. Blessing, because it could help replenish the soil depleted by growing cereal grains, and blessing, because by the 1840s, it was nearly the sole source of nutrition for three million of Ireland's eight million people. And curse, because -- by the 1840s, it was nearly the sole source of nutrition for three million of Ireland's eight million people.
For another song in praise of the crop, see "The Potato." For a (quite inadequate) description of the horrors caused by the potato blight, see "Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small)."
File: CPS061

Smith at Waterloo

See The Plains of Waterloo (I) [Laws N32] (File: LN32)

Smith's a Gallant Fireman, The

DESCRIPTION: "Rab, the village smith .... He's knicht o' war an' lord o' love an' king o' a the shire man At feast or fray, by nicht or day the smith's a gallant fireman." He is praised for honour, heart, strength, courage and generosity.
AUTHOR: John Harrison (1814-1889) (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: virtue nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #73, p. 2, "The Smith's a Gallant Fireman" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 461, "The Smith's a Gallant Fireman" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5899
NOTES [6 words]: Greig: The song was written in 1862. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3461

Smithfield Mountain

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

Smoke Goes Out the Chimney Just the Same

See The Smoke Goes Up the Chimney Just the Same (File: RcSGUCJS)

Smoke Goes Up the Chimley Just the Same

See The Smoke Goes Up the Chimney Just the Same (File: RcSGUCJS)

Smoke Goes Up the Chimney Just the Same, The

DESCRIPTION: "You can turn your damper up, you can turn your damper down, but the smoke goes up the chimney (chimbly, chimley) just the same." Describes a "Man of distinction's" struggles with his stove's flue.
AUTHOR: Harry Conor (source: 1901 sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (sheet music)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "You can turn your damper up, you can turn your damper down, but the smoke goes up the chimney (chimbly, chimley) just the same." A man of distinction struggles fruitlessly with his stove's flue, concluding that, no matter his adjustments, the smoke goes up the chimney just the same. In later verses he burns money to impress his friends, noting mysteriously "Chinese gum, opium," but the smoke goes up the chimney just the same. He accuses his neighbor of stealing his chickens and searches the neighbor's kitchen, but not a chicken is to be found. He concludes that "you can turn the damper up, you can turn your damper down, but the smoke will reach the chickens just the same." In other versions, the singer talks about circumstances when "bumming" is and isn't fun, with the conclusion that "everybody's bumming just the same."
KEYWORDS: theft animal chickens begging nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #51, p. 19, "The Smoke Went up the Chimney" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 289, 393, 516, "Damper Song" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 43, "The Damper Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 1, "The Damper Song" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson & his Virginia Reelers, "The Smoke Goes Out the Chimney Just the Same" (OKeh 45186, 1927; on Protobilly)
Dan W. Quinn, "The Smoke Goes Up the Chimney Just the Same" (Victor 1469. 1902; on Protobilly)
NOTES [69 words]: There's a drawing of an opium pipe included on the cover of the sheet music and a cryptic reference to opium in the lyrics sung by Quinn; the annotators of "Protobilly" suggest that this "might explain the pipe on the sheet music cover and the song's surreal images." -PJS
Another song with this title was copyrighted by A. J. Mills, J. P. Long, and Bennett Scott in 1917. I don't know what the relationship is. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RcSGUCJS

Smoke Went Up the Chimney, The

See The Smoke Goes Up the Chimney Just the Same (File: RcSGUCJS)

Smokeroom on the Kyle

DESCRIPTION: "Tall are the tales that fishermen tell when summer's work is done." They tell of fish, of men saved from freezing, a giant potato. Grampa Walcott tops them all with a tale of a year when the squid were hard to find -- until they came in in huge numbers
AUTHOR: Ted Russell (Source: Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland; Hanrahan)
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 4th edition)
KEYWORDS: talltale fishing moniker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1967 - grounding of the SS Kyle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "'Steamroom' on the Kyle" (1 text): pp. 81-82 in the 4th edition, pp. 60-61 in the 5th
ADDITIONAL: Maura Hanrahan, _The Alphabet Fleet_, Flanker Press Ltd., 2007, pp. 196-198 "The Smokeroom on the Kyle" (1 text)
Roud #7311
NOTES [1086 words]: This did not originate as a song, and one has to suspect that it owes its slight traditional vogue to its inclusion in the Doyle songbooks, but it is singularly fitting that this tale be set on the Kyle.
The Kyle was one of the "Alphabet Fleet" (for which see the notes to "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie"), and was the longest-lasting of the bunch; she served a wider variety of duties than almost any ship in Newfoundland history, and became genuinely famous. Hanrahan, p. 5, says that "the SS Kyle became legendary on the [Newfoundland/Labrador] run" and was "the heroic ship that looms above even all these other great ships [of the Alphabet Fleet]."
"On her trials trip in May 1913, the Kyle did 12 knots. WIth a gross tonnage of 1,055, she was substantial for an Alphabet fleet boat and, unlike most of the other ships, she was built in Newcastle, England rather than Scotland. Destined for the Labrador run, ... [t]he Kyle was also an icebreaker, which was crucial in Newfoundland and Labrador waters" (Hanrahan, pp. 5-6). She was said to be both beautiful and luxurious (Hanrahan, pp. 58-59).
Bruce ,p. 21, says that the Kyle "was bigger and faster than the older [Alphabet Fleet] vessels. Her length was 220 feet, her gross tonnage 1,055, and her speed 13.5 knots. Her long, tough service on the Labrador shore would earn her a nickname: 'The Bulldog of the North'. She was among the first vessels the Reids [owners of the Alphabet Fleet] ordered with a modern bluff-bow." (The Kyle which initially served on the run to Sydney, Nova Scotia, was moved to the Labrador run in part to accommodate the heavy traffic on the Labrador run; the smaller Home that had been in that service earlier had been overloaded; Hanrahan, pp. 58-59, 100.)
Among other things, the Kyle was the first ship called upon to search when the Southern Cross vanished (see "The Southern Cross (I)") and was involved in other rescues as well (Hanrahan, pp. 72-77). When the Pollux and the Truxton went aground in Newfoundland in an ice storm, in 1942, the Kyle was responsible for saving most of the 186 who were rescued (Hanrahan, pp. 88-89; 203 men were lost in the wreck when no one could get to the stranded ships. Connors, p. 25, prints a formal U. S. Navy thanks from American admiral A. L. Bristol). She also transported troops during World War II.
O'Neill, p. 977, describes the end of the Alphabet Fleet. "By the 1970s the Kyle was the only one still around. She lay beached at Riverhead, Harbour Grace, where she was finally purchased by the provincial government for five thousand dollars. The Kyle was the vessel chartered by William Randolph Hearst to take part in a search of the Atlantic for the American plane Old Glory [lost in 1927 carrying tabloid editor Philip Payne] and she returned to St. John's with part of the wreckage. In this she was more successful than her search had been for the Southern Cross. In world War I (sic.) she saw service as an icebreaker in the employ of the Tzar (sic.) of Russia."
Although she was the pride of the fleet in 1913, half a century later, the papers were calling her "weather-beaten and wheezy-engined." In 1959, she suffered the fate that old steamers had been suffering for almost a century: she was sold by the Canadian National Railways (which had owned her since Confederation a decade earlier) to become a sealer. (Yes, Newfoundlanders love their sealers -- but they generally didn't use new ships for the trade, because the stink soaks into the woodwork and never comes out; making her a sealer would effectively guarantee that she could never again be a passenger ship.) She was even briefly renamed the Arctic Eagle when sold in 1959 (Hanrahan, p. 167; Cook, p. 24, who adds that she was also used for a time as a floating general store). But sealing was no longer very profitable, and she was damaged in 1965, and no one was sure whether she was worth fixing; left to rest in Harbour Grace, in 1967 she broke free of her anchors and drifted aground at Riverhead, Harbour Grace, where souvenir-hunters slowly stripped her. She was eventually given a cosmetic restoration in 1997, and is apparently still there, but her sailing days were over (Hanrahan, pp. 168-169; Connors, p. 29, has a newspaper account of her planned restoration). Ryan/Drake, plate 45 caption, says that she is "the last [surviving] representative of Newfoundland's coal-burning sealers."
She was one of the best-known and best-loved Newfoundland ships of all time; this isn't the only poem built around her; Connors and Hanrahan each has a second piece, and I seem to recall others from other sources. But Connors, p. 29, says that "The Smokeroom" is the best-known work about the Kyle.
There is a photo of the Kyle at sea on p. 102 of Hanrahan; p. 129 shows her bringing back part of "Old Glory"; p. 106 shows her aground at Harbour Grace at the end of her career. Connors, p. 26, shows her in service, while p. 30 shows her after many years aground. Ryan/Drake, plate 45, is of her; Cook has a photo on p. 25.. She also has her own web site, http://sskyle.org/ -- which features, among other things, a recitation of this piece by the son of the author.
Ted Russell, the author of this piece, was born June 27, 1904 at Coley's Point on Conception Bay, Newfoundland; he quit school at age sixteen to become a teacher (ButlerHanrahan, p. 155). He would eventually go on to earn a bachelor's degree, but it took him several stints in college; he was 61 when he finally graduated! (ButlerHanrahan, p. 158). He became a magistrate, then, after Newfoundland became part of Canada, was elected to its House of Assembly in that organization's first sitting and was made Minister of Natural Resources -- but soon quit because he disagreed with Premier Joseph Smallwood, going into the insurance business (ButlerHanrahan, p. 156).
It was after this that he began writing plays and monologues, some of which appeared on the CBC. "The Chronicles of Uncle Mose," set in a fictional outport named "Pigeon Inlet," made him a popular sensation (ButlerHanrahan, p. 157). The play "Holdin' Ground," set in Pigeon Inlet, was also very popular. This poem is one of the Pigeon Inlet pieces. Russell died on October 16, 1977 (ButlerHanrahan, p. 158). There is a biography, The Life and Times of Ted Russell, by his daughter Elizabeth Miller, which also seems to have appeared under the title Uncle Mose. Russell's own works were published in Tales from Pigeon Inlet - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: Doyl4081

Smokey Mountain Bill

DESCRIPTION: "Smokey Mountain Bill... drunk a lot of gin -- That's what caused him all the trouble he got in." Bill, a moonshiner, shoots a revenuer. Imprisoned by the sheriff, he escapes to the mountains, where he and his still live a happy life
AUTHOR: Carson J. Robison
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Frank Luther & Carson Robison)
KEYWORDS: death drink humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(West)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 102-104, "Smokey Mountain Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FJ102 (Partial)
Roud #4544
RECORDINGS:
Frank Luther & Carson Robison, "Smoky Mountain Bill" (Brunswick 412, 1930)
File: FJ102

Smoking Spiritualized

See Tobacco's But an Indian Weed (File: Log262)

Smoothing Iron, The

See Driving Away at the Smoothing Iron (File: ShH82)

Smuggler's Bride, The

DESCRIPTION: "Attention give and a tale I'll tell, Of a damsel fair in Kent did dwell... She fell deep in love with a smuggler bold." She goes to sea with him. A cutter finds them after a storm. They are killed at almost the same moment and die in each others' arms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Ashton-Modern Street Ballads)
KEYWORDS: love courting ship death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 31, "The Smuggler's Bride" (1 text, tune referenced; #27 in the first edition)
Roud #21894
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Female Smuggler" (lyrics, theme)
File: Fran030

Smuggler's Song (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "When the blink o' the day is fading fast... O, that is the hour for to flash the oar." The singer talks of the troubles at sea, sneers at the German royalty, then waxes at length about the joys when they come back to shore.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads); reportedly published 1844
KEYWORDS: ship sea home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 386, "Smuggler's Song" (1 text)
Roud #3795
NOTES [105 words]: It's hard to determine what this is about. Although the title refers to smuggling, the song itself has no such references. We have only two facts: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads reports that the song was published in 1844 in the Ayrshire Wreath, and then there is the reference to "the German" (it doesn't say King, or Kaiser, but said German lives in a palace).
My best guess, on that basis, is that the song refers to Napoleon's blockade of Great Britain -- the "Continental System," proclaimed in Berlin on November 21, 1806, in which the German states were reluctantly included. For details on this, see "The Ports are Open." - RBW
File: Ord386

Smuggler's Song (III)

DESCRIPTION: "Midshipman, search the boat, to see she carries no gin! RIght-to-lu-ral la-di-dee, Righ-tu-lu-ral lay!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (collected from Captain T. Collett by Ralph Dunstan)
KEYWORDS: drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 41, "Smuggler's Song" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3305
File: Gund041

Smuggler's Song (Watch the Wall While the Gentlemen Go By)

DESCRIPTION: "If you wake at midnight, and hear a horses's feet, Don't go drawing back the blind or looking in the street..." The child is assured that all is well, and told not to repeat what she hears. If she keeps quiet, she may be rewarded and will hear no lies
AUTHOR: Words: Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Puck of Pook's Hill)
KEYWORDS: nonballad horse animal police
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 143, "If you chance to wake at midnight and hear a horse's feet" (1 fragment)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople (introduction to) H494, p. 127, "Hugh Hill, the Ramoan Smuggler" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [237 words]: There is something peculiar going on here. On its face, this was published by Rudyard Kipling as "Smuggler's Song" in Puck of Pook's Hill (1906). It occurs at the end of the chapter "Hal o' the Daft" (which, curiously, is tied up with Sir Andrew Barton). The text from Puck was set to music by Peter Bellamy, and has been recorded, e.g., by John Roberts and Tony Barrand.
But Lani Herrmann reports that Isla Cameron also recorded the song -- presumably well before Bellamy set a tune. Sam Henry, in 1933, quoted the first stanza without attribution, as if it were a folk song. Alice Kane knew it was from Kipling but also quoted it. Could Kipling have taken a traditional scrap and turned it into a full poem? If ever he did such a thing, the most likely place for him to publish it would have been in Puck.
Internal evidence of the poem isn't much help. There is a reference to "King George's Men," but of course one George or another was on the English throne from 1714 to 1830.
It does remind me a bit of the situation in Ireland in the eighteenth century, as groups such as the Whiteboys tried to control oppression by the landlords. Robert Kee, on p. 26 of The Most Distressful Country (being Volume I of The Green Flag), wrote that "At times these secret societies held certain areas of Ireland largely at their mercy. The warning to children: 'The fairies will get you' once had sinister undertones.'" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: HHH494n

Smuggler's Victory, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you Sussex heroes with courage stout and bold." About a battle between the "preventive men" and a band of smugglers. The preventive men attack and shoot two smugglers, but the smugglers counter-attack and win. They celebrate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate battle money sailor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 89, "The Smuggler's Victory" (1 text)
Roud #V6813
File: PaSe089

Smugglers of Buffalo, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was on the sixth of April as I lay on my bed, A-thinking of the sorrows that crowned my aching head," that the singer, a smuggler, was taken into custody. He will go home to his girl in Sandusky when released, and hopes she never learns what happened
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (collected from John W. Green by Walton)
KEYWORDS: crime sailor prison freedom
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 116-117, "The Smugglers of Buffalo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 117-118, "The Smugglers of Buffalo" (1 text)
Roud #19842
RECORDINGS:
J. W. Green, "Smugglers of Buffalo" (Library of Congress LOC 2296 B2, 1938; on WaltonSailors; the words differ slightly from the lyrics in Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors although they come from the same recording)
File: WGM116

Snaggin' the Klackin'

See Sh-Ta-Ra-Dah-Dey (Snagging the Klacking) (File: San036)

Snagtooth Sal

DESCRIPTION: The singer happily remembers "Walking down through Laramie with Snagtooth Sal." "But she turned me down completely" -- by dying (!). He will die for love, and gives instructions for his own burial
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: cowboy love death separation burial
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 106, "Snagtooth Sal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 405-406, "Snagtooth Sal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11096
NOTES [39 words]: The Fifes regard this as traditional -- but it is noteworthy that they had to get their tune from the Roger Wagner Chorale! To me, it looks like a cowboy adaption of something along the lines of "The Butcher Boy" or "The Pinery Boy." - RBW
File: FCW106

Snail, Snail (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Snail, snail, come out of your hole, Or else I'll beat you as black as coal." "Snail, snail, put out your horns, I'll give you bread and barley corns." Or, "John Jago... put out... Thy brother and sister are at the back door, Crying for barley bread"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1744 (Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book, according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: animal food nonballad injury
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) US(So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 482, "Snail, Snail" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #471, pp. 210, "(Snail, Snail)"
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 44, "(Children's Snail-Racing Song)" (1 fragment with the first words "John Jago, John Jago, put out thy great horn," 1 tune, filed with a group of songs under the general heading "Crowdy Crawn")
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 130, pp. 275-276, "Shule Aron" (1 text, which opens with this poem but otherwise appears to be a badly damaged version of "Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier)")
HudsonTune 32, "Snail, Snail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 55, "Chinese Baby-Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #163, "(To the Snail)" (1 text)
Roud #20210
File: Gund044B

Snail, Snail (II)

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

Snail, The

DESCRIPTION: The snail leaves a slimy track, eating our leaves and stealing away under cover of night. The blackbird finds and eats him. The snail is like "a meddling old gossip with falsehood's trail; And pick ... Till no beauty appears" until "Truth finds her out"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Stevens and Hole)
KEYWORDS: lie nonballad animal bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 213, "The Snail" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 69)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 313, "Snail" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: E.T. Stevens and Charles Hole, The Complete Reader. Book II The Intermediate Reader (London, 1866 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 109-110, "The Snail" (1 text)
Roud #1284
File: WT213

Snake Baked a Hoecake

DESCRIPTION: "Snake baked a hoecake, left the (frog) to mind it. Frog he went a-nodding, lizard came and stole it. 'Bring back my hoecake, you long-tailed ninny!'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Brown; reportedly found in Washington Irving's notebooks in 1817)
KEYWORDS: animal theft thief food
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 185, "Snake Baked a Hoecake" (3 short texts)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 238, "Snake Baked a Hoe-cake" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 104, "Wake, Snakes!" (1 text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Elsie Clews Parsons, "Spirituals and Other Folklore from the Bahamas," Vol. 41, No. 162 (Oct-Dec 1928), Toasts and other verses: Cat Island p. 469, ("Snake take de hoe cake") (1 text)
Roud #3622
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come, Butter, Come" (lyrics, some versions?)
NOTES [53 words]: Roud places some butter churning lyrics -- including one version of a Jean Ritchie text -- here, while others (including other Ritchie versions) go with #18167 ("Come, Butter, Come"). Personally, I'd lump them all, and split them from this song. But I guess, even in song titles, butter doesn't always come easily. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Br3185

Snake in the Grass

DESCRIPTION: A young man vigorously courts the singer, then asks how much money her father has promised as a dowry. When she answers "None," he vanishes. She warns, "But well a day, alas, alas, 'Mong roses sometimes there's a snake in the grass."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting abandonment dowry money
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 819, "Snake in the Grass" (1 text)
Roud #7434
File: R819

Snake River Massacre, The

DESCRIPTION: "A cruel massacre took place Of late upon the plains; 'Tis hard to describe the place -- It was upon Ward's train." A small band is attacked by Indians, and overwhelmed; two boys escape, but the rest -- men and women -- are slaughtered
AUTHOR: Nicholas Lee?
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (Salem, Oregon Statesman)
KEYWORDS: homicide battle Indians(Am.)
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 20, 1854 - Alexander Ward's party of 21 is assailed and slaughtered. The only survivors are the boys Newton and William Ward
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 138-139, "(The Snake River Massacre)" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp 578-579, "Snake River Massacre" (1 text)
File: Burt138

Snakes

DESCRIPTION: "Reginald Alfonsus Bungy had a scientific mind, From his earliest childhood was he taxidermically inclined." In his field expeditions he encounters a drunken rambler who advises him to go to the nearest pub, where he has seen many (illusionary) snakes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: drink humorous animal recitation
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 232-234, "Snakes" (1 text)
File: MA232

Snap Poo

See Snapoo (File: EM379)

Snapoo

DESCRIPTION: Three German (air) officers ask the landlady if she has a daughter who will sleep with them. The mother says her daughter is much too fine; the girl protests she is not.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen)
KEYWORDS: bawdy landlord sex mother soldier
FOUND IN: Australia Canada US(MW,So,SW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 379-384, "Snapoo" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 308-311, "Snapoo" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 71, "Snapoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, pp. 51-52, "Skibboo" (1 text)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 110-111, "Mademoiselle from Armetieres" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 73-74, "Snap Poo" (1 text)
Roud #4703
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (tune) and references there
cf. "Mademoiselle from Armentieres" (approximate tune; theme)
cf. "Brave Marin (Brave Sailor)" (approximate tune)
cf. "Little Red Train"
cf. "Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds)" [Laws K36] (plot)
NOTES [99 words]: For the relationship of this item to "Mademoiselle from Armentieres," see the notes to that song.
The word "Snapoo" occurs in a thing called the "Non-Committal Song," listed to a "German Air," and coming from the election of 1840. And it fits the "Armentieres/Snapoo" tune. This would seem to imply that "Snapoo" goes all the way back to 1840. For the song, which begins "A Dutchman came over from Kinderhook -- snapoo," see Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 279. Kinderhook was the home of Martin Van Buren, the incumbent president who lost his 1840 bid for re-election. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: EM379

Sneeze on Monday

See If You Sneeze on Monday (File: Dolb047B)

Snow Covered Face, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer, riding in the mountains, finds the body of a cowboy frozen in the snow. He finds a letter, bidding farewell to his mother and asking the finder to take it to her. Singer hopes the cowboy may have found heaven "for his work is all done here below"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Patt Patterson & Lois Dexter)
KEYWORDS: corpse death dying mother cowboy
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Patt Patterson & Lois Dexter, "The Snow Covered Face" (on Conqueror 7756, 1931; on WhenIWas2)
File: RcTSVF

Snow Deer

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet Snow Deer mine, moon's a-shine through the pine, While Mohawks sleep, let us sleep through the vale, Your cowboy lover Your heart will cover." "My pretty Snow Deer, Say you will go, dear." They will escape to the ranch and live happily
AUTHOR: Words: Jack Mahoney / Music: Percy Wenrich (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (sheet music by Wenrich-Howard)
KEYWORDS: love courting Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 140, "Snow Deer" (1 text, tune)
Roud #7508
NOTES [65 words]: Despite the fact that the singer loves an Indian girl, the song is overall pretty racist -- and certainly doesn't strike me as good poetry. Percy Wenrich is perhaps slightly better known as the composer of "Put On Your Old Gray Bonnet." Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle suggests that this might have been inspired by the success of "Red Wing," which strikes me as reasonable, but I can't prover it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Boet140

Snow Dove

See The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: LP24)

Snow Gull

DESCRIPTION: Scots Gaelic. The singer (a girl who has lost her love?) asks the gull where her love sleeps. She describes the dead all together in the land under the waves.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides)
KEYWORDS: death separation bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Hebr))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides I, pp. 84-87, "The Seagull of the Land-Under-Waves" (2 texts with literal and loose English translations, 1 tune)
NOTES [85 words]: This is one of those thoroughly dubious pieces. Reading the notes in Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides, it's not clear that this song ever existed in Gaelic as it stands. And it did not exist in English until she published it. And yet, Gordon Bok sings an English version so different from the Kennedy-Fraser/MacLeod-SongsOfTheHebrides text that oral tradition (if only in Bok's family) seems to have taken over the translated text.
When in doubt, even extreme doubt, we index -- so here the song is. - RBW
File: KFrI084

Snow Is on the Ground, The

See Remember the Poor (File: Wa161)

Snow It Melts the Soonest, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh the snow it melts the soonest when the winds begin to sing... And when a woman tells me that my face she'll soon forget, Before we part, I wad a croon, she's fain to follow't yet." The singer declares analogies to why parting need not be forever
AUTHOR: Words probably by Thomas Doubleday
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Blackwood's Magazine)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 120-121, "The Snow It Melts the Soonest" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR120 (Full)
Roud #3154
File: StoR120

Snowed In

DESCRIPTION: "When I heard Australian shearers talk, in good old days gone by, Of being snowed in in Maoriland, I used to wonder why." A Maori girl agreed to marry him -- until he ran out of money. He is not ready for conditions along the Condamine
AUTHOR: "The Wanderer" (Mick Laracy?) (source: Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 ("The Wanderer," according to Mike Harding, _When the Pakeha Sings of Home: A Source Guide to the Folk & Popular Songs of New Zealand_)
KEYWORDS: New Zealand sheep travel money courting rejection home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 46, "Snowed In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 157, "(Snowed In)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Susanna" (tune) and references there
File: Clev046

Snowflakes

DESCRIPTION: "The snowflakes gave a party all on a winter's night, The snowflakes were invited and they all came dressed in white, Each rode in a tiny carriage made of the softest silk, And slowly, gently, drifting down, they all came merrily"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 110, "Snowflakes" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7528
File: Boet110

Snowy-Breasted Pearl, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a colleen fair as May, For a year and for a day I sought by every way Her heart to gain." He's tried everything, without luck. He would follow her to France or Spain. Don't condemn him for wanting his "snowy-breasted pearl"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: love beauty courting rejection nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 182, "There's a Colleen Fair as May" (1 text)
Roud #22450
File: HMHS182C

Snuff Box

See Ticklish Reuben (Snuff Box) (File: BrS5734)

Snuffer

DESCRIPTION: "There is a practice now in use For which there is no good excuse, They smoke and chew that filthy weed And they commit a sinful deed." The singer warns against as "snuffer for a wife." They ruin everything; "it's awful, awful, awful"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3)
KEYWORDS: nonballad marriage warning drugs
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 71-73, "Snuffer" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
Roud #7058
File: BWV3071

Snuffer's Grace

DESCRIPTION: "Here's my mull and tak' a sneeshin, Dodsake gie yer nose a creeshin; Ye're welcome sid ye snuff a groat, Yestreen I snuffed a pun and mair o't The feint a grain o't made me sneeze In fact it isna worth the cairryin', If it warna jist to scare flees."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drugs nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 567, "Snuffer's Grace" (1 short text)
Roud #6038
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 entry. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3567

Snuffer's Toast, The

DESCRIPTION: "Here's to the nose, and up it goes, And all that it contains, It clears the eyes and clogs the nose, And clarifies the brain; And it makes the lugs to crack; And oh it is a capital thing For ony man to tak'. Amen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: drugs nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 566, "The Snuffer's Toast" (1 fragment)
Roud #6037
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 entry. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3566

Snug As a Bug in a Rug

DESCRIPTION: "Snug as a bug in a rug." That's it. That's the whole (alleged) street rhyme.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: bug
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 44, "(Snug As a bug In a rug)" (1 very short text)
Roud #19548
File: PKKB044A

So Dear Is My Charlie to Me (Prince Charlie)

DESCRIPTION: The lady bids her listeners to lament for her, "for so dear is my Charlie to me." She tells how she turned down many nobles because of her love for Charlie. She admits that he is Catholic and she Presbyterian, but she will accept Rome for Charlie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1890 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.11(146))
KEYWORDS: love courting separation Jacobites
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1720-1788 - Life of Charles Edward Stuart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie"
1745 - The (last) Jacobite Rebellion
1746 - Prince Charlie's rebellion crushed at Culloden. Charlie spends months fleeing the English. One of those who helps him escape is Flora MacDonald
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H533, p. 292, "So Dear Is My Charlie to Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 162-163, "Prince Charlie Stuart" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3099
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "Prince Charlie Stuart" (on IRPTunney01)
Roisin White, "So Dear Is My Charlie To Me" (on IRRWhite01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.11(146)[useless for determining text, but see NOTES], "Charlie Stuart" ("Come join in lamentation queens and princesses"), R. McIntosh (Glasgow), 1849-1889; also Harding B 15(40b), 2806 c.14(129)[beginning and ending verses illegible], "Charlie Stuart"; Firth b.26(4) [end missing], "Flora Macdonald's Lament for her Charlie" ("Come join in lamentation you queens and you princes")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. ""Flora's Lament for Her Charlie" (subject)
cf. "Flora MacDonald's Lament" (subject)
NOTES [364 words]: Broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(146), "Charlie Stuart" ("Come join in lamentation queens and princesses"), R. McIntosh (Glasgow), 1849-1889 large image could not be downloaded but the small image could be magnified enough to verify that the broadside is for this ballad.
As for the Flora Macdonald text of Bodleian Firth b.26(4) there is no question but that this particular text is an example of "So Dear Is My Charlie to Me."
This is not the same song as either Hogg 92, Jacobite Relics of Scotland, "The Lament of Flora Macdonald" or "Flora's Lament for Her Charlie."
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H533, p. 292, Tunney-StoneFiddle pp. 162-163, and the Bodleian broadsides listed are all clearly the same ballad and seem likely to have all sprung from the same broadside.
As for Flora MacDonald, here is part of the commentary to broadside NLScotland RB.m.168(178): "Flora MacDonald, born on South Uist in 1722, is now the most famous heroine of the Jacobite cause and one of its most romantic stories. Bonnie Prince Charlie was fleeing Scotland after his Culloden defeat. When the situation became perilous on the Isle of Skye, Flora was persuaded to participate in her foster-father, Clanranald's, plan to help Charles' escape." - BS
The text of this song in Sam Henry looks troubled; the first verse doesn't fit particularly well with the last two. And there are so many songs on this theme that it's hard to tell which are the same and which distinct.
Some equate this with the various "Flora MacDonald's Laments." This has problems both textual and historical. There is no indication, in the Henry text, that the singer is Flora MacDonald; it's just some woman of the many who desired the handsome "Young Pretender."
Historically, I know of no indication that Charlie had any sort of actual relationship with Flora MacDonald. His only real liaison, during the period of the Forty-Five, was with Clementina Walkinshaw, who would become the mother of his only child. It appears that he was faithful to her during this period.
For background on Flora MacDonald, see in particular "Flora MacDonald's Lament." For the broader context, see "Culloden Moor." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: HHH533

So Early in a Summer Morning

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a shepherd's daughter herding her flock. She refuses his advances because he appears rich; she would prefer a "poor shepherd laddie." He says (to us) that she's "the bonniest lassie that ever I saw"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection money farming beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 963, "So Early in a Summer Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6769
File: GrD5963

So Early in the Morning (I)

DESCRIPTION: In "South Carolina's sultry clime" "massa 'neath de shade would lay While we poor niggers toil all day." The singer used to wait on massa and "brush away de blue tail'd fly." Massa's dead now; he was the best of massa's; "miss him now, him dead and gone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3562))
KEYWORDS: death slavery bug servant Black(s)
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 178, "So Early in the Morning" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 82)
Roud #1274
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3562), "So Early in de Morning" ("South Carolina's a sultry clime"), H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Firth b.25(282), Harding B 15(295a), Firth c.26(240), Harding B 11(1298), "So Early in the Morning"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blue-Tail Fly" (one verse) and references there
NOTES [73 words]: Don't confuse this with such play-party songs as "Going to Boston" which have a one-line tag on each verse: "So early in the morning." The chorus here is "So early in the morning, (x3) Before the break of day."
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames and the Bodleian broadsides include the blue-tailed fly verse: "When I was young, I used to wait, On massa's table -- lay de plate; Pass de bottle when him dry, Brush away de blue-tail'd fly." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT178

So Early in the Morning (II)

See Sailor Likes His Bottle-O, The (File: Hugi055)

So Give Me Old Boorowa

DESCRIPTION: "So give me old Boorowa and give me a tart And I will be simply all right. Can anyone point to a finer old joint Than Brown Street on Saturday night?... Get out of the way, for it's Joey, they say, Going out with his fair dinkum tart."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 17, page headed "After several social visits..."], "(no title)" (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Boorowa Was Boorowa" (subject of Boorowa)
NOTES [14 words]: Interestingly, Boorowa, Australia does not currently seem to have a Brown Street. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: FaWSGMOB

So Handy

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Handy, me boys, so handy!" The song tells of how the good crew came together: "You've got your advance and to sea you must go, Handy... Around Cape Horn through frost and snow, Handy..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869
KEYWORDS: shanty ship
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 12, "So Handy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 76, "So Handy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 142-143, "So Handy, My Boys, So Handy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 479-484, "Handy, Me Boys," "Hand O'er Hand" (3 texts, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 357-361]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XLII, p. 48, "So Handy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doe012 (Partial)
Roud #814
RECORDINGS:
Richard Maitland, "So Handy, Me Boys, So Handy" (AFS, 1939; on LC27)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Handy, Me Girls
NOTES [65 words]: "On Shanties," article in E(neas) S(weetland) Dallas, editor, Once a Week, New Series, Number 31, August 1, 1868 (published by Bradbury and Evans and available on Google Books), p. 93, gives a verse,
Oh shake her up , and away we'll go,
So handy, my girls, so handy;
Up aloft from down below,
So handy, my girls, so handy.
Presumably it is related to this song even though no plot survives.
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Doe012

So Handy, My Boys, So Handy

See So Handy (File: Doe012)

So Heave Away

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "The Gustav's loaded down with grain. So heave away! heave away!" (x2). "The Gustav is a fine big ship, we're bound away on a damn long trip." More verses about drink and other unprintable topics.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty drink ship
FOUND IN: Germany Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 319-320, "So Heave Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shine the Light" (Salvation Army hymn) (tune)
NOTES [43 words]: According to Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, the crew of a German barque Sterna took a Salvation Army hymn "Shine the Light" and altered the words to use as a shanty. Hugill and his crew, on board the Gustav further altered the song into this form. - SL
File: Hugi319A

So It Was When My Life Began

See My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold (File: KSUC140A)

So It's Pass

DESCRIPTION: "So, it's pass around the grog, my boys." Give me the girl I love, toast Queen Victoria, and "when our money is all gone We'll go to sea for more." Chorus: "Here's to him that merry be ... March onward, my brave boys"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: sex drink nonballad shanty sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1837-1901 - Reign of Queen Victoria
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 56, "Chanty Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CAPEVIEW
ST CrNS056 (Partial)
Roud #1798
ALTERNATE TITLES:
See, See, The Cape's In View
NOTES [23 words]: Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia has this as a chanty but says "it looks more like a sailor's adaptation of a soldier's song." - BS
File: CrNS056

So Like Your Song and You

DESCRIPTION: "I wandered in the radiant dawn O'er glistening fields of dew, And listening to the lark's sweet song, I thought, my love, of you." No matter what the singer does or wherever (he) goes, it reminds (him) of (the girl's) song
AUTHOR: Words: Andrew Doey
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love music nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H508, pp. 226-227, "So Like Your Song and You" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7976
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Singing Bird" (tune)
File: HHH508

So Long I Have Lady

DESCRIPTION: "So longe ic haue lauedi, yhoued at þi gate, þat mi fot is ifrore lauedi, for þi luue faste to þe stake." "So long, lady, have I Waited at your gate, That my foot is frozen, lady, For, your love, (held) fast to the stake (gate-post)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: (fifteenth century)
KEYWORDS: love MiddleEnglish | waiting at gate
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3167.3
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #4940
ADDITIONAL: Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #267(i), p. 550, "(Snatches)" (1 text)
J. A. W. Bennett, _Middle English Literature_, edited and completed by Douglas Gray and being a volume of the Oxford History of English Literature, 1986 (I use the 1990 Clarendon paperback), p. 365, "(no title)" (1 text)
Siegfried Wenzel, _Preachers, Poets, and the Early English Lyric_, Princeton University Press, 1986, p. 240, "(no title)" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library Harley 3823, folio 182
MANUSCRIPT: Durham, Cathedral Library B.I.18, folio 56
MANUSCRIPT: Berlin, Staatsbibl. Berlin Theol. lat. fol 249, folio 131
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Night As I Lay On My Bed" (theme)
NOTES [468 words]: The text cited in the description above is that from the Berlin manuscript. The title is that used by the Digital Index of Middle English Verse, since no one else has a title for it. If it was actually derived by a religious verse, as Siegfried Wenzel, Preachers, Poets, and the Early English Lyric, Princeton University Press, 1986, p. 240, seems to hint, it very likely inspired by Song of Songs 5:2:
I slept, but my heart was awake.
Listen! My beloved is knocking.
"Open to me, my sister, my love,
my dove, my perfect one;
for my head is wet with dew,
my locks with the drops of the night."
Indeed, Wenzel says that it is found in the midst of a Latin sermon citing Song of Songs, from Thomas Aquinas. This sermon is found in the Durham and British Museum manuscripts, which have apparently-identical texts of this poem which run:
So lange ik aue lefman stonden at þe yathe
þat my fote is hi-frosen fast to þe stake
This has same meaning as the Berlin text in the description, but is different enough in detail that I have to suspect some dialect-shifting. And that, plus the fact that there are three manuscript copies, hints to me that this is a traditional verse, even though we have no text other than these four lines. I have not found any source that makes this claim, but it appears from the IMEV number that no one noticed the verse until after the publication of most of the anthologies of Middle English folk poetry. Bennett/Gray files it under "lyrics," in a context which seems to imply "folk lyrics."
Harley 3823 has a handful of other short lyrics, but most seem to be proverbs. So also the Durham manuscript -- indeed, it has several of the same proverbs; clearly the two manuscripts are related (and not of much folk interest other than for this piece). The Berlin manuscript doesn't have many English poems either -- just five lyrics listed by the DIMEV -- but one of them (IMEV #3900.5; DIMEV #6215) is extremely interesting. The Berlin text is
Weilawei þat ich ne span
þo ich into wude ran
The other copy, in London, British Library Addit. 33956, folio 98, runs
Weylawey þat iche ne span
Whan y to þe ringe ran
One suspects these might be different verses of the same song, in which the girl runs to the ring, gets pregnant, and flees to the wood, regretting that she got in trouble rather than remaining at her spinning (? -- the only meaning I know or can discover for "span" is the past tense of "to spin"). Indeed, Green seemingly regarded this as an (amorous?) carol (based on the notes in the DIMEV), though I cannot track the citation. It is possible that this song too should be regarded as folk, but it's probably enough to cite it here. The point is that the Berlin manuscript, although it had only a few lyrics, has two which look like they might be secular love lyrics. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MSSLIHL

So Long, It's Been Good to Know You

See So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh (File: Arn165)

So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh

DESCRIPTION: "I've sung this song, but I'll sing it again." The singer tells of the difficulties of life (in the dust bowl). At last he prepares to depart: "So long, it's been good to know you (x3)... And I've got to be drifting along."
AUTHOR: Woody Guthrie
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes home rambling clergy dustbowl
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 164-165, "So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 92, "So Long, It's Been Good To Know You" (1 text [dustbowl version], 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 205-206, "So Long, It's Been Good to Know You" (1 text [dustbowl version], 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 172-173, "(no title)" (1 excerpt, from the dustbowl version)
DT, SOLONGIT
Roud #15161
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh" (on PeteSeeger17) (on PeteSeeger41) (on PeteSeeger27); "So Long" (on PeteSeeger23)
NOTES [136 words]: There are actually two versions of this, Woody's original dustbowl text and the popularized Weavers version. Since Woody wrote both, however, I think we can list them under one entry. - RBW
Make that three versions. Woody also wrote one (recorded in 1944) with lyrics pertaining to World War II. - PJS
Incidentally, if it be questioned whether this is a folk song, I think it is, at least in Minnesota, where they used it as a theme for a popular children's television show. My generation learned it by non-folk means, but it's started to pass on to younger generations.
It appears that Guthrie's original version of this is based largely on actual events of the so-called 'Black Easter" of 1935. For details of this storm and how it affected Guthrie and others near him, see Ed Cray's Ramblin' Man, p. 69fff. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Arn165

So Merry, So Merry Are We

DESCRIPTION: "So merry, so merry, so merry are we, There is no one more merry than the sailor on sea, Oh, I dare say... Give a sailor his grog, but no salt meat too strong." The singer tells of hard work and condition, and wants "good rum and a good shanty song."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: sailor work food drink
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 106-107, "So Merry, So Merry Are We" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #21100
NOTES [49 words]: Roud lumps this with a number of other alphabet songs, and there seems no doubt that it is derived from the Sailor's Alphabet. But it has none of the alphabet lyrics -- just the chorus and some words about a sailor's life. I would consider it to have drifted far enough to be a separate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet106

So Merry, So Merry, So Merry Are We

See The Sailor's Alphabet; also the Logger's Alphabet and probably other alphabet songs (File: RcTSAlp)

So Now We've Gained the Victory

DESCRIPTION: "So now we've gained our victory ... the bantam cock shall never crow on the plains of Waterloo." We'll send him to a far off island and not let him return again. A health to King George and Wellington. Boney will always remember Waterloo.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (recording, Freddie James, RQMS Williams, G.W. Greening and Harry Hawkins?)
KEYWORDS: war exile nonballad patriotic Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
Roud #12928
RECORDINGS:
Freddie James, RQMS Williams, G.W. Greening and Harry Hawkins?, "So Now We've Gained the Victory" (on Voice16)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (tune, according to Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 16" - 13.9.02:)
NOTES [55 words]: For details on the Battle of Waterloo, see e.g. the notes to "The Plains of Waterloo (II)" [Laws J3]. It's a bit funny to see King George toasted. Forget the fact that his personal rule cost England the American colonies and a bunch of wars. By the time of Waterloo, he was incurably insane, and his son George IV was regent. - RBW
File: RcSNWGTV

So Selfish Runs the Hare (Horn, Boys, Horn)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, so selfish runs the hare, and so cunning runs the fox, Who would think this little calf would grow to a noble ox? To live among the briars, and run among the thorns, And die the death his father did with a large pair of horns? Horns, boys, horns...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: animal hunting drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 38, #2 (1993), pp. 60-61, "So Selfish Runs the Hare" (1 text plus many additional stanzas, 1 tune; the source is not clearly stated)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Wearing of the Horns
File: So38n2b

So Soon This Evenin' (Axe Timing Song)

DESCRIPTION: ""So soon this evenin', hey now, mmmm, So soon this evenin', oh Lord, Back in the bottom... Just hewin' down timber... Done had my dinner... Don't feel no better...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (collected from David Tippett by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: work prison
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 228-229, "So Soon This Evenin'" (2 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES [57 words]: Jackson says that the lyrics of this "are not songs in themselves"; rather, they were used to establish the rhythm for the axes used in cutting trees. But it seems to me that, if sea chanteys for timing are songs (which they clearly are), then this is a song -- or, at least, pieces like it were worth preserving to help future tree-cutters. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM228

So We Hunted and We Hollered

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

So What's the Use

See What's the Use? (File: SBar198)

Sober Quaker (I), The

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) (File: E098)

Sober Quaker (II), The

See The Quaker's Courtship (File: R362)

Social Band, The

DESCRIPTION: "Bright angels on the water, Hovering by the light; Poor sinner stand in the darkness And cannot see the light. I want (Aunty Mary/Brother David) to go with me, I want Aunty Mary for to go with me (x2), To join the social band."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 105, "The Social Band" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12061
NOTES [31 words]: The first and second half of this sound so different that I suspect they come from different sources, with the first half probably from a "literary" hymn. But I cannot identify it. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG105

Social Fellow, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come push the bowl about and ne'er mind the score, When that is gone my boys we'll call for more And he that will not merry be shall ne'er taste of joys, See, see the game's in view, hark forward my brave boys" Various toasts.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 12(101))
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 89, "Push the Bowl About" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 297)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 49, "Drinking Song" ("Push the jug around, my boys") (1 text, composite, 1 tune)
Roud #1252
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 12(101), "The Social Fellows" ("Come push the bowl about and ne'er mind the score"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 25(1794), "The Social Fellows"; Harding B 28(73), 2806 c.17(394), Harding B 17(290a), Harding B 17(290b), Harding B 11(2715), "The Social Fellow"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl" (theme: drink and good fellowship)) and references there
NOTES [73 words]: The toasts villify misers -- "the worst in the world" -- and has a health to "your favorite lass." The Bodleian broadsides toasts add absent friends, sailors, "George our King ... Likewise his consort Charlotte our queen."
Bodleian broadside reference to George and Charlotte is George III (reigned 1760-1820) and Charlotte (d.1818); one broadside replaces the Charlotte reference with "And may good Trade and Liberty in Britain remain." - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: WT089

Social Thistle and the Shamrock, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Scotch and Irish friendly are, their wishes are the same, The English nation envy us, and over us would reign ... Now to conclude and end my song, may we live long to see, The Thistle and the Shamrock, entwine the olive tree"
AUTHOR: Henry Joy McCracken (1767-1798) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Madden's _Literary Remains of the United Irishmen of 1798_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: England Ireland Scotland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 108, "The Social Thistle and the Shamrock" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Joy McCracken (I)" (information about the author)
NOTES [86 words]: The thistle represents Scotland and the shamrock represents Ireland. See, for example, "The Sprig of Shillelah." - BS
Although the Scots are descended from the Irish (or, more correctly, Highland Gaelic culture is descended from Irish; the genes may tell a different story), I suspect this could only have been written by an Ulster Protestant. And Henry Joy McCracken (1767-1798) was one of the most liberal and high-minded men in Ireland at the time; for his background, see the notes to "Henry Joy McCracken (I)." - RBW
File: Moyl108

Sod 'Em All

See Bless 'Em All (File: EM386)

Sodger's Return, The

See When Wild War's Deadly Blast Was Blawn (The Sodger's Return) (File: Wins114)

Soefield

See The Sheffield Apprentice [Laws O39] (File: LO39)

Soft Lowland Tongue o the Borders, The

DESCRIPTION: "Blithe is the lilt o his ain mother tongue To the exile...." "We hear the auld tongue frae the stoot Border lad... The Border lass sings it in strains sweet or sad." The soft lowland Border tongue "was spoken by Leyden and Scott [and] by Hogg"
AUTHOR: William Sanderson (1853-1945) (source: McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
KEYWORDS: homesickness pride emigration Scotland nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 32-33, 149, "The Soft Lowland Tongue o the Borders" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21754
File: McSc032

Softly Falls the Light of Day (Girl Scout Prayer, Scout Vespers)

DESCRIPTION: "Softly falls the light of day, While our campfires fade away. Silently each Scout should ask: Have I done my daily task? Have I kept my honor bright? Can I guiltless sleep tonight? Have I done and have I dared, Everything to be prepared?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 456, "Softly Falls the Light of Day" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 110, "Vesper Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 56, "Vesper Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 125, "Scout Vesper" (1 text, tune referenced)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Jay Mechling, "Magic of the Boy Scout Campfire," Volume 93, Number 367 (Jan-Mar 1980), p. 49, "(no title)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree)" (tune) and references there
File: ACSF456S

Solas Market

DESCRIPTION: "Me sell me akee, go Solas Market, Not a quatty would [or "quatty-worth"] sell, Send me out, I go Solas Market, Not a quatty would sell. Why not a light, not a bite, Not a quatty would sell. Why not a light, not a bite, Not a quatty would sell."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (recorded from Edith Perrin)
KEYWORDS: commerce food hardtimes Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 50,"Solas Market" (1 short text)
Roud #16397
RECORDINGS:
Edith Perrin, "Solas Market" [excerpt?] (on USWarnerColl01)
NOTES [158 words]: There appear to be only two sources for this: The Edith Perrin recording made by the Warners, called "Solas Market," and a text in Jekyll's Jamaican Song & Story entitled "Linstead Market." Apart from the details of place, the choruses are similar, but there is almost no text to let us know what the songs are about (unless the Warners had more from Edith Perrin which they did not publish).
To make matters worse, the Perrin recording is very noisy -- almost unintelligible. It supplies the text quoted in the description, but I have had to reconstruct based in part on the Warner notes, and it must be considered uncertain. The Warners themselves, in Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, gave a different transcription.
According to the Warners, Perrin was a Jamaican (they called her a "colored" -- argh) who for a while looked after the Warners' son Jeff. So although she was from Jamaica, the song was recorded in New York. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcSolMar

Sold in Hell

See Wicked Polly [Laws H6] (File: LH06)

Sold Off to Georgy

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell, fellow servants, O-ho! o-ho! I'm gwine 'way to leave you... I'm gwine to leave de ole county... I'm sold off to Georgy." The singer bids farewell to home, parents, master, wife, and child; he confesses his heart is breaking
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (Printed in "The Valley of Shenandoah" by George Tucker)
KEYWORDS: slavery slave family separation work home
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, p. 206, "Sold Off to Georgy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 89, "Sold Off to Georgy" (1 text)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 94-95, "Hilo! Hilo!" (1 text, fragmentary, but apparently related to this song)
NOTES [6 words]: "Georgy" is, of course, Georgia. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: SBoA206

Sold!

DESCRIPTION: "As I was walking down Queen Street one day I saw a big picture just over the way" of fine land for sale. A man he meets praises the property. The singer agrees to buy it -- and visits it to learn that it is nothing like the picture; it is a useless swamp
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: commerce trick hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 111-112, "Sold!" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Buying Land" (subject of buying a swamp)
File: AnSt111

Soldier (I), The

See The Bold Soldier [Laws M27] (File: LM27)

Soldier (II), The

See Once I Had a Sweetheart (I) (File: BrII140)

Soldier and his Lady, The

See Trooper and Maid [Child 299] (File: C299)

Soldier and the Lady, The

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

Soldier and the Maid, The

See Trooper and Maid [Child 299] (File: C299)

Soldier and the Sailor, The

DESCRIPTION: The sailor "has a good mind to pray For the rights of all people and the wrongs of all men." He accuses the lawyers of "tak[ing] your hard earnings and giv[ing] you hard laws"; the ministers for condemning you to hell, and the farmers for high prices
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (Petrie)
KEYWORDS: political curse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar) Ireland US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 277-278, "The Soldier and the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 218-219, "The Prayer of the Soldier & the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 5, "The Sailor and the Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan3 685, "The Soldier and the Sailor" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 85, "The Sailor and the Soldier" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 709, "Soldier's Prayer" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 239, "The Soldier and the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 22, "The Soldier and the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 94, "The Soldier's Prayer (The Soldier and the Sailor)" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 151-153, "The Soldier's Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Charles W. Joyner, "The Repertory of Nancy Jones as a Mirror of Culture in Scotland County," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), p. 96, "The Soldier and the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doe277 (Partial)
Roud #350
RECORDINGS:
Archie Lennox, "The Soldier and the Sailor" (on FSB8)
Brigid Tunney, "The Soldier and the Sailor" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.14(226), "The Soldier and the Sailor"[title incomplete] ("As a sailor and a soldier was walking one day"), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "'Pleasant and Delightful" (meter)
cf. "The First Thing They Asked For" (some lyrics)
cf. "Ye Gentlemen of England (I)" [Laws K2] (theme)
NOTES [103 words]: This appears to exist in two forms -- one, exemplified by Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, condemning various wrongs; the other, found in Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland, just calling for a good time (praying for beer and the like). There are, however, enough similarities that I would consider them still one song. On the other hand, the song we've filed as "The First Thing They Asked For" is essentially the request for a good time without the rest. The problem of intermediate versions is so severe that Roud lumps them. I think the extremes are distinct enough to split, but you'd better see both. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Doe277

Soldier Boy (I), The

See My Parents Reared Me Tenderly (I -- The Soldier Boy) (File: HHH466)

Soldier Boy (II), The

See The Faithful Sailor Boy [Laws K13] (File: LK13)

Soldier Boy (III), The (The Texas Volunteer)

DESCRIPTION: "I volunteered to Texas, I will have you all to know, A long road to travel, I never travelled before, Oh, my home, sweet home!" The singer recalls the sorrow his parents suffered when he left. The song ends with verses from "The Roving Gambler."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Cambiaire)
KEYWORDS: separation home travel floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 20-21, "The Soldier Boy" (1 text)
Roud #11410
NOTES [91 words]: This is a peculiar song, with an opening that seems to be known only from the Rakes family of Tennessee (mother and daughter: Mrs. J. P. Rakes and Lola Rakes). The interesting point is that the second half is entirely from "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man)" [Laws H4] -- but that it is well-integrated with the first half, about a fellow cajoled into volunteering to go to Texas. Why was he so induced? There is no hint. I suspect that we have only a fragment of the song of the Volunteer to Texas, missing both the beginning and the end. - RBW
File: Cmb020

Soldier Boy (IV)

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Soldier Boy (V), The

See The Soldier's Life (File: CoxIIB11)

Soldier Boy [Laws O31]

DESCRIPTION: A large company of Irish soldiers must depart for India. One of them is explaining to his sweetheart that he must leave her. She (offers to come with him and is refused. She) tearfully bids him good luck and farewell.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: love farewell India soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws O31, "Soldier Boy"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 80, "Soldier Boy" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H244, pp. 295-296, "The Soldier Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 171, "The Soldier Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 814, SOLDBOY
Roud #1917
NOTES [278 words]: Laws, relying on Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland's broken version, locates the war in India. Henry (and its copy, Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815) refers to India as a past war and has the soldiers leaving to fight the Russians.
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "As John Moulden suggests, the song is probably about the Crimean war, given the mention of Russians ..." - BS
The mention of Russians also allows for campaigns in Afghanistan -- which was, in fact, a nation created by the British to separate India from Russia. The British and Russians never really fought in Afghanistan, but there were times when conflict seemed possible. And there were plenty of other problems between Russia and Britain (mostly over Ottoman territory, but also, e.g., during the Russo-Japanese war when a Russian fleet attacked British fishermen).
But there is at least one other reason to suspect that this is about the Crimean War, and that is the soldier's refusal to let the girl come with him. This was, of course, a common theme in song, and one that predates the Crimean War. But it became particularly important around the time of the Crimean War, when the British military started excluding women in any capacity. Arthur Herman, To Rule the Waves, p. 453 footnote, notes that female sailors were "a regular feature of old navy life... one or two disguised themselves as men and served as ordinary ratings. All were expected to pitch in even in battle." He notes that two women even applied for medals for their service at Trafalgar, but were turned down -- "the precedent would prompt 'innumerable applications' from other women veterans." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: LO31

Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me)

DESCRIPTION: "I would not marry a doctor; He's always killing the sick." "I would not marry a blacksmith...." The girl praises the soldier/railroader: "O soldier boy, o soldier boy, O soldier boy for me; If ever I get married, A soldier's wife I'll be"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (published by C. B. Ball)
KEYWORDS: soldier marriage courting railroading technology humorous rejection
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 461-465, "A Railroader for Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 154, "The Railroad Man" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 374-377, "The Guerrilla Boy" (4 texts, 1 tune; the second of two texts filed as "C" is this song)
Randolph 493, "The Railroader" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 373-375, "The Railroader" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 493)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 5, "Miss, Will You Have a Farmer's Son" (1 text, probably edited so the girl wants a California Boy and then again so she wants a Southerner, but too similar in style to file separately); 17, "I Wouldn't Marry" (7 text (some short) plus 6 excerpts, 1 fragment, and mention of 5 more, of which ""F" and the fragments "G" and "I" belong here)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 272, "Soldier Boy for Me" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 68, "Soldier Boy for Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 215, "A Railroader for Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 465, "A Railroader for Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 21, pp. 136-139, "The Buckskin Shirt" (1 text, 1 tune, a strange composite starting with "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man) [Laws H4]), breaks into a cowboy version of "Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me)," and concludes with a stanza describing the happy marriage between the two)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 235, 242, "I Will Not Marry a Farmer" (1 fragment)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 170, "(I wouldna have a baker, ava, va, va)" (1 short text, of this type but perhaps not this song)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 343, "Daughters Will You Marry" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, p. 234, "I WIll Not Marry a Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Maud Jacobs and Pearl Jacobs Borusky)
cf. Kinloch-TheBalladBook IV, pp. 14-15 (no title) (1 text, beginning, "Awa wi' your slavery hireman," probably not this song but based on the same idea; Roud #8152)
cf. _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 42, #1 (1997), p, 72-73, "Maedli, Witt Do Heiere? (Young Girl, Will You Marry?)" (1 text, 1 tune, a Pennsylvania Dutch analog to the "Daughter Will You Marry?" type of song)
ST R493 (Full)
Roud #1302
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "A Railroader for Me" (on LEnglish01)
May Kennedy McCord, "The Railroader" (AFS 5301 A2, 1941; on LC61)
Pete Seeger, "Daughter Will You Marry" (on PeteSeeger11)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Farmer and the Shanty Boy" (theme: professional comparison)
cf. "The Husbandman and the Servingman" (theme: professional comparison)
cf. "The Plooman Laddie (I)" (theme: professional comparison)
cf. "The Bonnie Mason Laddie" (lyrics; theme: professional comparison)
cf. "Yon Bonnie Lad" (theme: professional comparison)
cf. "I'll Never, Never Marry the Blacksmith Lad" (theme: professional comparison)
cf. "The Tailor He's Been Seekin' Me" (theme: professional comparison)
cf. "Oh But I'm Weary" (theme: professional comparison)
cf. "Dialogue entre Deux Metis: Le Cultivateur et la Chasseur (The Hunter and the Farmer)" (theme: professional comparison)
cf. "Jinny Go Round and Around" (plot)
cf. "Fond of Chewing Gum" (floating verses)
cf. "A Farmer's Life for Me" (theme)
NOTES [424 words]: It will be observed that the preferred occupation in this song can be almost anything -- and the rejected occupations can truly be anything at all. Cohen, p. 464, compares eight texts. All of them list farmer as one of the occupations, and six list blacksmith, but there are 11 other occupations mentioned in one or another text. - RBW
C. B. Ball published this piece in 1907, but it's hard to believe he actually wrote it (at least in that year); the diverse collections by Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety (collected 1910!) , Randolph and Sharp clearly imply that it is older. - (PJS), RBW
Cohen notes that the Ball text is the first to mention railroads; it may be that Ball adapted an older song to the railroads. There is, however, one interesting side note: Laura Ingalls Wilder, By the Shores of Silver Lake, chapter 6, quotes a "railroad man" version. If Laura actually heard the song then, we could date the "railroad" versions to 1879. But, of course, Laura was writing not-quite-autobiography, and writing it more than fifty years later. So that's not a very good indication of date.
Some elements of this sort of song are very ancient indeed. British Library MS. Additional 38666 contains a marginal poem, probably written between 1450 and 1500, which Rossell Hope Robbins calls "The Clerk and the Husbandman." As it stands, it is a discussion of love, not occupations, and Robbins believes much of it derived from a Latin piece. But it also has elements of this sort of piece. The text as printed in Rossell Hope Robbins, Secular Lyrics of the XIVth and XVth Century, Oxford University Press, 1952, #181, pp. 180-181, opens,
As I cowth walke be-cause of recreacion
Be a grene wode syde as I kame,
I herde a meuose comynycacion
Be-twene a clerke and a husbandman.
There is also a poem by T. L. (T. Lanfiere?), supposed to have been written in the period 1650-1675, with the refrain "of all sorts of tradesmen a seaman for me"; a text is found in Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads (item LXXVI, pp. 149-151).
There is also an item in Francis Beaumont's 1607(?) play "The Knight of the Burning Pestle":
I would not be a serving-man
To carry a cloak-bag still,
Nor would I be a falconer
The greedy hawks to fill....
(Wine, Act IV, scene iv, lines 12-15 on p. 366; KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, which does not mark scenes, makes it Act IV, lines 332-336 on p. 97; on p. 141 of KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, it is lines 336--339. For more on "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," see the notes to "Three Merry Men.") (- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: R493

Soldier Boy of Gettysburg, The

DESCRIPTION: "The cannon’s mouth had ceased to hurl its deadly missiles through the air Its firing was no longer heard through murking clouds of dark despair." The mortally wounded boy bids farewell to mother. They bury him beneath a tree
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Rickaby Collection)
KEYWORDS: soldier death burial war mother Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 1-3, 1863 - Battle of Gettysburg. The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee invades Pennsylvania and is pursued by the Union Army of the Potomac under newly-appointed commander George Gordon Meade. The two armies meet at Gettysburg, Pennsyvania, with Lee's army attacking on the first day but eventually having its last offensive fail with the repulse of "Pickett's Charge"; the Confederates have to return to Virginia. Each side takes between 20,000 and 25,000 casualties, or between a quarter and a third of their strength
FOUND IN: US(NE)
ST SolBoyGe (Partial)
NOTES [483 words]: Franz Rickaby collected this in 1922 from Mrs. L. L. Taylor of Forbes, North Dakota. Taylor, the former Miss L. L. Rose, learned it from her mother, Mrs. Alice Gary Rose. Her father was a solder, but it is not clear from Rickaby's note if he served in the Civil War or in some other context.
The text and tune collected by Rickaby were never published but remained in his papers. When Dykstra and Leary republished Rickaby (the book cited as Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra), they mentioned this song but did not publish it.
Minnie Aline had heard it from her own father (born 1888); the family came from Manitoba to Oregon in 1898. Aline's father reported learning it from his mother, who is thought to have had it from a neighbor. Aline had never found any other versions until she found a reference to Rickaby in something I wrote. She then managed to find Rickaby's version. The two texts are in the Supplemental Tradition.
It looks like a broadside, but I have never seen it, and no one I've asked has ever heard of it either. But many thanks are due to Ms. Aline for preserving it and for bringing it to my attention.
I note that the author of this piece had almost certainly never been near a Civil War battlefield. Ordinary soldiers did not carry swords; only officers and cavalrymen had bladed weapons. And cavalry losses at Gettysburg were slight, although infantry losses were extremely high. And while there were boy officers, there weren't many. So it is unlikely that it is about an actual person. (Though I am reminded of the "boy major," Joseph Latimer, who was mortally wounded at Gettysburg and died on August 1, 1863, about a month before he turned twenty. But he was a Confederate, serving in Ewell's Second Corps of Lee's army. And he was carried away from the field; he died, a month after the battle, of gangrene that set in in his amputated arm.)
The texts as preserved don't show any knowledge of the battlefield, either, except a mention of trees. The field at Gettysburg was not as heavily wooded as, say, the Wilderness or Chickamauga, but there were trees there: Culp's Hill, the anchor of the Union right flank, fought over on all three days, was heavily wooded. The assault on the Union left flank on the second day went through the Peach Orchard, and some Rebel troops went around heavily wooded Big Round Top to get at less-wooded Little Round Top. And Pickett's Charge was directed toward the "little clump of trees" on Cemetery Ridge.
Although the words are neutral as to which side the boy served on, the fact that the Battle of Antietam is called by that name, and not the "Battle of Sharpsburg," says it is a Union song. This is further supported by the fact that the boy was buried in the field; since the Union kept possession of the ground, it would have been easier for Union forces to bury a comrade in the field. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: SolBoyGe

Soldier Boy with Curly Hair, The

See The Last Fierce Charge [Laws A17] (File: LA17)

Soldier Bride's Lament, The

See The Lowlands of Holland (File: R083)

Soldier Came to a Bonnie Lassie's Window, A

DESCRIPTION: "A soldier came to a bonnie lassie's window." She says, "I winna lat in my red coat sodger To do as he has done before." He says he'd just stand sentry over her room. She questions why he takes off shoes and stockings; "nor do I mean to fright the cat"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: seduction dialog nightvisit soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 790, "A Soldier Came to a Bonnie Lassie's Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6199
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Young Munro" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
File: GrD4790

Soldier for Jesus

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I'm a soldier for Jesus Enlisted for the war, And I'll fight until I die." Verses are about a "soldier of the cross"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious battle
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, pp. 27-28, "Soldier for Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Rev. Stephen D. Shaffer, Pilgrim Songster (Zanesville: Shaffer, 1848 ("Digitized by the Internet Archive")), p. 211, ("A soldier for Jesus, Ive listed in the war, And I'll fight until I die")
NOTES [168 words]: The description is based on the Barton-OldPlantationHymns text.
The first verse is a two-line excerpt from "Am I a Soldier of the Cross." Barton-OldPlantationHymns's remaining verses are couplets, not from that hymn: "This is the way I long have sought And mourned because I found it not" and "I've got my breastplate, sword and shield And I will die upon the field." The latter verse is reminiscent of another Moody and Sankey verse, "Then gird on the sword of the Spirit, With helmet, and breastplate, and shield; And valiantly follow your Captain, Determined you will never yield" (Ira D. Sankey, Sacred Songs and Solos Twelve Hundred Hymns (London: Collins, n.d.), #671, ("Awake! for the trumpet is sounding"); "Am I a Soldier of the Cross" is also in Sankey and Moody [#672]. Sankey and Moody is now a convenient collection, but was not yet printed when Barton collected his hymns.)
Shaffer does not print the entire song. The excerpt is listed in a section headed "A Collection of Choice Choruses." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart027C

Soldier from Missouri, The [Laws A16]

DESCRIPTION: A dying soldier sends a message to his home in Kansas. Having become a rebel at the urging of his neighbors and sweetheart; he regrets not following his mother's cautious advice
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Wehman, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: soldier death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws A16, "The Soldier from Missouri"
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 133, "The Soldier from Missouri" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 213, "A Soldier from Missouri" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 203-205, "A Soldier from Missouri" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 213A)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 494-495, "Along the Kansas Line" (1 text)
DT 365, SOLDMISS
Roud #2206
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Kansas Line
NOTES [18 words]: Neither Randolph nor Laws mentions the fact, but Cohen considers this a parody of "Bingen on the Rhine." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: LA16

Soldier Lad, The

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)

Soldier Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a maiden, runs away from her parents and enlists as a soldier/sailor. She proves highly successful. Sent home to recruit, a woman falls in love with the "soldier boy." The other woman betrays her secret; the woman is cashiered.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Greig/Duncan1)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer enlists as a (drummer/sailor) (and fights "with the Noble Duke of York at the siege of Valenciennes"). Her "fingers neat and small" makes her the best drummer. She sleeps with the men but remains "a maiden all the while," Sent as a guard to the Tower of London a girl falls in love with her, she reveals her secret which the girl betrays to the regiment. She is given a bounty by the queen for her courage, marries and teaches her husband to drum, and would enlist again "if the (Queen/Duke) be short of men"
KEYWORDS: soldier sailor love disguise trick cross-dressing betrayal war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 24-July 28, 1793 - Siege of Valenciennes by the Allies including the British under the Duke of York (source: Campaigns in the Online Encyclopedia site "Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 182 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica")
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland,England(Lond,South)) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H497, p. 326, "The Drummer Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #104, p. 2, "The Soldier Maid" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 182, "The Soldier Maid" (6 texts, 6 tunes); 183, "The Female Soldier" (1 fragment)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 311, "The Soldier Maid" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 567, "Female Drummer" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 568, "To Beat the Drum Again"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 248, "To Beat the Drum Again" (2 texts)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #7, "The Female Drummer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 34-36, "The Female Drummer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 346-347, "The Soldier Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SAILMAID* SOLDMAID
ST DTsoldma (Full)
Roud #226
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "The Female Drummer" (on HCox01)
Mary Ann Haynes, "The Female Drummer" (on Voice11)
Mrs. Clara Stevens, "The Soldier Maid" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(132), "The Female Drummer" ("A maiden I was at the age of sixteen"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(2338), Harding B 11(1187), Harding B 11(1188), Firth c.14(165), Firth c.14(166), Firth c.14(168), Harding B 11(970), Harding B 17(93b), Harding B 11(969), Harding B 11(2505), Harding B 16(93c), 2806 c.16(67), Harding B 20(240)[some words illegible], "The Female Drummer"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks o' Skene" (plot)
cf. "The Drum Major (The Female Drummer)" (plot)
cf. "Lauchie" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Handsome Young Sailor
When I Was a Fair Maid
The Drummer Girl
NOTES [3430 words]: The [long] description is from broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.17(132). In Mary Ann Haynes's version on Voice11 her secret is revealed when she is wounded on the battlefield and she would enlist again "If our old queen was to go short and never want of men." The queen is a character in all versions (the broadsides are almost identical to each other) but not as an indication there is no king. Possibly this is a side reference to one of King George III's bouts of "madness" (porphyria).
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 11" - 11.9.02 cites broadsides from c.1655 to 1689, predating the Siege of Valenciennes. Between 1689 and 1793 the Musical Traditions notes that "Roy Palmer ... [reports] there was indeed a female drummer at Valenciennes by the name of Mary Ann Talbot (1778 - 1808). In 1809 Talbot was the subject of a book The Life and Surprising Adventures of Mary Ann Talbot."
Greig/Duncan1 seems to me a minor change to two lines of "The Soldier Maid." - BS
Ben Schwartz originally described his texts of "The Female Drummer" as separate from "The Soldier Maid." As the above makes clear, the song evolved heavily over time -- e.g. the localization to Valenciennes. I consider "The Female Drummer" a special case of "The Soldier Maid," though, and have lumped accordingly.
This song has proved very popular with folk revival singers. It doesn't seem to have been quite as popular in tradition, though by no means rare (the notes in Henry/Huntington/Herrmann list only fifteen traditional texts, mostly from Greig, but many Pop Folk recordings). - RBW
For extensive cross references and commentary on women warriors, cross-dressing women in the military, and gender roles in Anglo-American balladry consult
Diane Dugaw, Warrior Women and Popular Balladry, 1650-1850, Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1996. 250 pp. - DGE
The theme is ancient and well-known. Edith Fowke quotes Belden, "The figure of the Maiden Warrior (as she is called in some of the English broadsides of the seventeenth century) has appealed to the human imagination from the days of Theseus and Hippolyta in the Mediterranean countries and of Alfred and Alfhind in the Baltic, down through the Britomart and the Mary Ambree of Elizabethan England, to our own time."
Indeed, it even shows up in saints' lives. Michael P. Kuczynski, on pp. 141-142 of Fein, describes the story of an obscure saint, presumably local to England and perhaps even to Herefordshire, Saint Marina. Her father prays to God that he be virtuous -- and God, being perhaps a little too literal and having read too many monks' tales praising chastity, kills Marina's mother so her father won't be tempted by the flesh. The father joins a monastery -- but, not wanting to separate from his daughter, convinces her to dress as a monk and join him there. She is a good monk -- until a woman accuses her of fathering the other woman's child (!), whereupon Marina is forced from the monastery to care for the child. When she dies, her sex is revealed and her honor restored.
George III's madness, mentioned by Ben, is a controversial point. That he was not very clever is hard to deny. That he had bouts of *something* is also quite clear. The diagnosis of porphyria was suggested in the 1960s in Macalpine/Hunter, who showed what they thought was a chain of disease going all the way back to Mary Queen of Scots (Macalpine/Hunter, pp. 201-212) and her cousin Arabella Stuart, implying that it was present as early as the English King Henry VII (Macalpine/Hunter, pp. 212-214) , but Peters, p. 4, notes that many of George's symptoms do not match porphyria.
It is certain that Macalpine/Hunter trace an astonishingly long line of porphyria (see the charts on p. 196), and claim to have evidence from twentieth century royals. In the absence of genetic testing, that seems impossibly long. and recent genetic testing has apparently been less than conclusive (Lyon, p. 306 n. 21).
Peters seems to argue that George's condition was bipolar disorder with obsessive compulsive disorder eventually leading to dementia. It appears to me that this ignores some of George's symptoms also -- the king certainly had physical problems, and while his doctors doubtless made them worse with their poisonous nostrums, the problems were manifest before the quacks moved in. Emsley, p. 299, notes the interesting fact that George's discoloured urine, a possible symptom of porphyria, is also a side effect of lead poisoning. Indeed, porphyria and lead poisoning display many of the same symptoms -- and lead poisoning can aggravate the symptoms of porphyria.
Emsley, p. 132, says that a sample of George III's hair contained more than ten times the normal level of lead (and an even higher excess of arsenic, plus a little excess mercury).
Emsley apparently thinks that George III suffered both porphyria and lead poisoning, but his statements seem to imply that lead poisoning -- caused perhaps by the king's liking for sauerkraut and lemonade (both of which could extract lead from lead-glazed pottery), or perhaps by the other medicines given him -- would have sufficed to cause his illness. We perhaps have to simply say that George III was not of sound mind and leave it there.
Nonetheless the mention of George III's madness helps us with the dating, since Valenciennes was fought over more than once. Valenciennes was one of the great border forts Louis XIV used to protect from invasions from the Netherlands, and was first fought over in July 1656 when the Prince de Conde (at that time serving the Spanish) forced the Vicomte de Turenne (then a French officer) to give up the siege of Valenciennes.
Admittedly there is no particular reason to think that English soldiers would be involved in that; Oliver Cromwell did not commit English troops to the fight (on the side of the French) until 1657.
George III had his first fit of madness in 1788, with later bouts in 1801, 1804, and from 1810 until his death in 1820 (Peters, p. 4). That first spell of madness, we note, started before the French Revolution.
The first attack on Valenciennes (then held by the Austrians) was undertaken by the French in late April 1792. It failed utterly. A second attempt, in June, managed to take Courtrai, but then collapsed (Pope, p. 495). Most of Belgium finally fell that fall (Pope, p. 189).
In 1793, the English put a force in Flanders under the Duke of York (George II's second son) which was supposed to reconquer Belgium. They managed, after a long siege, to retake Valenciennes (Pope, p. 189), but the Allied army then broke up as the individual nations pursued their own aims. York stayed in command until 1795, but his ineffectiveness was sufficient that he became the subject of parody; many think "The Noble Duke of York" is about him (Pope, p. 525, but see the notes to that song).
Incidentally, there are many historical records of women running off to join the army and navy. Herman, p. 224, tells of a woman (unnamed) who fought at La Hogue (1692) aboard the St. Andrew and was later invited to meet the queen. Davies, p. 166, says that a woman served on the French ship Achille at Trafalgar; she had enlisted to be near her husband, and was freed by the British after the ship was captured (compare Cordingly, p. 104). Cordingly, pp. 54-56, mentions a book by Suzanne Stark which documents about twenty women who served in the navy, one of whom, "William Brown," served during the Napoleonic Wars and became Captain of the Foretop, and later captain of the Forecastle, in the first-rate Queen Charlotte. That is a significant accomplishment for any sailor. She was eventually discovered, but managed to rejoin; records are not available to show her eventual fate.
Mary Lacy/William Chandler managed to serve in the Royal Navy so long that she actually gained a disability pension after being injured in shipwright's work (Cordingly, pp. 56-60). Rebecca Young, the subject of "The Female Rambling Sailor," died while in disguise in 1833 (Cordingly, p. 63). Hannah Snell's service in the navy became so famous that it earned her a job as an act in a sort of circus (Cordingly, pp. 68-70); she also became the subject of a much-exaggerated biography.
Mayo, pp. 79-84, tells of a Massachusetts woman named Deborah Samson who served in the American Revolutionary War (joining the army as "Robert Shurtleff" in 1782) and was badly injured at Tarrytown. She was discovered during an illness in 1783. She died at age 66 in 1827 of yellow fever. Her husband applied for a widower's pension -- the first ever granted by congress.
Carruth, p. 149, says that one Lucy Brewer served on the U. S. S. Constitution during the War of 1812 under the name "Nicolas Baker." Cordingly, pp. 47-52, gives details on this account: Brewer claimed to have had a child by a man who abandoned her, run away from home, become a prostitute, then gone to sea. She published three books about this career, later combined as a single volume The Female Marine, which went through multiple editions before 1820. Even her former madam published a book about the girl (and, of course, claimed that Brewer had enjoyed her work and that her real name was Eliza Bowen). Cordingly, p. 53, does point out that the whole account has been shown to be fiction -- but surely many people in the nineteenth century believed it.
Cordingly, pp. 90-91, notes in addition that many naval ships had wives aboard -- especially the wives of the standing (warrant) officers, such as the gunner and carpenter. These sailors were allowed to take their wives aboard because they were theoretically assigned to their ships for life -- if their families did not come along, they could never see them. Of course, these wives were not in disguise (although the Admiralty tried to ban them; Cordingly, p. 92). But the point is, ships were more used to women than we sometimes think. We have records of four women aboard the Goliath at the Battle of the Nile, for instance -- and, to some extent, taking part in the fighting (Cordingly, p. 103).
As early as the Revolutionary War, we see disguised women fighting on the American side (Blanton/Cook, pp. 5-6). This was probably relatively easy to pull off in the colonial armies, which were anything but organized.
There are fairly extensive records of female soldiers in the American Civil War. At least two modern books on the subject have been written, Tsui's and Blanton/Cook's. Sadly, our personal knowledge of these women is slight -- as Blanton/Cook note on p. 2, most female soldiers were in disguise and did not write home or keep journals. Blanton/Cook catalog many of these women on pp. 10-24, but rarely have more than a few sentences about any of them. I would estimate that two-thirds of the female soldiers mentioned by Blanton/Cook are inadequately identified.
Still, we know that at least three women served in the Army of the Potomac during the winter of 1862/1863; Sears, p. 79, notes a case of two soldiers who slept together; one was found to be a woman when she became sick. Pregnancy was often the cause of detection: in the 118th Pennsylvania, "'Corporal Blank' reported sick one evening and was sent to the hospital tent for examination, 'said examination causing a great commotion among the doctors and hospital attendants.... In the course of the night Corporal Blank gave birth to a fine boy -- a genuine child of the regiment." There was also a case in the 107th Pennsylvania, and reportedly one in a New Jersey regiment in the First Corps, and one among Massachusetts troops in the Sixth Corps. In one case, the woman was serving alongside her husband.
We have far more names of women who tried to volunteer and were rejected (e.g. Blanton/Cook, pp. 25-26). Such women of course could not be the subject of this song; they merely give additional evidence that women were willing to serve. Blanton/Cook, p. 28, note that a significant number of examiners were willing to let wives, especially newlyweds, join with their husbands; they imply that this was one of the major causes of female enlistment..
Still, a few female soldiers were better documented; e few even became officers: Cuban immigrant Loreta Janeta Velazquez reportedly served as "Lt. Henry Buford" from 1861 until discovered in 1863, though many of the stories about her are self-reported and dubious. Tsui, p. 29, even reprints a woodcut of her in uniform, with a mustache and beard. (I must admit to finding this account pretty unreliable. I am not alone -- but Blanton/Cook, p. 2, claim that many of her statements can be verified. On the other hand, on p. 9, they say she could not procure a regular commission, yet managed to serve at the very first major battle at Bull Run, after which she started writing her own orders and claims to have been wounded at Shiloh. She may have hung around the Confederate armies, but I think they are taking her memoirs too seriously.)
Whatever you think of Velasquez's yarns, the Confederates did deliberately commission one female officer, Sally Louisa Tompkins -- though she was commissioned to allow her to run a hospital. (Women were allowed to serve as nurses in the war -- Blanton/Cook, p. 66, mention that there were thousands of paid female nurses in the Union medical system -- although the majority of nurses at this time were male.)
On the other hand, it's hard to believe two stories found on p. 67 of Blanton/Cook. Supposedly a 12-year-old girl served as a regimental clerk, and it is claimed that a Black woman, Maria Lewis, impersonated a white man.
This is apart from the well-documented cases of women serving as spies. There were, of course, a lot of women who carried intelligence (with the overrated Belle Boyd being the most famous), and some who did it professionally. But this involved no disguise -- and most accounts I have seen say that spies made very little difference in the Civil War; there was little attempt to suppress newspaper accounts, so the military could get better information from enemy papers.
Several of these tales resemble folk songs. For example, we have several cases where, like the Handsome Cabin Boy, a woman is pregnant while on service. On p. 11, Blanton/Cook claim that a woman fought at the battle of Stones River/Murfreesboro while five months pregnant -- although they do not give her name. They also mention on pp. 13-15 a pregnant woman serving in the Seven Days' Battles, and staying with the army and fighting two more battles before giving birth -- and don't give her a name either. They also describe on p. 54 a New Jersey woman who gave birth while in the ranks and was discovered as a result -- but she too is unnamed (possibly this is one of the women mentioned by Sears). They also seem to imply (p. 72) that this woman was promoted from private to corporal to sergeant. It is not clear how many of these women became pregnant while in service, but odds are that the first two, at least, conceived after they entered the military, since most soldiers in the armies involved had been inducted before the women became pregnant.
Blanton/Cook, p. 32, do note that there are several known instances of a woman running away to be a soldier alongside her lover because the parents had disapproved of her young man. They also note, on pp. 41-42, women who went to war to avenge a relative or lover.
According to Blanton/Cook, p. 62, it was not uncommon for several men in the ranks to know that one of their comrades was female. The young women generally were not discharged unless one of their officers found out.
Tsui profiles several disguised soldiers, but by no means all -- a woman named Mollie Bean fought in the 47th North Carolina regiment, and was used as a major character in Harry Turtledove's historical science fiction novel The Guns of the South. Turtledove offers as her reason a desire to escape a career as a prostitute. He admits that this is pure fiction, but Blanton/Cook, p, 36, cite several women who joined the Union army to escape such a career. Bean, when discovered, claimed to have served with the regiment for two years and to have taken two wounds, but was judged "manifestly crazy" (Hess, p. 287). But there is no question but that "Keith" Blalock and his wife Sarah Malinda Pritchard Blalock (who used the name "Sam Blalock" to enlist) enlisted in the 26th North Carolina, though they were unionists who wanted to escape Confederate service and she revealed her sex after a month to get out (Hess, pp. 20-21). But they later returned to combat -- as Unionist guerillas; both Keith and Malinda suffered injuries in the course of what was both a part of the Civil War and a local vendetta (Hess, p. 317).
Although tales of female Civil War soldiers seem to be common, they cannot have inspired all the songs of this time; Blanton/Cook, p. 42, say that several Civil War soldiers were inspired by stories of the Female Warrior Bold.
Tsui, p. 1, states that "Scholars today estimate that about 250 women joined the Southern troops and that up to 1,000 women may have enlisted in both the Confederate and Union armies." I do not know the basis for this estimate -- it sounds as if it might just be a case of "There's one in every regiment!" Though in fact that would give a somewhat higher figure for the Federals. Based on the statistical totals in Phisterer, the Union armies eventually mustered the equivalent of about 1830 regiments of volunteers, plus 130 regiments of Black troops, 30 regiments of regulars, and about 50 regiments of soldiers from Confederate states. That's roughly two million men in arms. So it was really a case of "There's one in every brigade."
There were far more than that with the British army in many of its fights; according to Cordingly, p. 93, there were about 4500 women with the British Army in the Peninsular campaign during the Napoleonic Wars.
Amazingly, a woman reportedly led a company of Mexican lancers, more or less openly, at the Battle of Monterrey in 1846 (Wheelan, p. 193).
Supposedly the first woman to circumnavigate the globe began her voyage in disguise. Jeanne Baret was a French botanist, the assistant (and, probably, lover) of another biologist, Philibert de Commerson. Commerson was chosen to be the official botanist aboard the Etoile on Louis Antoine de Bougainville's great exploratory voyage of 1766.
Commerson was allowed an assistant, but French naval regulations did not permit women on board ship, so Commerson and Baret resorted to a subterfuge. Commerson kept rejecting potential assistants until it was time to sail, and then had Baret show up, disguised as a man, at the last minute. He made it appear that he hired her on the docks, whereupon they set sail -- and the Etoile's captain made things easier by letting the two botanists take over his cabin.
Baret made it halfway around the world, but was discovered -- and, very possibly, raped -- in the Pacific. Bougainville dumped Commerson and Baret in Mauritius; it took them until 1775 to make it back to France (Bougainville had arrived home in 1769).
It is of course possible that an earlier women, perhaps in disguise, had made it around the globe, but Baret does appear to be the first documented instance. She is the subject of a recent book by Glynis Ridley, The Discovery of Jeanne Baret, A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe.
It's interesting to note how "folkloric" some of these women's stories sound. For example, Tsui, pp. 8-9, says that Sarah Emma Edwards ran away from home at fifteen to avoid being married, and at twenty she enlisted in a Michigan regiment as Franklin Thompson (Tsui, p. 10), though she served primarily as a medical attendant rather than a front line soldier. She also fell in love with at least one of her officers (pp. 17-18). Later on, she would desert (p. 20). Must have been quite the character....
The very earliest instance of a cross-dressing woman being revealed by accident, however, seems to go back all the way to classical Greece. According to Jones, p. 50, at the Olympics in 440 B.C.E., a widow, Kallipateira, had a son who was entered in the boxing event. Women were excluded from watching, so she disguised herself as a man. When her son was victorious, she leapt onto the field and her clothing tore, revealing her gender. Women who watched the games were supposed to be killed; she, however, was spared because the boy had won, but the rules for competitors and trainers were tightened after that -- arguably the beginning of gender testing in sports. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: DTsoldma

Soldier of Late, A

See The Bold Soldier [Laws M27] (File: LM27)

Soldier of the Cross, A

DESCRIPTION: "I am a soldier of the cros, A follower of the lamb, I shall not fear to own his cause Nor blush to speak his name." "Sure I must fight if I would reigh, Increase my courage, Lord...."
AUTHOR: Words: Isaac Watts
EARLIEST DATE: 1724 (Watts's "Serrmons," according to John Julian, editor, _A Dictionary of Hymnology_, 1892)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad soldier
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 86, "A Soldier of the Cross" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #90, "The Indian's Hymn" (1 text, 1 tune, with an unusual chorus, partly of tones without words, added)
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 9, "Soldier of the Cross"; p. 29, "Crowned Him Lord of All" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #5028
RECORDINGS:
William Jennings leading Asbury-Town Neck United Methodist Church Singing and Praying Band, "Am I a Soldier of the Cross" (on USPrayingBands01)
NOTES [201 words]: According to John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 55, this is said to have been written to accompany a sermon on 1 Corinthians 16:13.
William Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal, Broadman Press, 1976, p. 164, reports that the tune Arlington "is adapted from the minuet in the overture to Thomas A. Arne's Artaxerxes, an opera produced in London in 1762. Ralph Harrison made the hymn tune adaptation" which was published in Harrison's 1784 Sacred Harmony. The "Arlington" melody has been used for several other hymns, but this is the only popular one. - RBW
The verse of Barton-OldPlantationHymns "Crowned Him Lord of All" is "Soldier of the Cross." The chorus is similar to the chorus of a number of hymns. Examples, from F. E. Belden, Christ in Song (Washington: Review and Herald Publishing Assn,1908 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")): #257 "Crown Him"; #258 "Crown Him Lord of All"; #259 "The Power of Jesus' Name." - BS
[See especially in this index "All Hail the Power of Jesus's Name." - RBW]
The USPrayingBands01 track is lined out as a "Dr Watts" hymn. Lining out begins after the first chorus. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ChFRA086

Soldier of the Jubilee

DESCRIPTION: Leader: "I'm a noble soldier (Too young to marry)." Response: "Soldier of the Jubilee." Leader: "I'm gettin' old and crippled in my knee." Response: "Soldier of the Cross"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (see notes re Pearson)
KEYWORDS: nonballad worksong religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Elizabeth Ware Pearson, editor, _Letters From Port Royal_ (Boston: W.B. Clarke Co., 1906 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 28, "(Oh, Jacob's Ladder)" (1 text)
Marshall W. Taylor, _A Collection of Revival Hymns and Plantation Melodies" (Cincinnati, 1890 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #26, pp. 49-50, "Christian Warfare" (1 text, 1 tune)
G.D. Pike, _The Jubilee Singers_ (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1873 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 213, "I'm Going to Live with Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
James Cook, "Soldier of the Jubilee" (on McIntosh1)
NOTES [648 words]: Art Rosenbaum's liner notes to McIntosh1: "This is ... a work song, or shanty, that James Cook used early in the century when he worked as a stevedore in the port of Darien, stowing pine timbers that had been rafted down the Altahama River ...." (p. 5).
While not a religious song one of the responses is from hymns like "A Soldier of the Cross." The Jubilee reference to Emancipation is also a familiar theme in Black hymns.
Pearson includes a letter dated April 1862 from H.W. -- Hariet Ware, according to Epstein -- quoting a song that she assumes was created by the black man she talks to -- Cuffy. He deacons -- that is, lines out -- the verse "Oh Jacob's ladder, Climb high. Climb higher!" and the chorus "Oh sodier [sic] of de jubilee. When you get dere 'member me. Oh! sodier of de cross!" Pearson refers to the intentional omission of this song from Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates. Page xviii of the introduction to that book says, "Cuffee at Pine Grove did, to be sure, confess himself the author 'Climb Jacob's Ladder;' unfortunately, we afterwards found it in a Northern hymn book." That is to say, the song was omitted because the authors thought it was not a black traditional spiritual. So far, I have only found the song in the ADDITIONAL references listed above and hope someone can find an earlier Northern hymnal source found by the authors of Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates. It is ironic that this hymn survived long enough to be recorded by the traditionalist McIntosh County Shouters.
Was "Soldier of the Jubilee" a work song or a religious song? It was both. In an 1862 letter, Lucy McKim explained how that worked: "As the same songs are sung at every sort of work, of course the tempo is not always alike. On the water, the oars dip 'Poor Rosy' to an even andante; a stout boy and girl at the hominy-mill will make the same 'Poor Rosy' fly, to keep up with the whirling stone; and in the evening, after the day's work is done, 'Heab'n shall-a be my home' peals up slowly and mournfully from the distant quarters." (Lucy McKim, "Songs of the Port Royal 'Contrabands'" in Dwight's Journal of Music, Vol. 22, No. 6 (Whole No. 553), (Boston, Nov. 8, 1862 (Dwight's Journal of Music, Vol. 22, is "Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 255). "Poor Rosy" is indexed here as a religious song.
The songs collected between the "Port Royal experiment" of the Civil War and Lydia Parrish's Slave Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands of 1942 were collected by white observers. During those times, in that Sea Islands area, as seen by those observers, secular work songs had been replaced at work by black spirituals. Some verses could seem secular but the tone of the song remained religious. What verse text was acceptable was arguable, and, as reported by the white observers, was argued about. How this situation developed out of the Second Great Awakening and the influence of white Evangelical ministers is one story; how it survived the influence of white Northern school teachers and the influence of the white Northern church is another.
The best secondary source I know for this is Dena J. Epstein's Sinful Tunes and Spirituals (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981). Epstein quotes her primary sources, rather than just referring to them; now, almost all of her primary sources are available online, so you can dig into the context of her quotations. Facing the title page of her 1981 paperback is the following quotation: "I told them everything was sinful which was not done with a single eye to God's glory" from George Whitefield's Journal, December 6, 1739. Don't be fooled by the title: this is a history book and not one for song texts and tunes.
The McIntoshShouters-RingShoutSongs track is a work song. James Cook learned it working as a stevedore stowing pine timber aboard schooners early in the 20th century. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcSootJu

Soldier of the Legion, A

See Bingen on the Rhine (File: Abrr072)

Soldier Rode From the East to the West, A

See Trooper and Maid [Child 299] (File: C299)

Soldier Traveling from the North, The

See Trooper and Maid [Child 299] (File: C299)

Soldier, Soldier, Marry Me

See Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me (File: R065)

Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me

DESCRIPTION: The girl asks the soldier to marry her. He says that he lacks suit, shoes, whatnot. She runs off to the craftsmen and fetches him everything he mentions. Now well-equipped, he tells her that he already has a wife at home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: courting lie request rejection soldier dialog
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England(West),Scotland(Bord)) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (30 citations):
Randolph 65, "Soldier, Soldier, Marry Me" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 50, "Soldier, Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 261-262, "Soldier Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 7, "Soldier, Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (1 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 7, "Soldier, Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 89, "Soldier, Soldier, Won't You Marry Me" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 96, "Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me" (1 text)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 73-75, "Soldier, Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 90, "Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 103, "Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 254-257, "Soldier, Soldier" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 66-67, "Soldier, Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 78, "Soldier, Will You Marry Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, p. 61, "The Gallant Soldier" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #56, "Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me?" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 30-31, "Soldier, Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 305, "Soldier, Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 109, pp. 224-225, "Dutchman, Dutchman, Won't You Marry Me?" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 159, "Soldier, Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (1 text)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 51, "Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 157-158, "Soldier, Will You Marry Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 160, "Soldier, Will You Marry Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #68, "Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 104, "Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (1 text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #30, "Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 52-53, "Soldier, Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 344, "Soldier, Soldier, Won't You Marry Me" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 237, "Soldier, Soldier" (notes only)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 61, "Lazy John"; p. 67, "Soldier, Soldier" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
DT, SOLDMARR*
Roud #489
RECORDINGS:
Colin Keane, "Soldier, Soldier" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
Amy Michels, "Soldier John" (Piotr-Archive #162, recorded 05/10/2022)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me" (on NLCR10)
Russ Pike, "Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" (AFS, 1941; on LC02)
Roxana Robinson, "Soldier, Soldier" (Piotr-Archive #695, recorded 10/01/2023)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Soldier Will You Marry Me" (Columbia 15589-D, 1930)
Miriam "Mimi" Wright, "Soldier, Soldier, Won't You Marry Me Now?" (Piotr-Archive #352, recorded 11/09/2022)
NOTES [69 words]: The Amy Michels text is an interesting variant which, as usual, ends with the soldier saying he can't marry the girl, but says it is because of all the fine clothes rather than having a wife at home.
The "Lazy John" cited in SongsOfAllTime is genuinely this song, not the pop-folk song about a man toiling in the sun on for poor pay while envying the comfortable Lazy John, who seems to loaf in the shade all day. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R065

Soldier, Soldier, Won't You Marry Me

See Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me (File: R065)

Soldier, Soldier, You May Be

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Soldier, soldier, you may be Just come home from Germany."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas)
KEYWORDS: jumprope soldier home
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #523, "Soldier, soldier, you may be" (1 text)
Roud #22245
File: AJRR523

Soldier, Will You Marry Me?

See Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me (File: R065)

Soldier, Won't You Marry Me? (I)

See Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me (File: R065)

Soldier, Won't You Marry Me? (II)

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Soldier's Dream, The

DESCRIPTION: A soldier dreams the war is over and he was home with his wife and children, swearing "from my home and weeping friends never to part." Then he wakes up.
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Campbell / music: T. Attwood (source: Carpenter)
EARLIEST DATE: 1835 (_The Universal Songster_)
KEYWORDS: battle war home children friend wife soldier dream
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 167-168, "The Soldier's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 63-64, "Soldier's Dream" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2145, p. 144, "The Soldier's Dream" (7 references)
ADDITIONAL: The Universal Songster (Boston: Charles Gaylord, 1835 ("Digitized by Google") ), pp. 171-172, "The Soldier's Dream" ("Our bugles sang truce, for the night-cloud had lower'd") (1 text)
J.E. Carpenter, The Book of Modern Songs (London: G Routledge & Co, 1858 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 7, "The Soldier's Dream" ("Our bugles sang truce, for the night-cloud had lower'd") (1 text)
Roud #13899
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4318), "The Soldier's Dream" ("Our bugles sung truce for the night-cloud had lower'd"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 15(300a), 2806 c.19(29), 2806 c.19(29), Harding B 15(299a), 2806 d.31(22), Harding B 15(299b), Harding B 15(299b), Harding B 15(298a), Harding B 11(4317), Harding B 11(2497), Harding B 11(1891), Firth b.28(11a/b) View 4 of 8, Firth b.26(299), Harding B 15(298b), Firth c.14(223), Harding B 11(2829), Harding B 11(4319)[some words illegible], Harding B 11(3574), Harding B 11(3495), "The Soldier's Dream"
SAME TUNE:
Wandering Boy (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2829))
NOTES [40 words]: Although written a generation before the Civil War, this seems to have been popular during that conflict; Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 144, lists seven different broadsides by five different publishers. None of them seems to list an author. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: KiTu167

Soldier's Dying Wife, The

DESCRIPTION: A mother is dying. "How can I bear to leave my little children... No father near... away from here tonight in the army of the union... he loved his country children wife but country best of all." She leaves a note for her husband and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar war dying death patriotic soldier children wife
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 29, "The Soldiers Dying Wife" (1 text)
Roud #4267
File: MuLa029

Soldier's Epitaph

DESCRIPTION: "Born in North Carolina, Raised in Tennessee, Worked like hell in Georgia, Died in Germinee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 396, "Soldier's Epitaph" (1 short text)
Roud #11755
File: Br3396

Soldier's Fare, The

See Civil War Song (File: Hud115)

Soldier's Farewell (I), The

See Fare You Well, My Darling (File: R736)

Soldier's Farewell (II), The

See The Lad in the Scotch Brigade (The Banks of the Clyde) (File: LLab133)

Soldier's Farewell (III), The

See Trooper and Maid [Child 299] (File: C299)

Soldier's Farewell (IV), The

DESCRIPTION: "I met a little kitten in Wairoa, Bought her a big red ruby stone, Sunday I put it on her finder, Monday she left me alone." He tries to find the girl, without success. He sees the Sergeant Major and ships off to the war. "Goodbye to all you Kiwi girls!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: soldier war love separation ring
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 58-59, "The Soldier's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Clev058

Soldier's Farewell (V), The

DESCRIPTION: A soldier, about to leave for battle, tells his sweetheart that he has her picture near his heart. He is killed and his comrade tells her he was buried with her picture and "will wait for her in heaven" She asks why men invent the implements of war
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: grief love battle war parting separation death soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #27108
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Betty Deveraux, "The Soldier's Farewell" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3SoFar

Soldier's Farewell (VI), The

See The Dying Ranger [Laws A14] (File: LA14)

Soldier's Farewell (VII)

See Farewell, Farewell, My Own True Love (Soldier's Farewell) (File: HeSo221)

Soldier's Farewell (VII), The

DESCRIPTION: "I am dying, soldiers, dying, Soon you'll miss me from your camp, And your friend will soon be lying Beneath the earth so cold and damp.." The soldier sends farewells to his father, mother, wife. He blesses his wife and wishes he had seen her again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: soldier death separation farewell derivative
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Ed Cray), "Three Folksongs from North Carolina" Vol. XI, No. 1 (Jul 1963), p. 4, "Soldier's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Californian" (form, lyrics)
File: NCFXI04

Soldier's Funeral, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes a military funeral attended by the dead soldier's widow, orphan, and comrades. He will be forgotten by his comrades and even his orphan, horse, and dog. His widow will not forget him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin)
KEYWORDS: grief war death funeral music nonballad dog horse orphan wife soldier animal family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1861 - Death of E. Elmer Ellsworth
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 5, "Elsworths Funeral" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2150, pp. 144-145, "The Soldier's Funeral" (8 references)
ADDITIONAL: Wehman's Song Book [of 148 Songs] No. 59 (New York, n.d., digitized by Internet Archive), p. 15, "The Soldier's Funeral" (1 text) [see notes re source]
Roud #4278
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, cw105310, "Soldier's Funeral" ("Hark! To the shrill trumpet calling"), J.H. Johnson (Philadelphia), no date; also cw105300, "Soldier's Funeral"; cw104060, "The Officer's Funeral"
PopMusicMTSU, 94-017 Goldstein ID 001399-BROAD, "The Officer's Funeral" ("Hark! to the shrill trumpet calling"), J.H. Johnson (Philadelphia), 1858-1859 and 1863-1876; also 94-017 Goldstein ID 000610-BROAD, "Soldier's Funeral," A.W. Auner (Philadelphia), 1865-1874
VonWalthour, CD Drive>civil war songs>civil war songs(562), "Soldier's Funeral" ("Hark! to the shrill trumpet calling"), J.H. Johnson (Philadelphia), n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ellsworth's Avengers" (subject of Elmer Ellsworth)
cf. 'Colonel Ellsworth" (subject of Elmer Ellsworth)
NOTES [625 words]: The Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin song shares a number of lines with the broadsides. Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin: "... it appears likely that either the song commemorating Ellsworth's death was closely patterned after some general song of a soldier's death, or, that such a general song was fashioned from a song expressly composed on the death of Col. E.E. Ellsworth." The description follows the broadsides.
According to Broadside PopMusicMTSU, 94-017 Goldstein ID 001262-BROAD, "Assassination of Colonel Ellsworth, at Alexandria, VA., May 24th, 1861" ("Now friends I beg you listen, a sad story I will tell"), J.H. Johnson (Philadelphia), 1858-1859 and 1863-1876, "Ellsworth [commander] of the New York Fire Zouaves" was shot by a rebel in the town of Alexandria after tearing down "the flag of Secession" while "returning to his own brave boys."
Regarding Wehman's Collection Norm Cohen writes, "Songbook #6 was undated, but most likely 1884-5." Each page except the first is headed Wehman's Universal Songster. The first page is undated but states, "Published Quarterly -- January, April, July and October. Norm Cohen's Finding List ... has WE29, Universal Songster as "monthly serial ... [beginning] 1881 (Norm Cohen, A Finding List of American Secular Songsters Published Between 1860 and 1899 (Murfreesboro: Middle Tennessee State University), p. 150).
Broadsides LOCSinging cw105310 and VonWalthour, CD Drive>civil war songs>civil war songs(562) appear to be the same edition.
Broadsides LOCSinging cw104060 and PopMusicMTSU, 94-017 Goldstein ID 001399-BROAD appear to be the same edition. - BS
According to Mark M. Boatner III, The Civil War Dictionary, 1959 (there are many editions of this very popular work; mine is a Knopf hardcover), pp. 263-264, Colonel Ellsworth was one of the first noteworthy casualties on the Union side in the Civil War. Ephraim Elmer Ellsworth was born in 1837, and had organized what amounted to a parade troupe; they had performed at the White House in 1860. He had come to Washington with Lincoln, and when the war broke out, he tried to join the War Department, then went off to raise the 11th New York Regiment -- a fancy outfit of Zouaves, known as the New York Fire Zouves because many of them were firemen.
To the French, Zouaves were an organization with special training, but in America, they merely wore silly uniforms. In other words, they were a bunch of showoffs. Ellsworth himself demonstrated this when he removed the flag flying over the Marshall House Tavern. Having taken down the flag, he was shot by the building's proprietor, James T. Jackson. Private Francis E. Brownell then killed Jackson. A reporter was present, so the incident made headlines throughout the country. Certainly there were many, many children named after him -- I recently did a book search for volumes about Ellsworth, and didn't find anything, but found six different authors named "Elmer Ellsworth (something)" -- e.g. Elmer Ellsworth Brown. (Since I wrote that, I have found one recent book about Ellsworth, Meg Groeling, First Fallen: The Life Of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, The North's First Civil War Hero, Savas Beatie, 2021. There is also Ruth Painter Randall, Colonel Elmer Ellsworth A biography of Lincoln's friend and first hero of the Civil War, Little Brown, 1960)
Oddly, the regiment Ellsworth raised was disbanded after only a little more than a year, despite signing up for two (Boatner, p. 594); it thus, relatively speaking, played a small part in the war.
The song may have played a bigger role than Ellsworth's troops. Wolf-AmericanSongSheets lists eight different broadside prints, by two different publishers, one of them labeled "The Officer's Funeral." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: MuLa005

Soldier's Homeless Boy, The

See The Soldier's Poor Little Boy [Laws Q28] (File: LQ28)

Soldier's Joy

DESCRIPTION: Dance tune with verses; "I am my mama's darling boy...." "Grasshopper sitting on a sweet potato vine...." "Fifteen cents for the morphine, 25 cents for the beer/Fifteen cents for the morphine, gonna take me away from here"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Dance tune with verses; "I am my mama's darling boy/Play that tune called Soldier's Joy"; "Grasshopper sitting on a sweet potato vine/Along come a chicken and says 'You're mine'"; "Fifteen cents for the morphine, 25 cents for the beer/Fifteen cents for the morphine, gonna take me away from here"
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad drugs
FOUND IN: Britain US(All) Scandinavia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1743, "The Soldier's Joy" (2 texts, 1 tune)6389
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 109-111, "Soldier's Joy" (1 tune plus dance instructions)
DT, SOLDRJO2
Roud #27659
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink] & his Square Dance Band, "Soldier's Joy" (OKeh 06297, 1941)
Blue Ridge Highballers, "Soldier's Joy" (Columbia 15168-D, 1927)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Soldier's Joy" (OKeh 45011, 1925)
Zeb Harrelson & M. B. Padgett, "Soldier's Joy" (OKeh 45078, 1927; rec. 1926)
Sid Harkreader w. Uncle Dave Macon, "Soldier's Joy" (Vocalion 14887, 1924)
Kessinger Brothers, "Soldier's Joy" (Brunswick 341, c. 1929)
John D. Mounce et al, "Soldier's Joy" (on MusOzarks01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Soldier's Joy" (on NLCR07) (on NLCR16)
Aulton Ray, "Soldier Joy" (Gennett 6205, 1927)
Glenn Smith, "Soldier's Joy" [instrumental] (on GraysonCarroll1)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Soldier's Joy" (Bluebird B-5658, 1934; RCA Victor 21-2168, 1947) (Columbia 15538-D, 1930; rec. 1929; on Tanner2)
Taylor's Kentucky Boys, "Soldier Joy" (Gennett 6205, 1927)
Doc Watson, "Soldier's Joy" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchiteWatsonCD1)
Guy Wolff, "Soldier's Joy" (Piotr-Archive #427, recorded 01/08/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Love Somebody, Yes I Do" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
My Stetson Hat (File: Ohr083)
NOTES [44 words]: The quintessential nonballad, but I've indexed it because it is cross-referenced elsewhere.
Reputed to have been found around the year 1000, but...
Morphine was reputed to be called "soldier's joy" during the American Civil War, but the title is older than that. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcSoJoy

Soldier's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "Beneath a far Australian sky an Irish soldier lay." As he is dying he thinks of his boyhood in Ireland and asks to be buried there. "My dying prayer -- May God bless the island of the brave!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: homesickness death Australia Ireland lament nonballad patriotic soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, p. 163, "The Soldier's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 94, "Exile's Lament" (1 text)
Roud #25024
NOTES [94 words]: This appears, on its face, to be derived from On Buena Vista's Battlefield or one of its relatives (or, perhaps Will Hays's "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" [Laws A15]). But which, and how it came to be as it is (in Canada, no less), I do not know. It seems to be known mostly in Irish songsters, where the title is "The Exile's Lament." The title "The Soldier's Lament" is used in the Index because it's the first one we found in tradition. Roud formerly split Peacock's version from the songster versions, which also contributed to what I now consider a mistake. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Peas163

Soldier's Last Farewell, The

See Soldier's Last Letter (File: Guig338)

Soldier's Last Letter

DESCRIPTION: Mother opens a letter from her son. It says he loves her. As he writes from a trench he gets orders. He will finish the letter later. The letter is unsigned so she knows he is dead. She prays "protect all the boys ... keep old Newfoundland/America free"
AUTHOR: Henry "Redd" Stewart (during World War II) (source: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Ernest Tubb recording)
KEYWORDS: army battle war death patriotic religious mother soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 338-340, "The Soldier's Letter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25338
RECORDINGS:
Alvina Coles, "The Soldier's Letter" (on NFAGuigné01)
Marie Hartery, "The Soldier's Last Farewell" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Ernest Tubb, "Soldier's Last Letter" (Decca 6098, 1944)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Last Letter" (theme)
cf. "The Valley of Kilbride" (subject of Newfoundlanders dying in World War I)
cf. "The Dying Soldier (III)" (subject of Newfoundlanders dying in World War I)
cf. "The July Drive" (subject of Newfoundlanders dying in World War I)
NOTES [16 words]: For Newfoundland's heavy casualties in World War I, see the notes to "The Valley of Kilbride." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Guig338

Soldier's Last Letter to His Sweetheart, The

DESCRIPTION: "Seven days and seven nights we retreated ... And if we don't overcome them They'll send us all down to the grave."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: soldier battle death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 107, "The Soldier's Last Letter to His Sweetheart" (1 fragment)
Roud #5787
NOTES [554 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan1 fragment.
Greig/Duncan1: "It refers to the disastrous campaign in Flanders against the French in 1793 under the Duke of York." - BS
Much depends on whether this is actually the same song as one listed in earlier chapbooks. I find it interesting that Grieg collected it in 1917, three years after the beginning of World War I, about the time the (surviving) soldiers of the original British Expeditionary Force would have come home.
The Germans of course opened the war by launching the "Schlieffen Plan," invading France via Belgium (Flanders). The British were on the left of the long French line which extended from Switzerland to Belgium (Keegan, p. 94). Their first major engagement was the Battle of Mons, August 23, 1914 (Keegan, p. 97). Although the British force was heavily outnumbered, they were all regulars, and most of the soldiers were trained marksmen. The Germans were draftees. The Germans suffered such heavy losses that there were claims that the entire British army was using machine guns -- though in fact they were deficient in this key weapon (Stokesbury, p. 44).
The British, because their troops were so good, were able to hold the Germans off their front, but they were so few (apart from the nearly-useless cavalry, only four divisions of infantry! -- Chandler/Beckett, p. 211) that they eventually were outflanked as the French retreated, and had to pull back themselves (Keegan, p. 97).
"The great retreat has begun, a retreat which would carry the French armies, and the BEF on their left, back to the outskirts of Paris during the next fourteen days" (Keegan, p. 100). "For the British, the Retreat from Mons passed into legend" (Stokesbury, p. 44) -- for it was a fighting retreat, with contact with the Germans possible at any moment. Many soldiers must have felt they were on the brink of being overwhelmed -- though in fact the British survived (well, other than the ones who were shot). There was, indeed, a very bad moment at Le Cateau, when one British corps, forgotten, was nearly wrecked (Stokesbury, p. 46). The French, with some British help, would finally stop the Germans at the Battle of the Marne.
Of course, the situation fits the 1793 Flanders campaign as well. Frederick Duke of York (1763-1827), the second son of George III, repeatedly proved to be a lousy field commander. (So much so that he is often said to be the officer who inspired "The Noble Duke of York"; Chandler/Beckett, p. 146.) Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 119, notes that he was groomed from an early age to be an officer, but quotes Lord Cornwallis's description of him: "The Royal Person whom I saw does not give much hope, further than a great deal of good nature and a very good heart. His military ideas are those of a wild boy of the Guards." (These were the days of commission by purchase, when officers didn't have to know anything except how to scrape up cash.)
Frederick fought in Flanders from 1793 to 1794, when he was defeated at Turcoing and recalled. He also had a bad experience in the Low Countries in 1799. Being a prince, however, he eventually was made a field marshal (Chandler/Beckett, p. 146). To give him his due, he was a good administrator, and enacted needed reforms in the army when commander-in-chief (Chandler/Beckett, p. 147). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1107

Soldier's Last Request, The

DESCRIPTION: "The rain was slowly falling on a bloody battle-field" as the soldier lies dying. There is only time to hear a few of his last words: "Tell her that I loved her truly, And that I know no fear." The singer, with heavy heart, tells his beloved of his death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Nestler)
KEYWORDS: soldier death love
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), p. 101, "The Soldier's Last Request" (1 text)
File: Nest101A

Soldier's Letter, The

DESCRIPTION: "Dear Madam I am a soldier And my speech is rough and plain. I'm not much used to writing And I hate to give my name." The writer was a friend of the girl's lover; they fought together. The young man died; the old soldier is left to write of his death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: soldier death separation friend battle farewell
FOUND IN: US(NE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 244, "The Soldier's Letter" (1 text)
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 8, "The Soldier's Letter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 73-75, "The Boy That Wore the Blue (The Soldier's Letter)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4389
RECORDINGS:
Mike Carey, "The Boy Who Wore the Blue" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mrs. T. Ghaney, "Madam I Am a Sailor" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Soldier (Erin Far Away I)" [Laws J6] (plot) and references there
File: R244

Soldier's Life (It's Little You Good People Know)

DESCRIPTION: "It's little you good people know(s) What we poor people undergoes When called upon to take up arms To guard our country from all harms. As to our grub, we have enough Although our beef is lean an tough... We hope to get good beef again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Allsopp)
KEYWORDS: food soldier hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 228, (no title) (one fragment)
Roud #16590?
File: FORA228

Soldier's Life, A

DESCRIPTION: After an introduction from "The Sailor Boy," ("A soldier's life is a weary life, Robs young girls..."), the girl is given a letter about her lover, telling her that he is dying. She finds his grave, and says she will join him with joy when she dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: love separation soldier death burial
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #11, pp. 145-146, "A Soldier's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 49, "The Soldier Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CoxIIB11 (Partial)
Roud #273
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailor Boy (I)" [Laws K12] (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [87 words]: Cox's version clearly opens with material from "The Sailor Boy" (with which Roud lumps it), but this breaks off into something else. The combination probably qualifies as a separate song. Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama's version appears to be this other song, WITHOUT the "Sailor Boy" opening. Roud still lumps it, but Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama's version has nothing specific to the Sailor Boy versions -- no building of boats, no asking where the lad is found, no description of a sailor/soldier/lumberman's difficult life. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: CoxIIB11

Soldier's Poor Little Boy, The [Laws Q28]

DESCRIPTION: A poor boy, trapped in a severe storm, comes to a lady's door to ask for shelter. He explains that his mother is dead and his father gone to war. The lady lets him in and tells him to stay as long as he has to, for her own son has fallen (in battle)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety); 19C (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets)
KEYWORDS: orphan mercy father death soldier family
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Laws Q28, "The Soldier's Poor Little Boy"
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 177, "Poor Old Soldier Boy" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 100, "The Little Soldier's Boy" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 43, "The Friendless Soldier Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 168-169, "THe Poor Little Fisher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 273-275, "A Soldier's Poor Little Boy" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 134, "A Soldier's Poor Little Boy" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 93, pp. 117-118, "The Soldier's Poor Little Boy" (2 texts)
Randolph 718, "A Soldier's Poor Little Boy" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 32, "A Soldiers Little Boy" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 154, "A Poor Little Sailor Boy" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 73, "The Soldier's Poor Little Boy" (2 texts)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #28, p. 104, "The Soldier's Poor Little Boy" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 159, "The Soldier's Poor Little Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 161, "The Soldier's Poor Little Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 151, "The Soldier's Poor Little Boy" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 151, "The Soldier's Poor Little Boy" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 67, "The Soldier's Poor Little Boy" (2 texts plus mention of 3 more)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #103, "The Poor Little Soldier Boy" (2 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 74, "A Soldier's Poor Little Boy" (1 text) (pp. 61-62 in the 1919 edition)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 284-285, "The Soldier's Poor Little Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1901, p. 128, "The Poor Little Soldier's Boy" (3 references); #2152, p. 145, "The Soldier's Homeless Boy" (7 references)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 482, "The Soldier's Boy" (source notes only)
DT 536, SOLDBOY SOLDBOY2
Roud #258
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fisherman's Boy" [Laws Q29] (plot)
cf. "The Farmer's Boy" [Laws Q30] (plot)
cf. "The Fisherman's Girl" (plot)
cf. "The Poor Smuggler's Boy" (plot)
cf. "Early Pearly" (a fragment of this song)
NOTES [92 words]: Cox reports this in a Philadelphia broadside attributed to Charles Bender, but it is obviously older and more widespread. Both Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety and Laws mention it as having British antecedents, but the only British occurrences are in broadsides.
The Warner tune is described as a variant of "The Star of the County Down." The other versions generally have a different melody. Wolf-AmericanSongSheets has one text listed as being to "The Summer Eve is Gliding" and another that claims music by David A. Warden. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LQ28

Soldier's Prayer, The

See The Soldier and the Sailor (File: Doe277)

Soldier's Return (V), The

See Charming Beauty Bright [Laws M3] (File: LM03)

Soldier's Return (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Jimmie returns home from the war. He disguises himself in bandages and says his true self is close behind. He sees that everyone, including "my Jessie" is truly happy. He leaves them planning the wedding "Since Jimmy escaped the soldier's grave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1859 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 1879)
KEYWORDS: wedding war return disguise family soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 160-161, "The Soldier's Return" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2700
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1879, "Soldier's Return" ("The wars for many months were o'er"), J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1855-1858
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] (plot) and references there
File: CrMa160

Soldier's Return (II), The

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Soldier's Return (III), The

DESCRIPTION: When "the bullets flew... doon yon trench in single file We ran like hell... An mony's the lad nae rise again." Commanded to advance they sing "Marshallease" and "Scotland Yet." At war's end "we'll name the day... An we like bairnies cuddle doon"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
KEYWORDS: marriage army battle war return reunion separation soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 76, 152, "The Soldier's Return" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21747
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lea Rig" (tune, per McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
NOTES [14 words]: McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen: "A genuine squaddie song from the trenches...." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: McSc076

Soldier's Return (IV), The

See When Wild War's Deadly Blast Was Blawn (The Sodger's Return) (File: Wins114)

Soldier's Song (I), The

See The Old Tobacco Box (File: FSC143)

Soldier's Sweetheart, The

See Once I Had a Sweetheart (I) (File: BrII140)

Soldier's Tear, The

DESCRIPTION: "Upon the hill he turned To take a last fond look Of the valley and the village church." The soldier wipes away a tear as he leaves home. His girl prays as he leaves. He will be brave now that he has "wiped away the tear"
AUTHOR: Words: Alexander Lee / Music: T. H Bayley (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: soldier travel separation home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Heart-Songs, pp. 474-475, "The Soldier's Tear" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 110, "The Soldier's Tear" (1 text)
Roud #13900
File: HeSo474

Soldier's Wooing, The

See The Bold Soldier [Laws M27] (File: LM27)

Soldiers Little Boy, A

See The Soldier's Poor Little Boy [Laws Q28] (File: LQ28)

Soldiers of the Queen, The

DESCRIPTION: "Britons once did loyalty declaim About the way we ruled the waves Every Briton's song was just the same When singing of our soldier-braves." "It's the soldiers of the Queen, my lads Who've been my lads... In the fight for England's glory, lads"
AUTHOR: Leslie Stuart (1864-1928) (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats)
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: soldier war royalty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 165, "We're soldiers of the Queen, m'lads" (1 text)
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 253-255, "Soldiers of the Queen" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 189-192, "The Soldiers of the Queen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #37294
NOTES [90 words]: Waites & Hunter say that Leslie Stuart was born Thomas Augustine Barrett in Lancashire and became a professional organist at the age of just 15. He composed both religious and secular music. He was persuaded to become a pop composer and move to London, where he adopted the name "Leslie Stuart." Very successful in his early years, they say that he never learned to syncopate his music, and fell out of favor. Certainly I haven't noticed anything else he ever wrote.
Said to have been made popular by Hayden Coffin" (1862-1935) in 1895. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC165A

Soldiers' Song (II), The

See Maine Soldiers' Song (File: Gray158)

Soleil s'en Va Se Coucher, Le (The Sun Is Going Down)

DESCRIPTION: French. A gentleman asks his lover to join him at an inn. She has one drink and says she must leave. He suspects she has changed lovers. That's your fault, she says. I waited three years for you with no news.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting infidelity dialog
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 596-597, "Le Soleil s'en Va Se Coucher" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
La Bergere Refuse les Presents
File: Pea596

Solidarity Forever

DESCRIPTION: The crimes of the corporations and their bosses are described. But the workers can protect themselves, as the chorus notes: "Solidarity forever (x3), For the union makes us strong."
AUTHOR: Words: Ralph Chaplin
EARLIEST DATE: 1915
KEYWORDS: labor-movement nonballad political work derivative
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 282-283, "Solidarity Forever" (1 text)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 91, "Solidarity Forever" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 181, "Solidarity Forever" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 374-375, "Solidarity Forever" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 133, "Solidarity Forever" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 176-177, "Solidarity Forever" (1 text, 1 tune, an adaption by "Scottie" to the conditions in Butte 1917)
DT, SOLIDART*
ADDITIONAL: Kristina Horton, _Martyr of Loray Mill: Ella May and the 1929 Textile Workers' Strike in Gastonia, North Carolina_, McFarland & Company, 2015, p. 190, "Solidarity Forever" (1 text)
Roud #15158
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger , "Solidarity Forever" (on PeteSeeger1, PeteSeeger48)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "Solidarity Forever (Montana Version)"
NOTES [75 words]: The Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest is a clear rewrite, and is specific to conditions in Butte, Montana in 1917 -- but it keeps the chorus, and it's a labor song, and it surely was never remembered outside that context, so I've filed it here. Particularly since Ralph Chaplin would have encouraged the local use of his song. It is interesting that it was popular enough to be parodied as early as 1917, when the song was still very new. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SBoA282

Solidarity Forever (Montana Version)

DESCRIPTION: "On the twelfth of June in '17, one bright mid-summer's day, The workers in the mines of Butte, they took a holiday." The miners strike for better pay; the owners "called the A.C.M." The singer calls for unity and an end to the "rustling card."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1918, according to Cohen
KEYWORDS: mining derivative hardtimes labor-movement
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 565-566, "Solidarity Forever" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Solidarity Forever"
File: CAFS2565

Solomon Grundy

DESCRIPTION: "Solomon Grundy, Born on a Monday, Christened on Tuesday, Married on Wednesday, Took ill on Thursday, Worse on Friday, Died on Saturday, Buried on Sunday. That is the end of Solomon Grundy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: childbirth marriage death burial
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 483, "Solomon Grundy" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose p. 105 n. 18, "(Solomon Grundy)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 198, "Solomon Grundy" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 49, "Solomon Grundy" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #524, "Solomon Grundy" (1 text)
Roud #19299
NOTES [38 words]: The easiest explanation for this is offered by the Baring-Goulds: It was intended to teach the days of the week. Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel claims the name "Solomon Grundy" is from the food called Salmagundi, but offers no evidence. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OO2483

Solomon Levi

See My Name is Solomon Levi (File: ACSF290L)

Solomon Nathan

DESCRIPTION: Solomon Nathan is warned: Jesus is calling you. If you "walk the downward road" you'll lose your soul. The response for each two-line verse is "glory hallelujah"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus warning
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Henry Williams, Allan Lovelace, George Robert, "Solomon Nathan" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [137 words]: The name "Solomon Nathan" is interesting. The name "Nathan" appears many times in the Hebrew Bible, but in the New Testament it appears only in Luke 3:31, where Nathan is the son of David from whom Jesus is descended -- making him a rival to Solomon to be King of Israel. Most of the other uses of the name "Nathan" are of the prophet whose machinations led to the palace coup which put Solomon on the throne instead of the rightful heir Adonijah (for this story, see 1 Kings, chapter 1).
The warning here makes a little more sense if it is directed to "Nathaniel," not "Nathan." In John 1:45fff., Nathaniel is the man from Galilee who doubted that Jesus was the Messiah on the grounds that nothing good could come out of Nazareth. Jesus then calls and converts him. So he might have been on the downward road until then. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcSolNat

Some Be Merry and Some Be Sad (Women, Women, Love of Women)

DESCRIPTION: "Some be merry, and some be sad, And some be busy and some be bad, Some be wild, by Saint Chad. Yet all be not so, For some be lewd, and some be shrewd, Go, shrew, wherever you go." The characteristics of many sort of women are listed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354)
KEYWORDS: nonballad drink wife MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #401, pp. 267-208, "(no title)" (2 texts plus variants)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics CXXIV, pp. 214-215, "(no title)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3171
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #4956
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book , Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #96, pp. 113-114, "[Women, women, love of women)" (1 text); an addiional tet is on pp. 188-189
Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, _Middle English Lyrics_, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974, pp. 72-73, #74 (no title) (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 56
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, page 507
MANUSCRIPT: London, Lambeth Palace Library MS. 306, folio 135
NOTES [236 words]: Clearly not a ballad, and perhaps not a folk song either, but it is found in two manuscripts, two of them very significant, the Richard Hill manuscript (Balliol 354) and Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1. These two have similar enough texts that Greene simply prints the Hill text and notes the variations in Eng. Poet. e. 1. The third manuscript, the Lambeth Palace manuscript, has a very, very different text. The manuscript was written by several scribes, and is very miscellaneous (a romance, "Libeaus Desconus"; some Lydgate; various religious works; some historical poetry, and two carols). Greene, p. 334, says the two carols are in the same hand, which he dates to the late fifteenth century -- i.e. about contemporary with Eng. Poet. e. 1, and predating Hill.
Greene, p. 431, suggests that "The two widely differing versions of this carol [i.e. Lambeth on the one hand and the other two manuscripts on the other] probably represent the activities of at least two different authors, writing to the same air and according to an easy and suggestive formula."
This makes sense to me, and it also suggests that the source song was a folk song, even if at least one of the surviving versions is not. So I've indexed this as a sort of shadow entry for the song behind the song.
For more about the famous anthology Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSSBMSBS

Some be mery, and some be sade

See Some Be Merry and Some Be Sad (Women, Women, Love of Women) (File: MSSBMSBS)

Some Books Are Lies frae End tae End

See Death and Doctor Hornbook (File: KSUC114C)

Some Bright Day

See The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)

Some Delights in Cards and Dice

See My Nannie, O (File: GrD4919)

Some Die of Drinking Water

DESCRIPTION: "Some die of drinking water, And some of drinking beer, Some die of constipation," and some of venereal disease. The singer likes "girls who say they will," and those "who say they won't" -- but the best are those who say they won't but probably will
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: sex disease
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 155, "Some Die of Drinking Water" (1 text)
Roud #10243
File: RuSoSDDW

Some Do Like the Tortoise-Shell

DESCRIPTION: Lullaby about cats: some like tortoise-shell, some white and some grey. The singer's favorite is "the old black cat." There is the obligatory "sleep, baby buntin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: lullaby animal baby
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #159, p. 2, ("Some do like the tortoise-shell") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1553, "Some Do Like the Tortoise-Shell" (1 text)
Roud #13208
File: GrD1553

Some Fell on Their Bended Knees

See Billy O'Rourke (File: E145)

Some Folks Say John Was a Baptist

See Lonesome Valley (I) (File: Wa162)

Some Folks Say that a Nigger Won't Steal

See Some Folks Say that a Preacher Won't Steal (File: Br3423)

Some Folks Say that a Preacher Won't Steal

DESCRIPTION: "Some folks say that a (preacher/nigger) won't steal, But I caught (one) in my cornfield." This stanza floats but sometimes is used as a platform for various complaints about the raiders on the singer's field
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: thief clergy floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 423, "Some Folks Say that a Nigger Won't Steal" (3 short texts plus 1 fragment, 2 excerpts, and mention of 2 more. Almost all are mixed; "A" is this piece, but "G" has the chorus of "Run, Nigger, Run" while "E" and "F" have the "Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady)" chorus); see also the "B" text of 435, "The Dummy Line"; also 511, "The Preacher Song" (1 text, a complex mix of verses from "Turkey in the Straw" and this song with the "Uncle Eph" chorus)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 423, "Some Folks Say That a Nigger Won't Steal" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 224-225, (no title) (1 short text, with the "My ole mistus promised me" and "Some folks say a nigger won't steal" verses and the 'Mourner, you shall be free" chorus)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions,, p. 31, "Way Down Yonder in the Cornfield" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, B. E. Washburn, "College Folklore at Chapel Hill in the Early 1900's," Vol. 3, No. 2 (Dec 1955), p. 27 "(Some folks say a nigger won't steal)" (1 short text)
Roud #6707
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Coney Isle" (lyrics)
cf. "Rosie, Darling Rosie" (lyrics)
cf. "Rollin' Sam" (lyrics)
NOTES [403 words]: This is one of those big messes, since it may just be a floating fragment grafted into other pieces. It's hard to tell, given the brevity of the Brown texts.
It's not clear, looking at the evidence, whether it was originally a "preacher" or a "nigger" accused of the thefts. But I strongly suspect that it was a preacher; the rules of textual criticism say, "Prefer the harder reading," and "preacher" is the harder reading; many people would be reluctant to accuse a minister of stealing, but -- in the south at least -- Negroes were suspected even when there was compelling evidence of their innocence.
Dr. David E. Chinitz, however, sends me this note, "The lines in question --' Some folks say that a (preacher/nigger) won't steal, But I caught (one) in my cornfield' -- are the opening lines of 'Way Down Yonder in the Cornfield,' a once-popular barbershop quartet. I believe that this song dates from the 1890s, and it is not to be confused with the 1901 hit with the same title by Gus Edwards and Will D. Cobb. The last line of the 1901 song alludes to the earlier song.
"If the original source of the 'floating fragment' is indeed the song I mentioned, then the correct reading is not 'preacher" but "nigger.' In his book Barber Shop Ballads and How to Sing Them (1925), Sigmund Spaeth suggests in a footnote that 'preacher' was an alternative adopted by 'colored' singing groups (p. 41). But Spaeth doesn't seem entirely reliable on this issue. On that same page, he assures his readers confidentially ('between ourselves') that African Americans 'really prefer the forthright "nigger" to the patronizingly polite "darkey."'
"I have seen the line quoted using 'darkie.' But the one early recording I've heard of the song (I'm sorry I don't know the year) used 'nigger.' And it was two, not one, that the speaker claimed to have 'caught' in his cornfield -- one with a shovel, and one with a hoe."
Until we know how the song became traditional, of course, this cannot be the final word. But it's interesting. I have now found 1924 sheet music crediting "Way Down Yonder (In The Cornfield)" to Frederick Johnson & Harley Rosso. The version in the sheet music (which was printed in 1925) begins "Some people say that a coon won't steal." But since this was created after Brown collected the song, it doesn't prove much.
Incidentally, John Hartford eventually sang it with the guilty party being a hippie. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Br3423

Some Go East, Some Go West

See William a Trimbletoe (File: Skea018)

Some Have Fathers Gone to Glory (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Some have fathers gone to glory, Won't you tell me if you know, Will our fathers know their children When to heaven they will go? They'll be watching from some window... And will meet us at the door." Repeat with mothers, brothers, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Roberts/Agey-InThePine)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad father mother death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #115, "Some Have Fathers Gone to Glory" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Other Bright Shore" (lyrics)
cf. "I Have a Father Gone to Glory (I Am Alone in this World)" (lyrics)
NOTES [69 words]: The first line of this is shared, in approximate form, with both "The Other Bright Shore" and "I Have a Father Gone to Glory" -- but since the rest is different, I split them.
Hymnary.org does not seem to have any versions of this hymn. I wonder, given the number of unique hymns in Roberts/Agey-InThePine, if there wasn't someone in that part of Kentucky churning out hymns that never spread outside the area. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RAInP115

Some Have Fathers Gone to Glory (II)

See The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)

Some Have Fathers Over Yonder

See The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)

Some Lay Eggs

See William a Trimbletoe (File: Skea018)

Some Little Bug

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes perils of eating various foods, which can lead to ptomaine and death. This is why, before meals, some people pray. Ch.: "Some little bug is gonna get you someday..." "Eat that luscious ripe pineapple/And the sextons dust the chapel."
AUTHOR: Benjamin Hapgood Burt & Roy Atwell (lyrics); Silvio Hein (tune in sheet music; tune of folk version by unknown author)
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: disease warning death funeral food humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, SOMEBUG
Roud #19680
RECORDINGS:
Roy Atwell, "Some Little Bug Is Going to Find You" (Columbia A-1926, 1916; rec. 1915)
Bradley Kincaid, "Some Little Bug Is Goin' To Get You Someday" (Bluebird B-5179/Montgomery Ward M-4379, 1933)
Billy Murray, "Some Little Bug Is Going to Find You" (Victor 17826, 1916; rec. 1915)
Unidentified baritone solo [Dan Quinn], "Some Little Bug Is Going to Find You" (Emerson 764, 1916)
Walter Van Brunt, "Some Little Bug Is Going to Find You" (CYL: Edison [BA] 2823, n.d.)
NOTES [44 words]: This has attained enough popularity in the bluegrass and folk-revival communities to warrant inclusion. The Bradley Kincaid recording, which is the one that has spread, uses a very different tune from the one found in the sheet music; possibly Kincaid wrote it. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcSLB

Some Love Coffee

See She Loves Coffee and I Love Tea (File: Br3091)

Some Love to Roam (The Pirate's Life for Me)

DESCRIPTION: "Some love to roam o'er the dark sea foam, Where the shill winds whistle free, But a chosen band in a mountain land, And a life in the woods for me." The singer loves the life at sea. They capture even armed ships; "we merrily seize our prize. Ye ho...."
AUTHOR: Words: Chales Mackay (1814-1889) / Music: Henry Russell (1812-1900)
EARLIEST DATE: 1836 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: pirate travel ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 46, "The Pirate's Life for Me" (1 text, 1 tune, #52 in the first edition, but with only a partial text and no tune)
Roud #13820
NOTES [10 words]: For background on Henry Russell, see "Cheer, Boys, Cheer (II)."
Last updated in version 4.3
File: FrPi048

Some o' Dese Mornin's

See I Hope I'll Join the Band (Soon in the Morning) (File: R266)

Some o' These Days

See Welcome Table (Streets of Glory, God's Going to Set This World on Fire) (File: San478)

Some of These Days

See Welcome Table (Streets of Glory, God's Going to Set This World on Fire) (File: San478)

Some of These Days and It Won't Be Long

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

Some of these Mornings

See I Hope I'll Join the Band (Soon in the Morning) (File: R266)

Some People Seek Pleasures Away from Their Home

See Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own) (File: R393)

Some Rival Has Stolen My True Love Away (The Rifles, The Merry King)

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that a rival has stolen his true love "so I in old England no longer can stay." He will "swim the wide ocean" to her and, when they meet he'll "welcome her kindly." A health to true lovers and confusion to rivals.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Broadwood _English Traditional Songs and Carols_)
KEYWORDS: love exile separation derivative floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 23B, "The Cuckoo" (1 text, a composite of two versions)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 122, "Some Rival Has Stolen" (2 texts)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 5, "The American King" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 179, "The Rifles" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 348, "Rifles Have Stolen My True Love Away" with vocal rendition)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 108-111, "Some Rival Has Stolen My True Love Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 33-34, "The Rifles" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Lucy E. Broadwood, "Songs from the Collection of Lucy E. Broadwood" in Journal of the Folk-Lore Society, Vol. I, No. 4 (1902 (available online by JSTOR)), #37 p. 208, "The Americans that Stole My True Love Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lucy E. Broadwood, Percy Grainger, Cecil J. Sharp, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Frank Kidson and J.A. Fuller-Maitland, "Songs Collected by Percy Grainger" in Journal of the Folk-Lore Society, Vol. III, No. 12 (May 1908 (available online by JSTOR)), #18 pp. 223-225, "The Merry King" ("It's a merry king of Old England that stole my love away") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #587
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Love's Fierce Desire and Hope's of Recovery" (source) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Americans Have Stolen My True Love Away
NOTES [536 words]: The description is based on Broadwood English Traditional Songs and Carols (also found, with more restricted access, as Lucy E. Broadwood, "Songs from the Collection of Lucy E. Broadwood" in Journal of the Folk-Lore Society, Vol. I, No. 4 (1902 (available online by JSTOR)), #35 p. 205, "Some Rival Has Stolen My True Love Away" (1 text, 1 tune.). Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople includes the first two of Broadwood's three verses and adds three floating verses: "... meeting is pleasure ... the grave it will moulder you....," "...Don't settle your mind on your sycamore tree For the leaves they will but wither...," and "The cuckoo is a merry bird... she'll ever sing cuckoo till the summer draws near." Broadwood has an image missing in Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople but included in "Love's Fierce Desire": "... I'll be as constant as a true turtle dove... never... prove false...."
One of the Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople texts in the composite is all but the "meeting is pleasure" floater.
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople begins, "The Americans have stolen...."
The story line makes less sense here than in the source, "Love's Fierce Desire and Hope's of Recovery." In "Rival," the exiled man would swim back to his sweetheart, ignoring his exile. In "Love's Fierce Desire" he is exiled but it is the woman who would swim to him, etc., so that, presumably, both would remain exiled.
The examples of Broadwood JFLS (1902) and Broadwood, et al., JFLS (1908) are similar to Broadwood English Traditional Songs and Carols in the following respect [see the discussion at "Love's Fierce Desire and Hope's of Recovery"]: they share seven or eight of the lines, and one similar line, with "Love's Fierce Desire"; all three adjust the exile so that the singer "in England no longer can stay." The two JFLS versions add floating verses from the same set as Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople has in his composite: "Meeting is pleasure ...", and "The grave it will rot you ..." are in both, and one has "... Never set your mind on a sycamore [maple] tree ..." while the other has "In the middle of the ocean There shall grow a myrtle tree ...."
Broadwood JFLS (1902): "... supplied the words as sung by his mother 'sixty years ago.'" - BS
The Butterworth version also included the cuckoo floating verse, although it was relegated to the notes by editor Dawney.
Broadwood suggests that the "Merry King" of some versions is Edward IV (reigned 1461-1470 and 1471-1483). This makes a certain amount of sense, in that Edward IV had an immense number of sexual liasons -- more than any king since at least John, and probably since Henry II or even Henry I, all of whom are too early to be subjects for ballads. And, other than Charles II, few kings since then have been so lusty. But even Edward IV is very early for a ballad subject, and he wasn't particularly jealous; he would not have driven a man out of the country because he lusted after his wife. Even if the original reference is indeed to the "Merry King" stealing the singer's love, I strongly suspect the reference is to something else -- perhaps a boy gone away to be a soldier. Which makes an eighteenth century date the most likely. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: BuDa005

Some Say I Drink Whiskey

See Rye Whiskey (File: R405)

Some Say That Love Is a Blessing

See Dark and Dreary Weather (File: R750)

Some Say the Devil's Dead

DESCRIPTION: "Some say the devil's dead, Buried in (Fowey) harbor, Some say he's 'live again, and prentice to a barber.... When Tom's father died, Tom and I took a ride, down by the rive side, and home again to dinner." "Some say he'll rise again...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall)
KEYWORDS: Devil death burial river
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 46, "Three-Handed Reel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 110, "Some say the Divil's dead" (1 text)
Roud #8904
NOTES [75 words]: Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall's version of this is a fiddle tune, with these words the mnemonic, but there are other songs opening "Some say the devil's dead," which I assume at least inspired the Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall piece. The Roud Index lists Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall's "Three Hand Reel" as #2904, but that is also the number for "Thousands Are Sailing"; I think it is an error for #8904. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Gund046

Some Say the Divil's Dead

See Some Say the Devil's Dead (File: Gund046)

Some Ships in Port

DESCRIPTION: Ships are listed and their characteristics or owner noted: "Gaffney's two clippers, Caledonia and Glynn ... the noble torpedo they call Jenny Lynd ... the Alice T with Splanche on her bow."
AUTHOR: "Splanche" Brien
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: moniker commerce sea ship nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 53, "Some Ships in Port" (1 text)
Roud #20520
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captains and Ships" (catalog of ships)
NOTES [22 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: "This ... reflects the days of Wexford's glory, when her sailing ships went out over the Seven Seas" - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran053

Some Talk of Handel and Mozart

DESCRIPTION: "Some talk of Handel and Mozart, Beethoven too had a very fine art, But you no can learn their tunes by heart Like the pibroch played by his nainsel." The piper is praised for his music, his clothes, his look
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: music clothes | classical pipe pibroch
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 154, "Some talk of Handel and Mozart" (1 text)
Roud #25545
File: KSUC154B

Some These Days I'll Be Gone

DESCRIPTION: Singer says, "Some these days you're going to miss your honey... I am going away" "... you'll be sorry" Every verse ends, "I know you're gonna miss me, sweet babe, I be going away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (StuffDreams2)
KEYWORDS: warning parting nonballad lover
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Charley Patton, "Some These Days I'll Be Gone" (on StuffDreams2)
File: RcSTDIBG

Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid

DESCRIPTION: "Some things are better left unsaid; Consider carefully before you go ahead. Sometimes a gentle hint is best -- Drop a hint and let imagination do the rest."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 114, "Some things are better left unsaid" (1 text)
File: KSUC114B

Some Treat of David

DESCRIPTION: Father Murphy excels David and Joshua. His victories are listed, and the loss at Vinegar Hill; "after all, alas, he was taken, And stripped quite naked in the open street; His flesh and bone were separated, And a crimson stream at his joints did meet"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: battle execution rebellion Ireland clergy patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 26, 1798 - Beginning of the Wexford rebellion
May 27, 1798 - The Wexford rebels under Father John Murphy defeat the North Cork militia
June 5, 1798 - The Wexford rebels attack the small garrison (about 1400 men, many militia) at New Ross, but are repelled
June 21, 1798 - The rebel stronghold a Vinegar Hill is taken, and the Wexford rebellion effectively ended
July 2, 1798 - Father Murphy (1753-1798) captured, executed and cremated.
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 11A, "Some Treat of David" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Father Murphy (I)" (subject of Father Murphy) and references there
NOTES [546 words]: "The end for Father John Murphy came on July 2, 1798 when he and fellow rebel leader James Gallagher were captured by military forces loyal to the British crown. Fr. John was brutally beaten for hours by the yeomen warders, finally stripped of his clothes, denied a trial by jury and hung from the town gallows.
"For the perceived insult of being a Catholic priest and not cooperating with the local authorities Fr. John's body was subjected to further desecration when the yeoman, "unsatisfied by the lack of entertainment" dropped the dead body of Fr. John into a nearby barrel of pitch and lit it on fire until the corpse was consumed. His ashes were scattered in the town square as a warning to all those who dare to take up arms against the British crown." (source: Father John Murphy of Boulavogue by Nicholas Furlong as summarized at site of Ancient Order of Hibernians Father John Murphy -- Division #9 Plymouth, MA 02360)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 46, fn. 57: In 1866 this song was still "dangerous" enough that a ballad-singer could be arrested in County Down for its sale. - BS
For a fuller history of Father Murphy, see the notes to "Father Murphy (I)."
The issue of Murphy's death is vexing. That he was captured and hung seems certain. Whether he was tortured is another question. Golway,p. 87, says he and his bodyguard were stripped, flogged, and Murphy hung on the spot, then his body burned. Similarly Bartlett/Dawson/Keough, p. 135: "He was stripped, mercilessly flogged, hanged and decapitated and his corpse burnt in a barrel." But Golway's citation system, which is very strange, does not appear to cite a source for this claim (might it have been this song?), and Bartlett/Dawson/Keough has no footnotes at all
I eventually checked eight other Irish histories, some specific to the 1798 and some more general. Six do not mention Murphy's death. (One, specific to the last part of the eighteenth century, doesn't even mention Murphy!) Kee, p. 124, mentions that he was hanged, his body burned, and his head set on a pike -- but he doesn't cite a source either! OxfordCompanion, p. 373, mentions his hanging, but no torture or cremation. Boylan, p. 259, says only that "His fate is uncertain, but it appears he was later captured by the yeomen and hung."
The whole thing has strange parallels to the death of Jesus, too.
Murphy was not the only one to be listed as having his body burned; see the fate of Captain Swayne described in "The Song of Prosperous."
Examining the sources, it's clear that the pro-English sources don't mention his fate, the pro-Irish do. While most of the Irish leaders were eventually executed, few were executed without trial. Of course, junior officers didn't always follow policy. But I really wish someone could cite a source for this atrocity!
The mentions of David and Joshua are clearer. The two were the earliest members of the so-called Nine Worthies. They were also the Old Testament figures best known for conquest -- Joshua for the conquest of Canaan and David for the conquest of a small empire (as well as for rebellion against his master Saul, which the Bible tries to treat as justified, but one wonders....)
Joshua and David also were, unlike Murphy, successful enough soldiers to die in their beds. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: Zimm011A

Some Valiant Soldier

DESCRIPTION: "I want some valiant soldier here (x3), To help me bear the cross. O hail, Mary, hail (x2), To help me bear the cross." Alternate secomd ver: "For I weep, I weep, I can't hold out; If any mercy, Lord, O pity poor me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment); 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad soldier
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 45, "Hail, Mary" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the first text is clearly related to this; the second text and tune probably belongs with "Many Thousand Gone (Auction Block)"); p. 50, "Some Valiant Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 4, pp. 200-201, "Hail Mary" (1 text)
Roud #12001 and 12008
NOTES [137 words]: Roud splits "Hail Mary" (#12001) and "Some Valiant Soldier" (#12008). This is understandable; both are known only from Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates (at least as far as he and I know), and that book splits them. Very much of the material in Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates has now vanished completely, and much of the rest is free-floating material. It is certainly possible that the two are of different origin (they have different tunes). But, given that half the words are the same, it seemed to me more useful in this case to lump them.
As a wild guess, this may have started as a Catholic song with the Marian references. Then it was revised toward Protestantism. (The change is unlikely to have gone the other way, since the non-Marian version would be acceptable to Catholics "as is.") - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: AWG045

Somebody (II)

See Somebody's Tall and Handsome (File: R380)

Somebody Een Yuh, It Mus' Be Jedus

See Somebody's In Here, It Must Be Jesus (File: HPR272A)

Somebody Loves Me

DESCRIPTION: "Somebody loves me. How do I know? Somebody's eyes have told me so. Somebody loves me. How do I know...." "Somebody loves me. How do I know? Somebody loves me; I know this is so... That somebody is you."
AUTHOR: H. Starr? (source: Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 32, "Somebody Loves Me" (2 short texts)
Roud #11401
File: Brne032

Somebody Stole My Henhouse Key

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus: "No man can get out of here." The game leader sings "I lost my mother's henhouse key." "I betcha ten dollars I can get out of here." "Dog fleas will bite me." "Mama calling for peas and rice."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (USSeaIsland01)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Moving Star Hall Singers, "Somebody Stole My Henhouse Key" (on USSeaIsland01)
NOTES [44 words]: Call-response. USSeaIsland01 syncopated clapping starts slowly and speeds up as in a "shout."
The current description is based on the USSeaIsland01 text.
The USSeaIsland01 liner notes have this as a children's song. The "leader" changes as the game proceeds. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcSSMHKe

Somebody Under the Bed

See There's Somebody Under the Bed (File: AJRR551)

Somebody's All de Time Talkin' 'Bout Me

DESCRIPTION: "Somebody's all de time talkin' 'bout me, But that's all right." "Talk about me just as much as you please, I'm goin' to tell it to Jesus down on my knees." "Talk about my Jesus here below, Talkin' 'bout me wherever you go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 634, "Somebody's All de Time Talkin' 'Bout Me" (1 text)
Roud #11933
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "That's All Right" (repeating line "that's all right," floating verse "talk about me")
File: Br3634

Somebody's Buried in the Graveyard

DESCRIPTION: "Somebody's buried in the graveyard, Somebody's buried in the sea, Going to get up in morning a-shouting, Going to join the jubilee." "To the promised land I'm bound to go." "Sometimes I'm up, sometimes I'm down"; he'll go to heaven no matter what
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad burial
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 34, "Somebody's Buried in the Graveyard" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 60, "Somebody's Buried in the Graveyard" (1 text)
Roud #11957
File: WFAN034

Somebody's Darling

DESCRIPTION: "Into the ward of the clean white-washed halls Where the dead slept and the dying lay... Somebody's darling was borne one day." "Somebody's darling, somebody's pride, Who'll tell his mother where her boy died?" All bid farewell to the handsome boy soldier
AUTHOR: Words: Marie Ravenal de la Coste / Music: John Hill Hewitt (according to Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar)
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Wharton)
KEYWORDS: soldier death Civilwar mother
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 145-147, "Somebody's Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 84-85, "Somebody's Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2167, p. 146, "Somebody's Darling" (1 reference)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 119-121, "Somebody's Darling" (1 text)
DT, SOMEDARL*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p.222, "(Somebody's Darling)" (1 fragment)
Martin Gardner, editor, _Famous Poems from Bygone Days_, Dover, 1995, pp. 50-52, "Somebody's Darling" (1 text)
Roud #24336
NOTES [74 words]: H. M. Wharton's War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy (p. 188) gives the author's name as "Marie La Coste," rather than "de la Coste." Allsopp says it was *sung* by "Marie La Conte of Georgia." Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 146, lists a broadside, probably from the Civil War era, which credits it to Marie Ravenal de la Coste. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: SCW84

Somebody's Dying Every Day

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Every day, passing away (3x), Somebody's dying every day," Verses, couplets alternating with "Somebody's dying every day" (see notes for examples)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Bible
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 1, "I Looked O'er Yander" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [76 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text.
Verses include "I looked over yonder; What I see ... See bright angels standing there" and "Come along Moses don't get lost ... Stretch your rod and come across." The Moses reference seems to combine two Biblical passages: Exodus 14:17 has Moses stretch out his hand to divide the waters of the Red Sea; Moses's rod is a sign of his God-given authority in Exodus 4:1-17 (King James). - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa001

Somebody's In Here, It Must Be Jesus

DESCRIPTION: Second and fourth line of each verse: "It must be Jesus," "It must be the Lord." The third line repeats the first. First lines include "Somebody's in here," "See the lightning flashing," "Yonder's ship Maria," "She is out a-sailing," "She is heavy laiden"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 272-273, "Somebody Een Yuh, It Mus' Be Jedus" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR272A

Somebody's Knockin' at Your Door

DESCRIPTION: "Somebody's knockin' at your door (x2), Go, Mary, go, Martha, Somebody's knockin'...." "It's your mother, Somebody's... It's your father...." "In the churchyard...." "It's the preacher...." "Come to tell you, Somebody's knockin' at your door."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad clergy
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 144, "Somebody's Knocking at Your Door" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 155 in the 1909 edition)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 635, "Somebody's Knockin' at Your Door" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 635, "Somebody's Knockin' at Your Door" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11931
File: Br3635

Somebody's Knocking at Your Door

See Somebody's Knockin' at Your Door (File: Br3635)

Somebody's Talking About Jesus

See Everywhere I Go My Lord (File: CNFM061A)

Somebody's Tall and Handsome

DESCRIPTION: "Somebody's tall and handsome, Somebody's fond and true, Somebody's hair is very black, And somebody's eyes are blue." Said somebody comes to ask the singer to marry, "And of course I said all right."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Randolph); Wehman printed a similar broadside c. 1884
KEYWORDS: courting marriage mother father ship
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Randolph 380, "Somebody's Tall and Handsome" (2 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 310-311, "Somebody's Tall and Handsome" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 380A)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 275, "Somebody" (2 text plus mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 275, "Somebody" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 163, "Tommy" (1 text, 1 tune, heavily localized, in which Tommy owns a speedboat and father is happy to be rid of his daughter)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 101, "Someone" (1 text, which has degenerated into a repeating song with this first verse as chorus: "Someone called for (mother/brother/sister/father), And mother went out to see, Mother came back with a tear in her eye, Someone has asked for me")
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 74, pp. 120-122, "Solebody's Tall and Handsome" (1 text, 1 tune, much longer than the typical version)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 464-465, "Somebody" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 55-56, "[Somebody]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 82, "Somebody" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 33, "Somebody" (3 texts, 1 tune)
DT, SOMBODY
ST R380 (Full)
Roud #761
RECORDINGS:
Carolina Tar Heels, "Somebody's Tall and Handsome" (Victor V-40128, 1929; on CrowTold02; recorded Apr 3 1929)
Martha Ann Midgette, "Tommy" (on USWarnerColl01)
Evelyn & Douston Ramsey, "Somebody's Tall and Handsome" (on FarMtns 2)
Abigail Hall Ritchie, "Somebody's Tall and Handsome" (on Ritchie03)
File: R380

Somebody's Waiting for Me

DESCRIPTION: The singer reports that, being unemployed and broke, he has taken a job as a sailor. All the while, in all the ports he visits and despite all the fine things he sees, he remembers that "There is somebody waiting for me At an old cabin down by the sea..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Sweet Bros.)
KEYWORDS: sea separation love
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 160, "Somebody's Waiting for Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa160 (Partial)
Roud #7504
RECORDINGS:
Cousin Levi & his Carolina Bluebirds, "Somebody's Waiting" (Bluebird B-7522, 1938)
Ernest V. Stoneman, Willie Stoneman, and The Sweet Brothers, "Somebody's Waiting for Me" (Gennett 6620 [as by the Sweet Brothers]/Supertone 9323 [as by the Caldwell Brothers], 1929/Champion 15586 [as by the Clark Brothers]; rec. 1928); Ernest Stoneman and Eddie Stoneman, "There's Somebody Waiting for Me" (Vocalion 02632, 1934)
Charles K. "Tink" Tillett, "Somebody's Waiting for Me" [instrumental] (on USWarnerColl01)
File: Wa160

Someone

See Somebody's Tall and Handsome (File: R380)

Someone Has Been There Before

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that he's "always late" for everything, "for someone has been there before." A shoemaker, he invents a new heel, but someone had done that before. He asks a girl to marry but "she gave me a kick... someone has been there before"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage rejection commerce humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 341-342, "Someone Has Been There Before" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24949
RECORDINGS:
Bobby O'Brien, "I'm a Poor Unfortunate Miserable Man" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: Guig341

Someone Stole My Heart Away

DESCRIPTION: "Someone stole my heart away, Riding on a load of hay, He looked up and I looked down, Handsome, (sunburnt) (Johnny Brown)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: love | heart hay
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 62, "(Someone stole my heart away)" (1 text)
Roud #12891
File: PKKB062B

Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah

See I've Been Working on the Railroad (File: FSWB209)

Somerset Carol

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you worthy gentlemen That may be standing by, Christ our blessed savior Was born on Christmas day... Oh we wish you the comfort and tidings of joy!" The Christ child is born and laid in the manger; the singers wish the householders good cheer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: religious Christmas wassail Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 8, "Somerset Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 377, "Comfort and Tidings of Joy" (1 text)
Roud #394
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen"
NOTES [59 words]: Although this song does not actually use the word "wassail," the general tenor (including the final blessing on the householder) is very wassail-like, which is why I have supplied the keyword. The relationship with God Rest You Merry" is obvious (Roud lumps them), though its exact nature is unclear. I suspect, however, that this is a composite piece. - RBW
File: FSWB377B

Somerset Wassail

DESCRIPTION: "Wassail, wassail, all over the town, The cup is white and the ail is brown." Singer toasts the wassail bowl, likewise the residents of the house, begging entry, food, drink, hospitality and money.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1857 (Bell)
KEYWORDS: request ritual drink food begging nonballad wassail
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Wales)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 92, "Wassail Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 100, "Wassail Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 32, "Somerset Wassail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #350, p. 180, "(Wassail, wassail to our town)"
Sumner-TheBesomMaker, pp. 9-10, "The Wassail Song" (1 text plus a variant stanza, 1 tune)
DT, WASSOMER*
Roud #209
RECORDINGS:
Phil Tanner, "The Wassail Song" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741, Voice16)
Wassailers, "The Wassail Song" (on Voice13)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gloucestershire Wassailers' Song" (subject, one verse)
cf. "Apple Tree Wassail" (subject, one verse)
cf. "Here We Come A-Wassailing" (subject)
cf. "Wassail Song (III)" (subject)
cf. "Le Roi du Bal (King of the Ball)" (subject)
cf. "The Carol for the Wassail-Bowl" (subject)
cf. "Wassail, wassaill, wassail, syng we, In worship of Cristis natiuite" (lyric from Richard Hill's manuscript; see Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, #54, p. 45) (subject)
NOTES [251 words]: The custom of "wassailing" (going from house to house, usually on January 5th, begging food, drink and hospitality) is mentioned as far back as the 12th century in England; similar rituals are found across the continent of Europe and in the United States. -PJS
"Wassail," incidentally, is from Old English "Wes hael," "Be hale/whole," i.e. "Be in good health."
Paul Stamler suggests that this should not be called the "Somerset Wassail," because it's well-known outside Somerset and is often known as "The Wassail Song" (or under other titles). The problem is, all wassails seem to be called "The Wassail Song" by local singers. I use the Oxford Book of Carols title because that's as close as there is to a canonical reference.
To tell this wassail song from all the others (most if not all of which are lumped by Roud), consider the first verse:
Wassail and wassail all over the town
The cup it is white and the ale it is brown
The cup it is made of the good old ashen tree
And so is our beer of the best barley.
(The Gloucester Wassail is similar for the first three lines, but the fourth is "With our wassailing bowl we'll drink to thee.")
The chorus varies; Sharp collected one version that has the refrain
To you a wassail
Aye, and joy come to our jolly wassail.
while another runs
For it's your wassail, and it's our wassail,
And it's joy be to you and a jolly wassail. - RBW
Also see Calennig, "The Wassail Song" (on Callenig, "A Gower Garland," Wild Goose Records WGS 299 CD (2000)) - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ShH92

Somersetshire Hunting Song

DESCRIPTION: "There's no pleasures can compare Wi' the hunting o' the hare, In the morning, in the morning, In fine and pleasant weather." The singer cheers the hunt, speaks of killing the victim, and declares he will hunt again tomorrow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal death
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #29, pp. 221-222, "Somersetshire Hunting Song" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 437-438, "Somersetshire Hunting Song" (1 text)
ST BeCo437 (Full)
Roud #1181
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hunting the Hare (I)" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hunting the Hare
File: BeCo437

Somethin' Got a Hold of Me

See Something Got Hold of Me (File: R640)

Something Got Hold of Me

DESCRIPTION: "When first I heard of the people who claimed This old-time religion was real," the singer concluded it was "just a weak mind," but chose to visit anyway -- though the Devil urged against it. Then "Something got hold of me" and the singer turned Christian
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 640, "Something Got Hold of Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Teresa L. Reed, "Shared Possessions: Black Pentecostals, Afro-Caribbeans, and Sacred Music" in _Black Music Research Journal_, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Spring 2012 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 15, "Somethin' Got a Hold of Me" (1 text)
Roud #4224
NOTES [41 words]: Randolph's text is from "Holy Roller meetings in the woods."
Reed's text is from a Pentecostal church service. Reed's verse is close to Randolph's chorus. Reed's chorus is call-and-response: call "It was the Holy Ghost" response "Holy Ghost." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: R640

Sometimes

DESCRIPTION: "Sometimes I live on de fat ob de land, Sometimes I live on de len, An' when I got nuttin' else to do, I sweeps my kitchen clean"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 144, "Sometimes" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #16299
File: Arno144

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

DESCRIPTION: "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child... a long way from home.... Sometimes I feel like I have no friend(s).... Sometimes I feel like I'm almost gone...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious home orphan nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 172, "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 115 in the 1901 edition)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 54, "Feel Like a Motherless Child" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 107, "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 49, "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 62, "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 514, "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child"
Roud #10072
RECORDINGS:
Mildred Bailey, "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" (Vocalion 05209, 1939)
Rev. Gary Davis, "Motherless Children" (on GaryDavis02)
Harmonizing Four, "Motherless Child" (Vee Jay 854, rec. 1957)
Ruth Mallard, "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Chile" (on BlackAmRel1)
Paul Robeson, "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" (Victor 20013, 1926)
Pete Seeger, "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" (on PeteSeeger23) (on PeteSeeger24)
Sister Nellie Lynn & the Southern Sons, "Motherless Child" (Haven 521, n.d.)
Lee Wiley, "Motherless Child" (Decca 132, 1934)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Motherless Child (II)" (theme, some words, form)
File: LxU107

Sometimes I'm in This Country

DESCRIPTION: "Sometimes I'm in this country, sometimes I'm in this town." The singer asks his love if she will be true; she replies that she has a new sweetheart. He considers drowning himself, but the water might "deceive" him; he decides to travel the wide world
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recorded from Lee Monroe Presnell)
KEYWORDS: love rejection drowning travel
FOUND IN: US(SE)
ST RcSIITCo (Partial)
Roud #16400
RECORDINGS:
Lee Monroe Presnell, "Sometimes I'm in This Country" (on USWarnerColl01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Goodnight, Irene" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Willy, Poor Boy" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [79 words]: The Warners claim that they could find out nothing about this song. Their informant Presnell thought it was a "sea song." And yet, the kinship to "Goodnight Irene" is clear. If Presnell is right about its sea origin, my guess is that it and "Goodnight Irene" split off from a common original sometime in the nineteenth century, and this went to sea and the other version went to Lead Belly. Since then, they have evolved enough that they can be considered separate songs. - RBW
File: RcSIITCo

Son Davie, Son Davie

See Edward [Child 13] (File: C013)

Son of a Gamble-eer, The

See The Son of a Gambolier (I) (File: San044)

Son of a Gambolier (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a rambling rake of poverty, From Tippery town I came. 'Twas poverty compelled me first, To go out in the rain." The singer tells how hard life, (drink), and rambling has turned him old and unattractive. He can't help it; he's "the son of a gambolier"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: rambling drink poverty
FOUND IN: US(SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 44, "The Son of a Gambolier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 71, "The Son of a Gamble-eer" (1 text, 1 tune, heavily modified to mae it Irish)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 48, "The Son of a Gambolier" (1 text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 59-60, "The Son of a Gambolier" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 78-80, "The Son of a Gambolier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 159-160, "The Song of a Gambolier" (1 text)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, p. 118, "The Ramble-eer" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 515-516, "Son of a Gun -- (Son of a Gambolier; Dunderbeck; and Rambling Wreck from Georgia Tech)"
DT, SONGAMB*
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), p. 74, "The Ramble-eer" (1 text, recognizably this although the first verse has some astronomy references and the son of a gamboleer is made a "son of a gun for beer")
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 287-288, "The Ramble-eer" (1 text, much like Wannan's)
ST San044 (Partial)
Roud #2964
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rambling Soldier (II)" (possible source for this song)
cf. "The Rambling Wreck from Georgia Tech" (tune)
cf. "Dunderbeck" (tune)
cf. "Son of a Gambolier (II)"
cf. "Way Out in Idaho (I)" (tune)
cf. "The Pioneers" (tune)
cf. "According to the Act" (tune)
cf. "The Rakes of Poverty" (tune)
cf. "The Freight Handler's Strike" (tune)
cf. "The Man That Waters the Workers' Beer" (tune)
cf. "Joe Williams (tune)
cf. "The Infantry" (tune)
cf. "Heligoland" (tune)
cf. "The Sergeant, He Is the Worst of All" (tune)
cf. "Louse Song" (tune)
cf. "The Allentown Ambulance" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Fifty Thousand Lumberjacks (II) (File: CAFS2586)
Coast Artillery Song (Jerry SIlverman, _Ballads & Songs of WWI_, 1997, pp. 198-199)
The Jolly Sophomore ("When first I went to College, to Columbia's halls I came") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 58)
Ye Gallant Sophomore ("There is in sober Itaca A University") (by F. C. Allen, [class of 18]73) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 108)
Rambling Rake of Poverty, "A Cornellian's Version" ("Come listen to my ditty, from Itaca town I steer") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 113)
Son of a Gambolier/Mary Had a Little Lamb (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, part 3, p. 50)
The Biggest Thing That Man Has Every Done (by Woody Guthrie) (Greg Vandy with Daniel Person, _26 Songs in 30 Days: Woody Guthrie's Columbia River Songs and the Planned Promised Land in the Pacific Northwest_, Sasquatch Books, 2016, p. xvi) (see also the notes to "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song)")
NOTES [264 words]: Jonathan Lighter, who has investigated the early versions of this song, gives this information about its history:
"'Son of a Gambolier' (alias 'The Rambling Rake') seems to have been a big deal at Harvard and Princeton in the 1860s. The earliest allusion I have found" is the New Orleans broadside from 1861 cited in the Supplemental Tradition. It "is on the program of the Harvard Senior Class Supper, 1865, where the Senior Class Ode is directed to be sung to the 'Air,--Rambling Rake of Poverty.' (The lyrics of the ode bear no resemblance to those of the "gambolier" song.)
In the "anonymous Fair Harvard: A Story of American College Life (1869), which is set just before the Civil War,[a] Southern student sings, 'Oh, I'm the rambling rake of poverty.'
"In 1869, G.K. Ward. A.B. Kelly, & J. C. Pennington printed the anonymous song and its tune in Carmina Princetonia." This version is entitled "Son of a Gambolier. A Nassau Song."
Lighter concludes, "My guess is that the song began as a vaudeville piece ca1860 and was more than once rewritten for the stage, whence Harvard, Princeton, and (presumably) Yale quickly appropriated it. (The earliest report from Yale seems to be from the1870s. Later reports are from places like Columbia, CCNY, the U. of Michigan, and Stanford. And, much later, Georgia Tech.)" - [RBW]
The Brown text is clearly a prototype of the various "Son of a Gambolier" versions; in it, the lad is forced by poverty to join the army, and does not mention the gambolier. But so much of the rest is the same that it seems absurd to split the songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: San044

Son of a Gambolier (II)

DESCRIPTION: Bawdy, scatological, and sundry verses to the tune of "Son of a Gambolier/Rambling Wreck from Georgia Tech." Often directed at the local arch-enemy (so, e.g. students of Stanford would lampoon California)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy parody nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 327-332, "Son of a Gambolier" (1 extended text, 1 tune); also pp. 332-336, "The Cardinals Be Damned" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #2964
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier (I)"
NOTES [37 words]: This extended title is used for any song insulting another college which can use the "Gambolier" tune. Why? Because no two versions of the result are alike. The Roud Index lumps this with the regular "Son of a Gambolier." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: EM327

Son of a Seven, The

DESCRIPTION: "The son of a seven's a miser." The singer is a doctor. He gives "Mr Bobie the Censer" "a powder for sleeping ... he never waked again." The doctor pays his respects and is asked for his bill. He gives it reluctantly and doesn't cash it [but see note].
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: death money medicine doctor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 696, "The Son of a Seven" (1 text)
Roud #5885
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kill or Cure" (theme)
NOTES [123 words]: This is a recitation and song. The song has a nonsense chorus which is taken to stand in for something that the singer values even more than money. Everything in his doctor shop has a price but "I never heed that when once I get hold of the [chorus:] Fal dree lal dreel tweedledum...." When he gives the family his bill for an extravagant list of medicine "about as long's my staff," instead of just sleeping powder, "I never heeded the bill when once I got hold of the [Chorus:] ...." Is this obscenity in disguise (as in "The Chandler's Wife" and "Jack the Jolly Tar" [Laws K40] and, possibly, "Jock Hamilton")? Greig's source, Bell Robertson, says it "was popular when her father was young, who used to say it was a nursery rhyme." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3696

Son Petit Jupon

See Marie Madelaine (Son Petit Jupon -- The Little Dress of Gray) (File: SBoA294)

Son, Come Tell It To Me

See Edward [Child 13] (File: C013)

Song About a Man-of-War, A

DESCRIPTION: The singer and his love part as he prepares to go to sea. The captain convinces him to come "on board of a man of war," where he is bound, abused, and fed horrid food. At last he throws himself overboard, swims to shore, and returns to his love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown, from a manuscript reportedly dated 1768)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship separation love reunion escape abuse
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 115, "A Song About a Man-of-War" (1 text)
Roud #661
NOTES [73 words]: The text in Brown seems confused; in the first two verses, the sailor seems about to voluntarily leave his love, then a captain cons him to come aboard ship. Then, once aboard, he is treated as if he had been pressed.
The most likely explanation is that several songs have been jumbled together. But the key element -- the third, in which the sailor makes his escape -- is unknown to me, and the editors of Brown confess ignorance also. - RBW
File: BrII115

Song about Snowball

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Mammy, Mammy, tell me, Oh, tell me, Mammy mine, Why do the white folks' chillun Call me snowball all the time? My daddy calls me sugar plum, My mammy calls me precious one, And Mammy, Mammy, it's a shame, 'Cause Snowball ain't my name."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: Black(s) mother children
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, "Song about Snowball" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #16285
NOTES [32 words]: Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama's notes don't explain it, but I assume this is the song of a Black child being taunted by racist Whites. As such, it strikes me as highly effective as a protest. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Arno102

Song about the Fishing Banks

See The Eastern Light [Laws D11] (File: LD11)

Song and Dance

DESCRIPTION: "I just arrived in town today, I'm a stranger to you all. If you don't like this music I cain't stop and give you a call." The singer exchanges glances with the girls in the street, becomes involved with one, then heads out of town
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: dancing courting travel
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 289, "Song and Dance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7821
File: R289

Song Concerning Love, A

See Our Captain Calls All Hands (Fighting for Strangers) (File: Pea416)

Song for a Wedding, A

See When Adam Was Created (Wedlock) (File: SKE55)

Song for Bobby Ack Day (Nob Him Once)

DESCRIPTION: "Nob him once, Nob him once, Nob him till he whistles twice"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Rowling)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad hair
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Marjorie Rowling, _The Folklore of the Lake District_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 119, "(Nob Him Once") (1 short text)
File: Rowl119

Song for Donald and Andy

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on a cauld December nicht when fruits and flooers were gone, My brother Andy left me tae be wi' his brother Dan." The singer recalls her times with her brothers. Many mourn them. She hopes they will meet again hereafter
AUTHOR: Belle Stewart (1906-1997)
EARLIEST DATE: 2006 (Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather); almost certainly written 1965
KEYWORDS: separation brother sister death reunion
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, pp. 83-84, "Song for Donald and Andy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21433
File: StQue083

Song for the Campaign, A

DESCRIPTION: "Whigs change every year And in new dresses do appear." but Pierce and King and the Democrats will put "Whiggery" to flight and win as Polk did in forty four.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: nonballad political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1844 - Presidential campaign. James K. Polk elected President.
1848 - Presidential campaign. Mexican War hero Zachary Taylor elected President -- the last Whig president. The party will lose in 1852 and will be a non-factor by 1856, replaced by the Republicans
1852 - Presidential campaign. Franklin Pierce and William Rufus Devane King Democratic candidates for president and vice-president. The Whig candidates were Winfield Scott and William Alexander Graham. Pierce wins with 51% of the popular vote (to 44% for Scott and 5% for the Free Soil candidate) and 254 electoral votes to 42 for Scott.
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 61, "A Song for the Campaign" (1 text)
Roud #2832
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Dan Tucker" (tune)
File: TPS061

Song for the Lute in Music, A

See When Griping Griefs the Heart Doth Wound (File: PJSwgghw)

Song for the Temple Volunteers

DESCRIPTION: "Ye saints throughout the mountains, pray listen to my rhyme"; a "noble band of brethren" "counseled by Brigham [Young]" set out "To build a holy Temple." They cheer Brigham. They have left their homes. The reward will be great
AUTHOR: Charles L. Walker (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious | Mormon Temple building
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, p. 126, "Song for the Temple Volunteers" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10857
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marching Through Georgia" (tune) and references there
NOTES [17 words]: For St. George, Utah, and other songs about it, see the notes to "Saint George and the Drag-On." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS126

Song in Praise of Sir Penny, A

See Sir Peny (File: MSSrPen)

Song in Praise of the Leather Bottel, A

See The Leather Bottel (File: WT244)

Song of 1861

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing you a song of sixty-one -- Mormons, Mormons! For in the world there is lots of fun...." The Mormons are "determined to succeed." People are concerned at the news from Charleston. The Union is "a rope of sand." The Mormons hope for their rights
AUTHOR: William Willis (source: Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: political Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #238, "Song of 1861" (1 text)
Roud #10909
File: Hubb238

Song of a Lost Hunter, A (or, My Love Heneree)

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Song of a Soldier

See The Bold Soldier [Laws M27] (File: LM27)

Song of Agincourt, The

See The Agincourt Carol (File: MEL51)

Song of All Nations

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing you a song of all nations." An Irishman's made of "his shamrock so green and a jug of poteen." Similar lines for Scotchman, Englishman, Frenchman, Jew, ..., old men, old ladies, ..., mammys and daddys.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 80, "Song of All Nations" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB180 (Partial)
Roud #2766
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "What's Little Babies Made Of?" (concept)
NOTES [109 words]: The first part of this has rather the feeling of the educations songs one finds in Randolph and other sources ("States and Capitals," "The Presidents in Rhyme," things like that). But it doesn't really contain information, so this origin seems unlikely.
The second half, in which the song stops talking about various nationalities and turns to types of people (old men, old ladies, etc.) is similar in concept to "What Are Little Boys Made Of" and "What's Little Babies Made Of," but the actual "ingredients" are different enough that I think they qualify as separate songs. There may be a common inspiration somewhere in the distant past, to be sure. - RBW
File: CrSNB180

Song of All Songs

See Titles of Songs (Song of Songs, Song of All Songs, Song of Song Titles) (File: R515)

Song of an Old Time Jailbird

DESCRIPTION: "I went down town and got on a whiz... the polie nabbed me and put me in the pokey Way out in the middle of town." The singer complains of bad air, bad food, rats as big as whales, "clinches so old, they had to wear specs"; he vows to stay away from town
AUTHOR: (very possibly assembled by John Daniel Vass)
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (collected by Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains from John Daniel Vass)
KEYWORDS: prison police food hardtimes floatingverses bug animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 72-73, "Song of an Old Time Jailbird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7324
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. most other prison songs, especially "The County Jail (I)" (theme of hard times in prison and the dangers posed by bugs)
NOTES [71 words]: This is one of those songs where a lot of the lines seem familiar (though the bit about the clinches wearing spectacles an walking with canes seems unique). The combination, however, is unfamiliar. Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains compares the tune to "Little Brown Jug." Given that he had the song from John Daniel Vass, who definitely fiddled with a lot of songs, I have to suspect that this is a Vass recreation.. - RBW
File: Shel072

Song of Dailey's Life-Boat, The

See The Little Clare Mary (Daily's Lifeboat) (File: BrII289)

Song of Emma Hartsell

See Emma Hartsell [Laws F34] (File: LF34)

Song of Joaquin (Wakken), The

DESCRIPTION: "I suppose you have heard of all the talking Of that noted horse thief, Joaquin; He was caught in Calaveras, And he couldn't stand the joke; So the rangers cut his head off." His robberies and 24 murders are listed; the capture of his gang is described
AUTHOR: Words: John A Stong ("Old Put"), according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Put's Original California Songster, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: homicide police thief crime punishment
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 195-196, "(The Song of Joaquin)" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 135, "Wakken" (1 short text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 647, "Joaquin, the Horse Thief" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 318, "Joaquin the Horse-Thief" (1 text)
ST GC135 (Partial)
Roud #3671
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Corrido de Joaquin Murrieta" (subject)
cf. "Now, I Warn All You Darkies Not to Love Her" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
NOTES [388 words]: The text in Gardner and Chickering, collected in Michigan but said to originate in California, was badly corrupt (as its title shows), and it is not possible to identify the villain. But it has enough in common with Burt-AmericanMurderBallads's text that I'm fairly sure they're the same song.
The real question is, is this Joaquin in fact Joaquin Murieta (c. 1832-1853, according to DAB, volume VII, p. 370)? The song never uses his surname, but the details fit very well: Murieta (or Murrieta, the spelling DAB prefers), was born perhaps in Sonora (DAB) and came to California around 1849, was the victim of anti-Mexican prejudice, and swore vengeance against all Americans (Benet, p. 751) -- which he carried out with brutal effect.
In 1853, California finally authorized a special company to catch him. They found him and his band in July, and Murieta was killed in the shoot-out. As the song tells, his head -- or, at least, someone's head; those who killed him never heard him declare his name -- was cut off and preserved in alcohol so it could be shown off around the state (YellowBird, p. xxiii). Three others of his band were killed and two captured; a handful escaped (DAB).
Benet, p. 751, says that he "has been portrayed in moving pictures in a sort of Robin Hood role." If there is any actual basis for this, I don't know what it was. But certainly a myth grew up around him, created by the biography by Yellow Bird -- a biography which has about as much truth as a Shakespeare history play (i.e. it has some of the names right, but the rest is effectively all imagination). YellowBird, pp. xi-xii, says that "It is not going too far to say that in this little book [author] Ridge actually created California's most enduring myth. It is true that in the early years of the gold rush there was a Murieta. But it was Ridge's Life of that outlaw, as preposterous a fiction as any of the Dime Libraries ever invented, that sent this vague banding on his way into the California histories...."
DAB's conclusion is that "Accounts of his life are contradictory, and few of the details given can be fully authenticated. By Latin-American writers and by [H. H.] Bancroft he has been invested with a considerable degree of romantic glamor, but the probability is that he was a ruffian, brutal, avaricious, and lawless." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: GC135

Song of Love, A

See High Germany (File: ShH56)

Song of Many Songs

See Titles of Songs (Song of Songs, Song of All Songs, Song of Song Titles) (File: R515)

Song of Marvels, The

See Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)

Song of Mormon Defiance

DESCRIPTION: "If Uncle Sam's determined On his very foolish plan, The Lord will fight our battles...." The Mormons plan a scorched earth policy "We'll throw down our houses... And we'll organize ourselves Into a roving state." Mormons will never give in
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Anderson, Deseret Saints, according to Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: battle travel home
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1857 - Mounting of the Mormon Expedition/Mormon War/Utah War, in which Federal forces were commanded by Albert Sydney Johnston
1858 - Mormons prepare to abandon Salt Lake Valley
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #235, "Song of Mormon Defiance" (1 text)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 86-87, "If Uncle Sam's Determined" (1 text)
Roud #10839
File: Hubb235

Song of Mrs. Shattuck, The

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell, my dear husband and children, farewell, How I feel to leave you, there is no one can tell." On a Fourth of July trip, a hanging limb strikes the family. They are taken to the Granger home. The singer bids farewell to family and friends
AUTHOR: (Mrs.) Abigail Jane Ingraham Harness "Abbie" Payne? (1833-1921)? (source: Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra)
EARLIEST DATE: 1857 (Eau Claire Times, May 23 edition, according to Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: death family disaster storm
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 215, "The Song of Mrs. Shattuck" (1 text)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 63, "The Song of Mrs. Shattuck" (1 text)
Roud #15663
NOTES [132 words]: Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin quotes Rickaby as calling this a "beautiful and touching ballad," but I find it rather confusing. It can't seem to decide who has been hurt, although apparently only one family member dies. And the order of incidents is odd -- why is the singer, who is apparently dying long after the accident, now telling what happened?
Peters seems to quote Rickaby as saying it was sung to "Auld Lang Syne," but the words are a dreadful fit; it took me three tries to make even the first line work to that tune, and the result is unpleasant. I rather suspect the proper tune is "A Prisoner for Life (I - Farewell to Green Fields and Meadows)," which fits much better, and has certain similar words -- and is just similar enough to "Auld Lang Syne" to suggest the latter. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Pet215

Song of Old (Adam the First Was Formed of Dust)

DESCRIPTION: "Adam the first was formed of dust, As scripture doth record, And did receive a wife called Eve...." They are happy until Eve eats the forbidden fruit and destroys their life. Now people keep up the old tradition by bundling
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (Journal of the Polly)
KEYWORDS: sex marriage food humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 330-332, "Song of Old" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [62 words]: Huntington suggest this began as a broadside. I somewhat doubt it -- despite its jovial tone and informal vocabulary (multiple uses of "fust" for "first"), it has the noteworthy feature of using internal rhymes in the first and third lines of the stanza (e.g. "And did reCEIVE a wfe called EVE"). This suggests a poet studied in forms other than traditional balladry. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HGam330

Song of Old Potter

DESCRIPTION: "Sing, O Muse of the mountains, In rhythm rugged and vibrant! Sing to the music of streamlets...." The poem praises the pioneers who settled Potter County, and its fertility, as well as its part in the Gettysburg campaign
AUTHOR: Belle Haskell (source: Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania); reportedly written 1904
KEYWORDS: home war farming
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp.173-176, "Song of Old Potter" (1 text) (pp. 149-152 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #14097
NOTES [15 words]: Patently not traditional. And not worth the effort. Note the invocation of the muses! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Shoe173

Song of Prosperous, The

DESCRIPTION: "We" United Irishmen burned Prosperous. "Our captain he forsook us," "Phil Mite the informer" betrayed us, Colonel Aylmer led us. "If Ireland had behaved like Wicklow, Wexford, and Kildare, The green flag would be hoisted through town and counterie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion betrayal revenge death Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 24, 1798 - "At Prosperous, County Kildare, a garrison commanded by Captain Swayne was massacred by the insurgents" (source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 13, "The Song of Prosperous" (1 text)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 56, "The Song of Prosperous" (1 text)
NOTES [392 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "Philip Mite, one of the assailant party, denounced his leader, a Dr. Esmond, who was hanged. According to John Devoy, this was still the favourite '98 ballad around Naas in the middle of the nineteenth century...." - BS
The story of Prosperous tells us a lot about both Irish historians and about the history of Ireland. It was founded by Richard Brooke around 1780 as a cotton-spinning site. The settlement was on the Grand Canal a short distance north of Naas (in Kildare, west southwest of Dublin)
But English policy was, in effect, to crush any Irish industry which showed signs of competing with British. Tarriffs and other problems caused Prosperous to go bankrupt in 1786.
That much is mentioned in several pro-Irish histories. But they tend to ignore the massacre there. I found details only in Thomas Pakenham's pro-British The Year of Liberty (pp. 112-117). With buildings intact but little industry left, Prosperous made a good place for a garrison; in 1798, there were a couple of dozen Welsh dragoons and about 35 (mostly Catholic) militia from Cork commanded by (Protestant) Captain Swayne.
Swayne, it must be said, was a vicious persecutor of Catholics. His men were not. But, on the night of May 23/24, they were the target of one of the first attacks of the Kildare phase of the 1798 rebellion; reportedly some 500 men took part in the assualt. Pakenham reports that 38 of 57 defenders were killed; Swayne himself was shot then burned in a barrel of tar. (A peculiar outcome; see the fate of Father Murphy described in "Some Treat of David.")
The man at the head of the attacking forces was said to be Doctor John Esmonde, the first lieutenant of Richard Griffiths (commander of the Sallins yeoman cavalry, based nearby at Clane, and one of the senior officers in the area).
Griffith himself came under attack that night, but beat it off easily. He did not feel strong enough to attack Prosperous, and ended up retreating to Naas. A yeoman named Philip Mite soon arrived to tell Griffith of Esmonde's leading part in the massacre. Esmonde arrived shortly after, quite neatly dressed, but was taken into custody. He would eventually be hung, with his coat reversed to show he was a deserter (Pakenham, p. 124). It sounds as if Mite's was the only direct testimony against him, but it was enough. - RBW
File: Zimm013

Song of Repentance

DESCRIPTION: A rake repents the "time sadly wasted" drinking, bragging, seducing, and versifying. He has wasted his money on musicians. His creditors would see him in jail. He is poor, growing old, and alone. He warns others not to follow his example.
AUTHOR: unknown, translated by "Frank O'Conor" (1903-1966)
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: age poverty courting drink music rake
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 82, "Song of Repentance" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [95 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "My friend 'Frank O'Conor' (now Dr. Ml. O'Donovan) has given me leave to reprint his spirited translation of Eoghan Rua O'Sullivan's 'B'fhearr leigean doibh'." - BS
Frank O'Connor was an industrious translator of Irish poetry; Charles Sullivan's Ireland in Poetry includes ten of his renditions; the only author more heavily represented is Yeats. Much of his work was collected in Kings, Lords & Commons. He also wrote English short stories and some plays. He had quite a lively life, having been a member of the IRA in his youth. - RBW
File: OLcM082

Song of Solomon's Temple

See The Building of Solomon's Temple [Laws Q39] (File: LQ39)

Song of Song Titles

See Titles of Songs (Song of Songs, Song of All Songs, Song of Song Titles) (File: R515)

Song of Songs

See Titles of Songs (Song of Songs, Song of All Songs, Song of Song Titles) (File: R515)

Song of Stock

See The Irish Family (File: K275)

Song of Sugar Valley

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Sugar Valley, land of the sugar maple," its sweets have long delighted the young. It also had good fishing and hunting, and beautiful mountains. Now it sends forth missionaries and professionals. May it stay a good place
AUTHOR: Charles N. Wolfe (source: Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: home hunting food
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 124-125, "Song of Sugar Valley" (1 text) (pp. 104-106 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #14085
File: Shoe124

Song of Te Kooti, The

See Te Kooti (File: BaRo087)

Song of Temptation, The

DESCRIPTION: Her seduction attempt: birds sport, why shouldn't we? And we are born naked: why wear clothes? Don't quote Holy Writ. He cites David's fall and Sodom; she, Solomon's queens and concubines. He bids her "Begone you slut!" "Without ado they then withdrew"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: seduction dialog nonballad religious Bible
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 45-46, "The Song of Temptation" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5333
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kissing's No Sin (I)" (theme of the antiquity of sexual relations)
NOTES [184 words]: Both sides have some slight holes in their Biblical logic. David did indeed get into trouble for sexual impropriety (his affair with Bathsheba, told in 2 Samuel chapter 11, with the working-out of the consequences occupying chapters 12-20) -- but that was specificly adultery (Bathsheba was married to the Uriah the Hittite) and David compounded it by killing Uriah. Casual fornication is not nearly the same.
As for Sodom, there was a "great outcry" against them (Genesis 18:20), but fornication was hardly their problem; recall that, just before the destruction of the city, Lot offered his virgin daughters to the Sodomites to rape rather than having then assault his guests. But the Sodomites wanted the (male) guests, so their crime was seemingly homosexuality (Genesis 19:1-10).
But the example of Solomon is hardly a counter-argument; he had supposedly 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3), but these wives "turned away his heart after other gods" (1 Kings 11:4), with the eventual result that his descendants lost control of most of Israel.
I'd call the debate pretty close to a draw. - RBW
File: TSF045

Song of the Alaskero

DESCRIPTION: Ilocano. "It's a hard lonesome fate We face in Alaska." The food is bad and the boss harsh. The weather is cold, and there is no rest. The singer wishes he were back at home and hopes the skies (gods?) will approve of his labor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Casady, Labor Unrest and the Labor Movement in the Salmon Industries of the Pacific Coast, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage work travel hardtimes Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 683-684 "Song of the Alaskero" (1 translated text)
File: CAFS2683

Song of the Contrabands, The

See Go Down, Moses (File: LxU109)

Song of the Croppy Boy

See The Croppy Boy (I) [Laws J14] (File: LJ14)

Song of the Crow, The

See The Crow Song (I) (File: R275)

Song of the Dead Insurgent

See Maidin Luan Chincise (Song of the Dead Insurgent) (File: Moyl102)

Song of the Death Valley Prospectors

DESCRIPTION: "We've roamed the hills and made new trails, Our burrows by our side, We've looked for gold but ain't found none." "Oh! Oh, you desert rats, don't you cry no more. We've almost reached the golden gate." The singer looks forward to rest from prospecting
AUTHOR: Frank Crampton and others?
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Crampton, _Deep Enough: A Working Stiff in the Western Mine Camps_)
KEYWORDS: gold travel hardtimes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 663-664, "Song of the Death Valley Prospectors" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Susanna" (tune) and references there
File: CAFS2664

Song of the Digger

DESCRIPTION: "This is the lay of the digger, The song of the keeper of gum, Sung in a kerosene twilight." It's a year-round job, done in the dark, always scraping away. The singer had to learn the trade himself, working by candlelight with a bottle by his side
AUTHOR: Words: probably William Satchell (1860-1942) (Source: J. C. Reid, _A Book of New Zealand_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (Satchell, Land of the Lost, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: worker hardtimes courting drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 128, "(no title)" (1 excerpt)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 41, "Song of the Digger" (1 text, 1 modern tune) (p. 24 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-Z, p. 193, "(Song of the Digger)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: J. C. Reid, _A Book of New Zealand_ (Collins National Anthologies), Collins, 1964, pp. 58-60, "The Lay of the Digger" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Jonathan and David Flaws, "Song of the Digger" (on NZSongYngCntry)
NOTES [16 words]: For background on the digging of kauri gum, see the notes to "The Old-Time Kauri Bushmen." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo128A

Song of the Emigrant, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is "lying on a foreign shore and hear[ing] the birdies sing." His hair is "mixed wi' siller threads" He remembers a girl "in years lang, lang gane," who used to sing the old songs, which he names. He'll sing of Scotland while he can.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3); 19C (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(29b))
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration Scotland nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 532, "The Song of the Emigrant" (1 text)
Roud #6011
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(29b), "The Song of the Emigrant," Poets Box (Dundee), c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" and references there
File: GrD3532

Song of the First Arkansas Regiment

See Marching Song of the First Arkansas (File: SCW38)

Song of the First of Arkansas

See Marching Song of the First Arkansas (File: SCW38)

Song of the Fishes (Blow Ye Winds Westerly)

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you bold fishermen, listen to me, I'll sing you a song of the fish in the sea, Then blow ye winds westerly, westerly...." The behaviors of the various fish are described as they come forward and speak to the sailors
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: fishing bragging nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(NE) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 187-188, "The Boston Come-All-Ye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 145-147, "Song of the Fishes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 196-198, 209-210, "The Fishes" (4 texts, 4 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 153-154], "Blow the Man Down" (1 text, version D of "Blow the Man Down") [AbEd, pp. 164-165]
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 15, "Blow the Wind Whistling" (1 text)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 160-161, "The Fish of the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, p. 859, "Blow the Wind Westerly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 77, "The Old Ark" (1 text, 1 tune, with first verse and chorus from "The Old Ark's A-Moverin'" and additional verses from "this song")
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 129-131, "Song of the Fishes" (1 very full text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 496-498, "The Boston Come-All-Ye or The Fishes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 22, "The Fish of the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 557-558, "The Boston Come-All-Ye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 154, "Boston Come-All-Ye (or The Fishes)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 90, "Blow Ye Winds Westerly" (1 text)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 85, "The Boston Come-All-Ye" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 33, "The Boston Come-All-Ye" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SONGFISH* SNGFISH2
Roud #472
RECORDINGS:
Charlotte Decker, "Blow the Wind Westerly" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Pete Seeger, "Come All You Bold Sailormen" (on PeteSeeger08, PeteSeegerCD02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1029), "The King of the Sea" ("Up starts the herring the king of the sea"), unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 28(102), "The King of the Sea"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yea Ho, Little Fish" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Blow the Wind Southerly" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
"Fishes Song" (by Harry Mercer) (fragment on p. 161 of Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport)
File: LxA496

Song of the Freedmen

DESCRIPTION: "We are coming from the cotton fields, We are coming from afar, We have left the plow... And we are going to war." The freed slaves describe all the cruelties they have left behind. Now, apparently, they are fighting for their freedom
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (Dime-Song-Book #16)
KEYWORDS: slave freedom war Civilwar nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #16, pp. 46-47, "We are coming from the Cotton Fields" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 240-242, "Song of the Freedmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 80-81, "Song of the Freedmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V59961
File: SBoA240

Song of the Gillie More

DESCRIPTION: Scottish and Soviet farmers and workers share much. "Jocks and Ivans by the score Swappin yarns"; "Gar it ring frae shore tae shore, Leith tae Kiev -- Don tae Gairloch"
AUTHOR: Hamish Henderson (1948) (source: McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad Russia Scotland
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 143, 156, "Song of the Gillie More" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21759
NOTES [36 words]: Ironic that Kiev is in Ukraine, not Russia, and wants no part of Russia. (And it's now generally called by the Ukrainian name "Kyev," not "Kiev.") There may be more Communists in Scotland now than are left in Kyev. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: McSc143

Song of the Gumfield

DESCRIPTION: "In the slighted, blighted North where the giant kauris grow" people earn a living "in the trade of digging gum." New chum, "scum," even doctor and lawyer turn to gum-digging. In the end, "the bottom's gone forever from the trade of digging gum"
AUTHOR: William Sachell (writing as Saml. Cliall White) (according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (Sydney Bulletin, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ); collected 1957
KEYWORDS: worker hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 127-128, "Song of the Gumfield" (1 text)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 38, "Trade of Kauri Gum (1 text, 1 modern tune) (p. 22 in the 1972 edition)
NOTES [16 words]: For background on the digging of kauri gum, see the notes to "The Old-Time Kauri Bushmen." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BaRo127

Song of the Lady Bessy, The

See (references under) The Battle of Bosworth Field (File: BdTBOBoF)

Song of the Mangle, The

See Cheer, Boys, Cheer (V -- The Song of the Mangle) (File: Shoe236A)

Song of the Mayers

See May Day Carol (File: JRSF238)

Song of the Metis Maiden

See La Metisse (Song of the Metis Maiden) (File: Macl08)

Song of the Metis, or McDougall at the Border

See Chanson des Metis (Song of the Metis, or McDougall at the Border) (File: Macl006)

Song of the Moor, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis merry in the springtime, 'Tis blithe upon the moor, Where every man is equal For every man is poor." The singer is "free... upon the moor," and enjoys it there in summer, fall, and winter
AUTHOR: Words: Sabine Baring-Gould (sourec: Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: worker | seasons moor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #72, "The Song of the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune, the text not traditional)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Brown Dog" (tune)
File: BGSW072

Song of the Nantucket Mariner

DESCRIPTION: "Of all of life's wanderings wherever I stray, O'er old ocean's wavers or by lands far away... There's no place so dear as my own native isle." The island is home to the singer's ancestors. The lighthouse is the guide. He looks forward to going home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (Journal of the Lexington)
KEYWORDS: whaler travel return home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 32-33, "Song of the Nantucket Mariner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27524
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Exiled Irishman's Lament (The Exiles of Erin)" ("dear native isle" motif)
File: HGam032

Song of the Pinewoods

See Old Moke Pickin' on the Banjo (Song of the Pinewoods) (File: Be022)

Song of the Range, A

DESCRIPTION: "The bawl of a steer in a cowboy's ear is music of the sweetest strain"; he lives a carefree life and enjoys the range. When he comes home, he sees the rancher girl; "They'll gallop back to the old home shack in the life that is new and strange"
AUTHOR: James Barton Adams (source: Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy courting home work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 142-144, "A Song of the Range" (1 text)
File: ThLo142

Song of the Rebel Soldier, The

See The Good Old Rebel (The Song of the Rebel Soldier) (File: Wa193)

Song of the Reluctant Transport Driver

DESCRIPTION: "I've been in the saddle for hours, I've stuck it as long as I could" but "my arsehole is not made of wood." The singer asks the sergeant, "Oh, give back my stirrups to me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier horse hardtimes injury
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 55, "Song of the Reluctant Transport Driver" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (tune) and references there
File: AWTB055B

Song of the Robbers, The

DESCRIPTION: "You've heard this story often, you've heard it o'er and o'er...." "A tip had come to Morrison... That they would have a visit from the native bad G. Raines." The robber gang, though captured, kills Dr. Clark. They are sentenced to long prison terms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: robbery death crime punishment doctor
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 207-208, (no title) (1 text)
NOTES [29 words]: Yes, the song calls the robber "G. Raines." An initial and a surname. Consistently. Not "Raines," and not a full name. That's typical of the horrid "poetry" of the piece. - RBW
File: Burt207

Song of the Scottish Shepherd

DESCRIPTION: "Far, far from my home in the Hielands so grand And attending these sheep in a wide distant land," the singer is still happy "with my lass of Australia sweet smiling by me." He describes their life together in glowing terms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland)
KEYWORDS: love courting emigration shepherd
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 185-186, "Song of the Scottish Shepherd" (1 text)
File: AnFa185

Song of the Sea, A

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Song of the Seals, The

DESCRIPTION: "A sea maid sings on yonder reef, The spell-bound seals draw near." The song causes plowmen to cease plowing, milkmaids to cease milking; even animals listen. When she ceases, ordinary life begins again
AUTHOR: Words: Harold Boulton / Music: Granville Bantock
EARLIEST DATE: 1977
KEYWORDS: nonballad animal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 27, #3 (1979), p, 26-27, "The Song of the Sealsr" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [58 words]: This song had a very great fling of popularity a few years ago in pop folk circles. It is not, however, a folk song; it has never been found in tradition. I include it partly because it was so widely heard and partly because the poet, Harold Boullten, produced several other almost-folk songs, notable the Skye Boat Song (Over the Sea to Skye). RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: SOv27n3a

Song of the Seamen and Land Soldiers, A

DESCRIPTION: "We seamen are the bonny boys That fear no storms nor rocks, a, That fear no storms nor rocks, a, Whose music is the cannon's noise." The song lists the English ships, and boasts of victories over the Turks and others
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 14, "A Song of the Seamen and Land Soldiers" (1 text)
File: PaSe014

Song of the Shanty Boys

See The Lumber Camp Song (File: Doe210)

Song of the Ship Vineyard

DESCRIPTION: "Come my jovial lads let us all bid adieu To the girls that we love and to whom we'll prove true." The Vineyard sets out in search of whales. They travel the Pacific under Captain Coon. They are happy to return home around Cape Horn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of the Three Brothers)
KEYWORDS: whaler travel home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 62-64, "Song of the Ship Vineyard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27526
File: HGam062

Song of the Southern Volunteers, The

DESCRIPTION: "I would not be a conscript a-hiding in the wood; I'd be a volunteer and do my country good. I wouldn't be alone (x3) to weep and moan." Similarly "I wouldn't be a lawyer... I'd rather be a soldier," etc. -- then perhaps shifting to a female soldier!
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar marriage patriotic soldier work
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 123, pp. 263-264, "I Would Not Be Alone" (1 text)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 221-223, "The Song of the Southern Volunteers" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NOTBEALN
Roud #4502
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'll Not Marry at All" (form)
NOTES [178 words]: The extant texts of this song all appear rather messed up. Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi's text hints at the original: An adaption of "I'll Not Marry at All" in which the singer proclaims his willingness to serve the south -- or, perhaps, a girl proclaims "I would not *marry* a conscript."
In fact, it's possible that both forms existed, then were mixed to produce Hudson's odd gender-bending text, with verses about a conscript, lawyer, doctor, lady/belle, nurse, farmer, and miller.
Scott's song it even more confused; it appears to be a mix of "I Would Not Be a Conscript" and "We Go Walking on the Green Grass" (the latter not to be confused with "Walking on the Green Grass"). It's too complicated for me to disentangle, so I tossed it here.
The original description I wrote of the song is as follows: "'I would not marry a conscript... I'd rather marry a volunteer and do my country good.... We go walking on the green grass, thus, thus, thus....' The girl would rather marry, or even be, a soldier boy, than wed someone who will not volunteer for the South." - RBW
File: SBoA221

Song of the Splintered Shillelagh

See Pat Murphy of the Irish Brigade (File: SCW22)

Song of the Tangier Gold Mines

DESCRIPTION: Gold mining begins May 1861 "back of Tangier and Pope's Harbour." Men leave their work, wives, and sweethearts "for the sake of 'Tangier gold"; ladies "go upon the diggings the miners for to see." Wish the miners success and hope they will be generous
AUTHOR: Catherine Hart (1861)
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: sex gold mining
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1860 - Opening of the Tangier Gold Mines (Source: Halifax Archives per Creighton-NovaScotia)
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 145, "Song of the Tangier Gold Mines" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS145 (Partial)
Roud #1841
NOTES [43 words]: Tangier is on the coast of Nova Scotia, about 60 miles east of Halifax. - BS
Creighton notes that the mining in the Tangier area was extensive but not particularly profitable. But the song was written when the boom was just beginning, so hopes were high. - RBW
File: CrNS145

Song of the Temperance Union

See Rum By Gum (Temperance Union Song) (File: R317)

Song of the Time, A

DESCRIPTION: "In England several years ago The seen was plesent fair and gay." One John Love sails for America, and worked in the fur trade before going to Boston. He lends three brothers money; they murder him. The murderers are caught and sentences to hang
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: travel homicide money punishment execution
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 430-432, "A Song of the Time" (1 text)
File: TNY430

Song of the Times (I)

See The Rigs of the Times (File: K237)

Song of the TImes (II)

DESCRIPTION: "There's a crowd in every village, and every town astir, Who are going to gather up the gold." "Pike's Peak is the land for the young and old." Women, men, foreigners -- all are heading for Pikes Peak to seach for gold; some of them are described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Cherry Creek Pioneer, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: mining gold travel home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 589, "Song of the TImes" (1 text)
File: CAFS589A

Song of the Times (III), A

DESCRIPTION: "There's a deep and growing murmur Going up through all the land." The workers will gain justice: "Rally, rally, all ye voters (x3), And vote for home and right. The rich may dislike Coxey's Army, but its cause is right. "Shylock's reign is o'er."
AUTHOR: Words: Luna E. (Mrs. J. T.) Kellie (1857-1940)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Nevada Folklore pamphlet; probably written 1894)
KEYWORDS: nonballad derivative hardtimes money political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1894 - In the aftermath of the Panic of 1893, Coxey's Army tries to march on Washington seeking work. Only a few hundred marchers arrive; Coxey is arrested and nothing accomplished
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 72-73, "A Song of the Times" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: Nebraska Folklore, Pamphlet Twenty, "More Farmers' Alliance Songs of the 1890's," Federal Writers' Project, 1939, p. 20, "A Song of the Times" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune)
NOTES [669 words]: Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., editor, The Almanac of American History, revised edition, Putnam, 1993 (I use the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), p. 378: "30 April 1894. NATIONAL Jacob Sechler Coxey leads 400 people from Ohio to Washington, D. C. Known as Coxey's Army, the motley crew marches to protest unemployment; underlying that is their sense that the government refuses to legislate in favor of working people, but feels no compunction to refrain from legislating in favor of large corporations. Arriving in Washington amid great applause from a waiting crowd, Coxey and his lieutenants are arrested for trespassing on the grass. The 'army' melts away."
Dictionary of American Biography, supplement V (1977), pp. 139-141:
COXEY, JACOB SECHLER (Apr. 16, 1854-May 18, 1951). businessman, perennial monetary reformer, and leader of "Coxey's Army " of the unemployed, was born in a log house in Selinsgrove, Pa, north of Harrisburg, the son of Thomas Coxey, a sawmill engineer, and Mary Sechler Coxey.... At sixteen he went to work in a local iron mill and advanced to stationary engineer. He left in 1878 to go into the scrap-iron business and three years latter settled in Massillon, Ohio, where he bought a sandstone quarrey and founded a company providing silica sand to iron and steel mills....
A Democrat by heritage, Coxey had turned in 1877 to the Greenback party, the start of a lifelong devotion to the goal of a non-metal-based legal-tender currency. His active pursuit of that goal began in the depressed 1890's. Taking his cue from the adherents of the new sport of bicycling... Coxey proposed a federal road-building program, financed by $500 million in new greenbacks, to give work to the unemployed.... A second... proposal [was for state public works programs financed by interest-free federal loans].
Coxey's initial efforts to publicize his plans met with scant success.... Coxey lacked eloquence or charisma. He found those qualities in an ally whom he met at a free-silver meeting in Chicago in 1893 -- Carl Brown... who affected the dress and style of Buffalo Bill. It was Brown who conceived the idea of a "petition in boots," a march of jobless men to Washington to seek enactment of Coxey's two proposals....
The march had been well publicized, and Coxey hoped for a turnout of thousands, but only about a hundred workers and farmers set out on a cold Easter Sunday (Mar. 25, 1894), accompanied by some forty newspaper reporters.... Officially the 'Commonweal of Christ," the group was dubbed by the newspapers "Coxey's Army," with Coxey as "General," a title he carried for the rest of his life. The marchers covered about fifteen miles a day and slept at night on straw under a small circus tent (Coxey and Browne put up at hotels).... [T]he men relied mainly on donated food, sometimes from nervous local authorities eager to speed them on their way....
Other "industrial armies"... were also headed for Washington.... Their militancy, combined with contemporary fears of the tramp, contributed to the tense reaction in Washington when Coxey and his followers marched toward the Capitol on ay 1. Leaving his men peaceably in rank outside the grounds, Coxey and two of his lieutenants made their way to the Capitol steps, where Coxey sought to speak. The three were arrested, sentenced to twenty days in jail for carrying "banners" (Coxey's a mere badge on his lpel), and faind for walking on the grass....
Coxey's good-roads bill, introduced by Populist Senator William a. Peffer [of Kansas], progressed no farther than an adverse committee report....
For the rest of his long life Coxey combined business affairs with periodic new attempts to promote currency expansion through non-interest-bearing bonds....
[Coxey lived to see the New Deal enacted, containing many of his ideas, but by then he was largely forgotten. He did manage to be elected mayor of Massillon in 1931, but he was dropped in 1933. A quixotic presidential run on the Farmer-Labor ticked in 1932 went nowhere.] - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: Wels072

Song of the Trap, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a trap, I'm a trap, and up here I abide. The camp is my home, and my blue coat's my pride." The uses his staff with good will and to a good purpose; if he must crack heads at night, it won't be the first time. The trap tells his story in many stages
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters)
KEYWORDS: police work clothes immigration mining
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 38-39, "The Song of the Trap" (1 text, from "Thatcher's Colonial Songster")
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 79-85, "The Song of the Trap" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-GoldrushSongster, pp. 38-41, "The Song of the Trap" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Afloat" (partial tune)
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (partial tune)
cf. "Norah Creina" (partial tune)
NOTES [89 words]: A "trap" is a policeman who patrols on foot.
Although few if any of Charles Thatcher's songs have gone into tradition, this is particularly un-folk-like; it apparently changes tunes several times. Presumably it was one of his vaudeville-like exhibitions.
Thatcher seems to have liked the tune "Nora Creina." He also used it for a song called "Lansell's Case."
For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: AnSt079

Song of the Vermonters, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ho -- all to the borders! Vermonters, come down... To the gathering summons of trumpet and drum. Come down with your rifles...." The poet calls on the residents to "defy all the world" and guard Vermont's holdings
AUTHOR: John Greenleaf Whittier
EARLIEST DATE: 1833 (original publication, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: patriotic nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster pp. 269-272, "The Song of the Vermonters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-ChapBook Flanders-VermontChapBook, pp. 2-5, "The Song of the Vermonters, 1779" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 26-29, "The Song of the Vermonters" (1 text plus a reprint of a broadside)
Roud #4670
File: CAFS1026

Song of the Volunteers of 1782

See The Song of the Volunteers (File: Moyl001)

Song of the Volunteers, The

DESCRIPTION: "Hurrah! tis done. Our freedom's won. Hurrah for the Volunteers!" The Irish Volunteers, behind Grattan and Flood have broken "the Saxon yoke" Prayers, tears and words were vain "till flashed the swords Of the Irish Volunteers"
AUTHOR: Thomas Davis (1814-1845) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: early 1840s (_The Nation_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: pride rebellion Ireland political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 1, "The Song of the Volunteers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 111-112, "Song of the Volunteers of 1782" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 236-237, "The Song of the Volunteers of 1782"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Green Cockade" (subject of the 1782 Volunteers)
cf. "The Shamrock Cockade" (subject of the 1782 Volunteers)
cf. "The Volunteers" (subject of the 1782 Volunteers)
NOTES [192 words]: The Belfast Volunteers were formed in 1778 because of the threat of war between France and Britain. Similar groups formed, became politicized, and supported "those in favour of legislative independence from the British parliament and the removal of impediments to Irish commerce." Henry Grattan and Harry Flood supported this program in the Irish House of Commons. (Source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
Hayes's title places the events in 1782. - BS
Moylan's description sums up the situation pretty well, I think. The Volunteers were not openly rebellious; they were mostly pro-British, and largely Protestant (though Terry Golway, For the Cause of Liberty, p. 51, notes that they included Catholics as well). By 1779, there were 40,000 volunteers (see Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, A History of Ireland, p. 186). Having shown that Ireland could field an army, a tide of nationalism, expressed in a "Buy Irish" movement, arose. The British, nervous about this, and remembering the recent example of the American rebels, responded by granting legislative independence in the form of Grattan's Parliament, for which see "Ireland's Glory." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Moyl001

Song of the Wadhams, The

See Wadham's Song (File: GrMa119)

Song of the Western Men, The

See Trelawny (File: DixP036)

Song of Welcome, A

DESCRIPTION: "Our noble Lord's come to the North To view his bonnie lands o' Forth ... Come bid him welcome." He fought the French in Egypt "wi 'Forty-twa' .... Our hero fought at Waterloo ... And bravely did the French subdue"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: return nonballad landlord
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #149, pp. 1-2, "A Song of Welcome" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 439, "A Song of Welcome" (1 text)
Roud #5953
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Our Noble Lord's Come to the North
Lord Saltoun
NOTES [121 words]: Greig: "[Lord Saltoun] was grand-uncle to the present laird, and the song was made up on his home-coming after the battle of Waterloo."
Greig/Duncan3: "The song as composed for Alexander George Fraser (1785-1853), sixteenth Lord Saltoun."
The references are to the Egyptian campaign (1798) and Waterloo (1815) against Napoleon. "Forty-twa" refers to the 42nd Highland Regiment, the Black Watch, which fought at Waterloo. See "The Bonnets o' Blue" and its references for more information about the Black Watch.
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Philorth (439) is at coordinate (h6,v0) on that map [roughly 37 miles N of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3439

Song of Whaling, A

DESCRIPTION: "September last the Point we past, With westly breeze so fair, We went over the shoals like jovial souls" to go whaling in the Leo. They take two whales and stop at the Isle of May, then at Nantucket and other points, then return home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (Journal of the _Polly_)
KEYWORDS: whaler travel return
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 33-35, "A Song of Whaling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27525
File: HGam033

Song on Courtship

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) AND The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: E098)

Song on the Duke's Late Glorious Success over the Dutch, A

See The Duke's Late Glorious Success over the Dutch (File: PaSe020)

Song on the Ivy and the Holly, A

See (notes under) The Holly and the Ivy (File: FSWB383)

Song on the Nantucket Ladies, A

DESCRIPTION: "Young damsels all wherever you may be, I pray attention give to me, Some braken hints I will lay down, About the girls in Sherboun town." The girls dress up to look fine. The boys court them. The singer talks about them while rounding Cape Horn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1819 (Journal from the _Diana_)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes beauty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 32-34, "'Round Cape Horn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 165-167, "A Song on the Nantucket Ladies" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 49-50, "A Song on the Nantucket Ladies" (1 text)
Roud #2048
File: CAFS1049

Song on the Victory of Agincourt

See The Agincourt Carol (File: MEL51)

Song That Reached My Heart, The

DESCRIPTION: "I sat 'midst a mighty throng within a palace grand, In a city far beyond the sea, in a distant foreign land," as a girl sings "Home, Sweet Home." The memories of home, and the song, affect him deeply
AUTHOR: Julian Jordan (1850-1927)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad music
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 62-63, "The Song That Reached My Heart" (1 text)
Roud #3721
NOTES [103 words]: This strikes me as pretty feeble, but it was the first of several fairly big hits for Julian Jordan; he published this in 1887, then "Light of My Life" in 1889, 'Sweet Charity" in 1890, an "Just As We Used To Do at Home" in 1893 (gleaned from Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, pp. 604-607). He doesn't seem to have done much of note after that.
This business of a song inspiring a memory seems to have been a common idea in the late nineteenth century; Gussie L. Davis did it with "Sweet Refrain," which seems to treat "Old Folks at Home (Swanee River"" the way this song treats "Home! Sweet Home!" - RBW
File: Dean062C

Song to Baranov

DESCRIPTION: "In eighteen hundred and eight, In Novo-Arkhangel'sk port, Ai Liuli, ai lili," the fort on Sitka Island is threatened with attack. The Russian allies are able to resist and to meet with Baranov. They celebrate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (B. H. A. Roderick et al, Panhandler's Songbook, Vol. II, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: battle Russia Indians(Am.) party
FOUND IN: US(NW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 671-672, "Song to Baranov" (1 text)
File: CAFS2671

Song to Captain S. D. Oliver

DESCRIPTION: "Far, far to the Arctic Ocean, There the bow heads blow, There's where my heart is turning ever, There's where I want to go." The singer declares the whales "wild and ugly," and begs the captain to let them leave the ocean for someplace better
AUTHOR: Words: George E. Mills / Music: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Journal from the Leonidas)
KEYWORDS: whaler hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 67-68, "Song to Captain S.D. Oliver" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Pamela A. Miller, _And the Whale Is Ours: Creative Writing of American Whalemen_, David R. Godine/Kendall Whaling Museum, 1979, pp. 133-134, "Song... to Captain S. D. Miller" (1 text)
Roud #27527
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)" (tune)
cf. "We Come, We Come" (another George E. Mills song)
cf. "Under Way" (another George E. Mills song)
NOTES [26 words]: George E. Mills, who copied and probably wrote this, wrote quite a bit of poetry in whaling journals in the 1850s; see the songs in the cross-references. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: HGam067

Song Used When Holystoning the Decks

DESCRIPTION: Tune only, no text. According to Hugill, Russian seaman had few real shanties and apart from the songs quotes by Smith there is nothing in the literature.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (L.A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad shanty worksong
FOUND IN: Russia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 580, "Song Used When Holystoning the Decks" (1 tune only, no text-quoted from Smith)
File: Hugi580

Song Written on the Repeal of the Cider-Tax

DESCRIPTION: "Rejoice! here's welcome news, Come let us merry be, Since George our gracious King... So kindly has consented his subjects' wants to ease, By taking off the cider tax." The nation rejoices to be able to drink strong cider more freely
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1766 (source: Palmer)
KEYWORDS: drink food party royalty money
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1763 - repeal of the British cider tax (source: Palmer)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, _Ripest Apples_, The Big Apple Association, 1996, pp. 73-74, "[A New Song]" (1 text, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 217=218, "A Song Written on the Repeal of the Cider-Tax," T. Davies and son (Hereford), 1818
File: PRiA073

Song, Called Crawford's Defeat by the Indian on the Fourth Day of June, 1782, A

See The Death of Colonel Crafford (File: E115)

Songs of Old Ireland

DESCRIPTION: The singer thinks back of the songs he heard as a youth. He asks to hear several such songs. He recalls fondly the days of his youth.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: music youth nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H768, pp. 59-60, "Songs of Old Ireland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13360
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Titles of Songs (Song of Songs, Song of All Songs, Song of Song Titles)" (theme)
File: HHH768

Songs of Praise the Angels Sing

DESCRIPTION: "Songs of praise the angels sing" for Jehovah's work, and for the Prince of Peace. Until the "glorious Kingdom come the saints below will "in songs of praise rejoice"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Ira D. Sankey, _Sacred Songs and Solos: Twelve Hundred Hymns_ (London: Marshall Morgan & Scott Ltd, 1921? ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #248, ("Songs of praise the angels sang") (1 text)
William Henry Monk, _Hymns Ancient and Modern_ (London: Novello and Co., 1861 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #160, ("Songs of praise the angels sang") (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Henry Williams, Allan Lovelace, George Robert, "Songs of Praise the Angels Sing" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [57 words]: WITrinidadVillage02 follows the "Sankey into shout" hymn singing described in the notes to "Jesus Lover of My Soul" - BS
The song contains one dramatic error derived from the King James Bible, in that it calls the God of the Old Testament "Jehovah" rather than the correct YHWH; for this, see the notes "Guide Me, Oh Thou Great Jehovah." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcSoPtAS

Sonia Snell

DESCRIPTION: "This is the tale of Sonia Snell, To whom an accident befell": she uses a public toilet which has just been painted, and its seat sticke to her seat. A carpenter cuts the seat loose from the fixture, but she has to go to the hospital for help
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: rescue humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp.134-135, "Sonia Snell" (1 text)
Roud #10233
File: RuSoSonS

Sonny Hugh

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Sonora Filibusters, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, don't you remember Bill Walker, the great, Bill Walker, the captain of the band, That went to Sonora to clean out the state." The singer describes Walker's career in Mexico and the South, and how his "Republic" finally fell
AUTHOR: Words: John A. Stone ("Old Put")
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Put's Original Californa Songster)
KEYWORDS: rebellion political | William Walker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 286-287, "The Sonora Filibusters" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ben Bolt" (tune)
File: LDC286

Sons o Bonnie Scotland

DESCRIPTION: "O let aa the rhymers sing Aboot the lands both far and near, My voice I'll raise and sing in praise My native land sae clear... Oor countrie bonnie Scotland"
AUTHOR: Alec Melville (source: McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
KEYWORDS: pride Scotland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 74-75, 151, "Sons o Bonnie Scotland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21746
File: McSc074

Sons of Finga

See Erin, My Country (The Harp of Erin) (File: HHH478)

Sons of Hibernia, The

DESCRIPTION: "Brave sons of Hibernia, your shamrocks display, For ever made sacred on St Patrick's day." The shamrock is "the badge of our saint," "a type of religion." It is "an emblem of charity, friendship, and love. May the blight of disunion no longer remain."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 150, "The Sons of Hibernia" (1 text)
Roud #V598
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(184), "The Sons of Hibernial", unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "St Patrick's Day" (tune, per Broadside Bodleian 2806 b.10(184))
File: OCon150A

Sons of Levi (Knights of Malta)

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls all "Knights of (Malta)" to join with him to fight for good. "For we are the true-born Sons of Levi, None on earth can with us compare." The listeners are guided through the (Templar) ritual, and acts of God in Israel are recalled
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Grieg)
KEYWORDS: knight religious soldier | freemasonry
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H146, pp. 180-181, "The Knights of Malta" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 75, "The True-Born Sons of Levi" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 281, "Sons of Levi, A New Masonic Song" (a reprint of the National LIbrary of Scotland broadside)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #155, p. 1, "The Sons of Levi" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 470, "The Sons of Levi" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 393-292, "The Knights of Malta" (1 text)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 203, "The Sons of Levi" (1 text)
ST HHH146 (Full)
Roud #2430
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(156), "Sons of Levi, A New Masonic Song," unknown, c. 1880-1900
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Knight Templar's Dream" (style)
cf. "The Mason's Word - Keep Your Mouth Shut" (tune, per Greig)
NOTES [542 words]: The Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, or Hospitallers for short, was founded during the Crusades, first as a refuge for pilgrims in need and then as a knightly order to defend the holy sites. After the last Crusader city, Acre, fell in 1291, they gradually retreated across the Mediterranean, settling in Malta in 1530.
Since that time, the Hospitallers have been known as the "Knights of Malta," even though they have been based in Rome since Napoleon pushed them out of Malta in 1798.
The Hospitallers had strong requirements of initiates, which may be reflected in the song. The order was suppressed in England in early Protestant times, but re-formed in the nineteenth century. I doubt the song actually originates with the Hospitallers, though; they would not publish such a broadside. Rather, it appears to be a Masonic piece, though one with unusual popularity (perhaps because it has been mated with at least one very good tune).
The broadside claim that this is a Masonic song makes a good bit of sense. The Freemasons did connect themselves with the Knights of Malta (along with many other thing), and they had a tendency to mix scriptural and Kabbalistic references; this sounds typical of their work.
Scriptural references in the song are numerous, e.g.
* Joshua crossing Jordan, taking twelve stones along, with the Ark of the Covenant, and ending in Gilgal: Joshua 3:12-4:24
* Noah planted the first garden: Properly the first vineyard; Gen. 9:20. The Bible calls Noah the first tiller of the soil in the same verse, but Cain is called the first tiller in Genesis 4:2.
Moses planted Aaron's rod: Probably a reference to the budding rod in Numbers 17:1-11, though the next few lines refer to the crossing of the Red Sea (Sea of Reeds), Exodus 14:16-29, which occurs earlier in the Biblical account.
Nowhere did Moses turn the Jordan into blood (Moses didn't even reach the banks of Jordan); he turned the Nile to blood in Exodus 7:18-24.
The "ark," of course, is not Noah's Ark but the Ark of the Covenant; the Sons of Levi were the holy tribe of Israel.
The lines in the chorus about the root and branch of David, and the morning star, are from Rev. 22:16. I'd quibble a bit with the King James translation of the verse, "I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star." (About half the manuscripts, and all the best manuscripts, omit the word "and" before "the bright," and there is no "and" before "morning star"; the Greek reads "the star the bright the morning.") The New Revised Standard Version renders "I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star" -- but of course the song is based on the Bible as the Masons knew it. The key word, rendered "branch" in the song, "offspring" in the King James Version, and "descendant" in NRSV, is γενος, "genos," which the dictionaries give the core meaning "race" or "stock." But "the branch" was emphatically a messianic title; Zechariah 3:8, "I am going to bring my servant the Branch," was meant to refer both to the heir of David (Zerubbabel) and the coming messiah, although it appears the Persians suppressed Zerubbabel and the text was rewritten. The title "the Branch" does not occur explicitly in the New Testament. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: HHH146

Sons of Liberty (II), The

See Ye Parliament of England (I) (File: FO195)

Sons of Liberty, The [Laws J13]

DESCRIPTION: The singer, an Irish soldier, is sent to America to fight the rebels. He lands in New York and soon finds himself fighting the Sons of Liberty. He grieves for those lost in battle, and praises the courage of Washington and his army
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1790 (Journal from the Dolphin)
KEYWORDS: war
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws J13, "The Sons of Liberty"
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 162, "The Sons of Liberty" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 146-148, "The Sons of Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, p. 170, "Jessie and Jimmie" (1 stanza, probably of this song though it could float, 1 tune)
DT 396, SONSLIB1* SONSLIB2*
Roud #596
NOTES [69 words]: There is another song from the Revolutionary War called "A Song to the Sons of Liberty," opening "Come jolly Sons of Liberty, Come all with hearts united. Our motto is, 'We dare be free....'" It is not related to this song; it is said to have been written against the Stamp Act, and sung to the tune of "Come, Jolly Bacchus." A version can be found on p. 12 of Rabson's Songbook of the American Revolution. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: LJ13

Sons of New Jersey, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a call for volunteers sometime in last year, And there the sons of New Jersey did quickly volunteer." "Burnside now is in command" and on his way to Richmond. The men of the 24th "will fight for Uncle Sam"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (Cohen); probably composed 1862
KEYWORDS: soldier Civilwar nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov. 9. 1862: Ambrose Burnside replaces George B. McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2210, p. 148, "The Sons of New Jersey" (1 reference)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 124-125, "The Sons of New Jersey" (1 text)
NOTES [250 words]: Cohen calls the background of this song "obscure," but we have three useful facts: The song is about New Jersey troops, it refers to the "24th" (i.e. 24th New Jersey), and Burnside is now in command. But Hunt, p. 187, notes that the only colonel the 24th New Jersey had was William B. Robertson, mustered in September 16, 1862 (the day before Antietam) and mustered out June 29, 1863 (just before Gettysburg).
In other words, the 24th New Jersey was a nine month regiment (confirmed by Fox, p. 482), formed in the fall of 1862 and joining the Federal service just about when Ambrose Burnside took command of the Army of the Potomac. The soldiers were still too new to realize how much trouble that meant they were in.... They paid the price at Fredericsburg: They were part of Nathan Kimball's first brigade of W. H. French's third division of Darius Couch's second corps (Palfrey, p. 208), and French's division was chosen to lead the attack on Marye's Heights, the best-defended part of the entire Confederate position. The attack there made Fredericksburg a by-word for sacrificial failures, and the 24th was one reason why: it suffered 136 men killed and wounded (Fox, p. 483) -- of whom 52 died (Fox, p. 21) because of Burnside's incompetence.
The 24th's other major battle was Chancellorsville; it was still in the first brigade, third division, second corps, although the brigade was now commanded by Col. S. S. Carroll; is suffered three killed, 21 wounded, 12 missing (Sears, p. 479). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: CAFS124

Sons of Sorrow

See The Mouldering Vine (File: MSMF120)

Sonsy Ann She Won the Game

See Nancy Ann Took It Out of the Pail (File: KSUC080A)

Soo Sewin' Silk

See Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

Soo St. Mary's Jail, The

See Sault Ste. Marie Jail, The (The Albany Jail) (File: FSC168)

Soon as My Foot Struck Zion

DESCRIPTION: "Soon as my foot struck Zion, And de lamps all lit on de shore, Bud dis world a long farewell, And de lamps all lit on de shore." "You better walk study [steady?], Jesus a-listenin', Oh, you better walk study, Jesus died... Jesus a-listenin' all day long"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 636, "Soon As My Foot Struck Zion" (2 short texts from the same informant)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 636, "Soon As My Foot Struck Zion" (2 tunes plus text exceprts)
Roud #11934
File: Br3636

Soon I Will Be Done

DESCRIPTION: "Soon I will be done with the troubles of the world... Goin' home to God." "I want to meet my mother...." "I want to see my Jesus...." "No more weepin' and wailin'...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 234, "Soon I Will Be Done" (1 text, 1 tune)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 56, "Soon-a-will Be Done-a-with Troubles of the World" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 244, "Soon I Will Be Done" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 238-239, "I'll Soon Be Done With the Troubles of the World" (1 text)
Roud #11954
RECORDINGS:
James Cleveland and the New Jersey Mass Choir of the Gospel Music Workshop, "Soon I Will Be Done With the Troubles of the World" (on "Soon I Will Be Done With the Troubles of the World," Savoy Records SL-14709 LP (1983))
Mahalia Jackson, "Trouble of the World" (on "The Best of Mahalia Jackson," Legacy CK 66911 CD (1995))
Dennis Wiley, ("Soon I Will Be Done With the Troubles of This World") (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation)
NOTES [19 words]: The McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation video and Mahalia Jackson recording illustrate melisma in Black hymns. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LoF244

Soon in the Morning

See I Hope I'll Join the Band (Soon in the Morning) (File: R266)

Soon May the Wellerman Come

DESCRIPTION: "There was a ship that put to sea, And the name of the ship was the Billy of Tea." The captain spots a whale and sets out to take it. The boats are lost, but the captain will not give up the pursuit even after forty days. The Wellerman visits with supply
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969/70 (collected from Frank Woods, according to Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: whaler ship hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 17, "Soon May the Wellerman Come" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 10 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 48, "(Soon May the Wellerman Come)" (1 excerpt)
DT, WELLRMAN*
RECORDINGS:
Tommy Wood, "Soon May the Wellerman Come" (on NZSongYngCntry)
NOTES [3493 words]: There is much that is mysterious about the origin of this song. The notes that follow will not be able to answer all the questions. What I have done is dig up as much information about the background to the song as I can possibly find, in case it helps future sleuths -- or just informs those who sing the song.
When this song became an odd internet hit at the end of 2020, a number of commentators observed a similarity to the tune of a 1971 recording, "The Lightning Tree," by The Settlers. This is only a year and a bit after Neil Colquhoun reported collecting the song from Frank Woods, and a year before he published it. The Tommy Wood recording is from about the same time. Colquhoun usually admitted to making up tunes when he did so, but could alleged source Frank Woods have heard the Settlers song?
It may not be the original tune, either -- Gibb Sahib on mudcat has argued cogently that the song is based on "The King of the Cannibal Islands."
Another curiosity: The tune recorded by Tommy Wood is not the same as in Song of a Young Country -- it is in major, not Dorian, although there are points of contact. Mike Harding, on mudcat.org, offered information of much relevance here. He spoke to Tommy Wood about it, who remembered, "I came across the poem in a book on NZ sailors and as a folk singer in those days was collecting songs to sing at the clubs. I had mentioned it to Neil Colquhoun, then a fellow club member, who knew about it and hummed a rough guide to the tune. It became my song at the time, singing it at various clubs around until finally singing it on the album 'Songs of a Young Country'...unfortunately I have not got the book anymore. All I can remember was stories connected to whaling, exploring NZ and immigration ships, containing personal letters of life on board these ships, including poems... black and white sketches of ships, sailors etc... it was fairly old then [late 1960s?]! My late wife Margaret was a librarian and she brought it home after it had been removed off the shelves... The Wellerman was an actual poem in the book but not quite in rhyme I had to adjust some of the words to fit the tune that Neil and I managed to put together."
Thus one suspects that after Wood and Colquhoun "agreed" on the tune, one or the other (I would guess Wood, since he didn't have Colquhoun's musical training) unconsciously converted the tune to a different mode.
So far, attempts to locate the book Woods saw have been unavailing. Not even Tod, which tried to assemble whaling songs pertaining to New Zealand, had a text.
So what can we learn from the song itself? For starters, What is a "Wellerman"? The answer is, an employee of the Weller Brothers....
NewZealandEncyclopedia p. 593: "WELLER BROTHERS, Edward, George, and Joseph, were among the earliest N[ew] Z[ealand]-based whalers, the first permanent European settlers on Otago Peninsula, and the first merchants to attempt to establish a trade between the South Island and England. They were recorded as having arrived in NZ from Sydney in 1831, aboard their ship carrying gunpowder and muskets, grog, whaling equipment, clothing and stores, and they quickly established whaling stations in the South Island and set up trade links between NZ and Sydney.... [Because of export duties and shipwrecks,] by the early 1840s they had abandoned Otago.... One of the Wellers, Joseph, had died in Otago in 1835, and Edward and George disappeared from NZ following the rejection of their land claims and were not heard of again." (According to Morton, p. 128, Joseph Weller died of consumption, "and, like Nelson, was taken home for burial in a cask of rum"; so also Tod, p. 26.)
(Morton, p. 309, quotes George Weller's explanation for the bankruptcy of the Weller Brothers: "the loss of the two Schooners [described below]... combined with the unsuccessful fishing [i.e. whaling] seasons, a loss by sheep [in Australian] to the extent of £4000[,] a pressure in the money market.")
The site of their initial landing has become a landmark, "Wellers' Rock" (Tod, p. 21); it can be located in Google Maps. It is apparently almost the only thing left of that original settlement (Morton, p. 234), even though it was one of the largest, if not the largest, European settlement in New Zealand at the time. In 1931, a plaque was erected on the spot to celebrate their centenary; Tod, p. 99. has a photo of it, with one of Edward Weller's descendants alongside, taken in 1981, and p. 104 has a close-up of the plaque.
The Weller Brothers operation was a Sydney-based company which ran a shore-based whaling syndicate. Since they were shore-based, they had no true whaling ships; the men had whaling boats, and went out to sea when they saw a whale near the shore. So the Wellerman came (presumably from Australia) to bring the sailors what they needed for their work.
My understanding is that it was very hard to leave the employ of the shore whalers (Morton, p. 243, quoting E. J. Wakefield: "Discipline on whaling stations was strict, 'a species of despotic authority, maintained both on shore and in the boats by the exertion of a strong will'"). This would explain the plot of this song, where the whalers could not escape the captain's obsession with the whale. (If whalers aboard ship were able to go ashore, they might desert, which was bad, or they might get drunk and come back and resist the captain's authority, which was worse. So the captains were extremely harsh; Rickert, pp. 60-61. And there was no other law; New Zealand had not yet become a British colony; Rickert, p. 61. This was significant in other ways; because New Zealand was not British territory, the Wellers were required to ship their oil to Sydney before sending it to Britain in order to avoid the high duties on foreign oil; Morten, p. 146.)
(However, I suspect captains worked harder to retain their whalers in Australia, where a man could go ashore and find a region settled by Europeans, than in New Zealand, where a landing might put them among Maori who were often not at all friendly to Europeans. The sailors might well be kept incommunicado, though; "their employers often prevented their letters reaching their relatives and friends in Australia in order to keep any news from the fisheries from reaching competitors in Sydney"; Morton, p. 238).
Rickard, pp. 57-58, reports, "In 1831, the Sydney firm of G. and E. Weller decided to enter the bay whaling business in New Zealand, and to that end bought a barque, the Lucy Ann, of 214 tons, from the New South Wales government. The Lucy Ann carried the stores for the enterprise to the place that had been selected, Otakou, on the east side of Otago Harbour." Some of her cargo was for the whalers; some was probably for trade with the Maoris. (Chapman-Cohen, p. 15, however dates the founding of the station to 1832 and says the first load of whale oil was sent to Sydney in November 1833. Tod, p. 21, says the founding date was 1831 but the exact date uncertain.)
In addition to whaling, the Wellers set up a store at Otakou, which would outlast the whaling station; they had "a reputation for fair prices and honest dealings" (Morton, p. 280).
Rickard, p. 58: "The Lucy Ann brought back a good cargo of timber and flax from this voyage, but actual whaling operations got off to a bad start. Early in 1832 an accidental fire at Otakou destroyed all the buildings of the whaling settlement, the conflagration being assisted by the explosion of a considerable quantity of the gunpowder that remained. As a result, the whole of the following whaling season was a complete loss. The Wellers, however, were not deterred, even by an attempt to burn the Lucy Ann as she lay at anchor in Sydney Harbour.... In May, Captain Worth sailed for Otakou with a whaling gang... to make a fresh start. On the return voyage, the Lucy Ann brought to Sydney the first cargo of Otago oil, 130 tuns of it, as well as seven tons of whalebone, one ton of flax, eight tons of potatoes and a cask of seal skins. There was considerable trouble with the Maoris in 1834, but otherwise the Otakou station proved for several years to be a very profitable investment, employing seventy-five to eighty men and twelve boats in peak years."
Incidentally, the Lucy Ann, although not a whaler at this time, would soon become one. She is famous enough to have a Wikipedia entry, because in 1842 she was the ship on which Herman Melville sailed on his second whaling voyage, in which he ended up being put off the ship for alleged mutiny; Forster, p. 131. In 1835, the Wellers authorized Captain Thomas Richards to take her whaling: "The 'Lucy Ann' provisioned and watered and in every respect fitted for a sperm whale voyage. I authorize you to take command of her and proceed on said voyage" (Tod, p. 27). Thus the Wellers' actual ship was a supply ship turned whaler, just like the Billy of Tea -- though she was supposed to hunt sperm whales, not right whales.
Morton, p. 70, quotes George Weller as saying there were 85 men employed at Otakou in 1835, "three fourths of which were Europeans" (he rest presumably being Maori). They eventually, but only briefly, established other stations (Tod, p. 26).
The Wellers were not just owners; they actively participated in the whaling. At least, "George Weller in his letters from Sydney requested that Edward leave the whaling to others" (Morton, p. 74). Nor did they confine their business entirely to whaling; they would carry other cargoes -- George Weller "traded in potatoes, flax, timber, and fish, as well as coopers' flags, whalebone, and whale oil," and at one time made inquiries about purchasing the preserved human heads that the Maori sometimes made of enemies they had killed! (Morton, p. 153).
Edward Weller even went semi-native; he married a Maori, Paparu, by whom he had a daughter Hana ("Fanny"), and when Paparu died, he married another Maori, Nikuru (Tod, pp. 27-29).
Keep in mind, however, that the Wellers' work was actual shore whaling; the Lucy Ann was not used as a whaler at first. Rather, she supplied the whalers. Later, they employed a ship they named the Joseph Weller to carry oil, but she apparently was a schooner (Morton, p. 80), so not especially suited to hunting whales. (She was, however, apparently the first ship built in Stewart Island and the first New Zealand ship registered in Australia -- a small ship of 49 tons -- Tod, p. 22 -- which would make her too small to be a whaler.) Perhaps part of the irony of the song is that the shore whalers, who were supposed to be supplied by the Wellers' ship, were instead supplying the ship from the shore.
The Wellers did send at least some true whalers to New Zealand, though, or at least ships capable of processing oil; the Dublin Packet, a schooner with "trying out" equipment for rendering oil as well as a couple of whaleboat crews, did visit on at least one occasion (Morton, p. 146).
New Zealand whaling had a season, and in the off-season the whalers had to do something with their time -- either stay at the shore station or head off for somewhere else such as Sydney. Some stations were better-kept than others in the off season. Of the Weller Brothers' station, Rickard, p. 94, reports, "Otakou was another station that had a rather squalid air about it. Dumond d'Urville saw near it two wretched taverns whose owners appeared to be doing very well from selling liquor of abysmally bad quality, not only to the whalers, but also to the Maoris, who flocked to spend their money as soon as they received it."
The Wellers' Otakou station hit its peak of production (310 tuns) in 1835; this was down to 213 tuns in 1838, and only 65 tuns the next year, then 14 in 1840; after bringing in just 10 in 1841, the operation was shut down (Rickard, p. 111; Tod, p. 89, says that word reached Otago on February 25, 1841, that the Wellers were out of business). Thus, if this song truly refers to Weller operations in New Zealand (rather than Australia), it must refer to the period 1831-1841. (On the other hand, the Wellers by that time had "bought" a great deal of land from the Maoris at absurdly low prices -- Tod, pp. 73-74 -- and were working on farming settlements. So they might have sent a ship to the settlements which were distracted by a whale.)
The Wellers were not the last whalers to leave New Zealand, but the rest gave up soon. By 1845, the right whales were gone from the vicinity -- and New Zealand became a British colony in 1840, which meant the whalers had to deal with more regulations, plus the Maori were raising the price of supplies, which made other ports less expensive places for captains to supply their ships (Morton, p. 17).
(This does not mean that the Wellers vanished completely, to be sure; Edward Weller in fact lived until 1893, when he was killed by a flood at his home in Maitland, Australia; Tod, p. 89.)
The fact that the right whales were hunted out does not mean that there were no whales around New Zealand; there were still humpback and finback whales. But these were not generally hunted, because they fought back harder than right whales and tended to sink when they died, so no oil would be recovered (Morton, pp. 26-27). Whereas the right whale was relatively easy to catch (it had a speed of about five knots; Morton, p. 31), didn't fight back much, and supplied an adequate amount of fairly good oil.
The fact that the Wellerman made a regular call, when there was only one New Zealand station, raises an interesting question: Was the Billy of Tea going in circles?
The song says that the Billy of Tea had four boats, and this is in fact typical of whalers in this period; the crews would have four "boatsteers" or "harpooners" (Rickard, p. 8) for the four boats they usually carried (Rickard, p. 9; Morton, p. 148). There is an interesting question: Usually the captain and mates would be in the boats, leading them to the whale. If *all* boats were lost, would the captain have survived to demand that the ship still follow the whale, and would there still be enough men to man and navigate the ship?
Also, what was the line tied to that the ship could follow the whale, and how could the line go slack? The standard line was only a thousand feet or so (though whaling boats would sometimes tie lines together to make them longer) -- and not particularly heavy, typically about an inch thick. In New Zealand waters it was likely made of linen, which was locally available, although hemp or manila was used elsewhere (Morton, p. 35).
The Wellers may have left New Zealand over land claims, but they probably would have left soon after anyway. The whales had already been largely fished out. Rickard, p. 83: "In the early years of bay whaling round New Zealand, twelve or thirteen tuns could be expected from a right while.... By the time Dieffenbach visited Te Awaiti in 1839, nine tuns was regarded as very good, and when Shortland spoke to Hughes, which was in 1843, the latter considered that five tuns was an average yield from one whale." In other words, they'd killed off all the big whales and were working their way down through the young ones; as had happened everywhere else, they were driving the local whales extinct.
A captain who insisted on following a whale is not an unknown phenomenon; "Some captains seem to have been obsessive whaling men, who could not resist the chase" (Morton, p. 74). Sadly, there is no source cited for this statement. But on pp. 77-78 Morton points out the number of whaling captains who stuck with the trade even though they were qualified for other nautical jobs and could have made more money; whaling really did seem to have some sort of special lure, strange as it seems to us now.
The men could be obsessive sometimes, too; according to Morton, pp. 75-76, most New Zealand whalers at this time were paid by the "lay system," which as I understand it consisted of a modified share system in which they were guaranteed their basic needs such as food, but most of their pay came from shares (a lower share, however, than a pure share system in which they had no guarantees). And the lay did not include tobacco or replacement clothes, so a dry voyage could still leave the whaling hands in debt. And they still got a payoff for taking more whales. So the crew would probably want to take any whales they could reasonably hope to pursue. The lay system would also explain the desire to desert: If a tour is lasting a long time and few whales are taken, then they would be in debt for whatever they bought beyond the lay and would have little expectation of a share. Desertion would be an easy way to avoid the debt (Morton, p. 76).
That demand for rum was high among Weller's men is likely. The usual drink among sailors and shore whalers at this time was generally rum, often of abysmal quality -- and shore whalers apparently went through more of it than those aboard ship, simply because they could have as much as they wanted at any time (Morton, p. 247), whereas those aboard whaling ships were limited to a standard ration until they reached port.
The use of the term "billy" is perhaps a dating hint, although not much of one. Ramson, p. 52, cites the first use of the term as from New Zealand in 1839: "[We] boiled the Billy and made some Tea out of tawa bark." The next entry, from 1849, is from Australia. Citations after that are fairly common. It looks as if the word was coined by the 1830s but didn't become common until the 1850s. That said, there is no reference to a ship called the Billy of Tea in the list of ship logs on pp. 346-357 of Morton or the index of ships on pp. 149-151 of Forster or the shorter lists of ships in the indices of Tod, etc. Not that that lists are complete -- and presumably you didn't expect the ship to be real anyway. But it's worth noting: Australia and New Zealand weren't building the whaling ships at the start of this period (they couldn't build ships that big, although that gradually changed); they came from Britain and the United States and France and other European countries. How would a ship in this era acquire such a thoroughly Australian or New Zealander name?
"Tonguing" and "Tonguer" is older; for this verb and noun (which referred to a man who cut blubber and was paid with the oil of the whale's tongue) see the notes to "Come All You Tonguers."
Another thing that occurs to me. This is just speculation, and I do not believe this is a direct source. But I wonder if the author of the original poem didn't have the story of another ship, the Henry Freeling, somewhere in his mind. She was a Weller Brothers ship (a 91-ton schooner, according to Ingram, pp. 13-14) that was eventually destroyed. "The Wellers were denied their insurance payment for the loss of the Henry Freeling, wrecked at Tautuki, 'she having deviated from her course, according to the Policy of Insurance'" (Morton, p. 227).
And she had interesting adventures even before she was lost. "The homeward voyage of the Henry Freeling, which commenced when she left Otago on 31 May 1837, was an eventful one of no less than 11 weeks. The hurricane force winds which had caused so much havoc along the Otago coast throughout the year caused the delay, and before reaching Sydney she was almost entirely out of provisions. When she finally made port, she was described as little more than a wreck, having lost her bowsprit. bulwarks, boats, etc. The insurers refused to pay out the claim because the ship deviated from the Otago-Sydney passage by calling at Port Cooper" (Tod, p. 34).
Thus, like the Billy of Tea, she left course, spent a very long time on a voyage, and eventually never came back. What's more, she might have been nicknamed the "Henry Free," which would sound a bit like "Billy of Tea." Her captain on her last voyage, according to Ingram, p. 14, was named "Fisher."
Her loss was followed not long after by the loss of another Weller Brothers cargo carrier, the Dublin Packet, in 1839, with the loss of several hands (Tod, p. 39; Ingram, p. 13). The insurance paid out on that one, but the combination of losses was a "tragic" one for the Wellers (Tod, p. 71) and was followed soon after by their abandonment of New Zealand.
Tod, pp. 108-123, lists all Europeans known to have settled at or visited Otago by 1848, plus some of the Maori. Might the author of this song be one of them? No way to tell; several of them must have been literate (the doctors, some of the storekeepers, the missionaries, the surveyors), but there is no indication that any of them wrote poetry.
For those who wish to find out more about the Wellers, Tod is the best book I've found so far. It has a big picture of Edward Weller on p. 20 and a smaller one of George on p. 22. Morton also has images of them facing p. 241, with a picture of Fanny Wells on the same page, and a picture of their Otakou station taken in the 1860s, long after it ceased to be used for whaling. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Colq010

Soon One Mornin' Death Come Creepin'

See Soon One Morning (File: LxU103)

Soon One Morning

DESCRIPTION: "Soon one morning death come creepin' in my room (x3) Oh my Lord, oh my Lord, what shall I do to be saved?... Death done been here, took my mother and gone... I'm so glad I got religion in time."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 103, "Soon One Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 30, "Soon One Mornin' Death Come Creepin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 40-42, "Soon, One Mornin'" (1 text, 1 tune, a sort of song/sermon which differs substantially from that in the DESCRIPTION but still appears to be the same song)
DT, DETHCREP*
Roud #10069
RECORDINGS:
Delta Big Four, "I Know My Time Ain't Long" (Paramount 12948, 1930; on VocalQ2)
Golden Gate Quartet, "Hush" (Columbia 30136, 1948)
Blind Willie Johnson, "You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond" (Columbia 14530-D, 1930)
Rev. Willie Gresham & congregation, "Soon, One Mornin'" (on FolkVisions1)
Fred McDowell, "Soon One Mornin'" (on LomaxCD1703)
Wiseman Sextet, "Hush, Somebody's Calling My Name" (Paramount 12077, 1924)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hush
NOTES [29 words]: Without a source for "You're Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond" I don't remember the lyrics well enough to know if it's the same song as "Soon One Morning," but I THINK it is. -PJS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LxU103

Soon Thy Bark Must Leave Our Harbour

DESCRIPTION: "Soon thy bark must leave our harbor, Soon thy sails must be unfurled, Soon the last fond look be taken." The sailors' beloved will gather to say farewell and wish them good luck. They hope there will be no misfortunes. They will write many letters
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Journal of the Walter Scott)
KEYWORDS: whaler travel separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 31-32, "Soon Thy Bark Must Leave Our Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27529
File: HGam031

Soon-a-will Be Done-a-with Troubles of the World

See Soon I Will Be Done (File: LoF244)

Soon, One Mornin'

See Soon One Morning (File: LxU103)

Sophie's First Trip, The

DESCRIPTION: "I suppose that you remember when the Sophie she was new, And Johnny Buddy Antie hoped to go mate on her crew." Antie requests the job, but is rejected. He apparently is hired in a lesser job, but mishandles the sails (?) and now will never be mate
AUTHOR: (redited to John Brown of Goderich, Ontario)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected by Walton from Norman MacIvor)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 96-97, "The Sophie's First Trip" (1 text, rather damaged)
Roud #19851
File: WGM096

Soraidh Slan Le Fionn-Airish

See Farewell to Fiunary (File: FVS208)

Sorghum Molasses

DESCRIPTION: A (hobo? Georgia soldier?) prepares his meal and declares, "All the world there's none surpasses Good cornbread and sorghum molasses." "He declares, "Georgia girls there's none surpasses, They are sweeter than sorghum molasses."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: food soldier nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 386, "Sorghum Molasses" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 386, "Sorghum Molasses" (2 tunes plus text excerpt)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 79, Sorghum Molasses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6684
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sorghum Syrup" (theme)
File: Br3386

Sorghum Syrup

DESCRIPTION: "I been to the North and I been to the South... And I've travelled all over Europe; Never saw the likes of sorghum syrup." The southerner describes courting the girls and all the uses of sorghum
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: food travel nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 132, "Sorghum Syrup" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6684
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "Bye and Bye" (on Thieme06)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sorghum Molasses" (theme)
File: LoF132

Sorrow of Marriage, The

See I Am an Old Bachelor (The Sorrow of Marriage) (File: Stou070)

Sorrowful Lamentation of Denis Mahony, The

DESCRIPTION: "Honest Denis Mahony that now lies in the clay ... his precious blood was freely spilt before the tithes he'd pay." Farmer Mahony is murdered. The Parishioners catch the murderer "and laid him on the ground" but "the tithes they paid without delay"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1830s (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: homicide farming Ireland political lament
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 38, "The Sorrowful Lamentation of Denis Mahony" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Carrickshock" (subject: The Tithe War) and references there
NOTES [113 words]: The complete title of Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion's broadside is "The Sorrowful Lamentation of Denis Mahony, Who Lost His Life in the Parish of Inniscarra, in the County of Cork, on Account of the Tithes."
The context is "The Tithe War": O'Connell's Catholic Association was formed in 1823 to resist the requirement that Irish Catholics pay tithes to the Anglican Church of Ireland. The "war" was passive for most of the period 1823-1836, though there were violent incidents in 1831 (source: The Irish Tithe War 1831 at the OnWar.com site) - BS
See "The Battle of Carrickshock" for more about the Tithe War, and the cross-references there for more songs on the topic. - RBW
File: Zimm038

Sorrowful Lamentation on the Recent Price Increases in Ales, Wines and Spirits, A

DESCRIPTION: Since Richie Ryan up'd porter to ten bob a pint, who could be blamed for buying "last night's left-overs." Father Matthew "tried to keep us off the booze " but the new price is more effective. This should improve the market for poteen.
AUTHOR: Jimmy Crowley (source: OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 40-41, "A Sorrowful Lamentation on the Recent Price Increases in Ales, Wines and Spirits" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OCan040

Sorry the Day I Was Married

DESCRIPTION: Married woman recounts the miseries of her life and wishes she hadn't married: "Sorry the day I was married, Sorry the day I was wed; It's Oh, if I only had tarried When I to the altar was led." She recalls all the good things she had before marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: marriage abuse humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, SRRYMRRY*
Roud #1561
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again"
cf. "I Wish I Were Single Again (II - Female)"
cf. "Single Girl, Married Girl"
cf. "When I Was Young (II)" (theme)
cf. "Sporting Bachelors"
cf. "For Seven Long Years I've Been Married" (theme)
NOTES [49 words]: Most "male" versions of this song go under the title of "The Sporting Bachelors," as they consist of the married man warning the bachelors of the abuse he suffers. His wife "swears [he's] obliged to maintain her" and lives well while "toss[ing him] bones" and leaving him dressed in rags. - RBW
File: WB2046

Soughrty Peaks, The

See Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail [Laws B17] (File: LB17)

Soul! Soul! For a Soul Cake

See Souling Song (File: BGMG408)

Souling Song

DESCRIPTION: "A soul, a soul, a soul-cake, Please good mistress a soul-cake, One for Peter and one for Paul And one for the Lord that made us all. An apple, a pear, a plum or a cherry, Any good thing to make us merry." Once a year, singers beg for food, clothes, money
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1886 (Holland, as quoted by Palmer)
KEYWORDS: food begging religious
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 30-31, "The Souling Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #139, "Souling Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 9, "Souling Song" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 10-13, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas/I Wish You a Merry Christmas/Open the Door/Here We Come A-Wazling" (6 short texts, 5 tunes; A-C are probably "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"; D is too short to classify; E mixed "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" with the "Souling Song"; F is "Here We Come A-Wassailing")
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #408, p. 194, "(A soul-cake, a soul-cake)"
Wells-TheBalladTree, p. 278, "The Souling Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, p. 354, "A Christmas Carol" (1 short text, which could be any of the "God bless the master of this house" songs)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 28, "The Souling Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SOULCAKE* SOULCAK2*
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 23-25, "(no title)" (3 short texts, which could be souling or wassailing songs or something else)
Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, p. 134, "(Soul! Soul! For a soul-cake!)" (1 short text); also p. 141, "(Cattern and Clemen be here, here, here)" (1 short text, which appears to be based on this although it is said to be associated with St. Catherine's Day/November 25)
Roud #304
NOTES [252 words]: A song for All Souls Eve and Day (November 2 and the night preceding), when it was customary to give out food and alms on behalf of the dead.
According to Simpson/Roud, entry on All Souls Day, Abbot Odilo of Cluny created the festival in the eleventh century to pray for the souls of those who had died. (Hence the Souling custom: In Catholic belief, prayer would get you out of purgatory, so travellers would pray in return for food -- almost a return to the professional mourners of Roman times). The original date was in February, but it was moved to November to align with All Saints Day.
The 1686 reference is to Aubrey's account of customs in Shropshire, when it was still customary to put out cakes for all passers-by on this day. These were called "soul cakes" or, according to Hazlitt's entry, "soul-mass cakes."
Opie/Tatem, p. 367, entry "Soul Cake," report that G. Young's 1817 History of Whitby tells that "The custom of making soulr mass loaves, on the day of all-souls, Nov. 2, is kept up to a certain extent: they are small round loaves, sold by the bakers at a farthing each, chiefly for presents to children. In former times it was usual to keep one or two of them for good luck: a lady in Whitby has a soul mass loaf about 100 yars old." Opie/Tatem also cite an 1851 mention from Denham.
I haven't seen anyone comment on the mentions of Peter and Paul in this song, but it may (or may not) be significant that Peter was the chief apostle to Jews, Paul to Gentiles (Galatians 2:8, etc.) - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGMG408

Sound of the Drum, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the merry month of May, When bees from flower to flower did hum, Soldiers through the town marched gay, And the villagers ran to the sound of the drum." Cobbler, Tailor, others, leave their tasks to follow the drum; even three old ladies want to join
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Hamer)
KEYWORDS: soldier music recruiting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 48, "The Sound of the Drum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1076
File: HaGa048

Sound Off (Cadence Count, Jody Chant)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Sound off, One, two, Sound off, Three, four." Verses, in marching cadence, can be about anything soldiers dislike, or their sex lives, but often involve the despicable Jody: "Jody's got my gal and gone, Left me here a-singing this song...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935
KEYWORDS: army betrayal separation bawdy
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 394-398, "Sound Off" (3 texts, 1 tune); see also pp. 398-400, "Honey Babe" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 317, "Sound Off" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 167-176, "Jody" (4 texts, though three are from the same informant, 1 tune)
DT, SOUNDOFF* SOUNDOF2*
Roud #10398
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Swing Cadence
The Airborne Chant
Duckworth Chant
NOTES [93 words]: If one is only studying origins, this would probably not be considered one song. However, cadence chants so freely exchange verses, and can so readily shift from clean to bawdy and back, that I see no point in trying to separate any which use the same meter.
It is interesting to see the chants being taken over in Texas prisons. Here, the cadence count ("Sound off, one two...") is replaced by a simple "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah" -- but the ever-troublesome Jody is still around. Jackson explains "Jody" as a worn down form of "Joe the," i. e. "Joe the Grinder."
Last updated in version 2.4
File: LoF317

Sounding Calls

DESCRIPTION: This barely qualifies as a song, as there are only three notes, repeated in the same order with slight variation. There is no plot; the depth of the river is taken in order to avoid running aground. "Half twain, quarter twain, mark twain."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: river nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 572, "Mississippi Sounding Call" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 59-66, "Soundings at Memphis"; "Soundings from Uncle Mac"; Soundings from Tee Collins" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
NOTES [326 words]: The terminology used in these song is explained in Botkin's notes, and more fully in sources such as Wheeler.
In simplest form, the measurements are in fathoms, and additive -- so, e.g. "half twain" is "half a fathom plus two fathoms," i.e. 15 feet; "quarter twain:" "quarter fathom plus two fathoms," i.e. 13.5 feet; "mark twain": two fathoms exactly, i.e. 12 feet.
Distances less than "quarter less twain" (10.5 feet) are given in feet, and distances over a certain limit (usually Mark Four, i.e. four fathoms=24 feet) are described as "no bottom."
It should be noted that this system is specific to riverboats. Soundings at sea are very different. Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, A Seaman's Pocket Book, London, June 1943, designed for sailors newly taken into the Royal Navy in World War II; (I use the 2006 MJF Books edition), pp. 25-27, describes the sounding calls of an ocean-going Royal Navy ship. Their standard lead is 25 fathoms, with marks on the line at 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 13, 15, 17, and 20 fathoms. If the depth is at one of these marks, the sounding will be "by the mark" followed by a number (e.g. "by the mark seven"); if it is an even fathom, then the call is "by the deep" and the number (e.g. "by the deep eight"); the call may be amplified by halves or quarters. Thus the two systems have almost no overlap -- not surprising, given that the deepest water encountered by a riverboat is shallower than almost anything in which an ocean vessel can maneuver.
The various "songs" combined under this heading are, of course, not ballads, and not even true folk tunes, nor do they constitute a single song. The tunes are simple, and almost all the words are simply the numbers for depths (though in fact the various singers had their own methods of calling the numbers -- a valuable skill if it helped keep the listeners alert). But collectively these chants represent a significant part of river culture, so I've included them. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: BMRF572

Sounds of Silence

DESCRIPTION: "Hello darkness, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again." The sleeping singer sees a vision that is held within the "sound of silence." He sees many people not speaking. He warns against the silence
AUTHOR: Paul Simon
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (recording, Simon and Garfunkel)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 550, "Sounds of Silence" (notes only)
DT, SOUNDSIL
NOTES [64 words]: There have been a number of attempts to "explain" this song, including claims that it refers to the death of John F. Kennedy, even though a version was apparently in existence before his assassination. Paul Simon has talked about its origin, although in somewhat contradictory ways, but apparently never really explained it. It seems rather introspective for a scouting song, though! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF550S

Soup Supper in Clattice Harbour

DESCRIPTION: The singer has not recently attended the local "times" but goes to this one on November 18, held at the church. He pays the five cents admission and enjoys the soup supper, dancing till four or five, and another supper after that.
AUTHOR: Peter Leonard
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: dancing food party
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 99, "Soup Supper in Clattice Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #26159
CROSS-REFERENCES:
Anita Best, "The Soup Supper in Clattice Harbour" (on NFABest01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Buns of Daily Bread
NOTES [39 words]: Peter Leonard is also credited with at least four songs in the Index, "The Schooner Annie," "The Hole in the Wall," "Soup Supper in Clattice Harbour," and "Tobias Murphy and Tom Hann," none of which seem to have been very well known.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeVe099

Soup, Soup, Beautiful Soup

DESCRIPTION: "Soup, soup, beautiful soup, Staff of my life it is soup. If the cheese is past eating, Just coat it with Keating, And shove it all into the soup."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: food humorous | soup
FOUND IN: Irelanf
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 132, "Soup, soup, beautiful soup" (1 short text)
Roud #25534
NOTES [68 words]: Obviously not to be confused with Lewis Carroll's "Beautiful Soup" ("Beautiful Soup, so rich and green, Waiting in a hot tureen! ... Soup of the evening, Beautiful soup"). Although this too is reportedly a parody, of E. A. Searson's 1916 text "Soup."
Keating's powder was an insecticide, reportedly based on a plant extract, so while it might stop cheese from spoiling, I doubt it did humans much good.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC132A

Sour-Milk Cairt, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a maid and offers to drive her to Glasgow on his milk cart. On the way he proposes and she agrees. Before next term they plan to marry. When he suggests a coach for the wedding she says to save their silver and use the milk cart.
AUTHOR: Thomas Johnstone (source: Greig/Duncan5)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting love wedding farming food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 956, "The Sour-Milk Cairt" (1 text)
Roud #6336
NOTES [45 words]: The "term" reference marks the them as six-month farm employees. For more on terms see "The Hiring Fair at Hamiltonsbawn." - BS
This fun tune was used by Donneil Kennedy for "The Works Outing," which has been recorded by The Friends of Fiddler's Green among others. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: GrD5956

Sourkraut

See Sauer Kraut (File: SmHa12)

Sourwood Mountain

DESCRIPTION: Dance tune with words; young man wants his true love, but she is coy. Versions often contain a variety of floating or spontaneous verses. First stanza may begin, "Chickens crowing on Sourwood Mountain...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (collected by Olive Dame Campbell); +1909 (JAFL22)
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Randolph 417, "Sourwood Mountain" (4 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 346-347, "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 417A)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 251, "Sourwood Mountain" (7 texts plus an excerpt and 3 fragments)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 251, "Sourwood Mountain" (7 tunes plus text excerpts)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #142, "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 91 "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 180-181, "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 162-163, "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 114-115, "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 89, "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #76, "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 170-171, "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 11, "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 20-21, "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 216, "I Got a Woman on Sourwood Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune, with some of the lyrics rewirtten by Earl Johnson)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 125, "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune); 320-321, "I Got a Gal at the Head of the Holler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 216, "Sourwood Mountain" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 24, "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 276-277, "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 24-27, "Sourwood Mountain" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the tunes, although clearly related, are not identical)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 897-898, "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 148-149, "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp17-18, "(Sourwood Mountain)" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 257-258, "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 35, "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 11, "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 62, "Sourwood Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SOURWOOD
Roud #754
RECORDINGS:
Coleman & Harper "Sourwood Mountain" (Perfect 12751, 1931) (Oriole 8095, 1935)
Fruit Jar Guzzlers, "Sourwood Mountain" (on CrowTold01)
I. G. Greer & Mrs. I. G. Greer, "Sourwood Mountain" (AFS; on LC12)
Orville Hicks, "Sourwood Mountain" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #206, recorded 06/27/2022)
Stanley Hicks, "Sourwood Mountain" [2 versions] (on FarMtns 2)
The Hillbillies, "Sourwood Mountain" (Vocalion 5022, c. 1926)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers "I've Got a Woman on Sourwood Mountain" (OKeh 45171, 1927)
Kessinger Brothers, "Sourwood Mountain" (Brunswick 308, c. 1929)
Bradley Kincaid ,"Sourwood Mountain" (Gennett 6417/Silvertone 8220, 1928) (Brunswick 420, 1930) (Conqueror 8090, 1933) (one of these is on CrowTold02, but it's not clear which)
Clayton McMichen, "Sourwood Mountain [part of instrumental medley] (Decca 2649, 1939)
Bobby McMillon, Derek Piotr, "Sourwood Mountain" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #34, recorded 05/08/2021)
Land Norris, "Dogwood Mountain" (OKeh 40433, 1925)
Fiddlin' Powers & Family, "Sour Wood Mountains" (Victor 19448, 1924) (Edison 51789/5123, 1925)
Roxana Robinson, "Sourwood Mountain" (Piotr-Archive #696, recorded 10/01/2023)
Hobart Smith, "Sourwood Mountain" [instrumental] (on LomaxCD1702)
Kilby Snow, "Sourwood Mountain" (on KSnow1)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Sourwood Mountain" (Victor 20235, 1926)
Stove Pipe No. 1 [pseud. for Sam Jones], "Cripple Creek & Sourwood Mountain" (Columbia 201-D, 1924)
Uncle "Am" Stuart, "Sourwood Mountain" [instrumental] (Vocalion 15840, 1924)
Gid Tanner & Riley Puckett, "Sourwood Mountain" (Columbia 245-D, 1924)
Taylor's Kentucky Boys, "Sourwood Mountain" (on BefBlues3)
The Vagabonds, "Sourwood Mountain" (Bluebird B-5335, 1934)
Wade Ward, "Sourwood Mountain" [instrumental] (on Holcomb-Ward1); "Sourwood Mountain" [instrumental] (on GraysonCarroll1)
Henry Whitter's Virginia Breakdowners, "Sourwood Mountain" (OKeh 7005, 1924)
NOTES [41 words]: The Baptist church disapproved of dancing, but allowed playparties (dances with sung tunes instead of instrumental music). - PJS
It should be noted that this is primarily a fiddle tune; it's listed because it occasionally turns up with words. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R417

Souters o' Selkirk, The

See The Souters of Selkirk (File: SMM438)

Souters of Selkirk, The

DESCRIPTION: "Up wi' the souters of Selkirk, And doun wi' the Earl of Home." The shoemakers are praised for their gallantry; the colors of the Earl of Home are despised because of his poor performance at Flodden.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scots Musical Museum #438)
KEYWORDS: clothes soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 11-12, "The Souters o' Selkirk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 93-95, "The Souters of Selkirk" (1 tune, partial text)
ADDITIONAL: William & Susan Platt, _Folktales of the Scottish Border_, published 1919 as _Stories of the Scottish Border_, republished by Senate Press, 1999, p. 124, "The Souters of Selkirk" (1 short text)
Roud #5505
File: SMM438

Souters' Feast, The

DESCRIPTION: "The souters [shoemakers] they had a feast ... Souters cam' frae far and near." One got drunk and began to shit leather, lasts, knives and broken glass. And when he seemed finished "he spued a muckle beatin' stane"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink food bawdy humorous scatological clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast 12, pp. 1-2, "The Souters' Feast"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 23-25, "The Souters' Feast" (2 texts plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 629, "The Souters' Feast" (6 texts, 3 tunes)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 48-49, "The Souter's Feast" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6072
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Tanty Eerie Orum
NOTES [38 words]: Greig #42: "In rustic song the Shoemaker becomes the Souter, and as such, is usually treated in humorous style. 'The Souters' Feast' (Art XII) may be recalled as a wholesale example of this tendency to poke fun at the craft." - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: GrD3629

South Australia (I)

DESCRIPTION: The sailor reports, "South Australia's where I was born." Often used as a shanty, with chorus, "Heave away, heave away... we're bound for south Australia." Often he speaks of leaving his Australian girl behind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor separation
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE) Australia
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 71, "South Australia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 90, "Rolling King" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 33-35, "South Australia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 193-195, "Rolling King," "South Australia" (3 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 150-151]
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 58-59, "South Australia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, p. 64, "Bound for South Australia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 2-4, "Bound for South Australia" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 220, "Haul Away, I'm a Rollin' King" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 315-316, "South Australia" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 85, "South Australia" (1 text)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 34-35, "Australia" (1 text, 1 tune, identified as a sea shanty so I think it must be this, but it appears to have been rewritten)
DT, SOAUSTRL*
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, pp. 219-220, "South Australia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #325
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cape Cod Girls" (floating lyrics, tune, meter, plot)
cf. "We Are Bound Down South Alibama" (form, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ruler King
NOTES [56 words]: There is no true dividing line between this song and "Cape Cod Girls"; they merge into each other. However, the difference in local color and focus is enough that they should be separated. The problem is classifying the intermediate versions.... - RBW
A modern verse: "In South Australia Skylab fell..., 15 billion shot to hell..." - SL
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Doe071

South Australia (II)

See Cape Cod Girls (File: LoF023)

South Carolina State

DESCRIPTION: The singer enlists for gold to fight "in the northern wars." He deserts, is caught, jailed "in South Carolina State," and sentenced to be hung. He asks that the news be sent to his father, mother, and friends, and that he be buried next to his sister
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: desertion war execution soldier father mother burial punishment
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 100, "South Carolina State" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #31205
RECORDINGS:
Winfred Powers, "South Carolina State" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [25 words]: Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou: "According to [the singer] this song is about a Newfoundlander who went to fight in the war for American independence." - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe100

South Carolina, a Patriotic Ode

DESCRIPTION: "Land of the Palmetto tree, Sweet home of liberty, Of thee I sing." The singer tells of Mother Carolina, He declares that South Carolina's sons will stand despite "fratricidal war." He asks help of "Great God! our King."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (Library of Congress broadside)
KEYWORDS: patriotic home Civilwar
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 298-299, "South Carolina, A Patriotic Ode" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #C151, p. 194, "South Carolina, A Patriotic Ode" (1 reference)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "God Save the King" (tune) and references there
File: CAFS1298

South Down Militia

DESCRIPTION: Famous warriors are named: King's Guards and Scots Greys, Russians and Prussians, Julius Caesar and Napoleon, "but the South Down Militia is the terror of the land." Their appearance throws the Kaiser and "Krugar" into despair and makes Victoria gush.
AUTHOR: Col. R.H. Wallace (source:Graham-TheOrangeSongster)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1895 (Graham-TheOrangeSongster)
KEYWORDS: army war humorous nonballad talltale Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1899-1902 - Boer War
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 90 note, "South Down Militia" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Graham-TheOrangeSongster, p. 13, "The Royal South Down Militia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, pp. 40-41, "The South Down Militia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Behan-IrelandSings, #86, "The South Down Militia" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 177, "You may talk about your King's Guards, Scots Greys an' a'" (1 fragment)
DT, SOUTHDWN*
Roud #V12682
NOTES [148 words]: The description is from the text at South Down Defenders Flute Band Newry site "Words & Music of Traditional Ulster Songs." - BS
I find myself wondering if there are not two different phases of this song. Its inclusion in Graham-TheOrangeSongster would seem to imply a date prior to 1895.
And yet, the references to Kruger, the Kaiser, and Victoria date the version of the song containing them fairly precisely: The Jameson Raid (beginning in late December of 1895) provoked the "Kruger Telegram," in which Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany offered his friendship to Boer president Kruger (though the support turned out to be only moral). The (second) Boer War began in 1899, and ended in 1902; Victoria died in 1901.
The Boer War started with a series of bad British defeats, forcing them to bring in additional forces from all over the Empire. Naturally this included a lot of Irish troops. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OLoc090N

South of Columbo

DESCRIPTION: "South of Columbo, Down Koggala way, That's where we're stationed now, Please show us how To get away. We'd pay fifty rupees, And that isn't hay, Just to get posted Out Canada way." The airmen complain of life in the Indian Ocean.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: technology hardtimes soldier derivative
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 83, "South of Columbo" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "413 Squadrom" (subject of the 413 squadron)
cf. "South of the Border" (tune)
cf. "East of the Border" (tune)
cf. "South of the Sangro" (tune)
cf. "Dear Old New Zealand" (tune)
cf. "The Battle of the River Plate" (tune)
NOTES [23 words]: For the 413 squadron, which spent most of its existence based (at least nominally) at Koggala, India, see the notes to "413 Squadron." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Hopk083

South of the Sangro

DESCRIPTION: "South of the Sangro, Down Echelon way, That's where all the Wops and all the quartermasters stay." "Ortona is peaceful, It's back of the line... But it's better to stay, South of the Sangro...." Of the dangers of the Italian campaign
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier war river warning derivative
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 92-93, "South of the Sangro" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #31229
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "South of the Border" (tune)
cf. "East of the Border" (tune)
cf. "South of Columbo" (tune)
cf. "Dear Old New Zealand" (tune)
cf. "The Battle of the River Plate" (tune)
File: Hopk092

South Shields Song, A

See The Sailors Are All at the Bar (File: CDBG071)

South Wind, The (Spirit of the South Wind)

DESCRIPTION: "Spirit of the South Wind, riding on a cloud, Like a fabled Magi, wrapped in a flimsy shroud. String thy lute, thou laggard, Sing thy song for me." The singer asks the wind to tell its stories as he rests or dreams
AUTHOR: John Elmer French (source: Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 186, "The South Wind" (1 text)
NOTES [43 words]: I could pontificate at length about the fact that this is almost certainly not traditional, and that Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania should not have included it, but I will confine myself to one note: "Magi" is a plural. The singular is "Magus." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: SHoe186

South Ythsie

DESCRIPTION: Forsay fees to Johnnie Gray and names the crew. He seems to like the work well enough but at term day "I'll tak' my budgets on my back, Farewell to Johnnie Gray."
AUTHOR: William Forsyth (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #19, p. 2)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3); reportedly written in 1851
KEYWORDS: farming worker moniker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #21, pp. 2-3, "South Ythsie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 355, "South Ythsie" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #5758
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Little Ythsie
NOTES [89 words]: Notes to IRClare01: "A budget is a bag or knapsack used for carrying tools."
From Peter A Hall, "Farm Life and the Farm Songs," pp. xxi-xxxi in Greig/Duncan3: "The time between hirings was, in the mid nineteenth century North-East, predominantly six months ['terms'] and the hiring was generally called feeing."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; South Ythsie (355) is at coordinate (h3,v9) on that map [roughly 17 miles N of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3355

Southampton Tragedy, The

DESCRIPTION: "Within a gaol I am lamenting, Will no one shed a tear for me; In agony I'm sore relenting." Singer Abraham Baker "dearly loved Naomi Kingswell," but then shot her. Making no attempt to flee, he is taken and hopes, after execution, to again be with Naomi
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire), apparently from an undated broadside
KEYWORDS: love homicide gallows-confession execution punishment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 97-100, "The Southampton Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune set by Browne)
File: BrHa097

Southerly Wind

DESCRIPTION: Round: "Oh, it's a southerly wind and a cloudy sky, Proclaim it a hunting/sailing morning. Before the sun rises away we'll fly... Hark, hark , forward."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: ship sports
FOUND IN: US(MA) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 174-175, "Southerly Wind" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 156-157, "A Southerly Wind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9442
File: Doe174

Southern Blues, The

DESCRIPTION: "When I got up this mornin', I heard the old Southern whistle blow (x2), Then I was thinkin' 'bout my baby, Lord, I sure did want to go." The singer watches "the Southern cross the Dog." The singer wonders which train his baby took; he will try Georgia
AUTHOR: Big Bill Broonzy (at least in part)
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (recording, Big Bill Broonzy)
KEYWORDS: train separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 441-443, "The Southern Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Big Bill Broonzy, "The Southern Blues" (Bluebird B-5998/B-6964, 1935)
NOTES [88 words]: This is one of those who-knows-how-to-file-it blues. The recorded form is Broonzy's, but there are older elements, including especially the line "where the Southern crosses the Dog," the chief basis for Cohen's inclusion of the song. W. C. Handy encountered this line from a street singer around 1903, and it helped inspire his blues career.
There is a recording by W. T. Narmour and S. W. Smith, "Where The Southern Crosses The Dog" (OKeh 45480); I don't know what its relation is to either this song or the one Handy heard. - RBW
File: LSRai443

Southern Cotton Mill Rhyme

See Let Them Wear Their Watches Fine (File: RcLTWTWF)

Southern Cross (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The Southern Cross goes to the Gulf in March to hunt seals. They are successful in the hunt but on their return are lost in a storm. The SS Kyle, sent off to search, could find nothing. The singer concludes by hoping that all are in Heaven if never found.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland); "written out by Lizzie C. Rose" (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 4th edition)
KEYWORDS: hunting storm ship wreck disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 31, 1914 - Last sighting of the Southern Cross
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 139, "The Southern Cross" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 973-974, "The Southern Cross" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 77, "The Southern Cross" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Southern Cross" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 57 in the 2nd edition, pp. 54-55 in the 3rd, p. 41 in the 4th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 80, "The Southern Cross" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 99-100, "Southern Cross" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 34-35, "Southern Cross" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Higgins: Pamela Higgins, _Perished: The 1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster_, Boulder Publications, 2013, p. 58, "The Southern Cross" (1 text, 1 tune, a reprint of Doyle)
Farley Mowat, _Wake of the Great Sealers_, with prints and drawings by David Blackwood, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1973, p. 135, "(Sealer's Song)" (1 text)
ST Doy57 (Partial)
Roud #2796
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "The Southern Cross" (on NFOBlondahl06)
Jack Dalton, "The Southern Cross" (on PeacockCDROM)
Eddy Primroy, "Wreck of the Southern Cross" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Southern Cross (II)" (subject)
NOTES [1807 words]: Horace Beck in his book Folklore and the Sea (Mystic Conn.: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1985), p. 208 gives a brief account of sealing disasters in Newfoundland that he obtained from George A. England, "Vikings of the Ice" (London, 1924) pp. 54-59. - SH
[England's account really covers only three events, and even those only superficially. All three resulted in pieces cited in the Index: The Greenland Disaster of 1898, for which see "The Greenland Disaster (I)"; the Newfoundland Disaster of 1914, for which see "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)," and the disappearance of the Southern Cross, which is of course the subject of this song - RBW]
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland says that 170 men were lost; "no survivor or wreckage has ever been found."
Southern Cross last sighted by the Portia March 31, 1914 off Cape Race en route from Channel, southwest Newfoundland, to Harbour Grace (on the far side of Conception Bay from St John's); cargo about 20,000 seals; Captain George Clark (Northern Shipwrecks Database).
A must-read article on the ballad and its history, complete with a map, is available online in the archives of the site for the Canadian Journal for Traditional Music. Specifically, Canadian Journal for Traditional Music, vol 10, 1982, "The Southern Cross: A Case Study in the Ballad as History" by T.B. Rogers.
The article is good not only for its exhaustive discussion of this ballad but for the light it sheds on ballad-making in Newfoundland (at least). - BS
The Southern Cross was built in Norway in 1886, initially for use as a whaler, and was originally named the Pollux (Ryan/Drake, p. 33; Galgay/McCarthyI, p. 45; Tarver, p. 14; Collins, p. 241); she served in that role for ten years. Only then did she really live up to her new name and go to the Antarctic; in 1896 (so Tarver; Galgay/McCarthyI says 1898), she was rebuilt and given a larger engine, as well as renamed the Southern Cross, and went to the Antarctic for five years, setting a new "Farthest South" record for the time. She was the ship used by Carson Borchegrevink (Larson, p. 57), who frantically cobbled together an expedition mostly by appealing to the pride of Australians; as a stunt, it helped start an Antarctic rush but did very little useful research (Larson, pp. 53-57). During that expedition, Borchegrevink had planted the British flag on Antarctica for the first time, although ironically he was a Norwegian (Tarver, p. 42).
When the Southern Cross came home in 1901, she was quietly sold for the sealing trade (Feltham, p. 126). In her first year on the ice, she gathered a full load of seals very quickly and was the first ship to return to St. John's (Galgay/McCarthyI, p. 46). She didn't have much success in the dozen years after that -- and I note from the list of her captains on p. 127 of Feltham that she rarely had one of the more famous sealing skippers. Then came 1914.
Her captain that year was George Clarke. It was only his second year as a sealing captain; he had commanded the Bloodhound in 1912, but taken only 809 seals -- a disastrously low total (23 ships went out sealing in that year, and only one other took fewer than 1000 seals; 13 of the 23 took at least 5000, and six took more than 10000; Chafe, p. 79). He may have known the ship fairly well, though -- his brother (?) John Clarke had commanded the Southern Cross 1910-1913. John Clarke did not command a ship in 1914; perhaps George was intended as a fill-in. He was said to have had a reputation as a good sealer but little as a ship's captain (Galgay/McCarthyI, p. 46). He picked a very bad year to try to learn the trade. He is also reported to have had an inexperienced gang of sealers (Collins, p. 242), though this shouldn't have affected how the Southern Cross performed in a storm.
1914 was a bad year for Newfoundland sealers even apart from those on the Southern Cross; it was also the year of the Newfoundland disaster (see the notes to "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)"; the same storm that sank the Southern Cross was the one that doomed the sealers from the Newfoundland). To add to the irony, it had been a bad year for seals, and most of the ships in the seal hunt were struggling.
The Southern Cross was one of the few which had been lucky -- she had gone to the Gulf of St. Lawrence rather than the "Front" northeast of Newfoundland (Galgay/McCarthyI, p. 46) -- and so was heading home earlier than the rest (Brown, p. 47). It was expected that she would be the first ship home -- a significant honor and the cause of a certain amount of gambling. It is at least possible that Captain Clarke was so intent on being the first ship back that he ignored the storm that blew up and refused to head for a port (Brown, p. 163; O'Neill, p. 974).
On March 30, the Southern Cross was seen by a wireless operator at St. Pierre; he reported she had all flags flying, indicating a full load (Collins, p. 242). As mentioned in the "The Southern Cross (II)," on March 31, the coastal steamer Portia saw her briefly near Cape Pine and on her way around Cape Race (Ryan-Ice, p. 310; Galgay/McCarthyI, p. 47; Higgins, p. 57). There were no sightings after that, and no other word. It appears that she chose to sail home through open water rather than shelter from the storm in a bay (Looker, p. 19; Brown, pp. 162-163), a decision which would have exposed her to greater danger -- especially given George Clarke's inexperience (Feltham, p. 130).
The crew of the Portia later reported that she seemed somewhat out of trim (Feltham, p. 130). And she was perhaps more vulnerable than most to storms; since her engines were retrofits, they were mounted unusually low and were vulnerable to flooding; she also had high bulwarks, making her hard to maneuver (Galgay/McCarthyI, p. 48).
People began worrying about her a day after she was supposed to arrive in St. John's, but the wires to Cape Race had gone down; it was not until those were repaired that it was learned she had not been seen passing the Cape as expected (Brown, p. 162). There was no SOS -- there couldn't be, since she had no wireless (Collins, p. 243). She was simply gone.
It took some time before a search was mounted; the SS Kyle and, later, the USS Seneca found no sign of her -- no bodies, no wreckage, nothing. More than 170 sailors and sealers had simply vanished (Brown, p. 163, Collins, p. 242, Feltham, p. 129, Greene, p. 64, Kean, p. 89, and Ryan-Ice, p. 311 say 173; Ryan/Drake says 172 sailors and her captain went down; Looker, p. 19, says 174 were lost; Higgins, p. 57, says 173 men and one stowaway went down; Chafe, p. 44, and O'Neill, p. 974 state there were 175 on board; Tarver, p. 14, claims 177 deaths; Galgay/McCarthyI say ten crew and 163 sealers, which would be 173 or 174 depending on whether the captain is counted as part of the crew).
To this day, there is no real knowledge of what happened, although eventually a few possible traces washed up on the coast of Ireland (Looker, p. 22; Higgins, p. 57; Galgay/McCarthyI reports that one board read "THERN C," but that its existence could not be verified). Some think her cargo shifted, perhaps due to rotten boards. This was the belief of at least some sealers; Stanley Sturge recalled something similar happening on his ship in 1924 and declared, "That's what happened to the Southern Cross, a pound broke and the seal pelts moved" (Ryan-Last, p. 263).
Alternately, it could have been an effect of the gale; a badly-stowed cargo of seal pelts could shift in the storm -- such a situation had at least once threatened the Neptune, which almost sank right in the entrance to St. John's (Greene, p. 192). It was also suspected that she was overloaded, and in the aftermath, a rule was passed limiting ships to 35,000 seals (Candow, p. 90). Whatever the explanation, it was the worst single disaster in Newfoundland sealing history -- and, when combined with the Newfoundland disaster of the same year, made it an especially sorrowful season for the sealing industry.
The Southern Cross was fairly well-known in Newfoundland sealing poetry; in addition to this song, the ship is mentioned in mentioned in "The Sealer's Song (II)," "Success to the Hardy Sealers," "Success to Every Man," and "The Southern Cross (II)"; the Cross of "Captains and Ships" is perhaps also this ship. She also had a place in folklore; England, p. 218, tells of sealers who claimed to have "seen the wraith of the ill-fated Southern Cross". Funny how they "saw" her but didn't ever learn what sank her.... Galgay/McCarthyOlde, p. 109, have an even more substantial version in which she sails into the St. John's narrows, with her flags flying and her crew on deck, then disappears. Ryan-Ice, p. 316, also has tales about the Southern Cross, such one about a sealer who was about to sail on her. Told that he could add one more word to his telegram home at no extra charge, added "goodbye." It was the last his family ever heard of him.
There are photos of the Southern Cross on p. 178 of Feltham, on p. 21 of Looker, on pp. 33, 50 of Ryan/Drake, on p. 86 of Andrieux, on p. 62 of Winsor, on pp. 56-57, 63 of Higgins, and on p. 49 of Galgay/McCarthyI. Galgay/McCarthyI, p. 44, has a photo of a model of the ship, which probably shows her design more clearly than any of the others although the paint job makes her look more like a single-decked naval frigate.
Tim B. Rogers wrote a novel about this event, The Mystery of the SS Southern Cross. Even if you like historical fiction, I doubt it is worth the bother; although the Southern Cross vanished without a trace, we know its approximate course because of the sightings as it tried to reach port, and it went down in a big storm; there isn't much mystery about what happened.
This song is item dD36 in Laws's Appendix II.
The song is unusually accurate in its details. It appears to be wrong in saying the Southern Cross sailed on the twelfth of March; the 1914 sailing day for the sealing fleet was March 10 (Chafe, p. 81). But everything else is right: her skipper was Captain Clark(e), and she did carry about 170 men. Feltham, p. 129, gives a list of where the sailors were from, and yes, there were men from St. John's, Brigus, and Harbour Grace, with Harbour Grace having the most (25). Ryan-Ice, pp. 325-326 n. 173 also had a list, with a note that some of the names cannot be considered certain. We can't know how many seals she took, but the song's figure of 17,000 was a good enough haul that it might well induce her to go home; only three times had she taken that many or more (Chafe, p. 104). The statement that she was down by the head fits the Portia's report that she was out of trim. The ship that saw her was indeed the Portia. And the Kyle was indeed the first ship to search. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Doy57

Southern Cross (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The Southern Cross sails out through the ice and is last sighted by the Portia off Cape St Mary's sailing home.
AUTHOR: unknbown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: hunting storm ship wreck disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 31, 1914 - Last sighting of the Southern Cross
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 101, "The Southern Cross" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4406
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Southern Cross (I)" (subject)
NOTES [105 words]: The Southern Cross last sighted by SS Portia on March 31, 1914 sailing home to St John's with a cargo of seals. Believed "foundered in blizzard" with a loss of about 172 men. (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou, Northern Shipwrecks Database)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou: see "The Newfoundland Disaster" for another ballad about another wreck in the same storm. "This was a particularly sad and tragic time for Newfoundland... leaving a total of about 252 dead in one month." - BS
For more about the Southern Cross, see the notes to "The Southern Cross (I)"; for the whole 1914 seal hunt, see "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe101

Southern Encampment, The

DESCRIPTION: "As I rambled out one evening in the pleasant month of June, I spied an encampment by the light of the moon." The southern girl reports on the soldiers' disdain for the northerners; despite their poor living conditions, she and they expect victory
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar patriotic soldier
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 223, "The Southern Encampment" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 207-208, "The Southern Encampment" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 223)
Roud #7704
File: R223

Southern Girl's Reply, The (True to the Gray)

DESCRIPTION: "I cannot listen to your words, The land's too far and wide, Go seek some happy northern girl To be your loving bride." The southern girl tells how her youngest brother and lover were slain in the Civil War; she will not marry one who fought to kill them
AUTHOR: Original words ("True to the Gray") by Pearl Rivers
EARLIEST DATE: 1941
KEYWORDS: Civilwar courting rejection
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 156, "The Southern Girl's Reply" (1 collected text plus the original Rivers poem, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 251-252, "The Southern Girl's Reply" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT, STHREPLY*
Roud #7484
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES [48 words]: The "Fitzhugh Lee" referred to in the first stanza was Robert E. Lee's nephew, and a cavalry officer. One of the senior generals under Jeb Stuart, he eventually commanded what remained of the cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia after Stuart's death and Wade Hampton's transfer. - RBW
File: Wa156

Southern Girl's Song, The

See The Homespun Dress (File: R215)

Southern Home

DESCRIPTION: "There's a little shack that is calling me back, Where the birds sing all the day. That's my little southern home, That's where I long to roam, So I'm drifting back that way." He has been "most everywhere," but he is "drifting back" to the girl he adores
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Roberts/Agey-InThePine)
KEYWORDS: home travel separation love return
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #124, "Southern Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Where No Cabins Fall" (theme)
NOTES [50 words]: This is so close to "Where No Cabins Fall" in theme and vocabulary that I seriously thought about lumping them. But although the plot is the same, and they use many of the same words, they don't assemble the words in the same order. I wonder a little if the two didn't inspire each other, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RAInP124

Southern Jack, A

DESCRIPTION: "I got a southern jack [train engine], I got a southern jack, First thing yi (sic.) do shovel in the coal, Next thing yi do watch the drivers roll. I got a southern jack, I got a southern jack; All aboard on the southern jack!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: train
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 239, "A Southern Jack" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 239, "A Southern Jack" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #6452
File: Br3239

Southern Ladies

DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty, Negro origin. "What will you fetch your Julia? Way-ay-ay-ay! What will you fetch your Julia? She's a Southern lady all the day." Meter changes from 2/2 to 3/2 throughout.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (JFSS volume 5)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p.395, "Southern Ladies" (1 short text, 1 tune-quoted from a shanty which Cecil Sharp gave in volume 5 of the Journal of the Folk Song Society) [AbEd, p. 300]
Roud #9173
File: Hugi395

Southern Oath, The

DESCRIPTION: "By the cross upon our banner, Glory to our Southern skies, We have sworn, a band of brothers, Free to live or free to die." Southrons will fight northern "hirelings," and protect southern "fair-haired daughters" from "your fierce and ruffian chief"
AUTHOR: Rosa Vertner Jeffrey?
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Southern Poems of the War)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 359-360. "The Southern Oath" (1 text)
Roud #7766
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Confederate Oath
File: Beld359

Southern Shore Queen

DESCRIPTION: "It's concerning the harbour of Cape Broyle ... we will call it The Southern Shore Queen"; "Now Cape Broyle is famed for its beauty." The song lists the attributes of beautiful Cape Broyle
AUTHOR: almost certainly Gertrude Carew Cahill
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: pride lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Southern Shore Queen" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 55 in the 3rd edition
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 47, "Southern Shore Queen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 343-345, "The Southern Shore Queen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7312
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "The Southern Shore Queen" (on NFOBlondahl04)
NOTES [214 words]: Cape Broyle is on the east coast of the Avalon Peninsula, about 40 miles south of St John's - BS
In 2007, Andrea Tarvin, a relative of the author, wrote to me with background on the song. I quote her letter: "The song... was originally recorded by Omar Blondahl. The song was written by Gertrude Carew Cahill. She would have been the daughter of Arthur Carew from Shore's Cove, Cape Broyle, who was my great grandmother's brother. She died here in St. John's about three years ago and before she died they had a birthday party for her in St. Patricks Mercy Home at a which time they printed off the words to this song and passed it around for everyone to sing. The Downhomer...a local publication....had an article published about four to five years ago that read "Southern Shore Queen Mystery Solved." In this article they showed that Gertrude Carew Cahill wrote this song...and she played the accordian as well.... Everyone on the Southern Shore is in agreement that Gertrude wrote this song." - RBW
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's version was recorded by Peacock in 1951 at Cape Broyle, so the song was at least in very local circulation before Blondahl came to Newfoundland. It was one of Blondahl's radio favorites when I got to St. John's at the end of 1955. - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doyl3055

Southern Soldier Boy, The (Barbro Buck)

DESCRIPTION: "Barbro Buck is my sweetheart's name, He's off to the wars and gone, He's fighting for his Nannie dear, His sword is buckled on. He's fighting for his own true love, He is my only joy, He is the darling of my heart, My southern soldier boy."
AUTHOR: Words: Captain G.W. Alexander
EARLIEST DATE: 1864
KEYWORDS: love separation Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 238, "Barbro Buck" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 196, "Barbara Buck" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 148-150, "The Southern Soldier Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 216, "The Southern Soldier Boy" (1 text)
ST R238 (Full)
Roud #3428
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boy with the Auburn Hair" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
War Song No 2 of the 69th Regiment ("Come all, you Irish hayroes, where iver that you be") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 168)
NOTES [86 words]: In the original Confederate version of this song, the hero's name is "Bob Roebuck." Tradition, however, has fairly consistently perverted this into "Barbro Buck."
The song was made popular by its appearance in the play "The Virginia Cavalier," a popular hit in the Richmond theatre. The original version was patriotic and political; this has faded from many of the traditional versions.
There are other pieces called "The Southern Soldier Boy" (e.g. by Father Ryan); I've yet to see one with the power of this one. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: R238

Southern Soldier, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'll place my knapsack on my back, My rifle on my shoulder, I'll march away to the firing line...." He bids goodbye to wife and baby. He wonders who will care for his family if he is killed. But he hopes for the success of the southern cause
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (field recording from Mrs. Minta Morgan)
KEYWORDS: soldier patriotic Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 95-96, "Down to New Orleans" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 217-218, "The Southern Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4770
File: SCWF217

Southern Song

See The Southern Wagon (Confederate) (File: Br3374)

Southern Spie, THe

See The Southern Spy (File: MuLa037)

Southern Spy, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you southern heroes." The singer is a northerner who leaves for the South in 1863 after "Old Abe he ordered us out to arms." He bids parents and wife goodbye to become a Southern spy. "Stand by your canon boys While shells and grape shot fly"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar war dying death patriotic soldier children wife
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 37, "The Southern Spie" [sic] (1 text)
Roud #4270
NOTES [63 words]: The last two lines of Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin's text -- "and trust to god your savior / And kep your powder dry" [sic] -- are from the lines attributed to Cromwell and also used in Colonel Blacker's "Oliver's Advice" [source: Charles Gavan Duffy, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (Dublin: James Duffy, 1861 ("digitized by Google")) sixth edition, pp. 83-86] - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: MuLa037

Southern Wagon, The (Confederate)

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye sons of freedom and join our Southern band; we're going to fight the Yankees and drive them from our land." The song describes the state of the Confederate government and declares "The South is our wagon, we'll all have a ride."
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (The Civil War in Song and Story); the earliest printing, by Joseph Bloch of Mobile, Alabama, is undated but probably from 1864 or earlier
KEYWORDS: Civilwar political
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 374, "The Southern Wagon" (1 text plus a fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 374, "The Southern Wagon" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 121, p. 262, "Wait for the Wagon" (1 short text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 132-133, "Southern Song" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #C160, p. 194, "The Southern Wagon" (4 references)
Roud #3716
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wait for the Wagon" (tune) and references there.
cf. "The Southern Wagon (Union)"
cf. "I Picked My Banjo Too" (lyrics, themes)
NOTES [256 words]: This song, or at least Brown's version, has historical problems. (Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi's version, of only two stanzas and chorus, is hardly significant.) It refers to Jeff(erson Davis) and "(Alexander) Stephens by his side," which is accurate enough (except that the two quickly fell out), and Beauregard, while never the senior Southern general (in fact, he was #5), was certainly the best-known early in the war.
But there was never a date when the Confederacy had exactly the states listed. The author says (South) Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi are in (forgetting Louisiana), but "Missouri, North Carolina, and Arkansas are slow... There's old Kentucky, Maryland, each hasn't made up their mind."
Note that Virginia is not mentioned, and that Tennessee (seceeded June 8, 1861) is "in" when Arkansas (May 6) is still "out." It could be argued that Tennessee ratified an agreement with the South before Arkansas, but both states saw their governors turn south immediately after Sumter and broke free of the Union soon after.
Plus, Missouri, like Kentucky and Maryland, would not join the Confederacy (except in their dreams and the stars on their battle flag), though Missouri in particular did supply partisan troops to the south.
According to Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, this was written by "Maria Grason, of Anne Arundel County, M[aryland], in 1867, and this version describes events during the war. I would guess Grason's version is a rewrite of an already-existing song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Br3374

Southern Wagon, The (Union)

DESCRIPTION: "Jeff Davis built a wagon and on it put his name, And Beauregard was driver of Secession's ugly (frame/fame)." The song details the slow but steady progress of the Union forces.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety), but see NOTES
KEYWORDS: Civilwar parody
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 21, 1862 - First Battle of Bull Run. Mentioned out of order in Belden's version, but Lincoln and General Winfield Scott appointed George B. McClellan commander of the Army of the Potomac the day after the battle ("they put in all new spokes")
Sep 4, 1861 - Occupation of Columbus, Kentucky by forces under Leonidas K. Polk ("Bishop Polk"). Kentucky had tried to declare neutrality; both sides prepared to occupy it once the neutrality was broken. Polk went in first, but the Union had more forces in the area, and gained the bulk of the state. And Polk's invasion helped push the legislature to declare for the Union
Jan 19, 1862 - Battle of Logan Cross Roads (also called Mill Springs, as in the song). A small battle by later standards, but the first major union victory of the war. Federal forces under George H. Thomas beat forces under Zollicoffer, securing much of Kentucky and opening a path into Tennessee
Feb 16, 1862 - Ulysses S. Grant captures Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. This, combined with his capture of Fort Henry on the Tennessee (Feb. 6) blows a hole in the Confederate position in Kentucky and forces Confederate commander Albert Sidney Johnston to evacuate Bowling Green. This was the famous "Unconditional Surrender" incident: After the two senior officers at Donelson fled, the #3, Simon Bolivar Buckner, bit the bullet and accepted Grant's unconditional terms
Apr 25, 1862 - Union forces under Farragut capture New Orleans
Jun 6, 1862 - Naval battle of Memphis clears the path for Union occupation of that city
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 364-366, "The Southern Wagon" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 70, "Jeff Davis" (1 fragmentary text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2219, p. 149, "Southern Wagon" (8 references)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 482, "The Southern Wagon" (source notes only)
Roud #3716
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wait for the Wagon" (tune) and references there.
cf. "The Southern Wagon (Confederate)"
NOTES [167 words]: Cox lists this as a parody of the "favorite Confederate song" "The Southern Wagon." A Confederate song it may be, but hardly a favorite; I've found no evidence of traditional versions, and the single stanza Cox quotes seems to be the only traditional portion of the parody.
What is interesting is that Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, too, has the *union* form, and a full version.
Possibly Cox is thinking of another wagon song, "The Old Union Wagon" ("The eagle of Columbia, in majesty and pride"), which was extremely popular in broadsides; Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, pp. 116-117, lists nine broadside publications.
This song too was very popular in broadsides; Wolf on p. 149 lists eight broadsides, one of them saying it was sung by the popular vocalist Tony Pastor, who may well have put it into wide circulation. Several of the broadsides call it "The Secession Wagon." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: JHCox070

Southland Gold Escort, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Southland folk are stirring But they're a deal too slow; In cutting out Otago They find it is no go." Eight men guard the gold mined in Invercargill -- but there is so little that one man can carry it. The escort is mocked for its small burden
AUTHOR: Words: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Otago Daily Times, according to Mike Harding, _When the Pakeha Sings of Home: A Source Guide to the Folk & Popular Songs of New Zealand_)
KEYWORDS: gold humorous travel New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 58-59, "The Southland Gold Escort" (1 text)
NOTES [57 words]: Another Thatcher song that appears to be on the same topic is "Go A-Head Invercargill, O!" -- Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, pp. 59-60.
For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo058

Sovay, Sovay

See The Female Highwayman [Laws N21] (File: LN21)

Sovay, the Female Highwayman

See The Female Highwayman [Laws N21] (File: LN21)

Sow Pig, The

DESCRIPTION: John Walker takes the "Lough Swilly Line" to Derry and buys a pig. He takes her to Marshall's to be serviced. A great crowd watches the heroic proceedings. "But all ended well and for in a short time The sow she produced a fine litter of nine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: sex humorous moniker animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 66, "The Sow Pig" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [26 words]: McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen: "This song was composed locally in the Burnfoot area of Inishowen at the beginning of the century." - BS
File: McB1066

Sow Took the Measles, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer founds his property on a sow. When the sow takes the measles and dies, he makes a saddle of her hide, a thimble of her nose, a whip of her tail, pickles and/or glue of her feet, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: animal talltale technology disease
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,So,SE) Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 3, pp. 7, 42-43, "The Herring's Head"; "Bolliton Sands"; "The Dead Pig" (3 texts, 1 tune; the first two are "The Red Herring" but 3B, "The Dead Pig," is "The Sow Took the Measles")
Randolph 412, "The Measles in the Spring" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 177, "My Old Sow's Nose" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 253-255, "The Old Sow Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 185, "The Old Sow" (1 text, in which the old sow "died in the winter last spring")
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 15, "The Sow Took the Measles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 405, "The Sow Took The Measles" (1 text)
DT, SOWMEASL*
Roud #17759
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Red Herring" (theme)
cf. "Old Cow Died of Whooping Cough" (theme of animal disease) and references there
NOTES [33 words]: The disease the sow took is unlikely to have been measles; it is more likely that it was rinderpest, which is closely related. For more on this, see the notes to "Old Cow Died of Whooping Cough." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: LoF015

Sow's Tail to Geordie, The

DESCRIPTION: Geordie [George I] meets a sow. At every action Geordie takes she makes a fool of him and shows him her tail: he wears turnips on his head, she pulls them down; he invites her to dance, she flaunts her buttocks; she beats him at a race, and so on.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1819 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1)
KEYWORDS: humorous political Jacobites animal food dancing racing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 55, "The Sow's Tail to Geordie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 121, "The Soo's Tail to Geordie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5781
NOTES [123 words]: Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1: "All this gibing and fun about the sow and Geordie, that runs through so many of the songs of that period, without explanation must appear rather inexplicable; but from whatever cause it may have originated, it is evident that the less that is said about it the better."
Greig/Duncan1: "... 'the soo' being one of George I's mistresses, Madame Schulemberg, Duchess of Kendal, or Madame Kilmausegge, Countess of Darlington - Hogg apparently thinks the latter." - BS
I incline the same way. Schulemberg was so thin that she was called "the maypole"; Kilmausegge was so heavy that she was called "the goose" or "the elephant." For more about this two, see e.g. the notes to "Came Ye O'er Frae France." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1121

Sow's Triumph Over the Peelers, The

DESCRIPTION: A Ballaconnell sow wrestles a police sergeant to the street. The army, called for help, is stopped by two goats. The sergeant tries to take the goats to Cavan jail. The pig's ire is renewed. With the goats, she drives the sergeant into hiding
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1881 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.10(138))
KEYWORDS: humorous political animal police soldier
FOUND IN:
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(138), "The Sow's Triumph Over the Peelers" ("Come pray attention for a while, I'll tell you a jest I do protest"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1849-1880
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The World Turned Upside Down" (tune, per broadside Bodleian 2806 b.10(138))
cf. "The Peeler and the Goat" (theme)
cf. "The Monegran Pig Hunt" (theme)
NOTES [62 words]: Zimmermann p. 215: "The success of ['The Peeler and the Goat'] inspired other texts: 'The Peeler and the Sow' (set in County Cavan, the goat also appearing in that ballad) and 'The Dog's Victory on the Peeler' (set in Kilkenny), both of them very inferior to O'Ryan's satire." The present broadside seems compounded from the sow and dog versions described by Zimmermann. - BS
File: BrdSTOtP

Sowens for Sap at Oor New Tap

DESCRIPTION: "The foremost man o' oor New Tap, He works a stallion fine. The Lion they do call him... The little one that goes to him She's swift and spunky too. Sowens for sap at oor New Tap, Ye'll find it winna do." The singer describes horses and men of the farm
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad moniker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #92, pp. 1-2, "Sowens for Sap" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 400, "Sowens for Sap" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 251, "Sowens for Sap" (1 text)
Roud #5575
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Parks o' Keltie" (tune, per Greig)
File: Ord251

Sower's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Would ye partake of Harvest's joys, The corn must be sown in Spring" "Old Mother [Earth], receive this corn [seed]" The sowers go up and down the rows: "Sow well and you gladly reap"
AUTHOR: Thomas Carlyle (1791-1885) (source: _Nightingale Valley_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (_Fraser's Magazine_ Vol III, April 1831, according to the Carlyle Bibliography in _The Cambridge History of English and American Literature_ at the Bartleby site)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 141, "The Sower's Song" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 102)
ADDITIONAL: William Allingham ("Giraldus"), editor, Nightingale Valley (London, 1860 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 37-38, "The Sower's Song" (1 text)
Roud #1264
NOTES [18 words]: For William Allingham as "Giraldus" see "Giraldus" at the site for "The System of W.B. Yeats's A Vision." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT141

Sowing Oats

DESCRIPTION: "Here we go a-sowing oats, sowing oats, sowing oats, Here we go a-sowing oats, And who will be the binder?" "I have lost my true love... And right here's where I'll find her."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4)
KEYWORDS: love farming courting
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, p. 21, "Sowing Oats" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7047
File: BWV4021

Sowing on the Mountain

DESCRIPTION: "Sowing on the mountain, reaping in the valley (x3), You're gonna reap just what you so." "God gave Noah the rainbow sign...." "Won't be water, but fire next time."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 488-492, "Ezekiel, You and Me" (1 heavily composite text, 1 composite tune; the first verse is "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel," the second is from "Keep A-Inchin' Along," the third is "Standing in the Need of Prayer," the fourth is "Chilly Water" [Roud #15312], the last probably derived from "Sowing on the Mountain")
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 263-264, "Sowing on the Mountain" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 363, "Sowing on the Mountain" (1 text)
DT, SOWNGMTN
Roud #11554
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Sow 'em on the Mountain" (Victor 23585, 1931; Bluebird B-5468, 1934; Montgomery Ward M-4744, 1935; rec. 1930)
A. P. Carter Camily, "Sow 'em on the Mountain" (Acme 997, n.d. but probably 1950s)
Coon Creek Girls, "Sowing on the Mountain" (Vocalion 04278/OKeh 04278/Conqueror 9113, 1938)
Cisco Houston and Woody Guthrie, "Sowing on the Mountain" (1950, "Lonesome Valley," Folkways Records LP FA2010)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "You're Going To Reap Just What You Sow" (theme, some chorus lines)
NOTES [171 words]: The Darling text is a slightly edited version of the Cisco Houston(?) and Woody Guthrie version. Silber's seems to be from the same source. The other recordings we have so far -- Carter Family, Coon Creek Girls -- have different verses, but the same tune and chorus. That chorus seems anachronistic to me: "Sowing on the mountain, Reaping in the valley, You're going to reap just what you sow." I expect that "to reap what you sow," you would reap and sow in the same place (as in Job 4:8, "... they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same." (King James)).
A hymn with a tune close to the tunes on the recordings for "Sowing on the Mountain" is "You're Going To Reap Just What You Sow." The verses are not shared with the versions of "Sowing on the Mountain" indexed so far, but the chorus is "You're going to reap just what you sow (2x), Up on the mountain, Down in the valley, You're going to reap just what you sow." That is, wherever you sow, you'll face the consequences.
I assume the hymns are related. - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: FSWB363

Soy Pobre Vaquero

See Poor Lonesome Cowboy (File: San273)

Spailpin Fanac

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Singer, a spalpeen bids farewell to Ireland; on his last job 12 women contended for him. He was happy at first, then found he was being cheated of his pay. He boasts that women like him, and compliments a young woman going down the road
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recording, Joe Heaney)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Singer, a spalpeen (itinerant agricultural laborer) bids farewell to Ireland; on his last job 12 women contended for him. He was happy at first, then found he was being cheated of his pay. He boasts that women like him, and compliments a young woman going down the road; "The tailor that took her measure/I am sure that he was in love with her/For he took her measure up from the ground/And high above her waist/And they tell me that's the reason/She is always laughing."
KEYWORDS: courting sex bragging emigration rambling travel beauty farming foreignlanguage work worker migrant
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: George Sigerson, Bards of the Gael and Gall (New York, 1907 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 287-289, "The Rover" (1 text in English translation)
RECORDINGS:
Joe Heaney, "Spailpin Fanac" (on Pubs1)
NOTES [54 words]: In Ireland young workers were often hired at autumn hiring fairs for six months, the women as dairy maids or kitchen maids, the men as farm servants. At the end of the term, often the women would marry and settle, while the men travelled to the next hiring fair or hit the road as itinerant workers, known as "spalpeens." - PJS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: RcSpaiFa

Spailpin Fanach, An (The Migrant Labourer)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Farewell to my dear island and the boys I left at home. I enlisted in the army; it was a mistake. One wonderful day I could persuade any woman that black was white. "Twelve envious women compete for the benefit of my love"; even the old hag.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (recording, Sean Mac Donnchadha)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage emigration travel drink army nonballad rake soldier worker
FOUND IN: Ireland
RECORDINGS:
Sean Mac Donnchadha, "An Spailpin Fanach" (on Voice20)
NOTES [13 words]: The description is from the translation of the text in the notes to Voice20. - BS
File: RcASpaFa

Spailpin Fanach, An (The Rover)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer had been a rover for hire by farmers at fairs. Now, instead, he will carry the Pike under the French banner. He is leaving a girl behind in Kerry. When the French arrive the yeomen and English will be forced to fly.
AUTHOR: George Sigerson (1836-1925) (translator )(source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (Sigerson's _Bards of the Gael and Gall_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815; source for date: "George Sigerson" on Ireland's Millenia site)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage rebellion England France Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 131, "Spailpin Fanach, An" (1 text Gaelic, 1 tune); 132, "The Rover" (1 text English)
NOTES [43 words]: The description is from the translation by George Sigerson as Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 132, "The Rover."
For more on the French involvement in the Rebellion of 1798 see, for example, the notes to "The Men of the West" and "The Shan Van Voght" - BS
File: Moyl131

Spanish American War

See My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine (File: R689)

Spanish Armada, The

DESCRIPTION: "In May 1588, Cries Philip, 'The English I'll humble.'" So he sends the "invincible Spanish Armada." Howard tells "noble Queen Bess" that they are coming. The Lord Mayor of London promises a hundred ships. The English are victorious
AUTHOR: Words: John O'Keefe (1747-1833) / Music: Dr. Arnold (source: Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: ship royalty battle patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1588 - Defeat of the Spanish Armada
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads L, pp. 82-83, "The Spanish Armada" (1 text)
Roud #32555
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sir Francis Drake, or Eighty-EIght" (subject of the Armada)
NOTES [307 words]: I have no idea why Steve Roud gave this a number; it's not traditional either by source or by transmission. But since it has a number, I'm indexing it also.
I will resist the urge to write an article on the Spanish Armada, since it's an easily accessible story, but we can gloss a few of the names:
"Philip": Philip II of Spain (1527-1598), King of Spain 1556-1598. Having been married to Mary I of England, he considered himself to have a claim to the throne, and since he was Catholic, he considered it proper to conquer England anyway. So he launched the Armada. But, because in addition to all his other traits he was rather stupid (he couldn't control his finances, and his policies encouraged the Dutch Revolt), the Armada was ill-equipped for its task and failed miserably.
"Queen Bess": Elizabeth I, reigned 1558-1603, widely known as "Good Queen Bess."
"Howard"/"Effingham": Charles Howard (1536-1624), 2nd Baron Howard of Effingham, later 1st Earl of Nottingham (a member of the family of the Howard Dukes of Norfolk, but a cadet branch) was Admiral of England at the time of the Spanish Armada, and led the fleet against them although he somehow seems to get overshadowed in a lot of the histories.
"The Lord Mayor of London": Sir Martin Calthorpe was Lord Mayor in 1588. I've never heard that he was important in the defense of the Armada, but Queen Elizabeth apparently approved of how he managed to go from rags to rices.
"Medina": The commander of the Armada was Don Alonso de Guzmán El Bueno, 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia. He was a last-minute fill-in, and was not a sailor (in fact, I've heard that he suffered intense sea-sickness). His lack of naval knowledge probably contributed to the Armada's defeat, although the real problem was that Philip II had commanded an attack without supplying the ships or sailors required. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SSS050

Spanish Captain, The

DESCRIPTION: A Spanish captain and his beautiful wife and daughter, bound for Newfoundland, are killed in a shipwreck near Cape Spear. The singer seems to have been one of the crew and laments the loss of the captain and his family.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: wreck death lament family father mother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 14, 1876 - Loss of the Mayaguenzana
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 137, "The Spanish Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Spanish Captain" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 38-39 in the 2nd edition, pp. 63-64 in the 4th, pp. 54-44 in the 5th
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 102, "The Spanish Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 87-88, "The Spanish Captain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4079
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best, "The Spanish Captain" (on NFABest01)
Omar Blondahl, "The Spanish Captain" (on NFOBlondahl01)
James Maher, "The Spanish Captain" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [622 words]: There is a formulaic introduction to the song where the Muses are called upon to help the singer and the public is promised not to be delayed too much in the telling. Cape Spear is the most eastern point in North America. - SH
Editor's Nitpick: Technically, the easternmost point in North America (that is, the point with the most eastern longitude) is in Alaska, since it is the only part of North America to be in the eastern hemisphere. Cape Spear is the easternmost point in the Western Hemisphere.
This song is item dD33 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou: (viz., Best) In verses 5 and 6 "The smoke lay flying o'er the hills and pitching on the sea .... The Margrietta was our ship's name ...." "The Margrietta referred to is very likely the Mayaquezanna, a Spanish brig lost at Blackhead, near Cape Spear, on 14 August 1876. Both the captain and his wife were drowned." Northern Shipwrecks Database: Mayaquezana/Maguezana stranded in smoke with 2 or 3 lost. - BS
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou's suggestion seems to me a good one, even though the date in the Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland text (August 20) does not match the date of the disaster The song says that the ship had a Spanish captain, that he, his wife, and his daughter were lost, and that there was "no tug to take her in" -- all of which fit the Mayaguenzana (the spelling I find in Power). Also, Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland's informant, Stephen John Lewis, thought the event happened about fifty years earlier, and the song was collected in 1929, 53 years after the loss of the Mayaquzanna. The name of the ship is wrong, but it would be no surprise to find Newfoundlanders corrupting a Spanish name.
Galgay/McCarthy-Shipwrecks, p. 87, reports that the Mayaquzanna (their spelling) was a "Spanish brig, lost at Blackhead 14 Aug 1876. Captain and his wife drowned."
Power, pp. 37-39, has more details. The Mayaguenzana was bringing molasses and sugar from the West Indies to Newfoundland. The ship was approaching St. John's (Blackhead Bay, where she was lost, is about two miles southeast of the Narrows of St. John's Harbour), but visibility was poor because of fires near the town. Four of the ship's crew were lost: Captain Fioll, his wife, his daughter (who was nine years old), and one other member of the crew. The body of the daughter was found April 28; Power never mentions recovery of the bodies of the others. The remaining members of the crew were taken aboard a pilot boat.
Galgay/McCarthy-Olde, p. 75, report of the fire, "On August 14, 1876, and for several days after, the Southside Hill was on fire from Syme's Bridge to the Narrows [i.e. the entrance to St. John's harour]. During the night, the fire attracted thousands of citizens by its wild grandeur. The smoke from the fire, the wind being from the west, filled the bay and in part brought about the wreck of the Spanish brigantine Mayaquezzana."
An investigation was held afterward, which found that two pilot boats were supposed to be on duty at the time the Mayaguenzana went aground -- but that one of them had simply sat in the harbour, leaving only one actively at sea. The latter had seen the Mayaguenzana, and could have put a pilot aboard (he had two available), but the boat's skipper decided to devote all his energies to bringing in another boat, resulting in the loss of the Mayaguenzana. The captain of the latter pilot boat was suspended for three months; the captain of the one which just sat in port received a six month suspension (on the grounds that, if it had done its duty and been available, the other captain wouldn't have had to decide whether to divide his crew or not). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.4
File: Doy38

Spanish Cavalier, The

DESCRIPTION: The Spanish Cavalier plays his guitar under a tree, asking his sweetheart to be true while he is off to war. He promises to return if he lives, and asks her to seek him if he dies
AUTHOR: William D. Henderson? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (College Songs; also Merchant's Gargling Oil Songster for that year)
KEYWORDS: war separation music
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(MW,Ro)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 153, "Spanish Cavalier" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 106, p. 218, "The Spanish Cabineer" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 76, pp. 98-99, "The Spanish Cavalier" (1 text plus a fragment)
Harbin-Parodology #321, p. 78, "The Spanish Cavalier" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 313, "The Spanish Cavalier" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 117, "The Spanish Cavalier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 57, "The Spanish Cavalier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 19, "The Spanish Cavalier" (1 text)
OneTuneMore, p. 9, "Spanish Cavalier" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, pp. 32-33, "The Spanish Cavalier" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LPnd218 (Full)
Roud #2684
RECORDINGS:
Riley Puckett, "Spanish Cavalier" (Columbia 15003-D, c. 1924)
NOTES [161 words]: My 1887 Merchant's Gargling Oil Songster lists this song as being copyrighted in the name of Geo. W. Hagans, but this was simply a publishing house. The author is not listed.
The attribution to Henderson occurs in several low-quality sources, e.g. Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, OneTuneMore.
In College Songs we find the statement "The 'Spanish Cavalier' was composed by a youth of San Francisco who shipped as a cabin boy on board the flag ship of the Pacific Squadron, about 1875. The vessel lay sometime at Panama, where he deserted and joined the Panama army as a drummer boy." It goes on to explain that he left Panama, worked his way back to San Francisco, and was taken by the Navy as a deserter. The daughter of a congressman got him out of trouble, and he took two tunes he had learned in Panama and set English words in her honor. The girl lost interest in him, and it was not until 1880 that this song was published, but it went on to do very well. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LPnd218

Spanish Dancer

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Spanish dancer, do the spits, Spanish dancer, do high kicks, Spanish dancer, do the kangaroo, Spanish dancer, out skidoo!" Other verses may have Tillie the Toiler sit on a boiler or Buster climb a tree and throw a kiss
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan); Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes cites version bacy to 1939, but some of these may be mixed
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 51, "Spanish Dancer" (1 text); cf. p. 61, "Not Last Night" (combining this verse with "Not Last Night But the Night Before")
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #81, "(Little Spanish dancer do the splits, splits, splits)"; #82, "(Spanish dancers do the splits, splits, splits)" (2 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p.118, "Spanish dancer, do the splits" (1 text); cf. p. 130, "I can do a polka, I can do a split" (1 text, which looks as if it might be a freestanding fragment of this)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #626, "Spanish dancers do the splits" (1 text)
Roud #19424
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Not Last Night But the Night Beforer" (lyrics)
cf. "How About a Date?" (lyrics)
cf. "Texaco, Texaco" (lyrcs)
cf. "Tillie the Toiler Sat on a Boiler" (lyrics)
cf. "I Know a Woman" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dolly Dimple Can't Do This
File: ZiZa051A

Spanish Dancers Do the Splits

See Spanish Dancer (File: ZiZa051A)

Spanish Is a Loving Tongue

See Spanish Is the Loving Tongue (A Border Affair) (File: FCW052)

Spanish Is the Loving Tongue (A Border Affair)

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of his love for (and language lessons from) a Mexican girl. "But one time I had to fly For a foolish gambling fight." Though the affair may have been a mistake, he still misses her and remembers her last words to him: "Adios, mi corazon."
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Badger Clark
EARLIEST DATE: 1920; apparently copyrighted 1919. Set to music by Bill Simon in 1925
KEYWORDS: love separation abandonment gambling fight foreigner
FOUND IN: US(Ro,SW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 10-11, "A Border Affair" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 52, "Border Affair" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 404, "A Border Affair" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 278-279, "Spanish Is a Loving Tongue" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 141, "Spanish Is The Loving Tongue" (1 text)
DT, SPANLOVE*
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 126-136, "Badger Clark, Poet of Yesterday's West" (1 text, 1 tune plus discussion and a short biography of Clark)
Roud #11085
RECORDINGS:
Tex Fletcher, "The Border Affair (Mi Amor, Mi Corazon)" (Decca 5300, 1936)
Pete Seeger, "Spanish is the Loving Tongue" (on PeteSeeger30)
NOTES [60 words]: A version of this is printed in volume 38, number 2 of Sing Out! (1993), p. 70 credits the music to Billy Simon. This seems to be based on the statements of Katie Lee, but the information in the Sing Out! article by itself is not sufficient for me to credit Simon. But White supports the attribution to Simon, which strikes me as much better evidence. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FCW052

Spanish Johnny

DESCRIPTION: "The old West, the old time, The old wind singing through..." are the habitat of Spanish Johnny, who herds cattle and kills men and "sing[s] to his mandolin." Spanish Johnny is finally hung; the night before he dies, he sings one last time to the mandolin
AUTHOR: Words: Willa Cather / Music: C. E. Scoggins (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: cowboy death execution music
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 123-124, "Spanish Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15551
NOTES [24 words]: Written as a poem, the Lomaxes apparently collected this from the author of the tune. There is no evidence that it ever entered tradition. - RBW
File: LxA123

Spanish Ladies

DESCRIPTION: Sailor bids farewell to the Spanish (Australian, South American) ladies as his ship weighs anchor and departs for England (Massachusetts).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Journal of the Nellie)
KEYWORDS: parting sailor Spain England
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West)) US(NE) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #38, pp. 235-236, "The Spanish Ladies" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 454-455, "The Spanish Ladies" (1 text)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #19, "Spanish Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 385-386, "Spanish Ladies" (2 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 293-294]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 27, "Spanish Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 144-145, "Spanish Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune, some of it conjectured due to the illegibility of the original journal)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 143-145, "Spanish Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 89, "Spanish Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 82, "Spanish Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 136-137, "Spanish Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 233-234, "Spanish Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 41, "Spanish Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 97, "Spanish Ladies" (1 text)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 25, "The Spanish Ladies" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 125-126, "Oh we'll rant and we'll roar like true British seamen" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 54, "Spanish Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XCI, pp. 183-184, "Farewell and Adieu" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 736-737, "Farewell to You, Ye Fine Spanish Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 65, "Spanish Ladies" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SPANLAD* SPANLAD3*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Farewell and Adieu" is in Part 4, 8/4/1917.
Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 80, "(We'll rant and we'll roar like true British sailors')" (1 excerpt)
Roud #687
RECORDINGS:
Cadgwith fishermen, "Farewell and Adieu" (on LastDays)
Johnny Doughty, "Up the Channel" (on Voice12)

BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.17(305), "The Spanish Ladies", J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(1483), Harding B 11(3611), Firth b.34(40), Firth c.13(39), Firth c.13(41), "[The] Spanish Ladies"
LOCSinging, as104650, "Spanish Ladies", J. Catnach (London), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We'll Rant and We'll Roar" (plot, tune, lyrics)
cf. "Brisbane Ladies" (plot, tune, lyrics)
cf. "The Countersigns" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Countersigns (File: Col135)
Brisbane Ladies (File: FaE162)
We'll Rant and We'll Roar (File: FJ042)
The Saguenay Song (File: Hopk038)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Farewell and Adieu To You
NOTES [62 words]: This well-known melody inspired a number of local parodies, including "We'll Rant and We'll Roar" (which itself was parodied on occasion) and "Brisbane Ladies." As most of these are deliberate rewrites, however, they are not included here.
"Talcahuano Girls," formerly filed here, is in fact A. L. Lloyd's rewrite of "We'll Rant and We'll Roar," and is now filed there. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ShH89

Spanish Ladies Love, The

See The Spanish Lady's Love (File: OBB161)

Spanish Lady (I)

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) (File: E098)

Spanish Lady (II), The

See The Spanish Lady's Love (File: OBB161)

Spanish Lady's Love, The

DESCRIPTION: Imprisoned by an English captain, the Spanish lady falls in love with her captor. They exchange praises for the English, and he tells her they are mismatched. This does not convince her; at last he says he is married. They go their separate ways
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1728 (registered 1603, and quoted in 1616)
KEYWORDS: courting separation love prison
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume III, pp. 393-398, "The Spanish Ladies Love" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 247-251, "The Spanish Lady's Love" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XXXI, p. 72, "The Spanish Lady's Love" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 138-142, "The Spanish Lady's Love" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 240-243, "The Spanish Lady's Love" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 161, "The Spanish Lady's Love" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 186-187, "The Spanish Lady" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 84-85, "The Spanish Lady" (1 tune, partial text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2935, "Will you hear a Spanish Lady"; cf. AN2934, "Will you hear a German Princess"
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 486
ST OBB161 (Partial)
Roud #9735
NOTES [84 words]: Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard) lists several pieces that might be this:
• p. 217, #2509, "the Spanish Ladies Love," registered June 11, 1603 to William White
• p. 217, #2510, "The Spanish ladies love," registered March 1, 1675
There is also a "Spanish Lady" registred December 14, 1624, but I can't say if it's the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: OBB161

Spanish Lass, The

See The Indian Lass (File: CrNS051)

Spanish Maid, The

See A Gay Spanish Maid [Laws K16] (File: LK16)

Spanish Main, The

See I Was Just Sixteen (File: GrMa102)

Spanish Merchant's Daughter

See No, John, No (File: R385)

Spanish Privateer, The

See The French Privateer (File: HHH560)

Spanish Shore, The

See Lovely Sally (You Broken-Hearted Heroes) (File: HHH549)

Spanish War (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls "our last rebellion" in 1861, and declares that "battle must be fought" against Spain to "avenge the Maine": "They sunk her, never to rise again." Despite the possibility of loss, the war must be pursued
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Spain battle war navy soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1895 - Cubans rebel against Spain
Feb 15, 1898 - Explosion of the battleship "Maine" in Havana harbour
April 25, 1898 - Congress declares war on Spain
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 95-96, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 103-104)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine" (theme) and references there
NOTES [42 words]: For background on the loss of the Maine, and the war that followed, see the notes to "My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine."
This particular piece of rampant jingoism and blatant inaccuracy strikes me as possibly the work of the yellow press. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa095

Spanish War (II), The

See Yankee Dewey (File: LaGo057)

Spanking Maggie from the Ross

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells listeners about a race urged by "Mr. Montague." Campbell Miller accepts the bet. Jockey Bell holds back his horse for a time, to increase the excitement and the wagering, then wins easily. The singer offers a toast to the winners
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: racing gambling horse trick
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H516, p. 35, "Spanking Maggie from the Ross" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13354
File: HHH516

Spare Me the Life of Georgie

See Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)

Sparking on a Sunday Night

See Sparking Sunday Night (File: R379)

Sparking Sunday Night

DESCRIPTION: As "Down behind the hilltops goes the setting sun," young lovers gather to court and go "sparking Sunday Night." The young people wait impatiently for her parents to drop off so they can spark seriously. Conclusion: sparking is fine -- but best on Sunday
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (LOCSheet sm1855 58168, sm1855 581290); listed as from 1855 by Jon W. Finson, _The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song_, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 46
KEYWORDS: courting love family
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 40, "Sparking Sunday Night" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 424-426, "Sparking Sunday Night" (1 text)
Randolph 379, "Sparking Sunday Night" (1 text); 468, "Sparking on Sunday Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 721, "Sparking on a Sunday Night" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, "The Parlor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 156-158, "Soarking Sunday Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 95-96, "Sparking on a Sunday Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 41 and #4/64, p. 42, "Sparking Sunday Night" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 17, "Sparking Sunday Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2820
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1855 581680, "Sparking Sunday Night," T. Birch (New York), 1855 (1 text, 1 tune); sm1855 581290, "Sparking Sunday Night,"Oliver Ditson (Boston), 1855 (1 text, 1 tune)
LOCSinging, as113030, "Sparking Sunday Night," Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as113040, "Sparking Sunday Night"
NOTES [106 words]: Randolph treats his two pieces as separate, and does not even cross-reference them. It's true that the forms are slightly different, and that his #379 includes a sub-plot (waiting for the parents to fall asleep) not found in #468. But the key phrase is the same, and so is the feeling; I think they are one piece. - RBW
LOCSinging as113030 has the tune as "Wait for the Wagon"; neither piece of sheet music sounds like "Wait for the Wagon."
Broadside LOCSinging as113030: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R379

Sparkling and Bright

DESCRIPTION: "Sparkling and bright in liquid light, Does the wine our goblets gleam in, With hue as red as rosy bed, Which a bee would choose to dream in." The poet hopes "We’ll drink to-night with hearts as light,... As bubbles that swim on the beaker’s brim."
AUTHOR: Charles Fenno Hoffman (1806-1884)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1876 (numerous parodies in Waite); sung by Henry Sibley and friends in the 1850s
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
Roud #V12429
SAME TUNE:
To the American Flag and Harrison ("See in the light of glory bright") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, p. 12)
All the following references are from Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, part 1:
Gather Ye Smiles ("Gather ye smiles from the ocean isles, Warm hearts from river and fountain") (by F. M. Finch, [class of 18]49) (Waite, p. 47)
Smoking Song ("Floating away like the fountains' spray, Or the snow-white plume of a maiden") (by F. M. Finch, [class of 18]49) (Waite, p. 50)
Smoking Song ("With grateful twirl our smoke wreaths curl, As mist from the water-fall given") (Waite, p. 79)
A Vesper ("When the evening falls on Brunonia's walls, As the light of day is fleeting") (Waite, p. 95)
Chant Our Rhyme ("Peacefully rest, 'neath the mountain's crest, In thy sheltered vale reclining") (by George L. Raymond, [class of 18]62) (Waite, p. 114)
Bacchanalian ("Oh, bright is the gleam of the silv'ry stream, As it leaps from its native mountain") (by M. W. Fuller, [class of 18]53) (Waite, p. 124)
Mechanics ("To the solemn tricks of Mechanics We bid farewell forever") (Waite, p. 133)
Logic ("We'll poll no more for the hidden lore Within our Logic's pages") (Waite, p. 133)
Smoking Song ("Sorrow and strife leave the student's life When his pipe is kindled brightly") (by Professor T. S. Doolittle, D.D., [class of 18]59) (Waite, p. 144)
All the following references are from Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, part 2:
Welcome to the Alumni ("Come, friendly throng, and join our song, We welcome every brother") (by A. T. Pierson [class of 18]57) (Waite, p. 19)
Parting Song ("The dewy light of the morning bright, The blush of the summer sunrise") (Waite, p. 28)
Conflagratio Conicorum ("Gather here by the dusky bier, -- Let the requiem deeply roll") (Waite, p. 35)
Evening Hours ("The twilight gaze, with its gentle rays, O'er Trinity's campus stealing") (Waite, p. 36)
Sleighing Song ("Gliding along like a fairy song, Or the mist at early dawning") (by C. H. Sweetser, [class of 18]62) (Waite, p. 42)
We Gather Here ("We gather here with festive cheer, To drown all care and sorrow") (by W. Irving Allen, [class of 18]62) (Waite, p. 45)
Joyous and Free ("Joyous and free our hearts shall be, At the festal board regaling") (by E. P. Dyer, Jr., [class of 18]61) (Waite, p. 45)
Come, Gather Near ("Come, gather near, each classmate here, Fond memories will gather") (Waite, p. 52)
While We Gather Here ("While we gather here, with song nd cheer, Our thoughts in union blending") (by George O. Whitney, [class of 18]69) (Waite, p. 82)
Hair-belles ("Here's to the maids with borrowed braids, And here's to the girls with curls, sir") (Waite, p. 96)
The following references are from Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, part 3:
Boat Song ("Lightly afloat swims our gallant bark") (Waite, p. 11)
NOTES [172 words]: As far as I know, there are no field collections of this song, although it was found in at least one edition of the Forget-Me-Not Songster (but not the version used in the Index). There is also a report of it being sung in the future state of Minnesota in the 1850s: "The evening was spent in listening to song and recital. Boury gave us Ingoldsby's "Lord Tom Noddy" with great spirit. White, [future governor Henry] Sibley and others united in "Sparkling and bright" "Health dear woman", "Down East" "Farewell to Moore" "Starspangled banner" "Landlord fill &c", while throughout the night the greatest variety of voyageur songs inspirited the oarsmen...." (so Frank Blackwell Mayer, as quoted on p. 232 of With Pen and Pencil on the Frontier in 1851: The Diary and Sketches of Frank Blackwell Mayer, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1986.)
This combined with the amazing number of parodies that use the tune finally caused me to decide to include it here, not for its own sake but so we could include the "Same Tune" entries. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: SparBrig

Spastic Song

See Fingers and Thumbs (File: WT079)

Speak Louder

See The Deaf Woman's Courtship (File: R353)

Speak of a Man As You Find Him

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, speak of a man as you find him, And censure alone what you see, And should a man blame, let's remind him, From vice we are none of us free." If we knew people's hearts, many who are honored would be scorned. We should ignore gossip
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: sin warning nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 126, "Speak of a man as you find him" (1 text)
Roud #17497
File: HenV126

Speaking Flower, The

DESCRIPTION: "Our ship is ready to depart, Yet ere I go from thee, Some proof of love to cheer my heart, I pray thee grant to me." He asks at least for the flower in the girl's hand. She does not answer, but drops the flower
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1852 (Journal of the Minerva Smythe)
KEYWORDS: love sailor separation flowers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
HuntingtonGam, p. 333, "The Speaking Flower" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27530
NOTES [68 words]: Huntington says that this is "surely" an English version of "Une Fleur Pour Response," found in Laura Alexandrine Smith's collection of sailor's songs, "The Music of the Waters." However, the Smith book was published in 1888 (according to the title page of the version of the book on the Internet Archive), so even if the two songs are the same, the English version is in fact the earliest attested form. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HGam333

Special Agent/Railroad Police Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Now, when I left for Ripley the weather was kind of cool...." "Now, I swung that 97...." "Now, them special agents up the country sure is hard on a man...." The singer asks the special agents to evict him near a town so he can make a recording
AUTHOR: Sleepy John Estes (1904-1977)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Sleepy John Estes)
KEYWORDS: train hobo technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 435-436, "Special Agent/Railroad Police Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Sleepy John Estes, "Special Agent (Railroad Police Blues" (Decca 7491, 1938)
File: LSRai435

Speckles (Freckles)

DESCRIPTION: "He was little 'en peaked 'en thin 'an Narr't a no 'account horse" (sic). The singer describes meeting (Freckles) many years ago, and being surprised by the gameness of this "no account" horse (which managed to rescue him from a party of Indians)
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: horse cowboy Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XXIII, pp. 254-257 (48-50), "Speckles" (2 texts, the second being an extension of the first); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 142-145, "Speckles" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 400, "Speckles" (1 text)
Roud #8044
NOTES [65 words]: Another Thorp composition that had little play in tradition. Even so, it has a variant reading; the author couldn't decide whether the horse was named "Speckles" or "Freckles"! Based on the notes in Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, I would guess the horse was originally "Freckles,' but Thorp changed it to "Speckles" to honor P. A. Speckman, who printed the first version of Thorp's book. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: TF23

Speculation

See Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)

Speed the Plow (Sal'sb'ry Sal)

DESCRIPTION: Known as a fiddle tune, Flanders gives the words as "Oh, high, diddy-di, for Sal'sb'ry Sal, Plump she was, and a right smart gal, Swing to the center and caper down the hall, High, diddy-di, and a balance all...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: dancetune nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, p. 26, "Sal'sb'ry Sal" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 111-112, "Speed the Plow" (1 tune plus dance instructions)
NOTES [161 words]: "Speed the Plow" is, of course, one of the most popular of fiddle tunes. We can't absolutely identify it with the words in Flanders and Brown, though, because they don't give a tune!
The phrase "speed the plow" has been used in songs for many hundreds of years. Richard Greene, editor, A Selection of English Carols, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, has as his #32 (pp. 147-148) a piece with the refrain "The merthe of all this londe Maketh the gode hosbonde, With erynge of his plowe." The third verse reads, "Aboute barly and whete,That maketh men to swete, God spede the plowe al day!" The source of this is Bodleian MS. Arch. Selden B.26 of the fifteenth century -- which also contains the primary copy of the Agincourt Carol (scans currently available at https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/11d9f36c-2e48-47d3-b7a3-a9decd76fd28). Greene, p. 244, believes it is a carol for Plow Monday, or the Monday after Epiphany. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: FlBr026

Spelling Game (Blue spells B-L-U-E; T-W-O Spells Two; My Mother and Your Mother)

DESCRIPTION: "T-W-O spells two, and O-U-T spells out... My mother gave your mother A punch on the nose, And what color was the blood? (Red) R-E-D spells red, and O-U-T spells out. My mother and your mother Had a fiddle... Chopped it in the middle... How many strings?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty wordplay music mother
FOUND IN: New Zealand US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 96-97, "(T-W-O spells two)" (1 or more texts; it's not clear which are continuous)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 71, "My Mother and Your Mother" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric) and references there
cf. "My Mother and Your Mother (I)" (lyrics)
File: SuSm096F

Spence Broughton

DESCRIPTION: Broughton at the gibbet post tells about his bad companions and wicked habits that led to his execution. He bids farewell to his wife and children; he should have stayed at home with them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1856 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.17(162))
KEYWORDS: crime execution gallows-confession children wife
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 14, 1792 - Spence Broughton of Sheffield executed for robbing the Rotherham postman
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 126-127, "Spence Broughton" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #1107
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.17(162), "Spence Broughton" ("To you my dear companions accept these lines I pray"), J. Cadman (Manchester), 1819-1844; also Johnson Ballads 3151, Harding B 11(3615), Firth b.25(381), Firth c.17(161), "Spence Broughton"
File: KiTu126

Spencer the Rover

DESCRIPTION: "These words were composed by Spencer the Rover, who travelled Great Britain and most parts of Wales." After much rambling and assorted adventures, he returns "to his family and wife" and decides to go roving no more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1856 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3617))
KEYWORDS: rambling family return
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 130-131, "Spencer the Rover" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 327)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 154-156, "Spencer the Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 331, "Spencer the Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 264-265, "Spencer the Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 230-231, "Spencer the Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #86, "Spencer the Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SPENCROV*
Roud #1115
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3617), "Spencer the Rover" ("These words were composed by Spencer the rover"), J. Cadman (Manchester), 1850-1855; also Firth c.21(8), Johnson Ballads 1880, Harding B 11(3616), Harding B 25(1824), Firth b.25(257), Johnson Ballads 1842 [some words illegible], Harding B 11(3620), 2806 c.16(36), Firth c.26(209), Harding B 11(3618)
LOCSinging, as102610, "Spencer the Rover" ("These words were composed by Spencer the Rover"), Jackson & Son (Birmingham), no date
File: K331

Spendthrift

See Limbo (File: CrMa124)

Spendthrift Clapt Into Limbo, The

See Limbo (File: CrMa124)

Sperm Whale Song, The

See The Wounded Whale (File: SWMS023)

Spider and the Fly, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Will you walk into my parlor?' said the spider to the fly -- ''Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you did spy.'" The fly demurs; the spider persists; at last she is lured "within his little parlor -- but she ne'er came out again."
AUTHOR: Mary (Botham) Howitt (1799-1888)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: bug trick lie death | spider
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1670, "The Spider and the Fly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #837, pp. 316-317, "('Will you walkin into my parlor?' said the spider to the fly)"
ADDITIONAL: Florence Milner, "Poems in Alice in Wonderland" (1903), now reprinted in Robert Phillips, editor, _Aspects of Alice_, 1971 (references are to the 1977 Vintage paperback), pp. 249-250, "The Spider and the Fly" (1 text, with "Alice"-related context)
Roud #13006
NOTES [233 words]: Mary Howitt, the wife of author William Howitt, made a number of translations into English (including, apparently, some of the works of Hans Christian Andersen), but is hardly remembered today except for this one piece. Granger's Index to Poetry cites ten poems of hers, but most are in only a single reference; 11 books are cited for this piece. I have this feeling that some of those other citations are instance where editors wanted to prove she did more than write "The Spider and the Fly."
Alice Liddell Hargreaves (as she came to be) referred to singing this song. In an account repeated in Jo Elwyn Jones & J. Francis Gladstone, The Red King's Dream or Lewis Carroll in Wonderland, 1995 (I use the 1996 Pimlico edition), p. 102, she mentions how she and her sisters sand "Star of the evening, beautiful star," "Twinkle, twinkle, little star," and "Will you walk into my parlour?" on their expeditions with Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and the Rev. Robinson Duckworth.
Dodgson's poem "'Will you walk a little faster,' said a whiting to a snail," is said to be a loose parody of this, according to Sidney Herbert Williams and Falconer Madan, revised and augmented by Roger Lancelyn Green, further revised by Denis Crutch, The Lewis Carroll Handbook (earlier editions titled A Handbook of the Literature of the Rev. C. L. Dodgson, 1932, 1961, 1970); Dawson Books, 1979, p. 311. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: BGMG837

Spider and the Spout, The

See The Eensy Weensy Spider (File: BGMG579)

Spider by the Gwydir, The

See The Spider from the Gwydir (File: MA204)

Spider from the Gwydir, The

DESCRIPTION: "By the sluggish River Gwydir Lived a wicked redbacked spider...." A drunken shearer falls asleep near its lair. A man and woman come up and set out to rob him. As she approaches, the spider bites her. She flees in pain; the shearer is saved
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: bug humorous robbery | spider
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 204-205, "The Spider from the Gwydir" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 170, "The Moree Spider" (1 text)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 121-123, "The Spider by the Gwydir" (1 text)
Roud #22629
File: MA204

Spider, The

DESCRIPTION: A spider web catches a fly but can't hold a hornet. "Poor men [are] brought to shame"; the vain rich are praised. The singer wishes to be neither rich nor poor. If rich men would be just the camel's hump could be shaven and "the rich man enter heaven"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
KEYWORDS: poverty vanity virtue money Bible nonballad | spider fly hornet
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 48-49, "The Spider" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1372
NOTES [42 words]: Matthew 19.24 (King James): "And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God" (cf. Mark 10.25, Luke 18.25). For more on this see "How Many Miles to Babylon?" - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BrMa048

Spider's Web

DESCRIPTION: "Down in the valley, There is a mission Down by the old oak tree. Down by the mission, There is a fountain Where my love told me, There's a web like a spider's web." But he can't go back there; they will hang him as a killer for a murder in Santa Fe
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1998 (mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: Spider's Web (Girl Scout song)")
KEYWORDS: homicide love separation travel campsong | spider
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 233, 541, 550, 552, "Spider's Web" (notes only)
File: ACSF233S

Spiders and Fireflies

See The County Jail (File: GC147)

Spike Driver Blues

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

Spin Spin

See Whistle, Daughter, Whistle (File: R109)

Spin, Daughter, Spin

See Whistle, Daughter, Whistle (File: R109)

Spin, Meine Liebe Tochter (Spin, My Little Daughter)

See Whistle, Daughter, Whistle (File: R109)

Spinner's Wedding, The

DESCRIPTION: "The gaffer's looking worried, the flett's a' in a steer, Jessie Brodie's getting mairit an' the morn she'll no be here." The spinners have bought her a gift. They wish her well; she will have "love an' loyalty" even though she won't have money
AUTHOR: Mary Brooksbank
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: marriage gift party
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 42, "The Spinner's Wedding" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #12503
File: Gath042

Spinnin' o't, The

DESCRIPTION: Once "some canty goodman" sang "A wee pickle tow for the spinnin o't." "The stupid auld carlin" left the linen too close to the fireplace. The goodman says that he had asked forty years for a shirt with nothing to show.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness fire husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #60, p. 2, "The Spinnin' o't" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 474, "The Spinnin' o't" (1 fragment)
Roud #5971
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She's Aye Tease, Teasin'" (theme: the wife who won't spin, but sets the flax on fire)
NOTES [64 words]: Greig prints only the first verse of the three in Greig/Duncan3 and considers it "an introductory verse to 'The spinnin' o't' [that is, "The Wee Pickle Tow"] which I have never come across in any version of the song which I have hitherto seen." Greig/Duncan3's other two verses still seem introductory, hardly advancing the story, and may be just a fragment of "The Wee Pickle Tow." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3474

Spinning Rhyme

See My Wheelie Goes Round (File: MSNR173)

Spinning Song

DESCRIPTION: "Spin, ladies, spin all day (x2), Sheep shell corn, Rain rattles up a horn, Spin, ladies, spin all day (x3)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: worksong nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 215, "Spinning-Song" (1 short text)
File: ScNF215A

Spinning Wheel (I), The

DESCRIPTION: A young man comes courting the girl, praising her beauty and kissing her hand, "But yet I turned my spinning wheel." At last he proposes (marriage/a roll in the hay); she (accepts and leaves her wheel/orders him away)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: love courting technology work rejection marriage
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 12-13, "The Spinning Wheel" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SPINWHL2*
File: Arn012

Spinning Wheel, The

DESCRIPTION: Silvia, out hunting, sees beautiful Cloe at her spinning wheel. Inviting her to accompany him to court, he seduces her and leaves her "e'er the year ran out in tears to turn her wheel about."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: seduction beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 51-53, "The Spinning Wheel" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas d'Urfey, Wit and Mirth, or, Pills to Purge Melancholy (New York: Folklore Library Publishers (1959 London, 1719 (facsimile of 1876 reprint of London, 1719 ("Digitized by Internet Archive"))), Vol I, pp. 176-177, "A Song" ("Upon a sunshine Summers day") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1090
File: KiTu051

Spinning-Wheel Song, The

DESCRIPTION: Eileen and her blind grandmother are spinning. Grandmother hears someone sighing. Eileen says it is the wind. It is her lover. She sneaks out of the window while grandmother begins to sleep. "Through the grove the young lovers by moonlight are roving"
AUTHOR: John Francis Waller (source: Hayes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Hayes)
KEYWORDS: courting trick love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 151, "The Spinning-Wheel Song" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859 (reprint of 1855 London edition)), Vol II, pp. 326-327, "The Spinning Wheel Song" (1 text)
The Universal Irish Song Book (New York, 1898 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 453, "A Spinning-Wheel Song" (1 text)
Roud #17647
File: OCon151

Spinster's Lament, The

See The Old Maid's Song (File: R364)

Spinsters Gay

DESCRIPTION: "We are a set of spinsters gay, As you can plainly see, And we can prove it's all from choice And not necessary." They could change their status in a leap year, but don't want to.Theydon't need men. They are happy as they are.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: nonballad courting rejection
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 55, "Spinsters Gay" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #11328
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (tune) and references there
File: Brne055

Spirit of the Lord Has Fell On Me

DESCRIPTION: "O John, O hallelujah, O John, O the spirit of the Lord has fell on to me." "Hallelujah to the lamb, Spirit of the Lord has fell on to me, Jesus made me what I am...." "Prettiest work I ever done... To work for the Lord when I was young...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad work Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 92, "Spirit of the Lord Has Fell On Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4918
NOTES [51 words]: If this is an allusion to any Biblical incident at all (and I'm not sure it is), I suspect it's to Revelation 1:10, where John was "in the Spirit on the Lord's day." John is associated with the giving of the Spirit in passages such as Acts 8:15, but Peter seems to be the prime mover in all such places. - RBW
File: ChFRA092

Spirit Song of George's Bank, The

See The Ghostly Crew [Laws D16] (File: LD16)

Spiritual Railroad, The

See The Road to Heaven (File: R600)

Sport Song, A

See The Quaker's Courtship (File: R362)

Sport's Lament

DESCRIPTION: "I am a poor forlorn dog and Sport is my name." Born in Caw, he is sent to Donegal but has no training. At first his owner treats him well, but then a dog tax is imposed; the master throws him out because he is expensive and useless
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: dog abandonment animal home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H772, p. 23, "Sport's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13346
NOTES [25 words]: Obviously a composed song, with music perhaps set by Sam Henry, but I have been unable to determine when license taxes were imposed on British dogs. - RBW
File: HHH772

Sporting Bachelors, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you sportin' bachelors, take warning by me." The singer warns of a fast life and of marriage. His wife dresses him in rags, and makes him work constantly so she may live well. He hopes she dies so he may again be free.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920
KEYWORDS: marriage courting abuse bachelor
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 46, "Sporting Bachelors" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 14, "The Sporting Bachelors" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SPORTBCH*
Roud #5556
RECORDINGS:
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Never Be as Fast as I Have Been" (Victor 23565, 1929; on GraysonWhitter01)
Buell Kazee, "Sporting Bachelors" (Brunswick 157, 1927; Supertone S-2082, 1930; on KMM)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Never Be as Fast as I Have Been" (on NLCR14)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sorry the Day I Was Married"
cf. "Scolding Wife (IV)" (plot)
cf. "Married and Single Life" (subject)
NOTES [27 words]: Roud lumps this with "Scolding Wife (IV)," and I cannot deny the close similarity in themes. But the two appear somewhat different in both form and emphasis. - RBW
File: LxU014

Sporting Cowboy

See Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail) [Laws E17] (File: LE17)

Sporting Life Blues

DESCRIPTION: "I got a letter from my home, Most of my friends are dead and gone... That sporting life is killing me." The singer describes all the rowdy things he has done, wishes he had listened to his mother, and decides that he should marry and settle down
AUTHOR: Generally attributed to Brownie McGhee
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: rambling drink gambling
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 74, "Sporting Life Blues" (1 text)
DT, SPRTLIFE
File: FSWB074

Sporting Maggie

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl. She doesn't want to marry but only "to court with a sporting young blade that pleases Sporting Maggie." "If you love me as I love thee, What a sporting couple we would be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy dialog rake whore
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 314-315, "Sporting Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6461
RECORDINGS:
George Decker, "Sporting Maggie" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea314

Sporting Old Grey Mare, The

See The Old Grey Mare (III) (File: OLoc035)

Sporting Races of Galway, The

See The Galway Races (File: OLoc010)

Sporting Youth, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks Mary to go with him to America. She agrees although friends say he would not prove true. "So now we are landed and married we be We will live in contentment and sweet unity"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1821 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.17(4) View 2 of 2)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage emigration America Ireland floatingverses
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 47, "The Sporting Youth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3016
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y2:013, "The Sporting Youth," The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 19C
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(4) View 2 of 2, "American strander" ("I'm a stranger in this country"), G. Thompson (Liverpool), 1789-1820; also 2806 b.11(278), Harding B 11(3206), Harding B 16(257a), Johnson Ballads 1834, "[The] Sporting Youth"; Harding B 16(6a), "The American Stranger"; Harding B 25(1845)[partly illegible], "The Stranger"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Colin and Phoebe" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Johnson Ballads 1834)
NOTES [13 words]: Usually the stranger comes from America; in some cases he comes from Ireland. - BS
File: OLoc047

Sports o' Glasgow Green, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ae morn in the sweet month o' July... Young Jockey had trysted wi' Jenny To gang wi' him in to the fair." They go to Glasgow, see all the strange people and exhibits, have sundry adventures, and head home to sleep it off
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads), from an undated songster
KEYWORDS: worker music animal humorous drink food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 396-399, "The Sports o' Glasgow Green" (1 text)
Roud #5615
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blythesome Bridal" (tune, thematic elements)
File: Ord397

Sports of the Chase

DESCRIPTION: "Of the Bards of old TImes, and the minstrel gay strains Have the sports of the Chase, all transcendant reveal'd." The singer, in extremely flowery language, praises racing
AUTHOR: Massey Robinson (source: Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland)
KEYWORDS: racing nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 68-69, "Sports of the Chase" (1 text)
NOTES [20 words]: This is clearly not traditional, and we should be glad. Reading it was so fatiguing I never even made it to the end. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: AnFa068

Sportsmen Arouse

See The Innocent Hare (File: K251)

Spotted Cow, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a milkmaid who has lost her spotted cow. He says he's seen the cow in yonder grove, and offers to show her. They spend the day there. Now whenever she sees him, she calls to him again: "I have lost my spotted cow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(65))
KEYWORDS: courting love sex farming animal lover worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North,South))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 71, "The Spotted Cow" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 413)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 70-71, "The Spotted Cow" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 232-233, "Spotted Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 47, "The Spotted Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 142, "The Spotted Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #74, "The Spotted Cow" (1 text, 1 tune, shortened)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #38, "The Spotted Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #68, "The Spotted Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 151, "The Spotted Cow" (reproduction of a broadside page with "The Pretty Plough Boy," "The Spotted Cow," and "Canadian Boat Song")
Roud #956
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "The Spotted Cow" (on HCox01) (on FSBFTX13)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(65), "The Spotted Cow" ("One morning in the month of May"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Firth b.27(104), Firth b.28(14a), Harding B 11(1759), Harding B 15(311a), Firth c.18(217), Firth b.25(108), Harding B 11(3164), 2806 c.16(260), Firth b.27(95), Harding B 28(65), 2806 c.17(404), Firth b.27(294), Firth b.25(178), Firth b.26(83), Harding B 11(1106), Harding B 11(3628), Harding B 11(4201), "The Spotted Cow"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kitty of Coleraine" (theme)
cf. "Blackberry Grove" (theme)
cf. "Three Maidens to Milking Did Go" (theme)
NOTES [14 words]: Not to be confused with "The Old Spotted Cow," a version of "The Crafty Farmer." - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K142

Spotted Islands Song, The

DESCRIPTION: The Anderson leaves Cupids "for a dance in Spotted Islands In the good old Fishin' Time!" The ships are named. "We had on board eight females" but the crew "kept up good behavior" and landed them safely on Wednesday morning.
AUTHOR: Samuel Richards
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing)
KEYWORDS: commerce sea ship dancing
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 91-92, "The Spotted Islands Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [12 words]: Cupids is on Cape Breton. Spotted Islands is off the coast of Labrador. - BS
File: Blon091

Spottee

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you good people and listen to me, And a comical jest I will tell unto ye, Concerning one Spottee that lived on the law key...." The wild man frightens women and children and horses; many hope to see him move, but sailors will not take him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: madness
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 72-73, "Spottee" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: [Cuthbert Sharp], _The Bishopric Garland, A Collection of Legends, Songs, Ballads, &c Belonging to the County of Durham_, 1834 (references are to the 1969 reprint), p. 50, "Spottee" (1 text; 1 tune on p. 85)
ST StoR072 (Partial)
Roud #3142
NOTES [32 words]: Stokoe quotes Sir Cuthbert Sharp to the effect that song tells of an actual madman "who lives in a cave between Whitburn and Sunderland, which still retains the name of 'Spottee's Hole.'" - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: StoR072

Spree at Montague, The

DESCRIPTION: "There were a spree in Montague ... At a farmer's house." The fiddler could not play a good dance tune and blamed the fiddle. A second fiddler is called in and plays very well with the same fiddle. Moral: Invite fiddler number two to ensure a good dance.
AUTHOR: Patrick William Farrell
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: vanity dancing fiddle party
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 208-209, 255, "The Spree at Montague" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13996
RECORDINGS:
John Farrell, "The Spree at Montague" (on MREIves01)
NOTES [12 words]: Montague is on the east coast of Kings County, Prince Edward Island. - BS
File: UvDC208

Spree at Summer Hill, The

DESCRIPTION: "His elbows were all greased with gin." "The dancers like chain lightning flew." In the yard, someone "threw the old gander o'er his back"; it will bring fifty cents to pay the thief's school assessment
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Ives-LarryGorman)
KEYWORDS: party music
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 19-20, 200, "The Spree at Summer Hill" (1 text)
Roud #25261
File: LaGoSASH

Spree, The

See Johnny McEldoo (File: RcJoMcEl)

Sprig of May, The

DESCRIPTION: In May the singer walks "across the dreary moor" and meets a maid who wanted "to marry me." He crosses a flowery field and breaks his finger. She says, "I should like to see You break your finger to pleasure me." "One sprig of May made her belly swell."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: sex pregnancy flowers bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 123, "The Sprig of May" (1 text)
Roud #2452
NOTES [43 words]: Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle: "Just as the 'sprig of thyme' is a metaphorical representation of chastity, so 'sprig of may' represents wantonness. The metaphorical character of 'dreary moor,' the 'flowery field,' and the finger-breaking is obvious enough." - BS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: ReCi123

Sprig of Shillelagh, The

See The Sprig of Shillelah (File: OCon013)

Sprig of Shillelah, The

DESCRIPTION: The Irishman "loves all that's lovely": drinking, fighting. May English, Scots and Irish drub the French and be "united and happy at loyalty's shrine, May the rose and the thistle long flourish and twine Round a sprig of shillelah and shamrock so green!"
AUTHOR: Edward Lysaght (1763-1810)? (according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland); Henry Brereton Code (d. 1830)? (according to Bodleian documentation re broadsides (see notes))
EARLIEST DATE: 1807 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 10(50))
KEYWORDS: war England France Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 13, "The Sprig of Shillelah" (1 text)
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 110-115, "The Sprig of Shillelah" (1 text)
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 219-223, "The Sprig of Shillelagh" (1 tune, presumably this)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 89, "The Sprig of Shillelah" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 43 and #4/64, p. 43, "Sprig of Shillelah" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 481-482, 503, "The Sprig of Shillelah"
Roud #13379
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 10(50), "Sprig of Shillelah and Shamrock So Green", Laurie & Whittle (London), 1807; also Harding B 17(299a), "The Sprig of Shillelah and Shamrock So Green"; Firth b.34(279), "Sprig of Shillelagh"; Harding B 11(3632), 2806 c.18(300), "Sprig of Shilelah"; Harding B 11(892), "Sprig of Shillalah"; Harding B 18(448), Harding B 17(298a), Harding B 17(298b), Johnson Ballads 60, "Sprig of Shillelah"; Harding B 25(1830) [only partly legible], "The Sprig of Shilelah and Shamrock So Green"
LOCSinging, as203420, "Sprig of Shillelah", Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Darling Neddeen" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
cf. "Nix My Dolly Pals Fake Away" (tune, apparently, according to Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats)
SAME TUNE:
Home Manufactures (File: LDC246)
Black Joke (broadside Bodleian Harding B 10(50))
NOTES [412 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 10(50) notes that the text was "sung with unbounded applause by Mr Johnstone, of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane." The publication date is October 20, 1807. The Peninsular Campaign against the French in Portugal is in the news. That may explain the text's sense of unity of Irish and English against the French. O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland has the leek of Wales with the rose of England and thistle of Scotland, in "the rose, leek and thistle" joining the shamrock of Ireland.
The Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco) site entry for Henry Brereton Code notes that Code included "Sprig of Shillelah" in his 1813 musical drama "The Russian Sacrifice, or the Burning of Moscow." While its inclusion there is consistent with its sense of unity the earlier broadside rules against the play as its first appearance. The site also refers to Code as "a particularly detested character, spy and informer" from the Irish viewpoint.
Irish Minstrelsy by H. Halliday Sparling (London, 1888), pp. 481-482, 503, "The Sprig of Shillelah" makes the attribution to Edward Lysaght (1763-1810).
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, p. 106: "The Irish oak, figuratively termed 'a sprig of Shillelah,' is so called from Shillelah, a district in the county of Wicklow, formerly celebrated for its oak woods.... [Quoting The Dublin Penny Journal:] '... an Irishman cannot walk or wander, sport or fight, buy or sell, comfortably, without an oak stick in his fist.'"
I can no longer reach the Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco) site. Perhaps I misunderstood the entry there to indicate that Henry B. Code is the author; Bodleian, in its documentation for broadsides Harding B 25(1830), Harding B 17(299a), 2806 c.18(300) and Harding B 17(298b) also has Code as the author [Code's name is not on the face of any of those broadsides]. Croker, possibly Sparling's source, has Edward Lysaght as the author. Lysaght's title for the song was, apparently, "Sprig of Shillelah and Shamrock so Green," as on a number of the broadsides.
If this poem had been included in Poems by the Late Edward Lysaght, Esq (Dublin, 1811) that would have gone a long way toward settling the authorship question. That book is a collection of some of Lysaght's poems, but not this one.
Broadside LOCSinging as203420: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OCon013

Sprig of Thyme, The

See In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme AND Thyme (It Is a Precious Thing) AND Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme) (File: R090)

Sprightly Young Damsel

DESCRIPTION: Daughter complains of pains. Mother says it's time to marry the rich miller. Daughter would marry the unsuspecting father, poor farmer Willie. Mother refuses. Daughter reminds mother of her own indiscretions. Mother relents and prepares a grand wedding.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (according to notes to IRClare01)
KEYWORDS: wedding pregnancy dialog humorous mother miller
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #18473
RECORDINGS:
Michael "Straighty"' Flanagan, "Sprightly Young Damsel" (on IRClare01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Between the Meadow and the Moss" (theme: daughter reminds mother of her own indiscretions)
File: RcSpYDam

Spring Maurice Crotty Fought the Old Dog Hood, The

See Maurice Crotty (File: Pea073)

Spring of '65

See The Backwoodsman (The Green Mountain Boys) [Laws C19] (File: LC19)

Spring of '97, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Spring of '97 boys, For if we never knew The hardship of the frozen pan, We suffered with them too." "We struck the seals off Cabot Isle, Five days out from port." The song describes killing harp seals, storm, ice damage, and sealers dying.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: memorial death hunting ship sea work ordeal storm
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 27-Apr 6, 1891 - the deaths on the "Aurora" (see NOTES)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Peacock, pp. 976-977, "The Spring of '97" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Spring of '97" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 74 in the 3rd edition
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 77-78, "The Spring of '97" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 44-45, "THe Spring of '97" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doyl3074 (Partial)
Roud #6470
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Way, "The Spring of '97" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [220 words]: This song never names the ship involved in this tragedy, and Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff offer no hint -- but the song says that the crew took 27,000 seals. There was only one sealer to bring in such a haul in 1897: Arthur Jackman's Aurora took 27,883 harp pups (Chafe, p. 64).
This would seem to be confirmed by a newspaper account of this trip: "The ship brought in 27,000 seals, some of them on deck.... The Aurora struck the seals on the 15th of March. The men killed about 11,000 on that day, 13,000 on the 16th and a few thousand on the 17th. Then came a big blow.... No less than four men have had to answer the death summons out on the stormy Atlantic. Here is the death roll: Edward Sullivan, an elderly man of Conception Harbour died on Marth 27th.... He fell on the ice and injured his chest. James Butler, about 16 years of age from Cupids, died on March 27th from consumption. Thomas Swain, about 27 years, of Caplin Bay, died on April 2nd from sore throat. Michael Sullivan about 20 years of Cape Broyle died on April 6th... he suffered from sore throat all spring" (Feltham, pp. 24-25).
For other songs which mention the Aurora explicitly, and more about the ship herself, see "First Arrival -- 'Aurora' and 'Walrus' Full." Jackman himself is mentioned in "Sealer's Song (I)" and "The Old Polina." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doyl3074

Spring of the Wadhams, The

See Maurice Crotty (File: Pea073)

Spring Trip of the Schooner Ambition, The

DESCRIPTION: Captain Himmelmann and the crew of the Ambition go out fishing in March. The song details where they go and even the frozen squid they use as bait, as well as all the trouble the crew has fishing; it ends with all happily ashore
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: ship fishing work
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 177-179, "The Spring Trip of the Schooner Ambition" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9425
NOTES [49 words]: As this piece is blessed with defective metre, no rhyme scheme, and banal lyrics, I can only suspect that the informant was close to the author. I doubt the piece ever established itself in tradition (Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman knows of no other versions, and Roud lists none). - RBW
File: Doe177

Springfield Mountain [Laws G16]

DESCRIPTION: A young man is out mowing a field. He is bitten by a poisonous snake. In "serious" versions, he dies because no one comes to his aid. In others, his sweetheart tries to draw the poison but instead is killed herself when the venom enters a "rotten tooth"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1836
KEYWORDS: death animal lover injury
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 7, 1761 - Death by snakebite of Timothy Myrick, often considered the inspiration for this song
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,NW,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (58 citations):
Laws G16, "Springfield Mountain" (sample text in NAB, pp. 35-36)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 299-300, "Springfield Mountain" (1 text plus a reference to 1 more)
Randolph 424, "Springfield Mountain" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 12, "The Stuttering Song" (1 text)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 23, "Rattlesnake Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 64-65, "Rattle Um Snake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 186, "The Rattlesnake Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 257-259, "Joh-Woh-Wonny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 108-109, "Dear John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 29-31, "Springfield Mountain," "Love and Pizen," "Rattlesnake Song" (3 texts, 2 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp.147-148, "Springfield Mountain"; p. 148, "Henry Joe" (2 texts) (p. 126 in the 1919 edition)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 32, "Springfield Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 109, "Springfield Mountain" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 38, "Springfield Mountain" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 207, "Young Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 40, "Poison Serpent" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #55, "Springfield Mountain" (2 texts)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 208, "Springfield Mountain" (3 text plus 3 fragments and mention of 1 more; the final fragment, "G," may perhaps be another song)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 208, "Springfield Mountain" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 61, p. 184, "Springfield Mountain" (1 short text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 76, "Springfield Mountain" (1 fragment)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 223-224, "Springfield Mountain (I), (II)" (2 texts)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 29, pp. 51-53, "Stuttering Johnny (Springfield Mountain)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 15-18, "On Springfield Mountain" (2 texts plus some scraps, 2 tunes)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 159-161, "Springfield Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 285-286, "Springfield Mountain or The Black Sarpent" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 106-108, "Springfield Mountain" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 719-723, "Springfield Mountain" (4 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 174-176, "Springfield Mountain" (2 texts)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 53-54, "The Rattlesnake Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 302, "Springfield Mountain" (4 texts)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 23, "Springfield Mountain"; 65, "On Springfield Mountain" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 42-43, "Springfield Mountain" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 370-373, "(Springfield Mountain)" (3 texts plus 2 excerpts)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 132, "Springfield Mountain" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 44-45, "Springfield Mountain"; pp. 156-158, "The Pesky Sarpent" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 9, "Springfield Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 3, "Springfield Mountain"; 212, "Springfield Mountain (Texas Version)" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 356-357, "Rattle Snake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 81-82 "Springfield Mountain" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 828-829, "On Springfield Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 554-555, "The Pesky Sarpent" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 16, "Smithfield Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 81, "Springfield Mountain" (1 text)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #3A-3C, pp. 122-125, "Springfield Mountain," "The Venomous Black Snake" (2 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 39-40, "The Ven'mous Viper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 146-147, "Springfield Mountain" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 42, pp. 97-98, "O Johnny Dear, Why Did You Go?"; pp. 98-99, "Woodville Mound]"; pp. 99, "In Springfield Mountain"; p. 100, "Springfield Mountain" (4 texts)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 167-170, "Springfield Mountain" (1 text, probably rewritten, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 18-19, "Springfield Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 166-167, "Springfield Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Dan Patterson, "A Sheaf of North Carolina Folksongs," Vol. IV, No. 1 (Jul 1956), p. 26, "Springfield Mountain" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 218-220, "Springfield Mountain" (2 texts, one labeled a parody)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 216, "Springfield Mountain" (1 text)
OneTuneMore, p. 15, "Springfield Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 314, SPRNMNTN* SPRNMTN2* SPRNMTN4*
Tom Nash and Twilo Scofield, _The Well-Travelled Casket: Oregon Folklore_, Meadowlark Press, 1999, pp. pp. 41-43, "Springfield Mountain," "Brownsville Mountain," "Rattlesnake Mountain" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, part III, p. 35, "Springfield Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #431
RECORDINGS:
Winifred Bundy, "Young Johnny (Springfield Mountain)" (AFS, 1941; on LC55)
Judy Cook, "On Springfield Mountain (New Hampshire Version)" (Piotr-Archive #326, recorded 11/02/2022) (Piotr-Archive #327, recorded 11/02/2022) (the first is not from tradition, and shows vocal traits that make me almost certain it is derived from the pop version by Susan Reed)
Woody Guthrie, Sonny Terry, Cisco Houston & Bess Hawes, "Springfield Mountain" (on WoodyFolk)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Springfield Mountain" (on BLLunsford02) (on AschRec2)
"Yankee" John Galusha, "Springfield Mountain" (on USWarnerColl01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fod" (words)
cf. "The Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake" (plot)
SAME TUNE:
General Harrison ("When the British foemen swarmed around And burnt our cabins to the ground") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, p. 6)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
O Polly Dear
NOTES [135 words]: Phillips Barry studied this ballad in depth, and concluded that it fell into four subfamilies: the "Curtis" type (serious), the "Molly" type (comic; see, e.g. DT SPRNMNTN), the"Myrick" type (serious; see DT SPRNMTN2), and the "Sally" type (comic; see SPRNMTN4).
Spaeth, for some reason, credits this to someone named Nathan Torrey (A History of Popular Music in America, p. 64), but offers no supporting evidence. He also believes that the comic type "The Pesky Sarpent" comes from the political season of 1840! (The notes in Brown support this to the extent that they credit it to the stage performers George G. Spear and George H. Hill. Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee, p. 52, adds that those two portrayed "stereotyped Yankee farmers," which obviously makes this song an easy target for them.) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LG16

Springhill Mine Disaster (1891)

DESCRIPTION: "Hark, the horn blows loud and long, There is something wrong ... One hundred three and twenty Of our Springhill miners dead Killed in the bowels of the earth Where none could hear their cries"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: death mining disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 21, 1891 - Springhill Disaster
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 185, "Springhill Mine Disaster (1891)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SPRINGH2*
Roud #2713
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "La Complainte de Springhill (The Lament of Springhill)" (subject)
NOTES [522 words]: February 21, 1891: Springhill Coal Mine explosion kills 125 men. (Source: our roots/nos racines (Canada's local histories online) Story of the Springhill Colliery Explosion: comprising a full and authentic account of the great coal mining explosion at Springhill Mines, Nova Scotia, February 21st, 1891, including a history of Springhill and its collieries by R.A.H. Morrow.) - BS
The Springhill region of Nova Scotia was almost unpopulated as late as 1860; Brown, p. 7, says that there were only about twenty people there at the time, even though coal had been found as 1827. Then the mines were opened. By 1890, the population of the town was close to five thousand. The area was probably called "Spring Hill" because there were many springs in the area.
Smith, pp. 41-42, says that the Springhill Mining Company was formed in the 1870s, and by the 1880s there were five mines producing 2000 tons per day. More than 1300 people (many of them boys) were employed. Springhill was incorporated in 1889.
The exact details of what happened could not be reconstructed (Brown, p. 14). Smith, p. 44, says that the blast took place around 12:30 p.m. on February 21, 1891; Brown, p. 14, gives the time as exactly 12:43. It is suspected that it was caused by exploding coal dust. The best guess is that one Thomas Wilson and two helpers were setting off a blast in the "number three bord," and it lit up the dust (Brown, pp. 13-14).
There were two connected mines; those who died in the east mine were mostly killed by blast; those in the west, by gas (Brown, pp. 14-15. Brown does not describe the gas except with a vague allusion to white damp, but it was probably carbon monoxide).
As Smith says on p. 15, this tragedy was unlike the later Springhill disasters; there were no miracles in which survivors trapped underground were rescued. Everyone who survived was out of the mine by 2:00 p.m.
Smith agrees with Morrow in saying there were 125 deaths; Brown, p. 15, effectively agrees, saying that 121 were dead plus four who came out alive but later died. There were 13 who were injured byt survived. The youngest known fatality was 12, and there were several dead 13-year-olds. Brown, p. 15, says that there were 17 dead boys aged 16 and younger. There were said to be 57 widows and 169 children who lost their fathers. (Smith, p. 45).
Interestingly, damage to the mine was relatively slight; miners were able to go back to work soon after the dead were cleared out (Brown, p. 15).
An appeal was made for relief funds for the widows and orphans; it had raised the requested $70,000 within two months, with the people of Montreal and Halifax leading the way, supplying about $22,000 and $16,000, respectively (Brown, p. 19).
This was not the last disaster in the Springhill coal mines; there was a second in 1956, and a third in 1958. Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl documented the 1958 tragedy in "Springhill Mine Disaster (1958)."
Roger David Brown titled his book Blood on the Coal: The Story of the Springhill Mine Disasters, 1976. Obviously the temptation is to assume that the title is from Peggy Seeger's song, but I don't know. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: CrMa185

Springhill Mine Disaster (1958)

DESCRIPTION: Describes collapse of mine tunnel in Springhill, Nova Scotia, 1958; twelve men are trapped in a cave-in, while several are killed. The lamps, food and water give out; after eight days some are rescued
AUTHOR: Peggy Seeger (with additional words by Ewan MacColl)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (copyright by authors)
KEYWORDS: rescue death mining disaster ordeal worker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 23, 1958 - the (third) Springhill Disaster
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 124, "Ballad of Springhill (The Springhill Mine Disaster)" (1 text)
DT, SPRINGHI*
NOTES [2822 words]: I include this, although it's a recently-composed song, because it is solidly within the traditional ballad style, and because it's entered the common repertoire. - PJS
Usually listed as by MacColl and Seeger, but their official report is that it is "chiefly the work of Peggy Seeger." Peggy Seeger, in Seeger, p. 166, says that it's all her work, except that MacColl (by whom Seeger was pregnant, but to whom she was not yet married) suggested that she needed something that made it sound like she had been down in a mine, so he supplied the verse that begins "Down at the coalface miners working." Seeger adds that she considers this "my first good song." (And I will agree that it is, to this day, the one I remember best.)
Seeger reports that the song "has now been officially adopted by the community of Springhill, even though the mine closed after the 1958 'bump' and never reopened." She adds in a note on pp. 166-167 that Caleb Rushton, who is mentioned in the song (and whom she met in 1997) actually took part in the community functions, and sang the verse about him.
There is some confusion about the copyright date; it's listed as 1960 in the Folksinger's Wordbook, but Peggy Seeger's songbook says it was copyrighted 1963.
Seeger says in her book that 74 died and 99 survived (which agrees with Smith, p. 145) after "many days." Her version includes only one of the two late rescues. Seeger wrote the song while the rescue was actually taking place; she does not say so, but I suspect she wrote most of it between the rescue of the "Group of Twelve," who are mentioned in the song, and the "Group of Seven," the last men to be brought out, who are not mentioned.
The town of Springhill is in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, not far from the New Brunswick border, on the fringes of the Cobequid Mountains (really hills). There is still coal in the area, but it is now considered a minor resource; there is, in fact, a nuclear power plant nearby.
The mine disaster of 1958 was not the only Springhill tragedy; there had been an earlier (and even more deadly) cave-in in 1891, for which see "La Complainte de Springhill (The Lament of Springhill)" and "Springhill Mine Disaster (1891)." That resulted in 125 deaths (Brown, p. 15).
Few remembered the 1891 disaster by 1958, but there was a much more recent tragedy, in 1956. "The 1956 tragedy did not draw as much publicity, even though undaunted rescuers worked tirelessly for days freeing scores of trapped miners" (Smith, p. 118); he suggests that tragic international events in that year distracted people. The tragedy took place on November 1, 1956 (Smith, p. 139), and is thought to have been a coal dust explosion sparked by an underground train that broke up and fell down into the shaft, hitting an electrical cable (Smith, pp. 139-140; Brown, p. 29). The fireball reportedly rose 200 feet in the air. 39 miners died; 88 were rescued (Smith, p. 143).
The Springhill Mine, run by DOSCO collieries (Bruce, p. 269), was by 1958 one of the deepest in the world, descending some 14,000 feet (Smith, p. 144. That's the shaft length -- two and a half miles; the actual vertical depth was 4340 feet/1324 meters, according to Brown, p. 45). The "back slope," the trolley that took the miners in and out, ran at a 33° slope (Greene, p. 8). It took twenty minutes to go all the way from the lowest level to the surface (Brown, p. 48). That long underground run had been a contributing factor to the 1956 disaster, when gas had been an issue; it had been very hard for the men to get out through the gas (Brown, pp. 31-32), and some had died because they tried to walk thought the gas levels even though those below them warned them not to (Greene, pp. 15-17). In that disaster, 39 men had died, and 88 men who had been underground survived -- many of them after a very difficult time, where a man named Con Embree played a role like that of Caleb Rushton two years later, inspiring the trapped miners (Brown, pp. 37-39). It took until January 1957 to get all the bodies out; mine #4 was then closed (Brown, p. 39) -- a sort of omen for 1958. This meant hard times for the town as hundreds of miners lost their jobs; the rest went over to the #2 mine, the last one left open (Greene, p. 20).
There was also a fairly substantial fire in the town in 1957 (Brown, pp. 41-43); it didn't kill anyone, but it probably affected the morale of the people of Springhill.
In 1958, there were three levels on which mining proceeded, at 13,000, 13,400, and 13,800 feet down the trolley path (although, curiously, the last men rescued, the "Group of Seven," were at the 12,600 foot level; Greene, p. 228). Supposedly the patterns of supports had recently been changed, at the instigation of efficiency experts; this reportedly made the miners nervous (Greene, p. 8). Possibly rightly; because the mine was uniquely deep, no one had truly relevant experience in what sorts of supports it needed! And my father, an engineer, points out that a sloped path is much less mechanically strong than a simple straight vertical shaft; the angled path was probably easier to build and maintain, but it needed heavy bracing to be strong.
"Bunps" were not unusual at Springhill; it was said to have had 525 bumps from 1917 to 1958, or slightly more than one a month.
There were 174 men working in the mine on the day of the 1958 "bump," which was said to have happened at 8:06 p.m. (Smith, p. 144). The bump itself was severe enough to be felt as an earthquake in the town above (Greene, pp. 38-39). The time could be determined precisely because a seismograph at Halifax felt it (Brown, pp. 45-46).
Not everyone in the mine was dangerously trapped. By 5:00 the next morning, 75 survivors (some of them injured) had been brought out (Greene, p. 70; on pp. 113-114 she describes someone who was rescued slightly later who was so injured that he lost a leg). But that left the majority still underground, dead or alive.
The owners quickly became sure that there could be no survivors at the 13,400 and 13,800 foot levels, and little chance even above that. They were right; the only survivors were from the 13,000 foot level and higher, who were in two groups (Brown, pp. 51-52), the "Group of Seven" and the "Group of Twelve." But eventually those on the surface heard voices and tapping from an air pipe (Brown, p. 55). For the moment, at least, men were alive down there.
The main problem was the collapse, but gas was an issue as well. Caleb Rushton reported that there wasn't a lot of it; the men who were healthy were able to endure and survive. But it was often fatal to those who were already injured (Brown, p. 53).
The first group to be rescued was the Group of Twelve, which included Caleb Rushton, mentioned in the song. According to Greene, p. 32, Caleb Rushton "was thirty-five, a clean-shaven, churchgoing, rosy-cheeked young man with large sensitive nose pinched by wire spectacles. He and his wife, Pat, lived in a nice farmhouse on the rim of a green valley outside town. Caleb was a steady and intelligent man who might have found his destiny elsewhere, perhaps in the study of history or economics, if he hadn't come of age in a coal-mining town. He was a direct descendent of the eighteenth-century United Empire Loyalists, who had received grants of land in Nova Scotia in 1785 from the English Crown." Greene adds on p. 33 that he was a heavy reader who liked to collect books.
Rushton was slightly injured in the collapse; it was his yells that caused several miners to gather together (Greene, p. 62).
Rushton's group ended up with twelve living miners (Brown, p. 54). The list, according to Greene, pp. 65-67, was Ted Michniak (the oldest, at age 58), Fred Hunter, Levi Miley, Eldred Lowther, Bowman Maddison, Gorley Kempt, Rushton, Joe Holloway, Hughie Guthro, Harold Brine, and Larry Leadbetter; they later found a man, Joe McDonald, with a broken leg (Greene, p. 68). Michniak was also injured, with a dislocated shoulder, so he couldn't do much to explore where they were trapped (Greene, p. 89), and most of the others were somewhat bruised and bothered by the gas (it would later turn out that Hunter was hiding a bad injury; Greene, pp. 97-98; his leg would eventually be amputated; Greene, p. 215). But the ten who could move went seeking a way out -- and found a lot of falls and several men killed, often in very gory ways, by the falls.
It sounds as if they weren't very efficient in their use of their resources. Water and food were shared, but apparently they at first used all their functioning headlamps at once rather than turning some of them off to preserve the batteries (Greene, p. 95). Hence they quickly ran out of light as well as living supplies.
Rushton wasn't the leader in their earlier efforts to seek a way out. Other, more eager miners did that. But things changed as they were stuck underground longer: "As their canteens went dry, batteries failed, and hopes expired, a couple of new leaders arose. Somehow Caleb Rushton and Gorley Kemp took over. Men in their loneliness found Caleb's optimism to be a source of hope, and Gorley's geniality to offer a bit of company" (Greene, p. 140).
Rushton reported on what he did: "It was while we were nibbling on our few sandwiches that [I?] started them singing hymns. I'm a choir singer. The boys really liked it when Bowie Maddison and I would do a duet on 'The Stranger of Galilee.' That was their favorite and we sung it many times each day. Prayer was what kept us alive" (Brown, pp. 53-54). Rushton "held to his faith in God. He had book learning. He spoke with a calm, low-timbred voice.... 'If the Lord had meant for us to die,' he said, 'He could have taken us a few days ago when our buddies were killed. He has a different plan in store for us'" (Greene, p. 141). And he would lead hymns, or encouraged them along if someone else started one.
The group had been underground for more than six days when they saw a flicker of light and heard voices along an air pipe (Greene is inconsistent about the exact timing; p. 185 says that it was at 3:00 p.m. on October 29, 173 hours past the "bump" -- but 173 hours after 8:06 p.m. on October 23 would be 1:06 a.m. on October 31). Eventually they made themselves heard, causing the rescuers to start digging to find them in particular (Greene, pp. 188-189). It would prove hard going -- their first attempts to pipe water down to the twelve failed because they couldn't find a long enough copper pipe; it turned out that the trapped miners were behind 83 feet of rock and coal (Greene, p. 197). And they were so desperate that they almost came to blows over the water that was trickled down to them (Greene, pp. 197-198). After that, the rescuers sent down sugary coffee, then tomato soup (Greene, p. 200); about twelve hours later, at 2:25 a.m. on October 30, the rescuers broke through (Greene, p. 206).
The song implies that Caleb Rushton and the Group of Twelve were the last to be rescued. In fact the Group of Seven was the last. This group had its own leader who helped keep them alive, Maurice Ruddick -- but he doesn't seem to have gotten as much press, perhaps because he was Black. This was more than a week after the catastrophe; they were found on November 1, nine days after the "bump" (Greene, p. 223). Dr. Burden, who had been constantly at the mine site and helped the men as they were taken out, recorded "Last man out, 8:45 P.M." (Greene, p. 227). Greene, p. 185, claims that no miners had ever survived underground so long after a disaster.
Several of these survivors were so changed by their ordeals that their wives had trouble recognizing them (e.g. Greene, pp. 234-235). The last body reportedly was brought out on November 6 -- and the wife of this last man would never admit that the body was his (Greene, p. 244). Still, he obviously never came out alive. Neither did 74 others. 99 were rescued of the 174 in the mine.
It is shocking to realize that Springhill had only two doctors (Greene, p. 53). But there probably wasn't much that could have been done even had there been more. One of them worked on the rescue without being able to do much good; later, he would be involved in identifying bodies -- often impossible, given the state of the remains; quite a few could only be identified by the identification number on their lamps, which the miners checked out individually with an identification tag (Greene, p. 136).
There were reporters everywhere -- 137, according to Greene, p. 82. It was the first major disaster covered on international television (Greene, pp. 82-83). Some of the survivors, including Caleb Rushton, were even invited onto the Ed Sullivan Show (Greene, p. 219); their appearance helped raise two million dollars in relief funds (Greene, p. 231). I can't help but wonder if this is why Peggy Seeger made Rushton her one named character, even though it was Maurice Ruddick who became "Canada's 1958 Man of the Year" (Greene, p. 278).
Even the miners who didn't make it onto TV were generally given recognition and gifts once they made it out of the hospital (Smith, p. 147, describes the media circus which followed, in which the miners became heroes) -- but they also got word that they were unemployed; the mines were shut down (Greene, p. 279). The mines were still productive, but the owners didn't want any more bad publicity or disasters (Smith, pp. 147-148). And I suspect that such a deep mine was expensive to run. On top of everything else, after the mine shut down, a coal fire got started (perhaps sparked by the poor former miners who needed heat) and burned for many years (Brown, p. 67).
The survivors often suffered in more ways than just losing their jobs. The life histories that Green offers starting on p. 290 show that several became depressed, at least one probably developed PTSD or some other trauma disorder, and several developed anger issues (anger being a common symptom of both depression and PTSD).
The disaster was hard on Springhill even apart from the lives lost; it ruined the economy. Many people left the area once the mines shut down. Brown, p. 73, has census numbers for a century. At the 1951 census, the town had 7138 residents. By 1961, it was down to 5836; it had 5262 in 1971, and just 4896 in 1981.
Brown, pp. 74-88, has a list of all people known to have been killed in the Springhill Mines from 1876 to 1969 (yes, there were a few killed after the mines closed). The majority came from the disasters of 1891 (125), 1956 (39), and 1958 (75), but it was a relatively rare year that saw no deaths at all; the total for the entire period was 429, so 190, or almost half, were killed at other times than the three major dsasters.
Brown's book is entitled Blood on the Coal: The Story of the Springhill Mine Disasters, 1976. Obviously the temptation is to assume that the title is from Peggy Seeger's song, but I don't know; he never quotes the song or mentions Seeger.
Some notes on the song itself:
"Down in the dark of the Cumberland mine": nowhere in my reading have I seen it called the "Cumberland Mine"; it was just Springhill mine #2.
"Often the earth will tremble and roll. When the earth is restless, miners die": As we saw above, "bumps" occurred in the mine about once a month. But most did not result in fatalities. The 1958 bump was bigger.
"The living and the dead men two miles down"/"Twelve men lay two miles from the pitshaft": The were not actually two miles underground -- but the shaft to the levels where they were working was actually more than two miles long; the Group of Twelve was more than two and a half miles down the trolley from the surface.
"Twelve men lay in the dark and sang": With no water, they couldn't sing all the time, but Caleb Rushton's hymns did encourage them.
"Three days passed and the lamps gave out": The battery lanterns gave out gradually, but certainly the last five or so days were spent without light.
"Caleb Rushton he up and said": There is no report that I've seen of Rushton using words similar to these, but he did insist that they keep their hopes up. Interestingly, the Digital Tradition version omits Rushton's name, substituting "our foreman." In one sense, this was good -- some of the people of Springhill resented the attention paid to Rushton and (especially) Maurice Ruddick. But there was no "foreman" down there; Rushton and Ruddick and the other leaders became leaders simply because they were more psychologically able to deal with the conditions.
"Listen for the shouts of the bareface miners": "bare-faced miners" are miners who had no masks to deal with gas or fire. Masks were specialized equipment; those trapped below ground were bare-faced miners, and so were most of those who worked to rescue them.
"Eight days passed and some were rescued": this was not the last rescue, which took place on the ninth day. But Seeger never mentions the rescue of the Group of Seven. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: FSWB124A

Springtime It Brings on the Shearing, The (On the Wallaby Track)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the springtime it brings on the shearing, And it's then you will see them in droves...." The singer describes the life of the shearer: Hard at work in season; rambling the rest of the year and "making johnny-cakes round in the bend"
AUTHOR: from the poem "On the Wallaby Track" by E.J. Overbury
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (publication of the Overbury version, according to Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, _A Guide to Australian Folklore_, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 239)
KEYWORDS: sheep work Australia rambling
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 186, "The Springtime It Brings on the Shearing" (1 text, 1 tune); probably also pp. 259-260, "The Springtime It Brings on the Shearing" (1 text, 1 tune, but in a very sorry state of repair)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 130-131, "The Springtime It Brings On the Shearing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 185-186, "(The Springtime It Brings on the Shearing" (1 excerpt, filed under "The Flash Sydney Shearers")
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, p. 55, "The Springtime It Brings on the Shearing" (1 short text)
DT, SPRNGSHR*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Flash Sydney Shearers" (form)
NOTES [59 words]: According to Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 264, "To 'go on the wallaby' or 'on the wallaby track' was a colonial phrase for taking to the road in the manner of a swagman, usually in search of work."
E. J. Overbury was also responsible for the original words of "The Shanty by the Way." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: MA186

Spurn Point

See The Loss of the Industry Off Spurn Point (File: BrMa180)

Squarin' Up Time

DESCRIPTION: With their fish sold, the sailors go to the store to "square up." They spend their cash on various items, often behaving very badly when they can't have what they want. All is well until the parson strolls in, whereupon the men start offering him credit
AUTHOR: Arthur R. Scammell (1913-1995)
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: sailor money humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Peacock, pp. 98-99, "Squarin'-Up Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 182, ""Squarin' Up Time (1 text; the tune -- "Vilikens and His Dinah" -- is on pp. 180-181)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 35-36, "Squarin' Up" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: A. R. Scammell, _My Newfoundland_, Harvest House, 1966, pp. 120-122, "Squarin' Up" (1 text 1 tune)
ST FJ182 (Partial)
Roud #4548
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Squaring Up Time" (on NFOBlondahl02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "The Merchant's Song" (subject: Newfoundland's truck system) and references there
NOTES [105 words]: Newfoundland fishermen lived much like American farmers: Borrow heavily in the spring to finance their fishing trips, spend the summer fishing, return in the fall with their yield, sell it and "square up" with the bank or the merchant. For background on this "truck system," see the notes to "The Merchant's Song."
For background on Arthur R. Scammell, see the notes on "The Squid-Jiggin' Ground." - RBW
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing: "The poem Squarin Up was written by Mr Scammell in 1933. This poem and some twenty others by the same author may be found in a booklet titled Mirrored Moments, published in Montreal in 1945." - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: FJ182

Squatter of the Olden Time, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing you a fine new song, made by my blessed mate, Of a fine Australian squatter." The squatter declared that his animals made Victoria great. He becomes rich, but when he goes to England, the English shun him as a mere colonial
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Anderson, Colonial Ballads)
KEYWORDS: Australia sheep money travel rejection
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 142-144, "The Squatter of the Olden Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 56-57, "A Squatter of the Olden Time" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 145, "A Squatter of the Olden Time" (1 text)
Roud #8395
File: Mcd145

Squatter Who Lived on a Very Fine Station

See A Squatter's Troubles (File: AnSt102)

Squatter's Defeat, The

DESCRIPTION: "If you give me but a haring, I'll tell you of the shearing, The one we just got over, Eighteen hundred eighty-six." The squatters say they will cut the pay for shearers. The squatters say they are broke, but the shearers fight back and avoid the pay cut.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: sheep worker labor-movement strike hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 197-198, "The Squatter's Defeat" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: AnSt197

Squatter's Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come, all ye lads, and list to me, That's left your homes and crossed the sea." The singer, newly come to Australia, tries to find a job with a squatter. He complains about all the tasks asked of him. He would rather be a bushranger than stay in that job
AUTHOR: probably A. B. "Banjo" Paterson (1864-1941)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Old Bush Songs Composed and Sung During the Bushranging and Overlanding Days)
KEYWORDS: emigration Australia hardtimes work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 149-151, "The Squatter's Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 82-84, "The Squatter's Man" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 278-279, "The Squatter's Man" (1 text)
File: BBTAF278

Squatter's Troubles, A

DESCRIPTION: "A squatter who lived on a very fine station" prepares for the wool season. His shearers all vanish upon hearing of a gold strike. He recruits new chums, who are no good. When the shearers return, he rejects them. They say they are rich and don't need him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: sheep gold abandonment return mining worker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 102-104, "A Squatter's Troubles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hoskins/Thatcher-LifeOnTheGoldfields, pp. 83-84, "(no title)" (1 text, tune referenced); p. 157, "A Squatter's Troubles" (1 tune, partial text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Jones" (tune); according to Hoskins/Thatcher-LifeOnTheGoldfields, p. 83, this is actually "Jenny Jones" (not to be confused with the song "Jenny Jones (Jennie Jo)" in the Index)
File: AnSt102

Squatters of Maine, The

DESCRIPTION: "Approach ye Feds, in phalanx brace, With mien and visage ireful." "For Maine her 'squatters' sends to town, On legislative station." "Now, join as one, with heart and hand, exterminate this faction." Federalists can thrive by halting the people of Maine
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1806 (Boston _Independent Chronicle_, according to Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 142-143, "The Squatters of Maine" (1 text)
NOTES [154 words]: In the early days of the United States, what is now the State of Maine was part of Massachusetts. Maine did not separate until 1820. This apparently caused substantial unrest in 1806 (at least according to Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks). The Federalist Party had lost the presidency in 1800, by a very slim margin, with most of New England voting Federalist while the rest of the country voted for the Jeffersonians. In 1804, the trend was worse -- the Federalists lost even Massachusetts.
It appears, from the items quoted by Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, that Massachusetts proper remained Federalist (and the state went Federalist in 1808, 1812, and 1816, the last elections in which there was a Federalist candidate), but Maine was Jeffersonian. The people of Massachusetts resented the power of the Maine-ites, and complained about it. This satire was apparently a Jeffersonian counter-blast. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Gray142

Squatters on the Flinders, The

DESCRIPTION: "O the squatters on the Flinders and the checques they are no good (x3), So don't you go down to the gulf." "For they'll charge you three bob for a pound of weevily flour (x3), So don't you go down to the gulf." To the tune of "John Brown's Body"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1993 (Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs)
KEYWORDS: derivative food money warning
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 36, "(no title)" (1 short text, tune referenced, in the notes to "Jack Donahue")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune & meter) and references there
File: ScCol036

Squeball

See Skewball [Laws Q22] (File: LQ22)

Squid-Jiggin' Ground, The

DESCRIPTION: A song of the life of a squid fisherman. The fishermen are named, as are their homes and their peculiarities. The final stanzas warn of the messy work: "Now if ever you feel inclined to go squiddin', leave your white shirts and collars behind in the town"
AUTHOR: Arthur R. Scammell (1913-1995)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1929
KEYWORDS: fishing nonballad moniker work
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 51-53, "The Squid-Jiggin' Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Squid-Jiggin' Ground" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 66-67 in the 2nd edition; pp. 57-58 in the 3rd; pp. 53-54 in the 4th; pp. 42-43 in the 5th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 32-33, "The Squid-Jiggin' Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 6-7, "Squid-jiggin' Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 127, "The Squid-Jiggin' Ground" (1 text)
England-HistoricNewfoundlandAndLabrador, pp. 52-53, "Squid-Jiggin' Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SQUIDJIG*
ADDITIONAL: A. R. Scammell, _My Newfoundland_, Harvest House, 1966, pp. 118-119, "The Squid-Jiggin' Ground" (1 text 1 tune)
Roud #4429
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Squid Jiggin' Ground" (on NFOBlondahl05)
R. Sheaves, "The Squid Jigging Ground" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Maudie Sullivan, "The Squid Jigging Ground" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
May Whalen, "The Squid Jigging Ground" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Our Boys Gave Up Squiddin''" (tune)
cf. "The Napan Heroes" (tune)
cf. "Hitler's Song" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Hitler's Song (File: Guig177)
Our Boys Gave Up Squiddin' (File: Guig295)
NOTES [1260 words]: Fowke writes, "The tale of what happens when fishermen head for 'The Squid-Jiggin' Ground' is the most widely known of all Newfoundland songs.... It was written by... Arthur R. Scammell when he was only fifteen....
"The squid is a species of cuttle-fish about ten inches long which is used as bait for larger fish. It has the peculiar characteristic of squirting forth an inky liquid when it is disturbed. Large schools of squid move in at certain parts of the Newfoundland coast during August, September, and October, and then the fishermen head out to pull them in with line and jigger."
Hallowell, pp. 145-146, says that squid was used primarily as bait to catch cod and other fish, but it was also used as fertilizer for vegetable gardens and dried and used to feed dogs in winter.
A jigger is a line with two hooks facing in opposite directions, which was dropped in the water and bobbed up and down. According to Young, p. 226, the result looked something like a fish, which would sometimes cause other fish to come to investigate. The prime advantage over ordinary fishing with a hook and bait was that it could catch fish even if they did not take the bait. According to Young, p. 227, the jigger has now been outlawed because it often kills fish, including fish too small to be used for food or otherwise undesirable. Knowing Newfoundlanders, I suspect their responses to that were mostly unprintable....
Squid jiggers, according to StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 523, were a little different, with many smaller hooks (20-40), but presumably operated the same way. Interestingly, although "squid jigging" is attested as early as 1883, and a "squid jig" from 1861, there is no mention of the phrase "squid jigging ground" prior to Scammell.
The song received a big boost when it was sung on the Newfoundland radio program "The Irene B. Mellon," although it was written before that show went on the air. For that program, which promoted several other songs which seem to have become folk songs, see the notes to "The Cliffs of Baccalieu."
This song is undoubtedly Arthur Scammell's "hit," but he is responsible for several other songs in the Index: "Squarin' Up Time," "The Six Horse-Power Coaker," "The Shooting of the Bawks," "The Old-Time Sealing Fleet," and "Save Our Swilers." Scott Hadley notes that some collections of his works include My Newfoundland: Stories, Poems, Songs (St. John's: Harry Cuff Publications, 1988) and Newfoundland Echoes (St. John's: Harry Cuff Publications, 1988). Collected Works of A. R. Scammell was also published by Harry Cuff in 1990.
DictNewfLabrador, p. 305, lists "My Newfoundland" as a 1974 recording and catalogs several other books by Scammell. It says that Scammell was born in Change Islands in 1913, and wrote "The Squid Jiggin' Ground" in 1929. He taught for a few years in the 1930s, then went to college at McGill University in 1939. He would stay in Montreal for about thirty years, teaching high school -- yet continued to write on Newfoundland themes. He returned to Newfoundland when he retired, and was given an honorary doctorate by the Memorial University in 1977. An annual writing award was named for him in 1985.
There is also at least one school named for him (Clarke, p. 194).
Scammell supposedly wrote the song while fishing with his father in Change Islands, and he claimed that the characters in the song are all real (Clarke, p. 193). Clarke has a picture of a young Scammell on p. 194.
The introduction by Ella Manuel to Scammell's collection My Newfoundland reminds us that there is a political remark of sorts in this song that people usually miss today. The second verse ends
There's a red rantin' Tory out here in a dory,
A-runnin' down Squires on the squid-jiggin' ground.
"Squires" is Richard Anderson Squires (1880-1940), who was Prime Minister 1919-1923 and 1928-1932. He was a controversial figure who played a non-trivial part in Newfoundland's progress toward financial disaster in the 1930s (in the period from 1921 to 1923, his government drove up Newfoundland's already-too-high national debt by more than 40%; Noel, p. 152; eventually, the island found it impossible to borrow any more and went bankrupt; Noel, pp. 188-189, resulting in the "Commission of Government," in which Newfoundland gave up its Dominion status).
O'Flaherty, pp. 304-305, speaking of a time when he tried to open a legislative seat by bringing false charges against its occupant, says, "He was a man who took risks, who veered close to lawlessness.... This sprang, likely not from clumsiness or inexperience, but from a belief that no matter what scrape he got into, someone of his quality who ha made his own way to the top in the hard spheres of politics and law would find his way out of it. It was a form of hubris.... There was a quality in him, a slipperiness and aloofness, which could inspire real anger [in the public]."
So complex were his dealings that was forced out by his own cabinet in a strange semi-coup in 1923 (Noel, pp. 158-160). He was even arrested for larceny (Noel, p. 171). But he came back to form a new government in 1928 (Noel, p. 293) and was at the height of his power when Scammell wrote this piece. Later, he would actually be charged with graft -- to the tune of $5000 per year from funds earmarked for veterans and their survivors (Noel, p. 198; O'Flaherty, p. 366, says that he was genuinely in charge of distributing the funds supplied by Britain from German reparations, but that he took a huge cut while handing out very little). Hiller/Neary , p. 181, calculates that $63,000 made its way into his pockets from various sources -- probably the equivalent of millions today. But that was after this was written.
For a bit more on Squires, and how he went from being Prime Minister to a target of mob violence, see the notes to "Anti-Confederation Song (II)"; also "Coaker's Dream."
William Henry Cave (1872-1941) was also a Newfoundland politician of this era, Minister of Shipping 1919-1923 and of Finance 1923-1924, but was out of office in 1928 (DictNewfLabrador, p. 56), so I don't know if he is the "Old Billy Cave" of the song. He did wear a mustache, so his whiskers could have been spattered. (On this point, I note that the glossary in Scammell's "My Newfoundland" glosses Squires but does not gloss Cave.)
None of the other characters named in the song were noteworthy enough to rate an entry in DictNewfLabrador; they may be real but are presumably not very well-remembered.
On another political note, on the day Newfoundland joined Canada, this song was played -- on the bells of the parliament tower! (Chadwick, p. 225). - RBW
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario p. 166 identifies the tune as "Larry O'Gaff."
The tune is one used by The Flanagan Brothers for their 1927 release of "Mick from Tralee" (on The Flanagan Brothers, "The Tunes We Like to Play on Paddy's Day," Viva Voce 007 (1996) from Columbia 33187-F June 1927). It is close to the tune of the chorus to "Paddy's Panacea" on Voice13.
The Moore broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(417), includes the lines "For the lad I love lies at Sebastopol.... And in an Inkerman field your true lover does lie.... We fought for three days, till the fourth afternoon, He received his death summons on the 18th of June...." Is it strange that, so close to the event, the month is so far wrong? Inkerman and Alma -- also cited -- are in October 1854. On the other hand, of course, the Battle of Waterloo was June 18, 1815, and the printer wanted to preserve the rhyme from an earlier version. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: FJ051

Squire Agnew's Hunt

DESCRIPTION: The singer wanders by (Kellswater park) and is enjoying the bird songs when he spies Squire Agnew's hunting pack. After a long chase, they take down the stag. The singer goes to "drink brandy with Squire Johes Agnew"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal drink
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H140, p. 30, "Squire Agnew's Hunt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13351
File: HHH140

Squire and the Chambermaid, The

DESCRIPTION: A squire is seen kissing his chambermaid, Kitty, by the parson's wife. To save Kitty's job he takes his wife out and kisses her. The squire's wife assures the parson's wife that it was not Kitty she saw kissing the squire.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(120b))
LONG DESCRIPTION: A squire kisses his chambermaid, Kitty, under a mulberry tree. The parson's wife sees them and Kitty is afraid the squire's wife will hear about the kiss and fire her. The squire, thinking quickly, brings his wife out and kisses her under the mulberry tree. When the parson's wife tells her tale the wife says "'twas I that chanced to take that trip" Kitty keeps her job.
KEYWORDS: infidelity wife clergy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 124-125, "The Squire and the Chambermaid" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO We 492)
Roud #1257
NOTES [60 words]: Bodleian, Harding B 17(120b)[some words illegible], "The Handsome Chambermaid" ("Not far from town a country squire"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 11(3151), Firth c.18(288), Johnson Ballads 2771, Johnson Ballads 2772, 2806 c.16*(93), "The Pretty Chambermaid"; Harding B 11(1455), Harding B 25(792)[some lines illegible], "The Handsome Chambermaid"
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT124

Squire and the Fair Maid, The

See Down By Blackwaterside (File: K151)

Squire and the Gipsy, The

DESCRIPTION: A squire meets a Gypsy. He forgets his upbringing, swearing he'll marry her. She offers to tell his fortune; he tells her he knows it: she's to be his bride. She asks if he's trying to insult her; there's more honesty in the lowly than the aristocracy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (recorded from Harry Cox)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A young squire, straying alone in the countryside, meets a lovely Gypsy lass. He forgets his upbringing, swearing he'll marry her. She offers to tell his fortune; he tells her he already knows it: she is to be his bride. She asks if he's trying to insult her with his "grand proposal", saying she lives a light-hearted and contented life, and that there's more honesty in the poor and lowly than in the aristocracy
KEYWORDS: poverty pride courting love marriage rejection beauty lover Gypsy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 355, "The Squire and the Gypsy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1628
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "The Squire and the Gypsy" (on HCox01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gypsy Maid, The (The Gypsy's Wedding Day)" [Laws O4] (theme)
cf. "The Laird o Cockpen" (theme)
cf. "The Weaver's Daughter" (theme)
File: K355

Squire Boys, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the eighteenth day of December in the year of ninety-five, Them dates I will remember as long as I'm alive." The singer talks mostly of the troubles and bad weather encountered by teamsters on the way to the camp, but also alludes to the men there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger travel lumbering storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #22, "The Squire Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4362
File: FowL22

Squire Curtis

DESCRIPTION: Squire Curtis kills his wife -- no motive is given -- and buries her in the woods. Arriving home he is told that she preceded him and is waiting. He claims that is a lie: she is dead in the woods. A party finds the body. Curtis confesses and is hanged.
AUTHOR: William Allingham (source: Allingham, _Songs, Ballads and Stories_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (Saint Pauls)
KEYWORDS: execution homicide burial husband wife ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople, pp. 239-241, "Squire Curtis" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Anthony Trollope, editor, Saint Pauls, A Monthly Magazine (1868 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, pp. 77-78, "The Ballad of Squire Curtis" (1 text)
Roud #4741
File: ReSh239

Squire Nathaniel and Betsy

See The Old Oak Tree [Laws P37] (File: LP37)

Squire of Bristol

See The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20] (File: LN20)

Squire of Edinburgh Town, The

See Katharine Jaffray [Child 221] (File: C221)

Squire of Eninboroughtown, The

See Katharine Jaffray [Child 221] (File: C221)

Squire Relantman

See Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)

Squire, The

See The Old Oak Tree [Laws P37] (File: LP37)

Squire's Bride, The

See The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20] (File: LN20)

Squire's Daughter, The

See The Young Shepherd (I) (File: CrMa108)

Squire's Lost Lady, The

See Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor) [Laws K40] (File: LK40)

Squire's Son of Aizling Town, The

See The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington [Child 105] (File: C105)

Squirl he tote a bushy tail

See Raccoon (File: R260)

Squirrel, The

See Raccoon (File: R260)

SS Leinster Lass, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer wanders by the Clyde when the Leinster Lass comes into view. The singer boasts of the ship, its crew, its band, its flag. He wishes success to ship and crew
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: nonballad ship
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H808, p. 98, "The S[team]s[hip] Leinster Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 46, "The Leinster Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13367
NOTES [51 words]: Lani Herrmann notes the oddity of a steamship being called upon to "reef and steer." This occurs in the final verse, which also seems to show a change in perspective (from an onlooker on the shore to, apparently, a crewmember). One must suspect this verse is intrusive. Not unusual in songs of this type. - RBW
File: HHH808

St Peter Down at Courland Bay

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "St. Peter, St. Peter, down at Courland Bay." I'm going to St Peter's Day. Fishermen get together. The water is fresh and we "feel fresh and gay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: fishing shore party
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 29-30, "St Peter Down at Courland Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [64 words]: Abrahams gives this as an example of the call-response songs improvised on the Tobago beach on Fishermen's Fete, St Peter's Day, June 29. "They commonly sing of the beauties of the fete, using a traditional tune but introducing topical subjects and an appropriate chorus line.... Singing and dancing in a group are the prevalent forms of ceremonial entertainment in the community." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS029

St Peter's Fair

DESCRIPTION: She asks if he remembers -- she won't tell -- what they did coming from St Peter's Fair. He says if she'll marry him he'll buy her a spinning wheel and they'll sit by the fireside, not wanting for "milk nor meal"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: love marriage sex food dialog nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 156, "St Peter's Fair" (1 text)
Roud #15112
File: LyCr2156

St. Albans Murder, The

See James MacDonald [Laws P38] (File: LP38)

St. Clair's Defeat

See St. Clair's Defeat (File: E116)

St. Croix's Long and Winding Shores

DESCRIPTION: Jim Tombs is on the run "from his cruel foes." Gillis "like a beast of prey," finds and kills him. A passing good Samaritan tries but fails to save Tombs. "Gillis is gone, his victory won"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Ives-FolksongsFromMaine)
KEYWORDS: homicide manhunt death
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine 6, "St. Croix's Long and Winding Shores" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [81 words]: Ives-FolksongsFromMaine: From a letter, "'Saint Croix Long Winding Shores' was written around Vanceboro and Saint Croix, New Brunswick, back in the late 1800's, probably about 1885, the author unknown."
Ives-FolksongsFromMaine:"One of the most interesting things about this particular song is its moral inconclusiveness. Justice is not done. Gillis may be likened to a beast of prey, but he wins and is gone. Needless to say, this is not common in traditional songs of this period." - BS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: IveMa06

St. George and Mormon Dixie

See Saint George and Mormon Dixie (File: ChMS117)

St. James Infirmary

See Saint James Infirmary (File: San228)

St. James' Hospital

See The Bad Girl's Lament (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime) [Laws Q26]; also The Unfortunate Rake (File: LQ26)

St. James' Infirmary

See Saint James Infirmary (File: San228)

St. Joseph's Hospital

See Bad Girl's Lament, The (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime) [Laws Q26] (File: LQ26)

St. Louis Blues

DESCRIPTION: "I hate to see the evening sun go down (x2), 'Cause my baby, he done left this town." The singer will pack up to "make my getaway." St. Louis women can lead men by their apron strings. The singer has been to a gypsy. The singer has the blues
AUTHOR: W. C. Handy (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
RECORDINGS:
Brian Hawkins, "St. Louis Blues" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #707, recorded 10/11/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Been to the Gypsy (St. Louis Blues)" (lyrics)
NOTES [71 words]: There is a Wikipedia entry for this song; see it for background. - RBW
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 331, estimates that this was the twenty-second most popular song in America in November in 1920 (#1 for the year being "Whispering" by Sherman Clay), and was also something of a hit in 1948 re-arranged as a march. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcStLoBl

St. Patrick Was a Gentleman

See Saint Patrick Was a Gentleman (File: OCon105)

St. Patrick, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Mail Boat, Paddy, ... now lies in the sea"; a German Bomber sinks her. Captain Fardy says "All hands try your lives to save" and goes down with the ship. The survivors "risked their precious lives, their shipmates to rescue." Twenty-three are lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 13, 1941: World War II. The ferry St Patrick is attacked and sunk by a German dive bomber; Captain and 23 lost. (source: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast; Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 69)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 96-97, "The St Patrick" (1 text)
Roud #20536
File: Ran096

St. Patrick's Day

DESCRIPTION: The singer met James on St. Patrick's day. "My friends and my parents... False stories they told to my true love To banish me out of his mind." "Now he is crossing the ocean." She prays to meet him again on St. Patrick's Day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: courting love lie rejection separation travel family friend
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18236
RECORDINGS:
Cyril O'Brien, "St. Patrick's Day" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3StPaD

Stable Lad, The

DESCRIPTION: "When Cobb and Co. ran coaches from the Buller to the Grey, I went for a livery stable lad in a halt down Westport way" and loves a red-haired dancer at the European tavern. He hopes to earn enough marry her. But she dies and is buried in Charleston
AUTHOR: Words: Peter Cape (1926-1979) / Music: Phil Garland
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (recording, Graham Wilson)
KEYWORDS: horse worker love courting dancing death burial separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 87, 228, "(The Stable Lad)" (1 text plus an excerpt)
ADDITIONAL: Roger Steele, editor, _An Ordinary Joker: The Life and Songs of Peter Cape_ (book with accompanying CD), Steele Roberts, Aotearoa, New Zealand, 2001, pp. 76-77, "The Stable Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [674 words]: This is not, to my knowledge, traditional in New Zealand. But it arguably is traditional "worldwide" -- because I learned it in Richfield, Minnesota, from another Minnesotan who had learned it while visiting New Zealand. Only later did I find it on record, and I'm not sure my source ever heard a recording of it, either. I've also heard some moderately significant oral variations in the text. Indeed, it appears from the text printed by Steele that the verse I've always heard as the first verse (the verse beginning "When Cobb and Co. ran coaches from the Buller to the Grey") was only used at the end in Peter Cape's original version.
All that adds up to a very weak foothold in tradition, to be sure. But it is an absolutely terrific song -- a sorrowful but skilled lyric with a sad but beautiful tune. I'm hoping that it will survive.
It is almost certainly the Peter Cape song best known outside New Zealand, although "Taumarunui" and one or two others may be better known in New Zealand. It is also somewhat unusual for a Cape song that it is neither comic (e.g. "Talking Dog") nor mock-tragic ("Taumarunui"). (The only other serious Cape song I've heard that is the purely sad "Black Matai.")
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 227-228, tells a funny story about this. Cape originally wrote it as a poem, "The Stable Boy." Someone copied it down; this copy ended up in the hands of Elsie Locke. Phil Garland found it in her collection, liked it, and decided to set it to music, changing the title to "The Stable Lad" as he set his tune. He recorded it without talking to Peter Cape, whom he did not then know. Cape heard the song on the radio and thought, "By Jove that sounds familiar. I wonder if I wrote that." So Cape called the radio station and asked if he wrote his own song! Fortunately, Cape liked what Garland had done with his text. (As he should have.) They eventually met, and Garland reports that he treasured the moment.
According to the bio included in Cape/Steele, p. 20, Peter Cape knew only three guitar chords, and so ended up often setting his words to tunes that he couldn't sing very well, or that were not very strong; although he sometimes set his own tunes, his most successful songs were often ones where others supplied the tunes (Phil Garland set "The Stable Lad"; Don Toms set "Black Matai"; Pat Rogers set "Taumarunui." All three, especially the first and the last, almost require four chords -- the minor second for the former, the major second for the latter).
Incidentally, the version recorded by Gordon Bok gets it wrong in several particulars (including errors in the tune); it loses a little along the way, but it's more evidence of oral transmission.
It turns out that there are several errors in the song, including in the first line. The road from Buller to the Greymouth, on the west coast of New Zealand's South Island, was not completed until 1929, so Cobb and Co. (an Australian coach company) never did run coaches on it; the company had gone out of business half a decade before that (according to Ell, p. 46, the last coach in New Zealand ran in 1923; Murphy, p. 71, says its last Australian coach ran in Queensland in 1924). And supposedly dancing in bars was illegal at this time. But the Buller and Grey rivers are of course still there, and Westport, Charleston, Murchison, and Greymouth were real towns, and so was the European Hotel (there is a photo in Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ), which lasted from the 1860s to the 1960s -- by which time the town of Charleston, no longer sustained by mining, had disappeared. (Google Maps still shows a "Charleston European Pub," but it's an obviously modern building. There are a few houses labeled "Charleston," too, but not really the old town.)
The line in the fifth verse about tak(ing) his "girl up on the box" has real significance. Ell, p. 56, says that "Passengers vied to sit on the 'box seat' beside the driver." By taking his girl up there, he was both giving her the place of honor and possibly giving up some money as well. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: Garl087

Stackalee

See Stagolee (Stackerlee) [Laws I15] (File: LI15)

Stacker Lee

See Stagolee (Stackerlee) [Laws I15] (File: LI15)

Stackerlee

See Stagolee (Stackerlee) [Laws I15] (File: LI15)

Stackolee

See Stagolee (Stackerlee) [Laws I15] (File: LI15)

Stag Chace, The

See I Am a Jolly Huntsman (File: CPMIAAJH)

Stag Chase, The

See I Am a Jolly Huntsman (File: CPMIAAJH)

Stag-Hunt

See A Hunting Carol (At A Place Where I Me Set) (File: MSAHuCar)

Stage Coach Driver's Lad, The

See Jim, the Carter Lad (File: FSC096)

Stagolee (Stackerlee) [Laws I15]

DESCRIPTION: Stagolee and Billy Lyons are playing cards; Lyons wins the hand and the stakes. An angry Stagolee shoots Lyons, is arrested, sentenced, and hanged. The various versions of the ballad expand on different parts of the story
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903
KEYWORDS: homicide gambling prison execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 16, 1865 - Birth of Lee Shelton/Sheldon ("Stack Lee")
Dec 26, 1895 -"Stack" Lee murders William Lyons
Mar 11, 1912 - Death of "Stack" Lee
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So,SE,SW)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Laws I15, "Stagolee (Stackerlee)"
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 765-766, "Stagolee" (2 texts)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 381, "Stagolee (Stackerlee)" (2 texts)
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 149-154, "Stackolee" (2 texts, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 66-68, "Stagolee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 104-105, "Stagolee Was a Bully" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 92-93, "Stagolee" (2 texts)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 306, "Stagolee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 93-99, "Stagolee" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 54 "Stackalee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 131-133, "Stackalee" (1 text)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 51, "Stagolee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 78-79, "(Stagolee)" (assorted fragments)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 100-102, "Stacker Lee #2" (1 text, 1 tune); also perhaps pp. 102-103, "Stacker Lee #3" (1 text, 1 tune, with references to Stacker Lee though the plot elements seem to have disappeared)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 202-203, "(Stackalee)" (1 text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 91-93, "Stackerlee" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 377, "Stagolee" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 243-244, "Stackerlee" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 198, "Stagolee" (1 text)
DT 663, STAGLEE STAGLEE2 STAGLEE3*
ADDITIONAL: Paul Oliver, _Songsters & Saints: Vocal Traditions on Race Records_, Cambridge University Press, 1984, p. 239, "(Stack O'Lee)" (1 text with variant stanzas)
Roud #4183
RECORDINGS:
Archibald, "Stack-A-Lee Pt. 1" (Imperial 5068, 1950) (Pt. 2 is instrumental)
Senter Boyd [or Boyd Senter] "Original Stack O'Lee Blues" (OKeh 41115, 1928; Vocalion 03015, 1935)
Cab Calloway & his Orchestra, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Banner 32378, 1932; rec. 1931)
John Cephas & Phil Wiggins, "Staggerlee (Stagolee)" (on ClassAfrAm)
Johnny Dodds, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Decca 1676, 1938)
Cliff Edwards ('Ukulele Ike'), "Stack O' Lee, Part 1/Part2" (Columbia 1551-D, 1928; Columbia 1820-D, 1929; Clarion 5449-C/Harmony 1408-H/Velvet Tone 2509, 1932; Vocalion 03324, 1936)
Tennessee Ernie Ford w. Joe "Fingers" Carr, "Stack-O-Lee" (Capitol 1348 or 1349, c. 1951)
Fruit Jar Guzzlers, "Stack-O-Lee" (Paramount 3121/Broadway 8199, 1928; on RoughWays1, StuffDreams2)
Vera Hall, "Stagolee" (AFS 1323 A2, 1937)
Sol Hoopii Novelty Trio, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Columbia 797-D, 1926) (Decca 2241, 1938) [instrumental versions of Cliff Edwards version]
Ivory Joe Hunter, "Stackolee" (AFS CYL-8, 1933)
Mississippi John Hurt, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (OKeh 8654, 1929; rec. 1928; on MJHurt01, MJHurt02); "Stackolee" (on MJHurt04)
Frank Hutchison, "Stackalee" (OKeh 45106, 1927; on AAFM1, GoodForWhatAilsYou)
Wallace "Pine Top" Johnson and Maudie Shirley with Jasper Love, "Stackalee and Billy Lyons" (on USMississippi01)
King Queen and Jack, "Stack-O-Lee Blues"(Gennett 6633/Champion 15605, 1928; Champion 40014, 1935)
Furry Lewis, "Billy Lyons and Stack O'Lee" (Vocalion 1132/Brunswick 80092, 1927; on StuffDreams2)
David Miller, "That Bad Man Stackolee" (Champion 15334/Herwin 75564/Challenge 327 [as Dan Kutter], 1927; on RoughWays2)
Uncle John Patterson & James Patterson, "Stagolee Was a Bully" (on FolkVisions2)
Wilson Pickett, "Stagger Lee" (Atlantic 45-2448, 1968)
Lloyd Price, "Stagger Lee" (Sparton 679-R, 1958)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Stackerlee" (on NLCR04)
[Gertrude] "Ma" Rainey, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Paramount 12357, 1926 [rec. 1925])
Clive Reed, "Original Stack O Lee Blues" (Black Patti 8030, 1927; on StuffDreams1 [as Long 'Cleve' Reed & Little Harvey Hull])
Pete Seeger, "Stagolee" (on PeteSeeger18)
Will Starks, "Stackerlee" (AFS 6652 B2, 1942)
Art Thieme, "Stackerlee" (on Thieme05)
Evelyn Thompson, "Stack O'Lee Blues' (Vocalion 1083, 1927)
Waring's Pennsylvanians, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Victor 19189, 1923)
Washingtonians, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Harmony 601-H, 1928)
Frank Westphal & his Orchestra, "Stack O'Lee Bllues" Columbia 32-D, 1924; rec. 1923)
Herb Wiedoeft's Cinderella Orchestra, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Brunswick 2660, 1924)
SAME TUNE:
Frank Hutchison, "Stackalee No. 2" (OKeh 45106, 1927)
NOTES [1919 words]: On Dec. 29, 1895, William Lyons (levee hand) and Lee Sheldon (coach driver, nicknamed "Stag" Lee) were drinking together at a tavern in St. Louis, Missouri. A political discussion began; in the heat of the argument Lyons knocked off Sheldon's hat, and Sheldon promptly pulled a pistol and shot him dead. He was arrested and tried; the first trial ended in a hung jury, but he was convicted in a second trial and served time in prison, dying in 1916.
A St. Louis judge who has researched the case suggests that Sheldon had received a spell from a hoodoo woman giving him exceptional sexual potency. The talisman for that spell was his hat, so knocking it from his head was no ordinary insult.
It is noteworthy that the first recordings of this ballad (Waring, Westphal, Wiedoeft) are by popular dance bands, not blues or hillbilly artists. - PJS
Being a popular song based on a real event, this has attracted quite bit of literary attention. Polenberg, p. 264, particularly recommends two sources: Brown, Stagolee Shot Billy, cited below, and George M. Eberhart, "Stack Lee: The Man, The Music, and the Myth" (which he calls "superb") in Darlene Clark Hine and Ernestine Jenkins, editors, A Question of Manhood: A Reader in Black Men's History and Masculinity, Indiana University Press, 2001. Cecil Brown has another book, I, Stagolee. Polenberg also lists several web sites, including www.staggerlee.com and www.stagolee.org.
Polenberg's account is on pp. 28-37; it is easily accessible account and readable. It includes the death certificate of William Lyons. Brown, p. 24, also shows the death certificate -- which, interestingly, is not signed by the undertaker.
It appears that the usual spelling of "Stack" Lee's last name was "Shelton," not "Sheldon"; this is the spelling on both the Lyons death certificate and on Shelton's death certificate (shown on p. 35 of Brown). It's not clear how he got the nickname "Stack" -- or how this was distorted to "Stag," or indeed which nickname came first in song (although a newspaper referred to him as "Stag" Lee as as early as December 1895; Brown, p. 102. But the name "Stack" Lee was also in use at this time.)
Olivver, p. 238, says, "The origins of the Stack O'Lee narratives and ballads are unclear.... The original Stacker Lee was the son of Jim Lee, founder in 1866 of he celebrated Lee Lie of riverboats on the Mississippi. im Lee named his boats after his sons, so that Stacker Lee was also the name of the third of a fleet that eventually, by the turn of the century, numbered fourteen. Stacker Lee had been a cavalryman in the Confederate Army who fothered several sons of young black women, one of whom, according to Shields McIlwaine, was 'a short black fellow, a cabin bow on the Anchor Line . . . a black with a bad eye' and a killer, Stack Lee." But this hardly matches "Stack" Lee and the Billy Lyons murder.
Brown seeks symbolic meaning in the name. On p. 83, he mentions a possibility that Shelton belonged to a Black political organization (Democratic) called the "Stags," although he mentions both the riverboat and an aleged riverboat captain called "Stack Lee" (Brown, pp. 44-45) -- and "Stack" Lee might also mean someone who "stacked" a deck of cards (Brown, p. 103). The Stack Lee was one of the Lee Line of riverboats, which had a reputation for encouraging illicit sex (Brown, p. 45), so the nickname might either explain, or be explained by, "Stack" Lee's reputation as a pimp. Indeed, Brown, p. 36, compares it to the often-sexual pseudonyms adopted by rappers.
That's *if* Shelton was a pimp. Polenberg's only mention of Shelton's sexual prowess is a statement that he "may have been a pimp" (note the conditional). The story that he was a pimp may have arisen because he managed a "lid club," which is sometimes associated with prostitution (Brown, p. 38). Most of the few records about his work report him to have been a waiter or carriage driver or the like. Brown, p. 39, suggests that he often drove clients to brothels, and that his lid club perhaps helped manage prostitutes, but that isn't quite the same as being a pimp. Nonetheless, Brown, pp. 46-47, clearly regards him as a pimp and even describes the spaces he provided to the girls. He also suggests, p. 48, that Lee was popular and famous because he supplied them with a place to stay and work at a time when most Black prostitutes had to walk the streets.
He was small (apparently only about 120 pounds, based on Brown, p. 35, and five feet, seven and a half inches tall, according to Brown, p. 38) but exercised a lot (Brown, p. 43, says he was a member of the Four Hundred Club, which was organized "for the moral and physical culture of young colored men"). His left eye is said to have been crossed.
Ironically, witnesses reported that Shelton and Lyons were good friends and had never been known to fight before (Brown, p. 29). It sounds to me as if something might have been affecting Shelton's mental health and making him more combative at this time; having managed to post bond for the murder charge, there is a report he had to post bond for something else in June (Brown, p. 31).
There seems to be no question but that he killed Billy Lyons, but there was genuine dispute about whether he was provoked, and how; Henry Crump, who was present at the murder, gave conflicting testimony. Lee's first trial resulted in a hung jury (although the majority wanted to convict on either murder or manslaughter charges; Brown, p. 33); the lawyer who got him off, Nat Dryden, is mentioned in some of the Stagolee texts (Brown, p. 34). But Dryden was dead before Shelton's second trial, which resulted in a quick conviction. Lee was sentenced to 25 years in prison (and I leave it to you to guess what a prison block for black inmates was like in Missouri circa 1900. We know that he was at least once subjected to five lashes; Brown, p. 34).
You'd think a black man convicted of murder would be locked up and forgotten. But there were many appeals by local citizens for some sort of clemency. On November 25, 1909, he was given a conditional pardon (the condition being, naturally, that he stay clean). He failed to do so, beating and robbing a man in January 1911 (Brown, p. 35). He was promptly returned to prison, where the tuberculosis he had contracted in his first stay quickly turned terminal. He was given a medical parole in February 1912 but soon died.
Billy Lyons, according to Brown, p. 60, was born in Missouri in 1864. Brown, p. 61, has a (very poor) photo of his three children, although p. 61 says that he was not married. The three children are mentioned in some versions of the song, although often this is changed to two children.
A recent article discussing how the community viewed Stagolee is Jim Hauser's piece "Stagolee and John Henry: Two Black Freedom Songs?"; it is available at https://theafricanamericanfolklorist.com/articles/a-hrefhttptheafricanamericanfolkloristcom20201129twoblackfreedomsongsstagolee-and-john-henry-two-black-freedom-songsa. Hauser offers an interesting opinion: "[C]onsidering the symbolic nature of the Stetson to African Americans, it's likely that many of them would have imagined Stagolee to be a black man and Billy a white man." I had not thought of this myself, but I consider it a very interesting point and recommend the discussion.
Carl Sandburg, incidentally, enjoyed this song so much that he occasionally signed letters "Stackerlee"; see Mitgang, p. 230.
According to Brown, pp. 1-18, the song and legend became a cultural phenomenon in the Black community. Black boys wanted to grow up to be Stagolee -- and to emulate his toughness and his reputed sexual prowess. This even though most of them had no information about who Stagolee was; it was long before anyone, including folklorists, connected Lee Shelton with Stagolee. The speed with which Stagolee became legend is simply amazing. On p. 122, Brown suggests that this was because the song was carried by Blacks working on riverboats.
Oliver, while not going as far as Brown, but does say "Stack O'Lee was a bad man, a ruthless killer, but in the songs he was regarded with awe, and a certain detachment" (p. 238).
I'm not sure I buy all of Brown's conclusions (in fact, I'm sure I don't buy them), but it really does seem as if Stagolee was a cultural phenomenon that simply isn't understood by the White community.
Brown describes the Stagolee legend as contributing to the rise of rap music, and it certainly sounds as if Shelton was fond of what we would now call "bling"; Brown, p. 23, describes him at the time of the Lyons shooting: he was wearing gold rings, using a gold-headed cane; he had mirrors on his shoes. I'm not sure I believe this, but it shows how the legend viewed him. And he did have the money to hire a fairly fancy lawyer (Brown, p. 26).
One wonders if all "Stagolee" songs are really the same. The first recorded version, Ma Rainey's (1923) is really just "Frankie and Johnny" with new words (Brown, pp. 144-145; Oliver, p. 241, thinks Rainey confused the two songs). The variation in versions is great; Brown, p. 69, says that "Stagolee has assumed at least seven 'subtype' forms throughout his evolution." Brown, pp. 105-106, has a report that the original Stagolee song was played in a slow ragtime tempo, and says that in the opinion of John David, it was ragtime pianist Tom Turpin (yes, Philip Jose Farmer fans, the guy from the "Riverworld" sequence) who created the first version of the song, based on "The Bully of the Town" [Laws I14]. Brown, p. 109, suggests that it was ragtime which converted "Stack Lee" to "Stack-a-Lee"; it's based on the ragtime habit of inserting a vowel syllable into words, e.g. "walk-a-ing" or the like.
Brown also comments on the significant of the *Stetson* hat (whereas Billy Lyons is sometimes said to have worn a derby). Brown cites sources (including Louis Armstrong) stating that, up to at least World War I, "the Stetson was a symbol of power and status among black males." He also claims (p. 144) that it wasn't just your standard cowboy hat; it is "the specially made Stetson that the macks wore in St. Louis." Thus it was particularly significant that Lyons went after Shelton's hat.
Not every account links Shelton's hat with his alleged sexual potency. In a legend from Chicago, Shelton had sold his had to the Devil for a hat that would always let him win at gambling. The legend further claimed that if Shelton lost his hat, he would lose his self-control (Brown says "head") also, resulting in his murder of Lyons (Brown, pp. 104-105).
There are a number of errors in various versions of this song. Some, according to Brown, p. 32, go back to the earliest newspaper reports on Lee's trial -- e.g. the July 14, 1896 Saint Louis Globe-Democrat claimed Lee and Lyons were shooting craps, which they were not, and said that Lyons died at once, which he did not. The judge's name was Harvey, not (e.g.) "Murphy." - RBW
From David Evans's liner notes to USMississippi01} "Maudie Shirley sings a version of a traditional ballad, 'Stackalee and Billy Lyons,' that originated in the late nineteenth century but her performance is influenced by one of several versions recorded in more recent years by Archibald (1950), Lloyd Price (1958), or Wilson Pickett (1967), all of them hits on the R&B charts." The Maudie Shirley vocal follows the Lloyd Price/Wilson Pickett version. - BS
Brown, p. 143, says that Bob Dylan's 1993 version was inspired by Frank Hutchinson's. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: LI15

Stagolee Was a Bully

See Stagolee (Stackerlee) [Laws I15] (File: LI15)

Stamford Bullards, The

DESCRIPTION: The song invites "bonny boys who love to bait the bonny bull" to join in the chase and even mount the bull. "Take him by the tail ... bridge him if you can, prog him with a nail... Every man must do his best to bait the bull in Stamford."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2)
KEYWORDS: farming sports ritual nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 49, "The Stamford Bullards" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #23378
NOTES [76 words]: OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2: "Every year, on November 13, a bull was publicly chased through the streets of Stamford and, if possible, 'bridged,' i.e., tumbled over the parapet of the town bridge and into the River Welland.... The bull was [finally] slaughtered and its flesh sold cheaply. If however, the animal proved itself 'a beast of spirit'... the bullards [chasers] spared its life." "The last bull-running in Stamford took place in 1839." - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: OSY249

Stampede, The

DESCRIPTION: "When the hot sun smiles on the endless miles..." the cowboys seek water, and find themselves fighting with a "nester" for his well. They spare him only because of his pretty girl. When a storm and stampede start, Texas Red saves the girl.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: cowboy storm rescue recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 392-395, "The Stampede" (1 text)
Roud #12710
NOTES [22 words]: There is no evidence that this piece (first published in Wild West Weekly) was ever a song, or that it ever entered tradition. - RBW
File: LxA392

Stand Back, Old Man, Get Away

See I Wouldn't Have an Old Man (File: R401)

Stand By Me

DESCRIPTION: When the storms of life are raging, stand by me (stand by me) (x2), When the world is tossing me, like a storm upon the sea, Thou who rulest wind and water, stand by me." "In the midst of tribulation, stand...." "When I'm growing old and feeble...."
AUTHOR: Charles Albert Tindley (died 1933) (Source; Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (date of composition, according to Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad storm
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 171-172, "Stand By Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21788?
File: WaSp171

Stand By Your Union

DESCRIPTION: "My form is all bent and my hands are hard worn... Like a ship without a rudder, at random, I ran, All this was before the Union began." He's "only a workingman, dressed out in jeans," and they are going to cut his pay. But the Union gives him power
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 *May 14, 1908 [Denver] "Miner's Magazine," according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes labor-movement
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 165-166, "Stand By Your Union" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Only a Miner (The Hard-Working Miner) [Laws G33]" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
File: LDC165

Stand in the Rain

DESCRIPTION: "The bubbles on the beer keep haunting me, Every time I have a drink I'm as happy as can be... Won't you come and have a drink we me? Cause I'll never let you Stand in the rain.... I'll hold you tenderly Here in my arms... I'll never let you go"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1947, according to Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook
KEYWORDS: drink love nonballad
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 20-21, "Stand in the Rain" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Clev020

Stand On a Sea of Glass

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "O this union, Sing this union, I love this union, Stand on a sea of glass." Alternate lines in verses are "Stand on a sea of glass." Verses have Satan failing to take the singer's soul, and Jesus shaking "the manna tree" for you and me.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus Devil floatingverses Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 28, "Stand On a Sea of Glass" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Jerusalem" ("sea of glass" theme)
NOTES [533 words]: Barton-OldPlantationHymns uses "Stand on a Sea of Glass," with its "this Union" chorus, as a likely example of a hymn with a Civil War "army origin."
[This is likely; the King James Bible never uses the word "union," although there are a few references to "unity." I could argue that the word usually translated "brotherhood" should properly be translated "union" or "fellowship," but it's unlikely the hymn-writer had the Greek to know that. The Greek word translated "glass," and a related word, occur only in these verses of the Apocalypse cited below and in 21:18-21. There are other references to "glass" in both the New Testament and Hebrew Bible, but they come from different roots. - RBW]
The "sea of glass" is cited on Revelation 4:2-10 ["And immediately I was in the spirit: and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne... And out of the throne proceeded lightenings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.... The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne ...."] and 15:1-2 ["And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.] [King James]
A pre-Civil War hymn that refers to Revelation 4:2-10 is Shaffer #97 ("My soul, come meditate the day") which has, "before a throne a sea of glass ... Four beasts, and elders twenty-four, Fall down before the throne" [Rev. Stephen D. Shaffer,Pilgrim Songster (Zanesville: Shaffer, 1848 ("Digitized by the Internet Archive")), pp. 166-168]
Marsh has a hymn that, in passing, refers to Revelation 15:1-2: "Behold I stand on the sea of glass, The sea of glass all mingled with fire" [J.B.T. Marsh, The Story of the Jubilee Singers Including Their Songs (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1903 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #130 p. 301, "Humble Yourself, The Bell Done Rung"]. Booth has a judgment day hymn that also refers to Revelation 15:1-2: "Then on a sea of glass shall stand King Jesus, with His conquering band, Safe-housed above the fire" [William Booth, Salvation Army Songs (London: The Salvation Army Book Department, 1911 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #157 pp. 108-109, ("Rejoice, ye saints, the time draws near")].
Barton-OldPlantationHymns's text refers directly to neither verse but seems to draw on the phrase for its apocalyptic imagery in war time. The verses are not connected to Revelation and include the floater, "Tallest tree in Paradise, Christian calls it the tree of life."
Where I have "this union" Barton-OldPlantationHymns has "dis union," and maybe "disunion" is what was intended. See abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison's article "Disunion" in June 15, 1855 The Liberator. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart028

Stand to Your Glasses

See The Dying Aviator (File: MA142)

Stand to Your Glasses, Steady

DESCRIPTION: "We meet 'neath the sounding rafters." "Cut off from the land that bore us... All the good men have gone before us, And only the dull left behind." "So stand to your glasses... Here's a toast to the dead already, And hurrah for the next man who dies"
AUTHOR: Original version, "Indian Revelry," by W. F. Thompson, Esq. (research by John Patrick and Jonathan Lighter)
EARLIEST DATE: 1835 (The Bengal Annual.... for MDCCCXXXV); traditional version 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: death soldier nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 120, "Stand to Your Glasses, Steady" (1 text)
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, p. 187, "Here's to the last to die" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 500-502, "The Revel" (1 text)
Hazel Felleman, Best Loved Poems of the American People, pp. 83-84, "The Revel" (1 text)
Roud #29422
NOTES [472 words]: "This is one of the few pieces in Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear which neither has a tune nor a tune reference; I suspect it is a toast rather than a song, although it may be traditional."
The above was my original comment on seeing it in Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear. John Patrick brought to my attention a paper he and Jonathan Lighter wrote about the piece, demonstrating its history:
"The progenitor of the family is an eight-stanza poem by 'W. F. Thompson, Esq.,' which appeared in the British East India Company's "literary keepsake," the Bengal Annual...for MDCCCXXXV. Though initially titled "Indian Revelry," texts of the poem, either complete or fragmentary, have been published as "The Last Carouse" and "Revelry of the Dying," among less frequently given titles. Various folk adaptations are often called "Stand to Your Glasses," a phrase frequently repeated in Thompson's poem.
"The earliest known appearance of the poem is titled "Indian Revelry" in The Bengal Annual (1835) with an eight-stanza text:
We meet 'neath the sounding rafter
And the walls around are bare;
As they shout to our peals of laughter
It seems that the dead are there.
So stand to your glasses! steady!
We drink in our comrades' eyes
A cup to the dead already --
Hurrah! for the next that dies." (Etc.)
Patrick adds, "the phrase 'Here's to the Dead, and to those that soon must die' ... was used as a drinking toast in the poem 'The Guerilla' by James Hogg in 1817."
Patrick and Lighter list some dozens of printed versions, but most are non-folk; a few are derivatives from other wars. Patrick and Lighter believe this to be the ancestor of "The Dying Aviator," although that typically uses a different tune.
Interestingly, although Winstock has the author wrong (words are listed as by "Captain Darling," whom he cannot identify, and music traditional), he also attributes it to India.
Knowing the original first line and title allows a check of literary anthologies. Granger's Index to Poetry (which lists six references for it) files it as "We Meet 'Neath the Sounding Rafter" but lists as alternate titles "Our Last Toast" and ""Revelry for the Dying" as well as "Stand to Your Glasses." It lists yet another author, "Bartholomew Dowling," which one may suspect was misheard as "Captain Darling" or vice versa. Felleman also lists it by Dowling but mentions another writer, "Alfred Dommett," to whom it was sometimes attributed.
Hoagland not only attributes it to Bartholomew Dowling but gives dates for him (1823-1863) and says "The scene is East India at the time of the pestilence. This poem has often, erroneously, been attributed to Alfred Dommett."
Dowling's brief Wikipedia entry mentions him working as a newspaper editor. I wonder if he perhaps published the poem without attribution, and others attributed it to him.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hopk120A

Stand Up and Sing

DESCRIPTION: "Michael McCoy takes the greatest of joy in the songs of long ago." His daughter Mary sings current songs he hates "about moon and spoon and June." He asks her to "sing for your father An old tune" like "Annie Rooney"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: request music nonballad father
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18240
RECORDINGS:
Vince Ledwell, "Stand Up and Sing" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcStUpSi

Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus

DESCRIPTION: "Stand up for Jesus, soldiers of the cross." The battle will soon be followed by victory and eternal life with "the King of glory."
AUTHOR: George Duffield (words); George J. Webb (music) (source: Date) (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 ("The Psalmist," according to William Reynolds, _Companion to Baptist Hymnal_, Broadman Press, 1976, p. 201)
KEYWORDS: battle nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #288, p. 70, "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Date, Pentecostal Hymns Nos. 1 and 2 Combined (Chicago: Hope Publishing Company, 1898 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #264 p. 207, "Glory to His Name" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Rosa and Joseph Murray, "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus" (on USSeaIsland03)
SAME TUNE:
Stand Up for Prohibition ("Stand up for prohibition, Ye patriots of the land") (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 26)
NOTES [253 words]: According to Reynolds, p. 201, George Duffield Jr. reported that "'Stand up for Jesus' was the dying message of the Rev. Dudley A. Tyng, to the Young Men's Christian Association, and the ministers associated with them in the Noon-Day Prayer Meeting during the great revival of 1858" in Philadelphia, who had suffered a fatal arm injury in a milling accident. Rudin, pp. 52-53, briefly describes this Tyng in glowing terms, but reading between the lines, he sounds like a crank (although with positive ideas about church union and against slavery); his own congregation forced him out, causing him to form a separate church.
Reynolds does not agree with Date as to the authorship of the tune; he reports, "GEIBEL... was composed by Adam Geibel for this hymn, and it first appeared in his Uplift Voices... 1901... using the first four lines of the first stanza and the refrain. But since Date published the song before Geibel wrote his tune, I've allowed Date's attribution to Webb to stand; my guess is that both of them wrote tunes. And on p. 455, Reynolds credits Webb with having something to do with the song. He further reports that Webb was born in Wiltshire, England, in 1803, and died in New Jersey in 1887. He emigrated to the United States in 1830, and spent forty years as a church organist and music teacher in Boston.
Rudin, p. 54, seems to confirm this, saying that the tune "Webb" was composed for the text "'Tis Dawn, the Lark is Singing," and implies that Duffield's text has had multiple tunes. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: RcSUSTfJ

Stand, Boys, Stand

DESCRIPTION: "Stan', boys, stan', Dah's now no use a-runnin', Use a-runnin'. Look up on yondah hill An' see ol' massa comin', Massa comin', See 'im comin'." "Bowie knife in one hand An' pistol in de tother." "Oberseer wid his stick... Ruckus bound to happen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: work slave
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 232, (no title) (1 text)
NOTES [25 words]: Reportedly a song sung by a Black work gang when they had been caught idling. They reportedly covered by having one of their number feign illness. - RBW
File: ScNF232A

Standin' on de Street Doin' No Harm

See Deep Elem Blues (File: DTdeepel)

Standin' on the Walls of Zion

DESCRIPTION: "Then it's a hooraw, and a hooraw, Through the merry green fields, hooraw! Standin' on the walls of Zion, Zion, See my ship come sailin', sailin', Standin' on the walls of Zion, See my ship come sailing home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 484, "Standin' on the Walls of Zion" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: San484

Standing at the Bar

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Standing at the bar, Smoking a cigar, Laughing at/Riding on the donkey (har-har-har)." "Take my arm, I do no harm, I only smoke a cigar"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (RItchie)
KEYWORDS: jumprope drink drugs | cigar
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #527, "Standing at the Bar" (1 text)
Roud #20771
File: AJRR527

Standing by the Old Garden Gate

See Out In the Moonlight (I Will Love Thee Always) (File: R803)

Standing in the Need of Prayer

DESCRIPTION: "It's me, Oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer." "Not my mother, not my father, but it's me, Oh Lord, sanding in the need of prayer." "Not my brother, not my sister, but its me...." (Others whom it is not may be listed as desired)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (recording, Elkins-Payne Jubilee Singers)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 183, App.IX, "'Tis Me" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (II), pp. 49-56, "'Tis Me, O Lord" (1 text with variants, 1 tune with variants)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 637, "Standing in the Need of Prayer" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 637, "Standing in the Need of Prayer" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 222-223, "It's Me, O Lord" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, p. 198, "It's Me O Lord" (1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 350, "It's Me, Oh Lord" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 488-492, "Ezekiel, You and Me" (1 heavily composite text, 1 composite tune; the first verse is "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel," the second is from "Keep A-Inchin' Along," the third is "Standing in the Need of Prayer," the fourth is "Chilly Water" [Roud #15312], the last probably derived from "Sowing on the Mountain")
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 289, 388, "it's Me, O Lord, Standing in the Need of Prayer"/"It's not my brother, nor my sister, but it's me, oh Lord, Standing in the Need of Prayer" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 56, "Standin' in the Need of Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11833
RECORDINGS:
Elkins-Payne Jubilee Singers, "Standing in the Need of Prayer" (Paramount 12070, 1923)
Hall Johnson Negro Choir, "Standin' in de Need of Prayer" (Victor 36020, 1930)
Southern Four, "Standin' in the Need of Prayer" [medley with "Shout All Over God's Heaven {All God's Children Got Shoes}"] (Edison 51364, 1924)
West Virginia Snakehunters, "Standin' in the Need of Prayers" (Brunswick 119, 1927/Supertone S-2072, 1930)
File: FSWB350A

Standing in the Safety Zone

DESCRIPTION: "I'm standing in the safety zone, sometimes I have to stand alone ... If you want to get to heaven you'd better stand in the safety zone." "How well do I remember, a long long time ago ..." where different versions remember different things.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (recording, Southern Harps)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #10986
RECORDINGS:
Professor Johnson and his Gospel Singers, "Standing in the Safety Zone" (1957, on "Professor Johnson and his Gospel Singers," Brunswick OE 9352)
Southern Harps, "Standing in the Safety Zone" (King 4221, 1947)
The Swan Silvertones, "Standing in the Safety Zone" (2005, on "The Swan Silvertones--1946-1951," Acrobat ADDCD 3004)
Bright Stars, "Standing in the Safety Zone" (Nashboro N 732, 1962)
Lovey Williams, "I'm Standing In the Safety Zone" (on USMississippi01)
NOTES [35 words]: The sound of "Standing in the Safety Zone" on USMississippi01 is closer to Blind Willie Johnson's "Praise God I'm Satisfied" than to any of the recordings I've listed here for "Standing in the Safety Zone." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcStSaZo

Standing on the Promises

DESCRIPTION: "Standing on the promises of Christ my King, Through eternal ages let his praises ring, Glory in the highest I will shoul an sing, Standing on the promises of God." The singer declares, in various ways, the power of Biblical promises
AUTHOR: R. Kelso Carter (1849-1926)
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (composed, according to Johnson; published 1886 and Sweney and Carter, _Songs of Perfect Love_, according to William Reynolds, _Companion to Baptist Hymnal_, Broadman Press, 1976, p. 202)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp, 202-203, "Standing on the Promises" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18551
NOTES [125 words]: Though hardly original in idea, this particular hymn has a very simple, easy-to-learn set of parts in the chorus, and seems to be very popular with amateur gospel groups. I'm a bit surprised it isn't more common in tradition.
According to William Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal, Broadman Press, 1976, p. 278, Russell Kelso Carter graduated from high school (Pennsylvania Military Academy) in 1867, where he was noted as an athlete; soon after, he became an instructor at the school. He seems to have been restless, travelling to California for a while, and giving up teaching in 1887 to become a minister. Later, he went into medicine. Most of his hymns were published in 1891; this seems to be the only one to have achieved any popularity. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BdSotPro

Standing Stones, The

DESCRIPTION: Two lovers meet at the Standing Stones and promise to wed. After she leaves, a rival stabs him to death, solely to cause the girl pain. She hears a cry, turns, and sees her beloved. He points to the stars and vanishes; she pines away and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (John Mooney's "Songs of the Norse")
LONG DESCRIPTION: In the Orkneys lives a beautiful young woman who has been loved since childhood by a young man. They meet at the Standing Stones and promise to wed, sealing the promise by joining their hands through a hole in the Lovers' Stone. He kisses her goodbye, watches her leave, then turns to go home, but a rival attacks him and stabs him to death, solely to cause the girl pain. She is arriving home when she hears a cry, turns, and sees her beloved standing near. He points to the stars and vanishes; knowing he is dead, she pines away and dies
KEYWORDS: grief hate jealousy courting love promise violence crime homicide beauty death mourning ritual supernatural lover ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Hebr))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 332, "The Standing Stones" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, STANSTON
Roud #2151
RECORDINGS:
John & Ethel Findlater, "The Standing Stones" (on FSB7)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ploughboy's Dream" (tune)
cf. "The Maidenstone" (subject: the sculptured stones)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lovers--A West Mainland Legend
NOTES [308 words]: The "Standing Stones" are prehistoric stone circles, found throughout Britain, including the Orkneys, where this song was collected. It was the custom in the Orkneys for lovers to plight their troth by joining hands through a hole in the "Odin Stone," then dividing a broken sixpenny piece between them. - PJS
References to Odin may seem odd in Scotland, but the Orkneys were largely settled by the Old Norse. I have not been able to find proof of this, but I believe "Odin stones" are so-called because they have a single hole representing Odin's single eye.
However, the Standing Stones would appear to predate the Norse legends. Magnusson, p. 6, describes the Standing Stones on the Isle of Lewis at Calanais (Callanish); "It was built in stages from about 3000 BC and was certainly completed by 2000 BC. Briefly, it is a circle of thirteen standing stones huddled round a massive central monolith, 4.75 metres high, and a small chambered cairn. A double line or 'avenue' of stones comes from the north, and ragged tongues protruding from the circle create a rough cruciform shape." Magnussen goes on to describe the partial rehabilitation of the site.
Other instances of stones with holes having a magical use are common. Alexander, p. 127, has a section on "Healing Stones," In particular he notes a case at Men-an-Tol, where children with rickets "were squeezed through the rough circular hole" to try to cure the disease. Opie/Tatem, p. 199, mention instances of the healing powers of holes in stone from 1754 to 1970, with rickets again being the disease most likely cured. (I can't help but think that it would be easier to squeeze through the hole if one wore relatively few clothes, and having few clothes would get you out in the sunlight to manufacture vitamin D. So maybe it actually worked -- but not for the reasons specified!) - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.7
File: K332

Standing Toast, The

See Lass That Loves a Sailor (II -- The Standing Toast) (File: SSSB188)

Stands a Lady

See Lady on the Mountain (I) (File: AJRV140)

Star in the East

See Brightest and Best (File: JRSF150)

Star Light, Star Bright

DESCRIPTION: "Star light, star bright, First star I see tonight, (I) Wish I may, (I) wish I might Have the wish I wish tonight."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Mrs. Henry C. Gray, or her maid), though it probably occurs earlier in Mother Goose collections
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #430, p. 203, "(Star light, star bright)" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 239, (no title) (1 short text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 178, "Star Light, Star Bright" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 119-120, "(Starlight, star bright)" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Walker, "A Sampling of Folklore from North Carolina", Vol. 3, No. 2 (Dec 1955), p. 7 "(Star light, star bright)" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Joseph D. Clark, "Superstitions from North Carolina," Vol. IX, No. 1 (Jul 1961), p. 11, "(Str bright, star light)" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 451, "Star Light, Star Bright" (notes only, saying that it was sung with "Rose, Rose")
OneTuneMore, p. 32, "Starlight, Starbright" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16339
NOTES [56 words]: Some time in my youth, I learned this with exactly the same words as occur in Henry (not the same as in Baring-Gould). So it has some sort of circulation. But I can't remember where I learned it; I have the strange feeling it was some Disney production or the like.
OneTuneMore credits this, or at least the tune, to Max V. Exner. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: MHAp239B

Star o Banchory's Land, The

DESCRIPTION: "Banchory's lands are bonnie When spring rolls in the year Wi' lasses sweet and mony But nane saw sweet's my dear." He praises her -- but then sees her at the fair, where she ignores him. He wishes her back or hopes she will at least be true to another
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #95, pp. 1-2, "The Star of Banchory's Land" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 707, "The Star o' Banchory's Lands" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 69-71, "The Star o' Banchory's Land" (1 text)
DT BANCHRY1* BANCHRY2*
Roud #5567
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drumdelgie" (tune, per Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
File: Ord069

Star of Bannack, The

DESCRIPTION: "Under the lamplight's flick'ring gleam, In the dirt of the dancehall floor, The beautiful star of Bannack lies, Never to shine no more." Having left a lover in the east, she turned heads in the west but at last "A bullet would find her there."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide dancing
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 20, 1864 - Nellie Paget (birth name: Helen Patterson) murdered by a former flame in Bannak, Montana
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 53-54, "(The Star of Bannack)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 560, "The Star of Babback" (1 text)
File: Burt053

Star of Belle Isle

See Blooming Bright Star of Belle Isle, The [Laws H29] (File: LH29)

Star of Benbradden, The

See If I Were a Fisher (File: HHH709)

Star of Bethlehem, The

See Let the Eastern Sages Rise (The Star of Bethlehem) (File: Pet073)

Star of Donegal, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a lad and lass discussing their parting. He is going to America to seek his fortune. She does not wish to part. He says the Irish will return to free Ireland. They decide to marry at once, and sail away together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage emigration gold
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H555, p. 463, "The Star of Donegal" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 83, "The Star of Donegal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2996
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rich Amerikay" [Laws O19] (plot)
File: HHH555

Star of Glenamoyle, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks the muses to preserve the star of sweet Glenamoyle as he praises her. Even the birds and rabbits praise her. He says that Joseph, had he been laboring to win her, would have felt it no toil; he would have sailed across the sea to wed her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H13, p. 232, "The Star of Glenamoyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7985
NOTES [118 words]: The final verse of the Henry text contains some truly curious lines:
But had young Joseph received this fair one,
Her golden glory would have decayed away;
But had young Joseph received this fair one,
To win his bride would have been no toil.
I can only guess that the first two lines mean that the girl would not thrive outside Ireland. The latter two lines are clearer, though an obvious error. It was Joseph's father Jabob who worked seven years to win the hand of Rachel, and being cheated of Rachel once, worked another seven years to at last be allowed to marry her. And "Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her" (Genesis 29:20). - RBW
File: HHH013

Star of Glengary, The

DESCRIPTION: "The red moon is up o'er the moss-covered mountain." Donald goes to "Logan's bright water" to propose to "Mary, the star of Glengary," knowing his competition is the rich miller. She apparently accepts since she is "a gude wife to me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3541))
KEYWORDS: courting wife river money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 11, "The Star of Glengary" (1 text)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople, p. 234, "Logan's Bright Water" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2237, p. 150, "The Star of Glengarry" (1 reference)
Roud #13901
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3541), "The Star of Glengary", G Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Harding B 11(3326), Harding B 11(3645), Harding B 11(3646), Harding B 11(3647), Harding B 17(301b), Johnson Ballads 1097, 2806 c.14(128), "The Star of Glengarry"; Harding B 20(33), Harding B 11(3574), Harding B 18(716), Harding B 26(626), "The Star of Glengary"
LOCSheet, sm1877 08720, "The Star of Glengary", Spear & Dehnhoff (New York), 1877 (tune)
LOCSinging, as113120, "The Star of Glengary", J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also sb40474a, "The Star of Glengary"
Murray, Mu23-y1:075, "The Star of Glengary", James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.178.A.2(299), "The Star of Glengary", unknown, c.1860; also L.C.Fol.70(1a), "The Star of Glengary"
NOTES [46 words]: LOCSheet, sm1877 08720: "composed by Charles W Pette" may refer to the arranger.
Broadside LOCSinging as113120: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: OCon011

Star of Logy Bay, The

See The Pride of Logy Bay (File: FSC061)

Star of Moville, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sails to Moville to watch the races. Enlivened by whiskey, he meets Mary, "the star of Moville." He courts her, and buys her a drink. The girl, after spending some time, rejects him and goes home. He wishes that someone would bring her to him
AUTHOR: James McCurry
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting racing rejection drink music
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H68, pp. 276-277, "The Star of Moville" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7968
NOTES [28 words]: A long and highly complex mix: Is it a boat-racing song, a courting song, a rejection song, a drinking song, a song of getting delayed along the shore? I'm not sure. - RBW
File: HHH068

Star of Peace to Wanderers Weary

See Far at Sea (File: KSUC122A)

Star of Slane, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer "was ruminating and meditating And contemplating" when he met a maid that would have captivated Paris, Caesar, and Alexander. Her beauty eclipses all others. "For me to woo her I am too poor, I'm deadly sure she won't be my wife"
AUTHOR: Day (c.1800-1866) (source: Sparling)
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (a Drogheda chap-book, according to Sparling)
KEYWORDS: love beauty humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 84, "The Star of Slane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 107-108, "The Star of Slane" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 366-368, 515, "The Star of Slane"
Roud #6530
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.8(270), "The Star of Slane" ("You brilliant muses, who ne'er refuses"), unknown, n.d.; alsoHarding B 11(3648), "The Star of Slane"
NOTES [64 words]: This is another song that hides the lover's name: "Her name to mention may cause contention And it's my intention for to breed no strife." See also "Craiganee," "The Pride of Kilkee," "The Flower of Benbrada" and "Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce hi (For Ireland I Will Not Tell Whom She Is)"; in "Drihaureen O Mo Chree (Little Brother of My Heart)" the singer's brother's name is hidden. - BS
File: OLcM084

Star of Sunday's Well, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves "That consort fit for Satan, the Star of Sunday's Well." She weighs 15 stone [210 pounds]: "She's blooming and she's bonny with real estate and money." He is rejected in favor of "a grocer's curate"
AUTHOR: W.B. Guiney
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (_The Cork Examiner,_ according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads, pp. 258-259, "The Star of Sunday's Well" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds" [OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 64] (tune)
NOTES [5 words]: Sunday's Well is in Cork. - BS
File: OLcM258

Star of the County Down, The

DESCRIPTION: Near Banbridge town, the singer sees a "sweet colleen." He is instantly smitten with the beauty of "the star of the Country Down." He makes plans to pursue her, and dreams of life with her
AUTHOR: unknown (credited to Cathal McGarvey [1866-1927] by Colm O'Lochlainn)
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Irish Country Songs)
KEYWORDS: love courting clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, STARDOWN*
Roud #4801
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dives and Lazarus" [Child 56] (tune)
cf. "The Banks of Newfoundland (I)" [Laws K25] (tune)
cf. "When a Man's in Love" [Laws O20] (tune)
cf. "The Wreck of the Gwendoline" (tune)
cf. "The Colleen from Coolbaun" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Dives and Lazarus (File: C056)
The Wreck of the Gwendoline (File: OLcM257)
The Banks of Newfoundland (I) [Laws K25] (File: LK25)
When a Man's in Love [Laws O20] (File: LO20)
The Colleen from Coolbaun (File: RcTCofCo)
File: DTstardo

Star Promenade

DESCRIPTION: "Six ladies to the center with the right hand crossed, Be careful that you don't get lost, Back to the left and don't be afraid, Pass your partner in the Star Promenade. My old girl went back on me, Just because I went to see, My old girl went away...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana)
KEYWORDS: love separation playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 91-92=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 163-165, "Star Promenade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7666
NOTES [37 words]: Roud lumps this with a large number of other playparties, typified by Randolph's "Ladies to the Center." Since they're all dance tunes with little plot, this is possible, but they don't look like the same song to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Wolf091

Star-Spangled Banner, The

DESCRIPTION: A description of bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Navy, with hopes for the survival of the United States. Either you already know the song, or you don't care. (Perhaps both.)
AUTHOR: Words: Francis Scott Key (1779-1843)/Music: John Stafford Smith (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1814
KEYWORDS: America patriotic battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 13, 1814 - Battle of Fort McHenry. Key allegedly wrote this poem the following morning, when he saw the flag still waving
FOUND IN: US(All)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 26-27, "The Star Spangled Banner" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 404-405, "The Star-Spangled Banner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Krythe-SamplerOfAmericanSongs 2, pp. 15-39, "The Star-Spangled Banner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 300, "The Star Spangled Banner" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 529-534+, "The Star Spangled Banner"
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 166, "Defence of Fort M'Henry" (1 broadside print, perhaps the earliest survivng)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 262, "The Star-Spangled Banner" (1 text)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, pp. 205-209, "The Defence of Fort M'Henry"; "The Star Spangled Banner" (3 full texts, 4 partial or complete tunes, all reprints of early editions)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 184, "The Star Spangled Banner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2241, p. 151, "The Star Spangled Banner" (24 references)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #5, "The Star-Spangled Banner" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 43 and #1/64 p. 15, "Star Spangled Banner" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 42-43, "The Star Spangled Banner" (1 text plus a photograph of the original manuscript)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 2-3, "The Star-Spangled Banner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 5, "The Star-Spangled Banner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 70, "The Star-Spangled Banner" (1 text)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 27, "The Star-Spangled Banner" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 48, "The Star-Spangled Banner" (1 text)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 3, "The Star-Spangled Banner" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 2, "The Star-Spangled Banner" (1 text)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 104-109, "The Star-Spangled Banner" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #34, p. 10-11, "Star-Spangled Banner" (1 text)
DT, STARSPAN
ADDITIONAL: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, pp. 36-37, describes three printed copies from before 1816; p. 38 lists songster versions from 1817 or earlier; plates 6-7 show the earliest known sheet music
Roud #V5200
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "To Anacreon in Heaven" (tune)
cf. "Adams and Liberty" (tune)
cf. "The Battle of Baltimore" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
To Anacreon in Heaven (File: SRW008) (the source song)
Adams and Liberty (File: SRW011)
The Independent Broom (File: Wels064)
Shall Dorr Be Freed (File: CAFS1068)
Oh. Say Can You See?/Rebug Stew ("Oh, say can you see Any redbugs on me?") (Solomon-ZickaryZan, pp. 112, 116)
Freedom Triumphant (see Dichter/Shapiro, p. 35)
The Pillar of Glory (see Dichter/Shapiro, p. 35)
When Death's Gloomy Angel Was Bending His Bow (see Dichter/Shapiro, p. 35)
The Battle of the Wabash (see Dichter/Shapiro, p. 36)
Washington Guards (see Dichter/Shapiro, p. 36)
Ellsworth's Death (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 38)
The National Grass Plot ("O say can you see, by the dawn's early light, That grass plot so dear to the hearts of us all?") (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 63; Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p 254)
A National Song, for Forefathers' Day ("Hail, ye sons of brave sires! whose Forefathers, free") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 106)
New-York 7th Regiment ("Oh, the first from New-York was our heroes so bold") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 108)
Our Beautiful Banner ("Our Beautiful Banner forever shall wave," by Mrs. Louis F. Neagle) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 119)
Our Freedom-Lit Banner ("All Hall! we now see in a full blaze of light") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 120)
Parody ot the excellent Song, "To Anacreon in Heaven" ("To G***t in New-York, where he reigns in full glee") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 129)
Song for the Fourth of July, 1795 ("In climes where fair Freedom, secure from her foes") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 129)
Rights of Woman ("God save each Female's right") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 130)
The President's Chair "("Oh, say do you hear from the East to the West") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 129)
The Battle of North Point ("Hark, hark, was the cry, when Baltimore town") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 209)
The Union Must and Shall Be Preserved ("Oh! say can a thought so vile and base come," from the Camp-Fire Songster of 1862) (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 338; Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 163)
Das Star-Spangled Banner (German) (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 386)
Stars and Bars ("O say, can you see -- though perhaps you're too tight") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 151)
The Stars and Bars ("Oh! say do you see now so vauntingly borne") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 195)
Union Banner-Cry ("Oh, say can you see without blasting the sight," by T. J. Greenwood) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 162)
The Flag of Secession ("Oh, say can't you see by the dawn's early light," by Frank Pinkney) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 189)
The President's Chair ("Ye Southrons arouns, and do battle, nor yield") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 193)
The Southern Cross ("Oh1 say: can you see, through the gloom and the storm," by Henry St. George Tucker) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 194)
Alumni Song (by F. H. Ludow, [class of 18]56) ("Why chime ye, O bells, to the chorus of feet") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, pp. 134-135)
Ode to Alma Mater (by J. W. Brown, [class of 18]32) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 135)
Saratoga Paraphrase of the Star-Spangled Banner (by Col. B. C. Butler) ("O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, On Saratoga's broad plains what so proudly is streaming") (William L. Stone, _Ballads and Poems Relating to the Burgoyne Campaign_, 1893 (I use the 1970 Kennikat Press reissue), pp. 273-274)
Harrison Song ("Oh say have you heard how in days that are past") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, p. 30)
A New Song ("Oh! who does not see, in this heart-cheering ray") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p. 88)
Paul Jones ("A song unto Liberty's brave buccaneer"; this is not one of the traditional John Paul Jones songs) (Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, pp. 84-85; p. 101 suggests that "To Anacreon" is the tune, but this is not certain)
The Uprising of Labor ("Brave sires to the summons of Freedom upsprung") (by I. G. Blanchard) (Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 111)
Star Spangled Banner (late 1800s) ("Oh say do you see, by the daylight's broad glare, That blot that arises to tarnish our glory") (Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 269)
'Neath the Banner of Garfield ("Oh, say! have you heard of the man from the West") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 11)
Our Country, To Thee ("Our country, to thee, in the cannon's fierce light, We have pledged the best blood of the patriot streaming") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p.13)
The White Ribbon Star-Spangled Banner ("Fling it out to the breeze; let it tell to the world") (by Kate Lunden Sunderlin) (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 30)
First Sydney Races ("Oft the Bards of old TImes, and the minstrels gay strains") (Geoffrey C. Ingleton, _True Patriots All: or News from Early Australia as told in A Collection of Broadsides_ ("Garnered and Decorated" by Ingleton), Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1988, p. 57)
NOTES [2068 words]: For the history of this tune, see the notes to "To Anacreon in Heaven." The folklore about the poem is too widely known (and too exaggerated) to bear repeating here; Spaeth has a sort of debunking, with some less-known details, on pp. 41-46, and there are a few notes about Francis Scott Key's part in the Battle for Baltimore in the discussion below.
The popularity of the song in broadsides is amazing. The immense collection of broadsides cataloged by Wolf includes multiple prints of many songs. There are a few with as many as fifteen copie. There are none with the 24 different broadside editions recorded of this song -- including a couple in German "Das Star-Spangled Banner."
In several senses this is not a folk song (in part because it's so difficult to sing) -- but it is well-enough known that its inclusion is at least understandable....
The War of 1812 showed clearly how much stronger the British Empire was than the then-still-new United States. In 1812 and 1813, the British had been putting all their energy into fighting Napoleon, and given the Americas only the dregs (not only did they send only a bare handful of troops to Canada, they reportedly sent only second-rate generals, using the best and brightest against Napoleon (Mahon, p. 144) -- and they *still* held the Americans to a draw: At the end of 1813, the British still held Canada, and while the Americans had had some success at sea, by 1813 their handful of ships were mostly pinned down in blockaded ports (see Mahon, p. 122, for a list of ships involved).
1814 should have seen the British, now free of Napoleon, settle the American hash -- and they did succeed in permanently occupying some of the coast east of what is now the state of Maine. They set out to do far more, planning three major offensives (at Lake Champlain, Chesapeake Bay, and Louisiana). For the first of these, which was one of the most absurd displays ever put on by the British army, see the notes on "The Siege of Plattsburg."
The Chesapeake Campaign was the best-run of the three British attacks of 1814 -- and, overall, the most successful. The war by this time had turned rather bitter as there had been a series of atrocities along the Canadian border (started, we must note,by the Americans, who destroyed the Canadian settlement of Newark as well as the future Toronto, though the British treatment of American prisoners was bad enough that they had nothing to complain about; the sad thing is that the innocent Canadians suffered for the faults of the English government).
The British had responded to the American war crimes by burning Buffalo, e.g., and had raided Chesapeake Bay in 1813 (the British commander in the area, Admiral Cockburn, did so much damage that the Americans accused him of enjoying looting; see Mahon, p. 115), but this was to be altogether bigger. A large fleet, and an army contingent commanded by Major General Robert Ross (who had served under Wellington) were sent to raid the Bay in the late summer of 1814. Their goal was not conquest; it was to keep the Americans from sending major forces against Prevost's (utterly mishandled) Champlain expedition (Borneman, pp. 219-220).
On August 19, 1814, Ross took his troops ashore at Benedict, Maryland, southeast of Washington, D.C. (Borneman, p. 222).
The American response showed a level of ineptitude that would make George W. Bush's Iraq planning look good. Faced with an army at the gates of the U. S. capitol, President Madison chose a political general who had already demonstrated his military ineptness to command in the vicinity of Washington (apparently he hoped William H. Winder's political connections would allow him to raise more militia; Borneman, p. 223; Hickey, p.196). Winder would show great energy but absolutely no ability to develop plans (Hickey, pp. 196-197).
The weather was dreadfully hot (Borneman, p. 225; Hickey, p. 198), but the Americans made no attempt to harass the overburdened British. On August 24, Ross's troops brushed past the handful of American defenders at Bladensburg, incidentally putting President Madison under fire; he retreated even faster than his soldiers. The battle also saw Secretary of State Monroe giving orders to the soldiers -- something he was not entitled to do, and his orders were in any case bad (Hickey, p. 197). The Americans were so thoroughly routed that the battle was christened the "Bladensburg Races" (Borneman, p. 228). The British promptly entered Washington -- which was so deserted that Ross couldn't even find anyone to offer up a surrender (Hickey, p, 199).
Ross's forces were better behaved than the Americans. They did burn a handful of private buildings -- but, almost without exception, it was because those houses were used for military purposes. Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin's house, for instance, was torched because snipers in the house had slain one British soldier, wounded three others, and killed General Ross's horse under him (Borneman, p. 229). But mostly the invaders concentrated on buildings such as the White House, the Treasury Building, and the Capitol (Borneman, pp. 230-231). Saddest of all was the torching of the Library of Congress, though the invaders were convinced to let the Patent Office stand (Hickey, p. 199).
The British were not there to stay; having done their damage, they headed back to their ships on August 25 (Borneman, p. 232). Even so, Secretary of War John Armstrong was forced to resign (Borneman, p. 234; Hickey, p. 202).
The next day, the British set out for Baltimore, a much more developed port, with a larger population and a more important shipping center -- but defended by Fort McHenry, plus many earthworks and a much more effective force of militia than those around Washington. It was also much more enthusiastic for the war; soon after the conflict began, a newspaper uttered an anti-war statement -- and the city broke out in riots; the paper's equipment was damaged, and a number of Federalists, including even Revolutionary War hero "Light Horse Harry" Lee, were beaten, in some cases to death or permanent injury (see Hickey, pp. 60-67; Mahon, p. 33)
General Ross apparently thought the raid on Baltimore not worth the trouble -- the psychological damage of the attack on Washington could only be dissipated (Borneman, p. 238). He was overruled; on September 11, the British headed north.
The attack on Baltimore was to come from both land and sea, with the navy attacking Fort McHenry while the army came around the other side. Both prongs of the attack came to grief. Ross was killed by a sharpshooter on September 12 (Borneman, pp. 242-243), and his second-in-command wasn't nearly as inspiring.
The naval assault was a matter of sound and fury and not much else. Fort McHenry was dirt over masonry, hard to subdue by cannon -- and the waters around it were very shallow (Borneman, p. 239; Hickey, p. 203). The navy could not get close to the fort. In fact, they had to stand out so far that the fort's short-range guns could not even reach them. So, on the night of September 13, British mortar vessels fired wildly at the fort, and the bomb Terror (of future Franklin Expedition fame; see the notes to "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream)" [Laws K9]) fired her rockets (Borneman, p. 244). The fort could not answer, but she suffered only four killed and a couple of dozen wounded; she was still perfectly capable of holding off the British army (Borneman, pp. 244-246).
That was pretty much the end of the siege of Baltimore, though it was a month before the last British forces left the vicinity. The naval commander, Admiral Cochrane, headed for Halifax with part of the fleet; the rest, plus the army, retreated to Jamaica, refitted, took on a new commander by the name of Pakenham, and headed toward a place called New Orleans.
It is sometimes stated that Francis Scott Key was a prisoner on the British fleet. He was not. He was in fact a Baltimore lawyer (he spent much of his life as District Attorney for Washington, D.C.; Julian, p. 624) trying to negotiate the release of a doctor-turned-spy named William Beanes. Beanes was not popular with the British, who considered his behavior particularly egregious (and, if the description in Borneman, pp. 240-242, is accurate, it appears they had a point). The British finally agreed to let him go -- but by that time, they were committed to the attack on Baltimore, so Key, his colleague John S. Skinner, and Beanes had to wait beside H.M.S. Tonnant until it was over (Hickey, pp. 203-204).
The bombardment started during the day, but continued well into the night, and with the fort unable to fire on the British ships, the only way to tell it was still resisting was to observe its flag -- hard to do at night. Apparently Beanes was constantly pestering Key, who had a telescope, to find out if the famous oversize flag was still flying (Borneman, pp. 245-246). Hence Key's song, which he scribbled that night, and elaborated later, was first published as "The Defense of Fort McHenry." Since this event, combined with the victory at Plattsburg two days sooner, caused the British to decide for peace, the siege, and the song associated with it, because immensely popular, and came to be seen as a great American victory -- even though the British had suffered no real casualties except Ross and had done the Americans far more damage at Washington than the Americans caused at Baltimore.
The conflict could not have gone on much longer. The American government was flat broke (had there been someone to force it into bankruptcy, it would surely have done so; loans went unsubscribed and Treasury notes were depreciating fast. To raise such money as it could, the government ended up having to pay $16 for every $10 raised! -- see Hickey, pp. 165-167. By late 1814, the government was defaulting on its notes -- Hickey, p. 224 -- and its notes were discounted 25-40%. At one point the interest on the debt exceeded the government's entire estimated income -- Hickey, p. 247).The Americans for a time were actually seeing their credit financed by a British bank! (Hickey, pp. 223-224). Hickey's final estimate is that the government borrowed a total of $80 million, but because of the way the loans were subscribed, picked up only $34 million in specie. The rest was lost to interest, depreciated notes, and peculiarities of the method of borrowing.
The situation was so bad that Federalist New England was making noises about secession and nullification (Borneman, pp. 255-256; Hickey, pp. 270-280, devotes most of a chapter to the "Hartford Convention," which was called to consider withdrawing from the Union; in the end, it did not do so, but it did propose seven constitutional amendments to make it harder to declare war [where was that in 2003?], to end re-election of presidents, to bar consecutive presidents from the same state, to open up trade, and to stop counting slaves toward the totals for congressional representation. The amendments were actually passed by Massachusetts and Connecticut).
Luckily for the Unites States, the British were tired of fighting, too -- due more to Napoleon than to anything the Americans had done, but it was still war-weariness. The British, knowing they had most of the cards, dragged their feet in the negotiations (Borneman, pp. 264-267), but two sides eventually made peace essentially on the basis of the status quo -- no territory handed over by either side, not changes in law, no changes in anything.
Theoretically, that meant the grievances that started the war were still there. But the Americans were ironically successful: They had survived the first two years of the war mostly because Britain was distracted. In 1814, Britain was no longer distracted -- but with Napoleon gone, the British again wanted free trade, and with the navy shrinking, they didn't need to impress sailors, so they didn't have to do any of the things that had offended the Americans. (The Americans would later use this as a justification for dropping their demands on the issue; Hickey, p. 289.) Peace was possible mostly because no one really wanted to continue the war.
Key's official text of this poem was published in the posthumous volume of his Poems in 1857. He also wrote hymns; Julian, p. 624, lists seven of them, of which he considers four to be in common use; I've never heard of any of them. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: MKr015

Stare, Stare, Like a Bear

DESCRIPTION: "Stare, stare, Like a bear, Sitting on a monkey's chair." Or "Have a good stare, By the way, you remind me of a bear."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 132, "(Stare, stare)"; "(Have a good stare)" (2 texts)
File: SuSm132B

Starfish Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh we're tough, mighty tough, in the Starfish, And the Coxswain is a man that we well wish. Oh, the cook makes hors-de-overs Out of matelots' old pullovers, Oh, we're tough, mighty tough, in the Starfish."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: ship navy food hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 113, "The 'Starfish' Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "They're Tough, Mighty Tough, in the West" (tune)
cf. "Twelve Little S-Boats" (subject: The Starfish and other S-Boats)
NOTES [340 words]: The Starfish, according to Bagnasco, p. 110, was one of the first four units of the "S" class of submarines, built at Chatham in 1930-1933. "In 1930, the Royal Navy, in accordance with the plan to modernize the submarine force, decided to build a new type of boat, suitable for employment in the North Sea and restricted waters such as the Mediterranean."
They were small for submarines of the 1930s: the first group had a displacement of just 737 toms surfaced (later members of the class were larger); they were 202.5"x24"x10.5". They were slow, too, on the surface: 13.75 knots (although they could manage an impressive 10 knots submerged), and as built had a range of just 3800 miles at ten knots. They had six torpedo tubes, all in the nose, carried a 3" gun, and had crews of three dozen.
Despite their limited abilities, the British liked them and ended up building more than sixty of them (Bagnasco, p. 111).
They really didn't have the range to sail outside of European waters, but the Royal Navy found a way: "To achieve greater range for the boats bound for the Far East, several sections of the ballast tanks were adapted for use as fuel tanks.... Stores, especially food and ammunition were increased and were stored in any available space; a small ammunition locker was placed under the table in the officers' quarters" (Bagnasco, p. 112). It sounds like the song's complaint about them is dead on; when on Pacific duty, they must have been almost uninhabitable. Especially the early ones, which had stability problems (Worth, p. 117).
Despite those limitations, Bagnasco, p. 112, concludes, "The combination of their qualities -- none of which, in itself was above average -- together with the reliability of their equipment and the great ease of operation and maintenance made them very effective and safe." But he never had to serve on one!
Young, p. 147, reports that the Starfish was lost in a surface action in the North Sea on January 9, 1940.
For the class as a whole, see the notes to "Twelve Little S-Boats." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn083

Starlight

DESCRIPTION: "It was the last day of the rodeo, And in one of the stout corrals There stood a big sorrel outlaw horse.... He went by the name of Starlight, a bronc as tough as gristle...." The cowboy who draws the horse is depressed, and sure enough he is thrown
AUTHOR: Noah Henry
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Hoofs and Horns)
KEYWORDS: horse cowboy recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 81, "Starlight" (1 text)
File: Ohr081

Starlight Hotel, The

DESCRIPTION: "He's staying tonight at a boarding house, That's known as the Starlight Hotel, Where most of the guests are... Stuck halfway 'twixt Heaven and Hell." The man who stays there is looking for work buy finding none -- but it's welcome by the fire
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2009 (Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes worker travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 108, "(The Starlight Hotel)" (1 text)
File: Garl108

Starlight Tragedy, The

See Her Age It Was Red (File: Gil105)

Starlight, Starbright

See Star Light, Star Bright (File: MHAp239B)

Starry Night for a Ramble

See A Starry Night to Ramble (File: MA056)

Starry Night to Ramble, A

DESCRIPTION: The singer lists the pleasures he enjoys. Noteworthy among them is courting with his sweetheart. But "Of all the games I love the best, that fill me with delight, I love to take a ramble upon a starry night."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927
KEYWORDS: courting rambling
FOUND IN: US Australia
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 56-57, "A Starry Night to Ramble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 94-95, "Starry Night for a Ramble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 177-178, "A Starry Night for a Ramble" (1 text)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 52-53, "A Starry Night to Ramble" (1 tune)
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, p. 92, "A Starry Night for a Ramble" (1 fragment)
Roud #972
NOTES [39 words]: Gilbert-LostChords reports that this was popularized by a performer named Dick Gorman, probably in the last years of the nineteenth century -- but offers no details of its authorship (if known), only a catalogue of Gorman's oddities. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: MA056

Stars Begin to Fall

See When the Stars Begin to Fall (File: LoF237)

Stars in the Elements

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "The stars in the elements are falling, And the moon drips away into blood, And the ransomed of the Lord are returning to God, O blessed be the name of the Lord." Verses: "Don't you hear those Christians praying (sinners screaming/crying)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute); 1893 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 162-163, "Stars in the Elements" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 84-85 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
Roud #15226
NOTES [167 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every verse ends "And the moon drips away into blood, And the ransomed of the Lord are returning to God, O blessed be the name of the Lord."
Biblical references: Revelation 6:12-13: "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind"; Isaiah 35:10: "And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads" (King James).
The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "Stars in the Elements are Falling" on page 84 (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 84. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Dett162

Stars of the Summer Night

DESCRIPTION: "Stars of the summer night, Far in yon azure deeps, Hide, hide your golden light. She sleeps, my lady sleeps...." "Moon f the summer night... Sink, sink in sliver light. She sleeps...." "Wind of the summer night...." "Dreams of the summer night...."
AUTHOR: Words: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow / Music: Isaac B. Woodbury (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (GirlScouts-SingTogether)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 31, "Stars of the Summer Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 124, "Stars of the Summer Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p.. 60, "Stars of the Summer Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V16507
NOTES [43 words]: Both GirlScouts-SingTogether and Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley partially mis-attribute this. Brumley failed to list the words as by Longfellow; GirlScouts-SingTogether correctly attributes the words to Longfellow but calls the composer "S. B. Woodbury." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ABLT031

Stars Shine Bright, The

See There Is Somebody Waiting for Me (File: R741)

Start that Casey Got, The

DESCRIPTION: "Sure Mike Casey got a job in a powder mill At a dollar and ten a day," thinking it an easy way to earn money -- until he comes to work smoking his pipe. The mill explodes, and "He didn't come down, For men that travel like Casey did Are seldom found."
AUTHOR: Robert J. Quigley ? (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: humorous injury worker drugs
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 59-61, "The Start that Casey Got" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Go 'Way Back and Sit Down" (tune, according to Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
File: KMMP059

Starving to Death on a Government Claim (The Lane County Bachelor)

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Frank Taylor, a bach'lor I am, I'm keeping old batch on an elegant plan, You'll find me out west in the county of Lane, A-starvin' to death on a government claim." After much moaning about the bad conditions, the settler gives up and goes home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ed Kepner MS., according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: pioneer settler hardtimes bachelor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 20, 1862 - President Lincoln signs the Homestead Act
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Randolph 186, "Starving to Death on a Government Claim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 135, "Hurrah for Greer County" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 8-9, "The Gerer County Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 120-122, "The Lane County Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 144-146, "The Alberta Homesteader" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 34, "The Alberta Homesteader" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 70, "Starving to Death on a Government Claim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 434, "Greer County" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 146-149, "The Lane County Bachelor" (2 texts)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 500-502, "The Lane County Bachelor (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 22, "The Lane County Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 83, pp. 178-180, "Starving to Death on a Government Claim" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 457-459, "Starving to Death on a Government Claim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 32-34, "The Lane County Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 121, "Starving To Death On A Government Claim" (1 text)
DT, STARVDTH*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 33, #1 (1987), pp, 50-51, "The Bent County Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune, learned by Sam Hinton from Jared Benson)
Roud #799
RECORDINGS:
Bill Bender, The Happy Cowboy, "Lane County Bachelor" (Varsity 5144, c. 1940)
Edward L. Crain (Cowboy Ed Crane), "Starving to Death on a Government Claim" (Conqueror 8013, 1932; Broadway 4056 [as Cowboy Carson], c. 1932)
Benjamin Kincaid, "The Lane County Bachelor" (Supertone 2574, c. 1933)
Pete Seeger, "Greer County Bachelor" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a, AmHist1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Washerwoman" (tune)
cf. "The Railroad Corral" (tune and references for the "Irish Washerwoman" tune)
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune) and references there
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
NOTES [247 words]: The song clearly dates back to the latter part of the nineteenth century, the period of Homestead Claims. The Homestead Act of 1862 had opened large areas of the western U.S. to settlement, allowing settlers to lay claim to 160 acre sections in return for nominal payments. However, the settlers were required to live on their claims for five years before they could "prove up" and gain title to the property. Many settlers, like the one here, wound up living in impossible conditions because it was the only way to stake the claim. It was not at all rare for the homesteader to give up, sell the reversion on the claim, and head back east.
Fowke's Canadian version, "The Alberta Homesteader," is very much the same song, slightly adapted to the north country and the minor differences in Canada's homesteading laws (created when Canada took over the western part of the continent from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1871, although most migrants did not start out until the 1880s).
At least three widely-known tunes have been used for this piece, "The Irish Washerwoman," "Vilikens and his Dinah," and "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane." But the largest number of collections seem to use "The Irish Washerwoman"; I suspect that was the original melody.
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest credits this to "Frank Baker," but that is merely the name used in his text. Since the name is "Frank Taylor" in other versions, I don't think that can be regarded as definitive. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R186

State of Arkansas, The (The Arkansas Traveler II) [Laws H1]

DESCRIPTION: A traveler arrives in Arkansas and finds that it fully meets his (lack of) expectations. He "never knowed what misery was till I come to Arkansas." His boss had promised that the state would make him a different man, and he is: He is now badly starved
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: poverty humorous hardtimes starvation
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (32 citations):
Laws H1, "The Arkansas Traveler"
Randolph 347, "The State of Arkansas" (4 texts plus 2 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 288-290, "The State of Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 347A)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 424-426, "Bill Stafford" (2 texts)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 49-50, "Bill Stafford" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 363, "My Name is John Johanna" (1 text)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 560-566, "Way Out in Idaho" (2 texts, 1 tune; the main text and tune are "Way Out in Idaho (I)", but a secondary text is a version of this piece)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 331, "Arkansas Traveller (II)" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 331, "Arkansas Traveler (II)" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 138, "Arkansas Traveler (II)" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 80, p. 208, "Tocowa" (1 short text with "Tocowa," not Arkansas, the site of the singer's bad experience)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 190, "The State of Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 226-228, "Sanford Barnes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 52, "The Arkansaw Traveler" (2 texts)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 8-9, "The Arkansas Navvy" (1 text)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 210-212, "William Stafford" (1 text)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 171-172, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 176-177)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 152-153, "State of Arkansas" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 434, "The Arkansaw Traveler" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 71, "The State of Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 167, "The State of Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 53, "An Arkansaw Traveller" (3 texts)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 25-27, "Bill Stafford" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 170, "Old Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 42, pp. 74-76, "An ARkansas Traveller (Bill Stafford)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 44, "My Name Is John Johanna" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H0, p. 53, "The State of Arkansaw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 225-226, "Old Arkansas" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 46, "The State of Arkansas" (1 text)
DT 643, STATEARK* STATARK2*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 46-53, texts of both "The Arkansas Traveler" and "The State of Arkansas," with folktale variants, a reproduction of a painting of the fiddler and traveler, and background information
Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 402-403, "William Stafford" (1 text)
Roud #257
RECORDINGS:
Almanac Singers, "State of Arkansas" (General 5018A, 1941; on Almanac01, Almanac03, AlmanacCD1)
Paddy Duggan, "Arkansas" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Kelly Harrell, "My Name is John Johanna" (Victor 21520A, 1927; on KHarrell02, AAFM1, HardTimes1)
Pete Seeger, "State of Arkansas" (on PeteSeeger19, AmHist2)
Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry, "Arkansas Traveller" (on SeegerTerry)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Barnyards o' Delgaty" (theme)
cf. "Joe Bowers" (tune -- some versions)
cf. "Diamond Joe (I)" (tune, lyrics)
cf. "Way Out in Idaho (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [97 words]: This should not be confused with the fiddle tune "Arkansas Traveler," or with the minstrel-show sketch from which it derives. -PJS
Paul Stamler reports that this is "Credited to Sanford Barnes of Buffalo, [Missouri]." Many other authors, however, have been listed, e.g. Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety knows of an attribution to T. W. Shelton and another to Pat Kelly. Carmer credits Ransom C. Cook. Eckstorm traces it back to "Canada I O." I incline to think all the claims false -- though I wouldn't be surprised if the author really was from Missouri.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LH01

State of Arkansaw, The

See The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II) [Laws H1] (File: LH01)

State of Illinois, The

See The Plains of Illinois (File: FSC089)

State Song, The

See The States Song (What Did Delaware?) (File: CAFS1162)

Stately Southerner, The

See Paul Jones the Privateer [Laws A3] (File: LA03)

States and Capitals

DESCRIPTION: A catalog of the capital cities of various states, starting perhaps in the northeast: "Maine, the capital is Augusta...." Versions may add additional details, e.g. "...Augusta, on the Kennebeck River"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Randolph); Stout-FolkloreFromIowa's informants thought it was in existence in 1864
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 878, "States and Capitals" (2 texts, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 80-81, "Capitals of the States" (1 text, 1 tune, with only three states, all in New England)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 138, "States and Capitals" (1 text, with only five states, all in New England)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 103, pp. 127-133, "Early Iowa School Songs" (11 texts, of which the "B" text is this song; this version too has only five verses, all from the northeastern U.S.)
Roud #7543
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The States" (list of states)
NOTES [137 words]: This seems to have been at one time a widespread song to help children learn geography (in which it failed, since almost none of the informants could remember much).
Whether this is actually a single song is perhaps open to question; the texts in Randolph are very different, and this is perhaps a topic that several schoolmarm/songwriters might have tackled.
The information is also sorely out of date. Since the song was sung in the 1880s, of course, it lacks at least half a dozen states. Even for the states that are listed, the data is inaccurate (e.g. the capital of Maryland is Annapolis, not Baltimore, and Rhode Island and Connecticut have only one capital city each, though Randolph's "A" text lists Providence and Newport for Rhode Island, while "B" gives New Haven and Hartford as capital of Connecticut). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R878

States Song, The (What Did Delaware?)

DESCRIPTION: "What did Delaware, boys, what did Delaware, I ask you again as a personal friend, what did...." "She wore a New Jersey, boys...." "What did Iowa, boys,..." "She weighed a Washington...." And so forth, through as many states and puns as possible
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Camp Clavell and Girl Reserve Club Songs)
KEYWORDS: wordplay humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 162-163, "What Did Delaware?" (1 text plus some assorted lyrics)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 206-207 "The States Song" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #107, pp. 31-32, "The State Song" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 277, "What Did Delaware" (notes only)
Roud #15378
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ida Ho" (device of using state songs as personal names)
cf. "Austria Was Hungary" (technique)
cf. "What Makes the Wild Cat Wild?" (the "personal friend" lyric)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
What Did Tennessee?
The Song of States
File: CAFS1162

States, The

DESCRIPTION: The names of the American states, sung to something that can hardly be called a tune: "Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas... West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2023 (Derek Piotr collection)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | states
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Sheila Klapper, "The States" (Piotr-Archive #628, recorded 08/03/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "States and Capitals" (list of states)
NOTES [55 words]: There is a certain technical virtuosity in this, in that the singer manages to find some sort of melody for all the state names, but I find myself thinking that, unlike most teaching songs, having a tune just makes it harder to remember. The version in the Piotr archive must be fairly new, since it includes Alaska and Hawaii. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio628

Station Cook, The

DESCRIPTION: "The song I'm going to sing about will not detain you long, It is all about a station cook we had at old Pinyong." The singer says that the cook's work "gave us all the stomach ache all through the shearing time." He will blame the cook if he turns sick
AUTHOR: The Australian Star version was either written or submitted by P. J. McGovery
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (The Australian Star)
KEYWORDS: cook disability disease hardtimes warning food
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 90-91, "The Station Cook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 208-210, "The Shearer's Hardships" (1 text)
NOTES [26 words]: Fowler's Bay is on the south coast of Australia, roughly 300 miles northwest of Adelaide. I'm guessing that "Pinyong" is Penong on the shores of the bay. - RBW
File: PASB090

Station of Knocklong, The

DESCRIPTION: "The news has spread through Ireland... Sean Hogan he was rescued At the Station of Knocklong." Hogan's guards are overpowered, and two of them killed, by rebels; Hogan is freed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion escape rescue death IRA
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1919 - Irish terrorists Sean Treacy and Sean Hogan capture a load of explosives from the British, killing two policemen in the process. When Hogan is captured, Treacy rescues him, killing two more policemen along the way
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 60-61, "The Station of Knocklong" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. ""Sean Treacy" (for the story of Treacy)
cf. "Tipperary Far Away" (for the death of Sean Treacy)
NOTES [196 words]: For the Soloheadbeg incident, in which a group of Irish irregulars attacked a British explosives truck, see the notes to "Sean Treacy." Among those involved in the raid were Sean Hogan, Treacy, and Dan Breen.
According to Calton Younger, Ireland's Civil War, p. 92, Hogan was captured while visiting friends, though his identity was not realized until later.
It is uncertain whether there was resistance from the British forces at Soloheadbeg, though it seems unlikely. In the case of Knocklong, it seems pretty clear that there wasn't. Robert Kee, in Ourselves Alone, being volume III of The Green Flag, p. 72, cites Breen to the effect that the Irish decided to shoot first to prevent British guards from killing the prisoner.
The casualties at first seemed close to even: Treacy was shot in the throat, Breen through the lung. Both managed to survive.
Ironically, though much would be heard of Treacy and Breen in the coming years, Hogan faded into obscurity. He was part of an attempt to assassinate Viceroy French, but the attempt failed and a casual check of four histories and a biographical dictionary showed no other references to his life after Knocklong. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: PGa060

Stavin Chain

DESCRIPTION: "Stavin Chain he's dead and gone, Left me to carry the good work on, Evrybody ought to be like Stavin Chain." The singer complains about river life, misses his woman, and says that everyone should be like Stavin Chain. (His sexual exploits are described.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from "Tricky Sam")
KEYWORDS: river work separation sex animal
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 305-306, "Stavin' Chain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 16-17, "Stavin Chain" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MWhee016 (Full)
Roud #9994
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singer, "Stavin' Chain" (on Unexp1)
Zuzu Bollin, "Stavin' Chain" (Torch 6912, n.d.)
Wilson Jones (Stavin' Chain), "Stavin' Chain" (on "Field Recordings Vol. 16 Alabama-Louisiana-Arkansas-Texas (1934-1940)," Document Records CD DOCD-5675 (2004))
Blind Willie McTell, "Chainey" (on USWMcTell01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Howard" (lyrics)
NOTES [128 words]: I would not have considered Willie McTell's "Chainey" to be a version of "Stavin' Chain" without Allan Balfour's liner notes to USWMcTell01. McTell's version has no "dead and gone" theme but there is a tag line that fits the "Stavin' Chain" pattern -- "Lord, lord, lord-y lord, Nobody love like Chainey do" -- and verses to support the tag line. As a performance, McTells's recording is close, in tune and style, to Wilson Jones's. Jones also has no "dead and gone" theme and says "You know you can do just like Chainey did." Incidentally, the McTell/Jones tunes and structures are close to Lil Johnson's "Stavin' Chain" (her text -- "you can't ride, honey you can't ride this train, I'm the chief engineer, gonna run it like Stavin' Chain" -- does not fit here).- BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: MWhee016

Stay a Little Longer

See cf. Shinbone Alley (Stay a Little Longer, Long Time Ago) (File: Br3422)

Stay in dat Field

See Stay in the Field (File: Bart027B)

Stay in the Field

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Stay in the field, Stay in the field o warrior, Stay on the field, 'Til the war is ended." Verse: "My eyes are turned to the heavenly gate, I'll keep on my way or I'll be too late" "Green trees burning, why not dry, My Saviour died, why not I"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns); 1893 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute) (see notes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious war Devil floatingverses Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 27, "Stay in the Field" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 22, "Stay in de Field" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 103 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 71, "Stay in the Field" (1 text)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 243, "Stay in dat Field" (1 text)
Roud #12084
RECORDINGS:
Freddie Palmer and The McIntosh County Shouters, ("Stay in the Field") (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation)
NOTES [144 words]: Work has this text on a page headed "Songs of Courage." The other song, "March on and you shall gain the victory" and "This is the year of Jubilee, You shall gain the victory" [indexed as "March ON" - RBW] also refers simultaneously to the war against slavery and the war against Satan.
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses include the floater, "The tallest tree in Paradise, The Christians call the Tree of Life." The second and fourth line of each verse is "Until the war is ended."
The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett] has "Stay in the field" on page 103 (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 103.
The first song on the McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation video is this one, unannounced. It shows a "ring shout." - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Bart027B

Stay on the Farm

DESCRIPTION: "Come, boy, I have something to tell you... You're thinking of leaving the farm, boy; Don't be in a hurry to go." He warns against the city's vices, and points out that the farm is safe and, over time, will offer as much gold as the mines of Nevada
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: family farming money
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 865, "Stay on the Farm" (1 text)
Roud #7535
File: R865

Stay, Father, Stay

DESCRIPTION: A child, whose mother is already dead, is dying. (S)he appeals to father to remain by the bedside and not to leave until (s)he is dead: "Stay, father, stay, the night is wild, Oh leave not your dying child, I feel the icy hand of death...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Randolph); 19C (Wolf)
KEYWORDS: death disease drink orphan father
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 329, "Stay, Father, Stay" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #542, p. 36, "The Dying Girl's Appeal" (2 references)
Roud #7802
File: R329

Steal 'Way to Jedus

See Steal Away (File: CNFM042)

Steal Apples for Me

DESCRIPTION: "Steal apples, steal apples, Steal apples for me, And while you steal apples, Steal peaches for me." "Let all of the ladies Go enter the ring...." "And when you're done swinging, Remember my call, Take the next lady And promenade all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: dancing playparty theft food floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 584, "Steal Apples for Me" (1 text)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 176-177, "Steal Apples" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7672
File: R584

Steal Away

DESCRIPTION: Recognized by the chorus, "Steal away, steal away to Jesus... I ain't got long to stay here." Verses may have to do with the end of the world; the singer reports that "The trumpet sounds within my soul"
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (College Songs)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 111-111,App.VII, "Steal Away to Jesus" (2 texts, 2 tunes; p. 152 in the 1909 edition)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 89, "Steal Away to Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 42, "Steal Away" (partial text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 298, "Steal Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 84-85, "Steal Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 281-282, "Steal Away to Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 366, "Steal Away" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 57, "Steal Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), p. 127, "Oh, Steal Away" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
DT, STEALAWY*
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 33, "Steal Away" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 127 in the 1876 edition)
Roud #11965
RECORDINGS:
Cotton Pickers Quartet, "Steal Away to Jesus" (OKeh 8878, 1931)
Dinwiddie Colored Quartet, "Steal Away" (Victor 1716, 1902) (Monarch 1716, 1902)
Emory University Glee Club, "Steal Away to Jesus" (Victor 20594, 1927)
Fisk University Male Quartette, "Steal Away to Jesus" (Columbia A2803, 1919)
Fisk University Jubilee Singers, "Steal Away to Jesus" (Columbia 562-D, 1926)
Red Foley, "Steal Away" (Decca 14505, 1949)
Gullah Kinfolk, "Steal 'Way to Jedus" (on USSeaIsland04)
Roland Hayes, "Steal Away" (Vocalion [US & UK] 21003, n.d.; Supertone, 1931)
Rev. H. B. Jackson, "Steal Away" (OKeh 8919, 1931; rec. 1929)
Turner Junior Johnson, "Steal Away" (AFS 6609 A4, 1942; on LC10)
Paramount Jubilee Singers, "Steal Away to Jesus" (Paramount 12072, 1923)
Paul Robeson, "Steal Away" (HMV [UK] B-8103, 1934)
Noble Sissle's Southland Singers, "Steal Away to Jesus" (Pathe 20483, 1921)
Soul Stirrers, "Steal Away" (Aladdin 2001, rec. 1946)
Horace Sprott, "Steal Away to Jesus" (on MuSouth03)
Standard Quartette, "Steal Away to Jesus" (CYL: Columbia, no #, rec. 1894)
Tuskegee Institute Singers, "Steal Away" (Victor 17890, 1916)
Tuskegee Quartet, "Steal Away to Jesus" (Victor 20519, 1927; rec. 1926)
Vaughan Quartet, "Steal Away" (Vaughan 300, rec. 1921.)
Kinsey West, "Steal Away to Jesus" (on BlackAmRel1)
NOTES [70 words]: Given the song's popularity among Black musicians, and in the Black community, it is hard not to read an "escape from slavery" subtext into the song. -PJS
According to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 51, this was composed by Wallace Willis, who apparently gave songs to the Fisk Jubilee Singers. But I know of no documentation for this claim. That the Fisk Jubliee Singers introduced it to the wider world seems certain. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: CNFM042

Steal Away Rang Tang Doolay

DESCRIPTION: "Steal away, rang tang doolay (x2), Stole my pretty girl, rang tang doolay (x2)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: abandonment playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 548, "Steal Away" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: BrS5549

Steal Mis' Liza

See Steal, Miss Liza (II) (File: KiWa234S)

Steal, Miss Liza (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I've got a man and you've got none, Little Liza Jane... O Eliza, Little Liza Jane." "You swing mine and I'll swing yours...." "I've got a house in Baltimo', Forty-'leven children on the floor...." "I steal yours and you steal mine...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 263, "Steal, Miss Liza" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LoF263

Steal, Miss Liza (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Steal, Miss Liza, Miss Liza Jane (x2), Dat ol' man ain't got no wife; I wouldn't have to save his life, Miss Liza Jane." "My ol' mistress promise me, When she die, she'd set me free." "She lib so long, she go bald, And decided not to die at all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: slavery courting husband wife playparty floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 234-236, "Steal Mis' Liza" (1 text)
Roud #16390
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Ole Mistus Promised Me" (lyrics) and references there
File: KiWa234S

Stealin', Stealin'

DESCRIPTION: "Stealin', stealin', pretty mama don't you tell on me, I'm stealin' back to my same old used to be." "Now put your arms around me like a circle 'round the sun...." The singer loves a married woman; it's gotten him in trouble. He says this proves his love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Memphis Jug Band)
KEYWORDS: love adultery
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 79, "Stealin', Stealin'" (1 text)
DT, STEALN
RECORDINGS:
Memphis Jug Band, "Stealin' Stealin'" (1928)
NOTES [29 words]: Hendrick van Kampen points me to sources attributing this to Gus Cannon and Will Shade. Under the circumstances, I have little choice but to list the author as unknown. - RBW
File: FSWB079A

Stealing Grapes

DESCRIPTION: "What are you doing in my vineyard? Stealing grapes. What will you do if the black man comes? Rush through if I can."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty food theft
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #115, "Stealing Grapes" (1 text)
File: Newe115

Stealing of the King's Deer, The

See Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)

Steam Arm, The

DESCRIPTION: "A curious soldier I am told, About a soldier fierce and bold." The soldier loses his arm in battle and can no longer fight with his wife. He acquires a steam-powered replacement arm. He fights off his wife -- and knocks down the jail and the mayor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (collected from Nancy Stevenson by Boswell); 19C (Wolf)
KEYWORDS: technology humorous soldier injury disability wife husband prison
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond)) US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 61, pp. 101-102, "The Steam Arm (A Curious Story)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2248, p. 152, "The Steam Arm" (1 reference)
Roud #4817
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 146, "The Steam Arn" ("Oh, wonders sure, will never cease"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(3655), J. Pitts (London); Harding B 11(3657), J. Whiting (Birmingham), 1833-1835; Firth b.25(284), W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle), 1832-1842; Harding B 11(3656); Harding B 18(453); Harding B 11(4159); Harding B 11942); Johnson Ballads 2810; Johnson Ballads 1357
File: BoWo061

Steam Doctor, The

DESCRIPTION: "Steam Doctor, steam till you're ready to faint; Without ever stoppping to ask your complaint. He gives No. 6 and lobelia so fast That within a few hours you're breathing your last These hard times!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: disease doctor death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 442-443, "The Steam Doctor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7832
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rigs of the Times" (form, lyrics)
NOTES [83 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety assumes that this is a satire of the methods of Dr. Samuel Thomson (1769-1843), who according to the Dictionary of American Biography was "originator of the 'Thomsonian system' of treatment by vegetable remedies and the vapor bath."
The song seems to have been built from "The Rigs of the Times," but since Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's single stanza seems to be all that survives, it's difficult for us to say more. - RBW
File: Beld442

Steam from the Whistle

DESCRIPTION: "Steam from the whistle, Smoke from the stack, Going to the graveyard To bring my baby back, Oh, my li'l baby, Why don't you come back?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: railroading burial separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 242, (no title) (1 short text)
File: ScNF242A

Steam Ship

DESCRIPTION: "If a steam ship weighed ten thousand tones And sailed five thousand miles... If the mate was each six feet talls And the captain just the same; Would you multiply or subtract To find the captain's name?" The singer admits "I can't do that sum"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: riddle ship technology
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 151, "Steam Ship" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 151, "Steam Ship" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #15886
NOTES [25 words]: This looks to me like a parody of the "story problems" children are sometimes assigned. The information in the riddle is not sufficient for solution. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3151

Steam Tug Olson, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come listen to me one and all, A story I will tell, Of the wreck of a gallant tug one night." The Olson, of Buffalo, steamed out of the harbor seeking something to tow. The boat begins to sink, and the engines fail. Only two men are rescued
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (collected from "Francie" Roddy by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster death
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 217-219, "The Steam Tug Olson" (1 text)
Roud #19869
NOTES [71 words]: Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors observes that, in the early age of steam, tugs had steam power but long-haul vessels generally did not, so tugs did a brisk business hauling sailing ships into harbor. As more of the larger vessels were powered, the tugs found less work -- and sometimes went far from their home ports to seek it. Since tugs are rarely very seaworthy, disasters like this one resulted. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM217

Steamboat Bill

DESCRIPTION: The Whippoorwill, steered by Steamboat Bill, is ordered "to try to beat the record of the Robert E. Lee." Provoked by a gambler, Bill drives the boat so hard that the boiler explodes. Bill's wife says that her next husband will be a railroad man.
AUTHOR: Words: Ren Shields / Music: Leighton Brothers see NOTES
EARLIEST DATE: 1910
LONG DESCRIPTION: The Whippoorwill, steered by Steamboat Bill, is ordered "to try to beat the record of the Robert E. Lee." Provoked by a gambler, Bill drives the boat so hard that the boiler explodes, with Bill betting he will fly higher than the gambler. People all along the river mourn. Bill's wife says that her next husband will be a railroad man.
KEYWORDS: ship technology disaster death gambling
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 100-101, "Steamboat Bill" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 16, "Steamboat Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 206, "Steamboat Bill" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 535-536, "Steamboat Bill"
Roud #11218
RECORDINGS:
Al Bernard, "Steamboat Bill" (Grey Gull 4177/Radiex 4177/Van Dyke 74177, 1928)
Smiley Burnett, "Steamboat Bill" (Decca 5685, 1939; rec. 1938)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Steamboat Bill" (OKeh 40306, 1925; rec. 1924)
Arthur Collins, "Steamboat Bill" (Columbia A1005, 1911) (Victor 16867, 1911) (CYL: Everlasting 379-1 (1911), on Protobilly)
Dixon's Clod Hoppers, "Steamboat Bill" (Vocalion 15862, 1931; rec. 1930)
Jack Kaufman, "Steamboat Bill" (Columbia A2809, 1919; Diva 2480-G [as Jack Wilson], 1927)
Beatrice Kay, "Steamboat Bill" (Columbia 36941, 1946; rec. 1945)
Kessinger Brothers, "Steamboat Bill" (Brunswick 563, rec. 1930)
Edward Meeker, "Steamboat Bill" (Edison 50886, 1921)
Riley Puckett, "Steamboat Bill" (Columbia 113-D [as George Riley Puckett], 1924)
Bob Roberts, "Steamboat Bill" (Phono-Cut 5112, c. 1914)
Ernest Rogers, "Steamboat Bill" (Victor 20798, 1927)
Paul Tremaine & his Orch. "Steamboat Bill" (Columbia 2229-D, 1930)
Varsity Eight, "Steamboat Bill" (Cameo 1266/Romeo 500, 1927)
Fred Wilson [probably a pseud. for Jack Kaufman, but I don't know for sure], "Steamboat Bill" (Harmony 5118-H, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Casey Jones (I)" [Laws G1] (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Scissor Bill (by Joe Hill) (File: LDC547)
Earl McDonald's Original Louisville Jug Band, "Casey Bill" (Columbia 14371-D, 1928; rec. 1927; on GoodForWhatAilsYou, Protobilly)
Delmore Brothers, "Steamboat Bill Boogie" (King 1023,1951; on Protobilly)
NOTES [145 words]: "Steamboat Bill" is usually considered a parody of "Casey Jones." Earl McDonald's "Casey Bill," in turn, is a parody of "Steamboat Bill," in which Steamboat Bill has a race down the Mississippi -- against Casey Jones. - PJS
There is some dispute about the authorship of this. Everyone seems to agree that Ren Shields wrote the words. Someone (I'm not sure who) claimed that F. A. Mills wrote the music. What Mills actually did was publish it. Fuld, Gardner, and others say that Bert Leighton & Frank Leighton wrote it. I am (almost) sure this is correct.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 295, estimates that this was the tenth most popular song in America in 1911, peaking at #3 in July 1911 (#1 for the year being Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FCW016

Steamer Alexander, The

DESCRIPTION: Tuesday, July 30, Alexander leaves Newcastle. Galley, a passenger, falls overboard and drowns. The song wonders who he was, and what his girl will feel
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: drowning river ship death
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 1, "The Steamer Alexander" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi001 (Partial)
Roud #9206
NOTES [89 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "The song was made up by 'a man from Neguac.' It tells of a moonlight excursion on the passenger steamer Alexandra, and how Theodore Galley fell overboard and was drowned. These excursions were popular entertainment on the Miramichi River in the 1890's and early 1900's... The composers of these laments like to fix in them the day and date and the time of day of the incident they describe."
Taking that statement for what it's worth, Tuesday, July 30, occurred in 1891, 1896, 1902, 1913 and 1919. - BS
File: MaWi001

Steamer Idaho, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the sixth day of November, On a dark and stormy night... The papers gave a warning Of a fierce and awful storm," but "The captain gave his order." The greedy owners ignore the warnings. Nineteen men die when the Idaho sinks
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1952 (Walton collection)
KEYWORDS: ship storm disaster death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 228-229, "The Steamer Idaho" (1 text)
Roud #19862
NOTES [173 words]: Blaming greedy owners is a commonplace in disaster songs, but it seems to have been unusually suitable in this case. According to Mark L. Thompson,Graveyards of the Lakes (Wayne State University Press, 2000), p. 336, the steamer Idaho was built in 1863, and based on the drawing on p. 337, she looked rather like the Lady Elgin.
By 1897, she was clearly obsolete, and indeed had been withdrawn from service in the early 1890s. In 1897, though, freight prices were very high, so her owners hastily put her back in service. Hardly the ship to face the gales of November! And, indeed, it was only about a month later when she faced the storm which sank her. Thompson agrees with the song in saying that 19 sailors died. According to Bruce D. Berman, Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks (Mariner's Press, 1972), p. 247, the sinking took place seven miles from Old Cut Light near Long Point, Ontario.
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors say that two men who clung to the mast were saved. All others aboard were lost. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM229

Steamer Wyoming, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye joky seamen, Now, as it's getting late, And I'll sing you my experiance On a bad package freight." Sailing on the Wyoming "almost proved my ruin": The captain is mean, the mates ruinous, and the rest of the crew unfit for their tasks
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1952 (collected from John E. Hayes by Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, p. 112, "The Steamer Wyoming" (1 short text)
Roud #19893
File: WGM112A

Steamship Deane, The

DESCRIPTION: Deane leaves Harbour Grace for Hawke's Harbour with 50 whalers. "Making full speed she lands upon a rock." All are saved by the Penguin light keeper.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: rescue sea ship wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 23, 1935 - Deane wrecked on North Penguin Shoals. (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 29, "The Steamship Deane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #30703
NOTES [13 words]: Northern Shipwrecks Database lists the cause as "Stranded. Navigation error." - BS
File: LeBe029

Steamship Leinster Lass, The

See The SS Leinster Lass (File: HHH808)

Steel Laying Holler

DESCRIPTION: Foreman's instructions for laying a railroad iron, with variations to fit the particular situation. E.g. "Awright, awright, Ev'rybody get ready. Come on down here. Come on, boys. Bow down. Awright, up high, Awright, throw 'way...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: work railroading nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 10-12, "Steel Laying Holler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15100
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roustabout Holler"
cf. "Levee Camp Holler"
File: LxA010

Steel Mill, The

DESCRIPTION: "The mill O, the mill O, The weary, weary mill O; O' the steel mill I've had my fill, And wish it at the de'il O." The singer wishes he were at any other job. Hard as the work is, the flour is poor. Finally he declares that he will quit
AUTHOR: Words: John Blair
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (Blair, "Lays of the Old Identities," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: work miller hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 26-27, "The Steel Mill" (1 text)
File: BaRo026

Steel-Driving Man, The

See John Henry [Laws I1] (File: LI01)

Stella Kenney [Laws F37]

DESCRIPTION: Stella Kenney is murdered on her way home after spending ten months with her uncle Rob Frazier. Frazier, married and with three children, is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: homicide incest prison trial family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1917 (?) - Murder of Stella Kenney. She was pregnant; presumably her uncle was the father
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws F37, "Stella Kenney"
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #69, "Stella Kenny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 151-153, (no title; Thomas's informant called the girl "Stell" or "Stellie," not "Stella") (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 157-159)
ST LF37 (Partial)
Roud #2273
NOTES [203 words]: The details in this song seem to be mostly accurate. According to Roberts/Agey-InThePine, Robert Frazure was the brother of Stella Kenny's mother. Stella came to live with Frazure as a 17-year-old; she came to help out Frazure's wife, who was pregnant for the fourth time and having problems with the pregnancy. In this period, Frazure apparently sent a letter to a doctor asking for a medicine to cause a miscarriage.
Eventually the Kennys asked that Stella come home. Frazure, after some delay, set out in a buggy. Along the way, near the town of Olive Hill (about forty miles east of Lexington), residents heard screams. When they came to the rescue, they found that Stella had been badly beaten about the head; Frazure had some scratches and bruises. He claimed they had been attacked by robbers.
There seems to be no other evidence for the existence of said robbers.
Stella died without saying anything useful about what happened to her. An autopsy showed her to be about four months pregnant.
Frazure was tried three times for murder; the third time, the jury sentenced him to life imprisonment. He was released early because he had tuberculosis. Roberts does not offer information about his date of death. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LF37

Stella Kenny

See Stella Kenney [Laws F37] (File: LF37)

Stella, Stella Dressed in Black

DESCRIPTION: "Stella, Stella, dressed in black, Sat down on a carpet tack, Jumped right up and hollered Hell! How many times did Stella yell? One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Missouri Folklore, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: clothes colors injury jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #530, "Stella, Stella, dressed in black" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack, Jack Sat on a Tack" (lyric of sitting on a tack)
NOTES [36 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes links this with "Cinderella Dressed in Yellow." But I could equally see linking it with "Mary Mack (I)," and the idea is found in "Charlie Chaplin Sat on a Pin." So I'm keeping it separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AJRR530

Step in a Hole

See Step on a Crack (File: SaKo120A)

Step It Away

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, step it away, you pretty boys! Step it away your time! God bless your body, When your legs keep time."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (recording, Jasper Smith and Levi Smith)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
RECORDINGS:
Jasper Smith and Levi Smith, "Step It Away" (on Voice11)
NOTES [21 words]: The current description is all of the Voice11 fragment. The notes for Voice11 describe it as "a comic jingle" to a dance tune. - BS
File: RcStepIA

Step It Up and Go

DESCRIPTION: Verses about situations that force (someone) to "step it up and go." The singer's woman no longer loves him. The singer flees the gun of a man whose woman he has been courting. In a river, he meets an alligator. And so forth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1935 (recording, Blind Boy Fuller)
KEYWORDS: love animal travel floatingverses
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 79, "Step It Up and Go" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Boy Fuller, "Step It Up and Go" (Columbia 37230, 1947 -- presumably a reissue)
Maddox Bros. & Rose "New Step It Up and Go" (4-Star 1549, n.d. but at least 1947)
Tommy McClennan, "Shake It Up and Go" (Bluebird 34-0716, 1944)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Salty Dog" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Bottle Up and Go"
SAME TUNE:
Brownie McGhee, "Step It Up and Go No. 2" (OKeh 06698, 1942)
NOTES [39 words]: This song and "Bottle Up and Go" look very alike at first glance, but the verses seem to be very different. They might both be "Salty Dog" spinoffs. Until I see an intermediate version, I am (tentatively) classifying them separately. - RBW
File: FSWB079B

Step on a Crack

DESCRIPTION: "Step on a crack, (You'll) break your mother's back, Step on a hole, (You'll) break your mother's (sugar bowl)." Similarly "ditch... mother's nose will itch"; "dirt... tear your father's shirt"; "nail... in jail"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: nonballad warning
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 120, "(Step on a crack)" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #503, p. 214, "(Step in a hole)"
Roud #19442
File: SaKo120A

Step Stone

See Goodbye to My Stepstone (File: R853)

Stepmother, The

See I Cannot Call Her Mother (The Marriage Rite is Over; The Stepmother) (File: R726)

Sterling Price

DESCRIPTION: "Sterling Price he was a brave man, He will clean out Dixie Land." "Sterling Price he marched to Lexington And there he took old Mulligan." "Sterling Price he wheeled his men about And cut the Dutch into sauerkraut." "Rinktum-polle-rodel-day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 10, 1861 - Battle of Wilson's Creek
Sep 20, 1861 - Capture of James A. Mulligan (1830-1864), then a colonel, and his force at Lexington
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 355, "Sterling Price" (1 fragmentary text)
Roud #7769
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old General Price" (subject)
cf. "The Jolly Union Boys" and references there (concerning Battle of Wilson's Creek)
NOTES [322 words]: Sterling Price (1809-1867), a former governor of Missouri and Confederate commander of Missouri troops, was not initially anti-Union, but the behavior of Union partisans caused him to turn Confederate.
Price started raising militia forces, and these formed the larger part, but not all, of the Confederate army at the Battle of Wilson's Creek. After the Confederates won that battle, Price was able to advance and capture the garrison of Lexington (some 3000 men under Mulligan, who could have been saved had any of the other local Union officers obeyed orders), but it didn't change the strategic situation much; Price retreated into Arkansas soon after.
Even allowing for its fragmentary state, this item is rather confused. As noted, Wilson's Creek came before Lexington. At that battle, the Union commander, Nathaniel Lyon, had tried a divergent attack, splitting off Franz Sigel's brigade (which was regarded as "Dutch," i.e. German) for an attack on the Confederate rear while the main body attacked from the other direction.
This strategy failed. Sigel was quickly routed, whereupon the remaining federal forces, outnumbered by something like 5:2, were forced into a slugging match. They were better soldiers than the utterly raw Confederates, and so were able to keep the field until their ammunition ran out, but then retired.
The confusion, though, arises from the fact that it was the troops of Ben McCulloch (the other Confederate commander at Wilson's Creek) which routed Sigel. But I know of no other battle in which Price defeated a primarily German force, unless perhaps it was the affair at Carthage (July 5, 1861), where Price induced Franz Sigel to retreat without a real fight.
I have the strange feeling that "Old General Price" and "Sterling Price" are a single piece, one being adapted from the other -- but since we don't have a single complete stanza of either, and only one tune, this is beyond proof. - RBW
File: Beld355A

Stern Old Bachelor

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes his life in the "little sod shanty dear to me." He is proud that "I'm a stern old bachelor, from matrimony free." He rejoices that he can live in squalor, snore all he wants, stay out late and never have to explain where he has been
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Chubby Parker)
KEYWORDS: bachelor home
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 481, "A Stern Old Bachelor" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 354-355, "The Old Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #82, "The Jolly Bachelor" (1 text, with a cheerier form than the others but still clearly the same song)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 449, "The Old Bachelor" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, STRNBACH*
Roud #4306
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Stern Old Bachelor" (Decca 5565, 1938; Montgomery Ward 8070, 1939)
Harry Conway [pseud. for Jerry White] "I'm a Stern Old Bachelor" (Radiex 4262, 1928; Van Dyke 74262 [possibly as Ben Litchfield], 1929)
Chubby Parker, "I'm a Stern Old Bachelor" (Champion 15247 [as Smilin' Tubby Johnson]/Silvertone 5012, 1927; Supertone 9188, 1928) (Conqueror 7888, 1931)
NOTES [39 words]: There is a song with a similar theme, "The Jolly Bachelor," found in many nineteenth century broadsides and songsters. I'm slightly tempted to lump them, but Roud separates them (that song is Roud V1008), so I have done the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R481

Steve O'Donnell's Wate

DESCRIPTION: "Steve O'Donnell was an Irishman, as everybody has said. He was loved by all his friends, both rich and poor." He dies; his family mourns; he is prepared for burial. At the wake, one man jokes that O'Donnell was Jewish, and everyone fights and gets drunk
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: death mourning Jew humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah,, #168, "Steve O'Donnell's Wake" (1 text)
Roud #10921
File: Hubb168

Stewart Family, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on a Saturday afternoon, A wee before the sun gaed doon, that Ewan [MacColl] cam fae London Toon, To meet the Stewart family." They exchange songs and advice; the singer jokes that Ewan's family must have been tough to put up with the Stewarts
AUTHOR: Belle Stewart (1906-1997)
EARLIEST DATE: 2006 (Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather)
KEYWORDS: travel music
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, pp. 91-92, "The Stewart Family" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21431
File: StQue091

Stewball

See Skewball [Laws Q22] (File: LQ22)

Stick My Head in a Paper Sack

DESCRIPTION: "Stick my head in a paper sack, Show dem niggers how to Cairo back. Shake dat flat foot. Shake dat flat foot."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 463, "Stick My Head in a Paper Sack" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 463, "Stick My Head in a Paper Sack" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11787
File: Br463

Stick to Your Mother, Tom

See Don't Leave Your Mother When Her Hair Turns Gray (File: R717)

Stick Your Head in the Porridge Pot

DESCRIPTION: "Stick your head in the porridge pot, And don't call me 'What?'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: wordplay
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 117, "Stick your head in the porridge pot" (1 text)
Roud #25528
NOTES [39 words]: Although this particular joke seems to be local to Ireland, the type of humor is common. In the American Midwest, for instance, I have often heard this not-very-funny gag: "Surely you jest." "I do not. And don't call me Shirley." Oy. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC117A

Sticking Out a Mile from Blarney

DESCRIPTION: Rhyming verses with a chorus: "God be with those merry merry days that we spent outside in Blarney." For example, "Blarney Castle stands up straight and the rocks and the rooms are underneath, If you ask for fish they'll give you meat, sticking out ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 110-111, "Sticking Out a Mile from Blarney" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [59 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "This is one of those songs with many verses; in convivial company the song often calls forth instant composition of new verses.... [The singer] remembers an old woman singing it on the Dublin train and she had a lot of verses about the war, Sean McEntee and De Valera. God knows what words they'll have for it in a few more years." - BS
File: OCan110

Stickit Ball a Hack'

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Jack t' the rack back Stickit ball a hack Low ball high ball Scallion jack."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 114, "Stickit Ball a Hack'" (1 text)
NOTES [58 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. Parrish writes, "... this curious song is half spoken in a lively fashion, to rhythmic hand clapping. When the verse is finished then [you do the chorus]."
Parrish has no verses but, I assume, they are like "my mother bought me x," "If x won't work then ..." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr114

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones

DESCRIPTION: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, But names will never hurt me." May continue with something like "When (I'm/you're) dead and in (my/your) grave, You'll suffer what you called me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: nonballad injury
FOUND IN: US(So) Britain New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 126, "(Sticks and stones)" (1 text)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 152, "(Sticks and Stones)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 75, "(Sticks and stones)" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 17, "(Sticks and stones)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 48, "(Sticks and stones may break my bones)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #25, "(Sticks and stones)" (1 text)
Roud #19255
File: SuSm126A

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones, Say What You Please When I'm Dead and Gone

DESCRIPTION: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, Say what you please when I'm dead and gone, But I'm gonna drink corn liquor till I die." Singer may admit that he is not respected, or "know you'll talk about me when I'm gone," but will enjoy himself now/hereafter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad death floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 39, "Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones" (1 text)
Roud #7860
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones"
NOTES [60 words]: Presumably related to the common rhyme "Sticks and stones will break my bones, But names will never hurt me" (for which see, e.g. Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 152, "(Sticks and Stones)" or Iona & Peter Opie, I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth, #25, "(Sticks and Stones)." This, however, takes a slightly different twist on the ending. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Br3039

Still Growing

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

Still I Love Him

See Do You Love an Apple? (File: K203)

Still the Night

See Silent Night (Still the Night, Stille Nacht) (File: FSWB384B)

Stille Nacht

See Silent Night (Still the Night, Stille Nacht) (File: FSWB384B)

Stingo

See (references to tune under) Mowing the Barley (Cold and Raw) (File: ShH60)

Stinkin' Cow, The

DESCRIPTION: One fine morning, Old McGee sends daughter Molly out with Johnny. They see a bull mating with a cow. Molly asks how the bull knows the cow is willing. Johnny answers, "tis by the smell." She says she stinks like the cow; they emulate the bovines
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (collected by Logsdon from Lew Pyle)
KEYWORDS: sex animal bawdy children
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 47, pp. 230-231, "The Stinkin' Cow" (1 text)
Roud #10103
File: Logss047

Stir the Wallaby Stew

DESCRIPTION: Dad's in jail, Mother unfaithful, the sheep are dead, the farm's for sale. Dad gets out, sees this, and goes back to jail. Chorus: "So stir the wallaby stew, Make soup of the kangaroo tail, I tell you things is pretty tough Since Dad got put in jail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957
KEYWORDS: work unemployment poverty hardtimes prison family mother father infidelity humorous
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 234, "Stir the Wallaby Stew" (1 text)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 134-135, "Wallaby Stew" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, p. 36, "Stir the Wallaby Stew" (1 tet)
Roud #8242
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Wallaby Stew" (on JGreenway01)
NOTES [782 words]: John Greenway writes of this piece, "Australia's Tobacco Roaders (without the sexual propensities of Jeeter Lester's relatives) are the delightful family of Dad and Dave and the other residents of Shingle Hut -- Mother, Mabel, Sal, Dan, Joe, and Cranky Jack. [The latter not a member of the family but a mentally disturbed man they were somewhat afraid of but kept on because he worked so hard and demanded so little. But in the edition I have of fhe book, he appears in just one chapter and is hardly mentioned again. I suspect Greenway did not actually read the book.]
"Originally the creation of the first great Australian humorist, Steele Rudd (Arthur Hoey Davis) in his books On Our Selection and Our New Selection, Dad and Dave were the archetype of the hard-working but hard-luck free selectors... but the characters were taken away from him and became progressively more lazy and stupid....
"'Wallaby Stew' is a shameful example of the degeneration of the Rudd family (as the tune is a degeneration of the "Bungaree" melody), but it represents an important area of Australian folklore."
Rudd [1868-1935] wrote the first portion of the story in 1895, and it was published in The Bulletin in that year; the complete book On Our Selection came out in 1899. The degradation described by Greenway took place in a movie and radio show which came out in Rudd's lifetime but in which he had no part; indeed, Wikipedia says he despised the result.
Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 83, write of the folk evolution of the characters, "Dad and Dave yarns portray Dave as a harmless simpleton, very much in the tradition of the widely distributed 'numb skull' folk stories.
I don't know how Rudd lost control of his copyright, but the publication history of his book is an incredible mess. The edition I have of On Our Selection was published in the A&R Classics series in 1953 (mine is the 1973 printing: Steele Rudd, On Our Selection, Angus & Robertson, 1973; ISBN 0207129533). This has a publisher's note which states that "In 1893 Steele Rudd contributed to the Bulletin the first of the series of sketches which later appeared in book form under the title On Our Selection, The book was published in 1899 by the Bulletin Newspaper Company, which in 1903 published Our New Selection. The copyright was purchased by the N.S.W. Bookstall Company, which in 1909 brought out new editions of both books, On Our Selection containing only chapters 1-16 of the original volume, chapters 17-26 and 7 additional chapters being issued under the title Stocking Our Selection in the same year."
Curiously, A&R apparently used this abbreviated form of On Our Selection while seemingly using the full text of Our New Selection.
That same publisher's note says that 250,000 copies of On Our Selection had been published by 1940. This in a country that had about seven million people at the time.
But it's not clear that Greenway's connection with Rudd is correct. Ron Edwards doesn't even mention Rudd in his notes on the song, which he had from A. L. Lloyd, who claimed to have it from Old Bush Songs. But this does not appear to be a reference to Banjo Paterson's book but to a later volume with the same name. Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads have no notes on it at all.
And I would add that Greenway is right that this song doesn't sound like Rudd's characters. In the book, Dad is perhaps unwise and stubborn, and frequently angry, but he is a hard worker who does the best for his family; he's not the sort to go to prison. The ninth story, "Dave's Snake-bite," in the eleventh paragraph in fact refers to Dad's "great presence of mind and ability." The third chapter in Our New Selection says that the family had had six straight years of good harvests and was was so prosperous that they were able to sell Shingle Hut for £400 and move off to new property.
The song talks about a "big brother Luke," but I haven't met a Luke; the brothers who are most active in the book are Dave and Joe.
And the Rudd family was already large at the very beginning of On Our Selection, and one daughter married and a son had gone roving early in the book. While Mother might have had "A shearer bloke forever within hail," is it likely that she is young enough that "the family will have grown a bit" after Dad gets out of jail?
On the other hand, the song is right in saying calling the mother "Mother," not "Mum," and the Rudds did have a neighbor named "Brown."
If I had to guess, I'd guess this isn't based on Rudd's characters, at least not as they appear in the book. But I won't claim to be certain. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Hodg234

Stir Up, We Beseech Thee

See Stir-Up Sunday Song (File: Simp142)

Stir-Up Sunday Song

DESCRIPTION: Song for "Stir-Up Sunday," the last Sunday before the beginning of Advent: "Stir up, we beseech thee, The pudding in the pot, And when we get home, We'll eat it all hot."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Simpson)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, p. 142, "(Stir up, we beseech thee)" (1 short text)
File: Simp142

Stobbie Parliament Song

DESCRIPTION: "In the shelter, oh, the shelter At the top of Albert Street, There's a sturdy crop of veterans Who regularly meet." Jamie Reid proposes that they all go for a drive. They set out about the area and have a picnic lunch. All enjoy it very much
AUTHOR: adapted by Jim Reid (source: Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee); original reportedly written c. 1908
KEYWORDS: travel food nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 56, "Stobbie Parliament Picnic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22225
NOTES [36 words]: This is what you get when you encourage people to think that songwriting is a virtue instead of something that interferes with the preservation of traditional songs. A song about a country tour and a picnic! Oy. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Gath056

Stockings Red and Garters Blue

See One O'Clock the Gun Went Off (File: AJRR423)

Stockman (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "To horse, boys, to horse! O'er the broad plains we ride, The sun for our compass, the bush for our guide." The stockman happily sets about his work. When the day is done and the horses are tired, the workers eat, drink, and relax
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: worker cattle horse nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, p. 206, "The Stockman I" (1 text, tune references)
File: AnSt206

Stockman (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "A bright sun and a loosened rein, A whip whose pealing sound Rings forth amid the forest trees...." The singer enjoys dealing with restless herds and handling his horse well. "The saddle was our childhood's home, Our heritage the whip."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: worker cattle horse
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 207-208, "The Stockman (II)" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: AnSt207

Stockman's Last Bed, The

DESCRIPTION: A song lamenting the death of poor Jack, the stockman, (gored to death by a cow). "And we laid him where wattles their sweet fragrance shed, And the tall gum tree shadows the stockman's last bed."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: death Australia lament
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 46, 92, "The Stockman's Last Bed" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, p. 87, "Down Where the Coolibahs Grow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 215-218, "The Stockman's Last Bed I/II" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, p. 168, "The Stockman's Last Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 54-55, "The Stockman's Last Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 84-86, "The Stockman's Last Bed" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 233-235, "The Stockman's Last Bed" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 302-304, "The Stockman's Last Bed" (1 text)
Roud #9113
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "The Stockman's Last Bed" (on JGreenway01)
NOTES [136 words]: Anderson reports that this is derived from "The Boatswain's Last Whistle" by Charles Dibdin (1865?), but Manifold questions this, observing that the tune does not fit well. Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong says that a George Moran claimed to have written it in 1863, but this version apparently was not published until 1885, twenty years after the first printing. Thus I'd consider the author uncertain.
Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 266, say of the Wattle "Folk name of the native [Australian] plant species Acacia. Wattle is a popular Australian icon, and is also favoured in folksong and popular verse for romantic and sentimental death scenes. Possibly due to this association, some people believe it is unluck to have wattle in the house. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: MA046

Stockmen of Australia, The

DESCRIPTION: "The stockmen of Australia, what rowdy boys are them." They curse, they ride hard, You can find him resting in camp, where he will give you a good welcome. He is the ladies' pet. He attends all fun events. The singer cheers for the stockmen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: worker animal nonballad
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 201-202, "The Stockmen of Australia" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 226, "The Stockmen of Australia" (1 text)
File: Macd226

Stodola Pumpa

See Walking at Night (Stodola Pumpa) (File: ACSF146N)

Stoker's Complaint, The

DESCRIPTION: "There are men in the Navy are known as POs, But what they are there for, the Lord only knows, They stand on the plates and they bawl and they shout, And order the poor old King's Dustmen about."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor navy work derivative
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 31, "The Stoker's Complaint" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mountains of Mourne" (tune)
File: Tawn016

Stoker's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "Down in the stokehold there's all sorts of jobs, Priming and topping and sorting out cobs." The chief stoker orders the stokers to work. The stokers beg the chief to let one of them go on sleeping
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor work derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 32-33, "The Stoker's Lament" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune) and references there
File: Tawnn017

Stokes's Verdict

See Jim Fisk [Laws F18] (File: LF18)

Stolen Bride, The

DESCRIPTION: "Down by the river, the willows grow tall, Whippoorwill calling, hear their sad call." The girl is in love with a man from a family who is feuding with her own. Her father captures her lover. She begs for his life; refused, she accepts death beside him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: love death hate hardheartedness family execution revenge feud homicide
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 20-21, "The Stolen Bride" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 33-34)
ST ThBa020 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down in the Valley" (tune)
cf. "Lady Maisry" [Child 65] (plot)
NOTES [21 words]: Not the best poetry, but a very strong theme; I'm surprised this piece hasn't been collected somewhere outside of Thomas. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa020

Stolen Child (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a boy playing in a field. The boy lives with gypsies. He says his parents are dead and he hopes to bring flowers to their grave.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3669))
KEYWORDS: abduction flowers death father mother orphan Gypsy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 168-170, "The Stolen Child" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1120
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3669), "The Stolen Child" ("Alone on the heather a fair child was straying"), Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Firth b.26(334), Johnson Ballads 1131, Harding B 11(3668), Firth c.14(190), Harding B 11(2579), Harding B 15(316b), "The Stolen Child"
LOCSheet, sm1857 620050, "Alone on the Heather, or, The Stolen Child" ("Alone on the heather a fair child was straying"), Oliver Ditson (Boston), 1857 (1 text, 1 tune)
File: KiTu168

Stolen Child (III), The

DESCRIPTION: "Where dips the rocky highland Of Sleuth Wood in the lake, There lies a leafy island...." "Come away, O human child, To the waters and the wild, With a faery, hand in hand." "Away with us he's going, The solemn-eyed" and will be seen no more
AUTHOR: William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) (source: Hoagland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems, according to Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: abduction magic separation | fairies island
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 179, "Away with us he's going" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 594-596, "The Stolen Child"
Roud #37297
File: KSUC179

Stolen Child, The (The Lindbergh Kidnapping)

DESCRIPTION: Catchall of Lindberg songs. Typical example: The singer will "tell you about the stolen baby." Lindbergh's infant is stolen from his home; the kidnapper demands money; after a great hue and cry, the baby is found, but is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: homicide mother father children abduction
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 1, 1932 - Kidnapping of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. (19 months old at the time). The kidnapper demands and receives $150,000, but the child is not returned
May 12, 1932 - The boy's body is found
Apr 3, 1936 - Execution of Bruno Hauptman, linked to the crime primarily by possession of some of the ransom money
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 147, (no title); pp. 148-150, "The Stolen Baby" (2 texts; the two are different metrically, but share enough phrases that I think it proper to lump them, since neither seems to have had real traditional vogue) (OakEd, pp. 153-156)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 72, (no title) (1 text); p. 73, (no title) (1 text in elementary German, tune referenced)
Roud #14051
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lindbergh's Baby" (subject)
NOTES [88 words]: The Lindburgh kidnapping, according to Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, inspired "several" songs, apart from Thomas's sundry items. Since none of them show any real evidence of traditional vogue (as opposed to, say, the equally-numerous Titanic songs), I'm lumping them here. (The case is different for "Lindbergh's Baby," which was taken from tradition; it has its own listing.)
William Butler Yeats wrote a song, "The Stolen Child." It is not related to any of the items filed here, and is filed as "The Stolen Child (III).". - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa147

Stomach Robber, The

DESCRIPTION: "You may talk about your pleasure trips... But... the Lucy Smith, She surely takes the cake." The cook looks good, but serves poor food from a disgusting galley. "They eat of the swill till their faces turn blue But their stomachs are robbed forthwith."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1953 (collected by Walton from Robert Collen)
KEYWORDS: cook food hardtimes sailor derivative
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 87-89, "The Stomach Robber" (1 text)
Roud #6555
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. ""A Trip on the Erie (Haul in Your Bowline)" (theme)
NOTES [39 words]: Roud combines this with "A Trip on the Erie (Haul in Your Bowline)," which is also a song about a bad cook, but the form is different enough that I think this a deliberate rewrite, although they likely come from the same original. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: WGM087

Stone and Lime

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a stranger, falls in love with Molly. They court "at the foot of yon mountain [where] there runs a clear stream." They marry in spite of her angry parents though he insists "it's not for her money it's her I adore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage money floatingverses father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #149, p. 2, "Thou Hast Been My Ruin"; #147, p. 2, ("Thou hast been my ruin") (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan6 1216, "Stone and Lime" (11 texts, 8 tunes)
Roud #1081
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gra Geal Mo Chroi" (II -- "Down By the Fair River") (lyrics)
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel" ("change the green and yellow for the orange and blue) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
She Has My Heart Enclosed
Pretty Polly
NOTES [236 words]: The song is a patchwork of fragments and it's not clear, in spite of my description, that it ends happily. The fragments recall "Gra Geal Mo Chroi (II -- Down By the Fair River), sharing lines "Like a sheet of white paper is her neck and breast" and "At the foot of yon mountain there runs a clear stream," and coming close with "She's a pattern for Venus" instead of "She's a pattern of virtue." The one verse, sometimes chorus, that separates the songs, is "For she's aye been my ruin, my sad, sad downfall: She has got my heart enclosed, like a stone and lime wall."
A final verse recalls "Green Grows the Laurels": "It's at our next meeting Our love we'll renew And we'll change the green and yellow To the orange and blue."
Regarding "we'll change the green and yellow To the orange and blue" line, see my rant at "Green Grows the Laurel" about Willaim Studwell's statement in The American Song Reader. I posted a query to the BALLAD-L list [@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU]: is "she's changed the green and yellow for the orange and blue ... from an Orange political song?" The most conclusive response was from Dr John Moulden, who wrote "I have inspected almost all the songs in Orange song books in the libraries in Belfast and Dublin, and some in Britain (including the Library of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland) and I have no knowledge of any Orange song from which this might derive." [quoted with permission] - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD61216

Stone Cold Dead in the Market (He Had It Coming)

DESCRIPTION: Singer's husband returns from drinking and beats her. She kills him with a rolling pin. "Now he's stone cold dead in the market" His family swears to kill her. She says "if I kill him he had it coming" even "if I was to die in the electric chair"
AUTHOR: Wilmoth Houdini
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Houdini)
KEYWORDS: violence crime homicide derivative husband wife
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Wilmoth Houdini and his Royal Calypso Orchestra, "He Had It Coming" (1939, on Decca 18005)
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordann and His Tympany Five, "Stone Cold Dead in the Market" (1945, on Decca 23546A)
Macbeth the Great and Gerald Clark and the Band, "Stone Cold Dead in the Market" (1999, on "Calypso at Midnight," Rounder CD 11661-1840-2 [recorded 1946]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Murder in the Market" (some lines; probably the basis for "Stone Cold Dead in the Market")
NOTES [79 words]: The Macbeth Town Hall version ties Houdini's song back to "Murder in the Market" with the verse "Oh Payne dead, Payne dead, he's stone dead (3x) And if I kill him he is me husband." Macbeth also refers to the Fitzgerald-Jordan version with the lines "I catch up the rolling pin And work on his head till I bash it."
I have included this song because of the part it plays in the history of commercial calypso music. For the context see the discussion of "Hold 'im Joe." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcSCDitM

Stone River

See Ohio (File: E127)

Stone Scow, The

See The Bigler's Crew [Laws D8] (File: LD08)

Stone That Is Rolling, The

See The Rolling Stone [Laws B25] (File: LB25)

Stonecutter Boy

DESCRIPTION: A stonecutter boy sees a young woman. If she'll rest a moment, he'll "tell you of the dream I had last night." They sit under an oak; she soon gives "a little scream." Smoothing her clothes, she invites him to tell the dream again when next they meet
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1960 (recording, A. L. Lloyd)
KEYWORDS: sex dream worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, STONEBOY
Roud #971
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs, "The Stonecutter Boy" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2, Briggs3, Briggs4)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Stone-Cutter Boy" (on Lloyd01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Next Market Day" (plot) and references there
NOTES [24 words]: According to Lloyd, the song had not appeared in print at the time of its recording. Again, I can't bring myself to assign the keyword "bawdy." - PJS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: DTstoneb

Stones of Eling Mill, THe

DESCRIPTION: "No sails to turn and no vanes to set, For the waters are never still, So bring your corn, we'll grind it to flour, 'Twixt the stones of Eling Mill." The mill is powered by tide not a river. It will work "as long as old nature sends us the tides"
AUTHOR: Ken Stephens (source: Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire)
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire)
KEYWORDS: miller nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 105-107, "The Stones of Eling Mill" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BrHa105

Stonewall Jackson's Way

DESCRIPTION: The prayers and fighting methods of "Stonewall" Jackson and his troops (the "Stonewall" Brigade) are described. Each exploit is described as "Stonewall Jackson's Way." The poem concludes, "The foe had better ne'er been born That gets in Jackson's way."
AUTHOR: John Williamson Palmer (1825-1906)
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Wharton)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1824-1863 - Life of Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson
July 21, 1861 - First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas. In a confusing fight, with his brigade falling to pieces, General Bernard Bee sees Jackson's brigade holding steady. He describes the brigade as a "Stone wall," coining the nickname by which Jackson has been identified ever since (though Jackson always maintained that the name was the brigage's, not his)
May/June, 1862 - Jackson's "Valley Campaign." Jackson, with strength never exceeding two divisions, battles the equivalent of three (weak and scattered) Union corps to a standstill by rapid movement and concentration. One of three federal commanders in the area (the Union army had no overall commander) was the inept Nathaniel P. Banks, whose troops suffered severely at Jackson's hands (and would suffer again at Cedar Mountain in August)
Aug 29-30, 1862 - Second Battle of Bull Run/Manasses. Lee and Jackson defeat Pope
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 79-81, "Stonewall Jackson's Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 83-84, "Stonewall Jackson's Way" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 136-137, "Stonewall Jackson's Way" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #C170, p. 195, "Stonewall Jackson's Way" (2 references)
DT, STNWALLJ*
NOTES [389 words]: I have always heard this as a poem, but the Digital Tradition has a tune, and Wharton's War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy also prints a melody; I suppose it might be traditional. I don't know of any field collections, though.
That this piece was composed by an educated man cannot be doubted (note the use of Latin in one stanza); there is no reason to question Palmer's authorship. Wharton however (War Songs, p. 47) reports a rumor that "[t]hese verses were found written on a small piece of paper, all stained with blood, in the bosom of a dead soldier of the old Stonewall Brigade, after one of Jackson's battles in the Shenandoah Valley."
It turns out that this was a bit of deliberate fakery. According to E. Lawrence Abel, Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861-1865, Stackpole, 2000, p. 109, "The reason for the anonymity and the falsification was to keep its author, John W. Palmer, from being arrested as a Southern sympathizer." He was a citizen of Baltimore who worked as a war correspondent for various Northern newspapers, and apparently first used the phrase "Stonewall Jackson's Way" in his reporting, then upgraded it to a poem.
Palmer, describing the way he produced the piece, said he built it around an Oregon lumbering tune (Abel, p. 110), although he did not identify the tune.
The origin of the nickname "Stonewall" is explained in the historical references. The poem also calls Jackson "Old Blue Eyes" -- allegedly given because of the way his eyes glowed in battle.
The description of the Second Battle of Bull Run in the penultimate stanza is completely backward. Lee had separated his army into wings under Longstreet and Jackson. Union General John Pope caught up with Jackson, and tried very hard on August 29 to dislodge him. He almost succeeded. But then Longstreet came up on Pope's flank and completely demolished the Union army.
The "Ashby" referred to in the same stanza is Turner Ashby, who had commanded Jackson's cavalry in the Valley campaign and was killed June 6, 1862.
The descriptions of Jackson's prayer are more reasonable; Jackson was a presbyterian lay preacher (though his students at the VMI described him as very dull), and he attributed all his success to God. Frankly, he was a very obnoxious person -- but, obviously, a great tactician. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: HCW083

Stony Broke in No Man's Land

DESCRIPTION: "In 1914, a hundred years ago it seems... they said I was a man then, but what am I today?" "I can't get the old job, can't get the new, Can't carry on as I used to do." There's no work for the ex-soldier; they have forgotten the promises to the boys
AUTHOR: Herbert Rule, Fred Holt, George Carney (source: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 129-130, "Stony Broke in No Man's Land" (1 text)
NOTES [55 words]: This song, although probably not traditional, is generally accurate: almost all the nations of World War I fell into recession after the war, leaving many of the returning soldiers unable to find jobs. The disastrous events that led to World War II could perhaps have been avoided if more had been done to care for the ex-soldiers.
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW130

Stop That Clock

DESCRIPTION: "Stop that clock or I'll lose a quarter, Doe lie snoring on yer back, If I'm not there to mix the mortar, On my word I'll get the sack, Bridget doe yer stop to dress yer, Doe yer stop to put on yer frock... Yo goo down and stop that clock."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (collected from Mrs. E. M. Turner by John Fletcher, according to Raven)
KEYWORDS: work clothes hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 92, "Stop That Clock" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, p. 185, "Stop That Clock" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #1134
File: JRUI185

Stop, Says the Red Light

DESCRIPTION: "Stop, say the red light. Go, says the green. Wait, says the yellow light, Blinking in between. That's what they say and that's what they mean. We all must obey them, Even the Queen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes)
KEYWORDS: technology colors | traffic light stop queen
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 33, "Traffic Lights" (1 text)
Roud #19001
File: DCCR033

Storm Along John

See Stormalong (File: Doe082)

Storm Bird

DESCRIPTION: "The storm bird lives upon the rock, The angry surges roar... (incomprehensible) surges roar."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: bird home
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 764, "Storm Bird" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
File: BrS5764

Storm Is Passing Over, The

DESCRIPTION: Verse and chorus end "You know the storm is passing over, Hallelu." Verses in Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight begin "Some say Peter, some say Paul Ain't but one God for we all." "The tallest tree in Paradise Christians call the tree of life."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 63, "The Storm Is Passing Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [214 words]: Not related to "A Great Storm Pass Over."
The verse "The tallest tree in Paradise / The Christians call the 'Tree of Life'" is a floater. It is in Black religious songs from the southern U.S. and Bahamas, and the Sacred Harp as well (in publication date order, see W. McDonald and S. Hubbard, The Wesleyan Sacred Harp (Boston: John P. Jewitt & Co, 1857 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 149, "The Resurrection"; Thomas P. Fenner, Religious Folk Songs of the Negro (Hampton: The Institute Press, (1909 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")(1874)) p. 103, "Stay in de Field"; Charles L. Edwards, Bahama Songs and Stories (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co, 1895 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #22, pp. 41-42, "Turn Back and Pray."; Howard W. Odum, "Religious Folk Songs of the Southern Negroes" reprinted from American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, July 1909, vol. 3 ("Digitized by Internet Archive"), p. 36). Also, see the Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 644, "Tree in Paradise." Index reference and notes to "All My Trials." The Biblical reference is to Genesis 2.8-9, "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden .... the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil" [King James]. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: CarCa063

Storm of Heber Springs, November 25, 1926, The (Heber Springs Tornado)

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on Thanksgiving ay The town of Heber Sprints Was visited by a cyclone And partly swept away." The people were "no doubt feasting," with no hint of their fate. It was their own fault for not properly attending to their churches
AUTHOR: Ruby Dylan and the father of Almeda Rddle? (source: Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs)
KEYWORDS: disaster religious
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 21-22, "The Stoem of Heber Springs, November 25, 1926" (1 text)
Roud #18113
NOTES [41 words]: According to Almeda Riddle's recollection, every church in Heber Springs was damaged by this storm. Me, I'd draw the conclusion that there was something wrong with the churches, not the congregations, but the song authors didn't see it that way. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Abrr021

Storm, The

See The Tempest (Cease Rude Boreas) (File: SWMS070)

Stormalong

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic lines: "To me way, old Stormalong!... Aye, aye, aye, Captain Stormalong." About the death of Stormalong, who was elaborately buried off Cape Horn. The singer wishes he were Stormy's son so he could treat the sailors better
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (but see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor death burial
FOUND IN: US(MA) Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 82-83, "Stormalong" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 126-127, "Stormalong" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 88-89, "Stormalong" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 78-84, "Storm Along John," "Stormy," "Old Stormy" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 71-77, "Mister Stormalong," "Stormy Along, John," "Way Stormalong John," Stormalong, Lads, Stormy," Way Stormalong John" (4 texts, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 66-69]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XX, XXXIV, & LVII, p. 23, 39 & 62, "Stormalong John," "Old Stormey," "Wo, Stormalong" (5 texts, 4 tunes)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #10, "Stormalong John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 63-65, "Stormalong" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 102, "Stormalong" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 40, "Mister Stormalong" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, p. 834, "Stormalong" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, STRMALNG*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Old Stormy!" is in Part 4, 8/4/1917.
Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, p. 276, "Storm Along John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; notes to #398, ("Stormey's dead, that good old man") (1 text)
Roud #216
RECORDINGS:
Bob Roberts, "Mister Stormalong" (on LastDays)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The 'Cholly' Blues" (floating verses)
cf. "Deep Blue Sea (II)" (floating verses)
cf. "Carry Him To the Burying Ground (General Taylor, Walk Him Along Johnny)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Captain Stormalong
Come-along, Git-along, Stormalong John
Oh, Stormalong
Old Stormalong
Mister Stormalong John
NOTES [208 words]: Although 1882 is the earliest firm date I have for this, the article "On Shanties," in E(neas) S(weetland) Dallas, editor, Once a Week, New Series, Number 31, August 1, 1868 (published by Bradbury and Evans and available on Google Books), p. 92, says "what can be more sad or touching than the air of Storm Along," strongly implying the song is older.
Shay reports, "Old Stormalong is the only heroic character in the folklore of the sea: he was born, like the great clipper ships, in the imaginations of men."
Shay adds a tall tale of Stormy aboard the clipper Courser, so large that it just barely fit through the English Channel. Stormalong had the ship greased with soap so it could slide through more easily. This is why the sea near Dover is foamy: The cliffs scraped off all the soap.
Slightly less fanciful is the account in Grant Uden and Richard Cooper, A Dictionary of British Ships and Seamen, 1980 (I use the 1981 St. Martin's Press edition), in the entry "'Old White Hat': nickame for John Willis, the Scottish seaman and shipowner for whom the Cutty Sark was built. The name derived from his habit of wearing a white top-hat. His father, another John Willias, was the original 'Old Stormy' of the sea chanty Stormalong." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Doe082

Stormalong John

See Stormalong (File: Doe082)

Stormalong, Lads, Stormy

See Stormalong (File: Doe082)

Stormy

See Stormalong (File: Doe082)

Stormy Along, John

See Stormalong (File: Doe082)

Stormy Ol' Weather

See Windy Old Weather (File: CoSB204)

Stormy Scenes of Winter, The

See The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter [Laws H12] (File: LH12)

Stormy Weather Boys

DESCRIPTION: Adventures of a barge crew on the Thames. The captain arrives half-drunk; the crew gets sozzled, the barge runs aground. They meet a mermaid and a ghost (who takes the wheel); eventually they arrive at Yarmouth and wind up in "The Druid's Arms"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Adventures of a barge crew on the Thames. The captain comes aboard half-drunk; the crew gets sozzled and the barge runs aground. They encounter a mermaid ("Up jumped a mermaid covered with muck/We took her down the fo'c'sle and had a good time") and a ghost (who takes the wheel); eventually they arrive at Yarmouth and wind up in "The Druid's Arms." Chorus: "Stormy weather boys, stormy weather boys/When the wind blows our barge will go"
KEYWORDS: sex river work drink storm foc's'le humorous sailor worker ghost mermaid/man parody
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 144-145, "Stormy Weather Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 143, "Stormy Weather, Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 181, "Stormy Weather, Boys" (1 text)
DT, STRMYWTH
Roud #1851
RECORDINGS:
Bob Roberts, "Stormy Weather Boys" (on LastDays)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. Windy Old Weather" (meter)
cf. "The E-ri-e" (theme) and references there
NOTES [60 words]: Not having heard this sung, I can't prove it's a parody of "Windy Old Weather" -- but the meter and lyrics both say it is. - RBW
I don't think so, despite the lyrical similarities. "Windy Old Weather" is sung in waltz time, while this is 4/4. - PJS
And Morgan/Green-RugbySongs's version doesn't fit "Windy Old Weather." Possibly the text changed over time. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: DTstrmyw

Stormy Winds of Winter, The

See The Lonesome (Stormy) Scenes of Winter [Laws H12] (File: LH12)

Stormy Winter's Night

See The Faithful Sailor Boy [Laws K13] (File: LK13)

Stortebeker

DESCRIPTION: German (Plattdeutsch). Forebitter shanty. "De Stortebeker un Godeke Micheel" -- Stortebeker and Micheel are pirates who offend God. Near Hamburg they try to take a merchant, but the Bunte Kutz rams them; they are hanged by Rosenfeld
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: pirate ship battle death execution foreignlanguage shanty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 131, "Stortebecker" (2 texts, German & English, 1 tune)
NOTES [144 words]: According to Jan Rogozinsky, Pirates, Facts on File, 1995; republished as The Wordsworth Dictionary of Pirates, Wordsworth, 1997, pp. 327-328, Johan Stortebecher/Stertebecker was a Frisian nobleman about whom many legends gathered -- e.g. that when his ship was captured, the mast was found to be hollow and filled with bars of gold. Another story was that, when he took prisoners, he executed them unless they could empty his wine glass at one swallow; this was the origin of his name, which means something like "gulper of glasses."
It sounds as if he fell somewhere between a privateer and a pirate. He had fought for Lübeck against Denmark, but began raiding ships on his own once peace was made in 1395. He terrorized the entire Baltic, and many nations tried to capture him. In 1402, the Admiral of Hamburg finally caught up with him and he was hanged. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: HSoSe131

Story of Creation

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Story of Freeda Bolt, The

See Young Freda Bolt (File: CAFS1209)

Story of George Mann, The

See George Mann (File: E122)

Story of Gerald Chapman, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh come all you young people and listen while I tell, The fate of Gerald Chapman who was hung in a prison cell." A "desperate criminal," he killed a policeman on his travels from Georgia to New York to Connecticut. He gives a warning and is hung
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Carl Conner, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: death homicide execution prison
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 88, "The Story of Gerald Chapman" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Carl Conner, "Story of Gerald Chapman" (Columbia 15076-D, 1926)
File: CAFS1088

Story of Gustave Ohr

See Gustave Ohr (File: E121)

Story of Mine Cave-In: Shirley and Smith

DESCRIPTION: "They worked all day to the evening tide, Before the mountain made it glide, The rocks and earth came a-crumbling down, And under this those men was found."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: mining disaster death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 338, "Story of Mine Cave-In: Shirley and Smith (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6656
File: BrS4338

Story of Mormonism, The

DESCRIPTION: "We've heard fantastic tales for years About the Mormon nation And Utah's wonderland of birth And courage in creation." Outsiders tell absurdities about Mormons, but Joseph Smith received a revelation and was martyred, succeeded by Brigham Young
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious | Mormonism Joseph Smith revelation
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 27-31, "The Story of Mormonism" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ChNS027

Story of the Knoxville Girl, The

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Story the Crow Told Me, The

DESCRIPTION: Nonsense verses, supposedly told by a crow. "I bought me a suit of union underwear... I couldn't get it off 'cause I lost the combination", "My gal took sick the other day... I bought her a corset... She's in better shape now than she was before"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Carolina Buddies)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonsense animal bird
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 163, "The Story the Crow Told Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Carolina Buddies, "The Story That the Crow Told Me" (Columbia 15641-D, 1931; rec. 1930; on CrowTold01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Story that the Crow Told Me" (on NLCR04, NLCR11)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Going Away in the Morn" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [8 words]: This is almost certainly from minstrel sources. - PJS
File: CSW163

Story, A [Evans and Sontag]

See Evans and Sontag (A Story) (File: CAFS2661)

Story, A Story, A

See Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)

Stot, Stot, Ba', Ba'

DESCRIPTION: "Stot, stot, ba', ba', Twenty lasses in a raw, No' a lad amang them a'." Or, "Game, game, ba', ba', Twenty lasses in a row, Not a boy among them all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | ball bouncing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 31, "(Game, game, ba', ba')" (1 text)
Roud #20686
NOTES [32 words]: "Stotting" was a type of ball game known in Scotland; "to stot," in addition to referring to playing this game, being a verb for a peculiar bouncing walk typical of one not entirely sober. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PKKB031F

Stout Cripple of Cornwall, The

See The Cripple of Cornwall (File: JACB280)

Stove Boat, A

DESCRIPTION: "Your stought young men who go a-whaling... little thinking while you're sailing That grim death may near you be. The singer writes to give warning. The boats pursue a school of whales, but many of the boats are wrecked; only five survive. Others lament
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (Journal of the _Polly_)
KEYWORDS: whaler death wreck
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 36-39, "A Stove Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27532
File: HGam036

Stow'n' Sugar in de Hull Below

DESCRIPTION: "I wish I was in Mobile Bay, Rollin' cotton by the day, Stow'n' sugar in de hull below, Below, belo-ow, Stow'n' sugar in de hull below." A steamboat chant, mentioning the Natchez and depicting the engineer and captain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: river nonballad work floatingverses ship
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 592, [no title] (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Belle-a-Lee" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Hieland Laddie" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [22 words]: This uses lyrics from "Hieland Laddie," which is far better known, but the form appears different enough that I separate them. - RBW
File: BMRF592B

Stowaway, The

DESCRIPTION: "From Liverpool 'cross the Atlantic Our white sail floated over the deep." A poor stepfather stows his boy aboard to seek better times in Halifax. First mate will kill the stowaway unless he says who among of the crew put him aboard. The mate relents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: poverty reprieve ship youth hardtimes ship sailor homicide
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 51, "From Liverpool 'cross the Atlantic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 890-892, "The Stowaway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 46, "Stowaway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6341
RECORDINGS:
Cyril O'Brien, "The Stowaway" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2162), "The Little Hero!," unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 11(2161), "The Little Hero"; Harding B 11(3676), Firth b.27(97), Harding B 11(3675), "[The] Stowaway" or "[The] Little Hero"
File: GrMa051

Strabane Canal, The

See The Calabar (File: HHH502)

Strabane Fleet, The

See The Calabar (File: HHH502)

Strabane Hiring Fair, The

See The Hiring Fair (File: RcHiriFa)

Straight Across the Hall

See Across the Hall (File: R536)

Straight-Out Democrat

DESCRIPTION: "We never took stock in H. Greeley, Though Baltimore took him in tow... The ticket that's honest we'll honor... We would like to have Charlie O'Conor, For O'Conor and Adams we'll go." The song encourages others to vote for the "true" democrats
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1872
KEYWORDS: political nonballad derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1872 - Grant/Greeley election
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, p. 43, "Straight-Out Democrat" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (tune) and references there
NOTES [113 words]: Ulysses S. Grant was first elected President in 1868, and by the time of the 1872 election it was clear that he could not control corruption in his administration. The Democrats nominated Horace Greeley, but a splinter of the party broke off and nominated Charles O'Conor and the younger John Quincy Adams.
The weakness of the O'Conor bid is shown by the fact that all the minor parties combined picked up only 35,097 votes (less than 1% of the total), and that O'Conor didn't gain a single electoral vote -- even though Greeley died before the electoral tally was taken, and the 68 electoral votes he would have earned were split five ways.
Grant, of course, won the election. - RBW
File: SRW043

Straightened Banks of Erne, The

DESCRIPTION: The romantic "winding banks of Erne" are no more. "'Progress hates meandering' is a maxim all must learn, So the engineers have straightened out the winding banks of Erne" for the new powerhouse at the falls of Assaroe.
AUTHOR: Colm O Lochlainn (source: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: river technology nonballad parody
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 16A, "The Straightened Banks of Erne" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shannon Scheme" (theme: Ireland's hydro-electrification)
NOTES [191 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "Written by the compiler to celebrate the opening of the Erne hydro-electric scheme and dedicated to the late Dr Laurence Kettle and Professor Tatlow, the engineers responsible for the scheme." By O Lochlainn's description, it is a parody
Notes to IRClare01: "The Shannon Scheme for the Electrification of the Irish Free State, by harnessing the fall in the River Shannon between Killaloe and Limerick, was commenced in 1925 and completed in 1929 and, within six years, was supplying 85% of Ireland's electricity requirements...." - BS
According to John A. Murphy, Ireland in the Twentieth Century(Gill and MacMillan, 1975, 1989), p. 65, "[T]he most far-sighted step in the development of natural resources by the state was the Shannon Scheme -- the beginning of the national supply of electricity -- and the establishment of the Electricity Supply Board in 1927, destined to be perhaps the most successful of those semi-state bodies which in future years became characteristic and indispensible features of the Irish economy."
For a later song about Ireland's electrification, see "The ESB in Coolea." - RBW
File: OLcM016A

Straloch

DESCRIPTION: "All you that are at liberty, I pray you all draw near, And listen to my story, it's what you soon shall hear. It was at the last Martinmas, I went unto the fair, I did engage wi' Straloch, to work the second pair."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 382, "Straloch" (1 fragment)
Roud #5919
NOTES [140 words]: The first two lines of this four-line fragment are shared with one version of "Erin's Lovely Home"; see Bodleian, 2806 c.8(297), "Erin's Lovely Home," unknown, no date: "All you that are at liberty, I pray you all draw near, And listen to my story, it's what you soon shall hear." The next two lines are typical of the beginning of a song about being hired at a feeing fair to work a farm; for example, "I engaged wi Jamie Broon, In the year o' ninety-one Tae ging hame an ca' his second pair, And be his orra man." ["The Guise o' Tough"]
Candlemas [February 2], Whitsunday [May 15], Lammas [August 1] and Martinmas [November 11] were the four "Old Scottish term days" "on which servants were hired, and rents and rates were due." (Source: Wikipedia article Quarter days).
The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3382

Strands of Ballylickey, The

DESCRIPTION: "I oftimes think of home and where I spent my childhood days before I was forced to roam." He recalls playing, fishing, music and dancing "by the strands of Ballilickey on the shores of Bantry Bay." He hopes to return "but fortune seems against me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: home travel return Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 108-109, "The Strands of Ballylickey" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OCan108

Strands of Magilligan, The

See The Streams of Lovely Nancy (File: VWL098)

Strange Proposal, A

See Captain Wedderburn's Courtship [Child 46] (File: C046)

Strange Things Wuz Happening

DESCRIPTION: "Well, they'z strange things wuz happening in the land... The war wuz going on, caused many hearts to moan...." "But Uncle Sam with Germany tried to live in peace, Kept blowin' up his vessels...." Listeners are urged to stand by the United States
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: war ship
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 240, "Strange Things Wuz Happening" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 240, "Strange Things Wuz Happening" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Roud #6623
NOTES [83 words]: The immediate cause of American entry into World War I was, of course, Germany's use of unlimited submarine warfare. Early in the war, the Germans had tried sinking ships without warning, and stopped as the U. S. protested.
n 1917, with the war in stalemate, the Germans hoped to starve Britain out of the war before the U. S. could make its weight felt. It didn't work.
I have to think this was intended for popular consumption, but neither the editors of Brown nor I have seen it elsewhere. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: BrII240

Strange Visitor, The

DESCRIPTION: "A wife was sitting at her reel ae nicht... and aye she wished for company." A body comes in in pieces: Large feet, small legs and thighs, at last a great head. She asks about each part; the visitor explains its purpose. Which is to take her soul
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Montgomerie)
KEYWORDS: death loneliness
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 196, "(A wife was sitting at her reel ae nicht)" (1 text)
DT, STRANVIS
File: MSNR196

Stranger Far From Home, A

See Poor Stranger, The (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone) (File: R059)

Stratton Carol of the Months, A

See Calendar Rhymes (File: BGMG329)

Stratton Mountain Tragedy [Laws G18]

DESCRIPTION: A young woman and her baby are trapped in a cold blizzard. When they are found, the mother is dead but the baby alive; the mother had wrapped it in her cloak
AUTHOR: Seba Smith (? -1843)
EARLIEST DATE: broadside (1843)
KEYWORDS: mother baby death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1821- Death of Lucy Blake and her daughter Rebecca, whose fate is believed to have inspired this ballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws G18, "Stratton Mountain Tragedy"
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 27-28, "Stratton Mountain Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 32-35, "The Stratton Mountain Tragedy," "The Snowstorm" (2 texts, one of them being Seba Smith's original; also a copy of the original sheet music cover)
DT 638, STRATMTN*
Roud #5442
NOTES [260 words]: Seba Smith is also widely credited with "Young Charlotte (Fair Charlotte)" [Laws G17], which is obviously far more popular than this.
Smith's greatest claim to fame, at least in his lifetime, was for the creation of a Maine character named "Major Jack Downing." Charles E. Clark, Maine: A History, Norton, 1977, pp. 74-75, describes the origin of this character as follows:
"In January 1830, by contrast, the readers of the new Portland Daily Courier were introduced to an amusing caricature of themselves named Maj. Jac Downing. Jack Downing of Downingville, 'about three miles from the main road as you go back into the country, and... jest about in the middle of down east' was the creation of the Courier's thirty-seven-year-old publisher, Seba Smith, a native of Buckfield, [Maine] and a boyhood resident of Bridgton. Smith's self-taught pioneering childood, marked by various manual jobs and a stint at teaching school, had led finally to Bowdoin College and an honors degree, some coastwise and transatlantic travel, and the beginning of a newspaper career with the Eastern Argus.... His Courier, begun in 1829, was to be nonpartisan. His main object in creating Jack Downing, a rustic character who made folksy and often hilariously naive observations in Maine dialect on state and national politics, was political satire.... But in addition to creating the prototype for every cracker barrel philosopher and country oracle who has enlivened American journalism ever since, Smith created a regional character, the Downeast Yankee." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: LG18

Straw Man, The

See Mrs Greig of Sandlaw (File: Ord247)

Strawberry Fair

DESCRIPTION: A blacksmith, going to Strawberry Fair, meets "a fair maid go selling her ware." She says she has "a lock that doth lack a key." She invites him to try his key. Now she has no wares and wishes her lock had been a gun to shoot the blacksmith.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy commerce food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 14, "Chilbridge Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 125, "Strawberry Fair" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #113, "Strawberry Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #21, "As I was going to Strawberry fair" (1 text)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #68, "Strawberry Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: S. Baring-Gould and Cecil J Sharp, English Folk-Songs for Schools (London, no date ("Digitized by Microsoft")), sixth edition, #27 pp. 56-57, "Strawberry Fair" ("As I was going to Strawberry Fair, Singing, singing, buttercups and daisies") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #173
NOTES [226 words]: The Baring-Gould Sharp text is the one I have heard and seen quoted. [I've also heard only the bowdlerized versions. - RBW] It's not a surprise that it was cleaned up for schools. A description of the Baring-Gould Sharp text: The singer, going to Strawberry Fair, meets "a maiden taking her ware." She offers him cherries, roses, and strawberries. He is not interested because cherries and roses are "perishing ware." He wants to purchase "a generous heart, A tongue that is neither nimble nor tart, An honest mind" offering, in exchange, "a ring of gold on your finger"; he asks her to "make over your ware In church today at Strawberry Fair."
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle quotes Baring-Gould: "The ballad is sung everywhere in Cornwall and Devon to the same melody. The words are certainly not later than the age of Charles II, and are probably older. They turn on a double entendre which is quite lost -- and fortunately so -- to half the old fellows who sing the song." - BS
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd suggests that this was "recast" as "Kitt Hath Lost Her Key," which would certainly make it old ("Kitt" was in existence by 1562), but I see little evidence for the claim. It does seem, based on what the notes in Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd say about the song, that it probably dates back to around 1800 if not earlier. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ReCi125

Strawberry Jam, Cream of Tartum

See Raspberry, Strawberry (File: SuSm107A)

Strawberry Lane

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Strawberry Roan, The [Laws B18]

DESCRIPTION: An unemployed cowboy is offered the chance of a job if he can ride the strawberry roan. Confident of his skill, he mounts the horse -- to be thrown within seconds. He concludes the horse is unridable.
AUTHOR: Words: almost certainly Curley Fletcher (1892-1954)
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (published by Fletcher in the Globe, AZ Record as "The Outlaw Broncho"); the standard version derives from "Rhymes of the Roundup," published 1917
KEYWORDS: horse cowboy injury unemployment
FOUND IN: US(NW,Ro,SE,So,SW) Canada
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws B18, "The Strawberry Roan"
Randolph 202, "Strawberry Roan" (1 text)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II, 652-655, "The Strawberry Roan" (2 texts)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #14, "The Strawberry Roan" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 98-100, "The Strawberry Roan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 68, "The Strawberry Roan" (2 texts, 1 tune, the second text being the parody "Bad Brahma Bull")
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 28, "The Strawberry Roan" (1 text, 1 tune); also two sequels by Wilf Carter: 29, "He Rode the Strawberry Roan" (1 text); 30, "The Fate of Old Strawberry Roan" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #165, "The Strawberry Roan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 130-133, "The Strawberry Roan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 140-151, "Strawberry Roan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 111, "Strawberry Roan" (1 text)
DT 385, STRWROAN*
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 137-147, "The Strange Career of 'The Strawberry Roan'" (1 text, 1 tune, plus various excerpts and a history of the song)
Suzi Jones, _Oregon Folklore_, University of Oregon/Oregon Arts Commission, 1977, p. 45, "The Old Strawberry Roan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tom Nash and Twilo Scofield, _The Well-Travelled Casket: Oregon Folklore_, Meadowlark Press, 1999, p. 120, "The Strawberry Roan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hal Cannon, editor, _Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering_, Giles M. Smith, 1985, pp. 57-59, "The Strawberry Roan" (1 text)
Roud #3239
RECORDINGS:
Arizona Wranglers, "Strawberry Roan" (Merry Xmas L949, 1929; on BackSaddle)
Bill Boyd & his Cowboy Ramblers, "Strawberry Roan" (Bluebird B-5667, 1934; Montgomery Ward M-4778, 1935)
Beverly Hillbillies, "The Strawberry Roan" (Brunswick 514/Supertone S-2263, 1931)
W. C. Childers "Strawberry Roan, Part 1/Part2" (Superior 2722 [as Enos Wanner], 1931; Champion 16467, 1932; Montgomery Ward 4951, 1936; Champion 45103, n.d.)
Bob Ferguson [pseud. for Bob Miller], "Strawberry Roan" (Columbia 15677-D, 1931)
Paul Hamblin, "The Strawberry Roan" (Victor V-40260, 1930; on WhenIWas2)
Harry Jackson, "Strawberry Roan" (on HJackson1, CowFolkCD1)
Bob Kackley & Bob Ferguson, "Strawberry Roan" (OKeh 45531, 1931)
Bud Kelly, "Strawberry Roan" (Broadway 8331, rec. 1932)
[Frank] Luther & [Carson] Robison "The Strawberry Roan" (Melotone M-12350, 1932)
Ranch Boys, "The Strawberry Roan" (Decca 5074, 1935)
Bob Sherman, "The Strawberry Roan" (Clarion 5336C, c. 1929)
Wesley Tuttle, "Strawberry Roan" (Coral 64051, 1950)
John White, "The Strawberry Roan" (Banner 32179/Romeo 1629/Perfect 12712/Conqueror 7753, 1931)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "While Hanging Around Town" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Wild Buckaroo" (tune & meter)
cf. "No Balls at All" (tune, in some versions)
cf. "Wild Rover No More" (tune, in some versions)
cf. "The Zebra Dun" (theme of the un-ridable horse) and references there
cf. "The Castration of the Strawberry Roan" (tune, character of the Roan)
SAME TUNE:
Castration of the Strawberry Roan (File: Logs013)
He Rode the Strawberry Roan (Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 29; Wilf Carter, "He Rode the Strawberry Roan" (Bluebird [Canada] B-4974, 1934/Regal Zonophone [Australia] G23152, n.d.))
The Fate of Old Strawberry Roan (Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 30; Wilf Carter, "The Fate of Old Strawberry Roan" (Montgomery Ward M-7186, 1937; Bluebird [Canada] B-4602, c. 1938))
Ridge Runnin' Roan (Tex Fletcher, "Ridge Runnin' Roan" (Decca 5302, 1936))
Tchepone (RECORDING, Toby Hughes, Chip Dockery & Robin Thomas, on InCountry)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Outlaw Broncho
NOTES [274 words]: Powder River Jack Lee claimed that Frank R. Chamberlain wrote the words to this song in 1894. No other evidence of this has been offered, however, and every known version seems to go back to Fletcher.
A number of "sequels" to "Strawberry Roan" have been written, including the two by Wilf Carter cited by Ohrlin. Austin E. Fife published an article on the subject, "The Strawberry Roan and His Progeny," in the John Edwards Memorial Quarterly.
For more on the offspring of this song, see the notes to "The Castration of the Strawberry Roan." - RBW
I think it's been fairly well established, despite Powder River Jack, that Fletcher wrote the words, probably in 1914. To quote Logsdon, "It was being sung by many people and Fletcher got no credit or money. So he collaborated with two Hollywood song writers, Nat Vincent and Fred Howard, to publish it as sheet music. When it came off the press they had made changes and added a chorus. Fletcher was furious and demanded that they print his original poem on the inside back cover for those who wanted to sing it the right way (and he wrote a bawdy version.)" The chorus they wrote, "Oh, that strawberry roan," has become part of most versions collected from tradition. - PJS
This general story is also confirmed by White, who notes other places where Fletcher published the poem his way. He doesn't seem to have been bothered as much by the fact that it became a song. - RBW
A soldier serving in Viet Nam wrote "Tchepone" about an "easy" bombing run that turns into a nightmare, to this tune. It was recorded on the CD "In Country: Folk Songs of Americans in the Viet Nam War," not yet indexed. -PJS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: LB18

Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who)

DESCRIPTION: "Strawberry shortcake, (Gooseberry/Huckleberry) pie, Tell the initials of your honeypie/sweetheart." Or "Ice cream soda, Lemonade pop," or "Apple jelly, jam tart," or other foods....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: food playparty love nonballad jumprope | ice cream fruit shortcake lemonade pop fortune-telling
FOUND IN: US(MW,So,SW) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 110, "(Strawberry shortcake, gooseberry pie)" (1 short text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 52, "Lemonade Pop"; p. 53, "Ice-Cream Soda"; "Delaware Punch" (3 texts)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #42, "(Milk shake, milk shake)"; #58, "(Ice cream soda, ginger ale, pop)"; #92, "(Apples, peaches, cream on tart)"; #117, "(Ice cream soda, Delaware punch)" (4 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 130, "Ice cream, candy, cae and butter"; "Blueberry, raspberry, strawberry jam"; p. 131, "Strawberry shortcake, huckleberry jam"; p. 139, "Ice cream soda, ginger ale, pop" (4 texts); cf. p. 131, "Sweet and sour pickles"
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #214, "Ice cream soda, Delware punch" (1 text); #215, "Ice cream, soda water" (1 text, clearly derived from this but Abrahams thinks this version a school cheer)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 97, "Apple jelly, jam tart" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #71, "(Black currant, red currant, raspberry tart)" (1 text)
Roud #19307
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Raspberry, Strawberry" (food fortunetelling; lyrics)
cf. "Apples and Oranges" (lyrics)
cf. "Red, White, and Blue (III)" (lyrics)
cf. "Light Sky, Dark Sky" (lyrics)
NOTES [64 words]: Harbin-Parodology #352, p. 91, is "Strawberry shortcake, Eskimo pop; Junior Leaguers Always on top." #382, p. 93, is "Strawberry shortcake, Blackberry pie, Will you be there? Aye, aye, aye." I would guess both are based on this piece, but obviously camp-ified.
I'm tempted to lump this with "Raspberry, Strawberry." These short fortune-telling rhymes are very hard to tell apart. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: McIn110C

Strawberry Shortcake, Huckleberry Jam

See Strawberry Shortcake (Lemonade Pop; Guess Who) (File: McIn110C)

Strawberry Tower

See Scarboro Sand (The Drowned Sailor) [Laws K18] (File: LK18)

Strawberry, Apple, Blackberry Tart

See Raspberry, Strawberry (File: SuSm107A)

Strayed Lambs

See Branded Lambs [Laws O9] (File: LO09)

Streams of Bunclody, The

DESCRIPTION: "Was I at the moss-house where the birds do increase" he'd have a kiss from his sweetheart. "The cuckoo is a pretty bird ..." Various if ... then verses. She shuns him. She is rich. He is poor. He is "going to America, my fortune to try."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Sparling); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.9(206))
KEYWORDS: love emigration separation America floatingverses
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 76, "The Maid of Bunclody, and the Lad She Loves So Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3000
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(206), "The Maid of Bonclody," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867 ; also 2806 b.9(232) [almost entirely illegible], "The Maid of Bon Clody, and the Lad She Loves Dear"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cuckoo" (floating verses)
NOTES [487 words]: See H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy, 1888, pp. 224-225, 515. The description follows Sparling who notes, "From a Dublin ballad-slip of very uncertain date, but certainly before 1850." Floating verses include "The cuckoo is a pretty bird ...."; "If I was a clerk and could write a good hand ...."; "If I was a lark and had wings, I then could fly ... where my love does lie." The cuckoo verse seems uncorrupted:
The cuckoo is a pretty bird, it sings as it flies,
It brings us good tidings and tells us no lies,
It sucks the young bird's eggs to make its voice clear,
And it never cries cuckoo till the summer is near.
In spite of its title -- "The Maid of Bon Clody, and the Lad She Loves Dear" -- broadside Bodleian 2806 b.9(232) seems to follow Sparling exactly. The words I can make out in each verse are the same words that are in Sparling. But then, the same is true of OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 76: same title and same text.
Steve Gardham points out that the text of Richard Hayward's "Down in Glasloch" (78 Recording: Richard Hayward with Roy Robertson Orchestra, "Down in Glasloch" (Rex 15016B/matrix DR 11826-1, 1947)) is very similar to "The Streams of Bunclody"; the verses here seem minor modifications of the non-floating verses there and include the floating verses that do not refer to the cuckoo. The main difference is in the first verse:
From Sparling's "The Streams of Bunclody"
O was I at the moss-house where the birds do increase,
At the foot of Mount Leinster or some silent place
Near the streams of Bunclody, where all pleasures do meet,
And all I'd require is one kiss from you sweet.
For "Down in Glasloch"
Oh, were I down in Glasloch where the birds sing so blithely
I would walk there with my true love and she by my side
And in all things she might ask me I would gladly do her favor
For there's no love like my true love in all Monaghan wide.
The following comment is from John Moulden: "I rather distrust his [Hayward's] versions and suspect that the text you quote has been tinkered. In a later (10 inch LP "Words and Music of Ireland" Decca EBL522) recording of the tune alone played by Hayward on an organ, he states that he collected the song in Monaghan 'close to Sir Shane Leslie's home' wherever that may have been." John Moulden is researcher at the "Centre for the Study of Human Settlement and Historical Change" at National University of Ireland, Galway whose subject is 'the printed ballad in Ireland'"
The date of 1947 for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. He also has a 1938 date for an earlier Hayward recording as "Down in Glaslough".
Help provided by Steve Gardham, John Moulden and Bill Dean-Myatt is cited here with their permission.
Glaslough is a village in Count Monaghan, Ireland, just south of Northern Ireland. Mount Leinster and the River Clody are near Bunclody, County Wexford. - BS
File: BroaTSoB

Streams of Lovely Nancy, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer (a sailor?) describes the "streams of lovely Nancy", a mountain with a castle, his beloved (who lives in the castle), a river, and a ship. He ends by addressing all "streamers"; he will write to his love, "For her rosy lips entice me..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(29))
LONG DESCRIPTION: In this extremely confused song, the singer (probably a sailor) describes the "streams of lovely Nancy", a mountain with a castle, his beloved (who lives in the castle), a river, and a ship from the Indies. He ends by addressing all "streamers" (tin-miners washing ore?), saying he will write to his love, "For her rosy lips entice me, with her tongue she tells me 'No'/And a angel might direct us right, and where shall we go?"
KEYWORDS: love rejection lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West)) Ireland US(MW,SE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 98, "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 294-295, "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 126, "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (2 texts; the "B" and "C" texts are this, while "A" is "Nellie (I)")
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 139, "Te Streams of Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 714, "Streams of Lovely Nancy" (1 text)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #93, "The Streams of Nantsian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 23, "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 40-41, "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 149, "The Streams of lovely Nancy" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 26, "Green Mountain" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 120-121, "Green Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune, probably this although its four verses never mention Lovely Nancy)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 64, "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H520, p. 259, "The Strands of Magilligan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 72, "The Strands og Magilligan" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 280, "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (a reprint of a W. Armstrong broadside)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 80-81, "Green Mountain" (1 text)
DT, LOVNANCY* (erroneously titled "The Steams of Lovely Nancy")
Roud #688
RECORDINGS:
Turp Brown, "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (on Voice02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(29), "The Streams of Lovely Nancy," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(3678), Firth b.34(282), Harding B 11(3677), Harding B 11(3678A), Harding B 11(825), Firth c.13(24), Harding B 11(3679)[some words illegible], 2806 c.17(410), 2806 c.17(409)[some words illegible], Harding B 15(320a), Harding B 11(1519), Firth b.26(542)[some words illegible], "[The] Streams of Lovely Nancy"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cursor Mundi" (14th century religious poem, sharing images)
cf. "The Ploughboy (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "If I Were a Fisher" (floating verses)
cf. "Farewell, Sweet Mary" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Nellie (I)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Streams of Nantsian
Faithful Emma
The Dreams of Lovely Nancy
NOTES [196 words]: All versions of this song seem to be equally mysterious. Lloyd quotes A.G. Gilchrist as speculating, with evidence, that this song is actually a relic of a hymn to Mary. -PJS
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs also suggest that it is a "half-remembered version of a mediaeval mystic or religious poem, possibly to the Virgin Mary," and note that Wiltshire is very anti-Catholic -- which perhaps hints that the confusion in the song might be due to bowdlerization. That doesn't strike me as very likely, however.
Margaret Dean-Smith offers the speculation that "streams/streamers" refer not to flowing waters but to "streamers," who worked in tin mines. If that helps. It seems to be a popular hypothesis; Tony Deane and Tony Shaw The Folklore of Cornwall, B. T. Batsford, 1975, pp. 68-69, say that the line "Come all you little streamers" is "an obvious reference to early tin mining." Anne Gilchrist went beyond that, suggesting that the descriptions of the castle in the song describe St. Michael's Mount, and that "Nancy/Nantsian" might be a corruption of "Marazion," a town near the mount. The former is possible but not compelling; the latter strikes me as a stretch. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: VWL098

Streams of Nantsian, The

See The Streams of Lovely Nancy (File: VWL098)

Street of a Thousand Arseholes, The

See One-Hung Lo (File: RcOnHunL)

Streets of Forbes, The

DESCRIPTION: Ben Hall is "hunted from his station" and "like a dog shot down." A bushranger for three years, he is planning to "cross the briny sea" when found and "riddled like a sieve." The authorities parade his body through the streets of Forbes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Manifold)
KEYWORDS: outlaw police Australia death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 5, 1865 - Ben Hall is ambushed and killed by police near Forbes, Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 60-61, "The Streets of Forbes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 79-81, "The Streets of Forbes" (1 text)
DT, STRFORBE*
Roud #20764
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ben Hall" (plot, subject) and references there
NOTES [125 words]: For the background of Ben Hall, see the other songs listed in the cross-references, especially "Ben Hall."
To tell this from the other Ben Hall songs, consider this first verse:
Come all of you Lachlan men, and a sorrowful tale I'll tell
Concerning of a hero bold who through misfortune fell.
His name it was Ben Hall, a man of good renown
Who was hunted from his station, and like a dog shot down.
According to Patterson/Fahey/Seal, this is based on a poem by Ben Hall's brother-in-law John McGuire. John S. Manifold, Who Wrote the Ballads? Notes on Australian Folksong, Australasian Book Society, 1964, p. 58, says that McGuire wrote it after seeing Hall's body carried past him, and calls this "the most moving of all the bushranger ballads." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: PASB060

Streets of Glory

See Welcome Table (Streets of Glory, God's Going to Set This World on Fire) (File: San478)

Streets of Hamtramck

DESCRIPTION: "As I walked out in the streets of Hamtramck, As I walked out in Hamtramck one day," the singer meets an old worker, "too old to work and... too young to die." The old worker talks of what he has done and says that workers must fight for pensions
AUTHOR: Kuppy Scott
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Western Folklore 19, according to Cohen); reportedly written for a 1949 strike
KEYWORDS: age work hardtimes derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 416-417, "Streets of Hamrramck" (1 text)
File: CAFS2416

Streets of Laredo, The [Laws B1]

DESCRIPTION: (The singer meets a young cowboy "all dressed in white linen and cold as the clay.") The cowboy has been shot (or given a venereal disease?) and is dying. He regrets his carousing, gives instructions for his burial, and dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1886
KEYWORDS: cowboy death lament burial dying funeral disease violence homicide
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE, Ro,So,SE,SW) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (53 citations):
Laws B1, "The Cowboy's Lament (The Dying Cowboy)"
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 250-252, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 392-397, "The Unfortunate Rake" (3 texts plus a fragment and references to 4 more versions; 1 tune, all of which are this song despite the title)
Randolph 182, "The Cowboy's Lament" (2 texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 62-63, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 75-78, "Tom Sherman's Barroom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 124, "The Dying Cowboy" (3 texts, none of which refer to "The Streets of Laredo" and which might be mixed with other versions of this song)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 100, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 short text plus mention of 1 more)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 82, pp. 103-105, "The Dying Cowboy" (3 texts)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 354-360, "The Cowboy's Lament," "The Wild Cowboy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 181-184, "The Dying Cowboy" (3 texts)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 263, "The Unfortunate Rake" (1 text plus 9 excerpts and mention of two others, called "The Unfortunate Rake" but apparently all this song)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 263, "The Unfortunate Rake" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #15, "The Dying Cowboy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 148, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 149-151, "The Streets of Laredo" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a text of "The Unfortunate Rake")
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 353-359, "The Dying Cowboy" (6 texts; 3 tunes on pp. 452-453)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, p. 116, 'Dying Cowboy" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 424, "The Cowboy's Lament (The Streets of Laredo)" (2 texts, the second being a lumberjack text, "The Wild Lumberjack")
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 111, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 59, "The Streets of Laredo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 263, "As I Walked Out in the Streets of Laredo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XIII, pp. 148-190 (29-30), "Cow Boy's Lament" (22 texts, 7 tunes, though not all are really part of this piece -- the "H" text, from Minnesota, is in a Scandinavian tongue; "K" looks like it comes from the "Tarpaulin Jacket" family; "L" is "The Wild and Wicked Youth"; "M" is "Jack Combs"; "N" is "St. James Infirmary"; many of the other texts are parodys); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 41-44, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 119, "The Streets of Laredo" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 30-31, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune, with four verses that are clearly "Streets of Laredo" but an opening that is "My Home's in Montana")
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #164, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 short text, lacking most of the introductory material)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 76-79, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 426-427, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 131, "St. James's Hospital, or The Sailor Cut Down in his Prime" (2 texts, 2 tunes, but the "A" text really belongs with "The Unfortunate Rake")
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 200, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 120, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 859-860, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 242, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 53, "The Dying Cowboy" (5 texts)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #8A-B, pp. 139-142, "The Dying Cowboy" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #48, "Dying Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 41, "The Streets Of Laredo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H680, p. 141, "The Cowboy of Loreto" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 77, pp. 170-171, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 17-20, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 522-523, "Streets of Laredo" (1 text)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 2, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 short text, probably partial)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 15-16, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 209, "The Dying Cowboy" (1 text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 80-81, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 8-9, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 115, "The Streets Of Laredo" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 192-193, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 233, "Streets of Laredo" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 79, "In the Streets of Laredo" (1 text)
DT 350, LAREDST*
ADDITIONAL:: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, p. 43, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kenneth Lodewick, "'The Unfortunate Rake" and His Descendants,'" article published 1955 in _Western Folklore_; republished on pp. 87-98 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009
Roud #2
RECORDINGS:
Jules Allen, "The Cowboy's Lament" (Victor V-40178, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-4099, 1933)
Captain Appleblossom, "The Cowboy's Lament" (OKeh 45373, 1929)
Bentley Ball, "The Dying Cowboy" (Columbia A3085, 1920)
Al Bernard, "Cowboy's Lament (The Dying Cowboy)" (Grey Gull 4173/Radiex 4173/Van Dyke 74173 [as Buddy Moore], 1928; Radiex 5113/Van Dyke 5113 [both as "Cowboy's Lament"], n.d.)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Dying Cowboy" (Brunswick 137/Perfect 12361 [as "The Cowboy's Lament", 1927; Supertone S-2009, 1930; Conqueror 7724 [as "The Cowboy's Lament"], 1931)
Dick Devall, "Tom Sherman's Barroom" (Timely Tunes [Victor subsidiary] C-1563, 1931; rec. 1929; on BefBlues1, WhenIWas2)
Newton Gaines, "A-Walkin' the Streets of Laredo" (Victor V-40253, 1930)
Ewen Hail, "Cowboy's Lament" (Brunswick 141, 1927; Brunswick 433/Supertone S-2043. 1930)
Harry Jackson, "Streets of Loredo" (on HJackson1)
Bradley Kincaid, "In the Streets of Laredo" (Supertone 9404, 1929)
Ken Maynard ,"The Cowboy's Lament" (Columbia 2310-D, 1930; on WhenIWas1)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Cowboy's Lament" (Victor 21761, 1928)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Tom Sherman's Barroom" (on NLCR06, NLCR11)
H[olland] Puckett, "The Dying Cowboy" (Champion 15428 [as Harvey Watson]/Gennett 6271/Herwin 75557 [as Robert Howell]/Silvertone 5065/Silvertone 8152 [as Si Puckett]/Silvertone 25065/Suptertone 9253 [as Harvey Watson], 1928; rec. 1927)
Johnny Prude, "The Streets of Laredo" (AFS, 1940s; on LC28, BackSaddle)
Ranch Boys, "Cowboy's Lament" (Decca 5061, 1935)
Pete Seeger, "Streets of Laredo" (on PeteSeeger12)
Richard Villmer, "Streets of Laredo" (Piotr-Archive #719, recorded 10/24/2023. Recitation rather than being sung; somewhat disordered)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Unfortunate Rake" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Wild Lumberjack" (subject, meter)
cf. "The Sailor Cut Down in His Prime" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Bad Girl's Lament (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime) [Laws Q26] (tune & meter, plot)
cf. "Jack Combs" (tune & meter, lyrics)
cf. "The Dying Outlaw" (tune & meter)
cf. "My Home's in Montana" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "My Friends and Relations" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "The Mowing Machine" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Bard of Armagh" (tune & meter)
cf. "Trooper Cut Down in His Prime" (tune & meter)
SAME TUNE:
I Once Was a Carman in the Big Mountain Con (File: LDC157)
A Sun Valley Song (Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 11)
The Lineman's Hymn (Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 11-12)
The Streets of Hamtramck (Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 12)
The Ballad of Sherman Wu (Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 13; on PeteSeeger19, AmHist2)
A Golfing Song (Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 13-14)
The Professor's Lament (Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 14-15)
The Ballad of Bloody Thursday (Flle: CAFS2668)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My Home's in Montana
The Young Cowboy
Tom Sherman's Barroom
Tom Sherwin's Barroom
NOTES [221 words]: One of the large group of ballads ("The Bard of Armagh," "Saint James Hospital," "The Streets of Laredo") ultimately derived from "The Unfortunate Rake." All use the same tune and metre, and all involve a person dying as a result of a wild life, but the nature of the tragedy varies according to local circumstances.
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys studied 150 versions of this text, and determined that 39 were set in "The Streets of Laredo" or similar; 37 took place at Tom Sherman's Barroom or similar, 25 used other words starting with LA (Lafferty, London, Laden, etc.), 31 (not all of them variants of this exact song) used miscellaneous places, and 18 were not localized.
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging, pp. 289-290, reports that "Tom Sherman's barroom was a popular cowboy dance hall and bar in Dodge City, Kansas." He cites a claim that this song was written by Francis Henry Maynard in 1876, and claims that Tom Sherman's was the location in this original text. Based on the dates at which the song was collected, this is possible, but I haven't listed Maynard as the author because the evidence is so thin. Logsdon quoted an article in which Maynard allegedly described the circumstances of the composition.
For the treatment of syphilis prior to the twentieth century, see the notes to "The Unfortunate Rake." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LB01

Strew, Strew with Roses

See Time Is On the Wing (File: GrD5391)

Strichen's Plantins

See Forglen (Forglen You Know, Strichen's Plantins) (File: Ord079)

Strike Breaker's Lament

DESCRIPTION: "A miner from Missouri lay dying in the hills, He was sick with mountain fever and various other ills"; he declares, "I wish I was in Joplin, in Joplin down in Mo." He describes all the things that are wrong with mining life in a place of scabs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (February 1902 [Denver] "Miner's Magazine," according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining scab death labor-movement derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 174-175, "Strike Breaker's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bingen on the Rhine" (tune) and references there
File: LDC174

Strike for Better Wages

DESCRIPTION: "At the docks there is a strike that the company don't like...." "Strike, boys, strike for better wages... Go on fighting at the docks... Go on fighting till the bosses they give way." The singer pities the jobless seeking work. The strikes won't give in
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (collected by Ewan MacColl); supposedly dates to 1890
KEYWORDS: strike labor-movement poverty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Norman Buchan, "Folk and Protest," in Edward J. Cowan, editor, _The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History_ 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition), pp. 165-166, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #3465
NOTES [114 words]: Buchan dates this to 1890 and the Dockers' Tanner strike. This seems likely enough, given the slight air of unreality about it -- there are people desperate for jobs on the docks, so the workers who are already there deserve a pay raise? Strange economics....
I have to admit that I'm rather doubtful as to whether the song is traditional. There is only one collection known to Roud, and Ewan MacColl is credited with collecting it. We will probably never entirely resolve the issue of how much MacColl genuinely collected, and how much he rewrote. I tend to give him the benefit of the doubt -- but less so on labor songs than ordinary folk songs. This feels like a plant to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: RcSfBeWa

Strike Out the Top LIne

DESCRIPTION: "Strike out the top line, let this be your care, Loosen the bonds that degrade and ensnare...." "Strike out the top line, Only the top line, Sweep the drink traffic away... Vote for No License that day." The song describes the benefits of limiting liquor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Crusade Songs, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: drink political nonballad New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 95, "Strike Out the Top Line" (1 text, tune referenced)
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 108, "Strike Out the Top Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't Strike Out the Top Line" (subject of prohibition in New Zealand)
NOTES [360 words]: As Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ describe it, New Zealand voters had the option, every three years starting in 1894, to vote on prohibition, and they had three choices, from top to bottom:
CONTINUATION (maintaining the current number of liquor licenses)
REDUCTION (giving authorities the right to shut down up to a quarter of licenses)
NO LICENSE (complete elimination of alcohol)
Voting consisted of what is now called "approval voting" -- saying which choices were acceptable. This song tries to take advantage of that situation. If the vote for NO LICENSE failed to reach the three-fifths majority needed for approval, then those ballots which listed both NO LICENSE and REDUCTION would count toward REDUCTION. If, as was possible, some who were pro-liquor voted for CONTINUATION and REDUCTION (on the grounds that REDUCTION was better than shutting things down entirely) and some voted only for REDUCTION (on the grounds that they didn't object to drink but thought there were too many pubs), then by only "striking out the top line" the prohibitionists could at least earn a reduction, which (by their standards) was better than nothing.
It doesn't seem to have worked; in the 1896 poll, at least, CONTINUATION won easily, with NO LICENSE slightly ahead of REDUCTION.
Even when New Zealand fixed (?) the voting system, their relationship with liquor remained complicated. According to Gordon Ell, Kiwiosities: An A-Z of New Zealand traditions & Folklore, New Holland Publishers, 2008, p. 136, a phenomenon called "Booze Barns" eventually came about: "During the 1960s the perverse logic of the Licensing Control Commission re-allocated liquor licenses from many ageing corner pubs to new hotels in the suburbs, surrounded by car parking. To enjoy a drink you had to drive. Huge public bars, detached from motel-like accommodation, provided the venue for mass drinking... The idea of a quiet, sociable drink was stifled by rock bands and the milling throng. Such 'booze barns' have deservedly lost custom" as liquor laws made it easier for local pubs and restaurants to serve alcohol.
According to Ell, p. 74, the last "dry towns" gave up in 1999. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BaRo095

Strike Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "We are out for higher wages, As we have a right to do, And' we'll never be content Till we get oor ten per cent, For we have a right tae live as well as you."
AUTHOR: probably Mary Brooksbank
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: worker labor-movement strike money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 44, "The Strike Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #22211
File: Gath044

Strike the Bell

DESCRIPTION: "Aft on the poop deck and walking about, There's the second mate so steady and so stout," refusing to strike the bell and release the watch even though there is clearly a storm approaching. Most wish the bell would strike, but the officers stay the course
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Hugill-SongsSea)
KEYWORDS: sailor storm hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 123, "Strike the Bell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 44-45, "Strike the Bell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp.115-116, "Strike the Bell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4190
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ring the Bell, Watchman" (tune) and references there
File: PaSe123

Strike Up the Band (Here Comes a Sailor)

DESCRIPTION: "Jack is the king of the dark blue sea. Jack is as brave as the brave can be. He's the boy the girls adore." "Strike up the band. Here comes a sailor, Cash in his hand, just off a whaler." He's welcome until his money runs out
AUTHOR: Words, Andrew B. Sterling / Music, Charles B. Ward
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: sailor home money music
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
Roud #27582
RECORDINGS:
Tom Hanford, "Strike Up the Band" (Piotr-Archive #644, recorded 08/16/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down!" (theme)
NOTES [108 words]: Andrew B. Sterling is best known for writing the words to "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis" and "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie"; also "On the Shores of Havana," "Strike Up the Band (Here Comes a Sailor)," "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown (What You Goin' to Do When the Rent Comes 'Round?)," and others. Most of his hits had music by Harry von Tilzer; this is an exception.
Jim Dixon on mudcat.org notes that this was extremely popular in movies in the period around World War II, being used no fewer than eleven times from 1929 to 1949, often in association with sailors, though it appears that many of the uses were just of the melody, not the words. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio644

Strim-Stram Pally

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Stringybark

DESCRIPTION: "There are white-box and pine on the ridges afar, Where the ironbark, bluegum, and peppermint are, But the one I know best and the dearest to me And the king of them all is the stringybark tree." Why is it so dear? The singer's birth-hut was made of it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: home
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 264, "Stringybark" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Stringybark and Greenhide" (subject)
NOTES [214 words]: Learmonth, p. 511, describes stringybark as an informal name for several species of eucalyptus, the name being given because the bark "peels off in long fibrous strips." Morris, pp. 442-443, gives multiple meanings. The first, dating back to at least 1845, is close to Learmonth's: "any one of various Gums with a tough fibrous bark used for tying, for cordage, for roofs of huts, etc." The second sense is "bush slang for bad whisky." The third is simply an equivalent for "bush" in all its senses, i.e. that which is away from civilization.
Ramson, p. 643, "Any of many trees, chiefly of s.e. mainland Aust., of the genus Eucapyptus (fam. Myrtaceae) having a characteristically thick, rough, persistent, long-fibred bark; the barak of the tree. Also with distinguishing epithet, as red, swamp, white, yellow." The first citation is from 1799. But there is a secondary meaning: "Used allusively as an emblem of the unsophisticated, the remote, and the rustic."
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, p.281, notes that stringybark grew on poor land, but it isn't absolutely clear whether this means low soil fertility or unusually dry. I would guess the former, though, because eucalyptus leaves reportedly are very low in nutrition value even by leaf standards. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: MA264

Stringybark and Greenhide

DESCRIPTION: "I sing of a commodity, it's one that will not fail yer,.. the mainstay of Australia... Stringybark and greenhide can beat [gold] all to pieces." Greenhide can hold carts together; stringybark strengthens homes; the singer praises these useful products
AUTHOR: George Loyau (?) (source: Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: probably before 1870 (Sydney Songster)
KEYWORDS: nonballad Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 170-172, "Stringybark and Greenhide" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 157-159, "Stringybark and Greenhide" (1 text plus a fragment)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 71-72, "Stringy-bark and Green-hide" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 71-72, "Stringybark and Greenhide" (1 text)
Roud #8400
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. 'Stringybark" (subject)
NOTES [194 words]: Learmonth, p. 511, describes stringybark as an informal name for several species of eucalyptus, the name being given because the bark "peels off in long fibrous strips." Morris, pp. 442-443, gives multiple meanings. The first, dating back to at least 1845, is close to Learmonth's: "any one of various Gums with a tough fibrous bark used for tying, for cordage, for roofs of huts, etc." The second sense is "bush slang for bad whisky." The third is simply an equivalent for "bush" in all its senses, i.e. that which is away from civilization.
Ramson, p. 643, "Any of many trees, chiefly of s.e. mainland Aust., of the genus Eucapyptus (fam. Myrtaceae) having a characteristically thick, rough, persistent, long-fibred bark; the barak of the tree. Also with distinguishing epithet, as red, swamp, white, yellow." The first citation is from 1799. But there is a secondary meaning: "Used allusively as an emblem of the unsophisticated, the remote, and the rustic."
Allthough the song presents itself as a praise of stringybark and greenhide, Patterson/Fahey/Seal see it more as a toast to the abilities of Australians to improvise, and I incline to agree. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: PFS157

Stringybark Cockatoo, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a broke alluvial miiner who's been using his cup to drain." With no other means of support, the miner goes to work for a "stringybark cockatoo." The work is dull and the master poor, cheap, and hard to work with
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: unemployment work farming Australia mining
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 107-108, "The Stringybark Cockatoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 100-102, "The Stringybark Cockatoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 281-283, "The Stringybark Cockatoo" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 34-35, "The Stringybark Cockatoo" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 179-180, "The Stringybark Cockatoo" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cockies of Bungaree" (plot, lyrics)
NOTES [72 words]: A "Cockatoo," or "Cockie," is a farmer whose land is so poor that it can raise little but cockatoos. Stringybark (for which see "Stringybark") was also considered a sign of very poor land.
This song has so many similarities to "The Cockies of Bungaree" that I have to suspect literary dependence. The "Bungaree" text is the more popular, and hence perhaps more likely to be original, but I can offer no absolute proof of this. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: PASB100

Stringybark Creek

DESCRIPTION: "A sergeant and three constables rode out from Mansfield Town" to seek the Kelly gang. When they separate, Kelly overwhelms two, then catches the other two as they return. One man, MacIntyre, escapes to bring the news to Mansfield
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: outlaw death trick horse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1855 - Birth of Ned Kelly
1880 - Execution of Kelly. His last words are reported to have been "Such is life."
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 136-137, "Stringybark Creek" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 70-72, "Stringybark Creek" (1 text, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: John S. Manifold, _Who Wrote the Ballads? Notes on Australian Folksong_, Australasian Book Society, 1964, pp. 77-78, "A Sergeant and Three Constables" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kelly Was Their Captain" (subject) and notes and references there
NOTES [131 words]: Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook reports that there is also a fiddle tune named "Stringybark Creek," which is sometimes used for this song. Said tune sounds vaguely familiar; I think I've heard it under another name. But it's not one of the common fiddle tunes.
Anderson reports the tune as "The Wearing of the Green" but says that at least one other tune is used.
John S. Manifold, Who Wrote the Ballads? Notes on Australian Folksong, Australasian Book Society, 1964, p. 75, says that W. J. Wye, who collected ths, considered this the oldest ballad of the Kelly Gang.
Edward "Ned" Kelly and his gang are perhaps the most famous of all Australian bushrangers. For some anecdotes of his life, in addition to the cross-referenced songs, see the notes to "Kelly Was Their Captain." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: PASB070

Stripey and Blondie

DESCRIPTION: "Now come here and I'll tell you a story It's all about Malta you know." Stripey is dating Blondie and an "OD winger." Blondie catches Stripey with his other man, and arranges for a 15" gun of the Warspite to blow up Stripey, the OD winger, and the bar
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy courting homosexuality betrayal technology derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 66-67, "Stripey and Blondie" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Frankie and Albert" [Laws I3] (tune of the "Frankie and Johnny" versions)
NOTES [178 words]: The reference to the Warspite as the ship in this song is interesting. The Warspite, a member of the Queen Elizabeth class, had eight 15" guns (the size mentioned in the song). These are not the largest guns used in the Royal Navy; the Nelson and Rodney carried 16" guns, and the battlecruiser Furious briefly carried two 18" guns before they were found to cause so much blast that they damaged the ship; they had to be removed and the Furious converted to an aircraft carrier.
But Nelson, Rodney, and Furious were not ships that served in the Mediterranean, at least for any length of time during World War II (and the Furious had lost her big guns anyway). The Warspite spent much of the war there. What's more, she was famous for a battle there in which she scored the longest-range hit ever recorded by a naval gun. So although Blondie could theoretically have found a bigger gun, the song correctly describes her as using the biggest artillery available from Malta, and even picking the ship most likely to score an accurate hit with it. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn049

Stripling, The

DESCRIPTION: A young man of 18 loves a 29 year old woman. He gathers flowers, lies with them at his head and feet, and claims to be dying for her love. She says when he is in his prime he'll slight her for being old. She goes with him anyway.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: age love
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 987, "The Stripling" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6270
File: GrD5987

Strong Is the Power of Brigham's God

DESCRIPTION: "Strong is the power of Brigham's God, His name is a terror to our foes, Ye were a barrier strong and broad As our high mountains crowned with snows." The soldiers who were to have fought General Johnston are welcomed home
AUTHOR: Eliza R. Snow (1804-1887) (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious home soldier | Mormon
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 89-90, "Strong Is the Power of Brigham's God" (1 text)
Roud #10841
NOTES [32 words]: Hmph. If Brigham Young's God was so strong, why did that God allow the Mormons to be chased out of the Midwest?
For background on Eliza R. Snow, see the notes to "Mormon Battalion Song (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS089

Struggle for the Breeches, The

DESCRIPTION: Husband: "You are inclin'd I now do find the breeches for to wear." Wife: "No, dear, not I, but I will die or I will have my share" They trade ("comic"?) insults without resolution.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Poet's Box broadside "Struggle For The Breeches," according to Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness accusation bragging dialog humorous nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1286, "The Struggle for the Breeches" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 268-271, "The Struggle for the Breeches" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 419)
Roud #1316
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.20(157), "The Struggle for the Breeches" ("About my wife I mean to sing a very comic song"), H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 16(262a), Firth c.26(237)[some illegible lines], "[The] Struggle for the Breeches"
Murray, Mu23-y4:026, "Struggle For The Breeches," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(45a), "Struggle for the Breeches," unknown, c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Britches" (theme) and references there
NOTES [133 words]: Greig/Duncan7 quoting Bell Robertson [1841-1922]: "That was a song that was thought funny when I was a girl." - BS
On August 27, 1591, Robert Bourne entered a ballad into the Stationer's Register entitled "A pleasant ballad of a combat between a man and his wyfe for the breches" (so Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), #323, p. 36). Similarly, Francis Grove on November 26, 1619 registered "A woman would weare the Bruhes" (sic.) (Rollins #3001, p. 257). The chronological gap is large enough that a direct connection between these and the modern song seems unlikely, but the title shows how old the general idea is. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: GrD71286

Study War No More

See Down By the Riverside (Study War No More) (File: San480)

Stump Speech, The

DESCRIPTION: The candidate asks for votes: "Ladies and gentlemen, hearers and shearers, Both of the feminine and sheminine gender..." The candidate refuses to say where he stands; he stands with those who are "in." He appeals to "Fellow electors and blithering idiots"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad humorous recitation
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 10, page headed "We chattered on..."], "The Stump Speech" (1 text)
File: FaWStuSp

Stump, The

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

Stumpie the Lawyer

DESCRIPTION: Stumpie tells Meg it is safe when "ye needna dread ill when ye hae a Pitfour" now that the election is over. But "a mob wi' tar-barrel cam doon to the door" and played her "Lochaber no more" [used as a funeral dirge]
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Walker, _The Bards of Bon-Accord 1375-1860_, according to Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: fire nonballad political
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 242, "Stumpie the Lawyer" (1 text)
Roud #5846
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Logie o' Buchan" (tune, according to Greig/Duncan2)
NOTES [62 words]: Greig/Duncan2: "Part of a song current in Aberdeen about 1805. Election row -- Pitfour one of the contestants. Rabble took a tar-barrel down to a 'howl' in Netherkirkgate kept by 'Salmon Meg' (woman's husband being a salmon fisher) -- a house frequented by Pitfour -- and set fire to it. Kennedy the advocate and 'Annalist' is the 'Stumpie' of the song; he was a cripple." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2242

Stuttering Johnny

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

Stuttering Song, The

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

Subaltern's Song

DESCRIPTION: "A subaltern is one who lives a life of joy and ease, He never has to worry, and he does as others please," and when there is trouble, he will be blamed; "That's where we're happy, happy as can be." And the pay is poor, so they lose girls to high officers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes technology courting
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 98-99, Subaltern's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #29423
File: Hopk098

Subhail a Gradh

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

Subsidy: A Goat Island Ballad

DESCRIPTION: "There is a corporation within this Golden State Which owns a line of railroads for conveying men and freight" which runs from Sacramento to Ogden. The route runs that way due to subsidies -- and because "The corporation's clever and the public is an ass"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (California Mail Bag, March-April 1872, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: railroading derivative money | subsidy California
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 69-71, "Subsidy: A Goat Island Ballad" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old English Gentleman" (lyrics, theme) and references there
File: LDC069

Substitute (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Recitation; Tom Burke befriends young Tim Cory. Tim is crushed by a falling tree and asks Tom to take care of his children. He finds Tim's children are now orphans. The speaker later learns Tom has married Tim's oldest daughter
AUTHOR: Probably Marion Ellsworth
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Recitation; Tom Burke, a saw-filer in the lumber camp, befriends a young man, Tim Cory. Tim is crushed by a falling tree, but before dying, he asks Tom to take care of his children. Tom takes the body to Tim's house. He finds Tim's children are now orphans, their mother having been dead for two years; he takes up a collection among the crew. The speaker loses track of Tom, but one day he chances on a small farm, and he finds Tom has married Tim's oldest daughter, and they've made a good and happy home.
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger marriage farming recitation orphan family friend
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 104, "The Substitute" (1 text)
Roud #8884
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Harry Dunn (The Hanging Limb)" [Laws C14]
cf. "Chance McGear" (plot)
cf. "Boy Killed by a Falling Tree in Hartford" (plot)
NOTES [38 words]: Put baldly, as in the description, this sounds like sentimental treacle, but to my ear it's a poem with some guts to it. Like the other pieces probably written by Ellsworth, it does not seem to have entered oral tradition. - PJS
File: Be104

Substitute (II), The

See Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor) [Laws K40] (File: LK40)

Success to Every Man

DESCRIPTION: "De time is drawin' near, me b'ys, De narthern floe to face, So we must get out 'aulin' rope, De whitecoats fer to lace!" Various sealing ships are listed. The singer wishes success and prosperity to the sealers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (England, Vikings of the Ice)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 109, "Success to Every Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: George Allan England, _Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt_ (also published as _The Greatest Hunt in the World_), Doubleday, 1924, pp. 233-234, "(no title)" (1 text)
NOTES [310 words]: Several of the ships in this piece are mentioned in other items in the Index.
For the Viking, see "To the Memory of the Late Captain Kennedy." The Suthren Cross is obviously the Southern Cross, for which see The Southern Cross. For the Kite, see "The 'Kite' Abandoned in White Bay." That leaves the Nipshun. There is no such sealer, but the name is a likely mis-hearing of the Neptune, for which see "Neptune, Ruler of the Sea." We know that sealers on occasion referred to the Neptune as the "Nipshun"; England, p. 116, has the sealers of the Terra Nova say that George Barbour (who at that time commanded the Neptune; Chafe, p. 88) was in charge of the Nipshun.
The names of these ships isn't much dating help. The Neptune first went sealing in 1873, and lasted until 1941 (Feltham, p. 93), though she missed the hunt in 1904 (Chafe, p. 102), plus a few years in the 1930s (but this song is older than that, so it hardly matters). The Viking first went to the ice in 1904 (Chafe, p. 105), and lasted until it suffered a powder explosion in 1931 (Feltham, pp. 157-159). The Southern Cross went to the ice for the first time in 1901 (Chafe, p. 104), and was lost with all hands in 1914 (Feltham, pp. 128-131). The Kite first went sealing in 1877 (Chafe, p. 101) and sailed every year until 1914, then started again in 1918.
On its face, the mention of these four ships would permit any date from 1904 to the beginning of 1914, but we can narrow things a little more. The song mentions "wood and ironclads," i.e. wooden and steel sealers. The first steel ship was the SS Adventure, for which see "I Am a Newfoundlander." Her first trip to the ice was in 1906. And ironclads is plural, so it has to be after the fleet had multiple ironclads. I'd say that restricts us to 1908-1913. My gut feeling is that this comes from 1911. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.3
File: RySm109

Success to the Hardy Sealers

DESCRIPTION: "The twelfth of March is drawing near And we must all prepare Our pipers and our pannicans The sealer's life to share." Ships preparing to go to the ice are listed. The singer hopes they return safely
AUTHOR: apparently Johnny Burke
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Burke's Ballads)
KEYWORDS: ship travel hunting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 81, "Success to the Hardy Sealers" (1 text)
Roud #V44592
NOTES [848 words]: Although Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff attribute this to Johnny Burke, and quote it from one of his publications, it is not in his most extensive collection, Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981. (For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree.")
This must have been brand-new when it was published in "Burke's Ballads"; the Stephano, which is mentioned in the song, was finished in 1911 and went to the ice for the first time in 1912 (Chafe, pp. 78-79). Like other ships in the Bowring sealing/liner fleet, she was named after the Shakespeare character (O'Neill, p. 961). She was sunk by U-53 in October 8, 1916 near Nantucket (Winsor, p. 62) -- although, happily, the passengers and were warned by the submarine and given time to abandon ship; there were no casualties (O'Neill, pp. 962-963). But she had only a handful of years as a sealer (which probably explains why, even though she was the biggest and best ship ever to go sealing up to this time, this seems to be the only sealing song to mention her; many other sealers were mentioned repeatedly).
Three other ships mentioned in the song were destroyed not long after the commissioning of the Stephano and were also commemorated in song. One of these ships gives us an absolutely firm date: The Algerine, for which see "The Loss of the Algerine," was lost in 1912. Since the mention of the Stephano forces a date no earlier than 1912, and the Algerine forces a date no later than that year, obviously the year must be 1912!
Supporting the 1912 date is the first line, "The twelfth of March is drawing near" -- the sealing fleet sailed on March 12, 1912 (Chafe, p. 98), whereas it had usually sailed on March 10 until 1910 (sealing law didn't permit ships to sail before that date; Candow, p. 57; according to Greene, p. 94, in 44 of the 71 years from 1863-1933, the sailing date was precisely March 10), and the fleet had sailed on March 13 in 1911, when the sealing companies agreed not to take any seals before March 16 (Ryan, p. 194).
It is interesting and unusual to see this song divide the ships into wooden ships (Algerine, Kite, Labrador, Neptune, Southern Cross, Viking) and ironclads. The earliest steamers were of course all wooden, but eventually the shipping companies started using steel ships, which could break the ice more easily. While they lasted, the steel ships were the most successful ships, and the ones everyone wanted to be part of. But they proved uneconomical; they cost more than the old wooden ships, and generally weren't well-suited for other tasks (Ryan, p. 200), and with the seal population in decline, it was hard to afford them. All went off to other duties in World War I, and many (like the Stephano and the Florizel) did not come back; after World War I, the sealing fleet in most years once again consisted of wooden walls (Feltham, p. 95, although this fails to note that, once in a while, a new steel steamer served after the Great War).
Of the other ships mentioned in the song, the Southern Cross was lost with all hands in 1914; see "The Southern Cross (I)."
The Florizel was wrecked in 1918; see "The Wreck of the Steamship Florizel."
The Neptune is the subject of "Neptune, Ruler of the Sea."
For the Viking, see "To the Memory of the Late Captain Kennedy."
For the Kite see "The 'Kite' Abandoned in White Bay."
For the Labrador see also "Captains and Ships" and "The Sealer's Song (II)."
This is the only sealing song to mention the Venture -- which probably shouldn't surprise us, since no such sealing ship is listed by Chafe! Probably the reference is to one of the two sisters Bellaventure and Bonaventure, the former being the "Belle" and the latter the "Bon" of "Captains and Ships," or their older fleet-mate the Adventure, mentioned in "The Sealer's Song (II)" and "I Am a Newfoundlander." The Adventure, the very first steel sealer, first went to the ice in 1906 and ended her career in 1915; the Bellaventure and Bonaventure both served 1909-1915 (and it was the Bellaventure which had the sad fate of bringing home the survivors and the victims of the Newfoundland Disaster of 1914; see "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)"). All three ships were sold to Russia in 1916.
The Beothic too went to the ice 1909-1915; she is mentioned in this song and in "Captains and Ships." She had a near-disaster in 1913, when she was hit by the Bonaventure (O'Neill, p. 984), which took her out of the 1913 sealing season. The Bonaventure (which is mentioned in the "Ballad of Bob Bartlett, Arctic Explorer") was able to proceed on her way, but the Beothic was crippled and barely survived. (For this event, see also "First Arrival from the Sea Fishery S. S. Fogota, 1912.")
There is a picture of the Bonaventure and the Beothic on p. 39 of Ryan/Drake. Winsor, p. 62, has a photo of the Stephano. Higgins, p. 21, shows the Adventure, Bellaventure, and Bonaventure together in port. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: RySm081

Success Unto the Coal Trade

DESCRIPTION: "Good people, listen while I sing The source from where your comforts spring; And may each wind that blows still bring Success unto the coal trade." The singer points out how coal supports the nation and feeds the people of the north
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: mining nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 140-141, "Success Unto the Coal Trade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3163
File: StoR140

Such a Getting Upstairs

See Getting Upstairs (File: Wolf044)

Such a Gittin' Up-Stairs

See Getting Upstairs (File: Wolf044)

Such a Happy Little Girl Am I

See One More Kiss Before I Go (File: MHAp168)

Such an Education Has My Mary Ann

See Sweet Mary Ann (Such an Education Has My Mary Ann) (File: HaBrSEMA)

Such Is Life in All Its Phases

DESCRIPTION: "Such is life in all its phases, When you die you go to blazes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: death
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 47, "(Such is life in all its phases)" (1 text)
Roud #22990
File: PKKB047E

Suckers Sadly Gather, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, The suckers sadly gather around the Red Cross office door, And at the job signs longingly they gaze." "The employment shark says, 'Right, I will ship you out tonight Where the silvery Colorado wends its way.'" But they end up as hoboes
AUTHOR: Words: Richard Brazier (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (I. W. W. Songbook, Second Edition, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement derivative travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 520, "The Suckers Sadly Gather" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Where the Silvery Colorado Wends Its Way" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
cf. "The Tragedy of Sunset Land" (tune)
File: LDC520

Sucking Cider through a Straw

DESCRIPTION: "The prettiest girl that I ever saw Was sucking cider through a straw." "I told that gal I didn't see how She sucked the cider through a straw." "And now I've got me a mother-in-law From sucking cider through a straw."
AUTHOR: credited in the 1919 publication to Carey Morgan and Lee David
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: courting drink
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 47, "Sucking Cider through a Straw" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 47, "Sucking CIder through a Straw" (1 tune, plus text not found in the Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 version)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 329, "Sucking Cider Through a Straw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 239, "Sipping Cider Through A Straw" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 175, 235, 240, 289, 311, 322-324, "Sippin' Cider" (notes, with a fragment on p. 323)
DT, SIPCIDER*
Roud #7867
RECORDINGS:
[Arthur] Collins & [Byron] Harlan, "Sipping Cider Through a Straw" (Pathe 22157, 1919) (Edison 50627, 1920) (CYL: Edison [BA] 3846, n.d.)
Vernon Dalhart, "Sippin' Cider" (Columbia 1712-D, 1929)
SAME TUNE:
The Other Day I Met a Bear (File: ACSF318O)
NOTES [95 words]: The 1919 publication gives the name as "Sipping Cider thru' a Straw." Curiously, Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, writing no later than 1927, did not seem to know of this -- implying that this was originally "folk" rather than pop.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 326, estimates that this was the forty-third most popular song in America in 1919, peaking at #8 in October 1919 (#1 for the year being Raymond B. Egan and Richard A. Whiting's "Till We Meet Again"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: San329

Sucking Pig (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Of a giant pig, which takes 7000 men to butcher, and seven years to remove a trotter; its bones yield 7000 bags of flour. Cho: "O, perhaps you may think that/O, it's not all true/But I don't care a fig/What I say, I know it's true/About this suckling pig"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (recording, Jack Elliott of Birtley)
KEYWORDS: lie corpse death work food talltale animal worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
Roud #8083
RECORDINGS:
Jack Elliott, "The Sucking Pig" (on Elliotts01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Derby Ram" (subject, plot)
cf. "The Grey Goose" (subject, plot)
cf. "The Killing of the Big Pig (Iso Sika)" (subject, plot)
NOTES [60 words]: The collectors, MacColl & Seeger, considered this song a barrack-room rewrite of "The Derby Ram," and obviously the parallels are very strong. But as the actual words, except for the chorus, seem to be somewhat independent, I split them. Still, cognate stories of big animals that are hard to kill and cook are common, so do look at the cross-references. - PJS
File: RcTSuPig

Sucking Pig (II), The

See The Parson and the Sucking Pig (File: WT197)

Sudden Departure

See It Snows And It Blows (Sudden Departure) (File: Newel060)

Suffolk Miracle, The [Child 272]

DESCRIPTION: A squire's daughter loves a lowborn man. The squire sends her away. In time her love comes to bear her home. His head hurts; she binds it with her kerchief. She arrives home. Her father says her love is dead. She finds his dead body wearing her kerchief
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1689? (broadside, dated to that year by Wood); a song with this name was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: love courting separation death father lover ghost supernatural corpse travel horse grief
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West)) US(Ap,NE,SE,So) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Child 272, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
Bronson 272, The Suffolk Miracle" (13 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 272, "The Suffolk Miracle" (3 versions: #1a, #2, #6)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, pp. 22-23, "Its of a farmer all in this town (The Suffolk Miracle)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 90, "Lover's Ghost" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 37, "The Suffolk Miracle" (4 texts plus 1 fragment ("C") that might be almost anything, 5 tunes) {Bronson's #4, #2, #3, #1a, #8}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 217-219, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine p. 314, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 fragment)
Randolph 32, "Lady Fair" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 145-147, "The Holland Handkerchief" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland4, pp. 50-62, "The Suffolk Miracle" (3 texts, 2 tune, all weeming somewhat mixed -- e.g. "A" has the rose-and-briar ending) {Bronson's A=Bronson's #10, B=#7}
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 86-89, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #10}
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 27, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 84-85, "The Lady Near New York Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 41, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 41, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #169, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 42, "The Suffolk Miracle" (2 texts plus a scrap which could be anything, 2 tunes, one of them for the unidentifiable fragment) {Bronson's #8, #5}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 49, "The Farmer's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 88-90, "The Suffolk Miracle" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Peacock, pp. 407-408, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 645-649, "The Suffolk Miracle" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 175, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 56, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 198-201, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H217, pp. 432-433, "The Lover's Ghost" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 40, "The Holland Handkerchief" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 12, "The Holland Handkerchief" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2961, "A wonder stranger ne'r was known"
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Uncle Pat Fry: Yadkin County Minstrel or The Blind Balladeer of East Bend," Vol. XVI, No. 3 (Nov 1968), pp. 156-157, "The Suffold Miracle" (1 text)
DT 272, SUFFMRCL* SUFFMRC2 SUFFMRC3*
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 136, "The Suffolk Miracle" (reproduction of a broadsheet by John White, closely related to but not the same as Child's a)
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 110-114, "The Suffolk Miracle" (1 text)
Roud #246
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "The Suffolk Miracle" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Packie Manus Byrne, "The Holland Handkerchief" (on Voice03)
Nora Cleary, "The Holland Handkerchief" (on IREarlyBallads)
Dol [Adolphus G.] Small, "There Was an Old and Wealthy Man" (AFS, 1950; on LC58) {Bronson's #1b}
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(207b), "The Suffolk Miracle" or "A Relation of a Young Man Who a Month After His Death Appeared to his Sweetheart," F. Coles (London), 1678-1680; also Wood E 25(83) [some lines illegible; "MS annotation following imprint: 1689"], Douce Ballads 3(88a)[many illegible lines], "The Suffolk Miracle" or "A Relation of a Young Man Who a Month After His Death Appeared to his Sweet[-]heart,"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid of Sweet Gurteen" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
My Bleeding Heart (per broadsides Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(207b), Wood E 25(83) and Douce Ballads 3(88a))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sad Courtin'
The Richest Girl in Our Town
Lucy Bouns
NOTES [1225 words]: Child complains of this song, "This piece should not be admitted here on its own merits.... It is not even a good specimen of its kind. Ghosts should have a fair reason for walking, and a quite particular reason for riding...." Child prints the song for the sake of its foreign analogs.
Presumably Child thinks the ghost should do more, e.g. take the girl to the grave with him, as in the tale-type known from Burger's "Lenore" (Thompson #365, "The Dead Bridegroom Carries Off His Bride"). In those, it is sometimes a drowned sailor who comes to collect the girl.
All I can say is, the plot may be somewhat defective, but the full forms of the ballad itself are quite beautiful and pathetic. It does corrupt easily, though, as the Flanders texts show.
More interesting is the way the story is expressed. Legends of ghosts are of course common, and legends of the fate of spirit and body affecting each other not rare (e.g. if a living person slashes at a ghost, the ghost may appear to be intact but the corpse will bear a scar, perhaps healed). In this song, the ghost actually comes to bear an artifact. That is not often encountered.
The idea of a ghost leaving its grave for cause and then coming back bearing the mark of what it did may predate all those legends of Child's. One of the most famous collections of tales of the Middle Ages was the Golden Legend, which exists in many manuscript copies and was printed in translation by William Caxton. (I learned about what follows from Judy Ann Ford in Fisher, p. 138).
At the end of the story of Saint Julian, the Golden Legend wishes us to be clear that Saint Julian was not to be confused with "another Julian, no saint but a most wicked wrongdoer, namely, Julian the Apostate." (Ryan, p. 128)
Voragine, to blacken Julian, tells of him stealing a woman's gold and using it to procure the imperial throne (Ryan, pp. 128-129). Julian also studied magic, and persists in it despite chasing off an evil spirit by making the sign of the cross (Ryan, p. 129).
At the end of his life, he set out to conquer Persia. It is at this stage that the relevant miracle is recorded (Ryan, pp. 129-130). "When the emperor had advanced as far as Caesarea of Cappadocia.... Saint Basil met him and sent him four barley loaves as a gift. Julian was offended, disdained to accept the loaves, and in return sent Basel a bundle of hay, with the message, 'You have offended us with the fodder of irrational animals. Take back what you sent.' Basel replied, 'We indeed sent you with what we ourselves eat, but you have given us what you feed your beasts with.' To this Julian responded angrily, 'When I have subjugated Persia, I will raze this city and plow up the land, and it will be called not 'man-bearing' but 'grain-bearing.'
"The following night Basil had a vision in the church of Saint Mary in which he saw a multitude of angels, and in their midst a woman seated on a throne. The woman said to her attendants, 'Quickly summon Mercury to me! He shall put to death the apostate Julian, who in his insolent pride blasphemes me and my Son!' This Mercury was a soldier who had been killed by Julian himself for the faith of Christ and was buried in this church. Instantly Saint Mercury, whose arms [i.e. weapons] were preserved nearby, stood at attention and received her orders to prepare to fight. Basil woke up, went to the place where Saint Mercury lay at peace near his arms, opened the tomb, and found neither the body nor the weapons." He asked the watchman, who told him that, as of the last time he had checked, the weapons had been where they had always been.
"Basil then went back to his house, but in the morning came again, and in the usual place found the saint's body, including the lance, which was now covered with blood.
"Then someone came from Julian's army and reported as follows: 'While Emperor Julian was still with the army, an unknown soldier came up to him with his arms and his lance, put spurs to his horse... drove his lance through [Julian's] body, vanished, and was not seen again.' Julian, while he was still breathing, filled his hands with his blood... and tossed it in the air, saying, 'Galilean [the title he regularly used for Jesus], you have conquered!' With these words he expired miserably."
The only problem with this account is that it is effectively all wrong. Even the existence of Saint Julian is dubious: he was "almost certainly an entirely mythical saint. He has no date, no country, no tomb; his feast on 29 January in the Acta Sanctorum seems an arbitrary date" (OxfordSaints, p. 293)
Turning to Julian the Apostate himself, Ammianus, pp. 292-293, says that during a surprise skirmish with the Persians, Julian rushed out without his full armor to try to gain control of the situation when he was hit by a cavalry spear, "directed by no one knows whom." He survived for a while, but died some hours later (Ammianus, pp. 294-295. He has Julian talking at the end, without the "Galilean, you have conquered" bit). Ammianus does mention a rumor that Julian was kiilled by a Roman weapon (p. 301), but not by a ghost! Unfortunately, he had put his army in a very bad fix (in a note on p. 464, the translators suggest he knew he was in trouble and courted death so he wouldn't have to deal with the army's problems; Chadwick, p. 158, also mentions a rumor that he arranged his death in a fit of despair).
There was an early report that Julian flung his own blood skyward toward his gods and declared "Be satisfied," but it was not until 450 that Theodoret of of Cyrus changed his words to "Galilean, you have conquered" (Chadwick, p. 159).
Nor had he had to scheme to attain the imperial throne; he was the son of Constantine the Great's half-brother (Grant, p. 251, or see the genealogy on p. 202), and so part of the royal family; he also married Constantine's daughter Helena. Given commands on the borders of the empire, he proved competent enough that the suspicious emperor Constantius II set out to get rid of him. In effect forced into rebellion, the empire fell into his hands without real battle when Constantius II died in 361 C.E. (Grant, p. 252). He seems to have in fact strengthened the Empire (Grant, p. 253) before his fatal decision to attack Persian in 363.
There was a Saint Mercurius, according to WatkinsSaints, p. 167, but he died in the Decian Persecution more than a century before the reign of Julian. Of course there was no formal canonization process back then, so there could be other Mercuriuses who were called saints, or Voragine could have heard of Mercurius being martyred and confused his emperors, but there is again no evidence for this "Mercury" as described in the Golden Legend.
Ammianus's reference to a spear from an unknown source, and his later reference to the rumor that it was a Roman weapon, hints that he knew of the Christian account. But, obviously, he dismissed it. Nonetheless it appears the story is old -- though it seems unlikely that the account of a knight leaving his grave to do the deed goes back that far; it sounds like an elaboration of the Christian legend. The point, though, is that this sort of tale of a corpse leaving its grave is very old.
The "Holland Handkerchief" of certain versions is not a cloth woven in the Netherlands; rather, the adjective refers to the pattern of the weave. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: C272

Sugar and Tea

DESCRIPTION: "Lead her up to sugar and tea, Lead her up to candy. You swing 'round that sugar and tea While I swing 'round that dandy." "Hi oh that sugar and tea, Hi oh that candy, You swing 'round that sugar and tea While I swing 'round that dandy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Talley)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 71-72, "You Turn for Sugar an' Tea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 531, "Sugar and Tea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 180-181, 182-183, "Sugar and Tea" (2 tets, 2 tunes)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 109, "Old Aunt Pearly" (1 short text, which looks closest to this although it might be "Weevily Wheat" or something similar)
ST R531 (Partial)
Roud #7643
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dog in the Wood" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sugar Loaf Tea
He Loves Sugar and Tea
NOTES [31 words]: This shares a chorus with the song I've indexed as "Dog in the Wood," but the verses are so distinct (that is a hunting song, this a courting song) that I've tentatively split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: R531

Sugar Babe (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Shoot your dice and have your fun, sugar babe... Run like the devil when the police come." The singer describes various results of getting drunk. Sundry other floating verses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: drink gambling nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 153-154, "Sugar Babe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3655
File: LxA153

Sugar Babe (II)

See Crawdad (File: R443)

Sugar Babe (III)

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses with internal chorus "this-u morning" and final chorus "My honey babe, my little babe, so sweet." Verses: "Kill me a chicken and bring be the wing." "I got a mule and the mule won't gee." "I took my girl to the crawfish stand...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting abandonment food floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 482, "Sugar Babe" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 482, "Sugar Babe" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
NOTES [62 words]: The notes in Brown state, "It seems best to retain this title [which came from the informant] for the present medley, because it is the refrain that gives it such coherence as it has." I'm not sure I agree -- but certainly there is no other single place the song can file, as the verses all appear elsewhere. I suspect they were fitted into an existing blues framework. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3482

Sugar Babe (IV)

See Sweet Thing (I) (File: R443A)

Sugar Baby (Red Rocking Chair; Red Apple Juice)

DESCRIPTION: "Got no sugar baby now...got no use for your red rocking chair...who'll rock the cradle, who'll sing the song...all I can do, fuss, eat, sleep with you/send you to your mama next payday" -- floating verses all.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Dock Boggs)
KEYWORDS: marriage nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, p. 50, "Red Apple Juice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 234, "Red Apple Juice" (1 text, 1 tune); also p. 243,"Little Turtle Dove" (1 text, 1 tune, a composite of floating verses, some of which perhaps belong here)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 82 "Sugar Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 34, "Red Rocking Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 175, "Red Apple Juice" (1 text)
Roud #7695
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley, Clint Howard et al, "Honey Babe Blues" (on Ashley02, WatsonAshley01)
Dock Boggs, "Sugar Baby" (Brunswick 118B, 1927; on AAFM3) (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1, CloseHomeMS)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Got No Honey Baby Now (Honey Babe Blues)" (on Holcomb2)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Little Turtle Dove" (1928; on BLLunsford01; a composite of all sorts of floating verses, a few of which may be from here)
Charlie Monroe & his Kentucky Pardners, "Red Rocking Chair" (RCA Victor 21-0145, 1949)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Red Rocking Chair" (on NLCR03)
Frank Proffitt, "Got No Sugar Baby Now" (on FProffitt01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pay Day" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Rain and Snow" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [22 words]: This is a white blues, but it powerfully resembles an improvised African-American blues lyric, composed mostly of floating verses. -PJS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ADR82

Sugar Hill

DESCRIPTION: Dance tune; "If you want to get your eye knocked out/If you want to get your fill/If you want to get your head blowed off/Go up on Sugar Hill". Other floating verses; "Possum up a 'simmon tree."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Crockett Ward & his Boys)
KEYWORDS: dancing drink floatingverses dancetune
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #79, "Sugar Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 193, "Sugar Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Frank Bode, "Sugar Hill" (on FBode1)
Dad Crockett, "Sugar Hill" (Brunwick 372, 1929; on KMM [as Crockett Family Mountaineers])
Iron Mountain String Band, "Sugar Hill" (on ClassOT)
Dan Tate, "Sugar Hill" (on FarMtns2)
Virginia Mountain Boomers [Ernest V. Stoneman, Willie Stoneman, an the Sweet Brothers], "Sugar Hill" (Gennett 6687, 1929; rec. 1928)
Crockett Ward & his Boys "Sugar Hill" (OKeh 45179, 1928; rec. 1927)
NOTES [7 words]: "Sugar Hill" is the wild part of town. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: CSW193

Sugar in My Coffee

DESCRIPTION: Complaints about life laced with the refrain, "(How in the world do the old folks know) That I like sugar in my coffee-o." The singer may describe how he likes to drink, or wishes he were/were not living the life of a white man
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 565, "Sugar in my Coffee" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 92, "I Do Love Sugar in My Coffee O" (2 short texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 92, "I Do Love Sugar in My Coffee O" (1 tune plus text excerpt)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Charles Bond, "Unpublished Folklore in the Brown Collection," Vol. XX, No. 1 (Feb 1972), p. 16, "Sugar in my Coffee" (1 text)
Roud #7659
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "What'll I Do with the Baby-O" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [78 words]: The Randolph fragment is so short that it could just be a piece of "What'll I Do with the Baby-O," and Brown's texts are also distinct. The mention of "sugar in my coffee" may just be a floating line. But it's going to be very hard to identify any of these scraps with a "real" song.
Randolph suggests that the origin of this may be in the fiddle tune "Sugar in My Toddy-o." Certainly possible. In which case it may be related to "Jingle at the Window (Tideo)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: R565A

Sugar in the Gourd (Bacon in the Smokehouse)

DESCRIPTION: "Bacon in the smokehouse, barrel full of lard, Milk in the dairy, butter on the board, Coffee in the little bag, sugar in the gourd, And the way to git it out is to dash the goard about."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Wyeth); 1855-1860 (see Notes re Wyeth)
KEYWORDS: food dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #137, "Bacon in the Smokehouse" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, pp. 44-48, "Sugar on the Floor" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John Allen Wyeth, _With Sabre and Scalpel_ (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1914 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), "(Sugar in de gourd)" p. 63 (1 verse)
Roud #5051 and 17580
RECORDINGS:
Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers, "Sugar in the Gourd" (Columbia 15612-D, 1930)
NOTES [106 words]: Roud splits Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida's "Bacon in the Smokehouse" from "Sugar in the Gourd," but all the texts involved are short, and the form appears the same; I'm lumping them until someone turns up another "Bacon in the Smokehouse" version. "Bacon" is Roud #5051; "Sugar in the Gourd," #17590.
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains's "Sugar on the Floor" is more a dance instruction than an actual song, and might be done to some other tune, but the title makes it seem likely that it goes here.- RBW
Wyeth learned "Sugar in de Gourd" from the slave that tought him to make and play the banjo, in Tennessee, around 1855-1856. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Morr137

Sugar Loaf Tea

See Sugar and Tea (File: R531)

Sugar Lump

See Turn that Cinnamon (File: R583)

Sugar Notch Entombment, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was in the month of April in 1879 When seven men came to Sugar Notch to work down in the mine." The mine starts to cave in. Lacking food, they kill their mule (with difficulty) and eat it to survive
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining disaster death food animal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 23, 1879 - The Sugar Notch cave-in (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 182-183, which gives the history of the event)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, p. 193, "The Sugar Notch Entombment" (1 text, which I suspect is missing some verses at the end
File: KMMP193A

Sugar, Salt, Pepper, Cider

See Drink Your Whiskey (File: AJRR125)

Suit of Green, The

DESCRIPTION: A girl mourns the loss of her love taken by guards "for wearing of the suit of green." Her master buys her a suit of green to wear to Dublin where she pleads with the Colonel for her lover's life. The Colonel spares them both; they will marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1862 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.14(134)); first half 19C (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: love marriage request rebellion trial pardon clothes colors Ireland patriotic prisoner
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 24, "The Suit of Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 22, "The Suit of Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 23, "Suit of Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 42-43, "(A Much-Admired New Song Called) The Suit of Green" (1 text)
ST OLoc024 (Partial)
Roud #3023
RECORDINGS:
Cyril O'Brien, "Wearing of the Suit of Green" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.14(134), "Suit of Green," E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1855-1861; also 2806 b.9(226), 2806 c.15(123), 2806 b.9(277), 2806 b.10(208), 2806 b.10(208), Firth c.26(264), Johnson Ballads fol. 363, "[The] Suit of Green"
NOTES [38 words]: Although wearing green was never an actual crime in Ireland, it was often associated with rebels (see "The Wearing of the Green" and the like). In times of trouble, it was likely to invite, shall we say, official attention. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: OLoc024

Suitors (O lê lê O Bahia)

DESCRIPTION: "There are suitors at my door, O lê lê O Bahia, Six or eight or even more, And my father wants me wed, Or at least that's what he said." She will do it "when rivers run uphill." Perhaps she leaves home, or she marries, or she stays a proud old maid
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 ("Sing Together" girl scout songbook, according to mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: Suitors (O Le Le O Bahia) (trad. Brazil)," with the Portuguese original older and many former campers thinking they learned it in the 1960s or earlier)
KEYWORDS: courting father marriage rejection oldmaid foreignlanguage campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 144, 147, 234, 496, "Suitors" (notes only)
DT, SUITOROL
File: ACSF144S

Sukey Sudds

DESCRIPTION: "Sukey Sudds was a-standing in front of her tubs, A-washing her clothes so nice.... Sukey Sudds picked up her three-legged stool And she throwed it right into the fire, fire, fire, And she throwed it right into the fire."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: clothes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 438, "Sukey Sudds" (1 text)
Roud #7608
NOTES [42 words]: Is this a parody of "Lord Lovel [Child 75]"? There is a parody of the latter which begins "Old Sukey she stood at the college gate, A-scratching her milk-white ear." It doesn't match this song, but they appear to be based on the same name and tunes. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: R438

Sulphur Spring, The

DESCRIPTION: "A tribute of praise to thy waters I bring. A beautiful fountain! O sparkling spring!" No place is more dear than Sulphur Spring. It welcomes the birds and bees, the lover, the traveler. The singer hopes it will stay unspoiled
AUTHOR: W. H. Kister (source: Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: nonballad love home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 125-126, "The Sulphur Spring" (1 text) (pp. 106-107 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #14084
File: Shoe125

Sum be mery, and sum be sade

See Some Be Merry and Some Be Sad (Women, Women, Love of Women) (File: MSSBMSBS)

Sumer Is I-cumen In

DESCRIPTION: "Sumer is i-cumen in, lhude [loud] sing cuccu!" A round celebrating the beginning of summer and the appearance of various symbols of fertility
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: fourteenth century or earlier (British Museeum MS. Harley 978, generally dated c. 1225-1250)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Sumer is i-cumen in, Lhude sing cuccu!
Groweþ sed [grows seed] and bloweþ [blooms] meed
And springþ [springs] wde [wood] nu [now].
Sing cuccu!
Awe [ewe] bleteþ after lomb [lamb],
Lhouþ [lows] after calve cu [cow]
Bulluc stereþ [stirs], bukke [buck] verteþ [passes gas, or perhaps frequents the fields]
Murie [merry] sing cuccu
Cuccu, cuccu,
Wel singes þu cuccu,
Ne swik þu nauer nu! [Now nature never ceases].
KEYWORDS: farming lyric nonballad MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Stevick-OneHundredMiddleEnglishLyrics 3, "(Sumer Is I-cumen In)" (1 text)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics II, p. 2, "(no title)" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 24, ""Sumer Is Icumen In" (1 text plus modernization, 1 tune; Plate 1 on page 1 shows a facsimile of the neumed manuscript)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 10-13, "Sumer Is Icumen In" (1 text, 1 tune; the frontispiece shows a facsimile of the neumed manuscript)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 10-11, "A Song or Catch In Praise of the Cuckoo" (1 text)
Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols #8, "(Sing cuccu nu, sing cuccu!)" (1 text, with a photo of the original manuscript)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 260 "Summer Is A-Coming In" (1 text, modernized and otherwise fouled up)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 108, "Summer Is A-Coming In" (2 texts, in Modern and Middle English, somewhat mistranslated.)
DT, ICUMSUM
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3223
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #5053
ADDITIONAL: Carleton Brown, editor, _English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1932, p. 13, "Sumer Is Icumen In" (1 text)
Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, _Middle English Lyrics_, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974 p. 4, #3 (text with facsimile)
Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 14, "(no title)" (1 text)
Noah Greenberg, ed., An Anthology of English Medieval and Renaissance Vocal Music, pp. 35-41, "Sumer Is Icumen In" (1 text plus modern arrangement)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #10, p. 15, "Sumer is y-cumen in" (1 text)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, pp. 44-45, "(Svmer is isumen in)" (1 text)
Bruce Dickins & R. M. Wilson, editors, _Early Middle English Texts_, 1951; revised edition 1952, #XXIV, p. 118, "The Cukoo Song" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Harley 978, folio 11 (with music)
NOTES [762 words]: Possibly the oldest pop song in the English language; it's a wide-open question whether the manuscript was a transcription of a piece from oral tradition, or the source. - PJS
Ritson too quotes an unnamed source who called this "the most ancient English song." Wooldridge observes that this song "contains the earliest canon, and the earliest persistently repeated bass, as yet discovered," and speculates (based on the several erasures clearly visible in the manuscript) that the scribe, probably John Fornsete of Reading Abbey (also called John of Fornsete, after his presumed birthplace of Forncett in Norfolk; Nettel, p. 14), was personally responsible for the arrangement. Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 45, interprets the corrections to mean that the music was actually revised after the manuscript was written, because the handwriting of the manuscript seems too old for the style of performance in the notation. Either suggestion is of course possible, but I wouldn't place too much weight on the erasures; musical notation was evolving quickly at this time, and the scribe might simply have had trouble understanding it and copying it accurately. According to Dickins and Wilson, p. 225, the manuscript is a commonplace book (i.e. a personal miscellany), not a musical collection.
On the other hand, Bennett/Gray, p. 395, argue that the text was composed to fit the tune.
Personally, I'd be inclined to consider this a proto-classical piece (all the more so as it occurs only in the one manuscript) rather than folk, but I'm not going to be dogmatic about it. Chambers, p. 77, splits the difference, noting that the piece "has a refrain, and uses a seasonal theme, but in the form which has come to us it is a part-song for learned musicians" -- in other words, a folk form to be sung by professionals. Davies, p. 310, points out that the instructions for singing are in Latin. Nettel, p. 14, translates them; they say the piece can be sung by four voices, and it requests at least three, with two as an absolute minimum, plus bass. The bass part is supposed to come in with the second lead voice, not the first.
Most scholars date the manuscript to the thirteenth century (e.g. Chambers, p. 77, dates it c. 1240; Stevick, p. 4, dates text and music separately but puts one at 1230-1240 and the other c. 1225; Davies, p. 52, says "earlier thirteenth century"). Manfred Bukofzer, however, prefers the fourteenth, and a number of scholars have argued that the elaborate musical form implies a later date (cited by Davies, p. 310). Luria/Hoffman, p. 5, say that it is usually dated around 1240 but musicologists prefer a date around 1310.
Luria/Hoffman, pp. 311-313, reprint a short article by A. K. Moore on this poem, referred to as the "Reading Rota" after the town with which it is associated. Moore seems to prefer the late date and thinks the piece an imitation of Welsh folk song.
Looking at the best of my available facsimiles (the full-color copy on p. 50 of BarkerEtAl) and comparing it with the letterforms shown on pp. 27-29 of Moorman, I wonder if those who argue for a later date don't have a point. I'm not a paleographer, and there wasn't that much difference between thirteenth and fourteenth century insular hands anyway -- but the manuscript does have several forms (notably spelling out the word "and," rather than using the upside-down L, ⁊, used as an ampersand at the time) more characteristic of late than early manuscripts. And the open rather than the closed "c", and the "a" without an ascender, are late. Of course, if the manuscript is a copy rather than the autograph, that doesn't mean much.
The use of English and Latin, rather than French, is also an argument for a later date (since French was the more prestigious language starting from the Norman Conquest, with the prestige gradually lessening over time). The use of English may also argue for folk roots.
Nettel, p. 15, points to the fact that it is in Ionian mode as evidence for its folk origin; it is of course the most common mode for folk songs, but the church avoided it and called it "modus lascivus."
We should perhaps note that Harley 978 is not to be confused with another famous Harleian manuscript, Harley 2253, which contains "King Horn" among many other famous poems. "Sumer Is I-cumen In" appears to be the only English song or poem in Harley 978 (Bennett/Gray, p. 395, says that the other pieces in the same book are in French and Latin. Indeed, there is a Latin parallel text to the English of this, but as Davies notes on p. 310, it doesn't really fit the music). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB260B

Summer Hill

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells how he used to ramble, until he spies Cupid and is pierced by his dart. Now "I'm a wounded lover on Summer Hill." He describes the girl's beauty, and hopes to win her. He refuses to reveal his name
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H20b, p. 245, "Summer Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9482
File: HHH020b

Summer Is a-Coming In

See Sumer Is I-cumen In (File: FSWB260B)

Summer Lane

DESCRIPTION: "The Mason-Dixie Line has given us all the pip, Your songs from the Yankee land have been done brown." The singer suggests instead the Saturday jubilation, because "It is always summer in Summer Lane." Many amusements of the town are listed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Palmer)
KEYWORDS: music party nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, pp. 150-152, "(Summer Lane) (1 text [on p. 152], 1 tune [on pp. 150-151])
File: RPFW150B

Summer Morning, The (The White/Blue/Green Cockade)

DESCRIPTION: "It was one summer morning, as I went o'er the moss, I had no thought of 'listing till the soldiers did me cross." But her love is in the army. She both laments and curses him. They meet; he dries her tears and says he will return; she vows to ramble
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1820 (Kidson's mother according to Kidson-TraditionalTunes); 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: soldier love separation recruiting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South,West))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #34, pp. 229-230, "The Summer's Morning" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 449-451, "The Summer's Morning" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 113-115, "The Summer Morning"; p. 115, "The White Cockade" (1 texts plus 1 fragment, 3 tunes)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 68-69, "It Was One Summer Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 517, "Blue Cockade" (1 text)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 282-283, "The White Cockade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #37, "The White Cockade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #20, "The White Cockade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 43, "The Green Cockade" (1 text pllus Cornish translation, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 30-31, "The White Cockade" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COCKADE1*
Roud #191
File: StoR068

Summer's Morning, The

See The Summer Morning (The White/Blue/Green Cockade) (File: StoR068)

Sun Being Set, The

See Ground for the Floor (File: RcGftF)

Sun Don't Set In the Morning

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Sun don't set in the morning (3x), Light shine 'round the world." Verse: "Pray on, praying sister (brother, preacher), Pray on (3x), Light shine 'round the world"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 23, "Sun Don't Set in de Mornin'" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 130 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #15268
RECORDINGS:
James Garfield Smalls, "Hol' Out de Light" (on USSeaIsland03)
File: Dett023

Sun Down Below

DESCRIPTION: "Six o'clock I hear 'em say. Sun down, Sun down below. Time to quit and go away. Sun down, Sun down below." Hauling shanty or cargo loading song, likely of Negro origin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, p. 85, "Sun Down Below" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Harl085

Sun Frae the Eastward was Peepin', The

See The Humours of Glasgow Fair (File: GrD4887)

Sun Gonna Shine in My Door Some Day

DESCRIPTION: "Been in that jailhouse, expecting a fine." He has no friends to help. "It's no matter, Lord, I know, Sun gonna shine in my door some day." He is alone and hungry. His buddy escaped when he was taken. His girl (?) has abandoned him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (collected from Jesse Harris)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes abandonment
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 366-367, "Sun Gonna Shine in My Door Someday" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15590
NOTES [54 words]: This shares a line, and a little bit of feeling, with the Flatt & Scruggs song "Sun's Gonna Shine in My Backdoor Someday." (It *is* the same as Big Bill Broonzy's song, although Broonzy has a lot of different verses.) But I don't think they're really the same song; this particular line simply inspired the bluegrass piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LoSi366

Sun is a Very Magic Fellow, The

DESCRIPTION: "The sun is a very magic fellow He shines down on me each day." The wind is fickle and blows dreams away. The rain is a "very sad lady" that falls on the singer. The sea is an old man. The moon is a "typical lady." The singer will "Sing all my cares away"
AUTHOR: Donovan (Donovan Phillips Leich)
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Donovan recording "The Hurdy Gurdy Man")
KEYWORDS: music nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 384, 391, 539, "Sun Is a Very Magical Fellow" (notes only)
File: ACSF284V

Sun is a Very Magical Fellow

See The Sun is a Very Magic Fellow (File: ACSF284V)

Sun Is Gone Down in the West Love, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer mourns the loss of her sweetheart: "last night you were in with another... I hope you won't leave her in sorrow Alone as you've gone and left me." She will never love another and in her coffin "I'll think on the promise you made me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (JIFSS 1921 (see Note below))
KEYWORDS: infidelity love promise nonballad death
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 176, "The Sun Is Gone Down in the West Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14061
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "The Sun Is Gone Down in the West Love" (on IRECronin01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Since I Lost My Remembrance of You
NOTES [52 words]: Mudcat has a version that shares some verses and adds others to OCroinin-Croinmin (http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=115872) from Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society Vol 18 Dec 1921, noted in 1912.
Elizabeth Cronin's tune is the same as Sarah Makem's for "Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold" [Laws N17]. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC176

Sun Lights Up All de Big Blue Skies

See Sun Lights Up All the Big Blue Skies (File: WFAN012)

Sun Lights Up All the Big Blue Skies

DESCRIPTION: "Sun lights up all the big blue skies, Shines all the live-long day... Drives all the darkness away." The mockingbird, lark, catbird sing. The roses, violets bloom. All these things make the day brighter, but what makes it brightest is her beloved (baby?)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: love flowers bird nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, pp. 11-12, "(Sun lights up all de big blue skies)" (1 text)
File: WFAN012

Sun Rises Bright in France, The

See The Sun's Bright in France (My Ain Countree) (File: McSc129)

Sun Shines Over the Valley, The

See Willie's Lyke-Wake [Child 25] (File: C025)

Sun To Sun Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Man can worry from sun to sun When a woman's worries have just begun." "I can't keep from worrying no matter how I try" "I ain't goin' let no one woman make me no monkey man." "I'll go down South ... where I never been before"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (StuffDreams2)
KEYWORDS: parting nonballad lover
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake, "Sun To Sun Blues" (on StuffDreams2)
NOTES [18 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcSTSBl

Sun Was Setting, Slowly Setting, The

See The Baby on the Shore (File: KSUC158C)

Sun Will Never Go Down, The

See Where the Sun Don't Never Go Down (File: Wa088)

Sun's Bright in France, The (My Ain Countree)

DESCRIPTION: The singer is in France (exiled after Culloden?) and looks across the sea toward home in Galloway, where he left Mary and their three children. "I'll meet ye aa again soon Frae my ain counterie"
AUTHOR: Allan Cunningham (source: Cunningham, but see notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Cromek, but see the notes)
KEYWORDS: exile reunion separation France Scotland lament children wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 129-129, 155, "My Ain Counterie" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: R. H. Cromek, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, (Paisley: Alexander Gardiner, 1880 reissue of 1810 edition ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 145-146, "The Suns Bright in France"
Willie Scott, "My Ain Counterie," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1976.216,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 14 September 2013 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/60301/1
Roud #21757
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sun Rises Bright in France
NOTES [390 words]: As always, when referring to Cromek I must repeat this warning: "Cromek died [1812] shortly after the issue [1810] of Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, which was mostly written by Cunningham, though palmed upon Cromek as recovered antiques" (source: J. Ross, The Book of Scottish Poems: Ancient and Modern, (Edinburgh, Edinburgh Publishing Co, 1878), "Allan Cunningham 1784-1842," p. 738; other sources agree). For more on Cunningham and Cromek see the notes to "The Bonnie House o Airlie" [Child 199].
In this case, Cromek has the source as "Miss MacArtney." I assume that that was what he had been told by Cunningham. Cromek's note suggests that this is one of "many affecting fragments of song which seem to have been the composition of those exiles [the "wretched fugitives" "after the battle of Culloden"].
Then, in Allan Cunningham, The Songs of Scotland Ancient and Modern (London: John Taylor, 1825 ("(Digitized by Microsoft"), pp. 304-305, Cunningham uses the McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen title, "My Ain Countree," and lists himself as the author. In 1828, Jacobite Minstrelsy (Glasgow: R Griffin and Co, 1828 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 269-270, the note to "The Sun's Bright in France" states, "The composition appears to have been by an exile of some note. Hogg ascribes it to Captain Stuart of Invershoyle"; but see the note at G. Farquhar Graham, The Popular Songs and Melodies of Scotland (Balmoral Edition) (Glasgow: J Muir Wood & Co, 1887 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 363.
Finally, Cromek's note lived on in this statement in Frank Kidson and Martin Shaw, Songs of Britain (New York: Boosey & Co, 1913 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 120 -- where the song is printed as a Jacobite song, "The Sun Rises Bright in France": "Many of those concerned in the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745 escaped to France and dared not return to the land of their birth."
Graham points out that Cunningham's 1825 version adds two verses and makes some other changes to the 1810 version. McMorland-Scott follows the 1825 changes -- with the single exception of not changing "high heaven" to "the high heaven" -- and changes some words besides. - BS
Whatever its origin, this should not be confused with the popular song "My AIn Countrie" attributed to Mary Lee Demarest, which occurs on p. 267 of Heart-Songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: McSc129

Suncook Town Tragedy (Josie Langmaid) [Laws F21]

DESCRIPTION: Josie Langmaid is on her way to school when she is accosted by (Joseph) LePage. He abuses and kills her. Her family searches for and finds her body. The killer is condemned to hang
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide family execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 4, 1875 - Murder of Josie Langmaid, reportedly by Joseph LePage
Mar 15, 1878 - Execution of Le Page
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws F21, "Suncook Town Tragedy (Josie Langmaid)"
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 72-73, "Suncook Town Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 21-22 "The Suncook Town Tragedy" (1 text)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 57, "(no title)" (1 short text, 1 tune)
DT 684, SUNCKTWN
Roud #2259
NOTES [81 words]: Although Laws shows no signs of doubt about Le Page's guilt, the account in Burt-AmericanMurderBallads makes it seem that the case was at least somewhat uncertain. Langmaid had been abused and then decapitated, but the only evidence Burt-AmericanMurderBallads lists to tie the crime to Le Page is the fact that he had courted young girls (and Langmaid wasn't *that* young; Burt-AmericanMurderBallads lists her age as 17). Le Page even had a partial alibi, but was convicted anyway. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: LF21

Sunday Bird, The

See Simon Too-Too (File: SSSiToTo)

Sunday Night

DESCRIPTION: "Sunday night an' Nancy o! My delight and fancy, oh! All the world that I should know If I had x, oh! He! ho! my x oh! My bonny, bonny x, oh! All the world that I should keep If I had x, oh!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: love playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(High))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 341, "Sunday Night" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Edward W.B. Nicholson, editor, Golspie: Contributions to its Folklore (London, 1897 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 130-131, "My Delight's in Tansies") (1 text)
G.F. Northall, English Folk-Rhymes (London, 1892 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 386, ("Sunday night an' Nancy oh!") (1 text)
Roud #7895
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Monday Night" (derived from Sunday night?)
cf. "My Nannie, O" (some lines shared)
NOTES [62 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame considers this rhyme descended from "The Scotch Wooing of Willy and Nanny," indexed as "My Nannie, O." The connection is this text from "My Nannie, O": "... my delight's in a bonnie lass, Her name is lovely Nannie, O. And aye he said my Nannie, O, My sweet and lovely Nannie, O; Nae friend nor foe shall ever know, The love I bear to Nannie, O." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGap341

Sunday School Song, The

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Sundown

DESCRIPTION: Courting song, with the chorus "It's nearly sundown, sundown/Sun is almost down/Bound away to leave you, 'fore the sun goes down..." Verses begin with "Hi, my little darling"; singer promises to bring his girl back a ribbon to tie around her waist
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: courting parting nonballad playparty lover
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 106-107, "I'm Goin' to See My Darlin" (1 short text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "Sundown" (onGetFolked) (on Thieme04)
NOTES [57 words]: I suspect this is related to the song "Hurry Sundown," and I'm guessing that it's a playparty. - PJS
The NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, from Harvey Reeves, consists of little more than repeats of the line "I'm going to see my darling before the sun goes down"; it may be a separate song, but it can hardly file on its own, so I'm putting it here.
Last updated in version 6.1
File: RcSundow

Sundown Below

DESCRIPTION: Response line is "Sundown, Sundown below." Leader lines include "Sun is down in the hole below," "Sun is down and I must go"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad shanty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 221, "Sundown Below" (1 text)
NOTES [47 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands writes, "This tune was sung at the end of the day as a hint to the captain, when the hold was too dark for the stevedores to see what they were doing." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parp221

Sunflower Chorus on Micanopy People

DESCRIPTION: "The mayor came driving around the bend, Good-bye, my lover, good-bye, All loaded down with side-walk men." "To Cooper's to get a stamp they went... Cooper dunned them for a quarter of a cent." And so on, listing details of town life in Micanopy, Florida
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: commerce moniker
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #12, "Sunflower Chorus on Micanopy People" (1 text)
Roud #5016
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye" (tune)
File: Morr012

Sunny Bank

See I Saw Three Ships (File: OBB104)

Sunny Side Up

DESCRIPTION: "Keep the sunny side up, up, And the other side too." Soldiers march, sailors sing. "Turn around and touch your toes" like the Eskimos and Japanese; "touch your chin" like an Indian.
AUTHOR: Original words and music: Bud DeSylva, Lew Brown, Ray Henderson (source: copyright)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (film, "Sunny Side Up")
KEYWORDS: derivative playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 127, "Sunny Side Up" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #18992
NOTES [113 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "From the moment the film 'The Best Things in Life Are Free' was released in 1929, little girls recognized that one of its hit songs, 'Sunny Side Up', might have been specially written for them." Lyrics are by Buddy G. DeSilva and Lew Brown, music by Ray Henderson (source: "Sunnyside Up" at the Internet Movie Database site). - BS
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 1929, estimates that this was the ninth most popular song in America in December 1929 (#1 for the year being Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown's "The Wedding of the Painted Doll"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OpGa127

Sunny South (I), The

See The Sweet Sunny South (I) [Laws A23] (File: LA23)

Sunny South (II), The

See Sweet Sunny South (II) (File: DTsunsou)

Suns Bright in France, The

See The Sun's Bright in France (My Ain Countree) (File: McSc129)

Sunset Set

See Horse Fly (File: ACSF277H)

Sunshine After Rain

DESCRIPTION: "I left my love in Engand In poverty and pain"; they weep as he sets out across the sea. He works hard, saves his money, goes home, finds the girl. They live happily and are well-off: "The morn has 'dorned the darkest night And sunshine followed rain."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: love separation emigration reunion farming
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 55, "Sunshine Followed Rain" (1 text)
Roud #13821
File: ChFRA055

Sunshine Followed Rain

See Sunshine After Rain (File: ChFRA055)

Sunshine Railway Disaster, The

DESCRIPTION: Two trains approach Sunshine at the same time. 44 die in the crash. "If those trains had only run As they should, their proper time, There wouldn't have been a disaster At a place they call Sunshine. If those brakes had only held...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974
KEYWORDS: train wreck disaster death Australia
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 20, 1908 - The Bendigo train crashes into the rear of the Ballarat train at Sunshine near Melbourne. 44 passengers (all in the Ballarat train) were killed; over 400 (from both trains) were injured
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 210-211, "The Sunshine Railway Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: FaE210

Sup of Good Whisky, A

DESCRIPTION: A mouthful "of good whisky will make you glad"; too much will make you mad; none is bad. Preachers, doctors, lawyers, Turks, and Quakers are against it but drink "in their turn" Germans, French, and Italians boast of their drinking; Hibernia's is best.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 83-86, "A Sup of Good Whisky" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(569/570/571/572) View 4 of 5, "A Sup of Good Whisky" ("A sup of good whisky will make you glad"), W. Macnie (Stirling), 1825; also Johnson Ballads 3185, Harding B 25(1853), Harding B 11(3699), "A Sup of Good Whisky"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Chapter of Kings" (tune, per broadsides Bodleian Harding B 25(1853), Harding B 11(3699))
File: CfPS083

Supen Ut, En Dram Pa Man

DESCRIPTION: Swedish shanty/drinking song. Chorus translates to: "Oh listen, listen here us now, Out of deep throats we're calling you, A tot which goes from man to man, A tot for us Johnnies." Verses mention more drinking and sailing themes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty drink
FOUND IN: Sweden
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 282-283, "Supen Ut, En Dram Pa Man" (2 texts, English & Swedish, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 168, "Supen Ut, En Dram Pa Man" (2 texts, Swedish & English, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whiskey Johnny" (similar theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Kom Hor, Kom Hor
File: Hugi282

Superintendent Barratt

DESCRIPTION: "O, Sherlock Holmes is deid lang syne In some forgotten garrett, But aa o youse hae heard the news O' Superintendant Barratt." Barratt comes north to seek the Stone, dislikes the weather, gives up, and goes home
AUTHOR: Words: Maurice Blythman ("Thurso Berwick")
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (MacColl-PersonalChoice)
KEYWORDS: humorous travel
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 25, 1950 - Four Scottish students break into Westminster Abbey and steal the Stone of Scone
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 15, "Superintendent Barratt" (1 text)
DT, BARRETT
NOTES [403 words]: Obviously not traditional; I'm not sure why MacColl included this in what is otherwise a book of traditional songs. Maybe he just wanted to poke John Bull about the seizure of the Stone of Scone -- "the Stone of Destiny," the rock on which Kings of Scotland were crowned, which was stolen at Christmas 1950. Some people still think the "official" stone was hidden away (Magnuson, pp. 679-680), but a stone that was accepted as the original was returned to Westminster in 1951 (OxfordCompanion, p. 842) after being placed in Arbroath Abbey wrapped in a Scottish flag, a symbolic protest since it was there that the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath declares Scotland independent of England (Keay/Keay, p. 847). Still, the first attempts to find it were unsuccessful, which would explain this song.
Contrary to the implication of the song, the theft was not particularly smooth and the pursuit not entirely inept. "In the event, [the theft] only succeeded after a series of errors, narrow squeaks and almost unbelievable coincidences worthy of an Ealing comedy" (Magnusson, p. 675). Among other things, the robbers broke the stone, and were caught in the act by a policeman who was fooled into thinking two of the thieves were lovers making our (Magnusson, p. 676). And while this fellow Barratt may have been unable to find a clue, a certain Inspector Willie Kerr had interviewed the leading thief based on library records (Magnusson, pp. 678-679), so the investigation did involve some original thinking.
The tune is said to be "Barbara Allen." Pick your favorite version....
Incidentally, it cannot be said with absolute certainty that Sherlock Holmes would have been dead in 1950, although the death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1930 obviously meant that there were no more true Holmes stories, and the last Holmes story by internal chronology, "His Last Bow," is set in 1914. Doyle never gave an absolute date for Holmes's birth (and probably never decided on one), but "The speculations of scholars have placed this important event variously in the years 1852, 1853, 1854, 1855, 1857-58, and even in 1867" (AnnotatedHolmes, volume I, p. 47). The latter date is not really possible, since Holmes was an adult at the time of "A Study in Scarlet" in 1881, but a date in the mid- to late-1850s is reasonable and, indeed, almost necessary. So he could have still been around, although perhaps not of sound mind, in 1950. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: McPCSuBa

Superintendent Barrett

See Superintendent Barratt (File: McPCSuBa)

Supposing, Supposing

DESCRIPTION: Riddle/song: "Supposing, supposing, Three men were frozen. Two died. How many were left? 'One'? No, none, 'Cause you're only supposing."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: riddle death
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 9-10, Supposing, Supposing" (1 text)
NOTES [28 words]: I leave it to you to decide if the internal logic of this follows. As a mathematician, I don't like it -- I'm too used to saying, "Assume a solution of the form...." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI010A

Sur le Bord de L'ile

See Isabeau S'y Promène (Isabel) (File: SBoA297)

Sur le Pont d'Avignon

DESCRIPTION: French round: "Sur le pont d'Avignon, L'on y danse, l'on y danse." "On the bridge at Avignon, see them dance, see them dance." The song tells how men, women, and soldiers bow and dance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Du Mersan, "Chansons et Rondes Enfantines"); reportedly known since 1503
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: France
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 390, "Sur Le Pont D'Avignon (On The Bridge At Avignon)" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 539-540, "Sur le Pont d'Avignon"
RECORDINGS:
Marianne Corbino, "Sur le pont d'Avignon" (Piotr-Archive #635, recorded 08/10/2023)
NOTES [103 words]: One of the best-known songs in all of France. The great bridge on the Rhône was finished in 1185. The need to carry larger ships has resulted in much of the span being torn down, but a portion still stands (sticking out into the middle of nowhere), mostly as a tourist attraction.
Giles Booker says this is known "from 1503" (Gilles Booker, "'Malbrouk, s'en va-t-en guerre' or, How History Reaches the Nursery," essay in Gillian Avery and Julia Briggs, editors, Children and Their Books: A Celebration of the Work of Iona and Peter Opie, Oxford University Press, 1989, p. 136) but does not document the statement. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB390A

Sure Makes a Man Feel Bad

See It Makes a Long-Time Man Feel Bad (File: LoF291)

Surely I Can Do

DESCRIPTION: Framentary text, "Any amount... Surely I can do.... Courtin', courtin', courtin'...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 730, "Surely I Can Do" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
NOTES [24 words]: The description is (almost) all that Schinhan was able to transcribe from Brown's recording; obviously it will be very difficult to identify. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5730

Surrender of the Natives, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Waikato now is ours, The natives we have beaten... And now each vile offender We... humbly ask That they'll come and surrender." Maori warriors submit -- and so do children and women and old men, expecting food and support
AUTHOR: Words: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Thatcher's Songs of the War, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: battle soldier humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 1864 - During the Maori Wars, a large group of Maori surrender -- and have to be cared for
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 39-41, "The Surrender of the Natives" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, pp. 79-80, "Surrender of the Natives" (2 excerpts)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Courting in the Kitchen" [Laws Q16] (tune)
NOTES [116 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. This particular song comes out of the Maori Wars, and apparently refers to a trick the Maori pulled. A large group offered to surrender -- but when the Europeans came to gather in those who had given up, they found only women and children. The men had stayed away to continue the fight, leaving it to the other side to care for their dependents. Which, incidentally, shows that this was a relatively civilized war; if (say) the French had tried that trick against Henry V, he'd have killed everyone who gave in to him. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BaRo039

Surrender the Tower

See KIng of the Barbarees (King of the Barbican, Will You Surrender, Queen of Babylon) (File: SuSm040)

Susan Brown (I)

DESCRIPTION: Beautiful Susan, the singer, has many wooers; she flirts with all even though she loves a rich farmer's son. The lad proposes to a different girl. Susan poisons him, then flees. Unable to find work, she is imprisoned and now is dying of consumption
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting betrayal homicide poison prison death
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H771, pp. 415-416, "Susan Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7963
File: HHH771

Susan Brown (II)

See Cuckoo Waltz (File: San160)

Susan Carr

DESCRIPTION: Billy Green and Susan Carr had courted, but she turns to Thompson instead. Green challenges Thompson for the right to her hand. Green kills Thompson and drowns himself. Susan dies soon after. All three are buried together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment homicide death burial drowning suicide
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H690 p. 416, "Susan Carr" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7964
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Pride of Newry Town" (plot)
NOTES [81 words]: The notes in Henry/Huntington/Herrmann speculate that this may be related to Laws P33, "Susannah Clargy" (one of the most obscure of the Laws ballads). I strongly doubt there is any link. There are common elements -- a girl with two lovers, and a death, as well as the similar names of the heroines -- but many different elements as well. "Susan Carr" sees the two suitors do battle, while "Susannah Clargy" is a song of suicide with the lover's ghost coming back to take her away. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: HHH690

Susan on the Beach

See Susan Strayed on the Briny Beach [Laws K19] (File: LK19)

Susan Strayed on the Briny Beach [Laws K19]

DESCRIPTION: Noble Susan loves Willy, a sailor, and will not accept a husband of high degree. As she walks along the beach, worrying about him, she sees a body which proves to be his. She dies for love; the two are buried together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: love death burial drowning sailor shore
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws K19, "Susan Strayed on the Briny Beach"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 103, "Susan Strayed the Briny Beach" (2 texts)
Peacock, pp. 646-647, "As Susan Strayed the Briny Beach" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 21, "Susan Strayed the Briny Beach" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 28-32, "As Susan Strayed the Briny Beach (Susan Strayed the Briny Beach)" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H774, pp. 150-151, "Susan on the Beach" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 70-71, "The Sligo Shore" (1 text)
DT 695, SUSTRAY
Roud #1896
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "As Susan Strayed the Briny Beach" (on NFAGuigné01)
Arthur Nicolle, "As Susan Strayed the Briny Beach" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie [Child 215] (plot)
cf. "Down by the Seaside" (plot)
File: LK19

Susan Van Dusan

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Susan Van Dusan, The gal of my choosin', She sticks to my bosom like glue." "Oh, Susan Van Dusan, Oh, I will quit usin' Tobacco and boozin' for you." ""Oh, Susan Van Dusan, What gum are you usin' That sticks to my bosom like you?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 409-410, "Susan Van Dusan" (1 text)
Roud #15537
File: LxA409

Susan, Susan, Thought She Was Losing

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Susan, Susan, thought she was losin', So she gave the whole thing up. Martin, Martin, was only startin', But he finished and won the cup."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Botkin, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #533, "Susan, Susan, Thought She Was Losin'" (1 text)
File: AJRR533

Susan, The

DESCRIPTION: The Susan, returning to Bonaventure from successful fishing on the Labrador, sinks in a storm at Cutthroat and the crew of four is lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: death fishing sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 6, 1912 - Loss of the Susan M
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 103, "The Susan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4405
NOTES [125 words]: Cut Throat Island is up the Labrador Coast near the mouth of Groswater Bay about 140 air miles northeast of Happey Valley-Goose Bay. Bonaventure, Trinity Bay, is just north of the Avalon Peninsula. - BS
The name Susan, the mention of Cut Throat, and the name Captain Miller allow us to positively identify the ship involved. Captain Joseph Prim and Mike McCarthy, The Angry Seas: Shipwrecks on the Coast of Labrador, Jesperson Publishing, 1999, p. 118, says that the Susan M was a "Schooner, Miller, Master, lost at Cut Throat Island, Labrador, September 6, 1912, two crew members drowned, seven saved." They have further details on the storm, and another brief mention of the boat (which they there call the Susan M. Miller) on pp. 82-85. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe103

Susan, the Pride of Kildare

See Pretty Susan, the Pride of Kildare [Laws P6] (File: LP06)

Susan's Adventures in a Man of War

See On Board of a Man-of-War (Young Susan) (File: HHH556)

Susan's Story

See Oh Mother, Take the Wheel Away (File: R814)

Susanna

See Oh! Susanna (File: RJ19152)

Susanna Cox

DESCRIPTION: German. "Ach market auf, ihr Menschen all." Take warning from the fate of Susanna Cox, who was seduced by her employer Jacob Gehr. She bears a child and kills it. She is tried, convicted, and executed. The story is littered with moral warnings
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends); supposedly written 1810 and translated into English by Ludwig Schtark in 1845
KEYWORDS: warning foreignlanguage sex pregnancy homicide death execution warning
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 120-128, "Susanna Cox (Ein Trauerlied enthaltend Die Geschichte der Susanna Cox, weiche in Reading wegen Ermordung ihres Kindez higerichtet werde)" (1 German text plus feeble poetic English translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL120

Susannah Clargy [Laws P33]

DESCRIPTION: Susannah vows to be true to the widow's son; they break a ring as a token. Some months later she agrees to marry another man; she scorns the widow's son. He kills himself; that night his ghost comes to claim Susannah
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: ghost brokentoken courting marriage suicide
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws P33, "Susannah Clargy"
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 185, "Susannah Clargy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN3179, "Young lovers most discrete and wise"
DT 511, SUSCLRGY
Roud #998
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Gentleman of Exeter (The Perjured Maid)" [Laws P32] (plot)
cf. "The Ghost's Bride" (plot)
cf. "Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene" (plot)
cf. "Skon Jungfrun Hon Gangar Sig Till Sogsta Berg (The Pretty Maid Climbs the Highest Mountain)" (plot)
File: LP33

Susiana

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Hooray, oh, Susiana! Away right over the mountain." (The fragment in Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman is too short to determine the plot -- if there is one.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman)
KEYWORDS: shanty
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) West Indies(Nevis)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 83, "Susiana" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 378, "Way, Me, Susiana!" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 286]
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, p. 58, "Oh Louisiana" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9436
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Lucy Anna" (similar wording in some verses)
File: Doe083

Susie

DESCRIPTION: "Choose your partner, Suz, Susie, Choose your partner, Susie girl." "Face your partner..." "Out the window...." "Take a peek at...." "Kiss her when you catch her...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 21, "Susie" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Skean021

Susie Anna, Susie Anna

See Away Down East, Away Down West (File: AJRR028)

Susie Brown

See Cuckoo Waltz (File: San160)

Susie Went Into a House

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Susie went into a house, Susie moved out, and Jack moved in."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope home
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #534, "Susie went into a house" (1 text)
File: AJRR534

Sussex Carol

See On Christmas Night All Christians Sing (Sussex Carol) (File: KaCr108)

Sussex Mummers' Christmas Carol, The

DESCRIPTION: "When righteous Joseph wedded was Unto a virtuous maid, A glorious angel from Heaven came." "O mortal man, remember well, When Christ our Lord was born.""God bless the master of this house WIth happiness beside...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1882 (Broadwood)
KEYWORDS: religious childbirth Jesus floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 80-83, "The Sussex Mummers' Christmas Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1066
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "God Bless the Master of this House" (lyrics)
cf. "The Bellman's Song (The Moon Shone Bright)" (lyrics)
cf. "When Righteous Joseph Wedded Was" (lyrics)
NOTES [60 words]: This appears to be a composite, with the first verse from "When Righteous Joseph Wedded Was," plus material from "The Moon Shone Bright" or one of its relatives and several other floating verses. How much of this is due to Broadwood's editing is unclear. The collective result can hardly be matched with any particular song, however, so I file it separately. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: LEBC080

Sussex Toast, The

See I'll Drink One (To Be a Good Companion, The Sussex Toast) (File: K285)

Susy Gal

DESCRIPTION: "Susy licked the ladle An' 'er dolly rocked the cradle. Goodbye, Susie gal, I'm gone again. I fell into the gutter And my heart began to flutter. Goodbye, Susie gal, I'm gone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad travel
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 320, "Susy Gal" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 320, "Susy Gal" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
NOTES [18 words]: The editors of Brown speculate that this might be a playparty. Certainly it looks like a singing game. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3320

Suvla Bay

DESCRIPTION: "In an old Australian homestead With roses 'round the door, A girl received a letter 'Twas a message from the war... He played his part that April day, And now he lies in Suvla Bay." The grieving girl turns away suitors and joins the Red Cross
AUTHOR: Jack Spode (source: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2)
KEYWORDS: Australia battle death mourning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1915 - The Dardanelles campaign. British forces attack Gallipoli; the Australians and New Zealanders form the spearhead of the second phase of the attack, at Suvla Bay. All the attacks are bloody failures
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 206-207, "Suvla Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p.101, "Suvla Bay" (1 text)
Roud #5350
NOTES [134 words]: It has been said that the Australian participation in the Dardanelles campaign is what made Australia a nation. Certainly it etched itself deeply in the Australian consciousness. It would be amazing if there were no traditional songs about it. This song (like the later "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda") seems not to be of actual folk origin, but it seems to have become part of Australian tradition.
The tragedy of Suvla Bay was not so much its failure (World War I was, after all, a war consisting of very little except failure) as its *needless* failure. When the troops went ashore in 1915, they encountered no resistance -- but their commander sat there and did nothing until the Turks could build a defensive position. From then on, it was a case of the ANZACs being slaughtered for nothing. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MCB206

Suzanna's a Funicle Man

See The Old Sow (File: Br3178)

Suzanne Was a Lady

See Teasing Songs (File: EM256)

Svede from Nort Dakota, The

See The Swede from North Dakota (File: Ohr008)

Swaffham Prior Plough Monday Song

DESCRIPTION: "A sifting of chaff, a bottle of hay, See the poor colts go carrying away. Squeak, boys, squeak, and wag your tais, Hi nnney, hi mommey."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Porter)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad horse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Enid Porter, _The Folklore of East Anglia_, Batsford, 1974, p. 55, "(no title)" (1 short text)
NOTES [57 words]: According to Porter, boys in Swaffham Prior, in the years before 1929, would blacken their faces, carry a miniature plough, and sing this song. The purpose of the custom is not explained, although the informant said that at least one farmer paid off the boys. The time of the ritual was Plough Monday, the first Monday after Twelfth Day. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Por055a

Swaggering Farmers (Times Are Altered)

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you swaggering farmers of courage stout and bold." After twenty years of success, it is time to consider their poor servants, whose "wages are so small." In 1816, rents were doubled, and extreme suffering resulted.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (Bodleian broadsides Harding B 17(314a), Johnson Ballads 64)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes money farming servant
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #2, "The Farmers Done Over" (1 text, 1 tune, adapted by Palmer)
Roud #21259
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(506)=Harding B 11(3710)=Johnson Ballads 1670=Johnson Ballads 1671=Johnson Ballads 1672=Johnson d.1773(p. 135v), "Swaggering Farmers," G. Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Harding B 25(1906)=Johnson Ballads 1027, "Times Are Altered," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; Harding B 11(3832), "Times Are Altered," W. Jackson and Son (Birmingham), 1842-1855; Harding B 11(3833), "Times Are Altered or the Grumbling Farmers," T. Birt (London), 1833-1841; Harding B 11(3831), "Time Are Altered," unknown, n.d.; Firth c.16(286), "Times Are Altered or the Grumbling Farmers," unknown, n.d.; Harding B 11(1930), "Times Are Altered," J. Pitts (London) 1819-1844; Harding B 11(3830)=2806 c.16(119), "Times Are Altered or the Grumbling Farmers," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; Harding B 17(314a)=Johnson Ballads 64, "Times Are Altered or the Grumbling Farmers,"T. Birt (London), 1828-1829
File: PPai002

Swaggers

DESCRIPTION: The listeners are warned against hiring with Swaggers at Porter Fair. The singer lists all the various indignities suffered by those who work there.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #138, p. 1, "Swaggers"; #4, p. 2, "Swaggers"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 47-48, "Swaggers" (2 texts plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 386, "Swaggers" (9 texts, 3 tunes)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 68, "Swaggers" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 219-221, "Swaggers" (1 text)
Roud #4589
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Parks o' Keltie" (tune, per Greig)
cf. "Nethermill" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Swaggers in Porter Fair
NOTES [73 words]: Greig #124, p. 3: ." .. there is a good deal of material common to these ploughman ditties" ["Sleepytoon" and "Swaggers"].
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Auchterless (386) is at coordinate (h4-5,v6) on that map [roughly 28 miles NW of Aberdeen]; Turriff (347,386,682) is at coordinate (h5,v7) on that map [roughly 31 miles NNW of Aberdeen] - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: DBuch68

Swagman, The

DESCRIPTION: "Kind friends, pray give attention To this my little song, Some rum things I will mention And I'll not detain you long." The swagman bought a pair of shears, but couldn't shear. Now he travels the country seeking short-term work. He says he is not a tramp
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Beatty)
KEYWORDS: work travel hardtimes sheep
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 157-158,"The Swagman" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 285-286, "The Swagman" (1 text)
Roud #9109
File: BBTAF285

Swallow (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The clipper Swallow goes down New Brunswick's coast fighting a storm to Tormentine and waits out the storm "lying in the government dock.... for Georgetown we are bound ... our voyage is not o'er If the Swallow returns I'll sing you some more"
AUTHOR: Willard van Ember, Northport N.S.
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: commerce sea ship shore storm sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 186-187, "The Swallow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2714
NOTES [21 words]: The places named in New Brunswick are Newcastle, Escuminac, Buctouche, and Tormentine. Georgetown is on Prince Edward Island. - BS
File: CrMa186

Swallow (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "The zwallow (sic.) twitters on the barn, The rook is cawin' on the tree, And in the wood the ring dove coos But my valse love hath vled vrom me." The wren and all creatures have their loves, but the singer sits beneath a withy and mourns his false love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (Akerman, according to Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal bird wren nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, p. 3, "The Swallow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #23618
File: CoMo003

Swalwell Hopping

DESCRIPTION: "Lads! myek a ring An' hear huz sing The sport we had at Swalwell, O." The singer tells of a wild day at the market. He lists the various people they saw along the way. After a day of revelry, "We staggered ahint se merry, O."
AUTHOR: Words: John Selkirk
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (Bell)
KEYWORDS: party food drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 27-29, "Swallwell Hopping" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR027 (Partial)
Roud #3054
NOTES [32 words]: Swallwell Hoppin' was apparently a large and successful market in the time of author Selkirk (1783-1843), but by the late nineteenth century, according to Stokoe, it had nearly dwindled away. - RBW
File: StoR027

Swan (II), The

DESCRIPTION: Returning from Wexford the singer sees a girl "like a swan that floats o'er the ocean" who "often grieved my poor heart." She rejects his marriage proposal because "I've been promised ten years or more" to Reilly "in a foreign country"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 75, "The Swan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2709
NOTES [24 words]: Is this just a shortened version of "John (George) Riley" (II) [Laws N37], or some similar ballad? Or is this a mangled ballad of a swan-maiden? - BS
File: CrMa075

Swan Swims Bonnie, The

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Swan, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the lovely banks of the Bann as we watched the gliding swan," the singer tells Mary of his plans to go oversea. She says that she would rather be poor in Ireland than live better elsewhere. He agrees to stay in Ireland and be married there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home Ireland marriage separation emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H475, p. 455, "The Swan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21527
NOTES [12 words]: This is one of those songs which probably could exist only in Ireland. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: HHH475

Swanee River

See Old Folks at Home (File: RJ19163)

Swannanoa Tunnel

DESCRIPTION: "Asheville Junction, Swannanoa Tunnel, all caved in, baby, all caved in." About the life of a steel driver: "This old hammer Killed John Henry, Couldn't kill me." The singer hopes for relief from the hard work and a chance to see his woman.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1913 (JAFL26)
KEYWORDS: railroading work separation death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,SW)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 280, "John Henry" (2 texts plus 5 fragments, 1 excerpt, and mention of 1 more, but the "H" text and "I" excerpt are this piece and most of the rest, except the "A" text, are "Take This Hammer")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 270, "John Henry" (7 excerpts, 7 tunes, of which "A," "A(1)," and perhaps "C" appear to be "John Henry"; "E," "G," and "J" appear to be "Take This Hammer," and "H" appears to be "Swannanoa Tunnel")
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 34-35, "Swannanoa Tunnel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp. 235-236, "Swannanoa Tunnel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 256, p. 166, "The Yew-Pine Mountains" (1 text, which omits the "Swannanoa Tunnel" lyrics but is otherwise so similar I have to believe it the same. It may well be a fake; it was supplied by Carey Woofter, suspected or faking materials he gave to Combs and Cox)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 33, "Swannanoa Tunnel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 91, "Swannanoa Town" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 52-53, "Asheville Junction, Swannanoa Tunnel" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 749, "Swannanoa Tunnel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 45, "Swannanoa Tunnel" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Forbes (transcriber), "Songs Collected by Mr. Bascom,'" Vol. XXV, No. 1 (May 1977 -- special issue for Bascom Lamar Lunsford), pp. 20-21, "Swannanoa Tunnel" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SWANNOA*
Roud #3602
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Swannanoa Tunnel" (Folkways FP 40, c. 1952) (on BLLunsford01) (on BLLunsford02)
Dellie Norton, "Oh Lord Ellie" (on OldTrad1, FarMtns4)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Drivin' Steel" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "Take This Hammer" (floating lyrics)
cf. "If You Meet a Woman in the Morning" (form, lyrics)
NOTES [83 words]: The connection between this song and "Take This Hammer" (Nine Pound Hammer) is very strong; there are so many intermediate versions that we can hardly draw a clear distinction. But the extreme versions are sufficiently different that I have listed them
separately. - RBW
Sharp's versions mention neither the tunnel nor a cave-in, but I put them here for simplicity's sake, using the mention of Swannanoa as the dividing line from "Take This Hammer." You should check out that entry too, though. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: CW166

Swannanoah Town

See Swannanoah Tunnel (File: CW166)

Swansea Barracks

See The Lass of Swansea Town (Swansea Barracks) (File: Pea547)

Swansea Town (The Holy Ground)

DESCRIPTION: The singer is leaving (home and/or sweetheart). He describes the various troubles the ship faces on her voyage (around the Horn), including bad weather. (He writes to his girl when the ship stops in port.) At last he arrives home with great rejoicing
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: sailor ship storm parting reunion
FOUND IN: US(MA) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 152-154, "Swansea Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 431-436, "Old Swansea Town Once More," "In Cameltoon Once More," "The Holy Ground Once More" (4 texts, 4 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 323-328]
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 97, "The Holy Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 125, "The Holy Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 20, "Old Dundee Town Once More" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HOLYGRND*
Roud #929
NOTES [128 words]: Normally known in Ireland as "The Holy Ground" (there is even a spot in Cork called "The Holy Ground") and "Swansea Town" in the wider world. Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman's text opens with a stanza not found in the Irish versions but with connections to several Appalachian songs:
Now the Lord made the bee and the bee did make honey,
Oh, the Devil sends the girls for to spend the sailors' money."
Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 152 notes that the title "The Holy Ground" normally refers to the east side of Cobh near Cork -- but admits a rumour that it once referred to a brothel in the town. He can find no confirmation of this. I would presume, in any case, that that would be "The Holey Ground." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Doe152

Swansee Town

See The Lass of Swansea Town (Swansea Barracks) (File: Pea547)

Swappin' Boy

See The Swapping Boy (File: E093)

Swapping Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: The Swapping Boy (sets out for London to get a wife. He swaps wife, or the wheelbarrow he took her home in, for a) horse, which he swaps for a cow, and so forth, for a cheaper animal each time, until he ends with a mole which "went straight to its hole"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (_Gammer Gurton's Garland: or, The Nursery Parnassus_, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous commerce
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (34 citations):
Sturgis/Hughes-SongsFromTheHillsOfVermont, pp. 15-17, "Posey Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 93, "The Swapping Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 256, "Went to the River" (1 text, 1 tune, a much degraded form with a different chorus and some floating verses)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 196, "Swapping Songs" (4 text plus 2 excerpts, but "E" and "F" are "Hush Little Baby"; the "C" excerpt is unidentifiable from the description)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 196, "Swapping Songs" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes; the "A" version is "The Swapping Boy"; the "E" version is "Hush Little Baby")
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 131, "When I Was a Little Boy" (1 text plus mention of 2 more, with only the first verses about fetching the wife from London)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #19A-B, pp. 166-169, "The Foolish Boy," "Johnny Bobeens" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 25-26, "Come a Long Way Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 10, "The Swapping Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 41-42, "The Foolish Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 78-79, "The Swapping Song" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 217, "The Foolish Boy" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 72, "The Swapping Song (The Foolish Boy)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 124, "The Foolish Boy, or The Swapping Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 1, "The Swapping Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 83, "Little Boy" (1 short text)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #9, "Swappin' Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 243, "Down by the Brook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 174-175, "The Swapping Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 44-45, "Wing Wang Waddle" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 70-71, "Foolish Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H732, p. 57, "My Grandfather Died" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 43, "The Foolish Boy" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 48, "The Bugle Played for Me" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 374)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #107, "The Foolish Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 312, "Wim-Wam-Waddles" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #43, p. 2, ("My fader deed an' left me") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1696, "I Sell't the Horse an' I Bocht a Coo" (2 texts)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 156, "My Father He Died, But I Can't Tell You How" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 71, "When I was a little boy I lived by myself" (2 texts); 156, "My father he died, but I can't tell you how" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #7, pp. 29-30, "(When I was a little boy)"; #115, p. 96, "(My father he died, but I can't tell you how)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 23, "(His father died)" (1 short text); 163, "O, when I was a wee thing" (1 short text, with only the verses about "When I was a wee thing" and the fetching home of a wife in a wheelbarrow)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 74, "Swapping Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, p. 70, "The Foolish Boy" (1 text)
ST E093 (Full)
Roud #469
RECORDINGS:
Anne, Judy & Zeke Canova, "The Poor Little Thing Cried Mammy" (Banner 32127/Oriole 8044/Perfect 12685/Regal 10299/Romeo 3044, 1931; rec. 1930) (Champion 16188, 1931; rec. 1930 [as Clemens Family])Columbia 15653-D, 1931; rec. 1930 [as Three Georgia Crackers, "Pore Little Thing Cried Mqmmy"]) (one of these is reissued on CrowTold01, but I don't know which)
Judy Cook, "The Swapping Song" (Piotr-Archive #285, recorded 10/03/2022)
Willard Gayheart, "The Swap Song" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #276, recorded 10/01/2022; very close to printed versions)
Harry Greening & chorus of Dorsetshire Mummers, "The Foolish Boy" (on FSB10)
Bradley Kincaid, "The Swapping Song" (Champion 15466 [as Dan Hughey]/Silvertone 5188/Supertone 9209, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Brown Dog"
cf. "Mary Mack (I)" (plot)
cf. "Old John Wallis" (lyrics)
cf. "Pirn-Taed Jockie" (theme: bad bargains)
cf. "My Father Died a Month Ago" (theme)
NOTES [685 words]: Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio writes of this song, "Most texts are like the above in blending two separate songs, 'When I Was a Little Boy' and 'Swapping Song.' The first story, based, in all likelihood, upon Wat Tyler's Rebellion of 1381 in England, continues through four stanzas."
That two songs are combined here is very likely; Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland's version and others (including versions back to Gammer Gurton's Garland) omit the trip to London to fetch a wife, while we find a youth setting out for London to find a wife as a separate item in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, Volume II, of c. 1744. But whether this should be tied to the Kentish rebellion of 1381 can be questioned. The Opies, while quoting the first half, make no mention of Wat Tyler, and say it uses the tune of "John Anderson my Jo," which could hardly go back to an English event of 1381. - RBW
Perhaps "The Swapping Boy" should be split between the Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 71/Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio/Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 131 ("When I was a little boy I lived by myself") songs and the Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 156/Henry H732("My father he died, but I can't tell you how") songs. The description for "My Father Died" might be: Singer inherits his grandfather's horses. He sells the horses to buy a cow and sells and buys the cow, a calf, a pig, a dog, and a cat that runs off after a rat. "My grandfather left me all he did own, And I don't know how it is, but I'm here by my lone." The end of Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 156 is more disastrous: "I sold my cat and bought me a mouse, But she fired her tail and burnt down my house." - BS
In the light of the above, I suppose I should separate these two songs -- but the result would be an even worse mess than lumping them, because the combination clearly exists as a song in its own right. Since it is possible that it's one song that split, and not two that coalesced, I'm keeping them together until we can find some clearer evidence of the history. With full acknowledgment that there are two highly independent parts.
We should also note that there is a fairly precise parallel to the swapping story in German. The Grimm tale of "Lucky Hans" [#83, "Hans im Gluck," from 1818] tells of a young man who, after completing an apprenticeship, is given a nugget of gold by his master. It is heavy enough that he trades it for a horse. The horse throws him, so he trades it for a cow. The cow gives no milk, so he trades it for a pig. The pig is said to be stolen, so he trades it for a goose. He trades that for a slightly used grindstone/whetstone, hoping thereby to gain wealth -- then drops the stone in the well and gives up and goes home.
Hans Christian Anderson also had something similar, but I know of no reason to think that it is traditional. The tale is usually translated under a title such as "What the Old Man Does Is Always Right." The gimmick is the same -- the old man goes out to sell his horse, and makes a series of trades. But, except that in the first trade, the man exchanges his horse for a cow, there is little other similarity; he ends up with a collection of withered apples. And the emphasis of the tale is not on the trading but on the psychology of the man and his wife.
In English, we find a swapping tale called "Mr. Vinegar," found on pp. 28-32 of Joseph Jacobs, collector, English Fairy Tales, originally published 1890; revised edition 1898 (I use the 1967 Dover paperback reprint) and derived from Halliwell. In this case, Mr. Vinegar recovers some money from robbers whom he frightens, but then trades it all away.
There is also at least one other English swapping rhyme, found in Peter and Iona Opie, I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth, #58, beginning, "I went downtown To meet Mrs. Brown, She gave me a nickel to buy a pickle. The pickle was sour; I bought me a flower." And so forth. - RBW
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames has the original inheritance coming from grandmother; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO has it from grandfather. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: E093

Swapping Song, The

See The Swapping Boy (File: E093)

Swearing-In Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Do you wish to be sworn at Highgate?" "I do, Father." "Amen." "Silence, O, yes! You are my son! Full to your old father turn, sir. This is your oath." The swearer vows to be honest and chaste, and to follow drinking rituals. He kisses the horn as token
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland)
KEYWORDS: drink promise humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 408-411, "The Swearing-In Song or Rhyme" (1 text)
Roud #4586
File: BeCo408

Sweater, The

DESCRIPTION: "Who robs the widow of her right By work that takes her day and night To earn his poor starvation might? The Sweater/" It leads girls astray. It cheats and lies. It has great wealth. "He is society's disgrace, And must be told so to his face"
AUTHOR: "N. A. A.," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (Lyttelton Times, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes labor-movement
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 76, "The Sweater" (1 text)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 76, "The Sweater" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 59 in the 1972 edition)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 161, "The Sweater" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Barbie Colquhoun, "The Sweater" (on NZSongYngCntry)
NOTES [28 words]: "The Sweater" in this song refers not to the woven garment (also known as a "jumper" in Britain) but to the owner of a sweatshop -- one who runs a "sweating system." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: BaRo076

Swede from North Dakota, The

DESCRIPTION: Having spent a year working, the Svede decides to visit Minnesota's State Fair. He meets a Salvation Army group (refusing to work for Jesus when he learns "Yesus don't pay nothing"), winds up drunk, and returns home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (book by "Yumpin' Yiminy")
KEYWORDS: farming travel party drink clergy humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 63, "Ay Ban a Svede" (1 text)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 8, "The Swede from North Dakota" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 478, "The Swede from North Dakota" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 493, "The Swede from North Dakota" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary and Richard March, "Farm, Forest, and Factory: Songs of Midwestern Labor," published in Archie Green, editor, _Songs about Work: Essays in Occupational Culture for Richard A. Reuss_, Indiana University, 1993, pp. 261-262, "Ay Ban a Svede from Nort' Dakota" (1 text, 1 tune)
James Taylor Dunn, _The St. Croix: Midwest Border River_, reprint edition with new introduction published 1979 by the Minnesota Historical Society press, p. 258, ["Swede from North Dakota"] (1 text, from a manuscript apparently copied by Ludwig Rydquist)
Roud #9845
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Reuben and Rachel" (tune) and references there
cf. "Ole from Norway" (theme)
cf. "Down on the Corner of Dock and Holly" (theme of not working for Jesus)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Svede from Nort Dakota
I'm a Swede from Minnesota
NOTES [345 words]: Todd Melby found a source that said that Carl Bruce wrote this song in 1904, but neither he nor I can trace it, and it wasn't certain anyway.
It can at least be said that this song is well supplied with local color. The Minnesota State Fair claims (I'm not sure on what basis) to be the largest in America. (If nothing else, it produces huge traffic jams.)
Both Minneapolis and Saint Paul have areas known as "Seven Corners" (though changes in traffic patterns have reduced the number of streets and intersections); it's likely but not certain that the Minneapolis site is referred to.
The Minneapolis site, probably better known, is near Washington Avenue (which runs from the University of Minnesota to the north side of downtown Minneapolis, and is mentioned in the song). It's not the best area; bars and nightclubs are not hard to find.
Saint Paul's Seven Corners, on the west side of downtown (and so called because two street grids overlapped there, producing some very strange intersections in the 1880s), is on the same side of the Mississippi river as the State Fair, and is near a Salvation Army mission (though I've never seen a band play there). It's also an old area, but perhaps in somewhat better shape. Though some of that is the result of urban renewal; it's said to have been a pretty rough area in the 1920s.
Leary and March, p. 261, think it is the Seven Corners area of Minneapolis, which was heavily Swedish, but I'm not sure they were aware that Saint Paul also has a Seven Corners. The version they print has the Swede leaving Saint Paul to visit Seven Corners, but this is not universal.
Although he knows of no version earlier than the 1932 Yumpin' Yiminy printing (which he pointed out to me), Paul Anderson believes the song dates to around 1900, since some versions refer to "Yim Hill's little red vagon" (a reference to railroad tycoon James J. Hill). This is not absolutely decisive (Hill is still a frequently-mentioned icon in Saint Paul, with his home and his library being preserved), but I agree that it is a strong indication. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Ohr008

Sweep the Floor

DESCRIPTION: "Sweep the floor, pick up the chair, Sweep under, place it there."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 180, "(Sweep the floor)" (1 text)
File: SuSm180

Sweep Your Own Door Clean

DESCRIPTION: "I hate to hear folk talk about other folks affairs ... The man that keeps his own door clean has got enough to do." "Don't judge a man by what he wears ... Although he [sic] brought to poverty he's not been brought to shame"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: virtue nonballad clothes hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 665, "Sweep Your Own Door Clean" (1 text)
Roud #6090
File: GrD3665

Sweep, Chim-nie Sweep

See Sweep, Chimney Sweep (File: K240)

Sweep, Chimney Sweep

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells what cleanly work he makes as a chimney sweep. He tells the girls to arise and fetch him ale, then boasts about how he can climb to a rooftop without ladder or rope, and there you can hear him halloa. He says he will work for none but gentry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1815 (first verse found in "Cries of London")
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer tells what cleanly work he makes as a chimney sweep. Girls come to his door; although he's black as a Moor, he's capable. He tells the girls to arise and fetch him some ale, then boasts about how he can climb to a rooftop without ladder or rope, and there you can hear him halloa. He says he will work for none but gentry. "Sweep, chim-nie sweep is the common cry I keep/If you can but rightly understand me"
KEYWORDS: pride courting bragging work nonballad worksong worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 240, "Sweep, Chim-nie Sweep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #20, "The Chimney Sweep" (1 test, 1 tune)
Roud #1217
RECORDINGS:
Bob & Ron Copper, "Sweep, Chimney Sweep" (on FSB3)
File: K240

Sweepers

DESCRIPTION: "We're dodging mines, dodging mines, Always bleeding well dodging mines... My God they're everywhere." The singer would like to place a mine within Hitler's anatomy for deploying so many mines
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor technology nonballad | Hitler minesweeper
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 95, "Sweepers" (1 text)
File: Tawn095

Sweet Ad-o-line

See Sweet Adeline (File: RcSweAde)

Sweet Adeline

DESCRIPTION: "In the evening when I sit alone a-dreaming, Of days gone by, love, to me so dear, There's a picture that in fancy's of' appearing." "Sweet Adeline, My Adeline, At night, dear heart, For you I pine.... You're the flower of my heart." He hopes to reunite
AUTHOR: Words: Richard Husch Gerard / Music: Harry Armstrong
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (sheet music; Armstrong supposedly wrote the tune in 1896)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 149, "A Medley" (1 text, 1 tune, starting with the chorus of "Sweet Adeline," then "The Old Oaken Bucket," "In the Evening by the Moonlight," "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown," and "Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 260, "Sweet Adeline" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 308, 473, "Sweet Adeline"/"Sweet Ad-o-line" (notes only)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 241242, "Sweet Adeline"
DT, SWTADLN
SAME TUNE:
Sweet Ivory Soap/Ivory Soap ("Sweet Ivory soap, you are the dope") (Harbin-Parodology, #85, p. 25; Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p.. 126)
Alphabet Love Song ("O MLE, Sweet MLE, What XTC When UIC") (Harbin-Parodology, #120, p. 27)
O Friend of Mine (Harbin-Parodology, #174, p. 48)
O Lad of Mine (Harbin-Parodology, #182, p. 49); compare O Dad o' Mine (BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 7)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
You're the Flower of My Heart, Sweet Adeline
NOTES [292 words]: The lyrics of this were allegedly written in praise of "a girl who worked at the music counter of a New York department store." Possible, of course, but also a good promotional gimmick. The name was originally "Rosalie," so the inspiration was not verbal. Both Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, p. 335, and Douglas Gilbert, Lost Chords, p. 327, report that, with the song going nowhere, the authors saw a poster advertising a farewell tour by opera singer Adelina Patti, and "Adelina," Englishified as "Adeline," went into the song and a hit was born. According to Spaeth, p. 334, it is "the queen of the echo school of harmonizing." Spaeth gives extensive discussion of how the song came to be popular on pp. 334-336, and adds that the "melodic appeal [of the song] may be traced to the well-tried pattern of the Westminster Chime."
Richard Moody, Ned Harrigan: From Corlear's Hook to Herald Square, Nelson Hall, 1980, p. 237, -has a different take on the composition; supposedly David Braham (for whom see "Babies on Our Block") "had set the tune for Gregory Hyde's 'You're the Idol of My Heart," thirty years before the song became more familiarly known as 'Sweet Adeline.'" Obviously this does not match the common account. On the other hand, David Braham was a genius at creating pop songs; it would not surprise me at all if he, rather than Armstrong, was the ultimate source of the melody.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 267, estimates that this was the second most popular song in America in 1904, although it never reached #1 in any given month (#1 for the year being Edward Maddon and Theodore F. Morse's "Blue Bell").
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcSweAde

Sweet Alice

DESCRIPTION: Australian parody of "Ben Bolt" in which Sweet Alice becomes an Aborigine woman: "Oh, don't you remember sweet Alice, Dan Holt, the lubra so dusky and dark." The singer recalls the hard times of an Australian migrant worker
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Beatty)
KEYWORDS: work derivative mining gambling bug
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 309-310, "Sweet Alice" (1 text)
File: Beat309

Sweet Allalee

See Ellie Rhee (Ella Rhee, Ella Ree) (File: R860)

Sweet America

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you jovial sailors That love your native home, Among strong winds and rushing seas... Our ship is full and homeward bound To sweet America." They have sailed the coasts of Chile and Peru; they look forward to seeing the girls at home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Journal from the _Catalpa_)
KEYWORDS: whaler sailor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 28-29, "Sweet America" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27533
File: HGam028

Sweet and Dee, The

See The Banks of Dundee (Undaunted Mary) [Laws M25] (File: LM25)

Sweet Ann O'Neill

See Gallows [Laws L11] (File: LL11)

Sweet Annie frae the Sea-beach Came

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet Annie frae the sea-beach came Where Joskey's speel'd the vessel's side"; she cannot stay at home when he is at sea. Others try to tempt her when Jockey is delayed in returning, but she is determined to wait for him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (Scots Musical Museum, volume I, #84)
KEYWORDS: sailor wife separation rejection courting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stone-SeaSongsAndBalladsXCVIII, pp. 191-192, "Sweet Annie frae the sea-beach came" (1 text)
Roud #8479
NOTES [30 words]: Although this is found in the Scots Musical Museum, it is not thought to be by Burns. Nonetheless, it seems to have been reprinted a lot. I know of no traditional collections. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: SSSB191

Sweet Annie of Roch Royal

See The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76] (File: C076)

Sweet Annie of Rock Royal

See The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76] (File: C076)

Sweet as the Flowers in May Time

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet as the flowers in May/springtime, Sweet as the honey dew, Sweet as the roses in the bowers, I'm thinking tonight of you. Sweet as the rose in the garden, Sweet as the dew on the rose, I'd rather be somebody's darling Than a poor boy nobody knows."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: love flowers
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 832, "Sweet as the Flowers in May Time" (2 fragments)
Roud #7442
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "Sweet as the Flowers in Maytime" (Victor V-23761, 1932)
NOTES [36 words]: The two fragments in Randolph both have the same chorus as the Carter Family recording, but the Carter text appears to be a rewrite with some elements of "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight" or something similar. - RBW
File: R832

Sweet Avondu

DESCRIPTION: The singer "never more shall view Those scenes I loved by Avondu." He recalls the scenes from the mountains to the sea. He bids farewell to Clara: "No more we meet by Avondu"
AUTHOR: James Joseph Callanan (1795-1829) (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1830 (_The Recluse of Inchidony_, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: home separation Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 127-133, "Sweet Avondu" (1 text)
NOTES [142 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "'Avondu,' says the author, means 'the Blackwater (Avunduff of Spenser).... It rises in a boggy mountain called Meenganine in [County Kerry] and discharges itself into the sea at Youghall." - BS
There is a certain amount of confusion about this author. Most sources list his name as James Joseph Callanan, but he is also sometimes listed under the name "Jeremiah" (and, yes, it is known that it is the same guy). Most sources agree that he was born in 1795, but his death date seemingly varies; Hoagland and MacDonagh/Robinson give 1829. He wrote some poetry of his own, but is probably best known for his translations from Gaelic. Works of his found in this index include "The Convict of Clonmel," "The Outlaw of Loch Lene," "Sweet Avondu," "The Virgin Mary's Bank," "Gougane Barra," and a translation of "Drimindown." - RBW
File: CrPS127

Sweet Bann Water, The

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Sweet Belle Mahone

See Belle Mahone (File: HeSo328)

Sweet Betsey from Pike

See Sweet Betsy from Pike [Laws B9] (File: LB09)

Sweet Betsie from Pike

See Sweet Betsy from Pike [Laws B9] (File: LB09)

Sweet Betsy from Pike [Laws B9]

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet" Betsy and "her lover" Ike set out from Pike County, Missouri for California. On the way they lose much of their livestock and property, but also have some amazing adventures. (They marry, then divorce.)
AUTHOR: claimed by John A Stone (Old Put)
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Put's Golden Songster, second edition)
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes settler
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (34 citations):
Laws B9, "Sweet Betsy from Pike"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 343-345, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text)
Randolph 192, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 (atypical) tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 193-196, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 192A)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 300-301, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (4 fragments, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 153, "Sweet Betsy From Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 41, pp. 215-218, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #159, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 184-185, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 83, p. 106, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 short text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 750-751, "Betsy from Pike" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 432, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 112, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 108-109, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 24-25, "Betsy from Pike" (1 tet)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 53, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 424-426, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 173, "Sweet Betsy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 19, "Sweet Betsey from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 861-863, "Sweet Betsey from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 239, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 650-651, "Sweet Betsey from Pike" (1 text)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 30-31, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 123-126, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, p. 118, "(Sweet Betsie from Pike)" (1 excerpt, of the Brigham Young verse)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 42-43, "Sweet Betsey from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 167-168, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 62, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 57, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 190, "Sweet Betsy From Pike" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 603-604, "Vilikens and His Dinah -- (Sweet Betsey from Pike)"
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 87, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 mention, from user Crypto-Willobie, posted September 22, 2021)
DT 376, SWEETBET*
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 533-535, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (1 text)
Roud #3234
RECORDINGS:
Bill Bender (The Happy Cowboy), "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (Asch 410-1/Elite X19[as "Betsy from Pike"]/Stinson 410-1/Varsity 5135 [as "Betsy from Pike"], n.d.; rec. 1939)
Crockett's Kentucky Mountaineers, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (Crown 3121/Homestead 22991, 1931)
Logan English, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (on LEnglish02)
Bradley Kincaid, "Sweet Betsy From Pike" (Bluebird B-5321/Montgomery Ward M-4421, 1934)
Ken Maynard, "Sweet Betsey from Pike" (unissued; on StuffDreams1)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (Victor 23704, 1932; Montgomery Ward M-4324, 1933) [may have been released under the pseudonym 'Radio Mac']
Pete Seeger, "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (on PeteSeeger31)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
SAME TUNE:
Saigon Warrior (RECORDINGS, Saul Broudy, Robin Thomas, on InCountry)
File: LB09

Sweet Birds

DESCRIPTION: "The birds are returning their sweet notes of spring... As I sit in the dream... For my darling far over the sea... Oh, say, does he truly love me?" "Sweet birds (x2), Oh, say that my lover is true." She recalls the day he left and promised to be true
AUTHOR: Thomas P. Westendorf and George Persley (Source: Charles K. Wolfe, cited by Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirschberg, _Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone: The Carter Family & Their Legacy in American Music_, Simon & Schuster, 2002)
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (original publication)
KEYWORDS: bird love separation questions
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 295, "Sweet Birds" (3 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 295, "Sweet Birds" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 13, "Sweet Birds" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #106, "Sweet Fern" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3766
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "Sweet Fern" (Victor V-40126)
Richard Harold, "Sweet Bird" (Columbia 15426-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
File: Br3295

Sweet Blooming Lavender

DESCRIPTION: Street cry: "Won't you buy my sweet blooming lavender? There are sixteen blue branches a penny, all in full bloom." The singer tells how the plant is fresh, and how it will benefit the wearer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1880 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad commerce
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 105, "(Will you buy my sweet lavender?)"; Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 105, "(Sixteen bunches a penny)" (2 texts, 4 tunes)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 356, "Sweet Blooming Lavender" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; notes to #153, ("Or the Streete cryes all about") (1 fragment of this, plus an assortment of other street cries)
Roud #854
RECORDINGS:
Bill Ellson, "Will You Buy My Sweet Blooming Lavender?" (on Voice11)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lavender Girl" (theme)
NOTES [137 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland notes that his informant, Florrie Penfold, knew several street cries but preferred this because it is "more of a song." Which indeed it is, and so is included.
Kennedy lists a number of collected versions of this piece. I doubt that all are actually the same song, but they are doubtless all lavender street calls.
In addition to its color and scent, lavender is reputed to be a sleep aid and perhaps an antidepressant; according to Ruth Binney, Nature's Way: lore, legend, fact and fiction, David and Charles, 2006, p. 117, "Lavender (Lavendula) is another soothing herb, described as 'a comfort to the brain' by the 16th-century herbalist William Turner."
Lavender supposedly acquired its scent because the Virgin Mary hung the baby Jesus's clothing on it to dry (Binney, p. 123). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: K356

Sweet Boney Will I E'er See You More

See The Green Linnet (File: SWMS211)

Sweet Bunch of Daisies

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet bunch of daisies, Oh, how dear to me. Often I hear them Whisp'ring love of thee. Murmuring softly In a silent theme Of love's bright morning, Now one sad, sweet dream, Sweet bunch of daisies, Brought from the dell, Kiss me one... daises won't tell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: love courting flowers
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 726, "Sweet Bunch of Daisies" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [17 words]: The current description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5726

Sweet By and By

DESCRIPTION: "There's a land that is fairer than day, And by faith we can see it afar.... In the sweet by and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore." The singer describes the blessings and beauties that the faithful will enjoy in heaven
AUTHOR: Words: Sanford Fillmore Bennett (1836-1898) / Music: Joseph. Philbrick Webster (1819-1875)
EARLIEST DATE: 1868
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 198-201, "Sweet By and By" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 485, "Sweet By-and-By" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 355, "In The Sweet Bye And Bye" (1 text)
DT, SWTBYBY*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 206-207, "Sweet By and By" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST RJ19198 (Full)
Roud #7651
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cotten, "In the Sweet Bye and Bye" (on CloseHomeMS)
Charlie Glenn, Shirley Glenn, "In The Sweet By-and-By" (Piotr-Archive #8, recorded 07/14/2020); Charlie Glenn, Shirley Glenn, Dianne Ward-Hicks, Derek Piotr, "In The Sweet By-and-By" (Piotr-Archive #189, recorded 06/06/2022)
Harkins & Moran [pseuds. for Sid Harkreader w. Grady Moore], "In the Sweet Bye and Bye" (Broadway 8117, c. 1930)
Haydn Quartet, "In the Sweet Bye and Bye" (Victor 1316, 1902)
Bela Lam & his Greene County Singers, "Sweet Bye and Bye" (OKeh 45177, 1928; rec. 1927)
Uncle Dave Macon, "In the Sweet Bye and Bye" (Vocalion 5162, 1927)
Margarethe Matzenauer, "In he Sweet Bye and Bye" (Pathe Actuelle 027519, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Preacher and the Slave" (tune)
cf. "The Cowboy's Dream" (tune)
cf. "Ten Cents at the Gate" (parody of this)
SAME TUNE:
The Preacher and the Slave (File: San221)
The Only True Life ("You may tell of your grand city life; Of the joys that around it doth cling") (by A. P. Knapp) (Albert P. Knapp, _Grange Songster_, 1915, pp. 14-15)
In the Reign of Justice ("There's a glorius future in store When the toil-worn shall rise from the dust") (Foner, p. 166)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
In the Sweet By and By
NOTES [228 words]: Jackson writes, "It may be that the venerable old Gospel number 'Sweet By and By' is the only famous song written in a drugstore; it is CERTAINLY the only famous song written in a drugstore in Elkhorn, Wisconsin."
Johnson quotes from Bennet's papers, describing how it happened: one day in 1867, J. P. Webster (who also wrote the music for "Lorena") strolled into the Elkhorn drugstore in a grim mood. Asked what was wrong, he declared that it wasn't important; "It will be all right by and by." Sanford Fillmore Bennett, who owned the drugstore, heard the line scribbled these verses -- with the intent to write as song, according to what he said; Jackson claims it was to comfort Webster.
Personally, I probably would have gotten even more grim after reading such saccharine lyrics, but Webster at once cheered up and started to set them to music, and the music at least did well.
Since we're talking about useless Wisconsin lore, we might add that this is said to have been the favorite hymn of Charles Ingalls, the "Pa" of Laura Ingalls Wilder (it was written the year Laura was born, note, though Elkhorn is in the eastern part of the state, far from the Pepin country), and was reportedly played at his funeral in 1902 (see Donald Zochert, Laura, pp. 140-141). Wilder herself quoted a scrap of it in The Long Winter, chapter 13, "We'll Weather the Blast." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RJ19198

Sweet By-and-By

See Sweet By and By (File: RJ19198)

Sweet By-and-by Revised

See The Cowboy's Dream (File: R185)

Sweet Calder Burn

See Bonnie Woodha' (File: HHH476)

Sweet Canaan

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "The land I am bound for, Sweet Canaan's happy land I am bound for (x2), Sweet Canaan's happy land, Pray give me your right hand." Verses: "O my brother (sister) did you come to help me (x3), Pray, give me your right hand")
AUTHOR: Rev. John Moffitt (1829) (source: White and King,_Original Sacred Harp_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 72, "Canaan" (1 text)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 188, "Sweet Canaan" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 234 in the 1874 edition)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 116-117, "Sweet Canaan" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of a shape note version)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 70, "Canaan" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: George Pullen Jackson, _Spiritual Folk-Songs of Early America_ (New York, 1964 (Dover reprint of 1937 edition)), #190 p. 198, "I'm Bound for the Land of Canaan" or "Sweet Canaan" ("O who will come and go with me? I am bound for the land of Canaan") (1 text, 1 tune)
Benjamin Franklin White, E.J.King, et al, _Original Sacred Harp_ (Atlanta, 1911 ("Digitized by Google") (correction and enlargement of 1869 edition copyright J.S. James)), p. 87, "Sweet Canaan" ("O who will come and go with me? I am bound for the land of Canaan") (1 text, 1 tune)
J. B. T. Marsh, The Story of the Jubilee Singers (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1903 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #112 p. 277, "Sweet Canaan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2839
NOTES [158 words]: Jackson: "Text is based on a poem by [Isaac] Watts. The stanzas which are associated with the above are numerous, as are also the refrains and choruses."
White and King note the copyright by James: "The original name of this song was 'O Canaan, Bright Canaan.' ... One of the old verses [in Thompson-APioneerSongster] was, 'If you get there before I do, I am bound for the land of Canaan; look out for me, I am coming, too, I am bound for the land of Canaan.' The original chorus was 'O Canaan, bright Canaan.' It is a fact that in the early days of this song many souls were born into the kingdom of God by the sound of crude woodland songs. About 1844 E.J. King made a few alterations to the tune and words, changing 'Bright Canaan' to 'Sweet Canaan.'" - BS
And on the basis of those changes is credited with the whole thing in some shape note hymnals, including the one reprinted by Abernethy-SinginTexas (the source of which is not indicated). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: TPS072

Sweet Carnloch Bay

See The Road to Dundee (File: Ord152)

Sweet Charming Ann

See Lovely Ann (File: Leyd034)

Sweet Cider

DESCRIPTION: "Where's the mule and where's the rider? Where's the gal that drinks sweet cider? Sallie, won't you have some (x2), Sally, won't you have some of my hard cider?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 45, "Sweet Cider" (1 text)
Roud #7864
RECORDINGS:
Riley Puckett & Clayton McMichen, "Paddy Won't You Drink Some Cider" (Columbia 15358-D, 1929)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Pretty Little Black-Eyed Susan
File: Br3045

Sweet Clonalee

DESCRIPTION: The singer explains why he is leaving Clonalee for America. He loved a girl, but she turned instead to a wealthy old farmer. The farmer accused the singer of sheep-stealing. He leaves his parents behind and curses James Magee (presumably the farmer)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection age money emigration accusation theft sheep
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H554, p. 400, "Sweet Clonalee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7967
File: HHH554

Sweet Copshawholm

DESCRIPTION: Singer wanders out to admire Copshawholm, where he grew up. "But there is not work for all And youth must wander from Their place of birth... I maun haste away." He will dream "of times to come When I shall end my days in... sweet Copshawholm."
AUTHOR: James Telfer (source: McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell home parting unemployment work Scotland nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 30-31, 149, "Sweet Copshawholm" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6931
NOTES [18 words]: McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen: Copshawholm is the old name for Newcastleton, a border region village. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: McSc030

Sweet Country Life, A

DESCRIPTION: The singer prefers "a sweet country life" to the "lofty high towers" of towns and cities. He prefers homespun to robes and fine dresses, bird songs to fiddles, flutes and spinnets. "Country lasses ... never do forsake your own country employment"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1778 (Boardman)
KEYWORDS: home clothes farming music nonballad bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 62, "Lord Eglinton's Song" (1 text)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople, p. 235, "A Sweet Country Life" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Timothy Boardman, Log-Book of Timothy Boardman Kept on Board the Privateer Oliver Cromwell in 1778" (Albany, 1885 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 85, "A Country Song" (1 text)
A.M. Wakefield, "Foundation Stones of English Music," in Murray's Magazine (London, 1888 ("Digitized by Google"), Vol. IV, pp. 384-385, "A Sweet Country Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2406
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Country Life" (theme)
cf. "The Country Life" (II) (theme)
NOTES [24 words]: Wakefield's text and tune are from Miss L.E. Broadwood; she took them down from her uncle, Mr. John Broadwood, probably around 1840 [p. 383]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr162

Sweet County Wexford

DESCRIPTION: "On Moniseed of a summer's morning" the Shelmaliers fight British and Gorey cavalry. After driving the British back the Irish rest. "Had we the wisdom to follow after ... We'd have saved the lives of many a martyr That died in Arklow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: rebellion battle death Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 26, 1798 - Father John Murphy launches the Wexford rebellion; he defeats the Camolin cavalry that night, and the next day annihilates a small militia force at Oulart
May 29, 1798 - Father Murphy leads the insurgents against Enniscorthy
June 5, 1798 - The Wexford rebels attack the small garrison (about 1400 men, many militia) at New Ross, but are repelled
June 9, 1798 - Father Murphy, trying to lead his forces into Wicklow, defeated at Arklow
June 21, 1798 - Rebel defeat at Vinegar Hill ends the Wexford rising
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 79, "Sweet County Wexford" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 94, "Sweet County Wexford" (1 text, 1 tune)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 55-56, "Sweet County Wexford" (1 text; tune on p. 21)
Roud #2997
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Boulavogue" (historical setting)
cf. "Father Murphy (I)" (subject of Father Murphy) and references there
NOTES [508 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "According to Denis Devereux, O Lochlainn's source for the words, this song is the original upon which P.J. McCall based his 'Boolavogue'." On the other hand, see the notes to "Father Murphy (I)."
The Irish baronies of Shelmalier, East and West, are in County Wexford. - BS
This is an unusually self-honest assessment of the course of the Wexford rebellion. Wexford itself was abandoned on May 30, and Gorey even before that, but the rebels didn't occupy the latter until June 4. The delay gave the loyalists time to organize and counterattack. (See Robert Kee, The Most Distressful Country, being Volume I of The Green Flag, p. 115).
Wexford didn't really matter; it was south of the Rebel strong points. Gorey, though, was on the way to Arklow and, eventually, Dublin. Had the rebels headed straight there, it might have given them a chance to really threaten the government. Instead, they went to Wexford, and camped on the Three Rocks hill. They beat off a small force of Meath militia, killing its commander, Colonel Watson (see Thomas Pakenham, The Year of Liberty, p. 177). The garrison abandoned the town (Pakenham, p. 178), and the rebels entered. (We note, incidentally, that it was in Wexford that they captured the prisoners to be brutalized at Scullabogue -- for which see "Father Murphy (II) (The Wexford Men of '98)" and "Kelly, the Boy from Killane.")
The attack on Wexford had another side effect: It caused the rebels to appoint Bagenal Harvey their commander (Kee, pp. 116-117), and he had no clue what to do; his ineptitute would contribute much to the defeat at New Ross (for which see "Kelly, the Boy from Killane" and "James Ervin" [Laws J15]).
Finally, in mid-June, the rebels headed for Arklow, which they should have occupied at least a week earlier. Repulsed (see the notes to "Father Murphy (I)"), the rebellion lost its last hint of planning, and fizzled out.
The characters cited in the song are often hard to identify. I can mention the following:
"Gowan" - "Hunter" Gowan, given his nickname because of his earlier career tracking down outlaws, who organized the "Black Mob" (a group of rebel-hunting vigilantes); he is reputed to have marched about with the finger of a rebel at the end of his sword. And worse. "Fiend" seems a suitable word for him.
"Captain Dixon" - there was a Captain Dixon, but he was a rebel sea captain; I think there is some confusion here.
"General Walpole": Presumably Colonel Walpole, ADC to Viceroy Camden? He was never a general, but he did have a brief taste of independent command, which might explain the title.
In early June, Walpole was sent from Dublin with a few hundred men and three cannon to reinforce General Loftus's troops in Wexford. This despite a complete lack of military training and experience. It showed. On June 4, as part of a plan to surround a rebel force at Ballymore, Walpole's force set out from Gorey. He did not follow the battle plan, was intercepted by the rebels, and he and most of his soldiers were killed. - RBW
File: OLoc079

Sweet Dakotaland

See Dakota Land (File: San280)

Sweet Dunloy

DESCRIPTION: The singer and his love leave Ireland for Scotland to escape her father. The father follows and has them forcibly returned to Ireland. Although the girl says she consented, the jury convicts him. After he is freed, they will go to America instead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation father elopement prison trial punishment
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H577, pp. 439-440, "Sweet Dunloy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7962
File: HHH577

Sweet Europe

See Poor Stranger, The (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone) (File: R059)

Sweet Evalina

See Dear Evalina (File: R823)

Sweet Evelena

See Dear Evalina (File: R823)

Sweet Evelina

See Dear Evalina (File: R823)

Sweet Fanny Adams

DESCRIPTION: Fanny Adams, her sister, and another girl go to play, but meet a clerk named Frederick Baker. He sends the younger children off with money for sweets, then murders Fanny. The singer grieves for her daughter, but notes that her murderer is now dead as well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867? (broadside announcing execution of Baker)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer's eight-year-old daughter Fanny Adams and her sister go to play with another girl, but they meet a young clerk named Frederick Baker. He offers the younger children money for sweets; when they have gone, he drags Fanny to the hollow. She is missed, and the searchers find her body, murdered and horribly dismembered. The mother grieves for her daughter, but notes that her murderer is now dead as well
KEYWORDS: grief rape violence abduction crime execution homicide punishment death mourning children mother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 27, 1867 -- Murder and dismemberment of eight-year-old Fanny Adams by Frederick Baker. Baker was hanged later in the year.
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 333, "Sweet Fanny Adams" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2152
RECORDINGS:
Vashti Vincent, "Sweet Fanny Adams" (on FSB7)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Execution of Frederick Baker" (subject)
NOTES [102 words]: The murder took place at Alton, in Hampshire. Cruel to relate, the expression "Sweet Fanny Adams" became part of British vernacular; in the Royal Navy it was used to refer to any dubious meat dish. [According to Ernle Bradford, The Mighty Hood, 1959 (I use the 1977 Coronet paperback), p. 51, it was also the Royal Navy habit to call any sailor named Adams by the nickname "Fanny." - RBW]
In more recent popular usage, it means "nothing"; if one doesn't get paid for a job, for example, one says one got "Sweet Fanny Adams" or "Sweet F. A." In this context, of course, it is a euphemism for "sweet fuck-all.' - PJS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: K333

Sweet Farewell

DESCRIPTION: "Will by Mary sad reposes On a bank of prim-a-roses." The Colonel cries; Will must leave. The soldiers should have their flintlocks ready. Mary begs him to stay. He says that duty calls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: love separation soldier flowers
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #119, "Sweet Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune, with some forgotten lines reconstructed by Baring-Gould)
Roud #6916
File: BGSW119

Sweet Fern

See Sweet Birds (File: Br3295)

Sweet Fields of Violo

See Old MacDonald Had a Farm (File: R457)

Sweet Florella

See Jealous Lover, The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C] (File: LF01)

Sweet Forget-Me-Not

DESCRIPTION: "Fancy brings a thought to me, A flower rich and rare, Of grace and beauty both combined, A fadeless flower rare." The singer recalls courting his beautiful love. In time, he proposes and they happily marry. They dwell in a cot with a forget-me-not
AUTHOR: Bobby Newcomb (1877) (source: MUNFLA/Leach)
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: love courting flowers home
FOUND IN: US(SE) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 727, "Sweet Forget-Me-Not" (1 short text, 1 tune)
DT, FGETMNOT*
ADDITIONAL: Norm Cohen, "Henry J. Wehman and Cheap Print in Late Nineteenth-Century America" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, p. 151, "Sweet Forget-Me-Not" (copy of Wehman song print #17)
Roud #15485
RECORDINGS:
Vince Ledwell, "Sweet Forget Me Not" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Marge Steiner, "Sweet Forget-Me-Not" (on Steiner01)
File: BrS5727

Sweet Freedom

See O Freedom (File: LxU108)

Sweet Genevieve

DESCRIPTION: The singer would "give the world to live again the lovely past" with Genevieve. They are older now, but he still loves her and wishes to be with her always: "O Genevieve, Sweet Genevieve... Still the hands of mem'ry weave... Blissful dreams of long ago"
AUTHOR: Words: George Cooper / Music: Henry Tucker
EARLIEST DATE: 1869
KEYWORDS: love age
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 202-205, "Sweet Genevieve" (1 text, 1 tune)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 11-13, "Sweet Genevieve" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 166-167, "Sweet Genevieve" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 24-25, "Seet Genevieve" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 259, "Sweet Genevieve" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 543, "Sweet Genevieve"
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 27, "Sweet Genevieve" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 99, "Oh, Genevieve" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 49, "Sweet Genevieve" (1 text)
DT, OGENVIEV
ST RK19202 (Full)
Roud #13643
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Silver Threads among the Gold" (theme)
cf. "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (theme)
NOTES [130 words]: Genevieve is reported to be the real-life bride of George Cooper who died shortly after their marriage. However, since no one can find the records of this marriage, this may be the usual sort of sentimental folklore. The song was very successful, but doesn't seem to have gained much place in tradition.
George Cooper originally worked with Stephen Foster, with whom he wrote "For the Dear Old Flag I Die,", and seems to have switched to working with Henry Tucker after Foster's death; in 1865, they produced "Jeff in Petticoats," also in the Index. He also wrote "Beautiful Isle of the Sea" with J. R. Thomas, and "Come, Little Leaves."
The tune of this is said to be "essentially the same" as "O Tannenbaum"/"O Christmas Tree"/"Maryland, My Maryland"; also "Beulah Land (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RK19202

Sweet Gertie

See The Maid of Sweet Gurteen (File: HHH594)

Sweet Girls of Derry, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is captivated by the sweet girls of Derry. He describes them as "so comely and merry" with sweet voices. "Though I left them behind me, Full soon they shall find me in Derry again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 76-77, "The Sweet Girls of Derry" (1 text)
Roud #6537
File: HayU076

Sweet Glenbush

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on the maidens to listen to his(?) story, asking them to pity a wandering youth. He recalls his departure from Glenbush; now dreams and memories of home say to him, "Come back to sweet Glenbush"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homesickness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H573, p. 212, "Sweet Glenbush" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH573

Sweet Gramachree

See Gay Girl Marie [Laws M23] (File: LM23)

Sweet Hally

See Listen to the Mockingbird (File: RJ19110)

Sweet Heaven (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I want to go to Heaven and I want to go right; How I long to be there; I want to go to Heaven all dressed in white, How I long..." "Sweet Heaven (x3), Oh, how I long...." About heaven, the contest between the singer and Satan, and other floating themes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: religious devil floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 638, "Sweet Heaven" (1 text, with many floating verses, e.g. the terrapin and the toad, "I run old Satan round the stump")
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 10, "Sweet Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11834
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Catfish (Banjo Sam)" (floating lyrics)
File: Br3638

Sweet Heaven (II)

DESCRIPTION: Singer is going to the racetrack; he promises to share any winnings with his sweetheart. Rest floats, e.g. "Give beefsteak when I'm hungry, whiskey when I'm dry...." Chorus: "Let her go (x2) God bless her/Though she roams over land and sea...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Tenneva Ramblers)
KEYWORDS: farewell parting floatingverses nonballad lover gambling racing food
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 243, "Liza Anne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7697
RECORDINGS:
Clint Howard et al, "Sweet Heaven When I Die" (on WatsonAshley01)
Arthur Smith Trio, "Sweet Heaven" (Bluebird B-7146, 1937)
Tenneva Ramblers, "Sweet Heaven When I Die" (Victor 20861, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Country Blues" (floating verses)
cf. "Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection)" (lyrics)
cf. "Saint James Infirmary" (the "let her go" lyrics)
NOTES [92 words]: This certainly has strong overlaps with "Dear Companion", paraphrasing its chorus and some of its verses. But its gestalt is different, and it has acquired a life of its own, so I split them.
I put Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 243, here because its first floating verse is "Beefsteak when I'm hungry...," but it's really a mess of floaters, one of which also shows up in the "Betty Anne" version of "Shady Grove." Although it was collected in 1917, I'm not assigning that as Earliest Date for "Sweet Heaven (II)," but I note it here. - PJS
File: RcSwHeav

Sweet Highland Mary

See Highland Mary (File: CrSe161)

Sweet Inis Cara

See Sweet Inishcara (File: RcSweIni)

Sweet Inishcara

DESCRIPTION: "I have travelled in exile midst cold-hearted strangers" in Canada and India/Indies looking for gold and spices. The singer returns home to find his home in ruins and his sweetheart dead. He will join her. "In heaven she'll welcome her wanderer home"
AUTHOR: John Fitzgerald (source: OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1958 (recording, Copley 9-228-B)
KEYWORDS: love travel return death gold Canada India Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 48-49, "The Exile's Return" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12923
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Breen, "Sweet Inishcara" (on Voice04)
Ollie Conway, "Sweet Inis Cara (The Exile's Return)" (on IROConway01)
The McNulty Family, "The Exile of Cork" (Copley 9-228-B, n.d.; on IRMcNulty-Night1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonnie Tyneside" (theme)
NOTES [140 words]: When I was puzzling about the text of "The Exile of Cork" John Moulden pointed out that it belongs here. The matrix number for the McNulty Family's "Exile of Cork" is E3-CB-3235-1A.
Spottswood lists Tim Donovan, "The Exile of Cork" (on Decca 12157) with session date Apr 7, 1938 (matrix number 63574-A). If it can be verified that that recording is for this song it would establish a new earliest date (source: Ethnic Music on Records: a Discography of Ethnic Recordings Produced in the United States, 1893 to 1942 by Richard K Spottswood (Urbana, c1990), p. 2751).
The singer's home is "by the beautiful Lee" and finds, when he returns, that "sweet Inishcara o'er-shadows her grave." Below Cork City, the Lee flows past Inniscara and enters the Celtic Sea.
OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "This was composed some sixty years ago [c.1918]...." - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: RcSweIni

Sweet Jane [Laws B22]

DESCRIPTION: Willie bids his Jane farewell and sets off across the sea. Three years later, having gained success as a gold miner (and suffered much hardship), he returns to his southern home and marries Jane
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: separation marriage gold mining love ship work hardtimes food reunion
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws B22, "Sweet Jane"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 259, "Sweet Jane" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 259, "Sweet Jane" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 51, pp. 177-178, "Sweet Jane" (1 text)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 67, "Sweet Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 23, "Farewell, Sweet Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 726, SWTJANE
Roud #3243
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Come Sweet Jane
Adieu, Sweet Lovely Jane
NOTES [123 words]: This is a relatively rare song, and is not at all specific in its details. Where does the singer go to seek gold? We have no clue. Since he apparently goes overseas, it can hardly be the San Francisco or Klondike gold rushes (yes, a prospector might well go to those places by sea -- but it is not *overseas*). That leaves perhaps South Africa or Australia.
The singer claims also to have "lived on bread and salty (meat/lard), and never lost my health." Such a diet, if followed for long, would assuredly result in scurvy -- and, if pursued for three years, would certainly result in death. Clearly he got more vegetable matter than he let on.
If there is more to be said about this song, it must be hidden in a version I have not seen. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LB22

Sweet Jenny of the Moor

See Janie of the Moor [Laws N34] (File: LN34)

Sweet Jesus

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet Jesus, sweet Jesus, He's the lily of the valley, He's the bright and morning star, Sweet Jesus, sweet Jesus, He's the fairest of ten thousand to my soul." "How I love him. how I love him" "I'll serve him." "He's worthy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1997 (Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 86-87, "Sweet Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [68 words]: The phrase "bright and morning star" is from Rev 22:16. The literal Greek text reads "the star the bright the morning." This isn't as clumsy in Greek as in English, perhaps, but I think it is an indication of the Aramaic habits of the writer. The King James Bible tried to preserve the feeling with its "bright and morning star" rendering; most of the newer translations simply say "bright morning star." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: WarSp086

Sweet Jinny on the Moor

See Janie of the Moor [Laws N34] (File: LN34)

Sweet Kilydysart

DESCRIPTION: The singer from Lissycasey (County Clare) is accosted by Peggy Malone in Kilydysart who exposes his paternity by showing his baby in public. They go for a drink. He considers her good features. They marry and return to Lissycasey to live a happy life.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin); 19C (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.11(120)
KEYWORDS: marriage sex accusation pregnancy drink humorous baby lover
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 141, "Sweet Kilydysart" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9671
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Sweet Kilydysart" (on IRECronin01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(120), "A favorite new song The Mountain Phoenix" ("In sweet Kildysert, as Phoeuix [sic] was dawning"), unknown, no date
File: OCC141

Sweet Kingwilliamstown

DESCRIPTION: An exile from Kingwilliamstown sails away, thinking about "childhood's days and happy hours ... old home and the friends so dear." "Shall I no more gaze on that shore or view those mountains high?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: exile separation Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, p. 67, "Sweet Kingwilliamstown" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [21 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "Kingwilliamstown is the name by which Ballydesmond, near the Cork-Kerry border, was formerly known." - BS
File: OCan067

Sweet Kitty (I)

DESCRIPTION: "As (I/Peggy/Kitty/He) was riding one day," the squire and Kitty meet. He offers her twenty guineas to sleep with him. She agrees, then cuddles him until he falls asleep. She steals his money. When he seeks her, he doesn't even recognize her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Hammond MS.)
KEYWORDS: sex money trick escape nobility
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 67, "Peggy and the Squire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1349
File: PCL067

Sweet Kitty (II)

See Rambleaway (File: ShH31)

Sweet Kitty Clover

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet Kitty Clover, she bothered me so, Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!... Her face was round and red and fat, Like a pulpit cushion or redder than that." "Sweet Kitty in person is rather low... She's three feet tall." "If Kitty to kirk with me would go..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1837 (The _Vocal Companion_)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 60-61, "Sweet Kitty Clover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 286-288, "Sweet Kitty Clover" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), "The Vocal Companion_, second edition, D'Almaine and Co., 1937 (available from Google Books), pp. 154-155, "Sweet Kitty Clover" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Lins286 (Full)
Roud #3743
NOTES [36 words]: The Vocal Companion credits this to "Kean," but it is not certain whether "[Edmund] Kean" wrote words and music, or just music, or whether he was the arranger. The book tends to list only composers, not lyricists. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Lins286

Sweet Kumadee, The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Sweet Lemeney

See Lemeney (Lemeday, Lemody, Lemminy) (File: CopSe260)

Sweet Lily

See Oh Lily, Dear Lily (File: R731)

Sweet Lisbweemore

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a maid who asks him to "show me the way... to the weaver's house." He agrees and, on the way, tries to seduce her. She resists and runs away when he says "if another man were in my shoes he'd spoil your thread." "She was too smart for me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: seduction escape bawdy rake
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 142, "Sweet Lisbweemore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5303
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Sweet Lisbweemore" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [13 words]: For another example of thread and yarn as a sexual symbol see "Ball of Yarn" - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC142

Sweet Liscarrol Town

DESCRIPTION: Beware "roving boys of pleasure." Singer is far from Liscarrol Town and describes its "pretty girls... fine horses, fine carriages." "If I were in Liscarrol Town... I'd be happy as a king." "I curse the day I chanced to stray from... Liscarrol Town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: homesickness travel nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 143, "Sweet Liscarrol Town" (1 text)
Roud #16239
NOTES [90 words]: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin begins "You roving boys of pleasure give ear unto my song / I'll sing for you a verse or two that won't detain you long / I'm pressed in grief and no relief in slavery I'm bound / I am far from those who wished me well in sweet Liscarrol Town." This is the counter to the songs revelling in such travels: "You rambling boys of pleasure / Give ear unto these lines I write / It's true I am a rover / And in roving I take great delight" [Bodleian, 2806 c.13(252), "The Rambling Boys of Pleasure"] - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC143

Sweet Little Birdie, The

See The Little Girl and the Robin (File: R880)

Sweet Little Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "All the brave boys under canvas are sleeping, Each one striving to march with the van," but the "sweet little man" is not serving in the armies. The song repeatedly insults him for not joining the army that fights against the enemy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: soldier home clothes accusation questions
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 207-209, "The Sweet Little Man" (1 text)
Roud #15023
NOTES [52 words]: The notes in Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania say that this is a satire against those who shirked fighting in the Civil War (in essence it seems to call the Sweet Little Man an effeminate). This seems likely enough, but there are no actual Civil War references, so I have not assigned that keyword. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe207

Sweet Londonderry (on the Banks of the Foyle)

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the "ancient walled city," "sweet Londonderry on the banks of the Foyle." Orphaned, he works for years as a sailor. He courts a pretty girl of Londonderry. He hopes to work for her when they are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting home sailor work
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H813, p. 468, "Sweet Londonderry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9453
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Londonderry on the Banks of the Foyle
Lovely Derry on the Banks of the Foyle
File: HHH813

Sweet Long Ago

DESCRIPTION: "There's a mystic golden shore Where the surges evermore Break in music on the strand soft and low. I can hear the ceaseless hymn, I can see the headland dim Of the golden shores of sweet long ago, Long ago, sweet long ago...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 728, "Sweet Long Ago" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [17 words]: The current description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5728

Sweet Loughgiel

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls leaving Loughgiel and his friends at home. He describes his early life there. He dreams of being back. He hopes someday to return, and wishes he could be as content as he was there
AUTHOR: "McWilliams"
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: homesickness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H506, p. 214, "Sweet Loughgiel" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: HHH506

Sweet Love of God Shave

See The Love-of-God Shave (Lather and Shave) [Laws Q15] (File: LQ15)

Sweet Lovely Joan

See Lovely Joan (File: ShH57)

Sweet Lulur

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a policeman in Danville. "He bound my feet in cold iron, all tangled my feet in chains, But before I'd go back on my Lulur, I'll have them tangled again." He notes that "If it hadn't a-been for sweet Lulur, it was Lulur that brought be here."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: police prison love
FOUND IN: US(SE,SW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 350, "The Prisoner's Song" (7 texts plus 1 fragment, 2 excerpts, and mention of 1 more; "A"-"C," plus probably the "D" excerpt, are "The Prisoner's Song (I)"; "E" and "G," plus perhaps the "H" fragment, are "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight"; "J" and "K" are "Sweet Lulur")
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 28, "Lulu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 307, "Way Up on Clinch Mountain" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "A" text is "Rye Whiskey," but the short "B" text is perhaps this or something like it though probably composite, perhaps with "The Wagoner's Lad")
Roud #767
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Prisoner's Song (I)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [19 words]: Roud, presumably following Brown et al, lump this with "The Prisoner's Song" group. It appears to me distinct. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: BrIII350

Sweet Maisry

See Lady Maisry [Child 65] (File: C065)

Sweet Mama

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet mama, treetop tall, Won't you please turn your damper down? I smell hoecake burning, Dey done burnt some brown. I'm laid mah head On de railroad track. I t'ought about Mama An' I drugged it back. Sweet mama, treetop tall, Won't...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: food love suicide
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 242, "Sweet Mama" (1 short text)
RECORDINGS:
Birmingham Jubilee Singers, "Sweet Mama, Tree Top Tall" (Columbia 14190-D, 1926)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Honey, Turn Your Damper Down
NOTES [102 words]: Birmingham Jubilee Singers verse is very close to Scarborough's: "Sweet mama, treetop tall, baby, turn your damper dowm. I smell your bread cooking, honey, Done got good and brown"; couplet, sometimes floating; "Sweet mama, treetop tall, baby turn your damper down." Some floating couplets are "Standing on the corner with my hat in my hand, I'm waiting for the woman ain't got no man" and "If you don't like my peaches don't you shake my tree, Get out of my orchard let the peaches be." For more versions see https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=24332#3250985 at the Mudcat Cafe (accessed June 16, 2020.) - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: ScNF242b

Sweet Mama (II)

DESCRIPTION: Singer can't call his "mama" "sweet" any more: "every time I come to your house It's a man standing in your door" He's leaving: "going up the country Where the Southern cross the Dog" He worries: "My plan needs a future (with) my old-time used to be"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: infidelity love sex parting nonballad lover nonballad
FOUND IN:
Roud #29292
RECORDINGS:
Yank Rachel with Sleepy John Estes and Jab Jones, "Sweet Mama" (on StuffDreams1)
NOTES [92 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought.
"One year later (1903) band leader and composer W.C. Handy encountered the blues again at a railroad station in the Delta town of Tutwiler, Mississippi. There a man pressed a knife on the strings of a guitar and sang the line, 'Goin' where the Southern cross the Dog,' three times in succession. The like referred to the Southern and Yazoo Delta ('Yellow Dog') railroads." (David Evans, Big Road Blues (Boston: Da Capo Press, 1982), p. 34.). - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcSweMa2

Sweet Mama Rolling Stone

DESCRIPTION: "Roll me with your belly, feed me with your tongue." "Tell me mama how you want to roll in town." "Tell me mama how you want your rolling stone." "How come you do me mama you keep smacking me down." "Take care of me mama while you're feeling right"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (USDunbarS01)
KEYWORDS: sex nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Scott Dunbar, "Sweet Mama Rollin' Stone" (on USDunbarS01)
NOTES [13 words]: Dunbar's verses are single lines repeated once. Lines may be being suppressed. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcSeMaRS

Sweet Mama, Tree Top Tall

See Sweet Mama (File: ScNF242b)

Sweet Mamie Chadman

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet Mamie Chadman, that's the girl I love, She's got hair like her mother and teeth like a lightning bug." The police arrest him and take him before a judge. The judge give him 99 years. "I want to see my baby one more time 'fore I die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: love prison trial
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 128-130, "Sweet Mamie Chadman" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [47 words]: Most of this appears to be a fairly generic prison/chain gang song, although it's hard to tell which one, but the opening is different, so I've filed it as a separate song. I wonder about the form -- it's given in ballad stanzas, but it really feels like it ought to be a blues. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: NCF162MC

Sweet Marie

DESCRIPTION: The man longs for Marie, but finds it hard to tell her: "Sweet Marie, come to me, Come to me, Sweet Marie, Not because your face is fair, love, to see, Every daisy in the dell Knows my secret very well, Yet I dare not tell Sweet Marie... ."
AUTHOR: Words: Cy Warman / Music: Raymond Moore
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN: Australia US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 229-230, "Sweet Marie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 155, "Sweet Marie" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 70-74, "Sweet Marie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11353
RECORDINGS:
Walter Morris, "Sweet Marie" (Columbia 15115-D, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Marie (Parody)"
SAME TUNE:
Sweet Marie (the Racing Mare) (Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 229)
The Klondiker's Return (File: CAFS2678)
Swet Marie (Parody) (File: Brne156)
NOTES [237 words]: I am told that "[This] song was featured in the 1947 movie 'Life with Father' (William Powell, Irene Dunne, Elizabeth Taylor) based on the memoirs of Clarence Day, Jr... (articles first appeared in The New Yorker in the 1920s and were later published as three books: God and My Father, Life with Father, Life with Mother). Prior to becoming the movie (and later a TV series in the 1950s), 'Life with Father' was written as a play and opened on Broadway in 1939.
"Percy French did a parody of the song with Sweet Marie becoming a racehorse. That song is available in "The Songs of Percy French" selected and edited by James Healy (Ossian Publications/Mercier Press--1986/1996)."
That's James N. Healy, editor, The Songs of Percy French, 1955-1962, revised edition 1986 (I use the 1996 Ossian paperback), pp. 10-11, "Sweet Marie." It is also in James N. Healy, Percy French and His Songs, The Mercier Press, 1966, pp. 12-13, which says that the "Music [is] based on an old American Tune."
Raymond Moore was a nineteenth century singer who apparently was very popular as a performer. Cy Warman apparently came to him and asked him to perform "Sweet Marie," which Warman had written in honor of his wife. Warman eventually came up with a tune and sang it as part of the musical comedy "Africa." Ironically, it was no great success when Moore sang it -- but when he quit the play, his replacement made it a hit. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: MCB229

Sweet Marie (Parody)

DESCRIPTION: "From the fields of war I come, Sweet Marie, Will you kiss me welcome home, love, to thee?" "I am only skin and bones... And I'm full of army prunes as can be." "Oh, I got it in the neck." "Now I'm with you once again... you seem not to identify me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks); 1953 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love separation soldier war injury hardtimes food humorous derivative
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 156, "Parody of 'Sweet Marie'" (1 text, 1 tune)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 27-28, "Sweet Marie" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11354
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Marie" (source of parody)
NOTES [87 words]: Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric's informant Mary Drake of Huntsville, Alabama claimed to have written this. The existence of a similar parody from McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks (which was collected four years earlier) surely argues against this, although McIntosh's version is more about hard times and disease, so it might be that Drake wrote an army version and someone else the hard times version. I thought about splitting the two, but since neither seems to be common, I'm allowing them to stay together. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne156

Sweet Mary

DESCRIPTION: Dialog; young man asks sweet Mary whether he may ask her parents for her hand. She replies that they will reject his suit; he says he will die of grief. She has a way to save him; "Since my parents are both so contrary/You'd better ask me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (recording, Horton Barker)
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection request dialog humorous
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "Sweet Mary" (on Barker01)
NOTES [20 words]: Should not be confused with "Farewell, Sweet Mary," although it's just possible that this may be a parody of that song. - PJS
File: RcSweeMa

Sweet Mary Ann

See references under Sara Jane (File: RcSarJan)

Sweet Mary Ann (Such an Education Has My Mary Ann)

DESCRIPTION: "My Mary Ann's a teacher in a great big public school, She gets one thousand dollars every year" for she teaches Greek and Latin and French and "Timbuktu." She knows etiquette. She can dance all types of dances, and play the "pianay"
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 ("Malone's Night Off")
KEYWORDS: love music nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #20, pp. 68-70, "Sweet Mary Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 146-147, "Sweet Mary Ann" (1 text)
Roud #V17984
RECORDINGS:
Mick Moloney, "Such an Education Has My Mary Ann" (on HarriganBrahamMaloney)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(4a/b), "She's a daisy," R. March and Co (London), 1877-1884; also Firth b.28(11a/b), " She's a daisy," R. March and Co (London), 1877-1884 [both of these are really chapbooks, not broadsides, with dozens of songs]
NOTES [199 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
"On September 16 [1878], Malone's Night Off; or, The German Turnverein was revived with the addition of a new song, 'Sweet May Ann (Such an Education Has My Mary Ann),' a simple diatonic patter song extemporizing on the heroine's scholarly, intellectual, and practical acumen. Evidently Mary Ann knows Greek, Latin, and a bevy of other foreign languages, she plays the piano and all sorts of card games like a professional, and she dances expertly in any and every style. The chorus of the song is especially interesting, for, instead of drawing the listener's interest to unexpected chord changes or melodic leaps -- as was his usual practice -- Braham surprises the listener by rhythmical variations in the accompaniment" (Franeschina, p. 117).
Moody, p. 68, describes the climax of "Malone's Night Out" as "a grand turnverein finale: Affulback Gilmore (Harrigan) pursues the band through the 'William Reilly Overture,' baton in one hand, a flag in the other."
Interestingly, the semi-combined Braham and Harrigan households are reported to have shared a servant named Mary Ann (Franceschina, p. 157). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: HaBrSEMA

Sweet Mary Jane

See Bright Phoebe (File: FSC070)

Sweet Mary of Cliftonhill

DESCRIPTION: At harvest time the singer sees Mary with another man. Later they drink to each other at a tavern. He reminds her of good times they have had. She leaves for home. They kiss and part. Miles away now he pines for her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting love parting harvest
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #99, pp. 1-2, "Sweet Mary of Cliftonhill" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 708, "Sweet Mary of Cliftonhill" (8 texts, 6 tunes)
Roud #6148
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Harvest Time
Clifton's Braes
File: GrD4708

Sweet Moll

DESCRIPTION: A man tells Moll that he has her parents' or friends' approval to marry. She demands a servant boy [or handsome husband], silver buckles, meat, tea for breakfast and wine at night. He offers no silver, bacon and milk. She refuses and they part.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Taylor, recalling a play enacted c.1875))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage rejection food wine dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 95-98, "Old Moll" (2 texts) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 385)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 19, "Old Moll"
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 97-98, "Sweet Moll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 15, "Sweet Moll" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Antoinette Taylor, "An English Christmas Play," Vol. XXII, No. 86 (Oct-Dec 1909), pp. 392-393 ("Sweet Moll, Sweet Moll, where art thou going") (1 text)
Charles Read Beckwith, "Mummers' Wooing Plays in England" in Modern Philology, Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Feb 1924 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 268-272 "A Christmas Play [from Keynsham]" (1 text)
Roud #817
NOTES [1245 words]: Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 385 is the same version as Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames pp. 97-98.
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames: "It dates probably from the seventeenth century ...."
Since Saint George's name is associated with a kind of mummers' play, and since a subset of those plays is discussed below, this may be the place to introduce him as he appears here. "[Saint George] is particularly important in relation to the mummers' play as we have it. As Miss Dean-Smith has pointed out [Life-Cycle or Folk Play, p. 247], the characteristic English form of the folk-play is the combat play, and it takes its origin from the battle between the King of Egypt and the armies of Christendom in the eleventh century, and the apparition of St George seen at the seige of Jerusalem" (source: P. Happe, "The Vice and the Folk Drama" in Folklore, Vol. LXXV, No. 3 (Autumn 1964 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 165). A relatively small number of these "combat" plays include a wooing dialog that seems incongruous. These "wooing" plays were - "mainly in the East Midland counties" - performed on "Plough Monday", the first Monday after Twelfth Night, and the beginning of the ploughing season (see the ploughmonday.co.uk site; also Roger deV. Renwick, "The Mummers' Play and The Old Wives Tale" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XCIV, No. 374 (Oct-Dec 1981 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 439). Alford writes "the St George play and the Plough play ... are in reality two distinct plays but where the geographical dividing line has been uncertain, encouraging both plays, St George and his characters have invaded the Plough play" (source: Violet Alford, "Letters to the Editor" [re Happe, cited above] in Folklore, Vol. LXXVI, No. 1 (Spring 1965 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 63).
Here I can only sketch Beckwith's theme explaining the sexual rejection in his and Taylor's texts of "wooing" play. He writes that "There is little doubt that the rejection and marriage symbolize the virgin union of the representatives of the new season and the displacement of the representatives of the old season" (p. 227). "It is also reasonably certain that the similarity of the season and fertility rites in the English and Greek plays is not due to any influence of a relatively modern period but to the retention of the same pagan symbolism in both, however far the customs may be from the original forms" (p. 229).
In the Beckwith text, a Sussex Saint George mummers' "wooing" play the man is a Prince and Moll a shepherdess. Here the dialog takes place after a soldier kills St George who is restored to life by the doctor. Father Christmas, once a shepherdess's courter, gives the shepherdess "a little bottle [to] quench your thirst" and the shepherdess immediately becomes in the mood that Father Christmas "shoot the dart So let us gain the Prince's heart." Her enchantment doesn't last long enough to stop her from rejecting the Prince.
In the Taylor text, a Worcestershire Saint George mummers' "wooing" play, the man is Saint George. The dialog takes place after St George kills everyone in sight except Beelzebub and the Italian doctor, and the doctor brings everyone back to life. After the dialog with Sweet Moll, who leaves alive, St George kills a clown, again restored to life by the doctor, and the hat is passed and ale requested for the troop. While other reports of "Sweet Moll" are independent of the Saint/King George play it's a fair question whether the song is from the play.
There are examples of Saint/King George "wooing" play song that migrate into rather than out of the play:
See the discussion of the St Croix text of "Matty Gru" under "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" [Child 81]; there an explicit sexual episode is inserted into the play.
See the comment on Rouse's Rugby text under "Old Man Came Over the Moor" and Rudkin's Lincolnshire text under "The Keys of Canterbury."
See the comment on the Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO text of "Rolling in the Dew."
See the comment on the Campbell text of "Wheel of Fortune."
See the comment on the Beckwith text of "Young Roger of the Mill."
Beckwith, p. 254 ll. 86-93 and fn 4, cites a verse from an 1824 Broughton Christmas play, specifically, "be she gone be she gone farewell I care not for if she's a pretty thing I've had my share on't for if she has more Land than I by one half acre I've plow'd and sown in her Ground let the Fool take her," that dates back at least to 1671. See:
* J Woodfall Ebsworth, Westminster Drolleries ... of 1671, 1672, (Boston, 1875 ("Digitized by Google")), Part 1, p. 81, "The Careless Swain" ("Is she gone? let her go; faith Boys, I care not") (1 text) [1671]
* Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth, editor, The Roxburghe Ballads: Illustrating the Last Years of the Stuarts (Hertford, 1883 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. IV Part 1 [Part 10], pp. 22-25, "The Deluded Lasse's Lamentation" or "The False Youth's Unkindness to his Beloved Mistress" ("Is she gone? let her go. I do not care") (1 text) ["Probable date, 1672"]
* Broadside EngBdsdBA 22124, Pepys 5.289, "The Deluded Lasses Lamentation" or "The False Youth's Unkindness to his Beloved Mistris" ("Is she gone, let her go, I do not care"), J. Deacon (London), 1689, accessed 08 Dec 2013.
The wide variety of song imported into the mummers' plays makes me wonder how a particular song was chosen. In 1706 D'Urfey produced a comic opera that ran for only five performances, was considered a failure, and was apparently not performed again. However, it included a song that seems to fit the function of a wooing song very well: a milkmaid (Maturity) is leary of being seduced by a young man of bad reputation (Sport); she tells him she will not "lie down for a crown," he proposes, and she accepts ("Of two to make three, We'll Wed, and we'll Bed, There's no more to be said, And I'll ne'er go a Milking more") (Thomas D'Urfey, Wonders in the Sun; or, The Kingdom of the Birds (Jacob Tonson, London, 1706 (reprinted as Issue 104 of Publication (Augustan Reprint Society), University of California, 1964) [with an Introduction by William Worthen Appleton]; see Appleton's note on p. i, and the song ("Oh Love if a God thou wilt be"), Act III, Sc. 1, pp. 51-53).
D'Urfey reprinted the song in 1719 and Ramsay printed it after that ([Thomas d'Urfey,] Wit and Mirth, or, Pills to Purge Melancholy (London, 1719 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol I, pp. 100-102, ("Oh Love if a God thou wilt be") (1 text, 1 tune); Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scots Sangs (in three vols) (London, 1733 (ninth edition) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III, # 16 pp. 264-266, ("Oh love! if a God thou wilt be") (1 text)). In Beckwith's 1824 Broughton Christmas play, ll. 124-128, only a fragment is left and that is just a plea to be left alone ("My father's working at his loom My Mother's spinning hard at home Their Dinners they've got Their suppers they want So I pray be gone and give me your room"). Was this a fragment in the oral tradition in 1824? If not, and the song was inserted from a printed source, why wasn't the whole song used?
For further confirmation that the "Wooing Ceremony is confined to four East-Midland counties -- Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, and Rutland," see Allan Brody, The English Mummers and Their Plays, (London, 1969), p. 99. Although he has a chapter on the wooing ceremony, and mentions that it may include a wooing song, he gives no examples. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: WT095

Sweet Morning

See Burges (File: LxA565)

Sweet Mossy Banks of the Wey, The

See The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea [Laws O15] (File: LO15)

Sweet Music

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Don't you love God? Glory, hallelujah." Verses include: "Sweet music in heaven Just beginning for to roll," "Late I heard my soldier say, Come, heavy soul, I am the way," "I'll go and tell the sinners 'round What kind of Saviour I have found"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 31, pp. 215-216, "Sweet Music" (1 text)
NOTES [39 words]: The description is based on Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment.
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment: "In the second verse ... 'Saviour' evidently has become 'soldier.'" The singers in Higginson are Union soldiers in the Civil War. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Hi031215

Sweet Nellie Bawn

DESCRIPTION: "Stroll through the meadows, cross over the stream, You see my darling she is a poet's dream." The singer praises Nellie's hair and voice and says he is always lonely without her. They will be married in the spring
AUTHOR: W. R. Williams (Will Rossiter), according to Huntington
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Journal of the Benjamin Cummings)
KEYWORDS: love separation marriage husband wife hair
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 285, "Sweet Nellie Bawn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27534
File: HGam285

Sweet Nellie Brown

See Sweet Nellie Bawn (File: HGam285)

Sweet Nightingale (I), The

See Well Met, Pretty Maid (The Sweet Nightingale) (File: K089)

Sweet Nightingale (II), The

See The Birds in the Spring (File: RcTBiITS)

Sweet Omagh Town

See Omagh Town and the Bards of Clanabogan (File: TST066)

Sweet Philomel

See O Come Away (Sweet Philomel) (File: Boet065)

Sweet Pinks and Roses

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet pinks and roses, That grow in the vine, Go find you a partner, The prettiest you can find. Honey in the gum so sweet, so sweet (x3), Joy is bound to be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: playparty flowers courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #119, "Sweet Pinks and Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5039
File: Morr119

Sweet Poll of Plymouth

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet Poll of Plymouth was my dear, When forc'd from her to go." Poll and the sailor part in sorrow. He is away for five years. By the time he returns home, "My Poll, the sweetest flower of May; Then languished, drooped, and died."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton-RealSailorSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor love separation pressgang death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #34, "Sweet Poll of Plymouth" (1 text)
Roud #12677
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Polly of Plymouth
NOTES [54 words]: There is an earlier song, seemingly found only in New York, called "Sweet Poll of Plymouth's Lament." They both involve sailors leaving Poll in Plymouth -- but in "Sweet Poll of Plymouth," the girl dies; in "Sweet Poll of Plymouth's Lament," William is the one who dies. So I'm tentatively splitting them. But I'm not sure. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: AshS034

Sweet Poll of Plymouth's Lament

DESCRIPTION: "O William, dearest William hear, While yet the ship is nigh" how much the singer grieves to see him leave. She wonders if he will ever return. She imagines his death. "But still sweet Poll of Plymouth lives In melancholy song."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1787 (Country Journal and Poughkeepsie Advertiser, according to Nestler)
KEYWORDS: sailor separation death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 82-83, "Sweet Poll of Plymouth's Lament" (1 text)
NOTES [79 words]: Nestler thinks this "follows traditional patterns." It seems awfully flowery to me, and there is no evidence that it ever had a tune. But I can't prove it wasn't traditional.
There is another song sort-of-traditional song, "Sweet Poll of Plymouth." They both involve sailors leaving Poll in Plymouth -- but in "Sweet Poll of Plymouth," the girl dies; in "Sweet Poll of Plymouth's Lament," William is the one who dies. So I'm tentatively splitting them. But I'm not sure. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: HaNeSPPL

Sweet Portaferry (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Why should men toil foreign lands to explore, When wonder and pleasement are here at the door ... and leave Portaferry and the Kingdom of Down?" If the singer were rich he might travel but at the end he'd return home.
AUTHOR: Leslie Montgomery
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: travel lyric Ireland home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 94, "Sweet Portaferry" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [9 words]: Portaferry is about 20 miles southeast of Belfast. - BS
File: OLcM094

Sweet Portaferry (II)

DESCRIPTION: The singer travels around Ireland but "Sweet Portaferry remains in my mind." He returns from foreign lands with "silks and fine laces" to his true love. "Then I'll whisper so fondly and I know she'll agree 'O! Sweet Portaferry, you're a dear spot to me'"
AUTHOR: Cathal O'Byrne
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: travel lyric Ireland love sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 94A, "Sweet Portaferry" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [9 words]: Portaferry is about 20 miles southeast of Belfast. - BS
File: OLcM094A

Sweet Pretty Maiden Sat Under a Tree, A

DESCRIPTION: "A sweet pretty maiden sat under a tree, She sighed and said, 'Oh! that I married might be.'" Johnny hears and offers to marry. She is not sure she wants to wed him. Although she has run from mother and father, she is not interested in Johnny
AUTHOR: Words: Sabine Baring-Gould
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: mother father hardtimes marriage rejection
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #36, "A Sweet Pretty Maiden Sat Under a Tree" (1 text, 1 tune, the text not being traditional)
NOTES [83 words]: Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd collected both text and tune of this, but declared that "The words... did not fit the tune." I don't believe that this was because they were unmetrical; it was because they were impolite. It appears, from the fragment printed, that they came from "Gathering Rushes in the Month of May (Underneath Her Apron)," or at least something related to Roud #899. Rather than print the whole song, Baring-Gould came up with another of his vapid courting pieces. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGSW036

Sweet Primaroses

See The Banks of Sweet Primroses (File: ShH51)

Sweet Primeroses, The

See The Banks of Sweet Primroses (File: ShH51)

Sweet Refrain

DESCRIPTION: "A music hall was crowded in a village o'er the sea, And brilliant lights were flashing everywhere." A minstrel sings, and a "darkey" remembers his mother and the days of his youth; he begs, "Sing again that sweet refrain"
AUTHOR: Gussie L. Davis (1863-1899) ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: music
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 121, "Sweet Refrain" (1 text)
Roud #4834
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(124), "Sing again that Sweet Refrain," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1880-1900
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Minstrel from the Sunny South
NOTES [60 words]: This business of a song inspiring a memory seems to have been a common idea in the late nineteenth century; Julian Jordan did it with "The Song That Reached My Heart," which treats "Home! Sweet Home! the way this song treats "Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)."
For brief background on composer Gussie L. Davis, see the notes to "The Baggage Coach Ahead." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Dean121

Sweet River Suir

DESCRIPTION: The river most deserving of praise is the Suir. The river "has the most devinest aspect" and the best navigators. Its shores have the most melodious bulls. "Its meandering banks so transparent pure; It far surpasses mugs, jugs, and glasses"
AUTHOR: Phil Smith
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: river humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 84A, "Sweet River Suir" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [55 words]: "The River Suir rises in the Devils Bit Mountains [North Tipperary] and flows through the limestone country of South Tipperary and North Waterford" (source: South East [Ireland] Tourism site). For other songs about the river see "The Clonmel Flood," "The Wreck of the Avondale," "The Wreck of the Gwendoline," and "Rare Clonmel." - BS
File: OLcM084A

Sweet Rose Anna

See Sweet Rosie Anna (File: GaBl099)

Sweet Rose in June, The

DESCRIPTION: Couplets about milk maid Miss Kate or Katie. For example, "Down in the green meadows I'll walk with Miss Kate, Where cowslips are growing to make the milk sweet" The chorus is in the Taylor note below.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Taylor's _The Story of Kennett_; see note below)
KEYWORDS: love farming lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 145, "The Sweet Rose in June" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 264)
Roud #1202
NOTES [49 words]: "... another [husker] sang a melody popular at the time, the refrain of which was, "Be it late or early, be it late or soon, It's I will enjoy the sweet rose in June!" (source: Bayard Taylor, The Story of Kennett, (New York, 1867 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 212); Kennett is in Pennsylvania. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: WT145

Sweet Rose of Allandale

See The Rose of Allandale (File: SWMS257)

Sweet Rose of Allendale

See The Rose of Allandale (File: SWMS257)

Sweet Roseanne

See Sweet Rosie Anna (File: GaBl099)

Sweet Rosie Anna

DESCRIPTION: Rosie Anna knows that when the steamboat comes to pick up men for the harvest the singer will leave for the harvest and not return until payday. He sings "farewell my darling child I won't be home tomorrow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (LomaxCD1701)
KEYWORDS: farewell home parting separation harvest ship work floatingverses nonballad shanty worksong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GarrityBlake-FishFactory, pp. 99-100, ("Bye-bye sweet Rosianna") (1 text)
Roud #12380
RECORDINGS:
Bright Light Quartet, "Sweet Roseanne" (on LomaxCD1701)
Menhaden Fishermen, "Sweet Rosie Anna" (on USMenhaden01)
All hands led by Northern Neck Chantey Singers, "Sweet Rose Anna" (on USMenhaden02)
NOTES [225 words]: GarrityBlake-FishFactory, LomaxCD1701, USMenhaden01 and USMenhaden02 have "Sweet Rosie Anna" as a menhaden chantey. See the notes to "Help Me to Raise Them" for information about menhaden chanteys.
Whatever the origin of this song, the menhaden fishermen made it their own. They see the harvest as their time at sea harvesting -- fishing for -- menhaden. The "steamboat coming around the curve" is not a river boat but the fishing ship they will sign on. "Sweet Rosie Anna" on USMenhaden01 is performed as a menhaden call and response chantey; for example, "bye-bye bye-bye and I go below BYE-BYE SWEET ROSIE ANNA (chatter) bye-bye bye-bye and I go below I WON'T BE HOME TOMORROW (chatter)" where: lower case is the chanteyman calling the verse line; upper case is the crew's response; "(chatter)" is directions called out by the crew about hauling.
Both USMenhaden01 and USMenhaden02 have a floater line that usually answers "I've got a girl in Baltimore" (as in "Li'l Liza Jane"?): "The streetcar runs right by her door" (see E.C. Perrow, "Songs and Rhymes from the South" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 26, No. 109 (Apr-Jun 1913 (available online by JSTOR)), #iv.30.1 p. 156, footnote: "I have heard a large number of more or less obscene verses ... such as those that follow the lead of" the "... Baltimore ... streetcar ..." verse). - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: GaBl099

Sweet Rosie Levinsky

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet Rosie Levinsky, She was a blacksmith by birth. She was tired of living And decided to leave this old earth. She tried dying by inches, But finding that this was to hard She went out in the alley Laid down and died by the yard.... Three feet."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Camp Clavell and Girl Reserve Club Songs)
KEYWORDS: death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 25, "Sweet Rosie" (1 text)
Roud #9608
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Rosie O'Grady" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sweet Rosie Zelinsky
NOTES [15 words]: Presumably to be sung to the tune of "Sweet Rosie O'Grady," but Shay indicates no tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: SBar025

Sweet Rosie O'Grady

DESCRIPTION: "Just down around the corner of a street where I reside, There lives the sweetest little girl that I have ever spied." The singer vows never to forget the day they met, and says that the very birds sing her name
AUTHOR: Maude Nugent (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (sheet music published by Jos. W. Stern & Co)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad bird marriage
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 62, "Rose O'Grady" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #124, p. 37, "Sweet Rosie O'Grady" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 220-221, "Sweet Rosie O'Grady" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 543-544, "Sweet Rosie O'Grady"
DT, SWTROSY*
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 290-293, "Sweet Rosie O'Grady" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1896 sheet music)
Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 175-177, "Sweet Rosie O'Grady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Margaret Bradford Boni, editor, _Songs of the Gilded Age_, with piano arrangements by Norman Lloyd and illustrations by Lucille Corcos, Golden Press, 1960, pp. 89-91, "Sweet Rosie O'Grady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9560
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Rosie Levinsky" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Sweet Rosie O'Grady Was a Blacksmith by Birth (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 255)
NOTES [472 words]: According to Spaeth, "Maude Nugent [1877-1958], who sang and danced at Johnny Reilly's famous place, 'The Abbey'... is officially recognized as the creator of Sweet Rosie O'Grady, although there is a strong suspicion that her husband, Billy Jerome, actually wrote the song." The reason for this is that she never wrote anything else of significance (and, according to Waites & Hunter, she was only 19 when she wrote it) -- but let's be serious: This is a silly piece of work. It wouldn't take much of a songwriter to produce such a thing. It became a hit presumably because the tune is good and harmonizes well in barbershop arrangements.
Billy Jerome, according to Spaeth, p. 331, was responsible for such tremendous hits as "Bedelia," "Mister Dooley," "China Town, My China Town," "My Irish Molly, O," and "The Hat My Father Wore on Saint Patrick's Day." Not a particularly inspiring list of songs to my way of thinking.
Fuld seems to think the song was hers, because she tried and failed to get the song published, and so introduced it herself.
Whoever the author, it didn't bring much money to the Nugent/Jerome household. They sold the rights for a few hundred dollars, according to Spaeth, and when the copyright was renewed, they reassigned them, resulting in much quarreling over royalties.
According to David A. Jasen, Tin Pan Alley: The Composers, the Songs, the Performers and their Times: The Golden Age of American Popular Music from 1886 to 1956, Primus, 1988, p. 119, a writer named Walter Donaldson (who would later write the tunes for "My Blue Heaven," "Makin' Whoopee," "Yes, Sir, That's My Baby," and "How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree)?") in 1916 produced a song "The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady," the contents of which can best be imagined. William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 191, also mentions the "Daughter," although he dates it 1918, and says that "The Sister of Rosie O'Grady" also came out in 1918. Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 319, estimates that the "Daughter" was the twenty-fourth most popular song in America in 1918, peaking at #4 in June 1198 (#1 for the year being J. Will Callahan and Lee G. Roberts's "Smiles"). - RBW
There was a movie "Sweet Rosie O'Grady," from 1946, starring Betty Grable, Robert Young, and Adolphe Menjou; Nugent sued Twentieth Century Fox over the use of the name and lost (rightly, from what I understand; song and book titles cannot be copyrighted). I can see why Nugent was irked; apparently Grable was cast as a saloon singer from the 1890s who goes to London and tries to work her way into the nobility. So it clearly bore no resemblance to the original song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Dean062A

Sweet Rosie Zelinsky

See Sweet Rosie Levinsky (File: SBar025)

Sweet Sally

See A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.) [Laws P9] (File: LP09)

Sweet Scented Barber, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing of a feller that live in the city" -- a perfumed barber. Miss O'Brien casts her eyes on him. Sam Snider the butcher grows jealous. The barber kills him with a lathering brush. She kills herself with brandy. He swallows hair dye and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard)
KEYWORDS: love courting hair suicide humorous fight drink
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 44-46, "The Sweet Scented Barber" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11624
NOTES [30 words]: Huntington suspects that this is a music hall song, and I think he's right that it has a music hall song in its ancestry, but I also suspect it is a parody of something else. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: HuVi044

Sweet Silver Light of the Moon

See The Silvery Moon (File: R800)

Sweet Sixteen

DESCRIPTION: The singer talks about "the pretty girls who often may be seen 'Long about they time when they're sweet sixteen." He describes how they primp and show off and talk about boys. (He warns that they tease, or will not work.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal); copy in the Lomax papers probably from before 1940
KEYWORDS: youth beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So,SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 38, pp. 200-202, "Sweet Sixteen" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #10098
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Putting on the Style" (theme)
File: Logs037

Sweet Smiling Lassie o' Modest Fifteen, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer "fell in love wi' the bonnie young lassie, The sweet smiling lassie o' modest fifteen." He proposed, she consented, they married "and noo we are livin' fu' happy and bien [prosperous]"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love marriage beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 732, "The Sweet Smiling Lassie o' Modest Fifteen" (1 text)
Roud #6165
File: GrD4732

Sweet Soldier Boy

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Sweet Spirit, Hear My Prayer

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, thou to whom this hear ne'er yet Turned in anguish or regret, The past forgive, the future spare, Sweet spirit, hear my prayer!" The grieving singer cties out for help to "calm these trembling fears," and repeatedly begs to be heard
AUTHOR: Words: "Lurline" / Music: William VIncent Wallace (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (sheet music in the Library of Congress published by Oliver Ditson & Co.)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Heart-Songs, pp. 476-477, "Sweet Spirit, Hear My Prayer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13815
File: HeSo476

Sweet Sunny South (I), The [Laws A23]

DESCRIPTION: A young Southerner, armed and ready, bids farewell to family and sweetheart. He sets off for the war, hoping to return when the Yankees are driven off
AUTHOR: William Leach Bloomfield
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: war farewell
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws A23, "The Sweet Sunny South"
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 18, "The Bright Sunny South" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 97, "The Sweet Sunny Souoth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 76, "The Rebel Soldier" (2 texts, but only the first belongs here; the second is The Rebel Soldier)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 272-273, "Sweet Sunny South" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 49, "The Sunny South" (1 text)
DY 698, SUNNYSTH
Roud #800
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "Bright Sunny South" (on Boggs1, BoggsCD1, ClassBanj)
NOTES [269 words]: Laws, obviously, considers this piece to be of American origin. Cazden et al, however, note that the versions hardly REQUIRE a setting in the American Civil War, and that one southern version refers to a FOREIGN war. In addition, the song has been found primarily in the North. On this basis Cazden argues for an Irish rather than southern American origin.
Gardner and Chickering's text has an interesting last few stanzas which wish that "from Union and Yankee our land shall be free." This sounds rather like a particularization from perhaps Kentucky or Missouri.
Gary Stanton tells me, "The song is first published in this version in 1853 by Firth, Pond & Co of New York, composed by Wm Leach Bloomfield, under the title 'Take Me Home' and is available for review on the American Memory site of the Library of Congress. The title page of the ballad reports that it was sung by Edwin P. Christy at Christy's American Opera House, N. Y. Laws considered this a Civil War Ballad, and it gained new popularity among confederate music publishers during the Civil War, including Blackmar & Bro, Augusta, Georgia who credited Eugene Raymond with rearranging the song. Later publishers would credit Raymond, and Gus Meade gives an impossibly early date for Raymond's edition." - RBW
Not to be confused with the sentimental song of the same name [in the Index as "Sweet Sunny South (II) - RBW], wherein the singer returns to his childhood home to find everyone dead and gone. The characteristic first lines of that song are "Take me back to the place where I first saw the light/To the sweet sunny south take me home." - PJS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: LA23

Sweet Sunny South (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Take me back to the place where I first saw the light, To my sweet sunny south take me home." The singer (perhaps an ex-slave) describes home and how much he misses it. He hopes to return to the graves of "my little ones" "to rest and to die" among them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: home death burial grief homesickness loneliness return family
FOUND IN: US(Ro,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #119, "Sweet Sunny South" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 186, "The Sunny South" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 400, "The Sweet Sunny South" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 400, "The Sweet Sunny South" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 88, "Sweet Sunny South" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 20-21, "Take Me Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SUNSOUTH
Roud #772
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. For Luther Ossenbrink] "Sweet Sunny South" (Conqueror 7880, 1931)
DaCosta Woltz's Southern Broadcasters, "Take Me Back to the Sweet Sunny South" (Gennett 6176/Champion 15318/Challenge 333, 1927)
Roy Harvey & the North Carolina Ramblers, "Sweet Sunny South" (Paramount 3136, 1928)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Take Me Home to the Sweet Sunny South" (Bluebird B-6479/Montgomery Ward M-5035, 1936)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Take Me Back to the Sweet Sunny South" (on NLCR04)
Red Patterson's Piedmont Log Rollers, "The Sweet Sunny South" (Victor 21132, 1927)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Sweet Sunny South" (Columbia 15425-D, 1929; on CPoole01, CPoole05)
Posey Rorrer and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Sweet Sunny South Take Me Home" (Edison, unissued, 1928)
Jackson Young [pseud. for Ben Jarrell], "Take Me Back to the Sweet Sunny South" (Champion 15318/Herwin 75555, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On the Banks of the Old Tennessee" (floating lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
'31 Depression Blues (File: Rc31DB)
Bring Me Back to My Home (by Johnny Burke) (Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #66, p. 105, with no tune listed but clearly inspired by this)
NOTES [116 words]: Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole notes sheet versions of this dating back at least to the Civil War period, and possibly to several decades before that, but gives no details.
It seems fairly clear that the original versions were about a slave who had gained his freedom by some means but now wished to be back in his old place. Songwriters of the mid nineteenth century were fond of this (propagandistic) theme. One wonders how popular it would have been had the audience been Blacks rather than Whites.
Heart-Songs credits this to "Raymond," but that's all it says. - RBW
Not to be confused with "The Sweet Sunny South (I)" [Laws A23], a Confederate soldier's farewell. - PJS, RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: DTsunsou

Sweet Swansea

DESCRIPTION: "The first time I entered sweet Swansea, For the truth unto you I will tell, I was handcuffed and put into prison, And locked up in a dark dismal cell." He describes the dreadful prison. He curses judges and juries. He wishes he had wings to fly away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Hamer-GarnersGay)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes bird trial floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 49, "Sweet Swansea (Swansea Jail)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1612
NOTES [56 words]: A large part of this song is similar enough to "Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail)" [Laws E17] that I thought about lumping them, and the rest floats from "Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries" or "Botany Bay (I)" or the like. But Roud treats them as separate (perhaps on the grounds that it's a unique combination), so I do to. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: HaGa049

Sweet Tayside

DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears two lovers. The man says it would be a "great sin" if the girl does not give him a love token. She asks what he would have; he names a ring, a garter, and a broach. She gives them, then laments that he is untrue. He then marries her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: love courting ring gift betrayal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #97, p. 2, "Sweet Tayside" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 882, "Sweet Tayside" (2 texts plus a single verse on p. 570, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 118-119, "Sweet Tayside" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 92-93, "The Ploughman's Daughter" (1 tune)
Roud #5544
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Ploughman's Bonny Lassie
File: Ord118

Sweet Thing (I)

DESCRIPTION: "What you gonna do when the pond goes dry, honey, What you gonna do when the pond goes dry, baby?" Sundry verses about catching fish, rural life, and (presumably) sexual innuendo
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: nonballad courting sex
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph 443, "Sweet Thing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 349-350, "Sweet Thing" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 443)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 34, "Sweet Thing/Crawdad Song/Sugar Babe" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 245, "Sugar Babe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 240, "What Kin' o Pants Does the Gambler Wear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 235, "Sweet Thing" (1 text)
Roud #4853
RECORDINGS:
Callahan Brothers, "Sweet Thing" (Decca 5952, 1941)
Lulu Belle and Scotty, "Sugar Babe" (Melotone 6-08-58/Perfect 6-08-58, 1936)
[Tom] Darby and [Jimmie] Tarlton, “Pork Chops” (Columbia 15611-D, 1931, rec. 1930)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Birmingham Jail" (Brunswick 293, 1929/Supertone S-2031, 1930)
Dad Pickard, "Birmingham Jail" (Banner 6401/Cameo 9197 [as Jimmie Price]/Domino 4349/Domino [Canada] 181171 [as The Gilbert Family] /Jewel 5617/Lincoln 3224 [as Jimmie Price]/Oriole 1594/Pathe 32476 [as Harry "Rocky" Wilson]/Perfect 12555 [as Harry "Rocky" Wilson] /Regal 8792/Romeo 999 [as Jimmie Price]/Homestead 16052/Paramount 12784 [as Col. Phillips, "Sweet Thing"]/Broadway 8123 [as Col. Phillips, "Sweet Thing"]/Apex [Canada] 41025/Crown [Canada] 81171 [as The Gilbert Family]/Sterling 28171 [as The Gilbert Family], 1929; Conqueror 7563, 1930)
Pickard Family, "Get Me Out of This Birmingham Jail" (Brunswick 385, 1929; Supertone S-2068, 1930)
Dock Walsh, "Going Back to Jericho" (Columbia 15094-D, 1926)
Doc Watson, Gaither Carlton & Ralph Rinzler, "I'm Going Back to Jericho" (on Ashley02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Crawdad" (tune, lyrics, and everything else) and references there
cf. "Going Down This Road Feeling Bad" (floating lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Bud & Joe Billings (pseud. for Frank Luther & Carson Robison) "Birmingham Jail #2" (Victor V-40082, 1929)
NOTES [172 words]: Songs with this tune and metrical pattern turn up throughout North American tradition; like the limerick, this skeleton seems to have become a favorite framework for humorous material. - PJS
This song poses a conundrum (hinted at in Paul's comment), because it merges continuously with the "Crawdad" family; they use the same tune (at least sometimes) and ALL of the same verses. Roud lumps them. Chances are that they are the same song. But the tenor of the song changes somewhat with the presence or absence of a crawdad; after initially lumping the song, the Ballad Index staff decided to split them, based solely on mention of a crawdad. Which meant, e.g., that "The Crow-Fish Man (I)" files here even though it's clearly derived from "Crawdad." So one should definitely check all versions of both to get the complete range of material. - RBW
Well, adding to the conundrum, the version of "The Crow-fish Man" in Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians *does* mention crawdads, so it gets filed under "Crawdad Song." - PJS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: R443A

Sweet Thing (II)

See Crawdad (File: R443)

Sweet Town of Anthony, The

See By Kells Waters (Kellswaterside) (File: HHH802)

Sweet Trinity (I), The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Sweet Trinity (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "A hunter early ranging Along the forest wild Saw o'er the greensward tripping, tripping, tripping, Three maidens fair and mild." (x2). They are Faith, Love, and Hope. They say to pick one. He asks "why must two depart" and begs them to "share my heart"
AUTHOR: unknown; Theodore Frelinghuysen Seward's 1872 collection "The Coronation" says only that it is "arr. from the German"
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Seward); hymnary.org cites it as from 1870 under the title "The Hunter's Prize" but appears to have no other information
KEYWORDS: religious courting nonballad hunting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #93, "The Sweet Trinity" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5054
NOTES [33 words]: The grouping of Faith, Hope, and Love (charity; agape) is famously found in 1 Corinthians 13:13 -- but they are not called a "trinity"; the "holy trinity" is of course Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Morr093

Sweet Violets (II)

See Teasing Songs (File: EM256)

Sweet William (I)

See The Famous Flower of Serving-Men [Child 106] (File: C106)

Sweet William (II)

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Sweet William (III)

See Lovely Willie [Laws M35] (File: LM35)

Sweet William (IV)

See William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I) [Laws N8] (File: LN08)

Sweet William (V)

See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Sweet William (VI)

See The Female Warrior (Pretty Polly) [Laws N4] (File: LN04)

Sweet William (VII)

See The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water [Child 216] (File: C216)

Sweet William and Fair Ellen

See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Sweet William and Lady Margery

See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Sweet William and Lady Marget

See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Sweet William and Lovely Nancy

See William and Nancy (II) (Courting Too Slow) [Laws P5] (File: LP05)

Sweet William and May Margaret

See Sweet William's Ghost [Child 77] (File: C077)

Sweet William and Nancy

See Pretty Nancy of London (Jolly Sailors Bold) (File: R078)

Sweet William and Polly

See William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I) [Laws N8] (File: LN08)

Sweet William of Plymouth

DESCRIPTION: William, a sailor, courts poor Susan. She rejects her parent's plan to marry her to a wealthy squire and is sent away. William returns from sea, and they -- not knowing he is now rich -- tell him she is dead. William and Susan meet and marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 4(91))
LONG DESCRIPTION: William, a seaman, courts Susan, "but a fisherman's daughter ... "[but] the most beautiful creature on earth." "The day was appointed the knot should be tied" but Susan becomes sick, and cannot be cured by "famous Physicians"; the wedding had to be postponed. William is called to go to sea, leaving her behind. He promises to marry when he returns "if thou by good fortune alive dost remain." She promises to remain true. He leaves. She recovers. She rejects a "wealthy young farmer" who courts her, and a squire as well. The squire appeals to her father and mother who, "being ambitious of honour and fame, Did strive to persuade her, but all in vain." She rejects their attempt.
They send her to Holland, planning to tell William, on his return, that Susan has died; if William marries another then Susan would be free to marry the squire. William, gone two years, returns "laden with riches." Susan's parents tell him she has died. He leaves his money with his own parents and decides "to travel again, Perhaps it will wear off my anguish and pain." At sea again, a storm wrecks his ship on the Dutch shore. He goes to the Hague, to repair his ship, and meets Susan. She tells him of her parent's plot. They go to Plymouth where they plan their wedding. He invites Susan's parents, saying that he has decided to marry another since Susan is dead. They agree, and "fetch home our daughter to marry the squire." She was dressed so finely that "her father and mother her face did not know." Susan reveals herself to her mother, and her parents give her their blessing, not yet knowing about his riches. He hints at his wealth and "with music and dancing they finish'd the day."
KEYWORDS: courting rejection disguise wreck
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan5 1078, "The Fisherman's Daughter" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Julia H.L. De Vaynes, The Kentish Garland (Hertford, 1882 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, pp. 669-674, "Sweet William of Plymouth"
Roud #6763
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 4(91), "Sweet William of Plymouth" ("A seaman of Dover, sweet William by name"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Harding B 4(96), "Sweet William of Plymouth"; Harding B 4(96), "Sweet William of Plymouth"
LOCSinging, as10407a, "The Fortunate Lovers" or "Sweet William of Plymouth" ("A Seaman of Plymouth, sweet William by name"), unknown, no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds)" [Laws K36] (theme: poor sailor returning wealthy, is rejected by sweetheart's parents who think him still poor)
NOTES [188 words]: The Greig/Duncan5 fragment -- "And she was not courted by none of the worst, A young squire came to court her at last; He called her his jewel, his true love, his dear ... 'I cannot, I daur not, you must be denied.'" -- corresponds to lines 37-39, 45 and 48 (of 200) of the Vaynes (i.e., Roxburghe Collection III.332) text with some changes, viz., "So that she was counted [sic] by none of the worst; A wealthy young farmer came to her the first, And call'd her the jewel and joy of his life.... Then came a squire, who call'd her his dear .... "I must not, I cannot, you must be deny'd." Helpfully, the Greig/Duncan5 title was "The Fisherman's Daughter" which is not hinted at in the Greig/Duncan5 text or notes.
I have gone into great detail in the LONG DESCRIPTION because "Sweet William of Plymouth" has sometimes been considered a version of "A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.)" [Laws P9]. That is clearly not the case and may be caused by confusion with the broadsides for "The Sailor from Dover" which follow the standard story line for Laws P9. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Grd1078

Sweet William's Dream on his Wedding Night

See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Sweet William's Farewell to Black-Eyed Susan

See Black-Eyed Susan (Dark-Eyed Susan) [Laws O28] (File: LO28)

Sweet William's Ghost [Child 77]

DESCRIPTION: (Sweet William) dies while engaged. Since he has an unfulfilled commitment, his spirit cannot rest. He goes to his sweetheart, who begs him to wed her/kiss her/etc. When she learns that he is dead, she releases him from his promise
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1740 (Ramsey)
KEYWORDS: ghost promise freedom death
FOUND IN: US(NE,SE) Canada(Newf) Britain(Scotland(Bord)) Ireland
REFERENCES (27 citations):
Child 77, "Sweet William's Ghost" (8 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 77, "Sweet William's Ghost" (11 versions+ 1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 77, "Sweer William's Ghost" (4 versions: #1, #3, #9, #12)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 217-219, "Sweet William's Ghost" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 170, "There cam a Ghost" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 8, "Sweet William's Ghost" (1 text, 1 tune)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 130-133, "Sweet William's Ghost" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques LIX, pp.98-99, "Sweet William's Ghost" (1 partial text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 48, "Willie the Waterboy" (1 text, 1 tune, short enough that it might be Child #77 or Child #248 or a combination or perhaps independent; Roud files it with Child #248, but Dawney with Child #77)
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 21, pp. 152-156, "" (1 text, so fragmentary that it might be some other ballad with intrusions from "Sweet William's Ghost")
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 240-241, "Lady Margaret and Sweet William" (1 text, taken from the Green Mountain Songster)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2, pp. 178-183, "Sweet William's Ghost" (2 texts, the first being the Green Mountain Songster version)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 23, "Sweet William's Ghost" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 23, "Sweet William's Ghost" (1 excerpt, 1 tunes)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 9, "Lady Margaret" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 390-395, "Lady Margaret" (1 text, 6 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 9, "Sweet William's Ghost" (2 texts, 9 tunes) {Bronson's #3}
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 4, "Sweet William's Ghost" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 256-262, "Sweet William's Ghost" (1 text plus a Danish text for comparison)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. ix-xi, "Sweet William's Ghost (Lady Margaret)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 47, "Sweet William's Ghost" (2 texts)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 203-205+348-349, "Sweet William's Ghost" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 74-75, "Sweet William and May Margaret"; pp. 75-76, "Sweet William's Ghost"; pp. 76-77, "William and Marjorie" (3 texts)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 78-80, "Sweet William's Ghost" (1 text)
DT 77, WILIGHOS* WILIGHO2 (GHOSWILL? -- a very worn down version that might be derived from this piece)
ADDITIONAL: David Buchan, "Sweet William's Questions," essay in Gerald Thomas and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, _Studies in Newfoundland Folklore: Community and Process_, Breakwater Books, 1991, pp. 111-125 (3 texts, 3 tunes, all with the title "Lady Margaret," plus various excerpts and quotations)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #428, "Sweet William and May Margaret" (1 text)
Roud #50
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Sweet William's Ghost" (Piotr-Archive #256, recorded 09/13/2022)
Mrs. Gerald S. Doyle, "Lady Margaret" (on PeacockCDROM)
John James, "Lady Margaret" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Mike Kent, "Lady Margaret" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]; "Lady Margaret" (on MUNFLA/Leach) (2 versions)
Paddy Tunney, "Lady Margaret" (on Voice03)
Thomas Williams, "Lady Margaret" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 5(1), "Sweet William's Ghost," unknown, n.d.
NOTES [271 words]: Child versions A, B, C and G end the ghost's visit with crowing cocks; in Ireland (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 8 and Paddy Tunney on Voice03) the cock may be replaced by the moor cock. The ghost/cock motif accounts for the connection, by some, of "Willy O!" to Child 77. - BS
David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 193, suggests that "Clerk Saunders" [Child 69] and "Sweet William's Ghost" [Child 77] are fragments of a single long revenant ballad, pointing to one of David Herd's texts which contains both elements. But Child split them because both items exist separately (even Herd had versions which did not combine the two). At best, I think the matter remains open.
Fowler, pp. 202-205, finds the troth-return theme in a metrical tale of no great merit called "The Childe of Bristowe." For a somewhat fuller summary of his views, see the notes to "Clerk Saunders" [Child 69].
Tom Shippey, in The Road to Middle-Earth (third edition), p. 210, notes that Herd's text of this (Child's B) mentioned "Middle-Earth" (Fowler, p. 195, points out that this is corrupted to "mid-larf" in Herd's text), implying that this song might have been a small part of the inspiration of the world (though not the plot) created by J. R. R. Tolkien. Rather a stretch -- but interesting, the more so as Tolkien did have a strong affinity for folklore and folk song. And Shippey, pp. 214-215, notes that in the crisis of Gondor, as the Witch-King is confronting Gandalf at the gate of Minas Tirith, a cock crew -- a token of the change from the triumph of dark to the triumph of light. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C077

Sweet Willie (I)

See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

Sweet Willie (II)

See Come All You Fair and Tender Girls (File: WB2080)

Sweet Willie (III)

See On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)

Sweet Willie (IV)

See The Cuckoo; also On Top of Old Smokey (File: R049)

Sweet Willie (V)

See Fair Janet [Child 64] (File: C064)

Sweet Willie (VI)

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

Sweet Willie (VII)

See Alison and Willie [Child 256] (File: C256)

Sweet Willie and Fair Annie

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Sweet Willie and Lady Margerie

See Willie and Lady Maisry [Child 70] (File: C070)

Sweet Willy

See Willie's Lady [Child 6] (File: C006)

Sweet, Sweet Caroline

See Queen Caroline (File: GrD81643)

Sweeter Than the Flowers

DESCRIPTION: Singer's mother has died and the family delays the family reunion because she will not be there. The singer recalls the funeral when they "had to face it." The chorus says they "can't forget the hour"; mother was "sweeter than the flowers"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (recording, Roy Acuff)
KEYWORDS: grief death funeral mourning father family mother
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff and his Smoky Mountain Boys, "Sweeter Than the Flowers" (1949, Columbia 20551, 2001, "Roy Acuff & The Smoky Mountain Boys - 36 All-Time Favorites," GSC Music 17036 (Vol. 2 - A 51529))
Marie Hartery, "Sweeter Than Flowers" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [26 words]: This song was recorded many times in the late 1940s but the Acuff version was the easiest for me to verify. The description follows the Acuff recording. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: MunLSwTF

Sweeter the Breeze (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Take a deep seat and a faraway look, Keep him between your knees. The higher he goes, the sweeter the breeze. Keep your mind in the middle and let both ends flop!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse nonballad recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 86, "The Sweeter the Breeze" (1 text)
NOTES [36 words]: Even Ohrlin admits this is a "cross between a verse and a saying." But I suppose it might be traditional advice for a bronc rider, so here it is. (Ohrlin made up another piece with this title, not included here.) - RBW
File: Ohr086

Sweetest Mother

DESCRIPTION: "She's a little old-fashioned, that sweet mother of mine; There are many whose beauty will my mother's out-shine," but she is "sweeter each day." "She is forever sweetest mother to me."
AUTHOR: Words: Gertrude Stoddard Dennstedt / Music: Will M. Ramsey (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
KEYWORDS: mother nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 41, "Sweetest Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ABLT041

Sweetheart in the Army, A

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Sweetheart, Farewell

See I Can Forgive But Not Forget (Sweetheart, Farewell) (File: BrII166)

Sweetheart's Appeal to Her Lover, A

See The Lover's Curse (Kellswater) (File: HHH442)

Sweethearts

See Two Sweethearts (File: R864)

Sweethearts I've Got Plenty

DESCRIPTION: The singer passes her sweetheart "walking fast by another girlie's side." He waves to her but she passes by "for I hate to be slighted by a man .... sweethearts I've got plenty I can count them more than twenty" and her mind will "change with the wind"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1140, "Sweethearts I've Got Plenty" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6824
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (theme) and references there
File: GrD61140

Sweetly Sings the Donkey

DESCRIPTION: "Sweetly sings the donkey at the break of day If you do not feed him this is what he’ll say Hee-haw! Hee-haw! Hee-haw, hee-haw, hee-haw!" Or, "...donkey As he goes to grass, If you don't sing sweetly, You will be the ass"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad campsong | donkey
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 141, "Sweetly sings the donkey" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology #337, p. 83, "Sweetly Sings the Donkey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 120, "Sweetly Sings the Donkey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 52, "Sweetly Sings the Donkey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 6, "Sweetly Sings the Donkey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 285, 436, 510, 517, "Sweetly Sings the Donkey" (notes only)
Roud #25393 and 30900
File: ACSF285S

Swell My Net Full

DESCRIPTION: "Out on the ocean, dreary and cold, I lead the life of a fisherman bold. So swell me net full...." The singer lists a fish for each weekday, and describes how to deal with weather. When he dies, "Build me a tombstone of herring back scales."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs), but recorded no later than 1982
KEYWORDS: fishing nonballad food storm work
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 145, "Swell my Net Full" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16874
File: PaSe145

Swiftly Flowing Labe

See Above a Plain (File: ACSF146P)

Swiler's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Rise up me hearties with gaff and sculp, With hobnail rope and line." The singer repeatedly encourages his comrades in their tasks as they hunt seals. He admits that "many a hearty swiler sleeps 'round the Funks and Baccalieu," but still urges them on
AUTHOR: Words: Pat Byrne
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff)
KEYWORDS: hunting nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 144-145, "The Swiler's Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #V44858
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sinking of the Caribou" (tune)
cf. "Spancil Hill" (tune)
NOTES [288 words]: This is supposed to be sung to the tune of "The Sinking of the Caribou," which I assume is the song indexed as "The Loss of the Caribou." Which would make the actual tune be "Spancil Hill."
"Swilers" are of course sealers, and "swiles" are seals.
"Old Man Kean" is Captain Abram Kean, the only captain to take a million seals in his lifetime; for him, see "Captain Abram Kean."
The description of the fleet as a "floating hell" is pretty apt; the sealing schooners served for decades, carrying far too many men; George Allan England, in his bookVikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt (also published as The Greatest Hunt in the World), Doubleday, 1924, declared more than once that the ship he sailed on (the Terra Nova, under none other than Abram Kean) should have been "condemned" after her thirty-odd years of service, but she kept going to the ice for another two decades.
The "main patch" is the sealer's term for the area of the ice where the largest share of the harp seals went to bear their young -- the baby seals known as "whitecoats" after the color of their fur for their first few weeks.
To "sculp" is to cut off the hide and the attached fat (the fat was, for many years, the most valuable part, because it could be made into a very useful oil); the hide plus fat was itself a "sculp."
"The Funks" and "Baccalieu" were islands on the north coast of Newfoundland; although dangerous to navigate around (see, for instance, "The Cliffs of Baccalieu"), they too close to the big island for there to be many seals there, so a sealer could rest in their vicinity. Although "sleep" in this context probably means that they died there when their ships were wrecked. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm144

Swiles of Newfoundland, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the day we left St. John's, me b'ys, It was a very fine day! Our wives an' sweethearts on the quay Says they, ye'll understand." The singer complains about the bad conditions, but delights in killing "swiles [seals] in Newfoundland."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (England, Vikings of the Ice)
KEYWORDS: hunting hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 106, "The Swiles of Newfoundland" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: George Allan England, _Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt_ (also published as _The Greatest Hunt in the World_), Doubleday, 1924, pp. 128-129, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #V44610
NOTES [61 words]: "Pinnacle tea," mentioned near the end of this, is tea made with water made from melted sea ice or glacial ice -- fresh water, but sometimes a bit brackish and probably not very good-tasting; see G. M. Story, W. J. Kirwin, and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, Dictionary of Newfoundland English, second edition with supplement, Breakwater Press, 1990, pp. 378-379.- RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: RySm106A

Swim Back You Bastard to Me

DESCRIPTION: "If the skipper fell into the oggin [ocean], If the skipper fell into the sea, If the skipper fell into the oggin, He'd get sod-all lifebelt from me. Swim back, swim back, Oh swim back you bastard to me...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy revenge derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 27, "Swim Back you Bastard to Me" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (tune)
File: Tawn009

Swimming, Swimming

DESCRIPTION: "Swimming, swimming in my swimming (pool/hole), When days are hot, when days are cold In my swimming pool. Breast-stroke, side-stroke, fancy diving too, Don't you wish you never had anything else to do but...." Repeat as desired
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: derivative sports nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 42, 134, 175, 263, 347, 348, 394, 424, 425-430, 431, 500, 510, 515, "Swimming"/"Swimming, Swimming" (notes, with 3 short texts on pp. 428-430; bibliography on pp. 692-693)
Roud #37848
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sailing, Sailing" (tune)
cf. "You're the Camp for Me" (lyrics)
File: ACSF263S

Swine-Herders

See Hog Drovers (File: LoF207)

Swing a Lady

See In Some Lady's Garden (I) (File: ScNF114B)

Swing and Turn Jubilee

See Jubilee (File: LoF122)

Swing Low

DESCRIPTION: "Star in the east, swing low, Star in the west, swing low, Stars shining in my breast, Swing low, chariot, swing low. "My father's gone, swing low... Angels took him...." "My mother's gone...." "I got a letter... it was sent from heaven...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Bascom Lamar Lunsford)
KEYWORDS: religious father mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 226, "Swing Low, Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Swing Low" (on BLLunsford01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"
cf. "Job, Job" (a few lines)
cf. "Swing Low Sweet Chariot Swing Low" (lyrics)
NOTES [53 words]: Bascom Lamar Lunsford thinks this a forerunner of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and it's likely enough that I decided to include the song even though I'm not sure how strong it is in tradition. On the other hand, it is possible that it is a filed-down version, without the strong freedom motif of the better-known song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: RcSwinLo

Swing Low Sweet Chariot Swing Low

DESCRIPTION: "Oh swing low sweet chariot swing low" "Must be Jesus passing by" "Swing low in the East ... Swing low in the West ... Morning star was a witness too"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 35, pp. 154-155, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Swing Low" (lyrics)
NOTES [15 words]: Dett, in "Prayer is the Key to Heaven," has the line "The morning star was a witness too." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr035

Swing Low, Chariot (I)

See Swing Low (File: RcSwinLo)

Swing Low, Chariot (II)

See Going to Ride in the Chariot in the Morning (File: Dett100)

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

DESCRIPTION: Black spiritual: "Swing low, sweet chariot/Coming for to carry me home"; "I looked over Jordan and what did I see/.../A band of angels comin' after me"; "If you get there before I do/.../Tell all my friends I'm a-comin' too"
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (publ. in Theodore B. Seward, "Jubilee Songs, as Sung by the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University")
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad slavery floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 102, App.V, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, pp. 58-59, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1 text); p. 121, "Swing Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 220-221, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 16, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 608-610, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 28, (no title) (1 fragment of 2 lines)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 89-90, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 310. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 353, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 265, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, p. 54, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 251, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #132, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #343, p. 87, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 48, 51, 196, 307, 313, 520, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, pp. 60-61, "Swing Low" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 19, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 15, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 106-107, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, pp. 30-31, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 346, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"
DT, SWINGLOW
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 63, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 129 in the 1876 edition)
Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 138-139, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST PSAFB016 (Full)
Roud #5435
RECORDINGS:
Carroll Clark, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (Black Swan 2024, 1921)
Cotton Pickers Quartet, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" (OKeh 8917, 1931)
Lt. Jim Europe's Four Harmony Kings, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (Pathe 22187, 1919) (Pathe 020581, 1923 [as Jim Europe's Four Harmony Kings])
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" (Victor 16453, 1910; rec. 1909)
Fisk University Male Quartet, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (Columbia A1883, 1915; Silvertone 3294 [as Border Male Quartet], n.d.)
The Four Jacks, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" (Allen 21000, n.d. but post-wwii)
Mabel Garrison, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (Victor 640, 1901)
Hampton Institute Quartette, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (RCA 27470, 1941)
Roland Hayes, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (Vocalion [US & UK] 21003, n.d.; Supertone, 1931)
Hall Johnson Negro Choir, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (Victor 36020, 1930)
Kanawha Singers, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (Brunswick 205, 1928)
Menhaden Fishermen, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (on USMenhaden01)
Mitchell's Christian Singers, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" (Melotone 6-04-64, 1936)
Norman Phelps & his Virginia Rounders, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" (Decca 5247, 1936)
Paul Robeson, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (Victor 20068, 1926) (HMV [UK] 8372/Victor 25547, 1937)
Pete Seeger, "Swing Low" (on PeteSeeger24)
Southern Four, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (Edison 51364, 1924)
Standard Quartette, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (CYL: Columbia, no #, 1894)
Taylor Sisters, Mae Helen Blakeney, soloist, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (on HandMeDown2)
Tuskegee Institute Singers, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (Victor 17890, 1916)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Swing Low"
cf. "Wade in the Water" (floating lyrics) and references there
cf. "Dawsonville Jail" (tune)
cf. "I Don't Want to Stay Here Any Longer" (lyrics)
cf. "The Woolston Ferry" (tune of first verse)
NOTES [115 words]: Guy Logsdon & Jeff Place state that the songs were taught to the Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1871 by two former slaves from the Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Aunt Minerva Willis & Uncle Wallace. See "The Presbyterian", Sept. 10, 1890, and Thoburn & Wright's "Oklahoma: A History of the State and Its People."
The subtext of running away to freedom is clear throughout this song; the fact that the title is a pun on the name of the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman, may or may not be accidental. - PJS
I would guess that "Uncle Wallace" is Wallace Willis; Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 51, credits this song to Willis. But I know of no supporting evidence. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: PSAFB016

Swing on the Corner

See All Chaw Hay on the Corner (File: Wolf021)

Swing the Ladies

See In Some Lady's Garden (I) (File: ScNF114B)

Swing Your Right Foot

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Swing your right foot, Turn around, Suzie Q, And truck on down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Journal of Genetic Psychology, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope dancing
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #536, "Swing your right foot" (1 text)
File: AJRR536

Swinging Along the Open Road

DESCRIPTION: "Swinging along the open road, Swinging along under a sky that's clear. Swinging along the open road, All in the fall, in the fall of the year. Swinging along, swinging along, Swinging along the open road, All in the Fall of the year."
AUTHOR: Gladys Jacobs (source: mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: Swinging Along (Gladys Jacobs) scout song")
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (ChansonsDeNotreChalet)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 196, 441, "Swinging Along" (notes only)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, pp. 64-65, "Swinging Along the Open Road" (2 texts, 1 English, 1 French; 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 16, "Swinging Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Swinging Along" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 26)
File: ACSF196S

Swinging in the Lane

See Rosie Nell (File: San114)

Swinging on a Gate

DESCRIPTION: "Five, ten, fifteen, twenty..." count to one hundred by fives, then "With a high swing And a low swing And a swing To get you off of your Swing Swong Sway."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | counting swing
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 10, "Swinging on a Gate" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Die, Die, Little Dog Die" (lyrics)
NOTES [17 words]: Brady-AllInAllIn does not give a tune, but I assume this is not the fiddle tune "Swinging on a Gate." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI010C

Swinging, Swinging

DESCRIPTION: "Swinging, swinging, swinging, swinging, Swinging 'neath the old, 'Neath the old apple tree." "Now my heart is beating thinking of the greeting, Swinging 'neath the old apple tree. Swinging, swinging, swinging, swinging, Swinging 'neath the old...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 29, "Swinging, Swinging" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11396
File: Brne029

Swinish Multitude, The

DESCRIPTION: Give me the man who bids "the sun of Freedom rise" against tyrants, and the soul who "inlists for Freedom's cause." May you "no longer unavenged be called 'The swinish multitude.'" Freedom is coming to the world. Dare to die pursuing statecraft's crimes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1804 (_Paddy's Resource_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: nonballad political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 80, "The Swinish Multitude" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [114 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "Edmund Burke in his [Reflections on the Revolution] in France described the common people as the 'swinish multitude'.... The phrase was adopted as a mock compliment by sympathizers with the revolution and several United Irish songs played upon the phrase." - BS
Burke's precise quote is "Learning will be cast into the mire, and trodden down under the hoofs of the swinish multitude."
Thomas Pakenham, The Year of Liberty, p. 173, reports that the United Irishmen of Henry Joy McCracken sang a "workingmen's song called 'The Swineish (sic.) Multitude." If he has a source for this, it appears to be E. Thompson, Working Class, p. 90. - RBW
File: Moyl080

Swinton May Song

DESCRIPTION: "All in this pleasant evening, together come are we, For the summer springs so fresh, green, and gay." The singer calls on master, mistress, and children to rise up for the May, and wishes blessings on them; the singers will not return until next May
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Chambers, according to Palmer)
KEYWORDS: ritual religious family
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #132, "Swinton May Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #305
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "May Day Carol" (subject) and references there
NOTES [27 words]: Roud lumps a great variety of May songs (many of them clearly distinct) under his #305. I've split a lot of them, including this, but best to check them all. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: PECS133

Swiss Navy, The

See The King's Navy (File: Hopk063)

Switten

DESCRIPTION: "Mitten, Smitten, Pitten, Switten, Out goes Switten, in goes Pitten, Out goes Switten and Mitten is it."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 71, "Switten" (1 text)
File: ZiZa071B

Sword in My Hand

DESCRIPTION: "I have a sword in my hand Help me to use it, Lord I'm goin' away To watch an' pray Never to come back 'Till the Great Judgement day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 40, "Sword in My Hand" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [24 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "This Tobago spiritual song is all about the aspiration by the devotee to be a good 'swordsman' to use the Word." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTO040

Sword of Bunker Hill, The

DESCRIPTION: An old veteran, dying, bid his son to bring "the sword of Bunker Hill." Grasping the sword, in a burst of energy, he tells the boy how he captured the blade from a British officer. The old man dies
AUTHOR: "Covert"? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland), but dating at least to the Civil War era; see NOTES
KEYWORDS: battle dying patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 17, 1775 - American defeat at the Battle of Bunker Hill
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 224-225, "The Sword of Bunker Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 88, (no title) (1 fragment, very likely not this song but associated by the informant with Bunker Hill, and it fits better here than anywhere else) (OakEd, p. 97)
Heart-Songs, pp. 316-317, "The Sword of Bunker Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #12, "The Sword of Bunker Hill" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2279, p. 153, "The Sword of Bunker Hill" (8 references)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 48, and #1/64 p. 19 "The Sword of Bunker Hill" (1 text); #34, p. 22, "The Sword of Bunker Hill" (1 text)
ST FO224 (Partial)
Roud #4684
SAME TUNE:
The Banner of the Free ("He lay upon the battle-field," by Eugene Johnson) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets pp. 6-7)
The Rebel Flags. Exhibited at the Capitol, February 22, 1862 ("Sadly we gazed upon the Flags," by John A. Fowle) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 132)
White Star Division ("Star, the brightest star of fame," probably referring to the second division of the Union XII Corps) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 177)
NOTES [415 words]: Although this song, by implication at least, praises American conduct at Bunker Hill, the record of the Colonials at that battle was in fact rather poor. Sent on the night of June 16 to garrison Bunker Hill, American troops instead occupied Breed's Hill, which was lower, less defensible, and closer to the British artillery. The British under General Gage attacked the next day. The Americans did show unaccustomed discipline, which caused the battle to last longer than usual, but ultimately the British forced them back.
The battle was a dreadful strain on the British, though, who suffered more than 1100 casualties (Weintraub, p. 9), compared to 441 American losses.
The "Warren" of the song is Dr. Joseph Warren, the man who had organized Paul Revere's Ride and a leading figure in the rebel forces (although not one of their commanding officers). He was killed in the battle. (It will tell you something about conditions at the time that Warren, although he worked as a physician, actually earned his degree in theology, because that was the only curriculum taught at Harvard College at the time; Weintraub, p. 8).
I have in my collection a damaged songster, date unknown but almost certainly from the period 1865-1885, attributing this to "Covert"; in the same songster, a piece called "Follow the Drum" is credited to "B. Covert." The Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland text is nearly identical to the songster version. Heart-Songs attributes the music of this to "B. Covert" and the words to W. R. Wallace.
Another possibility comes from the writings of Walter Kittredge, author of "Tenting Tonight." Kittredge on occasion sang with his fellow abolitionists The Hutchinson Family, and on p. 20 of Carter, Kittredge is recorded as saying, "[I]n 1875, when he as 75 years of age, Bernard Coburn sang 'The Sword of Bunker Hill,' of which he was the author, in our company." It seems pretty clear that "Coburn" and "Covert" are variations of the same name, but it's not clear which is which. Clearly, though, the song must have been written at least sixty years after the battle.
Although rarely collected in tradition, this was well-enough known to have been used as the tune for several Civil War pieces (see the Same Tune list), one of which, "The Banner of the Free", was popular enough to be printed at least eight times. The song itself was also widely printed in the 1860s; Wolf, p. 153, lists eight broadsides from that period, by at least four different publishers. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: FO224

Sword-Dancer's Song, The

See Wharfdale Sword Dancer's Song; also The Earsdon Sword-Dancer's Song and references there (File: BeCo393)

Sybil Where Are You Going?

See Alice (The Bathtub Song) (File: ACSF277A)

Sycamore Tree, The

See The Maid Freed from the Gallows [Child 95] (File: C095)

Sydney Cup Day

DESCRIPTION: Joe Thompson comes up to the singer on race day and asks him to back his horse. The singer is not interested
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954
KEYWORDS: horse racing gambling Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 35, "Sydney Cup Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA035

Sylvania Lester

See Locks and Bolts [Laws M13] (File: LM13)

Sylveste

See My Brother Sylveste (File: Hopk180)

Sylvia

See The Female Highwayman [Laws N21] (File: LN21)

Sylvia Rode Out One Day

See The Female Highwayman [Laws N21] (File: LN21)

Sylvia Sweet as Morning Air

DESCRIPTION: "Sylvia/Cicely sweet, the morning is far, Wilt thou drive me to despair?" He asks, "Wilt thou be mine?, or No?" She turns him away. He says mother will sell "do a deal for thee." All his offers are rejected. She tells him to "Go for a booby go."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1870 (Halliwell); Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd says it was in Dale's Collection of c. 1790
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection mother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #35, Cicely Sweet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6908
File: BGSW035

Sylvia's Request and William's Denial

See The Female Highwayman [Laws N21] (File: LN21)

Sympathizing with the Fenian Exiles

DESCRIPTION: Keep your mouth shut and beware spies. We visit the Fenians jailed like "dogs kept in a manger." General Burk's turnkey "is worse than a Turk." Rossa, Luby and others are named. God is watching inside the walls. Our day will come.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: exile prison political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, p. 52, "A New Song Sympathizing With The Fenian Exiles" (1 fragment)
Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 131-133, "(A new song sympathising with) The Fenian Exiles" (1 text)
Roud #V8283
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.8(40), "A New Song Sympathising With the Fenian Exiles" ("My Irish frlends [sic] aome [sic] rally round"), unknown, n.d.
NOTES [55 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 52 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian 2806 c.8(40) is the basis for the description.
Is the topic prisoners as in the text, or exiles as in the title? If the former the date is probably before 1871; else, after. - BS
For O'Donovan Rossa and the Fenian Exiles, see "Rossa's Farewell to Erin." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: BrdSwtFE

Syng Hoit Faleri (Listen Little Bosun)

DESCRIPTION: Norwegian shanty. "Listen little bosun, what I want to tell you, do you want to play dice with me? Ch: Sing high falleri, fallala-lala."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (L.A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty gambling
FOUND IN: Norway
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 557-558, "Syng Hoit Faleri" (2 texts-Norwegian & English, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hor Du Lille Baadsmand
File: Hugi557

Synge Dyllum Dyllum Dyllum Dyllum

See It Was a Mayde of Brenten Arse (File: STIWMBA)

T Aint Gwine Rain No Mo'

See Ain't Gonna Rain No More (File: R557)

T for Texas (Blue Yodel #1)

DESCRIPTION: "It's T for Texas, T for Tennessee (x2), It's T for Thelma, the gal who made a fool out of me." A lonely song for an unhappy man; he will buy a pistol and shoot the woman
AUTHOR: Jimmie Rodgers
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1928 (recording, Jimmie Rodgers)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses hardtimes homicide
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 339, "Leave for Texas, Leave for Tennessee" (2 texts)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 71, "T for Texas, T for Tennessee" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 152, "Mule Skinner Blues" (1 text, 1 tune, with one stanza of "T for Texas" thrown in at the end)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 275-276, "(Blue Yodel #1 (T for Texas)" (1 text)
Roud #11743
RECORDINGS:
Jim Eanes, "Blue Yodel No. 1" (Rich-R-Tone 1058, n.d.)
NOTES [85 words]: Jimmie Rodgers is apparently responsible for this song in its present form, but he built it up largely from floating verses.
To add to the fun, the Lomaxes took a verse of this and tacked it on to another Rodgers piece, "Muleskinner Blues." Given that neither song has much of a plot, it can be hard to separate the resulting hybrids.
It will show how strong was the influence of Rodgers that the song was in tradition within five years (Brown's "a" text is from 1930, and Henry's from 1934 or earlier). - PJS, RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LoF152A

T for Texas, T for Tennessee

See T for Texas (Blue Yodel #1) (File: LoF152A)

T Stands for Thomas

See The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)

t-Oilean Ur, An

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer goes to America and sees nothing familiar: not a Christian, horse, cow, sheep, but only roaring wild animals and people. When he meets people from Ireland he realizes he would be fortunate to be home even just to find proper mourners.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage emigration America Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 19, "t-Oilean Ur, An" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [46 words]: The description follows O Boyle's translation. - BS
I would assume that when the singer says he saw no Christians he meant he saw no *Catholics*. This would be almost reasonable if he migrated to, say, New England, especially in the eighteenth or early nineteenth century. - RBW
File: OBoy019

T-W-O Spells Two

See Spelling Game (Blue spells B-L-U-E; T-W-O Spells Two; My Mother and Your Mother) (File: SuSm096F)

T.V.A. Song

See The TVA (File: Arn172)

T'ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'

See Ain't Gonna Rain No More (File: R557)

T'Owd Yowe wi' One Horn

DESCRIPTION: Old "yowe" (ewe) resists penning and kicks the farmhand around the yard. The butcher is sent for; the yowe charges him and breaks his legs. She is sent to fight for the king, and kills soldiers in quantity.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (JFSS: Dean Robinson)
KEYWORDS: farming humorous talltale animal sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 82, "T'Owd Yowe wi' One Horn" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 18, "T'Owd Yowe wi' One Horn" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Journal of the Folk-Lore Society, Vol. II, No. 7 (1905 (available online by JSTOR)), #2 p. 79, "T’Owd Yowe Wi’ One Horn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1762
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Grey Goose"
cf. "The Killing of the Big Pig (Iso Sika)"
NOTES [111 words]: This seems to have been collected only once, but cognate stories of big animals that are hard to kill and cook are common (see cross-references). "The Derby Ram" is also connected. -PJS
Kennedy apparently regards it as the same as the piece "The Ewie wi' the Crookit Horn" (#271 in his collection). But neither the plot, nor the words, nor the music is the same. - RBW
Then there's the "Yowie wi' the Crookit Horn," which seems to be slang for an illegal whiskey still. - PJS
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs is from VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs. The JFSS words, apparently the "original" text, are only slightly different. - BS
File: VWL082

Ta Me Mo Shui (I Am Awake)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer lies awake until cock crow though the rest of the household sleeps: he had met a banshee the night before and she had doomed him to love her "until crack of Doomsday"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love magic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 37-39, "Ta Me Mo Shui" (1 text)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 24, "Ta me 'mo Shui" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [94 words]: If you were brought up on the stories I was brought up on, you probably just think of a banshee as a (non-human) creature whose cry causes death. Not so in Irish legend; "Bean Sidhe" is a "woman of the hills" -- a member, presumably, of the old fairy folk, the Aes Sidhe, the "people of the hills." The Bean Sidhe may be young and beautiful, or an old hag; a family may have its own special Bean Sidhe -- an immortal, who announces the death of each member of the family. Legends of a young man falling in love with one are rare, but it fits the Irish concept. - RBW
File: TST037

Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay (We Have No School Today)

DESCRIPTION: "Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay, We have no school today, Our teacher passed away, She died of tooth decay. We threw her in the bay, She scared the fish away." (Her body smelled like sauerkraut, and either feeds or repels the fish)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook)
KEYWORDS: derivative death | school teacher fish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 102, "Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay" (1 text, tune referenced)
RECORDINGS:
Travis Johnson, "There is No School Today" (Piotr-Archive #508, recorded 03/08/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ta-ra-ra Boom-der-e" (tune) and references there
File: DPio508

Ta Ra, Limavady

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises Limavady. He lists the boasts of other towns (e.g. "Coleraine for Kitty justly proud"), but prefers the local product ("But the girls that take the shine off both Are the girls that come from Limavady"). He asks others to praise it also
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H706, p. 180, "Ta Ra, Limavady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8007
File: HHH706

Ta-Ra-Ra Boom De Ay (II)

DESCRIPTION: Descriptions of how various people came to be in their present psychological and sexual states, to the tune of "Ta-ra-ra Boom-der-e"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 271-273, "Ta-Ra-Ra Boom De Ay" (4 texts, 1 tune)
File: EM271

Ta-ra-ra Boom Dee-Ay (Joe Hill Version)

DESCRIPTION: "I had a job once threshing wheat, worked 16 hours with hand and feet" -- longer when there was moonlight. One night, he has an accident. "Ra-ra-ra BOOM de-ay, It made a noise that way." After many "accidents," the boss gives in and improves conditions
AUTHOR: Words: Joe Hill
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Los Angeles IWW Songbook, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: worker labor-movement technology injury
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 494-495, "Ta-Ra-Ra Boom Dee-Ay" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: (Barrie Stavis and Frank Harmon, editors), _The Songs of Joe Hill_, 1960, now reprinted in the Oak Archives series, pp. 22-23, "Ta-ra-ra Boom De-ay" (1 text)
William M. Adler, _The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon_, Bloomsbury Press, 2011, pp. 274-275, "(Ta-ra-ra Boom De-ay)"
Gibbs M. Smith, _Joe Hill_, 1969 (I use the 1984 Peregrine Smith Books edition), pp. 274-275, "Ta-ra-ra Boom De-ay" (1 text)
File: LDC494

Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-de-Ay (Jingle, Jingle, Up and Down)

DESCRIPTION: "Jingle, jingle, up and down, Sleighs are flying through the town." The bells can be heard everywhere. "Let the children have a ride." There is room for many as they ride through the snow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong)
KEYWORDS: children derivative | sleigh snow
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 273, "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-Ay" (1 text)
Roud #5288
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ta-ra-ra Boom-der-e" (tune) and references there
File: NeDe273B

Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-de-Ay (Oh, Mama Dear and What Is That?)

DESCRIPTION: "'Oh, mama dear, and what is that, Hanging from that lady's hat?' 'Hush your noise, you sassy brat. There are streamers to her hat.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong)
KEYWORDS: mother children clothes derivative | hat streamers
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 273, "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-Ay" (1 fragment)
Roud #5287
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ta-ra-ra Boom-der-e" (tune) and references there
File: NeDe273A

Ta-ra-ra Boom-der-e

DESCRIPTION: The words often consist of floating lyrics. The chorus, "Ta-ra-ra(-ra) Boom-de-ay," is diagnostic. Sayers' lyrics: "A sweet Tuxedo girl I see, Queen of swell society, Fond of fun as fond can be, When it's on the strict Q.T...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 144, "Ta-ra-ra-ra Boom, Hurray!" (1 text plus many fragments, 2 tunes)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 144-146, "Ta-ra-ra Boom-der-e" (1 fragmentary text)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 206-208, "Ta-ra-ra-boom-der-e" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 25, "Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-Der-E" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 570-571+, "Ta-Ra-Ra boom-Der-E"
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 2999-301, "Ta! Ra! Ra! Boom De Ay!" (1 text, 1 tune, an early but undated sheet music edition)
Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 103-106, "Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay!" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a color print of an early sheet music cover)
Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, pp. 209-210, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #V15841
RECORDINGS:
Land Norris, "Bum Delay" (OKeh 45058, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm the Man that Wrote Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay"
cf. "Ta-ra-ra Boom Dee-Ay (Joe Hill Version)"
cf. "Will You Go Boom Today?" (tune)
cf. "We Are the Barbie Girls" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay (We Have No School Today) (File: DPio508)
Ta-ra-ra Boom Dee-Ay (Joe Hill Version) (File: LDC494)
We Are the Barbie Girls (File: OpGa478C)
Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-de-Ay (Oh, Mama Dear and What Is That?) (File: NeDe273A)
Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-de-Ay (Jingle, Jingle, Up and Down) (File: NeDe273B)
NOTES [291 words]: Cazden et al present a list of the various authors who have claimed this piece while denying credit to any of them. (They concede the form "Ta-ra-ra Boom-der-e" to Henry J. Sayers, 1890; published in 1891 by Willis Woodward; cf. Spaeth, Read 'em and Weep, pp. 144-146. Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 76, carefully states that the song is "usually credited to the [sic.] Henry J. Sayers, manager of the Thatcher, Primrose and West Minstrels.")
There was actually a lawsuit over the issue (Henry J. Sayers vs. Sigmund Spaeth et al, 1932). Fuld reports "Judge Robert P. Patterson later held that the music and words of the chorus were not original, but the first two verses were."
Randolph quotes Gilbert to the effect that the tune "is said to have originated in Babe Connors' famous St. Louis brothel" (!); Finson, pp. 76-77, says that the claim came from the court testimony of Theodor Metz.
Something very similar appears in a Strauss piece.
The uncertainty about the authorship resulted in the comic parody "I'm the Man that Wrote Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay."
Nettel, p. 209, says that "Lottie Collins first sang it in 1891, and had to keep giving encores until she was exhausted." Laura Ingalls Wilder, in her journal of her trip from South Dakota to Missouri, reported that even cowbells were playing this song, it was so popular (see Laura Ingalls WIlder, On the Way Home: The Diary of a Trip from South Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri, in 1894, Harper & Row, 1962, p. 70).
I saw a claim online that this is the most common tune for the "Lizzie Borden took an axe And gave her father forty whacks..." lyric, but have not seen supporting evidence. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSC144

Ta-ra-ra-ra Boom, Hurray!

See Ta-ra-ra Boom-der-e (File: FSC144)

Tab Scott

See Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go) (File: Doe062)

Tacking of a Full Rigged Ship Off Shore

See Tacking Ship Off Shore (File: CrNS147)

Tacking Ship Off Shore

DESCRIPTION: In a storm the ship is driven toward "the lighthouse tall on Fire Island Head" but the skillful captain and crew avoid "a dangerous shoal" and "steady the helm to the open sea"
AUTHOR: Words: Walter F. Mitchell
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: sea ship storm sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 147, "Tacking of a Full Rigged Ship Off Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 216-218, "Tacking Ship Off Shore" (1 text)
ST CrNS147 (Partial)
Roud #1845
NOTES [93 words]: The author, according to Creighton-NovaScotia, is "a native of Nantucket Island"; perhaps the Fire Island lighthouse is the one on the Long Island shore of New York. - BS
The title "Tacking Ship Off Shore" does not seem to be found in tradition (the Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine version was from print, based apparently by a performance by one William Palmer), but it appears to be the author's title. The poem seems to have been fairly popular; Granger's Index to Poetry cites five anthologies, mostly of the sentimental sort, containing the piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: CrNS147

Tacoma and the Old-Witch Girl

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

Taffy Was a Welshman (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief, Taffy came to my house And stole a piece of beef." Taffy and the singer engage in a campaign of theft against each other -- e.g. Taffy takes a bone; the singer finds it and beats Taffy with it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: abuse food theft
FOUND IN: Britain Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 494, "Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief" (2 texts plus a reprint of sheet music from c. 1865)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #67, pp. 72-73, "(Taffy was a Welshman)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 200, "Taffy Was a Welshman" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 41, "(Taffy was a Welshman)" (1 text)
DT, TFFYWLCH
Roud #19237
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Napper" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Ayrshireman's Lilt" (theme: foreigners living nearby as thieves)
NOTES [175 words]: "Taffy" is an English twisting of the Welsh pronunciation of "David" (Daffyd), the patron saint of Wales.
The English of course had a habit of baiting the Welsh, especially on Saint David's day. And the analogy here is rather exact: When it came to a war of raids, the English -- who had the English law on their side -- could do more damage. Taffy could steal, but the Englishman could not only steal but beat Taffy.
Despite this obvious explanation for the rhyme, Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel offers us a complicated explanation linking Taffy with Amaethon, a Celtic agricultural diety.
It's not clear to me that this is a folk *song*, but the notes in Brown connect it with "Napper," which is, so I thought it had better go in the Index for reference. - RBW
See the following broadside on the same theme:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3724), "The Welshman" ("Taffy came out of the border of Wales"), unknown, n.d.)
See the following reworked broadside "signed" by J.W. Ebsworth March 1, 1895:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3724), "Taffy Up To Date," unknown, 1895 - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OOxf494

Taffy Was a Welshman (II)

See Napper (File: Br3123)

Taffy Was a Welshman, Taffy Was a Thief

See Taffy Was a Welshman (I) (File: OOxf494)

Taglioni

DESCRIPTION: "Her mother had a nice wee dog, she used to call it Tony, And every time I kissed the girl he bit my Tagglieownie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (IRClare01)
KEYWORDS: bawdy derivative nonballad dog
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 9, "Tagglieownie" (1 fragment)
Roud #3569
RECORDINGS:
Martin Reidy, "Tangaloni" (on IRClare01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Taglioni Coat" (line pattern and some text) and references there
NOTES [259 words]: The current description is all of the Tunney-StoneFiddle fragment.
The following text is in the discussion of "As I Went Out Upon the Ice (Ag Dul amach ar an Leac Oighir dom)" at Andrew Kuntz's The Fiddler's Companion site.
As I went out upon the ice, [or "One day as I went out to skate"]
The ice being rough and stony,
The ice it broke and down I went,
And wet my Taglioni. [or "tanlee ownee"]
Tunney-StoneFiddle: "My mother said it wasn't a nice song...."
The pattern of the four-line verse fragments, but not the bawdiness, seems based on the eight-line verse broadside "Taglioni Coat".
Here is a verse that seems the original for the previous fragment:
One chilly day, not long ago,
I met a sad disaster,
When on the Serpentine to show,
Myself a skating master,
I circles cut, the ice gave way,
Transparent, but not stony,
It cracked, gave way, I tumbled,
And soaked my Taglioni.
but, in this case, it's clear from the context that the singer considers himself a fashion plate whose Taglioni coat is literally soaked (or maybe I'm being naive again; see the LONG DESCRIPTION at "Taglioni Coat").
Reidy's "The Tangaloni" on IRClare01 mixes the broadside eight-line verse form and story with the four-line verse verse form bawdy verses and adds a chorus. I have included it under both songs.
"ta-glio-ni \tal'yone\ n -s [after Filippo Taglioni 1871 Ital. ballet master]: an overcoat worn in the early 19th century." (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged (1976)); Filippo Taglioni (1777-1871). - BS
File: RcTaglio

Taglioni Coat, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer left his vulgar cronies behind when he bought a Taglioni coat. His fortunes changed when the coat led him to a wealthy lady, marriage and privilege. Clothes make the man.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1856 (broadside, Harding B 14(168))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer used to be "shabby, low and mean" with vulgar cronies, but has put that behind him. Now, wearing a Taglioni coat, he is "known in all fashionable quarters" and admired by "London's fairest daughters" One day, ice skating, he falls into the Serpentine, soaking his coat. He is invited, by a lady with "lots of money" to go home with her, change his clothes and dry his coat. While drying his coat before her fire he proposes marriage, she accepts, they marry, and, among his advantages he gains "a flunkey, too, to curl my hair, And brush my Taglioni." Moral: to marry well "don't sport a Blouse, or Mackintosh, But try a Taglioni"
KEYWORDS: courting marriage clothes humorous servant
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #3569
RECORDINGS:
Martin Reidy, "Tangaloni" (on IRClare01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 14(168), "Taglioni Coat" ("I once was shabby, low, and mean"), W. Jackson and Son (Birmingham), 1842-1855
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Taglioni" (line pattern and some text) and references there
cf. "Umbrella Courtship" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Harding B 14(168))
NOTES [53 words]: Broadside Harding B 14(168) is the basis for the description.
"ta-glio-ni \tal'yone\ n -s [after Filippo Taglioni 1871 Ital. ballet master]: an overcoat worn in the early 19th century." (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged (1976)); Filippo Taglioni (1777-1871). - BS
File: RcTagCoa

Tail iv My Coat, The

See Just Tread on the Tail of Me Coat (File: R474)

Tail Toddle

DESCRIPTION: The singer's wife left and before she returned "Tammie gart [made] my tail toddle [totter]." Neither dead, nor sick, "when I'm weel, I step about, An Tammie ..." Wedding guests gave coins; the bride says "o'er little For to mend a broken doddle [penis]"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (according to Farmer)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1716, "Tail Toddle" (2 texts)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 21, "Tail Toddle" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TAILTODL
ADDITIONAL: John Stephen Farmer, editor, Merry Songs and Ballads, Prior to the Year 1800 (1897 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol V, p. 253, "Tail Toddle"
Roud #11275
NOTES [90 words]: Greig/Duncan8 text count includes one bawdy verse on p. 402: "Lasses gar your tails toddle Spread your houghs [hips] lat in the dodle [penis] That'll gar your tails toddle." The translations are Greig/Duncan8's.
Farmer: "[b. 1796] [By Burns; from The Merry Muses of Caledonia (c.1800); tune, Chevalier's Muster-roll]" - BS
Interestingly, neither of my (supposedly) complete editions of Burns lists this song. The material in the "Merry Muses" is anonymous; I do not think Burns's authorship can be proved, although it seems reasonable. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: GrD81716

Tailing a Kangaroo

See The Old Man Kangaroo (File: MA040)

Tailor and Louse

DESCRIPTION: A tailor and louse live in a house. Spitefully, the tailor sews the louse into a button. The louse escapes, has misadventures in town and dies. His body is carried by six fleas. A bug tolls the bell to carry the louse's soul to Hell.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: burial death humorous bug clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 129, "Tailor and Louse" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: F.C.H. in Notes and Queries (London, 1871 ("Digitized by Google")), Fourth Series Vol. VIII, No. 194, September 16 1871, p. 231, ("There was a tailor and a louse") (1 text)
Roud #16577
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Benjamin Bowmaneer" (theme of tailors and insects)
NOTES [56 words]: Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle: "The traditional connection between tailors and lice is indicated in the expression to prick a louse: i.e. to be a tailor, which goes back at least to the seventeenth century." For other examples see "Benjamin Bowmaneer" and "Four and Twenty Fiddlers."
F.C.H.[1871]: "in vogue about seventy years ago." - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ReCi129

Tailor and the Crow, The

See Carrion Crow (File: LoF072)

Tailor and the Mouse, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a tailor had a mouse, Hey diddle inkum feedle, They lived together in one house...." The mouse eats the tailor's hat. The mouse grows ill; the tailor tries to save it, then puts it in a pie. The mouse escapes and dies. The tailor finds another
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould and Sharp, English Folk-Songs for Schools)
KEYWORDS: burial death humorous animal food clothes escape
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
SongsOfAllTime, pp. 68-69, "The Tailor and the Mouse" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TAILMOUS*
Roud #16577
NOTES [33 words]: Roud lumps this with "Tailor and Louse." Obviously there are similarities in both plot and lyrics -- this is probably a derivative of that -- but I'd consider them clearly separate as they stand. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: SATTaMou

Tailor and the Sailor, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer says she's sought by a tailor and a sailor. "I think I'll tak the sailor and let the tailor be." Tailors just sit and sew but sailors can turn a ship about and sail her. She'll wash his shirt and maybe they'll be married; or maybe not.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 57, "The Tailor and the Sailor" (2 texts)
Roud #5810
File: GrD1057

Tailor Ban, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer and tailor Ban are drinking buddies often mistaken for one another. They plan "a mad trip to Kilgarvin"; singer will marry Miss Foley but their alikeness will allow them some freedom. But if there's a child "let nobody ask who's the father"
AUTHOR: Sean O Tuama (Johnny Nora Aodha) (source: OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: marriage disguise drink humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 76-77,123, "The Tailor Ban" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 177, "The Tailor Bawn" (1 text)
File: OCan076

Tailor Boy (I), The

See The Weaver and the Tailor (File: Log407)

Tailor Boy (II), The

See The Chandler's Wife (File: FSWB157A)

Tailor By His Trade, The

See The Wearing of the Britches (File: K215)

Tailor Fell Through the Bed, The

DESCRIPTION: [C:] Dreaming of caulking his cloth, [O:] "the tailor fell through the bed, thimbles and a'." [B:] The lassie "kend that a tailor could do her nae ill." [O:] She asks for silver. [B:] She's lying alone and would be happy to see him again.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1825 (Cunningham)
KEYWORDS: sex money humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1843, "The Tailor Fell Through the Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Allan Cunningham, The Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern, (London, 1825 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, pp. 335-336, "The Tailor"
Charles Kent, editor, The Poetical Works of Robert Burns, (London, 1885 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 273, "The Tailor"
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #212, p. 221, "The Taylor fell thro' the bed, &c." (1 text, 1 tune)
ST GrD81843 (Partial)
Roud #13597
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jock Robb" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
cf. "The Campbells Are Coming" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
cf. "Beware o' the Ripells" (tune, per Burns)
cf. "The March of the Corporation of Tailors" (tune, per Cunningham and Kent)
NOTES [152 words]: Greig/Duncan8 is a fragment included as the first verse of both Kent and Cunningham. Kent says that Burns "claimed the authorship of no more than the second and fourth stanzas, the others having been produced traditionally by a humorous songwriter, whose name has been long forgotten." Cunningham, a questionable source [see, for example, notes to "The Grey Cock" and "Derwentwater"], has this to say: "This air is the march of the corporation of tailors. Some of the song is very old; some of it is by Burns; some of it has been added since his day: and still the song is not such a production as the air deserves. I know not what induced our ancient bards to speak so scornfully as they have often done of the art and mystery of shaping and sewing men's garments and shoes." Taking Kent as a guide, Cunningham's five verses include both "old" verses [O:], both of Burns's [B:], and one "added since" [C:]. - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: GrD81843

Tailor He's Been Seekin' Me, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer has been courted by a tailor and a sailor "but I think I'll tak' the ploughman lad and lat the rest gang free." A tailor can't work at night if he has no candle but a plowman can "water his steeds" any time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #107, p. 2, ("The tailor he's been seekin' me") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1126, "The Tailor He's Been Seekin' Me" (1 fragment)
Roud #6833
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yon Bonnie Lad" (theme) and references there
File: GrD61126

Tailor in the Chest, A

See The Boatsman and the Chest [Laws Q8] (File: LQ08)

Tailor in the Tea Chest, The

See The Boatsman and the Chest [Laws Q8] (File: LQ08)

Tailor, The

DESCRIPTION: A tailor comes to mend clothes. The girl of the house falls asleep and the tailor rapes her. She would have her maidenhead returned. He asks how that should be. She says "jist the way that it was ta'en." He lays her down and "gien her't owre, and owre"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: rape sex virginity clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1438, "Daffin Doon Dilly" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, pp. 145-147, "The Tailor"
Roud #7154
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Country Girl (The Fair Maid of the West)" (theme of regaining maidenhead)
cf. "The Widow of Westmoreland's Daughter" (theme of regaining maidenhead)
File: GrD71438

Taim Cortha O Bheith Im' Aonar Im' Lui

See Weary of Lying Alone (File: OCC144)

Tain't But the One Thing That Grieves My Mind

See Careless Love (File: R793)

'Tain't Gwina Rain No Mo'

See Ain't Gonna Rain No More (File: R557)

Tain't Gwine Rain No Mo'

See Ain't Gonna Rain No More (File: R557)

Tak It, Man, Tak It (I)

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a miller in Fife, Losh, I thought that the sound o' the happer, said, 'Tak hame a wee flow to your wife.'" The singer lives his life, and constantly hears the temptation, upon seeing an item (especially drink) to "Tak it, man, tak it."
AUTHOR: David Webster (1787-1837) (source: Whitelaw)
EARLIEST DATE: 1835 (Webster "small vol. of poems," according to Whitelaw)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous theft
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 15-18, "Tak It, Man, Tak It" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #41, p. 2, "Tak' It, Man, Tak' It" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 579, "Take it, Man, Tak It" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 248-249, "Tak' It, Man, Tak It"
DT, TAKITMAN
Roud #5591
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(13), "The Miller of Fife" ("When I was a miller in Fife"), R. McIntosh (Glasgow), 1860-1874; also Harding B 26(432), "Miller o' Fife"; Firth b.25(287), 2806 c.14(142), "Tak It, Man, Tak It"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brose and Butter" (tune, per Whitelaw and broadside Bodleian 2806 c.14(142))
cf. "Take It, Bob" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Take It, Bob (File: GrD3578)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Mill and the Kiln
NOTES [15 words]: Roud links this song with "The Working Chap" as found in Ord, etc. I flatly don't see it. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: FVS015

Tak It, Man, Tak It (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Langsyne, fine I mind, little mair than a lad, I wrocht wi' John Jackson at Inkaboot Mill," where Jackson's daughter teases him and flirts. Asked for a kiss, she rejects him -- but at last he steals one, and in the end they are happily married
AUTHOR: Walter Towers?
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 54-56, "Tak It, Man, Tak It" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5590
NOTES [47 words]: Apart from the title line and the notion of temptation, this has nothing in common with "Tak It, Man, Tak It (I)" -- but I rather suspect one inspired the other. I'm not sure which way the dependence went; both have listed authors. This is clearly the less popular of the two. - RBW
File: Ord054

Tak Ye My Lad

See Fause Foodrage [Child 89] (File: C089)

Tak Your Auld Cloak About Ye

See The Old Cloak (File: OBB170)

Tak' Anither Gill

DESCRIPTION: "Cattle noo are very low, and corn winna sell, But we'll aye keep oor spirits up and tak' another gill." We'll kiss the lasses; they won't go home "and tell their auld mither"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming drink hardtimes nonballad courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 564, "Tak' Anither Gill" (1 text)
Roud #6035
File: GrD3564

Tak' Back the Ring, Dear Jamie

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "I canna leave my mammie, She's been sae kind to me." The singer's mother is old and frail, her eyes are dim "And seen they'll close and a'." The singer promised her father to take care of mother. If Jamie can't wait, they cannot marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: age marriage nonballad mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 901, "Tak' Back the Ring, Dear Jamie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6144
NOTES [47 words]: Greig/Duncan4 cites a reference to John Cameron's Lyric Gems of Scotland, not always an indication that the song is the same. However, since there is no ring in the Greig/Duncan4 texts, and no other comment explaining the title, I assume there is a ring in the Lyric Gems text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD901

Tak' the Buckles Frae You Sheen

See The Shearin's Nae for You (File: RcShNaYo)

Tak' Your Auld Cloak Aboot Ye

See The Old Cloak (File: OBB170)

Take a Drink on Me

DESCRIPTION: Chorus "Take a drink on me/All you rounders, take a drink on me...." Verses float: "What did you do with that gun in your hand You give it to a rounder and he shot a good man", "If you keep on stalling, you'll make me think... your daddy was a monkey..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Charlie Poole)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Floating verses, linked by chorus "Take a drink on me/All you rounders, take a drink on me/Oh, Lord, honey take a drink on me." Verses include "What did you do with that gun in your hand/You give it to a rounder and he shot a good man", "If you keep on stalling, you'll make me think/That your daddy was a monkey and your mama was an ape"; "You see that gal with a hobble on/She's good looking just as sure as you're born"
KEYWORDS: crime drink nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 156-157, "Take a Drink on Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 77, "Take a Drink on Me" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 289, "Take a Drink on Me" (1 text)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 239, (no title) (1 fragment, in which the listener is urged to "take a one on me!"; it seems more likely that it's this than "take a whiff")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 28, "Take A Whiff On Me" (1 text); p. 235, "Take A Drink On Me" (2 texts)
DT, DRNKONME*
Roud #10062
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "Take a Drink on Me" (on NLCR01)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Take a Drink on Me" (Columbia 15193-D, 1927; on CPoole01, CPoole05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Take a Whiff on Me" (tune, words)
cf. "Coney Isle" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Take Your Leg Off Mine (listed by Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 77, as a bawdy version of the above)
NOTES [88 words]: This is a problem in classification. On the one hand, it's clearly a version of "Take a Whiff on Me." On the other, none of the verses of the latter show up in this song. So I call them siblings but, since we're being splitters here, different songs.
[The version on page 28 of the Folksinger's Wordbook], although it uses the "whiff" chorus, consists entirely of floating verses -- none of them the same as the verses in the Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook version, but many shared with common fiddle tunes. - PJS
File: CSW156

Take a Little Bird and Hop in the Corner

See Bluebird (File: OpGa097)

Take a Stand

DESCRIPTION: Verse format: (some-line(3x) "If I never never meet you any more" same-line(3x) "I will meet you on Canaan's shore"). Verse lines include "Live the life," "Take a stand," "Pray for me," "Keep the faith," "Shake my hand"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious death
FOUND IN:
Roud #16317
RECORDINGS:
Blind Willie Johnson, "Take Your Stand" (Columbia 14624-D, 1929)
Rev. R.L. Wightman with Lottie Kimbrough and Congregation, "Live the Life" (on StuffDreams1)
NOTES [20 words]: Blind Willie Johnson's track has "I will meet you on the Kingdom's door" instead of "I will meet you on Canaan's shore." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcTaASta

Take a Whiff on Me

DESCRIPTION: The singer "Walked up Ellum and... come down Main / Tryin' to bum a nickel, just to buy cocaine / Ho, ho, honey take a whiff on me." The singer devotes considerable energy to seeking women and drugs, with slight success and open disregard for the risks
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Grant Brothers)
KEYWORDS: drugs sex
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 130-132, "Take a Whiff on Me" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 89, "Take a Whiff on Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 186-188, "Honey, Take a Whiff on Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 277, "Oh, Ho, Baby, Take a One On Me!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 157, "Hop Song" (1 text)
DT, WHIFFME
Roud #10062
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singer, "Take A Whiff On Me" (on Unexp1)
Freeny's Barn Dance Band, "Croquet Habits" (OKeh 45524, 1931; rec. 1930; on StuffDreams1)
Grant Brothers & Their Music, "Tell It to Me" Grant Brothers & Their Music, "Tell It to Me" (Columbia 15322-D, 1928; on RoughWays1, GoodForWhatAilsYou)
Memphis Jug Band, "Cocaine Habit Blues" (Victor V-38620, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Take a Drink on Me" (tune, words)
cf. "Tom Cat" (lyrics, form)
cf. "Cocaine Blues (I)" (subject) and references there
NOTES [105 words]: "Ellum" ("Elem," "Deep Elem") refers to Elm Street in Dallas, the heart of that city's red light district. The various versions of this song, naturally, differ considerably in local color. - RBW
The recording "Tell It to Me" presents another classification problem; also known as "Let the Cocaine Be," it has a chorus "Tell it to me, tell it to me/Drink corn likker, let the cocaine be" that other "Take a Whiff on Me" songs do not, and sometimes different verses. I'm joining them primarily because many versions of "Tell It to Me" include the "Honey, take a whiff on me" refrain, but a case could also be made for splitting. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RL130

Take Away the Whisky

DESCRIPTION: "Take away the whisky, coffee and the tea; Cold water is the drink for me. Our father Adam and our mother Eve They had no reason to believe That tea was for a medicine and coffee for a cold, And it appears that they loved for more than 900 years."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: religious drink
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #214, "Take Away the Whisky" (1 short text)
Roud #10897
NOTES [77 words]: In Genesis 5:5, it is said that Adam lived to the age of 930. However, Eve's age at her death is never stated -- indeed, Eve is not mentioned at all in Genesis 5, from the "P" source, and the "J" source, which does talk about Eve, has no information about either Eve's or Adam's lifespans, other than that they were doomed to die. Thus, even if we take the Bible literally, we have no clue whatsoever about how long Adam and Eve were involved with each other. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: Hubb214

Take Back the Engagement Ring

DESCRIPTION: "One moonlight night a year ago," two lovers courted. He proposes. She later declares, "Take back the ring you gave me, Take it back, Jack, I pray. Wearing it would deprave me, More than I am today. To make me your wife would wrong you...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Finger-FrontierBallads)
KEYWORDS: courting ring rejection
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finger-FrontierBallads, p. 7, "Take Back the Engagement Ring" (1 excerpt)
Roud #15951
File: Fing007

Take Back Your Gold

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a man and a woman. She is begging him to be honorable and marry her; he refuses. He is going to be married to another. He offers money to soothe her. She says, "Take back your gold, for gold can never buy me."
AUTHOR: Monroe H. Rosenfeld & Louis W. Pritzkow
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (sheet music by Jos. W. Stern & Co.)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage betrayal money gold
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 820, "Take Back Your Gold" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 183-184, "Take Back Your Gold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 144-149, "Take Back Your Gold" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 294-298, "Take Back Your Gold" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1897 sheet music)
Roud #7427
RECORDINGS:
Walter Morris, "Take Back Your Gold" (Columbia 15101-D, 1926)
NOTES [16 words]: For background on Monroe H. Rosenfeld, see the notes to "Those Wedding Bells Shall Not Ring Out!"
Last updated in version 4.2
File: R820

Take her Out of Pity

See The Old Maid's Song (File: R364)

Take It Out, Take It Out, Remove It

See The Woodpecker's Hole; also Crazy Song to the Air of "Dixie" (File: EM226)

Take It, Bob

DESCRIPTION: The singer is Bob Bell, a miller fond of drink. He tries often to quit drinking but his mill seems to say "Take it Bob, take it, it's better than tea" He dreams he is dead but hears the mill say he should take the brandy meant for the mourners.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #8, p. 2, "Take It Bob" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 578, "Take It, Bob" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6041
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tak It, Man, Tak It (I)" (tune and the temptation theme)
File: GrD3578

Take Me Away

DESCRIPTION: The singer is "a por boy going to war ... over the ocean." He asks to be taken to the parish, to Kingston, from there to Port Royal. Tell his mother they are taking her only son "to fight for our country"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
KEYWORDS: war parting nonballad mother
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
RECORDINGS:
Aaron Walker, "Take Me Away" (on JamaicaFaithWorkPlay)
NOTES [74 words]: In his liner notes to JamaicaFaithWorkPlay Roberts writes, "A Jamaican version of a British ballad, complete with references to Port Royal and other local geographical features. The singer, 76 at the time of the recording, learned the song during the First World Was, but is probably a good deal older than that." I don't know if Roberts is saying that he knows a British ballad that is the basis for "Take Me Away." I don't know such a ballad. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcTaMeAw

Take Me Back to Dear Old Aussie

DESCRIPTION: "Take me back to dear old Aussie, Put me on the boat for Woolloomooloo, Take me over there, drop me anywhere, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, for I don't care, Just want to see my best girl... Oh, Blighty is a failure, Send me back to Australia..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier home Australia
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 105, "Take Me Back to Dear Old Aussie" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10658
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty" (tune)
File: AWTB105A

Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty

DESCRIPTION: "Carry me back to dear old Blighty, Put me on the train to London town. Take me over there, Drop me anywhere, Liverpool, Leeds, or Manchester, I don't care. I should like to see my best girl... Blighty is the place for me."
AUTHOR: Arthur J. Mills, Fred Godfrey, and Bennett Scott (source: Wikipedia; Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (source: Wikipedia; Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: home war soldier travel
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 185, "Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty" (1 text)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 217, "(no title)" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 37-38, "Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty" (1 text)
Roud #10669
SAME TUNE:
Take Me Back to Dear Old Aussie (File: AWTB105A)
Take Me Back to Dear Old Canada (File: AWTB122B)
File: BrPa217B

Take Me Back to Dear Old Canada

DESCRIPTION: "Take me back to dear old Canada, Put me on the boat for Old St. John, Take me over there, drop me anywhere, Toronto, Hull, or Montreal, for I don't dare, I should love to see my best girl... I'd sooner be there than Blighty, Canada is the place for me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier home Canada
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 122, "Take Me Back to Dear Old Canada" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10658
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty" (tune)
File: AWTB122B

Take Me Back to Old Montana

DESCRIPTION: "Take me back to 'Old Montana," where there's lots of room and air... Where at at night th emagpies twitter, And the injun fights were fit. The singer mentions the rivers makiong green patches in the Bad Lands. The singer hopes to die in Montana
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Powder River Jack & Kitty Lee Songbook)
KEYWORDS: home river Indians(Am.) cowboy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp 568-569, "Take Me Back to Old Montana" (1 text plus several variants)
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, pp. 4-5, "Powder River, Ler 'er Buck" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: PRJ016

Take Me Back to the Cumberland Mountains

DESCRIPTION: "Take me back to the Cumberland Mountains, I don't like Lynchburg any more; I want to go home to our old log cabin...." The singer looks back to seeing Pap, Mammy, Uncle Mose, old dog Tray, and the various farm animals
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: home family return father mother animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 126-127, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 132-133)
NOTES [65 words]: Thomas seems to have thought this was "Uncle Noah Bentley's Coon Hunting Song," but it has nothing to do with raccoons or hunting. It was said to have "the favorance of 'Sourwood Mountain,'" but with no tune, this cannot be proved.
The item has all sorts of references to other songs (e.g. "old dog Tray"), but it appears to be a matter of allusion rather than common floating material. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa126

Take Me Back to the Sweet Sunny South

See Sweet Sunny South (II) (File: DTsunsou)

Take Me Down the Harbour

DESCRIPTION: "Take me down the Harbour on a Sunday afternoon, To Manly Beach or Watson's Bay Or round to Coogee for a day... Good old Harbour, Sydney Town, They can't beat you." The singer enjoys his girl and sailing in Sydney Harbour
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954
KEYWORDS: Australia nonballad
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 35-36, "Take Me Down the Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [15 words]: Said to have been a popular music hall song in the early twentieth century in Australia. - RBW
File: MA035A

Take Me Home (I)

See Katy Cline (File: FSWB149)

Take Me Home (II)

See Sweet Sunny South (II) (File: DTsunsou)

Take Me Home, Country Roads

See Country Roads (File: ACSF550C)

Take Me In Your Lifeboat

DESCRIPTION: "Come, brother sailors, and don't you fall asleep, Pray night and day or you'll sink in the deep." "Take me in your lifeboat (x2), She can stand the raging storm, Take me in your lifeboat (x2), She will bear my spirit home." The port is nearby.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: ship religious storm
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 172-173, "The Lifeboat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6629
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pull for the Shore" (theme)
NOTES [39 words]: Roud lumps several "lifeboat" songs under this number, but they really seem separate to me. Cheney's version of this looks like a minstrel song, but I've heard it, somewhere, sung without dialect, so I've transcribed it that way. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS172

Take Me to the Water

DESCRIPTION: "Take me to the water (x3) to be baptized." "None but the righteous (x3) shall see God." "I love Jesus (x3), yes I do." "He's my savior (x3), yes he is."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1997 (Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 91-92, "Take Me to the Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: WarSp091

Take Me Up Tenderly

DESCRIPTION: "Take me up tenderly, Show me the big city, Far from the mountains...." The singer rejects the rain and snow and mountains and says he will work in his mother's garden. "Thus sang the tramping man, Rattling his frying pan...."
AUTHOR: Words: H. W. Gretton
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1938, according to Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook
KEYWORDS: rambling home work gardening
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 14-16, "Take Me Up Tenderly" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Clev014

Take My Hand, Precious Lord

See Precious Lord (File: CNFM255)

Take My Tip, Pack Your Grip

DESCRIPTION: "Take my tip, pack your grip, Get right off this bleeding ship, Bye bye Loch Lomond. Dump my gear upon the quay, Then no more you'll see of me.... I will leave the Jaunty far behind me... So take my tip... Get right off this bleeding ship"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy farewell derivative
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 41, "Take My Tip, Pack Your Grip" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bye, Bye, Blackbird" (tune)
cf. "The Blackbird (VII)" (tune) and references there
NOTES [129 words]: Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy suggests that any song name could be zipped into this song, and I'm sure his right, but the ship he mentions, the Loch Lomond, was a real ship. John Young, A Dictionary of Ships of the Royal Navy of the Second World War, Patrick Stephens, 1975, p. 91, says that she was a ship of the "Loch" class (which obviously makes sense!), finished in 1944 and scrapped in 1968.
Richard Worth, Fleets of World War II, Da Capo, 2001, p. 127, says that there were 26 frigates of the "Loch" class, which were of 1435 tons, armed with one 4" gun. Worth describes them as good anti-submarine vessels, but at less than 1500 tons, they can't have been very comfortable when sailing the North Atlantic, so it's no surprise the sailor would want off. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Tawn024

Take the Buckles From Your Shoes

See The Shearin's Nae for You (File: RcShNaYo)

Take the Name of Jesus With You

See Precious Name (Take the Name of Jesus With You) (File: High037)

Take This Hammer

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells a (fellow prisoner?) to take his hammer to the captain; the singer is running away. The hammer (which killed John Henry) will never kill him. The versions show considerable variations
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory); "Take This Hammer": 1915 (collected by Newman Ivey White); "Nine Pound Hammer" variant: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag; recording, Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters)
KEYWORDS: prisoner work escape nonballad worksong
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (35 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 571-582, "Nine Pound Hammer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 383, "John Henry" (6 texts, but the last three belong with this song)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 376, "Ever Since Uncle John Henry Been Dead" (1 text, 1 tune, which I believe belongs here although the text is too short to be sure); 457-458, "My Old Hammah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (I), pp. 140-148, "Hammerin' Song" (1 text with variants, 1 tune with variants)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 280, "John Henry" (2 texts plus 5 fragments, 1 excerpt, and mention of 1 more, but it appears that fragments "B," "D," "E," and "G" go here)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 241, "Some of These Days and It Won't Be Long" (1 text plus a fragment; the "A" text shows hints of incorporating another ballad); also 240, "I Been a Miner" (1 4-line fragment, consisting of the stanza "I been a miner most of my life" and the stanza, "Big John Henry (x3) poor boy blind")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 270, "John Henry" (7 excerpts, 7 tunes, of which "A," "A(1)," and perhaps "C" appear to be "John Henry"; "E," "G," and "J" appear to be "Take This Hammer," and "H" appears to be "Swannanoa Tunnel")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 240; "I Been a Miner"; 241, "Some of These Days, And It Won't Be Long" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 48-49, "Roll On, Buddy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 231, "Hank! Hah" (1 fragment, probably this)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 160-164, "Roll On, John, Poor Rail Road Boys" (4 texts, 2 tunes, of which at least the first "Roll On, John" text goes here; the rest are filed with "Poor Rail Road Boys")
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 104, "The John Henry Hammer Song" (1 short and 1 very long text, 1 tune; the short text might be anything and the long, though it ends with these verses, includes much floating material about railroad construction)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 122-123, "Old John Henry Died on the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune, listed by Roud as an independent song, #16268, but giving every evidence of being a version of this)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 219, (no title) (1 short texts; neither has the "take this hammer" line, but they fit metrically and mention the hammer that killed John Henry); p. 220, "Work-song" (1 short text, 1 tune, at least related to this); p. 220, "Nine-Pound Hammer" (1 short text); p. 220, "Work-song" (1 short text, with a verse of this song although it also mentions shooting Ida in the leg)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 223, ("This is the hammer that kill John Henry") (1 text)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 186, "Rocks In De Mountens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 93, "Take This Hammer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 380-381, "Take This Hammer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 145, "Roll On, Buddy"; 297, "East Colorado Blues" (2 texts, 2 tunes -- both, especially the former, folk processed and expanded and perhaps derived in part from other songs.)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 264-266, "Oh, Roll On, Babe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 237-240, "Take This Hammer" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Green-OnlyAMiner-RecordedCoalMiningSongs, p. 329-331, "Nine Pound Hammer" (7 texts, 2 tunes)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 100, "Spike Driver Blues" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 112, "Nine Pound Hammer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 94-95, "Nine-Pound Hammer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 61, "Water Boy" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, p. 913, "Take This Hammer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 137-138, "(John Henry)" (1 text, with a fragment of the plot of "John Henry" but many lyrics from "Take This Hammer"); pp. 285-286, "John Henry (Version III)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 184, ("Them Gar'n Town people them call me follow line") (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 234-235, "Spike Driver Blues" (1 text, filed with three texts of "John Henry"); also pp. 327-328, "John Henry, " "This Old Hammer" (2 texts)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 69, "Take This Hammer" (1 text); p. 124, "Nine Pound Hammer" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 92-94, "Dis Ole Rock Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 289, 458, "Dis Ol' Hammer" (notes only)
OneTuneMore, p. 23, "Mingo Mountain"; p. 41, "This Old Hammer" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
DT, NINEPND* TAKEHAMR*
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 45, "Take This Hammer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4299 and 6686 and 16845
RECORDINGS:
Frank Blevins & his Tar Heel Rattlers, "Nine Pound Hammer" (Columbia 15280-D, 1928; on LostProv1)
Emmett Brand, "Take This Hammer" (on MuSouth06)
Carolina Tar Heels, "Roll On, Boys" (Victor V-40024, 1929; rec. 1928) [I include this here for want of a better place; its chorus is from "Nine Pound Hammer/Roll On, Buddy," but the verses are unrelated floaters]
Patricia Campbell, "Water Boy" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #236, recorded 09/05/2022, which sounds as if it's mostly floating material)
Palmer Crisp, "Roll On, John" (on Crisp01)
Delmore Bros. "Take It to the Captain" (King 718, 1948)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "The Nine-Pound Hammer" Victor V-40105, 1929; rec. 1928)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Roll On, Buddy" (on Holcomb2, HolcombCD1)
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "Nine Pound Hammer" (Brunswick 177, 1927)
Mississippi John Hurt, "Spike Driver Blues" (OKeh 8692, 1929; rec. 1928; on AAFM3, BefBlues3, MJH01, MJH02); "Spike Driver (John Henry)" (on MJHurt05)
Aunt Molly Jackson, "Roll On Buddy" (AFS 2548 B, 1939; on LC61)
Buffalo Johnson, "Nine Pound Hammer" (Rich-R-Tone 1023, 1952)
Buell Kazee, "Roll On John" (Brunswick 144, 1927) [a "Nine Pound Hammer" version]
Monroe Brothers, "Nine Pound Hammer Is Too Heavy" (Bluebird B-6422, 1936)
Paul Robeson, "Water Boy" (Victor 19824, 1925; HMV [UK] B-8103, 1934)
South Carolina ditch diggers, "Ten Pound Hammer" (on LomaxCD1700)
Horace Sprott, "Take This Hammer" (on MuSouth04)
Ernest Stoneman & Eddie Stoneman, "Nine Pound Hammer" (Vocalion 02655, 1934)
Sweet Brothers, "I Got a Bulldog" (1928; on TimesAint04)
Dan Tate, "Muck on my Heel" (fragment of "Roll On, Buddy" variant) (on OldTrad2, FarMtns1)
Henry Grady Terrell, "Old John Henry Died on the Mountain" (on FolkVisions2, ClassRR)
Art Thieme, "Railroad Blues and Nine Pound Hammer" [medley] (on Thieme01)
Merle Travis, "Nine Pound Hammer" (Capitol 48000, 1947; on 78 album "Folk Songs of the Hills", Capitol AD 50; rec. 1946)
Rick Ward, "Nine Pound Hammer" (Piotr-Archive #135, recorded 04/18/2022)
Doc Watson, "Spike-Driver Blues" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchiteWatsonCD1)
Tex Williams, "Nine Pound Hammer" (Decca 29764, 1955)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Henry" [Laws I1] (lyrics)
cf. "Jumpin' Judy" (lyrics)
cf. "Walking Boss" (lyrics)
cf. "Swannanoah Tunnel" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Drivin' Steel" (theme, lyrics)
cf. "Don't You Hear My Hammer Ringing" (lyrics)
cf. "Old Rattler" (lyrics)
cf. "Hammer Ring"
cf. "If I Had the Gov'nor" (theme)
cf. "Pickaxe Too Heavy" (theme)
cf. "Roll On, Boys" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "My Captain Paid Me Forty-one Dolalrs and a Quarter" (form, theme, lyrics)
cf. "Poor Rail Road Boys" (lyrics)
NOTES [597 words]: The connection between this song and "Swannanoa Tunnel" is very strong; there are so many intermediate versions that we can hardly draw a clear distinction. But the extreme versions are sufficiently different that I have listed them separately. - RBW
Paul Stamler suggests that "Take This Hammer" and "Nine Pound Hammer" can be distinguished by the chorus (found in the latter) "Roll on buddy/Don't you roll so slow/How can I roll/When the wheels won't go." (Which is further modified in the Lomax collection to "Oh, roll on, babe, don't roll so slow, When the sun goes down, you'll roll no more"; this version is mostly about love, courting, and rejection and has only the slighted railroad elements.)
Paul adds, ""According to the liner notes on LC61, the cited 78s (by Charlie Bowman and Al Hopkins) are the first recorded under the names 'Roll On, Buddy' and 'Nine Pound Hammer,' indicating the variant existed when these records were published. The Aunt Molly Jackson field recording dates from 1939. So I think we've established the variant's presence in tradition as early as the late 1920s. I think it's time to split 'em, with cross-referencing notes."
He's probably right. Sadly, we now have four references I can no longer check. So they remain lumped until I can find a way to get those books back. - RBW
Unfortunately, the liner notes to LC61 misled me. While it's true that the title "Roll On, Buddy" was first used by Charlie Bowman & his Brothers, his recording (placed here in earlier versions of the Index) wasn't this song. Instead, it was the one we have indexed as "Roll On, Buddy (II) [Roll On, Buddy, Roll On]." Sorry.
We can go further: Archie Green interviewed Charlie Bowman of Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, who stated that he and Al Hopkins had put together the "Roll On Buddy" variant from traditional fragments during their 1927 recording session, and the song was in fact copyrighted in their name. Bowman stated that he'd learned many of the fragments from African-American railroad workers in 1903-1905. - PJS
Norm Cohen has an extensive discussion, based on Archie Green's examination in Only a Miner. They note two basic elements: The "Take this hammer" stanzas, in non-rhyming couplets, and the "roll on buddy" verses, which do rhyme. They therefore suspect that Hopkins was the source of the combination. The problem is simply too great to fully explicate here; I can only recommend the discussions in Green and Cohen. - RBW
I place Robeson's "Water Boy" here for want of a better place. It contains several floating verses from this song (e.g., "There ain't no hammer that's on this mountain/That rings like mine..."). - PJS
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory's tune is close to the commonly sung tune for "Take This Hammer". His lyrics are: "Them Gar'n Town people them call me follow line" (3x), "Somebody dying here ev'ry day"; "A ten pound order him kill me pardner" (3x), "Somebody dying here ev'ry day"; "Den number nine tunnel I would not work de" (3x), "Somebody dying here ev'ry day." Jekyll's explanation is interesting, but, keep in mind that he often seems not to know that his songs have U.S. analogs: "An incident, or perhaps it were better to say an accident, in the making of the road to Newcastle. A man who undertook a piece of contract work for 10 pounds was killed by a falling stone. The so-called tunnels are cuttings. Number nine had a very bad reputation."
In regard to Jekyll's Jamaican version, with the tag line, "Somebody dying here ev'ry day," see Edward's Bahamas hymn indexed here as "Somebody's Dying Every Day." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FR383

Take Thy Old Cloak About Thee

See The Old Cloak (File: OBB170)

Take Yo Feet Out de Sand

DESCRIPTION: "Take you feet out de sand (x2), An' stick 'em in de mud."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 145, "Take Yo Feet Out de Sand" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #16300
File: Arn145A

Take Your Fingers Off It

DESCRIPTION: "Take your (fingers/hands) off it, and don't you dare touch it, You know it don't belong to you." Various people try to keep others away from their sexual partners. One complains of "a house full of children and none of them mine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: sex adultery betrayal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 80, "Take Your Fingers Off It" (1 text)
DT, FINGROFF
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Salty Dog"
File: FSWB080

Take Your Lover in the Ring

DESCRIPTION: "My old mistress promised me, Before she died she would set me free, Take your lover in the ring, I don't care (x2)." "Now she's dead... I hope the devil will burn her well. Take your lover...." "It's a golden ring." "It's a silver ring."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (RIng Games of American Children, according to Coffin & Cohen)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad slave freedom ring
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 225, "Take your Lover in the Ring" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 183, "Take Your Lover in the Ring" (1 text)
Roud #18170
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Old Missus Promised Me" (floating lyrics)
File: CoCo183B

Take Your Time

DESCRIPTION: "Honey Baby, take your time, Please don't break this leg of mine. Don't like, an' I ain't goin' to have it no more." About a difficult family meal (?): Mama picks on Sam; Sister is out of control (doing the twist); the singer gets in trouble in town
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: food family bawdy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 97-98, "Take Yo' Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10036
NOTES [31 words]: Yes, Wheeler's text reads "Please don't break this leg of mine"! But she admits that her informants were expurgating the song as they went. Under it all, it is probably a bawdy song. - RBW
File: MWhee097

Taking Back Gear in the Night

See Taking Gair In the Night (File: FowM018)

Taking Gair In the Night

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you good people, come listen you might. It's only a ditty I'm going to write,... It's all about taking your gair [=gear -- the trawls used in capelin fishing] in the night." Song lists the fishermen of Penguin Island, their boats and hardships.
AUTHOR: Jerry Fudge ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1928
KEYWORDS: fishing home work sea ship shore
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 18, "Taking Gair in the Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 145-146, "Taking Back Gear in the Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 105, "Taking Gear in the Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 59, "Taking Gair in the Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2327
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Gerry Fudge
File: FowM018

Taking Gear in the Night

See Taking Gair In the Night (File: FowM018)

Taking His Chance

DESCRIPTION: Bushranger Jack Dean comes to the door of the inn and dances with May Carney. Although all know he is an outlaw, the bushmen do not betray him. But at last someone notifies the police. Dean is shot and killed as he prepares to flee
AUTHOR: Henry Lawson (1867-1922)
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback)
KEYWORDS: outlaw death police Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 270-271, "Taking His Chance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, pp. 77-78, "Taking His Chance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22627
File: MA270

Taking of Quebec, The

See General Wolfe (File: FMB050)

Talcahuano Girls

See We'll Rant and We'll Roar (File: FJ042)

Tale of a Little Pig

See There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)

Tale of a Tramp

See The Tramp's Story (File: R844)

Tale of Jests, A

See Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)

Tale of Robin Hood, A

See Robin Hood and the Monk [Child 119] (File: C119)

Tale of the Trail, A

DESCRIPTION: "It ain't so far from right to wrong, The trail ain't hard to lose. There's times I'd almost give my horse To know which one to choose." The poet admits the difficulty of telling which is which, and so promises to help those who have gone astray
AUTHOR: James W. Foley
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Foley, "Tales of the Trail")
KEYWORDS: cowboy nonballad recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 41, "A Tale of the Trail" (1 text)
File: Ohr041

Talk About Jesus

DESCRIPTION: "Talk about Jesus -- he has blessed my soul, And he is gone. Must Jesus bear the cross alone? For there's a cross for everyone And... for me." "I heard the voice of Jesus saying, Come unto me and rest." "'Tis Jesus Christ I want to hear...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 639, "Talk About Jesus" (1 text)
Roud #11935
File: Br3639

Talkin' 'Bout a Good Time

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "We gonna have a good time." The hymn leader sings "Good time, a good time." "Singing/praying/ for a good time." "Talkin' bout a good time." "We gonna have a time."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 117, "Talkin' 'Bout a Good Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16307
RECORDINGS:
Benjamin Bligen and the Moving Star Hall congregation, "Talking 'Bout a Good Time" (BeenStorm1)
NOTES [108 words]: The BeenStorm1 liner notes do not list singers for each song. The credit here is from Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, which is the same text.
The current description is based on the Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight/BeenStorm1 text. Arnold reports a different hymn with a similar same title (Byron Arnold, Folksongs of Alabama (Birmingham: University of Alabama Press, 1950),p. 161, "We Gonna Have a Good Time").
The BeenStorm1 track is call-response. The Herskovits Trinidadian Spiritual Baptist account of "Jesus Lover of My Soul" fits this track as well. Although this is not a Sankey hymn, the performance style matches "Sankey into Shout." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CarCa117

Talking Blues

DESCRIPTION: "If you want to get to Heaven let me tell you what to do, Gotta grease your feet in mutton stew...." The singer boasts of the ways he avoids work and easily acquires food, sex, etc. Many of the verses float
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: work nonsense animal bird nonballad courting humorous floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 444, "If You Want to Go to Heaven" (1 fragment, apparently this piece)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 106, "Original Talking Blues" (1 text)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 102, "Jest Talkin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 224, "Talking Blues" (1 text with metrical markings)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 116-117, "Jest Talkin'" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 254-258, "When de Good Lord Sets You Free" (1 text, 1 tune -- an immense composite containing elements of "Moanish Lady," "Talking Blues," and probably other materials, to the tune of "Mourner, You Shall Be Free")
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 225, (no title) (1 fragment, perhaps one of the items that inspired the Lomax mess)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 80, "Talking Blues" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #10, pp. 10-11, "Oughta Been Arrested" (1 text, part "Two Little Niggers Black as Tar," part "Talking Blues," part other things)
DT, TALKBLUE TALKBLU2
ADDITIONAL: Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 62-63, "The Talkin' Blues" (1 text, which opens with the standard Talking Blues verse but adds several Woody Guthrie verses at the end)
Roud #13912, etc.
RECORDINGS:
Chris Bouchillon, "Talking Blues" (Columbia 15120-D, 1927; Vocalion 02977, 1935; rec. 1926)
Harmon Canada, "The Talkin' Blues" (Gennett 6972/Champion 15808 [as Joe Smith]/Supertone 9554, 1929; Champion 45173 [as Joe Smith], c. 1935)
Curley Fox, "Curley's New Talkin' Blues" (Decca 5185, 1936; rec. 1935)
Bill Gatin, "Talkin' Blues" (Decca 5122, 1935)
Pete Seeger, "Talking Blues" (on PeteSeeger32)
Roy Shaffer, "Talking Blues" (Bluebird B-8234, 1939/Montgomery Ward M-8493, c. 1940)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. every other song with the words "talking" and "blues" in the titles
cf. "Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady)" (this piece is sometimes sung to a tune similar to that)
cf. "Henhouse Door (Who Broke the Lock?)" (floating verses)
cf. "Ain't Gonna Grieve My God No More" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Talking Dustbowl Blues (File: LoF225)
Talking Hard Luck (File: CSW214)
Talking Atom (DT, TALKATOM; Sam Hinton, ABC-Eagle ABC-230, 1950; on PeteSeeger19, PeteSeeger48)
Columbia Talkin' Blues (by Woody Guthrie)
Chris Bouchillon, "New Talking Blues" (Columbia 15262-D, 1928)
Herschel Brown & his Band, "New Talking Blues" (OKeh 45247, 1928)
Herschel Brown & his Band, "Talking Nigger Blues" (OKeh 45247, 1928)
Herschel Brown, "New Talking Blues No. 2" (OKeh 45337, 1929)
Herschel Brown & his Boys, "Nigger Talking Blues No. 2" (OKeh 45337, 1929)
Curly Fox, "Curly's New Talking Blues" (Decca 5185, 1936; rec. 1935)
Jesse Rodgers, "Jesse's Talking Blues" (Bluebird B-6143, 1935)
Columbia Talkin' Blues (by Woody Guthrie) (Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 56-58)
Washington Talkin' Blues/Talking Dust Bowl (by Woody Guthrie) (Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 60-61)
NOTES [152 words]: Robert Lunn and Chris Bouchillon both claim to have written and recorded the canonical "Talking Blues," with the above-quoted lyrics; however, it's likely they acquired the form and some of the verses from anonymous African-American musicians. [Given that Scarborough's text precedes them, I'd say it's nearly certain. - RBW]
[For the items in the "same tune" list, the] discographical information lists Mr. Brown's name as "Hersal" for one record and "Hershel" for another. I don't know which is right. And I've since found one spelled "Hershal." Are we confused yet? - PJS
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs's version, interestingly, has an actual tune for this, which she compares to "Old Zip Coon." Since her version is about as old as Scarborough's, it suggests that this was originally a song, but someone learned it without the tune (perhaps from a lost printed item?), and the rest is history. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LoF224

Talking Casey Jones

See Casey Jones (V) (File: RcTalCaJ)

Talking Columbia

DESCRIPTION: "I was down along the river, just sittin' on a rock, Lookin' at the boats in the Bonneville lock." The singer describes what he sees along the river -- and how it inspired this song. He concludes that the world should be run by electricity, not dictators
AUTHOR: Woody Guthrie
EARLIEST DATE: 1941-2 (recording by author)
KEYWORDS: political river technology
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 232, "Talking Columbia" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Talking Blues" (and its assorted relatives)
File: LoF232

Talking Dustbowl Blues

DESCRIPTION: Talking Blues about the dustbowl: The farmer sees his farm turn to dust, trades it for a Ford, heads out to California, has engine trouble, and winds up in California starving and having to beg. The song ends with sarcastic remarks about politicians
AUTHOR: Woody Guthrie
EARLIEST DATE: April 26, 1940 (recording by author)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes travel technology work political derivative dustbowl
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 225, "Talking Dustbowl Blues" (1 text)
Woody Guthrie, "Talkin' Dust Bowl Blues" (Victor 26619, 1940)
DT, DUSTBOWL
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Talking Dust Bowl" (on PeteSeeger41)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Talking Blues" (and its assorted relatives)
NOTES [30 words]: Should we change "Dustbowl" in the title to "Dust Bowl"? That was Guthrie's title, and he wrote it. - PJS
Ordinarily, I'd agree. But people may well search for "dustbowl." Urk. - RBW
File: LoF225

Talking Hard Luck

DESCRIPTION: Talking blues, describing the singer's hard times in surrealistic terms: "I've been bawled out and balled up, held down and held up... lost all I had and part of my furniture...and if that ain't hard luck, folks, then you tell me what is."
AUTHOR: Chris Bouchillon & Lonnie Glosson (each supplying part)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Chris Bouchillon)+1936 (recording, Lonnie Glosson)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes nonsense recitation talltale
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 105, "Born in Hard Luck" (1 text)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 214-215, "Talking Hard Luck" (1 text with musical accompaniment)
DT, ARKLUCK
Roud #1422
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley & Tex Isley, "Tom's Talking Blues (Hard Luck Blues)" (Ashley01)
Chris Bouchillon, "Born in Hard Luck" (Columbia 15151-D, 1927; Clarion 5144-C, 1930 [as Clay Chapman]; Velvet Tone 2498-V, 1932 [as Clay Chapman]; on GoodForWhatAilsYou)
Harmon Canada, "Born in Hard Luck" (Gennett 6972/Champion 15808 [as Joe Smith]/Supertone 9554, 1929; Champion 45173 [as Joe Smith], c. 1935)
Lonnie Glosson, "Talking Hard Luck" (Conqueror 8732, 1936)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Talking Hard Luck" (on NLCR03, NLCR12, NLCREP1, NLCRCD1)
Pete Seeger et al, "Hard Luck Blues" (on PeteSeeger11)
Buddy Starcher, "After I Lost That Job" (Starday SEP 158, c. 1960)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Born In Hard Luck
Good Place to Be From, Anyway
NOTES [78 words]: This is a group of recitations on similar themes, basically grouped around the Bouchillon, Glosson, and Starcher pieces, all part of minstrel, circus and medicine-show traditions. The Ashley piece combines Bouchillon's and Starcher's with a couple of verses from "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down," while the New Lost City Ramblers stitch together Bouchillon's and Glosson's. Much of the material also shows up in the work of medicine-show artist Harmonica Frank Floyd. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: CSW214

Talking Swag

DESCRIPTION: "Wrap up the butt of the old cigar, And pop in the cork of the whisky jar, And hope we'll meet a block with a car... For it's ninety miles to wherever we are, On the swag!" The rambler rarely finds a room or work; even pigs are better fed
AUTHOR: Words: Shirlee Alison (converted to a talking blues by Neil Colquhoun)
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: rambling hardtimes food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 70, "Talking Swag" (1 text with metrical markings and chords) (p. 45 in the 1972 edition)
RECORDINGS:
Neil Colquhoun, "On the Swag" (on NZSongYngCntry)
File: Colq045

Talking with the Social Union

See Tobacco Union (Talking with the Social Union) (File: R508)

Tall Angel at the Bar

DESCRIPTION: "Tall angel at the bar, lord I wonder what's to matter (x2)." "Tall Angel at the bar, will my mother got to go (x2)." "Tall angel... to the bar of God." "She come stepping down the Jordan." "She come stepping down like the lightning." "Don't a-fail...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad mother death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 165, "Tall Angel at the Bar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16130
File: Arno165

Tall Girls, Short Girls

DESCRIPTION: "Tall girls, short girls, fat and thin, What you gonna do when..." various situations occur. Instead of tall or short girls, it might be big folks, small folks, or the like
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1920 (Rose Tennant McFadon, Camp and Club Songs)
KEYWORDS: campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 108, 169, 388, "Tall Girls, Short Girls" (notes only)
NOTES [55 words]: Although I was able to verify that this song is in "Camp and Club Songs," which seems to be its source, I have been unable to procure a full text; the book is no longer readily available. Averill implies that the song has been suppressed, and I suspect it has, because of its casual approach to problems of weight and height. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF388T

Tall Pine Tree, The (The Samsonville Song)

DESCRIPTION: At the foot of the tall pine tree is a brook which runs through Samsonville. The brook powers the mill that feeds Samsonville. The singer(s) love the pine tree, where they "get a chance for to take a glance at the girls in Samsonville"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 177, "The Tall Pine Tree, or, The Samsonville Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC177 (Partial)
NOTES [12 words]: A parody of "The Old Pine Tree," written in 1849 by Charles White. - RBW
File: FSC177

Tall Timber

DESCRIPTION: "Timber, timber, timber, Timber, timber, timber. Oh, the mountains high, down the canyons wide Let me roam and ride, ride through timber...." "Tall timber's calling, and the echoes ring, All nature sings a song along the timber trail."
AUTHOR: Tim Spencer (source: various Internet sites)
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (recording, Sons of the Pioneers)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 539, "Tall Timber" (notes only)
RECORDINGS:
The Sons of the Pioneers, "Tall Timber" (RCA Victor 48-0006, 1949)
File: ACSF539T

Tall Young Oysterman

See The Young Oysterman (The Tall Young Oysterman) (File: HuMT023)

Tallis Canon

See Tallis's Canon (File: ACSF446T)

Tallis' Canon

See Tallis's Canon (File: ACSF446T)

Tallis's Canon

DESCRIPTION: "Glory to thee, my God This night for all the blessings of the light Keep me, oh keep me, King of kings Beneath Thine own almighty wings." This is all that is apparently sung in camps
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Ken (1637-1711) / Music: Thomas Tallis (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1695 (composition of words, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 446, "Tallis Canon" (notes only)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 9, "Tallis' Canon" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Tallis' Canon" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 79) (12th edition, p. 77)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Hundred" (use of lyrics)
NOTES [34 words]: This is more or less the song that gave us "The Doxology"; it was the fourth verse of the text for which the "Glory to thee" verse is the first. For more on Thomas Ken, see the notes to "Old Hundred." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF446T

Tally Ho Hark Away (The Fox Chase; The Sun Had Just Peeped)

DESCRIPTION: "The sun had just peeped its head over the hill" and the birds and ploughboys are just starting their days when the hunter cries "Tally ho!" The fox is in view. They chase it for six hours. At the end, they toast the "fox hunting boys."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Gardiner collection)
KEYWORDS: animal hunting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 99, "Tally-Ho! Hark Away!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1182
File: PCL099

Tally Ho! Hark Away!

See Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!) (File: DTReynrd)

Tally-Ho! Hark Away!

See Tally Ho Hark Away (The Fox Chase; The Sun Had Just Peeped) (File: PCL099)

Tally-i-ho in the Morning

DESCRIPTION: Footman Tipperary Joe, who "never yet owned a horse or a hound ... though I've no money, I live at my ease" enjoys the hunt on foot. "If I'm not first, I am seldom late, With my tally-i-ho"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: hunting nonballad dog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 64, "Tally-i-ho in the Morning" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 491)
Roud #1242
File: WT064

Tallyho! Hark! Away!

See Bold Reynard the Fox (Tallyho! Hark! Away!) (File: DTReynrd)

Talt Hall

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you fathers and mothers And brothers and sisters all, I'll relate to you the history Concerning old Talt Hall." "He shot and killed Frank Salyers." Hall is taken and condemned to die. He writes to bid his brother farewell. He regrets his acts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908
KEYWORDS: homicide punishment execution crime
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 62, pp. 157-158, "Talt Hall" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 198-199 "Talt Hall" (1 text)
Roud #4102
NOTES [108 words]: Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates reports that "Talt Hall, [a] native of Kentucky... was hanged in Virginia toward the end of the nineteenth century" and that "he had on his conscience more than twenty assassinations." Cohen adds details: He was born around 1846 in Tennessee and executed in 1892 by hanging. Supposedly he was tried three times for murder before a jury finally was courageous enough to convict him.
Cohen adds a report that the song was written by a ten-year-old named Uriah N. Webb. I do not know how firm this conclusion is, so I have not listed Webb as the author.
This song is item dE42 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: CW157

Tam Barrow

DESCRIPTION: Widower Tam goes out courting a second wife. He finds that "a' the lasses blinkit blythe, but few o' them had tocher," so at last he settles on a rich widow. He soon grows tired of her and casts her out.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: wife dowry money courting abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook XXIV, pp. 77-78, "Tam Barrow" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 826, "Auld Tammy Barra" (1 text)
ST KinBB24 (Full)
Roud #6217
File: KinBB24

Tam Bo

See Tam Buie (Tam Bo, Magherafelt Hiring Fair) (File: HHH748)

Tam Broon

See The King Takes the Queen (File: FSWB232)

Tam Brown

See The King Takes the Queen (File: FSWB232)

Tam Buie (Tam Bo, Magherafelt Hiring Fair)

DESCRIPTION: The (widow) attempts to hire Tam. He asks about his wages. He talks her into an increase, then asks about his diet. Satisfied, he asks where he will sleep. After turning down several offers, he agrees to sleep with, and marry, her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: worker courting marriage home bargaining
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1424, "The Rigwuddy Carlin" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H748, p. 263, "Magherafelt Hiring Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 194 (notes), (no title) (1 text, probably incomplete, but recognizably this, treated as a version of "Bargain With Me"; Kennedy also includes a portion of the Sam Henry text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter Buchan, Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1875 (reprint of 1828 edition)), Vol II, pp. 230-233, "The Rigwoodie Carlin'"
Roud #366
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bargain With Me" (plot)
cf. "My Good Old Man" (format)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Tam Bowie
The Wanton Widow
NOTES [42 words]: In plot, this is identical with "Bargain With Me," but the form resembles nothing so much as "My Good Old Man." It seems to me best to keep "Tom Buie" and "Bargain With Me" separate, while noting their extreme similarity. Roud of course lumps them. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: HHH748

Tam Frew's Hat

DESCRIPTION: "You've a' heard tell o' auld Tam Frew... Whase only way o' livin noo Is gaun aboot and cleanin' clocks... But the oddest o' his queerest ways -- He keeps his smiddy in his hat." Tam's hat, his behaviors, and his old age are humorously described
AUTHOR: John McLay?
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: clothes humorous technology
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 65-68, "Tam Frew's Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13113
File: FVS065

Tam Gibb and His Sow

See Matty Broon's Soo (Tam Gibb and the Soo) (File: HHH671)

Tam Gibb and the Soo

See Matty Broon's Soo (Tam Gibb and the Soo) (File: HHH671)

Tam Lane

See Tam Lin [Child 39] (File: C039)

Tam Lin [Child 39]

DESCRIPTION: Janet goes to Carterhaugh to pull flowers. She meets Tam Lin, who makes her sleep with him. She finds herself pregnant, and demands Tam Lin marry her. But to do so, she must rescue him from thralldom to the Elven queen. With difficulty, she does so.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769; perhaps cited in 1549 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: magic pregnancy marriage rescue shape-changing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland,England) Ireland US(NE)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Child 39, "Tam Lin" (15 texts)
Bronson 39, "Tam Lin" (4 versions plus 1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 39, "Tam Lin" (3 versions: #2, #2.1, #3,1)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 186-193, "The Young Tamlane" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 330, "True Tammas" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 86, "A Fairie Sang"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 99, "Janet and Tam Blain" (2 texts)
Dixon-ScottishTraditionalVersionsOfAncientBallads II, pp. 11-20, "Tam-a-Line, the Elfin Knicht" (1 text)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 250-254, "Tam Lane" (1 text; tune on p. 422) {Bronson's #4}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 136-141, "Tam Lin" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 38-43, "Tam Lin" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 2, "Tam Lin" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 41, "Tam Lin" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 23, "Tam Lin" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 283-289+360, "Tam Lin" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 129, "Tam Lin" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 27, "Tam Lin" (1 text)
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 163-169, "Tamlin" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 449-453, "The Young Tamlane"; pp. 453-454, "Tom Linn" (2 texts)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 28-31, "Tam Lin" (1 text)
DT 39, TAMLIN1* TAMLIN2* TAMLIN3
ADDITIONAL: Emily Lyle, _Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition_, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, pp. 110-111, "Tam Lin" (1 text plus an excerpt); pp.116-117, "Lady Margaret" (1 text, 1 tune, a much-worn-down version from Betsy Johnson); pp. 118-119, "[Leady Margat]" (1 text); on pp. 119-121 Lyle compares various texts of "Tam Lin" with portions of several other ballads
Katherine Briggs, _An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblines, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures_, 1976 (I use the 1977 Pantheon paperback), pp. 449-453, article "Young Tam Lin, or Tamlane" (1 text plus discussion)
Iona & Peter Opie, The Oxford Book of Narrative Verse, pp. 32-37, "Tam Lin" (1 text)
James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #558, pp. 658-663, "Tam Lin" (1 text, 1 tune, from c. 1796)
Roud #35
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs, "Young Tambling" (on Briggs2, Briggs3, Briggs4)
Eddie Butcher, "Saturday Night is Hallowe'en Night" (on IREarlyBallads)
A. L. Lloyd, "Tamlyn (Young Tambling)" (on Lloyd3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Seven Virgins (The Leaves of Life)" (tune)
NOTES [1286 words]: Liner notes to Eddie Butcher's recording: "This short 'chantefable' includes verses of 'Tam Lin.'" Roud makes this #294 with other "Tam Lin" derivatives. - BS
Carterhaugh, also mentioned as the site of magic in "The Wee Wee Man," "is a plain at the confluence of the Ettrick and Yarrow in Selkirkshire" (Scott).
The idea of gaining a lover who is changing shape has ancient roots. We find it in Ovid's "Metamorphoses," where Peleus (the father of Achilles) has the problem of coupling with his wife Thetis.
The problem was, Thetis was very attractive, and a lot of the Gods (including Zeus and Poseidon) wanted her for themselves. But there was that prophecy that her son would be greater than his father. (This is the prophecy that finally got Prometheus free of his torture, because he knew who was involved and Zeus didn't).
Once the gods knew that Thetis was the dangerous party, they decided to wed her off to a mortal so she could have a son and they could get back to the serious business of hitting on her. They chose Peleus, and held a great marriage feast (it was at that feast that Eris threw out the Apple of Discord, causing the fight between Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera which led to the Judgment of Paris, and hence to the abduction of Helen and the Trojan War).
The gods could marry Thetis off; they couldn't make her like it. Peleus found himself in the interesting position of having to locate and, in effect, capture his wife. Given help from the gods, he found Thetis in a cave and attempted to couple with her. To defeat him, she turned into a bird, a tree, and a tigress. The latter scared him off, but eventually he caught her while asleep (Metamorphoses XI.225ff.).
Similar stories are told, e.g., of the devil -- one legend of Saint Dunstan says that Satan tried to lure the saint into sexual immorality by showing up as a pretty girl and making a move on him, but Dunstan, who was working as a smith, caught the devil by the nose with his tongs. The devil tried many changes of shape, but Dunstan did not let go until Satan took his own shape. Freed, the Devil flew off and left Dunstan alone (Simpson, pp. 63-64).
The idea of repeated transformations, or transformations from one form to another, is even older in classical mythology; it's Thompson type D610, In the Odyssey, we see it in the story of Proteus, who is a shape-shifter. Menelaus and his men need the god's advice, but Proteus always resists using his prophetic powers, usually by changing his shape. But Menelaus and his men are told how to deal with it, and they succeed: Robert Fagles translates:
First he shifted into a great bearded lion
and then a serpent --
a panther --
a ramping wild boar --
a torrent of wine --
a tree with roaring branchtops --
but we held on for dear life, braving it out.... (Homer/Fagles, pp. 138-139; Book IV, lines 512 and following in Fagles's numbering).
Richard Lattimore offers
First he turned into a great bearded lion,
and then to a serpent, then to a leopard, then to a great boar,
and he turned into fluid water, to a tree with towering branches,
But we held stiffly on to him with enduring spirit.... (Homer/Lattimore, p. 77; Book IV, lines 455-459 in Lattimore's numbering).
Even more specific to "Tam Lin" is Thompson type D757, "Disenchantment by holding an enchanted person during successive transformations."
Dixon-ScottishTraditionalVersionsOfAncientBallads quotes a possible mention of this song from Wedderburn's Complaynt of Scotland (1549): He refers once to a dance of "thom of lyn," and elsewhere to the "tayl of yong tamlane." But Lyle, p. 110, points out that the full reference in the latter case is to "the tayl of the 3ong tamlene and of the bald braband," with the meaning of the latter item being unknown. (Cf. Complaynt, p. lxxix). Hence we cannot prove that either of these is this piece, even if it's the same story. Indeed, Dixon hints that the references might be to "Tom o' the Linn," which appears to be the song we index as "Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn)." Murray, who edited the Complaynt, suggests on the other hand that "The Bald Braband" is a separate (lost?) romance (Complaynt, p. lxxix).
Lyle catalogs a number of parallels to other ballads, noting especially (pp. 123-126) a link to "The King's Dochter Lady Jean" [Child 52]. The points of lyric contact are interesting, but "Tam Lin" is at the heart a ballad of the supernatural, "Lady Jean" an incest ballad. The only fundamental point they have in common is rape.
Some versions of the ballad end with the Queen of Fairie, deprived of Tam Lin, being forced pay another tithe to hell. Lyle, p. 128, connects this to the legend of changelings four, e.g., in "The Queen of Elfan's Nourice" [Child 40]. The story is that the Elven people carried off unbaptized infants to pay their tithe. The difficulty with this link is that it implies that Janet could have saved Tam by bringing in a priest to have him baptized, rather than going through the rigamarole on Hallow's Eve.
Nonetheless Wimberly, pp. 390-391, follows a hint from Child and argues strongly that there is a baptism ritual involved -- it's just that the versions of "Tam Lin" have so disordered the transformations that this is no longer true. Presumably the transformations continued until Janet could bring Tam to water (perhaps a holy well?) and throw him in. From that, he would emerge "an utter naked man" -- but also cleansed of the taint of the Queen. This raises interesting questions about the possibility of re-baptism (which most sects would deny is possible), but maybe such analysis is too much to ask of a ballad. (There is also the problem that Faerie is normally considered morally neutral, e.g. in the romance "Sir Orfeo" it is separate from both heaven and hell, and so also in the ballad "Thomas Rymer" [Child 37].)
Scott knew a story that Tam Lin continued to have relations with the Queen even after Janet took him away. Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 157, seems to suggest that the whole point of the song is a sexual relationship between Tam and the Queen. This feels wrong to me; I think Scott's legend post-dates rather than predating the ballad.
For observations on shape-shifting in ballads, see the notes to "The Twa Magicians" [Child 44]. Lyle, p. 139, argues that the use of elements of other ballads in "Tam Lin" implies that it was compiled by a ballad-maker who did not believe in the literal truth of the elements. In other words, if I understand her right, there was no underlying folktale; it was composed as fiction.
Briggs, volume A.1, p. 502, does not say quite the same thing, but she does call the song "a compendium of Scottish fairy beliefs." She also notes that Sir Walter Scott turned the idea into the poem "Alice Brand." "Alice Brand" is a long and complex poem, being sections XII-XV of "The Lady of the Lake" (pp. 154-156 of Scott-Works), with other elements, but it is clear that Scott did have traditional ballads in mind when he wrote it.
Interestingly, Hallow's Eve is not the only night of a wild hunt, and the Elven Queen not the only leader. Hole, p. 59, reports a legend of King Arthur and his men riding a ghostly road on Christmas Eve.
According to Williams, p. 48, "On the plain at Carterhaugh, which is situated where the Ettrick and Yarrow meet about a mile north of Selkirk, there are two or three rings where grass never grows. People say these are fairy rings which survive from the time of Tam Lin.... - RBW
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads "Tom Linn" has 26 stanzas instead of Child 39D's 34. The source is Child's 39Db (see Child's notes and Maidment, A New Book of Old Ballads (Edinburgh, 1844), #16 pp. 54-60, "Tom Linn" "taken down from the recitation of an old woman"). - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: C039

Tam o' My Back

DESCRIPTION: "There was Tam o' my back, an' Tam i' my lap ..., Tam o' the lea"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: riddle nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1632, "Tam o' My Back" (1 text)
Roud #13072
NOTES [25 words]: "There are ten Tams here, suggesting manipulation of fingers or toes" (source: Ewan McVicar, Doh Ray Me, When Ah Wis Wee (Edinburgh, 2007), p. 26). - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81632

Tam O'Shanter

DESCRIPTION: "When chapman billies leave the street, And drouthy neebors neebors meet," Tam O'Shanter, somewhat at the worse for drink, thinks he sees a coven dancing, including a pretty witch in a cutty sark. He flees; his horse loses its tail before he escapes
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1790 (date of composition, according to Kinsley; first published 1791 in the _Edinburgh Magazine_ and Grose's _Antiquities of Scotland_, according to Lindsay)
KEYWORDS: drink witch escape horse injury
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 24, "Ah, gentle dames, it gars me greet" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #321, pp. 443-449, "Tam O'Shanter. A Tale" (1 text)
Roud #24056
NOTES [288 words]: Although this is one of Burns's most famous poems, there is little evidence of it having gone into tradition, probably because it's so long. Even Helen Kane had just four lines.
According to Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, Gilbert Burns, Robert's brother, Robert "had asked the antiquarian [Francis Grose, who was preparing Antiquities of Scotland] to include a drawing of Alloway Kirk when he came to Ayreshire, and Grose agreed, provided that Burns would give him something to print with it." Burns responded with three "witch stories," of which he claimed two as "authentic" and the third (as I interpret it) true but not as strongly identified with Alloway. The second of these was the tale of Tam O'Shanter, subsequently amplified into a poem.
A "cutty sark" is, of course, a short sark, or garment; the idea is that the witch was wearing "a smock with was considerably too short to answer all the purpose of that piece of dress," according to Burns's prose summary.
Linsdsay, pp. 149, 268, says that Tam O'Shanter and his wife Kate were "probably" based on Douglas Graham (baptized 1738; died 1811) and his "superstitious, eccentric, and irascible" wife Helen McTaggart Graham (1742-1798), who farmed at Shanter. Graham reportedly owned a boat with the name Tam O'Shanter, and was very fond of alcohol while his wife was opposed.
Some others in the poem are also supposed to be real people, e.g. the smith in the line "The smith and thee gat roarin' fou' on" is said to be one John Niven, Sr., of Damhouse of Ardlochan, and his son Robert Niven, a miller and farmer, was the subject of the line "That ilka meddler wi' the miller." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: KSUC024C

Tam O'Shanter Hat, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing on the Tam o' Shanter's hat For the Cameronian Rifles." "John Bull, Pat, and Sandy true, Are a' amalgamated noo." At review time we outdo the Life Guards and Royal Blues." "Tho' we lose the Cameronian name, We ne'er can lose the Cameron fame"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: pride army clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 72, "The Tam O'Shanter Hat" (1 text)
Roud #5799
NOTES [633 words]: Greig/Duncan1: "The song refers to the amalgamation in 1881 of the 90th Light Infantry and the 26th Regiment of Foot to form the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). The new uniform consisted of dark green doublet, tartan trews, and Tam o' Shanter (a flat woollen bonnet)." - BS
The amalgamation of regiments Ben mentions were part of the 1881 Cardwell Reforms. Prior to that, British regiments came in all sorts of sizes, strengths, and capabilities, because they had been raised at various times, and some had more ease keeping up their strength than others.
Cardwell (1813-1886) was Gladstone's Secretary of War from 1868, and he had three problems to deal with: "the army's unreadiness for war, its inability to provide adequate colonial garrisons and its officering by the antiquated system of the purchase of commissions" (Keegan/Wheatcroft, p. 59). "He brought in three major reforms: the Army Enlistment Act of 1870, the Regulation of the Forces Act of 1871, and the scheme of 1872 which linked battalions of a regiment so as to ensure regular exchanges between home and overseas stations, and gave each regiment a county affiliation and a recruiting and training depot within its county" (Haswell, pp. 100-101).
The first of these acts regularized the terms of soldiers, meaning that old drunks and cripples did not stay with the army, while the second got rid of commissions by purchase (Haswell, p. 101; Chandler/Beckett, p. 188, notes that this had to be done by executive authority because of opposition in parliament). Although all the reforms were widely opposed, it was was the third reform that caused the most controversy. It was not until 1881 that a successor of Cardwell, Hugh Childers, actually managed to amalgamate battalions (Haswell, pp. 114-115), and it took even longer to sweep out some of the old officers -- including the Duke of Cambridge, who as commander-in-chief of the army did his best to oppose the reforms (Haswell, p. 102).
From a purely military standpoint, the Cardwell Reforms were logical and vital; the old way resulted in a badly disorganized army. But the troops *hated* them -- since almost all regiments were combined with at least one other, they felt their history was lost. Plus they often lost their home places -- British regiments were largely recruited geographically, and the regions they recruited from were changed.
The Cameronians, according to Hallows, p. 282, had originally been the 26th Regiment; they were amalgamated with the 90th Regiment, the Perthshire Volunteer Light Infantry. They retained the title The Cameronians at the time. However, that name is now gone -- the Cameronians were disbanded in 1968, according to Hallows, p. 284.
According to Baynes/Laffin, pp. 158-159, the Cameronians were originally raised by Richard Cameron, and the soldiers were Covenanters. They had a distinguished history, serving with Marlborough, then later in the American Revolution, and they were with Moore in the Peninsula. They later served much time in Asia (Baynes/Laffin, pp. 159-160).
The old Cameronians were the first battalion of the post-Cardwell Cameronians. This battalion was eliminated in 1947, meaning that, as a formation, the old 26th Regiment ceased to be even before the amalgamated regiment was disbanded.
Part of the problem with the amalgamated Cameronians was that the other battalion of the regiment, the Perthshire infantry, was so different. Raised in 1794, they had a history entirely unlike the Cameronians, according to Baynes, pp. 160-161.
Baynes/Laffin, p. 162, says that the regiment served in Aden in 1966, then came home in 1967 to be told that it had a choice: Amalgamate with another regiment (again) or disband. They chose to disband; such companies as are left are now part of the 52nd Lowland Volunteers. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD072

Tam Pierce

See Tom Pearce (Widdicombe Fair I) (File: K308)

Tam-a-Line, the Elfin Knicht

See Tam Lin [Child 39] (File: C039)

Tambaroora Gold

DESCRIPTION: The singer, down on his luck, redeems himself by moving to Tambaroora and finding gold. Now he has respect, but it is only for the money. When his money is gone, his girl abandons him for someone else with Tambaroora gold.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: gold elopement abandonment work hardtimes
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 40-41, "Tambaroora Gold" (1 text, edited; 2 tunes collated into one)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 206, "Tambaroora Gold" (1 fragment; 1 tune)
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, p. 90, "Tambaroora Gold" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, pp. 162-163, "Tambaroora Gold" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wild Rover No More" (theme)
File: MA206

Tambaroora Ted

See Tomahawking Fred (Tambaroora Ted) (File: FaE138)

Tamiston

DESCRIPTION: Betty and Johnnie Smith court. He spends all his money on her. Lord Elgin seduces and leaves her. Her mother suggests Johnnie marry Betty. Betty makes up with Johnnie. They marry. Their daughters marry well and "her son micht weel command a ship"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage seduction children
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #165, p. 2, "Tamiston" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1060, "Tamiston" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6302
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Johnny Smith
NOTES [47 words]: Greig #166: "The Tamiston referred to, he [a correspondent] says, is between Glenfoudland and Huntly, in Drumblade. 'Michies Knowe' ["And she's taen in yon high stane road, By Andrew Michie's knowe."] should be 'Michies Howe.' [a 'knowe'" is a hill and a 'howe' is a low ground]" - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD51060

Tammy Chalmers

DESCRIPTION: The singer "left the kirk that patronage gae me" and his "simple flock" because "Tammie Chalmers, he's fairly diddled me." "But nocht can bring my bonnie glebe and stipend back again." He and his wife are grief-stricken.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: grief political religious clergy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 682, "Tammy Chalmers" (2 texts)
Roud #6107
NOTES [413 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "This song is a satiric treatment of the Disruption of 1843 when, under the leadership of Dr Thomas Chalmers, approximately a third of the ministers of the Church of Scotland resigned their offices and endowments and formed the Free Church." -BS
There had been a long debate in the Church of Scotland in 1843 over whether a minister could be forced on an unwilling congregation. The idea is rather foreign to reformed doctrine, but it flows easily out of the hierarchical Anglican doctrine followed in England -- and England, of course, dominated parliament. So the official Church of Scotland policy allowed civil jurisdiction both over church courts and over congregations. (There were other differences between the groups, having to do with church policy and who ran congregations as well as with issues such as the treatment of the poor, but this is so nitpicky that even I don't want to dig into it. Both parties considered themselves the true Presbyterian church, but to be fair, both seem to have fallen within the limits of Calvinist theology.)
According to OxfordCompanionp. 295, 474 out of 1203 ministers in the Scottish church quit the official body to form the Free Church. According to Mitchison, p. 383, the ministers who withdrew were mostly the more strongly evangelical, and often leaders of new parishes, which tended to draw the more radically conservative ministers. According to MacLean, p. 204, by 1900 the Free Church (which in that year joined the "United Presbyterians" to form the "United Free Church") had more parishes than the official Church of Scotland. The two branches reunited in 1929 after Westminster abandoned its control over the Church of Scotland.
Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847) was the leader of these radical evangelicals. Prior to the split, he had worked to build up an endowment to support the various new congregations, but such an endowment could not match the government bounty given to official ministers. It sounds as if the singer in this song was swept away by the fervor of the evangelicals -- but then found that he had to survive based on nothing more than what his congregation gave him, rather than the government salary paid out of the taxes collected to support the state churches. - RBW
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Turriff (347,386,682) is at coordinate (h5,v7) on that map [roughly 31 miles NNW of Aberdeen] - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3682

Tammy Doddle

See Tammy Toddles (File: RPG009)

Tammy Toddles

DESCRIPTION: "Tammy Toddles is a cantie chile, Fu' cantie an' fu' croosie, The fairies liked him unco weel, An' built him a wee hooe." A fairy enters the hous and skips and dances and sings. It is so shrill that Tammy "was mis-smothered in the thrang."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice)
KEYWORDS: home magic nonballad supernatural dancing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #9, pp. 123-124, "Tammy Doddle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2497
RECORDINGS:
Lizzie Higgins, "Tammie Toddle" (on LHiggins01)

File: RPG009

Tammy Traddlefeet

DESCRIPTION: Tammy Traddlefeet sings "I hae been a weaver lad, for twenty years an' twa." "We weaver lads were merry blades in good times" but prices have fallen. "We'll maybe live to see the time when things'll tak' a come" and good times will return.
AUTHOR: David Shaw (source: Fenton)
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Fenton)
KEYWORDS: weaving hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 477, "The Weaver Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Andrew Fenton, editor, Forfar Poets (Forfar, 1879), pp. 61-62, "Tammy Traddlefeet"
Roud #5876
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Four-Loom Weaver" (subject) and references there
NOTES [38 words]: The description follows Fenton.
Fenton: "This song was composed when wages for handloom weaving was low, and provisions very high in price, the now half-forgotten iniquity of Protection not yet having received its death blow." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3477

Tammy Tuck

See Joseph Tuck (File: OpOx087)

Tampa

DESCRIPTION: "Well I tamped all the way from Tampa In (21) days, buddy, in (21) days." "You got to tamp like me." Other verses tell of various disasters: "Ada shot Shorty." "Waterworks in Georgia just burning down." "I broke my brand-new hammer."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (recorded from Jesse Hendricks, J. B. Smith, Matt Williams, Louis Houston by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes disaster nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 300-302, "Tampa" (2 texts, 1 tune)
File: JDM300

Tamping Ties

DESCRIPTION: Call and response for tie-laying. "Tamp 'em up solid...Then they'll hold that midnight mail....Well, work don't hurt me...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: worksong railroading
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 445, "Tamping Ties" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BRaF445

Tan-Yard Side, The [Laws M28]

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves a girl who lives by the tan-yard side. After a year of courtship, they prepare to be wed, but her father has him sent to sea. He vows to marry her if he ever returns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1884 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3956))
KEYWORDS: courting exile sea return
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond)) US(MA) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws M28, "The Tan-Yard Side"
Peacock, pp. 592-593, "The Slaney Side" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 76, "Down By the Tan-Yard Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 25, "The Tan Yard Side" (1 text)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 41, "Down by the Tanyard Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H52b pp. 429-430, "The Slaney Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 238, "The Tan-Yard Side" (1 text)
DT 585, TANYARD
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 69, "Down by the Tanyard Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1021
RECORDINGS:
Frank Quinn, "The Tan Yard Side" (on Voice10)
Peter Molloy, "Down By the Tanyard Side" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Winfred Powers, "The Slaney Side" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Phoebe Smith, "The Tan Yard Side" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3956), "The Tan-Yard Side," H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Firth b.26(335), 2806 b.11(19), "The Tan-Yard Side"; Firth c.16(467), "The Tanyard Side"; 2806 c.15(330)[some lines illegible], "The Slaney Side"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(96b), "The Slaney Side," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c.1855
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fish and Chips" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Fish and Chips (File: OLcM250)
File: LM28

Taney County

See Young Companions [Laws E15] (File: LE15)

Tanneray

DESCRIPTION: Tanneray hears his daughter is getting married. He rushes to stop the wedding. The preacher says "you better forgot it." His wife says "this thing has been done You ain't lost a daughter you done got a son." Tanneray gives the couple his blessing.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Blind Blake Higgs: see WIHIGGS01)
KEYWORDS: wedding clergy father mother
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Tanneray" (on WIHIGGS01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There's A Man Going Round Taking Names" (structure; see notes)
NOTES [118 words]: The structure of each verse is the same as in "There's A Man Going Round Taking Names."
For example, the first verse is
Tanneray your daughter get married, Tanneray (2x)/Tanneray he went in the market one mornin/ When the locals see him comin runnin/ O your daughter get married, Tanneray
While I haven't seen a Bahaman text for "There's A Man Going Round Taking Names" Steve Roud has the following entry under that title, "matched by title only [Info taken from published Checklist]," source: Library of Congress recording 422 A1, perf: Austin, Elizabeth, place: Bahamas: Cat Island: Old Bight, accessed December 6, 2014
You could argue that the structure is not much further distant from "Crawdad." - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: RcTanray

Tansey, The

See Jingo Ring (Merry-Ma-Tanzie, Around the Ring) (File: Fus173)

Tap a Tap Shoe

DESCRIPTION: "Tap a tap shoe (or "Tap-a-shoe"), that would I do, If I had but a little more leather; We'll sit in the son till the leader do come, Then we'll tap them both together." A rhyme a mother uses while tapping baby's shoes together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Deane/Shaw)
KEYWORDS: mother clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 49, "(Tap-ashoe, that would I do)" (1 short text)
Roud #20472
File: SeSh049B

Tap-a-Shoe

See Tap a Tap Shoe (File: SeSh049B)

Tap, Tap, Tapping

See Tapping at the Garden Gate (File: GrD4807)

Tapping at the Garden Gate

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks a girl in the room: "Who's that tapping at the garden gate" every night? She blushes and looks under the table. The singer says it's not there, and it's not a cat. "Cats don't know when it's half-past eight"
AUTHOR: Words: J. Loker; Music: S. W. New
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1375))
KEYWORDS: courting humorous nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 807, "Tap, Tap, Tapping" (1 fragment)
Heart-Songs, pp. 264-265, "Tapping at the Garden Gate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #22, p. 63, "Tapping at the Garden Gate" (1 text)
Roud #6208
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1375), "Tapping at the Garden Gate" ("Who's that tapping at the garden gate?"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth b.27(173), "Tapping at the Garden Gate"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Who's That Tapping at the Garden Gate?
NOTES [41 words]: Greig/Duncan4 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(1375) is the basis for the description.
The authorship attribution is from sheet music at California Sheet Project site. - BS
Heart-Songs also attributes the song to Loker and New - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: GrD4807

Taps (Day Is Done)

DESCRIPTION: Initially and properly a bugle call, but frequently sung with the lyric "Day is done, Gone the sun, From the lake, From the hill, From the sky, All is well, Safely rest, God is nigh."
AUTHOR: Music: Daniel Butterfield (1831-1901)
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (source: Mark M. Boatner, The Civil War Dictionary, entry on Butterfield)
KEYWORDS: music nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 570, "Taps"
Harbin-Parodology, #357, p. 63, "Taps" (1 text 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 127, "Taps" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 192, 195, 292, 332, 422, 521, "Taps"/"Day Is Done" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 12, "Taps" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 112, "Taps" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 56, "Taps"( 1 text)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 69, "Day Is Done/Taps" (1 text, 1 tune, with versions -- not really translations -- in French, German, Swedish, Daish, Italian, Dutch, "Finland" (sic.), and Greek (but in transliteration, not the Greek alphabet)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 125, "Taps" (1 text)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 45, "Taps" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 10, "Taps" (1 text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Jay Mechling, "Magic of the Boy Scout Campfire," Volume 93, Number 367 (Jan-Mar 1980), p. 50, "Taps" (1 text)
DT, GSTAPS*
NOTES [165 words]: The bugle is a melodically limited instrument, and General Daniel Butterfield, while a brigadier in the Army of the Potomac, wanted a better call. So he came up with "Taps," and it took off amazingly.
The tune was used for the final event of the day, "Extinguish Lights," and was called by that name for a time.
Being such a widespread piece, I am not attempting to list all uses -- just the camp uses.
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 294, states that Daniel Butterfield "commanded the Army of the Potomac in 1862." This is absurdly false; he commanded a brigade, a division, and for a time a corps, but not the whole thing. He did serve as Chief of Staff under Joseph Hooker, and was still in that capacity at the Battle of Gettysburg because George Gordon Meade hadn't had time to replace him -- but soon after Gettysburg, Meade fired the Butterfield, who was not a professional military man. This tune is probably Butterfield's only positive contribution to American military history. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF292T

Tapscott

See Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go) (File: Doe062)

Tar the Yoll

DESCRIPTION: "Tar the yoll [yawl] again." Father bought the tar yesterday and Jeannie put it on.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1622, "Tar the Yoll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12985
File: GrD81622

Tar-ry Sailor, The

See The Saucy Sailor (Jack and Jolly Tar II) [Laws K38] (File: LK38)

Taranaki Song

DESCRIPTION: "The passing moments to beguile, To cheer our spirits, raise a smile... We'll sing in Taranaki's praise." About "New Plymouth fair, New Zealand's boast." It has riches, farms, fair ladies, "churches for the orthodox, And for the sinners gaols and stocks"
AUTHOR: Words: John Hursthouse (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (_Wellington Independent_, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: home New Zealand drink work farming nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 22-23, "Taranaki Song" (1 text)
File: BaRo022

Tardy Wooer, The

See No Sign of a Marriage [Laws P3] (File: LP03)

Tariff on the Brain

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you honest people, Whoever you may be, And help the honest workingmen Resist monopoly." The "brokers" have "Tariff on the brain (x2), Look out for politicians Who have tariff on the brain." They have Grover to support their gold standard
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Nevada Folklore pamphlet; probably written in the 1890s)
KEYWORDS: money political nonballad derivative gold
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1885-1889 and 1893-1897 - Presidencies of Grover Cleveland
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 73-74, "Tarriff on the Brain" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: Nebraska Folklore, Pamphlet Eighteen, "Farmers' Alliance Songs of the 1890's," Federal Writers' Project, 1938, p. 13, "Tarriff on the Brain" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brennan on the Moor" [Laws L7] (tune)
NOTES [566 words]: This song is somewhat unclear about conditions in the 1890s, because while Grover Cleveland stood for hard money (i.e. no silver purchase at 16:1, a major cause of the Panic of 1893), he was a Democrat, and the Democrats were generally the low-tariff party:
"A [low] tariff came in in 1857. This remained until 1861, when the Morrill Tariff went into effect, in accordance with the policy of the Republicans, now in power, who favored high protective duties. The Civil War caused a large increase of the rates to meet government expenses and stimulate manufactures. This continued long after the war. In 1882 a Tariff Commission was appointed to consider readjusting the rates, and the Republicans made some slight reductions. Since then they have returned to advocacy of high protection, while the Democrats, since President Cleveland's message of 1887, have favored reduction of the rates. The McKinley Act of 1890 maintained the protective system. A Democratic bill for moderate reduction was introduced into the House in December, 1893." Jameson, pp. 642-643.
Farmers, including the members of the Farmers Alliance who sang this song, wanted a lower tariff because they were exporting raw materials and importing expensive finished goods; manufacturers wanted high tariffs because they had to compete with more efficient European factories. Hence the tariff struggles. The farmers also wanted high inflation, to moderate their mortgages. So they opposed the "gold bugs" of this song, and disliked Cleveland, who favored hard money even though he had an acceptable view of the tariff. Graff, p. 114, notes how the Panic of 1893 placed the U. S. government under great financial strain, and President Cleveland covered the shortage of gold by borrowing gold from J. P. Morgan on favorable terms. Hence the popular opinion of Cleveland reflected in this song: "The president, screamed his critics, was in league with the 'money trust,' The terms that [Morgan's] syndicate exacted were rightly regarded as exorbitant.... The condemnation of Cleveland is probably unfair because Cleveland had bargained hard and, in the acute crisis, had no other way out" (Graff, p. 115).
On p. 117, though, Graff admits that "in the interregnum [i.e. presumably while Benjamin Harrison was President in 1889-1893], Cleveland had become much more sympathetic to the needs and concerns of businessmen and eastern bankers. Nor was he alone in his inclination. Quite simply, the leaders of both parties were impervious to the cries of farmers and workingmen."
For more background on the Farmers' Alliance, see the notes to "Marching for Freedom." For more about the 1896 election between Free Silver candidate William Jennings Bryan and pro-tariff William McKinley, see "Free Silver." McKinley "had devoted his career to tariff protection with a singular concentration. It was literally true that he knew nothing else, that the issues of money and banking, foreign policy, and so on, were largely mysteries to him"; Jones, pp. 105-106. McKinley's biographer Philipps, p. 42, is less harsh but calls the tariff "McKinley's focal point" and allows that "McKinley's enthusiasm for protective was part of what led foes to call him a front man for corporations, trusts, and plutocrats" and on p. 48 points to a link between the tariffs McKinley supported and high rates of inequality and the formation of monopolies.- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Wels073

Tarland Laws, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises Tarland's lasses braw, hearty boys, fertile fields and high mountains that "keep aff the stormy win's." Tarland toon has a weekly fair, markets, fighters that will chase all comers. "We'll drink success ... That Tarland wins ye a' man."
AUTHOR: William Thomson (source: Greig/Duncan3)
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: pride bragging nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #160, pp. 1-2, "The Tarland Laws" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 511, "The Tarland Laws" (1 text)
Roud #5995
NOTES [36 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Tarland (511) is at coordinate (h0-1,v4-5) on that map [roughly 28 miles W of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD3511

Tarpaulin Jacket

See Wrap Me Up in my Tarpaulin Jacket (File: FR439)

Tarriers' Song, The

See Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (File: LoF217)

Tarry Sailor (I)

See Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor) [Laws K40] (File: LK40)

Tarry Sailor (II), The

See Will You Wed with a Tarry Sailor? [Laws K37] (File: LK37)

Tarry Sailor (III), The

See Jack the Sailor (The Tarry Sailor III) (File: VWP064)

Tarry Trousers (I)

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) (File: E098)

Tarry Trousers (II)

See As I Roved Out (I) (Tarry Trousers II) (File: LoF014)

Tarry Woo

DESCRIPTION: "Oh tarry woo' [wool]... is ill to spin, Card it well, oh card it well, card it well ere you begin." Card it, spin it, weave it. Shepherds may go out and dance. Who would be a king when he could be a shepherd?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: sheep shepherd clothes royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #12, "Tarry Woo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1472
File: PECS012

Tars of the Blanche, The

See The Blanche (File: DixP039)

Tartan Plaidy, The (O My Bonnie Highland Laddie)

DESCRIPTION: "When first he landed on our strand," Prince Charlie charms all who meet him. "When Geordie heard the news belyve, That he had come before his daddy," the king sends John Cope north. Cope and Charlie play cat and mouse. Stories of the '45
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2)
KEYWORDS: Jacobites rebellion battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1720-1788 - Life of Charles Edward Stuart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie," the Young Pretender, eldest son of James Stuart the "Old Pretender"
Jul 23, 1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlie lands on Eriskay
Jul 25, 1745 - Charlie transfers to Moidart
Aug 8, 1745 - Approximate date that firm word reaches George II's court of Charles's landing
Aug 19, 1745 - "Gathering of the Clans." Official raising of the standard at Glenfinnan
Aug 27, 1745 - Charlie expects to catch the army of General John Cope at Corriearrack, but Cope evades him and heads for Inverness. Cope from there heads to Aberdeen, to take ship south to Dunbar, moving from there to Prestonpans on Sep 20
Sep 4, 1745 - Charles enters Perth and proclaims his father King
Sep 17, 1745 - Jacobite army enters Edinborough
Sep 21, 1745 - Battle of Prestonpans. Bonnie Prince Charlie's Highland army routs the first real Hannoverian force it encounters
Apr 16, 1746 - Battle of Culloden Muir ends the 1745 Jacobite rebellion
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 60, "O My Bonny Highland Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 126, "The Lad Wi' The Tartan Plaidie" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #5778
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, APS.4.95.15(2), "The Tartan Plaidie," unknown, c. 1830; also L.C.Fol.70(141), "Prince Charlie and his Tartan Plaidie," L.C.Fol.70(141a) [a trimmed version of the preceding], L.C.1270(005), "Charlie Stuart and his Tartan Plaidy," James Kay (Glasgow), c. 1845
ALTERNATE TITLES:
When Charlie First Cam to the North
Charlie Stuart and his Tartan Plaidy
Culloden Moor
NOTES [399 words]: Looking at the texts available to me, this seems to be rather a catchall piece, describing the 1745 rebellion in as much detail as the singer wants to tell. On the whole, the versions seem fairly accurate, implying literary composition somewhere along the line. This fits with the anonymity of many of the prints.
The statement that "The graceful/manly looks o' that brave laddie Made every Hieland heartie warm" is, incidentally, true -- when Charlie landed, Lochiel (properly Cameron of Lochiel, one of the leaders of Clan Cameron, and the single most important chief to support him) sent messengers to urge him to go home. But Charlie arranged a meeting, and Lochiel was swept away. So were other chiefs.
The song describes a speech Charlie made to his troops before Prestonpans. This is real, though the details are doubtless unreliable; Charlie did give a speech which inspired his forces. If Cope did the same, obviously, it didn't work.
The comment that George II "thirty thousand pounds would give To catch him in his Hieland plaidie" is correct; within days of Charlie's landing, the government offered 30,000 pounds for his capture. Charlie initially made a contemptuous offer of thirty pounds for the head of George II, though political considerations later forced him to match the Hannoverian sum (obviously no one ever collected either reward).
In using the above dates, incidentally, it should be recalled that the Catholic continent was on the Gregorian calendar, but Protestant England still on the Julian (until 1752), making English dates 11 days behind continental dates. It is sometimes very hard to know which system a particular source is using; some, indeed, switch back and forth.
The dates given here and in most places in the Ballad Index are based on British Julian dates, since this is what seems to be most common -- e.g. Culloden, by modern standards, took place on April 27, 1746, but the references above list it as April 16, because that was the day marked on Cumberland's calendar (assuming he had enough brains to know what a calendar was, which is somewhat dubious). - RBW
See R. H. Cromek, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, (London, 1810), p. 153 for two verses that probably belong here; the non-chorus lines are "A' the lasses o' Dunkel' Brew gude ale for Charlie's sel'" and "The bonniest may in a' Dundee Made down the bed for young Charlie." - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: BrAPS495

Tarves Rant, The

DESCRIPTION: A group of bothies go on a Sunday tear. After leaving the tavern, the singer is separated from his companions, and gets in a fight with a policeman. He's thrown in jail, escapes, is caught again, and has to pay for the policeman's torn coat, plus a fine.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: drink police punishment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #81, p. 1, "The Tarves Rant"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 26-27, "Tarves Rant" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan3 576, "The Tarves Rant" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 71, "The Tarves Rant" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix)
Roud #4847
RECORDINGS:
Davie Stewart, "The Tarves Rant" (on Voice05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Woods of Rickarton" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Tarves Ramble
NOTES [18 words]: Hall, notes to Voice05: "Tarves lies to the north-west of Aberdeen, between Old Meldrum and Nethermill." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: DBuch71

Tassels on Her Boots

DESCRIPTION: The singer is intrigued by the tassels on a girl's boots. He courts her; she speculates that he is sad because he always stares at the ground. He explains that he is looking at the tassels. Now they are married; he intends to tassel the childrens' boots
AUTHOR: Robert Coombs ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (publication)
KEYWORDS: clothes courting
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 491, "Tassels on Her Boots" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 158-159, "Tassels on Her Boots" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 93-94, "Tassels on the Boots" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 60, "Tassels on Her Boots" (1 partial text)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 4, "Those Tassels on the Boots" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3275
SAME TUNE:
Cap and Gown ("When, trembling Freshmen, first We sought this class share") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 64)
NOTES [144 words]: Spaeth (A History of Popular Music in America, p. 173) says that this was "one of a large group of songs [in the 1860s] that discussed details of feminine attire," but mentions only this and "Jockey Hat and Feather."
Internet sources say that this is from a dramatic production, "Ixion (The Man at the Wheel)." At least one also listed a different author, Arthur Cheney. New-Comic-Songster lists it as by "Frank Cooper." The earliest sheet music I've found says only "as sung by Emelie Melville."
The Coote(s) associated with waltzes in the first stanza is Charles Coote, a bandleader and light music composer whose greatest fame came in the 1870s, but who now is almost completely forgotten. A check of half a dozen musical histories failed to turn up any information about him, and I couldn't find much more in an (admittedly rather cursory) internet search. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: R491

Tassels on the Boots

See Tassels on Her Boots (File: R491)

'Tater Pie

DESCRIPTION: "For breakfast we have potato pie, For dinner we have potato pie, For supper we have potato pie, And it's sliced potato pie all the time. 'Tater pie, 'tater pie, There's a fly in the sliced potato pie... Choked to death on cold potato pie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: food humorous bug
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 122, "'Tater Pie" (1 short text)
Roud #11376
File: Brne122

Taters

See One Potato Two Potato (File: CoCo190)

Tattie Jock

DESCRIPTION: The singer worked for Tattie Jock and Mutton Peggie. One night he and nine others were caught stealing potatoes. They fought the police. One escaped to join the navy. The others are sentenced to 13 years in Botany Bay.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: fight theft transportation trial farming work food Australia police
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #151, p. 2, "The Bothy Lads o' Forfar"; #36, p. 2, ("Ye'll hae heard o' Tattie Jock") (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 377, "The Bothy Lads o' Forfar" (2 texts)
Roud #5915
NOTES [54 words]: "The whole point of why we sing the song is that these men were only stealing potatoes -- to eat. They were fed so very bad!" (Source: Artie Trezise quoted, regarding "Tattie Jock," in Dan Milner and Paul Kaplan, The Bonnie Bunch of Roses (Oak,New York,1983), pp. 117-118; the currect description is based on this text). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD3377

Tattie Time, The

DESCRIPTION: Bothy ballad. Singer describes members of the crew harvesting potatoes, people to avoid, and humorous incidents during the harvest. He warns againt drink. When the harvest is over they scatter to their other trades such as scrap and rags
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (recorded from Ronnie White)
KEYWORDS: farming harvest work humorous moniker boss worker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 105, "The Tattie-Liftin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 357, "The Tattie Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2162
NOTES [15 words]: Almost a nonballad, but there are enough bits of narrative for it to squeak through. - PJS
File: McCST105

Tattie-Liftin', The

See The Tattie Time (File: McCST105)

Tatties and Herrin'

DESCRIPTION: "Your hard-workin' Scotsman's gone crazy I fear, Each day ye maun hae your bit beef and your beer, But ye dinnae ken or you're maybe nae carin', Your natural food it is tatties and herrin'." The singer tells the feats of those who ate tatties and herring
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: food fight royalty money fishing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 41, "When the Queen want a man to fight wi' her foes" (1 fragment)
Roud #16927
File: KSUC041A

Tattletale Birdy, The

See The Bonny Birdy [Child 82] (File: C082)

Tattletale, Tattletale, Setting on a Fence

See Chinaman, Chinaman (Ching, Ching, Chinaman) (File: McIn105A)

Tattooed Lady, The

DESCRIPTION: "I paid a (franc/bob/shilling) to see a fair tattooed lady...." The rest of the song describes the various sights to be seen on the lady's skin. These are generally localized (e.g. in Australia they see the ANZAC logo), ending with "my home in (wherever)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: nonballad parody humorous
FOUND IN: Australia US Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 136, "My Girl From Battersea" (1 text, tune referenced)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 230-231, "The Tattooed Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 59, "That Tattooed French Lady" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, p. 221, "The Tattooed Lady" (1 text)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp.144-145, "The Tattoed Lady" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 65, "Fray Marie" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #9622
NOTES [211 words]: Listed as a parody on "My Home in Tennessee," and the American versions seem to support that claim. The Australian version, however, could have picked up its tune from "Les Darcy." In Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy's version, the singer doesn't go to see the girl; she is "my girl from Battersea." But most of the rest is the same, so I've lumped them.
Green's version is even more peculiar; it starts with the standard Tattoed Lady, then in the middle of a verse (as marked), it breaks into something that says, "How I loves her, how I loves her, My mother-in-law." It seems likely that two songs have been combined, but the second song is not something I've seen, so I haven't given it a separate listing.
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver's version is yet again different; the whole plot is the same, and it has the girl from Battersea, but it takes place "Way down in Fray Marie." Arthur explains this as a mispronunciation of the French village of Framaries. Google Maps, however, spells the name "Frameries," and puts it in Belgium, though very near France; if you draw a line from Brussels to Mons, and extend it to the French border, Frameries is about half way between Mons and the border. It looks like it would have been a hot spot in both World Wars. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FaE230

Taumarunui

DESCRIPTION: "I'm an ordinary joker, getting old before my time, For my heart's in Taumarunui on the Main Trunk LIne." A hauler, he stops regularly at Taumarunui for breaks. There he meets a "Sheila" and falls in love. She changes her work hours to avoid him
AUTHOR: Words: Peter Cape (1926-1979) / Music: Pat Rogers (source: Roger Steele, editor, _An Ordinary Joker: The Life and Songs of Peter Cape_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (composition date, according to Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: love courting food rejection New Zealand
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 41, 223-224, "Taumarunui" (fragments of the text, none complete)
ADDITIONAL: Roger Steele, editor, _An Ordinary Joker: The Life and Songs of Peter Cape_ (book with accompanying CD), Steele Roberts, Aotearoa, New Zealand, 2001, pp. 44-45, "Taumarunui" (1 text, 1 tune)
J. C. Reid, _A Book of New Zealand_ (Collins National Anthologies), Collins, 1964, pp. 222-223, "Taumarunui" (1 text)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Cootamundra
NOTES [488 words]: Although written by Peter Cape, a New Zealander, if the song is traditional, it appears to be in Australia. According to Garland, it is found there under the title "Cootamundra." I'm assuming that changing the name of the town in which the action happens qualifies as the folk process. Similarly, Mike Harding, When the Pakeha Sings of Home: A Source Guide to the Folk & Popular Songs of New Zealand, Godwit Press, 1992, p. 3, says that "a case could be made... [that] a few 'daggy' items like 'Taumarunui'" are traditional," -- but he cites no evidence of traditional status in New Zealand. On the basis of those two facts, I've indexed the piece, but I'll admit to being dubious.
Apparently this dates back to the days of passenger railroads: The "Main Trunk" railroad from Auckland to Wellington ran through Taumarunui (in the middle of the North Island), but it wasn't much of an actual town. Plus the train only stopped there for ten minutes. So all the passengers on the rail who wanted a break had to get off at Taumarunui and visit the "refreshment rooms" catering to the rail line -- they were right next to the track, so the passengers could get off, find a counter with a meal they liked, gulp it down, and continue on.
This song is mentioned in the Wikipedia entry on the town.
According to the bio included in An Ordinary Joker, p. 20, Peter Cape knew only three guitar chords, and so ended up often setting his words to tunes that he couldn't sing very well, or that were not very strong; although he sometimes set his own tunes, his most successful songs were often ones where others supplied the tunes (Phil Garland set "The Stable Lad"; Don Toms set "Black Matai"; Pat Rogers set "Taumarunui." All three, especially the first and the last, almost require four chords -- the minor second for the former, the major second for the latter). In the case of "Taumarunui," which An Ordinary Joker, p. 21, says was the first song for which Cape completed words and music, Cape's tune had too much range for Pat Rogers, who first recorded it. Rogers therefore set a new tune, and that was the one that caught on.
Apparently even the chosen town was almost an accident. Peter Cape wrote about this song on p. 40 of An Ordinary Joker, "If my friend Jim Henderson hadn't come back from Coromandel one day with a fantastic story about a little place called Whenuakite, which someone had talked about as Fenackaty, I wouldn't have started writing doggerel about New Zealand place-names. And if Fenackaty hadn't been such an impossible word to find rhymes for, I wouldn't have gone on to write a ballad about Taumarunui."
I've heard recordings of this by Phil Garland and Peter Cape's son Christopher Cape. The tunes, although clearly based on the same original, are not quite the same. How much of that is folk process and how much is Garland's tendency to tinker I don't know; I suspect it's mostly the latter. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Garl041

Tavern in the Town

DESCRIPTION: Singer laments her lover, who courted her ardently but now goes to a tavern and courts others while leaving her pining. She hopefully anticipates dying and being buried.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (sheet music published by Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. of New York)
KEYWORDS: loneliness courting infidelity rejection abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) US(MA) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (39 citations):
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 94, "A Brisk Young Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 205-206, "A Brisk Young Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 44, "A Brisk Young Soldier, or Died for Love" (1 text, 1 tune, short enough that I file it here although it could be "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" or something else)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 497, "There Is a Tavern in the Town"; Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 424, "When I Wore My Apron Low" (2 texts)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 44-46, "My True Love Once He Courted Me" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #82, "The Brisk Young Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #42, "A Briskk Young Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 39, "A Brisk Young Man He Courted Me" (1 short text, 1 tune, that belongs somewhere in the "Tavern in the Town"/"Love Has Brought Me to Despair"/"The Butcher Boy" complex but is too short to classify with certainty; I file it here because, as it stands, it's mostly lyric)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 478-480, "The Blue-Eyed Boy" (4 texts, though "D" is a fragment, probably of "Tavern in the Town" or "The Butcher Boy" or some such)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 259, "I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree" (2 fragments, named for that key line from "Tavern in the Town" which occurs in both fragments, but the "A" text is mostly "Pretty Little Foot")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 259, "I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Greig/Duncan6 1169, "Died for Love" (11 texts, 8 tunes); 1171, "There Is a Tavern in the Town" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H683, p. 393, "The Apron of Flowers" (1 text, 1 tune -- apparently a collection of floating verses including one that goes here)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 81, "Last Night Being Windy" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 20, "A Brisk Young Lover" (5 texts)
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 61, "There Is a Tavern in the Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 48-49, "I Wish In Vain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 258, "A Railroad Boy" (1 text, short enough that it might be either "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24) or "Tavern in the Town")
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 210-213, "There Is a Tavern in the Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 84-85, "There Is a Tavern in the Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 180, "There Is A Tavern In The Town" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #137, "There Is a Tavern in the Town" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 572-573, "There Is a Tavern in the Town"
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 23, p. 62, "There Is a Tavern in the Town" (1 text; the "A" text is "The Butcher Boy")
Peacock, pp. 705-706, "She Died in Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 32, "Tavern in the Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 7, "The Sailor's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune, rather short, and with elements of "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24}, "Tavern in the Town," and perhaps even "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" [Laws P25]; if I had to file it with one, it would probably be "The Butcher Boy," but I'm not sure; Roud lists it as #60, which is both "Tavern in the Town" and "Love Has Brought Me to Despair")
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 62-63, "There Is a Tavern in the Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 203-204, "There Is a Tavern in the Town" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 140-141, "The Tavern in the Town" (1 text, filed under "The Butcher Boy")
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 171, "There Is a Tavern in the Town (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 66, "The Tavern in the Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 20, "Tavern in the Town" (1 text)
DT, TAVTOWN*
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, pp. 4-5, "There Is a Tavern in the Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
SEE ALSO:
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 229, "Hard, Ain't It Hard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 185, "Hard, Ain't It Hard" (1 text)
DT, TAVTOWN AINTHARD*
ST ShH94 (Full)
Roud #60
RECORDINGS:
Amy Birch, "Over Yonder's Hill" (on Voice11)
"Pops" Johnny Connors, "There is an Alehouse" (on IRTravellers01)
Rudy Vallee, "Tavern in the Town" (Victor 24739, 1934)
Mrs. Thomas Walters, "She Died in Love" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
SEE ALSO:
Almanac Singers, "Hard, Ain't It Hard" (General 5019A, 1941; on Almanac01, Almanac03, AlmanacCD1)
Woody Guthrie, "Hard Ain't It Hard" (Folk Tunes 150, n.d., probably mid-1940s)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(6a/b) View 7 of 8, "There Is A Tavern In The Town," R. March and Co. (London), 1877-1884
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] (plot)
cf. "The Sailor Boy (I)" [Laws K12] (lyrics)
cf. "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" [Laws P25]
cf. "I Know My Love" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Oh, Johnny, Johnny" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Rashy Muir" (tune, per Greig/Duncan6)
SAME TUNE:
I've a Laddie in America (File: DTladame)
Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (File: ACSF171H)
There Is a Place ("There is a place called ??? Camp, And there in summer time we go, we go") (Harbin-Parodology, #218, p. 56)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
There Is an Alehouse in Yonder Town
There's a Tavern in the Town
Up The Green Meadow
Adieu, Adieu, Adieu!
NOTES [492 words]: The overlap between this song and the "Butcher Boy" cluster is obvious; whether they're the same song is a Talmudic question. -PJS
The 1891 sheet music credits this piece to F. J. Adams. The earliest known printing of "Tavern" (as opposed to the presumably related Cornish miners' song "There is an Alehouse in Yonder Town"), however, does not give the author's name. The printing in the 1887 edition of College Songs lists it as copyright by Wm. H. Hills but lists no author.
Alan Lomax calls "Hard Ain't It Hard" a reworking of this piece, and I'm going along on the principle that it certainly isn't a traditional song (given that it's by Woody Guthrie). I don't think it's that simple, though; the "Hard ain't it hard" chorus clearly derives from "Ever After On." - RBW
Yes, Rudy Vallee recorded it too. And blew the lyrics, I might add [My understanding is that the people around him were trying, with great success, to crack him up - RBW]. But clearly the song remained current in pop culture as well as folk culture. It was also reputed to have been popular among collegiates. - PJS
"Hang my harp on a willow tree" may be taken from Psalms 137.2 [King James] via Thomas Haynes Bayly. Cf. "I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree."
Broadside Bodleian Firth b.28(6a/b) View 7 of 8 ascribes "There Is A Tavern In The Town" to W.H. Hills. - BS
Somewhere in my youth, someone (probably school authorities) forced upon us a game, "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." Thirty-odd years later, I recalled it for some reason, and realize that the tune is an up-tempo version of this. If the song was inflicted upon other classes than mine, it may be that the song has had some sort of horrid second life. - RBW
Amy Birch's version on Voice11 has a first line "Over yonder's hill there is an old house" but continues to be enough like "Tavern in the Town" that I put it here rather than Laws P25 or any of the other songs in this cluster.
Greig/Duncan6 [on #1169]: "Noted by George F. Duncan from mother's singing in 1875."
The Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople "complete" text is a composite of eight English texts: "The composite text I have printed contains seventeen stanzas, and omits none of the elements in Sharp's twelve English versions. Full as this composite text is, however, it does not contain all the elements noted by other collectors, nor would it be possible to make a satisfactory synthesis which includes *every* element." The result is a collection of floating verses that includes the usual "Tavern in the Town" verses.
The count of texts for Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople includes four fragments from other collections.
If "Tavern In the Town" is limited to the college song then I have misclassified OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin, Greig/Duncan6 and others. Steve Roud has revised his distribution of the family among Roud numbers #60, #409, #860, #18828, #18829, #18830, #18831, #18832 and #18834 (the "college song"). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ShH94

Tavrin Green

See Bonny Tavern Green (File: RcBoTaGr)

Taxation of America

DESCRIPTION: "While I relate my story, Americans give ear, Of Britain's fading glory You presently shall hear." The singer tells the "true relation" or "the taxation of North America." "North, and Bute his father" propose to tax the Americas, but the Americans rebel
AUTHOR: unknown (credited to Peter St. John in Eggleston)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1847 (Forget-Me-Not-Songster; Moore's "Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution," itself published in 1856, dates it to 1765)
KEYWORDS: money patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1760-1820 - Reign of George III
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 55-62, "Taxation of America" (1 text)
Thompson-APioneerSongster 44, "The Taxation of America" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 3-5, "Taxation of America" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 477, "American Taxation" (source notes only)
Roud #3687
NOTES [1357 words]: After the French and Indian War (Seven Year's War, for which see "Brave Wolfe"), Britain faced both a new obligation (the need to administer Quebec) and a huge financial burden (a national debt of 122,603,336 pounds, according to Middlekauff, p. 57; Lyon, p. 291, cites the rounder figure of 140 million pounds, noting that just the interest on this debt absorbed half the government's ordinary income). And Britain had been taxed to the hilt. So attempts were made to gain additional money from the American colonies. (Lyon, p. 296, notes that at this time the tax burden on the citizens of Britain averaged 26 shillings a head, which was nearly unbearable; the colonies, before the passage of the various revenue-raising measures, averaged only 1 shilling per head! There would be tax protests in England as well as the Americas by the late 1770s; Lyon, p. 301.)
It's interesting to note that the Spaeth text never says *what* tax North and Bute wished to gather. As a matter of fact, the taxes on the Americans were quite mild compared to what the British suffered, and in many cases the British actually lowered the duties (e.g. the tariff on imported molasses was cut in half) -- it's just that the administration would actually attempt to *collect* the taxes, which had been widely evaded (Middlekauff, p. 61). The amounts were trivial (the most optimistic projection was 200,000 pounds per year, according to Middlekauff, p. 62, which wouldn't even cover the interest on the British debt, and most estimates were in the 75,000 pound range).
Given the overall incompetence of this song (which seems to have been known only from broadside and perhaps the Guernsey manuscript), it strikes me as quite possible that the author didn't *know* what taxes caused the colonists to revolt. For a song on the subject that's a little closer to actual reality, see "Old Granny Wales (Granny O'Whale, Granua Weal)."
Among those mentioned in Spaeth's text of this piece:
"North": Lord Frederick North, second Earl of Guilford (1732-1792). A political success from an early age, he became First Lord of the Treasury (in effect, prime minister) in 1770; he was the leader most responsible for the increased friction between the government and the colonies, though he was perhaps more willing to compromise than the ministers under him -- certainly more so than the King he served.
North repeatedly tried to find solutions for the American problems, or failing that to resign (Cook, pp. 294-295), but George III would not release him because North was the only man with enough clout to form a government who also would go along with George's wishes. North finally was allowed to leave office after Yorktown, when the opposition in parliament became so strong that North simply could not maintain a government. (Cook, pp. 357-358, says George tried to keep him on even then, but North knew the confidence motion was coming, and quit.) The American mess really wasn't his fault; it was George III's. But it was easy to blame things on North.
Ironically, North would briefly return to the government, working with Charles James Fox, in effect in opposition to George III (February 1783; Cook, p. 375); this was the government that in September finally ratified the peace with the U. S. -- though it might have come some months earlier had not the Fox/North coalition interfered with the work of the previous Shelburne government. The King hated the Fox/North team so much that he called upon 24-year-old William Pitt the Younger to form a government in December (Cook, p. 377)
"Bute his father": Presumably John Stuart, Third Earl of Bute (1713-1792). He wasn't North's father, but he was Prime Minister 1762-1763. His brief period of power, however, had little effect on colonial relations that I can see, though he was personally close to George III, to whom he had once been tutor. Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 115, even speculates that "perhaps [George III's] deep devotion for the handsome and elegant Lord Bute was not entirely platonic." Hadlow too (p. 107), mentions the report that Bute had a "very handsome person," and speculates that this was why Frederick the father of George III came to notice him. But this is not evidence of anything. Given how straitlaced George III was, I rather doubt Sinclair-Stevenson's implication -- especially given George's myriad children. On the other hand, the letters cited on p. 111 of Hadlow shows that George had an extreme confidence in Bute, as if the older man really were his father or a lover.
Bute was unpopular everywhere; Lyon, p. 291, notes that he was burned in effigy in Britain as well as the colonies.
It's just possible that we should re-reference the pronoun and treat "his father" not as North's father but as George III's. Borneman,p. 264, does say that George "idealized" Bute and implies that George may have treated him as a father-figure (George's father Frederick had died when George was 13, and in any case there was an unwritten law in the Hannoverian dynasty that fathers and their heirs always despised each other).
A third possibility is that the remark "Bute, his father" is a slam at George III's legitimacy. Middlekauff, p. 20, has much to say of Bute, "a Scot, the advisor -- not, as some whispered, the love -- of George's mother." Lyon, p. 291, reports that John Wilkes's North Britain in 1763 "published allegations of an affair between Bute and the king's mother." Horace Walpole -- a distinguished but hardly an unbiased reporter -- said the same thing (Hadlow, p. 108). Obviously the song might have been making the whispers explicit. However, there is no direct evidence of a relationship between the two, who in any case worked together long after George was born -- and besides, George III had clear resemblances to his Hannoverian ancestors.
Middlekauff adds, "For the next five years [Bute] served as the prince's tutor and friend. The friendship seems to have developed easily -- in part, we may suppose, because George craved affection and kindness and Bute responded with both. Yet... Bute held the upper hand: he was twenty-five years older, strongly opinionated, obviously intelligent, and he was in charge of the prince's education. Although Bute possessed the learning required, he was not a good teacher.... Bute himself knew much but did not understand men or human conduct.... Master and pupil then and later commonly mistook inflexibility for personal strength and character" (p. 20).
The colonies blamed Bute for the much-hated Stamp Act, but in fact it was proposed by Grenville after Bute had ceased to be Prime Minister. At worst, Bute's responsibility was indirect: As Prime Minister, he had created a plan to have the colonies pay for the troops based there (Middlekauff, p. 51). This is obviously reasonable, if you assume a standing army was needed there (and it probably was, with rebellious Canada to the north, Spanish Florida to the south, and constant conflicts with the Indians to the west as colonists kept trying to grab Indian land; Middlekauff, p. 54) -- but George III and Bute's successors refused to consult with the colonies about how to raise this money. By contrast with his predecessor William Pitt, who had been largely responsible for beating the French in Canada, Bute must have seemed a great disappointment.
"Green" (sic.): Presumably Nathaniel Greene (1742-1786), largely responsible for the success of the Colonial campaigns in the south after he succeeded Gates in 1780 (Jameson, p. 279).
Gates: Horatio Gates (c. 1728-1806), the theoretical victor at the key battle of Saratoga, though hindsight shows that he really had little to do with it; he was later appointed to command in the south, but botched matters and had to be relieved by Greene (Jameson, p. 260).
Putnam: Probably Israel Putnam (1718-1790), though it might be his cousin Rufus (1738-1824). Neither was a great success (in fact, both were rather disastrously bad officers), but Israel Putnam was still popular in 1779 when he was paralyzed and had to retire from the military (Jameson, pp. 534-535).
Conquering Washington: Presumably you know who he is. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 3.8
File: CG477a

Taxes, The

DESCRIPTION: "There never was such taxes in Ireland before." There are seven verses of things to be taxed. "They'll double tax the hobble skirts and table up some laws, But the devil says he'll tax them if he gets them in his claws"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: humorous political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 4, "The Taxes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3033
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sales Tax On the Women" (theme)
NOTES [75 words]: The British government was notorious for the number of fees it charged (recall that this was the cause of the American revolution). My guess, though, is that this comes from the period of the Napoleonic Wars. For one thing, Ireland lost its independent parliament after the 1798 rising. For another, the British government, which hated deficits, had to raise revenue dramatically to keep up its war spending. The result was a long list of new taxes. - RBW
File: OLoc004

Tay Bridge Disaster, The

DESCRIPTION: ""The bridge, the bridge, the wondrous bridge, That spans the Firth of Tay, The greatest work of human skill" is not strong enough to stand a great storm. A train starts to cross the bridge, which collapses. Many die. Listeners should "lean upon the Lord"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: death wreck train technology
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec. 18, 1879 - The Tay Railroad Bridge collapses; 75 people on a train crossing the bridge die
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 14, "The Tay Bridge Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21586
File: Gath014

Tay Bridge, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Tay bridge is broken and I'm come to mend it"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad river
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec. 18, 1879 - The Tay Railroad Bridge collapses; 75 people on a train crossing the bridge die
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1621, "The Tay Bridge" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #13075
File: GrD81621

Tay, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns young men against women overly dependent upon tay (tea). He works and earns a good living, but his wife wastes the money on tay. At last he breaks kettle and pot. She attacks him; he gives in and lets her have her tay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous husband wife fight warning
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H25a, pp. 502-503, "The Tay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1310
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wee Cup of Tay" (theme)
cf. "The Old Woman Drinking Her Tea" (theme: husband dominated by tea-drinking wife)
File: HHH25a

Te Kooti

DESCRIPTION: "The Pahekas [Europeans] came with their rum and their god, And soon the broad lands of our fathers were sold, But the voice of Te Kooti said, 'Hold the land! Hold!' Exult for Te Kooti e-ha!" The story of how he was oppressed is retold
AUTHOR: Words: Probably Arthur Desmond
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (Sydney Bulletin)
KEYWORDS: New Zealand battle freedom
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1893 - Death of Te Kooti
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 87-88, "The Song of Te Kooti" (1 text)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 39 in the 1972 edition, "Te Kooti, E Ha" (1 text, 1 tune); dropped from the 2010 edition
RECORDINGS:
Barbie, Neal, Megan, and Simon [Colquhoun], "Te Kooti, E Ha" (on NZSongYngCntry)
NOTES [1369 words]: Both Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ and Colquhoun attribute their texts to the 1889 Sydney Bulletin, yet they differ substantially. I have no way to explain the difference.
The story of the colonizers' treatment of the Maori much resembles the American mistreatment of the original inhabitants of North America: There was a treaty, the Treaty of Waitangi -- the "Waters of Lamentation" (Sinclair, p. 70). Many Maori leaders argued that it was too late to simply expel the white men, so the Treaty was signed on February 9, 1840.
And then, of course, the white men started exploiting and pushing back the Maoris.
Some resisted. Te Kooti had been imprisoned, probably unfairly, and escaped in 1868 and founded a nativized variant on Christianity, "Ringatu" (from Maori "ringa+tū," "hands-raised up," as if in prayer, according to NewZealandDictionary, p. 227; it "required no churches... the local church leaders were elected, and there were no formal articles of faith. The faith did, however, incorporate a number of traditional Maori practices"; Jackson/McRobie, p. 201). But he also attacked the Europeans, causing much slaughter before he was driven away. This represented the end of the Maori Wars. (Sinclair, p. 145). He came to be remembered as a sort of Maori Robin Hood.
Maddock, p. 103, has a drawing of Te Kooti, and tells his story, "[I]n 1868, Arakirangi Te Kooti escaped from the Chatham Islands where he had been imprisoned, without trial, for two years on suspicion of furnishing rebels with arms. During that time a vision inspired him to found the Ringatu Church (still strong today in areas of Maoridom), which... blended aspects of Pakeha Christianity with others of Maori spiritual belief, drawing a close analogy between their plight and that of the captive Children of Israel. Evading what seems to have been a not very vigilant guard... Te Kooti and some compatriots commandeered a schooner and made safe passage to home ground near Gisborne, where their arrival cause considerable alarm.
"Colonial defenses were now largely the business of volunteer militia... [who] inflicted a considerable reverse upon Te Kooti, who, in revenge, struck back shortly after at the rural settlement of Matawhai. There, 70 people, 37 Maori and 33 Pakeha, were slain in what is referred to by writers of opposing viewpoints as either a massacre or a retaliation.
"For years to come, as the prophet and his people were hounded from one desolate hiding place to another, the very name 'Te Kooti' would strike terror into Pakeha hearts."
Mein Smith, p. 74, says, "Te Kooti Arikiirangi Te Turuki... is remembered as a prophet who defied injustice. From 1865 his iwi [tribe/clan], Ngati Porou, were split between a government facton of kupapa Maori and Pai Mariri supporters. Te Kooti had fought on the government's side, but was arrested with hundreds of Pai Mariri followers and imprisoned on the Chatham Islands without trial as a suspected spy. There he founded his own religion, Ringatu, or the Upraised Hand, and engineered a brilliant escape with 300 followers to New Zealand in 1868. Pursued by colonial and kupapa troops, he waged guerilla war, escaping to the remote Urewera district, until he finally took refuge in 1872 in the King Country, becoming the colony's most wanted outlaw.... Surrounded by ambiguities, neither chief nor tribal leader, he lived in exile yet, unlike other outlaws, he received a pardon. He became the subject of narrative fiction, astride his white horse, even before his death. Two of New Zealand's earliest films were Rewei's Last Stand, and The Te Kooti Trail, shot by Rudall Hayward in 1927."
Ell, p. 254, in the entry "Te Kooti Rikirangi (?1830-93) says,
"This often-maligned warrior, against whom the last pitched battles were fought in 1870, spent his last 20 years in seclusion developing his faith of Ringatu. The religion is still widely practiced in Maoridom, particularly on the East Coast. Te Kooti actually fought against the Hau Hau [a Maori sect founded by Te Ua Haumene, whose members cried out 'Hapa, hapa paimariri hau' as they went into battle; NewZealandEncyclopedia, p. 246] with the colonial forces in 1865, but was arrested as a suspected spy and shipped without trial to the Chatham Islands. His resentment, coupled with his powers of leadership, led to his leading an escape of Hau Hau prisoners who sailed back to New Zealand aboard a captured schooner. Te Kooti's religious fervour and leadership were enhanced when he sacrificed a relative to placate an ocean storm en route. Authority was awaiting the escapers and there were ensuing battlers in the Poverty Bay hills. From there Te Kooti led his force against those whom he believed had wronged him. They murdered 33 British and 27 Maori in Poverty Bay before carrying the war through the Urewera country and on to Taupo. Te Kooti escaped the final fight at Te Porere beneath Tongariro in 1870 and in 1871 took shelter behind the Confiscation Line, in the King Country, with the Maori King. From there he exercised his influence as a religious leader of the Ringatu cult, a faith derived from Hau Hauism, Christianity and Judaism.... Te Kooti was pardoned in 1883. His story is told in Te Kooti Rikirangi: general and prophet, by W. Hugh Ross (Collins, Auckland, 1966).
NewZealandEncyclopedia, pp. 533-534: "TE KOOTI, Rikiranki To Turuki (c. 1830-93) was a Maori guerilla leader, and the founder of the RIngatu church. He was a ruthless fighter, and for years eluded government forces relentlessly pursuing him through the North Island.... [I]n the cool light of history it has become apparent that he was a remarkable, charismatic leader, who has been more sinned against than sinning.
"He was born near Gisborne of good family but not of chiefly rank, was educated at Waerenga-a-hika Mission School near Gisborne [an Anglican mission, according to Jackson/McRobie, p. 226], spent some time as a horse breaker and then as a seaman. For a period he was commander of a small schooner, trading along the East Coast.
"Te Kooti actually supported the Pakehas at the siege of Waerenga-a-hika in 1865, but immediately afterward he was accused of supplying the Hauhau rebels" with supplies and information. Refused a trial, "One story is that he gained his name 'Te Kooti' from his fellow prisoners, who overheard him persistently asking to be taken to court." Imprisoned on the Chathams, he studied the Old Testament and founded Ringatu after claiming a revelation. So he escaped and took up the fight against the Europeans, after being attacked at Ruakitiri Gorge, and "decided that he would demonstrate that he was not a man to be trifled with, and in November 1868 attacked Matawhero, killing 33 Europeans and 37 friendly Maoris. Closely pursued by troops, he took up a position on Ngatapa Hill. [Colonel] Whitmore attacked and, after a three-day siege, drove him out into the Urewera Bush." After the battle, 120 of his followers were executed.
"For the next three years Te Kooti was harassed and pursued by government forces and colonials," fighting an effective guerilla war. He then went into the King Country, where he expounded Ringatu, making no attempt to fight the Europeans. He was pardoned in 1883, although people were still so afraid of him that he had to cancel a visit to Gisborne in 1889.
"Te Kooti has been persistently linked with the fanatical Hauhau sect, mainly because he adopted the upraised hand symbol, not as in the case of the Hauhaus as a means of protection from bullets, but as an act of homage to God. It was easy to transfer the Hauhau image to Te Kooti, because he was so intensely feared.... He was a small man, softly spoken and gentle in manner, and his Ringatu Church, still influential in the Bay of Plenty, is also noted for its quiet and dignified ritual."
There is at least one other song pertaining to Te Kooti mentioned in the Index, "The Row at the Waikato" by Charles R. Thatcher, which opens, ""A panic's been raging up in town, News from the Waikato has just come down, That Te Kooti, a warrior of renown, Is going to do the settlers brown." It is set to the tune of "The Cork Leg"; see the Same Tune data in that song for references. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo087

Te Kooti, E Ha

See Te Kooti (File: BaRo087)

Teach the Rover

DESCRIPTION: Teach, an outlaw captain, goes to Carolina after the Act of Grace, but soon turns pirate. Finally he is overtaken by Maynard's crew. In the desperate battle that follows, Maynard boards the pirate ship and himself kills Teach
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton-RealSailorSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1717 - Act of Grace pardons most of the Jacobite leaders of the 1715 rebellion.
1718 - Lieutenant Robert Maynard's frigate captures the pirate ship of Edward Teach. Teach is shot in the fighting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 78, "Teach the Rover" (1 text)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #79, "The Downfall of Piracy" (1 text)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 17, "The Downfall of Piracy" (1 text, 1 tune; from separate sources; #17 in the first edition)
ADDITIONAL: C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 166, "The Downfall of Piracy" (1 text)
ST PBB078 (Partial)
Roud #8115
NOTES [690 words]: Edward Teach is the actual name of the pirate usually known as "Blackbeard." (At least, "Teach" is the name he acknowledged; Hendrickson, p. 208, mentions a report that he was born Edward Drummond.) This song agrees with The General History of Pirates (usually attributed to Daniel Defoe, but this is now much doubted) in describing him as quite successful and bloody, but available records (such as the log of a ship the History asserts fought against Teach) seem to indicate that much of the History's account is fiction (e.g. DictPirates, p. 26, says that the History "combined fact and fiction," declaring that "To straightforward reporting of Teach's adventures, Defoe added lurid stories portraying him as a horrifying monster.")
What is fact is that Teach's short career did not yield many rich prizes, and the records do not indicate that he harmed his victims.
According to Herman, pp. 248-249, Teach was a Bristolman who had fought in the War of the Spanish Succession. He made his base in the maze that was North Carolina's Outer Banks, making it hard for large ships to pursue him. This kept him safe from the two Royal Navy sloops of war sent to hunt him down, but the captain of the Pearle sent Lt. Maynard aboard a small boat to catch Teach. Their battle, on November 21, was fought in conditions of no wind, so apart from one broadside Teach managed to fire at the navy force, it was all hand-to-hand combat.
Reportedly Teach's body had been pierced by five pistol shots and 25 sword wounds. But the corpse was beheaded and the body thrown overboard, so this cannot be proved.
But, of course, what counts is not what actually happened but what people thought happened. Amazing stories were legend -- e.g. that Blackbeard's body, after it was thrown in the sea, swam around the ship several times before sinking (Hendrickson, p. 209). There was also a report that he married 14 different women (Hendrickson, p. 208), although few of them seem to have been named. And then there is the hair. Cordingly, p. 13, quotes the History as follows:
"Captain Teach assumed the cognomen of Black-beard, from that large quantity of hair, which, like a frightful meteor, covered his face, and frightened America more than any other comet that has appeared for a long time.
"This beard was black, which he suffered to grow of an extravagant length; as to breadth, it came up to his eyes; he was accustomed to twist it with ribbons... and turn them about his ears; in time of action, he wore a sling over his shoulders, with three brace of pistols, hanging in holsters like bandoliers, and stuck lighted matches under his hat, which appearing on both sides of his face, his eyes naturally looking fierce and wild, made him altogether such a figure, that imagination cannot form an idea of a fury, from Hell, to look more frightful."
Brumwell/Speck, p. 293, report a legend that he drank his rum spiked with gunpowder.
Some of this, like the part about the matches, is probably exaggerated (DictPirates, p. 26, says that Teach's "bizzare beard and clothing [were] not mentioned by anyome who met Teach"), but Cordingly, pp. 13-14, quotes several sources supporting his long beard tied with ribbons.
There was, according to Cordingly, p. 24, a successful (but far from accurate) play from 1798 called "Blackbeard, or The Captive Princess." I don't know if it influenced this song; it doesn't sound like it would have. Robert Louis Stevenson's Master of Ballantrae (1889) is perhaps a more likely influence. DictPirates, pp. 27-28, mentions movies allegedly about Teach ("Blackbeard the Pirate," 1952, and "Blackbeard's Ghost," 1968); these obviously had no effect on tradition.
According to Firth, the earliest version of this is from The Worcester Garland, a copy of which is in the British Library (1162.c.4 [89]). But he offers no date. Frank says it is from c. 1765.
Frank also mentions, without rejecting it out of hand, a report that this was written by a young Benjamin Franklin based on news reports of the time. His only evidence seems to be that Franklin wrote other pieces based on reports from the same paper. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.3
File: PBB078

Teacher Lick de Gal

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: Mother patches the girl's shift, but she burns the same spot; teacher beats the girl while her mother holds her, and she turns over. The girl has a baby; they beat and fine her. Bitter casava poisons Joe Brownie.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica)
KEYWORDS: violence clothes death pregnancy mother poison food
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 43-44, "Teacher Lick de Gal" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time - Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), pp. 112-113, "Teacha Lick de Gyal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jim Morse, _Folk Songs of the Caribbean_ (New York: Bantam Books, 1958), pp. 110-111, "Teacher Lick de Gal" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Teacher Lick de Gal" (on WIEConnor01)
NOTES [41 words]: Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica does not explain what is going on. Is the burned petticoat connected, at least symbolically, to the pregnancy? Is Joe Brownie the father? Was his death an accident? Is there another version that answers the questions? - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: JaMu043

Teacher, Teacher, Call the Roll

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Teacher, teacher, call the roll, Who is absent? I don't know." Or, "...roll, Now call in somebody that you know.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | teacher
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #539, "Teacher, teacher, call the roll" (1 text)
File: AJRR539

Teacher, Teacher, Don't Whip Me

DESCRIPTION: Jump rope rhyme. "Teacher, teacher, don't whip me, Whip that fellow behind the tree. He stole peaches, I stole peaches, I stole none, Teacher, teacher, ain't that fun." Other verses may involve other things stolen, and it may be a policeman, not a teacher
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad punishment theft jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 45, "(Teacher, teacher, don't whip me)" (1 text, filed under Jump-Rope Rhymes)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #465, "Policeman, policeman, don't whip (blame) me" (1 text)
File: ZiZa045A

Teacher, Teacher, I Declare (II)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme and taunt. "Teacher, teacher, I declare, I see someone's underwear. (N-A-N-C-Y.)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope clothes | teacher underwear
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 80, "Teacher, teacher, I declare, I see (someone's/your) underwear" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #541, "Teacher, teacher, I declare" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I See Paris, I See France" (subject of spotting someone's underwear)
File: AJRR541

Teacher, Teacher, Oh So Tired

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Teacher, teacher, oh so tired, How many times were you fired? One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | teacher fired
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #121, "(Teacher, teacher, oh so tired)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #542, "Teacher, teacher, oh so tired" (1 text)
File: AJRV121

Teaching McFadden to Dance

See Clarence McFadden (Teaching McFadden to Waltz) (File: GC170)

Teakettle

DESCRIPTION: "The thunder roared and the lightning flashed, Broke old granny's teakettle all to smash."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: storm
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 103, "Teakettle" (1 text)
File: ZiZ103A

Team Was in a Huddle, The

DESCRIPTION: Team cheer that became a jump-rope rhyme. "THe team was in a huddle, The captain raised his head. All was silent, And this is what he said: You've gotta F-I-G-H-T (x2)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope sports | team captain
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #544, "The team was in a huddle" (1 text)
File: AJRR544

Teams at Wanapitei, The

DESCRIPTION: "In eighteen hundred and ninety-five Away to the woods we thought we'd strike... To go to work at Wanapitei." The song briefly describes the trip to the woods, and the work -- but most of the song is devoted to the horses in the teams
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger work lumbering horse
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont,West)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #21, "The Teams at Wanapitei" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #4463
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "How We Got to the Woods Last Year" (tune)
File: FowL21

Teamster in Jack MacDonald's Crew, The

DESCRIPTION: Leslie Stubbs was a teamster "who came to the lumberlands his family to maintain," He complains of headache and becomes sick. MacDonald and Tom Proctor take him home to his wife in Sherman Mills. Doctor Harris cannot save him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: death lumbering disease doctor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 23, 1908 - death of Earl Stubbs
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 165-167, 256, "The Teamster in Jack MacDonald's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13997
NOTES [39 words]: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland: "Earl Stubbs, aged 28, having contracted spinal meningitis in a lumbercamp, died at his home in Sherman Mills, Maine, January 23, 1908, and Dr Francis Harris had signed the death certificate" - BS
File: IvDC165

Teapots at the Fire, The

DESCRIPTION: A midnight fire at Labor Union Hall. As the fire burns to the basement the local women, who are named, have their eyes on the teapots. Now, "In every home in St John's town, If you go in today, You'll find a fancy teapot in a cupboard stowed away."
AUTHOR: Johnny Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing); reportedly written 1928
KEYWORDS: theft fire humorous moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 27, "The Teapots at the Fire" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1926_, self-published, 1926 (PDF copy avallable on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), [no page number], "The Scramble for the Teapots at the Fire" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 16, "The Teapots at the Fire" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #55, pp. 88-89, "The Scramble for the Teapots at the Fire" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kelligrews Soiree" (tune)
cf. "Mariposa" (theme)
cf. "The Middlesex Flora" (theme)
cf. "The Old Mayflower" (theme)
cf. "The Irrawaddy" (theme)
NOTES [14 words]: For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Blon027

Tearin' Out-a Wilderness

See The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)

Teasing Songs

DESCRIPTION: A teasing song hints of a bawdy or ribald rhyme, but avoids it at the last minute, as in this example: Suzanne was a lady with plenty of class / Who knocked the boys dead when she wiggled her... Eyes at the fellows as girls sometimes do...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1615 (The Percy Folio Manuscript has one such teasing song, "A Friend of Mine.")
KEYWORDS: bawdy nonballad wordplay campsong
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US(MW,So,SW) Canada
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 256-265, "Suzanne Was a Lady," "The Ship's in the Harbor," "There Once Was a Farmer," "Two Irishmen, Two Irishmen"; "Sweet Violets" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II, pp. 649-652, "The Handsome Young Farmer" (7 texts)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 154-166, "Sweet Violets" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 132-133, "Sweet Violets" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 4, "(My Father's a Lavatory Cleaner)" (1 short text, with this verse and the "Shine Your Buttons with Brasso" chorus, from user John5918, posted August 28, 2021; the lack of text makes it possible that it should be filed with "Teasing Songs" or "My God, How the Money Rolls In" or elsewhere, but it probably fits best here)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 131, "Sweet Violets" (notes only)
DT, SWTVILT2
ST EM256 (Partial)
Roud #10232 and 10404
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singer, "Frankie and Johnny" (Zest record, matrix FJ, n.d.)
Ben Light & his Surf Club Boys, "The Girl from Atlantic City" (Hot Shots from Hollywood 0317/Hollywood Hotshots 317/Good Humor 2/Good Humor 10A/Good Humor unnumbered [the Good Humor records are anonymous]/Arrow 311/Kicks 5 /Kicks unnumbered [as "The Gal from Atlantic City"]/blank label, unnumbered [anonymoous; as "Atlantic City"], rec. 1936; on Doity1)
Anonymous singers, "Mamie Had A Baby" (on Unexp1)
Homer & Walter Callahan, "Sweet Violets" (ARC 6-07-51/OKeh 04363/Vocalion 04363/Conqueror 8682, 1936)
Judy Cook, "Sweet Violets" (Piotr-Archive #274, recorded 09/27/2022)
Bob Dickson, "Sweet Violets" (Victor 23633, 1930)
Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock, "Sweet Violets" (on McClintock02)
Norman Phelps & his Virginia Rounders, "Sweet Violets" (Decca 5191, 1936)
Rika Ruebsaat, "Mrs. Gee" (Piotr-Archive #480, recorded 01/30/2023)
Joel Shaw, "Sweet Violets" (Crown 3271, 1932)
Dinah Shore, "Sweet Violets" (RCA Victor 20-4174, 1951)
Sweet Violet Boys [pseud. for Prairie Ramblers], "I Haven't Got a Pot to Cook In" (Vocalion 03402, 1937); "Sweet Violets" (Vocalion 03110, 1935); "Sweet Violets No. 2" (Vocalion 03256, 1936); "Sweet Violets No. 3" (Vocalion 03587, 1937)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Peter Murphy's Little Dog"
cf. "Down on the Farm"
cf. "At Brighton"
cf. "Shine Your Buttons With Brasso"
cf. "Butcher Town"
cf. "The Girl from Atlantic City"
NOTES [188 words]: Legman lumps all teasing songs together under the generic title of "The Handsome Young Farmer." - EC
I do the same thing (except for changing the name) because I can't tell them apart otherwise. (Hey, I got this job because nobody else would take it, not because I knew what I was doing.)
It seems to me that the "Sweet Violets" type, which is widely known and quite with distinct ("There once was a farmer who took a young miss Back by the barn, and gave her a... lecture On horses and cows and eggs And told her that she had such beautiful... manners," etc.; Roud #10232), could be split off. But Ed's expertise trumps mine.
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 131, claims that "Sweet Violets" goes back to an 1882 play Fritz Among the Gypsies by Joseph Kline Emmet. But, based on the Library of Congress sheet music, I would not consider it the same song.
Another specific subtype is the "Mrs. Bliss/Mrs. Gee" group: "Oh Mrs. Bliss she went to... Pick some flowers. And on the grass she wet her... Ankles to her knees. And in the cart she let a... Farmer pass her by...." But I haven't found enough versions to split it off. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: EM256

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Go Upstairs

DESCRIPTION: "Teddy bear, teddy bear, go upstairs, Teddy bear, teddy bear, say your prayers, Teddy bear, teddy bear, say goodnight, Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn out the light." "Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around, Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: nonballad jumprope | teddy bear
FOUND IN: US(All) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 110 ("I had a teddy bear dressed in green)," "(Teddy bear, teddy bear. look at the sky)" (2 texts); p. 111, "(Ladybird, ladybird, drop your purse)" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 84, "(Teddy bear, teddy bear, Tip the ground)" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 81, "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turn around" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 25, "(Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear)" (2 short texts)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 104, "(Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around)" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 225, "Teddy Bear" (1 text)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 116, "(no title, filed under Rope Jumping)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, pp. 44-45, "(Teddy-bear, Teddy-bear, turn around)"; p. 51, "Teddy Bear"; p. 52, "Butterfly" (3 texts, filed under Jump-Rope Rhymes); p. 63, "The Thread Was Thin" (1 text, a combination of "Choo'n Gum (Chewing Gum; Chew, Chew, Chew; Bubblegum)" and of "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Go Upstairs")
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #10, "(Teddy bear, Teddy ber, Turn around)"; #27, "(Ladybug, ladybug, turn around)"; #50, "Teddy bear, Teddy bear, turn around)"; #66, "(Teddy bear, Teddy bear, turn around)"; #93, "(Teddy bear, Teddy bear, go upstairs, go upstairs)"; #125, "(Teddy bear, Teddy bear, turn around)"; #150, "(Teddy bear, Teddy bear, turn around)" (7 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 59, "Teddy Bear"; p. 138, "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turn around" (2 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #545, "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turn around" (1 text); also #402, "Old lady, old lady, Lived in a shoe" (1 text, which Abrahams implies is "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Go Upstairs" mixed with "There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe")
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Joan McCaskill, collector), "Rope-Skipping Games", Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), pp. 10-11, "(Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear)" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Teri John, "A Collection of Jump Rope Rhymes," Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), p. 16, "" (Teddy Bear, teddy bear, Come in the door)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, _A Guide to Australian Folklore_, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 235, "(no title)" (1 short text, in the entry on "Skipping")
Roud #19238 and 19264
NOTES [55 words]: This is one of the few traditional games I seem to remember, very vaguely, from my own youth.
The "Butterfly" variant on p. 52 of Solomon-ZickaryZan is interesting; it's much rarer than the Teddy Bear or Ladybird texts -- but teddy bears, e.g., are a relatively recent invention. Might the "butterfly" text be an older survival?- RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RWTdBrTd

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Look to the Sky

See Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Go Upstairs (File: RWTdBrTd)

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Tip the Ground

See Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Go Upstairs (File: RWTdBrTd)

Teddy McGraw

See Mrs. McGrath (File: MA126)

Teddy O'Neal

See Teddy O'Neill (File: DTtedone)

Teddy O'Neale

See Teddy O'Neill (File: DTtedone)

Teddy O'Neill

DESCRIPTION: The singer has a dreadful dream of Teddy courting another girl. She recalls where they used to meet. They cannot meet now; he has gone across the sea to seek his fortune. She would rather he were still present, even if poor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Dime-Song-Book #9)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation emigration poverty dream
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 14, "Teddy O'Neal" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 718, "Teddy O'Neill" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2287, p. 154, "Teddy O'Neale" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 25, "Teddy O'Neale" (1 text)
DT, TEDONEIL
Roud #5207
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3747), "Teddy O'Neale", J. Harkness (Preston)), 1840-1866; also Firth c.22(91), Harding B 11(3645), "Teddy O'Neale"; Firth b.28(6a/b) View 6 of 8, "Teddy O'Neal"; also 2806 c.15(168), Harding B 19(30), "Teddy O'Neile"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maggie of Coleraine" (tune)
cf. "The Girls of Coleraine" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Maggie of Coleraine (File: HHH657)
The Girls of Coleraine (File: HHH064)
NOTES [179 words]: The Bodleian broadsides reverse the first two verses so that the first line is "I went to the cabin ..." and the second verse begins "I dreamt but last night ..." - BS
Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 154, lists an early broadside published by Wrigley where the first line is "I've come to the cabin he danced his wee jigs in"; this is also the text printed in Dime-Song-Book #9. Thus there seems to have been a lot of variety in the form of the song from a very early date. According to William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 73, this version was published in 1843, and is pretty clearly an "Irish Paddy" comedy song, since the next lines are "As neat a mud palace as ever was seen; And, consid'ring it served to keep poultry and pigs in, I'm sure it was always most elegant clean." It seems clear that there were both comic and serious versions of this from an early date, but I wouldn't bet on which came first. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: DTtedone

Teddy-bear, Teddy-bear, turn around

See Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Go Upstairs (File: RWTdBrTd)

Tee Roo

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Teedle Ell O

See Robin Redbreast's Testament (File: HHH527)

Teem Wa's, The (The Toom House)

DESCRIPTION: "Come hark a while, and I will speak Yonder's a house where I never saw reek." The young man who owns it explains that "the lasses they're so very scant." Assured that he can find a woman if he tries, he vows that there will be life in the house soon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: home rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 24, "The Reeking House"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1, pp. 236-237, "Neighbour Hark" (2 texts)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #19, p. 1, "The Teem Wa's" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1394, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "The Teem Wa's" (5 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 89-91, "The Teem Wa's" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 153-155, "Hark Niebour here" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3859
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Hoosie Wantin' Reek
File: Ord089B

Teetotal Mill, The

DESCRIPTION: Tom and Bill are "discussing the merits of brandy and gin." Tom tells of the Teetotal Mill where you go to give up drink. After a test "you're very soon cured." They go to the mill and see drunken wrecks enter and come out healthy and happy. They cheer.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(016))
KEYWORDS: drink dialog friend
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #144, pp. 1-2, "The Teetotal Mill" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 602, "The Teetotal Mill" (1 text)
Roud #5890
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(172)[some words illegible], "The Teetotal Mill" ("Two jolly old topers once sat in an inn"), R. McIntosh (Glasgow), 1849-1859; also Harding B 11(3751), Harding B 20(166), "The Teetotal Mill"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(016), "The Teetotal Mill," R. M'Intosh (Glasgow), 1849
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Villikens and His Dinah" (tune, per Greig)
NOTES [15 words]: Broadsides NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(016) and Bodleian 2806 c.14(172) are duplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3602

Telegraph Wire, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, dear me, the world's on fire, news sent around on a telegraph wire! Lord have mercy, only think, news sent to Mexico quicker than a wink! Oh dear, what shall I do? Every year brings something new!" A catalog of marvels and changes of the modern age
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: technology
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1752 and following - Franklin's experiments with lightning
1844 - Samuel Morse installs the first electromagnetic telegraph
1857, 1858, 1866 - Cyrus Field attempts to lay a transatlantic cable. (The 1857 attempts failed, the 1858 cable was briefly operational; the 1866 cable was the first true success)
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 75, "The Telegraph Wire" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa075 (Partial)
Roud #6953
File: Wa075

Telephone Arguin' Blues

DESCRIPTION: Singer can't connect with "that scheming sparrow of mine" because the lines are busy with so many people arguing. He tries Central. "I can't get no message on the phone no matter nowhere I go." "I picked up the 'ceiver I could not hear your voice"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Jaydee Short)
KEYWORDS: technology ordeal nonballad lover
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Jaydee Short, "Telephone Arguin' Blues" (Paramount 13043, 1930; as J.D. Short on USChartersHeroes)
NOTES [18 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcTeArBl

Tell All the World, John

DESCRIPTION: "Tell all the world, John (x3), I know the other world is not like this." "Well I've never been to heaven but I've been told, I know the other..., The gates are pearl and the streets are gold, I know the...." "One of these mornings." "The tallest tree.."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 173, "Tell All the World, John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12228
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All My Trials" (floating lyrica) and references there
File: Arno173

Tell Brother Elijah

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "No harm! no harm! Tell Brother Elijah! No harm! no harm! Come along to Jesus. Verse: O sinner (mourner, Christian, preachers), ain't you tired of sinning (mourning, praying, shouting)? Lay down your load of hell and Come along to Jesus"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 5, "Tell Bruddah Lijah" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Bart005

Tell Bruddah Lijah

See Tell Brother Elijah (File: Bart005)

Tell It to Me

See Take a Whiff on Me (File: RL130)

Tell Jesus

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Tell Jesus, done done all I can (x3), I can't do no more". Verses: "Went up on the mountain, Didn't go to stay, When my soul got happy, Then I stayed all day" and other floating verses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 77, "Tell Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 129 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #15221
File: Dett077

Tell John Don' Call duh Roll

See Don't Call the Roll (File: Dett119)

Tell Me Dear Lassie the' Wye for to Woo

DESCRIPTION: "O tell me my bonny young lassie ... how for to woo." May I praise "your red cheeks like the morning," "lips like the rose when it's moistened wi' dew," and "een's pauky [lively] scorning"?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 909, "Tell Me Dear Lassie the' Wye for to Woo" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6143
NOTES [27 words]: Greig/Duncan4 text is one verse on pp. 575-576 copied from Johnson, The Scots Musical Museum (1787-1803), song 540. The description is based on this fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4909

Tell Me Lassie Will Ye Tak' Me

DESCRIPTION: After "we courted mony an hoor" a shepherd asks a lass to marry. He points to his sheep, house, and wealth. She says she has not decided and is too young. He says "The morn I'll draw up with Mary." She says "Here's my hand that I will tak' you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting farming money dialog youth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #171, p. 2, "Tell Me, Lassie, Will Ye Tak' Me?" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 859, "Tell Me Lassie Will Ye Tak' Me" (1 text)
Roud #6252
File: GrD4859

Tell Me Now

DESCRIPTION: "I don't know why I went to war, Tell me, oh tell me now... Or what these folks are fighting for." "I don't know why I totes this gun." The singer doesn't know why the troops feed badly when the officers eat well. He hopes God will take him when he dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: soldier war food hardtimes death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 209-211, "Tell Me Now" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27894
NOTES [40 words]: Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe says, "This is what the negroes did to the 'Mlle. from Armentieres." I'd be more inclined to believe it if the dialect were truer. I suspect a white man wrote this and claimed it as a Black song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: NiMo209

Tell Me What Month Was My Jesus Born In?

See What Month Was Jesus Born In? (File: CNFM245)

Tell Me Why (Why I Love You)

DESCRIPTION: "Tell me why the stars do shine; Tell me why the ivy twines; Tell me why the skies are blue; And I will tell you why I love you. Because God made the stars to shine; Because God made the ivy twine... That is the reason why I love you."
AUTHOR: Words: Fred Mower / Music: Roy L. Burtch. (source: Jim Dixon and others in mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: Tell me why")
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: questions nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 290, "Tell Me Why" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 195, 345, 473, "Tell Me Why" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 101, "Tell Me Why" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 29, "Tell Me Why" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 122, "Tell Me Why" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Nancy Finley, Samuel Finley, "Tell me why the stars do shine" (Piotr-Archive #625, recorded 08/01/2023)
SAME TUNE:
Just When I'm Ready to Start My Ears (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 228)
NOTES [62 words]: The mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req/Add: Tell Me Why" has this science version, which I can't help quoting:
Nuclear fusion makes stars to shine,
Tropisms make the ivy twine,
Raleigh scattering make skies so blue,
Testicular hormones are why I love you.
Arguably, in light of current knowledge, the last line should be "Oxytocin is why I love you." It's gender-neutral, too. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ACSF195W

Tell My Jesus "Morning"

DESCRIPTION: "In the morning when I rise, Tell my Jesus huddy (howdy?), oh. I wash my hands in the morning glory, Tell my Jesus huddy, oh." "Morning, Hester, morning, gal." "Say, brother Sammy, you got the order." "Pray, Tony, pray, boy, you got the order."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (W. F. Allen, Slave Songs of the United States)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 15, "Tell My Jesus 'Morning'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11845
File: AWG015A

Tell My Mother

DESCRIPTION: "Tell my mother, Tell her for me, To meet me in the morning at Galilee, O, you better walk steady, Jesus (is) a-liestening, Oh, you better walk stead, Jesus died, Oh, you better walk steady, Jesus is a-listening, All day long."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 765, "Tell My Mother" (1 short text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Twelve Gates to the City" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [109 words]: The current description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 text.
The "Tell my mother" verse of this appears in some versions of "Twelve Gates to the City," but the rest of the song obviously looks different, so I've split them. Jesus's instruction to meet him in Galilee was not issued to his mother; in Mark 16:7, the women who visit Jesus's tomb are told to inform "the disciples and Peter" that Jesus will meet them in Galilee. But given that Jesus's mother was said to have been with some of those women at the foot of the cross, and some of the other women were named Mary, perhaps some confusion is understandable. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5765

Tell Old Bill

DESCRIPTION: "Tell old Bill, when he leaves home this morning, Tell old Bill, when he leaves home this evening, Tell old Bill... To let them downtown coons alone...." (An hour after) Bill left he is dead/murdered and being brought home in a "hurry-up wagon"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: death whore homicide
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 18-19, "Dis Mornin', Dis Evenin', So Soon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 200-201, "Dis Mornin', Dis Evenin', So Soon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 100-102, "Old Bill" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 78, "Tell Old Bill" (1 text)
DT, OLDBILL*
Roud #7876
RECORDINGS:
Milton Brown & His Brownies, "This Morning, This Evening, So Soon" (Bluebird B-5610, 1934)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ain't No Use Workin' So Hard" (structure, refrain)
File: San018

Tell Tale Tit

DESCRIPTION: "Tell, tale, tit, Your tongue shall be split. And all the little puppy dogs Shall have a little bit." Or, "...your mother's in a fit, Your father's in the washing tub, Tell tale tit."" Said to be used against "sneaks."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty injury dog
FOUND IN: Britain New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 126, "(Tell, tale, tit)" (1 text); p. 132, "(Tell, tale, tit)" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 116, "Tell tale tit" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 41, "(Tell tale tit)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #154, "(Tell Tale Tit)" (1 text)
Roud #19162
File: SuSm126D

Tell Your Horse's Age

DESCRIPTION: Detailed instructions for determining a horse's age from its teeth, beginning "To tell the age of any horse, Inspect the lower jaw, of course," and ending "They longer get, project before, Till twenty, when we know no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 ("Bit and Spur")
KEYWORDS: horse age nonballad recitation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 74, "Tell Your Horse's Age" (1 text)
File: Ohr074

Temperance Ship, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Temperance Ship is now afloat ... raise the temperance banner from the old Bay State to Indiana." "This ship has sailed four years or more." "Come join us then ye old and young"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad political
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 82, "The Temperance Ship" (1 text)
Roud #2847
NOTES [26 words]: Thompson-APioneerSongster: "... the mention of the [temperance] ship's having 'sailed four years or more' makes 1844 the earliest possible date for it." - BS
Last updated in version 2.8
File: TPS082

Temperance Song (I)

See Drunkard's Doom (I), The (File: R306)

Temperance Song (II)

See Rum By Gum (Temperance Union Song) (File: R317)

Tempest, The (Cease Rude Boreas)

DESCRIPTION: "Cease rude Boreas blustering killer... Messmates hear a brother sailor Sing the dangers of the sea." A storm comes up; the crew struggles mightily to survive. The mast falls, the ship leaks; they make it home and rejoice
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Journal from the Galaxy); Hugill thinks it dates from the 1700s
KEYWORDS: storm disaster ship sea
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 597-598, "Come, and Listen to My Ditty" (1 excerpt, 1 tune, possibly a rewrite)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 70-72, "The Tempest" (1 text)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 144-145, "Rude Boreas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 158-160, "Rude Boreas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XII, pp. 18-20, "The Storm" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2252, p. 152, "The Storm" (1 reference)
Roud #949
NOTES [149 words]: Roud appears to lump another Boreas song here, "Blow, Boreas Blow" or "The Storm" ("Blow, Boreas, blow, and let thy surly winds Make the billows foam and roll"), found in "Pills to Purge Melancholy" and reprinted as Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XIII, pp. 21-22. I really think they're separate, though; Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads attributes it to "R. Bradley."
It appears this was popular enough to be parodied; Pamela A. Miller, And the Whale Is Ours: Creative Writing of American Whalemen, David R. Godine/Kendall Whaling Museum, 1979, p. 131, prints a piece by Sylvester Miller, captain of the whaler Bayard in 1835, called "Storm of Canal," which opens "Hark the Captains loudly balling, For and aft by fendred stand, Down the scuttles quick be hauling In the tow line hand boys hand," one of those standard jokes about canal boats, which Miller says is a parody of "Cease Rude Boreas." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SWMS070

Tempy

See I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground (File: BAF900)

Ten and Nine

See The Jute Mill Song (Ten and Nine) (File: JRVI136)

Ten and Ten Are Twenty

DESCRIPTION: "Ten and ten are twenty, Give the fox plenty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: gift animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 65, "(Ten and ten are twenty)" (1 text)
Roud #38124
NOTES [20 words]: This is a rhyme for a ball game. I wonder if the "fox" was a character in the game. Brady simply quotes the lines. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI065B

Ten Black Bottles

See Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer (File: R456)

Ten Broeck and Mollie

See Molly and Tenbrooks [Laws H27] (File: LH27)

Ten Cents at the Gate

DESCRIPTION: "There is a land that is fairer than day" to which you can gain entrance by paying "ten cents at the bar." There is no admission to the camp meeting for the poor except by paying their dime -- except for the "rowdies" who "climbed over the wall."
AUTHOR: Words: John Q. Dyce (source: Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: parody religious humorous money clothes
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 106-107, "Ten Cents at the Gate" (1 text) (p. 85 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #7651
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet By and By" (source of parody)
NOTES [37 words]: Roud lums this with "Sweet By and By," from which it was patently derived -- but this is clearly a deliberate parody, satirizing camp meetings that charge admission to gain salvation; I would consider it a different song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Shoe106

Ten Commandments, The

See Green Grow the Rushes-O (The Twelve Apostles, Come and I Will Sing You) (File: ShH97)

Ten Days of Finals, The

DESCRIPTION: On successive days of final examinations, the singer's true love gives to him a special gift.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy parody humorous cumulative derivative
FOUND IN: Canada US(MW,SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 373-374, "The Ten Days of Finals" (2 texts)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (tune)
File: EM373

Ten Dollar Bill, The

See The Brisk Young Butcher (File: DTxmasgo)

Ten green bottles standing on the wall

See Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer (File: R456)

Ten in a Bed

See Roll Over (File: FSWB386C)

Ten Injuns

See (references under) Ten Little Injuns (File: OO2376)

Ten Little Fingers

DESCRIPTION: "I have ten little fingers, Ten little toes, Two little arms And one little nose. One little mouth And two little ears, Two little eyes For smiles and tears. One little head And two little feet, One little chin, And that's me complete."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | fingers toes arms nose body
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 65, "Me Complete" (1 text)
Roud #23304
NOTES [41 words]: There was a 1922 pop song, "Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes," words by Harry Pease and Johnny White, music by Ira Shuster and Ed. G. Nelson. It is not this; it is subtitled "Down in Tennessee" and begins "I met a pal from Tennessee." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DCCR065

Ten Little Furies

DESCRIPTION: "Ten little Furies, landing on so fine. One hit the round-down, Ting! Bang! Nine." And so on through many different reasons for losses, until we're left with "One little Fury, being flown by Number one, Sugar in his petrol tanks, Good idea son!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: technology navy death humorous derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 108-109, "Ten Little Furies" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ten Little Injuns" (tune)
NOTES [303 words]: Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy lists the tune of this as "Ten Little Nigger Boys," which I believe is the item we've indexed as "Ten Little Injuns."
This sounds like a World War II song, but in the form printed by Tawney, it can't be. Both the plane involved (the "Fury") and the ship where Tawney supposedly found it (the Theseus) argue against it.
There was, according to Wikipedia, a pre-war biplane fighter called the "Fury," but it had been phased out of combat roles by the start of World War II (although I gather from Wikipedia that a few were still used for training during the war).
But this can't be the plane involved, because the song mentions a "Bofors," which is a famous 40 mm anti-aircraft gun -- but it wasn't in use by the British before World War II. Similarly, the song mentions an armored flight deck, and no pre-war British carrier had an armored deck. So the pre-war Fury is out. It's possible that the word is actually "Fairey," the maker of many British naval planes, including the famous Swordfish torpedo plane and the Fulmar fighter, but we have no evidence for that. There was a post-war plane called the "Sea Fury," so that is likely what is meant here,
Tawney said this was a version from the Theseus, although the song itself does not offer a ship name. I checked three different sources and could find no Royal Navy ship named Theseus during World War II. Certainly there was no carrier of that name! But, according to Wikipedia, the carrier HMS Theseus was commissioned shortly after the war, and served primarily in a training role until the Korean War. She was broken up in 1952. Given that the Bofors went obsolete well before 1962, Tawney's version is likely from the late 1940s.
I wonder, though, if there wasn't a World War II version featuring some other plane. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn080

Ten Little Indians (II)

DESCRIPTION: "One, two, three, little Indians, ... Ten, little Indian boys." Game steps: "Open your gates and let us through"; "Not without your beck and bow"; "Here's our beck and there's your bow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1601, "Ten Little Indian Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12976
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ten Little Indians (John Brown Had a Little Indian)" (one verse)
File: GrD81601

Ten Little Indians (John Brown Had a Little Indian)

DESCRIPTION: "John Brown he had a little Indian (x3), One little Indian boy." "One little, two little, three little Indians, four little, five little, six little Indians, Seven little, eight little, nine little Indians, Ten little Indian boys"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: nonballad Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Randolph 594, "John Brown Had a Little Indian" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 136, "John Brown Had a Little Injun" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 136, "John Brown Had a Little Injun" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 241-242, (no title) (1 short text, consisting of this chorus counted forward then backward; John Brown is not mentioned)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 106, "John Brown Had Little Indian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 137-138, "Meet Hal Way with Your Best Likeness" (1 text, 1 tune, with the verses being from "Meet Half Way (Miss Liking)" but the chorus being "Ten Little Indians (John Brown Had a Little Indian)")
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 205, "Drunken Sailor (Monkey's Wedding -- John Brown Had a Little Injun -- Ten Little Injuns)"
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 45-46, "John Brown Had a Little Indian" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #422, "One little, two little, three little Indians" (1 text)
cf. Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #597, p. 237, "(Tom Brown's)"
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 32, "John Brown Had a Little Injun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4993
RECORDINGS:
Doreen Elliott, "Old Joe Badger" (on Elliotts01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drunken Sailor" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "Old Brass Wagon" (tune)
cf. "Ten Little Injuns" (chorus)
cf. "Ten Little Indians (II)" (one verse)
NOTES [57 words]: Of the Mother Goose item "Tom Brown's Two little Indians," the Baring-Goulds write, "Whether or not this rhyme inspires the writing of 'Two Little Injuns...' is an interesting speculation." I must say that they are quite close -- close enough that pure coincidence seems unlikely. For more background, see the notes to "Ten Little Injuns." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: R594

Ten Little Injuns

DESCRIPTION: Ten Indians stand in a line, one goes home and there are nine. Each disappears in a new way until only one is left. The last one lives alone until "he got married and then there were none"
AUTHOR: Septimus Winner (1868), with adaptions by Frank Green and others
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (sheet music published by Sep. Winner of Philadelphia)
KEYWORDS: humorous Black(s) Indians(Am.) | counting down
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 84-85, "Ten Little Niggers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 357, "Ten Little Niggers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 376, "Ten little nigger boys went out to dine" (2 texts); 511, "Tom Brown's two little Indian boys" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #818, pp. 304-305, "(Ten little Injuns standin' in a line)"
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 50-51, "Ten Injuns" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 259, "Ten Little Indians" (notes only)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2295, p. 154, "Ten Little Injuns" (1 reference)
cf. Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 18, "Big Indians" (not really this, but it's a decrementing song bout Indians)
Roud #13512
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1572), "Ten Little Niggers" ("Ten little niggers going out to dine"), unknown, n.d.; also Firth c.16(335), Firth b.27(94), "Ten Little Niggers"; Firth c.16(334), "Ten Little Ministers" ("Ten little ministers, sitting in a line"), unknown, 1874; also Johnson Ballads fol. 386a, "A new version of a popular song"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer" (counting)
cf. "Eight Little Cylinders" (counting)
cf. "Ten Little Indians" ("John Brown Had a Little Indian") (chorus)
SAME TUNE:
Ten Little Furies (FIle: Tawn080)
O Belinda (File: OpGa046)
NOTES [400 words]: Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 511 is one verse "Tom Brown's two little Indian boys; One ran away, The other wouldn't stay, Tom Brown's two little Indian boys." (Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes has an early date c.1744 from Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book).
The Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 376 texts are "Ten little nigger boys went out to dine" and "Ten little Injuns standin' in a line."
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 376 lists the following names and publication dates of adaptations:
"Ten Little Niggers" Feb. 1869 [According to the Baring-Goulds, this is by Frank Green. The Opies say it might have been written in late 1868 - RBW]
"Ten Little Negroes" Mar. 1869
"Ten Little Darkies" June 1869
"The Ten Youthful Africans" Sep. 1869
"Ten Little Darkies" c.1870
"Ten Little Negro Boys" Dec. 1874
The things that reduce the number vary from text to text. So, for example, for the ministers of broadside Johnson Ballads fol. 386a, the last minister "was so very Low, Everybody told him they thought he'd better go." For broadside Harding B 11(1572) the last one gets married and raises a family of ten more.
Some versions, including Winner's original, share the chorus with "Ten Little Indians" ("John Brown Had a Little Indian").
See Tim Coughlan, Now Shoon the Romano Gillie, (Cardiff,2001), #165, pp. 437-441, "Yeck Bitto Rom'ni Chal Churyin ap a Ruck" ["One little Gypsy boy climbing up a tree"] [Romani-English text reported by Leland, English Gypsy Songs (1875)]. Coughlan: "Leland's informant seems to have been remarkably quick off the mark. [Septimus] Winner's original set was published in London in July 1868..... Also included by Leland is a second set from the pen of Hubert Smith .... ["Desh Tani Chavis Duriken," also quoted by Coughlan from Leland]. - BS
For more on Septimus Winner, see the notes to "Listen to the Mockingbird."
This appears to have been parodied by none other than Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), who in his report "Twelve Months in a Curatorship" wrote the following about the Wine Committee:
Tuns: 'Ten Little Nigger'
Four frantic Members of a chosen Committee!
One of them resigned, then there were three.
Three thoughtful members: they may pull us through!
One was invalided -- there there were Two.
Two tranquil members: much may yet be done!
But they never came together, so I had to work with one.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: OO2376

Ten Little Nigger Boys Went Out To Dine

See Ten Little Injuns (File: OO2376)

Ten Little Niggers

See Ten Little Injuns (File: OO2376)

Ten Little Words

DESCRIPTION: "Ten little words was all it said, It's on their way they hum. 'Kiss Mother for me,' it singing says, 'For I'm too poor to come.'" The members of the (logging?) crew join together to raise the money to send the man home to see his dying mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan)
KEYWORDS: mother death money travel technology
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, p. 151, "Ten Little Words" (1 text)
Roud #6510
NOTES [85 words]: Why do I have a feeling that there is a missing verse of this in which the young man dies on his way home?
The song does not mention the telegraph, but I strongly suspect that that is what is happening here. This would explain the use of exactly ten words. It was typical of telegrams to have a flat fee for the first ten words, then a per-word charge for each word over ten. So there was a strong tendency to write messages that were exactly ten words. On that basis, I've added the keyword "technology." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: BBun151

Ten O'Clock

See Past Ten O'Clock (File: FMNS128)

Ten O'Clock Is Ringing

See The Bells are Ringing (Eight O'Clock Bells) (File: MSNR086)

Ten Per Cent

DESCRIPTION: "Come Mary put my pit clogs by From t'jacket shake the dust, We've gone on strike for ten percent. We'll get it, lass, I trust." Life was hard; it will be harder until they earn the pay they deserve. The singer hopes Little Joe will be all right till then
AUTHOR: Words: Mary Thomason (additional words by Mike Harding)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Thomasson, "Warp and Weft")
KEYWORDS: mining work hardtimes strike mother father children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, pp. 82-83, "Ten Per Cent" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [62 words]: Probably not traditional in origin, and there are no field collections, but it has been recorded by several "folk" groups, and also quoted in at least two sociological studies of mining culture. There seems to be confusion about the source of the tune; Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire says Harding wrote it, but a Mudcat thread credited it to Harding's bandmate Pete Smith. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: HFSL082

Ten Sticks of Dynamite (Gelignite)

See Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer (File: R456)

Ten Stone

DESCRIPTION: Windlass shanty. "I nebber seen de like sence I ben born! Way, ay, ay, ay, ay! Nigger on de ice an a hoein' up corn, Way, ay, ay, ay, ay! Ten stone! ten stone! ten stone de win' am ober, Jenny get along, Jenny blow de horn, as we go marchin ober!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Bullen & Arnold, _Songs of Sea Labor_)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong sailor
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 268, "Ten Stone" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 198]
Roud #9129
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Belong to that Band" (lyrics)
NOTES [36 words]: This may well be related to the mess of material filed under "I Belong to that Band"; it has some of the same lines, and is utterly disorganized. But the total material found in each is simply too small to be sure. - RBW
File: Hugi268

Ten Thousand Cattle

DESCRIPTION: Perhaps as a result of a bad winter, "Ten thousand cattle have gone astray, Left my range and traveled away." The singer is left destitute. His girl has also left him (for another). Other verses may complain about the weather, his girl's lover, etc.
AUTHOR: Owen Wister (1888?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1904
KEYWORDS: cowboy hardtimes separation disaster
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 151-153, "Then Thousand Cattle" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 6, "Ten Thousand Cattle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 88-91, "Ten Thousand Cattle" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TENTHOU* TENTHOU2*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 35, #2 (1990), pp, 70-71, "Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle" (1 text, 1 tune, included because it's one of the relatively unexpurgated versions)
John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 27-37, "Owen Wister, Songwriter" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a sheet music cover, history of Wister's cowboy writings, and a copy of a letter from Wister about the song)
Roud #5763
NOTES [32 words]: Reported to have been written by Owen Wister (1860-1938; author of The Virginian plus assorted minor poetry) in 1888 based on the experiences of the dreadful winter of 1886/7 in Wyoming. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: Ohr006

Ten Thousand Dollars for the Home Folks

DESCRIPTION: To the tune of Chopin's funeral march: "Ten thousand dollars for the folks back home (x2), Ten thousand dollars for the home folks, Ten thousand dollars for the family."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: death money family soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 27-28, "Ten Thousand Dollars for the Home Folks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27869
File: NiM027

Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle

See Ten Thousand Cattle (File: Ohr006)

Ten Thousand Miles

See Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove) (File: Wa097)

Ten Thousand Miles Away

DESCRIPTION: "Sing ho! for a brave and a gallant ship, And a fair and fav'ring breeze, With a bully crew and a captain too To carry me over the seas...." The singer wishes for a ship to carry him to his sweetheart, transported to Botany Bay "ten thousand miles away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3763))
KEYWORDS: love separation transportation ship
FOUND IN: Australia US(NE,Ro) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 159-161, "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 116-118, "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 409-410, "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 311-312]
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 194, "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 84-85, 272-273, "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, pp. 82-83, "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 31-32, "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 148-149, "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 70-71, "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 100-101, "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #71, "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 232-233, "Blow the Winds I Oh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 8-9, "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #169, p. 2, "Blow Ye Winds" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1102, "Blow Ye Winds, Ay Oh" (6 texts plus a single verse on p. 544, 4 tunes)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 86, "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (1 text)
DT, THOUSMIL*
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 52, "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (1 text, with tune on p. 540)
Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, pp. 68-69, "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1778
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (on IRRCinnamond03)
Eugene Jemison, "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (on Jem01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3763), "Ten Thousand Miles Away" ("Sing oh! for a brave and valiant bark"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth c.13(286), 2806 c.16(88), Harding B 16(286c), "Ten Thousand Miles Away"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Capital Ship" (tune & meter)
cf. "Ho for California (Banks of Sacramento)" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Old Palmer Song" (tune)
cf. "Forsaken Folk Maun Live" (tune, per Greig/Duncan6)
SAME TUNE:
The Old Palmer Song (File: PASB038)
No More Shall I Work in the Factory (File: Grnw122)
File: MA084

Ten Thousand Miles Away (On the Banks of Lonely River)

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls his aged mother "on the banks of a lonely river, Ten thousand miles away." He wishes he (were a little bird so he could be) with her. A letter from his sister says his mother has died; he wishes she were there. He prays for his mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1882 16161)
KEYWORDS: death mother loneliness separation age grief burial mourning family sister
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 697, "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, p. 41, "Ten Thousand Miles Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 170, "The Homesick Boy" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 170, "The Homesick Boy" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Roud #3514
RECORDINGS:
Asa Martin & Doc Roberts, "I Must See My Mother" (Champion 16568, 1933; Champion 45176, c. 1935; rec. 1932; on KMM [as Martin & Hobbs])
Fred Redden, "The Banks of Claudy" (on NovaScotia1)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1882 16161, "Ten Thousand Miles Away on the Banks of a Lonely River," Balmer & Weber (Saint Louis), 1882 (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "To the West A While to Stay" (plot)
NOTES [160 words]: Several of Randolph's informants credited this to a Missouri musician named Hubbard. Given the general feebleness of the song, it is quite likely that it comes from such an obscure source. The presence of the North Carolina texts, however, argues that it is not local to the Ozarks. - RBW
Broadside LOCSheet sm1882 16161: "composed by I.M. Williams" whatever that means. Is it a coincidence that the publisher is so close to the Ozarks?
[NovaScotia1] begins "In youth I craved adventure To Australia I did stray, I left my home and mother For a fortune far away, She bade me not to leave her Or to return some day To the banks of far off Claudy Ten thousand miles away." This verse is missing from LOCSheet sm1882 16161, which begins with the letter verse, followed by the dream verse.- BS
There seems to have been a popular nineteenth century song "Near the Banks of That Lone River," e.g. in Dime-Song-Book #8, p. 16. It does not appear to be the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R697

Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum) [Laws H2]

DESCRIPTION: The reckless hobo cannot stay still; the sound of a train keeps calling him. (He may become involved with various girls, but even they cannot hold him.)
AUTHOR: (credited to Jimmie Rodgers by John Greenway)
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, George Reneau)
KEYWORDS: railroading train travel rambling floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So,SE)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Laws H2, "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum) "
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 355-366, "Waiting for a Train/Wild and Reckless Hobo" (2 texts plus a print from Richard Burnett's songbook and a peculiar "Wabash Cannonball" mix, 2 tune)
Randolph 836, "A Wild and Reckless Hobo" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 456-457, "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home" (1 text, 1 tune, which from its form appears to go here although the plot is somewhat different; the singer misses the true love who abandoned him)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 90, p. 113, "Down at the Water Tank" (1 text)
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 29, pp. 221-228, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (3 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes; the two longest texts, AA and DD, both contain floating material, in the case of "D" probably from this piece)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 30, "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (4 texts, 5 excerpts, 1 fragment, plus mention of two more; the final text, M, probably combined with this piece)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 359, "The Wild and Reckless Hobo" (1 text); 361, "Waiting for a Train" (1 short text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 111, pp. 250-251, "The Railroad Bum" (1 text)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 128-129, "Ten Thousand Miles From Home" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 3-4, "A Wild and Reckless Hobo" (1 text); p. 101, "The Railroad Bum" (1 text, which seems to be mixed with other material)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 107-108, "A Wild and Reckless Hobo" (1 text. Same source as Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads's, though with differences in presentation)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 76-77, "The Danville Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-AFSB, pp. 28-30, "Ten Thousand Miles from Home" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 172, "(All around the water tank)" (1 fragment, from the Jimmie Rodgers version)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 42, "Sam's 'Waiting for a Train'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 54, "Danville Girl" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 130, "At the Jail" (2 texts, 1 tune; the result looks to me to be a mix between this and "Logan County Jail," though it's one of those vague cases....)
DT 781, DANVGIRL (DANVILL2)
Roud #699 and 7046
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "Danville Girl" (Brunswick 132B, 1927); (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1)
[Richard] Burnett & [Leonard] Rutherford, "Ramblin' Reckless Hobo" ((Columbia 15240-D, 1928; Velvet Tone 2496-V/Clarion 5436-C [both as Clayton & Parker], 1932; rec. 1927; on BurnRuth01, KMM)
Vernon Dalhart, "Wild and Reckless Hobo" (Brunswick 2942, 1925)
Morgan Denmon, "Wild and Reckless Hobo" (Velvet Tone 2366-V, 1930); "The Wild and Reckless Hobo" (OKeh 45327, 1929)
Dixon Brothers, "The Girl I Left in Danville" (Montgomery Ward M-7337, c. 1937/Bluebird B-7674, 1938)
Texas Gladden and Hobart Smith, "Wild and Reckless Hobo" (on USTGladden01)
Bill Baker w. Bob Miller's Hinky-Dinkers, "Wild and Reckless Hobo" (Brunswick 445/Supertone S-2059, 1930)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Danville Girl" (on NLCR06)
Pine Mountain Ramblers [or Virginia Mountain Boomers], "Ramblin' Reckless Hobo" (Champion 15610, 1928; Supertone 9305, 1929)
Charlie Powers, "The Wild and Reckless Hobo" (CYL: Edison 5131, n.d.)
George Reneau, "Wild and Reckless Hoboes" (Vocalion 14999, 1925)
Pete Seeger, "Danville Girl" (on PeteSeeger02, PeteSeegerCD01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bigler's Crew" [Laws D8] (meter)
cf. "More Pretty Girls Than One" (words, tune)
cf. "Waiting For a Train (II)" (subject, some lyrics)
cf. "Ninety-Nine Years (I)" (tune)
cf. "A Thousand Miles Away" (words, tune)
SAME TUNE:
A Thousand Miles Away (File: PFS213)
The Fossicker's Return ("I'm going back to Gulong to dig for virgin gold") (by Duke Tritton) (Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, p. 57)
All Around the Jailhouse (by Ella May Wiggins) (Kristina Horton, _Martyr of Loray Mill: Ella May and the 1929 Textile Workers' Strike in Gastonia, North Carolina_, McFarland & Company, 2015, p. 195)
NOTES [409 words]: I question the attribution of this to Rodgers, as it seems to take quite a few forms. It seems more likely that he used floating verses in composing his song, "Waiting for a Train."
The 1925 Reneau recording makes Greenway's attribution of the song to Rodgers unlikely. - PJS
You'll note that I didn't say I believed Rodgers wrote it -- note that it was being parodied around 1900 in "A Thousand Miles Away." Best guess is that Rodgers created a recension which became fairly popular. - RBW
Paul Stamler suggests that "The Danville Girl" subtext deserves separate listing, noting that "It has certain verses that set it apart, including the'You bet your life she's out of sight/She wore those Danville curls' and 'She wore her hair on the back of her head/Like high-toned people do.' It's also got floating verses, including some from "Gambling Man...." The difficulty, for me at least, is that none of these are characteristic of the song; I've seen versions without either verse. Thus, while the extremes are different, there is no good way to draw a line. We could simply call all texts which mention Danville "The Danville Girl" -- but there are otherwise identical versions which omit that key name. Plus, the Brown "Wild and Reckless Hobo" text is certainly a "Danville Girl" version, but Laws lists it here.
Steve Roud seems to have made this distinction; "Danville Girl" texts are #7046. - RBW, PJS
From Alan Lomax's notes to PeteSeeger02, "There are stanzas in this one from so many different hobo songs, sung in so many different ways, that one might call this the master hobo song. Actually I had some hand in mixing the verses together in American Ballads and Folk Songs (Macmillan, 1934), from which this version comes." - PJS
I wonder if that might explain the Danville Girl mixup, too.... - RBW
Naw. That was already going on when Dock Boggs recorded the song in 1927. - PJS
When I finally read Cohen's notes on this, I thought seriously about sweeping out all the previous notes, since it includes a complex analysis of sources. But I finally decided that Cohen, while authoritative, is not definitive. His opinion is that there were originally three separate songs, which he entitles "Wild and Reckless Hobo," "Waiting for a Train," and "Danville Girl." But he admits so much mixture that drawing sharp lines is impossible. Lumping is generally against our policy, but when splitting forces notes to every version, I'll do lumping. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LH02

Ten Thousand Miles from Home

See Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum) [Laws H2] (File: LH02)

Ten Thousand Texas Rangers

DESCRIPTION: "Ten thousand Texas Rangers are laughing fit to kill At the joke of the German Kaiser, an' his fierce, imperious will." If the Mexicans are fools enough to listen to the Germans and invade the U. S., it will fail, and "by Gawd, but that one's on Bill"
AUTHOR: Alice Corbin (Source: Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: Mexico
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan. 1917 - The Zimmerman Telegram invites Mexico to go to war with the United States
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 145-146, "Ten Thousand Texas Rangers" (1 text)
NOTES [232 words]: In 1917, Germany was preparing to start unrestricted submarine warfare in World War I, which they thought (almost certainly correctly) would bring the United States into the war on the Allied side. The Germans came up with a plan to involve the chaotic Mexican government in war with the United States. This offer, which was conveyed in a telegram, offered (in the sort-of-official translation) to "make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona." Note that some of this phrasing is used in the piece.
The telegram was signed by the German foreign minister, Arthur Zimmerman.
The telegram was sent in code from Germany to the German embassy in Mexico -- but because the Germans had to use cables to send it, and the British had tapped the cables, the British got their hands on it, decoded it, and shared it with the Americans, using subterfuge to make it appear they had picked up a copy of the telegram in Mexico rather than intercepting and decrypting it (which would have told the Germans that their code had been cracked).
The Germans could of course have denied the telegram's authenticity, but instead Zimmerman admitted to sending the thing. And, of course, the United States soon joined the Allies, and played a vital role in defeating the Germans. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: ThLo145

Ten Virgins, The

DESCRIPTION: "There were ten virgins when the Bridegroom come, There were ... when He come" "(There were ...)"(x3) "When he come". Five virgins were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ask the wise for oil; the wise tell the foolish to buy from the sellers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute); 1893 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 72, "There Were Ten Virgins" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 90-91 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 36, pp. 158-159, "Zion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 168, "The Ten Virgins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15278 and 10433
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "The Ten Virgins" (on MJHurt05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, They Put John on the Island" (structure, chorus lines)
cf. "She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain" (structure, tune) and references there
NOTES [165 words]: The description is based on Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute.
The Biblical reference is to [the] parable [in] Matthew 25:1-13 [usually called the "Wise and Foolish Virgins" - RBW]: Ten virgins go to meet a bridegroom. All bring their lamps but the foolish ones do not bring [extra] oil. The bridegroom is delayed and arrives unexpectedly at midnight. Only the wise virgins have enough oil for their lamps so they can go and greet him. By the time the foolish virgins buy oil for their lamps they are so late that the bridegroom refuses to recognize them. "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh" (King James).
The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "There were ten Virgins" on page 90 (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 90. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Dett072

Tenaouich' Tenaga, Ouich'ka

DESCRIPTION: Canadian French: A trapper is met by an Indian, who tells him that the comrade from whom he had earlier parted has died. The Indians have (buried/brought) the body. The recurrent word "Ouich'ka" seems to be an attempt to imitate Indian dialect
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (Gagnon)
KEYWORDS: death Indians(Am.) burial Quebec foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 32-33, "Tenaouich' Tenaga, Ouich'ka" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: FMB032

Tendemain des Noces, Le (The Song of Marriage)

DESCRIPTION: French. Girl looks ahead to the joy of marriage. After the wedding, she's disillusioned; she will wear the cloak of joyfulness, but the "girdle of sufferance (le cordon de souffriance)". Her mother asks who forced her into marriage. The girl still laments
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes)
LONG DESCRIPTION: French. Young girl, walking by the sea, thinks of the pleasures of the marriage bond. After the wedding, she's disillusioned; she will wear the cloak of joyfulness, but the "girdle of sufferance (le cordon de souffriance)". Her mother asks who forced her into marriage, pointing out that she'd been warned. The girl laments leaving her family, saying she will be miserable for the rest of her life.
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage grief homesickness marriage wedding clothes family mother wife
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Berry-FolkSongsOfOldVincennes, p. 50, "Le lendemain des noces (The Song of Marriage)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Single Girl, Married Girl" (theme)
cf. "I Wish I Were Singe Again (II - Female)",(theme)
cf. "Do You Love an Apple?" (theme)
cf. "When I Was Young (II)" (theme)
File: BerV050

Tender Mother's Grave

DESCRIPTION: Singer gathers flowers for his mother's grave. "She is gone to the dear land of the blessed." "There's none in this wide world like your mother You shall never miss your mother till she's gone." "Shall I ever see you more gentle mother"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: grief death mourning flowers nonballad mother
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30110
RECORDINGS:
Pat Molloy, "Tender Mother's Grave" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gentle Mother" (subject and some lines and line fragments)
NOTES [26 words]: For "Gentle Mother" see, for example, Eugene Ward McElroy, "Gentle Mother" (on "I Pray You Pay Attention," Musical Tradition Records MTCD367-8 CD (2014)) - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3TeMoG

Tender Shepherd

DESCRIPTION: "Tender shepherd, tender shepherd, let me count your sheep." One, two, three... they are fast asleep. Say your prayers and be safe
AUTHOR: Words: Carolyn Leigh, Betty Comden, Adolph Green / Music: Moose Charlap, Jule Styne (source: allthelyrics.com)
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (musical, Peter Pan)
KEYWORDS: sheep religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 385, 444, 540, "Tender Shepherd" (notes only)
NOTES [23 words]: Apparently from the Peter Pan musical, with Mrs. Darling singing the first verse and her children (Wendy, etc.) singing the later verses. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF385T

Tender's Hold, The (While Landsmen Wander)

DESCRIPTION: "Whilst landsmen wander uncontrolled, And boast the rights of freedmen," the seamen suffer on a tender. The sailors wonder what has become of their rights. They have been torn away from their families. People's claims of freedom are vain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: political sailor nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 74, "Song" (1 text)
Roud #V41847
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1920), "The Tender's Hold," unknown, n.d.
File: PaSe074

Tenderfoot, The

See The Horse Wrangler (The Tenderfoot) [Laws B27] (File: LB27)

Tenement House

DESCRIPTION: "I livee in tenamentee housee." Described as "a language-distortion song that satirizes a Chinese immigrant advertising his laundry."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: wordplay campsong foreigner
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 420-421, "Tenement House" (notes only)
NOTES [41 words]: Averill claims to have eleven versions of this song. I can find no mention of a "Tenement Song" in either my recent scouting songbooks or even the old ones that would not object to such a racist song. So this is here mostly as a placeholder. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF420T

Tennessee Boys, The

See The Hickman Boys (The Downfall of Fort Donelson) (File: BoWo055)

Tennessee Killer, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh I've killed men in Georgia And men in Alabam', But kill a man in Arkansas And God your soul will damn!" The singer admits to widespread murders, but was taken in Little Rock. Now he will hang. He warns others against guns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: homicide punishment execution warning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 175, "The Tennessee Killer" (1 text)
Roud #4101
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dE41 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: R175

Tennessee Wig-Walk

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a bold-headed chicken, with a hole in me head, I ain't been happy since I don't know when ..." Walk instructions for "Doin' the Tennisis Wig Walk." "You're the King and I'm the Queen, You're the one that stole my ring"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: derivative playparty royalty chickens bird | sparrow
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 128, "Tennessee Wig-Walk" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #201, "I'm a bow-legged chicken, I'm a knock-kneed sparow" (1 text)
Roud #19008
NOTES [31 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "'The Tennessee Wig-Walk', words by Norman Gimbel and music by Larry Coleman, 1953,...."
You can see the lyrics at the International Lyrics Playground site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OpGa128

Tennis Balls, The

See King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164] (File: C164)

Tent Poles are Rotten, The

DESCRIPTION: "The tent poles are rotten, and the campfires dead And the possums they ramble in the trees overhead. I'm out on the wallaby, I'm humping my drum..." The singer describes the pleasures and virtues of a wanderer's life
AUTHOR: Words:Henry Lawson (1867-1922) (various tunes used)
EARLIEST DATE: 1984
KEYWORDS: rambling Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 188-189, "The Tent Poles are Rotten" (1 text, 1 tune)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 105, "(Now the tent poles are rotten/On the Wallaby)" (1 text)
File: FaE188

Tenting on the Old Camp Ground

See Tenting Tonight (File: RJ19206)

Tenting Tonight

DESCRIPTION: "We're tenting tonight on the old camp ground... Many are the hearts that are weary tonight, wishing for the war to cease... Tenting tonight (x2) Tenting on the old campground" The singer describes how the soldiers are lonely -- and often dying
AUTHOR: Walter Kittredge (1834-1905)
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (sheet music published by Oliver Ditson & Co, Boston)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle death home music
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 206-209, "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 181-183, "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground"; p. 183, "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground, II" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 50-51, "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2297, p. 155, "Tenting on the Old Cam Ground" (3 references)
Dime-Song-Book #15, p. 14, "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 28, "We're Tenting To-Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #14, "We're Tenting Tonight" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 121-122, "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" (1 text)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 222-223, "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 86-87, "Tenting Tonight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Krythe-SamplerOfAmericanSongs 10, pp. 150-157, "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 107-108, "Tenting on the Old Camp Groun" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 348-349, "Tenting Tonight" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 123-126, "Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 289, "Tenting On The Old Camp Ground" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 188, "Tenting Tonight" (notes only)
DT, TENTTNT* (TENTTNT2*)
ADDITIONAL: George Calvin Carter (with a Foreword by Hugh Gregg), _Walter Kittredge: Minstrel of the Merrimack_, (no publisher listed but printed in Manchester, New Hampshire), 1953, on the frontispiece and elsewhere, "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" (1 text)
ST RJ19206 (Full)
Roud #14045
RECORDINGS:
Apollo Quartet, "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" (Berliner 4264, 1898)
Colonial Quartet, "Tenting Tonight" (Phono-Cut 5097, c. 1913)
Columbia Stellar Quartet, "Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground" (Columbia A1808, 1915)
Haydn Quartet, "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" (Victor 119, 1900)
Knickerbocker Quartet, "We're Tenting Tonight" (CYL: Edison [BA] 1881, n.d.)
Mount Vernon Quartet, "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" (Columbia 15245-D, 1928)
Peerless Quartet, "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" (Zon-O-Phone 892, c. 1908) (Emerson 7160, 1917) (Pathe 40032 [as "Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground"], 1916)
Pete Seeger, "Tenting Tonight" (on PeteSeeger28)
Frank C. Stanley, "Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground" (CYL: Edison 8151, 1902)
Sterling Trio, "Tenting Tonight" (Little Wonder 266, 1915)
Unidentified vocal quartet "Tenting To-night on the Old Camp Ground" (Harvard 514, 1903-1906; prob. rec. 1900; Oxford 11964, c. 1906)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Camp Meeting Tonight On the Old Camp Ground" (derivative)
SAME TUNE:
Camp Meeting Tonight On the Old Camp Ground (File: RcCMTOCG)
Singing on the Old Church Ground (recording, Emmet Brand, on MuSouth06)
"Ridin' Round the Old Bed Ground (John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), p. 52)
Parody on Tenting on the Old Camp-Ground ("We're drinking, to-night, in the old bar-room," by William H. Hanford") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 124)
NOTES [1240 words]: Civil war historian Bruce Catton says that, during the war, this piece was second in popularity only to "When This Cruel War Is Over" among the sad songs. After the war, when the defeatist tone of "Cruel War" made it seem less patriotic, "Tenting Tonight" came to be first in the veterans' hearts.
Catton adds that Walter Kittredge composed this song in 1863 while under the threat of the draft. As it turned out, he was rejected for ill health. Publishers at first rejected the song as not martial enough -- but then it was picked up by the Hutchinson Family Singers, and the rest is history.
There is a biography of Kittredge, George Calvin Carter, Walter Kittredge, Minstrel Of The Merrimack, 1953. It is not really a full biography; the whole book is just 124 pages, and pages 56-119 consist entirely of poems and songs from Kittredge's Original Song Book. Very few of these are familiar; I recognized "The Unhappy Man" (in the Index as "The Very Unhappy Man") but nothing else. Kittredge's only real claim to fame seems to be this song; even his tombstone reads, in full:
WALTER KITTREDGE
1834 - 1905
----
AUTHOR OF
"TENTING ON THE
OLD CAMP GROUND"
(There is a photo of the stone in Carter.)
Kittredge was born October 8, 1834, the tenth of eleven children (Carter, p. 8) of a family that claimed to be able to trace itself back to England in the early 1400s but had become New Hampshire farmers. His fascination with music was such that seems to have been fond of making musical instruments out of odds and ends of growing plants (Carter, pp. 8-9). He reported that he and his sister mostly taught themselves to read music and sing (Carter, pp. 18-19, although Carter, p. 15, tells us that he was not allowed to play music until his day's work was done, and his family firmly shut down his aspirations to be an actor). He learned to play the violin somewhere, since he composed this song on it (Carter, p. 11). As a young man, he knew and sang alongside the Hutchinson Family Singers (Carter, p. 10) -- a tribute presumably to both his talent and his politics; he was a "stiff abolitionist" (Carter, p. 21) and he had a "temperance lecture, written in blank verse" (Carter, p. 20).
He married his wife Anna E. Fairfield in 1860. Soon after, he contracted a severe bout of rheumatic fever (Carter, p. 11).
In outline at least, the folklore about this song is apparently true. Kittredge, under the shadow of the draft, was ordered to report for a physical. Worried about what would happen to his family if he were called up, he composed this song. The following day, he reported to Concord, New Hampshire for his physical -- but he was still suffering the after-effects of his rheumatic fever and was turned down by the draft board (Carter, pp. 11-12). Ironic, given that he lived another 42 years! His own description of how the song was written, apparently told in the 1890s, is on pp. 21-22 of Carter:
"In the fall of 1863 I had been at Lynn, calling on the Hutchinsons at High Rock, and was on my way back to my home when I met a friend who told me I had been drafted to go to the war, in a drawing that had occurred in our town while I was away.
"The idea brought upon me anew and afresh the scenes of soldier life which had now become familiar, with all of their mingled glory and pathos, to most every household in the North.
"I went home, did my work and after tea sat down near the window in the front room with a violin in my hands. I had seldom used a violin for such a purpose, resorting generally, to a lap melodeon, which I still have and which I have carried many, many miles, and used in many concerts. [He usually composed his songs for melodeon because he couldn't sing while playing violin; Carter, p. 45]
"But while musing with the instrument my thoughts wandered away into the South, the camps where at evening the soldiers were gathered, of my own future among them. Almost unconsciously my thoughts began to express themselves in words and music simultaneously, as I drew the bow across the strings.
"Looked at from the present, the sentiment was probably more the expression of my own feeling of loneliness and regret at parting from home than anything else, but I could see as plainly as if it were a real picture, the events and feelings expressed in the song at that moment. The melody and words came together....
"Well, I didn't go to the war. I went up to Concord and the surgeons examined me and said I wouldn't do. 'Besides,' said one of them, 'you can do more good at home, Walter.'
"The first time I sung 'Tenting' was at Lowell, in the fall of 1863."
Kittredge apparently still wanted to do his part, and thought that a war song would help the Union cause -- and (having never sold a song before; Carter, p. 43) was willing to sell the copyright for $15. No publisher was interested in a song that was a "downer." (This was, presumably, before the success of "When This Cruel War Is Over" started changing minds about sad songs.) That might have been that had it not been for Asa Hutchinson, who in effect offered to be Kittredge's agent for the song in return for 50% of the royalties. Kittredge made the deal, Hutchinson sold the song to his own publisher Oliver Ditson and Co., and the royalties started flowing in (Carter, pp. 12-13). Kittredge reported that it sold ten thousand copies in the first two months after it came out, and more than a hundred thousand copies before the end of the war (Carter, p. 23; on p. 44, he says that it reached eventually reached a million copies sold).
Kittredge did eventually start to earn a living, or part of one, as a performer; Carter, p. 17, says that he would go out entertaining whenever he ran out of money at home and tour only until he had earned enough to head back to the farm.
He published at least two songbooks, the "Union Song Book" (Carter, p. 52, who dates it 1862 -- which cannot be right since it precedes the date of "Tenting Tonight") and "Walter Kittredge's Original Song Book" in 1882 (Carter, p. 54).
Carter, p. 121, prints one of Kittredge's newspaper obituaries, without listing its source:
"Walter Kittredge died Saturday morning [July 8, 1905] at his home in Merrimack [New Hampshire], aged 70 years and 9 months. He was born October 8, 1834 in the same town in which he died. He had been in comparatively good health until a few days ago when he suffered a paralytic shock and then failed steadily until the end came peacefully at 7:30 a.m. Saturday.
"Mr. Kittredge was a member of the Congregational Church of Merrimack an of the Thornton Grange, No. 31. He was a past master of the state grange. Mr. Kittredge is survived by his widow, Anne E. [Fairfax, 1834-1921]; one daughter, Clara S. Kittredge [1863-1940], who lived with her parents [she never married]; one son, Walter F. Kittredge [1866-1935], a lawyer of Nashua, and three grandchildren, Anna L, Walter W., and Winnifred J. Kittredge." (There was also, according to the tombstones in Merrimack, a third child who died young, Anne, 1870-1872.)
Carter, p. 122, says that Joshua Hutchinson, the last living man of the Hutchinsons, sang at Kittredge's funeral. He is buried at what is now the Last Rest Cemetery in Merrimack, across Church Street from the First Church of Merrimack (OPC), which apparently was the Merrimack Congregational Church at the time Kittredge was buried there. As of 2022, Kittredge's grave is still mentioned in the cemetery's literature. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RJ19206

Teraksen Soitto (Song of Steel)

DESCRIPTION: Finnish. "Teraksen muokkaajat, lisaarvon tuattajat." "Makers of steel, producers of wealth, Have heard the music of steel." The workers consider it wrong to add to the wealth of the rich. Workers are called upon to umite
AUTHOR: Axel Simonen (source: Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends); reportedly written about 1930
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage labor-movement technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 451-453, "Teraksen Soitto (Song of Steel)" (1 Finnish text plus non-poetic English translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL451

Terence McSwiney

See Shall My Soul Pass Through Ireland (File: PGa067)

Terence's Farewell to Kathleen

DESCRIPTION: "So, my Kathleen, you're going to leave me All alone by myself in this place." She is leaving Terence for England. He warns her against the deceitful men. He can't stop her going and when she returns "spaking such beautiful English" he "won't know" her
AUTHOR: Words: Helen Selina Blackwood, Lady Dufferin, Countess Gifford (1807-1867)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1860 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3764))
KEYWORDS: courting separation England nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 89, "Terence's Farewell to Kathleen" (1 text)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 52, "Terrence's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 74, "Terence's Farewell" (1 text)
Roud #3826
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3764), "Terence's Farewell", A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1845-1859; also Firth b.26(248), Harding B 26(638), Firth c.26(121), 2806 c.15(333), Harding B 11(3766), Harding B 11(3767), Firth c.13(267), Firth b.27(99), "Terence's Farewell"
LOCSinging, as113450, "Terence's Farewell to Kathleen", H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860; also sb40522b, "Terence's Farewell to Kathleen"
NOTES [57 words]: Broadside LOCSinging as113450: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
According to [no author listed], The Library of Irish Music (published by Amsco), the tune for this is "The Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon089

Terly Terlow

See Tyrle, Tyrlo (Tyrley, Tyrlow) (File: OBC169)

Term Lilt

DESCRIPTION: The singer says her term is over. She's leaving and a new girl will replace her; in six weeks she'll be forgotten. He answers that before three weeks "I'll come and sen' and see ye"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting parting farming dialog nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1518, "Term Lilt" (1 text)
Roud #12947
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O Bonny Sandy" (two verses)
NOTES [95 words]: Greig/Duncan8 (Greig quoting Bell Robertson): "Her mother said above was sung by girls when near a term and they were to flit. Thinks there had never been any more." That is significant because, as Greig/Duncan8 notes, these two verses are very close to two verses of "O Bonny Sandy" but "evidently had an independent life." If not for this statement I would have considered this a fragment of "O Bonny Sandy."
Seasonal hiring of servants and farm workers usually was for six months, beginning May and November, and the term day marked the end of the employment period. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81518

Term, The

See The Dying Ploughboy (File: McCST108)

Terra Nova Regatta, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the Terra Nova regatta the year the Prince of Wales brought over a picked crew that lost to the local fishermen. Everyone was at the party that followed, with dancing, drink, food, and "rousing fights with some hard cases"
AUTHOR: Johnny Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: fight violence sports dancing drink food music party moniker brawl
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1860 - The Prince of Wales's visit to Newfoundland
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 34, "The Terra Nova Regatta" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #72, pp. 112-113, "The Terra Nova Regatta" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Morris Houlihan, "Regatta" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [711 words]: Ben Schwartz's description is based on the MUNFLA-Leach text, not the Johnny Burke original. They are without doubt the same song, but I have not compared them in detail.
The event is now (since 1993) properly titled the "Royal St. John's Regatta," and informally known as "the Races"; according to Thorne, p. 143, it is the biggest sporting event in Newfoundland, attracting tens of thousands per year (although how many come for the races and how many come for the food and drink and side event is an open question). The schedule calls for it to be run on the first Wednesday in August at Quidi Vici lake just north of St. John's. (Because of Newfoundland's weather, it is not rare for it to be delayed a day or two.) Legend has it that the boat races might go back to the early 1700s, but the first formal regatta took place in 1818, and the committee overseeing the event was formed in 1826. It has been held almost every year since, except for a few times during the World Wars. Clearly it is taken very seriously; there is a very large "Royal St John's Regatta Boathouse" on the lake.
According to O'Neill-Oldest, p. 339, the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) visited Newfoundland in 1860: "The Prince of Wales... was a guest at the 1860 Regatta and he offered a hundred pounds to the winners of the Fishermen's Race. Pedley writes that the prince 'gratified the fishermen by honouring their regatta with his presence and the wives of some of them still more, by going away from the holiday spectacle to examine the fishing stages in Quidi Vici, so as to learn something of the avocations of ordinary life.' Strangely enough, after this royal visit, there was not another regatta for eleven years." Edward apparently came back in 1870; there were reports that he fathered a child (p. 375).
O'Neill-Seaport, p. 689, reports of the 1860 visit, "The chambers of the Colonial Building were decorated with pink, white, and green bunting for a public ball in his honour," and adds on p. 525, "It was reported in the press that the feast encompassed '...all procurable delicacies from New York and such [sic.] wines including best claret and twelve dozen of champaign.' The cost for a ticket the the prince's dance and supper was fifteen shillings for gentlemen, seven shillings for ladies" -- an incredible price for Newfoundland at the time.
The next royal visit would be in 1919, when the future Edward VIII attended the first regatta staged after the World War I hiatus. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited in 1978 (Thorne, p. 144).
Major, p. 273, says that Protestants and Catholics, who were often in conflict in Newfoundland (sometimes violent), "came together in the summer... on the shores of Quidi Vidi Lake in what is the oldest continuous sporting event in North America -- the annual St. John's Regatta.... The regatta gained increasing prestige, enhanced by a visit from the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII) in 1860. Newfoundlanders have always been keen on royalty (Catholics as well as Protestants), and when the prince made a circle of the lake by carriage, he was met with prolonged and lusty cheering from the assembled crowds, capped by the presentation of a Newfoundland dog.... [It] was presented as 'Avalon' [after the Avalon peninsula where St. John's was located?], though the prince chose to rename him 'Cabot' [presumably after the explorer credited with discovering Newfoundland]."
I find no record of Edward racing a crew of Newfoundlanders; merely of him awarding a prize in their race. Colton, p. 24, admits, "Whether Burke may have embellished the facts of the race under the guise of creative license is a matter of conjecture; however, there can be little doubt as to which boat he was cheering for.... Expressions of national identity are pervasive in Burke's more serious songs."
For a brief biography of Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree." For another song about the Regatta, see "The Nine-Thirteen Men."
There is a sort of unofficial anthem of the event, "The Banks of Newfoundland" or "Up the Pond" (Thorne, p. 144). It's not one of the songs in the Index by that name -- it's not even a song but a tune. It is a march, also used as the quick march of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: ML3Regat

Terra Nova Seal Fishing

DESCRIPTION: "Ye talk o' this, and talk o' that... But list taw me -- I ken ye weel Wad like tae hear aboot the seal." The singer describes the difficulties of sailing north to the ice, the difficulties of killing adult seal; he ends by describing the types of pelts
AUTHOR: Robert Brown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Harbour Grace Standard)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship nonballad recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 27-28, "Terra Nova Seal Fishing" (1 text)
Roud #V44632
NOTES [244 words]: "Terra Nova" was one of the old names for Newfoundland, home of the great seal hunt. There was also a Newfoundland ship, the Terra Nova; see "The Terra Nova."
The description of seals in this song is about right; the harp seal (Phoca groenlandica) -- the main target of the seal hunt, because they were easy to kill -- had a white coat in its early days, and the sealers came out in mid-march because this was when the whitecoats were young and unable to flee off the ice (Busch, pp. 42-44).
The hooded seal, or "hood," (Cystophorq cristata) was larger and more dangerous (Busch, p. 45); although sealers would take one if they found one, they did not generally attack or seek "hoods." It was the "hoods" that offered the "great resistance" described in the song; baby "harps" made little attempt to flee death, and their mothers didn't make any real attempts to defend them.
Bedlamers are second year seals, not yet fully mature but able to care for themselves -- sort of the seal equivalent of teenagers. The title is a description of age; a bedlamer may be either a "harp" or a "hood." The origin of the name is uncertain; some connect it with "bedlam," because they create bedlam, others with French "bête de la mer," "beast of the sea" (Young, p. 33; StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 37, prefer the "bedlam" sense, and first cite the term from 1766. Their second meaning, "bedlamer [boy]," refers to a youth approaching manhood; it is not attested prior to 1896). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm027

Terra Nova, The

DESCRIPTION: "One Monday morning March the tenth, it opened fine and clear." "Slob ice" was to be seen, but Captain Kean still takes the Terra Nova sealing. Blocked by a pan, three men die before they escape. The song describes the three dead men
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (collected from Norman Payne by Halpert & Fiander)
KEYWORDS: hunting ship death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1924 - The deaths of the three sailors
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 98, "The Terra Nova" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Michael C. Tarver, _The S. S. Terra Nova (1884-1943)_, Pendragon Maritime Publications, 2006, pp. 166-167, "The Terra Nova" (1 text)
Roud #V44877
NOTES [2799 words]: "Terra Nova" was one of the old names for Newfoundland, so little wonder to find a Newfoundland ship by that name!
I don't know how many sealers were given the name Terra Nova over the centuries; at least one small one sailed from Conception Bay in 1833 (Ryan-Ice, p. 475), one was lost in the ice in 1862 (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 102), and there was a later motor vessel MV Terra Nova (Ryan/Drake, p. 82), plus a former ferry named Maneco was renamed Terra Nova and sent to the ice in 1963-1964 (Candow, p. 112), but none of these left much of a mark in the historical record. There is no doubt about which Terra Nova was the most famous; spending almost sixty years in various tasks mostly around Newfoundland. Feltham, p. 132, declares her "undoubtedly the most famous of all the wooden steamers that were built to prosecute the Newfoundland seal fishery." It shows in the number of books about her, of which the most complete is probably Tarver's -- although that is mostly about her polar exploration trips; those interested in her time as a sealer will surely find it somewhat limited (this cuts both ways; England's book about one of her sealing voyages is surely the most detailed account of such a voyage ever written, but you'd think he'd never heard of the ship's polar history). The full title of Tarver's book is The S. S. Terra Nova (1884-1943): From the Arctic to the Antarctic, Whaler, Sealer and Polar Exploration Ship, 2006. There is also Edward Adrian Wilson's Diary of the Terra Nova Expedition to the Antarctic, which of course ends with Wilson's death in 1912 as part of Scott's expedition, and England's book, which describes several weeks he spent aboard her in the 1920s. Sadly, most of her logbooks seem to have been lost; they were likely destroyed when the Liverpool offices of her owner Bowring's were bombed in World War II (Tarver, p. 188).
Built in 1884 (Paine, p. 509) in Dundee (Ryan/Drake, p. 29), at a cost of 16,000 pounds (Archibald, p. 66), she was the very last whaler built in Dundee (Archibald, p. 105); her builders Alexander Stephen and Co., the greatest builders of steam whalers, closed up shop after that and moved to the banks of Clyde to build ships of other types -- presumably because 1885-1886 saw a big decline in whales taken (Watson, p. 93); the industry had so depleted the fishery that there weren't enough whales to justify more ships.
The Terra Nova began her career as a Newfoundland-based sealer in 1885 (O'Neill. p. 964). At 450 tons, she was one of the largest sealers of the time (Ryan-Ice, p. 150; Tarver, p. 26, gives her as 744 gross tons; similarly Watson after p. 84, who says she was 740 tons, but that's a different measure. He cites a newspaper which claimed she could carry 40,000 seal pelts). In 1903, her ability as an icebreaker had caused her to be sent to rescue Robert Scott's Discovery expedition; at the time, she was called "the roughest and toughest icebreaker to be had" (O'Neill, p. 964). Certainly her 140 horsepower engine (Feltham, p. 132) exceeded that of most other sealers of her age.
Archibald, p. 197, says, "Known familiarly as 'Novey', Terra Nova was the last Dundee built whaling ship and arguably the best. She was built to replace the successful whaling ship Thetis, which had been sold to the United States Government. All the skill and experience of the previous two decades of whaling ship construction created what was undoubtedly a superb example of an Arctic-worthy hunting vessel.... Terra Nova was a fast ship, with a record passage of 11 days on her maiden voyage from Dundee to St. John's in February 1885." (This implies that she could sustain a speed of about ten knots, give or take, over that long voyage, which is indeed a pretty good clip for a whaler although, even in 1885, it would have been regarded as slow for a passenger ship. Little wonder she was racing the Polynia in "The Old Polina.")
Similarly Greene, p. 53, declares that "The finest, if not the largest of [the wooden-walled sealers], were named the Terra Nova and the Neptune -- each of them having for many springs their fighting claims to be the Commodore of the Fleet's command."
From 1885 to 1898, the Terra Nova worked for her builders. Yet she was not a financial success as a whaler; she is said to have lost more than 12,000 pounds in 1896-1897 alone (Watson, p. 137), after which she was sold to Bowring Brothers, the leading Newfoundland sealing firm. In later years, she was purchased by the British Admiralty in 1903 to rescue the Discovery in Antarctica, then went on an arctic rescue trip; she went back to sealing in 1906 (Ryan/Drake, p. 29; Tarver, pp. 58-59). She had a relatively bad year at the seal fishery in 1908, and was significantly damaged (with her bows pierced and her rudder broken, plus she ran out of coal), but she made it home (WInsor, p. 63)
Her work in Antarctica so impressed Robert Scott that he bought her in 1909 (Feltham, p. 132) so that, in 1910, he could take her to Antarctica on his last expedition (Paine, p. 510; O'Neill, pp. 964-965; Tarver, p. 65, says that she was the "obvious next choice" once it was clear that Scott's old ship the Discovery was not available. Indeed, she was probably a better choice, given that the Discovery, although well suited for scientific work, had been badly designed and constructed for dealing with ice; Larson, pp. 115-116). After the end of Scott's expedition, Bowring's, the company that had sold her to the British government, took her back (it had been agreed when she was sold that Bowring's would have the option to do so; Keir, p. 203) and returned her to the sealing fleet; she took part in the attempt to rescue the survivors of the Florizel in 1917 (see the notes on "The Wreck of the Steamship Florizel"; also O'Neill, p. 962, or Brown, pp. 184-185, 192, 205-207).
It will perhaps tell you something about what sealing steamers were like that England on several occasions said that the Terra Nova was such a mess that she should be scrapped (after all, she had already been leaky at the time of Scott's voyage more than a decade earlier; Riches, p. 4), but that sealer Wilfred Andrews, who sailed on her somewhat after England did, said that she was a good ship still (Ryan-Last, p. 112) -- at least compared to the other wooden steamers he sailed in.
She underwent a rebuild in 1938, mostly to repair all the damage she had taken over the years (although her woodwork was found to be in surprisingly good shape for a ship that was half a century old), but while they were at it, they moved her bridge forward of her funnel (Tarver, pp. 187-188), which surely made her a better ship.
She lasted until World War II. Her last year as a sealer was 1941; after that, because so few ships were available for dealing with the ice, she was chartered into service carrying freight to Greenland (Feltham, p. 139; Tarver, p. 189; Riches, p. 6). On May 28, 1943 (so O'Neill, p. 965) or May 29 (so Tarver, pp. 189-190), she left St. John's with a cargo intended for American bases in Greenland. (The discrepancy in dates may have arisen because her captain Llewellyn Lush seems to have later mis-stated when she sailed; see Tarver, p. 193.) She was damaged in the ice, and although she made it to Greenland, there was no suitable dock there (Tarver, p. 193). Although she had been partly repaired, she began to leak badly on her way home in September -- with water interfering with power to the pumps, so she couldn't be kept dry. She sank on September 13, 1943 (Feltham, p. 139 says September 12; O'Neill, p. 966, says it was September 14, but Tarver, p. 189, has a September 13 report describing her loss, and p. 225 prints the Atak's September 13 log entry of her sinking). The crew was rescued by the USCGS Atak, which then shelled her to hasten her end (Tarver, pp. 189-191); witnesses disagree on whether she was on fire when she went down. There is a map of her final voyages on p. 190 of Tarver.; Riches, p. 7, has a (tiny) photo of the Atak.
Tarver, pp. 242-244, has portions of Bowring's balance sheet for 1943; it lists the Terra Nova as a total loss (naturally) and lists her value as $12,500. The only other sealer still on their books, Eagle, was listed at $8000, but that was a depreciated value -- they had listed her at $11,500 at the start of 1943. Presumably the Terra Nova was also being depreciated; she was insured for $60,000. Terra Nova was rented for $4,899.76 in 1943, so she was earning money faster than she was being depreciated, at least.
The wreck of the ship was found off Greenland in 2012. Riches, p. 37, has two small underwater photos of the wreck. They don't look like anything except a few bright spots to me, but reportedly they show that she really was consumed by fire. I do not know if there has been any follow-up. I hope there will be; if any ship in Newfoundland history deserves a to be remembered and maintained, it is the Terra Nova.
Her final tally as a sealer was more than 850,000 pelts, making her third all-time (Watson, p. 177), behind the Neptune (the only ship to take over a million seals) and the Ranger. Much of that was due to their longevity (those three ships and the Eagle were the last four sealing steamers), but the Terra Nova was newer than Neptune and Ranger by a dozen years, so she was probably the most successful while she lasted.
Because of her long and distinguished service, it's easy to find photos of her; Tarver is of course full of them, and on p. 66 has a plan of her layout as she was modified for the Scott expedition (a substantial refit -- e.g. all her blubber tanks were taken out, and much work was done to clean out the stinks that pervaded all wooden sealers; Tarver, pp. 68-69). Tarver, pp. 210-223, also reproduces a description of the rebuild, although he notes enough historical inaccuracies that I'm not sure it should be cited. PontingEtAl also includes dozens of photos of the ship, although all are during Scott's expedition and all show her after her rebuild. Nonetheless several of them show just how crowded she was during Scott's expedition -- and she carried far fewer men on that trip than on her sealing cruises, although much space was given over to cargo, dogs, and ponies, so perhaps she was almost as crowded in 1910 as when Abram Kean was her commander.
Keir, facing p. 204, O'Neill, p. 942, Paine, p. 510, and Ryan/Drake, p. 29, all show images of her in the Antarctic. (According to the caption to the O'Neill photo, that image "has become the logo of her owners, Bowring Brothers") Feltham, p. 180, has two pictures of her, one in port, one in the ice. Ryan-Ice, p. 149, also has a picture of her in the ice; so does Greene, facing p. 156. Chafe, facing p. 60, shows her frozen in at St. John's; Ryan/Drake, p. 52, shows her crew in 1934 preparing to blast her out. England, facing p. 180, has what is surely the first-ever aerial photo of her. Watson, after p. 84, has a photo in which she looks so clean that I almost wonder if it was a publicity shot, and after p. 148 has a picture of her with an inset image of Scott. Kean, facing page 1, also has a photo; so does Winsor, p. 63. Plus Australia issued a stamp of her in as an explorer (far too clean to be real), and there is also an Isle of Man commemorative series of Scott's expedition.
Other items in the Index which mention the Terra Nova include "The Sealer's Song (II)," "A Sealer's Love Letter," "Arctic Ice and Flippers," and "The Old Polina"; in the latter, she races the Polina to St. John's -- interesting in light of the comment that the Terra Nova was an unusually fast whaler. Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff treat a mention of "Terra Nova" in "Au Revoir To Our Hardy Sealers" as a reference to her as well, but it appears to me to be a reference to Newfoundland. "A Noble Fleet of Sealers" also refers to a ship Terra Nova, but this appears to be the MV Terra Nova rather than the SS Terra Nova.
There were several Captains Kean, patriarch Abram and his sons (for Abram Keen, see "Captain Abram Kean"), two of whom at one time or another commanded the Terra Nova; according to Feltham, p. 134, A[bram] Kean was her skipper in 1906-1908, 1917-1926, and 1932-1933; and W[estbury] Kean, 1927 -- but the fact that the song sees no need to distinguish which one is meant strongly implies that Abram is meant.
Abram Kean wrote of what appears to be this particular incident in his biography (p. 58, and again on p. 92 in a discussion of raftering ice), although I would take his version with enough salt to supply his entire crew -- he calls it the "only accident" of his sealing career, which flatly ignores the Newfoundland Disaster. Tarver, pp. 165-166, summarizes and amplifies his account by saying that, in 1924, the sealing fleet, including Kean in the Terra Nova, set out from St. John's and almost immediately found themselves in ice. Men often went out on the ice to haul or cut a path as ships pushed through the pack (Ryan/Drake, p. 50, has a photo of sealers pulling the Southern Cross out of St. John's in just this way), and as this was happening, three men fell through a "deceitful pan" and drowned. It took the Terra Nova two days to get through the ice outside St. John's to start their trip to where the seals were.
Ryan-Last, p. 445, lists the names of the three men: David Whelan, Maurice Breen, and Hubert Hiscock.
According to Rosenberg, p. 86, the sealers admired his drive but were bothered by how he failed to care about his men. They wanted a "skipper [who] was concerned for their safety. It is in this quality that the sealers found Abram Kean lacking, but interestingly, it is not Kean's role in the Newfoundland disaster which earned him the animosity of the sealers." Rather, it was this event. "He kept backing down and butting ahead at the ice until the ship finally broke free. When this happened, thirty or forty men went into the water: '... he lost three men dere. And he didn't seem to trouble any more about 'em. After he had the rolls called, he saw ther was three men misssin, an' that was it. He went on then. Didn't trouble any more about it. He was a hard old dog.' Another man... adds, 'And we knew nothing about it. He never even put the flag at half mast, an' he never came back, he went on'" (Rosenberg, pp. 86-87).
This incident was apparently legendary among sealers -- it was well enough known that the details became blurred; Thomas Hayden, e.g., recalled that five men died, not just three (Ryan-Last, p. 300); Roy Keel thought there were just two (Ryan-Last, p. 302); William Lowe recalled three dying out of two hundred who were hauling, but thought it took a week, not just two days, to get through the ice in the St. John's Narrows (Ryan-Last, p. 402).
Jesse Codner, who sailed under Kean, also appears to refer to this incident in calling Abram Kean "an old bastard": "He drowned men, sure, and everything. He drowned them there in the Narrows, hauling them out through on the line, left the blood on the ice where the fellows went and got you in the blades. All blood on the water and ice and everything. He got away with that" (Ryan-Last, p. 149). Jack Boone's version was that Kean "runned over and cut up men in the Narrows going out. They were out on the line hauling her. They bust through and he steamed on over them" (Ryan-Last, p. 297).
Wilfred Tucker also described the incident: Kean "sung out for us to get a line and put to her quarter and try to twist her head out of the bay.... So all the crew got on the line and down went 10 or 15 men in a hole together. Most of them held on to the line, and them men on the outside pulling, pulled them out, but some of them let go and three were lost.... We all came on board and we called the roll and there were three men missing. We stayed around and couldn't find nothing, and then went on" (Ryan-Last, p. 237).
It will perhaps tell you something about Kean that he spent as about much space boasting about the seals he took soon after the incident as he did describing the death of three men (Tarver, p. 168, has the text, which is mostly from the account Kean gave on p. 92).
Kean, p. 43, has what appears to be another allusion to the incident, in which he describes politicians saying that it wasn't his fault. (And certainly things like this happened a lot in sealing expeditions). But Kean, p. 48, says that, without telling him, his parliamentary allies removed his name from the parliamentary ballot for that year. Kean was the most successful sealer of all time, and the Terra Nova was the ship probably most associated with him, but he had absolutely no sympathy for his sailors or their lives, and it probably hurt his political career. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: RySm098

Terrell

DESCRIPTION: "Terrell was born near Gore, my boys, A place you all know well." He grows up to be a rambled and is sent to prison. He is said to have killed the Weldon Family. His parents pray for his release. Hearers are warned against "spite or jealousy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection)
KEYWORDS: prison rambling father mother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1878 - 18-year-old Bill Terrell convicted of the murder of three members of the Weldon Family (source: Grimes). The song does not explicitly mention the murder but says Terrell was accused of it
1884 - Terrell dies in prison of tuberculosis
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 86, "Terrell" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boston Burglar" [Laws L16] (lyrics, form)
File: Grim096

Terrence's Farewell

See Terence's Farewell to Kathleen (File: OCon089)

Terrible Privateer, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer's ship Terrilble sails from Plymouth and is intercepted by the Valance. The fight continues until "our captain and our men being slain, We could no longer the fight maintain." Twenty-seven are held in prison until "the Cartel did fetch us away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (AStton-Sailor)
KEYWORDS: battle prison rescue death sea ship sailor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #30, "The Terrible Privateer" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 45, "A Sea Song" (1 text)
Roud #9381
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(18)[some words illegible], "The Terrible Privateer" ("You sailors all of courage bold"), printer barely legible but probably J. Pitts, Seven Dials, (n.d. but if it is by Pitts it must be from before 1844)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Death" (subject)
cf. "Captain Coulston" (plot)
cf. "Warlike Seaman (The Irish Captain)" (plot)
cf. "The Dolphin" (plot)
cf. "The French Privateer" (plot)
NOTES [225 words]: There seem to have been at least two songs about this incident, this one and one called "Captain Death." Both appear on the same semi-legible Bodleian broadside, and they are printed together in the Publications of the Navy Records Society by C. H. Firth available on Google Books (p. 204 in the print copy; p. 335 of the Google Books PDF file). Logan, The Pedlar's Pack, prints another text of "Captain Death" on pp. 30-31.
According to the online book How Britannia Came to Rule the Waves, by W. H. G. Kingston, this refers to an incident of the Seven Years' War. The Terrible, 26 guns, commanded by Captain Death (really! -- though his true name seems to have been "Osborn"), had already taken one prize, but had suffered in the fight and was defeated by another privateer, the Vengeance of St. Malo; Death and half his crew were killed in the battle.
The story of the Terrible so aroused the British that a subscription was raised which eventually bought the freedom of the remaining privateers.
Logan's version of the legend is even more amazing than that of the broadsides: The Terrible "was equipped at Execution Dock, commanded by Captain Death. The appellation of his Lieutenant was Devil, and the surgeon's name was Ghost.." Logan does note that Ritson thought this catalog of coincidences "entirely void of foundation." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: BdTerPri

Terrier Dog, The

DESCRIPTION: The terrier pup has a distinguished career of extreme viciousness -- until it encounters an oversized cat. The pup's owner, seeing his dog killed, demands satisfaction of the cat's owner. She shoots him; though cured, he "never... raise[d] another pup."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870
KEYWORDS: animal dog fight death
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 123, "The Terrier Dog" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC123 (Partial)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Terrier Pup
File: FSC123

Terrier Pup, The

See The Terrier Dog (File: FSC123)

Terry Toole's Cabbage

DESCRIPTION: "Torbay boys and did ye hear..." a goat got into Terry O'Toole's cabbage. Terry stabbed it to death and the boys dressed it "on the sly." They chipped in for the $3.50 fine.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: animal food punishment
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 100, "Terry Toole's Cabbage" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9958
RECORDINGS:
Ned Rice, "Terry Toole's Cabbage" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Moose Song" (plot)
NOTES [8 words]: Torbay is about seven miles north of St John's - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pea100

Testament, The

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell my wife, my joy in life, I freely now do give thee My whole estate" which is very meager: a piece of soap, a frying pan, a broken pail, greasy hat, old tom cat.... "Don't cry ... Another spouse comes by-and-by, with money in his breeches"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: poverty bequest lastwill death humorous nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 702, "The Testament" (1 text)
Roud #6118
File: GrD3702

Teton Peaks

DESCRIPTION: "I came to this land with a gun in my hand, To live where there's nothing to fear. In old Teton basin I chose to remain...." The singer loves the mountains. He wrestles Mike Yokel (and loses). President Driggs lectures him about his spree
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: home | Teton mountains
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 138-140, "Teton Peaks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10863
File: ChMS138

Tetris Theme

See The Pedlar (III) (Russian) (File: SMNPedla)

Teuchar Howe

DESCRIPTION: Singer says he'll never see the like of the Teuchar Howe girl he loves "and dearly she lo'es me": "her fortune's in her face sae fair." He would rather a "lass wi' a hert sincere" to "them wha wed for gear ... Their siller ... soon will wear awa"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 942, "Teuchar Howe" (1 text)
Roud #6756
NOTES [10 words]: Greig/Duncan5: "Teuchar Howe is south-east of Turriff." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5942

Texaco, Texaco

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Texaco, Texaco, Over the hills to Mexico, Where the red-hot peppers grow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food | Mexico Texaco peppers
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #548, "Texaco, Texaco" (1 text)
Roud #19424
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Spanish Dancer" (lyrcs)
NOTES [33 words]: Roud lumps this with "Spanish Dancer," with which it combined in one version. But since this lyric exists alone, and "Spanish Dancer" usually lacks this verse, I think they should be kept separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR548

Texan Rangers

See The Texas Rangers [Laws A8] (File: LA08)

Texarkana Mary

DESCRIPTION: "Wo, Texarcana (Ida/Mary), holl'rin, Wo, Lord. Wo, Texarkana Ida, Godamighty, God knows." "Won't you help me to call 'em." "I'm goin' crazy in the bottom." "Oh, Mary got married." "She married old Raymond." "Tell me, who is that devil?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (recorded from Jesse Hendricks by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: prison work separation marriage hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 265-267, "Texarkana Mary" (2 texts, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Godamighty Drag" (lyrics)
NOTES [100 words]: As with so much else in Jackson, it is hard to tell where one song ends and the next begins. Jackson lumps two texts together here, splitting them from the song he calls "Godamighty," even though he admits that the "B" text of "Texarkana Mary" (which never mentions Texarkana or Mary) stands between the two songs. I could make a case for filing this "B" text with that song, or lumping the whole bunch -- or splitting this and "Godamighty" into at least four songs. But because the whole thing is such a mess, I've followed Jackson's split, except that I lumped the various "Godamighty" songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM265

Texas

DESCRIPTION: "We'll travel on together Till you and I must part, So fare you well, my honey, my love, I love you to my heart." The singer says he will die when they are parted; and rejoices when she returns; "We'll travel on together... We'll settle down in Texas."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation reunion playparty home
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 156, pp.301-302 , "Texas" (1 text)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 40, "Texas" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #4510
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Now, My Friends, Our Meeting Is Over" (lyrics)
File: Hud156

Texas Boys

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Texas Cowboy (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you Texas cowboys and warning take by me, Don't go out to Montana for wealth or liberty." The cowboy has worked in all sorts of places, but Montana is colder, you can only work (and so get paid) for six months a year, the food is bad, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (The Glendive Independent)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work hardtimes warning
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 65-67, "The Texas Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys VIII, pp. 97-103 (21-22), "The Texas Cowboy" (4 texts, 1 tune); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 148-151, "The Texas Cowboy" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 31, "The Texas Cowboy" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 50-53, "The Texas Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 28-30, "The Texas Cowboy" (1 text)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 42-43, "The Texas Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 204-205, "The Texas Cowboy" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 329-330, "The Texas Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TXASCWBY*
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, p. 36, "I Am a Texas Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4632
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "I'm a Texas Cowboy" (Conqueror 7883, 1931)
NOTES [90 words]: ArkansasWoodchopper credits its text to Nick Manoloff, but Manoloff was not born until 1898, so he can hardly have written the original! The ArkansasWoodchopper version is significantly different from the others, however; perhaps Manoloff rewrote it.
I'm none too confident that all the other versions belong here, either -- e.g. Greenway's version never mentions Montana; much of it is about the girl the cowboy lost. But Roud lumps them, and I'm doing the same because untangling things would probably just make things more confusing! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: TF08

Texas Cowboy (II), The

See The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)

Texas Cowboy (III), The

DESCRIPTION: "With a sort of careless swagger, with a movement half a stagger... Is the way the Texas cowboy seems in town." Most of the rest of the song describes how the cowboy responds to various situations
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: cowboy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 35, "Cowboy Boasters" (5 texts, 2 tunes; this is the "D" text)
Roud #11216
File: FCS035D

Texas Cowboy (IV), The

See The Texas Rangers [Laws A8] (File: LA08)

Texas Gambler, The

DESCRIPTION: "I was borned and raised in Texas, And did not come to fame, A gambler by profession, C. W. King by name." The singer, who "did not like to work," wanders and finds himself at a "country singing. He meets a red-headed girl who "fit the bill."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: work gambling rambling courting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #18, "The Texas Gambler" (1 text)
Roud #5015
NOTES [38 words]: Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida's song seems to end in the middle, with the singer apparently about to either marry the girl or suffer some indignity at her hands. Since no other texts are known, we will probably never know which. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: Morr018

Texas Heroes

DESCRIPTION: "We lay the crown of memory Upon the place of rest Where noble heroes lie sleeping..." "Then strike the harp for those who fought for freedom long ago. At San Jacinto and the Mier and the blood-stained Alamo." Lists sites of battles for Texas independence
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1994 (Abernethy)
KEYWORDS: battle patriotic death burial
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 161, "Texas Heroes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11297
File: Aber161

Texas Idol, A

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a buzzard from the Brazos on a tear, hear me toot!" The people call him "a pirate from the pampas." He lovingly describes how he abuses and flouts the law in various small towns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (Kansas Cowboy)
KEYWORDS: cowboy outlaw police
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 35, "Cowboy Boasters" (5 texts, 2 tunes; this is the "B" text)
Roud #11215
File: FCW025B

Texas Isle

See The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II) [Laws N9] (File: LN09)

Texas Jack

DESCRIPTION: The singer will "try to tell you the reason why we are bound to roam." The singer was part of a caravan that was attacked by Indians. Only he and two other children were saved by Texas Jack. Brought up among cowboys, he knows no other life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905
KEYWORDS: death battle Indians(Am.) rescue family
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 44, "Texas Jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TEXASJCK*
Roud #11211
File: FCW044

Texas Jack (II)

See My Heart's Tonight in Texas [Laws B23] (File: LB23)

Texas Ranger

See The Dying Ranger [Laws A14] (File: LA14)

Texas Ranger's Lament

See Come List to a Ranger (The Disheartened Ranger) (File: R181)

Texas Rangers, The [Laws A8]

DESCRIPTION: The singer has left family and girlfriend to join a troop that finds itself fighting Indians. Many of the whites are killed; the singer describes the fight and what he left behind.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874
KEYWORDS: battle Indians(Am.) warning army Civilwar fight violence war mother sister soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 21, 1861 - First battle of Bull Run/Manasses fought between the Union army of McDowell and the Confederates under Johnston and Beauregard. (There was a second Bull Run battle a year later, but "Come All Ye Southern Soldiers" probably refers to this one, since it's the soldier's first battle)
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,NW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (45 citations):
Laws A8, "The Texas Rangers" (sample text in NAB, pp. 37-38)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 336-339, "Texas Rangers" (3 texts plus plus mention of 5 more, 1 tune)
Randolph 177, "The Texas Rangers" (3 texts plus 2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 14-15, "The Texas Rangers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 150, "The Texas Rangers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 161-163, "The Texas Rangers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #155, "The Texas Rangers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 34, "Texas Rangers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 130, "Come, All Ye Roving Rangers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 95, "The Texas Rangers" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 84, p. 106, "The Texas Rangers" (1 fragment)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 352-354, "The Texas Rangers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 20, "The Texas Rangers" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 91, "The Ex-Ranger's Song" (1 text, which Shoemaker for some reason considers a variation on "Once More A-Lumbering Go") (pp. 78-79 in the 1919 edition)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 226-228, "The Texas Rangers" (1 text plus 1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 105, "Western Ranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 138-139, "The Texas Rangers" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp.44-46, "Texas Rangers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 234, "The Texas Ranger" (2 texts plus mention of 2 more; the "B" text is a Civil War adaption)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 234, "The Textbook Ranger" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 96, pp. 227-228, "The Texas Cowboy" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #8, "Longstreet's Ranger" (1 text, 1 tune); #17, "The Texas Rangers" (2 text, tune referenced)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 191-192, "The Roving Ranger" (1 text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 73, "The Texas Ranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 179, "Come all ye Southern Soldiers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 45, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, p. 57)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 45-47, "Rebel Soldiers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 245-247, "Texas Rangers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 169, "The Texas Rangers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 62-67, "The Texas Rangers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 134-135, "Texas Rangers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 53, "The Texas Rangers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 73, pp. 163-164, "The Texas Rangers" (1 text)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 31-32, "The Texas Rangers" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 63, "War Song" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 23, "Texan Rangers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 518-519, "Remember the Alamo" (1 text plus a Wehman broadside)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 345-346, "The Texas Ranger" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 266-267, "The Texas Rangers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 152-153, "Texas Rangers" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 161-162, "The Texas Rangers" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 274, "Texas Rangers" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 180-181, "Texas Rangers" (1 text)
DT 363, TEXRANG*
ADDITIONAL: Julie Henigan, "Ozark Ballads as Song and Story," article in _Missouri Folklore Society Journal_, Volume 27-28 (cover date 2005-2006, but published 2015), pp. 159-185; pp. 166-167, "Texas Rangers" (1 text, as sung by Almeda Riddle)
Roud #480
RECORDINGS:
Cliff Carlisle of WLAP, "T For Texas" (Gennett 7206/Supertone 9651 [as Amos Green], 1930)
Cartwright Brothers, "Texas Ranger" (Victor V-40198, 1930; Bluebird B-5355/Montgomery Ward M-4460/Sunrise S-3436, 1934; rec. 1929; on AuthCowboys, WhenIWas1, StuffDreams2)
Leo Gooley, "The Texas Rangers" (on ONEFowke01)
Paul Joines, "Roving Ranger" (on Persis1)
Sloan Matthews, "The Texas Rangers" (AFS, 1940s; on LC28)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "The Texas Rangers" (Victor 21487, 1928)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "The Texas Rangers" (Vocalion 5177/Brunswick 168 [as Robert Gardner], 1927)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Texas Rangers" (on NLCR02)
Ernest Stoneman, "The Texas Ranger" (OKeh 45054, 1926); Ernest Stoneman [and Eddie Stoneman], "Texas Ranger" (Vocalion 026320)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come All Ye Southern Soldiers" (words, structure, plot)
cf. "The Western Rangers" (derivative text)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Texas Soldier
NOTES [1161 words]: Laws lists this as a native American ballad, and in its current form, it certainly is. Belden and others, however, note many similarities to British ballads; it is likely an extensive reworking of some earlier piece. - RBW
Digital Tradition notes, "Probably a rewrite of a Civil War song." Bingo; it's almost word-for-word identical to "Come All Ye Southern Soldiers," with only names, places and enemies changed. - PJS
This particular case is rather a conundrum. Paul Stamler supplies this description of "Come All Ye Southern Soldiers," known primarily from collections by Sharp in the North Carolina mountains: "Singer joins the 'jolly band' to fight for the South; their captain warns that before they reach Manassas they'll have to fight. Singer hears the Yankees coming and fears for his life; the battle is bloody and several of his comrades are lost. Singer invokes mothers, sisters, and sweethearts, and warns prospective soldiers that 'I'll tell you by experience you'd better stay at home.'"
That this is recensionally different from "Texas Rangers" is clear; I would normally agree with Paul in splitting the two. Laws, however, explicitly lumps them, and throws in Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida's "Longstreet's Rangers" (another song I would split if it were just me) and of course Roud lumps them also. Given how rare "Southern Soldiers" and "Longstreet's Rangers" are, I decided to do the same, although I would explicitly note that these texts are deliberate rewrites (Morris, for instance, splits "Longstreet's Rangers" from his two "Texas Rangers" versions).
To add to the fun, Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, p. 31, says of this that it is "Said to be the first important ballad of the Far West, 'Texas Rangers' became current about the time of the Battle of the Alamo (March 6, 1836) and made a great impression upon the whole country." But that's based on a Lomax story, so its reliability is dubious.
The "Longstreet's Rangers" version is especially interesting. It is clearly another Civil War version; not only does it mention "Longstreet" (Lt. General James Longstreet, Robert E. Lee's second-in-command for most of the time Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia), but it also says that the troops marched "from the Rappahannock Unto the Rapidan." This clearly places the song in the Civil War, probably in the period from late 1862 (Battle of Fredericksburg, when Ambrose Burnside failed to cross the Rappahannock) to early 1864 (Battle of the Wilderness, when Lee was finally forced from the Rapidan/Rappahannock region). Both the Battle of Chancellorsville and the Battle of the Wilderness were fought between the Rapidan and the Rappahannock, and there were countless raids in the region as well.
But there are a number of problems with this text (which Morris says originated in Ohio). One is the mention of "Longstreet's Rangers" itself. "Rangers," in a Civil War context, surely means cavalry (very possibly irregular cavalry), and James Longstreet served entirely with infantry, from the time he commanded a brigade at First Bull Run to the time he surrendered his corps at Appomattox. Nor did he raise a unit of rangers; he went directly from being a Union paymaster to being a Confederate Brigadier (Boatner, p. 490).
So what unit might be meant? The first thing that came to my mind was "Mosby's Rangers." It scans like, and has the same vowels as, "Longstreet's Rangers" -- and "Mosby's Rangers" were a real unit, which fought on the Virginia front; John S. Mosby, a former lawyer, organized a group of partisans who came together to raid, then vanished back to their home (HTIECivilWar, p. 514). They were so effective that a part of Virginia came to be called "Mosby's Confederacy" (Boatner, p. 571), and fought off repeated attempts to destroy them -- they fought so well that Grant authorized the use of terror tactics to suppress them (HTIECivilWar, p. 514), but it didn't work. (It is ironic to note that Mosby and Grant later became friends, and Mosby supported Grant for President). Fans of Mosby have claimed that he prolonged the war by months by siphoning off so many troops who would otherwise have been able to attack Lee (Boatner, p. 571).
The problem with the Mosby hypothesis is that Mosby operated mostly in the Loudoun Valley area (Boatner, p. 571), far from the Rappahannock front; it's actually north and west of Washington, D.C., in the area around Leesburg. His command was not organized until January 1863, and although it had some part in the Gettysburg campaign, it was not involved in the later stages (DAB, volume VII, p. 272; entry on John Singleton Mosby); its activities in that year are not a good fit for the battle in the song.
Another possibility is that the troops were called "Longstreet's Rangers" because, although they were infantry, there were actual Texas troops fighting in Longstreet's corps. Possibly the best single unit in Lee's army was the so-called "Texas Brigade," whose most famous commander was John Bell Hood. (McPherson, pp. 118-119, tells how Hood's division, "perhaps the hardest fighting outfit in the Army of Northern Virginia," was forced to halt their first decent meal in three days to save the day at Antietam. Save the day they did -- and were almost destroyed in the process; the First Texas is thought to have taken 80% casualties in the fight). The Texans also came close to winning the Battle of Gettysburg on the second day, and they were at the heart of Longstreet's great breakthrough at Chickamauga. And they were part of Longstreet's Corps from the day that unit was created. So it would be reasonable to call this brigade "Longstreet's Texas Rangers" -- but I've never heard that title used.
Finally, John D. Imboden's cavalry brigade was composed mostly of rangers -- one of its regiments was, in fact, the Virginia Partisan Rangers, Imboden's own organization (Sears, p. 57). Unlike Mosby's rangers, it did go into Pennsylvania -- but it didn't fight much, and it's hard to see how "Imboden" could have been turned into "Longstreet." If this is in fact the unit involved, it might make more sense to refer to its action during Jubal A. Early's 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign (Boatner, p. 423).
None of these fits very well with the description of the battle in the song, which is said to have lasted nine hours. Cavalry fights tend to be short. The one major exception was the Battle of Brandy Station (June 9, 1863), fought at a time when the Confederate army was starting the move north that would end at the Battle of Gettysburg. Some units were in action for close to twelve hours; the battle itself lasted for sixteen (Sears, p. 72)
To sum up, we have no good fit for the unit of this song. Mosby's Rangers, Imboden's rangers, and the Texans weren't at Brandy Station; no partisan battle lasted nine hours; and the Texans weren't cavalry. But they all might have contributed parts. Which is just what one would expect from an adaption of an older song. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LA08

Texas Sailor Coming Down

DESCRIPTION: Call and response: response is "Texas sailor coming down the road, you will see them"; calls include "we coming to get the prize on the road," "is the biggest banner round the town," "when you see we you got to run"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage01)
KEYWORDS: bragging disguise ritual music nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Melville J. Herskovits and Frances S. Herskovits, _Trinidad Village_ (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947), p. 283, "(Texas sailor comin' down)" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Dixon [Ebenezr] Philip, "Texas Sailor Coming Down the Road" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
NOTES [74 words]: This is a Trinidadian Carnival song that is not in the pattern of the "tent" road marches that have come to represent commercial pre-soca calypso. The liner notes describe battle songs between masquerading bands from the early 20th century (Donald R. Hill, Maureeen Warner-Lewis, John Cowley, Lise Winer, liner notes on WITrinidadVillage01; also see Donald R. Hill, Calypso Calaloo (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993), p. 56). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcTeSaCD

Texas Song

See Going to Leave Old Texas (Old Texas, Texas Song, The Cowman's Lament) (File: FCW066E)

Texas Way

DESCRIPTION: "Down Texas way, 'Mid the clover and the new-mown hay, Where they'll be so glad, yes so glad To see me... I can see their happy faces And hear a sweet voice say Come along here." The singer hopes to come home soon,and blesses his family
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: home return love mother father
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, pp. 218-219, "Texas Way" (1 text)
File: BrPa218B

Texian Boys, The

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Th'art As Welcome, Just As Welcome As Can Be

DESCRIPTION: "Th'art as welcome, just as welcome as can be, Th'art welcome, just as welcome as can be, Draw thy chair up to the fire, Stay as long as thou desire, For we're always glad to see a man like thee." Also, "Draw thy chair up to the table... able"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 46, "Th'art as welcome, just as welcome as can be" (1 text)
Roud #25487
File: KSUC046B

Tha Was a Wee Yow

DESCRIPTION: A ewe looks at the moon and sees wonders; it goes to Ireland and Aberdeen, returns home, and finds more wonders right there.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A ewe looks at the moon and sees more wonders [?] than fifteen; it goes to Ireland and Aberdeen and returns home; the husband is herding, the pigs are inside, the wife supervising the girls making cheese; the cat is in the stall eating when a cinder burns its nose and it cries 'yeowe, yeowe, yeowe.'
KEYWORDS: return travel farming talltale animal sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 134, "Tha Was a Wee Yow" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 27, ("There was a wee yowe") (1 text)
Roud #13067
NOTES [198 words]: Except for dialect the Chambers and Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 texts are the same. Chambers (1802-1871) records his text from Forfarshire. The preface included is to the third edition and is dated 1841. Notes for Greig/Duncan8 1635, "I'll Tell Ye a Talie," connects that text to this one but I don't see the connection.
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 p. xli: "Crawfurd supplied songs and rhymes for Robert Chambers ... it appears that versions of 143 'Cow the Nettle Airlie' and 144 'The Wee Wyfie' ... highly probable that 134 'Tha Was a Wee You' ... was from Crawfurd too."
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 p. xl: "Part of 134 'Tha Was a Wee You' may be compared with Opie 107; cf. also the Rymour Club Miscellanea vol. 2 (1921) p. 100 and Gomme 1.51." Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2/Chambers share no lines with Opie 107 but the description beginning when the ewe returns home has the beat and strangeness of image of Opie ("The cock's on the wood pile a-blowing his horn ...."); I would say the same for the comparison with Gomme 1.51 ("As I was going o'er misty moor I spied three cats at a mill-door ...."). I haven't seen the Rymour Club. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2134

Thames Head Wassailers' Song

See Gloucestershire Wassailers' Song (File: RcGlWasS)

Thank You, Ma'am, Says Dan

DESCRIPTION: Courting song in which Dan says "Thank you, ma'am," whatever the girl's mother says. She invites him in; he thanks her. She allows him to marry her daughter. She will stay with her daughter; he will have to support the whole family. He thanks her
AUTHOR: Gerald and Joseph M. Crofts?
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting mother humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H184=689, pp. 469-470, "'Thank You, Ma'am,' Says Dan" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 92, "I Thank You, Ma'am," Says Dan (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3044
NOTES [29 words]: It would appear that copyright on this song was claimed by the Crofts. Given the various collections containing the song, however, I wonder if they really originated it. - RBW
File: HHH184

Thanks Be to God (Grace)

DESCRIPTION: "Thanks be to god who gave us this blessing, Thanks be to god who gave us this bread, Thanks be to god the spirit eternal Thanks be to god forever."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 261, "Thanks Be to God" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Windy" (tune, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
NOTES [38 words]: The version of this that I managed to find has "god" and "spirit" in lower case -- highly unusual usages in Christian works -- but I'm leaving it as an artifact, perhaps, of the sloppy editing that goes into camp song booklets. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF261G

Thanksgiving Day

See Over the River and Through the Woods (File: PHCFS278)

Thanksgiving on the Ranch

DESCRIPTION: "We was settin' 'round the ranch house on the last Thanksgivin' Day" because the religious owner would not work on the day. Each cowboy explains what he thinks Thanksgiving means. Uncle Dick says that it's a way for people to give thanks by getting drunk
AUTHOR: James Barton Adams (source: Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 151-153, "Thanksgiving on the Ranch" (1 text)
File: ThLo151

That Bloody War (I)

DESCRIPTION: ""I was just a little infant boy, I was raised out on a farm, Never so much as killed a flea" until "that bloody war." A policeman takes him into the army. Ssent to France, helives on poor food. He won't fight again if there is another war
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (recording, Joseph Able Trivett)
KEYWORDS: war soldier food hardtimes warning
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 172-173, "That Bloody War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5726
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "That Crazy War" (lyrics)
cf. "Battleship of Maine" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [89 words]: This has similarities to both "That Crazy War" and "Battleship of Maine." Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs notes the similarity to the latter but not to the former and thinks it an independent song that perhaps someone recorded in the Twenties or Thirties. This is possible, but I suspect it's a World War I adaption of "Battleship of Maine" or "That Crazy War" or some such -- very likely with some lyrics from another song mixed to create this composite (I have no idea whether it was Trivett or his source who combined them). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: DalC172

That Bloody War (II)

See Battleship of Maine (File: CSW100)

That Crazy War

DESCRIPTION: Singer, drafted into World War I, humorously describes awful experiences, saying everyone (including him) was just trying to avoid getting shot "in that war, that crazy war." In one version, he says that if there's another war he'll be hard to find.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Jimmy Yates & His Boll Weevils)
KEYWORDS: army war France humorous soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1914 - World War I begins in Europe
1917 - U.S. enters World War I
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 102, "That Crazy War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 275, "That Crazy War" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 239, "That Bloody War" (4 texts, of which "C" and "D," both short, probably belong here; "A" and "B" are "Battleship of Maine")
DT, CRAZYWAR*
Roud #779
RECORDINGS:
Lulu Belle & Scotty, "That Crazy War" (OKeh 06103, 1941)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Crazy War" (on NLCREP2)
Jimmy Yates & His Boll Weevils, "Bloody War" (Victor V-40065, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Battleship of Maine" (lyrics)
cf. "That Bloody War (I)" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [53 words]: This song seems to have been adapted to fit almost every war in existence. It is fitting, though, that it apparently comes from World War I -- the stupidest, most wasteful conflict of them all.
Some of the versions in Brown hint that this ended up mixing with "Battleship of Maine," and Roud apparently lumps them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: CSW102

That Dang Boat that First Took Me Over

DESCRIPTION: Paddy leaves Ireland for Scotland "where everything is free." His father and sweetheart are unhappy and his mother is sure he'll drown. There's a storm. He asks the captain to stop the ship so he can walk home. If he ever gets home he'll not roam again.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1900 (various broadsides typically titled "Bless the Boat that First Brought Me Over"); 1970 (Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster)
KEYWORDS: farewell home parting sea ship storm Ireland Scotland humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 29, "That Dang Boat that First Took Me Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 144, "Bless the Boat that [First] Brought Me Over" (allusions only)
Roud #2907 and V14915
NOTES [37 words]: This sounds a bit like it might be a parody on one of the songs in which an Irishman goes to Scotland and falls in love. Examples of that type include "Paddy's Land" and "The Shamrock Shore (The Maid of Mullaghmore)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: MorU029

That Dear Old Land

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing tonight of a fairyland in the lap of the ocean set.... I'll sing tonight of Ireland's ancient days ... the dear old land, that sweet old land where the beautiful rivers flow." An exile remembers his home and its history.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: homesickness exile Ireland lament nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 70, "That Dear Old Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6368
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Scarborough Settler's Lament" (theme) and references there
File: GrMa070

That Great Judgement Day (This Old World)

See This Old World Ain't Going to Stand Much Longer (File: MWhee073)

That Is Even So

DESCRIPTION: "When first I heard the people tell Of finding gold in veins... [I] started o'er the plains." On the way west, the food runs short and the train has to winter at Salt Lake. The Mormons treat them badly. The singer advises leaving the "land of gold"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Put's Golden Songster)
KEYWORDS: gold mining hardtimes travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 17, "That Is Even So" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11206
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fools of Forty-Nine" (plot)
File: FCW017

That Last Fierce Charge

See The Last Fierce Charge [Laws A17] (File: LA17)

That Last Fierce Fight

See The Last Fierce Charge [Laws A17] (File: LA17)

That Little Black Mustache

See The Black Mustache (File: CW180A)

That Little Face

DESCRIPTION: "As I sailed on the ocean, As I sailed on the sea, There was a lovely vision, That always 'peared to me." "That little face and big blue eyes They always take me to paradise, The sweetest angel In the whole wide world" keeps the singer out of trouble
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (High-OldOldFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor beauty love
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 18-19, "That Little Face" (1 text)
NOTES [51 words]: High-OldOldFolkSongs's version of this is said to have been "typewritten by Miss Peggy Ann High," and includes her address on Route 1, Berryville, Ark. Fred High also lived on Route 1 in Berryville. It seems likely that Peggy Ann was Fred's granddaughter, and very likely wrote this as a school piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: High018

That Little Old Hut Was a Mansion to Me

DESCRIPTION: "I am thinking today of a little old house, 'Way back in the hills where my feet once did roam." It was "a mansion to me" not because it was large or fine but because he lived happily with his family
AUTHOR: Eugene Monroe Bartlett (1883-1941) (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
KEYWORDS: home family nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 21, "That Little Old Hut Was a Mansion to Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
W. C. Childers, "That Little Old Hut Was a Mansion to Me" (Supertone 9655)
NOTES [49 words]: E. M. Bartlett was apparently a fairly well-known Arkansas songwriter, producing mostly religious songs, but few have endured. He may have been more important for encouraging the career of Albert E. Brumley, who obviously picked out this song to include in Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ABLT021

That Lonesome Train Took My Baby Away

DESCRIPTION: "Woke up this morning, found somethin' wrong, My lovin' babe had caught that train and gone...." The singer asks the depot agent to shut the depot down so she cannot leave. But the girl is lost, and the train "will take you baby and run right over you."
AUTHOR: Words: Probably Charlie McCoy, influenced by the lyrics of "Cow Cow's Blues"/Tune: "Cow Cow's Blues" by Charles "Cow Cow" Davenport
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Charlie McCoy)
KEYWORDS: train separation abandonment floatingverses
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 431-434, "That Lonesome Train Took My Baby Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LONETRN
RECORDINGS:
Charlie McCoy, "That Lonesome Train Took My Baby Away" (OKeh 8863, 1931?; rec. 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cannonball" (floating verses)
File: LSRai431

That Old Time Religion

DESCRIPTION: "Give me that (or: It's the/that) old time religion (x3), And it's good enough for me." Verses describe those for whom it was good enough: "It was good for Paul and Silas" "It was good for the Hebrew children," "It was good for my dear parents," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 ("Jubilee Songs as sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers")
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 200, "Ole-Time Religion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 640, "That Old-Time Religion" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 640, "That Old-Time Religion" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 91, "The Old Time Religion" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Randolph 628, "The Old Time Religion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 438-440, "The Old-Time Religion" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 628)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 65, "Old Time Religion" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 362, "Give Me That Old Time Religion" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Elsie Clews Parsons, "Spirituals and Other Folklore from the Bahamas," Vol. 41, No. 162 (Oct-Dec 1928), Anthems: Rum Cay #4 p. 464, "Gi' me dat ol' time religion" (1 text)
Roud #6423
RECORDINGS:
The Blue Chips, "Give Me That Old Time Religion" (ARC 6-07-60, 1936)
Brother Son Bonds, "Give Me That Old Time Religion" (Decca 7024, 1934)
Emmett Brand, "Give Me That Old Time Religion" (on MuSouth06)
Morris Brown Quartet, "That Old Time Religion" (Bluebird B-8428/Montgomery Ward M-8765, 1940)
Columbia [Male] Quartet, "The Old-Time Religion" (Columbia A-827, 1910; rec. 1909)
Cotton Belt Quartet, "Give Me That Old Time Religion" (Vocalion 1022, 1926)
Cotton Top Mountain Sanctified Singers, "Give Me That Old Time Religion" (Brunswick 7100, 1929)
Dixie Jubilee Singers, "Give Me That Old Time Religion" (Banner 7237/Domino 4220/Challenge 937 [as Jewel Male Quartet], 1928)
Wally Fowler, "Old Time Religion" (Capitol 2182, 1952)
Golden Eagle Gospel Singers, "Gimme That Old Time Religion" (Decca 7314, 1937)
Hampton Institute Quartet, "Ole Time Religion" (Musicraft 233, 1939)
Haydn Quartette, "The Old Time Religion" (Victor 4656, 1906)
Heavenly Gospel Singers, "Old Time Religion" (Bluebird B-8077, 1939; Montgomery Ward M-7871, n.d.)
Jubliee Quartet, "Old Time Religion" (Banner 1550/Regal 9848, 1925; Ajax 31582, n.d.)
Kentucky Ramblers, "Give Me That Old Time Religion" Broadway 8270, c. 1932; rec. 1930)
Blind Willie McTell, "Old Time Religion, Amen" (on USWMcTell01)
Mellowmen, "That Old Time Religion" (Decca 28081, 1952)
Old Southern Sacred Singers, "The Old Time Religion" (Brunswick 161, 1927)
Old-Time Jubilee Singers, "That Old Time Religion" (Perfect 113/Ajax [Can.] 17041, 1924)
Original Valentine Quartet, "Give That Old Time Religion" (OKeh 8135, 1924)
Pace Jubilee Singers, "Old-Time Religion" (Victor 22097, 1929; Bluebird B-5811, 1935; rec. 1928)
Paramount Jubilee Singers, "That Old Time Religion" (Paramount 12073, rec. 1923)
Homer Rodeheaver, "Old Time Religion" (Columbia A-3856, 1923)
Ernest Thompson, "The Old Time Religion" (Columbia 15007-D, 1924)
Tuskegee Institute Quartet, "Old Time Religion" (Victor 18075, 1916; rec. 1915)
Tuskegee Quartet, "The Old Time Religion" (Victor 20519, 1927)
Congregation of Wesley Methodist Church, "Give Me That Old Time Religion" (on JohnsIsland1)
SAME TUNE:
Old Time Religion [parody] (DT, OLTIMREL, OLTIMR2, OLTIMR3; on PeteSeeger47; Pete Seeger, _Where Have All the Flowers Gone, a Musical Biography_, p. 136, "The 'Filksong' Ole TIme Religion")
NOTES [161 words]: This piece was copyrighted in 1891 by Charlie D. Tillman -- but given that the text sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers was printed in 1880, the claim is obviously bogus.
This seems, for all intents and purposes, to have become a parody of itself of late. All three Digital Tradition versions, for instance, are modern versions praising various improbable deities (I suspect that most of the verses are filk). It's not really surprising, given the excellent tune and the asinine lyrics of the original. - RBW
The McTell version does not use the usual structure or tune. The usual lines are there, but each verse is just one of the lines five times; for example, "Give me that old time religion, Amen" (2x) "Give me that old time religion" (2x) "Give me that old time religion, Amen." McTell's tune is a minor blues like "True Religion" ("Mother take the pillow from under my head") and his own "Just As Well Get Ready" and "Climbing High Mountains, Tryin' To Get Home." - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: R628

That Old Towpath

DESCRIPTION: "Most dear to my heart are the scenes of the towpath, No mortal its beauty can ever describe." The singer enjoys seeing nature along the path. He was happy there: "'Twas God, man, and nature all working together"
AUTHOR: Pearl R. Nye (source: Salt)
EARLIEST DATE: 1992 (Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory)
KEYWORDS: work travel canal flowers animal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 65-66, "That Old Towpath" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Oaken Bucket" (tune, according to Salt)
File: Salt065

That Pretty Little Gal

See The Girl I Left Behind Me (lyric) (File: R546)

That Prosperity Wave

DESCRIPTION: "We rise now to put the main question, Just how we should act and behave, When we're completely submerged by... that prosperity wave." McKinley's election was supposed to save the country, but the banks still failing and business is poor
AUTHOR: L. P. Cummins (possibly author of the words only)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Nevada Folklore pamphlet; probably written in 1897 or soon after)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad money suicide
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 76-77, "That Prosperity Wave" (1 text
ADDITIONAL: Nebraska Folklore, Pamphlet Twenty, "More Farmers' Alliance Songs of the 1890's," Federal Writers' Project, 1939, p. 17, "That Prosperity Wave" (1 text)
NOTES [41 words]: For more on the issues of the 1896 presidential election, see "Free Silver."
Most Farmers' Alliance songs were set to widely familiar tunes. No melody is listed for this one, but if I had to guess, I'd guess "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: Wels076

That Rogue Reilly

DESCRIPTION: "There's a boy that follows me every day, although he declares that I use him vilely." He is like "the very shadow at my feet." Her mother sends her away to make hay but Reilly is there. Her aunt recommends a nunnery but she would rather be bothered.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3382))
KEYWORDS: courting farming
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 57, "That Rogue Reilly" (1 text)
Roud #6980
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3382), "That Raking, Ranting, Reilly", H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Harding B 11(3231), "The Ranting Reilly"; Harding B 20(144), "Raking, Ranting Reilly"; also Harding B 11(3306), "The Rogue Reilly "
File: OCon057A

That Shit Shute

DESCRIPTION: "The general inspecting the trenches Exclaimed with a horrified shout, 'I refuse to command a division That leaves its excreta about.'" But the division concludes it would prefer the "excreta" to being commanded by "that Shit Shute."
AUTHOR: Words: A. P. Herbert (source: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier scatological
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 90, "That Shit Shute" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wrap Me Up In My Tarpaulin Jacket" (tune, according to Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
NOTES [110 words]: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver lists the tune of this as "Wrap Me Up In My Tarpaulin Jacket," which I find a difficult fit; it feels more like 'My Bonnie" to me. But perhaps A. P. Herbert had a different version of "Tarpaulin Jacket."
WIkipedia has an entry about the general in this song, Cameron Deane Shute (1866-1936), which as of this writing (July 22, 2023) appears to exist mostly for purposes of repeating this song. He held some fairly high offices, including eventually commanding a corps, but his service doesn't seem to have been particularly distinguished; at least, I found no mention of him in the first four World War I references I checked. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW090

That Suits Me

DESCRIPTION: John's letter says "the Holy Ghost came to make us better," and you'd better hurry if you want to go to Heaven. The singer says, "It just suits me" Some couplets float (Ezekiel wept, can't serve God and the Devil, Jacob's ladder: every round is higher)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Odum)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 27, pp. 137-138, "That Suits Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 657, "'Zekiel'll Weep and 'Zekiel'll Moan" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Howard W. Odum, Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes, (reprint from American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, July 1909, Vol.3 pp. 265-365 "Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 80-81, ("John wrote a letter and he wrote it in haste") (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Bessie Jones, Hobart Smith and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "It Just Suits Me" (on LomaxCD1712, recorded 1959)
File: Parr027

That Tattoed French Lady

See The Tattoed Lady (File: FaE230)

That the Stones of the Street May Turn Up the Pig's Feet

DESCRIPTION: "That the stones of the street may turn up the pig's feet If ever I cease to the love. That the tay may come down to three ha'pence a pound If ever I cease to the love"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad parody food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 9, "That the Stones of the Street May Turn Up the Pig's Feet" (1 fragment)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "If Ever I Cease to Love" (subject and some text)
NOTES [56 words]: The current description is all of the Tunney-StoneFiddle fragment.
The fragment is a parody of the "if ever I prove false" theme floating among songs such as "When First Into this Country" and "I Live Not Where I Love." It could be derived from "If Ever I Cease to Love" but the only line shared is "If ever I cease to [the] love." - BS
File: RcSSTUPF

That Tumble Down Shack in Athlone

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a long way from home and my thoughts ever roam To ould Erin far over the sea." The singer remembers his home in Ireland, says there are people waiting there for him, and looks forward to returning to Athlone
AUTHOR: Words: Richard M. Pascoe / Music: "Monte Carlo" and Alma Sanders
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: home Ireland emigration return
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 66-67, "That Tumble Down Shack in Athlone" (1 text)
Roud #21716
NOTES [83 words]: This song was apparently popular enough to inspire a movie in 1927, but I have no idea what the film,may have been like.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 327, estimates that this was a popular song in America in 1919, peaking at #18 in May 1919 (#1 for the year being Raymond B. Egan and Richard A. Whiting's "Till We Meet Again"), and on p. 331 suggests that it had another peak in 1920. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Dean066

That Was Irish, Too

See Pig in the Parlor (File: R522)

That's a Mighty Pretty Motion

DESCRIPTION: "That's a mighty pretty motion, dee, di, dee (x3), Rise, Sugar, rise." "That's a mighty poor motion." [Or] "That's a very pretty motion, tra, la lut" (x3), Rise, sugar, rise."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth, pp. 22-23, "That's a Mighty Pretty Motion" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #11613
File: TrJo022

That's All Right (I)

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses: "Mind my mother how you're walking along/Your feet might slip and your soul be lost"; "Hush little baby don't you cry." "Jacob ladder so long and tall." Cho: "That's all right (x2) Since my soul got a seat up in the kingdom...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight)
KEYWORDS: warning floatingverses nonballad religious mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 121, "That's All Right" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Johnny Brown, "That's All Right" (on USFlorida01)
Gullah Kinfolk, "Dat's Alrit'" (on USSeaIsland04)
Mabel Hillery and Johny Huntery, "That's All Right" (on JohnsIsland1)
Laura Rivers, "That's All Right" (on BeenStorm1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down on Me" (floating verses)
cf. "Somebody's All de Time Talkin' 'Bout Me" (repeating line "that's all right," floating verse "talk about me")
NOTES [20 words]: Brown's text for "Somebody's All de Time Talkin' 'Bout Me" is a fragment. Possibly these two songs belong together. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcThAlRi

That's All Right (II)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: (("That's all right") (3x), "mama, Any way you do.")) Verses: mama and papa tell me "that gal you're fooling with Ain't no friend to you"; Singer is leaving town and "mama" "won't be bothered with me Hanging around your door"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (recording, Crudup)
KEYWORDS: love parting travel nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup,"That's All Right" (Victor 20-2205, 1946)
Scott Dunbar, "That's Alright Mama" (on USDunbarS01)
Elvis Presley, "That's All Right" (Sun 209, 1954)
NOTES [42 words]: The description follows Presley whose record is clearly Dunbar's source, down to the final verse mouth music. Crudup has a verse that neither Presley nor Dunbar sing: "One and one is two, Two and two is four, I love that woman But I got to let her go." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcThRi02

That's No Way To Get Along

DESCRIPTION: Singer complains to his mother that "these low-down women ... treated your poor son wrong" till he "wished he's dead and gone." He wants "some train to come along and take me away" ... "and that's no way for me to get along"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (StuffDreams2)
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness love sex nonballad lover mother
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Robert Wilkins, "That's No Way To Get Along" (on StuffDreams2)
NOTES [89 words]: According to W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, pp. 423-424, Robert Wilkins was born in 1896 in Hernandez, Mississippi, about twenty miles south of Memphis. After serving in World War I, he went to Memphis as a musician, where he performed with Furry Lewis and Memphis Minnie among others. This song was however recorded solo. After playing a house party which turned violent in 1938, he largely abandoned secular music and became a Pentecostal elder and gospel singer. He died in 1987. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcTNWTGA

That's So

DESCRIPTION: "The world gets wiser every day, That's so and that's so; And woman's bound to have her way, And that's so too." The woman spends heavily and dresses in finery; the man should go along. "He talks of freedom and of right, But we can show him how to fight."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: humorous clothes money husband wife
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 423, "That's So" (1 text)
Roud #6609
File: TNY423

That's the Time to Remember the Poor

See Remember the Poor (File: Wa161)

That's What It's Like in the Navy

DESCRIPTION: "I wish I"d never joined for a sailor, mother dear... The girls won't let us court them and the canteen's out of beer, And that's what it's like in the Navy." They are given medals, but they get seasick and live hard lives and get sent to awful places
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor navy hardtimes mother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 18, "That's What It's Like in the Navy" (1 text, with tune on p. 147)
File: Tawn001

That's Where My Money Goes

DESCRIPTION: "That's where my money goes, To buy my baby clothes, I'd do 'most any old thing To keep that woman in style. She's worth her weight in gold, My coal-black Venus, Say, boys, that's where my money goes."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: money clothes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 464, "That's Where My Money Goes" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 464, "That's Where My Money Goes" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11797
SAME TUNE:
My Gal ("My gal's a hullabaloo, She goes to Epworth League, too") (Harbin-Parodology, #151, p. 44)
File: Br3464

That's Where the Crocodiles Chew Your Legs

DESCRIPTION: "That's where the crocodiles chew your legs, And the swans on the river lay hard boiled eggs, Way down, the Swanee River, no more I'll chance to roam, But if my oul' woman had the figure like Maud Allen, There'd be no place like home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: river injury home bird
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 58, "(That's where the crocodiles chew your legs)" (1 text)
NOTES [199 words]: Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling says that this is to the tune of "Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)." If so, I think some lines have been lost or rearranged.
Maud Allen (1873-1956; real name either Beulah Maude Durrant or Ulah Maud Alma Durrant, according to Wikipedia) was a musician and dancer with quite a career, based on that Wikipedia entry. Her most notable performance -- and clearly the item that gave rise to this song -- was her performance as Salome in the "Dance of the Seven Veils." Even though she was already 33 when she first played the role in 1906, she performed this wearing only jewelry on her upper body. It will be self-evident that this was controversial (as was the whole production). Controversy followed her for years, and eventually she gave up performing and became an ambulance driver and a draftswoman. Believe me, there was a lot more to her career; her Wikipedia article (checked August 17, 2023) was written by someone with only a passing acquaintance with the active voice, but is worth checking if you want to read an astoundingly dramatic life story.
The fact that the song mentions in the way it does would seem to imply a date between 1906 and about 1920. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PKKB058D

That's Why They're Called Doughboys

DESCRIPTION: "That's why they're called doughboys, Because they took so long to rise"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: war wordplay
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 187, "That's why they're called doughboys" (1 fragment)
Roud #25460
File: KSUC187B

Thatchers of Glenrea, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer works in Argyle, then does a quick thatching job in Glrenrea. When it is all done, he at last is able to return to his wife in Ireland, though he has been cheated (?) of some of the money he hoped he would earn. He will not return to Glenrea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: work home separation return reunion money
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H186, pp. 46-47, "The Thatchers of Glenrea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13358
File: HHH186

The-r Heaven Bells Are Ringin'

See Heaven Bells Are Ringing (II) (File: Edwa025)

The' Doesn't Do It Now

See I Wish They'd Do It Now (File: Gil111)

Them Days is Gone Forever

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you old loggers and list to my tale As I weep on the shoulder of time." The singer recalls when "timber was common and plenty and cheap." "But nowadays timber is sold by the feet"; it's all micromanagement; "the glamour has gone to the dogs"
AUTHOR: Words: O. L. Ufavise (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: logger hardtimes technology | nostalgia
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 511-512, "Them Days Is Gone Forever" (1 text)
File: LDC511

Them Gar'n Town people them call me follow line

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

Then Big Black the Loyalists' Custodian

DESCRIPTION: "Then Big Black the Loyalists' custodian Lost more teeth than there are on a melodeon, Off side, on side, one a side and two a side, At half time we really played suicide."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: sports injury
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 84, "Then big Black the Loyalists' Custodian" (1 text)
Roud #25377
File: KSUC084B

Then I'll Come Back to You

See My Wife Went Away and Left Me (File: RcMWWALM)

Then My Love and I'll Be Married

See Things Impossible (File: GC158)

Then Shout, Boys, Shout

See According to the Act (File: FaE042)

Then Sling the Flowing Bowl

See Sling the Flowing Bowl (File: SWMS051)

Then Some wi Pins

DESCRIPTION: A plowing match is described with its problems and swearing. "In spite o' a' difficulties They gaily trudged on Aft times refreshed wi' mountain dew A bannock or a scone." Prizes are announced. "The unsuccessful's never please The judges gets the blame"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: contest farming drink food ordeal nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast, "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 44, ("Then some wi' pins and some wi' props") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 423, "Then Some wi Pins" (1 text)
Roud #5940
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Ploughing Match
File: GrD3423

Then Turn Out You Jolly Tars

See The Mermaid [Child 289] (File: C289)

Then Up Came Josy Hooker With All His Fighting Train

See The Old Virginia Low Lands Low (File: GFGW068A)

Then We'll Have a New Convention

DESCRIPTION: "Katy, Katy, don't you want to marry? Your mother says you shall not marry... Until we kill the turkey hen." "Then we'll have a new convention And we'll kill the turkey hen... And we'll have the rights of man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: marriage political bird
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 370, "Then We'll Have a New Convention" (1 text); also 371, "Colonel Harry, He Was Scared" (1 fragment, probably the same as the above or a parody, though it may be mixed)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 370, "Then We'll Have a New Convention" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11747
NOTES [139 words]: The notes in Brown connect this with the Civil War: The "convention" refers to the state conventions called to bring states out of the Union, and the song reportedly was used to recruit soldiers. Which makes sense, though it hardly explains the song. The "turkey hen" presumably refers to the Union, or to Lincoln, but this is hardly a common usage.
The "Colonel Harry" of the second Brown text is unidentifiable in context. And the two songs between them have only eight distinct lines, making it very hard to tell what's going on. But the second looks like it might be a later answer to the first: Brown #370 is a triumphant call for a convention (and hence secession); #371, which mentions a convention of "the volunteers and the drafted men" must have arisen in 1862 or later, as opposition to Confederate policies increased. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3370

Then We'll Sling the Flowing Bowl

See Sling the Flowing Bowl (File: SWMS051)

Then You'll Remember Me

DESCRIPTION: "When other lips and other hearts Their tales of love shall tell, In language whose excess imparts The power they love so well," perhaps there will come a reminder: "And you'll remember me." In hard times too, then "You'll remember me."
AUTHOR: A. Bunn? (Source: Bodleian references)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1846 (various Bodleian broadsides)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Heart-Songs, pp. 52-53, "Then You'll Remember Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 125, "You'll Remember Me" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 127, "(When other lips and other hearts)" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #14, pp. 42-43, "Den You'll Remember Me" (1 text, in heavy minstrel dialect)
Roud #13830
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 520, "And You'll Remember Me," E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1844-1845; also Harding B 11(63), "And You'll Remember Me," (Ryle and Paul, London), 1838-1859; also Harding B 11(1695), "You'll Remember Me," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; Harding B 11(4352), Harding B 11(4353), "You'll Remember Me," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Harding B 11(62), "And You'll Remember Me," A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1846-1859; also Harding B 18(512), "You'll Remember Me," C. Magnus (New York), c. 1860; also Firth b.25(184)=Harding B 11(251), "You'll Remember Me," H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Firth b.25(420)=Harding B 11(4005)=Johnson Ballads 3345, "Then You'll Remember Me," G. Henson (Northampton), n.d.; also 2806 d.31(45)=Harding B 11(4006), "Then You'll Remember Me," unkown, n.d.; Firth b.25(82), "Then You'll Remember Me," M. Carroll (Birmingham), n.d.; Harding B 13(256)=Harding B 13(257), "You'll Remember Me," unknown, n.d.;
NOTES [47 words]: The Solomon-ZickaryZan text is from an autograph album from the family of Kate, Ella, Lucy, Maggie, and Bessie Burton, compiled 1895-1905. Most autograph album verses were composed for the (small) format; this is an interesting example, because it looks as if it's from tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HMHS125A

There Ain't No Bugs on Me

See Ain't No Bugs on Me (File: CSW226)

There Ain't No Flies

See Ain't No Bugs on Me (File: CSW226)

There Ain't No Flies on Jesus

DESCRIPTION: "There's flies on me, There's flies on you, But there ain't no flies on Jesus."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad bug
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 201, (no title) (1 fragment)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ain't No Bugs on Me" (concept)
NOTES [27 words]: There is an obvious temptation to link this to "Ain't No Bugs on Me." But, apart from the religious reference, the form seems to imply that they are separate. - RBW
File: ScNF201A

There Are Days I Like to Be All Alone

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: ("There are days I like to be all alone"(3x). "Tell God about my troubles When I am all alone.") Verses: "There are songs I like to sing When I am all alone ..." "There are prayers I like to pray When I am all alone ..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (USMississippi01)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
The Southland Hummingbirds, "There Are Days" (on USMississippi01)
File: RcTADILA

There Are Many Sad and Lonely

See Won't You Buy My Pretty Flowers (File: HGam244)

There Are Situations Where Men

See (notes under) The Blood-Stained Diary (File: Burt175)

There Are Six Good Days All in the Week

See Hampshire Mummers' Carol (God Sent for Us the Sunday) (File: LEBC078)

There Are Smiles

See Smiles That Are Best of All (File: Paro089)

There Are So Many Worlds to Explore

DESCRIPTION: "There are so many worlds to explore All you need to do is open the door And let your spirit soar... There’s a world for yourself when you’re just at home." Find friends, seek beauty; these things can make a paradise
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 543, "There Are So Many Worlds to Explore" (notes only)
File: ACSF543W

There are ten green bottles a-standing on the wall

See Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer (File: R456)

There Cam a Ghost

See Sweet William's Ghost [Child 77] (File: C077)

There Cam a Laddie Frae the North

DESCRIPTION: "There cam a laddie frae the north... And he's fa'en in love wi' a bonnie lass That lived in Dundee." He offers to take her north to his home in Strathspey. She refuses; he goes home -- then comes again, asks again, and she consents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage travel home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #43, p. 2, "The Laddie Frae the North" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 975, "The Laddie Frae the North" (8 texts, 7 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 103-105, "There Cam' a Laddie Frae the North" (1 text)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 4, "There Cam a Laddie Frae the North" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #3951
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bonnie Lass o' Dundee
File: Ord103

There Came a Girl from France

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "There came a girl from France, There came a girl from Spain, There came a girl from the U.S.A., And here is how she came: Hopping on one foot...." Similarly with other motions, e.g. hopping on two feet
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Bluebells My Cockle Shells)
KEYWORDS: jumprope travel
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #549, "There came a girl from France" (1 text)
Roud #20104
File: AJRR549

There Came an Old Woman from Botany Bay

See The Old Lady of Botany Bay (File: SuSm053A)

There Came Three Jews

See Three Brothers from Spain (Knights of Spain, We Are Three Jews) (File: BGMG633)

There Came Two Spaniards Just from Spain

See Three Brothers from Spain (Knights of Spain, We Are Three Jews) (File: BGMG633)

There Comes a Fellow with a Derby Hat

DESCRIPTION: Lost love song: "There comes a fellow with a derby hat, They say he's jealous, but what of that? If he is jealous, I am gay; I can get a sweetheart any day." The rest floats -- the blind bird, a request that the sweetheart return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love bird clothes betrayal floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 265, "There Comes a Fellow with a Derby Hat" (1 text)
Roud #15742
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (subject) and references there
File: Br3265

There Comes a Reckoning Day

DESCRIPTION: "I had a dream the other night when every thing was still; I dreamt I saw the lab'ring men all going down the hill." They are ragged, poor, and overworked; they will have a "reckoning day" -- and then will do their work for a proper reward
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Vincent, Alliance and Labor Songster, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: worker hardtimes derivative clothes money | greenbacks currency exchange rates inflation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 480-481, "There Comes a Reckoning Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 271, "There Comes a Reckoning Day" (1 text)
Roud #V57013
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Susanna" (tune) and references there
NOTES [154 words]: The song says "You bought with greenbacks, now ask for gold." This seems to hint at a date earlier than 1891. Greenbacks -- unbacked currency -- were first issued by the Federal Government in the Civil War, and at times were quite heavily discounted against gold (at one point in 1864, a greenback was worth less than half of a gold dollar, according to the site u-s-history.com). After the war, they continued in circulation, but no new ones were issued. They were not as badly discounted after the war, but gold was still regarded as the "real" currency. The complaint about paying out greenbacks but requiring payment in gold is thus very real -- this was charging a substantial premium. And farmers needed an inflationary environment -- they liked greenbacks. The demand for gold was very hard on them. For background, see "Free Silver"; also "Marching for Freedom," which comes from the same movement as this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC480

There Goes a Man Just Gone Along

DESCRIPTION: A man is taken to prison. The prisoners laugh and stare. The next day the turnkeys put his irons on. "Now Salisbury assizes is drawing near, Oh come, my lads, begin to cheer (x2) And wipe away all weeping tears"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: prison trial
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 130, "There Goes a Man Just Gone Along" (1 text)
Roud #1355
NOTES [91 words]: Sam Richards and Tish Stubbs, The English Folksinger (Glasgow,1979), pp. 210-211, 221, "There Goes a Man," adds two verses: the Salisbury Assizes are over and the singer has been condemned to the gallows. The source -- George Blake, 1906, collected by Gardiner -- is the same singer cited for Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle, "previously published under the title 'Gaol Song' in The Foggy Dew (ed. F. Purslow), EFDS Publications Ltd, London, 1974." Did Gardiner collect two versions from George Blake in 1906 or did someone else add the verses? - BS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: ReCi130

There Goes Topsy Through the Window

See The Old Gray Mare (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull) (File: R271)

There Is a Balm in Gilead

See Balm in Gilead (File: FSWB360A)

There Is a Boarding School, Far Far Away

See I Know a Boarding-House (File: R479)

There Is a Fountain

DESCRIPTION: "There is a fountain of Christ's blood, Wide open stretch'd for to drown our sins, Where Jesus stands with open arms Of mercy to invite us in." The sights of the passion are recalled" The crown of thorns, the piercing of Jesus's side. Hearers are warned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious nonballad warning
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 197-198, "There Is a Fountain" (4 single-stanza texts, all effectively identical; 4 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 170-171, "Fountain of Christ's Blood" (1 text)
ST Leath197 (Partial)
Roud #663
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fountain of Blood
NOTES [43 words]: Roud lumps this with "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood," but to me they look like separate songs; there are few lyrics in common. Given that the idea is basic to Christianity, it could easily have occurred to two writers, so I have split the songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: Leath197

There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood

DESCRIPTION: "There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanuel's veins, And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains. The thief dying (by Jesus) repents. The singer will exalt Jesus's redeeming love until he dies
AUTHOR: Words: William Cowper (1731-1800)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Copperhill Male Quartet)
KEYWORDS: Jesus death religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 34-35, "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood" (1 text)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 258-260, "There Is a Fountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #663
RECORDINGS:
Copperhill Male Quartet, "There is a Fountain Filled With Blood" Columbia 15164-D, 1927
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There Is a Fountain" (theme)
NOTES [250 words]: Roud lumps this with "There Is a Fountain," but to me they look like separate songs; there are few lyrics in common. Given that the idea is basic to Christianity, it could easily have occurred to two writers, so I have split the songs.
The repentant thief is described in Luke 23:39-43; the blood flows from Jesus's side in John 19:34 (although there are other references to Jesus's blood, or to the Blood of the Lamb).
For background on William Cowper, see the notes to "God Moves in a Mysterious Way." John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 1160, reports, "This hymn was probably written in 1771, as it is in Conyers's Coll[ection] of Ps[alm]s and Hy[mn]s, 1772, in 7 st[anzas] of 4 l[ines]. It was republished in the Olney Hymns, 1779, B[ook] i, No. 79, with the heading 'Praise for the Fountain opened.' It is based on Zech. xiii.1, 'In that day there shall be a Fountain opened to the house of Davis and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.... A well known form of this hymn is 'From Calvary's Cross a Fountain flows.'" Julian goes on to note the many revisions made to the poem over the years.
Although the tune is sometimes attributed to Lowell Mason, who apparently wrote a tune "Cowper" that is used for the piece, William Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal, Broadman Press, 1976, p. 219, says that it is most unlikely that Mason wrote the usual tune for this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: High034

There Is a Happy Land

DESCRIPTION: "There is a happy land, far far away, Where saints in glory stand, Bright bright as day, Oh how they sweetly sing, Worthy is our savior king, Loud let his praises ring." The listener is told of the pleasures of heaven and urged not to hesitate
AUTHOR: Words: Andrew Young?
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Sacred Song Book, according to Julian)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 113, "Come to that happy land" (1 fragment)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 210, "The Happy Land" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 118-119, "There Is a Happy Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 506-507, "Happy Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HPPYLAND*
Roud #13784
RECORDINGS:
Rufus Crisp, "Brighter Day" (on Crisp01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Know a Boarding-House" (tune, form)
SAME TUNE:
Old Soldiers Never Die (I) (File: FSWB277A)
Where Are Our Uniforms? (File: AWTBW050)
There Is a Sausage Gun (File: AWTBW051)
NOTES [196 words]: In the Sacred Harp (where it is given with the tune-name "Happy Land"), this melody is said to be derived from Hindu religious music. John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 1160, explains this:
In 1838 Mr. [Andrew] Young was spending an evening in the house of Mrs. Marshall, the mother of some of his pupils. Among other pieces she played one air which caught his attention. On inquiry he found it was an Indian air called "Happy Land." With the air ringing in his ears he composed this hymn to it. It was sung in his classes at Niddry Street School, Edinburgh, and there heard by the Rev. James Gall, who included it in the first series of the Sacred Song Book, 1843... from whence it passed into many hymn books.
Roud lumps this with another song with the title "Happy Land," but they do not appear the same to me. - RBW
Much parodied, this hymn seems to have been enduringly popular in the south. And elsewhere, as witness, "Cook House," popular among soldiers of the Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War. We've listed that, more or less, as "Old Soldiers Never Die (I)" - PJS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: DTtiahl

There Is a Happy Land (II)

See I Know a Boarding-House (File: R479)

There Is a Little Woman

See The Old Woman Who Went to Market (The Old Woman and the Pedlar) (File: Lins258)

There Is a People in the West

DESCRIPTION: "There is a people in the West, the world call Mormonites in jest, The only people who can say, 'We have the truth and own the way.'" The world was in darkness until Joseph [Smith] showed up. Now the truth is known in many lands. Help build Zion
AUTHOR: probably William Willes
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Willes, The Mountain Warbler)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 183, "There Is a People in the West" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: William Willes, _The Mountain Warbler: Being a Collection of Original Songs and Recitations, by WIlliam Willes, with a Selection from Other writes, for the Use of Choirs, Sabbath Schools and Families_, Deseret News Book and Job Establishment, Salt Lake City, 1872 (available on Google Books), pp. 60-61, "(no title)" (1 text, tune referenced)
NOTES [102 words]: The tune of this is listed by Willes as "So Early in the Morning," which presumably means "The Drunken Sailor," although it takes some work to make the verses fit.
Not everything in the Willes book is by Willes (and, we might add, it's texts only; no tunes are printed; despite its title, it's not what I would call a book for choirs!). Willes generally attributes poems written by others, and this has no attribution. On the other hand, he put a "W. W." after some of his own poems, and it doesn't have that, either. It's almost certainly by Willes, but perhaps one could argue that it has not been proved. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC183

There Is a Sausage Gun

DESCRIPTION: "There is a sausage gun Over the way Fired by a bloody Hun Three times a day. You should hear the Tommies run When they hear that sausage gun Fired by a bloody Hun Three times a day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 51, "There Is a Sausage Gun" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There Is a Happy Land" (tune) and references there
NOTES [52 words]: A "sausage gun" was a trench mortar -- a weapon with a short range, which could be used where regular artillery was not. Although the infantry complained about them, sausage gunners at least fought in the trenches, unlike regular artillerymen, who were farther back and led slightly more comfortable lives. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW051

There Is a School

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "In Leicester Square there is a school, And in that school there is a room, And in that room there is a desk, And in that desk there is a book, And in that... there is a Ghost!" Or other links, e.g. a page from which one learns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Bluebells My Cockle Shells)
KEYWORDS: jumprope ghost | school book picture page alphabet learning
FOUND IN: Briitain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #249, "In Leicester Square there is a school"; #250, "In Liverpool There is a school" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 23, "(On the mountain stands a school)" (1 text)
Roud #23011 and 38954
File: AJRR249

There Is an Alehouse in Yonder Town

See Tavern in the Town (File: ShH94)

There Is No Luck

DESCRIPTION: "There's nae luck about the house... When our goodman's awa'" The mariner is due home and his wife is getting the house and children and herself ready. "I'm downright dizzy with the joy In troth I'm liker to greet!"
AUTHOR: see NOTES
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: love return reunion separation nonballad children wife husband sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 182, "There Is No Luck" (2 texts)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 32, "There's nae luck aboot the hoose" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, pp. 138-140, "There's Nae Luck About the House" (1 text, 1 tune, heavily arranged)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, pp. 28-30, "There's Nae Luck About the House" (1 text, 1 tune, heavily arranged)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 65-76, "There's Nae Luck About the House" (1 text
ADDITIONAL: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (facsimile of (Edinburgh,1776) with an "Appendix... containing the pieces substituted in the 1791 reprint for those omitted of the 1776 edition, &c.") ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, pp. 152-154, "The Mariners Wife" (1 text)
Roud #3717
SAME TUNE:
Durham Gaol (File: SCWKC247)
NOTES [345 words]: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin credits this to William Julius Mickle (1735-1788), who according to Ford-SongHistories, p. 65 was best known for his translation of Camoen's "The Luciad." Mickle apparently once gave a copy of this poem, in his own hand, to his wife, saying he had written it. A copy in his hand was indeed found among his papers (Ford-SongHistories, p. 66).
But, of course, there is always the problem that, when someone claims to have "written" a piece, that may not mean "created" but "wrote out," i.e. "copied down."
Cromeck initially credited it instead to a Mrs. Jean Adam.
Ford-SongHistories, prefers Adam, noting that the only evidence that Mickle wrote it is his wife's ambiguous statement, the counter-argument being that Mickle never wrote anything else in this style or dialect.
That seems a strong argument against Mickle. Whether it is a strong argument for Adam is altogether another question.
Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 352, declare, "Although there is some doubt about it, Mickle probably wrote a tender ballad called The Mariner's Wife, more popularly known by its first line, 'There's nae luck about the house.' If he wrote it, it is his masterpiece. It was in the simpler forms of balladry that he excelled. Scott said of hi that he would have been a better writer 'had he known his own strength, and trusted in the implulses of his heart, instead of his ambition."
NewCentury, p. 765, says, "He translated the Lusiad (1775) and is the reputed author of the song There's nae luck about the hoose. Among his other works are a Spencerian poem, The Concubine (or Syr Martin, 1765),and Cumnor Hall (1784), which Sir Walter Scott used as a basis in writing Kenilworth.
Furthermore, Mickle was trying to make a living as a writer. He was not very successful. If he had had a hit in the 1770s, wouldn't he have claimed it in order to promote his other works? Yet he didn't.
Most of my other literary references don't even mention Mickle. Based on the available evidence, I think we have to list this as "author unknown." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: OCC182

There Is No Place in the Height of Heaven

DESCRIPTION: "There is no place in the height of Heaven, There is no place like home, home, home, sweet home, There is no place like home. Kind friends, I bid you all farewell. I leave you in God's care. And if I never see you any more, I will see you there."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious home separation nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 548, "There Is No Place in the Height of Heaven" (2 short texts)
Roud #11825
NOTES [41 words]: This steals lines from all over the place ("Home Sweet Home," "Now Our Meeting Is Over," and probably at least one unidentifiable spiritual). But it seems to be a free composition on these themes rather than a version of any of those songs. - RBW
File: Br3548

There Is No School Today

See Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay (We Have No School Today) (File: DPio508)

There Is No Work in the Army

DESCRIPTION: "When leaving dear old Ioway In the first part of the year, My clothes were torn, my feet were bare," so he joined the army. "There is no work in the army; They call it all fagigue." The life of a soldier involves a lot of travel and is still hard
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Dolph, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 290-291, "There Is No Work in the Army" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LDC290

There Is Somebody Waiting for Me

DESCRIPTION: "Oh the moon shines bright and the stars they give light And the evening invites (you/me) to (stay/stray)." The singer describes (her)self as a bird in a cage, but happily announces "There is somebody waiting... There is somebody waiting for me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 741, "There Is Somebody Waiting for Me" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 724, "The Stars Shine Bright" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7394
NOTES [30 words]: The first line of this, of course, is from the "Bellman's Song." Don't ask me where the rest of the song went. - RBW
I don't know where it went, but someone is waiting for it. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: R741

There Lived an Old Man in Dover

See The Man of Burningham Town (File: VWL068)

There Lived an Old Woman in Dover (Eggs and Marrow Bones)

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

There Lives a Man in Ardes Town

DESCRIPTION: A man "wi' little meat and sair wark" beats and starves a mare to death. Besides, "they say he beats his wife." The wives praise the dead mare and say they would have taken her themselves. Now they denounce the man but he does not let them bury her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: abuse death horse burial
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 493, "There Lives a Man in Ardes Town" (1 text)
Roud #5979
File: GrD3493

There Livit an Auld Wife in Terwhiggin

DESCRIPTION: An old wife in Terwhiggan rides on a bundle of straw. It's four score miles to the dung hill But she rides only two score a day.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: age humorous nonballad scatological witch
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 158, "There Livit an Auld Wife in Terwhiggin" (1 text)
Roud #15113
File: LyCr2158

There Never Was a Coward Where the Shamrock Grows

DESCRIPTION: "Let cowardly slanderers say what they may," the Irish are brave. "Pat may be foolish and very often wrong, Pat has a temper but it doesn't last long. Pat is full of jollity and everybody knows That you'll never find a coward where the shamrock grows"
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (sheet music published by T. B. Harms)
KEYWORDS: Ireland | courage coward
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 176, "Pat may be foolish and very often wrong" (1 fragment)
Roud #37283
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1623), "There never was a coward where the shamrock grows," unknown, n.d.
NOTES [76 words]: This seems to have, er, bloomed all over the place around 1880. There are multiple claims of authorship. The sheet music published by M. D. Swisher, Philadelphia, credited it to J. Molloy. The sheet music by T. B. Harms and Co. lists Frank Wilson as the author and says it was sung by Harry and John Kernell. The broadsides I've seen list no author (which is pretty typical). The Harms sheet music seems to be more common, but that doesn't prove much. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC177B

There Once Was a Farmer

See Teasing Songs (File: EM256)

There Once Was a Soldier

DESCRIPTION: A soldier left Annie and "in foreign lands he soon found another." He writes a letter to Annie that he has been fatally wounded "for the good of my country." She should find another. At the wedding with his new love he dies for love of Annie.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity wedding lie separation death soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1128, "There Once Was a Soldier" (1 text)
Roud #6832
NOTES [37 words]: The last verse of Greig/Duncan6 has a moral that seems gratuitous here: "it's best to be off with the old love, Before you are on with the new." For a song for which that theme makes more sense see "Aff Wi' the Auld Love." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61128

There She Blows (I)

See The Wounded Whale (File: SWMS023)

There She Blows (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Of all the venturous breeds of men In the Vineland's famous roster Lives one whose story attracts my pen... By the name of the Old Town Whaler." The Whaler had been everywhere and seen everything, including men swallowed alive; now he's dead
AUTHOR: Words: Samuel Keniston
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Huntington, The Gam; reportedly printed c. 1880)
KEYWORDS: whaler travel death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 45-47, "There She Blows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27730
File: HGam045

There She Goes (I)

DESCRIPTION: Sailors' complaint about the skipper. In bad weather he sets the crew to work while he drinks below. We get no drink but only curses. May he "never get a grave" but drown "where the sharks will have his body and the devil his soul"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: sea ship work drink ordeal storm nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #613
RECORDINGS:
Morris Houlihan, "There She Goes" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcThShGo

There She Goes (II)

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme/taunt. "There she goes, there she goes, (Peerie) heels and pointed toes. Look at her feet, She thinks she's neat, Black stockings and dirty feet. There's a rat, there's a rat, There's a rat in Janie's hat, There's a mouse in Janie's house"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Bluebells My Cockle Shells)
KEYWORDS: jumprope clothes animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #552, "There she goes, there she goes" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 52, "(There she goes)" (2 short texts)
Roud #19068
File: AJRR552

There She Stands, a Lovely Creature

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) AND The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: E098)

There Stands a Bluebird

See There's a Brown Girl in the Ring (File: Jek019)

There Stands a Cottage

See Love Let Me In (Forty Long Miles; It Rains, It Hails) (File: LLab048)

There Was a Bee

See There Was a Bee-i-ee-i-ee (File: Parod073)

There Was a Bee-i-ee-i-ee

DESCRIPTION: "There was a bee-i-ee-i-ee, sat on a wall-i-all-i-all And he could buzz-i-uzzz-i-uzz, And that was all-i-all-i-all."' A boy hits it with a stick. The bee stings him. The boy yells and tells "that bee-i-ee-i-ee to go to... way down yonder in the cornfield"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Camp Clavell and Girl Reserve Club Songs)
KEYWORDS: bug injury punishment wordplay campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #73, p. 23, "There Was a Bee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 235, "Bee-i-e-i-e" (notes only)
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "The Bee and the Pup" (2 versions: Piotr-Archive #481, recorded 02/01/2023)
File: Parod073

There Was a Cow Climbed Up a Tree

DESCRIPTION: "There was a cow climbed up a tree (x3), And you're an awful bum!" "Comrades, don't believe him (x3), As you have done before."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: animal warning | cow tree bum
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 65, "(There was a cow climbed up a tree)" (1 text)
NOTES [27 words]: The verse of this might well be from "Martin Said To His Man" or another similar song. The chorus seems unusual, though, so I have (very tentatively) split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PKKB065C

There Was a Crooked Man

DESCRIPTION: "There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile, He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile, He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse, And they all lived together in a little crooked house."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: home animal
FOUND IN: US(MW) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, "(There was a crooked man)" (1 text)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 107, "(There was a crooked man)" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 324, "There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #224, p. 148, "(There was a crooked man)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 202, "There Was a Crooked Man" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 35, "There Was a Crooked Man" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 156, "The Crooked Man" (1 text)
Roud #4826
NOTES [108 words]: The Baring-Goulds, Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, and Dolby-OrangesAndLemons all suggest that the crooked man of this song was the Covenanter Alexander Leslie, and the crooked sixpence Charles I (who was willing to use the Covenanters if it would preserve his throne but had no real use for them). This is another of those "possible but hardly demonstrable" cases. The suggestion appears to go back to the inimitable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 212. It should be kept in mind that Thomas never produced any evidence for any of her flights of fancy, and most are extremely improbable. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BGMG224

There Was a Fair

DESCRIPTION: "There was a fair into the toon, The lads and lasses a' were boun, Wi' glancin buckles o' their shoon, An' floories i' their waistcoats"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 371, "There Was a Fair" (1 fragment)
Roud #5914
NOTES [52 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 fragment.
Greig/Duncan3 referring to a note by Duncan: "Cf. [611 'Hey the Bonny Breistknots']." The first verse of "Hey the Bonny Breistknots" is close to the fragment here but each line is different enough that I am not convinced that these are the same song. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3371

There Was a Farmer, Had a Dog

See Bingo (File: FSWB390D)

There Was a Frog

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

There Was a Gallant Soldier

DESCRIPTION: A soldier meets a maid. He asks if she is pregnant; she says yes. Who is the father? A soldier like you. Where is he? Gone to war. What if he is slain? "The king will lose a man she said an I will loose a frien." Am I the man? Yes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: war reunion pregnancy dialog soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1472, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "There Was a Gallant Soldier" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #7183
ALTERNATE TITLES:
O Fair Maid
NOTES [14 words]: Greig/Duncan7 1472C gives the soldier's name as "Rob Runawa' when he's nae at hame." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71472

There Was a Girl Her Name Was Young

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

There Was a Girl in Our School

See All For the Men (File: LoF260)

There Was a Girl Who Came to Camp

DESCRIPTION: "There was a girl who came to camp" and refuses to do her tasks: "She wouldn't make her bed because it tired her so, She wouldn't do the dishes, sweep the cabin floor, The Camp Fire Girls just picked her up and threw her out the door."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, who however dates it pre-1960)
KEYWORDS: work campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 166, 218, 496, 500, "There Was a Girl Who Came to Camp"/"There Was a Girl" (notes plus a partial text on p. 218)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Coming Through the Rye" (tune)
File: ACSF166T

There Was a Jolly Miller

See The Miller Boy (Jolly is the Miller I) (File: R518)

There Was a Knicht

DESCRIPTION: "There was a knicht on a bonnie simmer nicht, Was huntin' the deer and the roe; He met wi' a lady in good greenwood; In greenwood she did go"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: knight hunting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 833, "There Was a Knicht" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6218
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4833

There Was a Knight

See Riddles Wisely Expounded [Child 1] (File: C001)

There Was a Lady In Her Father's Garden

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

There Was a Lady in Merry Scotland

See The Wife of Usher's Well [Child 79] (File: C079)

There Was a Lady in the East

DESCRIPTION: A lady with many suitors loves Jimmy, her father's clerk. Her father would disown her but she says she wants Jimmy more than treasure. Her father shoots her. Her mother faints and Jimmy commits suicide.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.18(76))
KEYWORDS: grief courting love homicide suicide father mother money
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 726-728, "There Was a Lady in the East" (1 text, 3 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 68, "There Was a Lady in the East" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 84, "The Maid of the East" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea726 (Partial)
Roud #2298
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "There Was a Lady in the East" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Mrs. Ghaney, "Her Sweetheart" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Marie Hare, "The Maid of the East" (on MRMHare01)
Bride Judge, "The Lady In The East" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.18(76), "The Cruel Father and Constant Lover," J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Cruel Father and Constant Lover
NOTES [65 words]: Peacock claims this is Laws M19, "The Young Sailor Bold (I) (The Rich Merchant's Daughter)." ["Although the story is the same ... the texts and tunes are completely different."] I think that makes this a different ballad. And the stories are not so close either. [I agree; there is no hint of accident or mistake here, and it's a different set of suicides. Roud also splits them. - RBW] - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Pea726

There Was a Lady in the West

See Riddles Wisely Expounded [Child 1] (File: C001)

There Was a Lady Lived in the West

See Willie o Winsbury [Child 100] (File: C100)

There Was A Lady Lived in York

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

There Was a Lady Who Loved a Swine

DESCRIPTION: "Twere was a lady loved a swine, 'Honey,' said she, 'Pig hog, wilt thou be mine?' 'Humph!' said he." She offers the pig a silver sty, pinned with a silver pin, and begs for an answer. All the pig says is "Humph!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: love animal humorous rejection
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 107-108, "There Was a Lady Who Loved a Swine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15530
File: LxSi107

There Was a LIttle Bird

DESCRIPTION: "There was a little bird that went hop-hop-hop. I said, 'Little bird, won't you stop, stop, stop?' I opened the window to say, 'How do you do?' He shook his little tail and away he flew."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Minnie Stokes)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 241, (no title) (1 short text)
File: MHAp241A

There Was a Little Fellow, His Name Was Jack

DESCRIPTION: "There as a little fellow, his name was Jack. He wanted to go to heaven in a Cadillac. The carburetor broke and down he fell, Instead of going to heaven He went to -- Now don't get excited, don't lose your head, Instead of going to heaven, he went to bed"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Western Folklore)
KEYWORDS: jumprope technology wordplay
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #554, "There was a little fellow; his name was Jack" (1 text)
Roud #19443
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charlie Chaplin Has Big Feet" (general form of wordplay)
cf. "Three Little Angels" (general form of wordplay)
NOTES [34 words]: Roud lumps this with "Ickie Bickie Soda Cracker." But its kinship, if any, is surely with "Charlie Chaplin Has Big Feet" or "Three Little Angels," with which it shares a gimmick. So I've separated it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR554

There Was a Little Girl Who Had a Little Curl

See There Was a Little Girl, And She Had a Little Curl (File: OO2186)

There Was a Little Girl, And She Had a Little Curl

DESCRIPTION: "There was a little girl, and she had a little curl, Right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, she was very, very good, But when she was bad, she was horrid."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (Sugar and Spice, And All That's Nice, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: hair
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 186, "There was a little girl, and she had a little curl" (1 short text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #827, p. 308, "(There was a little girl, and she had a little curl)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 205, "There Was a Little Girl" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 36, "There Was a Little Girl Who Had a Little Curl" (1 text)
Roud #19671
NOTES [68 words]: The Opies mention both Thomas Bailey Aldrich and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as possible authors, but they aren't convinced by either. (If Longfellow wrote it, he is responsible for only the first verse, but since that's the one most quoted, the distinction hardly matters.) Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel explains the uncertainty on the ground that he wasn't proud of the stanza and tried to hide its authorship. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: OO2186

There Was a Little Guinea-Pig

DESCRIPTION: "There was a little guinea pig, Who, being little, was not big. He always walked upon his feet, And never fasted when he'd eat." "When from a place he ran away, he never at that place did stay." The tale continues with similar tautologies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammer Gurton's Garland, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 197, "There was a little guinea-pig" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #74, pp. 80-81, "(There was a little Guinea-pig)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 206, "There Was a Little Guinea Pig" (1 text)
Roud #19795
File: OO2197

There Was a Little Man

DESCRIPTION: "There was a little man, And he had a little gun, And the ball was made of lead." The little man goes out to hunt ducks. He hits the duck in the head and brings her home to his wife to cook. (He goes out to shoot the drake, but it escapes)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1744 (Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book)
KEYWORDS: bird hunting food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(MW) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 220, "There Was a Little Man" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 131)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 100, "There Was a Little Man" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 74, "(There was a little man)" (1 text, with a rather different story)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 52, "(There was a little man)" (1 text, which omits the duck and instead has the little man end up with "a pancake stuck to his bum, bum, bum")
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 325, "There was a little man, and he had a little gun" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #25, p. 38, "(There was a little Man)"
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 96-97, "The Man with the Gun" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Joseph Ritson, Gammer Gurton's Garland (London, 1810 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 45, "The Duck and the Drake" (1 text)
Roud #1289
NOTES [73 words]: The unencompassable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p.106, claims that the Little man with the little gun was Philip II of Spain, who ordered up the Spanish Armada, and the "good fire" the little man told his wife to light was the fires that burned Protestants. As usual, the only evidence for this is whatever drug dream Thomas had when she thought about this rhyme. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BGMG025

There Was a Little Nigger

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "There was a little nigger, Who never grew no bigger/Put him in a trigger, Sent him to the ten cent store. Fell out the window, Broke his little finger, And then he went home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Journal of Genetic Psychology, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope injury
FOUND IN: US(MA) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, 555, "There was a little nigger" (1 text)
Roud #29320
NOTES [25 words]: Apologies for the title. I realize that people disapprove of bowdlerizing texts, but, shockingly, every scholar used the offensive first line as a title!
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR555

There Was a Little Ship

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

There Was a Little Woman

See The Old Woman Who Went to Market (The Old Woman and the Pedlar) (File: Lins258)

There Was a Maid and She Was Fair

See Bonnie Jean (File: GrD71335)

There Was a Man and He Was Mad

DESCRIPTION: The madman spends his life jumping into things -- pudding bag, bottle of wine, bottle of beer, notched stick, etc. Finding each one unsatisfactory, he moves on to the next. Finally he winds up in a situation he cannot handle, and quits/dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: humorous talltale
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 99, "There Was a Man and He was Mad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 321, "There was a man, he went mad" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #178, p. 128, "(There was a man, he went mad)"
ADDITIONAL: J. C. Reid, _A Book of New Zealand_ (Collins National Anthologies), Collins, 1964, p. 333, "Children's Games" ("There was a man and he went mad") (1 text)
ST E099 (Full)
Roud #5336
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "There Was a Man and He Was Mad" (on PeteSeeger03, PeteSeegerCD03)
File: E099

There Was a Man Lived in the Moon

See Aiken Drum (File: OO2007)

There Was a Man Named Johnny Sands

See Johnny Sands (File: LQ03)

There Was a Man of Double Deed

DESCRIPTION: "There was a man of double deed Sowed his garden full of seed" (or) "A man of words and not of deeds Is like a garden full of weeds." After many similes, the rhyme may well end, "When my (heart/back) began to bleed, Twas death and death and death indeed"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammer Gurton's Garland), with a high probability that it is at least related to much older materials
KEYWORDS: playparty farming
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber,High)) US Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 322, "There Was a Man of Double Deed" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, pp. 442-443, ("San-tee-ti, San-tee-ti") (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #75, p. 81, "(A man of words and not of deeds)"
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, 3556, "There was a man, a man indeed" (1 text)
DT, SANDYTOY
ADDITIONAL: James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1842), #166 pp. 100-101, ("A man of words and not of deeds") (1 text)
James Orchard Halliwell, "Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales" (London, 1849 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 17-18, ("Double Dee Double Day, Set a garden full of seeds") (1 text)
Robert Craig Maclagan, The Games and Diversions of Argyleshire (London, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 131, "Sandie Toy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Edward W.B. Nicholson, editor, Golspie: Contributions to its Folklore (London, 1897 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 190-192, "There Was a Man" (2 texts, including Halliwell's 1849 text)
Helen Creighton, _A Folk Tale Journey through the Maritimes_, edited by Michael Taft and Ronald Caplan, Breton Books, 1993, p. 48, "There Was a Man Who Had a Double Deed" (1 text)
Roud #2103
NOTES [604 words]: The form of the song is a couplet chain. Each couplet except the first is a simile: the first line "'twas like" the second line. Either the noun following "like" or the noun object of the following prepositional phrase becomes the subject of the next simile. For example "...'Twas like a *ship* without a belt. When the *ship* began to sail ..." or ... "'Twas like a *bird* without a tail. When the *bird* began to fly ...." The chain makes no sense -- is a rigmarole -- and may end "'Twas like a stick upon my back," or may go further until the singer's heart begins to bleed; then, it may be time for him to die indeed, or the chain may continue until ..." the oil began to settle, Like our Geordie's bloody battle." Halliwell finds the text of "A man of words and not of deeds" in a 1659 collection and says -- for the version ending "Geordies bloody battle," which is the text he quotes -- it was converted in the 18th century "into a burlesque song on the battle of Culloden."
The Opie and Nicholson texts seem derived, primarily by omitting couplets, from Halliwell's 1849 text. Halliwell 1849: "The earliest copy of the saying, 'A man of words and not of deeds,' I have hitherto met with, occurs in MS. Harl. 1927, of the time of James I. Another version, written towards the close of the seventeenth century, but unfitted for publication, is preserved on the last leaf of MS. Harl. 6580." - BS
This is a complex puzzle. The Opies call it a "rhyme of strange fascination," with which I agree; it is very hard to get out of the head once one thinks of it. The Baring-Goulds call it a ball-bouncing song. Roud lists many versions under titles such as "Sandy Toy" and "The Other Side of Jordan"; I am far from convinced these are in fact all the same. And while many collected versions have tunes, the "Double Deed" versions all seem to lack them.
But what does it mean? The Opies mention many parallels with topical significance, but they are all clearly rewrites. There is a certain thematic similarity in the "A man of words and not of deeds" to the New Testament book of James, which declares (2:17) that "faith... if it has no works, is dead" and also says (3:6) that "the tongue is a fire," inflaming controversy. Yet there is no hint that the poem is quoting the Bible.
It is interesting to note that, in the reign of King Edward IV, a bit of propaganda (perhaps in ballad form?) called England "a garden full of weeds," according to the description in Charles Ross, Edward IV, 1974 (I use the 1997 paperback edition in the Yale English Monarch series with a new introduction by R. A. Griffiths), p. 300. If this is so, then the man of words and not of deeds is presumably the inept Lancastrian King Henry VI, whose government lost all English territories in France and went bankrupt along the way. On the other hand, Henry VI was overthrown in 1461, and eventually killed and his dynasty ended in 1471. That is obviously long before the first collection of the rhyme. There is no reason, other than the similarity of words and Henry VI's general ineptness, to link the poem with the events of the Wars of the Roses.
The incomparable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930. p. 285, declares that "The contemptuous estimate of James II and the events of his reign of misrule, as viewed by the English element of his subjects, are herein epitomized." Most of Thomas's ideas are goofy; this one almost makes sense -- but, if the piece in fact goes back to 1659, then Thomas's explanation cannot be right because the lines are too old to be about James II. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OO20322

There Was a Man of Thessaly

DESCRIPTION: "There was a man of Thessaly, And he was wondrous wise, He jumped into a thorn bush And scratched out both his eyes. And when he saw his eyes were out, With all his might and main, He jumped into another bush And scratched them in again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1744 (Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: injury healing
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 498, "There Was a Man of Thessaly" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #28, p. 40, "(There was a Man so Wise)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 126, "The Man of Thessaly" (1 text)
Roud #15749
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny Lad (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [155 words]: Katherine Elwes Thomas can always be counted on to produce a wild interpretation, but this one may set the record: According to the Baring-Goulds, she suggested that this is about the Rev'd. Dr. Hery Sacheverell (died 1724), who in 1709 preached a pair of sermons on church reform which produced riots and who was impeached then taken back into high favor with Queen Anne's government. As for any connection with Thessaly (or Nineveh, or any of the other places mentioned in versions of the song)... well, Dr. Sacheverell was quite learned, so presumably he'd heard of them....
An hypothesis I would regard as much more reasonable is that the song refers to Bellerophon, the Greek hero who slew the Chimera, came from Thessaly, and ended up falling off Pegasus, landing in a thorn bush, and becoming blind, although I don't know why there would be a nursery rhyme about him or why it would say he scratched his eyes in again. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: OO2498

There Was a Man So Wise

See There Was a Man of Thessaly (File: OO2498)

There Was a Man Who Had a Double Deed

See There Was a Man of Double Deed (File: OO20322)

There Was a Man Who Had No Eyes

DESCRIPTION: Riddle. "There was a man who had no eyes, He went abroad to view the skies. He saw a tree with apples on. He took no apples off Yet left no apples on."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: riddle food | tree
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 64, "(There was a man who had no eyes)" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 323, "There was a man who had no eyes" (1 text)
Roud #20131
NOTES [59 words]: The alleged solution to this riddle is that the man who had no eyes actually had one eye, and saw a tree with two apples, of which he took one. Which I refuse to accept, because it violates the conditions of the riddle. A modern proposal has a sign on the tree that reads "Apples." Which almost works. Make the sign to be in braille, and it truly works. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GFGW064A

There Was a Man, A Man Indeed

See There Was a Man of Double Deed (File: OO20322)

There Was A Man, He Went Mad

See There Was a Man and He Was Mad (File: E099)

There Was a Pig Went Out to Dig

DESCRIPTION: "There was a pig went out to dig, Chris-e-mas day, Chris-e-mas day, There was a pig went out to dig, On Chris-e-mas day in the morning." Similarly, "There was a sparrow went out to harrow," "There was a cow went out to plow," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
KEYWORDS: animal work Christmas nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North)) US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 28, "There Was a Pig Went Out to Dig" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 28, "There Was A Pig Went Out to Dig" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1369
File: RitS028

There Was a Piper Had a Cow

DESCRIPTION: The piper has no food for his cow but plays her a tune for consolation. The cow is either happy enough to give the piper a penny to play "corn rigs are bonny," or tells the piper to play for money and use that to feed her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (Songs for the Nursery, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: poverty food music animal humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1655, "Corn Rigs" (2 texts)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 188, "There Was a Piper Had a Cow" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 416, "There was a piper had a cow" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #156, p. 117, "(There was a piper had a cow)"
Roud #13046
File: OO2416

There Was a Poor Old Chinaman

See Once There Was a Chinaman (File: LTCSOWAC)

There Was a Priest, the Dirty Beast

DESCRIPTION: "There was a priest, the dirty beast, Whose name was Alexander," who sleeps with "the Gypsy Queen, whose face was black as charcoal, But in the dark he missed his mark." The child, when born, is black and has exceptional sexual organs but no anus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex children
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 33, "There Was a Priest, the Dirty Beast" (1 text)
Roud #10253
File: RuSo033

There Was a Rich Englishman

See Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man) (File: R127)

There Was a Rich Man Who Lived in Jerusalem

See Hi Ho Jerum (File: FSWB025)

There Was a Rich Merchant

See The Shopkeeper (There was a Rich Merchant) (File: CoMo016)

There Was a Rich Old Farmer

See The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)

There Was a Rich School Miss

See The Lost Lady Found [Laws Q31] (File: LQ31)

There Was a Sea Captain

See The Sea Captain and the Squire [Laws Q12] (File: LQ12)

There Was a Shepherd Boy

See The New-Mown Hay (File: K184)

There Was a Ship Sailing

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

There Was a Squire

DESCRIPTION: "It's I hae haughs and I hae bowers, I hae castle and I hae towers, And I swear my wedded wife ye'll be For I canna live and want ye"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting home wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 837, "There Was a Squire" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6220
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4837

There Was a Toad

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

There Was a Tree

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

There was a Tree Stood in the Ground

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

There Was a Watermelon

DESCRIPTION: "There was a watermelon, A-growing in the garden, And in the garden wall there was a hole. A skinny little nigger Said if he's a little bigger, He'd climb over the garden wall. He's sneak up like a rabbit, And then he'd grab it...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: food thief
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 465, "There Was a Watermelon" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 465, "There Was a Watermelon" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11798
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Watermelon on the Vine" (theme)
File: Br3465

There Was a Wealthy Farmer

See The Plains of Baltimore (File: Wa005)

There Was a Wee Lambie Fell Over a Rock

DESCRIPTION: "There was a wee lambie fell over a rock And when it fell over its leg it was broke, And all that the poor little lambie could do Was to lie and cry out 'Billaloo, billaloo.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: sheep injury
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 29, "There was a wee lambie fell over a rock" (1 text)
Roud #25361
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
File: KSUC029B

There was a wee yowe

See Tha Was a Wee Yow (File: LyCr2134)

There Was a Young Couple

DESCRIPTION: A young couple, or three old maids skate "on a cold and frosty morning." The ice is thin and they fall in. Can someone help them out?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920s (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 107, "There Was a Young Couple" (3 texts)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gathering Nuts in May" (tune, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
cf. "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (tune) and references there
cf. "The Lamentation of a Bad Market" (possible source) and references there
cf. "Three Little Girls A-Skating Went" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Three Old Maids
NOTES [66 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "In a dance tradition which has turned even 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' into a 'swinging play' it is not surprising to find that the 'Three Old Maids' is based on the nursery rhyme 'Three children sliding on the ice' (which, in turn, derives from a burlesque ballad 'The Lamentation of a Bad Market; or the Drowning of three Children in the Thames', c.1680...." - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: OpGa107

There Was a Young Lady

See A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.) [Laws P9] (File: LP09)

There Was a Young Lady named Drew

DESCRIPTION: "There was a young lady named Drew Who boarded the ship with the crew. When they got tough, Then she got rough, And they ended up black and blue."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: humorous fight sailor ship
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 26, "(no title)" (second of three Great Lakes Limericks) (1 short text)
File: BeLo026B

There Was a Young Lady named Kitty

DESCRIPTION: "There was a young lady named Kitty Who lived down at Bay City. If you wanted to meet her, You had to treat her, And that is the end of my ditty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 26, "(no title)" (third of three Great Lakes Limericks) (1 short text)
File: BeLo026C

There Was a Young Lady of Bangor

DESCRIPTION: "There was a young lady of Bangor, Who slept while the ship lay at anchor, She rose in dismay When she heard the mate say, 'Lift up the top sheet and spanker.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: humorous wordplay sailor ship
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 26, "(no title)" (first of three Great Lakes Limericks) (1 short text)
File: BeLo026A

There Was an Aul' Wifie

DESCRIPTION: "There was an auld wife" and everybody said she would be hanged. She called for a peg where a nail should be and went to her "wee beddie." She danced herself dead in her own house.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: nonballad death wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1425, "There Was an Aul' Wifie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #7267
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Laird o' Cockpen" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
File: GrD71425

There Was an Old Couple

See The Poor Old Couple (File: BGMG821)

There Was an Old Farmer

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

There Was an Old Farmer in Sussex Did Dwell

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

There Was an Old Farmer in Yorkshire Did Dwell

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

There Was an Old Frog

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

There Was an Old Lady (I)

DESCRIPTION: Floating bawdy or scatological verses to the tune of Turkey in the Straw. The chorus urges, "Come on you bastards, come on you whores, Pull up your dresses, pull down your drawers...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953
KEYWORDS: bawdy scatological sex nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 253-255, "There Was an Old Lady" (1 composite text, 1 tune); see also under "Ditties," pp. 264-268, which contain other verses that fit "Turkey in the Straw"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Turkey in the Straw" (tune & meter) and references there
File: EM253

There Was an Old Lady (II)

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

There Was an Old Lady from Botany Bay

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "There was an old lady from Botany Bay, What have you got to sell today?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas)
KEYWORDS: jumprope commerce
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #557, "There was an old lady from Botany Bay" (1 text)
Roud #22191
File: AJRR557

There Was an Old Lady Lived Over the Sea

See Revolutionary Tea [Laws A24] (File: LA24)

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

See Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (File: RcIKAOLW)

There Was an Old Man

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

There Was an Old Man and His Name Was Dan

DESCRIPTION: "There was an old man And his name was Dan. He lived in he bottom Of an old tin can. He had a pair of slippers And he cut them into kippers, And they all lived together In the old tin can."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: home | slippers kippers tin can fish
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 73, "(There was an old man)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #38151
File: BAAI073

There Was an Old Man Called Michael Finnegan

See Michael Finnegan (File: FSWB242B)

There Was an Old Man Came Over the Hill

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

There Was an Old Man Came Over the Lea

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

There Was an Old Man Came Over the Sea

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

There Was an Old Man Lived Under the Hill

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

There Was an Old Man That Lived on a Hill

See Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)

There Was an Old Man Was Smoking His Pipe

DESCRIPTION: An old woman shits next to an old man smoking his pipe. "The sparks from her arse flew in to his eee" and he tells her to move away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: age dialog scatological drugs
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 67, "There Was an Old Man Was Smoking His Pipe" (1 text)
Roud #3863
File: LyCr167

There Was an Old Miller

See The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)

There Was an Old Miser

DESCRIPTION: The old miser's daughter is courted by a sailor. When the miser finds out, he pays a captain to impress the boy. The girl fails to save the boy, but his ship is wrecked and he escapes to shore almost alone. He finds the girl; they are married.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1854 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.16(16))
KEYWORDS: courting sailor father pressgang wreck escape marriage
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE) Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 48, "There Was an Old Miser" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 224, "The Miser's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 222, "Transport" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), p. 78, "The Old Miser" (1 text, missing most of the action; I suspect it's this, but it might be Laws N6 or Laws N10)
ST FSC048 (Partial)
Roud #3913
RECORDINGS:
Chris Willett, "The Old Miser" (on Voice04)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.16(16), "Old Miser" ("It's of an old miser in London did dwell"), Swindells (Manchester), 1796-1853; also Johnson Ballads 572, "The Old Miser"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser)" [Laws N6]
NOTES [152 words]: Although this song shows many similarities to Laws N6 (plus a slight similarity to "William and Harriet," Laws M7), Cazden et al consider the ending sufficiently different that they regard it as a separate ballad. Since the policy of this index is to split rather than lump, here it stands.
Roud, interestingly, lumps it with Laws N10, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter." I was tempted to do the same with the short version in Nestler, before I realized it was this.
Not every version has a happy ending; the Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors version tacks on a verse in which boy's fate is unknown and the girl curses her father. Similarly the versions noted by Ben Schwarz below. - RBW
Chris Willett's version on Voice04 and Bodleian broadsides 2806 c.16(16) and Johnson Ballads 572 include the verses in the [Supplemental Tradition text, from Cazden et al] but omit the ending: no shipwreck or happy ending. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: FSC048

There Was an Old Nigger, His Name Was Dr. Peck

DESCRIPTION: "There was an old nigger, his name was Dr. Peck, He fell in de well an' broke his neck. De cause ob de fall was all his own, 'Case he order look atter de sick An' let de well alone!" With the "mourner, you shall be free" chorus and floating verses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: doctor death humorous floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 197, "There Was an Old Nigger, His Name Was Dr. Peck" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 109, "Dr. Peck" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #105, "Doctor Brown Fell in the Well" (1 text)
File: ScaNF197

There Was an Old Soldier

See The Old Tobacco Box (File: FSC143)

There Was an Old Woman (I)

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

There Was an Old Woman (II)

See Skin and Bones (The Skin and Bones Lady) (File: R069)

There Was an Old Woman and Her Name Was Pat

DESCRIPTION: Rope-skipping game. "There was an old woman And her name was Pat, And when she died, she died like that. They put her in a coffin, And she fell through the bottom, Just like that. They put her in a bed, And she bumped her head, Just like that"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty death
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 106, "(There was an old woman)" (1 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #275, "I went upstairs to make my bed" (1 text, which doesn't look much like the Sutton-Smith words, but Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes lumps them); #558, "There was an old woman And her name was Pat" (1 text)
File: SuSm106A

There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig

DESCRIPTION: "There was an old woman and she had a little pig, It didn't cost much 'cause it wasn't very big." Despite good care, the pig never grows up. One day it dies. The owner(s) soon follow. The song ends; "if you want any more, you can sing it yourself"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammar Gurton's Garland, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: animal death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 130, "The Old Woman and Her Pig" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 130, "The Old Woman and Her Pig" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #225, "Old Joe Finley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 126, "The Old Woman Who Bought a Pig" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 68, "Old Sam Fanny" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 195, "Uncle Sam Simmie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 235, "The Old Woman and the Little Pigee" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 104-105, "Ole San Fannie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #99, "The Little Piggee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 11, "Bessy Bingle" (1 text)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 77, "The Old Woman and the Little Pig" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 308-310, "Tale of a Little Pig" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 207-210, "There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 21, "The Old Woman and the Pig" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 42, "Little Betty Pringle she had a pig" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #37, p. 53, "(Little Betty Winkle she had a pig)"
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 175, "Old Sam Fanny" (2 texts)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 160-161, "The Old Couple and the Pig" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sturgis/Hughes-SongsFromTheHillsOfVermont, pp. 54-57, "The Little Pig" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 574-575, "The Little Pig" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 43, "The Little Pig" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST E068 (Partial)
Roud #746
NOTES [74 words]: Although the first instance of this seems to be from 1784, the idea appears to be older. Oliver Goldsmith (died 1774) produced a poem to mock the sententiousness of Thomas Percy. It began
A Dirge
Little Betty Winckle she had a pig,
It was a little pig not very big;
When he was alive he liv'd in clover,
But now he's dead and that's all over.
(Quoted in Nick Groom, The Making of Percy's Reliques, Oxford English Monographs, 1999, p. 239). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: E068

There Was an Old Woman And What Do You Think

DESCRIPTION: "There was an old woman, and what do you think? She lived upon nothing but victuals and drink, Victuals and drink was the chief of her diet, And this old woman would never keep quiet." Another verse may refer to her husband dying then coming back to life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Gammer Gurton's Garland)
KEYWORDS: food drink husband death
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 40, "There was an old woman who lived in a sink" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 539, "There was an old woman, and what do you think?" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #73, p. 80, "(There was an old woman and what do you think?)"
Roud #19683
File: KSUC040B

There Was an Old Woman from Conner in Hell

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

There Was an Old Woman in Ireland

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

There Was an Old Woman in London

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

There Was an Old Woman in Our Town

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

There Was an Old Woman Lived Under a Hill

DESCRIPTION: "There was an old woman lived under a hill, And if she isn't gone, she lives there still." Various endings seem to have been grafted on.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1744 (Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 541, "There was an old woman" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #4, p. 28, "(There Was an Old Woman)"
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 303-304, "The Old Woman Under the Hill" (1 text, of floating verses from all over; the general theme is probably closest to "Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey)," but the first verse is "There Was an Old Woman Lived Under a Hill," and it ends with the verse about the songbook being back on the shelf and if you want any more you can sing it yourself)
Roud #1613
File: BGMG004

There Was an Old Woman Tossed up in a Basket

DESCRIPTION: "There was an old woman tossed up in a blanket" with a broom, many times higher than the moon. The singer asks what she's doing. She says she is brushing the cobwebs, or clouds, out of the sky. The singer asks to go with her, or says well done.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Gammar Gurton's Garland, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad talltale
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Bord)) Irelasnd
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 228, "The Old Woman Tossed Up in a Blanket" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 214)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 144, "The Wee Wyfie" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 544, "There was an old woman tossed up in a basket" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 139, "There was an old woman went up in a blanket" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #35, p. 50, "(There was an old woman tossed in a blanket)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 175, "(There was a wee wifie rowed up in a basket)" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 37, "There Was an Old Woman Tossed Up in a Basket" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 34, "The Wee Wifie" (1 text)
Roud #1297
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lilliburlero" (tune) (per Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
cf. "Slaves to the World" (theme: tossing in a blanket) and notes there
NOTES [157 words]: Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes: "Rimbault says this song is supposed to allude to James II.... In spite of the rhyming, the original wording was probably 'tossed up in a blanket Ninety-nine [instead of seventeen or nineteen] times as high as the moon', as in the William and Mary ballad, The Jacobite tossed up in a blanket." - BS
The Baring-Goulds report an even more extravagant story, connecting this to Henry V (reigned 1413-1422) and his invasion of France. But they add "The only trouble with this story is that there doesn't seem to be a word of truth in it." I couldn't have put it better myself. - RBW
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 p. xli: "Crawfurd supplied songs and rhymes for Robert Chambers ... it appears that the versions of 143 'Cow the Nettle Airlie' and 144 'The Wee Wyfie' ...." Chambers 1870 notes these to be from "recitations in Fife and Ayrshire." Crawfurd's versions are from Ayrshire (p. xxxix). - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OO2544

There Was an Old Woman Went Up in a Blanket

See There Was an Old Woman Tossed up in a Basket (File: OO2544)

There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Lamp

DESCRIPTION: "There was an old woman who lived in a lamp. She hadn't no room to beetle her champ [mash her potatoes]. So she up with her beetle and broke the lamp, And then she had room to beetle her champ."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: food home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 40, "There was an old woman who lived in a lamp" (1 text)
Roud #25366
File: KSUC040A

There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shack

See There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe (File: OO2546)

There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe

DESCRIPTION: "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, She had so many children she didn't know what to do; She gave them some broth without any bread; She whipped them all soundly and put them to bed."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1787 (Gammer Gurton's Garland, according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: children abuse injury food poverty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 546, "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #87, p. 85, "(There was an old woman who lived in a shoe)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 208, "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 38, "There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #402, "Old lady, old lady, Lived in a shoe" (1 text, which Abrahams implies is "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Go Upstairs" mixed with "There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe"); #559, "There ws an old woman who lived in a shack" (identical in plot with this although it might be a deliberate rewrite)
Roud #19132
NOTES [92 words]: Several sources connect this with King George II of Great Britain, but supporting evidence, as usual, is lacking. Dolby-OrangesAndLemons also mentions an Elizabeth Vergoose of Boston, who had six children and ten stepchildren, but again, no supporting evidence (as Dolby-OrangesAndLemons admits).
The ever-hallucinatory Karen Elwes Thomas (The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930), p. 26, appears to connect this with the accession in England of James VI and I. She offers her usual supporting evidence, i.e. nothing. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OO2546

There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Sink

See There Was an Old Woman And What Do You Think (File: KSUC040B)

There Was an Ole Fish

See Few Days; also Hide Away (Jonah and the Whale) (File: LxA566)

There Was First Guid Ale

DESCRIPTION: "There was first guid ale, and syne guid ale, And second ale and some; Hink-skink, and ploughman's drink, And scour-the-gate, and trim"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 569, "There Was First Guid Ale" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 392, ("There's first guid ale, and syne guid ale")
Roud #5895
NOTES [8 words]: Chambers: "Different Kinds of Malt Liquor." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3569

There Was Plums, Prunes, Cherries

See Trinity Cake (Mrs. Fogarty's Cake) (File: Doyl3062)

There Was Twa Auld Carles

DESCRIPTION: Two old men and a poor girl [quine] are in bed together. One moved off [jinkit aff], and the other moved in, and they played there.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1722, "There Was Twa Auld Carles" (1 text)
Roud #13140
NOTES [10 words]: Greig/Duncan8: "[This is] from two manuscripts 1730-1760." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81722

There Was Twa Ships Upon the Sea

See A Little Ship Was on the Sea (File: GrD81756)

There waur Aucht an' forty nobles

See Glenlogie, or, Jean o Bethelnie [Child 238] (File: C238)

There Waur Three Ladies

See The Cruel Brother [Child 11] (File: C011)

There Were Once Three Brothers

See Henry Martyn [Child 250] AND Sir Andrew Barton [Child 167] (File: C250)

There Were Rats, Rats

See The Quartermaster Corps (The Quartermaster Store) (File: FSWB272A)

There Were Three Crows

See The Three Ravens [Child 26] (File: C026)

There Were Three Gypsies in a Room

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

There Were Three Jews Called Patriarchs

See Once There Were Three Fishermen (File: FSWB240A)

There were Three Jolly Welshmen

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

There Were Three Jovial Welshmen

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

There Were Three Ladies

See The Cruel Brother [Child 11] (File: C011)

There Were Three Ravens

See The Three Ravens [Child 26] (File: C026)

There Were Two Birds Sat on a Stone

DESCRIPTION: "There were two birds sat on a stone, Fa la la lal de, One flew away and then there was one, Fa la la... The other flew after, and then there was none... And so the poor stone was left all alone." The (birds/crows) then fly back
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1767 (Newbery)
KEYWORDS: bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1680, "The Twa Corbies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #49, pp. 59-60, "(There were two birds sat on a Stone)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 19, "(There were two crows sat on a stone)" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 51, "There were two birds sat on a stone" (2 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 17, "Birds on a Stone" (1 text)
DT, CRAWSTAN
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #13, p. 17, ("There were twa craws sat on a stane, Fal de ral")
Roud #8906
NOTES [82 words]: Sounds like "The Twa Corbies" told from the standpoint of their original perch. But there are just enough mentions of it that I thought it had better go in the Index.
Charles Kingsley quoted two stanzas of this in The Water Babies. (1863):
Two little birds they sat on a stone,
One swam away, and then there was one,
With a fal-lal-la-lady.
The other swam after, and then there was none,
And so the poor stone was left all alone,
With a fal-lal-la-lady.
The quotation is in chapter seven. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: BGMG049

There Were Two Blackbirds

See Two Little Blackbirds (File: Rc2LiBla)

There Were Two Crows Sat on a Stone

See There Were Two Birds Sat on a Stone (File: BGMG049)

There ys a blossum sprong of a thorn

See Out of the Blossom Sprang a Thorn (File: MSOBlSpT)

There'll Be a Hot Time (In the Old Town Tonight)

DESCRIPTION: A quatrain ballad, this is essentially an ever-changing collection of floating bawdy verses.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 77, pp. 99-100, "Hot Time in the Old Town" (3 texts, all short)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 213-214, "A Hot Time in the Old Town" (1 text)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 532-534, "There'll Be a Hot Time" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 203-204, "A Hot Time in the Old Town" (1 text, 1 tune -- from the sheet music)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 138-143, "A Hot Time in the Old Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 217-219, "A Hot Time in the Old Town" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #136, "Hot Time" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 278-279, "A Hot Time in the Old Town"
Harbin-Parodology, #58, p. 21, "There'll Be a Hot Time" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp.117-121, "A Hot Time in the Old Town" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1897 sheet music)
Margaret Bradford Boni, editor, _Songs of the Gilded Age_, with piano arrangements by Norman Lloyd and illustrations by Lucille Corcos, Golden Press, 1960, pp. 36-38, "There'll Be a Hot Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST RL532 (Partial)
Roud #4324
RECORDINGS:
Edward M. Favor, "Hot Time in the Old Town" (Berliner 0791-L, 1899)
Bill Mooney & his Cactus Twisters, "Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" (Imperial 1096, n.d. but post-World War II)
Dan W. Quinn, "A Hot Time in the Old Town" (Berliner 527-Z, 1897)
Bessie Smith & her Blue Boys, "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town" (Columbia 3173-D/Parlophone R-2477 [UK], 1938)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" (Columbia 15695-D, 1931; rec. 1929)
SAME TUNE:
Mrs. O'Leary (File: ACSF110M)
West Wallsend Football Song (Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 253)
There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight (Bryan Version) (File: McIn021A)
Kansas Jayhawker Song (File: SaKo142)
REC: Baritone solo, "Come Join the Ku Klux Klan in the Old Town Tonight" (KKK 75009, c. 1924)
REC: W. R. Rhinehart, "There'll Be a Hot Time - Klansman" (100% K-36, rec. c. 1924)
NOTES [218 words]: This was popular with military bands during the Spanish-American war -- so much so, according to Michael Blow, A Ship to Remember: The Maine and the Spanish-American War, William Morrow and Company, 1992, p. 391, that when American troops were landing around Manila, "many Filipinos thought it the American national anthem."
Fuld points out that the earliest (1896) sheet music refers not to "the old town" but to "Old Town" (in Louisiana). This version is by Joe Hayden (words) and Theodore A. Metz (music), and involves a dance and/or camp meeting. This camp meeting version, according to Spaeth, came to be "indelibly associated with the Spanish[-American] War."
According to Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 229, Metz claimed to have written the song in 1886 as a song and circus march.
This may be true, but clearly the folk have taken things into their hands from there. - RBW
Indeed; [Dan W.] Quinn's recording, only a year after the sheet music, already calls it "The Old Town." - PJS
The cover sheet to the 1896 sheet music at LOCSheet Music B-570 [cover only] has the title as "A hot time in the old town"; the commentary notes the chorus as "There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight, ma baby" - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RL532

There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight (Bryan Version)

DESCRIPTION: ""Me oh my just hear the people yell, If McKinley is elected our country's gone to -- well. If we elect Billy Bryan, we'll all be living well. There's be a hot time in the old town tonight, my honey."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad wordplay
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 7, 1896 - William Jennings Bryan gives his "Cross of Gold" speech calling for a silver currency
1896, 1900, 1908 - Bryan's three runs for the presidency
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 21, "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There'll Be a Hot Time (In the Old Town Tonight)" (tune) and references there
cf. "Free Silver" (subject of William Jennings Bryan and the 1896 election) and references there
File: McIn021B

There'll Be Blue Birds Over the White Cliffs of Dover

DESCRIPTION: "I'll never forget the people I met, braving the angry skies"; they have a look of hope, for "There's be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover, tomorrow, just you wait and see. There'll be love and laughter... when the world is free"
AUTHOR: Words: Nat Burton / Music: Walter Kent (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: separation bird reunion
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Denis Gifford (with a Foreword by Spike Milligan), _Bless 'Em All!: The World War II Songbook_, 1989 (I use the 1992 Fraser Stewart edition), pp. 69-72, "There'll Be Blue Birds Over the White Cliffs of Dover" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the sheet music)
RECORDINGS:
George Patrick "Paddy" Gibson, "(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #44, recorded 07/21/2021)
Christine Mary C. Morris, "(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #38, recorded 07/20/2021)
NOTES [176 words]: I find it ironic that, although this song will surely always be associated with Vera Lynn, the sheet music (at least, the American sheet music) has a picture of Bebe Daniels (who?) on the cover. The Wikipedia article for this song (yes, there is one) lists a number of recordings, but as of when I checked it in December 2023, didn't even mention Daniels.
To me, after "Lili Marlene" and maybe "We'll Meet Again," this is the most iconic of World War II songs, and probably a better song than the first of those at least.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 464, estimates that this was the most popular song in America in January 1942, and the second-most-popular song of the year (#1 for the year being "When the Lights Go On Again," which certainly hasn't held up as well!). Gardner lists recordings by Kay Kyser (Columbia 36445), Glenn Miller (Bluebird 11397), Kate Smith (Columbia 36448), Sammy Kaye (Victor 27704), and Jimmy Dorsey (Decca 4103). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcWCODo

There'll Be Joy, Joy, Joy

See In My Father's House (File: San483)

There'll Be No Dark Valley

DESCRIPTION: "There'll be no dark valley when Jesus comes (3x) To gather his loved ones home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 164-165, "There'll Be No Dark Valley" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
NOTES [13 words]: The current description is based on the Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: Ow2E164

There'll Be No Distinction There

DESCRIPTION: "There'll be no sorrow on that heavenly shore, There'll be no woes at the cabin door...." Singer describes heaven as a place without sorrow, poverty, class distinctions, racism, adultery, nagging women, or booze.
AUTHOR: Blind Alfred Reed (1880-1956)
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Blind Alfred Reed)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 563, "Dar'll Be No Distinction Dar" (1 text)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 232-233, "There'll Be No Distinction There" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DISTNCTN
Roud #11883
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "There'll Be No Distinction There" (OKeh 05982/Conqueror 9572, c. 1941; rec. 1940)
New Lost City Ramblers, "There'll Be No Distinction There" (on NCLR09)
Blind Alfred Reed, "There'll Be No Distinction There" (Victor 23550, 1931)
NOTES [15 words]: For background on Blind Alfred Reed, see the notes to "Why Do You Bob Your Hair, Girls?" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: CSW232

There'll Come a Time

DESCRIPTION: "Why are you sad, Papa, my darling? Why are those tears falling down?" The father calls the child "an angel," but he is afraid of what happens when he is dead: "There'll come a time someday When I have passed away" and the child will be unprotected
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1)
KEYWORDS: father mother children death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 62-63, "There'll Come a Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7125
NOTES [53 words]: This seems to have been very popular with a particular sort of conservative, hyper-controlling parent. Not many young performers seem to have sung it. Hm.
Shelton Brooks, the author of "Darktown Strutters' Ball," composed a song "There'll Come a Time" that was a modest hit in 1911. It appears to be a sepapate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BuMa062

There'll Never Be Peace Till Jamie Comes Hame

DESCRIPTION: Singer hears a man sing "The church is in ruins, the State is in jars, Delusions, oppressions, and murderous wars." His seven sons died fighting for James. "Now life is a burden that bows me down." "There'll never be peace till Jamie comes hame"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1819 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1)
KEYWORDS: rebellion nonballad political Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 38, "There'll Never Be Peace Till Jamie Comes Hame" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 118, "There'll Never Be Peace Till Jamie Comes Hame" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #326,, pp. 453-454, "There'll never be peace till Jamie comes hame--" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1791)
Roud #5782
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There's Few Guid Fellows When Jamie's Awa'" (tune, according to Burns)
cf. "My He'rt It Is Sair" (tune)
NOTES [135 words]: Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1: "It is very like Burns, but is given in Johnson's Museum as an old song without any alterations."
Greig/Duncan1: .".. expresses the point of view of supporters of the claim to the throne of the son of James II, James Stuart (the Old Pretender)." - BS
The statement about the church being in ruins is particularly true at this time. There were still Catholics in the Highlands. It has been claimed that there were Anglicans there as well. The country was officially Presbyterian, but many old men remembered the Solemn League and Covenant, some with reverence, others with horror. And William III simply did not understand the Scottish Kirk. In England, he could largely rely on the powers of the Bishops. That didn't work at all in Scotland, where there were no bishops.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1118

There's a Blue Sky Way Up Yonder

See Cowboy Night Song (File: ACSF334C)

There's a Bridle Hanging On the Wall

DESCRIPTION: "There's a bridle hanging on the wall and the saddle in an empty stall... gone where all the good ponies go." The rider mourns the death of the pony he thought of as a friend.
AUTHOR: Rex Allen (according to Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Carson Robison 78: see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad horse
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 9, p. 89, "There's a Bridle Hanging On the Wall" (1 text)
Roud #16057
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "There's a Bridle Hanging On the Wall" (on NFJDowney01)
NOTES [42 words]: Carson Robison's Buckaroos recorded "There's a Bridle Hangin' On the Wall" on 78 Montgomery Ward M4917 according to the "Rocky 52 The Rock & Country Encyclopedia and Discography" site at http://tinyurl.com/tbdx-CRobison, accessed February 16, 2015. - BS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: BeDo089

There's a Brown Girl in the Ring

DESCRIPTION: "Theres a (brown girl or black boy) in a ring, (she/he) likes sugar and I like plum)." Dance instruction, like "stand and face your partner, wheel and turn your partner" or "skip across the ocean: show me your motion"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad playparty bird
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica) US(MA)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 19, "Annancy and the Screech-Owl" ("There's a blind boy in the ring"); 109, ("There's a black boy in a ring") (2 texts, 1 tune)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 126-127, "There Stands a Bluebird" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Olive Lewin, "Rock It Come Over" - The Folk Music of Jamaica (Barbados: The University of the West Indies Press, 2000), pp. 71-72, "Brown Girl in the Ring" (1 text,) (1 tune)
Martha Warren Beckwith and Helen Roberts, _Folk-Games of Jamaica_ (Poughkeepsie: Vassar College, 1922 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #64 pp. 74-75, "There's a Brown Girl in the Ring" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #13195
NOTES [90 words]: Lewin describes the game. A player in the middle of the ring, with a partner, is told by the partner how to perform, and the others on the ring follow her motion. Then the partner moves to the middle and a new girl becomes the caller.
The Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory texts show how a game song can be made part of an Anansi story. In this case the "brown girl" or "black boy" is replaced by a "blind boy" -- specifically Screech Owl blinded by daylight -- tricked by Annancy into staying awake till day so that he can easily be killed. - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Jek019

There's a Church in the Wildwood

See The Little Brown Church in the Vale (The Church in the Wildwood) (File: BdLBCitV)

There's a Colleen Fair as May

See The Snowy-Breasted Pearl (File: HMHS182C)

There's a Dear Spot

See Lovely Derry On The Banks Of The Foyle (File: AdLDOBOF)

There's a Dear Spot in Ireland

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the "dear spot" where his aged mother lived with his brothers and sisters. Poverty has brought him over the sea. Now mother is dead. He hopes his brothers and sisters can join him; they will make a poor but honest home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration mother death separation orphan home
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H821, p. 220, "There's a Dear Spot in Ireland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 134, "I Left Ireland and Mother Because We Were Poor" (1 short text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 117-118, "I Left Ireland and Mother Because We Were Poor" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 209, "I Left Ireland and Mother Because We Were Poor" (1 text)
Roud #4962
File: HHH821

There's a Fuck-up on the Flight Deck

DESCRIPTION: "There's a fuck-up on the flight deck, and the Wavy Navy done it. There's a prang on the gangway and they don't know who to blame." The song describes many mistakes made aboard an aircraft carrier on a mission.
AUTHOR: music ("The Hut Sut Song") by Leo V. Killion, Ted McMichael, Jack Owens (1941)
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: technology navy battle
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 104-105, "There's a Fuck-Up on the Flight Deck" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hut Sut Song" (tune)
NOTES [640 words]: The Fairey Albacore is a particularly fit airplane to be singled out for criticism in this song. When World War II began, the standard British carrier torpedo bomber was the Fairey Swordfish, a biplane with a top speed of 138 miles per hour that was so old that even the British knew that the "stringbag" needed to be replaced (Munson 68). So they came up with the Fairey Albacore. Which was, ahem, another biplane. In 1940. The Albacore was slightly faster than the Swordfish, and had a slightly longer range, and had an enclosed cockpit (more comfortable for the pilot), but otherwise, it was such a flop that the Swordfish "remained in service alongside, and eventually outlasted, the [Albacore]" (Munson, p. 62).
Brown, p. 60, reports, "In retrospect, the Albacore epitomised the ascendancy of the conventionalists over the visionaries; the least adventurous approach that could possibly have been made to solving the problem of replacing the venerable and patently obsolescent Swordfish. That the authorities should have opted to perpetuate the biplane configuration at a time when the imminence of its final demise in all operational roles was surely obvious to all is difficult to comprehend today, forty years on." He adds that the defects of the Albacore were its lack of maneuverability, its unresponsive controls, and its large size that made it harder to handle and easier for enemy gunfire to hit. It was a good plane as long as there were no enemies around, but too easy a target in combat.
Munson, p. 62, adds, "Production ceased in 1943 after 803 Albacores had been built, but by the end of that year all but two squadrons had been re-equipped with Barracudas or American Avengers. One of the squadrons, however, handed on their Albacores to the R.C.A.F., by whom they were employed in the D-day landings of June 1944." Fortunately for the Canadians, there were few Axis fighters to take advantage of the Albacore's pitiful lack of speed; for this plane, at least, the conditions of British landing fields were danger enough!
The Fairey Fulmar was another British flop. No, it wasn't just that Fairey was a lousy plane designer; other British manufacturers were bad, too, often because the government wrote ridiculous specifications. So it was with the Fulmar: "The FAA requirement of two seats for its fighters guaranteed their inferiority" (Worth, p. 80). (It is noteworthy that the most successful British plane of the war, the de Haviland Mosquito, was not a government project; De Haviland built it, and the government almost failed to take it!) It didn't help that the Fulmar was a rush job (Munson, p. 65). It did at least have decent firepower and maneuverability. But they did sink a lot -- they were one of the planes used on "CAM ships," or merchant ships with a catapult to launch a fighter to deal with enemy bombers (Gunston, p. 36), which however had to ditch after making its flight.
Brown seems to be the only writer with anything good to say about the Fulmar: "It was to be said of the handsome Fairey monoplane that it lacked the fighter's first essential -- speed. There is no gainsaying that it was slow by then contemporary land-bases single-seat fighter standards, but it was not short of other qualities and, if incapable of taking on a Messerschmitt Bf 109 on anything like equal terms, its advent was, in so far as the Fleet Air Arm was concerned, very welcome indeed" (p. 69).
For the King George V, see also the notes to "The Sinking of HMS Hood."
The Fulmar went into service in 1940, and began to be phased out in 1943; it was most widely used in 1942, which was also the height (or depth) of the Albacore's career. So I'd guess this song dates from that year. This matches fairly well with the use of the Hut Sut song as the tune, since that was published and became popular in 1941. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Tawn076

There's A Girl in the Heart of Maryland

DESCRIPTION: "In a quaint, old-fashioned garden in a quaint, old-fashioned town... Where the old Potomac's llowing, that is where I long to be." "There's a girl in the heart of Maryland with a heart that belongs to me." He asks that the parson be ready when he returns
AUTHOR: Words: Ballard MacDonald / Music: Harry Carroll
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love reunion marriage
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 88-89, "There's a Girl in the Heart of Maryland" (1 text)
Roud #9571
NOTES [62 words]: According to Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, MacDonald and Carroll had two big hits in 1913: This and "On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine" (the latter apparently being the first-published, since it is mentioned on the sheet music of this piece). Both produced quite a few other pop hits, though very few of them made the jump into oral tradition. - RBW
File: Dean088

There's a Good Time Coming

DESCRIPTION: "There's a good time coming, Boys, a good time coming. We may not live to see the day, But Earth shall glisten in the ray." There will be no more wars. The poor shall be no more. Children won't have to work. Hearers are urged to "wait a little longer."
AUTHOR: Words: Charles MacKay? / Music: Henry Russell (1812-1900) (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Scott), but best-known in the mid-nineteenth century
KEYWORDS: nonballad poverty help war freedom
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 92-93, "There's a Good Time Coming" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2316, p. 156, "There's a Good Time Coming" (4 references)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 69 and #1/64 p. 63, "A Good Time Coming" (1 text)
Roud #16621
SAME TUNE:
The World's All Before Us (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 50)
The Good Time Coming [Garfield Campaign Song] (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 10)
NOTES [150 words]: Talk about optimism.... This really doesn't seem like something that would go into tradition, and I have no clear proof that it has. But there is one short North Carolina fragment that Steve Roud lists among the Cecil Sharp MSS. that MIGHT be this, so I have very tentatively included it in the Index.
There seems to be agreement that Henry Russell wrote the music to this. He is the only author listed by Scott. But Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 156, lists four broadsides, one crediting it to "Charles MacKay," another to "Charles Macray." Since MacKay is a known poet, I have tentatively credited him with the lyrics.
It looks as if this was popular enough to inspire parodies in the nineteenth century; Dime-Song-Book #31, p. 11, is "There's a Good Time Coming, Girls." It is clearly related to this song, but it is not the same.
For background on Henry Russell, see "Cheer, Boys, Cheer (II)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ScES092

There's a Herring in the Pan

See I Wish That You Were Dead, Goodman (File: HHH531)

There's a Hole in My Bucket

See There's a Hole in the Bucket (File: DTholebc)

There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea

DESCRIPTION: "There's a hole in the bottom of the sea, There's a hole (x2), There's a hole in the bottom of the sea." "There's a rock in the bottom of the sea... There's a rock in that hole in the bottom of the sea." "There's a frog in the bottom of the sea."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad cumulative campsong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 135, "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 135, "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Gloria Dickens, "Childhood Songs from North Carolina" Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), p. 8, "(There's a hole in the bottom of the sea)" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 71, "(There's a hole in the bottom of the sea)" (1 excerpt, from user Tess_W, posted September 1, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 392, "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea" (notes only)
Roud #15766
RECORDINGS:
Sue Armstrong, "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea" (Piotr-Archive #682, recorded 09/19/2023)
Logan Boyd Carithers, "Frog at the Bottom of the Lake" (Piotr-Archive #552, recorded 04/05/2023)
File: Br3135

There's a Hole in the Bucket

DESCRIPTION: Circular song, "There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza." "Then fix it..." "With what?" "Straw." "The straw is too long." Etc., until "...too dry." "Then wet it." "With what?" "Water." "With what shall I fetch it?" "The bucket." "There's a hole..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends -- German version)
KEYWORDS: questions tasks dialog humorous husband wife campsong
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 83-85, "Der Jug hot en Loch (The Jug Has a Hole)"; pp. 252-255, "Liewer Henry (Dear Henry)" (2 very distinct German texts plus English translations, 2 tunes)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 731, "Hole in the Bucket" (1 text, 1 tune)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 15, "(There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza)" (2 mentions, from user TempleCat, John5918, posted August 28, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 281, 286, 291, 292, 293,390, "There's a Hole in My Bucket" (notes only)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 8, "Hole in the Bucket" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 51, "Hole in the Bucket" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HOLEBCKT*
Roud #17845
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Hole in the Bucket" (on PeteSeeger31) (on PeteSeeger47)
File: DTholebc

There's a Lady Over Yonder

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) AND The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: E098)

There's a Little Box of Pine on the 7:29

DESCRIPTION: "'Dear warden,' wrote a mother, 'how much longer must I wait'" until her boy is sent home. The warden is forced to answer, "There's a little box of pine on the 7:29 Bringing back a lost sheep from the fold." The mother and community mourn the dead sinner
AUTHOR: Jos. Ettlinger, George Brown (Billy Hill), and De Dette Lee (De Dette Lee Hill)
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (copyright; recording by Tommy Reynolds an Wilie Robinson)
KEYWORDS: death train mother funeral prison
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 338-340, "There's a Little Box of Pine on the 7:29" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Asa Martin/Martin and Roberts, "There's A Little Box of Pine On The 7:29" (Conqueror 8062, 1933)
Tommy (Reynolds) and Willie (Robinson), "There's A Little Box of Pine On The 7:29" (Champion 16432/Champion 4518/Montgomery Ward 4958/Superior 2935 [as by Reynolds and Robinson], 1931)
File: LSRai338

There's a Little Hand Writing on the Wall

DESCRIPTION: "There's a little hand writing on the wall, There's a little hand writing on the wall, All I say and all I do, that hand writing on the wall."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 519, "There's a Little Hand Writing on the Wall" (1 fragment)
Roud #7123
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Handwriting on the Wall" (subject)
NOTES [221 words]: The "hand writing on the wall" is obviously an allusion to Daniel 5. But, as 5:24-28 reveal, it was not writing the actions of King Belshazzar (who, incidentally, was never King of Babylon; he was the son of the last King, Nabonidas, if he is historical at all). Rather, the hand wrote a message of condemnation.
For more on this subject, see "The Handwriting on the Wall."
The bit about "all I say and all I do" may be an allusion to John 8:6, 8, where Jesus writes upon the ground. A few late manuscripts say that he wrote "the sins of every one of them," though most omit (and the earliest manuscripts all omit John 7:53-8:11).
If it is not an allusion to John 8, it may be a reminiscence to John 4:29, where Jesus told the Samaritan woman "all that I ever did."
Steve Roud initially separated "The Handwriting on the Wall" (#7123) and "There's a Little Hand Writing on the Wall" (#11814); he has now combined them under the former number. He may be right; they are obviously about the same topic. But the Writing on the Wall is one of the most vivid and famous of Old Testament stories, and has been the subject of much later writing. Given the difference in form, I (tentatively) continue to split them; the lyrics of "There's a Little Hand" do not occur in Knowles Shaw's original text of "The Handwriting on the Wall." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Be3519

There's a Little Wheel a-Turning

DESCRIPTION: "There's a little wheel a-turning in my heart, In my hear, yes, Lord, in my heart... O, for you, yes, Lord, for you." Remaining lines are variations on this theme
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 168, "Dere's a Little Wheel a-Turnin' in My Heart" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 100 in the 1901 edition)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 641, "There's a Little Wheel a-Turning" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 641, "There's a Little Wheel a-Turning" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 274-275, "Uh Leetle W'eel uh Tu'nnin' Een Muh Haa't" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Anne Hobson, _In Old Alabama_, (New York:Doubleday Page & Co, 1903 ("Digitized by Google"), pp. 188-191, "In My Heart" (1 text)
Roud #11936
File: Br3641

There's a Long, Long Trail

DESCRIPTION: The singer misses (his sweetheart), noting that "Nights are getting very lonely, days are very long." He remembers her in dreams. Chorus: "There's a long, long trail a-winding To the land of my dreams Where the nightingales are singing...."
AUTHOR: Words: Stoddard King / Music: Zo Elliot
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (sheet music); tune reportedly written 1912
KEYWORDS: separation loneliness nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 216, "(no title)" (1 partial text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 54, "The Long, Long Trail" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 180-181, "There's a Long, Long Trail" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 573-574, "There's a Long, Long Trail"
Harbin-Parodology, #408, p. 101, "Long, Long Trail" (Harbin is unable to print this because of copyright, but lists the motions to be used in camp)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 121, There's a Long, Long Trail" (1 short text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 51, 193, 251, 313, 393, "There's a Long, Long Trail" (notes only)
DT, LNGTRAIL
Roud #23525
RECORDINGS:
[?] Campbell & [Henry] Burr, "There's a Long, Long Trail" (Little Wonder 563, c. 1916)
Judy Cook, "There's a Long Long Trail A-Winding" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #334, recorded 11/02/2022)
John McCormack "There's a Long, Long Trail" (Victor 64694, 1917)
SAME TUNE:
There's a Long, Long Worm A-Crawling/Green Worm ("There's a long, long/green worm a winding/crawling Upon the roof of my tent") (Harbin-Parodology, #238, p. 60; Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 162)
The Long Long Nail ("There's a long, long nail a-grinding, Up through the sole of my shoe") (Harbin-Parodology, #237, p. 59; cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 251 and the Judy Cook recording cited above)
The Long-Tailed Cat/What a Long, Long Tail ("What a long, long tail our cat's got") (Harbin-Parodology, #49, p. 19; Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 65)
You Can Tell a Man (Harbin-Parodology, #60, p. 21)
It's a Short, Short Life ("It's a short, short life we live here, So let us laugh while we may") (Harbin-Parodology, #63, p. 22; Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 125)
My Hair ("There's a long, long trail a-winding Where my hair used to be") (Harbin-Parodology, #128, p. 39)
Mummy Song (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 251)
There's a Long Long Trail to Camp (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 251, 389)
You Can Tell a Scout (BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 68)
NOTES [104 words]: Not a proper folk song, but its popularity in World War I argues for its inclusion here. Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 314, estimates that this was the third most popular song in America in 1916, although it was never higher than #6 for a particular month, in this case October 1916 (#1 for the year being Gus Kahn, Tony Jackson, and Egbert van Alstyne's "Pretty Baby"); p. 322 saying that it was the ninth-most popular song in 1918 (#1 for the year being J. Will Callahan and Lee G. Roberts's "Smiles"). - RBW. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DTlngtra

There's A Man Goin' Round Takin' Names

See There's A Man Going Round Taking Names (File: San447)

There's A Man Going Round Taking Names

DESCRIPTION: "There's a man going round taking names (x2), And he took my mother's name, And he left my heart in pain, There's a man going round taking names." Similarly with father, sister, brother, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: family death
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 447, "Man Goin' Roun'" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Randolph 606, "The Angel of Death" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 186, "There's a Man Goin' Round Takin' Names" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 591, "Man Goin' Round" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 56, "There's A Man Goin' 'Round Takin' Names" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 28, "There's A Man Goin' 'Round Takin' Names" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7548
RECORDINGS:
Carolina Tar Heels, "There's A Man Goin' Round Takin' Names" (Victor V-40053, 1929, rec. 1928)
G. B. Grayson & Henry Whitter, "There's a Man Going 'Round Taking Names" (Victor, unissued, 1928)
Paul Robeson, "Dere's a Man Goin' Round Takin' Names" (HMV[UK]8637/Victor 25809, 1937)
Kenneth Spencer, "There's a Man Goin' Roun' Takin' Names" (Sonora 1119, n.d.)
Joshua White, "There's a Man Going Around Taking Names" (Melotone 12861, 1933/Conqueror 8271, 1934)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tanneray" (structure)
File: San447

There's a Man, Man, Man in Manitoba

DESCRIPTION: "There's a man, man, man in Manitoba, Lonely, so lonely, There's a man, man, man in Manitoba, And to him you have pledged your word... Slaving and saving, Building a nest In the far off West, For his own little English bird"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: love home separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 191, "There's a man, man, man in Manitoba" (1 text)
NOTES [35 words]: Alice Kane learned most of her songs in Belfast, but then moved to Canada. In this particular case, I suspect she learned the song in Canada rather than Ulster, so I have not listed a "found in" location. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC191A

There's a Meeting Here Tonight (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I take my text in Matthew, and by the Revelation, I know you by your garment, There's a (Meeting/Blessing) here tonight." ""Brother John was a writer, he write the word of God." "Sister Mary said to Brother John, 'Brother John, don't write no more.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 9, "There's a Meeting Here Tonight" (1 text plus a partial variatn, 2 tunes)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 182, "There's a Meeting Here To-Night" (1 text) (1 tune)
Roud #11854
File: AWG009

There's a Picture On Pinto's Bridle

DESCRIPTION: Cowboy finds a fallen horse with a broken leg and a dying boy. With his dying breath the boy asks the singer to save the horse, which has a picture of the boy's dead mother in his bridle.
AUTHOR: Hank Snow (source: notes to ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Hank Snow recording)
KEYWORDS: request death dying injury horse father mother youth cowboy
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #8038
RECORDINGS:
Denis Nash, "Pinto" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Hank Snow, "There's a Picture On Pinto's Bridle" (Bluebird B-4655, 1939)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Pinto
File: RcTaPoPB

There's a Place Prepared

See Over In the Glory Land (File: RcOitGlL)

There's a Pretty Robin In My Cherry Tree

DESCRIPTION: Singer hears a robin singing in her cherry tree. She asks that he leave some cherries for her so she "can do some singing too"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: food music nonballad bird
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18250
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Luby, "There's a Pretty Robin In My Cherry Tree" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcTPRICT

There's a Rest for the Weary

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "There is rest for the weary" (3x) / "There is rest for you" / "On the other side of Jordan / In the sweet fields of Eden / Where the tree of life is blooming / There is rest for you" Verses have to do with that home in glory.
AUTHOR: William Hunter (1811-1877, for "In the Christian's home in glory") (? -- see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Smith, for "In the Christian's home in glory")
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Heart-Songs, p. 279, "Rest for the Weary" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Smith, _The Revivalist_ (Toronto, 1870), #104 pp. 86-87, ("In the Christian's home in glory")
P. P. Bliss, _Gospel Songs_ (Cincinnati: John Church & Co.,1874 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 108, ("In the Christian's home in glory")
William Booth, _Salvation Army Songs_ (London: The Salvation Army Book Department, 1911) , #672 p. 478, ("In the soldier's home in glory")
RECORDINGS:
Moving Star Hall Singers, "There's a Rest for the Weary" (on USSeaIsland02)
NOTES [273 words]: The Herskovits Trinidadian Spiritual Baptist account of "Jesus Lover of My Soul" fits this USSeaIsland02 track as well. Although this is not a Sankey hymn, the performance style matches "Sankey into Shout." - BS
The USSeaIsland02 version is only the chorus, as in the description above, from William Hunter's "In the Christian's home in glory," changing "rest for you" to "rest for me."
The Salvation Army text follows Hunter, except for the first line.
The Original Sacred Harp has the chorus as "There is rest for the weary"(3x) "There is rest for you," -- that is the first half of Hunter's chorus -- but with different verses that it attributes to Rev. John Robinson in 1758 (Benjamin Franklin White, E.J.King, et al, Original Sacred Harp (Atlanta, 1911 ("Digitized by Google") (correction and enlargement of 1869 edition copyright J.S. James)), p. 474, "Rest for the Weary" )
The Southern Sons have Hunter's chorus, but with other verses (Southern Sons, "Rest for the Weary" (on "1940s Vocal Groups (1941-1944)" Document Records DOCD-5492, 1996)). As with the USSeaIsland02 version they sing "rest for me." - BS
Heart-Songs has yet another attribution, to S. Y. Harmer and J. W. Dadmun; that version has the standard chorus but still another set of verses. Frankly, this seems less like a song than an idea for a song.
This is presumably inspired by Matthew 11:28 (or the verses following): "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (New Revised Standard Version has "are weary" for "that labour" and has other smaller changes).
For William Hunter, see the notes to "The Evergreen Shore." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcTRftWe

There's a Set o' Farmers Here About

DESCRIPTION: The work of the men hired by farmers "here about": "They yoke at sax and lowse at ten, And then at twa they do the same; At sax at nicht comes whistlin' hame, And that's the boy for me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 385, "There's a Set o' Farmers Here About" (1 text)
Roud #5918
NOTES [18 words]: Greig/Duncan3 quoting Robertson, Song Notes: ." .. a protest of servants against the treatment they got." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3385

There's a Skeeter on My Peter

DESCRIPTION: "There's a skeeter on my peter, whack it off (whack it off!) (x2), There's a dozen on my cousin You can hear the bastards buzzin', There's a skeeter on my peter...." Or the song might address Sweet Marie. Or it might be a skeeter on Juanita
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: bug injury bawdy humorous campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harbin-Parodology, #39, p. 16, "Skeeter Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #21475
NOTES [100 words]: This is an extremely amorphous type: most versions in the Mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: Bawdy ditty - Skeeter on my Peter" have "There's a skeeter on my peter, whack it off." Others have "There's a skeeter on my peter, sweet Marie." The Harbin-Parodology version is of course mostly clean: "There's a skeeter on Juanity, Knock him off, knock him off. There's a whopper on her popper...." (Note that the mosquitoes that draw blood are female, not male.)
The confusion extends to tunes; Harbin-Parodology lists "Little Bit of Love," but others prefer "John Brown's Body."
Which tune is original? Got me. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Paro039

There's a Spot in the North that's Not Far from Belfast

DESCRIPTION: "There's a spot in the north that's not far from Belfast... And the name of that spot it is Islandmagee." On the ship Black Head "there's a rum second mate" who is from Islandmagree; you can tell by the size of his feet
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: home Ireland sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 134, "There's a spot in the North that's not far from Belfast" (1 text)
Roud #25388
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah)" [Laws M31A/B] (tune, according to Fowke) and references there
File: KSUC134A

There's a Star in the East

See Rise Up, Shepherd (File: LoF253)

There's a Tavern in the Town

See Tavern in the Town (File: ShH94)

There's a Tree in the Wood

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

There's an Empty Cot in the Bunkhouse Tonight

DESCRIPTION: "There's a cot unused in the bunkhouse tonight, There's a pinto's head bending low." The cowboy "Limpy" has left an empty saddle. He had followed a stray calf, and found it -- but the night was cold and snowy, and Limpy died in the harsh weather
AUTHOR: Gene Autry
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: cowboy death storm
FOUND IN: US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 102-106, "There's an Empty Cot in the Bunkhouse Tonight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18081
File: Tinsl102

There's an Old Dead Horse in the Road

See As I Was Going Over London Bridge (The Dead Rat) (File: SuSm097A)

There's Bound to be a Row

DESCRIPTION: Singer has "an awful wife." "If I do everything that's right, she'll find a fault somehow." He sleeps on the sofa when she takes in a lodger. She takes his money, gives him a meager allowance, "and if I spend it all at once, there's bound to be a row"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3778))
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage humorous wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1287, "There's Bound to be a Row" (1 text)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 58-59, 150, "There's Bound to Be a Row" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Willie Scott, "There's Bound to be a Row," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1962.027,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 14 September 2013 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/57703/1
Roud #1616
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy McBeath, "Bound to be a Row" (on Voice01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3778), "There's Bound to be a Row," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(3777), "Theres Bound to be a Row"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Devilish Mary" [Laws Q4] (theme)
cf. "The Wearing of the Britches" (theme)
File: RcTBTBAR

There's Buckies i' Bog, There's Gairies i' Glen

DESCRIPTION: "There' buckies i' bog, there's gairies i' glen, Sing buckies again, sing buckies again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Harris manuscript)
KEYWORDS: music
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 161, "There s buckies i' bog, there's gairies i' glen" (1 fragment)
Roud #18045
NOTES [17 words]: The current description is all of the Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris text.- RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HLMM161A

There's Culling to be Done

DESCRIPTION: "The word went round in Greymouth in the year of thirty-six, Internal Affairs Department was in something of a fix... The deer are far too numerous, there's culling to be done." Many join up to earn the bounties
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Graeme Caughey, The Deer Wars, according to Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ)
KEYWORDS: hunting hardtimes New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 290-291, "There's Culling to be Done" (1 text)
File: Garl290

There's Many a Man Killed on the Railroad

See perhaps The Fate of Talmadge Osborne (File: RcTFOTO)

There's Mony a Dark and a Cloudy Morning

See The Banks of Sweet Primroses (File: ShH51)

There's Nae Luck Aboot the Hoose

See There Is No Luck (File: OCC182)

There's Nae Luck About the House

See There Is No Luck (File: OCC182)

There's Nae Luck at Tullo's Toon

DESCRIPTION: "The maiden queen o' buttermilk She couldna get a man, To be revenged on the male sex, She tried the soor milk plan." At Tullo town "stinkin'" oatmeal and buttermilk force the men away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work food humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 394, "There's Nae Luck at Tullo's Toon" (1 text)
Roud #5927
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come A' Ye Buchan Laddies" (some lines)
File: GrD3394

There's No One Like Mother to Me

DESCRIPTION: The singer thinks of his childhood home "in that cottage far over the sea" He recalls that his mother had asked him to wait but then blessed him with a kiss. "I'll go back to that home o'er the sea For there's no one like mother to me"
AUTHOR: Gussie L. Davis (1863-1899)
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1885 25967)
KEYWORDS: homesickness separation nonballad mother home
FOUND IN:
Roud #17330
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "There's No One Like Mother to Me" (Decca ???, 1935)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1885 25967, "There's No One Like Mother to Me ," J. C. Groene & Co. (Cincinnati), 1885 (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Gray Haired Irish Mother"
cf. "My Mother's Last Goodbye" (subject)
NOTES [335 words]: "There's No One Like Mother to Me" and "My Gray Haired Irish Mother" are clearly related but clearly distinct. The question is: which is the original and which the derivative?
The tunes are closely related though the rests in "There's No One Like Mother To Me" are filled with text in "My Gray Haired Irish Mother."
The theme of both songs is: an expatriot remembers his childhood in a "cottage far over the sea" and recalls especially the mother that blessed him with tears on her cheeks.
"There's No One Like Mother to Me" has two verses and a chorus. "My Gray Haired Irish Mother" has five verses and no chorus.
Here is the first verse of "There's No One Like Mother to Me"
Sadly I'm thinking tonight
Thinking of days long gone by
Memories of childhood so bright
Come back like a dream with a sigh
I'm thinking of friends and of home
In that cottage far over the sea
Oh no matter where-ever I roam
There is no one like mother to me.
and the first two verses of "My Gray Haired Irish Mother"
How sadly I'm thinking tonight of my sire-land
Thinking of scenes and of days long gone by.
Memories of childhood so bright and so airy
Come rushing back to me with many's a sigh
I'm thinking of one whom I left far behind me
In that little thatched cottage far over the sea
Oh the one only cried Barney every noon and morning
Darling won't you come back to me.
The pattern is repeated in the remaining verse of "There's No One Like Mother to Me" and the third and fourth verses of "My Gray Haired Irish Mother."
We have sheet music dated 1885 for "There's No One Like Mother to Me" (LOCSheet sm1885 25967, by Gussie L Davis). The version recorded in 1936 by The Carter Family is almost identical to that original (source: Country Music Sources by Guthrie T Meade Jr, p. 324; the Bluegrass Lyrics site)
The John McGettigan recording of "My Gray Haired Irish Mother" in 1929 demonstrates that the songs co-existed. - BS
For brief background on composer Gussie L. Davis, see the notes to "The Baggage Coach Ahead." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: BrLsm188

There's No One Like the Old Folks

DESCRIPTION: A father tells his wandering boy not to go away, saying, "There's no one like the old folks after all...but your dad and mother too / Will always stand by you..." But the boy goes away, never to return, while his father grieves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (recording, Frank Stanley)
KEYWORDS: grief rejection farewell home parting father family
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
Roud #17222 and 11512
RECORDINGS:
[Leonard] Rutherford & [John] Foster, "There's No One Like the Old Folks" (prob. Brunswick, c. 1930; on KMM)
Frank Stanley, "There's No One Like the Old Folks" (Manhattan 208, c. 1906; Columbia A-314, 1909)
NOTES [16 words]: There *must* be a broadside or sheet music for this someplace, but I haven't found it yet. - PJS
File: RcTNOLOF

There's No Place Like Home (I)

See Home! Sweet Home! (File: RJ19080)

There's No Place Like Home (II)

See Home, Sweet Home (Parody) (File: Brne152)

There's Nobody Comes to Marry Me

See My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher (Nobody Coming to Marry Me) (File: BrII185)

There's Nothing Else to Do

See The Good Ship Venus (File: EM315)

There's Noting to be Gained by Roving

See Chickens They Are Crowing (File: R541)

There's Plenty o' Donside Calfies

DESCRIPTION: There are plenty of Donside calves and cows, and "plenty of bonnie young lassies If the laddies werena sae shy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1857, "There's Plenty o' Donside Calfies" (1 text)
Roud #13593
File: GrD81857

There's Robbie Burns, although he is dead

See Kirn Song (File: GrD3633)

There's Seven Hundred Wagons on the Way

See The Du Dah Mormon Song (File: Hubb236)

There's Shiploads of Mormonites Coming O'er

See The Man That Knows It All (File: GFGW263)

There's Somebody Under the Bed

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "There's somebody under the bed. Whoever can it be? I feel so very ill. I call (Bonnie) in. (Bonnie) lit the candle. Nobody there! Hi, hi, diddly-i-e, And out she goes!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Daiken, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | bed candle
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 78, "I Call In (Somebody under the bed)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #551, "There's somebody under the bed" (1 text)
Roud #19055
File: AJRR551

There's the Church

See Here Is the Church (File: BGMG605)

There's Tillydeask

DESCRIPTION: The people of Tillydeask, Piltochie, Turnerha and Dudwick's Hill "think themsel's nae sma' But they canna cope wi Elphin For Elphin capes them a'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: pride farming nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 440, "There's Tillydeask" (1 text)
Roud #5954
NOTES [36 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Tillydesk (440) is at coordinate (h3-4,v9-0) on that map [roughly 19 miles N of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3440

There's Times I Think the Lord Himself Must Take a Skeely Down

DESCRIPTION: "There's times I think the Lord himself must take a skeely down To listen to his own wee drums The drums of County Down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: music
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 186, "There's times I think the Lord himself" (1 short text)
Roud #25553
File: KSUC186A

There's toons wi' lasses roon aboot

See The Lass o' Gonar Ha' (File: GrD4724)

There's Whiskey in the Jar

See Whisky in the Jar (The Irish Robber A) [Laws L13A]/The Irish Robber B (McCollister) [Laws L13B] (File: LL13)

These Are All My Father's Children

DESCRIPTION: "These all my father's children (x3), Outshine the sun." "My father's done with the trouble o' the world, with the trouble o' the world, with the trouble o' the world. My father's done with the trouble o' the world, Outshine the sun."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious death nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 101, "These Are All My Father's Children" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12059
File: AWG101

These Bones Gwine Ter Rise Again

See Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again [Laws I18] (File: LI18)

These Corns of Mine

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Lordy! These corns of mine, Just keep burnin' me all the time. I don't try to make no excuse, I can't wear no sharp-toed shoes.... Start out to walk, stop for to talk, Oh, Lordy, these dogs do burn,." The singer must walk in the shade to avoid burns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: injury work hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #102, "These Corns of Mine" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5004
File: Mor102

These Dry Bones of Mine

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "These dry bones of mine Shall come together in the morning." Verses: "What kind of shoes do you wear, Come together in the morning, That you make walk upon the air...." "If you get there before I do ... Look out for me, I'm coming too...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 11, "Dese Dry Bones of Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [28 words]: The reference to the Dry Bones is probably to Ezekiel 37, the Valley of Dry Bones, although that chapter never speaks of the resurrection of a person not already dead! - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart011

These Temperance Folks

DESCRIPTION: "These temp'rance folks do crowd us awfully, crowd us awfully, crowd us awfully. These temp'rance folks.... they think I do not care." The singer complains about the threat to his liberty, concedes that drink has made him poor, and asks to be left alone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: drink political
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 323, "These Temperance Folks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 130, "Forward, Boys, Hurrah!" (1 text)
Roud #7797
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jolly Grinder" (theme)
File: R323

They All Love Jack

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, for 'is heart is like the sea, Ever hopen (sic), brave, an' free, And his girl must lonely be, Till 'is ship comes back. But if love's the best of all, What can a man befall? For every girl at all, They all love Jack!"
AUTHOR: Fred E. Weatherly and Stephen Adams (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart-Songs)
KEYWORDS: sailor love separation
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 166, "They All Love Jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 240-242, "They All Love Jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9444
NOTES [19 words]: For Weatherly, the reputed author of "Danny Boy," and his other works in the Index, see the notes to that song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Doe166b

They Are A' A-Teasing Me

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that "he I love sae well, who has my heart and a' ..., he's owre the seas awa'." Meanwhile, Charlie, Davie, and Willie "They winna lat me be ... they're a' teasing me." Rich Carl would marry but she'll wait for her Jamie.
AUTHOR: words by Kirby, Music by Latour (source: Whitelaw)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: courting separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1337, "They Are A' A-Teasing Me" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 477, "They're A' Teasing Me" (1 text)
Roud #7220
NOTES [17 words]: NLScotland, L.C.1269(156b), "They're A' Teasing Me" ("O' wha is he I love sae well?"), unknown, c.1880
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD71337

They Are Moving Father's Grave

See They're Moving Father's Grave (File: FSWB267)

They Are Taking Us Beyond Miami

DESCRIPTION: "They are taking us beyond Miami, They are taking us beyond the Caloosa River, They are taking us to the end of our tribe...." The singer and the singer's people are being exiled from Florida to "an old town in the west."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933? (collected from Susie Tiger); published by Densmore 1972
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) exile home
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 319, "They Are Taking Us Beyond Miami" (1 text)
File: CAFS1319

They Ca' Me Nelly Douglas butt the Hoose

See Nellie Douglas (File: Ord123)

They Ca' My Faither Windy Tam

DESCRIPTION: "They ca' my faither windy Tam, An' my mither gley'd Girsy; An' me mysel', a fine fudgell...." "He bocht to me a paor o' glo'es" and bad the singer wear them because she was a fine fudgell. Similarly, the man supplies gown and shoon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Laing correspondence, according to Lyle)
KEYWORDS: clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Emily Lyle, _Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition_, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, p, 223,(no title) (1 short text)
NOTES [77 words]: A fudgel, or fodgel, according to Alexander Warrack, The Scots Dialext Dictionary, Waverly Books, 2000, as an adjective means plump or fat, and hence as a noun means someone who is fat, or even a fat animal. It may be that the person if pleasant and plump, but it might also be an insult. So is the gift-giver in this song genuinely courting the singer, or making fun of her? Based on the amount of text in Lyle, it doesn't appear possible to be certain. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: AddTCMFW

They Call Me Hanging Johnny

See Hanging Johnny (File: Doe031)

They Call the Wind Mariah

DESCRIPTION: "Away out here, they have a name For rain and wind and fire... They call the wind Mariah." Mariah is very powerful; before the singer heard her, he had a girl. Now she is gone, and "there ain't no word but lonely"
AUTHOR: Words: Alan Jay Lerner (1918-1986) / Music: Frederick Loewe (1901-1988)
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (musical, "Paint Your Wagon")
KEYWORDS: love separation campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 194, "They Call the Wind Mariah" (notes only)
File: AcSF194W

They came through the town with their banners so gay

See O! They Marched Through the Town (The Captain with His Whiskers) (File: Wa069)

They Come as a Boon and a Blessing to Men

DESCRIPTION: Rhymed advertisement. "They come as a boon and a blessing to men, The Pickwick, the Owl, and the Waverly Pen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 95, "They come as a boon and a blessing to men" (1 text)
Roud #25511
File: KSUC095A

They Cry "Deluded Mormons"

DESCRIPTION: "They cry 'Deluded Mormons' in all the world around, And the reason why they do so is very far from sound." "True Saints rally, around the standard come, Away in Utah's valleys, our lovely mountain home." The world is wicked; the Saints will make an Eden
AUTHOR: probably William Willes
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Willes, The Mountain Warbler)
KEYWORDS: religious home | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 189, "They Cry 'Deluded Mormons'" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: William Willes, _The Mountain Warbler: Being a Collection of Original Songs and Recitations, by WIlliam Willes, with a Selection from Other writes, for the Use of Choirs, Sabbath Schools and Families_, Deseret News Book and Job Establishment, Salt Lake City, 1872 (available on Google Books), pp. 11-12, "They Cry Deluded Mormons" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Aunt Sally" (tune)
NOTES [98 words]: This sounds pretty thoroughly paranoid, although, to be fair, the Mormons really were persecuted. But the lack of introspection is stunning.
Not everything in the Willes book is by Willes (and, we might add, it's texts only; no tunes are printed; despite its title, it's not what I would call a book for choirs!). Willes generally attributes poems written by others, and this has no attribution. On the other hand, he put a "W. W." after some of his own poems, and it doesn't have that, either. It's almost certainly by Willes, but perhaps one could argue that it has not been proved. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC189

They Didn't Believe Me/And When They Asked Us

DESCRIPTION: "And when they asked us How dangerous it was. Oh, we'll never tell them, No, we'll never tell them. We spend our pay in some café... 'Twas the cushiest job we ever had." About life in the trenches, and what they won't tell about it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 93, "They Didn't Believe Me" (1 short text of the derived song starting "And when they asked us," plus the opening words of the source of the parody, "They Didn't Believe Me")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "They Didn't Believe Me" (tune)
NOTES [27 words]: This derives from "They Didn't Believe Me," words by M. E. Rourke, music by Jerome Kern. Although popular, that song does not seem to have gone into tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW093

They Don't Allow Me to Beat Them

DESCRIPTION: "Don't allow me to beat them, Got to drag them along." The singer has been "Stumbling and falling, Trying to get away." "If my woman had of been here, I'd have been gone, She'd have brought my shooter." "Captain got a pistol and he wants to be bad...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (VaWork)
KEYWORDS: prison escape work nonballad worksong animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Willie Williams, "Oh Lord, They Don't 'Low Me to Beat 'Em" (on VaWork)
NOTES [221 words]: The prisoner drives a mule team pulling a plow and, between verses, he hollers at and threatens the mules.
One verse begins "Captain got a pistol and he wants to be bad," and continues, "Must have been the first one That he ever had." That verse is also in Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs as "Cap'n got a 44 an' he try to play bad, Take it dis mornin' ef he make me mad" (John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax, American Ballads and Folk Songs (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1953), pp. 47-52,"Levee Camp 'Holler'"), in one of the Odum and Johnson books as "Captain got a lugger [sic; should be 'luger' pistol used by the Germans in World War I], Tryin' to play bad, I'm goin' to take it in the mornin' If he makes me mad" (Henry W. Odum and Guy B. Johnson, Negro Workaday Songs (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1926 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 105-106, "Don't You Give Me No Cornbread"), and in Hurston as "Cap'n got a pistol and he try to play bad, But I'm going to take it if he make me mad" (Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men (New York: Harper Perennial,1990 (paperback edition of J.B. Lippincott, 1935 original)), pp. 264-266, "Can't You Line It?"). The verse becomes tamer among the menhaden fishermen who have a different relationship to "the captain" (see "Going Back to Weldon"). - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcTDAMBT

They Go Wild

See Bugs Go Wild, Simply Wild, Over Me (File: ACSF096B)

They Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dawg Around

See The Hound Dog Song (File: R512)

They Have Gone

DESCRIPTION: "They have gone to join the number On the other shore, Gone to live in the bright city, There to die no more." Those on earth miss them, but they are in a wonderful place where there is no sorrow. "We shall meet them there in that lovely land of glory."
AUTHOR: Words: Jesse Cook / Music: Jeffie Cook (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
KEYWORDS: death separation reunion religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 54, "They Have Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V36756
File: ABLT054

They Locked Me Up in Bonavist' Jail

See The County Jail (File: GC147)

They Put Me up to Kill Him

DESCRIPTION: "They put me up to kill him, my pore old white-haired dad, I done it with a horseshoe rasp, The only thing I had." The singer describes the murder, then voices his regrets at his foolishness
AUTHOR: Lloyd Robinson?
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: homicide father family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 3, 1935 - Lloyd Robinson murders his father, Robert Robinson. The younger Robinson was sentenced to life imprisonment, and allegedly wrote this song in prison
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 174, "They Put Me up to Kill Him" (1 text)
Roud #5489
File: R174

They Sailed Away From Dublin Bay

See Dublin Bay (Roy Neal) (File: R691)

They Say He Courts Another

See Farewell He (File: FSC41)

They Say I Am Nobody's Darling

See Nobody's Darling on Earth (File: R723)

They say I drink Victor

See Oh Lily, Dear Lily (File: R731)

They Say It is Sinful to Flirt

See Willie Down by the Pond (Sinful to Flirt) [Laws G19] (File: LG19)

They Say That I Am Growing Old

DESCRIPTION: "They say that I am growing old; I've heard them tell it times untold.... This frail old shell in which I dwell Is growing old I know full well, but I am not the shell." Even with bad eyes, "I still can see to follow him Who sacrificed his life for me..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad age
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 149, "They Say That I Am Growing Old" (1 text)
Roud #7524
File: Boet149

They Say That in the Army

See Gee, But I Want to Go Home (File: LxU039)

They Say There Is Gold on the Maggie

DESCRIPTION: "They say there is gold on the Maggie, They say there is gold on the Maud, They say there is gold on the Louis, But it all seems like bullshit to me. Bullshit, bullshit, it all sounds like bullshit to me, to me...." "We found no gold on the Maggie...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2009 (Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ)
KEYWORDS: gold mining travel hardtimes
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 273-274, "(They say there is gold on the Maggie") (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (tune) and references there
File: Garl273

They Sell't His Teeth to Teethe a Rake

DESCRIPTION: "They sell't his teeth to teethe a rake ... They sell't his ribs for riddle rims, His rumple banes to be claes pins. The blacksmith bocht his iron brogues, His carcase feasted the tanner's dogs."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: death horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 644, "They Sell't His Teeth to Teethe a Rake" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Roud #6077
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Besuthan
NOTES [54 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan3 fragment.
Greig/Duncan3 quoting a 1906 letter in Aberdeen Free Press: "['They Sell't His Teeth to Teethe a Rake'] refers to an old crofter or wandering tinker who had lost his horse, and the song goes on to tell how they disposed of his [i.e. the horse's] remains." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3644

They Shall Be Mine

DESCRIPTION: "They shall be mine when I make up my jewels (x2), Shall be mine, they shall be mine, THus said the Lord, they shall be mine." "If you cannot pray or preach like Peter, If you cannot pray or preach like Paul, Shall be mine...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Creighton collection)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 92-93, "They Shall Be Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #31155
File: PoEll092

They Sleep Together Now at Rest

See The Old TB (File: BuMa098)

They Stole Little Bridget

See The Fairies (Up the Airy Mountain) (File: KSUC178B)

They Strolled Down the Lane

DESCRIPTION: "They strolled down the lane together, The sky was studded with stars, They reached the gate together... She raised her brown eyes to him, There was nothing between them now, For he was just a hired man And she was a Jersey cow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: cattle humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 58-59, "She, a Jersey Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harbin-Parodology, #7, p. 10, "They Strolled Down the Lane (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #17265
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mighty Lak a Rose" (tune)
File: Pank058T

They Were All Out of Step But Jim

DESCRIPTION: "Jimmy’s mother went to see her son, Marching along on parade; In his uniform and with his gun, What a lovely picture he made." His mother is so proud of him: "Were you there, and tell me, did you notice? They were all out of step but Jim"
AUTHOR: Irving Berlin (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (sheet music; recording, Billy Murray)
KEYWORDS: soldier humorous mother father drink
FOUND IN:
Roud #V58825
RECORDINGS:
Tom Hanford, "They Were All Out of Step But Jim" (Piotr-Archive #645, recorded 08/16/2023)
Billy Murray, "They Were All out of Step But Jim" (Victor 18465-A, 1918)
NOTES [64 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 323, estimates that this was the #27 most popular song in America in 1918, peaking at #5 in August of the year (the #1 song that year being Callahan and Roberts's "Smiles," the song with the refrain "There are smiles that make us happy....") - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcTWASBJ

They Were Only Playing Leap-Frog

DESCRIPTION: "They were only playing leap-frog (x3) When one grasshopper jumped right over the other grasshopper's back. Oh, it's a lie... You know you're telling a lie." "They were only playing leap-frog When one staff officer jumped right over the other['s]... back"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier bug
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 46, "They Were Only Playing Leap-Frog" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 81, "They Were Only Playing Leap-Frog" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10526
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (partial tune)
NOTES [95 words]: Note that "leapfrog" was an infantry tactic, in which an advance took place in multiple lines. The front line would move forward to some set objective, then halt and dig in or provide covering fire while the next line moved past them to reach a more advanced objective, then the first line (or a third line if the leapfrog were in depth) would again resume the advance and move ahead of the second line, and so forth until the ultimate objective was reached or (World War I being World War I) one or another line had been so shot up that the advance could not continue. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BrPa046

They Were Standing by the Window

See The Broken Engagement (I -- She Was Standing By Her Window) (File: R771)

They Were Very Very Good to Me

See I Wish They'd Do It Now (File: Gil111)

They Will Fite for Each Other

See Locks and Bolts [Laws M13] (File: LM13)

They'll Fight For Each Other

See Locks and Bolts [Laws M13] (File: LM13)

They'll Know We Are Christians by Our Love

DESCRIPTION: "We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord (x2)... And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love." The singer hopes for reunion of the Christian sects and promises to work together with others
AUTHOR: Peter Scholtes (1938-2009) (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1970 (source: Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p.546, "They'll Know We Are Christians by Our Love" (notes only)
NOTES [116 words]: Wikipedia says this was "inspired by" John 13;35, "by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (Yes, the Greek says "have love," not "love" -- the word "love" is a noun, not a verb, though I have no clue if that is significant or why. None of the commentaries I checked had anything to say about the construction).
The reunion of the church is a particular issue for Catholics (which Scholtes was when he wrote this, although he later abandoned his vocation): They considered their theology to be correct, and the Orthodox to be in schism and most Protestant sects to be actual heresies; their goal is for all Christians to rejoin the true church. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF456K

They're Down and They're Down

See A Comical Ditty (Arizona Boys and Girls) (File: JHCox057)

They're Moving Father's Grave

DESCRIPTION: "They're moving Father's grave to build a sewer." Father's remains are being moved "to irrigate some posh bloke's residence"; the singer hopes his ghost will haunt the pipes, "for they had the bleeding nerve/To muck about a British workman's grave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cray-AshGrove)
KEYWORDS: death burial worker ghost humorous
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cray-AshGrove, p. 35, "They Are Moving Father's Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 267, "They're Moving Father's Grave" (1 text)
DT, SEWERMOV SEWERMO2
Roud #10391
NOTES [9 words]: Pity we don't have the keyword "class-struggle". - PJS
File: FSWB267

Thief of the World, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves "the thief of the world ... My heart was gone, my head was gone, my peace of mind likewise ... I'll have her up in court, I'll charge her with the felony." Her sentence: "Around my neck she'll have to hang until her dying day"
AUTHOR: Francis Arthur Fahy (1854-1935) (source: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: love humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 63, "The Thief of the World" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [15 words]: Francis Arthur Fahy is probably most famous as the author of "The Ould Plaid Shawl." - RBW
File: OLcM063

Thimble Buried His Wife at Night

DESCRIPTION: Thimble's scolding wife dies; preparations are made for her burial. Thimble regrets that her diamond ring must stay on her finger. When an attempt is made to remove it, the dead woman walks to protect it. Thimble refuses any dealings with her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death husband wife burial corpse ring
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 205, "Thimble Buried His Wife at Night" (1 fragment)
Roud #6494
File: BrII205

Things About Comin' My Way

DESCRIPTION: "Ain't got no money, can't buy no grub... Now after all my hard trav'ling, Things about comin' my way." The singer complains about all the effects of poverty: Mother's cupboard is bare, the rent is due, sister can't get a doctor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes food disease
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 76, "Things About Comin' My Way" (1 text)
DT, COMMYWAY*
NOTES [39 words]: Without the other text it's hard to be sure, but I think this is a separate song from "I've Got the Left Hind Foot of a Rabbit, Things Are Coming My Way." - PJS
Paul is right; the latter is indexed as "Things Are Comin' My Way." - RBW
File: FSWB076A

Things Are Comin' My Way

DESCRIPTION: "I've got the left hind leg of a rabbit, And things are comin' my way." "He said, oh me... I feel happy all the time." "How good I feel, I got possession of an automobile, And I can eat chicken and I don't have to steal, Because things are comin'..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Sing Out)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 94, "I've Got the Left Hind Foot of a Rabbit" (notes only)
DT, EVMYWAY
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 26, #2 (1977), p, 20, "Things Are Comin' My Way" (1 text, 1 tune, the Bessie Jones version)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Everything's Going My Way
NOTES [24 words]: Not to be confused with "Things About Comin' My Way," which is a near-blues about an out-of-luck singer who expects things to turn around. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: SOv26n2a

Things I Don't Like to See

DESCRIPTION: "I don't like things that look queer to the eye" like ladies reading sonnets or wearing bonnets or corsets, or young boys smoking cigars exclaiming "I'm one of the boys," or broke Broadway dandies, or finely dressed wives of bankrupt men.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, LOCSinging sb40560b)
KEYWORDS: vanity marriage clothes nonballad children drugs
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 232-233, "I Don't Like to See Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 126-127, "I Don't Like to See Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2556, p. 173, "What I Don't Like to See" (1 reference)
Roud #21057
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "Things I Don't Like to See" (Blue Bird B-8279, 1939; rec. 1938)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, sb40560b, "What I Don't Like To See" ("A song I'll sing now in jingle and rhymes"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
SAME TUNE:
What We Want ("What we want is reform, all the people well know") (Foner, p. 138)
Things You Don't Often See ("Kind friends, once again I appear before you, And as you seem craving for something that's new") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, pp. 160-161)
NOTES [101 words]: Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed is close to the LOCSinging broadside and shows no influence of the Uncle Dave Macon recording. Most telling is that Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed retains the four-line refrain, rather than Macon's two-line refrain. The two Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed verses are shared by the broadside and the recording, so verses found only in the broadside or only in the recording are not in the book.
Broadside LOCSinging sb40560b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ow2E126

Things I Used to Do

DESCRIPTION: "Things I used to do I don't do no mo' (x3), There's been a great change since I been born." "Chickens I used to steal I don't steal no mo' (x3), There's been a great change..." "Whisky I used to drink, I don't drink no mo' (x3), There's been...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad virtue
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 482, "Things I Used To Do" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Great Change Since I Been Born
File: San482

Things Impossible

DESCRIPTION: "As I was walking in a grove All by myself as I supposed," the singer meets a pretty girl who asks "To tell her when I would marry." He sets conditions: "When saffron grows on every tree," "When Michaelmas falls in February," etc., then he will marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Logan-APedlarsPack)
KEYWORDS: love courting humorous rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 158, "Things Impossible" (1 text)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 106, "The Inquisitive Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 360-362, "Improbability" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 200, "Then My Love and I'll Be Married" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 221)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 258-260, "A Lady's Answer" (1 text, 1 tune; the text seems to mix "Things Impossible" and "My Wife Went Away and Left Me," in that the speaker is male but asks the woman to marry, not to return to him; perhaps it is close to the original source)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, G.L. Kittredge, editor, "Ballads and Songs," Vol. XXX, No. 117 (Jul-Sep 1917), pp. 352-353 "The Inquisitive Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1891 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol. VII Part 2 [Part 21], pp. 294-298, "O Then My Love and I Will Marry" (2 texts: "The Young Man's Resolution it the Maiden's Request", "The Maiden's Reply to the Young Man's Resolution")
Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth, editor, The Bagford Ballads: Illustrating the Last Years of the Stuarts (Hertford, 1878 ("Digitized by Google")), Second Division, pp. 534-538, "The Maiden's Answer to the Young Man's Request" (1 text).
John Ashton, A Century of Ballads (London, 1887 ("Digitized by Google")) pp. 315-318, "The Young Man's Resolutionto the Maiden's Request" (1 text) [redundant; included here because Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan includes it as an example]
ST GC158 (Partial)
Roud #3686
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 366 [many illegible words], "Improbability" or "The Batchelor's Dislike to a Married Life" ("As I was walking in the grove") , J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Harding B 17(137b), "Improbability" or "The Batchelor's Dislike to a Married Life"; Harding B 28(283), Harding B 25(895), "Improbability" or "An Answer to the Question"
EngBdsdBA 21225, Pepys 3.212, "The Young Man's Resolution to the Maiden's Request" ("As I was walking under a Grove, within myself as I supposed"), Josiah Blare (London), no date, accessed 08 Dec 2013.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Wife Went Away and Left Me" (lyrics)
cf. "Of Late I've Been Driven Near Crazy" (list of improbabilities)
NOTES [2684 words]: This song has lyrics in common with the one indexed as "My Wife Went Away and Left Me"; both involve lists of impossible conditions. But this is a song in which the girl seeks the young man's hand; that is a song in which the man begs her to return after she abandons him. The conditions set are similar, the plots are not.
In addition, although there is a report of this song from Michigan and Kentucky and somewhere in New England, it seems to exist mostly in Britain, whereas "My Wife Went Away and Left Me" seems to be mostly from the southern United States. On this basis, I split them; Roud of course lumps them. Best to check both, though, the Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang version, for instance, seems to live between the other two.
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole's notes on "My Wife Went Away and Left Me" mention a song by Charles D. Vann called "Then My Darling I'll Come Back to Thee." I have not seen it, but it strikes me as possible that Vann took the English piece and rewrote it, resulting in the American version.
The idea of impossible requests is, of course, familiar from pieces such as "The Elfin Knight" [Child 2]. But this song is based on things that will not happen, not things that cannot be done. These sorts of conditions are quite familiar in folklore -- e.g. the fourteenth century "Prophecy of Thomas of Erceldoune," found in British Library MS. Harley 2253, has lines such as
When Londyon ys forest, and forest ys felde....
When Kokesburth nys no burgh and market is at Forwyleye....
(Susanna Fein, editor, Studies in the Harley Manuscript: The Scribes, Contents, and Social Contexts of British Library MS Harley 2253, TEAMS/Western Michigan University, 2000 , p. 177).
Or consider Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3999 (DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #6384), which Rossell Hope Robbins dubs "When to Trust Women":
When nettles in wynter bere Rosis red [When nettles in winter bear roses red]
& thornys bere figges naturally [And thorns bear figs naturally]
& bromes bere appylles in euery mede [And brooms bear apples in every meadow]
& lorelles bere cheris in þe croppis so hie [And laurels bear cherries in the crops so high]
& okes bere dates so plentvosly [And oaks bear dates so plenteously]
and lekes geve hony in þere superfluens [And leeks give honey in their superfluity]
Than put in a woman your trust & confidens [Then put in a woman your trust and confidence].
There are three more stanzas in a similar vein.
This is from the Richard Hill manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354 (c. 1500) There is a second copy in the almost-equally-important Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), for which see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)." A third copy appears in a flyleaf of a printed copy of Trevisa's "Bartholomeus Angelicus" in British Library IB 55242. The first two of these manuscripts are so important, and their combination so significant, that I was almost tempted to index the piece independently -- I would have had it not been possible to mention it here.
For editions of the Balliol 354 text, see Roman Dyboski, Songs Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book, 1908 (I use a [crummy] Forgotten Books print-on-demand copy made in 2016), pp. 114-115; Rossell Hope Robbins, Secular Lyrics of the XIVth and XVth Century, Oxford University Press, 1952, p. 103; Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, Middle English Lyrics, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974 p. 65, #63 (no title) (1 text); R. T. Davies, editor, Medieval English Lyrics: A Critical Anthology, 1963, #125, pp. 223-224, "Impossible to trust women" (1 text).
I note that the last line of this sounds rather more modern than the rest, hinting that the list of Impossible Things is rather older than the warning against women.
Yet another example of impossible contrasts is Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3943/DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #6299, which the DIMEV says is found in 28 different witnesses. Siegfried Wenzel, Preachers, Poets, and the Early English Lyric, Princeton University Press, 1986, p. 194, prints as a typical text,
Whenne lordis wol lose hare olde laws [When lords will lose their old laws]
And prestis buth varyynr in hare sawys [And priests too vary in their saws=wayings],
And lecherye is hold solas [And lechery is held (to be) consolation],
And oppressyoun for purchas [And oppression to (be) (legal) purchase],
Þanne schal þe lond of Labyon [Then shall the land of Albion]
Be nyx to his confusyoun [Be turned to its confusion].
Rather than list all the various printings of this (there are a lot of them), I'll just refer you to the DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse entry.
This was apparently known in some circles as "Merlin's Prophecy" (Wenzel, p. 194 n. 67), and by others falsely attributed to Chaucer (According to Walter W. Skeat, The Chaucer Canon: With a Discussion of the Works Associated with the Name of Geoffrey Chaucer, 1900? (I use the 1965 Haskell House reprint), p. 116, Caxton's 1477(?) edition of Chaucer's "Anelida and Arcite" and other poems included the verse to fill out a page, and so later writers took it to be Chaucerian even though it seems to precede him). Wenzel, p. 195 thinks -- and I agree -- that Shakespeare knew this rhyme, since the fool's poem at the end of "King Lear," Act III, scene ii, seems to be based upon it, and the fool quips "This prophecy Merlin shall make, for I live before his time."
Wenzel, pp. 195-197, lists several more examples of verses of this sort, though several seem to be more prophesies about what is wrong with England than anything else. IMEV numbers include #2356, #3133 (closely related to #3943 above), and #4006.
It is unlikely that all these things are directly related, but that just makes it more certain that there was a substantial genre of impossible contradictions that goes back to the Middle Ages. RBW
This comparison looks at the six texts I have seen for "Things Impossible." In chronological sequence:
-- "Young Man's Resolution"(c.1659): (Ebsworth-Roxburghe, Broadside EngBdsdBA, Pepys 3.212, and Ashton). Ebsworth cites a reference to a 1658 event relating to Cromwell and estimates the date c.1659-1660
-- "Maiden's Reply"(c.1676): (Ebsworth-Roxburghe). Ebsworth believes this must be later than "Young Man's Resolution" and earlier than his Bagford "Maiden's Answer".
-- Bagford(c.1684): (Ebsworth-Bagford). Ebsworth makes the date "about 1684, perhaps earlier, but after 1677."
-- Logan (c.1809): (Logan and Bodleian broadsides Johnson Ballads 366, Harding B 17(137b, Harding B 28(283) and Harding B 25(895)). With minor exceptions [must "swans" or "swarms" breed [probably should be "swim"] "upon dry banks] and a few omitted lines these are essentially the same. Logan found his text in "a broadside, printed in Scotland about 1809; the earliest of the Bodleian broadsides is dated before 1813.
-- Gardner(c.1865): (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan) Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan cites "the Gernsey manuscript" as the source. The date of the manuscript was "written from 1841, or perhaps before, until the time of the Civil War at least" (p. 489).
-- Kittredge(1916): (Kittredge) "... taken down in 1916 ... [in] Kentucky."
-- Williams(c.1923): (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames) before 1923
The ballads may have an introduction and a conclusion. The body of each ballad is a set of one or more verses. Each verse has seven "improbabilities" and a final phrase close to "O then my love and I'll be married."
All of the versions beginning with the Logan (c.1809) set are derived from the three Ebsworth texts printed between c.1659 and c.1684: "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659), "Maiden's Reply" (c.1676), and Bagford (c.1684). Of those, by far the most influential is "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659) and the least influential is Bagford (c.1684). The influences are in the introduction and each of the "improbabilities." None of the later texts has a conclusion.
Description of "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659): The singer, walking in a grove, meets his sweetheart, who asked him "to tell her when I meant to marry." She promises not to interrupt him. Improbabilities. She wishes him well and hopes he might find a wife. She says if all young men were of his mind "it would be when the Devil is blind, that we and our Lovers should be marryed."
Description of "Maiden's Reply" ( c.1676): The singer tells "a young man" not to "think that I do wait your leisure." She "can have sweet-hearts at my pleasure" and will tell him "when I mean with you to marry." Improbabilities. No conclusion.
Description of Bagford (c.1684): "A Damsel fair ... In a silent Grove stood musing, She seem'd to Marriage to incline, And yet she often was refusing. A young man then by chance came by And aske'd her why so long she tarried." Improbabilities. She has seen many married women wish they had remained single. She herself will remain single until "all these things shall come to pass."
Logan (c.1809), Gardner (c.1865) and Kittredge (1916) have introductions. Logan (c.1809) and Gardner (c.1865) introductions include most of the first verse of "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659); specifically, the singer, walking in a grove, meets his sweetheart, who asked him "to tell her when I meant to marry." Kittredge (1916) includes almost the entire introduction of "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659). The question, to be asked again, is what versions after Pepys carried the words to Kentucky 1916?
Williams(c.1923) has no introduction.
The "improbabilities" of the three Ebsworth texts are different. "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659) has 49 improbabilities (a multiple of seven, as expected). "Maiden's Reply" (c.1676) has 63, of which only one is shared with "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659) [a variant of "when saffron groes on every tree"]. Bagford(c.1684) has 56 improbabilities, of which one is shared with both earlier texts, two others with "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659) and one other with "Maiden's Reply" (c.1676).
Of the later texts, allowing for variations discussed below, Gardner (c.1865) has one improbability and Williams (c.1923) has two that cannot be traced back to "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659) or "Maiden's Reply" (c.1676). All of the Logan (c.1809) 35 improbabilities can be found in "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659). Of the Gardner (c.1865) 20 improbabilities [the oral texts no longer keep the structure of seven unique improbabilities to the verse], 17 can be found in "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659) and two others in "Maiden's Reply" (c.1676). All 13 of the Kittredge (1916) improbabilities can be found in "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659). Of the Williams (c.1923) nine improbabilities three can be found in "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659) and four others in "Maiden's Reply" (c.1676).
"Can be found in" is fine for trying to find ultimate sources of improbabilities but hides the intermediate texts. For that aspect we have to look at shared improbabilities. For example, while Logan (c.1809) cannot be an ultimate source for an improbability [since all of its improbabilities are found in "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659) it is a likely intermediate text. Looking backwards:
-- "Maiden's Reply" (c.1676) [63 improbabilities] shares one improbability with "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659).
-- Bagford (c.1684) [56 improbabilities] shares three improbabilities with "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659) and two with "Maiden's Reply" (c.1676).
-- Logan(c.1809) [35 improbabilities] shares 35 improbabilities with "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659), one with "Maiden's Reply" (c.1676), and two with Bagford(c.1684).
-- Gardner (c.1865) [20 improbabilities] shares 17 improbabilities with "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659), three with "Maiden's Reply" (c.1676), two with Bagford(c.1684) and 13 with Logan(c.1809).
-- Kittredge (1916) [13 improbabilities] shares all 13 improbabilities with "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659), 11 with Logan (c.1809), and 8 with Gardner (c.1865).
-- Williams (c.1923) [9 improbabilities] shares three with "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659), four with "Maiden's Reply" (c.1676), and two with Logan (c.1809).
I mentioned "variations" in improbabilities. "Shared" improbabilities are not always identical but seem to me to be closely related. Here are some examples:
-- What improbably grows on trees? "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659) and Logan (c.1809): "when Saffron grows on every Tree"; "Maiden's Reply" (c.1676): "[when] Peasecods grow on every tree"; Bagford (c.1684): "when Guinnies grow on every tree"; Gardner (c.1865): "When sugar grows on cherry trees."
-- What about judges and February? "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659): "When Countrymen for judges sit, and Lambmass falls in February"; Logan (c.1809): "When country men for judges sit, And Michaelmass falls in February"; Gardne r(c.1865): When country girls for judges set, And leaves don't fall till February"; Kittredge(1916): "When countrymen for judges sit, And lemons fall in February."
-- What do swans -- or in some Logan (c.1809) broadsides, "swarms" -- do, and is it improbable at all? "Young Men's Resolution" (c.1659): "[When] Swans upon dry rocks are breeding"; Logan(c.1923): "[When] swans upon dry banks are breeding"; Gardner (c.1865): "[When] swans around dry rocks are swimming"; Kittredge(1916): "[When] swans upon dry rocks are swimming." And -- since I see mute swans breeding on dry banks -- why do we wait until Kittredge(1916) to get this "right"?
-- Notice that, in this case, Logan (c.1809) is skipped as a carrier. "Young Men's Resolution" (c.1659) and Gardner (c.1865): "[When] England into France is carried"; Kittredge (1916): "[When] Old English into France is carried."
How, if at all, does "My Wife Went Away and Left Me" fit? It doesn't. I have looked at the Poole and Harrell texts and Ray B Browne's 1953 text of "My Wife's Gone Off and Left Me" (The Alabama Folk Lyric (Bowling Green, 1979), #85A pp. 216-217). The introduction follows none of the Ebsworth introductions and, instead, has the deserted husband write a letter to his deserting wife. She replies with a list of improbabilities, none of which are shared with "Things Impossible" improbabilities. Sharing among "My Wife Went Away" improbabilities is similar to sharing among "Things Impossible" improbabilities (for example: Poole and Harrell: "When the groc'ry man puts sand in the sugar"; Browne: "When the grocer don't put sand in sugar"), but with more unshared lines (Harrell: "After the ballgame is over"; Browne: "When Texas goes for Prohibition"). The plots vary -- Poole has the husband write two letters; Harrell has the husband visit the wife and get beaten; Browne has no plot beyond the introduction - but the texts are still recognizable as the same song, though not at all "Things Impossible."
An entirely different song following the same idea is "Of Late I've Been Driven Near Crazy" (see Harry B. Peters, editor, Folk Songs Out of Wisconsin (Madison, 1977), pp. 176-177). The deserted husband -- "She ran away with a Chinee" -- writes her "a million of letters" and she replies with lists of improbabilities ("Wait 'til the bank robbers in Canada Bring back all the money they stole. When Jay Gould and the great Knights of Labor And all the trade unions agree."). Once again, no direct connection with "Things Impossible." It was sung in 1946 by a man 75 who heard it at a circus "as a small boy."
EngBdsdBA notes to Pepys 3.212 have J.S. [John Shirley] as the author. Ebsworth notes that the initials are variously reported as J.S and S.P., and suspects "the initials form another disguise for J[ohn] P[hillips], S[atyrist of Hypocrites]" and claims J.S "cannot be James Shirley."
EngBdsdBA have the tune of "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659) as "In summer time." Ebsworth assigns "the Robin Hood tune, 'In summer time when leaves grow green,' to "Young Man's Resolution" (c.1659), "Maiden's Reply" (c.1676) and the Bagford "Maiden's Reply." - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GC158

Things That Are Naughty Are Nice to Do

DESCRIPTION: "Things that are naughty are nice to do, Nice to do, nice to do, Things that are naughty are nice to do, So let's be nice and naughty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | naughty nice
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 158, "Things that are naughty are nice to do" (1 text)
Roud #25399
NOTES [21 words]: My immediate instinct is that this was sung to the tune "Gathering Nuts in May," but I have no evidence for that conclusion. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC158A

Things That I Used to Do, The

DESCRIPTION: "Things I used to do I ain't gonna do no more." Singer looked for his lover but she was "hid out with her other man." He says he's sending his lover to her home and he'll go to his home. "I ain't gonna live this old life no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Recording, Guitar Slim)
KEYWORDS: infidelity sex parting home nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Guitar Slim (Eddie Jones), "The Things That I Used To Do" (Specialty XSP-482, 1953)
George Lee 'Sun Bud' Spears, "I Ain't Gonna Live It No More" (on USMississippi01)
NOTES [82 words]: Sister Rosetta Tharpe's "Things That I Used To Do (And I Don't Do No More)" (1959,on "The Gospel Truth," Mercury MG 20412) (attributed to Katie Bell Nutin) is the same format as Guitar Slim's song, but Thorpe is singing a spiritual and the things she doesn't do are not anything like his. Tharpe's chorus is ("Things I used to do I don't do 'em no more" (x3) "What a bad change since I been born") She goes on "bad change ... goodby" She sings "Lies I used to tell, I don't tell 'em no more." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcTTIUD

Think of Me

DESCRIPTION: The singer remembers Maggie. "How I wish love, I were near you as in happy days long past" He hopes she'd "think of golden summer evenings and think kindly dear of me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1255, "Think of Me" (1 text)
Roud #6791
File: GrD61255

Thinnest Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "The (thinnest/skinniest) man I ever saw Lived over in (Hoboken), And if I told you how thin he was, You'd think that I was joking." Various tall tales about the thin man's exploits, and the dangers he faces (e.g. falling through his pants and choking)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Tom Warfield's "Helen's Babies" Songster)
KEYWORDS: humorous talltale
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 175, "The Skinniest Man I Ever Knew" (2 texts, tune referenced)
Harbin-Parodology, #123, p. 37, "The Thinnest Man" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: Harbin-Parodology, #123, p. 37, "The Thinnest Man" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #15357
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pep (The Peppiest Camp)" (lyrics, form)
NOTES [88 words]: The Pankakes list at least one of their versions as being to the tune of "Take Me Back to Tulsa," but as they date that song to 1941, it can hardly be the original melody. Harbin lists the tune as "O Me, O My," implying some older text along the same lines.
The gag in the song seems to be widely known. For example, Peter and Iona Opie, I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth, #96, runs, "Chartlie, Charlie, in the tub, Charlie, Charlie, pulled out the plug. Oh my goodness, oh my soul, There goes Charlie down the hole." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: PHCFS175

Thirteen Yule Days

See The Twelve Days of Christmas (File: FO213)

Thirteenth Lock, The

DESCRIPTION: A canal boat sails for the unlucky thirteenth lock. Women on shore cry. The man at the mast refuses to steer and is kicked overboard as a mutineer. A monster appears. Those on shore, including one who had lent the captain half his gold, wait in vain.
AUTHOR: Arthur Griffith (1872-1922)
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: canal humorous mutiny drowning parting disaster ship talltale monster sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 1, "The Thirteenth Lock" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OLcM001

Thirty Bright Guineas Was to Be Your Fee

DESCRIPTION: "Thirty bright guineas was to be your fee, Right fal de diddle al de diddle dee; Other thirty and married ye shall be Wi' your firl a tirl a right Fal de diddle al de diddle dee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: marriage money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1791, "Thirty Bright Guineas Was to Be Your Fee" (1 fragment)
Roud #12993
NOTES [214 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
A real stretch. Is this couplet all that's left of "The Old Man Outwitted," a broadside "supposed by Mr Halliwell to date about the middle of the eighteenth century," [Leigh] which has the same general plot outline as "The Old Miser." That broadside includes the following lines: "'Here's thirty bright guineas I'll freely give thee If you can contrive to take him to sea" [lines 49, 50], "And that very minute you bring her to town, That moment I will pay thee five hundred pound. Nay that is not all, for to finish the strife, I'll freely agree for to make her your wife" [lines 131-134]; all lines are spoken by the old man but the first lines are spoken to the sea captain paid to arrange the impressment of the hero, while the second are spoken to the hero to arrange for the rescue from supposed impressment of the daughter.
See Egerton Leigh, editor, Ballads and Legends of Chesire (London, 1867 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 66-74, "The Old Man Outwitted"; Broadsides Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(31a), "The Fortunate Lover" or "The Old Man Out-Witted" ("Let all loyal lovers which around me do stand"), Diceys or Marshall (London), no date; also Harding B 3(77), "The Fortunate Lover" or "The Old Man Out-Witted" - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81791

Thirty Days Hath September

DESCRIPTION: "Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November; All the rest have thirty-one, Excepting February alone, And that has twenty-eight days clear, And twenty-nine in every leap year."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Halliwell); the earliest manuscript is said to be from the first half of the fifteenth century
KEYWORDS: nonballad MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 469, "Thirty Days Hath September" (1 text plus various related texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #328, p. 180, "(Thirty Days Hath September)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 50, "Thirty Days Hath September" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3571
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #5649
cf. Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 64, "(Thirty days has September, All the rest I can't remember)" (1 parody text suggesting looking at the calendar on the wall)
ADDITIONAL: Rossell Hope Robbins, _Secular Lyrics of the XIVth and XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1952, #68, "Days in the Months" (1 short text)
Maxwell S. Luria & Richard Hoffman, _Middle English Lyrics_, a Norton Critical Edition, Norton, 1974, p. 109, #106 (no title) (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT:London, British Library, MS. Harley 2341, folio 5
MANUSCRIPT: Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales MS. Mostyn Welsh 129, folio 3
MANUSCRIPT: Ripon Minster Library, Cathedral MS (added in the flyleaf of a copy of Cicero's Letters)
MANUSCRIPT: San Marino, Henry Huntington Library MS. HU 1051, folio 48
MANUSCRIPT: Davies Cooke 21 (LOST manuscript)
Roud #20085
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dirty Days Hath September" (parody)
NOTES [234 words]: Robbins's version of this runs
Thirti dayes hath nouembir,
April, iune, and septembir;
Of xxviijti is but oon,
And all the remenaun xxxti and j.
Obviously the same piece, even if the words have wandered a little over the years!
This is from the British Library manuscript Harley 2341 (folio 5), but the Index of Middle English Verse lists four other manuscript versions. The British Library web site states that the manuscript is primarily a "Prayer manual with a calendar (ff. 2v-13), Psalter of Jerome, and prayers to Christ, the Virgin Mary, and various saints"; it is dated to the first half of the fifteenth century. Much of the text is in Latin; based on the IMEV, this is the only piece of Middle English verse in it.
A scan of the page with this particular verse can be found at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMINBig.ASP?size=big&IllID=56506
It is interesting to see that this verse, despite being out of place in such a volume, is clearly from the scribe of the codex, and decorated in the same style, although not as elaborately as the calendar above it.
Of the other manuscripts, Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales MS. Mostyn Welsh 129 has only two other Middle English items; the Huntington manuscript three, the Ripon manuscript has none at all, the Cooke manuscript as far as known had none. This seems to have been a bit of lore with no "folk" associations. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OO2469

Thirty Days in Jail

DESCRIPTION: "Good mornin', Blues; Blues, how do you do? (x2) I just come here to have a few words with you." "Thirty days in jail... back turned to the wall... Mr. Jailkeeper, put another man in my stall." "I don't mind being in jail, but I got to stay here so long."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: prison nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 174, "Thirty Days in Jail" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa174 (Partial)
Roud #7492
File: Wa174

Thirty Pieces of Silver

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis a sad but true story, from the Bible it came, And it tells how Judas sold the Savior in shame.... Thirty pieces of silver was the price they would pay." "Thirty pieces of silver, thirty shekels of shame." Jesus is crucified. Judas commits suicide
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious death bargaining betrayal suicide Jesus
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 169-170, "Thirty Pieces of Silver" (1 text)
Roud #10873
NOTES [968 words]: The details of this are almost entirely from the Gospel of Matthew; although all four Gospels agree that Judas betrayed Jesus, the story differs (e.g. Mark and John do not say what happened to Judas after the betrayal, and Acts 1:18-19 gives him a painful and ignominious death).
The "thirty pieces of silver" are from Matthew 26:15 (in which the authorities give Judas the money), 27:9 (in which he rejects and returns it after Jesus has been condemned) "but it is unlikely that Matthew had historical information about this point [i.e. the amount of payment].... Matthew has read this detail out of the Old Testament" (Fenton, p. 413, who adds that there are many citations of the last chapters of Zechariah in this part of Matthew). Matthew attributed the prophecy he cites to the prophet Jeremiah; in fact it is Zechariah 11:12-13, which says, "(12) They weighed out as my wages thirty shekels of silver.... (13) So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them into the treasury in the Lord's house."
At least, that is how the New Revised Standard Version reads Zechariah 11. In verse 13, the NRSV follows the reading of the Syriac translation, which reads "into the treasury"; the Hebrew has instead "to the potter." (The two differ by just one letter.) The Latin Vulgate interprets "ad statuarium," i.e. "for statues" (which might, by extension, mean "for images"). The Greek sort of splits the difference, having "into the smelter" (but otherwise translating the Hebrew very differently). The Jewish Tanakh version, interestingly, reads "treasury" instead of "potter," justifying it by saying that the meaning of the Hebrew unclear.
Even though the NRSV and Tanakh considers the Hebrew text of Zechariah to be corrupt, as do most other modern translations, the Hebrew reading "potter" used in the King James Bible was clearly known to "Matthew," since Matthew 27:7 refers to buying the potter's field with the money Judas was given for betraying Jesus. Interesting that "Matthew" got that right but couldn't get the book right! (But Matthew's text neither cites the Greek Septuagint translation nor translates the Hebrew precisely; probably it is his own loose translation of a Hebrew text he remembered imperfectly -- Beare, p. 526, calls the citation "so mangled as to be almost impossible for us to disentangle.")
We should further note that the original text of Matthew listed "Jeremiah" as the source, but later scribes, realizing his mistake, tried to cover for him. A variant in the Harkleian Syriac translation, plus the mildly interesting Greek manuscript 22, corrected it to "Zechariah"; the Latin translation l read "Isaiah" (probably on the basis that most prophetic quotations were from Isaiah); the more significant Greek manuscripts Φ 33 157 plus the Latins a b and the Sinai and Peshitta Syriac versions omitted the name (NA28, p. 94). However, "Jeremiah" is included in the most important Greek manuscripts, including those known as ℵ A B C D L W Θ 892 (that's nine of the ten most important manuscripts, 33 being the tenth), and is clearly original. (Albright/Mann, p. 341, suggest that the attribution to Jeremiah might be because Jeremiah bought a field in Jer. 32:6-15 and visited a potter in Jer. 18:2-4).
After all that talk of uncertainty and misattribution, we can say with certainty that the suicide of Judas is told in Matthew 27:5, and that the only significant variant in that verse is whether Judas threw down his blood money IN (εν) the shrine [presumably the inner part of the Temple], FROM (εκ) the shrine, or INTO (εις) the shrine, with the reading "into" being best supported.
As a final note, although Zechariah said that the silver coins were shekels, and the song picks that up, Matthew never calls them shekels -- he doesn't even call them coins! He just calls it "thirty of silver" (except that, in 26:15, D and the best Latins read "thirty staters" and 1 and the Latin h read "thirty staters of silver"; NA28, p. 88). In Matthew 27, every manuscript calls it just "silver." Thus it is possible that the authorities weighed out the money rather than gave Judas coins (indeed, the verb "paid," εστησαν, means primarily "weighed out," according to Beare, p. 507); the translation thirty PIECES is not really justified by context. If they paid him in shekels -- and we don't know what units they paid him in! -- the shekel, unlike the Greek denarius or Roman stater, was formally a weight, not a coin.
The closest Greek equivalent of the shekel was probably the denarius, frequently mentioned elsewhere in the Gospels, but there is no reason to say whether the coin was or was not a denarius, or a shekel, or a stater, or something else. I doubt Judas would actually have betrayed Jesus for a mere thirty denarii; "Matthew" was just indulging his penchant for citing the Hebrew Bible. Albright/Mann, p. 316, do say that thirty shekels was the traditional price of a slave (based presumably on Exodus 21:32, where thirty shekels are owed by the owner of a bull which gores a slave, or some similar verse). However, Leviticus 27:3 gives thirty shekels as the value of an adult female slave, with a male slave being fifty shekels. Moreover, inflation had eaten somewhat into the value of a shekel by New Testament times. A healthy male slave would not have sold for thirty shekels in 30 C.E. in ordinary circumstances. "If the thirty coins were shekels, the total bribe was about a month's wages [for a laborer], small pay for so great an act of treason. This hardly suggests greed for money. To 'Matthew' the fulfilment of prophecy held more interest than the idea of financial profit" (Filson, p. 272).
Of course, someone who knew only the King James Bible would not know most of this. The song is basically correct based on the King James of Matthew 26-27. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS169

Thirty White Horses

DESCRIPTION: "Thirty white horses Upon a red hill, Now they tramp, Now they champ, Now they stand still."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Halliwell) (but see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: riddle animal
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 229, "Thirty white horses" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #704, p. 275, "(Thirty white horses)"
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Joseph D. Clark, "More North Carolina Riddles," Vol. IX, No. 1 (Jul 1961), p. 18 (#114), "(Twenty white horses on a red hill)" (1 text)
NOTES [279 words]: Chances are, if you've met this riddle, it's from Tolkien's The Hobbit (p. 85 in my edition, in the chapter "Riddles in the Dark"; he uses a slightly different form of the text). But it is much older (even Gollum calls it a "chestnut"). Tolkien's use of an item from oral tradition is not coincidence; Tolkien uses familiar riddles to imply the common ancestry of Gollum and Bilbo.
The answer is "the teeth" or "the teeth and gums."
The Opies refer this to a riddle in the Holme manuscript, "Four and twenty white Bulls sate upon a stall, forth came the red Bull & licked them all." I suppose they're related, in that the answer is the teeth (plus, in this case, the tongue). But I wouldn't consider it exactly the same (apart from the fact that neither gets the number of teeth right: A person with wisdom teeth will have 32 teeth; one whose wisdom teeth are out will have 28).
The "Thirty white horses" form goes back at least to Halliwell.
Duncan Emrich seems to think there is an American version of this; he quotes almost exactly this form on page 168 of Folklore on the American Land. But he cites no precise source, simply crediting much of the chapter to the research of Archer Taylor. Nonetheless the NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal version (related to something in the Brown collection) seems to prove he's right
I do not know how old riddles of this type are, but Englsih riddles of recognition based on such cryptic descriptions are effectively as old as English as a written language. Riddles of similar style are found in the Old English "Exeter Book," written probably between 950 and 1000 C.E., one of the four great collections of Anglo-Saxon verse. - RBW, (BS)
Last updated in version 6.1
File: BGMG704

Thirty Years Ago (The Stinger)

DESCRIPTION: "In a recent Independent I read a sketch that told of affairs and folks in Ashland way back in days of old When the Stinger ran each Sunday...." The singer looks back on his good old days as he worked for the newspaper
AUTHOR: Rush Pennypacker?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: nonballad age
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 194-196, "Thirty Years Ago" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 197-199)
NOTES [16 words]: Frankly, if this is the way the guy edited the newspaper, it's no wonder he's out of the job. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa194

Thirty-Two Special on a Forty-Four Frame, A

See Railroad Bill [Laws I13] (File: LI13)

This Day (The Battle of Bull Run)

DESCRIPTION: "This day will be remembered by America's noble sons! / If it hadn't been for Irishmen, what would our Union done? / It was hand to hand we fought 'em, all in the blazing sun, / Stripped to the pants we did advance in the battle of Bull Run."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 21, 1861 - First Battle of Bull Run
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 25, "This Day (or, The Battle of Bull Run)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 29, "The Battle of Bull Run" (1 excerpt)
DT, BULLRUN
Roud #7465
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Bull Run" [Laws A9] (subject: the battle of Bull Run) and notes and referenes there
NOTES [164 words]: We can only assume this song refers to the First Battle of Bull Run; presumably, had the second (fought Aug. 29-30, 1862) been meant, the song would say so.
It's hard to imagine what the Unionists were boasting of in this song. The First Battle of Bull Run was a fairly closely-fought fight, but ended with the complete rout of the Union forces. Federal commander Irvin McDowell, whose army was composed mostly of ninety-day volunteers (!), was pressured by Washington to do something before the enlistments ran out. He had no choice but to push his raw army forward. The Confederate troops were equally raw, but were on the defensive, and held off the Federals. The Union army then went completely to pieces -- but the Confederates, their forces just as badly off as the Federals, could not pursue.
According to Jonatha Lighter, the tune for this (sung by Yankee John Galusha, who seems to have been the only one to remember it) is somewhat similar to "The Lindolnshire Poacher." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Wa025

This Day Week I'll Nae Be Here

DESCRIPTION: "And this day week I'll nae be here This day fortnight I'll see my dear This day three weeks I'll be his bride And this day month I'll lie by his side"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: marriage sex nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1356, "This Day Week I'll Nae Be Here" (1 short text)
Roud #7234
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan7 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71356

This Endernight I Saw a Sight

See This Endris Night (File: OBC039)

This enders nyght I saw a sight

See This Endris Night (File: OBC039)

This Endris Night

DESCRIPTION: "This endris night I saw a sight, a star as bright as day, And ever among, a maiden sung, Lulley, by-by, lullay." The baby Jesus and his mother discuss his future: He will be great, and the mighty will bow to him -- but for now he asks her to care for him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus mother MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 39, "This Endris Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #151, pp. 10-12, "(no title)" (3 texts)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 62-63, "This Endernight I saw a sight" (1 text, with a slightly different meter but enough similar words that I think it should be mentioned here)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics LVIV, pp. 121-123, "(no title)" (1 text); compare LXIII, pp. 119-120; LXXXVII, pp. 157-158
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3627; compare #3596
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #5729; compare #5683
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #35, pp. 25-26, "[This enders nyght I saw a sight]" (1 text), with two additional texts and variant readings from a third on pp. 174-176
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #41, pp. 99-101, "(This endurs nyght)" (1 text)
John Julian, editor, _A Dictionary of Hymnology_, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 209
Thomas Wright, _Song and Carols, Now First Printed, From a Manuscript of the FIfteenth Century_, Percy Society, 1847, #X, p. 12, ("Thys endrys ny3th") (1 text)
Celia and Kenneth Sisam, _The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse_, Oxford University Press, 1970; corrected edition 1973, #210, pp. 466-469, "Lullay, By-by, Lullay"; #212, pp. 472-473, "Lullay, my child" (2 texts)
cf. Carleton Brown, editor, Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1939, #5, pp. 7-8, "She Sang, Dear Son, Lullay" (1 text, with this first verse although the rest appears to be something else)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 226 [IMEV #3627]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 17 [IMEV #3627]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSHeege}, The Heege Manuscript, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 19.3.1, folio 210 [IMEV #3627]
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Royal App. 58, folio 52 [IMEV #3627]
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 20 [IMEV #3596]
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, University Library MS. Additional 5943, folio 145 [IMEV #3596] (short text)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library MS. Additional 5666, folio 2 [IMEV #3596]
ST OBC039 (Partial)
NOTES [400 words]: Although no longer found in tradition, this seems to have been very popular in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. It is in the Hill MS. (Balliol College, Oxford, 354, folio 226), in British Library MS. Add. 3192, in Sloane MS. 2593, Bodleian MS. Eng. poet. e.1 (folios 17v-18v), with music in British Library MS. Royal Appendix 58 (the manuscript most famous for containing "Westron Wind"), and in the Advocates Library, Edinburgh, MN. 19.3.1 (the source of Greene's text). The first verse is shown as a chorus in manuscript Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 189. Such wide currency, to me, implies that it belongs in the Index,
It is old enough that the Percy Society printing, at least, still uses a yogh (ȝ) rather than "gh."
In the circumstances, it's rather sad to note that nothing whatsoever in this song is Biblical.
One other irony -- the manuscript containing the version of this with music, Brirish Library Royal Appendix 58, is full of secular love lyrics ("A[h] the sighs that come from my heart," "For my pastime upon a day"/"Colle to me the rysshys grene," "The little pretty nightingale," "By a bank as I lay"), verses to a mistress (including the famous "Westron Wind"), and even an "erotic carol," "Kytt she wept; I axyde why soo"/"Kitt she wept I asked why so"/"Kitt hath lost her key."
There is another "This Endris Night" lyric, "This endris nyght, I saw a sygth, A mayd a cradyll kepe." This also occurs in Bodleian MS. Eng. poet. e.1; in addition it is in Cambridge University Library MS. Additional 5943 and in British Library Additional 5666. It very possibly deserves indexing too, but I decided it was sufficient to note it here, since it has not been printed as often. It's Brown/Robbins IMEV #3596, and Greene #151, and is cited in the manuscripts list after the list for IMEV #3627.
E. K. Chambers, English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages, Oxford, 1945, 1947, p. 108, suggests that a carol in the earlier Grimestone manuscript, indexed as "Als I Lay Upon a Nith (As I Lay Upon a Night)" (IMEV #352, four copies II) is somehow ancestral to this, but that strikes me as a little too conjectural to list that piece here.
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115].
For more about the famous anthology Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OBC039

This Endurs Nyght

See This Endris Night (File: OBC039)

This Here's a Needy Time

See Been in the Storm So Long (File: RcBITSWL)

This House is Haunted

See Calliope (This House is Haunted) (File: San349)

This House to Let, No Rent to Pay

See House to Let, Apply WIthin (File: SuSm100)

This Is a Sin-Trying World

DESCRIPTION: "This is a sin-trying world (x4)." "Oh, heav'n is so high and I am so low, I don't know whether I'll ever get to Heav'n or no." "Jordan's stream is chilly and wide." "Way over yonder in the harvest field." "You many bury me in the east."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad river home
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 75, "This Is a Sin-Trying World" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12085
File: FSAN075

This Is East

DESCRIPTION: The singer, ten years old, lists what he has learned to distinguish: east from west, high from low, narrow from wide, mouth from chin, nose from eyes. He is also learning manners.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
KEYWORDS: pride nonballad children
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30674
RECORDINGS:
Frankie Nash, "This Is East" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
File: ITMAThEa

This Is Halloween

DESCRIPTION: "This is Halloween, And the morn's Hallowday; If you want a true love, It's time you were away. Tally on the window-board Tally on the green, Tally on the window-board, The morn's Halloween."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: nonballad courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 368, "This is Halloweven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 130, "(This is Hallowe'en)" (1 text)
Roud #5911
File: MSNR130

This is Halloweven

See This is Halloween (File: MSNR130)

This Is My Country

DESCRIPTION: "What difference if I hail from North or South Or from the East or West?" "This is my country, Grandest on earth." The singer pledges allegiance to the country of (his) birth and of his choice
AUTHOR: Words: Don Raye / Music: Al Jacobs (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (recording by Fred Waring; reportedly composed 1940) (source: WIkipedia)
KEYWORDS: patriotic nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 549, "This Is My Country" (notes only)
File: ACSF549T

This Is My Father's World

DESCRIPTION: "This is my Father's world, And to my listening ears All nature sings, and round me rings The music of the spheres." The song praises the nature that the Father created: "The Lord is King: let the heavens ring! God reigns; let earth be glad!"
AUTHOR: Words: Maltbie D(avenport) Babcock (1858-1901) (source: hymnary.org; Johnson) / Music: see NOTES
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 331, "This Is My Father's World" (notes only)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp, 112-113, "This Is My Father's World" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [382 words]: Apparently camps with a strong religious bent like this because of the nature references. (It reportedly was inspired by an actual nature walk.) I can't help but feel that it's sexist, even though there is no question but that the New Testament refers to the leading person of the Trinity as "the Father."
According to Johnson, p. 112, author Maltbie Babcock was born in Syracuse, New York, and attended Syracuse University and Auburn Theological Seminary. He was ordained into the Presbyterian church, serving as a pastor for the last fifteen years of my life, dying while on a trip to Italy.
Interestingly, although Johnson says the tune of this is by Franklin L. Sheppard (who published this and other Babcock hymns in Alleluia), hymnary.org does not mention this attribution. In fact the situation is rather complex; Babcock did write his own tunes (Julian p. 1608), but this piece is an exception, since it wasn't intended as a hymn and was not published as one in Babcock's lifetime: the common text is part of a longer Babcock poem (16 stanzas, according to Reynolds, p. 225) found in Babcock's Thoughts for Everyday Living which was not published until Babcock was dead (Stulkin, p. 559).
McKim, p. 293, says Sheppard extracted the lyrics and set a tune, which he thought he had learned from his family, so he called it an English melody. McKim calls this melody "Terra Beata." If it is based on anything, it is probably "Rusper," which is associated with William Chatterton Dix. However Reynolds, p. 226, says that Sheppard thought he was using an existing tune, but that it was in fact original; Reynolds calls the tune "Terra Patris." (Stulkin, p. 559, mentions both names but prefers "Terra Patris.") The likeliest explanation is that Sheppard mis-remembered "Rusper" and produced this instead.
Although Babcock wrote a number of hymns, this is the only one that is at all familiar to me, although "Back of the Loaf the Snowy Flour" is also in the Index.
Julian, p. 1608, says that Dr. C. E. Robinson published a biography of Babcock in 1904 (though all the sources I checked all seemed to have the same details of Babcock's life; clearly they were all reading each other, with no more than one of them reading the biography). Some of Babcock's sermons were also published. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF331T

This Is Nae My Ain Lassie

DESCRIPTION: "O this is nae my ain lassie, Fair tho' the lassie be, For weel keen I my ain lassie, Kind love is in her e'e." His Jean can "steal a blink by a' unseen" and only he sees "the kind love that's in her e'e"
AUTHOR: Robert Burns (source: Dick -- but note that Dick attributes it to the Orpheus Caledonius, published before Burns was born)
EARLIEST DATE: 1733 (Orpheus-Caledonius, according to Dick)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 714, "This Is Nae My Ain Lassie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 414, "This Is No My Ain Lassie" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James C Dick, The Songs of Robert Burns (London: Henry Frowde, 1903 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), #96 p. 90, "I See A Form, I See a Face" (1 text, 1 tune)
James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #507, pp. 630-631, "[O this is no my ain lassie]" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1795/1796)
Roud #6156
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Are You There Moriarity" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
cf. "This Is Nae My Plaid" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
File: GrD4714

This Is No Mine Ain House

See This Is No My Ain House (File: GrD1119)

This Is No My Ain House (I)

DESCRIPTION: "O this is no my ain house." "A carle came ... claim'd my daddy's place." The "cringing foreign goose" seized it. "Was it foul, or was it fair, To come a hunder mile and mair, For to ding out [beat] my daddy's heir, And dash him with the whiggin o't?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scots Musical Museum, #216)
KEYWORDS: political Jacobites home royalty children
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 37, "This Is No My Ain House" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 413-414, "This Is No My Ain House" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 119, "This Is Nae My Ain Hoose" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #216, p. 225, "This is no mine ain house" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST GrD1119 (Partial)
Roud #3790
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "This Is Nae My Plaid" (tune)
NOTES [217 words]: Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 refers to "the allegory here of Scotland losing its rightful owner." - BS
A pretty thin allegory. The interesting question is whether it refers to the Williamite succession of 1689 or the Hannoverian of 1714.
Ewan MacColl, in "Songs of Two Rebellions," argues for 1714. Certainly some of the allusions argue that way -- e.g. the "cringing foreign goose" certainly sounds like Madame Kielmansegge, one of George I's mistresses, widely known as "the Goose." Thackerey (quoted by Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, Blood Royal, the Illustrious House of Hannover, Doubleday, 1980, p.26), described her as follows: "The Countess [Kielmansegge was George's Countess of Darlington] was a large-sized noblewoman, and this elevated personage was denominated the Elephant."
On the other hand, the reference to "com[ing] a hundred mile and mair" could refer either to William III's invasion of 1688 or George III's arrival in 1714. Both are hundreds of miles from London, but from the Netherlands to the Thames is only about half the distance from Hannover to England, and it's all sea distance. Most of the distance from Hannover is over land; the fastest route there (via the North Sea and the Weser) is probably three times the distance from the Texel to the English coast. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD1119

This Is No My Ain House (II)

DESCRIPTION: "This is no mine ain house I ken by the biggin o't... bread and cheese are my door cheeks And pancakes the riggin o't." "This is no my ain wean I ken by the greetie o't... I'll tak the curchie aff my head And row't about the feetie o't."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1724 (Johnson-Stenhouse, see Notes)
KEYWORDS: home baby nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 413, "This Is No My Ain House" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, William Stenhouse, editor, The Scotish Musical Museum (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1839 (Reissue of 1790 edition) ("Digitized by Google"), Vol. III, #216 Illustrations p 208, "This Is No Mine Ain House" (1 text)
NOTES [20 words]: Johnson-Stenhouse Illustrations p. 208 has this nursery rhyme as a source for Ramsay's "This Is No My Ain House" (III). - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: WhSo413

This Is No My Ain House (III)

DESCRIPTION: "This is no mine ain house I ken by the riggin o't." The singer is married and leaving her father's house. In her own house she intends "Avoiding ilka cause of strife That makes ane wearied of his wife"
AUTHOR: Allan Ramsay
EARLIEST DATE: before 1724 (Johnson-Stenhouse, see Notes)
KEYWORDS: love marriage home parting nonballad father husband wife
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 413, "This Is No My Ain House" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsay, The Poems of Allan Ramsay (London: T Cadell Jun and W. Davies, 1800 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II, p. 282, "This Is No My Ain House"
James Johnson, William Stenhouse, editor, The Scotish Musical Museum (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1839 (Reissue of 1790 edition) (("Digitized by Google"), Vol. III, #216 p 225, Illustrations pp. 208-210, "This Is No Mine Ain House" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3790
NOTES [34 words]: Johnson-Stenhouse Illustrations p. 208: "This song was written by Ramsay, prior to the year 1724; but he borrowed a line or two from the following old nursery ditty [see This Is No My Ain House (II)]." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: WhSo413A

This Is No My Ain Lassie

See This Is Nae My Ain Lassie (File: GrD4714)

This Is No My Plaid

DESCRIPTION: "This is no my plaid... Bonnie though the colours be." "The ground o' mine was mixed with blue, I gat it frae the lad I lo'e." The lad who wore the plaid "is now upon a distant shore," and "his name I daurna tell," but she hopes he will return and wed her
AUTHOR: W. Halley (source: Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: love clothes Jacobites separation exile
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 260-262, "This Is No My Plaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan5 1063, "This Is Nae My Plaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 414, "This Is No My Plaid" (1 text)
Roud #6720
SAME TUNE:
The Croppy Boy (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 37)
NOTES [53 words]: Neither Ford nor Whitelaw connects this with Bonnie Prince Charlie, but there seems no doubt that he is the subject; hence the "Jacobite" keyword. - RBW
Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(140), "This Is No My Plaid" ("O this is no my plaid"), unknown, no date is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: FVS260

This Is Sunday, Sabbath Day

DESCRIPTION: "This is Sunday, Sabbath day, This is why you mustn't play, Run about or make a noise Like the naughty girls and boys."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 111, "This is Sunday, Sabbath Day" (1 text)
Roud #25222
File: KSUC111A

This Is Table Number One

See We Are Table Number One (File: ACSF285W)

This is the Boy that Broke into the Barn

See Brak the Barn (File: PKKB047G)

This Is the Church

See Here Is the Church (File: BGMG605)

This is the hammer that kill John Henry

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

This Is the House That Jack Built

See The House That Jack Built (File: RcTHTJBu)

This Is the Key of the Kingdom

DESCRIPTION: "This is the Key of the Kingdon: In that Kingdom is a city; In that city is a town; In that town there is a street" all leading to "A basket of sweet flowers. The game reverses: "Flower in a basket, basket on the bed... this is the key of the Kingdom"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (de la Mare)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad flowers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #664, pp. 264-265, "(This is the key of the kingdom)"
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 157, "The Key to the Kingdom" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, p. 563, "This Is the Key of the Kingdom" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #1=#483, "This Is the Key" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Got a Key to the Kingdom" (lyric)
File: CHit483

This Is the Nicht My Johnnie Set

DESCRIPTION: "This is the nicht my Johnnie set, And promised to be here; Oh, what can stay his longing step? He's fickle grown, I fear." She describes how carefully she has prepared for his coming. At last he arrives and they prepare for a snug evening.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: love separation nightvisit
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 84-86, "This Is the Night My Johnnie Set" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #102, p. 2, "This Is the Nicht My Johnny Set" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 795, "This is the Nicht My Johnnie Set" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 146-147, "This Is the Nicht My Johnnie Set" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 243-244, "This is the Nicht My Johnnie Set"(1 text)
Roud #5553
File: FVS084

This Is the Night My Johnnie Set

See This Is the Nicht My Johnnie Set (File: FVS084)

This Is the Place (I)

DESCRIPTION: ""Come all you people if you want to hear A story about a brave pioneer, Brigham Young is the pioneer's name...." He gathers people from all over the world. He brings them to Utah. "He ought to go to heaven with his 19 wives."
AUTHOR: Myron Crandall (source: Cheney-MormonSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle)
KEYWORDS: travel derivative pioneer | Mormon Brigham Young
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 70-72, "This Is the Place, or, Brigham Young, the Western Pioneer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, pp. 327-329, "This Is the Place" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 561-563, "This Is the Place" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10830
NOTES [22 words]: Neither Cheney nor Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle says so, but this is clearly derived from "Casey Jones" or one of its relatives. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS070

This is the Place (II)

DESCRIPTION: "'This is the place for the Temple Square,' Said Brigham Young to his council there." They will build a great Temple. The surveyors confirm it. The builders go to work. Even when they are all gone, it "Will still be heard, 'This is the place.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: home religious | Mormon Temple
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 72-73, "This Is the Place" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10831
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nay, Speak No Ill" (tune, according to Cheney-MormonSongs)
File: ChMS072

This Is the Trouble of the World

DESCRIPTION: "I ask Father Georgy for religion, Father Georgy wouldn't give me religion; You give me religion for to run to my elder; O this the trouble of the world. This is the trouble of the world, O this is the trouble of the world."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad clergy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, pp. 99-100, "This Is the Trouble of the World" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12057
File: AWG099B

This Is the Truth Sent From Above

See The Truth Sent From Above (File: Leath196)

This Is the Way

DESCRIPTION: "This is the way my father showed me How to play the fiddle, Upstairs, downstairs, Especially in the middle."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: game music fiddle father
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 6, "This is the way" (1 text)
File: BAAI006C

This Is the Way the Baby Rides

See This Is the Way the Ladies Ride (File: OO20290)

This Is the Way the Ladies Ride

DESCRIPTION: "This is the way the ladies ride, Nimble, nimble, nimble, nimble. This is the way the gentlemen ride, A gallop a trot... This is the way the farmers ride, Joggety jog... And when they come to a slippery place, Tumble-down Dick!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: horse | riding ladies gentlemen
FOUND IN: Ireland US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 290, "This is the way the ladies ride" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #566, p. 230, "(This is the way the ladies ride)"
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp, 92-93, "How Folks Ride" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 31, "This is the way the baby rides" (1 text)
Roud #19901
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "This Is the Way the Ladies Ride" (Piotr-Archive #273, recorded 09/27/2022)
Robert Ridley-Shackleton, "Nim Nim" (fragments; Piotr-Archive #494, recorded 02/15/2023)
NOTES [89 words]: The Baring-Goulds say this was played while jumping with crossed legs. But Delamar considers it a join-in rhyme -- a word game more than an action game. Alice Kane said she sang it while sitting on an adult relative's shoe! Robert Ridley-Shackleton's "Nim Nim" is played while dandling a baby on the knee. I suspect this is a different song, but Ridley-Shackleton's version is just a collection of fragments, without the full order and probably without a single complete verse, so I file it here because it is probably the same idea. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: OO20290

This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes

DESCRIPTION: "This is the way we wash our clothes, Wash our clothes, wash our clothes, This is the way we wash our clothes, (all on a summer's day)." Similarly, "Here we come with our dollies dear," "This is the way we comb their hair," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE) New Zealand
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 96, "The Dolly-Play Song" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 96, "The Dolly-Play Song" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 264, "Early Sunday Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 28-29, "(Here we go round the mulberry bush)" (1 text, opening with "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" and continuing with "This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes")
Roud #3645
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (tune, lyrics) and references there
cf. "The Old Soap-Gourd" (form)
cf. "She Washes the Dishes Three Times a Day" (form)
cf. "Days of the Week" (theme)
NOTES [32 words]: This looks much like "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush," and the two share lyrics, but the intent seems different, so I tentatively split them, pending discovery of more versions and tunes. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Br3096

This Lady She Wears a Dark Green Shawl

DESCRIPTION: "This lady she wears a dark green shawl, A dark green shawl, a dark green shawl, This lady she wears... I love her to my heart." "Now choose for your lover, honey, my love...." "Now dance with your lover, honey, my love...." "Farwell to your lover...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: playparty clothes courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 142-143, "This Lady Dhe Wears a Dark Green Shawl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 220, "This Lady Wears a Dark Green Shawl" (1 text)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 104, "Pretty Green Shawl" (1 text)
ST ScaNF142 (Partial)
Roud #11589
File: ScaNF142

This Land is Your Land

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a wanderer, describes beauty of American (or other) land, sometimes with verses lamenting poverty. "As I went walking that ribbon of highway/I saw above me that endless skyway/I saw below me that golden valley/This land was made for you and me"
AUTHOR: Woody Guthrie
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (composed; Woody's original copy is dated "N.Y., N.Y., N.Y. / Feb 23, 1940 / 43rd St & 6th Ave., / Hanover House)
KEYWORDS: patriotic nonballad rambling beauty America
FOUND IN: US(All)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 30 "This Land is Your Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 196, "This Land Is Your Land" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 81, "This Land Is Your Land" (1 text)
DT, THISLAND*
ADDITIONAL: Pete Seeger, _Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Musical Autobiography_, A SIng Out Publication, 1993, 1997, pp. 142-146, "This Land Is Your Land" (many verses, both English and Spanish, 1 tune, plus a copy of Guthrie's original manuscript, with many corrections)
Roud #16378
RECORDINGS:
Putnam Ridge Residents, "This Land Is Your Land" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #219, recorded 08/26/2022)
Pete Seeger, "This Land is Your Land" (on PeteSeeger41)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Lovin' Father (When the World's On Fire)" (tune)
cf. "Little Darling, Pal of Mine" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Is This Land Your Land? (Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 315)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
God Blessed America (Guthrie's original title)
Esta Es Mi Tierra
NOTES [580 words]: I include this composed song (originally an "answer song" to Irving Berlin's jingoistic "God Bless America") because it has entered into oral and aural tradition within my lifetime; it's taught in schools and camps, often as a traditional song, and is in oral currency among most of America's children.
More important, there have been dozens or hundreds of variants collected in the last forty years, in many nations and languages. These include an American Indian version: "This land is your land/But it once was my land..." Heck, my eight-year-old student wrote a couple of verses. - PJS
To me, there is no doubt that this is now a folk song. It is interesting to note, however, that unlike most folk songs, the establishment has largely managed to circulate "cleaned up" versions, so it no longer attacks the faults of the American political system....
The extent to which it is a response to "God Bless America" is shown by Woody's first draft of the song, which has been preserved. The first few verses are very close to what eventually became the published song, but instead of the final line "This land was made for you and me," Woody originally wrote, "God blessed America for me," though this line is crossed off on the original manuscript -- one of only four changes marked on that copy. A second of the changes was a change of title: "God Blessed America" became "This Land Was Made for You and Me." (A photograph of the page is on p. 153 of Shaw. Shaw, pp. 211-218 has an appendix on the textual history of the song, showing Woody's changes and some of the changes after it left his hands.
Cray, pp. 165-167, seems to say that he composed the song on a guitar which he borrowed and never returned.
The tune is a slight modification of "When the World's On Fire," perhaps learned from the Carter Family's recording (Victor V-40293). - RBW
No perhaps about it: Guthrie was a devoted admirer of the Carter Family. There's also a strong resemblance to another Carter Family song, "Little Darling, Pal of Mine" (Victor 21638, 1928). - PJS]
Woody does not seem to have realized when he wrote it that he had his most important song on his hands. Woody did not record the song until 1944, and Moe Asch did not release the song on LP until 1951, according to Cray, p. 278n.
Seeger, p. 142, also reprints Woody's original manuscript copy, and says on p. 143 that, not too long after Woody was hospitalized, he was able to visit his son Arlo and teach him three verses that are not often sung, including the verse most of us have discreetly heard about private property. I read somewhere (perhaps in Shaw) that it was the only song Woody was able to teach to Arlo. Seeger feels that, without those additional verses (or some of the others Woody tried out over the years), the song misses its original message. Which is surely true, but I doubt it will make any difference.
There are a number of books wholly or partly about the song:
* Robert Santelli, This Land Is Your Land: Woody Guthrie and the Journey of an American Folk Song, Running Press, 2012
* John Shaw, This Land That I Love: Irving Berlin, Woody Guthrie, and the Story of Two American Anthems, Public Affairs, 2013. This book, cited here, obviously reflects on the relationship between the Berlin and Guthrie songs.
There are also a lot of books which borrow or riff on the title, a long series of books (travel books, I think) about states of the United States with the series title "This Land Is Your Land." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: PSAFB030

This Little Light of Mine

DESCRIPTION: "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine (x3), Ev'ry day (x4), Gonna let my little light shine." The singer thanks God for gifts given every day, warns that there is no hiding from sin, and urges all to let their lights shine.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (LoC recording by Doris McMurray, TX)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 95-96, "This Little Light of Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 352, "This Little Light of Mine" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 180, 514, "This Little Light of Mine" (notes only; it is not clear if the reference is to this song or to the Sunday School song mentioned in the NOTES)
DT, LITEMINE
RECORDINGS:
W. Emmons & Mt. Olive Soul Stirrers, "This Little Light of Mine" (Fortune 1318, n.d.)
Pete Seeger, "This Little Light of Mine" (on PeteSeeger27)
Betty Mae Fikes, "This Little Light of Mine" (on VoicesCiv)
Rutha Harris, Betty Mae Fikes et al, "This Little Light" (onSingFreeCD)
Doris McMurray, "This Little Light o'Mine" (AFS 02648b01, 1939)
Montgomery Improvement Association High School Trio, "This Little Light" (on SingFreeCD)
St. Paul Baptist Choir, "This Little Light of Mine" (Capitol 1069, 1950)
SNCC Freedom Singers, "Freedom Chant/Oh, Freedom/This Little Light of Mine" (on VoicesCiv)
Clara Ward Singers, "This Little Light of Mine" (Savoy 4038A, rec. 1952)
NOTES [65 words]: I've heard another song by this name floating around in Sunday School classes. Mercifully, I have forgotten it, but it clearly wasn't a traditional song by origin, although camp usage may have made it one. The camp texts I've seen, however, tend to be this song. - RBW
Clearly the Montgomery recording wasn't the earliest date for this song, but it's the earliest one we've found so far. -PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB352C

This Little Pig Went to Market

DESCRIPTION: "This little pig(gy) went to market. This little pig stayed at home. This little pig had roast beef. This little pig had none. This little pig said, 'wee, wee, wee....' All the way home" (or "I can't find my way home").
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1765 (Mother Goose's Melody)
KEYWORDS: animal home food
FOUND IN: New Zealand US(MW) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 183, "This Little Pig" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 121, "(This little pig went to market)" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 7, "This little piggy went to market" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 28, "This little piggy went to market" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 412, "This Little Pig Went to Market" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #577, pp. 233-235, "(This Pig Went to Market)" (1 text plus several variants in the notes)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 165, "This Little Piggy Went to Market" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 45, "This Little Piggy" (1 text)
NOTES [69 words]: Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 236 asserts that the pig that went to market is Charles II and the pig that stayed home is his sister Henrietta. This makes about as much sense as every other Thomas interpretation of a nursery rhyme -- i.e., effectively none. Apart from everything else, Henrietta eventually married into the French royal family! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OO2412

This Little Piggy Went to Market

See This Little Pig Went to Market (File: OO2412)

This May Be Your Last Time

DESCRIPTION: "This may be your last time (x3), May be your last time, I don't know." The singer travels about, observes various people and their misdeeds, and warns against the dangers of sin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Jaybird Coleman)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 70-71, "(This May Be Your Last Time)" (1 text); pp. 229-230, "This May Be Your Last Time" (1 tune, partial text)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, pp. 166-167, "May Be the Last Time I Don't Know" (1 text)
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 288-289, "Een Dat' Low Lan'" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 336, "(This May Be Your Last Time)" (1 text)
Roud #10965
RECORDINGS:
Rich Amerson, "This May Be Your Last Time" (on NFMAla4)
Jaybird Coleman, "May Be My Last Time, I Don't Know" (Gennett, unissued; rec. 1927)
Venus McIver, Brenton Jordan and The McIntosh County Shouters, "This May Be Our Last Time" (on McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts)
NOTES [78 words]: The verse in Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang is "Come down (Ezekiel/Jacob/Moses/sinner/mourner) come down, It may be the last time, Ever you hear my voice again In that low land"; the chorus is "In that low land (x2) Never hear my voice again, In that low land"
The text of McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts is a recognition that we may not sing together, pray together, or be together again.
McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts is a "ring shout" song. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CNFM070B

This Night We Part Forever

DESCRIPTION: "This night we part forever; Thou are nothing more to me. From thee each tie I'll sever That binds my heart to thee." She will not admit to sorrow, says she does not want his love, tells him to court another, says he blighted her hopes, and blesses him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 159, "This Night We Part Forever" (1 text)
Roud #3630
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" (theme)
NOTES [13 words]: Sort of an "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" with less smiling and more griping. - RBW
File: BrII159

This Old Hammer

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

This Old Hat of Mine

See Here's to the Grog (All Gone for Grog) (File: K274)

This Old Man (I)

DESCRIPTION: "This old man, he played one, He played knick-knack on my thumb, With a knick-knack, paddy wack, Give the dog a bone, This old man went rolling home." Similarly, "This old man, he played two, he played knick-knack on my shoe," and on upward
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #114, "Knick Knack" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 390, "This Old Man" (1 text)
Peacock, p. 21, "Old Tommy Kendal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 385, 517, "This Old Man" (notes only)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 72, "This Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 56-57, "This Old Man" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #386, "My old man number one" (1 text)
DT, THOLDMAN*
Roud #3550
RECORDINGS:
Charlotte Decker, "Old Tommy Kendal" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Pete Seeger, "This Old Man" (on PeteSeegeer3, PeteSeegerCD03)
SAME TUNE:
All Gaul ["Cognac, Armagnac, Burgundy and Beaune, This old man thinks he's Saint Joan"; Charles de Gaulle song] [by Michael Flanders and Donald Swann] [from "At the Drop of Another Hat"]
File: FSWB390C

This Old Man (II)

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

This Old World

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "This old world is full of sorrow, Full of sickness, weak and sore, If you love your neighbor truly, Love will come to you the more." Floating verses from other hymns: "We're all children of one father." "I will arise and go to Jesus." etc.
AUTHOR: (Some verses probably by John Newton)
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 259, "This Old World" (1 text)
ST DarN259B (Full)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (I)" (tunes)
cf. "Come, Ye Sinners" (tune, lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Mercy O Thou Son of David (Sacred Harp, pp. 52, 56, 458)
NOTES [242 words]: The background to this song is confusing. The Golden Ring lists it as a set of words for "Mercy O Thou Son of David" (listed as by John Newton). But the Sacred Harp lists three tunes for those lyrics (which it also credits to John Newton): "Charlestown," "Villulia," and "Friendship." That Newton wrote the "Mercy O Thou Son of David" (Blind Bartimaeus) lyrics seems certain. How much of the rest he is responsible for is unclear.
To make matters worse, while all of those tunes fit "This Old World," none appear (at least in my copy of the Sacred Harp) to exactly match it.
If this song is anything, it's a placeholder for a variety of texts. There is almost a continuous gradation from this to songs of the "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" group.
The common chorus "I will arise and go to Jesus, He will embrace me in his arms, In the arms of our dear Savior, Oh, there are ten thousand charms" is reportedly the work of Joseph Hart (1712-1768), according to Robert J. Morgan, Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories, Nelson, 2004, p. 47. His text, "Come ye sinners, poor and needy, Weak and wounded, sick and sore, Jesus ready stands to save you, Full of pity, love and pow'r," reportedly dates from 1759, but all Morgan can say of the tune is that it is an "American melody."
In any case, one should check both "Come Ye Sinners" and "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (I)" to find all relatives of this piee. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: DarN259B

This Old World Ain't Going to Stand Much Longer

DESCRIPTION: "Because this ole world ain't goin' to stand much longer... Gettin' us ready for the judgment day." The singer praises his mother for teaching him to pray, warns of judgment, and points up the example of King Hezekiah
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 73-75, "This Ole Worl' Ain't Goin' to Stan' Much Longer" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Sister Goldia Haynes, "That Great Judgement Day (This Old World)" (on Great Gospel Performers Document Records DOCD-5463 (1996))
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Black Train Is A-Comin'" (subject)
NOTES [79 words]: The story of Hezekiah's bout with sickness, God's threat, Hezekiah's repentance, and Isaiah's promise of fifteen additional years of life is told in 2 Kings 20:1-11 and briefly summarized in 2 Chronicles 32:24-26.
This story of Hezekiah is told in much the same words in "Little Black Train"; the two are certainly dependent in some way. But it may be just a case of spirituals mixing themes. The two songs appear to be independent except for that one bit of material. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: MWhee073

This Ole Worl' Ain't Goin' to Stan' Much Longer

See This Old World Ain't Going to Stand Much Longer (File: MWhee073)

This One's Andy Marlin

DESCRIPTION: Game, for moving the feet. "This one's Andy Marlin, This one's Tommy Sin, And he bade him to his house, And he bade him, And him and him and him and him and him and him and him To mornin', to mornin', to mornin'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: game travel
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 29, "This one's Andy Marlin" (1 text)
Roud #25348
File: KSUC029A

This Pig Went to Market

See This Little Pig Went to Market (File: OO2412)

This Pretty Girl of Mine

DESCRIPTION: "Here's a pretty little girl of mine Who's brought her bottle and glass of wine." She kneels on the carpet, then stands to choose her lover. When they're married they'll have a girl, then a boy, "seven years after, son and daughter"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (Wodhams)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage nonballad children drink | kneeling carpet
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) New Zealand US(SE) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #159, pp. 2-3, ("Do you see this pretty girl of mine?") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1572, "This Pretty Girl of Mine" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 19, "Pretty Little Girl of Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 263-264, "See This Pretty Little Girl of Mine" (1 text)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 112-113, "See This Pretty Little Girl of Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 22, "(Oh, this pretty little girl of mine)" (1 text with several variants)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 34, "(Down on the carpet, we shall kneel)" (1 text)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, "Johnny Brown" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John R. Wodhams, The Midland Garner (Banbury, 1884 ("Digitized by Google")),First Series, Vol. I, p. 32, ("See this pretty little girl of mine") (1 text)
Roud #8371
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hokey Pokey" (one verse)
cf. "Oats and Beans" (lyrics)
cf. "King William Was King James's Son" (theme)
NOTES [50 words]: The "Johnny Brown" texts of this are rather different from "This Pretty Girl of Mine"; they look like they might have come in from another song. But both versions have the kneeling-on-the-carpet motif; although the openings may have originated separately, it's hard to separate the two pieces now. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GrD81572

This Time Another Year

See Oh, Lord, How Long (File: R615)

This Train

DESCRIPTION: "This train is bound for glory... If you ride it, you must be holy." "This train don't pull no gamblers..." (And so forth, through various sinners the train doesn't pull.) "This train don't pull no extras... Don't pull nothin' but the Heavenly Special."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (recording, Florida Normal Industrial Institute Quartet)
KEYWORDS: train religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 223, "This Same Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 629-632, "This Train/Same Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 255, "This Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 593-594, "This Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 56, "This Train" (1 text)
DT, THSTRAIN*
Roud #6702
RECORDINGS:
Biddleville Quintette, "This Train is Bound for Blory" (Paramount 12448, 1927)
Big Bill Broonzy, "This Train" (on Broonzy01)
Florida Normal Industrial Institute Quartet, "Dis Train" (OKeh 40010, 1924; rec. 1922)
Garland Jubilee Singers [pseud. for Bryant's Jubilee Quartet] "This Train" (Banner 32267/Oriole 8098/Romeo 5098, all 1931/Perfect 190, 1932; on RoughWays2)
Lulu Belle & Scotty, "This Train" (OKeh 04910, 1939)
S. E. Mullis Blue Diamond Quartet, "Dis Train" (Champion 16424, 1932)
Southern Plantation Singers, "This Train is Bound for Glory" (Vocalion 1250, 1929; rec. 1928)
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, "This Train" (Decca 2558, 1939) (Down Beat 104 [as Sister Katty Marie], n.d.)
NOTES [138 words]: Cohen observes that there are two basic forms of this song, the "This Train" version in the description and a type he calls "Same Train": "Same train carry my mother, same train (x2). Same train carry my mother, Same train be back tomorrow, same train."
There isn't much different in age, but Cohen argues that "Same Train" is older because it is much less interesting. I would say he is almost certainly right.
Cohen also notes the Lomax Special nature of this song. The version in American Ballads and Folk Songs, which probably is the source of most pop folk versions, claims to be based on a field recording by Walter McDonald, but in fact does not agree with that recording, and the later Lomax version in Folk Songs of North America says it's based on American Ballads and Folk Songs, but it again is rewritten. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: LoF255

This Train Is Bound for Glory

See This Train (File: LoF255)

This Very Unhappy Man

DESCRIPTION: Bachelor decides to marry; he goes to a girl's house in his Sunday best and proposes. Her parents appear, he panics and runs, the dog chases him, he falls over a hornet's nest, and laments, "I can't begin to tell you the half of this very unhappy man."
AUTHOR: Walter Kittredge (1834-1905)
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (Walter Kittredge's Original Song Book)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous father mother
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: George Calvin Carter (with a Foreword by Hugh Gregg), _Walter Kittredge: Minstrel of the Merrimack_, (no publisher listed but printed in Manchester, New Hampshire), 1953, pp. 66-68, "The Unhappy Man" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Margaret MacArthur, "This Very Unhappy Man" (on MMacArthur01)
NOTES [31 words]: Not to be confused with "The Very Unfortunate Man." - PJS
For background on author Walter Kittredge, see the notes to "Tenting Tonight," his only song to achieve any non-local success. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcTVUM

This Way Hen-er-y

DESCRIPTION: Something goes this way, then that way, then this way, "All day long" For example, "Here comes this one, Just like the other one, Here comes this one, All day long"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 114, "This Way Hen-er-y" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #16803
File: OpGa114

This World Is Not My Home (I)

DESCRIPTION: "This world is not my home; I'm just a-passing through." "Oh Lord, you know, I have no friend like you. If Heaven's not my home, then, Lord, what will I do? Angels beckon me to Heaven's open door, And I can't feel at home in this world any more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Stove Pipe No. 1)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 135, "The World Is Not My Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 354, "I Can't Feel At Home In This World Any More" (1 text)
DT, CANTHOME*
Roud #7481
RECORDINGS:
Alphabetical Four, "I Can't Feel At Home In This World Anymore" (Decca 7840, 1941; on AlphabFour01)
Carter Family, "Can't Feel at Home" (Victor 23569, 1931; Montgomery Ward M-4736, c. 1935; Bluebird B-6257, 1936)
Pete Cassell, "I Can't Feel At Home in this World" (Decca 6077, 1942; rec. 1941)
Kentucky Thorobreds, "This World Is Not My Home" (Paramount 3014, 1927)
Edith & Sherman Collins, "I Can't Feel At Home In This World" (Decca 5635, 1939; rec. 1938)
Golden Echo Quartet, "This World Is Not My Home" (Columbia 14572-D, 1931; rec. 1927)
Jessie May Hill, "This World Is Not My Home" (OKeh 8546, 1927)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "This World Is Not My Home" (Bluebird B-6088/Montgomery Ward M-4714, 1935)
Monroe Brothers, "This World Is Not My Home" (Bluebird B-6309/Montgomery Ward M-4745, 1936)
Prairie Ramblers, "This World Is Not My Home" (Banner 33449/Melotone 13416/Conqueror 8503, 1935)
Claude Sharpe & Old Hickory Singers, "This World Is Not My Home" (Columbia 20450, 1948; rec. 1946)
Southern Sons Quartette, "I Can't Feel At Home Any More" (Trumpet 143, n.d.)
Stove Pipe No. 1, "Lord Don't You Know I Have No Friend Like You" (Columbia 210-D, 1924)
Hank Thompson, "Can't Feel At Home In The World Anymore" (Capitol 1163, 1950)
Frank Welling & John McGhee, "This World Is Not My Home" (Champion 16585, 1933; rec. 1932)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Ain't Got No Home" (structure, lyrics, tune)
NOTES [16 words]: This is really a group or cluster of songs with verses that float effortlessly between them. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Wa135

This World Is Not My Home (II)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "This world is not my home"(2x) This world's a howling wilderness, This world is not my home" Verses: Since Christ wept for sinners, astonishing even the angels. "Let floods of penitential grief Burst forth from every eye"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 9, "This World Is Not My Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Bart009

Thomas a Didymus

See Nebuchadnezzar's Wife (File: PalWa097)

Thomas and Ellen

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Thomas and Molly

See Thomas and Nancy [Laws K15] (File: LK15)

Thomas and Nancy [Laws K15]

DESCRIPTION: Thomas's ship is ready for sea, forcing him to leave Nancy. She calls to him to remember his sweetheart and family. His ship is wrecked almost at once. Nancy finds Thomas's body, kisses its lips, and dies of grief
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3473))
KEYWORDS: separation wreck death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws K15, "Thomas and Nancy"
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 199, "Thomas and Nancy" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 54, "Thomas and Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 729-732, "Thomas and Nancy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 360-361, "Thomas and Molly (Thomas and Nancy)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 107, "Thomas and Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 812, TOMNANCY
Roud #3232
RECORDINGS:
Mike Kent, "Thomas and Nancy" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]; "Thomas and Nancy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3473), "Thomas and Nancy," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(4123), Firth b.27(273), Firth b.25(109), 2806 c.16(120), Firth b.26(156), Harding B 16(287c), Firth c.13(298), Johnson Ballads 2915, "Thomas and Nancy"
Murray, Mu23-y1:119, "Thomas and Nancy," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck of the Lady Shearbrooke" (theme)
cf. "The Lady of the Lake (The Banks of Clyde II)" [Laws N41] (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Gallant Hussar (per broadsides Bodleian Firth b.27(273), Bodleian 2806 c.16(120))
NOTES [43 words]: Although the Bodleian broadsides list the tune as "Gallant Hussar," this doesn't really match "The Gallant Hussar (A Damsel Possessed of Great Beauty)" metrically; you can make it fit, but it's work. I suspect a different "Gallant Hussar" song is meant. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LK15

Thomas Cat, The

DESCRIPTION: The "Thomas" cat meets his Miss and asks if she's "been off keeping comp'ny with some other Thomas cat." "The cats they have a concert at the end of every year" marked by miaowing and fighting.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: courting fight humorous nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 23, pp. 140-142, "The Thomas Cat" (1 text)
Roud #21462
RECORDINGS:
Tom Cornelly, "Thomas Cat" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Jerome Downey, "The Thomas Cat" (on NFJDowney01)
NOTES [83 words]: The tune is close to "The Bigler" without the chorus. There's a note about that tune at "The Tramway Line" and a list of songs related by that tune at "The Bigler's Crew [Laws D8]."
Also see a text and hear an excerpt of "Thomas Cat" among Newfoundland songs as sung by Tom Cornelly on the "MacEdward Leach and the Songs of Atlantic Canada" site at http://tinyurl.com/tbdx-ThomasCat, accessed February 17, 2015. Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong says Downey learned his version from Cornelly. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: BeDo140

Thomas Cromwell [Child 171]

DESCRIPTION: (Someone) makes a request of (the King), who offers anything short of his crown. The petitioner asks the head of Thomas Cromwell. The king orders the earls of Derby and Shrewsbury to fetch Cromwell and have him executed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: trial execution royalty nobility
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 10, 1540 - Arrest of Thomas, Lord Cromwell at the order of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk.
July 28, 1540 - Execution of Cromwell by Henry VIII. (His fifth wife Katherine Howard, the Duke of Norfolk's niece, is said to have put him up to it)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 171, "Thomas Cromwell" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 127-129, "Thomas Lord Cromwell" (1 fragment)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 55
Roud #4002
NOTES [273 words]: According to David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 158 n. 25, this is one of eighteen ballads in the Child collection found only in the Percy Folio. And even that copy is only a fragment. There is a ballad in Percy's Reliques called "On Thomas Lord Cromwell," but it is not the same piece.
Cromwell (c. 1487-1540) was one of Henry VIII's chief ministers; he held power for many years as a result of his willingness to serve his master's needs. As such, he was one of the main forces behind the Anglican Revolution (though Cromwell probably didn't have strong feelings on the issue either way).
Born in obscurity, he entered Wolsey's service in 1514, and grew steadily in important and influence thereafter, being elected to parliament in 1523, then entering Henry's service in 1530. Among his productions was the 1534 Act of Supremacy (making the King of England head of the English church).
Made Earl of Essex in 1540, he arranged Henry's marriage with Anne of Cleves (wife #4); when this marriage proved an instant disaster, Henry sent him to the tower. Catherine Howard (wife #5) and her family probably helped secure his execution -- indeed, Hales and Furnivall suggest that she is the person who denounced Cromwell as the traitor (the song says that the person who asks for Cromwell's head is female, although she is not named in the surviving portion). But Hales and Furnivall also note that the fragment is inaccurate.
Ironically, Cromwell's great-great-nephew Oliver Cromwell would later pull down a King (though Charles I, of course, was not a descendent of Henry VIII). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C171

Thomas Duffy

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye true-born Irishmen, wherever you may be." The singer tells of "ten brave Irishmen... Who died in Pennsylvania on the 21st of June." Thomas Duffy and James Carroll are hanged. Duffy always denied the charge. The singer hopes they are in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement mining trial execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 21, 1877 - Hanging of ten alleged Molly Maguire members in Pennsylvania
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 265-267, "Thomas Duffy" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 152-153, "Thomas Duffy" (1 text)
Roud #4093
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E32] (subject: the Long Strike and the Molly Maguires) and references there
NOTES [925 words]: This is item dE32 in Laws's Appendix II.
For background on the Molly Maguires, see the notes to "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E25]. The Mollies were Pennsylvania coal miners; there had been a spike of violence in the anthracite fields in 1874-1875, when the mine owners had tried to cut wages and benefits; Kenny, p. 8, has a list of murders with possible mining connections in 1862-1875. There are sixteen in all, of which two happened in 1874 and six in 1875. As a result, the mine owners hired the Pinkertons to improve the situation -- presumably by bringing the murderers to trial. It took some time for the Pinkertons to infiltrate, but eventually they accused many anthracite miners of crimes up to and including murder.
The trials that followed almost certainly would not meet today's standards of justice. As detailed in the entry on "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E25], the testimony against those convicted came mostly from one man, the Pinkerton infiltrator James McParlan(d), whose job depended on securing convictions and who may have helped arrange some of the murders. The only supporting testimony came from informants such as Lawler; there was no physical evidence, and often the accused had people who were willing to swear to alibis -- but who, being Irish, were not taken seriously. Someone committed the murders, but it's hard to believe that the trials determined the truth.
They racked up an impressive body count, though. In all, twenty men were executed (Kenny, p. 270, has the list). Ten of them were executed on one day, "Black Thursday," June 21, 1877. Four were hung in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, and six in Pottsville -- the "ten brave Irishmen" of this song, which also has the day correct. Two of the six who died in Pottsville were James Carroll and Thomas Duffy, both mentioned in this song.
In Duffy's case, "[James] Kerrigan [mentioned in this song, and the subject of his own song or poem, "James Kerrigan's Confession," which see] was the star witness, testifying for three days and covering how he and Duffy had been beaten up by Yost and McCarron, and how Duffy had sworn revenge and offered [James] Roarity ten dollars to kill Yost. So much for the motive, although it came from a notorious liar who contradicted his earlier testimony. Even so, no participation by Duffy in the murder itself could be proven, and the most damaging evidence was that he spent the night at Carroll's to provide an alibi" (Riffenburgh, p. 145). James McParland offered his usual testimony to claim that just about every Irishman in Pennsylvania was a Molly Maguire, but he had nothing specific on Duffy.
"When the case went to the jury it seemed far from proven, and Judge Walker's instructions 'leaned toward the side of mercy... [H]ardly a soul in the courtroom but was satisfied Duffy's chances of acquittal were more than even.' Nevertheless, early the next morning Duffy was pronounced guilty of first degree murder" (Riffenburgh, pp. 145-146).
"Of the ten men who were hanged on Black Thursday, the one whose conviction contemporary observers found most questionable was Thomas Duffy. The only evidence against him had been provided by the informer Jimmy Kerrigan, and it had come as a surprise even to the most hostile observers when he was convicted of first-degree murder the previous September. It was widely rumored in Pottsville that he would win a reprieve at the last moment..... The details are vague and incomplete, but according to several contemporary sources, Governor Hantranft had sent his private secretary, Chester N. Farr, to Pottsville with a reprieve for Duffy, to be used in the event that one or more of the other condemned men should declare Duffy innocent. Roarity did precisely that in his final words on the scaffold. But Farr apparently decided that this explicit statement of Duffy's innocence was inadequate; the reprieve stayed in his pocket, and Duffy was duly executed" (Kenny, pp. 255-256).
Before the execution, the six men in Pottsville received communion, along with Duffy's brother James (who was found guilty of perjury in the case -- his perjury basically being that he had given his brother an alibi, so if Thomas Duffy was innocent, then so was James) and others (Kenny, p. 253). The six men were hung in pairs (Kenny, p. 254), with Carroll and Roarity being the second pair (Kenny, p. 254) and Duffy and Thomas Munley the third; Duffy was attended at the end by a Father McGovern (Kenny, p. 255). Duffy, when asked if he had any last words, said, "There is no use." He and Mulney were hung at 1:20 p.m. (Kenny, p. 255).
Acording to Kenny, p. 291, Duffy had been born around 1852 in Donegal and emigrated to the U. S. as a child.
Kenny, p. 290, says that Carroll was an American by birth, having been born of Irish parents in Wilkes-Barre around 1837. He doesn't seem to have ever been a mine worker himself. He moved to Tamaqua in Schuylkill County in 1872, and ran a hotel and saloon; he also became secretary of the local branch of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (the organization that the Pinkertons falsely equated with the Molly Maguires; while most Mollies seem to have belonged to the AOH, the reverse clearly was not true). The Pinkertons claimed that the assassination of Benjamin F. Yost -- the murder for which both he and Duffy died -- was planned at his saloon.
Other songs with connections to the Yost murder include "Hugh McGeehan" and "The Doom of Campbell, Kelly and Doyle."
There are a sketch portraits of Duffy and Carroll in Kenny's photo insert. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: CAFS1152

Thomas E. Watson

DESCRIPTION: "Down in the state of Georgia there lived a famous man, His name was Thomas Watson, he is known throughout the land." Watson "struggled for his native state" and "wrote the Jeffersonian." Now he is dead; "Georgia has lost her best."
AUTHOR: Rev. Andrew Jenkins
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Al Craver=Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: political death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1856-1922 - Life of Thomas E. Watson
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 317, "Thomas E. Watson" (1 text)
Roud #22284
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart (as Al Craver), "Thomas E. Watson" (Columbia 15053-D, 1925)
NOTES [2295 words]: Cohen's notes say most of what is positive about Thomas E. Watson: He was a genuine populist, and very much beloved. He ran for President as a populist in 1904, and had been a sort of an alternate Democratic vice presidential nominee in 1896.
"HIs background was that of the poor southern farmer boy who had worked his way upward against almost insuperable odds, aided by some talent and a great unwillingness to be downed.... [Having spent two years at Mercer College, taught school, and become a lawyer, he] had won notoriety, if not fame, as a criminal lawyer whose oratory jurors found irresistible" (Hicks, p. 176). As a candidate for congress at age 34, his positions were mostly progressive, except for his racism.
"But this struggle to achieve had told on his character. He suspected of the worst motives all those who opposed him; he was combative and injudicious; he had little ability to control his temper" (Hicks, p. 176). As a congressman, he was prone to shenanigans -- e.g. when he tried to move a measure using unanimous consent, he was blocked, so thereafter he withheld his consent from even the most routine business in a petty power play (Hicks, pp. 195-196).
As editor of the Jeffersonian, he went from being a genuine populist to a sort of a Rush Limbaugh populist, raising rabbles with fiery claims. He was a racist and a bigot, and he was largely responsible for the hue and cry against Leo Frank in the Mary Phagan case (see the notes to "Mary Phagan" [Laws F20]). It is no surprise that there were many who praised him at his death -- in addition to Andrew Jenkins, Fiddlin' John Carson also wrote a tribute. But I am by no means convinced that Watson deserved the praise. At minimum, he suffered from southern racial prejudice in a particularly virulent form, or was willing to exploit it for his own ends.
The title "The Sage of Hickory Hill," used in the song, is mentioned in all the biographies.
DInnerstein, pp. 95-96, has a summary of Watson's career: "Tom Watson had an enormous following in Georgia. From the populist era until his death in 1921 [sic.; should be 1922], Watson remained one of Georgia's idols. Early in his career he had fought for the yeoman farmer -- both black and white -- who had been oppressed by tyrannical industrialists and a compliant government Although elected to Congress on the Democratic ticket in 1890, by 1892 he had renounced the party and pronounced himself a Populist.... [The Democrats denied him re-election that year by dramatic moves against him, including working on the Black vote.] In 1896 the Populist Party forced William Jennings Bryan to accept a Populist vice-presidential nominee in return for endorsing his presidential aspirations. To run with Bryan, the Populists selected Tom Watson. With defeat in 1896, Watson practically retired from politics.... Eight years later he reemerged as the presidential nominee of an almost defunct Populist Party."
This isn't quite right; Watson was the Populist nominee for vice president, but he wasn't the Democratic nominee; the Democrats had nominated Arthur Sewall. (For somewhat more on this, see the notes to "Free Silver.") The Populists -- who knew they were in danger of losing their relevance if they simply endorsed Bryan -- tried to get the Democrats to accept Watson as their one and only vice presidential nominee, but Bryan would have none of it. So Bryan actually had two vice presidential running mates, Sewall and Watson (Jones, pp. 254-259). Watson may have considered backing out when he heard that Sewall was still in the race, but he ran anyway (Jones, pp. 258-259) -- and ended up in the very rare situation of coming in a genuine third in the vice presidential race -- McKinley's Vice President Garrett A. Hobart earned 271 electoral votes, Sewell 149, Watson 27 -- but I note, based on Glad, p. 201, that every state that gave an electoral vote to Watson also gave as many, or more, to Sewell. Which can't have made him any happier.
Even during the campaign, he was less than gung-ho for the cause, endorsing Bryan but campaigning for his own ideas and refusing to cooperate with Democrats even though his only hope of becoming Vice President was for the Democrats to win! (Glad, p.185, who sums up his behavior as "he refused to behave").
Dinnerstein continues: "Thereafter one noticed a great change in the old Populist. He had become a self-conscious defender of Southern mores and the Lost Cause. His former understanding of, and sympathy with, Negroes changed to a more orthodox Southern outlook. He began to refer to the 'bugaboo of negro domination' in Georgia politics. Furthermore, in 1906, Watson completely abandoned the Jefferson ideal of equalitarian and humanitarianism which he had championed only a decade earlier. In 1910 he formally returned to the Democratic Party [where one appearance] 'suggested the return of some Roman conqueror.'
"Tom Watson thrived upon the ignorance and prejudices of rural Georgians. His weekly newspaper, The Jeffersonian, and his monthly, Watson's Magazine, circulated throughout the state and provided many Georgians their only contact with the outside world. Popular among illiterates, who listened to others read what Watson had written, and 'crackers,' Watson inspired 'an almost fanatical following, many who accepted without question anything he told them.' ... It was primarily these people that Tom Watson stirred with his diatribes against the financial manipulators of the North, whom he believed had been keeping the South in economic bondage. To cater to his followers' needs for vicarious excitement, and perhaps to provide himself with a satisfactory answer for why the world was 'plunging hellward,' Watson broadened his attack to include Catholics, the Pope, and finally Leo Frank [of the Mary Phagan murder case], who turned into the greatest sales bonanza in The Jeffersonian's history."
On p. 98, Dinnerstein points out that "His polemics were an ingenious weaving of fact and fantasy" and says that he "cannily played upon the hatreds, fears, and prejudices of his readers."
DAB, p. 549, offers a few personal details. His birth name was Edward Thomas Watson, but he reversed the first two names. His grandfather, Thomas M. Watson, was a planter who owned 45 slaves but died during the Civil War; an uncle also died during the war. His ancestors were Quakers who had been in Georgia since at least 1768. His father was John Smith Watson, his mother Ann Eliza Maddox Watson. He was born near Thomson, Georgia. His wife, whom he married in 1878, was Georgia Durham.
Martin devotes 22 pages (out of a 203 page history!) to Watson. On p. 133, he says, "Thomas E. Watson became the voice of the little man, black and white, the sharecropper, the tenant, the working man in the mill and the mine, men who, despite the prosperity around them, were growing more and more dissatisfied with their own lot. A lean, square-jawed, redheaded man with intense, hypnotic eyes, Watson burned with fierce desire to take political power from the hands of a Bourbon aristocracy supported by a complacent middle class and place it with the mass of the people, with the farmer and the laborer, who would take control of the state's politics and shape its destiny."
Martin, p. 134, reports that he was a temperance man, perhaps because his drunkard father had lost his land to creditors. He played fiddle and took part in dances. He became a teacher for a time, then read law and became a defense lawyer. In 1880, at a time when old Confederates (Joseph E. Brown, Alfred Colquitt, John B. Gordon) had been the leading forces in Georgia politics, Watson entered politics to oppose Colquitt's renomination as Governor. He didn't succeed, but he decided to stay in politics, and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1882 -- only to quit in frustration (Martin, p. 136). He returned to politics in 1888 to support Grover Cleveland, then ran for congress again in 1890, and again won (Martin, p. 137). His allies were all over Georgia politics -- nominally Democrats, but hardly hewing the party line! (Martin, pp. 138-139).
But when he ran for reelection to Congress in 1892, he lost. (DAB, p. 550, says that his district was gerrymandered and the election was "bloody.") "Watson pretended to take it calmly, but his loss of this election left a mark upon him that time could never erase, and shaped his attitude in bitter ways thereafter. He charged, justifiably, that the most arrantly corrupt practices had been used against him, including the buying of Negro votes, sometimes for money, often for a drink of cheap liquor. This, to Watson, was the sin unpardonable on the blavk mn's part" (Martin, pp. 139-140). Suddenly, the Black was the enemy, and the allies, while they still stood for the small white worker, would no longer stand for the Black. In the Panic of 1893, he thought his views vindicated. He ran again for Congress in 1894, this time as a populist -- and lost again, in an election even messier than the last one (Martin, pp. 141-142). Having already decided that Blacks were the enemy, this election caused him to add Catholics to his list (Martin, p. 142). In 1896, the Populists joined the Democrats in nominating William Jennings Bryan for President, but nominated Watson for Vice President, whereas the Democrats chose Arthur Sewell. Things would have been interesting had Bryan won the Presidency, but Bryan lost to William McKinley. In 1904, he became the Populist nominee for President himself -- but the party was dead, and his candidacy dead with it (Martin, pp. 142-143. He would run again in 1908 -- Martin, p. 147 -- but the Populists were so far gone that he received fewer than 30,000 votes).
He continued to involve himself in Georgia politics, where he still had a fanatical following, and founded his two periodicals. In one of his editorials, he claimed that "civilization owed nothing whatever to the Negro" (Martin, p. 145). There was very little left in his politics but hate (Martin, p. 147). Having turned to hatred of the Black, and become so anti-Catholic that he grew angry just looking at them, by 1914 he had also become a violent anti-Semite (Martin, p. 148), as the Leo Frank trial showed.
In 1915, the Ku Klux Klan arose again in Georgia. "There is no evidence that Tom Watson was there among the hooded figures who set the cross on fire, though he had hinted editorially that a new Klan was needed. But no student of the times would question C Vann Woodward's observation: 'If any mortal man may be credited (as no one man may rightly be) with releasing the forces of human malice and ignorance and prejudice which the Klan merely mobilized, that man was Thomas E. Watson'" (Martin, p. 150). He then started a campaign against intervention in World War I -- and that finally resulted in him being silenced by the censors of the time (Martin, p. 151).
He ran for Congress yet again, but lost to Carl Vinson -- naturally claiming voter fraud (Martin, pp. 151-152). Then he ran for Senate on a plank opposing the League of Nations -- and was elected despite not being a party candidate (Martin, pp. 152-153). The old temperance man now fought against Federal enforcement of liquor laws, tried to all but dissolve the American military -- and tried to start fights with his Senate colleagues, having to be physically restrained on at least one occasion (Martin, pp. 153-154). While there, he expressed sympathy for the Soviety Union (DAB, p. 551). Raging till the end, his last session of Congress was on September 22, 1922; three days later, he died of asthma ad/or bronchitis. The Klan send a cross of roses to his memorial service (Martin, p. 154).
Garrett, p. 787, says, "An era in Georgia politics ended on September 16, 1922, when Senator Thomas E. Watson died from a combined attack of bronchitis and asthma. Pendig a special election to fill the vacancy, Governor Hardwick names Mrs. Rebeca Latimer Felton, 87, long a citizen of Bartow County, but formerly of De Kalb, to fill the vacancy temporarily. Het hus bestowed upon her the honor of being the first woman to serve in the United States Senate, though he had first tendered the appointment to Mrs. Watson, who declined."
Along with all his other dislikes, Watson despised immigrants: "We have become the world's melting pot. The scum of creation has been dumped on us. Some of our principal cities are more foreign than American. The most dangerous and corrupting hordes of the Old World have invaded us. The vice and crime which they have planted in our midst are sickening and terrifying. What brought these Goths and Vandals to our shores? They manufacturers are mainly to blame. They wanted cheap labor..." (Hofstadter, pp. 82-83, quoting Watson's book Andrew Jackson).
DAB, p. 550, says of his later years, "Old traits of irascibility and vindictiveness gained the upper hand. His politics changed with his character. Shifting his followers from one Democratic faction to the other, he virtually dictated state politics. As bewildered Popullists quit his ranks, their places were filled with recruits attracted by his sensational crusades against Catholicism, Socialism, foreign missions, the negro, and Leo M. Frank." The deaths of his children around the time of the Great War "temporarily crazed" him.
His DAB entry closes (p. 551) with this passage: "Some of the pathos and irony of his life may be caught in the 'Thomas E. Watson Song,' a ballad of 'a man of mighty power' who 'fought and struggle' and failed. It is still heard in backwoods Georgia."
There are at least two biographies of Watson, C. Vann Woodward, Tom Watson: Agrarian Rebeland W. W. Brewton, The Life of Thomas E. Watson. I have not seen them (and don't want to). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: CAFS1317

Thomas Hegan and Sally Blair

See Fanny Blair (File: WB2103)

Thomas J Hodder, The

DESCRIPTION: Thomas J Hodder leaves Sydney. Captain Lake runs aground taking a short cut in Placentia Bay on March 8, 1952. People from Placentia Bay come out to offload Hodder. Evette also runs aground. Both are tugged free and Hodder is repaired at Burin.
AUTHOR: Lil Fitzgerald and Rose Pickett
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: sea ship ordeal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 108, "The Thomas J Hodder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #28982
NOTES [27 words]: Placentia Bay is on the south coast of Newfoundland. The song notes that Hodder is "a splendid boat, about one hundred ton" that ran from Placentia Bay to Boston. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe108

Thomas Murphy

DESCRIPTION: Thomas Murphy ships on The Dolphin from Liverpool to Africa. On the way home the ship springs a leak, and the crew escape in long boats. "But when our boat she struck the shore she was burst in by a wave." Of fourteen, twelve, including Murphy, are lost.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor Africa
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 98-99, "Thomas Murphy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7356
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Georgina" (tune)
File: Ran098

Thomas Nicholson

DESCRIPTION: Looking for "as gentle a wife as John o' Badenyon," the singer gets his sweetheart alone and bars the door. Outraged, she leaves him and will not reconsider. Finally he marries a "gentle..." bastard milk maid his friends disdain.
AUTHOR: Rev. John Skinner (source: Greig/Duncan4)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage rejection humorous bastard
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 764, "Thomas Nicholson" (1 text)
Roud #6183
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John of Badenyon (I)" (theme) and references there
NOTES [25 words]: Greig/Duncan4: "Lines by John Skinner [on Thomas Nicholson, farmer, Smallburn, Longside.-]." This just deepens the puzzle: who is John of Badenyon? - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4764

Thomas o Yonderdale [Child 253]

DESCRIPTION: Thomas gets Lady Maisry pregnant and, hearing her lamenting, promises to marry her. He goes to sea and courts another woman, but a dream causes him to summon Maisry to be wed. Both prospective brides show up; he sends the other girl away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan, Ballads of the North, according to Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads {Child 253[A]})
KEYWORDS: love courting pregnancy separation dream reunion marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 253, "Thomas o Yonderdale" (1 text)
Bronson 253, "Thomas o Yonderdale" (2 versions)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 146-147, "Thomas o' Yonderdale" (1 text)
Roud #3890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Young Beichan" [Child 53]
cf. "Fair Annie" [Child 62]
cf. "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" [Child 73]
NOTES [41 words]: Child comments, "This looks like a recent piece, fabricated, with a certain amount of cheap mortar, from recollections of 'Fair Annie,' No 62, 'Lord Thomas and Fair Annet,' No 73, and 'Young Beichan,' No 53." I'd say that pretty well sums it up. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: C253

Thomas of Potte

See Tom Potts [Child 109] (File: C109)

Thomas Rymer [Child 37]

DESCRIPTION: Thomas the Rhymer of Ercildoune meets the Queen of Elfland. She takes him away from earth for seven years, putting him through various rituals which no doubt instill his prophetic powers.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland); printed by Scott in 1802
KEYWORDS: magic prophecy abduction
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(SE)
REFERENCES (38 citations):
Child 37, "Thomas Rymer" (3 texts)
Bronson 37, "Thomas Rymer" (2 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 37, "Thomas Rhymer" (2 versions: #1, #2)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 218-219, "Thomas Rymer & Queen of Elfland (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 10, "Thomas Rhymer" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 131-135, "Thomas Rhymer" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 1, "Thomas the Rhymer" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 39, "Thomas Rymer" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 22, "Thomas Rhymer" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 290-292+361-362, "Thomas Rymer" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 127, "Thomas Rymer" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 6, "Thomas Rymer" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 35, "Thomas Rymer" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 422-425, "Sir John Gordon" (1 text, a truly curious version which retains the plot and lyrics of this song so closely that it cannot be called anything else, but with a different and inexplicable name for the hero)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 116-119, "Thomas the Rhymer" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 35-37, "Thomas the Rhymer" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 469-478, "Thomas the Rhymer" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 76-78, "Thomas Rymer and the Queen of Elfland" (1 text)
DT 37, TOMRHYM* TOMRHYM2 TRUTOMAS
ADDITIONAL: Emily Lyle, _Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition_, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, pp. 5-11, "Thomas the Rhymer" (1 text plus sundry verses, 1 tune)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, pp. 142-144, "(Thomas Rymer)" (1 text)
Katherine Briggs, _An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblines, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures_, 1976 (I use the 1977 Pantheon paperback), pp. 415-417, article "True Thomas" (1 text plus discussion)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #136, "Thomas Rymer" (1 text)
Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, pp. 131-132, "Thomas the Rhymour" (1 text)
RELATED: versions of the romance of Thomas off Ersseldoune
Child 37 Appendix, "Thomas off Ersseldoune" (1 text, based on the Thornton Manuscript version)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, pp. 131-138, "(Thomas of Ersseldoune)" (1 text, plus on p. 130 the preface to the poem that Child rejected)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #365
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #620
MANUSCRIPT: {MSCambridgeFf5.48}, Cambridge, University Library, MS. Ff.5.48, folio 119
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Cotton Vitellius E.x, folio 240
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Lansdowne 762, folio 24
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2578, folio 6
MANUSCRIPT: {MSLincolnThornton}, Lincoln, Lincoln Cathedral Library MS. 91 [Robert Thornton MS. 1; Lincoln Thornton MS.], folio 149 (This is, nominally at least, the version printed by Child)
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 1386 [Bodleian 1386], p. 277 (corrupt fragment)
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Hatton 56 [Bodleian 4062], folio 39 (fragment)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Additional 6702 (fragment)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Harley 559, foli 32 (fragment)
Roud #219
ALTERNATE TITLES:
True Thomas
NOTES [2822 words]: Very many of Thomas of Ercildoune's (True Thomas's) predictions are in circulation, though only a few are precisely dated or can be tied to specific events. As Kunitz/Haycraft point out (p. 177), "Soon after Thomas's death, prophecies made in his name became so popular that it is impossible to know which were his own."
Perhaps the most famous prophecy dates from 1286, the year Alexander III of Scotland died. The day before Alexander's death, Thomas had forecast that "before the next day at noon, such a tempest shall blow as Scotland has not felt for many years" (Douglas, p. 155) or perhaps that the next day would be "the stormiest day ever witnessed in Scotland" (Cook, p. 65). Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 177, think that it was just a vague oracular saying. When the next day proved clear, Thomas was taunted, but his forecast proved true -- Scotland would not again see peace until after the battle of Bannockburn in 1314.
He also became a hero of legend in his own right -- e.g. Briggs, pp. 233-235, prints a tale, "Canobie Dick and Thomas of Ercildoune," which is a variant on one of the Arthurian legends with Thomas cast in the Merlin role. It is because of stories like this that LindahlEtAl, p. 404, declare of him, "Scottish poet at the heart of an interesting complex of literature and legend."
Real and verifiable facts about Thomas are far fewer, but he does appear to have been a real person. "Thomas of Ercildoune" is a witness to a charter of c. 1265 (about the Haigs of Bemerside, also the subject of one of his couplets), and another Thomas, the son of "Thomas the Rhymer of Ercildoune," was an adult transacting in property in 1294.
Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 177, declare "That he lived and wrote at least some of the tales attributed to him is indisputable. Sometimes calling himself Learmont, sometimes The Rhymer, he owned property on a tributary of the Tweed River which to this day is known as Rhymer's Land.[Both Ercildoun (now Earlston) and the Eildon Hills are located in the region of Melrose and Berwick.] The Russian poet Lermontov believed himself a descendant of The Rhymer." They give his dates as fl. 1220?-1297?.
Alexander also gives 1297 as his last year: "A summons to return to Elfame in 1297 when Thomas was entertaining friends in the Tower of Erceldoune. A man came to him with a story that a stag and a hind had left the shelter of the forest and were walking about the village unafraid. At this portent Thomas immediately left his guests and followed the animals out of human ken to his fairy mistress." Hole, p. 63, observes that these stories of Thomas seem to be related to some of the legends about the death or departure of King Arthur.
Garnett/Gosse, volume I, pp. 275-278, discusses what is known about the real Thomas. It credits him with being the at least the inspiration, if not the source, of Scottish poetry: "Many, perhaps most, ancient literatures claim a patriarchal founder, who from some points of view wears the semblance of a fable and from others that of a fact. Scotland had her Orpheus or Linus in THOMAS of ERCILDOUNE, called also THOMAS the RHYMER, who... [would] fulfil the requisites of a venerable ancestor, could we but be sure he was indeed an author. His actual existence is unquestionable. Ercildoune or Earlston is a village in Berwickshire, and ancient parchments demonstrate that two Thomases, father and son, dwelt there as landowners in the thirteenth century. The tradition of poetry appears to attach to the elder, whose appellation of 'Thomas the Rhymer' might seem decisive on the point if, by a strange coincidence, 'Rhymer' were not also another form of 'Rymour," a surname then common in Berwickshire" (pp. 275-276).
LindahlEtAl, pp. 404-405, declare him "the first poet on Scottish soil using the 'Inglis' language (that is, Scots as opposed to Cumbrian or Gaelic) whose name is known." The authors compare the folktales about him to Sir Launfal, the first tale in the Mabinogion, and Sir Orfeo.
Garnet/tGosse, on p. 276, say that Robert Manning's 1338 metrical chronicle "affirms [Thomas] to have been the author of a poem on Tristrem sufficiently popular to be habitually in the mouths of minstrels and reciters. This is strong testimony. It is thought to be invalidated by the fact that Gottfried of Strasbourg, writing his standard poem on the Tristrem story nearly a century before Thomas of Ercildoune, declares himself indebted for it to another Thomas, Thomas of Brittany, whom chronology forbids us to identify with the Rhymer. But it is by no means clear that Thomas of Brittany was a poet. Internal evidence proves Gottfried's poem to be derived from a French version."
CHEL1, p. 316, is not convinced: "With the Tristram legend is connected the name of Thomas, a poet of the twelfth century, who is mentioned by Gottfried of Strasbourg in the early thirteenth century. The somewhat misty but historical Thomas of Erceldoune has been credited with the composition of a Sir Tristram story, but this was possibly due to a confusion of the twelfth century Thomas with his interesting namesake of the succeeding century. The confusion would be one to which the popular mind was peculiarly susceptible. Thomas the Rhymer was a romantic figure credited with prophetical gifts, and a popular tale would readily be linked with his name...."
(Garnett/Gosse do say, on p. 278, that the Tristram poem associated with Thomas is of "small" poetic merit; "Its defects are not so much of language, as of insensibility to the beauty and significance of the story; the versification is not inharmonius, but the poet... follows his original with matter of fact servility, and seems afraid of saying more than is set down for him: hence the strongest situations are slurred over and thrown away.")
Pp. 277-278 add that "A metrical romance composed on [Thomas's] name more that a century after his death represents him as the favored lover of the Queen of Fairy, as residing with her for three years in her enchanted realm, and as at length dismissed to earth lest he should be apprehended by the fiend, who is about to make his triennial visitation to Elfland, exactly like a bishop. As a parting gift the Fairy Queen endows him with the faculty of prophecy, which he turns to account by predicting a series of events in Scottish history some considerable time after they have taken place.... If, as is supposed, this original poem ended with the return of Thomas to Fairie, it cannot have been written by him, but no doubt embodies a genuine tradition respecting him."
(This description has its peculiar points, because Tolkien's study "On Fairy Stories," (pp. 7-8), says that the word "Fairy/Fairie" is not attested before Gower, and only once before 1450, which poses problems in describing a tale allegedly of the fourteenth century.)
Derek Pearsall, on p. 27 of Brewer, similarly asserts, "There is a traditional association of Thomas of Erceldoune... but the extant Tristrem is probably a south-midland adaption of a lost work by Erceldoune."
The romance of Thomas is #365 in Rossell Hope Robbins and John L. Cutler's Supplement to the Index of Middle English Verse; they list ten manuscript copies, although most are fragments; a later version is #3889.5 in; they consider its proper opening line to be "Well on my way as I forthe wente / ouer a londe,"
Wells, p. 224, describes the prophecy/romance of "Tomas of Ersseldoune" as having "three 'fitts,' and was probably originally Northern English. It is preserved in MSS. Thornton (1430-1440), 636 verses [i.e. lines]; C[ambridge] Unic. Libr. Ff V 48 (15th century), 492 verses [which has the unique text of "Robin Hood and the Monk" immediately after the text of "Thomas"]; Cotton Vitellius E X (late 15th century), very defective, 565 verses; and Sloane 2578 (c. 1550), 321 verses, only fitts 2 and 3 [i.e. it omits the material parallel to this ballad, leaving only the prophecies]. Scattered fragments are found in various MSS. The verses are four-stress abab; the prologue (in MS. Thornton) has 24 verses ababbbcbdeddedefgfgfg." (Making it pretty clear that the prologue is not from the same hand as the rest.) The first fit corresponds closely in plot although not in language with this song, and Child urged that this fit was originally independent of the rest; it is partly first person, partly third person (Wells, p. 225).
Wells does not mention the version on folios 24a-31a of British Library MS. Lansdowne 762. This appears to be a commonplace book of an unknown person who lived during the reign of Henry VIII (such dating hints as we have point to the late 1520s; it must be from after 1485, since it has a chronicle of Kings of England which includes Henry VII; scans of this book are on the British Library site). There is very little else in the book that resembles a romance (see the list on pp. 131-133 of Parker, or the list at the Library site; Parker, p. 143, says it is "the only narrative of any sort in the manuscript" -- and it ends unfinished in the middle of the page). Parker, p. 131, says that "many of the texts are impenetrable political prophesies." This suggests that "Thomas" was included because he was famous as a prophet. As further support we might note that there is an elaborate decorated initial on folio 31, the last folio of the Prophecy -- and that the scribal quality of the manuscript begins to decline immediately after that (Parker, p. 130).
Most would agree that the various pieces of the Prophecy arose independently. Boklund-Lagopolou, p. 139, says, "The prophecies are attached to the narrative very clumsily, by the simple device of having the Lady and Thomas repeat their farewell dialogue as often as is necessary to accommodate the added material." The strong implication is that additional prophecies were gradually added to the tale over the years, which would explain the discrepancies between the manuscript copies.
For an example of one of the prophecies, from the famous manuscript Harley 2253, see Robbins, p. 29, #8, "Thomas of Erceldoune's Prophecy," beginning
When mad as ma a kyng of a capped man;
When mon is leuere oþermones þyng þen is owen....
The legend of the sleeper under the earth has many parallels; Baring-Gould lists several, of which he considers the Tanhauser legend the earliest; he considers (p. 121) the story of Thomas to be a variant upon that
Thus Thomas's place in legend is very strong. Thomas's prophecies, however, were not "collected" until 1603; it would be difficult to prove the authenticity of most of these. Those wishing for samples can see Lyle, pp. 18-21. Several pages after that are devoted to the idea that Thomas himself will return to somehow set right the problems of the time.
Lyle, pp. 31-33, also compares a text of the ballad of Thomas with the Romance. The parallels are close enough to make dependence an effective certainty. (Fowler, p. 321, goes so far as to suggest that the ballad was composed by Anna Gordon Brown of Falkland, and that all other versions are derived from it via Walter Scott's version; compare Fowler's statement on p. 1802 of volume 6 of Severs/Hartung.) Possibly the parallels would be even closer had not both items been damaged; Lyle thinks the ballad has lost part of its ending, while the romance "is well known to be incoherent." Lyle goes so far (p. 33) as to suggest that the ballad is the source for the romance, although there are genuine difficulties with this hypothesis and I do not believe she presents enough data to allow a real judgment. Nonetheless, Boklund-Lagopolou, p, 146, also declares "I personally feel it is a mistake to think of Thomas of Erceldoune as a romance on its way to becoming a ballad. It seems to me more likely that it is a ballad on its way to becoming a romance, which with the changing literary fashions never quite achieved conventional romance form or status."
Lyle also mentions some possible sources for the idea of standing somewhere and viewing heaven and hell and other places (integral here, and also found in some "House Carpenter" versions); her own suggested source is an item called "St. Patrick's Purgatory"; she also notes "The Adulterous Falmouth Squire" (for a modernized version of the latter, see Stone, pp. 82-88. It is far more of a moralizing piece -- mostly a sermon, in fact -- discussing the sacraments and talking about the sin of David before getting into the story of the squire). Much of the material she refers to could, however, come from Dante or a similar source.
I don't have a copy of "Saint Patrick's Purgatory," but Severs/Hartung, pp. 453-455, discusses it at some length, with a summary on p. 454. The story was apparently popular enough to generate six poetic and two prose copies in English -- but it never describes a third place such as Elfland. Saint Patrick created a hole in the ground which offers those who enter it a chance to earn their salvation, though few survive the test. A sinful knight, Sir Owen/Owayn, enters, goes through a purgatorial passage and ends up in hell, but escapes because he prays constantly. There are some thematic parallels to the Rymer story, but, I repeat, no hint of the three ways; it's all straight Catholic Heaven/Purgatory/Hell (with Purgatory, it should be remembered, properly a part of heaven; although those in it suffer the pangs of hell, they are assured of eventual entry into heaven).
Lyle, pp. 49-54, notes key similarities to the romance of "The Turk and Gawain"; she even published an article on the subject ("The Turk and Gawain as a Source of Thomas of Ercildoune") in 1970 (see Rice, pp. 537-538, for bibliography of this and of texts of "The Turke and Gowin," in Rice's spelling). "The Turk" is a piece from the Percy Folio (published by Hahn as "The Turke and Sir Gawain"; pp. 88-102 in the Hales/Furnivall edition of the Folio), and much damaged, so this is hard to prove. That there are similar motifs is beyond question -- Lyle lists among other similarities the journey with an other-worldly character (see Hahn, p. 341,lines 42-47), denying the hero food, including an order not to eat when plenty is available (Hahn, p. 341, lines 51-54; pp. 342-343, lines 83-94), an underground journey and storm (Hahn, p. 342, lines 66-72, but this section of the romance is damaged), and a castle (Hahn, p. 342, line 77).
Lyle points out that these parallels all occur in one short section of "Thomas" -- but does not point out that they occupy only a small part of "The Turk" -- roughly 60 lines out of the 337 still extant. And the direction the plot takes is completely different. I would be inclined to think that there is a common tale at the root of both.
But it is interesting to note that Whiting/Fox, p. 74, declares that "Gawain's original mistress was a fairy, queen of the other world, and nameless." Whiting rather reduces the effect of this by claiming that fairy wives were common in folklore, but it is certainly of note that the Gawain tale here parallels the tale of Thomas. Although someone really needs to do a detailed examination of date; could "The Turk and Gawain" truly precede the romance of Thomas?
Lyle, like LindahlEtAl, suspects a link to what she calls "Sir Landevale" -- the story LindahlEtAl call "Sir Launfal," which Marie de France made into the Breton lai of Lanval, which also exists in a fourtheenth century English form as "Sir Landevale," and in the Percy folio text as Sir Lambewell (Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 142-164). There are certainly thematic similarities at some points -- notably, that True Thomas happily returns to Faërie when the Queen gives him the chance, and that in "Sir Launfal," after a number of unfortunate adventures in the court of King Arthur, Launfal leaves the court to go with his Elvish lady-love (Shippey, p. 58). But to make this contention possible, Lyle has to assume a lost original used by both. I personally think that they merely both picked up the same folklore themes.
Ercildoune itself is now known merely as Earlston, according to Lyle, p. 8. For other place-names found in the versions of the ballad, see Lyle, pp. 12-17. The Eildon Tree of the song is long gone, but there is actually a memorial on its proposed site.
Supposedly this song was the inspiration for Keats's "La Belle Dame Sans Merci." But it's not as simple as that; there is a long Middle English poem, also entitled "L Belle Dame sans Mercy." It is perhaps by Richard Roos, based on a French text by Alain Chatrier, and opens "which opens "Half in a dreme not fully awaked." It was popular enough to be found in eight manuscripts (not all of which have the whole poem) and a handful of early prints. It is Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1086; DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1761. The Middle English poem does not seem to have contributed any plot elements, but its very title is evocative; Keats clearly mined many sources. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C037

Thomas Rymer & Queen of Elfland

See Thomas Rymer [Child 37] (File: C037)

Thomas Rymer and the Queen of Elfland

See Thomas Rymer [Child 37] (File: C037)

Thomas the Rhymer

See Thomas Rymer [Child 37] (File: C037)

Thomas Trim

DESCRIPTION: "I'm Thomas Trim a swell young man... girls think I'm okay... such a dandy dashing dude that you don't see every day." I don't waste time working or driving around. I just promenade "to show how cute I am"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
KEYWORDS: vanity clothes nonballad beauty
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #27112
RECORDINGS:
Gerald Campbell, "Thomas Trim" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
File: ITMAThTr

Thorn Rose

See Sleeping Beauty (Thorn Rose, Briar Rose) (File: HHH599)

Thornaby Woods

See The Nottinghamshire Poacher (File: E053)

Thorne's Goat

See Bill Grogan's Goat (File: SRW141)

Thornehagh-Moor Woods

See The Nottinghamshire Poacher (File: E053)

Thorneymoor Wood in Nottinghamshire

See The Nottinghamshire Poacher (File: E053)

Thorneymoor Woods

See The Nottinghamshire Poacher (File: E053)

Thorny Woods

See The Nottinghamshire Poacher (File: E053)

Thornymuir Fields

See The Nottinghamshire Poacher (File: E053)

Thorwaldsen, The

DESCRIPTION: "Twas a noble craft and a gallant crew That leaved the port that day, The sea was calm and the sky was blue As she sped on her course that day," leaving behind women and babies depending on the crew. The ship is wrecked by a winter storm on its way home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: death drowning commerce sea ship storm wreck family sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 18, 1873 - Schooner _Thorwaldsen_, en route from Newfoundland to Gloucester reported missing (according to the Northern Shipwrecks Database 2002)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 143, "The Thorwaldsen" (1 text)
Roud #17755
NOTES [127 words]: According to Frank Galgay and Michael McCarthy, Shipwrecks of Newfoundland and Labrador, Volume III, Creative Publishers, 1995, p. 162, the Thorwalden (their spelling, which I don't trust) was a "Gloucester schooner drifted in bottom up to Dantiz Cover on March 28, 1873 [with] one badly decomposed body in [the] wreck. No name on ship but message found inside an empty firkin gave name of the ship and following message. 'Schooner Thorwalden, Capt. G. Phillips, Gloucester, Mass. Finished loading 6 of February with herring. Went to St. Jacques same evening. Bound for home all well. Ren McEachien Glocesterr Mass. Joseph Frib, Cloucester Mass."
It sounds to me as if this song is a generic wreck song that simply had the Thorwald(s)en plugged into it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: GrMa143

Those Gambler's Blues

See Saint James Infirmary (File: San228)

Those Girls from Bermuda

See Homeward Bound (I) (File: Doe087)

Those Leather-Headed Songsters

DESCRIPTION: "Ye lumber-laddies, great and small, unto us pray give an ear" to hear about "leather-headed songsters, who will mutilate a song." They produce "songs" with no metre or no rhyme. The lumbermen are good singers -- except the song-mutilators
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: music logger nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 174-175, "Those Leather-Headed Songsters" (1 text)
NOTES [54 words]: The man who supplied this to Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine said it had been popular in New Brunswick, but it's awfully learned (how many loggers would understand term for "metre"?). I rather suspect the contributor wrote it himself or had it from the author. That said, I certainly agree with the piece's sentiment! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm174

Those Old Red Flannel Drawers that Maggie Wore

DESCRIPTION: "They were tattered, they were torn, Round the crotchpiece they were worn"; they are so vile that they paralyze the cat, and the sun will not shine on them. When they (and she) are buried, they poison the grass for a great distance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: clothes death poison talltale
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 93, "Those Old Red Flannel Drawers that Maggie Wore" (1 text)
Roud #10146
File: RuSoORFD

Those Poor Convicts

DESCRIPTION: Consider the sentencing and departure of Irish convicts bound for "Vandiamonds Land": O'Reilly from Cavan, three Duffys and Bryan Seery in Mullingar. "Unto their prosecutors they never done a wrong." "Think upon those traitors that's swore our lives away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: transportation Ireland lament
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 53, "The Sorrowful Lamentation of Those Poor Convicts" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Van Dieman's Land (I)" (tune)
NOTES [45 words]: Incongruously -- considering that these are supposedly innocent men -- this ballad shares lines with "The Edinburgh Convicts" and "Botany Bay" versions of "The Boston Burglar" [Laws L16]): "A warning take by me,I'd have you quit night walking,And shun bad company." - BS
File: Zimm053

Those Tassels on the Boots

See Tassels on Her Boots (File: R491)

Those Wedding Bells Shall Not Ring Out!

DESCRIPTION: A couple is about to be married. When the sexton asks if there are any objections, a man cries out, "Those bells shall not ring out"; the bride is his wife! He stabs her, then himself, saying "She's mine till death shall set her free."
AUTHOR: Monroe H. Rosenfeld (1862-1918)
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: marriage wedding betrayal homicide suicide
FOUND IN: US(So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 822, "Those Wedding Bells Shall Not Ring Out!" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 231-233, "Those Wedding Bells Shall Not Ring Out!" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 314-320, "Those Wedding Bells Shall Not Ring Out" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1896 sRosenfeld heet music)
Roud #7435
RECORDINGS:
John Bulger, "The Forbidden Wedding" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(124), "Those Wedding Bells shall not Ring Out," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1880-1900
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fatal Wedding" (subject)
NOTES [298 words]: Randolph lists an 1896 London copyright in the name of Charles W. Heid. It seems more likely, however, that the claim by Monroe H. Rosenfeld is correct. Joan Morris writes of him, "Though he was a notorious womanizer and lost most of his money to bookmakers, Rosenfeld never wrote a song without a moral."
According to Finson, p. 64, not only was Rosenfeld a successful commercial songwriter, he also coined the term "Tin Pan Alley" for the region on West 28th Street in New York where many musical enterprises were located.
Jasen, pp. 16-17, says that Rosenfeld was known as "Rosie," and was a "most versatile man" -- journalist, songwriter, press agent, and general music promoter. He was a teetotaler, but also addicted to gambling (particularly on horses, which he apparently wasn't very good at). This left him constantly broke -- so much so that he stooped to forging checks. Once, when the police were after him, he jumped out a window, which left him with a deformed leg and a permanent limp. He was a prolific enough writer to have published under several names. He apparently had his first song published in 1882.
The original sheet music claims that this is an unamplified portrayal of something that actually happened in "a western city." The exaggerated tone of the song, and the failure to provide details, leave the matter open to question. Spaeth, p. 232, calls it a "flagrant imitation" of "The Fatal Wedding."
For a selection of Rosenfeld's more noteworthy pieces, which eventually start to seem rather like potboilers, see Spaeth, Read 'Em and Weep, pp. 181-187. Songs of his in the Index include "She Was Happy Till She Met You," "Take Back Your Gold" (which Jasen thinks was his biggest hit), "Johnny Get Your Gun (I)," and "Nothing's Too Good for the Irish." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.4
File: R822

Thou Hast Been My Ruin

See Stone and Lime (File: GrD61216)

Thou Hast Learned to Love Another

DESCRIPTION: "Thou hast learned to love another, Thou hast broken every vow." The singer recalls how she and her false love "met in scenes of pleasure," notes how he now dotes upon another, wishes they had never met, and bids "Farewell, farewell forever"
AUTHOR: Charles Slade
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Journal of the Courier)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 249-250, "Thou Hast Learned to Love Another" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 211, "Thou Hast Learned to Love Another" (1 text)
Randolph 755, "The Broken Heart" (9 texts, 2 tunes, of which the "F" text is this piece)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 50, "Thou Hast Learned to Love Another" (2 texts plus 3 excerpts and mention of 4 more, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2329, p. 157, "Thou Hast Learned to Love Another" (1 reference)
ADDITIONAL: John Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1920_, self-published, 1918 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland site), p. 7, "Thou Hast Learned to Love Another" (1 text)
Roud #2065
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ella Lea" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Parting Words" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Broken-Hearted" (floating lyrics)
File: Beld211A

Though I Say Not What I May Not Let You Hear

See The Merry Widow (File: KSUC072B)

Though the Last Glimpse of Erin with Sorrow I See

DESCRIPTION: "Though the last glimpse of Erin with sorrow I see, Yet wherever thou are shall seem Erin to me, In exile thy bosom shall still be my home...." Wherever he goes, "I will fly with my Coulin," or carry a lock of her hair, and remember
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Moore-IrishMelodies-1846)
KEYWORDS: love emigration Ireland home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, p. 7, "Tho' the Last Glimpse of Erin With Sorrow I see" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 58, "Though the Last Glimpse of Erin" (1 text)
Roud #13395
File: HMHS058C

Thought I Fell in Ten Foot of Water

DESCRIPTION: Hammering song. "Thought I fell in, Uh! ten foot o' water, Uh! (x3), Over my head, Uh! over my head. Uh!" "Jay bird sat on, Uh! a hickory limb, Uh! (x3), Over my head, Uh! over my head. Uh!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: worksong bird
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 217-218, "Work-Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [20 words]: Scarborough says the first part of this tune is "I've Been Working on the Railroad." Not quite, though it's close. - RBW
File: ScaNF217

Thoughts of Long Ago, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer invites "in fancy ... a trip across the sea" in order to think of those left behind. "Can you recall, sweetheart of mine, The place where I met you?" He recalls "when we set sail." "God forbid that we'd e'er forget Our dear little Isle"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (IRHardySons)
KEYWORDS: emigration home parting Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #2954
RECORDINGS:
James McDermott, "The Thoughts of Long Ago" (on IRHardySons)
File: RcToLAg

Thoughts on the Newfoundland Sailing Voyage

DESCRIPTION: "Heigho, my lads, for the tenth of March, And a gallant ship and crew." The singer declares that the crew will happily go to sea, brave the conditions, fill the holds, and return to Harbor Grace
AUTHOR: George T. Sheppard
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff); reportedly written 1926
KEYWORDS: hunting ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 117, "Thoughts on the Newfoundland Sailing Voyage" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V44727
NOTES [209 words]: The lyrics of this appear to be based on "A Capital Ship" or one of its relatives; the verse form is the same and there are reminiscences in the lyrics (including an excessive fondness for "heigh-ho"). But there is no chorus; the author may not have meant it to be sung.
The tenth of March was, for many years, the day the sealing fleet left St. John's to head for the ice. This was the result of law and tradition; according to William Howe Greene, The Wooden Walls among the Ice Flows: Telling the Romance of the Newfoundland Seal Fishery, Hutchinson & Co, London (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 94 n. 1., the sealing fleet set out on that very day in 44 of the 71 springs from 1863 to 1933, and most of the other springs were close to that day.
It is interesting that the ship, at the end, is supposed to head for Harbour Grace, not St. John's, at the end of the trip. This implies that the poem is intended to evoke an earlier time in the sealing industry, before the steamers all were based in St. John's (although it is just possible that the ship would have picked up crew in Harbour Grace, it's not likely it would have returned them there, since they would not be paid until the fat made it to port). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm117

Thousand a Year, A

See If I Had But a Thousand a Year (File: NCSIIHBT)

Thousand Legged Worm (Centipede)

DESCRIPTION: "Said a thousand legged worm, As he gave a little squirm, 'Has anybody seen a leg of mine? If it hasn't been found I shall have to hop around On the other nine hundred ninety-nine.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: bug humorous campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Linda Weaver, "Camp Songs: Reflections of Youth," Vol. XXII, No. 2 (May 1974), p. 78, "The Thousand-Legged Worm" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #72, p. 23, "Thousand-Legged Worm" (1 text, tune referenced)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 51-52, "The Thousand-Legged Worm" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 96, 137, "Thousand Legged Worm" (notes only)
DT, THOULEG
Roud #22406
NOTES [131 words]: Although the name "centipede" means hundred-feet, and millipede means "thousand-feet," until 2021, no species of this type had been found with more than 750 legs (a single species with 1306 legs was found in Australia in 2021, according to National Public Radio, but it's not one you're ever likely to encounter; it lives deep underground). Moreover, although centipedes have their legs in pairs, they always have an odd number of pairs -- so 98 or 102 are possible, but not 100, and if they could grow even more, they would have 998 or 1002 legs, not 1000.
Harbin-Parodology and Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook say that this is sung to "Polly Wolly Doodle," and that certainly fits the chorus, but it appears to me that one line has to be repeated in Harbin's verse. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF096A

Thousand Mile Away, A

See A Thousand Miles Away (File: PFS213)

Thousand Miles Away, A

DESCRIPTION: "Hurrah for the Roma railway! Hurrah for Cobb and Co., An of! for a good fat horse or two to carry me Westward Ho." The singer enjoys the freedom of Australia, and boasts of the climate and of the meat it produces
AUTHOR: Charles Flower? (source: Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (The Queenslander)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad horse
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 209-211, "A Thousand Miles Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 213-214, A Thousand Miles Away"" (1 text)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 130-131, "A Thousand Mile Away" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 64-65, "A Thousand Miles Away" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 69-70, "A Thousand Miles Away" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 298-299, "A Thousand Miles Away" (1 text)
Roud #8393
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum)" [Laws H2] (words, tune)
File: PFS213

Thousands Are Sailing to America

DESCRIPTION: "Your sons and brave daughters are now going away, And thousands are sailing to America." The singer addresses those staying in Ireland and describes sad partings. You raise children, try to support them, "and when they are reared sure they will go away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
KEYWORDS: emigration parting America Ireland nonballad family friend
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 15, pp. 37-38,107,162-163, "Thousands Are Sailing to America" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2904
RECORDINGS:
John Maguire, "Thousands Are Sailing to Amerikay" (on IRJMaguire01)
NOTES [178 words]: Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday: "This is a song from the 1880s, by which time the enforced emigration of famine times had become a ritual, almost part of growing up." - BS
We should be a little careful in how we interpret these words. There were famines in Ireland before the potato blights, and all resulted in emigration, and the rate of emigration increased with the great famines of the 1840s.
But the potato blight, which resulted in the death or emigration of almost half the population, largely solved the problem of actual starvation; with the population down to a reasonable level, there were no more Mathusian catastrophes. The real problem was that the landlords owned the land, meaning that the tenants were still working for almost no reward. As another emigration song says, "'Twas not for the want of employment at home That causes the sons of old Ireland to roam. But those tyrannizing landlords, they would not let us stay...." And so the emigrant ships were filled, and stayed full for many years even after Ireland became independent.... - RBW
File: MoMa015

Thousands or More

DESCRIPTION: Singer says time passes more cheerfully since they've found a new way (drink) to drive sorrows away. He has no credit, but you will find him at home with his bottle and friend. Neither rich nor poor, he's "as happy as those that's got thousands or more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recorded from Jim Copper)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 284, "Thousands or More" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1220
NOTES [43 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland suggests this may be a version of "Drive the Cold Winter Away". I don't hear it myself.... It's worth noting that... all versions of this song have come from one or another members of the Copper family of Rottingdean. - PJS
File: K284

Thra

DESCRIPTION: "Henry Thra he did invite The boys to go on Halloweve night" and get drunk and make a racket on the roads until morning. "When Thra raised up that dreadful noise He took brave Hughie by surprise." Hughie chases the boys on his horse.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous horse
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, p. 16, "Thra" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12482
File: Din016

Thrashing Machine (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Farmer show his servant Nell the works of his thrashing machine. He straps her into the harness, she takes the handle and turns on the steam. Nine months later, when her apron won't pin, she says she'll have him transported for his thrashing machine
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1855 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(339))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Farmer show his servant Nell the works of his thrashing machine; she tells him to come into the barn where they won't be seen. He straps her into the harness, she takes the handle and turns on the steam, and they begin working the thrashing machine. Nine months later, when her apron won't pin and her drawers won't go on, she says she'll have him transported for his thrashing machine
KEYWORDS: sex punishment transportation pregnancy farming technology bawdy servant
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 92-94, "The Thrashing Machine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 100, "The Thrashing Machine" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #73, "The Thrashing Machine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1491
RECORDINGS:
Anne [Annie] O'Neill, "The Thrashing Machine" (on FSB02, FSB2CD)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(339), "Thrashing Machine," E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Harding B 15(330a), Firth b.27(87), Harding B 11(3808), Firth b.34(290), "Thrashing Machine"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Threshing Machine (I)" (subject, sort of)
NOTES [32 words]: This doesn't seem to be a parody of "The Threshing Machine" -- the tune and meter are different, and there's no overlap in the words. You should probably check that one out anyway, though. - PJS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: RcThraM

Thrashing Machine (II), The

See The Threshing Machine (I) (File: K231)

Thread the Needle

DESCRIPTION: "Thread the needle, thread the needle, through the eye ...; Who likes pancakes? I, I, I!" or "who am I? One, two, three, if you want a pretty girl, come and fetch me" or "thro' the skin Sometimes out, and sometimes in"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Northall)
KEYWORDS: playparty food courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 1, "Thread the Needle" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: G.F. Northall, English Folk-Rhymes (London, 1892 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 397, ("Thread the needle thro' the skin") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: J.B. Partridge, "The Game of 'Thread the Needle' and Custom of Church Clipping" in Folklore, Vol. XXIII, No. 2 (Jun 1912 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 199 ("Thread the needle, thread the needle, through the eye, eye, eye, eye") (Wiltshire, 1907); p. 203 ("Thread the needle, thread the needle, who am I?") (Wiltshire, c.1850) (2 texts)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Jack (Shrove Tuesday)" (game)
cf. "King William's Troops" (game)
cf. "Call the Hogs to Supper" (game)
cf. "Grandy Needles" (game)
cf. "Brother Jack, If You Were Mine" (game)
NOTES [615 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame lists seven texts to be sung with the game "Thread the Needle"; of those, only one includes that text. Partridge, "The Game ....," lists five texts; of those only two include the text.
According to Partridge, "The Game ....," the game was originally connected to pancake eating and church clipping -- "the encompassing of a parish church by a ring of children or young persons, who join hands so as to form a great circle" -- on Shrove Tuesday. As noted above, a great variety of texts went with the game and, in Partridge's second text the rhyme "suggests a courting game." A review of four authors listing rhymes connected to the "Thread the Needle"/"Pig in the Gutter" game includes -- once duplicates are eliminated -- 60 texts.
The works included are:
Alice Bertha Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland (New York, 1964 (reprint of 1894 edition)), Vol I, pp. 231-235.
Alice Bertha Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland (New York, 1964 (reprint of 1898 edition)), Vol II, pp. 228,229,231.
Northall, pp. 397-398, 421-422.
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, pp. 33-46.
J.B. Partridge, "The Game of 'Thread the Needle' and Custom of Church Clipping" in Folklore, Vol. XXIII, No. 2 (Jun 1912 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 198-203
J.B. Partridge, "Cotswold Place-Lore and Customs (Continued") in Folklore, Vol. XXIII, No. 4 (Dec 1912 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 446
The rhymes have been indexed here under eight titles:
Brother Jack, If You Were Mine
Call the Hogs to Supper
Grandy Needles
How Many Miles to Babylon?
King William's Troops
The Needle's Eye
Poor Jack
Thread the Needle
Of these, four share few, if any, elements with the other four. These stand-alone rhymes are
Brother Jack, If You Were Mine
Call the Hogs to Supper
The Needle's Eye
Poor Jack.
The other four rhymes swap elements though they remain different enough to be clearly distinguishable from one another.
A comparison of their elements follows. Alternatives are separated by "/" or "OR." "NOT-SPECIFIED" is a choice among alternatives meaning "none of the others." Elements are assumed to occur all the time unless prefixed by "MOST OF THE TIME:," "SOMETIMES:" or "ONCE OR TWICE:."
"Grandy Needles":
Thread grandmother's/tailor's/NOT-SPECIFIED needle]
[MOST OF THE TIME:
Open gates for King George and his bride/his lady/me]
[MOST OF THE TIME:
Too dark/blind to see to thread grandmother's/tailor's needle]
[ONCE OR TWICE:
Sometimes out and sometimes in]
[ONCE OR TWICE:
We go through the long valley/lobby to see blue bells/King's horses]
"How Many Miles to Babylon":
How many miles to such-and-such a place? Can we get there by such-and-such a time? Yes.
[MOST OF THE TIME:
Open the gates for king and lady/family/host OR
Open the gates for me/us]
[SOMETIMES:
Must curtsy/back-and-bow to be allowed through]
[SOMETIMES:
Last one through has problem]
[ONCE OR TWICE:
Too dark to see to thread the needle]
[ONCE OR TWICE:
Thread the needle OR
Jump little horse]
"King William's Troops":
Open gates for king and lady/troops/horses
[ONCE OR TWICE:
too dark to see to thread tailor's/NOT-SPECIFIED needle]
"Thread the Needle":
Thread needle through skin/eye/NOT-SPECIFIED
[ONCE OR TWICE:
Sometimes out and sometimes in OR
Let King George and I by OR
Eye too little, needle too big OR
Take me, a pretty girl/bonnie lassie OR
Who likes pancakes? I do]
The mention of pancakes, as in "Thread the Needle" and "Poor Jack," is a reference to the special dish of Shrove Tuesday, when "Thread the Needle" games were often played. The problem for the last one through refers to the objective of some versions of the game to "capture" the last player. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa001

Thread Was Thin, The

See Choo'n Gum (Chewing Gum; Chew, Chew, Chew; Bubblegum) (File: ACSF142C)

Threading the Needle

See The Needle's Eye (File: R545)

Threatened Invasion, The

See Fy, Fy, Margaret (The Threatened Invasion) (File: ChaBa086)

Three 'Stralion Dragoons

See Trooper and Maid [Child 299] (File: C299)

Three Acres and a Cow

DESCRIPTION: "You've heard a deal of talk about three acres and a cow, And if they mean to give it to us, why don't they give it to us now?" The singer is upset and broke. He repeatedly asks for some sort of relief and fairness, but says land and cow would be enough
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1918 (broadside Bodleian, Firth c.16(305))
KEYWORDS: farming hardtimes money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #21, "Three Acres and a Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24484
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.16(305)=Firth c.16(332) "Three Acres and a Cow" H. Such (London), 1886-1917
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wish They'd Do It Now" (tune)
NOTES [184 words]: There is another Bodleian broadside entitled "Three Acres and a Cow"; obviously it is about the same topic, but it isn't the same song; it begins "I'm only just a labourer, Just Agricultural," with a chorus that begins "And I've got three acres, Three acres and a cow"; it is a humorous song about how the three acres and a cow aren't doing him any good.
Incidentally, the proposal to give everyone in England three acres and a cow (attributed to one Jesse Collings in the 1880s) was not possible. Online sources say that Great Britain has a total area of 51.68 million acres, and at the 1901 census, Britain had 38.2 million people. So at the time, each person could have been given at most one and a half acres. (Today, it's down to about .75 acres). To be sure, the proposal probably means three acres PER FAMILY, not PER PERSON, but much of Britain is not tillable land. So although it would have been theoretically possible to hand out three acres to every family, each family would get a lot of useless land (or some would get good and some bad), and they still wouldn't be able to make a living. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: PaPl021

Three Acres of Land

See My Father Had an Acre of Land (File: K300)

Three Babes (I)

See The Wife of Usher's Well [Child 79] (File: C079)

Three Babes (II), The

See The Three Lost Babes of Americay (File: Peac030)

Three Bears, The

DESCRIPTION: "Once upon a time in a tiny little cottage lived the three bears (cha, cha, cha). One was the papa bear, one was the mama bear, one was the wee bear (cha, cha)." The story of Goldilocks and the Bears is told with repeated "Cha cha cha's" inserted
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: animal home food campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 388, 389, 416, "The Three Bears" (notes only)
File: ACSF3883

Three Bells, The

DESCRIPTION: "They worked all day (x2) As brave tars only do. They sought to save from wind and wave A sinking vessel's crew." "'All saved,' they cried, The shout rose high, Rose high o'er wind and wave. 'Twas a starry crew... That manned the good ship Three Bells."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (supplied to Walton by Gerrit Doesburg and A. E. Baker)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck rescue
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 103-104, "The Three Bells" (1 fragment)
Dime-Song-Book #2/72, p. 66 and #2/64, p. 53, Three Bells"" (1 text)
Roud #19877
File: WGM103

Three Black Crows

See The Three Ravens [Child 26] (File: C026)

Three Blackbirds

DESCRIPTION: "Three blackbirds sat on a fence, They were as hungry as they could be." They find an old dead horse. A farmer kills all but one; that one is so frightened that his wings turn white -- and that is the origin of magpies, and is why they wait to eat grain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2009 (Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ)
KEYWORDS: bird death food farming colors
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 269, "(Three Blackbirds)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Three Ravens" [Child 26] (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [42 words]: Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ thinks this is derived from "The Three Ravens," and I sort of agree: I suspect it was a deliberate revision of that song to explain the origin of magpies. But the change was deliberate, so I file it as a separate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Garl269

Three Blind Jellyfish

DESCRIPTION: "Three blind jellyfish, three blind jellyfish, three blind jellyfish sitting on a rock. And one fell off. Two blind jellyfish.And another one fell off." Once all are off, they start to climb on again, and the song can repeat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2021 (LibraryThingCampSongsThread)
KEYWORDS: animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 24, "(Three Blind Jellyfish)" (1 text, from user John5918, posted August 29, 2021)
ST LTCS3BlJ (Partial)
NOTES [87 words]: This seems to have become quite popular with performers making recordings for preschool children -- so much so that I am inclined to think that it has gone from folk to "pop." But John5918 apparently learned it long ago, orally, so I am (very hesitantly) including it here. He records that "Songs like that were very popular when the group were feeling silly or drunk (usually both) and could go on for a long time before one got bored. I recall there was always a lot of impromptu and often impressive harmonisation." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LTCS3BlJ

Three Blind Mice

DESCRIPTION: "Three blind mice (x2), See how they run (x2); They all ran after the farmer's wife. She cut off their tails with a carving knife. Did you ever see such a sight in your life As three blind mice?"
AUTHOR: Thomas Ravenscroft?
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (Ravenscroft's Deuteromelia)
KEYWORDS: animal disability
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1672, "Three Blind Mice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 297, "Three Blind Mice" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 267)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 283-284, "Three Blind Mice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 348, "Three blind mice, see how they run!" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #253, p. 156, "(Three blind mice, see how they run!)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 212, "Three Blind Mice" (2 texts)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 111, "Three Blind Mice" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 10, "Three Blind Mice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld, p. 576, "Three Blind Mice"
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 413, "Three Blind Mice" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #422, p. 103, "Three Blind Mice" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 121, "Three Blind Mice" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 29, "Three Blind Mice" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 59, "Three Blind Mice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 107, 128, 393, 433, 435, 441, 447, 520, "Three Blind Mice" (notes only)
DT, (THREEBLN*)
ST FSWB413A (Full)
Roud #3753
SAME TUNE:
Three (Blind/Decrepit/Myopic) Rodents (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 208; cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 128)
Who Can Tell? Catch ("Why the Fresh? (x3) Who can tell? (x3)) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 15)
Marijuana, Marijuana, LSD, LSD (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 107)
NOTES [210 words]: Fuld reports this as "the earliest printed secular song which is still extremely well known" (but compare "Greensleeves"). Fuld also prints a plate of the 1609 music -- in a somewhat pre-modern notation, and with words noticeably different from those sung today.
Neither Fuld nor any other source I have seen offers an explanation for why this bit of silliness survives when so many better pieces died out. The Baring-Goulds note that there have been attempts to link it to political events -- e.g. the Farmer's Wife is Mary I Tudor (perhaps considered a farmer's wife because of her marriage to Philip of Spain), and the mice are Protestant leaders who opposed her. This idea probably goes back to the hyperimaginative Katherine Elwes Thomas, who in The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 127, says that Mary is the Farmer's Wife and the mice are Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley. By Thomas's standards, this is relatively reasonable, since the first attestation of the poem is only 56 years after Mary Tudor died, rather than the several centuries that she usually waves away. But in Ravenscroft's version, it's not a farmer's wife but a miller's wife, and no tails are cut, plus there is a reference to "Dame Julius." . - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB413A

Three Block Tom

DESCRIPTION: "We was trailin' some stolen cattle In the winder of '98 From the Sierra Capitanes Past Dry Red Lake." He and Tom are separated. He thinks he finds Tom in Lamy surrounded by insects. But Tom has gotten them to Kansas City and wants a ticket home
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy separation travel robbery bug
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 153-156, "Three Block Tom" (1 text)
File: ThLo153

Three Blue Pigeons

DESCRIPTION: "Three blue pigeons (x2) Sitting on a fence. Oh look! One has flown away!" "Two blue pigeons..." "One blue pigeon..." "No blue pigeons..." "Oh, look, one has returned. Let us rejoice!" "One blue pigeon." And so on, back to three, and repeat as desired
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: bird travel campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 137, 386, 433, 515, "Three Blue Pigeons"/"Three Wooden Pigeons"/"Five Blue Pigeons" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 39, "Three Wood Pigeons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 5, "Three Wood Pigeons" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 9, "Three Wood Pigeons" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Three Chartreuse Buzzards
File: ACSF1373

Three Boocher Lads

See The Three Butchers [Laws L4] (File: LL04)

Three Brave Blacksmiths

DESCRIPTION: Three brave blacksmiths from County Clare refuse to work for a grabber, are thrown in jail, refuse bail, and are treated as heroes when their term is up. "Blacksmiths, whitesmiths, tradesmen everywhere, Fathers, labourers, see your model there"
AUTHOR: T.D. Sullivan (1827-1914) (source: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (_Prison Poems or Lays of Tullamore,_ according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: prison work Ireland patriotic political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1888 - Maguire, Maloney and Heaney are jailed in Miltown Malbay for supporting the boycott of a local landlord (source: notes to IRClare01).
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 71, "Three Brave Blacksmiths" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9768
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sing a Song of Sixpence" (tune, according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
NOTES [34 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "Another of Sullivan's Land League songs." - BS
Sullivan is the author of a number of Irish patriotic poems, of which "God Save Ireland" is probably the best-known. - RBW
File: OLcM071

Three Brethren out of Spain

See Three Brothers from Spain (Knights of Spain, We Are Three Jews) (File: BGMG633)

Three Brothers from Old Scotland

See Sir Andrew Barton [Child 167]; also Captain Ward and the Rainbow [Child 287] (File: C167)

Three Brothers from Spain (Knights of Spain, We Are Three Jews)

DESCRIPTION: "We are three (brothers/dukes/knights/jews) come from Spain, Come to court your daughter Jane." "My daughter Jane is yet too young...." "It is for gold she must be sold." The (knight) turns away. The mother calls him back; he chooses the fairest
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Joseph Ritson, _Gammer Gurton's Garland: or, The Nursery Parnassus_, according to Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: courting beauty playparty
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Australia
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1569, "We Are Three Lovers Come From Spain" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 199, "Two Brethren Come From Spain" (1 text)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 42, "(no title)" (1 text, in the notes for "The Sailor's Grave")
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 12, "Three Brethren out of Spain"; Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 13, pp. 103-107, "Three Brethren Come from Spain (Scots version)" (11 texts, 2 tunes)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #1, "Knights of Spain" (2 texts plus many excerpts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #633, pp. 250-251, "(We're three Brethren out of Spain)"
Behan-IrelandSings, #88, "There Came Three Jews" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 77, "We are three knights, we come from Spain" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #550, "There came two Spaniards just from Spain" (1 text)
(DT, THREDUKE mixes this with "Three Dukes")
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #353, "Three Knights from Spain" (1 text)
Roud #8251
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Three Dukes" (plot)
NOTES [32 words]: This has some points of similarity with "Three Dukes," and it appears some scholars have lumped them. But even Roud, who is generally a lumper, splits them, and I do so without hesitation. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BGMG633

Three Brothers in Fair Warwickshire

DESCRIPTION: "All four three brothers in fair Warwickshire, Three daring brothers you shall hear." The three turn to robbery. They rob Lord Granuvale. They are caught, tried, and condemned to die. They are 18, 19, and 20 year old. People are warned against bad company
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (recorded from Danny Brazil)
KEYWORDS: robbery trial execution death warning mother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, "'Birmingham Broadsides and Oral Tradition" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, pp. 53-54, "Three Brothers in Fair Warwickshire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3207
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lamentation of W. Warner, T. Ward, & T. Williams" (theme)
NOTES [136 words]: Palmer connects this with a broadside, "The Lamentation of W. Warner, T. Ward, & T. Williams." Roud accepts the equivalence. There are certainly common elements -- the age of the young men (18, 19, 20), the fact that they are in Warwickshire, the fact that they rob someone whose name starts with "Gr...." But there are substantial differences, too. In the broadside, the three are not brothers; in the song, they are. The song adds a scene with the three brothers' mother bewail their fate. Only about half the verses have the same general contents. The song can't even decide whether it's in first or third person. My guess is that the song has taken on material from the broadside but that it either started as something else or was deliberately remade. Either way, I'd call it a separate although related song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: AtRo053A

Three Brothers, The

DESCRIPTION: "A ship rides on the cruel wave" in sight of the Tuskar light at Carnsore. Three brothers leave shore and "steer for the vessel's side ... Then sink in the yawning wave."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor rescue
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 115, "The Three Brothers" (1 text)
Roud #20542
NOTES [45 words]: Tuskar Lighthouse and Carnsore Point are on the Wexford coast. - BS
The name Three Brothers was common for Newfoundland ships, where families often operated a vessel and so it was common to find brothers owning a ship. Apparently the tradition came from Ireland. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran115

Three Butchers, The (Dixon and Johnson) [Laws L4]

DESCRIPTION: Three butchers are riding when they hear a woman calling out. They find her naked and bound. They free her; she blows a whistle which summons robbers. Two butchers yield, but Johnson fights and is close to winning when the woman stabs him from behind
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1678
KEYWORDS: outlaw trick death fight
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES (38 citations):
Laws L4, "The Three Butchers"
Randolph 97, "Dixon and Johnson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 74-75, "Dixon and Johnson" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 97)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 238-244, "The Three Butchers" (1 text plus a broadside version, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 111, "The Three Jolly Butchers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #36, p. 1, "The Three Butchers" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 186, "The Three Jolly Butchers" (11 texts, 6 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 22, "The Three Jolly Butchers" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 275-276, "The Two Jolly Butchers" (2 texts) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 344)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 344, "Three Jolly Butchers" (1 text)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 42-49, "The Three Butchers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 335, "Three Jolly Sportsmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 254-255, "Young Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #44, "The Three Butchers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 86, "Jackison and Dickison" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 60, "The Three Butchers" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 106, "The Two Jovial Butchers" (2 texts)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 76, "Two Jolly Butchers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #27, "The Three Butchers" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #143, "Three Butchers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H185, pp. 128-129, "The Three Huntsmen/Wilson, Gilmore, and Johnson" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 24, "The Three Butchers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 80, "The Three Butchers" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 80, "The Three Butchers" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 46, "Good Woman" (1 fragment)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #207, "The Three Butchers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 66, "The Three Butchers" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 120-122, "The Three Jovial Huntsmen" (2 texts, 2 tunes, with the first being a peculiar variant in which the huntsmen all resist and Johnson kills the deceitful woman)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 97, "The Three Gallant Huntsmen" (1 text, 1 tune; this resembles the Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia version in which the huntsmen win the battle)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 37, "Johnson" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 817-818, "Jolly Butchermen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 33, "The Three Butchers" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 59, "Three Boocher Lads" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 39, "((no title)" (1 fragment, found in the notes to "Another Shower of Rain")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 223, "Johnson" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN782, "Did you never hear of worthy butchers three"; ZN1365, "I'll tell you a story of lovely butchers three"
DT 325, BUTCHER2 BUTCHER3*
ADDITIONAL: Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, pp. 51-52, "The Three Butchers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17
RECORDINGS:
James Decker, "The Jolly Butchermen" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Bob Scarce, "Three Jolly Sportsmen" (on FSB8)
Pete Seeger, "The Three Butchers" (on PeteSeeger16)
F. Sutton, "Three Jolly Butchers" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(206), "The Three Butchers," W. Wright (Birmingham), 1820-1827; also 2806 c.16(200), Harding B 11(4230), Firth c.17(1), Harding B 11(876), Firth c.17(2), Harding B 25(1901), Harding B 15(330b), Harding B 16(288a), "[The] Three Butchers"; Harding B 11(1767), Firth c.17(3), "Ips, Gips, and Johnson" or "The Three Butchers[!]"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jinkson Johnson
The Three Riders
The Jolly Butchermen
The Butchers Three
Bold Johnston
Brave Johnston
NOTES [46 words]: Stewart suggests that this began as a tale of ritual murder, and suggests that it might go back to the Osiris myth in Egypt. Many of his suggestions are far-fetched but possible; at this one, I can only shake my head in wonder at the ability of the human race to be wacko. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LL04

Three C Railroad

DESCRIPTION: Hammer song. "Oh, baby, Uh! what you gwine to do? Uh! Three C railroad, Uh! done run through! Uh!" "My and my partner, him and me!" "Oh, baby, what you gwine to do? Seaboard Air-line (or other train) done run through."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: railroading work
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 216-217, "Work-Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [163 words]: There are hints of this in some of Lead Belly's songs. But that may just be the common stuff of all railroad work songs.
According to Aaron E. Klein, Encyclopedia of North American Railroads, Bison Books, 1985 (I use the 1987 printing), although the ancestor of the Seaboard Air Lie was founded in 1832, that line was known as the Portsmouth and Roanoake. By 1900 the line extended from Portsmouth, Virginia, through Weldon, North Carolina, on to Atlanta, Georgia, and was informally known as the Seaboard Air Line. In 1900, the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad was added to the network, and the name "Seaboard Air Line" became official. The line went bankrupt some decades later, but survived, and after a series of mergers, the line became the Seaboard Coast Line in 1967. In the early 1980s, the company became part of the CSX Corporation, and the "Seaboard" name disappeared, at least as a corporate title; a "Seaboard System Railroad" still existed after that. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ScNF216C

Three Chartreuse Buzzards

See Three Blue Pigeons (File: ACSF1373)

Three Children Sliding On The Ice

See Three Little Girls A-Skating Went (File: R588)

Three Crooked Criples

DESCRIPTION: Tongue-twister: "Three crooked cripples went through Cripplegate, And through Cripplegate went three crooked cripples. Hickup, snickup, rise up, rise up. Three drops in the cup are good for the hiccups."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: drink injury wordplay
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #745, p. 282, "(Three crooked cripples went through Cripplegate)" (1 short text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 182, "Three Crooked Cripples" (1 text)
Roud #22157
File: Dol182

Three Crows, The

See The Three Ravens [Child 26] (File: C026)

Three Danish Galleys

DESCRIPTION: "Three galleys came sailing to Porlock Side, And stole me away a new-wed bride. Who left my true love lying dead on the shore...." The Danish king offers to marry her. She refuses and is thrown into the sea. English ships destroy the Danes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (collected by Ruth Tongue, according to Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs)
KEYWORDS: royalty death sea ship battle revenge rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 187-188, "Three Danish Galleys" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [259 words]: This is instance #2037 or so of a song that someone claims as the oldest English ballad. Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs suggests this describes events of the year 918. (Not 1918, 918.) And certainly the tenth and eleventh centuries were the primary period of Viking raids.
The reference seems to be to the Winchester manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which in the year 918 reports, "Here in this year a great raiding ship-army came over the south from Brittany, and with them two jarls [same root as English "earl"], Ohtor and Hroald [yes, that's "Hroald," not "Harold"]... and raided in Wales.... [T]hen they were met by the men from Hereford and Gloucester... [who] killed the jarl Hroald and the other Jarl Ohtor's brother and a great part of the raiding army.... [T]hey then stole up by night on two certain occasions, on the one occasion east of Watchet, and on another occasion at Porlock; then on each occasion they were hit, so that few came away, except only those who swam out to the ships" (Swanton, p. 98; compare Garmondsway, p. 98 -- yes, the same page number! ).
Note that no other Chronicle manuscript seems to mention the event, and the raiders are said to have been Bretons, not Danes (and Bretons are a lot more likely to be raiding the Severn than the Danes were!), and there is no hint of a Danish king or of a proposal to a woman. The idea that a song in Modern English, which has never been reported elsewhere, refers to an event of 918, and preserves details not preserved in actual history, strikes me as farcical. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: DalC187

Three Dishes and Six Questions

See Captain Wedderburn's Courtship [Child 46] (File: C046)

Three Dogs in a Row

DESCRIPTION: "Ho, ho, ho! Three dogs in a row! Three dogs in a row! One dog's white, and so are the others, All three dogs are watching for their mother."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Minnie Stokes)
KEYWORDS: dog mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 241, (no title) (1 short text)
File: MHAp241B

Three Dreams, The

See Paddy Magee's Dream (File: OCon099)

Three Drowned Sisters

See Three Girls Drowned [Laws G23] (File: LG23)

Three Drunken Huntsmen

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

Three Drunken Maidens

See Drunken Maidens (File: Log240)

Three Dukes

DESCRIPTION: "Here comes (three dukes) a-ridin', a-ridin', a-ridin', Here comes a duke a-ridin' The raz-ma-taz-a-ma-tee." The duke comes to be married; the girls ask him to choose one of them. He calls them ugly; they say they're as good as he is. He chooses one.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting nobility
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #152, p. 2, "Here Are Two Dukes" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1567, "Here Are Two Dukes" (1 text)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 77, "The Three Dukes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sumner-TheBesomMaker, pp. 19-22, "Forty Dukes A Riding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 52-54=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 213-214, "Here Comes Four Dukes A-Riding" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 65-71, "Ransum, Tansum," "Here Come Four Dukes A-Riding" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph 551, "Raz-Ma-Taz-A-Ma-Tee" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 406-407, "Raz-Ma-Taz-A-Ma-Tee" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 551A)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 159-160, "Raz-Ma-Taz-A-Ma-Tee"; pp. 188-189, "Three Dukes A-Riding" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 130, "Here Comes Someone A-Roving" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 68, "Here Comes Three Lawyers" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, pp. 516-517, "Rancy, Tanchy, Teen" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 51, "Two Dukes A-Roving" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 13-15, "Here Come Three Dukes A-Riding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 260-262, "Here Comes a Duke A-Riding" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 242, (no title) (1 short text)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, pp. 12-13, "Duke A-Riding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 95-96, "Here Come Three Merchants Riding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 106-108, "Here's the Gipsy Riding" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 109-110, "The King of Rifles" (1 text, which seems remote from most texts of this song, but Brady considers it the same as the "Gipsy Riding")
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 11, "A Duke a-Riding" (7 texts, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #3, "Here Comes a Duke" (3 texts plus excerpts)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 37-38, "(Here comes a Duke a-riding)" (1 text)
DT, THREDUK1 THREDUK2
Roud #730
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hog Drovers" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "Three Brothers from Spain (Knights of Spain, We Are Three Jews)" (plot, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Here Come Three Kings A-Riding
File: R551

Three Dwarfs

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Behind the mountain (One, two, three), Three dwarfs were sitting (One, two, three), They didn't drink, they didn't eat, Just sat there chatting (One, two, three)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: nonballad jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 63, "Three Dwarfs" (1 text)
Roud #19268
File: ZiZa063D

Three Elephants Went Out to Play

See One Little Elephant (File: OpGa099)

Three English Rovers

See Campbell the Rover (File: K269)

Three Farmers from the North

See John Barleycorn (I) (File: ShH84)

Three Fishermen

See Once There Were Three Fishermen (File: FSWB240A)

Three Fishers Went Sailing

DESCRIPTION: "Three fishers went sailing out into the west," but are caught in a storm and killed, leaving their wives behind. "For men must work, and women must weep, Though the storms be sudden and the waters deep, And the harbour bar be moaning."
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Kingsley (1819-1875) source: Heart-Songs and many others)
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (source: Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea sailor wife death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Heart-Songs, pp. 192-193, "Three Fishers Went Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune -- the Hullah melody)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 68, "Three Fishers Went Sailing" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 46, "The Three Fishers" (1 text)
DT, THREFSHR
Roud #29975
NOTES [119 words]: Most readers of the Index will probably know this with the tune written by Garnet Rogers and recorded by Stan Rogers. However, this is at least the third tune used for the song. The first was by John Hullah; according to the Wikipedia entry for the poem, it was written soon after Charles Kingsley wrote the poem. Robert Goldbeck wrote another tune in 1878.
Both the Wikipedia entry and a Mudcat thread report that hearing the tide moan as it went over the harbor bar was a sign of tragedy to come. But they do not cite primary sources.
The song is very rare in tradition, if it is traditional at all, but the poem is very well-known -- probably the best-known thing by Kingsley other than The Water-Babies. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: DSB9046

Three Flies, The

DESCRIPTION: Three flies "resolv'd to travel." One stops on a cow turd, but "the others too dainty were." The second stops on butcher shop meat, but the third, being so dainty, stops in treacle and drowns. Moral: "stay at home", "be content with what you get"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1818 (Hudson)
KEYWORDS: home rambling death drowning food humorous bug
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 220, "The Three Flies" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 65)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Hudson, Comic Songs (London, 1818 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 4-6, "The Three Flies" (1 text)
Roud #1290
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3813), "The Three Flies" ("There were three flies, once on a time") , J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Johnson Ballads fol. 25, Harding B 11(3812), "The Three Flies"
NOTES [23 words]: You may recognize fragments of this song by the chorus, which begins "But they too saucy were by half -- I can't sing if you do laugh" - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT220

Three Flowers of Chivalry, The

DESCRIPTION: The soldiers in the Crimea are depressed, when three Irishmen spring up, recall their homes and sweethearts, and rally the troops. In battle the next day, the British are victorious, but the three heroes die
AUTHOR: Andrew Orr
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection, from a book said to have been published c. 1865)
KEYWORDS: soldier death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1853-1856 - Crimean War (Britain and France actively at war with Russia 1854-1855)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H99, pp. 89-90, "The Three Flowers of Chivalry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8146
File: HHH099

Three Flowers, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer met a girl with three flowers. He asked where she found them. She named each for where she found it: Michael Dwyer from the Wicklow hills, Wolfe Tone on Antrim Hill, and Robert Emmet in Dublin. She will keep them "Though all the world should fall"
AUTHOR: Norman G. Reddin (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: flowers patriotic Ireland
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 162, "The Three Flowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [112 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "Michael Dwyer was a Wicklow man, a member of the United Irishmen, who fought during the 1798 rebellion, and who waged a guerilla war in the Wicklow mountains for several years afterwards." [For more on his story, see the notes to "Michael Dwyer (I)." - RBW]
Wolfe Tone: see the notes to "The Shan Van Voght."
Robert Emmet: see the notes to "Bold Robert Emmet." - BS
There is a certain asymmetry here; Tone and Emmet were killed, but Dwyer surrendered and was transported, even becoming a civic official in Australia. It would seem more logical to list someone such as Henry Joy McCracken as the third flower. But then, I'm not Irish. - RBW
File: Moyl162

Three Frightened Virgins, The

DESCRIPTION: Three daughters bathing naked in a pool at night are startled by a young man spying on them. Their father hears the commotion and, in the dark, takes his daughters for thieves. Eventually the truth is revealed and everyone takes it as a joke.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1719 (Pills to Purge Melancholy)
LONG DESCRIPTION: One night an old man's three daughters sneaked out bathe naked in his pond. A young man watching from a tree fell into the pond "and scar'd them out of the water" The old man heard the ruckus and ran out "with an old rusty soward" to stop what he thought were thieves. The girls ran over the old man, who was too startled to make out what was going on in the dark, and they went into the house. The old man told neighbors that roughians had run into his house. Barely seeing the girls the neighbors took them for spirits and ran out into the dripping wet young man. He explained what had happened and everyone, including the old man - "they are my daughters whom I ador'd ... why should I be in a passion" -- took it as a joke.
KEYWORDS: virginity hiding humorous father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1893, "All Ye Who Delights in a Jolly Old Song" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Wit and Mirth, or, Pills to Purge Melancholy (London, 1719 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, pp. 12-14, "The Wanton Virgins Frightened" (tune, p. 8)
Ambrose Phillips?,] A Collection of Old Ballads, (London, 1723 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, pp. 130-132, "The Wanton Virgins Frightened"
Roud #12568
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1902) [most words illegible], "The Three Frighted Virgins" ("You that delight in a jocular song"), T. Batchelar (London) , 1807-1810
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Old Man Strangely Surprised
NOTES [41 words]: re A Collection of Old Ballads Vol II: Ambrose Philips, whose name does not appear in the Google Books copy is, according to Google Books, the editor. The New York Public Library catalog says "Compilation usually attributed to Ambrose Philips" - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81893

Three Gallant Huntsmen

See The Three Butchers [Laws L4] (File: LL04)

Three German Officers Crossed the Line

See Mademoiselle from Armentieres (File: RL513)

Three German Officers Crossed the Rhine

See Mademoiselle from Armentieres (File: RL513)

Three Girls Drowned [Laws G23]

DESCRIPTION: Three young ladies, all Sunday School teachers, and a man named John Ash are on their way to church when they try to ford Gravel Run. The three girls are swept away and drowned, although Ash manages to survive
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: river death drowning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1849 - drowning of the three girls
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws G23, "Three Girls Drowned"
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 123, "Three Girls Drowned" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 210, "The Three Drowned Sisters" (1 text plus quotations from Gardner and Chickering)
Roud #3257
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Three Drowned Sisters" (Brunswick 100, 1927) (Victor 20528) (Columbia 15126-D [as Al Craver], 1927)
File: LG23

Three Grains of Corn

DESCRIPTION: "Give me three grains of corn, mother, only three grains of corn, 'Twill keep this little life I have Till the coming of the morn." The dying singer asks what Ireland has done to deserve death by famine and neglect, and notes that others are starving too
AUTHOR: See NOTES
EARLIEST DATE: 1848 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1848 431920)
KEYWORDS: death Ireland starvation poverty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1848 - First of several Irish potato blights. Although the blights did not mean that there was no food in Ireland, prices shot up to the point that many could not afford it. Many died in the famines, and others fled to America
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,Ro) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 41, "Give Me Three Grains of Corn, Mother" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 230-232, "Give Me Three Grains of Corn" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 15, pp. 22-23, "Give Me Three Grains of Corn" (1 text)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 59, "Three Grains of Corn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 56, pp. 172-173, "Three Grains of Corn" (1 text)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 360-363, "Give Me Three Grains of Corn, Mother" (2 texts; 1 tune on p. 454)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #96, "Only Three Grains of Corn" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #6, p. 34, "Three Grains of Corn" (1 text)
DT, THREEGRN* GRANCORN
ADDITIONAL: Manus O'Conor, Irish Com-All-Ye's (New York, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 65, "Give Me Three Grains of Corn, Mother" (1 text)
Roud #4492
RECORDINGS:
Pattie Maher, "Give Me Three Grains of Corn" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1848 431920, "Give Me Three Grains of Corn, Mother", Oliver Ditson (Boston), 1848 (tune)
NOTES [319 words]: Scarborough speculates, "Perhaps the American pioneer's affection for [this] song is the remembrance of the famine among the early settlers in New England, when starvation was held off as long as possible by the rationing of food, the giving of three grains of corn as each person's daily supply."
New England did face famine several times in its early existence. But this sounds strangely symbolic. Stout thinks it comes from the Great Hunger in Ireland, although his version has no local references. Other texts do mention Ireland.
The authorship of this is slightly uncertain, due probably more to transcription errors than anything else. Hazel Felleman's The Best Loved Poems of the American People attributes the words to Amelia Blandford Edwards. But broadside LOCSheet sm1848 431920 lists "words by Mrs A.M. Edmond, Music by O.R. Gross."
The latter attribution is supported by William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 42, who adds that "A note on the cover explains that the title was taken from 'the last request of an Irish lad to his mother as he was dying of starvation.' She finds three grains left in her pocket and gives them to him. 'It was all she had, the whole family were perishing from starvation.'" (A quote which reminds me a little of the story of the "widow's mite" in Mark 12:41-44, who made an offering at the Temple and "out of her poverty put in everything she had, all she had to live on"; also Elijah and the widow of Zarephath in 1 Kings 17:8-16, who is about to prepare the last bit of food she has for her and her son, although Elijah changes that situation.)
Thus, although the song seems to be known exclusively in North America, it is about the Irish famines; indeed, the song asks, "What has poor Ireland done, Mother, What has poor Ireland done? That the world looks on to see us starve, Perishing one by one." - RBW, (BS)
Last updated in version 6.6
File: San041

Three Gray Geese

See Three Grey Geese (File: Dol181)

Three Gray Geese in the Green Grass Grazing

See Three Grey Geese (File: Dol181)

Three Grease Balls

DESCRIPTION: "Three dirty grease balls standin' in a row, A-bailin' out chow for the soldier boys to stow, One bailed java and the other bailed slum," while the third is drunk. Gradually one calamity or other eliminates the dirty cooks
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: soldier food cook drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, p. 40, "Louse Song" (1 expurgated text)
NOTES [38 words]: There are a number of folk rhymes that begin "X little soldiers, Standing in a row...." (E.g. "Ten little soldiers standing in a row, They all bow down to the captain so.") I would guess this is related, but I have no proof. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: NiM040

Three Grey Geese

DESCRIPTION: Tongue-twister: "Three grey geese in the green grass grazing, Grey were the geese, and green was the grazing."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose)
KEYWORDS: bird food nonballad wordplay | tongue-twister
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #756, p. 284, "(Three grey geese in a green field grazing" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 147, "Three gray geese in the green grass grazing" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 181, "Three Grey Geese" (1 short text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 23, "(Three grey geese in a green field grazing)" (1 text)
Roud #19816
File: Dol181

Three Grey Geese in a Green Field Grazing

See Three Grey Geese (File: Dol181)

Three Happy Huntsmen

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

Three Hunters, The

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

Three Huntsmen (I), The

See The Three Butchers [Laws L4] (File: LL04)

Three Huntsmen (II), The

See Bold Ranger, The (File: R076)

Three Irishmen, The

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

Three Jews, The

See Once There Were Three Fishermen (File: FSWB240A)

Three Jolly Bachelors

See Fingers and Thumbs (File: WT079)

Three Jolly Bums

See The Great American Bum (Three Jolly Bums) (File: FaE192)

Three Jolly Butchers of the North, The

See The Three Butchers [Laws L4] (File: LL04)

Three Jolly Butchers, The

See The Three Butchers [Laws L4] (File: LL04)

Three Jolly Coachmen

See Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl (File: FSWB229A)

Three Jolly Fishermen (I)

DESCRIPTION: "We are three jolly fishermen (x3), While the merry merry bells do ring. Make haste, make haste, you'll be too late, What fish, my friend? I cannot wait, For my fine fry of herring...." "We cast our nets upon the rocks." "We sell them three for fourpence"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: fishing food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 99, "Three Jolly Fishermen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3496
File: PaSe099

Three Jolly Fishermen (II)

See Once There Were Three Fishermen (File: FSWB240A)

Three Jolly Frenchmen

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

Three Jolly Hunters

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

Three Jolly Huntsmen

DESCRIPTION: Three jolly (Frenchmen/Welshmen/other) go hunting. Periodically they see things (barn, frog, moon) which they cannot identify. In each case they propound their theories and move on. Finally they see an owl. One says it is the "evil one"; they flee
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1613 (broadside, "Choice of Inventions, Or Seuerall sort of the figure of three"; earliest complete form 1219?)
KEYWORDS: humorous hunting nonsense
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South),Scotland(Aber),Wales) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (37 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 246-248, "Three Jolly Welshmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 77, "We Hunted and Hollered" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 306-307, "Three Jolly Huntsmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 88-89, "We Whooped and We Hollered" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 119, "Three Jovial Huntsmen, or The Owl and the Jay Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 87, "Three Jolly Frenchmen" (1 text)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 146, "Three Jolly Hunters" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 55-57, "Three Jolly Welshmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 183-184, "Three Jolly Welchmen" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 5-6, "The Three Irishmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 127-129, "The Three Hunters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 152, "The Three Huntsmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 190, "Three Jolly Welshmen" (5 text, but only "A" and "B" go here; the rest are "The Bold Ranger")
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #217, "The Three Huntsmen" (1 text)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 57-58, "So We Hunted and We Hollered," "Old Circus Song" (2 texts, the second from a newspaper)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 125-126, "We Hunted and We Hallooed" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 290-292, "Three Jovial Huntsmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 2, "Cape Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 179-180, "Twas of Three Jolly Welshman" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 403)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 306, "Three Men Went A-Hunting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 37-38, "The Englishman, Irishman And Scotsman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #75, "Three Jovial Welshmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 125, "Three Jolly Hunstmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 18, pp. 24, 49, "Three Men They Went a Yunting" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, pp. 86-87, "Three Jolly Huntsmen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 93, "Three Men Went A-Hunting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 168, "Three Men Went A-Hunting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 529-530, "Cape Ann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 165, "The Three Farmers" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #31, p. 2, "The Hedgehog" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan2 283, "The Hedgehog" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 524, "There were three jovial Welshmen" (5 texts plus a reproduction facing p. 422 of the 1632 broadside "Choice of Inventions")
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #348, pp. 183-184, "(There were three jovial Welshmen)"
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #34, "There were Three Jolly Welshmen" (2 texts)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 243, "Cape Ann" (1 text)
DT 315, THREWLSH* JOLLWLCH
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "The Wanigan Songbook" by Isabel J. Ebert, pp. 214-215, "Three Happy Hunters" (1 text, sung by Emory DeNoyer)
Roud #283
RECORDINGS:
Jack Elliott, "We Went Along a Bit Further" (on Elliotts01)
George Endicott, "Three Scamping Rogues" (on FieldTrip1)
A. L. Lloyd, "Three Drunken Huntsmen" (on Lloyd12)
Byrd Moore & his Hot Shots, "Three Men Went A-Hunting" (Columbia 15496-D, rec. Oct. 23, 1929, sung to the tune of "Wish I'd Stayed in the Wagon Yard"; on Ashley04)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Three Men Went a-Hunting" (on NLCR03)
Hywel Wood, "Three Men Went a-Hunting" (on FSB10)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bold Ranger" (theme, some lyrics)
cf. "The Wild Cat Back on the Pipe Line" (theme, form)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
We Hunted and We Halloed
Look Ye There, Now
Three Jolly Hunters
The Three Huntsmen
Twas of Three Jolly Welshmen
Three Jovial Welshmen
NOTES [187 words]: What appears to be a stanza of this piece is quoted in the Shakespeare/Fletcher play "The Two Noble Kinsmen" (c. 1611). In III.v.67-71, immediately after singing a snatch of "The George Aloe and the Sweepstake," the mad jailer's daughter sings,
There was three fools, fell out about an howlet,
The one sed it was an owl, the other he sed nay,
The third he sed it was a hawk,
and her bels were cut away.
A stanza in William Davenant's 1668 play "The Rivals" seems to be on the same theme, though it uses a different metrical pattern:
There were three Fools at Mid-summer run mad
About an Howlet, a quarrel they had.
The one said 't was an Owle, the other he said nay,
The third said it was a Haek but the Bells were cutt away. - RBW
Where Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames has "an owl in an ivy bush, and that they left behind. The first man said it was an old cow ....", Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO has"an owl up in the ivy, and that they left behind. The first man said it was a shepherd's house ...." - BS
The "Cape Ann" versions of the song should not be confused with Gordon Bok's recent composition of the same name. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R077

Three Jolly Huntsmen (II), The

See Bold Ranger, The (File: R076)

Three Jolly Jack Tars

See The Black Cook (File: Pea858)

Three Jolly Rogues, The

See In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)

Three Jolly Sailors

See Jolly Sailors (I) (File: OpGa039)

Three Jolly Sportsmen

See The Three Butchers [Laws L4] (File: LL04)

Three Jolly Welshmen (I)

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

Three Jolly Welshmen (II)

DESCRIPTION: "They went down to Coalddale to work in the rock, And when they got there they did nothing but talk, John Morgan, John Jenkins, John Jones." They get in trouble with the boss, who tells them to go back to Wales
AUTHOR: Joseph Gallagher (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining boss work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 62-63, "Three Jolly Welshmen" (1 text)
NOTES [76 words]: Korson says the author of this was Irish, and it seems likely enough, since the Irish and Welsh formed distinct social classes in the Pennsylvania coalfields. According to Kevin Kenny, Making Sense of the Molly Maguires, Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 62, "Most Welsh and English workers were miners, while most of the laborers were Irish" -- in other words, the English and Welsh were skilled workers, and better paid, than the unskilled Irish. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP062

Three Jovial Huntsmen

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

Three Jovial Huntsmen, The

See The Three Butchers (Dixon and Johnson) [Laws L4] (File: LL04)

Three Kids in a Sandbox

DESCRIPTION: "Three kids in a sandbox, Three kids in the sand, They get along together, Yellow, white, and black hands." "Three kids in the ocean, Three kids in the sea... Bound to be free." "...in a treehouse... bound together by love." Why can't we get along too?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad campsong Black(s)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 391, 552, "Three Kids in a Sandbox" (notes only)
NOTES [19 words]: Averill on p. 552 credits this to Donovan (Donovan Phillips Leich), but I couldn't find any support for this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF3913

Three Kings

See Three Sailors (Three Kings; Three Beggars; Thee Soldiers; Three Sweeps) (File: GrD81568)

Three Knights from Spain

See Three Brothers from Spain (Knights of Spain, We Are Three Jews) (File: BGMG633)

Three Knights, The

See The Cruel Brother [Child 11] (File: C011)

Three Leaves of Shamrock

DESCRIPTION: The singer, about to leave Ireland, meets a poor girl who bids him take a message to her brother Ned: "Three leaves of shamrock... 'Take these to my brother, for I have no other. And these are the shamrock from his dear old mother's grave.'"
AUTHOR: James McGuire (according to Wehman)
EARLIEST DATE: 1889: Harding's publication date per Wehman [see note re American Memory]; 1890 (Wehman's Collection of Songs No. 25); c.1880? (see note re Shoemaker)
KEYWORDS: death mourning burial mother brother sister emigration separation Ireland
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 135, "Three Leaves of Shamrock" (1 text plus mention of 4 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 135, "Three Leaves of Shamrock" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 78-79, "Three Leaves of Shamrock" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 65 in the 1919 edition)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 185, "Three Leaves of Shamrock" (3 texts)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 95, "Three Leaves of Shamrock" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hyland's Mammoth Hibernian Songster (Chicago; J.S. Hyland & Co,1901), p. 41, "Mollie Darling" (1 text)
Henry W Shoemaker, North Pennsylvania Minstrelsy (Almeda: Almeda Tribune Company, 1919 ("Digitized by Internet Archive") #22 p. 65, "Three Leaves of Shamrock") (1 text)
Wehman's [Universal Songster] Collection of Songs No. 25 (New York, n.d. [but No. 24 says "the next number of this book will be ready January 2, 1890"], digitized by Internet Archive), p. 3, "Three Leaves of Shamrock" (1 text)
ST BrII135 (Full)
Roud #3769
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Leaving Dear Old Ireland" (Columbia 15425-D, 1929; on CPoole03)
The North Carolina Ramblers and Roy Harvey, "Three Leaves of Shamrock" (Paramount, unissued, 1927)
NOTES [235 words]: Shoemaker [1919]: "Northern Pennsylvania. Popular in lumber and railroad construction camps forty years ago."
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin has John Moulden informing him that Poole's recording was very popular [I assume in Ireland] in the 1920s.
LOC American Memory has a picture of the cover of "Three Leaves of Shamrock... as sung by Tho's J Farron. 1889" published by Harding's Music Office [Historic American Sheet Music, "Three Leaves of Shamrock," Music #3, Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library]. No text is printed but the "as sung by" and Shoemaker's statement put 1889 as an early date in question.
The "American" versions -- Poole, Shoemaker, Hyland, Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 -- are slightly different from the Irish versions reported by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin -- Cronin's song, Delaney's Irish Song Book No.1, 2, and a Nicholson broadside. For example, the Irish versions all have -- in the chorus -- "Take them to Phelim, then kindly tell him" while the American versions are all close to "Take them to my brother, for I have no one other." It's not the difference that surprises me, but the agreement by side of the Atlantic. Even if Poole was popular in Ireland he apparently was not Cronin's source.
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin's Irish references are all later than Harding and Wehman. - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BrII135

Three Little Angels

DESCRIPTION: "Three little angels all dressed in white, Trying to get to heaven on the end of a kite, but the kite string broke, and down they all fell, Instead of going to heaven they all went to...." "Two little angels...." "One little angel..." -- went to... bed?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2006 (mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: Three Little Angels")
KEYWORDS: humorous Hell campsong jumprope
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p, 220, "Four Little Angels" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #72, "(Three little Negroes dressed in white)" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 129, 288, 321-322, 382, 499, "Three Little Angels" (notes only, with a sample verse on pp. 321-322)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #561, "Three little Negroes dressed in white" (1 text)
Roud #15420
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hush, Little Baby" (tune, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
cf. "Charlie Chaplin Has Big Feet" (general form of wordplay)
cf. "There Was a Little Fellow, His Name Was Jack" (general form of wordplay)
NOTES [81 words]: Some versions of the "Raise a Ruckus" family apparently include verses similar to this, but this seems to exist separately. Some versions may go as high as ten angels.
The Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses version is fascinating. Instead of angels trying to reach heaven, we have three little "Negroes" (at least, that's the word Ainsworth prints) who want to go to... Harvard. They don't make it: "Now don't get excited and don't turn pale. They didn't go to Harvard; they went to... Yale." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF129T

Three Little Babes, The

See The Wife of Usher's Well [Child 79] (File: C079)

Three Little Babies

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

Three little chil'ren lyin' in bed

See Shortenin' Bread (File: R255)

Three Little Girls A-Skating Went

DESCRIPTION: "Three little girls a-skating went, a-skating went, a-skating went, Three little girls a-skating went All on a summer day." "The ice was thin, they all fell in, they all fell in, they all fell in... Or else they've run away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1651 (The Loves of Hero and Leander, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: playparty humorous drowning
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,So) Britain
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, p. 88=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 204-205, "Six Little Girls A-Sliding Went" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 288-289, "Three Children Sliding on the Ice" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 588, "Three Little Girls A-Skating Went" (1 text)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 190-191, "Three Maids A'Skating Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 205, "Three Little Girls A-Sliding Went" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 99, "Three children sliding on the ice" (2 texts; there is also a print of the Mother Goose's Melody text in plate IX facing p. 200)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #32, p. 46, "(Three children sliding on the ice)"
ST R588 (Full)
Roud #3744
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lamentations of a Bad Market" (and notes there)
cf. "There Was a Young Couple" (probable derivative)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Ice Was Thin
NOTES [322 words]: Although most American editors seem unaware of the connection, this goes back at least to the eighteenth century in Britain, and was common in garlands in that period. It has been ascribed to John Gay and to the editor of Mother Goose's Melody (Oliver Goldsmith?). However, its appearance in Tommy Thumb's storybook pretty well precludes Goldsmith's authorship, and I know of no reason to believe in Gay's.
The original air is said to have been "Chevy Chase," but this does not appear to have been the tune used in the U. S.
The utterly unique Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp. 211-212, claims that this is from 1640 and refers to the convening of the Long Parliament late in that year, and the three children are Charles I's allies Hampden, Stafford, and Archbishop Laud. That argument would actually make more sense if the Opies' date of 1651 is correct (since no one in 1640 could know what the Long Parliament would be like), but I don't buy it either way. - R"BW
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes, p. 19: "In The Lamentations of a Bad Market ... it is the twelfth, eighteenth, and nineteenth stanzas which are known to the world; they tell of 'Three children sliding on the ice' [Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 99, "Three children sliding on the ice"].
See James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1843 ("Digitized by Google")),#41 pp. 28-31, ("Come Christian people, all give ear"), "From 'Ovid de Arte Amandi,&c. Englished, together with Choice Poems, and rare Pieces of Drollery.' 1662." This is the original tragedy of "the death of three children dear" during a fire at London bridge [Opie speculates, February 1633]. Following Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes, see verses 12 ("Three children sliding thereabouts"), 18 ("Ye parents all that children have") and 19 ("For had they at a sermon been"). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R588

Three Little Girls A-Sliding Went

See Three Little Girls A-Skating Went (File: R588)

Three Little Girls All Dressed in Brown

See The Dummy Line (II) (File: ScNS139A)

Three Little Kittens

DESCRIPTION: Mother cat says the kittens can't have pie because they have lost their mittens. When they find the mittens they put them on to eat pie and soil them. They wash the mittens and hang them out to dry. They smell a rat close by.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (New Nursery Songs, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: food animal humorous clothes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 289, "Three little kittens they lost their mittens" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #815, pp. 303-304, "(Three little kittens they lost their mittens)"
Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook 9, "The Three Little Kittens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, pp. 178-179, "Three Little Kittens" (1 text)
Roud #16150
NOTES [139 words]: Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes: "The tune is a variant of "The Seven Joys of Mary." - BS
The Opies and the Baring-Goulds note that these lines are sometimes attributed to Eliza Follen, author of New Nursery Songs for All Good Children, but her notes call the piece traditional. The book (which the Opies date c. 1843) does however seem to be the earliest printing.
Some of the popularity of this piece may be artificial; it was found in at least one Sunday School songbook in the nineteenth century: Marguerite Cook, editor, Primary Songs No. 2 ("For the Primary Class in he Sabbath School And for use in the Home, the Kindergarten, And Day School"), copyright 1894. Of course, this is so dreadful a book that, had I been a child confronted with it, I would have forgotten everything in it as quickly as possibly. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: OO2289

Three Little Mice

See Six Little Mice Sat Down to Spin (File: OO2349)

Three Little Negroes Dressed in White

See Three Little Angels (File: ACSF129T)

Three Little Pigs, The

See Three Pigs (File: LxA307)

Three Little Sand Maidens

See Little Sally Walker (File: CNFM157)

Three Lost Babes of Americay, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come uncle, come tell me that wonderful tale ..." Three children are lost. Their father, mother and neighbors search in vain. They ask an Indian chief for help. The father, Indian chief and "two youths of [the] tribe" find the children
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: help rescue America children father mother Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, pp. 30-32, "The Three Lost Babes of Americay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 50, "Babes in the Wood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9944
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "The Three Lost Babes of Americay" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Nick Davisien, "The Three Babes" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34] (theme)
cf. "The Lost Babe" (theme)
NOTES [18 words]: The similarity to "Babes in the Woods" will be evident; it appears that some scholars lump some of them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Peac030

Three Lovers

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Three Lovers, The

See Lord Thomas and Fair Annet [Child 73] (File: C073)

Three Maidens a Milking Did Go

See Three Maidens to Milking Did Go (File: K191)

Three Maidens A-milking

See Three Maidens to Milking Did Go (File: K191)

Three Maidens a-Milking Would Go

See Three Maidens to Milking Did Go (File: K191)

Three Maidens to Milking Did Go

DESCRIPTION: "The maidens to milking did go (x2), And the wind it did blow high and the wind it did blow low And it tossed the milking pails to and fro." The singer asks a friend to help him hunt "birds." The singer wishes luck to blackbird and thrush
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1856 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3968)); tune listed from 1828)
KEYWORDS: bird hunting courting seduction
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Wales)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 229, "Three Maidens a-Milking Would Go" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 154)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #120, "The Milkmains" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 72-73, "Three Maidens a Milking Did Go" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 191, "Three Maidens to Milking Did Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 280-281, "Three Maidens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 128, "Three Maids a-Milking" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 102, "Three Maids a Milking" (3 texts)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 131, "Three Maids a Milking" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #67, "Thee Maids A-milking" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #90, "The Blackbird in the Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #87, "Three Maidens to Milking Did Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 50, "The Bird in the Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 160, "Two Maids Went A-Milking One Day" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 150, "Three Maids A-Milking Would Go" (reproduction of a broadside page with "Three Maidens to Milking Did Go" and "The Butcher and the Tailor's Wife")
Roud #290
RECORDINGS:
Frankie Armstrong, "The Bird in the Bush" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2)
Fred Hewett, "Three Maidens To Milking Did Go" (on Voice10)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3968), "Three Maids A Milking Would Go", W. Jackson and Son (Birmingham), 1842-1855; also Harding B 11(3815), "Three Maids A-milking Would Go"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Spotted Cow" (theme)
cf. "Kitty of Coleraine" (theme)
cf. "Blackberry Grove" (theme)
cf. "Three Maidens to Milking Did Go" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Blackbird in the Bush
The Bird in the Lily-Bush
NOTES [55 words]: Most printed versions of this are "clean," but clearly there is much going on beneath the surface.... - RBW
Indeed, there is. In fact, this is one of the few descriptions of group sex in traditional music -- unless, of course, you count "The Ball at Kerriemuir," and I'd be more inclined to describe that with the word "mob." - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K191

Three Maids a Milking

See Three Maidens to Milking Did Go (File: K191)

Three Maids a Rushing

See Gathering Rushes in the Month of May (Underneath Her Apron) (File: DTundrap)

Three Maids A'Skating Away

See Three Little Girls A-Skating Went (File: R588)

Three McFarlands, The [Laws C18]

DESCRIPTION: A gang of teamsters "that knew not who was boss" sign up to work under the three McFarlands. The bosses drive them hard and treat them badly; the men look forward to leaving the camp and seeing the girls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: work abuse boss
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws C18, "The Three MacFarlands"
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 15, "The Three McFarlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 15, "The Three McFarlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 826, MCFARL3*
Roud #2225
File: LC18

Three Men Driving Cattle

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "Three men driving cattle, Can't you hear their money rattle? Out, two, three, Out goes he."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: cattle | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 22, "(Three men driving cattle)" (1 text)
File: WEMM022A

Three Men Drowned (The Grand River)

DESCRIPTION: Four men go boating on the Grand River. In rough water, they are flung from the boat; Benjamin Moore and two others drown. A boy brings word to Benjamin's parents. The singer talks about God's planning (and placing rocks in the river)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: river ship death drowning
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 34-I, (first of three "Fragments of Shanty Songs") (1 text)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 34-I, (first of three "Fragments of Shanty Songs") (1 text)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #38, "The Grand River" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Rick129 (Partial)
Roud #3680
NOTES [7 words]: This is item dC35 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Rick129

Three Men They Went a Yunting

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

Three Men Went A-Hunting

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

Three Merry Men

DESCRIPTION: "Three merry men and three merry men, And three merry men be we. I in the wood and thou on the ground, And Jack sleeps in the tree"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime); reputed to be from 1600 or earlier
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 216, "Three Merry Men" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 197, "Three Merry Men" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #23125
NOTES [1249 words]: This is a conundrum. The tune is from John Playford's commonplace book -- hardly evidence of the song being traditional. Yet there are numerous alleged citations. Chappell claims that the earliest is from Peele's "The Old Wives' Tale" of 1595. Chappell mentions four other obscure early plays that cite the play. And then there are the two big ones:
In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Act II, scene iii, Sir Toby Belch sings "Three merry men be we." (This is lines 76-77 in the Riverside and Signet Shakespeares, though because there is a lot of prose in this scene, it might be anywhere between about line 69 and line 85.)
And in The Knight of the Burning Pestle, by Francis Beaumont (possibly with John Fletcher), Old Merrythought, who is always singing snatches of traditional and popular songs, sings
I am three merry men, and three merry men.
(Act II, scene vii, line 8 in Wine, where it is on page 333; Act II, line 438 in KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, where it is on p. 53; Act II, line 445 in KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, where it is on p. 100, with Chappell's text and tune on p. 177.)
The question, which we cannot answer, is whether all these fragments are indeed of this song. If they are, then the song was surely well enough known to belong in this Index. Since I can't say with certainty either way, I've indexed the song.
For me, the strongest evidence for the song is its inclusion in "The Knight of the Burning Pestle." This play should almost be indexed in itself, including as it does so many fragments of traditional songs, including what appear to be parts of:
* Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74]
* Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81]
* The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter [Child 110]
* Go From My Window (I)
* Guy of Warwick
* Hey, Ho, Nobody Home
* Katie Cruel (The Leeboy's Lassie; I Know Where I'm Going)
* Of All the Birds
* Walsingham
There is also a reference to, although not a quotation of, John Dory [Child 284], a likely allusion to "The Romish Lady" [Laws Q32], and a mention of the word "Baloo" that editors believe is an allusion to "Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament." It has a performance of "Fortune My Foe" although it does not quote the text. Other songs in the play have been forgotten, or are preserved in collections such as Ravenscroft's but do not seem to have survived in tradition. It is hard to tell which of the songs the play quotes are traditional, and which merely "popular," but odds are that most of them are one or another.
Casual listings refer to the play as by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, because they did collaborate, and most of their works were eventually published together; most seventeenth century sources attribute it to both (this might have made the printed editions more salable. But most modern editors think that it is Beaumont's alone, or at least that he wrote the vast majority of it with Fletcher adding only a few touches (KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, pp. vii-viii; KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, pp. 8-10).
The play was first printed, without attribution, in a quarto dated 1613 printed for Walter Burre -- which, interestingly, is not to be found in the Stationer's Register, implying that it is an illicit copy (KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, p. 1 -- though the text is not noticeably worse than authorized editions of other plays). There is a copy of this cover on p. 289 of Wine; it is a typical work of the period, with Roman and Italic type, with the play title at the top, followed by a Latin quotation from Horace, an elaborate printer's dingbat, and the statement that it was printed for Burre.
Although no printer is listed, bibliographic considerations indicate that it was printed by Nicholas Okes (KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, p. 3), who printed many dramas by famous authors but on at least two other occasions got in trouble for printing an illicit work (Plomer, pp. 167, 172). This is the only copy with any authority; all other printings are taken from it. It is thought to be an author's fair copy, not a stage prompt book or the like (KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, p. 1).
Nonetheless the play can be shown to be somewhat older than 1613. Burre himself said that he had had the manuscript for two years before printing it (KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, p. 1). And there is good reason to think that it was acted before that -- and did not succeed. (It would do much better in a revival in the 1630s, which caused Okes to reprint the text, and it has been popular ever since; (KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, p. 5.) It is generally thought that it was first presented in 1607, or perhaps 1608, by a children's company at the Second Blackfriars Theatre (KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, p. 6; on p. 12 he says that the company was likely the Children of the Queen's Revels, also known as the Children of Blackfriars, adding that all the major playwrights except Shakespeare wrote for the children's companies).
I rather suspect this explains its initial failure, because the Blackfriars drew a highbrow audience that wouldn't have much sympathy with the ordinary folk of the play.
The 1607 date fits with a statement early in the play that the theatre had been presenting plays for seven years; the Blackfriars ran its first childrens' show in 1600 (KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, p. 11). A few allusions to other plays make it unlikely that it was earlier than 1607 (KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, p. viii).There are other reasons for the 1607 date, but they are probably too subtle to be worth trying to explain here. There are a few scholars who prefer a date of 1610.
The drama goes the "play within a play" of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" one better. Not only do we see an audience watching a play, the claimed "audience members" take over the play and demand it be made to conform more closely to their desires: Instead of some fusty old drama, they want a play about their own grocer lad, Rafe, who becomes the "Knight of the Burning Pestle." Or, as Drabble/Stringer put it in their entry on the play,
"It takes the form of a play-within-a-play: a grocer and his wife, members of an audience about to watch a drama called 'The London Merchant,' interrupt the prologue to insist that their apprentice, Rafe, have a part. He therefore becomes a Grocer Errant, with a burning pestle portrayed on his shield, and undertakes various absurd adventures. These are interspersed with the real real plot, in which Jasper, a merchant's apprentice, woos, and after much opposition wins, his master's daughter Luce."
It is Jasper's father, Old Merrythought, who sings most of the songs in the play.
Francis Beaumont (1584-March 6, 1616) "was born in Grace-Dieu, his ancestral estate in Leistershire, the third son of Francis Beaumont, a judge of common pleas, and Anne Pierrepoint." He was sent to what later became Pembroke College in Oxford at the age of twelve, but probably left two years later when his father died. He drifted to London, and knew Shakespeare, and was friends with Ben Jonson. He probably met John Fletcher, with whom his name has always been associated, around 1605. He married Ursula Isley in 1613; they had two daughters (the second one posthumous) before he died suddenly of some sort of fever (Kunitz/Haycraft, pp. 32-33). The most noteworthy works in their joint canon -- the only two I have ever seen printed outside their collected works -- are the "Knight" (which, to repeat, is probably Beaumont's alone) and the tragicomedy "Philaster."- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: KBPe3MM

Three Merry Men of Kent

See He That Will Not Merry, Merry Be (File: WT051)

Three Moore Brothers

DESCRIPTION: "This is why we love the Moore brothers so well, They feed us on the farm like they do in the Rice Hotel." The Moore family hires Texas prisoners to work, and gives them extravagantly good or bad treatment
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (recorded from "Chinaman" Johnson by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: work food prison
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 53-61, "Three Moore Brothers" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
NOTES [95 words]: Jackson's notes describe a large farm, almost a feudal fiefdom, run first by Tom Moore Sr. and then by his sons Steve, Tom, and Henry. Often they rented out convicts from the Texas prison system. Folklore about the family was abundant.
Jackson calls the song a cante-fable, and the two versions found by Jackson are very distinct; "Chinaman's" version is full of whistles and recitations, while Johnny Jackson's is more a straight song. But Judy McCulloh calls "Chinaman's" one of the "peskiest" things she has ever had to transcribe. Clearly the piece is very fluid. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM053

Three Nights' Experience

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Three O'Donnells, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer dreams of a meeting in Innishowen "when we heard of liberty," of a barge with 24 Irish boys saying "Gainne's sons are free." A health to the O'Donnells. Father William fought at Waterloo; "He once was a bold lieutenant But he's now our clergyman"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: dream nonballad political clergy
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 145, "The Three O'Donnells" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Carrickshock" (subject: The Tithe War) and references there
NOTES [130 words]: Tunney-StoneFiddle: "In fact it is an anti-tithe song from Innishowen. The hero whose praises it sings was none other than Father William O'Donnell, the Waterloo Priest, as he is still affectionately referred to in his native Innishowen." Tunney gives the biography of William O'Donnell (1779-1856), including his 1839 arrest for being in arrears of tithe on his property.
I cannot explain the references to "that meeting boys That was held at Innishowen" or "the loaded barge Going floating down the main With four and twenty Irish boys To guide her on the stream." - BS
For background on the Tithe War (the successful attempt by the Catholic Irish to stop paying a tithe to support the Protestant Church of England), see especially the notes to "The Battle of Carrickshock." - RBW
File: TSF145

Three Old Jews, The

See Once There Were Three Fishermen (File: FSWB240A)

Three Old Ladies

See Seven Old Ladies (File: EM119)

Three Old Men of Painswick, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! Painswick is a healthful town." A traveler sees a very, very old crying -- because, it turns out, his father has been abusing him! Further investigation reveals that even the man's grandfather is alive. The traveler flees this place of ancient folk
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Notes & Queries, according to Briggs)
KEYWORDS: age humorous travel father
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 216-218, "The Three Old men of Painswick" (1 text)
NOTES [247 words]: It is not clear whether this is a song or a poem; I suspect the latter, but better to include it just in case.
Briggs notes a number of analogies to this tale, especially Irish. But the oldest version known to me of the story of the man who ages forever but never dies is from Greek mythology: the story of Tithonos. The earliest version is probably from the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite. In the Loeb Classical Library translation (Hugh G. Evelyn-White, translator, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica, Loeb, 1914), pp. 421-423, lines 218-238 read, in part,
"So also golden-throned Eos rapt away Tithonus.... And she went to ask the dark-clouded Son of Cronos [i.e. Zeus] that he should be deathless and live eternally; and Zeus bowed his head to her prayer and fulfilled her desire. Too simple was queenly Eos; the thought not in her heart to ask youth for him and to strip him of the slough of deadly age. So while he enjoyed the sweet flower of life he lived rapturously with golden-throned Eos... but when the first grey hairs began to ripple from his comely head and noble chin, queenly Eos kept away from his bed.... [W]hen loathsome old age pressed full upon him... she laid him in a room and put to the shining doors. There he babbles endlessly, and no more has strength at all, such as once he had in his supple limbs."
Later versions of the tale end up with Tithonos turned into a grasshopper or cicada. But the key point is that he was immortal but continued to age. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BrigA216

Three Old Whores From Baltimore

See Four Old Whores (File: EM006)

Three Old Whores From Winnipeg

See Four Old Whores (File: EM006)

Three Oxford Cries

See Chairs to Mend (File: WT300)

Three Oxford Scholars

DESCRIPTION: "Three Oxford scholars just college, Their pride was a little too much for their knowledge." They drink themselves drunk. A ram strays into the pub cellar. The maid says it's the devil. One of the clerks claims he will subdue it. The ram defeats him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Gardiner collection)
KEYWORDS: clergy drink animal humorous Devil
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 100-101, "Three Oxford Scholars" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1668
File: PCL100

Three Perished in the Snow [Laws G32]

DESCRIPTION: A woman and her three young children are struggling through a snowstorm. The children ask their mother to make them warm, but she cannot help. The next morning the three are found clasped in each others' arms, dead
AUTHOR: Eddie Fox
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (as "She Perished in the Snow")
KEYWORDS: family children death mother
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws G32, "Three Perished in the Snow"
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 101-102, "Three Perished in the Snow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 69, "She Perished in the Snow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 98, "Three Perished in the Sow" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 715, PRSHSNOW*
Roud #1931
RECORDINGS:
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Perished in the Snow" (Brunswick 561, c. 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hush-oh-bye Baby" (plot)
cf. "It Was Early One Cold Winter's Morning" (theme)
File: LG32

Three Pigs

DESCRIPTION: "There was an old sow, she lived in a sty, And three little piggies had she." The grown pig said "Oink," the little ones "Wee! Wee!" The little pigs resolve to try to say "Oink" like grown-up pigs -- but can't do it, sicken, and die
AUTHOR: Alfred Scott Gatty (1847-1918) (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart-Songs)
KEYWORDS: animal youth humorous death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 307-308, "Three Pigs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 38, "The Old Sow" (1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 481, "The Three Little Pigs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4575
File: LxA307

Three Pirates

DESCRIPTION: "Three pirates came to London town, yo ho, yo ho! (x2) Three pirates came... to see the King put on his crown, Yo ho, ye lubbers...." They come to an inn, ask for drink, and ask about his daughter -- is she pretty and will she marry (one of) them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: pirate drink royalty courting
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 43-44, "(no title)" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 76, "Three Pirates" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mademoiselle from Armentieres" (tune, lyrics) and references there
File: TNY043

Three Potatoes in a Pot

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme? "Three potatoes in a pot, Take it out and leave it hot."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: food | counting-out potato
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 31, "(Three potatoes in a pot)" (1 text)
File: WEMM031A

Three Quarters of the Year

See The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)

Three Ravens, The [Child 26]

DESCRIPTION: (Three) ravens decide that a new-slain knight would make a nice lunch. He is guarded by hawk, hounds, and leman, who either guard the body from the birds or abandon it to its fate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1611 (Ravenscroft, Melismata)
KEYWORDS: death bird food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland,England(South)) US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (75 citations):
Child 26, "The Three Ravens" (2 texts)
Bronson 26, The Three Ravens" (21 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 26, "The Three Ravens" (6 versions: #1, #2, #3, #7, #8, #9)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, p. 252, "The Twa Corbies" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 40, "The Three Ravens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 17-18, "The Three Ravens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, p. 227, "Two Old Crows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 84, "Three Crows" (1 text, 1 tune, at least partly a parody)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 435-437, "The Three Ravens" (notes plus a partial reprint of Ravenscroft)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 28, "The Two Crows" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #10, "Two Crows" (1 very short text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 31-33, "The Three Ravens" (2 texts, plus 2 tunes not derived from Missouri)
Randolph 9, "The Three Crows" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #18}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 10, "The Three Ravens" (17 texts, some very short; the "Q" fragment may be another song; the additional songs in the appendix are "Johnny Fill Up the Bowl"; 4 tunes entitled "The Three Ravens," "[The] Three Crows"; 10 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {I=Bronson's #16 J=K=#17, P is not printed by Bronson}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 13, pp. 84-88, "The Three Ravens" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 9, "The Three Ravens" (1 very short text)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 5, "Three Black Crows" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 256, "The Three Ravens" (1 fragment)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #151, "The Three Ravens" (1 short text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 6, pp. 72-73, "The Three Ravens" (1 fragment)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 1, "The Three Ravens" (1 short text, 1 tune, in which the three crows go to chew gum!) {Bronson's #19}
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 193-195, "The Three Ravens/The Twa Corbies" (1 short text, entitled "Three Old Crows" and typical of that type, plus the text from Ravenscroft for comparison)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 149, (no title) (1 fragment, mentioning three crows on a tree with an ending about a sick old horse; the whole might well be a dead horse song with a few "Three Ravens" lines, but without more text we cannot tell)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 12, "The Three Crows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 42-44, "Three Black Crows" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 14-15, "Three Black Crows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 2, pp. 2-5, "The Three Ravens" (2 texts plus 4 fragments, several of them "Billy Magee Magaw" types)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 8, "The Three Ravens" (1 text plus a fragment)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, p. 21, "The Three Ravens" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11}
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 1, "The Three Crows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, p. 32, "The Three Crows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, p. 129, "Three Black Crows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 243-256, "The Twa Corbies" (10 texts, many of them quite short, 3 tunes; the last two items, "I" and "J," appear to be somewhat rewritten)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, p. 289, "Three Crows" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 276-277, "The Two Ravens" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 111-113, "The Three Ravens/The Twa Corbies" (2 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 48-49, "The Three Ravens" (1 text plus a reproduction of the Ravenscroft version); p. 50, "The Twa Corbies" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 1, "The Three Ravens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 193-194, "The Three Ravens" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 67, "The Twa Corbies"; 68, "The Three Ravens" (2 texts)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 23, "The Three Ravens (The Twa Corbies)" (3 texts)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 28, "The Three Ravens" (1 text)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 21, "Blow the Man Down (IV)" (this text combines the words of "The Three Crows" with the tune and metre of "Blow the Man Down")
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 212, "The Three Ravens" (1 text sung to the tune of "Blow the Man Down," taken from Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 17, "The Three Ravens" (3 texts, 3 tunes, although the first piece, "Lovers' Farewell," is at best distantly related to this ballad)
Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols #45, "The Three Ravens" (3 texts [2 from Child, 1 from Niles])
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 167+336, "The Three Ravens" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 11 "The Three Ravens" (1 short text plus 2 fragments, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #16, #15, #14}
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 5, "The Two Crows (The Three Ravens)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #15}
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #4, "The Three Ravens" (1 text, 1 tune, a "Billy Macgee MacGore" type) {Bronson's #7}
Wells-TheBalladTree, p. 151, "The Two Crows"; p. 152, "The Three Ravens" (1 short text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #15, #1}
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 114-115, "The Two Ravens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 37, "The Three Ravens"; p. 38, "The Twa Corbies" (2 texts)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 31, "The Three Ravens" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #10}
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #5, pp. 19-20, "The Crow Song" (1 short text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 36, "The Three Ravens" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 59, "The Three Ravens" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 75-76, "There Were Three Ravens" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 73-74, "The Three Ravens"; p. 74, "The Twa Corbies" (2 texts)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 173-176, "The Three Ravens"; "The Twa Corbies"; "The Three Crows" (3 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #1, #8; the third tune was not known to Bronson}
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 119-120, "The Three Ravens"; pp. 120-121, "The Twa Corbies" (2 texts)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 26-28, "The Three Ravens (or, 'Rauens')"; "The Twa Corbies"; "The Three Crows" (3 texts)
Heart-Songs, p. 485, "There Were Three Crows" (1 text, probably expurgated; tune referenced ("When Johhny Comes Marching Home"))
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 94, "The Three Ravens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 405, "Billy Magee Magaw"; p. 215, "The Three Ravens" (2 texts)
Harbin-Parodology, #320, p. 78, "Three Crows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 118, "Crow Song"; "The Three Crows" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 42, "The Three Crows" (1 text, 1 tune, listed as "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" although it's not a perfect fit for the lyrics)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 2, "Three Crows" (1 text, tune referenced)
DT 26, THRERAVN* THRERAV2* THRERAV3* THRERAV4 THRERAV5* THRERAV6
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _Selections from the Works of Thomas Ravenscroft; A Musical Composer of the Time of King James the First_, Roxburgh Club, 1822 (available on Google Books), No XVI/pp. 14-15, "There Were Three Ravens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #117, "The Twa Corbies" (1 text)
Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, part III, p. 39, "Three Crows" (1 short text, 1 tune); also, in the new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 58, "Crow Song" (1 text, 1 tune, a "Billy Magee Magaw" version) (part III, p. 33 in the 1876 edition)
William & Susan Platt, _Folktales of the Scottish Border_, published 1919 as _Stories of the Scottish Border_, republished by Senate Press, 1999, pp. 70-72, "The Twa Corbies," "The Three Ravens" (2 texts)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, pp. 231-232, "The Three Ravens" (1 text)
Roud #5
RECORDINGS:
Erica Warnock, "Three Ravens" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #452, recorded 01/26/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blow the Man Down" (lyrics)
cf. "Lover's Farewell (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Crow Song (I)" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Three Blackbirds" (lyrics, theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Billie Magee Magaw
Willie McGee McGaw
Two Old Crows
Three Black Crows
NOTES [291 words]: Interpretations of this peculiar song range from the mystic to the ridiculous. Some versions manage both -- e.g. David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, calls it a "secularized, chivalric Pietà" (the church commemorations of the Virgin Mary holding the body of the dead Jesus). Never mind that the "fallow doe" that picks up the body is (a) a deer and (b) the knight's leman, not his mother.
Perhaps because the original is obscure, the degree of degeneration suffered by the American versions of this song is phenomenal-- they are often quite silly, and if they retain the theme of the birds eating carrion, it is usually an animal, such as a horse. Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana's longer version is, in fact, a trick upon listeners: "You may think there is another verse -- but there isn't."
If it weren't for the intermediate versions, we could hardly recognize them as one piece. But that's oral tradition -- though Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety says the song was part of the minstrel tradition in the 1860s, and Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland notes the inclusion of a "rewritten form in books like Cleveland's Compendium of 1859." In many of these versions it is a horse, not a man, which supplies the birds' meal.
The by-blow "The Twa Corbies" is one of the handful of traditional songs in Palgrave's Golden Treasury (item CXXXVI). Not sure what that says about either Palgrave or the song. Properly, "The Twa Corbies" should probably be split off, since it is recensionally different from "The Three Ravens." But this is impossible in practice, because the degenerate forms often could come from either, or indeed recombine the two. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C026

Three Rogues, The

See In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)

Three Roguish Chaps

See In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)

Three Sailor Boys

See The Mermaid [Child 289] (File: C289)

Three Sailors (Three Kings; Three Beggars; Thee Soldiers; Three Sweeps)

DESCRIPTION: Three sailors/tinkers/sweeps/... come courting and seeking lodging. Mother has daughter stay in bed and sends the suitors away. She wakes her daughter and accepts three kings. The daughter is found "not fit to walk with a king"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1880s (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: courting ring rejection mother royalty sailor soldier tinker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1568, "Here's Three Beggars" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 15, "Three Sailors" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #2, "Three Kings" (1 text); #165, "Three Kings" (1 text)
Roud #12965
File: GrD81568

Three Sailors of Bristol City

See Little Boy Billee (Le Petite Navire, The Little Corvette) (File: K114)

Three Scamping Rogues

See In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)

Three Score and Ten

DESCRIPTION: "Methinks I see some little craft spreading their sails a-lee, As down the Humber they do glide" to go fishing. But "Three score and ten, boys and men, were lost from Grimsby town" and many others from elsewhere in a great (February/October) storm
AUTHOR: Words: William Delf/Delph/Delft
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (The Hull Times)
KEYWORDS: ship fishing wreck disaster storm
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 8-9, 1889 - the gale of 1889
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 138, "Three Score and Ten" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, THRSCORE*
Roud #16873
ALTERNATE TITLES:
In Memoriam of the poor Fishermen who lost their lives in the Dreadful Gale from Grimsby and Hull, Feb. 8 & 9, 1889 (original broadside title)
NOTES [319 words]: Although well known in pop folk circles, this does not seem to be very well known in tradition; there are only about five field collections, mostly from Yorkshire (which is in the area in which the disaster was most strongly felt). The original poem by William Del.. (no one seems to be sure of the spelling) was supposed to raise money for the survivors, but the song as it's usually now sung has lost more than half of his original lyrics.
I have not managed to find a copy of the original broadside to see what it actually said. - RBW
"Elizabeth in Brighton" wrote with additional information about the song's origin:
The William Delf "poem" Three Score and Ten was apparently published in The Hull Times, 2 March 1889. The British Library may have it online via http://www.hullwebs.co.uk/content/k-victorian/newspapers/directory.htm but the link for 1889 to The Hull Arrow was unavailable [503] "undergoing maintenance" when I looked.
The storm affected fishing towns all along the east coast of England from Yarmouth (Norfolk), to Scarborough (Yorkshire) which includes Lincolnshire, the county in between. It probably affected fishing towns even further afield, Suffolk and Kent to the south and Durham and Northumberland to the north and perhaps Scotland (not a county!) too.
AuntieShanty quotes the newspaper article on her web site at https://www.auntieshanty.org/songs/three-score-and-ten/ [accessed 7/15/2023] as saying:
"As day after day passes and no tidings arrive of the missing Grimsby smacks, it is beginning to be realised that the gale of the 9th ult. will prove one of the most disastrous to the Grimsby fishing trade on record. altogether nearly a dozen fishing vessels, carrying between 60 and 70 hands, are missing.
Most of the vessels were provisioned for eight or nine days, and many of them have been out for over a month. Of the safety of seven of them all hope has now been abandoned."
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PaSe138

Three Scotch Robbers, The

See Henry Martyn [Child 250] AND Sir Andrew Barton [Child 167] (File: C250)

Three Ships Came Sailing In

See I Saw Three Ships (File: OBB104)

Three Sisters

See Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14] (File: C014)

Three Sisters, The

See Riddles Wisely Expounded [Child 1] (File: C001)

Three Sons (I), The

See In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)

Three Sons (II), The

See The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)

Three Sons of Rogues

See In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)

Three Times Round

DESCRIPTION: "Three times round went our gallant ship, Till she sank to the bottom of the sea" "Haul her up, cried the little sailor lass, Ere she sinks ...." "Then I will, cried the little sailor boy, Ere she sinks ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Maclagan)
KEYWORDS: sea ship ordeal nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,High))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1593, "Three Times Round" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 52, "Gallant, Gallant Ship" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Craig Maclagan, The Games and Diversions of Argyleshire (London, 1901 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 53-55, "The Gala Ship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12973
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mermaid" [Child 289] (verse form and some lines)
NOTES [25 words]: The last verse of "The Mermaid" Child 289B,C,D becomes a game. In 289D Child notes that a Such broadside adds the verse not found in a Birt broadside. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD81593

Three Wee Tatties in a Pot

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Three wee tatties in a pot, Lift the lid an' see if they're hot. If they're hot, cut their throat, Three wee tatties in a pot."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Bluebells My Cockle Shells)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #562, "Three wee tatties in a pot" (1 text)
Roud #19269
File: ARR562

Three Weeks Before Easter

See The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass) (File: K152)

Three Wise Old Women

DESCRIPTION: Three wise old women go walking in winter. One carries a ladder; another, a basket; "the wisest one, she carried a fan to keep off the sun." (At least) one climbs the ladder and is blown to sea. (They use the basket to bail, the fan as a sail)
AUTHOR: Mrs. E. T. Corbett, according to Felleman _The Best Loved Poems of the American People_
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: humorous animal talltale
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 130, "Three Wise Old Women" (1 text)
ST R130 (Partial)
Roud #3271
NOTES [47 words]: Although hardly known in tradition, Randolph's text differs enough from the presumed original in Felleman that I have to think there was folk processing along the way. E.g., in the original, they climb the tree for fear of a bear; it seems as if the informant would remember that. - RBW
File: R130

Three Wood Pigeons

See Three Blue Pigeons (File: ACSF1373)

Three Wooden Pigeons

See Three Blue Pigeons (File: ACSF1373)

Three Young Ladies

See Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14] (File: C014)

Three-Handed Reel

See Some Say the Devil's Dead (File: Gund046)

Three, Six, Nine

DESCRIPTION: "Three, six, nine, the goose drank wine." The monkey "chewed tobacco on the street car line" or "got tangled in a telephone line." "The line broke, the monkey got choked, And they all went to heaven" in a row boat/luxury boat," or all but the billy goat.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Fauset)
KEYWORDS: wine playparty animal bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond)) US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 135, "Three, Six, Nine" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #412, "Once upon a time, A goose drank wine" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 37, "3, 6, 9" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Arthur Huff Fauset, "Negro Folk Tales from the South (Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana," Vol. XL, No. 157 (Jul 1927), #VII.3 p. 293 ("Once upon a time, the goose drank wine") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Patricia Shehan Campbell, Songs in Their Heads (New York, 1998 (copyrighted material limited preview "Digitized by Google")) p. 43, ("Three, six, nine, The goose drank wine") (1 text)
Roud #18987
NOTES [117 words]: Somewhat similar is "Hopalong Peter": "...the duck drank wine, The goose played the fiddle on the pumpkin vine."
See Shirley Ellis's version [Congress 234, according to the Shirley Ellis discography on the Spectro Pop Express site], 'The Clapping Song', 1965 [which includes the 'Rubber Dolly' verse and 'Three, Six, Nine', among others]." - BS
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes thinks that this "Derives from a formula opening of English tales." However, other than Abrahams's own version, I have never seen a version start with "Once upon a time"; almost all begin with "Three six nine." So I think "Once upon a time" is a corruption, not the original. Brady-AllInAllIn calls it a "hot hands" (clapping) game. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OpGa135

Thresherman (and the Squire), The

See Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man) (File: R127)

Thresherman, The

See Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man) (File: R127)

Threshing Machine (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "It's all very well to have a machine To thresh your wheat and your barley clean, To thresh it and win(now) it, all fit for sale, Then go off to market so brisk and well." Singer tells of the wonders of the new threshing machine and the people who tend it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Gardiner manuscript)
KEYWORDS: farming technology work moniker nonballad worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 231, "The Machiner's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, THRSHSNG*
Roud #874
RECORDINGS:
Jim Copper, "The Thrashing Machine" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
NOTES [32 words]: While this is a non-ballad, I've included it -- mostly so that we may reference it when we get to "The Thrashing Machine", a bawdy song. - PJS
In any case, some of the stanzas have plots. - RBW
File: K231

Threshing Machine (II), The

See The Thrashing Machine (I) (File: RcThraM)

Through All the World Below

DESCRIPTION: "Through all the world below God is seen all around, Search hills and valleys through, There he's found. The growing of the corn, the lily and the thorn...." The song describes God's part in the entire universe, and how the creation praises the deity
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1825 (Columbian Harmony)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 34, "Captain Kidd-II" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 38, #4 (1994), pp, 60-61, "Captain Kidd" (1 text, 1 tune, with three-part Sacred Harp-style harmony)
Roud #6667
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wayfaring Stranger" (tune) and references there
File: LoF034

Through and Through, Sally Go

DESCRIPTION: "Through and through, Sally (or shally) go." The last one will be caught.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p.51, ("Through and through, Sally go") (1 text)
File: OpGap51B

Through Bushes and Briars

See Bushes and Briars (File: FSOE026)

Through Each Perplexing Path of Life

See O God of Bethel (File: KSUC108A)

Through Erin's Isle

See Oh the Shamrock (File: KSUC148A)

Through Moorfields

See Fair Maid in Bedlam (File: LEB113)

Through the City Where He Rode

DESCRIPTION: "Through the city where he rode Was spotless white. He will lead me where No tears don't never fall. Oh yes, he is leading me, For I feel his hands on mine." "I shall know him by the prints Of the nails in his hands." All verses are variants on the first
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 642, "Through the City Where He Rode" (1 text)
Roud #11937
NOTES [95 words]: It was Thomas (John 20:24-29) who demanded to see the marks of the nails on Jesus's hands.
The rest of the song doesn't make much sense. If the description of the city and the rider is a reference to Jesus's entry into Jerusalem, well, nowhere is there any mention of white in any of the gospel narratives. That leaves only references in the Apocalypse -- e.g. the white horse of Rev. 6:2 or the white robes of Rev. (3:4), 4:4, 6:11, 7:9, 13. Perhaps the likeliest reference is to Rev. 19:11, 14, where the King of Kings rides a white horse. No white *city*, though. - RBW
File: Br3642

Through the Grove

See Johnny and Molly (File: KiTu055)

Through the Groves (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears a maid complain, "The lad I love is gone astray." If she had wings she would fly to him. If she would lock her heart to keep it from going astray. She searched for him "over hills and dales" among the shepherds in the snow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 76, "'Twas Through the Groves" (1 text)
Roud #607
File: ReCi076

Through the Groves (II)

See Abroad for Pleasure (Through the Groves II) (File: VWP117)

Through the Moss and Through the Muir

DESCRIPTION: Through moss and moor, corn and barley, "aye the foalie shook its tailie Through the woods o' Fyvie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1771, "Through the Moss and Through the Muir" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13018
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whistle Owre the Lave O't" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
File: GrD1771

Through the Wood as the Lady Ran

DESCRIPTION: "And thro' the wood as the lady ran, She pu'd a bram'le at the hin'er end."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1793, "Through the Wood as the Lady Ran" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13021
NOTES [84 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
The notes to Greig/Duncan8 would have us compare this fragment to "The Stripling." While the fragment lines are not in the Greig/Duncan5 texts of that song the fragment here could conceivable be a missing piece to that song. - BS
People attempting to disguise their tracks would sometimes tie some sort of plant to their horses' feet or their own backs; I'm guessing that is what is happening here. But, obviously, we have no clue as to why. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: GrD81793

Throw It Out the Window

DESCRIPTION: "Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard To get her poor dog a bone When she got there the cupboard was bare So she threw it out the window, The window, the window." Other nursery rhymes may be invoked, always ending with throwing it out the window
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs)
KEYWORDS: derivative animal campsong
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 35-36, "The teacher therefore turned it out"/"Mary had a Little Lamb" (1 partial text plus two parody verses, the first claiming that, if may were alive, she'd have an airplane rather than a lamb, the second being a Mary Had a Little Lamb verse of "Throw It Out the Window")
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 277, "Throw It Out the Window" (notes, plus a partial verse on p. 277)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 119, "Throw It Out the Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 24-25, "Throw It Out the Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #36138
File: ACSF277T

Throw Me Anywhere

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Throw (me, my body) anywhere, In that old field (x4)."Verses: "Members (deacons, preachers, brothers, ...), you want to die, Lord, In that old field (x4)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: burial death nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 20, pp. 108-111, "Throw Me Anywhere"; 40, pp. 175-177, "In That Old Field" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
RECORDINGS:
John Davis and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Buzzard Lope" (on LomaxCD1713)
Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Buzzard Lope" (on LomaxCD1713)
NOTES [29 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. Parrish writes, "In ante-bellum days the slaves called the graveyard 'the ole field.'" - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr020

Thunder Crew, The

DESCRIPTION: "Our iron bark's our home, you see, A tough old craft and true, And of our trade right proud are we, The gallant thunder crew. Each tar will at his station be" when storm or prize appear; otherwise, they will relax -- but always ready to fight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1845 (The Buccaneer Songster, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: ship battle pirate
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 79, "The Thunder Grew" (1 text; #58 in the first edition)
Roud #V10226
File: FrPi079

Thurso Fishing Boat Disaster, The

DESCRIPTION: "A boat from Thurso Bay did go, out to the fishing ground... All wrapped in oilskins were the crew... In one fatal wave they drew their last breath Their bodies now roll in the wide Pentland Firth In a watery grave instead of on earth"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 18, 1874 - The herring fishing boat is lost in a gale in Pentland Firth (source: Greig/Duncan1)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 34, "The Thurso Fishing Boat Disaster" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3804
NOTES [10 words]: The Greig/Duncan1 fragment has the date as June 18, 1889. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1034

Thus the Farmer Sows His Seed

See Oats and Beans (File: DToatsbe)

Thyme, It Is a Precious Thing

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments her precious thyme, which she had and lost. A sailor gave her a rose "that never would decay" to remind her of "the night he stole my bonny thyme away." She warns others against the same mistake
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: loneliness sailor seduction virginity
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, THYMEPRE*
Roud #3
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme"
cf. "The Gowans are Gay"
cf. "Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme)"
NOTES [159 words]: In flower symbolism, thyme stood for virginity. For a catalog of some of the sundry flower symbols, see the notes to "The Broken-Hearted Gardener."
Thyme songs are almost impossible to tell apart, because of course the plot (someone seduces the girl) and the burden (let no man steal your thym) are always identical. For the same reasons, verses float freely between them. So fragmentary versions are almost impossible to classify. Steve Roud seems to lump all of them.
The Digital Tradition has a version, "Rue and Thyme," which seems to have almost all the common elements. Whether it is the ancestor of the various thyme songs, or a gathering together of separate pieces, is not clear to me.
The chorus, "Thyme, it is a precious thing; Thyme brings all things to your mind. Thyme with all its labours Along with all its joys, And it's thyme brings all things to an end," is quite characteristic in its lyric strength. The plot is less diagnostic. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: DTthymep

Ti-De-O

See Jingle at the Window (Tideo) (File: R525)

Tibbie Fowler (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Tibbie Fowler o the glen, There's o'er mony wooin' at her... Wooin' at her, pu'in at her, Courtin' at her, cannae get her, Silly elf, it's for her pelf (money) That a' the lads are wooin' at her." She has few charms, but the lads come seeking her money
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: courting money rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 248-251, "Tibbie Fowler" (1 text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 10, p. 22, "Tibby Fowler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5504
NOTES [592 words]: Whitelaw, writing about the Herd/Chambers text: "In the Tea Table Miscellany, Ramsay has a song 'to the tune of Tibble fowler in the Glen,' which proves that the air, at least is old.... The authorship has been ascribed to a 'Rev. Dr. Strachan late minister of Carnwath; but David Laing says that there has been no minister of Carnevath of that name for at least the last three hundred years" (source: Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 61-62, "Tibbie Fowler") - BS
This is repeated almost verbatim in Ford-SongHistories, p. 248, which adds, "There is some reason for believing that 'Tibbie' was a real personage, and tradition at Leith points to the person in a certain Isobel Fowler, who was married to a son of Logan of Restalrig, the conspirator, in the seventeenth century. A house which is believed to have belonged to the pair, having the date 1636, is pointed out in the Sheriffbrae in Leith."
The "conspiracy" referred to is the Gowrie Conspiracy of 1600, in which an attempt was allegedly made by John Ruthven, Earl of Gowrie, and his brother Alexander the Master of Gowrie to trap, and probably kill (hold hostage? assassinate? overthrow? demand the roughly £80,000 they were owed by?) King James VI of Scotland.
Wagner, p. 126: "A strong Presybyterian like his father and grandfather, Gowrie was 22 in 1600 when he traveled from Italy to England, where he was well received by Queen Elizabeth. After returning to Scotland, Gowrie made himself conspicuous for opposing the king's demand for money in the current parliament."
The details of the conspiracy are murky, especially since the Ruthven brothers ended up dead and were convicted posthumously of treason; we have only James's side. Every source I checked agrees that we don't really know what happened. Willson, p. 126, puts it most explicitly: "the King was involved in that strange mystery known as the Gowrie Plot. Over many episodes in his life James drew a veil of judicious uncertainty, but the Gowrie Plot was his masterpiece, for here the mystery remains inscrutable to the present day."
It was mysterious at the time, too. Stewart, pp. 150-153) gives the account of what James claimed happened (Gowrie claimed to have found a treasure, convinced James to come alone to see it, whereupon Gowrie attacked the unarmed king -- yet somehow James survived). There was supposedly a witness present, yet within a week, four different people were identified as the witness! (Stewart, p. 154). Ultimately, it was little more than the king's word against a dead body which could not give its side.
It worked out amazingly well for James, though: he called on the clergy to tell his side of the story from the pulpit, and when some resisted, he forced them to obedience, thus increasing his control over the church (Stewart, pp. 254-157).
If the details of what happened are uncertain, the connection of Robert Logan of Restalrig with all this is even more murky. He died in 1606 with no shadow on his name. But in 1609 his body was exhumed and put on trial (something that the Scots were in the habit of doing, e.g. they did it to the corpse of the Earl of Huntly in the reign of Mary Queen of Scots). It being difficult for a dead man to defend himself, the corpse was convicted and its properties seized. Given the nature of the evidence, one is inclined to suspect that the government simply wanted the money of a man who had committed no crime. But it might explain why Logan would be especially interested in marrying for money, given that his family fortune had been impounded. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: FoSo248

Tibbie Fowler (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Tibbie Fowler [or Robie Stobie] in the glen" stole her mother's hen and got the blame. Whether roasted or raw, Tibbie ate her all.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: theft food parody chickens
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #159, p. 2, ("Robie Stobie doon the glen") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1691, "Tibbie Fowler" (2 texts)
Roud #5504
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tibbie Fowler (I)" (tune, lyrics)
NOTES [306 words]: The current song seems a parody of another song with at least two major versions [i.e. "Tibbie Fowler (I)"] - RBW . See
David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, pp. 104-105, "Tibby Fowler of the Glen"
Hans Hecht, editor, Songs From David Herd's Manuscripts (Edinburgh, 1904), #554 pp. 174-175,304-305, "Tibbie Fowler" [Not the same song as in Herd, above.]
Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, pp. 378-379, "Tibbie Fowler" is close to Herd.
James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #569, p. 673, "Tibbie Fowler" (1 text, 1 tune) is close to Hecht-Herd.
And with the usual reservations about this book, R. H. Cromek, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, (Paisley, 1880 reissue of 1810 edition ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 83-87, "Variations of 'Tibbie Fowler'." Of this set, Hecht-Herd says, on p. 304: "worthless stuff."
In any case, none of these has a verse that is a clear base for what I assume is a parody, though the first line of the Herd version and the form of Hecht-Herd is suggestive. On the other hand, none have a good word for the subject. The chorus of Hecht-Herd: "Wooing at her, pu'in at her, Courtin at her, cannae get her: Filthy elf, it's for her pelf That a' the lads are wooin at her"
Whitelaw, writing about the Herd/Chambers text: "In the Tea Table Miscellany, Ramsay has a song 'to the tune of Tibble fowler in the Glen,' which proves that the air, at least is old.... The authorship has been ascribed to a 'Rev. Dr. Strachan late minister of Carnwath; but David Laing says that there has been no minister of Carnevath of that name for at least the last three hundred years" (source: Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 61-62, "Tibbie Fowler") - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GrD81691

Tibby Fowler

See Tibbie Fowler (I) and Tibbie Fowler (II) (File: FoSo248)

Tibo (Thibault) [Laws C6]

DESCRIPTION: Tibo is one of a crew trying to clear a logjam. The logs he is on give way; Tibo is washed away and his comrade cannot keep hold of him. He leaves a widow and young children; the lumbermen make contributions for their support
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: logger death drowning
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Laws C6, "Tibo (Thibault)"
DT 808, TEBO
Roud #2221
File: LC06

Tic-Tac

DESCRIPTION: "Tic tac tic tac to wally-wally." "O Miss x someone's on the phone." "If it ain't Mr y tell him I ain't home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (JohnsIsland1)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad technology
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Mabel Hillery, Janie Hunter and her grandchildren, "Tic-Tac" (on JohnsIsland1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ticky-Tack-Too" ("Tic Tac Toe" lyric)
cf. "Rick Rick Toe" ("Tic Tac Toe" lyric)
cf. "The Cobbler (III)" ("Tic Tac Toe" lyric)
File: RcTicTac

Tickle Cove Pond

DESCRIPTION: A man hauling wood with his mare "Kitty" takes a short cut across a frozen pond. The horse hesitates to cross the weak ice. The man ignores the horse and they fall in. The man shouts for help and neighbors come to haul the mare out with a chanty song.
AUTHOR: Mark Walker (1846-1924) (Source: Philip Hiscock of MUNFLA, Canadian Folk Music Bulletin 37.2, 2003)
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 2nd edition)
KEYWORDS: horse work rescue
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 16-17, "Tickle Cove Pond" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Tickle Cove Pond" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 18-19 in the 2nd edition, pp. 75-76 in the 3rd; pp. 61-62 in the 4th; pp. 48-49 in the 5th
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 8-10, "Tickle Cove Pond" (1 text, 1 tune)
England-HistoricNewfoundlandAndLabrador, pp. 60-61, "Tickle Cove Pond" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TCKLCOVE*
Roud #7313
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Tickle Cove Pond" (on NFOBlondahl01,NFOBlondahl05)
NOTES [258 words]: A "tickle" is a narrow inlet of water. Tickle Cove is on the north-east coast of Newfoundland. Also, the song has a chanty included in it that is contextualized for the narrative of the song. For a colorful explanation of Newfoundland usage, see Harold Horwood, "Newfoundland" (Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1969) 83-84. - SH
The author is named by GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site.
If you are interested in the Newfoundland song tradition in general and the history of this song in particular be sure to read Taking Apart "Tickle Cove Pond" in Canadian Journal for Traditional Music, vol. 29, 2002 by Philip Hiscock, pp. 32-68, also available in PDF format at //cjtm.icaap.org/content/29/05-Hiscock.pdf. Hiscock does not just discuss the origins of the song. From his abstract: "Nowadays, the song has certain meanings for listeners. This paper suggests they reflect contemporary beliefs and 'imaginings' about Newfoundland's past."
"The tune is derived from the Irish tune 'Tatter [i.e., Father] Jack Walsh,' which also goes by several other names in Ireland." Hiscock, p. 40.
The words of some of the songs Hiscock attributes to Mark Waller may be found at the Bonavista Bay Songs section of the Newfoundland's Grand Banks sites - BS
Mark Walker is listed as the author of several popular Newfoundland songs, "Tickle Cove Pond," "Fanny's Harbour Bawn," "The 'Antis' of Plate Cove," and "Lovely Katie-O"; a family tradition also says that he wrote "The Star of Logy Bay." See the notes to that song for discussion of the matter. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy18

Tickle My Toe

DESCRIPTION: In successive verses of this bawdy cumulative song, the singer lays his finger or touches his lady friend on the toe, knee, thigh, "funny thing," etc. With each he asks what it is and she gives a nonsensical reply.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859? [not later than 1867] (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: bawdy cumulative
FOUND IN: US(So) Ireland Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 89, "Mathew the Miller" (1 text)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 545-551, "Tickle My Toe" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 750, "The Corn Grinds Well" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #1050
RECORDINGS:
Pat MacNamara, "I Left My Hand" (on IRClare01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gently Johnny My Jingalo"
cf. "A-Roving" (plot, such as it is)
cf. "Baltimore (Up She Goes)" (theme)
cf. "Yo Ho, Yo Ho" (plot)
NOTES [43 words]: Legman offers substantial notes on the history of this song in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I. - EC
It can, obviously, be difficult to tell this from "A-Roving" and, especially, "Yo Ho." The reader is strongly advised to check that song as well as this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: RL545

Tickler's Jam

See Tittler's Jam (File: OpGa088)

Ticklish Reuben (Snuff Box)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm always putting pepper in my daddy's snuff box, And it is a sight for to see. He coughs and he sneezes... Mother swore that was always tickling me." When the father recovers, "Then he took me out and then he tickled me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: mother father trick drugs punishment humorous
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 734, "Snuff Box" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17640
File: BrS5734

Ticky-Tack-Too

DESCRIPTION: "Ticky-tack-too, tack-too, Ticky-tack-too, tack-tay"(x2)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 186, "Ticky-Tack-Too" (1 short text)
Roud #837
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rick Rick Toe" ("Tic Tac Toe" lyric)
cf. "Tic-Tac" ("Tic Tac Toe" lyric)
cf. "The Cobbler (III)" ("Tic Tac Toe" lyric)
NOTES [84 words]: The current description is all of the OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin fragment.
Roud puts the OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin fragment with "The Shoemaker" (I).
I think a better fit is Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 "Rap-a-tap-tap-tap, ticky-tack-too, This is the way to make a shoe"(2x).
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin has it as "a cobbler's song" with a BBC recording by Mary Murphy, in May 1953, which -- like "The Cobbler" (I) -- is Roud #837. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: OCC186

Tidal Wave at Burin

DESCRIPTION: "The day began with sunshine." The earthquake strikes in the afternoon. Waves "going forty miles an hour" destroying ships and dwellings, drive people "to the mountain." Afterwards many "got their losses [back] and some a darn sight more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: death disaster ordeal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 18, 1929 - Earthquake centered in Gulf of St. Lawrence is followed by a tidal wave, with 26 to 36 lives reported lost. See NOTES.
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18242
RECORDINGS:
Gerald Aylward, "Tidal Wave at Burin" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
John James, "Tidal Wave" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [113 words]: "Newfoundland Tidal Wave Claims Lives of Many -- Property Loss of Great Extent in Small Villages," AP, in Geneva Daily Times (Geneva NY, November 22, 1929), Vol. 35, No. 150, p. 1: "The tidal wave, 15 feet or more high, struck along the [Newfoundland] coast for a distance of 30 miles.... from Lamaline, at the tip of the [Burin] peninsula, to Rock Harbor [sic., s/b Rock Harbour], near the mainland." "Burin, the largest town affected, has a population of 1230 and is located on a narrow inlet. Reports said the wave reached a height of 40 feet there and swept away all property on the waterfront."
The Burin Peninsula is at the east end of Newfoundland's Southern Shore. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcTiWaBu

Tiddleywinks, Old Man

DESCRIPTION: "Tiddleywinks, old man, Find a woman if you can, If you can't find a woman, Do without, old man.' 'If it wasn't for your name and it wasn't for your shame, I'd let you have a go in a minute...." When the rock of Gibraltar Takes a flying leap at Malta....'
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous nonballad nonsense rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 37, "Tiddleywinks, Old Man" (1 text)
Roud #10344
RECORDINGS:
Jasper Smith, "Tiddliewink Old Man" (on Voice14)
File: BrPa037A

Tiddliewink Old Man

See (File: BrPa037A)

Tiddy High O!

DESCRIPTION: "An' now we are bound for ol' Bristol Town, Tiddy high O! high hay! Good-bye to them black gals, the yellars an' the browns, Tiddy high O! hay, high hay!" Verses give references to rum and sugar trading/loading.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong clothes food drink
FOUND IN: West Indies Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 453, "Tiddy High O!" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 339]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XLI, p. 46, "Tiddy I O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8288
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Haul 'Er Away (Little Sally Racket)" (character of Sally Rackett)
File: Hugi453

Tiddy I O

See Tiddy High O! (File: Hugi453)

Tiddy, the Tailor

See The Trooper and the Tailor (File: FSC139)

Tideo

See Jingle at the Window (Tideo) (File: R525)

Tidy Irish Lad

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a tidy bit of an Irish lad, as you can plainly see, And I like a drop of the creature when I go out upon a spree." The singer boasts of Irish drink, and notes how the English need the Irish, who won the battles of Waterloo, Inkerman, and Sebastopol
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: Ireland drink soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
Nov 5, 1854 - Battle of Inkerman clears the way for the siege of Sevastopol (the city fell in the fall of 1855)
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 64-65, "Tidy Irish Lad" (1 text)
Roud #9561
File: Dean064

Tidy Smilin' Wifey, A

See A Good Roarin' Fire (File: HayU032)

Tie Pile Song (Duke See the Tie Pile)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, (Duke) see the tie pile and Duke git mad, Oh, Duke see the money pile and Duke git glad, Oh Daddy, git one." "Oh, tain't no use in foolin' around, Oh, all of them ties got to go to town, Oh Daddy, git one."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 23-24, "Duke See the Tie Pile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10000
NOTES [78 words]: Wheeler explains that the call, "Oh Daddy, git one" was the call used by rousters to tell the next person in line to pick up his tie. For this reason, I have conjectured that this is not a composition by "Duke" Sims (Wheeler's informant), but a tie-carrying call. I have named it accordingly.
Wheeler's version is more or less a standard blues form, using only four tones of the scale, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are "true" ballad versions in existence. - RBW
File: MWhe023A

Tie That Binds, The

DESCRIPTION: "Within a small room, cold and cheerless, There sits a young woman alone." She and her husband are separated; they have divided "One small stocking's for you, dear, One small shoe is for me." He returns, for the dead baby is "the tie that binds"
AUTHOR: Charles K. Harris (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love separation husband wife baby reunion death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 52-53, "The Tie That Binds" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Charles K. Harris, _Chas. K. Harris' Complete Songster, Containing One Hundred and Fifty Latest Popular Songs: Successes of Mr. Harris and His Staff of Famous Composers_, F. J. Drake, 1903 (available on Google Books), pp. 140-142, "The Tie That Binds" (1 text)
Roud #18490
NOTES [74 words]: Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk describe their text as composite. It's more than that; it appears to have been turned into a wholly different form. Charles K. Harris's original is just two verses long -- but the verses are sixteen lines long! The Rainey version preserves most of the lyrics, but breaks them up into eight standard four-line stanzas. This obviously requires a melodic change also, although I don't know what was done to it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RPOF052

Tie-Hackin's Too Tiresome

See Rye Whisky (File: R405)

Tie-Shuffling Chant

See Can'cha Line 'Em (File: LxU078)

Tie-Tamping Chant

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, tamp 'em up solid, So dey won't come down... Oh, you can do it." Any suitable verse may be used. Last line of chorus is repeated until the task is finished. Another verse is "All, right now, boys, Let me tell you 'bout Sis Joe this time...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: work worksong nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 17-19, "Tie-Tamping Chant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 262-263, "Sis Joe"; "Track Lining Holler" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #15522
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pay Me My Money Down" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [20 words]: The Lomaxes quote all sorts of verses for this song. One suspects that not all actually came from their informant. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LxA017

Tiermana Hill

See Tirmanagh Hill (File: RcTirmHi)

Tifty's Annie

See Andrew Lammie [Child 233] (File: C233)

Tiger and the Lion, The

See Bold Dighton [Laws A21] (File: LA21)

Tiger Bay

DESCRIPTION: "Early in '82," the singer "thought I'd have a little cruise from the Well Street Home down Tiger Bay." He meets a pretty girl who takes him "to the house of Mother Wright., And I was shown a cosy room." He spends his money, but will visit Tiger Bay again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: sailor sex clothes money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer 133, "Tiger Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16872
File: PaSe133

Tiger Tim

See Rin Tin Tin Sat on a Pin (File: AJRR490)

Tigery Orum

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Tiggotty tiggotty gutter

See Call the Hogs to Supper (File: OpGap37B)

Till Cock Gets Higher

DESCRIPTION: A cante-fable, this tale with interpolated song tells of the encounter of a country boy with a prostitute, and their bargaining for price.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy whore bargaining
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II, p. 603, "Till Cock Gets Higher" (1 text)
File: RL603

Till Home Sail Wylekyn (Willikin's Return)

DESCRIPTION: "Till home sail Willikin, this jolly gentle sheep, All to our comely King Harry this knight is knit (?), Therefore let us all syng nowel." Willikin sails home to the Lord Prince, to the Lord Chamberlain, to the Lord "Fueryn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1550 (British LIbrary MS. Additional 19046)
KEYWORDS: royalty ship return home MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #430, p. 292, "(Tyll home sull Wylekyn, this joly gentyl schepe)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3742
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #5957
ADDITIONAL: Rossell Hope Robbins, _Historical Poems of the XIVth and XVth Century_, Columbia University Press, 1959, #82, pp. 198-199, "Willikin's Return" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British LIbrary MS. Additional 19046, folio 74
NOTES [683 words]: This has, in its own right, absolutely no place in the Index. There is only one copy, in British Library MS. Additional 19046, which is a fifteenth century book of proverbs; this piece is written in the margins. There is no reason to think it of folk origin, and the attestation is poor. I have included it for two reasons: One is because Greene claims (p. 441) that it is "probably a close parody of a folk-song, to judge by its lilt and its use of repetitive formulas." I don't think I buy that, but the piece perhaps needs an entry so we can compare it against any other genuine folk songs of its era.
The second is that Greene suggests that this is about the 1470 "re-adaption" of King Henry VI, deposed in 1461 by Edward IV for utter incompetence (this apart from the fact that Edward IV, not Henry VI, was the heir of the old King Edward III). It was the Earl of Warwick who arranged to get Henry back on the throne (briefly -- Henry was restored only for a few months in 1470-1471 before Edward IV put paid to him permanently). Greene thinks the "Willikin" of this song is Warwick. This explanation is accepted without argument by Robbins, p. 361, who goes on to expand on Greene's explanations.
This strikes me as problematic. Warwick's name was not William; he was Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick and Salisbury. It's of course possible that he was called "Willikin" to conceal his identity -- but why? As long as Warwick was in charge (and he ran the government for Henry VI, who was not capable of ruling on his own), there was no need to conceal his name, and once Warwick died at the Battle of Barnet (April 14, 1471), there wasn't anything to write about.
And no one in his right mind would ever call Warwick a "sheep." A wolf in sheep's clothing, maybe, but no sheep.
What's more, although calling King Henry "comely" might be conventional, if it's meant literally, it doesn't seem to fit. We have no reliable portraits, but I can't recall any contemporary chronicle ever calling Henry particularly handsome, and when his alleged tomb was opened, he was found to have an unusually small skull. I wouldn't bet much on that corpse really being Henry, but there is a pretty good chance that he was anything but handsome.
There are two other instances, around the fifteenth century, of a King Henry coming over the sea to claim the throne. In 1399, Henry of Bolingbroke overthrew Richard II and became King Henry IV (he was Henry VI's grandfather). And in 1485, Henry Tudor overthrew Richard III and became King Henry VII.
Bolingbroke wasn't particularly associated with anyone named William; his chief supporters at the time were the father and son Henry Percy (the father being the First Earl of Northumberland and the son the famous Harry Hotspur) and Thomas Arundel, the displaced Archbishop of Canterbury. But Henry Tudor, although the leaders of his army were the de Vere Earl of Oxford and Jasper Tudor, overthrew Richard at the Battle of Bosworth mostly because of the actions of the brothers Thomas Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby, and his brother Sir William Stanley. At Bosworth, it was William Stanley who swooped down with his forces and killed Richard III. (For far more about this than you probably want to know, see the notes to "The Children in the Wood" (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34] and "The Ballad of Bosworth Field.") William Stanley did not really come over the sea, but Thomas Stanley was technically King of the Isle of Man, so it's arguable that the Stanleys were "from overseas." And William Stanley was actually named William! So he would be my candidate for the Willikin of the song.
As a footnote, Sir William Stanley was Henry VII's Lord Chamberlain for a time (see Wagner, p. 257) until Henry executed him in 1495 for rebellion; the Stanleys were just too slippery!
I don't begin to claim that this is proof. I'm not sure of anything. This could be about something completely different; there is nothing in the piece which is really identifiable. But I just don't trust Greene's identification, and indexed this piece to put my objections on record! - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSTiHoWy

Till I Die

See Coon from Tennessee (Till I Die) (File: Arno150)

Till the Boys Come Home

See Keep the Home Fires Burning (File: BrPa215)

Till the Clouds Rolled By

DESCRIPTION: "As I was going to school one day to learn my ABC, I jumped into a (Chinese/pirate) ship to sail the ocean seas." A Chinese man calls the singer a spy and demands a song. The singer sings nonsense (perhaps intended to be Chinese?)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Steve Gardham collection)
KEYWORDS: travel ship music nonsense injury | spy
FOUND IN: US(NE)
Roud #21972
RECORDINGS:
Alessandra Delia-Lôbo, Cameo Delia, "Till the Clouds Rolled By" (Piotr-Archive #385, recorded 12/18/2022)
NOTES [39 words]: Digging around the Internet for this revealed several versions of extremely various lengths, with little agreement on the texts. No one seems to know the ultimate source. The description is based mostly on the Piotr-Archive version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcThCRoB

Till We Meet Again (I)

See God Be With You (File: RcGBeWYu)

Till We Meet Again (II)

See By the Blazing Council Fire (File: ACSF338B)

Tillie the Toiler Sat on a Boiler

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Tillie the Toiler sat on a boiler. The boiler got hot, Tillie got shot. How many times did Tillie get shot? One, two, three...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Worstell, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope technology injury
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #564, "Tillie the Toiler sat on a boiler" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Spanish Dancer" (lyrics)
cf. "Tillie the Toiler, Never Late" (subject of Tillie)
NOTES [51 words]: "Tillie the Toiler" was a comic strip character, originated in 1921 by Russ Westover; there was a (silent) film about her in 1927 and another in 1941. It appears she was an attractive office worker and part-time model who had a complex personal life. The strip ended in 1959, according to Wikipedia. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR564

Tillie the Toiler, Never Late

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Tillie the Toiler, never late, She's always at the office at half past eight."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Edith Fowke collection, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope work
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #563, "Tillie the toiler, never late" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tillie the Toiler Sat on a Boiler" (subject of Tillie)
NOTES [51 words]: "Tillie the Toiler" was a comic strip character, originated in 1921 by Russ Westover; there was a (silent) film about her in 1927 and another in 1941. It appears she was an attractive office worker and part-time model who had a complex personal life. The strip ended in 1959, according to Wikipedia. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR563

Tilly Illy Rey Dum Dee

DESCRIPTION: "Tilly illy rey dum daddie, Tilly illy rey dum dee" (2x)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1785, "Tilly Illy Rey Dum Dee" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13527
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drunken Sailor" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS.
Last updated in version 3.5
File: GrD81785

Tilly on the Telephone

DESCRIPTION: "Jinny/Tilly on the telephone, Miss the loop, you're out, O-U-T spells Out!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: technology
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 77, "(Jinny on the telephone)" (1 text)
Roud #31506
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric) and references there
File: BAAI077B

Tim

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

Tim Finigan's Wake

See Finnegan's Wake [Laws Q17] (File: LQ17)

Tim Finnegan's Wake

See Finnegan's Wake [Laws Q17] (File: LQ17)

Tim, Tim Sat on a Pin

See Charlie Chaplin Sat on a Pin (File: SuSM108A)

Timber

DESCRIPTION: "From the bushmen to the breaker-out, From the breaker-out to the bend, From the benchie to the tailor-out, From the tailor-out to the yard. Timber, I want to go, Back to Ontario, Timber, I want to go home." And so the logs go on their way to the market
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (according to Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: lumbering travel
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 54, "Timber" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Clev054

Timber (I)

DESCRIPTION: "We are trying to carry this timber to the building, Hallelujah, I don't know." "We will make doors and windows in that building, Hallelujah, I don't know." "We will build it to the glory of the Lord, Hallelujah, I don't know."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 386, "Timber" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: San386

Timber (Jerry the Mule)

DESCRIPTION: The singer encourages his mule, "Hollerin', Timber, Lord, this timber's gotta roll." He complains about his miserable boss. Jerry the mule can't pull more, so the boss beats him. Jerry kills the boss. The singer wonders why he didn't kill the boss himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: work animal death boss
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 130, "Timber/Jerry the Mule" (1 text)
DT, JERRYMUL
File: FSWB130B

Timber for the Bridge at St. Paul's

DESCRIPTION: Men go to cut logs for a new bridge. Some men cut short and some long. Some worked hard and some worked light; the smallest man did the work of two. Some cut the soft wood and others did not. The boss "told every man different from what he told me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: work boss worker
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 363-364, "Timber for the Bridge at St. Paul's" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25332
NOTES [171 words]: Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports says of this song, "It reflects local anxiety in the community concerning poor leadership in directing the construction of a bridge over the St. Paul's river. This is revealed directly in the third stanza of the song." I would not have seen that without Guigné's guidance. I thought it was a song about a job in which everyone does his own thing, and that the writer thought that a funny situation. In any case, Guigné goes on to quote a local resident: "The bridge didn't survive long." Guigné continues, "A new bridge of steel was eventually built." - BS
St. Pauls (my atlas shows it without an apostrophe) was a small town at the southern end of Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula, in an inlet between Rocky Harbor and Cow Head. A bridge over the inlet might have been useful, but I wonder what it would have connected to -- for practical purposes, there were no roads in that part of Newfoundland in 1913; the coastal boats were their means of contact with the outside world. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Guig363

Timbrook

DESCRIPTION: "Timbrook has done gone and thrown the rider (x2), If you'd been there when the horses come around, You'd a swore to your maker they never touched ground." "Oh mister, oh mister, I'm risking my life To win money for you and your wife...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: racing horse gambling
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 4, 1878 - race between Ten Broeck and Miss Mollie McCarthy (won by Ten Broeck)
FOUND IN: US(S0)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 881, "Timbrook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 391-392, "Timbrook" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 881)
Roud #2190
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Molly and Tenbrooks" [Laws H27] (subject)
cf. "Old Timbrook Blue" (subject)
NOTES [42 words]: Although Randoph's informant, almost certainly correctly, believe this to refer to the race that also spawned "Molly and Tenbrooks," the songs appear to be distinct (though Roud lumps them, and Cohen's notes to Randolph also seem to equate them). - RBW
File: R881

Time

See No Hiding Place (File: FSWB370C)

Time Drawin' Nigh

See Judgment Day Is Comin' (File: Br3606)

Time Drawin' Nigh (I See the Sign)

See Judgment Day Is Comin' (File: Br3606)

Time Draws Near

See My Dearest Dear (File: SKE40)

Time Enouf Yet

See Time Enough Yet (File: R369)

Time Enough Yet

DESCRIPTION: The young man begs the girl to marry; she replied that there is "time enough yet." After hearing enough of this he says he will never return. She soon asks him to come back. He replies there is "time enough yet." Girls are warned not to delay marraige
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 197-198, "Time Enough Yet" (1 text plus an excerpt from 1 more)
Randolph 369, "Time Enough Yet" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 21, "Time Enouf Yet" [sic] (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 662, "Come All Ye Young Ladies" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #4264
File: R369

Time for Man Go Home

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "Time for man go home." The shantyman sings: It's night time when the crickets are "bawlin" and the agouti are out and it is the time to die. "Time for man go cover dem wife"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: sex shanty animal bug wife
FOUND IN: West Indies(St Vincent)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 117-118, "Time for Man Go Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #354
File: AWIS117

Time for Us to Leave Her

See Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her (File: Doe089)

Time Has Changed in 20 Years

See Twenty Years Ago (Forty Years Ago) (File: R869)

Time Has Come, My Dearest Dear, The

See My Dearest Dear (File: SKE40)

Time Has Made a Change In Me

DESCRIPTION: "Time has made a change since my childhood days, Many of my friends have gone away." "Time has made a change in the old home place... Time has made a change in me." The singer notes how he has aged, and looks forward to the next world when pain will end
AUTHOR: Harkins Freye
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Lomax recording, from Helena Buggs & Alfred Hamilton); probably written in the 1920s
KEYWORDS: nonballad age
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, TIMEHAS
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 35, #1 (1990), pp, 42-43, "Time Has Made a Change In Me" (1 text, 1 tune, with notes implying it was collected from tradition)
Roud #16072
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, Dennis Cook, "Time Has Made a Change in Me" (Piotr-Archive #601, recorded 06/08/2023)
File: DTtimeha

Time Is Drawing Near, Me B'ys, The

See Success to Every Man (File: RySm109)

Time Is On the Wing

DESCRIPTION: Strew with roses life's rough path, and let's be gay, Thoughtless youth proposes, And trifle time away." "Love's sweet voice will oft betray ... Ev'ry flow'r must fade away And time is on the wing"
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Diblin (1745-1815)/Music: William Reeve (source: Greig/Duncan5)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 12(109))
KEYWORDS: courting love flowers nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 931, "Strew, Strew with Roses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6747
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 12(109), "Time Is On the Wing" ("Strew, strew with roses"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Johnson Ballads 1026, Harding B 17(313b), Johnson Ballads fol. 400 View 2 of 2 [some illegible words], Firth b.26(157), Harding B 11(2590), "Time Is On the Wing"
File: GrD5391

Time o Year for Dippin Sheep, The

DESCRIPTION: At sheep-dipping time a farmer takes a minor revenge on a constable -- sent to verify that the procedure is done well -- who had crossed the farmer in the past.
AUTHOR: Buff Wilson (source: McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
LONG DESCRIPTION: It is time to dip the sheep by disinfecting them with DDT. A policeman is there to ensure it is done right. This policeman had given the singer's father a speeding ticket in the past; in the heat he says he is dry. Father says, "You're welcome tae aa ye want frae the [unlabelled] bottle by the rail" -- which turns out to be full of DDT. If you run into this policeman now "that's known as 'Dipper Jim' You can bet your last three halfpence -- there ain't no flies on him."
KEYWORDS: farming humorous nonballad sheep police drugs
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 90-91, 153, "The Time o Year for Dippin Sheep" (1 text)
Roud #21753
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Garden Where the Praties Grow" (tune, per McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
File: McSc090

Time to be Made a Wife

See The Old Maid's Song (II) (File: FJ162)

Time to Leave Her

See Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her (File: Doe089)

Time to Remember the Poor

See Remember the Poor (File: Wa161)

Time Wears Awa

DESCRIPTION: An old man recalls wooing his bride. Now time has stolen their youth. They still dream of the happy days of their youth but age brings "toil and pain" "[S]till the birds and burnies sing... [as] when we were young and free."
AUTHOR: Thomas Elliot (source: McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
KEYWORDS: age courting love marriage husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 49-50, 150, "Time Wears Awa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21760
File: McSc049

Time-an'-Tootoo

See Simon Too-Too (File: SSSiToTo)

Time's Alteration

See When This Old Hat Was New (II) (File: GrD3540)

Time's Drawing On, Love

See My Dearest Dear (File: SKE40)

TImekeeper's Lament

DESCRIPTION: "Come railroad men and comrades, come hear my tale of woe, It's of some hustling work we done, not many years ago." The singer lists many man in the camp. They build the railroad, finishing at 8:40 on October 14, 1914, and celebrate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan)
KEYWORDS: work moniker railroading
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 216-218, "Timekeeper's Lament" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 104, "Timekeeper's Lament" (1 text)
Roud #6501
File: BBun216

Times Ain't Like They Used to Be

See Careless Love (File: R793)

Times Are Altered

See Swaggering Farmers (Times Are Altered) (File: PPai002)

Times are Hard

DESCRIPTION: "Times are hard, we all do know, For tradesmen and lab'rers and farmers too, But without money we can't find a friend, But we'll trust in him for the times to men." Poor people should not feel alone; "there's thousands more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (collected by H. E. Piggott from "Mrs. Paul")
KEYWORDS: hardtimes poverty worker nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 36, "Times Are Hard" (1 text)
Roud #2697
File: Gund036B

Times Gettin' Hard

DESCRIPTION: "Times gettin' hard, boys, Money's gettin' scarce. If times don't get much better, boys, I'm bound to leave this place." "Take my true love by the hand, lead her through the town...." The singer prepares to depart for (California?) where times are better
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag; recording by Jaybird Coleman) -- but see NOTES for a probable instance from 1850
KEYWORDS: hardtimes poverty exile
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 242, "Times Gettin Hard, Boys" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 117, "Times Are Getting Hard" (1 text)
Roud #15620
RECORDINGS:
Jaybird Coleman, "Times Gettin' Hard -- Work's Been Gettin' Scarce" (Gennett, unissued; rec. 1927)
Pete Seeger, "Time's A-getting Hard" (on PeteSeeger06, PeteSeegerCD01) (on PeteSeeger26)
Wiggins Bros., "Times Am Gittin' Hard" (Brunswick 260, 1928)
NOTES [211 words]: Although there don't seem to be any printed or recorded versions of this prior to 1927, Greg Leatherwood pointed out to us a North Carolina account book by Seth Squires, copied 1850-1858+1861, which has some words of the song in the margin of an 1850 entry (p. 47). This text, a "speech bubble" placed in the mouth of a cartoon figure, reads something like this (the transcription is Leatherwood's, but I have no reason to disagree with it):
Times is getting hard
And money is getting scarce
If times does not alter
I am going to leave this place
Tol lol diddle I do. Yes Sah!
How you sell dat [illegible] de nine pence [illegible] Sah.
Leatherwood observes, "The last couple of lines suggest that the song may have been part of a minstrel show script as the lines consciously imitate black dialect." I agree, though I haven't encountered the text elsewhere.
Marginal entries are sometimes entered long after the fact, so I can't list this as the Earliest Date, but odds are very high that this was in existence by 1850.
The Squires manuscript is now in the the University of North Carolina's Southern Historical Collection at the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library. It is available on microfilm; the microfilm gives the accession number as #3747. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: San242

Times Gettin' Hard, Boys

See Times Gettin Hard (File: San242)

TImes Is Hard

See Please, Don't Burn Our Shithouse Down (File: EM109)

Times They Are A-Changin', The

DESCRIPTION: "Come gather 'round people wherever you roam...." All are under threat; people will need to do things they have not done before, For the times, they are a-changing." Politicians, writers, parents are warned
AUTHOR: Bob Dylan
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Bob Dylan album of the same title); thought to have been written in 1963
KEYWORDS: warning nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 550, "The Times They Are A-Changin!" (notes only)
DT, TIMECHAN
File: ACSF550T

Tin Gee-Gee, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come along to the Lowther/Leather/Queen's Arcade, The source of childhood's joys." "And as I passed a certain stall, said a wee little voice... O, I am a Colonel in a little cocked hat, and I ride on a tin Gee Gee." Telling the tin soldier's adventures
AUTHOR: Fred Cape (source: sheet music by T.B. Harms & Co. saying it was "Sung by Josephine Hall in 'Mam'selle 'Awkins'")
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: commerce soldier | toys
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 91, "Come along to the Queen's Arcade" (1 text)
Roud #18886
File: KSUC091A

Tin Swankey Pot, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I am a sailor that plows the salt sea As quickly I'll show unto your; My home is whaler a-cruising for grease...." He used to work on land, and still remembers home fondly. The sailors enjoy eating and drinking from their tin swankey pots
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Journal of the Andrew Hicks)
KEYWORDS: whaler travel home food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 43-44, "The Tin Swankey Pot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27536
File: HGam043

Tina Singu

DESCRIPTION: "Tina singu leluva taeo, O watsha watsha watsha" (repeat). Or "Tina, singu, leluvutaeo, Watcha, watcha, watcha." Rest of song may be filled out with "la la la la....." Supposedly translates as "We are filled with the fire of life."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (ChansonsDeNotreChalet)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 148, 314, "Tinga Singu" (notes only)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 39, "Tina Singu" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Tina Singu" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 19)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 12, "Tina Singu" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [132 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs insists on calling this "Tinga Singu," and given that it's nonsense to an English speaker anyway, I can't say she's "wrong," but every other source seems to call it "Tina Singu," or just "Tina." Given that it was recorded by The Weavers and by Pete Seeger, that's about as standardized as a title can get. What's more, ChansonsDeNotreChalet reports that "Tina" is the word for "we" (presumably in Sotho, the Southern Bantu language of what is now Lesotho, but ChansonsDeNotreChalet doesn't specify that).
Joe Hickerson apparently reported that it comes from Basutoland; this is also the attribution in ChansonsDeNotreChalet and 33MuchLovedSongs. Unlike most non-English folk songs used in camps, this one seems to have kept more or less its original pronunciation. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF148T

Ting, Ting the Bell Rang

See Lingle Lingle Lang Tang (Our Cat's Dead) (File: MSNR041)

Ting, Ting the Bell Rang, Fa's Noo Deid?

See Lingle Lingle Lang Tang (Our Cat's Dead) (File: MSNR041)

Tinga Singu

See Tina Singu (File: ACSF148T)

Tinker Behind the Door, The

See The Beverly Maid and the Tinker (The Tinker Behind the Door) (File: Pea318)

Tinker Loon, The

See Davy Faa (Remember the Barley Straw) (File: K188)

Tinker Man

See Jolly Old Roger (File: R496)

Tinker, Tailor

See The Old Maid's Song (File: R364)

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor

See Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief (File: Newe042)

Tinker, The

DESCRIPTION: The lady of the manor sends for the jolly tinker, who services her, her staff (including the butler) and then rides off, "little drops of semen pitter-patting at his feet."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: adultery bawdy Gypsy lover sex tinker
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England,Scotland) US(MA,MW,So,SW) Canada
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 29-36, "The Tinker" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 113-117, "The Jolly Tinker" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 59, "Bold Blackamoor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 182-183, "The Jolly Tinker" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JOLITINK JOLLTNK3
Roud #863
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jolly Beggar" [Child 279]
cf. "Clout the Cauldron"
cf. "The Jolly Tinker (I)"
cf. "The Jolly Tinker (III)"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Highland Tinker
The Jolly Tinker
NOTES [35 words]: Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms provides a detailed history of this ballad. - EC
This song can be told from "The Jolly Tinker (III)" by its description of the tinker's, um, improbable physical attributes. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: EM029

Tinker's Courtship

See The Beverly Maid and the Tinker (The Tinker Behind the Door) (File: Pea318)

Tinker's Waddin

See The Tinkler's Waddin (The Tinker's Wedding) (File: RcTTWttw)

Tinker's Wedding, The

See The Tinkler's Waddin (The Tinker's Wedding) (File: RcTTWttw)

Tinkler's Waddin, The (The Tinker's Wedding)

DESCRIPTION: Amid drink and celebration, bridegroom Norman Scott is wed for the fourth time (no mention of divorce or widowerhood), to fortune-teller Meg McNeil; a cheerful brawl ensues
AUTHOR: William Watt
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford); reportedly published 1835
KEYWORDS: marriage wedding fight drink party humorous tinker Gypsy brawl
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 1-4, "The Tinkler's Waddin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #102, pp. 1-2, "The Tinkler's Waddin'" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 609, "The Tinkers' Weddin'" (1 text fragment, 2 tunes)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 52-53, 150, "Tinker's Waddin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5408
RECORDINGS:
Willie Kemp and Curly MacKay, "The Tinklers' Wedding" (on Voice13)
Jimmy Scott, "The Tinker's Weddin'" (on Borders1)
John Strachan, "The Tinkler's Waddin" (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.27(397/398), "The Tinkler's Wedding" ("In June when broom in bloom was seen"), unknown, n.d.
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(141b), "The Tinker's Wedding," unknown, c. 1840-1860; also L.C.Fol.70(141)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rothesay-O" (tune)
NOTES [133 words]: The work "tinker" in Britain is applied both to workers in tin (i.e., menders of pots and kettles) and "travellers," or Gypsies. In many songs, including this, it's ambiguous which is meant -- but since many or most of the travelling tinkers *were* Gypsies, it barely matters. - PJS
According to Kennedy, William Watt was born in 1792, and also wrote "Kate Dalrymple," as well as a version of "The Peddlar." The tune used is reportedly identical to "Rothesay-O," though it is not entirely clear which came first. - RBW
Greig/Duncan3: "Greig gives the text [which Greig/Duncan3 does not include] in Ob. [i.e., Greig] as it appears in Ford." Greig #102 commentary does not say that and there are minor spelling and punctuation differences between Greig #102 and Ford (at least in Ford's 1899 series). - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: RcTTWttw

Tinna Clinnama Clinchama Clingo

See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Tinnaberna Fishermen (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Tinnaberna fishermen out at nightfall November 14, 1815 are overtaken by a squall blowing them northwest. They can see "Poulder fading fastly from our view," the lighthouse at Tuskar, and the warning "bonfire on the hill" but cannot return to shore.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck fishing
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 1815 - Six of seven fishing boats were lost with their crews when they were blown across the channel to the Welsh coast (source: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 42-43, "The Tinnaberna Fishermen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #20521
File: Ran042

Tinnaberna Fishermen (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "On the dark rocks of Wales our poor neighbors were lost ... Those tender-hearted Welshmen, we for them will ever pray That God may grant them pardon against their dying day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck fishing
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 1815 - Six of seven fishing boats were lost with their crews when they were blown across the channel to the Welsh coast (source: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 43-44, "The Tinnaberna Fishermen" (1 text)
File: Ran043

Tinnego

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "Tee-ay-ay Tinnego." The shantyman sings: Hold on. Let's go to Walabo. It's time for us to go to Walabo. "Deacon Duncan Tinnego."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: West Indies(St Vincent)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 88-89, "Tinnego" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [50 words]: Abrahams says "Tinnego" and "Jane and Louisa" seem to be the most popular of St Vincent ring games among the blackfish whalers. For other examples of West Indies ring games see "There's a Brown Girl in the Ring" and "Go Down Emmanuel Road"
"Walabo" is Wallilabou Bay on the west coast of St Vincent. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS088

Tiny Drops of Dew

See Little Drop of Dew (File: ACSF196L)

Tiny Tim

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

Tip for Gold and Tip for Silver

See Salmon Fishers (File: MSNR078)

Tippecanoe

DESCRIPTION: "A bumper around now, my hearties, I'll sing you a song that is new; I'll please to the buttons all parties And sing of Old Tippecanoe." The singer details the history of Tippecanoe, and declares, "Bid Martin Van Buren adieu."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (Tippecanoe Song-Book)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 2, 1840 - William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren
Mar 4, 1841 - Harrison (the first Whig to be elected President) is inaugurated. He gives a rambling inaugural address in a rainstorm and catches cold
April 4, 1841 - Harrison dies of pneumonia, making him the first president to fail to complete his term. After some hesitation, Vice President John Tyler is allowed to succeed as President
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 397, "Tippecanoe" (1 text)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 70-72, "Old Tippecanoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p. 26, "Old Tippecanoe" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #6950
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosin the Beau" (tune) and references there
cf. "Old Tippecanoe (I)" (subject of the Harrison/van Buren election) and references there
NOTES [28 words]: For details on the (thoroughly dirty) 1840 Presidential campaign, and the purely false picture it drew of William Henry Harrison, see the notes to "Old Tippecanoe." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Be3397

Tipperary (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Way out in old South Dakota... Once roamed the greatest of outlaws... His name was old Tipperary, Tipperary of rodeo fame, The greatest of all the bronc riders Will never forget that great name." The horse's methods of throwing riders are recounted
AUTHOR: Tex Fletcher
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 ("Hoofs and Horns")
KEYWORDS: horse cowboy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 68, "Tipperary" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [33 words]: According to Ohrlin, Tipperary was a great rodeo horse of the period following the First World War. Only one rider is recorded as having stayed on his back, and even that feat has been questioned. - RBW
File: Ohr068

Tipperary (II)

See It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary (File: DTtiprar)

Tipperary Christening, The

DESCRIPTION: Dennis is christened in Tipperary. Everyone is there. "After dancing, they went in to lunching ... They had all kinds of tea ... and everything that would please." After dinner there was speaking, match making... "they wished the next would be twins"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: childbirth dancing food party moniker twins
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 15, "The Tipperary Christening" (1 text)
Roud #25272
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3840), "The Tipperary Christening", unknown, n.d.
File: OCon015

Tipperary Far Away

DESCRIPTION: A rebel, Sean Treacy, is dying by moonlight on Talbot Street in Dublin. He asks a passing comrade to take a lock of his hair and take it to his mother in his "native home In Tipperary far away." His comrades bury him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (IRClancyMakem03)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion death Ireland IRA hair
FOUND IN: Ireland
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Tipperary Far Away" (on IRClancyMakem03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sean Treacy" (subject: the death of Treacy)
cf. "The Station of Knocklong" (for other activities of Treacy)
NOTES [122 words]: According to Phoenix Publishing Short History of the 3rd Tipperary Brigade on the eircom site, this song refers to Sean Treacy, shot October 14, 1920 in Talbot Street, Dublin. Treacy's body was returned to Tipperary for burial at Kilfeacle. Treacy was a member of the Third Tipperary Brigade. - BS
Perhaps the most popular of at least two and possibly three Sean Treacy songs. Robert Kee, in Ourselves Alone, being volume III of The Green Flag, p. 116, quotes another, "Our lovely Sean is dead and gone, Shot down in Talbot Street." This is said to have been adapted from an "ancient Irish lament." He does not cite a source for this statement.
For more on Treacy's short, tumultuous career, see the notes to "Sean Treacy." - RBW
File: RcTipFaA

Tipperary Recruiting Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis now we'd want to be wary, boys, The recruiters are out in Tipperary, boys...." The Irish youths are advised to avoid the British sergeants and the free drinks they offer. They are reminded of all the harm John Bull has done in the past
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster)
KEYWORDS: Ireland recruiting drink soldier
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, p. 88, "Tipperary Recruiting Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 109, "Tipperary Recruiting Song" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 299-300, "Tipperary Recruiting Song" (1 text)
NOTES [58 words]: It is not immediately evident what time period this song refers to. The British desperation for soldiers might seem to imply World War I -- but in 1916 Britain instituted the draft (in England; it took a little longer in Ireland); the recruiting sergeant was a thing of the past. So an earlier period is indicated. Besides, the song is older. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: PGa088

Tipperty's Jean

DESCRIPTION: "In a wee thacket hoosie, far doon i' the glen, There lived a young lassie, the plague o' the men." Tipperty Jean's beauty has ensnared many, but she rejects them all -- even the Laird as too old. She has enough money to live, and so marries Puir Johnnie
AUTHOR: Peter Buchan ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Buchan, Legends of the North)
KEYWORDS: love courting money rejection marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #173, pp. 1-2, "Tipperty's Jean" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 283-284, "Tipperty's Jean" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter Buchan, _Legends of the North: The Guidman Oʹ Inglismill and The Fairy Bride_, Edmonston and Douglas, 1873 (available on Google Books), pp. 41-43, "(no title)" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #5602
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Laird o Cockpen" (tune) and references there
NOTES [13 words]: Thanks to Alan Snyder for pointing out the Legends of the North reference. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Ord283

Tira Tomba

See Tiritomba (File: ACSF130T)

Tiranti, My Love

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Tired o' Workin'

DESCRIPTION: "'Mang the noise o' wheels in motion, In a dark unhealthy den... Clouds o' dust eternal reign." There is no chance for a change; "I am getting tired o' workin', But to lose my job I'm feared." Workers cannot argue their case lest they be fired
AUTHOR: Words: David Carnegie? (see Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (Carnegie's "Lays and Lyrics from the Factory," according to Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: worker hardtimes technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 39, "Tired o' Workin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21587
File: Gath039

Tired o' Workin' Lyauvie's Braes

DESCRIPTION: "Tired o' workin Lyauvie's braes, An' tired o' gaun to Imphm's toon, I'll gang back to Peterhead, An' there I'll get my penny fun'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes farming worker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 350, "Tired o' Workin' Lyauvie's Braes" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #5900
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3350

Tired Soldier, The

DESCRIPTION: "The tired soldier, bold and brave, now rests his weary feet, And to the shelter of the grave He made a safe retreat." "He's quartered in the arms of death, He'll never, never march again." He left home as a boy. His comrades and love gather at the grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Nestler)
KEYWORDS: soldier death love burial
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 98-99, "The Tired Soldier" (1 text)
Roud #13827
ALTERNATE TITLES:
He'll Never March Again
File: Nest100

Tiree Tragedy, A

See Mo Nighean donn a Cornaig (File: K019)

Tiritomba

DESCRIPTION: Italian song made into English: "When the mountain top through purple mist is glowing... Then must I be on my way." "Tiritomba, Tiritomba, All the world is calling, Calling to me so." The singer prepares to travel
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Sanders-SingHighSingLow)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage travel campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 130, 332, 467, "Tiritomba" (notes only)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, pp. 44-45, "Tiritomba" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 68, "Tiritomba" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Tiritomba" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 46)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _Songs of Many Nations_, Cooperative Recreation Service, Inc., undated 96 page edition (1962?), p. 46, "Tiritomba" (1 text, 1 tune)
SAME TUNE:
Comrade Song/Tiritomba (words by Fannie R. Buchanan) ("When the lark to greet the sun is gaily winging") (National-4HClubSongBook, p. 39)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Tira Tomba
NOTES [56 words]: Internet sources claim this is from the eighteenth century. It seems to have been fairly popular in Italian, inspiring the English translation. Apparently there was a version in some edition of The Fireside Book of Folk Songs, but not the edition I have. Sanders-SingHighSingLow had it from "Song and Chorus Book, Concord Series #16."- RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF130T

Tirmanagh Hill

DESCRIPTION: The singer excuses his rhyme -- "education I do not claim it" -- but has long promised himself to write about the wonderful hunting, shooting, dancing, and shady groves for courting, around Tirmanagh Hill. Now he must leave and finally writes this song.
AUTHOR: Frank Comber (source: IROConway01)
EARLIEST DATE: 2012 (IROConway01)
KEYWORDS: home separation pride courting fishing hunting dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #25066
RECORDINGS:
Ollie Conway, "Tiermana Hill" (on IROConway01)
File: RcTirmHi

'Tis a Famous Story, Proclaim It Far and Wide

See The Famous Light Brigade (File: Doe276)

'Tis a Frantic, Most Romantic, Silly Sort of Thing

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis a frantic, most romantic, silly sort of thing, That a royal King, to the man who found the ring, Should give his daughter, and no matter, be he good or bad, Should think that the daughter really oughter say that she was glad"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood_
KEYWORDS: royalty ring children
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 159, "'Tis a frantic, most romantic, silly sort of thing" (1 text)
Roud #25549
NOTES [8 words]: An incompetent poet meets "King Lear," perhaps? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC157B

'Tis a Wonder

DESCRIPTION: "No heart can think, no tongue can tell, 'Tis a wonder, a wonder, a wonder, That Christ did save one soul from hell..." (with various repetitions)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 211, "'Tis a Wonder" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #3664
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "What Will It Be to Dwell Above" (by Joseph Swain) (lyrics)
File: ShAp211

'Tis Me

See Standing in the Need of Prayer (File: FSWB350A)

'Tis Me, O Lord

See Standing in the Need of Prayer (File: FSWB350A)

'Tis Midnight on the Stormy Deep

See Midnight on the Stormy Deep (File: RcMotSD)

'Tis Not Always the Bullet that Kills

DESCRIPTION: "Please, dear Uncle, now tell me why you're sighing." The boy wonders why, if he survived the war, he is always sad. The boy's mother says that she loved the uncle, but married her sweetheart's brother when she thought the uncle dead. Both regret this
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love soldier betrayal war family
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 815, "'Tis Not Always the Bullet that Kills" (1 text)
Roud #7431
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Two Little Girls in Blue" (plot)
File: R815

Tis Now, Young Man, Give Me Attention

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains of his sad life. He courts and marries a girl. After seven years, he finds her untrue, but cannot gain a divorce because he can't prove her infidelity. He wishes to sail away, but hates to live his little girl (?). He dies at sea
AUTHOR: Napoleon Stetson?
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: marriage betrayal sailor death ring
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 312, "'Tis Now, Young Man, Give Me Attention" (1 text)
Roud #6648
File: BrII312

Tis the Gift To Be Simple

See Simple Gifts (File: DarN259A)

'Tis the Last Rose of Summer

See The Last Rose of Summer (File: DTlastro)

Tis the Ole Ship of Zion (Ole Ship of Zion)

See The Ship of Zion (I, II, etc.) (File: FSC083)

Tis Well and Good I Come Here Tonight

DESCRIPTION: "Tis well and good I come here tonight... For to do my Master's will." "Brother... show me the way... The way to the Promised Land."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 130, ("Tis well and good I come here tonight") (1 text)
NOTES [15 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parp130a

Tit for Tat

See The Sailor's Frolic (Tit for Tat) (File: PaSe055)

Tit for Tat, Butter for Fat (Wheel of Fortune)

DESCRIPTION: Game in which players try to pick a particular number from a "wheel of fortune": "TIt for tat Butter for fat, If you kill my dog I'll kill your cat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad food animal
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #85, "Wheel of Fortune" (1 text)
File: Newe085

Tit, Tat, Toe

See Rick Rick Toe (File: SuSm150A)

Titanic (I), The ("It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down") [Laws D24] (Titanic #1)

DESCRIPTION: (Though the builders called her unsinkable), "On Monday morning... the great Titanic began to reel and rock." Rich and poor will not mix, so the poor on the lower decks drown first. The band plays "Nearer My God to Thee" and sixteen hundred people die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Ernest V. Stoneman)
KEYWORDS: sea wreck family disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 14/15, 1912 - Shortly before midnight, ship's time, the Titanic strikes an iceberg and begins to sink. Only 711 survivors are found of 2224 people believed to have been aboard.
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Laws D24, "The Titanic I"
Randolph 693, "The Great Titanic" ("B" fragment only; Randolph's "A" text is "The Titanic (IV)" ("Lost on the Great Titanic") (Titanic #4))
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 287, "The Titanic" (5 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 2 more. The Laws data for this book is badly confused, but it appears the "C" and "D" texts are this song, and apparently the "E" fragment also; "A" and "B" are broadsides Laws does not classify (The first clearly based on "The Golden Vanity"; the second seems to be an adaption of this song to "There Will Be a Hot Time"), and "H" is "God Moves on the Water")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 287, "The TItanic" (4 excerpts, 4 tunes, with "B" being presumably the same as Brown's "B" broadsiide, ""D" and "E" being "Titanic (I) 'It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down'," and "H" being "God Moves on the Water" ("Titanic (III)")
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 88-89, "The Great Titanic" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 10-11, "The Disaster of the Great Titanic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 323, "The Titanic" (1 text+2 fragments)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 60 "When That Great Ship Went Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 723, "The Ship Titanic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 77, "(The Titanic)" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 280-281, "The Titanic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 184-185, "The Coast of Peru" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 55, "The Titanic" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 123, "(It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down)" (1 mention, from user nohrt4me2, posted September 28, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 237, 240, 241, 242, 288, 289, 290, 311, "Titanic" (notes only)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Jay Mechling, "Magic of the Boy Scout Campfire," Volume 93, Number 367 (Jan-Mar 1980), p. 47, "Titanic" (1 excerpt with description of scouting parody)
DT 616, TITANIC5*
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 403-404, "Wasn't It Sad When That Great Ship Went Down" (1 text)
Roud #774
RECORDINGS:
Pink Anderson, "The Titanic" (on PinkAnd1, Class AfrAm)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Great Titanic" (Champion 15121, 1926) (Radiex 4131=Grey Gull 4131 [as Jeff Calhoun], 1927)
George Reneau, "The Sinking of the Titanic" (Vocalion 5077, 1926)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "The Titanic" (OKeh 40288, 1925; rec. 1924); "Sinking of the Titanic" (Edison 51823, 1926) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5200, 1926); "Sinking of the Titanic" (on Stonemans02)
William & Versey Smith, "When That Great Ship Went Down" (Paramount 12505B, 1927; on AAFM1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. all the other Titanic songs (plot)
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune)
cf. "Grave Sinking Down" (form)
NOTES [517 words]: Despite this song (and other folklore), the band on the Titanic did NOT play "Nearer My God to Thee" as the ship sank. Instead, they played light music to prevent panic.
The reference to rich and poor not mixing is accurate enough, though hardly unique to the Titanic. As with most liners of the time, the Titanic carried three classes of passengers: First class, second class, and steerage, for the poorest people (mostly emigrants, and mostly jammed in their cabins as tight as sardines)
Steerage passengers, of course, were stuck far down in the ship. Ballad, p. 168, has a side view of the ship's plans, showing that many of the steerage passengers were four floors below the main deck, near the waterline, whereas the first class passengers were mostly above the main deck, with easy access to the lifeboats.
It showed in the casualties. According to Paine, 60% of the first class passengers survived (Ballard, p. 149, reports that every child in first class, save one, survived, and she died only because she wouldn't leave her mother, who wouldn't leave her husband). 42% of second class passengers survived, but only 25% of steerage (comparable to the 24% of the crew who survived).
Some versions of this, including Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads's, have a reference to Paul's promise that "not a man should drown"; this is a reference to Acts 27:34, when Paul is on his way to Rome and the ship in which he is being held prisoner is driven by a storm. Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads wonders if there might not be an earlier song about Paul's wreck which gave rise to a Titanic text. It seems likely enough, and the verse about Paul is a likely survival, since it is almost irrelevant in its current place in the text.
In fact, we might even make a guess as to the source of the verse. Most recordings of this song use an approximation of Ernest Stoneman's tune. But Wade Mainer eventually recorded a version (not cited here because I don't know the album number) which uses a tune effectively identical to the one he uses for "Home in the Rock." So that could be a source for scripture references.
To tell this from the other Titanic songs, consider the chorus:
It was sad when that great ship went down,
It was sad when that great ship went down.
There were husbands and wives,
Little children lost their lives,
It was sad when that great ship went down.
For an extensive history of the Titanic, with detailed examination of the truth (or lack thereof) of quotes in the Titanic songs, see the notes to "The Titanic (XV)" ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15)
In an interesting footnote, the Ernest Stoneman version of this almost didn't get released, according to Mazor, pp. 58-59. Stoneman had recorded two songs for OKeh, and Ralph Peer and Co. decided that the two cuts were too fast for popular release. They told Stoneman, and he offered to come to the studio at his own expense and re-record them, as long as he got to record two more sides. Peer and Stoneman made the agreement, and "The Titanic" was one of the songs released as a result. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: LD24

Titanic (II), The ("The Titanic, Out on that Ocean") (Titanic #2)

DESCRIPTION: "The rich folks 'cided to take a trip On the finest ship was ever built. The cap'n persuaded these people to think This Titanic too safe to sink. Cho: Out on that ocean, The great wide ocean, The Titanic, out on that ocean, sinking down!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck family disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 14/15, 1912 - Shortly before midnight, ship's time, the Titanic strikes an iceberg and begins to sink. Only 711 survivors are found of 2224 people believed to have been aboard.
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 254-255, "De Titanic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4172
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. all the other Titanic songs (plot)
NOTES [73 words]: Despite this song (and other folklore), the band on the Titanic did NOT play "Nearer My God to Thee" as the ship sank. Instead, they played light music to prevent panic.
This song is item dI26 in Laws's Appendix II.
For an extensive history of the Titanic, with detailed examination of the truth (or lack thereof) of quotes in the Titanic songs, see the notes to "The Titanic (XV)" ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15) - RBW
File: San254

Titanic (III), The ("God Moves on the Water") (Titanic #3)

DESCRIPTION: The story of the Titanic. The women have to watch their husbands drown. Captain Smith awakens to gunshots. Millionaire Jacob Nash cannot pay his fare (to survive). Chorus: "God moves on the water (x3) And the people had to run and pray.
AUTHOR: Blind Willie Johnson (1902-1950)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Blind Willie Johnson)
KEYWORDS: death ship wreck disaster religious
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 14/15, 1912 - Shortly before midnight, ship's time, the Titanic strikes an iceberg and begins to sink. Only 711 survivors are found of 2224 people believed to have been aboard.
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 26-27, "God Moves on the Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 76-77, "(God Moves on the Water)" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 287, "The Titanic" (5 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 2 more. The Laws data for this book is badly confused, but the "H" text is this song; "C" and "D" are "The Titanic (I)," and apparently the "E" fragment also; "A" and "B" are broadsides Laws does not classify (The first clearly based on "The Golden Vanity"; the second seems to be an adaption of this song to "There Will Be a Hot Time"))
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 287, "The TItanic" (4 exceprts, 4 tunes, with "B" being presumably the same as Brown's "B" broadsiide, ""D" and "E" being "Titanic (I) 'It Was Sad When THat Great Ship Went Down'," and "H" being "God Moves on the Water")
DT, TITANIC4*
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 403, "God Move on the Water" (1 text)
Roud #4173
RECORDINGS:
Blind Willie Johnson, "God Moves on the Water" (Columbia 14520-D, 1930; rec. 1929; on BWJ02, CGospel1)
Bessie Jones et al, "The Titanic" (on LomaxCD1700, LomaxCD1708)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. all the other Titanic songs (plot)
cf. "Miami Hairikin" (form, lyrics)
NOTES [243 words]: This song is item dI27 in Laws's Appendix II. It should probably be given a proper entry, though; it seems to be the most popular of the Titanic songs except for "The Titanic (I) ('It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down')" [Laws D24].
The statement 'God moves on the water" is probably an allusion to Genesis 1:2, where "the spirit of God moved on the face of the water" ("ocean" or "abyss" might be a better translation there, but of course what matters is what the King James Bible says).
Lyle Lofgren makes the interesting observation that the oldest known version, Blind Willie Johnson's, does not actually use the phrase "God moves on the water." He lets the guitar play the phrase "on the water." Lyle speculates that that there may have been an older gospel song which would have let listeners know the missing phrase. This seems not impossible (perhaps "Wade in the Water" -- there are some similarities in the tunes I have heard). But the other possibility he suggests is that the song was already well known in 1929, so Johnson didn't need to sing the words. And, indeed, the Lomaxes report collecting it in 1933.
For an extensive history of the Titanic, with detailed examination of the truth (or lack thereof) of quotes in the Titanic songs, see the notes to "The Titanic (XV)" ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15)
The "Jacob Nash" mentioned in the Lomax version and others is almost certainly an error for John Jacob Astor. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: CNFM076

Titanic (IV), The ("Lost on the Great Titanic") (Titanic #4)

DESCRIPTION: The Titanic is only a few hours' sailing from shore when it strikes an iceberg and sinks. Both rich and poor are lost with the ship. Husbands gallantly stand aside to let their wives be saved. The band plays "Nearer my God to Thee" as she goes down
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck family disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 14/15, 1912 - Shortly before midnight, ship's time, the Titanic strikes an iceberg and begins to sink. Only 711 survivors are found of 2224 people believed to have been aboard.
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 693, "The Great Titanic" ("A" text only; Randolph's "B" text is "The Titanic I")
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, p. 104, "The Titanic" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TITANIC2*
Roud #3526
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. all the other Titanic songs (plot)
cf. "Lost on the Lady Elgin" (tune)
NOTES [123 words]: This song is dD40 in Laws's Appendix I.
Despite this song (and other folklore), the band on the Titanic did NOT play "Nearer My God to Thee" as the ship sank. Instead, they played light music to prevent panic.
To tell this from the other Titanic songs, consider these stanzas:
The great Titanic went sailing
Ninety-eight miles from shore,
It suddenly struck an iceberg
And sank forevermore.
Lost, lost on the great Titanic,
Sinking to rise no more,
A number of sixteen hundred
Had failed to reach the shore.
For an extensive history of the Titanic, with detailed examination of the truth (or lack thereof) of quotes in the Titanic songs, see the notes to "The Titanic (XV)" ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15) - RBW
File: R693A

Titanic (IX), The (Sinking of the Titanic)

See Sinking of the Titanic (Titanic #9) (File: RcTitaIX)

Titanic (V), The (Many Hearts Surrendered to the Shipwreck) (Titanic #5)

DESCRIPTION: "The Titanic left Southhampton With all its sports and gang, When they struck the iceberg, I know their mind was changed." The story of the wreck is briefly told, with a mention of John Jacob Astor, who is credited with trying to save the women
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: sea wreck family disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 14/15, 1912 - Shortly before midnight, ship's time, the Titanic strikes an iceberg and begins to sink. Only 711 survivors are found of 2224 people believed to have been aboard.
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 120, "The Titanic" (1 text)
ST GC120 (Partial)
Roud #3525
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. all the other Titanic songs (plot)
NOTES [180 words]: Perhaps best recognized by the chorus:
Many hearts surrendered to the shipwreck;
On the sea many hearts surrendered,
Crying "Nearer My God to Thee."
This even though, as we've said in the notes to all the other Titanic songs, the band did not play "Nearer My God to Thee"; it played light music to prevent panic.
John Jacob Astor (1864-1912) did indeed die on the Titanic, though I don't know of any evidence that he was the prime mover in saving women and children. In fact, the only report I know of about his behavior while aboard was that, when the lifeboats were being loaded with women and children, he tried to make his way aboard the lifeboat holding his (trophy) wife. He had to be ordered back by the crew.
This is item dD41 in Laws's Appendix II. Roud lumps this with The Titanic (VI), but I don't see any common elements except the boat.
For an extensive history of the Titanic, with detailed examination of the truth (or lack thereof) of quotes in the Titanic songs, see the notes to "The Titanic (XV)" ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15) - RBW
File: GC120

Titanic (VI), The ("Cold and Icy Sea") (Titanic #6)

DESCRIPTION: The Titanic sets out from Liverpool and sinks in the cold waters off Newfoundland. The ballad notes how both rich and poor, upper and lower classes, were lost in the disaster
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 14/15, 1912 - Shortly before midnight, ship's time, the Titanic strikes an iceberg and begins to sink. Only 711 survivors are found of 2224 people believed to have been aboard.
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, p. 103, "The Titanic" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TITANIC1*
Roud #3525
RECORDINGS:
Almeda Riddle, "The Titanic" (on LomaxCD1707)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. all the other Titanic songs (plot)
NOTES [81 words]: Despite this song (and other folklore), the band on the Titanic did NOT play "Nearer My God to Thee" as the ship sank. Instead, they played light music to prevent panic.
Roud lumps this with The Titanic (V), but I don't see any common elements except the boat.
For an extensive history of the Titanic, with detailed examination of the truth (or lack thereof) of quotes in the Titanic songs, see the notes to "The Titanic (XV)" ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15) - RBW
File: MN2103

Titanic (VII), The ("As the Moon Rose in Glory/Gone to Rest/The Watchman") (Titanic #7)

DESCRIPTION: "As the moon rose in glory... She told her sad, sad story / Sixteen hundred had gone to rest." A watchman dreams of the Titanic's fate, but cannot get anyone to save the ship or even their families. The widows and orphans are left mourning
AUTHOR: Seth Newton Mize
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Darby & Tarlton)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck family disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 14/15, 1912 - Shortly before midnight, ship's time, the Titanic strikes an iceberg and begins to sink. Only 711 survivors are found of 2224 people believed to have been aboard.
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 35, pp. 62-64, "The TItanic (As The Moon Rose in Glory") (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, p. 105, "The Titanic" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TITANIC3*
Roud #4779
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "The Titanic" (Acme 1000-B, mid-1950s)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Titanic" (on NLCR14, NLCRCD2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. all the other Titanic songs (plot)
NOTES [94 words]: Despite this song (and other folklore), the band on the Titanic did NOT play "Nearer My God to Thee" as the ship sank. Instead, they played light music to prevent panic.
Characteristic of this song is the mention of plans to "raise the Titanic someday. There have been many suggestions to do this, including a movie. For discussion of this, plus an extensive history of the Titanic with detailed examination of the truth (or lack thereof) of quotes in the Titanic songs, see the notes to "The Titanic (XV)" ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15) - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: MN2105

Titanic (VIII), The ("Fare Thee Well, Titanic, Fare Thee Well") (Titanic #8)

DESCRIPTION: "It was midnight on the sea, The band was playing 'Nearer, My God, to Thee"; Fare thee well, Titanic, fare thee well." The Titanic hits an iceberg; women and children survive; men die. Jack Johnson survives because he is refused passage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949
KEYWORDS: death ship wreck disaster religious Black(s)
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 14/15, 1912 - Shortly before midnight, ship's time, the Titanic strikes an iceberg and begins to sink. Only 711 survivors are found of 2224 people believed to have been aboard.
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 77-78, (no title) (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 26, "Titanic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 404-405, "Fare Thee Well, Titanic" (1 text)
Roud #11693
RECORDINGS:
Art Thieme, "Faretheewell Titanic" (on Thieme01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. all the other Titanic songs (plot)
NOTES [93 words]: Despite this song (and other folklore), the band on the Titanic did NOT play "Nearer My God to Thee" as the ship sank. Instead, they played light music to prevent panic.
This particular version, known and sung by Lead Belly, is based on the story of Black boxer Jack Johnson, who was refused passage on the Titanic due to his color.
For an extensive history of the Titanic, with detailed examination of the truth (or lack thereof) of quotes in the Titanic songs, see the notes to "The Titanic (XV)" ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15) - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: CNFM077

Titanic (X), The ("Down With the Old Canoe") (Titanic #10)

DESCRIPTION: The Titanic sets sail, but sinks. The singers then draw morals, including that the hand of Man is no match for God Chorus: "Sailing out to win her fame, the Titanic was her name... Many passengers and her crew went down with that old canoe"
AUTHOR: Dorsey Dixon
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Dixon Brothers)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The Titanic sets sail amid gaiety and laughter, but sinks. The singers then draw morals, including that the hand of Man is no match for God, and that one should obey the commands of Jesus. Chorus: "Sailing out to winter pain, the Titanic was her name/When she had sailed 500 miles from shore/Many passengers and her crew went down with that old canoe/They all went down to never ride no more"
KEYWORDS: pride death ship party disaster wreck religious Jesus
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 14/15, 1912 - Shortly before midnight, ship's time, the Titanic strikes an iceberg and begins to sink. Only 711 survivors are found of 2224 people believed to have been aboard.
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, pp. 55-56, "Down With the Old Canoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Steven Biel, _A Cultural History of the Titanic Disaster_, 1996, pp. 98-99 (in the Norton edition), "Down with the Old Canoe" (1 text)
ST RcTDWtOC (Full)
RECORDINGS:
Dixon Brothers, "Down With the Old Canoe" (Bluebird B-7449, 1938; on Dixons01, Dixons04)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. all the other Titanic songs (plot)
NOTES [204 words]: This can be distinguished from the other Titanic songs by the presence of the phrase, "Down with the old canoe," and by the proportion of narrative (1 verse) to moralizing (3 verses). - PJS
In light of the song's ludicrously un-Christian attempt at theology, it should probably be noted that, at the time the Titanic sank, the Germans already had an even bigger liner under construction. The Imperator had a number of design flaws, but she never hit any icebergs, and was retired, quite un-sunk, in 1938 (by which time she had become the British Berengeria).
Lyle Lofgren thinks this is a rewrite of the Cofer Brothers song "The Titanic Was Her Name." There is some similarity in the chorus, but the rewriting is substantial; I'd be inclined to regard that as just an instance of a floating verse. But there seems no doubt that Dorsey Dixon wrote the song, because it is dated 25 years after the Titanic sank, i.e. around 1937. Which is right about the time the Dixon Brothers recorded the song.
For an extensive history of the Titanic, with detailed examination of the truth (or lack thereof) of quotes in the Titanic songs, see the notes to "The Titanic (XV)" ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15) - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: RcTDWtOC

Titanic (XI), The ("The Titanic Nobly Bore Along") (Titanic #11)

DESCRIPTION: Titanic stops at Queenstown for Irish girls and boys. An iceberg floats by but "Titanic proudly bore along unmindful of her foe." Wireless operators send an SOS but help is too late. The Carpathia saves those in lifeboats and took them to New York.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Titanic, the pride of Belfast, leaves Southampton with millionaires and poor. She stops at Queenstown for Irish girls and boys. At night an iceberg floats by but "Titanic proudly bore along unmindful of her foe." When struck, Captain Smith has wireless operators send an SOS but help arrivesd too late. "Women and children" first saved seven hundred. The Carpathia saves those in lifeboats and takes them to New York.
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck rescue
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 14/15, 1912 - Shortly before midnight, ship's time, the Titanic strikes an iceberg and begins to sink. Only 711 survivors are found of 2224 people believed to have been aboard.
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 67, "The Titanic" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 128, "The Titanic" (1 text)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, pp. 30-31, "The Titanic" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. all the other Titanic songs (plot)
NOTES [73 words]: McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen: "In the Irish Tradition there are at least eight distinct ballads on the subject.... [This] version is the one most favoured by Irish traditional singers." - BS
For an extensive history of the Titanic, with detailed examination of the truth (or lack thereof) of quotes in the Titanic songs, see the notes to "The Titanic (XV)" ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15) - RBW
File: Ran128

Titanic (XII), The (You Landsmen All, on You I Call) (Titanic #12)

DESCRIPTION: "The Titanic called at Queenstown ... And eight hundred emigrants From Ireland sailed away." After four days "our ship struck an iceberg." The crew tries to save the women and children. Millionaires died but we mourn for our Irish lads that drowned.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (IRClare01)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 14/15, 1912 - Shortly before midnight, ship's time, the Titanic strikes an iceberg and begins to sink. Only 711 survivors are found of 2224 people believed to have been aboard.
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #18475
RECORDINGS:
Jamesie McCarthy, "The Titanic" (on IRClare01)
NOTES [333 words]: The Irish grief over the passengers on the Titanic is easily understood. As with most liners of the time, the Titanic carried three classes of passengers: First class, second class, and steerage. And steerage was mostly emigrants, and many of the emigrants Irish.
Steerage passengers, of course, were stuck far down in the ship. Ballard has a side view of the ship's plans on page 168, showing that many of the steerage passengers were four floors below the main deck, near the waterline, whereas the first class passengers were mostly above the main deck, with easy access to the lifeboats.
The steerage passengers, by contrast, were actually barricaded into their below-decks area -- a quarantine measure to prevent the spread of disease (Wade, p. 22). But it meant that the third class passengers had to break down, or at least have the knowledge and nerve to talk their way past, the barriers to get off the ship!
It showed in the casualties. According to Paine, 60% of the first class passengers survived (Ballard, p. 149, reports that every child in first class, save one, survived, and she died only because she wouldn't leave her mother, who wouldn't leave her husband). 42% of second class passengers survived, but only 25% of steerage (comparable to the 24% of the crew who survived).
Lord's famous A Night to Remember gives a passenger list. Pages 207-209 catalogs the third class passengers who embarked at Queenstown (Cobh). There were 114 of them, mostly with typical Irish names. Only 40 (35%) survived.
Other sources differ slightly, Barczewski, p. 9, says that 123 passengers boared at Queenstown, of whom 113 paid the six pound ten shilling third class fare. Obviously the presence or absence of one passenger doesn't change the casualty rate much.
For an extensive history of the Titanic, with detailed examination of the truth (or lack thereof) of quotes in the Titanic songs, see the notes to "The Titanic (XV)" ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15) - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: RcTita12

Titanic (XV), The ("On the tenth day of April 1912") (Titanic #15)

DESCRIPTION: "On the tenth day of April 1912 her whistles they did sound, Her power of motion was released, her twin screws turned around." The ship gives little attention to the dangers of the sea. The ship sinks 400 miles from cape race
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: sea ship wreck technology
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 14/15, 1912 - Shortly before midnight, ship's time, the Titanic strikes an iceberg and begins to sink. Only 711 survivors are found of 2224 people believed to have been aboard.
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Eric West, _Sing Around This One: Songs of Newfoundland & Labrador Vol. 2_, Vinland Music, 1997, pp. 46-47, "The Titanic" (1 text, 1 tune, learned by Eric West from Frank Shea)
Roud #774
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. John Powers, "The Titanic" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [20209 words]: Roud, following the Leach web site, includes this with "The Titanic (I)" ("It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down") [Laws D24] (Titanic #1). Clearly, though, it is a separate song; it lacks the chorus of Laws D24, has no lyrics in common that I can see, and includes a lot of details I haven't seen elsewhere, most though not all of them accurate.
Because this is one of the less inaccurate Titanic ballads, I'm going to use it as my basis for historical notes on the wreck.
I hesitated long before deciding to include a note on the Titanic disaster; after all, even though this is a very long note, there are many much fuller accounts elsewhere, which are the basis for this entry. I've included this relatively short history to document some of the features mentioned in the Titanic songs.
In what follows, I have included references to the various Titanic songs, in curly brackets for lack of a better notation. For example, the Titanic was, according to "The Loss of the Titanic (Titanic #13)," "The beauty of the White Star Line." The goal in building the Titanic was indeed to make a very ornate ship, so where I say White Star "would make their name on comfort," this is followed by the citation {#13}, meaning that this accords with "The Loss of the Titanic." Where the songs are wrong (as, e.g., in the claim that the band played "Nearer, My God to Thee"), the citation will be {contra #1, #2...}.
It might be noted that, although there seem to be more folk songs about the Titanic disaster than any twentieth century event except the Irish 1916 rebellion and its aftermath, they represent a relatively small fraction of total compositions on the subject. Ritchie, p. 205, estimates that there were "some 300 works about, or somehow associated with," the loss of the Titanic. Smithsonian, p. 36, declares that "112 different pieces of music inspired by the loss of the Titanic were copyrighted in America in 1912 alone."
The story of the Titanic, in a way, begins in 1870, when the Oceanic created the transatlantic passenger liner (Wade, p. 13) and made the White Star Line's reputation for luxury crossings (Brinnin, p. 241). You could argue for an even earlier date -- e.g. Brinnin, p. 4, begins his account with the James Madison of 1818, which was the first packet to keep a regular schedule. But the Madison was a sailing ship, and not very comfortable. Samuel Cunard and others had replaced the sailing ships with steamers in the following decades, but though Cunard ships were very safe in an era when wrecks were common on other lines (Brinnin, p. 245 notes that Cunard never lost a passenger in the entire nineteenth century!, and Fox, pp. 128-139, tells how the loss of the Arctic and Pacific doomed the rival Collins Line), Cunarders weren't particularly enjoyable to be aboard; the idea was simply to get across the Atlantic.
The Oceanic converted the trip "across the pond" from a burden to something to be enjoyed. Brinnin, p. 242, calls her "the eponymous instance of the modern ocean liner." The small White Star Line, a bankrupt company which had sailed ships to Australia, was taken over to use as a vehicle to promote this new class of ship (Fox, p. 239). It was a major change. Very long and narrow, Oceanic did not confine her passengers to the stern areas as so many earlier ships had done. Staterooms were made larger. There was steam heat. She was far from perfect; many changes had to be made after her first voyage (Brinnin, p. 243). But she had changed the whole nature of transatlantic travel.
It didn't take long for competition to become intense. Three British lines -- White Star, Inman (which was rapidly failing and would soon be taken over by American interests), and the more-established Cunard -- were joined by several German competitors and a few small fry from other countries. By the end of the nineteenth century, it was becoming almost impossible to make passenger traffic pay due to the cuthroat competition (Ramsay, p. 11). The various companies all formed alliances. The Germans had some government support. Cunard eventually turned to the government as well, offering to produce fast liners that the Royal Navy could take over as auxiliary cruisers as needed. Thus were born the Lusitania and her sister the Mauretania (Brinnin, p. 328fff., Ramsay, pp. 15-17; Paine, p. 330).
White Star had to respond, but its answer was different. Rather than turn their independence over to the British government (a deal with the devil that would in fact eventually pose great difficulties for Cunard during World War I), they were in effect taken over by J. P. Morgan (Wade, pp. 14-15; Butler-Unsink, p. 9), which already owned Inman and some smaller American lines and had a deal with the Germans (Brinnin, p. 325).
For all his deep pockets and his cartel-like control over several shipping firms, even Morgan had to field a competitive steamer line. (The other tricks were mostly a failure; the year after Morgan died in 1913, the whole mess came apart in a series of transactions that included some illegal deals; Davenport-Hines, p. 56.) So what should be White Star's answer to Cunard's "greyhounds"? The Lusitania was a fine, fast ship (capable, in ideal conditions, of sustained speeds of 26 knots), but her design was radical in many ways -- long, narrow (which made the idea of using her as a warship rather silly; she would have been a lousy gun platform), and driven by the newfangled turbines.
White Star, although historically more radical than the conservative Cunard, preferred not to be so daring in designing their answer. They didn't even rely on the more powerful turbine-driven screws (Wade, pp. 270-271) {#15 incorrectly claims she had turbines and twin screws, not three}. (Ironic, given that the Ismays, managers of White Star, had taken a ride on the world's first turbine-powered ship, Turbinia, on the day of her unveiling at Victoria's Diamond Jubilee; Turbinia at the time was the world's fastest ship, by a large margin; Brinnin, pp. 307-308.) The center screw used a turbine, but the port and starboard screws used the old, less efficient reciprocating engines (Butler-Unsink, p. 16). The major innovation was using expansion joints in the superstructure to let it flex (Matsen, p. 100), but that didn't affect the hull's strength or integrity. (Although Matsen, p. 240, claims that recent research shows that the hull *was* too weak; the owners had demanded that the thickness of the steel be reduced, leading Matsen and his sources to conclude that one reason the ship sank so quickly was that she wasn't strong enough and had her spine break.)
Rather than compete on crossing time {contra #2, #15}, White Star's ships would make their name on comfort {#13; cf. #16, which describes her one voyage as a "pleasure trip"}. White Star's new liners -- to become the Olympic, Titanic, and Britannic -- would be about three or four knots slower than Cunard's. That speed difference allowed a huge savings in engine weight; to get that three knot advantage, Lusitania needed 68,000 horsepower engines (Ramsay, p. 21) despite a gross tonnage of only 32,000 tons; Titanic, at 46,300 tons, had according to the advertisement reprinted in Ballard, p. 169, engines developing a mere 50,000 horsepower (a figure also quoted by Paine, p. 520; Ballard, p. 220, lists her as 46,000 horsepower; Barczewski, p. 3, as 55,000. Lord-Night, p. 174, says she was registered as 50,000 hp, but could reach 55,000. It is probable that the exact figure was never known; Titanic never once went up to full speed). Unlike the Lusitania and Mauretania, which had four propellers, she had only three screws {contra #15, which lists her as having two}.
The weight saved on the engines would all go into more ship -- and more comforts for the passengers. Olympic and Titanic were, for instance, the first liners to include swimming pools (Barczewski, p. 7); they also had Turkish baths (Brinnin, p. 362). The large size meant that passengers hardly even noticed that they were at sea; the ride was very smooth (Davenport-Hines, pp. 183-184). So large were the designs that builders Harland and Wolff of Belfast {#15} had to build new slips to hold the ships -- replacing three of their old slips with just two, one for Olympic and one for Titanic (Wade, p. 16).
First class was so fancy that it was simply expected that its occupants would bring their servants; there were separate facilities for first class passengers and the servants of those passengers (Butler-Unsink, p. 54). It is interesting to note that the Olympic ships significantly increased the space devoted to first class, so that it had room for about as many first class as third class passengers (Davenport-Hines, p. 67).
Over 3000 workers were involved in the construction of each ship (Barczewski, p. 214, who notes that the Belfast shipyard employed mostly Protestants, making Olympic and Titanic toys in the battle over Home Rule and the contest over relations between Ulster and the rest of Ireland. Little wonder that it was called "The Pride of Belfast" {#11}
At least give Lord Pirrie of Harland and Wolff this much credit: When Protestant shipbuilders tried to crowd out the Catholics, Pirrie threatened to fire the lot if they didn't let the Catholics back In; Davenport-Hines, p. 62. On the other hand, he made no efforts to improve the conditions in his company housing; Davenport-Hines, p. 64. Nor did he work hard to keep the yard safe; six men were killed in building Olympic, and three in building Titanic, with hundreds more hurt; dozens were injured badly enough that they could not return to shipyard work (Matsen, p. 124-125). On the evidence, Pirrie was an equal-opportunity robber baron.
The potential degree of luxury available seems almost obscene today. Butler-Unsink, pp. 36-37, lists the standard load of food and kitchen equipment. This included, among other things, 1000 pounds of hothouse grapes (from England, in April 1912, remember; there were no hybrid fruits that could last long enough to be shipped from a southern climate) and 100 pairs of grape scissors. According to Davenport-Hines, pp. 97-98, the whole thing was designed to imitate the luxury of accommodations at John Jacob Astor's St. Regis Hotel, built in 1904 at a cost of five and a half million dollars. The list of foodstuffs on Davenport-Hines, p. 250, shows that more than 100,000 pounds of fresh food were embarked, including 75,000 pounds of meat.
The cost of the two ships was on the order of a million and a half pounds each (see that advertisement in Ballard, p. 169). And that's 1908 pounds (I somewhere saw an estimate that it would take a half a billion 1990s dollars to build a replica). The builders were allowed to go all-out -- the White Star Line and Harland and Wolff had significant mutual ownership (Fox, p. 239; Davenport-Hines, p. p. 53 and Matsen, p. 72, says that Lord Pirrie, who controlled Harland and Wolff, was the #2 owner of White Star shares), so they didn't really contract for a price and specifications; rather, Harland and Wolff -- which did much of the design work as well as the building -- was paid their costs plus 4% (Fox, p. 240). The only real White Star input in the design was apparently to call for thinner steel in the hull in order to save money on coal (Matsen, p. 104).
It was a cozy relationship for the shipbuilders. Lord Pirrie was so secretive that his company, although it had other directors, was in effect a one man fief; his subordinates could not even manage the business after his death (Davenport-Hines, p. 39); he decided what he wanted, and that was what White Star got. Pirrie was also the one who induced Bruce Ismay to join the Morgan conglomerate (Matsen, p. 74).
Pirrie's self-absorption seems to have been almost total; he wanted a peerage, and wanted it so badly that he switched his financial support from Unionists to Liberals to another to get it -- and then betrayed the Liberals over Home Rule for Ireland (Davenport-Hines, pp. 40-41). He lived so extravagantly that he was thought to be one of the richest men in Britain -- but when he died, it was found that his assets were so mismanaged that he in fact was in debt by hundreds of thousands of pounds (Davenport-Hines, p. 44). *This* was the man who decided how the Olympic class of ships was to be built....
The Titanic was 882 feet long, her beam was 92 feet, and it was 60.5 feet from the waterline to the boat deck (she was eight decks tall), with the funnels rising another 115 feet (cf. Paine, p. 520, and the deck plans in Wade, pp. 174-183). Lord-Night, p. 174, puts this in down-to-earth terms: "11 stories high and four city blocks long." (Although those would be four very short city blocks -- 1/24 of a mile long. A standard American city block is 1/16 mile, and Titanic was as long as 2.67 of those, or just about exactly 1/6 of a mile.) Ballard, p. 219, reveals that Olympic and Titanic each were roughly two years on the slips before launching, and needed another year after that to complete.
Although there were four funnels, only three were real, because the ship had only three engines. The fourth funnel was added because Pirrie and Ismay didn't want passengers to think the ships were in some way inferior to the four-funneled Lusitania and Mauretania (Matsen, p. 94). So much for efficient design.... And the hull of the Olympic, the very first time she came up to speed, "panted" -- that is, vibrated in and out (Matsen, p. 119). Pirrie claimed that was normal (Matsen, p. 123), but it was perhaps an omen of what was to come. Olympic's hull also suffered extensive hull cracking (Matsen, pp. 131-132) -- evidence, perhaps, that the steel was not really up to the stress it was under. Titanic was strengthened in the area of the cracks, but was that really the only defective spot?
(Matsen, p. 261, says that when Britannic was built, significant changes were made to the design to cover up defects that caused the Titanic to sink faster, but hid the changes because Pirrie and Ismay didn't dare admit the poor design: "A public discussion of the weaknesses in their Ship of Dreams would have ruined them. They'd had no choice but to keep them secret." But this is all based on some allegedly-concealed modifications to the design. It's a lot of conspiracy for not much evidence.)
Was that an omen? Perhaps never in history has a class of ships been so ill-fated. Olympic was the lucky one; she stayed afloat until she was taken out of service in 1935 (though she had to be heavily rebuilt after the Titanic wreck, so that she became much harder to sink; Wade, p. 328). But in her two dozen years of service she had had *four* collisions with other ships: with the tug O. L. Hallenbeck and with the H.M.S. Hawke in 1911 (Lord-Lives, pp. 29-31; Ritchie, p. 97, points out that she was being maneuvered by a harbor pilot at the time, but in the legal cases that followed, the court blamed White Star, according to Matsen, p. 129; the conclusion was that Olympic literally sucked the smaller ship into a crash), with the Fort St. George in 1924 (Paine, p. 376), and with the Nantucket Lightship in 1934 (Paine, p. 349). When Cunard and White Star merged in 1934, Cunard promptly got rid of Olympic (Paine, p. 376; Wade, p. 329).
The Britannic never sailed as a liner; she was not finished at the start of World War I, and was converted to a hospital ship. In that capacity, she hit a mine in 1916 and sank in less than an hour (Paine, p. 81) -- another example of the inadequate internal subdivisions of the design.
As for the Titanic -- well, we're getting to that.
The Olympic was finished first, starting her maiden voyage to New York on May 31, 1911 (Wade, p. 17). The ship seemed to work well, but the designers learned a few things (mostly cosmetic) which caused the Titanic to be slightly modified, primarily to add more passenger accommodations (Wade, pp. 18-19); in the process, her displacement increased by about a thousand tons. Titanic could still be considered Olympic's sister, but she was heavier -- the largest ship in the world at the time {#15} -- and somewhat more luxurious.
The Titanic would set out on her maiden voyage on April 10, 1912 {#9, #15}. At noon, she left Southampton {#5, #9, #11, #13, #15, contra #6, which says she sailed from Liverpool, but Liverpool had been largely abandoned by the liners in the previous two decades because of its problematic tidal characteristics; Davenport-Hines, p. 10}. She reached Cherbourg that evening, left France just a couple of hours later, arrived at Queenstown {#11, #12} around noon the next day, and set out for New York {#6} around 2:00 p.m. on April 11 (Lord-Night, p. 175).
It was not an auspicious start, really; there had been coal strike (Wade, p. 23; Barczewski, p. 263, notes that the strike ended April 6, but of course coal was only just starting to go back "into the pipeline"; it hadn't reached Southampton yet), causing White Star to requisition coal from other vessels, cancel their voyages, and transfer the passengers to Titanic. In the process, they started a small coal fire that never was entirely put out; the coal smoked the entire time of the voyage (Butler-Unsink, p. 37). Meaning that, unknown to the passengers, there was always a slight danger of a coal dust explosion (which is the most likely explanation for why the Lusitania sank three years later).
Borrowing coal and shifting passengers was not unreasonable. Sailing the largest ship in the world with a raw crew was more of a problem. Titanic would be going on her maiden voyage with a crew that did not know the ship; at this time, crews were mostly hired on a by-the-voyage basis (Barczewski, p. 264; cf. Wade, p. 24) -- and, on a vessel her size, they wouldn't be able to learn their way around in a day or two! Even second officer Lightoller, a veteran seaman with much experience on White Star ships, said it took him two weeks to learn his way around (Barczewski, p. 5; Butler-Unsink, p. 46). Many of the crew didn't have that much time, and though a lot of them had done at least one voyage on the Olympic (Barczewski, p. 266), most didn't have his background to help them learn their way.
Even if you ignore their unfamiliarity with the ship, it turns out that only 83 of the crew were actual sailors, used to dealing with a ship at sea (Wade, p. 210). The rest were stewards and other specialists -- important for the passengers, but they couldn't really run the ship. The engine crew seems to have been particularly green; according to Davenport-Hines, p. 252, "Few of the engine crew of firemen, greasers, and trimmers who had delivered the ship from Belfast signed on again for the maiden voyage" -- presumably because of poor conditions in the engineering spaces.
Nor had Titanic completed anything like proper sea trials -- for instance, she had never once worked up to full speed, and done very little emergency maneuvering (Wade, p. 184). In a great irony, it is reported that, it was only as she arrived in the vicinity of the ice that she worked her way up to the fastest speed she had ever attained (Wade, p. 28). Apparently she never tested her turning radius at full speed (Lord-Lives, p. 56), and she only did one "emergency stop"; it took her three and a quarter minutes, and 3000 feet, to halt from a speed of 18 knots (Lord-Lives, p. 33) -- a speed less than her cruising speed on her voyage across the Atlantic.
And there had never been a true boat drill conducted. There had been one partial demonstration, inadequate in every regard (Wade, p. 211). Normally drills were conducted on Sunday, but on Titanic's maiden voyage, Captain Smith cancelled it to hold a religious service (Barczewski, p. 10). The passengers didn't know what to do should they need to get to the boats; worse, few of the crew knew how to lower them! (Lord-Lives, pp. 88). So, when the crisis came, the same few crewmen had to do all the work, meaning that the boats could not all be lowered at once (Lord-Lives, pp. 95-96; cf. {#9}, which says they lowered the lifeboats "one by one." It was actually one by one on each side, but close enough).
When the disaster struck, the handful of crewmen doing the lowering had to work so hard that, even on that cold night, they ended up sweating heavily; Officer Lightoller would take off his coat before the last boats were lowered, leaving him in dripping-wet pajamas (Lord-Night, p. 79).
Finally, the captain was not someone you'd be likely to pick to deal with an emergency situation. E. J. Smith had much experience, starting as a boy on a sailing passenger ship and quickly working his way up to mate and then captain (Barczewski, p. 162). Not satisfied with that, he transferred to the passenger liners and working his way up to command those as well. He had commanded over a dozen different liners (Lord-Lives, p. 28) when he was promoted to the pinnacle of the White Star line, the Olympic (Barczewski, p. 163). He was so well-liked that White Star made it a policy for him to break in new vessels (Barczewski, p. 165). On paper, he was the perfect captain for Titanic {#15}; his time on Titanic's sister Olympic meant that he was one of the handful who had some real idea how the new ship worked.
But Smith's resume sounded better than it was. He was a good manager and diplomat -- but he had never had to deal with real problems. In an interview, he once declared, "When anyone asks how I can best describe my experience in nearly forty years at sea, I merely say, uneventful. Of course there have been winter gales, and storms and fogs and the like, but in all my experience I have never been in any accident of any sort worth speaking about" (quoted in Barczewski, p. 185; Butler-Unsink, p. 48; Lord-Lives, p. 29; Wade, p. 38. Eaton/Haas, however, note on p. 77 that his command the Germanic had capsized in New York harbor in 1899. Plus there was the Hawke collision, described below).
"Smith also had a reputation for high-speed, flamboyant arrivals and departures in the tight confines of harbors. He grounded Coptic in Rio de Janeiro in 1891, ran Republic aground off Sandy Hook in 1899, and put Adriatic on a soundbar in Ambrose Channel, near New York, in 1909" (Matsen, p. 137). It's arguably not a bad safety record, but it isn't perfect, either.
Describing the Hawke accident, Smith said, "Anyhow, Olympic is unsinkable, and Titanic will be the same when she is put in commission. Either vessel could be cut in halves and each section would remain afloat" (Matsen, p. 129). This is probably true (although it wouldnt be much comfort to those in the sliced-open sections), but hardly relevant, because what ship would have a sharp enough bow to slice Titanic in two? It was a side-on collision that was the danger.
He didn't have a mind set suited to surprises. In 1906, aboard the Adriatic -- a ship no one ever claimed was unsinkable -- he said, "I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder" (Lord-Lives, p. 18; Tibballs, p. 227, gives a Boston Post story with the quote). By contrast, his second officer on the Titanic, Charles Lightoller, had already been through two shipwrecks! (Butler-Other, p. 58). Maybe Smith knew better, and was trying to encourage passengers -- but such statements surely encourage complacency.
He also seems to have been tired; he told a reporter before the Titanic sailed that he was ready to leave the sea (supposedly he even told that old story about wanting to carry an oar until he came to a place where no one knew what it was, and settle there -- Matsen, p. 135 -- although I strongly suspect this was journalistic exaggeration).
Even before the Titanic set sail, it was known that there were icebergs in the North Atlantic -- though {contra #11} she had not seen any herself. A warm year had caused many to break loose from the polar cap; another liner, the Niagara, in fact collided with one at about the time Titanic set out (Wade, p. 31), and at least two sailing ships, the Erna and the Maggie, seem to have been destroyed by the ice (Davenport-Hines, p. 3). What's more, although the Titanic's route was south of the normal extent of the ice pack in winter, it was in the northern part of the region where the charts declared icebergs to be seen regularly in spring (Mersey, p. 24).
No one in authority aboard Titanic seemed worried. Though several ships had been damaged by icebergs in recent years, all had survived (Wade, p. 32). And Titanic was much stronger than most of those ships. She was divided into 16 sections, designed to be watertight, with a central control on the bridge that could, in theory, instantly isolate the sections. She was designed to stay afloat if any two of the sections flooded, or if the front four (which were of course narrower) were breached (Ballard, p. 22).
This was not really such good protection as was claimed. Lord-Lives, pp. 20-22, discusses how early liners (notably the Great Eastern of 1858) had been designed to be unsinkable. Great Eastern had a true double hull (Titanic had a double bottom but not a full double hull; Barczewski, p. 4), a true set of partitions (15 bulkheads from front to back, as on Titanic, but with subdivisions within each cell, as on a battleship, so she was a true honeycomb), and her divisions reached all the way up to the upper deck. Water in one section simply could not work its way into another. But this had proved very inconvenient -- a steward or passenger in one section had to go all the way to the upper deck to move to another. Gradually, the partitions dividing port and starboard sides went out of ship designs, the bulkheads were lowered so that the upper decks were not partitioned, and doors were built into the bulkheads on the lower levels. And the decks of the Titanic were not watertight -- that is, if a particular deck filled with water, there was nothing at all to keep the water from rising up and starting to flood the next deck (Mersey, p. 8).
Mersey, p. 8, says that the various bulkheads on the Titanic reached either to the D deck (20 feet above the waterline) or the E deck (11 feet above the waterline) The diagram in Ballard (p. 22) purports to shows the bulkheads (compare p. 9 of Mersey). The six toward the stern reach two or three decks above the waterline -- an adequate distance, though higher would have been better. But those amidships and at the bow -- the ones most likely to suffer damage! -- are much lower; most reach only one deck above the waterline, and F and G are barely higher than the water (Lord-Lives, p. 22, says they rose only 10 feet above the waterline). If the ship went down by the nose -- as Titanic did -- the water could overtop the barriers, flooding at least eight to ten compartments. And the ship of course could not (and did not) survive *that*. What's more, only A, B, and P were entirely free of doors (Mersey, p. 9).
Finally, the Titanic's watertight doors were theoretically controlled from the bridge, and also had floats so they could automatically close if they detected water (Mersey, p. 9). In fact, some had to be closed manually, so making the ship watertight was *not* an instantaneous process.
Given the way the ship was built, Mersey, p. 35, suggests that the existence of the watertight bulkheads actually shortened the life of the ship, because it means that all the flooding was in the front of the ship, causing her to go down by the bow and overtop the bulkheads. Had the water been free to go throughout the ship, she still would have sunk -- but on a more even keel and somewhat later (which, although he does not say so, would likely have saved lives).
Lord-Lives, p. 23, comments acidly that Titanic was treated as unsinkable {#1, #2} not because she was properly built but because she looked too big to sink. "The appearance of safety was mistaken for safety itself."
Lynch/Marschall, p. 194, makes the interesting point that Titanic's near-sister Britannic sank when she hit a mine. That means that the damage was confined to a small area of the hull -- yet she sank anyway, and much faster than the Titanic. There really does seem to have been a problem with the partitioning in the Olympic class ships.
The Titanichad a near-disaster at the very beginning of her life; as the Olympic had sucked the Hawke into a collision, Titanic produced so much pull that she snapped the ropes of the New York. But, in this case, a collision was averted -- just barely (Lord-Lives, p. 26; Barczewski, p. 4; Tibballs, pp, 31-38).
One personal observation, based on looking at very many photos of the Titanic in the process of writing this article: It really doesn't appear to have been all it was cracked up to be. It was opulent, yes, in a heavy-handed Edwardian sort of way. But it didn't really appear all that well-built. There is a look to good construction, and it doesn't have it. Titanic had neither the hand-crafted strength of pre-nineteenth century construction, nor the technological veneer of the second half of the twentieth century. An illustration in Lynch/Marschall (p. 21) is perhaps relevant. It shows one of the Titanic's so-advanced anchors, forged by modern metallurgy -- but being hauled to the ship by horses.
(My opinion about the construction of these ships seems to be borne out by the stories of the leading liners of the time. Very many of the new ships had design problems. The Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse of 1897 had "lubberly propensities," according to Brinnin, p. 317, which caused her to be nicknamed "Rolling Billy." Cunard's flagship of the period, Lusitania, had had to be refitted due to excessive vibrations; see the notes to "The Lusitania." Titanic's record as the largest ship in the world would not last long; 14 months later, Germany's Hamburg-Amerika line would bring out the Imperator; Barczewski, p. 65. She was roughly 6000 tons heavier than Titanic, but top-heavy enough that she needed her funnels shortened and some of her fixtures replaced, plus they had to add 2000 tons of extra ballast; she also lost her figurehead due to her extreme rolling on just her third voyage; Brinnin, p. 388. After the war, Cunard took her over as Berengaria, but overhauled her again in 1921, and she suffered a series of fires in the late Thirties; Paine, p. 60. Luxurious the monster liners were, but they were perhaps too big for the designers of a pre-computer age.)
Interestingly, Titanic was nowhere near full on her maiden voyage. (Tibballs, p. xi, thinks this is because of the coal strike, which caused many people to postpone plans since they weren't sure the ship would sail, but most sources seem to think the real reason was that people didn't want to risk taking a new ship which hand't had a shakedown voyage.)
There were three classes of passengers: first class, which was incredibly luxurious; second class, which was also very comfortable (the gap between first class and second was much smaller than that between second and third; Davenport-Hines, p. 195) but where people were not expected to have servants and were not given complete freedom of the boat; and third class (steerage) -- down at the bottom of the ship, with relatively cramped spaces and no special restaurants. Steerage offered safe, clean accommodations and good food, but no special amenities and not much space. It was implicitly understood that first class was for the wealthy, second for the middle class, and third for the poor.
According to Wade, pp. 25-26, Titanic left Southampton on April 10, 1912 with only 46% of first class berth occupied, 40% of second class, and 70% of steerage space booked. (That's 337 first class passengers, 271 second class, and 712 in third class; cf. Barczewski, p. 51. Considering that Titanic was taking passengers from several liners, the totals are amazingly low. (Not that there was any shortage of money among them; #13 is right that there were "wealthy New York millionaires." Davenport-Hines estimates, p. 162, that the 337 first class passengers were worth $500 million. In 1912 dollars. First class passengers may not have been many, but they were certainly well-off!) She stopped at Queenstown the next day to take on a few more. That gives her 1320 passengers plus whatever the total was from Ireland -- comfortably more than the 1200 passengers mentioned in {#13}.
One song {#12} refers to 800 emigrants sailing from Ireland. This presumably refers to the total third class passengers; in all, only about 125 passengers boarded at Queenstown (now Cobh, or the Cove of Cork), of which number 113 (Barczewski, pp. 9, 281) or 114 (Lord-Night, pp. 207-209) were third class, and hence presumably emigrants. (It will tell you something about the size of Titanic that she could not even dock at Queenstown's pier; she had to anchor offshore and have passengers and cargo ferried aboard; Barczewski, p. 281).
Davenport-Hines, p. 225, gives an estimate that third class contained 118 British passengers, 113 Irish, 104 Swedes, 79 Lebanese, 55 Finns, 43 Americans, 33 Bulgarians, 25 Norwegians, 22 Belgians, 12 Armenians, 8 Chinese, 7 Danes, 5 Frenchmen, 4 Italians, 4 Greeks, 4 Germans, 4 Swiss, 3 Portuguese, 44 from the Habsburg Empire (mostly Slavs, with about half of them Croats), and 18 Russian subjects. Thus almost all of Europe, and some places beyond, were represented.
For the first four days of the voyage, everything of course went well; the ship maintained a good speed, sailed smoothly, and everyone apparently had a fine time. Then came the "Night to Remember."
Complete details of what happened on the night of April 14-15 probably cannot be known, because most of the key figures were lost. Captain Smith went down with his ship, as did his chief officer (second in command) Henry Wilde, who was almost invisible in the saga (except that Lightoller, who had reason to resent him, accused him of slowing the evacuation; Lynch/Marschall, p. 109). Ironically, Captain Smith had requested Wilde be transferred from the Olympic so he could have a second who knew the ship; Butler-Unsink, p. 44; Lynch/Marschall, p. 76. Fat lot of good it did; as Butler-Unsink, p. 90, comments, Wilde "demonstrat[ed] very little initiative of his own, seemingly content to pass on Captain Smith's [incomplete] instructions, but never expanding them or clarifying them... and rarely issuing any orders of his own."
Also lost was first officer William M. Murdoch, who was the officer in command on the bridge when the ship hit the iceberg and who also had charge of lowering the boats on one side (like Smith, he an officer brought over from the Olympic; Barczewski, p. 189. Sort of makes you wonder who was running the Olympic after they took all her officers). Chief Engineer Joseph Bell and almost all of the engineering crew, who kept several boilers running to maintain electricity for the lights and pumps (Ballard, p. 25; Butler-Unsink, p. 109), were lost as well.
Many witnesses pay well-deserved testimony to the bravery of the crew in the emergency which followed. (There were four officers senior enough to stand watches, Smith, Wilde, Murdoch, and second officer Charles H. Lightoller; Butler-Unsink, p. 53. Of these, only Lightoller survived, and he did not go off in a boat; he was washed away from the wreck as she went down and was able to make his way to an overturned "collapsible" lifeboat); as {#13} says, the crew stayed with the ship and sent the passengers off. Their problem lay not in courage but in intelligence.
Instead of information from her senior officers about what went wrong, what we have is the testimony of junior officers (including second officer Lightoller, who however was in his cabin at the time of the collision, and fourth officer Joseph G. Boxhall, responsible for plotting of icebergs as the warnings came in and for fixing the ship's position when she hit the iceberg). We also have accounts from the junior wireless operator, of some of the lookouts, and of course numerous passengers, none of whom, however, had any part in the ship's decision-making. Plus we have the information derived from Ballard's exploration of the sunken hull (which was not very helpful, however, since the part of the starboard bow which was damaged seems to be almost entirely buried in the mud; Ballard, p. 196).
The Titanic did not go to its fate unwarned. One crucial safety feature she had was a wireless, and two wireless operators, allowing one to be on duty at all times. (This wasn't just for safety; many of the first class passengers were sending messages all over the place. Barczewski, p. 11, notes that this was how the Marconi company earned its money; they didn't get paid for talk between ships.) Just on April 14, many ice warnings had come through -- one at 9:00 a.m. from the Caronia, one at 11:40 from the Noordam, two almost simultaneously around 1:45 from Amerika and from White Star's own Baltic, one from the Californian at 7:30, and one at 9:40 from Mesaba -- this one for the very region in which the Titanic was already sailing (Ballard, pp. 13-20; Lord-Lives, pp. 48-49). And, finally, one more from the Californian, which was almost next door and had been stopped by ice.
How many of these warnings were actually read by the senior officers is not clear. Ballard claims that some never reached the top officers. Understand that wireless operators were not a proper part of the ship's crew. The shipping lines hired them from the Marconi company or one of its competitors. (This was common; many of the "staff" on the Titanic were in fact employees of other companies. The restaurant staff, for example, worked for organizations such as Gatti which had bought concessions on the Titanic -- Lord-Night, p. 68.)
When one of Titanic's radiomen received an ice warning, he could do little except hand it to an officer, who might pay attention or might just slip it in his pocket. To add to the problems, the apparatus had broken down on April 14 -- it was unusually powerful for the time (1500 watts -- Butler-Unsink, p. 62), but probably cantankerous as a result. Senior operator Jack Phillips had repaired it (radiomen at the time had intense training in electronics and such, and Phillips, though only 25, was one of the best; Butler-Unsink, p. 61), but was far behind on commercial traffic and had at times brushed off messages from other ships in order to get it out (Wade, pp. 143-144, 254) -- the more so since that final and most important ice warning, from the Californian, had not been sent as a priority message (Wade, p. 255). Plus, as Lord-Lives, pp. 51-52, points out, the radiomen were not navigators; they really had no idea which messages were most important.
So we don't know how much the crew knew about ice conditions. What is clear is that Captain Smith did not adjust her course significantly in response to the warnings, and the ship did not slow down.
Based on the reports from the Californian on the day of April 14, and from the Carpathia and the Mount Temple the following day, it appears that there was an almost-solid ice barrier across the Titanic's path. There would have been almost no way through without encountering ice (cf. Lord-Lives, p. 130; Lord-Night, p. 147, and the diagrams in Ballard, pp. 198-200). Under the circumstances, the decision to proceed full speed ahead was very dangerous.
The ship had no hope of setting a record {contra #7}; Fox, p. 413, declares that "the Titanic did not charge through that iceberg field with any hope of establishing a new record; she only wished to prove herself not too much slower than the Mauretania." But many captains, as a matter of pride, hated to slow down (Davenport-Hines, p. 85), and it is possible that Captain Smith was pressured to try to make the first crossing faster than the Olympic had made hers the year before (Butler-Unsink, p. 249; on p. 59, he speculates that Smith did this under pressure from White Star boss J. Bruce Ismay, who was aboard. Eaton/Haas, p. 9, however, argue that this is unlikely; if they arrived that early, they couldn't enter the harbor! And the coal supply was limited).
The fact that a record crossing was impossible might not have stopped Ismay from wanting to try, though; Fox, p. 393, calls Ismay, the son of White Star founder Thomas Ismay, a "doofus," and says that the Morgan takeover of White Star was partly maneuvered by other shareholders to keep Bruce Ismay from gaining too much control of the line. A contemporary called Ismay "a calamity; possibly not quite sane"; Fox, p. 395.
Whatever Ismay wanted, though, he was not the man in charge. If there is a fault, it's Captain Smith's for treating the ice messages utterly cavalierly. (According to Barczewski, p. 190, junior officers did not even have authority to reduce the ship's speed, though she cites no source for this statement.) The warnings needed to be studied; it was only when the messages were combined that they showed a wide band of ice all across the ship's path (Lord-Lives, p. 53). The officers did worry about the cooling of the air and sea -- but, apparently, their chief concern was that it might freeze the fresh water supply! (Ballard, p. 19; Butler-Unsink, p. 63; Lynch/Marschall, p. 77).
Captain Smith, in fact, was asleep at the time of the collision {#3}; he was content to let junior officers take him through the ice zone, though he did tell them to call him in the event of doubtful conditions (Ballard, p. 19). He was, after all, a fairly old man by the standards of the time -- 59, and planning to retire after Titanic made her maiden voyage (Lord-Lives, p. 32; Lord-Night, p. 27, says that he might not even have made this trip, except that he made a habit of captaining ships on their maiden voyages. It says something about how much the company respected him -- and about how fortunate he had been in avoiding accidents.).
The claim of {X} that "Captain Smith... must have been a-drinking" is, however, quite certainly wrong. White Star regulations forbid it (Lynch/Marschall, p. 77), and even if he were fool enough to risk his pension on his very last voyage (which he was not), he was with a party that would have spotted it had he touched liquor.
Conditions for spotting icebergs were horrible. (Lynch/Marschall, p. 79, has the interesting note that a lookout on an earlier shift had *smelled* ice -- not as strange as it sounds, since most icebergs calved off glaciers carrying soils and sometimes lichens; the wet earth would not smell like salt water. But though that lookout smelled ice, he never saw any.) It was, of course, dark, and there was no moon (Lord-Lives, p. 47) {#16}. And observers agree that the sea was very calm, with hardly any waves at all -- and one of the best ways to spot an iceberg was to see the waves lapping at it. Easton/Haas, p. 19, states as a fact (though this cannot be known) that the iceberg had recently flipped over, making the upper surface dark and harder to see. To top it all off, the lookouts in the crow's nest did not have any binoculars (Wade, pp. 169-170; Butler-Unsink, p. 44, explains how they came to be missing).
The British inquiry would conclude that binoculars are no help in spotting icebergs (Lord-Lives, pp. 59-60) -- which is sort of true, but only sort of. Yes, as any birdwatcher can tell you, it's almost always easier to spot things with bare eyes. But shifting between eyes and binoculars keeps you alert, and using the binoculars sometimes causes you to see things you wouldn't otherwise see.
It is now thought the solution to the Binoculars Problem is known: The key to the locker containing the optics was in the hands of an officer who was on the Titanic from Belfast to Southampton, but was bumped in the latter city to make room for the completely ineffectual Chief Officer Wilde (the man dropped was David Blair, who was second officer until Wilde came aboard; he lost his post and Lightoller was demoted to second officer; Eaton/Haas, p. 72. According to Davenport-Hines, p. 248, Wilde was brought over because the Olympic couldn't sail due to the coal strike). The bumped officer accidentally took the key to the locker with him, so the binoculars were left locked up. The key was auctioned off in 2007.
(Lord-Lives, p. 129, makes the interesting note that, when the Carpathia was steaming toward the Titanic, she dodged half a dozen bergs -- and all of them were spotted from the bridge, not the crow's nest. Apparently, on that dark and calm night, the lookouts aloft were at a severe handicap. It's not clear whether this is due to their angle or, perhaps, just the weather -- on a ship making 20+ knots, or even 17 as the Carpathia was doing, looking straight ahead into the wind of the ship's passage would have been very painful on that cold night.)
Very little is known about the actual iceberg. No other ship saw it with certainty (Butler-Unsink, in an illustration facing page 149, and Lynch/Marschall, pp. 92-93, have a photo of a berg taken by the Prinz Adelbert that may have been it, but the only evidence was some red that might have been paint, which is hardly proof). Even Titanic saw it for only minutes. But the statement {#13} that it was a growler (small berg) seems to have been false, since it was big enough for chunks of ice to fall onto Titanic's boat deck, more than sixty feet above the water. According to Ballard, p. 21, most witnesses stated that the berg reached only to about boat deck level. That's still pretty big.
The testimony of Frederick Fleet, who had been on lookout that night, was perhaps not as helpful as it might have been; when called before an investigating committee, he was nervous, his Cockney talk almost unintelligible, and at one point he actually said, "I ain't got no judgment" in response to a question about distances. (He would eventually commit suicide in 1965, though probably not over the Titanic; Tibballs, p. 516.) But he did say that he spotted the iceberg around 11:40 on the night of April 14 (Wade, pp. 166-167) {#5; contra #6, which gives the date as April 17, and Lomax's #3, which says April 13; #15 has the right date, but gives the time as an hour before the dawn}.
(Incidentally, Fleet wasn't the only person aboard to eventually kill himself; so did surviving passenger Jack Thayer, in 1945; Butler-Unsink, p. 231. And wireless operator Harold Bride retired from his job in 1913 and literally vanished; Butler-Unsink, p. 234, says that he assumed a new identity and no one knew where he went until decades after his death in 1956.)
Fleet called the bridge the moment he spotted the berg off the starboard bow. There was little time to react. What we know of the events comes mostly from helmsman Robert Hitchens -- not the most reliable witness; he ended up in command of Molly Brown's lifeboat, and his record in that job was of petty tyranny, lies, and panic; Lynch/Marschall, pp. 152-154, 161-163; in the end, White Star found him a job in South Africa, allegedly to silence him; Lynch/Marschall, p. 223)
According to Hitchens, First Officer Murdoch ordered the engines stopped and the ship turned to port. It was too late; moments later (Lord-Lives, p. 59, says 37 seconds later), the iceberg hit the Titanic on the starboard side (Wade, pp. 171-172; Ballard, pp. 20-21). A post-mortem found that Murdoch's actions, while they seemed the natural thing to do, in fact were unwise -- better a head-on collision, which would have destroyed the first few compartments but left the rest intact, than a glancing blow which opened many (Wade, pp. 182-183).
But many ships have hit icebergs and survived. Indeed, there hadn't been a major disaster on a passenger ship since the Atlanic wreck of 1873 (Butler-Unsink, p. 73; for background on that, see "The Loss of the Atlantic (I)"). Why did Titanic go down?
It is widely stated that the iceberg opened her front five (or even six) compartments. This has not, to my knowledge, ever been proved; all took on water, but it's not clear that anyone saw the leaks in all the compartments. What is certain is that it opened the fourth and fifth compartment, and at least two compartments before that. As the water rose, it went over those low bulkheads, and finally overcame the ship's buoyancy (Lord-Lives, p. 64).
In a way, it was lucky the ship stayed afloat as long as it did. The fifth compartment contained some of the boilers, which were of course running when water started coming in. Stokers had to work like mad in the rising waters to shut down the boilers and keep them from exploding (Lord-Night, pp. 19-21; Barczewski, p. 18).
Ballard's findings strongly support the hypothesis that the ship sank because the bulkheads between the allegedly-watertight sections were overtopped. The most notable finding was that Titanic snapped in two on her way down (diagrams in Ballard, pp. 204-205). The stern still had enough buoyancy to float when the bow wanted to sink, and the strain was too much for the ship's structure. The conclusion at the time, based on what testimony was available from belowdecks and the rate the ship filled, was that the iceberg had opened a gash about 250 feet long and less than an inch high on average (Lord-Lives, p. 64).
A modern guess is that the gash itself was not so big as was thought at the time, but that the impact caused the cold steel (which would be brittle) to pop rivets and start to weep water. This is supported by the fact that recovered hull samples have a high sulfur content, which would make the steel brittle and fracture-prone (Eaton/Haas, pp. 156-157, though they try to argue away the finding -- unsuccessfully, it seems to me). It wasn't a hole; it was a slow leak -- but a very large slow leak, or rather, a very large number of them (Ballard, pp. 196-197). It is also possible that the collision damaged the watertight bulkheads, so that compartments which were still watertight with respect to the ocean were not tight relative to the interior of the ship and could take in water from the compartments next to them; there was evidence of this in boiler room four (Lord-Lives, p. 65).
She picked a bad place to get hit, too. {#6} says she was off Newfoundland, {#4} claims the ship was only 90 (so McNeil's version) or 98 miles from shore (Randolph's version), but the 500 mile estimate in {#10, #16} is much closer; Titanic's broadcast distress call stated her position as 41 degrees 46 minutes north, 50 degrees 14 minutes west (Ballard, p. 22). This was Boxhall's dead reckoning fix (Lynch/Marschall, p. 108), but this may have involved as many as three errors: Boxhall may have assumed a higher speed than the ship actually managed (Butler-Other, p. 62, notes that her screws used a different pitch from Olympic's, on which Boxhall probably based his speed estimate); ignoring the local current (Eaton/Haas, p. 20); and failed to correct the chronometer for distance covered (Butler-Unsink, p. 242). Ballard, p. 199, moves the ship some 13.5 miles east southeast of her reported position.
But the error in the estimate hardly matters in reckoning her distance from land; in round numbers, she was 400 miles from the closest land at Cape Race {#13 -- which is from Newfoundland -- says she was heading for Cape Race, which is wrong, but she was communicating with Cape Race at the end; #15 accurately puts her 400 miles from Cape Race but gives the wrong distance to Boston}, 450 miles from St. John's (the nearest significant port), 800 miles from Halifax (the closest port truly suitable for large ships), and 1200 from her destination in New York. She was beyond the continental shelf, even though the shelf (the Grand Banks) extends unusually far out to sea in this area.
It would be some time before it was determined that the ship was in danger. The impact felt slight. Frederick Fleet, the man who spotted the berg, initially thought the ship had merely had a "narrow shave" (Wade, p. 173). (Hence, perhaps, the report in some versions of {#1} that the ship "began to reel and rock" at 1:00 on Monday, which would have been April 15. The impact was on Sunday, April 14, but evacuation began the next day. The April 15 date is also found in {#2}.)
There was no single source which reported the damage {contra #2, which credits "Bill" with reporting the problem}, although there is some uncertainty as to just who said what. Fourth Officer Boxhall was sent on an inspection tour (Butler-Unsink, p. 70), which revealed some water coming in. Carpenter Jim Hutchinson may have reported significant water below (Barczewski, p. 16, though Tibballs, p. 496, lists Hutchinson as a joiner, and Tibballs, p. 51, says that the carpenter, unnamed, who was sent to sound the ship never reported; Butler-Unsink, p. 70, and Lynch/Marschall, pp. 91-92, say that Hutchinson was sent to sound the ship, and came back reporting water below). A postal clerk probably reported at about the same time.
Soon the instruments showed a significant list. Butler-Unsink, p. 71, cites the testimony of Officer Boxhall, who reports that the commutator listed the ship as listing five degrees to the right and down two degrees at the head. This appears to have been what convinced Captain Smith that the ship was in trouble; Boxhall claims he muttered "Oh, my God" upon seeing that value.
The casualties might have been greater had not Thomas Andrews (1873-1912), the managing director of the shipyard that built Titanic, been aboard (he wanted to inspect her performance; Barczewski, p. 147). Captain Smith called on him to inspect the damage and estimate the situation (Butler-Unsink, p. 71). Andrews -- who seems to have been both a good people person and a highly competent engineer -- quickly realized the ship was doomed (Barczewski, p. 148; Butler-Unsink, pp. 71-72; Lord-Night, pp. 22-23, 26).
Smith, to his credit, accepted Andrews's estimate and started evacuation procedures, himself going to give instructions to the wireless crews (Lord-Night, p. 27). Andrews helped with the evacuation as best he could (Lynch/Marschall, p. 99), then was said to have gone to the first class smoking room; he reportedly was not wearing a lifebelt, and apparently had no intention of trying to save himself; his body was never found (Barczewski, p. 149).
But it is clear that there had been absolutely no planning for an evacuation. Passengers apparently weren't even told to get their lifejackets and go on deck; many of them went to the purser to reclaim their valuables, as if they were threatened with a stock market drop rather than a sinking ship (Lynch/Marschall, p. 99).
According to Wade, p. 144, the first wireless distress call went out 35 minutes after the collision -- just a few minutes too late; the wireless operator on the nearby Californian had gone to bed. (This may perhaps be the origin of the comment in some versions of {#1} that the wireless or wireless lines were on fire: Titanic was unable to communicate with the Californian. Or perhaps the reference is to Titanic's brush-off of Californian's earlier ice warning. I suspect, though, that the reference to the wireless being on fire is just an error.)
Incidentally, the wireless distress call is said to have been the first "SOS" call at sea {#9, #11}; at first, the operators send "CQD" messages, which were the original distress code. But "SOS" had been sent recently adopted as the emergency call -- it's much easier to transmit in Morse -- and eventually the operators decided to send that; Lord-Night, p. 52. The distress call went out not long after midnight {contra #9, which says it was "about the break of day," probably confusing the beginning of the day with daybreak}.
No one thought to send up rockets until a quartermaster at the stern of the ship noticed lifeboats leaving (he had not been told the ship was in danger!) and called the bridge. That aroused someone enough to order him to bring up the rockets (Lord-Night,p. 47). But, obviously, it took him some time to get them and bring them to the bridge of the big ship.
The statement in {#9} that the ship would "hold on to the last" does not appear to be based on an actual message from the Titanic; it sounds more like a message sent three years earlier when the Republic was sinking: "Ship's sinking, but will stick to the end" (Ritchie, p. 177). Still, many crew did stay on duty very late -- e.g. the engineers kept the lights on until just seconds before the final plunge, and senior wireless operator Jack Phillips stayed at his key even after Captain Smith told him that it was "every man for himself." The Virginian recorded a last faint "CQD" message at 2:17 (I'm not sure by whose clock; Butler-Other, p. 81, says that the Carpathia last heard a signal at 1:50, and it by then was the closest ship other than the Californian by a wide margin); that last signal was interrupted in mid-transmission (Butler-Other, p. 77). The ship is considered to have gone down at 2:20 (Butler-Other, p. 122). From then on, all that was left was the controversy.
Perhaps the biggest controversy came because survival rates for the different groups on board were very different. Because women and children were given priority {#3, #9, #11}, they of course had a higher survival rate than men -- but the first class men did almost as well as the third class women and children.
There were even two dogs rescued from first class (Lynch/Marschall, pp. 100-101). This being the era of the Filthy Rich, it was -- even more than today -- the era of the Completely Useless (and frequently disagreeable) Pet Dog. The Titanic had kennels, and even had crew members whose task was to walk the animals. In the early stages of the evacuation, when the boats were lowered half-empty, the two First Class Pooches were given spaces that could have gone to human beings. (Davenport-Hines, p. 174n., says that three dogs survived -- but since he lists 11 or 12 dogs belonging to first class passengers, their survival rate wasn't particularly high. Merely higher than that of, say, third class men.)
Much of the difference in casualty rates was due to the layout of the ship. The passengers in First Class were around the level of the boat deck, and were the first to reach the boats (the boats, absurdly, were at the very top of the ship, well above the main deck, which meant that there was less room for boats and that they were far above nearly every passenger on the ship).
As a result, 94% of first class women and children were saved (there is a table of casualty rates in Wade, p. 67, and a graph in Lord-Lives, p. 82). Only one first-class child went down with the ship, and that because she would not leave her mother, who in turn would not leave her husband; (Ballard, p 149; Lord-Lives, p. 83). Indeed, there was eventually a woman who turned up claiming to he a grown-up Loraine Allison, the little girl who was lost, but she was pretty clearly trying to get her hands on the money the child would have inherited had she lived (Lynch/Marshall, p. 214). Lord-Night, p. 105, notes that only four first class women died, and three of them decided to stay with their husbands. 31% of first class men were saved. In all, 60% of first class passengers survived.
Of second class passengers, 44% lived. In steerage, the figure was only 25% -- 47% of the women and 14% of the men. The survival rate for the crew was comparable to that for third class -- 24% (212 out of 890 crew members, according to Lord-Lives; note that {#15} says with fair accuracy there were 900 crew). Some initial news reports apparently claimed that no one in third class survived (Tibballs, p. 237).
It should be remembered that the third class passengers were physically blocked off from the upper decks due to quarantine regulations (steerage passengers were subjected to a physical examination before they could even board; Butler-Unsink, pp. 39-40), and in any case were many decks below the boats. (Hence the statement in {#1} that they "left the poor below.") And they had previously been strictly told to stay in their areas -- as more and more emigrants came from Eastern Europe, the steerage passengers came to be treated more and more as undesirables to be separated from the good Anglo-Saxons of the upper decks (Fox, pp. 330-331, who points out that steerage accommodations had actually gotten worse in the late nineteenth century, simply because steerage passengers were viewed as being of an "inferior race").
There were, in fact, only seven doors connecting third class to areas with access to boats (Butler-Unsink, p. 106), and of course the steerage passengers didn't know how to find those doors or get to anywhere useful if they did find them. And although they were not actually confined to their cabins at night, all the outside amenities shut down at 10:00 p.m. (Davenport-Hines, p. 272), so they had nowhere else to be.
Based on testimony from the survivors, they were not blocked from going to the boat deck (with some exceptions -- and of course there could have been major exceptions which simply weren't reported; see Wade, pp. 276-277, Lord-Lives, pp. 84-88). But the crew -- which obviously had to tell them what to do and guide them to the boats -- were mostly concentrated on the upper decks. By the time the third class passengers knew of the disaster and could reach the boat decks, the boats were mostly away -- one witness told of a great flood of third class passengers swarming the boat deck at the very end.
Butler-Unsink, p. 105, has perhaps the best summary: "[Steward John] Hart's efforts [which helped many female passengers escape the lower decks] underscored the fact that... there really was no deliberate policy of discrimination against Third Class. What there was, and what may have been all the more insidious by being purely unintentional, was that simply no policy or procedure for looking after the Third Class passengers existed.... Somewhere in the chain of command communications had broken down, and... when Captain Smith had given no specific instructions, Chief Officer Wilde seemed incapable of initiating any action himself. The other officers [who were lowering the boats] were already thoroughly occupied and had little time to spare for wondering about what or who the captain and chief officer might have overlooked."
This had an interesting side effect: although the rule was "women and children first," or where Second Officer Lightoller was in charge, "women and children only," because of the way passengers made their way to the boats -- or, rather, didn't -- the *number* of men to survive actually was larger than the number of women: 338 adult men, compared to 316 adult women, according to Lord-Lives, p. 82. The reason a higher percentage of women survived was because there were a lot more men than women aboard -- 1667 men, 425 women.
The male survivors even included J. Bruce Ismay, the man in charge of running White Star; he had crowded into a boat at the last minute. Widely blamed for causing the disaster -- after all, he had allowed the ship to go to sea without enough lifeboats or a trained crew -- he lived another 25 years, mostly as a recluse; Lord-Lives, pp. 180-181. (To be fair, the wreck was a disaster for him in many ways; not only did it damage his firm's reputation and his finances, it also cost him the life of the two personal employees who sailed with him; Matsen, p. 172. So if he was even nuttier after that than he had been before, little wonder.)
(Reading the histories, I don't think Ismay should be blamed for the disaster as such -- he didn't run the ship; Captain Smith did. Ismay did bear significant blame for the lack of boats, though, which at the very least demonstrates that he hadn't properly researched the ship's capabilities. Plus he was a busybody who did nothing but get in the way during the evacuation -- one of the officers had to force him away from the boats. And, on a more individual note, when the ship's musicians were subjected to a pay cut and harsher working conditions, he pretty well blew them off; Barczewski, p. 129. One of the female stewards reported being required to work seventeen hours a day; Davenport-Hines, p. 257. So my verdict is: Criminal, not guilty; Jerk, guilty.)
The Titanic myth of men standing aside to let the women live did create some problems for adult male survivors, many of whom felt pressure to justify their continued existence. Biel, pp. 28-29, notes how Lawrence Beesley, a second class male survivor, later tried to get a part in a Titanic movie so he could be seen going down with the ship this time. (He was denied the role of an extra because he wasn't a member of Actor's Equity. Ironic to note that his daughter-in-law would write One Hundred and One Dalmatians; Davenport-Hines, p. 206.)
One final observation on casualties: All numbers are slightly imprecise, because the lists of those aboard are slightly imperfect. (At least one man who was lost cannot ever be identified, because he went aboard using another man's stolen identification; Eaton/Haas, p. 72.) In round numbers, 1500 were lost {#9}. Lord-Night, p. 176, says that the American inquiry put the figure at 1517, the British Board of Trade came up with 1503, and the British Enquiry 1490. Lord-Night inclines toward the middle figure. The figure of 1600 in {#1, #4, #5, #7, #16} is certainly too high, though not by much. One suspects the songs citing this figure were composed very soon after the wreck, before the enquiries had sorted things out. The other possibility is that it refers to the number of people actually on the ship when the last boats pulled away, estimated by Lord-Lives (p. 2) to be 1600. But a few of these survived, being hauled out of the water by the boats.
For the most part, the evacuation was orderly. Women and children were put in the boats, and men generally accepted it. Still, it appears that a few shots were fired. The shots did not {contra #3} wake Captain Smith, who of course was awake to order the evacuation. The officers had pistols, and fifth officer Lowe at one point fired a few rounds to prevent a rush on the boat (Lord-Night, p. 75; Lord-Lives, p. 99). This ended the rush, and no one was hurt in the incident. First officer Murdoch may also have used his pistol (Lord-Lives, p. 100; cf. Lord-Night, p. 76), but again, he fired in the air. So at most one passenger was killed by an officer to prevent chaos, and even this is relatively ill-documented (Lord-Lives, pp. 101-102).
The real tragedy of the Titanic, of course, is that everyone could have been saved had there been enough lifeboats. British Board of Trade regulations said merely that any ship over 15,000 tons had to have at least sixteen lifeboats. And the regulations were enforced; Butler-Unsink, p. 38, tells of the officers getting very upset with the Board of Trade inspector because he was so thorough. Titanic in fact had twenty (counting the four collapsible lifeboats that were not on davits and so were much harder to lower; two in fact were on a roof near one of the funnels and almost inaccessible; Lord-Lives, p. 97) -- but she was 46,000 tons, or three times the size envisioned when the regulation was written.
Adding more lifeboats would not have been a great hardship. More boats would have added some weight, of course, but they did not need more space; Titanic's davits were designed to carry multiple boats. Only two boats were actually designed to be lowered and then raised again (Davenport-Hines, p. 278); the rest were true lifeboats. Had she been fitted with a suitable number of lifecraft, and had crew competent to lower them, there was time to get everyone off. But there were boats for only 1178 people (Lord-Lives, p. 72). It was fortunate, in a way, that the ship was only half full; had she carried her full complement of 3547, there would have been boat space for only a third of them.
Making the matter worse, the lifeboats that did go out weren't full. This was not callousness or over-excitement; the lifeboat officers were not certain that fully-loaded boats could survive the drop after being lowered the long distance from the Titanic's decks (Wade, pp. 132-133), or that the crew were competent to lower full boats. (There had been a recent incident where a lifeboat from the Oceana had overturned, killing nine passengers, so many people were afraid of the boats; Davenport-Hines, p. 279.) Plus, with the ship going down, they were trying to get every boat down before she was swamped -- meaning they didn't wait to bring in as many people as possible.
(The farce of the lifeboats may not have ended there. The boats were supposed to be equipped with oars, sails, and survival supplies. An eyewitness testified that most of these were lacking; Eaton/Haas, p. 36. It was fortunate that the sea was calm; if anyone had been thrown out of a boat, it might have been hard to rescue the lost person. And two of the "collapsible" boats were effectively useless, because they were in places from which they could not be lowered! -- Davenport/Hines, p. 279.)
So most of the boats that were sent off in the first hour or so were lowered half-empty -- and apparently no one ever considered using one or another boat as an elevator to send down more passengers. Toward the end, the officers were willing to put more people aboard, but with most of the passengers at the stern, there was no one around near the bow when the last boats at that end were lowered (Lord-Lives, pp. 94-95). As a result, about 400 seats in the boats that could have been filled instead were left empty.
That was not the end of the mishandling. Though the Titanic did not have enough boats, she did have enough lifebelts to keep everyone afloat -- if they were rescued quickly enough from the chill waters. In fact, a few people who did not make it off the sinking ship were rescued by the boats, though many of the boats rowed away from the wreck as fast as they were able (Wade, pp. 233-235; Lynch/Marschall, p. 129, claims that Captain Smith tried to call some of the half-full boats back, but I have not seen this claim elsewhere, and in any case, none of them obeyed).
We note that many bodies would eventually be discovered, still afloat in their lifebelts {#4}, carried northward by the current; most seem to have died of the cold (Wade, pp. 273-274; according to Lynch/Marschall, p. 176, one of the rescue ships found 17 bodies in the sea, and only one had water in the lungs, i.e. had drowned. The rest all died of hypothermia). Had more of the boats come to their rescue, it is probable that at least a few hundred more people would have survived.
When the song calls it a "cold and icy sea" {#6}, it was only the truth; the waters were at 28 degrees F, and Second Officer Lightoller, who spent time in the water before reaching an overturned lifeboat (he was one of a number of men who survived by swimming to Collapsible A or Collapsible B, the lifeboats that the officers were still trying to get down when the ship sank), said that it felt like being stabbed with "a thousand knives" when he went into the sea (Barczewski, p. 29; Lord-Night, p. 114). In several cases, it took only a few minutes to kill; Barczewski, on the same page, relates the testimony of several people who pulled passengers into the lifeboats only to find them already dead, or to watch them die even after they were pulled from the water. Even some people who were never in the water suffered severely from the cold (Eaton/Haas, p. 41).
A recovery ship called the MacKay-Bennett (chartered by White Star in one of their few recorded instances of voluntary compassion; Butler-Unsink, p. 199) brought in at least 306 bodies (Barczewski, p. 41), mostly unhurt except for sea and cold, and many more were seen by other ships (Wade, p. 274); 22 more bodies were brought in by other vessels (Barczewski, p. 42), some also charted by White Star (Eaton/Haas, pp. 99-100); the last body was picked in mid-May (Eaton/Haas, p. 105). Many recovered bodies went unidentified (Eaton/Haas, p. 105, says that 128 were buried without their names being known; Barczewski, p. 45, notes the case of a baby whose identity was not firmly established until DNA testing was used in 2002). Eaton/Haas, p. 105, calculates that 1314 bodies were never brought back to land.
Most of the grief could have been spared had another ship arrived quickly. And there was another ship in the vicinity, the freighter Californian. The Californian had been one of the ships sending ice warnings; she had halted for the night in the face of the ice barrier -- her commander Stanley Lord was still fairly new to command, and had not faced ice before. (He was only 34 years old, according to Eaton/Haas, p. 128. Butler-Other, p. 50, says that he had commanded his first ship in 1906, but he had not moved to the Californian until early 1912.)
Since the Californian was carrying freight only (there was some passenger space on the ship, but it was not occupied; the ship had been designed as a pure freighter, with the passenger space added as an afterthought late in her construction, according to Butler-Other, pp. 42-43), there was no real urgency about arriving at his destination (as witness the fact that the ship had sailed April 5, according to Eaton/Haas, p. 39). This was not a boat trying for a fast crossing -- though Butler-Other, p. 51, says that she had had a rough voyage the trip before and had to be hurried through the preparations for her current voyage. So Lord decided to sit tight (Butler-Unsink, p. 159).
The Californian's behavior inspired much controversy. Californian's crew certainly saw a second ship not far from them -- though most of the observers thought it too small to be the Titanic. (Butler-Other, p. 55, thinks this was because they saw it only under poor viewing conditions or after it had turned; Smithsonian, p. 37, offers a technical explanation -- "super refraction" -- for why the distances seemed off.) The Californian's crew saw a series of rockets fired, at times roughly corresponding to when the Titanic was sending off distress signals. They saw the ship to the south seemingly turn off most of its lights, and then disappear. These things happened soon after midnight. It was not until 4:00 a.m. that an officer really attempted to learn what was happening (Ritchie, pp. 32-33). The key questions are, Was this ship the Titanic, should the Californian have done something, and could it have done something had it tried?
According to Ballard's calculations, Californian was not more than 21 miles from where Titanic went down, and probably closer due to drift (Ballard, pp. 200-201, following the work of Jack Grimm; cf. Butler-Unsink, p. 243). Captain Lord would later give the distance as 17-19 miles (Ritchie, p. 33). Some estimates -- including Lord Mersey's official British inquiry (Ritchie, p. 33) -- have placed the two ships within five to ten miles of each other (Eaton/Haas, p. 151, though on p. 150 they argue for the 20 mile figure); Mersey had no doubt that the ship seen from the Titanic was the Californian (Mersey, p. 41 and elsewhere).
There is also suspicion that Californian's log was "cleaned up"; the official log has no record of seeing any rockets (although the accounts of the crew make it clear that she did) -- and the "scrap log," which usually contains information to be cross-checked before being entered into the official log, is missing for that time period, even though it is usually preserved (Butler-Unsink, pp. 243-244). Butler-Unsink, p. 244, argues that the course she was on would have left her south of her official position when stopped -- i.e. closer to the Titanic.
Butler-Other, p. 136, also notes the curious fact that Captain Lord had his officers swear out statements about the disaster even before they reached port, which he then locked in his safe. What's more, Lord would refer to his navigation data, which most captains made public, as "state secrets" (Butler-Other, p. 137).
At the heart of the problem was the fact that the Californian had only one wireless operator, who went off duty before the Titanic started sending distress signals. The officers of the Californian certainly saw Titanic's emergency rockets -- but ignored them until too late (Paine, p. 87). She didn't even have the excuse that she had to protect her passengers; since she was carrying only cargo (Lord-Lives, p. 134). Her inaction was at the instigation of her captain, Stanley Lord, who was trying to sleep and whose only response to the rockets was to tell his officers to try to contact the other ship by searchlight.
It's not clear why there was no response to the lights -- Lord's defenders often claim there was a third ship between the two of them and the Californian never saw the Titanic (Eaton/Haas, p. 127) -- but the ghost ship has never been identified (proposals have been made; none are convincing). From what I can tell, it sounds as if any ghost ship in that spot would have crashed straight into the ice barrier, so it is most unlikely that there was such a ship. The likely explanation for the lack of response to the Morse lamp is that the officers of the Titanic had other things on their minds than sending lamp signals. Titanic's wireless operators could stay at their posts; they had no other duties -- but the ship's officers were busy evacuating. (Fourth officer Boxhall had tried signaling the mystery ship; according to Lynch/Marschall, p. 109, Captain Smith's words were "Tell him to come at once. We are sinking" -- the exact words quoted in {#9}, though they are there credited to the wireless officers.)
Butler, p. 156, notes an interesting argument made by a hydrographer at the time, which said that the maximum distance at which Titanic could see a ship on the horizon at night was 16 miles, and the maximum distance her boats could see one was seven miles. Since the Californian, based on stated positions, was certainly more than seven miles away, and probably more than 16, and since Titanic and Californian both unquestionably saw a ship, then either the two were closer together than Captain Lord claimed or there was a ship between the two. This, of course, was the heart of the argument.
Captain Smith did order the boats to head for the ship on the horizon, which by every reckoning but Captain Lord's was the Californian (Barczewski, p. 168), but she was too far away for the disorganized rowers to reach in any reasonable time. (None of the Titanic's boats were powered. They had sails -- or at least they were supposed to, though they may have been among the emergency stores not packed -- but only a couple of sailors on the Titanic knew how to sail a boat, so that was no help.)
Stanley Lord claimed that the Titanic was too far away to reach in time (Eaton/Haas, p. 129). But Californian had a top speed of 13.5 knots (Paine, p. 87; Eaton/Haas, p. 44). If he had reacted as strongly as the Carpathia, he would certainly have arrived at least half an hour before the Titanic went down (that based on the ships' official positions; it would have been sooner if, as suspected, the two ships were closer together than the Californian's official position indicated), allowing for much more complete rescue efforts. Condemnation of Californian's skipper Stanley Lord has not been universal -- Butler-Unsink, p. 241, notes that some maritime unions have a strong interest in not having him condemned -- but it is widespread; if the Californian was the mystery ship, there can be little doubt that Lord's behavior caused hundreds of avoidable deaths.
It is ironic to note that the Californian was owned by the Leyland Line, which was owned by International Merchant Marine, which also owned White Star and the Titanic (Butler-Other, p. 44). It was IMM, in fact, which had put the passenger space on Californian.
Of the books I have read, only Lynch/Marschall and Eaton/Haas can be considered Lordite; on pp. 190-191, the former argues, first, that the Californian's reported position and the Titanic's actual position were too far apart to allow easy visual contact; second, that it took the Californian two hours to reach the Titanic's death site (so also Eaton/Haas, p. 44, but they note that she initially steamed at a mere six knots), so she couldn't have gotten there quickly even had she responded to the pleas; third, that there may have been a third ship (this would be the alternate explanation for why witnesses on the Titanic thought that there was a moving ship within five or six miles of them -- Eaton/Haas, p. 37); fourth, that many on the Californian did not think the ship was big enough to be the Titanic, fifth, that the witnesses on both ships thought the other ship was moving even though both were stopped.
The first objection is meaningless, since it is based on one actual and one estimated position; the second is also meaningless, because the Californian headed for the reported position, not the actual position (when the Carpathia and the Californian actually rendezvoused, it was at 41 degrees 33' N, 50 degrees 01' W, or about 15 nautical miles from where the Titanic broadcast as the site of the disaster); the third is vitiated by the fact that, if there had been a third ship, the Carpathia or the Mount Temple should have seen it (Butler-Other, p. 158), and never did, and no ship is logged as being in the area; the fourth may have been an illusion of distance; and the fifth may also have been an illusion, or it may have been caused by the drift of the two vessels, which would have responded to ocean currents differently.
Butler-Other, pp. 171-176, describes Lord's testimony before the British investigatory tribunal; it is confusing and sounds like the account of a man trying to cover his guilt. On the other hand, he was being badgered by several questioners about events which happened in the middle of the night. I would allow the possibility that he simply didn't remember that well.
But not one of these objections in any way overcomes the basic flaw in the Lordite position: That Captain Lord saw distress rockets and ignored them. We don't know if Lord could have helped the Titanic. We *do* know that he ignored an obvious cry for help.
Ritchie, p. 33, notes that the bad publicity forced Captain Lord to quit the Leyland Line. He found another job, but it was with the Nitrate Producers Steamship Company, which cannot have been as prestigious. His record there is said to be unblemished.
We should stress: Stanley Lord was not guilty of murder. He did not know what was happening. Even if he had responded immediately to the first distress rocket, he might not have been able to reach Titanic in time to save everyone (Butler-Other, pp. 191-194, attempts to calculate what Californian could have done had she responded at once, and estimates that he might have saved 300 more lives. I would consider this number somewhat low, because the evacuation of Titanic might have been more orderly had there been word that a ship would arrive soon. But Butler is likely right that some would still have died). And if he had known with certainty that a ship was sinking near him, he would have surely done more than he did.
To repeat: All authorities agree Lord is innocent of deliberate murder. What he is guilty of is negligence and indifference. And, to be fair, his junior officers must bear part of the blame. To give Lord his due, he had gone to bed before the distress calls started. The junior officers made very little effort to wake him (Eaton/Haas, p. 151). There is certainly plenty of blame to spread among the Californian's officers.
Still, Butler-Unsink, pp. 191-194, 241-245, accuses Stanley Lord of terrorizing his officers until they couldn't act without his permission. Butler-Other, p. 199, offers as his verdict that "circumstances unconsciously conspired to reveal that Stanley Lord was a man without conscience: Stanley Lord was a sociopath." I do not think Butler proves this -- he says he consulted experts, and even lists them on p. 243 -- but he doesn't give details of their analysis, or of what information they used to reach their conclusions. Nor would I wish to trust a therapist who would reach such a posthumous conclusion. I'm not sure a diagnosis at this distance is even meaningful. Still, it would explain a lot.
However, the diagnosis is very problematic, because "sociopath" is not even a proper clinical term these days (it's not even mentioned in the index to the DSM-IV-TR); those who were once deemed sociopaths and psychopaths are now a considered a subset of those who suffer Antisocial Personality Disorder (although there are those who argue vehemently that psychopathy, at least, is a distinct condition). And Lord does not seem to fit that diagnosis. The DSM-IV-TR criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder (p. 706) require that the person have shown signs of Conduct Disorder before age 15, and the only sign of this in the discussion of his life on p. 47 of Butler-Other is "willfulness."
As an adult, someone with Antisocial Personality Disorder must meet at least four of seven criteria. Butler would certainly argue that Lord met criterion (5), "reckless disregard for safety of self or others," and also criterion (7), "lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another." But that is only two criteria, and it appears to me that he certainly does not meet (1), "failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors," (3) "impulsivity or failure to plan ahead" (Butler-Other, p. 54, shows just how Lord managed everything in nitpicky detail; he showed no impulsivity at all); (4) "irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults" (Lord was irritable, but he didn't get into fights!); and (6), "consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations." The whole reason Lord had command of a ship was his demonstrated responsibility!
So Lord was not, clinically at least, a sociopath; if I had to assign a diagnosis, I'd be much more tempted by Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which requires five traits (DSM-IV-TR, p. 717), of which Lord had (1), "a grandiose sense of self-importance," probably (5), "a sense of entitlement," (6), "is interpersonally exploitative," (7), "lacks empathy," and (9), "shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes." He also shows hints of some of the other criteria.
It should be remembered that Lord was called upon to make his choice in the middle of the night. He might simply have made a mistake because he was tired -- if he had been as alert a sociopath as Butler would make him, he would likely have gone to rescue the Titanic for the fame it would bring him. His real faults were that he intimidated his officers so much that they did not dare push him, and he never admitted his error. These failings are both consistent with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. But this too is diagnosis at a distance; it's merely a diagnosis that actually fits....
Whatever Lord's mental state, The Lordite controversy is covered in detail in almost every book on the Titanic; see e.g. Barczewski, p. 35 and after; Lord-Lives, p. 135ffff.; Eaton/Haas, pp. 150-152; Ritchie, pp. 31-34; it is the primary subject of Butler-Other. Nonetheless, it seems not to have been mentioned much in the songs, perhaps because the Californian did not show up in the news stories until some time after the disaster.
Not every ship and captain was so inert. Captain Arthur Roston of the Carpathia heard the distress call, and at once turned ship {#9, #11; cf. #15, which implies that people on the ship were awaiting the Carpathia specifically, which surely isn't true}. His was by far the most decisive and effective action of the night. Unfortunately, his ship was roughly 60 miles from the Titanic, and the Carpathia, though only nine years old, had a normal top speed of just 14 knots (Paine, p. 96 Butler-Other, pp. 22-23, notes that she was not really intended to be a liner in the usual sense -- as built, she had large cargo holds and no first-class accommodations at all, just second class and steerage. In 1905, according to Butler-Other, p. 26, she was rebuilt to take first class passengers, and her third class space was expanded at the expense of the cargo space, but of course she was stuck with her old engines.)
Captain Roston and crew gave it everything they had, and supposedly got Carpathia going at 17 knots (Lord-Night, p. 141, though others have argued that she could not possibly have gotten above 16 knots; Butler-Other, p. 70. Since the ship never went that speed at any other time, we really cannot know). Despite her efforts, it took her some three and a half hours to reach the site of the Titanic, meaning that the larger liner had gone down about an hour before. Carpathia rescued such survivors as she could find, taking the first survivors aboard at 4:10 (Butler-Other, p. 105) and reaching the last boat at 8:30 (or about six hours after Titanic sank); by then of course the only survivors were those who had been in the boats. Indeed, some even of those pulled from the water by the boats had died; the cold and the shock (and, in a few cases, the effort of keeping a half-flooded boat afloat) proved too much.
After picking up every survivor, Captain Roston turned his ship about. Her destination was Europe, but he knew he had to get the survivors to land quickly. The only question was whether to head for New York (the passengers' intended destination) or Halifax (the nearest major port). After some consideration, he headed for New York {#11} (Lord-Night, pp. 160-161). It was to prove a difficult trip, both because of the crowding and because storms made some passengers fear that the Carpathia too was in danger (Lynch/Marschall, p. 163).
Lord-Night, pp. 189-209, gives the official passenger list, with those lost and saved, though he notes (Lord-Lives, pp. 36-38) that there were some errors in the list. Tibballs, pp. 483-506, gives a list which includes the crew, though some are miscategorized. Many books list only the "celebrity" passengers -- e.g. the very wealthy Isidor and Ida Strauss (just two of several millionaires {#6}), and American President Taft's advisor Archie Butt. (Several others big names booked passage but did not actually sail. J. P. Morgan, who ultimately owned the ship, was too ill to sail. Alfred W. Vanderbilt changed his mind so late that there wasn't even time to get his luggage off the ship; Ballard, p. 14; according to Eaton/Haas, p. 73, a servant stayed with the baggage and was lost with the ship. Some of Morgan's amazing antiquities collection was also supposed to go with the ship; by sheer luck, it didn't; Davenport-Hines, p. 13)
The Strausses are mentioned in the Cowboy Loye version of {#16}; they were an "elderly philanthropist" and his wife (Lord-Lives, p. 35) who owned the Macy's department store (Ballard, p. 14). They reached the deck early on, but Isador Strauss, being a man, was denied a place in the lifeboats (Butler-Unsink, p. 109, and Eaton/Haas, p. 26, in fact say that he refused to enter a boat when given a chance). His wife could have left, but she declared that she would share his fate ("We have been living together for many years; where you go, I go"), went back aboard the ship, and of course died in the wreck (Wade, p. 61 -- a story that came out in the American hearings).
But if Ida Strauss gets the award for Most Romantic Gesture, no passenger was given more publicity than John Jacob Astor (1864-1912) {#5; probably the "Jacob Nash" of Lomax's #3}. He was probably the richest man aboard, though he had inherited rather than earned most of the money. He kept 18 automobiles, and had raised a regiment for the Spanish-American War, allowing him to take the title of Colonel (Barczewski, p. 58), even though he had no military training (and probably less aptitude, except for the mercilessness that came from his financial background).
As the boats went off, Astor apparently asked if he could go aboard with his (much younger trophy) wife, who was pregnant. (No, they didn't have the phrase "trophy wife" in 1912, but they had the idea, and Astor was largely cast out of society; Barczewski, p. 58.
Barczewski adds that the girl was visibly pregnant even though they had been married only four months. It is perhaps revealing that Madeleine Force Astor would remarry in 1918 even though it meant giving up about seven million dollars in money from a prenuptial agreement. (Astor doesn't seem to have had much taste in women; his first wife was very beautiful but completely incompatible with him; they had little to do with each other although they didn't get divorced until after Astor's mother died; Davenport-Hines, p. 163.
The flip side is, at least Astor married his New Cookie; other rich men pretended to be faithful and took mistresses. Benjamin Guggenheim, another of the ultra-rich passengers, had left his wife in New York to travel with his girlfriend; Butler-Unsink, p. 28.
Second officer Lightoller, who survived but only by swimming to a boat, flatly refused Astor's request to join her in the boat (Barczewski, p. 25).
Astor allowed her to go in the boat without him, but said that he would meet her in the morning (Barczewski, p. 60); either he expected the ship to survive (unlikely by then) or he expected to find another boat.
Quite a few legends arose about Astor immediately after the wreck, generally very positive {#5 says "all the women he tried to save"}; Biel, p. 41, reports an account in which he is credited with saying "Not a man until every woman and child is safe in the boats." Not one of these accounts is from from an actual beneficiary of his kindness, or even a reliable witness; all were reports of people who claimed they saw something he did (Barczewski, p. 63); we cannot in any instance prove that Astor was actually the man involved.
(This "men stepped aside" legend is found, e.g., in {#4};Biel, pp. 23-25, documents that this arose in the first hours after the sinking, before any of the survivors had told their tale; the stories weren't exactly false, but it was the ship's officers, not the passengers, who controlled access to the boats, and in the end, many men did survive.)
Astor's body was one of those found by the MacKay-Bennett; it was in very bad shape, but he could be identified by the monograms on his clothing (Barczewski, p. 40). Lord-Lives, p. 172, observes that the Astor family did not even file any claims for damages over his death -- something that obviously would not have happened in today's litigious society.
There were, to be sure, lawsuits filed -- a lot of them, totaling about $16 million. This led to interesting problems in dealing with British and American law (after all, it was a British ship owned by an American conglomerate.) In the end, White Star paid out $664,000 (Lord-Lives, pp. 172-177).
The fate of Captain Smith, mentioned in folklore, is in fact uncertain, except that he definitely did not survive. Wade, p. 58, and Barczewski, pp. 169-171 list several reports, from suicide to rescuing other passengers at the expense of his life. (Barczewski suggests that most of the more heroic stories stemmed from some deep British urge to make him look good, and reports on p. 172 that those responsible for building his memorial were mostly passengers who had enjoyed sailing with him on other vessels.)
Butler-Unsink, pp. 251-252, examines his decisions in the ship's last hours, and (with the concurrence of a psychologist) suggests that the mental blow was so strong that he largely lost the power of decision -- we might informally say that he was in shock. (Lynch/Marschall, p. 137, says he "seemed almost in a daze, a strangely passive figure.") If so, he probably didn't do anything especially noteworthy in the last moments of the ship's life.
(Incidentally I can't help but note that Smith doesn't seem to have been the only one. There was little panic on the Titanic -- but very little ingenuity once Andrews gave the bad news. Did the engineers try to rig more pumps to lengthen the ship's life? Seemingly not. Did the carpenter use the wood furnishings to try to make coracles or something to keep a few more people afloat? There is no evidence of it, though we do hear of a baker throwing deck chairs overboard in hopes people could cling to them; Lynch/Marschall, p. 134. Did anyone counterflood, to try to keep the water from overtopping the forward bulkheads? Certainly not. The sinking ship saw much heroism and very little intelligence.)
The likeliest scenario is that Smith went into the water with so many other passengers (so, e.g., explicitly Lynch/Marschall, p. 137), and -- like them -- died of exposure. It was probably an easier death than that suffered by the engineers and stokers in the lower parts of the ship, who stayed down there to keep the electricity going; they would have asphyxiated or drowned or both.
Smith somehow became a hero -- legend had it that one of his last orders was, "Be British!" In other words "Keep a stiff upper lip (even though you're about to die an agonizing death)"; it became a legendary command and inspired various poems and non-folk songs.
There is some irony in noting that the memorial to Smith cites his "great heart," "brave life," and "heroic death" (the last of which, as noted, cannot be proved) -- but does not include the name of the Titanic (Barczewski, p. 180).
First officer Murdoch, the officer on watch when the ship hit the berg, also had various ends ascribed to him, including suicide (Barczewski, p. 193). Apparently Hollywood threw in some even worse charges (Barczewski, p. 199). But the best evidence is that he simply ended up in the water like everyone else, and the citizens of his home town eventually won an apology, including some cash, from the studio (Barczewski, p. 198, 202).
Surviving officers such as Lightoller, however, found their careers blighted. Wade seems to think that Lightoller was evasive before the investigating committees, and similarly Matsen, pp. 204-205, but Lord considers him a decisive and capable officer, noting that he served in the Royal Navy in World War I and, as an old man, took his private boat to assist in the evacuation of Dunkirk. He also had a compelling life story, having lost his mother as an infant and then having his father leave the country (Davenport-Hines, p. 79); he had spent most of his life at sea. But he was never given a ship to command (Lord-Lives, pp. 192-193). The junior officers did no better, even though they surely could not be blamed for the outcome.
The survivor who earned the most publicity (other than Ismay) was probably "Unsinkable" Molly Brown: Margaret Tobin Brown, 1867-1932. Born poor, her husband, a mining supervisor, discovered gold in the Little Johnny Mine (Barczewski, p. 85). Molly, suddenly rich, then became active in a variety of social causes -- and became a world traveller after she and her husband drifted apart. (According to Davenport-Hines, p. 166, her husband's temper had changed after he suffered a stroke, and they legally separated in 1909.) She was in Europe when her grandson became ill, so she hurried back to the United States on the Titanic (Barczewski, p. 86). When the ship hit the iceberg, she gathered some of her things (fortunately not all; no spartan, she abandoned 25 gowns, 14 hats, and 13 pairs of shoes purchased in Paris; Barczewski, p. 87).
Hustled into a lifeboat, she distributed some of the seven pairs of socks she was wearing to those who had come aboard less well-supplied (Barczewski, p. 89), and also tried to convince the quartermaster in charge of the boat to rescue those left behind. If the account in Barczewski, pp. 88-89, is even vaguely correct, his was one of the most despicable stories on that night; he refused to go back, and refused even to hand over the tiller, instead leaving it to the middle-aged Brown and one other woman to row.
Aboard the Carpathia, Brown tried to send out messages on behalf of poorer passengers who could not pay for wireless messages (Barczewski, p. 90). She also tried to comfort some of the grieving survivors (her skill in several languages helped), and set up a subscription to make up for their losses. It added up to a legend -- which was confirmed in 1925, when she survived a hotel fire and helped others escape the building (Barczewski, p. 92). But Barczewski says that the popular accounts which made her legendary were largely fictionalized.
Brown was active in relief causes in World War I, but after that fell into quarrels with her children and grandchildren, and her money dried up after her husband died in 1922 (Barczewski, p. 91)
There was one small consolation out of the Titanic wreck: The British and Americans toughened regulations for liners. They had to have enough lifeboats, the crew had to know how to deal with them, they had to have full-time wireless officers, etc. (Wade, pp. 302-303). These would not prevent future disasters, as the Lusitania would demonstrate just over three years later, but they made them less inherently deadly -- the loss of life on the Lusitania was mostly because she sank in twenty minutes. Had she stayed afloat for more than two hours, as the Titanic did, nearly everyone aboard would have survived.
Wade, p. 318, notes the additional irony that this disaster did not strike one much-oppressed community: There were few Blacks aboard the ship as she sank -- Biel, p. 112, says none; Daveport-Hines, p. 200, says there was one, a Joseph Laroche, a Haitian who had been living in France but was returning to Haiti because of racism. A second class passenger, he did not survive, although it appears his family did. Of course, this eliminates the whole plot of "Shine and the Titanic" {contra #14}.
That's just as well for Shine, given the report in the song that Captain Smith's daughter offered him her body if he would rescue her. Smith had only one child, a daughter, Helen Melville Smith -- and she was still just a girl, born in 1902 (Barczewski, p. 163); imagine what would have happened had Shine so much as touched a child that age! In any case, her name isn't in the passenger list in Lord-Night, and she was alive to dedicate a memorial to Smith in 1914 (Barczewski, p. 179).
"Shine and the Titanic" is also ruled out by the fact that Shine could not have swum to safety; the water, as noted, was just too cold.
Racism also tinged the stories about the people who tried to rush the boats; they were usually labelled Asian or Italian or otherwise less than Anglo-Saxon. There is absolutely no evidence for this, and much reason to think it false (Barczewski, pp. 55-56). There is one documented instance of a crewman trying to steal another crewman's life vest; since there were no Blacks aboard, he cannot have been Black, and in fact the surviving witnesses never said he was -- but one press report calls him a Negro (Biel, pp. 50-51). (There was at least one Japanese man, Masabumi Hosono, in second class, according to Davenport-Hines, p. 200. He did survive, but I find no charges against him specifically. Incidentally, Blacks weren't the only subject of prejudice; the Slavs of eastern Europe also suffered from discrimination and segregation, according to Davenport-Hines, p. 226, although it wasn't quite as severe. But the liners tried to see to it that they boarded at only a few ports.)
The story of boxer Jack Johnson is more complicated; it appears that Leadbelly's song on the topic ({#8}: "Jack Johnson want to get on board, Captain said, "I ain't haulin' no coal") conflates two incidents. Lyle Lofgren tells me that Johnson was in Chicago at the time Titanic sank, but according to Barczewski, p. 64, Johnson was refused passage on a liner due to his skin color on another occasion. This was not a new problem. Cunard in the 1840s twice carried Frederick Douglass across the Atlantic, but on one occasion forced him to stay in steerage rather than among the first class passengers; on the other, it gave him a cabin but refused to let him mingle with the passengers (Fox, p. 200).
According to Lord-Lives, p. 8, no books on the Titanic were published from 1913 to 1955. In the publishing business, A Night to Remember started a Titanic boom (Biel, p. 149, calls the 1955 publication of A Night to Remember the biggest date in Titanic history other than 1912 itself.). But the songs on the subject hardly stopped -- indeed, some time around 1970, they taught us a comic parody of {#1} ("Oh, they built another ship Called the S.S. 92... And they christened it with beer, and it sank right off the pier, Wasn't it sad when that great ship went down") in elementary school. Ironically for the parody, the Titanic was never formally christened (Lord-Lives, p. 11).
In the late twentieth century, of course, the movie "Titanic" was released. I have not seen it, but the reports I've read (e.g. in Barczewski) say that it contains many historical inaccuracies. Perhaps it will be starting a new round of Titanic folklore.
Another irony is the effort which White Star went to to suppress the memory of the ship -- which obviously failed. After Carpathia dropped off the lifeboats at White Star's dock in New York, White Star stripped off all identifying markings; we don't even know what became of the boats (Lynch/Marschall, pp. 166-168; Easton/Haas, p. 49, thinks they were stripped by souvenir hunters and then rotted away at the dock; Butler-Other, in the photographs section, thinks they were used on other White Star ships, but of course without anyone knowing where they came from). They would probably be worth millions today.
Which brings us to one of the most vexed of all questions about the Titanic: What the band played on that last night.
There are a lot of misconceptions about the performance that night. For starters, the musicians were not a band as properly so understood -- they did not have a brass section. Their instruments were strings and piano.
In fact, the eight performers weren't even a group in the usual sense. They rarely if ever played together as an eight-piece ensemble (Lord-Lives, pp. 96-97). The musicians consisted of a string quartet with piano (the primary group, led by newly-engaged violinist Wallace Hartley, which played the main evening concerts and Sunday religious services), and a violin/'cello/piano trio which played mostly at receptions and in the cafes (Barczewski, pp. 130-131). They can't have been very loud (especially away from a piano), and in an emergency situation, with the ship listing and sheet music not usable, they would have to rely on things everyone knew -- and even for that, they might not have parts properly assigned. (Eaton/Haas, p. 94, claims they had all 352 pieces in the White Star music collection memorized. This is patently absurd, though presumably they could play them all.)
Incidentally, they played for tips (Davenport-Hines, p. 258), which tells you how poor their regular pay was.
I can't help but note the irony that two of them had been lured away from the Carpathia to serve on the Titanic (Lord-Night, p. 44). Though Butler-Unsink, p. 122, reports that Hartley was once asked what he would do on a sinking ship, and he had answered, "I would gather the band together and begin playing."
We don't even know how long they played (Lord-Lives, pp. 107-108). Going down with the ship was not part of their job. Although musicians on German ships actually doubled as ship's stewards (Brinnin, p. 312; this had the ironic effect that German ships, unlike English, *did* play "Nearer My God to Thee" on Sundays), English ships employed specialist musicians who were not formally employees of White Star. (In fact, White Star's passenger list shows them as second class passengers.) Shortly before the Titanic voyage, White Star had started contracting with an agent to supply musicians. The hiring agents booked most of the same musicians the liner companies had always employed -- but inflicted a large pay cut on them and used the difference to make their profits (Lord-Lives, pp. 114-116). White Star refused even to pay death benefits to the musicians (Lord-Lives, p. 117). However long they played, it was above and beyond the call of duty. In the end, all eight of them went down with the ship (Ballard, p. 24 -- a page which also shows a poster for the band).
Whether the musicians made attempts to save themselves cannot be known; some passengers stated that they quit playing about half an hour before the ship sank (Barczewski, p. 132) -- perhaps when the last boats left? But it is touching to quote the remark of Steward Edward Brown, who, when asked when they ceased playing, said "I do not remember hearing them stop" (Lord-Lives, p. 108). Hence, perhaps, the statement that the music "played as they went down" {#9}.
In a minor folkloric touch, Hartley's body was recovered; the face was almost beyond recognition, but he still was wearing his uniform, and his violin case was on his back, allowing identification (Barczewski , p. 139); he was buried in his home town of Colne (which he had left 17 years before) in a rosewood casket (Lord-Lives, p. 118).
Interestingly, though most reports say the musicians played either hymns or ragtime on that last night, neither was the Hartley quintet's specialty; their primary clientele was the first class passengers (worth, according to Barczewski, over $500 million in 1912 dollars!), who apparently preferred classical music -- on the night the boat went down, the evening concert included Wagner, Dvorak, and Puccini, according to Lord-Lives, pp. 43-44. Apparently some of the listeners felt the band not quite up to the task (Lord-Lives, p. 43) -- but imagine five musicians trying to play Wagner!
We might add that ship's bands of this period played largely for charity (Preston, p. 141) -- though it seems that few passengers were particularly generous.
When the ship hit the iceberg, Captain Smith apparently roused the musicians to play during the evacuation (Barczewski, p. 132). At first, they seem to have played in the first class lounge; later, they moved toward the boats (though the piano players would have been unable to play on the boat deck itself, and without the piano the group would have been quiet indeed. Perhaps -- personal speculation only -- one of the piano players took over conducting, to try to keep the group together without the piano playing rhythm?).
As for what they played, most reports agree that the band started out by playing ragtime tunes (or at least "Alexander's Ragtime Band," which had been a big hit the year before but which critics have indignantly charged isn't ragtime), mixed with other light pieces (Lord-Lives, p. 109). Butler-Unsink, p. 91, apparently based on the report of Lawrence Beesley, mentions "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Great Big Beautiful Doll," "Can't You Hear Me Caroline," "A Little Love, A Little Kiss," and "Moonlight Bay."
According to Wade, pp. 61-62, it was a Mrs. Vera Dick who started one of the most enduring false stories. She was the one who reported that the band played "Nearer, My God, to Thee" as the ship went down {#1, #2, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #16}. Obviously, if she had been near enough to hear the band, she would have been sucked down with it; Lord-Lives, p. 109, says she was at least a quarter of a mile away. Of course, one newspaper account claimed that the sound of the hymn continued *after* the ship sank! (Barczewski, p. 137).
Lord also observes that "Nearer, My God, To Thee" has different tunes in Britain and America -- yet passengers from both sides of the ocean claim to have heard it played. Odds are that someone, probably Mrs. Dick, started the story, and it sounded so appropriate that people thought they remembered it. Or maybe it was a transferred memory from the memorial services; "Nearer, My God, To Thee" *was* played at some of the funerals (Barczewski, p. 44), including Hartley's (Barczewski, p. 139, though Eaton/Haas, p. 32, says that the tune used at Hartley's burial was "Proprior Deo," which few would have known as "Nearer, My God, to Thee").
The single most reliable account is that from junior wireless operator Harold Bride: "The water was then coming into our cabin. From aft came the tunes of the band. It was a ragtime tune. I don't know what. Then there was 'Autumn.' Phillips [the senior wireless operator] ran aft, and that was the last I ever saw of him alive" (Tibballs, p. 97; cf. Wade, p. 63).
This statement has frequently been taken to refer to the lively hymn "Autumn." "Autumn" was considered extremely appropriate, since it contains the line "Hold me up in mighty waters." But Lord-Lives, p. 110, offers very strong evidence against this suggestion; it is unlikely the band knew it or that passengers would recognize it. Lord-Lives, p. 112, suggests that Bride's reference was in fact to Archibald Joyce's "Songe d'Autumne," popular in 1912. We cannot possibly know; the evidence is too thin. But at least this piece is a reasonable suggestion, unlike "Nearer, My God, to Thee." Eaton/Haas, p. 32, mention a suggestion by Gavin Bryars that Bride actually said "Aughton," and was misquoted.
Still, there are authorities who stand by "Nearer, My God, to Thee" -- e.g. Butler-Unsink, p. 131, and tentatively Eaton/Haas, p. 32. I have to think this is wishful thinking; though Butler-Unsink addresses the counter-claim for "Autumn," he does not acknowledge the various problems with the claim for "Nearer...."
(It is ironic to note that the sinking does seem to have inspired a publishing boomlet -- Lycnh/Marschall, p. 213, shows three editions of "Nearer, My God, to Thee" with the Titanic on the cover.)
(I will add a minor speculation of my own here. Tibballs, p. 320, prints a report that a single violinist played "Nearer..." "[a]fter all his fellow musicians had been washed away." Speaking only for myself, if I were in a situation where I knew death was coming soon, I'd haul out one or another instrument and start playing -- it would be the best distraction and farewell I can think of. And Butler-Unsink, p. 57, says that there were many musicians among the third class passengers, who staged their own dances along the way. We also have tales of hymn-sings and such; Lynch/Marschall, p. 77. Could it be that one of the passengers played "Nearer..."?)
The report Tibballs cites (from the Western Daily Mercury) was an extensive one, printed two weeks after the accident, and it seems to have contained nearly every inaccuracy contained in the Titanic songs:
A. That Murdoch shot himself (pp. 320, 326, 333 in the Tibballs reprint)
B. "Explosions" (pp. 320, 325, 326, 328, 335; an exploding boiler is mentioned in Bessie Jones's version of {#3}, but in fact the Titanic crew shut down the boilers early to prevent an explosion, and Ballard saw no evidence of any such thing; if there were explosions, they were simply of compressed air and probably occurred far below the surface). To be charitable, the process of shutting down the boilers did involve venting steam, which was a noisy process (it even made it hard for the wireless operators to work; Lynch/Marschall, p. 108) which someone might have interpreted as an explosion. Or, perhaps, a passenger below-decks might have heard the launching of the distress rockets and thought that was an explosion (cf. the description of the sound in Butler-Unsink, pp. 97-98; Lynch/Marschall, p. 99, calls it an unearthly roar which forced passengers to shout in order to be heard over the sound.)
C. An attempt to cross the ocean in "record time" (p. 324; cf. {#7}), when the Titanic had no chance whatsoever to cross faster than the Mauretania's record
D. Sundry claims to have been on "the last boat" (p. 324), when in fact the last boat was Lightoller's, which hadn't even been launched when the water rolled over it, and its passengers are well known
E. A claim that Titanic's "plates were ripped open from a dozen feet in from the bow to the second funnel" (p. 327) or "from the forecastle to the bridge (p. 335), which of course would have sunk her much faster
F. Two "Italians" trying to rush the boats; one "Dago" (yes, that was the word used, which will tell you the quality of this particular report) had to be shot (pp. 329, 338)
G. Plus, of course, several stories of the "last musician" (pp. 320, 326)
Even if no one played "Nearer, My God, to Thee," there was at least one hymn directly associated with the sinking: Philip Paul Bliss's "Pull for the Shore." This was sung aboard one of the lifeboats as they rowed away from the scene of the wreck (Wade, p. 236). There was bitter logic in the words:
Pull for the shore, sailor, pull for the shore!
Heed not the rolling waves, but bend to the oar;
Safe in the life boat, sailor, cling to self no more!
Leave the poor old stranded wreck, and pull for the shore.
Harland & Wolff, which built the Titanic, continued to prosper into the Twenties, but the partition of Ireland and the decline of the shipping fleet cost it much business. From a peak in the tens of thousands of employees, it now has only a few hundred (one of the biggest factors in the decline of the Belfast economy), and is now Norwegian-owned; the land on which Titanic was built was sold off in 2003 (Barczewski, p. 245).
Southampton, the Titanic's home port, suffered more immediate losses; the larger part of the ship's crew came from there, meaning that hundreds of families lost a loved one. The Daily Graphic printed a report headed "Stricken Southampton" (Tibballs, pp. 239-240). Barczewski, p. 248, says that there was one school in the town where no fewer than 125 students had lost a close relative. On p. 264, she notes that the population in 1912 was around 120,000, meaning that more than one Southampton resident in 200 was aboard the Titanic and more than one in 250 died aboard the ship (p. 266 says that 699 of 898 crewmembers lived in the Southampton area, while, Butler-Unsink, p. 172, says that 80% of the crew came from the city. Davenport-Hines, p. 249, agrees that 699 of 898 crew had "Southampton addresses," although some had moved there from Liverpool or elsewhere when White Star changed its base of operations).
Many of the Titanic songs of course stress the theme of hubris and how the ship had to be punished somehow. {#10 is the most extreme, but we also find this e.g. in versions of #1}. This bit of theology did not originate with the songwriters; Biel, pp. 59-63, and at other points in the chapter labelled "Mammon," shows how preachers of the time offered this argument (which is at best dubiously Biblical -- Jesus in fact quite explicitly said that special punishments did not come to special sinners; see e.g. Luke 13:4). Biel cites {#10} as an example of how this doctrine became entrenched. Butler-Unsink, pp. 222-223, also discusses the mass religious outpouring on the theme of "God did it to show that humans are incompetent worms."
There were a number of goofy ideas proposed over the years to, well, raise the Titanic {#7}. Most are pre-Ballard -- the first was proposed in 1914 (Lord-Lives, p. 194) -- so they didn't realize the ship was in two pieces, and most were unworkable even with an intact ship; it seems unlikely that anything will ever come of this (though Arthur C. Clarke produced some ideas that might actually work). Nor did anyone really have any idea what to do with the ship once raised; the idea of a museum was proposed, but one wag calculated that it would be economically unviable just because of the amount of paint required for the ship (Lynch/Marschall, p. 201).
It is sad to report that scavengers *have* recovered some scrap metal -- and, reportedly, are turning it into wrist watches. Other artifacts have definitely been recovered. Sadly, the Gods have not seen to strike these grave-robbers with the sort of punishment they deserve.
The wreck of the Carpathia, which had been sunk by a U-boat on July 17, 1918, was discovered in 2002 (Butler-Other, pp. 210-211), so no doubt it too has been visited by scavengers since then. (The Californian was also lost to a U-boat, in November 1915, but it has not been found; Butler-Other, pp. 214-215)
The last survivor of the Titanic, Elizabeth Gladys "Millvena" Dean, died at the end of May 2009, more than 97 years after the sinking. (Davenport-Hines, pp. 231-232. She was only a few weeks old when the ship sank, the child of a family trying to emigrate to America.) The legend, it seems clear, will survive much longer. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.4
File: RcTita15

Tithe Pig, The

See The Parson and the Sucking Pig (File: WT197)

Titles of Songs (Song of Songs, Song of All Songs, Song of Song Titles)

DESCRIPTION: Lyrics composed of titles or pieces of other songs, e.g. "Mickey O'Flannigan he had a Bull Pup, Down Where the Pansies Grow, Don't You Leave Your Mother, Tom, For Mary Kelly's Beau."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Foster's sheet music)
KEYWORDS: lyric nonballad parody
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Randolph 515, "Titles of Songs" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 380-381, "Titles of Songs" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 515A)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 234, "Working on the Railroad" (1 text plus two unrelated fragments, the "B" and "C" fragments probably belong with "Roll on the Ground (Big Ball's in Town)"; the "A" text is a jumble starting with "Working on the Railroad" but followed up by what is probably a "Song of All Songs" fragment)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 131, "Reminiscences" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 45-46, "The Song of All Songs" (1 text)
Saunders/Root-MusicOfStephenCFoster-Vol2, pp. 339-342+450, "The Song of All Songs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2181, pp. 146-147, "The Song of All Songs" (7 references); probably also #2182, p. 147, "The Song of All Songs, No. 2" (10 references); #2183, p. 147, "Song of All Songs. No. 3" (2 references); #2188, p. 147, "Song of Many Songs" (3 references); #2189, p. 147, "Song of Many Songs" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #13, pp. 34-35, "Tony Pastor's Combination Song" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 144, "The Chaunt Seller, Or, a New Batch of Ballads" (reproduction of a broadside page)
Roud #7598, 7599
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Songs of Old Ireland" (theme)
cf. "Scotch Medley (II)" (theme of song titles)
cf. "O! They Marched Through the Town (The Captain with His Whiskers)" (tune of some texts, according to broadsides)
NOTES [147 words]: There are actually several pieces which go under this title (Randolph's A, B, and C form one group, his D another; Dean-FlyingCloud's a third, specifically of Irish songs; Stephen Foster with Tony Pastor produced the piece printed by Spaeth in 1863 and cited by Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, though Saunders and Root note that the lyrics are not by Pastor or Foster, and suggest John F. Poole as the writer). The Shepard broadside is particularly interesting, because it appears to be a Song of All Songs made into a street cry -- the seller is hawking the broadsides he sells!
All these songs have a common mechanism, however, and since it is often hard to tell one from another, I am lumping them here.
This has, of course, no relation to the Song of Songs (Song of Solomon, Canticles) in the Bible. For one thing, the Biblical book is erotic (arguably obscene), while this is clean. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R515

Tittery Nan [Laws H16]

DESCRIPTION: Joe Dimsey steals old Josiah's mare; the old man repays the younger back by recovering his horse and pummeling him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: robbery fight thief injury
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws H16, "Tittery Nan"
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 292-293, "Tittery Nan" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 712, TITERNAN
Roud #2194
NOTES [78 words]: Laws says, correctly, that "this little piece with its gay refrain is hardly more than a nonsense song," though Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland is of the opinion that it's based on fact. What fact she does not know.
Roud lumps this with "Titter-ni-an," as sung by Barney McCarthy. This is understandable based on the title, since he had only the sound recoding, but I would consider them separate (while allowing that "Tittery Nan" may be a bowdlerized remake). - RBW
File: LH16

Tittery-Irie-Aye

DESCRIPTION: "Come all my good people and listen to my song, Although it's not so very good, it's not so very long." The Mormons have "been driven from their homes and away from Nauvoo." They keep moving; they are poor. The singer talks of marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle)
KEYWORDS: travel home hardtimes | Mormon
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 31-33, "Tittery-Irie-Aye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, pp. 318-319, "Tittery-Irie-Aye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 256, "Tittery-Irie-Aye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8595
File: CHMS031

Tittery-ry-an

DESCRIPTION: "An old women went out to the barn Some eggs for to hunt... A mouse ran up her cunt." She runs to her husband, begging him to turn it around so it doesn't gnaw its way out. The husband has intercourse with her until the mouse runs out her sleeve
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (collected from Barney McCarthy by Lomax)
KEYWORDS: sex humorous animal clothes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary and Richard March, "Farm, Forest, and Factory: Songs of Midwestern Labor," published in Archie Green, editor, _Songs about Work: Essays in Occupational Culture for Richard A. Reuss_, Indiana University, 1993, pp. 256-257, "Titter-ry-an" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2194
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Titter-ni-an
NOTES [53 words]: Roud, based on the title, lumps the Lomax recording of Barney McCarthy with "Tittery Nan" [Laws H16]. It is evident from the text printed by Leary and March, however, that they are in fact separate songs -- though I would allow a slight possibility that "Tittery Nan" is a thoroughly bowdlerized rewrite of this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JPLRMTRA

Tittler's Jam

DESCRIPTION: The singer returns from war and mother says "Johnny, you've been fighting, What do you want for tea?" She does not put out Titler's jam. [The soldier's text starts] wonderful Titler's jam sent in one pound pots is in his dreams every night.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Belton and Odell)
KEYWORDS: army war food playparty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 88, "Keiller's Jam" (6 texts)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 84, "Tickler's Jam" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: James Belton and E.G. Odell, Hunting the Hun (New York, 1918 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 207, ("Tickler's Jam, Tickler's Jam") (1 text)
Roud #10929
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jingle Bells" (tune, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
NOTES [154 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame: "T.G. Tickler Ltd. had the army contract for jam during the First World War, and, unscathed by calumny, has gone on producing its excellent preserves ever since." Belton and Odell: "[After the battle of Festubert in 1915, the Highland Brigade] realized that there was little good in the jam issued to the troops in the field, so they joined in with the soldiers of the Imperial Army when those cheery fellows sang: [text]." An Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame text is updated for the Second World War: "Every night as I lie dreaming ... Hittler's [sic] Tittler's little moustache ...." - BS
Thus the more-or-less original title for this probably should be "Tickler's Jam."
Tickler's Jam is mentioned surprisingly often in other songs. See, among others,
- When the War Is Over, We Shall Have Some Jam
- Plum and Apple (doesn't actually mention Tickler's Jam, but it's a reference to their leading flavor) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OpGa088

Titus Andronicus's Complaint

See references under Fortune My Foe (Aim Not Too High) (File: ChWI076)

To a Late Riser

See Little Yellow Bird (Time to Rise) (File: Brne191)

To All You Ladies now at Land

DESCRIPTION: "To all you ladies now at land, We men at sea indite," telling how hard it is to write. The singer hopes the women will understand why they are slow to answer. He tells of the hardships at sea and hopes the ladies will be true
AUTHOR: Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset (Source: Ashton-RealSailorSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton-RealSailorSongs); reportedly written 1664-1665
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #77, "To All You Ladies now on Land" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 506-508, "To All You Ladies Now at Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 154-155, "To All You Ladies Now At Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XC, pp. 180-182, "To all you ladies now at Land" (1 text)
Roud #13886
File: AshS077

To All You Ladies now on Land

See To All You Ladies now at Land (File: AshS077)

To Anacreon in Heaven

DESCRIPTION: "To Anacreon in heav'n where he sat in full glee, A few sons of harmony sent in a petition." They ask the poet to be their patron, describe how they intend to drink and enjoy themselves, and wander off into sundry classical allusions
AUTHOR: Words: Ralph Tomlinson / Music: John Stafford Smith (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1778 (The Vocal Magazine)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad gods
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 128, "The Anacreontic Song" (copy of the first page of a 1779/80 British printing)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 8-11, "To Anacreon in Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 528-533, "The Star Spangled Banner"
DT, ANCREON, ANACRON2
ADDITIONAL: Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 150, "(Anacreon in Heaven)" (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Star-Spangled Banner" (tune) and references there (including Same Tune references)
SAME TUNE:
The Star-Spangled Banner (File: MKr015) and references there
NOTES [336 words]: Anacreon (c. 563-476 B.C.E.) was a Greek poet for whom the anacreonitic metre (^^-^-^--) was named. Only fragments of his poetry survive; what scraps remain are in praise of wine, love, and pleasure.
John Stafford Smith is most frequently listed as the author of this tune, and his name appears on the first dated sheet music (1799; the earliest printing, probably c. 1782, has no author listed). However, Samuel Arnold, who conducted the Anacreonitic Society's orchestra, has also been named. William Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal, Broadman Press, 1976, p. 167, considers the tune anonymous and thinks Smith simply responsible for the arrangement.
This song was written for the Anacreonitic Society, devoted (like Anacreon's writings) to wine and pleasure. The society broke up in 1786.
For commentary on the various obscure allusions in this piece, the reader is referred to Spaeth's Read 'Em and Weep. Those who wish to see a list of all the (generally dreadful) lyrics set to the tune around the beginning of the nineteenth century, see Spaeth's History of Popular Music in America, p. 40; there are others listed as "Same Tune" references for "The Star-Spangled Banner." See also "Adams and Liberty."
Supposedly the Anacreonitic Sociity died of its own success. According to Reginald Nettel, Seven Centuries of Popular Song, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 150, it became so famous that the Duchess of Devonshire wanted to attend. Even though she was behind a screen, the performers, whose songs were scandalous, could not deal with the situation, and soon were resigning en mass, resulting in its downfall. - RBW
Anyone who complains that our national anthem is bad poetry (and some do) should look at the lyrics to this song, its ancestor. They are immeasurably worse. The Library of Congress conducted a study of the song's origins in the early part of this century; among other issues, they considered (and rejected) a suggestion that the tune was composed by the Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: SRW008

To Be a Farmer's Boy

See The Farmer's Boy [Laws Q30] (File: LQ30)

To Be a Good Companion

See I'll Drink One (To Be a Good Companion, The Sussex Toast) (File: K285)

To Beat the Drum Again

See The Soldier Maid (File: DTsoldma)

To blis God bryng us all and sum

See In Bethlehem, that Fair City (File: MSIBitFC)

To bliss God bring us all and some

See In Bethlehem, that Fair City (File: MSIBitFC)

To Canaan's Land I'm on My Way

See Where the Soul Never Dies (Canaan's Land) (File: DTcnaanl)

To Cashel I'm Going

See The Young One I Sought (File: Shoe298)

To Chase the Buffalo

See Chase the Buffalo (I) (File: GrD61103)

To Cheer the Heart

See Farewell He (File: FSC41)

To Coont My Kin an' Pedigree

DESCRIPTION: The singer is offended that his antagonist, in "the filthy stuff that ye composed [with help]," ridiculed "my kin an' pedigree ... ye are like Melchisedeck we dinna know your race." He notes his antagonist's name is shared by a hangman.
AUTHOR: Peter McCombie (source: Greig/Duncan3)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: accusation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 674, "To Coont My Kin an' Pedigree" (1 text)
Roud #6098
NOTES [353 words]: Greig/Duncan3 quotes Charles Murray's conclusion that this is part of a battle between rhymers: one being McCombie and the other named Milne. The Melchisedeck reference, according to Greig/Duncan3, is to Hebrews 7.3 [more likely 7.1-3]: "For this Melchsedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God ... without father, without mother, without descent, ...." referring back to Genesis 14.18-20 and Psalms 110.4. - BS
While Greig/Duncan3 quotes Hebrews 7:1-3, the actual reference in the song is indeed to Hebrews 7:3, which is the source of the statement that Melchizedek is without father or mother or genealogy. There is no hint of this in Genesis (which simply refers to him as king of [Jeru]salem) or in Psalm 110 (which calls him a "priest forever" -- although in fact the text of the verse is somewhat unclear and some think that it does not refer to Melchizedek). The reference to Hebrews is further supported by the spelling "Melchisedec," which is the form used in Hebrews 7:1 of the King James Bible; the Old Testament of the KJV, and most modern translations, spell the name "Melchizedek," which corresponds more closely to the Hebrew.
We might add that every New Testament reference to Melchizedek is in Hebrews: 5:6, 10, 6:20, 7:1, 10, 11, 15, 17.
There is an interesting twist here, in that the words used in Hebrews 7:3 for "without father" and "without mother" often refer to orphans or even illegitimate children -- a useful insinuation in a slanging contest. However, it seems unlikely that our author knew that.
In any case, the whole thing is probably overblown. Although the name "Melchizedek" does suggest "King [root 'melch'] of righteousness [root 'zadok']," it is likely that the name as used in Genesis is that of an actual Canaanite king; "Zedek" might even be his god. If Jerusalem had had Yahwist kings, there would have been no need for David to conquer it in the centuries after Abraham's encounted with Melchizedek. Hebrews is working from a legitimate Jewish tradition (hinted at in the Psalm and expanded in extra-canonical writings), but it is hardly based on actual history. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3674

To Daunton Me (I)

DESCRIPTION: "To daunton [subdue] me, and me sae young, And gude King James's auldest son, O that's the thing that ne'er can be, For the man's unborn that will daunton me." The singer claims that only poverty can keep him down: "Now I hae scarce to lay me on"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2)
KEYWORDS: exile nonballad Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 44, "To Daunton Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan6 1134, "To Daunton Me" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6826
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "To Daunton Me (II)" (tune, pattern)
cf. "To Daunton Me (III)" (tune, pattern)
NOTES [269 words]: Here the singer plays the part of The Old Pretender, James [III and] VIII.
Like "The Shan Van Voght" in Ireland, "To Daunton Me" provides a theme to be adapted to different situations and dates. Hogg provides two other examples: the singer of "To Daunton Me (II)" is a supporter of The Old Pretender who would see "King James at Edinburgh cross, Wi' fifty thousand foot and horse"; the singer of "To Daunton Me (III)" is a supporter of the [Young] Pretender ("For Charles we'll conquer or we'll die"). Then there's the Robert Burns version pitting youth against wealth and age ("An auld man shall never daunton me.") The fragment Greig/Duncan6 1134 may belong to any of these or to some other version entirely; the editor, Elaine Petrie, writes that "Volume 6, is the Heartbreak Hotel of the collection" [p. xvii]. Maybe so, but I would put the fragment either here, with "To Daunton Me (I)," (as would, apparently, Duncan [p. 551]), or the Burns version. - BS
I might add that this is song is utterly uncharacteristic of the Old Pretender; it seems to describe an optimistic, go-for-it sort of guy. But every book I can recall reading describes him as a pessimist, almost morose, unwilling to take risks even when the potential reward was great. The 1715 rebellion was an obvious example: It might have had a chance had he hurried to Scotland -- but he waited until after Sheriffmuir, came ashore just long enough to say he'd come, and left. Susan Maclean Kybett Bonnie Prince Charlie, Dodd Mead, 1988), p. 16. notes that James came to be called "Old Mr. Melancholy," and I have to say that the name fits. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Hogg2044

To Daunton Me (II)

DESCRIPTION: "D'ye ken the thing that wad daunton me? Eighty-eight and eighty-nine, And a'the dreary years sinsyne" The singer wants "banishment to a' the Whigs," the return of King James to Edinburgh, and "the usurper forc'd to flee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2)
KEYWORDS: nonballad Jacobites political
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 46, "To Daunton Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6826
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "To Daunton Me (I)" (tune, pattern) and discussion there
cf. "To Daunton Me (III)" (tune, pattern)
NOTES [115 words]: William of Orange came to England in 1688 and formally became William III of England and William II of Scotland in 1689. - BS
The dating of this depends very much on the meaning of the word "return." Does the author mean that he wants King James II and VIII to come *back* to Edinburgh, where he was once King? In that case, it must be from before 1701, when James II died. Or does the author merely want the Stuarts back, in which case the Old Pretender, James III and VIII could be meant, and the song could come from almost any time.
For background on the Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689, see e.g. the notes to "The Vicar of Bray"; for the aftermath, see "The Battle of the Boyne (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Hogg2046

To Daunton Me (III)

DESCRIPTION: "At Moidart our young prince did land, With seven men at his right hand, And a' to conquer nations three: That is the lad that shall wanton me." Woe to those that exiled the king. "Raise the banner, raise it high; For Charles we'll conquer or we'll die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2)
KEYWORDS: rebellion exile return nonballad Jacobites royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 16, 1745 - Bonny Prince Charlie and "the seven men of Moidart" sail from Belle-Ile for Britain (source: Tim Robertson, "Bonnie Prince Charlie in Moidart, 1745-1746" at Moidart Local History Group site)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 45, "To Daunton Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "To Daunton Me (I)" (tune, pattern) and discussion there
cf. "To Daunton Me (II)" (tune, pattern)
File: Hogg2045

To Go Asparking

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

To Hear the Nightingales Sing

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

To Huntsville

See The Boston Burglar [LawsL16] (File: LL16)

To London

See Old Doctor Collins (Celie) (File: Morr124)

To London I Did Go

See Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)

To Make Your Mother Dance

DESCRIPTION: "To make your mother dance, Put ants in her pants."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty mother clothes
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 132, "(To make your mother dance)" (1 text)
File: SuSm132N

To Market, To Market

DESCRIPTION: "To market, to market, to buy a (plum bun/plum cake/fat pig/etc.), Home again, home again, jiggety jig, To market, to market, to buy a fat hog, Home again, home again, jiggety-job"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1598 (Florio, A World of Words, according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: animal commerce
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 339, "To Market, To Market" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #565, pp. 230-231, "(To market, to market)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 112, "To Market, To Market, to Buy a Fat Pig" (2 texts)
Roud #19708
NOTES [90 words]: The incomparable Katherine Elwes Thomas, in The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 73f., says this is about Henry VIII and the machinations to get Henry a divorce from Katherine of Aragon and then get rid of Anne Boleyn (and Thomas Cromwell). As usual, she has no evidence. Even more hilariously, she apparently forgot that theory, and on p. 234 claims that a different version of the piece is about Charles II ("Curly Locks") and a pension he hoped to get from Louis XIV of France (the "plum bun"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: OO2339

To Market, To Market, To Buy a Fat Pig

See To Market, To Market (File: OO2339)

To Mary in Heaven

DESCRIPTION: "Mary! dear departed shade ... See'st thou thy lover lowly laid." The singer recalls their meetings. "Still o'er these scenes my mem'ry wakes And fondly broods with miser-care; Time but th' impression stronger makes"
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: grief love death lament nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #76, p. 2, ("Thou ling'ring star with less'ning ray") (1 text fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Burns, The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (New Lanark,2005), pp. 272-273, "To Mary in Heaven" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Death of Captain Cook" (tune, per Burns)
NOTES [30 words]: Greig: "On the third anniversary of Mary Campbell's death Burns composed [this text]." - BS
For more about "Highland" Mary Campbell, see "Burns and His Highland Mary" [Laws O34] - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Grg076c

To Meet Again

DESCRIPTION: "I sit broken-hearted tonight, love, A-thinking of you, darling one...." "There's no one to kiss me good night, love." He says, "God knows that I love you, But, darling, we have to part." She is now "no one's darling"; she hopes they will meet in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 233-234, "To Meet Again" (1 text)
Roud #4330
File: Neel233

To Men

DESCRIPTION: Young men are are concerned with their clothes, their snuff, and drink while they slight lasses. When courting they are "puffed up with pride" and "gar the siller flee" but after marriage "the hoose it is tae build the siller is tae borrow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage warning clothes money drink drugs nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast 150, p. 1, "The Young Men" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 649, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "To Men" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6078
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sheffield Apprentice" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
What Means Now A' the Young Men?
I Wonder All Ye Young Men
Oh What Do All the Young Men Mean
File: GrD3649

To Milk in the Valley Below

See Well Met, Pretty Maid (The Sweet Nightingale) (File: K089)

To Morrow

See I Want to Go to Morrow (File: DTmorrow)

To My Home In the Forest Let Me Go

See White Man, Let Me Go (File: FJ032)

To My Right Folly Diddle Dero

See Hares on the Mountain (File: ShH63)

To Ope Their Trunks

DESCRIPTION: Round. "To ope their trunks The trees are never seen. How then do they Put on their robes of green? They leave [leaf?] them out! "
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (George F. Root, First Year in Song Land, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 280, 434, 516, "To Ope Their Trunks" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 64, "To Ope Their Trunks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 21, "To Ope Their Trunks" (1 text)
SongsOfManyNations, "To Ope Their Trunks" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 25)
File: ACSF280O

To Pad the Road

See Paddle the Road with Me (File: Wa032)

To Pad the Road wi' Me?

See Paddle the Road with Me (File: Wa032)

To President B. Young and Camp

DESCRIPTION: "Hail! ye mighty men of Israel Who the hiding places have found... You have stood on holy ground." The "Pioneers of Latter-day" have found the place appointed for the Mormons. As the Mormons arrive," those there "may bid you welcome home"
AUTHOR: Eliza R. Snow (1804-1887) (source: Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest)
KEYWORDS: home travel | Mormons
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 255, "To President B. Young and Camp" (1 text)
Roud #10891
NOTES [58 words]: For background on Brigham Young, and the many songs about him, see the notes to "Brigham Young (I)." This presumably refers to his visit to the Great Salt Lake and his declaration at a seemingly random spot that "This is the place" where the Mormons would settle.
For background on Eliza R. Snow, see the notes to "Mormon Battalion Song (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GFGW255A

To Reap and Mow the Hay

DESCRIPTION: The singer is in Scotland, driven from Ireland by the landlord and bad times. He is invited to stay a week "putting in the hay" with a 1914 veteran. He marries the farmer's niece. They'll go to Ireland now but return yearly to Scotland to make the hay.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (recording, Paddy and Jimmy Halpin)
KEYWORDS: marriage war travel return farming hardtimes Ireland Scotland family
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #12937
RECORDINGS:
James and Paddy Halpin, "To Reap and Mow the Hay" (on Voice20, IRHardySons)
File: RcTRAMTH

To Roll Her In My Plaidie

DESCRIPTION: "There lives a lass by yonder burn... And aft she gies her sheep a turn That feed amang the bracken." "Could I believe she'd woo wi' me... I'd afttimes slip out owre yon lea And roll her in my plaidie." The poor lovestruck lad tells how he would woo her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 420, "To Roll Her In My Plaidie" (1 text)
Roud #3948
File: Ord420

To Row Her in My Plaidie

See A Lassie Lives by Yonder Burn (File: FVS229)

To the Beggin' I Will Go

See A-Begging I Will Go (File: K217)

To the Man in the Chains

DESCRIPTION: A response to, or continuation of, The Leadsman's Lament." "To the man in the chains, Send an oilskin when it rains, And if it pleases You, Take me from the seaboat's crew."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes storm derivative
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 30, "To the Man in the Chains" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Leadsman's Lament" (apparent preface to this song)
File: Tawn012

To the Mast Nail Our Flag: The Pirate's Song

DESCRIPTION: "To the mast nail our flat, It is dark as the grave, Or the death which it bears while it sweeps o'er the wave." When the pirate takes a prize, "It is mine to divide it, and yours to obey." "I only shed blood where another sheds tears."
AUTHOR: Words: "L. E. L." / Music: Horatio D. Hewitt (sheet music cover reproduced by Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1837 ("The Pirate's Own Book," according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate battle money wine
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 58, "To the Mast Nail Our Flag: The Pirate's Song" (1 text, 1 tune; #53 in the first edition, where it is entitled "The Pirate's Song (II) and has no tune)
Roud #V30577
File: FrPi058B

To the Memory of the Late Captain Kennedy

DESCRIPTION: "Slowly today we wend our way To a grave in Belvedere Behind the corpse of a hero bold." The singer tells of Kennedy's voyages, and describes his heroism when the Viking caught fire.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (King, The Viking's Last Cruise)
KEYWORDS: ship fire rescue
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1931 - Explosion destroys the sealer "Viking"
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 105, "To the Memory of the Late Captain Kennedy" (1 text)
Roud #V44703
NOTES [2110 words]: The Viking, the ship in this song, is also mentioned in "Captains and Ships," "Success to the Hardy Sealers," "Success to Every Man," and "A Noble Fleet of Sealers." She was built in Arendal, Norway in 1881 (Clarke, p. 291; FelthamSteamers, p. 153; O'Neill, p. 968). Fritjof Nansen used her for an arctic expedition in 1882. She became a sealer in 1904, and served under William Bartlett (related to Robert Bartlett of "Captain Bob Bartlett") for the first 22 of those years (FelthamSteamers, pp. 153-154).
Several sailors who sailed in her called her ill-designed to be a sealer; Wilfred Andrews recalled, "Now, the worst ship was the old Viking. The hatches were above us where we slept between decks. And when we were lying on our bunks the seal pelts used to fall on our bunks sometimes" (Ryan-Last, p. 112). Clarence Bartlett also said he "didn't like the Viking" -- and when he was offered a berth on her, he gave it to someone else instead (Ryan-Last, p. 134) and so avoided the disaster in this song. She is also said to have been underpowered (Ryan-Last, p. 367). Oliver James said she was "just like a big schooner" (Ryan-Last, p. 410), which hints that she was maneuverable but slow.
As a sealer, her results were steady but unspectacular, averaging barely more than 10,000 seals per year (FelthamNortheast, p. 95). This was somewhat less than half what the best sealers managed; admittedly she was small, and couldn't hold more than about 20,000 seals (FelthamSteamers, p. 156), but it's clear that she was rarely notable for success. On the other hand, that probably made her more than usually available for unusual duties such as the one which led to her end.
Whence this song. In 1930, a fellow named Varick Frissell decided to make what we would now probably call a sealing docu-drama, originally titled "White Thunder" but eventually released as "The Viking." O'Flaherty, p. 365, describes it as "a hokey love story with astounding scenes of moving ice floes and sealers jumping among them, scenes perhaps unequalled in film history." This followed an earlier (silent) documentary, "The Great Arctic Seal Hunt" (Ryan-Ice, p. 320 n. 23). In the initial filming, Frissell worked on the Ungava, with Robert Bartlett (for whom see "Captain Bob Bartlett") playing the Captain (somewhat incompetently, based on the jokes the crew made about his inability to remember his lines). It was definitely a scripted production; they even brought snow-making equipment and wind machines to the ice! (Ryan-Last, p. 275), and encouraged the men to engage in stunts and spectacular behaviors (Ryan-Last, p. 410). O'Neill, p. 968, reports that Charles Starrett, later known for an astounding number of cowboy films, had the lead role (credited as "Luke Oarum" by imdb.com), and that it was "the first American sound feature shot on location outside the United States," and the first sound feature shot in Canada. Unfortunately, O'Neill, p. 969, also tells us the "acting is pathetic."
However, after the film crew brought their material home, it was decided that more footage was needed. So the film crew went out again in 1931, this time in the Viking, with Abram Kean Jr., the nephew (so Ryan-Last, p. 101; others say son) of the famous Abram Kean (for whom see "Captain Abram Kean") in charge of the ship and Alfred Kean the first mate (FelthamNortheast, p. 96). (Bartlett, it should be stressed, had been on the earlier trip as an actor, not the man in charge.) Clarke, p. 291, gives Abram Kean Jr's dates as 1887-1958.
They set out on March 9, 1931 -- the very last ship of the sealing fleet to leave (FelthamSteamers, p. 157). It reached the ice on March 14 (Mowat/Blackwood, p 80)
It was a tough voyage from the start; the season was stormy, and the ship started to take on water, so they had to make a stop for repairs before they even went to the ice (Keir, pp. 338-339; one account of the problems is on p. 413 of Ryan-Last, which has many accounts of the Viking disaster although most are so disorderly as to be unhelpful).
Apparently one of the film crew's ideas to improve the drama was to cause an explosion to set icebergs rolling and grinding. Sealers often carried gunpowder, in case they got stuck in the ice, and they were incredibly casual about fire (England, pp. 17-18). But, because the filmmakers wanted their fancy effect, it is said that there was extra powder aboard on this trip (Candow, p. 92); some think they had thermite as well (O'Flaherty, p 365). When the Viking was in the vicinity of the Horse Islands off Newfoundland's north coast (FelthamNortheast, in the map on p. x), on March 15, 1931, it blew up. Some reports claim there were two explosions (Keir, p. 339; Mowat/Blackwood, p. 81, suggests that the ship's first movement had been a collision with the ice caused by a change of wind, with the explosion following shortly, perhaps because sparks flew).
One sailor, Clarence Bartlett, later claimed that there was a plot to blow her up (Ryan-Last, pp. 134-135), but this was a memory from half a century later, and there is no way he could have known anyway. Winsor, p. 89, thinks that some flares had been damaged, and someone carried them off and they exploded. Smith, p. 106, wonders about an overturned oil lamp (possible) or a loose electrical wire (on a fifty-year-old sealing ship? Not likely). But it's all speculation.
There is disagreement about the number of men lost. FelthamSteamers, pp. 158-159, Candow, p. 92, and Winsor, p. 89, say 28 men; Looker, p. 47, says 58; Ryan-Ice, p. 450 [a contemporary report], Ryan/Drake, p. 28, Greene, p. 65, and Andrieux, p. 105, say 24; Keir, p. 341, believes 30 men were lost; Tarver, p. 168, and Smith, p. 108, claim that 27 were killed; Clarke, p. 292, says "just short of thirty." FelthamNortheast, pp. 102-103, says that 28 men were killed -- but his list includes only 27 names. (Two of them, both sealers, might have been Bob Bartlett's relatives; both Bartletts were from Conception Bay, and one was actually from Bob Bartlett's home town of Brigus.) It is agreed that the dead including all but one of the film crew, as well as several boys who had stowed away; most of the survivors had to make their way across the ice pans to land (Looker, p. 47). Only one body was ever found (FelthamSteamers, p. 158).
FelthamNortheast, p. 99, says there were 128 survivors, but Candow, p. 92, claims there were 147 on board (a figure also quoted by Andrieux, p. 105, Green, p. 65, and Smith, p. 105; O'Flaherty, p. 365, claims a regular crew of 147 plus two stowaways and Frissell's crew of four; Clarke, p. 291, says "about 150"; Smith observes that this was fewer than she usually took seaing), which means that Candow would allow only 119 survivors.
According to Andrieux, p. 105, it was the first sealing disaster which was covered on the radio.
Captain William Kennedy -- the subject of this piece -- was the ship's navigator (O'Neill, p. 968); it was common for sealers to have a sealing captain (in this case, Kean) who knew the ice but was not fully qualified as an ocean-going captain, and a navigator who was a qualified ship's master but didn't know sealing. (The law required all ships to have a "captain" who could navigate, but that didn't mean the sealing captain paid him any attention; qualified masters were often treated as pests. This had been the case with the Newfoundland at the time of her disaster, e.g. -- see the notes to "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)" -- and was true in this case also; Mowat/Blackwood, p 80. Interesting that both those ships that Keans as captains.) Kennedy was quite a young man to be a qualified master -- just 29, according to Mowat/Blackwood, p 80.
Kennedy and one of the film bigwigs, Harry Sargeant, plus Clayton King (also mentioned in the song), were separated from the main party of survivors and spent a day and a half floating before the Sagona found them (Winsor, p. 89, says 65 hours, or two and a half days; he says they were 22 miles from where the ship sank). Kennedy died of a fractured skull and pneumonia before the rescue (Looker, p. 47); King (another Brigus man, who was the ship's wireless operator; Ryan-Last, p. 415) had a fractured leg and facial burns; Sargent also had facial burns (FelthamNortheast, p. 101). King would later have to have his legs amputated because he had been so badly frozen (FelthamNortheast, p. 105); NewfoundlandStories, pp. 11-13, says that surgeries took place nine and ten days after the disaster. "He had spent 65 long, agonizing hours on the ice without food, water, warmth or medical attention. He was found to be suffering from 'gas gangrene of both legs, extending to the middle of the thighs.' In the left there was a compound fracture of the tibia and the fibula. In addition to this, he had a severe injury in the left eye.... He also had severe contusions and abrasions on his shoulders."
Alfred Kean, the first mate of the Viking, who had his leg broken in three places in the explosion, recounted, "Jacob Kean in the Sagona left St. John's Sunday night and just before dark, Tuesday evening, picked up Clayton King, Captain Kennedy, and Sargent. They got driven away at a tangent from the disaster area. They must have gotten in the tide and drove out around the cape but we didn't.... Captain Kennedy died off Cape Bonavista and Fred Best [who had been with Kean] died in the summer" (FelthamNortheast, p. 99). According to Ernest Spracklin, an eyewitness who gave the longest account in Ryan-Last (pp. 412-416), "Captain Kennedy, the navigator, died in one of the boats on the way back to St. John's."
The survivors were mostly rescued by the Sagona and the Beothic II (FelthamNortheast, pp. 100-101, etc.). Clarke, p. 292, says the Foundation, Franklyn, and Eagle also were involved. The cause of the disaster was never really determined; the man who was in charge of the explosives was one of the dead (FelthamNortheast, pp. 104-105).
Note that this text (probably a poem rather than a song) was published by Clayton King in his account of the disaster.
Candow, p. 92, says there was no compensation for the victims, because the law didn't cover this sort of accident. (Plus Newfoundland was bankrupt and would soon lose its elected government; according to O'Flaherty, p. 365, news of the disaster interrupted the legislature as they wrestled with their fiscal problems.) On the other hand, survivor George Adams said that "[Richard] Squires was prime minister. He came to see us, shook hands with us, and gave us $50 each. We were lucky to get that, but, still, we lost all our belongings, our clothes, and everything we had. We had nothing left" (Ryan-Last, p. 105). Survivor Ernest Spracklin says that it was more of a merchandise credit -- they could buy $50 in supplies from the Royal Stores. On paper, that meant a profit for the men -- no one carried $50 worth of stuff to the ice; indeed, few sealers made that sort of money -- but it of course meant that they didn't get the pay they hoped for from the trip.
The footage for the film was thought lost for a time but was eventually discovered in 1950 and the film released in 1971 (Tarver, p. 168).
As was often the case in Newfoundland, tragedy brought forth much folk poetry, and newspapers often printed it. FelthamNortheast, pp. 106-107, has two examples of pieces about this disaster. NewfoundlandStories, pp. 13-15, has one by author Addison Bown; it's much too flowery for my taste (and, given the number of small errors found in Bown's article, I don't trust it much).
There is a photo of the Viking on p. 182 of FelthamSteamers, one on p. 103 of Andrieux, one on p. 67 of Winsor, and another on p. 28 of Ryan/Drake. P. 69 of Ryan/Drake (actually a four page spread) has eight photos associated with the film that destroyed the Viking, including movie stills and shots of the production team as well as of the ship itself. Clarke, p. 291, has a damaged photo of Frissell and a number of his crewmen on shipboard. O'Neill, p. 948, has a photo -- probably meant to be publicity photo -- of Bob Bartlett in his role as the sealing captain. Smith, pp. 105, 107, has photos from the rescue.
Earl B. Pilgrim wrote a book, The Day of Varick Frissell (Print Atlantic, no date, and the copyright page claims it has an index, but it doesn't), which I unfortunately bought because I didn't know it was fiction. It does have a few interesting photos of Frissell and a distant photo of the Viking, plus a list of those who were aboard her and those who were lost.
For more on the Sagona, which was the main rescue ship, see the notes to "Greedy Harbour." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: RySm105

To the North, To the North

DESCRIPTION: "To the north, to the north, Where the squatters go bung, Where greenhide's their mainstay... Where for tucker and water you'll often run short While humping your bluey In the land of the north." The singer describes the many problems of life in the north
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger)
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 18, page headed "Ditty: The plains of"], "(no title)" (1 text)
File: FaWTTNTT

To the Pines, to the Pines

See In the Pines (File: LoF290)

To the Spanish Main -- Slav Ho

See Saltpetre Shanty (Slav Ho) (File: Colc097)

To the Stars

DESCRIPTION: "There are songs they sing in the army, Songs in the navy too; But we sing a song that rolls along, The song of the boys in blue." The airmen are "Zooming up boys to the stars!" "These words will guide us, 'Through adversity to the stars.'"
AUTHOR: Harold Walker (source: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1941 (Bert Pearl, The Happy Gang book of war songs, according to Worldcat)
KEYWORDS: soldier technology nonballad war
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 72-73, "To the Stars" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #29424
File: Hopk072

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

See Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May (To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time) (File: BGYRWYM)

To the Weaver's Gin Ye Go

DESCRIPTION: "My heart was ance as blythe and free As simmer days were lang," but a weaver "has gart me change my sang." Sent to the weaver, he "conveyed me through the glen." As for what happened after, "I fear the kintra soon Will ken as weel's mysel'."
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1788 (according to Kinsley, _Burns_)
KEYWORDS: weaving seduction sex pregnancy warning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, p. 23, "To the Weavers Gin Ye Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 52-53, "To the weavers gin ye go" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GINYOUGO*
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #103, p. 106, "To the Weaver's gin ye go" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MacCS23

To the Weavers Gin Ye Go

See To the Weaver's Gin Ye Go (File: MacCS23)

To the West

DESCRIPTION: "To the West! To the West! to the land of the free, Where mighty Missouri rolls down to the sea." It is a place where all may succeed if they are willing to work. There is much to be done amid the prairies and forests. Build a home there!
AUTHOR: Words: Charles McKay / Music: Henry Russell (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: travel work home river | West
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 9-10, "To the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 26 and #3/62, p. 26, "To the West" (1 text); #34, p. 33, "To the West" (1 text)
Roud #13887
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3866)=Johnson Ballads 1675=Johnson d.1773(p. 133v), "To the West! To the West," Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Harding B 26(647), "To the West! To the West!" J. Moore (Belfast), 1846-1852; also Firth b.28(14b), "To the West," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(3869), "To the West," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 18(463), "To the West," H. de Marsan (New York), n.d.; also Firth c.13(177)=Harding B 11(2179), "To the West," A Ryle and Co. (London), 1845-1859; also Firth b.25(433), "To the West!" E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1855-1861; also Firth b.25(5)=Harding B 11(3865), "To the West," P. Blair (Morpeth), 1819-1860; also Harding B 11(3867), "To the West," J. Cadman/H Andrews, Manchester/Leeds, 1850-1852; also 2806 c.16(148)=Harding B 11(3868), "To the West," J. Cadman/H Andrews, Manchester/Leeds, 1850-1852; also Firth b.26(413)=Firth b.34(32), "To the West," T. Skelton (York), n.d.; also Harding B 11(3863), "To the West," unknown, n.d.; also Firth b.27(80)=Harding B 11(3864)=Johnson Ballads 3337, "To the West," unknown, n.d.; also Firth b.27(81), "To the West," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "To the West: A Parody" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Deseret (File: LDC186)
File: LDC010

To the West A While to Stay

DESCRIPTION: "As I sit here sad and lonely, Thinkin' of my dear old home, Of my home an' dear old mother, How much further must I roam?" The singer recalls the sad parting when he told mother he was leaving. Now he learns that mother died while he was far away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: death separation mother
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 191, "To the West Awhile to Stay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 189-190, "To the West Awhile to Stay" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 191)
Roud #4050
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ten Thousand Miles Away (On the Banks of Lonely River)" (plot)
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dB37 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: R191

To the West: a Parody

DESCRIPTION: "To the West! to the West! I once went, do you see, And one visit, I'm sure, was sufficient for me!" His children got sick; so did his wife. There were alligators (!) and snakes and buffalo. The singer "came back like a streak" and will not return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: travel work home river hardtimes derivative | West
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 11, "To the West: a Parody" (1 text, tune referenced)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 27 and #3/62, p. 27, "Parody on To the West" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "To the West" (source of parody)
File: LDC011

To Turra Toon on Business Bent

DESCRIPTION: A tailor went to Turra "on business bent ... Some said he had no business, But it was the opening day." He arrived and came to a table with "dainties there for all ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: commerce food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #56, pp. 2-3, ("To Turra toon on business bent") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1905, "To Turra Toon on Business Bent" (1 fragment)
Roud #13555
File: GrD81905

To Wear a Green Willow

See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

To Your Tents O Erins

DESCRIPTION: "In Union, blessed Union, will Freedom be found." Union's first year is ending. Union "fills the traitors with fear." "'Men to your Tents', now through Erin be sung ... Till Erin, loved Erin, from tyranny's freed."
AUTHOR: Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763-1798) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1804 (_Paddy's Resource_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: freedom Ireland nonballad patriotic political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 1791 - Society of United Irishmen founded in Belfast
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 36, "To Your Tents O Erins" (1 text)
NOTES [285 words]: Union, here, cannot be the Union of Ireland with Britain (which occurs in 1801, after Tone's death); it must be the formation of the United Irishmen, co-founded by Tone in 1791. The text begins by enthusiastically supporting "Union." It ends by repeating references to I Kings 12:16 in which deceased Solomon's kingdom is permanently split into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah; this, following Rehoboam's rejection of Israel's call for relief ("So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king [Rehoboam], saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse [Rehoboam again]: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David [Rehoboam once again, and/or Judah [actually the Davidic dynasty, as represented by Rehoboam, David's grandson and Jesse's great-grandson - RBW]]. So Israel departed unto their tents.") - BS
Like so much in Irish history, I personally would regard the "to your tents" phrase as words of ill omen, not good. Effectively the same phrase occurs in 2 Samuel 20:1 (slightly obscured in the King James rendering, it seems to me) as part of the rebellion of Sheba son of Bichri, which was quickly crushed. The rebellion of Israel against the Davidic dynasty was not crushed, but neither was Israel very successful; it took half a century before a dynasty was established which lasted for more than a year beyond the death of its founder, and the nation as a whole lasted only about 200 years.
The phrase "every man to his tent" occurs on a number of other occasions as well -- after battles in which the Israelites are defeated: The routed warriors flee to their own tents after the battle is lost. - RBW
File: Moyl036

To-morrow Shall Be My Dancing Day

See My Dancing Day (File: OBC071)

To-morrow's my lovie's wedding day

See The Sinnerin o' Me and My Love (File: GrD61148)

Toad's Courtship, The

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Toast to Beara, A

DESCRIPTION: "Let's drink a toast to Beara to the gallant sporting team: On the football fields of the County Cork today they reign supreme." Their victories are listed. The members of the team are named. "Here's success to all their followers"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: sports moniker nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 86-87, "A Toast to Beara" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [14 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: This song is about the 1933 Beara [Gaelic] football team. - BS
File: OCan086

Tobaccer Union

See Tobacco Union (Talking with the Social Union) (File: R508)

Tobacco

See Tobacco's But an Indian Weed (File: Log262)

Tobacco Is an Indian Weed

See Tobacco's But an Indian Weed (File: Log262)

Tobacco Pipes and Porter

DESCRIPTION: "Tobacco pipes, tobacco pipes, tobacco pipes and porter Mony ane will sing a sang, but few will sing a shorter."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink drugs nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 568, "Tobacco Pipes and Porter" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: David Buchan, editor, Scottish Tradition: A Collection of Scottish Folk Literature (Boston, 1984), #49a p. 141, ["Songs for Non-Singers"] ("Tobacco pipes, tobacco pipes, tobacco pipes and porter")
Roud #5894
NOTES [15 words]: Buchan: "Said or sung by persons unwilling or unable to comply with repeated requests" - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3568

Tobacco Plenty

DESCRIPTION: Singer has bad luck. He sat down to smoke but his pipe was empty. He tried to shave but, lacking a cake of soap, used a potato instead. He tripped over a hole in his socks and broke his nose ... If times improve he may pay the rent.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes humorous drugs
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 285, "Tobacco Plenty" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #5856
ALTERNATE TITLES:
One Day As I Sat on my Loom
File: GrD286

Tobacco Song (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye fellows smokes tobacco, come pity my case, I'm here on this island without a damn taste." Desperate people without a draw or chaw are smoking tea and worse, or chewing wax. When the wind changes and the ice goes they'll get tobacco at St Peter's.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: ordeal nonballad drugs
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 109, "The Tobacco Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best, "Tobacco" (on NFABest01)
File: LeBe109

Tobacco Song (II), The

See Tobacco Union (Talking with the Social Union) (File: R508)

Tobacco Union (Talking with the Social Union)

DESCRIPTION: "Come young and old and hear me tell / How strong tobacco smokers smell, / Who love to smoke the pipe so well. / For tobacco they will smell, To burn and smoke in union." A condemnation of tobacco, of those who spend money to buy it, and of its effects
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: drugs accusation
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph 508, "Tobacco Union" (1 text, 1 tune) (compare also the "B" fragment of 408, "The Little Brown Jug"))
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 378-380, "Tobacco Union" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 508)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 177-179, "The Tobacco Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 91, "Talking with the Social Union" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 71, "Tobaccer Union" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TOBBACUN*
Roud #5721
NOTES [9 words]: Apparently an adaption of the hymn "Heavenly Union." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: R508

Tobacco, Hic

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "Tobacco, hic, 'Twill make you sick. Tobacco, sick, 'Twill make you hic."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: drugs | counting-out tobacco
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 38, "(Tobacco, hic)" (1 text)
File: WEMM038B

Tobacco's But an Indian Weed

DESCRIPTION: Tobacco is offered as a parable for life: "Grows green at morn, cut down at eve." "The pipe... Is broke with a touch -- man's life is such." "The smoke... shows us man's life must have an end." The moral: "Think on this when you smoke tobacco."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1699 (Pills to Purge Melancholy); also in Trinity College (Dublin) MS. G.2.21
KEYWORDS: nonballad drugs
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) US(Ap)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 93, "A Peculiar Sermon for Shanty Boys" (1 text)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 45, "Tobacco Is an Indian Weed" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, p. 58, "Tobacco Is an Indian Weed" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 262-263, "Tobacco" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 563-564, "Tobacco Is an Indian Weed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 78-79, "Tobacco's But an Indian Weed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #37, pp. 233-235, "Tobacco" (1 text); Poem #8, pp. 36-39, "Smoking Spiritualised" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 259-261, "Smoking Spiritualized"; pp. 452-453, "Tobacco" (2 texts)
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 80-81, "Tobacco" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #95, "Tobacco Is an Indian Weed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2658, "Tobacco is but an Indian weed"
ADDITIONAL: Norman Ault, _Elizabethan Lyrics From the Original Texts_, pp. 56-57, "A Religious Use of Taking Tobacco" (1 text)
DT, INDNWEED*
ST Log262 (Full)
Roud #1457
NOTES [330 words]: This also appears as a portion of a poem, "Smoking Spiritualized." The remaining portion is said to be "very inferior." "Smoking Spiritualized" was published under the name of Rev. Ralph (or "Ebenezer") Erskine in a book of Gospel Sonnets. Although some have thought that the Erskine version is older than that in Pills, the fact that Erskine was born in 1685 argues that the song is older than his work. Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland and Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland offers some details on this history; it is possible that Erskine added a second part to the poem, or simply reworked it to produce the "Smoking Spiritualized" form.
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd suggest that it was by George Withers, since it is found "in [a] MS. of the date of James I, with his initials to it."
Ault offers an even earlier claim, crediting the piece to "Wisdome" and dating the poem "before 1568." I'm not sure if that is based on the Trinity College manuscript or the dates for Wisdome or just pure fancy; my suspicion is the last. I have some reasons for my suspicion: according to Linda and Roger Flavell, Dictionary of English down the Ages: Words & Phrases Born out of Historical Events Great and Small (originally published as The Chronology of Words and Phrases, 1999), Kyle Cathie Ltd, 2006, pp. 138-139, although Columbus himself was the first to see tobacco smoked, and Europeans were cultivating it by the mid-sixteenth century, the original English terms for it were "tabaco" or "tabacco." The form "tobacco" did not become widespread until the early seventeenth century -- when, e.g., King James VI and I wrote his Counterblaste to Tobacco (1604). James didn't like tobacco, but had too much of an economic interest in it to be able to ban it! So anything written in 1568 would, at minimum, have used a different form. - RBW
Beck credits this to "some moralizing shanty boy of 1892." Surprise! - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Log262

Tobasco

DESCRIPTION: The singer notes, "You can talk about your cities... But the little place of Tobasco is good enough for me." Tobasco has no fancy buildings, ornate churches, or sidewalks, and is not right for everyone -- but it suits the singer just fine
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: nonballad home
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
FSCatkills 158, "Tobasco" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC158 (Partial)
File: FSC158

Tobias and Biancos

See Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead) (File: R428)

Tobias and Cuancus

See Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead) (File: R428)

Tobias Murphy and Tom Hann

DESCRIPTION: Two captains, Murphy and Hann, are on St Mary's banks in a September gale. Hann's boat runs aground rounding Cape St Mary's and all hands are lost. Murphy's boat heads for North Harbour but two men are swept overboard.
AUTHOR: Peter Leonard
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship storm wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 110, "Tobias Murphy and Tom Hann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #28981
RECORDINGS:
Mr. Fitzgeralds, "Two Vessels Lost at Cape St. Mary's" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [123 words]: Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou: "According to Aunt Carrie Brennan, this sea tragedy occurred in 1878" - BS
1878 was indeed a bad year for storms and storm losses -- in 1879, the governor would comment on the heavy losses of ships in 1878 (Shannon Ryan, The Ice Hunters: A History of Newfoundland Sealing to 1914, Breakwater Books, 1994, p. 300), but I've yet to find an account of this particular tragedy. The story would be easier to trace if the song had the names of the ships rather than the captains....
Peter Leonard is credited with at least four songs in the Index, "The Schooner Annie," "The Hole in the Wall," "Soup Supper in Clattice Harbour," and "Tobias Murphy and Tom Hann," none of which seem to have been very well known.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe110

Toby

DESCRIPTION: "When I came down from the North country, I looked so poor and toggy, A lie I am not telling you, All were deceived in Toby." Time and again, Toby shows up in some situation and proves himself capable, e.g. he goes to a pub, and he is able to pay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Baring Gould collection, from Matthew Ford)
KEYWORDS: clothes money cards trick disguise
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 27, "Toby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3310
File: Gund027

Tochineal

DESCRIPTION: "Come a' my young lads, ye'll mak haste and be ready... An' we ane and a'... Maun leave Tochineal, nae mair to come back." "Awa to the West we maun a' gang thegither." Many are forced to depart; the singer laments that the new home will not be Tochineal
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: home emigration
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 374, "Tochineal" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 353, "Tochineal" (1 text)
Roud #4591
NOTES [82 words]: Nowhere does this song explain the reason for this mass emigration, but one has to suspect it is the result of the Highland Clearances.
Given the title and the metrical form, I suspect this of having been sung to "Teddy O'Neill," though neither Ord nor Grieg had a tune. - RBW
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Tochineal (374) is at coordinate (h6-7,v5) on that map [roughly 45 miles NW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ord353

Toco Bad Lumber

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns "bad lumber" that she will never marry no matter how she "grease you' heel" or "pare you' toe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage warning nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 33, "Toco Bad Lumber" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [75 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "In 'Toco Bad Lumber' the [reel dance] drummers sing about the female of bad reputation who seeks marriage, a highly prized achievement in the rural village. But peasants have codes of moral behaviour and anyone who does not conform to them is denounced as 'bad lumber.'"
Toco is the village in Trinidad that the Herskovitses reported on in 1939. It is on the north-east corner of Trinidad, the closest point to Tobago. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo033

Tocowa

See The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II) [Laws H1] (File: LH01)

Tod Lowrie

See The Fox (File: R103)

Tod Wi the Twinkland Ee, The

See The Broom of Cowdenknows [Child 217] (File: C217)

Today

DESCRIPTION: "Today, while the blossom still clings to the vine," the singer intends to enjoy life. He won't worry about the future or "be contented with yesterday's glory... Today is my moment, and now is my story I'll laugh and I'll cry and I'll sing."
AUTHOR: Randy Sparks (according to Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1964 (see notes); 1980 (Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
KEYWORDS: lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 25, pp. 148-149, "Today" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 543, 551, "Today" (notes only)
Roud #24303
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "Today" (on NFJDowney01)
NOTES [33 words]: Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong: "This song was originally composed as part of the sound-track of a Hollywood movie, 'Advance to the Rear' (1964), set at the time of the American Civil War." - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: BeDo148

Today in Monday (Slumgullion Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Today is Monday, today is Monday, Monday is slumgullion; All you hungry brothers, We wish the same to you. Tuesday, string beans. Wednesday, soup. Thursday, roast beef. Friday, fish...." There may be other foods (often German) listed. May be cumulative
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Camp Clavell and Girl Reserve Club Songs)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad hardtimes campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 25, "Today Is..." (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 98, 289, 392, 395, "Today is Monday" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 23, "Camp Menu Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [69 words]: Donald Mathew Alanen, The Logger's Encyclopedia: A Road to the Past, PublishAmerica, 2008, p. 178, defines "Slumgullion" as "the logger's goulash... like a beef [elk or venison] stew with a variety of vegetables. Makes a hearty meal with thick sliced bread, after a day in the woods, peppered by a freezing rain in late October." How such a concoction came to be found in summer camps is not obvious to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ACSF098A

Today Is My Daughter's Wedding Day

DESCRIPTION: "Today is my daughter's wedding day, Ten thousand pounds I'll give away" (chorus responds, "Good old squire!") "On second thought, I think it best, I'll put it in the old oak chest." ("Rotten old squire")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: marriage money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 66, "(Today is my daughter's wedding day)" (1 text)
File: PKKB066G

Toddlin' But and Toddlin' Ben (The Wee Little Totum)

DESCRIPTION: "Some say to live single it is the best plan, But I was ne'er happy till I got a man, When I got a man I soon got a wean...." "It gangs toddlin' but, and gangs toddlin' ben." The singer describes the toddler's cheerful rambles, and rejoices in her life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: marriage love baby wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan5 1072, "Oor Wee Little Tottum" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 137, "The Wee Totum" (1 text)
Roud #5551
NOTES [58 words]: Greig/Duncan5 quoting Gillespie: "Mrs Gillespie and myself, from a Mr Reid, precentor at Strichen and singing teacher about 1869." - BS
Not to be confused with the poem "Todlen butt, and todlen ben," found in Ramsay's 1724 Tea-Table Miscellany. That is listed as a modified old song, so it may be derived from this, but hte plot is different. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: Ord137

Todlen But and Todlen Ben

See Todlin Hame (File: AdART167)

Todlen Butt, and Todlen Ben

See Todlin Hame (File: AdART167)

Todlen Hame

See Todlin Hame (File: AdART167)

Todlin Hame

DESCRIPTION: "When I've a saxpence under my thumb, Then I get credit in ilka town: But ay when I'm poor they bid me gang by, O! poverty parts good company." The singer and his wife enjoy their ale as they wake. His wife is sweet when drinking but a fighter sober.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1733 (Ramsay)
KEYWORDS: marriage drink humorous nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 72, "Todlin' Hame" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scots Sangs (in three vols) (London, 1733 (ninth edition) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, p. 167, "Todlen Butt, and Todlen Ben" ("When I've a saxpence under my thumb") (1 text)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #275, p. 284, "Todlen Hame" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST AdART167 (Partial)
Roud #6493
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "George Ridler's Oven" (one verse) and references there
NOTES [170 words]: "'Todlin Hame' is one of the bacchanalian rants of our forefathers, in the days when honest burgesses got innocently muddled on twopenny ale: it used to be sung with such effect by an Edinburgh writer of the last century, that his boon companions had him painted in the appropriate attitude which he always assumed in correspondence with the first line -- 'When I has a saxpence under my thoum....'" (source: "Scottish Songs", William and Robert Chambers, editors, Chambers's Edinburgh Journal (London, 1836 ("Digitized by Google")), No. 190, September 19, 1835, p. 26).
Robert Burns: "Scottish Bacchanalians we certainly want, though the few we have are excellent. For instance, 'Todlin hame' is, for wit and humour, an unparalleled composition; and 'Andrew and his cutty gun' is the work of a master" (source: letter to Mr Thomson, 19 November 1794, in John Lockhart, The Works of Robert Burns (Boston, 1846 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 418).
See "George Ridler's Oven" for information on a possible earlier date. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: AdART167

Toffee Shop, The

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "(Maureen) had a toffee show, and (Johnny) came a-buying. Susan took a whirly-kick And sent poor Maureen flying."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food commerce | kick
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #166, "-- Had a coffee shop" (1 text)
Roud #20769
File: AJRR166

Tolkien Songs

DESCRIPTION: The writings of J. R. R. Tolkien contain much poetry, and because they are so popular, many have tried to set these poems to music. Most of these songs have no traditional currency at all, but some may. This entry tries to summarize those that might.
AUTHOR: Words: usually J. R. R. Tolkien
EARLIEST DATE: (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: derivative wordplay nonballad | Tolkien Stone Troll Errantry Galadriel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
N.B. Songs from _The Lord of the Rings_ are cited based on two editions: The Houghton-Mifflin three-volume second edition of 1965 ("HM2Ed," probably the most popular American hardcover edition) and the 50th Anniversary edition of 2004 ("50thEd," with the text closely examined to try to remove many years of errors, making it probably the most authoritative). Book and chapter are also cited to make it possible to find poems in other editions. For background about each poem, and earlier publications, see the NOTES.
"The Stone Troll": _The Lord of the Rings_, Book I, Chapter 12, "Flight to the Ford"; HM2Ed I.219; 50thEd, p. 206; also _The Adventures of Tom Bombadil_ (1962), Poem VII
"I Sang of Gold, of Leaves of Gold": _The Lord of the Rings_, Book II, Chapter 8, "Farewell to Lórien"; HM2Ed I.388; 50thEd, p. 372
"Errantry": _The Adventures of Tom Bombadil_, Poem III
RECORDINGS:
Bobby McMillon, "Galadriel's Song/Song of the Eldamar" [i.e. "I Sang of Gold, of Leaves of Gold"] (Piotr-Archive #33, recorded 05/08/2021)
NOTES [22976 words]: J. R. R. TOLKIEN AND WHAT HE SOUGHT TO CREATE
The works of J. R. R. Tolkien are, I suspect, even more popular with people interested in folk music than they are with the general public, but that doesn't make his works folk songs. Until I came across Derek Piotr's field recording of Bobby McMillon, it never occurred to me that any of his work belonged in the Ballad Index. But there are hints that a few items may have had some very slight traditional currency. And there is overwhelming evidence of Tolkien's abiding interest in folklore. So I'm setting up this entry to supply some background for anyone who chooses to investigate further.
Preliminary note: In the 1977 Rankin/Bass film "The Hobbit," Glenn Yarborough (who was originally known as a singer of folk songs) recorded part of the soundtrack, including the Rivendell Elves' song "O! What are you doing." But this was a modern setting; there is no reason to think it had any traditional component or was taken into tradition.
Furthermore, Tolkien sold the movie rights to his works outright near the end of his life (Drout, pp. 417-418), leaving the Tolkien estate no right of veto over movies or related merchandise. Had they retained those rights, I suspect there would have been no movies. Or, at least, not the movies that were eventually produced; it is known that the Estate avoided voluntary involvement in the Peter Jackson movies. Whether you like the movies or not, they are not traditional and they are not Tolkien.
Similarly, no attempt has been made to discuss all the various settings of Tolkien songs -- e.g. this entry does not include the settings by Donald Swann in Tolkien and Swann, The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle (Houghton Mifflin and Ballantine, 1967), because these show no hint of interacting with tradition. It does not include any "filk" settings where people refer to the book while using a common tune. There are whole books of similar modern settings. If anyone wants to try to find all the settings of Tolkien songs, or songs inspired by Tolkien, or other non-traditional things which are no concern of this Index, there is a web site, http://tolkien-music.com/, confirmed to still exist as of November 9, 2023, as well as a substantial discussion by David Bratman on pp. 152-164 of Eden. No notice will be taken of any such in this article. The songs cited in this section have some vague connection with oral tradition or traditional singers.
The amount of criticism of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien is vast (I myself have over eighty volumes either of criticism or of annotated versions of his writing), and the more that has been done, the more we realize how many sources he studied and put into his "cauldron of story" (the term he used for the mix of what we call "folklore motifs" that are the heart of most folklore). It took a long time to really start to understand his method of work and the sources that influenced him -- e.g. early Tolkien criticism ignored "Beowulf," "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," and "Sir Orfeo," which are absolutely necessary to understand him, while wasting time on Freudian psychoanalysis, which is pure bunk. Understanding how he used language is also necessary. The effect of this is that very little that was written about him before 1980 has retained any value. It was the writings of Tom Shippey that put Tolkien criticism on the right path. (It is my genuine opinion that Shippey's two major books, ShippeyAuthor and ShippeyRoad, are worth more than all other Tolkien criticism combined. Compare Fisher, p. 3: "It was Shippey who first brought Tolkienien source criticism to real prominence and he who developed the approach into a serious and reputable discipline.)
Of course the works of Tolkien can be enjoyed without knowledge of any of this. But, as Helms-World, pp. ix-x, says, "Tolkien's world is indeed traditional; borrowing from the power and import of his sources, recasting where necessary, he has out of the matrix of a dead and often misunderstood literature created an imaginary kingdom that though new is not groundless. To call the ancient works 'misunderstood' is to begin to grasp what Tolkien was trying to do, for this is to speak from his own point of view." I have done my best to sort through the criticism and summarize what one needs to understand his relationship to folklore, folk song, and mythology.
To begin with, keep in mind that The Lord of the Rings is not a novel but, explicitly, a romance -- not a people story but a way-the-world-works story. It is "not so much about what is real as [it is] about what is true"; Crabbe, p. 2. Indeed, "Tolkien's work is so suffused with medieval borrowings that today it serves as most readers' portal into medieval literature, making the real thing more familiar and accessible to modern readers" (so John D. Rateliff, HoughtonEtAl, pp. 144-145)
Tolkien wrote many poems, a substantial fraction of which he labeled songs. But did not consider himself a musician, and there seems to be only one instance of him actually creating a tune for one of his poems (for "Namárië," Galadriel's farewell song as the Fellowship left Lórien, a tune described as plainchant; Hammond/Scull-Companion, p. 856). In 1964 he told a composer "I have little musical knowledge" (Tolkien/Carpenter, p. 350), and told a 'cello-playing friend "I have no aptitude for [music]" (Tolkien/Carpenter, p. 173), saying that an attempt to teach him fiddle had failed. Apparently his mother tried to get him to learn piano, and that too failed (Hammond/Scull-Companion, p. 615).
I wonder, though, if that means much. We know from a number of sources that Tolkien had trouble with scheduling and executive function, and he was young when his mother tried to teach him piano. The attempt to teach him fiddle was later, but fiddle is a mechanically demanding instrument, difficult to learn, and most of the best players start when they were younger than Tolkien. I suspect he failed for reasons of mechanical and organizational difficulties, not lack of interest. We know he liked music; his mother was a pianist, his wife Edith was good enough pianist that there was talk of a concert career (Hammond/Scull-Companion, pp. 1012-1013), and his beloved aunt Jane Suffield apparently was attracted to her husband Edwin Neave because of his banjo playing (Hammond/Scull-Companion, p. 637). His daughter Priscilla sang in choirs conducted by Ralph Vaughan Williams (Gregory Martin, in Steimel/Schneidewind, p. 131) -- which incidentally means Tolkien probably encountered a lot of folk songs. He himself is said to have whistled constantly when at home (Gregory Martin, in Steimel/Schneidewind, p. 128). Tolkien's mythology described the creation of the universe in terms of musical themes (the "Ainulindalë" in The Silmarillion). I suspect Tolkien was more of a natural musician than he realized; he suppressed what was in his head because of his early failures to make progress on musical instruments.
What's more, although much of the music he enjoyed was what we would probably call "classical," he also knew quite a bit of traditional music, and used it as the basis for his own songs -- the songs of his found in the gag collection Songs for Philologists (1936) sometimes used pop tunes, but most of them were set to folk tunes. And he disliked the pop music of World War II and after (Hammond/Scull-Companion, p. 617). ShippeyRoots, p. 237, declares that "Tolkien, unlike almost all his contemporaries, had a strong sense of the difference between a literary tradition and a living oral tradition," and goes on to point out all the folklore genres with which Tolkien was demonstrably familiar. With this I agree. Crabbe, p. 97, puts it this way: in Tolkien's view, "The trustworthiness of traditional and intuitive knowledge is a part of the larger value of respect for the past."
Tolkien placed the following words in the mouth of Celeborn: "It may be that old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know" (Book II, chapter 8, "Farewell to Lórien," HM2Ed I.390; 50thEd, p. 374; cf. ShippeyRoots, p. 319). Clearly he understood the value of folklore and folk verse. Indeed, Verlyn Flieger claimed (Flieger, p. 13) that "Tolkien was the first literary scholar since Aristotle to bend his attention to the development of a critical theory for the evaluation of fairy tales." This is false -- Antti Aarne produced his first draft of the Aarne-Thompson system in 1910, and Stith Thompson's first revision was from 1928! -- but it shows how deeply Tolkien responded to folklore.
The one thing his lack of musical training should remind us is that Tolkien would not use musical terminology with precision. So when Reuven Naveh, e.g., starts trying to speculate on the nature of music Tolkien meant by a "chord" (Steimel/Schneidewind, p. 31), it's not Tolkien, it's 100% Naveh. Similarly, several have tried to analyze Tolkien's use of instrument names (Norbert Maier, on pp. 107-123 of Steimel/Schneidewind, devotes a whole article to Tolkien's use of the word "harp"!). But Tolkien would have known, as these authors apparently do not, that musical instrument names rarely translate well between languages, at least until recent times when we started to standardize our instruments. (Consider, for instance, Daniel 3:5 in the Hebrew Bible, which lists six instruments. The Authorized [King James] version lists them as "cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer." The New Revised Standard Version says "horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum." The Jewish Tanakh renders "horn, pipe, zither, lyre, psaltery, bagpipe.") Tolkien might have meant a specific instrument when he refers to a "harp" or "viol" or whatever, but it is absurd to assume it.
Instead of worrying about what Tolkien is saying from a musical context, I think we need to understand what we read in the light of Tolkien's obsession with philology, in particular the creation and evolution of languages. The study of language is almost certain to be incomplete without folklore -- learned writings often used unnatural language, but the folklore of the common people was the natural language itself! So Tolkien was a deep student of folklore -- almost any folklore in Indo-European, especially that which was preserved in the Germanic languages, whether Old English, Old German, Old Norse, Gothic, or other languages of this type. Indeed, Tolkien once wrote that "I feel strongly the fascination of the desire to unravel the intricately knotted and ramified history of the branches on the Tree of Tales. It is closely connected with the philologists' srudy of the tangled skein of Language" (TolkienFairy, p. 120).
Tolkien certainly understood the common broadside phenomenon of creating new words and singing them to an old tune; not only did he do this himself in Songs for Philologists but, in The Lord of the Rings -- the song "Upon the Hearth the Fire is Red" had words by Bilbo Baggins "to a tune that was as old as the hills" (Book I, chapter 3, "Three Is Company"; HM2Ed I.86; 50thEd, p. 77) -- although, ironically, the verse form is six lines of four feet, followed by four lines of a rather limping three feet; I doubt there has ever been a traditional tune with that pattern. Moreover, the very last Hobbit song in the whole book, "Still round the corner there may wait" (VI.9, "The Grey Havens"; HM2Ed III.308; 50thEd, p. 1028) is not only a rewrite-with-variation of one of the two "Walking Songs" (it's not entirely clear which, though probably it's "Upon the Hearth..."), but it ends "Shall take the hidden paths that run West of the Moon, East of the Sun" -- a clear invocation of the folktale of "East of the Sun and West of the Moon," which Tolkien would have known from The Blue Fairy Book even before reading the original in Asbjørnsen and Moe.
Tolkien also had substantial knowledge of the Child Ballads -- e.g. the very first substantial citation in his justly famous address "On Fairy-Stories" consists of three verses of "Thomas Rymer" [Child 37] (TolkienFairy, p. 110). ShippeyRoad, pp. 278-279, declares, "He respected the English and Scottish Popular Ballads collected by F. J. Child as being... the last living relic of Northern tradition." Helms-Silmarils, pp. 13-14, in fact suggests that Tolkien derived the idea of marriages between Elves and Men from "Thomas Rymer."
Or consider one of the pivotal moments in The Lord of the Rings, at the Siege of Gondor (HM2Ed III.103; 50thEd, p. 829). The Lord of the Nazgûl, once mortal man but now beyond life, has destroyed the gates of the City of Gondor, and is about to enter; "This is my hour. Do you not know death when I see it?" It is his moment of high triumph. And then, "a cock crowed." ShippeyRoad, p. 215, refers it to Peter's denial of Jesus, and the cock crowing, indicating the heart of Christ's Passion -- and it is that. But I would think even more of revenants, and "The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father" [Child 248]. The undead cannot remain when the cock crows. The Lord of the Nazgûl does not vanish like a revenant, but he takes no further step into the city, and within minutes he is dead. Did not the cock banish him? Cf. Thompson motif G303.17.1.1, "Devil disappears when cock crows," which is widely distributed.
We might also argue that most Elvish music is "folk music" in the sense that everybody sings it. In both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, what is the first thing we hear from any elf? Singing! (At Rivendell in The Hobbit and by Gildor's company in The Lord of the Rings.) Galadriel sings multiple songs. When Frodo is preparing to leave Middle-Earth, they meet the company led by Galadriel and Elrond -- and "a silver harp was in his [Elrond's] hand." When talking to Clyde S. Kilby, Tolkien "said that Elvish ought not to be read but sung and then chanted it in a slow and lovely intonation" (Kilby, p. 27). All elves, it seems, sing. Hobbits are also fond of singing, if on less lofty themes (Crabbe, p. 102); it is only humans who need minstrels.
Admittedly Tolkien uses very un-folk-like poetic forms. To give an extreme example, he considered the "Silmarillion" complex to include three "Great Tales," the Lay of Leithian (Lúthien and Beren), the Lay of the Children of Húrin, and the Fall of Gondolin. The third of these was never written out in full, but the first two were given in substantial form (versions are printed in The Lays of Beleriand, volume III of The History of Middle-Earth). The Lay of Leithian is in standard octosyllabic couplets, such as are used in "Sir Orfeo" or many of Chaucer's early works like "The Book of the Duchess" and "The House of Fame" (though Chaucer later shifted to decasyllables). But the "Children of Húrin," a tale mostly of men rather than elves, is in alliterative verse -- four-stress lines, two stresses before and two after the cesura, typically with the two stressed syllables in the first half-line alliterating with the first stressed syllable of the second half-line. This was also the form used by the Rohirrim in their songs -- not surprisingly, since it was the standard verse form in Old English, and was briefly revived in Middle English for works like "Piers Plowman" and the larger part of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight."
With that as background, we may break down Tolkien's interactions with tradition into three parts: His sources, places where he borrowed a poem (nursery rhyme, riddle) from tradition and explicated or elaborated it -- in other words, where he borrowed from tradition -- and poems of Tolkien's which were taken up by later singers. (There is one piece, "The Stone Troll," which falls into both categories.) In general the items in the first category will be discussed in their own entries in the Index, but they will be listed in these notes. Songs which fall into the second category will be discussed here.
If I had to sum up the many books and articles written about the music in Tolkien, I would quote Gandalf: "Many words, and few to the point" (Gandalf's description of his conversation with Gaffer Gamgee at the Council of Elrond). The main problem, I think, is because these writers, although some of them know about music in general, have known little about folk music or folklore. E.g. I found Eden to be mostly useless about the actual music in Tolkien (the articles typically dig around for Tolkien's supposed sources, or about the theology represented by his allusions to music). Steimel/Schneidewind was even more irksome -- too little Tolkien, too much music "inspired by" Tolkien that he would have loathed to the heart of his being.
There is also a good bit of argument about Tolkien's un-democratic politics. Obviously he shows an entirely hierarchical society. And, once he got rich, he complained about the income tax -- a lot. But he simply didn't conform to conventional politics. Tom Shippey, who knew him slightly, is convinced that "If he were voting today, Tolkien would certainly vote for the Green Party" (Drout, p. 382). I'm not sure that's true -- I have no idea how radical environmentalism, reactionary Catholicism, and absolute distaste for modern politics would add up. But I think Tolkien's attitude is not that absolute monarchy is good but that too many people, today, think that they have the right to be anything they want to be, and that most of them are not in fact competent to be the things they want to be. (As exhibits A, B, and C -- or perhaps B, C, and T -- I offer the American presidential candidates of 2016-2024.) Tolkien, I think, believes that most people have certain aptitudes, and should try to seek a place that suits those aptitudes rather than trying to rise to the level of their incompetence.
Furthermore: Tolkien seems to contend that Lord Acton's aphorism should be "Power tends to corrupt *those who seek power*...." Those who seek it, from Boromir to Sauron, are overcome by it. Those who do not seek it, from Gandalf to Aragorn to Sam, are not corrupted by it. (cf. Agnes Perkins and Helen Hill, "The Corruption of Power," Lobdell, pp. 55-56.) There is now a good deal of psychological evidence that this is true. The problem is that in a system where those who are granted power are specifically those who desire it, it is all but guaranteed that those who seek power will be corrupted by it and violate their principles (if they have any) in search of it. If nothing else, Tolkien envisions a world in which seeking power is unlikely to be rewarded.
I would also remind casual readers that The Lord of the Rings does *not* have a happy ending -- e.g. ShippeyAuthor, p. 325, refers to "The underlying sadness of his work, its many death-scenes and avoidance of the unmodified happy ending." ShippeyRoots, p. 200, declares, "It is deeply sad, almost without hope. The story is not a quest, about finding something, it is an anti-quest, about throwing it away. The price of throwing it away is extinction" for many of the peoples of Middle-Earth. "Yet The Lord of the Rings is not itself a golden age story; it is the story of a lull in the decline of a world that already looks back to a golden age and mourns its lost grandeur and nobility" (Crabbe, p. 73). There is a eucatastrophe: The "Long Defeat" has been staved off. But it is only postponed. The Ents are dying. The Elves are departing. The Hobbits will dwindle. Frodo is so scarred that he cannot stay in Middle-Earth. And where is Gondor today? We have seen a tragedy, even though it is a tragedy with a resolution. Almost, in a way, like a murder ballad which ends with justice being done.
After the main story ends, the last bit of narrative (as opposed to chronicle) in the Appendices is "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen." And what is its next-to-last sentence? Not "And they all lived happily ever after" but "[W]hen the mallorn-leaves were falling, but spring had not yet come, [Arwen] laid herself to rest upon Cerin Amroth; and there is her green grave, until the world is changed, and all the days of her life are utterly forgotten by men that come after, and elanor and niphredil bloom no more east of the sea." It sounds like the ending of Ecclesiastes, the most depressing book in the Hebrew Bible (maybe in all of literature), and even more like Arcite's famous dying words in Chaucer's "The Knight's Tale":
What is this world? What asketh men to hav?
Now with his love, now in his colde grave
Allone, withouten any compaignye (Chaucer/Benson, p. 62, fragment I(A).2777-2779).
Stoddard, p. 151, argues that one of the leading poetic forms in The Lord of the Rings is the elegy -- indeed, Stoddard goes on to argue over the next few pages that one of Tolkien's chief interests was memory and how it preserved the past. I think he's right; it's why Tolkien was so interested in folklore and the history of language.
Urang, p. 115, suggests that The Lord of the Rings "is a history of the end; it is eschatology. It has to do not primarily with faith but with hope.
This is supposedly the early history our world, but all our knowledge of that time is lost. As John D. Rateliffe says on p. 68 of Hammond/Scull-Blackwelder, "Only a word or two, a few vague legends and confused traditions, a smattering of lines of nonsense nursery rhyme, and perhaps a single, battered book would remain" of the whole world Tolkien describes. And many of those who read that single battered book do not even think it wise or beautiful. Truly a great loss. (Though one that Tolkien would know about too well. There is only one copy of "Beowulf," and that damaged. There is one of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." There are three of "Sir Orfeo," but the best and oldest is damaged. "The Battle of Maldon" was damaged, and even the damaged copy is now lost. And on and on....)
ShippeyRoad, p. 328, suggests that Tolkien's philosophy could be summed up by the refrain from the Old English poem "Déor," "Þæs ofereode, þisses swa mæg" -- "That passed away, this can/may too."
Rateliffe affirms further, "Tolkien... is firm on this point: however heartbreaking to our human sensibilities, we must accept loss and decay as essential parts of this world" (Hammond/Scull-Blackwelder, p. 87). The world cannot sit still; eventually, it will all be gone with the snows of yesteryear. What we have left is a few scraps (although the whole, in Tolkien's view, was remembered by God). Tolkien regrets the loss but considers it inevitable (and he's probably right). It is the philosophy of a fallen world -- a philosophy we mostly forget today, but which would be familiar to the people who composed most of the oldest ballads; it is the world their church taught them every week.
Tolkien is reported as having said that his "typical response upon reading a medieval work was to desire not so much to make a philological or critical study of it as to write a modern worn in the same tradition" (Richard C. West, seemingly based on a statement of Eugène Vinaver; West, "The Interlace Structure of The Lord of the Rings," Lobdell, p. 80). This obviously ties in with his tendency to elaborate old nursery rhymes.
John D. Rateliffe, "Inside Literature: Tolkien's Explorations of Medieval Genres" (HoughtonEtAl, pp. 133-152), suggests that Tolkien's responses to this literature can be classified in three or four categories: "Pastiche and Parody," "Adaptations in Medieval Metres," "New Wine in Old Bottles," and perhaps "Subsumed into a New Context."
In the parody category, Rateliffe mentions among other things two unpublished works "The Clerkes Compleinte," a mash-up of the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, and "Doworst," self-evidently a pseudo-continuation of "Piers Plowman's" tales of Dowel, Dobet, Dobest (HoughtonEtAl, pp. 134-135), plus (presumably as pastiche) The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, of which more later, and some bestiary tales such as "Fastitocalon" (published in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil) and a parody of medieval bestiaries, "Iumbo, or Ye Kinde of Ye Oliphaunt."
In the "Adaptations," Rateliffe lists "Aotrou" again, plus his unfinished "The Fall of Arthur," the related pair the "Lay of Sigurd" and "Lay of Gudrún," and "Imran," all cases where Tolkien took traditional materials, combined and reshaped them to get a more complete story, and rewrote them in a modern version of a traditional meter.
Under "New Wine in Old Bottles" Rateliffe lists Hild Hunecan/Little Nancy Etticoat, Meolchwitum sind marmanstane/In Marble Walls as White as Milk, and Ides Ælfscýne, all described below, plus some fictional annals in Old English and the poem "The Nameless Land." He doesn't really catalog the "Subsumed into a New Context" items, but it appears this involves the short forms used in The Lord of the Rings -- and, I would add, the latter book itself is a revival of the old genre of medieval romance.
Despite his knowledge of traditional song, most of the songs in The Lord of the Rings do not use typical "folk" metrical forms. I count about 55 songs or rhymes or riddles in the books (how many one counts depends very much on which items one considers "the same." I treated all of Tom Bombadil's metrical utterances as one, for instance, since they're almost all on the same pattern. This produces a slightly lower total than the 64 in Tolkien's own index. Verlyn Flieger, on p. 522 of Drout, comes up with 73, but this is counting every scrap of verse as a separate piece). Of these 55-or-so, there are only six that use the standard "Ballad Meter" or "Common Meter": a line of four metrical feet, then one of three, then another of four, then another of three, rhymed xaxa -- and even some of these were printed as two-line couplets rather than as four-line stanzas (in addition one of Treebeard's songs might be of this form, but it's hard to tell with all the hard words). The six are:
-- "Seek for the Sword that was broken" (Book II, chapter 2, "The Council of Elrond," HM2Ed I.259; 50thEd, p. 246. This is a dubious case; syllable count puts it in ballad meter; stress count makes it one of Tolkien's few pieces in triple meter)
-- "I sit beside the fire and think" (Book II, chapter 3, "The Ring Goes South," HM2Ed I.291; 50thEd, p. 278)
-- "An elven-maid there was of old" (Book II, chapter 6, "Lothlórien," HM2Ed I.354, where the song is mis-headed "An ELVIN-maid there was of old"; 50thEd, p. 339)
-- "I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold" (Book II, chapter 8, "Farewell to Lórien," 50thEd, p. 372; printed as couplets. Much more on this song below!)
-- "When spring unfolds the beechen leaf" (Book III, chapter 4, "Treebeard," HM2Ed II.80; 50thEd, p. 477; printed as couplets)
-- "In western lands beneath the Sun" (Book VI, chapter 1, "The Tower of Cirith Ungol," HM2Ed III.185; 50thEd, p. 908)
(Oddly, the ratio of poems in ballad meter is much higher in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil; "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil," "Bombadil Goes Boating," "The Mewlips," "Shadow-Bride," and "The Last Ship" all use it. However, I didn't notice anything in The Hobbit in ballad meter; its 16 poems often seem irregular, and frequently use very short lines of six or seven syllables or even fewer.)
Tolkien uses a vast variety of meters, from simple couplets to the alliterative meter (which counts stresses, not syllables, and uses alliteration, not rhyme; it is the standard verse-form of the Rohirrim) to the extremely complex form of "Errantry," but the large majority of his poems use octosyllabic lines with four stresses, iambic or trochaic; he very rarely uses three-syllable feet (I counted just three: Bombadil's many verses, ""Legolas Greenleaf long under tree," and "Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?"). He is much more likely to rhyme aabb or abab than xaxa, and often uses stanzas longer than four lines. 17 pieces struck me as being all four-line, 8 were alliterative (all by the Rohirrim except Malbeth's Prophecy about the Paths of the Dead: "Over the land there lies a long shadow"), 6 or 7 were in Ballad Meter, 4 were complex with some 4-foot lines (including "The Stone Troll" and "There was an inn, a merry old inn"), 7 were complex with no 4-foot lines, and 12 were irregular. One of the ones that didn't use 4-foot lines is Galadriel's Farewell Song "Namárie," or "Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen," which is unusual because it uses Chaucer's invention of decasyllabic lines -- almost iambic pentameter, except that it appears to be in trochees. It is interesting that Tolkien avoided decasyllables, since he used this meter in his non-Middle Earth writings, e.g. in the 1922 "The Clerkes Complainte" (Ruud, p. 72); perhaps he avoided it in The Lord of the Rings because Chaucer hadn't invented it yet?
TOLKIEN AND THE "MYTHOLOGY FOR ENGLAND"
Early in his career, it is usually said that Tolkien's goal was to create a "mythology for England." He certainly felt that English folklore was an impoverished thing, although he never seems to have attempted to collect folktales himself. (Ironically, the one true, substantial, and entirely English folklore corpus -- the Robin Hood legend -- seems to have attracted him not at all. At least, I can't recall him writing about it, and there is no mention of it in Tolkien/Carpenter or Drout. It was certainly old enough to interest him, and Robin's devotion to the Virgin Mary would have suited him well, as would Robin's devotion to the King. But Tolkien really doesn't seem to have liked outlaws; I suspect that that, and/or the degradation of the legend that began in the sixteenth century, caused him to ignore it).
Tolkien's desire for a "mythology for England" has been exceptionally widely quoted. And yet, as Anders Stenström showed, in "A Mythology? For England?" on p. 310 of Reynolds/Goodkind, Tolkien never wrote those words. "A 'mythology for England' -- this must surely be the most-often cited quotation that Tolkien never actually said" (Drout, p. 445). The article goes on to stay that Tolkien would surely have liked to create such a thing, by analogy to the Kalevala, but that wasn't what he eventually produced. If an English mythology had been his goal, the outcome would probably have been more like MacPherson's "Ossian" corpus (that is, original material fitted into a faintly Anglo-Saxon framework). We do see Tolkien trying out ideas like that, very early on, as, e.g., when he identifies England with the the original version of his Enchanted Isles, with the city of Kortirion being today's Warwick, and so forth. But this was abandoned very early. None of it survives in The Lord of the Rings or even The Silmarillion.
A much clearer analogy would be to Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, or the Kalevala, or indeed (despite Tolkien's rejection of Robin Hood) to "The Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117]: Taking existing sources and disentangling them and weaving them together, as the "Gest" combined two or three earlier romances, and the Morte takes individual sources, English and French, and imposes a sort of chronology on them and produces a consistent version. The Kalevala is a little different, because it is combined from many shorter sources rather than a relatively limited number of substantial sources. But all of them show signs of the composite: There are a lot of abrupt transitions and occasional inconsistencies -- more in the Kalevala, fewer in the Morte, because the former has more distinct pieces, but the situation is the same in both.
We see Tolkien assembling just such a work, in the book later published by Christopher Tolkien as The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún. which tries to bring together the Sigurd legends, being most dependent on the Elder Edda version, but using others texts to fill gaps and flesh out the tale. Tolkien's alliterative poem The Fall or Arthur, also published by Christopher Tolkien, is similar, though Tolkien took more liberties there. This is not, however, what he was doing in The Lord of the Rings. Lönnrot had been able to build the Kalevala using old tales and a relatively slight amount of glue. This was not possible for English mythology; the result of trying to make an English Kalevala would have been about 10% source material and 90% glue.
So Tolkien took a different approach: He used old sources, mostly from northwestern Europe, as ideas, treating them as survivals of something lost rather than as pieces of a connected whole. So, for most of his life, Tolkien was trying to work through mythology and "explain" it. Well-known examples of this are that he found the Woses in a reference to a "wodwos" in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (ShippeyAuthor, pp. 82-84) or encountered the dwarf names in The Hobbit in the "Dvergatal" portion of the "Völuspá" (ShippeyAuthor, pp. 14-17). Another example is how he took references to "elves" (ylfe, álfar) in several traditions, tried to sort out their traits (e.g. what is the difference between light-elves and dark-elves?), and based a large part of his mythology on the result (Drout, pp. 719-720, summarizing a lot of Tom Shippey's work).
We can actually see analogies to the two approaches in Tolkien's use of language. Gothic was a real language, with some surviving writings, but they are basically all religious writings; the surviving vocabulary is limited. So to write Gothic poems like "Bagme Bloma" (descibed below), Tolkien reconstructed some words from other Germanic languages, conjecturing their Gothic forms (Arden R. Smith, "Tolkienian Gothic," Hammond/Scull-Blackwelder, p. 269). But his Elvish languages, Quenya and Sindarin, are pure Tolkien inventions influenced by the sound systems of Finnish and Welsh (cf. John D. Rateliffe, on pp. 82-83 of Hammond/Scull-Blackwelder. Interestingly, as Carl F. Hostetter notes in his essay "Elvish as She Is Spoke" on pp. 231-256 of Hammond/Scull-Blackwelder, Tolkien never actually finished the grammar for either -- what he had was a sound system, a vocabulary, and an incomplete grammar. Neither language was sufficiently defined as to be speakable -- see p. 240 of the Hostetter essay -- and the version of Sindarin created by David Salo for the Peter Jackson movies in fact contradicts what Tolkien did). Tolkien knew his languages were incomplete; when Clyde Kilby suggested he write a story in Elvish, Tolkien "made the surprising answer that he would indeed do a story in Elvish if only he knew enough Elvish!" (Kilby, p. 33). Still, his sound systems made Elvish tongues "the most musical of the languages of Middle-earth, largely because of the high proportion of liquids (l's and r's) and vowels that are sounded at the front of the mouth" (Crabbe, p. 103; on p. 109 Crabbe compares this to Sauron's Black Speech, which is full of harsh consonant clusters and back vowels).
And Tolkien felt passionately that language and the folklore of the people who spoke the languages were intertwined (see, e.g,, Tolkien/Carpenter, p. 131, or even more explicity on p. 231: "It was just as the 1914 War burst on me that I made the discovery that 'legends' depend on the language to which they below; but a living language depends equally on the 'legends' which it conveys by tradition"; compare Stenström on pp. 312-313 of Reynolds/Goodkind.) The Middle-Earth universe is our universe, and our world is the descendant of that, which explains the survivals Tolkien quoted. But the basic mythology is the mythology of Elves -- of the speakers of Quenya and Sindarin -- not of England! (Maybe this is why he couldn't do an Elvish grammar: he never finished the history which would influence it.)
MATERIALS TOLKIEN WORKED WITH AND FROM
Knowing his methods, it is no surprise that the earliest roots of Tolkien's "legendarium" were based on traditional materials which he sought to recast and elaborate. His very earliest thoughts on what became the "Middle-earth" sequence, as far as we know, derive from a couple of lines in the Old English poem "Christ I," found in the "Exeter Book," Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501 (ShippeyRoad, pp. 245-246):
Eala earendel, engla beorhtast,
ofer middangeard monnum sended
(lines 104-105; Krapp/Dobbie, p. 6).
This is typical of "Christ I," also known as the "Advent Lyrics"; it's a series of similar poems. (Krapp/Dobbie, p. xxvi). Most of them start with that same word of invocation, "Eala" -- e.g. the second complete one, which starts at line 50, begins Eala sibbe gesihð, Sancta Hierusalem (Krapp/Dobbie, p. 4), which Raffel, p. 67, renders "Oh vision of love, Holy Jerusalem." Most of them are conventional and similar to Latin lyrics; they invoke the "righteous Lord," the Virgin, "God of the Soul and Spirit," and so forth. But this one (the fifth by Raffel's count, or the fourth complete one) Raffel, p. 69, renders somewhat periphrastically:
Oh morning star, brightest of messengers,
Sent to this earth, and to men, truest,...
Bradley, p. 104, offers a prose translation: "O dayspring, brightest of angels sent to men upon middle-earth"; Gordon, p. 135, also gives it as prose: "O Rising Sun, most radiant of angels sent to men upon earth."
ShippeyRoad, p. 245, however, has a more literal rendering:
Oh Earendel, brightest of angels,
sent to men above Middle-earth....
But who or what is Earendel? It certainly isn't a standard Catholic term. There are analogs in the mythologies of other Germanic peoples: Aurvandill/Aurvandil, Orendil, Horvendile, Horwendillus. We know Aurvendil from the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturusson, section 17 of the Skaldskaparmal, Snorri/Faulkes, pp. 79-80. Thor shows up -- with an axe or whetstone or something stuck in his head -- at the home of Groa "wife of Aurvandil the Bold." She tries to take the axe out; while she is doing this, Thor tells her that he had carried Aurvandil across a great river in a basket, but Aurvandil's toe had stuck out of the basket and frozen solid. So Thor broke it off and threw it into the sky; it became Aurvandil's (Earendel's) Star. (Compare ShippeyRoad, p. 246).
The other main account of Orendil is in Jakob Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, where he is "the 'first of all heroes,' a mariner who suffers shipwreck, takes shelter with the fisherman Eisen, and later weds 'Breide, the fairest of women'" (Helms-Silmarils, p. 2). This perhaps has some relationship with the Gesta Danorum, in which Horwendillus was a ruler who turned pirate (Tarcsay, p. 141).
(To be sure, the word also occurs in one of the tenth century Blickling Homilies -- but there it refers to John the Baptist; Tarcsay, p. 141. I have no doubt that the Homily reference is an allusion to John 5:35, where John is a "burning and shining lamp.")
Tolkien, looking at the roots of the word, thought it meant "ray of light" and was used of the planet Venus (Tarcsay, pp. 139-140).
In other words, Earendil was apparently a mariner who was also a star. So what is Earendil's Star doing in an Old English religious poem? A sensible assumption is that it was a bit of folklore crossing over into the Old English text. Tolkien kept thinking about it, and responded to this by writing a poem "The Voyage of Earendel" in 1914. And, in The Silmarillion in the chapter "The Voyage of Eärendil," how does Eönwë, the herald of the Valar, greet Eärendil? "Hail Eärendil, of mariners most renowned, the looked for that cometh at unawares...." It echoes both the first words and the parallelism of the Advent Lyrics. Tarcsay, pp. 142-143, also thinks there are parallels to Eärendil's ship name Vingilot, though these struck me as probably coincidence.
Other old sources yielded even richer troves. Tolkien was fascinated with the Finnish Kalevala. The clearest example of this is his use of the Tale of Kullervo: Tolkien first rewrote it as a William Morris-style prose story with poetic interludes (a form he would of course use much more in the future; cf. Himes, p. 69); this was eventually edited by Verlyn Flieger (cited as TolkienKullervo). Then Tolkien took the basic tale and converted it from the tale of a commoner to a tale of an aristocrat; it forms the backbone of the tale "Of Túrin Turambar" in The Silmarillion, or in its fuller form the tale of the "Children of Hurin." Flieger declares, correctly, "Kullervo's story in Kalevala had a profound effect and was the root and source of the story" of Túrin (TolkienKullervo, pp. 133-134 -- although Himes, p. 73, makes the ironic note that the Kullervo tale was much more the work of Elias Lönnrot than most parts of the Kalevala). From it, Tolkien derived Túrin's self-willed stupidity, incest, conversation with his sword as he considers taking his life, and suicide. (Tolkien seems to have thought that Túrin wasn't hopeless, since in one of his apocalyptic tales he actually has Túrin slay Morgoth in the Last Battle -- but it would have to be a very stupid god who would give Túrin a position of responsibility!) Onto this Tolkien grafted the dragon-slaying tale of Sigurd the Volsung (Tolkien/Carpenter, p. 150), and perhaps a bit of Beowulf, but it's the Kullervo plot that holds it together.
The tale of Kullervo is Tolkien's most direct borrowing from the Finnish epic, but there are subtler examples. The whole story of the Silmarils has a close Kalevala analogy. "In Runes 10, 42-43, and 47-49 of The Kalevala Tolkien found the source of much of the outline of the Silmarils' story. In that work the blacksmith hero Ilmarinen forges his great treasure, the Sampo, a work much coveted by his antagonist, the wicked Louhi, even as Fëanor made the Silmarilli, objects much coveted by Tolkien's antagonist Melkor" (Helms-Silmarils, p. 42). Here Tolkien takes a plot-outline but makes it specific: although the Sampo is greatly treasured, "'sampo' is not a word with a meaning other than the name given to the mythic object" in Finnish tradition (Himes, p. 78); I seem to recall suggestions that it was a sort of horn of plenty, some sort of defensive weapon, or a mill that turns the sky, but no one known.
The Kalevala supplied Tolkien with many other details (e.g. the singing duel between Finrod and Sauron resembles that of Väinamöinen and Lemminkäinen; Himes, p. 71). David L. Dettman sees a strong link between Tom Bombadil and the Kalevala hero Väinämöinen (HoughtonEtAl, pp. 202-203): "Väinämöinen is the eldest and greatest of all singers. The first to walk on solid earth after the creation of the world, he is often given the epithets 'eldest' and 'aged.' Tom is also old; he is constantly referred to as 'Old Tom Bombadil....' Väinämöinen's singing is very powerful magic and songs are used in battle with song matched to song. Väinämöinen defeats his enemies through skillful singing, transforming their weapons into saplings or reeds and singing one enemy into a swamp, putting him in danger of drowning." Tom too can sing his enemies into submission. (On the other hand, Väinämöinen's courting of Aino the water-girl, whereas Tom successfully woos Goldberry.)
Helms-Silmarils, p. 15, suggests that "How Culhwych Won Olwen" in the Mabinogion was a source for Beren and Lúthien, with its tale of how Olwen's father made impossible-seeming demands to keep Culhwych from meeting the conditions to marry her, and Culhwych met them with the help of Arthur's court. (I'd suggest, however, that the father who makes impossible demands to drive off a suitor is commonplace.)
The Atlantis legend was certainly a source for the disaster of Númenor -- though the story of a flooded land seems to have been a recurring nightmare for Tolkien, and that was probably the leading inspiration (Tolkien/Carpenter, p. 213). Tolkien also took significant elements from Greek mythology, with a clever twist: By demoting the Greek gods to the role of the Valar, he managed to preserve most of their functions (and some of their incompetence) without interfering with his monotheism: Manwê is a rather underpowered Zeus, Ulmo parallels Poseidon, Mandos is Hades, Yavanna is Demeter, Aulë is Hephaestos (although Manwë, Ulmo, Aulë, and Melkor also correspond to Air, Water, Earth, and Fire), Eönwë is Hermes although he is further demoted to the Maiar. Oromë has some of the attributes of Artemis, with gender reversed, and the Maia Arien, again with gender reversed, fills Apollo's role as driver of the sun. Athena has no exact analog, but Elbereth/Varda and Olórin/Gandalf take on some of the functions. Tulkas has the less violent aspects of Ares; in a good universe, there is no need for the more violent. In a universe where there is little evidence of lust of of drunkenness, there is of course no sign of Aphrodite, nor of Dionysus.
Also, Túrin, although his story is mostly that of Kullervo, takes on the very Greek aspect of the hero with a tragic flaw. And, Morgoth's curse on the House of Húrin, which shows its effects especially in the life of Túrin, seems very reminiscent of the cursed House of Tantalus/Atreus/Agamemnon and the House of Laius/Oedipus: all are curses that run in the family, even though only one member of the family is at fault.
Kristine Larsen, "Sea Birds and Morning Stars: Ceyx, Alcyone, and the Many Metamorphoses of Eärendil and Elwing (Fisher, pp. 69-83) suggests that the tale in the Silmarillion of Elwing transformed into a sea bird and flying to Eärendil's ship (cf. "There flying Elwing came to him" in The Lord of the Rings, Book II, chapter 1, "Many Meetings," HM2Ed I.247; 50thEd, p. 234) derives from the tale of Ceyx and Alcyone found in Ovid (book XI, starting at line 410) and elsewhere. I don't think Tolkien liked Ovid all that much -- but the tale of Ceyx and Alcyone showed up in another source that Tolkien liked quite a bit, which is Chaucer. Their story is retold in The Book of the Duchess (lines 44-270), as well as in Gower's Confessio Amantis (IV 2927-3123). And Tolkien had particular reason to know that bit of Chaucer: most of that part of the Book of the Duchess was included in a proposed Clarendon student Chaucer, for which Tolkien worked on the text and compiled notes (Bowers, pp. 120-124). The work never came off, only partly because Tolkien failed in his job, but Tolkien had examined the passage in nitpicking detail.
Most of the information about trolls in The Hobbit is clearly derived from Scandinavian sources -- e.g. the idea that trolls turn to stone when exposed to the sun is found in Grettir's Saga (cf. Marjorie Burns on p. 187 of HoughtonEtAl), and the remark "Yes, I am afraid trolls do behave like that, even those with only one head each" in the chapter "Roast Mutton" inevitably reminds us of the folktales of Asbjørnsen and Moe, where trolls regularly have two, three, or even more heads.
Verlyn Flieger (HoughtonEtAl, p. 73) suggests that the relationship of Sauron with the One Ring is essentially that of the old folk motif of the External Soul (THompson E710) -- a motif well-known to Tolkien in its variant form of the External Heart (Thompson Tale-Type 302), since he cites the tale of "The Monkey's Heart" (in which a monkey claims to have an external heart) from The Lilac Fairy Book (TolkienFairy, p. 117, with mentions of other "External Soul" tales on p. 118).
Sometimes Tolkien made this same sort of "interpreted use" of actual history. For example, the history of the Númenrean Kingdoms in Exile bears many similarities to Roman History (Drout, pp. 576-577), and I seem to recall reading somewhere that Tolkien actually compared Gondor to the Eastern Roman Empire (which we tend to call the Byzantine Empire). Both Rome and Arnor-plus-Gondor were founded by a leader whose home place had been destroyed (Aeneas and Elendil). Both split in two, with one of the halves lasting much longer than the other. Yet there are also substantial differences: Elendil's kingdom was never contiguous, and the split occurred very early in the history of the kingdom (Rome, by contrast, split with Constantinople late in the history of the former, and there were several splits-and-reunions before the final breakup in 395 C.E.). Rome and Byzantium both chewed through dynasties regularly, whereas the succession in Arnor was never disturbed, and even in Gondor, there were only two dynasties (that of Elendil and that of the Ruling Stewards). And there was no religious split between Arnor and Gondor. Tolkien definitely didn't follow Roman history closely!
Tolkien drew many ideas from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and it's my view (which I have not seen elsewhere) that Frodo's Passion in The Lord of the Rings was substantially influenced by "Sir Gawain." In the climactic scene of that romance, we learn that Gawain came close to fulfilling his duty, but fell a little short (by not revealing the gift of the allegedly-magic cloth). Therefore the Green Knight knicked his neck: A minor injury but one that he suffered for failure. Similarly, Frodo has done almost all the work of taking the Ring to Mount Doom, but he fails to cast it into the fire. It is only because of grace (in the form of Gollum's teeth) that he is saved. Frodo, like Gawain, is saved (more or less), but he must always bear the mark of his ultimate, if small, failure. (Although Urang, p. 111, observes that Frodo ends up with the same disability -- a missing finger -- that Sauron had after Isildur cut the ring from his finger.)
E. L. Risden, "Source Criticism: Backgrounds and Applications" (Fisher, pp. 17-28) on p. 18 lists the most noteworthy sources Tolkien is thought to have used; in addition to Old English and Norse sources and Middle English romances (e.g. "Beowulf," "The Wanderer," the Eddas, "Sir Gawain," "Sir Orfeo") and all the other things listed here, he lists "Mandeville's Travels," Saxo Grammaticus, the Grimm and Grunddtvig collections, and some modern sources like Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." Many have pointed out other modern sources, but the only ones I find entirely convincing are Haggard's She (covered below) and (for The Hobbit) Edward A. Wyke-Smith's The Marvelous Land of Snergs, which Tolkien described as a source (Tolkien/Carpenter, p. 215n.).
The Bible was not a trivial source, either. To take just one example, consider Ulmo's words when Eärendil is on trial before the Valar in The Silmarillion: "For this he was born into the world." (According to Kane, p. 230, this is from the source called the "Conclusion to the Quenta Silmarillion," which apparently dates from the mid- to late-1930s.) Compare Jesus's words when he was on trial before Pilate in John 18:37: "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth." For that matter, the summoning of the Elves to Valinor has resemblances to the Call of Abraham. Sméagol's murder of Déagol to take the Ring has echoes of the story of Cain and Abel (Yvette Kisor, on p. 155 of HoughtonEtAl). Large parts of The Silmarillion are full of Biblical echoes. (See Crabbe, pp. 114-115: "In The Silmarillion the two most important influences on Tolkien's life came into direct opposition: his religion and his love for the ancient heroic north. On the one and, his philologist's mind told him that the mythology of the ancient Britons must be similar in most ways to other northern mythologies. On the other hand, as much as he loved those mythologies, and as much as he celebrated the heroes of the unbendable will, he was a Christian and could not rid his mind utterly of the notion that this life is but a prelude to another." The brilliance of Tolkien is that he managed to take these two separate things and make them work together rather than be in opposition, even though the world that results is a world with little hope, in the absence of its future Redeemer; note that his works not only precede Jesus but even, presumably, Abraham.)
(At times, even the style sounds Biblical -- e.g. near the end of the chapter "Of the Coming of Men into the West" in The Silmarillion, there is a capsule genealogy of the family of Hador Goldenhead. Anyone familiar with the Bible will notice the similarity to the early chapters of the Book of Chronicles, or to parts of the "P" source of the Pentateuch.)
It should be remembered, thought, that Tolkien was a Catholic, and that he grew up before Vatican II -- which he largely disagreed with. His Bible was the Latin Vulgate, specifically the Clementine Vulgate of 1592, and not the Greek, or the Hebrew, or the King James Version. (Risden, on p. 18 of Fisher, suggests Tolkien also used the Gothic Bible, but I doubt it; there isn't enough of it left.) Also, his Bible included the Deuterocanonical/Apocryphal books such as I and II Maccabees, Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, and the additions to Daniel and Esther. Whether he used these books I do not know; he did refer in a letter to Judith being "elven-fair" -- Tolkien/Carpenter, p. 314 -- but the original word "ælfsciene" is from the periphrastic Anglo-Saxon poem "Judith," not the Biblical book: "ides ælfscinu, ærest gesohte," the last line of section X of the English poem; Raffel, p. 95 translates the word simply "radiant," although Bradley, p. 496, has "elfin beauty" and Gordon, p. 320, gives "fairy beauty").
(Also, although people often accuse Tolkien of believing in an excessively hierarchical society, note that he has reduced both heavenly and earthly hierarchies: Instead of the seven or nine orders of angels, from angels to archangels to principalities and on up to cherubim and seraphim at the top, Tolkien has two, Valar and Maiar. And compared to the English hierarchy of nobility that eventually ended up as King, Princes, Dukes, Marquis, Earls, Viscounts, Barons, we seem to have just three tiers in Gondor: Kings, Princes [meaning rulers of a Principality, such as Imrahil; it is not an inherently royal title], and Lords.)
Tolkien often seems to have interpreted his Bible in a Catholic light -- which may indeed have increased the power of his vision. E.g. the Satan is not really the enemy of God in the Old Testament. But "part of the reason Tolkien's vision is so necessary to so many is that it provides a richly satisfying experience of a fully worked out mythological perception of radical evil. Tolkien's particular myth parallels his Christianity, positing a malevolent and corrupting outside influence, spiritual and probably eternal, against which man is doomed to fight, but which he has no hope of conquering on his own" (Helms-World, p. 67) -- a very Catholic sort of view..
Sometimes the Biblical borrowings can be subtle and complex. Consider the name of the Creator: Eru Ilúvatar. Helms-Silmarils, p. 19, says, "That Quenya name Ilúvatar... is the equivalent to a standard Hebrew name for God: ilúvë, "the all," tar, "high" = El Shaddai, 'God Most High' (Exodus 6:3)." (Note: "El Shaddai," which is first used for God in Genesis 17:1 and occurs almost 50 times , is usually translated "God Almighty" although the root may indeed mean "high"; in the Vulgate it is rendered "omnipotens," so Tolkien would not have accepted Helms-Silmarils's equivalence. But "God Most High" is also a name for God; it's just that Helm's reference should have been to El Elyon, "God Most High," first met in Genesis 14:18 and used about thirty times, not always of God; the Vulgate renders "altissimi," so this would have been the version Tolkien would have used.) And yet, Ilúvatar is also, clearly, Ilu-vatar="all-father," the title of Odin.
At a deep level, the Biblical influence is probably most important of all. Urang, p. 120, says that Tolkien is "reliant on analogy" to the Biblical story. "Tolkien required no 'God' in his story; it is enough that he suggest it in the kind of pattern in history which the Christian tradition has ascribed to the providence of God." Or, at least, destiny, as when Gandalf says that Frodo was "meant" to have the Ring. This could perhaps be considered just the Anglo-Saxon wyrd, fate, but Tolkien clearly thinks this fate largely benevolent. Although I can't help but wonder if Frodo, with all the trauma he suffered, would agree.
ShippeyRoad, p. 102 and passim, has a linguistic parallel which makes this clear: the calque, "'calquing' being a linguistic term to mean that process in which the elements of a compound word are translated bit by bit to make a new word in another language.... The point about calques is that the derivative does not sound anything like the original: nevertheless, it betrays influence at every point. Thus historically the Shire is like/unlike England, the hobbits like/unlike English people. Hobbits live in the Shire as the English live in England, but like the English they come from somewhere else...." Shippey's analogy is so useful that other scholars have adopted it, e.g. Nicholas Birns, "The Stones and the Book," Fisher, p. 48, who compares for example the "AInulindalë" to Genesis 1 and on p. 50 mentions Tolkien's own comparison of Elendil to Noah.
But Middle-earth is a calque which draws from myth and legend -- from Beowulf, from Sir Gawain, from the Eddas, from Sir Orfeo, from all of it. Much of what Tolkien produced consisted of thinking about a folklore motif, trying to decide what it really "meant" -- and then putting it into his greater works. The list above isn't even close to comprehensive. Even though Tolkien's work is highly original, it is also exceptionally deeply rooted.
Traditional Songs, Poems, and Riddles With Which Tolkien Interacted
Thus Tolkien made many attempts to explicate surviving fragments, often preserved as nursery rhymes or riddles, and some of these made it into his works. Examples of these are the following items in the Index:
Hey Diddle Diddle (File: OO2213), expanded in The Lord of the Rings as "The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late"
I Love Sixpence (File: OO2480), translated into Old English as "Syx Mynet" ("Mynet" being the Old English for "coin," so the title means "six coins"; in Old English times, the largest coin was the silver penny, so there was no term "sixpence"). Privately published in Songs for Philologists; not published in any mass-market Tolkien work
In Marble Walls as White as Milk (File: OO2199), translated into Old English as "Meolchwitum sind marmanstane" in "Enigmata Saxonica Nuper Inventa Duo" ("Two Saxon Riddles Newly Found"); not published in any mass-market Tolkien work, but see Tolkien/Anderson, pp. 123-125, n. 19.
Little Nancy Etticoat (File: OO2373), translated into Old English as "Hild Hunecan" who wears a "tunecan" (tunic) in "Enigmata Saxonica Nuper Inventa Duo" ("Two Saxon Riddles Newly Found"); not published in any mass-market Tolkien work, but see Tolkien/Anderson, pp. 123-125, n. 19.
The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon (File: OO2331), expanded in The Lord of the Rings as "The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon" (see the extensive set of sources in the notes to that song)
Merie Sungen the Muneches Bennen Ely (Merry Sang the Monks of Ely) (File: MSMStMoE), quoted, with probable modification, in "The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son." They are the last English words of the drama, as the monks come to take Beorhtnofh's body; the only remaining words are from the Latin Office for the Dead (p. 18 in The Tolkien Reader.)
Molly Put the Kettle On (Polly Put the Kettle On) (File: DarNS256), used as the tune for "'Lit' and 'Lang'" (sometimes referred to as "Two Little Schemes"), from Songs for Philologists; not published in any mass-market Tolkien work. There are two reasons for its obscurity. First, it is about the internal politics of English Literature departments, and the conflict between the "Language" specialists (philologists, such as Tolkien) and those interested mostly in literary criticism. Because of their interests, the "Lang" people also usually had more interest in older writings, the "Lit" people in newer writings, which Tolkien disliked. So the song was more than a little nasty; he disliked the way philology was being pushed aside (much as folk music scholars today dislike the way our field has been pushed out of first English departments and then folklore departments!). And, according to ShippeyRoad, p. 6, it was "the worst [song] he ever wrote, so bad indeed that it makes me think (or hope) that something must have gone wrong with it en route between poet and printer." Although the tune is short, the poem uses long stanzas of 12 lines, rhymed aaabcccbcded (Ruud, p. 427).
Thirty White Horses (File: BGMG704), a riddle used almost verbatim in the chapter "Riddes in the Dark" in The Hobbit.
What's the Rhyme to Porringer? (File: MSNR100). This helped to inspire Tolkien's poem "Errantry," which can stand on its own (it has no connection to Middle-earth), and that poem somehow inspired "Bilbo's Song in Rivendell," i.e. "Eärendil was a Mariner."
Who Killed Cock Robin (File: SKE74), translated into Old English as "Ruddoc Hana" ("Ruddoc"=robin; "Hana"=cock). Published in Songs for Philologists; not published in any mass-market Tolkien work
It will be noted that almost all of these were produced pre-Hobbit, even though Tolkien used some of them in his later publications. The pressure that Tolkien experienced to produce a sequel to The Hobbit, plus the fact that his children were old enough that he no longer had to make up tales for them, drove him to concentrate almost all his attention on the Middle-earth universe (so Paul Edmund Thomas, on pp. 62-64 of Hammond/Scull-Blackwelder), so the smaller works fell by the wayside. It's not that he was ignoring the folklore and the old books -- the debts of the Middle-earth universe to stories such as "Beowulf," "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," "Sir Orfeo," "The Elder Edda," the various forms of the Sigurd saga, and the "Kalevala" is immense -- but he no longer expressed it in the same way.
SEE ALSO: King Orfeo [Child 19] (File: C019). Tolkien did not directly interact with the ballad "King Orfeo," but his interactions with the source, "Sir Orfeo," were extensive and included a Modern English translation. (Deanna Delmar Evans, "Tolkien's Unfinished 'Lay of Lúthien' and the Middle English Sir Orfeo," Eden, pp. 75-84, tries to argue direct literary dependence of Tolkien's work on "Sir Orfeo," but this essay drove me bonkers in its obtuseness -- it doesn't even interact with the definitive edition of the Middle English text edited by A. J. Bliss; it relies only uses Tolkien's translation, plus it mis-attributes to Tolkien work that was almost certainly done by Kenneth Sisam. And I really don't think it understands either folklore or Tolkien's working methods. Which is not to deny that the tale has connections to the Orpheus legend; Tolkien himself says that the tale of Beren and Lúthien was "a kind of Orpheus legend in reverse" (Tolkien-Carpenter, p. 193). In fact the Beren story is the Orpheus legend reversed twice: The woman rescues the man, and the ending is happy. This means that the link is much closer to "Sir Orfeo" which has its own happy ending, than to the original Orpheus legend -- noted also by ShippeyRoad, p. 259. The roles are still reversed, though: In "Sir Orfeo," Orfeo goes to the King of Faërie and, using his music, regains his wife Heurodis. In the story of Lúthien, after Beren dies, Lúthien goes to Mandos, the equivalent of Hades, and with her music convinces that power, who never had shown pity, to release Beren; cf. Keith W. Jensen, "Dissonance in the Divine Theme: The Issue of Free Will in Tolkien's Silmarillion," Eden, pp. 102-113, specifically pp. 107-109.
The tales of "Sir Orfeo" and "Of Beren and Lúthien" also share the motif of the Rash Promise, but in completely different contexts. The Rash Promise had occurred in Lúthien's story, when Thingol promised not to kill Beren: "Death you have earned with these words; and death you should find suddenly, had I not sworn an oath in haste"; The Silmarillion, in the chapter "Of Beren and Lúthien." Tolkien was very interested in this theme, as witness his comment on the tale of "The Frog Prince": "the point of the story lies not in thinking frogs possible mates, but in the necessity of keeping promises (even those with intolerable consequences) that... runs through all Fairyalnd. This is one of the notes of the horns of Elfland, and not a dim one" (Tolkien-Fairy, pp. 152-153, pointed up by U. Milo Kaufmann on p. 150 of Lobdell, who thinks it unrealistic).
Tolkien had a deep and abiding relationship with "Sir Orfeo" -- as deep, perhaps, as his relationship with "Beowulf" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Much of "Smith of Wootton Major" seems to me to be a response to it -- almost as if to say "This is what Faërie is really like." Tom Shippey argues strongly that the Mirkwood story of Bilbo encountering the Elvenking is inspired by "Sir Orfeo," and on p. 62 of ShippeyRoad he goes ever farther: "I would suggest that the 'master-text' for Tolkien's portrayal of the elves is the description of the hunting king in Sir Orfeo." And "The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun" -- to my mind, perhaps Tolkien's best work outside the Middle-Earth universe -- is explicitly labeled a Breton Lay (TolkienAotrou, p. xii), a rare type in English best represented by "Sir Orfeo" and to a lesser extent Chaucer's "Franklin's Tale"; it seems almost certain that one of those two, probably the former, inspired "Aotrou and Itroun" -- and perhaps a strong interest Tolkien developed in things Breton (TolkienAotrou, p. xvii). What's more, "Aotrou" was associated with (and eventually printed with) two "Corrigan" poems. When I read the first of these, I was tempted to label it a composite of "The Queen of Elfan's Nourice" [Child 40] and "Willie's Lady" [Child 6]; the sense of ballad lore is that strong.
So Tolkien certainly had "Sir Orfeo" in his mind for all his career, and maybe even "King Orfeo," which he would have known as well. But Tolkien almost never shows real literary dependence; even his translations and retellings were often very free. Rather, he operated by "Models and Motifs." That is, he took a model form, and worked on it, as the model of "Sir Orfeo" inspired "Aotrou and Itroun," or took a motif and incorporates it, as he used Orfeo's pursuit of the King of Faërie as the principle of Bilbo and the Dwarves chasing the Elvenking. If there is influence on the "Lay of Lúthien," it might even be through "Aotrou and Itroun," which Tolkien was working on at the same time; TolkienAotrou, p. xi).)
SEE ALSO: Tolkien's poem "The Hoard," item #14 in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. Even by Tolkien's standards, this went through an extraordinary number of rewrites. the earliest version, published in the Leeds journal The Gryphon of January 1923, was titled "Iúmonna Gold Galdre Bewunden" (TolkienBombadilAnnotated, p. 240). This is an extraordinarily evocative title, because it comes from "Beowulf," line 3052, see e.g. Beowulf/Chickering, p. 232 (though Chickering gives the orthography "iū-monna gold, galdre bewunden"). Chickering glosses this as "the gold of the ancients, was wrapped in a spell"; Seamus Heaney's recent paraphrase was "That huge cache, gold inherited / from an ancient race, was under a spell" (Beowulf/Heaney/Donoghue, p. 76); Tolkien's own draft translation was "the gold of bygone men was wound about with spells" (Beowulf/Tolkien, p. 102; sadly, his commentary did not extend to this line). It is a description of the dragon's treasure.
The poem Tolkien wrote is of an accursed treasure that passes from one owner to another by death, or killing, as the lure of the gold corrupts. It is a short summary -- sort of Percy-Folio-like -- of many similar items such as the tale of The Hoard of the Nibelung, known in both Old Norse and Middle High German. It is not clear that he was trying to make a "short Nibelungenlied" -- probably not -- but he would likely have thought that there was such a version somewhere. (Shippey-Roots, p. 342, mentions that there is also a golden hoard in Chaucer's "Pardoner's Tale" which curses those who encounter it, but there is no sign of that hoard being passed hand to hand.)
Note that this image of cursed treasure shows up elsewhere in his work -- The Hobbit is the story of the dwarves trying to recover a hoard of theirs from a dragon. And their song about it (the second song in The Hobbit, and the first serious one, in the very first chapter "An Unexpected Party") has a bit of that Beowulfian language about it: "We must away, ere break of day, To seek the pale enchanted gold... We must away, ere break of day, To claim our long-forgotten gold." Enchanted? Long-forgotten? Is this not indeed "Iúmonna gold galdre bewunden"? Furthermore, the line "To claim our long-forgotten gold" is known to have been in the very first draft of The Hobbit, at a time when Tolkien hadn't even fixed the names of Smaug, Gandalf, and Thorin (Rateliff, p. 14; this is the only line of the poem still legible from this mostly-destroyed draft), and the song has reached effectively its final form in the second draft (Rateliff, pp. 36-37). On how Tolkien saw dragon's gold see also ShippeyRoad, pp. 86-92.
SEE ALSO: Robin Hood and the Monk [Child 119] (File: C119). Tolkien did not do anything with "Robin Hood and the Monk," but almost the earliest of all Middle-Earth poems was "Light as Leaf on Lindentree," which Tolkien seemingly began working on as early as 1919-1920 (Hammond/Scull-Companion, pp. 522-523); it is the first glimpse of what became the story of Beren and Lúthien, his own favorite of all his stories (when he died, he instructed that "Beren" be carved on his grave and "Lúthien" on his wife Edith's). Child's Stanza 76, lines 3-4, reads "And Robyn was in mery Scherwode, As liȝt as lef on lynde" -- "And Robin was in merry Sherwood, as light as leaf on lind[en]." There are other sources which have similar lines: Piers Plowman, B text, Passus I, line 156, reads "Was nevere leef upon lynde lighter thereafter" (Langland/Schmidt, p. 22), and Chaucer at the end of the Clerk's Tale has "Be ay of chiere as light as leef on lynde" -- "Be ever of cheer as light as leaf on linden-tree" (Fragment IV (E), line 1211; Chaucer/Benson, p. 155). Thus it seems clear that it was traditional, at least as a proverb, and Tolkien adopted it.
SEE ALSO: Hind Etin [Child 41]. Whitaker, p. 55, suggests this as a possible source for the story of Eöl and Aredhel in The Silmarillion, in which she is captured by a rogue resident of a dark forest: "Eöl is reminiscent of the folk legend of the 'Erlking,' the forest-dwelling evil elf who ensnares the innocent and unwary; or the Scottish 'Hind Etin' who takes to wife and imprisons the aristocratic maiden who strays into his forest (as punishment for breaking twigs in his domain)." There is certainly a similarity in that the captured woman remains while she bears her abductor's child(ren), as well as the fact that the woman and her son(s) return to their home. However, in "Hind Etin," there is a reconciliation between Akin/Etin and his wife's family; in the tale of Aredhel, although Eöl is offered a reconciliation, he refuses it and murders his wife. (Which, to be sure, is a typical response of a macho man to feeling betrayed.)
SEE ALSO: The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200]. As with "Hind Etin," and to an even greater degree, note the significant similarities between this and the story of Eöl, Aredhel, and Maeglin in The Silmarillion. In the ballad, an unhappy wife leaves her husband, probably taking her baby with her, and the abandoned husband follows. In Tolkien's tale, Aredhel takes her son Maeglin and leaves her husband Eöl, who follows. The parallels are not perfect, but this might be obe element that went into Tolkien's story.
SEE ALSO: Tolkien's The Lay of Aotrou & Itroun and the two related Corrigan poems. The direct source of the Corrigan poems is the Breton material of Theodore Claude Henri Hersart de la Villemarqué's Barzaz-Breiz: Chants Populaire de le Bretagne of 1846 (TolkienAotrou, p. xvi, 31, 45), and "Aotrou" itself is a development of these ideas into a full-blown "Breton Lay" (the same genre as "Sir Orfeo"). But there is a lot of Child Ballad influence in the poems themselves. Jessica Yates suggested that Tolkien "wanted to write a version of the 'Clerk Colvill' story about a young man and a water nymph [and] was intrigued by the translations he found of the analogous Breton 'Lord Nann' ballad [found in Child]." (ScullHammond-Guide, p. 487). This hasn't convinced many scholars (it certainly doesn't convince me), but the second "Corrigan poem" printed in TolkienAotrou appears to directly cite "Lord Randall" [Child 12]: "A! mother mine, if thou love me well, Make my my bed! my heart doth swell, And in my limbs is poison fell" (lines 69-71; TolkienAotrou, p. 51). The first Corrigan poem features a changeling. I felt as if there were hints of "The Queen of Elfan's Nourice" [Child 40] and maybe "Willie's Lady" [Child 6] in there as well. And the alluring corrigan perhaps hints at the attractive Queen of Elfland in "Thomas Rymer" [Child 37]. On the whole topic of elves, fairies, fays, and even corrigans, see also the excursus "Faërie and Elfland" under "King Orfeo" [Child 19].
Tolkien's Entries in Songs for Philologists
The collection Songs for Philologists (printed 1936, but suppressed for copyright reasons; it is believed only 14 copies survive; Ruud, pp. 422-423) contained 13 songs by Tolkien plus others by his student and colleague E. V. Gordon; there were 30 songs in all. (One of Gordon's was "When I'm dead don't bury me at all, Just pickle my bones in alcohol," which he rendered into Old English, Gothic, and a Scots dialect -- Drout, p. 252. That must have been an interesting translation!) Most of Tolkien's contributions were set to traditional tunes. Some were mentioned above; the rest I list here based on Hammond/Scull-Companion, p. 968 and Ruud, pp. 423-428, adding what additional information I can:
Bagme Bloma -- Gothic, in praise of the birch tree, which loses its leaves in the wind. Probably another comment on the difference between the Literature and Language tracks at Leeds (known as "A" and "B" -- Drout, pp. 350-351 -- and Tokien considered the birch an emblem for "B"). Some of the ideas would show up later in Tolkien's "Smith of Wootton Major," where the birch saves Smith from the "wild Wind" but loses its leaves in the process. Written in Gothic, a very poorly preserved language but one which Tolkien loved. The listing in Songs for Philologists says it is to be sung to "O Lazy Sheep," which no one has succeeded in identifying, and given that it uses alliterative lines (Ruud, p. 424), it's hard to see how it could have been sung to any tune such as we use -- Tolkien himself said that the lines of alliterative poetry "do not go according to a tune" (Drout, p. 8). Reprinted and translated in ShippeyRoad, pp. 354-355. Arden R. Smith, "Tolkienien Gothic," Hammond/Scull-Blackwelder, p. 271, says that the poem contains 55 distinct words, only 38 are attested in other Gothic writings (and some of those are found only in different inflections) and 17 of the words are Tolkien's reconstructions of what word Gothic would likely have used.
Éadig Béo Þu! -- sung to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." The title is translated by Tom Shippey as "Good Luck to You." It is a sort of a drinking song and toast, calling for mead and wishing luck to all (Ruud, p. 424), but like "Bagme Bloma," it also praises "the birch, and the birch's race, the teacher." There is much alliteration; the rhyme scheme is ababcdcd. Reprinted and translated in ShippeyRoad, pp. 355-356.
Frenchmen Froth (in praise of "The English tongue 'fore all") -- sung to the tune of "The Vicar of Bray." A song of praise for England, English, and students of the language. -- a subject superior to all others, especially to literature, which is studied by "moles." There are four stanzas rhyming ababababcc (Ruud, p. 426).
From One to Five -- Five stanzas, to the tune of "Three Wise Men of Gotham," with each stanza describing problems suffered by students and/or professors with academic life (Ruud, p. 423)
I Sat Upon a Bench -- a drinking song to the tune of "The Carrion Crow." It seems to be little more than a song of getting drunker and drunker until the world is shaking and it seems that a beery tide is approaching; the singer thinks it would be merry to die in such a sea. There is a "Fol de rol de rol..." chorus line used as the second and last lines in six-line verses rhymed abaabb (Ruud, pp. 425-426).
Ides Ælfscýne -- to the tune of "Daddy Neptune" (whatever that is). The title is translated by Tom Shippey as "Elf-fair Lady." The singer meets a beautiful woman who says they must never be separated; after many adventures in magic lands, he returns to earth to find all those he had known are dead and he is "grey and alone." Published in Songs for Philologists; reprinted and translated in ShippeyRoad (Ruud, pp. 424-425. This is an idea that Tolkien also used in the poem "Looney," which later became "The Sea-Bell" in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil; it also seems to have influenced "The Book of Lost Tales"; clearly it had much meaning to him (compare the Thompson Motif F377, "supernatural lapse of time in fairyland"). One wonders if he was influenced by "Thomas Rymer" [Child 37], which, as mentioned, Tolkien knew well. (Ruud, p. 33, also suggests influence from the romance of Lanval. This is unlikely, since Lanval is French -- one of the Breton Lays of Marie de France -- but Tolkien would have known its English translations "Sir Landevale" or "Sir Launfal." However, I doubt he used it, since the "Launfal" version ends with the hero happily going back to Faërie with the beautiful creature who was known only to him. If a ballad influenced Tolkien here, I really think it was "Thomas Rymer." John Rateliffe, on p. 143 of HoughtonEtAl, also mentions "Thomas Rymer," plus "Clerk Colvill" [Child 42].)
On the other hand, ShippeyRoad, p. 353, thinks this may have been intended to be the pseudo-original of "Tam Lin," "The Queen of Elfan's Nourice," or perhaps "The House Carpenter." Shippey gives the text and translation on pp. 356-358.
Note, however, that Tolkien's title, at least, is from the Old English poem "Judith," who, as noted above, was "ælfscinu," "elven-fair" -- and that Judith led Holofernes astray, although Holofernes ended up dead, not old and alone.
La Húru -- a drinking song to the tune of "O'Reilly," but we don't know which song of that title Tolkien meant. The name is Old English and means something like, "Oh, Surely." Three stanzas with a chorus; each stanza has four tetrameter lines, usually with all four lines rhyming (Ruud, p. 425). See also the next item.
Natura Apis: Moralie Ricardi Eremite -- like "La Húru," to be sung to the tune of "O'Reilly," but very different; the Latin title means "(The) Nature of the Bee: (The) Moral of Richard the Hermit." It is a praise to the bee, probably inspired by the famous Richard Rolle of Hampton (author of many works, "The Pricke of Conscience" being the best-remembered), who had offered the bee as an example for humans to follow. The format is similar to La Húru: Five verses with four verse lines, tetrameters, all rhyming, with a nonsense chorus (Ruud, p. 426).
Ofner Widne Garsecg -- said to be sung to the tune of "The Mermaid," but the reference is not to the Child ballad but to "Married to a Mermaid"; Tolkien explicitly stated that it was "An O[ld]E[nglish] version of 'Twas in the broad Atlantic in the equinoctial gales That a young man fell overboard among the sharks and whales'" (ShippeyRoad, p. 353). The title is translated by Tom Shippey as "Across the Broad Ocean." A young man is blown out to sea and ends up among the merpeople; he is invited to marry, and goes back briefly to tell his former companions that he will live among the merpeople; they curse him (Ruud, p. 425). The four-line stanzas rhyme aabb; the chorus is an allusion to "Beowulf." Reprinted and translated in ShippeyRoad, pp. 359-360.
Traditional or Semi-Traditional Pieces Derived from Tolkien: The Point of This Entry
The Stone Troll
("Troll sat alone on his seat of stone, And munched and mumbled a bare old bone...")
This song connects to tradition because it is the one Tolkien piece for which we unequivocally know the tune, and that tune is traditional, and Tolkien modeled his song on the traditional song. The song he used is "The Fox" (Rateliff, pp. 57-58; TolkienBombadilAnnotated, p. 197).
TolkienBombadilAnnotated, p. 193, record that Tolkien called his first version of this "Pēro & Pōdex," Latin for "Boot and Bottom." He revised it and called it "The Root of the Boot." This circulated in booklets by E. V. Gordon at Leeds, where Tolkien had his first academic appointment including the infamous, impossible-to-find booklet Songs for Philologists in 1936. "Pēro & Pōdex" is published in Rateliffe, pp. 101-102; "The Root of the Boot," as Tolkien corrected his copy, is in TolkienBombadilAnnotated, pp. 193-196. This was modified much more to produce the version in The Lord of the Rings. TolkienBombadilAnnotated, p. 198, says that the steps of this evolution were traced by Christopher Tolkien in The Treason of Isengard.
This is one of the songs that Tolkien recorded on George Sayer's tape recorder in 1952; TolkienBombadilAnnotated, p. 199, and others say that he used a tune that is different from "The Fox." Based on the transcription by Gregory Martin on p. `146 of Steimel/Schneidewind, they are correct, but I think it's related; perhaps Tolkien's memory slipped over time. And his tune does reduce the range slightly -- a non-trivial point for a 60-year-old who was not a professional singer and who had unusual speech patterns (Tolkien, in ordinary speech, spoke in a sort of high-speed spasmodic mumble that others usually found very hard to understand. Almost everyone who met him commented on this; see e.g. Carpenter, p. 13).
Although the song is called "The Stone Troll" in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, the troll does not actually turn to stone; it's just hard as stone all the time. The trolls in The Hobbit gave Tolkien a problem; trolls were not part of the "Silmarillion universe," and Tolkien when he wrote that part of The Hobbit had not connected Bilbo's story with his greater legendarium. So he rather casually threw in the motif of trolls turned to stone (Thompson motif F531.6.12.2, "Sunlight turns giant or troll to stone"), a rare theme in British troll-lore ("This trait has been made familiar to may readers by its introduction into J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit" -- Briggs, p. 413). The trolls of The Hobbit are more Asbjørsen and Moe trolls than anything else, and "The Stone Troll" follows in that vein; the trolls in The Lord of the Rings are more explicitly evil. Later, Tolkien struggled to explain trolls (as he struggled, even more, to explain and justify orcs -- creatures with intelligence, speech, and independent wills, but seemingly incapable of turning away from their evil masters). In The Lord of the Rings, Treebeard says that trolls are an imitation of ents, but Tolkien does not seem to have followed up on this idea; elsewhere he hints that they were non-intelligent creatures which evil somehow managed to control and give intelligence see, e,g,, the comments in the notes in Morgoth's Ring, p. 412). These notes do not really solve the problem of how trolls capable of speech could be found living independently.
The poem is interesting in its language. It is, of course, deliberately non-learned, as in the use of "axed" for "asked" and "larn" for "learn" (or, properly given the song's context, "teach"), as well as "I thought he were lyin' in graveyard" for "I thought he was...." But there are other interesting forms -- e.g. "afore" instead of "before," which is a Middle English form (Onions, p. 18) although it survives in some modern dialects. And both parties address the other as "thee" (familiar form in Middle English) rather than "you." And then there is the repeated use of "nuncle" for "uncle." This is an instance of "nunnation," "addition of inorganic n in Middle English forms" (Onions, p. 618). This is a technique Tolkien would use very commonly in "Smith of Wootton Major," where the Smith's wife is Nell, his daughter is Nan, and his son is Ned -- nunnated short forms of "Eleanor," "Ann(a)," and "Edward." Furthermore, the bad guy of the piece is "Nokes," nunnated from "Oak(s)" (ShippeyRoad, p. 273). What's more, although "axe" for "ask" is considered vulgar now, it was a perfectly normal Middle English form, used e.g. by Chaucer; Tolkien himself defined it as "Axe(n), v[erb], to ask, demand, inquire of" (Sisam/Tolkien, glossary on "axe(n)"); he derives it from Old English "axian" and cites instances from "Piers Plowman," John Wycliff, and John Gower (you don't get much more upper-crust than Gower!). What's more, "learn," or at least "lere," was used in Middle English for "teach" (Sisam/Tolkien, glossary on "Lere/Leere," again citing "Piers Plowman" plus the York "Harrowing of Hell" play, and deriving it from Old English "læran," to teach). Thus although the poem sounds like it's using lower-class English, every "vulgar" form, except the nonsense chorus verbs, is in fact good Middle English! Is Tolkien trying to say that, in some instances, lower-class dialect preserves older forms? (So ShippeyRoad, p. 376 note 4.) Or is Tolkien simply trying to evoke Middle English?
These forms cannot be derived from the earlier versions of the poem, which are clearly more "sophisticated," in the worst sense of the term. The poem has been "vulgarized" for Sam's use -- and made closer to the Middle English.
I will confess to wondering, a little, if this song takes something from Tolkien's cordial dislike of Shakespeare. Is this a takeoff on the graveyard scene in "Hamlet"? In the latter play, Hamlet recognizes (or claims to recognize) Yorick by his skull -- not an easy thing to do, but at least the skull conveys some of the shape of the face. But Tom, in the poem, claims to recognize his uncle by his *shinbone*! How many people would recognize even a living person by his shin, let alone by the shinbone?
Errantry
("There was a merry messenger, A passenger, a mariner")
From The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, #3. I have seen no sign of this in oral tradition, but Tolkien himself claimed it was found there. Before it was published in a wide-circulation venue -- indeed, before The Lord of the Rings was published -- he wrote a letter to Rayner Unwin on June 22, 1952, who apparently had asked him about it: "[A] few weeks ago I had a letter from a lady unknown to me... She said that a friend had recently written out for her from memory some verses that had so taken her fancy that she was determined to discover their origin. He had picked them up from his son-in-law who had learned them in Washington D.C. (!) but nothing was known about their origin save a vague idea that they were connected with English universities" (Tolkien/Carpenter, letter #133, p, 162). She had eventually managed to locate Tolkien and write to him; he commented that "I must say that I was interested in becoming 'folk-lore'" -- and added some observations about oral transmission that are typically Tolkien-esque -- radically original, not entirely wrong, but only sometimes true. I'm not sure this really qualifies as oral transmission, and there is no indication that she song was ever sung prior to Donald Swann's creating a tune, but whatever else we say, this was *not* a case of the poem being transmitted because it was by Tolkien!
It would seem that the version heard by Tolkien's correspondent was not the published version, for Tolkien reported (Tolkien/Carpenter, letter #133, p, 162) that the version that was in print at that time had been published in The Oxford Magazine of November 9, 1933 and that he had since revised the poem. The revised version approximates that published in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil a decade later. Note that this means that the poem had managed to stay in circulation for two decades and across an ocean; if perhaps not oral transmission, it was certainly persistent transmission. What's more, Tolkien admitted in a 1966 letter to Donald Swann that he was partly inspired by "What's the Rhyme to Porringer?" but those elements were partly revised out in the 1962 version: "The piece has had a curious history. It was begun many years ago, in an attempt to go on with the model that came unbidden into my mind: the first six lines, in which, I guess, D'ye ken the rhyme to porringer had a part" (The Treason of Isengard, volume VII of The History of Middle-Earth, p. 85).
John D. Rateliffe (HoughtonEtAl, p. 136) argues that Chaucer's "Sir Thopas" was "at least a partial inspiration for 'Errantry'" (and "Fastitocalon"). This statement requires caution. "Sir Thopas" is in six-line tail rhyme (stanzas rhymed aabaab, the lines with the "a" rhymes having four feet, the "b" lines having three). It has none of the complex partial rhymes and repeats of "Errantry," parodies romance conventions, and moves slowly toward... no ending, since the Host interrupts the telling. And yet it shows that a romance doesn't have to take itself so seriously. Similarly another Middle English poem, "The Tournament of Tottenham" (which sets out to tell the "heroic" deeds of a bunch of homebound peasants, who compete to win the hand of the bailiff's daughter Tyb, plus a cow and a chicken, in a "tournament" fought with staves and flails; cf. Sands, pp. 313-322) reminds us that a romance doesn't have to feature noble characters, or travel farther than the local mudpit. This perhaps would make it easier for Tolkien to write a poem that cares more about the fact of traveling than the purpose of the trip.
It certainly had a complex history of versions; Christopher Tolkien wrote "No poem of my father's had so long and complex a history as that which he named Errantry" (The Treason of Isengard, p. 84). Tolkien apparently wrote five different versions before settling on the Oxford Magazine version (The Treason of Isengard, pp. 85-91; the published version is also in TolkienBombadilAnnotated, pp. 155-159). With that as a base he started turning it into the poem that appears in The Lord of the Rings as "Eärendil Was a Mariner" (Book II, chapter 1, "Many Meetings"; HM2Ed I.246; 50thEd, p. 233). It's easy to see why people who see only the finished poems think them unrelated, since they have only one line in common, but they both go back to the same inspiration (TolkienBombadilAnnotated, p. 163); the metamorphosis was gradual.
The form is so complex, with assonances and partial internal rhymes, that Tolkien never tried it again (TolkienBombadilAnnotated, pp. 162-163); he declared that it "just blew out in a single impulse" (Tolkien/Carpenter, letter #133, p, 162). It has no real relationship to the Middle-Earth cycle, even though it was passed off as a Hobbit poem; the names in it are mostly artificial and presumably made up for purposes of the poetry. There is one exception, the name "Belmarie" " "a-harrying beyond the sea, and roaming over Belmarie...." (TolkienBombadilAnnotated, p. 57). Tolkien may have gotten this from Chaucer; the Knight had "riden in Belmarye" (General Prologue, line 57; Chaucer/Benson, p. 24. The notes on p. 801 glass this as the name of an African dynasty, Banu Merin, converted to a place name, though I'm not sure I trust this).
We should note that only to the proper nouns are made up; the common nouns are sometimes obscure but were generally legitimate English words. An obvious example is "dumbledor" ("He battled with the Dumbledors, the Hummerhorns, and Honeybees"); "Dumbledor(e)" is a legitimate archaic English word for a bee-like insect that J. K. Rowling just happened to like the sound of.... Some of the others are discussed in TolkienBombadilAnnotated, but they can be found in a sufficiently substantial dictionary.
It is capable of being used as a circular poem, and Tolkien was clearly aware of this form, and consciously wrote "Errantry" as such: "Also of course the reciter was supposed at once to begin repeating (at an even higher speed) the beginning" (The Treason of Isengard, p. 85; TolkienBombadilAnnotated, p. 161) and called it a "never-ending tale" (The Treason of Isengard, p. 106; TolkienBombadilAnnotated, p. 161). Also, Tolkien apparently meant each of the stanzas (which are of irregular length) to be begun with the reciter speaking quickly, then slowing down toward the end of the stanza. Despite its pseudo-traditional status, I doubt it could be sung in the way Tolkien imagined it. - RBW
I Sang of Gold, of Leaves of Gold
("I Sang of Gold, of leaves of gold, And leaves of gold there grew")
Field recording: Bobby McMillon, "Galadriel's Song/Song of the Eldamar," in the Derek Piotr archive. The words are Tolkien's; the tune was set by McMillon. Obviously not traditional in origin, but McMillon was very much a traditional singer -- a collateral relative of Charles Silver, the husband of Frankie Silver; for background on him, see the notes to "Frankie Silvers" [Laws E13] or Daniel W. Patterson, A Tree Accursed: Bobby McMillon and Stories of Frankie Silver, University of North Carolina Press, 2000.
Tolkien's other two pieces that went into tradition are light pieces; this one is much more serious, and calls for a deep understanding of Tolkien's inner thinking. "Without using blatantly theorlogical terms his ideas are often clearly theological nonetheless, and are best understood when viewed in the context of the natural theology of Thomas Aquinas" (Kocher, p. 77; a number of others have seen Thomist elements in Tolkien's opinions, but Kocher seems to have been the first).
Given the often excessively masculine bent of Christian theology, it is perhaps noteworthy that this is the only one of Tolkien's three semi-traditinal songs that is in the first person -- and the first person voice of a woman.
Tolkien has been accused of ignoring female characters -- there are no women at all in The Hobbit, and few in The Lord of the Rings -- but this is in part because he was writing toward a particular market. When not writing for this market, the situation is different. There are more women in The Silmarillion -- and probably even more than that in Tolkien's original conception; Kane, p. 26, says that Christopher Tolkien tended to edit them out in creating the published Silmarillion, and on p. 252 lists some of the women he downplayed; Galadriel is one of them! Blackham, p. 13, suggests that his aunt Jane Neave (at whose request he assembled The Adventures of Tom Bombadil) might have been one of the inspirations for Galadriel -- and she was certainly an independent, modern woman by the standards of the time 1910s: one of the first women in England to earn a science degree, she taught Tolkien geometry, and when her husband died, she bought a farm and ran it for many decades.
According to Clyde S. Kilby, Tolkien "spoke of his special regard for the book of Luke because the writer included so much about women" (Kilby, p. 54).
Melanie A. Rawls, "The Feminine Principle in Tolkien," (Croft/Donovan, pp. 99-100) says, "But open The Silmarillion. The feminine presence abounds.... [When] the Feminine and the Masculine... are in equilibrium and in harmony, there is Good, but Evil is the result of an insufficiency or disharmony of the attributes of one or the other of the genders." Furthermore, "Attributes of the gender are not necessarily confined to the sex of the same gender, i.e. feminine attributes are not confined to females or masculine attributes to males. The Macho Man, with his paucity of finer feeling and his neglect of thought in favor of action, is not admitted in Middle-earth or Valinor." Similarly, Stratford Caldecott suggests that the Elves are, in part, a sort of representation of what humans would be like if humans (to paraphrase very loosely) had a stronger feminine side: "The Elves also represent the feminine aspect of our civilization, just as the Normans for [Tolkien] represented the cruder masculine aspect" (Caldecott/Honegger, pp. 228-229).
There is a tendency, in The Lord of the Rings, for such women as there are to be almost cartoonishly beautiful. (As if ballad singers can argue; how many songs feature "the fairest maiden I e'er did see"?) But one could, perhaps, argue that here Tolkien is following in the footsteps of romance; Tolkien's own translation of Sir Orfeo concludes its description of Heurodis by saying "but none her loveliness can tell" (Tolkien-Gawain/Pearl.Orfeo, p. 134, translating line 56, "Ac no man may telle hir fairnise"). In "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Bertilak's lady is "more lovely than Guinevere" (Tolkien-Gawain/Pearl.Orfeo, p. 48, translating line 945, "wener þen enore) -- a superlative, since Guinevere was said to be the most beautiful woman in Britain. Tolkien's student A. J. Bliss studied the English descendants of Marie de France's "Lanval," including the Middle English "Sir Landevale" and "Sir Launfal" (the former of which appears in the Percy Folio); in the Percy Folio version, Launfal tells Guinevere, who is trying to seduce him, "I am loved with my lemman, that fairer hath noe gentleman," (Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, lines 265-266; p. 153). The Canterbury Tales is littered with descriptions of incredibly beautiful women: Alison, May, the transformed Loathly Lady, and of course Emilie: "that fairer was to sene Than is the lylie upon his stalke grene" (The Knight's Tale, A.1035-1036; Chaucer/Benson, p. 39). Even the (real if idealized) Duchess Blanche of "The Book of the Duchess" is given ten lines of superlatives in describing her beauty (lines 939-948; Chaucer/Benson, p. 341; I won't try to quote these because frankly it would sound pretty strange by today's standards). Tolkien, since he knew the Child Ballads, would also have known "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" [Child #31], and though the Percy Folio is defective for the description of the Loathly Lady turned beautify, the source, "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell" has it: "He sawe her the fairest creature Thet evere he sawe withoute mesure" (lines 641-642; Sands, p. 342).
Let's face it: romances are (too) prone to describe women in superlatives. It's a sexist tradition, and obviously not everyone can be that beautiful, but Tolkien was following a tradition.
And if these women are very beautiful, they aren't the passive creatures of many of the romances: Galadriel's help makes success possible, and Éowyn saves Minas Tirith from the Lord of the Nazgûl. Lúthien actually went off to contest against Morgoth himself! Even Arwen, probably the most passive of all the major characters, "makes the Christ-like choice of taking on mortality out of love" (Nancy Enright, "Tolkien's Females and the Defining of Power," Croft/Donovan, p. 123). As anyone who knows Greek will know, the "love" Arwen feels is not the same as Christ's, but her sacrifice is important in reviving the lineage of the heirs of Elendil.
I also have a feeling that Tolkien, if challenged on the beauty of his women, would say that their beauty reflects their inner goodness and power, just as the Virgin Mary in Catholic legend is portrayed as extremely beautiful. It is a beauty that is more than skin-deep. Why else would Gimli, who is not even of her species, find Galadriel beautiful?
This reminds me a bit of the comment on p. 49 of Chance: "Galadriel... signals the principle of supernatural (even divine) communal wholeness and harmony." And although we only see her briefly, her role in victory is surprisingly great: It was her advice which led Aragorn to take the Paths of the Dead, and if he had not done so, Minas Tirith probably could not have been saved. Her role in Frodo and Sam's trip to Mordor is even greater: other than the Ring, the two of them had four extraordinary objects, all of which were essential to their success: their elven-cloaks (they would surely have been captured without them), lembas (they would never have made it without that food), the sword Sting, and the Phial of Galadriel (both needed to survive Shelob). And Galadriel supplied three of the four, and it is likely that only she could have done so.
In writing The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien often would invent a character and then have the character insist on being more important than Tolkien intended. He told his son Christopher that this was true of Faramir, for instance: "A new character has come on the scene (I am sure I did not invent him, I did not even want him, though I like him, but there he came walking in the woods of Ithilien): Faramir, the brother of Boromir" (Tolkien/Carpenter, p. 79). There is every reason to believe that Galadriel was another such: Tolkien encountered her, one of the last survivors of the Noldor of the First Age, in Lothlórien. (Most of what is said about her in The Silmarillion seems, based on Kane, to be from 1951-1952, after the writing of The Lord of the Rings).
As she first appears, she seems to owe much to H. Rider Haggard's "She" (from the book of the same name) -- immortal, so beautiful as to drive men half-mad, and having a gadget that showed glimpses of the future (ScullHammond-Guide, pp. 355-358; having read She half a century after first meeting Galadriel; I can say that the relationship is instantly obvious. Purtill, p. 115, points out another trait: if Galadriel had taken The Ring when Frodo offered it to her, "all [would] love me and despair!" [HM2Ed II.381; 50thEd p. 366] -- which is exactly what any man who sees "She" does. John Rateliffe, "She and Tolkien, Revisited," Fisher, pp. 145-161, says that Tolkien admitted to reading She (p. 144); on p. 157 Rateliffe lists some of the others who have studied the connection, while claiming to have been first in print. Rateliffe goes on to list other ways in which She might have influenced Tolkien. Most of these are a little unconvincing, but the similarities of Haggard's Ayesha and Tolkien's Galadriel are dramatic).
Tolkien is known to have read a lot of George MacDonald, and many see him finding inspiration there also (e.g. Stratford Caldecott, on p. 215 of Caldecott/Honegger). Tolkien admitted that part of the idea for orcs came from the goblins of The Princess and the Goblin (Drout, p. 399; Tolkien/Carpenter, p. 185), but Tolkien himself said that he never believed in parts of MacDonald's idea (Tolkien/Carpenter, p. 178). There is a certain resemblance of Galadriel to the old Queen Irene of The Princess and the Goblin and it sequel The Princess and Curdie; Irene is seemingly immortal, very beautiful (when she wants to be), and very magical. But I suspect Tolkien would reject the comparison; Irene is too much of a guardian angel to her descendants rather than a general force for good. If Tolkien took any other inspiration from the Curdie books, it is probably in the ending: a eucatastrophe in which the sick old king who has been thrust aside is brought back to health and restores his realm to order and prosperity, but his line dies out and the nation eventually falls and is forgotten. All those elements exist in The Lord of the Rings, too. But Tolkien could have derived that just as well from Catholic doctine.)
Others have seen other influences, e.g. Mac Fenwick though he "found echoes of Homer's Circe and Calypso" (Leslie A. Donovan, "The Valkyrie Reflex," Croft/Donovan, p. 222), which I don't see, and Marjorie Burns regards her as a sort of yin-and-yang good-versus-evil double of Shelob (Drout, p. 128), which comparison I suspect would have disgusted Tolkien as being just the sort of whackdoodle analysis that made him disdain literary criticism. (Tolkien I believe knew, as many of his critics seemingly do not, that many species of spiders are strongly sexually dimorphic, with the females much, much larger than the males. Shelob -- like Ungoliant before her -- is not a large spider who happens to be female; Shelob is female because large spiders have to be female. And all the psychoanalytical hypotheses about Shelob are patently wrong because, ahem, Freud was wrong.) Donovan herself (Croft/Donovan, p. 230), compares Galadriel to Wealhþeow (Wealtheow) the wife of Hroðgar (Hrothgar) in Beowulf, mostly on the basis that Galadriel is a lord's wife who gives gifts (true, but somewhat trivial). Noel, p. 118, turns to German rather than English myth and suggests "Galadriel is comparable to Berhta ("Bright"), Holda, and all the other women in white in Teutonic mythology who were associated with wells, spun and wove, and gave gifts that turned into gold." On p. 119 Noel associates Galadriel's swan-boat with the Teutonic swan-maidens, and speculates that Galadriel, whose women wove the elven-cloaks of the Fellowship, should remind us of the Norns who spun human destiny (though that gives Galadriel an awful lot of power...). Both Donovan and Noel compare Galadriel to the Valkyries, which I really don't buy; Noel, p. 120, adds the grail-messengers and the Celtic goddesses who presided over cauldrons of plenty.
(Noel also points up Galadriel's golden hair. Perhaps significant, but I think not. Galadriel is the brother of Finrod, who also was noteworthy for his blonde hair -- it's responsible for the FIN element, found also in the name Glorfindel. Noel says that yellow hair is rare in elves -- I think she means the Noldor -- and she is right. But Galadriel and Finrod, although considered Noldor, were in fact only one-fourth Noldor by blood. Their paternal grandmother, Indis, was one of the golden-haired Vanyar. Their mother, Eärwen, was a Telerin elf, the daughter of Olwë of the Telerin royal house, whose members, I read somewhere, had very pale hair -- Celeborn, who was of that family, is described as silver-haired, and Elwé Thingol, the head of the family, is said in Chapter 5 of The Silmarillion has "hair as grey silver." Galadriel's golden hair, arguably, is a token that she represents *all* the houses of the Elves, not just the Noldor -- just as the Virgin Mary intercedes for all of humanity.)
Whatever elements went into creating Galadriel, Tolkien grew enthralled with her, and gradually increased both goodness and her capability. Thus, in "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn" we read that "Galadriel was the greatest of the Noldor, except Fëanor maybe, though she was wiser than he," though they, "the greatest of the Eldar of Valinor, were unfriends for ever"; he also called her "a match for both the loremasters and the athletes of the Eldar in the days of their youth" (from Unfinished Tales, pp. 226-227 in the first Houghton-Mifflin edition). Purtill, after arguing that Tolkien often creates characters in contrasting pairs (such as Frodo and Gollum or Boromir and Denethor) suggests that "Galadriel is the intended contrast character to Fëanor; her rejection of the ring contrasts with his refusal to give up the Silmarils" (Purtill, p. 138). But the character of Fëanor long predates Galadriel.
Also, Tolkien gradually increased her virtue -- initially she was one of the "fallen" Noldor, but clearly he changed his mind about that (e.g. Tolkien/Hostetter, p. 346; on p. 347 Tolkien says that, in her, Sauron had "met his match (or at least a very serious adversary)." Think also of the Phial of Galadriel. This, be it noted, is a silmaril in miniature -- it captures the light of Eärendil's Star. Flieger, p. 159, in fact, suggests that "like all forces in the story, the Ring is balanced by an opposite, and that opposite is the Phial. As the Ring is the cause of Frodo's journey, so the Phail is the beacon to light his way. As Galadriel's gift to him, it matches the Ring, so often described as a 'present.' As light, it balances the Ring's darkness." I don't think Galadriel had such an idea, but still: Galadriel matched the greatest feat of Fëanor! Yes, she presents a contrast to Fëanor-- but she was not initially intended as one.
Jason Fisher (Drout, p. 507) points out a parallel to Rev. 2:28 in the Bible: "(26) The one who conquers and keeps my works.... (28) I will give him the morning star." Eärendil, recall, is the morning star in Tolkien -- is Galadriel fulfilling the promise?
It has been suggested, I think correctly, that Tolkien's view of Galadriel came to be deeply influenced by Catholic views of the Virgin Mary, particularly in her role as the source of mercy -- Tolkien admits (in a 1971 letter to Ruth Austin) that "I think it is true that I owe much of this character [Galadriel] to Christian and Catholic teaching and imagination about Mary"; Tolkien/Carpenter, p. 407). So, e.g., that when Frodo is near Cirith Ungol and is tempted to put on the ring, touching the Phial of Galadriel brings him relief (at the cross-roads by Minas Ithil: Book IV, chapter 8, "The Stairs of Cirith Ungol," HM2Ed II.316; 50thEd p. 707). A priest friend of Tolkien, Father Robert Murphy, had pointed this out to Tolkien even before the books were published (Tolkien/Carpenter, p. 172), and Tolkien eventually admitted it himself (e.g. Tolkien/Carpenter, p. 288). Bradley J. Birzer write that "one finds elements of Christ, Odin, and St. Michael in Gandalf. One finds elements of the Arthurian Lady of the Lake and the Blessed Virgin Mary in Galadriel" (Drout, p. 89, article "Catholicism." Birtzer is religious bigot enough to have penned a defense of Andrew Jackson, but I would mostly agree with this). Clyde S. Kilby says that Tolkien had "a special reverence for the Virgin Mary" (Kilby, p. 53).
On the other hand, Cath Filmer-Davies says that "the person of Galadriel can be seen to symbolize the church in its feminine aspect of 'the bride of Christ.' Catholics refer to our mother the church.' Galadriel represents the church, not the Virgin Mary, because Galadriel is not a virgin. All the same Galdriel (sic.) is holy" (Drout, p. 645).
There has been some debate among Tolkien scholars about whether his elves are Fallen -- a crucial point, because if Elves are fallen, then Galadriel cannot be of the same order as an angel, or as the Virgin Mary (the one human who, because of the Immaculate Conception, was not fallen; Hardon, pp. 187-188. The Immaculate Conception is of course non-Biblical, and not even a particularly old tradition -- but it doesn't matter if it's made up; Tolkien believed it). Tolkien's opinion on the Fall are relevant even for non-Christians as they read his books, since most of the traits of fallen humanity can be shown to be likely outcomes of the evolutionary process.
Although The Lord of the Rings never discusses the early history of humanity, Tolkien explicitly wrote that humans are fallen, but the fall occurred off-stage, presumably to avoid inconsistency with the Biblical tale. Tolkien, in summarizing his work for publisher Milton Waldman, says "The first fall of Man... appears nowhere -- Men do not come on the stage until all that is long past" (Tolkien/Carpenter, p. 147; cf. Nicholas Birns, "The Stones and the Book," Fisher, p. 49). Furthermore, the "Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth," published in Morgoth's Ring, discusses the legends about the Fall among the Edain -- the Edain know little and will say less.
Furthermore, in Tolkien's conception, Morgoth/Melkor, the devil-figure, had a direct hand in the shaping of the world: Ilúvatar (the One God) created the vision of Arda, but the Valar and Maiar, including Melkor, were responsible for the final shaping of the world, and Melkor's interference was everywhere. The result was "Arda Marred"; nothing is as perfect as Ilúvatar's original vision. This adds a basic defect, almost an entropy, into the world; nothing works quite right. (Only the Valar, who were created before the world, are free of this taint, and they don't understand those who suffer from it.) The death of Míriel the mother of Fëanor, for instance, is attributed to the defects in Arda Marred (Kristine Larsen, "The Power of Pity and Tears," Croft/Donovan, p. 198). The Marring is not the cause of the Fall, but perhaps it makes everything a little more prone to error.
Tolkien's version of the Fall does have one interesting difference from the standard Catholic version. Catholic doctrine states that Adam's fall cost him "and his posterity the supernatural gift of sanctifying grace and the preternatural gifts of integrity, bodily immortality, and impassibility [that is, freedom from bodily ills]" (Hardon, p. 144). Yet Tolkien explicitly calls death the "Gift of Men" and says that Ilúvatar gave them this gift from the beginning. His notes on the "Athrabeth" speculate that what the Fall caused was for men to begin to *fear* death. This, we might note, is not incompatible with Genesis 3 -- the Garden of Eden contained two special trees, the Tree of Knowledge/Experience and the Tree of Life. But if the Tree of Life would have given immortality, does it not follow that Adam and Eve were not inherently immortal? There is much debate over the meaning of Genesis 3, but Tolkien's interpretation is certainly logical. But since it makes the Fall more "psychological," it makes it harder to determine who else has suffered it.
The status of the Elves is a much more complicated question -- e.g. Duriez (who is a C. S. Lewis nut, not a Tolkien expert), p. 90, declares, "Elves are not fallen as a race, and only rarely turn to wickedness individually, so they have no original sin." Crabbe, p. 70 says the elves are "a race in whom the attributes of divinity are legion," which hints they are not fallen. Lobdell suggests that "Arguably, Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age is neither fallen nor unfallen" (Drout, p. 614), which strikes me as a bit of a weasel-out since it is humanity, not earth, that is fallen, but still suggests a higher state of existence than the ordinary fallen human. But Clyde S. Kilby says the fate of the Noldor "suggests the Old Testament motif of disobedience and its dire results" (Kilby, pp. 60-61). Crabbe, p. 120, also compares Féanor's rebellion to the fall of Adam and Eve. Tolkien himself was inconsistent; in his commentary on the "Athrabeth," on p. 334 of Morgoth's Ring he wrote that the Elves "remained as a people 'unfallen.'" On the other hand, in 1951 he told Waldman that "the Elves have a fall" (Tolkien/Carpenter, p. 147) -- referring to the Flight of the Noldor. The Flight, however, differs from the Fall of Man: rather than being expelled from the Undying Lands, the Noldor -- or some of them -- leave on their own. The physical consequences of the Fall of Man -- the loss of "impassibility," i.e. the coming of death and disease -- do not apply to the Elves, and they did not explicitly suffer the Temptation, nor did they explicitly defy the will of God -- even Fëanor, when he rebels against the Valar, invokes Ilúvatar the One God. Moreover, with the exception of Maeglin, none of them voluntarily take the side of Morgoth or Sauron. Similarly, apart from Maeglin (the child of a rape), his father Eöl (the rapist), and Celegorm (one of the worst of the Sons of Fëanor, and in any case it was a brief flash of lust), there seems to be no instance of improper sexual desire, and with the exception of Finwë after his wife truly died, no instance whatsoever of an Elf ever being in any way unfaithful to a spouse. So they are clearly not fallen in the same sense as humanity.
(By contrast, note that illicit desire contributed directly to the fall of Númenor: Drout, p. 602. In the Akalabêth, King Ar-Gimilzôr forcibly takes Lindórië to wife. Their sons are the next king, Tar-Palantir, and Gimilkhâd. Tar-Palantir's daughter was Tar-Míriel; Gimilkhâd's son was Ar-Pharazôn, who forcibly married Tar-Míriel and seized the throne -- and whose arrogant invasion of the Undying Lands led to the overthrow of Númenor.
On the other hand, pride, the greatest of human sins, is clearly present in Elves as well. Lust for power and lust for women seem to go almost hand in hand -- which makes some sense, because both involve seeking more than is one's due.)
It is certain that the Elves have a soul or spirit of some sort, since they can be reincarnated -- but it is not known if they can survive the ending of the world, whereas it is known that the spirits of men have an afterlife. And the Noldor certainly defied the will of the Valar at least, and furthermore, the lesser Elves, who did not go to Aman, are clearly inferior in culture, and indeed in might, to those who did; they aren't just primitives, they are fundamentally lesser elves -- so if the Elves are not fallen, neither are most of them as exalted as they could be.
And certainly Fëanor makes terrible mistakes out of pride, and both Fêanor and his sons slaughter other elves. If we look at just the House of Fëanor, we would certainly think that they are fallen. But Elrond? Galadriel? It almost seems as if the choice of whether to Fall still lies with the Elves, as it does not with humans. Or perhaps they are in a sort of pre-death version of Limbo, not having attained salvation but not having fallen to the equivalent of Hell. We can't really know Tolkien's answer. But surely Galadriel's status must be assessed in the light of this uncertainty.
Bettridge, p. 29, points out that what the Ring "reveals... is Adam's sin, pride, the assertion of self at the expense of others. All who wield the Ring do so in the hope of gaining power, and power means the control of others." This is presumably why the Ring has no effect on Tom Bombadil, and why he is not a fit custodian: He is unfallen, so he does not have anything for it to operate on. Galadriel fears the Ring; this says to me that she, and hence all Elves, are fallen. (It would be interesting to know what effect the Ring would have had on Elves before Fëanor's rebellion, but we cannot know the answer.)
All this may sound like logic-chopping, or perhaps theology-chopping. But Tolkien was a fanatical Catholic, of the sort who opposed Vatican II (of course, that's easy for a guy who was fluent in Latin!); anything he says must generally be absolutely consistent with Catholic doctrine. (There is one peculiar exception: suicide. Catholic doctrine says that "It is a grave sin against the natural and revealed law"; Hardon, p. 422. Yet suicide, and attempted suicide, is common in Tolkien: Nienor, Túrin, Húrin, Maedhros, and Denethor all kill themselves, and Éowyn tries to die in battle. And while Túrin and Denethor perhaps deserve their fate, Húrin and Nienor surely do not; neither would Éowyn had she succeeded. I cannot believe that Tolkien would deny Húrin a place in heaven -- or even deny him burial in consecrated ground had his body been found.)
Keep in mind that being fallen would not make it impossible for Galadriel to be the greatest power for good in Middle-earth. As Enright points out on p. 128 of Croft/Donovan, "even if Galadriel remains a redeemed sinner, by grace a penitent can reflect the beauty of Mary and even of Christ, and Galadriel does this certainly." This is well-attested in Christian history and legend -- e.g. both Paul and Mary Magdalen were sinners who came to be called saints, and Paul at least is recorded as performing miracles.
On yet another hand, in humans, Original Sin is heritable -- "all have fallen as Adam fell." But Galadriel's sin, if there is one, is not inheritable. Celebrían, the daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn, and the wife of Elrond, is permitted to go to Valinor when she desires to (in the year 2510 of the Third Age, according to Appendix B of The Lord of the Rings).
Bottom line: Combining all we know, it seems to me that the best real-world analogy to Galadriel is to the greatest Christian saints. Tolkien assuredly believed in saints; he wrote about miracles that allegedly took place at Lourdes, and told a correspondent that "he had adoped St. John the Evangelist as his personal patron" (Drout, p. 586; the references appear to be to Tolkien/Carpenter, pp. 100, 397, from 1944 and 1969). But, because Galadriel lived before the Incarnation, she could not foresee her own end in an un-redeemed world.
Note that this would not make it impossible for her to be the greatest power for good in Middle-earth. As Enright points out on p. 128 of Croft/Donovan, "even if Galadriel remains a redeemed sinner, by grace a penitent can reflect the beauty of Mary and even of Christ, and Galadriel does this certainly." This is well-attested in Christian history and legend -- e.g. both Paul and Mary Magdalen were sinners who came to be called saints, and Paul at least is recorded as performing miracles.
Which brings us to "magic." Galadriel, in talking to Frodo and Sam before showing them her mirror, says "this is what your folk would call magic, I believe; though I do not understand clearly what they mean; and they seem to use the same word of the deceits of the enemy" (Book II, chapter 7, "The Mirror of Galadriel," HM2Ed I.377, 50thEd p. 362). Galadriel's distinction is important, I think, though Tolkien struggled to convey it (Kristine Larsen, "Alone Between the Dark and the Light"; HoughtonEtAl, p. 228). But it seems clear to me: Sauron's "magic" serves to destroy and defile. The greatest magic of Elrond is healing things, and Galadriel's skill is in making things grow. The cloaks of Lothlórien are a form of camouflage. Yet living things strive to heal and grow and conceal themselves in and of themselves; the "magic" of the elves simply lets them do better that which they have always done. This power the Elves have not lost, except insofar as it was amplified by the Three Rings. It is a power that preserves and maintains -- appropriate for the Elves, whose fault, if they have one, is not wanting to change.
As for the Rings of Power themselves, they are surely no less (and no more) believable than psychic powers, since that, apart from infinite prolongation of (non)-life, is what they seem to offer: the Nine Rings give the Nazgûl the power to broadcast terror, and the One Ring causes a powerless wearer to project invisibility, while a powerful wearer gains the ability to govern the thoughts and actions of others.
Tolkien in fact drew a distinction between "enchantment" and "magic" (Drout, pp. 159-160). The former could, perhaps, be defined as "something which brings one closer to Faërie." "Magic" on the other hand was the use of the power of enchantment for one's own ends. Thus Sauron's use would clearly be magic, but Galadriel's, insofar as we see it, is enchantment, not magic.
The Three Rings also served to preserve things as they were -- most clearly seen in the nature of Lórien, where time seems almost to stop passing (Kocher, pp. 98-99); not even in Rivendell is this so true. So perhaps that too is partly the work of Galadriel -- it's almost as if she stops entropy from happening.
If we know Galadriel was to some degree fallen, we do not know if she was a rebel against the Valar -- Tolkien is inconsistent on this point. The line "golden tree... beside the walls of Elven Tirion" is obviously a reference to Laurelin the golden, one of the Two Trees of Valinor -- the mentions shows that Galadriel came from Valinor and is one of the Exiles. The references to the "Sundering Seas" and the "Hither Shore" reinforce this. (The "Sundering Seas" are also mentioned in the song of Lúthien and Beren in the chapter "A Knife in the Dark"; they refer both literally to the sea between Middle-Earth and Valinor which only certain ships can cross and to the gulf that separates the mortal Beren, whose soul when he dies goes beyond the world and the immortal Lúthien, who in the ordinary course of things would, if slain, go to the Halls of Mandos in Valinor.) The last line of the song, "What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a sea?" is evidence that, at this time, Tolkien viewed Galadriel as subject to the Doom of Mandos that forbade the leaders of the Noldorin Revolt from returning to Valinor. It was only after the War of the Ring that she was forgiven and allowed to return. She was, at least since the death of Gil-Galad and perhaps even before that, the last of these leaders.
On the other hand, Romuald I. Lakowski, "The Fall and Repentance of Galadriel," Croft/Donovan, p. 159, says that Tolkien did not make Galadriel's exile explicit until 1967, when he described the situation in The Road Goes Ever On. Lakowski (following Christopher Tolkien) says that Galadriel's statement that she will refuse the ring, and "diminish, and go into the west" ("The Mirror of Galadriel"; Book II, chapter 7, HM2Ed I.381; 50thEd p. 366) contradicts the idea of enforced exile, because she can go west. On the face of it, Tolkien when he wrote The Lord of the Rings had determined that she was an exile but had not figured out the reason.
And if she was in such trouble with the Valar, why would they give her one of the Three Rings?
Exile is certainly a strong theme in Tolkien; the Númenoreans are in exile; the Noldor, including Galadriel, are in exile; Frodo is in exile; and Yvette Kisor suggests that Gollum is the ultimate exile (HoughtonEtAl, p. 153). There is much medieval exile literature, including in particular the poem "The Wanderer," which Tolkien knew well.
(Here it is worth reminding ourselves that Galadriel is one of the rare Elves who has been to "the west" -- she was born there! Perhaps the appeal is less for her. And, as Kocher writes on p. 101, "One wonders how content they [the elves] will be in the Undying Lands. These are not Paradise. No beatific vision or new celestial life awaits the returning elves." This is the reason why mortality is called the "gift of men" -- it offers what Tolkien elsewhere called an "Escape from Deathlessness" -- TolkienFairy, p. 153)
(The passage also shows that Galadriel has maintained the ability to be humble -- and to know that this does not make her less herself; it makes her more truly hersel. As Purtill, pp. 115-116, points out, characters like Saruman and Denethor will not humble themselves -- and they pay for it. Kocher, pp. 50-51, observes that Galadriel's rejection of the ring is only one of many such cases where characters are tested by the ring. Bilbo, Gollum, Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn, Elrond, Galadriel, Boromir, Faramir, and Sam are all directly tested; Denethor and Saruman are indirectly tested. Gandalf, Aragorn, Elrond, Galadriel, Faramir, and Sam all pass the test; Bilbo passes with help from Gandalf. Boromir, Denethor, and Saruman fail, though Boromir partly redeems himself. Frodo finally fails, but in circumstances that let the quest succeed -- at extraordinary cost to Frodo. Gollum had long since failed, and the attempt to redeem him also failed. I note that those who fail, die, while those who pass survive, though many, like Galadriel, are "diminished." I do wonder if, in Tolkien's universe, Gollum's brief attempt to repent, and the fact that it was due to him that the quest succeeded, made him more or less culpable in the afterlife than, say, Boromir or Denethor.)
Lakowski (Croft/Donovan, p. 163) suggests parallels in Galadriel's speech here to the Magnificat of Luke 1, which would be another link to the Virgin Mary if it is real (but I don't see the link). I do, however, see Lakowski's link between being "diminished" and the statement in John 3:30 that "He must increase, but I [John the Baptist] must decrease." The Latin word for "decrease" is "minui"; the first meaning given for Greek ελαττοω is "diminish" or "make less" -- a word which occurs in the New Testament only in that verse in John and in Hebrews 2:7, 9. (John's "diminishment" reminds me in turn of Matthew 11:11: among those on earth none is "greater than John the Baptist, yet the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.") The song, and her words to Frodo, says that she has and will diminish; the Biblical reference implies that she *must* diminish.
There is every reason to think Tolkien changed his mind about her exile (see Nancy Enright on p. 127 of Croft/Donovan), but the concept survives in The Lord of the Rings, and so Galadriel sings the song of someone in exile for seven thousand years. No one seems to believe there is a dependence, but I wonder if the Old English "The Wanderer" and the "Lay of the Last Survivor" from "Beowulf" weren't somewhere in Tolkien's mind.
I will throw out a wild speculation that can perhaps reconcile all this, though I doubt Tolkien thought of it. After the destruction of Númenor, the "straight road" to the Undying Lands was lost, and ordinary ships, sailing west, simply continued around the world. To be able to follow the "lost road" required a specially hallowed ship. There is a hint that such ships literally would not carry those who were unworthy: in the poem "The Last Ship," the last item in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. when the Elves call the mortal Fíriel to join them on their way, she takes one step to come to them, "then deep in clay her feet sank"; the earth itself barred her from going. Galadriel, in her youth, was proud -- justly proud, we would probably say, in her power and her skill and her beauty, but they were her natural gifts, not her own doing. Might not such pride be enough that the ship would reject her, as Fíriel was rejected? Only when Galadriel learned humility would the ship carry her, and how could she know, while still in Lórien? So Galadriel perhaps hopes to go to the West, and strives to earn it, but cannot be sure it is permitted. Is this not the fate (in the Catholic view) of everyone living? (Kocher, p. 68, suggests humility as a vital virtue; it is one that Sauron cannot overcome, presumably because he does not understand it. I agree at least that Tolkien placed great value on humility.)
One of the many, many levels on which The Lord of the Rings operates is as a sort of meditation on The Lord's Prayer -- Tolkien wrote to Michael Straight that the key scenes "exemplify... the familiar words 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil'" (Tolkien/Carpenter, p. 233). The entire plot succeeds because the Good Guys offer mercy and pity (noted by several commentators, e.g. Leon Pereira, Caldecott/Honegger, p. 181; ShippeyRoad, pp. 144-145; Crabbe, p. 50, broadens pity to include all charity, but I'm not sure this is warranted). Is this not another case where mercy and pity are vital?
ShippeyRoad, p. 324, reflecting in part on the New Testament parallels, says that "One thing absolutely certain about The Lord of the Rings is that it is about renunciation: it inverts a very familiar narrative pattern, in that it is not a quest to obtain something, but an anti-quest, to get rid of it." And Galadriel, of course, renounced the Ring more than almost anyone; several people (e.g. Gandalf, Elrond, Faramir) say they would not take the ring -- but only Galadriel is given a specific and credible offer; the Ring has already corrupted Frodo significantly, but he still offers it to her freely.
Referring specifically to Galadriel reminds me of another important Biblical passage, "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:43-44). Chance, pp. 49-50, points out that when the Fellowship comes to Lothlórien, she welcomes Gimli, whom even Celeborn distrusts because he is a dwarf. "Her sympathy for the dwarves and loving desire to accept all different from herself, even a traditional enemy, helps to heal old wounds.... Forgiveness, hospitality, understanding -- all are qualities characteristic of Lady Galadriel that inspire Gimli's courteous praise of her and serve as a model of toleration for difference" (Chance, p. 50).
Jason Fisher, on p. 228 of Drout, concludes the entry on Galadriel by saying, "It appears that in his final days, Tolkien may have intended to revise Galadriel into a more deliberately Marian figure after all, and had he lived longer, it seems likely that his vision of her in The Silmarillion would have altered considerably. As it is, we're left with a powerful and pivotal character caught in the midst of an unfinished transformation."
I'm not sure that this transformation would have been for the better. Tolkien was often sentimental about his characters in his later years. If Galadriel was changing, it was not for the sake of the plot but because of how he felt about the character. It seems to me that, in his life, Tolkien loved only two women other than his mother. One was his wife Edith (née Bratt), who was the single most important inspiration for his Lúthien. The other was Galadriel. "The fact that Tolkien continued to think about Galadriel and her place in his own private mythology of the first age right until the very end of his life indicates also how important Tolkien himself considered her" (Lakowski, on p. 167 of Croft/Donovan).
Based on Hammond/Scull-Companion, p. 333, this song had no antecedents; Tolkien wrote it specifically for Galadriel in this context. Garth, pp. 107-108, however reminds us of "Kortirion among the Trees," a long poem written in 1915, "Oh fading town upon a little hill, Old memory is waning in thine ancient gates... One year and then another to the sea, And slowly thither have a many gone Since first the fairies built Kortirion." It's not a direct antecedent of this, but Garth thinks there is a connection from it to Galadriel's other farewell song, "Ah! Like gold fall the leaves in the wind."
B. S. W. Barootes, "'He Chanted a Song of Wizardry': Words with Power in Middle-earth," on pp. 115-131 of HoughtonEtAl, discusses the idea that, in certain circumstances in Tolkien, words have particular power to bring things about: "Language sets the universe in motion, and it continues to be the primary means of creation in Middle-earth" (p. 115) -- although "While language is a means a creation and of action in the metaphysical phase, this power is greatly diminished in the later ages" (p. 122). He specifically cites this song as an example: there was a time when Galadriel could sing the leaves to life and the flowers into the bud, but she can do so no more.
This obviously reminds us of several things. First, and perhaps most important to Tolkien, is John 1:1-18, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through it...." (John 1:1-3). Obviously this would have been a pleasant motif to a philologist like Tolkien! But one is also reminded of the power of words to bind, as naming the devil drives him off, e.g., in versions of "Riddles Wisely Expounded" [Child 1] and "The Fause Knight Upon the Road" [Child 3]. There is also the motif of the "secret name" or "hidden name," and the idea that "the name is the thing," so that to know something's name is to have power over it, as in "Rumpelstiltskin" (as well as such modern works as Ursula K. LeGuin's "Earthsea" books).
I wonder, though, if Barootes is right. I agree with him that "I Sang of Leaves" is an exile's song. But is the sorrow is for the loss of Galadriel's power -- or for her exile? -- "what ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?" (Book II, chapter 8, "Farewell to Lórien," HM2Ed I.389; 50thEd p. 373).
On p. 124, Barootes makes the observation that this is a "Fourteener" -- almost. That is, the lines are of fourteen syllables, rhyming in couplets (standard Ballad Meter, or Common Meter), and there are fourteen such lines. If laid out in stanzas, in other words, it would be seven stanzas long. There is only one line which violates this form: line 11 has fifteen rather than fourteen syllables: "O Lórien! Too long I have dwelt upon this Hither Shore." According to Barootes, "There is... significance to his aberration, however. The out of place syllable is the stressed I: Galadriel herself does not fit -- in Middle-earth or in her own song." Barootes, on p. 130 n. 13, demonstrates that Tolkien's early drafts did not have the excess syllable. It was clearly a deliberate change to emphasize the word "I" -- the word that is about her exile.
Is Galadriel's power gone? Recall that, at the end of The Lord of the Rings, the soil from Galadriel's garden makes plants grow at many times their normal rate. Furthermore, Appendix B says that "when the Shadow passed, Celeborn came forth and led the host of Lórien over Anduin in many boats. They took Dol Guldur, and Galadriel threw down its walls and laid bare its pits, and the forest was cleansed" (HM2Ed III.375; 50thEd p. 1094). That doesn't sound too feeble to me. This is after the Three Rings lose their power, remember. So perhaps her power was not lost -- or perhaps it increased again after Sauron was overthrown? Galadriel did not seek power -- she rejected the One Ring when it was offered to her.
Rather, what the Elves have lost, it seems to me, is not power but *will* -- the ability to get up and to do. Why did not Elrond or Galadriel go with the Fellowship? Surely, with their power, they could have brought Frodo safely to Mordor. And if anyone would know the way to Orodruin, it would be Elrond, who was there for the battle between Gil-galad and Sauron in the Second Age. But, even though Galadriel is the greatest of the elves of Middle-Earth, even with all the aspects of the Virgin Mary, she is a relatively passive character, giving gifts that are necessary to success but taking no real action. Is Galadriel, besides lamenting her exile, lamenting her lost power, or her inability to use it? I do not know. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: JRRTSong

Toll Bar, The

DESCRIPTION: "Something cam' in" when the cart toll was twopence; at fourpence now it's "growin' vera thin; But I'll pay my rent when it comes to be due, Gin Providence send not something that's new"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: poverty farming nonballad commerce money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 458, "The Toll Bar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5963
File: GrD3458

Toll for the Brave

See Sinking of the Royal George (File: LaBo076)

Toll the Bell for Lilla Dale

See Lilly Dale (File: TPS039)

Toll-a-Winker

See Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)

Tolliver Song, The

See The Rowan County Crew (Trouble, or Tragedy) [Laws E20] (File: LE20)

Tolliver-Martin Feud Song, A

See The Rowan County Crew (Trouble, or Tragedy) [Laws E20] (File: LE20)

Tom a Bedlam (Bedlam Boys)

DESCRIPTION: The singer is determined to find her Tom. She describes (his or her) visions. Chorus: "Still I sing bonny boys, bonny mad boys, Bedlam boys are bonny. For they all go bare, and they live by the air...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1720 (Pills to Purge Melancholy); "Mad Tom of Bedlam" was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: madness love separation
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 172-189, "Tom a Bedlam" (there are eight texts in this section; the one labelled "Mad Maudlin" on pp. 181-182 is this one)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 328-332, "New Mad Tom of Bedlam, or Mad Tom" (1 text plus many excerpts, 1 tune; this is followed by a piece "Tom a Bedlam" which is not this although some of the excerpts in the entry may be related)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 175-178, "Tom a Bedlam" (7 fragmentary texts, at least one of which is this one; 1 tune; the next piece, "Gray's Inn Masque, or Mad Tom, or New Mad Tom of Bedlam," (for which see also Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN910, "Forth from my sad and darksome cell") appears to be an unrelated literary song, found also in Percy, pp. 344-347, "Old Tom of Bedlam," the first of six "Mad Songs")
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 359-362, "Tom of Bedlam" (1 text); pp. 363-366, "Another Tom of Bedlam" (1 text, which looks as if it might be to the same tune; both texts look literary)
DT, BEDLMBOY*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #310, "Tom O'Bedlam" (1 text)
ST Log172 (Full)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nancy's Complaint in Bedlam" (theme)
NOTES [312 words]: The Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem (Bedlam), in London, was the first hospital for insane men in England. Magdalene Hospital (Maudlin), mentioned in some versions of the song, was the first hospital for insane women. - PJS
"Bedlam songs" seem to have been a phenomenon in the eighteenth century and after. To make matters worse, they all seem to mix and match -- see, for instance, the incredible mess in Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime. Many of Percy's texts, e.g., resemble Logan-APedlarsPack's, which resemble Chappell's, which are like Ritson's. It's very hard to tell them apart. There is a reference one as early as 1675. Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 229, #2656, is "Tom of Bedlam," registered March 1, 1675, and p. 164, #1878, is "A new Mad Tom of Bedlam," registered March 1, 1675 -- but I can't prove which Bedlam song it is.
Under the circumstances, I've listed the most traditional-seeming of the bunch ("Tom a Bedlam") here, and hope cross-references in the "References" field will suffice for the others.
In Aldington's The Viking Book of Poetry of the English-Speaking World we find a Tom o' Bedlams Song starting
From the hag and hungry goblin
That into rages would rend ye,
And the spirit that stands
By the naked man
In the book of moons defend ye....
It's not this piece (the chorus is different), but there is undeniable dependence. Aldington attributes the piece to Giles Earle (dates unknown but early seventeenth century). Granger's Index to Poetry, however, lists the author of this as unknown -- and it has plenty of supporting evidence, since it cites 18 different references. Nor does Granger's list any other works by this alleged Earle. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Log172

Tom and the Parson

DESCRIPTION: Tom Brown climbs a tree at night while looking for a missing cow. He sees the parson kissing "a nimble lass." Tom asks if the parson has seen his cow. The parson bribes Tom to keep the secret of his lovemaking. Tom goes home happy without his cow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: adultery sex promise gold farming animal clergy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 190-191, "Tom and the Parson" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 253)
Roud #1676
File: Wt190

Tom Bird's Dog

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes bird hunting. Tom Bird's dog pursues. The singer escapes. "I don't know how many birds you got" but wishes someone had killed the dog.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: escape hunting humorous dog
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 101-102, "Tom Bird's Dog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9959
File: Pea101

Tom Bo Lyn

See Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn) (File: R471)

Tom Bo-lin

See Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn) (File: R471)

Tom Boleyn

See Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn) (File: R471)

Tom Bowline

See Tom Bowling (File: DTtombow)

Tom Bowling (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Here a sheer hulk lies poor Tom (Bowling/Bowline), the darling of our crew." Tom, faithful, kind, virtuous, and beautiful, has now "gone aloft." His family and friends are mentioned. They hope he finds "pleasant weather" in heaven
AUTHOR: Charles Dibdin (1745-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Eliot)
KEYWORDS: death sailor religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 96-97, "Tom Bowline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 161-163, "Tom Bowling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XXXI, pp. 45-46, "Tom Bowling" (1 text)
DT, TOMBOWLI
ADDITIONAL: Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #305, p. 502, "Tom Bowling" (by Charles Dibdin)
Roud #1984
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Frank Fidd"
NOTES [116 words]: As a folk song, this hasn't been very popular (I indexed it mostly for the parallels to "Frank Fidd," which see). But, like many Dibdin pieces, it was widely published in broadsides, and has also shown up in a number of modern anthologies; there are six citations in Granger's Index to Poetry. According to Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, Editors, British Authors Before 1800: A Biographical Dictionary, H. W. Wilson, 1952 (I use the fourth printing of 1965), p. 153, Dibdin wrote this to commemorate the death of his brother, Captain Thomas Dibdin, who had helped introduce Charles Dibdin to the stage.
For a fuller account of Charles Dibdin, see the notes to "Blow High Blow Low," - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: DTtombow

Tom Bowling (II)

See Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn) (File: R471)

Tom Brown

See The King Takes the Queen (File: FSWB232)

Tom Brown's Two Little Indian Boys

See Ten Little Injuns (File: OO2376)

Tom Cat

DESCRIPTION: "Funniest thing that ever I seen Was a tom cat stitchin' on a sewin' machine! O-ho, my baby, take a-one on me!" "Sewed so easy and he sewed so slow, Took ninety-nine stitches on the tom-cat's toe, O-ho, my baby...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal technology
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 91, "Tom Cat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ScaNF091 (Full)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Take a Whiff on Me" (lyrics, form)
NOTES [34 words]: Presumably from the same roots as "Take a Whiff On Me" or something like it. With only two verses, I can't really tell if it's a separate song or not -- but we're splitters, so we file it as if it is. - RBW
File: ScaNF091

Tom Cat Blues

DESCRIPTION: Singer praises old "Ring Tail Tom" for his sexual prowess: "I got an old tom cat; When he steps out All the pussy cats in the neighborhood, They begin to shout, 'Here comes Ring Tail Tom, He's boss around the town...." Etc.
AUTHOR: Probably Cliff Carlisle
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (recording, Cliff Carlisle)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy humorous nonballad animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 213, "Tom Cat Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 160, "Tom Cat Blues" (1 text)
DT, TOMCATBL*
RECORDINGS:
Cliff Carlisle,"Tom Cat Blues" (Vocalion 5492, c. 1932; on TimesAint04) "Ringtail Tom" (Vocalion 02656, 1934)
Jimmie Davis, "Tom Cat and Pussy Blues" (Bluebird B-6272, 1936)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Tom Cat Blues" (on NLCR01)
NOTES [23 words]: I can't tell without hearing them whether the two Cliff Carlisle recordings are the same performance, but they're clearly the same song. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: CSW213

Tom Cornealy

DESCRIPTION: Tom ships on board the Lighter Home, bound to Labrador. "At last we reached that awful land Where the snow and ice was beating" and head north to Ungava "Up in the Arctic Ocean ... the salmon was so thick" but all we found were starving "huskies"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: fishing ordeal sea ship Eskimo
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 188, "Tom Cornealy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2716
RECORDINGS:
Tom Cornelly(?), "Trip to the North Pole" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [13 words]: The MUNFLA/Leach singer may also be the Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs singer. - BS
File: CrMa188

Tom Corrigan

DESCRIPTION: Corrigan is racing on the horse "Waiter." He is just overtaking the leader when he is thrown and killed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger)
KEYWORDS: death racing horse
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 138-139, "Tom Corrigan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 16, page headed "When I was at school..."], "Tommy Corrigan" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Donald Campbell" (theme)
cf. "The Death of Alec Robertson" (theme)
cf. "Alec Robertson (I)" (theme)
cf. "Alec Robertson (II)" (theme)
NOTES [88 words]: "Banjo" Paterson wrote a piece, "Tommy Corrigan (Killed, Steeplechasing at Flemington)" -- but the two are not the same.
Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 75, has this entry for Tommy Corrigan: "Sometimes said to have been Australia's greatest jockey, Corrigan was killed in an accident a Caulfield racecourse in August 1894. His death was the subject of song and poetry, including a widely known Melbourne broadside usually titled 'The Death of Tommy Corrigan'." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: MA138

Tom Dixon

DESCRIPTION: "Tom Dixon runs a cathouse way down on Harlow street," a frequent destination for loggers. "The girls are not so pretty, but I guess they're not so slow." The singer talks of his trips back and forth between lumber camp and Dixon's establishment
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: logger whore bawdy
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 251, "Tom Dixon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9423
File: Doe251

Tom Dooley [Laws F36A]

DESCRIPTION: Tom Dula/Dooley has killed Laura Foster. He has few regrets except that he didn't get away with it. He curses Sheriff Grayson, who has captured him. He expects to be hanged tomorrow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution fiddle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 25 (?), 1866 - Murder of Laura Foster, allegedly by Thomas C. Dula (and possibly his sweetheart Ann Melton). Dula apparently killed Foster because he had contracted a venereal disease from her, which she folklore falsely reports she had caught from Grayson.
c. July 1, 1866 - Dula leaves North Carolina for Tennessee, where he briefly works for James W. M. Grayson
c. July 12, 1866 - Dula apprehended in Tennessee and returned to North Carolina
c. Sept 1, 1866 - Body of Laura Foster found in a remote grave
Oct 4, 1866 - Beginning of Dula's first trial. There will be a separation of his case from Ann Melton's, a change of venue, a guilty verdict, a successful appeal to the North Carolina Supreme Court resulting in an order for a new trial, a second trial before a different judge, a second conviction, and a second, unsuccessful, appeal before Dula's case is finally settled
May 1, 1868 - Dula is hanged for the murder.
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Laws F36A, "Tom Dooley"
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 228, "Tom Dooley" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 118, "Tom Dooley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 59-60, "Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 303, "Tom Dula" (3 texts, all very short; in addition, the "B" text of Brown's #304, "Tom Dula's Lament," is a single stanza found in the Proffitt version of "Tom Dooley")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 303, "Tom Dula" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 9, "Tom Dooley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 82, "Tom Dooley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 139, "Tom Dula" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 235-240, "Tom Dooley" (1 text)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 137, "Tom Dooley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 207-208, "Tom Dooley" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 188, "Tom Dooley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 225, "Tom Dooley" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Frank L. Warner [nephew of Frank M. Warner], "Songs My Uncle Taught Me" Vol. XI, No. 1 (Jul 1963), pp. 28-29, "Tom Dooley" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 173, 230, 289, 550, "Tom Dooley" (notes only)
DT, TOMDOOLY*
ADDITIONAL: John Edward Fletcher, PhD (with a foreword by Edith Marie Ferguson Carter), _The True Story of Tom Dooley: From Western North Carolina Mystery to Folk Legend_, History Press, 2013, pp. 149-150, "Tom Dooley" (the Profitt/Warner version)
John Foster West, _The Ballad of Tom Dula_, Moore Publishing Company, (second printing) 1977, pp. 17-34, (various titles) (12 texts and fragments of "Tom Dooley" plus 1 of Land's "The Murder of Laura Foster" [Laws F36], 4 tunes)
Manly Wade Wellman, _Dead and Gone: Classic Crimes of North Carolina_, 1954 (I use the 1980 University of North Carolina paperback), pp. 185-186, "(no title)" (1 text; the historical background to the text is very inaccurate)
Frances H. Casstevens, _Death in North Carolina's Piedmont: Tales of Murder, Suicide, and Causes Unknown_, History Press, 2006, pp. 110-111, "(Untitled Folk Version of the Tom Dula story)," "Tom Dooley" (2 texts, one from Manley Wade Wellman and perhaps rewritten, the other based on Profitt)
Roud #4192
RECORDINGS:
Sheila Clark, "The Ballad of Tom Dula" (on LegendTomDula)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "Tom Dooley" (Victor 40235, 1930; rec. 1929; on GraysonWhitter01)
Yvonne "Mollie" Hicks (Hagie), Derek Piotr, "Tom Dooley" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #177, recorded 05/13/2022 -- a rewritten version which claims that Dooley was innocent and had an alibi. Since the informant also claimed Laura Foster was drowned, not stabbed, there is no reason to think the alibi valid)
Travis Johnson, "Tom Dooley (Nellie Forster)" (Piotr-Archive #511, recorded 03/08/2023)
Glenn Neaves & band, "Tom Dooley" (on GraysonCarroll1)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Tom Dooley" (on NLCR02) (NLCR12)
Nicola "Aunt Nicky" Pritchard (Turbyfill), "Tom Dooley" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #23, recorded 11/05/2020)
Frank Profitt, "Tom Dooley" [excerpt] (on USWarnerColl01)
Evelyn & Douston Ramsey, "Tom Dooley" (on FarMtns2)
Doug & Berzilla Wallin, "Tom Dula" (on FarMtns3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Murder of Laura Foster" [Laws F36] (subject)
cf. "Tom Dula's Lament" (subject, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Tom Dooly
NOTES [15698 words]: G. B. Grayson, who (along with Henry Whitter) made the earliest known recorded version of the song, was descended from the sheriff who captured Dula. - PJS
Nitpick: The man Paul refers to who helped capture Dula was not a sheriff and was not an ancestor of G. B. Grayson. Nonetheless there is a family linkage; according to Fletcher, pp. 45, 116, James W. M. Grayson was the uncle of the performer G. B. Grayson.
Briefly, the story of Tom Dula, Laura Foster, and company is as follows: After the Civil War, a young unmarried woman named Laura Foster disappeared from her home in North Carolina. After a lot of searching, her body -- which had been stabbed to the heart -- and clothing were found in a shallow grave. Thomas C. Dula, a returned Confederate veteran, was charged with the murder of Foster and his seeming lover Ann Melton with being an accessory before the fact. The trial was moved to a different venue, and after some maneuvering, Dula and Melton were tried separately and Dula was convicted of murder. The trial was badly conducted, and Dula was granted a new trial by the state supreme court. The verdict did not change. Dula, on his last day, wrote a statement to the effect that he was solely responsible for the murder. Belief at the time seemed to contradict this. At least one witness said that Melton would have hung with Dula had she not been so beautiful. But she was let go; only Dula was executed.
Those are the bare facts. There is a lot of folklore about the Dula case, most of it false (West-Ballad, starting on p. 35, gives many pages of errors and inconsistencies in the various reports, many of them clearly copied from each other). The story is, if anything, even more ugly than the folklore. And yet, Peña/Hayes, p. 72, says that many in Wilkes County still believe Dula was innocent. One of the informants Derek Piotr talked to, Yvonne "Mollie" Hicks (Hagie), actually sang a verse, which she said was by her grandfather, "You didn't kill Laurie Foster Because you were with me." This is beyond improbable -- if someone had been with Dula at the time Laurie Foster went missing, then this person would have been called to testify -- but it shows how the legend evolved.
In 2001/2, an attempt was made in North Carolina to convince the governor to grant Dula a posthumous pardon (Casstevens, p. 31). This seems rather far-fetched. Dula may not have been guilty of murder, but he *did* abandon Foster, and if he didn't commit the crime, he was probably an accessory after the fact to murder by Melton. And it is unlikely that much can be done to clarify the matter now, because most of the evidence has been lost. Laura Foster was reburied, but the site of her original grave, the "Bates Place," is not certain and the area has been clearcut and otherwise modified in the last century and a half (Fletcher, p. 30).
-- Accounts of the Dula Case --
In addition to a useful summary in Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, and an eight-page summary in Polenberg (pp. 66-74) which adds nothing that I can see to the information given below (and which is often so brief as to prejudice the case), there seem to be at least four non-fiction books about the Dula/Foster/Melton affair, as well as two or more fictional works (one of which, by Karen Wheeling Reynolds, seems to have been deliberately marketed as non-fiction even though it is a patent dramatization of the tale and doesn't even really list sources; according to Casstevens, p. 31, it blames Pauline Foster and perhaps Jack Keaton). Unfortunately, all the books were written after the Kingston Trio hit, so all are based on court records and the like rather than eyewitness testimony. The books I have seen, which I believe are the only recent non-fiction books about the event, are:
-- West-Lift, which was written by a twentieth century resident of the area and one-time president of the North Carolina Folklore Society -- a man who knew descendants of the Dula and Foster families
-- West-Ballad, a longer but earlier book by the author of West-Lift; they obviously overlap but also have significant differences. West-Ballad is more a source book than anything else; it consists largely of capsule biographies of the principal parties, a transcript of the court papers, and a catalog of extant versions of the song with a comparison of the false statements accompanying each printing.
-- Fletcher, who is the great-great-grandson of Ann and James Melton (Fletcher, p. 79. It would seem that the Tom Dula craze, these days, exists mostly among those from the area of the murder)
-- Gardner, a largely-undocumented pamphlet with some useful records but little in the way of firm evidence.
All the books seem to have axes to grind. Fletcher's is to make Dula entirely the guilty party, making everyone else seem like an upstanding citizen (He often finds simple, straightforward explanations for complex testimony -- but I often suspect his explanations are too simple). West-Lift's is to make Dula's trial appear unfair; West-Ballad has less of this but very early on calls Laura Foster a loose woman. And Gardner's is to try to blame everything on Melton and Pauline Foster, with Dula innocently caught between Melton and Laura Foster. (Gardner, p. 4, mentions Dula's musical skills and even says that such a musician couldn't have been a murderer, as if that is in any way relevant!) Nor are any of them well-written; West is disorderly; Fletcher easy to read but not good at presenting an argument, and Gardner is just goofy.
There are also some shorter accounts, often with their own idiosyncrasies. Casstevens, which devotes only a few pages to the case, on pp. 32-33, also suggests that Pauline Foster and Ann Melton had stronger motives than Dula. Winkler, like Fletcher, was a member of the extended Dula/Foster family: his great-grandmother Robbins "had been born a Dula and, as my mother tells it, would slip into a paroxysm of rage at the merest drop of the name Ann Melton." He adds that the name Dula "figured prominently in the Caldwell County of my growing up. It was shared by rich and poor, black and white -- which may or may not hint at sizable slave holdings at one time" (p. 84). Trying to trace the family name, Winkler encountered a family in Marburg, Germany. No connection has been demonstrated in immigration records, but it seems not unlikely that this part of Germany is the origin of the Dula name.
-- About Tom Dula --
West-Lift, p. 10, says Thomas C. "Tom" Dula had dark brown hair, brown eyes, and was of roughly average height. West-Lift, p. vi, describes him as rather a catch by local standards; handsome and a few weeks short of 22 at the time of the crime, his family was slightly better off than most others in the area of Wilkes County, and since both of Dula's brothers had died in the war, the land would be his -- although he doesn't seem to have had any interest in working it.
Dula had lost his father in 1854, when he was about ten (Fletcher, p. 19); there doesn't seem to be any record of this affecting Tom's behavior for the worse at the time. He was still living with his mother at the time of the murder (West-Lift, p. 87. You have to pity poor Mary Dula, who lost two sons in the war and her only surviving boy to the Foster murder case) -- he was still unmarried, after all, and he had been too young to move away from home prior to his enlistment.
Dula had enlisted in the Confederate army in March 1862 (West-Lift, p. 9), meaning that he was not yet 18 at the time (born June 20, 1844, according to West-Lift, p. 8, making him probably a few months younger than his future victim Laura Foster). Give him credit, perhaps, for volunteering rather than being drafted. It was an interesting choice, given that many in the mountains of Wilkes County were pro-Union (Peña/Hayes, p. 70) and slavery, although not unknown, was rare (Peña/Hayes, p. 69).
Although some sources claim that he was a member of the 26th North Carolina along with James Melton (and his future lawyer Zebulon Vance), the records show clearly that he was a member of the 42nd North Carolina regiment (West-Lift, p. 70, although West-Lift's military reporting is very bad -- he confuses battalions, which weren't even a normal Civil War formation, with brigades! Both Rigdon and NorthCarolinaTroops show him in the 42nd, although Rigdon, p. 260, uses the spelling "Thomas C. Dooley," as on Dula's parole notice, despite spelling his brother's name "Dula"!).
Tom's real unit, the 42nd North Carolina, was organized in April 1862 (Rigdon, p. 62); thus Dula was a member of the regiment from the time it was formed. He was a member of Company K, which, unlike the other companies which were organized from particular counties, seems to have been composed of odds and ends from several counties that could not supply enough men to fill a full company. Nonetheless he probably had family members in the regiment; there were two other Dulas, including his older brother William, and two Meltons in his company (NorthCarolinaTroops, pp. 282-285). Tom and his brother William were with the regiment until they were captured at Wise's Forks on March 10, 1865 (NorthCarolinaTroops, p. 282).
There are three interesting items about Dula's service. One is that he was promoted to musician (drummer) in the first two months of 1864 (NorthCarolinaTroops, p. 282; Fletcher, p. 21, explicitly calls him a drummer). That didn't really get him out of the firing line, but it does imply that he had more musical skill than some men in the company. The second thing is that, despite being with Company K for almost three years, he never became a non-commissioned officer. To be sure, many privates were never promoted; it's not really a mark against him, particularly since he was so young. But neither is it exactly a sign of confidence in him.
The third is something I noticed in looking at the list of members in Company K on pp. 280-287 of NorthCarolinaTroops. Company K had twenty men from Wilkes County (so about a fifth of the company). Ten has been lost (killed, deserted, whatever) before the Battle of Wise's Forks/Wyse Fork/Kinston, March 7-10, 1865 (i.e. a week before the 42nd's last battle at Bentonville). Eight others were present with the regiment in 1864, but nothing is known about their last year of service although most were later paroled. Two -- just two -- were captured at Wise's Fork. They happen to have been William and Tom Dula. Wise's Fork started with Confederate success but ended with Confederate failure (Hughes, pp. 27-28). Did the brothers stick so close together that they were captured together -- or did they desert together?
It would be hard to blame them. They came from a Unionist part of North Carolina, and the Confederacy was clearly losing -- and Wise's Fork must have seemed like a disaster to the people of the 42nd. It had started with a Confederate success in which they captured a bunch of isolated Union troops, but the attack ran out of steam (Sokolosky/Smith, pp. 125-126 and elsewhere). As a result, two days later, the Confederates tried again -- and Kirkland's Brigade ended up making an unsupported charge straight into a mass of entrenched Federals (Sokolosky/Smith, p. 163; according to p. 168, one Federal officer concluded that they "could not possibly have struck our line in any [other] position... [that would] have been more to our advantage and to their discomfort"; Sokolosky/Smith, p. 168). It would be easy for a random Confederate or 150 to conclude that there was no more point in fighting for generals that stupid -- and, indeed, Kirkland's Brigade lost a fourth of its strength (341 out of 1357) in the battle (Sokolosky/Smith, p. 236), with the 42nd North Carolina having 4 killed, 22 wounded, and 140 captured (166 total) out of an initial strength of perhaps 450 (Sokolosky/Smith, p. 244). This was 40% of the captured of the entire Confederate army, based on Sokolosky/Smith, p. 243. (To be sure, Kirkland's Brigade was the largest in the army, bsed on Sokolosky/Smith,, p. 238, but it was only 14% of the total. For one regiment -- a third of the brigade -- to have that many men captured means it had men captured at nine times the rate of the rest of the army -- about 31% of the regiment, versus 3.5% for the whole force.)
Both Tom's brothers had enlisted (William, as we saw, in the same company as Tom), as had James Melton (Fletcher, p. 19; Casstevens, p. 21, reports that James Melton was twice wounded, once at Gettysburg and once late in the war; he was a member of the 26th North Carolina, which as a unit of Pettigrew's Brigade was part of Pickett's Charge; according to Hess, p. 376 n. 43, he actually carried the regimental colors for a time on July 1, when he was wounded). There were at least six Fosters from Wilkes County in the 26nd North Carolina (Hess, p. 332); odds are that most of these were also Dula relatives (Hess thinks, based on enlistment dates, that they were conscripts, though I'm not sure that follows since they could have enlisted together). The oldest Dula brother, John, died of disease in 1862, and the middle brother, William, died of typhoid as a POW on June 5 1865 (NorthCarolinaTroops, p. 282; Beitzell, p. 135, confirms William's death at Point Lookout prison camp although he does not list the cause),
The 42nd regiment was mostly on isolated service; it was not even formed into a brigade until May 1863 (Rigdon, p. 65), and saw almost no combat until 1864.
Many of the men later involved in Tom Dula's trial had known him in the army (Fletcher, p. 21). At least one of them, Washington Anderson, said that Dula's conduct while in the army had been good (West-Lift, p. 85). Gardner prints several of Dula's military records, and they seem to confirm Anderson's statement.
Reading the accounts of Dula's behavior after the Civil War makes me wonder about some sort of trauma disorder (e.g. post-traumatic stress disorder). I know of no research on this point, but Wallis, pp. 30-31, observes that crime statistics in the United States soared after the Civil War. Wallis blames the increased availability and efficiency of firearms, but in fact all major weapons types available after the war had pre-war equivalents. All recent difficult wars, from Vietnam to Iraq, have left many veterans with trauma problems, and there a signs of them in veterans of the World Wars. Surely the Civil War would have done the same!
And perhaps the nature of Dula's service might have made him especially vulnerable. Unlike a lot of North Carolina regiments, the 42nd for the larger part of the war stayed in its home state and did not serve with the Army of Northern Virginia. (It had a confusing career, being occasionally brigaded with what Hess calls the Pettigrew/Kirkland/McRae brigade and sometimes with the Martin/Kirkland brigade, but it spent much of its career essentially un-brigaded; Hess, p. 54.) Eventually, however, the need for troops around Richmond was such that it was called north in time for the Richmond campaign of 1864 -- the grimmest example of trench warfare in the entire conflict.
NCRegiments, p. 796, says that the 42nd in late 1863 became part of James G. Martin's Brigade, which served to guard the Bermuda Hundred lines around Richmond; the regiment fought hard when the Army of the James attacked this position. Martin's brigade then became part of Robert F. Hoke's division (NCRegiments, p. 798), and took part in the appalling battle of Cold Harbor, where thousands of Federals were killed in just a few minutes -- although Hoke's own casualties were so light that he claimed there were none at all (Furgurson, p. 161). Rhea, p. 340, reports, "Martin's three North Carolina regiments had done yeoman's work, fending off portions of [three brigades]... Martin, a forty-five-year-0ld professional soldier who had lost his right arm in the Mexican War, reveled in the fight.
"General Martin cheered his men, and their enthusiasm was great,' the adjutant [Charles G.] Elliott remembered. 'Mostly armed with smooth-bore muskets, they poured an incessant fusillade of buck and ball into the brave lines that charged and recharged, and fell, many of them, on our works.' Martin's losses were slight, although among them was Colonel A. Duncan Moore, commanding the 66th North Carolina" (Rhea, pp. 340-341).
The map on p. 321 of Rhea shows the 42nd in the middle of Martin's brigade, which faced John Gibbon's assaulting division (although the map on p. 146 of Furgurson implies that Martin's brigade was between assaulting columns); in either case, it was well-entrenched and faced Federals attacking over open ground. Gibbon in the charge lost on the order of 1100 men (Rhea, p, 361; other estimates are higher). Thus Dula, in his first major battle, was probably involved in inflicting many casualties without seeing many of his comrades die. Gibbon's casualties were so high that they approached the total strength of the brigade they were assaulting. So odds are that someone died as a direct result of Dula's shooting. For the Confederates, Rhea, p. 362, reports that the divisions of Kershaw and Hoke together lost no more than 300 men, which would make the losses in Martin's brigade perhaps fifty. So they inflicted casualties at a 10:1 rate or better.
Late in the day, the brigade was ordered out of its trenches to attack the Federals -- an attack which, like all attacks on trenches, was repulsed with ease. The Confederates suffered about a hundred casualties for absolutely no benefit (Rhea, pp. 383-384). So in their first real day of battle, Dula's regiment first slaughtered their enemies and then were slaughtered themselves for no reason whatsoever. If that isn't traumatic, I don't know what is.
Later, the regiment was one of those involved in the desperate fight to hold Petersburg until Lee's army could arrive (NCRegiments, pp. 799-800), and it then settled down to trench warfare outside that town. It just missed being blown up in the Battle of the Crater, having left that part of the trenches just two days before (Rigdon, p. 74). In August 1864, the unit it belonged to became Kirkland's Brigade. During this three month period, the unit supposedly lost two-thirds of its numbers (Rigdon, p. 75). In December, 1864, it was released from the lines outside Petersburg and Richmond to help with the defense of Wilmington (NCRegiments, p. 802; Gragg, p. 60, although he notes that it took quite a while to get there because of the failing Confederate rail network). Within hours of arriving, parts of the unit came under fire from the Federal navy assaulting the area -- artillery fire which they had absolutely no way to answer (Gragg, pp. 81-82). Fort Fisher, which guarded the port, managed to hold out for the moment, but was captured by the Federals soon after. Meanwhile, William T. Sherman's troops were marching north from Savannah through the Carolinas, The 42nd was finally run down at Bentonville (NCRegiments, pp. 803-804), where Joseph E. Johnston tried and failed to defeat Sherman. It was the last significant battle of the war, apart from those involved in the surrender of Robert E. Lee. And it sounds as if Kirkland's Brigade was mishandled in the battle (Hughes, p. 128). The regiment was then surrendered and disbanded.
Although other regiments took more casualties, there can't have been many with more traumatic experiences.
There is a record of Dula being in hospital in late 1864 (West-Lift, p. 71) -- although we have no record of whether this was the result of injury or illness (an earlier hospital stay, in 1862, was more likely illness; Gardner, p. 39; West-Ballad, p. p. 63). He was captured by the Federals, along with 1500 or so others, on March 8, 1865 (West-Lift, p. 71; Gardner, p. 40, reports that he was released on June 11 of that year). It all adds up to a military career that was likely to have been psychologically particularly hard on those who experienced it..
The other side of it is that Dula's morality seems to have been questionable all along. There were reports that he had shown a violent streak even while in the army, with rumors that he had committed an earlier murder (so the New York Herald reporter, as cited on West-Lift, p. 123; West-Ballad, p. 180; Gardner, p. 28) -- although there seems to be no evidence of it elsewhere; I suspect it was an attempt to blacken Dula's name at the time of his death. Still, West-Lift, p. 10, indicates that he had already been sleeping around for years even before the war; according to West-Ballad, p. 66 and West-Lift, p. 14, Ann Melton's mother Lotty Foster had actually caught him in bed with in 1859 when he was 14 or 15 and she a year older (West-Ballad, p. 119; although Fletcher, p. 82, suggests that this was an error of understanding and that this actually referred to the period in late 1861 when James Melton was in the army but Dula had not yet signed up, meaning that Ann had married Melton before she became involved with Tom, who shacked up with Ann when she was a lonely army wife). Pauline Foster also testified to them embracing and Tom offering to take Ann away (West-Ballad, p. 125). Tom may also have chased a Caroline Barnes (at least, Melton reportedly fought with him over her), and there are indications he slept with other girls while in the army (West-Ballad, p. 67).
-- The Other Principals: Ann Melton --
Ann Melton (properly Angeline Pauline Triplett, according to Fletcher, p. 19) was a year older than Dula, and also fatherless. She had been married to the cobbler James Gabriel Melton in 1859 at the age of 16 (he was 21 at the time, according to Fletcher), but apparently the marriage was not happy (reportedly James and Ann slept in separate beds; West-Ballad, p. 81) and Ann Melton was very temperamental (West-Lift, p. vii). They nonetheless had -- or at least Ann had and James raised -- a daughter Jane, born probably in 1861 (Fletcher, p. 23). (Given the possibility that Tom and Ann had been sleeping together by then, there is obviously doubt about the father of Ann Melton's child.) According to Wade Gilbert, a grandson of James Melton by his second wife, Ann Melton had a second daughter, Ida, who left the area when she grew up (West-Ballad, p. 76).
The New York Herald account, from 1868, said that "She is apparently about twenty-five years of age, is the illegitimate daughter of one Carlotta (Lotty) Foster [Fletcher, p. 132, argues that Lotty's children were not illegitimate but were abandoned by their father, causing Lotty to change the family name from "Triplett" back to her maiden name "Foster"], and is a most beautiful woman. She is entirely uneducated, and though living in the midst of ignorance has the manner and bearing of an accomplished lady, and all the natural powers that should grace a high born beauty" (West-Ballad, pp. 176-177; West-Lift, p. 120; Gardner, p. 26).
The notes in Brown to "The Murder of Laura Foster" mention that Ann Melton in later life is said to have admitted a part in the killing -- and that she later went blind. Blindness is a known side effect of syphilis. But no one else mentions Melton's blindness, and there are folkloric elements in the stories Brown recorded. In fact, it appears (West-Ballad, p. 47) that no one even knows when Melton died!
One witness, James Isbell (whom Dula would call a liar in his final speech; West-Ballad, p. 181) but who played a major role in finding Laura's body (West-Ballad, p.89) claimed that Ann Melton slept around with other men as well (his testimonry is in West-Ballad, p. 132), but he had this only as hearsay and he was clearly a hostile witness (Fletcher, p. 83). There seems to be no other evidence that Ann slept with anyone except her husband and Dula. James Melton is said to have adored his wife despite her behavior (Fletcher, p. 84 -- but Fletcher is descended from the Meltons, so he had reason to try to make them look good).
Ann Melton certainly had a temper -- at Tom Dula's trial, Pauline Foster described Ann coming looking for Pauline and choking her when she found her. Much of what Pauline reported is dubious, but Celia Scott (Mrs. James Scott) corroborated this particular story (West-Ballad, pp. 128-129; Fletcher, p. 51; I have no idea why this was considered relevant to Dula's guilt).
It appears that Melton and Dula were so often together that Ann had actually set up a mechanism for him to alert her when he showed up: Pauline Foster described Ann drilling a hole in the wall by her bed (separate from her husband's), and ran a string through it, which she wrapped around her wrist so Dula could awaken her when he arrived (West-Ballad, pp. 152-153, with explanation on p. 41 of Fletcher).
-- The Other Principals: Laura Foster --
Laura Foster was the first cousin of Ann Melton; Wilson Foster, the father of Laura, was the brother of Ann's mother (Fletcher, p. 55).
West-Lift, p. v, says Laura Foster was the oldest of five children of Wilson Foster; her father reported at trial that, at the time of her disappearance, her mother Martha Bowman Foster was dead (West-Lift, p. 73). (By contrast, Gardner, p. 6, reports only that Laura had two brothers, and that they were tenant farmers. West-Lift is right; Casstevens, pp. 20-21, lists the 1860 census records for Laura's four siblings, three boys and a girl.)
A number of sources claimed Laura was 18 at the time of her murder (so, e.g., Gardner, p. 37), but her father said that she was 22. The 1860 census gave her age as 17 (Casstevens, p. 20), so obviously the people who listed her as a teenager at the time of her death were wrong although census records of this period are often wrong by a year or two about ages. Folklore also credits her with suitors other than Dula, but these other suitors can't even be shown to have existed (e.g. Gardner, pp. 37-38, tells of one Bob Cummings, who elsewhere is said to have helped capture Dula; but this "Cummings" who captured Dula can only be "Grayson," who lived in Tennessee and never saw Laura in his life. He was so unknown in North Carolina that the first court mention of him calls him "Grason"; West-Ballad, p. 140). Nor are other suitors likely; after all the losses in the Civil War, there were a lot more young women than young men in western North Carolina!
It is likely that she was illiterate; it is clear that her father Wilson Foster couldn't write, since he signed his court papers with an X (e.g. West-Ballad, p. 141).
Gardner describes Laura Foster as "a lovely girl with chestunt (sic.) hair and dark brown eyes" who was a weaver. However, Gardner also calls her a "respected girl," but every other report seems to say she had round heels; she was reported to be "wild as a buck" (Casstevens, p. 21). West-Ballad, p. 79, says there is no surviving genuine description of her; we simply don't know what she looked like, except for a few minor things such as a gap between her front teeth (and even that was disputed by trial witness J. W. Winkler; West-Ballad, p. 122. It was asserted by Pauline Foster; West-Ballad, p. 126.). The fact that she was unmarried at 22, in an area where most women married in their teens, is perhaps indicative, although the Civil War obviously reduced the number of men available.
The New York Herald reporter who covered Dula's last days wrote that there was a rumor that she was pregnant at the time of her murder (West-Lift, p. 118; Gardner, p. 24; Casstevens, p. 34, seems to accept the rumor without offering evidence), but there seems to be no record of this in the court papers (Fletcher, p. 30, and I saw no hints of it in the testimony in West). Laura Foster is called "frail" in the newspaper reports, as is her cousin Pauline Foster (West-Lift, p. 119; West-Ballad, p. 174, reprints the May 2, 1868 New York Herald article that called Laura "beautiful, but frail"; p. 175 has the reference to Pauline as "also frail"; p. 183 has a reference from the Statesville American that also calls Laura "frail"). It seems pretty clear that "frail" is code for "not a virgin." The best evidence is that Laura took up with Tom early in 1866; her father apparently saw her in bed with Tom (West-Ballad, p. 67). But she must have slept with someone else if she gave Tom syphilis in their short time sleeping together.
It seems clear that Dula was sleeping regularly with both Ann and Laura in early 1866 (West-Lift, p. 15), as well as having (perhaps only one) roll in the hay with Pauline Foster. Laura's father Wilson Foster said that Dula had visited Laura several times, and that he had once caught them in bed together (West-Lift, p. 73) -- or perhaps more than once (Fletcher, p. 24). He said Dula had started visiting regularly about two months before the murder; Fletcher estimates that this translates to around March 1, 1866.
I know of no absolute confirmation of the story that Laura Foster, Tom Dula, and company all suffered from a venereal disease, although Dula and Foster certainly did -- Dr. George Carter, the only doctor in that area of North Carolina (West-Ballad, p. 89), would testify that Dula had had it, and that Dula thought he got it from Laura Foster (West-Lift, p. 78; West-Ballad, p. 120; Fletcher, p. 90); and Pauline Foster testified that Dula's lover Ann Melton eventually became sick and used the blue pills that were the standard syphilis treatment (West-Ballad, p. 123), and furthermore that Melton had gotten "the pock" from Dula (West-Lift, p. 80; Fletcher, p. 24). It is usually stated that Dula killed Laura Foster to avenge her making him sick -- but apparently there was a report that it was Melton who wanted to kill Foster for being ultimately responsible for Ann getting it (West-Ballad, p. 74).
-- The Other Principals: Pauline Foster --
Ann, Laura, and Lotty were not the only Fosters involved. There was also another cousin, Pauline Foster -- a fourth cousin of Laura, according to Fletcher, p. 22. She was even closer to Tom -- his second cousin, if I read Fletcher, p. 23, correctly. Add her to the list of those who slept with Tom. And, seemingly, with anyone else who came along. The "unidentified transcript" of her testimony say she was 21 at the time of the murder case (West-Ballad, p. 151). A reporter wrote of her, "Pauline Foster, the principal witness against the accused... may be dismissed with the statement that she has since married a white man and given birth to a Negro child" (West-Lift, p. 16; West-Ballad, p. 76; the full context is on pp. 120-121 of West-Lift, West-Ballad, p. 177, and p. 26 of Gardner. Fletcher, p. 131, thinks the charge false, but can only suggest that her prospective husband may have been a mulatto whose son somehow ended up darker than either his father or mother; the odds of this are low). Fletcher, p. 89, says that Pauline was engaged as early as January 1866, then sought treatment for syphilis. She arrived in the Wilkes area where Dula lived around the beginning of March, 1866 (West-Ballad, p. 186). She did not marry until some time after Dula's 1866 trial but before his 1868 trial. In other words, Pauline not only slept with Dula, but slept with him while she was engaged). At least three other men, including Ann's brother, were said to have slept with Pauline, although one of them denied it. Washington Anderson would testify to her going into the woods with Dula (West-Ballad, p. 131). She officially admitted in court that she had a venereal disease, and had come to the Meltons to earn the wages to pay for treatment (West-Lift, p. 82). West-Ballad, p. 127, quotes her at the trial as having caught the disease in Watauga County before coming to work for the Meltons.
(Exactly what Pauline did with Dula is disputed. Fletcher, p. 91, has her claim that she did not have intercourse with him. But the trial record in West-Lift reports her as saying, p. 83, that "I also slept with Dula for a blind at Ann Melton's insistence.")
Pauline Foster isn't mentioned in the ballads or in short accounts of the case, but she was a key witness; keep her in mind. By the sound of things, Pauline was none too bright, even by the standards of the Fosters (I find myself wondering about in-breeding; West-Lift, p. 2, notes that many in the large Dula family were double first cousins, and Pauline had both Dula and Foster blood). It sounds as if Pauline Foster, among all her other "frailties" (read: extreme promiscuity that resulted in her contracting syphilis) was an alcoholic; she apparently threatened to kill a deputy while dead drunk and talking to other deputies (Fletcher, p 49). West-Ballad, p. 78, declares that "Pauline Fister was indeed depraved, immoral, and promiscuous. Furthermore, she might have been a drunkard, and certainly did not have much common sense regarding a matter a matter as grave as murder. Ann Melton called her a 'drunken fool.'"
The situation was so extreme that the New York Herald writer reported that "A state of immorality unexampled in the history of any country exists among these people, and such a system of freelovism prevails that it is 'a wise child that knows its father'" (Fletcher, p. 17; West-Lift, p. 3, has a slightly different version of the quote; West-Ballad, p. 174, has the whole article;West-Lift, p. 119, and Gardner, p. 24, print it in context). West assures us that this is exaggerated, but clearly there wasn't much social control over the young people of the district, at least in the post-War era when poverty and recriminations were widespread.
Pauline came to Wilkes County to see a doctor, and was granted lodging by James and Ann Melton in exchange for work. West-Lift, p. 15, says she is the first of all these people who is known to have actually sought treatment for "the pock" (syphilis) -- but she later said that "We all have it" (West-Lift, p. 16 -- West-Ballad, p. 130, shows this in her testimony in response to Ann Melton telling Pauline that she was diseased). However, there is no evidence that anyone had it until Pauline showed up; she came to Wilkes County specifically to see the only doctor in the area. That was early in March 1866. Dula first visited the same doctor for treatment around the beginning of April in that year (Fletcher, p.26; it sounds as if the doctor did not keep proper case records to have an exact date); Ann Melton also visited him later (at least according to Pauline, who said that Ann told her that she and James both had "the Pock" the day before Laura's murder, so presumably May 24; Fletcher, p. 27. According to Pauline, Ann also blamed Laura Foster for giving the disease to Tom, and hence to Ann and James).
A big question hanging over the story is who started the chain of disease transmission that ended with Tom, Ann, and James Melton. Was it Pauline Foster, who gave it to Tom, who gave it to Laura and to Ann, who gave it to James Melton? Or was it Laura Foster, who then gave it to Tom, and so forth? Dula blamed Laura Foster -- and, on at least one occasion, claimed he would kill her for giving it to him (West-Ballad, p. 80). From the standpoint of who did what, it hardly matters whether he was right or not; he acted on his hypothesis. But it would be nice to know.
West-Lift, p. 17, and West-Ballad, p. 77, suggest that Pauline arrived soon enough that Dula could have caught the disease from her. But it was only about three weeks from the time she showed up until Dula sought treatment. Given that it usually takes several weeks for the first symptoms to appear, that implies that the two of them shacked up *very* quickly after Pauline arrived in the area. What's more, the chances of transmission of syphilis based on a single sexual encounter is not more than 10%. What are the odds that Dula managed to get into her fast enough to get the disease in time to need treatment a mere three weeks after Pauline came to the area? They appear very low.
What's more, Wilson Foster testified that Laura had "the pock" at the time of her death; he had seen the boils on her shoulder (West-Lift, p. 74). I can't prove that Dula got the disease from Laura Foster, but I doubt he got it from Pauline. And the same schedule that makes it hard for Dula to have gotten it from Pauline makes it almost impossible for him, if he got it from Pauline, to have given it to Laura. Indeed, Fletcher, p. 26, points out that it would have been impossible for Dula to have gotten the disease from Pauline and given it to Laura if he slept with Laura only in early March and not thereafter. It is of course possible that Dula didn't get it from either Laura or Pauline, but acquired it earlier (perhaps in the army, which might explain his hospitalizations and might also help explain his misbehavior in the army) and that he was the one who gave the disease to both Laura and Ann. Fletcher, pp. 92-93, argues that, chronologically and logically, it makes more sense to assume that Dula was right and that it was Laura who was the source. Of course, that raises the question of where Laura got it, but we have no data on that.
(Oh to have been able to do modern genetic testing on the disease....)
-- The Murder --
Earlier versions of the Index gave the date of Laura Foster's murder as January 25, 1866. I'm not sure where I found that information, but the ultimate source is clear: one of the court records of Dula's trial gives that date, as does one of the early histories (West-Lift, p. 68; West-Ballad, p. 58).
That date is demonstrably wrong, but the exact date Laura died cannot be guaranteed. Many of the people involved in the case were illiterate, and even if they could read, they likely didn't have calendars (West-Lift, p. 69; according to Peña/Hayes, p. 59, the per-pupil school funding formula in the area at this time was about twenty cents per year, teachers received as little as $8 per month, and schools were far apart and hard to reach). So the locals would not have recorded the exact date. They knew days of the week, because of Sunday church, but that was it.
We do have some dating information, though. There is universal testimony that Foster disappeared during the planting season -- so some time between April and June. Every source cited by West-Lift says that Foster disappeared during the day on a Friday. Of the half-dozen dates or so dates mentioned in the extant records, only Friday, May 25, 1866 is a Friday in the planting season of 1866 (West-Lift, p. 69; West-Ballad, p. 60), so West is convinced this was the date. He is likely right, but it shows how unreliable all the evidence in the case is! It could have been a week or two earlier, although it was surely on a Friday.
No one ever admitted seeing the murder. Most of what is known about her last day was discovered over the following days by her father Wilson Foster.
She stole away from home on the night of May 24/25, 1866 (probably not long before daybreak), taking her father's badly-shoed horse to a meeting with Dula, and was never seen again except by a neighbor who talked to her as she was on her way (West-Lift, p. 20; this neighbor was the one who said that Laura was planning to run away with Dula). Laura's attempt to leave home should perhaps not surprise us; her relations with her father do not seem to have been good, if it is true, as one of her neighbors testified, that her father said he would kill her if he found her after she ran away with his horse (West-Lift, p. 22. Wilson Foster expressly denied saying this at the trial; West-Lift, p. 74. He did, however, say that it was his most valuable possession, according to Fletcher, p. 37, which both shows how poor Laura Foster and family were and explains why Wilson Foster was so angry that Laura had taken his horse).
There are several hours on the morning of May 25 when Dula's whereabouts cannot be traced -- although the same probably could be said of most of the young men in the area. Based on the timing pegs on pp. 32-33 Fletcher, he'd have had to move pretty quickly to get from places where he was seen to the Bates Place and back.
Dula showed up at the Melton home on May 26, where James Melton worked on his shoes and Dula and Ann talked. Both of them, according to Pauline Foster, made suspicious remarks, Dula saying that he had no use for Laura and Ann later saying that she had murdered Laura. All of this said in Pauline's hearing. Believe *that* if you can.
According to Pauline Foster, the night Laura Foster supposedly died, Ann Melton had been out, and showed up late and all wet (West-Lift, p. ix). When Wilson Foster came to look for his missing horse, Ann had nothing to tell him. Melton slept for a long time after that; Fletcher, p. 37, suggests she was sleeping off a hangover but has no evidence for this.
Dula, like Ann, spent much of the day after Laura Foster disappeared in bed. Nor, when the time came, was he willing to help in the search for Laura Foster. So it appears both Tom and Ann were out overnight on the night Laura vanished, both came home tired and slept a lot the next day, and neither seems to have done much to establish an alibi (West-Lift, pp. 20-22; for Pauline Foster's testimony on this point, see West-Lift, p. 80). Dula was said to have been present at his home by no later than noon, but the one testifying to this was his mother (Fletcher, p. 33), so the evidential value of the claim is obviously limited.
Wilson Foster went out searching for Laura on the morning of May 25 -- he wanted his horse back! -- and was able to trace her path for some distance because of the horse's odd footprint (West-Ballad, p. 115). Eventually he lost the trail in "an old field" (West-Lift, p. 21). He later found the horse at his home, trailing a broken rope (West-Lift, p. 74). Foster described later finding the other end of the rope near the site of Laura's grave (leaving the rope on the horse was a stupid mistake by the killer, as it turned out, since it was a hint as to the site of the murder); the other end of the rope was found about four weeks later, on June 24, the day Laura's grave was found (West-Ballad, p. 195). Wilson Foster could recognize it because he had made it himself, plus the the ends that had snapped matched (West-Ballad, p. 115).
A curiosity is that the horse seems to have been moved some time after it reached the Bates Place, because it appeared the horse had "dunged twice" at a place somewhat removed from where the rope was tied (Fletcher, p. 10; the suggestion is that the horse was first tied in one place, nearer the grave -- perhaps by Laura when she arrived -- and then moved later on, after which it broke free from the second spot.)
West-Ballad, pp. 186-202, tries to reconstruct what actually happened -- but note that times must have been very imprecise; very few of these people had watches to check!
Ann Melton was out of her house on the Thursday night before the murder, arriving home about an hour before daybreak on Friday (West-Ballad, p. 188); her dress and shoes were wet. Pauline Foster observed this, then went out to work the fields, and found Tom Dula there talking to Ann.
At about the same time Ann Melton arrived home, Laura Foster got up. West-Ballad thinks she talked with Tom at this time (and suggests on p. 193 that he liquored her up; it is known that he had recently been given a lot of whisky -- though of course he might have used that to make sure that he had the guts to commit murder). Dula then set out without her (and by a different route). Laura gathered her clothes, took her father's horse, and started for the Bates Place. She met Betsy Scott about a mile from her home, and explained where the was going (West-Ballad, p. 189). Tom was seen twice on the way to the Bates Place -- around 6:45 and 8:00 a.m. Dula was back at his mother's home by about noon (West-Ballad, p. 190). Wilson Foster spent the day looking for his daughter and the horse, but did not find them (West-Ballad, p. 191).
The horse returned the next day (i.e. presumably May 26; West-Ballad, p. 192).
In its court case, the state suggested that Dula (and Melton?) dug the grave on the night of May 24/25 (which would explain why the body didn't fit; Dula didn't have it available to measure), and that the murder was committed on Friday, May 25, possibly in the evening (West-Ballad, pp. 192-193, though West-Ballad, p. 194, lists three times: a Friday morning murder by Dula alone, an afternoon murder by Dula, or an evening murder by Dula and Ann Melton). The murder took place some distance from the grave, presumably where Laura tied her horse, so Tom (and Ann?) carried the body to the grave, which was half a mile or so away (West-Ballad, pp. 193-194). The former seems reasonable, but I personally doubt Laura would have waited for Tom all day, given that she had seen him head off that way on the morning of May 25. I strongly suspect the murder -- whoever committed it -- took place early on May 25. And why carry Laura all that way? Why not talk her into walking at least part way from the horse to the grave? Or have her ride the horse? This line of argument seems weak to me. But, obviously, we know that Laura turned up dead.
-- The Hunt for Laura -- and for Tom --
It's not entirely clear when other people first began wondering about Laura; the 1868 New York Herald report says it took several days (West-Lift, p. 118; Gardner, p. 24). The horse she had taken from her father made its way home on May 26 (West-Lift, p. 24), but that doesn't seem to have caused her father to do anything except feel relief. Searches perhaps began a few days later, but it appears the first comprehensive hunt began on June 23, or about four weeks after the disappearance (West-Lift, pp. 25-26). By then, word had begun to spread that Dula was the murderer (West-Lift, p. 26).
Not long after, enough attention had been aimed at Dula that he concluded that he had to leave the area; according, once again, to Pauline Foster, he came to Ann and told her he was leaving (West-Lift, p. 27). According to Pauline Foster's later testimony, their farewell was very emotional, and he promised to come back for her (West-Ballad, p. 154. Fletcher, p. 41, and West-Ballad, p. 196, report him saying he would take his mother away also, but I suspect he meant he would visit his mother). He then headed for Tennessee -- about fifteen miles away, according to Fletcher, p. 43.
What comes next is the strangest part of the story. Pauline Foster and Ann Melton apparently had a shouting match about the crime. Foster was overheard by a deputy making comments that sounded as if she had had a part in the murder (Casstevens, p. 23. West-Lift, p. 31, says that a deputy heard Pauline say, "Yes, I and Dula killed her, and I ran away to Tennessee." This is confirmed by the New York Herald account on p. 119 of West-Lift. Celia (Mrs. James) Scott said at the trial that Pauline once proposed killing the deputy to cover up the crime; West-Lift, p. 85.)
A formal arrest warrant was issued for Tom Dula and Ann Melton, plus Ann Pauline Dula and Granville Dula, on June 28 (text on p. 28 of West-Lift and p. 197 of West-Ballad), based on the sworn complaint of Laura's father Wilson Foster (Fletcher, p. 41) -- although apparently the justice of the peace who issued the warrant stopped the hunt for all of them but Tom on the next day (at least, this is what West-Lift, p. 28, seems to say).
Fletcher, p. 42, and West-Lift, p. 29, disagree on who "Ann Pauline Dula" was; West-Lift says she was another first cousin once removed of Tom Dula; Fletcher thinks the warrant was for Pauline Foster and that the warrant was confused because her grandfather was a Dula whose son, Levi Foster, was illegitimate and whose family was sometimes known as "Dula" after their natural father.
Granville Dula was Tom's cousin (West-Lift, p. 29, says second cousin but gives an ancestry that makes them first cousins once removed); he played no further part in the case either as suspect or witness. The reason Granville Dula was named is not known, but Fletcher reminds us that none of these people were literate and could not read what the warrant said to correct it! He played no further part in the case anyway -- unlike Pauline Foster.
Ann Melton, Pauline Foster, and Granville Dula were taken into custody, were found to have alibis for when Laura was thought to have disappeared, and were released (Fletcher, p. 42). The attention was now firmly on Tom Dula -- even though no body had yet been found. Fletcher thinks that it was at this time that the search really got serious. It certainly seems to have scared Pauline Foster, who proceeded to turn state's evidence (Gardner, p. 21; Casstevens, p. 29).
Upon being questioned, Pauline spilled a most improbable tale -- unless syphilis was affecting Ann Melton's mind by this time. If we are to believe Pauline, Ann asked if Pauline was a friend of Tom Dula, then showed Pauline (who had gone away to Tennessee for a time then come back) roughly where the body was buried (West-Ballad, pp. 198-199); apparently Melton wanted Pauline to make sure the grave didn't wash away or otherwise reveal Laura's body (West-Lift, p. 31; Fletcher, p. 48). Ann also supposedly told Pauline that Laura Foster had given "the pock" to Tom, who had given it to Ann, who had given it to James, and that Ann would kill Pauline if she talked (Fletcher, p. 27). Pauline explained that Ann eventually tried to explain it all away as a dream (West-Ballad, p. 155).
In other words, if Pauline Foster's testimony is right, Ann revealed to Pauline the grave site, and a motive for murder, even though Pauline had no reason whatsoever to keep things quiet. If Pauline's testimony is true, it shows that, first, that Ann was at least an accessory to the murder, and second, that she was almost as dim a bulb as Pauline. Or, alternately, that Pauline had taken part in the murder, which was the obvious import of her comment. But if Pauline had taken part in the murder, why didn't she know exactly where the grave was? Frankly, Pauline's reported testimony makes no sense.
Whether her testimony made sense or not, on September 1, 1862, Pauline led searchers to the general area of the grave (West-Ballad, p. 130, has her account of this at the trial), and a large search party eventually found the exact burial site ; it took some hunting, but James Isbell reported that they found the grave around 75 yards from the spot Pauline indicated (West-Ballad, p. 131; Fletcher, p. 55, reports that the grave was found around September 1 or 2, 1866. It should perhaps be mentioned that no qualified investigator was involved in the search; just a bunch of people searching for disturbed ground and then digging up the body. Dr. Carter did examine the body at the site, according to Fletcher, p.55, but that was not a forensic examination of the grave). This meant that, for the first time, there was proof that murder had been committed, although the body was decayed enough that the doctor could give only limited information about how it was done (West-Lift, pp. 33-34). Several people who knew her nonetheless testified that it was Laura's body (West-Lift, p. 34) -- although one of those who testified was Pauline Foster, whose testimony surely counts as tainted! But some of her clothes could be recognized, and apparently Laura had unusual teeth that were also recognizable.
This finally meant that there was a real basis for a murder charge; until that time, Tom Dula had been held without bail merely on suspicion (West-Lift, p. 34), presumably because there was no one to file a writ of habeas corpus. Note, however, that the only person who could directly be connected to the murder was Pauline Foster, not Tom Dula, and that Foster's testimony led most directly to Ann Melton, not Dula!
Laura had been stabbed in the breast, close to the heart, although the body was decayed enough that the doctor couldn't actually say whether the heart had been hit or not (West-Lift, pp. 33-34; West-Ballad, pp. 120-121). One report claimed that her apron had been folded over her face in a neat way that implied a woman had done it (Casstevens, p. 23).
When Laura's body was found, it was in a grave that wasn't even big enough for it; she had had to be curled up to fit (West-Lift, p. ix; Casstevens, p. 23, says that her legs were broken). There was no direct evidence of Dula's involvement; the state would later rely heavily on the testimony of Pauline Foster to convict him (West-Lift, p. 15). The state's official version, according to West-Lift, p. 22, was that Dula murdered Foster late on May 25, rather than early in the day, which makes him wonder why Foster waited around so long for Dula to show up. But this was just the state's hypothesis -- there was no valid forensic evidence on when Laura was murdered; all we have is the time she was last seen and the fact that the body was substantially decomposed when it was discovered. Although she was probably murdered on the day she disappeared, she could theoretically have been alive for several days longer, though what she might have done in that time we have no clue.
And, given that Ann Melton had told Pauline about the site of the grave, Melton not unnaturally joined Tom in prison, while Pauline was set free (Fletcher, p. 58, absurd as that seems given that she had said once said she committed the murder).
Tom, who had already crossed the Tennessee line, started calling himself Hall (West-Lift, p. 28; according to Fletcher, p. 44, Dula later explained this as "a joke"). According to Gardner, p. 10, his flight was seen as a sign of guilt by the people at home, but as we have seen, feelings in North Carolina were already against him. Arriving in eastern Tennessee around July 2, 1866 (West-Ballad, p. 198), Tom briefly went to work for James W. M. Grayson (1833-1900). Grayson, like many in the east Tennessee mountains, was a Unionist; he had been an officer in the Federal 4th Tennessee and 13th Tennessee regiments (West-Lift, p. 29), resigning due to ill health in 1864 (West-Ballad, p. 84) and had gone on to serve in the Tennessee legislature in 1867-1868 (West-Ballad, p. 83).
When Wilkes County deputies Jack Adkins and Ben Ferguson came for Dula, Grayson agreed on July 11, 1866 to help them arrest him (Fletcher, p. 44; West-Lift, p. 30; West-Ballad, p. 85;West-Ballad, p. 86, says that the Grayson family still has the gun Grayson used during the arrest). Dula was taken back to Wilkes County on a horse of Grayson's (West-Lift, p. x) with his feet tied beneath his horse, and made at least one attempt to escape (Fletcher, p. 46).
We might add that, as far as we know, Grayson never saw Dula again after he was taken back to North Carolina. He was summoned to the trial -- that was how researchers managed to identify him -- but did not attend because he was serving in the Tennessee legislature (Fletcher, p. 46).
On October 1, the Grand Jury formally brought murder charges against Dula and Melton; he was charged with murder and she with inciting him to do it and with aiding him afterward (West-Lift, pp. x-xi, 36).The indictment, as printed by West-Lift and West-Ballad, pp. 107-108, looks almost medieval -- e.g. the Devil is said to have induced Dula's action (it says that Dula "not having the fear of God before his eyes, but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the Devil," killed Laura; West-Ballad, p. 107. The charge against Ann Melton, on the next page, is similar.) Fletcher, p. 63, points out that it contains statements that could not possibly have been known, such as the hand in which the murderer held the knife, and that many of the claims were not relevant to the charge of murder. My guess, though, is that someone just took down the words as some illiterate on the Grand Jury maundered on. This would also explain why it gives the date of Foster's murder as June 18 (Fletcher, p. 97), which is more than three weeks after Foster's disappearance. Oddly, no one seems to have made an issue of that.
The charge that Melton aided Dula after the fact was dropped by the prosecutor, leaving only the count of incitement agaist her (West-Lift, p. 37; Fletcher, p. 63, suggests that this was because she had an alibi at the time the murder was thought to have been committed -- although of course we do not know the time of the murder).
-- The Trial --
Strange twist #300 or so: Zebulon Vance, who had governed the state during the Civil War, decided to defend Dula pro bono (West-Lift, p. 37. Fletcher, p. 67, mentioned suggestions that Vance was paid, but the consensus seems to be that Vance did at least some of his work without pay). This even though the war had ruined Vance and he was only starting to rebuild his reputation and fortune (West-Lift, p. 38). He didn't do this for personal reasons; he didn't know Dula (some folk accounts claim otherwise; stories of links between them are listed on pp. 122-123 of Fletcher. Some claimed, e.g., that Dula served under Vance in the war -- but he didn't; they were in different regiments. It is interesting that James Melton had served in the regiment that Vance commanded early in the war (Fletcher, p. 61. Fletcher, p. 125, suggests that perhaps Vance had originally decided to defend the wife of his comrade Melton and ended up, in effect, getting stuck with Dula too, which makes sense to me).
The former governor managed to win a change of venue, causing the case to be moved from Wilkes County to the county seat of the next county to the southeast, Statesville in Iridell County (West-Lift, p. 39; West-Ballad, p. 110, has the text of the request; Fletcher, p. 64, says that the judge might have decided to do this on his own, since as a circuit rider he was due to move to Iridell County anyway, but that it might have helped Vance, who was popular there). Vance also managed to separate the trials of Dula and Melton (West-Lift, p. 42; West-Ballad, p. 111, prints the request to the judge, in which, fascinatingly, Dula argued that "there are important confessions of his co-defendent Ann Melton which will be given in evidence in this case if there is a joint trial and which confessing will greatly prejudice the minds of the jury.).
The presiding judge who agreed to the change of venue was Ralph P. Buxton; he also presided over the trial after it was transferred (West-Lift, p. 41). Buxton was a Republican appointed by Republicans in unreconstructed North Carolina (Fletcher, pp. 59-60); I can't help but think that he likely obtained his post for political reasons rather than reasons of competence, and he might well have been prejudiced against a Confederate soldier. Gardner, p. 10, claims that the jury was "evidently composed mostly of renegade carpet baggers," but West-Lift, who otherwise tries to discredit the trial, makes no mention of this that I can find.
Ann Melton and Dula were both moved to prisons in Iridell; Melton was allowed to stay in the county jail, but Dula was deemed such a flight risk that he was kept in the prison in shackles with an extra guard contingent! (Fletcher, p. 66.) Melton was present at Dula's trial but did not testify. According to West-Lift, p. 43, she was not *allowed* to testify, even though witnesses were permitted to report things she had said; Fletcher, p. 66, seems to think that she was instead claiming her fifth amendment right.
The legal maneuvers were the limit of what Vance could accomplish. Eighty-three witnesses were called in the trial, although there is no report of what sixty-three of them said (West-Lift, p. 43). (It is intriguing to note that among the witnesses at the original trial were Thomas C. Land and Calvin L. Triplett, both of whom wrote poems about the case; Land is thought to be responsible for "The Murder of Laura Foster" [Laws F36]; what is perhaps his original text is recorded on pp. 12-16 of Gardner. But no testimony was recorded in the transcript from either Land or Triplett; Fletcher, p. 108.)
Even the witnesses who testified had little to say except that they saw Dula carrying a mattock around the time of the murder near the grave site (e.g. West-Lift, p. 75, gives this as the entire content of the testimony of Carl Carlton, Hezekiah Kindall, and Celia (Mrs. James) Scott, and has similar testimony from Martha Gilbert and Ann Melton's brother Thomas Foster on p. 77) -- suspicious behavior, obviously, but Dula's explanation that he wanted to improve the trail is at least possible. There is dispute about just how much work he did on the trail (Fletcher, p. 27), but there was testimony from several sources that Dula did at least some work on it.
Wherever Tom actually got syphilis, R. D. Hall reported that Dula in mid-May had said that he would kill the woman who gave him his disease (West-Lift, p. 78).
The stunning part of all this is that Laura Foster apparently still expected to marry Dula (at least, she apparently said that to Betsy Scott; West-Ballad, p.189. Nothing I've read indicates that Scott tried to talk Laura out of it). And so, apparently, was prepared to leave home to meet him in 1866 so they could elope (one local legend has it that they were preparing to leave the area when Ann Melton showed up and stabbed Laura; Casstevens, p. 29). This makes no real sense -- since both Laura and Tom were over 21 at the time, they had the right to marry and had no need to elope (Fletcher, p. 31). But it would seem Tom talked her into running away anyway.
Betsy Scott's testimony was simply that she had seen and talked to Laura, on a bare-backed horse, as she ran away from home and that Laura said she was meeting Dula at the "Bates Place" (West-Lift, pp. 74-75; West-Ballad, p. 116; summarized in Fletcher, pp. 29-31). Scott was also the only person to place Dula anywhere near the murder site at the time Laura disappeared (Fletcher, p. 32).
The primary testimony was Pauline Foster's, and a very substantial part of it consisted of her denying the truth of a large number of things she had previously said. For instance, she declared that she had been joking when she said that she would swear a lie any time for Tom Dula (a statement recorded in the testimony of J. W. Winkler; West-Lift, p. 87, West-Ballad, pp. 78, 133, and made to George Washington Anderson; it was overheard by deputy Jack Adkins; Fletcher p. 42. Pauline's denial at trial is on p. 127 of West-Ballad), and of course she claimed she was joking when she said she had murdered Laura Foster (West-Lift, p. 83; West-Ballad, p. 127). Foster also testified "It is true that I sat in Dula's lap for a blind, one day when a woman came to James Melton's... I also slept with Dula for a blind at Ann Melton's insistence." (West-Ballad; p. 127. This implicitly contradicts the testimony of Anderson, who says that Pauline voluntarily spent a night in the woods with Dula; West-Lift, p. 85; Fletcher, p. 24, seems to think Pauline slept with both Dula and Anderson that night. In any case, what was sleeping with Dula a blind *for*? The unidentified transcript of Pauline's testimony seems to say that Dula pretended to be interested in Pauline as an excuse to visit Ann Melton -- West-Ballad, p. 151 -- but while that might explain Dula hanging around Pauline, why would Dula sleep with someone known to have syphilis simply as "a blind"? J. W. Winkler also testified to Pauline sitting in Dula's lap; West-Ballad, p. 133)
It is not clear from the record, but my guess is that Pauline was a stupid young woman carefully coached by the prosecution to tell their version of the story, and if ever questioned about her past remarks, to either deny the claim or call it a joke. Possibly they had a signal to tell her which tactic to use. And the jury perhaps accepted her testimony because they thought her too addled to lie. I personally find it hard to believe anything she said. As Fletcher says on p. 93, "Pauline may have been a loose-lipped simpleton, but she was not a complete fool"; she would do whatever was required to shift blame.
We do not know the prosecutor's actual lines of argument, but Fletcher argues it as follows:
* That, although the time of the murder is not known, it must have happened on the day Laura Foster disappeared, or someone would have seen her.
* That Dula and Melton could not have done it together; although both were unaccounted for at one time or another on the day Foster died, there was no time when both were missing simultaneously for long enough to do the deed (Fletcher, p. 112)
* That Dula had a motive, in that he had contracted syphilis.
* That Dula had said that he would kill the person who gave it to him, and had also stated that he had it from Foster (Fletcher, pp. 113-114)
* That Ann Melton was jealous of Foster, and would have encouraged Dula to be rid of her (Fletcher, p. 114)
* That Dula had a knife similar to the murder weapon (Fletcher, p. 113, states "Thomas Dula was known to possess what may have been the murder weapon." Of course, the number of people in rural North Carolina who possessed six inch knives was, what, all of them?)
* That Laura Foster was reported to have stated, the last time she was seen, that she was going to meet (run away with?) Dula (Fletcher, p. 114).
* (On the other hand, there was no evidence to prove that Dula actually met Foster after her disappearance, and there were no witnesses to the murder; no witness ever placed Dula at the murder scene; Fletcher, pp. 114-115).
* Dula had borrowed a mattock at the time the grave was dug, and supposedly there were mattock marks near the grave (Fletcher, p. 116) -- although I note that a mattock cannot dig a grave, it can merely break up the soil. Something is needed to dig out the dirt once broken up. No one is recorded as seeing Dula with a shovel.
* That Ann Melton knew where the grave was, and told Pauline Foster roughly where it was (Fletcher, p. 115). Foster did not know the exact location -- or, at least, said she did not, although of course she we cannot prove that she did not know. The obvious presumption is that, if Melton told Foster, then Melton either did the deed or had been told by the one who did the deed. (Fletcher, p. 51, suggests that Dula dug Laura Foster's grave before the murder, possibly with Melton present, which would explain why she knew where the grave was even though she had an alibi for the presumed time of the murder.)
This, it seems to me, leaves us with four possibilities:
1. That Ann Melton committed the murder and told Pauline about it. Note that, because Melton's trial had been separated from Dula's, the jury did not have to decide on this possibility, except to allow it as a possible alternative to Dula's guilt.
2. That Dula committed the murder as charged, with Melton an accessory after the fact (since she didn't report the crime) who tried to cover up for Tom.
3. That Pauline Foster did it, and concocted the story about Ann and Tom, to cover up her own guilt. This might be because she had loved Dula and been rejected (admittedly she was engaged, but that certainly didn't stop her from fooling around!), or because she resented Ann, who was her employer but (by all accounts) not a particularly nice person (although it's not obvious why Pauline would kill Laura Foster in that case rather than knocking off Ann or Tom).
4. (A very faint possibility, but a possibility:) That someone other than Melton, Dula, or Pauline Foster did it, and Pauline reasoned out where the grave must be based on where Laura was last seen, and concocted the story as in scenario 3. If this is the case, then Wilson Foster is perhaps the leading candidate -- after all, his daughter had round heels and he had threatened her. And the entire story about the broken rope and the badly-shoed horse comes from him; his was one of the few other pieces of testimony that actually added something to what Pauline said.
(There are, to be sure, other stories that floated about who murdered Laura Foster. One version, printed in 2001 and repeated on p. 121 of Fletcher, is that Ann Melton and Pauline Foster, not Dula, conspired to do the deed, with Melton actually wielding the knife. But this was an old woman's retelling of something she heard from someone she had heard as a young girl from someone who was very young at the time -- probably too young to genuinely remember. All such stories are possible, but all are so unlikely that they need not detain us. The jury had only the four possibilities above.)
If I had been the defense, I would have gone all-out against Pauline -- demonstrating her promiscuity, her conflicting evidence in past situations, her complete worthlessness. Without her testimony, the case against Dula would surely have collapsed. (Indeed, I don't think it stands on its own even *with* Pauline's testimony.) But it appears that the defense made no such attempt. Perhaps this is a token of Vance's indifferent legal abilities; DAB (Vol. X, p. 158) reports that "He was never a close student of the law," being more interested in politics -- the law of course being a good way to practice his speaking and get his name in the news.
With all that non-evidence to sort through, the trial took two full days, October 19-20 (West-Lift, p. 44). The jury deliberated overnight; the next morning, Sunday, October 21, 1866, Dula was convicted of murder. The defense made a series of motions, including one to delay sentencing (West-Ballad, pp. 136-137, has some of the text), but these were denied (West-Lift, pp. 44-45). Judge Buxton sentenced Dula to be hanged on November 9, 1866 (West-Ballad, pp. 137-138, give the text of the order)
In the 1860s, appeals were not the automatic result they are now, but Dula's lawyers filed one -- and, because Dula was indigent, he was allowed to appeal without giving security (West-Lift, p. 45).
Interestingly, because there was no trial record, the judge and court clerk wrote a summary of the result to take to the appeals court. This included testimony from only twenty witnesses (less than a quarter of the total; West-Ballad, pp. 156-161, lists the total costs of the court cases -- not quite $2000 -- and this includes a list of payments to witnesses. These do not appear to correlate very well with their importance or, presumably, time on the stand). What testimony there is in the record is not verbatim (West-Lift, p. 45; even what we have was not clearly written and hard to read; West-Lift, p. 72. There is a second, seemingly unofficial, record of Pauline Foster's testimony, printed by West-Lift, pp. 100-103 and West-Ballad, pp. 151-155. It does not supply much information not in the official transcript, but at least it supports the accuracy of the official record as far as it goes).
To make things worse, of the twenty witnesses whose testimony is summarized, only five were witnesses for the defense (Fletcher, p. 67). This surely biases the trial record, although it's hard to know exactly how.
The lack of a proper transcript of the trial meant that the information seen in the appeal was both incomplete and biased by the opinions of the judge and clerk. But the appeal did go forward; the Supreme Court noted four procedural errors by the local court, including the use of hearsay evidence, and ordered a new trial (Fletcher, p. 68; West-Ballad, pp. 163-172 gives some of the Supreme Court filings, large parts of which I frankly could not understand). What is striking is a statement on pp. 165-166 that the testimony of Mrs. Scott, about what Laura Foster said on her way to the Bates Place, was not considered to be proper evidence. This is striking because this is the only evidence linking Tom Dula to Laura Foster on her last day!
Because the courts met so rarely, the granting of the retrial meant the case was not taken up again until April 1867 (West-Lift, p. 45) -- and then had to be held over until the fall term because some of Dula's witnesses who had not appeared at the first trial were unavailable (Fletcher, p. 68). This resulted in a postponement, with Dula and Melton in jail the whole time, and this time, it was the prosecution that had trouble getting its witnesses (including James Grayson who had helped take Dula into custody; West-Lift, p. 46, Fletcher, p. 69. Grayson was busy with his duties as a Tennessee legislator, but because no relevant records exist, we don't really know why either side asked for the witnesses it did). Eventually a new trial started in January, 1868 (West-Lift, p. 47, says January 21; Fletcher, p. 70, says January 3; they agree that William M. Shipp was the judge). As before, the defense moved to separate the trials of Dula and Melton, and once again the motion was granted.
The retrial did not change the result (West-Lift, p. 48); Dula was convicted again. There was another appeal to the state Supreme Court, which delayed the execution but did not result in any relief for Dula (West-Lift, p. 48; Fletcher, p. 70 says that no new material was submitted to the Supreme Court, so naturally they didn't interfere). Once the appeal failed, the judge set the date for Dula's hanging as May 1, 1868 (18 days after the sentencing; Fletcher, p. 70).
Despite all the problems in procedure, and the poor evidence, Fletcher, p. 157, reminds us that both presiding judges seem to have been convinced of Dula's guilt, which may be better evidence than the surviving court records.
-- After the Trial --
Dula's behavior at this time was interesting. He refused to see a clergyman -- or even his relatives (West-Lift, p. 49).
He apparently had been trying to escape by abrading his shackles with a piece of glass. He didn't finish in time (West-Lift, p. 49; West-Ballad, p. 178, has the newspaper report of this).
On April 30, 1868, the day before his execution, Dula wrote several papers. It's not clear whether he wrote them himself; we're not certain that he was literate (census records show that in 1860 he was fifteen and in school; Gardner, p. 41; but after the Civil War he had signed his release paper with an X; Fletcher, p. 65. West-Ballad, p. 110, shows him marking his X on the change of venue request for his trial. Fletcher, p. 71, seems to think he learned to write in prison; this seems improbable),
The most important of the papers that he left was a note in which he said that only he had a role in the murder of Laura Foster (West-Lift, p. 49; the New York Herald version of the note is on p. 121; also West-Ballad, p. 178 and Gardner, p. 27). He did finally accept baptism that night, and apparently engaged in a long string of incoherent prayers (West-Lift, p. 50) -- but reportedly refused to admit any part in the murder of Foster even to the minister (Fletcher, p. 71).
Dula was hung at Statesville on May 1 after giving a long speech about the wages of sin in which he accused some of the witnesses against him of lying (West-Lift, p. 124). The gallows was incompetently built; the drop did not break his neck, and it took some ten minutes for him to die by strangulation (West-Lift, p. 51; Fletcher, pp. 72-73).
Ann Melton had never been called to testify. Dula apparently never mentioned her prior to that last note. After Dula's death, Melton was taken back to Wilkes County to be tried (Fletcher, pp. 75-76). The case was tried in the fall term of 1868 (Fletcher, p. 76). The trial was brief and Melton was allowed to go free, mostly on the strength of Dula's note admitting guilt (West-Lift, p. 52). She was released, having spent about two years in prison. This even though the locals apparently regarded her as guilty (Fletcher, p. 76). In fact, according to Fletcher, p. 158, "The popular view in much of Wilkes County [today] is to deny that Tom Dula actually committed the act of murder and that Ann Melton did the actual killing." But things were different at the time; Fletcher, p. 159, quotes one man who saw her who said (much later) that "Ann Melton was the purtiest woman I ever looked in the face of. She'd a-been hung too, but her neck was jist too purty to stretch hemp. She was guilty, I knowed it... Ef they'd a-been ary womern [any women] on the jury, she'd a-got first degree. Men couldn't look at the woman and keep their heads."
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, there do not appear to be photographs of any of the principals to verify this. None of the books has a photo of Ann Melton, Laura Foster, or Pauline Foster. (There is one photo of Dula in Confederate uniform.)
Thomas Land's poem "The Murder of Laura Foster" does not mention Ann Melton by name -- but then, it doesn't mention Tom Dula either! However, the fourth stanza (as printed by Gardner, p. 12 and We-Ballad, p. 47) says that "She [Laura] met her groom and his vile Guest" -- which would have to be Dula and either Melton or Pauline Foster.
Interestingly, West-Lift, pp. 54-55, does not mention Brown's story that Melton went blind later in life -- but he does mention some reports that hint that she went insane in the years before her death some time between 1871 and 1874. Another account reports that there were "black cats running up and down the walls" in the place where she died (Casstevens, p. 29), which sounds like a variation on the same thing. Insanity, like blindness, can be a side effect of severe syphilis, which kills about one person in six who contracts it. But Fletcher points out (p. 76) that she managed to bear another healthy child, Ida Melton, in 1871, so presumably the syphilis wasn't affecting her too severely at that stage. Indeed, Fletcher, p. 77, says there is no proof that either Melton ever had syphilis; the only evidence we have is that of Pauline Foster (plus, of course, the fact that Melton slept with Dula).
At least one report claimed that she died as a result of injuries in an overturned horse-drawn vehicle (Fletcher, pp. 76-77). Which makes you wonder a little if James Melton got tired of his wife. One also wonders if the Melton children were in fact James Melton's (Fletcher, p. 86, says that the older daughter, from her photograph, clearly resembles James Melton -- but doesn't print the photos to prove it). James outlived Ann by many years, and went on to marry another wife (West-Lift, p. 55).
Foster, p. 162, says that there was not sufficient time for Melton to have committed the murder by herself. Probably true, although all this is based on the witnesses' accounts of events that happened some time before as recalled still later by the judge and clerk -- if we accept that evidence, then the murderer was either Tom Dula or an unknown party. But this is, in practice, weak hearsay evidence.
There are two obvious questions arising out of the case: Did Dula kill Laura Foster, and did he deserve his punishment? The answer to the former is, frankly, that we do not know with certainty. Dula knew; Ann Melton may have known; but neither really told us much. I think it morally certain that Pauline Foster lied about something, hinting that she too knew more than she said, but I have no idea how much more. Dula is certainly the best candidate for the murderer, with Melton being the only other likely alternative (Fletcher, p.117, is convinced that they are the only possible alternatives; but as the information above shows, this is not correct). Still, there appears to be no real evidence against Dula except his obvious disdain for Foster. And there was that comment by Wilson Foster that he would kill his daughter for stealing his horse, and all the garbage that Pauline Foster spouted....
The court case is what is truly disturbing. Recall that a warrant was sworn out for Dula before Laura Foster's body was found -- in other words, before it was even known that she was dead! And Dula was extradited from Tennessee before the body was found, without legal process; the deputies from North Carolina simply showed up in Tennessee, and Grayson helped them take Dula. Even once he was in custody, it is by no means clear that the case against him was strong enough to keep him in prison. As for the trial itself, we cannot be sure, because we have no proper trial record -- just the summary prepared by the judge and court clerk. Given that guilt must be demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt, the evidence as it now appears does not seem sufficient to convict. Especially since so much depended on Pauline Foster, who seems to have changed her story at least once *and* to have been a ninnyhammer anyway. Either that, or she was out to get Dula -- she did sleep with him, after all; is it possible that she wanted more and he didn't? No way to tell, now -- but it would explain why Ann Melton tried to recruit Pauline's help, if that particular tale of Pauline's is true.
Despite the weakness of the evidence, the New York Herald reporter claimed that "such was the evidence that no other verdict than guilty could be rendered." Possibly the best evidence is that most of the locals seemed convinced he was guilty, again according to the reporter (West-Ballad, p. 176)
And Dula in his last speech -- when he had nothing to lose -- said that some of the witnesses had lied about him, and Fletcher agrees: he states that James Isbell (who actually helped pay for the prosecution) had given biased testimony (Fletcher, p. 162), and he adds on p. 163 that some of Pauline Foster's testimony "is certainly questionable, if not an outright lie."
West-Lift, pp. 128-133 and West-Ballad, pp. 203-210, consulted a relative who was a lawyer, seeking his opinion of whether the outcome met the rules of proper justice. West-Ballad, p. 204: "I [the lawyer] was somewhat surprised... that at least according to the legal standards of today, Tom Dula's conviction and ultimate execution leaves a great deal of room for doubt."
The lawyer objected to the process on four points. Two struck me as quite cogent. Dula's "arrest in Tennessee and removal to Wilkes County was, to say the least, most informal, compared to the legal standards required to extradite a person from another state's jurisdiction under today's circumstances" (West-Lift, p. 128). (Fletcher's answer, pp. 45-46, was that the deputies who took Dula were in "hot pursuit," which they perhaps thought was true, but remember, the body still hadn't been found! He also says that North Carolina, which was unreconstructed after the Civil War, was under martial law. True but irrelevant -- Tennessee, which had a large Union population, *had* been reconstructed and was once again a full member of the Union). Crucial is the fact that, at the time Dula was arrested, Laura Foster's body had not even been found. *Dula was arrested for a crime that could not be shown to have been committed!* (A quibble, in one sense, since the body turned up -- but Dula might have escaped had he not been illegally arrested.) And he was apparently held without a preliminary hearing or a bail hearing (West-Ballad, pp. 204-205).
Second, the lawyer pointed out (West-Lift, p. 131) that the evidence against Dula was all circumstantial. He implied that that was bad; we now know that circumstantial evidence is better than personal testimony when the evidence is truly relevant. But none of the circumstantial evidence was strong. To repeat, Dula was clearly the best candidate for the murderer. But there are at least three others: Ann Melton, Pauline Foster, and Wilson Foster -- who may have been getting tired of maintaining his unmarried and hard-to-marry daughter (remember, whatever else we know about Laura Foster, she was not a virgin, had syphillis, was almost old enough by local standards to be an old maid, and had no inheritance or noteworthy skills). With three other possible murderers, did the evidence add up to guilt beyond a reasonable doubt?
The lawyer also doubted the hearsay testimony, but I think that should count, even if it wouldn't be admitted in court.
The lawyer West talked to concludes, "I do not think it takes a lawyer to conclude, after reviewing this record, that the evidence presented against Tom Dula does not meet at least one of these standards [for conviction].... The evidence is not, however, subject only to the interpretation of the guilt of Tom Dula and therefore does not exclude every reasonable hypothesis. [In other words, there are other reasonable scenarios which are also consistent with the evidence.] It shows only a motive and the opportunity which is generally held insufficient to support a conviction."
Based on the evidence available to me, I have to agree. Although I genuinely think he was guilty, Dula probably deserves a "Scots verdict" of "Not proven."
On the other hand, given his other activities, I think it could be argued that the world was better off without him.
-- Information Contained in the Song --
West and others are quick to condemn this song as inaccurate. Certainly the folklore about Dula is often wrong. But the neighbors also remembered incorrectly -- e.g. the Rev. R. L. Isbell (the son of James Isbell, who had been one of the searchers for Laura Foster and one who testified against Dula), who was a child in the area at the time, claimed that the murder happened in 1865, not 1866, and says that the proper name of Laura's father Will Foster was not "Wilson Foster" but "William Foster" (Gardner, p. 20) and that Dula was captured in Virginia, not Tennessee (Gardner, p. 22) and he wrongly believed that Foster's horse was found still tied up near the murder scene. To be fair, Isbell said that the events he described had happened "eighty-six years ago" -- Gardner, p. 23 -- so he must have been about ninety at the time he was reminiscing.
Compared to that, the ballad often has the details right:
"Stabbed her with my knife": Whoever killed Foster did it with a knife (probably about six inches long), according to Dr. George Carter, who did the autopsy (West-Lift, p. 78).
"Hadn't been for Grayson, I'd have been in Tennessee." Dula was in Tennessee when James Grayson assisted in his arrest, so this statement is almost certainly true. The folklore in Doc Watson's family, that Grayson was a rival for the love of Laura Foster, is obviously false; Grayson never met Foster in his life (Fletcher, p. 13) -- but the ballad itself never claims Grayson had anything to do with Foster. Given that no one even knew who Grayson was until West started his research, this is a case where the ballad proved more accurate than what people thought they knew about the Dula case prior to the 1960s.
"Take down my old violin, play it on my knee." Dula was a fiddler, and apparently a fairly good one (West-Lift, p. 24); Pauline Foster at least once during the trial mentioned him carrying his fiddle (West-Ballad, p. 124), and we have a report of him playing the instrument at the Meltons' after the murder (Fletcher, p. 38). Other versions of the song have him play the banjo instead; indeed, according to Fletcher, p. 122, folklore claimed that it was his banjo playing that first brought him to the attention of his defense lawyer Vance. But that legend is based on him serving in Vance's 26th North Carolina regiment, and he didn't serve in that regiment! West-Lift, p. 71, West-Ballad, p. 64, and Fletcher, p. 122, all agree that there is no evidence that he ever played banjo (a Black instrument, recall. There were white Southerners who played banjo in the 1860s -- Jeb Stuart is said to have had a banjo player on staff -- but Winans, p. 432, concludes on the basis of the scanty evidence available that the tradition of mountain banjo playing was established 1865-1880. Dula probably died too early to be a banjo player). Presumably the mention of Tom playing fiddle is older, since he actually played fiddle.
"Met her on the mountain, As everybody knows... and there you hid her clothes." Dr. George Carter told the court that a bundle of clothes was buried with her (West-Lift, p. 78). Betsy Scott had testified that, when Laura had left her home for the last time, she was carrying extra clothing (Fletcher, p. 29).
"Down in some lonesome valley, Hanging from a white oak tree." Dula was hanged, but not in a lonesome valley or from a tree; it was from a public scaffold in Statesville with a very large crowd watching (Fletcher, p. 72). On the other hand, there apparently were rumors of lynchings as he was taken from Tennessee to North Carolina.
Although people usually spell the names "Laura Foster" and "Tom Dula," the pronunciations in the song are correct: the Dulas were called "Dooley/Doolie," and Laura Foster was called "Laurie" (West-Lift, p. xviii). The spelling "Dooley" is used on both Dula's parole as a POW and his oath of allegiance to the re-united United States (shown on pp. 21-22 of Fletcher), although Dula did not sign the former and (I suspect) did not sign the latter. At least once in the court papers, he is called "Dooley" (Fletcher, p. 65), although Fletcher reports that he corrected that to "Dula." Gardner, before p. 1, shows a Union list of Confederate parolees; the reproduction (which appears to be a bad photocopy) is almost illegible, but the Union recorder seems to have given Dula's name as "Dooly." On p. 41 Gardner says that Dula signed the parolee list as "Dooley" to match his name in the list, then wrote "Dula" above it.
-- Photographic Evidence --
Polenberg, p. 67, offers a photo of Dula in Confederate uniform (the only photo of Dula I've ever seen) on p. 67; given that the uniform is in good shape and Dula does not appear underfed, I'd guess it was taken around the time of his enlistment. Page 69 has a very poor photo of Grayson; page 70 has a photo of Governor Vance. Page 268 has a list of recent Dula memorials.
West-Ballad also has an image of Grayson on p. 11 and one of Vance (later in life) on p. 12. Pp. 6-10 are Colonel Isbell's primitive map and cover letter of the area where Dula lived that was used in the trial (or, rather, what looks like a blueprint copy of them).
West-Lift, pp. 60-61, has the Isbell map redone as a positive rather than a blueprint negative; on p. 59 it has a modern map of the major sites in the area. P. 61 has photos of Ann Melton's and Laura Foster's graves. P. 63 has a photo of Grayson's pistol. P. 65 has a photo of Governor Vance, plus of Judge Buxton (who presided over Dula's first trial) and Judge Shipp (who presided over the second). P. 66. Shows Tom's and Laura's gravestones
Peña/Hayes, p. 73, has a photo of Dula's gravestone; p. 74 has a photo of Vance.
Gardner's front matter has an effectively-illegible copy of Dula's signature on an oath of allegiance to the U. S. government after the Civil War, and p. 42 has a photo of Dula's grave. It also has drawings of most of the main characters, but these have no authority; they are modern.
The cover of Fletcher reproduces Gardner's irrelevant pictures of Laura Foster and Ann Melton; it also has the one photo of Dula, and a picture of Dula's grave. The back cover shows Laura's grave. The book has many photos, many of them not really relevant (e.g. of area landmarks, or of the Kingston Trio, or of Anne Warner recording Frank Profitt (that one mislabeled "Ann Warner" and "Frank Triplett"!), but p. 18 shows Col. Isbell late in life, and p. 100 shows part of his map. P. 21 shows Dula's certificate of having taken the oath to the government, with the oath itself on p. 22. Page 26 shows Dr. Carter, who examined Laura's decomposed body and treated everybody's syphilis. P. 34 shows Mary Dula, Tom's mother, looking as if she was the one about to be hung. Page 36 shows part of Col. Isbell's map. P. shows the same photo of Grayson as in West-Ballad, plus Grayson's gravestone. P. 47 shows what is said to have been Tom's jail cell in Wilkesboro, with Ann Melton's cell on p. 58. Pp. 56-57 show Laura's grave site. P. 60 shows Governor Vance as a younger man (probably about the way he looked in the Civil War era). Pp. 74-75 show Dula's various gravestones; pp. 77-78 shows Ann Melton's grave. P. 79 shows James Melton as an old man. P. 82 shows a woman who may be Melton's mother "Lotty" Foster.
-- The Pop Song and Its Influence --
The Kingston Trio version is said to have eventually sold three million copies (Polenberg, p. 66). Not surprisingly, this produced copyright lawsuits, with G. B. Grayson (who first recorded it) apparently not even being considered as a copyright-holder and Frank Proffitt (the direct source of the version the Kingston Trio recorded) getting only a half-share, with Frank Warner also getting a half share and the Lomaxes, who had collected a version, getting the rest (Polenberg, p. 74). That story was almost as ugly as the murder itself, and surely an even bigger travesty of justice.
It turns out that there was a movie, "The Legend of Tom Dooley," sort of inspired by this song (Casstevans, p. 18). Looking over the cast, it cannot have been based on anything real; it starred Michael Landon as Tom and Jo Morrow as Laura Foster -- but the cast does not include parts for Ann Melton or Pauline Foster. And it does include one for "Charlie Grayson," who of course did not exist (and who surely did not have a big enough role to be the #3 person in the cast list!).
A North Carolina resident, H. M. "Hub" Yount, wrote to a paper to say that the movie had it all wrong (Gardner, p. 34). He had the story from his father and aunt. Ironically, Yount made errors of his own -- he said the murder took place in 1867 and the hanging in 1869. This account also claims that the Tom Dooley song was already known at the time, and cites the chorus. I suspect, however, that Yount was confusing "Tom Dooley" with "The Murder of Laura Foster."
"Tom Dula's Grave" can be found in Google Maps, and the associated photos show both a gravestone (which looks more recent than 1868) and a damaged monument. It is along "Tom Dula Road" near the Yadkin River in Ferguson, North Carolina (a few miles west of Wilkesboro). There is a "Melton Family Cemetery" not too far away, but it just looks like a field in the Google Street View and aerial photos. You can also find "Laura Foster's Grave" on Google Maps somewhat west of there. The historical marker ("Laura Foster Memorial," on a dirt turnaround on the far side of Highway 268 from the grave itself) looks like it is derived from one of those contemporary news stories, e.g. it calls Laura "beautiful but frail." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LF36A

Tom Dula

See Tom Dooley [Laws F36A] (File: LF36A)

Tom Dula's Lament

DESCRIPTION: "I pick my banjo now, I pick it on my knee, This time tomorrow night, It'll be no more use to me." Dula says that Laura (Foster) loved his banjo playing, and says he never knew how true her love was. He bids Ann (Melton) to kiss him goodbye
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death execution music love
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 304, "Tom Dula's Lament" (2 texts, but the second is a single-stanza fragment, not found in the "A" text, and is included in the "Tom Dooley" text sung by Frank Profitt)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, p. 24, "(Tom Dula)" (1 text)
ST BrII304 (Full)
Roud #6645
RECORDINGS:
Sheila Clark, "Tom Dula's Own Ballad" (on LegendTomDula)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Murder of Laura Foster" [Laws F36] (subject)
cf. "Tom Dooley" [Laws F36A] (plot, lyrics)
NOTES [152 words]: This song may possibly be a rewritten version of "Tom Dooley" (or vice versa); they share lyrics, and can be sung to the same tune. But this one is in the first person, "Tom Dooley" mostly in third person. Plus this one shows Dula lamenting his errors -- which he never showed any sign of doing. They look separate to me, as they did to the editors of Brown.
As usual with goodnights, there is no evidence whatsoever that Tom Dula wrote this. And there was a reporter present at his execution, and John Edward Fletcher, PhD (with a foreword by Edith Marie Ferguson Carter), The True Story of Tom Dooley: From Western North Carolina Mystery to Folk Legend, History Press, 2013, p. 142, points out that this reporter makes no mention of Dula writing any such song (even though he was known to be a fiddler. He did not play banjo).
For background to the Dula story, see the notes to "Tom Dooley" [Laws F36A]. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: BrII304

Tom Halyard

DESCRIPTION: Tom Halyard, mortally wounded, asks his ship's captain if he has done his duty. Assured that he has, he asks the captain to send his love a lock of his hair. He dies with Kate's name on his lips
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950
KEYWORDS: battle death farewell hair
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 42-43, "Tom Halyard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4773
File: MN1042

Tom Joad

DESCRIPTION: "Tom Joad got out of the Old McAlister Pen, There he got his parole." The song summarizes the hard times faced by the Joad Family in the Depression, ending with Tom's declaration, "Wherever men are fightin' for their rights, That's where I'm a gonna be"
AUTHOR: Woody Guthrie
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recorded by Guthrie)
KEYWORDS: prison homicide police hardtimes death home dustbowl travel clergy
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 14, 1939 - Publication of "The Grapes of Wrath"
1940 - Release of the movie version of "The Grapes of Wrath"
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 499-501, "Tom Joad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 289-291, "Tom Joad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16649
NOTES [337 words]: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest lists both words and music of this as being by Woody Guthrie, but the tune is unquestionably "John Hardy," with no significant changes.
The song of course is a summary of John Steinbeck's book The Grapes of Wrath.
There are inconsistencies in the accounts of how the song came to be. According to Ed Cray, Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie, W. W. Norton, 2004, pp. 179-180, the RCA (Victor) recording company had approached Alan Lomax about recording a folk song album. Lomax was busy, and suggested they hire Guthrie. They wanted twelve songs.
According to Pete Seeger, the Victor people had asked Guthrie for a song about Tom Joad. Pete asked Woody if he had read the book. Woody said he had not but had seen the movie. He spent all night one night working on it, and Seeger found it in the typewriter in the morning. Seeger said that the movie songwriter had done half the work of condensing it, and Woody had done the rest of the work getting the story down to six minutes and seventeen verses. (It took two sides of a 78 to hold it.)
Cray, pp. 180-181n, believes that this story almost certainly isn't entirely true. Guthrie had read the book -- and had even met John Steinbeck. This is based on a recollection by Will Geer, who said that Guthrie wrote the song before the movie appeared. Since we don't have an exact date of composition, we can't prove this either way. What we can say is that the movie was released on March 15, 1940. Woody in fact talked about the movie in a Daily Worker column of March 30, 1940. Woody was in the studio recording his songs between April 26 and May 3, 1940. Thus the movie came out before the first date on which the song can be proved to exist -- but we don't know how much earlier Woody wrote the piece. Based on the surviving evidence, it is at least possible that he saw the movie rather than reading the book. But Cray thinks Woody had read it and was just playing the "ordinary man" who didn't read much. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC499

Tom Kelly's Cow

DESCRIPTION: Tom Kelly brews poteen "that exceeds them all." John's cow drinks up the still and wakes drunk with a broken horn. She makes a deal with Tom: if he won't tell John about her drinking she "will bring [him] against Lammas a fine heifer calf."
AUTHOR: John Maguire (source: Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
KEYWORDS: promise drink humorous animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 8, pp. 17,103,158, "Tom Kelly's Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2924
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cow that Drank the Poteen" (theme: cow hides drinking problem)
NOTES [32 words]: Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday: John Maguire wrote the song on request of the schoolmaster who had kept John after school one day to inquire about John's cow and Tom Kelly's poteen. - BS
File: MoMa008

Tom Linn

See Tam Lin [Child 39] (File: C039)

Tom O'Bedlam

See Tom a Bedlam (Bedlam Boys) (File: Log172)

Tom O'Neill [Laws Q25]

DESCRIPTION: A rich girl tries to convince Tom O'Neill to leave the priesthood and marry her. When he refuses, she claims that Tom got her pregnant. He is sentenced to transportation. He is reprieved when another man admits he fathered the child for money
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1853 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(189))
KEYWORDS: money clergy pregnancy trick trial punishment transportation lie sex
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws Q25, "Tom O'Neill"
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 87, "Tom O'Neil" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 8-9, "Father Tom O'Neil" (1 text)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 29, "Father Tom O'Neill" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 534, TOMONEIL
Roud #1013
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(189), "Father Tom O'Neale," J. Moore (Belfast), 1846-1852; also 2806 b.11(240), "Father Tom O'Neale"; Harding B 26(574), "The Rev'd Father Tom O'Neil"
File: LQ25

Tom of Bedlam

See Tom a Bedlam (Bedlam Boys) (File: Log172)

Tom Pearce (Widdicombe Fair I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks Tom Pearce to lend his old mare to go to the fair. Tom wants the horse back soon, but it is slow in returning, for it has taken sick and died. (Now the horse's ghost can be seen haunting the moors at night)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1889
KEYWORDS: horse ghost travel
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West)) Canada(Ont) US(Ap)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 308, "Tom Pearce" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 75, "Illsdown Fair" (1 text)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 112, "Midsummer Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 10-11, "Bedford Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #16, "Widdecombe Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 171, "Widdicombe Fair" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 16-17, "Joe Maybe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 398, "Tam Pierce" (1 text)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 68-69, "Widdicombe Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 161, "Widecombe Fair" (1 short text, from user John5918, posted november 30, 2021)
DT, WIDDECOM* TAMPRCE*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #80, "Widicombe Fair" (1 text)
ST K308 (Partial)
Roud #137
RECORDINGS:
Tom Brown, "Widdlecombe Fair" (on Voice07)
George Maynard, "Lansdown Fair" (on FSB10)
Bill Westaway, "Widdicombe Fair" (on FSB10, FieldTrip1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Widdicombe Fair (II)" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Guys on the Grand Coulee Dam (by Woody Guthrie; tune conjectured by Pete Seeger) (Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 66-67, with Seeger's notes on p. 68)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bedford Fair
John Jones's Old Mare
Stow Fair
NOTES [129 words]: According to Marc Alexander, A Companion to the Folklore, Myths & Customs of Britain, Sutton Publishing, 2002, p. 316, Widdicombe Fair is:
"The fair held at the Dartmoor village of Widecombe-on-the-Moor.... The fair is held on the second Tuesday in September with a Master of Ceremonies dressed in an old-fashioned farm worker's smock and holding a crook. In the local dialect he announces various events, including such traditional games as the slippery pole and a cross-country foot race. The fair has been held at Widecombe-on-the-Moor since the middle of the nineteenth century."
Alexander, pp. 316-317, adds a tale of when Satan supposely visited Widecombe in 1638, when a severe storm hit the town and damaged the church of St. Pancras, killing several inside. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K308

Tom Potts [Child 109]

DESCRIPTION: A high-born lady loves Tom Potts, a serving man. She refuses Lord Phoenix's offer of marriage but her father overrides her. She sends word to Tom, who, aided by his master, challenges Phoenix. After several forms of contest he wins her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1657 (broadside, according to Child)
KEYWORDS: nobility servant courting contest father
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 109, "Tom Potts" (3 texts)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume III, pp. 135-150, "Thomas of Potte" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN3263, "All you lords of Scotland fair"
ADDITIONAL: Joseph Ritson, _Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry_, second edition, William Pickering, 1833, pp. 133-155, "The Lovers Quarrel: or, Cupids Triumph" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 409
Roud #66
NOTES [106 words]: In addition to the broadside cited by Child, the Stationer's Register for March 1, 1675 mentions a piece, "Tommy Potts" (see Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 231, #2666), though there is no way to know if it's related.
Rollins also claims that his #2757 (p. 238), "The two constant lovers in Scotland, or, a patterne of true love between an Earles daughter in Scotland, & a poore sservingman, &c," registered May 11, 1657 by Thomas Broad, is this. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C109

Tom Quick

DESCRIPTION: "Tom Quick he lived on Sullivan hill By the Delaware's a-roaring tide." He lives alone with his dogs and his daughter Iona. When he is away, Indians find her. He attacks and kills them, but he dies soon after and she leaves the home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) fight death father children rescue
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1734-1795/6 - Life of Tom Quick, who was both reviled and revered for his conflicts with the local Indians.
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 28-29, "Tom Quick" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11487
File: ByGo028

Tom Redman

See Bold Ranger, The (File: R076)

Tom Reynard (The Fox in Legend)

See Bold Ranger, The (File: R076)

Tom Sherman's Barroom

See The Streets of Laredo [Laws B1] (File: LB01)

Tom Taits

DESCRIPTION: Dialog: What are you called? Tom Taits. What do you do? Feed sheep and goats. Where do they feed? In the bog. What do they eat? Grass. What do they give? Milk and whey. Who eats it? Tom Taits and I (or, the cat)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: farming food dialog animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #161, p. 2, ("Fa's are ye? I'm Tam Tat's") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1634, "Tam Tat's" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 24-25, ("What ca' they you?")
Roud #13068
File: GrD81634

Tom TIdler's Ground

DESCRIPTION: "I'm on Tommy (Tidler's/Tickler's) ground, Picking up gold and silver." A game for deciding a boundary
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad money
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #156, "Tom Tidler's Ground" (1 text)
File: Newe156

Tom Tinker's My True Love

DESCRIPTION: Tom Tinker's my true love, And I am his dear, And I will go with him, his budget to bear, This way, that way, whichever you will, I'm sure I say nothing that you can take ill." "For of all the young men he has the best way."
AUTHOR: unknoen
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 353-354, "Tom Tinker's My True Love" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #8753
NOTES [24 words]: This tune is apparently used in John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera," Act III, Scene 11, Air 13, "Which way shall I turn me? How can I decide?" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ChPMTTMT

Tom Toozick the Gentleman

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. "A drinking-song, in which 'Tom Toozick' recounts his exploits in the local hostelry, where he habitually spent all his earnings. In the end he resolves to mend his ways, and asks God's forgiveness for his previous behaviour."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage drink
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 188, "Tom Toozick the Gentleman" (2 texts, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Tom Toozick the Gentleman" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [46 words]: The description follows the "English Summary" provided by OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin. A few words of English are scattered throughout, such as, "come landlady and open the door" and "come, bring us some toddy my jewel, for here is Tom Toozick the Gentleman!" - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC188

Tom Tough

DESCRIPTION: "My name, d'ye see, s Tom Tough, I've seen a little service"; he has sailed with Howe and Duncan and Hawke. He's also had a family, and loves them but leaves their fate to Providence. But now he's lost an eye and a toe; other sailors will do the fighting
AUTHOR: Charles Dibdin (1745-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: sailor injury home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XXXV, pp. 50-52, "Tom Tough" (1 text)
Roud #13818
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1933), "Tom Tough," A Swindells (Manchester), 1796-1853; also Harding B 11(3857), "Tom Tough," Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Harding B 12(164), "Tom Tuff" Burbage and Stretton (Nottingham), 1797-1807; also Harding B 12(166), "Tom Tuff. A Favorite New Song," Burbage and Stretton (Nottingham), 1800; also Harding B 28(127), "Yo Heave Ho," W. and J. Shelmerdine (Manchester), 1800-1849; also Firth b.25(531)=Harding B 11(4345), "Yo heave yo" (sic), J. Kendrew (York), 1803-1848; also Firth c.12(312), "Tom Tough," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Curzon b.20(17), "Yo heave ho," J. Pitts (London), n.d.; also Harding B 11(3371), "Tom Tough," W. Dixon (WOrkington), n.d.; also Harding B 16(290a), "Tom Tough," Boys (Doncaster), n. d.; also Harding B 22(298), "Tom Tough, or, Yo heave ho," unknown, n.d.
NOTES [38 words]: I've no reason to think this traditional, but it is cited often enough (see the broadside list!) that I've followed Steve Roud in indexing it.
For more on probable author Charles Dibdin, see the notes to "Blow High Blow Low." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: SSSB050

Tom Twist

DESCRIPTION: "Tom Twist was a wonderful fellow; No boy was so nimble and strong." Shipwrecked among cannibals, he escapes; he rides a condor to China and is made a mandarin; he at last returns home, then somersaults out the window and far away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Flanders and Brown)
KEYWORDS: travel ship cannibalism talltale
FOUND IN: US(NE,Ro)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 173-176, "Tom Twist" (1 text, tune referenced)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #174, "Tom Twist" (1 text)
DT, TOMTWIST*
Roud #5448
File: FlBr173

Tom-Big-Bee River

See The Gum Tree Canoe (File: R787)

Tom, He Was a Piper's Son

See O'er the Hills and Far Away (I) (File: Arn017)

Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (I)

DESCRIPTION: Tom, "the piper's son, Stole a pig and away did run." He eats the pig, he is beaten, and runs crying or roaring down the street.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Ritson)
KEYWORDS: punishment theft animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond)) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 509, "Tom, Tom, the piper's son" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #126, p. 105, "(Tom, Tom, the piper's son)" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 217, "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" (1 text, in the notes to "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (II)")
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 149, "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" (1 text plus a fragment of "O'er the Hills and Far Away (I)")
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, F. Eileen Bleakney, "Folk-Lore from Ottawa and Vicinity," Vol. XXXI, No. 120 (Apr-Jun 1918), #18 p. 166 ("Tom, Tom, the piper's son") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Joseph Ritson, Gammer Gurton's Garland (London, 1810 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 35, ("Tom Thumb the piper's son") (1 text)
Elizabeth Mary Wright, "Rustic Speech and Folk-Lore" (London, 1913), pp. 119-120, ("Tom, Tom, the baker's son") (1 text)
Roud #19621
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (II)" (lyrics)
NOTES [212 words]: The Wright text is from Lincolnshire: "Tom, Tom, the baker's son. Stole a wig, and away he run; The wig was eat, and Tom was beat, And Tom went roaring down the street." Wright explains that "a wig (in gen. dial. use) is a kind of cake or bun, a plain wig is a bun without currants, .... The ordinary version substitutes 'pig' for 'wig', and makes Tom's father a 'piper'. It is a question for textual critics to settle, but natural sequence of idea and detail is on the side of the 'wig'-version being the original one; and it is easy to see how in a literary nursery, authority would say that the most omnivorous of small boys coud not eat a periwig, and therefore the word must be pig. This change once made, Tom's father becomes a piper for the sake of alliteration, rather than because there is any historical connexion between a piper and a pig." - BS
A textual critic generally looks for the reading which more easily could be corrupted into one of the others -- and Young Tom might have had some trouble carrying off a whole pig. A wig=bun would at least be easier of transport. So I don't think it can be absolutely settled. Indeed, some textual critics of the more radical sort might propose an emendation -- perhaps "fig" rather than either "pig" or "wig." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: OO2509

Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (II)

DESCRIPTION: When Tom plays "Over the hills and far away" on his pipe, "those who heard him could never keep still; As soon as he played they began to dance." Even pigs, cows, old Dame Trot and a "cross fellow ... beating an ass" had to dance.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: magic dancing music animal
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 17, "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 507, "Tom, he was a piper's son" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #127, p. 105, "(Tom, he was a piper's son)" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 216, "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1843 ("Digitized by Google")), #113 pp. 79-80, ("Tom, he was a piper's son") (1 text)
RELATED: Versions of the fabliau "The Friar and the Boy"/Jack and His Stepdame" --
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #977
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1599
ADDITIONAL: Frederick J. Furnivall, _Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript: Loose and Humorous Songs_, printed by and for the Editor, London, 1868, pp. 9-28, "Ffryar and Boye" (1 text)
Joseph Ritson, _Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry_, second edition, William Pickering, 1833, pp. 31-56, "A Mery Geste of the Frere and the Boye" (1 text)
Melissa M. Furrow, _Ten Bourdes_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2013, pp. 21-43, "Jack and His Stepdame" (1 edited text)
Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #103, pp. 120-127, "Jak & his Stepdame, & of the Frere" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson C.86 (Bodleian 11951), folio 52
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, page 199
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPorkington10}, Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS. Porkington 10, folio 139
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page ?
MANUSCRIPT: {MsRichardCalle}, Cambridge, Cambridge University Library MS. Ee.4.35 (Part I), folio 6
Roud #19621
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Over the Hills So Far Away" (lyrics)
cf. "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "Dolly and Hodge" (few lines)
NOTES [582 words]: See TMI D1415.2.4, "Magic pipe causes dancing." [Not TMI, D1427.1, "Magic pipe compels one to follow"; ATU Type 570 "The Rat-Catcher (The Pied-Piper")]. However, Baring-Gould (p. 104 fn. 11) writes, "This song is apparently a version of an old metrical tale, 'The Friar and the Boy,' probably the nearest British approach to the German legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin." I doubt the connection to either "The Friar and the Boy" or "The Pied Piper."
[I doubt it too, but Baring-Gould reaffirms it elsewhere, and lists other parallels; see Baring-GoundMyths, p. 241. "The Friar and the Boy" was printed by Wynken de Worde, which means it was in existence by 1535. - RBW]
Steevens summarizes "The Friar and the Boy". The boy "suffers from the capricious cruelty of a mother-in-law." A magician gives the boy three gifts: "the first is an unerring bow; the second a pipe which would compel all who heard it to dance; the third must explain itself [makes his mother-in-law fart]." For revenge, mother-in-law employs "the frere ... to persecute the boye" who makes the friar dance until his clothes are shredded. The friar calls in a magistrate for relief. The magistrate, against the friar's warning, asks to hear the boy play; so, the boy "throws all the participants into another fit of dancing, in which the offycyall himself is compelled to join, and the stepdame [sic] exhibits fresh proofs of her flatulency. The tired magistrate at last entreats our hero to suspend his operations, and, on his compliance, immediately reconciles him to his enemies." (Johnson/Steevens Vol. II, pp. 338-341). [See also the version in Briggs, pp. 250-254 - RBW.]
"Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" (II) shares two lines with "Dolly and Hodge". For example, Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #127, ll. 15, 18: "As Dolly was milking her cow one day ... Till the pail was broken and the milk ran on the ground" as the pail was knocked over when Tom played and "Doll and the cow danced." In the "Dolly and Hodge" broadsides, ll. 1,20 [LOCSinging as101460 and Bodleian Johnson Ballads 616]: "As Dolly sat milking her cow ... [the cow] Kick'd the stool, milking pail, down and all" as the cow grew impatient to be milked while Dolly ignored her in favor of Hodge. - BS
The TMI motif D1415 is listed by Thompson as occurring in England, Wales, Iceland, and the United States (TMI, volume II, p. 226). For "The Friar and the Boy/Jack and His Stepdame" ("The Frere and the Boy" in the earliest texts) see the RELATED references. In addition to the sundry manuscripts listed (several of which were owned by middle class merchants), there were at least six early printed editions, contemporary with the manuscripts, the earliest printing of which was by Wynkyn de Worde early in the sixteenth century. Based on linguistic features, Furrow, p. 26, suggests it originated in Norfolk.
"The Friar and the Boy" obviously exists in many sources, but the only one indexed by Steve Roud is Furnivall's text from the Percy Folio; this is Roud #9838.
The STC lists at least three early printed versions, catalogued on p. 325 under "Jest" (#14522, #14523, #14524), printed by J. Allde 1568/1569; E. Allde 1617, and again by E. Allde without a date.
Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp. 325-326, calls this "identical with" The Friar and the Boy -- but her text changes form in mid-stream; it appears she combined two versions to achieve the effect she wanted. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: OO2507

Tom's Gone Away

See Tommy's Gone to Hilo (File: Doe030)

Tom's Gone to Hilo

See Tommy's Gone to Hilo (File: Doe030)

Tom's Gone to Ilo

See Tommy's Gone to Hilo (File: Doe030)

Tomah Stream

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns against drinking and hiring out to Tomah Stream. Instead of the easy work and good food he was promised, he finds mud roads, thin shelters, and poor and inadequate rations. He ends by exchanging insults with the boss Natty [Lamb].
AUTHOR: attributed to Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Doerflinger)
KEYWORDS: logger work drink hardtimes boss
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 216-217, "Tomah Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 106-108, 201, "Tomah Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4074
NOTES [20 words]: Tomah stream is in eastern Maine, not far from the Canadian border.
This song is item dC53 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW- RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Doe216

Tomahawk Hem, The

DESCRIPTION: "Now, boys, if you will listen to my few lines of care, Although heart-broken in sorrow we came here." "Twas on the tenth of March" that they went to the woods. The singer lists his companions. He recalls leaving Maggie and looks forward to going home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (recording, Emory DeNoyer; Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: separation logger moniker floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 79-80, "The Tomahawk Hem" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "The Wanigan Songbook" by Isabel J. Ebert, pp. 212-214, "The Tomahawk River Hymn" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Emory DeNoyer)
Roud #9075
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (theme) and references there
cf. "The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II)" [Laws N9] (lyrics)
NOTES [132 words]: This is a complex conundrum. Most of the song is a standard logging/moniker song, talking about going to the woods and listing all the characters one meets in the camps. This might well be based on one of the many other songs of this type, although with the names changed. But it has also picked up a few lines from "The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II)" [Laws N9] or one of *its* many relatives, and there is also a bit about "when the stormy winds do blow." There may be other floating materials I didn't recognize at a glance. I'm filing it under its own number because it's so composite -- but very little of what is here is really original.
The really funny part, however, is how whoever transcribed Emory DeNoyer's recording heard "Tomahawk Hymn" as "Tomahawk Hem." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Pet079

Tomahawk River Hymn, The

See The Tomahawk Hem (File: Pet079)

Tomahawking Fred (Tambaroora Ted)

DESCRIPTION: The singer is "just about to cut for the Lachlan To turn a hundred out...." He shears for the money, not for pleasure: "Give me sufficient cash and you'll see me make a splash, for I'm (Tambaroora Ted), the ladies' man." He boasts of his shearing skills
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: "Tomahawking Fred" printed 1912 by Jack Bradshaw; collected in 1974 from Joe Watson by Warren Fahey
KEYWORDS: sheep work Australia bragging
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 138-139, "Tambaroora Ted" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 198-200, "Tambaroora Ted" (1 text)
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 13, page headed "When I asked Mr. Watson..."], "Tambaroora Ted" (1 short text)
NOTES [55 words]: To "tomahawk" was to sheer a sheep too close to the skin, and was a common result when a poor shearer tried to shear too fast.
According to Davey/Seal: Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 250, this is a parody of a music hall piece, "Fashionable Fred the Ladie's Man." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: FaE138

Tommy

See Somebody's Tall and Handsome (File: R380)

Tommy A' Lynn

See Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn) (File: R471)

Tommy and Jack

See Two Little Lads (Tommy and Jack) (File: Brne139)

Tommy and the Apple

DESCRIPTION: "As Tommy was walking one fine summer day, Some rosy-cheeked apples he saw on his way." They seem to call to him. He climbs the tree to gather some, and falls off the branch, "And down came poor Tommy, the apples, and all." He won't steal apples again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Edith Fowke Collection)
KEYWORDS: food injury theft
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 32, "Tommy and the Apple" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8723
File: AbFo032

Tommy Johnson Is No Good

DESCRIPTION: "(Tommy Johnson/Diane Carson) is no good, Chop (him) up for (fire/kindling) wood, When he's dead, boil his head, Make it into gingerbread." Or "...wood, If she is no good for that, Give her to the old tom cat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty injury food animal
FOUND IN: New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 131, "([Diane Carson] is no good)" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 98, "([Name] is no good)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #21, "(Tommy Johnson is no good)" (1 text)
Roud #20791
File: SuSm131C

Tommy Jones

See Row Boat (Ride About) (File: R678)

Tommy Murphy was a Soldier Boy

DESCRIPTION: Tommy Murphy leaves Katy to join a marching regiment. He loses a leg. It is replaced by a hickory limb. He can't help marching when he hears the band. Katy sees him "after six months or more of adventures in war" but he marches away when the band plays
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (for USBallinsloeFair, according to site irishtune.info, Irish Traditional Music Tune Index: Alan Ng's Tunography, ref. Ng #2614)
KEYWORDS: war injury humorous soldier separation
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Dinny (Jimmy) Doyle and Larry Griffin, "Tommy Murphy was a Soldier Boy" (on USBallinsloeFair)
File: RcTMWaSB

Tommy o'Lin, and His Wife, and Wife's Mother

See Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn) (File: R471)

Tommy Robin

See Who Killed Cock Robin? (File: SKE74)

Tommy Song, The

See Old Roger is Dead (Old Bumpy, Old Grimes, Pompey) (File: R569)

Tommy Tinker

See Little Tommy Tinker (File: ACSF277L)

Tommy Tinker Sat on a Klinker

See Little Tommy Tinker (File: ACSF277L)

Tommy Tompkins and Polly Hopkins

DESCRIPTION: "Howdy do, Mr. Tommy Tomplins, Howdy do, Howdy do?" "Howdy do, Miss Polly Hopkins." "Oh, say, Mr. Tommy Tompkins, Won't you buy a broom?" "Oh, yes, Miss Polly Hopkins, I will buy a broom... If you'll be my bride And sweep the room."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Elsie Burnett)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 227, "Tommy Tompkins and Polly Hopkins" (1 text)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 93, "Polly Hopkins" (1 text)
Roud #18698
NOTES [37 words]: I can't prove it, but I would guess that Henry's text has something to do with the custom of marrying by jumping over a broom. Henderson's version has her reject him; it looks more like a Quaker's Courtship type of piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: MHAp227

Tommy, Make Room for your Uncle

DESCRIPTION: "Fred Jones, Hatter, of Leicester Square, Presents himself to you." A widow on a train falls in love with him, and she has a spoiled boy. The widow orders her boy, "Tommy, make room for your uncle." Tommy constantly causes trouble as they court
AUTHOR: T. S. Lonsdale
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: courting children humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 140-141, "Tommy, Make Room For Your Uncle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #23764
File: ScES140

Tommy, Tommy in the Tub

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Tommy, Tommy in the tub, Mother forgot to put in the plug, One heart, one soul, There goes Tommy down the hole."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Emirich and Korson, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope humorous disaster mother | tub plug
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #565, "Tommy, Tommy in the Tub" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alice (The Bathtub Song)" (plot)
NOTES [44 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes seems to say this is the same as "Alice (The Bathtub Song)" and "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door." I would say, rather, that it combines the the plot of the former with the fomat of the latter. So I have kept this separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR565

Tommy's Gone Away

See Tommy's Gone to Hilo (File: Doe030)

Tommy's Gone to Hilo

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Away, (H)ilo... Tommy's gone to (H)ilo!" The girl complains that her Tommy has left her and gone to Liverpool, Baltimore, Bombay, or wherever it is that she least wants him to be. She may offer/threaten to follow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, p. 7)
KEYWORDS: shanty separation sailor
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Ireland
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 30, "Tommy's Gone to Hilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 67-68, "Tommy's Gone to Hilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone-CapstanBars, pp. 61-62, "Tom's Gone to Hilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 71-72, "Tom's Gone to Hilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, p. 73-74, 260, "Tommy's Gone to Hilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 261-264, "Shiloh Brown," "Tom's Gone to Hilo," "Tommy's Gone Away" (5 texts, 3 tunes - 1st text is only a fragment that might appear to be a variant of "Shallo Brown" due to the first chorus of "Shiloh, Shiloh Brown," but all the rest of it is "Tommy's Gone to Hilo") [AbEd, pp. 191-194]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, LX, p. 64, "Tommy's Gone Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 103, "Tommy's Gone to Hilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 150-151, "Tommy's Gone to Hilo" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 236, "Tom's Gone Away" (1 fragment, probably this although it doesn't mention Hilo); the next item, "Hilo," may also be this but it's too short to identify
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 36, "Tommy's Gone to Hilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H53d, p. 96, "Tom's Gone to Ilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 125, "O Tommy's gone and I'm goin' too" (1 fragment)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #24, "Tom's Gone to Hilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 162-163, "Tom's Gone to Hilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 92, "Tommy's Gone to Hilo" (1 text)
DT, TOMMYHLO*
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, pp. 258-259, "Tommy's Gone to Hilo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). A fragment of "My Tom's Gone to Hilo!" is in Part 3, 7/28/1917.
Roud #481
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hieland Laddie" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Johnny's Gone to Hilo (Ilo)
NOTES [1671 words]: Most versions of the song use the name "Hilo" (Hugill says all; this was before the Henry collection was published), but the town, according to Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, Shay, etc., is not the village in Hawaii but the port of Ilo in southern Peru, a major source of nitrates.
That's nitrates as in "saltpeter." As in "gunpowder." Gunpowder consists of sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter -- with the mixes used in the nineteenth century requiring 75% saltpeter and just a handful of the other two components (Field p. 171). And saltpeter was the hardest component to find -- since ancient times, a little had been made from human urine, and Europe had set up major factories in India starting around the eighteenth century (Bown, p. 40). But it still wasn't enough. (For background on this, see the notes to "Chamber Lye.")
It was Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Baron von Humboldt (1769-1859) who made the next key step. He went on a world tour in 1799 in which he explored the west coast of Latin America and discovered the nitrate deposits of Chile and Peru (Asimov-Encyc, p. 238, entry #334).
Bown, p. 143, notes that the Latin American coast is washed by a cold current from Antarctica (the "Humboldt Current"). This carries much organic material, and since the water is cold, it also has much oxygen. As a result, it is full of fish and other life forms which attract birds. The birds nest on the shores nearby, leaving their droppings behind. And the major component of those droppings is urea -- a good source of nitrates. (So much so that the Incas apparently rationed the guano as a fertilizer among their various provinces; Bown, p. 145).
A curiosity of the climate in the area is that. due to peculiar air circulation patterns, it almost never rains. So there is absolutely nothing to disturb the heaps of guano. They just kept on piling higher (Bown, pp. 144-145).
Chile had a slightly different source of nitrate. Its deserts were never home to much life; according to Asimov-Build, the nitrates there were the residue from dried-up ancient lakes.
Exports of Chilean nitates began in 1830 (Darrow, p. 216). At this time they were presumably used mostly for explosives -- though the Chilean deposits, known as "caliche," were largely sodium nitrate, with about a 50% mixture of miscellaneous dirt, so they had to be purified and then converted to potassium nitrate (Bown, pp. 148-149). But, once it was learned how to convert sodium nitrate and potassium chloride into saltpeter (a process discovered in 1846), caliche became a fully viable product (Bown, p. 156). In addition, methods were eventually discovered to keep sodium nitrate from absorbing moisture, so it could be made into a fairly reliable gunpowder (Bown, p. 156).
The Peruvian guano also found another use: It was one of the main sources of dyes in the early eighteenth century; it wasn't until 1856 that William Henry Perkin found the first of the analine dyes (Schwarcz, pp. 218-222, 225), which eventually eliminated the need for organic hues.
Shortly before the discovery of the caliche conversion process, Justus von Liebig (1803-1873) conducted his experiments in soil fertility which proved that nitrogen was a necessary fertilizer. So the demand for nitrates, already high, took another jump. And the guano was organic, and made a better fertilizer than caliche, and was coveted as such. (Though caliche too would be used for fertilizer in time.) Plus the caliche, though readily accessible, was inland, and shipping it to the coast was tricky (Bown, p. 149). This made the guano, available right at the coast, that much more valuable. Indeed, for some decades, fees on the trade provided the vast majority of revenue for Peru, and were all that kept that nation solvent (Bown, pp. 153-154).
Liebig went so far as to predict future wars over fertilizers and other resources, noting that Great Britain was consuming more than its share (Buckingham, p. 64). Buckingham poo-poos the notion of wars over resources -- but let's not forget the Persian Gulf War. What's more there was a war fought over nitrates, though it did not involve a major power; the participants were Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. The problems went back to the period of Spanish rule. "The War of the Pacific (1879-83) was a contest for possession of the bleak Atacama Desert reaching six hundred miles from Chilean Copiapo to Peruvian Arica.... In disdain for this sorry land, Spain had never bothered to establish a boundary between Peru (which in colonial days included Bolivia) and Chile" (Herring, p. 585).
When the war began, Chile was much smaller than today. The region from roughly Talta in what is now Chile to the mouth of the rive Loa north of Tocopilla was in Bolivian hands, giving Bolivia a large chunk of the Andean nitrates as well as access to the sea. The region north or that, including the town of Iquique, was part of Peru, and it too contained nitrate beds, though they were not as large as those in Bolivia (for a map of this, Barraclough, 97). But it was Chile which was exploiting the beds, backed by European capital, though they paid royalties to Bolivia and Peru. It was an attempt by Peru and Bolivia to increase these royalties that led to the war.
Bolivia and Chile had already been involved in diplomatic wrangles over the caliche beds; Despite controlling part of the Pacific coast of Latin America, Bolivia had very poor access to its seacoast due to the Andes (Roberson, p. 422) -- the Bolivians had almost no way to defend the region. When a dictator in Bolivia set aside the fragile agreement between the two countries, Chile promptly attacked (though the declaration of war came slightly later; Robertson, p. 423). Peru (which also had only tenuous links to its nitrate region, according to Bown, p. 160) soon joined the Bolivian side, but as Bolivia dissolved in internal squabbles, the allies were utterly defeated by Chile, which conquered the entire nitrate region, and even occupied Lima from 1881 to 1884 (Herring, p. 586).
A peace treaty was finally made in 1884. Robertson, p. 426, notes that "This treaty embodied a thinly veiled cession of the nitrate desert to the victor in the War of the Pacific." It also left Bolivia entirely landlocked, and largely lacking in natural resources that could be exploited at the time; little wonder that the nation remained poor and subject to frequent revolutions! (To this day, they want the land back, according to Bown, p. 162, and maintain a navy of sorts on Lake Tititcaca in hopes they will someday have an ocean fleet again.)
It is reported that, in the 1850s and 1860s, guano was mined from Peru at an average rate of four hundred thousand tons per year, with about a quarter of that going to the United States and the rest to various ports served by British ships. The guano trade was messy, smelly, and sometimes led to outbreaks of illness, but even so, the profits were high -- according to Bown, p. 146, the demand for South American guano consistently outstripped supply in the mid- to late nineteenth century, and Herring, p. 586, says that it supplied two-thirds of the Chilean government's revenue in the 1890s. The jingoistic American governments of the period went so far as to capture some of the islands, according to Bown, p. 147.
The need to bring as much guano as possible to market produced terrible abuses. Heaven help the sailor who got drunk in Callao or Ilo or even Chilean Valparaiso and ended up working the Chincha islands (the best source of guano, off the Peruvian coast not too far from Lima and Callao). Bown, pp. 150-151 describes slavery conditions worse than even those in the American south. The workers sometimes worked 100 hours a week, were given inadequate shelter, limited and poor food, were driven by merciless overseers -- and, of course, had to breath the extraordinary fumes of ammonia and other dangerous chemicals; many also contracted diseases carried by the bird feces. Suicide was common.
Bown, p. 152, says that most of the workers were Chinese brought in on five year "contracts" which few of them survived. Others came from the Pacific Islands. This form of slavery was not controlled until the 1870s.
Although the quality of guano declined after the 1870s, when the best beds were used up (there was lots of guano left, but it wasn't as high quality due to rain leaching out the nitrates, according to Bown, p. 154), demand for nitrates did not really start to decline until the early twentieth century, when the Haber process and its successors allowed artificial nitrates to be generated, and the guano trade was still strong going into the 1920s -- but Darrow, p. 233, notes its collapse in that period. In particularly, in the year 1926, the nitrate companies had a market value of 3,578,000 British pounds at the beginning of 1926, but only 1,634,000 pounds at the end of the year.
According to Shay, even ships not carrying guano (e.g. whalers) were likely to stop at Ilo; there were periods when Chilean ports were closed to foreigners, leaving Ilo as the major watering-port for ships rounding Cape Horn. The Panama Canal would have cut into that trade also, starting in 1914. Little wonder, then, that Ilo is now just another medium-sized town in Peru.
Ilo wasn't the only place that had had a nitrates boom. In the 1840s, the island of Ichaboe (Tcheroe), off the west coast of modern Namibia, had also had a "white gold" (guano) run, with many of the abuses later found at Ilo (Battersby, p. 148).
Incidentally, though effectively all nitrate fertilizer is now artificial, the Chilean nitrate beds are now used as a source for iodine. Roughly 40% of the world's current iodine needs are supplied by Chile (Emsley, p. 198); the compounds involved are sodium iodate, NAIO3, and calcium iodate, Ca(IO3)2. (Heiserman, p. 195) Emsley also observes, p. 197, that the element iodine was actually discovered during the Napoleonic Wars by French scientists who were trying to increase saltpetre manufacture. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: Doe030

Tommy's on the Tops'l Yard

See Sally Brown (File: Doe074)

Tomorrow Morn I'm Sweet Sixteen

See Billy Grimes the Rover (File: MN2033)

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow Never Comes

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, Never comes, Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow Always runs."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | tomorrow
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #566, "Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow" (1 text)
NOTES [37 words]: "The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday -- but never jam to-day" -- Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass, chapter V, "Wool and Water (spoken by the White Queen, about a fifth of the way through the chapter). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR566

Tone de Bell Easy

See Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dyin' Bed (Tone the Bell Easy) (File: LxA605)

Tongo

DESCRIPTION: Supposedly Polynesian (exact language unspecified). Rowing song, with call and repeat. "Tongo Jimnee bye bye oh Tongo Oom ba de kim bye oh Ooh a lay
Mah le ka ah lo way." Or "Tongo Jimminey bayo bayo Tongo, Upi upi upi-yo Ooh, ollay Mali-pa, mali-way..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage worksong campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 141, 144, 152, 307, 308, "Tongo" (notes only)
File: ACSF141T

Tongue Twister Song (One Flea Fly Flew; A Flea and a Fly)

DESCRIPTION: "One flea fly flew up the flue, the other flea fly flew down (x3), Oh glory, glory how peculiar." "One sly snake slid up the slide, the other sly snake slid down." "One big bug bled black blood, the other big bug bled blue." And so forth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: wordplay bug campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 167, "Tongue Twister Song" (notes only)
DT, GLORYPEC
Roud #19921
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune) and references there
File: ACSF167T

Tons of Bright Gold

DESCRIPTION: "Down by the Launey" the singer meets "a handsome and charming young dame ... herding her kine." If he owned many fine lands he would give them all "to obtain her." "For tons of bright gold, of course, I won't tell her name" until their wedding day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: love marriage animal
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 88-89, "Tons of Bright Gold" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pride of Kilkee" (motif: hiding a sweetheart's name) and references there
cf. "Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce hi (For Ireland I Will Not Tell Whom She Is)" (motif: hiding a sweetheart's name)
NOTES [51 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "[This song's] text is clearly related to the Maigue poem "Ar Eirinn ni neosfainn ce hi" (For Ireland I'd not tell her name)." [In this song the promise not to tell, or to tell, her name is the last line of each verse; that is also the pattern of "Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce hi."] - BS
File: OCan088

Tony Pastor's Combination Song

See Titles of Songs (Song of Songs, Song of All Songs, Song of Song Titles) (File: R515)

Tony Went Walking

DESCRIPTION: Tony goes walking on a summer day and finds an apple tree. He climbs, to pick some apples, but the branch breaks and "down came Tony, apples and all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (recording, Stanley G. Triggs)
KEYWORDS: food injury
FOUND IN: Can(West)
RECORDINGS:
Stanley G. Triggs, "Tony Went Walking" (on Triggs1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rock-A-Bye Baby" (lyrics)
NOTES [8 words]: Talk about a minimal plot. But a plot it is. - PJS
File: RcTonWWa

Too Courteous Knight, The

See The Baffled Knight [Child 112] (File: C112)

Too Late

See The Last Farewell (The Lover's Return) (File: R761)

Too Late Sinner

DESCRIPTION: "Too late, too late sinner, Carry the key and gone home." Jesus locked the door.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Johnson and Johnson)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus sin
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 292-293, "Cya' duh' Key, Gone Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, The Books of American Negro Spirituals (New York: Viking Press, 1969 (copyright 1925, 1926)), Book 2, pp. 102-104, "Too Late" or "Done Carry de Key an' Gone Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16657
RECORDINGS:
James Garfield Smalls, "Drive Those Songs/Too Late Sinner" (on USSeaIsland03)
File: RcToLaSi

Too Much of a Name

DESCRIPTION: "Some people are anxious for honor and fame And they strive all their lifetime in getting a name. But too much of a name is a possible thing" As a practical joke my parents named me Jonathan Joseph Jeremiah ... Jehosaphat." So long a name causes problems
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: wedding humorous nonballad talltale clergy
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) US(Ap,Ro)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 170, "Longest Name Song" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #181, "Longest Name Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 201, "Too Much of a Name" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 57-58, "Jonathan Joseph... Timothy Pack" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TOONAME
Roud #7041 and 4824
NOTES [25 words]: Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland states that this is "a variant of a once popular music-hall song 'Jonathan, Joseph, Jeremiah.'" - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: GrMa170

Too Much Time for the Crime I've Done

DESCRIPTION: "I got too much time, buddy... for the crime I done.... If I had just a-knowed it, could a broke and run." The singer thinks he should have gotten two or three years, but got ten or more. He wishes he had a gun, and thinks about what to do if free
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recorded from J. B. Smith by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes violence
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 151-154,"Too Much TIme for the Crime I've Done" (2 texts, both from the same informant; 1 tune)
NOTES [65 words]: This song, and several others by J. B. Smith, brilliantly illustrates the problem of classifying Black prison songs. This is clearly a personal song by Smith, who was serving a life term for killing his girlfriend, but the themes and many of the words come from other songs. Given the extent of Smith's rewriting, I classified it separately, but there is no good way to file such things. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM151

Too Rally

DESCRIPTION: This quatrain ballad of naval origins describes the special privileges accorded to officers of increasingly high rank.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: scatological sailor humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 400-403, "Too Rally" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10300
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Botany Bay (I)" (tune)
NOTES [15 words]: This was collected by Pete Seeger in the Pacific theater during the Second World War. - EC
File: EM400

Too Young

See Pretty Little Miss [Laws P18] (File: LP18)

Too Young to Marry

DESCRIPTION: Dance tune with slight lyrics: "I'm my mammy's youngest child (youngest son, darling child), I am my mother's (baby), I'm my mammy's youngest child, I am too young to marry."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: youth marriage nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 107, "Too Young to Marry" (3 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 107, "Too Young to Marry" (2 tunes plus text exceprts)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Allen Davidson, Jr., "The Songs of Caleb Mashburn," Vol. XX, No. 1 (Feb 1972), pp. 58-59, "I'm my mamma's darlin' chile" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #16864
NOTES [33 words]: I have to suspect that this is the mnemonic lyric to some well-known fiddle tune. But there is no way to tell *which* tune. The two tunes in BrownSchinhan are both in 2/2 but by no means the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Br3107

Too-Li-Aye

See John Kanaka (File: FaE050)

Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, That's an Irish Lullaby

DESCRIPTION: The singer remembers a quiet, peaceful home and the lullaby his mother sang: "Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li, Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, hush now don't you cry. Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral... That's an Irish lullaby."
AUTHOR: James Royce Shannon
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: nonballad lullaby
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 585, "Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, That's an Irish Lullaby"
DT, LULLBY
RECORDINGS:
Betty Deveraux, "Irish Lullaby" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
SAME TUNE:
Study Oft on Sunday (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 98)
NOTES [108 words]: This, obviously, is not a folk song -- and it's not a lullaby! (It contains one, but there is a song around it.) But people think it's a folk song, so here it is....
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 306, estimates that this was the eighteenth most popular song in America in 1914, peaking at #10 in March 1914 (#1 for the year being, believe it or not, Grant Clarke, Edgar Leslie, and Maurice Abrahams's "He'd Have to Get Under, Get Out and Get Under, To Fix Up His Automobile"); p. 473 says it again hit the charts at #13 in December 1944. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: DTlullby

Too-Ril-Te-Too (The Robin and the Cat)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh! Too-ril-te-too was a bonny cock robin, He tied up his tail with a piece of blue bobbin, His tail was no bigger than the tail of a flea, Too-ril-te-too Thought it pretty as a tail could be." The bird flies to a rail to show off and is eaten by a cat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland)
KEYWORDS: bird food death animal | robin fence cat
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 293-294, "Too-Ril-Te-Too" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Lins293 (Full)
Roud #3745
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rory O'More" (tune)
File: Lins293

Took My Gal a-Walkin'

DESCRIPTION: "I took my gal a-walking', it was on one Saturday night... I asked her if she's marry me... She said she wouldn't marry me If the rest of the world was dead." The lonely singer vows he will "milk the cows and chickens" on the farm if he can't find a girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Charlie Poole)
KEYWORDS: courting farming love nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p.81, "Took My Gal a Walkin'" (1 text)
Roud #11550
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Took My Gal a Walkin'" (Columbia 15672-D, 1931, rec. 1928; on CPoole01, CPoole05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Going Across the Sea" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Ain't Got Nobody
NOTES [90 words]: Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole observes that there is no known source for this recording; Charlie Poole may well have created the piece. It has, however, proved to be popular with Old-Time performers, and for this reason I include it here.
The key verse, about the girl not marrying "if the rest of the world were dead" *is* traditional; a variant is found in the southeastern banjo tune "Italy."
There was a 1917 pop song by Roger Graham, Dave Payton, and Spencer Williams called "I Ain't Got Nobody." It's not this song. - RBW
File: RcTMGAW

Took My Girl to a Fancy Ball

See I Had But Fifty Cents (File: R485)

Toolie Low

DESCRIPTION: "Toolie low, toolie low, toolie low, I am Mammy's little black baby chile. Toodie noodie, mammy's baby, Toodie noodie, mammy's child. Toodie, noodie, toodie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: love children nonballad lullaby
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 153, (no title) (1 short text)
File: ScNF153B

Tooney O

DESCRIPTION: "Tooney, Tooney, my Tooney O. She hopped upon her poney And ran away from Tony; If you see her just let me know and I'll meet you in the Sally Tooney O."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: playparty animal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 549, "Tooney O" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: BrS5549B

Tooraloo (Boy With No Shoes, All Tattered and Torn, I Dreamt I Had Died)

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes out and sees various sights, e.g. a poor man eating grass, whom he tells that the grass is longer in back. He goes to heaven, where he is the first from his town, and Hell, where there are many from the place. The adventures are diverse
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Gardham-EastRidingSongster)
KEYWORDS: death hell travel humorous food drink marriage courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All)) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 14, pp. 18-19, "A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 169-170, "I'll sing you a song but it's all tommyrot" (1 text)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 103, "Holly Ho" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1407
NOTES [105 words]: I'm not sure I've ever seen two versions of this with the same title. Steve Gardham describes it as a bar song to the tune of "Sweet Betsy/Villikens," with many verses made up on the spot to describe particular difficulties of the singer. Sounds about right. The texts vary so extremely that I suspect there are versions with no words in common at all; it could easily be split a dozen ways. Rather than try that, I'll follow Steve Roud's classification.
Fowke in the notes to Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood says this is based on "Six Miles from Bangor to Donaghadee," but this is clearly the better-known song now. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Gard014

Tooraweenah Joe

See The Backblock Shearer (File: MA038)

Toots and Ronald

DESCRIPTION: "Toots an Ronald a walk a road, No gie dem water to drink, If you gie dem water to drink a you yard, Lie go lef a you door"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: accusation warning nonballad Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 27, "Toots and Ronald" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [48 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "Toots an' Ronald are really imaginary names for two culprits about whom the song casts derisive remarks. They seem to be brother and sister, both of them such notorious liars that ... if you allow them to pass through your yard, lies will remain on your door." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo027

Top Beat

DESCRIPTION: "I don't mind those city lights On these long winter nights, When I take my annual spree In the lap of luxury... There's no place I'd rather be Than top beat With a snowline boundary." The singer has no interest in country life or those who live it
AUTHOR: Words: Joe Charles
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1960 (according to Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 26, "Top Beat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Joe Charles, _Black Billy Tea: New Zealand Ballads_, Whitcoulls Publishers, 1981, pp. 35-36, "Top Beat" (1 text)
File: Clev026

Top Hand

DESCRIPTION: "While you're all so frisky I'll sing a little song... It's all about the Top Hand when he's busted flat." The Top Hand/top screw boasts of his prowess as a cowhandler, but it's all boasting and lies. The cowboys try to expose him, and label him a Jackass
AUTHOR: (Credited by Thorp to Frank Rooney, c. 1877)
EARLIEST DATE: 1899
KEYWORDS: cowboy bragging lie trick
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys V, pp. 61-65 (17-18), "Top Hand" (2 texts); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 156-158, "Top Hand" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 337, "Top Hand" (1 text)
Roud #8050
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Top Screw
Waddie Cowboy
File: TF05

Top Loader

DESCRIPTION: Recitation; Bill Kirk is top loader. One day he's knocked off the load by a "cannon." His comrades rush to save him, but he's wedged into a crack. They pull the log out, and by a miracle he's not hurt, but he curses because his new pipe is cracked.
AUTHOR: Probably Marion Ellsworth
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Recitation; Bill Kirk is top loader at Pollock's camp; one day he's knocked off the load by a "cannon" (a log that pivots sideways on top of the load). His comrades, thinking him crushed, rush to save him, but he's wedged into a crack. They pull the log out, and by a miracle he's not hurt, but he curses because his new pipe is cracked.
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger recitation rescue
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 100, "Top Loader" (1 text)
Roud #8880
NOTES [33 words]: Top loaders were always in danger, trying to get the maximum number of logs on the load.
This, like the other pieces probably written by Ellsworth, does not seem to have entered oral tradition. - PJS
File: Be100

Top of Mount Zion (When I Reach That City on the Hill)

DESCRIPTION: "On the top of Mount Zion is a city" -- the city of salvation. The singer briefly describes it and makes plans to go there. He describes what will happen "when I reach that city on the hill"
AUTHOR: Johnson Oatman Jr. (1856-1922) (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (recorded from Buna Vista Hicks)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious nonballad death | city hill
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 95-96, "On the Top of Mount Zion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7133
RECORDINGS:
Buna Hicks, "Top of Mt. Zion" (on USWarnerColl01)
Amy Michels, "When I Reach That City" (Piotr-Archive #167, recorded 05/10/2022)
NOTES [222 words]: In secular usage, the name "Zion" and "Mount Zion" referred to the more eastern of the hills on which Jerusalem rested -- the name first occurs in the Bible in 2 Samuel 5:7, where David attacks the "stronghold of Zion," the key to the city of the Jebusites, which became the City of David -- i.e. the citadel of the Davidic capital. The term is generally used in the Psalms to include the broader area around the Temple -- i.e. the City on Mount Zion is the whole city of Jerusalem.
The name is not common in the New Testament, and six of the eight New Testament usages to be Old Testament citations -- most notably, Romans 11:16 (citing Isaiah) says that the deliverer comes from Zion. But the two uses of the name not derived from the Hebrew Bible are noteworthy: Hebrews 11:22 refers to coming to "Mount Zion and the city of the living God, while Revelation 14:1 says that the lamb stood on Mount Zion. Thus Mount Zion is an accepted, though not a common, name for the heavenly city.
Author Johnson Oatman Jr. seems to have been incredibly prolific, but only a handful of his songs achieved much popularity (based on the hymnal count at hymnary.org). His most popular songs appear to have been "There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus," "I'm pressing on the upward way," and "When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcToMZi

Top Side Woman (Belle Garden Gal)

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells a Top Side gal to give him his hat; he is going back to the Low Side to mind his mama. Chorus: he should say he is not courting or married yet but is going back to mind his mama. The verse is repeated for bag, stick, clothes....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes nonballad mother Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 28, "Top Side Woman (Belle Garden Gal)" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [62 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "In a small island like Tobago it is interesting to note how regional differences affect the family and kinship. The eastern half of the island is 'Top Side', the western half is 'Low Side'.... there are subtle differences between people residing in each 'side'.... no villager is allowed to forget which part of the island he was born in." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo028

Topsail Shivers in the Wind, The

DESCRIPTION: "The topsail shivers in the wind, Our ship she casts to sea, But yet my soul, my heart, my mind, Are, Mary, moored with thee." The singer touches on the difficulties of the voyage and thinks constantly of his return home
AUTHOR: Michael Arne (1741-1786) and Edward Thompson (source: Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads; Bodleian web site)
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Journal from the Ann)
KEYWORDS: sailor home love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XCVI, pp. 189-190, "The Sailor's Adieu" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 59-60, "The Topsail Shivers in the Wind" (1 text plus part of another, 1 tune)
Roud #2017
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(316b), Firth c.13(3), Harding B 25(1936), "The topsails shiver," J. Jennings (London), 1790-1840; also Firth c.13(5)= Harding B 16(86a), "The Faithful Sailor," J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 11(39), "The Faithful Sailor," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also 2806 c.17(435), "Top sails shiver in the wind," W. Smith (Newcastle), n.d.; also 2806 c.17(377), "The sailor's adieu," W. Smith (Newcastle), n.d.; also Harding B 16(290c), "The topsails shiver," J. Kendrew (York), n.d.
File: SWMS059

Tor-e-a-dor

DESCRIPTION: "Tor-e-a-dor, Don't spit on the floora, Use the cuspidora, That is what it's fora."
AUTHOR: unknown (music by Georges Bizet, 1838-1875)
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: humorous derivative
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 115, "Tor-a-a-dor" (1 text)
NOTES [42 words]: This is of course based on the Toreador's Song from Bizet's "Carmen"; it seems to me that the Solomon-ZickaryZan version adds some unstressed syllables just to make a foreign "accent," and I suspect there are longer versions, but I can't prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ZiZa115D

Torbay Ramblers

DESCRIPTION: Torbay Ramblers listen to named lumberjacks who said "Millertown for mine." Some swear not to return. Only when the market for fish leaves them short do some go back.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: warning fishing lumbering work ordeal moniker nonballad logger
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18243
RECORDINGS:
Jack Houlihan, "Torbay Ramblers" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [87 words]: Millertown is an old lumber camp town in central Newfoundland. According to Wikipedia article Millertown, Newfoundland and Labrador it was founded in 1900 (at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millertown,%5fNewfoundland%5fand%5fLabrador, accessed February 23, 2017). Torbay is far away, not far from St. John's.
Other hard times songs about the off-summer (that is, when no money is to be made fishing) Newfoundland lumbering occupation include "The Boys at Ninety-Five," "Jerry Ryan," "Reid's Express," and "Twin Lakes." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcTorbRa

Torbay Song

See The Loss of the Shamrock (File: Pea963)

Tornado Blues

DESCRIPTION: "I uster own the Chickabee farm, I'm washing dishes today, Becaws a tornado comes along And takes my farm away." "It takes the cows, and the gelding... The doggone thing leaves me nothing But the wife and the mortgage due."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Cambiaire)
KEYWORDS: disaster storm farming hardtimes
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 7, 1933 - "[A] terrible tornado caused great damage in East Tennessee (Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads)
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 10, "Tornado Blue" (1 text)
Roud #12636
File: Camb010

Toronto Volunteers, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the year of Eighty-five Sure the tidings did arrive.... From the snowy plains afar Where those roving Indians are...." "Oh those volunteers did go And face the storms and snow... And when the drums did beat How the rebels did retreat"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957
KEYWORDS: battle Canada soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 12, 1885 - Battle of Batoche. Defeat of the Metis under Louis Riel
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 130-131, "The Toronto Volunteers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4515
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Riel's Song" and references there (subject)
NOTES [31 words]: For the history of Louis Riel and the Metis Uprising, see "Riel's Song." Edith Fowke's informant claims to have had this piece from soldiers who had actually campaigned in Saskatchewan. - RBW
File: FMB130

Torramh an Bhairille (Wake of the Barrel)

DESCRIPTION: Irish. It's a delight to be at a Ballymacoda wake. No one is turned away without a drink in that pub. "The poor wretch without food or purse will get the cask free To drink without stint"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage drink death nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 68-69, "Torramh an Bhairille" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [13 words]: The description follows O Canainn's "rough guide to what it's all about." - BS
File: OCan068

Torry Brig, The

DESCRIPTION: "Noo friens I think ye're like mysel' and anxious for to see" the new Torry bridge across the Dee. The singer describes the celebration he expects: lasses in new hats, men in new suits, "gently walking sweetly talking" dancing and drinking beer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: clothes technology dancing drink nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 1881 - Formal opening of Victoria Bridge across the Dee from Aberdeen to Torry (source: Greig/Duncan8).
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1904, "The Torry Brig" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13561
File: GrD81904

Toss the Blanket

DESCRIPTION: "Toss the blanket, toss the blanket, Toss the blanket over."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | blanket
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 46, "Toss the blanket, toss the blanket" (1 short text)
Roud #25366
File: KSUC046A

Toss the Turk

DESCRIPTION: "One evening lately I dressed up nately, With Sunday clothes, plug had and all." The singer meets a gang which intends to rob him. But he backs up against a wall, and beats them off using tricks he learned at Donegal.
AUTHOR: Tom Cannon (lyrics and music adaption)
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: fight
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 114-115, "Toss the Turk" (1 text)
Roud #21718
NOTES [44 words]: Eric Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English lists "Turk" as a gutter word for an Irishman, though it cannot trace it before 1949. This song gives evidence that it is much older, since "Toss the Turk" seems to mean "rob the Irishman." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: Dean114

Tossed Upon Life's Raging Billow

DESCRIPTION: "Tossed upon life's raging billow. Sweet it is, O Lord, to know, Thou didst press a sailor's pillow. Thou canst feel a sailor's woe... Thou the faithful watch art keeping; 'All is well,' thy constant cheer." In time, the sailors will be free from storms
AUTHOR: George W. Bethune (1805-1862) (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1830 (The Christian Lyre, according to Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad sailor storm
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 177, "Tossed Upon Life's Raging Billow" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [114 words]: John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), pp. 138-149, says that George Washington Bethune (1805-1862) was "A very eminent divine of he Reformed Dutch body," born in New York; he went to Dickinson College. He served various different congregations, then went to Italy for his health, dying there in 1862. Julian lists several books of hymns and sermons. Hymnary.org lists several dozen hymns he wrote; this is the first (and presumably most popular) of fourteen Bethune songs listed by Julian. I don't recall ever hearing any of the songs Julian lists. This one is said to have been Bethune's favorite. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LaGo177

Tossed and Driven (The Poor Pilgrim)

DESCRIPTION: "I am a poor pilgrim of sorrow, I am left in this wide world to roam... I've started to make Heaven my home." "Sometimes I'm so tossed and driven. Sometimes I know not where to roam." The singer has left his family; after death he hopes to see them again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious death travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 610, "Tossed and Driven" (2 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 643, "Tossed and Driven" (1 text, a seemingly-simplified form with the same chorus but the verses consist of advice from relatives: "(Father/Mother/Sister/Brother) told me when he was dying... Dear daughter, live for Jesus; This world is not my home")
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 192-193, "The Pilgrim of Sorrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5425
RECORDINGS:
I. D. Beck & congregation, "Poor Pilgrim of Sorrow" (on LomaxCD1704)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Am a Pilgrim"
NOTES [54 words]: This song instantly made me think of "Man of Constant Sorrow," and also of "Wayfaring Stranger," but I cannot tell if there is any connection. And "pilgrim" songs all sound alike somehow. - RBW
George Pullen Jackson sees a resemblance between this song and the one we've indexed as "Green Mossy Banks of the Lea". Maybe. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: R610

Tossing of the Hay

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes out on a summer morning and sees a beautiful girl tossing her hay alone. She reports that her brother has left her alone. He kisses her; she screams; he promises that if she marries him, there will be time to mow the hay
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H635, pp. 455-456, "The Tossing o' the Hay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 80, "The New Mown Hay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan5 957, "The Turnin' o' the Hay" (7 texts, 4 tunes)
Roud #2940
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "Tossing the Hay" (on Voice05, IREButcher01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Raking of the Hay
The Shaking of the Hay
NOTES [86 words]: Why do I get the feeling that this happened somewhere along the Banks of the Bann?
According to Purslow, this occurs as a broadside called "Joy After Sorrow," but the text of that title I've seen does not appear to be the same piece. - RBW
"Joy After Sorrow" is separately indexed. In that ballad the man in the story is a sailor or soldier, and not the singer. The title follows from the reaction of the woman: cursing the hour of her seduction at the birth of her baby and blessing that hour after the wedding. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: HHH635

Tottenham Toad, The

See Fox and Hare (They've All Got a Mate But Me) (File: FlBr121)

Touch Not the Cup

DESCRIPTION: "Touch not the cup, it is death to the soul... Many I know that have quaffed from that bowl... Little they thought that a demon was there, Blindly they drank and were caught in the snare...." A sermon, without illustrations, on the evils of drink
AUTHOR: Words: J.H. Aikman (?) / Music: T.H. Bayley?
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (Franklin Square Song Collection 3)
KEYWORDS: drink virtue
FOUND IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 330, "Touch Not the Cup" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 76, "Touch Not the Cup" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 146-148, "Oh, Touch Not the Wine Cup" (1 text, 1 tune, which appears to be somewhat revised)
ST R330 (Partial)
Roud #6951
NOTES [38 words]: Yes, this piece is as obnoxiously moralizing as it sounds... and I say that as a teetotaler.
Dime-Song-Book #19, p. 44, is "Touch Not the Fair Cup," which is clearly on the same theme, but I would not consider it the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R330

Touch the Thing

See The Yorkshire Volunteers (Touch the Thing) (File: DalC026)

Tough Luck

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Tough luck: You may miss, You may not, You may fall down And go bawl, You have fallen down, You have missed, Tough luck."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #568, "Tough luck" (1 text)
File: AJRR568

Tough Utah Boy, A

DESCRIPTION: "I am a Mormon, from Utah I came, And I am a tough boy and Wells it is my name." The singer travels the southwest, revellng in his toughness -- and then comes home to Mother because he has no lover. He will return again to Utah: "for Utah I will sail."
AUTHOR: "Rasty" Wells? (source: Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: travel home mother fight return
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #228, "A Tough Utah Boy" (1 short text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 605, "A Tough Utah Boy" (1 text)
Roud #10906
File: CAFS2605

Toura for Sour Buttermilk

DESCRIPTION: "Toura for sour buttermilk Belleek for the brandy The Commons was the divil's hole But Mulleek was the dandy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad drink
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 52, "Toura for Sour Buttermilk" (1 fragment)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fermoy Lasses" (tune, according to Tunney-StoneFiddle)
NOTES [48 words]: The current description is all of the Tunney-StoneFiddle fragment.
Mulleek, Belleek and Toura are in County Fermanagh. Commons may be in Belleek.
The words of the Tunney-StoneFiddle fragment remind me of "Coffee Grows" and "Weavily Wheat" though its reel tune is not at all similar. - BS
File: TSF052

Tout Pitit Negresse

DESCRIPTION: Creole French: "Tout pitit Negresse en bas bayou, A-pe laver chimise ye' mama! A, alla, mamselle, les blanchiseuses! (x2)" A very small black woman washes shirts on the bayou; a boy washes underclothes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: worker
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 212-213, "Tout Pitit Negresse" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ScaNF212

Toviska

See Castles in Toviska (File: ACSF146C)

Tower of Babel, The

See The Plumb and Level (File: GrD3472)

Towering Heights of Newfoundland

DESCRIPTION: Singer remembers times long past roaming the hills, valleys and coastline around St. John's. He recalls meeting his sweetheart and the places they trapped together. He would love to see those places -- Cabot Tower, Quidi Vidi, Bannerman Park -- again.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: age homesickness courting home nonballad lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18244
RECORDINGS:
Catherine Powers, "Towering Heights of Newfoundland" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Flatrock Hills" (theme: Home sickness for the hills around St John's, Newfoundland)
cf. "Old Newfoundland" (theme: Home sickness for the hills around St John's, Newfoundland)
File: RcToHeNe

Town I Loved So Well, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls growing up in hard times in "the town I loved so well." He formed a band and married. The music is gone but he hopes for peace and a bright new day "in the town that I loved so well"
AUTHOR: Phil Coulter (source: notes to IRHardySons)
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (IRHardySons)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "In my memory I can always see The town that I loved so well" The singer recalls playing school ball by the smoky, smelly, gas yard wall and "running up the dark lane By the jail." Mothers were called from Creggan, the Moor, and the Bog to work in the shirt factory early in the morning. Men on the dole minded the children and trained the dog without complaining. The singer formed a band and married. Now the music is gone. He hopes for peace. "We can only pray for a bright new day, In the town that I loved so well"
KEYWORDS: poverty violence unemployment work hardtimes Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, TWNLVD*
RECORDINGS:
Big John Maguire and daughter Kate, "The Town I Loved So Well" (on IRHardySons)
NOTES [481 words]: Notes to IRHardySons: "This is a contemporary song written by Phil Coulter in the early 1970s that has been sucked into the tradition and altered somewhat in the process. Recorded by The Dubliners."
Wikipedia re "The Town I Loved So Well": "'The Town I Loved So Well's a song written by Phil Coulter about his childhood in Derry, Northern Ireland. The first three verses are about the simple lifestyle he grew up with in Derry, while the final two deal with the Troubles, and lament how his placid hometown had become a major military outpost, plagued with sectarian violence."
"The Town I Loved So Well" at Triskelle site, dated Dec. 13, 2005: "After 21 June 1972, Bloody Friday, the British army started a huge scaled military operation known as Operation Motorman. Army units with tanks and bulldozers cleared the barricades surrounding the so-called no-go areas in Creggan, Bogside and Andersontown. Northern Ireland really had become a war-zone." - BS
The mention of the Dole is, in many ways, even more indicative of Ulster's situation in this period than are the references to the Troubles. Violence in Ulster was not as high as we sometimes think -- the murder rate was lower than most big American cities in the same period (according to the chart on p. 260 of Ruth Dudley Edwards, An Atlas of Irish History, second edition, Routledge, 1981, even the worst year of the Troubles, 1972, saw fewer than 400 killed, and no other year witnessed as many as 300 deaths -- dreadful, yes, but not so high as to automatically destabilize a society. Northern Ireland's population at this time was about one and a half million, so we have a murder rate of about 25 per 100,000. Comparing this to the data for the United States (as found in the Statistical Abstract of the United States 2000, which covers the year 1998 -- the lowest crime rate year I found in a quick and incomplete sample), the murder rate in Detroit was 43.0 per 100,000; that in Baltimore was 47.1; that in New Orleans 48.8; that in Washington, DC, 49.7. In all, there are at least *nine* American cities which, in that good year, had higher murder rates than Ulster in its *worst* year.
But the decline of the British merchant fleet, and of the whole British economy, doomed the Belfast shipbuilding industry. The region's other major industry was textiles, and that too faded in the period. And the small size of Ulster made it economically inefficient, and the Irish Republic was an economic basket case due to the inefficiencies of the de Valera period, and the border regions were generally worst of all. Unemployment in Northern Ireland rose steadily in the 1970s to levels well above 10% -- by 1980, half the regions of Ulster had unemployment rates exceeding 15% (Edwards, p. 263); in perhaps a fifth of the country, it exceeded 20%. Edwards shows the Derry area as being in the 15-20% unemployment range. - RBW
File: RcTTILSW

Town o' Arbroath, The

DESCRIPTION: "Although far awa frae my ain native heather, And thousands o' miles across the blue sea," the singer still dreams of his home in Arbroath. He recalls the lessons his parents taught him. Now rich, he intends to return to his home.
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Myles ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan3); 19C (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(29b))
KEYWORDS: home emigration return
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #136, p. 2, "The Town o' Arbroath" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 520, "The Toon o' Arbroath" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 345, "The Town o' Arbroath" (1 text)
Roud #3946
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(6b), "Toon of Arbroath," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1880-1900
File: Ord345A

Town of Antrim, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to Ireland; he will wander "far from Paddy's green countrie."He recalls the beauties of County Antrim, his birthplace. He promises to remember all these things in his new home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (JIFSS)
KEYWORDS: emigration home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H632, p. 203, "Paddy's Green Countrie" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 20A, "The Town of Antrim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, p. 25, "The Town of Antrim" (1 text)
Roud #2746
File: HHH632

Town of Dunmanway, The

See The Black Velvet Band (I) (File: R672)

Town of Marlborough, The

See The Maid of Fainey (File: MA167)

Town of Oranmore, The (If You Ever Go Over to Ireland)

DESCRIPTION: Singer, possibly American, warns against women of Ireland; one of them has made a fool of him. He picks her up; she asks him to take her to dinner at Cleary's; he wraps her in his cloak; she scratches his nose, tears his clothes, and, apparently, robs him
AUTHOR: Shaun O'Nolan
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (sung by Margaret Barry on Voice04)
KEYWORDS: request warning travel theft humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #5277
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "If You Ever Go Over to Ireland" (on Voice04)
Margaret Barry w. Michael Gorman, "If You Ever Go Over to Ireland (The Town of Oranmore)" (on Pubs1)
NOTES [59 words]: The plot is somewhat confused. Oranmore is located at the extreme east of Galway Bay, and it was a popular place for Travellers to part their caravans, especially around the time of the Galway race meeting. The song originated in the Irish music-halls. - PJS
Hall, notes to Voice04: "in the McNulty Family's original it is his bank roll she swipes." - BS
File: RcToOran

Town of Passage (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "The town of Passage is neat and spacious, All situated upon the sea." The boats, sailors, bathers, lovers, and ferry to Carrigaloe are described. Molly Bowen has a lodging house where "often goes in one Simon Quin" to his bed among the fleas.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: sea ship shore humorous nonballad bug
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 254-256, "The Town of Passage" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 82-83, "The Town of Passage" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Town of Passage (II), (III)" (subject)
NOTES [153 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "The town of Passage ... is situated between Cork and its Cove...." - BS
It is also a very old town; according to T. W. Moody, F. X. Martin, and Dermot Keough, with Patrick Kiely, The Course of Irish History, fifth edition, 2011 (page references are to the 2012 paperback edition), p. 111, it is located near the junction of the rivers Suir and Barrow, and it was there that Strongbow first landed when the Anglo-Normans invaded Ireland in the twelfth century. - RBW
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "This song was introduced, with considerable effect, upon the London stage by the late Mr Charles Connor, in Lord Glengall's very amusing farce of the 'Irish Tutor.'" - BS
It apparently made an impression, too; Edward Harrigan, The Mulligans, G. W. Dillingham, 1901, p. 307, has an Irish character, quote it, implying that it was (though to be) very well known in Ireland at the time. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: CrPS254

Town of Passage (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Passage town is of great renown." Steamboats on Lough Mahon, whale-boats "skipping upon the tide," prison ships bound for Botany Bay, foreign ships, ferries, and fishing boats are described. The women hunt snails, shrimp, and cockles at low tide.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: commerce fishing sea ship shore nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 256-258, "The Town of Passage" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Town of Passage (I), (III)" (subject)
NOTES [111 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "The town of Passage ... is situated between Cork and its Cove...." - BS
It is also a very old town; according to T. W. Moody, F. X. Martin, and Dermot Keough, with Patrick Kiely, The Course of Irish History, fifth edition, 2011 (page references are to the 2012 paperback edition), p. 111, it is located near the junction of the rivers Suir and Barrow, and it was there that Strongbow first landed when the Anglo-Normans invaded Ireland in the twelfth century. - RBW
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland points out that "The Town of Passage (II)" quotes "The Town of Passage (I)" and must therefore be "a subsequent composition to No. I." - BS
Last updated in version 2.8
File: CrPS256

Town of Passage (III), The

DESCRIPTION: "The town of Passage ... situated Upon the say, 'Tis nate and dacent." Ships at anchor, ferries to Carrigaloe, but also mud cabins, melodious pigs and dead fish abound. Foreign ships deal in whisky-punch. Convicts are bound for Botany Bay.
AUTHOR: Father Prout [Rev Francis Sylvester Mahony (1804-1866)] (source: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: sea ship shore humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 258-260, "The Town of Passage" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 99-100, "The Town Passage" (1 text)
Roud #9574
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Town of Passage (I), (II)" (subject)
NOTES [154 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "The town of Passage ... is situated between Cork and its Cove...." - BS
It is also a very old town; according to T. W. Moody, F. X. Martin, and Dermot Keough, with Patrick Kiely, The Course of Irish History, fifth edition, 2011 (page references are to the 2012 paperback edition), p. 111, it is located near the junction of the rivers Suir and Barrow, and it was there that Strongbow first landed when the Anglo-Normans invaded Ireland in the twelfth century. - RBW
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland notes Father Prout's comment on his "The Town of Passage (III)" as a parody of I and II: "Its reverend author, or rather concocter, has described it as 'manifestly an imitation of that unrivalled dithyramb, 'The Groves of Blarney,' with a little of its humour, and all its absurdity.'" - BS
Father Prout, however, did not compose "The Groves of Blarney"; his great work is "Bells of Shandon." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: CrPS258

Town of Waxford

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Town Passage, The

See The Town of Passage (III) (File: CrPS258)

Towns of Jamaica

DESCRIPTION: The singer says Jamaica has towns and districts with funny names and names some towns and parishes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (WILBennett01)
KEYWORDS: humorous moniker nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
RECORDINGS:
Louise Bennett, "Towns of Jamaica" (on WILBennett01)
NOTES [28 words]: The song reminds me most in tune and pattern of The Flanagan Brothers' "The Half a Crown Song" (1996, on "The Tunes We Like to Play on Paddy's Day," Viva Voce CD 007). - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: RcTowJam

TP and the Morgan

DESCRIPTION: Work song for tie-tamping: "TP throwed the water, Water in Morgan's eye...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: worksong railroading
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 448, "TP and the Morgan" (1 text)
File: BRaF448

Tra la la la, I'm Father of a Family

See Hurrah for Matrimonial Joys (File: KSUC020)

Trace-Boy on Ligoniel Hill, A

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls with pride the days of the horse trams when he was a trace-boy on Ligoniel Hill. Today his "friends all departed, and work now so scarce," he sleeps on open brick kilns. "The only thing left is a ride in a hearse"
AUTHOR: Hugh Quinn (1884-1956) (source: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Hammond-SongsOfBelfast)
KEYWORDS: age poverty pride unemployment hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 16, "A Trace-Boy on Ligoniel Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 50, "A Trace Boy on Ligoniel Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LIGONIEL*
Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 78-80, "A Trace-Boy on Ligoniel Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Gravel" (tune)
NOTES [83 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: Two horses were added to a Belfast horse-drawn tram team for the pull up steep inclines. "This task was done by trace-boys who waited at the bottom of steep hills such as Ligoniel.... The Ligoniel Tramway system started up in the summer of 1885." The kiln reference is to open kilns at brick manufacturing companies: "After a day's firing the kilns retained their heat for a considerable time so that many tramps and paupers took advantage of the free heat for the night." - BS
File: Leyd016

Track Callling

See Track Lining (File: Rose124)

Track Lining

DESCRIPTION: Story-song about the work of laying track, with a musical line such as "Ain't but the one train riding this track (hah!), Run down to Macon and right straight back (hah!)." The singer may describe other members of the gang or the work itself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: railroading work recitation
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 124, "Track Lining" (1 text, t tune)
Roud #16269
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Can'cha Line 'Em" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Track Calling
File: Rose124

Track Lining Holler

See Tie-Tamping Chant (File: LxA017)

Track Lining Song

See Can'cha Line 'Em (File: LxU078)

Track to Knob Lake, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer signs a contract to spike three months on the Knob Lake track. Food is awful. After a month 18 men quit. Each day the first to finish has lots of food but none is left for the last. He still hopes to come back the next year.
AUTHOR: Albert Roche
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: railroading worker food
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 797-798, "The Track to Knob Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9811
RECORDINGS:
Gerald Campbell, "The Track to Knob Lake" (on PeacockCDROM)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
cf. "Twin Lakes" (lyrics)
cf. "The Bonavist Line" (theme)
NOTES [105 words]: First verse -- only -- is stolen from "Twin Lakes." Peacock says "the track to Knob Lake [is] a railroad pushed through the wilderness of central Quebec to rich deposits of iron ore." The track was laid in the 1950s. "In ballads of this type it is customary to complain about working and living conditions, and the composer does his best.... However, with planes flying the workers in and out I suspect that most Newfoundlanders never had it so good." - BS
If you're looking for Knob Lake on the map, it is usually marked "Lac Knob" on maps of Quebec; it is just on the Quebec side of the very irregular Quebec/Labrador border. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pea797

Tract for the Hard Times, The

DESCRIPTION: "How to dodge the hard times is the hardest of tasks, For 'Whatever becomes of us?' everyone asks." The questioner receives advice, e.g. "Make the wool into cloth, raise your coals from the land... Be your own linen drapers For the Colony issue... papers"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Wellington Evening Star, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes nonballad New Zealand work clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 30-31, "A Tract for the Hard Times" (1 text, 1 non-traditional tune)
File: BaRo031

Trade of Kauri Gum

See Song of the Gumfield (File: BaRo127)

Trader, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of the wreck of the Trader, bound from Galway to London. A dream warns the Captain of disaster. A storm blows up; the rudder is wrecked; the ship goes aground; seven of the crew are drowned. The singer hopes they will be remembered
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection; reportedly found in an 1827 broadside)
KEYWORDS: ship death storm wreck disaster dream
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H11, pp. 110-111, "The Trader" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2952
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ye Banks and Braes of Bonnie Doon" (tune)
File: HHH011

Trading-Out Blues

DESCRIPTION: "In the middle of the night if you hear a scream And there's a flame burnin'... the road... It's just a bunch of cowboys Tradin' out at the next rodeo." The song describes the wild driving cowboys do as they travel from rodeo to rodeo
AUTHOR: Johnny Baker
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: cowboy travel technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 97, "Trading-Out Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [64 words]: According to Ohrlin, professional rodeo cowboys would often rearrange their riding schedules so that they could appear at two events simultaneously. This was known as "trading out." Not all rodeos permit trading out, but some do in order to increase the number of top-flight cowboys entered. But, of course, it leaves the riders having to really make time between events. Hence this song.
File: Ohr097

Tragedia de Heraclio Bernal

DESCRIPTION: Spanish: "Ano de noventa y quatro en la ciudad de Mazatlan...." Bernal is a robber who steals from the rich, gives to the poor, kills the police (and uses their skin for boots). But he is killed by treachery in Mazatlan in 1894.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage outlaw robbery death police funeral
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 368-371, "Tragedia de Heraclio Bernal" (1 text plus prose translation, 1 tune)
File: LxA368

Tragedy at Meadow Lea

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas winter and the wind blew keen, Blew with its might and main, And more and more the snow did blow Across the stormy plain." John Taylor and family are safe at home when a fire stars and they must "freeze or burn." Mrs. Taylor and three girls die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba)
KEYWORDS: storm fire death disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 1882 - the great Manitoba blizzard described in this song
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba, #14, pp. 83-87, "Tragedy at Meadow Lea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25768
File: Macl014

Tragedy of Sunset Land, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a little western city in the shadow of the hills, Where sleeps a brave young rebel 'neath the dew." He died saying "'Boys, I always did my best' Where the old Chehalis River flows its way." Wesley Everest died to encourage workers to organize
AUTHOR: credited to Loren Roberts
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Songs of the Workers, IWW fiftieth anniversary publication)
KEYWORDS: worker death burial river
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 627, "The Tragedy of Sunset Land" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 510, "The Tragedy of Sunset Land" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Where the Silvery Colorado Wends Its Way" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
cf. "The Suckers Sadly Gather" (tune)
File: CAFS2626

Tragic Romance

DESCRIPTION: Singer recalls a girl he loved long ago; he left her her in the arms of another man. Many years later he meets the girl's brother. He learns she died awaiting his return, never knowing why he left. (The brother was the man who was in her arms.)
AUTHOR: Louis M. "Grandpa" Jones
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (recording, Morris Bros.); Roberts found it in tradition in 1959
KEYWORDS: infidelity love rambling abandonment death family
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #70, "Tragic Romance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 41, "Tragic Romance" (1 text with variants, 1 tune)
Roud #25795
RECORDINGS:
Morris Brothers, "Tragic Romance" (RCA Victor 20-1905, 1946)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise)" [Laws F4] (tune)
cf. "After the Ball" (plot)
cf. "Fatal Rose of Red" (theme)
NOTES [62 words]: When this song first came to my attention, I refused to accept the attribution to "Grandpa" Jones, since the plot is straight from "After the Ball" and the tune is "Omie Wise." Jones, however, confesses, "I had been singing the old 1890s song, After the Ball, and I borrowed the story from that and the tune from the old folk song Naomi Wise and began to work it out." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CSW041

Tragical Death of an Apple Pie, The

See A Is for Apple Pie (File: R874)

Trail of the Lonesome Pine, The (Stood a Cow on the Railroad Track)

DESCRIPTION: "In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia Stood a cow on the railroad track." It was a nice old cow, but it couldn't read the railroad sign, so a train hit it, leaving its "horns in the mountains of Virginia And her tail on the lonesome pine"
AUTHOR: Original song "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine": Lyrics by Ballard McDonald / EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (collected by Douglas Haynie from Deanna Moore of Benton, Arkansas); original song publisheed 1913
KEYWORDS: humorous derivative cattle death train
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
Roud #37254
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" (Piotr-Archive #380, recorded 12/14/2022; includes a fragment of the original song)
NOTES [110 words]: The original song "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" was popular enough to inspire at least two parodies (this one and one about goats eating dynamite, both files as Roud #37254), but the original does not seem to have become traditional -- Judy Cook sang part of it for Derek Piotr, but she heard it on the radio, whereas she learned the parody orally from her mother.
The phrase "On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine" was first popularized in a 1908 novel of that title by John Fox, then was used for this song in 1913, then was used for a movie (based on the book) in 1936. All have Wikipedia entries. The song was recorded by, among others, Laurel and Hardy! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio380

Trail the Eagle

DESCRIPTION: "Trail the Eagle, trail the Eagle, Climbing all the time. First the Star and then the Life, Will on your bosom shine. KEEP CLIMBING! Blaze the trail and we will follow, Hark the Eagles' call; On, brothers, on, Until we're Eagles all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings)
KEYWORDS: travel campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 172, "290, Trail the Eagle" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 88, "Trail the Eagle" (1 text, tune referenced)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 26, "Trail the Eagle" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 59, "Trail the Eagle" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On Wisconsin" (tune)
NOTES [14 words]: This appears to be specifically a Boy Scout song, about becoming an Eagle Scout. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF172T

Trail to Mexico, The [Laws B13]

DESCRIPTION: The singer is hired by A.J. Stinson to drive a herd to Mexico. While away, his sweetheart has left him for a richer man. Though she asks him to remain at home and safe, he sets out for the trail again and swears to spend the rest of his life on the trail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: cowboy rejection poverty
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws B13, "The Trail to Mexico"
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #70, p. 241-242, "I Made Up My Mind (The Trail to Mexico, Laws B13)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 61-63, "Trail to Mexico" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 138, "The Mexico Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 285-286, "The Trail to Mexico" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 66, "The Trail to Mexico" (5 texts, 1 tune, of which only the "A" and "B" texts go here; "C" and "D" are "Early, Early in the Spring" and "E" is "Going to Leave Old Texas")
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 858-859, "Trail to Mexico" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 62, "Trail to Mexico" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #49, "Trail to Mexico" (1 text, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 34-35, "The Trail to Mexico" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 36-39, "The Trail to Mexico" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 394-395, "The Trail to Mexico" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 197-199, "The Trail to Mexico" (1 text)
DT 380, TRAILMEX
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 25, #4 (1977), pp, 22-23, "Following the Cowtrail" (1 text, 1 tune, the Carl T. Sprague version)
Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, p. 50, "The Trail to Mexico" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #152
RECORDINGS:
Bill Bender (The Happy Cowboy), "Trail to Mexico" (Elite X17, n.d., rec. 1939)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "The Trail to Mexico" (Victor V-40016, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-4469 [as Harry "Mac" McClintock and his Haywire Orchestra], 1934)
Len Nash & his Country Boys, "The Trail to Mexico" (Brunswick 354, 1929; Supertone S-2069, 1930)
Pete Seeger, "Trail to Mexico" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a)
Carl T. Sprague, "Following the Cow Trail" (Victor 20067, 1925; Montgomery Ward M-4468, 1934; on AuthCowboys)
Texas Rangers, "The Trail to Mexico" (Decca 5183, 1936)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Early, Early in the Spring" [Laws M1] (plot)
cf. "Buffalo Skinners" [Laws B10a] (a few overlapping lyrics)
NOTES [67 words]: Cox and Fife both consider this to be derived from "Early, Early in the Spring" [Laws M1], and even Laws concedes kinship. Roud in fact lumps the songs. However, as Laws also notes, "the cowboy ballad... shows considerable reworking." - RBW
It's also worth noting that this song, "Boggy Creek," and "Buffalo Skinners" share enough lyrics, plot elements, etc. to make life interesting and confusing. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LB13

Train 45

See Reuben's Train; also Nine Hundred Miles (File: Wa133)

Train Done Left Me

DESCRIPTION: "The train's done left me, and the jitney bus has gone (x2), Lord... I won't be here long." The singer is leaving and will not be back. His woman is "further down the road" and has another man. The train has fourteen coaches
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Carolina Tar Heels)
KEYWORDS: love separation train travel floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
Roud #22490
RECORDINGS:
Carolina Tar Heels [Clarence Ashley, Garley Foster, Dock Walsh], "Train Done Left Me" (1929; on Ashley04)
File: RcTDLM

Train I Ride

DESCRIPTION: "Train I ride 16 coaches long, ... carried my babe from home." "Love my baby tell the world I do ... she loves you too." "mama meat shakes on your bones ... a poor man's dollar gone." "1 and 1 is 2, 2 and 2 is 4, You don't want me but you can't let me go"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (USMississippi01)
KEYWORDS: love infidelity sex rejection parting train nonballad derivative
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Lovey Williams, "Train I Ride" (on USMississippi01)
NOTES [80 words]: From David Evans's liner notes to USMississippi01: "Lovey Williams adds traditional verses to 'Train I Ride,' itself based on a more or less traditional blues recorded by Junior Parker in 1953." Little Junior's (Parker) Blue Flames's "Mystery Train" (Sun 192, 1953) is the Evans reference that shares its first verse with Lovey Williams's track, as does Elvis Presley's "Mystery Train" (Sun 223, 1955). Lovey Williams's song seems all floating verse with the third line twisted. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcTraIRi

Train Is A-Coming, The

DESCRIPTION: "The train is a-coming, oh, yes! Train is a-coming, oh, yes! Train is a-coming, train is a-coming, Train is a-coming, oh, yes!" "Better get your ticket...." "King Jesus is conductor...." "I'm on my way to heaven...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: train religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 253-254, "The Train Is A-Coming" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11618
File: ScaNF253

Train on the Island (June Apple/June Appal)

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses, "Train on the island, thought I heard it blow, Go tell my true love, I'm sick and I can't go." "Train on the island, listen to it squeal, Go and tell my true love how happy I do feel." Verses mostly about courting and separation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, J. P. Nestor)
KEYWORDS: courting separation floatingverses separation abandonment nonballad music
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 97, "Train on the Island" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TRAINIS
Roud #17376
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Higgins et al, "June Apple" [instrumental] (on LomaxCD1702)
Tommy Jarrell, "Train on the Island" (on FarMtns4)
J. P. Nestor, "Train on the Island" (Victor 21070A, 1927; on AAFM3, TimesAint01, StuffDreams2)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Train on the Island" (on NLCR13)
Crockett Ward & his Boys "Train on the Island" (OKeh, unissued, 1927); Fields Ward, Glen Smith & Wade Ward, "Train on the Island" (on HalfCen1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Going Across the Sea" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [27 words]: As a rule of thumb, this seems to be called "Train on the Island" when it is sung but "June Appal" when played as a fiddle tune. There are exceptions, of course. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: ADR97

Train Run So Fast

DESCRIPTION: "Train, train, train, train run so fast, Couldn't see nothing but de trees go past." "Don't tell mama where I'm gone, Cause I'm on my way back home." ""Mister, Misters, I don't want to fight, I got de heart disease, don't feel just right."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: train disease floatingverses home nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 466, "Train ... Run So Fast" (1 short text, probably a mixture of several songs)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 466, "Train... Run So Fast" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11786
NOTES [66 words]: This has a good deal in common with Darby and Tarlton's recording "Captain Won't You Let Me Go Home" ("Show Me the Way to Go Home," emphatically not the same as the other Brown fragment, "Show Me the Way to Go Home, Babe"); there is clearly dependence one way or the other. But the recording uses a different stanza form and is all about war service; I tentatively treat them as separate songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3466

Train That Carried My Girl from Town, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer asks about the train that's just left; "if I knew the number I'd flag her down." He wishes it would wreck and kill the crew; "some low rounder stole my jelly roll." He asks if there's a woman a man can trust.
AUTHOR: possibly Frank Hutchison
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Frank Hutchison)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer asks about the train that's just left; "if I knew the number I'd flag her down." He wishes it would wreck and kill the crew; "some low rounder stole my jelly roll." He asks if there's a woman a man can trust. Chorus: "Hate that train that carried my girl from town/Hey, hey, hey"
KEYWORDS: grief jealousy loneliness infidelity sex train travel abandonment railroading floatingverses lover hate
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 26-27, "The Train That Took My Gal From Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 426-430, "The Train That Carried My Girl from Town" (1 text plus a text of Maynard Britton's "I Wish That Train Would Wreck"; 1 tune)
Roud #7027
RECORDINGS:
Frank Hutchison, "The Train That Carried the Girl from Town" (OKeh 45064, 1926) (OKeh 45111 [45114?], 1927); "Train That Carried My Girl from Town" (OKeh 45114, 1927)
V. L. & Cleve Sutphin, "The Train That Carried My Girl from Town" (on CloseHomeMS)
Doc Watson, "The Train That Carried My Girl From Town" (on Watson01, ClassRR)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hate the Train the Carried My Girl from Town
NOTES [69 words]: A white blues; it's possible Hutchison composed this, but he also may have learned it from black musicians. Certainly his performance, with knife-slide guitar, sounds very African-American. - PJS
Cohen speculates that Hutchison had it from an acquaintance, Bill Hunt. It's not clear to me why Cohen lists Hunt rather than Hutchison; in any case, the song resembles other blues in that it has many floating lines. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: RcTTCMGF

Train That Never Returned, The

DESCRIPTION: A train sets out, but "Did she ever return? No, she never returned, Though the train was due at one. For hours and hours the watchman stood waiting For the train that never returned." The song describes some of those who waited for it
AUTHOR: Music by Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording by Fiddlin' John Carson); Stout-FolkloreFromIowa's source claimed to have learned it in 1888
KEYWORDS: train railroading separation death derivative
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 53, "The Train That Never Returned" (1 text)
Randolph 694, "The Train that Never Returned" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 215, "The Ship That Never Returned" (1 text, filed as "c" under the parodies)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 42-43, "The Train That Never Returned" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, p. 31, "The Train That Never Returned" (1 text, tune references)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, p. 139, "The Train that Never Returned" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #23794
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Did He Ever Return" (OKeh 45176, 1928; rec. 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship that Never Returned" [Laws D27] (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "The Wreck of Old 97" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Rarden Wreck of 1893" (tune & metre, theme)
cf. "The Flying Colonel" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Whitey Johns, "The Train That Never Arrived" (Romeo 1205, 1930)
NOTES [24 words]: I am assigning the Whitey Johns recording to this title, without having heard it, but I'm calling it a SAME TUNE to be on the safe(r) side. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: R694

Train That Took My Girl from Town, The

See The Train That Carried My Girl from Town (File: RcTTCMGF)

Train That Will Never Be Found, The

DESCRIPTION: "Remember the Church Hill Tunnel, Near a mile under Richmond." One bleak autumn afternoon, a train and crew are in the tunnel when it collapses. Many try to dig them out, but "Brothers keep shovelin' For the train that's never been found."
AUTHOR: Llewellyn Lewis & Billy Pierce (source: Lyle)
EARLIEST DATE: 1991 (Lyle)
KEYWORDS: train disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 2, 1925 -- Collapse of the Church Hill Tunnel in Richmond, VA. The tunnel was under repair at the time, and a train in the tunnel; men from both train and repair crew were lost. The tunnel, which had a bad safety record, was closed after the collapse, and the train and some bodies were left in it
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 116-124, "The Train That Will Never Be Found" (1 text, in a chapter titled "The Church Hill Tunnel Disaster")
Roud #14024
File: LySc116

Train Whistle Blues

DESCRIPTION: "When a woman gets the blues, she hands her little head and cries... When a man gets the blues, he grabs a train and rides." The singer wishes the train would take him home. His whole world is blue; he can't find a job
AUTHOR: Jimmie Rodgers (but based on much traditional material)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Jimmie Rodgers)
KEYWORDS: train home travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 452-455, "Train Whistle Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Jimmie Rodgers, "Train Whisle Blues" (Victor 22379, 1930; rec. 1929)
File: LSRai452

Trainman's Song, The

See Jessie, the Belle at the Bar (File: R051)

Trajedie o Twa Bairns of Newark, The

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

Tramp (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The hobo has been wandering till his shoes are worn to pieces. He asks a woman for work; she replies, "Tramp, tramp, tramp, keep on a-tramping, There is nothing here for you." Everywhere he tries, he is threatened with prison if he returns
AUTHOR: Joe Hill
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (_The Industrial Worker_, May 22, 1913, according to William M. Adler, _The Main Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon_, p. 206)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes poverty prison hobo unemployment IWW
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 185, "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, Keep On a-Tramping" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 281-282, "The Tramp" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 52, ""The Tramp (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 320, "(The Tramp)" (1 fragment, said to be an addition to this song)
DT, THETRMP*
ADDITIONAL: Gibbs M. Smith, _Joe Hill_, 1969 (I use the 1984 Peregrine Smith Books edition), pp. 251-252, "The Tramp" (1 text)
Roud #9929
RECORDINGS:
Frank Crumit, "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, Keep On A'Tramping" (Victor V-40214, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" (tune) and reference there
NOTES [7 words]: For the life of Joe Hill, see "Joe Hill." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: San185

Tramp (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a broken-down man without money or friends... I wisht I had never been born." The tramp reports that people constantly tell him to get a job, but none will offer a job. He recalls another tramp thrown off a train and killed on the track
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, McGee Brothers); a version was printed c. 1880 in _De Marsan's Singer's Journal_
KEYWORDS: hobo death hardtimes unemployment
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) Canada(Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 347-350, "Because He Was Only a Tramp" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 71, "The Tramp's Lament" (1 text)
Randolph 843, "The Tramp" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 48, "Broken-Down Sport" (1 text)
Roud #4305
RECORDINGS:
Jack Edwards, "The Tramp" (Supertone 9711, 1930)
Leo Gooley, "The Tramp" (on ONEFowke01)
McGee Brothers, "The Tramp" (Vocalion 5171, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Remember the Poor Tramp Has to Live" (plot)
NOTES [63 words]: Cohen theorizes that this started as two songs, one about a tramp who can't find work, the other about a tramp thrown from a train and killed. As evidence he prints a version which lacks the dying tramp stanzas. This seems not unlikely, but until we find a version of the song with the tramp thrown from the train *without* the other part, there isn't much point in splitting. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: R843

Tramp (III), The

See Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight? (File: R841)

Tramp in the Rain, A

See Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight? (File: R841)

Tramp on the Street

DESCRIPTION: ""Only a tramp, was Lazarus's sad fate, He who lad down at the rich man's gate.... They left him to die like a tramp on the street." "He was some mother's darling... Once he was fair and once he was young." Hearers should care for the poor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cray-AshGrove)
KEYWORDS: religious poverty punishment Hell hobo
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-AshGrove, p. 41, "Only a Tramp" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17691
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dives and Lazarus" [Child 56] (subject) and references there
NOTES [112 words]: Jesus's story of the rich man and Lazarus -- which, be it noted, was a warning, not a description of an actual event -- is found in Luke 16:19-31 (the Lazarus of John 11, 12 is unrelated).
Derek Piotr had two items he listed under the title "Tramp on the street": Frances Turbyfill (Campbell), "Tramp on the Street" (Piotr-Archive #148, recorded 04/25/2022) and Amy Michels, "Tramp on the Street" (Piotr-Archive #169, recorded 05/10/2022). Odds are that both are this. But neither is actually a recording of a song; both consist of this one line and a lot of hemming and hawing. This is not enough to establish identity, so I have not listed them among the recording. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CrAGr41

Tramp Song, The

See Remember the Poor Tramp Has to Live (File: RcRtPTHL)

Tramp the Bushes of Australia

See True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man) (File: MA062)

Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (If You Will Not Let Me In)

DESCRIPTION: "Tramp. tramp, tramp, the boys are marching, Cheer up the bobbies at the door. If you will not let me in, I will bust yer belly in, And ye'll never see yer daddy any more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: police father derivative
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 55, "(Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marchin')" (1 text)
Roud #20197
NOTES [35 words]: Presumably to the tune of "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp," but Peirce does not say so. I don't think all songs filed under Roud #20197 are really the same, although they include a lot of "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp" parodies. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PKKB055C

Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, Keep On a-Tramping

See The Tramp (I) (File: San185)

Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!

DESCRIPTION: The prisoner cries as he recalls mother and home. He recalls the battle where he was taken. But then he recalls that the troops are coming, and cheers his fellows: "Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching, Cheer up comrades they will come...."
AUTHOR: George F. Root
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (sheet music published by Root & Cady)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar prisoner freedom
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Root-StoryOfAMusicalLife-GeorgeFRoot, pp. 246-249, "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #242, "In the Prison Cell I Sit" (1 short text, which appears to be this although Hubbard does not so identify it)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 214-217, "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! or The Prisoner's Hope" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, pp. 420-421, 'Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! or The Prisoner's Hope" (1 broadside text plus a copy of the sheet music cover, both from Root & Cady)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 35-37, "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! (The Prisoner's Hope)"; p. 37, "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp, II (Southern Version)" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 86-87, "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2368, p. 159, "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! The Prisoner's Hope" (7 references)
Dime-Song-Book #16, p. 17, "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 118-119, "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! (The Prisoner's Hope)" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 149-150, "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 449, "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 347-348, "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 66, "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 85-86, "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! or The Prisoner's Hope" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 588+, "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 434, "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp" (notes only)
DT, TRMPTRMP*
ST RJ19214 (Full)
Roud #10911
RECORDINGS:
S. H. Dudley, "Tramp Tramp Tramp" (Berliner 0157-Y, rec. 1898)
Frank J. Gaskin, "Tramp Tramp Tramp" (Berliner 0157-Z, rec. 1896)[
Arthur] Harlan & [Frank] Stanley, "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp" (Victor 5021, 1907) (CYL: Edison 9439, 1907) (CYL: Edison [BA] Special E [as Harlan & Stanley w. chorus], n.d.)
Frank C. Stanley, "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" (CYL: Edison 5002, c. 1898)
Unknown baritone "Tramp Tramp Tramp" (Berliner 0157, rec. before 1895)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tramp (I)" (tune)
cf. "An Anti-Fenian Song" (tune)
cf. "The Bounty Jumper's Lament" (tune)
cf. "God Save Ireland" (tune)
cf. "The Salutation" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Wallaby Brigade (File: FaE186)
In Bohunkus, Tennessee (File: EM354)
Our Leaky Tents (File: LDC288)
The Little Busy Bee (by William McGavin; in _The Song Wave for School and Home_, 1882)
Jump! Jump Jump! Our Friends Are Coming (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 80)
On! On! On! A Sequel to Tramp, Tramp, Tramp ("Oh! the day it came, at last") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 117; Dime-Song-Book #17, p. 8)
Rum! Rum! Rum! The Bummer's Hope. A Parody on The Prisoner's Hope ("In the marble halls I sit," by John C. Cross) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 137)
We Have Chosen for Our Chief (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 170)
When the Bonny Moon (by G. M. Dodge, [class of 18]68) ("When the bonny moon is seen Glinting down on Bowdoin green") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, pp. 129-130)
The Chimes ("To the busy morning light, To the slumbers of the night") (by F. W. Finch) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 109)
Hope for the Toiling ("Daily at my task I work, Thinking, brothers dear, of you") (by B. M. Lawrence) (Foner, p. 112)
Song for Working Voters ("In the fields and shops we drudge, Working on from day to day") (Foner, p. 114)
Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! (Greenback version) ("Upon the western breeze, and from the eastern seas, The cheering cry of 'Liberty' is heard") (by Mary Dana Schindler) (Foner, p. 141)
Labor's Chorus ("In the labor ranks we stand! Joining earnest heart and hand") (by E. A. Bacon) (Foner, p. 157)
March! March! March! ("In the crowded scenes of toil, in the workshop and the mine") (Foner, p. 164)
Eight-Hour Song (1) ("Let us gather once again, Let us strike with might and main") (Foner, p. 217)
Eight-Hour Song (2) ("We have toiled for others' gains, And have robbed both purse and brains") (Foner, p. 218)
The Toiler's National Anthem ("Toiling brothers, why contend Till your youthful days are spent") (by M. J. Heany) (Foner, p. 232)
Bang! Bang! Bang! ("Come, ye toilers of the land, Join the people's party band") (Foner, p. 280)
Marching Song ("In our poverty and toil Lookin upon the world") (by Charles H. Kerr) (Foner, p. 314)
Prohiition Land ("There's a pleasant land I know Where the children safely go") (by Frances B. Damon) (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 21)
Rally for Victory ("From the land of palm and cane To the wooded hills of Maine") (by H. H. Barstow) (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 24)
Scratch, Scratch, Scratch ("Scratch, scratch, scratch, the bugs are biting; Cheer up, comrades, they will come") (Harbin-Parodology, #216, p. 56)
Bug Song ("Tramp, tramp, tramp, the bugs are marching, Up and down the tent they go") (Harbin-Parodology, #230, p. 58)
Tramp Tramp Tramp the Scouts are Marching (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 288)
NOTES [140 words]: Root-StoryOfAMusicalLife-GeorgeFRoot, pp. 136-137, writes of this song, "As I have said, when anything happened that could be voiced in a song, or when the heart of the nation was moved by particular circumstances or conditions caused by the war, I wrote what I thought would then express the emotions of the soldiers or the people.... I voiced the feeling of the people in regard to the treatment of prisoners by 'Starved in prison,' and gave a more hopeful view in 'Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching.'"
On pp. 151-152, he calls this his last successful war song; it "had but a short life -- less than a year, but in that time our profit on it was ten thousand dollars."
In 1910 a musical, "Naughty Marietta," featured a song called "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" It was not this; it was written by Rida Johnson Young and Victor Herbert. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RJ19214

Tramp's Lament, The

See The Tramp (II) (File: R843)

Tramp's Story, The

DESCRIPTION: The tramp asks to sit and rest. Tramps have to live, "though folks don't think we should." He used to be a blacksmith. Then a stranger led his love Nellie astray. She died soon after he abandoned her. The tramp intends to find and punish the stranger
AUTHOR: Edward Harrigan?
EARLIEST DATE: 1930
KEYWORDS: hobo love abandonment betrayal death revenge
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 844, "The Tramp's Story" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 358, "Tale of a Tramp" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 358, notes only
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 148, "Down in the Lehigh Valley" (1 text)
Roud #7448
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Can I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight?" (plot)
cf. "The Lehigh Valley" (plot)
cf. "Remember the Poor Tramp Has to Live" (plot)
cf. "The Deserted Husband" (theme)
NOTES [160 words]: This is a difficult conundrum: It is unquestionably related to "The Lehigh Valley," with which it shares a plot and occasional words. The question is, which is original?
The natural inclination, of course, is to think that "Lehigh Valley," which is more firmly traditional and, in its crude way more vigorous, is the source. And yet, "The Tramp's Story" is *so* much more feeble that it's hard to imagine "Lehigh Valley" being expurgated so far.
It is worth noting that Brown's version contains a reference to the Lehigh Valley.
Plus, this song adds the moralizing conclusion about the girl's death. It's really a bit thick -- as any half-decent songwriter would surely recognize. So I'm just not sure.
The original by Edward Hannigan is said to be from the 1882 play "Squatter Sovereignty."
Milburn prints no fewer than six songs on this theme. Obviously the plot proved popular.
For background on Edward Harrigan, see the notes to "Babies on Our Block." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: R844

Tramping Chant

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the firefly is brilliant, but he hasn't any mind; He wanders through creation With his headlight on behind. Then cast your bread upon the water, And you'll see just what returns, Another time -- oh well, no matter; He who travels sometimes learns."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: bug nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 115, "Tramping Chant" (1 short text) (p. 98 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #14088
NOTES [75 words]: This sounds to me like a camp song, but it's too early for that.
The first stanza occurs in "The Herald and Presbyter" of January 12, 1916 (available on Google Books), p. 26, but with a different second verse:
Now the measuring worm is different,
When he goes out for pelf,
He measures to the limit,
And then he humps himself.
There is no attribution for this version ether.
Google has a few other citations, but none that explained the originl - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Shoe115A

Tramps and Hawkers

DESCRIPTION: "Come a' ye tramps and hawker lads and gaitherers o' blaw... I'll tell tae ye a rovin' tale, an' places I hae been, Far up intae the snowy north or sooth by Gretna Green." The singer describes his travels, sights he has seen, worries he hasn't had
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: rambling
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 487, "Come All Ye Tramps and Hawkers" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 358, "Tramps and Hawkers" (1 text, 1 tune)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 51, 150, "Come Aa Ye Tramps and Hawkers" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HAWKRS*
Roud #1874
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy MacBeath, "Come All Ye Tramps And Hawkers" (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743, Voice20)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Davy Faa (Remember the Barley Straw)" (tune)
cf. "Paddy West" (tune)
cf. "Hermitage Castle" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Davy Faa (Remember the Barley Straw) (File: K188)
Paddy West (File: Doe113)
Hermitage Castle (File: McSco056)
Doctor Fletcher (Dr. Pritchard) (File: Guig111)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Jolly Beggar
NOTES [100 words]: This song is best known not for its banal lyrics but for its widely-recognized and used tune (also known as "Paddy West"). - RBW
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 20" - 15.1.04: "It was first collected from both James Angus and James Morrison in 1909 and appears in the Greig-Duncan Collection Vol 3 p.271."
Greig/Duncan3: "Hamish Henderson mentions in the notes to the record Come A' Ye Tramps and Hawkers(Collector Records,Jes 10) that the song 'is reputed to have been composed by 'Besom Jimmy,' a much travelled Angus-born hawker of the last century." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: K358

Tramway Line, The

DESCRIPTION: "Men are toiling night and day" to finish the Belfast Tramway. "Red Roger he's to be a guard ... to keep people from falling out." Lord Lurgan and Lord Lieutenant Went looked it over. A Belfast girl "says she knows Red Roger" who may get her a ticket.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: commerce humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 18, "The Tramway Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [98 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: "This song recalls the opening of [the Belfast tramway system service to Balmoral] ... in the early 1890s. It is very much in the music hall idiom with its sing-along chorus and light-hearted content."
Leyden's tune is close to that of "The Crummy Cow"/"The Bigler." Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople p. 25, about that tune: "The air is a 'stock' Irish air to which many old songs were sung ...." Unlike the Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople tune, Leyden's includes the chorus ("Pipe it, twig it, it is a gorgeous show...."). - BS
File: Leyd018

Tranent Muir

DESCRIPTION: "The Chevalier, being void of fear, did march up Birslie brae, man," and prepares for battle against John Cope. The battle results in a complete win for the Jacobites. Many soldiers taking part in the battle are listed.
AUTHOR: Adam Skirving? (source: Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2)
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 (Scots Musical Museum #102)
KEYWORDS: Jacobites battle moniker humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 21, 1745 - Battle of Prestonpans. Bonnie Prince Charlie's Highland army routs the first real Hannoverian force it encounters
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 62, "The Battle of Prestonpans" (1 text)
DT, TRANMUIR
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #102, pp. 103-104, "Tranent Muir" (1 text, 1 tune)
Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 272-276, "The Battle of Prestonpans" (1 text)
ST DTtranmu (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnnie Cope" (subject: the Battle of Prestonpans)
cf. "Where Ha'e Ye Been A' the Day?" (subject: the Battle of Prestonpans)
SAME TUNE:
Praelium Gillicrankianum (Scots Musical Museum, appendix to #102; a Latin piece along the same lines but apparently about Killiecrankie)
NOTES [627 words]: Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2: "This popular song was made by Mr. Skirving, a Lothian farmer...."
The tune is Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 17, "The Battle of Killicrankie." - BS
This has been recorded by Archie Fisher (on "The Fate o' Charlie," under the title "The Battle of Prestonpans"), so it's perhaps worth indexing.
Despite the quality of the source, I rather doubt it's traditional; I know no field recordings, and the only printed version prior to Hogg seems to be that in the Scots Musical Museum. Which is extremely long (15 8-line stanzas), and quite dull unless you're a Jacobite trying to recall all the officers at Prestonpans. Whoever chopped the song down to the length recorded by Fisher did everyone a favor.
On the other hand, the Scots Musical Museum tune isn't the same as Fisher's, so maybe there has been some oral tradition in there somewhere.
I checked three sources to try to understand the battle: Reid, pp. 29-34; Wilkinson, pp. 95-108; and Magnusson, pp. 592-596. These sources can only be reconciled by assuming that the map on p. 103 of Wilkinson is printed with north and south reversed. But the general story is clear.
In September, the newly-assembled Jacobite army arrived in Edinburgh. Even as this was happening, Lt. General John Cope was landing his force at Dunbar (Wilkinson, p. 95). Cope's force was small (Reid, p. 32, give estimates on the order of 2000 soldiers), mostly inexperienced (though many of the troops were from famous regiments, including the Black Watch, they were generally reserve companies and new formations), and ill-equipped. Still, that description applied to the Jacobite army also; they had, according to Magnusson, p. 593, "no artillery and not many muskets." Although Cope's plan to defend Edinburgh had failed, he still decided to advance.
When he learned that the Jacobite army had marched out to meet him, he took up a strong position on the road from Haddington to Edinburgh. He was on a height, and his right was protected by the sea (Firth of Forth), while his left was guarded by a broad, boggy meadow known as the Meadow or Moor of Tranent. The hamlet of Tranent was to the south of the meadow. Preston and Prestonpans, the town for which the battle was named, were west of the battle site (Prestonpans, according to Smout, pp. 102-103, earned its name because it house the [salt]-pans of Preston, which will tell you how close to the sea it is). Had the Highlanders followed the main road, they would have passed through Prestonpans to attack Cope.
Unfortunately for Cope, a local led the Jacobite army by a track through the Tranent Moor (Wilkinson, p. 100; Magnusson, p. 593). Cope learned of this early enough to reface his army east (so the map in Magnusson, p. 595) or southeast (so Wilkinson and Reid), but his positional advantage was lost. Plus the sun was in the defenders's eyes. And he didn't have enough artillery to slow a Highland Charge.
Prestonpans was hardly a battle; it was an almost instant rout. The conflict is typically said to have lasted only ten minutes (Magnusson, p. 594). It ended with Cope's entire army in flight, with the general eventually carried away himself.
The Highlanders had no cavalry with which to pursue, so Cope's losses were relatively light -- Reid, p. 38, and Magnusson, p. 594, both accept that about 150 were killed. But over a thousand were taken prisoner, and the Jacobites also picked up a fair number of muskets, Cope's handful of artillery, and some cash. Plus, of course, they gained a huge morale boost.
For more details on Prestonpans, see the notes to "Johnnie Cope."
Incidentally, the reference to Charles as a Chevalier was more than just poetry; one of his father's titles was "Chevalier de Saint George." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 3.0
File: DTtranmu

Transport

See There Was an Old Miser (File: FSC048)

Transport, or Botany Bay, The

See The Boston Burglar [LawsL16] (File: LL16)

Transport's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "All you distressed tradesmen, wherever you may be," listen and learn that it is poverty that causes crime. The singer couldn't find work, and so he turned highwayman to feed his family and is transported. If people had jobs there would be no crime.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside Bodleian Firth c.17(54))
KEYWORDS: work family separation transportation warning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 72-73, "The Transport's Lamentation" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 447-448, "The Transport Lamentationl" (1 text)
Roud #V20190
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.17(54), "The Transport's Lamentation," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth c.17(211), "The Transport's Lamentation," (unknown), n.d.
NOTES [19 words]: Anderson dates his broadside c. 1830, but since it is the Harkness broadside, it must be from 1840 or after. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AnFa072

Travel On (Trabel On)

DESCRIPTION: "Sister Rosy, you get to heaven before I go, Sister, you look out for me, I'm on the way, Trabel on, trabel on, you heaven-born soldier, Trabel on, trabel on, Go hear what my Jesus say."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 31, "Travel On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11986
File: AWG031

Travel the Country Round

See The Jolly Ranger (File: LEBC100)

Travelin' Shoes

See Traveling Shoes (File: CNFM070A)

Traveling Coon

See Traveling Man (Traveling Coon) (File: RcTMTC)

Traveling Man (Traveling Coon)

DESCRIPTION: Protagonist, a trickster, makes his living stealing chickens/money; he's arrested, shot, sent home for burial, but escapes his coffin, etc. Cho: "He was a travelin' man, certainly was a travelin' man/Travelin'est coon that ever come through the land..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The protagonist is a trickster who makes his living stealing chickens and money; he's arrested, shot, and sent home for burial, but escapes from his coffin; he sails on the Titanic, but when it sinks he's found shooting dice in Liverpool. Carrying water ten miles from a spring, he stumbles, but runs home for another bucket and catches the water before it hits the ground. Chorus: "He was a travelin' man, certainly was a travelin' man/Travelin'est coon that ever come through the land...."
KEYWORDS: rambling travel crime theft punishment resurrection burial death gambling ship wreck England humorous talltale thief
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 428, "The Traveling Coon" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 428, "The Travelling Coon" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11771
RECORDINGS:
Alabama Sheiks "Travelin' Railroad Man Blues" (Victor 23265, 1931)
Smilie Burnett, "He Was a Travelling Man" (Perfect 13011/Melotone 13046, 1934)
Virgil Childers, "Traveling Man" (Bluebird B-7487, 1938)
Sid Harkreader, "Travelling Coon" (Paramount 3101, 1928)
Tony Hollins, "Traveling Man Blues" (OKeh 06523, 1941)
Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers, "Travelling Man" (OKeh 45446, 1930; rec. 1928; on GoodForWhatAilsYou)
Jim Jackson, "Traveling Man" (Victor V-38617, 1930; rec. 1928)
Coley Jones, "Traveling Man" (Columbia 14288-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
Luke Jordan, "Traveling Coon" (Victor 20957, 1927)
Charlie & Bud Newman, "The Old Travelling Man" (OKeh 45431, 1930)
Phineas [or 'Finious'] "Flat Foot" Rockmore, "Traveling Man" (AFS 3988 B1, 1940; on LomaxCD1821-2)
Dock Walsh, "Travelling Man" (Columbia 15105-D, 1926)
Washboard Sam, "Traveling Man" (Bluebird B-8761, 1941)
Henry Whitter, "Travelling Man" (OKeh 40237, 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Didn't He Ramble" (lyrics)
NOTES [58 words]: This was the theme song of the East Coast medicine show singer Pink Anderson. - PJS
The oldest version, in the Brown collection, bears an interesting relation to "Didn't He Ramble"; in this text, the chorus runs, "Well, he travelled and was known for miles around, And he didn't get enough, he didn't get enough Till the police shot him down." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: RcTMTC

Traveling Shoes

DESCRIPTION: Death comes to the door of the sinner, the gambler, the Christian, etc., asking if they are "ready to go." The sinner says, "I'm not ready to go; I ain't (got/put on) my travelin' shoes." The Christian, by contrast, is ready and eager to go
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (recording, Selah Jubilee Quartet)
KEYWORDS: religious death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 70, "(Got No Travellin' Shoes)" (1 text); p. 233, "Traveling Shoes" (1 tune, partial text)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 172-173, "Travelin' Shoes" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 335, "(Got No Travellin' Shoes)" (1 text)
Roud #10968
RECORDINGS:
Selah Jubilee Quartet, "Traveling Shoes" (Decca 7628, 1939)
Vera Hall Ward, "Travelling Shoes" (on NFMAla5)
File: CNFM070A

Traveling Yodler

See Westward Ho! (Traveling Yodler) (File: ArWo024)

Traveller, The

See Four Nights Drunk [Child 274] (File: C274)

Travelling Candyman, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer Pat O'Flanagan sails to Glasgow, can't find work, so becomes a "candyman" -- a rag dealer. A woman accuses him of stealing her frock from the line; he denies it, and she hits him. Chorus: "For I take in old iron/I take in old bones and rags..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (recorded from Jennie Davison)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, Pat O'Flanagan, sails from Belfast to Glasgow, can't find work, so as a last resort becomes a "candyman" -- a rag dealer. A woman accuses him of stealing her frock from the line; he denies it, and she hits him. Chorus: "For I take in old iron/I take in old bones and rags...My name is Pat O'Flanagan/I'm a travelling candyman"
KEYWORDS: poverty accusation violence rambling travel theft clothes commerce work worker Gypsy migrant
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 359, "The Travelling Candyman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2163
RECORDINGS:
"Rich" Johnny Connors, "Rambling Candyman" (on IRTravellers01)
NOTES [88 words]: Not to be confused with the American blues song "Candy Man." While ragpicking was usually considered to be a last resort among Travellers, in fact several seem to have made considerable fortunes at the trade. - PJS
The version on IRTravellers01, "made and sung by 'Rich' Johnny Connors," describes an event that happened to the singer. Instead of the frock episode, his episode is about an old man who tried to sell him a sack weighted with "bricks you could plainly see" with which he could not fool "any rambling candy man." - BS
File: K359

Travelling Down the Castlereagh

See The Castlereagh River (File: MA045)

Tread on the Tail of Me Coat

See Just Tread on the Tail of Me Coat (File: R474)

Tread the Green Grass

See Green Grass (File: BGMG645)

Tread the Needles

See Grandy Needles (File: OpGa002)

Tread, Tread the Green Grass

See Green Grass (File: BGMG645)

Treadmill Song, The

See The Gaol Song (File: FaE022)

Treadmill, The

DESCRIPTION: "The stars are rolling in the sky, The earth rolls on below, And we can feel the rattling wheel Revolving as we go." The singer urges others to take their turns at the treadmill, and praises the pleasures of life among the mill workers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Trifet's Budget of Music)
KEYWORDS: work technology
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 497, "The Treadmill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7587
File: R497

Treat Me Right

DESCRIPTION: "If you treat me right, I'd sooner work than play; If you treat me mean, I won't do neither way."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 197, "Treat Me Right" (1 text)
File: MHAp197

Treat My Daughter Kindly (The Little Farm)

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets and falls in love with a girl. Her father asks him to "Treat my daughter kindly, never do her harm. When I die I'll leave you my little house and farm." The two are happily married and live a contented life
AUTHOR: James Bland
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (sheet music for "The Farmer's Daughter, or The Little Chickens in the Garden" published)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage father
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 119, "I Once Did Know a Farmer" (1 text plus an excerpt)
Randolph 668, "The Little Chickens in the Garden" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 175, "The Farmer's Daughter" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 77, "Treat My Daughter Kindly (or, The Little Farm)" (1 text)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 47, "I Once Did Know a Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 68, "Treat My Daughter Kindly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 337, "All the Little Chickens in the Garden" (1 text)
ST R668 (Partial)
Roud #2552
RECORDINGS:
Riley Puckett, "Farmer's Daughter" (Columbia 15686-D, 1931; rec. 1928)
Arthur Smith Trio, "The Farmer's Daughter" (Bluebird B-7893, 1938)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(62a), "The Chickens in the Garden," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
File: R668

Tree in Paradise

See All My Trials (and others) (File: FSWB359B)

Tree in the Mountains

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

Tree in the Wood (I), The

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

Tree in the Wood (II), The

See Little Bird (File: Fus089)

Tree of Liberty, The

DESCRIPTION: "Sons of Hibernia, attend to my song, Of a tree call'd th' Orange." Barbarians and Frenchmen are joined against the tree. "Hundreds they've burn'd of each sex, young and old". Exit Sheares and other traitors. "Derry down, down, traitors bow down"
AUTHOR: "by J.B. Esqu, of Lodge No. 471" (Source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution Ireland patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 95, "The Tree of Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Derry Down" (tune) and references there
cf. "The Brothers John and Henry Sheares" (subject of the Sheares Brothers)
cf. "Croppies Lie Down (I/II)" (tune)
NOTES [430 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "John and Henry Sheares, who were United Irishmen -- and Protestants --, were hanged in Dublin in July 1798." - BS
Very many leaders of the 1798 -- including Wolfe Tone -- were in fact Protestant; they had the education and the income to be in position to form such conspiracies. And Ireland was not yet so polarized over religion as it later became; as Robert Kee points out (see The Most Distressful Country, being Volume I of The Green Flag, p. 99):
"This whole system of torture [and repression of the rebellion] was being carried out on the Irish population largely by Irish soldiers, a great proportion of them Catholics of the poorest class in the milition, who were ready enough to do their duty against their fellow-countrymen as unworthy rebels. Of all the troops available for the government in Ireland before and during the coming rebellion, over four-fifths were Irish."
The Sheares brothers were lawyers (Kee, p. 54), who succeeded to high places in the United Irish leadership after the arrests of the initial leadership council in March 1798. They themselves were in custody on May 21 (Kee, pp. 100-101). Thus they played no real part in the rebellion, but they were hung as what we might call accessories before the fact.
In any case, they don't seem to have been very well equipped for their role; Thomas Pakenham, The Year of Liberty, p. 59, says they were "hardly the stuff to lead a revolutionary army," and they were far too trusting, bringing an informant into their confidence based simply on his taste in literature (p. 78). Maybe it was because John Sheares, at least, was given to bombast himself; Pakenham (p. 96) prints a proclamation he was found to have written at the time of his arrest, and it's way over the top.
The Liberty Tree was originally a French symbol (which in English was spread by the writings of Thomas Paine), but the idea became popular in areas governed by England; this song and "Ireland's Liberty Tree" are examples of its use in Ireland. Scotland also had Liberty Tree songs, although there is little evidence that they became traditional; for an example, see p. 109 of Kenneth Logue's article "Eighteen-Century Popular Protest: Aspects of the People's Past" in Edward J. Cowan, editor, The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition). There are also some Liberty Tree songs in American songsters, and Jean Thomas published something we have filed as "The Liberty Tree (I)," although I again question whether these are traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Zimm095

Tree On the Hill, The

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

Tree Toad, The

DESCRIPTION: "A tree toad loved a she toad... She was a three-toed tree toad, A two-toed tree toad he." The male toad courts the female because she lives in a beautiful tree. But "He couldn't please her whim... The she toad vetoed him."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: animal wordplay love recitation
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 169, "The Tree Toad" (1 text)
File: MCB169

Tree, The

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

Trees Are All Bare (Christmas Song)

DESCRIPTION: "The trees are all bare, not a leaf to be seen, And the meadows their beauty have lost." The weather is cold and work is hard for people and animals; even the birds and hares cannot find food. Christmas is come; rejoice in the new year
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Copper-ASongForEverySeason)
KEYWORDS: farming hardtimes food Christmas
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 202-203, "Christmas Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1170
File: CopSe202

Trees So High, The

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

Trees They Are So High, The

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

Trees They Do Be High, The

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

Trees They Do Grow High, The

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

Trees They Grow So High, The

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

Trelawny

DESCRIPTION: King James II has imprisoned Bishop Trelawny in the Tower of London. "Trelawny he may die But twenty thousand Cornish bold Will know the reason why."
AUTHOR: Rev. Robert Stephen Hawker (1803-1875), according to Turner
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland); Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory says it is from 1825; Wikipedia says 1826
KEYWORDS: royalty clergy political rebellion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1688 - Bishop Jonathan Trelawney (1650-1721) is imprisoned for seditious libel after protesting James II's Declaration of Indulgence granting religious tolerance to Catholics. He was tried and acquitted. (sources: Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland; "Sir Jonathan Trelawney, 3rd Baronet" at Wikipedia. Site accessed Sep 11, 2012).
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #36, pp. 232-233, "Trelawny" (1 text)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, pp. 54-55, "Trelawny" (1 text plus Cornish translation, 1 tune)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, p. 140, "The Song of the Western Men" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Michael R. Turner, _Victorian Parlour Poetry: An Annotated Anthology_, 1967, 1969 (page references are to the 1992 Dover edition), pp. 58-59, "The Song of the Western Men" (1 text)
Roud #3315
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come All Ye Jolly Tinner Boys" (lyrics)
cf. "Wheal Rodney" (tune, according to Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall)
SAME TUNE:
Wheal Rodney (file: DeSh070)
And Shall Moyer, Haywood, and Pettibone Die? (J. Anthony Lukas, _Big Trouble_, 1997, p. 474, about the accused in the Harry Orchard case; see "Harry Orchard")
NOTES [4134 words]: The song is so famous that it has its own Wikipedia entry, which declares it the unofficial Cornish national anthem. But it's not clear that it has ever been in tradition.
According to Turner, p. 59, R. S. Hawker claimed to have based his poem on "three traditional lines in the second stanza, but nobody else has found evidence of their antiquity." But something very like Hawker's words are in Dixon. And the whole thing looks like "Come All Ye Jolly Tinner Boys." Smith-Trelawny, pp. 174-175, declares "The Song of the Western Men probably has nothing to do with Bishop Trelawny or any of his ancestors." There has been controversy about this that I can't settle. I'm not the only one; Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall writes, "Everything about the origin of Trelawny, words and tune alike, is baffling." Nonetheless, it is clear that it came to be regarded as being about Jonathan Trelawny.
It is ironic to note that Hawker, who wrote a song about the Protestant Trelawny, reportedly turned Catholic at the end of his life.
Although Jonathan Trelawny served most of his episcopal career in areas outside Cornwall, it is fitting that the Cornish remembered him; according to Smith-Trelawny, p. 3, "Throughout his life Jonathan Trelawny was moved by three great loves; Cornwall, the honour of his ancient family and the Protestant Religion, by which he meant the Church of England." He appreciated the monarchy and his college, but to a lesser degree. Going to Cornwall, according to Smith, was always a source of joy to Trelawny, who always regarded it as home. Indeed, he wrote an item for an encyclopedia about Devon and Cornwall (Smith-Trelawny, p. 155).
Jonathan Trelawny was the second son of Sir Johathan Trelawny, the second baronet Trelawny; he was one of six brothers (Smith-Trelawny, pp. 8-9). The other male members of his family were mostly soldiers (except for the youngest, Chichester Trelawney, who eventually tried to murder his brother and had to be confined as insane; Smith-Trelawny, p. 46). Jonathan apparently wasn't interested in the military life, but when his older brother died in 1680, then his father in 1681, Jonathan became head of the family and inherited their properties and responsibilities (Smith-Trelawny, p. 9).
As a teenager, he was sent to the well-known Westminster School, then sent to Christ Church College, Oxford; he earned his B.A. in 1672, became a deacon in 1673, was made M.A. (at that time, less an academic than a social honor) in 1675, and ordained priest in 1676; he became a royal chaplain in 1677 (Smith-Trelawny, p. 15).
Despite all that training, he wasn't exactly a model cleric. Smith-Trelawny, p. 17, says "He enjoyed good wine, good tobacco and boisterous company. He was a frequent and dedicated user of bad language and later used to explain to anyone who ventured to express disapproval of his profane swearing that he swore not as a bishop, but as Sir Jonathan Trelawny"! In his early years he had two clerical livings (both badly run-down) but did not reside in either; he was more member of the gentry than of the clergy -- and one who was heavily financially constrained by the status of his property (Smith-Trelawny, p. 16), though eventually he took his clerical duties more seriously (and came to be regarded by some as haughty and perhaps heavy-handed, as well as having a violent temper; Smith-Trelawny, p. 158).
In addition to drinking heavily while young, he grew so heavy in his later years that he took to wearing corsets, and eventually suffered from kidney stones (Smith-Trelawny, p. 154).
Smith-Trelawny, p. 18, regards him as "intelligent but lazy," widely read but not expert in anything; similarly p. 154 calls him "intellectually lazy." He hardly sounds like the man who would make a stand on principle. Indeed, in 1685, he would be one of James II's chief supporters in Cornwall! (Smith-Trelawny, p. 19), playing a significant role in defeating Monmouth's Rebellion (Smith-Trelawny, p, 20; for which see "The Monmouth Rebel"). One of the colonels who commanded one of James's regiments at the Battle of Sedgemoor was Jonathan's brother Charles Trelawney (Chandler, p. 108; Smith-Trelawny, p. 32).
In the aftermath of Sedgemoor, James decided to make Trelawny Bishop of Bristol -- only to have Trelawny beg for a different bishopric because he needed more money to solve his debt problems (Smith-Trelawny, pp. 20-21; according to p. 29, the Bristol diocese was worth only £350 a year, and it was disorderly, so it was genuinely a financial burden). Still, Trelawny took the post -- and, according to Smith-Trelawny, pp. 21-22, had an almost Becket-like transformation from secular servant of the king to firm supporter of the church.
The song comes from the Restoration period, after the British monarchy had been overthrown and Charles I executed in 1649, then the monarchy brought back in 1660. After the restored Charles II dies without a legitimate heir in 1685, his brother James succeeded, and "He had no tact, no political sense. He tried to use his suspending and dispensing powers to direct a frontal assault upon the Restoration settlement" (Smith-Constitutional, p. 363).
The context is this: James II, being Catholic, wanted toleration for Catholics. At this time, England had what were called the "Penal" and "Test" acts -- the former to punish non-Anglicans, the latter (from 1673 and 1678) to force them to reveal their faith and barring them from office if they didn't meet the criteria. At this time, we can loosely divide the English population into three camps, Anglicans, Catholics, and Dissenters. All Anglicans could meet the requirements of the Test Acts, and some Dissenters could sort of swallow hard and get by, but Catholics flatly could not pass.
"The political temperature of English opinion in the summer of 1688 would certainly have sufficed to restrain either Charles I [I doubt that - RBW] or Charles II. But James, obstinate in his belief that his father had fallen because he made concessions, and himself surrounded by flatterers who deceived him in order to cling to their offices, not only held his course but flung into the loaded mine the lighted match of the Trial of the Seven Bishops" (Trevelyan, p. 46). He also went so far, in Scotland, as to give Catholics the right to worship freely while ordering Presbyterians and Quakers to only worship at home (Miller-James, p. 214).
James had something called the "Dispensing Power," which allowed him to appoint Catholics to office by giving them an individual dispensation, one at a time. He used it a lot, too -- e.g. in November 1685 alone, he used the power to appoint 26 Catholic tax collectors in Scotland (Miller-James, p. 214). He didn't want to be limited to that; he wanted the Penal and Test Acts repealed. And he tried to force through the Declaration of Indulgence: "In 1687, James II, blind to the probable consequences of his policy, issued a Declaration of Indulgence, modeled on that issued by Charles II in 1672 but swiftly withdrawn. This document granted freedom of worship to all Protestant Dissenters and Roman Catholics and abolished all religious tests for office. In April, 1688, James issued a second Declaration of Indulgence and soon ordered all bishops to have copies of the declaration distributed through their dioceses where it was to be read publicly on two successive Sundays. It was read in only four churches in London" (Smith-Constitutional, pp. 364-365; Trevelyan, p. 47, says that there were a hundred churches in London at the time. Clark, p. 121, and Kishlansky, p. 264, say that it was read in seven churches. The minor difference in the totals hardly matters; the vast majority of churches ignored James's order).
(It was a strange situation; James had been trying to get the Anglicans to accept more Catholics, and they wouldn't, so he decided to try to get the Dissenters to support him. The only outcome of that was to make the Anglicans change from relatively passive to more active resistance; Kishlansky, pp. 263-264.)
The second declaration, according to Prall, p. 183, was "in substance a repeat of the first, but to it was added an explanatory note in which he expressed his determination that no one should assume any wavering on his part." Prall adds that "Perhaps this order should not be labeled as the cause of the Glorious Revolution, but it certainly inaugurated a sequence of events that led inexorably to that revolution."
Rural bishoprics of course were also expected to assent to the Declaration of Indulgence. James's government probably never worried about Trelawny's adherence -- he was junior, he ruled an unruly flock, he was beholden to James (Smith-Trelawny, p. 44). Trelawny hesitated, then final called on his subordinates. Trelawny made it clear he would not sign the form to indicate his assent; with him on their side, only two of the clerics he called in signed. Trelawny sent the address and its two signatures back to the government with a complicated cover letter that I would paraphrase as "No way am I signing this thing but it's not my fault" (Smith-Trelawny, pp. 44-45). But he knew he was in trouble, and apparently expected to be deprived of his bishopric. Smith-Trelawny, p. 45, thinks his efforts at this time were mostly devoted to maintaining the family estate.
James, in addition to making his announcement, tried to put together a packed parliament to approve his plan. He vetted his candidates by asking if they would support his plan. So few agreed that the parliamentary election was never held (Clark, p. 120).
The Anglican church had a loyalty to both itself and the monarch, who was head of the church. Where these conflicted -- as the Declaration of Indulgence appeared to do -- it had to decide where its loyalty lay (Prall, p. 185). Some Anglican bishops went along with the demand to read the document, some did not -- indeed, they began to reach out to the Dissenters (Prall, p. 186), the first step toward true tolerance. Archbishop of Canterbury William Sancroft called together all England's bishops, many other London priests, and several members of the nobility (Prall, p. 187). There were later meetings; in mid-May, according to Prall, p. 190, Sancroft met with the bishops of Winchester, Norwich, St. Asaph, Bath and Wells, Chichester, and Bristol (i.e. Trelawny).
This was the more noteworthy "because Sancroft was by nature a shy and retiring man, and belonged to the strictest school of High Churchmen, who had hitherto taught that the King's will was the guide for all true subjects and Christians" (Trevelyan, p. 47). He had been chosen by Charles II after some indecision: "In the end, on the evening of 29 December [1677], he sent for a man who was not even a bishop yet, the solemn, gentle, and learned William Sancroft, Dean of St Pauls. It has been suggested that the king chose him because he would be a more pliant primate than the intimidating [deceased Archbishop Gilbert] Sheldon. It seems more likely that he got the job simply because he was acceptable to all the proponents of the other candidates; after seven weeks of irritation [at doctrinal arguments and church politics] the king was not so much saving himself trouble in the future as getting rid of it in the present" (Hutton, p. 341).
Similarly, Clark, p. 112, calls Sancroft "a peacable old man."
"Up till now [in James's reign], Sancroft had been hesitating and backward in resistance to James, much as he regretted his policy; but at his supreme crisis he did not hesitate" (Trevelyan, p. 47, who footnotes that Sancroft really needed to lead, because there was at this time no Archbishop of York).
"The great majority of the London clergy decided not to read [James's declaration] and, on 17th May [others say 18th May], Sancroft and six of his colleagues drew up a petition, pointing out politely that the dispensing power on which the declaration rested had been declared illegal in Parliament, notably in 1663 and 1673. [Sancroft decided not to be one of the bishops who presented it, but the other six, including Trelawny, took it to the King; Prall, pp. 190-191. They did not explicitly refuse to read the Declaration in churches; they wanted a delay until a parliament could take up the matter; Kishlansky, p. 264.]. James received the petition with a mixture of astonishment and fury: 'This is a standard of rebellion"" (Miller-James, p. 185).
The seven, after a Privy Council hearing in which the bishops refused to plead, were sent to the Tower. "That the populace should cheer the bishops [usually the least popular members of the Church] proves to what extent the king had destroyed himself. Only the most irresponsible and foolish of monarchs could have reached such a nadir. James was certainly out of his time, but not, therefore, necessarily ahead of it" (Prall, p. 193).
"At last, on 1st June, faced with conflicting advice, James unerringly chose the course of action which combined moderation and severity in the worst possible way: he would proceed against the bishops according to law, reserving the option of showing them mercy after they had been convicted. Accordingly, when the bishops refused to give sureties for good behavior they were sent to the Tower, exulting in their martyrdom and blessing the crowds which watched them pass on their way to prison. James had now committed himself too far to back down without loss of face; he could only hope that the court would produce the right verdict" (Miller-James, p. 186).
"The Trial of the Seven Bishops, the greatest historical drama that ever took place before an authorized English law court, aroused popular feeling to its height. The sight of seven prelates of blameless character and known loyalty to James (five of them were afterwards Jacobites!) entering the Tower as prisoners and standing in the dock as culprits, showed as nothing else would have done that the most revered and most loyal subjects in the land would be broken if they refused to become active parties in the King's illegal designs" (Trevelyan, p. 48; according to Miller-Glorious, p. 45, the statement that five of the bishops were Jacobites is a little oversimplified. They felt they could not take an oath to William and Mary because that would mean breaking their oath to James -- as I read it, there is no reason to think they would have supported the Old Pretender after James II died. Still, it was enough that the five were deprived of their benefices. Trelawny's situation was even more complicated; we'll get to that...).
James still thought he would win the case. The trial, which began on June 29, 1688, showed that his confidence was not justified. James purged the judges, and the jury was carefully chosen -- but even his hand-picked judges would not toe the line (Kishlansky, pp. 264-265). When it came time to deliberate, the jurors were "locked up for the night without heat or light" (Prall, p. 195) -- but even so, the jury cleared the bishops (Miller-James, p. 187; Prall, p. 201; Smith-Constitutional, p. 365). "For James, the bishops' acquittal was a humiliation. What had been intended as a show trial, punishing the bishops' temerity and reaffirming the legality of the dispensing power, had ended with the bishops' action vindicated and the dispensing power seriously undermined" (Miller-James, p. 188).
James II's son James, the future "Old Pretender," had recently been born. The one guaranteed limitation on James's power to enforce Catholicism on the people -- the fact that his daughter and heir Mary, and her husband William of Orange, were Protestant -- had suddenly ceased to apply. There was no other limitation on James's power: "No king since Richard II, in the fourteenth century, had run such a personal government. No power of decision was delegated to anyone, and no advice was sought or received from any holders of office under the crown on any topics of real consequence. The ministers did his bidding or were sacked. The Privy Council and the Cabinet council barely functioned" (Prall, pp. 199-200). James had shown himself a despot, and many were afraid of him.
A petition was prepared asking William of Orange to help them against James II (Smith-Constitutional, p. 365). William, being deeply frightened of the idea of James II allying with Louis XIV of France, listened -- and sent his army into England.
"James summoned the bishops and pressured them to issue a 'abhorrence' of the immanent invasion. With delicious irony, Archbishop Sancroft informed the king that they had recently been imprisoned for meddling in 'matters of civil government' and had learned their lesson" (Kishlansky, p. 280). Not long after, William and Mary were King and Queen and James was a fugitive.
Curiously, during the period immediately after William's landing, James -- who had just months earlier been stripping Trelawny of his civil offices and honors -- translated him to be Bishop of Exeter! (Smith-Trelawny, p. 50). The move took him closer to his home in Cornwall as well as to the site of William's invasion -- William actually occupied Exeter in November shortly after landing at Brixham. Did James think Trelawny would support him against William? Or just hope that Trelawny would be ineffective while getting used to his new diocese? Trelawny's brother Charles had already left his royal regiment and gone over to William (Smith-Trelawny, p. 52); did James hope to lure Charles back? We have no way of knowing. As it turned out, the transfer ceremonies could not be completed before William took over; in the parliament that followed James's flight, Trelawny attended as Bishop of Bristol, not Exeter (Smith-Trelawny, pp. 52-53).
Trelawny was conflicted about what to do then: "He did not wish to see James return. Later in life he declared that he had a real fear of James's vindictiveness. [But] He did not want to abandon the doctrine of hereditary right" (Smith-Trelawny, p. 57). When the Lords debated how to govern England after James's flight, he "modestly withdrew" rather than vote on a motion to set up a regency in James's name, and initially opposed moves to make William King (Smith-Trelawny, pp. 57-58). When it came time to vote on whether James had "abdicated," Trelawny voted against it. Yet when the decision was made to proclaim William and Mary, Trelawny was one of those who carried the formal request to the new monarchs, and swore loyalty to them (Smith-Trelawny, p. 58). His reward was that he was again translated to Exeter, and kept the post this time (Smith-Trelawny, p. 59). Once established, he ran the diocese strictly, like the military man he probably wished he were, imposing strong discipline even when it somewhat opposed what his superiors wanted (Smith-Trelawny, pp. 65-68). His main activity in the next few decades seems to have been engaging in litigation with heretical or obstinate clergy in his diocese. Reading the relevant pages of Smith-Trelawny (roughly pp. 70-98) was extremely dull.... The only thing that interested me in this period is that he had a long controversy with the scholar William Whiston (Smith-Trelawny, p. 108), a mathematics professor who was also noteworthy for having revived the long-dead heresy of Arianism. Whiston's Arianism was Trelawny's target, and Whiston had little success in converting the Church, but Whiston in another sense outlasted Trelawny: His translation of Josephus, although inaccurate and flawed in a great many ways, is still much too easy to find, because it's out of copyright and cheap to reprint. If Trelawny had commissioned a better translation, that might have been worth doing....
In 1707 he was moved to the Bishopric of Winchester (Smith-Trelawny, p. 139), which probably gave him a little more influence -- it was a richer bishopric -- but not much. And it didn't help his finances; by 1706, everyone knew he was insolvent, and over the next several years he seems to have oppressed his tenants to raise the money to pay his bills; not even the translation to Winchester was enough to get him out of debt (Smith-Trelawny, pp. 168-169).
His main occupation after his translations seems to have been persecuting Catholics -- expected behavior for an Anglican bishop, but Trelawny was exceptionally aggressive about it (Smith-Trelawny, pp. 142-144). He was also a vigorous anti-Jacobite (Smith-Trelawny, pp. 146-147), even after the death of James II made it certain that a Jacobite restoration would not threaten him personally. Interestingly, after George I was safely on the throne, he became more of an opposition figure, supporting the anti-Court faction that gathered around the future George II rather than the court faction of George I (Smith-Trelawny, p.149). He continues to combat the persistent outbreak of Arianism which of which Whiston had been a part (Smith-Trelawny, pp. 150-151) -- which was genuinely good service, even if one is not a Christian; Arianism has logical flaws which can cause problems if it gets its hooks into a powerful religion (as happened with the Goths during the late Roman Empire).
It was a busy life, which perhaps didn't leave much time for personal affairs; he did not marry his wife was Rebecca Hele, from a Devon family, until 1684 (Smith-Trelawny, p. 155). He was twenty years older than his bride -- 34 to her 14. Interestingly she continued to manage her own estates after their marriage. Despite the late start, they ended up with 13 children in all, of whom 11 reached adulthood (Smith-Trelawny, p. 155).
Their oldest child, a daughter Charlotte, was not born until March 1688 (Smith-Trelawny, p. 117; the poor girl was a hunchback whom Trelawny does not seem to have given much support; Smith-Trelawny, p. 156). John, the first son and heir, was born in 1691 (Smith-Trelawny, p. 156).
He committed extreme nepotism on behalf of his son Charles, who was given multiple clerical livings (Smith-Trelawny, p. 156).
Other than that, he does not seem to have been particularly kind to his family; Smith-Trelawny, p. 135, reports on him literally forcing his daughter Rebecca, at age 20, to marry older, disfigured John Francis Buller, and intimidated her so much that she never even gave consent during the ceremony. Why did Trelawny do it? Political advantage.
And after all that scrambling for cash and making a financial hash of things, he died suddenly and without a will (Smith-Trelawny, pp. 170-171), meaning his affairs went to smash. He really doesn't seem to have been a good manager -- although it's hard to know, because he apparently asked that his papers be destroyed, and while that request was not fulfilled, all have now vanished (Smith-Trelawny, p. 174).
On the whole, I don't think Trelawny was someone I would have liked to meet; he was too closed-minded. He wanted the Official State Church Ruled By Bishops And Which Knew Everything of his youth (Smith-Trelawny, pp. 175-177), and the Glorious Revolution simply made that impossible. ("Like the dodo his theology was uncomplicated, unadaptable, and very vulnerable"; Smith-Trelawny, p. 176) The Affair of the Seven Bishops was clearly the high point of his career; the rest of the time, other than in the fight against Arianism, I think he may have done more harm than good. But he had one brief, bright, shining moment, and this song captures it.
The only book about Trelawny personally seems to be Smith-Trelawny. Books about the Seven Bishops and their trial include:
William Gibson, James II and the Trial of the Seven Bishops, Palgrave MacMillan, 2009
J. C. Ryle, James II and the Seven Bishops, Focus, 1987 (more a pamphlet than a full-size book, from what I can tell; I suspect it is the same as the same author's Reign of James II of England and James VII of Scotland and the Trial of the Seven Bishops: England's Second Deliverance from Romanism, for which I have no publication information)
Agnes Strickland, The Lives of the Seven Bishops Committed to the Tower in 1688. Enriched and Illustrated With Personal Letters, Now First Published, From the Bodleian Library, 1866 (available on Google Books, as well as from many cheap print-on-demand services)
(No author listed), The Proceedings and Tryal in the Case of the Most Reverend Father in God William Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Right Reverend Fathers in God, William Lord Bishop of St. Asaph, Francis Lord Bishop of Ely, John Lord Bishop of Chichester, Thomas Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells, Thomas Lord Bishop of Peterborough, and Jonathan Lord Bishop of Bristol: In the Court of the Kings Bench at Westminster, in Trinity-term in the Fourth Year of the Reign of King James the Second, Annoque Dom. 1688, Thomas Basset, and Thomas Fox, 1689 (available on Google Books)
There are also several biographies of Archbishop Sancroft. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: DixP036

Trench Blues

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a-stealin' 'cross the deep blue sea, Lord, I's worryin' with those submarines...." The singer serves in the trenches in World War I. He has trouble understanding the women. He visits various places along the front
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from John Bray)
KEYWORDS: war courting ship technology fight death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 202-204, "Trench Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3583
File: LoSi202

Trent-et-un Du Mois D'aout, Le

DESCRIPTION: French. Forebitter shanty. "Le trente et un di mois d'aout, Nous vimes arriver sur nous," an English frigate comes against the French. The French captain asks if his lieutenant will board her. Despite being heavily outgunned, the French win the battle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: ship battle foreignlanguage shanty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 133, "Le Trente-et-un Du Mois D'Aout" (2 texts, French & English, 1 tune)
NOTES [15 words]: Hugill dates this to the reign of Louis XVI but does not offer a basis for this dating. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: HSoSe133

Trentham

DESCRIPTION: "I'd love to live in Trentham For a week or two, To work all day for fun and pay And live on army stew. The potatoes they are rotten And the meat will walk to you; I'd like to live in Trentham For a week or two!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1991 (Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 118, "Trentham" (1 short text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Susanna" (tune) and references there
File: Clev118

Trenton Town

See The Farmer and the Shanty Boy (File: Wa033)

Trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, The

DESCRIPTION: "Here's a story that's worth repeating, It's a story that ends the same, Of a man gone astray and the price he must pay." The song describes Hauptmann's trial and the witnesses against him; the jury finds against him
AUTHOR: Bob Miller
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (recording, Bill Cox)
KEYWORDS: homicide trial death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 1, 1932 - The Lindbergh Kidnapping
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 129-131, "The Trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann" (1 text)
Roud #21704
RECORDINGS:
Bill Cox, "The Trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann" (Perfect 13123, rec. Feb 26, 1935) (Conqueror 8454)
File: CAFS1130

Trial of John Twiss, The

DESCRIPTION: Twiss bids sister Jane farewell from the scaffold. He is innocent of the murder of Donovan. "Paid spies and informers, my life they swore away." At the Cork assizes he is tried, convicted, and sentenced. He blesses the mayor of Cork and other supporters.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: execution homicide trial
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 44-45, "The Trial of John Twiss" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [27 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "John Twiss from Castleisland was sentenced to death at the Cork assizes for the murder of James Donovan and was hanged in Cork in 1895." - BS
File: OCan044

Trial of Willy Reilly, The

See William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial) [Laws M10] (File: LM10)

Trials, Troubles, and Tribulations (Here We Go through the Jewish Nation)

DESCRIPTION: "Here we go through the Jewish nation, Trials, troubles, and tribulation."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad playparty Jew
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #39, "Trials, Troubles, and Tribulations" (1 short text)
File: Newe039

Tribulations d'un Roi Malheureux, Les (Misfortunes of an Unlucky "King")

DESCRIPTION: Canadian French. "Estil rien sur la terre De plus interestant." "Now where in all the country Could e'er be found again A tale as sad as this one Of McDougall and his men?" McDougall comes to Metis country thinking to claim free land, but has to pay
AUTHOR: Words; Pierre Falcon (source: MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba)
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (according to MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba)
KEYWORDS: Canada money humorous foreignlanguage
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1869 - As part of the organization of the Dominion of Canada, the western regions of the new nation were surveyed. William MacDougall was appointed governor of the territory in which the Metis lived. The Metis regarded him as an interloper coming to take their lands; the result was Louis Riel's first rebellion
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba, #5, pp. 31-40, "Misfortunes of an Unlucky 'King'" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Riel's Song" (subject of the Metis rebellion) and references there
cf. "Chanson des Metis (Song of the Metis, or McDougall at the Border)" (subject of McDougall's attempt to govern the Metis)
cf. "The Wandering Jew" (tune, according to MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba)
File: Macl05

Trifling Woman

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Lord, I been working like a dog all day, Just to make another dollar for you to throw away." The husband (?) complains of his wife's profligacy; she won't cook or work, but wants fine clothes to look good in. He wishes she would leave or he would die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: clothes husband wife poverty work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 136, "Trifling Woman" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa136 (Partial)
Roud #4626
File: Wa136

Trimble's Crew

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, it's of a pair of jobbers who had a jolly time All in some old log shanty where the jobbers settle down." A disjointed song describing the work in Trimble's camp and how hard the life is: "A man who'd work for Trimble might better be in jail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger lumbering work hardtimes
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #8, "Trimble's Crew" (1 text, tune referenced)
ST FowL08 (Partial)
Roud #4467
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (theme, tune)
File: FowL08

Trinity Bay Tragedy

DESCRIPTION: The small boats out sealing in Trinity Bay on February 27, 1892, are caught in wind and sleet. Some make shore at Heart's Delight the next morning but most freeze to death.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast)
KEYWORDS: death fishing sea storm
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 28, 1892 - the Trinity Bay tragedy
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 71, "Trinity Bay Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, pp. 37-38, "Trinity Bay Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab071 (Partial)
Roud #9983
NOTES [470 words]: Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast reprints a detailed account from D. W. Prowse History of Newfoundland (London, 1896), p. 520.
Heart's Delight is on the northwest corner of the Avalon Peninsula, which is separated from the main body of Newfoundland by Trinity Bay - BS
Taking seals was one of Newfoundland's chief activities in the late winter and early spring; seals were a source of meat and skins, and their fat (oil) was . By the 1890s, most seals were killed by large steam ships that sailed with crews of hundreds of men. But when conditions were right -- that is, when the ice floes where the seals bore their pups came close enough to land, "landsmen" might set out in small boats to harvest seals on an individual basis. This was the "land hunt," and those who engaged in it were "landsmen" -- not because they took the seals on land but because they were based on land rather than ships, and went out to hunt seals during the day then returned home at night. It was landsmen who were out on the hunt in 1892.
Keir, p. 159, and Smith, pp. 46-47, agree that the day was clear and calm at first, so a great many small boats went out to take seals, but the weather suddenly turned cold and the winds grew so strong that the dories could not make it back to land.
Based on the list of towns on p. 47 of Smith (English Harbour, Port Rexton, Champney, Trinity South, and some others that seem to have disappeared), most of the places involved were on the west coast of Trinity Bay, along the northern part of the coast, between Catalina on the north and Trinity on the south.
When the government finally heard about it, they sent the sealer Labrador (for which see "Captains and Ships" and "The Sealer's Song (II)") to try to help out, but there was little she could do (Smith, p. 48).
The extent of this disaster is somewhat unclear. The Northern Shipwrecks Database says 250 men perished; I suspect this is a typo for "25." Prowse's account, as cited by Leach and also printed on p. 303 of Ryan, lists a much smaller total: 215 men out sealing, most of whom survived; 24 froze or otherwise died of exposure. Smith, p. 49, also says 49 died. This is also the figure in Keir . Ryan on p. 303 cites a newspaper calculation that 25 men died. Ryan calls it "The most terrible landsmen's catastrophe which has been recorded." Greene, p. 65, calls it a "typical example of a land fatality" in the seal fishery.
Similarly Greene, p. 66: "Thirteen men were reached when frozen to death in their punts; whilst eleven others, who had taken refuge on the Floe, were blown out to sea on the ice-pans."
There is a recent book about the event, Eldon Drodge, Peril on the Sea. But having read one of Drodge's other books, I find that he invents things and calls them history, so I have not tried to find this book. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: LLab071

Trinity Cake (Mrs. Fogarty's Cake)

DESCRIPTION: "As I leaned o'er the rail of the Eagle The letter boy brought unto me A little gilt edged invitation Saying the girls want you over to tea" for "a slice of the Trinity Cake." Everyone tries the inedible cake and "all of them swore they were poisoned"
AUTHOR: Johnny Burke ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud); a probable version is from the Golden Gate Songster of 1888, and a song with the same plot came out in 1885 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: party food humorous moniker nonballad talltale
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) US(MW,SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Trinity Cake" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 62 in the 3rd edition, p. 59 in the 4th; p. 51 in the 5th
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 43-44, "Mrs. Fogarty's Cake" (1 text)
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 18-19, "Trinity Cake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 74, "Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #233, "Miss Foggarty's Christmas Cake" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 39, "There was plums, prunes, cherries" (1 fragment)
Behan-IrelandSings, #57, "Mrs. Hooligan's Christmas Cake" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke, _Burke's Popular Songs_, self-published, 1929 (a PDF is available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. [3], "Trinity Cake" (1 text)
Johnny Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1926_, self-published, 1926 (PDF copy avallable on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), [no page number], "Trinity Cake" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 38, "The Trinity Cake" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #24, pp. 41-42, "The Trinity Cake" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Farley Mowat, _Wake of the Great Sealers_, with prints and drawings by David Blackwood, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1973, p. 54, "(Traditional song from Trinity Bay)" (1 text, of the "Trinity Cake" type)
Roud #5000
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Trinity Cake" (on NFOBlondahl05)
The McNulty Family, "Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake" (on IRMcNulty-Night1)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mrs. Fogarty's Cake
Miss Fogarty's Cake
NOTES [306 words]: According to GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site the author died in 1930. - BS
The above presumably refers to Johnny Burke. Given the likely songster version, I doubt Burke wrote the original, though he surely created the Newfoundland ("Trinity Cake") version. The Newfoundland version is clearly localized; it has the singer be a sailor who receved word on his boat rather than from the postman at home.
I would assume the Eagle of the Burke version is the sealing steamer of that name; for more about that ship, see "The Ice-Floes."
Johnny Burke wrote another piece, "The Wedding Cake at Betsy's Marriage in Fogo," that seems like a combination of, or practice for, "Trinity Cake" and "The Kelligrew's Soiree"; it's about a wedding cake, but the list of improbable ingredients is very like "Kelligrew's Soiree." For a brief biography of Johnny Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree."
Whatever the original of this song, the idea is found in 1885 in a song named "Miss Mulligan's Home Made Pie," by C. F. Horn. William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 143, quotes two stanzas, beginning
As I sat t my rosewood peanny [piano] one day,
Making chords that were solemn and grand,
Mr. Mulligan's footman came over the way,
With a big billy doo [billet doux] in his hand.
As a neighbor and friend I was asked to attend,
A party at Mulligan's social and high,
And I found by the way 'twas the very first day,
That Miss Mulligan tried to bake homemade pie.
Helen Flanders may have found a traditional version of this, although I have not seen the text to be able to verify it. But what are the odds of another song labelled "Mrs. Mulligan's Homemade Pie"? The song also features a character named "Fogarty," although obviously not the baker of the offending pastry. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Doyl3062

Trinity Sunday

DESCRIPTION: "When bites the frost and winds are a-blowing, I do not heed, I do not care." The singer does not care about the cold as long as her Johnny loves her. They will marry on Trinity Sunday; she will then go to work
AUTHOR: Words: Sabine Baring-Gould
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #66, "Trinity Sunday" (1 text, 1 tune, yet another Baring-Gould mess)
File: BGSW066

Trip on the Erie, A (Haul in Your Bowline)

DESCRIPTION: "You can talk about your picnics and trips on the lake, / But a trip on the Erie you bet takes the cake!" A summary of life on the Erie canal, ending with comments about the cook: "A dumpling, a pet, / And we use her for a headlight at night on the deck!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from E. W. Armstrong and Edward Navin by Walton)
KEYWORDS: cook canal humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1825 - Erie Canal opens (construction began in 1817)
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 167-168, "The E-ri-o Canal" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 94, "Haul in Your Bowline" (1 text+fragments, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 35, "A Trip on the Erie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 455-457, "Ballad of the Erie Canal" (1 text, composite and probably containing stanzas from other Erie Canal songs); pp. 459-463, "The Erie Canal Ballad" (8 texts, some fragmentary, most of which belong here though at least one is "The E-ri-e"); pp. 465-466, "A Trip on the Erie" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 246, "(no title)" (2 exceprts)
DT, TRIPERIE*
Roud #6555
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The E-ri-e" (theme) and references there
cf. "The Erie Canal"
cf. "The Stomach Robber" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Haul In Your Towline
NOTES [185 words]: The Erie Canal, as originally constructed, was a small, shallow channel which could only take barges. These vessels -- if such they could be called -- were normally hauled along by mules or, in a few cases, oxen ("horned breezes").
The Lomaxes, in American Ballad and Folk Songs, thoroughly mingled many texts of the Erie Canal songs (in fairness, some of this may have been the work of their informants -- but in any case the Lomaxes did not help the problem). One should check all the Erie Canal songs for related stanzas.
It does appear that, of all the Erie Canal songs, this is the most amorphous. The Walton text (which may also be composite) has an eight-line chorus, starting with the "Haul in your bo'lin" chorus characteristic of this song, then tacking on the "For the Erie she's a-rising" chorus of "The E-ri-e." The verses are also a mix: The crew thinks they've spotted a pirate in the fog; they hit a lump of coal; they end up in jail. I've tagged the song "humorous" mostly based on that wild text.
I really wish Walton had obtained a tune for his version. It must have been interesting.- RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Wa035

Trip on the George C. Finney, A

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you bold sailors who follow the Lakes And in a canaller your living do make." The singer tells of sailing the Finney on the Great Lakes, starting in the Erie Canal and traveling up the Lakes to Chicago. Many ports are mentioned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from John S. Parsons by Walton)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship travel
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 124-125, "A Trip on the George C. Finney" (1 text)
Roud #19850
NOTES [99 words]: The notes to Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors think this is based on "Red Iron Ore," which it obviously resembled thematically. The difficulty is that its form is more typical of "The Dreadnought" [Laws D13]. Of course, Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors's version of "Red Iron Ore" seems to use the tune of "The Dreadnought." But at least one other Great Lakes version of "Red Iron Ore," Dean-FlyingCloud's, uses the Derry Down tune. So we have a complicated question of dependence here, which Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors ignore. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM124

Trip on the Lavindy, A

DESCRIPTION: "Cone all you yoiung sailors and landlubbers too, An' listen to a song that I'll sing to you, It's about the Lavindy, the schooner of fame." The ship leaves Port Huron and heads for Mackinac. They cross the big lake (Superior) in record time
AUTHOR: probably J. Sylvester "Ves" Ray
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from "Ves" Ray by Walton)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship travel
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 139-142, "A Trip on the Lavindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #19858
NOTES [56 words]: Walton lists this as being sung to "The Cumberland Crew" [Laws A18]. However, it is not the tune I know for that song. Many "Cumberland Crew" versions are in minor, and use eight lines stanzas; "A Trip on the Lavindy" is in major, and the stanzas are four lines long. Metrically, it does match the first half of "The Cumberland Crew." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM139

Trip on the Schooner Kolfage, A

DESCRIPTION: "We shipped aboard the Kolfage at Chatham, County Kent, The fourth day of October, for Johnson's Harbor bent. Commanded by MacDonald...." The Vick takes her onto the lake. They bump a sreamer, then win a race with it. The singers quit the ship.
AUTHOR: Jack MacCosh and Herb Pettigrew?
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from John MacDonald b Walton)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor separation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 147-149, "A Trip on the Schooner Kolfage" (1 text)
Roud #19855
NOTES [64 words]: According to John "Red" MacDonald, his father Captain John MacDonald, when short-handed, had brought in the two untrained men, Jack MacCosh and Herb Pettigrew, to help man the Kolfage. They soon wanted out, but were not permitted to leave the ship until they composed this song. One wonders what they would have written had they not been trying to butter up Captain MacDonald. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM147

Trip Over the Mountain, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer comes to his girlfriend's door at midnight. He asks if she will come with him over the mountain. (After some hesitation,) she consents; they sneak off while her parents are still asleep. She never regrets her decision
AUTHOR: Hugh McWilliams (source: Moulden-McWilliams)
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (according to Moulden-McWilliams)
KEYWORDS: courting elopement
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H61a+b, pp. 459-460, "I'm from over the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 27-28, "The Trip We Took Over the Mountain" (1 text)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 74, "The Trip O'er the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Moulden, Songs of Hugh McWilliams, Schoolmaster, 1831 (Portrush,1993), p. 9, "The Trip o'er the Mountain"
Roud #9632
RECORDINGS:
Jim Molloy, "Over the Mountain" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Ned Williams, "I Went To My Love's Window" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2794), "The Truelover's Trip O'er the Mountain" ("One night as the moon illumined the sky"), H. Such (London),1863-1885; also Firth c.18(281), 2806 c.15(129), Harding B 19(92), 2806 b.9(262), "The Truelover's Trip O'er the Mountain"; Firth c.14(377), Harding B 17(319a), "Trip O'er the Mountain"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Come With Me Over the Mountain
NOTES [156 words]: The Bodleian broadsides do not agree on some interesting details. She says, in considering elopement, that "it might be attended with danger": her friends or parents would frown. Then, what happened after the trip over the mountain to "the alter of Hymen"?
So now in contentment we spend the long day,
Tho' the anger of marriage was soon blown away,
We oftimes chat when we've little to say,
On the trip we took over the mountain. [Harding B 11(2794), Firth c.18(281), 2806 c.15(129), Harding B 19(92), 2806 b.9(262)]
or
The danger of marriage was soon blown to an end,
And often times talk when with a friend. [Firth c.14(377)]
or
And the pleasure of it is not soon stole away; [Harding B 17(319a)]
but
The anger of parents it soon wore away [Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder]
Moulden-McWilliams' original has "the anger of marriage...." and, quoting a local source, speculates "that McWilliams' wife married without parental blessing...." - BS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: HHH161B

Trip to Rapid River, A

DESCRIPTION: "It was on the 25th of March, 1892, There met in Council Valley a jolly mining crew." "You hear of Rapid River! You take the golden fever! Got a pretty girl at home? Go away and leave her!" A group has a hard trip there, but arrive and expect to get rich
AUTHOR: Hannibal F. Johnson (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (Johnson, Poems of Idaho, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: gold mining river home separation hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 124-125, "A Trip to Rapid River" (1 text)
File: LDC124

Trip to Salmon, A

DESCRIPTION: "I looked to the North and I looked to the South, And I saw the Californians a-coming," heading for the Salmon. It's a hard road to reach the river, and they have many troubles on the way from California to Idaho
AUTHOR: Max Irwin (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Los Angeles Times quoting the Portland [Oregon] Times, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: gold mining travel derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1850 - Discovery of gold by the Salmon River in Idaho causes a small gold rush, mostly by Californians disappointed with what they found in that state
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 118-119, "A Trip to Salmon" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jordan Am a Hard Road to Travel" (tune) and references there
File: LDC118

Trip to the Grand Banks, A

DESCRIPTION: When spring comes, "The Penobscot boys are anxious their money for to earn." They set out for the Grand Banks and send out their dories. They persist through summer, despite bad conditions; at last they get to head for home
AUTHOR: Amos Hanson ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Doerflinger)
KEYWORDS: ship fishing work
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 179-180, "A Trip to the Grand Banks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors,, p. 154-155, "A Trip to the Grand Banks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9430
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Off to the Grand Banks" (on NFOBlondahl04)
NOTES [88 words]: Blondahl04 has no liner notes confirming that this song was collected in Newfoundland. Barring another report for Newfoundland I do not assume it has been found there. There is no entry for "A Trip to the Grand Banks" in Newfoundland Songs and Ballads in Print 1842-1974 A Title and First-Line Index by Paul Mercer. - BS
Amos Hanson is credited with at least three songs in the Index, "The Schooner Fred Dunbar" [Laws D14], "A Trip to the Grand Banks," and the fragment "Sail Away." None is very well known or preserved. - RBW
File: Doe179

Trip to the North Pole

See Tom Cornealy (File: CrMa188)

Trip, Play-Mo-Blay

See My Pony (File: R464)

Triplett Tragedy, The

DESCRIPTION: On Christmas the Triplett brothers are drinking. Marshall Triplett's wife tries to stop a fight, but Lum Triplett stabs him to death. Lum meets Marshall's son Gran and confesses. Gran beats him; he dies. Gran is sentenced to 18 months on the chain gang.
AUTHOR: Lyrics: Ed Miller / tune: traditional
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (recorded by Sophronie Miller)
LONG DESCRIPTION: On Christmas the Triplett brothers are drinking together when a fight breaks out. Marshall Triplett's wife tries to stop them, but Lum Triplett stabs him to death. Lum goes away, intending to surrender, but he meets Marshall's son Gran, a deputy, and confesses the murder. Gran beats him severely and takes him to jail, where his injuries become inflamed and he dies. The brothers are buried together; Gran is arrested and sentenced to 18 months on the chain gang. Listeners are warned about the perils of drink
KEYWORDS: fight violence abuse crime homicide law prison punishment revenge death drink brother family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec. 25, 1909: Marshall Triplett of Elk, NC is stabbed to death by his brother, Columbus (Lum) Triplett during a fight over whiskey. Lum attempts to surrender to Marshall's son Granville, a deputy; despite Lum's pleas for mercy and refusal to fight back, Granville beats and kicks him and takes him to the jail at Boone, where he dies, either as a result of his injuries or possibly from a heart attack.
Mar. 20, 1910: After Sophronie Triplett, Lum's widow, testifies that her husband was subject to heart trouble, which might have caused his death rather than the beating, Granville Triplett is sentenced to 18 months on the chain gang; he seems to have served only 3 months of his sentence.
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Sophronie Miller, "The Triplett Tragedy" (on Watson01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Claude Allen" (tune)
NOTES [199 words]: The singer [on the Watson recording], Sophronie Miller, was the widow of Columbus Triplett; this is the only ballad of which I'm aware that was verifiably collected from one of the principals in the story it relates. - PJS
Daniel W. Patterson, A Tree Accursed: Bobby McMillon and Stories of Frankie Silver, University of North Carolina Press, 2000, p. 117, says that "It has been reported... that when Edward Miller wtote... [this song], about murders in Watauga County in 1909, the song had local repercussions. Columbus ("Lum") Tripllett had killed his brother Marshall in a fracas and then confessed his crime to Marshall's son Granville. Although he was a deputy sheriff, Granville flew into a rage and beat his uncle to death. Edmund Miller's song outraged him, and he threatened to kill anyone who sang it. The only person in the community who dared to defy him ws Lum's widow, Sophronie Miller Greer." And, of course, she made the record permanent by recording the song.
I don't know if this is the Ed Miller who is also credited with "The Rich Man and Lazarus," but time and place make it possible. However, this song was written by "Edmund" Miller and that one by "Edward Miller." - RBW
File: RcTripTr

Tripping Over the Lea [Laws P19]

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a pretty girl on a (May) morning. (Even though she is very young,) he seduces her, then tells her he has no interest in marriage. She is left alone to await the birth of her baby.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: seduction pregnancy abandonment age
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws P19, "Tripping Over the Lea"
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H794, pp. 385-386, "Under the Shade of a Bonny Green Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 10, "The Bonny Green Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 12, "The Bonnie Green Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 69, "The Bonnie Green Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 501, AEMAYMRN
Roud #2512
RECORDINGS:
Louis Killen, "One May Morning" (on BirdBush2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Willie Archer (The Banks of the Bann)" (plot)
File: LP19

Tripping Up the Green Grass

See Green Grass (File: BGMG645)

Trois Graines de Peppernell

DESCRIPTION: "Mon pere, mon pere, vous me tenez dans votre bouche." French version of the "Singing Bone" motif. Two hungry children are sent by their parents to find food. The girl finds three grains; the boy drowns her and takes the seeds; the seeds reveal the truth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Creighton-Journey)
KEYWORDS: death food brother sister foreignlanguage drowning recitation
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Helen Creighton, _A Folk Tale Journey through the Maritimes_, edited by Michael Taft and Ronald Caplan, Breton Books, 1993, pp. 140-142, "Thee Grains of Peppernell (Trois Graines de Peppernell)" (1 text, with a prose introduction to the three-verse recitation)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Twa Sisters" [Child 10] (plot)
File: CrJ141

Trois Marins de Groix, Les

DESCRIPTION: French. Forebitter. "Nus etions trois marins de Groix (x2), Embarques sur le Saint Francois." Three sailors from Groix sail on the Saint Francois for 45 francs a month and win with every meal. A sailor falls in the sea when a rope parts and is never found
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage sailor death money shanty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 47, "Les Trois Marins de Groix" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HSeSo047

Trois Mois d'Campagne (Three Months in the Country)

DESCRIPTION: French. Three months in the country, I'll never do more. My wife is drunk and I have more to drink. Chorus: "P'tits pois, p'tits pois fayot, c'est la musique, sique, sique, c'est la musique tchqu'emploi" meaning "Peas, bean peas, the music of work"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage drink food humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, p. 799, "Trois Mois d'Campagne" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Mme. Josephine Costard, "Trois Mois d'Campagne" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea799

Trois Navires de Ble (Three Wheat Ships)

DESCRIPTION: French. Three wheat ships are blown to land. The youngest daughter of the king asks a sailor the price of wheat. She asks him to give up sailing and play here with her. She says she hears her children crying. He says she has no children yet.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting bargaining sea ship shore storm sailor food
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 111, "Trois Navires de Ble" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LeBe111

Trolley, The

DESCRIPTION: "Heigh-ho, away we skim o'er the city's highways; Waking the quiet byways, clang goes the gong!" Everyone is happy on the trolley. It moves with "force vulcanic." A throng watches its progress. Everyone can take the trolley
AUTHOR: John S. Russ (source: Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends); reportedly written 1900
KEYWORDS: technology nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 459-460, "The Trolley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7745
File: KPL459

Trooper and Maid [Child 299]

DESCRIPTION: A trooper comes to a girl's door and convinces her to sleep with him. In the morning he is called to the colors; she follows and begs him to return or let her come with him. He will not let her come and will not promise to return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: courting soldier abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West,South),Scotland(Aber,Bord,High)) Ireland Canada US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES (27 citations):
Child 299, "Trooper and Maid" (4 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Bronson 299, "Trooper and Maid" (27 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 299, "Trooper and Maid" (4 versions: #3, #12,#13, #17)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 45, "The Trooper and the Maid" (3 short texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #11, #12, #10}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 371-373, "The Trooper and the Maid" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #14}
Randolph 41, "A Soldier Rode From the East to the West" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 209-212, "A Soldier Rode" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 51, "Trooper and Maid" (2 texts, 1 tune entitled "The Trooper and Maid") {Bronson's #16}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 46, pp. 356-360, "Trooper and Maid" (1 fragment, probably this but short enough that it might be something else)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 49, "Trooper and Maid" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 49, "Trooper and Maid" (1 fragment plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 60, "The Soldier's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 27, "Trooper and Maid" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 102-103, "The Soldier and the Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 684-686, "The Trooper and Maid" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 10, "A Bold Dragoon" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 22-23, "The Dragoon and the Maid" (1 slightly composite text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #65, "The Bold Dragoon" (1 text, 1 tune; the text so heavily bowdlerized that it is hard to tell the original; the true text is in Bronson} {Bronson's #13}
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 121, "As I Roved Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan7 1470, "The Trooper and the Fair Maid" (5 texts, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #7, B=#2, C=#4}
Greig/Duncan8 1852, "I'm Nae Awa" (1 fragment)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 365-366, "The Trumpet Sounds at Burreldales; or, The Trooper and the Maid" (1 short text)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #61, p. 224-225, "Three 'Stralion Dragoons (Trooper and Maid, Child 299)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #26}
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 57-58, "The Trooper and the Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 65, "Trooper and Maid" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 161, "The Trooper And The Maid" (1 text)
DT 299, TROOPRMD (TROOPRM2*) LGHTDRAG
Roud #162
RECORDINGS:
Harry List, "The Light Drag'on" (on FSB02, FSB2CD)
Dillard Chandler, "The Soldier Traveling from the North" (on OldLove, DarkHoll)
Seamus Ennis, "As I Roved Out" (on FSB01) (on FSBFTX13)
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Trooper and the Maid" (on SCMacCollSeeger01) {the text is Bronson's #18, but the tune is different}
Jimmy McBeath, "The Trooper and the Maid" (on FSB5 [as "The Trooper Lad"], FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #17}
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Love My Love (I) (As I Cam' Owre Yon High High Hill)" (lyrics)
cf. "Ung Sjoman Forlustar Sig, En (A Young Seaman Enjoys Himself)" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Trooper and the Maid
The Bugle Britches
The Bugle Boy
The Soldier and His Lady
The Soldier Travelling From the North
NOTES [220 words]: Randolph's are the first bawdy versions of the venerable ballad to see the light of print. - EC
Many versions of this have mixed with the "Seventeen Come Sunday" [Laws O17], the result may be known as "As I Roved Out" (so, e.g., the version in Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland), and you should probably check the references under both songs. It is often difficult to decide where to file such a piece (indeed, I managed to file the Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland text under both songs before finally deciding it belonged here). - RBW
Verse 3 of Child 299.B and verse 9 of Child 299.D is close to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 180, "Wine and cakes for gentlemen" (earliest date in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes is 1898)
Child 299.D: "Bread and cheese for gentlemen, An corn and hay for horses, Pipes and tobacco for auld wives, And bonnie lads for lasses." [For this see also Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #173, p. 127, ("Cheese and bread for gentlemen") -- though they describe it as "a fragment of a harvest song." The Opies say Crofton had a Welsh equivalent but do not give any additional information. - RBW]
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 180: "Wine and cakes for gentlemen, Hay and corn for horses, A cup of ale for good old wives, And kisses for young lasses." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C299

Trooper and the Fair Maid, The

See Trooper and Maid [Child 299] (File: C299)

Trooper and the Tailor, The

DESCRIPTION: The trooper is away on duty, so his wife goes to bed with the tailor. When their business is done, they go to sleep. When the trooper shows up, the tailor hides in a cabinet. The chilly trooper wants to burn the cabinet, and finds the hidden tailor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1889
KEYWORDS: infidelity husband wife soldier humorous hiding
FOUND IN: US(MA) Britain(England(South,Lond),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 139, "The Trooper and the Tailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan7 1463, "The Bold Trooper" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 270-271, "The Trooper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 200, "The Game-Cock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #105, "The Groggy Old Tailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 45, "The Wee Croppy Tailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 50, pp. 144-145,174-175, "The Wee Croppy Tailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 243-248, "The Bold Trooper" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 116, "Tiddy, the Tailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 96-97, "The Bold Trooper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 86, "The Bold Trooper" (1 text)
DT, TRPRTAIL*
Roud #311
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Chettleburgh, "Game-Cock" (on FSBFTX19)
Nora Cleary, "The Bold Trooper" (on Voice06)
Harry Cox, "The Groggy Old Tailor" (on HCox01)
Joshua Osborne, "The Bold Trooper" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(414), "Tailor and Trooper," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boatsman and the Chest" [Laws Q8] (plot) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Cropped Tailor
NOTES [111 words]: This and similar songs are sometimes traced back to a story in Boccaccio (seventh day, second story: Gianella, Peronella, and her husband). But the story is really one of the basic themes of folktale, and doubtless predates Boccaccio as well as these songs. - RBW
The Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster text ends when the trooper "caught hold of the tailor just by the two ears, And he clean cut them off with his own little shears...." That explains that text's title: "The Wee Croppy Tailor." Notes to IRClare01 give as one of the explanations of the politically charged term "Croppy," "the practice of punishing convicted felons by cutting off the tops of their ears." - BS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: FSC139

Trooper and the Turk, The

See John Thomson and the Turk [Child 266] (File: C266)

Trooper Cut Down in His Prime, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a trooper "wrapped up in flannel yet colder than clay." He dies as "the bugles were playin'," and details of the burial are given. His gravestone warns, "Flash-girls of the city have quite ruined me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979
KEYWORDS: death disease whore burial funeral soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 102-103, "The Young Trooper Cut Down in His Prime" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 6, "The Trooper Cut Down In His Prime" (1 text)
Roud #2
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] (tune & meter, plot) and references there
cf. "The Unfortunate Rake" (tune & meter, plot)
cf. "The Bad Girl's Lament (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime)" [Laws Q26] (tune & meter, plot)
cf. "The Sailor Cut Down in His Prime" (tune & meter, plot)
NOTES [55 words]: One of the large group of ballads ("The Bard of Armagh," "Saint James Hospital," "The Streets of Laredo") ultimately derived from "The Unfortunate Rake." All use the same or similar tunes and meter, and all involve a person dying as a result of a wild life, but the nature of the tragedy varies according to local circumstances. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: DarNS006

Trooper Watering His Nag, The

DESCRIPTION: Euphemistically, a man and a woman describe their sexual organs as a horse (pony) and a fountain. The horse drinks at the fountain, "An' I reckon you know what I mean."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1992 (Legman); the concept is found in 1707 (_Pills to Purge Melancholy_, v.iii p. 55, according to Farmer)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "There was an old woman lived under the hill, And it's green so green the leaves...." "It was a bold trooper rode up to the inn." He beds the woman's daughter. The girl, "fever in her belly," looks over his body and repeatedly asks "what is this here." The man and a woman describe their sexual organs as a horse (pony) and a fountain. The horse drinks at the fountain, "An' I reckon you know what I mean."
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy
FOUND IN: Canada Britain(England) US(MA,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 44-52, "The Trooper Watering His Nag" (9 texts, 2 tunes)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 71, "You Know Very Well What I Mean" (1 partial text)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 60-61, "The Trooper's Horse" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TROOPNAG* TRPHORSE*
ADDITIONAL: Thomas d'Urfey, Wit and Mirth, or, Pills to Purge Melancholy (New York: Folklore Library Publishers, 1959 (facsimile reproduction of 1876 reprint of the 1719-1720 edition ("Digitized by Internet Archive"))), Vol V, pp. 13-14, "The Trooper Watering His Nagg" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1613
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shoemaker's Kiss" (chorus lyrics)
cf. "Ye Ken Pretty Well What I Mean, O" (lyrics, style)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Reckon You Know What I Mean
Green Leaves So Green
NOTES [50 words]: I'm tempted to lump this with "Ye Ken Pretty Well What I Mean, O" -- the lyric and sly tone are obviously quite close. But Roud and Ben Schwartz both leave them separate, so I am very tentatively doing the same. But almost all authorities seem to confuse them somehat; you had better see both songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RL044

Trooper, The

See The Trooper and the Tailor (File: FSC139)

Trooper's Horse, The

See The Trooper Watering His Nag (File: RL044)

Trot Away

See The Trotting Horse (File: BeCo438)

Trot, Trot to Boston

DESCRIPTION: For dandling a baby. "Trot, trot to Boston, Trot, trot to Lynn, Watch out (child's name) That you don't fall in" (at which point one may take the baby off the knee. "Trot, trot... To buy a loaf of bread, Trot, trot, home again, The old wife is dead." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (recording, Margaret MacArthur, "Folksongs of Vermont")
KEYWORDS: travel food home horse | trot dandling
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE)
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Trot, Trot to Boston" (Piotr-Archive #272, recorded 09/27/2022)
NOTES [57 words]: Margaret MacArthur recorded this as a sort of children's medley with "This Is the Way the Ladies Ride." I have yet to find a printed collection of it standing alone, but there are many versions on web sites, with substantial variations using different names for the second town (rarely the first), since the second town is the rhyme word. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio272

Trottin' Song

DESCRIPTION: First song: "Here me goes, here me goes, Going downtown to get my old shoes lined and bound. Old hare hip and old hare and old hare eat my turnip top." Second song: "Here me goes... Goin' down to grandpa's some grapes... and bring my pa two apples"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: food animal nonballad father clothes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 35, "Trottin' Song [1]" and "Trottin' Song [2]" (2 short texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #16315
NOTES [60 words]: Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama reports these as two different songs -- and they do have different tunes, and even different time signatures. But they start with the same line, and have the same sort of feel; until and unless something shows up to distinguish them, I am lumping them. "Trotting" refers not to a means of locomotion but "trotting a baby to sleep." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Arno035

Trotting Horse, The

DESCRIPTION: "I can sport as fine a trotting horse as any well in town." The singer declares that the animal can travel at fourteen miles per hour. He describes its intelligence and racing abilities, and says how quickly it can bring him home from far away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.19(78))
KEYWORDS: horse racing nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #69, "Trot Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, pp. 244-245, "The Trotting Horse" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 438-439, "The Trotting Horse" (1 text)
ST BeCo438 (Partial)
Roud #1540
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.19(78), "The Trotting Horse"("I can sport as fine a trotting horse as any swell in t[own] ")[the right edge is missing; to complete the text see Firth c.19(96)], T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Firth c.19(96), Harding B 11(2804), Harding B 11(3887), 2806 c.16(27, Harding B 11(1359), Harding B 11(890), "[The] Trotting Horse"; Harding B 17(320b), "The Troting[sic] Horse"
NOTES [129 words]: Bell attributes his text and the Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland text to W. H. Ainsworth. I assume this is Harrison Ainsworth, author of Rookwood, who also gave us the legend of Dick Turpin and Black Bess. AInsworth did not create the song -- there are numerous broadside copies -- but I wouldn't trust Ainsworth's version very much as an example of the type; he would be too tempted to fiddle with it. - (BS), RBW
The broadsides are recognizably the same song but verses are omitted from some. There are a few lines notably different; for example, "She'll trot fifteen miles an hour I'll bet you a thousand pounds" vs. "To trot you 14 miles an hour I will bet you five to one." The Ainsworth-influenced text is closer to "the five to one" set. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: BeCo438

Trouble for the Range Cook (The Chuck Wagon's Stuck)

DESCRIPTION: "Come wrangle your broncos and saddle them quick, For the chuck wagon's boggin' down there by the crick." The riders make every effort to free the wagon, for "There's nothing to eat when the chuck wagon's mired."
AUTHOR: Words: Earl Alonzo Brinistool
EARLIEST DATE: 1914
KEYWORDS: cowboy food disaster cook
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 98, "The Chuck Wagon's Stuck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, p. 114, "Trouble For The Range Cook" (1 text)
NOTES [21 words]: John I. White reports that Romaine Lowedermilk set this to music, but I do not know if this is the tune offered by Ohrlin. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Ohr098

Trouble I've Had All My Day

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that he has had "trouble all my days" and it will carry him to the grave. Mama warned him he'd have trouble where ever he'd go. His girl quits him. Police arrest him and he has no one to go his bail.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt04)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection prison nonballad lover police
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Trouble I've Had All My Day" (on MJHurt04)
File: RcTIHAMD

Trouble in Mind (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Troubled in mind, I'm blue, but I won't be blue always; The sun's gonna shine in my back do' some day." "I'm gonna lay my head on some lonesome railroad line...." "I love all you pretty women, I love you all the same...."
AUTHOR: Richard Jones
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: courting hardtimes floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 313, "Troubled in Mind" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Bertha "Chippie" Hill, "Trouble in Mind" (OKeh 8312, 1926/Conqueror 8937, 1937; Vocalion 04379, 1938) (Circle J-1003, n.d.) (Vocalion 1248, 1929)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Trouble in Mind" (on Holcomb-Ward1, HolcombCD1, ClassOT)
Karl Jones, "Trouble in Mind" (Mercury 2002, 1945)
R. M. Jones: "Trouble in Mind" (Bluebird B-6569, 1936; Bluebird B-6963, 1937)
Leon's Lone Star Cowboys, "Trouble in Mind" (Decca 5340, 1937)
Jane Lucas [pseud. for Victoria Spivey] "Trouble in Mind" (Vocalion 03346, 1936)
Lucky Millinder & his Orch.; Rosetta Tharpe, vocalist, "Trouble in Mind" (Decca 48053, rec. 1941)
Jesse Rodgers, "Troubled in Mind and Blue" (Bluebird B-6924, 1937)
Georgia White, "Trouble in Mind" (Decca 7192, 1936), "Trouble in Mind Swing" (Decca 7521, 1938)
Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, "Trouble in Mind" (Vocalion 03343, 1936; Columbia 20109, n.d.; Conqueror 9041, 1938; Columbia 37306, 1947)
SAME TUNE:
Jack & Lesllie, "Trouble in Mind #3" (Decca 5561, 1938)
Shelton Brothers, "New Trouble in Mind" (Decca 5339, 1937)
Georgia White, "New Trouble in Mind" (Decca 7332, 1937)
File: LoF313

Trouble in My Way

DESCRIPTION: "Trouble is in my way I have to cry/mourn sometime, Jesus will take me by and by." "I've got a bleeding heart." "Blessed are the pure in heart." "The Holy Bible said it's true My God died for me and you." "If I walk right he will take me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recording, The Dixie Humming Birds)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, various authors, "A Singing Stream: A Black Family Chronicle" [an entire issue about a documentary of the Landis Family], Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 (Winter 1989), pp. 54-55, "Trouble in My Way" (1 text, contained in the script of the documentary)
Roud #17293
RECORDINGS:
The Dixie Humming Birds, "Trouble in My Way" (Peacock 1705, 1952)
Peerless Four, "Trouble in My Way" (on LomaxCD1708)
NOTES [204 words]: At least one reference for "The Holy Bible said it's true My God died for me and you" is 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (King James): "For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all were dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again." - BS
Similarly Romans 6:10, "For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God" (KJV)/"The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God" (New Revised Standard Version). This is the basis of the doctrine of the Atonement, and is common both in the New Testament and in Christian theological writings.
W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, article on the Dixie Hummingbirds (pp. 101-102) implies that this was the most popular recording made by this long-enduring Black Gospel group. The lineup that made the recording was founding members James B. Davis (lead vocal), Ira Tucker (tenor), Willie Bobo (bass), plus later additions James Walker (tenor) and Beachery Thompson ("additional vocalist") and guitarist Howard Carroll. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcTrIMW

Trouble O

DESCRIPTION: "Climbing up de mountain Creeping on me knee I was tryin' to see me Jesus To tell Him all my troubles ... Trouble oh The whole world in trouble"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 54, "Trouble O" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ElCh054

Trouble of the World

See Soon I Will Be Done (File: LoF244)

Trouble of the World, The

DESCRIPTION: "I want to be my Father's children (x3), Roll, Jordan, roll." "Ah, say, ain't you done with the trouble of the world (x3), Roll, Jordan, roll." "I ask my father how long I held them (x3), held them to the end." "My sins are so heavy I can't get along...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad sin
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 8, "The Trouble of the World" (1 text, 1 tune plus a (partial?) variant)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Winslow Gordon, "Negro 'Shouts' from Georgia" in Alan Dundes, editor, _Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel_ (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1990) ("tell me now how long you goin' to hold um") pp. 448-449 (1 text)
Roud #11855
NOTES [145 words]: Allen, Ware, and Garrison admit that it is "impossible to represent in notes" the strange timing of this piece. I suspect it is sort of a patter song inspired by "Roll, Jordan, Roll." - RBW
The Gordon text, from the Georgia Sea Islands, describes this as a ring shout song with the pattern of one "walk" verse -- "slow and dignified" -- and four shout verses in "a double-quick tripping measure." Each verse repeats a line three times and ends "Roll, Jordan, Roll." The pattern varies only in the first line of the walk verse: "True believer/Brudder Tember/Sister Lucy/..." ("tell me how long you goin' to hold 'um "(3x) "Roll, Jordan, Roll." The repeated lines in the shout verses are "My sin so heavy I can't get across," "I throw my sin in the middle of the sea," "True believer done with the trouble of the world" and "Just begin with the trouble of the world." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: AWG008

Trouble On Your Mind

See Troubled In My Mind (File: LoF102)

Trouble Will Bury Me Down

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Why brother (sister)" "Poor me, poor me, Trouble will bury me down" (2x). Verse: Hallelujah once, hallelujah twice, Trouble..., The Lord is on the giving hand...." "Sometimes I think I'm ready to drop.... Thank the Lord I do not stop...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 24, "Po Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Bart024

Trouble, Trouble

DESCRIPTION: "Trouble, trouble, I had them all my day... Well, it seem like trouble go'n let me to my grave." The singer is going to the South where it is dry. He is in his cell and missing his Mamma. He works his team.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (collected from James Hale)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes prison
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 352-354, "Trouble, Trouble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15598
File: LoSi352

Troubled in Mind (I)

See Trouble in Mind (File: LoF313)

Troubled in Mind (II)

See I'm A-Trouble in de Mind (I'm A-Trouble in the Mind) (File: AWG030B)

Troubled In My Mind (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I'm troubled (x3) in my mind; If (trouble doesn't kill me, I'll live a long long time.") Remainder is mostly floating verses: "My cheeks were as red as the red blooming rose." "I'll build me a cabin on the mountain so high." "I'm sad and I'm lonely."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad loneliness floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 102, "I'm Troubled" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 98-99, "I'm Troubled In Mind"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 290, "Troubled in Mind" (2 texts); also 250, "The Wagoner's Lad" (3 texts plus 3 fragments; the texts "A"-"C" are "The Wagoner's Lad," and "D" has an associated verse, but "E" and "F" are fragments of a love song, perhaps "Farewell, Charming Nancy" or "Omie Wise," both of which have similar lyrics; "D" also shares this single verse, and "E" adds a "Troubled in Mind" chorus); also 443, "I Had a Banjo Made of Gold," a fragment of this song or something related)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 250, "The Wagoner's Lad" (6 tunes plus text excerpts, five of which are probably "The Wagoner's Lad" but the "E" tune is something else but has a chorus which might go here); 290, "Troubled in Mind" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 173, "Trouble On Your Mind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12091 and 14067
RECORDINGS:
Blue Sky Boys, "I'm Troubled, I'm Troubled" (Bluebird B-6538, 1936)
Rufus Crisp, "Trouble on my Mind" (on Crisp01)
Doc Watson & Arnold Watson, "I'm Troubled, I'm Troubled" (on Watson01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Sad and I'm Lonely" (floating verses)
cf. "Going Across the Sea" (floating verses)
cf. "I Wish That Girl Was Mine" (theme, floating lyrics)
NOTES [121 words]: Other than the tune, and perhaps the first verse, the Lomax text seems to be composed entirely of floating verses from songs such as "The Wagoner's Lad (On Top of Old Smokey)" and "The Cuckoo." But it has so many floating lyrics that it can hardly be associated with any particular song. (Plus Paul Stamler tells me it's quite similar to Rufus Crisp's version.) And the Brown texts, of impeccable ancestry, is also composed mostly of floating material. Ditto Browne's (his notes says, "Such a composite is subject to constant change," and he's right). The level of confusion of this song is high; Roud's assignment of texts disagrees with mine, and I might well produce yet a third division if I were to start from scratch. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: LoF102

Troubled In My Mind (II)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I'm troubled (x3) in mind, If Jesus don't help me I surely will die." Verses: The singer asks Jesus for help in times of trouble. Jesus helped the singer to bear the "dark days of bondage"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Marsh)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes slavery nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 236, "I'm Troubled in Mind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 51, "I'm Troubled in Mind" (1 text)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 171, "I'm Troubled" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: J. B. T. Marsh, The Story of the Jubilee Singers (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1903 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #6 p. 164, "Children We Shall All Be Free" (1 text) (1 tune)
Roud #10971
NOTES [101 words]: Marsh: "The person who furnished this song (Mrs. Brown of Nashville, formerly a slave), stated that she first heard it from her father when she was a child."
Marsh/Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute and Work are close, in form, to Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 290A and the Blue Sky Boys recording of "Troubled in My Mind (I)": "I'm troubled(x3) in mind, And if trouble don't kill me I'll live a long time." Marsh/Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute has a minor variant of the Blue Sky Boys' tune. - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Dett236B

Troubled Soldier, The

See The Rebel Soldier (File: R246)

Troubles of Marriage, The

See Marriage Causes Trouble (File: GrD1071)

Troubles, The

DESCRIPTION: Orange and Green fight. "Corney" ended the terror; Humbert ended peace. "Orange for Croppies went grousing." "Paddies completely divided" let John Bull adopt Union: "I'll take from them Commons and Peers" leaving "shackles and chains to the slave"
AUTHOR: James Hope (?-1847) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Madden's _Literary Remains of the United Irishmen of 1798_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Ireland nonballad political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May-June 1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
June 1798-March 1801 - Cornwallis is Viceroy of Ireland after the uprising (source: "Charles Cornwallis" at the site of the Grand [Masonic] Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon)
August-September 1798 - A French force under General Jean-Joseph-Amable Humbert lands in Ireland and is defeated.
January 1801 - Act of Union of Ireland and Great Britain
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 148, "The Troubles" (1 text)
NOTES [549 words]: "This piece ... was written by Jemmy Hope, one of the Northern United Irish leaders. Hope survived the rising and died in 1847."
The ballad makes a hero of Cornwallis as viceroy and commander-in-chief sent to Ireland to keep the peace after the 1798 uprising. Then it blames the Orangemen for the revival of terror after Humbert's defeat. After discussing Union it retells Aesop's fable in which a fox [England] steals the prize [Ireland] for which a lion and bear [Orange and Green] fight. It ends with a sarcastic tribute to "our gracious good monarch ... And also our free Constitution, And shackles and chains to the slave." - BS
Lord Lieutenant Camden, who was in charge in Ireland when the 1798 rebellion started, had no idea what to do. The British came up with a typically bad compromise: They put the dreadful General Lake in charge of the army, but appointed Cornwallis to be Lord Lieutenant.
Despite his failure in America (for which see "Lord Cornwallis's Surrender"), Cornwallis had done good service in the fifteen years prior to his appointment; he had spent six years in India, and had demonstrated (and would demonstrate again in Ireland) that he had none of the self-importance of the typical British politician (Pakenham, p. 263-264).
Cornwallis was clearly more humane than most of the alternatives. Fry/Fry, p. 206, write that "He overrode Lake: troops were certainly not to be let loose on the countryside and there would be no punishment without trial."
He also issued written pardons (called "Cornys") to rank and file rebels who surrendered quickly (Kee, p. 123)
When Humbert invaded, Cornwallis organized the pursuit that captured him (Fry/Fry, p. 207; Kee, p. 140).
Cornwallis and his secretary Lord Castlereigh also helped arrange the Act of Union, but this was based on Orders From On High. His personal feelings were very different: "I despise and hate myself for every hour engaging in such work" (Golway, p. 90; Kee, p. 159). But he and (especially) Castlereigh bought enough Irish peers to eventually pass Union (Fry/Fry, p. 211).
The religious conflicts in Ulster to which this song refers actually began even before 1798; see such songs about the Defenders, the Peep o' Day Boys, and the Orangemen as "The Noble Ribbon Boys," "Bold McDermott Roe," "The Boys of Wexford," and "Lisnagade."
Most of the sources I checked do not mention James Hope, but he is all over the pages of Smyth. He is said (p. 30) to have had only 15 weeks of formal schooling. In 1796, he travelled from Belfast to Dublin to spread the United Irish messaage (p. 152), and also visited Armagh, Monaghan, Cavan, and Leitrim (p.158) to bring the Defenders into the United framework. After the arrests of 1796-1797 he became one of the few remaining United Irish leaders coordinating the activities of the various local chapters (p. 160); perhaps his travels made him harder to catch. It appears that Smyth regards him as a radical inclined toward socialism (p. 165).
OxfordCompanion lists Hope's birth date as 1764, and says hewrote his memoris in 1843; they were published in 1846. It does not know his death date; it appears that Moylan's date is a conjecture from the fact that Hope was still alive when the memoirs were published, but he made little further impression on history. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: Moyl148

Trout and Salmon

See In Cupid's Court (File: CrMa052)

True American, The

DESCRIPTION: Vote for Pierce and King for President and Vice President and defeat Winfield Scott
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Winfield Scott is criticized for first opposing the vote for naturalized citizens -- to gain votes -- and then supporting that vote to gain the Irish vote. "[W]e'll make the blue dome ring With shouts of joy and victory for gallant Pierce and King. Then to the breeze we'll fling The flag of Pierce and King"
KEYWORDS: nonballad political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1852 - Presidential campaign. Franklin Pierce and William Rufus Devane King Democratic candidates for president and vice-president. The Whig candidates were Winfield Scott and William Alexander Graham. Pierce wins with 51% of the popular vote (to 44% for Scott and 5% for the Free Soil candidate) and 254 electoral votes to 42 for Scott. It is the last election in which the Whig party is a significant factor; in 1856, they will be replaced by the Republicans.
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 62, "The True American" (1 text)
Roud #2833
File: TPS062

True and Trembling Brakeman, The

See The Dying Mine Brakeman (The True and Trembling Brakeman) [Laws G11] (File: LG11)

True Bottom'd Boxer, The

DESCRIPTION: Supposedly about a nineteenth century boxer, Tom Spring: "Spring's the boy for a Mousley-Hurst rig [fight], my lads, Shaking a flipper and milling a pate." In language non-boxers will find incomprehensible, the song praises Spring's abilities
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Finger-FrontierBallads)
KEYWORDS: fight nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 50-51, "The True Bottom'd Boxer: (1 text)
Roud #8832
File: Fing050

True Friends and Relations of High and Low Stations

DESCRIPTION: "Now we're preparing for war we're declaring, I hear people say we'll have corpses this year." "the times they are awful the Irish unlawful." "this mean rotten super' that sent our five troopers to the gaol in Tralee."
AUTHOR: Sean O Tuama (Johnny Nora Aodha) (source: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: war prison
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 189, "True Friends and Relations of High and Low Stations" (1 text)
Roud #16240
NOTES [43 words]: I have no idea what's going on here. Is this about a literal war? The first World War? The Irish Civil War? - BS
I would guess (wildly) the Boer War: A lot of Irish fought it, but Ireland was not in the political ferment that preceded the First World War. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC189

True Love (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Tell me who's your trule love. Fare ye well. Oh, tell me who's your trule love. Fare ye well. She told me who's her true love. [Spoken: I didn't, didn't.] She told me who'se her true love. [I didn't didn't.] Let's stamp him down, let's stamp him down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: love dialog nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 550, "True Love" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [17 words]: The current description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5550A

True Love (II)

See Oxford City [Laws P30] (File: LP30)

True Love from the Eastern Shore

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells sweetheart who spurned him/her that s/he "would not serve you as you served me." Singer plans to mourn and weep, and tells sweetheart to grieve over his/her tombstone. (Singer vows to "court the girl, the old lady ain't in")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection death mourning burial lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 187, "True Love from the Eastern Shore" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #3610
RECORDINGS:
Texas Gladden, "Love's Worse Than Sickness" (on USTGladden01 -- a fragment with some words similar to this)
NOTES [33 words]: Sharp's "A" version doesn't define the sex of the singer or sweetheart. The "B" version is a fragment, which doesn't really overlap the "A" version; Sharp may have been using this as a catchall. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: ShAp2187

True Love Requited: or, The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington

See The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington [Child 105] (File: C105)

True Lover John

See The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father [Child 248] (File: C248)

True Lover of Mine, A

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

True Lover's Farewell (II)

See My Dearest Dear (File: SKE40)

True Lover's Farewell, The

See Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot (plus related references, e.g. The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76]) (File: C076A)

True Lovers Bold

See James and Flora (Flora and Jim, The United Lovers) (File: Pea190)

True Lovers, The

See High Germany (II) (File: ReCi064)

True Lovers' Departure, The

See The Noble Duke [Laws N15] (File: LN15)

True Lovers' Discoursion, The

See The Two Lovers' Discussion (U) (File: HHH164)

True Lovers' Discussion (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The boy asks the girl why she has changed her mind about him. She explains. He offers counter-arguments, elaborately reasoned. They quarrel. He prepares to leave her. She grows sad and begs him to stay.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland); before 1900 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 19(102))
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection accusation
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H164, pp. 362-364, "The True Lovers' Discussion" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 114, "One Pleasant Evening As Pinks and Daisies" (2 texts)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 39B, "The True Lovers' Discoursion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 96, "The True Lovers' Discussion" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 77-79, "The True Lover's Discussion" (1 text)
ST HHH164 (Partial)
Roud #2948
RECORDINGS:
Henry Campbell, "The True Lovers' Conversation" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Robert Cinnamond, "The True-Lover's Discussion" (on IRRCinnamond02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(102), "The True Lover's Discussion," J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899; also 2806 b.9(228)[some words illegible], 2806 c.15(65), 2806 c.15(43)[many illegible words], "[The] True Lover's Discussion"
NOTES [291 words]: The notes to Sam Henry credit it to a "schoolteacher M'Kittrick," at a date before 1860, and it certainly seems likely enough that it is composed. But I cannot prove the authorship.
The notes to Henry/Huntington/Herrmann list several other versions of this song, so I suppose it must have had some oral currency. But I can't believe it really had much popularity (despite Sam Henry's claims that he had many requests). It is dense, talkative, repetitive, foolish, and *long* (18 8-line stanzas in the Henry text, 20 8-line stanzas in Creighton and in Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi). It is also much too fond of elaborate words to be a good folk song.
I wonder if Henry wasn't confusing this with "Two Lovers Discoursing" [Laws O22] (a confusion Creighton also suffered; see Ben Schwartz's note); they share a title, and a theme, but the forms are utterly different. - RBW
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick: "There must be some relation between 39A and B. The former seems to have originated with the folk and the latter to have been a literary composition taken over by the folk. They are placed together because of subject matter and also because singers give variants of the same title." If so they have grown so far apart that there is no hint in the words that they are related. For 39A see "Two Lovers Discoursing" [Laws O22].
On IRRCinnamond02, Cinnamond sings the first two and last verse [of "32"] that are very close to Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H164. He points out that the last verse claims "In Magheratimpan [near Ballynahinch], if you inquire, you will find the author of these simple lines"; that corresponds to the note in Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople about authorship. - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: HHH164

True Lovers' Discussion (II), The

See Two Lovers Discoursing [Laws O22] (File: LO22)

True Paddy's Son, The

See The Kerry Recruit [Laws J8] (File: LJ08)

True Paddy's Song, The

See The Kerry Recruit [Laws J8] (File: LJ08)

True Sailor Boy, The

See The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)

True Sweetheart, The

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

True Tale of Robin Hood, A [Child 154]

DESCRIPTION: The Earl of Huntington, incomparable archer, consumes his wealth and is outlawed due to indebtedness to an abbot. Renamed Robin Hood, he is cruel to clergy and kind to the poor. Several adventures and his death by bloodletting are recounted.
AUTHOR: Martin Parker
EARLIEST DATE: 1632 (Stationer's Register entry, which in this case we can be sure applies to this ballad)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood poverty outlaw clergy death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1198 - ninth year of Richard I, which the cover of the broadsheet reports as Robin's death date
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 154, "A True Tale of Robin Hood" (1 text)
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 91-106, "A True Tale of Robin Hood" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 188-190, "A True Tale of Robin Hood" (1 excerpt, consisting of stanzas 1-5 and 104-120 plus postscript)
Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, editors, _Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000, pp. 602-625, "A True Tale of Robin Hood" (1 text, based primarily on the Bodleian broadside of c. 1632)
Roud #3996
NOTES [458 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Child would later write that he should have made "The Tale of Robin Hood" (which is presumably this) "an appendix and not given it a number" (Brown, p. 125). This would have been a good idea, since it is not traditional and not very valuable.
The Martin Parker who wrote this also, somewhat later, wrote "When the King Enjoys His Own Again" (1643). The latter was a better piece, but that's only because this is both banal in content and dreadful in form. Parker also wrote about King Arthur and Saint George, no doubt with equal (lack of) insight, and has a few other possible index. It is ironic that his tale provides a great mass of circumstantial detail about Robin Hood-- but circumstantial detail based on late sources or pure imagination.
The publisher's blurb on this promises "Truth purged from falsehood." I suppose that's true: Parker took every old, valuable, true element of the Robin Hood legend, and purged it, leaving all the falsehood to be read by gullible buyers. (Dobson/Taylor, p. 187, suggest that the "True Tale" contains allusions to lost Robin Hood tales. This is possible, but I see no reason to believe the material they are considering to be anything other than Parker's own creations. It seems nearly certain, e.g., that the anti-clericalism of the "True Tale" -- which is even more extreme than, say, that in the "Gest" -- reflects the Protestantism of Parker's time, not something he took from his sources. Note, for instance, that Robin is bled to death by a friar, not -- as in the "Gest" and "Robin Hood's Death" [Child 120] by the Prioress of Kirklees.)
Parker is thought to have been born around 1600 and died around 1656, with A History of that renowned Christian Worthy, King Arthur apparently being posthumous (NewCentury, p. 852). Joseph Ritson called him a "Grub-street scribbler and great Ballad monger of Charles the Firsts time" (Ancient Songs and Ballads, notes to "John and Joan; or, A Mad Couple Well Met," p. 372 in the Singing Tree Press edition.)
Those interested in Parker should probably see the article "Martin Parker, Ballad-Monger," by H. E. Rollins, published in Modern Philology XVI, 1919 (citation from Dobson/Taylor).
Rollins, p. 199, #2308, cites as a version of this piece the "Robin Hood" registered by Richard Cotes on November 9, 1633. More clearly this is p. 237, #2742, "a True tale of Robyn Hood or a breife touch of the life and deth of that renowned outlaw Roberte Earle of Huntington &c by M: P:" -- registered February 29, 1632 by Francis Grove. This was printed by T. Cotes on behalf of Grove, and apparently published as "A True Tale of Robbin"; see STC, p. 441, #19275. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: C154

True Tammas

See Tam Lin [Child 39] (File: C039)

True Thomas

See Thomas Rymer [Child 37] (File: C037)

True to the Gray

See The Southern Girl's Reply (True to the Gray) (File: Wa156)

True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man)

DESCRIPTION: The singer arrives in (Australia/Philadelphia) from Ireland and sets out to ramble. The girls rejoice at his presence. (A tavern-keeper's daughter) is scolded by her mother for wanting to follow him. She is determined to do so anyway
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1837 (Leander R. Miller manuscript; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: rambling emigration mother courting
FOUND IN: Australia US(MA,MW,So) Ireland Canada(Mar,Ont) Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (26 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 62, 122, "Dennis O'Reilly"; p. 138, "Tramp the Bushes of Australia" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 112-114, "With My Swag All on My Shoulder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 68-69, "Like a True-born Native Man" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, p. 18, "Dennis O'Reilly" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 126, "The Roving Irishman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, p. 97, "The Roving Ashlaw Man" (1 text, 1 tune, heavily localized); pp. 134-135, "The Roving Cunningham" (1 text, 1 tune, which Roud files with #498, "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man)" [Laws H4], but while the first two lines resemble that song, the rest seems to be more like this)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp.124-125, "The Roving Irishman" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 48, "The Roving Irishman" (1 text, 1 tune, Rickaby's transcription of Dean)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 39-40, "The Roving Gambler"; "The Gamboling Man"; "The Roving Journeyman" (3 texts, 1 tune; the first two are "The Roving Gambler," but "The Roving Journeyman" is a short form of this piece)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 76-77, "Denis O'Reilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 16-17, "Dennis O'Reilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan7 1397, "Scrogie's Bell" (1 fragment)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 84, "The Roving Journeyman" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 353, "The Roving Journeyman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 696, "Roving Navigator" (1 text)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #8, "Roving Jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 36-37, "With My Swag All on My Shoulder (Denis O'Riley)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 125-127, "With My Swag All On My Shoulder" (1 text)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 86-88, "The Rambling Irishman" (1 text)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 15, "The Roving Journeyman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 37, "The Rambling Irishman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2040, p. 137, "The Roving Journeyman" (1 reference)
DT, DENNOREI* ROVJOURN*
ADDITIONAL: Roger Elbourne, Music and Tradition in Early Industrial Lancashire 1780-1840 (Totowa, 1980), p. 74, "The Roving Journeyman" (1 fragment)
Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 166, "The Diggers" (1 excerpt)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), p. 307, "The Diggers" (1 short text)
ST MA062 (Partial)
Roud #360 and 676
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Doran, "The Roving Journeyman" (on FSB3)
Tom Willett, "The Roaming Journeyman" (on Voice20)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3353), "Roving Journeyman," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(1229), Harding B 11(1479), Johnson Ballads 2807, Harding B 11(3354), Harding B 11(3355), 2806 b.11(33), Firth c.18(249), Harding B 11(3352), Harding B 11(804), 2806 d.31(40), Harding B 11(1228), 2806 b.11(203), Firth c.26(218), Harding B 25(1671), "[The] Roving Journeyman"
LOCSinging, sb40459b, "The Roving Journeyman," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man)" [Laws H4] (plot)
cf. "The Union Boy" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Neuve Chappelle" (tune, form)
SAME TUNE:
Neuve Chappelle (File: HHH526)
NOTES [1268 words]: The popular version of this piece, "With My Swag All on My Shoulder," is by A.B. "Banjo" Paterson, but the song appears to be older. Perhaps more characteristic than any particular plot is the second half of the first verse, which often becomes a chorus:
With my (swag/bundle) on my shoulder,
My (stick/billy) in my hand,
I'll travel round (the country/Australia/etc.)
(Like/I'm) a (true-born Irishman/true-born native man/roving journeyman).
What appears to be the earliest datable version of this is the text found in the Supplemental Tradition, dated 1837 and supplied to us by John Aldrich. It was written out, according to its colophon, on January 31, 1837 by Leander R. Miller. Aldrich supplied this information about Miller:
Leander R. Miller was born in Cumberland, Rhode Island on June 22, 1818 and died March 16, 1842. He did not marry. He is buried at the Elder Ballou Meeting House Cemetery in Cumberland. He was the fifth child of ten children of Jonathan and Polly (Ballou) Miller of Cumberland. His father Jonathan was a farmer and boat builder and is the son of William Miller. His mother Polly is daughter of Oliver Ballou. One of his brothers is the Hon. Edwin Ballou Miller who was a very successful businessman, real estate developer and member of the General Assembly of Rhode Island in 1888.
Oliver Ballou is the son of Noah Ballou Sr. who is a descendent of Maturin Ballou. Maturin Ballou is the first Ballou to have immigrated to New England around 1640. Oliver Ballou and son Dexter Ballou (younger brother of Polly and uncle to Leander) were honored as very successful pioneers of the cotton spinning mill industry in Woonsocket Falls.
Noah Ballou Jr. was another son of Noah Ballou Sr. and was the brother of Oliver (uncle to Polly and great uncle to Leander). At the age of 16, Noah volunteered in the Continental army just after the battle of Bunker Hill and rose to be sergeant with Gen. Greene. Later, Noah was a proprietor of a store/livery stable where he sold molasses, rum, lumber, tobacco, coffee, salt, sugar, chocolate, and other items and he rented out his horse, oxen, wagon and sleigh. Noah Ballou kept a ledger that documented the sale of each item and the amount owed by each customer. The name of the customer was at the top of each page (a separate page for each customer) and a list of items purchased or rented was documented in this ledger and noted when payment was met. Customers included Oliver Capron, William Eddy, Ariel Cook and Jonathon Miller (I believe to be the father of Leander). The ledger is dated from 1806 to 1817. It is believed that this ledger was passed down through the family, to Noah's brother Oliver and then to his daughter Polly. It is here where it is believed that the children of Jonathan and Polly Miller wrote in the empty pages and spaces of this ledger some thirty years later. Writings include "The Voice of Her I Love," "The Prentice Boy," The Hazel Dell," "The Lake of the Dismal Swamp" and what is believed to be the original writing of "Roving Irishman" dated and signed January 31, 1837 by Leander R. Miller.
This ledger continued to be passed down through the generations into my possession since I am a descendent of Jonathan and Polly (Ballou) Miller.
Is it possible, as Aldrich contends, that this 1837 text is the original of this well-known song? The song is known in the U.S., including in the northeastern part of the country, and the Miller text is clearly localized to Philadelphia and Pennsylvania -- not just by the mention of Philadelphia but also by the mention of the Pennsylvania Dutch.
Miller's is not only the earliest text, it appears to be the only non-broadside text from before about 1880. And it precedes what appears to be the earliest American broadside by at least sixteen years.
On the other hand, although the song is known in the U.S., it is much more widely known in Britain and Ireland, which makes it more likely that it originated there.
And then there are the British broadsides. The Bodleian collection contains two copies of a broadside of this piece printed by James Catnach -- Harding B 11(3353) and Harding B 11(3355). It has one by J. Pitts -- Harding B 11(1229). Catnach was active 1813-1838; Pitts was active 1819-1844. Thus, although we cannot absolutely date their broadsides, in terms of time, 92% of Catnach's period of activity preceded the Miller copy, and 72% of Pitts's active period. Also, the Catnach and Pitts versions are much longer than Miller's and set in Carlow, implying that there must have been some sort of rewriting between the Catnach and Miller text (although we of course cannot know who did the rewriting).
Sadly, the scans of the broadsides on the Bodleian site are not good enough to reveal watermarks in the broadside paper, so we have little evidence to date the prints within Catnach's and Pitts's active periods. However, Steve Roud tells me that that a catalog of Catnach's publications from 1832 includes the song. Thus, although we cannot prove that the Bodleian broadside predates the Miller text (because broadside printers sometimes reprinted their texts), we can say with certainty that Catnach had printed the song before the Miller copy was transcribed.
It should also be kept in mind that, until the mid-twentieth century and the creation of the songwriting-industrial complex, to "write" a song usually meant to "copy" or "transcribe" it, not "compose" it -- and the Miller text as written has in any event no tune.
Nonetheless the Miller text remains the earliest American version, and is very interesting as an example of how a song could be rewritten. - RBW
The Elbourne fragment is from a weaver version of "The Roving Jouneyman."
The Greig/Duncan7 fragment is from a navvy version of "The Roving Journeyman." It is tempting to make this a separate version on the assumption that navvies modified the more common song for their own use, but the songs are too close to support the split. The fragment begins "I hadna been in Huntly toun a week but barely three"; the Great North of Scotland Railway (GNSR) came to Huntly around 1853 (source: "Great North of Scotland Railway" at the Steam Index [British Steam Locomotive History] site). This passage illustrates the other -- besides the "navvy" reference -- difference between the navvy version and the more common "Roving Irishman" texts: in these the singer roves in Scotland or England (see "The Navvie Man," Sam Richards and Tish Stubbs, The English Folksinger (Glasgow, 1979), p. 111, and the EFDSS LP sited below) or Scotland (Greig/Duncan7), rather than Pennsylvania or Australia.
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland, on page 801 note to Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 353, "The Roving Journeyman," has the last verse of "The Roving Navigator" ending "Now she's happy and contented with her roving navvy man."
"I Am a Roving Navvy Man" on EFDSS LP 1008 All Jolly Fellows is also this song. Fred McCormick provided the words from the LP. Steve Gardham had the Richards and Stubbs reference. Both answered my query to the Ballad-L list when I was speculating whether the Greig/Duncan7 fragment belongs here with "The Roving Journeyman."
You can get some information on "The Navvy Age" in the notes to "The Roving Newfoundlanders (II)" [as the navvies moved to Canada], and, about their reputations as rakes in "The Courting Coat," "The Navvy Boy" and "Navvy on the Line."
Broadside LOCSinging sb40459b: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: MA062

True-Born Sons of Levi, The

See Sons of Levi (Knights of Malta) (File: HHH146)

True-love Requited

See The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington [Child 105] (File: C105)

Trumpet Sounds at Burreldales, The

See Trooper and Maid [Child 299] (File: C299)

Trundle Bed

DESCRIPTION: "As I rummaged through the attic, List'ning to the falling rain," the singer sees the trundle bed in the corner. It reminds him of his mother's singing, and the prayers she said for him. She is long dead, but her memory still inspires his faith
AUTHOR: J. C. Baker
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Dime-Song-Book #19)
KEYWORDS: mother death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #19, pp. 51-52, "My Trundle Bed" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 234-235, "My Trundle-Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15496
File: HeSo234

Trust No Lovely Forms of Passion

See Courage, Brother, Do Not Stumble (File: KSUC110A)

Trusty

DESCRIPTION: Trusty, a mastiff, bites a boy. The boy's mother hires an assassin to take revenge. The dog is shot to death[?]. Mother regrets her action: "at even when I'm wakin' and weary Oh wha will bark an keep me cheery"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "There was a tyke, a tyke o' fame An Trusty was the doggie's name." Trusty bites a boy whose mother takes the boy to a doctor. Expecting her son to die she wants "the venimous beast" killed. She takes her complaint to a judge who claims that, with the law as it stands, "nae judge nor jury upon earth Can gar the doggie gie his aith." Mother hires a lad who "laid the doggie fairly deed" "wi' a round spouter." The deed done, she repents and mourns the murder. "Tho' baith [mother and son] were deid, there's nae great scaith The dog was better than them baith." [The story ends here but we were promised at the beginning that Trusty's "coat o' guid black hair ... His coat o' mail, it did him save"]
KEYWORDS: revenge death humorous dog mother doctor judge
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 496, "Trusty" (1 text)
Roud #5981
File: GrD3496

Trusty Lariat, The (The Cowboy Fireman)

DESCRIPTION: An ex-cowboy, now a railway fireman, sees a child on the track. He throws his lariat around a pole, ties the end to the smokestack. The train is jerked off the track, crushing him. "He killed two hundred passengers/But, thank God, he saved that child"
AUTHOR: Attributed to Harry "Mac" McClintock
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Harry "Mac" McClintock)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A former cowboy is working as a railway fireman because the pay is better. He sees a child on the track ahead. With great presence of mind he throws his trusty lariat around a pole, then fastens the other end to the smokestack. The train is jerked off the track and crashes, crushing the fireman. He is deeply mourned: "He killed two hundred passengers/But, thank God, he saved that child"
KEYWORDS: train rescue death railroading work crash disaster wreck humorous talltale children cowboy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, COWFIRE
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 29, #4 (1983), p, 33, "The Trusty Lariat" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Radio Mac [pseud. for Harry McClintock], "The Trusty Lariat" (Victor V-40234, 1930)
NOTES [22 words]: Unless I miss my guess, McClintock was parodying the 1874 song "Saved From Death" by George William Hersee and J. W. Bischoff. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: DTcowfir

Truth From Above, The

See The Truth Sent From Above (File: Leath196)

Truth Sent From Above, The

DESCRIPTION: "This is the truth sent from above, The truth of God, the God of love." The singer tells how God created man, then woman, and set them in Paradise. But they ate from the tree (of knowledge), and now all suffer their punishment
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible punishment food carol
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, p. 196, "The Truth Sent From Above" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 68, "The Truth From Above" (1 text, 1 tune with two arrangements)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 40, "This Is the Truth" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Horton Barker: Folk Singer Supreme," Vol. XXII, No. 4 (Nov 1974), p. 149-150, "The Truth Sent from Above" (1 text)
DT, TRUABOVE*
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #86, "This Is the Truth Sent From Above" (1 text)
Roud #2109
NOTES [204 words]: The story of the Fall is, of course, found in Genesis chapter 3. The version of creation in which man preceded woman (as opposed to both being created at the same time) is in Genesis 2:4-23.
There is a strange and ironic parallel her to chapter 3 of the Gospel of John. In John 3:3, Jesus says to Nicodemus, "Truly, truly I say to you, if you are not born from above, you will not be able to see the Kingdom of God." "Truly, truly" is "αμην, αμην," "amen, amen," the Hebrew for "truly, truly"; "from above" is ανωθεν, anothen, a Greek word meaning both "from above" and "again," but Greek has another word for "again," which is much more common and unequivocal. There really isn't much question but that John intended the meaning that I gave above -- and also intended Nicodemus to misunderstand what was said. Thus this song is almost a citation of John 3:3 in its actual meaning (with references to what is true and to one being sent "from above") -- but the author of this, whoever it was, cannot have known it, because the King James Bible completely botched the translation and missed the whole point, giving us instead "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."- RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Leath196

Truth Twice Told, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all young men and maidens... I will tell you what you are doing, now at this present time." The young folk are treating their parents with disrespect; they are condemned for failing to work
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: courting warning nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 187-188, "The Truth Twice Told" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 191-192)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Putting On the Style" (theme)
NOTES [34 words]: Setters claimed that this excrescence "has set many a giddy one to studyin' and they mended their ways." Wishful thinking, I suspect. The result looks like a bad knock-off on "Putting on the Style." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa187

Truth's Integrity

See Love Will Find Out the Way (File: FVS205)

Truxton's Victory

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you Yankee sailors With swords and pikes advance"; the "Brave Yankee Boys" are urged to battle against France. Truxton with the Constellation defeat l'Insurgente and haul her into St.Kitts. The singer toasts Truxton
AUTHOR: Credited to "Mrs. Rowson of Boston"
EARLIEST DATE: 1799 (printed by Thomas & Andrews)
KEYWORDS: ship battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 9, 1799 - Battle between the Constellation and L'Insurgente
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 153, "Truxton's Victory" (1 text, a copy of the original broadside)
NOTES [1447 words]: Obviously not a traditional song, but The Boarding Party recording may have made it well-known enough to deserve documentation. Thanks to Dolores Nichols for digging up the source.
Dichter/Shapiro, p. 25, lists details about the original publication. It was published by Thomas & Andrews of Boston in 1799, and sold for a rather excessive 25 cents. The music is titled "Truxton's Victory. A Naval Patriotic Song. Sung by Mr. Hodgkinson. Written by Mrs. Rowson of Boston."
The setting is during the Quasi-War with France. France, still lurching back and forth politically in the aftermath of the revolution, with Napoleon gradually gaining power, had little respect for neutral rights, especially when the neutrals were trading with Britain. This naturally incensed the Americans. In November 1796, France suspended diplomatic relations. Soon after, they rejected the credentials of new ambassador Charles C. Pinckney. In May 1797, president John Adams appoints a commission (Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry) to try to smooth things out. At the end of the month, the U. S. government reports 300 ships taken by the French.
On October 18, the American commissioners suffer the humiliation of the "XYZ affair" -- three nameless Frenchmen who demand a "loan" (read: tribute) from the Americans plus a large bribe to French foreign minister Tallyrand (Jameson, pp. 728-729; Morison, pp. 349-350). This was not as unreasonable a demand as some would declare it -- the Americans were paying bribes to the Barbary States at this time; the French could see no reason they shouldn't get a share of the loot.
But the United States was also, for the first time, building a genuine (if small) navy. Pinckney allegedly told the French, "Millions for defence, but not one cent for tribute."
On May 28, 1798, Congress authorized the Navy to go after French vessels engaged in commerce-raiding. On July 7, Congress formally abrogated the treaty of alliance that went back to the Revolution. As Bryant puts it on, p. 124, "The two republics were now thoroughly enmeshed in an undeclated war in the best monarchist manner."
The American navy was small, but the quality was very high. Designed Joshua Humphries, knowing that only a handful of ships would be available, created a new class of super-frigates -- rather comparable to the battle cruisers of a century later: Fast enough to outrun any line-of-battle ship, heavy enough to destroy any ordinary frigate. (It tells you a good bit about naval thinking that the American frigates were considered excellent, but the battle crusier was quickly discarded. The reason for the failure of the latter was more bad tactics than anything else.)
In the end, six ships were built -- United States, Constitution, Constellation, President, Congress, and Chesapeake -- of which only the first three were ready for war. The Constellation (called the "Yankee Race Horse") was the first to see action. She met the French L'Insurgente, reportedly the fastest sailing frigate in the world (Pratt, p. 61), but in terms of broadside just an ordinary frigate with a weight of broadside only about three-fourths that of the Constellation, in the Carribean.
The French ship was badly under-manned, and her captain Barreault was not aware he was at war with the United States. She was flying an American flag, but an exchange of signals showed she was not an American ship. The Constellation closed in for the kill, much as described in this song; between the American ship's higher quality and her fuller crew, there wasn't much doubt about the outcome (though no one in Europe yet realized how strong the new American frigates were; this would not become clear until 1812 and the Constitution/Guerriere battle). Pratt, p. 61, reports that Truxton had only three casualties, compared to seventy on the French ship.
The result was a sensation. There had been sea battles in the Revolutionary War, but the American ships were almost all privateers or purchased in Europe. This was the first battle ever fought by an American "regular navy" ship.
It was also the highlight of the Constellation's career. She would fight one more battle in the Quasi-War: On February 1, 1800, she would meet the Vengeance, a much heavier ship than the L'Insurgente though slower than the Constellation. Constellation could be considered the tactical victor, killing about 50 and wounding over 100 men on the French ship, which barely stayed afloat and had lost two of three masts (Pratt, p. 62). But the Constellation lost 25 killed and 14 wounded (a strange ratio, that), and lost her mainmast; Vengeance escaped, making the battle a strategic draw. Captain Thomas Truxton would be awarded a gold medal anyway. (Bryant, p. 130).
Peace with France was concluded two days later. It would be a while before the ships at sea knew it, of course, but the Constellation's part was finished.She would serve for a while in the contest with the Barbary pirates, without any major engagements, and spent almost the entire War of 1812 blockaded in her home port of Norfolk (see Borneman, p. 175; Mahon, p. 122). Thus Truxton was the only commander to lead her in a real battle.
In 1854, the Constellation was broken up. Much of the surviving wood was used to make a new Constellation, and this is often listed as the same ship. This was a fairly common trick for the U. S. Navy in the nineteenth century: Congress didn't like new defence spending, but would pay to maintain old ships, so the Navy would request money for repairs, then build a new ship with the money plus some timber from the old. But the new Constellation was 12 feet longer than the old, and her hold was half again as deep (19.3 feet for the new, 13.5 feet for the old); it was clearly a new ship. (Sez I. This apparently caused quite a literature to spring up; Paine, p. 120, lists five writings on this subject).
This wasn't her only major rebuild. Chapelle, pp. 91-92, writes, "The Constellation had a long and distinguished career and is still afloat, though it must be admitted that there is little or nothing of the original ship left. She has been completely rebuilt a number of times, from the keel up, as in 1805-1812 when the was widened 14 inches and again in 1854 when she was lengthened and cut down one deck, each time her lines being altered to some extent."
Thomas Truxton himself (1755-1822) was probably the most important American naval figure between John Paul Jones and Stephen Decatur; according to Pratt p. 58, he was "the real prize drawn by the nascent navy... its fifth-ranking captain...." He had served on various privateers in the Revolutionary War (he was a lieutenant in the Congress in 1776, commanded the Independence in 1777, then took charge of the St. James from 1781). He became a regular navy captain from 1794, and acted as commodore during the Quasi-War. According to Pratt, "even before putting to sea, [he] drew up a long series of letters to his officers and petty officers laying down the duties of each in the most minute manner, which letter would be the foundation of definitive navy regulations."
He was also a firm disciplinarian. Pratt describes, e.g., how when a water cask sprung a leak, he put his entire crew on reduced water rations until discipline met his standards (p. 58) -- though he thought it better to set an example than use the lash (according to Guttridge, p. 87, he once said, "Discipline is to be effected by a particular deportment much easier than great severity"). His strict methods also caused at least two of his officers to resign (Pratt, p. 59).
He himself ended up resigning early in the nineteenth century in a dispute over authority: Instructed to lead the assault against the Barbary Pirates, he was not promoted to (rear) admiral (the navy did not officially establish ranks above Captain until the Civil War), and so would be simply senior captain commanding the squadron, and still responsible for his own ship. This apparently caused him to quit in a fit of pique (Pratt, p. 65).
There is at least one fairly recent biography, Eugene S. Ferguson, Truxton of the Constellation, The Life of Commodore Thomas Truxton, U. S. Navy, 1755-1822.
A World War I-era destroyer was named after Truxton, according to Parkin, p. 7. Launched on September 20, 1920, she was "sponsored" by Isabelle Truxton Brumbly, Thomas Truxton's great-great-granddaughter. She was wrecked on the coast of Newfoundland on February 18, 1942 (Parkin, pp. 14-15); Parkin considers her to have been the second United States destroyer lost in the second world war (following her sister ship the Reuben James). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.2
File: BrdTruxt

Try to Remember

DESCRIPTION: "Try to remember the kind of September When life was slow and oh so mellow." The song lists times worth remembering. Even though winter will come, "Deep in December, our hearts should remember... and follow"
AUTHOR: Words: Tom Jones / Music: Harvey Schmidt (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (musical "The Fantasticks," according to Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 556, "Try to Remember" (notes only)
DT, TRYREMEM
File: ACSF556T

Tryin' to Make a Hundred

See Trying to Make a Hundred (File: KiWa239T)

Trying to Make a Hundred

DESCRIPTION: "I'm singing, Trying to make a hundred, Ninety-nine and a half won't do." "I'm mourning, trying to make a hundred." "I'm praying, trying to make a hundred." "Ninety-nine and a half, it won't do, it just won't do, It's an uphill journey....."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, "Tryin' to Make a Hundred" (1 text)
Roud #18147
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ninety-Nine and a Half
NOTES [70 words]: I've heard several versions of this song, but to date, I've never heard an explanation of what is so special about one hundred, as opposed to six, or 433, or 1281. Nor do the versions say what the singer is trying to make a hundred OF. Percent, maybe? I strongly doubt the person who came up with this song knew what percentage was. So it's a very curious song -- at least to me as a person with mathematical training. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: KiWa239T

Tseit Kotst Immer Op, De

DESCRIPTION: Pennsylvania Dutch. "De tseit kotst i,mer op (x2), De tseit, de tseit kotst immer op." "Nuch Nei Yaroosalem" "Gutt visht de traina op." "My time is growing short." "To New Jerusalem." "God takes our tears away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Leach & Glassie)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage religious travel nonballad death
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: MacEdward Leach and Henry Glassie, _A Guide for Collectiors of Oral Traditions and Folk Cultural Material in Pennsylvania_, Pennsylvania historical and Museum Commission, 1973, pp. 39-40, "De Tseit Kotst Immer Op" (1 text plus English translation)
File: MeLG39

Tsimshian Song of Welcome to a Chief, A

DESCRIPTION: "Ee-ya-ho-ho ee-ya-heh-eh (x2), Ee-eh-yah-ha-ha-ha hee-yah-heh (x2), Ee-yah-ah-ah-ee-ya-heh! Soo-wa-deh-es Gi-da-ra-nit-zeh! (x2)...." "Now we hail or great chieftain! We hail, we hail our noble chief, We welcome him... From the people of Gidaranitzeh!"
AUTHOR: unknown (English translation by Alan Mills)
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(West)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 6-7, "A Tsimshian Song of Welcome to a Chief" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [22 words]: Collected in the 1920s by Marius Barbeau, this song is reported to have been used when a chief came in to join a potlatch ceremony. - RBW
File: FMB006

Tuapeka Gold

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in the year of sixty-two as near as I can guess, I left my dear old hometown in trouble and distress." No one at home wanted him. He goes to the Tuapeka goldfields and strikes it rich. Now everyone wants to be friends, but he knows better
AUTHOR: Phil Garland
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: gold home rejection return
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 50, "Tuapeka Gold" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 28 in the 1972 edition)
RECORDINGS:
Dave Calder, "Tuapeka Gold" (on NZSongYngCntry)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wild Rover No More" (plot)
NOTES [62 words]: This looks to me like a New Zealand rewrite of "Wild Rover No More": just as in that song, the singer faced rejection, then got rich and finds doors opening for him. Phil Garland wrote at least one other song modifying a traditional type in this way; "The Banks of the Waikato" is a "Men's Clothing I'll Put On" type of song adapted to New Zealand hunting conditions. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Col028

Tucky Ho Crew, The

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Tuesday Morning

See Next Monday Morning (File: ShH38)

Tugal McTagger

DESCRIPTION: "Would you'll know me, my name is Tugal McTagger, She'll brought hersel' down frae the braes o' Lochaber." The Gaelic-speaking girl tries to adapt to Lowland life and business. Unable to handle the life, she ends up bankrupt (and returns to her old home?)
AUTHOR: Dougal Graham ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Ford); alleged author Graham died 1779
KEYWORDS: commerce work poverty trial humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 252-254, "Tugal M'Tagger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13092
File: FVS252

Tullahoma Laundry Blues

DESCRIPTION: "We all live in and around Tullahoma... We work in the laundry with the rest of the trash, As we are called, you know." The singer works long hours for low pay. She never has any money. Osborn (the boss?) is unfair. The singer hopes for a better afterlife
AUTHOR: Lily Bell Whipple?
EARLIEST DATE: 1997 (Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee); probably collected c. 1950 from Lily Bell Wipple
KEYWORDS: hardtimes work
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 65, pp. 106-107, "Tullahoma Laundry Blues" (1 text, listed as a song although no tune is given)
Roud #11033
File: BoWo075

Tullochgorum

DESCRIPTION: "Come gie's a song, Montgomery cried, An' lay your disputes ' aside." The singer asks, "Let Whig and Tory all agree," and asks that all dance "The reel of Tullochgorum." Those who disagree are wished "dule and sorrow."
AUTHOR: Words: John Skinner (1721-1807) / Music: "The Reel of Tullochgorum" (source: Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice)
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (broadside, according to Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad dancing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #23, pp. 151-152, "Tullochgorum" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5658
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3248), "The Reel of Tullochgorum" (unknown, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Young Jimmie Drummond (The Choring Song)" (tune)
NOTES [186 words]: Supposedly Reverend John Skinner was at a dinner hosted by a Mrs. Montgomery when a political dispute broke out, and she requested a song from him, perhaps to the melody of the fiddle strathspey "The Reel of Tullochgorum." This pacific piece was the result. The year was supposedly 1776, so there were still some memories of the raw Whig and Tory quarrels that led to the Hannoverian Succession and the Jacobite Rebellions.
According to Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, pp. 334-335, Skinner was born at Balfour in Aberdeenshire, the son of s schoolmaster. Educated in Abderdeen, entered the ministry in 1742, and became minister at Longside in Aberdeenshire from 1744 until shortly before he died -- with occasional adventures along the way, such as when his church was wrecked and he was imprisoned for six months after the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. His three most noteworthy songs were considered to be "Tullochgorum," (a clean version of) "Ewie wi' the Crookit Horn," and "John o' Badenyon (I)," all of which are in the Index. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RPG023

Tum-Balalayka

See Tumbalalaika (File: RcTumbal)

Tumba-Bloody-Rumba

DESCRIPTION: The mustering boss tries the new man at everything. Despite claims of many adventures and skills, he proves incompetent at every job (except drinking and smoking). The crew is glad to see him paid off and heading back to wherever he came from
AUTHOR: Words: John Wolfe? (tune set by Warren Fahey)
EARLIEST DATE: 1984
KEYWORDS: talltale work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 176-177, "Tumba-Bloody-Rumba" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TMBARMBA*
File: FaE176

Tumbalalaika

DESCRIPTION: Yiddish. "Shteyt a bocher un er tracht, Tracht un tracht a gantse nacht." He asks the girl, "What can grow without dew... What can dry and shed no tears?" She answers, "A stone, love, a heart." Chorus: Tumbala, tumbala, tumbalalaika...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Rubin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love riddle questions | Yiddish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Ruth Rubin, _A Treasury of Jewish Folksong_, Schoken Books, 1950, pp. 58-59, "Tum-Balalayka" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Marianne Corbino, "Tumbalalaika" (Piotr-Archive #636, recorded 08/10/2023, English only; clearly derived from one of the modern recorded translations [the description that it is Russian is, simply, wrong])
NOTES [46 words]: The bit about what the heart crying without shedding tears is also a bit reminiscent of the riddles in the Swedish "Vem Kan Segla Förutan Vind? (Who Can Sail without a Wind?)." There are a few similar musical phrases, too. Hard to imagine how they could be connected, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcTumbal

Tumble Di I Dye Ding Dye A

See Katie Morey [Laws N24] (File: LN24)

Tumbling through the Hay

See The Merry Haymakers (File: HHH697)

Tune The Old Cow Died On, The

DESCRIPTION: "The old cow might have been living yet, A-chewin' her cud with glee, If Farmer John hadn't sung of this song...." Farmer John sings, the cows gather in surprise. The old cow tries to join in, and it kills her
AUTHOR: Joseph E. Winner?
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: death animal farming music humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 411, "The Tune the Old Cow Died On" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 1 tune -- although the "C" fragment does not appear related to the first two)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 352-354, "The Tune the Old Cow Died On" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 411A)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 94, "The Tune the Old Cow Died On" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4352
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "The Tune the old cow died on" (AFS 4212 A2, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
NOTES [132 words]: Carl Sandburg wrote in 1936, "A man having nothing to feed his cow sang to her of the fresh green grass to come; this is the tune the old cow died on." One suspects that this phrase was part of popular idiom, and someone created a song to explain it.
This would also explain why there is a distinct fiddle tune with the same name. Marge Steiner informs me that "there is a fiddle tune by that name as well.  John Kirk, of Greenfield Center, New York, found a 19th-century manuscript of it in the Lockwood Collection, found in an attic in an old house."
Cohen reports an 1880 copyright of a song with this title, credited to George Russell Jackson and Eastburn (Joseph E. Winner), but adds that the song "must date from the 1850s or 1860s." He does not, however, give evidence for this claim. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R411

Tuplin Song, The

See The Millman and Tuplin Song (File: IvDC046)

Turalai

DESCRIPTION: "The enlisted men pull in a whaler, The captain he rides in a barge... It gives the old bugger a charge." The life of the senior officers is compared to that of the men. The sexual life of the camel also comes up. Only hedgehods are safe on ship
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor sex animal bawdy navy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 178-179, "Turalai" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brand-BawdySeaSong 7[B], "Turalai" (1 text)
Roud #8351
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Botany Bay (I)" (tune)
cf. "The Sexual Life of the Camel" (subject)
NOTES [56 words]: Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea's uncredited tune appears to be "Botany Bay (I)." The song is clearly related to "The Sexual Life of the Camel," but the amount of additional material makes me think there has been a rewrite along the way, which might make it a separate song. I'm not sure, though; I wish I had all of the versions Ed Cray knew! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Kins178

Turbaned Turk He Scorns the World, The

See None Can Love Like an Irishman (File: Sandxiii)

Turfman from Ardee, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a turfman on the road. The turfman says his ass is tired; he'd like to sell his load. The singer says cart and ass look old and abused; the turfman says he has abused the ass, but it has never been without shoes, nor his axle without grease
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (learned by Margaret Barry)
KEYWORDS: age disability sex accusation travel bawdy humorous animal worker political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 23, "The Turfman from Ardee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5187
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry & Michael Gorman, "The Turfman from Ardee" (on Barry-Gorman1)
David Harper, "The Turfman from Ardee" (on TradIre02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Save Your Money When You're Young" (tune)
NOTES [58 words]: "Sex"? "Bawdy"? Well, certainly double-entendre on Margaret Barry's part. She notes that she learned it from an 80-year-old man named Tynan in 1945; he, in turn, had learned it from the McNulty Family of Donegal, who put it on a 78. As we have no date earlier than 1945, though, I'm putting that down as earliest -- but I'd love to find that 78. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: RcTurArd

Turkey Buzzard

DESCRIPTION: "Shoot that turkey buzzard Come flopping down the hollow (x2)." "Shoot old Davy Dugger dead; He eat my meat and stole my bread." "Shoot old Davy Dugger, Take his wife and hug her." "Oh, that girl with the blue dress on, She stole my heart..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: bird death hunting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 105, "Turkey Buzzard" (1 text plus 2 fragments which may or may not be related)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 105, "Turkey Buzzard" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 168-169, "Shoot the Turkey Buzzard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 247, "Turkey Buzzard" (1 tune, possibly this)
Roud #7653
RECORDINGS:
Chancey Bros., "Shoot That Turkey Buzzard" (on FolkVisions2)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Shoot the Turkey Buzzard" (King 819, 1949)
Doug & Berzilla Wallin, "Shoot That Turkey Buzzard" (on FarMtns3)
File: Br3105

Turkey Factor in Foreign Parts, The

See The Factor's Garland [Laws Q37] (File: LQ37)

Turkey Hammock

DESCRIPTION: "Up on the hill top, Belly to the sun, Tail began to wiggle And the goodie began to come." At Red Bug Branch, the "same old son fiddled And the little pigs danced." Other strange tale of animals follow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: animal music dancing floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #109, "Turkey Hammock" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 105, "Away Down Yonder" (1 text)
Roud #5031
NOTES [50 words]: A Google search reveals that Turkey Hammock is a (now-drained) wetland in Florida, apparently just north of Lake Okeechobee. Probably this is a localized title for a song found elsewhere (see Solomon-ZickaryZan), but that was the first title I met the song under, so it remains the title we use. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Morr109

Turkey in the Straw

DESCRIPTION: "As I was going down the road With a tired team and a heavy load... Turkey in the straw, Haw haw haw, Turkey in the hay, Hey hey hey... Whistle up a tune called turkey in the straw." Lyrics usually involve the strange things encountered by a teamster
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (recordings, Billy Golden)
KEYWORDS: travel animal bird nonballad dancetune
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Randolph 274, "Turkey in the Straw" (2 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 234-237, "Turkey in the Straw" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 274A)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 94, "Turkey in the Straw" (1 fragment); also 511, "The Preacher Song" (1 text, a complex mix of verses from "Turkey in the Straw" and "Some Folks Say that a Preacher Won't Steal" with the "Uncle Eph" chorus)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 94, "Turkey in the Straw"" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 94-97, "Turkey in the Straw" (2 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune; the "B" and "C" texts appear to be rewritten or mixed)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 112, "One More Drink" (1 fragment, a single stanza about the hen laying eggs all over the farm and calling for a drink; it might come from anywhere but seems more typical of this than anything else)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 49, "Turkey in the Straw" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a "Zip Coon" text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 83-85, "Haymaker's Jig" (1 tune with dance instructions)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 75-76, "Turkey in the Straw" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 124-131, "(Old Zip Coon)," "(Turkey in the Straw)" (1 complete and 1 partial sheet music version of "Old Zip Coon," 1 text, 1 tune of "Turkey," both files under "The Miller Boy")
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 116, "Little Chicken" (1 text, listed as a parody, but using verses found in "straight" versions of the song)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 37, "Turkey in the Straw" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 23, "I Went to Cincinnati"; p. 54, "Oh, I Had a Little Chicken" (2 texts, tune referenced)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 66, "Turkey in the Straw" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 591-592, "Turkey in the Straw (Zip Coon)"
Harbin-Parodology, #275, p. 67, "A Little Chicken" (1 text, a semi-parody starting with the little chicken that wouldn't lay an egg)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 282, 490-491, "I Had a Little Chicken Who Wouldn't Lay an Egg"/"Turkey in the Straw" (notes only)
DT, TURKSTRW (TURKST2)
Roud #4247
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ridge Duo, "Turkey in the Straw" (Edison 51502, 1925)
Dock Boggs, "Turkey in the Straw" [instrumental version] (on Boggs3, BoggsCD1)
Boone County Entertainers [Red Fox Chasers], "Turkey in the Straw" (Champion 15522/Supertone 9163, 1928)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Turkey in the Straw" (OKeh 40230, 1924); "Turkey in the Hay" (OKeh 45167, 1927)
Arthur Collins, "Turkey in the Straw" (Zonophone 637, c. 1907) (CYL: Edison 4011, n.d.)
Billy Golden, "Turkey in de Straw" (Berliner 0726Z, rec. 1896) (CYL: Lambert 5079, n.d.) (CYL: Albany Indestructible 941, n.d.) (Columbia 1101, 1902; A-1291, 1913) (Victor [Monarch] 65, 1902; Victor 4515, 1905) (Imperial Berliner [Can] 587, n. d.) (Zon-O-Phone 174, 1905) (Victor 17256, 1913; rec. 1908) (Columbia A-5031, 1908; rec. 1906) (OKeh 4249, 1921; rec. 1920) (CYL: Edison 8293, 1903; on Protobilly)
[Billy] Golden & [?] Hughes "Turkey in the Straw" (CYL: Edison [BA] 1769, n.d.)
Hobbs Brothers, "Turkey in the Straw" (Jewel 5458, 1928)
Peg Leg Howell & Eddie Anthony, "Turkey Buzzard Blues" (Columbia 14282-D, 1928; on Protobilly)
Kessinger Brothers, "Turkey in the Straw" (Brunswick 235, 1928)
Silas Leachman, "Turkey in de Straw" (Victor A-804, c. 1901)
Neil Morris & Charlie Everidge, "Turkey in the Straw" [dance calls] (on LomaxCD1701)
George Reneau, "Turkey in the Straw" (Vocalion 5031/Vocalion 14812, 1924)
Doc Roberts, "Turkey in the Straw" (Conqueror 7741, 1931; Perfect 12929/Melotone 12746, 1933)
Eck Robertson, "Turkey in the Straw" (Victor 19149, 1923)
Stove Pipe No. 1 [pseud. for Sam Jones], "Turkey in the Straw" (Columbia 201-D, 1924; Harmony 5100-H, n.d.)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Turkey in the Straw" (Columbia 15084-D, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Tobacco Box (There Was an Old Soldier)" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "Old Zip Coon (I)" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "The Catfish (Banjo Sam)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Bunkhouse Orchestra" (tune)
cf. "Charleston Gals (Clear the Kitchen)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Mary Mack (I)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "There Was an Old Lady" (tune)
cf. "The Delhi Jail" (tune)
cf. "Whoa! Ha! Buck and Jerry Boy" (portions of tune)
SAME TUNE:
Old Zip Coon (File: RJ19258)
Do Your Ears Hang Low? (File: ACSF104E)
Did You Ever See a Fishie? (File: ACSF142D)
The Doughnut (File: ACSF096D)
Old Farmer Brown (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 145)
There Was a Little Rooster (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 196)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Turkey in the Hay" (OKeh 45167, 1927)
Carson Robison, "1942 Turkey in the Straw" (Bluebird B-11460, 1942)
Quadrille (VI) (square dance call) (Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 118-119)
We Ain't Down Yet ("Oh, the mule's gone lame, the hens won't lay") (Harbin-Parodology, #56, p. 20)
Tough Luck Song ("Oh, his horse went dead, and his mule went lame") (Harbin-Parodology, #75, p. 24)
The Bunch/The Best Bunch ("O! The ??? bunch is the truest and the best") (Harbin-Parodology, #144, p. 43 = #235, p. 59)
Early in the Morning ("Very early in the morning we hop right out of bed") (Harbin-Parodology, #227, p. 58)
The Old Duck ("O there was an old duck And she had a web foot") (Harbin-Parodology, #267, p. 65)
Glad I Came ("How do you do; who are you? I'm the guy that ate the pie") (Harbin-Parodology, #269, p. 66)
NOTES [77 words]: Generally regarded as a rewriting of "Old Zip Coon." Sometimes regarded as the forerunner of "The Old Tobacco Box (There Was an Old Soldier)" (with which it often shares a tune), but the latter also has its own independent tune and form. - RBW
Paul Stamler found a source which attributed this to Bob Farrell, but that was probably a reference to "Old Zip Coon." And it's an open question whether he wrote even "Old Zip Coon"; see the notes to that song. - (PJS, RBW)
Last updated in version 6.4
File: R274

Turkey Rhubarb

DESCRIPTION: "Turkey rhubarb, Turkey rhubarb, Turkey rhubarb I sell, I came here from Turkey to make you all well, Don't you all know me, Oh my name it is Dan, For I am the celebrated Turkey rhubarb man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Hamer-GarnersGay)
KEYWORDS: commerce nonballad food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 20, "Turkey Rhubarb" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #1073
File: HaGa020

Turkeyloney (If Ever I Marry)

DESCRIPTION: "If ever I marry, I'll marry a maid; To marry a widow I'm sore afraid"; widows "know too much," but maids are agreeable. He extends the comparison, and says at the end that some think bachelors are happiest of all
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: tune is known from 1596; text is from "the reign of James I" (source: Chappell)
KEYWORDS: marriage nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 95-95, "Turkeyloney" (1 text, 1 tune, with no evidence that they belong together)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic, pp. 237-238, "Turkeyloney" (1 tune, with no associated text)
MANUSCRIPT: Dublin, Trinity College, MS. 408 [William Ballet's Lute Book]
Roud #23359
NOTES [106 words]: There is apparently a manuscript of this in the Vaughan Williams collection, so I have indexed it, but I have no real evidence that it's traditional -- or, indeed, that Chappell's text and tune belong together. If they were collected together, I rather suspect that it was learned from print. It's certainly not a very nice text.
The primary source of the tune "Turkeyloney," William Ballet's Lute Book, has been scanned and is available at https://imslp.org/wiki/File:PMLP983457-Ballet%5FW-Lute%5FBook.pdf (accessed 7/15/2023) -- but I can't tell you the page on which the tune is located; none of my sources give that information. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CPMOTurk

Turkish Factor, The

See The Factor's Garland [Laws Q37] (File: LQ37)

Turkish Lady (II)

See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Turkish Lady, The [Laws O26]

DESCRIPTION: A British ship is captured by the Turks and its crew enslaved. The singer suffers until his owner offers to free him if he will accept Islam and marry her. He refuses to abandon Christianity. She eventually decides to turn Christian and marry him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1782 (broadside, "Four Excellent New Songs")
KEYWORDS: love courting religious sailor foreigner
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(England(South),Scotland)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws O26, "The Turkish Lady"
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 11-18, "The Turkish Lady" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 141-143, "The Turkish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 35, "The Turkish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 123-124, "Turkish Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 13, "Turkish Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 17, "The Turkish Lady" (2 texts)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster,pp. 169-170, "The Turkish Lady" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN797, "Down in a cypress grove as I was lying" (?)
DT (53), TURKLADY*
ST LO26 (Full)
Roud #8124
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(322b)[tear: words missing], "The Turkish Lady," T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 11(3907), Firth c.13(303), Harding B 11(1973), Harding B 25(1958), "The Turkish Lady"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Young Beichan" [Child 53]
cf. "The Araby Maid" (subject)
cf. "Mustang Gray (The Maid of Monterey)" (plot)
cf. "The Belfast Sailor" (theme)
NOTES [163 words]: This song is sometimes treated as a variant of "Young Beichan" [Child 53]. The setting, obviously, is similar -- but the difference in the ending marks them as separate ballads. "Young Beichan" stresses the lover's return; "The Turkish Lady," the change in the woman's faith. Which, incidentally, was a dangerous thing to do: Islam tolerates Christianity, but many Islamic cultures do not tolerate turning from Islam to Christianity. Based on a commentary I read somewhere, the direct comment on an Islamic woman marrying a pagan, in the Quran, Surah 60:11, merely requires the recovery of her dowry. But, according to Cyril Glassie, editor, The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam, with an introduction by Huston Smith, 1989 (I use the 1991 HarperCollins paperback), p. 259, "In religious law it is legal for a Muslim man to marry a Christian woman, or a woman of any of the Divinely revealed religions. It is not legal, however, for a Muslim woman to marry outside her religion." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LO26

Turkish Men-o'-War

See The Royal Oak (File: VWL091)

Turkish Rebilee, The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Turkish Rover

See The Turkish Lady [Laws O26] (File: LO26)

Turkle Dove

See Turtle Dove Drooped His Wings (File: DTdropwi)

Turmont Hoer's Song, The

See The Turnip-Hoer (File: K261)

Turmut Hoer's Song, The

See The Turnip-Hoer (File: K261)

Turmut-hoeing

See The Turnip-Hoer (File: K261)

Turn Again, Whittington

DESCRIPTION: "Turn again, Whittington, thou worthy citizen, Turn again, Whittington, (thrice) Lord Mayor of London. Make a good fortune, Find a good wife, You will know happiness all through your life. Turn again...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
KEYWORDS: money political nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
c. 1354-1423 - life of Richard Whittington
1397 - Whittington's first (of four) terms of Lord Mayor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 482, "(Row the boat, Whittington") (1 short text, 1 tune); pp. 515-517, "Turn Again, Whittington" (1 excerpt, 1 tune, very different from the later form)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime II, p. 89, "Turn Again, Whittington" (1 tune)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 218, "Turn Again, Whittington" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 69, "Turn Again, Whittington" (1 text, 1 tune, a reduced version sung as a round)
DT, WHITTNG*
NOTES [69 words]: As a rhyme, this is very well known, so I'm including it here, although I am far from sure it is a folk song. Richard Whittington was a very real character, but most of the folktales about him are false -- he was a younger son, but not penniless, and there was no cat. He went to London to become a mercer, became a very successful businessman, and prospered in the reigns of Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: DTwhitti

Turn Back and Pray

DESCRIPTION: "Pray leader, why don't you pray? Oh the pretty star shall be your guide, Turn back and pray." Verses include "Go down to the fountain if you're dry ... There you'll drink your full supply" and "Mary weep and Martha mourn ... Yes my Lord was crucified"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious Bible Jesus
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 22, "Turn Back an' Pray" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [89 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. The verse is call and response, with "Turn back and pray" the response to each verse line. Floating verses include "The tallest tree in Paradise ... The Christians call it 'Tree of Life'" and "I was a mourner just like you ... Didn't I mourn till I got through." - BS
The reference to Mary weeping and Martha mourning is presumably to John, chapter 11, in which Lazarus of Bethany dies and his sisters Mary and Martha lament before Jesus shows up to revive Lazarus. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa022

Turn sinner turn - sinner wouldn't turn

See Sinner Too Late (File: Parp225)

Turn that Cinnamon

DESCRIPTION: "Oh turn that cinnamon round and round, Turn that cinnamon round and round, Oh turn that cinnamon round!" "She's my sugar-lump, I'll never give her up, She's my sugar-lump, I'll never give her up, Oh turn that cinnamon round!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: love food playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 583, "Turn that Cinnamon" (1 short text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, p. 810, "Sugar Lump" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #131, "Sugar Lump" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 545, "All Around the Ring" (1 short text, 1 tune, which Schinhan connects with this piece; based on his short text, I suspect it might be a sort of mix of this piece and "All Around de Ring, Miss Julie")
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #103, "(All Up and Down, My Honey") (1 short text, 1 tune, filed under "Walking on the Levee," which is a version of "Go In and Out the WIndow")
Roud #7667
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Turn, Cinnamon, Turn
NOTES [68 words]: Randolph's and Botkin's songs don't have any lyrics that match precisely -- but what are the odds of two songs mentioning both sugar lumps and turning cinnamon? I quote Randolph's text as more complete; Botkin's runs "All up and down, my honey, All up and down we go. The lady's a-rockin' her sugar lump (x3), O, turn, Cinnamon, turn."
Botkin claims a British origin for this piece, but cites no sources. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: R583

Turn the Cup Over

See I've Been to France (Turn the Bowl Over) (File: Simps130)

Turn the Glasses Over

See I've Been to France (Turn the Bowl Over) (File: Simps130)

Turn Ye To Me

DESCRIPTION: "The stars are shining cheerily, cheerily, Horo, Mhairi Dhu, turn ye to me. The seamew is moaning drearily, drearily...." "Hushed be thy moaning, lone bird of the sea.... Thy home is the angry wave, mine but the lonely grave...."
AUTHOR: Words: John Wilson ("Christopher North")
EARLIEST DATE: reportedly written 1816
KEYWORDS: love separation bird
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 64-65, "Turn Ye to Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, pp. 34-35, "Turn Ye to Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Turn Ye to Me" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, pp. 48-49, with a 4-page insert in the middle of the song!) (12th edition, p. 44)
DT, TURNYEME*
ADDITIONAL: cf. Kenneth Norman MacDonald, "The Gesto Collection of Highland Music," 1895 (reprinted 1997 by Llanerch Publishers), p. 19, "Ho Ro Mhairi Dhu" (1 Gaelic text, 1 tune)
Roud #23557
NOTES [112 words]: This song by Christopher North was beautifully recorded by Gordon Bok; although I am far from sure it is traditional, I've included it on that basis. The interesting question is the tune. The Gesto Collection of Highland Music has a Gaelic tune, "Ho Ro Mhairi Dhu," or "Black Mary" (i.e. "dark-haired Mary"). It doesn't appear to be the same song, but the form implies that it might have been the original of the tune. Or might not, of course.
This wound up in GirlScouts-SingTogether in 1949, with a tune close to Bok's, but it doesn't seem to have caught on in Scout circles (too slow and too adult, I would think), though it's still found in a few Scout collections. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: DTturnye

Turn Your Back on the Sailor Jack

See I Am a Girl Guide (File: SuSm111A)

Turn, Cinnamon, Turn

See Turn that Cinnamon (File: R583)

Turn, Julie-Ann, Turn

DESCRIPTION: Playparty: "Circle around, my Julie-Ann/Circle around I say...I ain't got long to stay." "I'll go on the mountaintop... If I can't get the girl I want/Let that old girl go." Chorus: "Turn, Julie-Ann, turn/Turn Old Jubilee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (recording, Jean Ritchie)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Playparty: "Circle around, my Julie-Ann/Circle around I say...I ain't got long to stay." "My truelove spied me down the road/She hung her head and cried/Said, yanner come a booger-man/O where can I hide." "I'll go on the mountaintop, give my horn a blow/If I can't get the girl I want/Let that old girl go." Chorus: "Turn, Julie-Ann, turn/Turn Old Jubilee."
KEYWORDS: courting love dancing playparty nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
Roud #5747
RECORDINGS:
Jean Ritchie, "Turn, Julie-Ann, Turn" (on Ritchie03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Liza Jane" (floating verses)
cf. "Cindy (I)" (floating verses)
NOTES [44 words]: I rather suspect this is the same as one or another of the floating verse singing games out there; I thought seriously about lumping it with "Julie Ann Johnson." But we're splitters, and in any case it's not obvious just *which* of those songs to lump it with. - RBW
File: RcTJAT

Turn, Sinner, Turn O!

DESCRIPTION: "Turn, sinner, turn today, turn, Sinner, turn O!" (x2). "Wait not for tomorrow's sun." "Tomorrow's sun will sure to shine." "The sun may shine, but on your grave." "Hark, I hear them sinner say" "If you get to heaven I'll get there too."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, pp. 36-37, "Turn, Sinner, Turn O!" (2 texts, 1 tune with variants)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 245-246, "Turn, Sinner, Turn" (1 text)
Roud #11991
NOTES [35 words]: Possibly suggested by Jesus's parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12:16-21, in which God says to a man who has devoted all his energy to short-term wealth, "Fool! This very night your soul is demanded of you...." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: AWG036

Turner's Camp on the Chippewa [Laws C23]

DESCRIPTION: A tale of the lumberman's life and troubles in the woods of Michigan. Most of the events are described in very general terms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Bill McBride)
KEYWORDS: logger lumbering
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws C23, "Turner's Camp on the Chippewa"
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 12, "Turner's Camp on the Chippewa" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, "Turner's Camp on the Chippewa" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 19, "Turner's Camp on the Chippewa" (1 text)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #10, "Turner's Camp" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT 840, TURNRCMP
Roud #1926
RECORDINGS:
Bill McBride, "Turner's Camp on the Chippewa" (AFS, 1938; on LC56)
Leo Spencer, "Turner's Camp" (on Lumber01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (theme) and references there
NOTES [111 words]: Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps says that "The Chippewa River runs from Coldwater Lake and empties into the Tittabawasee River near Midland, [Michigan]." However, there is also a Chippewa River in the wooded country of Wisconsin, It runs through Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire in Wisconsin, and enters the Mississippi below Lake Pepin (which is thought to be partly caused by the runoff dumped by the Chippewa). Given that there are no collections from Wisconsin, Beck is probably right to assume that the song is from Michigan (his informant said that it was composed in the camp of Charlie Turner in 1871), but we probably shouldn't regard it as having been proved. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: LC23

Turnin' o' the Hay, The

See Tossing of the Hay (File: HHH635)

Turnip Greens

DESCRIPTION: Singer dreams he meets Gabriel. Asked what he'll eat; he says, "Turnip greens." Asked why Ozark people are rough, yet clean; "Turnip greens." Gabriel says God's kingdom on earth is coming. Chorus: "...Cornbread and buttermilk/And good old turnip greens!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, H. K. Hutchison)
KEYWORDS: food humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
[Randolph 287, "Turnip Greens" -- deleted in the second printing]
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 243-245, "Turnip Greens" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 287)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 75, pp. 202-203, "Turnip Greens" (1 text)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 27, "Turnip Greens" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 9, "Turnip Greens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4491
RECORDINGS:
Shorty Goodwin, "Turnip Greens" (Columbia 15411-D, 1929)
H. K. Hutchison, "Good Old Turnip Greens" (Gennett 6464/Champion 15525, 1928)
W. A. Lindsay & Alvin Connor, "Good Old Turnip Greens" (Okeh 45346, 1929; rec. 1928)
Neil Morris, "Turnip Greens" (on LomaxCD1707)
Pie Plant Pete [pseud. for Claude Moye], "Turnip Greens" (Champion 45063, 1935)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Greens" (lyrics, subject)
cf. "Carrot Greens" (lyrics, subject)
NOTES [103 words]: The description of this song is based on the Neil Morris recording. The Pankake text is much shorter, and is about Atmore residents rather than residents of the Ozarks. Similarly, Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi's text is about the residents of Mississippi, and McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks's mentions "Salem."
I have not heard all the 78 recordings listed above, so they too may be local or parodized versions.
Roud lumps this with both "Greens" and "Carrot Greens." I certainly think the former is separate. The latter may be based on this (or vice versa), but it has certainly been modified. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RcTG

Turnip Patch, The

DESCRIPTION: "I went down to the turnip patch... To see if my old hen had hatched." "There set a possum on the rail, Reached up and grabbed him by the tail." "Got him on the ground and he tried to fight... Reached up my right foot and kicked out the light."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: animal chickens fight
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 454, "The Turnip Patch" (1 text)
ST R454 (Full)
Roud #7602
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Broke the Lock (on the Henhouse Door)?" (lyrics)
cf. "Sixteen Chickens and a Tambourine" (lyrics)
File: R454

Turnip-Hoer, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer hires on a farm; the farmer says he's first class. He hires elsewhere, and says if he had a son he'd be better off going to jail. He says that while some delight in harvesting and mowing, "of all the jobs that be on a farm/Give I the turnip-hoing."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer hires on a farm; the farmer says he's first class. He hires on another farm, and says if he had a son he'd be better off going to jail. He says that while some delight in harvesting and mowing, "of all the jobs that be on a farm/Give I the turnip-hoing." Chorus: "For the flies...got on the turnips/It's all me eye and no use to try/To keep 'em off them turnips"
KEYWORDS: farming work worker boss
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 70, "Turmut-Hoeing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 261, "The Turnip-Hoer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #10, "Turnit Hoeing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 64-65, "Turmut Hoeing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1376
RECORDINGS:
Fred Perrier et al, "The Turmut [Turmont] Hoer's Song" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD41)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Flies Are On the Tummits" (them of a turnip farmer's life)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Turmut-hoeing
NOTES [318 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland states, "[T]he song has attached itself to Wiltshire and was adopted as the regimental march of the Wiltshire Regiment... now amalgamated [in 1959] with the Berkshire Regiment [to form] the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment." Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook says this took place in 1881.
According to Hallows, p. 206, however, the quick march of the Duke of Edinburgh's Regiment is The Farmer's Boy and the slow is Auld Robin Gray. And while some regiments dropped their historical tunes on amalgamation, so the Wiltshire regiment could have used this piece in the past, it was normal to keep both tunes.
Roud lumps this with "The Flies Are On the Tummits," with which it shares some lyrics, but Ben Schwartz and I both consider the general plots distinct enough to split them. "The Turnip-Hoer" is about the singer's employment history; "The Flies Are On the Tummits" about the hard life of a farmer.
Widespread growing of turnips, incidentally, was a relatively recent practice (turnips, after all, are bitter and rather unpleasant to eat); they are grown because they replenish the soil, and can be farmed on a field that would otherwise have to lie fallow (Beales, p. 36). Large-scale turnip planting began around the beginning of the nineteenth century (Marshall, pp. 8-9) because turnips could be saved and fed to livestock in winter, thus making more fresh meat available at that time.
According to Palmer, p. 49, who quotes what appears to be a stanza of this song, several of the tasks performed on a farm around harvest time were relatively specialized and required significant skill. Palmer does not explicitly list turnip-hoeing among these, but the context implies it. This perhaps explains this song; The singer is celebrating his skill. - RBW
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs: "This is a favourite song among soldiers, and is popular in many counties." - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.2
File: K261

Turnit Hoeing

See The Turnip-Hoer (File: K261)

Turnut Hoeing

See The Turnip-Hoer (File: K261)

Turpin Hero

See Dick Turpin and the Lawyer [Laws L10] (File: LL10)

Turpin's Farewell to Black Bess

See My Bonnie Black Bess I [Laws L8] AND My Bonnie Black Bess II [Laws L9] (File: LL09)

Turpin's Valour

See Dick Turpin and the Lawyer [Laws L10] (File: LL10)

Turtle Dove (I), The

See Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove) (File: Wa097)

Turtle Dove (II)

See Kissing Song (I) (File: R374)

Turtle Dove Drooped His Wings

DESCRIPTION: Leader lines out the first line of each verse, repeated twice by all, and tag added, as in "Turtle dove drooped his wings ... Goin' on Zion Hill to sing." Chorus: "Adam and Eve don't tell it to me Meet me at the door don't tell it to me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (LomaxCD1712)
KEYWORDS: ritual Bible nonballad religious bird
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, DROPWING
RECORDINGS:
Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Turkle Dove" (on LomaxCD1712)
NOTES [189 words]: Lines from the "dove" verse -- "Well, the little turtle dove droop his wing Oh, hist the windah let the dove come in An' he gone on Zion's Hill to sing Hist the windah let the dove come in" -- are shared by "Norah Hist the Windah," so that the dove in LomaxCD1712 is Noah's dove. See Parrish p. 134, indexed here as "Let the Dove Come In."
Another verse is "When I get to heaven I know the rule ... Keep right down to the bathing pool." - BS
The latter, I suspect, a reference to the Pool of Beth-zatha/Bethsaida/Bethesda in in John 5:2-9. (The name of the pool difference in the manuscripts -- there are five different readings just among the dozen or so most important manuscripts. The King James Version called it Bethesda, as do among others the NASB, NAB, and early NIV; the Catholic Rheims edition has Bethsaida; the NRSV has Beth-zatha. Looking at the manuscripts, I'd have read "Bethsaida," with "Bethzatha" as second choice; "Bethesda" is almost certainly wrong.) This pool, when the waters moved, was said to have healing powers. The story in John 5 is of how Jesus healed a crippled man who could not get into the pool. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DTdropwi

Turton Fair

DESCRIPTION: "It's just twelve months his las back end Sin' Aw went Turton Fair, An' if Aw ne'er go there again, I think Ah've 'ad me share." A bull throws a man in the air, then attacks a calf "for what They fayther did to me." If you come to the fair, you'll fight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire)
KEYWORDS: fight cattle | fair
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, pp. 90-91, "Turton Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HFSL090

Tutor Who Tooted the Flute, A

DESCRIPTION: Tongue-twister. "A tutor who tooted the flute Once tutored to tooters to toot. Said the two to the tutor, 'Is it harder to toot Or to tutor two tutors to toot?'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: wordplay music
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 23, "(A tutor who tooted the flute)" (1 text)
Roud #25343
File: KSUC023A

TVA, The

DESCRIPTION: "My name is William Edwards, I live down Cove Creek Way, I'm working on the project They call the TVA." The government is upgrading the valley. The singer writes to Sal to say, "The government has saved us; just name our wedding day."
AUTHOR: Buddy Preston
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: work marriage hardtimes technology
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 232-234, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 233-235)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 172, "The TVA" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 732, "T.V.A. Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4910
NOTES [134 words]: The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), founded in 1933, is one of the most enduring of all the New Deal programs. Founded to create jobs and at the same provide electrical power to a primitive part of the country, it is still in existence today, generating power and managing the river. - RBW
Botkin quotes his source, Jean Thomas's Ballad Makin' in the Mountains of Kentucky, as saying the song was written by a Preston, and "first sung at the American Folk Festival with a kinsman of the composer giving the explanation of its origin." She also says it had indeed become traditional in Kentucky, at least. - NR
Reading Thomas's account, I'm not convinced of its traditionality; it's properly a folk revival song, if a very early one. But the number of citations perhaps justifies its presence here. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Arn172

Twa and Twa

DESCRIPTION: Dance tune lyrics; "Twa and twa made the bed/Twa and twa lay together/When the bed begun to heat/The one got up abune the other." That's all.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (collected from Jeannie Thompson)
KEYWORDS: sex dancing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 124, "Twa and Twa" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TWANTWA*
Roud #5407
NOTES [12 words]: Runner-up to "Papa Loved Mama" for title of World's Shortest Ballad. - PJS
File: McCST124

Twa Brithers, The

See The Twa Brothers [Child 49] (File: C049)

Twa Brothers, The [Child 49]

DESCRIPTION: Two brothers agree to wrestle on their way to school. In the process, one is wounded by the other's knife. The unwounded brother (often) tries to save the wounded one, but it is too late; all that is left is to arrange for his burial and make excuses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1825 (Motherwell)
KEYWORDS: contest death fight stepmother brother homicide magic
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber,Bord)), US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,NW,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (42 citations):
Child 49, "The Twa Brothers" (8 texts)
Bronson 49, "The Twa Brothers" (41 versions plus 4 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 49, "The Two Brothers" (5 versions: #1, #22, #25, #29, #37)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 111-113, "The Twa Brothers" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 160, "The Twa Brithers" (1 text)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #76, p. 253-255, "The Twa Brithers (Child 49)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #13.1}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 99-106, "The Two Brothers" (1 text plus many excerpts including a complete Kentucky version, 1 tune) {Bronson's #21}
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 33-34, "The Two Brothers" (1 text)
Randolph 10, "The Two Brothers" (3 texts plus a fragment, 4 tunes) {Bronson's #13, #40, #3, #2}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 24-25, "The Two Brothers" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 10A) {Bronson's #13}
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 47-48, "Two Boys Away at School" (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 9, "The Twa Brothers" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #28, #30}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 96-99, "Edward Ballad [listed as "Child 13" but obviously this piece though Bronson considers it a "too literary" mix of the two ballads with a peculiar tune]; pp. 230-232, "Martyr John" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #41, #38}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 316-331, "The Twa Brothers" (4 texts, 5 tunes; the last two tunes are variants taken from the same informant) {A=Bronson's #41, B=38}
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 278-280, "The Rolling of the Stones or The Twa Brothers" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #14}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 11, "The Twa Brothers" (11 texts, 6 tunes) {#23, #31, #5, #33, #10, #24}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 15, pp. 92-101, "The Twa Brothers" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 13, "The Two Brothers" (1 text)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 6, "The Two Brothers" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #152, "The Twa Brothers" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 7, pp. 73-74, "The Two Brothers" (2 texts)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 14A, "Yonder School"; 14B, "Willie and Johnny" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 166-167, "The Twa Brothers" (1 text, locally titled "The Two Brothers")
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 9, "The Two Brothers" (2 texts)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #6, p. 21, "The Two Brothers" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 30-31, "Our Young Son John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, p. 25-26, "The Twa Brothers" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #39}
Peacock, pp. 827-830, "The Two Brothers" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 163-167, "The Twa Brothers" (2 texts)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 136-138, "Two Brothers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 63, "The Twa Brothers" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 169, "The Twa Brothers" (2 texts)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 20, "The Twa Brothers" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragmentary text that opens like "The Twa Brothers," but has an ending that might be anything)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 174-175+343, "The Twa Brothers" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 12 "The Two Brothers" (12 texts, often short, plus a fragment ("E") that may be this; 13 tunes) {Bronson's #17, #10, #31, #24, #18, #19, #11, #9, #1, #15, #27, #25, #32}
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 11, "The Two Brothers" (1 text, 1 tune -- an expanded composite version) {Bronson's #11}
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 18, pp. 45-46, "Two Little Boys" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 7, "The Twa Brothers" (2 texts)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 157-158, "The Twa Brothers" (1 text)
DT 49, TWOBROS TWOBROS2* TWOBROS3* TWOBROS4* ROLLSTON*
ADDITIONAL: Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, pp. 23-24, "The Two Brothers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #52-53, "The Wta Brothers" (1 text)
Roud #38
RECORDINGS:
Charlotte Decker, "The Two Brothers" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Texas Gladden, "The Two Brothers" (AFS 5230 A2; on USTGladden01) {Bronson's #20}
Lizzie Higgins, "The Twa Brothers" (on LHiggins01)
Nellie McGregor, "The Two Brothers" (on FSBBAL1)
Hobart Smith, "The Little Schoolboy" (on LomaxCD1702)
Belle Stewart, "The Two Brothers" (on Voice03) {Bronson's #13.2 in addenda}
Lucy Stewart, "The Twa Brothers [The Two Brothers]" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1) (on LStewart1) {Bronson's #11.1 in addenda}
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter" [Child 155] (lyrics)
cf. "The Unquiet Grave" [Child 78] (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Rolling of the Stones
The Murdered Boy
Two Little Boys Going to School
The Cruel Brother
NOTES [1313 words]: In Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads's A version, the brother is killed, not wrestling for fun, but in a fit of passion. - PJS
Indeed, this motif (which is not unusual; many of Davis's texts have it, for instance) gives rise to the possibility that what we have here is two songs mixed. Call them "The Twa Brothers" and "The Rolling of the Stones." In the former, the one brother kills the other as a result of accident or perhaps a (step?)mother's malice.
"The Rolling of the Stones," though it involves a death and is usually listed as a version of this song, has a very different feel. It is definitely a song of passion and jealousy, and ends with Susie, the girl of the piece, dancing to try to bring the dead man back to life. (Thompson motif E50, "Resuscitation by music" or one of its variants, e.g. E55.1, "Resuscitation by song" or E63.2, "Resuscitation by nine-day dance and prayers.")
The two have certainly mixed verses, making them hard to tell apart, but I'm not at all convinced that they are the same song. A curiosity is that the "Rolling of the Stones" texts seem to be mostly American, even though American texts rarely involve magic. But it should be noted that the endings of the texts in Child are very diverse; it may be that he simply hadn't found one of the "magic" endings.
Stewart evidently thinks the whole thing goes back to early myth; on p. 24 he declares, "The story is clearly found in Celtic and pre-Celtic myth and lore, in classical mythology, and in ancient Egyptian and Eastern religious allegory.
"The plot is very simple, one brother kills another in competition for a woman. The murdered man is then brought back to life by his true love."
In other words, Stewart sees this song as a a version of the Egyptian tale of Osiris, Seth, and Isis (Osiris having been murdered by his brother Seth and revived by Isis). Given the content of "The Rolling of the Stones," it does appear that something like the Osiris story was known in Britain. But it must be repeated that most versions of this song *don't* have a resurrection theme. They're a much more basic tale, of a stepmother's desire to gain an inheritance for her son over her older stepson.
Stewart, furthermore, suggests that the questions at the end are an attempt to gather oracles from a dying man. Certainly the idea that the dying can see the future is well-attested. But why, then, are the dying brother's answers all excuses for the younger brother or, in one case, a curse? And, at that, a curse which apparently never comes true?
Again, Stewart thinks the "Rolling of the Stones" variants hint at human sacrifice. At most, it appears to me, they hint at the mass, and the conversion of wine into the blood of Jesus.
In any case, everything that gets Stewart's mythological juices flowing comes from variants of "The Rolling of the Stones," not the mainline versions of "The Twa Brothers."
Linscott has one of her usual folklorish explanations: "The event from which the ballad gets its theme happened near Edinburgh in 1589, when one of the Somervilles was killed by the accidental discharge of his bother's pistol." This connection ignores the fact that brothers are more than a little apt to quarrel over inheritances....
Chambers, p. 72, quotes a passage from a thirteenth(?) century fragment of a song which has not been connected with this piece, but which I find rather interesting:
Atte wrastlinge my lemman I ches,
And atte ston-kasting I him for-les.
i.e.
At wrestling my love I chose,
And at stone-casting I him lost.
This is Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #445, DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #728, found in two copies, Cambridge University Library Ii.3.8, folio 86 and Cambridge UK, Trinity College B.1.45 (43), folio 41. Both are said to be parts of sermons; the first one (which is longer but not as good, to my ear) is from a sermon on Ezekiel 6:11 (I gather it's cited as an example of the "sins" that will bring the punishment described in that verse).
Wenzel quotes it on p. 213, (seemingly in the Trinity College version) saying that it is quoted in a late thirteenth century sermon which mixed Latin and English; the whole sermon was printed by Max Förster in "Kleinere mittelenglishe Texte," Anglia 42, 1918 and by Carleton Brown, "Texts and the Man," Bulletin of the Modern Humanities Research Association, 2, 1928. Celia and Kenneth Sisam, eds. The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse has it also, as does Rossell Hope Robbins, ed. Secular Lyrics of the XIV and XV Centuries.
Greene, p. xxxv, also quotes the piece, and seems to think it a (folk?) carol. If so, then the odds of a connection with this song is surely greater.
Chambers goes on to note a command from William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester (1384), "which condemns the pollution of graveyards, alike by dissolute dances and by stone-castings." We do not know what stone-castings are -- but they occur in graveyards, they are condemned by the church, and they are connected somehow with "dissolute dances," i.e. probably carols. A connection with a resurrection ritual sounds not unlikely.
In another interesting, but probably meaningless, footnote, the two boys of the song are sometimes William and John. I found the following tale on p. 123 of Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiel:
It is found by the jury that, whereas William Bernard, on the Sunday after the Nativity of St. John Baptist last, in the town of Newcastle of Lyons, was playing at ball with the men of that town and the ball was struck in the direction of John McCorcan, who was standing near to watch the game, John ran towards the ball, which William was following in pursuit, and met him so swiftly that he wounded William in the upper part of his right leg with a knife which he, John, had upon him, which knife unfortunately without John's knowledge pierced its sheath and so injured William, to his damage of five shillings. And the jurors, being asked if John did this from ill-timed zeal or ran against William from malice aforethought, say that it was not so, but that it was for the purpose of playing that he ran toward him to hit the ball.
Incidentally, it appears very likely that Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) knew some form of this piece as a very young man. One of his earliest poems, written while he was still a schoolboy, is called "The Two Brothers," and the opening is quite similar to "The Twa Brothers" [Child 49]; it begins
There were two brothers at Twyford school,
And when they had left the place,
It was, "Will ye learn Greek and Latin?
Or will ye run me a race?
Or will ye go up to yonder bridge,
And there will we angle for dace?"
Later verses are more reminiscent of "Edward" [Child 13] or "Lizzie Wan" [Child 51]:
"Oh what bait's that upon your hook,
Dear brother, tell to me?"
"It is my younger brother," he cried,
"Oh woe and dole is me?"
[ ... ]
"And when will you come back again,
My brother, tell to me?"
"When chub is good for human food,
And that will never be!"
The final verse might be from "It Was A' For Our Rightful' King" or similar:
She turned herself right round about,
And her heart brake into three,
Said, "One of the two will be wet through and through,
And 'tother'll be late for his tea.
I was not the first to connect this piece with the Dodgson poem. Michael Baxter points out to me his article "'The Twa Brothers' - The Original of 'The Two Brothers,'" which appeared in Jabberwocky #38 some time around 1981. Baxter observes that this is particularly close to the Motherwell text that became Child's "E." Baxter also points out that Dodgson eventually owned Motherwell's Minstrelsy, though presumably not at the time he wrote "The Two Brothers." But the family might have had it. - RBW
Also collected and sung by Ellen Mitchell, "Twa Brithers" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: C049

Twa Bumbees, The

DESCRIPTION: "There were twa bumbees met on a twig, Fim-fam, fiddle-faddle, fum, fizz!" The two insects set out to find a home, frightening Jenny Wren in the process. After the babies are born, they quarrel; the male warns other bees about a "wayward, wanton wife."
AUTHOR: Charles Spence
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford); Spence died in 1869
KEYWORDS: bug courting home humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 231-233, "The Twa Bumbees" (1 text)
Roud #13086
NOTES [31 words]: This appears to have been founded on "The Twa Corbies" (or, rather, one of its silly offspring), but without a tune, it's hard to prove.
Needless to say, this isn't how bees reproduce. - RBW
File: FVS231

Twa Corbies, The

See The Three Ravens [Child 26] (File: C026)

Twa Emperors, The

See Sandy and Nap (File: GrD1149)

Twa Knights, The [Child 268]

DESCRIPTION: A squire bets a knight that, if the knight leaves home for a time, he can seduce the knight's wife. He traps the wife into offering to come to his bed, but she sends her neice instead. When the truth is revealed, the niece weds the squire
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A squire bets a knight that, if the knight leaves home for a time, he can seduce the knight's wife. He traps the wife into offering to come to his bed, but she sends her neice instead. He cuts off the ring and finger to prove his victory. The knight's wife demonstrates that she still has her finger. The niece is offered the right to either kill the squire or marry him for his abuse. After much hesitation, the niece weds the squire
KEYWORDS: gambling trick abuse injury infidelity family marriage wager
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Child 268, "The Twa Knights" (1 text)
Roud #303
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boy and the Mantle" [Child 29] (theme)
cf. "The Hog's Heart" (theme)
cf. "The Fiddler's Bitch" (plot)
cf. "Redesdale and Wise William" [Child 246] (plot)
NOTES [71 words]: The notion of wagering over a woman's fidelity is common in folklore; in the Child canon, cf. e.g. "The Boy and the Mantle" [Child 29]. The substitute in bed idea is extremely ancient, going back to the story of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel in Genesis 29.
Roud and others have linked this with the tale of "The Hog's Heart," but the links are entirely thematic (and far from complete); I agree with Ben Schwartz in splitting them. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: C268

Twa Lads Frae Neiborin' Toons

DESCRIPTION: Two lads come to the singer's house to woo lasses. The boys brag about mother, horses and daily chores and, when those topics are exhausted, leave with excuses about work that had to be done. The singer expects no such excuses if they ever return.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting bragging farming humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 893, "Twa Lads Frae Neiborin' Toons" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6231
ALTERNATE TITLES:
It Fell Aboot a Lammas Time
File: GrD4893

Twa Magicians, The [Child 44]

DESCRIPTION: A (blacksmith) sees a girl who pleases him, and sets out to sleep with her. She tries to foil him with magic transformations, but he proves as sorcerous as she, and gains her maidenhead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: magic seduction rape shape-changing
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Child 44, "The Twa Magicians" (1 text)
Bronson 44, "The Twa Magicians" (1 version plus 11 versions of "Hares on the Mountain")
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 44, "The Twa Magicians" (1 version: #1, plus #2 and #12, which are "Hares n the Mountain")
Greig/Duncan2 334, "The Twa Magicians" (1 fragment)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 442-445, "The Two Magicians" (notes plus a copy of Buchan's text and a stanza of "Hares on the Mountain")
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 152-154, "The Twa Magicians" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 25, "The Twa Magicians" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 20, "The Two Magicians" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 22, "The Two Magicians" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 168-169, "The Two Magicians" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1, but somewhat changed}
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 47, "The Twa Magicians" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, p. 159, "The Twa Magicians" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 197-199, "The Twa Magicians" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 44, MAGICN2*
ADDITIONAL: Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, p. 40, "The Two Magicians" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1350
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Two Magicians" (on Lloyd3, BirdBush1, BirdBush2) [tune by Lloyd]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hares on the Mountain" (theme)
cf. "Les Metamorphoses (Metamorphoses)" (theme of transformations)
cf. "Je Caresserai La Belle Par Amitie" (theme of transformations)
NOTES [470 words]: Sharp bowdlerizes "gain my maidenhead" to "change my maiden name" (!) -PJS
Bronson believes that the ballad "Hares on the Mountain" is a very-much-worn-down version of this piece. This is, at best, currently beyond proof; personally, I don't believe it.
The idea of gaining a lover who is changing shape has ancient roots. We find it in Ovid's "Metamorphoses," where Peleus (the father of Achilles) finds Thetis in a cave and attempts to couple with her. To defeat him, she turns into a bird, a tree, and a tigress. The latter scares him off, but eventually he catches her while asleep (XI.225ff.; the story also occurs in Quintus of Smyrna's account of the War with Troy, book III, starting around line 620). And Zeus, of course, used myriad guises to gain access to women.
There is a Welsh equivalent, which some may also have encountered in partial form in Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain. It concerns the great bard Taliesin. He was born Gwion Bach. As a young man, he served the witch Ceridwen (Cerridwen, Keridwen, Keritwen; Mercantante/Dow, p. 227; according to Bromwich,pp. 312-313, the name means "Fair and Loved," even though she was a hag, and so has led to assorted emendations to the story, which I don't buy) -- and once, while brewing a wisdom potion of hers, swallowed some of it and became wise. She sought to punish him, and they engaged in a shape-shifting contest. Finally, he became a kernel of grain, and she a hen that swallowed him -- but he was reborn after she swallowed him, and became Taliesin (Alexander, p. 285).
The tale of "The Magician and His Pupil" (Thompson type 325; see Thompson, pp. 69-70) also involves this sort of competitive transformation and may involve a similar ending.
For other examples, see Lyle, p. 138.
Stewart, p. 41, proposes an alternate explanation, that the song derives from early Christian legends of saints combatting shape-changing priests. In medieval Catholic England, it is true that these stories would likely have been better-known than Ovid. But the parallels are less close. In any case, it seems to me there are plenty of shape-changing tales in folklore which might provide the root of this song!
Lyle, p. 81, suggests that this is a "levelling" ballad, with the low-status blacksmith pursuing a member of (presumably) the gentry or even the nobility. Unfortunately, with so few substantial British texts to work from, I think this has to remain speculation. She also suggests (p. 82) that the song is a "conception story"-- that is, a tale of how some significant figure came to be born. I agree that it has many of the hallmarks of such a tale (as witness the links to the Taliesin story), but of course the drawback is that there is no hint in the extant versions that the lady becomes pregnant, let alone bears a noteworthy child. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C044

Twa Recruiting Sergeants

See Old Recruiting Soldier (Twa Recruiting Sergeants) (File: GrD1077)

Twa Sisters, The [Child 10]

DESCRIPTION: A knight woos two (three) sisters, choosing the younger. The older drowns the younger. Her body is recovered and made into an instrument by a passing miller/musician. As the knight prepares to wed the older sister, the instrument sings out the truth.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1656 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: courting homicide music minstrel sister drowning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(All)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Newf) West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (85 citations):
Child 10, "The Twa Sisters" (25 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #79, #12, #14}
Bronson 10, "The Twa Sisters" (97 versions plus 6 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 10, "The Two Sisters" (14 versions: #7, #13.2, #28, #35, #42, #49, #50, #53, #55, #61, #67, #79, #81, #83)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 265-267, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 206-210, "The Cruel Sister" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 171, "Benonie" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #14}
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 200-205. "The twa Sisters/The Cruel Sister" (2 parallel texts plus a photo of the badly-transcribed tune; also two reconstructed tunes on p. 290)
Greig/Duncan2 213, "Binorie" (19 texts, 17 tunes) {B=Bronsons's #4, E=#21, G=#16?, H=#6, I=#13, J=#5?, K=#8?, L=#11, M=#9, N=#10, P=#17, Q=#18, O=#19}
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 106, "The Bows o London"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 137, "The Bows of London" (2 texts)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 29-31, "Hey a Rose Malindey" (1 text)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 8-9, "Binnorie; or, The Cruel Sister" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 118-119, "The Barkshire Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 40-46, "The Two Sisters" (5 texts plus 2 fragments, one from the same informant as one of the texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #68}
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 16-24, "The Twa Sisters" (6 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #38, #46, #30}
Randolph 4, "The Miller's Daughters" (8 texts, 5 tunes) {A=Bronson's #66, C=#32, E=#70, F=#94, G=#51}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 18-21, "The Miller's Daughters" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 4C) {Bronson's #32}
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 57, "Bow Your Bend to Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 6A, "The Twin Sisters"; 6B, "Two Sisters" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 15, "Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 48, "The Jealous Sister" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 2, "The Two Sisters" (2 texts, 2 tunes, but the "B" text is "Peter and I Went Down the Lane") {A=Bronson's #22}
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 75-77, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text, plus an excerpt from Child's "B" text to pad out the story)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 209-210, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 3-4, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #54}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 150-170, "The Twa Sisters" (5 English texts plus a fragment; also two variants of a Polish text plus tune and translation; 4 tunes for the English versions) {A=Bronson's #96, B=#54}
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 393-394, "(The Twa Sisters)" (1 text, probably an excerpt)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 5, "The Twa Sisters" (9 texts plus 2 fragments, 6 tunes entitled "The Old Lord of the North Country, or The Three Sisters," "The Old Woman of the North Countrie," "The Two Sisters, or Sister Kate, or The Miller annd the Mayor's Daughter," "The Two Sisters"; 2 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #25, #71, #40, #55, #27, #39}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 6, pp. 35-50, "The Twa Sisters" (10 texts, 7 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 4, "The Two Sisters" (3 texts plus 2 fragments)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 4, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text plus 4 excerpts, 5 tunes)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #147, "The Twa Sisters" (3 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #87, #88}
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 27, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 3, "The Two Sisters" (1 short text)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 201, "Old Man in the North Country (The Two Sisters)" (1 text, 1 tune) {same source as Bronson's #23, but the transcription is different}
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 29-30, "Bow and Balance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 82-83, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 3, p. 68, "The Two Sisters" (1 text)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 25, "The Two Sisters" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #76}
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 164-165, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text, locally titled "The Two Sisters")
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 4, "The Twa Sisters" (1 short text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #78}
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 1, pp. 1-2, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 6, "The Two Sisters" (4 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #44}
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, pp. 93-94, "Balance Unto Me"; p. 95, "Bow Down" (2 texts)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 3, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 179-180, "The Bonny Busk of London" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 74-78, "The Twa Sisters" (3 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 11-13, "The Two Sisters" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 150-156, "The Two Sisters"; "The Two Sisters (Wind and Rain) (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 23, "Binnorie" (1 text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 98, "The Two Sisters That Loved One Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #2, "The Two Sisters" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 7, "The Twa Sisters" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 171-173+343, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 5 "The Two Sisters" (14 texts, 14 tunes) {Bronson's #91, #55, #27, #39, #74, #73, #50, #34, #45, #63, #59, #47, #65, #41}
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 6, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite text) {Bronson's #45}
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #2, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #91}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 149-150, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 90, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #67}
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 32, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 3, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's #79}
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 3, "The Twa Sisters" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #43}
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #2A-B, pp. 10-13, "There Was an Old Farmer," "All Bow Down" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #69}
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 86-88, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 70-73, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #48}
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, pp. 57-59, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #48}
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 10-12, "The Sister's Murder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 32-33, "The Lord of the North Country" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 164-165, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #6, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 430-432, "The Bonnie Mill-Dams o' Binnorie"; pp. 459-460, "Hey the Rose and the Lindsay, O" (2 texts, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 3, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text plus two variant verses, 1 tune)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 9, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 54-56, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 20-24, "The Two Sisters"; "The Two Sisters (The Wind and Rain)" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 4, pp. 11-12, "The Two Sisters"; pp. 12-13, "The Old Man in the North Countree" (2 texts)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 260-261, "The Cruel Sister" (1 text)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 174-178, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 3, "King Daniel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 56-59, "The Two Sisters"; "Rollin' a-Rollin'"; "Wind and Rain" (3 texts)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 224, "The Two Sisters" (1 text)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 44, "The Farmer's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune, omitting the murder)
SongsOfAllTime, pp. 20-21, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 10, BINNORI* TWOSIS* TWOSIS5* WINDRAIN* SWANSWIM* TWOSIS8 TWOSIS9 TWOSI10 TWOSS11
ADDITIONAL: Emily Lyle, _Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition_, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, p. 220, [no title] (1 tune, previously unpublished, for Child's "Q" text)
Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, pp. 49-50, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #427, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text)
Roud #8
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "The Two Sisters" (AAFS 33); "Bow and Balance" (on Barker01) {Bronson's #67}
Anita Best and Pamela Morgan, "The Two Sisters" (on NFABestPMorgan01)
Loman D. Cansler, "The Two Sisters" (on Cansler1)
Lula Curry, "The Squire's Daughter" (on JThomas01)
Charlotte Decker, "The Bonny Busk of London" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Bradley Kincaid, "The Two Sisters" (Supertone 9212, 1928)
Eunice Yeatts MacAlexander, "The Cruel Sister" (on FarMtns1)
Jean Ritchie, "The Two Sisters" (AFS; on LC57); "There Lived an Old Lord" (on JRitchie02)
Debra Sharpe, "Two Sisters" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #593, recorded 05/30/2023)
Kilby Snow, "Wind and Rain" (on KSnow1)
Lucy Stewart, "The Swan Swims So Bonnie O" (on LStewart1)
John Strachan, "The Twa Sisters" (on FSB4)
John Strachan, Dorothy Fourbister, Ethel Findlater [composite] "The Twa Sisters" (on FSBBAL1) {cf. Bronson's #16.2 in addenda}
Unidentified group, "Two Sisters" (Piotr-Archive #78, recorded 08/29/2021; a "Wind and Rain" version; recording is very noisy)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "An Sgeir-Mhara (The Sea-Tangle, The Jealous Woman)" (plot)
cf. "Trois Graines de Peppernell" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bows of London
The Cruel Sister
Rolling a-Rolling
The Wind and Rain
The Swan Swims Bonnie
The Old Lord by the Northern Sea
Bowie, Bowerie
The Little Drownded Girl
Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom
Old Man from the North Countree
The Youngest Daughter
Minorie
The Mull Dams o' Binorrie
NOTES [926 words]: The refrains sung with this ballad vary tremendously, but virtually all versions have a refrain of some sort. - PJS
And generally a lyrically attractive one ("the swan swims bonnie," etc.), as has been pointed out by several scholars. I wonder if there isn't something about this ballad that encourages variation; Jean Ritchie reports that, even though they presumably learned the song from the same source, her family had twelve distinct versions. - RBW
The Kilby Snow recording is an unusual one; it contains every element of, "The Twa Sisters" except the sisters; the murderer in this case is the girl's lover. Snow reconstructed the song from early childhood memories of his grandfather (a Cherokee) singing it, though, so it may have diverged at that point. - PJS
Compare the first verse lines of Child 10.H to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 479, "There were three sisters in a hall" (earliest date in Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes is c.1630)
Child 10.H: "There were three sisters lived in a hall, ... And there came a lord to court them all...."
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 479 is a riddle beginning "There were three sisters in a hall, There came a knight amongst them all ...." - BS
This item is also found as Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #702, p. 275, but this appears to be simply a greeting rhyme unrelated to the various rather murderous ballads (notably Child 10 and 11) using these lines.
Child of course finds many analogies to this ballad. Joseph Jacobs, collector, English Fairy Tales, originally published 1890; revised edition 1898 (I use the 1967 Dover paperback reprint), on p. 236 stresses particularly Grimm #28, "The Singing Bone," in which a murdered man's bone tells the tale of his murder. The similarity to this song is obvious -- but it applies only to this one motif (Thompson E632, "Reincarnation as musical instrument"; E632.1, "Speaking bones of murdered person reveal murder," which Thompson lists as being found in cultures as far-separated as Japan, India, and the Ibo of Nigeria); the conditions leading up to the murder are quite different. The tale of "The Singing Bone" is Aarne-Thompson catalo tale-type #780.
Furthermore, the idea of bones-used-as-stringed-instrument also shows up in the Kalevala, e.g., Vainamoinen uses the bones of a pike to build a kantele, and strings another kantele with the hair of a singing girl. When he leaves the world, the kantele remembers him. This occurs not only in the final Kalevala but in Lonnrot's much shorter first edition; see the summary in Juha Y. Pentikainen, Kalevala Mythology, expanded edition, 1987, translated and edited by Ritva Poom, Indiana University Press, 1989, pp. 55-58 (the incidents are in poems 22, 29, and 32 of the "Old Kalevala"; in the revised Kalevala, the making of the kantele from the pie is in poem 40, and the rest de-emphasized. Interestingly, in poem 41, no one but Vanamoinen can play his kantele, which reminds me faintly of the versions of this ballad in which the fiddle can play only the one song).
Some versions of this have a chorus along the lines of "Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Stirling for aye / Bonnie St. Johnson stands upon Tay." "St. Johnson" is an alternate name for Perth, so the chorus is a reference to the three historically most important cities of east-central Scotland. Whatever that tells you.
The GirlScouts-SingTogether version is hilarious if you know the real plot: There is no fight over a man; one sister just pushes the other into the river, apparently in a minor fight, and the miller pulls her out. - RBW
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory's "King Daniel" is classified by Jekyll as an "Annancy" story. It is a cante fable following the Ashanti (West African) tradition: King Daniel is courting Miss Wenchy. Miss Lumpy is jealous and throws Miss Wenchy in a pond where Miss Wenchy drowns. A parrot sees the murder. Miss Lumpy tries to bribe "pretty Polly" with a gold cage with a silver door. The parrot rejects the offer and reports the murder to King Daniel and takes him to the pond where Miss Wenchy's body is found. King Daniel executes Miss Lumpy. The only parts of the story that are sung is the parrot's rejection and report of the crime: "No, no, I don't want it, for the same you serve another one you will serve me the same" and "I brought, I brought a news to the young King Daniel; Miss Lumpy kill Miss Wenchy loss, on becount of Young King Daniel."
Broadwood, looking at the sung text and the parrot as messenger connects this story to Child 4 and Child 68 because of the part played in those ballads by the parrot as messenger (Lucy E. Broadwood, "English Airs and Motifs in Jamaica" in Walter Jekyll, Jamaican Song and Story (New York: Dover Publications, 1966 (Reprint of David Nutt, 1907)), #3, p. 286, "King Daniel"). The parrot's rationale -- you will serve me the same -- is the same as found in Child 68. However, looking at the messenger as the critical part of the story ignores the plot of story itself and another Caribbean [Crucian] example of Child 81 in which a parrot is introduced in place of the porter as a tale carrier (see note there re "Matty Gru"). In "King Daniel" the parrot as messenger replaces the fiddle made of the victim's bones and hair as messenger. My point is that the form of the messenger and the nature of the bribe is a sure indicator that the cante fable tradition has been affected by the Child parrot-as-messenger motif but the plot itself shows how the story should be classified within the Child tradition. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C010

Twangman, The

DESCRIPTION: Twang hawker and rag-picker Mickey Baggs courts a girl who "kep' a Traycle Billy depot." Baggs wins her heart taking her to play "Billy-in-the-bowl." So "with his twang kni-ef [twangman] tuk the li-ef Of the poor ould gather'em-up!"
AUTHOR: probably Michael J. Moran (Zozimus)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: courting homicide humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads, pp. 231-232, "The Twangman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Behan-IrelandSings, #91, "The Twangman's Revenge" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
DT, TWANGMAN
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 44-45, "The Twangman" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [219 words]: In response to queries in earlier editions of the Index, Tom O'Leary informs me that "twang" is toffee. He adds that a "'Traycle depot' [was] a sweet shop, which in this case, was near to, or on one side of the Carlisle Bridge, Dublin."
Harte, on the other hand, says that it was Treacle Billy that was the toffee and twang another sort of sweetmeat. It makes little difference; the twangman certainly sold toffee.
The song says that the twangman only sells his wares "when the mileetia wasn't wantin'"; this is no particular constraint on his schedule, as miltitia in this period was a very part-time organization except when there was a rebellion in process. - RBW, (BS)
I might add that Eric Partridge A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (combined fifth edition with dictionary and supplement), Macmillan, 1961, in his supplement says that "twang" means opium in twentieth century Australian slang. But this usage seems to be more recent than O Lochlainn's text of the song.
Note also that Harte questions whether this is actually by Zozimus. But his evidence is negative: The song is not mentioned in the Zozimus memoirs. But the Zozimus memoirs are posthumous and not by Michael Moran anyway, so that's weak evidence. For background on Zozimus, see the notes to "The Finding of Moses." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: OLoc231B

Twangman's Revenge, The

See The Twangman (File: OLoc231B)

Twanky Dillo

See Twankydillo (The Blacksmith's Song) (File: K286)

Twankydillo (I -- The Blacksmith's Song)

DESCRIPTION: Singer toasts the blacksmith, the pretty girl "who kindles a fire all in her own breast," and the Queen. Chorus: "Which makes his bright hammer to rise and to fall/There's the Old Cole and the Young Cole and the Old Cole of all/Twankydillo..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer raises a health to the blacksmith who works at his anvil while the boy blows the bellows; if a gentleman calls with a horse to be shod, the smith can be persuaded to work by giving him drink. Singer also toasts the pretty girl "who kindles a fire all in her own breast," and to "our sovereign the Queen" and all the Royal Family. Chorus: "Which makes his bright hammer to rise and to fall/There's the Old Cole and the Young Cole and the Old Cole of all/Twankydillo, twankydillo...And the roaring pair of blow-pipes, made from the green willow"
KEYWORDS: love work drink nonballad worker royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 138-139, "Twankydillo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 135A, "Twankydillo" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 166, "Twanky Dillo" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 373, "Twankydillo")
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 262-263, "Twanky Dillo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 286, "Twankydillo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #5, "Twankydillo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #102, "Twankydillo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 24, "Twankydillo" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TWNKDLLO*
ADDITIONAL: Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, p. 139, "(Here's a health to the jolly blacksmith)" (1 short text)
Roud #2409
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Twankydillo (II)" (refrain) and references there
NOTES [190 words]: "The aim of the ballad was twofold: praise of the British blacksmith, and the glorification of the beverage manufactured by the British brewer,...' Oh, he who drinks good ale is the prince of good fel-LOWS!'" (source: "The Chronicles of Heatherthorp" in Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes (London, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), December 1869, Vol. XVII, p. 303).
As for the word "Twankydillo", Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs quotes Bunting (1840) about a "song about a goose and a shepherd's dog, arranged by J. Hook. It had a refrain of 'Twankidillo, and he played on the merry bagpipes beneath the green willow.'" The last lines of a couple of Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs verses is "... Twankydillo, A roaring pair of bagpipes made of the green willow." I assume the reference is to Edward Bunting, The Ancient Music of Ireland (Mineola, 2000 (Dover reprint of 1840 Dublin edition)), but I haven't yet found it there.
There is a long indecisive thread on "Meaning of Twanky Dillo" at Digital Tradition. - BS
Hammond, in 1906, reported a Dorset song, "The Life of a Shepherd," with the "Twankydillo" chorus. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: K286

Twankydillo (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Twankydillo ... he [the shepherd] played on his merry bagpipes." If his sheep go astray his dog will fetch them. If he meets the old shepherd's horse he'll cut off its tail "close up to his erse"; if he meets his wife he'll cuckold the old shepherd.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: sex nonballad dog horse sheep shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 135B, "Twankydillo" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 105, "Twankydillo!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2409
NOTES [78 words]: "Twankydillo (I -- The Blacksmith)" shares part of a chorus with this song: "Twankydillo ... A roaring pair of bagpipes made of green willow." The pair of bagpipes is a reasonable double entendre applied to a blacksmith, but seems a stretch applied to a shepherd.
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle: "It appears to me as if the 'Twankydillo' refrain has a separate existence from the various stanzas to which it has been attached, and it may be older than any of these." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: ReCi135B

'Twas a Dark and Stormy Night (Circular Story)

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas a dark and stormy night, And the rain came down in torrents. The Bugler's Band sat round the fire, And the captain said to Iona, 'Iona, tell us a tale...." And the tale went on as follows: 'Twas a dark and stormy night....'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: wordplay storm music | circular
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 66, "('Twas a dark and stormy night)" (1 text)
File: PKKB066D

Twas a Love of Adventure

See Diego's Bold Shore (File: SWMS030)

Twas Aneuch to Gar the Maister Tak

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas aneuch to gar the maister tak Rheumatics in his toes"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: disease
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1883, "'Twas Aneuch to Gar the Maister Tak" (1 fragment)
Roud #13569
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81883

Twas Autumn and the Leaves

See The Banks of Champlain (File: RcTBOC)

Twas Down in Cupid's Garden

See Cupid's Garden (I) (Covent Garden I; Lovely Nancy III) (File: SWMS090)

'Twas Early in the Spring

See Early, Early in the Spring [Laws M1] (File: LM01)

Twas Early One Morning (I)

See All Jolly Fellows That Handles the Plough (File: K241)

'Twas Early One Morning (II)

See Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)

Twas Early Spring, and the Flowers Were Young

See The Sailor and His Bride [Laws K10] (File: LK10)

'Twas Early, Early in the Spring

See Early, Early in the Spring [Laws M1] (File: LM01)

'Twas Getting Late Up in September

DESCRIPTION: In Labrador, "'Twas getting late up in September"; the singer meets a girl come to fill her buckets at the fountain. He proposes, she accepts, "a priest came up on the steamer," they marry and "live in a nice little cottage, Down by the side of the sea"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage wedding
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 601-602, "'Twas Getting Late Up in September" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "'Twas Getting Late Up in September" (1 text, 1 tune): p 78 in the 3rd edition
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 104, "'Twas Getting Late Up In September" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Doyl3078 (Partial)
Roud #7288
File: Doyl3078

Twas in the Month of August In the Middle of July (She Said the Same to Me)

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in the month of August, or the middle of July, One evening I went walking, a fair maiden I did spy; She was mournin' for her true love, who was in Amerikee, Agh, divil a word I said to her, and she said the same to me!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonsense paradox separation emigration
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1704, "'Twas in the Month of August" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 38-39, "She Said the Same to Me" (1 short text, 1 tune)
DT, SAIDSAME
Roud #13616
NOTES [164 words]: Roud has five references for numbers #13523 (Sandburg) and #13616. Besides Sandburg and Greig/Duncan8, he has "It Was on a Month of Sunday" ("It was on the month of Sunday in the city of July"), "On a Cold and Frosty Morning" ("A cold and frosty morning in the middle of July"), and "The 25th of Liverpool" ("On the 24th of Liverpool, in the city of July"), all from recordings. It seems reasonable to me that these are all the same song. Each verse of Sandburg and Greig/Duncan8 is nonsense, on the order of "Three Little Girls, A-Skating Went" and "'Twas a dark and stormy night and the moon was shining bright ...." Greig/Duncan8 shares Sandburg's first two lines in a first verse "'Twas in the month of August, In the middle of July, The snow was falling thick and fast The weather being dry." The singer hires a tramway car to cross the sea, falls in love with a French girl from a few miles out of Tipperary, and tells about his father "being a dairymaid, Aboard a Sunday boat." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: San038

Twas in the Month of June

See Diana Kitty Annie Maria (File: GrD4737)

Twas in the Pleasant Month of May

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in the pleasant month of May, When flowers began a-springing, The little lambs did skip and dance, And the birds began a-singing"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: flowers animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 805, "'Twas in the Pleasant Month of May" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6206
NOTES [110 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 fragment.
I think the Greig/Duncan4 fragments of "'Twas on the Twenty Second of March" and "'Twas in the Pleasant Month of May" are so brief and use such standard imagery that lumping them together is not justified. See also, for example, "Girls of the Shamrock Shore" and the note about O'Conor's text of "The Shamrock Shore." - BS
It is possible that this is the same as the song we have indexed as "The Merry Haymakers" (Roud #153), which also sometimes appears as "The Pleasant Month of May." But that is English, and this is Scottish, and without more to go on, I've allowed them to remain separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: GrD4805

Twas in the Town of Parsboro

DESCRIPTION: Drunk in Parsboro ,"the gallant slugger Dunkerson ... challenged Baxter [McLellan] there to fight in Bill Mahoney's barn." Baxter beats him "inside of fifteen seconds." Dunkerson staggers home and cannot get a drink, "badly licked by a sober... man"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: fight drink
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 148, "'Twas in the Town of Parsboro" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS148 (Partial)
Roud #1843
NOTES [48 words]: This song is item dH44 in Laws's Appendix II.
Creighton-NovaScotia: Parsboro is a town in Nova Scotia.
The song refers to "when the Scott Act was in force." The Scott Act, or Canada Temperance Act was passed in 1878 (source: The Prohibition entry for The Canadian Encyclopedia site).- BS
File: CrNS148

Twas in the year eighteen hundred and three

See Boyndlie Road (File: GrD3459)

Twas Midnight on the Ocean

See The Barefoot Boy with Boots On (File: FSC154)

'Twas Nine Years Ago

See The Kerry Recruit [Laws J8] (File: LJ08)

Twas of a Brisk Young Shepherdess

See The Sailor and the Shepherdess [Laws O8] (File: LO08)

Twas of a Comely Young Lady Fair

See The Dark-Eyed Sailor (Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor) [Laws N35] (File: LN35)

Twas of a Damsel Fair and Handsome

See The Iron Door [Laws M15] (File: LM15)

Twas of One Summer's Morning (The Maid's Lament)

DESCRIPTION: The singer is told "my love was quite gone away" He says, "how shall I get married?" He hugs and kisses her "Till she had changed her mind She changes with the weathercock." "How shall I get married"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: love marriage rejection nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople, pp. 233-234, "(O 'twas of one summer's morning)" (1 fragment)
Roud #1684
File: ReSh233A

Twas of Three Jolly Welshman

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

Twas On a Cold and Winter's Day

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Twas on a Monday Mornin'

See Charlie Is My Darling (File: FSWB140A)

'Twas On a Sunday Morning

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on a Sunday morning, before the bells did peal, A note came through the window, With Cupid as the seal." The singer goes out into the field. The singer meets her love before the Sunday bells ring
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Swan / Music: Francis Mori (source: Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (source: Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #3, "Upon a Sunday Morning" (1 rewritten text, 1 tune)
Roud #6903
File: BGSW003

Twas on an Easter Morning

See I Must And Will Get Married (The Fit) (File: SKE53)

'Twas on de Bluff

See On the Bluff (Alligator Song) (File: ScaNF072)

Twas on the Grand River near the falls of Chaudiere

See Three Men Drowned (The Grand River) (File: Rick129)

'Twas on the Napanee

DESCRIPTION: A young man leaves his parents' home to become a raftsman; he is drowned while rafting saw logs. His parents and friends mourn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering death mourning work logger
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 54, "'Twas on the Napanee" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 81, "'Twas on the Napanee" (1 text)
Roud #4057
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" [Laws C1] (plot)
cf. "The Death of Harry Bradford" [Laws C12] (plot, tune)
NOTES [309 words]: In the mid-nineteenth century, a young man named Anthony Barrett was killed on the Napanee river.
Beck states that this song seems to have been composed in Canada around 1860; it was collected from a Mrs. Barrett, of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan -- possibly a relative of the deceased? - PJS
It would be difficult to prove that Barrett was the subject of this song; he is never named. Beck's text (apparently the only one known) does not give a name. It merely says that the young man was from Bedford, that he was the youngest son of living parents, that he left home on May 24 of an unnamed year and died on June 2, and that the death took place on the Napanee.
The Napanee River, and the town of the same name, are on the north side of Lake Ontario, about a fifth of the way from Kingston to Toronto. There were lumber drives in that part of Ontario in the nineteenth century. Bedford, Ontario is a small town north of Kingston, a substantial distance away from Napanee; it appears that it is in good timber country. It is alsp possible that "Bedford" might be an error for, e.g., "Belleville," the next large town west of Napanee.
Although we cannot prove that Anthony Barrett is the man intended, it seems highly likely. Anthony Barrett was the great, great, great uncle of James Barrett, who wrote to me in August 2010 and informed me that "Anthony Barrett... died rafting logs on the Napanee River, June 2, 1880. Beck states that this song seems to have been composed in Canada around 1860; but it is actually 1880, and the reference indicates that it was collected from a Mrs. Barrett, of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan -- possibly a relative of the deceased. This Mrs. Barrett of Mount Pleasant would be Anthony Barrett's sister-in-law, Margaret Barrett, wife of Martin H. Barrett."
As "'Twas on the Napene," this song is item dC36 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be054

'Twas on the Napene

See 'Twas on the Napanee (File: Be054)

Twas on the Twenty Second of March

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on the twenty second of March In the middle of the Spring O, When merry lambs began to bleat, And birds began to sing O"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 804, "'Twas on the Twenty Second of March" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6205
NOTES [61 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 fragment.
I think the Greig/Duncan4 fragments of "'Twas on the Twenty Second of March" and "'Twas in the Pleasant Month of May" are so brief and use such standard imagery that lumping them together is not justified. See also, for example, "Girls of the Shamrock Shore" and O'Conor's text of "The Shamrock Shore." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4804

Twas on the twenty-first of April, from Hampton Roads we sailed

See Bold Daniels (The Roving Lizzie) [Laws K34] (File: LK34)

Twas on Yin Night in Sweet July

DESCRIPTION: Three lads courting one night at a farm climb a ladder to the bedroom window and stay till two. They hear the father coming upstairs, go out the window and pull down the ladder. The farmer finds his ladder broken. The cook identifies the escapees.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Willie Scott SA1962.027)
KEYWORDS: courting sex nightvisit father cook
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 39-41, 149, "Twas on Yin Night in Sweet July" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Willie Scott, "Brundenlaws," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1962.027,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/57715?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023 (one verse, chorus and commentary)
Wat Ramage, "The Brundenlaws," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1977.205,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/42570?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023
Roud #9257
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Brundenlaws
NOTES [35 words]: McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen: "The Brundenlaws... is a farm lying close to Jeddart (Jedburgh)."
At School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1962.027 Scott says he learned the song "about 1906 or 1907...." - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: McSc039

'Twas Through the Groves

See Through the Groves (File: ReCi076)

Twas You, Sir

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas you that kissed the pretty girl ... I'm sure you kissed the pretty girl ... Oh, sir; no, sir; How can you wrong me so sir? I did not kiss the pretty girl, But I know who."
AUTHOR: Lord Mornington (source: _The Universal Songster_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1834 (_The Universal Songster_))
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 301, "Twas You, Sir" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 183)
ADDITIONAL: The Universal Songster or Museum of Mirth (London, 1834 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol I, p. 170, "'Twas You, Sir" ("'Twas you, sir, 'twas you, sir") (1 text)
Roud #1333
NOTES [53 words]: Oliphant: "Music by W. Cranford, one of the Singing-men of St Paul's Cathedral."
Wildridge at Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO quoting Williams: "They never popular with the ordinary village minstrels and were seldom, if ever, heard at the inns", referring to "Come Hither, Tom," "'Twas You, Sir," and "Poor Johnny's Dead." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT301

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

DESCRIPTION: "Tweedledum and Tweedledee Agreed to have a battle, For Tweedledum said Tweedledee Had spoiled his nice new rattle. Just then flew by a monstrous crow, As (big/black) as a tar-barrel, Which frightened both the heroes so, They quite forgot their quarrell."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1805 (Harris, Original Ditties for the Nursery, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: battle bird
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 521, "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #167, p. 125, "(Tweedledum and Tweedledee)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 222, "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" (1 text)
Roud #19800
NOTES [73 words]: Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes reports that John Byrom (or Swift, or Pope, or SOMEONE) coined the names "Tweedledum" and "Tweedledee" to describe the composers Bononcini and Handel in a quarrel where outsiders couldn't tell which side was which. But this does not explain how the two became characters in this poem. It does not seem to have been particularly well-known -- until, of course, Lewis Carroll got his hands on it. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: OO2521

Twelfth Day

See On Leome Is in this World Ilist (File: BrRo293)

Twelfth of July, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells how Montreal Irish lick the "yellowbacks." On July 12, Fawcett fires a revolver. Hackett fires back, but is mortally wounded. Listeners are reminded that King Billy "tore down Catholic churches..." but they can't do it in Montreal
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (recording, Tom Brandon; also in Fowke/Ontario)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer tells how the Irish Catholics of Montreal licked the "yellowbacks." On July 12 an Orangemen's parade clashes with Unionists; one Fawcett fires a revolver, swearing to "kill every papist dog." Hackett fires back, but is mortally wounded. Listeners are exhorted to remember that King Billy and his supporters "tore down Catholic churches from Lewis to Donegal," but they can't get away with it in Montreal
KEYWORDS: hate battle fight violence death homicide Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 12, 1877: Clash between Irish Catholics and Protestants in Montreal
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 38, "The Twelfth of July" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Tom Brandon, "The Twelfth of July" (1957, on Ontario1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Belfast Riot" (Canadian political situation)
NOTES [323 words]: Despite the song, there was no Orangemen's parade on July 12 (the day when Irish Protestants celebrate William III's victory in the battle of the Boyne); according to newspaper accounts, plans for a parade had been dropped due to rising tensions. However, brawling broke out in a mixed crowd of Orangemen and Unionists in Victoria Square; in the fight, Francis Hackett was fatally shot. - PJS
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario, pp. 182-183, has a contemporary newspaper account of the incident.
The British had guaranteed Catholic rights in Quebec when they took over the territory in 1760, but the Catholics took many years to believe this. In the aftermath of William Lyon Mackenzie's 1837 rebellion, Governor General John Lambton, Earl of Durham, proposed constitutional changes (e.g. merging Upper and Lower Canada, i.e. Ontario and Quebec) which were viewed as attacking the Canadiens' identity. These and other changes fueled Catholic fears, and the tensions lasted for years. Indeed, the disagreements still persist, though the religious element seems to have largely dropped out.
It is ironic to note that many of Durham's reforms, such as local representation, were liberal and have become universal in the years since his time (see James L. Stokesbury, Navy & Empire, Morrow, 1983, p. 228). His problem was that he, like many reformers, talked to the "wrong" people, so the elites despised him, but he didn't know how to appeal to the general population.
In addition to the disturbance of 1877 apparently cited here, Graeme Wynn reports that "Limbs were bruised and heads broken when Protestant Orangemen celebrated the victory of William of Orange over Irish Catholic forces at the Battle of the Boyne on July 12, 1690, clashed with 'Green' Catholics in and around the Irish districts of several cities [in Canada] in the 1830s and 1840s." (From Craig Brown, editor, The Illustrated History of Canada, p. 267).- RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Rc12July

Twelfth of May, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Tis always on the twelfth of May, We meet and dress so gaily; For tonight will merry be (x3), We'll sing and dance so gaily." "The sun is up and the morn is bright." "Yonder stands a lovely lady." A collection of floating material to celebrate May
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Palmer); said to be from Morley, c. 1900
KEYWORDS: nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 162, "(no title)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)" (floating lyrics)
File: RPFW162

Twelve Apostles, The

See Green Grow the Rushes-O (The Twelve Apostles, Come and I Will Sing You) (File: ShH97)

Twelve Blessings of Mary, The

See The Seven Joys of Mary (File: FO211)

Twelve Days of Christmas, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer's true love gives gifts throughout Christmastide, with the quantity of gifts increasing each day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1780 (Mirth without Mischief)
KEYWORDS: Christmas cumulative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber),Wales) US(Ap,NE,SE,So) Canada(West)
REFERENCES (26 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 512-513, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 213-216, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 86-87, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 52-54, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 96, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 729, "Twelve Days of Christmas" (1 fragment)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 38, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (1 text plus a Cornich translation, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 52, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (3 texts, though two are summarized)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 52, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #218, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 36, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 94, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (2 texts, apparently summarized)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 124, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, p. 172, "Twelve Days of Christmas" (1 text)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, p. 38, "Twelve Days of Christmas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 100, "The first day of Christmas" (3 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #424, pp. 196-199, "(The First Day of Christmas)"
Greig/Duncan3 637, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (1 text)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 123, "Thirteen Yule Days" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 246, "Good King Wenceslas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 384, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 29, "Twelve Days of Christmas" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, XMAS12DY*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 42-43, "Yule Days"
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928, notes to #258, ("On the First Day of Christmas") (1 text)
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #59, "On the First Day of Christmas" (1 text)
Roud #68
RECORDINGS:
John Thomas, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" [sung in Welsh] (on Saskatch01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The First Day of Yule" (form)
SAME TUNE:
The Ten Days of Finals (File: EM373)
Russian Convoy Escort's Song (File:Tawn068)
Kiwi Twelve Days of Christmas (New Zealand parodies) (Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 297)
NOTES [666 words]: Chambers, p. 47, cites his source as "a large manuscript collection of hitherto unpublished Scottish songs, by Mr P. Buchan." - BS
A legend (passed to me by a friend, with no authorities cited) claims that this was a covert Catholic catechism, composed to sneak by the Protestant authorities.
The Baring-Goulds offer some minor supporting evidence, in that a partridge (for the first day) is "known as a bird that deserts its young" -- hence the idea of people who have deserted their faith.
Possible, I suppose -- but clearly most people who have sung the song know nothing of such things, and many of their heavily-folk-processed versions would not be suitable for such purposes (assuming the original was).
Ian Bradley in the Penguin Book of Carols, on the other hand, claims it's a drinking forfeit: You have to remember all the gifts offered by previous givers and add one of your own. The problem with this theory, of course, is that the gifts are stereotyped.
They may be even more stereotyped than we realize, in fact. The Baring-Goulds argue that the "five gold rings" of the fifth verse are in fact the rings on the neck of a pheasant (though those rings aren't golden on any pheasant I've seen), meaning that the first seven gifts are all birds. They also argue for a French origin for the piece.
The Opies conclude that the meaning of the song "has yet to be satisfactorily explained." In light of the variety of explanations offered, I think that would be my conclusion also.
A handful of versions of this -- that of the Montgomeries, and Gomme's "B," and Chambers -- are clearly recensionally different: The verses begin, "The king sent his lady on the (first, second, third...) Yule day." The final line is, "Who learns my carol, and carries it away." This may include *thirteen* Yule days. I thought seriously about calling this a separate song -- but the general form appears related, and so are many of the gifts. Besides, most people would probably seek the song here. But it should be clear that it's a deliberate rewrite.
There is a partial French analogy, "La Perdriole" or "The Twelve Months of the Year"; it can be found in Maud Karpeles, Folk Songs of Europe, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 130. It counts the months of the year rather than the days of Christmas, and many of the gifts are different -- but it ends (at least in the Karpeles translation) with "Two turtle-doves, And a little partridge... in the woods."
We should be cautious with the French song, though. Not all texts follow this format, though it appears all are cumulative. Grace Lee Nute, The Voyageur, 1931 (I use the 1987 Minnesota Historical Society Press edition), pp. 115-117, examines several versions of the song she calls "Une Perdriole." All are cumulative, but the number of cycles varies, and it counts days in the month of May, not months of the year. I am inclined to suspect that this song began simply as a cumulative song and was perhaps even adapted toward the English form.
David Fowler, in J. Burke Severs and Albert Hartung, editors, A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1500, in ten volumes with continuous page numbering; Volume 6 (edited by Hartung), Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1980, p. 1764, suggests that this a song he calls "I have a new garden" "lies behind" this song. It is in the Sloane Manuscript ({MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593), folio 11b, which means that there is a strong change it is traditional. (For background on the Sloane Manuscript, including a list of all the items in it that are indexed, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. This particular item -- Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1302; DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2172 -- opens "I have a newe gardyn and nowe is begunne.") I would agree that it is related to a more recent English song -- but the song is not "The Twelve Days"; it is "I Had a Little Nut Tree." See "Nut Tree" for a discussion of "I Have a New Garden." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FO213

Twelve Gates to the City

DESCRIPTION: Spiritual: "Oh, what a beautiful city/There's twelve gates to the city, halleluiah"; "Three gates in the east, three gates in the west/Three gates in the north, three gates in the south."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Norfolk Jubilee Quartet)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 72-73, "Oh! What a Beautiful City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 81, "Twelve Gates to the City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, p. 39, "Twelve Gates to the City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 349, "Twelve Gates to the City" (1 text)
DT, TWLVGATE
Roud #18908
RECORDINGS:
Marian Anderson, "Oh! What a Beautiful City" (Victor 10-1040, 1943)
Blind Gary [Davis], "Twelve Gates to the City" (ARC 7-04-55, 1937; rec. 1935) (1992, on "Harlem Street Singer," Prestige Bluesville CD OBCCD-547-2(BV-1015); recorded 1960))
Blind Boy Fuller w. Sonny Terry, "Twelve Gates to the City" (Vocalion 05465, 1940)
Galilee Singers, "What a Beautiful City" (Decca 7765, 1940)
Norfolk Jubilee Quartet, "Oh What a Beautiful City" (Paramount 12929, 1930; rec. 1929)
Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry, "Twelve Gates to the City" (on SeegerTerry)
Pete Seeger, "Beautiful City" (on PeteSeeger18)); "Twelve Gates to the City" (on PeteSeeger42); "Oh, What a Beautiful City [Twelve Gates to the City]" (on PeteSeeger47)
Sonny Terry [pseud., Saunders Terrell], "Beautiful City" (on Terry01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tell My Mother" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Oh, What a Beautiful City
NOTES [75 words]: I know there are earlier recordings of this piece (it was a showpiece for Rev. Gary Davis), and probably earlier printed citations too, but I haven't found them yet. - PJS
The image of the heavenly city may possibly be derived from Chapter 21 of the Apocalypse, which mentions "the holy city, the new Jerusalem" (21:2), but the twelve gates of the city, three on each side, although mentioned in 21:3, are ultimately taken from Ezekiel 48:30-34. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: PSAFB081

Twelve Ghostly Fishermen

See The Ghostly Crew [Laws D16] (File: LD16)

Twelve Good Joys, The

See The Seven Joys of Mary (File: FO211)

Twelve Hundred More

DESCRIPTION: "O workingmen dear, and did you hear The news that's going round, Another China steamer Has been landed here in town." They've brought twelve hundred more Chinese. They will take workingmen's jobs; the workers should fight back
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (The Blue and Gray Songster, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: immigration fight worker derivative | Chinese racist
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 305, "Twelve Hundred More" (1 text)
NOTES [22 words]: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest lists no tune for this, but it is self-evidently based on "The Wearing of the Green." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC305

Twelve Joys, The

See The Seven Joys of Mary (File: FO211)

Twelve Little S-Boats

DESCRIPTION: "Twelve little S-boats 'go to it' like Bevin, 'Starfish' goes a bit too far, Then there were eleven." And so on, though eight more boats, until "Four fearless S-boat, too far out to sea, 'Sunfish' bombed and scrap-heaped, We are only three."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 ("One Of Our Submarines," according to Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: technology navy death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 113-114, "Twelve Little 'S'-Boats" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Starfish Song" (subject: The S-boat Starfish)
NOTES [607 words]: According to Bagnasco, p. 110, the first four units of the "S" class of submarines were built at Chatham in 1930-1933. "In 1930, the Royal Navy, in accordance with the plan to modernize the submarine force, decided to build a new type of boat, suitable for employment in the North Sea and restricted waters such as the Mediterranean."
They were small for submarines of the 1930s: the first group (Seahorse, Starfish, Sturgeon, Swordfish) had a displacement of just 737 toms surfaced; their dimensions 202.5"x24"x10.5". They were slow, too, on the surface: 13.75 knots (although they could manage an impressive 10 knots submerged), and as built had a range of just 3800 miles at ten knots. They had six torpedo tubes, all in the nose, carried a 3" gun, and had crews of three dozen.
Despite their limited abilities, the British liked them and ended up building more than sixty of them (Bagnasco, p. 111).. The next group of eight (Sealion, Salmon, Spearfish, Shark, Snapper, Sunfish, Sterlet, Seawolf), built starting in 1933, were six feet longer, and had a surface displacement of 768 tons, which serve primarily to incease their range to 6000 miles at ten knots. The British built 51 more S-boats later, but these were the ones available at the start of the war.
They really didn't have the range to sail outside of European waters, but the Royal Navy found a way: "To achieve greater range for the boats bound for the Far East, several sections of the ballast tanks were adapted for use as fuel tanks.... Stores, especially food and ammunition were increased and were stored in any available space; a small ammunition locker was placed under the table in the officers' quarters" (Bagnasco, p. 112). It sounds like the song's complaint about them is dead on; when on Pacific duty, they must have been almost uninhabitable. Especially the early ones, which had stability problems (Worth, p. 117).
Despite those limitations, Bagnasco, p. 112, concludes, "The combination of their qualities -- none of which, in itself was above average -- together with the reliability of their equipment and the great ease of operation and maintenance made them very effective and safe." But he never had to serve on one!
If I read p. 115 of Bagnasco correctly, a total of 21 S-boats were lost during the war,including seven in 1940 alone -- those seven obviously all being from the dozen that were at sea by then. If we take them in the order Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy lists them:
Starfish - lost Jan. 9, 1940, to surface ships; Young, p. 147 ; see the notes to "The Starfish Song"
Seahorse - lost Jan.7, 1940, to surface ships; Young, p. 141 (thus Tawney has the losses out of order)
Sterlet - lost April 18, 1940, to surface ships; Young, p. 148
Shark - lost July 6, 1940, to surface ship and air attack; Young, p. 142
Salmon - lost July 9, 1940, to a mine off Norway; Young, p. 138
Spearfish - lost August 2, 1940, to an attack by another submarine (U-34); Young, p. 146
Swordfish - failed to report, November 1940; last known location in the Bay of Biscay; cause of loss unknown; Young, p. 150 (thus matching the song's description of her disappearance)
Snapper - failed to report, February 1941; last known location in the Bay of Biscay; cause of loss unknown; Young, p. 145
Sunfish - transferred to Russia 1944; sunk by mistake by British planes July 27, 1944; Young, p. 149
Given that seven of the nine losses came in 1940, and the eighth in early 1941, one strongly suspects this was originally written in 1940/1941 and supplemented when Sunfish was lost -- especially since many other S-boats from later groups had been lost by 1944. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn084

Twelve men came riding by

See Twelve Pears Hanging High (File: NCF1028B)

Twelve Pears Hanging High

DESCRIPTION: Riddle. "Twelve pears hanging high, Twelve (knights/men) came riding by, Each (knight)took a pear, And (yet) left eleven hanging there." Answers vary; the most common may be Just one knight, named Each or Eachknight, took a pear
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Halliwell, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: riddle nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 63, "(Twelve pears hanging high)" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 399, "Twelve pears hanging high" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #694, p. 273, "(Twelve pears hanging high)"
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Peggy Cole and Sally Poole, informants), "Riddles," Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 28, "(Twelve Pears Hanging High)" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Joseph D. Clark, "More North Carolina Riddles," Vol. IX, No. 1 (Jul 1961), p. 14 (#45A, B), "(Twelve men came riding by)," "(Five pears hanging high)" (2 texts)
Roud #20010
File: NCF1028B

Twelve Stone Two

DESCRIPTION: The singer is "dreadful nervous" because he is about to marry "an agricultural Irish girl that's twice the size of me": she weighs twelve stone two. He would like to break the contract but she would beat him. She did the courting and he had no choice.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland); c.1885 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(48b))
KEYWORDS: courting wedding humorous nonballad shrewishness
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 79, "Twelve Stone Two" (1 text)
Roud #18290
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(48b), "Fine Big Woman" ("I feel so dreadful nervous That I'm frightened of my life"), Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1885
NOTES [39 words]: stone: "an official British unit equal to 14 pounds" (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged (1976))
Broadside NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(48b): "Sung with great success by Walter Munro" - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OCon079

Twelvemonth More Has Rolled Around, A

DESCRIPTION: "A twelvemonth more has rolled around Since we attended on this ground, Ten thousand scenes have marked the year Since we last met to worship here."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, p. 83, "[A Twelvemonth More Has Rolled Around]" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: JRSF083

Twenty Long Years SInce I Married

See For Seven Long Years I've Been Married (File: RcFSLYBM)

Twenty Men from Dublin Town

DESCRIPTION: Twenty men from Dublin join Michael Dwyer to fight the redcoats and avenge the death of Wolfe Tone.
AUTHOR: Arthur Griffith (1871-1922) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Ireland nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
Nov 10, 1798 - Wolfe Tone (1763-1798) condemned to execution; he cuts his own throat to avoid hanging as a criminal (his request to face a firing squad had been denied)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 147, "Twenty Men from Dublin Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Michael Dwyer (I)" (subject of Michael Dwyer) and references there
cf. "The Shan Van Voght" (subject of Wolfe Tone)
NOTES [94 words]: For the history of Michael Dwyer, who held out as a rebel for about five years before surrendering to the British, see the notes to Michael Dwyer (I)" or Michael Dwyer (II)." Wolfe Tone's part in the 1798 rebellion is covered in "The Shan Van Voght."
Arthur Griffith was the founder of Sinn Fein, the party that eventually led Ireland to (approximate) independence; after the foundation of the Irish Free State, he became the first head of state, dying in that office in no small part because of the pressures of trying to head a state suffering a civil war. - RBW
File: Moyl147

Twenty Pound Dog, The

DESCRIPTION: "My name it is (Michael McCarthy) and I live in this town of renown, I made a bet with one Terrence Mahaffey that my bulldog could wallop the town." But Murphy's dog kills the singer's dog. He cries for vengeance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: dog fight revenge
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 68-69, "The Twenty Pound Dog" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 252, "The Twenty Pound Dog" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3495
NOTES [98 words]: I found an online reference to this song, stating that it was widely known in the nineteenth century as a result of a decision in Britain to ban sports such as bear-baiting. Those who liked the blood sports turned to fighting dogs, since they were smaller and more normally kept as pets.
According to the site, bulldogs were the typical breed used for this purpose -- but their lack of mobility made the fights uninteresting. So other breeds were mixed in to produce the pit bull. This does seem to fit well with the song, since the dog Murphy wins the fight with has terrier blood. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Dean068B

Twenty White Horses

See Thirty White Horses (File: BGMG704)

Twenty Years Ago (Forty Years Ago)

DESCRIPTION: "I wandered to the village, Tom, and sat beneath the tree... That sheltered you and me... But none were left to greet me, Tom... Who played with us upon the green Just (twenty/forty) years ago." The singer tells how the people have changed with the years
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Dime-Song-Book #1)
KEYWORDS: age home courting
FOUND IN: US(ApSE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 335, "Twenty (Forty, Sixty) Years Ago" (4 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 335, "Twenty (Forty, Sixty) Years Ago" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Randolph 869, "Forty Years Ago" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 481-484, "Forty Years Ago" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 869A)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 29-30, "Time Has Changed in 20 Years" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 134, "Twenty Years Ago" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 172, "Twenty Years Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #78, "Just Forty Years Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 196-197,256, "Twenty Years Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 26, "Twenty Years Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2380, p. 160, "Twenty Years Ago" (1 reference)
Heart-Songs, pp. 280-281, "Twenty Years Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 42 and #1/64 p. 10, "Twenty Years Ago" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1920_, self-published, 1918 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland site), p. 13, "Twenty Years Ago" (1 text)
Martin Gardner, editor, _Famous Poems from Bygone Days_, Dover, 1995, pp. 9-10, "Twenty Years Ago" (1 text)
ST R869 (Partial)
Roud #765
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve" (theme) and references there
cf. "Merchants of the Bay" (tune)
cf. "Fifteen Years Ago" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Who Has Managed (File: Wels063)
Dixie's Sunny Land or, The Cruelty to Our Union Prisoners (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 33)
NOTES [301 words]: The earliest datable text of this that I've seen is from 1859, but it is could well be earlier; Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 160, lists a broadside published by Wrigley from the Civil War period.
Randolph lists many possible authors for this piece: Dill Armor Smith and Frances Huston are credited with the words, and William Willing with the tune. No solid evidence seems to be forthcoming, though Hazel Felleman's The Best Loved Poems of the American People also credits the song to Smith, and Heart-Songs and Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley attribute the piece to Willing. Cohen notes that several people stepped forward to claim the song (on behalf of others) and explain the internal references.
The texts in Brown are clearly the same song, despite the difference in time period covered, and also the changes described in that time. Randoph's and Felleman's texts make little mention of technology; they're mostly about aging. The other texts are different. Several mention the first cooking stove, and how women wore (woolen/homespun) dresses and boys wore pants of tow.
Brown's "D" text concludes, "Oxen answered well for teams, but now they're rather slow. But people didn't live so fast some sixty years ago." I'd love to know the author's reaction, had he lived to see it, to a modern freeway....
It appears this sentiment dates back well before this song. Joel Levy, Newton's Notebook: The Life, Times, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, Running Press, 2009, p. 15, quotes a pamphlet of 1647 which includes the lines "For England hath no likelihood or show O what it was but seventy years ago; Religion, manners, life, and shapes of men, Are much unlike the people that were then." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R869

Twenty Years Ago (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Twenty years ago today, The yellow sun was settin', A soldier boy marched to the fray, And left his parents frettin'." He asks his parents to say goodbye to his girl. Although only a trombonist, he runs to rescue the flag and has his legs blown away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions)
KEYWORDS: soldier music travel injury separation death humorous
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 84-85, "Twenty Years Ago" (1 text)
Roud #9625
File: SBar084

Twenty-Fourth of May, The

DESCRIPTION: "O, the twenty-fourth of May Is the Queen's birthday. If you don't give us a holiday, We'll all run away." "Where will you run to? Down Stony Lane, Then old Mr. Bently will come wi' his cane, and quickly then he'll chase you all back again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: royalty nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 24, 1819 - birth of the future Queen Victoria
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi, p.35, (no title) (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 20, "Oka Ball Day" (1 text); p. 61, "(Hip, hip, hooray)" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: Marjorie Rowling, _The Folklore of the Lake District_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 120, "(If you don't give us a holiday") (1 short text)
NOTES [135 words]: The songs in Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi were collected in two spurts: The Lord Beaverbrook collection was made around 1947, and Manny started gathering material about ten years later. It would be interesting to know how many of her informants went to school during Victoria's reign -- I wonder if Manny didn't recall the piece herself.
The Rowling text, apparently sung around 1920, does not mention the queen (after all, she was dead for a generation by then), but has the "holiday" lyrics, so I file it here.
Even more interesting is Sutton-Smith's "Oka Ball Day" lyric, which he said was collected in 1875. It too has the "holiday/run away" rhyme, but a nonsense first line. And no mention of Victoria. That says that there is an ancestor of this song out there somewhere that I haven't identified. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: MaWip35

Twenty-Inch Mill, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you iron workers and listen to my song, It's all about the twenty-inch." The rolling-mill workers are a diverse lot but have common troubles. They do good work; hearers are advised, "And for your life don't let them go to any other mill."
AUTHOR: unknown (tune added in Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (April 26 National Labor Tribune, according to Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: technology work
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 430-431, "The Twenty-Inch Mill" (1 text, 1 tune, the latter certainly not from tradition and the former perhaps not either)
File: KPL430

Twenty-One

DESCRIPTION: "At twenty-one I first began to court a neighbour's child...." "At twenty-two no man could view what beauty she possessed...." "At twenty-three she slighted me..." to marry Mike Whelan instead. The singer laments her falsity (and sets out to ramble)
AUTHOR: Mark Walker (1846-1924) ? (Source: Philip Hiscock of MUNFLA, Canadian Folk Music Bulletin 37.2, 2003)
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection betrayal rambling beauty infidelity marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H33+H611, pp. 397-398, "Twenty-One" (1 text with many variant readings, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 69, "Lovely Katie-o" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, AT21
Roud #4714
RECORDINGS:
George Carew, "Katie-O" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Robert Cinnamond, "At Twenty One" (on IRRCinnamond03)
Jack C. Molloy, "Cruel Katie-O" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [129 words]: Mark Walker is listed as the author of several popular Newfoundland songs, "Tickle Cove Pond," "Fanny's Harbour Bawn," "The 'Antis' of Plate Cove," and "Lovely Katie-O"; a family tradition also says that he wrote "The Star of Logy Bay." See the notes to that song for discussion of the matter.
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou, who support the attribution to Walker, suggest that Walker had a tough time with women; he "was courting one Katie, when Mike Whelan, a chap from Indian Arm... made off with the lovely maid."
Contradicting this attribution is the fact that Sam Henry had the song in 1924. This is possible, since it was at the end of Walker's life, but it's rare for a Newfoundland song to travel to Ireland. One wonders if perhaps Walker adapted an existing song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: HHH033

Twenty-One Years [Laws E16]

DESCRIPTION: A convict is sentenced to twenty-one years in prison. He begs his sweetheart, for whom he endured a dirty jail, to ask the governor for clemency. As nothing seems to come of this, he warns young men not to trust women
AUTHOR: Bob Miller?
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner)
KEYWORDS: prison rejection
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws E16, "Twenty-One Years"
Randolph 168, "Twenty-One Years" (4 texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune, with the last three texts being diverse sequels to the first text and excerpt; see "Answer to Twenty-One Years")
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 156-158, "Twenty-One Years" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 168A)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 352, "Twenty-One Years" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #30, "TwentyOne Years" (1 text, 1 tune, plus the "Answer")
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 69-70, "Twenty-One Years" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 100, "Twenty-One Years" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 310-311, "Little Willie's My Darling" (1 text, 1 tune, with a plot of "Twenty-One Years" [Laws E16] but which has swallowed "Down in the Valley" almost entire)
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, pp. 41-43, "Twenty-One Years" (1 text)
DT 354, (YRS21*)
ADDITIONAL: Old Favourites Reprinted from The Family Herald and Weekly Star 1898 (Montreal: The Family Herald Publishing Co., 1898 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 144-145, "Twenty Years Ago" ("I've wandered to the village Tom, I've sat beneath the tree") (1 text)
Wehman's Song Book [of 148 Songs] No. 59 (New York, September 1, 1898 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 17, "Twenty Years Ago" ("I have wandered by the village, Tom; I've sat beneath the tree") (1 text)
Roud #2248
RECORDINGS:
Edward L. Crain, "Twenty-One Years" (Crown 3238 [as Edward L. Crain (The Texas Cowboy)], 1932; Homestead 22990, c. 1932; rec. 1931)
Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, "Twenty-One Years" (RCA Victor 20-5011, 1952)
Frank Luther, "Twenty-One Years" (Polk 9087, n.d.)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Twenty-One Years" (Brunswick 483, 1930)
Bob Miller, "Twenty-One Years" (Supertone S-2764, c. 1931)
[Bob] Miller & [Barney] Burnett, "Twenty One Years" (Champion 15985, 1930) (OKeh 45442/OKeh 45541, 1930) (Montgomery Ward M-4964, 1936)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Twenty-One Years" (on NLCR13)
Riley Puckett, "Twenty-One Years" (Columbia 15719-D, 1932; rec. 1931)
Red River Dave, "Twenty-One Years" (Musicraft 287, 1944)
Renfro Valley Boys [Karl Davis & Harty Taylor], "Twenty One Years" (Paramount 3311/Broadway 8318, rec. 1932)
Dick Robertson, "Twenty-One Years" (Victor 23616, 1932; Montgomery Ward M-3311, n.d.; rec. 1931)
Carson Robison's Trio, "Twenty-One Years" (Banner 32305/Oriole 8100, 1931
Kate Smith, "Twenty-One Years" (Columbia 2605-D, 1932)
Uncle Bud & his Plow Boys, "Twenty-One Years" (Clarion 5418-C, 1931)
Marc Williams, "Twenty-One Years" (Decca 5010, 1934)
SAME TUNE:
Answer to Twenty-One Years (File: Morr030B)
Frank Luther Trio "New Twenty-One Years" (Vocalion 5491, c. 1932; Melotone 12602/Banner 32679 [both as Buddy Spencer's Trio]/Perfect 12884 [as Buddy Spencer]/Conqueror 8100, 1933; rec. 1932)
Lester McFarland, "Twenty-One Years, No. 2" (Brunswick 596, 1932)
Bob Miller, "New Twenty-One Years" (Columbia 15739-D [as Bob Ferguson], 1932) (Electradisk 1907 [as Palmer Trio], 1933) (Victor 23693, 1932; Bluebird B-5013 [as Bill Palmer Trio]/Montgomery Ward M-4233, 1933)
Dan Parker, "New 21 Years" (Crown 3266, 1932) [I strongly suspect this is a pseudonym, but since I don'e know whether it's Frank Luther or Bob Miller I give it its own listing for now]
Dick Robertson, "New Twenty-One Years" (Victor 23647, 1932/Montgomery Ward M-4821, 1935)
NOTES [146 words]: The copyright and collection information on this song reveal something or other. The notes in Randolph's second edition list it as copyright 1931 by Bob Miller. But Randolph's informant, Lillian Short, thought she learned it in 1931, and not from Miller. Henry's version is from 1932; Brown's dates from around 1936. Plus the three sequels, which Laws considers distinct, were collected 1935, 1934, and 1941.
Johnson's book, printed in 1935, shows no knowledge of an author; neither does Laws, nor Brown, though Norm Cohen accepts the attribution to Miller.
Draw your own conclusions. - RBW
Well, the McFarland-Gardner record was made in June 1930 and probably issued later that year, so Ms. Short could well have learned it from there. In the discographical notes to that record, though, the author credit is given to Miller. The Robison recording also dates from that year. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: LE16

Twenty-Third Flotilla

See 23rd Flotilla (File: Hopk112)

Twenty-third of March, the

See The Whale-Catchers (File: VWL100)

Twenty-Third, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Twenty-third was drawn in line and ready for the strife, Each man for his country would freely give his life...." A toast to the soldiers who fought bravely "On the thirty-first of May in the Shenandoah lowlands, lowlands low...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl); 19C (see Wolf)
KEYWORDS: battle Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 31-Jun 1, 1862: Battle of Fair Oaks/Seven Pines
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 36, "The Twenty-Third" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 69, "The Twenty-Third" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2379, p. 160, "The 23D Penn'a Reg.'s Brave Action on the 31st of May, at the Battle of Fair Oaks" (5 references)
ST Wa036 (Partial)
Roud #7454
NOTES [641 words]: The fragment given by the Warners (collected from Yankee John Galusha) is historically troublesome; I suspect it is damaged. There were no Civil War battles fought on May 31 in the Shenandoah valley! (see Phisterer, pp. 84, 102, 138, 177, 212).
The logical guess would be that the reference is to Jackson's Shenandoah campaign of 1862. Fighting was almost constant in May and June of that year -- but on May 31 Jackson was extracting his troops from between converging Federal columns.
The song does not really identify the regiment, but here we can make a better guess. Even though John Galusha was from New York, it is not the 23rd New York (which, unlike the formation in the song, did not have a colonel named Neal). I suspect it is the 23rd Pennsylvania, which was commanded from by Colonel Thomas Hewson Neill (1826-1885) from February 1862 until he received command of a brigade after Antietam. This regiment, however, was in the Peninsular Campaign, not the Shenandoah campaign (it was in Couch's first division of Keyes's Fourth Corps).
If it really is the 23 Pennsylvania, we have a "fit" for the battle: It was the battle of Fair Oaks/Seven Pines, May 31-June 1, 1862. At that time, according to BLII, p. 218, the 23rd Pennsylvania was in Abercrombie's second brigade of Couch's division. What's more, it played a major role in the battle -- Abercrombie's brigade suffered 624 casualties, which is probably in excess of 15% of its available strength, and the second-highest brigade total in the Union army. Abercrombie himself was wounded in the fighting. According to Boatner, p. 273, the 23rd and 61st Pennsylvania regiments were on the Federal right flank and so came under heavy Confederate attack.
All that sleuthing seems to be confirmed by the Wolf broadside (which I noticed only because I had done all the work to figure that out). It includes a number of Galusha's lyrics; it's much longer, but appears to be the same song. Where Galusha got the "Shenandoah" chorus I don't know; it's not in the broadsides. Thus we must suspect the "Shenandoah" reference to be in error -- though even it can be explained.
Later in the war, the 23 Pennsylvania was in the Sixth Corps (part of the first brigade, third division from Fredericksburg to Gettysburg; at the Wilderness, it was part of 4/1/VI), and the Sixth Corps was sent to the Shenandoah in 1864. We know, however, that the battle mentioned in the song is not part of the 1864 campaign; by that time Neill was commanding a brigade in a different division of the corps and had no association with the 23rd Pennsylvania.
Still, it might explain the confusion: Originally the song was an ode to the 23 Pennsylvania, with references to its various exploits, and a chorus referring to the Shenandoah campaign was transferred to the section about Fair Oaks/Seven Pines.
The 23rd Pennsylvania had a fairly distinguished history; originally enlisted for three months only, it re-enlisted for three years (Fox, p. 487), and in the course of the war suffered 115 men killed or mortally wounded and 188 died of disease (Fox, p. 485). Its bloodiest battle was the futile Union assault at Cold Harbor, where it suffered 47 killed, 134 wounded, 29 captured (Fox, p. 449); it appears some of the wounded later died, since Fox, p. 18, gives the regiment's total Cold Harbor deaths as 71,
Who Boggs was I cannot guess; there was no general by that name (according Warner and to pp. 247-343 of Phisterer), nor Pennsylvania colonel (according to Hunt), nor major Pennsylvania figure (according to PennsylvaniaBD) but odds are that he was a company officer anyway.
It's interesting to observe that John Galusha knew another song ("The Irish Sixty-Ninth") about a Pennsylvania regiment that fought at Fair Oaks. Did he at some point know someone with a large collection of Pennsylvania songs? - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: Wa036

Twenty, Eighteen

See No, John, No (File: R385)

Twila Was a City Maiden

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a country boy, describes meeting and falling in love with a beautiful city girl. He begs her to marry him, and for a while they exchange love letters. But eventually she grows tired of him and marries another man
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation betrayal marriage
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 821, "Twila Was a City Maiden" (1 text)
Roud #7436
File: R821

Twilight A-Stealing

DESCRIPTION: "Twilight a-stealing over the sea, Shadows are falling, dark on the lea, Borne on the night wind, voices of yore Come from the far-off shore." The singer tells of the home beyond the twilight where memories and good things wait
AUTHOR: Words: Aldiine Sillman Kieffer (1840-1904) / Music: B. C. Unseld (1843-1923) (according to _The Song Wave_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (_The Song Wave_); published in 1877, according to McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong
KEYWORDS: religious home
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 30-31, "[Twilight A-Stealing]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 49, "Twilight A-Stealing" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 112-113, "Twilight Is Stealing" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H. S. Perkins, H, J. Danforth, and E. V. DeGraff, _The Song Wave_, American Book Company, 1882, pp. 18-19, "Twilight Is Falling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5745
RECORDINGS:
Bobbie Bare, Dianne Ward-Hicks, Derek Piotr, "Twilight is Stealing" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #146, recorded 04/22/2022, with badly wavering pitch)
Hannah & Tom, Derek Piotr, "Twilight is Stealing" (Piotr-Archive #111, recorded 04/06/2022)
Ritchie Family, "Twilight A-Stealing" (on Ritchie03)
The Stoneman Family, "Twilight Is Stealing over the Sea" (Victor, unissued, 1928)
NOTES [81 words]: According to W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 407, "Because of his normal school activities, [composer Benjamin Carl] Unseld is widely regarded as having an influence on nearly all rural singing teachers in the South. Of his several songs, the only one that is still well known is 'Twilight Is Stealing.'" (Note that "normal school activities" does not mean "things he usually did in schools" but "things he did in Normal Schools.") - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: JRSF030

Twilight Is Falling

See Twilight A-Stealing (File: JRSF030)

Twilight Is Stealing

See Twilight A-Stealing (File: JRSF030)

Twill Never Do To Give It Up So

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, twill never do to give it up so (Old Uncle Ben/Mr. Brown), 'twill never do to give it up so" (x2). "Old Mr. (Brown/Coon/Jones), you come too soon, the girls won't be ready till tomorrow afternoon" (x2).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana); reportedly sung by 1844 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 100-101=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 220-221, "Walk Along John" (1 text, 2 tunes, probably a combination of "Walk Along John (I) and "Twill Never Do To Give It Up So")
Roud #7824
SAME TUNE:
Philadelphia Riots ("Oh in Philadelphia foks say how") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 126)
NOTES [150 words]: Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana notes that there was a key change in the version given to her, which she adjusted (while also printing the collected version of the tune). I suspect that her version is in fact a combination of two songs, "Walk Along John" (the first stanza) and "'Twill Never Do to Give It Up So," which I know I've heard somewhere but can't seem to find in any traditional collections. I'm filing this as an independent fragment in hopes that someone will someday find the rest.
According to Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 180, "'Twill Nebber Do to Gib It Up So" was one of the songs sung by the Virginia Minstrels (Dan Emmett's group) before they broke up in 1844. If so, there is obviously a possibility that Emmett had something to do with the song, but I have no proof of this. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Wolf100

Twin Ballots, The

DESCRIPTION: Two ballots are cast together on election day. One is by the local brewer, the other by a "Sunday school man." The Sunday school man spends all day denouncing saloons, but votes for rum. The song waxes sarcastic about this hypocrisy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: drink political clergy
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 310, "The Twin Ballots" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 259-206, "The Twin Ballots" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 310)
DT, TWNBLLT*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 211, "The Twin Ballots" (1 text)
ST R310 (Partial)
Roud #7787
File: R310

Twin Lakes

DESCRIPTION: "As I was sitting in my own cozy corner, Thinking all on a few dollars to make, My wife says ... They're making good wages up on the Twin Lakes." He finds the contractors "keep you right down with their foot on your neck ... keep clear ... of Twin Lakes"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: lumbering hardtimes logger work money
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 161, "Twin Lakes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 761-762, "Twin Lakes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Twin Lakes" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 79-80 in the 3rd edition
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 51, "Twin Lakes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17693
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Twin Lakes" (on NFOBlondahl02, NFOBlondahl03)
Frankie Nash, "The Shores Of Grand Lake" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Arthur Nicolle, "Twin Lakes" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jerry Ryan" (theme)
cf. "The Track to Knob Lake" (lyrics)
NOTES [105 words]: The AND [Anglo-Newfoundland Development] company was involved in logging across Newfoundland.
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland says "most of the lumbering is let out to individuals who do it under contract, and 'subbing' means to take a sub-contract. Twin Lakes is in the interior of the island [Newfoundland]."
The ITMA/CapeShoreNL text is very close to the Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland text, AND company and all. The two locations are both in the northern interior of Newfoundland. - BS
Other songs that mention AND are "The Badger Drive" and "The Business of Makin' the Paper." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doyl3079

Twin Sisters, The

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Twin-Shaft Disaster, The

DESCRIPTION: "Kind friends draw nigh and give me your attention" as the singer tells of the Pittston cave-in. News comes at three in the morning that the men are "entombed." "Inspector McDonald what will be your answer When you face the Almighty?" The laws are no help
AUTHOR: John A. Murphy (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 28, 1896 - The Pittston cave-in
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 199-201, "The Twin-Shaft Disaster" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cumberland Crew" (tune)
cf. "The Twin-Shaft Mine Squeeze" (subject)
cf. "The Miners' Fate" [Laws G10] (subject)
NOTES [11 words]: John A. Murphy is also credited with "The Driver Boy" [Laws G12]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP199

Twin-Shaft Mine Squeeze, The

DESCRIPTION: "One Sunday morning early just before the break of day Pealed forth an awful warning of ninety brave souls passed away." Many above ground gather to mourn and pray at the Twin-Sister colliery, but no one survived. The singer hopes they will meet in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 28, 1896 - The Pittston cave-in
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, p. 197-198, "The Twin-Shaft Disaster" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Twin-Shaft Disaster" (subject)
cf. "The Miners' Fate" [Laws G10] (subject)
File: KMMP197

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

DESCRIPTION: "Twinkle, twinkle little star." The singer wonders what the star is. It shows its light while the sun is down. It "lights the traveller in the dark" so he can see which way to go.
AUTHOR: Jane Taylor (1783-1824)
EARLIEST DATE: 1806 (Rhymes for the Nursery, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: lyric nonballad | star
FOUND IN: US(SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 139-140, "(Twinkle, twinkle, little star")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 674, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" (1 tune; the text was not recorded)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 489, "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #168, pp. 125-126, "(Twinkle, twinkle, little star)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 226, "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" (2 texts)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 150, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 243, (no title) (1 fragment)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 593-594, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star -- (ABCDEFG; Baa, Baa, Black Sheep; Schnitzelbank)"
ADDITIONAL: Florence Milner, "Poems in Alice in Wonderland" (1903), now reprinted in Robert Phillips, editor, _Aspects of Alice_, 1971 (references are to the 1977 Vintage paperback), p. 249, "The Star" (1 text, with "Alice"-related context)
Roud #7666
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Baa Baa Black Sheep" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Lordy Edgcumbe Good and Great (File: Tawn044)
Now Our Blue Bird Meeting Ends (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 258)
NOTES [142 words]: According to Fuld, the tune of this first appeared in 1761 as "Ah! Vous Dirai-Je, Maman." The tune had sundry English lyrics before being united with the Taylor words apparently in 1838.
The Opies report that Jane Taylor titled her poem "The Star."
The popularity of the piece shows in the various parodies, notably Lewis Carroll's "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat."
Alice Liddell Hargreaves (as she came to be) referred to singing this song. In an account repeated in Jo Elwyn Jones & J. Francis Gladstone, The Red King's Dream or Lewis Carroll in Wonderland, 1995 (I use the 1996 Pimlico edition), p. 102, she mentions how she and her sisters sang "Star of the evening, beautiful star," "Twinkle, twinkle, little star," and "Will you walk into my parlour?" on their expeditions with Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and the Rev. Robinson Duckworth. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OO2489

Twinkling Stars are Laughing, Love

DESCRIPTION: "Twinkling stars are laughing, love, Laughing on you and me, While your bright eyes look in mine, Peeping stars they seem to be." She, like the stars, is a source of light
AUTHOR: J. P. Ordway (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart-Songs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Heart-Songs, pp. 427-429, "Twinkling Stars are Laughing, Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 56 and #1/64 p. 52, "Twinkling Stars" (1 text)
Roud #15409
File: HeSo427

Twins (I), The

See The One Thing or the Other (File: K209)

Twins (II), The

See Looking Like My Brother (File: ML3LLMBr)

Twist About, Turn About, Jump Jim Crow

See Jump Jim Crow (File: Gilb018)

Twistification

See Weevily Wheat (File: R520)

Twisting on the Train

See Brakeman on the Train (File: LLab099)

Two Born Brothers

See The Twa Brothers [Child 49] (File: C049)

Two Boys Away at School

See The Twa Brothers [Child 49] (File: C049)

Two Boys from Bruley

DESCRIPTION: Two men from Bruley go to St Peter's for rum. On the way home a spring snowstorm almost sinks them. Captain Harvey and his crew rescue them. Warning: don't go to St Peter's in spring; Captain Harvey may not be waiting to save your life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: rescue sea ship storm sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #26142
RECORDINGS:
John James, "Two Boys from Bruley" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [48 words]: Brule and St Peter's are in Nova Scotia. - BS
However, "Bruley" (also spelled "Brule" and "Brewley") is in Newfoundland, so this might be about Newfoundland, not Nova Scotia. There is no town of St. Peter's in Newfoundland that I can find, but there are landmarks named St. Peter's. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML32BfrB

Two Brethren Come From Spain

See Three Brothers from Spain (Knights of Spain, We Are Three Jews) (File: BGMG633)

Two Brothers

DESCRIPTION: "Two brothers on their way (x3), One wore blue and one wore gray." The cannon of the Civil War doesn't care that one of them is kind; it kills one and all. When they return, "Two girls waiting by the railroad track; One wore blue and one wore black."
AUTHOR: Irving Gordon
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (copyright, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier death wife
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 363-364, "Two Brothers" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, TWOBROCW*
File: SCWF363

Two Budding Lumberjacks, The

DESCRIPTION: Two lumberjacks work for the Underhills "upon a floating bog Upon Dungarvon's Flats." Whistling Rufus criticizes them for leaving a log behind. Instead of going back for the log their father takes a fence rail from someone else "and call it square"
AUTHOR: Ben, Frank and Albert Peters, 1895 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: lumbering
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 43, "The Two Budding Lumberjacks" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi043 (Partial)
Roud #9185
NOTES [79 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: The song is about an experience Ben [age 12] and Frank [age 14] Peters, and their father Leon taking sub-contracts from Millet Underhill "who ran lumber camps for the Snowball Lumber Company of Chatham." The ballad says they came from Prince Edward's Isle. - BS
Albert Peters, the informant, was the younger brother of the two boys involved in the exploit. Reading the plot, you would probably think this a humorous song. It isn't, somehow. - RBW
File: MaWi043

Two by Four

See Fatty, Fatty, Two by Four (File: ZiZa084A)

Two Cats of Kilkenny

See Kilkenny Cats (File: BGMG835)

Two Constant Lovers, The

DESCRIPTION: Dialog between Sarah Barnwell and Samuel. Her friends would kill him. He would fight for her. Her brother, Captain Barnwell, comes. After Sarah's failed intervention they duel. Samuel wins. Brother agrees to the marriage as the price of his life.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1629 (broadside, according to Bruce Olson's site at California State University Fresno)
KEYWORDS: dialog courting fight brother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 168-172, "The two Constant Lovers" (1 text)
Roud #955
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(232b), "The Two Constant Lovers" or "A Pattern of True Love, exprest in this dialogue between Samuel and Sarah" ("As I by chance was walking"), F. Coles (London), 1663-1674; also 4o Rawl. 566(170), "The Two Constant Lovers" or "A Pattern of True Love, exprest in this dialogue between Samuel and Sarah"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sarah Barnwell" (plot) and notes there
File: BrTCLPoL

Two Cormacks Who Died Innocent in Front of Nenagh Gaol, The

DESCRIPTION: The condemned stand on the trap and proclaim their innocence. "The day of their execution, as they stood on the drop, The thunder came so dreadful that it did the people shock." At their death "the thunder still continued, with both lightning and rain"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: execution homicide trial storm lament Ireland political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 11, 1858 - William and Daniel Cormack, or McCormack, are hanged for murder. (source: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 64, "The Lamentation of the Two Cormacks Who Died Innocent in Front of Nenagh Gaol" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [202 words]: For another broadside on the same subject see Bodleian, Harding B 19(10), "Lamentation of The Two M'Cormacks Who Were Innocently Hanged at Nenagh Gaol" ("Come all yon Roman Catholics, I hope you will attend"), unknown, n.d.; also 2806 b.9(272), 2806 c.15(231), "Lamentation of The Two M'Cormacks Who Were Innocently Hanged at Nenagh Gaol" [the texts for this ballad are the same]
This broadside adds some details: the brother's names are William and Daniel, the murdered man's name is Ellis, and the judge's name is Keogh. It says nothing about the storm at the hanging.
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion: "A land agent detested by the people was shot near Templemore, County Tipperary, on 22nd October, 1857. Two brothers ... were charged with the murder upon very suspect evidence.... According to the Tipperary Examiner, 'the [execution] day was beautifully fine....' In the following weeks the excitement increased, and on 30th August, from twelve to fifteen thousand men assembled in a protest meeting on the place of the execution."
Zimmermann also refers to "a broadside ballad entitled 'The Memory of the two McCormacks Who Was Hanged at Nenagh Gaol', printed and sold in County Tipperary in 1908." - BS
File: Zimm064

Two Crows, The

See The Three Ravens [Child 26] (File: C026)

Two Dollar Bill (Long Journey Home)

DESCRIPTION: Singer has lost "lost all my money but a two dollar bill"; he's homesick, lonesome and blue. He sees the smoke of a train, and says he's on his long journey home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (recording, Monroe Brothers)
KEYWORDS: poverty homesickness loneliness train travel lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 177, "My Long Journey Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Jim Eanes, "Long Journey Home" (Blue Ridge 201, n.d.)
Monroe Brothers, "My Long Journey Home" (Bluebird B-6422, 1936)
New Lost City Ramblers, "My Long Journey Home" (on NLCR03, NLCRCD1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Worried Man Blues" (tune)
NOTES [17 words]: This should not be confused with the song composed by Rosa Lee and Doc Watson, "Your Long Journey." - PJS
File: CSW177

Two Drummers, The

See My Mother Was a Lady (File: LPnd217)

Two Dukes

See Six Dukes Went A-Fishing (File: FO078)

Two Dukes A-Roving

See Three Dukes (File: R551)

Two Faithful Lovers

DESCRIPTION: A story of a couple "yet, though feeble, old and gray / they're faithful lovers still." They've had "dull November hours as well as days of May" since they first courted. "Together hand-in-hand they pass, advancing down life's hill," faithful to the end
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Rutherford & Foster)
KEYWORDS: age love marriage lover
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
Roud #11515
RECORDINGS:
[Leonard] Rutherford & [John] Foster, "The Faithful Lovers" (Challenge 423 [as Crocker & Cannon, "Two Faithful Lovers", 1929) (Brunswick 581, c. 1931; rec. 1930; on KMM)
File: Rc2FaLov

Two Four Six Eight, Mary at the Cottage Gate

See One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door (File: CarMF077)

Two Four Six Eight, Swinging at the Cottage Gate

See One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door (File: CarMF077)

Two Gypsy Girls, The

DESCRIPTION: Dandling song. Two pretty Gypsy girls, Hat and Kate, go hawking with bundles on their backs and babies at their breasts. The boys sing, "He's a gay old singer/Here comes the galloping major"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 or 1966 (collected from Caroline Hughes)
KEYWORDS: hunting humorous nonballad Gypsy
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 125, "The Two Gypsy Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [12 words]: This seems to be derived from a music-hall song, "The Galloping Major." - PJS
File: McCST125

Two Hundred Years A-Brewing

DESCRIPTION: A song for "thirsty tourists" about "our famous stout" made "down by the Liffeyside," "our grand brewery at the top of James's Street" and "Our barges neat nigh Watling Street ... full of double X," a favourite at the Brien Boru after a funeral.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (recording, Margaret Barry and Michael Gorman)
KEYWORDS: commerce drink Ireland nonballad
FOUND IN:
Roud #12930
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry and Michael Gorman, "Two Hundred Years A-Brewing" (on Voice13)
NOTES [17 words]: See "The Wreck of the Vartry" for more about Double X, the Guiness brewery and barges on the Liffey. - BS
File: Rc200YB

Two in the Middle

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Two in the middle and two at the end, Each is a sister and each is a friend. A shilling to save and a penny to spend, Two in the middle and two at the end."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Daiken, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope sister friend money
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #575, "Two in the midde and two at the end" (1 text)
NOTES [31 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes lumps this with Douglas's 1916 rhyme "Two in the rope and two take end," but given the size of the sample, I just don't trust it and have kept this separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR575

Two Irish Laborers

DESCRIPTION: "We are two Irish laborers, as you can plainly see, From Donegal we came when small unto America." Railroad work did not pay well, so they have turned to construction. They hope to return to Ireland, and promise a welcome to any who visit them there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: work home Ireland
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 70, "Two Irish Laborers" (1 text)
Roud #9563
File: Dean070B

Two Irishmen, Two Irishmen

See Teasing Songs (File: EM256)

Two Jealous Brothers, The

See The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)

Two Jinkers

DESCRIPTION: The two jinkers of the title are Jimmie Walsh and Steven. Bad luck to have on board, they were only hired here because men are hard to find. Their ship runs aground and Jimmie and Steven are responsible. The perturbed singer plans to quit his job.
AUTHOR: Patrick Kevin Devine (1859-1950)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: ship wreck hardtimes work
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Two Jinkers" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 11 in the 2nd edition, p. 82 in the 3rd, p. 27 in the 4th, p. 56 in the 5th (titled "Two Jinkers or Jimmie Walsh and Stephen" in the 4th and 5th editions)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 34-35, "Two Jinkers" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Farley Mowat, _Wake of the Great Sealers_, with prints and drawings by David Blackwood, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1973, p. 70, "(Sealer's Song") (1 text)
Roud #7315
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B) [Laws K22]" (Jonah theme) and references there
NOTES [154 words]: People who are bad luck on ships are referred to as "Jonahs." [After Jonah, in the Bible, whose presence aboard a ship brought on a storm. - RBW] Smaller vessels were usually run on a family basis or by a very close group, which led to intolerance of strangers. For more about Jonahs, consult Horace Beck, Folklore and the Sea (Mystic, Conn.: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1985) 303-304. - SH
The author is named by GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site. - BS
In at least some versions of Newfoundland dialect, a "jinker" ("jinxer") is a stowaway, and stowaways were thought to bring bad luck (see Cassie Brown (with Harold Horwood), Death on the Ice: The Great Newfoundland Sealing Disaster of 1914, 1972 (I use the undated Anchor Canada paperback edition), p. 35).
P. K. Devine, who is believed to have written this song, was Gerald S. Doyle's uncle; the Doyle songsters are likely responsible for its popularity. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Doy11

Two Jolly Butchers, The

See The Three Butchers [Laws L4] (File: LL04)

Two Jovial Butchers, The

See The Three Butchers [Laws L4] (File: LL04)

Two Lanterns, The

See The Child of the Railroad Engineer (The Two Lanterns) (File: R685)

Two Legs Sat Upon Three Legs

DESCRIPTION: Riddle: "Two legs sat upon three legs, With one leg in his lap; In comes four legs, And runs away with one leg; Up jumps two legs, Catches up three legs, Throws it after four legs, And makes him bring back one leg."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1600 (Booke of merry Riddles, according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: riddle food animal dog
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 302, "Two Legs Sat Upon Three Legs (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #709, p. 276, "(Two legs sat upon three legs)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 186, "Two Legs Sat Upon Three Legs" (1 text)
Roud #20142
NOTES [151 words]: The Opies note that describing characters by their number of legs goes all the way back to the Riddle of the Sphinx in the Theban legend. They also notef a faintly similar tag in a writing attributed, almost certainly falsely, to the Venerable Bede: "See, a biped on top of a triped sits; walks the biped; falls the triped." It is easy to see why people connect them, but I think the only actual link is the idea of counting legs.
The incomparable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 214, has an explanation for her version: "Two Legs" is Jenny Giles, a Presbyterian who was angered when Charles I's Archbishop Laud tried to impose Anglican practices on Scotland. Giles was historical, but the connection has as much truth as any other Thomas idea: i.e. it's just barely possible, but it's much more possible that Thomas was delusional. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: OO2302

Two Letters, The (Charlie Brooks; Nellie Dare)

DESCRIPTION: Charlie writes that he wishes to break off the engagement, saying it would never work, and asks for his ring back. (Nellie) returns ring, photos, etc. She asks him to tell his new girl that he once gave another his ring. She claims she burned his letters
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: betrayal love request
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 735, "Charlie Brooks" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 486-489, "Charley Brooke" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 735A)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 70, "Charley's Letter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 320, "Dear Nell" (2 texts plus 2 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #89, "Letters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3534
RECORDINGS:
Leo Boswell and Elzie Floyd, "Nellie Dare" (Columbia 15150-D, 1927)
Vernon Dalhart, "Nellie Dare and Charlie Brooks" (Brunswick 143) (Victor 20058, 1926)
Bradley Kincaid, "Charlie Brooks" (Superior 2788, 1932)
Holland Puckett, "Charles A. Brooks" (Gennett 6163/Herwin 75556 [as by Robert Howell], 1927)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ella Dare
NOTES [161 words]: Although this is not, to my knowledge, based on an actual incident, things like this were in fact common in the nineteenth century. In fact, it happened to none other than Robert Peary, the future "discoverer" of the North Pole. (For Peary and his almost certainly false polar claim, see "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay"). According tto Robert M. Bryce, Cook & Peary: The Polar Controversy, Resolved, Stackpole, 1997, p. 18, "On October 7, 1879, [Peary] asked [his fiancee] for his release [apparently on the basis that they were living in different cities and he had no intention to return]. In return he received a letter asking for an explanation, and when he had given it, another, reproachful in tone. It closed with the remark that he considered their correspondence at an end, and she requested that if Bert [Peary] had anything further to say, he should address it to her father. In December she returned all of his letters, and he hers, along with her ring." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R735

Two little angels from the north

See The Angel from the North (File: Porte044)

Two Little Babes

See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

Two little birdies sitting on a limb

See Two Little Blackbirds (File: Rc2LiBla)

Two Little Blackbirds

DESCRIPTION: "Two little blackbirds in the ring, One named Peter, one named Paul. Fly away, Peter, fly away, Paul. Come back, Peter, Come back, Paul." "Under the carpet (?) we must go, Like a jaybird (?) in the air." "Then, Sally, will you marry?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1765 (Mother Goose's Melody)
KEYWORDS: bird marriage floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies New Zealand US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 132, "Two Little Dicky Birds" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #596, p. 237, "(There were two blackbirds)"
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 182, "(Two little dicky birds sitting on a wall)" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 113, "Two Little Dicky Birds" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 32, "(Two little birdies sitting on a limb)" (1 text, filed as a rhyme used in hopscotch)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 27, "Two Little Blackbirds" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 81, "(Two little dicke-birds (or blackbirds))" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 26, "(Two little dickie birds sittin'on a wall)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #576, "Two little dickie-birds" (1 text)
Roud #16401
RECORDINGS:
Elda Blackwood, "Two Little Blackbirds" (on USWarnerColl01)
Alessandra Delia-Lôbo, "Two Little Dickie Birds" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #392, recorded 12/18/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Two Little Sandy Girls" (form)
NOTES [138 words]: The Warners identify this with the mother goose rhyme, "There were two Blackirds Sitting upon a Hill, The one nam'd Jack, The other nam'd Gill, Fly away Jack, Fly away Gill, Come again Jack, Come again Jill," now more commonly known as "Two little dicky birds." The similarity in lyrics is obvious, but the shift from Jack and Gill to Peter and Paul is peculiar, and most of Elda Blackwood's version is distinct anyway.
Unfortunately, the Warner recording of Blackwood is so noisy as to verge on incomprehensible (note the number of question marks in my transcription). I think we must treat the matter as unsettled. But I've filed the nursery rhyme here, since it appears clearly traditional.
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes suggests that this was used as a finger game, and Alessandra Delia-Lôbo seems to have learned it as such. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Rc2LiBla

Two Little Children

See Orphan's Lament (Two Little Children, Left Jim and I Alone) (File: BrII150)

Two Little Dickie Birds

See Two Little Blackbirds (File: Rc2LiBla)

Two Little Dickie-birds

See Two Little Blackbirds (File: Rc2LiBla)

Two Little Dicky Birds

See Two Little Blackbirds (File: Rc2LiBla)

Two Little Fleas (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Two little fleas sat on a rock. One to the other said: I've had no place to hang my hat Since my poor dog's been dead. I've searched this whole world over; No longer shall I roam. The first dog that shall show himself Shall be my home, sweet home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: dog humorous food bug
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 192, "Two Little Fleas" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 192, "Two Little Fleas" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #15771
File: Br3192

Two Little Fleas (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Two little fleas (pronounced "flays") Got fourteen days For hopping on a Jewman's back. The Jewman swore If he got any more, That he'd break every bone in their back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: Jew bug injury punishment
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 75, "(Two little fleas)" (1 text)
Roud #38126
NOTES [15 words]: It is perhaps worth pointing out that fleas have exoskeletons; they do not have bones. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI075B

Two Little Girls in Blue

DESCRIPTION: A young man finds his uncle gazing at a photograph in tears. When asked why, the uncle explains the photo is of the boy's mother's sister, who married the uncle. The uncle and his wife have parted, and now he regrets it
AUTHOR: Charles Graham
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (original publication)
KEYWORDS: family separation
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,So) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 106, "Two Little Girls in Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 74-75, "Two Little Girls in Blue" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 41, pp. 57-58, "Two Little Girls in Blue" (2 texts plus 2 fragments)
Randolph 816, "Two Little Girls in Blue" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 12, "Two Little Girls in Blue" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 163-164, "Two Little Girls in Blue" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 115, "Two Little Girls in Blue" (2 texts plus mention of 5 more, 2 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 61, "Two Little Girls in Blue" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 181-181, "Two Little Girls in Blue" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 30, "Two Little Girls in Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 30, "Two little girls in blue, lad" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Margaret Bradford Boni, editor, _Songs of the Gilded Age_, with piano arrangements by Norman Lloyd and illustrations by Lucille Corcos, Golden Press, 1960, pp. 77-79, "Two Little Girls in Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC106 (Partial)
Roud #2793
RECORDINGS:
Leo Boswell, "Two Little Girls in Blue" (Columbia 15290-D, 1928)
W. C. Childers, "Two Little Girls in Blue" (Gennett 7223/Champion 16098 [as Enos Wanner]/Supertone 9778 [as Andy Hopkins], 1930; Champion 33042, n.d.)
Murray Keller, "Two Little Girls in Blue" (Brunswick 188, 1927)
Bradley Kincaid, "Two Little Girls in Blue" (Decca I.4456, n.d.)
Bela Lam and His Green County Singers, "Two Little Girls in Blue" (OKeh, unissued, 1927)
R. Sheaves, "Two Little Girls in Blue" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "'Tis Not Always the Bullet that Kills" (plot)
SAME TUNE:
Two Little Girls In Blue (Parody) (Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 125-126)
File: FSC106

Two Little Kittens

DESCRIPTION: "Two little kittens one stormy night Began to quarrel and then to fight. One had a mouse, the other had none...." The two start to fight; the woman sweeps them out into the snow. When finally allowed back in, they decide warmth is better than fighting
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: animal storm fight
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 184-185, "Two Little Kittens" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FlBr184 (Partial)
Roud #5450
File: FlBr184

Two Little Lads (Tommy and Jack)

DESCRIPTION: "Two little lads they had been friends Ever since childhood days" -- but both fall in love with the same girl. Jack wins and weds the girl, but soon dies. Tommy marries the widow -- and soon thinks of Jack in his grave and concludes, "Envy you Jack"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage death humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 139, "Tommy and Jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 22-23, "Two Little Lads" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5358
File: Brne139

Two Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Two little monkeys Jumping on the bed, One fell off And broke his head. Took him to the doctor And the doctor said, 'That's what you get For jumping on the bed.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: animal injury jumprope doctor | monkey bed
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #577, "Two little monkeys" (1 text)
File: AJRR577

Two Little Niggers Black as Tar

DESCRIPTION: "Two little niggers black as tar, Tryin' to git to heaven on a 'lectric car, De street car broke, down dey fell; 'Stead a going to heaven they went to hell." Chorus might be "Oughta been arrested." Many other verses may float in
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death Hell floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 467, "Two Little Niggers Black as Tar" (2 very short texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 467, "Two Little Niggers Black as Tar" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Harbin-Parodology, #10, pp. 10-11, "Oughta Been Arrested" (1 text, part "Two Little Niggers Black as Tar," part "Talking Blues," part other things)
Roud #11788
File: Br4367

Two Little Orphans

See Orphan's Lament (Two Little Children, Left Jim and I Alone) (File: BrII150)

Two Little Sandy Girls

DESCRIPTION: "Two little sandy girls On the sea-shore, One named (X), The other named (Y), Don't cry (X), Don't cry (Y), Come in (X), Come in (Y)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: game | sea-shore
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 81, "(Two little sandy girls)" (1 text)
Roud #19012
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Two Little Blackbirds" (form)
File: BAAI081B

Two Little Sausages

DESCRIPTION: "Two/Five little sausages, Frying in the pan, One got burned And the other said... Scram!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: food fire | sausages
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 81, "(Two little sausages)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 24, "(Two little sausages)" (1 text)
Roud #19446
File: BAAI081C

Two Look-abouts

See Four Stiff-Standers (File: NCF1028C)

Two Lovers (I), The

See The Silver Dagger (I) [Laws G21] (File: LG21)

Two Lovers (II), The

See The Rejected Lover [Laws P10] (File: LP10)

Two Lovers (III), The

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Two Lovers Discoursing [Laws O22]

DESCRIPTION: Mary accuses her lover of breaking his promise to marry her; he denies this and asks who has spread the rumor that he is courting Nancy. But he still will not wed, until Mary points out that even birds are truer than he is. He gives in; they are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage promise infidelity
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws O22, "Two Lovers Discoursing"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 316-317, "Two Lovers Discoursing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 50, "Nancy's Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 31, "The Most Unconstant of Young Men" (1 text, 1 tune); 39A, "The True Lovers' Discussion" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 76, "True Lovers' Discussion" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 481, TWOLOVRS
Roud #991
NOTES [130 words]: Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick: "There must be some relation between 39A and B. The former seems to have originated with the folk and the latter to have been a literary composition taken over by the folk. They are placed together because of subject matter and also because singers give variants of the same title." If so they have grown so far apart that there is no hint in the words that they are related. For 39B see "The True Lovers' Discussion." - BS
It's interesting to note that both of the Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick versions of this song are from the same informant, but differ in both text and tune. Though it's perhaps not as exceptional as Creighton thinks; consider how many different versions *you* probably know of "The Gypsy Laddie." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: LO22

Two Lovers Sat Sparking

See The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)

Two Magicians, The

See The Twa Magicians [Child 44] (File: C044)

Two O'Donahues, The

DESCRIPTION: "We came from Tipperary a few short weeks ago, With spirits light and airy, two emigrants, you know." The two O'Donahues intend to get rich, return to Ireland, and become famous
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: home emigration
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 130, "The Two O'Donahues" (1 text)
Roud #9587
File: Dean130B

Two Old Crows

See The Three Ravens [Child 26] (File: C026)

Two Orphans, The

See The Brooklyn Theatre Fire [Laws G27] (File: LG27)

Two Playmates, The

See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Two Professional Hums, The

See The Great American Bum (Three Jolly Bums) (File: FaE192)

Two Ravens, The

See The Three Ravens [Child 26] (File: C026)

Two Rigs of Rye [Laws O11]

DESCRIPTION: (The girl tells her lover that her family opposes her marriage.) Uncertain of her dowry, he has doubts about the marriage. When she breaks into tears, he assures her he did not mean it. The two settle down to a long and happy marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting dowry marriage
FOUND IN: US(MW) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws O11, "Two Rigs of Rye"
Greig/Duncan5 1054, "The Rigs o' Rye" (29 texts, 24 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 31-32, "The Rigs of Rye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 58, "Two Rigs of Rye" (1 short text, 1 tune)
DT 475, RIGSORYE*
ST LO11 (Full)
Roud #985
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(122), "Twas in the Month of Sweet July," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There Was a Squire" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Rigs of Rye
File: LO11

Two Ruby Red Lips

See The Wayward Boy" (File: EM086)

Two Sisters Courted One

DESCRIPTION: Shanty call-and-response. Response: "Oh, huro, my boys." Calls: "Two sisters courted one ... And they lived in the mountains..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1811 (_Landsman Hay_, per Hugill; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: courting shanty
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, p. 16, ("Two sisters courted one") (1 fragment)
NOTES [213 words]: Jamaican stevedores at a capstan in 1811 (Robert Hay, Landsman Hay: The Memoirs of Robert Hay 1789-1847, Ed. By M.D. Hay (1953)) quoted by Hugill, cited, in turn, by Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore (Stan Hugill, Shanties from the Seven Seas (Mystic: Mystic Seaport, 2003 reprint of 1994), p. 8).
The description has all of the Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore fragment text. It is tempting to consider this a fragment of "The Twa Sisters" [Child 10]. In favor of that approach is that there is a Jamaican reference to Child 10 (Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 3, "King Daniel") though Jekyll's is a cante fable that does not have the "two sisters loved one man" introduction in its story or song. Also in its favor is that Child 10 often has a call-and-response structure and the listeners are (assumed to be?) responders (see Henry's quote from James Warr Raine, The Land of the Saddle Bags (Mellinger E. Henry, "Still More Ballads and Folk-Songs from the Southern Highlands" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 45, No. 175 (Jan-Mar 1932 (available online by JSTOR)) p.2). Against putting this with [Child 10] is that there is not enough to the fragment to support the connection, and that I've not seen the "they lived in the mountains" reference elsewhere. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: AWIS016

Two Sisters That Loved One Man, The

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Two Sisters, The

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Two Soldiers Lying As They Fell

DESCRIPTION: "Two soldiers lying as they fell Upon the reddened clay... Breathe their lives away." The one from New Hampshire has a wife and light-haired girl; the Georgian, a dark-haired girl. Both will be orphans. The soldiers die with their hands clasped
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: death children orphan Civilwar soldier
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 232-233, "Two Soldiers Lying As They Fell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15673
File: Pet232

Two Soldiers, The

See The Last Fierce Charge [Laws A17] (File: LA17)

Two Sons of North Britain

See Donald Munroe [Laws J12] (File: LJ12)

Two Squirrels, The

DESCRIPTION: "There were two squirrels that lived in a wood. The one was naughty, the other was good." The bad one, Dandy Jim, strays too far and too late and dies on the railroad track; the good one, Johnny Black, stays near home and comes home early and lives
AUTHOR: "E. E. W.," according to The Nursery)
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (The Nursery, Volume 5)
KEYWORDS: animal mother warning death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown-MyGrandmothersSongbook 10, "The Two Squirrels" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: _The Nursery: A Monthly Magazine for the Youngest Readers_, Volume 5 (John L. Shorey, Boston, 1869) (available on Google Books), p. 31, "The Two Squirrels" (1 text)
Roud #22138
File: BrGr010

Two Sweethearts

DESCRIPTION: "A bunch of young fellows one night at a club Were telling of sweethearts they had." They tease one boy about not having a love; he says he loves two women: His mother and his sweetheart
AUTHOR: Words: E. P. Moran / Music: J. Fred Holf ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (copyright claim)
KEYWORDS: mother love
FOUND IN: US(So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 864, "Two Sweethearts" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 93, "Two Sweethearts" (1 text plus a mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Roud #1783
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Two Sweethearts" (Bluebird B-6106/Montgomery Ward M-4433, 1935; Regal Zonophone [Australia] G23169, n.d.)
Albert DeWitt, "Sweethearts" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Agnes Powers, "My Sweetheart" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: R864

Two T.D.'s

DESCRIPTION: Political rhymes: "Artists draw pictures and barmaids draw beer"; the TD's draw 480 a year. Hitler brags of conquering the Rhineland; we conquered Beare Island. Telegram cost is a hardship on us and delivery is faster by bus....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad political | Hitler
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1936 - German forces reoccupy the Rhineland, occupied and demilitarized by the French after World War I
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 78-79, "Two T.D.'s" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [12 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "T.D. (teachta dala or member of parliament)" - BS
File: OCan078

Two Travellers, The

DESCRIPTION: Two travellers compare notes. One has been everywhere, done everything and seen the wonders of the world. The other asks what of Ireland the first has seen: "the man that ne'er saw Mullinahone Shouldn't say he had travelled at all"
AUTHOR: C.J. Boland
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: travel Ireland humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads, pp. 259-261, "The Two Travellers" (1 text)
SAME TUNE:
cf. "Hannigan's Aunt" (tune)
File: OLcM259

Two Vessels Lost at Cape St. Mary's

See Tobias Murphy and Tom Hann (File: LeBe110)

Two We Sunk, and Two We Brunt

See The Royal Oak (File: VWL091)

Two Wenches at Once

DESCRIPTION: The singer was happy until Cupid "put into my head that I wanted a wife." He fell in love with two sisters, Betsy and Mary. He always preferred the one he was not with. Suddenly they both marry, leaving him "in the lurch." Never court two wenches at once
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1818 (Hudson)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage sister youth
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 283-284, "Betsy and Mary" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 429)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Hudson, Comic Songs (London, 1818 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 21-22, "Two Wenches at Once" ("Till I fell in love, I war happy enow") (1 text)
Roud #1318
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1649), "Two Wenches at Once" ("Till I fell in love I were happy enow"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(3923), 2806 c.16*(121), 2806 d.31(2), "Two Wenches at Once"
File: WT283

Two White Horses (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Two white horses, Two white horses, side by side (x3), Nobody can ride but the sanctified." "Daniel was a man in the lion's den The good Lord proved to be Daniel's friend." "Zek'l was a man and he rassled with sin Heb'n gate opened... he rolled... in"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 646, "Two White Horses Side by Side" (1 fragment)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 472-473, "Two White Horses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11939
NOTES [43 words]: The story of Daniel in the lion's den is found in 6:6-24. There is no explicit reference to Ezekiel wrestling with sin (let alone rolling right into heaven) -- but certainly Ezekiel spent more time than any other prophet wrestling with wild, crazed visions. - RBW
File: San472

Two White Horses (II)

See See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (File: ADR92)

Two White Horses In a Line

See See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (File: ADR92)

Two White Horses Side by Side

See Two White Horses (I) (File: San472)

Two Wings

DESCRIPTION: "O Lord, I want two wings to cover my head, O Lord, I want two wings to fly away, O Lord, I want two wings to cover my head So the devil won't do me no harm." The singer asks when "My Lord" came, or to meet King Jesus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Sanders-SingHighSingLow)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, pp. 37-38, "I Want Two Wings" (2 short texts, 2 tunes)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 36, "Two Wings" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12139
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Want Two Wings
Lord, I Want Two Wings
File: IWan2Win

Two Years Old, Going On Three

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Two years old, Going on three, I wear my dress Above the knee. I walk in the rain, I walk in the snow, And it's nobody's business If I do have a beau."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Journal of Genetic Psychology, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope courting clothes
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #578, "Two Years Old" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ladies and Gentlemen (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [69 words]: The lyrics of this appear as part of "Ladies and Gentlemen (I)," and I was tempted to lump them. But "Ladies and Gentlemen (I)" includes several elements which circulate independently; I suspect it is a composite, and so I file this item separately. It is interesting that "Ladies and Gentlemen (I)" makes it the two-year-old's sister, not the two-year-old, who has a beau; I suspect that is the original reading. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR578

Two Years Owre Young

See Seven Years O'er Young (File: Ord170)

Two Young Brethren

See Come All You Jolly Ploughboys (Here's April, Here's May; The Two Brothers) (File: BuDa033)

Two Young Men of Kenilworth, The

See Bohunkus (Old Father Grimes, Old Grimes Is Dead) (File: R428)

Two-Cent Coal

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the bosses' tricks of 'seventy-six, They met with some success, Until the hand of God came down and made them do with less." Miners are paid only two cents (per bushel of) coal. Now the frozen river hurts the bosses. The singer hopes for cooperation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes river boss
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 390-391, "Two-Cent Coal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7723
File: KPL390

Two-Gun Cowboy, The (Son of a Gun)

DESCRIPTION: "Out on a ranch way out west," the cowboys "never rest" until Saturday. One cowboy rides into town to see his girl, and is greeted by a shot through his hat. He finishes off the assailants, meets his girl, and heads off to be married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Henry, collected from Jessie Pressley)
KEYWORDS: cowboy fight death marriage horse
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 91-92, "The Two-Gun Cowboy" (1 text)
Roud #12709
NOTES [34 words]: This is so obviously false-to-life that I find myself wondering if it doesn't come from a movie Western. I really doubt it derived from actual cowboys. But I don't know who would make up such a thing. - RBW
File: MHAp091

Two, Four, Six, Eight, Don't Make Love at the Garden Gate

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Two, four, six, eight, Don't make love at the garden gate, 'Cause love is blind But the neighbors ain't."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Keystone Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope love humorous derivative | counting garden gate neighbors
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #572, "Two, four, six, eight" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door" (form)
NOTES [55 words]: I don't think there is much doubt that this is derived from "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door," in one or another of its forms such as "Two Four Six Eight, Mary at the Cottage Gate." But this is clearly a rewrite, so I've filed it separately. Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes thinks it was used as an autograph album rhyme. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR572

Two, Four, Six, Eight, Papa Caught a Rattlesnake

See One, Two, Three, Mother Caught a Flea (File: SuSm089A)

Tyburn Hill

DESCRIPTION: "A beggar man laid himself down to sleep, Rumsty-o, Rumsty-o. A beggar man laid himself down to sleep, On the banks of the Mersey so wide and steep." Two thieves come by and rob the beggar. The singer sees them in the dock, then on Tyburn gallows
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (College Songs)
KEYWORDS: thief begging punishment execution
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 295-296, "Tyburn Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 55, "Rumsty Ho!" (1 text, 1 tune) (part 3, p. 68 in the 1876 edition)
ST Lins295 (Partial)
Roud #3746
NOTES [244 words]: Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland points out that executions at Tyburn (Tye Burn) stopped in 1783 (after which time they took place at Newgate), implying that that dates this song. This doesn't really follow; "Tyburn" had by then become a byword of sorts.
In fact the song seems somewhat confused; why would robbers who worked near the Mersey be hanged at Tyburn?
Nonetheless, the confusion is early: The version in College Songs also says that the crime took place by the Mersey and the criminals executed at Tyburn. Curiously, although College Songs says the piece is "Used by permission," it does not list an author or say by whose permission it is used!
Finally, the form looks rather like a singing game. It's most unfortunate that we can't find more versions of this piece.
Since I wrote the above, Peter Andrews of Louisburg, NC, has written to tell me that "My mother used to sing at least parts of that song to me.... She was American but grew up in China where her father taught at two Chinese government universities, approx. 1902-1919.  She probably learned it from her uncle, Alexander Lattimore, a colorful gay man who knew a great variety of songs, many of them bawdy or irreligious," adding that this version, " started with A beggar man laid himself down to sleep, by the banks of the river so wide and deep, Rumsty-o, Rumsty-o. I don't remember the Mersey river or the gallows at Tyburn Hill. It may have been changed to a China setting." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Lins295

Tydynges trew ther be cum new, sent from the Trinite

See The Salutation Carol (File: MsSalCar)

Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail [Laws B17]

DESCRIPTION: Two cowboys, having spent a wild time in town, are returning to camp when they meet the Devil. The Devil tries to collect their souls; the cowboys have the better of the fight, leaving the Devil tied up, branded, and with its tail in knots
AUTHOR: almost certainly Gail Gardner (1892-1987)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917
KEYWORDS: Devil cowboy fight humorous
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws B17, "Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail"
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 75-78, "Rusty Jiggs and Sandy Sam" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 74, "Tying Knots in the Devil's Tail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 203, "Tyin' a Knot in the Devil's Tail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 406-409, "Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail" (1 text)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 27, "The Sierry Petes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 19, pp. 127-132, "The Soughrty Peaks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 535-536, "The Sierry Petes, or Tying Knots in the Devil's Tail" (1 text)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 158-161, "Tying Knots in the Devil's Tail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 358-359, "Tying Knots in the Devil's Tail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 174-176, "Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 112, "Tyin' A Knot In The Devil's Tail" (1 text)
DT 384, DVLTAIL*
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 117-125, "Gail Gardner, Cowboy 'Poet Lariat'" (1 text, 1 tune, plus various excerpts and a history of the song)
Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, p. 20, "Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hal Cannon, editor, _Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering_, Giles M. Smith, 1985, pp. 3-5, "The Sierry Petes" (1 text)
Roud #3238
RECORDINGS:
Cisco Houston, "Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail" (Disc 5069, 1940s)
Harry Jackson, "Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail" (on HJackson1)
Powder River Jack & Kitty Lee, "Tying A Knot In The Devil's Tail" (Victor 23527, 1930; Montgomery Ward M-4462, 1934; on AuthCowboys, BackSaddle, WhenIWas1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "De Hoffnung" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
East Texas Red (by Woody Guthrie) (on Thieme03)
NOTES [165 words]: Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging lists various authors who have been credited with this piece, but states pretty unequivocally that Gail Gardner is the actual author. Gardner did obtain the copyright, and Logsdon's evidence does add up to a very strong case; none of the other claimants appear to have any real supporting documentation. I do find it fascinating that Powder River Jack Lee listed himself as the author in his songbook, with no hint that there is another author; most of his songs are listed as "arranged" by Lee.
According to Cannon, the "Sierry Petes" (Gardner's official title) refers specifically to the Sierra Prieta range in Arizona. Cohen records that "Buster Jig" was a nickname for Gail Gardner himself, while "Sandy Bob" was Bob Heckle.
For details on Gardner, see the John I. White article listed among the ADDITIONAL items. He comments that Gardner eventually resigned himself to others appropriating his song, but resented it when they got the words wrong. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LB17

Tying Knots in the Devil's Tail

See Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail [Laws B17] (File: LB17)

Tyler and Robinson

DESCRIPTION: Two champions, Robinson and Tyler, fight in London for fifty guineas. Robinson is favoured. Tyler knocks Robinson out and Robinson dies on the spot. Tyler is going to marry "a rich lady" but he dies "and the lady went in mourning"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(4326))
KEYWORDS: death mourning money sports
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 18, "Bold Robinson" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 151, "Bold Champions" (1 text)
Roud #2411
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4326)[all lines truncated], "Young Tyler and Robinson Huzza" ("Come all you young fellows that delight in any game"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth c.19(10), "Taylor and Robinson"; Firth c.19(9), "Tyler and Robinson"
NOTES [81 words]: I did not find any record of this fight in the Times of London up to 1880. Very few prize fights were reported as sporting events. Most reports were about the arraignment or trial of the victor when the loser was killed in the ring. If Robinson died in the ring and Tyler died soon after there may have been no one left to prosecute and so, the fight, if not otherwise noteworthy, might have gone unreported. Was there an equivalent of The Ring in mid-nineteenth century England? - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: ReSh018

Tyll home sull Wylekyn, this joly gentyl schepe

See Till Home Sail Wylekyn (Willikin's Return) (File: MSTiHoWy)

Tylus and Talus

DESCRIPTION: "Tylus and talus and rippity-ting, All the girls gather and all the boys sing, Choose you the nearest one, Choose you the dearest one, All join together to make a big ring." Verses begin "Tylus and talus" and encourage the couples
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 542, "Tylus and Talus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7655
File: R542

Tyne Exile's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "I sat by the side of a broad rolling river That sparkles along on its way to the sea; By my thoughts fly again o'er the wide-heaving main... I wish I were again on the banks of the Tyne." The singer recalls Tynside and hopes to be buried there
AUTHOR: Words: Anonymous (John Stokoe)/Music: Samuel Reay
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: homesickness river exile burial
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 78-79, "The Tyne Exile's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3143
NOTES [40 words]: The notes in Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland say that an anonymous author wrote this and wanted his name to remain secret. It seems rather likely that Stokoe himself was responsible for this banal piece of local patriotism. - RBW
File: StoR978

Tyrie Plooin' Match, The

DESCRIPTION: The contestants at Tyrie "warlike were ... Their tickets drew wi' anxious han', Ilk ane thinkin' he'd be the man." "They did their wark in first-rate style." "Jim was well pleased" although he had the tenth prize, "the hinmost ane o' a' the lot"
AUTHOR: William D. Jeffrey (1845-1892) (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (copy of text, according to Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: contest farming
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #161, p. 2, ("A plooin' match here I'll insert") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 424, "The Tyrie Plooin' Match" (1 text)
Roud #5941
NOTES [7 words]: Greig: "... I would extract a few verses." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GdD3424

Tyrle, Tyrlo (Tyrley, Tyrlow)

DESCRIPTION: "Tyrle, tyrlo, So meryye the shepperdes began to blowe." "About the fyld they pyped full right." A light and a company of angels come from heaven. They lead the shepherds to Bethlehem, where they meet "that mek chyld."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1537 (Hill MS., Balliol Coll. Oxf. 354)
KEYWORDS: carol Christmas sheep nonballad religious MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 169, "Tyrley, Tyrlow" (1 text, 1 modern tune)
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #50, "(no title)" (2 texts with variants)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics LXVI, p. 126, "(no title)" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #112
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #204
ADDITIONAL: Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, Kegan Paul, 1907 (there are now multiple print-on-demand reprints), #20, p. 11, "(Tyrly tirlow)" (1 text)
Richard Greene, editor, _A Selection of English Carols_, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #17, pp. 71-72, "(Tyrle, Tyrlo)" (1 text, with variants in Wright's text on p. 172)
Hardin Craig, editor, _Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays_, second edition, Early English Text Society, 1902, 1957, 1967, pp. 31- 32, "Song I," "Song III" (2 short texts)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSRichardHill}, The Richard Hill Manuscript, Oxford, Balliol College MS. 354, folio 222
MANUSCRIPT: {MSEngPoetE1}, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodley 29734), folio 60
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPageantShearmen}, Coventry, Thomas Sharp MS. (burned 1879), folio ?
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Coventry Carol" (background on the Coventry Plays)
NOTES [270 words]: There is no proof that this piece is traditional, but there are hints that it was at least somewhat popular. The first is its inclusion in the Hill manuscript, which includes some folk pieces. And this is not the only source; Greene's text is from Bodleian MS. Eng. poet e.1, which is thought to date from the fifteenth century which also contains much fok material, and a now-destroyed manuscript once owned by Thomas Sharp -- the same copy of the Coventry Pageant of Shepherds and Tailors which also contained "The Coventry Carol" -- is said to have had music for it. Three copies, one of them from the Hill Manuscript, and one from the source of "The Coventy Carol," are perhaps enough to justify its inclusion here. Certainly it has been cited frequently since; the Index of Middle English Verse lists six reprints.
The Coventry version is different from, and shorter than, the others:
As I out rode this enderes night,
Of thre ioli shpehedes I saw a sight,
And all a-boute there fold a star shone bright;
They sange terli terlow;
So mereli the sheppards ther pipes can blow (Craig, p. 31).
The story of the birth of Jesus and the shepherds is found in Luke 2:8-20.
A facsimile of the Hill manuscript is now available at the Balliol Library manuscripts resource at the Bodleian web site; go to http://image.ox.ac.uk/list?collection=balliol and scroll down to MS. 354.
For more on the lost Sharp manuscript and the Coventry Pageant, see the notes to "The Coventry Carol."
For more about the famous anthology Bodleian MS. Eng. Poet. e.1 (Bodleian 29734), see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: OBC169

Tythe Pig, The

See The Parson and the Sucking Pig (File: WT197)

Tzena Tzena Tzena

DESCRIPTION: Hebrew, urging the girls to "tzena," that is, go out and see the soldiers in the mosheva settlement; they should not hide from "virtuous" men
AUTHOR: Word: Jehiel Hagges (Yechiel Chagiz) / Music: Issachar Miron (Stefan Michrovsky) (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (date of composition, according to Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage soldier courting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 444, 497, "Tzena Tzena Tzena" (notes only)
NOTES [102 words]: Famously recorded by The Weavers in 1950, on the reverse of their recording of "Goodnight Irene"; they neither knew what it meant nor who had written it. It seems unlikely they would have recorded it had they realized what it said!
Presumably the girl scout camps which use it don't know either. There is an English version in some modern Scout songbooks, but it has has clearly been defanged quite a bit:
Tzena, Tzena, Tzena, Tzena
Can't you hear the music playing
In the city square
Tzena, Tzena, Tzena, Tzena
Come where all our friends will find us With the dancers there
Tzena, Tzena
Join the celebration. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF444T

U S U Range, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come, cowboys, and listen to my song... about West Texas and the U S U Range." The singer hired on with a well-dressed man. The food and houses are bad. The work is hard. He declares that he will not stay any longer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 158-159, "The U S U Range" (1 text)
Roud #8011
File: ThLo158

U Tudini

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell my Dalmatia, farewell lovely homeland, To a foreign land I now go, there to dig that kauri gum." The singer left his home for New Zealand. Now he works hard day and night "Far from homeland and family."
AUTHOR: Rudy Sunde
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: emigration work home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 43, "U Tudini" (1 text plus a translation in an unidentified Slavic language [probably Croatian], 1 tune)
NOTES [16 words]: For background on the digging of kauri gum, see the notes to "The Old-Time Kauri Bushmen." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Col2043

U-Tan-U

See Ju Tang Ju (Utang) (File: R576)

U. S. A., The

DESCRIPTION: "Tell me, daddy, tell me, why the men in yonder crowd, Can you tell me why they are marching...?" The father tells his son that they are marching because they are proud of American freedom; both his grandfathers died fighting for it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: patriotic America death nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 28-29, "The U. S. A." (1 text)
Roud #9555
NOTES [45 words]: A;though it seems certain that this hearkens back to the American Civil War (there was no other war in American history where the odds are significant that both of a child's grandparents would have died), I have been unable to find out anything more about the song. - RBW
File: Dean028

U. S. E. D.

DESCRIPTION: "U. S. E. D., suckers ev'ry day, Fifty cents an hour, four bucks a day... They make you whistle for your money." Hawaiians complains about the United States Engineer Department; others complain about life in Hawaii
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Coffin & Cohen)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes nonballad Hawaii
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, pp. 95-98, "(Lei Ana Ika or U.S.E.D.)" (1 short text plus many additional verses, 1 tune)
File: CoCo095

U. S. Lightship 98, The

DESCRIPTION: "They may boast of their dreadnaughts and cruisers likewise... But there is another whose fame I'll relate, It's Uncle Sam's little watchdog, the L. V. 98." She has a red hull, a small, efficient crew. It's a lonely job. We should take off our hats to her
AUTHOR: probably Frank McCauley
EARLIEST DATE: before 1952 (Walton collection)
KEYWORDS: ship nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
November 6-13, 1913 - The Great Storm on the Lakes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 185-186, "The U. S. Lightship 98" (1 text)
Roud #19860
NOTES [485 words]: This song does not tell the eventual fate of the Lightship 98, but if the vessel is remembered at all, it is as one of the vessels which sank in the "Great Storm of 1913." The Lightship 98, stationed near the foot of Lake Huron, foundered on the night on November 9-10; all of her six crewmen were lost.
Ratigan, p 125, says "It is generally agreed that Lake Huron's 1913 storm was the greatest ever to strike the Lakes. Beyond all argument it must be called the worst in loss of life and loss of shipping. No other Lake storm in modern history even begins to compare with its toll of 235 lives and forty shipwrecks." On page 135, he quotes a monument set up at Port Sanilac, Michigan: "The grim toll was 235 seamen drowned, ten ships sunk, and more than twenty others driven ashore. Here on Lake Huron all 178 crewmen on the eight ships claimed by its waters were lost. For sixteen terrible hours gales of cyclonic fury made men and his machines helpless."
Thompson, p. 250, tells of the first storm flags being raised on Friday, November 7, "when the storm was still centered over Minnesota. It wasn't until late Sunday morning... that the worst of the storm hit the lakes." He observes that, because there was no flag for gale-force winds, many captains ignored the flags. Especially since the storm did not grow severe until two days after the flags went up. Thompson, p. 252, implies that this came about when a second low pressure system (this one from the south) collided with the pressure system which had formed over Lake Superior and headed east.
"Most of the twenty-four ships that sank or were seriously damaged on Lake Huron during the storm were sneaking along the west shore of the lake on Sunday when the approach of the second storm caused winds to veer unexpectedly to the northeast and leave them in dangerously exposed positions."
Even the first storm was fairly severe. Wolff, p. 148, says that "Head-of-the-Lakes residents were enjoying lovely Indian Summer weather on Thursday, November 6, with the mercury at 58 degrees F... Storm warnings were raised at Duluth at 10:00 a.m., November 7. The weathermen were correct. A 60 mph gale struck Duluth around 6 p.m., raging for several hours before diminishing to lesser blasts the next day. A sharp temperature drop saw the thermometer descending to 20 degrees above zero accompanied by strong winds and local snows." But, because the wind blew mostly down the lake, losses on Lake Superior were lighter than those on Lake Huron.
In all this, little wonder that none of the books specifically mention the Lightship 98.Thompson, p. 252, does mention the Lightship 82, which was based at Buffalo and sank with six sailors. There is even a photo of the Lightship 82 being salvaged; presumably the Lightship 98 was fairly similar.
Amazingly for such a major event, there seem to be few songs about ships lost in the 1913 storm. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM185

Ugly and Rotten

DESCRIPTION: "Your face is ugly and rotten. Nyaaa....."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, p. 87, "Ugly and Rotten" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: List087D

Ugly Woman

DESCRIPTION: "If you want to be happy... marry a woman uglier than you." She will have your meals on time and will be good to you in bed. "A pretty woman... can very often cause [your] downfall... exhibiting herself to Peter and Paul"
AUTHOR: Hubert R. Charles (Roaring Lion)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Hubert R. Charles recording)
KEYWORDS: adultery infidelity love marriage sex warning beauty food nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Hubert R. Charles, "Marry an Ugly Woman" (1934, on Melotone 12965)
The Lion with Gerald Clark and his Caribbean Serenaders, "Ugly Woman"(1941, on Decca 18143A)
The Lion and Frederico's Calypso Band, "Ugly Woman" (n.d., on "Calypso in Britain (1950-1953)" Vol. 2 [recorded 1951])
Sir Lancelot with Gerald Clark and His Calypso Orchestra, "Ugly Woman" (n.d., on "Calypso Legends - Sir Lancelot (1940-1952)" [recorded 1941])
Duke of Iron and Gerald Clark and the Band, "Ugly Woman" (1999, on "Calypso at Midnight," Rounder CD 11661-1840-2 [recorded 1946])
Jimmy Soul, "If You Wanna Be Happy" (1963, S.P.Q.R 3305)
NOTES [573 words]: The Lion recorded his song as Hubert R. Charles on a trip to New York in 1934. American singer and radio/movie personality Rudy Vallee was in the studio, heard Lion sing this song, and had him perform it on his radio show, on "a coast-to-coast hookup" [Donald R. Hill, Calypso Calaloo (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993), p. 184]. Lion naturally performed this song at break-neck speed; I still have trouble picking up the words even after hearing other people perform it and Lion's own later, more leisurely, performance. The numbers in this case are significant: excluding instrumental interludes, Lion sings each of five eight-line verses in 17 seconds (and not for lack of time since the recording runs 2:30 minutes, when three minutes was the rough limit for 10" 78rpm disks). In 1941 he recorded the song again, the same way, with Gerald Clark's orchestra. Clark, who had a regular gig at the Village Vanguard in New York, had two singers with him: Macbeth the Great and Sir Lancelot. "Ugly Woman" was among Lancelot's songs. "Sir Lancelot... appears immaculate in a white-coated dinner jacket. He stands erect, his head thrown back, and enunciates each word clearly and distinctly as he sings" [Malcolm Johnson, "Gerald Clark and His Calypso Artists at the Village Vanguard," The New York Sun, April 5, 1940, p. 27]. The point is made in the discussion of "Hold 'im Joe," that the mostly white midtown and Village New York audience appreciated calypso singers they could understand. When Sir Lancelot recorded "Ugly Woman" with Gerald Clark's orchestra he sang each of the five eight-line verses in 25 seconds -- almost half again the time of Lion's performance -- and the recording runs three minutes.
In the 1946 Town Hall "Calypso at Midnight" concert "Ugly Woman" was one of the three songs Alan Lomax chose to warm up the audience. "Ugly Woman" records had sold well in the United States [Steve Shapiro, "Forward" for liner notes on "Calypso at Midnight," Rounder CD 11661-1840-2, 1999]. The other two were recent hits in the popular market. How would "Ugly Woman" be performed? Once again, Gerald Clark is the orchestra leader and this time Duke of Iron, a popular calypsonian in New York, sang. With no time limit imposed by record capacity, but with a live audience to work, Duke of Iron sang only four verses, doing each verse in 28 seconds, and the song ran 2:45 to -- as the old song sheets used to claim -- "great applause."
Incidentally, Lion recorded the song again in 1951. After a new introductory explanation he sings only four verses, each in 22 seconds, and the record runs 3:08.
In 1963 Jimmy Soul recorded "If You Wanna Be Happy." The tune and structure are different but 14 of his 16 lines are very close to the Lion/Lancelot 1941 version. The lines replaced describe the ideal woman, whom your friends may denigrate -- "See a mouse falling from her eye/ Around her lips a Confirmation bow tie" -- by "Go ahead and marry anyway/ Take it from me she's a better catch." Both the Duke of Iron and Lion himself in 1951 drop the verse altogether, possibly as not being appreciated by their current audience. Covers of Soul's version remain popular and even today (2015) are the music for a popular country line dance: "Crazy Foot Mambo."
I have included this song because of the part it plays in the history of commercial calypso music. For the context see the discussion of "Hold 'im Joe." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcUglWo

Uh Leetle W'eel uh Tu'nnin' Een Muh Haa't

See There's a Little Wheel a-Turning (File: Br3641)

Uh Look Down duh Road

See Lonesome Valley (I) (File: Wa162)

Uh-Uh, No

See No, John, No (File: R385)

Uil in de olmen, de

See From Out the Battered Elm Tree (File: ACSF443)

Ulan Girls

See The Girls of Ulan (File: MA213)

Um Died Once To Die No Mo

See The Secret Prayer (File: Edwa024)

Umbrella Courtship

DESCRIPTION: "A belle and a beau would walking go, In love they both were pining" as "gentle gales" blew. Then the rain starts. He offers her a place under his umbrella. They continue talking as they go home, and then marry and have children
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(3925))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage | rain umbrella
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 47 and #5/64, p. 47, "Umbrella Courtship" (1 text)
Roud #12626
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3925), "Umbrella Courtship," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(3924), "Umbrella Courtship," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth b.25(496), "Umbrella Courtship," W. Jackson and Son (Birmingham), 1842-1855; also 2806 c.13(162), "Umbrella Courtship," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth b.25(415)=Harding B 11(3927), J, Harkness; also Firth b.26(284), "Umbrella Courtship," H. Such (London), 1849-1962; also Firth b.26(343), H. Such; also Firth b.25(224)=Harding B 11(1079), "Umbrella Courtship," J, Forth (Pocklington), n.d.; also Firth c.26(76)=Harding B 11(3926), "Umbrella Courtship," unknown, n.d.
File: DSB5047

Umbrella, The

DESCRIPTION: "Once when little Isabella Ventured with a big umbrella Out upon a windy day, She was nearly blown away."
AUTHOR: Ann and Jane Taylor (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: storm | wind umbrella
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 137, "Once when little Isabella" (1 short text)
Roud #25390
File: KSUC137A

Umeralla Shore, The

See The Eumerella Shore (File: MA155)

Un Canadien Errant

DESCRIPTION: Canadian French: A Canadien rebel has been forced from his home. Stopping by a stream, he bids it -- should it flow through his homeland -- to greet his friends. He promises not to forget his homeland
AUTHOR: M. A. Gerin-Lajoie
EARLIEST DATE: 1842
KEYWORDS: exile rebellion Canada foreignlanguage
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1837 - Revolt in Canada. The failure of the uprising forces many rebels into exile
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 26-27, "Un Canadien Errant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 82-84, "Un Canadien Errant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 4, "Un Canadien Errant" (1 English and 1 French version, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 339, "Un Canadien Errant (An Exiled Canadien)" (1 text)
DT, CANADERR
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 16-17, "Un Canadien Errant (Once a Canadian Lad" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Un Canadien Errant" (on PeteSeeger29)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "An Anti-Rebel Song" (subject)
cf. "Farewell to Mackenzie" (subject)
cf. "Les Metamorphoses" (tune)
NOTES [25 words]: For further details about the Canadian revolt, caused by the oppression of an oligarchic government, see the songs mentioned in the cross-references. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: FJ026

Un, Deux, Trois

DESCRIPTION: Creole French: "Un, deux, trois, Caroline qui fais comme sa, ma chere?" The singer asks Caroline what is the matter. She reports that mama says yes but papa says no. She is determined to have the young man anyway.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: courting love family father mother foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 120, "Un Deux Trois" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 218-219, "Un, Deux, Trois" (1 text plus translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Un, Deux, Trois, J'irai Dans le Bois" (counting in French)
File: LxA218

Un, Deux, Trois, J'irai Dans le Bois

DESCRIPTION: "Un, deux, trois, j'irai dans le bois, Quatre, cinq, six, cuellir des cerises, Sept, huit, neuf, dans mon pannier neuf, DIx, onze, douze, elles song toutes rouges." The singer will go to the woods to pick cherries
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 62, "Un, deux, trois, j'irai dans le bois" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, third edition, 1928, p. 684, "(Un, deux, trois, j'irai dans les bois)" (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Un, Deux, Trois" (counting in French)
File: KSUC062B

Una Bhan (Fair Una)

DESCRIPTION: Irish Gaelic: Una's father locks her up rather than let her marry the singer. Ill, she sends for him; he finds the gates shut. If he doesn't hear from her before he has crossed the river, he won't return. A servant reaches him too late. Una dies of grief
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (recording, Maire Aine Ni Dhonnchadha)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Irish Gaelic: Una's father imprisons her in her room rather than allow her to marry the singer. Ill, she sends for him, but he finds the gates shut against him. Angry, he turns away, crying that if he doesn't hear from her by the time he has crossed the river, he'll never return. He hesitates midstream; a servant is sent after him, but he has crossed the river before the servant arrives. Una dies of grief; still bitter, he comes to visit her grave for the last time, asking her spirit to visit him (and telling her it's awful for her to be lying there with the rotting corpses). Nothing happens, and he turns away into the darkness
KEYWORDS: captivity disease grief hardheartedness courting love rejection corpse death mourning foreignlanguage lament father lover
FOUND IN: Ireland
RECORDINGS:
Maire Aine Ni Dhonnchadha, "Una Bhan" (on TradIre01)
NOTES [22 words]: Maire Aine Ni Dhonnchadha learned the song from an old woman in Rosaveel, the only person from whom it's apparently been collected. - PJS
File: RcUnaBha

Unbroken Token, The

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Uncle Ananias' Funeral Song

See Ananias (File: Br3520)

Uncle Bill Teller

DESCRIPTION: "Uncle Bill Teller died las' fall, Young maiden, where ye bound to? We jigged t'ree days an' niver got one, Across de Western Ocean." "Bill K is de divil fer fat, Hang to 'er, b'ys, hang to 'er." "Billy K. got a fine old bark."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (England, Vikings of the Ice)
KEYWORDS: hunting derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 106, "Uncle Bill Teller" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: George Allan England, _Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt_ (also published as _The Greatest Hunt in the World_), Doubleday, 1924, p. 129, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #V44701
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Across the Western Ocean" (form, lyrics)
NOTES [446 words]: Evidently a sealing parody of "Across the Western Ocean."
The notes to Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff give no hint as to what this is about, and my references don't offer any mention of a "William Teller." Is he the same as the "Billy K." of the second stanza? And if so, is the name William Teller K[...]," or is it "William K. Teller"?
I can't say who Bill Teller might be, but I think I know who "Billy K" is. Chafe, p. 97, has a list of all men who commanded sealing steamers. There are four captains named William K: William Kean, William Knee, William Knight, and William Kent. But we are told that "Billy K. is de divil for fat." In other words, he was a successful sealer. This eliminates Kent at least; he led only one sealing trip, which was a flop, taking only 2759 seals.
William Kean did better; he had three trips, averaging 10899 seals per year, in 1863 and 1874-1875 (Chafe, p. 92) -- plus he was a member of the famous Kean family, for which see "Captain Abram Kean"; they later became very well-known indeed.
William Knight had more years as a steamer captain than Kent or Kean -- six (1870-1875; Chafe, p. 92) -- but averaged only 7709 seals per trip.
Which leaves William Knee. He is listed with sixteen trips to the ice (1877-1893; Chafe, pp. 92-93), averaging 12593 seals per year. And in "The Sealer's Song (I)," he was called "Billy Knee the Jowler" -- meaning that he was a great finder of seals. And he, like William Kean, was the head of a sealing dynasty -- e.g. his son Job Knee is mentioned in "Captains and Ships" and "The Sealer's Song (II)." Surely he is the best candidate by far.
There is another faint hint of a link to Knee in this song. The third line of the first verse is "We jigged three days and never got one." This might of course be simply a reference to bad hunting; many ships had trouble finding seals. In 1883, Knee, in command of the Falcon, claimed he found seals early -- but that many of them were stolen (along with his ship's bunting), forcing him to spend more time on the ice to gain a full load of seals (Ryan, pp. 170-171).
Knee also probably had a good reputation among sealers. Many sealing captains would do nothing to help other ships, especially if they belonged to other companies. Knee was different. In 1890, the Terra Nova (for which see "The Terra Nova") left hundreds of her men behind on the ice. Having little choice, they headed for Knee's Kite. The Kite was a small ship (for its story, see "The 'Kite' Abandoned in White Bay"), but Knee put out his ship's boats and started coal fires and not only kept the men alive, he eventually turned the whole thing into a party (Keir, pp. 171-172). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm106B

Uncle Bud

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Uncle Bud goin' down the road, Haulin' women by the wagon load, Uncle Bud (x3), Bud, Doggone it, Uncle Bud." About Uncle Bud's odd exploits, sexual anatomy, and extravagant farming methods, as well as poverty and perhaps the hope for salvation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers)
KEYWORDS: humorous drink death sex bawdy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 95-97, "Uncle Bud" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10035
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singer, "Uncle Bud" (on Unexp1)
Grant & Wilson, "Uncle Joe" (QRS, 1929) (Decca, 1938)
Booker T. Sapps, "Uncle Bud" (AFS 370 A1, 370 A2, 1935)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Uncle Bud" (Columbia 15134-D, 1927; rec. 1926) (Columbia 15221-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
NOTES [57 words]: Most versions of this song are bawdy, to a greater or lesser extent. A Texas variant, recorded by the anonymous singer on Unexp1, recounts stories about Uncle Bud Russell, who was in charge of transporting prisoners to the state prison at Huntsville -- but the song clearly existed in tradition before then, and was adapted to local use. - PJS
File: MWhee095

Uncle Dan

See The Uncle Dan Song (File: IvDC048)

Uncle Dan Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "A sly young maid" warns Uncle Dan of a predatory widow who "set her cap" for him. He thanks the maid for the warning; if she marries she should treat her man well but "if he should die and you want another man, Just clear the road for Uncle Dan"
AUTHOR: Dan Riley
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: courting warning humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 48-49, 256, "The Uncle Dan Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 44-45, "Uncle Dan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13998
RECORDINGS:
Mary Cousins, "The Uncle Dan Song" (on MREIves01)
NOTES [21 words]: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland and Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland are the same June 25, 1957 performance. - BS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: IvDC048

Uncle Doody

DESCRIPTION: "Well, old Uncle Doody in the shade of the tree, Played on the fiddle in the key of C." Various disasters strike the farm, but Uncle Doody doesn't care; he just keeps playing. Not even Aunt Viney's yelling, or a bad harvest, can distract him
AUTHOR: Sam McGee?
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers)
KEYWORDS: music farming hardtimes family fiddle
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, pp. 135-136, "Uncle Doody" (1 text)
File: BTN135

Uncle Eph

DESCRIPTION: About Uncle Eef/Eph/Ephraem's exploits, usually in hunting raccoons. May include recitations. Chorus: "Uncle Eph's got the coon and gone on And left us looking up a tree."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Dunham Jazz Singers)
KEYWORDS: animal hunting nonballad floatingverses humorous talltale
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 433, "Broder Eton Got de Coon" (1 text); also 511, "The Preacher Song" (1 text, a complex mix of verses from "Turkey in the Stray" and "Some Folks Say that a Preacher Won't Steal" with the "Uncle Eph" chorus)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 433, "Broder Eton Got de Coon" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 101-102, "Brother Ephrum Got de Coon and Gone On" (1 text, 1 tune, with even more floating material than usual, e.g. from "Don't Get Weary Children (Massa Had a Yellow Gal)")
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 122, "Bro' Ephram" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 14-15, "Uncle Ethan" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, (BRORPHUS -- on the face of it, a combination of this with a song about Moses)
Roud #11775
RECORDINGS:
Anglin Twins, "Uncle Eph's Got the Coon" (Vocalion 03904, 1937; ARC 8-02-52, 1938)
Dunham Jazz Singers, "Ephraim Got the Coon" (Columbia 14609-D, 1931)
Grandpa Jones, "Uncle Eph's Got The Coon" (King 867, 1950)
Art Thieme, "Uncle Eph/The Great Raccoon Hunt" [combines song and tall-tale] (on Thieme03)
Wade Ward, "Brother Ephram" (Okeh, unissued, 1925); "Uncle Eef" [instrumental] (on Holcomb-Ward1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Uncle Reuben" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [92 words]: In 1878, Bob Allen's published a song, "Old Uncle Eph," which I had guessed was the same song, but Gary Reid sent me a link to the sheet music (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sm1878.10392.0?st=gallery) which says that only the music is by Allen. And I would not consider it the same song.
It is interesting to note that at least two versions of this song -- Brown's #511 and the Hedy West text recorded in the Digital Tradition -- combine this with the chorus, "Where you going, Moses? None of your business. Come here, Moses. I ain't gonna do it." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: RcUncEph

Uncle Ethan

See Uncle Eph (File: RcUncEph)

Uncle George and Auntie Mable Fainted at the Breakfast Table

See Uncle Joe and Aunty Mabel (File: EM374)

Uncle Joe

See Hop High Ladies (Uncle Joe) (File: R252)

Uncle Joe (I)

See If I Were As Young As I Used to Be (Uncle Joe) (File: R434)

Uncle Joe and Aunty Mabel

DESCRIPTION: Joe and Mabel are restored to sexual vigor by a glass of Ovaltine. (Alternately, Fleischmann's Yeast or other improbable concoction)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Anecdota Americana)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 374-376, "Uncle Joe and Aunty Mabel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 37, "Fleischmann's Yeast" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 260, "Uncle George and Aunie Mable (sic.) fainted at the breakfast table" (notes only)
DT, OVALTPM*
Roud #10325
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" (tune)
File: EM374

Uncle Joe Cut Off His Toe (Rock the Cradle Joe)

DESCRIPTION: "Uncle Joe cut off his toe And hung it up to dry; And all the girls began to laugh And Joe began to cry." "Rock the cradle, rock the cradle, Rock the cradle, Joe...." Remaining verses, if any, appear to float; those quoted are characteristic
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad injury floatingverses playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 97, "Uncle Joe Cut Off His Toe" (3 texts plus mention of 2 more, but "B" is probably "Shady Grove"; "A" is an incredible mix with verses typical of "Raccoon," "If I Had a Scolding Wife," a "Liza Jane" song, a mule song, and "Shady Grove")
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 153-154, "Cradle Song" (1 text)
Roud #741
File: Br3097

Uncle John -- The Sealer, 1951

DESCRIPTION: "Among the sealers who came home... was... Uncle John, As mad as he could be." John complains of the new law which allows sealing to begin before March 13, forcing them to take seals too young. He will not rest till the old law is restored
AUTHOR: Solomon Samson?
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (A Glimpse of Newfoundland in Poetry and Pictures)
KEYWORDS: hunting political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 154, "Uncle John -- The Sealer, 1951" (1 text)
Roud #V44702
NOTES [391 words]: The song does not give enough details to be sure who the "Bradley" mentioned is, but I suspect it's Frederic Gordon Bradley (1888-1966), who first joined the Newfoundland government in 1924 as a Minister without portfolio and held several high offices after that. He was opposed to Newfoundland's loss of self-government in the 1930s. He helped arrange for Confederation with Canada after World War II, and was the first Newfoundlander to join the Canadian parliament (DictNewf, pp. 29-30). Whether he had anything to do with the changes in the sealing season I don't know.
Gordon Higgins (1905-1957) was one of the seven members of the first class of Newfoundlanders to join the Canadian parliament -- ironic, since he opposed Confederation. He represented St. John's East, which might be why the song appeals to him -- but it might just be that he was a staunch opponent of policies imposed by Ottawa. "Mr. St. Laurent" is presumably Louis St. Laurent (1882-1973), the Prime Minister of Canada from 1948-1957, and so presumably the head of government at the time this piece was written.
The law in Newfoundland had for long required sealers to stay in port until March 10 (according to Greene, p. 94 n. 1, out of 71 seasons from 1863 to 1933, the fleet set sail on precisely March 10 in 44 of them), and the sealing season did not start until after that. This was an attempt (only partly successful) to maintain the seal population. But, in the 1950s, the Newfoundland sealers found themselves being displaced by sealers from the Maritimes and even Norway (Candow, pp. 110-111). In 1952, Canada and Norway -- despite advice that the seals were being driven to extinction, with the researchers wanting to shorten the season -- instead informally agreed to lengthen the season, allowing hunting to start at dates from March 5 (in the Gulf of St. Lawrence) to March 10 (Candow, p. 114). Presumably that is the event to which this poem refers.
The argument that the song makes -- that whitecoats taken on March 5 were too young -- is certainly true from the old-timers' standpoint; young seals wouldn't have any fat. But the value of the seal fat was declining fast; by the 1950s, furs were becoming more valuable, so the time of harvesting mattered less. Of course, killing seals for their coats soon provoked a backlash of a different sort. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm154

Uncle John is Sick Abed

DESCRIPTION: "Uncle John is sick abed, What shall we send him? Three good wishes, three good kisses, And a slice of ginger bread." "Who shall we send it by?" "[Player's name], so they say, goes a-couring night and day... And takes Miss [name] for his bride."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty food disease
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,So) Britain
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, p. 97=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, p. 234, "Uncle Johnie's Sick A-Bed" (1 text, tune referenced)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 67, "Uncly Johnny Sick Abed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, pp. 12-13, "Johnny's Home Sick in the Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 678, "Ride About, Ride About" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune; the "B" text starts with a stanza of this though the "A" text and the last two stanzas of "B" appear to be something unrelated)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 30, "Uncle John(I)"; Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 30, p. 160, "(Cockie Bendie's lyin' sick)"; Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 31, "Uncle John(II)" (5 texts, although some of these are "Cockabendy")
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #16, "Uncle John" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Jean Olive Heck, "Folk Poetry and Folk Criticism, as Illustrated by Cincinnati Children in Their Singing Games and Their Thoughts about These Games." Vol. XL, No. 155 (Jan 1927), #11 p. 13 ("Uncle John is sick in bed") (1 text)
Roud #13080
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cockabendy" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (tune)
NOTES [342 words]: This is rather a puzzling piece. Roud lumps it with the old Scots game of "Cockabendie," collected several times by Grieg, Certainly they share lyrics, and both are game songs. The overall text, however, is fairly distinct. Randolph's version begins with a verse from this, then goes off on what appears a different game -- and yet many of the lyrics appear in Gomme's "Uncle Tom is Very Sick."
If we take as our starting point the line "Uncle X is sick abed," we find that one of the few coherent versions is Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana's, which is used as the basis for the description here. She describes her version as a kissing game, though the figures have been lost. The tune is "Yankee Doodle."
Laura Ingalls Wilder, On the Banks of Plum Creek, chapter 21 (p. 159 of the paperback edition) has a version which is very similar to Wolford's but shorter -- and peculiar, since it appears to have *ten* lines, not eight or 12 or 16.
This raises an interesting question: Wilder seems to imply that her version is a ring game, not a kissing game. But Laura disliked kissing games, and once brushed off a suitor because he put his arm around her waist (see John E. Miller, Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Woman Behind the Legend, University of Misouri Press, 1998, p. 64. If you want a measure of how sexually conservative Laura was, consider the fact that, at the end of their lives, she and her husband had separate beds even though the evidence is strong that she still loved him -- after he died, she preferred to sleep in his bed! -- Miller, p. 251).
Also, if this were the same as "Cockabendie," how did it end up being sung to the tune of "Yankee Doodle" -- hardly a Scottish tune!
My tentative conclusions:
1. That this song, though from the same roots as "Cockabendie," is now so distinct as to deserve separate filing.
2. That it was known as a kissing game, even to Wilder
3. That Wilder really did play it in Walnut Grove, Minnesota -- why else cite it at that point, since she would presumably have disapproved of the song? - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: LIWUJISA

Uncle John's Fiddle

DESCRIPTION: Uncle John -- "the greatest performer that ever was known" -- died and left the singer his wonderful fiddle. He describes his uncle's feats, his fiddle's miraculous attributes and, now, his own playing feats which are not quite as good as his uncle's.
AUTHOR: James Davidson (source: Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (Davidson, Poems: Chiefly in the Buchan Dialect, according to Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: death fiddle music humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #38, pp. 1-2, "Uncle John's Fiddle"; #30, p. 2, "Uncle John's Fiddle" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan4 742, "Uncle John's Fiddle" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5641
NOTES [59 words]: Greig: "Mr John Milne, Maud, says he first heard 'Uncle John's Fiddle' some time between 1856 and 1860, when it was sung into popularity by Wm. M'Kay, Bransbog, Strichen, and other local singers. 'Uncle John' was an eccentric character and well known in the district. He was no fiddler, and Davidson is simply making fun of his attempts at playing." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD4742

Uncle Johnie's Sick A-Bed

See Uncle John is Sick Abed (File: LIWUJISA)

Uncle Johnny Sick in Bed

See Uncle John is Sick Abed (File: LIWUJISA)

Uncle Ned

DESCRIPTION: Uncle Ned was so old when he died that he had no wool (hair) on his head, no teeth, and was blind. Even so, both his fellow-slaves and his owners grieved at his death
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1848 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: death mourning slave
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Randolph 261, "Uncle Ned" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 223-225, "Uncle Ned" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 261)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 420, "Uncle Ned" (2 texts plus an exaggerated parody, "There was an ancient colored individual, and his cognomen was Uncle Edward")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 420, "Uncle Ned" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 236-237, ("Uncle Ned") (1 fragment plus a Great Depression parody noting that "All the Democrats are working on the State Highway Job And the Republicans are all on Relief") (OakEd, p. 237)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 92, pp. 116-117, "Old Uncle Ned" (2 short texts)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2389, pp. 160-161, "Uncle Ned" (4 references)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 65 and #3/62, p. 59, "Uncle Ned" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, p. 5, "Uncle Ned" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #124, "Uncle Ned" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 32, "Uncle Ned" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R261 (Full)
Roud #4871
RECORDINGS:
Elda Blackwood, "Uncle Ned" [fragment] (on USWarnerColl01)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Old Uncle Ned" (OKeh 40263, 1925; rec. 1924)
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters, "Old Uncle Ned" (Brunswick 300, 1929; rec. 1928)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Uncle Ned" (Vocalion 5011, 1926)
Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock, "Darkie Uncle Ned" (on McClintock02)
Chubby Parker, "Uncle Ned" (Silvertone 25103, 1927; Supertone 9192, 1928)
Leake County Revelers, "Uncle Ned" (Columbia 15470-D, 1929)
Oscar Seagle, "Uncle Ned" (Columbia A-3582, 1922)
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y4:0048, "Uncle Ned," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny Walk Along to Hilo" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Way Down on the Old Peedee" (plot)
SAME TUNE:
Uncle Ned's Ghost (broadside Murray, Mu23-y1:011, "Uncle Ned's Ghost," J. Bristow (Glasgow), no date; a sequel to this song describing Ned's afterlife)
"Dere Was a Little Man, and His Name was Stevy Dug" (Campaign song for Abraham Lincoln, 1860, quoted in Bruce Catton, _The Coming Fury_, p. 93; Paul F. Boller, Jr., _Presidential Campaigns_, second revised edition, Oxford University Press, p. 112)
"We've a noble rail splitter, and his name is Honest Abe" (Campaign song for Abraham Lincoln, 1860, quoted in Paul F. Boller, Jr., _Presidential Campaigns_, second revised edition, Oxford University Press, p. 103)
There's a Land of Bliss (words by N. C. Brook) (cited in John Tasker Howard, _Stephen Foster: America's Troubadour_, p. 398)
Escape from Slavery of Henry Box Brown ("Have you seen a man by the name of Henry Brown, Ran away from the South to the North") (Foner, p. 91, with a broadside reprint on p. 92)
NOTES [615 words]: Randolph, following White, says this song is common in African-American tradition, but collections from tradition (Black or White) seem relatively few. (And it's hard to see why African-Americans would make it their own, given its obvious pro-slavery bias. White found several versions, and Talley had one much-modified text, but that's about it for collections from non-Whites.) Brown had a genuine collection; Randolph also has one, plus there is also a fragment in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods (chapter 5). But the latter two versions, we might note, have Ozark connections.
This was one of Foster's very earliest pieces, and one of his first big hits. According to DeVoto, p. 134, 'in March of [1846] a twenty-year-old Pittsburg youth failed of appointment at West Point, and so at the end of the year he went to keep books in his brother's commission house at Cincinnati. He took with him the manuscripts of three songs, all apparently written in this year, all compact of the minstrel-nigger tradition. One celebrates a lubly collud gal, Lou'siana Belle. In another an old nigger has no wool on the top of his head in the place whar de wool ought to grow.... And in the third American pioneering was to find its leitmotif for all time: it was 'Oh Susanna!'"
This is one of the first pieces Foster had published; he *gave* it to W. C. Peters (until then, best known for publishing "Jump Jim Crow"; Milligan, p. 44), who proceeded to sell thousands of copies without giving Foster royalties. It was also one of his earliest compositions in dialect; according to Emerson, pp. 104-105, Foster's first attempt at a dialect piece (in 1845) was "Lou'siana Belle," now mercifully forgotten, with "Uncle Ned" following a week later.
The Peters songs were said to be sung by Jim Murphy of the "Sable Harmonists." There were five songs in this collection, all uncredited; four were Foster songs ("Lou'siana Belle," "O Susanna," "Old Uncle Ned," and "Away Down South"), with George Holman contributing "Wake Up Jacob, or the Old Iron City" (Milligan, p. 44).
According to TaylorEtAl, pp. 39-43, Foster wrote "Lou'siana Belle" for a small group of friends called "The Knights of the S.T.," and the group liked it so much that they called for another song; "He came with the manuscript in his pocket, put it on the piano and invited his friend to sing with him Old Uncle Ned." On p. 49, TaylorEtAl give the words to "Onkel Ned," a German translation (called a "Negerlieder") issued by Max Brockhaus of Leipzig.
For a very interesting version with additional verses, supplied by Marguerite Frost in 2013, see the Supplemental Tradition.
There is some evidence that the song had entered oral tradition even before Peters published it; Milligan, p. 45, notes two other versions published in 1848, one of which appears to have been an arrangement by someone who knew only half the melody and faked the rest!
Emerson, p. 107, suggests that "Uncle Ned" has "more than a hint of [Thomas Haynes] Bayly's 'Long, Long Ago," as well as links to the works of Henry Russell and of "The Fine Old Colored Gentleman," which Dan Emmett wrote in parody of Russell.
The parodying went both ways. Emerson, p. 108, says that Martin Delany wrote a novel, Blake, in which it is Master rather than Ned who dies and who is memorialized in a rather bitter song. This appears to be the song indexed as "He's Gone Where the Slaveholders Go."
There was also a sort of paraphrase, or an "educated" version, "Old Uncle Edward," which began "There formerly might have been an aged colored individual Whose cognomen was Uncle Edward..." (see, e.g., Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 64 and and #4/64, p. 64). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: R261

Uncle Reuben

DESCRIPTION: "Uncle Reuben caught a coon, done gone, Chick-a-chick, done gone... and left me here behind." Assorted verses about animals, hunting, love: "Rabbit running through the grass, Foxes close behind, Trees and weeds and cockleburrs Is all the foxes find"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: animal hunting nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 38, "Uncle Reuben" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Possum Up a Gum Stump" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Uncle Eph" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [124 words]: This seems to be almost purely floating verses (e.g. "Possum up a 'simmon tree..."), but the collection as a whole does not seem to go with any other song, and so it gets its own listing.
Paul Stamler has suggested that this is a version of "Uncle Eph." They probably have some common ancestry. But this is less of a talltale, and the form is different, so I tentatively split them -- at least until I find out where the Silber version came from. (A perpetual problem with Silber.) - RBW
Silber's version almost certainly came from folk-revival singer Tom Glazer, who recorded it in the early 1950s on his album "Olden Balads." The "Chick-a-chick" is the most important clue. My guess is that Glazer conflated "Uncle Eph" and some floaters. - PJS
File: FSWB038

Uncle Sam

See Uncle Sam's School (File: Stou103J)

Uncle Sam and the Mormons

DESCRIPTION: "Yes, Uncle Sam is trying his best, To drive the Mormons from the West, I hope that we shall stand the test, Brigham at the head. Sing, let us sing, Brigham Young shall be our King." Various leaders who have attacked the Mormons are mocked
AUTHOR: John J. Davies (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 ("Diary of John J. Davies," article in Utah Histocical Quarterly IX, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: political fight | Mormon Brigham Young
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 236, "Uncle Sam and the Mormons" (1 text)
Roud #10886
File: LDC236

Uncle Sam Simmie

See There Was an Old Woman and She Had a Little Pig (File: E068)

Uncle Sam's Farm

DESCRIPTION: "Of all the mighty nations in the east or in the west, Oh this glorious Yankee nation is the greatest and the best... Here's a general invitation to the people of the world." The singer promises them farms, lists the U.S. boundaries, praises its freedom
AUTHOR: The Hutchinson family (credited to Jesse Hutchinson Jr.)
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad America technology work
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 20, 1862 - President Lincoln signs the Homestead Act
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 216-217, "The Yankee Combination" (1 text) (p. 157 in the 1919 edition)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 399, "Uncle Sam's Farm" (1 text)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 408, "Uncle Sam's Farm" (1 text, a copy of an Andrews broadside)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2394, p. 161, "Uncle Sam's Farm" (7 references)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 45 and #1/64 p. 43, "Uncle Sam's Farm" (1 text); #34, p. 43, "Uncle Sam's Farm" (1 text)
DT, USFARM
ADDITIONAL: James Taylor Dunn, _The St. Croix: Midwest Border River_, reprint edition with new introduction published 1979 by the Minnesota Historical Society press, p. 58, [no title] (1 fragment, which he dates to the Civil War and which has an addendum stating that the farm is in Polk County in northwestern Wisconsin, i.e. in the same county as St. Croix Falls and Balsam Lake)
Roud #4556 and 15008
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Uncle Sam's School" (lyrics)
cf. "Walk in de Parlor and Hear de Banjo Play" (tune, according to broadsides listed on p. 161 of Edwin Wolf 2nd, _American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870_, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963)
SAME TUNE:
Uncle Sam's School (File: Stou103J)
I'm In Want of a Substitute (File: Pet233B)
Humbug Steamship Companies (File: LDC030)
A Parody on "Uncle Sam's Farm" ("Of all the reformations, in the east or in the west") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 124; Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 34 and #4/64, p. 49; #34, p. 41)
NOTES [201 words]: Roud splits Shoemaker's "The Yankee Combination" off as a separate number, #15008, but it is almost entirely this song, so I'm lumping them.
The statement, "Uncle Sam's rich enough to give us all a farm" appears to refer to the Homestead Act, allowing anyone to acquire western land for a nominal fee. Obviously it dates from before 1923, when the U. S. effectively closed its doors to immigrants.
It will be noted that the song seems to predate the Homestead Act. It does not, however, predate the idea of a homestead act. J. G. Randall's The Civil War and Reconstruction (second edition by David Donald, Heath, 1961), p. 81, notes that "Southern congressmen repeatedly helped defeat homestead legislation which would have encouraged free-soil settlement of the national territories." Once the South was out of Congress due to the Civil War, the act passed.
Laura Ingalls Wilder quotes a snippet of this in chapter seven of By the Shores of Silver Lake; she does not follow the Hutchinson Family words very closely. I find myself wondering what Laura -- who was quite conservative -- would have thought of the song had she realized that it was by those radical egalitarian liberals the Hutchinsons. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Br3399

Uncle Sam's Funeral

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas but a little while ago That Copperheads were found With their great Vallanding-hammers A-hammering around." They declare Uncle Sam (i.e. the Union) dead. But Uncle Sam rises up "and the Coppers sneaked To where they all belong."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Dime-Song-Book #14)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar desertion humorous wordplay
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 362, "Uncle Sam's Funeral" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #14, pp. 28-29, "Uncle Sam's Funeral" (1 text)
Roud #6608
NOTES [97 words]: In the American Civil War, the Copperheads were politicians (mostly Democratic) who favored letting the Confederates succeed without a fight, and their most significant spokesman was Ohio congressman Clement Vallandigham (1820-1871), who is referred to in the song. At one time he was turned over to the Confederates (who hardly wanted him), but when he returned north, he was allowed to continue his anti-Union message. He obviously didn't end the war, and I doubt he did anything to prolong it, but he certainly wasn't popular with Republicans or others who favored the war. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: TNY362

Uncle Sam's School

DESCRIPTION: "Of all the institutions in the east or in the west, The glorious institution of the schoolroom is the best, There is room for every scholar...." "Then come along, ,ake no delay... For Uncle Sam is rich enough to send us all to school."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Stout-FolkloreFromIowa)
KEYWORDS: derivative nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 103, pp. 127-133, "Early Iowa School Songs" (11 texts, of which "J" is this song)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 82-84, "Uncle Sam" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a photo of a manuscript copy)
Roud #21647
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Uncle Sam's Farm" (lyrics, form, tune)
NOTES [72 words]: This is so precise a parody of the westward migration song "Uncle Sam's Farm" that I think it must be sung to the same tune. I'd say about 80% of the text of Stout-FolkloreFromIowa's version is taken from "Uncle Sam's Farm." List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana's version is very similar to Stout's, and while the tune is not identical to "Uncle Sam's Farm" as I learned it, it certainly appears to be derived from it. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Stou103J

Uncle Sammy, He's Got the Artillery

See God Help Kaiser Bill (File: NiMo167)

Uncle Tahiah

See Aged Indian, The (Uncle Tohido) (File: LPnd124)

Unclouded Day, The

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "O the land of cloudless days, O the land of an unclouded sky, O they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise, O they tell me of an unclouded day." Friends are there, a King on a snow-white throne, the tree of life, and a city of gold.
AUTHOR: J. K. Alwood (source: Townsend)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (recording, Homer Rodeheaver)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Mrs. A.M. Townsend, ed., The Baptist Standard Hymnal with Responsive Readings (Nashville: Sunday School Publishing Board National Baptist Convention U.S.A., 1924 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #606 p. 523, "The Unclouded Day" ("O they tell me of a home far beyond the skies") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17614
RECORDINGS:
Reverend Gary Davis, "The Unclouded Day" (1953, on "If I Had My Way: Early Home Recordngs of Reverend Gary Davis," Smithsonian Folkways SFW40123)
Walter Lee Hood, "They Tell Me of an Uncloudy Day" (on USMississippi01)
Homer Rodeheaver, "The Unclouded Day" (Victor 17456, 1914)
Hobart Smith, "Uncloudy Day," (1969, on Hobart Smith, "The Old Timey Rap," Topic 12T187)
The Staple Singers, "Uncloudy Day" (1959, on "Uncloudy Day," Vee Jay VJLP 5000)
The Stoneman Family (or Pop Stoneman), "Uncloudy Day" (2008, on "28 Classics," Gusto GT7-0697-2)
NOTES [115 words]: From David Evans's liner notes to USMississippi01: "... the influence of the Mississippi-born Staples Singers can be detected in ... 'They Tell Me of an Uncloudy Day.' The commercial background ... has not obliterated all traces of traditional style and content, however." - BS
Homer Rodeheaver, who made what seems to be the earliest recording of this, later became noteworthy as a publisher of songbooks "For Community -- School -- Home" -- i.e. camp songs. It's interesting that he did not include this in the one of his collections that I have, Sociability Songs, given that the book is about half religious material. You'd think he would have wanted to promote his own recording! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RcUncDay

Unco Knicht's Wooing, The

See Riddles Wisely Expounded [Child 1] (File: C001)

Unconscious of Danger

DESCRIPTION: "Unconscious of danger with their lamps brightly burning... they endered the cave... fate had destined that as their grave." Death "cuts down alike the rich and the poor"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining death
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, p. 288, "(no title)" (1 fragment)
NOTES [329 words]: Korson's informant connects this with an 1880 mine disaster involving "Wasley" and "Reese," although there is no evidence for this in the surviving fragment. Korson didn't seem to know much about the event; he dated it "about forty years ago" in 1938, but it in fact Jonathan Wasley (1832-1880), John Reese, and Frank Willman died 58 years before that, in 1880. Wasley at least is buried, according to a record of a grave marker I found online, at a cemetery in Shenandoah Heights, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.
USGenWeb.net has a transcription of "Area History: History of Schuylkill County," Pa: W. W. Munsell, 1881. In its history of Shenandoah Borough, pp. 377-378, it says, "Bartholomew Dillmann, Richard Harrington, Jonathan Wasley, Daniel Ellis, Jacob Dimler, Jonathan Ellis and Peter Ward were among the first to settle here in the spring of 1863, most of whom are still residents of the place. From this date the population rapidly increased."
"The design of the double breaker was executed by Henry Strauch, architect, and it consumed about 700,000 feet of lumber in its construction, having a capacity of 1,000 tons of coal daily. Jonathan Wasley was superintendent several years. This colliery was operated by A.C. Miller & Co., who employed about 300 men and boys, until the spring of 1878, when, their lease having expired, it passed into the hands of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, the present operators."
"On July 28th, 1880, Jonathan Wasley, who had served as superintendent of this colliery since 1867, lost his life in this mine by the effects of poisonous gases while attempting to discover the origin of the latter. John Reese and Frederick Willman, who accompanied him, also perished from the same cause. On August 9th following the mine was discovered to be on fire, since which all mining operations have been suspended and various means have been instituted to extinguish the fire, but so far (May, 1881) without success." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP288A

Unconstant Lover (I), The

See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

Unconstant Lover (II), The

See On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)

Unconstant Lovier, The

See On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)

Undaunted Female, The (The Box Upon Her Head; The Staffordshire Maid; The Maid and the Robber) [Laws L3]

DESCRIPTION: A servant girl sets out for home to help her father. She meets a robber and kills him. She meets another stranger who returns with her to the body. They find a whistle which summons more robbers. Girl and stranger dispose of them and agree to marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.17(446))
KEYWORDS: outlaw marriage
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(Ro)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws L3, "The Undaunted Female"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #35, p. 2, "The Maid and the Robber" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 268, "The Maid and the Robber" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 56, "A Yarmouth Story" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 280-281, "It's of a Pretty Fair Maid" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 293, "Female Robber")
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 60-61, "The Beautiful Damsel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #46, "The Box Upon Her Head" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #144, "The Undaunted Female" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 130, "The Box Upon Her Head" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #143, "The Fair Damsel from London" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN514, "Come all ye young gallants and listen a while" (?)
DT 419, MAIDROBR
Roud #289
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(446), "The Undaunted Female" ("It's of a fair damsel in London did dwell"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(3939), Firth c.17(22), Firth c.17(23), Johnson Ballads 610, Firth b.25(41/42), Johnson Ballads 3154, Firth c.26(47), Harding B 11(3940), Harding B 11(3934), Harding B 11(3935), Harding B 11(3941), Harding B 11(3937), Harding B 11(3936), Harding B 16(292c), 2806 d.31(40), 2806 c.17(448), 2806 c.17(447), Harding B 20(229), Harding B 25(1962), "The Undaunted Female"; Harding B 1(99), "The Tinker and Stafforshire Maid" ("Come all you bold Britons and listen awhile"), J. Jennings (London), 1790-1840
Murray, Mu23-y1:052, "The Undaunted Female," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
File: LL03

Under a forest that was so long

See Assay Thy Friend Ere Thou Hast Need (File: MSATFETN)

Under Her Apron

See Aneath My Apron (File: KinBB21)

Under the Bamboo Tree

See The Cannibal King Medley (File: OpGap453)

Under the Bram Bush

DESCRIPTION: "Under the bram bush, Under the sea, True love for you, my darling, True love for me." We'll get married and have a boy for you, a girl for me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: love marriage sea playparty children
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 137, "Under the Bram Bush" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #18988
NOTES [18 words]: I can't make anything of the tune, except for the "Shave and a Haircut" ending "Um tiddley um dum, sex-y!" - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa137

Under the Coconut Tree

DESCRIPTION: "Under the cocoanut tree... you promised to marry me... you gave me your heart... you took my heart from me... let's go back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (WILBennett01)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage dialog nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
RECORDINGS:
Louise Bennett, "Under the Coconut Tree" (on WILBennett01)
NOTES [18 words]: Performed on Bennett's track as a dialog.
Bennett says "this is the only Jamaican folksong in waltz time." - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: RcUtCCN

Under the Garden Wall

DESCRIPTION: The singer spies a man and a maid under or over the garden wall. The two have sex, leaving the spy sexually aroused and unfulfilled.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex hiding
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 535-537, "Under the Garden Wall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8382
File: RL535

Under the Greenwood Tree

DESCRIPTION: "In summertime, when flow'rs do spring, And birds sit on the tree, Let Lords and Knights say what they will, There's none so merry as we. There's Will and Moll, with Harry and Doll, and Tom and bonny Bettee... Under the greenwood tree
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1686 (The Dancing Master)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 541-544, "Under the Greenwood Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 53-54, "Oh, How They Frisk It, or, Leather Apron, or Under the Greenwood Tree" (1 tune; partial text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dame Durden" (form)
cf. "Widdicombe Fair (II)" (form)
SAME TUNE:
cf. Bronson's notes to "Robin Hood and the Monk" [Child 119]
NOTES [31 words]: This may not be traditional, but it appears to be the earliest example of this form of "lusty lads and lasses are merry" sort of song, so I put it in here for cross-reference purposes. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ChWII053

Under the Juniper Tree

See The Juniper Tree (File: R540)

Under the Leaves

See The Seven Virgins (The Leaves of Life) (File: OBB111)

Under the Lily-white Daises

See Among the Little White Daisies (File: RitS034)

Under the Moon One Thing I Crave

DESCRIPTION: She says, "without you, nothing I find That can bring contentment to my mind." She complains that he is hard hearted but she'll "be like unto yon dove that's chaste." He says he loves her and he'll cross hills and mountains and the sea to be with her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: love dialog nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1543, "Under the Moon One Thing I Crave" (1 text plus several lines on p. 380, 2 tunes)
Roud #8282
File: GrD81543

Under the Pale Moonlight

See Out In the Moonlight (I Will Love Thee Always) (File: R803)

Under the Rose

See The Grand Conversation Under the Rose (File: BrdGCUtR)

Under the Shade of a Bonny Green Tree

See Tripping Over the Lea [Laws P19] (File: LP19)

Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree (I)

DESCRIPTION: Motion song. "Under the spreading chestnut tree, When I held you on my knee, We were [or "danced"] happy as we could be, Under the spreading chestnut tree."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 517, "Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 44, "Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 57, "The Chest-nut Tree" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down in the Dungeons Seven Feet Deep" (tune)
cf. "Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree (II)"
NOTES [18 words]: Note that this is not Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith," although surely there is common influence. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF517U

Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Under the spreading chestnut tree The village smithy stands, and he Is strong as glue, and he owes not a sou, Week in, week out, he toils as a rule. And children... Play larks with the sparks and make rude remarks." He works, he goes to church, he rests
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: worker children derivative | blacksmith church
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 160, "Under the spreading chestnut tree" (1 text)
Roud #24613
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree (I)"
NOTES [60 words]: Like "Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree (I)," this is clearly a parody of Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith," but it is certainly not the same song/poem. This is a bit odd -- it clearly teaches a moral lesson (work hard and be good), but it does it in somewhat silly language. Did the parents make this up for their children, or did the children do it? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC160A

Under the Willow She's Sleeping (The Willow Tree)

DESCRIPTION: "Under the willow she's laid with care (Sang a lone mother while weeping,) Under the willow with golden hair, My little one's quietly sleeping. Fair, fair and golden hair...." The mother laments that the girl sings and plays no more
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: death love burial mother children
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 484, "Under the Willow" (1 text)
Randolph 711, "The Willow Tree" (1 text, a fragment which Randolph calls "pretty close" to the Foster song, although it has only a few phrases found in the original Foster text)
Saunders/Root-MusicOfStephenCFoster-Vol2, pp. 89-92+427, "Under the Willow She's Sleeping" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2400, p. 161, "Under the Willow She's Sleeping" (2 references)
Roud #7377
SAME TUNE:
The Nation Is Weeping ("Lincoln has fallen! the good and the great," by Louise S. Upham) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 105)
File: R711

Under the Willow Tree

See Bury Me Beneath the Willow (File: R747)

Under Way

DESCRIPTION: "Hurrah my lads, get underway, Right welcome comes the warning." The ship is homeward bound. The singer calls on his comrades to work hard that they may make the voyage safely. They will arrive with banners flying
AUTHOR: George E. Mills? (see Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang)
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (Journal of the Java)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship return home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 142-143, "Under Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27544
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Come, We Come" (another George E. Mills song)
cf. "Song to Captain S. D. Oliver" (another George E. Mills song)
NOTES [26 words]: George E. Mills, who copied and probably wrote this, wrote quite a bit of poetry in whaling journals in the 1850s; see the songs in the cross-references. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: HGam142

Underneath Her Apron

See Gathering Rushes in the Month of May (Underneath Her Apron) (File: DTundrap)

Underneath the Silver Beams of Dear Old Mammy Moon

DESCRIPTION: (I have been unable to find a text of this. The proper title may be "The Moon in the Western Sky.")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 457, "Underneath the Silver Beams of Dear Old Mammy Moon" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Missouri Waltz" (tune)
NOTES [109 words]: The phrase "Mammy Moon" seems to have had a certain strange Camp Fire Girl vogue; note, in the Index, W. Neidlinger's, "Mammy Moon," which opens
De day is pas'en gone en what is done am done.
Ef yo' ain' done, yo' bes' you'll be de suff'rin' one;
Ole time jes goes along en never kin turn back,
Not even ef yo' train should run plumb off de track.
De on-lies'thing ez I kin see dat yo' kin do
Is go ter bed, en sleep en res'de whole night thro;
Ole Mammy Moon'll watch de camp so yo' kin res,'
Happily, this bit of racist tripe doesn't seem to have been perpetuated much. But it is not the song mentioned by Averill; it doesn't mention silver beams. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF457U

Underneth a tre I dyde me set

See A Hunting Carol (At A Place Where I Me Set) (File: MSAHuCar)

Undutiful Daughter, The

See Gosport Beach (The Undutiful Daughter) (File: SWMS127)

Unemployment Insurance

DESCRIPTION: "I'm sitting here waiting for the mail" with my unemployment insurance cheque. "I go into the office to fill out my claim, Praying to Jesus the jobs will be few." The cheque arrives. "Dear Lord.... If you find work for someone I sure hope it's not me!"
AUTHOR: Alton MacLean
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: unemployment political humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 219-221, 256, "Unemployment Insurance" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13999
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Catch of the Season" (theme)
NOTES [83 words]: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland: "Ten weeks of summer work could be sufficient for a person to file. Then -- after the obligatory but painful six-week waiting period -- the cheques would start coming, and they could very well carry a person through the whole winter and even up to the next summer season, but, of course, the claimant was obligated to be 'actively seeking work' all that time. The song suggests that perhaps not everyone operates fully within the spirit of this program." - BS
File: IvDC219

Unfinished Letter, The

See The Last Letter (File: GrMa101)

Unfortunate Boot, The

DESCRIPTION: A blacksmith is courting Jessie when two farmers rap on her window to court her and her sister. He hides, thinking it is her father, but runs off with one of their boots when the sex resumes. In the snow next day one brother had to carry the other home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: sex trick humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan2 315, "The Unfortunate Boot" (2 texts)
Roud #5867
NOTES [121 words]: In the ballad the blacksmith is called "Vulcan." The whole tale then becomes an analog for the Hephaestus/Vulcan, Aphrodite, Ares triangle in which Hephaestus uncovers the illicit affair between the other two and exposes them to public ridicule.
Greig/Duncan2: "Written about 1852" about events the previous year at Pitnycalder in the parish of Aberdour. The notes name the participants. - BS
"The love of Ares and Aphrodite crowned with flowers" occurs first in the Odyssey, told as a tale in book VIII, starting around line 300. It was a popular tale, and came to the Latin-speaking world, e.g., through Ovid, Metamorphoses, book IV, starting around 170. I have to wonder how a folk poet would know about it, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2315

Unfortunate Lass, The

See Bad Girl's Lament, The (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime) [Laws Q26] (File: LQ26)

Unfortunate Man (II), The

See The Warranty Deed (The Wealthy Old Maid) [Laws H24] (File: LH24)

Unfortunate Man, The

DESCRIPTION: The "unfortunate man" has all sorts of troubles. His sweetheart jilts him. He runs off with another man's wife, but is quickly captured. His friends cheat him. Now he can only hope a girl will "think more of my heart than she did of my face."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting separation adultery punishment trick loneliness
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 440, "The Unfortunate Man" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 319-320, "The Unfortunate Man" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 440A)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 187, "The Unfortunate Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, UNFORTU2*
Roud #6367
NOTES [33 words]: Not to be confused with the pop folk song "The Warranty Deed" (sometimes known as "The Unfortunate Man" or "The Very Unfortunate Man") about the poor lawyer and the disassembleable woman. - RBW, PJS
Last updated in version 3.3
File: R440

Unfortunate Miss Bailey

DESCRIPTION: Captain Smith seduces Miss Bailey, who hangs herself. One night her ghost returns and upbraids him, saying she's been ill-used, and the parson won't bury her. The captain gives her money to bribe the sexton, whereupon she vanishes, content.
AUTHOR: George Colman
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Love Laughs at Locksmiths)
KEYWORDS: seduction suicide humorous nightvisit ghost soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 54, "Unfortunate Miss Bailey" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 183-185, "Unfortunate Miss Bailey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 88, "Unfortunate Miss Bailey" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 182, "Unfortunate Miss Bailey" (1 text)
DT, BAILYGHO
Roud #4549
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Hard B 25(1257), "Miss Bailey's Ghost," J. Evans (London), 1780-1812 [only partly legible]; also probably Harding B 25(1869), "Unfortunate Miss Bailey," J. Jennings (London), 1790-1840 [illegible]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hunters of Kentucky" [Laws A25] (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Kola Run (File: PaSe152)
The Golden Days of Good Queen Bess (Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 713-714)
NOTES [264 words]: This song is variously credited to George Colman the elder (1732-1794) and George Colman the younger (1762-1836). As it appears in the latter's play "Love Laughs at Locksmiths," the younger seems a stronger candidate. - RBW
The first four verses of "Unfortunate Miss Bailey" appear... in "Love Laughs at Locksmiths." The comic-opera (piss-poor, BTW; I've read it) premiered on July 25, 1803 at the Haymarket Theatre, London. The "new song" was written by someone only identified as "Risk." It was a curtain closer and the action had no relation to the play.
[A version appears in the] Levy Collection:
Box 049 Item 070 Page 001 Box 049 Item 070 Page 002
Levy Call Number: Box 049, Item 070
Title: Unfortunate Miss Bailey.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: na
Publication: London : M. Kelly at his Musical Saloon Pall Mall
Date: [n.d.]
Form of Composition: strophic with chorus
Instrumentation: piano and voice
First Line: A Captain bold in Hallifax that dwelt in Country Quarters
First Line of Chorus: Oh Miss Bailey unfortunate Miss Baily
Performer: Sung By Mr. Mathews, in the Comic Opera of Love Laughs at Locksmiths.
Subjects: Courtship & love; Suicide; Hangings; Intoxication;
Deceit; Supernatural beings; Briber
The occasionally-sung fifth verse (Marais & Miranda, me, some feller up at Old Songs Fest a few weeks back) is hand written on this copy of the song. There's no hint who wrote it or when or where but (for the little I can tell) it's in quill pen & 19th century.
The play opened in NY as soon as 1807 and the song was also printed and instantly became a pop hit there. - AS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: FR054

Unfortunate Rake (II), The

See The Streets of Laredo [Laws B1] (File: LB01)

Unfortunate Rake, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a young man/woman wrapped in flannel. The young person says that he/she is dying, originally of syphilis but in some versions of wounds or unspecified disease. The young person requests an elaborate military funeral.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1790
KEYWORDS: disease death dying funeral lament whore
FOUND IN: Britain (England(All),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland US(Ap,MA)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1404, "Disordered" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 108, "The Young Girl Cut Down In Her Prime" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 131, "St. James's Hospital, or The Sailor Cut Down in his Prime" (2 texts, 2 tunes, but the "B" text really belongs with "Streets of Laredo")
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 386, "Wrapped in Red Flannels" (1 text, short enough that it might go with any of the "Unfortunate Rake" family or might be independent, but since it starts with a mention of red flannels, I file it here)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 104-105, "The Unfortunate Rake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 150, "The Unfortunate Rake" (1 text, included with the text and tune of "The Streets of Laredo [Laws B1]))
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 217, "Young Man Cut Down In His Prime (St. James Hospital)" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 5, "The Unfortunate Rake" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth Lodewick, "'The Unfortunate Rake" and His Descendants,'" article published 1955 in _Western Folklore_; republished on pp. 87-98 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009
Roud #2
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "The Young Sailor Cut Down in His Prime" (on FieldTrip1)
Texas Gladden, "One Morning in May" (AFS, 1941; on LCTreas)
A. L. Lloyd, "St. James's Hospital" (on Lloyd2, Lloyd3)
Pete Seeger, "St. James Hospital" (on PeteSeeger16)
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y4:039, "The Unfortunate Lad," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] (tune & meter, plot) and references there
cf. "The Bad Girl's Lament (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime) [Laws Q26] (tune & meter, plot)
cf. "Dying Crapshooter's Blues" (theme, floating verses)
cf. "The Sailor Cut Down in His Prime" (tune & meter, plot)
cf. "My Home's in Montana" (tune, floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Unfortunate Lad
The Whores of the City
NOTES [685 words]: Syphilis first appeared in Europe in epidemic form, with devastating effects, in the early 1500s. It was often treated with compounds of mercury, mentioned in some versions of the song.
Clearly this is the ancestral ballad to "The Bad Girl's Lament", "St. James Infirmary", "The Whore's Lament", "Streets of Laredo", "The Dying Marine", etc. -PJS
Silber & Silber subtitle their text "St. James Hospital," since the name is mentioned in the text. This title, however, seems to be associated primarily with the "Bad Girl's Lament."
Greenway, p. 208, writes "The Irish original had the Rake dying of venereal disease most incongruously in London's St. James' Hospital, wich had been founded in commemoration of fourteen chaste, honest, but leprous maidens.
Archaeological findings indicate that syphilis had a long history in the Americas, but what seem to be the oldest cases in Europe date from 1494-1495, during a French incursion into what is now Italy (Kohn, p. 106). It has been speculated that Columbus's sailors brought it back from the New World after their extensive relations with the women of the Carribean, though this has always been disputed; in 2023, a group claimed to have evidence of syphilis in Europe before 800 -- Columbus almost certainly brought something back, but it may not have been syphilis.
At least a few versions refer to dosing syphilis with "arsenic and salts of white mercury." Mercury as a cure is older, as Paul notes; according to Le Couteur/Burreston, p. 187, the earliest use of mercury against syphilis apparently goes back to about the beginning of the sixteenth century. It was a cure nearly as bad as the disease: "[M]ercury could hardly be considered a magic bullet for syphilis, as it often killed its patients. Victims died of heart failure, dehydration, and suffocation during the process of being heated in an oven while breathing mercury fumes. If one survived this procedure, typical symptoms of mercury poisoning -- loss of hair and teeth, uncontrolled drooling, anemia, depression, and kidney and liver failure -- took their toll" (Le Couteur/Burreston, pp, 186-187).
Consumption of mercury salts was perhaps slightly better, but not much. The use of the "corrosive sublimate" of mercury (i.e. HgCl₂) as a treatment for syphilis goes back to the late fifteenth century (Emsley-Blocks, pp. 255-256). Henry VIII and Robert Burns are among those found to have had high levels of mercury in their bodies at the time of their death, possibly due to treatments for venereal disease (Emsley-Blocks, p. 257). Emsley-Elements, pp. 15-19, offers evidence that Charles II also died of mercury poisoning, although in this case he does not suspect a treatment for venereal disease. (No idea why not, given Charles II's lifestyle. But Charles was an avid amateur scientist; it has been suggested that he might have absorbed the mercury in the course of chemical experiments; Fraser, p. 450. His death was rather sudden for that, though.)
Arsenic was also used in various medicines during the nineteenth century and earlier, some of them effective but mostly, like mercury, more dangerous than helpful. Arsenic as a true remedy for syphilis came into use in 1909, when Paul Ehrlich found arsphenamine (Salvarsan) to be effective; it remained in use until the coming of penicillin (Emsley-Blocks, p. 42; Timbrell, p. 224). It sometimes had dangerous side effects (Emsley-Elements, p. 108), but it sure beat syphillis!
Ehrlich had earlier discovered dyes which stained some cells and not others; he thought it would therefore be possible to find the "magic bullet" which could attack bacteria or diseased cells while leaving ordinary cells alone. (He eventually called this "chemotherapy.") He didn't have much luck; arsphenamine was his #606, which failed to do any good against the target organisms (trypanosomes) -- but a few years later was found to be effective against spirochaetes, the syphilis organism (Porter, pp. 204-205). This obviously dates the arsenic and mercury stanzas before 1909, when the first truly effective (although still rather toxic) cure came out. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: VWL108

Unfortunate Shepherdess, The

See The Young Shepherd (I) (File: CrMa108)

Unfortunate Swain, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes to a meadow to pick a rose and asks why he must "love a girl that will break my heart." He will love only her. "He that loves an unkind maid, I am sure he strives against the stream" When she dies he will still think about her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (recording, Jasper Smith)
KEYWORDS: love separation death ship flowers grief floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
Roud #60
RECORDINGS:
Jasper Smith, "Down In The Meadow" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 22(312), "The Unfortunate Swain" ("Down in a meadow fair and gay"), unknown, n.d.
NOTES [173 words]: The description is from broadside Bodleian Harding B 22(312).
Roud puts this with "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" [Laws P25]. I agree that it shares floating verses with the family of songs Roud lumps together under that number. If I had only the Jasper Smith version on Voice11 I would have done the same. The broadside Bodleian Harding B 22(312), has (almost) the same first verse and shares the remaining two verses of Smith's version including one that I haven't seen among the floaters:
A ship there is that sails the sea.
She's loaded deep as deep can be,
But not so deep as the love I'm in.
I care not whether I sink or swim.
The broadside makes it clear that the man of the couple is the singer. It ends
When my love is dead and at her rest
I'll think of her whom I love best.
To wrap her up in linen strong
I'll think of her when dead and gone.
Smith's version seems so likely to have come directly from this or a closely related broadside that I think I am justified in making the broadside and its derivative a separate song. - BS
File: RcUSDitM

Ung Sjoman Forlustar Sig, En (A Young Seaman Enjoys Himself)

DESCRIPTION: Swedish shanty. Sailor meets a maid in a meadow, suggests that they make a bed of roses. By morning the roses have faded, and with them the girl's beauty. She begs him to marry her anyway, he refuses saying his ship is ready to sail.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (Gavle)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty sailor courting betrayal abandonment beauty
FOUND IN: Sweden
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 530-532, "En Ung Sjoman Forlustar Sig" (2 texts-Swedish & English, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Trooper and Maid" [Child 299] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sjomans Visa Fram Bohuslan (Finnish or Swedish version)
Ein Junger Sesmann Schlenderte (German version)
NOTES [39 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas took this from Sternvall's "Sang under Segel", and added a note that the oldest known written version is from Gavle, 1840. He mentions several versions of this found in various Scandinavian countries. - SL
File: Hugi530

Ungrateful Knight and Fair Flower of Northumberland, The

See The Fair Flower of Northumberland [Child 9] (File: C009)

Unhappy Jeremiah (The Brats of Jeremiah)

DESCRIPTION: The singer, Jeremiah, takes a wife. But soon she turns her attention from her husband to a lodger. She bears two children, but "they did not look... one bit like Jeremiah." At last she runs off with the lodger, "and left the brats for Jeremiah"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: family children husband wife infidelity
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 134, "The Brats of Jeremiah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2403, pp. 161-162, "Unhappy Jeremiah, a Highly Popular Comic Song" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 69 and #3/62, p. 44, "Unhappy Jeremiah" (1 text, followed by a sort of answer, "Happy Hezekiah," beginning, "Old Jeremiah you have heard so oft relate his troubles")
ST FSC134 (Partial)
Roud #4610
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)" (plot)
cf. "Hush-a-Bye, Baby" (plot)
NOTES [34 words]: Although rare in tradition, this song seems to have been very popular in print; indeed, the broadsides listed in Wolf-AmericanSongSheets bear the title "Unhappy Jeremiah A Highly Popular Comic Song." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSC134

Unhappy Man, The

See The Very Unhappy Man (File: RcTVUM)

Unhappy Transport, The

DESCRIPTION: "Draw near a while my loving friends And lend lis'ning ear." Singer William Dale was brought up "an honest farmer's son" and apprenticed to a tinsmith, but fell in with bad companions, robbed a house, was transported; released, he returns to his mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland,)
KEYWORDS: transportation return reunion mother
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 96-98, "The Unhappy Transport" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 68, "The Unhappy Transport" (1 text, with a tune on p. 543); what appears to be a much-expanded text is on pp. 430-436, "The Unhappy Transport" (1 text, with a tune on p. 601)
Roud #V22672
File: AnFa096

Unicorn

DESCRIPTION: The orphaned singer is "going home to the old country" as a sailor on Unicorn. It is hard work and hard bread for twelve days to Liverpool. At Glasgow "girls were very kind ... I bid farewell To the darned old Unicorn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: rambling sea ship sailor floatingverses
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 149, "Unicorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS149 (Partial)
Roud #1844
NOTES [32 words]: This song is item dD46 in Laws's Appendix II. - BS
Although this seems to be an independent song, I've given it the keyword "floatingverses" because so many of the lines are commonplace. - RBW
File: CrNS149

Union Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: "When first I arrived in Quirindi, those girls they jumped with joy, Saying one unto another, 'Here comes a Union boy.'" A girl falls in love with him. Her father says that he was once a scab. She says he has joined the union and is reformed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956
KEYWORDS: labor-movement courting
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 256-257, "The Union Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 117, "The Union Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, pp. 345-346, "The Unnion Boy" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids of Simcoe (Ontario)" (tune, floating lyrics)
cf. "True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man)" (floating lyrics)
File: MA256

Union from St John's, The

DESCRIPTION: On (December 18) a heavy storm drives the Union ashore. A rescue team boards the next morning and finds "three frozen seamen lashed to the pumps while six in her cabin lay cold."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine); 19C (broadside, LOCSinging as114210)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship storm wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Peacock, pp. 978-980, "The Union from St John's" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 112, "The Wreck of the Union" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 273-280, "The Union of Saint John" (2 texts plus numerous fragments)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 232-233, "The Union of St John" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Roud #4371
RECORDINGS:
Michael Aylward, "The Union from St John's" (on PeacockCDROM)
Mrs. Wallace Kinslow, "The Union from St John's" (on PeacockCDROM)
Francis O'Brien, "The Wreck of the St. John" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as114210, "Union of St. Johns," L. Deming (New York), 19C
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Brig Union
NOTES [427 words]: Broadside LOCSinging as114210, as well as one cited by Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou as being printed in Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, have the site as Mt Desert Rock. There is a Mount Desert Rock in Maine which has been the site of a number of wrecks; there have also been a number of [ships named] Union with St John's registry wrecked; I cannot find any Union wrecked at Mount Desert Rock, or wrecked around February 9 (the date in the broadside), or November 18 or January 14 (the date in Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou versions A and B, respectively). [Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine's versions make it February 9. - RBW]
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine: "nobody knew it, but only knew someone else who used to know it. [One of the three] leaders in popularity among the shipwreck songs of the Maine coast ... About 1904, Mr Walter M Hady ... learned that the Union was a brig, wrecked off the Maine coast at least as early as 1837 .... [One broadside] may yet show that the wreck of the Union dates back into the eighteen-twenties." ( pp. 270, 276, 280). Unfortunately the broadside at America Singing is undated (printed by L Deming, No 62 Hanover Street, Boston). It would be nice to be able to date it early enough to rule out the Dec 21, 1884 wreck of the schooner Union, registered at St John, NB, at Mt Desert Island en route from New York to St John. (source: Northern Shipwrecks Database). - BS
I can't find any ships that fit, either (O'Neill, pp. 1034-1035, mentions hundreds of ships which visited St. John's, but no Union), but with the date and the place both in doubt, how would we know if we had a fit? I wonder, too, if this might not be a case of two stories getting combined -- possibly by the confusion of St. John, New Brunswick, and St. John's, Newfoundland. Union seems to have been a popular name for Newfoundland ships; Galgay/McCarthy1, p. 92, lists a sealing brig under J. Delaney which went to the ice for the first time on March 1, 1834 and was never seen again; Galgay/McCarthy2, p. 111, mentions a brig from Harbour Grace wrecked at Sprout Cove on December 2, 1872. It's interesting to see that Newfoundland, which had no labour unions until much later and which hated the idea of union with Canada, was so fond of "Union" as a ship name.
Which perhaps makes it possible that "Union" is a distortion of the correct name. "Unicorn" might be a possibility; also, a ship from the Maritimes originally named Queen of the Fleet (yes, really) was later renamed the Uniao although that was too late to be our ship. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: Pea978

Union Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer oversees a shearer talking with a girl. He is trying to con her into sleeping with him, pointing out that he can get rich as a scab during a strike. [Remainder omitted because Meredith & Anderson refused to print it]
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: scab money seduction
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 201-202, "The Union Girl" (1 text)
File: MA201A

Union Man

DESCRIPTION: "I think I sing that little song, Hope I say it nothing wrong, Hope my song she bring good cheer.... Union man! Union man! He must have full dinner can...." (John) Lewis demands a good contract. There is a strike; the workers win; the singer gets druk
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: mining labor-movement strike humorous drink
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 393-394, "Union Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7723
File: KPL393

Union of Saint John, The

See The Union from St John's (File: Pea978)

Union RIver Drivers, The

DESCRIPTION: "Here's Johnny Archer, that blacksmith of skill... And the top of his head like the full moon doth shine." A description of those on the river crew, mixing compliments and mild sarcasm
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Ives-LarryGorman)
KEYWORDS: lumbering river moniker nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 90, 201, "The Union River Drivers" (1 text, highly composite)
Roud #25115
NOTES [33 words]: Ives lists this song (or, rather, conflated set of stanzas from many informants) as being by Larry Gorman, but I wonder. It's just a moniker song, with very little of the usual Gorman acid wit. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LaGoURDr

Union Soldier's Alphabet, The

DESCRIPTION: "A is our army so true and so brave." The song cites Inspection, a hiding Lieutenant, Muster, Uncle Sam's ugly conscript, Veteran,.... The chorus says "I'd buy me a shirt if I had a greenback... I'd go for a soldier the bounty to jump"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest)
KEYWORDS: army battle Civilwar war humorous nonballad soldier wordplay | alphabet
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 19-20, 1863 - Battle of Chickamauga
September-November 1863 - Confederate siege of Chattanooga and Union victory
Dec 15-16, 1864 - Battle of Nashville
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 181, "The Alphabet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21721
NOTES [337 words]: Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest has "F is the flogging that [Union Major General George H] Thomas gave [Confederate Major General John Bell] Hood" at the Battle of Chickamauga[?]. While Hood was wounded at Chickamauga, the Confederates won. If the reference is to Chattanooga, Hood was recovering from his amputation and was not in that battle. - BS
The reference to Chickamauga is just barely understandable and makes some slight sense. Braxton Bragg was the Confederate commander and W. S. Rosecrans the head of the Union army. But an assault headed by James Longstreet and spearheaded by Hood's division broke the Union forces in two. Rosecrans fled the field with half the army; Thomas took charge of the remaining Union forces, holding off the overwhelming Confederate attacks and earning the nickname "The Rock of Chickamauga." So although the Confederates beat the Union forces, one could perhaps argue that Thomas beat (off) Hood.
As Ben notes, Hood was recovering from wounds at the time of Chattanooga -- and Longstreet's forces, including Hood's division, weren't at Chattanooga anyway; they were trying to force Ambrose Burnside out of Nashville. So Chattanooga cannot be meant.
It is much more reasonable to assume that the reference is to the Battle of Nashville in late 1864. Hood, now in command of the army that had been Bragg's, had invaded Tennessee with an army that he had done a fine job of ruining. Thomas, assigned by General Sherman to guard Tennessee, smashed the Rebel army completely; it was the last real field battle of the war, and it destroyed Hood's Confederate force. Hood resigned, but the war, already all but over, from that time on was irretrievably lost.
This doesn't appear to be the only "Union Alphabet"; Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2408, p. 162, "Union Alphabet" (1 reference) begins "A is for Anderson, both gallant and brave" (referring to Robert Anderson, commander of Fort Sumter); this appears to be a separate song. The tune is listed as "Continental March." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: MooSW181

Union Volunteer, The

See The Bold Privateer [Laws O32] (File: LO32)

Union We'll Maintain, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye loyal sons of Ulster, why slumber and be still? Once more your rebel foemen demand a Home Rule Bill." "Had they an Irish Parliament, 'twere '98 again" "Forbid it ... the Union we'll maintain." Remember Bloody Mary; remember Derry and the Boyne.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 19, "The Union We'll Maintain" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Home Rule for Ireland" (subject: the quest for Home Rule)
cf. "A Loyal Song Against Home Rule" (subject: opposition to Home Rule)
NOTES [165 words]: William Ewart Gladstone became British prime minister in 1868 and supported Home Rule for Ireland. He introduced his first Home Rule Bill, which was defeated, in 1885. His second Home Rule Bill was defeated in 1893. (source: "Home Rule" on the Irelandseye site) - BS
The invocation to remember Bloody Mary is, at best, pretty improbable. Mary Tudor (reigned 1553-1558) was a Catholic who did violently punish Protestants, but
1. She ruled very little of Ireland; it was not until Elizabeth came along that large parts of Ireland were conquered
2. There were effectively no Protestants in Ireland at the time
3. Mary Tudor did not rule Scotland, and most Ulster Protestants were Scots brought in in the aftermath of Elizabeth's conquest
For the siege of (London)derry, see the notes to "The Shutting of the Gates of Derry." For the Battle of the Boyne, see "The Battle of the Boyne (I)." For extensive background on home rule, and the opposition to it, see "A Loyal Song Against Home Rule." - RBW
File: OrLa019

Union, The

DESCRIPTION: "How did they pass the Union?" Perjury and fraud. Pitt and Castlereagh used pitchcap, bayonet, gibbet and rack. "How thrive we by the Union?" Ruined trade, wealth decayed and slavery. "And shall it last?" "All Ireland thunders, No!" We'll conquer again
AUTHOR: Sliabh Cuilinn (said to be John O'Hagan, according to Sparling, _Irish Minstrelsy_, pp. 505,508)(source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1801 - Act of Union of Ireland and Great Britain
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 151, "The Union" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [456 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "This piece was published in The Nation [; it was composed "around the 1840s or 50s"].... The Act of Union of Ireland and Great Britain was passed in the Irish Parliament on the 1st of August 1800.... Its passage was assured by the exercise of an extraordinary amount of bribery and corruption, even for that time and place."
"Pitch capping": filling a cap with boiling pitch and putting it on a peasant's head. (source: "The Search for Weapons" in 1798 Rebellion at Rathregan National School site). [This is, in fact, the milder form of pitch capping: Kee, p. 98, describes the more extreme form, in which the pitch was allowed to harden slightly, then set fire. This naturally increased the torture greatly, and generally caused permanent scarring of the scalp and loss of hair. It was not generally fatal, but even George W. Bush would surely call it torture. - RBW]
Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy p. 505: re John O'Hagan (1822-1890) "The splendid ringing songs and heartful poems which appeared in the Nation over the nom de plume of 'Sliabh Cuilinn' have often roused inquiry as to their author, but although attributed with great probability to Judge O'Hagan, have never been publicly acknowledged by him."
The 1801 "Act of Union" was supported by Pitt and Robert Stewart (Lord Castlereagh). Pitt was Prime Minister and Castlereach was his Itish chief secretary. The Act formed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" and abolished the Dublin Parliament. (sources: Act of Union on the Spartacus Educational site site) - BS
We should note that the song is inaccurate in its charges -- though the true story is hardly better. The British did use torture (pitch-capping, half-hanging) in suppressing the 1798 rebellion (though the Irish too committed their share of atrocities, notably at Scullabogue).
But, just as no violence was used to pass the Union of England and Scotland a century earlier, no torture was involved in passing the Irish Act of Union -- because there was no need for popular support. The English simply had to bribe enough members of the Irish parliament to pull it off. The bribes were huge -- viceroy Cornwallis would confess, "I despise and hate myself for every hour engaging in such work" (Kee, p. 159; Golway, p. 90; for the general chicanery involved, see those sources or Fry/Fry, pp. 209-212 and after). But Cornwallis and (especially) Castlereigh bought enough peers to eventually pass Union.
It is ironic to note that, around 1770, the American colonies had desperately wanted Union (that is, a place in Parliament), and had been denied it; the Irish despised Union, and had it forced upon them. British colonial policy was an amazing thing.... - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: Moyl151

Unite and Be Free

DESCRIPTION: "The right hand of friendship to you I'll extend" no matter what Trade or Religion if you love Union. Reject the kings and "dupes of a priest" who say "divide and conquer": "Hibernians were made to unite and be free"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (_Paddy's Resource_(Belfast), according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political freedom
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 23, "Unite and Be Free" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [21 words]: From the date, this presumably was a reference to the United Irishmen who were largely responsible for the 1798 rebellion. - RBW
File: Moyl023

United Lovers, The

See James and Flora (Flora and Jim, The United Lovers) (File: Pea190)

United Order, The

DESCRIPTION: "Forty years ago and over, God's command was giv'n, Consecrate your earthly substance, learn the law of heav'n." "'Unite together, join the order' is the call today." "We're a little band of workers striving with our might To obey the prophet Brigham"
AUTHOR: Samuel Clarence? (Source: Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah's informant Mary E. Hoyt)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: work religious
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #208, "The United Order" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 90-91, "The United Order" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, p. 325, "The United Order" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10811
NOTES [110 words]: When Joseph Smith was killed and Brigham Young took over the (largest faction of) the Mormon church, he faced the problem of how to avoid the sort of persecution that led to Smith's lynching. His solution was to migrate to a region he thought no one else would want -- the Great Salt Lake. The region was so inhospitable that it wasn't really possible for individuals to survive there; they had to cooperate more than Americans tend to like. This song appears to describe one of the communal groups that arose out of Young's migration.
According to Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, there was actually a place called "Orderville" that followed these precepts. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hubb208

Unknown Pine Log Rider, The

DESCRIPTION: Joe Muldoon is trapped by a log drive but a stranger rides a pine log to rescue him from "the rushing roaring timber pack." He "hurtled Muldoon upon the land ... Then disappeared and left no name"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: rescue river recitation logger
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 177-178, "The Unknown Pine Log Rider" (1 text)
Roud #1966
File: IvNB177

Unlucky Digger, The

DESCRIPTION: "We've been somehow left out in the cold In these new schemes of class legislation. We are unlucky diggers, we're told, Good for nothing but heavy taxation." The singer catalogs the troubles of his life and declares that diggers won't be oppressed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Hokitika "Lantern," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes political nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 65, "The Unlucky Digger" (1 text)
NOTES [24 words]: As printed, this has no stanza divisions, and no tune is indicated; I strongly doubt that it was either a song or a traditional recitation. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: BaRo065

Unmooring

See The Boatswain's Call (File: HGam108)

Unquiet Grave, The [Child 78]

DESCRIPTION: After a young man dies/is killed, his lover mourns by his grave for a year and a day and beyond. This prevents the dead man from resting. He comes to his sweetheart begging for release
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1832 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.17(460))
KEYWORDS: ghost mourning freedom
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,NE,SE) Britain(England(All),Scotland) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (43 citations):
Child 78, "The Unquiet Grave" (7 texts)
Bronson 78, "The Unquiet Grave" (43 versions+9, mostly tunes only, in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 78, "The Unquiet Grave" (5 versions: #10, #27, #35, #36, #41)
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 202-203, "Cold Blows the Wind; or, The Unquiet Grave" (1 text, 1 tune, from different informants) {Bronson's #12}
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 76, "Cold Blows the Winter's Wind" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 370)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 136, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 50-55, "The Unquiet Grave (I, II, III)" (3 texts, 3 tunes plus an excerpt on pp. 119-120)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 24, "How Cauld Those Winds" (1 fragment, which appears to be this although Gatherer's informant treated it as a whaling song)
Hamer-GarnersGay, p. 56, "Cold Blows the Wind (The Unquiet Grave)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 29, "Cold Blows the Wind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #6, "Cold Blows the Wind, Sweet-Heart" (1 text, 1 tune, the last three verses being a non-traditional addition) {Bronson's #43}
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #130, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #21}
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 10, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #42}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 232-233, "Cold Blows the Wind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2, pp. 184-186, ""The Unquiet Grave (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's }
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 22, pp. 157-160, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 24, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 58, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 10, "The Unquiet Grave" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #36, #31}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 154-155, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #36}
Peacock, pp. 410-412, "The Unquiet Grave" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 10, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 111, "The Auld Song From Cow Head" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 262-263, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 51-52, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 34, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 32, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 31, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 24, "The Unquiet Grave (or Cold Blows the Wind)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #35}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 30, "The Unqiuet Grave, or Cold Blows the Wind" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #40}
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 34-35, "Cold Blows the Wind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 146, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 30, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 32, "The Unquiet Grave" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Hirsh-MedievalLyric-MiddleEnglishLyricsBalladsCarols #44, "The Unquiet Grave" (4 texts [3 from Child, 1 from Niles])
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 40-41, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #36}
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 218, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 31-32, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 26-27, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Laura L. Buchanan, "Child 78: An Explication of ''The Unquiet Grave,'" Vol. XXXVII, No. 1 (WInter/Spring 1990), pp. 15-24, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text, Child's A, with exposition)
DT 78, UNQUIGR1* UNQUIGR2*
ADDITIONAL: Charlotte Sophia Burne, editor, Shropshire Folk-Lore (London, 1883 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 542-543,651, "Cold Blows the Wind" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #371, "The Unquiet Grave" (1 text)
Roud #51
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "The Auld Ballad from Cow Head" (on NFOBlondahl04) [fragment]
Jim Keeping, "The Unquiet Grave" (on PeacockCDROM)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Unquiet Grave" (on NLCR16)
Jean Ritchie, "The Unquiet Grave" (on JRitchie02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(460), "The Weeping Lover," W. Wright (Birmingham), 1820-1831; also 2806 c.17(461), "The Weeping Lover"; Firth c.18(123), Harding B 11(634), "Cold Blows the Wind"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Twa Brothers" [Child 49] (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Wind Blew Up, the Wind Blew Down
The Resurrected Sweetheart
The Green Grave
The Restless Dead
The Restless Grave
Charles Graeme
Cold Falling Drops of Dew
Cold Blows the Winter's Winds
NOTES [215 words]: Bronson speculates that a version of this inspired the carol "There blows a colde wynd todaye, todaye" (c. 1500; in MS Bodl. 7683=Ashmole 1379; Brown/Robbins Index #3525; for texts see Greene, #45, pp. 105-107, #45; Stevick-MEL 93; Luria/Hoffman #166, though the latter two offer noticeably different texts of the same unique original). I must say that I find this a stretch; the similarities are slight indeed. Greene says that "There blows a colde wynd" appears to be a parody of a secular song on the grounds of internal evidence, offering this as the most likely source of the parody.
The notion that excessive mourning (usually meaning mourning for more than a year and a day) results in the ghost being unable to rest is at least hinted at in several other songs, the most noteworthy being "The Wife of Usher's Well" [Child 79].
The grief cutoff of a "twelvemonth and a day" is interesting. Grief is of course normal, but it usually fades to a manageable level with time. If it fails to do so, an official psychological disorder, "Prolonged Grief Disorder," may be diagnosed. When does grief cross the divide from normal to disordered? One year (DSM-5-TR, pp. 322-323). Thus this song, and the "twelvemonth and a day" rule, dovetail quite precisely with normal human grief patterns. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C078

Unreconstructed Rebel, The

See The Good Old Rebel (The Song of the Rebel Soldier) (File: Wa193)

Unseaworthy Ship, The

DESCRIPTION: "The doomed ship weighs anchor, out she is bound, With cargo too heavy and timbers unsound." "Honour to Plimsoll, his labors will save Thousands of brave men from watery graves." The singer recalls lost ships and calls for the passage of Plimsoll's bill
AUTHOR: "J. Smith, Denholme, near Bingley" (source: broadside Firth c.16(408)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1900 (broadside Bodleian Firth c.26(223)=Firth c.26(251))
KEYWORDS: ship disaster political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 128, "The Unseaworthy Ship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V20171
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.26(223)=Firth c.26(251), "The un-seaworthy ship," T. Pearson (Manchester), 1850-1899; also Firth c.12(122) (unknown, n.d.); Firth c.16(408) (unknown, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Driven from Home" (tune)
NOTES [141 words]: Samel Plimsoll (1824-1898) was MP for Derby 1868-1880, and was deeply concerned with ship safety. He promoted various laws on the subject, but the one that "stuck" came in 1876, when the "Plimsoll Mark" was adopted to show the "Plimsoll Line" -- that is, to show whether a ship was overloaded or not: if the Plimsoll Mark (which you can easily see online) was submerged below the safe line, then the ship was overloaded and was forbidden from sailing.
The idea proved so useful that ships still have Plimsoll Marks to this day, and I even heard about a recent lawsuit over whether the Mark can be trademarked. (Such is the state of copyright law that, even though it is self-evident that the Plimsoll Mark is out of copyright, the company using the Mark stopped making T-shirts with it just because it was too expensive to fight the case..) - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: PaSe1128

Unser Salwi hot en Kaldi (Our Salome Has a Cold)

DESCRIPTION: German. "Unser Salwi hot en Kaldi, Hot en hilzni Pischtol." Chorus (nonsense): "Ludel lei, lei, ludell lei, lei...." "Our Salome has a cole, has a wooden pistol." Other verses are unrelated, about eating peanuts, and about a dreadful mother-in-law
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad food
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 102-103, "Unser Salwi hot en Kaldi (Our Salome Has a Cold)" (1 German text plus non-poetic English translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL102

Unsuccessful Swell, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing now of a fine young swell Who in a ship did sail here," hoping to get rich in the gold fields. He can't even get a good price for the tools he bought. He grows poorer and poorer. Even when he works a good place, he has no luck
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)? (source: AndersonStory)
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: gold mining travel hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 32-34, "The Unsuccessful Swell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-GoldrushSongster, pp. 70-71, "The Unsuccessful Swell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 17-19, "The Unsuccessful Swell" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [29 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: AnSt032

Until I Die

DESCRIPTION: "I'm going to sit in the humble chair." "Going to rock from side to side(x2) Until I die" (repeated several times). "I'm going to rock side by side until I die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 7, pp. 62-63, "Until I Die" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [51 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text.
Parrish says "this shout" was "repeated several times." She recognizes that "ring shout" in this context is "a semi-religious survival of African dancing -- not a vocal performance as the name implies" (pp. 62, 13). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Parr007

Until I Found the Lord

DESCRIPTION: "I moaned and I moaned, I moaned and I moaned, Until I found the Lord. My soul, I couldn't rest contented, my soul, I couldn't rest contended until I found the Lord." "I prayed and I prayed, Lord...." "I cried and I cried...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 254, "I Couldn't Rest Contented Until I Found the Lord" (1 text)
Roud #16141
File: KiWa254I

Until the Sea Give Up Its Dead

DESCRIPTION: "And oh dear friends 'tis I would be Out there with you beneath the sea, Sleeping soundly, sleeping like gentemen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: death sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 125, "And oh dear friends 'tis I would be" (1 short text)
Roud #25531
File: KSUC125C

Unto Me the Time Drew Near

See My Dearest Dear (File: SKE40)

Unto the Hills (Psalm 121)

DESCRIPTION: "I to the hills will lift mine eyes, From whence doth come mine aid? My safety cometh from the Lord, Who heav'n and earth hath made." "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills." "Behold, he that keepeth Israel, He slumbers not nor sleeps"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Presbyterian Hymnal)
KEYWORDS: religious | sleep hills
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 108, "Behold he that keeps Israel" (1 fragment)
Roud #25515
NOTES [209 words]: The text quoted here is from a Presbyterian hymn book of 1899, but I am far from sure this is the exact text Alice Kane would have heard. It is for this reason, too, that I do not list an author. I have seen several paraphrases of Psalm 121, all similar enough that they might have been Kane's source, given how short her fragment is and the imperfection of human memory.
Psalm 121 is a "Song of Ascents" or a "Song of Steps"; the first four of its eight verses as given by the King James Bible are:
[1] I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
[2] My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
[3] He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
[4] Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
This seems to be a pretty good translation of the Hebrew; the New Revised Standard Version is almost identical except for modernizing the English. The commentaries don't have much to say about it; there are no major textual or interpretive issues. The Jewish Study Bible does note the curious fact that, of the fifteen or so Ascents psalms, it is the only one headlined "A Song for Ascents" rather "A Song of Ascents" and notes the repeated use of the root "to guard."
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC108B

Unwilling Bride, The

See The Holly Twig [Laws Q6]; also The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: LQ06)

Up

DESCRIPTION: It's Spring. The birds united in song are Up. Plants, flowers, weeds are Up. Trees, brambles, crops, frogs, cocks all are Up. "The progress of this rising rage, No human power can stop. Then Tyrants, cease your war to wage, For Nature will be -- Up"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 (_Northern Star_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: flowers animal bird nonballad political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 77, "Up" (1 text)
NOTES [102 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "The word 'Up' was a password of the United Irishmen." - BS
Unfortunately for the United Irish, in 1798 not only were the plants, flowers, trees, weeds, frogs and whatnot not up, but neither were most of the Irish. Large numbers had been disarmed (and they were going to be armed only with pikes anyway). Their leadership was imprisoned. The French came too late and in numbers too small. The rebelion fizzled almost completely; see, e.g., the notes to "The Shan Van Voght," "Boulavogue," "The Boys of Wexford," "General Monroe," and "Edward (III) (Edward Fitzgerald)." - RBW
File: Moyl077

Up a Hickory

DESCRIPTION: "Up a hickory, down a pine, Split my breeches right behind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: clothes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 83, "Up a Hickory" (1 text)
File: ZiZa083B

Up a Tree

DESCRIPTION: Once I had friends that "came to dine and drank my wine." Now that I'm poor "when they see me on the Clyde They pass me on the other side." "While you have it keep it, or you'll soon be 'up a tree'." If I recover, "preserve me from my friends"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.27(66))
KEYWORDS: poverty money drink abandonment hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast 63, p. 3, ("Once I could drive my four-in-hand") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 668, "Up a Tree" (2 fragments)
Roud #6095
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.27(66), "Up a Tree" ("You see before you one who's been in life through many a changing scene"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1868
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. " Hard Up and Broken Down" (theme) and references there
cf. "Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime" (theme)
cf. "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (theme)
cf. "If But One Heart Be True" (theme)
NOTES [38 words]: Greig/Duncan3 entries are fragments; broadside Bodleian Firth b.27(66) is the basis for the description. - BS
"Passing by on the other side" is pretty clearly a reference to the parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:30-35. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3668

Up a Wide and Lonely Glen

See Queen Among the Heather (File: K141)

Up an' Waur Them A', Willie (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Up an' waur them a', Willie ... Up an' shak' your pistol fit, An' tak her fae them a' ... Up an' kiss a bonny lass"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1268, "Up an' Waur Them A', Willie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6790
NOTES [129 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan6 fragment.
Roud assigns this the same number as Johnson, Scots Musical Museum 2 pp. 195-196 (No. 188), which I take to be the same Jacobite song as "Up an' Waur Them A', Willie (I).". Hogg says of that song that it was "apparently made to the favourite old tune of 'Up an' waur them a', Willie'...." Greig/Duncan6 says,"Stenhouse quotes from an older version of the words [than Johnson or Hogg]; the above may be from it." Since there is no "bonny lass" in the Jacobite songs I can't bring myself to lump this together with "Up an' Waur Them A', Willie (I)." The chorus of the Jacobite song is "Up and war them a' Willie, Up and war them a', Willie, Up and sell your sour milk, And dance, and ding them a', Willie." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61268

Up Anchor for Home Boys

DESCRIPTION: "Up anchor for home, boys, our cruise is complete, The billows are dancing our good ship to greet, Far away... Smiles a home of bliss in the land of the west." Other lands have their pleasures, but there is nothing like returning home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (Journal of the Vernon)
KEYWORDS: sailor travel return home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 117, "Up Anchor for Home Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27520
NOTES [119 words]: In a small way, this song perhaps indicates the continuity of history and of folk song. According to Huntington, the master of the Vernon on the voyage in which this song was taken down, was Luther Little. I assume that this is the man for whom the schooner Luther Little was named, and it was the story of the Luther Little and the Hesper that inspired Lois Lyman's modern song "Wiscasset Schooners." (One of the very few modern songs that I actually sing; it's a very effective story of the ships' sad fate.) Incidentally, it's worth googling "wiscasset schooners"; there are a lot of interesting photos out there. Some of those sites might have more about Luther Little the man; I haven't checked. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HGam117

Up and Doun the Street

See Up the Streets and Down the Streets (File: FlBr189)

Up and Down Jamaica Street

See Pop Goes the Weasel (File: R556)

Up and Down Jamaica Town

DESCRIPTION: jump-rope rhyme. "Up and down Jamaica Town, A house made out of glass. I stepped into a lady's house And there she made me laugh."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Follore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope home
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #580, "Up and down Jamaica Town" (1 text)
File: AJRR580

Up and Down the Ladder Wall

See Up the Ladder, Down the Wall (File: AJRV026)

Up and Down the Railroad Track

DESCRIPTION: "Up and down the railroad track And halfway swing around... Do-si-do my darling Miss with the white slippers on." "The higher up the cherry tree...." "Wish I had a needle and thread...." And miscellaneous other floating verses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914
KEYWORDS: dancing floatingverses love horse
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 100, "Up and Down the Railroad Track" (1 text)
Roud #11091
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jubilee" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [59 words]: This text was originally printed in the Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 27 [1914]. There is no tune. It will be obvious that it consists mostly of floating verses (from "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss," "Jubilee," and the like), and it is probably an offshoot of one of these -- but there simply isn't enough information to classify it clearly. - RBW
File: FCW100

Up and Down, Up and Down, All the Way to London Town

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Up and down, up and down, All the way to London Town, Swish-swosh, swish-swosh, All the way to King's Cross: Legs swing, legs swing, All the way to Berlin. Heel-toe, heel-toe, All the way to Jericho...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Ritchie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope travel
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #582, "Up and down, up and down" (1 text)
Roud #24065
File: AJRR582

Up and Waur Them A', Willie (II)

DESCRIPTION: In battle against the Whigs the Highland standard loses its top and "second-sighted Sandy said, We'll do nae gude at a'." In battles the Whigs showed fear, but if you ask who won the day: "We baith did fight, and baith were beat, And baith did rin awa"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2)
KEYWORDS: rebellion nonballad Jacobites
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 13, 1715 - Battle of Sheriffmuir
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 5, "Up and Waur Them A', Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #212, pp. 320-322, "Up and warn a' Willie" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1788)
Roud #6790
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Sheriffmuir" (subject of Sheriffmuir)
cf. "Will Ye Go to Sheriffmuir" (subject of Sheriffmuir)
NOTES [430 words]: Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2: .".., there not being a Willie of any note in the whole Jacobite army. So that the chorus must have been an older one, adapted, not improbably, from a song of King William's time."
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2, regarding the standard, quoting George Charles of Alloa: "The Earl of Mar erected the Chevalier's standard there, on the 6th of September, 1715, and proclaimed him King of Scotland, England, France, and Ireland, &c.... It is reported, that when this standard was first erected the ornamental ball on the top fell off, which depressed the spirits of the superstitious Highlanders, who deemed it ominous of misfortune in the cause for which they were then appearing."
For a political anti-Whig song to the same tune and format see Robert Burns, The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (New Lanark,2005), p. 277, "Election Ballad for Westerha'." - BS
That John Erskine, Earl of Mar (1675-1732) could mess up even something this elementary is easy to imagine. He had signed the Act of Union joining England and Scotland, then tried to have it repealed (Fry/Fry, p. 191). The accession of George I caused him to send what Magnusson, p. 562, calls a "grovelling letter of loyalty," but George snubbed him (Mitchison, p. 322) and Mar decided to rebel and join the Jacobites. He had to leave London in disguise aboard a collier, He raised the Jacobite standard -- but he hadn't told his alleged King James VIII and III! (Magnusson, p. 563). Naturally it took the Old Pretender some time to arrive.
Mar meanwhile managed to raise a mixed force of Highlanders and Lowlanders -- but at Sheriffmuir, on November 13, 1715, could not beat an army he outnumbered at least two to one (Magnusson, pp. 564-565). Nor could he hold together his army after that (Magnusson, p. 566). The only other significant Jacobite field force had surrendered at Preston at almost the same time (Fry/Fry, p. 192. This was the force led by Lord Derwentwater, hero of the ballad of the same name). Combine the incompetent Mar with the unenthusiastic Old Pretender, and you had a disaster. The reference to "baith" sides running away is presumably to Sheriffmuir; both armies at that battle had their right wings flee (Mitchison, p. 323).
One wonders what would have happened had "second-sighted Sandy" told those around him that Mar would flee the country in 1716, to live in exile with the Old Pretender -- and become a double agent selling secrets to Westminster (OxfordCompanion, p. 616). The man had the brains of a sea slug, and even less principle. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: Hogg2005

Up at Piccadilly Oh!

See The Bristol Coachman (File: OO2409)

Up Cambourne Hill

See Going Up Camborne Hill, Coming Down (File: Gund053A)

Up Comes a Man with a Shovel in His Hand

DESCRIPTION: "Up comes a man with a shovel in his hand, Saying, 'Boys, you'll get no farther. King William has a rope, And he'll hang the bloody Pope Ere ever he'll cross the Boyne Water."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: battle river soldier execution | King William Rope Pope
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 1, 1690 - Battle of the Boyne. William III crushes the Irish army of James, at once securing his throne and the rule of Ireland. Irish resistance continues for about another year, but Ireland east of the Shannon is his, and the opposition is doomed.
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 186, "Up comes a man with a shovel in his hand" (1 text)
Roud #25461
NOTES [11 words]: For the Battle of the Boyne, see "The Battle of the Boyne (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC186D

Up Echo Canyon

See Echo Canyon (File: RecEchCa)

Up Green Medder (Up Green Meadow)

DESCRIPTION: Singing game. "Up green medder/meadow, down shady grove, Last one squats has to tell his beau." Game is said to be similar to "Ring Around the Rosie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad love
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 15, "Up Green Medder" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: Skea015

Up in a Balloon

DESCRIPTION: "One night I went up in a balloon, On a voyage of discovery, to visit the moon." The balloon goes out of control, hits city hall, and leaves the singer clinging to a steeple. He ends up among the stars -- and falls out of bed, and realizes it was a dream
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Dime-Song-Book #23)
KEYWORDS: dream humorous technology travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
New-Comic-Songster, p. 11, "Up in a Balloon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #23, p. 7, "Up in a Balloon" (1 text)
Roud #4882
NOTES [54 words]: New-Comic-Songster prints both men's and women's versions of this (in the women's version, she is interested in a man who disappears in a balloon), but it appears that the handful of traditional collections are of the men's version, upon which the description is based.
Dime-Song-Book #23, also has the women's version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: NCSupBal

Up in a Loft A Long Way Off

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Up in a loft, A long way off, The donkey's got the whooping cough. The doctor said That he must take Salt, vinegar, mustard, pepper."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope animal doctor disease floatingverses | donkey
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #583, "Up in a Loft" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down in the Meadow Not Far Off"
NOTES [68 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes lists his earliest version as from 1916, but I am far from convinced his versions are all one song, so I haven't listed that as the earliest date. It possibly should be lumped with "Down in the Meadow Not Far Off," which includes a lot of the same floating material.
For more on whooping cough, and its (non)-occurrence in animals, see the notes to "Old Cow Died of Whooping Cough." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR583

Up in Gurrane

DESCRIPTION: In Gurrane we're such good neighbors we share so that rations and gas restrictions don't bother us. We attacked City Hall "when the Corporation tried to raise the rent." We'll be there at Gabriel's horn because "it's only a step to Paradise up in Gurrane"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: pride nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 118-119, "Up in Gurrane" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [34 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork, quoting the singer: "'Gurrane is situated on the Northside of the city and was built around the time of the second World War.... I suppose it was a fairly tough area at the time....'" -BS
File: OCan118

Up in London Fair

See In London so Fair (File: HHH203)

Up in the Air, Junior Birdmen

See Junior Birdmen (File: ACSF124J)

Up Jumped the Crow

See Shoot the Buffalo (File: R523)

Up Jumped the Rabbit

DESCRIPTION: "Up jumped the rabbit with a great big smile A hound dog run him a solid mile." Animal hunting and gambling couplets: "Skeeter and a bumble bee playing seven up, Skeeter won the money but afraid to pick it up"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: gambling hunting floatingverses humorous animal bug
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Georgia Pot Lickers, "Up Jumped the Rabbit" (on StuffDreams1)
File: RcUpJtRa

Up on Elk Lake

DESCRIPTION: "I stand and gaze at a little stream That flows from Elk Lake to the Bay. My mind goes back, and in a dream, I'm a boy again at play." The singer recalls the furnace, chemical plant, and all the buildings of a mill town, as well as his own father
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: lumbering technology home dream father
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 106, "Up on Elk Lake" (1 text)
Roud #18181
File: BeLo106

Up Popped Joe

See Corn-Stalk Fiddle (File: Aber061)

Up Roanoke and Down the River

DESCRIPTION: Corn-husking song. "Up Roanoke and down the river, Oho, we are 'most done." "Two canoes, and nary paddle. "There is where we run the devils." Jack de Gillam shoots the devils with "blue ball and a pound of powder," and kills them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: Devil work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 205, "Up Roanoke and Down the River" (1 text)
NOTES [40 words]: The first part of this actually sounds like some sort of rafting song, about running a rapids (perhaps a section called "the devil"?). This seems to have suggested the theme of killing the devils. But that's pure speculation on my part. - RBW
File: Br3205

Up She Goes

See Baltimore (Up She Goes) (File: Hugi418)

Up She Rises

See Drunken Sailor, The (Early in the Morning) (File: Doe048)

Up the Alley, Courting Sally

DESCRIPTION: "Where have you been, All this live-long day, Down the alley, courting Sally, Picking up cinders, breaking winders" Sometimes also "feeding monkeys, riding donkeys, chasing bull-dogs"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, pp. 403-404,442, "Up the Alley, Courting Sally" (3 texts)
Roud #16803
NOTES [95 words]: Sally has been in an alley with someone at least since Henry Carey (d. 1743) wrote "Sally in Our Alley," published in 1729 (source: Thomas Campbell, Specimens of the British Poets (Philadelphian, 1855 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 498-499, "Sally In Our Alley" ), and at least as recently as Steeleye Span's "Senior Service" on "Sails of Silver" (BGO BGOCD371: "Sally's in the alley and Nancy's on the game, Emily is pregnant and wondering who is to blame"). The only thing these songs share is the alliteration (see also "Bully in the Alley" and "Shinbone Alley"). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa403

Up the Ladder

See Up the Ladder, Down the Wall (File: AJRV026)

Up the Ladder, Down the Spout

DESCRIPTION: "Up the ladder, down the spout, Into Michael and John's house, Peep through the window, See who's there, Ma, Da, sister, brother, John came out to see about, Who did he meet but 'bandy-legs,' Bandy legs, turned in toes, Turned up teapot, teapot, nose."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: home family food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 88, "Up the Ladder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #19617
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Up the Ladder, Down the Wall" (first line)
NOTES [24 words]: Roud lumps this with "Up the Ladder, Down the Wall," but they don't seem to have anything in common except the first three words, so I've split them.
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI088A

Up the Ladder, Down the Wall

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Up the ladder, down the wall, A penny load will serve us all, A bit for you, a bit for me, A bit for all the family." "You buy butter and I'll buy flour, And we'll have pudding in half an hour."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food commerce | butter flour pudding bread ladder
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond)) US(SE,SW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #26, "(Up the ladder, down the ladder)"; #55, "(Up the ladder, Down the ladder)"; #114, "(Up the ladder, down the ladder)" (3 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #581, "Up and down the ladder wall" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #75, "(Up the ladder and down the wall)" (1 text)
Roud #19617
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bluebells, Cockleshells" ("You buy X and I'll buy Y" lyric)
cf. "Up the Ladder, Down the Spout" (first line)
NOTES [25 words]: Roud lumps this with "Up the Ladder, Down the Spout," but they don't seem to have anything in common except the first three words, so I've split them.
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRV026

Up the Oak, Down the Pine

DESCRIPTION: "Up the oak, down the pine, Up the oak an' down the pine, Up the oak an' down the pine, Tell my mama I'm down the line. Oh, Lord, tell my mama I'm down the line. Oh, mama, I'm goin' home, Oh, mama, I'm goin' home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: religious travel mother nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 86, "Up the Oak, Down the Pine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16266
File: Rose086

Up the Raw

DESCRIPTION: "Up the Raw, down the Raw, Up the Raw, lass, ev'ry day; For shape and colour, ma bonny hinny, Thou bangs thy mother, ma canny bairn." The mother (?) complains lovingly of the mischief her child gets into. (I think that's what it means)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: nonballad children
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 122-123, "Up the Raw" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: [Cuthbert Sharp], _The Bishopric Garland, A Collection of Legends, Songs, Ballads, &c Belonging to the County of Durham_, 1834 (references are to the 1969 reprint), p. 66, "Up the Raw" (1 text, 1 tune on p. 85)
ST StoR122 (Full)
Roud #3155
File: StoR122

Up the Street and Down the Street

See Up the Streets and Down the Streets (File: FlBr189)

Up the Street, Down the Street

DESCRIPTION: Described as a "Rhyme for a Race": "Up the street, down the street, Here's the way we go, Forty horses standing in a row; [Name] on the white one, [Name] on the black, Riding to (Harrisburg) (five) miles away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty racing horse nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #72, "Rhymes for a Race" (1 text plus an unrelated piece)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Up the Streets and Down the Streets" (lyrics)
File: Newe072

Up the Streets and Down the Streets

DESCRIPTION: "Up the streets and down the streets And in a narrow planting, Isn't (name) a nice young lassie? Isn't (name) as nice as she? They shall be married And they shall agree.... It's love... and don't say 'nay.' Next Monday morning is her wedding day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads); for a possible earlier citation in _Gammer Gurton's Garland_ see the NOTES
KEYWORDS: love playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, p. 189, "Up the Streets and Down the Streets" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 26, "Up the Street and Down the Street" (6 texts)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice, #5, pp. 116-117, "Up and Doun the Street" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5453
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Up the Street, Down the Street" (lyrics)
NOTES [81 words]: The first line of this is commonplace. Gammer Gurton's Garland (1784) has a piece beginning "Up street and down street," but continues "Each window's made of glass; If you go to Tom Tickler's house, you'll find a pretty lass. Hug her and kiss her and take her on your knee...." Related? Hard to say. It is Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 491, "Up Street and down street" (1 text).
Newell's #72 uses a similar line to start a race; see "Up the Street, Down the Street." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: FlBr189

Up Then Spake Our Little Cabin Boy

See The Mermaid [Child 289] (File: C289)

Up to Fargo With Your Cargo

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Up to Fargo with your cargo, Down to Hibbing, stop your fibbing. Up to Duluth, tell the truth, Down the creek to catch some trout, One, two, three, you'd better look out."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (North Star Folk News, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope travel fishing | counting
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #584, "Up to Fargo with your cargo" (1 text)
NOTES [196 words]: This is a strange little rhyme, clearly situated in Minnesota and eastern North Dakota, but the route is strange. In general, in Minnesota at least, "up" is supposed to be north and "down" is south -- and Hibbing, on Minnesota's iron range, is so far north that all cities of any size, except International Falls, are south of it. You could go up to Hibbing and down to Duluth, but not the reverse. What's more, there really isn't an east/west road to get you from Fargo, North Dakota to Hibbing (or even Duluth). So I suspect this is scrambled, somehow.
I also wonder about the creek in which to catch trout. Minnesota has a lot of creeks (or did, before global warming started drying things up), but the most famous is surely Minnehaha Creek in Hennepin County, which flows into the Mississippi River near Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis. Lake Minnetonka, from which it flows, is well-known as a fishing lake, though I the references I've seen don't list trout as a highlight fish. On the other hand, Minnehaha Creek is nowhere near the northern towns of Fargo, Hibbing, and Duluth. I suspect we could say a lot more about this song if we had more versions -- but we don't. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR584

Up to the Rigs

DESCRIPTION: Singer goes to Cheapside in London, where he picks up a girl. He takes her to dinner; she invites him to bed. When she falls asleep, he steals a snuff box, gold watch, diamond ring, and money, then locks her in. He tells men to remember his example
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1851 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1624))
KEYWORDS: courting seduction sex crime theft food trick
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)), Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 299, "The Rigs of London" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 192, "Up to the Rigs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 80, "The Rigs of London Town" (1 text)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 254, "Up To the Rigs of London Town" (1 text)
Roud #868
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "Up to the Rigs of London Town" (on HCox01)
Raymond Noseworthy, "Up to the Rigs" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Charlie Wills, "Up to the Rigs [of London Town]" (on FSB02, FSB2CD, Voice07)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1624), "The Rigs of London Town" ("As I walk'd up London streets one day"), C. Croshaw (York), 1814-1850
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Rigs of London Town
Cheapside
London Town
NOTES [3 words]: Tables turned. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: K192

Up To the Rigs of London Town

See Up to the Rigs (File: K192)

Up Wi' the Widow

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells Johnny that when he's 20 we could have plenty... horses and cattle, barnsful of grain, lots of money and a farm. You would have plenty to sell at market and fair. You'd "drive like a laird." "Ye may do waur than tak up wi' the widow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Lyle)
KEYWORDS: marriage farming money nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 818, "The Widow" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 439, "Up Wi' the Widow" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Lyle, Ancient Ballads and Songs (London: L. Relfe, 1827 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 150-151, "Up Wi' the Widow" (1 text)
Roud #6120
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hooly and Fairly" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4 -- although GriegDuncan3 has no tune for either of his "Hooly and Fairly" texts!)
File: GrD4818

Up With People

DESCRIPTION: "It happened just this morning... I recognized people I’d never noticed before." "Up! Up with people! You meet ‘em wherever you go, Up! Up with People! They’re the best kind of folks we know." People are more important than things
AUTHOR: Paul Colwell and Ralph Colwell
EARLIEST DATE: 1981
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 546, "Up With People" (notes only)
File: ACSF546U

Uphead and Scatter, Boys

DESCRIPTION: "Uphead and scatter, boys, to learn how to row, You treat me so dirty it's a mis'ry in my soul." "When I had money, I had friends all around, But now I've no money, no friend can be found."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: work poverty hardtimes loneliness
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 83-84, "Uphead an' Scatter, Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10029
File: MWhee083

Upidee, Upidah (I)

DESCRIPTION: "The shades of night were falling fast, Upidee.... And through an alpine village passed... A youth who bore... A banner with this strange device, Upidee.... "Oh stay, said the maiden, and rest, Upidee, upidah, The weary head upon his breast"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: courting travel derivative | rest
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 159, "'Oh stay,' the maiden said, 'and rest'" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 88-89, "Upidee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #161, "Upidee" (1 text)
Roud #10751
NOTES [70 words]: Clearly a derivative of Longfellow's "Excelsior," the first stanza of which is
The shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine village passed
A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!
The fifth stanza runs
"Oh stay," the maiden said, "and rest
Thy weary head upon this breast! "
A tear stood in his bright blue eye,
But still he answered, with a sigh,
Excelsior!
- RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC159B

Upidee, Upidah (II)

DESCRIPTION: German shanty. Chorus: "Upidee, Upidah! Schnalls is goot for de cholera! Upidee, Upidah"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Baltzer, _Knurrhahn_), but see NOTES
LONG DESCRIPTION: German shanty. Chorus: "Upidee, Upidah! Schnalls is goot for de cholera! Upidee, Upidah." Hugill gives two versions of the verses. The first begins "In the Flying P Line, I served my time" but the rest, according to Hugill is too coarse to include. In the second version the song told by the ship's cook, describing how he rises early to work, keeps the pots clean, and cooks various dishes.
KEYWORDS: shanty foreignlanguage cook sailor
FOUND IN: Germany
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 485-488, "Upidee, Upidah" (3 texts-English & German, 2 tunes)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Julia" (similar tune)
NOTES [298 words]: My German dictionary translates "schnale" as "buckles," which hardly seem likely to help with cholera. I assume "schnalls" is "snails." These hardly seem more likely to be useful, but the main trick in treating cholera is to keep the patient from dehydrating or dying of lack of salts or sugars. Perhaps the snails, if heated, could be dissolved in water and used to supply the needed nutrients.
Alternately, perhaps, the sailors thought snails caused cholera?
i would assume that this is from the same roots as the song "Upidee" found on p. 40 of Henry Randall Waite, College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, and on p. 20 of the 1876 edition; it is also on pp. 88-89 of Heart-Songs and is #161 in Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd. Waite cites an 1859 copyright for the song, but lists no author. Heart-Songs doesn't list an author either.
The Waite text supposedly is sung at Harvard, with many local allusions, causing Waite to substitute words from Longfellow. Thus it is not possible to definitively establish a connection. It maybe that the word "Upidee" was simply popular at this time; Waite,pp. 41-43, also has a "Song of the Spoon" with words by P. B. Porter, with the first line "Welcome, welcome, eve of gladness, Hail, O hour of joy supreme, Upidee, upida, upidee, upidah." It's listed as a Yale song. There s another "Song of the Spoon"/"Upidee" song on p. 53; p. 56 has "Upidee (Yale Versioin)," beginning "The shades of night were comin' down swift, Upidee, Upida"; the second volume on p. 16 has "College Boys" ("Oh, we college boys have a happy life"), and on p. 78 "Our College Home" by James K. Blish ("Come, throw your busy cares away"), listed as being to the tune "Upidee." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Hugi485A

Upon a Morning of May, In the Morning Grey

DESCRIPTION: "Weep no more for me, sweetheart, Weep no more for me, As sharp a dart has pierced my heart That you should mourn for me." The singer walks in a pleasant garden and is shocked to see someone, all in black, whose flesh is leaden
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1700 (British Library, MS. Harley 1317)
KEYWORDS: travel colors clothes love MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #462, p. 312, "Apon a mornyng of May" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3836.5
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #6123
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Harley 1317, folio 94
NOTES [258 words]: When I came across this in Greene, my first thought upon reading the chorus was that it sounded very folk-like. Then I read the verse and found it not folk-like at all. Ordinarily I would not have indexed such a piece -- it occurs in only one copy, and that in a manuscript which contains only two pieces of poetry, although both are "folky." But Greene (p. 450) also thinks the chorus sounds like a folk song. So, in effect, I'm indexing the chorus, with the rest of the song along for a ride.
Several hands were involved in the writing of MS. Harley 1318 (generally dated c. 1600, and it cannot be from before 1509 since contains a copy of a letter from Henry VIII) -- one wrote the main text and three others added odds and ends. This poem/song is the only item written by this particular scribe.
The first publication of this suggested that it was incomplete (there are only three stanzas), and I think this is true: Is the man (?) in black, with leaden face, ill, or suffering the effects of lost love, or something else? Greene thinks it might be either religious or a secular tale. I'm reminded, in a number of regards, of Chaucer's Book of the Duchess -- the singer wandering (in Chaucer's case, in a dream, but still, wandering), a May morning, meeting a man in black, and finding that man very unhappy. But I have no reason to suspect dependence; some of those are commonplaces of dream visions. (Partly because of Chaucer, to be sure!)
I'm surprised the piece hasn't been printed more often. Even the non-folk part is intriguing. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSApAMoM

Upon a sunshine Summers day

See The Spinning Wheel (File: KiTu051)

Upon On a Sunday Morning

See 'Twas On a Sunday Morning (File: BGSW003)

Upon Sir Francis Drake's Return

DESCRIPTION: "Sir Francis, Sir Francis, Sir Francis is come, Sir Robert and eke Sir William, his son, And eke the good earl of Huntingdon, Marched gallantly on the road." The Queen welcomes Drake and Gilbert and their mariners
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (The Common Muse); Palmer suspects it was composed 1581-1584
KEYWORDS: royalty sailor nonballad travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 3, "Upon Sir Francis Drake's Return from his Yoyage about the World, and the Queen's meeting him" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Vivian de Sola Pinto and Allan Edwin Rodway, _The Common Muse: An Anthology of Popular British Poetry XVth-XXth Century_, Chatton & WIndus, 1957, pp. 39-40, "Upon Sir Francis Drake's Return from his Yoyage about the World, and the Queen's meeting him" (1 text)
Roud #V3888
File: PsSe003

Upon the Rock

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Upon the rock (3x), Let the water run out, Upon the rock (3x) of ages." Verse: "Brother Andrew, where you been when the dry weather come, 'Been on the rock,' says, 'waiting for rain'" (x2)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 21, "Opon de Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [12 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa021

Upon the Twelfth o' August

DESCRIPTION: "I took my gun oot owre my shoulder A bag o' leads, a flask o' pouder And strode awa oot owre the heather Upon the twelfth o' August"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1765, "Upon the Twelfth o' August" (1 fragment)
Roud #13013
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81765

Upper California, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Upper California, oh that's the land for me, It lies between the mountains and the great Pacific sea." It will bring freedom and life for the Saints. They will build their House of Prayer there and call on other nations to join them
AUTHOR: John Taylor (source: Cheney-MormonSongs; Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Savred Hymns and Spiritual Songs, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: religious travel home | Mormon
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 68-69, "The Upper California" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 256-257, "(no title)" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 184-185, Upper California" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10829
NOTES [148 words]: The Mormons of course did not end up in California; they settled in Utah. But as late as 1846, they did not know where they would settle, and California was one of the places they were considering (see Claudia Lauper Bushman and Richard Lyman Bushman, Building the Kingdom: A History of Mormons in America, Oxford University Press, 1999, 2001, p. 37). Brigham Young eventually changed their course, but evidently either the poem was written before that or the author did not realize that California, in even its broadest sense, referred to the other side of the Rocky Mountains. Or, as Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 256, explains, they thought "Upper California" was anything west of the Rockies.
Cheney gives a tune for this, but does not attribute it. Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest says that it is The Rose That All Are Praising, attributed to Edward J. Loder. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS068

Uppermost Tub, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer "scarce could get any fun" goes to Leeds Fair, "bound for a spree." On the way he enters a church for the first time. He doesn't understand what is going on. At the end he offers to pay for the entertainment but is told there is no cost.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad religious
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 686, "The Uppermost Tub" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6109
NOTES [88 words]: Unfortunately, I would be in the same position as the singer in that I don't understand what he is seeing either. There are two "lads": one, in an "uppermost tub" seems in charge of the service. The other, in a "lowermost tub," "mocked every word that the lad in the uppermost tub said." When "the lad in the uppermost tub says, Come let us sing, ... the lad in the lowermost tub made a' the hoose to sing." - BS
I would guess it's minister in the upper tub and the precentor in the lower, but beyond that I can say little. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3686

Upside Down

DESCRIPTION: The singer and companions used to live a roving life, "but to my sad grief I married a wife...." His wife abuses him for drinking. His sister advises him to "hit her a smack across her back and turn her upside down." The remedy works
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: husband wife abuse fight
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H694, pp. 503-504, "Upside Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9467
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" [Child 277] (theme) and references there
File: HHH694

Upsie Mother Brown

DESCRIPTION: "Upsie Mother Brown (x2), Upsie, upsie, Double time upsie, Upsie Mother Brown." "Dropsie Mother Brown...." "Dixie Mother Brown...." Presumably other ball moves were also possible
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: mother | ball bouncing
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 32, "(Upsie Mother Brown)" (1 text)
Roud #22989
File: PKKB032A

Upward Trail, The

DESCRIPTION: "We're on the upward trail (x2), Singing as we go, going home, We're on the upward trail (x2), Singing, singing, everybody singing, Going home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition)
KEYWORDS: travel home nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 175, 437, "The Upward Trail"/"We're on the Upward Trail" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 61, "We're on the Upward Trail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 22, "The Upward Trail" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 56, "We're on the Upward Trail" (1 text)
File: ACSF175U

Used Up Miner, The

DESCRIPTION: A miner washes out his pan looking for gold in the rain but finds none. "Here's to that old digger Though empty is his pan That grumbling d[]md old miner A perfect used up man"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: gold mining work ordeal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 59, "The Used Up Miner" (1 text)
Roud #2830
File: TPS059

Useful Plow, The

DESCRIPTION: "A country life is swert! In moderate cold and heat, To walk in the air, how pleasant and fair!" The singer describes those who "follow the useful plow." Other professions are alluded to, without approval; they do not give to the poor.
AUTHOR: Words: Martin Parker?
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: farming worker food
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #3, pp. 169-171, "The Useful Plow, or the Plowman’s Praise" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 365-366, "The Useful Plow; or, The Plowman's Praise" (1 text)
ST BeCo365 (Partial)
Roud #23103
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Praise of Ploughmen" (theme)
NOTES [53 words]: Although attributed to Martin Parker, I find no apparent reference to it in A. W. Pollard, G. R. Redgrave, et al, A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland & Ireland And of English Books Printed Abroad 1475-1640, The Bibliographical Society [of London], 1963; it should have appeared on p. 441. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: BeCo365

Utah Carl

See Utah Carroll [Laws B4] (File: LB04)

Utah Carol

See Utah Carroll [Laws B4] (File: LB04)

Utah Carroll [Laws B4]

DESCRIPTION: A cowboy sadly remembers the death of his partner, Utah Carroll. When the herd stampedes, Utah manages to rescue the boss's daughter (who stood in the stampede's path), but himself dies in the process
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax, Cowboy Songs)
KEYWORDS: cowboy death rescue friend
FOUND IN: US(MA,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws B4, "Utah Carroll"
Randolph 206, "Utah Carl" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 94, pp. 224-226, "Utah Carroll" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 156, "Utah Carl" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 154-156, "Utah Carroll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 119-122, "Utah Carroll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 80, "Utah Carl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 63, "Utah Carol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 92-95, "Utah Carroll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 436-437, "Utah Carroll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 128-130, "Utah Carroll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, pp. 70-72, "Utah Carl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, pp. 333-336, "Utah Carroll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 113, "Utah Carroll" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 215-216, "Utah Carroll" (1 text)
DT 372, UTAHCARL*
Roud #1929
RECORDINGS:
Charles Baker, "Utah Carroll" (Champion 16724 [as The Wyoming Cowboy], 1934; Champion 45052/Melotone [Canada] 45052, 1935)
Bill Bender (The Happy Cowboy), "Utah Carroll" (Elite X20 [as "Utah Trail"]/Varsity 5150, n.d.; rec. 1939)
Cartwright Bros., "Utah Carroll" (Columbia 15410-D, 1929; rec. 1928; on WhenIWas1)
Harry Jackson, "Utah Carroll" (on HJackson1)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Utah Carl" (on McClintock01, CowFolkCD1) (on McClintock02)
Charles Nabell, "Utah Carl" (Okeh 7009, c. 1925)
Carl T. Sprague, "Utah Carroll" (Victor 21194, 1927; on AuthCowboys)
Arnold Keith Storm, "Utah Carl" (on AKStorm01)
Frank Wheeler & Monroe Lamb, "Utah Carl's Last Ride" (Victor V-40169, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-4470, 1934)
Marc Williams, "Utah Carroll" (Brunswick 304, 1929; rec. 1928)
NOTES [59 words]: Logsdon, in his notes to CowFolkCD1, states definitively that [N. Howard] Thorp composed this piece, sending it to Kenneth S. Clark to be included in one of his cowboy song folios. - PJS
Against this we must set the observation that Thorp did not include the piece in Songs of the Cowboys even in the 1922 edition after Lomax had already published it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LB04

Utah Horror! The Darkest Deed of the 19th Century, Mountan Meadow Massacre--

See The Mountain Meadows Massacre [Laws B19] (File: LB19)

Utah Iron Horse, The

See Iron Horse (II -- Utah version) (File: CAFS2599)

Vacant Chair (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "We shall meet but we shall miss him, There will be one vacant chair, We shall linger to caress him While we breathe our evening prayer." The family remembers its beloved Willie, who now lies dead in a narrow grave, killed for his country
AUTHOR: Words: Henry S. Washburn / Music: George F. Root
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (sheet music published by Root & Cady)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar death burial mourning family
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Root-StoryOfAMusicalLife-GeorgeFRoot, pp. 250-252, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 251, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 308-309, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 167-168, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 375, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text plus a reproduction of an early sheet music cover)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 137-139, "The Vacant Chair (We Shall Meet but We Shall Miss Him)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 30-31, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2447, p. 164, "The Vacant Chair" (11 references)
Dime-Song-Book #12, p. 5, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 32, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #15, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 115-116, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 83-84, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 269 "The Vacant Chair" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 33, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, VCNTCHAR*
Roud #7714
RECORDINGS:
Columbia Stellar Quartet, "The Vacant Chair" (Columbia A1808, 1915)
Frank Coombs, "The Vacant Chair" (Columbia A913, 1910)
Arthur Fields, "The Vacant Chair" (Grey Gull 4205/Radiex 4205, 1928)
Byron G. Harlan, "The Vacant Chair" (CYL: Edison 8535, 1903)
Charles Harrison, "The Vacant Chair" (Resona 75074, 1920)
Frank & James McCravy, "The Vacant Chair" (Brunswick 4455, 1929; Supertone 2024-S, 1930; rec. 1928)
McKee Trio, "Vacant Chair" (Victor 18230, 1917)
New Lost City Ramblers, "The Vacant Chair" (on NLCREP4)
Shannon Four, "The Vacant Chair" (Pathe 20606, c. 1921)
Elizabeth Spencer, "The Vacant Chair" (Edison 1713, n.d.)
NOTES [151 words]: Ironically, this song for a dead soldier was written in early 1861, when few battles had been fought. At this time, a few tens of thousands were mourning their lost soldier boys; four years later, those who had lost a loved one or friends would number in the millions (total losses in the Civil War exceeded 600,000, with the bulk of the losses coming in 1862-1864).
Root-StoryOfAMusicalLife-GeorgeFRoot, p. 136, writes of this song, "As I have said, when anything happened that could be voiced in a song, or when the heart of the nation was moved by particular circumstances or conditions caused by the war, I wrote what I thought would then express the emotions of the soldiers or the people.... 'O, come you from the battle-field?' and 'Brother, tell me of the battle' represented the anxiety of those who had fathers or sons or brothers in the army, and 'The Vacant Chair' the mourning for the lost one."
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R251

Vacant Chair (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "The memory of days gone bye is very sad to me; A vacant chair is standing nigh And there no form I see." "The little darling of our home Once occupied that chair," but "Now she blooms in heaven above And left the vacant chair."
AUTHOR: Words: C. T. Cochran / Music: J. M. Henson (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
KEYWORDS: children death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 50, "The Vacant Chair" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [25 words]: Roud lumps this with George F. Root's well-known "The Vacant Chair," but it's patently not; that's about a dead soldier, this is about a dead child. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ABLT050

Valentine Chant

See Children's Song on Valentine's Day, at Eastleach (File: WT303)

Valiant Conscript, The

DESCRIPTION: "How are you, boys? I'm just from camp, And feel as brave as Caesar." The singer expects to frighten the Yankees even though he was recently a plowboy. But when he accidentally fires his gun, he is ready to run and begs his comrades to do the fighting
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Williams)
KEYWORDS: soldier Civilwar humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 201-202, "The Valiant Conscript" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, pp. 64-66, "The Valiant Conscript" (1 text)
File: SCWF201

Valiant Lady, The

See The London Heiress (The Brisk and Lively Lad) (File: MoMa033)

Valiant London Apprentice, The [Laws Q38]

DESCRIPTION: The youth, sent to Turkey, praises Queen Elizabeth above all kings. When challenged, the youth breaks the Turkish prince's neck. Thrown to the lions, he kills the beasts. The Turkish emperor admits English superiority; his daughter marries the youth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1595
KEYWORDS: royalty fight animal contest marriage apprentice
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1558-1603 - Reign of Elizabeth I of England
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws Q38, "The Valiant London Apprentice"
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 318-323, "The Honour of a London Prentice" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1064, "The Honour of a London Prentice" (1 fragment)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 124-126, "The Wealthy London Prentice"(1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 153-157, "The London 'Prentice" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2080, "Of a worthy London Prentice"
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, "All You That Love Good Fellows, or The London Apprentice" (1 text, 2 tunes, but the text is not this although Chappell links the plot of this ballad to his tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 262-263, "Nancy; or, Sir Edward Noel's Delight; or, All You That Love Good Fellows" (3 tunes, connected to this only by the link in Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
DT 749, LONDPREN*
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry ... with [an anonymous] Supplement (Porter & Coates, Philadelphia, 1876), pp. 527-529, "The Honour of a London Prentice"
Roud #1016
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Wood 401(63), "The Honour of an Apprentice of London" ("Of a worthy London prentice my purpose is to speake"), F. Coles (London), 1658-1664 ; also Douce Ballads 3(43b), Harding B 4(54), Douce Ballads 4(47), Vet. A3 b.43(11), "The Honour of a London Prentice"; Douce Ballads 1(118a), ("Of a worthy London prentice"); Mus. 1 c.118(6k) View 2 of 2, partial text.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All You That Are Good Fellows" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Wood 401(63))
NOTES [104 words]: The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry ... adds an Addenda, edited anonymously (obviously not Percy (1729-1811) since it includes references to Richardson's 1842-1846 The Local Historian's Table Book of Remarkable Occurences ...). [And this Addendum of course is not in Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry. - RBW]
Percy Supplement: "The following song relates to a noble piece of chivalry performed in Queen Elizabeth's days, and therefore claims a place here; though it must be acknowledged we have not been able to discover who the hero was, nor any account of the facts on which the ballad is founded." - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LQ38

Valiant Sailor, The

See Polly on the Shore (The Valiant Sailor) (File: Wa057)

Valiant Seaman's Happy Return to His Love, After a Long Seven Years' Absence, The

See A Seaman and His Love (The Welcome Sailor) [Laws N29] (File: LN29)

Valiant Soldier, The

See The Bold Soldier [Laws M27] (File: LM27)

Valley Below, The (She Lives in the Valley Below)

DESCRIPTION: "The broom bloomed so fresh and fair... As I wandered to breathe the fresh air, By chance a rich treasure I found." The singer praises the beauty and voice of the girl he sees. He will offer her his home and wealth if she will come with him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany)
KEYWORDS: love beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H47, pp. 236-237, "The Valley Below" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany: Containing a Selection of the Most Fashionable Songs, with Many Originals, Not Inserted in Ashburner's Vocal and Poetic Repository, G. Ashburner, Ulverston, 1812 (available on Google Books), p. 99, "The Valley Below" (1 text)
Roud #9446
NOTES [45 words]: Henry offers evidence (based on birds mentioned in the song) that this piece must have originated in England, and a British printing is known. But the plot and style are very Irish.
Kennedy lumps this with "Well Met, Pretty Maid (The Sweet Nightingale)." He's nuts. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: HHH047

Valley of Kilbride, The

DESCRIPTION: On a French battlefield, a soldier from Newfoundland thinks back to "boyhood days in the valley of Kilbride." A dying soldier asks him to comfort his parents, sister, and the girl he used to walk with "in Bowring Park."
AUTHOR: probably John Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: war dying France soldier death family farewell
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 1, 1916 - Battle of Beaumont Hamel, at which the Newfoundland Regiment was slaughtered.
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 113, "The Valley of Kilbride" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #28, pp. 46-47, "Valley of Kilbride" (1 text)
Roud #18245
RECORDINGS:
Jacob Noseworthy, "Valley of Kilbride" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Soldier (III)" (subject of Newfoundlanders dying in World War I)
cf. "Soldier's Last Letter" (subject of Newfoundlanders dying in World War I)
cf. "The July Drive" (subject of Beaumont Hamel)
NOTES [700 words]: Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou speculates that "this song was possibly written by Johnny Burke." If [this] is right, the ballad refers to World War I. Burke died in 1930.
Bowring Park in Saint John's was opened in 1911 (Source: Tide's Point Magazine site for the "Newfoundland and Labrador Magazine for Workers"). GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site includes the following note for "The Valley of Kilbride," but does not claim the battle is the inspiration for the Ballad: "Between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m., on July 1, 1916, the First Newfoundland Regiment, part of the 29th British Division, was virtually annihilated at Beaumont Hamel as they advanced into point-blank enemy fire. Of the 801 who went into battle, only 68 were able to answer the roll call the next day."
Kilbride is a suburb south of St John's. I don't know about a Valley of Kilbride. - BS
This doesn't feel like the work of Johnny Burke to me, but I can't prove it; it certainly looks like an imitation of many other soldier's-last-message songs such as "Bingen on the Rhine," and Burke wrote many imitations of folk songs. And, of course, it *is* in a Burke collection.
I think it pretty clear that it's about World War I rather than World War II. The song refers to No Man's Land, and there wasn't much trench warfare in World War II. And Kilbride, Newfoundland, borders Bowring Park.
And Newfoundland's losses in the war were indeed severe -- the Newfoundland Regiment (renamed the "Royal Newfoundland Regiment" during the war due to its high distinction; according to Major, p. 332, the Newfoundlanders were the only regiment to be given that distinction during the war) had 6242 men serve in its ranks during the war, and 1305 were killed, 2314 wounded, and 180 captured. That's more than 20% killed and more than 50% wounded (Noel, p. 122). Even in World War I, that's an extremely high rate. Major, p. 333, claims that one in seven men from St. John's aged 18-22 was killed during the war.
The "July Drive" of the song fits well with the Beaumont Hamel attack, which took place on the very first day of the Battle of the Somme. Cadigan, pp. 187-188, has this to say of Beaumont Hamel:
"The Newfoundland Regiment acquitted itself well through many of the toughest battles of the war. It fought the Turks at Gallipoli and the Germans in the muddy trenches of France in the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916.... Allied command assigned the regiment a leading role by asking it to capture an area in the vicinity of Beaumont Hamel, behind the German front line. On 1 July 1916, about 810 officers and men of the Newfoundland Regiment went over the top against the Germans.... Within minutes the regiment was nearly annihilated. Only two officers and 95 of the men of the regiment answered roll call the next day. Fifteen officers and 95 other men lay dead on the field, while 16 officers and 479 men were wounded. One officer and 114 soldiers were missing somewhere among the mud, blood, craters, spent shells and barbed wire. The attack was a military disaster.
"Almost everyone in St. John's lost a family member or friend at Beaumont Hamel.... The myth of Beaumont Hamel quickly emerged, 'emphasizing bravery, determination, imperial loyalty, Christian devotion, and immortal achievement' on the part of the Newfoundland Regiment."
Chadwick, p. 126, gives slightly different numbers, but the distinction hardly matters:
"Of 5,482 [Newfoundland] men who went overseas, close on 1,500 were killed, 2,314 wounded and 234 decorated or mentioned in dispatches. The massacre at Beaumont Hamel remains, even today, a proud, sad memory to sacrifice. On 1 July 1916 753 Newfoundlanders went into action there. Next morning only 68 were left to answer the roll-call."
Major, p. 330, has similar numbers: "Left to answer the roll call the next day were 68 men. The battle buried 272 of their comrades, and wounded the rest. It is the single greatest tragedy in the history of Newfoundland and Labrador. For a country of a quarter million, still reeling from the great seal hunt disasters of two springs before [for which see "The Southern Cross" and "The Newfoundland Disaster (I)"], it was a monstrous cruelty to bear. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe113

Valley of Knockanure (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Coming from Mass, three IRA flying column boys are caught "on a bridge near Gortaglanna ... In the Valley of Knockanure" in May 1921. The three are named. They are beaten and shot.
AUTHOR: Tim Leary (source: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion execution patriotic IRA
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 12, 1921 - A troop of Black and Tans capture and shoot Lyons, Walsh and Dalton in Gortaglanna, Knockanure, County Kerry. (source: the Moyvane site)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 42, "The Valley of Knockanure" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17752
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Valley of Knockanure (II)" (subject)
NOTES [246 words]: The "Black and Tans" were British reinforcements to regular British soldiers sent to Ireland in 1920. The "Auxiliary Cadets" were veteran British army officers sent to help the Black and Tans. (source: Michael Collins: A Man Against an Empire copyright by and available on the History Net site). For more information see RBW note for "The Bold Black and Tan" - BS
The IRA's "flying columns" were not quite what is usually meant by this term. They were guerrilla groups, usually of only a few dozen men, who did most of their damage in small raids on supply lines. Nonetheless, they were very effective -- the main strength of the rebellion, in fact. As a result, they were subject to severe punishment when caught.
This particular atrocity was fairly typical of the Black and Tan war -- minor enough that it is not mentioned in any of the history books I checked. Sadly, there are many similar incidents recorded. This one is remembered because it caught the fancy of poets.
The existence of two songs called "The Valley of Knockanure," both referring to the same event, has caused some confusion. (Not least in earlier versions of this index).
O Lochlainn lists the author of this as Tim Leary of Listowel, while Tunney lists the author of "Knockanure (II)" as Brian McMahon of Kerry. But the Digital Tradition lists "Knockanure (II)" as by "Tim Leahy" (presumably an error for Leary) Tunney's claim of (II) for McMahon is supported also by Soodlum's Irish Ballad Book. - RBW
File: OLcM042

Valley of Knockanure (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "You may sing and speak of Easter week and the heroes of ninety-eight" but nothing was said about Knockanure. Dalton, Walshe, and Lyons are killed by the Black and Tans. Dalton's mother wishes she could kiss him before burying him.
AUTHOR: Bryan McMahon (source: Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder)
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion execution patriotic IRA
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 12, 1921 - A troop of Black and Tans capture and shoot Lyons, Walsh and Dalton in Gortaglanna, Knockanure, County Kerry. (source: the Moyvane site)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 46-48, "The Valley of Knockanure" (1 text)
DT, KNOCKNUR*
Roud #9761
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Valley of Knockanure (I)" (subject) and references there
NOTES [51 words]: The first line is a reference to songs: "Who fears to speak of Ninety-Eight?" from John Kells Ingram's "The Memory of the Dead," and the 1916 song "Who fears to speak of Easter Week?" - BS
For background on this song, and the confusions about authorship, see the notes to "The Valley of Knockanure (I)." - RBW
File: TST046

Valley of the Ruhr, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was flak, flak, bags and bags of flack, In the Ruhr, in the Ruhr." "My eyes are dime I cannot see; The searchlights they have blinded me." "There were fighters, fighters, bags of bloody fighters." "There was twitch" "There was panic"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier death technology flying
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 120, "The Valley of the Ruhr" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #29425
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Quartermaster Corps (The Quartermaster Store)" (tune)
NOTES [85 words]: When the Royal Air Force had built up its bomber squadrons enough to attack Germany heavily, much of the early attention went to the Ruhr Valley, because it was relatively close to Britain and because it was heavily industrialized. It was also heavily defended, by anti-aircraft guns, radar, searchlights, and fighters. "Bomber" Harris's squadrons usually suffered heavily when attacking -- but he kept sending his planes there, because he thought it an effective way to hurt the Germans. Hence this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hopk120B

Valleys of Mormond, The

DESCRIPTION: "How sweet is my home in yon lovely valley" where birds sing, the spring is running, "in the valleys of Mormond, the home of my Jean"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: home lyric nonballad bird wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1812, "The Valleys of Mormond" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13001
File: GrD81812

Valleys of Screen, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells the listeners of the beautiful girl he has seen. He gives directions for finding her, and describes her beauty. He recalls speaking to her, and her refusal to give her name. He compares her to classical beauties
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H752, p. 245, "The Valleys of Screen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9481
File: HHH752

Valparaiso Round the Horn

See Paddy, Get Back (File: Doe054)

Vampire, The (A Pirate Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Creeping round a headland as the sun was brightly rising... A raking pirate schooner... Her captain walked the quarterdeck where quarter ne'er was granted." He shows no mercy -- dead men tell no tales -- but he and his crew are taken and hung
AUTHOR: Words: "Henry Martingale" / Music: Michael Watson (1840-1889) (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1889 (sheet music, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate execution homicide navy
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 62, "The Vampire (A Pirate Song)" (1 text, 1 tune; #34 in the first edition)
Roud #V30419
File: FrPi062

Van Diaman's Land

See Van Dieman's Land (I) [Laws L18] (File: LL18)

Van Dieman's Land (I) [Laws L18]

DESCRIPTION: Three poachers are taken and sent to Van Dieman's Land. Sold to planters, they are used to drive plows and live miserable lives until (Susan Summers), a fellow prisoner now married to a planter, treats them somewhat better
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1979))
KEYWORDS: transportation abuse help poaching
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Australia US(MW,Ro)
REFERENCES (36 citations):
Laws L18, "Van Dieman's Land"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #33, p. 2, "The Gallant Poachers" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 252, "Van Dieman's Land" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 263-264, "Poor Tom Brown, of Nottingham Town" (2 texts) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 258)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #52, "Van Dieman's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-ThePainfulPlow, #11, "Van Dieman's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 107, "Van Dieman's Land" (1 text)
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 2-3, "Van Diemen's Land or The Gallant Poachers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #145, "Van Diemen's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 172, "Van Dieman's Land" (1 text)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 412, "Van Dieman's Land" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 314]
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 95, "Vandiemens Land" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 12, p. 21, "Van Dieman's Land" (1 fragment)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 92-93, "Van Diaman's Land" (1 text, with no source indicated)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #144, "Van Dieman's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 708-709, "Van Dieman's Land" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 63, "Van Diemen's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 122, "Van Dieman's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 262, "Van Dieman's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 21, "Van Diemen's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 20-21, "Van Dieman's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p.224, "Van Diemen's Land" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 384-285, "The Poachers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 17-18, "Van Dieman's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 82-83, "Van Dieman's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 14-15, "Van Dieman's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 55-58, "Van Diemen's Land" (1 text)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 28-29, "Van Diemen's Land" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads,, pp4-5, "Van Dieman's Land" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 93, "Van Dieman's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 14, "Van Dieman's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 227-228, "Van Diemen's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 334, "Van Dieman's Land" (1 text)
DT 426, VANDIEMN*
ADDITIONAL: Geoffrey C. Ingleton, _True Patriots All: or News from Early Australia as told in A Collection of Broadsides_ ("Garnered and Decorated" by Ingleton), Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1988, p. 243, "Van Dieman's Land" (1 text, of an Andrews broadside)
Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 173, "Van Diemen's Land" (1 text, with a tune on p. 562)
Roud #519
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Van Dieman's Land" (on IRRCinnamond01)
Jimmy MacBeath, "Van Diemen's Land" (on FSB7)
Cyril O'Brien, "Van Dieman's Land" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Roisin White, "Van Dieman's Land" (on IRRWhite01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1979), "Van Dieman's Land," T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Firth b.34(147), Firth c.17(40), Firth c.17(41), Firth c.19(60), Harding B 11(1808), Harding B 11(1850), Harding B 11(2815), Harding B 11(3964), Harding B 17(325b), Harding B 20(177), Johnson Ballads 6, Firth b.34(119), "Van Dieman's Land"
Murray, Mu23-y4:034, "Van Dieman's Land," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Van Dieman's Land (II - Young Henry's Downfall)" (plot)
cf. "Rounding the Horn" (tune)
cf. "Those Poor Convicts" (tune)
NOTES [319 words]: The "other" "Van Dieman's Land" has a plot so similar that I was not sure but that they should be classified as one. The tunes and texts are, however, distinct.
A typical stanza for this text would run
Poor Tommy Brown from Nenagh Town, Jack Murphy and poor Joe
We were three daring poachers as the gentry well do know.
One night we were trepanned by the keepers hid in sand,
Who for fourteen years transported us unto Van Dieman's Land.
Van Diemen's Land was named after Anthony Van Diemen of the Dutch East India Company; Van Diemen chartered the expedition which discovered the island. Said expedition was led by Abel Tasman, who found the island in 1642 (as well as sighting New Zealand and some lesser islands).
The reputation of Van Diemen's Land was so bad that the residents in the nineteenth century demanded a name change. It therefore was renamed Tasmania after its discoverer. (In an interesting footnote, Lady Jane Franklin, the wife of Sir John Franklin of Northwest Passage infamy, was the chief campaigner for this during the time Sir John was governor of the colony; see Ken McGoogan, Lady Franklin's Revenge: A True Story of Ambition, Obsession and the Remaking of Arctic History, Harper Perennial, 2005, p. 210).
The irony is that Van Diemen's Land was not really overburdened with "hard cases"; some were sent to the island, but most wound up on Norfolk Island or in settlements like Moreton Bay. But the settlers of Van Diemen's Land were perhaps the most destructive of all the colonists; the Tasmanian aborigines were systematically eradicated, as compared to simply being brushed aside in most of Australia.
The reference to convicts driving the plows is an exaggeration -- of the wrong sort. At many of the British colonies, the convicts were indeed used instead of draft animals (few of which were available). But they didn't normally use plows; they had to hoe their own furrows! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LL18

Van Dieman's Land (II -- Young Henry's Downfall)

DESCRIPTION: (Six) poachers are taken and sent to Van Dieman's Land. Destined to work for a planter, the singer is frightened to see the conditions of the workers, but is instead picked out to be a bookkeeper. He meets another prisoner, Rosanna; they fall in love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.19(62))
KEYWORDS: transportation poaching love
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England(Lond,South,West))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 16-17, "Henry's Downfall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 51-53, "Henry's Downfall" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 91, "Me and Five More" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, p. 130, "Young Henry the Poacher" (1 fragment)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 112-113, "Young Henry the Poacher" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #57, "Young Henry the Poacher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 73-74, "Henry's Downfall" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, VANDIEM2
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 146, "Young Henry the Poacher" (a facsimile of a broadside print)
Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 187, "Henry Downfall" (1 text, with a tune on p. 566)
Roud #221
RECORDINGS:
Walter Pardon, "Van Dieman's Land" (on Voice04)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.19(62), "Young Henry the Poacher," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(4369), Harding B 11(4370), Harding B 11(4371), Harding B 11(4372), "Young Henry the Poacher"; Firth c.19(61), "Henry's Downfall"; Harding B 17(349a), "Young Henry's Downfall"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Van Dieman's Land (I)" [Laws L18] (plot)
cf. "The Girls of the Shamrock Shore" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [141 words]: Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 4" - 19.8.02: "Roy Palmer has traced this song (which has been found only in England [sic]) to two real poaching affrays that occurred in Warwickshire in 1829." - BS
The "other" "Van Dieman's Land" has a plot so similar that I was not sure but that they should be classified as one. The tunes and texts are, however, distinct.
A typical stanza of this version is:
I and five more went out one night
To Squire Dunhill's park
To see if we could get some game
But the night it proved too dark.
And to our sad misfortune
They've hemmed us in with speed
They sent us off to Warwick Gaol
Which caused our hearts to bleed.
Chorus:
Young men all now beware
Lest you are drawn into a snare.
For notes on the history of Van Diemen's Land, see the entry on "Van Diemen's Land (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FaE16

Vance Song, The [Laws F17]

DESCRIPTION: [Abner] Vance is charged falsely with murder. Recalling his beautiful home, he castigates those who have caused his unjust condemnation. He bids his family farewell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution farewell
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws F17, "The Vance Song"
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 41, "The Vance Song" (3 texts)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 322-323, "The Vance Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 107, pp. 246-247, "The Vance Song" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 67, pp. 163-164, "The Vance Song" (1 text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 81-83, "The Vance Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 222-223, "The Vance Song" (1 text plus an excerpt Burt thinks might be of another Vance song)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 187-188, "The Vance Song" (1 text)
DT 738, VANCESNG
Roud #2216
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Vance's Song
NOTES [231 words]: This is one of the few "confession" songs that Laws believes was actually written by the narrator. Abner Vance was hanged for murder after shooting Lewis Horton (for seducing Vance's daughter). Laws does not offer a precise date; it was probably in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Some further details, including those surrounding the trial and murder, are found in Cox, but again, no date. Burt-AmericanMurderBallads offers a date c. 1910.
The inscription on Cox's "A" text, which seems to be the original broadsheet slip of the song, is dated 1897. This would seem to give us a rough date for either the song or the murder. However, Lyle Lofgren points out an item from the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum (probably on their web site somewhere, although he didn't give me a link) that says that Vance murdered Lewis Horton in 1817 -- apparently because either Horton or Horton's brother Daniel had been involved with Vance's daughter. Vance was hung in 1819 in Russell County in southwestern Virginia. (Russell County is a rural area north and west of Clinch Mountain, almost due north of Bristol on the Virginia/Tennessee border; the county has no large towns)
This is the most circumstantial account I have seen, but even it is far from complete. At least some mystery remains; probably someone will have to do a detailed search of early newspapers to find out more. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LF17

Vanderbilt's Daughter (A Railroad Song)

See Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)

Vandiemens Land

See Van Dieman's Land (I) [Laws L18] (File: LL18)

Vanities of Life, The

DESCRIPTION: "What are life's joys and gains?" Not power, pride, beauty, ambition, or wealth. "The lesson how to live is but to learn to die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1720 (manuscript _World's Best Wealth_ according to Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: greed pride vanity beauty death nonballad recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Poem #1, pp. 1-7, 241, "The Vanities of Life" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 235-240, "The Vanities of Life" (1 text)
Roud #V47309
File: DixP001

Varsouvienna

See references under Put Your Little Foot (Varsouvienna) (File: Ohr045)

Varsouvienne

See references under Put Your Little Foot (Varsouvienna) (File: Ohr045)

Varsoviana

See references under Put Your Little Foot (Varsouvienna) (File: Ohr045)

Vee Vye

See Flee Fly Flo (File: OpGa115)

Vem Kan Segla Förutan Vind? (Who Can Sail without a Wind?)

DESCRIPTION: Swedish: "Vem Kan Segla Förutan Vind? Vem kan ro utan åror?" Who can sail without a wind, or row without oars? Who can leave a friend without crying? "I can sail without a wind, I can row without oars, But I can't part from a friend without crying."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Dannielson, East-West Songs, according to "Songs of Many Nations")
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage separation campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 340, 444, "Who Can Sail" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "Vem kan segla förutan vind? (Who Can Sail?)" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 1)
DT, CANSAIL (English text only)
NOTES [141 words]: Although versions of this in English songbooks are rare, Ross Sutter, from whom I learned it, tells me that it is one of the two most popular songs among Swedes in America (the other being the famous "Hälsa Dem Därhemma"). It reportedly comes from the island of Åland, which belongs to Finland but is Swedish-speaking. Jerome Epstein told me that there is also a Norwegian translation, so it is common in Scandinavia.
I've always wondered if this might not be the remnant of a revenant ballad.
The tune is very close to "Im Eshkachek," or, "If I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem," which is an interesting melody for a Scandinvian song!
The bit about what can sail without a wind is also a bit reminiscent of the riddles in the Yiddish "Tumbalalaika." There are a few similar musical phrases, too. Hard to imagine how they could be connected, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ACSF340V

Ven'mous Viper, The

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

Venadito

DESCRIPTION: Spanish: "Young Dear." First line: "Lo que digo de hoy en dia Lo que digo sostengo." The singer promises that "What I say today I will always say." (He) will wait for (her) in the kiosk at eleven o'clock, and "you will know I love you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad Mexico foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Mexico
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 294-295, "Lo Que Digo" (1 text plus translation, 1 tune)
File: San294

Venezuela

DESCRIPTION: "I met her in Venezuela with a basket on her head.... I knew she'd do to pass away the time in Venezuela." He gives her a sash of blue. When he leaves, he tells her there will be more sailors coming to Venezuela. He will remember her for a long time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: sailor sex clothes
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 116-118, "Venezuela" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27881
RECORDINGS:
Erica Warnock, "Venezuela" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #464, recorded 01/26/2023)
File: NiMo116

Veni Emmanuel (O Come, O Come, Emmanuel)

DESCRIPTION: Latin: "Veni veni Emmanuel, Captivum solve Israel...." English: "O come, o come, Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel." The advent of Emmanuel the savior, descendant of David, is requested, and people are told to celebrate his coming
AUTHOR: English words: J. M. Neale (1818-1866)
EARLIEST DATE: English words by J. M. Neale, 1851; Latin words and tune 15th century or earlier
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad rescue
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 13, "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 80-81, "O Come, O come, Emmanuel" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [2130 words]: Although I know of no field collections which include this song, it seems to me that it is now widely enough sung that it belongs in the Ballad Index.
Certainly it is *old* enough. Johnson claims the words come from the seventh century and Morgan offers the period of the 800s. These dates, especially the former, are probably too early (my guess is that that's based on theories about the history of Latin hymnwriting). But the whole is found in the French National Library manuscript (Bibliotheque Nationale) fonds latin MS 10581 (however, Reynolds, p. 155, reports this as the source of the tune, not the text; I cannot clarify this matter, but I suspect Reynolds is right, since he lists the text as "Bone Jesu dulcis cunctis." A black-and-white scan of the manuscript is now available on the National Library of Paris web site -- search for "Latin 10581." The "Bone Jesu dulcis cunctis" text is on folio 90 (manuscript foliation; the web site calls it folio 91; it is, however, in plainsong notation, not modern notation; it looks rather different to me)
Manuscripts of this era are very difficult to date; book hands hardly changed from the twelfth to fifteenth centuries. The New Oxford Book of Carols proposes a thirteenth century date for the manuscript. I would have guessed, based on the writing and ornaments, that it's fourteenth century (but I haven't seen it in color). We can at least say that it is from the fifteenth century or earlier, with the text very likely older. The Latin was in print by no later than 1710, in the Psalterium Cantionum Catholicarum (Reynolds, p. 155)
Stulken, p. 134, gives a hint as to how the earlier dates may have arisen. Much of it seems to have been based on a series of Latin antiphons (the "O antiphons") which were sung in December and which date back to the ninth century. Reflections of several of them can be found in the hymn:
"O Emmanuel, rex et legifer noster" ("O Emmanuel, our king and lawgiver").
"O Sapientia, que ex ore altissimi" ("O wisdom, who comes from on high").
"O Adonay et dux domus Israel" ("O Adonai [Hebrew for Lord] and leader of the house of Israel")
"O Radix Jesse qui stas in signum populorum" (O root of Jesse who stood as a sign for/standard of the people").
"O Clavis David et sceptrum domun" ("O key of David and scepter of home")
"O Oriens, splendor lucis aeternae" ("O eastern light, splendor of eternal light")
"O Rex gentium et desideratur" ("O king of the nations also longed-for")
The standard translation of the Latin text is by J. M. Neale (1818-1866), who also gave us the much weaker "Good King Wenceslas." He originally translated the first line as "Draw nigh, draw nigh, Emmanuel," but changed the text by 1861 (Reynolds, p. 155). The New Oxford Book of Carols gives an alternate translation (termed a revision) by T. A. Lacey, which according to Julian, p. 1721, appeared in the 1906 "English Hymnal." It appears, at first glance, a more accurate translation -- but distinctly worse as poetry (e.g. the last line of the first Latin stanza is "privatus Dei Filio," loosely, "deprived of the Son of God." Neale butchers this as "until the Son of God appear," but at least gets an easy-to-sing line. Lacey produced "far from the face of God's dear son").
Julian, p. 74, gives a full history of all this:
1. An early metrical rendering of the separate Antiphons was made by Canon William Cooke, and appeared in the Cooke and Denton Hymnal of 1863. Canon Cooke's account of the same is: "Where it is possible, the translator and arranger (who was William Cooke), took the words of Mr. A. J. Beresford Hope's tr[anslation] of the hymn 'Veni, Veni Emmanuel,' in the Hymnal N.; retaining the prayer of the Prose Anthem for the Advent of Christ." The opening line of each Antiphon is: i. "O Wisdom, who o'er earth below;" ii. "Ruler and Lord, draw nigh, draw nigh;" iii. "O Rod of Jesse's stem, arise;" iv. "Key of the House of David, come;" v. "O Morning Star, arise;" vi. "O Thou on Whom the Gentiles wait;" vii. "Draw nigh, draw nigh, Immanuel."
2. A second tr[anslation] by Earl Nelson appeared in the Sarum Hymnal, 1868, as "The Advent Anthems...."
3. These Antiphons were also tr[anslated] by W. J. Blew, and included in his Church H[ymnal] & Tune B[ook], 1852.
4. Some time, Dr. Neale supposes about the 12th century [McKim, p. 9, notes that other prefer the thirteenth century], an unknown author took five of these Antiphons, and wove them into a hymn in the following order:-- st. i. O Emmanuel; ii. O Radix Jesse; iii. O Oriens; iv. O Clavis David; v. O Adonai. This hymn begins with the line:--
"Veni, veni, Emmanuel,"
and adding to each verse the refrain, which is not found in the original prose:--
"Gaude, gaude, Emmaunuel
Nascetur pro te, Israel." [McKim, p. 9, suggests a similarity to Zechariah 9:9, but the words are not parallel; they simply share the concept of a coming Messiah]
Daniel has given the full text in his Thes. Hymn. ii.336 (1844). From Daniel's text, Dr. Neale translated his:--
5. Draw nigh, draw nigh, Emmanuel, and pub[lished] it in the 1st ed. of his Mediaeval Hymns, 1851, p. 119, in 5 st[anzas] of 6 l[ines]. [This text went though various minor changes.] In the trial copy of [Hymns Ancient and Modern] in 1859, an altered version of Neale's translation was given beginning
6. O come, O come, Emmanuel.
And it was this version which took off, although it didn't stop the production of new translations; Julian already knew of three more in English and one in German. Reynolds, pp. 284-285, says in addition that Henry Sloane Coffin added translations of two more stanzas to Neale's version.
"Emmanuel" ("God With Us") refers back to Isaiah 7:14, where Isaiah prophecies that the threat to Judah from Israel and Damascus shall ease before the new-born child Immanuel (as it is properly transliterated from the Hebrew) reaches the age of having moral sense.
This prophecy is picked up in Matthew 1:23, which uses the Greek spelling "Emmanuel" (which worked its way into Latin and hence into the song). There is rather a curiosity here, in that Matthew normally translates the Hebrew himself, but in this particular version cites the previous Septuagint translation, which has in fact a mistranslation (Septuagint and Matthew read "a virgin shall bear a son," but the Hebrew reads "a young woman shall bear a son"). Clearly this ties in somehow with the Matthean doctrine of the Virgin Birth (which is found in full form only in Matthew; while Luke calls Mary a virgin at the time of her betrothal, he doesn't say that Joseph didn't touch her after that).
Several verses of the song refer to Emmanuel as a descendent of David. This does not come from Isaiah; again, it's Matthew who provides the link, giving a genealogy of Jesus going back to David (Matt. 1:2-16, though Matthew's genealogy omits several names known from the Book of Kings, plus it is at least six or seven generations too short to bring us from the Exile to the time of Jesus).
All of this is somewhat reinforced by Luke. Luke never mentions Emmanuel, but he does have a genealogy linking Jesus to David (Luke 3:23-38), though it differs from Matthew's in irreconcilable ways. (Not that it matters. It was a thousand years from David to Jesus. By the time Jesus was born, everyone in Judea was descended from David, though not necessarily in the male line). Luke also provides much of the imagery of celebration at the arrival of the Messiah (see chapter 2).
John Mason Neale, whose translation made this song famous in English, is regarded as one of the great producers of hymns. His biography in Julian occupies more than five pages of small type (pp. 785-790). Some highlights:
"[He] was b[orn] in Conduit Street, London, on Jan. 24, 1818. He inherited intellectual power on both sides: his father, the Rev. Cornelius Nele, having been Senior Wrangler, Second Chancellor's Medalist, and Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and his mother being the daughter of John Mason Good, a man of considerable learning. Both father and mother are said to have been 'very pronounced Evangelicals.' The father died in 1823, and the boy's early teaching was entirely under the direction of his mother.... He was educated at Sherborne Grammar School, and was afterward a private pupil, first of the Rev. William Russell, Rector of Shepperton, and then of Professor Challis.
"In 1836 he went up to Cambridge, where he gained a scholarship at Trinity College, and was considered the best man of his year. But he did not inherit his mathematical tastes, and had, in fact, the greatest antipathy of the study; and as the strange rule then prevailed that no one might aspire to Classical Honours unless his name has appeared in the Mathematical Tripos, he was forced to be contend with an ordinary degree. This he took in 1840....
"He gained, however, what distinctions he could, winning the Members' Prize, and being elected Fellow and Tutor of Downing College; while, as a graduate, he won the Seatonian Prize no fewer than eleven times. At Cambridge, he identified himself with the Church movement, which was spreader there in a quieter, but not less real, way than in the sister University.
"In 1842, he married Miss Sarah Norman Webster, the daughter of an evangelical clergyman, and in 1843 he was presented to the small incumbency of Crawley in Sussex. Ill-health, however, prevented him from being instituted to the living. His lungs were found to be badly affected; and, as the only chance of saving his life, he was obliged to go to Madeira, where he stayed until the summer of 1844. In 1846 he was presented by Lord Delawarr to the Wardenship of Sackvile College, East Grinstead.
"[Being offered a church post in Perth, he] was obliged to decline it as the climate was thought to be too cold for his delicate health. In the quiet retreat of East Grinstead, therefore, Dr. Neale spent the remainder of his comparatively short life, dividing his time between literary work, which all tended, directly or indirectly to the advancement of that Church revival of which he was so able and courageous a champion, and the unremitting care of that sisterhood of which he was the founder. He commenced a sisterhood at Rotherfield on a very small sale... but in 1856 he translated it to East Grinstead, where, under the name of St. Margaret's, it has attained its present proportions.
The blessing which the East Grinstead sisters have been to thousands of the sick and suffering cannot here be told. But it must be mentioned that Dr. Neale met with many difficulties, and great opposition from the outside, which, on one occasion, culminated in actual violence.... He also found opponents in higher quarters; he was inhibited by the Bishop of the Diocese for fourteen years.... Dr. Neale's character, however, was a happy mixture of gentleness and firmness; he had in the highest degree the courage of his conviction.... while at the same time he maintained the greatest charity towards, and forbearance with, others who did not agree with him.
"His last public act was to lay the foundation of a new convent for the Sisters on St. Margaret's Day (July 20), 1865. He lived long enough to see the building progress, but not to see it completed. In the following spring his health, which had always been delicate, completely broke down, and after five months of acute suffering he passed away on the Feast of the Transfiguration (Aug. 6), 1866...."
Neale wrote several volumes of original hymns (listed on pp. 786-787 of Julian), as well as volumes on church figures and a commentary on the Psalms that was finished by his friend Littledate, but his most important work was as a translator: "It is in this species of composition that Dr. Neale's success was pre-eminent, one might almost say unique." (Julian, p. 787). When there were no doctrinal issues involved, his translations are said to have been both highly accurate and highly skilled. The one issue came when there were theological issues in the sources "The Roman Catholics accused him of deliberate deception because he took no pains to point out that he had either softened down or entirely ignored the Roman doctrines" in certain of his sources (ibid.).
Julian, pp. 789-790, lists 66 commonly used hymns by Neale, and Julian's list does not represent his full output. None is familiar to me, although his "Jerusalem the Golden" is widely known.
Reynolds, p. 155, reports that the tune "Veni Emmanuel" was first printed in 1856, in Thomas Helmore's Hymnal Noted; it was Helmore (1811-1890) who fitted the tune to this piece. He took it from a French manuscript that was not identified until 1967 -- probably because he apparently said it was in Lisbon when in fact it is the Paris manuscript listed above. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.2
File: CJ013

Venir Voir Bongo (Bongo Night)

DESCRIPTION: Come see Bongo night, tonight. "Dance your bongo in time." "Dance your bongo in line." Even Jackasses cannot resist.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 7, "Venir Voir Bongo (Bongo Night)" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [32 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "The last night of a bongo session is really 'bongo night.' All bongo dancers attend to take part in the last lap and the best dancing and singing may be seen." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo007

Venison

See The Sally Buck (File: SKE70)

Venus and Adonis

DESCRIPTION: The singer, Adonis meets Venus in the forest and asks her for one kiss. She replies, "No! I can't love you!" He asks her to stay with him as night falls. She agrees: "you've fairly won my heart, And I from you, love, never more will part"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
KEYWORDS: courting love dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 122-123, "Venus and Adonis" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1383
NOTES [32 words]: Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs (1893): "From Mr Grantham ...; he originally came from Sussex, and learnt the song sixty years ago there; he has since made it popular about Holmwood." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BrMa123

Venus, My Shining Star

DESCRIPTION: "Some think to love another is vain, But with them I disagree, None has ever come... 'Twixt Venus, my lover, and me. Venus, my star-kindled lover.... Sweet Venus mine, None as bright as my darling, So far, far above... I think how dear I love you...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 8, "Venus, My Shining Star" (1 text, 1 tune, probably defective)
Roud #11379
NOTES [48 words]: George M. Cohan wrote a piece, "Venus, My Shining Love," in 1894. I would not call this the same. But they might well have come from the same roots -- this looks like what would result if someone heard the Cohan song, remembered only a few fragments, and tried to turn it into a song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne008

Verbum Caro Factum Est

See As I Went Through a Garden Green (Verbum Caro Factum Est) (File: MEaiwtgg)

Verdant Braes o' Skreen, The

See The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)

Verdant Braes of Skreen, The

See The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)

Vermont

DESCRIPTION: "In vain we lavish out our lives To gather the empty wind. The choicest blessing earth can yield Will starve an hungry mind. Come and the Lord shall feed our sould With more substantial meat, With such saints in glory love, With such as angels eat."
AUTHOR: William Billings
EARLIEST DATE: 1778 (Billings, the SInging Master's Assistant, according to Flanders)
KEYWORDS: home food nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 1-2, "Vermont" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7063
NOTES [12 words]: For more about composer William Billings, see the notes to "Chester." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: FNG001

Vermont Boys in Gardner, The

DESCRIPTION: "The boys from Vermont to Gardner did go, In search of a job, as you very well know." They are advices, "Don't leave old Vermont... They'll call you the scamps from the Green Mountain hills." The song lists those who left Vermont and came back
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes emigration return moniker
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 110-111, "The Vermont Boys in Gardner" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ST FlNG110 (Partial)
Roud #4660
NOTES [43 words]: I've tagged this as a moniker song because the second verse in Flanders et al looks like it belongs to a sequence of verses about people who left Vermont and got in trouble -- but with only one known version, and that only two verses long, I can't be sure. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: FlNG110

Vermont Farmer's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever hear tell of the farmers that live among the hills, Where ev'ry man's a 'Sov'reign' and owns the land he tills." The singer praises the strong men, the pretty girls, the stock, the workers, and presumably anything else he can think of
AUTHOR: Words: John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster; reportedly written 1850; a tune -- not the traditional one -- was printed in _The Tabernacle_ in 1864))
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 35-36, "The Vermont Farmer's Song" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 102-105, "The Vermont Farmer's Song" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #4659
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lincolshire Poacher" (tune, according to Flanders et al)
File: CAFS1035

Vermont Sugar-Maker's Song

DESCRIPTION: "When you see the vapor pillars lick the forest and the sky, You may know the days of sugar-making then are drawing nigh." Describes sugar-making; "Sweetest joys indeed we sugar-makers know." "Bubble, bubble... goes the pan." Use of sugar is advised
AUTHOR: Perrin B. Fiske ? (born 1837)
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: food work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, p. 33, "Vermont Sugar-Maker's Song" (1 text)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 238-239, "Maple Sweet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 26, "Maple Sweet, or, Vermont Sugar-Maker's Song" (1 text)
ST FlBr033 (Partial)
Roud #5444 and 3737
RECORDINGS:
Dudley Laufman, "Maple Sweet" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #661, recorded 09/02/2023)
File: FlBr033

Vernita Blues

DESCRIPTION: Singer "can't get along" with Vernita. "...tell her to hurry home." When she came home last night "the moon was shining bright." He met Alberta across the sea; she wrote him no letter. He would have Vernita change her mind and "treat me nice and kind"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (recording, Sleepy John Estes)
KEYWORDS: love request rejection derivative nonballad parody lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Sleepy John Estes, "Vernita Blues" (Decca 7342,1937; on USChartersHeroes)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alberta Blues" (original source)
NOTES [175 words]: Estes is taking off on Mississippi Shieks' "Alberta Blues." Shieks sing "Alberta, Alberta, where'd you stay last night... Come home this morning sun is shining bright" while Estes's Vernita came home "this morning ... the moon was shining bright." Singers that cover the "across the sea" verse are singing about their own lover. So, Furry Lewis sings, "I see Roberta going 'cross the sea"; Jimmy Gordon sings, "Alberta went across the sea." In keeping with the idea of the original, Estes would have his Vernita across the sea. Instead he copies the Shieks' line "I met Alberta way across the sea"; he's not only talking about the Sheiks' lover rather than his own, but, unlike other covers, he meets her there, as the Shieks do. Finally, Estes uses two tunes, neither anything like the Shieks' "Alberta Blues." To take Henry Lewis Gates Jr's term, there's "Signifyin(g)" going on here, but I don't understand how it works. Is "Vernita Blues" parity? Respectful referencing? Or something else? The liner notes for USChartersHeroes is silent on this. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcVernBl

Versos de Montalgo

DESCRIPTION: Spanish. First line: "En el mil nueve cientos y diez -- Y los cuento sin edal...." Montalgo is killed from ambush in 1910 ten years after he killed Encarnacion. A month later, his body is found. His family mourns. Last verse says the other verses are lies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: Mexico homicide death trick foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Mexico
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 302-303, "Versos de Montalgo" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [73 words]: Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag prints this report from Frank J. Dobie: "In the year 1900, Encarnacion Garcia waylaid and killed another Mexican in Cameron County. Montalgo, a Mexican deputy sheriff, rode up on Encarnacion as the latter was burying his victim. Encarnacion resisted arrest, or at least Montalgo always so claimed, and Montalgo killed him. Ten years later to a day, Encarnacion's gente got their revenge by killed Montalgo." - RBW
File: San302

Very First Time I Saw My Love, The

DESCRIPTION: "The very first time I saw my love, I was very sick in bed, And the only request I asked of her Was to tie up my head. O, love it is a killing thing, Did you ever feel the pain?" The singer wishes his love were a rose and he a gardener.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: love rejection flowers floatingverses disease
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 128, "The Very First Time I Saw My Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4233
NOTES [21 words]: Just about every word of this floats, but I don't recall the combination existing except in the Jacobs family of Wisconsin. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet128

Very Good Morning to You, Sir, A

See Hello, Hello Sir (File: CoCo188)

Very Same Lord, The

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Very same, very same, Very same Lord went in the lion's den." Verse response: "Very same Lord went in the lion's den." Verse calls include floaters (see notes for examples)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (LomaxCD1708)
KEYWORDS: Bible floatingverses nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #17294
RECORDINGS:
Silver Leaf Quartet, "The Very Same Lord" (on LomaxCD1708)
NOTES [39 words]: Daniel in the lion's den is from Daniel 6.
The floating calls include "One of these days 'bout twelve o'clock ... This old world's gonna reel and rock" and "When I get to heaven gon' sing and shout ... There's nobody to turn me out." - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcVeSaLo

Very Small Cat, A

DESCRIPTION: "A very small cat Had a very large bow, She thought she looked pretty... Till one day she stumbled And forgot all her airs, For she tripped on her bow, And she fell down the stairs!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: animal clothes injury | cat bow
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 67, "(A very small cat)" (1 text)
File: PKKB067C

Very Unfortunate Man, The

See The Warranty Deed (The Wealthy Old Maid) [Laws H24] (File: LH24)

Very Well Done, Says Johnny Brown

See Ah Roop Doop Doop (File: R448)

Vesper Song

See Softly Falls the Light of Day (Girl Scout Prayer, Scout Vespers) (File: ACSF456S)

Vesta and Mattie's Blues

DESCRIPTION: "I've got a belly full o' whiskey an' a head full o' gin, The doctors say t'will kill me but they don't say when." Chorus: ""I'm a long line skinner an' my home's out west, Lookin' for a man to buy me a hobble dress." Verses float between blues
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Arrangement copyright by W. C. Handy)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses drink love separation clothes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Handy/Silverman-BluesAnAnthology, p. 60, "Vesta and Mattie's Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Easy Rider" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [60 words]: This looks to me like another one of those blues collections of floating verses (in addition to the first, from "Cocaine Blues" or the like, the second is from "Easy Rider": "Pretty papa, pretty papa, look what you've done: You made your mama love you, now your woman's come"). The notes in Handy, however, imply that it is an actual folk song, so here it is. - RBW
File: Handy060

Veteran, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on one Sabbath morn the bells did chime for church, The young and gay were gathering there around that rustic porch." A veteran accuses them of ignoring him. He points to his gravestone, says no one recalls him, and asks to be rememberd
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Copper-ASongForEverySeason)
KEYWORDS: ghost burial soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 234-235, "The Veteran" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24926
File: CoSe234

Veteran's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: The Union veteran lists all the fights he's fought, and all the wounds he's received, and notes that he consistently gave better than he got. He says "[I] will not sheathe my sword Until from Florida to Maine the Stars and Stripes shall proudly float"
AUTHOR: words: John Ross Dix
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (broadside copyright)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier injury
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 21, 1861 - First Battle of Bull Run
May 31-June 1, 1862 - Battle of Fair Oaks/Seven Pines
Sept. 17, 1862 - Battle of Antietam
Dec. 13, 1862 - Battle of Fredericksburg
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 392, "The Veteran's Song" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2456, p. 165, "The Veteran's Song" (2 references)
Roud #11754
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, amss002964, "The Veteran's Song" ("Come gather 'round the Camp-fire -- and till the break of day"), Charles Magnus (New York), 1864
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Virginia Low Lands" (tune, according to the broadsides)
NOTES [264 words]: This is unquestionably a composed song, and not about an actual individual. You don't take "a grapeshot in my knee" and walk again thereafter! Nonetheless, the mention of the grapeshot is in the original John Ross Dix poem.
There are other signs of confusion in the song -- e.g. there is a reference, between the mention of Fair Oaks and that of the Peninsula, to service in "Fighting Joe's Brigade" and crossing the Rapidan at Culpeper with Averell. But "Fighting Joe" Hooker never commanded a brigade in combat in the Peninsular campaign; he was already in charge of a division. And while William Woods Averell did lead a rearguard action in the Peninsula, it was during the retreat to the James. The reference to Culpeper is probably an errant reference to the Chancellorsville campaign.
The reference to General Bragg also seems out of place in the story of an Eastern soldier; Braxton Bragg spent his entire combat career in the west (although he did spend some time at a desk job in Richmond after being forced out of field command -- but that was long after any datable event in the song, and apparently after the poem was copyrighted!). Nonetheless that mention too is in the original Dix poem.
The copyright on the Library of Congress broadside is from 1864, but the last event specifically mentioned is the Battle of Fredericksburg in late 1862. I suspect it took author Dix most of a year to sell the thing. I note that he was a fairly prolific songwriter (there are five poems by him in the "Same Tune" references) -- but this is the only item to reach tradition at all. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Br3392

Veterans' Song

DESCRIPTION: "We are veteran union boys, We uphold the Constitution, We'll help the boys to win this strike...." The singer recalls fighting against slavery in 1861, and for Wall Street in 1916, and now wants repayment. The singer says to join the union
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Lynch, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement strike Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 1936-Feb 1937 - General Motors Strike
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 415-416, "Veterans' Song" (1 text)
File: CAFS2415

Vi Styrte Utover Atlanten (We Set Out Over the Atlantic)

DESCRIPTION: Swedish shanty. No story line, just sailing comments and complaints. i.e. "Callao was our port, so we go... Like a louse on a tarry fist." Chorus: "Hala hem! Hala hem! Hala hem a belagg! (Haul them home, haul them home, haul them home and belay)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_ )
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty sailor
FOUND IN: Sweden
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 552, "Vi Styrte Utover Atlanten" (2 texts-Swedish & English, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 30, "Vi Styrte Utover Atlanten" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [69 words]: Note in Sternvall that this was sung aboard the Richelieu of Stromstad in 1903. - SL
This is not unlikely, since the late nineteenth century was they heyday of the South American guano trade (for which see the notes to "Tommy's Gone to Hilo"). Ilo and Callao were the two chief ports of this trade. And, of course, carrying guano was one of the less pleasant jobs for a sailor, and did generate complaints. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hugi552

Vicar of Bray, The

DESCRIPTION: "In good King Charles's golden days... A zealous high churchman was I, and so I got preferment." In the reigns that follow, the Vicar changes his opinions to suit the monarch, "That whatsoever king shall reign, I'll be the Vicar of Bray."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside Bodleian, Douce Ballads 4(49))
KEYWORDS: clergy political royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1660-1685 - Reign of Charles II (an Anglican, but devoted to "High Church" and probably baptised Catholic on his deathbed)
1685-1688 - Reign of James II (brother of Charles II; Catholic)
1688 - Glorious Revolution. William III of Orange overthrows James II in his own behalf and on behalf of his wife, James's daughter Mary II. William is Dutch, and favors a more Reformed faith.
1688-1702 - Reign of William III (first cousin of Mary and nephew of James. Mary died in 1694)
1702-1714 - Reign of Anne (second daughter of James II; Protestant but conservative)
1714-1727 - Reign of George I (a cousin of Charles II and James II, and far down in the line of succession -- but the closest relative of the Stuarts to be safely Protestant)
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(SE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 652-654, "The Vicar of Bray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 122-123, "The Country Garden, or, The Vicar of Bray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #210, "The Vicar of Bray" (1 text)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #78, "The Vicar of Bray" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 314, "The Vicar of Bray" (1 text)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 149-151, "The Vicar of Bray" (1 text)
cf. Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 187, "Country Gardens"
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1416, "In Charles the second's Golden Reign"
DT, VICARBRY*
ADDITIONAL: Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, pp. 124-126, "(The Vicar of Bray)" (1 text)
Roud #4998
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 4(49), "The Time Server, or, Vicar of Bray," T. Evans (London), 1790-1813
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When the Rebels Come A-Marchin'" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
The American Vicar of Bray ("When Royal George ruled o'er this land and loyalty no harm meant") (Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, pp. 62-63)
NOTES [8694 words]: According to Nettel, p. 126, "the song seems to have been derived from an early one by Ned Ward called The Religious Turncoat, sung to the tune of London is a fine Town." Perhaps true, but this is far better known.
According to Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, p. 206, "A certain Canon of Windsor is said to have been Vicar of Bray, near Maidenhead, from 1540 to 1588, and to have been a Papist under Henry VIII, a Protestant under Edward VI, a Papist again under Mary, and a Protestant again under Elizabeth. This gave rise to a proverb, 'The Vicar of Bray will be Vicar of Bray still."
Although the song is mostly a commentary on political trimming, it also reveals the strange and complex religious situation in late seventeenth century England. The ferment had been rising since the death of Elizabeth, really: James VI and I (reigned over England 1603-1625, having previously been king of Scotland) was inclined toward absolute monarchy, and his son Charles I (reigned 1625-1649) was even more so. This also naturally inclined them toward a hierarchical, ritualistic church. Neither king was popular, so they could do little to prevent the rise of the hard-line puritan denominations.
And then, of course, came the rebellion against Charles I, with Scotland turning to the Covenanting version of Presbyterianism and England increasingly Puritan. When Oliver Cromwell died and the Commonwealth crumbled, Britain restored the monarchy, but it didn't at once solve the issue of the national faith. And, of course, for many years, the monarch had been the primary influence on the church: Henry VIII had instituted the Anglican church, Edward VI (or, rather, his ministers) had tried to codify it, then Mary I had inclined back toward Catholicism, leaving it for Elizabeth I to try to find a middle road.
Religion doesn't seem to have been a particularly big deal to Charles II on his restoration. Clark, p. 18, writes, "The king himself was the son and heir of one who was regarded as a martyr for the church of England, but he never showed much feeling for that church. He was without serious personal religion, and his theological opinions, so far as he had any, were those of the deism which was by this time common among unprejudiced men of position. He was therefore inclined to be tolerant of differences of belief, and he was disposed to be particularly indulgent to the Roman Catholics, that body among his subjects who were the most generally feared and ill-treated."
Compare Miller-James, p. 40: "Charles's religious outlook was more complex. He had a good knowledge of scripture and liked to discuss religious topics but does not seem to have had a deep religious faith. Unlike James [II], he apparently felt no guilt at his endless adulteries. He believed that 'to be wicked and to design mischief is the only thing that God hates' and that 'God would not damn a man for a little irregular pleasure.' His attitude towards institutional religion seems to have been guided mainly by political and social considerations."
Similarly Fraser, p. 149: regarding Charles's faith, "only two things can be stated with absolute certainty: that he was born a member of the Church of England (like his father), and that he died fifty-five years later a member of the Roman Catholic Church (like his mother)." Fraser mentions various rumors that he had converted before he was on his deathbed, but he certainly acted like an Anglican until the very end. As for what he actually felt, one of the few testimonies we have is from his close friend the Duke of Buckingham, who claimed that in his early years he had "no religion at all except a kind of vague 'deism'" (Fraser, p. 150).
Hence, perhaps, the description of the era as a "golden time"; Charles by was not inclined toward the persecution of anyone.
Which doesn't mean it was a golden time if you weren't Anglican. In Scotland, Charles re-imposed the bishops that the Scottish Kirk had gotten rid of in the Covenanting era, and deposed many clergy who wouldn't go along; the result was that most of his bishops were boot-lickers rather than quality churchmen, and many congregations were at conflict with the central church (Hutton, pp. 179-180). Even in England, which was mostly Anglican, Charles's attempt at a toleration bill was tossed by the Commons (Fraser, p. 191), and the 1662 Act of Uniformity forced out about a tenth of the active clergy (Hutton, p. 183), and Scotland was worse, and Ireland of course remained a nation of Catholic helots ruled by Protestant nobles, many of them absentee. The Church in England was more oppressive than Charles would have liked, both toward Catholics and toward dissenters -- as Fraser observes on pp. 215-216, the Anglicans were doing unto the Puritans almost exactly as the Puritans had done to the Anglicans in the Commonwealth era. According to Hutton, p. 424, says that, for "presbyterians, sectaries, or Quakers," the late years of Charles's reign saw the most severe persecution "of the reign and, indeed, in history."
In Charles's defense, although he couldn't get the penal laws repealed, he could offer that, "at the least, the laws would be laxly enforced" (Hutton, p. 176); in England at least, the clergy who resigned simply went home and worshipped their own way in their own place (Hutton, p. 183; Hutton adds on p. 184 that Charles "enjoyed the exotic" and so found "Quakers and sectaries [to be] strange and intriguing creatures" rather than people to be oppressed). And Charles started to open the door for the Jews to again be legally allowed in England (Fraser, p. 218).
The flip side was that Charles didn't really do much to strengthen the laws about religion or the succession. One of his most important servants, Edward Hyde, the Earl of Clarendon, called him "irresolute" and said that he was too apt to be influenced by those around him (Miller-James, p. 39). Neither was he hard-working; he would talk to anyone who wanted his attention, then... not do anything. (I can't help but think that Charles and the Vicar would have appreciated each other very much. Another reason it was a "golden time" for the Vicar.) The result was that no one liked him much, and he faced constant crises, but he didn't offend anyone so much that they felt the need to overthrow him (Miller-James, pp. 35-39, etc.)
And there seemed to be something about Catholicism that struck a note in the heart of all the Stuarts. Prall, p. 44, records that "Charles II had developed a feeling of sympathy for the Roman Catholic Church and for French ways during his years of exile. How deeply his religious views went is certainly problematic, but there was an air about the court at Versailles [where Charles II spent much time after his father's execution and his own exile], Catholic and monarchical, that deeply impressed the young man in exile."
Certainly Charles liked to be in control -- in the latter years of his reign, funded by a subsidy from France as well as revenues voted him for life by his subjects, he dispensed with parliament (Trevelyan, p. 22). Hence, presumably, the line in the song, "Kings are by God appointed" (something his father and grandfather believed even more profoundly; James I had actually written a book Trew Law of Free Monarchies, which set forth his belief in the Divine Right of Kings; Davies, p. 30. Charles I didn't write any books, but he did say that he "owe[d] the account of [his] actions to God alone," and that a king "cannot be tried by any superior jurisdiction"; Davies, p. 32. Compare also the quotes from Charles I's trial in Wedgwood-Coffin, pp. 121-134. Somehow, his belief that no one had jurisdiction over him that didn't stop Parliament from executing him).
It didn't really matter by then, but Charles II is said to have joined the Catholic church on his deathbed (Kenyon, p. 224; Prall, p. 89; Hutton, p. 443). It is not clear what caused his death -- Miller, pp. 118, thinks he had had a stroke, which fits the contemporary verdict of apoplexy (Fraser, p. 449) while Hutton, p. 443, suggests "chronic glandular kidney disease with uraemic convulsions," which might explain why he recovered a degree of rationality so quickly, Once the condition set in, he was subjected to a lot of bleeding and the like (Miller-James, pp. 118-119; Fraser, p. 446, says he was subjected to more than fifty different drugs, plus bleeding, blistering, cupping, and more). In the circumstances, it is not entirely clear that he actually made a conscious decision to turn Catholic.
It hardly matters either way. What did matter is that Charles II had no heir; he had sundry illegitimate children, the most important of whom had became Duke of Monmouth, but even when England had had illegitimate Kings (William the Conqueror, Henry VII), great effort was made to pretend they were legitimate. Nor was Monmouth to prove a particularly good leader; shortly after his father's death in 1685, he tried to raise a rebellion (Chandler, p. 3, and most of the rest of his book; Trevelyan, pp. 26-27; Clark, pp. 113-115, etc.; for background on Monmouth, see "The Monmouth Rebel"). His rising was quickly quashed at the battle of Sedgemoor; he was executed, and his followers suffered very badly (Kenyon, pp. 228-229), as songs of the time tell:
Oh Lord, where is my husband now --
Where once he stood beside me?
His body lies at Sedgemoor
In grave of oak and ivy;
Come tell me you who beat the drum,
Why am I so mistreated? (Chandler, p. 92; Alexander, p. 268, says that there are exceptionally many tales of ghosts told about the Sedgemoor battlefield. There were also a lot of broadsides about Monmouth, but they left effectively no trace in tradition).
But Monmouth's elimination left Charles's brother James (II and VII) as the only claimant. James was already king; with Monmouth out of the way, there wasn't anyone else to rally around. James, contrary to this song, did not "usurp" the throne; he was Charles's legitimate heir, and had been expected to succeed for many years, since it had become clear that Charles's wife Catherine of Braganza was barren. (At least, that's what they called her. I wonder if she might have been the first real victim of the venereal disease we know Charles had.) But James was Catholic. Proudly and openly Catholic. Maybe it was the family attitude; maybe it was the effects of the exile he had shared with Charles II. But he openly professed the Roman faith (Prall, p. 46). At this time, Catholics were barred from almost every office in England by the Test Act and the penal laws, and only quick action by Charles during the "Exclusion Crisis" had kept parliament from barring Catholics from the succession. And here was one on the throne! (It is perhaps possible that a parliament might have barred James from the throne before his accession, but as noted, Charles II managed to avoid summoning parliament in the latter years of his reign; they had no opportunity to do so.)
What's more, James gained firm control in the aftermath of Monmouth's rebellion, and although he failed to induce parliament to repeal the penal laws against Catholics (Trevelyan, pp. 33-34; Kenyon, p. 229, says that he never even raised the issue), he *did* induce them to vote him subsidies for life (parliament would learn from this, and never again give a monarch life subsidies; Trevelyan, p. 26). Free of financial needs, James prorogued the parliament after it met for just a week and a half (this even though it was the most pro-Monarch parliament in decades; Prall, p. 92, says that its composition would have "made any Tudor or earlier Stuart king weep with envy").
Free of outside restrictions, James began to show clear favor to Catholics -- and to turn the machinery of government over to them ("Every effort was made to recruit Catholics and suitable Dissenters as magistrates and sheriffs" -- Kenyon, p. 238. The dissenters had no more fondness for Catholics than did the Anglicans, but they would support James if it would get them toleration). And he was intent on creating a standing army -- something that was anathema to both the radical Whigs (because they didn't trust him) and the otherwise reliable Tories (because they remembered Cromwell and the Commonwealth and what it had done to the Church of England; Trevelyan, pp. 29-30). Trevelyan, p. 34, writes, "James, in short, in his desire to restore Romanism in England, found it necessary to become an absolute monarch like the other Princes of Europe."
The reference to the Vicar "read[ing] the Declaration" in the reign of James is perhaps somewhat confusing, because the natural thought would be that he is referring to the Declaration of Right, issued by William and Mary when they came to the throne. But James had made his own Declaration -- the Declaration of Indulgence (1687). This was, in effect, a unilateral repeal of the Test Act and anti-Catholic legislation (Prall, p. 126). This, on its face, was a liberal move -- James not only lifted the restrictions on Catholics but on Protestant Dissenters (Kendall, p. 236). But it was clear that he meant to use it to appoint more Catholics to high positions. And -- the key point, this -- he had done it without consent of parliament. The Test Act might be needless; it was certainly (by modern standards) odious, but it was the law. What James had done was patently unconstitutional.
Fortunately for the peace of the country, James's two daughters, Mary (born 1662) and Anne (born 1665), were safely Protestant, and Mary, James's heir, was safely married to the equally Protestant William of Orange. Unfortunately, James's first wife Anne Hyde had died in 1671. (That, for a royal marriage, was noteworthy for having been an actual love match; he had gotten Hyde, the daughter of the Earl of Clarendon, pregnant, and finally earned Charles's permission to marry her; Miller-James, p.45. On the other hand, he was only the brother of the monarch, and the marriage took place in 1660, meaning that it was plannedt before the Restoration -- Miller-James, p. 44 -- so at the time there was no reason to expect that James would inherit the throne. They had seven children, but only two reached adulthood. Nor did it prove a happy match.)
Anne Hyde, like James, had been moving toward Catholicism when she died (Miller-James, pp. 58-59), but that was no problem; even if James was Catholic, his heirs were Protestant, and were being brought up by Protestants so that James could not try to convert them. But James's second wife, Mary Beatrice of Modena (1658-1718), was Catholic (Clark, p. 77). It was a semi-arranged marriage; James was willing to marry someone who would bring diplomatic advantage to Britain, but made it a condition that she be beautiful (Anne Hyde had been morbidly obese by the time of her death) -- and wanted to get it done before Parliament could interfere, resulting in some comic opera maneuvers trying to find someone who fit the bill (Smith, pp. 71-73). James was right to expect opposition; Parliament opposed this marriage in 1674 (by that time, the Stuarts were back on the throne, and Charles II had failed for years to produce a legitimate heir). Indeed, there was talk of banning Catholics succeeding to the throne -- but before that could reach a vote, Charles prorogued parliament (Miller-James, p. 74), and Charles had allowed the marriage to go forward (Kenyon, p. 209).
It was a surprisingly happy marriage, given their differences (she was fifteen, pretty, and friendly; he was forty, ugly, and both closed-minded and rather stupid). The age gap was so great that Mary of Modena actually became friends with her stepdaughter Mary, who was only a few years younger! (Miller-James, p. 75). But from the standpoint of the succession, it looked for a time as if it wouldn't matter; Mary became pregnant five times, and none of the children lived (Kenyon, p. 239, attributes this to a venereal disease -- James's, not Mary's -- but Miller-James thinks this unlikely). And Mary had been barren for several years by the time James came to the throne. But then, in late 1687, it was announced that she was pregnant (Prall, p. 173). And the child proved to be a boy -- the future Old Pretender, "James III," of Jacobite fame. As an adult, he would prove to be not a very forceful character, but he was healthy, and everyone knew he would be raised Catholic, and he was now heir to the throne (Trevelyan, p. 49). The fragile religious balance in England was suddenly no balance at all.
And across the channel was William of Orange, stadtholder of the Netherlands, the husband of James's daughter Mary. It was an odd marriage: "The wedding itself was hardly a jolly affair. When Mary heard of her fate, she wept for a day and a half. William was twelve years older and four inches shorter than his bride. Hook-nosed, solemn, and asthmatic, 'he had a constant deep cough... spoke little and very slowly and most commonly with a disgusting dryness.' He was also slightly hunchbacked, very unfashionably dressed and had forgotten much of the English he had learned from his mother" (Miller-James, p. 85).
And yet, "As William's cold reserve gradually thawed, Mary came to love him for his kindness and thoughtfulness and to respect his ability and integrity. Her unquestioning devotion helped sustain him through seventeen years of difficulties and uncertainties. When she died, in 1694, he was so distraught that it took him months to recover" (Miller-James, p. 85).
William, being both James's nephew (he was the son of James's older sister Mary) and his son-in-law, had long expected to succeed James (Prall, pp. 173-175). And, indeed, he desperately *needed* to succeed James, because his tiny country was trying to hold off the France of Louis XIV, and he could hardly hope to hold out much longer on his own. (This was a big reason Louis XIV had paid off first Charles II and then James II: To keep England from joining the Dutch war on the side of a fellow Protestant nation.)
On June 30, 1688, a group of English barons, frightened of James and his policies, issued an appeal to William of Orange to do something about the King (Trevelyan, p. 50; Clark, p. 127; Kenyon, p. 243, described William as actively inducing them to make their appeal; this may be his interpretation of a comment by William that he would not intervene in English affairs unless invited. For this situation, see Clark, p. 127f., Prall, p. 174fff.).
Whatever William's original intentions, once the invitation came, he pounced. His timing was excellent; the French navy was unavailable and could not stop him (Clark, p. 129), and the French army headed off on a wild goose chase into Germany (Clark, p. 130; Trevelyan, p. 56). William managed to get to sea by November. And he succeeded in a great gamble: He chose to sail past the English fleet (which, to be sure, was in a state of near-mutiny after James had installed Catholic chaplains; Clark, p. 132). Helpful weather allowed him to sail past them and land in the southwest of England. The conditions worked so well for him that people called it a "Protestant Wind" (Kenyon, p. 249); note the reference in the song to the "new wind."
James of course was still "in possession" in England, but it was not to last. The people were learning the tune "Lillibullero" (Trevelyan, p. 58), which was to "whistle James from his throne," and the lords started bailing out not long after (Trevelyan, p. 61). Hence the Vicar set aside the "doctrine of non-resistance" and "passive obedience," which basically meant, when ordered by a monarch to do something immoral, to refuse to do it but remain loyal (Clark, p. 33; the doctrine is stated most explicitly in 1 Peter 2:13-17, but is in accordance with passages such as Matthew 5:39). With the whole country turning against him, James's government fell apart.
The outcome was settled when James went into a panic. Everyone expected a parliament to be called -- but James, rather than letting it meet and hoping to dominate it, burned the writs of summons and fled to France (Prall, pp. 237-238). Perhaps, with his absolutist trend of mind, he thought that the government would be paralyzed -- it was, after all, the King's government, and without him parliament could not meet. In theory (cf. Trevelyan, p. 67). In practice, they managed to use a legal fiction to cover up what had happened. By fleeing, James II was held, after some discussion, to have abdicated (Kenyon, pp. 254-257; Prall, p. 261; Trevelyan, p. 77). Parliament was regarded as having been properly summoned. And that parliament declared the infant James son of James (who of course had gone off with his father; Kenyon, p. 255) illegitimate, or at least ineligible for the crown (Kenyon, pp. 259-260) because of his presumed Catholicism (Trevelyan, pp. 77-78). So James the Father was off the throne, and James the Son was not to succeed.
So who was? William, the conqueror? James's daughter Mary? (The obvious choice, except that she was a woman and she wasn't the guy with the guns.) Someone else? Perhaps even James himself, with someone else as regent?
Another compromise made the William of Orange and James's daughter Mary joint monarchs -- William III and Mary II -- with William being given control but it being understood that whichever lived longer would be sole monarch after the death of the other, and their children if any would succeed them, with Mary's sister Anne being next in line. (Miller-Glorious, pp. 16-21). Since William was a dozen years older than Mary, and sickly, it was expected that she would outlast him, so it wasn't expected that the joint monarchy would matter. As it turned out, Mary died of smallpox in 1694 at the age of just 32 (Gregg, p. 101), and William in 1702, and they had no children -- a problem suffered by several other Stuarts as well. (Though I've seen people speculate that William liked men and had trouble performing around Mary. I'm not sure about this. William doesn't seem to have had much of a sex urge -- he showed no interest in remarrying after her death -- but he and Mary were clearly devoted to each other.)
A series of additional compromises -- the "Glorious Revolution" -- assured greater religious freedom and a more constitutional government, with an independent judiciary and stronger parliamentary controls (Trevelyan, p. 88, etc.), enshrined in the "Declaration of Right" (Trevelyan, p. 79). Toleration was guaranteed to just about everyone, although the Anglican church was still the official church (Miller-Glorious, pp. 60-61). It was not a happy church, however, since it had lost a lot of power, and there were major internal fights between High and Low Church factions (Miller-Glorious, pp. 61-63). Not everyone was reconciled to the Revolution -- most of Ireland would follow James II to the banks of the Boyne, and Scotland would later break out in the Jacobite rebellions -- but the matter was pretty well settled in England, and what England said, went. Hence the Vicar's prompt conversion.
(Incidentally, it was probably a very good thing that James was displaced. Had William and then Anne not been monarchs at the start of the eighteenth century, England would have been less anti-Catholic, and the France of Louis XIV would very likely had won the War of the Spanish Succession, resulting in France dominating all of Europe -- possibly for centuries to come.)
William himself, and his closest Dutch advisors, were "Calvinists in belief, congregationalists in religious observance -- the English dissenters were in a very real sense their coreligionists" (Kenyon, p. 236). But the Netherlands by this time was fundamentally tolerant; William did not impose any real religious restrictions on his subjects. The Vicar needed only to return to the Protestant (Anglican) fold. (Note that the song is typically not very clear about the Vicar's actual practice in William's time.)
But then Mary died, followed by William, and Anne took the throne. William and Mary had in effect governed from the center of the newly-forming Whig/Tory spectrum -- the deposition of James II was entirely a Whig idea, but James's behavior had forced most Tories to join the anti-James crowd (Trevelyan, pp. 76-77); only the Jacobite extremists still held out for the full Tory position.
Anne wanted no part of this; she had the Stuart conservatism in a fairly pure form, and insisted on a Tory government -- although Gregg, p. 134, suggests that she disliked the whole idea of parties and factions, and eventually she was put off by the "High Tories" and tried to balance Tories and Whigs. Still, most agree that she was a firm believer in High Church Anglicanism (e.g. Gregg, pp. 15-16), which was a key tenet of the Tories, and even Kenyon, who thinks she wasn't so strongly Anglican, admits that everyone *thought* she was (Kenyon, p. 299). And, politically, even Kenyon admits that her "reign opened with a bang, with the dismissal of every Whig in sight and their replacement with firm Tories" (Kenyon, p. 300).
By 1707 she had settled on a policy of working with anyone who would work with her (Gregg, p. 255). It must have been great for the Vicar.
There is however agreement (e.g. Kenyon, p. 299) that she had no use at all for the habit of "occasional conformity" -- the fairly common practice of a Dissenter going to an Anglican church a few times a year to meet the requirements of the Test Act, allowing him to serve in government. Anne at the start of her reign tried to promote a law against occasional conformity, which failed (Gregg, pp. 162-163), but in 1711 she pushed through a bill stopping this practice (Clark, p. 222), which the Vicar naturally approved of, as long as it was on the statute books.
It didn't last long. Anne herself died childless in 1714. Which revived the succession problem. When the Glorious Revolution took place, the succession had been defined only as far as Anne, to succeed William and Mary; Anne had just given birth at that time to the future Duke of Gloucester, and it seemed likely that the succession could pass through him.
But the Stuarts truly were jinxed, genetically as well as historically. Something caused them to have few (and often emotionally troubled) children. It is possible that this is due to the genes of King Charles VI of France. The mad king was the father of Queen Katherine of Valois, wife of Henry V. Her son by Henry V, who became King Henry VI, was feeble-minded and had at most one son. By her second husband/paramour Owen Tudor, Katherine was the grandmother of King Henry VII -- and while Henry VII was healthy, his heir Henry VIII's wives repeatedly miscarried, and of his three legitimate and one illegitimate children to reach the age of one year, none would have offspring of their own.
Charles I was the great(x6)-grandson of Charles VI -- via Katherine of Valois, Owen Tudor, Henry VII, Margaret Tudor, James V of Scotland, Mary Queen of Scots, and James VI and I -- and had nine legitimate children, six of whom died without legitimate issue. Of the remaining three, James II, like Henry VIII before, caused his wives to miscarry repeatedly, and Mary the mother of William of Orange had only one child. William and Mary, both grandchildren of Charles I, were childless, and Mary herself had been through miscarriages. James the Old Pretender had two sons, but neither produced a legitimate heir. And Anne -- well, Anne went through many pregnancies, almost all of which produced babies who died very young. The child of 1689 lived to become the Duke of Gloucester -- but then died in 1700 while still a boy.
Goucester's death produced a crisis, which William of Orange sort of resolved by passing the Act of Settlement in 1701 (Prall, pp. 287-288). This made it official: A Catholic could not ascend to the throne of England (later broadened to all of Britain by the passage of the Act of Union in 1707), nor could the monarch marry a Catholic. This was the "Protestant Succession."
Anne had repeatedly talked, at the end of her life, of passing the throne to the Old Pretender, who was after all her closest living relative (her half-brother). Thackeray wrote, "Had the Queen lasted a month longer; had the English Tories been as bold and resolute as they were clever and crafty; had the Prince whom the nation loved and pitied been equal to his fortune, George Louis had never talked German in St. James's Chapel Royal" (quoted in Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 11). But Anne died too soon, and the law was not altered. The hunt was on for a Protestant heir.
In fact, the Protestant heir was already known -- except that he was far down the line of succession. Several people could have supplanted him had they wanted -- but they would have had to give up their Catholic faith.
It really helps to see a genealogy here; I used the one in Oman, p. 458. Under strict blood succession, the heirs of Anne (after setting aside the Old Pretender) would have been the descendants of Henrieta, the daughter of Charles I who had married Philip, Duke of Orleans. These were, apart from the Old Pretender, the only legitimate descendants of Charles I still around. But they were all Catholic. That left the offspring of Elizabeth, the daughter of James I. (She and Charles I were the only children of James I to live to have children.)
Elizabeth had had a truly sad history: Born in 1596 (Oman, p. 1), her early portraits show a very pretty red-haired girl, who apparently was also quite clever (Oman, p. 36). Not too surprisingly, half a dozen princes were mentioned as possible marriage prospects (for the list, see p. 469 in Oman's index). Somehow, though, James decided to favor the suit of Frederick V, who, when he came of age in 1614, would be the Elector Palatine of the Holy Roman Empire (Oman, pp. 52-53). James's wife Anne of Denmark wasn't so happy (Oman, p. 62), but the young pair (Frederick was the older by just a few days; Oman, p. 54) were formally betrothed at the end of 1612. (Some think that Shakespeare's "The Tempest," or at least the Masque in IV.I.106 and following, was modified to suit her wedding; we know, according to The Riverside Shakespeare, p. 1606, that it was performed as part of the elaborate marriage festivities.)
Dill, p. 33, describes Frederick as "young, handsome, charming... and a Calvinist," but not even that combination of traits could bring calm to Germany. The rest of Elizabeth's life was not so happy. Frederick soon decided to accept the vacant throne of Bohemia (Oman, p. 170), against the advice of most of those around him (Wedgwood-Thirty, pp. 97-99; the Bohemians, after all, had just ousted the previous King even as he was being elected Holy Roman Emperor; Wedgwood-Thirty, pp. 90-97).
That decision put Frederick squarely at the center of the Thirty Years' War; Bohemia, which was trying assure its Protestantism, was the front line. Elizabeth came to be called "The Winter Queen," because it was foretold that her husband, "The Winter King," would vanish with the snows (Oman, p. 202). He did. In November 1620, his forces lost the Battle of the White Mountain (Oman, pp. 223-224, etc.; Wedgwood-Thirty, pp. 122-125, describes the Bohemian forces, who were few, ill-paid because of the poverty of the crown, and ill-led, being destroyed in almost no time despite what should have been a strong position. Dill, p. 33, adds that James I of England provided no help to the Protestants, since he was "dallying with an alliance with the Spanish Habsburgs").
Frederick, and the Bohemian Protestants, were driven out as the Habsburg Emperor re-imposed Catholicism. (Elizabeth is surely the only Stuart to get in trouble for not being Catholic enough!) Frederick formally allowed Maximilian of Bavaria to become Elector, and got out of there. Elizabeth spent the rest of her life in exile of one sort or another: She and her husband, living in (by royal standards) poverty, tried to improve their position until Frederick died in 1632. Her son finally regained his status as Elector in 1648, but by then the Stuart dynasty in England was on the ropes. She finally returned to England in 1661 after the Stuart restoration -- and promptly died (Oman, p. 455). It was quite a drama -- but it shouldn't have mattered much in England, except for the failure of the Stuart line.
Even if you ignore the sad history of her life, Elizabeth had a typical Tudor/Stuart story: She had thirteen children (including the famous Prince Rupert). But nine of her children died without any offspring at all, and Rupert had no legitimate children. That left three: Charles Louis, the Elector Palatine (restored after the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, but with reduced territory; Dill, p. 37), whose offspring were Catholic; Edward, whose offspring were Catholic, and Sophia, who married the Elector of Hanover. (It is interesting to note that the Guelfs of Hanover had only recently become electors -- a new electorate, the ninth, in 1692; Dill, p. 43. Thus the Hanoverian dynasty only became Electors *after* the Glorious Revolution!)
If it's any consolation to the memory of Elizabeth, it appears that *every* remaining crowned head of Europe is her descendant; the monarchs of Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden are all descended from Sophia of Hanover (as were the pre-World War II monarchs of Greece, Yugoslavia, and Romania among others), and the royal house of Belgium, along with the extinct dynasties of Bulgaria and Italy and others, descend from Liselotte daughter of the Elector Palatinate (Oman, p. 457).
By 1710, it was of course clear that none of the people ahead of her would turn Protestant, so Elizabeth's daughter Sophia became Anne's heir apparent. She did not quite live to succeed, dying in 1714 at the age of 84 (perhaps, some have argued romantically, as a result of news from England which seemed to imply that Anne would disinherit her; Sinclair-Stevenson, pp. 13-15).
And so, in default of anyone else, George Lewis, Elector of Hannover, became King George I of England. He was not in any way exceptional -- Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 24, quotes an unnamed source as saying, "To imagine George I possessed any exalted views regarding either the supremacy of the Protestant religion or the economic and progressive development is to credit a mollusc with the aspirations of an eagle." As it turned out, none of his descendants to the present day has been exceptional, either (except George III, who was exceptional for stupidity and madness, and George IV, who was an exceptional jerk); the only one prior to Elizabeth II whom I can imagine making even a decent ruler in his own right is George V. But England had had its handsome Plantagenets and its triumphant Lancastrians and its romantic Stuarts; maybe it had had enough of exceptional monarchs. George was much laughed at -- for his lack of English, his two ugly mistresses, his clan of German friends (Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 26). But even though he faced two Jacobite rebellions (1715 and 1719), there was never any serious danger of his overthrow. Even Our Vicar had little to say about George's theology -- except that he would follow it.
The reference to George arriving in Pudding Time has perhaps as many as three meanings. It refers to a the beginning of a meal, as George was the beginning of a new dynasty. It also implies a good meal (recall that pudding, in British English, is what Americans call "dessert"), in which case the Vicar might be using it to try to compliment the new king. And -- well, George I, by the time he succeeded to the English throne, was rather pudgy, and his expansive cheekbones made him appear pudgier. He had the look of a man fond of his pudding.
Many candidates have been proposed for the "real" Vicar of Bray, although I don't believe any of them. The earliest is the one supported by Nettel, p. 124: Simon Alwyn, who was Vicar during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I, and thus went from Catholic to Protestant to Catholic to Protestant. This proposal of course has two problems: First, it has nothing to do with the song (which refers to events a century after Alwyn's death), and second, many clerics went through this lurching process in the years from 1536 to 1558; there is no reason to specifically point to this Vicar of Bray. But the various other candidates aren't much better.
Although there does not seem to have been an actual Vicar of Bray, this sort of shifting-of-allegiance is by no means unknown in British history. The Wars of the Roses in particular brought many instances of turning one's coat. The greatest example I can think of is Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick (died 1471). Warwick became an earl in the reign of King Henry VI, to whom he initially gave his loyalty (Ross-Wars, p. 34). But then he joined the opposition under the Duke of York (Ross-Wars, p. 31). Eventually he became one of the "Yorkist Earls" who invaded England to overthrow Henry VI (Ross-Wars, p. 45). When York was killed, it is possible that Warwick thought to try to rule again through Henry , but then Henry VI fell back into the hands of Queen Margaret (Ross-Wars, p. 52), so Warwick, in desperation, joined with York's son Edward IV, who went on to become King.
Warwick had become "The Kingmaker" (Ross-Wars, p. 54), but soon grew disillusioned with his role and began to intrigue on behalf of Edward IV's brother George of Clarence (Ross-Wars, p. 77). This failed, so Warwick eventually made a deal with ex-Queen Margaret and the French to support the old King Henry VI (Ross-Wars, p. 85). They briefly drove out Edward IV, and "re-adepted" King Henry (their spelling, and their invented word; Kendall, p. 100). But Edward IV killed Warwick at the Battle of Barnet (Ross-Wars, p. 90). The Kingmaker's career was over.
At least Warwick was overt in his actions. A better example of the pure trimmer comes in the form of the brothers Thomas Stanley (c. 1435-1504), later Earl of Derby, and his brother Sir William Stanley (c. 1440-1495). Thomas Stanley succeeded his father as Lord Stanley in 1459 (a title bringing with it control of the Isle of Man); this was in the reign of Henry VI, though the Wars of the Roses were already underway. Longford, p. 48, says that Henry VI admitted him to the Order of the Garter (though Kendall, p. 381, attributes this to Richard III), then Edward IV made him Steward of the Household. Stanley retained power under Richard III, even though he had married Margaret Beaufort (the mother of the future Henry VII) around 1482. He brought an army to Bosworth (where Richard III died), carefully did not fight in the battle, but when Richard died, reportedly put the crown on Henry VII's head.
That's the short version. In fact it appears the situation was even more complicated than Longford admits. Kendall, p. 404, notes that the Stanleys "thrived by daring to make politics their trade, by sloughing off the encumbrances of loyalty an honor, by developing an ambiguity of attitude which enabled them to join the winning side."
Kendall implies that, early on, the brothers Stanley deliberately played both sides (see pp. 404-406): In 1459, William joined the Yorkists (and was attainted by a Lancastrian parliament), while Thomas, claiming to be Lancastrian, kept his troops idle at Blore Heath. Thomas did fight for the Lancastrians at Northampton, but when Edward IV became King, Thomas was made Chief Justice of Cheshire and Flint.
When in the late 1460s Warwick made the first of two attempts to bring back Henry VI, Thomas made sympathetic noises but did nothing and was taken back into favor. In the second attempt, he joined Warwick -- but did nothing at the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury. Since William had joined the Yorkists, Thomas was allowed to rejoin the government. It was after this that he became Steward. During the reign of Richard III, even though his wife lost her estates after Buckingham's rebellion, Thomas Stanley became treasurer.
Then came the invasion of Henry VII, which eventually overthrew Richard. Stanley was, by now, the third-greatest landholder in England, after the Howard Duke of Norfolk and the Percy Earl of Northumberland. When Henry VII landed, Stanley asked to be allowed to leave Richard. Richard consented, though he made Stanley turn over his son Lord Strange as a hostage. (But, we note for the Richard III haters out there, once it was clear that Stanley would not support Richard at Bosworth, Richard let Strange live.)
Even after the death of Richard, the Stanleys kept their feet in both camps. Thomas became Earl of Derby (a title that is still in his family) -- though Kendall, p. 457, says that Margaret Beaufort eventually refused to share his bed any longer. But William, the man who had ordered the counter-charge that killed Richard III and won England for Henry, did not even receive a peerage. He allegedly conspired with the pretender Perkin Warbeck, and the Stanley luck finally ran out; Henry VII had him executed. (To be sure, there are those who think Henry just wanted Sir William's money; Poole, p. 18.)
It should be noted that Kendall's was the most vigorous defense of Richard III in the twentieth century; to preserve Richard, he must inherently blacken the Stanleys. But others tell the same story. Gillingham's history seems to try to be balanced, in that it does not condemn Richard out of hand (but he betrays his bias in failing to note that Henry VII faced as many rebellions in his first two years as Richard did in his, and had a little support from peers; the only difference is that Richard was killed at Bosworth, whereas Henry won his battle at Stoke -- fortunately, since there would have been at least one more round of civil wars had he lost). But Gillingham's account of the Bosworth campaign (pp. 233-242) cannot conceal the extensive treachery of the Stanleys, though it tries to hide it under the cloak of necessity.
Seward-Roses, pp. 303-304, in the space of two pages manages to refer to "Lord Stanley's well-deserved reputation for trimming," and his "treacherous behavior in 1470-1471," also mentioning that "Thomas Stanley had survived the Wars of the Roses... by his shrewdness in identifying and backing the more powerful side" and noting that Henry and the Stanleys "were men of utmost cynicism," as well as that "the Stanleys were never men of their word."
Long after I wrote the above, I was amazed to find that Ross-Richard, p. 162, took exactly the same view, referring to "the Vicar of Bray attitude which the Stanley family usually adopted."
Perhaps the best evidence of all comes from the will of William Catesby, one of Richard III's closest associates. Three days after the Battle of Bosworth, as he prepared for execution, he wrote his will. Cunningham, pp. 76-77, shows a reduced image of the will, which reads in part, "My lords, Stanley, Strange and all that blood help and pray for my soul for you have not for my body as I trusted in you."
No matter what source you consult, both brothers had careers with even more changes of coat than the Vicar of Bray (who just went along with whoever was in charge).
For additional details on Richard III's story, see the notes to "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods) [Laws Q34]" "The Rose of England" [Child 166], plus -- especially for the Stanleys -- "The Battle of Bosworth Field."
England had also had a period of almost as much religious instability from about 1530-1560. Henry VIII (reigned 1509-1547) began as a staunch defender of Catholicism against Lutheranism, but when he wanted to dump his wife Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn (Williamson, p. 111) , and was refused, he created Harryism (as it should have been called) or Anglicanism (as it calls itself). By 1529, he summoned the Reformation Parliament, which would work with him in creating the new denomination (Scarisbrick, p. 245).
Following Henry VIII was his son Edward VI. Although only a boy, his protector, Somerset, was a zealous Protestant who moved toward a much more strict reformist position (Ashley, p. 637). Somerset did not last long, but his opinions lasted until Edward VI himself died, still in his teens, in 1553 (Loach, p. 167). Edward had been persuaded to name Jane Grey, the "Nine Days' Queen," as his successor (Ashley, p. 638). But Henry VIII's eldest daughter, Mary (I), raised an army and was able to take control (Loach, p. 170).
Had her supporters known what was coming, they might not have been so adamant. She was a fanatical Catholic, and a foolish one, with no understanding of the people; her attempts to reimpose Catholicism earned her the name "Bloody Mary" (Ashley, p. 640). She lost Calais, England's last possession in the continent, and had no heir; she died, as 2 Chronicles says of Jehoram, "with no one's regret." Her half-sister Elizabeth succeeded, and put Anglicanism in roughly its final form (Ashley, p. 641): Largely Catholic in worship and in episcopal organization, but separate from Rome and with a more Protestant theology.
It would have taken a rare trimmer to manage to keep his congregation from 1529 to (say) 1559, however. Henry VIII disposed of uncompromising Catholics, Bloody Mary burned any number of Protestants (and didn't trust those who recanted), and even Elizabeth was at times forced to deal harshly with Catholics (Ashley, p. 642). It was a far harsher period than 1685-1714; James II and William III, because their positions had been so weak, had generally been willing to accept any followers they could find. Whereas Bloody Mary was a true zealot. - RBW
The form of broadside Bodleian Firth c.8(33), "Beef and Butt Beer, Against Mum and Pumpernickle" or "A Bumper to Old England, Huzza," B. C. (London), 1743, shows it either to be a forerunner or derivative of "The Vicar of Bray." Here is the first verse:
In good King G---'s golden days,
Whoe'er advis'd the King, Sir,
To give H---r the Bays,
Deserv'd a hempen String, Sir.
For this is true, I will maintain,
Give H----r away, Sir,
Or whatsoever K---g shall reign,
Will ne'er have a happy Day, Sir. - BS
The king in the item above must be one or another King George (no other English king has had the initial "G," unless you count Richard of Gloucester). And since the king mentioned clearly is no longer on the throne, and the song was published in the 1740s, it must be George I.
This strongly implies that "H---r" is Hanover, the German principality that England had inherited with George I.
My guess is that the reference is to the Battle of Dettingen (1743) during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). Britain had joined the war on the Austrian side, partly because France was on the other side, partly because Hanover was part of the Holy Roman Empire (of which the Habsburg Emperor of Austria was usually Emperor, though an exception had had to be made at this time; Maria Theresa of Austria was a woman and therefore ineligible), and partly because Britain wanted to maintain the balance of power.
The War of the Austrian Succession was very expensive for Britain, and unpopular, causing several governments to fall rather spectacularly. Dettingen was of particular note because it was very bloody, and a strategic defeat for the British, who ended up sitting and licking their wounds, rather than continuing to campaign, afterward (Browning, p. 140).
Dettingen also was remembered because George II personally led troops (Browning, p. 137; the last time a British monarch was directly involved in battle). It frankly should have been a worse defeat, except that the French Duke of Grammont gave up an almost unassailable position, allowing the British to escape a trap (Browning, p. 139). According to Browning, p. 139, "George II basked in his long-sought (and unmerited) glory." But Browning, p. 140, notes that he wore Hanoverian, not British, insignia in the battle (something his British officers strongly resented; Brumwell/Speck, pp. 175-176).
Also, the Hanoverian connection was very unpopular in Britain, where it was felt that the Georges paid too much attention to their continental domains. It is easy to understand a British writer saying, "Give Hanover away!"
George I was, of course, the last King mentioned in the "standard" Vicar of Bray. It thus seems likely that the Bodleian broadside is a follow-on to the Vicar -- which in turn implies that the Vicar was in existence by the reign of George II if not earlier.
Just how traditional "The Vicar of Bray" is is an open question. That it's well-known, however, cannot be denied.
Improbable as it sounds, a bark named The Vicar of Bray was built in 1841. After a complicated career, it ended up in a decrepit state in Port Stanley in the Falklands. It still exists as part of a pier there, and is believed to be the only surviving ship to have made the voyage to San Francisco during the 1849 gold rush (Paine, pp. 546-547).
The song also gave its name to a biological theory. Ridley, p. 31 etc., describes how biologists for long thought that sex existed in order to promote the diffusion of good genes, helping along evolution. This came to be called the "Vicar of Bray" theory. Alternatives go by such names as the "Tangled Bank" and the "Red Queen" (after the Red Queen's Race in Through the Looking Glass).
Unlike its namesake, though, the "Vicar" theory proved inadequately adaptable. The basic premise is sound: Sex allows the diffusion of genes (i.e. it allows genes A and B, which arose independently, to end up in the same organism), and sharing of genes is indeed helpful when a species must seek to optimize behavior; it is the best way to create superior mixes of genes. But this does not explain why so many creatures reproduce only by means of sex. Mammals use sex exclusively, and most other vertebrates and many invertebrates also reproduce exclusively sexually.
The problem with the Vicar of Bray is that sex is not needed for genetic diffusion. It's perfectly possible to swap genes without sex; bacteria often do it, and viruses manage it by invading a cell and adding their DNA to its. And in the ordinary course of things asexual reproduction (cloning or fissioning) is a faster way to reproduce. Indeed, we see a mix of such strategies in many creatures (strawberries, for instance, send out runners to populate their local area, while spreading seeds to the wind. And there are a number of species which reproduce primarily asexually while going through an occasional sexual phase, e.g. at the end of a growing season).
Plus, while sex serves to distribute good genes, it also serves to break up good gene combinations. As Ridley puts it on page 47, "Sex disobeys that great injunction, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.'"
It has been noted, however, that asexual reproduction seems to be a very rare thing; if one looks at a "Tree of Life" (one of those drawings that show species splitting off from each other), and marks the multicellular creatures which reproduce asexually, they are few and scattered (description in Dawkins, p. 425). The one major exception is the bdelloid rotifers, which -- unlike all other rotifers -- reproduce exclusively asexually, and have managed to persist for an estimated 85 million years and spawn some 360 species (Judson, pp. 219-220; Dawkins, p. 425). Judson, p. 213, calls it a "notorious scandal" (in the circles of evolutionary biology). According to Ridley, p. 85, it was John Maynard Smith who first used the term. Scandal they may be, but they are still very much the exception. Almost every other species reproduces sexually. It must have some strong advantage -- but no one knows what.
(This gives rise to an irony: The Vicar of Bray in the song kept himself in business by selfishly concerning himself solely with his own survival. The Vicar of Bray hypothesis regarding evolution failed because it does not take into account the selfish desires of each creature that its genes, and only its genes, survive.)
Because of these problems, there is still debate about why sex persists. It will be interesting to see the name applied to the consensus theory if and when a consensus forms. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChWII122

Vicksburg Blues

DESCRIPTION: Singer has the Vicksburg blues: "my baby didn't want me no more" but "she's restin' on my mind." He looks for her in town but "she had moved away." He leaves, gets word where she may be, and is going to hop a freight back.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Montgomery)
KEYWORDS: grief love separation train travel nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Scott Dunbar, "Vicksburg Blues" (on USDunbarS01)
Little Brother Montgomery,"Vicksburg Blues" (Paramount 13006, 1930); (1968, on "Faro Street Jive," Folkways Records FTS 31014)
NOTES [529 words]: The description combines both Little Brother Montgomery recordings listed. He recorded different versions of "Vicksburg Blues" after 1930, including a "Vicksburg Blues No. 2" (Bluebird B6072, 1935) and "Vicksburg Blues Part 3" (Bluebird B6697), with different words. Other singers had their own "Vicksburg Blues" -- with their own words -- using Montgomery's tune and influenced by Montgomery's piano arrangement. Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup has "Crudup's Vicksburg Blues" (Victor 20-2205, 1946). Otis Spann hads "Vicksburg Blues" (1966, on "Otis Spann's Chicago Blues," Testament T-2211). Scott Dunbar's version includes lines from Little Brother Montgomery and Spann or -- more likely -- Crudup (one Dunbar line is "I got the Big Boy blues").
The "Forty-Fours" complex of blues -- starting with "Vicksburg Blues" and the two "Forty-Four Blues" -- is explored in great detail in his "The Forty-Fours" in Paul Oliver, Screening the Blues (New York: De Capo Press, 1968). Here are a snippets from that long article:
"... the piano tune of The Forty Fours or Vicksburg Blues -- is the unifying theme that holds all the variants together ...." (p. 95)
"'...1922 ... I come over to Vicksburg...' explained Little Brother Montgomery '.... That's where I met Ernest Johnson ... that's where we originated these numbers like Vicksburg Blues, 44 Blues and things like that.'" (p. 94)
"Eurreal Montgomery did not claim exclusive credit for composing the theme. Among the people that he mentioned who played the tune in its formative period were ....
"On the tune which these men developed Little Brother Montgomery commented, 'It's a blues, it's a barrelhouse, honky-tonk blues. People danced by that, did the shimmy by that. It's a thing we just made up; you could keep addin' to it.' From this it appears that originally The Forty-Fours was a piano piece for dancing. The shimmy dances, though depending on undulating movements of the body which shook the heavily fringed shift dresses of the period, were not necessarily fast. The sensuous 'snake-hip' movements of the shimmy or the shuffle of the 'slow drag' would have been effective at the medium tempo of the tune.
If The Forty-Fours began as a dance tune it probably had no words initially, and this is supported by Roosevelt Sykes's assertion that there were no lyrics to the tune when he first heard it. But when he recorded his '44' Blues and Little Brother Montgomery made his Vicksburg Blues both had definite, though very different, vocals." (pp, 94-95).
"It is interesting that while Sykes's vocal is on a different tune from the piano theme, Little Brother Montgomery's vocal line is closely related to the melody of the piano theme, itself. It is possible therefore, that the piano tune was modelled on a pre-existing vocal tune which survives in Vicksburg and that Sykes had not known of the vocal but learned the mature piano version." (p. 95)
"Roosevelt Sykes, ... learned the tune from {Lee] Green ..." (p. 102)
"[Green's] vocal had a rise and fall shape similar to that of Little Brother's ... his earlier [1929] recording showed greater affinity to Roosevelt Sykes in the vocal ...." (p.104) - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcVicksB

Vicksburg Round the Bend

See Captain Jim Rees and the Katie (File: MWhee010)

Vicksburg Soldier, The

See The Battle of Vicksburg (File: R225)

Victoria's Southern Cross

DESCRIPTION: "When Ballaarat/Ballard unfurled the 'Southern Cross,' Of joy a shout ascended to the heavens...." "For brave Lalor Was found 'all there,' WIth dauntless dare, His men inspiring." Hearers should "be faithful to the standard, for victory or death"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (the Eureka Stockade, according to Ingleton)
KEYWORDS: patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1854 - The Eureka Stockade Revolt
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Geoffrey C. Ingleton, _True Patriots All: or News from Early Australia as told in A Collection of Broadsides_ ("Garnered and Decorated" by Ingleton), Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1988, p. 256, 'Victoria's Southern Cross" (1 text, tune referenced)
Raffaello Carboni, _The Eureka Stockade_, 1855 (see Bibliography), chapter XXXVII ("Lalor Stump, Bakery Hill"), p. 67 in the Melbourne University Press edition, "(Brave LALOR was found all there)" (1 excerpt); chapter LXXXII ("Victoria's 'Southern Cross'"), pp.144-145 in the Melbourne Edition (1 text)
Roud #24819
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The 'Standard Bearer'" (tune)
NOTES [1220 words]: Ingleton gives no real explanation of this, but the previous page is a wanted poster announcing a £400 Reward. It says, "Whereas Two Persons of the Names of Lawlor & Black, LATE OF BALLAARAT, Did on or about the 13th day of November last, at that place, use certain TREASONABLE AND SEDITIOUS LANGUAGE, And incite Men to take up Arms, with a view to make war against Our Sovereign Lady the Queen."
Apparently this arises out of the controversy over licenses to dig for gold in Australia (for which see "Where's Your License?"). There was a sort of revolt over the issue in 1854. It started on October 6, 1854, when the body of a murdered man named James Scobie was found in the Ballarat goldfields. Three people were charged with the murder, including the owner of the Eureka Hotel and his wife. They were acquitted. This seems fair; there wasn't much evidence -- Carboni, pp. 26-27, says that Scobie and his companion, a man named Martin, were very drunk when they were assailed, and although Martin survived, he can't have had much idea what actually happened. But although proof was lacking, the diggers felt the defendants had bribed their way out of conviction and burned the hotel (Clark, p. 138).
What began as a demand to punish Bentley, the hotel owner, turned into a series of mass meetings demanding redress of grievances -- first the high price of licenses (on November 29, 1864, many of the protesters burned their licences), then even more radical demands. (The goldfields were running out, so the price of the licenses was becoming more of a burden; Macintyre, p. 88.) It ended up turning into a demand for a more representative parliament (Clark, p. 139).
"In the last weeks of 1854 the Ballarat Reform League began to organize revolt. Led by an educated, middle-class Irishman, Peter Lalor, the diggers took up arms and built a stockade [at Eureka] just outside Ballarat on a hillside commanding the road to Melbourne. The stockade's defenders then proclaimed the Republic of Victoria, hoisted a blue-and-white Southern Cross flag, and swore by it 'to stand truly by each other, and fight to defend [their] rights and liberties" (Ward, p. 56). Macintyre, p. 88, believes there were about a thousand of them.
Carboni describes these events, and the flag: "The flag is silk, blue ground, with a large silver cross, similar to the one in our southern firmament; no device or arms, but all exceedingly chaste and natural" (Carboni, p. 68). He also describes the attempts to find arms: the men did their best to procure firearms, and failing that, had a blacksmith forging pikes (Carboni, p. 78. Hadn't anyone learned by then that, if you were forging pikes, you'd already lost?)
But, Ward says, "Thirst was their undoing." Most of the diggers regularly left the stockade for local hotels. (Ironic that Lalor had earlier ordered grog-sellers out of the camp; Carboni, p. 89.) That was the situation on the night of December 2/3, 1854; in the mid-morning there were only about 150 men at the Eureka Stockade. On Sunday, December 3, a local crown officer demanded the surrender of the stockade, and when it was not given, attacked at about 4:30 a.m. (Clark, p. 139; Ward, p. 56). The notes in the Melbourne University edition of Carboni, p. 96, say that there were 276 attacking soldiers under 12 officers, as opposed to not many more than 100 diggers with firearms.
It took less than half an hour. According to Clark, p. 139, 25 of the diggers were killed and 30 wounded; the troops suffered one officer and three men killed, plus 11 soldiers wounded. Ward, pp. 56-57, claims 22 diggers and six soldiers were killed or mortally wounded (Learmonth, p. 178, agrees with these figures, and Macintyre, p. 88, also says that 22 diggers were killed; Murphy, p. 110 says that five soldiers and about thirty miners were lost); the dead diggers came from England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Canada, Australia, and perhaps other places. These figures may be based on Carboni, p. 137, who lists 14 killed and eight mortally wounded, with full names for six, partial names for three, no names for three. He also lists 12 who were injured but recovered, which is surely too low; presumably most of the wounded tried not to be identified. Although the dead came from all over, I can't help but note that, of the seventeen whose places of origin are known, ten were from Ireland.
"The leader of the diggers, Peter Lalor, having lost an arm in the fighting, hid for a season to escape the vengeance of the authorities and reappeared years later as a conservative in the Victorian legislative assembly" (Clark, p. 140).
Thirteen men were put on trial for treason, but happily the juries refused to convict (Ward, p. 57).
Murphy, p. 111, says, that a liberal view "has enshrined Eureka as a victory of radical elements over a conservative authority. It has claimed a legendary status, a protest for the democratic and independent struggle against an oppressive and imperial overlordship. The latter interpretation places great store on the supposed revolutionary element in Eureka and has influenced the formation of such groups as the Eureka Youth League. The flag designed at the time has become the symbol of pro-republican causes." But Murphy thinks "Hindsight has conferred on Eureka a revolutionary character that was largely absent at the time."
Much later, in 1923, a memorial was put up at the Eureka Stockade, although it was a little ambivalent about which side it rooted for; it memorializes both diggers and soldiers (Ward, p. 57). Macintyre, p. 88, says that the protests caused many political reforms, though no one else seems to mention them.... But the Eureka Stockade is still remembered in Australia as a protest for liberty, and people still write songs about it today.
According to Learmonth, p. 300, Lalor (1827-1889) was born in Tinakill, Ireland, and came to Australia in 1852. He served as Speaker of the Legislative Council 1880-1887.
There are at least four books about the event:
* Rafaello Carboni, The Eureka Stockade: the consequences of some pirates wanting on the Quarterdeck of a Rebellion (by one of the participants); republished 1942, and by Melbourne University Press with a new preface in 1963, and again by Dodo Press in 2007, among many other editions. It's a difficult book; Carboni was an Italian who knew many languages but had some trouble with English. It's not that he wasn't fluent; he was -- but he was enthusiastic and extremely disorderly, and there is no index and the chapter headings are all in Latin! So it's hard to find anything.
* Richard Butler, Eureka Stockade, Angus & Robertson, 1983 (this appears to be historical fiction which later was made into a movie)
* Geoff Hocking, Eureka Stockade : A Pictorial History The Events Leading to the Attack in the Pre-dawn of 3 December 1854, Five Mile Press, 2004
* Gregory Blake, Eureka Stockade: A ferocious and bloody battle, Big Sky Publishing, 2016
There are at least a couple of biographies of Lalor:
Les Blake, Peter Lalor, The Man from Eureka, Neptune Press, 1979.
Clive Turnbull, Eureka: The Story or Peter Lalor, Hawthorn Press, 1946
There was also a play (by Leslie Haylen?), "Blood on the Wattle."
Obviously this song was written by someone on the loyalist side who had delusions of being a poet. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: InglVSC

Victorious Goalers of Carrigaline and Kilmoney, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's joy throughout the nation... our goalers ... have won the victory... on the plains of Onnabuoy" Ancient heroes of the game would join the acclamation. The game is described. O'Day is the hero. Players on both teams are named.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: pride sports Ireland moniker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 148-155, "The Victorious Goalers of Carrigaline and Kilmoney" (1 text)

CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mourneen Gal Ma Chree" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
cf. "Bold Thady Quill" (subject of hurling) and references there
cf. "The Carrigaline Goalers Defeated" (subject of hurling, plus these particular games)
NOTES [46 words]: The name of the Irish game is "goal" or "hurling." This match takes place near Cork harbour.
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland quoting "Miss Conner, sister to the hero of the ballad": "The famed contests of Onnabuoy occurred in December, 1828, and the second in April, 1829." - BS
File: CrPs148

Victorious March

DESCRIPTION: General Grant sets out to capture Vicksburg. He wins assorted small battles and besieges the city; it surrenders on July 4.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety), based on a diary entry from 1864
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 1862 - Union general Ulysses S. Grant begins his Vicksburg campaign. His first four attempts to reach the city fail
Apr 16, 1863 - Porter's gunboats run past Vicksburg, opening the way for Grant's final successful campaign
May 12-17, 1863 - Grant fights a series of minor battles which bring him to the defences of Vicksburg
May 22, 1863 - Grant's attempt to take Vicksburg by storm is a bloody failure. The Union army settles down to a siege
July 4, 1863 - Lt. General Pemberton surrenders Vicksburg
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 369-371, "Victorious March" (1 text)
Roud #7765
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Vicksburg" (subject)
cf. "Late Battle in the West" (subject)
NOTES [438 words]: Historical allusions in this piece include:
"In the early part of May": Grant actually brought his forces across the Mississippi below Vicksburg on April 30, 1863
"Grand Gulf": On May 1, two Confederate brigades arrived from Grand Gulf to dispute Grant's crossing. The actual battle was fought at Port Gibson, and resulted in a rebel defeat. The survivors then abandoned Grand Gulf to Grant.
"Raymond": After crossing the river, Grant had intended to head downstream and capture the auxiliary fortress of Port Hudson, but instead decided that Vicksburg was his primary objective. He moved inland, defeating a small force at Raymond, Mississippi on May 12
"Jackson" and "the seniors of rebellion": There were two rebel forces in central Mississippi: Pemberton's Vicksburg garrison, and an additional force under Joseph E. Johnston near Jackson. Johnston was the senior officer in the west, and in theoretical charge of Pemberton -- but he couldn't get Pemberton to obey him, and his own force was small (no more than 12, 000 men, and probably less than 10,000). Grant, with at least a 4:1 advantage, beat the force at Jackson on May 14, freeing the Union army to deal with Pemberton without worrying about his back.
"Champion Hill": Properly Champion's Hill. Johnston had vainly tried to get Pemberton to pitch into Grant's army while Johnston was still fighting. Pemberton sat -- then finally came on on May 15, changed his mind, and awaited Grant on the hill. Grant attacked on May 16, and after a bloody battle pushed Pemberton back toward Vicksburg
"Black River": On May 17, Pemberton tried a rearguard action at the river crossing. Grant forced a crossing without much trouble, and Pemberton was trapped. Grant besieged the city starting May 19, although his initial assault was defeated
"Genral Pem": Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton (1814-1881), the commander of the Vickburg garrison. His handling of the campaign was so inept that some confederates accused him of treason (he was born in the North).
"General Logan": John A. Logan (1826-1886). Commander of a division in the Union army
"Their works he undermined": Union engineers twice (June 25, July 1) exploded mines under the Confederate works. Neither explosion produced a breakthrough, though they may have influenced Pemberton's decision to surrender.
"All hope of Johnston's aid": After the battle of Jackson, Johnston tried to assemble a relieving force, but the only troops available were green as grass. In addition, Grant was given some 30,000 additional troops, with which to hold off Johnston. Johnston declared on June 15 that Vicksburg could not be saved. - RBW
File: Beld369

Victory

See On Board of The Victory (File: Peac484)

VIctory Nugget

DESCRIPTION: "The magic of yellow that shows in the pan Has captured the fancy of many a man" although many strive long without finding gold. Peter Pesini comes from Italy to hunt. After many years, he finds a large nugget -- but dies soon after taking it to the bank
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry)
KEYWORDS: mining gold death immigration
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 52, "Victory Nugget" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: COl2052

Victory Shall Be Mine

DESCRIPTION: "Victory, victory shall be mine (x2); Just hold your peace and the Lord will fight your battles, Victory, victory shall be mine." "Victory, victory shall be mine in the morning..." (Or, "When in trouble," or "In the evening," etc.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 176, "Wictory Shall Be Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 57, "Victory" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Frank and Anne Warner, "Wictory Shall B Mine," Vol. XXV, No. 2 (Nov 1977), p. 77, "Wictory Shall Be Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa176 (Partial)
Roud #16403
NOTES [128 words]: Yes, the Warners' informant (name uncertain) pronounced it "wictory" -- a peculiar error for an American, as it is considered characteristic of Cockney speech (and even in that dialect, some insist that its frequency is exaggerated) and other parts of East Anglia and southeastern England. The NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal article declares the exchange of v and w to be characteristic of Outer Banks dialect.
The tune has another, even more surprising, peculiarity: It uses quarter tones. And not just any quarter tone; it has a quarter tone in place of the fifth (i.e. A♭# instead of G in the key of C). At least, that's how it shown in Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl ; I don't see it in the NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal transcription. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Wa176

Victory She Came Bearing Down, The

See Nelson's Fame, and England's Glory (File: GrD1146)

Victory Won at Richmond, The

DESCRIPTION: "The southern boys may longer lie On the first and fourth of sweet July, Our General Beauregard resound For his southern boys at Richmond." In a bloody battle, the southerners save Richmond while the Yankees run
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: battle Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 66, "The Victory Won at Richmond" (1 text)
DT, VRCHMND
ST JHCox066 (Full)
Roud #3629
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Heights of Alma (I)" [Laws J10] (meter, lyrics)
NOTES [626 words]: This song is item dA37 in Laws's Appendix II. Laws lists two texts in Cox, but this is a typographical error.
This song is truly a curiosity. The form and lyrics are straight from "The Heights of Alma" (with this clearly being a rewrite) -- yet "The Heights of Alma" was about an event of the Crimean War; what was it doing being parodied in the American South in the 1860s? I suppose there could be an earlier song which inspired both (Alma was hardly the sort of battle to produce a brilliant broadside), but I hadn't found it.
The history here is also confused. The only general named on either side is Beauregard. But Beauregard never commanded at Richmond. He could be treated as the Confederate commander at First Bull Run/Manasses (though the actual field commander was Joseph E. Johnston), but that was a long way from Richmond (McPherson, pp. 339-346, especially p. 340). Beauregard did command the defenses of Petersburg (south of Richmond) in 1864, and fought the Yankees in the Bermuda Hundred campaign (Boatner, p. 55) -- but this was as a subordinate of Lee's.
It seems likely that this line is an interpolation, as it does not fit the stanza form. But that just leaves things more murky. So do the initial dates: The first and fourth of July. No significant battles happened on those days -- except the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) and the surrender of Vicksburg (given up on July 4, 1863; for the dates of battles, see Phisterer, pp. 83-220), neither of which a Confederate would celebrate.
The description of the battle also fails to match any actual battle. The casualty ratios are reminiscent of two fights (Fredericksburg, where according to Boatner, p. 313, the Union lost 12,700, compared to 5200 Confederates; and Cold Harbor, where Boatner, p. 163, makes the ratio of casualties 7000:1500), but again, these were Lee's battles, and neither was fought near Richmond. In any case, the Confederates fought all of the above battles on the strict defensive; nowhere did they capture a height.
If one were to list one battle as a "Victory at Richmond," it would probably be the Seven Days' Battles, but this was Lee's fight, with an army recently Johnston's; Confederate losses *exceeded* Union casualties (McPherson, p. 470), and at no point did the Confederates take a ridge (they in fact signally failed to take one in the Battle of Malvern Hill).
I think the only possible conclusion is that this is a localized version of "The Heights of Alma," not based on an actual battle but rather on a few names the writer had heard. It may even be conflation of northern and southern versions (that would explain a lot of the confusions).
Alternately, it may be that it conflates battles. Second Bull Run was fought August 29-30, 1862 (Phisterer, p. 112; Boatner, pp. 104-105), with an afterthought at Chantilly on 1 September, 1862. Maybe the author heard the news on 1 or 4 September, confused the date with July -- and then confused Second Bull Run, where Lee commanded, with First Bull Run, where Beauregard sort of commanded. In any case, the result is a mess.
It's too bad, in a way; the version of "Heights of Alma" I know is incredibly energetic, and could use a solid American version.
As a footnote, there was a "Battle of Richmond" in Civil War annals. And it was a clear Confederate victory -- "as near to a battle of annihilation as any had been seen so far in this war" (Anders, p. 216) But it was a small conflict fought near Richmond, Kentucky in August 1862 (Phisterer, p. 112). Beauregard was not involved, of course; the Confederate commander was Edmund Kirby Smith. It is interesting to note that it took place on the same day as the Second Battle of Bll Run. Maybe that added to the confusion of the songwriter. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 3.2
File: JHCox066

View the Land

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Way over Jordan, View the land (x2), Way over Jordan, View the heavenly land (x2),"Verses: The singer is "born of God," wants to go to heaven and wear "gospel shoes," warns "stop telling your lies" and "let your neighbor be"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 138-139, "View de Land" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 182 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #15246
NOTES [54 words]: Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses follow the chorus pattern "view the land, view the land" and "view the heavenly land." - BS
Presumably this is an allusion to the story of Moses, who was not allowed to enter the Promised Land but was allowed to view it from Mount Pisgah. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett138

Viggy Mitchy Kimeo

See Kemo Kimo AND Poor Old Man (Poor Old Horse; The Dead Horse) (File: R282)

Viking Song

DESCRIPTION: "Clang, clang, clang on the anvil, In the smithy by the dark North Sea; Is it Thor that is smiting with the hammer, Is it Odin with the leather on his knee? Clang, clang, clang on the anvil There are steel ships wanted on the sea!"
AUTHOR: Words:David McKee Wright (1867-1928) / Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (sheet music published by J. Curwen & Sons Ltd.)
KEYWORDS: work ship
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 86, "Clang, clang, clang on the anvil" (1 text)
Roud #25506
NOTES [33 words]: It is quite a surprise to find this in Ireland; David McKee Wright was a writer primarily associated with New Zealand, responsible for "Amelia Jane," "Shearing," and "Shearing's Coming Round." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC086A

Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]

DESCRIPTION: Dinah is in love with (William/Vilikens); her father insists that she will marry someone else. Dinah steals away, writes a note to her love, and drinks poison. Her love finds her body and in turn kills himself. They are buried in the same grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: M31A: before 1821 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.17(469)).
M31B: before 1853 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 26(662))
KEYWORDS: courting death poverty
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,So,SE) Canada(Mar) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Laws M31A, "William and Dinah A"/M31B "Vilikens and His Dinah (William and Dinah B)"
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 64-65, "Vilikins and His DInah" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 345, "William and Dinah" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 110-111, "William and Dinah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan2 211, "Villikens and His Dinah" (1 fragment, 2 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 133, "Diana" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 147-148, "Wilkins and Dinah" (1 text)
Randolph 80, "Vilikens and Dinah" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 50, "Vilikens and his Dinah" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 162, "Young Diana" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune; the "A" text is "William and Dinah"; "B" is "Vilikens")
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 105, "Vilikins and His Dinah" (1 text)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 90, "Billy and Diana" (1 short text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 204, "Wilkins and His Dinah" (1 text plus 1 excerpt and mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 204, "Wilkins and His Dinah" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #181, "Wilkins and Dinah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 33, pp. 146-147, "Villikins and His Dinah" (1 text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 25, pp. 46-47, "Wilkins and His Dinah (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, p. 49, "Dinah's Lovers" (1 text, in which William becomes "Sambo"!)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 301-303, "Willikins and His Dinah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 17, "Diana and Sweet William" (1 text, 1 tune); 18, "Villikens and his Dinah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 767-769, "Villkins and his Dinah" (2 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 180-181, Jimmy and Diana" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 53-54, "Vilikins and His Dinah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2461, p. 165, "Vilikins and His Dinah! or, The Cup of Cold Pison" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 24 and #3/62, p. 24, "Vilikins and His Dinah" (1 text, with a "Comic Parody" on p. 25)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 118-119, "William and Dinah" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 266, "Villikins And His Dinah" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 603-604, "Vilikens and His Dinah -- (Sweet Betsey from Pike)"
DT 435, VILDINAH*
ADDITIONAL: Peter Davison, _Songs of The British Music Hall_, Oak, 1971, pp. 20-23, "Villikins and His Dinah" (1 text, 1 tune, a full music-hall version with much patter between musical portions.)
Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 66-68, "Villikins and His Dinah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Martha W Beckwith, "The English Ballad in Jamaica: a Note Upon the Origin of the Ballad Form" in _Publications of the Modern Language Association_ [PMLA], Vol. XXXIXI, No. 2 (Jun 1924 (available online by JSTOR)), #10 pp. 479-482, "Adinah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 91-91\2, "William and Dinah" (1 text, which seems to consist of the opening of "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah)" [Laws M31A/B" with the happy ending of "Cupid's Garden (I) (Covent Garden I; Lovely Nancy III)" or something similar grafted onto the end)
Roud #271
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "William and Dinah" (on LEnglish01)
BROADSIDES:
Laws M31A:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(469), "William and Diana," G. Thompson (Liverpool), 1789-1820; also Harding B 15(379a), Harding B 11(3592), Harding B 11(1311), Johnson Ballads 1842, "William and Dinah"
Laws M31B:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(662), "Villikins and His Dinah," J. Moore (Belfast) , 1846-1852; also Firth c.18(231), Firth b.27(61), "Vilikens and His Dinah"; Firth b.27(159), Harding B 11(3981), Firth c.18(232), "Vilikins and His Dinah"; Harding B 11(3982), "Vilikins and His Dinah!"
LOCSheet, sm1854 551640, "Vilikens and His Dinah," Horace Waters (New York), 1854 (tune)
LOCSinging, as114360, "Villikins and Dinah," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Betsy from Pike [Laws B9]" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Grand Hotel" (tune & meter)
cf. "Squarin' Up Time" (tune & meter)
cf. "Blinded by Shit" (tune & meter)
cf. "Dinky Die" (tune)
cf. "Pokegama Bear" (tune)
cf. "The H'Emmer Jane" (tune)
cf. "Johnston's Hotel" (tune)
cf. "Moses Ritoora-li-ay" (tune)
cf. "Duncan Campbell (Erin-Go-Bragh)" [Laws Q20] (tune)
cf. "Four Horses" (tune)
cf. "Nothing at All" (tune)
cf. "Dalmuir Ploughing Match" (tune)
cf. "Hans and Katrina" (theme, lyrics, tune)
SAME TUNE:
Sweet Betsy from Pike [Laws B9] (File: LB09)
The Grand Hotel (File: FJ180)
Squarin' Up Time (File: FJ182)
Blinded by Shit (File: EM125)
Dinky Die (File: EM403)
Pokegama Bear (File: RcPokegB)
Johnston's Hotel (File: RcJohHot)
Four Horses (File: Rc4Horse)
Nothing At All (File: RcNoAtAl)
The Abolition Show (The Great Baby Show) (File: KPL454)
Dalmuir Ploughing Match (File: GrD3427)
A Fast Pair of Skis (File: BaRo145)
The Stoker's Lament (File: Tawn017)
A-25 (File: Hopk130)
There Was a Wee Lambie Fell Over a Rock (File: KSUC029B)
There's a Spot in the North that's Not Far from Belfast (File: KSUC134A)
Conference Time (File: ChMS110)
The Vision That John Saw (File: GFGW269B)
The Keith and Hiles Line (File: RcHKeHiL)
We Sing of the Polar Bear (File: ACSF147P)
They Died as They Lived (per broadside Bodleian Firth b.27(61))
John Dean and His Own Mary Ann, or, The Gallant Young Coachman and the Cruel Father (plus two sequels) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 77-78)
Mrs. Cunningham and the Baby ("A child must be born, an heir to Burdell") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 102)
The New York Ice-Man ("My name it is Michal from Dutchland I came") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 108)
Parody No. 2. on "Vilikins and His Dinah" ("There is a young damsel in Woodbridge doth dwell") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 123)
Pat and the Priest ("Pat fell sick on a time, and he sent for the Priest") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 124)
The Prince of Wales, No. 3 ("Ye Flora McFlinsey's and Frederick Fitz Foodles") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 130)
The Rich Country Gal and the Wicked City Chap (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 135)
Song of These Times ("Good people, all, I pray attend") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 148)
Susy and Pat Murphy ("Och, it's of a rich farmer in Limerick did dwell") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 152)
The Toper's Lament. A Doleful Ditty. ("It's come all you bold drunkards, and hear to my song") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 158)
The Two Lovers ("There was an old woman who somewhere did dwell") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 160)
The Yellow Haird Boy 16 Months Old ("Behind him now creeping on the carpeted floor") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 183)
Uncle Abe, or A Hit at the Gimes ("In the town of Chicago as you know very well") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 196)
Away to the Mountain/Away from the Mountain (both by A. D. Wheeler, [class of 18]27) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, pp. 110-111)
Biennial (by Gilles Babcock, Jr., [class of 18]60) ("As Prex sat one evening a-talking with Linc") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 111)
Sing Tangent, Co-Tangent (by F. Browning, [class of 18]61) ("There was a Professor in New York did dwell") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 46)
Examinandum Est ("'Old Parabola' rose one fine morning in June") (by Hoffman and Lott, and with the listed tune of "Sing Tangent") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 70)
The Flunker ("There was a young man, who in New York did dwell") (with the listed tune of "Sing Tangent") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 70)
The Washington Tragedy ("It's of a rich gentleman who in Washington did dwell, He had a fair lady who cut a great swell, Mrs. Teresa Sickles was this lady's name, On to her family brought murder and shame") (about the murder of Barton Key by Daniel Sickles, 1859) (Broadside in the American Memory collection)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Diana
Jimmy and Diana
Billikins
NOTES [335 words]: As Laws's numbers show, this ballad has two versions. The first, "William and Dinah," is a straightforward tragic piece. At some point this was rewritten as a comic piece, "Vilikens and His Dinah." The two retain enough similarity that they can still be treated as one song.
There are enough claims of authorship that I chose to leave the "Author" field empty. Jonathan Lighter and John Moulden, in posts to Ballad-L in 2010, reports that two early but undated printings in the Levy collection list John Parry as the author; another lists John Barnard. But sheet music attributions aren't always very reliable.
Waites & Hunter declare that the first singer of the comic version was one Frederick Robson, who alternated between comic and pathetic presentations -- and who would often stop in mid-performance, when the audience was laughing, and declare "This is not a comic song!" -- encouraging still more fits of laughter. According to Scott, it was his "most celebrated song. He introduced it at the Olympic Theatre, during Vestris and Planchet's management, and later at the Grecian Saloon."
In the department of Truly Useless Knowledge, we might note that the cat Dinah of Caroll's Through the Looking Glass derived its name from this song. The two cats kept by the Liddell family were Villikens and Dinah.
As for why Dinah is a character in the Alice books and Villikens wasn't... according to Colin Gordon, Beyond the Looking Glass: Reflections of Alice and Her Family, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982, p. 113, the cat Villikens died of poison. I'm not making that up, although Gordon may have been.... - RBW
I have a problem with the Beckwith text and tune: a verse of "Little Musgrave" is in the middle of the first chorus. I believe that is an editing error, possibly caused by a misplaced page. Without that insertion, Beckwith has a good example of a "Vilikins" text, tune, chorus and all. Beckwith identifies the tune as "Springfield Mountain" but it is the tune commonly used for "Vilikins." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LM31

Village Churchyard, The

See In a Little Village Churchyard (File: Gain130)

Village Maid

See The Humble Village Maid Going a-Milking (File: GrMa077)

Village Pride (I), The

See The Paisley Officer (India's Burning Sands) [Laws N2] (File: LN02)

Village Pride (II), The

See Mary of the Wild Moor [Laws P21] (File: LP21)

Villainy Rewarded, or The Pirate's Last Farewell to the World

DESCRIPTION: "Well may the world against us cry, for these our deeds most base, For which, alas, we now must die." The singer and his comrades stole a ship and turn pirate. They had much success, but at last "are unto justice brought." Other pirates are warned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Firth)
KEYWORDS: pirate ship robbery punishment execution death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 13, "Villainy Rewarded, or The Pirate's Last Farewell to the World" (1 text, 1 tune, from separate sources; #13 in the first edition)
ADDITIONAL: C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 133, "Villany Rewarded; or, The Pirate's Last Farewel to the World" (1 text)
Roud #V12203
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Russel's Farewel" (tune, according to Firth)
NOTES [45 words]: The fourth verse of Frank's text mentions that the pirates robbed the "Gunsway." This is almost the only proper name in the entire piece. The "Gunsway" was one of the ships taken by Henry Every. The headnote in Firth refers also the song to the crew of Captain Every.- RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Fran013

Villany Rewarded; or, The Pirate's Last Farewel to the World

See Villainy Rewarded, or The Pirate's Last Farewell to the World (File: Fran013)

Villkins and his Dinah

See Vilikens and His Dinah [LawsM31A/B] (File: LM31)

Vince Leahy

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of the drowning of Leahy. The young man is well liked for his hard work at Young's Point. The morning of his death, his mother begs him to stay home. But he goes to work, slips into a "stop log place," and is found much later
AUTHOR: Dave McMahon
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: death drowning lumbering river family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1927 - Death of Vince Leahy of Peterborough
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #43, "Vince Leahy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3683
File: FowL43

Vine and Fig Tree

See Every Man 'Neath His Vine and Fig Tree (File: DTandeve)

Vingt-cinq de Juillet, Le (The Twenty-fifth of July)

DESCRIPTION: French. July 25 the ship sets sail for France. Surviving a storm, the ship arrives safely at Rochelle. The girls go on board with their men. When the owner is told that his ship has arrived safe and sound with a load of cargo and silver he thanks God.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage sex commerce sea ship storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 114, "Le Vingt-cinq de Juillet" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best and Pamela Morgan, "Le Vingt-cinq de Juillet" (on NFABestPMorgan01)
File: LeBe114

Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Virgin Mary had a baby boy (x3) And they gave him the name of Jesus." "He come from the glory, He come from the glorious kingdom... Oh, yes, believer." "The angels sang when the baby (was) born." "The wise men came where the baby born"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Edric Connor Collection of West Indian Spirituals)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus baby
FOUND IN: West Indies
RECORDINGS:
Ian Patterson, "The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy" (Barely-recognizable fragment: Piotr-Archive #79, recorded 09/09/2021)
File: DPio079

Virgin Mary Had a Little Baby

DESCRIPTION: "The Virgin Mary had a little baby, O, glory hallelujah. O, pretty little baby, Glory be to the newborn King." "What you gonna name that pretty little baby?" "Some call him one thing, think I'll call him Jesus"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (R. C. Seeger, American Folk Songs for Christmas); probably 1904 (Murphy)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus Christmas
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cray-AshGrove, p. 44, "Virgin Mary Had a Little Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 384, "Virgin Mary Had One Son" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Jeanette Robinson Murphy, "Southern Thoughts for Northern Thinkers and African Music in America", Banndana Press, 1904, p. 33 "Mary, What You Gwine to Name dat Purty Leetle Baby" (1 text, 1 tune, probably this)
Roud #12207
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Glory to the New Born King" (on PeteSeeger37, PeteSeeger42)
File: FSWB384A

Virgin Mary Had One Son

See Virgin Mary Had a Little Baby (File: FSWB384A)

Virgin Mary's Bank, The

DESCRIPTION: A ship sees Virgin Mary praying on the bank. The captain leads the crew in jeering and a storm wrecks the ship "on Ichidony's rock." The crew are drowned. Local fishermen call "that hillock green 'the Virgin Mary's bank.'"
AUTHOR: J. J. Callanan
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol II)
KEYWORDS: death ship storm wreck religious supernatural
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 115, "The Virgin on the Strand" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 77, "The Virgin Mary's Bank" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol II, pp. 177-178, "The Virgin Mary's Bank"
Roud #18246
RECORDINGS:
Leonard Molloy, "Virgin Mary's Banks" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Jim Rice, "Virgin Mary's Bank" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [105 words]: There is a certain amount of confusion about this author. Most sources list his name as James Joseph Callanan, but he is also sometimes listed under the name "Jeremiah" (and, yes, it is known that it is the same guy). Most sources agree that he was born in 1795, but his death date seemingly varies; Hoagland and MacDonagh/Robinson give 1829. He wrote some poetry of his own, but is probably best known for his translations from Gaelic. Works of his found in this index include "The Convict of Clonmel," "The Outlaw of Loch Lene," "Sweet Avondu," "The Virgin Mary's Bank," "Gougane Barra," and a translation of "Drimindown." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LeBe115

Virgin Most Pure, A

DESCRIPTION: "A virgin most pure, as the prophets do tell, Hath brought forth a baby, as it hath befell." "Set sorrows aside; Christ Jesus, our Savior, was born on this tide." Jesus is born in Bethlehem, in a stable -- you know the rest
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1822 (Gilbert)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious animal
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 56-57, "In Bethlehem City"; pp. 78-79, "A Virgin Unspotted" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 96, "The Virgin Unspotted" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #151, "A VIrgin Unspotted" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, pp. 99-100, "The Virgin Whose Purity" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 191-192 (4 tunes)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 765-766, "A Virgin Most Pure" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #3, "A Virgin Most Pure" (1 text)
Roud #1378
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1984), "The Virgin Unspotted" ("A Virgin unspotted the prophets foretold") , W. Armstrong (Liverpool)), 1820-1825; also Douce adds. 137(21), Douce adds. 137(67), Douce adds. 137(45), "The Virgin Unspotted"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Now let us sing, both more & lesse" (lyric on the nativity, from Richard Hill's manuscript; see Roman Dyboski, _Songs, Carols, and Other Miscellaneous Poems from the Balliol Ms. 354, Richard Hill's Commonplace Book_, #6, p. 3-4) (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Glad Tidings Good People (File: CoxN112)
NOTES [65 words]: The history of this song is a little murky; according to the New Oxford Book of Carols, the "rejoice and be merry" refrain and 11-syllable lines is attested as early as 1661. It then fades away for a century and a half until found in Gilbert and Sandys. Bradley cites the tune as "Admiral Benbow" as given in Chappell. Chappell, in printing the song, does not mention "Admiral Benbow." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: PBOC003

Virgin Nineteen Years Old, The

See Only Nineteen Years Old (File: RcOn19YO)

Virgin on the Strand, The

See The Virgin Mary's Bank (File: LeBe115)

Virgin Sturgeon, The

See Caviar Comes from the Virgin Sturgeon (File: EM240)

Virgin Unspotted, A

See A Virgin Most Pure (File: PBOC003)

Virgin Whose Purity, The

See A Virgin Most Pure (File: PBOC003)

Virgin's Wreath, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, "a maiden sad and lonely" is courted by "a nice young man" Now she is "abroken down." Cocks are crowing....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: courting chickens
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle, p. 287, "The Virgin's Wreath" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: _Littell's Living Age_ (Boston, 1895 ("Digitized by Google")), Sixth Series Vol. VII, No. 2661, July 6, 1895, p. 2, "The Virgin's Wreath" (1 text)
S. Baring-Gould, "Among the Western Song-Men" in _The English Illustrated Magazine_ (London, 1892 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 476, ("I am a maiden sad and lonely") (1 text)
Roud #1070
NOTES [213 words]: Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle cites an undated Baring-Gould manuscript from Penrose with two verses and the first line of the third verse with "three lines of dots after the last line." In "Among the Western Song-Men," Baring-Gould quotes, without title, what appears to be a complete song "that has a reference in a long-forgotten custom of hanging the wreathes borne before virgins to their graves in the church as memorials." Where Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle has the couter "a nice young man," "Among Western Song-Men" has "a squire's son"; where Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle refers to "lilies tall in gardens growing And all abroken down like me," "Among Western Song-Men" has "The lily, rose, and e'en the thistle Are bruised and bent and broke like me." The wreath is in one of verses in "Among Western Song-Men" but not in Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle. Where does the title for the Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle manuscript come from?
The Littell's Living Age text is printed with the title but without attribution. It is almost the same as the "Among Western Song-Men" text. Where the latter has, in the last verse (not in Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle), "He'll think of me with thoughts of mourning," Littell's Living Age has, "He'll think of me with thoughts unscorning." - BS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: ReCip287

Virginia Blues

See East Virginia (Dark Hollow) (File: JRSF134)

Virginia Lived down in Treoqueen

DESCRIPTION: "Virginia lived down in Treoqueen, Married a Baltimore boy who was long and lean." Sam two-times her; she declares, "You thought I was blind but now I see" -- and admits to having an "off-side man [whp] keeps his light-house on the sea."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Henry, collected from Ray Bohanan)
KEYWORDS: infidelity humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 17, "Virginia Lived down in Treoqueen" (1 text)
NOTES [30 words]: I strongly suspect that this was learned, perhaps indirectly, from a recording (this based on the "hip" euphemisms and the stanza form), but I can't locate a probably original. - RBW
File: MHAp17

Virginia Strike of '23, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the dear old town of Princeton... Fire hundred railroad employees were as happy as could be... But they believed in Satan and quit their jobs that fall." The singer was one of those fooled into striking. Now he wishes he had his job back.
AUTHOR: Roy Harvey
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Roy Harvey and Earl Shirkey)
KEYWORDS: train strike hardtimes request railroading labor-movement
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 8, 1923 - about two thirds of the employees of the Virginia Railroad go on strike. The company brings in replacements; the company suffers several accidents in coming years but never rehires the strikers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 591-595, "The Virginia Strike of '23" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 225, "The Virginian Strike of '23" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Roy Harper [pseud. for Roy Harvey] and Earl Shirkey, "The Virginia Strike of '23" (Columbia 15535-D, 1930; rec. 1929)
Mike Seeger, "The Virginian Strike of '23" (on MSeeger02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When the Work's All Done This Fall" [Laws B3] (tune)
NOTES [64 words]: According to Cohen, Roy Harvey was an engineer on the Virgina Railroad, and was one of those who struck in 1923. He and many of his fellow workers came to believe that they had been deceived by their union. He reportedly wrote this song to try to get his job back. Reportedly there was some sympathy for him in the company, but not enough. And then, of course, came the Depression. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: LSRai591

Virginia's Alders

See Friends and Neighbors (Virginia's Alders) (File: FSC035)

Virginia's Bloody Soil

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on his audience to listen as he tells of the troubles of the Civil War, and describes how Unionists sprang to the colors after Fort Sumter. The rest of the song describes the battle of the Wilderness, and the death of the captain there
AUTHOR: James McCoy?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 5-7, 1864 - Battle of the Wilderness
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 24, "Virginia's Bloody Soil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p. 70, "Virginia's Bloody Soil" (1 excerpt)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 254-255, "Virginia's Bloody Soil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 80-81, "Virginia's Bloody Soil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 52, "Virginia's Bloody Soil" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa024 (Partial)
Roud #2802
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of the Wilderness" (subject)
NOTES [1452 words]: It appears that this song has been collected only once, by the Warners. Their informant, "Yankee" John Galusha, said that this was a song local to his area, written by James McCoy about Captain Dennis Barnes, killed at the Battle of the Wilderness.
Galusha's explanation seems likely enough. Although two battles were fought in the Rappahannock Wilderness (The Wilderness in 1864 and the earlier Battle of Chancellorsville on May 1-4, 1863), the song seems better suited to the 1864 battle, as it mentions the fires which consumed the Wilderness and also denies that the Federals retreated (after Chancellorsville the Union forces retreated; after the Wilderness, although it had suffered almost as bad a pounding as at Chancellorsville, Grant and Meade forced the federal army on to Spotsylvania).
Following a hint on the Internet, I was able to find a record of Captain Barnes. He was an officer in the 93rd New York regiment. NYReport, Volume 3, p. 91, reports that Dennis E. Barnes was commissioned a captain in the 93rd NY on Jan. 30, 1862, with the commission being dated November 22, 1861. So he was commissioned at the time the regiment formed. He was breveted Major New York Volunteers. He was killed in action in the Wilderness on May 6.
And if he is indeed the hero of the song, the battle must have been the Wilderness, because the 93rd was not engaged at Chancellorsville. It was part of the Army of the Potomac's provost guard from 1862 through Gettysburg and beyond (Young, p. 384). But in 1864, in an effort to recruit up the army, many men and units on special service were put back in line (Catton, pp. 44-48). The 93rd became one of ten regiments in Alexander Hays's second brigade of David B. Birney's third division of Winfield Scott Hancock's II Corps (Rhea, Order of Battle following p. 452). It was to be the regiment's first real combat experience (Fox, p. 218, reports that it had never had a man killed in combat prior to that!)
Hays's brigade was definitely mauled in the Wilderness. The first day of that battle was really two minimally connected struggles. The larger part of the Union Fifth Corps, later reinforced by much of the Sixth Corps, fought Richard Ewell's Confederate Second Corps in the northern fight, and got nowhere. Hancock's Second Corps fought in the south against elements of A. P. Hill's Confederate Third Corps. The Second Corps, plus Getty's division of the Sixth Corps, was put in piecemeal against the Confederate division of Harry Heth (see map on p. 192 of Rhea). Birney's division was supposed to support this attack. After Getty and parts of the Second Corps had failed in their attacks, Birney "decided to play his trump card. Fiery Alexander Hays, the red-bearded friend of Hancock's and Grant's, would be sent in with his whole brigade" (Rhea, p. 202). That was the unit containing the 93rd New York.
In the dense forest, it was hard to advance and easy to get killed. One soldier in the 93rd wrote, "The woods light up with the flashes of musketry as if with lightning, while the incessant roar of the volleys sound like the crashing of thunderbolts" (Rhea, p. 203). Rhea adds that the 93rd managed to say at the front for about twenty minutes before collapsing. The losses in the regiment, and the whole brigade, were severe; General Hays himself was among those killed (Rhea, p. 204).
That was on May 5, the first day of the battle. Federal losses had been substantial, and they had not shaken the Confederates at all; earlier in the war, the Union army might well have retreated after that. But neither General Meade, in direct command of the Army of the Potomac, nor General Grant, the Union General in Chief, was willing to give up that easily. They decided that they would make another push on May 6, with attacks all along the line, but the main thrust to be by Hancock's Second Corps (Rhea, p. 264). And the spearhead of the assault was to be made by the brigades of McAllister, Ward, and the now-dead Hays (Rhea, p. 269).
At first, the assault went well; they attacked the frazzled, disordered Confederate divisions of Heth and Wilcox, which had done an amazing job the day before but simply were too tired, and their organization and positions too messed up, for them to fight well (Rhea, pp. 281-288). The Confederate line started to collapse. Freeman, volume III, p. 356, declares, "There had been no danger [to Lee's army] more acute since the day the Federals had shattered the Confederate line at Sharpsburg."
"Leading the Union drive was Hays's brigade, now commanded by Elijah Walker, of the 4th Maine" (Rhea, pp. 293-294).
But the Federals had their own problems. The Wilderness was incredibly tangled, and it was hard to control the attacking troops. If the Confederate lines were disarrayed, the Federals found it almost impossible to stay in good order. "It was Braddock and his British Regulars fighting the Indians all over again, and the scrub pines, the brush piles, and the massed saplings broke the advancing lines apart, leaving fragments that felt isolated and alone" (Catton, p. 74). What was needed was additional troops to exploit the breakthrough. And those troops were available: Ambrose Burnside's Ninth Corps had been ordered to support the assault. But they didn't show up. The Federal advance slowed up to try to get their lines straightened out (Rhea, pp. 291-292).
And then James Longstreet's corps arrived, headed by the famous Texas Brigade (widely regarded as the best unit in the Confederate army), and blasted right through the Federal front (Freeman, pp. 356-359; Rhea, pp. 301-303). "This was Longstreet's fight, and he was doing a spectacular job of it, even by Lee's exacting standards" (Rhea, p. 313).
"Longstreet had reason to be proud. Within two hours, he had dramatically reversed the battle's momentum. With two divisions... Longstreet had brought nearly five victorious Union divisions to a standstill, mauling several so badly that they had ceased to function as combat units" (Rhea, p. 316).
Then, just as had happened a year ago in the same Wilderness when Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded, Confederates fired on Confederates. Brigadier General Micah Jenkins and two others were killed, and Longstreet took a bullet that went through his throat into his right shoulder (Freeman, p. 365). He was alive, but would be out of service for months -- at the time, there were fears the wound would be mortal (Rhea, p. 371). Even as preparations were made to get him to a hospital, he explained his plans to Lee and the generals nearby, but there was no experienced officer to take charge (Freeman, p. 366) -- Longstreet's two division commanders were both new to the job and had no idea how to lead a corps. It may have saved the Union army an even more severe blow. Still, the leading Federal elements had been severely mauled and forced back. With Hays's brigade at the very forefront. It was presumably at this time that Captain Barnes was killed, trying to hold back Longstreet's counterattack.
The desperate defense succeeded, more or less; in the end, the Battle of the Wilderness was basically a draw. The Army of the Potomac was able to continue its campaign toward Richmond. But the cost had been very high -- official figures were 2,246 Union soldiers killed, and total casualties of 17,666 (Rhea, p. 435) -- and Rhea thinks even that number a little low. On p. 436, he estimates that the Union army lost a sixth of its men, or roughly 20,000. That means probably 2,500-3,000 killed. Captain Barnes had lots of company.
Including in the 93rd New York. Fox, p. 218, reports that it suffered 42 killed and 213 wounded out of 433 men engaged -- meaning that more than half those who entered the fight became casualties. Seventeen of those lost were officers, although Fox does not say how many officers died. But those numbers represent a bit more than half its losses in the entire war -- it had a total of 81 killed and 396 wounded.
Lee's losses cannot be precisely known; too many reports were not filed or were lost. But they were clearly on the same order (Rhea, p. 440). And he had lost his only trustworthy corps commander, and in consequence of that and other losses, only three of his eight division commanders had led their divisions as recently as Gettysburg, and only one had led his division at Chancellorsville. Both armies had been badly hurt, and would never be the same -- but Lee's army was probably closer to collapse. He would manage to keep up the fight for almost another year, but the sacrifices of Captain Barnes and others, although they had few short-term results, brought the end of the war a little closer.
This song is item dA35 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: Wa024

Virginian Lover, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer courts (Martha), who returns his affection. Her mother/brother opposes the marriage because he is unpropertied, and offers her land/gowns if she'll reject him. She weeps; he tells her "if you hadn't been so faithful, I wouldn't have been so true"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer courts fair Martha (Polly) (of Blackwaters, dark waters), who returns his affection, but her mother (brother) opposes their marriage because he is unpropertied, and offers her land (or gowns) if she'll reject him. She weeps; he asks if he's given her any occasion to be angry, and tells her "if you hadn't been so faithful, I wouldn't have been so true"
KEYWORDS: grief poverty courting marriage brother lover mother clothes
FOUND IN: US(Ap, SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 124, "The Virginian Lover" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #420
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (plot)
NOTES [54 words]: The plot of this song powerfully resembles others, notably "The Wagoner's Lad," but it seems to be distinct. - PJS
Burton and Manning lump it with their "A Man of Honor from Virginia Came," which is also heavily composite; these are the sorts of songs that are really hard to classify.... But I think they are separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ShAp2124

Virginian Maid's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a woman, was sold after seven years service, by Captain Welsh to Madam Guy. She tells how "we are yoked in a plough," badly fed and "whipt at every meal," and must keep her baby quiet. She wants to return to Scotland. "I'm weary, weary, O"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: ordeal slavery America Scotland baby servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1095, "The Virginian Maid's Lament" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 186-187, "The Virginian Maid's Lament" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter Buchan, Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1875 (reprint of 1828 edition)), Vol II, pp. 205-206,322, "The Virginian Maid's Lament"
Roud #3919
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Slave's Lament
NOTES [66 words]: One Greig/Duncan6 fragment has the singer sold to Madam Guy and separated from a lover.
Buchan: "The practice of kidnapping or stealing children from their parents, in the north of Scotland, from 1735 down to 1753, a period of eighteen years inclusive, and selling them for slaves to the planters of Maryland, Virginia, &c. in North America, is too notorious to require any illustration here." - BS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: GrD61095

Virginian Strike of '23, The

See THe Virginia Strike of '23 (File: LSRai591)

Virginny

See Australia (Virginny) (File: FaE012)

Vision That John Saw, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a rich merchant in this city did dwell, He had a great vision...." He is sleeping when St. Peter comes to him and promises him "suckers." The merchant demands proof it is the real Peter. They end up getting drunk together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (The Keepapitchin)
KEYWORDS: drink derivative money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 269, "The Vision That John Saw" (1 excerpt)
ADDITIONAL: "Uno Hoo," editor, _The Keepapitchinin_ (Salt Lake City), Volume 2, No. 3, Apr 1, 1870 (available on Google Books), p. 11, "The Vision That John Saw" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10952
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah)" [Laws M31A/B] (tune)
File: GFGW269B

Visit to Morans, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the month of January, ninety-two... We harnessed up our team" and visited John Moran in DeGros Marsh. On the way home the snow forces them off the road. They replace a broken harness with rope and make it to Martin's for beer, then go home next day.
AUTHOR: Lawrence Doyle and Patrick William Farrell
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: ordeal storm travel
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 204-207, 256, "The Visit to Morans" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14000
NOTES [12 words]: DeGros Marsh is on the east coast of Kings County, Prince Edward Island. - BS
File: IvDC204

Vivandeer, The

DESCRIPTION: Vivandeer was built "to sail the ocean round ... But they left her on Blackwater Bank, a dire and total wreck." Tinnaberna men launch their boats, step aboard, and, with help of a tug, "brought the gallant Vivandeer safe into Wexford Quay"
AUTHOR: Miley Roche, Kilmuckridge
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: sea ship wreck sailor help
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 112-113, "The Vivandeer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7354
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The North Star" (tune)
NOTES [48 words]: 1885: "The new sailing ship Vivandiere struck the Blackwater Bank.... She was abandoned by her crew. A local group from Tinnabearna put out and boarded her. They succeeded in bringing her into Wexford with the aid of a tug." (source: Bourke in Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast v1, p. 71) - BS
File: Ran112

Vive l'Amour

See Vive la Compagnie (File: RJ19218)

Vive la Canadienne!

DESCRIPTION: French: The singer rejoices in his Canadien girl. He celebrates her blue eyes. He describes their meeting, mentioning how quickly their hearts are beating. "So go the hours a-flying Until our wedding day."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (E. Gagnon, "Chansons Populaires de Canada")
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 146-147, "Vive la Canadienne! (Of My Canadian Girl I Sing)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 45, "Vive La Canadienne!" (1 English and 1 French text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 28-29, "Vive La Canadienne! (Of My Canadian Girl I Sing)" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Vive La Canadienne" (on PeteSeeger29)
File: FJ146

Vive la Compagnie

DESCRIPTION: "Let Bacchus to Venus libations pour forth, Vive la compagnie. And let us make use of our time while it lasts, Vive la compagnie. Vive la, vive la, vive l'amour...." Bachelors toast their lasses, husbands their wives, all toast their friends
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1818
KEYWORDS: drink friend nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US Britain(England) Germany
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 218-221, "Vive la Compagnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 58-59, "Vive La Compagnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #159, "Vive l Compagnie!" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 288, "Vive la Compagnie" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 235, "Vive La Compagnie (Vive l'Amour)" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 606-607, "Vive la Compaigne"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs,, p. 146, 171, 519, "Vive l'Amour" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 22, "Vive L'Amour" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 124-125, "Vive l'Amour" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, VIVLAMOR
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _College Songs: A Collection of New and Popular Songs of the American Colleges_, new and enlarged edition, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1887, p. 41, "Vive L'Amour" (1 text, 1 tune) (p. 16 of part 3 in the 1876 edition)
ST RJ19218 (Full)
SAME TUNE:
Vive le Captain John (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 161)
Chivalrous C. S. A. ! ("I'll sing you a song of the South's sunny clime") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 187)
Let Every Young Sophomore (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 100)
Tegere Te Cura ("Away with your books and your cares for tonight, Tegere te cura!") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 129)
Vive le Capitaine John ("In ye days when ye Salvages lived in ye land" [sic.]) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 43)
Remarkable ("We'll sing you a very remarkable song, Vive l'Sixty-five!") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 46)
The Ship ("O! the ship of Cornell is out on the sea, Cleaving the ocean blue") (by Albert Osborne, [class of 18]72) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 115)
NOTES [37 words]: Fuld points out that this song has been printed in England, America, and Germany, but no early French printings are known. It may, in fact, be an English song; at least, the tune is close to "The Lincolnshire Poacher." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RJ19218

Vive La Republican

DESCRIPTION: January 2 "they cried, 'to arms my clever fellows The Russians are advancing.'" "Vive la" the new convention, Republican, America "for it was in you that it a' began." America "have spent their dear heart's blood To plant the tree of liberty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: America nonballad political
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 142, "Vive La Republican" (1 text)
Roud #5775
NOTES [61 words]: Greig/Duncan1: "The war episode suggested in stanza 1 has not been identified. The refrain may refer to the new convention held in Edinburgh in November 1793."
"Vive la" and "Tree of Liberty" occur in Irish political songs. See, for example, "Rouse Hibernians" for the former and "Freedom Triumphant," "Ireland's Liberty Tree" and "The Liberty Tree" for the latter. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1142

Vive les matelots!

DESCRIPTION: French (Voyageurs): "Nous etions trois garcons, tous jolis capitaines (x2), Y'en a un a Paris, et a'autre a La Rochelle. Vive les matelots dessus la mer jolie...." Song concerns three captains. One comes to court a girl. He cares not if he is rejected
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937
KEYWORDS: courting sailor nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 21-24, "Vive les matelots!" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: FMB021

Vo Luzern auf Wäggis Zue

See Weggis Song (File: ACSF147W)

Voice from the Tombs (Lonely Tombs)

DESCRIPTION: The singer passes a tomb and hears a voice, "I once lived as you live, walked and talked as you talk, Then from earth I was soon torn away." Other voices chip in about the joys of heaven and the brevity of life. At last his mother's voice says she is safe
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Wade Mainer)
KEYWORDS: death ghost religious grief loneliness mother
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 87, "Voice from the Tombs" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #35, "O Those Tombs" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa087 (Partial)
Roud #3399
RECORDINGS:
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Lonely Tombs" (King 661, 1947)
Wade Mainer, "Lonely Tombs" (Bluebird B-7424, 1938)
Preston & Hobart Smith, "Lonely Tombs" (on LomaxCD1704)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hark from the Tombs (Plenary)" (theme)
NOTES [25 words]: I find, in looking through our keywords, that we have Hell as a place name but not Heaven. Given our subject matter, that's probably appropriate. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Wa087

Voice of Her I Love, The

DESCRIPTION: "How sweet at close of silent eve The harp's responsive sound... But oh, more soft, more sweet to me The voice of her I love." He will suffer all insults and "frowns of fate," "Content and bless'd whene'er I hear, The voice of her I love."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1822 (Bodleian broadsides Johnson Ballads fol. 14, Johnson Ballads fol. 15)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 14, "The Voice of Her I Love" (1 text)
Roud #8228
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 14=Johnson Ballads fol. 15 (=Harding B 36(29)?), "The voice of her I love. An Italian air," J. Catnach (London), 1822; also Harding B 11(422), "The voice of her I love," J. Catnach (London) 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(2173), "The voice of her I love," J. Walker (Durham), n.d.; also Firth c.18(60)=Harding B 16(297c), "The voice of her I love," J Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 14(315), "The voice of her I love," T. Watts (Birmingham), 1846
File: HMHS014C

Volunteer Organist, The

DESCRIPTION: The preacher announces that the organist is ill. No one volunteers to play except a drunken-looking man. He tells his story in music, amazing them all. The preacher doesn't try to preach; he just has the congregation pray as the man leaves
AUTHOR: Words: William B. Gray ("Glenroy") (died 1932) / Music: Henry Lamb
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: music clergy
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 826, "The Volunteer Organist" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 191-192, "[The Volunteer Organist]" (1 excerpt)
Roud #5378
RECORDINGS:
John McGhee, "The Volunteer Organist" (Champion 15483, 1928)
NOTES [93 words]: Spaeth (A History of Popular Music in America, p. 271) calls this "the sport of 1893," and goes on to detail how it spawned a play of the same title -- as well as a short-lived rush to produce imitations.
I suspect that the most popular imitation (indeed, the only one still remembered at all) is Myra Brooks Welch's "The Touch of the Master's Hand." Welch was born in 1877, according to Internet sources, and wrote her piece in 1921, which fits.
The author of the lyrics, William B. Gray, is also responsible for "She's More to Be Pitied Than Censured." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: R826

Volunteers, The

DESCRIPTION: Mabel asks her mother about the passing troops and their leader. Mother answers that the men are the Volunteers and Grattan their leader. "They rose to guard from foreign foes, as well from British guile" Witness "the baffled hosts of Gaul"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Hayes)
KEYWORDS: pride army England France Ireland dialog patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 117-118, "The Volunteers" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859 (reprint of 1855 London edition)), Vol I, pp. 235-236, "The Volunteers"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Song of the Volunteers" (subject) and references there
NOTES [287 words]: The Belfast Volunteers were formed in 1778 because of the threat of war between France and Britain. Similar groups formed, became politicized, and supported "those in favour of legislative independence from the British parliament and the removal of impediments to Irish commerce." Henry Grattan and Harry Flood supported this program in the Irish House of Commons. (Source} Moylan)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland shows the author as "M.O.B." I posted an inquiry for speculation as to who "M.O.B." might be. John Moulden -- researcher at the "Centre for the Study of Human Settlement and Historical Change" at National University of Ireland, Galway, whose subject is "the printed ballad in Ireland" -- gave me two leads. First, he pointed out that Hayes (see ADDITIONAL, above) -- possibly O'Conor's source -- has the author as "M.O'B" and that another good resource might be David James O'Donoghue, The Poets of Ireland: a Biographical Dictionary (O'Donoghue, 1892-3). One possibility in O'Donoghue is O'Brien, M.E., a "very frequent contributor of verse to Sentimental and Masonic Magazine of 1794-5.... He may have been the 'O'B' of Sentimental and Masonic Magazine 1794." (p. 180). - BS
For more on Grattan, see e.g. "Ireland's Glory." For the Volunteers, see among others "The Green Cockade," "The Shamrock Cockade," and "The Song of the Volunteers."
The reference to the "baffled hosts of Gaul" makes me think this might refer to a period somewhat after Grattan's great success (which Ben's research on the author indirectly supports). This sounds as if it might come from around the period of the French failure at Bantry Bay -- when Grattan's parliament was functioning but before the 1798 rebellion. - RBW
File: OCon117

Volunteers' March, The

DESCRIPTION: "Was she not a fool, When she took off our wool, To leave us so much of the Leather, the leather? It ne'er entered her pate, That a sheepskin well beat, Would draw a whole nation Together, together."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1780s (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: nonballad patriotic clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 2, "The Volunteers' March" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
NOTES [768 words]: The current description is all of the Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion fragment.
Zimmermann p. 117: "'The Volunteers' March' ... represents the first group of really nationalist Irish songs written in English, though most of the words are lost."
Moylan notes the tune Zimmermann uses for this entry and thinks it unlikely. "In fact the verse would fit a slide or jig tune, but not one in 2/4 time. In fact the verse would fit perfectly to the tune 'Larry Grogan' to which song [Zimmermann] 40 below is set, and was in all probability made with that tune in mind." (Moylan 2, "Favourite March of the Old Irish Volunteers") Consider this comment when using the tunes assigned by both Moylan and Zimmermann. - BS
Though it rarely is mentioned in song, one of the worst ways Britain oppressed Ireland was by controlling her trade. One instance of this was that they restricted Irish clothing from entering England. On several occasions England seemed to encourage one or another industry (e.g. linen) only to chop it down.
Kee, p. 21, writes, "The later English parliament took advantage of this constitutional subservience to see that local economic interests in the Kingdom of Ireland should present no threat to those in the Kingdom of England. Irish trading and manufacturing opportunities were severely restricted to protect England's own trades and manufactures. For instance, in 1699 the export of woolen goods from Ireland... was totally forbidden to everywhere but England where English import duties were themselves prohibitive." (Compare Cronin, pp. 86-87: "The 1699 legislation destroyed the Irish woolen industry at a stroke.")
Similarly, Ellis, p. 48, reports, "In 1666 Parliament forbade irish cattle being imported into England thus bringing about the ruin of the cattle industry."
I don't know if this song reflects that, but it might. - RBW
The Belfast Volunteers were formed in 1778 because of the threat of war between France and Britain. Similar groups formed, became politicized, and supported "those in favour of legislative independence from the British parliament and the removal of impediments to Irish commerce." (Source: Moylan, p. 1)
"In 1778, the Prime Minister, Lord North, proposed to relieve the commercial restraints of Ireland by allowing a free and general exportation of all kinds of goods, except the woollen manufacture, 'that article being reckoned too sacred to be yet meddled with.' But so great was the commotion excited in the manufacturing towns of England that Lord North had to reconsider his proposal. 'A general alarm,' says MacPherson, 'spread through most of the trading and manufacturing parts of the kingdom.' They considered the 'admittance of Ireland to any participation in trade as not only destructive, in the most ruinous degree, of their property, but as being subversive of their rights.' .... The British Parliament yielded to the pressure from without, and only some slight modifications of the commercial code were effected....
"[T]he Volunteers were demanding free trade with arms in their hands. In February, 1779, 'The Sheriffs of Dublin represented to the Lord Lieutenant that 19,000 persons connected with the weaving trade in that city, besides many other poor, were on the brink of starvation, and that nothing but an extension of trade and free export of manufactures could save them.' .... Meanwhile, the Volunteers seconded their demand for free trade by giving the best practical encouragement to the industries of the nation. They clothed their regiments and troops in Irish manufacture .... Associations for the use of Irish manufactures sprung up in every part of the country, to the serious alarm of the English clothiers .... Trade revived....
"The Volunteer guns were made to express the national sentiment and advocate the causes of Irish wool.... With more point, perhaps, than poetry, words had been fitted to a stirring march-tune adopted by the regimental bands, and the moment the roll of the drums was heard the popular memory sufggested the verses: -- 'Was she not a fool ....'" (from IrishWool).
I have seen the song quoted many places but there is never more to it than is quoted in the description. The song is attributed to "Tom Molloy" by Charles Lever (Lever, p. 214).
You can find more information about the movement to grant "to the Irish nation the liberty of exporting their produce" [p. 67] in the source for Zimmermann's fragment: Thomas Mac Nevin, The History of the Volunteers of 1782 (Dublin, 1845 (fourth edition ("Digitized by Google"))). The fragment is in a footnote on p. 119, "Was she not a fool." - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: Zimm002

Von Hertzen wolln wir singen (Let Us Sing from the Heart)

DESCRIPTION: Amish hymn in German.. "Von Hertzen wolln wir singen, In Fried und Einingkeit." "Let us sing from the heart, In peace and in uison. Let us strive toward perfection With energy and sincerity, That we might please God... take it now to heart."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1742 (Amish Ausbund, #119, according to Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 157-158, "Von Hertzen wolln wir singen (Let Us Sing from the Heart)" (1 short German text plus not-very-literal translation, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hildebrandlied" (tune, per Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
File: KPL157

Voodoo Man, The

DESCRIPTION: Of a woman courted by a man; when she rejects his advanced because "he had no situation," he "hoodoes" her elaborately. Now she is sick and hopes someone can stop the voodoo man even though all are afraid of him. She wonders if *she* is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting poverty rejection magic disease
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 429, "The Voodoo Man" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 429, "The Voodoo Man" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11773
File: Br3429

Vote for Joey Ward

DESCRIPTION: "Vote, vote, vote for Joey Ward! He is sure to win the day. For we'll get a salmon tin, And we'll stick Bill Massey in, And we'll all shout, Hip, hip, hip, hooray!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1914 (Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: political New Zealand
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1906-1912, 1928-1930 - Sir Joseph George Ward (1856-1930) Prime Minister of New Zealand
1912-1925 - William Ferguson Massey (1856-1925) Prime Minister of New Zealand
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 101, "(no title)" (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sir Joseph Ward" (subject)
cf. "We'll Set the Children Free" (subject of Joseph Ward)
NOTES [592 words]: Presumable a fragment of a campaign song that was collected after (or during?) an election contest between Ward and Massey. My guess would be that it is from 1914, but 1919 and 1922 are also possible, and perhaps 1912 as well. (For a song almost certainly from 1912, see "We'll Set the Children Free.")
NewZealandEncyclopedia, p. 589, says of Joseph Ward (1856-1930) that he was Prime Minister 1906-1912 and 1928-1930; he was born in Melbourne but was taken to New Zealand at a young age. Starting in politics in 1876, he was a member of parliament from 1887 until after World War I, then was re-elected in 1925. He held the seat until ill health forced him to resign shortly before his death. He held various cabinet posts before becoming Prime Minister. He gave up the post after the 1912 election left him without a governing majority, and William Massey was able to form what amounted to a minority government. Ward "was an able and articulate man of limited imagination."
For background on how Ward succeeded Richard Seddon , see "Sir Joseph Ward" (which portrays Ward as imitating Seddon to the best of his ability).
Jackson/McRobie, p. 251, says that Ward came to New Zealand in 1860. He was still very young when first elected Mayor of Campbelltown (later renamed "Bluff") in 1881; he entered parliament in 1887. He soon received ministerial appointments, but he was forced out of parliament, and eventually into bankruptcy, by the Colonial Bank Scandal of 1895-1897. But his constituents didn't hold it against him; he was back in parliament in 1899. He rose to Prime Minister when Seddon died in 1906. In 1919, he lost his seat in parliament; he was back, as the only self-proclaimed Liberal in the legislature, in 1925. In 1928, against all odds, his so-called Union Party became the largest party in the legislature and formed a government. It was not a success; Ward resigned in 1930 and died six weeks later.
NewZealandEncyclopedia, pp. 355-356, says that William Massey was born in Ireland; his family moved to New Zealand in 1870. After working on farms and stations, he first ran for parliament in 1893, and lost, but became an MP after a by-election in 1896. He was promptly appointed opposition whip, when became Leader of the Opposition in 1903. He was a leading organizer in 1909 of the "Reform Party." This succeeded in taking over parliament in 1912, making Massey Prime Minister.
The election of 1914 didn't show much confidence in Massey. Massey's forces won 40 seats, Ward's Liberals 34, and Labour 6. Massey remained Prime Minister, but without a governing majority; New Zealand was run by a "National" (Unity) government during World War I. The next election in 1919, gave Massey a clear majority -- but the election of 1922 again resulted in a hung parliament in which Massey ran a minority government.
Massey became the subject of significant folklore. NewZealandDictionary, p. 19, defines "Bill Masseys" as a pair of army boots (similarly p. 165 calls the boots just "Masseys"), and "Bill Massey's Tourists" as the members of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force sent to Egypt in 1914. Obviously both refer to his position as wartime Prime Minister.
NewZealandEncyclopedia, p. 356, sums him up, "Massey was a stolid, shrewd man with great organizing ability and a domineering personality. In many ways he was a divisive influence, extraordinarily conservative, even reactionary." The Massey/Ward period does not seem to have been a time of great leadership in New Zealand -- which may explain silly songs like this one. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo101

Vote For Me

DESCRIPTION: "Oh father, dear father, come vote for me now, My clothes are so worn out and old." The (rail)roads and banks get all the money from the farmers' crops. Their house is old. Ignore their threats; vote for change; things can be better
AUTHOR: Words: Luna E. (Mrs. J. T.) Kellie (1857-1940)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Nebraska Folklore)
KEYWORDS: farming poverty hardtimes derivative political train railroading commerce
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 486-487, "Vote For Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Nebraska Folklore, Pamphlet Eighteen, "Farmers' Alliance Songs of the 1890's," Federal Writers' Project, 1938, p. 7, "Vote For Me" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Father, Dear Father, Come Home with Me Now" (tune)
NOTES [12 words]: For background on Luna Kellie, see the notes to "Marching for Freedom." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC486

Vote for Tommy Seddon, Boys

DESCRIPTION: "If you vote for Tommy Seddon, boys, On the right road you'll be heading, boys, He'll make the roads to your abodes And bridge all the streams to heaven, boys." He will take his father's place and do good work.
AUTHOR: Ned McCormack (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: political New Zealand
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1893-1906 - Richard John Seddon (1845-1906) Prime Minister of New Zealand
1906 - T. E. Y. Seddon takes his father Richard's place in parliament, holding office until 1922 and again in 1925-1928
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 107-108, "Vote for Tommy Seddon, Boys" (1 text)
NOTES [67 words]: For background on Richard John Seddon, the father of Tommy Seddon, see the notes to "Sir Joseph Ward." There is also a biography, Randal Mathews Burdon, King Dick, a Biography of Richard John Seddon, reprinted by Hassell Street Press, 2021. Despite being the son of New Zealand's longest-serving Prime Minister, the younger Seddon doesn't seem to have been particularly noteworthy in his own right. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: BaRo107

Vote, Vote, Vote

DESCRIPTION: Sometimes a jump-rope rhyme. "Vote, vote, vote for (someone); She'll kick (someone) out the door." The other candidate may be called a dope, or worthy of a punch, "So we don't want (someone) any more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses)
KEYWORDS: jumprope political | vote
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro,SW) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #85, "(Vote, vote, vote for Karen)"; #91, "(Vote, vote for Mary)"; #126, "(Rah, rah, rah! for Belinda)"; #132, "(Vote, vote, vote for Mary)" (4 texts)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 80, "(Vote, vote, vote)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 22, "(Vote, vote, vote for (Margaret Beatty))" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #585, "Vote, vote, vote for ..." (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #36, "(Vote, vote, vote for (Billy Martin)" (1 text)
Roud #19059
NOTES [95 words]: The pattern of this seems to be pretty standardized: Vote, vote, vote for (X), Send (Y) out the door, (two rhymed lines that might be about anything), because we don't need (Y) any more. But, in addition to the names, the details of the lines -- especially lines 3 and 4 -- vary dramatically. A few versions seem to be overtly political (apparently there was one about British party leader Neil Kinnock!), but often it's just a way to change the jumper in a jump-rope game: They "elect" a new jumper and send out the old jumper whom they "don't want/need any more." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AJRV085

Vowels, The

DESCRIPTION: "B-a, ba; b-e, be; B-i, bick-a-bi; B-o, bick-a-bi-bo; B-u, bu, bick-a-bi-bo-bu." Similarly through the alphabet: "C-a, ca; C-e, ce, C-i, cick-a-ci." (The text does not specify whether "cick" is pronounced "sick" or "kick.")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown); the Dime-Song-Book #25 version is from 1870
KEYWORDS: wordplay nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 139, "The Vowels" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 139, "The Vowel" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Randolph 873, "The Alphabet Song" (6 texts, 6 tunes, but the "E" and "F" texts are "The Vowels")
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 131, "B-A-Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #25, p. 42, "Ba, Be, Bi, Bo, Bu" (1 text)
Roud #3303
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alphabet Songs"
NOTES [81 words]: The Dime-Song-Book #25 text is much fuller than the others; it begins, "Come, white folks, listen unto me" and proceeds to a great many absurd spellings, e.g. "b, o, y spells little girl, And c, a, t, spells rat; Next, d, o, g spells pussy cat." But the chorus is "With b, a, ba, b, c, be, B, i, bi, be, bi...." I don't know if it's an independent development of this sort of wordplay, an adapted version of the traditional piece, or the source, but they're too alike to separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Br3139

Voyage of the Buffalo, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you jolly seamen bold... Concerning of a voyage to New Zealand we did go, For to cut some lofty spars to load the Buffalo." After taking a load of emigrants from Portsmouth to Australia, they go logging in New Zealand
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1836? (citation in the diary of W. H. Cheeseman, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: ship emigration logger New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 18-19, "The Voyage of the Buffalo" (1 text)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 31-32, 182, "(The Voyage of the Buffalo)" (2 texts, although they seem mostly to be rearrangements of each other)
Tod-WhalingInSouthernWaters, p. 128, "The Voyage of the Buffalo" (1 text)
NOTES [149 words]: According to IC. W. N. Ingram, New Zealand Shipwrecks: 1795-1970 (fourth edition of a book that eventually went through about eight, first published in 1936 and covering wrecks to the early 1930s and eventually extended almost to the end of the twentieth century), A. H. & A. W. Reed, 1972 (I use the 1974 printing), p. 166, HMS Buffalo was wrecked on July 28, 1840 at Mercury Bay, New Zealand, with two men drowned. If the 1836 attribution of this song is correct, the song cannot be about that voyage, but Ingram, p. 16, adds that the Buffalo "had made previous voyages to Australia and New Zealand in 1833-1834 and 1836, carrying convicts to Australia and loading kaori spars in New Zealand," so presumably that is the ship meant; the Buffalo was a 539 ton ship, built at Calcutta in 1813, which at the time of her building was designated a "Timber Ship on Particular Service." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo018

Voyage on New Holland, A

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you bold whalemen that plow the rough main Off the coast of New Holland or off that of Spain." An extremely detailed (more than 70 stanza) description of a whaling voices, describing the places they visit, the whales, ships seen, the return home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1852 (Marble Family papers, according to Huntington)
KEYWORDS: whaler travel ship home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 76-85, "A Voyage on New Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27542
File: HGam076

Voyage to Australia, The

DESCRIPTION: "Left Plymouth one day in July and soon was on the ocean," getting sick in the Bay of Biscay. The passengers on their way to Australia fish for and catch a shark. The passengers pretend to see a ship and other sights
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878) (source: AndersonStory)
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: immigration ship travel trick
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, p. 173, "The Voyage to Australia" (1 text, from the "Victoria Songster")
Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 1-2, "The Voyage to Australia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 29-30, "The Voyage to Australia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, pp. 7-8, "(no title)" (2 excerpts)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bow Wow Wow" (tune)
NOTES [80 words]: This song is at least semi-autobiographical; Charles R. Thatcher went from England to Australia as a young man, and didn't enjoy the voyage much. For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong.
Anderson does not say so, but the tune of this is clearly "Bow Wow Wow" -- more evidence that it is by Charles R. Thatcher, since he was fond of that tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: AnSt029

Voyage, Le

DESCRIPTION: "Ah! c'est un mariage Que d'epouser le yoyage. Je plains qui s'y engage Sans y etre invite." The life of a voyageur is like a marriage. Safety, comfort and contentment must be given up "dans le course du voyage."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944
KEYWORDS: nonballad foreignlanguage marriage travel
FOUND IN: Canada(Queb)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 582, "Le Voyage (The Voyage)" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BMRF582

Voyez Ce Mulet La

DESCRIPTION: Bamboula in Creole French: "Voyez ce mulet la, Miche Bainjo, Comme il est insolent! Chapeau sur cote, Miche Bainjo, La canne a la maine, Miche Bainjo...." The singer describes the strutting about of "Mister Banjo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage music dancetune nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 119-120, "Voyez Ce Mulet La" (1 short text plus loose English translation, 1 tune)
File: ScaNF119

Vrenalie

See Vreneli (File: ACFS175V)

Vreneli

DESCRIPTION: "O, Vreneli, my pretty one, Pray tell me where's your home? My home, it is in Switzerland, 'Tis made of wood and stone. Yo, ho, ho, Tra, la, la." The singer asks her where is her heart. She gave it away, and cannot get over the pain. Her head is with it
AUTHOR: reportedly Swiss by origin; translation cby Violet Synge (1896-1971) (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Sanders-SingHighSingLow)
KEYWORDS: love foreignlanguage campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 175, 237, 239, 309, 390, 495, "Vreneli"/"Vrenalie" (notes only)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, pp. 15-16, "Frennelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 29, "Vreneli - Meiteli" (2 texts, 1 English, 1 German; 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Vreneli" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 1) (12th edition, p. 36)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 7, "Vreneli" (1 text, 1 tune)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 16, "Vreneli" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [78 words]: I find it interesting that, although this song was clearly translated only once, it occurs under multiple names. The "Vreneli" form is probably original; "Frennelly" is probably a phonetic clarification (since "V" in German is typically pronounced "f," and the terminal "y" just looks more English-like).
SongsOfManyNations says this is from Tobitt's "The Ditty Bag," but it's not in my copy; perhaps it was in the first edition and cut from the revised version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACFS175V

Vreneli - Meiteli

See Vreneli (File: ACFS175V)

Vulture (of the Alps), The

DESCRIPTION: A family of shepherds is out with their sheep when a vulture swoops down and carries off their youngest child. Though the baby cries and reaches out to its father, there is nothing the others can do
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: set to music c. 1842 and sung by the Hutchinson Family
KEYWORDS: bird family disaster death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 108-113, "The Vulture"; "The Vulture of the Alps (2 texts, 1 tune)
ST MN2108 (Partial)
Roud #4777
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lonesome Dove (I - The Minister's Lamentation)" (theme)
cf. "The Lost Babe" (theme)
cf, "Fair Margaret O' Craignaritie" (approximate theme)
NOTES [262 words]: I perhaps need to explain the cross-reference to "The Lonesome Dove." On its face, this has nothing to do with that song, in which a child is carried off by consumption. But that song describes the disease as a vulture. I wonder if this might not be a badly messed up form of the same idea.
It is highly unlikely that a vulture would carry off a baby, and only slightly more likely that an eagle or other carrion bird would do so. At least in America; our babies are too big. But this may well be one of those subliminal fears, like the fear of snakes (now known to be an instinct in monkeys, even those which have never seen a snake). I base this on comments in Lee R. Berger, In the Footsteps of Eve: The Mystery of Human Origins, Adventure Press, 2000. pp. 157-163. On page 162, Berger mentions that the Crowned Eagle of South Africa "is a specialist in primate hunting and has even been known to take human children."
What is more, it is Berger's belief that the Taung child -- a member of the species Australopithecus africanus now about three million years old and first documented by Raymond Dart in 1925 -- was killed by an eagle. There remains much debate about just where Australopithecus africanus stands in the lineage of humanity, but it hardly matters. If eagles were hunting that sort of australopithecine, they would hunt the others -- and one of those australopithecine species was our ancestor. American parents probably don't have to worry about vultures -- but we have at least two and a half million years of history of thinking we should. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: MN2108

W-B-Z

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme: "Had a little radio, Put it on free, Only station I could get Was WBZ."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: technology jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 55, "W-B-Z" (1 text)
NOTES [15 words]: WBZ radio is based in Boston, but I suspect other stations are zipped into this rhyme. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ZiZa055D

W-P-A

See W. P. A. (File: AJRR612)

W, Double-O, D, Wood

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "W, double-O, D, Wood; Sockety peck! Run round the limb And stick your finger in, Woodpecker!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: wordplay bird | woodpecker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 44, "(W, double-O, D, Wood)" (1 text)
NOTES [24 words]: The obvious expectation, with a first line like that, is that this would be sung to George M. Cohan's "Harrigan." But it doesn't fit the tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: WEMM044B

W. B. A.

DESCRIPTION: "An' fwat are yez wantin' Paddy from Cork, An' fwat is the fuss anyhow, An' why are yez all afther stoppin' yer work?" The worker is assured that the wages are the best he's ever had, and there are always other miners where he came from anyway
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch), but from a broadside of the 1870s
KEYWORDS: mining nonballad warning money
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 1874 - Beginning ot the Long Strike
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 220-221, "W. B. A." (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E25] (for the aftermath of the Long Strike) and references there
NOTES [322 words]: Probably not traditional, but a good example of the anthracite boss's attitude toward their workers, especially their Irish workers, who stood at the very bottom of the mine hierarchy. According to Kenny, p. 62, "Most Welsh and English workers were miners, while most of the laborers were Irish" -- in other words, the English and Welsh were skilled workers, and better paid than the unskilled Irish.
Nonetheless the Workingman's Benevolent Association, or W.B.A., was for a time in the 1860s and 1870s an effective union in Pennsylvania's anthracite region, worked to improve all miners' living conditions while negotiating with the bosses (Riffenburgh, pp. 36-40; Kenny, p. 103). It even managed to get a law passed in Pennsylvania that allowed labor organizing -- only to find that that didn't keep the courts from declaring unions to be conspiracies! (Harris/Blatz, p. 74).
Then came Franklin Gowen, a mine boss who managed to assemble control over most of the mines of the anthracite region (Riffenburgh, pp. 22-27, 43). He didn't want to negotiate; he wanted to drive down the cost of labor no matter what it took. He used his market dominance to drive out the coal middlemen, and cut a deal with other coal owners to divide the market (Riffenburg, p. 44; Kenny, pp. 1501-151).He cut wages, and also started company stores and made it clear that the miners would shop there or be blacklisted (Bimba, p. 27; Kenny, p. 141).
The W.B.A. responded by calling the "Long Strike" that started in December 1874 (Kenny, p. 169). It would fail. It failed simply because the miners didn't have the money to outwait Gowan. But songs like this perhaps sapped their morale a little.
In the aftermath, the Molly Maguires turned to terrorism to fight back against Gowan. For the aftermath of that (and more on the situation which led to the Long Strike), see the notes to "Muff Lawler, the Squealer" [Laws E25] as well as "The Long Strike." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP220

W. P. A.

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "W. P. A., W. P. A., You're let out; Go get your pay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Journal of American Folklore, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #612, "W-P-A." (1 text)
File: AJRR612

W. P. and A.

DESCRIPTION: "Where did you get that pretty dress all so bright and gay? I got it from my loving man on the W. P. and A." The singer tells of how the WPA allowed him to re-establish credit and earn good money for little work -- but also how he is resented by friends
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: work unemployment hardtimes
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 6, 1935 -- Creation of the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.), which had been authorized April 8. The program lasted until Dec. 4, 1942
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 138, "W. P. and A." (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa138 (Partial)
Roud #7476
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The W.P.A. Gathering" (subject)
NOTES [70 words]: The Works Progress Administration was responsible for a number of important building projects during the Depression. One of the key pieces of the New Deal, it helped many unemployed people survive the period. In the North Carolina backwoods, the wages it paid were considered very good, and the work relatively slight. But not everyone could sign on with the W.P.A. Hence this song -- and the resentment it describes. - RBW
File: Wa138

W.P.A. Gathering, The

DESCRIPTION: "Uncle Sam was very kind, He gave the people aid; The W.P.A. is working hard, Good roads will soon be made." This effort makes possible the Lost Hope Hollow Singing Gathering.
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: music travel nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 6, 1935 -- Creation of the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.), which had been authorized April 8. The program lasted until Dec. 4, 1942
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 244, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 244-245)
Roud #13961
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The W. P. and A." (subject)
NOTES [42 words]: This is even more suspicious than most of the songs in Thomas, since it actually mentions her by her ridiculous title of "The Traipsin' Woman."
The piece is likely by Jilson Setters, but Thomas's notes make it impossible to be absolutely certain. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa244

W'en I'm Gone, Gone, Gone

See Zek'l Weep (File: San449)

Wa'ney Cockfeightin' Sand

See Cock-Fight, The (File: VWL027)

Wabash Cannonball, The

DESCRIPTION: In praise of the amazing Wabash Cannonball, a train which can apparently accomplish anything. The song mentions various places the train visits and the impression it makes on the townsfolk. It may close with a eulogy for "Daddy Claxton"
AUTHOR: Original ("The Great Rock Island Route") credited to J. A. Roff; rewritten as "Wabash Cannon Ball," perhaps by William Kindt, who copyrighted it; Cohen suspects the rewrite preceded Kindt's 1904 publication, and common tune is not the same as either Roff's or Kindt's
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (sheet music, as "The Great Rock Island Route"; first use of the "Wabash Cannonball" title is Kindt, in 1904)
KEYWORDS: train railroading travel
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 373-381, "The Wabash Cannonball" (2 texts, one of them Kindt's, plus a text and sheet music cover of Roff's "The Great Rock Island Route," 1 tune)
Randolph 840, "The Wabash Cannonball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 385-386, "The Wabash Cannonball" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 840)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 220, "The Wabash Cannon Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 462, "The Wabash Cannonball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 85, "Wabash Cannonball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 100 "The Wabash Cannonball" (1 text)
DT, WABASHCB*
Roud #4228
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff & his Crazy Tennesseeans, "Wabash Cannon Ball" (Vocalion 04466/OKeh 04466/Conqueror 9121. 1938; Columbia 37008, 1946; rec. 1936) [despite the band title, Dynamite Hatcher sang lead on this recording]
Roy Acuff & his Smoky Mountain Boys, "Wabash Cannonball" (Columbia 37008/Columbia 37598/Columbia 20034, 1947) [Note: Some pressings of these issues used the Vocalion/OKeh master listed above]
Loy Bodine, "Wabash Cannon Ball" (Superior 2608. 1931)
Bill Carlisle's Kentucky Boys, "Wabash Cannon Ball" (Decca 5713/Melotone [Canada] 45326, 1939; Decca 46045, 1947)
The Carter Family, "Wabash Cannonball" (Victor 23731, 1932; Montgomery Ward M-7444, 1938; Bluebird B-8350, 1940; rec. 1929)
Clark & Edans, "Wabash Cannonball" (Gennett, unissued, 1928)
Hugh Cross, "Wabash Cannonball" (Columbia 15439-D, 1929) (Vocalion 5377 [as "The Wabash Cannon Ball], c. 1928)
Delmore Brothers, "The Cannon Ball" (Bluebird B-7991/Montgomery Ward M-7677, 1939; rec. 1938); "The Wabash Cannon-Ball Blues" (Bluebird B-8404/Montgomery Ward M-7832, 1940)
Charlie Glenn, Shirley Glenn, "Wabash Cannonball" (Piotr-Archive #183, recorded 06/06/2022)
Roy Hall & his Blue Ridge Entertainers, "Wabash Cannonball" (Vocalion 04717/Conqueror 9230, 1938)
Bill Mooney & his Cactus Twisters, "Wabash Cannonball" (Imperial 1150, n.d.)
Morris Brothers, "Wabash Cannonball - No. 2" (Bluebird B-8252, 1939)
Pete Seeger, "Wabash Cannonball" (on PeteSeeger17)
Art Thieme, "Wabash Cannonball" (on Thieme04)
Doc Watson, "Wabash Cannonball" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchieWatsonCD1, ClassRR)
Mac Wiseman, "Wabash Cannonball" (Dot 1262, 1950s)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gatesville Cannonball" (tune)
cf. "We Work for Hay and Company" (tune)
cf. "The Boys at Ninety-Five" (tune)
cf. "The Gospel Cannonball" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
"Hail! Ye Brave Industrial Workers" (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 178)
"We Work for Hay and Company" (File: FowL26)
The Grand Coulee Dam (by Woody Guthrie) (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 292-293; DT, GRNCOULE; Greg Vandy with Daniel Person, _26 Songs in 30 Days: Woody Guthrie's Columbia River Songs and the Planned Promised Land in the Pacific Northwest_, Sasquatch Books, 2016, p. 32; (Woody Guthrie), __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 44-45)
Delmore Brothers, "Gospel Cannon Ball" (Decca 5970, 1941; Decca 46049, 1947)
Charles Stowe, "Carolina Cannonball" (on OBanks1)
The Mine at Baie Verte (File: Guig263)
Boomtown Bill (by Woodie Guthrie) (on Keynote 5000, 1942?; in Archie Green, "Woody's Oil Songs," published in Archie Green, editor, _Songs about Work: Essays in Occupational Culture for Richard A. Reuss_, Folklore Institute, Indiana University, 1993, p. 213)
The White Ghost Train (by Woody Guthrie; tune conjectured by Pete Seeger) (Woody Guthrie, __Roll On Columbia: The Columbia River Collection_, collected and edited by Bill Murlin, Sing Out Publications, 1991, pp. 84-85, with Seeger's notes on p. 83)
File: R840

Waco Girl, The

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Wadaleache, wadaleo

See Waddaly atcha (File: ACSF146W)

Waddaly atcha

DESCRIPTION: "Waddaly atcha, waddaly atcha, Doodley doo, doodley do, Waddaly atcha, waddaly atcha, Doodley doo, doodley do. It’s the simplest thing, nothing else to it, All you gotta do is doodley doo it, I like the rest, but the part I like best, It goes doodley...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonsense campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 146, 148, 151, 236, 291, 318, 417, 421, 494, 496, "Wadaleache, wadaleo"/"Doodle Doo"/"Doodledoo"/Wadaleache" (notes only)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Alle Acha
File: ACSF146W

Waddin o McPhee, The

DESCRIPTION: "At mony sprees I've been, but the best I've ever seen" is this wedding. Everyone got drunk, including the minister. Food beyond counting "but the bridegroom and the bride were cremated side by side High up on the hill on Ben Lomond."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Willie Scott SA1973.025)
KEYWORDS: wedding drink food humorous parody husband wife clergy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 93, 153, "The Waddin o McPhee" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Willie Scott, "Wedding o' MacPhee," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1973.025,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 14 September 2013 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/89862/1
Roud #21762
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. ""Loch Lomond" (tune, per McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
NOTES [24 words]: McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen: "One of the many parodies of the very familiar Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond, sung to the standard tune...." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: McSc093

Wade in nuh Watuh Childun

See Wade in the Water (File: LoF242)

Wade in the Water

DESCRIPTION: "Wade in the water, Wade in the water, children, Wade in the water, God's gonna trouble the water." The singer warns of the coming signs of the end. The victory of Heaven over Hell is considered assured. The singer looks forward to future freedom
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Sunset Four Jubilee Singers)
KEYWORDS: religious freedom nonballad worksong
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 216-217, "Wade in the Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 167, "Wade in the Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 38, pp. 170-171, "Wade in nuh Watuh Childun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 97-98, "Wade in the Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 242, "Wade in the Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 63, "Wade in the Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 356, "Wade in the Water" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 315, "Wade in the Water" (1 text)
SongsOfManyNations, "Wade in the Water" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 59)
DT, WADEWATR*
Roud #5439
RECORDINGS:
Birmingham Jubilee Quartet, "Wade in the Water" (Vocalion 1563, 1930)
Empire Jubilee Quartet, "Wade in de Water" (Victor 23340, 1932; rec. 1929)
Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham, "Children Wade in de Water" (Paramount 13128, 1932; Broadway 1246, n.d.; Champion 50026, 1935; on VocalQ2)
Fannie Lou Hamer, "Wade in the Water" (on VoicesCiv)
Timothy Hays and Group, "Wade in the Water" (on VaWork)
Lincoln Four Quartette, "Wade in the Water" (Paramount 12621, 1928)
Sunset Four Jubilee Singers, "Wade in the Water" (Paramount 12273, 1925)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bear the News, Mary" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Walk In Jerusalem Just Like John" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Heaven and Hell" (floating lyrics)
cf. "If You Get There Before I Do" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Is Your Lamps Gone Out" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [40 words]: The VaWork recording uses "Wade in the Water" as a work song, in this case for shucking oysters commercially. The shucking blows are not delivered simultaneously: each shucker works to his/her own rhythm, though they all sing together. - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LoF242

Wade the Water to My Knees

DESCRIPTION: The leader sings "I wade the water to my knees," "The water's so cold," "Lord have mercy," with each line repeated. The response, as alternate lines, is "I'm going to pray, going to pray" and "I'm going to pray till I die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (McIntosh1)
KEYWORDS: death ordeal nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, p. 116-117, "Wade the Water to My Knees" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Lucille Holloway and the McIntosh County Shouters, "Wade the Water to My Knees" (on McIntosh1)
Carletha Sullivan, Brenton Jordan and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Wade the Water to My Knees" (on McIntoshShouters-RingShoutPresentation)
NOTES [25 words]: The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree/McIntoshShouters-RingShoutSongs text and track, and McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts tracks are "ring shout" songs. - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: RcWtWtMK

Wadham's Song

DESCRIPTION: Coast sailing pilot's guide "from Bonavista Cape to the Stinking Isles ... till Pilley's Point covers Syme's Stage." Directions on how to reach Notre Dame Bay from Bonavista
AUTHOR: R.N. Wadham
EARLIEST DATE: 1756 (cf. Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: sea ship nonballad recitation sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 119, "Wadham's Song" (1 text)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 13, "Wadhams Song" (1 text)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland "Wadham's Song" (1 text): p. 70 in the 4th edition; p. 83 in the 5th
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, editor, _Songs Sung by Old-TIme Sealers of Many Years Ago_, James Murphy Publishing, 1925 (PDF available from Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 15, "Wadhams Song" (1 text)
James Murphy, _Songs Their Fathers Sung: For Fishermen: Old Time Ditties_, James Murphy Publishing, 1923 (PDF available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 14, "Wadmans Song" (1 text)
John Feltham, _Northeast from Baccalieu_, Harry Cuff Publications, 1990, pp. 2-3, "The Song of the Wadhams" (1 text)
Bruce Stagg, _The Blackwood Schooner_, Flanker Press, 2009, pp. 3-5, "The Song of the Wadmans" (sic.) (1 text, taken from Feltham)
ST GrMa119 (Partial)
Roud #5449
NOTES [193 words]: According to GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site, "although called a song it was always recited and there is no tune available"; Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland heard it recited.
On the other hand, the Renaissance Dance site claims "Pilot verses were sailing directions sung to popular tunes ... Hugill [apparently not in Shanties from the Seven Seas] quotes [Wadham's Song] to the tune of 'I'll Tell me Ma', which is still well known." - BS
Doyle4 says that the song "was placed n record in the Admiralty's Court in London after it was first composed and was considered the best coasting guide for that part of our Island to which it refers."
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland report that they heard it recited because it's still accurate. The Wadham islands, mentioned in this song and presumably related to its title, are a series of mostly-uninhabited islands about ten miles east of Fogo and twenty miles northwest of Cape Freels. They were famous, or infamous, as a sealing site, e.g. the horrid "Spring of the Wadhams" is named after them; for that dreadul year, see the notes to "Maurice Crotty." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: GrMa119

Wae Be to that Weary Drink, John Anderson, My Jo

DESCRIPTION: Jean: Why drink up all your money with your friends? I have burned the barn door for heat; we have no cow or ewe; let's both "join the total abstinence." John agrees. Both: "hand in hand we'll go, And we'll sleep thegither at the foot"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink derivative dialog husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 600, "Wae Be to that Weary Drink, John Anderson, My Jo" (2 texts)
Roud #6050
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Anderson, My Jo (I)" (words)
cf. "John Anderson, My Jo, John" (words)
cf. "John Barleycorn, My Jo" (another temperance derivative of "John Anderson")
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John Anderson, My Jo
NOTES [46 words]: This temperance derivative of "John Anderson, My Jo (I)"/"John Anderson, My Jo, John" starts with a verse that seems based on the first verse of the version printed on Bodleian broadsides Harding B 45(17) and Harding B 11(439). See the notes to "John Anderson, My Jo (I)." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3600

Wae's Me For Prince Charlie

DESCRIPTION: "A wee bird came tae our ha' door... And aye the (burden) o' his lilt, Was "Wae's me for Prince Charlie." The singer asks the bird about Charlie's fate. The bird tells how Charlie is pursued in the Highlands. The bird says it will live in Scotland no more
AUTHOR: William Glen? (Source: Digital Tradition)
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg, according to the Digital Tradition); 1825 (chapbook, "Nonny Mally Stewart; Her blue rollin' e'e, The braes o' Fleniffer, Waes me for prince Charlie, printed by W. Macnie of Stirling)
KEYWORDS: bird Jacobite hardtimes escape
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1720-1788 - Life of Charles Edward Stuart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie"
1722-1790 - Life of Flora MacDonald
1745-1746 - '45 Jacobite rebellion led by Bonnie Prince Charlie
Apr 16, 1746 - Battle of Culloden. The Jacobite rebellion is crushed, most of the Highlanders slain, and Charlie forced to flee for his life.
Jun 28-29, 1746 - Aided by Flora MacDonald, and dressed as her maidservant, Charles flees from North Uist to Skye in the Hebrides.
Sep 20, 1746 - Charles finally escapes to France
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, WEEBIRD
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth Norman MacDonald, "The Gesto Collection of Highland Music," 1895 (reprinted 1997 by Llanerch Publishers), p. 39, "Wae's Me For Prince Charlie (1 tune)
Roud #16902
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(175), "Waes me for Prince Charlie," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie House o Airlie" [Child 199] (tune, per broadside Bodleian 2806 c.14(175))
NOTES [42 words]: In addition to the Bodleian broadside cited above, I have a badly damaged chapbook by W. Macnie (Stirling), 1825, "Bonny Mally Stweart/Her blue rollin' e'e, The braes o' Gleniffer, Waes me for prince Charly." I have not seen this chapbook online. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: DTwebird

Wag at the Waa, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer drinks with cronies: "It's a quarter tae twa, the last bus is awa" and he promised he'd be home at eleven. He drinks again with cronies but this time he resists temptation: "'It's the wife,' A declare, 'A wid stop but for fear o her anger'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness drink humorous husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 77-78, 152, "The Wag at the Waa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21733
File: McSc077

Waggin' o' Our Dog's Tail, The

DESCRIPTION: "We hae a dog that wags his tail -- He's a bit o' a wag himsel', O! A' day he wanders thro' the toun -- At nicht as news to tell, O!" The dog tours the town, sees many silly people, and concludes that, if people had tails, they'd be almost as good as dogs
AUTHOR: Norman McLeod ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: dog humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 214-217, "The Waggin' o' Our Dog's Tail" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #172, pp. 2-3, "The Waggin' o' Oor Dog's Tail" (1 text)
Roud #6292
File: FVS214

Waggoner, The

DESCRIPTION: "September last, on the seventh day, I geared my team to start away, To the South Yadkin...." The singer describes his route, talks of the cold and difficulties of the trip, and happily recounts his arrival
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: travel
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 300-301, "The Waggoner" (1 text)
Roud #3584
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Heights of Alma (I) [Laws J10]" (meter, lyrics)
NOTES [120 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety believes this piece tells of travel across the Appalachians, which, given the geography, makes sense. The initial line and the meter seem to imply acquaintance with "The Heights of Alma" (though in this case the song is rather worn down). That is a rather late date for such a piece. This may be further evidence of the "proto-Alma" song.
Roud lumps this with Lomax's piece "Ox Driving Song." There are a few words in common, but only a few, and those of the sort that could float or even occur to an author spontaneously; really, only thing they have in common that I can see is that both involve travel. -I can see Roud's point, but I'm not quite ready to agree. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Beld300

Waggoner's Boy, The

See The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)

Waggoner's Lad, The

See The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)

Wagoner Boy, The

See The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)

Wagoner's Curse on the Railroad, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye bold wag'ners, turn out man by man, That's opposed to the railroad or any such plan." The teamster says that all the goods he used to haul now travel by rail. Blacksmiths and wheelwrights are hurting too. He curses railroads and canals
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: railroading technology travel hardtimes canal
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 255-257, "The Wagoner's Curse on the Railroad" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: KPL255

Wagoner's Lad, The

DESCRIPTION: Young woman is courted by wagoner's lad. Her parents don't like him because he is poor; he tells her he is self-supporting and not ashamed. He tells her he is leaving; she asks him to linger with him, but he refuses. She laments women's hard fortune
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (collected by Olive Dame Campbell; in Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians); +1907 (JAFL20)
KEYWORDS: courting love farewell parting dialog worker lyric rejection warning floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp.738-740, "The Wagoner's Lad" (2 texts, with the "A" text belonging here and the "B" text a composite of "Wagoner's Lad" and "Old Smokey" verses)
Randolph 740, "Texas Cowboy" (1 text, with much floating material but the plot seems to be here)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 22-23, "Fair U-Well-Lizza" (1 text, mostly this; the first verse might be something else but is so messed up that it's hard to tell what)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 250, "The Wagoner's Lad" (3 texts plus 3 fragments; the texts "A"-"C" are "The Wagoner's Lad," and "D" has an associated verse, but "E" and "F" are fragments of a love song, perhaps "Farewell, Charming Nancy" or "Omie Wise," both of which have similar lyrics; "D" also shares this single verse, and "E" adds a "Troubled in Mind" chorus)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 250, "The Wagoner's Lad" (6 tunes plus text excerpts, five of which are probably "The Wagoner's Lad" but the "E" tune is someting else)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 42, "Lamkins" (1 text, apparently a fragment of Child #93 (containing only a threat of cannibalism) plus three "My Horses Ain't Hungry" stanzas)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 272-282, "The Waggoner's Lad" (9 texts, 6 tunes on pp. 428-431, but the entry combines many songs; A (no title), B ("My Fortune's Been Bad"), and E ("My Horses Ain't Hungry") are extended versions of "The Wagoner's Lad"; C ("The Last Farewell") is a short text probably of "The Wagoner's Lad"; D ("Old Smokie") combined one "Smokey" verse with three "Wagoner's Lad" verses; "F" ("Old Smoky") is a very long "Old Smokey" text which seems to have gained parts of other songs; G ("A False Lying True Love") is "Old Smokey" minus the first verse; H ("I'll Build My Cabin on a Mountain So High" is "Old Smokey" with a first verse from a drunkard song and a final floating verse supplying the title; I (no title) is a fragment probably of "Old Smokey")
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, pp. 24-25, "I Am a Poor Girl or The Poor Girl's Warning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 44-45, "My Horses Ain't Hungry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #17, "The Wagoner Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #101, "The Wagoner's Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 117, "The Wagoner's Lad" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #45, "The Waggoner's Boy (The Wagoner's Lad)" (1 text, 1 tune, probably mixed)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 37, "Loving Nancy" (1 text)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 62, "Loving Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 79, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 6, "The Wagoner Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 284-285, "Rabble Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune -- a strange version, probably composite, in which the wanderer is a "rabble soldier")
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 34, p. 49, "The Wagoner's Lad" (1 fragment, probably this although it might be a "Rye Whiskey" excerpt)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 243-244, "My Horses Ain't Hungry" (1 text, which is probably derived from this but ends with the girl leaving home to go with him)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 20-21, "I'm Goin' Back to Georgia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 112, "The Wagoner's Lad"; (1 text, 1 tune)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 30 "The Wagoner's Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 6, "The Wagoner's Lad" (1 text, 1 tune); 83, "Old Paint" (3 texts, 1 tune, of which the "C" text appears actually to be a version of this piece or perhaps "Rye Whisky")
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 181-182, "The Wagoner's Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, p. 19, "(The Waggoner's Lad" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 38-39, "Wagonner's Lad" (1 text)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 21, "My Horses Ain't Hungry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 171 "The Wagoner's Lad"; p. 174 "My Horses Ain't Hungry"; p. 186 "Hard Is The Fortune Of All Womankind" (3 texts)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 211-213, "Jack o' Diamonds" (1 text; this particular Lomax offering contains elements of "Jack o Diamonds/Rye Whisky," "The Wagoner's Lad," The Rebel Soldier," and others)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Lattye Eunice Arnold, "A Sketch and Two Songs," Vol. VI, No. 1 (Jul 1958), pp. 17-18, "My Horses Ain’t Hungry" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Charles W. Joyner, "The Repertory of Nancy Jones as a Mirror of Culture in Scotland County," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), p. 92-93, "Farewell, my dear true love, I'll bid you adieu" (1 text, two verses that might be "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" or "Rye Whiskey" or "The Wagoner's Lad" or, frankly, almost anything; there is a mention of emigration)
DT, WAGONLAD* MOONSHI2*
ST R740 (Full)
Roud #414
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "Loving Nancy" (on Boggs3, BoggsCD1)
Acie Cargill, Debra Cowan, Kristina Olsen, "The Waggoner's Lad" (on HCargillFamily)
Vernon Dalhart, "My Horse's Ain't Hungry" [sic] (Edison 52077, 1927)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "My Mind is to Marry" (unissued; on StuffDreams1)
Kelly Harrell, "My Horses Ain't Hungry" (Victor 20103, 1926; on KHarrell01)
Buell Kazee, "The Wagoner's Lad" (Brunswick 213B, 1928; Brunswick 437, 1930; on AAFM1) (on Kazee01)
Mr. & Mrs. John Sams, "Wagoner's Lad" (on MMOKCD)
Pete Seeger, "Fare You Well, Polly" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a);The Wagoner's Lad" (on PeteSeeger17)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cuckoo" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Goodbye, Old Paint" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Rye Whiskey" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Gambler (I)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Oh Lily, Dear Lily" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Lady's Case" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I Am a Young Maiden (If I Were a Blackbird)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Rebel Soldier" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Rue and the Thyme (The Rose and the Thyme)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Farewell, Sweet Mary"
cf. "Goodbye, Little Bonnie, Goodbye" (theme)
cf. "Moonshiner" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Virginian Lover" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
An Inconstant Lover
I'm a Rambler, I'm a Gambler
The Rambling Gambler
NOTES [264 words]: This song, which barely qualifies as a ballad even in its full forms, has produced many non-ballad offspring, of which "On Top of Old Smokey" is the best known. Randolph apparently thinks his "Texas Cowboy" piece to be related but separate, but (based on his text) I would have to say they are the same.
It is very hard to tell certain versions of this from "Rye Whiskey"; the two have exchanged many verses. But the "core" versions seem to be distinct.
An even greater problem is posed by the relationship between this song and "On Top of Old Smoky." The two are occasionally listed as one song (e.g. by Leach); indeed, this was done in early versions of the Index. This was done under the influence of the Lomaxes, who classify the songs together.
Further study, however, seems to show that all versions which have common material are derived from the Lomaxes. The plots of the two songs are different, their tunes are distinct, and true cross-fertilization seems very rare. It would appear that the identification of the two is purely the result of the sort of editorial work the Lomaxes so often committed.
Due to this inconsistency, it is suggested that the reader check all versions of both songs, as well as both sets of cross-references, to find all related materials.
Another closely related song is "Farewell, Sweet Mary," as much as three-quarters of which may derive from this song. It has taken a slightly different direction, however, and is at least a distinct subfamily of this piece. Since it doesn't have anything about horses or wagoners, I list it separately. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R740

Wagoners, The

See Jacket So Blue, The (The Bonnet o' Blue) (File: FSC43)

Wagonner's Lad

See The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)

Waihi Miners' Song (There in Waihi)

DESCRIPTION: "There in Waihi, with its toil an its treasure, Men's lives are squandered while earning a crust, Leaving homes desolate and a grave for some loved one, Ruthlessly slain by the battery dust."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (collected by Mona Tracy, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: mining death burial
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 119, "(no title)" (1 fragment)
File: BaRo119

Waillie, Waillie!

See Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) (File: K149)

Wait a Little While

DESCRIPTION: "Wait a little while, then we'll sing the new song (x2)." "My heavenly home is bright and fair, Then we'll sing the new song. No pain or sorrow over there. Then we'll sing...." "Sometimes I get a heavenly view... And then my trials are so few."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 69, "Wait a Little While" (1 text)
Roud #12086
File: FSAN069B

Wait for the Wagon (Free Silver version)

DESCRIPTION: "Wait for the wagon, the Free Silver Wagon, Wait for the wagon and we'll all take a ride." "Here comes the wagon, the Free Silver Wagon, Here comes the wagon, and we'll all take a ride." "Hop on the wagon, the Free Silver wagon...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad money
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 7, 1896 - William Jennings Bryan gives his "Cross of Gold" speech calling for a silver currency
1896, 1900, 1908 - Bryan's three runs for the presidency
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 21, "Wait for the Wagon" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wait for the Wagon (I)" (tune) and references there
cf. "Free Silver" (subject of William Jennings Bryan and the 1896 election) and references there
File: McIn021A

Wait for the Wagon (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer invites Phyllis "to yon blue mountain free." He describes his cabin and the fine lands around it. Another suitor offers wealth, but he offers youth and health. He bids her to "Wait for the wagon (x3) And we'll all take a ride."
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (copyright registry and LOCSheet sm1851 501260; the relevant sheet music is dated 1850)
KEYWORDS: courting home money farming pioneer playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 222-225, "Wait for the Wagon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 514, "Wait for the Wagon" (1 text)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 98-99=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 202-203, "Wait for the Wagon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 563, "Wait for the Wagon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 196, "Wait for the Wagon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 285-286, "Wait for the Wagon" ( text)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 193-195, "Wait for the Wagon"; pp. 195-196, "The Old Union Wagon"; pp. 196-197, "The Southern Wagon" (1 text plus 2 parodies, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 175, "Wait For The Wagon" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #1/72, p. 46 and #1/64 p. 44, "Wait for the Wagon" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 81-82, "Wait for the Wagon" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 609-610, "Wait for the Wagon"
Thatcher-ColonialMinstrel-Songsters, p. 178, "Wait for the Waggon" (1 text, from the "Victoria Songster", a comic adaption)
DT, WAITWAGN* (WAITWAG2* -- Confederate Parody)
ST RJ19222 (Full)
Roud #2080
RECORDINGS:
Wenatchee Mountaineers, "Wait for the Wagon" (Banner 32868/Melotone M-12795/Perfect 12940/Romeo 5269/Conqueror 8195, 1933; Oriole 8336Melotone [Canada] 93041, 1934; Minerva M-920, 1936)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1137, "Wait for the Waggon" ("O come with me, my Phillis dear"), A. Ryle and Co. (London), 1845-1859; also Harding B 11(4007), Harding B 15(354b), Harding B 15(354a), 2806 c.15(21)[some words illegible], Harding B 19(12)[some words illegible], Harding B 11(4008), Firth b.25(420), Harding B 11(735), 2806 d.31(45), Firth b.34(305), Firth b.25(584), Firth b.26(91), Firth c.18(218), Harding B 16(298c), Firth b.26(482)[chorus omitted], Wait for the Waggon"
LOCSheet, sm1851 501260, "Wait for the Wagon", Peters, Webb and Con (Louisville), 1851; also sm1851 500740, sm1851 500790, sm1851 681810, sm1852 520240, sm1852 520810 , sm1853 561470, sm1854 550760, sm1854 741360, sm1856 630350, " Wait for the Wagon" (tune)
LOCSinging, as114480, "Wait for the Wagon!" ("Will you come with me my Phillis, dear, to yon blue mountain free"), W. S. & J. Crowley (Baltimore), no date; also sb40585a, "Wait for the Wagon"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Brass-Mounted Army" (tune)
cf. "We're Coming, Arkansas (We're Coming, Idaho)" (tune)
cf. "The Southern Wagon (Union)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Wait for the Wagon (Free Silver version) (File: McIn021A)
California Ball (File: LDC094)
Wait For the Dragon (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 229)
Ballad of the 117th New York (broadside regarding a Civil War regiment by D. Prosser)
The Old Union Wagon (Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 195; Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 390; Wolf-AmericanSongSheets pp. 116-117)
The Southern Wagon (Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 196)
Wait for the Wagon, or, A Hundred Thousand Northmen (Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, p. 120)
Good Morning, Master Lincoln! (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 52)
The News Boy ("Oh! 'tis early every morning, about the break of day") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 109)
The Sons of New Jersey ("There was a call for Volunteers sometime in last year") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 148)
Sparking Sarah Jane ("Sitting on the sofa, leaning on my breast") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 149)
That's What's the Matter ("They say Johnny Bull is sending") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 155)
That's What's the Matter #2 ("If down South they'd hear to reason") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 155)
Wait for the Lager. A Parody on "Wait for the Wagon" ("Will you come with me, my Billy, down into the cellar, near") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 167)
Bull's Run ("Says Greely to Scott, to Richmond, why not") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 187)
Dodge's Police ("Come all ye Southern lassies") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 188)
Song of the Baltimore Rebels ("Let us join the army, let us join the army") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 194)
Hurrah for Ann Arbor ("A song! hurrah, my jolly boys, let's make Ann Arbor ring") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 75)
The Socialists are Coming ("Come, all you toiling nations And listen to my song") (Foner, p. 298)
Plow Boy of Ohio ("We'll rally from the mountains, We'll rally from the glen") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 17)
NOTES [199 words]: Many authorities credit this piece to R. Bishop Buckley (1810-1867). Certainly there are editions which record that it was sung by Buckley's Minstrels starting in 1843. The earliest printing, however, (from 1850) gives the music as by "Wisenthal"; the words are by "a lady." The next printing, in 1851, gives the name of "G. P. Knauff" (at least, that is what it appears to say; several scholars consider Knauff the arranger). A few editions give only the letters "GAS."
It's worth noting that it was already popular enough in 1853 to be copied into the journal of the Smyrna.
Personally, I think we simply cannot list an author. Which is probably just as well; the sundry parodies (both sides in the Civil War, for instance, produced knock-offs) would likely have produced lawsuits otherwise. - RBW
Wiltshire WSRO: "Alfred Williams [writes] "... An old man named Jonathon Keene, of Wanborough, told me he remembered when the song came out: that would have been about the year 1824." The dated broadsides I have seen are all much later than that.
Cited in Hubert Gibson Shearin and Josiah Henry Combs, A Syllabus of Kentucky Folk-Songs (Lexington, 1911 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 23. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RJ19222

Wait for the Wagon (II)

See The Southern Wagon (Confederate) (File: Br3374)

Wait for the Wagon (III)

DESCRIPTION: "Come with me good Democrats and rally round our flag to fight the Black Republicans ... Wait for the waggon, The old Democratic waggon ... We'll give those Negro worshippers a good November ride"
AUTHOR: Music: R Bishop Buckley (1851) (source: Thomson-Pioneer)
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: bragging nonballad political Black(s)
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1856 - Presidential campaign. James Buchanan and John C. Breckenridge were Democratic candidates for president and vice-president. (Buchanan won the nomination largely because he had been out of the country and so had made few recorded statements on the big issues of the time.) The Republican candidates were John C. Frémont and William L. Dayton. It was the first time the Republican party had fielded a candidate. Millard Fillmore ran as a Know-Nothing. The Democrats won 45% of the popular vote, and 174 electoral votes; Fremont won 33% of the popular vote and 114 electoral votes (but no state south of Ohio); Fillmore won 22% of the popular vote and Maryland's eight electoral votes.
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 64, "Wait for the Wagon" (1 text)
Roud #2835
NOTES [28 words]: Thomson-Pioneer: "The Democratic party sang this campaign song in the year 1856." - BS
For background on the 1856 election, see the notes to "Lincoln and Liberty." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: TPS064

Wait on the Lord

DESCRIPTION: "I wonder where Spencer gone, That used to preach up town. The church is all in mourning...." "I'm waitin' on de Lord...." "Some say John de Baptist Is nothing but a Jew." "A Baptist, Baptist is my name, And a Baptist I will die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 344, "Wait on de Lord" (1 text)
Roud #11740
NOTES [23 words]: This is one of those all-floating-verse assemblies that can't really be identified with anything because it has so many different parts. - RBW
File: Br3344

Wait Till the Clouds Roll By

DESCRIPTION: "Jenny, my own true lover, I'm going far away, Out on the bound'ring billows, Out on the deep blue sea." The singer promises to think of Jenny while on the sea, and vows to return, and urges her to "Wait till the clouds roll by."
AUTHOR: Words: J. T. Wood / Music: H. J. Fulmer
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (sheet music published by T. B. Harms & Co. of New York)
KEYWORDS: love separation sailor
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 7, "Wait Till the Clouds Roll By" (1 text, 1 tune, plus mention of 1 more)
Roud #9088
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "Wait Till The Clouds Roll By" (Bluebird 8341)
NOTES [132 words]: Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric incorrectly lists the name of the author of the music as "J. J. Fulmer," which he says was a pseudonym for Charles E. Pratt, and seems to think that Fulmer tried to make it appear to be a scarce item (to drive up the price?). He lists many songster editions, mostly from the 1880s (although "Charles Diamond's Milanese Minstrel Songster" he dates to 1877, before the sheet music was published). There was also an answer to this song, plus parodies such as "Wait Till the Cash Runs Dry" and "Wait Till the Keg Runs Dry." Amazing that a song that was so popular in the 1880s did not show up more in traditional collections.
This is not to be confused with the 1917 pop song, "Till the Clouds Roll By," words by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, music by Jerome Kern. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcWTTCRB

Wait Till the Ship Comes Home

DESCRIPTION: "Jack went away to sea one day and left his Polly behind." An old man comes courting Polly. She refuses, saying "Wait till the ship comes home." At last word arrives that the ship is home and Jack safe. The old man dies and leaves Polly his money
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation courting age lastwill money death
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H481, pp. 484-485, "Wait till the Ship Comes Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9055
NOTES [9 words]: Sort of an Irish version of the story of Penelope.... - RBW
File: HHH481

Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie

DESCRIPTION: A girl mourns her rained-out Sunday picnic. Her sweetheart comforts her: "Wait till the sun shines, Nellie, and the clouds go drifting by...." She had hoped to "show off her brand new gown"; suddenly the sun comes out; she says he has won her heart
AUTHOR: Words: Andrew B. Sterling / Music: Harry von Tilzer
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (copyright; others list a 1902 copyright)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 215-216, "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 187-190, "Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 254, "Wait Till The Sun Shines, Nellie" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 610, "Wait 'till the Sun Shines, Nellie"
DT, SUNELLIE
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 339-342, "Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1905 sheet music)
RECORDINGS:
Charleston Entertainers, "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie" (Supertone 9718, 1930)
Judy Cook, "Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #331, recorded 11/02/2022; the chorus only, but not the usual chorus)
Nancy Finley, Samuel Finley, "Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #623, recorded 08/01/2023; the chorus only)
Byron G. Harlan, "Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie" (Columbia 3321, 1906) (CYL: Edison 9130, 1905)
Jill MacLaughlin, John MacLaughlin, "Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie/You Are My Sunshine/Down by the Old Mill Stream" (Piotr-Archive #315, recorded 10/22/2022; the first two are chorus only)
Riley Puckett, "Wait Till The Sun Shines Nellie" (Columbia 15073-D, 1926; rec. 1925.)
NOTES [132 words]: And you thought the chorus was stupid! Aren't you sorry you ever looked up the plot?
For some background on Harry von Tilzer, see the notes to "A Bird in a Gilded Cage."
Andrew B. Sterling is best known for writing the words to "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis" and this song; also "On the Shores of Havana," "Strike Up the Band (Here Comes a Sailor)," "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown (What You Goin' to Do When the Rent Comes 'Round?)," and others. - RBW
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 271, estimates that this was the second most popular song in America in 1906, peaking at #1 at the start of the year (#1 for the year being Dave Reed and Ernest Ball's "Love Me and the World Is Mine"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: SRW215

Wait, Mister Mackright

DESCRIPTION: "Wai', Mister Mackright, an' 'e yedde what Satan say: Satan full me full of music, an' tell me not to play. Mister Mackright cry holy; O Lord, cry holy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad horse
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 43, "Wait, Mr. Mackright" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11999
NOTES [105 words]: This song probably had a very short lifetime. According to the notes, it was about a "milk-white" horse left behind by Confederate general Drayton. General Drayton is Thomas Fenwick Drayton (1808-1891), a West Point graduate who became a planter in 1836. He became a brigadier in 1861, and was responsible for the defence of Port Royal in 1861. I would guess that that was the occasion which led to this song. Drayton after this was assigned to the Army of Northern Virginia, but his brigade's performance in the Antietam campaign was poor enough that Lee dissolved his brigade. Drayton spent the rest of the war in the west. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG043B

Waitekauri Everytime!

DESCRIPTION: "There's a good old war-cry sounding, it hangs on every lip." Everywhere, you hear, "Waitekauri, Waitekauri, Waitekauri Everytime!" After the gold rush, the land and people of Waitekauri are utterly transformed
AUTHOR: Words: probably Edwin Edwards (source: Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ and Colquhoun, although attributed to W. W. Rowe in the first publication)
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Hauraki Plaines Gazette, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: New Zealand gold home
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1875 - Gold first found at Waitekauri
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 67-69, "Waitekauri Everytime!" (1 text, 1 modern tune)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 57, "Waitekauri Ev'rytime" (1 text, 1 "reconstructed" tune) (p. 35 in the 1972 edition)
NOTES [32 words]: This has been recorded by several New Zealand groups; Neil Colquhoun's recording, probably the earliest, is on the EP by Colquhoun and the Tamaki College Choir, "Folk Songs," Kiwi SEA 163. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo067

Waiting for a Train (I)

See Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum) [Laws H2] (File: LH02)

Waiting For a Train (II)

DESCRIPTION: Singer waits to hop a train. A brakeman tells him that if he has money "I'll see that you don't walk," then puts him off the train in Texas. "My pocketbook is empty/And my heart is filled with pain/I'm a thousand miles away from home/Waiting for a train"
AUTHOR: Jimmie Rodgers? (see note)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Jimmie Rodgers)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a hobo, is out in the rain waiting for a train to hop. A brakeman tells him that if he has money "I'll see that you don't walk." He has no money; the brakeman slams the boxcar door, then puts him off the train in Texas. "My pocketbook is empty/And my heart is filled with pain/I'm a thousand miles away from home/Waiting for a train"
KEYWORDS: loneliness poverty rejection rambling train travel hobo
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Gene Autry, "Waiting for a Train" (Vocalion 7057-V, n.d./Diva 6031-G, c. 1930/Clarion 5155-C, n.d.; rec. 1929)
Mississippi John Hurt, "Waiting For a Train" (on MJHurt04)
Riley Puckett, "Waiting for a Train" (Columbia 15408-D, 1929)
Bud Reed, "Waiting for a Train" (on Reeds1)
Hoke Rice, "Waiting for a Train" (Champion 15767/QRS 9012, 1929)
Jimmie Rodgers, "Waiting for a Train" (Victor V-40014, 1929)
Ed (Jake) West, "Waiting for a Train" (Broadway 8109, c. 1931)
Harry Wilson, "Waiting for the Train" (Perfect 12556, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum)" (subject, a few lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Let the Mermaids Flirt With Me (recorded by Mississippi John Hurt)
NOTES [154 words]: This composed song seems to be moving into oral tradition, both Anglo- and Afro-American (blues singer Furry Lewis used to perform it); Mississippi John Hurt used its melody for "Let the Mermaids Flirt With Me." - PJS
Larry Saidman points out to me,
"I was advised the following by Jon Bartlett,
"According to the Gordon collection in the Library of Congress, this song preceded the version credited to Jimmie Rogers. (Gordon 1720). It was called The Hobo Song, with most of the same verses (slight variations) but with some additions. It was apparently picked up from Terrell McKay in 1926. It ends up with the protagonist losing a leg, and the last line is 'to live I have to beg/'
"It starts out with 'All along the water tank, waiting for that train.'
"It was apparently used as a begging song."
I have not yet verified that the Gordon song indeed meets the Ballad Index criteria for "same-ness," but kinship is likely. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: RcWFAT2

Waiting for Kingdom Come

DESCRIPTION: "He's getting his dead from their lonely graves And lumping them all together; There's some of them fools, but more of them knaves, And he's yarding them all together... Waiting for kingdom come, Rotten with whiskey and rum," they pass away the years
AUTHOR: Words: probably William Satchell
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (Satchell, Land of the Lost, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: burial death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 128, "(no title)" (1 excerpt)
File: BaRo128B

Waiting for the Day (The Worst Old Ship)

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes life on "the worst old brig that ever did weigh." Built in "Roman time"/Nelson's times," it's held together with twine and undermanned. They spring a leak and bail their way to dock. Chorus: "Waiting for the day (x3) that we get our pay"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950s (recorded from Bob Roberts)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the worst ship the yard's ever laid, Steamed out of (Plymouth) on a (winter's) day," Singer describes life on "the worst old brig that ever did weigh." Built in "Roman time"/Nelson's times," it's held together with twine and seriously undermanned. They spring a leak off Orford Ness and bail their way along the coast and up the Humber to dock. Chorus: "Waiting for the day, waiting for the day/Waiting for the day that we get our pay"
KEYWORDS: sea ship work sailor worker navy hardtimes humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 37, "Waiting for the Day" (1 text, probably a navy modification of a civilian song)
Roud #1855
RECORDINGS:
Bob Roberts, "Waiting for the Day (The Worst Old Ship)" (on LastDays)
NOTES [8 words]: Again, pity we don't have a keyword "bitching." - PJS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcWftD

Waiting for the Rain

See Another Fall of Rain (Waiting for the Rain) (File: MA154)

Waiting for You (I Forgive You Before I Go)

DESCRIPTION: The singer's woman's "cruel ways" may shorten his life. When he dies he'll forgive her but wait for her beyond Jordan. He would trade his pass to glory to stay with her on earth, if that pass were not for two.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt05)
KEYWORDS: grief hardheartedness courting love death
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Waiting for You (I Forgive You Before I Go)" (on MJHurt05)
File: RcWfYIFY

Waitress and the Sailor, The

See Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: LK43)

Wakamarina, The

DESCRIPTION: "On the banks of the Wakamarina... A splendid goldfield's been discovered." The singer is "waiting for fresh information" to know if he should go there. The singer describes the effects of the rush (e.g. high prices) and tells how the new chums struggle
AUTHOR: Words: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Thatcher's "Songs of the War," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: gold humorous trick New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, pp. 60-62, "The Wakamarina" (1 text, 1 modern tune)
Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry, p. 53, "Wakamarina" (1 text, 1 modern tune) (p. 31 in the 1972 edition)
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 50-51, "The Wakamarina" (1 text, 1 modern tune)
Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, pp. 175-176, "The Wakamarina" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-GoldrushSongster, pp. 62-3, "The Wakamarina" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: J. C. Reid, _A Book of New Zealand_ (Collins National Anthologies), Collins, 1964, pp. 64-65, "The Wakamarina" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Tamburlane, "Wakamarina" (on NZSongYngCntry)
NOTES [251 words]: Curiously, although both Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ and Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry give tunes, and both are attributed to Neal Colquhoun, they are not the same tune! They are close, but Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ's transcription is in 6/8, Colquhoun-NZ-Folksongs-SongOfAYoungCountry in 4/4. Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook gives a third tune; Cleveland claims he wrote it himself. It's in 3/4. This presumably means that none of the printed melodies is that that Charles R. Thatcher used. He tended to set his lyrics to familiar tunes, and this is listed as being sung to "The Twig of the Shannon," which I don't know.
According to Mike Harding, When the Pakeha Sings of Home: A Source Guide to the Folk & Popular Songs of New Zealand, Godwit Press, 1992, p. 5, this is the only Thatcher song to remain continuously in New Zealand tradition, although it is not regarded as traditional in the list on p. 13 of Robert Hoskins, Goldfield Balladeer: The Life and Times of the celebrated Charles R. Thatcher, William Collins (New Zealand), 1977, which lists "Where's Your License?" and "Look Out Below" as Thatcher's two songs that went into tradition. (Of course, those are Australian songs and would not likely have gone into New Zealand tradition; possibly that is the reason for the two different lists.)
For brief background on Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo060

Wake Nicodemus

DESCRIPTION: "Nicodemus, the slave, was of African birth And was bought for a bagful of gold." When he dies at a great age, he asks to be awakened when freedom came. He forecasts the end of slavery and the battles it causes. Freedom proves his words true
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (sheet music published by S. Brainerd's Sons with copyright by Root & Cady)
KEYWORDS: slave slavery freedom
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Work-SongsOf-Henry-Clay-Work, pp. 9-12, "Wake Nicodemus" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 102-103, "Wake Nicodemus" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2481, p. 167, "Wake Nicodemus!" (5 references)
Dime-Song-Book #16, pp. 8-9, "Wake Nicodemus" (1 text)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 134, "Nicodemus" (1 excerpt)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 291, "Wake Nicodemnus" (1 text)
DT, NICDEMUS
Roud #4988
NOTES [68 words]: It occurs to me that the name "Nicodemus" means "victor/conqueror of/over the people," which might be significant in context -- Nicodemus the slave was victorious over the people who enslaved him. But I have no idea if Henry Clay Work had the Greek to know that. The name would most likely derive from the Gospel of John, where Nicodemus was a fairly important Jew who was a semi-secret follower of Jesus. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSWB291

Wake of Bevington, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you jolly labouring men and listen to my song; The theme is well known to you all, it is of Bevington." Over five years, workers turned tangled oak forest to farmland. Mr. Webb promised to stand treat when they finished. The singer celebrates
AUTHOR: Arthur Allchurch, Southe Littleton (source: Palmer)
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Palmer)
KEYWORDS: work farming drink fight
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 52, "The wake of Bevington" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Auld Lang Syne" (tune, according to Palmer)
File: PalWa052

Wake of William Orr, The

DESCRIPTION: "Here our murdered brother lies." He called for his countrymen to unite. The singer recalls 600 years of warfare, "Crumbled by a foreign weight; And by worse, domestic hate" "Monstrous and unhappy sight! Brothers' blood will not unite" A new day begins
AUTHOR: William Drennan (1754-1820) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815; Hoagland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Edward Hayes, _The Ballads of Ireland_ (Boston, 1859), Vol I)
KEYWORDS: death funeral Ireland nonballad political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 14, 1797 - William Orr executed after being charged with administering the United Irish oath to two soldiers of the Fifeshire Fencibles. (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 48, "The Wake of William Orr" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 237-239, "Wake of William Orr"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 359-361, "The Wake of William Orr" (1 text)
Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, _The Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1958, 1979), pp. 26-28, "The Wake of William Orr" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Lagan Love" (tune)
NOTES [168 words]: Hayes describes the trial, reprieve and execution. The reprieve followed statements by jurors that "whisky had been introduced into the jury room, and the verdict agreed to under the joint influence of drunkenness and intimidation." The crown witness, supposedly the person to whom the oath had been administered, then admitted that the evidence he had given was "false or distorted in essential particulars." After Orr was reprieved and awaiting commutation he was executed. "A storm of indignation followed this arbitrary and merciless decision." - BS
To give the other side, The Oxford Companion to Irish History in its entry on Orr says that "The evidence against him was less flimsy than sympathizers claimed." In another irony, he was a Protestant (see Thomas Pakenham, The Year of Liberty, p. 354). But even Pakenham, who is almost entirely an apologist for the English, admits that Orr became a martyr (pp. 219-220).
William Drennan also wrote the poem we index as "Erin" (also known as "Eire"). - RBW
File: Moyl048

Wake Up

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Wake Up Boys, the Corn Is a-Falling

DESCRIPTION: Corn-shucking song: "Wake up, boys, the corn is a-falling, The corn is a-falling at the door. Wake up, boys, the corn is a-falling, The corn is a-falling at the door."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Celia M. Benton, "Corn Shucking in Sampson County," Vol. XXII, No. 4 (Nov 1974), p. 136, "(Wake up boys, the corn is a-falling)" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: NCF224WB

Wake Up Buddy

See Rata-tat-tat (Railroad camp shack rouser wake-up song) (File: Parp246)

Wake Up Children

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Wake up children, wake up! Arise! Wake up children, wake up! And I will serve that living God." Verse: "Old Satan thought he had me fast, And I will serve..., But thank the Lord, I'm free at last, And I will serve...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Devil
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 13, "Wake Up Children" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Bart013

Wake Up You Drowsy Sleepers

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Wake Up, Jacob

DESCRIPTION: "Wake up, Jacob, day's a-breakin', Peas in the pot and hoe-cake's caking'. Bacon's in the pan and coffee's in the pot, Come on round and get it while it's hot. (Spoken:) Wake, snakes, and bite a biscuit!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: cowboy food nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 65, "Wake Up, Jacob" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 184, "Wake Up, Jacob" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 375, "Cowboys' Gettin'-Up Holler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 547, "Peas in the Pot, Hoe Cake A-Bakin'" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 109, "Wake Up, Jacob/Cowboy's Gettin' Up Holler" (1 text)
Roud #6694
RECORDINGS:
Harry Jackson, "Morning Grub Holler" (on HJackson1, CowFolkCD1)
Pete Seeger, "Wake Up, Jacob" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07a)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Shanty Boy's Reveille" (theme)
NOTES [46 words]: I don't know if this is an allusion to Genesis 32:26, where Javob wrestles with a strange being, and the being ends the fight by saying, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." Obviously the words are similar, but Jacob of course got no sleep that night; he spent it wrestling! - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: LoF184

Wake Up, Jonah (Jonah III)

DESCRIPTION: "Wake up, Jonah, you are the man! Reelin' and a-rockin' o' the ship so long!" "Captain of the ship got trouble in mind...." The sailors throw Jonah into the sea; he is swallowed by a whale and proceeds to Ninevah
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Rich Amerson & Earthy Anne Coleman)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Captain of a rolling ship has troubles, searches for the cause, finds Jonah asleep and says, "Wake up Jonah, you are the man". They pitch him overboard; a whale swallows him, then pukes him onto dry land again. A gourd vine grows over his head; an inchworm comes and cuts it down, forming a cross over his head
KEYWORDS: religious Bible ship accusation travel religious animal whale sailor
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 57-58, "(Wake Up, Jonah") (1 text); pp. 223-224, "Wake Up, Jonah" (1 tune, partial text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 320-321, "(no title)" (1 text); pp. 342-344, "Wake Up Jonah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10960
RECORDINGS:
Rich Amerson & Earthy Anne Coleman, "Jonah" (on NFMAla2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hide Away (Jonah and the Whale)" (subject) and references there
NOTES [77 words]: This song summarizes the Book of Jonah, emphasizing the events of the first chapter: Jonah flees from God aboard ship; the ship is caught in a storm; the sailors cast lots to see who is to blame; the lot falls on Jonah, who is sleeping through the storm. - RBW
This song omits much of the Bible story and adds its own bits. Note that it says "whale"; the Hebrew Bible unambiguously says "fish" (for more about this, see the notes to "God's Radiophone"). - PJS, RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: CNFM223

Wake Up, Old Man

See Crawdad (File: R443)

Wake, O Wake, You Drowsy Sleeper

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Wake, Snakes!

See Snake Baked a Hoecake (File: Br3185)

Wakes in the Morning

DESCRIPTION: "Mommy wakes in the morning, Mommy wakes in the pukkah, Hee-ho, coffee cannot please her." Similarly, "Johnny wakes in the morning," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (recorded from Edith Perrin)
KEYWORDS: nonballad mother food
FOUND IN: West Indies
Roud #16396
RECORDINGS:
Edith Perrin, "Wakes in the Morning" [excerpt?] (on USWarnerColl01)
File: RcWitMo

Wakken

See The Song of Joaquin (Wakken) (File: GC135)

Wal I Swan (Giddyap Napoleon, Ebenezer Frye)

DESCRIPTION: Singer's adventures as he wanters and meets various crooks. He takes a prize at a fair, gets drunk, gives away his bull. A sharper asks him for "two tens for a five." Etc. Chorus: "Wal I swan, must be getting on/Giddyap Napoleon, it looks like rain..."
AUTHOR: Benj. Hapgood Burt
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (sheet music)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer meets two bunco men on a train, sends them packing. He goes to a county fair, takes a prize, gets drunk and gives away his old bull. At a tent show, a sharper asks him for "two tens for a five"; the singer arrests him. His horse runs off at the sound of a train. He has suspicions that his son, off in Philadelphia, is "up to some kind of hell." Chorus: "Wal I swan, must be getting on/Giddyap Napoleon, it looks like rain..."
KEYWORDS: crime theft farming drink humorous animal police
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 64-65, "Wal, I Swan" (1 text)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #139, "My Son Joshua" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WALISWAN
Roud #4647
RECORDINGS:
John Bennett, "Wal I Swan" (Madison 1928, 1928)
Al Bernard, "Wal I Swan" (Vocalion 15262, 1926) (Harmony 154-H, 1926)
Byron G. Harlan, "Wal, I Swan!" (Victor 17263, 1913; rec. 1912)
Riley Puckett, "Wal I Swan" (Columbia 15078-D, 1926)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Giddap Napoleon" (Columbia 15695-D, 1931; rec. 1929)
NOTES [46 words]: Spaeth (Read 'Em and Weep, p. 234) does not print this song, but does mention that it is "in constant demand both as a solo and as a rural quartet number. The interpretation is traditionally in a high-pitched, nasal voice, with a facial expression indicating toothlessness." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcWelIS

Walk 'Em Easy

See Early in the Morning (III) (File: AWG044)

Walk 'Long John

See Walk Along John (I) (File: R296)

Walk Along John (I)

DESCRIPTION: Weasel invades the henhouse, rats invade the dairy, Black Sam invades the kitchen, etc. Chorus: "Walk along, John, (piper's/fifer's) son, Now ain't you mighty glad your day's work's done. Walk along, John, git towards home, Ain't you mighty glad...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana)
KEYWORDS: animal work nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 100-101=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 220-221, "Walk Along John" (1 text, 2 tunes, probably a combination of "Walk Along John (I) and "Twill Never Do To Give It Up So")
Randolph 296, "Walk Along John" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 15, "Walk 'Long John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7824
NOTES [67 words]: Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana notes that there was a key change in the version given to her, which she adjusted (while also printing the collected version of the tune). I suspect that her version is in fact a combination of two songs, "Walk Along John" (the first stanza) and "'Twill Never Do to Give It Up So," which I know I've heard somewhere but can't seem to find in any traditional collections. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: R296

Walk Along John (II)

See Twill Never Do To Give It Up So (File: Wolf100)

Walk Along Rosey

See Walkalong, My Rosie (File: Hug363)

Walk Down the Path

DESCRIPTION: A game where a parent traces parts of an infant's head: "Walk down the path [part of the hair], Knock at the door [tough the forehead], Peep at the windows [open eyelids], Lift up the hatch [nose], And walk in [open the mouth; perhaps put fingers in]"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 183, "Walk down the Path" (1 text)
File: SuSm183A

Walk in Jerusalem Just Like John

DESCRIPTION: "I want to be ready (x3) To walk in Jerusalem just like John." "John said the city was just foursquare... And he declared we'd meet him there." "When Peter was preaching at Pentecost, He was endowed with the Holy Ghost"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, pp. 34-35, "Walk Jerusalem Jes Like John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 33, "I Want to Be Ready" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 163 in the 1909 edition)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 11, (no title) (1 fragment)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 60-61, "I Want to Be Ready (Walk In Jerusalem)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 356, "Walk In Jerusalem, Just Like John" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 60, "Walk in Jerusalem Just Like John" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "I Want to Be Ready" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 57)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Charles W. Joyner, "The Repertory of Nancy Jones as a Mirror of Culture in Scotland County," Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Sep 1973), p. 94, "(I want to be ready, I want to be ready)" (1 text)
DT, WALKJERU
Roud #12109
RECORDINGS:
Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys, "Walking In Jerusalem Just Like John" (Decca 28608, 1953)
Excelsior Quartet, "Walk In Jerusalem Just Like John" (OKeh 4619, 1922)
Homer Rodeheaver, "Walk In Jerusalem Just Like John" (Rainbow 1092, 1923)
Sunset Four Jubilee Quartette, "Walk In Jerusalem Just Like John" (Paramount 12292, 1925)
West Virginia Collegiate Institute Glee Club, "Walk in Jerusalem Just Like John" (Brunswick 3498, 1927; Supertone S-2126 [as Harmony Glee Club], 1930)
NOTES [58 words]: The Biblical references here are a bit confused. The New Jerusalem is said to be descending in Rev. 21:2, and is said to be foursquare in Rev. 21:16 -- but there is no promise to meet John there. The coming of the Spirit at Pentecost is told in Acts 2 -- but the Spirit came FIRST, upon a large group, and only then did Peter preach about it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB356A

Walk in the Parlor

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Walk Jerusalem Jes Like John

See Walk in Jerusalem Just Like John (File: FSWB356A)

Walk Me Along, Johnny

See Carry Him To the Burying Ground (General Taylor, Walk Him Along Johnny) (File: Hugi078)

Walk My Love

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier) (File: R107)

Walk on the Bay

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Walk on the bay Let me see you walk." The response to every verse line is "Let me see you walk." Singer sees his darling downtown and tells her to walk and talk. She asks "Do you want me to be your bride"; he tells her to walk and talk.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (LomaxCD1708)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage questions
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Bahamas)
Roud #17295
RECORDINGS:
Nat Rahmings, Hobart Smith, and Ed Young, "Walk on the Bay" (on LomaxCD1708)
NOTES [17 words]: Matthew Barton, liner notes to LomaxCD1708: "...this rousing song... is traditional in the Bahamas." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcWotBay

Walk Through the Valley

See We Shall Walk Through the Valley (File: FSWB359A)

Walk Through the Valley in Peace

See We Shall Walk Through the Valley (File: FSWB359A)

Walk Through the Valley in the Field

See We Will March Through the Valley (File: AWG073B)

Walk Togedder, Children

See Walk Together Little Children (Great Camp Meeting in the Promised Land) (File: Rose040)

Walk Together Little Children (Great Camp Meeting in the Promised Land)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, little children, let us walk together, Little children, don't get (worried/weary),Walk together, little children." "Comin' up,,, is... a Great camp meeting in the Promised Land." "Let us (sing/shout/pray) together, little children..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 26-27, "Walk Togedder, Children (A Great Camp-meetin' in de Promised Land)" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 222-223 in the 1874 edition)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, pp. 45-46, "Great Camp Meeting" (1 text)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 40-45, "Walk Together, Little Children" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Big Camp Meeting in the Promised Land" (theme, chorus structure)
File: Rose040

Walk Tom Walker

See Walk Tom Wilson (File: BoWo081)

Walk Tom Wilson

DESCRIPTION: "Old Tom WIlson, he had him a horse, His legs so long he couldn't get across." "Walk, Tom Wilson, get out o' the way! Walk, Tom Wilson, don't wait all the day!" The various verses relate Wilson's improbable exploits
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Talley)
KEYWORDS: talltale animal horse
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 81, pp. 130-132, "Walk, Tom Wilson" (1 text, 1 tune, about half "Old Dan Tucker" and half "Walk Tom Wilson," with probably a few other stray elements as well)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 30-31, "Walk Tom Walker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 128, "Tom Wilson" (1 short text)
Roud #11014
NOTES [88 words]: Many of the versions of this seem to mix freely with "Old Dan Tucker" -- hardly surprising, given that the names have the same scansion and both are talltale songs. Plus Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama's informant says it's primarily a banjo song, which means the the lyrics aren't very important anyway.
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric's text is a single verse about Tom Wilson getting hit with a snowball. It could certainly belong to some other piece. But since it uses the "Tom Wilson" name, I have filed it here; Roud does the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: BoWo081

Walk Up In the Parlor

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Walk Wit' Me

See I Want Jesus to Walk With Me (File: WarSp053)

Walk With Me (I)

DESCRIPTION: 'I'm your child, Lord, I'm your child (x2), When I'm on this old tedijous journey, I'm your child...." ""Walk with me, Lord, walk with me (x2), When I'm on this... Walk with me." "Hear my pray, Lord, hear my prayer. "Try to sing, Lord, try to sing."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad travel
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 33, "Walk With Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16263
File: Rose033

Walk With Me (II)

See I Want Jesus to Walk With Me (File: WarSp053)

Walk You in de Light

See Walking In the Light of God (File: Dett024)

Walk, Billy Abbott

DESCRIPTION: The response to each line is "weavin' low." The call lines are "Walk Billy Abbot," "Shout Billy Abbot," "Shout I tell you," "Swing your partner"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (LomaxCD1708)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #13976
RECORDINGS:
Willis Proctor and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Walk, Billy Abbott" (on LomaxCD1708)
NOTES [56 words]: On LomaxCD1708 Lomax is told that this is a "shout" sung at Christmas and New Years. I have no idea what this song is about. The phrases are repeated many times. The cross-rhythmic clapping is typical of Gullah "shout" hymns (William T. Dargan, Lining Out the Word (Chicago: Center for Black Music Research, 2006), pp. 58, 130, 206). - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcWBiAbb

Walk, Johnny Wilson

DESCRIPTION: "Mean Johnny Wilson went to town (x3), He took a barrel of moonshine down." "The hoop did break and the barrel did swell," killing Wilson. Chorus: "Walk, Johnny Wilson, walk, walk." Other verses about hens, guns, and one-horse towns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4)
KEYWORDS: drink death bird
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 45-46, "Walk, Johnny Wilson" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7042
NOTES [29 words]: This feels like it's assembled from floating verses; it's disjointed and has an easy-to-assemble form. But I don't recognize any of the parts as being found in other songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BWV4045

Walk, Shepherdess, Walk

DESCRIPTION: "Walk, Shepherdess, walk, And I'll walk too, To find the ram with the ebony horn An the gold-footed ewe," plus a silver-fleeces lamb and a crystal-belled wether. "And if we never find them, I shan't mind, shall you?"
AUTHOR: Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965) (source: Sanders-SingHighSingLow)
EARLIEST DATE: words 1916, music 1919 ("Nursery Rhymes of London Town, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: sheep shepherd travel campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 342, "Walk, Shepherdess, Walk" (notes only)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, p. 43, "Shepherdess Walk" (1 text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 51, "Walk, Shepherdess, Walk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15819
NOTES [14 words]: For a little background on Eleanor Farjeon, see the notes to "Morning Has Broken." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF342W

Walkalong, Miss Susiana Brown

DESCRIPTION: Halyard shanty. No story line to any of the available verses. The characteristic last chorus line is "Walkalong Miss (Susiana/Juliana) Brown."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 59, "Juley" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 391-392, "Walkalong, Miss Susiana Brown" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 299-300]
DT, JULEY*
Roud #4694
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Miss Juliana Brown
NOTES [36 words]: The swing of the tune would indicate this is of West Indies/Negro origin. It probably began life as a Negro worksong used for stowing cotton, and was picked up by ship's crews to become part of the shanty repertoire. - SL
File: Hugi391

Walkalong, My Rosie

DESCRIPTION: Halyard shanty. "Oh, Rosie, she'm the gal for me. Away you Rosie, Walkalong! She hangs around the big levee. Walkalong my Rosie!" Rhyming verses, no story line.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 363, "Walkalong, My Rosie" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 273-274]
Roud #9130
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Walk Along Rosey
File: Hug363

Walker Hill and Byker Shore

See Byker Hill (File: DTbykerh)

Walker Shore and Byker Hill

See Byker Hill (File: DTbykerh)

Walkie in the Parlor

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Walkin' in the Parlor

DESCRIPTION: "I never went to free school nor any other college, But... I will tell you how the world was made in the twinkling of a crack. Walk in, walk in, walk in I say, go in the parlor and hear the banjo ring." Sundry observations about the creation and the Bible
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (26 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 177, "Walking in the Parlor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 288, "History of the World" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 246-248, "History of the World" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 288)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 104-105, "Bible Tales" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 341, "Walk in the Parlor" (4 texts plus 1 excerpt and 1 fragment; the "E" text seems more a floating verse collection with this chorus, and "C" lacks the chorus and is at best marginally related)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 341, "Walk in the Parlor" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 181-182, "Story of Creation" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #178, "The World Was Made in Six Days" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 166-169, "Mogos, Nogos, Everybody Come"; "The Mormon Sunday School Song" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 203-205, "The Darky Sunday School" (1 text, t tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 344, "De History ob de World" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 351-354, "Darky Sunday School" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 178, "Creation Song" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 30-31, "Walk Up In the Parlor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 3-4, "The History of the World" (1 text, 1 tune, without a chorus, so it might be a separate song)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 90+92-94 (book is mis-paginated), "Live a-Humble" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, p. 246, "Walking in th Parlor" (1 tune, perhaps this)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 184-187, "Bible Stories" (1 text, 1 tune, almost certainly composite)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 186-189, "Young Folks, Old Folks (or The Silly Sunday School)" (1 text, tune referenced)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 146-147, "Darkie Sunday School" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #100, p 29, "Adam Was a Gardener" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 108, 232, 397, "Darkey Sunday School"/Sunday School" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 45, "The Darky Sunday School" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SUNSCHOL
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 59, "The History of the World" (1 text, clearly remade for Newfoundland conditions but close enough to the original that it can still be filed here)
Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #89, pp. 130-131, "The History of the World" (1 text, clearly remade for Newfoundland conditions but close enough to the original that it can still be filed here)
Roud #766 and 4614
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Oaks, "Adam and Eve or 'Darkie's Sunday School'" (Vocalion 5113, c. 1927; rec. 1925)
Obed Pickard, "Walking in the Parlor" (Columbia 15246-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
Kilby Reeves, "Walkin in the Parlor" (on Persis1)
Art Thieme, "Walkie in the Parlor" (on Thieme02) (on Thieme06)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bible Story"
cf. "Windy Bill (I)" (theme)
cf. "Old Jesse" (lyrics)
cf. "Root, Hog, or Die (V)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sunday School Song
Walkie in the Parlor
NOTES [949 words]: Not to be confused with a fiddle tune of the same name. - PJS
The chorus of this song varies quite a bit; the Lomax version is "Young folks, old folks, everybody come, Join our darky Sunday School, and make yourself to hum. There's a place to check your chewing gum and razors at the door, And hear such bible stories as you never heard before." The Pankakes have something similar, but less racist. (Their version is also incredibly full -- 21 verses! If they didn't conflate it, someone else did.) The version in Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3 has a "Walkin'" chorus, but that in Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5 has none.
It is quite likely that these versions originated as separate songs, and I thought about splitting them. But the only distinguishing feature is the choruses. Under the circumstances, it seemed better to place all listings in the same place. Roud splits the song into (at least) two numbers, but I can't really see the principle of the split
I initially excluded Randolph's "History of the World," partly by accident, as just too distinct from the versions I had seen. It's now clear that it's the same song.
Those who wish to know more are referred to Cox's extensive notes on songs of this type.
Among the sundry references in this song:
"Jonah... took a steerage passage in a transatlantic whale": The Bible says "fish" (for more about this, see the notes to "God's Radiophone"), and the fish never left the Mediterranean, and Jonah wasn't planning on entering the Atlantic either. (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5 has a curious slip here; Shem falls into the water, and a whale comes along and picks up Jonah, not Shem; one suspects some words have been lost.)
"Esau... sold [his farm] to his brother for a sandwich and a beer": In Gen. 25:29-34, Esau came back hungry from hunting, and sold his birthright (probably pasturage, not a farm) to his younger fraternal twin Jacob for "bread and lentil stew."
"Noah was a mariner... with half a dozen wives and a big menagerie": Although many of the patriarchs had multiple wives, Noah himself seems to have had only one (cf. Gen. 7:7).
"Elijah was a prophet who attended county fairs, He advertised his business with a pair of dancing bears": hardly worth refuting, but it is worth noting that Elijah was a solitary prophet at a time when most prophets came in groups ("the sons of the prophets"). He spent much of his time trying to be left alone, not advertising his services (cf., e.g., 1 Kings 19:3-4, 2 Kings 1:9fff.)
"Ahab had a wife, and her name was Jezebel... She's gone to the dogs... Ahab said he'd never heard of such an awful thing": Jezebel was indeed Ahab's wife, and was eaten by dogs (2 Kings 9:30-37) -- but Ahab had been dead for a dozen years by the time she was killed.
"Salome was a chorus girl who had a winning way": This is textually complicated. All accounts say that a girl captivated Herod Antipas by dancing for him, and that he executed John the Baptist as a result. Matt. 14:6 says that the girl was "the daughter of Herodias"; the best manuscripts of Mark 6:22 call her his [Herod's] daughter Herodias. But nowhere is she called "Salome"; we learn this name from Josephus.
"Now Joey was unhappy in the bowels of the soil": Refers to the selling of Joseph into Egypt (Genesis 37). Joseph, however, was not a farmer but a herdsman, and there is no evidence he was unhappy; he spent his time dreaming about ruling over his brothers.
"Samson was a husky guy from the P.T. Barnum show": While Samson probably belonged in a circus (it's hard to imagine someone so thoroughly inept; had he not been a strong man, he would have been a joke), the Bible tells his story "straight" (Judges 13-16).
"Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego": The Hebrews in the Fiery Furnace (Daniel 3).
"Methuselah was crabby 'cause he couldn't save a joke": Methuselah lived longer than any other figure in the Bible (the Hebrew of Gen. 5:25-27 lists him as living to the age of 969), but gives no indication of his character or the length of his whiskers.
"Pharaoh kept the Israelites to make his cigarettes": This is almost accurate, in that the Israelites did, in effect, go on strike in Exodus. However, tobacco was not known in Egypt at the time (it grows only in the New World); the Israelites "struck" for the right to worship in their own way, plus better living conditions.
"David was a fighter, a plucky little cuss": 1 Samuel 17.
"Daniel was a naughty man, he wouldn't mind the King" -- Formally, Daniel defied the king, but it was actually the King's counselors who came up with the law Daniel defied (Daniel 6)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3's version is non-biblical (perhaps cleaned up by some too-religious type?) but equally scandalous, as it accuses George Washington of "courtin'... A darky girl with a wooden leg." That he would court a girl with a wooden leg is most unlikely, but that he would have relations with a Black woman is not; he was, after all, a slaveholder.
This raises the possibility that the Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5 version is a conflation of the old religious song and the secular song of Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3. It reaches Jonah in the Bible -- then shifts to a half-verse about Columbus, a half-verse about the Spanish-American War, a half verse of about the Kaiser taking over France, and two half-verses about Henry Ford making a Tin Lizzy. The Dewey lines run:
'Long come Dewey with the battleship Maine, United States licked the devil out of Spain." The sinking of the Maine of course resulted in the Spanish-American War, but Commodore Dewey had nothing to do with her; for background, see the notes to "My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Wa177

Walkin' John

See Walking John (File: Ohr024)

Walking at Night (Stodola Pumpa)

DESCRIPTION: "Walking at night along the meadow way, Home from the dance beside my maiden gay.... Stodola, stodola, stodola pumpa," " Nearing the woods, we heard a nightingale," "Many the stars that brightly shown above, But none so sweet as her one word of love,"
AUTHOR: Independent English translation by A. D. Zanzig (source: mudcat.org thread "Origins/ADD: Stodola Pumpa / Stodole Pumpa (Czech)") and Frank Kubina/"R. H." (source: "The New Blue Book of Favorite Songs")
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Carl E. Zander and Wes H. Klusman, Camp Songs)
KEYWORDS: love courting bird campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 328, "Walking at Night" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 146, 149, 234, 239, "Walking at Night" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 23, "Walking at Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 46, "Walking at Night" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 88-89, "Walking at Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Walking at Night" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 26) (12th edition, p. 39)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 15, "Walking at Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [90 words]: Listed as a Czech folk song, but I have not found the original, unless it is just "Stodola Pumpa." Which means "barn pump," so I'd guess the translation isn't much like the original. The two translations appear to be rather free renderings of the same original, but both use the words "Stodola Pumpa."
Tobitt's and Zander's versions clearly derive from the same translation, but Tobitt spells the key word "stodole," not "stodola," and she has a verse not in Zander. So there may be some complex history behind the English translations. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF146N

Walking Boss

DESCRIPTION: "Walking boss (x2), I don't belong to you. I belong (x2) to that steel driving crew." "Work one day, just one day, just one day, Then go lay in the shanty two." Etc. Verses loosely descriptive of life on a railroad crew.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (collected by Newman Ivey White)
KEYWORDS: railroading work nonballad worksong boss
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 96, "Walking Boss" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7693
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley, "Walking Boss" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01)
Guy Wolff, "Walking Boss" (Piotr-Archive #423, recorded 01/08/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Take This Hammer" (lyrics)
NOTES [38 words]: A "walking boss" was a foreman who gave orders to workers' immediate supervisors, rather than to the workers themselves.
Source: Clarence "Tom" Ashley recalled this song being sung by railroad workers, probably in the 1920s. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CSW096

Walking Down "Memory Lane"

DESCRIPTION: "Silently down 'Mem'ry Lane' I slowly walk tonight, Faces of the long ago I view with great delight." While wlking, the singer "spied a place so dear," the old church. It brings back memories of the happy old times and brings thoughts of "the other shore"
AUTHOR: Words: M. Linwood Smith / Music: Albert E. Brumley (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 055, "Walking Down 'Memory Lane'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V13451
NOTES [17 words]: I perhaps should tag this as "religious," but it isn't really a religious song; it's just sappy. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ABLT055

Walking Down Canal Street

DESCRIPTION: This formula song chronicles the difficulties the narrator encounters in attempting to (find and) have sex with a whore.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2)
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex whore
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro,So,SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 213-214, "Walking Down Canal Street" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 560-563, "Walking Down Canal Street" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 61, "Canal Street" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 104, "Walking down Canal Street" (notes only)
Roud #17938
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosemary Lane" ("Bell-bottomed Trousers" tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
This Mornin'
File: EM214

Walking in the Green Grass

DESCRIPTION: "Walking in the green grass, green grass, green grass, Walking in... grass, so early in the morning." One party has come to get married, and chooses (Susie). Two groups discuss how they will overcome obstacles. At last both agree to the wedding
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting marriage travel food
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 123-125, "Walking in the Green Grass" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Walking on the Green Grass" (lyrics)
NOTES [29 words]: Roger Abrahams suggests that this is a repurposed version of "Walking on the Green Grass," which is certainly possible, but it's so different that I decided to split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: ByGo123

Walking in the Light

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "We are walking in the light (x3), "We are walking in the light of God (x2)." Verses: "Hallelujah to the Lamb, Jesus died for every man"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute); 1893 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious floatingverses Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 116-117, "We Are Walking in de Light (Walking in de Light)" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 102-103 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
Roud #15255
NOTES [228 words]: Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses include the floaters, "If religion was a thing that money could buy, The rich would live and the poor would die" and "I thank God it is not so, The rich and poor together must go." The second and fourth line of each verse is "We are walking in the light."
The Biblical reference is John 1:29: John the Baptist sees Jesus coming and says, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (King James). - BS
And there are many Biblical references to the light and walking in it, especially in John, e.g. John 1:7, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin"; John 1:9, "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world"; 1 John 1:5, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all"; also, John 8:12 has Jesus declare, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." - RBW
The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "Walking in the Light" on page 102 (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 102. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Dett116

Walking In the Light of God

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Walk you in the light (3x), Walking in the light of God." Verse: Singer says parents should teach their children to pray. He asks his sisters to help him sing as Moses's sister helped him. Elijah declared: only the righteous shall go to heaven.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 24-25, "Walk You in de Light" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 238-239 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #15266
NOTES [366 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "Walkin' in de light o' God."
The reference to Moses's sister helping him to sing is from Exodus 15:1-21: "Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord .... the horse of Pharoah went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea. And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron (and Moses), took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and rider hath he thrown into the sea" (King James). It seems likely that the subject of Miriam's song was not lost on Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's singers.
[Miriam helped Moses in another, even more important way: When Moses was set afloat on the Nile because Pharaoh was killing the Hebrew boys, Miriam watched him and arranged with the daughter of Pharaoh to have Moses's own mother nurse him; Exodus 2:4-8. - RBW]
The Elijah reference is not clear to me. Is this from the very end of the King James Old Testament, Malachi 4? "For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up... But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise .... Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." - BS
Alternately, perhaps, it is a reference to Elijah's own ascent, in 2 Kings 2:1-12. Elisha, his successor, did not ascend to heaven, but he asked Elijah to inherit his spirit, and Elijah said that if Elisha saw Elijah's ascension, then Elisha would inherit his power. Elisha did see it. Elisha, although he did not ascend, was involved in Elijah's ascension. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett024

Walking John

DESCRIPTION: "Walking John was a big rope horse" who "was willing and stout and strong," but "he sure enjoyed his joke." Every morning he tried to throw his first rider -- but then settled down to be a hard worker
AUTHOR: Henry Herbert Knibbs
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Knibbs, Songs of the Last Frontier)
KEYWORDS: animal cowboy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 79-82, "Walking John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 24, "Walking John" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, p. 9, "Walkin' John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5766
NOTES [96 words]: Larkin-SingingCowboy notes, "The poems of Henry Herbert Knibbs have been plagiarized and adapted so often that he is entitled to be named the poet laureate of hte cowboys." She adds that this song is "the biography of a real horse."
It would appear that the song was in oral tradition before Knibbs published it; since Larkin published her book in 1931 and it had passed through at least two stages of tradition by the time she collected it. On the other hand, Powder River Jack Lee, who claimed everything that wasn't nailed down, in his 1937 songbook credited it to Knibbs. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Ohr024

Walking on the Green Grass

DESCRIPTION: "Walking on the green grass, Walking side by side, Walking with a pretty girl, She shall be my bride." Boys and girls pair off and dance; the "king" chooses a "queen"; they go around the ring
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903
KEYWORDS: playparty courting dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame pp. 118-119, "(Here we come upon the green grass)" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 807-809, "Walking on the Green Grass" (1 text plus a possibly related fragment, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #162, "Walking on the Green Grass" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST BAF807 (Full)
Roud #1381
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Green Grass (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "Walking in the Green Grass" (lyrics)
NOTES [24 words]: Roud lumps this with "Green Grass (I)," apparently on the basis that they're both playparties about green grass. They look distinct to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: BAF807

Walking on the Levy

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

Walking on the Levy (II)

See Turn that Cinnamon (File: R583)

Walking Round the Village

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

Walking Song (The Lure of the Road)

DESCRIPTION: "Along the road that leads the way, We travel as it will, Itself a guidepost good enough To find both dale and hill; Our hearts are light, our courage high, The way is good and broad... Hurrah for the Open Road."
AUTHOR: W. H. Neidlinger (1863-1924) (source: Niedlinger, Songs of the Camp Fire Girls of America)
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Niedlinger, Songs of the Camp Fire Girls of America)
KEYWORDS: travel friend nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 333, "Walking Song" (notes only)
NOTES [81 words]: W. H. Niedlinger's 1915 booklet was one of the first, if not the first, attempts to create song for a scouting group (the Camp Fire Girls). More than half of the songs Niedlinger published are cited by Averill -- but they consistently just *barely* met my threshold for inclusion. Which should not surprise anyone, because they are stilted, insipid, and -- in one case -- written in fake-minstrel dialect. I strongly doubt any of them went into actual tradition; they are too lousy. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF333W

Walking the Floor Over You

DESCRIPTION: The singer "walks the floor" because "darling, I know your love ain't true."
AUTHOR: see notes
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Tubb recording; see notes)
KEYWORDS: courting love nonballad infidelity derivative
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Walking the Floor Over You" (on MJHurt05)
NOTES [55 words]: Ernest Tubb wrote and first recorded his song in 1941 on Decca 5958 (Tony Russell, Country Music Records, 1921-1942 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008),p. 914).
The description is based on the Hurt version. The tune is close to Tubb's but Hurt reworks the Tubb title line and drops all else of the Tubb chorus and verses. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: RcWTF)Y

Walky-Talky Jenny

DESCRIPTION: Minstrel recitation with chorus: "O, walky-talky Jenny an' a hubble for your trouble...." Incidents include a fight with a racist, an argument with a woman he has rescued from a fire, and an incident with his baby and a dog
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: recitation nonballad Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 48-49, "Walky-Talky Jenny" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: San048

Wallabug

DESCRIPTION: Sundry silliness: "Bought an old cow from Farmer Jones, She weren't nothing but skin and bones. Fattened her up as fine as silk; She jumped the fence and skimmed her milk. Wallabug, wallabug, you can't fool me...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: nonsense animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 164, "Wallabug" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WALLABUG*
ST Wa164 (Full)
Roud #7483
File: Wa164

Wallaby Brigade, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer boasts of the life of the swagman. He gives advice for finding (or not finding) work, and surviving the travelling life. "When the shearing's at an end we'll go fishing in the bend, Then hurrah for the Wallaby Brigade."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson, _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: work sheep Australia rambling
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 186-187, "The Wallaby Brigade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 288-290, "The Wallaby Brigade" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 37-38, "The Wallaby Brigade" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Matthew Richardson, _Once a Jolly Swagman: The Ballad of Waltzing Matilda_, Melbourne University Press, 2006, pp. 47-48, "The Wallaby Brigade" (1 text)
Roud #27797
ALTERNATE TITLES:
cf. "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!" (tune)
NOTES [46 words]: According to Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 264, "The Wallaby Brigade" is a "Term for itinerant bush workers carrying their swags in search of work." They believe this song dates from the nineteenth century. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: FaE186

Wallaby Joe

DESCRIPTION: "The saddle is hung on the stockyard rail... And never was seen such a regular screw As old Wallaby Joe of Bellegarew." Joe, a horse, wanders off one day. Stockman Bill, his owner, decides to hunt gold; he finds the horse's corpse in his digging
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: horse death burial mining gold
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 213-215, "Wallaby Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 33-34, "Wallaby Joe" (1 text)
Roud #9112
File: AnSt213

Wallaby Track, The

DESCRIPTION: "Roll up your bundle and make a neat swag, Collar onto your billycan and the old tuckerbag. It's no disgrace to be seen with your swag on your back, While searching for work on the wallaby track."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: Australia work rambling
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 186, "The Wallaby Track" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [150 words]: Not to be confused with "The Springtime It Brings on the Shearing (On the Wallaby Track)."
According to Davey/Seal, p. 264, "To 'go on the wallaby' or 'on the wallaby track' was a colonial phrase for taking to the road in the manner of a swagman, usually in search of work."
Morris, p. 496, says, "Wallaby track, On the, or On the Wallaby, or Out on the Wallaby, or simply Wallaby, as adj. [slang]. Tramping the country on foot, looking for work. Often in the bush the only perceptible tracks, and sometimes the only tracks by which the scrub can be penetrated, are the tracks worn down by the Wallaby, as a hare tramples its 'form.' These tracks may lead to water or they may be aimless and rambling. Thus the man 'on the wallaby' may be looking for food or for work, or aimlessly wandering by day and getting food and shelter as a Sundowner... at night." Morris's earliest citation is from 1869. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: MA186A

Wallflowers

DESCRIPTION: Playparty. "Wallflowers, wallflowers, growing up so high, All of you young ladies Are meant to die." One girl is excepted, because of her great skill at (something).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty death nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(All),Scotland(All)) US(Ap,MA,NE) New Zealand
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1595, "Water Water Wallflower" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #152, p. 1, "Water, Water, Wall-Flowers" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H48d, p. 11, "Water, Water, Wallflowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 117-118, "Wallflowers, Wallflowers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 54-56, "Water, Water, Wild Flower" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 174, "Lily-White Flower" (1 text)
Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth, pp. 12-13, "Water-Flower" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 25, "Wallflowers (II)" (4 texts); 56, "Wallflowers (I)" (6 texts, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #12, "Down She Comes as White as Milk" (2 texts, 1 tune plus excerpts; the text with tune is "Wallflowers"; the other text might be "The Wind (Rain, Rain, the Wind Does Blow)")
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 72, "(Water, water, wall-flower, growing up so high)" (1 short text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 28, "(Wallflowers, wallflowers)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #587, "Water, water, wallflower" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Gerald Porter, "'Work the Old Lady out of the Ditch: Singing at Work by English Lacemakers," Vol. XXXI, No. 1/3 (Jan 1944), pp. 46-47 "Wallflowers" (2 texts, including a verse quoted from Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
ADDITIONAL: J. C. Reid, _A Book of New Zealand_ (Collins National Anthologies), Collins, 1964, p. 332, "Children's Games" ("Wallflowers, wallflowers") (1 text)
ST HHH048d (Full)
Roud #6307
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Row Boat (Ride About)" (form, floating lyrics)
cf. "Green Grass (II)" (lyrics)
NOTES [69 words]: Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame includes this in the chapter "Witch Dances." Porter writes that his text is more gory than any of the Opie versions. It adds "a sinister or Gothic element to emphasize the grave consequences of breaking rhythm or looking up before the count was completed." It ends, "turn your back, you saucy cat, And say no more to me, For if you do, I'll chop you in two, And hang you on the tree." - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: HHH048d

Wallflowers, Wallflowers

See Wallflowers (File: HHH048d)

Walling of New Ross, The

See The Entrenchment of Ross (File: CrPS262)

Wallins Creek Girls

DESCRIPTION: Singer and a friend come to Wallins Creek and pick up girls. "The only thing they want to do, smoke cigarettes and car-ride." Men offer boys loose tobacco but the prefer cigarettes. "If [girls] could get them one cigarette, they'd car-ride every day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (field recording, Daw Hudson)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer and a friend, rounders, come to Wallins Creek and pick up two girls in their car. "The only thing they want to do, smoke cigarettes and car-ride." He says the girls regularly flag drivers down and go from town to town. The men offer the boys Prince Albert (loose tobacco) but they'd rather have Old Gold (rolled cigarettes). Singers says the girls are pretty, but "if they could get them one cigarette, they'd car-ride every day"
KEYWORDS: drugs courting travel technology
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Daw Henson, "Wallins Creek Girls" (AFS, 1937; on KMM)
File: RcWaCrGi

Walnut Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a pretty walnut vendor. He tells her he's sick of single life, and "O won't we be happy until wedlock breaks us here?" Chorus: "Ten-a-penny walnuts, my Nellie she were by/Fresh from Common Garden, please to come and try...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (collected from Nelson Ridley)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage beauty commerce work food worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 35, "The Walnut Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2520
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Molly Malone" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Little Walnut Gel
NOTES [136 words]: According to MacColl & Seeger, "When John Lydgate (1370?-1450?) wrote 'The London Lykpeny,' he started a fashion for poems and songs about London's street-vendors and their cries which was to last for more than four hundred years...lavender, oysters, water-cresses, pretty flowers, codlings, cockles and mussels, and even cat-meat." Haven't heard that last one.- PJS
Of course, many of these songs are on rather less pleasant topics. Consider "The Oyster Girl" or "Queer Bungo Rye."
I think the claim a little strong anyway; while Lydgate was a prolific author, just try to find anything he wrote! He's usually lumped with the "other poets" of the Chaucerian era. His may well be just another example of an author taking advantage of a popular street form. For more details, see the notes on "The London Lackpenny." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: McCST035

Walrus and the Carpenter, The

DESCRIPTION: "If all the whores with dirty drawers Were lying in the Strand, Do you suppose, the Walrus said, That we could raise a stand?" The Carpenter is doubtful. The second verse seems to be about an old woman and my be unrelated
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: derivative animal sex age
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 182, "The Walrus and the Carpenter" (1 text)
Roud #10251
NOTES [108 words]: An obvious parody of Lewis Carroll's "The Walrus and the Carpenter," from Through the Looking Glass, Chapter IV, "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" (recited by Tweedledee). The meter matches, and the text of the first stanza is reminiscent of Carroll's verse
'If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose,' the Walrus said,
'That they could get it clear?'
'I doubt it," said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.
Note however that the verse in the parody has eight lines; Carroll's poem is entirely in six line stanzas.
I wonder if the second stanza of the Morgan/Green-RugbySongs text is an addition; it seems unrelated. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RuSoWalC

Walsingham

DESCRIPTION: Coming from "the holy land Of Blessed Walsingham," the singer asks (a jolly palmer) about the singer's love. The (palmer) asks questions and is told that she has left him, but his love endures
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy folio; tune dates at least to 1596)
KEYWORDS: love separation travel
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume III, pp. 465-472, "As yee came from the Holye" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 101-105, "As Ye Came From the Holy Land" (2 text, one from the Percy folio and the other the touched-up version in the _Reliques_)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 121-123, "Walsingham" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 69-71, "Walsingham" (1 tune, partial text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN284, "As I went to Walsingham"
ADDITIONAL: Norman Ault, _Elizabethan Lyrics From the Original Texts_, pp. 282-284, "As You Came From the Holy Land" (1 text)
E. K. Chambers, editor, _The Oxford Book of Sixteenth Century Verse_, Oxford, 1932 (corrected edition, 1966), pp. 468-469, "Walsinghame" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 506
ST Perc2101 (Partial)
NOTES [985 words]: This piece has been very popular in poetry anthologies; Granger's Index to Poetry lists some two dozen printings, it mentions the attribution to Sir Walter Raleigh, without accepting the attribution.
One of those who tentatively accepts the attribution to Raleigh is Ault, who dates a manuscript containing it (Bodley MS. Rawl. Poet. 85) "before 1600." This dating is also accepted, at least by implication, by Chambers, who also prints the Bodleian text (with no indication of doubt about whether this is by Raleigh.) Of course, Ault also claims that this is "How Should I Your True Love Know." Which it isn't, though it has similar lines; I wouldn't be surprised if this inspired that.
The tune too is different (at least from the version of "How Should I" that I've heard), though again there are some similarities, probably caused more by the metrical form than anything else.
Several references mention the great popularity of this song, and it is quoted in Francis Beaumont's (and John Fletcher's?) 1611 play "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," Act II:
As you came from Walsingham,
From that holy land,
There met you not with my true love
By the way as you came?
This is sung by Old Merrythought, who sings most of the traditional lyrics. In Wine, it is Act II, scene vii, lines 46-49 (p. 334); in KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner, which does not number scenes, it is Act II, lines 481-484 (p. 101, with Chappell's tune on p.178); in KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, it's Act II, lines 473-476; p. 55. For more on "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," see the notes to "Three Merry Men."
There seem to be two openings to the piece, the one above (found also in the Percy folio) and that quoted by Chappell:
As I went to Walsingham,
To the shrine with speed,
Met I with a jolly palmer,
In a pilgrim's weed.
Something similar is quoted in the Pepys collection. I have not seen a full text of the latter, and it is possible that they are distinct, but I cannot prove it. The piece does not seem to survive in oral tradition, but there are enough references to it that I thought it proper to include it here. It also seems to have given rise to yet another song,
King Richard's gone to Walsingham,
To the Holy Land,
To kill the Turk and Saracen, that the truth do withstand....
According to Nettel, p. 89, this song is "traditionally associated with Ophelia," but gives no details. This would argue that the tune predates Raleigh, however. Another popular tune, "The Merrry Milkmaids," is supposedly a version of this converted to the major mode. (The version in Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic is in natural minor with some sharpened thirds.)
The notes to Chappell and Percy (on "Gentle Herdman, Tell to Me") note that Walsingham was a pilgrimage site at least from the time of Henry III. It seemingly acquired its reputation around the Norman Conquest.
The shrine was the result of a vision by one Richelde de Faverches, who had a vision of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary (for which see Luke 1:26-38) at Walsingham. Mary told her to make a model of the "Holy House" there (Porter, pp. 117-118). She managed to get the thing built (Kerr, p. 164), and somehow people came to believe that the vision was real and the model was holy. Alexander, p. 308, says that Whit Monday was a particularly popular day for pilgrimages to Walsingham.
Walsingham seems to have been well-patronized -- e.g. Cunningham, p. 12, tells of a pilgrimage to Walsingham by Edward IV and his brother Richard of Gloucester when Edward's throne was under threat by the Earl of Warwick. Allmand, p. 158, mentions that Henry V went there after the Treaty of Troyes made him the heir to the French throne. Edward I visited the site while working on his great alliance in France during the 1290s (Powicke, pp. 665-666). Queen Margaret of Anjou went there in thanks once she finally became pregnant after years of steriiity (Laynesmith, p. 111). No doubt other kings went there at less memorable times -- e.g. Henry III, who loved to go on pilgrimage, made one of his journeys there (Tyerman, pp. 339-340).
Ironically, Elizabeth of York, the mother of Henry VIII, went there in 1495.
Nor was the patronage confined to royalty. The Pastons of Norfolk, in the 1400s, were only of the gentry (and relatively new even to that status), but they at least contemplated pilgrimages there and at least once offered a wax statue (Castor, p. 30).
Walsingham figures in other poems as well, also seemingly as a pilgrimage destination. Walter de la Mare, Come Hither, revised edition, 1928, in the notes to #473 prints a fragment beginning, "Gentle herdsman, tell to me, Of courtesy I thee pray, Unto the town of Walsingham Which is the right and ready way" (compare the item in Percy).
The supreme irony came in 1511, when Katherine of Aragon bore a son, Henry, to Henry VIII. The king went on a pilgrimage to Walsingham -- and the baby died after seven weeks (Skidmore, p. 11). One cannot help but wonder if that influenced Henry's later actions. To add to the irony, Henry VIII's chief councilor Cardinal Wolsey once went there to give thanks for recovering from the Sweating Sickness (Scarisbrick, p. 68).
Walsingham was closed down in 1538 when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. Supposedly people still go on pilgrimage to Walsingham (Kerr, p. 165), but not to the original site; all that still stands of the church at Walsingham is the east wall -- really, not much more than a gateway arch. (The original site was excavated in 1961, according to Porter, p. 118, locating parts of the original construction and one of the original wells by which it was located.) Despite the destruction of the original, the site was re-opened for pilgrimages in 1931 (Alexander, p. 309), although the restored image doesn't look much like we would expect of a Palestinian setting in Roman times (there is a photo following p. 260 of Alexander). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.2
File: Perc2101

Walter Lesly [Child 296]

DESCRIPTION: Walter Lesly invites the girl to drink. He then makes off with her; he intends to marry her (for her money). But he falls asleep before she does, and she escapes. She outruns his men and makes her way home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: courting abduction escape money
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 296, "Walter Lesly" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 680-682, "Walter Lesly" (1 text)
Roud #3925
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Eppie Morrie" [Child 223] (plot)
NOTES [149 words]: There was a Walter Leslie who married the heiress of the Earldom of Ross in the reign of David II of Scotland; he was involved in many political quarrels in the reign of the next king, Robert II, and died in 1382. Another Walter Lesley was a crusader in this period. There is no reason to connect either with the villain of this piece except similarity of names (and, of course, the fact that there was a lot of this sort of thing in the anarchic Scotland of Robert II)
For a song with similar plot, and notes on actual historical instances of this sort of abduction-for-money, see the notes to "Eppie Morrie" [Child 223].
R. M. Wilson: The Lost Literature of Medieval England, Philosophical Library, 1952, p. 131, notes that the Complaynt of Scotlande mentions what sounds like a ballad or romance, "the tail of Syr valtir, the bald Leslye," but we know nothing of this except the name. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: C296

Walter Mullin

DESCRIPTION: Walter Mullin "changed his home in Whitneyville For a Canadian soldier's grave ... in the European War" The singer recalls the youth they shared. "Now you are wanted at the Front, But you will not take your stand. O why can't you be like my comrade"
AUTHOR: Wallace Travis (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: request army war death memorial patriotic
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 44, "Walter Mullin" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi044 (Partial)
Roud #9184
NOTES [148 words]: Whitneyville, now Whitney, is near the junction of the Little Southwest and Northwest Miramichi Rivers, about 10 miles west of Newcastle, New Brunswick.
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "The song was made up by Wallace Travis of the Nor'West Miramichi, in memory of a friend killed in the First World War."
Since the song is a plea for others to enlist to fight in a war my guess is that this was written during the second World War. - BS
On the other hand, there is no hint of a second War -- or even of the end of the first. I incline to think it comes from the early part of the first War.
This is apparently based on "The Graves of a Household" by one Mrs. Henmans, found in the "Royal Readers" used in the nineteenth century in New Brunswick schools. More evidence for an early date, I'd say; I don't know about you, but I can't remember *anything* from my grade school readers.... - RBW
File: MaWi044

Waltz the Hall

DESCRIPTION: "First couple out, couple on the right, Charge them pards an' waltz 'em out of sight." "When you're through remember my call, Charge 'em again an' waltz the hall." "Skip to my Lou, boys, skip to my Lou... When you're through remember my call...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 517, "Waltz the Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 198-199, "Waltz the Hal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7649 and 7927
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Skip to My Lou" (lyrics)
NOTES [25 words]: Randolph notes that this is derived from "Skip to my Lou," but since it has new lyrics and its own dance elements, it deserves separate listing. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: R517

Waltzing Matilda

DESCRIPTION: A swagman (hobo) camps by a pool. He sees a sheep come down to drink, and grabs it. He is spotted by (three troopers/the landowner), who call on him to justify his actions. Rather than face up to his crime, the swagman drowns himself in the pool
AUTHOR: words almost certainly by A. B. "Banjo" Paterson (1864-1941) / original tune fitted (and possibly adapted) by Christina MacPherson; common tune further adapted by Marie Cowan
EARLIEST DATE: probably 1895 (reported date Paterson and Christina Macpherson combined text and tune, although the manuscript is not dated); certainly by 1903 (sheet music by Marie Cowan published)
KEYWORDS: sheep suicide robbery ghost rambling
FOUND IN: Australia US
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 73-74, 95, "Waltzing Matilda" (2 texts, 1 tune, the latter being a fragment of a bawdy version)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 234-235, "The Blackboy's Waltzing Matilda" (1 text, 1 tune -- a pidgin English semi-parody)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 308-310, "Black Boy's Waltzing Matlida" (1 text -- the same adaption as the preceding)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 119, "Waltzing Matilda' (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H566, pp. 122-123, "Waltzing Matilda" (1 text, 1 tune -- but collected from Australian children rather than Ulster natives)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 160-163, "Waltzing Matilda" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 180-181, "Waltzing Matilda" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, p. 195, "Waltzing Matilda" (1 text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 122-124, "Australian Highwayman's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 216, "Waltzing Matilda" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 339, "Waltzing Matilda" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 619-620, "Waltzing Matilda"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 111, 233, "Waltzing Matilda" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 86-87, "Waltzing Matilda" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WALTZMAT*
ADDITIONAL: A. B. "Banjo" Paterson, "The Works of 'Banjo' Paterson" [with an anonymous introduction], Wordsworth Poetry Library, 1995, p. 207, "Waltzing Matildal" (1 text)
Richard Magoffin, _Waltzing Matilda: The Story Behind the Legend_, 1983; revised and illustrated edition, ABC Enterprises, 1987, p. 5 (epigraph page), "Waltzing Matilda" (1 text, from Pateron's "Saltbush Bill J. P. and Other Verses"); in photo insert following p. 74 is an image of Christina MacPherson's original MS.; p. 116 has a different MacPherson manuscript; p. 83 has a cover of the 1903 sheet music with arrangement by Marie Cowan, with p. 105 showing the sheet music itself
Matthew Richardson, _Once a Jolly Swagman: The Ballad of Waltzing Matilda_, Melbourne University Press, 2006, pp. 1-2, "Waltzing Matilda Carrying a Swag" (1 text); pp. 210-211, "Waltzing Matilda/'A Modern Version'" (1 text); pp. 68-69 give a low-quality version of the MacPherson MS.; pp. 115-116 give a short text and partial tune of "The Bold Fusilier"; p. 124 has the "Buderim/Queensland" tune; pp. 126-127 reprints the Cowan sheet music
W. Benjamin Lindner, _Waltzing Matilda: Australia's Accidental Anthem: A Forensic History_, Boolarong Press, 2019, on p. 43 has a photo of the manuscript of Paterson's first draft; p. 54 has MacPherson's draft of the tune, p. 55 her full transcription with Paterson's text, p. 56 another MacPherson manuscript
Dennis O'Keeffe, _Waltzing Matilda: The Secret History of Australia's Favourite Song_, Allen & Unwin, 2012, pp. 250-251, gives Marie Cowan's text
A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 301, "Waltzing Matilda" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), p. 10, "Waltzing Matilda" (1 text)
Roud #9536
RECORDINGS:
Patricia Campbell, "Waltzing Matilda" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #250, recorded 09/11/2022)
Judy Cook, "Waltzing Matilda" (Piotr-Archive #277, recorded 10/03/2022)
John Greenway, "Waltzing Matilda" (on JGreenway01)
A. L. Lloyd, "Waltzing Matilda" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd10)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bold Fusilier" (form)
SAME TUNE:
O'er the Hills of Sicily (File: Hopk036)
Ops in a Wimpey (File: Hopk126)
Walking the Bulldog ("Walking the bulldog, walking the bulldog, you'll come a walking the bulldog with me, and he sang as he watched and waited till his kettle boiled, you'll come a walking the bulldog with me.") (LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 41, "(Walking the bulldog)") (1 fragment, from user bilblio, posted August 29, 2021)
NOTES [7906 words]: For some reason, I've had more mail about this song than any other in the Index. (And it can't be just an Australian thing, because no one has written to me about Ned Kelly.) I'll start with what Keith McKenry wrote:
Virtually every aspect of this song -- its historical basis, its words, its tune(s) - has been the subject of disputation, although there is now consensus among scholars on the following basic facts:
1. While visiting Dagworth station (a pastoral holding in outback Queensland) in 1895, the poet A.B. (Banjo) Paterson heard a tune hummed and played on the autoharp by Miss Christina McPherson, sister of station manager Robert McPherson. [Dagworth is on the Diamantina River, a wide, marshy stream that had many water holes. The nearest important town seems to have been Winton, but it was a long way away. Robert MacPherson managed Dagworth from 1884 to 1907; May, p. 14.]
2. Miss McPherson indicated she had heard the tune some time previously at a race meeting in Warrnambool in Victoria, played by a local band. She understood the tune was called "The Bonnie Wood of Craigielea." (A ballad of this name by Robert Tannahill of Scotland was set to music by Robert Barr in the early 1800s and, according to Magoffin, a march arrangement by Gordon Parker was performed at the Warnambool races on 24 April 1894. [For this cf. Magoffin, pp. 28-29; he however cautions that the tunes are significantly different. On p. 38, Magoffin describes the evidence that the song was played at Warnambool. - RBW.] At Dagworth Miss McPherson rendered the tune from memory.
3. While at Dagworth Paterson wrote words to fit Miss McPherson's tune. The words he wrote were those of the poem/song "Waltzing Matilda."
4. Paterson's setting of McPherson's tune was quickly picked up and sung around the district, including at the Winton races on 24 and 25 May 1895.
5. At these races Christina McPherson wrote out and gave to family friends the Barlams the song's words and music. (This manuscript only came to light in 1971. Its authenticity has since been verified by, for example, by the National Library of Australia, which included it in its recent major exhibition of treasures from the world's libraries.) [That date is slightly uncertain, e.g. Lindner, p. 211, dates the discovery "around 1972" - RBW.]
6. Following the Winton race meeting the song travelled further afield, entering oral tradition. In the process the song's words (and possibly also its tune) evolved through the "folk process." The major change was that Paterson's wimpish "drowning himself by the Coolibah tree" in the last verse gave way to the more defiant "'You'll never catch me alive!' said he."
7. The song first appeared on sheet music in 1903, published in Sydney by James Inglis & Co. While the lyrics were attributed to Paterson they were in fact the "folk processed' words (possibly with additional textual changes introduced by the publisher); the music was cited as being "arranged' by Marie Cowan. Cowan was the spouse of Mr. W. Cowan, James Inglis & Co.'s Manager. (Cowan's version has similarities with, but is distinct from, the tune in the McPherson manuscript. The extent to which the Cowan version reflects the tune as it evolved through oral transmission, and the extent to which it incorporates changes introduced by Mrs. Cowan, is not known. While Mr. Cowan later claimed the sheet music tune was entirely his wife's composition, its similarities with that in the 1895 McPherson manuscript suggests "arrangement' was indeed the more appropriate term.) The sheet music version became the standard rendering of the song.
8. Paterson gave his approval to the 1903 sheet music text and music. Fourteen years later he included his original text as a poem in his book Saltbush Bill J.P. and Other Verses.
9. An entirely different tune, set to Paterson's original 1895 lyric, was obtained in the early 1950s by John Manifold from John O'Neill, who later indicated he had heard his father singing it around 1912. This is known as the Queensland, or sometimes the "Buderim," version.
There have been suggestions the song predates 1895, and so was, at best, modified by Paterson. Certainly, it is possible that Paterson, either consciously or unconsciously, drew upon an earlier song in writing his text. Claims however that the song itself predates Paterson rely upon second-hand accounts of persons who claim to remember hearing it prior to 1895 [in particular one Rufus Perrin, who claimed his father had known the song in the 1870s; Lindner, p. 211. This obviously amounts to hearsay evidence - RBW]. No documentary evidence to support this proposition has come to light, and these days the claim is given little credence.
In 1941 the suggestion was raised via the Sydney Bulletin that the tune and word structure of Waltzing Matilda is based upon a song "The Bold Fusilier' which, on account of its reference to the Duke of Marlborough, was assumed to date from the early 1700s. Several correspondents attested to the song's existence. One claimed to have heard it as a child in England, another to have heard it in Australia from his grandfather. The tune was said to be recognisable as that used for Waltzing Matilda, and while only one verse and a chorus of the text were remembered in either case, a strong structural resemblance to that song was apparent. Unfortunately, extensive efforts by scholars to trace the song have thus far been fruitless, and no full text, musical notation or other documentary evidence of its existence prior to 1895 has come to light.
The "Bold Fusilier' vs "Craigilea' debate impacts hardly at all on Paterson's claim to authorship. Should further research establish the existence of the Bold Fusilier prior to 1895, then obviously it is a possibility that Paterson knew of it and drew upon its word structure in writing Waltzing Matilda. A number of Australian bush songs are parodies, and so such a circumstance would be unremarkable. Regarding the Bold Fusilier tune we can say little, for at present the only version of it we have dates from the 1940s, some four decades after the publication of the Cowan tune for Waltzing Matilda. In that time all manner of opportunity existed for failures or tricks of memory to occur.
For these various reasons, the consensus in Australia is clear: Paterson wrote the words in 1895 to a tune played from memory by Christina McPherson, and subsequently both text and tune evolved in oral transmission. Further changes may have been introduced consciously at the time the song was published as sheet music in 1903. - KM
The above was written in response to my original rather caustic comments about the authorship of "Waltzing Matilda." I must admit that I still have some misgivings. And, being the editor, I get to rebut....
Also, I want to thank W. Benjamin Lindner, author of one of the books cited below, for corrections and suggestions.
First, I think it likely that "The Bold Fusilier" is an authentic folk song, and most unlikely that it was composed after "Waltzing Matilda" -- although May, p. 17, cites Ann Gilchrist's opinion that the song was popular rather than folk; she thinks it real but does not think that a folk song of that era would have used this rhythmic pattern. Nor do I regard it as believable that this stanza form would have been evolved independently by Paterson. Of course, the likeliest explanation is that he wrote his text to fit a Christina MacPherson's tune, so that's no argument; the real question is whether "The Bold Fusilier" influenced "Waltzing Matilda" or if the two are independent.
Richardson, pp. 113-116, outlines an hypothesis that the "Bold Fusilier" tune, being about the War of the Spanish Succession, was somehow associated with the Germans who went "auf der walz" with their "matildas" more on that below). I think this most unlikely -- but I agree with the statement on p. 116 that "The Bold Fusilier" is "So close... to 'Waltzing Matilda' that a direct creative link is indisputable." The only question is, which influenced the other? Richardson, p. 117, mentions several early allusions to 'The Bold Fusilier," and on p. 214 mentions a claim that Kathleen Cooper heard part of it from her grandfather, who had it from his grandfather (born c. 1760) -- but she never got to hear the whole song, apparently because it was dirty. None of these mentions is individually particularly compelling (since they're all after the fact); it is only collectively, and when combined with the fact that the song only makes sense when referring to the War of the Spanish Succession, that the claim that it is early becomes strong. It should be admitted, though, that all mentions of the tune are post-Waltzing Matilda. So it is theoretically possible that there was an old "Bold Fusilier" text which used a different tune, and that it picked up the "Waltzing Matilda" tune later.
On the other hand, the claim that Christina MacPherson must have known "Thou Bonnie Woods of Craigilie" has its problems too. It is true that she attended an event, the 1894 Warrnambool races, where it was played (the photo insert following p. 150 of O'Keeffe shows the program for the race she attended, although not the list of songs; Richardson, p. 118, has the musical program, on which the march "Craigielea" is listed). That's strong evidence, although not quite proof, that she heard the piece. But....
Anyone who knows anything about human memory knows that the fact that Christina MacPherson once heard "Craigielea" does *not* mean she would remember it based on that one hearing; this is extraordinarily unlikely. If anything, she would remember a tune she actually knew which sounds a little like "Craigielea." We know that the tune she actually played was not identical to the one she would have heard (Richardson, p. 25), though Lindner offers evidence that the differences are slight. To put it another way, although there is good reason to think MacPherson heard "Craigilie," there is every reason to think she remembered something more familiar which sounded a bit like "Craigilie" -- which might (or might not) be "The Bold Fusilier." Richardson, p. 119, explains the differences between MacPherson's tune and "Craigilie" (and, for that matter, the differences between MacPherson's tune and the common version of "Waltzing Matilda") as due to the effects of oral tradition. Possible, but the amount of assimilation is curious. Richardson's conclusion, p. 119, is that "However firmly common sense says 'Fusilier', historical research keeps saying 'Craigilee'" ("Craigiliee" being the name Godfrey Parker used for his arrangement of "Thou Bonnie Woods of Craigielea" that converted it to a march; Richardson, pp. 119-120). The difference is that I don't trust memories as much as Richardson does.
This does not affect Paterson's authorship of the lyrics of "Waltzing Matilda" in any way, of course, merely the source of the tune that was used. But I think dependence a practical certainty.
It strikes me as curious that Paterson wrote this piece for music, but his other poetry is just that: Poetry, and rarely in a style suitable for folk song (although he did create the text of a play, "Club Life," that had music added by Ernest E. P. Truman; Lindner, p. 200). Indeed, O'Keeffe, p. 242, says he was tone deaf! (O'Keeffe argues that this means that Christina MacPherson must have had more to do with writing the song than is usually admitted, but this is true only if words and music were created at the same time -- and that is only possible with a singable tune, which the tune as transcribed by MacPherson is not.) In 1956, Russell Ward pointed out that the song is unlike anything else Paterson wrote (Richardson, p. 150), and although Richardson, p. 182, suggests that this is merely Paterson being whimsical and preserving local words, he does mention some words Paterson does not use elsewhere (including "jumbuck" and, indeed, "waltzing Matilda"). Some have taken it as evidence that Paterson did not write the poem; I would instead consider it support for the hypothesis that Paterson was influenced by something older.
John Meredith met informants who claimed *their* sources (fathers) knew the song before Paterson's composition. None of these claims can be verified, and all are secondhand -- but of course written records of Australian folk songs before 1895 are quite rare. We might also mention that May, pp. 38-40, has a whole list of variants on the received story that were told by his witnesses, although I think May is correct to dismiss all of them; they generally don't make chronological sense.
There are scholars, such as John Greenway, who clearly did not believe in Paterson's authorship (although, ironically, when Greenway recorded the song, he used words that in some ways were closer to Paterson's than is the received text). Learmonth, p. 408, says that Paterson's alleged authorship of Waltzing Matilda is uncertain, and p. 569 quotes Oscar Mendelsohn's A Waltz with Matilda as attributing the music to one Harry Nathan and doubting Paterson's authorship of the words. Even John Meredith had his doubts. Most of these stated their opinions before the MacPherson manuscript was discovered. But the manuscript, while it strengthened the arguments on the pro-Paterson side, did not weaken those on the anti- side. (Lindner, p. 7, observes that the MacPherson manuscript is undated. While there isn't really any doubt that MacPherson and Paterson started the chain of transmission, there is real doubt as to when they did so.)
Thus, despite Keith McKenry's well-researched statements above, I still consider the matter slightly open -- especially with regard to the tune; my feeling is that MacPherson's tune is not a modified form of "Craigilie" but rather "The Bold Fusilier."
Another possibility, which I have not seen mentioned, is that Paterson included some fragments of an existing song into a largely new composition based on a local event. This frankly feels right to me -- it would explain the informants who thought they knew the song before 1895 -- but again there is no evidence whatsoever for it.
There is also the interesting fact that there are variations in the tune and chorus form. Manifold, p. 122, recalls learning the piece: "Not very long before Mr. May's book came out, John O'Neil of Buderim gave me a totally different version. His version was nothing like 'Craigielie', but his words were Paterson's own, as published in Saltbush Bill J.P. in 1917. Yet he had good reason to remember learning both tune and words from his father in 1915, before Saltbush Bill J.P. came out.
MacDougall, p. 300, declares that "The tune of the 'Queensland' version has a bouncier melody than the slow one sung in the south." Magoffin, p. 81, explains the "Queensland" tune, as having arisen from the piano playing of one Josephine Pene, which, like everything else in this story, is possible -- but requires a lot of people to remember a minor performer's piano playing! If Pene did learn the tune, it was from someone close to the source: she had an illegitimate son by Bob MacPherson, Christina MacPherson's older brother, who managed the Dagworth station until it failed in 1906 (Richardson, p. 82).
For more on Christina MacPherson -- specifically her infancy -- see the notes to "The Death of Morgan."
Christina MacPherson had more to do with the song than just supplying the tune -- she was the link that brought Banjo Paterson to Dagworth, where many claim wrote his text (although MacPherson later recalled teaching Paterson the tune at Winton, not Dagworth; Lindner, pp. 233-234). Christina was a friend of Sarah Riley, who was engaged to Paterson (Richardson, p. 26, says they had been engaged for eight years, which tells us either how little money Paterson had at the time or how unwilling he was to commit; Lindner, p. 34, based on what is known of their respective schedules, thinks he rarely actually saw Riley!); Paterson, who had just had his first book published (Manifold, p. 118), went to the MacPherson home at Dagworth when Riley paid a holiday visit to her friend (Magoffin, p. 40; Richardson, p. 42, suggests that some of Paterson's memories of this trip influenced his novel An Outback Marriage).
Most students of the song have dated the meeting of Paterson and MacPherson to January 1895. However, Lindner, pp. 158-159, says that Christina, her sister Jean, and her widowed father Ewen did not set out for Dagworth until June 1, 1895, and probably arrived around June 20 -- in other words, in Australian winter, not Australian summer -- and Paterson wasn't there yet. (Lindner, p. 227, adds that neither Paterson nor MacPherson ever said the song was written at Dagworth; that claim is from secondary sources. However, it must have been written at about the time they visited Dagworth, because that was the only time they were together.)
May, p. 16, makes an observation that is relevant to Lindner's point, although he does not draw the conclusion: In January the ranch workers tended to work early and late to avoid the extreme summer heat. There was little time or energy for the evening conversation which allegedly inspired Paterson. In June, when temperatures were cooler, it would have been much easier to tell stories such as those which supposedly underlie the song.
Despite being engaged, O'Keeffe, p. 13, suggests that Paterson had a "love affair" with Christina MacPherson. Lindner, p. 40, reprints a newspaper article headed "How Banjo won Christina's heart." There seems to have been a tradition in the MacPherson family that she at least was interested in him, and this tradition has some support from the Riley family (Lindner, pp. 40-41). The one thing that is certain is that he never married Riley, who moved to England after they split (Richardson, p. 83; O'Keeffe, p. 243); when he finally wed, it was to Alice Walker, eight years after his visit to Dagworth (O'Keeffe, p. 14. It probably won't surprise readers that Paterson the skirt-chaser was 39 when he married, his bride just 26; Lindner, p. 207).
No one seems to have offered any direct evidence that Paterson was interested in MacPherson. And I'm not convinced that the fact that MacPherson never married is evidence; by 1895, she was 31 and already arguably a spinster, and by all accounts quite introverted; with that history; there is no need to postulate a broken romance with Paterson to explain why she remained single. (Interestingly, three of her brothers never married either; May, p. 26. That's out of nine MacPherson children.) Her letters show that she didn't even know how to spell Paterson's name (she spelled it "Patterson"; see Lindner, p. 233.) And Lindner, p. 171, believes that Paterson may only have been at Dagworth for a week, and certainly no more than six; that would have to be one fast fling! On this basis, Lindner, p. 172, conjectures that the song was written some time between August 11 and August 31, 1895.
What's more, MacPherson and Riley were still engaged in friendly correspondence more than twenty years later (Lindner, p. 190). What are the odds of that if MacPherson had broken up Riley's engagement?
O'Keeffe's suggestion of an affair with MacPherson may derive from Paterson's second book An Outback Marriage (published in 1900; Lindner, p. 204) which tells of a love triangle (Richardson, p. 83). If Paterson truly was describing his own life (and Lindner, p. 206, admits "remarkable" parallels), then yes, it would seem he had an affair with MacPherson. But even if An Outback Marriage is purely autobiographical, would he really have told his own story exactly as it happened?
O'Keeffe, pp. 236-238, also cites testimony from Dianna Baillieu, who knew her grand-aunt Christina Macpherson well when Baillieu was very young but only recounted the tale something like three-quarters of a century later -- and claimed that Paterson was ordered to get away from Dagworth. Baillieu was definitely close to Christina; the MacPherson manuscript was in her possession (Lindner, pp. 53-54; p. 261 says that Christina left her papers to her sister Margaret, who left them to her daughter Mim, who left them to Baillieu). Even so, this strikes me as weak evidence, although better than the argument from Paterson's book.
Richardson, p. 84, reminds us that "There is nothing else to affirm the implication that any feeling between Banjo and Chris busted his ties with Sarah," although he adds that Paterson was "a heartless flirt. One letter writer says he 'jilted' Sarah; another, cryptically, suggests she had to drop him because of the attentions he paid to the sewing mistress at Dagworth."(Note that, if Paterson was indeed chased from Dagworth, those attentions, rather than an affair with Christina, might be the explanation. Lindner, p. 252, softens this somewhat: "Banjo was never expelled ('kicked off') Dagworth Station for his conduct there, but the Macpherson brothers resolved not to invite him back, it seems." Manifold's great-aunt told him, "Paterson was highly attractive to women, and seldom out of girl-trouble until he married Aice Walker of Tenterfield in 1903 (Manifold, p. 120).
What is certain is that Paterson and RIley split up soon after; by October 1895, Paterson was described as engaged to one Alice Cape; Lindner, p. 187 -- though he was still dating other women at the time (Lindner, p. 198). Which to me argues that Paterson must already have been close to Cape by the time he went to Dagworth, and certainly that his eye was wandering; by the sound of things, if Paterson had an affair, it was with Cape, not MacPherson!)
The story of a water-hole haunted by a man drowned there certainly predates this song. Hole, p. 10, refers to an English spot called "Hoggett's Hole. There Thomas Hoggett, a highwayman, was drowned in the eighteenth century while escaping from the watch. His ghost haunted the pool and has since drowned many...."
Although the story in the song is similar to the Hoggett tale, it is widely believed that Paterson took the story from a local event. May p. 2, declares unequivocally that "the drowning of the swagman at Combo Waterhole provided the story." There had been a drowning near Dagworth in 1891, which sounds like this -- but it didn't wasn't reported as a suicide, or a confrontation with patrollers, and no one saw it happen (Lindner, pp. 109-110); no one seems to think it provided any inspiration. Lindner, pp. 273-275, reprints the record of the inquest; it is extremely sketchy, but simply labels the death a drowning and lists no suspects or true witnesses.
Magoffin, pp. 55-57, gives a slightly different story, concerning the death by gunshot (formally listed as a suicide) of Samuel "Frenchy" Hoffmeister, who reportedly had been engaged in a raid on Dagworth during the 1894 shearer's strike. (The strike was very bitter, and had resulted in shearers burning a number of sheds; that at Dagworth was the eighth and last to be burned; O'Keeffe, p. 200. Hoffmeister himself is so ill-documented that his country of origin is not certain and there is more than a ten year discrepancy in listed birth dates; Lindner, pp. 105-107. Lindner, p. 271, gives a transcript of Hoffmeister's death certificate; apparently Queensland does not make copies of the originals. It lists him as 43 years old and born in "Batavia," which is not a nation but which also appears on Hoffman's naturalization certificate, an actual copy of which appear on p. 272.)
The parallel with the song is poor -- Hoffmeister died of a gunshot, not by drowning. And Magoffin's evidence for this presents itself as a verbatim transcript of the conversation of those who had raided Dagworth. What, someone made a tape recording decades before tape recorders were invented? (It's those sorts of claims that make me so hyper-skeptical. Lindner, pp. 74-78, demonstrates that there is strong reason to distrust the results of the inquest -- there was the possibility of collusion of the witnesses, and even so, there were inconsistencies in the testimony.)
Nonetheless O'Keeffe, p. 112, states the connection between song and the death of Hoffmeister as fact, and it is likely enough that Paterson, who eventually worked as a journalist, was interested in the story of the raid on Dagworth when he visited there with Sarah Riley (Magoffin, p. 60; this raid was the last significant act of the shearers' strike of 1894).
Richardson, p. 61, reports that station owner MacPherson and three constables went to investigate the Hoffmeister suicide, hinting that the squatter and three troopers of the song are an allusion to this party. Note, however, that in history, these three showed up after Hoffmeister died; they did not induce his death. And the means of suicide was different anyway. If it was suicide; O'Keeffe, pp. 214-219, is sure there was some sort of a cover-up, and seems to think Hoffmeister was murdered to break the shearers' strike. (As with much in O'Keeffe, I think he turns a possibility into a certainty. Yes, the inquest into Hoffmeister's death was hurried, but this was the Queensland frontiers; what did he expect -- C.S.I. Australia?) In Lindner's reconstruction, Paterson was nowhere near the site when all this happened, although later letters show that he did know of some of the events near Dagworth (Lindner, p. 216).
The billabong involved in the story is said to be an actual billabong by Dagworth, an artificially improved place called the "Combo" (Magoffin, p. 66, although Richardson, p. 73, points out that some texts have the swagman camp "in the billabongs" rather than "by a billabong." A billabong, according to Morris, p. 29, is "an effluent from a river, returnign to it, or often ending in sand, in some cases running only in flood time"; his earliest citation of the word is from 1860). Supposedly it was there that Paterson was told the story that he converted into this text, but Magoffin, p. 68, admits that no one died there by suicide or drowning, and that the Combo is hardly large enough to allow death by drowning.
Much has been made of this reconstruction originally offered by Magoffin, but it's important to keep in mind that it is entirely reconstruction. Lindner, p. 46,says, "Sydney May, the first historian to research the song, made no reference to the strike at all. Presumably neither did any of his informants in the early 1940s" -- the only witnesses testimony we have, even if it is very late and from peripheral sources. We might also mention that May, pp. 38-40, has a whole list of variants on the story told by his witnesses, although I think May is correct to dismiss all of them; they generally don't make chronological sense.
Magoffin, pp. 69-70, claims that Paterson was at a meal at Dagworth when a worker there came in and reported that little had happened that day; "only a bagman waltzing Matilda down along the river." Not knowing the terminology, Paterson asked for an explanation and was told that the term "waltzing Matilda" was the local terminology for what elsewhere was known as "humping bluey." (It is interesting that Jack Carter, the man who told him this, was a jackaroo, according to Manifold, p. 119 -- meaning that he didn't have much experience outside the city. So his vocabulary may have been atypical of the time and place.) This inspired the text, with MacPherson's melody giving him the tune. However, Lindner, p. 230, says this report is second-hand hearsay (that is, the report of someone who heard it from someone who heard it from yet a third source).
Richardson, p. 109, claims Bob MacPherson, brother of Christina MacPherson, "must have" been the inspiration for the "squatter mounted on his thoroughbred," presumably since Bob MacPherson was a landowner who liked horses; this strikes me as conceivable but very far from certain, although at least one of his obituaries included the claim, and stated it as fact (Lindner, p. 97).
To account for the variations in the text, Magoffin claims that one Herbert Ramsey learned the song from Paterson and Co. and spread it in the area of Winton (Magoffin, p. 76). Thus it supposedly went into oral tradition even before it was published. He suggests that defiant shearers, defeated in the union struggles of 1894, supplied the well-known line "You'll never take me alive, said he," instead of Paterson's "Drowning himself by the coolibah tree." Certainly the traditional line is better than Paterson's; I'm not sure that that is proof that Paterson's line is older.
MacDougall hints that says that one Marie Cameron of the firm Inglis and Co. (makers of Billy Tea) fiddled with the words and tune to make it fit their products; this might explain the variation. The name "Cameron" is, however, an error; Davey/Seal, pp. 264-265, also tell this story, but call the woman "Marie Cowan," as in McKenry's account above. Magoffin, p. 84-85, claims, on the basis of two witnesses rather than an extant copy, that the song was first printed in 1902 in Hughenden. But the first seemingly-official copy, with a piano arrangement by Marie Cowan, came out in 1903. Curiously, although this was the first widely-available edition, it differs in several particulars from the standard version. (As well as being pitched in the well-nigh unsingable key of F. Magoffin does not say so, but there were significant differences in this version from MacPherson's transcription in the equally unlikely key of E♭; the fact that MacPherson's transcription requires the singer to repeatedly hit the A two octaves above Middle C really makes me wonder about why she transcribed it so. Magoffin, pp. 111-112, says that some have called MacPherson's transcription un-performable; I am inclined to agree. Someone really should do some sleuthing about the music of the two versions. It is curious to note that one of the two "MacPherson Manuscripts" comes not from the MacPherson or Paterson families but from the family of W B Bartlam, who lived in the area of Dagworth but was not part of the MacPherson family; Lindner, p. 185).
The Cowan edition, with its slightly modified tune and altered words (which were approved by Paterson; Richardson, p. 114) was supported by James Inglis of the Billy Tea company, who included it in tea packages (apparently because it refers to the swagman waiting for his billy to boil), though he had a disagreement with Cowan over using the song for advertising purposes (Magoffin, pp. 85-87). Richardson, p. 115, suggests that Paterson himself supplied the song, and a manuscript of MacPherson's transcription -- and offers the possibility that Cowan saw elements of "The Bold Fusilier" in the tune, and moved it closer to that song. One of the biggest changes in the song was making the swagman "jolly"; this was intended to help tea sales. Cowan also removed the mention of the Matilda "leading the waterbag" (Richardson, p. 134) which is still found in some traditional texts.
Manifold, p. 124, says "My father learnt 'Waltzing Matilda' by ear on Sesbania Station, adjoining Oondooroo as it was, shortly before the printed version began to achieve popularity. He used a tune that different from the printed (Cowan) tune only to the extent of a bar or two; but it did differ; and that is how I have inherited a slight feeling of distrust and possibility to the Cowan version." But Cowan's tune really has only a bar or two of difference from MacPherson's, with the difference being in the first line where it is most noticeable; did Manifold's father learn the original tune? We can't tell now.
Richardson's conclusion, on p. 128, is that "The hybrid tune [Cowan] finished with scans with the lyrics, and sounds like the song as we know it today. Its grandmother is 'Craigielee', its mother is Chris Macpherson's melody. As for the father's identity, we admit it's not so easy to be sure, but readily suspect 'The Bold Fusilier.'" The difficulty with this, obviously, is that it means that Paterson and "The Bold Fusilier" had to come up with their unusual stanza pattern independently.
Eventually there was a dispute between the Cowan estate and one Thomas Wood, who had printed and helped popularize the song. Both eventually received part of the credit. As for Christina MacPherson, or (horrors!) oral tradition... there was neither credit nor royalties (Magofffin, p. 88). Much later, there was a copyright controversy over who owned the rights to the song (described on pp. 102-112 of Magoffin), but that was really over the rights, not the authorship; it doesn't have much importance for the history of the song. Fights over the copyright also included a 1941 attack on Paterson's authorship (a fight which took place soon after Paterson's death) to eliminate his copyright claim (Magoffin, p. 109). This is presumably the 1941 claim referred to by McKenry above. I'll admit that, if anything, the fact that it was lawyers rather than folklorists who were involved in the fight strengthens rather than weakens Paterson's case. On the other hand, the way Magoffin treats "The Bold Fusilier" rather balances that off. He ignores the piece until p. 117, when he declares that "no manuscript or sheet music has ever been found," which he implies makes it a fake. But, of course, what it really implies is folk origin, which is exactly the argument that it is the source for "Waltzing Matilda." Elsewhere, he implied that English troops in the Boer War took over "Waltzing Matilda" and set their own lyrics (Richardson, p. 212), which makes very little sense; it assumes, first, that the English troops remember "The Bold Fusilier" despite not having a tune (which is hard to believe); second, that "The Bold Fusilier" came by this stanza pattern independently; and third, apparently, that the troops in the Boer War anticipated Marie Cowan's tune. To me, this beggars belief.
Also, the 1903 sheet music already calls the song "Popular." How exactly could it be popular if it had never been published and was recently composed?
Australians reported taking the song abroad as early as the Boer War (Magoffin, p. 80), which is an extremely rapid spread. These same travelers reportedly carried the song to Sydney. As Keith McKenry say, Paterson's version was published n 1917 in Saltbush Bill and Other Verses, then again in a 1918 book intended for the troops in World War I (Richardson, p. 138) -- but it seems to have been known by the soldiers by then.
Regarding the tune, it is noteworthy that Paterson reported that Christina MacPherson played her tune on the autoharp (Magoffin, p. 65; Lindner, p. 242). Autoharps of course existed in 1895 (the instrument was patented in 1882), but the instrument was still in its infancy, with fewer chord bars, and it was still generally played on the lap. I strongly doubt MacPherson could actually render a tune on the thing. (In this regard, Lindner's alternate chronology would make a lot more sense, since MacPherson might have taught the tune to Paterson *somewhere else*, but on the piano, where she could genuinely render the tune.)
The claim that the tune is "The Bonnie Wood of Craigielea" is extraordinarily complicated. As Richardson points out on p. 108, the tune of "Craigielea" (original words by Robert Tannahill, with music by James Barr) cannot be made to fit "Waltzing Matilda," nor vice versa. However, the tune of "Craigielea" was arranged as a march by Thomas Bulch, who signed his arrangement as by Godfrey Parker and called it "The Craigielee March"; it was this that Christina MacPherson heard (O'Keeffe, pp. 226-227).
However, according to Paterson, Christina Macpherson did not know where she learned it, and told him "It hasn't got any words that I know of, but it must have had at some time. I believe it was an old Scottish hymn" (Richardson, p. 71) or "It hasn't any words that I now of, but it must have had at one time. I believe it is an old Scottish tune" (Manifold, p. 119). MacPherson herself recorded that "I could not tell him" what the song was (O'Keeffe, pp. 257-258, full text in Lindner, p. 233), reporting a letter which was never sent -- which hints to me that perhaps she doubted what she wrote. She certainly never reported what the tune actually was. In other words, she did *not* tell anyone that it was "Craigielea," although she did claim to have heard it at the Warrnambool races. Based on this, various people sleuthed out that she likely heard Craigielea played as a march in 1894 -- but that's not proof that she gave that melody to Paterson, even in modified form; it's not often that one learns a tune, even imperfectly, on one hearing when one has not even played it! The whole hypothesis is based on a minor implausibility: That MacPherson's memory was so good that she could recall a melody based on one hearing, but was so bad that she couldn't recall anything else about this melody that so took her fancy that she memorized it! This even though she could have had a printed program with the title on it, but could not have had the sheet music.
(W. Benjamin Lindner points out to me that the above statement rests on a non-provable assumption: That Macpherson heard the tune only once and remembered it. There is no proof that she heard it only at Warrnambool. There is no proof that she ever heard it again, though. An interesting question is whether there were other arrangements of the melody that could be performed by something less than a full band -- on the piano, e.g.)
Richardson, p. 122, also notes that Paterson was Australia's first collector of bush songs -- in other words, if anyone at Dagworth had known "The Bold Fusilier," it would be him. Is it possibly that he knew the song and his version influenced MacPherson's memory? For this we have no evidence. (Indeed, we know she had to reconstruct the music, because one of the MacPherson manuscripts -- reprinted on p. 54 of Lindner -- shows only the pitches of the notes, not the timings.)
To be sure, Paterson's accounts are inconsistent; late in life he said he got the tune from Jean MacPherson McCowan, the sister of Christine MacPherson (Magoffin, p. 72; Lindner, p. 242). That's a pretty drastic error, which seems to confuse Christina MacPherson with her sister and with Marie Cowan all at once! (Magoffin, p. 106. To be fair, Jean had gone to Dagworth along with Christina and Ewen MacPherson , only to fall in love with and marry a local; Lindner, p. 159). Nonetheless there seems little doubt that Christina MacPherson's manuscript is the oldest transcription of the song; Magoffin, p. 78, records the tests to which the copy was put, which include both subjective (handwriting comparison) and absolutely objective (examination of the paper, pen, and ink).
According to Richardson, p. viii, "Chris" MacPherson, whose tune probably had more to do with making "Waltzng Matilda" popular than did even Paterson himself, soon after returned to Melbourne (although Lindner, p. 186, says that it wasn't until May 28. 1896 that she returned there), where she lived the rest of her life. She never married, and never got much recognition for her role. Indeed, the MacPhersons, who had hosted Paterson at Dagworth, had devoted too much of their money into buying the place, and when they failed to get the income from shearing that they expected, they went bankrupt and lost the property (Richardson, p. 13).
To sum up both the evidence and my own conclusions, my personal hypothesis differs both from the standard story and the revisionists. Christina MacPherson supplied the tune, but I don't think it was a botched-up version of "Craigielea"; I think it was a botched-up "Bold Fusilier"; she simply didn't remember the source of what she had heard. The text is mostly Paterson's, but he borrowed some words and ideas, and oral tradition perhaps transferred in a few other words, which would explain why people thought they had heard the song before he wrote it: They had heard *parts* of it. Thus the standard story is mostly correct -- Paterson created the first complete text, and MacPherson supplied the tune. But the text has older elements -- and the tune probably was somewhat modified by MacPherson, meaning that she arguably deserves some credit as composer, not just supplier of the tune, although not full composition credit.
Of course, others will continue to disagree.Lindner, p. 255, concludes his main narrative, "The history of the origins of Waltzing Matilda remains incomplete. There may be more to the story, but that depends on the disclosure of family secrets by descendants of those whose lives touched the narrative over 120 years ago."
A few other points about the song. All commentators agree that the swagman in the song did not grab a jumbuck (sheep) and stuff it, whole and presumably alive, into his tucker-bag. Rather, he took it, killed it, butchered it, possibly cooked it, and put some of the meat in his bag (so, e.g. Richardson, pp. 78-79). This was a major complaint of the station-owners: not only did rovers steal the sheep, they weren't even efficient about it, taking only some of the meat and leaving the rest to rot, and spoiling the fleece and the hide while they were at it. This widespread practice didn't really cost the owners much more than if the swagman had eaten the whole sheep, but it added insult to injury.
Beatty, pp. 11-12, discusses the origin of the term "Waltzing Matilda" itself. Although mentioning many tales about how the term came to be, the one he likes claims that Matilda was 'the first woman swaggie to be seen in Australia. She and her husband, Joe, were very well known and respected throughout East Gippsland; their surname was unknown...." Joe and Matilda each carried blueys, his larger than hers. Supposedly, when Matilda wanted to leave home to go with Joe, her father exploded, "Do you think I'd let you go a-waltzing Matilda all over the countryside?" When she died and Joe buried her, he declared to his pack, "Oh well, bluey, you'll have to be Matilda to me now, and we'll waltz along together till the end."
I have yet to find an instance of a linguist who believes this.
More believable, but still strongly folkloric, is the explanation in Magoffin, p. 16, and Richardson, pp. 75-77, that "Mathilde" (whence "Matilda") was the name European (especially German) journeyman craftsmen gave to their female companions, and hence to the other thing that accompanied them, their packs. And they referred to their travels as being "auf der walz" or "on the waltz." So the term Matilda, it is claimed, is older than the settlement of Australia, and so is the idea of "waltzing" it; presumably English-speakers picked it up during the War of the League of Augsburg, or the War of the Spanish Succession, or some similar war.
May, p. 9, thinks that the name was just chosen at random; personally, I'd guess he's right.
The term "matilda" and "waltzing matilda" were apparently both originally rare; elsewhere, swagmen carried swags! The term is sufficiently local that the first Australian dictionary, Morris's, does not even mention it (that's in 1898, after Paterson wrote his text!).
May, pp. 10-11, discusses the origin of "Jumbuck," which he thinks has not been definitively traced. His favorite hypothesis is that it is a slurred-down version of "jumping buck," but confesses a lack of evidence. The citations he offers show the word was used in Aboriginal pidgin by 1845, but there is no proof that it comes from an Aboriginal language. It looks as if he lifted his citation from Morris, p. 224,
The coolibah tree is the species Eucalyptus coolibah (May, p. 13). Learmonth, p. 129, "An aboriginal and popular name for a form of box eucalyptus, the Flooded Box, Eucalyptus microtheca. The Coolibah is medium-sized, with pale, narrow leave up to 18 cm. long, growing widely on black soil plains and along watercourses of the interior." There is a photo facing p. 13 of May, and it shows a coolibah by a billabong that casts very little shade. Studying other coolibah photos around the Web, this seems typical; it is not a good shade tree. The fact that Paterson mentions such a tree is perhaps a hint that this song does refer to an actual billabong, although that is not evidence that the stories connecting the song to the death of Hoffmeister are true.
There has been much debate about what the song itself really "means." It bears similarities to events at Dagworth, but is assuredly not a retelling. It is, on its face, a strange tale -- what sort of person would drown himself when merely asked about where he got a sheep, without even having been arrested yet? This has led many to see it as some sort of allegory -- e.g. O'Keeffe, pp. 126-127, links the swagman's billy to the lines "She's going to light another fire And boil another billy" from Henry Lawson's revolutionary "Freedom on the Wallaby," written a few years earlier. This would be more convincing if there were clearer evidence....
May, in the photo inset facing p. 21, shows Australian "Waltzing Matilda" tanks in World War II. This is a little too much folklore. I do not doubt that there were Australian tanks in the war that were called "Waltzing Matilda." But the model name of the tank May pictures was not the "Waltzing Matilda" but simply the "Matilda" (properly, the Matilda II; the Matilda I was armed with nothing heavier than a machine gun, so it wasn't really a tank). A picture and description can be found on p. 86 of Dougherty. The Matilda II was under-gunned and extremely slow, but it was well-armored and very hard to kill (especially for the under-armed Japanese tanks the Australians faced in New Guinea), so it was no doubt popular with those who drove it.
Richardson, pp. 142-143, says there have been more than six hundred different recordings of the song since it was first waxed by an unknown singer in 1927.
Lindner, p. 263, says that Paterson never saw how popular his song would become. This is a little exaggerated -- it was certainly well-known in Australia by the time of his death in 1941. Outside Australia, it wasn't as well known. It appears to me, based on the parodies, that it was spread to the wider world by Australian troops fighting in World War II, probably starting in North Africa (where the Australians were an important part of the British force from a very early date; battalions of the 9th Australian Division were at least once "farmed out" to train other troops about North African conditions; Delaforce, p. 37). One must suspect that they were singing it a lot for the song to have been picked up by forces from other British territories.
Although everyone now seems to refer to Paterson as "Banjo," his personal nickname was "Barty." "The Banjo" (with no surname given) was the pseudonym in which he published his first poetry, including his two other most important pieces, "Clancy of the Overflow" and "The Man from Snowy River"; he took the name from a famous horse (O'Keeffe, pp. 104-105). Interestingly, Dagworth Station was also named after a racehorse (May, p. 36); Paterson, the horseracing nut, must have loved it.
Although now treated as Australia's unofficial anthem, Lindner, pp. 263-264, reminds us that it *cannot* have been intended so, since Australia was not federated until 1901; until then, the provinces were separately governed. Of course, the idea of a united Australia was in the air, but Paterson clearly wasn't paying attention to that. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: PBB119

Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)

DESCRIPTION: The singer laments the effects of unrequited love and an untrue lover. Typical symbols include the rotten-hearted oak that looks solid but breaks and the beautiful flower protected by thorns. In some versions the lover is untrue; sometimes (s)he is dead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1714 (Ritson, _Scotish Song_)
KEYWORDS: love rejection lyric nonballad lament lover death
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) Ireland US(Ap,NE,SE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Child 204 notes, "Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bony" (1 text)
Bronson (204), 8 versions (including "Jamie Douglas")
Bronson (204), "Jamie Douglas" (2 tunes, of which #1 is this song)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 145-148, "Waly Waly, Love Be Bonny" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques LVIII, p. 102, "Waly Waly, Love Be Bonny" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 521-522, "Waly Waly" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 469-474, "Jamie Douglas" (notes and scattered stanzas; the only full text is in fact this piece)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 149, "Deep in Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 336-337, "Picking Lilies" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1918, "I Spied a Ship Sailin' on the Sea" (1 fragment)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #173, p. 2, ("I spied a ship sailin' on the sea") (1 fragment)
Peacock, pp. 475-476, "Love is Lovely" (1 text, 1 tune, strongly composite, starting with a verse perhaps from "Peggy Gordon," then the chorus of "Waly Waly (The Water Is Wide)," two more which might be anything, and a conclusion from "Carrickfergus")
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 546-551, "Jamie Douglas" (3 texts, with only the third text belonging with this piece)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 101, "Jamie Douglas" (2 texts, with only the second text belonging with this piece)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 13, "Waly Waly, or The Water is Wide" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 39, "O Waly Waly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 108, "Waly Waly" (1 text, a composite of four versions)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 30, "Deep in Love", "Picking Lilies" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #86, "A Ship Came Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #16, "Waly, Waly" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 16-17, "Waillie, Waillie!" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 218-219, "Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 143, "O Waly, Waly" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 70, "Love is Pleasin'" (1 text, 1 tune, of four verses, two of which go here, one belongs with "Fair and Tender Ladies," and the fourth could be from several sources; the whole could be a "Love is Teasing" variant)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 323-324, "O Waly, Waly" (1 text)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 77, "The Water Is Wide" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H683, p. 393, "The Apron of Flowers" (1 text, 1 tune -- apparently a collection of floating verses including one that goes here)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, pp. 3-4, "(no title)" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 89, "Cockle Shells and Silver Bells" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 145, "Waillie"; p. 163, "The Water Is Wide" (2 texts)
DT (204), WALYWALY WALYWAL2* WALYWAL3* CCKLSHLL* WATRWIDE*
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #158, p. 166, "Waly, Waly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, pp. 89-91, "Waly, Waly, gin Love by Bony / Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament" (1 text)
Roud #87
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "Love is Lovely" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Liam Clancy, "The Water is Wide" (on IRLClancy01)
The Crofut Family, "Waly, Waly" (Piotr-Archive #679, recorded 09/17/2023)
Mobile Strugglers, "Trouble, Trouble's Followed Me All My Days" (on AmSkBa, classified there for want of a better place; it's really a collection of floaters, and could as easily go with "I Wish, I Wish/Love Is Teasing." It shares the verse "If I had wings like Noah's dove" with "Dink's Song," but not its distinctive chorus. - PJS)
Pete Seeger, "The Water is Wide" (on PeteSeeger18) (on PeteSeeger34) (on PeteSeeger47)
Gladys Stone, "Deep In Love" (on FSBFTX15)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jamie Douglas" [Child 204] (lyrics)
cf. "Love Is Teasing"
cf. "Careless Love"
cf. "Died for Love"
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] (floating lyrics)
cf. "Dink's Song" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Oh, Johnny, Johnny" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Arthur's Seat" (lyrics: two verses)
cf. "The Water's Deep, Love, I Canna Wide" (floating lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Though I May Speak (1972 paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13 by Hal Hopson found in Presbyterian hymnals; cf. LindaJo H. McKim, _Presbyterian Hymnal Companion_, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, p. 236)
An Upper Room Did Our Lord Prepare (1973 hymn by Fred Pratt Green found in Presbyterian hymnals; cf. McKim, p. 94)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Ship Came Sailing
When Cockle Shells Turn Silver Bellsw
NOTES [257 words]: Some scholars consider this a degraded form of "Jamie Douglas" [Child 204], with which it shares several lyrics. It can hardly be denied that they are related. Since, however, "Waly Waly" has worn away to a purely lyric piece (and some even believe it to be the older of the two songs, which has provided a few chance lyrics to "Jamie Douglas"), it is my firm opinion that the two should be kept separate.
Paul Stamler considers at least some of the versions of "I Wish, I Wish/Love is Teasing" to belong here. To me, they look more like versions of "The Butcher Boy." Still, it shows you how lyric this piece has become.
Steve Roud's #18839 is a large family of sixty-odd versions. I would consider some of them to be "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" and others to be "Must I Go Bound" -- yet more evidence of how amorphous this family is.
Under the title "Forsaken," this is one of the handful of traditional songs in Palgrave's Golden Treasury (item CXXXIII).
Often associated with this is a floating verse that begins, "When cockle shells turn silver bells." Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 171, suggested that this was about Mary Queen of Scots. There is absolutely no evidence for this proposition - RBW
The two verses shared with "Arthur's Seat" are neither common floaters nor verses shared with "Jamie Douglas": one is the title verse ("Now Arthur-Seat shall be my bed ....") and the other the Martinmas wind reference ("Martinmas wind, when wilt thou blow ...). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K149

Waly Waly, Love Be Bonny

See Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) (File: K149)

Wan' King Jedus Stan' My Bon'

See Go Your Bond (File: Arno175)

Wanderer (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Cease ye winds to blow ... I think I hear my true love's voice ... don't think 'tis he ... Oh where is my wanderer gone." "I fear my love has lost his way." "The moon behind the cloud is lost ... The lightnings gleam no more...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1771 (_The London Magazine_)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 234, "Cease, Ye Stormy Winds" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 78)
ADDITIONAL: The London Magazine: or Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer, Vol. XL for the year 1771 (London, 1771 ("Digitized by Google")), Aug 1771, p. 386, ("Cease a while, ye winds to blow")
Roud #1299
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(362), "The Wanderer" ("Cease ye winds to blow "), E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Harding B 11(4022), Johnson Ballads 2879, "The Wanderer"
NLScotland, RB.m.169(209), "The Wanderer" ("O cease a while ye winds to blow"), M'Intosh (Glasgow), c.1849
NOTES [46 words]: The text from The London Magazine is headed "Rondeau, Sung by Miss Cowper in Vauxhall Gardens, and set by Mr Bach." The text excludes the last verse, beginning "the moon behind the cloud is lost," printed on the Bodleian broadsides and Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT234

Wanderer (II), The

See A Distant Land to Roam (File: FORA201)

Wanderer's Warning, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer quarrels with his father and prepares to leave home. His mother begs him not to; her heart will be broken. He leaves anyway. Now he is in a boxcar while his mother longs for the boy who will never return. He cautions others not to imitate him
AUTHOR: Carson J. Robison and Frank Luther
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Frank Luther)
KEYWORDS: grief homesickness loneliness warning farewell home parting rambling train travel father mother hobo
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Ken Houchins, "Wanderer's Warning" (Champion 16553, 1933)
Frank Luther, "The Wanderer's Warning" (Banner 6464/Jewel 5667/Conqueror 7396, 1929)
File: RcWanWar

Wanderin'

DESCRIPTION: "My daddy is an engineer, My brother drives a hack, My sister takes in washin' An' the baby balls the jack, An' it looks like I'm never gonna cease my wanderin'." Tales of work and poverty, held together by the refrain "never gonna cease my wanderin'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes rambling nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 188-189, "Wanderin'" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 335-336, "Wandering" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 218, "Wand'rin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 281, "Wandering" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 59, "Wandering" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 507, "I Got de Hezotation Stockings and de Hezotation Shoes" (1 short text, with a verse and chorus from "Hesitation Blues" and a verse from "Wanderin'")
DT, WANDERIN*
Roud #4399
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Wanderin'" (Columbia 1585-D, 1928)
NOTES [47 words]: The total irrelevance of plot to this song is shown by the fact that Scott's version (which is mostly about the traveler's rambles, except for the line "If the Republicans don't get you, the Democrats must") shares only three lines, apart from the refrain, with the DT version. - RBW
File: San188

Wandering Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: "Out in this cold world and far away from home, Somebody's boy is wandering alone...." The mother begs, "Bring me back my wandering boy, He's all that's left to give me joy." She tells how his place still waits for him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (unissued recording, Kentucky Thorobreds) earliest publication 1928 (recording, Emry Arthur)
KEYWORDS: rambling mother children separation
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 845, "The Wandering Boy" (1 text)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 149, "The Wandering Boy" (1 short text)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 237-238, "My Wandering Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R845 (Partial)
Roud #4227
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "Bring Back to Me My Wandering Boy" (Vocalion 5244, 1928)
Blue Sky Boys, "Brink Back My Wandering Boy" (Bluebird B-8128, 1939)
W. C. Childers, "Bring Back My Wandering Boy" (Champion 16052 [as Enos Wanner]/Superior 2525 [as George Holmes], 1930)
Kentucky Thorobreds, "Bring Back My Wandering Boy" (Paramount, unissued, rec. 1927)
NOTES [17 words]: This should not be confused with "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight," which is a different song. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: R845

Wandering Cowboy (I), The [Laws B7]

DESCRIPTION: A cowboy sadly tells the tale of why he left home: He had killed a childhood friend in a quarrel over a girl: "So that's the reason why I am compelled to roam. A sinner of the darkest strain, Far far away from home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928
KEYWORDS: death fight cowboy rambling love friend homicide burial
FOUND IN: US(SE,So,SW) Canada
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws B7, "The Wandering Cowboy"
Randolph 190, "The Wandering Cowboy" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 265, "A Jolly Group of Cowboys" (1 text)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 144-146, "Wandering Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 157-159, "The Wandering Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 89, "Cowboy's Home Sweet Home" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 416-417, "Home, Sweet Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 66, "Franklin Slaughter Ranch" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 798, WANDCOWB
Roud #633
RECORDINGS:
Edward L. Crain, "Cowboy's Home Sweet Home" (Columbia 15710-D [as Edward L. Crain, the Texas Cowboy], 1932; rec. 1931) (Crown 3250/Melotone [Can.] 93027/Conqueror 8010 [as Cowboy Ed Crane], 1932; Montgomery Ward M-3016 [as Bob Star (The Texas Ranger)]/Varsity 5034 [as Cowboy Rodgers], n.d.; rec. 1931)
Jimmie Davis, "Cowboy's Home Sweet Home" (Victor 23718, 1932; Montgomery Ward M-7359, 1937; rec. 1930; on WhenIWas2)
Arthur Miles, "The Lonely Cowboy (Parts 1 & 2)" (Victor V-40156, 1929; on MakeMe, When I Was1)
Frank Wheeler & Monroe Lamb, "A Group of Jolly Cowboys" (Victor C-40169, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fugitive's Lament" (plot)
NOTES [37 words]: The Arthur Miles recording contains one of the few examples of "throat singing" (overtone singing) I've heard in American tradition. The song should not be confused with "The Wandering Cowboy (II)," which is unrelated. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LB07

Wandering Cowboy (II), The

DESCRIPTION: Cowboy describes ranches he's worked at. He signs on with a ranch, works summer and fall, then drifts to Arizona for a winter job. It's too lonely and boring, so he moves on again. One night in Wyoming, he dreams of his home rancho and decides to return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Patt Patterson & Lois Dexter)
KEYWORDS: loneliness home rambling travel work cowboy worker
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Patt Patterson & Lois Dexter, "The Wandering Cowboy" (Banner 32091, 1931)
Patt Patterson & his Champion Rep Riders, "The Wandering Cowboy" (on WhenIWas1)
NOTES [27 words]: Pretty thin plot, yes. But a plot nonetheless, and I've indexed it chiefly to distinguish the song from "The Wandering Cowboy (I)", which has a real narrative. - PJS
File: RcTWCII

Wandering Cowboy (III), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer has no home, no one to love him. He's wandering down the trail, coming to the end of his life, and thinking the only home he will ever find is "on some other shore"
AUTHOR: B. Cartwright
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Cartwright Bros.)
KEYWORDS: loneliness love death nonballad cowboy
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Cartwright Brothers, "The Wandering Cowboy" (Victor V-40247, 1930; rec. 1929)
NOTES [29 words]: Darn near no plot at all, even thinner than "Wandering Cowboy (II)," and depressing besides. I index it solely to distinguish it from the other "Wandering Cowboy" songs. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: RcTWaC3

Wandering Dollar, The

DESCRIPTION: Game in which a coin is passed hand to hand while one player has to guess where it is. "Dollar, dollar, how you wander, From the one unto the other, Is it fair, is it fair, TO leave [Miss Anna] so long without a chair?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad money
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #99, "The Wandering Dollar" (1 short text)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 10, "Dollar, Dollar" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Newe099

Wandering Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer's lover has deserted her and their baby. She'll go home but knows she'll be turned away by her mother. "She'll tell me to wander as I've wandered before." She warns girls not to trust young men.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1829 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.18(104))
KEYWORDS: sex desertion floatingverses baby mother youth
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
Roud #1691
RECORDINGS:
Freda Palmer, "The Wandering Girl" (on Voice10)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.18(104), "The Wandering Girl" ("Once I loved a young man as dear as my life"), T. Batchelar (London), 1817-1828; also Harding B 11(4028), Harding B 25(1998), Harding B 11(4027), "[The] Wandering Girl"; Harding B 25(1996), Harding B 11(244), Harding B 11(245), "The Wandering Girl" or "The Bud of Rose"
NOTES [68 words]: The Bodleian broadsides have the girl turned away by her father as well as her mother.
Floating lines may include "Once I loved a young man as dear as my life He oftentimes told me he'd make me his wife," "Once I was as fair as the bud of a Rose And now I'm as pale as the Lilly [sic] that grows" and "They'll kiss you and court you and swear they'll be true And the very next moment they'll bid you adieu." - BS
File: RcTWaGir

Wandering Laborer's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was up on the Moffat Tunnel, In Colorado's snowy clime, Two buddies while working together Quarreled over a jug of wine"; they kill each other. There are deaths on the section gang. Prostitutes take their money. But "I love my pick and shovel"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Milburn, Hobo's Handbook)
KEYWORDS: death drink fight whore railroading
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 80, "The Wandering Laborer's Song" (1 text)
Roud #9870
File: LDC080

Wandering Lover, The

See Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover) (File: Ord089)

Wandering Nellie

See Corunna's Lone Shore (Wandering Nellie) (File: FVS081)

Wandering Shepherd Laddie, The

DESCRIPTION: Bring my crook and bring my plaid." The singer would go to her "wandering shepherd laddie." She'll go through mountain storms to "his black-face yowes on the heather hills" and rest with him "when the moon comes over the top o' the hill"
AUTHOR: John MacDonald (source: Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 20" - 15.1.04)
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (recording, John MacDonald)
KEYWORDS: nonballad lover sheep shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
Roud #5150
RECORDINGS:
John MacDonald, "The Wandering Shepherd Laddie" (on Voice20)
File: RcWaShLa

Wandering Shepherdess, The

See The Young Shepherd (I) (File: CrMa108)

Wandering True Loves, Too

See The Cuckoo (File: R049)

Wandering Willie

DESCRIPTION: "Oh have you seen our wandr'ing Willie In his journey through your state?" He travels with "a wadding gait," and his luggage is filled with "solid cash." He "pulled the party though." Now they have "passed him from the door."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (Marshall County Sentinal, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: money political humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1891-1895 - William W. Taylor, President of the First National Bank of Redfield, South Dakota, serves as State Treasurer
Jan 10, 1895 - Taylor's bank fails; he flees the state
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 484, "Wandering Willie" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kingdom Coming (The Year of Jubilo)" (tune)
NOTES [270 words]: Robert F. Karolevitz, Challenge, the South Dakota Story, Brevet Press, 1974 (I use the eighth printing from 2004), p. 215, has this to say about the Taylor affair:
"After he had been re-elected to a second term, [Governor Charles H.] Sheldon publicly praised retiring State Treasurer William Walter Taylor for protecting the public funds throughout the unstable fiscal conditions created by the national depression. Then, on January 8, 1895, it was revealed that the former Redfield banker had fled to South America and that the treasury was short $367,000. The monstrous scandal was almost the last straw for a state already reeling under other adversities.... After several months Taylor returned to South Dakota, was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to 20 years in prison, the term being reduced later to two years which the ex-treasurer served. His personal assets, the state funds he foolishly had placed in the hands of his Chicago attorneys (who had apparently advised him to leave the country) and the forfeiture of his bond restored a major portion of the missing sum, but when it was all over, the people of South Dakota sill lost almost $100,000...."
A minor side effect was that an ex-governor, Arthur C. Mellette, had stood as one of Taylor's bondsmen and lost his own money. It contributed to his early death in 1896 at the age of 52.
The affair also badly damaged the state Republican party; the Democrats swept into power in the election of 1896 -- and there was so much concern about the handling of money that the new governor, Andrew E. Lee, ordered a physical count of the state's cash. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: CAFS2484

Wandering Young Gentlewoman, The

See Catskin (File: BeCo335)

Wann ich vun dem Land rei kumm (When I Came to this Country)

See When I First Came to This Land (File: PSAFB013)

Want to Go -Courting

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

Want to Go to Heaven When I Die

DESCRIPTION: "Want to go to heaven (see my mother (father, sister, Jesus)) when I die (x3), Good Lord, when I die (x4)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 53, App.II, "Want to Go to Heaven When I Die" (2 texts, 2 tunes; p. 170 in the 1909 edition)
Roud #12244
File: Dett053

Wanted -- My Darling Papa

DESCRIPTION: "To the Minneap'lis Tribune came a little child one day," asking to run an ad to find her father: "Wanted, my darling papa, to come home right away." The message from Mamie is read in the mining camp, and the father sets out for home at once
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2008 (Cohen)
KEYWORDS: family father separation mining reunion
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 676-677, "Wanted -- My Darling Papa" (1 text)
File: CAFS2676

Wanted a Substitute

See I'm In Want of a Substitute (File: Pet233B)

Wanton Seed, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a pretty maid who wants "the chiefest grain"; she accepts his services, asking him to sow her meadow with "the wanton seed." After forty weeks she returns with a slender waist (presumably having borne a child), wanting more of the wanton seed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.34(307))
KEYWORDS: sex pregnancy farming magic
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 137, "The Wanton Seed" (1 text)
DT, WNTNSEED*
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 96-97, "The Wanton Seed" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, "'Birmingham Broadsides and Oral Tradition" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, p. 42, "The Wanton Seed" (1 text)
Roud #17230
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Wanton Seed" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.34(307)[some words illegible], "The Wanton Seed" ("As I walk'd forth one morning fair"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Seeds of Love" (theme)
cf. "The Next Market Day" (plot) and references there
cf. "The Mower"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Chiefest Grain
NOTES [40 words]: Again, I've refrained from calling this "bawdy," preferring "erotic." And I've keyworded it as "magic" because of the clear connection the song makes between the fertility of grain and sexuality, a common folk strain of sympathetic magic. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: DTwntnse

Wanton Trooper, The

DESCRIPTION: "There came a trooper to this town, I thank you for your gentleness, He would have maidens nine or ten, To cure him o' his wantonness." The miller's lass takes him on. They have sex nine times the first day, then six, etc.; this cures his wantonness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1840 (Buchan, Secret Songs of Silence)
KEYWORDS: sex soldier miller
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Hanish Henderson, "The Ballad, The Folk and The Oral Tradition," in Edward J. Cowan, editor, _The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History_ 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition), pp. 74-76, "The Wanton Trooper" (1 text)
Roud #12567
File: ThWanTr

Wanton Virgins Frightened, The

See The Three Frightened Virgins (File: GrD81893)

Wanton Wife of Bath, The

DESCRIPTION: "In Bath a wonton wife did dwell, As Chaucer he did write." She dies. Adam tells her that, as a sinner, she has no place in heaven. She points out his sins; he flees. Similarly Jacob, etc.. Finally she is admitted to heaven because she knows of Christ.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1600? (June 26, 1600 Stationer's Register entry for "The Wanton Wife of Bath"); before 1681 (Bodleian Wood E 25(93),Douce Ballads 2(241a))
KEYWORDS: death wife accusation humorous Hell
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 333-338, "The Wanton Wife of Bath" (1 text, of the short version; Percy printed this in the first edition of the Reliques, but dropped it in his later editions, so Wheatley puts it in an appendix)
NorthCarolinaFolkoreJournal, Betsy Bowden, "The Oral Life of the Written Ballad of The Wanton Wife of Bath," volume XXXV, Number 1 (Winter-Spring 1988), pp. 40-76, "The Wanton Wife of Bath" (2 texts, of the long and short versions, plus two broadside prints of the short)
RELATED: Versions of Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale"
E. Talbot Donaldson, _Chaucer's Poetry: An Anthology for the Modern Reader_, Second Edition, the Donald Press Company, 1958, 1975, pp. 191-230, "The WIfe of Bath's Prologue" and "The Wife of Bath's Tale"
Larry D. Benson, general editor, _The Riverside Chaucer_, third edition, Houghton Mifflin, 1987 (based on F. N. Robinson, _The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer_, which is considered to be the first and second editions of this work), pp. 105-122, "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale"
Mark Allen and John H. Fisher with the assistance of Joseph Trahern, editors, _A Variorum Edition of the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer_, Volume II, Part 5A+5B, _The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale_, University of Oklahoma Press, 2012 (volume 5A is the Introduction and Text; 5B the notes)
John M. Manly and Edith Rickert, _The Text of the Canterbury Tales_ (in eight volumes), University of Chicago Press, 1940
MANUSCRIPT: Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS. Peniarth 392D (the Hengwrrt Manuscript, considered to be the best text of the Canterbury Tales, typically cited Hg), folios 58-72
MANUSCRIPT: San Marino, Henry Huntington Library MS. 26.C.9 (the Ellesmere Manuscript, El), folios 71-76
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Corpus Christi College MS. 198 (the Corpus Manuscript, Cp), folios 100-114
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, University Library, MS. Gg.4.27 (Cited as Gg), folios 212-227
MANUSCRIPT: Princeton, Princeton University Library MS. Firestone Library 100 (Helmingham; cited as He), folios 77-91
Roud #V13472
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Wood E 25(93)= Douce Ballads 2(241a), "The Wanton Wife of Bath," F. Coles (London), 1624-1680; Harding B 3(18)= Harding B 3(19), Harding B 3(23), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Douce Ballads 4(30), T. Evans (London), 1790-1813; also Harding B 3(22), T. Batcherar (London), 1817-1828; also Douce Ballads 4(29)= Harding B 3(20), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844 ; also Douce Ballads 3(107b), unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I've Buried Three Husbands Already (Wherever There's a Goose There's a Gander)" (topic)
cf. "The Good-Looking Widow" (topic)
cf. "Flying Fame" (tune in some of the versions)
NOTES [1945 words]: This is not Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Tale," but it's based on it, making it a sort of post-medieval romance. There are two versions, the shorter being the earlier; more on this below. In both versions, it's both poorer and cruder than Chaucer's tale, of course, and the long version, at least, far less feminist and less interesting. The shorter version is truer to the Wife, who can turn Scripture to her ends, but it doesn't use much of the Wife's tale.
Based on that lack of credentials, I don't think it traditional, but Betsy Bowden thinks it passed through oral tradition, so it's in here. I don't trust her logic, though; in essence, she claims that there are variations in the text of the prints, so there must be oral tradition represented. But except for the rewrite that produced the long version, which hardly counts, the only variants she actually describes are very small -- the sort that not-very-accurate printers would produce when typesetting mostly from memory. I really think this is a song sustained entirely by print, though it was presumably sung to sell broadside copies.
Bowden describes the two versions of the piece. The longer version (650+ lines) with which Bowden closes her article (Appendix II), is to a large extent a sermon, and very dull; it is entitled "The Wife of Bath Reformed and Corrected, Giving an Account of her death, And of her journey to heaven, How on the road she fell in with Judas, who led her to the gates of Hell," etc. (Bowden calls it the "New Wife of Bath"). The Wife eventually gets to heaven, but the amount of religious blather along the way is close to intolerable. Under no circumstances will I believe that *that* went into tradition. Bowden, p. 41, claims that it was created by around 1700, based on the earlier version, to get past the censors.
The shorter is a legitimate broadside, about 140 lines; Bowden prints that as her Appendix I based on a broadside by Pitts. It too is mostly moralizing, but at least it won't kill you with boredom, though still a little too repetitive for my taste. The shorter is the version cited in the description; the long version includes the interlude with Judas and the visit to the devil.
Bowden claims a total of 54 prints of one or the other version (27 of each, in fact, although she does not catalog them), but some of these are duplicates. She found copies at Cambridge, the Bodleian at Oxford, and the Harvard Library.
If any of Chaucer's characters would take on a life of her own, it surely would be Alison, the Wife of Bath; even in Chaucer manuscripts, her Prologue and Tale were the most heavily-glossed part of the entire Canterbury Tales (Turner, pp. 146-147). Many of these, of course, were anti-feminist attacks on a woman who could and did think for herself -- the same fate that happened to the original version of this broadside!
Chaucer/Allen/Fisher have a section on adaptions and responses to Chaucer's tale of the Wife. On pp. 36-37, they report that the "earliest [re-use of the Wife's tale] (before 1600), the Wanton Wife of Bath, makes several appearances through 1778.... This ballad tells an engaging story of the Wife talking her way past St. Peter to get into heaven. The beginning of the ballad was sung in two plays,,, in Act 2 of Thomas Jevon's The Devil of a Wife (1686), first three stanzas only, and as Air 10 (first two stanzas only) in Charles Coffey's redaction The Devil to Pay (first published 1738). The phrase 'wanton wife' associated with Bath also appears in An excellent new medley (1620, STC 17777.5...), although we are told little more than than 'in Bath a wanton wrife did dwell, / She had two buckets to a well'.... The ballad itself was recast and expanded in 1700 under the title The New Wife of Bath to include a trip to hell.... Alfred Tobler... suggests that the two ballads are independent productions."
Turner, p. 154, declares this "The most avidly read and longest lasting" of the works based on the Wife of Bath's story. She notes that there were two instances of printers being punished for publishing it. In 1600, printers Edward Aldee and William White, and seller Edward White, were fined for selling it. All copies were burnt, and it was declared "disorderly" (Turner, pp. 154-155). In 1632, Henry Goskin was actually imprisoned for printing it, "because in it 'the histories of the Bible are scurrilously abused'" (Turner, p. 155).
It is interesting to speculate about why Aldee and the Whites were punished, and Goskin punished so severely. I seem to recall that Edward White got in trouble on other occasions for printing works without registering them with the Stationer's Company, but (as in the Aldee/White case) that could only result in a fine. Why was Goskin punished? Turner, pp. 156-158, thinks that, in both cases, the problem was the Wife's resistance to authority. That mattered in 1600, when Essex's rebellion against Elizabeth I was in the air, and perhaps even more in 1632, when resistance to the autocratic Charles I was stiffening.
The longer version, in Turner's view, was Scottish and written around 1700. It sometimes calls the wife "worthy" rather than "wanton." "It is clearly advocating a Protestant understanding of redemption, in its focus on faith and grace -- rather than confession and forgiveness of sins" (Turner, p. 156). "The rewriting... circa 1700 removed some of its oppositional, subversive tendencies, both by swapping Alison's 'wanton'-ness for 'worthy'-ness and, more significantly, by making her religiosity fit with contemporary Scottish Protestantism" (Turner, p. 159). No wonder it's deadly dull....
The logic of the piece is quite solid if you don't bring an anti-female opinion. The Wife can points out sins by Adam, Jacob, Jonah, Judith, Thomas, etc. -- even Peter. When she accuses Peter, Jesus defends both, letting the wife into heaven.
It is interesting to find a reference to Judith, whose story is in the Apocrypha, not the Old or New Testament. The Anglican Church did not absolutely reject the Apocrypha to the extent other Protestant churches did, but it didn't build doctrine on it. Could it be that the tale on which the poem is based predates the Reformation?
I love the fact that the Wife ends up a lawyer in Heaven. It's perfect.
In addition to her NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal article, Bettsy Bowden in 2017 published The Wife of Bath in Afterlife: Ballads to Blake, Lehigh University Press. Reviews show that it includes a section on this piece -- but the book is very expensive, and has minimal folk connections, so I haven't pursued it.
Note: I've listed as "related" versions of Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Tale." But there are probably thousands of editions of the Canterbury Tales, and about eighty manuscript copies. So I've decided to list only the four most important modern editions of Chaucer (none of them retellings or modernized versions, although two have modernized the orthography), and the most important manuscripts.
The scriptural characters with whom the Wife contends are as follows:
ADAM: The line "Thou wert the cause of all our woe" of course refers to the Fall, told in Genesis 3. The line blaming him for sin "in pleasure of thy wife" does not, I think, refer to sexual relations before the fall; all Adam's and Eve's children were born after they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. I think this means that he listened to his wife's advice to eat the forbidden fruit (see Genesis 3:6, 12).
JACOB: Jacob's deceptions were many and various; the stories about him are not at all edifying. One could lay many charges against him. Probably the one here is based on his tricking his brother Esau out of his birthright (Genesis 25:29-34), then, when his blind father Isaac was dying, Jacob pretended to be Esau to steal the blessing Isaac meant for Esau (Genesis 27). He also deceived his father-in-law Laban, although Laban was cheating Jacob at the same time.(Genesis 29-30).
LOT: This should have preceded Jacob. After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot and his daughters fled to the hills, and Lot refused to leave his desert habitation. His two daughters, seeing no other way to have children, got him drunk and slept with him; the peoples of Moab and the Ammonites were said to be offspring of this union (Genesis 19). Lot did not deliberately sin, but his children were certainly incestuous.
JUDITH: This should have come after David and Solomon. It's from the Book of Judith, which is extremely historically inaccurate fiction. The general Holofernes is invading Judea, and Judith, a beautiful widow, comes on to him then murders him. This assuredly never happened; the chronology is nonsense.
DAVID: The specific reference here is to David seducing Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and having Uriah killed to cover his crime (2 Samuel 11). There are hints of other crimes on David's part -- not least, rebelling against Saul -- but this is the one that was explicitly acknowledged.
SOLOMON: 1 Kings 11 lists Solomon's errors, including having 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11;3), as well as many foreign women. With all that to occupy his time, little wonder he let Israel crumble! And, as the Wife says, the foreign wives "turned away his heart after other gods" (11:4).
JONAS (JONAH): Presumably a reference to Jonah fleeing his prophetic calling in the first chapter of the book of Jonah.
THOMAS: In the account of the Gospel of John, the Apostle Thomas did not see see the risen Jesus as early as the other disciples, and did not believe in the resurrection until Jesus met him personally (John 20:24-29). Hence the name "Doubting Thomas."
MARY MAGDALENE: We don't really know much about Mary Magdalene except that Jesus cast "seven demons" out of her (Luke 8:2; repeated in the spurious Mark 16:9) -- but she was widely believed to have been a prostitute, based possibly on a false equivalence with Luke 7:36-48, since that woman and Mary of Bethany both anointed Jesus's feet (Mary of Bethany's act of so doing is in John 12:1-8). Then all you have to do is equate Mary of Bethany with Mary Magdalene and suddenly Mary the demon-possessed becomes the same as a unnamed woman who may have been a prostitute! But they believed it in the Middle Ages. The Wife further conflates Mary Magdalene with the Woman Taken in Adultery in "John 7:53-8:12," another spurious passage but one in which Jesus wrote on the ground while the woman's accusers stole away. There is a very real similarity to that story and this: Many come to accuse the Wife of Bath of sin, but she reveals the sin of each of them. What the Wife would have done if some lesser personage had shown up, whose sin was not known, I have no clue.
Although the Wife's description of Mary Magdalene is entirely false to the Bible, we should probably add that Catholic tradition did include most of these details -- e.g. the account in the famous Golden Legend is about 5% Biblical and 95% non-historical but similar to elements of the Wife's story here.
PETER: Peter's denial of Jesus before the crucifixion is told in all four gospels, with differences in details; the basic account is Mark 14:29-30 (the denial foretold), 14:66-72 (the denial itself).
PAUL: Paul's persecution of the church is narrated in Acts 7:58-8:3, 9:1-2; Paul admits to it in various of his letters.
The Wife's mention to wandering sheep is probably an allusion to the parable of the Lost Sheep/the Ninety and Nine, Matthew 18:12-14/Luke 15:3-7. The "one poor silly word" that brought a thief to paradise is surely a reference to the repentant thief to Luke 23:39-43. The Prodigal Son forgiven by his father is Luke 15:11-32. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: PW3WWoB

War Alphabet

See Air Force Alphabet (File: LLab067)

War Bird's Burlesque, A

DESCRIPTION: "A portly Roman Senator was sipping his Rock and Rye When a classic Vestal Virgin caught his educated eye." But while the "Senator" is away, a junior young officer slips into her bed. Finally the "Senator" forgives her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: adultery seduction humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 438-439, "A War Bird's Burlesque" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sea Captain and the Squire" [Laws Q12] (plot)
File: San438

War Correspondent, The

DESCRIPTION: "You've all heard of 'Banjo' Paterson and of course I needn't say That he's the best and the greatest correspondent of the day...." The singer, alleged to be Paterson, boasts of all the people he knows and of his great journalistic skills
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia)
KEYWORDS: bragging humorous
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 274-275, "The War Correspondent" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, pp. 88089, "The War Correspondent" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [43 words]: Meredith and Anderson's informant, "Duke" Tritton, was of the opinion that Banjo Paterson wrote this piece as a parody of his exploits (Paterson was a war correspondent during the Boer War). Given Paterson's observed behavior, however, this seems unlikely. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: MA274

War in Missouri in '61, The

DESCRIPTION: The title tells the subject. "Claybourn Jacks" tries to pull Missouri out of the Union, and Harney does little to stop him. Price and Blair and the Lion (Lyon) stop him. But the Lion is killed by McCulloch. The author asks forgiveness for his rough verse
AUTHOR: B. F. Lock?
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 17, 1861 - Battle of Boonville
Jul 5, 1861 - Battle of Carthage
Aug 10, 1861 - Battle of Wilson's Creek
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 366-367, "The War in Missouri in '61" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 368-369, "The War in Missouri in '61" (1 text)
Roud #3698
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jolly Union Boys" and references there (concerning Battle of Wilson's Creek)
NOTES [2944 words]: To explain everything about this song (if it is a song and not just a poem) would take a small book; Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's notes try to cover it, but they have some defects. I'll try to give a little more information about the characters and events named, although this is no substitute for a proper history.
-- "Claybourn Jacks": Claiborne Fox Jackson (1806-1862), Governor of Missouri from 1860; tried and failed to pull the state out of the Union when the South seceded. A secessionist himself, he had called a convention to vote Missouri out of the Union, but the delegates voted to stay (McPherson, p. 290. Eventually a minority of the state legislature, meeting away from the capitol and without a quorum, claimed to take Missouri out of the Union, but most parts of the state stayed loyal, although it no longer had a functioning government except the convention and its appointees; McPherson, p. 293).
-- "Tom Price": Thomas Lawson Price (1809-1870), railroad builder and war democrat, who opposed secession. (He had been a follower of that staunch Unionist Thomas Hart Benton, and was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1848 on the strength of his alliance with Benton.) Elected to congress in 1860, he opposed the administration and was defeated for re-election in 1862 (DAB, volume VIII, pp. 218-219), but none of this would have been evident in 1861.
"Price (#2)": Note that this is not another reference to Tom Price but rather to Sterling Price (1809-1867), former governor of Missouri and Confederate commander of Missouri troops. He had chaired the convention that kept Missouri in the Union, but the policies of Blair and Lyon drove him toward the Confederacy. Governor Jackson had appointed him to command the Missouri Guard soon after the conflict began, before it was clear what Missouri's role in the war would be (DAB, volume VIII, p. 216). Price would be leader of half the troops at Wilson's Creek.
-- "Harney": William A. Harney (1800-1889), commander of the Deparment of the West (centered at St. Louis) when the war began. Loyal to the Union but a friend of slaveholders, he did little to control Missouri secessionists, was suspected of sympathy with the rebellion, and was superseded May 29, 1861 (Boatner, p. 376).
The "Harney Compromise" was an agreement between Harney and former governor Sterling Price (McPherson, p. 292), to the effect that "the state would assume responsibility for keeping order in Missouri, and that so long as order was maintained, Harney would take no military action that might provoke conflict between the state and federal forces. This, they felt, was the best course for Missouri's future" (Phillips, p. 205).
The song correctly states that the compromise failed because the secessionists did not respect it (Phillips, p. 207; Brooksher, p. 73); eventually Frank Blair, who had authority to have Harney fired, had the general relieved because he didn't think Harney was doing enough (Phillips, p. 208).
-- "Frost": Daniel M. Frost (c. 1823-1900), West Point graduate and Missouri businessman. Appointed by the Confederates to take over the St. Louis arsenal, he was captured by Lyon instead, later being exchanged and becoming a Confederate general.
-- "Lyon" or "the Lion": Nathaniel Lyon (1818-1861), initially a regular army captain serving in St. Louis. Lyon was truly a unique individual; even one of his friends described him as "intolerant of opposition, prone to inject the most unpopular opinions at times and places where he knew they would be unwelcome; easily aroused to a degree of anger that was almost insane in its manifestations; narrow-minded, mentally unbalanced, and yet with all this, honest to the core, truthful, intelligent, generous to a fault with those he liked, absolutely moral, attentive to duties, a strict disciplinarian, and ... was one to trust in emergencies with absolute confidence that he would do what he said he would do, even though he gave up his life for his constancy" (Brooksher, p. 35). This was the many who, more than any other, kept Missouri in the Union.
Alarmed by Jackson's actions and Harney's inaction, he and Frank Blair conspired to keep Missouri in the Union. On May 10, he captured Frost and his hundreds of supporters at Camp Jackson (the only Union casualties were Lyon, who was kicked in the stomach by one of his artillery officer's horses -- Phillips, p. 189 -- and Franz Sigel, also lightly injured by a horse). Unfortunately, rioting followed, and many civilians were hurt (MacPherson, p. 291). Lyon would later die at Wilson's Creek.
Legally, very little that Lyon did was permissible; when he detected artillery being shipped to Camp Jackson by the Confederate government, the lawyer on his planning team insisted that he could not simply attack Frost's forces to take it back; he had to obtain and serve a writ (Philipps, pp. 184-185); Frost's forces were not openly in rebellion and had legally been assembled under Missouri law at Jackson's order. Lyon ignored the law, and surrounded Camp Jackson with five-thousand-odd militia and a few regulars (Philipps, pp. 187-188). Frost felt -- and was -- betrayed, but he was outmaneuvered, and when he tried to negotiate, Lyon demanded and got an unconditional surrender (Phillips, p. 189).
After the failure of the Harney Compromise, there was a meeting between the sides to try to work out another truce. Lyon would have none of it, and told Jackson and Sterling Price "This means war" (Phillips, p. 214). He then mounted an expedition from Saint Louis (the most Unionist part of the state) toward the state capitol, Jefferson City. Price and Jackson decided the Jefferson City was indefensible, and retreated toward Boonville, where Price ordered his troops to assemble (Phillips, p. 217).
"Boonville": You can tell that this piece was written early in the war, because it notices the tiny "battle" of Boonville. Lyon, having secured Jefferson City, continued to pursue the Confederates, and caught them at this town sixty or so miles up the Missouri River (it's almost due west of Columbia, and west northwest of Jefferson City). There were only a few dozen casualties, about equally split between the sides, but Lyon's artillery (Totten's battery, which was managed by actual regulars) scared the Confederates, and he captured about sixty of their militia; the Confederates fled toward southwest Missouri (Phillips, pp. 219-220; Gerteis, pp. 38-39). Their retreat was so rapid and disorganized that it was called the Boonville Races (Brooksher, p. 90).
-- "Frank Blair": Francis Preston Blair, Jr. (1821-1875), Missouri congressman and later union general. While Nathaniel Lyon ran the military operations in Missouri, Blair handled the politics, pulling the strings to get rid of Harney and put Lyon in charge.
-- "Totten": James Totten (1818?-1871), an artillerist in the regular army, who commanded the cannon which were key to the battle of Boonville (Phillips, pp. 219-220; Gerteis, p. 35; according to HessEtAl, p. 261, his unit was Company F, 2nd U.S. Artillery). He would receive brevet promotions for Boonville, as well as Wilson's Creek and others; he also served as General Frémont's Chief of Staff and served with distinction throughout the war -- but was cashiered in 1870 for what sounds like financial misdealings or lack of respect toward his superiors or both (Boatner, p. 843).
His more obvious problem was drink. According to Brooksher, p. 104, he was "nicknamed 'Bottle-nosed Totten' because he always carried a canteen of brandy, also becoming a favorite for the manner in which he gave orders: 'Forward that caisson, goddamn you, sir" or "Swing that piece in line, goddamn you, sir.' Pvt. Eugene Ware alleged the men would walk a half mile to listen to him for five minutes anytime."
-- "Sigel": Franz Sigel (1824-1902), Union officer (later general). He would prove dreadfully incompetent, but at the time, he was one of the few trained officers available, though the training had come in Germany.
After the successes in Saint Louis, Lyon clearly tried for too much. When Lyon set out for Jefferson City to the northwest, he meant to have a second column, under his second-in-command in the old army, Thomas Sweeney, head southwest to Rolla and, beyond that, to Springfield in the southwest corner of the state. If he controlled Springfield, he would have almost the whole state under control -- but the railroad ended at Rolla (Map in Brooksher, p. 85), meaning that the force headed for Springfield would have a hundred or so miles of supply line running over poor roads and no way to reinforce quickly. If his subordinate got in trouble, Lyon's whole campaign could fail.
And said subordinate did a very good job of getting in trouble. Lyon concluded that he needed Sweeney to stay in Saint Louis for the moment, so he gave the Springfield command to Sigel (Phillips, p. 216). The German advanced to Springfield, then even farther west, apparently hoping to defeat the troops of Price and Jackson in detail (Brooksher, p. 108).
It might have worked if Sigel had had proper intelligence information and known how to use it. Or even if he had had better troops. But none of those applied. He found himself almost surrounded at Carthage (July 5). Outnumbered by three or four to one, Sigel was forced to retreat (Phillips, p. 229). The retreat was well run, but it was a retreat, and a strategic defeat for the Union that gave the Confederates a big morale boost (although once again the battle losses were light -- "probably fewer than fifty killed, one hundred fifty wounded, and sixty captured"; Brooksher, p. 125). And Sigel's panicky messages caused Lyon to have to come running to the rescue, upsetting the campaign plan. Lyon had to direct his main force to Springfield.
It may be that Lyon, like Sigel, hoped to defeat his enemies in detail (Brooksher, pp. 147-148), but he simply couldn't get things together in time. It didn't change his planning; many experts think the strain was starting to get to him (he had, obviously, never had anything like his current responsibilities!), and he lost his ability to respond to circumstances.
At Wilson's Creek, a little southwest of Springfield, Lyon learned that department commander General Frémont (who had been appointed to head the newly-created Western Department and arrived in Saint Louis on July 25; Boatner, p. 314) would send him no reinforcements, meanng that Lyon's only real choice was retreat in the face of an army with twice his numbers. But he, encouraged by his subordinate Sweeney, decided to strike a blow before falling back (Phillips, p. 247). The result was the Battle of Wilson's Creek.
The plan Lyon eventually came up with was complex, involving a frontal attack by his main body while one brigade (about a quarter of his force) took the Confederates in the rear. It might have worked -- if the detached brigade had done anything. But it failed completely, being routed almost at first contact with the Confederates. The brigade hadn't even done much firing at the Confederates; their commander decided that the troops advancing on them must be victorious Federal forces! (Brooksher, p. 201). This failure cost the Union forces any faint chance for victory. And who led this maneuver? Franz Sigel. Indeed, according to Phillips, p. 250, it was Sigel's idea, and Lyon went along because he feared Sigel's political influence.
Sigel in the retreat lost 64 killed, 147 taken prisoner; all his artillery and at least one regimental flag were captured (Brooksher, p. 209). That's a sixth of his force killed or captured, with more presumably wounded. Sigel himself hid in a cornfield for a time, then rode straight for Springfield, where, instead of doing something useful, he went to bed, inspiring a Confederate taunt,
Old Sigel fought some on that day,
But lost his army in the fray;
Then off to Springfield he did run,
With two Dutch guards, and nary a gun. (Brooksher, p. 210.)
Lyon almost certainly never even found out what happened to his flanking force.
The whole Union side seemed to have "we-have-to-fight-itis." Lyon reportedly expected to die (Phillips, p. 252), but didn't leave the front even after receiving a severe leg wound, then having his horse killed, then receiving a head injury (Phillips, p. 254). At that point, he was about ready to give up, but his chief of staff, John M. Schofield, urged him on. He needed help to get on an orderly's horse, but he led another attack -- and was shot dead (Phillips, pp. 255-256), sending him "back to his den" as the song puts it. His troops weren't even organized enough to bring his body back with them (Phillips, pp. 258-259).
How bad were the Federal losses at Wilson's Creek? Fox, p. 497, lists the two regiments with the heaviest losses: the 1st Missouri (Andrews's brigade), with 76 killed, 208 wounded (many of them mortally), and 11 messing, for a total of 295, out of what Brooksher, p. 237, estimated was an initial strength of 775. The 1st Kansas (Dietzler's Brigade) had 77 killed, 187 wounded, 20 missing, for a total of 284 (out of 800, according to Brooksher, p. 238, although Fox, p. 417, thinks only 644 were engaged). The 1st Kansas suffered more casualties at Wilson's Creek than in every other day of its entire three years' service combined, by a large margin. For comparison, the worst total in killed and wounded at any other battle in the war up to that time was the 1st Minnesota at Bull Run, with 42 killed, 108 wounded, 30 captured, total of 180. On p. 17, Fox lists the total killed and mortally wounded for the 1st Kansas as 106 and for the 1st Missouri as 108. These were the fifth and sixth highest totals sustained by any regiments in a single battle in the entire war. They don't stand as high in percentage terms -- few regiments went into battle with 700+ men with the colors! -- but still, no other Union unit would take that sort of casualties until Grant's Tennessee campaigns of spring 1862. And the other units in Lyon's army suffered almost as much. It was an incredibly deadly fight.
Even though the Union forces had to retreat to Rolla after his death, Lyon had still done what had to be done: "The Union's great sweep to subdue southwestern Missouri was over -- a failure in the eyes of the South; a victory in the eyes of the North. The sweep was indeed a failure if one considers only that the Union left the field to the Rebels. It was a victory, however, if one looks at the larger picture -- Missouri certainly would not leave the Union in the near term nor, in all likelihood, would it ever secede" (Brooksher, p. 227). On p. 234, Brooksher concludes that the battle wasn't worth the fight; Springfield wasn't worth having. But, perhaps, by heading to the southwest, Lyon secured Jefferson City and Saint Louis and the Missouri River, which were the keys to the state. So maybe even the defeat had some value.
-- Parson: Belden conjectures this is Lewis Baldwin Parsons (1818-1907), who was from Missouri but who became a Union officer. This seems a very poor fit. I believe it is Mosby M. Parsons (the spelling used by Brooksher, Phillips, and Boatner; Gerteis calls him "M. Mosby Parsons"), whose Confederate troops had possession of Lyon's body for a time (Phillips, p. 259). According to HessEtAl, p. 262, he commanded the "6th Division" (actually an under-strength brigade) in Ben McCulloch's Arkansas forces; Gerteis, p. 29, says he commanded the sixth military district of Missouri (a region just south of the Missouri River).
If Parsons is indeed Mosby Parsons, it would explain the line ""For he can whip the devil and all the time retreat." The reference is most likely to the Battle of Carthage. Sigel, although outnumbered by four to one or so (more, if you count unarmed Confederates) hoped his more disciplined forces could beat the Missouri troops under Governor Jackson. They couldn't; Sigel's forces were forced to engage in a fighting retreat. But they gave much more than they got; Sigel lost 44 men, the Confederates about two hundred (Gerteis, p. 48). Parsons, who fought in the battle, also lost a good friend, so he had particular reason to remember it.
The reference would also fit the situation after Wilson's Creek, with the Federals retreating first to Springfield and then all the way to Rolla after inflicting heavy casualties on the Confederates; with Lyon dead, Sigel was given command of the Union forces for a time, until the non-German troops grew disgusted with him (Gerteis, pp. 73-74; Brookshear, p. 227, says that Sigel tried to stage an election that would let him keep command, but Major Sturgis, the Federal commander who had taken charge after Lyon's death and ordered the retreat of the main force, flatly refused). In any case, Sigel's command was quite temporary, and doesn't seem to fit the song's chronology; I think the reference is to Carthage.
Price was not present at Carthage.
-- "McCullough" or "Old Ben": Belden thinks both references are to Ben McCulloch (1811-1862), commander of Arkansas troops at Wilson's Creek and theoretical commander (though in effect he and Price led two independent armies). He would be killed in 1862 at Pea Ridge. No doubt the first reference is indeed to McCulloch. But the poem says that "Old Ben" was killed at Wilson's Creek -- and McCulloch wasn't. However, another senior officer named Ben did die there. This was Colonel Ben Brown (Brooksher, p. 223), who commanded "Brown's Cavalry," the largest unit in Parsons's division of Price's army. If "Old Ben" indeed refers to Brown, it would eliminate the one clear error in the account in this piece. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: Beld366

War Is Now Raging, The

See The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging) [Laws O33] (File: LO33)

War Song (I)

See The Rebel's Escape [Laws A19] (File: LA19)

War Song (II)

See The Texas Rangers [Laws A8] (File: LA08)

War Song (III)

See Bonnie George Campbell [Child 210] (File: C210)

War Song (IV)

See Bull Run (War Song) (File: JHCox068)

War Song of the Revolution

DESCRIPTION: "Come ye Americans and tremble Here before your might God." The singer describes women and children slain and husbands and families destroyed by war. Storms and fires destroy cities. Listeners are warned to turn to God
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: battle death storm disaster warning religious
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 295, "War Song of the Revolution" (1 text)
Roud #7953
NOTES [66 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety knew nothing of this save that the informant thought it concerned the Revolutionary War. Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety notes that, if it does date back that far, it's probably Tory. He's likely right -- but I wonder if it isn't two songs merged together, with the second being some sort of hymn based on the Apocalypse. - RBW
File: Beld295

Ward Line, The

DESCRIPTION: "De cap'n's in dce pilot house ringin' de bell, Who's on de way, boys, who's on de way? 'N' de mate's down atween decks givin' de niggas hell, Tell me, whar you goin?" Complains of a Black sailor on a Great Lakes ship
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected by Walton from several Great Lakes sailors)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 41-45, "The Ward Line" (1 composite text plus some stray verses, 1 tune)
Roud #19878
NOTES [83 words]: Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors reports that Sam Ward founded the Ward Line in 1820, and that Captain Eber Brock Ward was Michigan's richest man at the time of his death in 1875. One of the ships of the Ward Line was the Sam Ward, known as the "Old Black Sam." Julius F. Wolff, Jr., Lake Superior Shipwrecks, Lake Superior Port Cities Inc., Duluth, 1990, p.4, says the Sam Ward was a 433 ton steamer which had an accident in 1854 but survived. She was wrecked in 1861. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: WGM043

Ward the Pirate

See Captain Ward and the Rainbow [Child 287] (File: C287)

Warfare is A-Raging, The

See The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging) [Laws O33] (File: LO33)

Warfare is Raging, The

See The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging) [Laws O33] (File: LO33)

Wark o' the Weavers, The

See The Work of the Weavers (File: FSWB127)

Warlike Seamen (The Irish Captain)

DESCRIPTION: Singer's ship sails for the coast of Ireland. They encounter a French ship. They report that they're from Liverpool and they will show the Frenchmen what they're made of. They badly damage the French ship,which surrenders; they drink the captain's health
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a sailor on an English ship with an Irish captain, sails for the coast of (Africa/Ireland). They encounter a French ship, which hails them and demands to know their name and port. They reply that they're from Liverpool (their ship is the, "London", "Lion" or "Marigold") and they will show the Frenchmen what they're made of. They fire the cannons, and the French ship, badly damaged, surrenders; they land in Plymouth and drink the captain's health
KEYWORDS: pride battle fight navy violence ship drink France sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 11, 1746 - Battle between the British "Nottingham" and French "Mars"
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 57, "The London, Man of War" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #70, "Liverpool Play" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 284-285, "Warlike Seamen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 29, "Liverpool Play" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WARLIKES
Roud #690
RECORDINGS:
Bob & Ron Copper, "Warlike Seamen (The Irish Captain)" (on LastDays)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The French Privateer" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "The Brooklyn" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "The Dolphin" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "The Terrible Privateer" (plot)
cf. "General Armstrong" (form)
NOTES [949 words]: While the second half of this song is identical to that of "The French Privateer," their openings are different, so I've split them. - PJS
Roud lumps them, naturally, and throws in "The Dolphin" (and perhaps others) for good measure.
There is a discussion of this on mudcat.org, which suggests the following:
The captain was not Irish and was not Somerville; he was Philip Saumaurez, and he apparently wrote an early version of this song to praise his own exploit. He was killed in 1747 while serving under Admiral Hawke (for whom see "Bold Hawke"). Thus, although not nearly as popular as, say, "The Dolphin," it would appear that this was the original of the family.
The fight between H.M.S. Nottingham and the French Mars took place on October 11, 1746 (i.e. during the War of the Austrian Succession/The War of Jenkins's Ear).
The de Sausmarez family was from Guernsey (one of the Channel Islands); Philip and his relatives anglicized this as "Saumarez" (Rousham, p. 1).
Saumarez had already gathered a fair bit of attention before the events in this song, though. In 1740, as a lieutenant, he was part of George Anson's long, deadly, but highly profitable voyage around the world, including some time as acting commander of the 8-gun sloop Tryal (Herman, p. 257; Williams, p. 37). After Anson combined his decimated crews on a single ship, it was Saumarez who led the (tiny) boarding party from Anson's Centurion that took over the damaged Spanish treasure ship the Nuestra Senora de Covadonga (called that Cobadonga by Rousham and Heaps, based presumably on Saumarez's spelling), in the process capturing almost a million pounds' worth of treasure (Herman, p. 259). Saumarez then commanded the Covadonga as the British took her back to port in China Williams, p. 166). In human terms, the voyage was a disaster (Anson had lost roughly three-fourths of his 1900 men, mostly due to starvation, death, or the unexplained loss of their ships) -- but it made both Anson and Saumarez famous. It also won Saumarez promotion to captain (despite a squabble between Anson and the Admiralty over whether Anson had the right to make the appointment; Williams, p. 203). That entitled him to command of a major ship. He was made captain of the Nottingham, the ship mentioned in this song; according to Williams, p. 209, it was a 60-gun ship of the line.
"Philip Saumarez was perhaps the most capable and talented of [all Anson's subordinates]... In 1746 he was given his own command in the Nottingham and captured the Mars, one of the most prized French men-of-war, off Cape Clear [on the south coast of Ireland]" (Heaps, p. 258).
"The gruelling hardships of the four year circumnavigation of the Centurion thoroughly exhausted all who survived. When Saumarez had at last recovered a measure of his health... he went on to serve with unusual distinction and commanded his own vessel, the Nottingham, in the war with France. He captured the great French warship the Mars and achieved other notable victories in the short time left to him. In 1747 a cannon ball struck him down as he fought against the French fleet off Finisterre. He was 34 years old" (Heaps, pp. 16-17).
If Saumarez had a fault, it was craving attention -- e.g. he wrote a letter to Anson (although he may not have sent it) arguing that his seamanship on the Tryal had not gained enough recognition (Williams, p. 47). "He was obsessed with the idea of distinguishing himself" (Heaps, p. 16). He sounds like a man willing to blow his own horn. To be fair, he seems to have backed up his fame-seeking:
"In 1746 he was in command of the 60-gun Nottingham. In an engagement of[f] Cape Clear, he captured the Mars, a French man-of-war with 64 guns. The Lords of the Admiralty complimented him for this act of courage and seamanship" (Rousham, p. 45).
Saumarez was credited with designing the first official uniform for British naval officers (Heman, p. 261). "Yet Philip Saumaraz would never wear the uniform he designed. He had died the year before, commanding his ship Nottingham in a furious gun duel off Cape Finisterre against a more heavily armed armed ship of the the line, a French ship this time not Spanish, the 74-gun Intrepide" (Herman, p. 262). According to the surgeon who examined his body after his death, he was dying anyway, despite being not yet forty; something -- probably the privations he had suffered on Anson's voyage -- was causing a deformity and wasting of the lungs (Williams, p. 209).
The Samaurezes were a noteworthy naval family; a relative, James Saumarez (1757-1836) became an admiral and was made a peer. Another Samauraz, James, would be a naval captain in the Napoleonic era. The British named a World War I destroyer leader and a World War II destroyer Saumarez after the family (Wragg, p. 198; Worth, p. 114).
it is interesting that the captain in the Copper Family version of the song is named Somerville; apparently one of the Somervilles (another famous naval family) wrote about the Saumarezes in the 1930s, but I have not seen the work involved.
Although this song has wandered far from its origins in Saumarez's own poem, it still has some images that remind me of Saumarez's writings. For example, Rousham, pp. 40-41, prints some parts of his account of the battle with the Cobadonga:
Our first broadside had a good effect both with his men and rigging.
After near an hour's space we... could observe the officers running about confusedly as if they were preventing the desertion of their men from their quarters.
[T]he ship was surprisingly shattered in her hull, masts, and rigging; the mainmast was half shot through, and few of the shrouds left standing. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: DTwarlik

Warlock Laird o' Skene, The

DESCRIPTION: A magician swears an oath that after "ae nicht's frost ... He would drive o'er the Loch o' Skene." He casts a spell, calls out his coach and horses, and crosses the lake. Since then no fowl or fish is caught in that track.
AUTHOR: Alexander Gordon (1811-1873) (source: Walker)
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (according to Walker)
KEYWORDS: magic witch
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #65, p. 2, "The Warlock Laird o' Skene" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 345, "The Warlock Laird o' Skene" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: William Walker, The Bards of Bon-Accord 1375-1860 (Aberdeen, 1887 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 621-622, "Wizard Laird of Skene"
Roud #5874
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Robert Gordon of Gordonston" (motif: wizard rides across a frozen lake)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Laird o Skene
NOTES [53 words]: Greig/Duncan2: .".. a tradition that the wizard was Alexander Skene who died in 1724.... It is still affirmed that every winter the marks of the wheels are clearly visible upon the ice" - BS
Walker's text, apparently the last four verses of Gordon's text, includes three verses not in the Greig/Greig/Duncan2 texts. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD2345

Warning Song, A

See In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme (File: R090)

Warning to Girls, A

DESCRIPTION: "I once loves a young man So dear to my life, He told me so often He would make me my wife." "He fulfilled his promise, He made me his wife... I have ruined my whole life." In floating verses, she laments her sick baby and drunken husband and warns others
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal drink floatingverses baby disease
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #14, pp. 153-154, "A Warning to Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #413
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On Top of Old Smokey" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I'm Sad and I'm Lonely" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [77 words]: This song, or at least the version collected by Cox, is almost all floating verses (the only significant exception is the second stanza in which the man marries the singer). But that verse changes the tone of the whole piece (what would otherwise be a lost love song becomes a bad marriage song), causing me to file it separately.
Roud, curiously, files it with "The Cuckoo." If I had to file it with one well-known song, it would be "On Top of Old Smokey." - RBW
File: CoxII14

Warning to Parients, A

See Peter Gray (File: FSWB240C)

Warning to those who serve lords, A

See If Thou Serve a Lord of Price (For Service Is None Heritage) (File: MSITSLOP)

Warning to Wife-Stealers, A

DESCRIPTION: "Just let his be a warning to wife-stealers: Stay away! You cannot come to Arkansas and steal another's wife! And if you dare to try it you will surely have to pay, yes, You must pay most dearly with your life."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: husband wife adultery homicide
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1857 - Murder of Parley Parker Pratt
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, p. 176, "(Just let this be a warning to wife-stealers)" (1 fragment)
NOTES [300 words]: Cheney-MormonSongs says this is about the murder of the Mormon leader Parley P. Pratt. Certainly what details it contains fit that event: Pratt (1807-1857) had been poor as a boy, and converted to Mormonism in 1830. Joseph Smith sent Pratt west to teach Native Americans; along the way, Pratt met and converted Sidney Rigdon, who was responsible for most of the limited knowledge of historical Christianity found in Mormon doctrine (Reeve/Parshall, p. 166). Pratt and his brother Orson became important Mormon missionaries as well as helping lead the exodus to Utah; Reeve/Parshall, p. 167, declare they had a "profound influence on Mormonism through their preaching and writing" (even though Orson had repeated disputes with church leaders).
Maybe Parley should have argued with them, too. Unfortunately for Pratt, he listened to Joseph Smith on the subject of polygamy; he had twelve wives and fathered thirty children, no doubt causing a noticeable decline in the average intelligence of the human race by his efforts -- because the sequel was just stupid. Pratt become involved with an already-married women, Elenore McLean (Bagley, pp. 8-9), who became his final wife (Reeve/Parshall, p. 168). After a long and complicated pursuit across the country, McLean's husband succeeded in killing Pratt near Van Buren, Arkansas.
The killing was extrajudicial -- but it was also popular; the locals had already hauled Pratt before the law on trumped-up charges (Denton, pp. 110-111). The basic reason for the hullabaloo was polygamy, but Denton, p. 112, and Brooks, p. 57, state that the Mormons viewed it as religious persecution. Some have argued that the murder of Pratt was a cause, or at least an excuse, for the Mountain Meadows Massacre, for which see "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" [Laws B19] - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChMS176F

Warranty Deed, The (The Wealthy Old Maid) [Laws H24]

DESCRIPTION: A lawyer, underemployed and impoverished, at last decides to marry a wealthy old maid. The bride prepares for their wedding night by taking off wig, false teeth, false eye, and other decorations. The husband, who failed to get a "warranty deed," flees
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid marriage humorous disguise
FOUND IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws H24, "The Warranty Deed"
Sturgis/Hughes-SongsFromTheHillsOfVermont, pp. 34-37, "The Warranty Deed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 465, "The Warranty Deed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 333-335, "The Warranty Deed" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 465)
DT 651, (UNFORTUN)
Roud #2188
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Maid and the Burglar" [Laws H23]
cf. "Only Nineteen Years Old" (theme)
cf. "After the Ball Was Over, Sally Plucked Out Her Glass Eye" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Unfortunate Man
The Very Unfortunate Man
NOTES [158 words]: Gilbert has a piece (pp. 194-195), "It Takes A Girl to Fool You Every Time," which has this exact plot but entirely different lyrics, reportedly by Ned Oliver. I strongly doubt the latter went into oral tradition (it's not as good a song, anyway), but it may have been inspired by this piece.
Arnold Keith Storm also sings a piece, "Patched Up Old Devil," on this theme. It appears to be from family tradition; I have not encountered it elsewhere. As with Gilbert's piece, the plot is the same but the song quite distinct.
The pop folk version of this, "The Very Unfortunate Man," was reportedly assembled (I use the word advisedly) by Jimmy Driftwood.
I have heard that there was an unpublished 1898 play by Mark Twain with this exact plot. It sounds *extremely* close to this song. It sounds as if there has to be dependence -- with this probably the original, since the Twain play ended up in a drawer, almost entirely unseen until around 2005. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: LH24

Warrego Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks if the listener has ever been in Queensland. In Warrego, in Queensland, is his love. "She was black -- but what of that?... She was just the sort for a bushman." He enjoyed her company, but then found she had given him a social disease
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: disease whore bawdy
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 190-191, 223, "The Warrego Lament" (2 texts, 1 tune)
File: MA190

Warrior's Grave

See I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree (I) (File: MN1113)

Wars o' Germanie, The

DESCRIPTION: "O, wae be to the orders that marched my love awa', And wae be to the cruel cause that gars my tears down fa'." The singer recalls her soldier's departure for the wars overseas. Her family chides her, but she says they do not understand
AUTHOR: William Motherwell ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: love separation soldier war
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 359, "The Wars o' Germanie" (1 text)
Roud #5608
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "High Germany (I)" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "High Germany (II)" (theme)
NOTES [40 words]: Ord-BothySongsAndBallads credits this to William Motherwell, and it's perfectly reasonable to assume Motherwell padded out a fragment of an existing song (probably "High Germany"). I do think there was that traditional fragment, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: Ord359

Wars of America, The

DESCRIPTION: "I have two sons and a son-in-law, Fightin' in the wars of America. But I don't know if I'll see them more Or whether they'll visit old Ireland's shore." The singer seeks the boys; at last one comes home -- but crippled from the wars
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (A Garland of Green Mountain Song, according to Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: mother children separation war soldier injury disability
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 198-199, "The Frenchman's Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 17, "The Wars of America" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 75, "My Son Ted" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #678
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" (plot)
cf. "By the Hush" (plot)
cf. "Mrs. McGrath" (plot)
NOTES [52 words]: Roud links this to "Mrs. McGrath." The plot similarity is obvious, but the songs themselves appear distinct to me. In Lomax's version, the conflict appears to have been the French and Indian Wars, and the soldier is named Terry. Perhaps the name "Ted" in Creighton's version was influenced by "Mrs. McGrath?" - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LoF017

Wars of Germany (I), The

See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Wars of Germany (II), The

See High Germany (File: ShH56)

Warsaw the Forty-Second

See Wha Saw the Forty-Second (File: MSNR098)

Warwickshire Hiring Song

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you lads that be here for service, Come here, you jolly dogs, Who will help me with my harvest?" The famer offers a likely fellow "five pounds in standing wages" and good food, and tells him to come on Thursday; "my servants do all leave me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (Palmer)
KEYWORDS: farming work commerce
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 123, (no title) (1 text, reportedly traditional although no source is listed)
File: RPFW123

Warwickshire R. H. A., The

See The Jolly Ploughboy (The Merry Plowboy, The Scarlet and the Blue) (File: Beha051)

Wary Bachelors

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you wary bachelors, come listen unto me... Before my wife was married, she was a dainty thing," but now she never finishes her work, but dresses up and goes out. "If my wife and your wife were in one boat together," the singer would drown both
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Thomas-DevilsDitties)
KEYWORDS: wife hardtimes clothes warning
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 126-127, "Wary Bachelors" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8889
File: ThDD126

Was dragt di Gans uff ihren Schnawwel? (What Does the Goose Carry on Her Bill?)

DESCRIPTION: German. "Was dragt di Gans uff ihren Schnawwel? En Schissel mit de Subbfe. Un em Jaejer war di Gans." "What does the goose carry on her bill? A knife and fork. And the goose belongs to the hunter." The goose carries other things on other body parts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: bird food hunting foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 71-72, "Was dragt di Gans uff ihren Schnawwel? (What Does the Goose Carry on Her Bill?)" (1 German text plus non-poetic English translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [29 words]: The article in Korson says that versions of this are known in Germany, but I have been unable to find any under this precise title, so I do not list it as FOUND IN Germany.. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: KPL071

Was It Right?

DESCRIPTION: "If you girls and boys will listen, I will tell them in my song, Of a sad thing that I noticed...." Two little children started to fight. Then a third boy comes along and causes them to make peace. "That was right, that was right."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Stout-FolkloreFromIowa); reportedly learned around 1885
KEYWORDS: fight children
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 103, pp. 127-133, "Early Iowa School Songs" (11 texts, of which "I1" and "I2" are this song)
Roud #21641
File: Stou103I

Was wachst in diesem Wald? (What Grows in This Forest?)

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

Was wachst uff diesem Bam? (What Grows on This Tree?)

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

Was You Ever See?

DESCRIPTION: "There was John and Jane and Betsy/Eating buns and drinking whisky/Dancing jigs upon the fiddle/Up the sides and down the middle"; singer's sister Bella is never without her umbrella; brother Joe went to Chester College for to get a bit of knowledge; etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (recorded from Manfrie Wood)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "There was John and Jane and Betsy/Eating buns and drinking whisky/Dancing jigs upon the fiddle/Up the sides and down the middle"; singer's sister Bella is never without her umbrella; his brother Joe went to Chester College for to get a bit of knowledge; etc. Chorus: "Was you ever see?/Was you ever see?/ Was you ever see such a jolly time before?"
KEYWORDS: nonsense moniker nonballad music
FOUND IN: Britain(Wales)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 309, "Was You Ever See" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 13, "Did You Ever See?" (1 text)
Roud #2144
RECORDINGS:
Manfrie Wood, "Was You Ever See?" (on FSB10)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cosher Bailey's Engine" (tune, structure) and references there
NOTES [64 words]: Because this is identical in form to "Cosher Bailey," I was tempted to lump them -- but Cosher isn't in it, so I split them. - PJS
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland regards "Cosher Bailey" as an offshoot of this song. But Kennedy thinks everything is a version of everything else; he offers no evidence. The verses of this seem to have gone in a completely different direction. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: K309

Wash Me in the Water

DESCRIPTION: "Wash me in the water That washed your dirty daughter/the Colonel's daughter, Then I shall be whiter Than the whitewash on the wall...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier children
FOUND IN: Britain Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 54, "Wash Me in the Water" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 69, "Wash Me in the Water" (1 text)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 37, "(no title)" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Ewan MacColl, _Journeyman: An Autobiography_, re-edited and with an introduction by Peggy Seeger, 1990; revised edition, Manchester University Press, 2009, p. 83, "(no title)" (1 fragment)
Roud #10550
NOTES [108 words]: Ewan MacColl's autobiography doesn't say where he learned this, but if he places it in the right context, he would have learned it in northern England in the early 1920s -- which makes it quite likely that he got it from a veteran of World War I (which would explain why he doesn't identify the source, since he rarely mentions the war or the soldiers). His is among the earliest, if not the earliest, versions of the standard text, but in the absence of clearer documentation, I have listed an EARLIEST DATE from a more reliable source.
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver says the tune of this is a "Salvation Army Hymn," but doesn't say which one! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BrPa054A

Wash the Dishes, Dry the Dishes

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Wash the dishes, Dry the dishes, Turn the dishes over. A rick tick one, A rick two, a ... ten."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Bluebells My Cockle Shells)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | wash dry dishes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #586, "Wash the dishes" (1 text)
Roud #20479
File: AJRR586

Wash the Lady's Dishes

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "Wash the lady's dishes, Hang them on the bushes; When the bushes start to crack, Hang them on a donkey's back. When the donkey starts to run Shoot him with a leather gun"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: animal | counting-out wash dishes bushes donkey
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 36, "(Wash the lady's dishes)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lil Lil" ("Wash the Lady's Dishes" couplet)
File: WEMM036A

Washin' Song

DESCRIPTION: "Some of these brethren gone wrong (x3), Oh, Lord, some of these brethren gone wrong." "Git right, brethren, git right." "Similarly with sisters, deacons, and presumably anyone else who has ever disagreed with the singer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 142, "Washin' Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16298
NOTES [20 words]: There are no references in the text of this to washing; it's just that the informant's informant sang it while washing. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Arno142

Washing Day

DESCRIPTION: "The sky with clouds was overcast, The rain began to fall, My wife she whipped the children And raised a pretty squall... Oh, the deil a bit o' comfort's here upon a washing day." The singer describes how his good wife turns evil on washing day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Logan-APedlarsPack)
KEYWORDS: work wife husband punishment
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland) US(NE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 296-299, "Washing Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 153, "The Washing-Day" (1 text)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 381-382, "The Washing Day" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, pp. 56-57, "(Washing Day)" (1 fragment plus a response, "Fuddling Day" or "Saint Monday")
Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, p. 236-237, "Washing Day" (1 text)
ST Lins296 (Partial)
Roud #3747
SAME TUNE:
Fuddling Day (Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, p. 238, listed as an "answer" to this.)
NOTES [132 words]: The similarities between the handful of truly-traditional texts of this song (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads and Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland) is such that I have to suspect broadside influence -- and, indeed, most of the texts listed by Roud are broadside or songster versions. Palmer admits his version is from a broadside -- as is the "Fuddling Day" response. Eric Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (combined fifth edition with dictionary and supplement, Macmillan, 1961) defines "fuddling" as drinking to excess or being stupefied with drink -- presumably related to being "befuddled," but with alcohol being apparently a necessary component.
Evidently, when the husband is washing (on Monday), the husband goes out and gets drunk -- so he pays either way. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: Lins296

Washington

DESCRIPTION: "We have a bold commander, Who fears no sword or gun, A second Alexander, Whose name is Washington."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: soldier nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1732-1799 - Life of George Washington
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 196, "Washington" (1 fragment, fifth of seven "Quatrains on the War")
ST Fus196A (Full)
NOTES [58 words]: Doubtless a fragment of one of the many broadsides about Washington, but with such a short text, I can't identify a source.
Honesty forces us to point out that this song is over-fulsome; Alexander the Great never lost a major battle, and Washington lost more than he won. But, of course, Washington won the battles that ended up counting most. - RBW
File: Fus196A

Washtub Blues, The

DESCRIPTION: "I washed dat woman's clo'es And I hung 'em on de line, My back most a-breakin', I's a-hurtin' all de time." The singer brings the clothes to their owner, who races "and she flung 'em on de flo'." The singer laments her pain and labor
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: work
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 247, "The Washtub Blues" (1 text)
File: Br3247

Wasn' That a Wonder

See Wasn't That a Wonder (File: Parr028)

Wasn't It Sad When That Great Ship Went Down

See The Titanic (I) ("It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down") [Laws D24] (Titanic #1) (File: LD24)

Wasn't Last Night but the Night Before

See Not Last Night But the Night Before (File: CarMF078)

Wasn't That a Mighty Storm

See Mighty Day (Wasn't That a Mighty Storm) (File: BSoF728)

Wasn't That a Wonder

DESCRIPTION: "Wasn't that a wonder in the Heaven (x2), Mighty wonder in the Heaven, That woman clothe with the sun, moon under her feet." "Read about the wonder in the heaven ...." "John saw the wonder in the heaven...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 28, pp. 139-140, "Wasn' That a Wonder" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Done Saw that Number" (some shared themes)
NOTES [105 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. Parrish has "That woman clothe with the sun, moon under her feet" as a tag line for each verse; Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 16-21, "John Done Saw That Number" has "Angel flew from the bottom of the pit, Gathered the sun all in her fist; Gathered the moon all 'round her wrist; Gathered the stars all under her feet; Gathered the wind all round her waist."
King James Revelation 12:1: "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr028

Wasp Bite Nobi on Her Conch-Eye, A

DESCRIPTION: "A wasp bite Nobi on her conch-eye" (x2). Mama is summoned to hold the light; the Germans will fight.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: bug nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 86, "A Wasp Bite Nobi On Her Conch-Eye" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #15648
File: LoSi086

Wasp Stinging Frolic

DESCRIPTION: "Then broadside and broadside full at it they went The Wasp stung the Frolick unto her content." Frolic is defeated and ordered toward port but a British 74 takes both the nest day.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: battle war rescue death sea ship America England patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
October 18-19, 1812 - American sloop battles and boards English brig Frolic; the next day a British 74 [the _Poictiers_] takes both ships (source: Thompson-APioneerSongster)
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 50, "Wasp Stinging Frolic" (1 text)
Roud #2825
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ye Parliament of England (I)" (theme)
File: ThP050

Wassail Bough, The

See Here We Come A-Wassailing (File: JRDF166)

Wassail Song (I)

See Somerset Wassail (File: ShH92)

Wassail Song (II)

See Here We Come A-Wassailing (File: JRDF166)

Wassail Song (III)

DESCRIPTION: "Jolly come to our jolly wassail." Wishes for a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Have "pockets of money and a cellar of beer" A ship in full sail is in the ocean gale. Get apples for cider. "I know you'll reward us for singing wassail"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (recording, Wassailers on Voice16)
KEYWORDS: request drink nonballad wassail ship storm Christmas
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 56, "Wassail Song" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #209
RECORDINGS:
Wassailers, "Wassail Song" (on Voice16)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Somerset Wassail" (subject) and references there
NOTES [69 words]: Roud lumps this with the many other wassail songs, but they all have different forms. I'm not absolutely sure that the Voice16 and Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall songs are the same (or, indeed, that Gundry's two texts are the same; the second is an apple tree wassail), but they are closer to each other than any other Wassails, and at some point we have to stop producing infinite wassail songs.... - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: RcWasSo3

Wassail Song (IV -- Pass the Wassail Cup from Hand to Hand)

DESCRIPTION: "Pass the wassail cup from hand to hand, Let us drink with peace and joy. Drink, good wife and master of the house; Drink, each child.... Bring pine and fir tree... Christmas is here, fill it with cheer... Sing good peae on earth and good will toward men"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin)
KEYWORDS: drink family drink wassail
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, p. 39, "Wassail Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #209
File: TSG039

Wassail Song (IV)

See Gloucester Wassail (File: ShH92)

Wassail, Wassail All Over the Town

See Gloucestershire Wassailers' Song (File: RcGlWasS)

Wassailers' Carol, The

See Here We Come A-Wassailing (File: JRDF166)

Waste Not, Want Not

See You Never Miss the Water till the Well Runs Dry (File: SRW125)

Wat Wi Doht

DESCRIPTION: Capsan shanty. German (Plattdeutsch). "Un wenn wi nu na Hamborg kamt." When they come to Hamburg, the sailors will pay for girls. The singer lists a few of the whores he might meet, and where they can be sought
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Hugill-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor home whore money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 70, "Wat Wi Doht" (2 texts, German and English; 1 tune)
File: HSoSe070

Wata Come a Me Y'Eye (Tears Come to My Eyes)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: Whenever the singer remembers Liza, whenever he thinks of his "nice gal Liza," "wata come a me 'eye." "Come back Liza."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Roberts)
KEYWORDS: grief love rejection nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, p. 12, "Wata Come a Me Y'Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
Helen H. Roberts, "A Study of Folk Song Variants Based on Field Work in Jamaica," Vol. XXXVIII, No. 148 (Apr-Jun 1925), #55 p. 189 "Akee" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jim Morse, _Folk Songs of the Caribbean_ (New York: Bantam Books, 1958), pp. 96-97, "Wata Come a Me Y'eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
William Attaway and Lyle Kenyon Engel, _Calypso Song Book_ (New York: Calypso Music, Inc, 1957), pp. 16-17, "Water Come a Me Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Wata Come a Me Y'Eye" (on WIEConnor01)
Lord Flea with the Jamaica Calypsonians, "Solas Market/Water Come From Me Eye" (1950s, on Times Record 78 rpm JAM 102), "Solas Market/Water Come a Mi Eye(Come Back Liza" on (n.d., on "Jamaica-Mento: 1951-58," Fremaux and Associes CDFA 5275).
NOTES [104 words]: Morse adds two verses that don't seem to fit: Every time he kisses, touches, loves or holds Liza, "wata come a me y'eye."
For an instrumental track listen to Ernest Ranglin and The Wigglers, Calypso Medley: Solas Market/Water Come a Mi Eye" (n.d., on "Jamaica-Mento: 1951-58," Fremaux and Associes CDFA 5275).
The Roberts text is combined with the first verse of "Linstead Market." The second verse is typical of "Wata Come a Me Y'Eye" and is very close to Lord Flea's: "Come back Charlie come back gal/ Wateh coveh me eye! When me look 'pon Mahdi so, wateh coveh me eye." [Flea sings "... when me look upon Mary Lin ...."]. - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: JaMu012

Watch and Chain

DESCRIPTION: "Who has stole my watch and chain, my fair lady?" "Off to prison you must go"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty prison theft
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 9, "Watch and Chain" (3 texts)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "London Bridge is Falling Down" (tune, per Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
File: OpGa009

Watch on the Rhine, The

See When We Wind Up the Watch on the Rhine (File: AWTBW095)

Watch that Lady

DESCRIPTION: "I been all around my last time, last time, last time, I been all around my last time. Young lady hold the key. Just watch that young lady how she hold that key (x2). Young lady, hold the key."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, children of Lilly's Chapel School)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 158, "(Watch That Lady)" (1 text); pp. 278-279, "Just Watch That Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 536-537, "Watch That Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11006
RECORDINGS:
Children of Lilly's Chapel School, "Watch That Lady" (on NFMAla6)
File: CNFM158

Watch That Star

See The Day is Past and Gone (File: RitS046)

Watch, Barrell, Watch (Mackerel Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Watch, barrel, watch, mackerel for to catch! White may they be, like blossom on the tree, God send thousands, one, two, three; Some by the head, some by the tail, God send mackerel and never fail... God send as many as we can lift in!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Simpson)
KEYWORDS: fishing nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jacqueline Simpson, _The Folklore of Sussex_, B. T. Batsford, 1973, p. 118, "(Watch, barrel, watch, mackerel for to catch!)" (1 text)
File: JSFS118

Watcher, The

DESCRIPTION: In the cold windy night a mother and her dying baby see a mansion where "a hundred lights are gleaming ... and merry feet are dancing." In the morning she and the baby are dead
AUTHOR: Sara Josepha Hale (1788-1879) (source: Thomson-Pioneer)
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: death poverty dancing baby mother
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 84, "The Watcher" (1 text)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 299, "The Watcher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2499, p. 169, "The Watcher" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 49, "The Watcher" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Wehman's [Universal Songster] Collection of 101 Songs No. 17 (New York, n.d., digitized by Internet Archive), p. 26, "The Watcher" (1 text) [see notes re source]
Roud #2848
BROADSIDES:
VonWalthour,CDDrive>w>w(186), "The Watcher" ("The night was dark and fearful"), J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
NOTES [164 words]: Regarding Wehman's Collection Norm Cohen writes, "Songbook #6 was undated, but most likely 1884-5." Each page except the first is headed Wehman's Universal Songster. The first page is undated but states, "Published Quarterly --January, April, July and October." Norm Cohen's Finding List ... has WE29, Universal Songster as "monthly serial ... [beginning] 1881" (Norm Cohen, A Finding List of American Secular Songsters Published Between 1860 and 1899 (Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, 2002), p. 150).
Broadside VonWalthour CDDrive>w>w(186): J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Sara(h) Josepha Hale is also credited with the words for "Mary Had a Little Lamb." This is obviously more interesting. Whether it is better is left as an exercise for the reader. For background on Hale, see the notes to "Mary Had a Little Lamb." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: TPS084

Watchet Sailor, The

See The Sailor and the Tailor [Laws P4] (File: LP04)

Watchman's Call, The

DESCRIPTION: "The watchman blows the trumpet loud, Come listen to the trumpet's sound, And be assured there's danger there. How many are prepared to die? Your days ahead will soon be o'er, And time to you return no more. Oh, some soul to save, What will I have..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 769, "The Watchman's Call" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [40 words]: The current description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 text. There is a fairly well-known hymn by Henry L. Gilmour, "Watchman, Blow the Gospel Trumpet," but this does not appear to be a version of that. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5769

Watchnight/Watchman

See Ask the Watchman How Long (File: CarCa084)

Water Boy (I -- Water on the Wheel)

DESCRIPTION: "Water boy, water boy! (x2) Water on the wheel, How does the sun shine that I feel, Little water time, hey, little water boy (x2), Water on the wheel, How does the sun shine that I feel, Little water boy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Annie Grace Horn Dodson)
KEYWORDS: worksong nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 86-87, "(Water Boy)" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Annie Grace Horn Dodson, "Water on the Wheel" (on NFMAla6)
File: CNFM086

Water Boy (II)

See Take This Hammer (File: FR383)

Water Boy Drowned in the Mobile Bay

DESCRIPTION: "Did you hear about, oh yeah! the water boy drownded... In Mobile Bay." "They dropped him, oh yeah! in forty feet of water... Over his head." "Did you hear about... Lu Etta Water ... The poor girl dead." She died at home of tuberculosis.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (USMississippi01)
KEYWORDS: death drowning nonballad worksong disease
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Inmates at Parchman Farm, "Water Boy Drowned in the Mobile Bay" (on USMississippi01)
NOTES [53 words]: The form of the Parchman Farm recording is a call-and-response track-lining work song. The form is an aab blues. In each verse the first line call is broken in half by responses "o yeah!" The second line repeats the first. The first half call of the third line gets the response of "Lord, Lord" and the repeated call. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcWBDIMB

Water Creases

See Watercresses (File: Peac320)

Water is Wide, The

See Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) (File: K149)

Water Lue

DESCRIPTION: "One dark and dismal morning, As I from bed did rise," the singer sees a sailor part from his wife and baby boy, saying, "When shall we meet again?" The boy dies asking for his father; months later, the wife receives word that the sailor's ship sank
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Journal of the Andrew Hicks)
KEYWORDS: love separation father children sailor death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 340-341, "Water Lue" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HGam340

Water Mill, The

DESCRIPTION: "Listen to the water-mill Through the live-long day.... and a proverb haunts my mind As a spell is cast, 'The mill cannot grind With the water that is past.'" The hearer is repeatedly urged to make use of time, not to waste it
AUTHOR: Sarah Doudney (1843-1926) ? (See NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (McCallum); probably first published 1864
KEYWORDS: warning work | water-mill time
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 233-241, "The Water Mill" (2 texts, of the Doudney and McCallum versions)
ADDITIONAL: Sarah Doudney (with a preface by the Rev. R. G. Baynes), _Psalms of Life_, Houlson and Sons, London, 1871 (available on Google Books), pp. 82-84, "The Lesson of the Water-Mill" (1 text)
D. C. McCallum [Daniel Craig McCallum], "The Water-Mill and Other Poems_, privately printed, Brooklyn, NY, 1870 (available on Google Books), pp. 9-11, "The Water Mill" (1 text)
Hazel Felleman, Best Loved Poems of the American People, pp. 343-345, "The Water-Mill" (1 text)
Martin Gardner, editor, _Famous Poems from Bygone Days_, Dover, 1995, pp. 52-54, "The Lesson of the Water Mill" (1 text)
Roud #V13532
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lesson of the Water Mill
NOTES [516 words]: Traditional? Assuredly not. It's one of "those" sorts of moral poems. I truly have no idea why Ford saw reason to include it in his book, but since he did, I have to talk about it.
Although written as a poem, it eventually was set to music by Washington Irving Bishop, and sung, both in America and Britain, by Irving Bishop. Which led to a curious dispute about its authorship (Ford-SongHistories, pp. 234-235). The Bishops had it from a publication by "General" Daniel Craig McCallum (1815-1875), who published it in 1870 in The Water Mill and Other Poems. But when Irving Bishop visited England, he found it copyrighted in the name of Sarah Doudney.
Here's where things get tricky. Doudney's copyrighted version was published in 1871 in a book called Psalms of Life in 1871. But, when contacted, she said that she had published it in The Children's Family Magazine in 1864 (Ford-SongHistories, p. 241; Gardner, p. 52).
Ford was unwilling or unable to decide which author was earlier; it sounds as if he was unable to find The Children's Family Magazine version. (Possibly the problem is that the magazine was elsewhere called The Churchman's Family Magazine. I don't know which is right.)
I find it interesting that McCallum called himself a general on the Union side in the American Civil War. "[Born in] Scotland. An architect, builder, and railroad engineer, he was appointed (11 Feb. '62) director of all military railroads in the country. Commissioned Col. Add. A.D.C. on that same day, he was mustered out in 1866" (Boatner, p. 523). This is the only one of my three dictionaries of Civil War generals to mention him. Phisterer, p. 260, lists him as a Colonel who was made a brevet Major General in March 1865. Which means he was... a colonel. Brevet promotions at that time were courtesy promotions with absolutely no meaning; today, we'd give him a medal, not a brevet promotion. Many officers by brevet used their brevet title, so McCallum wasn't unique -- but it's a little deceptive.
I can find no other mentions his poetry in my literary reference works. Granger's Index to Poetry does not mention any poems by him.
Doudney is also the likely author of "I Bid You Goodnight (The Christian's Good-Night)," which is one of two poems of hers listed by Granger's and is her other poem in the Index. Julian, p. 307, lists eight of her sundry poems as becoming (moderately) popular hymns but lists neither "The Water Mill" nor "I Bid You Goodnight."
Thus, while neither of them can be called a famous poet, Doubeny is a much more established poet and author than McCallum.
So here is a summary of opinions about authorship --
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Centennial Edition of 1955): Doubeny
Ford: Undecided between Doudney and McCallum
Felleman: Doudney
Gardner: Doudney
Granger's Index to Poetry: Doudney
It certainly looks to me as if McCallum (whose text differs from Doudney's by the addition of one verse and a few other minor changes) was a plagiarist. The good news is, this isn't a traditional song, and is mercifully forgotten, so we don't have to care! - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: BrdWatMi

Water My Flowers

See Jenny Jones (Jennie Jo) (File: Lins026)

Water o' Gamery, The

See Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie [Child 215] (File: C215)

Water o' Wearie's Well, The

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Water of Gamery, The

See Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie [Child 215] (File: C215)

Water of Tyne, The

DESCRIPTION: "I cannot get to my love, if I would dee, The waters of Tyne stand between him and me, And here I must stand with a tear in my e'e, Both sighing and sickly my true love to see." She begs for a boatman to carry her across the river
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (Bell)
KEYWORDS: love separation river
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 30-31, "The Waters of Tyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, p. 3, "The Water of Tyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #81, "The Water of Tyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WATRTYNE*
ADDITIONAL: [Cuthbert Sharp], _The Bishopric Garland, A Collection of Legends, Songs, Ballads, &c Belonging to the County of Durham_, 1834 (references are to the 1969 reprint), p. 55, "The Water of Tyne" (1 text)
T. Thompson, J Shield, W. Midford, H. Robson, and others, _A Collection of Songs, Comic, Satirical, and Descriptive, Chiefly in the Newcastle Dialect: And Illustrative of the Language and Manners of the Common People on the Banks of the Tyne and Neighbourhood_, (John Marshall, Newcastle, 1827), p. 42, "The Waters of Tyne" (1 text)
Roud #1364
NOTES [282 words]: Thompson et al list this as by John Lennard -- but I note that most of the pieces in Thompson were contributed to the book by their authors, and this song was printed fifteen years before Thompson.
I've never seen this mentioned as an explanation for this song, but for much of history the Tyne, not the Tweed, marked the eastern boundary between Scotland and England -- Hadrian's Wall ended at the Tyne, and the border still stood there into the second millennium C.E. (with the complication that the independent kingdoms of Northumbria for a long time stood between what would become England and what would become Scotland, occupying what we would now call the Scottish lowlands, Cumbria, Northumbria, and even as far down as Yorkshire; see e.g. the map in Brooke, p. 85).
The boundary was particularly fluid in the time of William the Conqueror (Douglas, p. 226), in no small part because there weren't enough Normans to really garrison the north. The city of Newcastle, in fact, was founded in the reign of William the Conqueror (1066-1087) as the New Castle on the Tyne after Northumbria was claimed by Malcolm III Canmore of Scotland (Magnusson, p. 66). The site was selected by the Conqueror's son Robert Curthose (Douglas, p. 241); Newcastle was a strong position far enough south that William could be confident of holding it.
The current Solway-to-Tweed border was finally settled in the reign of Alexander II in the first half of the thirteenth century (Magnusson, pp. 90-92). From that time on, the Tyne no longer divided nations. Obviously this song cannot have existed in its present form at that time. But perhaps it's just possible that this represents a memory of that time. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.3
File: StoR030

Water Witch, The

DESCRIPTION: Water Witch is wrecked on a Horrid Gulch reef near Pouch Cove. Pouch Cove fishermen save some. The Humane Society of Liverpool sent "Gold medals to those fishermen who never knew no fear, The Governor's lady pinned them on"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Murphy, Old Songs of Newfoundland)
KEYWORDS: rescue death sea ship storm wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 116, "The Water Witch" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Water Witch, or Heroism of Pouch Cove Fishermen" (1 text): pp. 61-63 in the 2nd edition, pp. 78-79 in the 4th
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, editor, _Old Songs of Newfoundland_, James Murphy Publishing, 1912 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 10, "Bravery of Pouch Cove Fishermen" (1 text
ADDITIONAL: JJames Murphy, _Songs Their Fathers Sung: For Fishermen: Old Time Ditties_, James Murphy Publishing, 1923 (PDF available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 11, "Loss of the 'Water Witch'" (1 text)
Roud #7316
RECORDINGS:
Richard Moores, "The Water Witch" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [253 words]: Harbour Main is at almost the southernmost point of Conception Bay. Pouch [pronounced "Pooch"] Cove is near Cape St Francis which is turned on the way from St John's to Conception Bay. - BS
The sources checked (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou, Northern Shipwrecks Database, Doyle4) disagree on details of this tragedy, dating it November 25 or 29, 1873 or 1875. The casualty count also differs: nine of 20 or 11 of 24. - BS, (RBW)
Frank Galgay and Michael McCarthy, Shipwrecks of Newfoundland and Labrador, [Volume I], Harry Cuff Publishing, 1987, p. 93, offers that Waterwitch (one word) was a "Schooner, sailed out of Brigus. Lost at Horrid Gulch near Pouch Cover, 29 Nov. 1893. Eleven of 20 on board were saved through the heroic efforts of the fishermen of Pouch Cove." It mentions that Alfred Moore was given the Royal Humane Society medal for being lowered over a 500 foot cliff to help with the rescue.
There is a book by Eldon Drodge, Newfoundland Stories: The Loss of the Waterwitch, which I assume to be about this event. But having read one of Drodge's other books, I find that he invents things and calls them history, so I haven't attempted to see this. I can't recommend anything by an author who doesn't understand the difference between fiction and non-fiction.
This ship, incidentally, should not be confused with the American survey ship Water Witch, built in 1853, which served as a blockade ship during the American Civil War, but was captured by the Confederates in 1864 and later burned. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: LeBe116

Water-Flower

See Wallflowers (File: HHH048d)

Water, Water, Wallflowers

See Wallflowers (File: HHH048d)

Water, Water, Wild Flower

See Wallflowers (File: HHH048d)

Water's Deep, Love, I Canna Wide, The

DESCRIPTION: "Where would I get a tiny boat To carry my love and ?" He buys a tiny boat for five pounds and "that very night the two were married"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: elopement sea floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #121, p. 3, ("The water's deep, love, I canna wide") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan7 1359, "The Water's Deep, Love, I Canna Wide" (1 text)
Roud #7237
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" (verse)
NOTES [23 words]: The first verse is the familiar one from "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" suggested by the title. The second verse completes the story. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD71359

Waterbound (I)

DESCRIPTION: Singer can't go home because of flooding. His girl's father is mad, but the singer doesn't care "as long as I get his daughter": "If he don't give her up, we're gonna run away." He and his friends state that they're going home "before the water rises."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (unissued recording, Grayson County Railsplitters)
KEYWORDS: courting elopement flood father
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 252-253, "Waterbound" (1 text)
DT, WATRBOND
RECORDINGS:
Grayson County Railsplitters, "Way Down in North Carolina" (unissued, 1929; on TimesAint05)
Art Thieme, "Waterbound" (on Thieme06)
Wade Ward & Bogtrotters, "Waterbound" (on Holcomb-Ward1)
NOTES [192 words]: Yes, there's a narrative buried in there -- two of them, really. - PJS
I suspect it may have been stronger, once upon a time, but gotten rather submerged after years of the tune being used primarily as a fiddle/banjo instrumental. As Paul notes, there are two plots -- one about the rising flood and one about courting. - RBW
The Grayson Co. Railsplitters' recording is essentially identical to the canonical version sung in the folk revival, mostly learned from the Wade Ward/Bogtrotters recording. It should be noted that Fields Ward, Wade's brother, was a member of the Railsplitters, along with Sampson Ward, Eck Dunford and Ernest "Pop" Stoneman -- an old-time music all-star show if ever there was one. - PJS
Note that, in addition to the two traditional songs titled "Waterbound" ("Waterbound (I)" and "Alabama Bound (I) (Waterbound II)"), there is a song by Dirk Powell, seemingly popular in bluegrass circles, with the first verse "I went out late one night, Moon and the stars were shining bright. Storm come up and the trees came down, Tell your boys I was waterbound." I see no evidence that this is traditional, so I have not indexed it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DTwatrbo

Waterbound II

See Alabama Bound (Waterbound II) (File: BMRF598)

Watercresses

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a damsel who has "a bunch of watercresses." She agrees to marry but "has some bills to pay" first, so he gives her money. Next day he get a letter that she's already someone's wife. "Sure you must have been greener than watercresses"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(4046))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a dairy farmer, goes to town, meets a pretty girl, asks the way to Camberwell and falls in love. He proposes, citing his farm and herds; she accepts, but tells him she will need money for wedding expenses. He gives her a sovereign; they kiss and part. She sends him a letter telling him that next time he proposes, he should be certain his intended is a maiden or a widow, not a wife, and promises to repay the sovereign, someday. Refr.: "She promised she would marry me upon the first of May/And she left me with a bunch of water cresses"
KEYWORDS: courting promise money love marriage rejection beauty humorous lover wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) US(So) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #137, p. 1, "The Bunch of Water-cresses" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 300, "The Bunch of Watercresses" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 320-321, "Watercresses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 66, "Water Creases" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 106-108, "Watercresses" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 63, "The Dairy Farmer (Water Cresses)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 40, "A Bunch of Watercresses" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Peac320 (Partial)
Roud #1653
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Bunch of Water Cresses" (on Abbott1)
Everett Bennett, "Watercresses" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4046), "Water Cresses!," H. Such (London), 1863-1885
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Park in Portadown" (theme: the married woman pretending to be single)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Watercrest
The Watercress Girl
NOTES [153 words]: In [O. J. Abbott's version of] the song, the young man says he is from Belvishire. There is no such shire in England. On the other hand, Camberwell is a borough of London. - PJS
The Southwest Missouri State University site Max Hunter Folk Song Collection includes "Watercrest" ["T'was on the first of April When I arrived in town ..."], a version collected in Arkansas. In this one Mrs. Tray writes "But to think that I would marry you Upon the first of May You must think that I'm as green as watercrest's."
I don't consider this to be the same as the following ballad at Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4047), "The Water-Cress Girl" ("While strolling out one evening by a running stream"), unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 11(1233), "The Water-Cress Girl"
In this one the singer finds Martha gathering water-cresses, they "often strolled together," marry and live happily ever after. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Peac320

Waterfall, The

See The Girl that Wore a Waterfall [Laws H26] (File: LH26)

Waterford Boys, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer pays 5 shillings for a room and dry bread and cheese; he fight rats all night. Tavern-keeper would refund 5s for a cure for rats. "Just invite them to supper" and "charge them five shillings and never the rat will again cross your floor."
AUTHOR: Harry Clifton
EARLIEST DATE: before 1879 (broadside, LOCSinging as203820)
KEYWORDS: bargaining emigration Ireland humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 72, "The Waterford Boys" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 115-116, "The Waterford Boys" (1 text)
Roud #3107
RECORDINGS:
Frank Knox, "The Waterford Boys" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Paddy Tunney, "The Waterford Boys" (on IRPTunney03)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as203820, "Waterford Boys," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
SAME TUNE:
The Flaming O'Flannigans (per broadside LOCSinging as203820)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Wrestling With Rats
NOTES [118 words]: According to GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site the tune is "The Humours of Whiskey" and the dates for the author are 1832-1872. [Other sources say 1824-1872 - RBW.]
The "Waterford Boys" title is sensible considering the first lines
Well boys, for diversion, we're all met together:
I'll tell you how from Waterford hither I came
and the last line of the chorus: "Who can compare with the Waterford boys." - BS
For background on author Harry Clifton, see the notes to "The Good Ship Kangaroo." - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as203820: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: GrMa072

Waterford Girl, The

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Waterford Strike, The

DESCRIPTION: Waterford staff strikes for pension rights. Union "Meter Maids" cross the line. Police are scabs and a crowd is treated to an ice hockey shutout of the Police by "Fire Boys." Nevertheless, the "cops keep order, and they're taking home the pay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: strike labor-movement worker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1977 - Four month strike at Waterford Hospital, St John's (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 117, "The Waterford Strike" (1 text)
File: LeBe117

Waterloo (I) [Laws J2]

DESCRIPTION: The singer is pressed and forced to leave his sweetheart. The new Redcoat serves in Belfast, then is sent to Waterloo, where he loses an arm and a leg. Now he is at least free of the army and due a pension of thirty pounds
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: war Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws J2, "Waterloo I"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 81, "Waterloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 1020-1023, "Waterloo" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
DT 815, WATLOOX
Roud #1921
RECORDINGS:
Charlotte Decker, "Waterloo" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: LJ02

Waterloo (II)

See The Plains of Waterloo (I) [Laws N32] (File: LN32)

Waterloo (III)

See The Plains of Waterloo (VI) (File: HHH015)

Waterloo (IV)

See The Plains of Waterloo (III) [Laws J4] (File: LJ04)

Waterloo (V)

See Lonely Waterloo [Laws N31] (File: LN31)

Waterloo (VI)

See Plains of Waterloo (IX) (File: KiTu121)

Waterloo (VII)

See The Plains of Waterloo (I) [Laws N32] (File: LN32)

Watermellon Hangin' on the Vine

See Watermelon on the Vine (File: Br3454)

Watermelon on the Vine

DESCRIPTION: "You may talk about your apples, your peaches, and your pears... But... The watermelon am de fruit for me." "But gimme, oh, gimme me... That watermelon hanging on the vine." The singer begs for, or makes other plans to acquire, the watermelon
AUTHOR: Thomas P Westendorf (1882) (see Notes) (credited to Johnny Marvin on the Whitter recording)
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Chamberlain and Harrington)
KEYWORDS: food theft floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 454, "Oh, Dat Watermilion" (2 fragments, possibly other songs mixed with this, but too short to bother classifying separately); 468, "Watermelon Hanging on the Vine" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 454, "Oh, Dat Watermilion" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #132, "Watermelon on the Vine" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 494, "Hambone Am Sweet" (notes only, but they say "Hambone" is derived from this song. See, however, "Hambone")
ADDITIONAL: David B Chamberlain and Karl P Harrington, _Songs of All The Colleges_ (New York: Hinds & Noble, 1900 ("Digitized by Google"))pp. 22-23, "Gib Me Dat Water-Million" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Br3454 (Partial)
Roud #11795
RECORDINGS:
Bela Lam and His Green County Singers, "Watermelon Smiling on the Vine" (OKeh, unissued, 1929)
The Monroe Brothers, "Watermellon Hangin' on the Vine" (Bluebird 6829, 1937; rec. 1936)
Ernest Stoneman, "Watermelon Hanging on the Vine" (Edison 51864, 1926) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5191, 1926)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Watermelon Smilin' on the Vine" (Vocalion 15063, 1923)
Henry Whitter, "Watermelon Hanging on the Vine" (OKeh 40296, 1925; rec. 1924)
Kent Williams, "Watermelon Hangin' On The Vine" (Piotr-Archive #321, recorded 11/01/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There Was a Watermelon" (theme)
cf. "Watermelon Spoiling on the Vine" (title line only; see Notes)
NOTES [183 words]: Bob Black, who played with the Blue Grass Boys for a couple of years, describes this as Bill Monroe's "theme song" (Come Hither to Go Yonder, p. 40), but obviously it preceded him. - RBW
Chamberlain and Harrington has "words and music by Thos. P Westendorf." Date of 1882 is from Country Music Sources by Guthrie T Meade Jr with Dick Spottswood and Douglas S. Meade (Chapel Hill, 2002), p. 477.
See "Watermelon Spoiling on the Vine" for a comment on the Thomas Cartwright recording for Smithsonian Folkways, an instrumental using the same tune as Higgs.
In 1955 in New York I heard a version from a Bahamian man that was close, in text, to the U.S. version I had heard previously from Harry West. The tune was syncopated and not like West's tune at all, and certainly not like the Higgs/Cartwright tune. On the other hand, except for the title line there was no relation to Blind Blake Higgs's "Watermelon Spoiling on the Vine."
The Westendorf text has "If I leaves it dar a smilin' on de vine" and "dat water-million growin' on de vine." I thought "spoiling" made more sense, but I guess not. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Br3454

Watermelon Song, The

See Put a Watermelon Rind Upon My Grave (File: NCF162PW)

Watermelon Spoilin' On The Vine

DESCRIPTION: "O baby, watermelon is spoilin on the vine." The singer's girl is breaking his heart. He wants his letter and ring back. Floating verses [see notes]. "Needle and thread" [let's go down the road] "Make my chimney higher"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Blind Blake Higgs: see WIHIGGS01)
KEYWORDS: courting request rejection floatingverses
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Watermelon Spoilin' On The Vine" (on WIHIGGS01)
Thomas Cartwright and the Boys, "Watermelon Is Spoilin' on the Vine" (1997, on "The Bahamas Islands of Song" Smithsonian Folkways SF 40405 CD [instrumental])
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Watermelon on the Vine" (title line only; see Notes)
cf. "Lynchburg Town" (floating verses; see Notes)
cf. "Liza Jane" (floating verse; see Notes)
cf. "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss" (floating verse; see Notes)
cf. Grandpa Jones, "Goin Down Town"
NOTES [245 words]: According to the liner notes by Kayla Olubumni Lockhart Edwards for the Cartwright instrumental -- which has the same tune as Higgs -- "['Watermelon is Spoilin' on the Vine' is] a traditional Bahamian folk song, possibly created during an abundant year of watermelons in the 1920s." Since the Higgs song has little to do with watermelons the question is whether the Edwards note refers to this song or to "Watermelon on the Vine."
The floating verses found in the U.S. are
"Now I wish'd I had a needle/ As fast as I could sew/ I'd sew my baby to my side/ And down the road I'll go" (often in "Liza Jane" and "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss")
and
"Now I wish'd I had ten thousand bricks/ To build my chimney higher/ To stop the mighty big black cat/ From dropping in my fire (see Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag's "Goin Down Town.")
Gandpa Jones's recording of "Goin Down Town" (see "Lynchburg Town") has both of Higgs U.S. floaters. In fact, the "needle and thread" verse is closer to the main idea of this song than is the watermelon theme. Higgs's chorus picks up the last line of "needle and thread": "Down the road/ Here we go walking/ Down the road/ Laughing and talking/ Down the road/ Here we go baby/ Down the road."
It seems likely that the following verse is a West Indies floater, but I have no other instances:
I went to the governor's gate/ And I asked her for a break/ I wheeled right round and I stayed right round/ And I give the governor the break - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: RcWaSotV

Waters of Blue Juniata

See The Blue Juniata (File: Hud083)

Waters of Dee, The

DESCRIPTION: The bride waits at home for the bride-groom. She and her maiden look for him but "he'll never win owre the waters o' Dee." At dinner the bridegroom raps at the gate. The bride gets a horse and they elope "And so they were mairriet wi' candle-light"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: elopement marriage home horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 617, "The Waters of Dee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 139, "Black Waters o Dee" (1 text)
Roud #6057
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Night As I Lay On My Bed" (theme)
File: GrD3617

Watkin's Ale

DESCRIPTION: A girl laments "I am afraid to die a maid." A man overhears and offers her "Watkin's Ale." She accepts. After much witty repartee, they part. Nine months later, her child is born. The moral: "It is no jesting with sharp-edged tools."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: mentioned twice in 1592 (Munday, Chettle)
KEYWORDS: seduction pregnancy sex bawdy bastard
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 136-137, "Watkin's Ale" (1 tune, partial text)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 265, "Watkin's Ale" (1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN3278A, "As Watkin walked by the way" (also "There was a maid this other day")
DT, WATKALE*
NOTES [495 words]: Chappell in the nineteenth century deemed the text of this song unprintable, but it was not always so -- although the printer apparently was not willing to risk listing his name, and it does not seem to have been entered into the Stationer's Register. But A. W. Pollard, G. R. Redgrave, et al, A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland & Ireland And of English Books Printed Abroad 1475-1640, The Bibliographical Society [of London], 1963, p. 585, #25107, is "A ditty delightfull of Mother Watkins ale," which they guess to be from around 1590.
This probably is not a traditional song; the words are too fiendishly clever and the music too complex to have arisen in oral tradition. The song is rather frequently mentioned, however, particularly for such a bawdy piece. Chances are it was popular enough to include here. And I happen to think it too clever to omit.
One bit of cleverness moderns may miss: It was normal for authors in medieval times to admit failures of wit and, perhaps, morality. (Often they still do, but buried at the end of the acknowledgments that no one reads.) But this song concludes, "If any here offended be, Then blame the author, blame not me." In other words, it simultaneously includes and subverts the traditional disclaimer: The author is to blame, but I'm not the author, except that the author wrote this....
In this, it follows Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales -- and even quotes Chaucer's language. In the prologue to the Miller's Tale, warns listeners that it is a "cherles tale" [churl's tale; line 3169], and if they are too delicate to hear a dirty story, "Turne over the leef and chese another tale" [Turn over the leaf and choose another tale; line 3177]. Three lines later, he writes,
Blameth noght me if that ye chese amys;
The Millere is a cherl, ye knowe well this.
[Blame not me if that you choose amiss; The Miller is a churl, you know well this; lines 3181-3182].
At least, "blameth noght me" is the reading of the modern editions (Chaucer/Donaldson, p. 107; Chaucer/Ross, p.129; Chaucer/Benson, p. 67, "Blameth nat me," which is the way the line is usually quoted). However, the apparatus on p. 129 of Chaucer/Ross read "Blameth ] Blame Pw TH¹-SP³." In other words, one manuscript (Petworth) and the editions from Thynne's first (1532) to Speght's third (1687) read "Blame," not "Blameth." Thus it is nearly certain that, if our author read Chaucer (and I do not say this as certainty, only a possibility), then he would have read Chaucer's line as "blame not me," and his quote would be exact.
Nor was Chaucer the only one to use this trick. William Caxton, too, used it at the end of his translation of "Reynard the Fox" (and Caxton, unlike Chaucer, has a legitimate right to disclaim what Reynard has done). Severs/Hartung, p. 784, summarizes Caxton's translation, ending with this: "Original portion of Epilogue. The fox, not Caxton, is to be blamed for everything displeasing in the book." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: ChWI265

Watson Song, The

See Freddy Watson (File: ML3FreWa)

Watter Rattle, The

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

Watts's Cradle Hymn

See Hush, My Dear, Lie Still and Slumber (File: Grim100A)

Watty and Meg

DESCRIPTION: Watty goes to the local alehouse and complains to Mungo about Meg's nagging. Mungo recommends Watty threaten to leave her. Watty follows the advice, threatening to enlist. Meg begs him to stay and promises never to nag him. He stays.
AUTHOR: Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) in 1792 (source: Ford)
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Ford); c.1800 (broadside, NLScotland RB.m.143(002))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Watty goes to the local alehouse and complains to Mungo about Meg's nagging. Mungo recommends Watty threaten to leave her. Meg comes to get him for "bringing wife and weans to ruin, Drinking here wi' sic a crew." The nagging continues on the road and when they reach home. He bids her farewell in the morning. She begs him to stay. He says he has heard that before and this morning he will enlist: "Ower the seas I march this morning." His price for staying is that she "swear to drap your flyting." She solemnly swears "by everything that's gude, Ne'er again your spouse to scal' him" or complain about his drinking. She swears again. Watty is ecstatic. "Syne below the blankets, gloriousa, Held anither Hinney-Moon."
KEYWORDS: shrewishness sex drink dialog husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 595, "Watty and Meg" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland [first series] (Paisley,1899), pp. 115-124, "Watty and Meg" (omitted from the 1904 single-volume edition)
Roud #5891
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4051), "Watty and Meg" ("Keen the frosty winds were blawing"), Sanderson (Edinburgh), 1830-1910
NLScotland, RB.m.143(002), "Watty and Meg" or "The Wife Reformed," unknown, c.1800; also RB.m.143(160), "Watty and Meg" or "The Wife Reformed"
NOTES [118 words]: Greig/Duncan3 is a fragment; broadside NLScotland RB.m.143(002) is the basis for the description.
Ford: "Not Paisley, as is generally supposed, but Lochwinnoch, I believe, was the scene of this world-known poem.... 'Mungo Blue' was really notorious in the village scandal. His real name was Jamie Orr..... He led a joyous but short life, and went through his 'subject' by drinking and other debaucheries. His changehouse [alehouse] at Lochwinnoch.... In the east end was situated the wretched domicile of Wattie Mathie and his wife, the hero and heroine of the wonderfully graphic poem, which is true in every respect to the character of Watty, and to the flyting and tinkler nature of his wife, Meg Love." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3595

Watty Grimes

DESCRIPTION: Watty Grimes blames Billy McKeever for blackmailing him into leaving his family to join a raid to aid Antrim. They "spent that whole night with a bottle and glass." Watty is deserted in the field, flees, is taken, jailed in Coleraine, tried and executed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Shield's _Songs and Ballads in use in the Province of Ulster...1845_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution manhunt prison trial drink gallows-confession family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 7, 1798 - "A party of insurgents led by William M'Keiver assembled at Crew Hill, near Maghera, Co. Derry, in order to assist the United Irishmen of Antrim" (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 81, "Watty Grimes" (2 texts)
Roud #V13535
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(666), "Watty Grimes" ("In the year '98, as you may understand"), The Poet's Box (Belfast), 1846-1852
File: Moyl081

Watty's Wooing

DESCRIPTION: "Watty Wylie was a grieve and served at Whinnyknowe, And he had gien his promise to marry Bessie Lowe," but repeatedly puts off the wedding, pleading poverty. At last she gives up on him and marries another. She is happy, but Watty is mocked
AUTHOR: William "Ryming Willie" Penman ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads); Penman died 1877
KEYWORDS: love courting betrayal rejection poverty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 282-283, "Watty's Wooing" (1 text)
Roud #5601
File: Ord282

Waukin' o' the Claes, The

DESCRIPTION: Betsy and Jeannie are waulking one cold night. Betsy taunts Jeannie that she has no lover to keep her warm. Jeannie's lover shows up too late. Betsy becaomes pregnant. Jeannie taunts Betsy "now your laddie's gone ... my laddie's proved constant"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex abandonment pregnancy lover
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #98, p. 2, "The Waukin' o' the Claes" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan7 1492, "The Waukin' o' the Claes" (10 texts plus a single verse on p. 537, 9 tunes)
Roud #6269
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Marrowless Jeannie
Oh Cauld Was the Nicht
NOTES [11 words]: For a note on waulking see "Oran Na Caillich (Our Auld Wife)." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD71492

Waukin' o' the Kilne, The

See The Miller's Daughter (The Fleeing Servant) (File: KinBB06)

Wave Over Wave

DESCRIPTION: The singer is a sailor who loves the sea. His wife doesn't understand why he leaves home ten months a year, with children to raise, while he "must sail the salt sea"
AUTHOR: Jim Payne
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: sea children wife sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 118, "Wave Over Wave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27926
NOTES [36 words]: The song identifies the singer as a "shareman," meaning that he had a share in every voyage he made. He had to sail or he wouldn't earn anything. And there weren't many other ways to make money in Newfoundland.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe118

Waves on the Sea

See The Mermaid [Child 289] (File: C289)

Wavy, Wavy, Turn the Rope Over

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Wavy, wavy, turn the rope over, Mother's at the butcher's buyin' fresh meat; Baby's in the cradle, Playin' with a rattle, One, two, three, and a porridge."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Miscellanies of the Rymour Club, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope mother baby food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #588, "Wavy, wavy, turn the rope over" (1 text)
Roud #19213
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bluebells, Cockleshells" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Eevy, Ivy, Turn the Rope Over
NOTES [26 words]: Roud lumps this with "Bluebell, Cockleshells," and Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes points up the relationship -- but keeps them separate, so I have done the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR588

Wax-Ward Girl, The

See The Croppy Boy (I) [Laws J14] (File: LJ14)

Waxford Girl, The

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Waxies' Dargle, The

DESCRIPTION: "Says my aul' one to your aul' one, Will ye come to the Waxies' Dargle?" The hearer hasn't a farthing to take a trip. Neither can they go to the Galway races. They agree, "When food is scarce, And you see the hearse, You'll know you died of hunger."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Behan-IrelandSings)
KEYWORDS: food travel hardtimes poverty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Behan-IrelandSings, #95, "The Waxie's Dargle" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 167, "The Waxies' Dargle" (1 short text, with just the first half of the first verse)
DT, WAXDARGL*
Roud #38105
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (II - lyric) (tune)
cf. "Brighton Camp" (tune)
NOTES [188 words]: Most accounts I've seen say that waxies were candlemakers, which make sense, although Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads [third edition, Music Ireland, 2004], p.105, says they were people who waxed bootlaces and Brady-AllInAllIn says they were cobblers who used waxed ends for stitching. In any case, they were people who used wax in their work. Soodlum's Irish Ballad Book declares that the Waxies' Dargle was an annual meeting of candlemakers held in Bray in County Wicklow. Gogan, however, declares that the poor waxies could not afford a visit to such a posh place, and so went instead to a beach in Dublin. Brady-AllInAllIn says they met at Irishtown Green near Ringsend until around 1890.
If that all sounds to you like no one quite knows the origin of the song... that's certainly what it sounds like to me, too.
The versions I've seen don't make it clear why times are so hard in this song; it doesn't sound like a famine song. I suspect its survival has much to do with being fitted to the much-loved tune "Brighton Camp"/"The Girl I Left Behind Me."
"Aul' one/ould one/old one" generally means mother or wife. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: DTWaxDar

Waxwell Girl, The

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Waxworks, The

DESCRIPTION: "We'll all go over to the waxworks, the waxworks, the waxworks, We'll all go over to the waxworks, yo ho, yo ho, yo ho." There they can see Napoleon, Robespierre, Oliver Twist, and more. The Labor Party's attempts to overthrow the crown won't stop them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 127-128, "(The Waxworks)" (1 text)
Roud #27884
File: NiMo127

Way Back in Heaveh

See The Gospel Train is Coming (I) (Gospel Train IV) (File: LSRai619)

Way Bye and Bye

DESCRIPTION: "Way bye and bye (x2), We goin' a have a good time, Way bye and bye." "Way in Beulah land (x2), we goin' a have a good time, way bye and bye." "Meet my mother over there...." "One morning soon...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 253-254, "Way Bye and Bye" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: CNFM253

Way Down Below

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, a good beef steak and' a mutton chop, Way down below! Make dat nigger's lip go flip flap flop. Way down below (x2), Ole Aunt Kitty am honin' for de sea, Way down below." Verses float (e.g. "My old master promised me"); lines 2 and 4-6 are the chorus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: slave freedom floatingverses food
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 492, "Way Down Below" (1 text)
Roud #11870
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Ole Mistus Promised Me" (floating lyrics) and references there
NOTES [23 words]: This looks like it might have been built on the broken fragments of a sea shanty, but the verses have clearly come from tradition ashore. - RBW
File: Br492

Way Down by the Green Bushes

See Green Bushes [Laws P2] (File: LP02)

Way Down East Among the Shady Maple Trees

DESCRIPTION: Down east, among the shady maples, live Eloise and her mother. The singer would marry Eloise but her mother would not be left alone. He promises Eloise's mother they will take care of her. They marry and have children that play with grandma
AUTHOR: Tony Stanford (source: broadside, DukeDC a2358)
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Broadside DukeDC a2358); in tradition, 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: age courting love marriage promise children husband mother wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #26049
RECORDINGS:
Joe Sutton, "Shady Maple Tree" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
BROADSIDES:
DukeDC a2358, "Way Down Among The Shady Maple Trees", Leo Feist (New York), 1900 (1 text, 1 tune), accessed August 8, 2018, Duke University Libraries Digital Collections at https://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/hasm_a2358/
File: Ml3ShMaT

Way Down in Columbus, Georgia

See Columbus Stockade Blues (File: Wa137)

Way Down in Cuba

DESCRIPTION: Fragment of a shanty: "I've got a sister nine feet tall, 'Way down in Cuba, Sleeps in the kitchen with her feet in the hall, 'Way down in Cuba." "I've got a girl friend, name is Jane,
'Way down in Cuba, You can guess where she gives me a pain...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Shay)
KEYWORDS: shanty talltale
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 95, "'Way Down in Cuba" (1short text)
Roud #8820
NOTES [29 words]: I suspect this may be a broken-off fragment of a better-known shanty (Shay says it's from the Mississippi River), but with only two verses and no tune, it's hard to tell. - RBW
File: ShSea095

Way Down in Maine

DESCRIPTION: "Once upon a time I loved a feller, Way down in Maine, He seed me hum (home) under his umbrella." Her calico ends up torn by the frightening rain. Her mother feeds the man. He will not marry her. So she declares, "I'm in the market still."
AUTHOR: Words: "John Bolivar" / Music: W. J. Florence (source: sheet music published by Oliver Ditson & Co.)
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (Dime-Song-Book #9)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection humorous
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 405, "'Way Down in Maine" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 11, "'Way down in Maine" (1 text)
Roud #6586
File: TNY405

Way Down in Old Virginia

DESCRIPTION: "'Way down in old Virginia Where I was bred and born, On the sunny side of that country I used to hoe the corn." The singer recalls those happy times: "And I couldn't stay away." He recalls his old mistress and master, who were "good and kind"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: slave home work food
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 225-226, "'Way Down in Ole Virginia" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 111, "I Couldn't Stay Away" (1 text)
ST ScaNF225 (Partial)
Roud #9578
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (theme)
NOTES [47 words]: I find it highly unlikely that this is of actual Black composition; I suspect that the woman who sent it to Scarborough was unclear or inaccurate about its source. The fact that Dean (whose repertoire is strongly northern and contains much from the stage) has it may be indicative. - RBW
File: ScaNF225

Way Down in Rackensack (Old Coon Dog)

DESCRIPTION: "Somebody stole my old coon dog, I wish they'd bring him back, He drove the big 'uns over the fence An' the little ones through the crack. It's gettin' out the way o' the fiddler O (x3), Way down in Rackensack."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Fiddlin' Doc Roberts)
KEYWORDS: animal dog theft
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 350, "Way Down in Rackensack" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 185, "Roll Johnny Booger" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 172-173, "Ol' Coon Dog" (1 text, 1 tune, with many floating verses and the chorus of "Whoa Mule (The Kickin' Mule)" but the largest share of the lyrics from "Way Down in Rackensack (Old Coon Dog)")
Roud #7627
RECORDINGS:
Bradley Kincaid, "Old Coon Dog" (Brunswick 485, c. 1930)
George "Shortbuckle" Roark, "My Old Coon Dog"(Columbia 15383-D, 1929; rec. 1928; a melange that also includes bits of, among other songs, "Whoa, Mule," "Possum Up a Gum Stump," and "Shoo Fly")
Fiddlin' Doc Roberts, "My Old Coon Dog" (Gennett 6558, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Coon Dog (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [104 words]: Roud's Folk Song Index has [the] Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest [text] as Roud #764 ("Old Grimes"; accessed 03 May 2014) and a case can be made for that choice, or a number of other choices: the first verse is "Old Father Grimes, that good old man, As ever I did see, His eyes looked like two auger holes Bored in a buckeye tree." The chorus of "Roll Johnny Booger, roll (3x), The boys can't beat our time" is not like "Johnny Booker" as I know it. The second and third verses, "Somebody stole my old coon dog...." and "Somebody stole my banty hen...." seem to belong with "Old Coon Dog" so I put it here. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: R350

Way Down in Rockingham

See Jinny Go Round and Around (File: R272)

Way Down in Tennessee (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell you girls of this cold countree," "I can no longer stay with you. " "I left my wife and a baby." Chorus: "Away over the ocean." "Tennessee is a-rolling." Lines are repeated three times, followed by "I'm bound/way-down for Tennessee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: nonballad shanty
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 23, "Way Down in Tennessee" (1 text)
Roud #9415
NOTES [23 words]: Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia: Smith's comment is "A favourite with Liverpool [Nova Scotia] sailormen." - BS
File: SmHa023

Way Down in Tennessee (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Way down in Tennessee, That's where I long to be, Right at my mother's knee, She thinks the world of me." The singer recalls all the wonderful sights. "They'll be right there to meet me, Just imagine how they'll greet me When I get back To my home in..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: home travel mother music flowers floatingverses
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 218, "(no title)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll On, Buddy (II) [Roll On, Buddy, Roll On]" (lyrics)
NOTES [46 words]: I am not sure there is an original word in the lyric printed by Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang; every line floats. It seems so familiar that I looked at it and heard a string band playing it in my head! But I can't find any other songs that are demonstrably the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: BrPa218

Way Down in the Paw Paw Patch

See The Paw-Paw Patch (File: R553)

'Way Down Near Alpena

DESCRIPTION: "Way down near Alpena in a far-distant land, There's a hard-hearted, hard-spoken band." The men go on a spree. The singer describes their fights. Chorus: "Hurray, hurrah! For the fruit you can bet/Let's take of a drink, boys, for our credit's good yet."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: logger drink party fight moniker
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 39, "'Way Down Near Alpena" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp 223-224, "'Way Down Near Alpena" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 112, 'Way Down Near Alpena" (1 text)
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 34-II, (second of three "Fragments of Shanty Songs") (1 text)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 34-II (second of three "Fragments of Shanty Songs") (1 text)
ST Be039 (Partial)
Roud #6503
File: Be039

Way Down on the Old Pedee

See Way Down on the Old Peedee (File: Br3421)

Way Down on the Old Peedee

DESCRIPTION: "Away down south, on the old Peedee, Away down in the cotton and the corn, There lived old Joe, and he lived so long That nobody knows when he was born." The song describes how the old, old slave was buried
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (Bremer)
KEYWORDS: slave death burial age playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 421, "Way Down on the Old Peedee" (1 text plus a possibly-related fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 421, "Way Down on the Old Pedee" (sic.) (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 22, pp. 122-123, "Way Down In the Ole Peedee" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Frederika Bremer, Mary Howitt translator, _The Homes of the New World_ Vol. 1 (London: Arthur Hall, Virtue, & Co., 1853 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), "(I'm going to the old Pee Dee)", p. 380 (1 fragment)
Roud #11770
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Uncle Ned" (plot)
NOTES [232 words]: Brown's "B" text, which is the basis for the description, is so like "Uncle Ned" in its ideas, and even its style, that I can't help but think it designed to take advantage of that early Foster work. But I haven't located a source.
Ben Schwartz suggests that the two Brown texts should be separated, into "Old Darkey Joe" and "Way Down on the Old Peedee," with Brown 421B being the former and Brown 421A and Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands being the latter. He points out that:
Parrish is similar to the Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 fragment 421A.
It's playparty with no plot.
The chorus is "Way down in the Ole Peedee (x2) Summer night the moon shine bright, Sally you can see"; Parrish's verses are "I wish that gal was mine (x2), Summer night the moon shine bright Sally you can see" and "Good-bye my honey I'm gone (x2), If you call me honey spen' my money Good-bye my honey I'm gone."
I suspect Ben is right. But we're still stuck with only one copy of "Old Darkey Joe." So I'm waiting for the moment. - RBW
The Bremer text -- from South Carolina -- is a complete first verse, which is very close to Parrish: "... On a summer's night ... My Sally I shall see." Bremer describes the rest of the song: "The little romance describes how the lover and Sally will be married and settle themselves down, and live happily all on the banks of the old Pee Dee." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Br3421

Way Down South Where Bananas Grow

See Ain't It Great to Be Crazy? (File: DTgrtcra)

Way Down South Where I Was Born

See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Way Down South Where the Sharecroppers Grow

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Way down south where the shrecroppers grow, I saw come croppers cropping to and fro, They cropped some peas, they cropped some beans, They cropped right up to the top of the trees...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Butler and Haley, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope farming
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #590, "Way down south where the sharecroppers grow" (1 text)
NOTES [32 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes doubts the currency of this. It sounds topical to me, which raises the question of why it was used as a jumprope rhyme. I'd be interested knowing what tune it uses. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR590

Way Down the Ohio

DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "Way down the Ohio my little boat I steered/In hopes that some pretty girl on the banks will appear/I'll hug her and kiss her till my mind is at ease/And I'll turn my back on her and court who I please"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: courting sex infidelity travel lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 198, "Way Down the Ohio" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3616
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Green Brier Shore (II)" (lyrics)
NOTES [29 words]: This is very like the chorus of "Green Brier Shore (II)," itself a composite, but it lacks that song's theme of parental disapproval. And in this one, the young man's a cad. - PJS
File: ShAp2198

Way Down the Old Plank Road

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses, some mentioning jail, stitched together with the usual Uncle Dave Macon logic. Chorus: "Won't get drunk no mo' (x3), Way down the old plank road."
AUTHOR: Uncle Dave Macon
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: prison drink humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 94, "Way Down The Old Plank Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 202, "Way Down the Old Plank Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 252, "Marina Girls" (1 short text, 1 tune)
DT, OLPLNKRD
Roud #18527
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "Way Down the Old Plank Road" (Vocalion 5097=Vocalion 15321, 1926; on AAFM3, RoughWays1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" (words)
cf. "The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)" (words)
cf. "My Wife Died on Saturday Night" (floating verse)
NOTES [121 words]: I put Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 252 ("Marina Girls") here only because because half of it is a floating verse that's also in this song ("Sixteen pounds of meat a week/Whisky for to sell/How can a pretty girl stay at home/The soldiers fare so well" -- note that Uncle Dave reversed the sexes!) Although it was collected in 1918, I'm not assigning it as "Earliest Date" because it's not really "Way Down the Old Plank Road," but I note the fact of the floater. - PJS
Roud makes "Marina Girls" a separate song (his item #3661), but the only known text appears to be Sharp's short fragment from Laura V. Donald; until and unless more distinct text shows up, it's hard to know how to file the thing anyway. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: ADR94

Way Down upon the Swanee River

See Old Folks at Home (File: RJ19163)

Way Down Yonder (Soup to Soup)

DESCRIPTION: "Way down yonder, Soup to soup! Where dem white folks Soup to soup, Just singin' and prayin'... Tryin' to make man... Biscuits hot... Corn bread cold... Thank God Almighty... Just give me a little mo'...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (RIng Games of American Children, according to Coffin & Cohen)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 183, "Way Down Yonder" (1 text)
File: CoCo183A

Way Down Yonder in Pasquotank

See May Irwin's Frog Song (The Foolish Frog, Way Down Yonder) (File: Br3189)

Way Down Yonder in the Cornfield

See Some Folks Say that a Preacher Won't Steal (File: Br3423)

Way Down Yonder in Yankety Yank

See May Irwin's Frog Song (The Foolish Frog, Way Down Yonder) (File: Br3189)

Way Down Yonder on Cedar Street

See Roll, Jordan, Roll (II) (File: R303)

Way Downtown

See Late Last Night When Willie Came Home (Way Downtown) (File: CSW166)

'Way in the Kingdom (Aunt Susie)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh the bells did ring when Massa did die, 'Way in the kingdom, And the darkies didn't they holler and cry." "Sinners won't you rise and tel, Jesus has done all thing well." "Hallelujah to the lamb." "Come along Moses,,, Stretch your rod and come across"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 65-66, "'Way in the Kingdon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11620
NOTES [83 words]: Roud lumps this with "'In the Kingdom," but the contents are so different that I've split them.
Moses's rod is referred to many times in the Bible, starting in Exodus 4:3 where God turns it to a snake; this is one of the techniques Moses uses to convince others, and the staff is also used to initiate some of the plagues of Egypt. But the most relevant usage here is surely from Exodus 14:15, where Moses uses the staff to part the Sea of Reeds ("Red Sea," in many of the modern mistranslations). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: HuVi065

Way Out in Idaho (I)

DESCRIPTION: A railroad man, enticed by "Kilpatrick's man, Catcher," goes to Idaho to work on the Oregon Short Line. Disillusioned by hard work and bad food, he winds up "happy, down in the harvest camps" and plans to marry a girl and bring her "back to Idaho."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Blaine Stubblefield)
KEYWORDS: railroading work marriage train travel
FOUND IN: US(MA,Ro)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 269-270, "Way Out in Idaho" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 560-566, "Way Out in Idaho" (1 text plus a text of "The Arkansaw Navvy"="The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II)" [Laws H1], 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp 583-584, "Way Out in Idaho" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 78-79, "Way Out in Idaho" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 440, "Way Out in Idaho" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OUTIDAHO*
Roud #16409
RECORDINGS:
Blaine Stubblefield, "Way Out in Idaho" (AFS 1634 B1, 1938; on LC61)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier (I)" and references there (tune)
cf. "Sam Bass" [Laws E4] (tune)
cf. "The Buffalo Skinners" (lyrics, plot)
cf. "The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II)" [Laws H1] (lyrics)
NOTES [36 words]: The Digital Tradition notes that the tune for its version is a "slight variant on Son of a Gambolier." But Lomax says that it is the same tune as "Sam Bass"; so also Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BRaF440

Way Out in Idaho (II)

See We're Coming, Arkansas (We're Coming, Idaho) (File: R343)

Way Out in Idyho

See We're Coming, Arkansas (We're Coming, Idaho) (File: R343)

Way Out There

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a hobo, jumps off a freight train, makes camp, falls asleep, dreaming "the desert sand was a milk and honey land." He awakens to the sound of a returning train; he catches it on the fly. Refrain: "It gets lonesome way out there" or similar
AUTHOR: Bob Nolan
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (recording, Sons of the Pioneers)
KEYWORDS: homesickness loneliness rambling train travel dream hobo
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Bill Boyd & his Cowboy Ramblers "'Way Out There" (Bluebird [US, Canada] B-6670, 1936; Montgomery Ward M-7193, 1937)
Homer & Walter Callahan, "Away Out There" (ARC 7-05-59/Conqueror 8854, 1936)
Hall Brothers, "'Way Out There" (Bluebird B-6843, 1937)
Riley Puckett, "'Way Out There" (Bluebird B-8354, 1940)
Sons of the Pioneers, "Way Out There" (Decca 5013, 1934)
File: RcWOT

Way Out West in Kansas

DESCRIPTION: Complaints about life "Way out west in Kansas": "The sun's so hot the eggs will hatch... It'll pop the corn in a popcorn patch." The people are prone to fighting and often physically peculiar; the lack of amusements makes for a boring life
AUTHOR: Carson J. Robison
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (recording, Billy Murray & Ed. Smalle)
KEYWORDS: home family
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 32, "In Kansas" (2 texts, 1 tune, the "B" text being this piece while the "A" text is "In Kansas")
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 219-220, "Away Out West in Kansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4455
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart & Co. "Way Out West in Kansas" (Edison 51459, 1925)
Art Gilliam (The Whispering Pianist), "Way Out West in Kansas" (Columbia 238-D, 1924)
Billy Murray & Ed. Smalle "Way Out West in Kansas" (Victor 19442, 1924)
Anna Underhill, "Away Out West in Kansas" (on FineTimes)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In Kansas" (theme)
NOTES [41 words]: There's a Gene Autry recording, "'Way Out West in Texas" (Conqueror 8193, 1933; Conqueror 9513, 1940) which is probably the same song, but as I haven't heard it I'm putting it here as a note instead of adding it to the official recordings list. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: FCW032B

Way Over in the Blooming Garden

DESCRIPTION: Playparty/courting game. "Sweet peas and roses, Strawberries on the vine Way over in the blooming garden Where sweet lilies grow." "Choose you a partner and choose him to your side." "Hug him neatly and kiss him so sweetly."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: courting playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 293-294, "Way Over in the Blooming Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15583
File: LxA294

Way Over in the Heavens

DESCRIPTION: "I wish't I had-a heard when ye called me (x3) To sit on the seat by Jesus. Way over in the heavens...." "Sister, my soul's happy...." "I have a mother in the heavens...." "Won't you be glad when he calls you...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 127, "Way Over in the Heavens" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6681
File: LoF127

Way Over in the New Buryin' Groun'

DESCRIPTION: "The hammer keeps ringin' on somebody's coffin (x2), Way over in the new buryin' groun'." "Somebody's dying way over yonder (x2), Way over in the new buryin' groun'." "Hearse keeps a-rollin' -- somebody's dyin'...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: death burial
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, pp. 35-36, "New Burying Ground" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 614, "The New Buryin' Ground" (3 texts, with common verses though "A" never mentions the burying ground)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 614, "The New Burying Ground" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 473, "Way Over in the New Buryin' Groun'" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11052
RECORDINGS:
Willie Williams and Group, "The New Burying Ground" (on VaWork)
SAME TUNE:
Woody Guthrie, "Union Burying Ground" (on Struggle2)
File: San473

Way Over in the Promised Land

See Where Is Old Elijah? (The Hebrew Children, The Promised Land) (File: San092)

Way Sing Sally

See Sally Brown (File: Doe074)

Way Stormalong John

See Stormalong (File: Doe082)

Way They Emigrate, The

DESCRIPTION: "Of all the systems I can name Within our bee have State, Is that which much concerns us all, The way they emigrate." They came by wagon and by handcart; now they will come by "iron horse" (the railroad); "They come, they etc., to be blessed"
AUTHOR: probably William Willes
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (Willes, The Mountain Warbler)
KEYWORDS: travel railroading home | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 205, "The Way They Emigrate'" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: William Willes, _The Mountain Warbler: Being a Collection of Original Songs and Recitations, by WIlliam Willes, with a Selection from Other writes, for the Use of Choirs, Sabbath Schools and Families_, Deseret News Book and Job Establishment, Salt Lake City, 1872 (available on Google Books), pp. 38-39, "(no title)" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Female Auctioneer" (tune)
NOTES [107 words]: Yes, the chorus of this really does end "They come, they etc., to be blessed"! Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest quote a bunch of William Willes poems, but I assuredly am not impressed.
Not everything in the Willes book is by Willes (and, we might add, it's texts only; no tunes are printed; despite its title, it's not what I would call a book for choirs!). Willes generally attributes poems written by others, and this has no attribution. On the other hand, he put a "W. W." after some of his own poems, and it doesn't have that, either. It's almost certainly by Willes, but perhaps one could argue that it has not been proved. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC205

Way to Spell Chicken, De

See C-H-I-C-K-E-N (File: RcCHICKE)

Way to Wallington, The

DESCRIPTION: "O canny man, o! Shew me the way to Wallington: I've got a mare to ride, and she's a trick o' galloping." Sandy tells of his determination to reach the town; he is told he is on the road. He sets off "like the wind"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: horse travel
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 148-149, "Shew Me the Way to Wallington" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR148 (Partial)
Roud #3165
NOTES [33 words]: This is said to be a pipe tune, with words defective. It looks as if it might be political -- but too little is left, at least in the texts I've seen, to make even an intelligent guess as to what. - RBW
File: StoR148

Way Up at Leota

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you jackpine savages wherever you may be"; the singer will tell of working for John Griffin at Leota. It's cold. They have to get rise 4:00 a.m. The work is too hard. When they finish, they'll drink until they feel better -- and return next year
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan)
KEYWORDS: work lumbering hardtimes drink
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 50-51, "Way Up at Leota" (1 text)
Roud #6517
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (theme) and references there
File: BBun050

Way Up in Sofield

See The Sheffield Apprentice [Laws O39] (File: LO39)

Way Up in the Sky

DESCRIPTION: "Way up in the sky The big birdies fly While down in the nest The little birds rest." "The little birds sleep All through the night." "The bright sun comes up, The dew flys away, 'Good morning, good morning,' The little birds say"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 518, "Way Up in the Sky" (notes only)
File: ACSF518W

Way Up on Clinch Mountain

See Rye Whiskey AND Sweet Lulur (File: R405)

Way We Crossed the Plains, The

DESCRIPTION: "In a shaky wagon we ride, For to cross the prairie wide...." "And that's the way, The way we crossed the plains...." The cattle are loud as they are driven. There is no wood, so they use buffalo chips to make fires
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: travel hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 54-55, "The Way We Crossed the Plains" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10824
File: ChMS054

Way, Me, Susiana!

See Susiana (File: Doe083)

Wayerton Driver, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a heart-broken driver, From Wayerton I came, I courted a sweetheart, Mary Dolan by name." Paul buys her a ring but she turns him down. He gets drunk and visits her again. She prefers Melvin Grant. Pretty fair maids, warns Paul, are "slyer than mice"
AUTHOR: probably Paul Kingston
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: courting ring rejection drink
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 45, "The Wayerton Driver" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi045 (Partial)
Roud #9183
NOTES [54 words]: Wayerton is far up the Northwest Miramichi River in New Brunswick. - BS
The note on the tune says that this derives from "The Girl I Left Behind Me," and there is in fact a strong resemblance in the shape of the melody. But the first verse, at least, is clearly based on "Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl)" [Laws C25]. - RBW
File: MaWi045

Wayfarer's Grace

DESCRIPTION: "For all the glory of the way. For Thy protection, night and day, For roof, tree, fire and bed and board For friends and home, we thank thee, Lord."
AUTHOR: M. Elizabeth Worsfold and G. C. E. Ryley (source: Tobitt-TheDittyBag)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Kent County (Girl Guides) Song Book, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 167, 438, "Wayfarer's Grace" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, pp. 173-174, "Wayfarer's Grace" (1 short text, 1 tune, the fifth of six "Graces")
Tobitt-YoursForASong, pp. 63-64, "Wayfarer's Grace" (1 short text, 1 tune, the fifth of six "Graces")
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 11, "Wayfarer's Grace" (3 short texts, 1 English, 1 French, 1 German; 1 tune)
NOTES [121 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs's "Wayfarer's Grace" is popular (26 citations), but Averill says it is to the tune of Burns's "Some have meat and cannot eat" (sometimes called "The Selkirk Grace" or "Burns grace at Kirkudbright") -- in fact, she seems to say it starts with those words. But that grace is not listed as having a tune, and every "Wayfarer's Grace" that I could find was this piece, often listed to the tune of "Old Hundredth"/"The Doxology" although that is not the tune used in ChansonsDeNotreChalet. So I think Averill is in error in one or another attribution. I have followed Tobitt's attribution, which is also in ChansonsDeNotreChalet. It is not clear who made the non-English versions in the latter book. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF167W

Wayfaring Pilgrim

See Wayfaring Stranger (File: FSC077)

Wayfaring Stranger

DESCRIPTION: The singer confesses, "I'm just a poor, wayfaring stranger / A-travelling through this world of woe." The singer plans to cross the Jordan (into heaven), there to meet with family and loved ones and live forever free from trouble and burden
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1816 (Kentucky Harmony, as "Judgement")
KEYWORDS: religious death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,SE,So)
REFERENCES (31 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 77, "Poor and Foreign Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 93, "A Poor Wayfaring Pilgrim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 208, "I'm Just A-Going Over Jordon" (1 text, clearly this though it lacks the "Wayfaring Stranger" lines)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 80-81, "I Am a Pilgrum" (sic.) (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 41-42, "The Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #109, "Wayfaring Pilgrim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 94-95, "The Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 771, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 81, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 68-69, "I Am a Poor Wayfaring Pilgrim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 33, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 91, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 177, "Poor Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 5, "Goin Over on de Uddah Side of Jordan" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 191, "Pilgrim's Song" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 126-127 in the 1901 edition)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 119, "The Poor, Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of a shape note version)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 97, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 37, "Over Jordan (Wayfaring Stranger)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 880-881, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune, plus verses from several parodies)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 32, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 162-165, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 3 tunes)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 124-125, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 15, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 34, "I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 352, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Daniel W. Patterson, "Archive Notes," Vol. XV, No. 2 (Nov 1967), pp. 58-59, "The Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Horton Barker: Folk Singer Supreme," Vol. XXII, No. 4 (Nov 1974), pp. 146+153, "The Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 51, "Poor Wayfaring Stranger" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 47, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 59, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Howard P. Odum and Guy B. Johnson, The Negro and His Songs (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1925), pp.137-138, "The Pilgrim's Song" (1 text)
Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 22, #5 (1973), p, 21, "Wayfaring Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune, the Horton Barker version)
ST FSC077 (Partial)
Roud #3339
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley, "Wayfaring Pilgrim" (on WatsonAshley01)
Horton Barker, "Wayfaring Stranger" (on Barker01)
Shirley Glenn, "Poor Wayfaring Stranger" (Piotr-Archive #10, recorded 07/14/2020)
Linzy Hicks, "A Poor Wayfaring Pilgrim" (on USWarnerColl01)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Wayfaring Stranger" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Almeda Riddle, "Poor Wayfaring Stranger" (on LomaxCD1701, LomaxCD1704)
Pete Seeger, "The Wayfaring Stranger" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b)
Vaughn's Texas Quartet, "The Wayfaring Pilgrim" (Victor V-40231, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection)" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Judgement
Wayfaring Pilgrim
NOTES [72 words]: For some reason, this song has powerfully captured the attention of a segment of the folk song revival; there are a remarkable number of albums issued with 14 of the singer's own songs and "Wayfaring Stranger." It's a good song, but why this one of all the traditional songs out there? - PJS
Perhaps the tune has some special fascination? Schinhan says more about its oddities than almost any other piece in the Brown collection. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSC077

Wayward Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: The Wayward Boy has sex with a girl, who gives him "pimples thick" upon his penis in exchange for the "two little mutts up her guts."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy rake rambling seduction sex pregnancy disease
FOUND IN: US(SW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 86-89, "The Wayward Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, p. 146, "Two Ruby Red Lips" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10408
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fire Ship" (plot) and references there
cf. "The Girl I Left Behind Me (lyric)" (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES [46 words]: Legman styles the one-stanza fragment in Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I by an alternate title. - EC
Not to be confused with the Charlie Poole song of the same title (Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 87), which does not appear to be a traditional song. - RBW
File: EM086

We All Go to Work But Father

See Everybody Works but Father (File: RcEBWBF)

We All Goin' Home

DESCRIPTION: "We all goin' home n(x4)." "The organ play and the bugle blow. We going to ride in the chariot. We all going home"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious home | chariot
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Henry Williams, Allan Lovelace, "We All Goin' Home" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [23 words]: This is a Spiritual Baptist Hymn. The current description is all of the WITrinidadVillage02 text, which is repeated a number of times. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcWAGoHo

We All Grow Old in Time

DESCRIPTION: ""One day while strolling down the street, an old man lost his way." He asks some boys fir help; they make fun of him. A newsboy apologizes to him and tells them to stop. The old man has no heir, the newsboy no parents; the old man adopts the newsboy
AUTHOR: Words: E. P. Moran / Music: J. Fred Helf (source: List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (copyrighted, according to List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana)
KEYWORDS: age abuse orphan help
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 247-249, "We All Grow Old in Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16810
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Craver ("Arkansas Charlie"), "We All Grow Old in Time" (Vocalion 5367, 1929?)
File: List247

We All Love Mother

DESCRIPTION: Singer's mother has "gone to meet her Jesus." "We will never forget ... she helped you all her way." "... we all love mother." "Some day you'll meet your mother On that bright and happy day"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious mother Jesus
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Crowder Brothers, "We All Love Mother" (on StuffDreams1)
File: RcWeALMo

We and They

DESCRIPTION: "Father, Mother, and Me Sister and Auntie say All the people like us are We, And every one else is They. And They live over the sea, While We live over the way, But -- would you believe it? -- They look upon We As only a sort of They!"
AUTHOR: Rudyard Kipling
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 ("Debits and Credits," according to the Kipling Society web site)
KEYWORDS: mother father food | customs foreigners
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 176, "Father and Mother and Me" (1 fragment)
Roud #25466
File: KSUC176B

We Are A' Queen Mary's Men

See Queen Mary's Men (New Year's Eve Carol) (File: MSNR200)

We Are All Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough

See All Jolly Fellows That Handles the Plough (File: K241)

We Are All King George's Men

See Have You Any Bread and Wine (English Soldiers, Roman Soldiers) (File: Lins040)

We Are Almost Down to the Shore

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Put it on (x2), Children and don't turn back We are almost down to the shore." Verse: "Peter Peter on the sea, Drop your nets and follow me" God places the commandments in Moses's mind. Moses dies and "where he's buried never been told"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute); 1893 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 84-85, "Fighting On" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 93 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
Roud #15259
RECORDINGS:
Jimmie Strothers, "We Are Almost Down to the Shore" (on Field Recordings Virginia Vol. 1 (1936-1941) Document Records DOCD-5575 (1997))
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fisherman Peter" ("Peter on the sea" theme)
cf. "Who Did Swallow Jonah?" ("Peter on the sea" theme)
NOTES [308 words]: Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's and Strothers's verses are couplets followed by "We are almost down to the shore."
Strother's "Peter on the Sea" verse may have floated from "Who Did Swallow Jonah?" The "drop your nets" reference is from Matthew 4:18-20: "And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him" (King James). [This is also the sense of John 21:3-7, although the language of Matthew 4:18-20=Mark 1:16-18 -- the "Fishers of Men" passage -- is closer. - RBW]
The Moses references of receiving the commandments and death and burial are Exodus 19-20 and Deuteronomy 34:5-6 ("So Moses, the servant of the Lord died ... according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley ... but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day" (King James)), respectively.
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's chorus has "Fighting on, Hallelujah" in place of "Put it on" (x2). Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses are about Jesus; for example, "Hallelujah to the Lamb, Jesus died for every man," and "In my room right by my bed, Jesus take me when I'm dead"; John the Baptist sees Jesus coming and says, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29, King James version).
The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "Fighting on" on page 98 (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 98. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Dett084

We are Almost Home

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I'm almost home (3x), To ring those charming bells." Verse: "Come along my brother (sister, preacher, mother, deacon, mourner, sinner,...) For your time is drawing near And the angels say there's nothing to do But to ring those charming bells"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious family
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 15, "Dem Charming Bells" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 89, "We Are Almost Home" (1 text) (1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: J.B.T. Marsh, The Story of the Jubilee Singers Including Their Songs (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1903 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #84 p. 238, "We Are Almost Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15269
NOTES [11 words]: The description is based on the Barton-OldPlantationHymns text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart015

We Are Anchored By the Roadside, Jim

DESCRIPTION: Singer (a "sacker" in the lumber camps) tells Jim that times were formerly good for drinkers, but that good booze is now hard to find. He says that despite this, cold water (i.e., temperance) is not for either or them, so they will "drink the old jug dry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (Dime-Song-Book #3)
KEYWORDS: drink worker logger
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1738, p. 117, "The Old Whiskey Jug" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 37 and #3/62, p. 37, "The Old Whiskey Jug" (1 text)
DT, ROADJIM
Roud #5750
RECORDINGS:
Pat Ford, "We're anchored by the roadside, Jim" (AFS 4210 B2, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Robert Walker, "We Are Anchored by the Roadside, Jim" (on USWolfRiver)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, sb30386a, "The Old Whiskey Jug" ("We're anchored by the roadside, Jim"), Andrews (Chatham, NY)
File: RcWAABTR

We Are Bound Down South Alibama

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "Oh Miss Celia oh/We are bound down South Alibama." The shantyman sings: Miss Celia should be ashamed for messing with the boy on the bed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: sex derivative shanty lover youth
FOUND IN: West Indies(St Vincent)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 109-111, "We Are Bound Down South Alibama" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #325
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "South Australia (I)" (form, lyrics)
NOTES [55 words]: A derivative of "South Australia (I)" where the destination changes first to South Alabama, and then "Alibama" becomes a man's name. Abrahams quotes a blackfish whaler who says that "they make this song, see how Miss Celia [owner of a whaling boat] had to be ashamed, be she lie in bed with Alibama - this man was name Alibama." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS109

We Are Building on a Rock

DESCRIPTION: "We are building on a Rock," a "mighty true Rock," a "mighty solid rock," "on high, on high." "Christ Jesus is the Rock" that will prevail against "the very gates of hell." "Help me build on the rock"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 115, "We Are Building on a Rock" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 123 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #15256
NOTES [75 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "On high, on high." - BS
This would appear to be based on Jesus's description of Peter, "You are Peter [Greek Πετρος, "Petros" means "Rock," so Peter -- in Greek, again "Petros" -- is "the Rock" or, by analogy, "Rocky"], and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Dett115

We Are But Little Children Weak

DESCRIPTION: "We are but little children weak, Nor born in any high estate; What can we do for Jesus' sake, Who is so high, and good, and great!" "There's not a child so small and weak But has his little cross to take His little work... That he may do for Jesus' sake"
AUTHOR: Cecil Frances (Humphreys) Alexander (1818-1895) (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (Church Sunday School Hymn Book, according to hymnary.org)
KEYWORDS: children religious
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 109, "We are but little children weak" (1 fragment)
Roud #25520
SAME TUNE:
We Are But Little Seaforths Weak (File: AWTBW091)
NOTES [75 words]: Alice Kane seems to have been taught a lot of Alexander poems; she also cited her "Day by Day the Little Daisy" and her famous "All Things Bright and Beautiful." Alexander also wrote "Once In Royal David's City" and "There Is a Green Hill Far Away." For background on her, see "All Things Bright and Beautiful."
This is apparently usually sung to the tune "Alstone." One writer thought it was the most popular of Alexander's many nauseating poems. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: KSUC109B

We Are But Little Saiors Weak

DESCRIPTION: "We are but little sailors weak, Our pay is fourteen bob a week. The more we do the more we may It makes no difference to our pay. Our hours per day are twenty-four. We thank the Lord there are no more"; if there were, they'd have to work those too
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor work hardtimes money
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 137-138, "We are but Little Sailors Weak" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Are But Little Children Weak" (tune)
File: Tawn104

We Are But Little Seaforths Weak

DESCRIPTION: "We are but little Seaforths weak, Our pay is seven bob a week, Whate'er we do by night or day, It makes no difference to our pay." They work 24 hours a day; the generals would ask for more if there were more hours. They never get leave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 91, "We Are But Little Seaforths Weak" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Are But Little Children Weak" (tune)
File: AWTBW091

We Are Coming , Father Abraam, 300,000 More

See We Are Coming, Father Abraham (File: SCW44)

We Are Coming from the Cotton Fields

See Song of the Freedmen (File: SBoA240)

We Are Coming, Father Abr'am

See We Are Coming, Father Abraham (File: SCW44)

We Are Coming, Father Abraham

DESCRIPTION: "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more... We leave our plows and workshops Our wives and children dear...." The song describes how those left behind are doing the young men's work so they may put down the rebels
AUTHOR: Words: James Sloan Gibbons
EARLIEST DATE: 1862 (New York Evening Post)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 104-107, "We Are Coming, Father Abr'am" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 44-45, "We Are Coming, Father Abr'am" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saunders/Root-MusicOfStephenCFoster-Vol2, pp. 217-220+436, "We Are Coming , Father Abraam, 300,000 More" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 364, "We Are Coming, Father Abraham" (1 text plus a collection of parodies)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 113-114, "We Are Coming, Father Abraham" (1 text, with a photo of the original manuscript facing p 114)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2510, p. 169, "We Are Coming, Father Abraham, 600,000 more" (11 references)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 213-214, "We Are Coming, Father Abraham" (1 text)
ST SCW44 (Full)
Roud #31244
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, rpbaasm 1180 ["words from the New York Evening Post ; music composed and arranged by S.J. Adams"], "We Are Coming Father Abraham 3000,000 More," Henry Tolman & Co. (Boston), c.1862; also rpbaasm 1184 ["set to music by P.S. Gilmore"], "We Are Coming Father Abraam Three Hundred Thousand More"; rpbaasm 1185 ["words by William Cullen Bryant music by G. R. Poulton"], "300,000 more!" (tune)
LOCSinging, sb40573b, "We Are Coming, Father Abraham," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also cw10594a, "Three Hundred Thousand More"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hold On, Abraham"
SAME TUNE:
How Are You Green Backs? ("We're coming, Father Abram, one hundred thousand more, Five hundred presses printing us....") (tune from one or another version of this song, probably Foster's, plus a chorus from Foster's "That's What's the Matter"; Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 364; Deems Taylor et al, _A Treasury of Stephen Foster_, Random House, 1946, p. 147; Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 61)
We're Coming Fodder Abraham (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 365)
NOTES [233 words]: This was originally published as a poem, "Three Hundred Thousand More," in the July 16, 1862 edition of the New York Evening Post.
It was so popular that at least eight musical arrangements were published, including those by L.O. Emerson (this last may have been the most popular; at least, it's the one Silber quotes), Stephen C. Foster (the Foster sheet music doesn't even mention the name of Gibbons!), and P. S. Gilmore. (For the full list, see the notes to Saunders & Root. See also the list of printed versions on p. 169 of Wolf-AmericanSongSheets).
I don't know if this can be considered a traditional song, under the circumstances, but it certainly shows up in a lot of anthologies! - RBW
The attribution to William Cullen Bryan is also on LOCSheet Music #577 [cover only] "We Are Coming Father Abra'am 300.000 More," Oliver Ditson & Co. (Boston), 1862: "Poem by Wm Cullen Bryant Music by L.O. Emerson." Broadside LOCSheet rpbaasm 1180 commentary: "From poem first published in the New York Evening Post, July 16, 1862: We are coming, Father Abraham / James Sloan Gibbons. Cf. BAL, v. 1, p. 346. The words sometimes erroneously attributed to Wm. Cullen Bryant, or J. [!] Cullen Bryant."
Broadside LOCSinging sb40573b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: SCW44

We Are Coming, Sister Mary

See We're Coming, Sister Mary (File: FSC084)

We Are Four Bums

See The Great American Bum (Three Jolly Bums) (File: FaE192)

We Are Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough

See All Jolly Fellows That Handles the Plough (File: K241)

We Are Marching On

DESCRIPTION: "We are marching on (x2), To the land of light, To the land of love, We are marching on." "Where the angels wait At the golden gate, To conduct us there To a mansion fair...." "We are marching on, Happy pilgrim band... To the heavenly land."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 647, "We Are Marching On" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 647, "We Are Marching On" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11940
File: Br3647

We Are Poor Frozen Out Gardeners

DESCRIPTION: Recorded primarily as a tune, with a few words known: "We are poor frozen out gardeners, We've got no work to do, Alas, what shall we do?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime)
KEYWORDS: worker hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 747-748, "We Are Poor Frozen Out Gardeners" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #22228
File: CPMWAPFG

We Are Seven

See The Little Cottage Girl (We Are Seven) (File: Brne188)

We Are Table Number One

DESCRIPTION: "We are table number one, number one, number one. We are table number one, where is number two?" And so forth, for higher numbers. Text may instead be "We are table one, we are table one, We are table one, And the fun has just begun"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Harbin-Parodology)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #274, p. 67, "We Are Table One"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 285, 292, "We Are Table Number One"/"This Is Table Number One" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Won't Go Home Until Morning" (tune, according to Harbin-Parodology)
NOTES [47 words]: Apparently this was a sort of a chanting game: One table of campers would start pounding the table and reciting this, then another would start pounding as "We are table number two... where is number three?" And continue until every table that wanted to make noise had done so. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF285W

We Are Table One

See We Are Table Number One (File: ACSF285W)

We are the ... Boys

See We Know Our Manners (We are the ... Boys) (File: BrPa048C)

We Are the Barbie Girls

DESCRIPTION: The barbie/mercy [Mersey?] girls wear their hair in curls and wear dungarees, father's shirt, brother's tie, "And when we want a guy We simply wink the eye/when it comes to boys We treat them as toys"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Jivani)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord)) Ireland US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame, p. 478, ("We are the barbie girls") (2 texts)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ta-ra-ra Boom-der-e" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Stonewall Girls
NOTES [154 words]: In 1969, "'We are the Stonewall girls we wear our hair in curls; we wear no underwear; we show our pubic hair.' The battle-cry of the Stonewall drag queens as they charged the police [in New York]" (source: Alkarim Jivani, It's Not Unusual: A History of Lesbian and Gay Britain in the Twentieth Century (Bloomington, 1997 (copyrighted material limited preview "Digitized by Google")) p. 159). - BS
Similarly James Sullivan, Which Side Are You On?: 20th Century History in 100 Protest Songs, with a foreword by The Reverend Lennox Yearwood and Bill McKibben, Oxford University Press, 2019, p. 132, talking of the Stonewall Riot: "More violence erupted on both sides, but so did some very effective street theater: at one point a group of transvestites taunted the police by forming a kick line, singing a favorite queer parody of the familiar vaudeville song 'Ta-ra-ra-Boom-de-ay': 'We are the Stonewall girls....'" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OpGa478C

We Are the Indians

See We Are the Red Men (File: ACSF514W)

We Are the Peckham Boys

DESCRIPTION: The Peckham boys "know our manners," spend our money, are well respected, "winners of the boys." "When you hear a copper shout, 'Put that dirty Woodbine [cigarette brand] out.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1993 (recording, Ray Driscoll)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
RECORDINGS:
Ray Driscoll, "We Are the Peckham Boys" (on Voice14)
File: RcWATPB

We Are the Ragtime Flying Corps

See The Ragtime Flying Corps (File: AWTBW114)

We Are the Red Men

DESCRIPTION: "We are the Indians, tall and quaint, In our feathers and war paint, Pow wow, pow wow, We're the men of the olden cow, We are the red men, Feathers in our headmen, Down among the dead men, Ugg pow wow!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) campsong nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 514, "We Are the Red Men" (notes only)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Indian Song
We Are the Indians
NOTES [24 words]: Averill says she found 32 versions of this. I have to think those were mostly old collections; it's hard to imagine anyone singing it today! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF514W

We Are Three Knights, We Come from Spain

See Three Brothers from Spain (Knights of Spain, We Are Three Jews) (File: BGMG633)

We Are Three Lovers Come From Spain

See Three Brothers from Spain (Knights of Spain, We Are Three Jews) (File: BGMG633)

We Are Three Spivs of Trafalgar Square

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "We are three spivs of Trafalgar Square Flogging nylons tuppence a pair, All fully fashioned, all off the ration, Sold in Trafalgar Square."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Opie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope clothes commerce
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #591, "We are three spivs of Trafalgar Square" (1 text)
File: AJRR591

We Are Volunteers in the Army of the Lord (Mormon Version)

DESCRIPTION: "We are volunteers in the army of the Lord, Forming into line at thy leader's word... 'Tis a bright immortal crown that we seek to gain." "Come join the army, the army of our Lord, Brigham is our leader, We'll rally at his word...."
AUTHOR: Original Words and Music: George F. Root (source: Hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle)
KEYWORDS: religious army soldier derivative | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, p. 105, "(We are volunteers in the army of the Lord") (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [106 words]: The Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle consists of only one verse of this and the chorus. The verse consists of the first half of Root's verse 1 and the second half of Root's verse 2; the chorus is basically Root's chorus. Ordinarily I would file the result with Root's song. However, there is one dramatic change in the chorus. Root's text gives the second line of the chorus as
Jesus is our Captain, we rally at His word
In the Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle version, that line becomes
Brigham is our leader, we'll rally at his word.
That is so significant a change in meaning that I think this must be considered a different song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSSS105

We Be Soldiers Three

DESCRIPTION: "We be soldiers three, Pardona moy, je vous an pree, Lately come forth from the low country, With never a penny of money." The soldiers drink to their hearers, or beg their listeners to give a drink to the men who fought for them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (Ravenscroft, Deuteromelia)
KEYWORDS: soldier home drink
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 77, "We Be Soldiers Three" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, p. 133, "We Be Soldiers Three" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 144-145, "We Be Soldiers Three" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 108, "Sailors Three" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed), _Selections from the Works of Thomas Ravenscroft; A Musical Composer of the Time of King James the First_, Roxburgh Club, 1822, (available on Google Books) No. III/p. 3, "We Be Souldiers Three" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8340
NOTES [181 words]: Just barely traditional, if traditional at all (there is a field collection, but I wonder if it wasn't influenced by print), but it's old, and the tune is excellent, so I've indexed it.
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea's "Sailors Three" strikes me as very dubious. On its face, it is a version of this in which the three soldiers are made into sailors, and the "low countries" changed to the "West Country, and any verses specific to soldiers simply omitted. Otherwise, it's almost verbatim from Chappell. What are the odds of such a thing? I doubt the result was ever traditional (Kinsey, after all, lists no source); even if Kinsey collected it rather than rewriting it himself, the informant must have seen a printed text.
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 506, has a piece "There Were Three Travellers," with the verse, "There were three travellers, travellers three, With a hey down, ho down, lang tree down derry, And they would travel the north country, Without ever a stiver of money." The tune is not exactly the same, but obviously there is some sort of influence between the two. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DalC144

We Be Souldiers Three

See We Be Soldiers Three (File: DalC144)

We Be Three Poor Mariners

DESCRIPTION: "We be three poor mariners, newly come from the seas, We spend our lives in jeopardy, while others live at east. Shall we do dance the Round, around, around (x2)...." The singer praises merchantmen "that do our states maintain."
AUTHOR: Thomas Ravenscroft?
EARLIEST DATE: 1609 (Deuteromelia)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor commerce nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 77-78, "We Be Three Poor Mariners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 134-135, "We Be Three Poor Mariners" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 120-121, "We Be Three Poor Mariners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads VI, p. 9, "We be three poor Mariners" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: (no author listed_, _Selections from the Works of Thomas Ravenscroft; A Musical Composer of the Time of King James the First_, Roxburgh Club, 1822, No. IV/p. 5, "We Be Three Poor Mariners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Noah Greenberg, ed., An Anthology of English Medieval and Renaissance Vocal Music, pp. 202-204, "Wee Be Three Poore Mariners" (1 text, 1 tune with harmonization)
NOTES [42 words]: The text of this is pretty definitely not traditional (it looks like Ravenscroft hacked it up as a merchant sailor's equivalent of "We Be Soldiers Three"), but the tune, which Chappell describes as a dance tune "Brangill/Branle of Poictu," may be. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ShaSS120

We Beat 'Em on the Marne

DESCRIPTION: We beat 'em on the Marne, We beat 'em on the Aisne, They gave us hell at Neuve Chapelle But here we are again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: war nonballad soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 6-10, 1914 - Battle of the Marne, in which the French and British beat back the German attempt to encircle Paris (and so caused World War One to change from a battle of maneuver to a marathon of trench warfare)
Sep 13, 1914 - Beginning of the French counter-attack on the Germans, sometimes called the First Battle of the Aisne
Mar 10-13, 1915 - The British attempt an offensive at Neuve Chapelle in Artois, but fail to significantly alter the situation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 39, "We Beat 'Em" (1 text)
Roud #10928
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Coming Through the Rye" (tune) and references there
File: BrPa039A

We Came to Tamichi

DESCRIPTION: "We came to Tamichi in 1880, Looking for mineral all the hills o'er... Till our feet were all blistered, our legs were all sore." They have to pay tolls. They have poor food. They list all the others around the worked-out patches, and prepare to leave
AUTHOR: Scott Judy and Doc Hammond (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Colorado Writers' Project, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 139, "We Came to Tamichi" (1 text)
NOTES [20 words]: I feel as if this might have been set to "Farewell to Tarwathie," although there is no evidence that it was ever sung. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC139

We Come, We Come

DESCRIPTION: "We come -- we come, in joy to greet you, Sweet dear old home so kind and true, Endeared by youthful recollections, In you I find there's nothing new." The singer feels he has been away a long time. "We come, sweet friends, we come."
AUTHOR: probably George E. Mills
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Journal of the Mary Frances)
KEYWORDS: sailor separation return home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Pamela A. Miller, _And the Whale Is Ours: Creative Writing of American Whalemen_, David R. Godine/Kendall Whaling Museum, 1979, pp. 22-23, "Song by G. E. Mills. We come. we come" (1 text)
Roud #38069
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Song to Captain S. D. Oliver" (another George E. Mills song)
cf. "Under Way" (another George E. Mills song)
NOTES [59 words]: There is no real reason to think this is traditional. George E. Mills probably wrote it, and it never spread. But it has a Roud number, so I'm including it here because I located a printed version.
George E. Mills, who copied and probably wrote this, wrote quite a bit of poetry in whaling journals in the 1850s; see the songs in the cross-references. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AWIO022

We Conquer or Die

DESCRIPTION: "The war drum is beating, prepare for the fight, The stern bigot Northman exults in his might." Southerners are urged to prepare for battle, to never think of retreat, to defend the South, and to maintain the motto, "We Conquer or Die"
AUTHOR: James Pierpont (source: Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (sheet music published by P. P. Weriein & Halsey, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 74-75, "We Conquer or Die" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [19 words]: James Pierpont also gave us "Jingle Bells." Sounds like his should have stayed in the North when the war started. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: SCWF074

We Dear Labouring Men

See We Poor Labouring Men (File: McCST103)

We Do Nothing (Nothing Song)

DESCRIPTION: "We do nothing nothing nothing, We do nothing all day along, We do absolutely nothing. How do you like our nothing song? Second verse, same as the first, a little bit louder and a little bit worse!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad floatingverses campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 423, "We Do Nothing" (notes only)
File: ACSF423N

We Don't Get No Justice Here in Atlanta

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, we don't get no justice here in Atlanta (x2), For if you say the law ain't right, in the jail you'll spend the night." The rest of the song is variations on these lines.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 313-314, "We Don't Get No Justice Here in Atlanta" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15601
File: LoSi313

We Don't Want to Lose You

See Your King and Country Want You (We Don't Want to Lose You) (File: AWTBW006)

We Fought Like the Divil

See Larry O'Gaff (File: E148)

We Go Fly to Glory

DESCRIPTION: Leader: "We go fly to glory." Congregation: "Give me the wing."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: travel nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Hedley, Carl Monsegui, "We Go Fly to Glory" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [381 words]: The description is all of the WITrinidadVillage02 text, which is repeated more than 15 times in less than one minute. It is a Spiritual Baptist "chorus" as described by Zane: "Choruses are tickets to various places and experiences. They are easy to learn and remember. By singing them, the Converted hitch on for the ride. Through the words and tunes of the choruses all are able to enter metaphorically into different spiritual lands. Some, by singing them, empirically enter those spiritual realms. The titles of the choruses are clues: "Go Down in the Valley," "Canaan Land," "Beulahland," "We Are Marching Onward to Zion," "Over in Zion, There is Music in the Air," etc. Other choruses attend actions in the church service or set a certain mood. For example, "Be Still and Know That I Am God" quiets the congregation and "Greet Somebody in Jesus' Name" is used during the greeting ritual.
Choruses are short musical pieces of about 15 seconds in length, seldom exceeding 30 seconds. They are always repeated several times. When the mood is appropriate they may be sung 50 or 60 times ...." (Wallace W. Zane, Journeys to the Spiritual Lands (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 199, pp. 53-54).
Why have I included the keyword "travel": "travel" in what sense? In Zane's Introduction he writes, "I did not go to the field expecting to find travels in spiritual lands. They had not been described as other than hallucinations in the previous literature. However, my aim was to get an understanding of Spiritual Baptist experience. My constant question was, 'What is it like to be a Spiritual Baptist?' The answer often involved travels in spiritual lands." (Zane, p. 12) McDaniel, on the subject of Spiritual Baptist song, writes, "Trance states and mental or astral travel govern the mystical goals of believers who contact the spirit world through dreams, visions, and propitiations for healing.... These ... [songs] constitute the musical ground for overlayered, superimposed 'sheets of sound' that form the prayer ritual and the mental search for 'power' and astral flight" (Lorna McDaniel, "Memory Spirituals of the Ex-Slave American Soldiers in Trinidad's 'Company Villages'" in Black Music Research Journal, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Autumn 1994 (available on JSTOR)), p. 120, fn. 3). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcWeFtG

We Go Marchin' On

See Marching On (File: Wa130)

We Go Round the Mulberry Bush

See Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (File: Lins038)

We Go to College

DESCRIPTION: The ladies of this quatrain ballad -- who go to college to major in bed -- recount their various sexual adventures with students, faculty, administration, and staff.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Anecdota Americana)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous sex nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US(MA,MW,So,SW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 295-301, "We Go to College" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 229-230, "We Go to College" (1 text, 1 tune
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 172-174, "Whoredean School" (1 text)
Roud #10286 and 10149
ALTERNATE TITLES:
We Are the Pi Phi's
We Are from Campus Hall
We Are Whoredean
We Are from Rodeen (sic)
NOTES [47 words]: It looks to me as if the "Whoredean School" version of this (Cray's "C") was deliberately rewritten to parody a particular school, but I don't know which one. Roud splits it off as a separate song, but I suspect this is an accident of the fact that the song titles are different. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM295

We Gonna Have a Good Time

DESCRIPTION: "Way by and by, way by and by, We gonna have a good time, Way by and by." "Gonna meet King Jesus over there." "Gonna meet my (mother/father) over there." "Gonna shout, troubles over, over there." "Gonna shake hands...." "Gonna take my seat..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 161, "We Gonna Have a Good Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16307
File: ARno161

We Had a PIece of Pie

DESCRIPTION: "We had a piece of pie Made out of rye, And possum was the meat. The crust was tough, But we had enough, And more than all could eat. E, A, T, Eat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: food animal | pie rye possum counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 25, "(We had a piece of pie)" (1 text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 432, "Possum Pie" (1 short text)
Roud #29461
File: WEMM025A

We Had Some Chickens

See In Came That Rooster (File: ACSF239I)

We Had to Walk from the Train to the Camp

DESCRIPTION: "We had to walk from the train to the camp. My shoes got dusty. The white dust came up and settled on my shoes. I looked down at them and began to cry. Never before had my shoes been dusty. It was the first time I cried."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: clothes exile war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 14, 1942 - President Roosevelt issues his Alien Registration proclamation, calling for the registration of foreigners. From there, it was only a short step to the detention of aliens. Roosevelt authorized sending Japanese immigrants to concentration camps on February 20
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, p. 155, (no title) (1 short text)
NOTES [43 words]: Burt-AmericanMurderBallads reports this to be a verse by a nisei boy upon being sent to one of the American detention camps for the Japanese. It's not very good, and it surely was not perpetuated -- but, in context, it surely qualifies as a Folk piece! - RBW
File: Burt155

We Happie Hirdes Men Heere

See We Happy Herdsmen Here (File: MSWHHHe)

We Happy Hardmen Here

See We Happy Herdsmen Here (File: MSWHHHe)

We Happy Herdsmen Here

DESCRIPTION: "We happy herdsmen here May sing and eke rejoice, For angels bright and clear We saw and heard rejoice." The herdsmen have heard of "the King of all mankind." He is in Bethlehem with his mother. They will go visit the baby
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1624 (Shanne MS., according to Friedman)
KEYWORDS: carol religious travel shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Albert B. Friedman, "A Carol in Tradition," essay in Beryl Rowland, editor, _Chaucer and Middle English Studies in Honour of Rossell Hope Robbins_, Kent State University Press, 1974, pp. 300-301, "(We happie hirdes men heere)," "(We happy hardmen here)" (2 texts)
Roud #3331
File: MSWHHHe

We Have Fathers Gone to Heaven

DESCRIPTION: "We have fathers gone to heaven, O do tell me if you know, Will those fathers know their children, When to heaven they do go?" Similarly with mothers, brothers, sisters, children ("Will those children know their parents")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad family
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 318, pp. 191-192, "We Have Fathers Gone to Heaven" (1 text)
Roud #4213
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Departed Loved Ones" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Bright Morning Stars" (theme, floating lyrics)
NOTES [46 words]: This may be an expanded repetition of a single verse in "Departed Loved Ones," or that piece may be an elaboration of this. Dependence seems nearly certain -- but since this is just a set of repeated stanzas, and that one has distinct verses, they must be listed separately. - RBW
File: CW191A

We Have Lived and Loved Together

DESCRIPTION: "We have lived and loved together Through many changing years, We have shared each other's gladness." He has known no sorrow as long as he can see her smile. He hopes to share her sorrows and her joys
AUTHOR: Charles Jeffreys (source: Bodleian broadside site)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1840 (various broadsides)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 11, "We Have Lived and Loved Together" (1 text)
Roud #13836
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(80)=Johnson Ballads 188, Johnson Ballads 287, "We have liv'd and lov'd together" J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Johnson Ballads fol. 115=Johnson Ballads fol. 116, Harding B 11(486), "We have liv'd and loved together," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also 2806 c.13(67)=2806 c.14(69), "We have lived and loved together," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 18(556), "We have lived and loved together," C. Magnus (New York), c. 1860; also Firth b.25(600/601)=Firth b.34(275), "We've liv'd and lov'd together," W. Ordoyno (Nottingham), n.d.; also Firth b.27(341), "We have liv'd and lov'd together," unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 16(302a), "We have lived and loved together," unknown, n.d.; also Firth b.27(153), "We have liv'd and lov'd together," unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.13(239), "We have lived and loved together," unknown, n.d.
File: HMHS011

We Have Loved Ones Over Yonder

See probably The Other Bright Shore (File: R611)

We Have Met and We Have Parted

See The Broken Engagement (II -- We Have Met and We Have Parted) (File: Beld212)

We Have the Navy

DESCRIPTION: A parody of the Federal "On to Richmond"; both begin "Well, we have the navy an' we have the men...." The song catalogs the various Southern generals and troops who fought McClellan in the Peninsula
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (manuscript known to Randolph)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle patriotic parody
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 17, 1862 - General George McClellan moves the first troops of the Army of the Potomac to Fort Monroe, inaugurating the "Peninsular Campaign" (the attempt to capture Richmond by proceeding up the "Peninsula" between the York and James Rivers)
May 31-June 1, 1862 - Battle of Fair Oaks/Seven Pines. Confederates under Joseph E. Johnston attack McClellan's army. The battle is roughly a draw (McClellan continued his advance), but Johnston is wounded and Robert E. Lee appointed in his place
June 25-July 1, 1862 - Seven Days' Battle - In a series of battles, Lee induced McClellan to abandon the attack on Richmond
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 212, "We Have the Navy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 382, "Never MindYour Knapsack" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 382, "Never Mind Your Knapsack" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 231-232, "On to Richmond!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7702
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On to Richmond! (I)"
NOTES [233 words]: Although details about the battle are lacking in this song, the generals mentioned clearly indicate that it refers to the Peninsular Campaign (and the fact that it quotes "On to Richmond" demonstrates that it is a parody).
The generals listed include:
Lee - Robert E. Lee, the Confederate commander. Although his tactical performance was imperfect (the Confederates took nearly 25% casualties in the Seven Days' Battle; the Federals less than 15%), his strategy was brilliant
Jackson - Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, who had just fought a brilliant campaign in the Shenandoah Valley but performed poorly when recalled to Richmond
Longstreet - James Longstreet, Lee's second in command and leader of one of his largest divisions. His performance was not inspired, but he went on to serve as one of Lee's best corps commanders
McGruder - John Bankhead Magruder, commander of the Department of the Peninsula His division had done a fine job of slowing McClellan's advance up the Peninsula (mostly through playacting), but his performance in combat was poor; he was soon sent off to Texas.
"Butler was the Cry" - Refers to the brutal Union general Benjamin F. Butler, who commanded occupied New Orleans and came to be called "Beast Butler"
McClellan - George B. McClellan, the Federal commander, who did a fine job of training and inspiring his troops but was too cautious to lead them effectively. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: R212

We Haven't Got a Hope in the Morning

DESCRIPTION: "When you soar in the air on a Sopwith Scout, And you're scrapping with a Hun and your gun cuts out... you haven't got a hope in the morning." The airman lists all the problems with the equipment he has, and how it leaves no hope
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: technology battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 115, "We Haven't Got a Hope in the Morning" (1 text, tune referenced)
NOTES [33 words]: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver lists the tune of this as "John Peel." I believe this is the song indexed as "D'ye Ken John Peel?" -- but since there are other John Peel songs, I can't prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW115

We Haven't Seen the Kaiser (We Haven't Seen the Sergeant)

DESCRIPTION: "We haven't seen the (kaiser/sergeant) for a hell of a time, a hell of a time, a hell of a time. He came up to see what we were doin', Number eight platoon will be his bloody ruin... Perhaps he's gone up with a mine... Strafe him, he's no cousin of mine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier war technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 47, "We Haven't Seen the Sergeant" (1 text)
Roud #10530
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "He's a Cousin of Mine" (tune)
File: BrPa047A

We Haven't Seen the Sergeant

See We Haven't Seen the Kaiser (We Haven't Seen the Sergeant) (File: BrPa047A)

We Hunted and Hollered

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

We Hunted and We Halloed

See Three Jolly Huntsmen (File: R077)

We Invite You All to Come Along

DESCRIPTION: "We invite you all to come along, We'll have a glorious time, We're going to the mansions Where the moonlight never shine. There'll be no night there, we need not fear, forever will be day, For God alone shall be our guide and lead us all the way."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, p. 116, "We Invite You All to Come Along" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: CoxN116

We Know Our Manners (We are the ... Boys)

DESCRIPTION: "We are the regimental boys (East End boys, Peckham boys, First Herts boys, or any other force), We never make a noise, We know our manner, We can spend our tanners, We are respected everywhere we go"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 48, "We Know Our Manners" (1 text)
Roud #10514
File: BrPa048C

We Leaves Detroit Behind Us

DESCRIPTION: "We leaves Detroit behind us, We set our canvas tight, The tug slows up and casts off, Old Erie heaves in sight. "You'd swear that whiff of D.C. feed Came clear from Buffalo." "There's no such thing as stiddy wind Around Lake Erie here."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Buffalo Express, according to Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors)
KEYWORDS: sailor travel
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, p. 96, "We Leaves Detroit Behind Us" (1 text)
Roud #19852
File: WGM096A

We Left the Port of Sydney

DESCRIPTION: The crew leaves Sydney for Argentia with a load of coal and extra men on board. A storm comes up and sinks the ship and the passengers below deck are trapped and drowned. They had gone to Lunenburg to save money since the fishery was bad.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 119, "We Left the Port of Sydney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #28980
NOTES [66 words]: No names are mentioned here. Lunenburg, like Sydney, is in Nova Scotia. Argentia is on the west side of the Avalon Peninsula (about 60 air miles from St John's) - BS
Sydney was the main point for shipment from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland, being the nearest port tot he island. So traffic from Sydney to Newfoundland was fairly heavy. And, of course, there were a lot of storms in the area. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe119

We Live on the Banks of the Ohio

DESCRIPTION: "We live on the banks of the O-hi-o, O-hi-o, O-hi-o, Where the mighty waters rapidly flow And the steamboat sweeps along." "Ole Massa to his darkies is good... He gives us our clothers...." Slaves, being so well-treated (!), are encouraged not to "droop"
AUTHOR: probably one of the Nightingale Serenaders (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: slave work river
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 224, "We Live on the Banks of the Ohio" (1 text)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 53-54, "On the Banks of the Ohio" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21013
NOTES [131 words]: While the editors of Brown are probably right in considering this a "plantation melody" -- i.e. minstrel propaganda to keep the slaves in line -- it's worth noting that slaves in the border region *were* generally better treated.
This wasn't because slave owners there were more enlightened. The explanation is simple: With freedom within easy reach, slaves were more likely to bolt if harshly treated. Few slaves ever escaped from the deep south -- but by the time of the Civil War, it was nearly dead in more northerly states *simply because slaves couldn't be kept*.
Salt, probably correctly, attributes this to a group called the "Nightingale Serenaders," who sang on Ohio River steamboats. But she ignores the slavery motif, claiming it's about life on a small farm by the river. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: Br3224

We Love the Name of Texas

DESCRIPTION: "I am the Texas cowboy." He describes his job, the herds of longhorns, the Spanish ponies, and the danger of lightening-triggered stampede. Paid off in Kansas City, he loafs around, then heads back to Texas and Mary, whom he hopes to marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work money gold love marriage
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 145, "We Love the Name of Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6362
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm Bound to Follow the Longhorn Cows" (theme)
File: MooSW145

We May and Might Never All Meet Here Again

See A Health to the Company (Come All My Old Comrades) (File: CrSe222)

We Meet 'Neath the Sounding Rafter

See Stand to Your Glasses, Steady (File: Hopk120A)

We Met, 'Twas in a Crowd

DESCRIPTION: "We met, 'twas in a crowd, and I thought he would shun me." The singer meets an old lover; they say little, but both are clearly moved. She, the rich girl, could not marry him because of her mother's opposition; both are now wed to others
AUTHOR: Thomas Haynes Bayly (source: Scott, who spells the name "Bayley")
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Journal of the Pavilion); said to have been from "Songs of the Boudoir"; 19C (Wolf)
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion mother husband wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H638, p. 431, "We Met, 'Twas In a Crowd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 251-252, "We Met Twas in a Crowd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 207-208, "We Met, 'Twas in a Crowd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 94-95, "We Met" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2519, p. 170, "We Met" (1 reference)
ADDITIONAL: Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, p. 163, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #2066
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lady Mary (The Sad Song)"
NOTES [64 words]: This reminds me very much of "Lady Mary (The Sad Song)," though the form and the details are very different. There is also something of the feeling of Dickens here; see the ending of Great Expectations.
This is reported by Sam Henry to be quite popular, and is mentioned in John Masefield's "The Bird of Dawning." I will admit to some surprise; the song is distinctly flowery. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HHH638

We Need a Change in Business All Around

DESCRIPTION: "Since new (things/songs) are all the rage, In this great and glorious age, On a few things I surely will propound... Just to make a change in business all around." The singer describes those who, if they would just adapt, could change their business
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: technology humorous worker music
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 235-237, "Just to Make a Change in Business" (1 text, 1 tune, adapted to lumber camps)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 61, "Just t Make a Change in Business" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6499
RECORDINGS:
Carolina Twins, "A Change In Business All Around" (Victor V-40243)
Uncle Dave Macon, "We Need A Change In Business All Around" (Vocalion 5374, 1929)
File: BBun235

We Part My Love to Meet Nae Mair

DESCRIPTION: "We part, my love, to meet nae mair, 'Tis cruel fate's decree; And a' the waes o' bleak despair This widowed heart maun dree." The singer recalls his lost love. He hopes to be reunited with her in death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads); Ord claims a date of 1817
KEYWORDS: death separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 364, "We Part, My Love, To Meet Nae Mair" (1 text)
Roud #4595
File: Ord364

We Poor Labouring Men

DESCRIPTION: "O, some do say the farmer's best, but I do need say no, If it weren't for we poor labouring men what would the farmers do?...There's never a trade in old England like we poor labouring men." The singer toasts laborers; good times will come again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 or 1966 (collected from Caroline Hughes); the Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory version is probably from 1909
LONG DESCRIPTION: "O, some do say the farmer(baker, butcher)'s best, but I do need say no, If it weren't for we poor labouring men what would the farmers do? They would beat up all their old odd stuff until some new come in. There's never a trade in old England like we poor labouring men." After several of these verses, the singer offers a toast to labourers, saying that when the hard times pass, good times will come again
KEYWORDS: pride farming work hardtimes nonballad worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, pp. 46-47, "We poor labouring men" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 103, "We Dear Labouring Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #33, "We Poor Labouring Men" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WELABOUR
Roud #1394
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "We Poor Labouring Men" (on ENMacCollSeeger02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come All You Jolly Ploughboys" (theme, lyrics)
NOTES [150 words]: MacColl/Seeger [write,] "During the years between 1790 and 1816, the English peasant was turned into a wage-labourer. The transformation was not a peaceful one; the intensification of the enclosure system, repressive poor-law legislation, extension of more rigorous application of the game-laws coupled with an unprecendented rise in the cost of living, all combined to produce a new and intense class-consciousness among the labouring poor." - PJS
In fact the process took a good deal longer than this, and it was the pressure of unemployed workers which forced the British government to open the vent by sending convicts to Australia. The Industrial Revolution began to produce unemployment in the early eighteenth century, and the unrest was not entirely eased until the dawn of the twentieth.
This song and "Come All You Jolly Ploughboys" appear to be sisters; I've no idea which came first. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: McCST103

We Raise de Wheat, Dey Gib Us de Corn

See Shuck Corn, Shell Corn (File: Br3200)

We Read in the Bible and We Understand

DESCRIPTION: "We read in the Bible and we understand, Methuselah was the oldest man, He lived nine hundred and sixty-nine." "We read in the Bible... Samson was the strongest man." "Joshua was the son of Nun, God was with him till the work was done."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Bible
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 36, "(We read in the Bible and we understand)" (1 text, described as incomplete)
File: WFAN036

We Sailed Around Old Butler's

DESCRIPTION: "We sailed around old Butler's, No danger did we fear, Until we came to Sawmill Rift, Went plumb against the pier." "Big Mose" rescues what he can. The chorus floats: "And shove around the grog, boys... We are the boys that fear no noise...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: lumbering wreck clothes drink
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 280, "(no title)" (1 short text, probably an excerpt although not so labelled)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 25-26, "The Raftsmen's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6607
File: TNY280

We Set Sail

DESCRIPTION: "First we set sail for the Canaries, With a cargo of 47 fairies, We laid about the bunks With those 47 punks, Till all our teeth sprouted caries." Other limericks about various destinations and unfortunate cargoes follow, e.g. "Hawaiians... lions"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: sailor humorous sex
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 180, "We Set Sail" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brand-BawdySeaSong 3, "We Set Sail" (1 text)
Roud #8352
NOTES [36 words]: Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, as always, gives no indication of sources, and some of this seems too sophisticated for a proper folk song (or even a highly improper folk song) -- what other song refers to dental caries?. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Kins180

We Shall Be Free

See Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady) (File: San011)

We Shall Come the Unemployed

DESCRIPTION: "We shall come the unemployed, The disinherited of this earth, We shall come into your temples And your marble halls of mirth." "We shall come as you have made us, Ragged, lousy, pale and gaunt." The poor suffer, but the rich shall suffer in Hell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2009 (Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ)
KEYWORDS: worker hardtimes unemployment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 163, "(We Shall Come the Unemployed") (1 text)
File: GarNZ163

We Shall Not Be Moved

DESCRIPTION: "The Union is behind us, We shall not be moved... Just like a tree That's standing by the water, We shall not be moved." Similarly "We're fighting for our freedom, We shall not be moved"; "We're fighting for our children"; "We'll build a mighty Union."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 344-345, "We Shall Not Be Moved" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 38, "We Shall Not Be Moved" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 135, "We Shall Not Be Moved" (1 text)
OneTuneMore, p. 58, "We Shall Not Be Moved" (1 short text, 1 tune, possibly a text of "I Shall Not Be Moved" with pronouns derived from "We Shall Not Be Moved"; since it is so short, it's hard to tell which it is derived from)
Roud #9134
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "We Shall Not Be Moved" (on PeteSeeger01) (on PeteSeeger47)
SNCC Freedom Singers, "We Shall Not Be Moved" (the civil rights version; on Voices Civ)
Union Boys, "We Shall Not Be Moved" (on "Songs for Victory", Asch 346, 1944)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Shall Not Be Moved"
SAME TUNE:
We Shall Not Be Moved -- union parodies (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 17)
NOTES [134 words]: [Although not printed at that time, the union version of this song goes back at least to] 1941, [since] Woody Guthrie, in Bound for Glory, refers to singing it with Cisco Houston on Dec. 7, 1941, to break up a possible lynching of Japanese-Americans after the attack that day on Pearl Harbor.
The song was adapted from a traditional hymn, "I Shall Not Be Moved," by labor organizers working with southern tenant farmers in the 1930s. It was also adapted into an anthem of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. - PJS
Given the extreme variations in traditional versions of the hymn (one of Brown's informants actually sang the chorus as "I Shall Not Be Blue!"), we originally listed the source and its adaptions here. The civil rights version, in particular, is close to the hymn. Best to check both. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: SBoA344

We Shall Overcome

DESCRIPTION: "We shall overcome (x3), Some day, Oh deep in my heart, (I know that) I do believe, We shall overcome some day." Verses about the troubles of life, and how (with help from God/brothers/etc.) they can be overcome/survived. Many modern verses known
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (sung in miner's union meeting in Alabama, as reported in the United Mine Workers' journal)
KEYWORDS: religious discrimination nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, pp. 107-108, "We Will Overcome" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 352-353, "We Shall Overcome" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 216, "We Shall Overcome" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 296, "We Shall Overcome" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 623-627+, "We Shall Overcome"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 547, "We Shall Overcome" (notes only)
DT, OVERCOM*
ADDITIONAL: Pete Seeger, _Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Musical Autobiography_, A SIng Out Publication, 1993, 1997, pp. 34-35, "We Shall Overcome" (1 text, 1 tune, plus associated materials)
Roud #21324
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi Bracy [pseud. for Ishmon Bracey?] "I'll Overcome Some Day" (Okeh 8904, 1931; rec. 1930)
Pete Seeger, "We Shall Overcome" (on PeteSeeger05) (on PeteSeeger38) (on PeteSeeger48)
SNCC Freedom Singers, Pete Seeger et al, "We Shall Overcome" (on SingFreeCD)
SNCC Freedom Singers, "We Shall Overcome" (on VoicesCiv)
Unnamed singers at mass rally, "We Shall Overcome" (on VoicesCiv)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'll Be All Right" (tune, structure, lyrics)
NOTES [378 words]: The "common version" of this song was created by Zilphia Horton, Frank Hamilton, Guy Carawan, and Pete Seeger. In this form it became an anthem of the civil rights movement. Traces of the old spiritual survive, however, and it is of course very easy to make up new verses to fit a particular situation.
Fuld gives a detailed analysis of the musical and textual sources of the piece. Reading them, though, one cannot help but think that he has completely missed the actual sources of the black spiritual. - RBW
Isn't one of the sources "I'll Be All Right," a traditional spiritual? - PJS
It at least has associated texts, but is not mentioned as a source by Fuld, and is mentioned only tangentially in a footnote. Hence my comment. - RBW
The recent discovery that "We Will Overcome," the earlier form of the song (Pete Seeger changed "will" to "shall" because it was better for singing) was being sung as early as 1908, and in the context of a labor struggle no less, casts some ambiguity on the question of which song was the ancestor and which the descendant. See the entry for "I'll Be All Right." - PJS
Pete Seeger, in the text of Where Have All the Flowers Gone, pp. 32-35, discusses the history of the song, printing two source songs "I'll Overcome Some Day" (by Charles Tindley, 1903) and "I'll Be All Right"; the form is closer to the latter, but the common version of "We Shall Overcome" clearly owes lyrics to the former. I think Seeger's summary of the situation is pretty reasonable.
In 2017, the whole issue of authorship came up in court, because the copyright holders were demanding high royalties for the use of the song. It came out that Zilphia Horton had taken the song down from some unknown person. She died before copyright (in the name of Horton, Frank Hamilton, and Guy Carawan) was applied for. Pete Seeger's name was later added -- not by Seeger -- probably to give the version more clout. Seeger said he accepted it at the time to prevent Hollywood from messing with the song, but he asked in 1994 that his name be taken off the copyright. In September 2017, the court ruled that the first verse, at least, was public domain; the copyrighted version did not differ sufficiently from traditional versions. Which is pretty clearly true. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: SBoA352

We Shall Rise, Hallelujah

DESCRIPTION: "We shall sing until we die! We will preach and testify! In that Holy Ghost religion we shall rise, Oh hallelujah! Oh we'll sing until we die, We will preach... Till my Savior's precious face again I see... On the resurrection morning we shall meet him"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 634, "We Shall Rise, Hallelujah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4309
RECORDINGS:
Byron Parker & his Mountaineers, "We Shall Rise" (Bluebird B-8551, 1940)
File: R634

We Shall Walk Through the Valley

DESCRIPTION: "We shall walk through the valley of the shadow of death, We shall walk though the valley in peace, And if Jesus himself shall be our leader, We shall walk through the valley in peace." "We will meet our Father over there...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 7, "Walk Through the Valley in Peace" (1 text, 1 tune)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, pp. 55-56, "Walk Through the Valley" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 359, "We Shall Walk Through The Valley" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 59, "We Shall Walk Through the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11691
File: FSWB359A

We Shall Wear a Crown

DESCRIPTION: Call and response. Response is "We shall wear a starry crown." Calls are "praise the Lord," "a hallelujah crown," "in the morning"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious | crown
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Henry Williams, Allan Lovelace, George Roberts, "We Shall Wear a Crown" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [6 words]: This is a Spiritual Baptist hymn. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcWSWACr

We Shepherds Are the Best of Men

DESCRIPTION: "We shepherds are the best of men that e'er trod English ground." We spend freely at the ale-house. We pen our sheep safely in spite of hale, rain and snow; then "unto a jovial company good liquor for to taste"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1793 (according to Broadwood)
KEYWORDS: drink storm England nonballad sheep shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 82-83, "The Shepherd's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 241-242, "Shepherds Are the Best of Men" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 116)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 90-91, "The Shepherd's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #284
RECORDINGS:
Fred Jordan, "We Shepherds Are the Best of Men" (on Voice20)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ye Gentlemen of England (I)" [Laws K2] (stucture and theme:virtue and courage of an occupational group)
cf. "The Lonely Life a Shepherd Leads" (contrary viewpoint)
NOTES [56 words]: Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 20" - 15.1.04: "Fred learnt this from the song-collector Fred Hamer, who had it from Lucy Broadwood's English County Songs [1893]." Broadwood said it was taken in 1793 in Gloucestershire (source: "The Shepherds' Song" in Song Database at the Folkinfo site).
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcWSATBM

We Sing Nothing

DESCRIPTION: "Nothing, nothing we sing nothing, We sing nothing all day long. How do you like our nothing song?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 415, "We Sing Nothing" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Reuben and Rachel" (tune)
File: ACSF415N

We Sing of the Polar Bear

DESCRIPTION: "We sing of the polar bear fearless and bold, He never gets hot and he never gets cold" because he lives where there is no summer and "wears polar bear furs." The crocodile is also warm. Humans, though, need to change clothes for the weather
AUTHOR: David Kilburn Stevens (1860-1946) (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs,)
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook)
KEYWORDS: animal clothes humorous campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p, 43, "We Sing of the Polar Bear" (1 text, tune referenced)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 147, 263, 494, "Polar Bear and Crocodile"/"Climates" (notes only)
SongsOfManyNations, "The Climate" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 14)
Roud #13618
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
File: ACSF147P

We the Boys of Sanpete County

See The Boys of Sanpete County [Laws B26] (File: LB26)

We Three Kings (Kings of Orient)

DESCRIPTION: "We three kings of orient are, Bearing gifts we travel afar." The three "kings" come from different lands to visit the Christ Child; they offer their gifts and explain that they have been guided by a star
AUTHOR: John Henry Hopkins, Jr. (1820-1891)
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (sheet music); probably composed 1857, and there is a published edition with a dedication claiming a date of 1863
KEYWORDS: Jesus Bible Christmas carol religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 195, "Kings of Orient" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 627-628, "We Three Kings"
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 103, "We Three Kings of Orient Are" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 47, "We Three Kings of Orient Are" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WE3KING*
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #94, "We Three Kings of Orient Are" (1 text)
Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 88-89, "We Three Kings of Orient Are" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24751
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)" (subject)
SAME TUNE:
We Three Kings (The Rubber Cigar) (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 115; DT, WE3KING2)
We Three Kings of Orient Are (New Zealand parody from Fred Dagg/John Clarke) (Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 297)
NOTES [238 words]: The basis for this song is Matthew 2:1-12. The story has been expanded and modified heavily, however. We note the following:
1. There is no reason to believe that there were three visitors. All we know is that they gave three gifts. Their names are completely unknown. They may not even have been from the east (the orient); it was the *star* which was in the east (though their title hints that they came from the east; westerners would have been called by a name other than "magi").
2. The visitors were not kings and were not wise men. They were "magi" -- Babylonian mystics and perhaps astrologers. Jews would generally consider magi to be evil sorcerers.
For more on the common misconceptions about the visitors, including the two points above, see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)."
LindaJo H. McKim, Presbyterian Hymnal Companion, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, p. 64, says that Hopkins published this song in his Carols, Hymns, and Songs in 1857, but I have been unable to verify a date before 1865. McKim, pp. 64-65, says that Hopkins was born in Pittsburg in 1820 and went to the University of Vermont and General Theological Seminary. He worked as a pastor and then became professor of church music at General Theological Seminary. He also edited a religious magazine and designed stained glass windows. He died in Hudson, New York in 1891. I know of nothing else memorable from his pen. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: OBC195

We Three Kings of Orient Are

See We Three Kings (Kings of Orient) (File: OBC195)

We Wait Beneath the Furnace Blast

See What Gives the Wheat Fields Blades of Steel? (File: SBoA236)

We Want None of Thee

DESCRIPTION: "Old Johnny Bull's over the ocean, Old Johnny Bull's over the sea; He wants to dictate to our people, But Johnny we want none of the. Ah, there! Stay there!...." Millionaires are "loading Mark Hanna with boodle" to elect William McKinley and support gold
AUTHOR: Words: Nellie Saunders
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Nevada Folklore pamphlet; probably written in 1896)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad derivative gold
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1896 - William McKinley first elected President, over William Jennings Bryan, the supporter of "free silver." Mark Hanna was largely responsible for McKinley's election.
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 74-76, "We Want None of Thee" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: Nebraska Folklore, Pamphlet Twenty, "More Farmers' Alliance Songs of the 1890's," Federal Writers' Project, 1939, p. 12, "We Want None of Thee" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean" (tune)
cf. "Free Silver" (subject of William Jennings Bryan and the 1896 election) and references there
NOTES [13 words]: For more on the issues of the 1896 presidential election, see "Free Silver." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Wels074

We Was Logging in Kentucky

DESCRIPTION: "We was loggin' in Kentucky With Jerry and Joe, Draggin' up the timber.... Jerry and Joe was oxen white." "Bob" goes out to find the missing oxen. They eventually find a "skeeter," which had eaten Jerry and was ringing his bell to get more food
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads)
KEYWORDS: humorous talltale animal cattle work lumbering bug death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, pp. 30-31, "(no title)" (1 text)
File: ReSm030

We Were Starved (Riggidy Jig)

DESCRIPTION: "Riggidy Jig (or "Rig a jig jiig) and away we go Away we go, away we go Riggidy jig and away we go Hi ho Hi ho Hi ho. We were starved as starved could be But now we’ve had enough to eat Riggidy jig and away we go Hi ho Hi ho Hi ho."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 145, "We Were Starved" (notes only)
File: ACSF144W

We Will Always Have Our Sealers

DESCRIPTION: "We will always have our sealers While there's a ship to sail, While sturdy crews have fish and brewis, While there is rain and hail." The poet admits that there are many changes, but affirms that there will always be a need for the seal hunt
AUTHOR: Otto P. Kelland (1904-2004)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Kelland); reportedly written 1945
KEYWORDS: hunting technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 155, "We Will Always Have Our Sealers" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Otto P. Kelland, _Anchor Watch: Newfoundland Stories in Verse_ (privately printed, 1960), pp. 89-90, "We Will Always Have Our Sealers" (1 text)
Roud #V44718
NOTES [227 words]: For information about Otto Kelland, the author of this piece, see the notes to "Western Boat (Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's)."
This reportedly was written as Kelland watched the sealing fleet set out in 1945 (although Kelland printed it in Anchor Watch without any commentary or explanation). An old sealer commented that the few ships sailing would be the last (apparently meaning that they would not be replaced when they broke down). Kelland wrote this piece as a counter-argument.
Obviously the truth was somewhere in between. The steam sealers that had been the heart of the fleet since the 1860s were almost gone by 1945. The ships that had anchored the fleet for half a century, the Neptune, Ranger, and Terra Nova, had all been lost in the early 1940s, leaving just one of the old steamers. That very last steamer, the Eagle, was scuttled in 1950; see "The Ice-Floes." In that sense, Kelland was wrong; the sailing of the fleet would never again be as majestic as it was in, say, the 1910s and 1920s, when Kelland was first watching it.
Kelland was right in that seal-hunting continued, and still continues in a small way, but between the over-harvesting that has destroyed the herds, and the general changes in the economy, and environmental protests, it seems likely that the seals of Canada will soon be safe -- such of them as remain. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm155

We Will Go To The Wood, Says Robin To Bobbin

See Hunt the Wren (File: K078)

We Will March Through the Valley

DESCRIPTION: "We will march through the valley in peace (x2). If Jesus himself be our leader, We will march through the valley in peace." "We will march... Behold, I give myself away." "This track I'll see and I'll pursue." "When I'm dead and buried...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death burial floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 73, "We Will March Through the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, pp. 152-154, "Walk Through the Valley in the Field" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12033
RECORDINGS:
Freddie Palmer and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Walk Through the Valley in the Field" (on McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts)
NOTES [18 words]: The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree text and McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts track are "ring shout" songs. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: AWG073B

We Will Not Go to White Bay with Casey Any More

DESCRIPTION: "Tom Casey being commander Of the Saint Patrick by name," 28 men sign up to go sealing. They quickly become "jammed in White Bay Until the last of May." After many hard times, the sealers manage to return home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Murphy, Songs Sung by Old Time Sealers of Many Years Ago)
KEYWORDS: hunting wreck disaster hardtimes ship
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 16, "We Will Not Go To White Bay With Casey Any More" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, editor, _Songs Sung by Old-TIme Sealers of Many Years Ago_, James Murphy Publishing, 1925 (PDF available from Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 3, "We Will Not Go to White Bay with Casey Any More" (1 text)
Shannon Ryan, _The Ice Hunters: A History of Newfoundland Sealing to 1914_, Breakwater Books, 1994, p. 215, "(We will not go to White Bay with Casey anymore)" (1 text)
ST RySm016 (Partial)
Roud #27067
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Davy Lowston" (plot)
NOTES [335 words]: Although this sounds as if it should refer to an actual event, no one seems to know the time or date. It's not clear that it's traditional, either, though Ryan and Small don't list an author, and claim there is a different version known. According to Ryan, p. 272 n. 13, Tom Casey commanded the St. Patrick in 1838, perhaps 1839, 1841, 1845-1848, and perhaps beyond.
Murphy, who published the song, called it "very old." Even apart from the mention of Casey and the St. Patrick, the internal evidence supports this claim. Captain Casey never commanded a steamer, nor did a Captain Kelly, according to the lists in Chafe, strongly implying that they date from before the age of steamers (which began in 1863). Nor was there a seamer named Kitty, either, although there was a Kite, and there was a sailing sealer named the Kitty Clyde in 1858 (Ryan, p. 220). The ship has only 28 sealers -- far too small for the steamers, or even for the brigs that immediately preceded them; this strongly argues for a date before 1850. The ship sailed on March 1; starting in 1869, ships were banned from sailing prior to March 10 (with some minor exceptions; cf. Chafe, p. 49; Candow, p. 57). The ship sails from Carbonear; by the steamer era, almost all ships sailed from St. John. (There were "land hunters" not based in St. John's, but such a ship would not have gone as far as White Bay.) Captain Casey tells the men they will take five thousand seals -- a pitiful total for a steamer (in which hauls of 20,000 or 30,000 or more were known), or even for the later brigs. None of this allows a precise date, but it was definitely early.
The decision to sail into White Bay was a gamble; according to Ryan, p. 215, going there was "always a risky decision, given it long v-shape which could become packed solid with ice in a northeast wind."
Being stuck in the ice until May was indeed extreme; the last baby seals left the ice in April. Sealers could hunt old seals after that, but this rarely brought in much. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm016

We Will Overcome

See We Shall Overcome (File: SBoA352)

We Will Understand It Better By and By

See We'll Understand It Better By and By (File: SOWUIBBB)

We Will Walk That Road

DESCRIPTION: "We'll walk that road, That lonesome road, Children of Zion, We'll walk the heavenly road"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Emilia Henry, Lovey Gilman, Martha Saunders, "We Will Walk That Road" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [23 words]: The description is from the WITrinidadVillage02 recording. Like many Spiritual Baptist hymns the single verse is repeated many times. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcWWWtR

We Will Walk Through the Streets of the City

DESCRIPTION: A "Come Though Fount of Every Blessing" text, with distinctive chorus: "We will walk through the city, Where our friends have gone before, We will sit on the banks of the river Where we meet to part no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 562, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 562, "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11885
RECORDINGS:
Blind Gary Davis, "Goin' To Sit Down on the Banks of the River" (1992, on "Harlem Street Singer," Prestige Bluesville CD OBCCD-547-2(BV-1015); recorded 1960)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" (text)
File: Br3562

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

DESCRIPTION: "We wish you a merry Christmas (x3) And a happy New Year." "We want some figgy pudding (x3) And a cup of good cheer." "We won't go until we get some (x3), So bring it out here!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands)
KEYWORDS: Christmas food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 10-13, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas/I Wish You a Merry Christmas/Open the Door/Here We Come A-Wazling" (6 short texts, 5 tunes; A-C are probably "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"; D is too short to classify; E mixed "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" with the "Souling Song"; F is "Here We Come A-Wassailing")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 376, "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" (1 text)
DT, MERYXMAS
Roud #230
File: FSWB376C

We Wish You a Merry Christmas (II)

See Here We Come A-Wassailing (File: JRDF166)

We Won't Go Home Till Morning

See We Won't Go Home Until Morning (File: RJ19226)

We Won't Go Home Until Morning

DESCRIPTION: "We're all met here together (x3) To eat and drink good cheer." "(For) we won't go home until morning (x3) Till daylight does appear." "We'll sing, we'll dance and be merry (x3) And kiss the lasses dear." "The girls they love us dearly (x3)..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (arrangement by William Clifton published by Thomas Birch) (tune dates to 1783 or earlier)
KEYWORDS: drink friend nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 22-23=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 139-140, "All Go Down to Rowser's" (1 text, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 146-151, "We'll All Go Down to Rowsers" (1 text, 1 tune, plus sheet music reprints of "Malbrouck" and "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow")
Randolph 528, "We'll All Go Down to Rowser's" (3 texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 168-169, "Rowser's" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 141-143, "The Game of 'Howsers'" (1 text with game instructions, seemingly most closely related to Randolph's version but probably a combination of several game songs)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 226-228, "We Won't Go Home Until Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 119, pp. 237-238, "We'll All Go Down to Rowser's" (1 text, with "Rowser's" and "Pig in the Parlor" verses)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 64-64, "We Won't Go Home Till Morning" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 231-233, "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow -- (Malbrouk -- We Won't Go Home till Morning! -- The Bear Went over the Mountain)"
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 378-379, "Let's Go Down to Rowsha's" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, plate 20, shows an early sheet music cover
ST RJ19226 (Full)
Roud #4251
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Malbrouck" (tune)
cf. "The Bear Went over the Mountain" (tune)
cf. "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" (tune)
cf. "Christ Was Born in Bethlehem" (tune)"
cf. "Old Tippecanoe (I)" (tune)
cf. "Pig in the Parlor" (floating lyrics, form)
cf. "Chickens They Are Crowing" (floating lyrics in a few texts)
cf. "I'll Never Get Drunk Any More (III)" (tune)
cf. "I'm Glad I Live In Wyoming" (tume)
SAME TUNE:
The Bear Went Over the Mountain (File: DTbearmt)
Malbrouck (File: K108)
For He's a Jolly Good Fellow (File: FSWB250)
Christ Was Born in Bethlehem (File: MA189)
Old Tippecanoe (File: Wa073)
The Reformed Drinker (Logan, pp. 231-232)
I'll Never Get Drunk Any More (III) (File: CrPS096)
I'm Glad I Live In Wyoming (File: CAFS2577)
We Are Table Number One (File: ACSF285W)
All the Best Things (Harbin-Parodology, #36, p. 36)
NOTES [301 words]: The earliest dated example of this tune ("Malbrouk") comes from 1783, though there are hints that it was in circulation in France for some decades before this (it is reliably reported to have been sung to one of Marie Antoinette's children in 1781, and see the tune cited for Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1337, "I sing not the battle (so famed) of Lepanto"). Its origin is unknown, though fanciful stories (e.g. of Spanish or even Arabic origin) are common. (Spaeth compares it with a Chanson of 1563, "Le Convoi de Duc de Guise.")
After 1783 the tune became popular in France, and was used by Beethoven in 1813, but no evidence of English versions is found until the 1840s. The American sheet music of "We Won't Go Home..." dates to 1842; the English is undated but probably dates between 1841 and 1846.
By 1854, the song was popular enough that crowds were using it to heckle Senator Douglas when he spoke in favor of the Kansas/Nebraska Act in Chicago. (Douglas said he would silence the mob if it took all night, and the crowd answered with this song.)
"For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" appears to have been first printed in 1870; "The Bear Went over the Mountain" is not attested until 1920, but is probably older.
All four of Randolph's versions mention "Rowser" or "Rowser's" in the first verse, but the only tune given is this one, three of the four are about drink (the fourth, Randolph's "D" text, could possibly be a separate piece), and the "A" text has the "We won't go home until morning" stanza.
Pound describes her text (also a "Rowser's" version) as a "game song," but offers no further details.
Linscott, in her notes to "A Bear Went Over the Mountain," claims the tune "is said to have been sung by Crusaders under Godefrey de Bouillon in the latter part of the eleventh century." Uh-huh. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RJ19226

We Won't Let Our Leader Run Down

DESCRIPTION: The Irish Parliamentary Party and Gladstone want to condemn Parnell. "Give Parnell the thing he requires, Home Rule and Prosperity ... then he will retire." "He has fought for prosperity unto the last, That is what the people say in Ireland"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 89, "We Won't Let Our Leader Run Down" (1 text)
Roud #V37150
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(671), "We Won't Hear our Leader Run Down," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bold Tenant Farmer" (subject of Charles Stewart Parnell) and references there
NOTES [649 words]: "In December 1889, Parnell became involved in a divorce that was to end his political influence and the trauma of this divorce probably hastened his early death.... Parnell managed to split the party that represented many of the people of Ireland at Westminster - the Irish Parliamentary Party. Some sided with Parnell while others did not." He married the divorced woman in June 1891 and died in October. (source: "Charles Stuart Parnell" at History Learning Site) - BS
We should note that almost all sources spell Parnell's name "Charles Stewart Parnell."
In fact the situation was even more complicated than the above can describe. Parnell (1845-1891), who had helped found the Land League and won major rights for Irish tenants (see "The Bold Tenant Farmer"), had for long led the Irish parliamentary faction -- which he had finally welded into a cohesive enough block that it generally held the controlling hand in the British House of Commons.
Since he was in alliance with Prime Minister Gladstone, who wanted Home Rule for Ireland, a Home Rule bill were introduced in 1886. But the political opposition in the Lords, and the overwhelming revulsion caused by the Phoenix Park murders (for which see, e.g., "The Phoenix Park Tragedy"), caused it to go down.
And then there was Parnell's Great Indiscretion. In 1880, before his power had even reached its peak, he had begun an affair with Katherine O'Shea, the wife of Captain William O'Shea, a Home Rule M.P. (Fry/Fry, p. 259). Their first child was born in 1882; although she died, they had two more children in 1883 and 1884.
Some men might have gotten away with this (Bill Clinton, anyone?). It was harder for Parnell. According to O'Connor, p.16, Parnell "was a landlord and an aristocrat who challenged the aristocracy and defied the landowners. He was not witty or eloquent as traditional Irish leaders had been. He was cold and often disdainful." In other words, his power was based on his opinions, not his personality. He didn't charm anyone -- except "Kitty" O'Shea.
Exactly how Parnell and Captain O'Shea felt about each other is not entirely clear (Kee, pp. 85-86, 112-113; also Fry/Fry, p. 259). But by 1886 O'Shea resigned from Parliament, and in 1889, he divorced his wife. Parnell married her in 1891 (Fry/Fry, p. 260). If Parnell had resigned, his platform might have survived. But he didn't, and it didn't; he was voted out of office in 1890 (Wallace, p. 140).
It will tell you what the politics of the time were like that a preacher in the run-up to the election of 1892 said, "Parnellism is simply love of adultery and all those who profess Parnellism profess to love and admire adultery" (Kee, p. 117).
Moody/Martin/Keogh/Kiely, p. 256, write that "Parnell's fall deprived the Irish Party of a leader whose genius was irreplaceable, and seriously injured the home rule cause among the British public. It was all the more tragic because, in the supreme crisis of his life, Parnell abandoned the stern realism that had hitherto governed all his political conduct and allowed his passion and pride to overmaster him. His refusal to accept even a temporary retirement forced an excruciating decision on a majority of his party."
Parnell tried to rebuild his support by a series of lectures and speeches, but collapsed and died not long after (Kee, p. 115, who writes, "He died at Brighton with his wife by his side on 10 October, and his body was brought into Kingston harbour on... 11 October, and buried in Glasnevin cemetery. The chances of Home Rule for the next twenty years were buried with him."
Despite his final failure, Parnell became part of Ireland's folklore. O'Connor, p. 18, writes, "[His] coffin was drawn in silence through Dublin past stricken crowds who stood in the streets in numbers that have never been equalled since.... To an extent it is true that the Irish never got over Parnell's death...." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: Zimm089

We Work for Hay and Company

DESCRIPTION: "We work for Hay and Company, we do the best we can, I'll tell you what our jobs are, each and every man." The singer proceeds to do so, ending with himself: "I start at five in the morning, and it's six before I'm through...."
AUTHOR: Ron Sisson ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger work lumbering
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #26, "We Work for Hay and Company" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #4466
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Holly, Crab, and I" (subject)
cf. "The Wabash Cannonball" (tune) and references there
File: FowL26

We''ll Sell the Pig and We'll Sell the Cow

DESCRIPTION: "The horn do blow, the cotton do grow, Driver blow this horn... We'll sell the pig and we'll sell the cow, O never let the child be sold." "When you hear the church bells ring, Dream sinners, dream"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Creighton collection)
KEYWORDS: animal commerce farming
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 84-85, "We'll Sell the Pig and We'll Sell the Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #31158
File: PoEll084

We'd Better Bide a Wee

DESCRIPTION: "The poor aul' folks at hame, ye min', are frail an' ailin' sair, An weel I ken they'd miss me, lad, if I came hame nae mair... I canna lea' the aul' folk, lad, we'd better bide a wee." The girl gives reasons why she must stay with her parents for now
AUTHOR: Credited to Claribel (Charlotte Alington Barnard, 1830-1869) in Heart Songs and in Songs That Never Grow Old (1913)
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Heart Songs)
KEYWORDS: family mother father loneliness age
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H598, pp. 61-62, "Better Bide a Wee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 388-389, "We'd Better Bide a Wee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13365
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(26b), "I Canna Leave the Auld Folk," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Castleroe Mill" (theme)
cf. "Betsy of Dramoor" (theme)
NOTES [62 words]: According to the notes at the NLScotland site, this was quoted by Louisa May Alcott's 1886 novel Jo's Boys. For brief background on Claribel, see the notes to "Come Back to Erin." William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 41, seems to consider that her biggest hit, followed by "I Cannot Sing the Old Songs." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: HHH598

We'll All Go A-Hunting Today

DESCRIPTION: "What a fine hunting day and as balmy as may And the hounds of the village will come... We'll all go a-hunting today." A lame farmer, a judge, a doctor, a parson conducting a marriage -- all leave their work to go hunting
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland)
KEYWORDS: hunting work clergy marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 263, "We'll All Go A-Hunting Today" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #127, "We'll All Go A-Hunting Today" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1172
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Hunting Priest (Parson Hogg; Sing Tally Ho!)" (theme)
NOTES [41 words]: The thene of gentlemen who prefer hunting to church is an ancient complaint in Britain; "The Mourning of the Hare" is the tale of a creature which is pursued by huntsmen who do not wait for mass; it is thought to date to the fifteenth century. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: K263

We'll All Go Down to Rowser's

See We Won't Go Home Until Morning (File: RJ19226)

We'll All Go Down to Rowsers

See We Won't Go Home Until Morning (File: RJ19226)

We'll All Go to Boston

See Going to Boston (File: SKE67)

We'll Chase the Buffalo

See Shoot the Buffalo (File: R523)

We'll Crown Them with Roses

DESCRIPTION: "We'll take up our stand for the youth of our land And weave them a garland to wear, Though no leaves of the vine in our wreath we'll entwine For we'll crown them with roses so fair." The singers will bring up their children to stay away from alcohol
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: drink flowers children
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 334, "We'll Crown Them with Roses" (1 text)
Roud #7806
File: R334

We'll Fight for Uncle Abe

DESCRIPTION: "Way down in old Virginny, I suppose you all do know, They have tried to bust the Union, But they find it is no go... We're going down to Washington To fight for Uncle Abe." The song describes the various attacks being made on the rebel cause
AUTHOR: Words: C.E. Pratt / Music: Frederick Buckley
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (sheet music published by Oliver Ditson & Co., according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 108-110, "We'll Fight for Uncle Abe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 34-35, "We'll Fight for Uncle Abe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #13, p. 59, "We'll Fight for Uncle Abe" (1 text)
NOTES [229 words]: The historical references in this song are rather confused. The second stanza refers to Grant and his Vicksburg campaign, which was in full swing in 1863. It also refers to his move to the East to command the armies against Richmond; this took place in 1864.
Finally, it mentions Grant being opposed by "General Johnson." There was no important Confederate general named Johnson. The commander at Vicksburg was Pemberton. General J. E. Johnston (with a t) did command a force in central Mississippi, and Grant had fought general A. S. Johnston at Shiloh.
The third verse refers to events BEFORE Grant made a name for himself, when George McClellan commanded the Army of the Potomac in the Peninsular Campaign. As it happened, McClellan was beaten back in the Peninsula. He fought the Confederates to a bruising draw at Antietam, but hardly "ma[de] the Rebels fly."
The third verse refers to the possibility of England and France recognizing the Confederacy. This might have happened in early 1862; both had use for southern cotton. But Antietam allowed Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which made the war into a crusade against slavery (to a limited extent). England could not recognize a country devoted to the preservation of slavery, and France could not go it alone.
In summary, there is no time of the war which fits all the references in the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SCW34

We'll Get There All the Same

DESCRIPTION: The singer promises that the temperance crusaders will "get there [to Prohibition] just the same." As examples of those who overcame equal adversity, the singer cites the oppressed Hebrews, Noah, and the American revolutionaries
AUTHOR: H. S. Taylor and J. B. Hebert?
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph); reportedly composed 1887
KEYWORDS: drink political
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 321, "We'll Get There All the Same" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 271-273, "We'll Get There All the Same" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 321)
Roud #7795
File: R321

We'll Git Home By and By

See Don't Get Weary, We'll Get Home By and By (File: Edwa040)

We'll Go to Our Bed, Said Sleepyhead

DESCRIPTION: Sleepy head says let's go to bed. Slow would sit a while instead. Greedy gut wants the pot put on: "let's sup before we go"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (Joseph Ritson, _Gammer Gurton's Garland: or, The Nursery Parnassus_, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1638, "We'll Go to Our Bed, Said Sleepyhead" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 118, "'Go to bed,' says Sleepyhead" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 48, "(Let's go to bed, says Sleepy-head)" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 481, "Come, Let's to Bed" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #88, p. 86, "(Come, let's to bed)"
Roud #13063
NOTES [53 words]: John Bellenden Kerr, who never met a nursery rhyme he couldn't use to attack the Catholic Church, claimed to believe this was about friars, (canon) lawyers, and priests. While many members of those classes were indeed greedy guts and sleepyheads, I've known plenty of non-Catholics who meet that description as well. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81638

We'll Go To Sea No More (I)

See Dixie Brown [Laws D7] (File: LD07)

We'll Go to Sea No More (II)

See The Pittenweem Fisher-Wife's Song (File: GrD81760)

We'll Go To Sea No More (III)

See Pretty Girls of Liverpool (File: MunLPGoL)

We'll Go to Sea No More (IV)

See Fishermen's Song (We'll Go to Sea No More) (File: MSNR184)

We'll Haul the Bowlin'

See Haul on the Bowline (File: Doe009b)

We'll Have a Little Dance Tonight, Boys

See Buffalo Gals (File: R535)

We'll Have Another Drink before the Boat Shoves Off

DESCRIPTION: "We'll have another drink before the boat shoves off (2x), And we'll go to Mother Rackett's and we'll pawn our monkey jackets, And we'll have another...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: sailor drink parting
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, p. 167, "We'll Have Another Drink before the Boat Shoves Off" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9443
NOTES [23 words]: According to Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman's informant, Mother Rackett kept a waterfront saloon in Hong Kong around 1875. - RBW
File: Doe167

We'll Meet You By and By

DESCRIPTION: "I have heard W. V. Allen preach And I've heard O. M. Kem tell, There ay be a plaxe like Paradise, but there's no such place as... Hallelujah; and we'll meet you by and by." Republicans, Democrats, English capitalists, Bryan are warned of coming elections
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 68-70, "We'll Meet You By and By" (1 text)
NOTES [100 words]: W. V. Allen is William VIncent Allen (1847-1924). The Dictionary of American Biography calls him a Populist, from an Abolitionist family, who joined the Union army at the age of fifteen. He became a lawyer, married in 1870, and moved from Iowa to Madison, Nebrasks in 1884. He became a Populist in 1890, and was chosen a judge in the next year. He became a Senator in 1893, and was noteworthy for filibustering an attempt to repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. He failed of re-election in 1899, but was appointed by the governor to serve until 1901. He had little role in politics thereafter. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: Wels068

We'll Pay Paddy Doyle For His Boots

See Paddy Doyle (I) (File: Doe010)

We'll Rant and We'll Roar

DESCRIPTION: Sailor Bob Pittman describes his skills as a sailor, then settles down to describing his wedding plans. Having settled on a suitable wife (after much soul-searching), he makes arrangements for wedded life and bids farewell to all the other girls
AUTHOR: Henry W. Le Messurier (1843-1931)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1880 (first verifiable publication in Murphy 1912)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage sea
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 132, "The Ryans and the Pittmans" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 42-43, "We'll Rant and We'll Roar (The Ryans and the Pittmans)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 12, "The Ryans and the Pittmans" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 10, "We'll Rant and We'll Roar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Ryans and the Pittmans" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 53 in the 2nd edition; p. 51 in the 3rd; p. 39 in the 4th; p. 37 in the 5th
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 16-17, "The Ryans and the Pittmans (We'll Rant and We'll Roar)" (1 text, 1 tune)
England-HistoricNewfoundlandAndLabrador, p. 62, "Ryans and the Pittmans" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, RANTROAR*
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, editor, _Old Songs of Newfoundland_, James Murphy Publishing, 1912 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 6, "The Ryans and the Pittmans" (1 text)
James Murphy, _Songs Their Fathers Sung: For Fishermen: Old Time Ditties_, James Murphy Publishing, 1923 (PDF available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 15, "The Ryans and the Pittmans" (1 text)
Roud #687
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "We'll Rant and We'll Roar" (on NFOBlondahl05)
A. L. Lloyd, "Talcahuano Girls" (on Lloyd3, Lloyd9)
Clare O'Driscoll, "We'll Rant and We'll Roar (The Ryans and the Pittmans)" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Spanish Ladies" (plot, tune, lyrics) and references there
SAME TUNE:
The Saguenay Song (File: Hopk038)
NOTES [343 words]: A Canadian rewrite of "Farewell and Adieu to you Spanish Ladies." The author's title is "The Ryans and the Pittmans," but tradition has paid little attention to that, though scholars often respect it. - RBW
Bruce Fisher's Songs of Newfoundland site points out that the song, in each version, tours a local circuit of ports and outports. - BS
It's interesting to observe that the outports involved -- Toslow, Bruley, Valen, St. Kyran's, Presque, etc. -- are in Placentia Bay. But the Pittman family is apparently most associated with New Perlican on Trinity Bay; Seary, p. 258, says that the Pittman Family "used to do logging" in the area of New Perlican, Heart's Content, Old Perlican, and Pitman's Pond, all on the east coast of Trinity Bay, and Evans, p. 87, says that Pittmans were shipbuilders in the New Perlican area. Furthermore, the name "Pittman" is obviously English (and the churches of east Trinity Bay are all Anglican or United Church, according to McManus/Wood, plate 8.4) while "Ryan" is Irish (and there were at least some Catholic churches in the Placentia Bay area). And Newfoundland politics was dominated by the conflict between English Protestants and Irish Catholics. This raises strange thoughts about Bob Pittman being kicked out of the family home -- although there is obviously no hint of it in the song.
According to DictNewLabrador, pp. 197-198, H. W. LeMessurier became a clerk while still a teenager, and went into business while in his early twenties. In 1885, while in his thirties, he was elected to the House of Assembly, but lost his bid for re-election in 1889. He spent a few years editing the Evening Herald, then joined the Customs Department, becoming Deputy Minister in 1898 and staying in the post for thirty years. This song is his most famous work, but he also wrote articles on history, and is said to have helped introduce curling to Newfoundland.
"Talcahuano Girls," although it has its own Roud number (#32688), is almost certainly A. L. Lloyd's patch-up of this song to make it a generic whaling song. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: FJ042

We'll Ranzo Way

See Huckleberry Hunting (File: Doe032)

We'll Roll the Golden Chariot Along

See We'll Roll the Old Chariot Along (File: Doe049)

We'll Roll the Old Chariot Along

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "And we'll roll the (old/golden/omit) chariot along (x3), and we'll all hang on behind." Sometimes sung as a shanty, with the sailors describing what they would want on shore; alternately, "If the devil's in the way, we will roll it over him..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: shanty religious Devil
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 192-193, "Roll de Ole Chariot Along" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 106-107 in the 1901 edition)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 650, "We'll Roll the Old Chariot Along" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 48-49, "Holy Ghost" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 49-50, "We'll Roll the Golden Chariot Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 117, "Roll the Old Chariot Along" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 196-197, "Roll the Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 151, "Roll the Old Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 122-123]
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 99, "Roll the Old Chariot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 215-216, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 216-217)
DT, ROLLCHAR*
Roud #3632
RECORDINGS:
Tom Hanford, "Roll the Old Chariot Along" (Piotr-Archive #647, recorded 08/16/2023)
Paul Robeson, "Roll the Chariot Along" (HMV [UK] B-4421, 1933)
SAME TUNE:
Roll the Union On (various authors cited) (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 223; DT, ROLUNION)
NOTES [236 words]: This song has seen very diverse use; sailors used it as a "stamp and go" shanty; Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag had it from Salvation Army singers, and in another form it was quoted by Laura Ingalls Wilder in chapter 11 of The Long Winter. (Which, if her memory is right, gives us an EARLIEST DATE of c. 1880. But it must be remembered that the "Little House" books contain a great deal of historical fiction.) I wonder what she would have done if someone told her that sailors often sang, "Oh, a night with a woman wouldn't do me any harm...." - RBW
Not to mention the next verse, "Oh, a trip to the doctor wouldn't do me any harm...." - PJS
Some versions refer to "Nelson's Blood"; since Nelson's body was preserved in a vat of liquor after Trafalgar, alcoholic beverages came to be called "Nelson's Blood."
The Union adaption quoted by Greenway was a deliberate adaption (said to have been made up "in 1937 by a Negro woman in Little Rock"), but this song has so little plot that the versions cannot properly be separated. - RBW
Sorry, but this isn't the same tune as any version of , "Roll the Union On " I've ever heard, although they may be related. "Roll the Union On, " is, I think, derived from another, separate hymn. - PJS
It doesn't fit the tune I know for "Roll the Old Chariot" either, but it's the tune cited by Greenway. - RBW
I think Greenway may be wrong; see the notes to "Roll the Union On". - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Doe049

We'll Sail Away to Heaven (Like a Feather in the Wind)

DESCRIPTION: "We'll sail away to heaven Like a feather in de wind (x3), We'll sail away... We'll sail away to heaven by me by." "O, (sisters/brothers/fathers/mothers), don't be weary, weary, Lord, weary, Oh, (sisters), don't be waey, We'll sail away to heaven...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 651, "We'll Sail Away to Heaven" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 651, "We'll Sail Away to Heaven" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11942
File: Br3651

We'll Set the Children Free

DESCRIPTION: "Joey Ward is Premier, but he hasn't long to live, He's sold our country's children, and a Dreadnought he did give." "Don't let a tyrant rule you while there's honest men and true." The demonstrators want peace, "And our children shall be free."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Christchurch demonstration against militarism, according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: political New Zealand
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1906-1912, 1928-1930 - Sir Joseph George Ward (1856-1930) Prime Minister of New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 112, "We'll Set the Children Free" (1 text, tune referenced)
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, pp. 110-111, "We'll Set the Children Free" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Brown's Body" (tune) and references there
cf. "Sir Joseph Ward" (subject of Joseph Ward)
cf. "Vote for Joey Ward" (subject of Joseph Ward)
NOTES [84 words]: A song from the election of 1912, which turned Sir Joseph Ward's liberals out of office, so the singers got what they wanted. It didn't keep ANZAC troops from serving at the Dardanelles, though....
The reference in the second line to "a Dreadnought he did give" I assume refers to the battle cruiser "New Zealand," laid down by the British Navy in 1910 and finished in 1912. It was paid for by New Zealand but served with the British Navy for its entire existence, including at the Battle of Jutland. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo112

We'll Shoot the Buffalo

See Shoot the Buffalo (File: R523)

We'll Sit Upon the Gate

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains, she makes tea for her old man, she gets grounds, and "water for the laddie with the trowsers on." Also, malt for her old man, hops for her, and "beer for the laddie ... we'll kiss the laddie with the trousers on"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: courting drink food nonballad father
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 202, "We'll Sit Upon the Gate" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 474)
Roud #1280
File: WT202

We'll Soon Be Free

DESCRIPTION: "We'll soon be free (x3), When de Lord will call us home." "My brudder, how long (x3), 'Fore we done suffering here." "It won't be long." "We'll walk de miry road Where pleasure never dies." "We'll walk de golden street." ""We'll fight for liberty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Higginson, according to Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad freedom
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 93, "We'll Soon Be Free" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #21332
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Father, How Long?" (lyrics)
cf. "Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady)" (lyrics)
File: Joyn093

We'll Soon Be There

DESCRIPTION: "Hurrah, hurrah, we're homeward bound, Hurrah, the wind blows fair... We'll soon, we'll soon be there." "Haul line, haul line, ye Yankee girls, and coil it clean and fair... we'll soon be there." Don't fear storms. The singer smells the home sod.
AUTHOR: probably J. Goram (source: Pamela A. Miller, _And the Whale Is Ours: Creative Writing of American Whalemen_)
EARLIEST DATE: probably 1840s (source: Miller)
KEYWORDS: sailor return home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Pamela A. Miller, _And the Whale Is Ours: Creative Writing of American Whalemen_, David R. Godine/Kendall Whaling Museum, 1979, p. 27, "We'll Soon Be There" (1 text)
Roud #31334
NOTES [63 words]: There is no real reason to think this is traditional. J. Goram probably wrote it, and it never spread. But it has a Roud number, so I'm including it here because I located a printed version.
Goram, who copied and probably wrote this, wrote several other pieces cited by Miller, but this appears to be the only one with a Roud number, so I'm citing the first printed source.. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AWIO027

We'll Understand It Better By and By

DESCRIPTION: "We are tossed and driven on the restless sea of time.... In that land of perfect day, when the mists have rolled away, We will understand it better by and by." Even if lacking daily needs or faced with trials, hearers are promised eventual explanations
AUTHOR: Charles A. Tindley (d. 1933)
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (source: Morgan, Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad hardtimes
FOUND IN: US West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 182-184, "We'll Understand It Bettery By and By" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 30, #3 (1984), pp, 8-9, "We'll Understand It Better By and By" (1 text, 1 tune, plus an article by Bernice Reagon about the author)
Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 252-253, "We'll Understand It Better By and By" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ed Stilley, "When the Morning Comes," Max Hunter Folk Song Collection, Cat #0046 (MFH #674), accessed 19 July 2023 from https://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?id=46
Homer A. Rodeheaver and Chas. H. Gabriel, _Victory Songs_ (Chicago: The Rodeheaver Company, 1920 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #155, "When Morning Comes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richard M. Raichelson, _Black Religious Folksong: A Study in Generic and Social Change_ (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania (Unpublished dissertation- Ph.D.), 1975 (available online by ProQuest)), pp. 322-324, "By and By, When the Morning Comes" (1 text)
Roud #17224
RECORDINGS:
Minnie Gracie Gadson, "We Will Understand it Better By and By" (on USSeaIsland03)
Kentucky Mountain Chorusters, "We'll Understand It Better Bye and Bye" (Gennett 6888A, 1929; on KMM)
Edna Wright and Margaret Wright, "By and By" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [129 words]: Charles A. Tindley, according to Morgan, was a Black minister, who suffered significantly from discrimination in his career but still managed to pen several well-known hymns including this and "Stand By Me." - RBW
Raichelson: "Many black gospel songs were similar to the Moody-Sankey type with regard to pretentiousness, wordiness, and sentimentality. C.A. Tindley, the first acknowledged writer of black gospel, appears to have composed in this style. However, his compositions often display greater substance relative to the theme of dispair (sic.) so prominent in black gospel. By and By, When the Morning Comes is similar to Sankey's When the Mists Have Rolled Away (1883) but the description of toil and trouble [by Tindley] is much more vivid and to the point." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: SOWUIBBB

We'll Walk This Lady

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme? Ring game? "We'll walk this lady, So they say, A smooth-foot lady, So they say, Come rolling under, Just a little bit faster...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Journal of American Folklore, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope playparty travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #594, "We'll walk this lady" (1 text)
NOTES [36 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes files this as a jumprope rhyme but suggests it might be a ring game. It doesn't feel like either to me. There may be a call-and-response. I wonder about encouraging a horse or train to move. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR594

We'll Work No More Till We Get the Forty-Four

DESCRIPTION: "We'll work no more Till we get the forty-four [i.e. the 44 hour work week] On the good ship Yacky Hicky Doola"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: work labor-movement ship
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 93, "We'll work no more" (1 text)
Roud #25509
File: KSUC093

We're A' Cuttin'

See We're All Cutting (File: GrD3664)

We're A' Dry wi' the Drinkin' O't

See My Love She's but a Lassie Yet (I) (File: MCB226)

We're A' John Tamson's Bairns

DESCRIPTION: "John Tamson was a merry auld carle, And reign'd proud king o' the Dee... We're all John Tamson's bairns... There ne'er will be peace till the world again Has learned to sing wi' micht and main." The singer describes how he and the company celebrate
AUTHOR: Joseph Roy ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.27(54))
KEYWORDS: drink friend
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 199-200, "We're A' John Tamson's Bairns" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #139, p. 1, "We're A' John Tamson's Bairns" (1 text)
Roud #6321
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.27(54), "We're a' John Tamson's Bairns" ("John Tamson was a merry auld carle"), The Poet's box (Glasgow), 1869
NOTES [117 words]: Broadside Bodleian Firth b.27(54) claims the song to be "from the pen of an eminent M.D. author of many poems and ballads which are justly admired. The tune is composed by D. M'Millan, Esq., well known to the musical world." - BS
There is a broadside, NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(11a), "John Tamson's Cart," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890, in which John Tamson nods off as he rides home from the fair. Usually his horse finds its way home on its own, but this time it too drops off. John's wife finds the horse and takes it home, leaving John to desperately try to figure out what happened.
I don't know that it's intended to be the same John Tamson, but there is something of the same feeling about the two. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: FVS199

We're A' Nervous

See The Nervous Family (File: GrD81780)

We're A' Nodding

See We're All Nodding (File: R883)

We're All A-Singing

DESCRIPTION: "O we're all a-singing, a-sing-sing-singing, Oh we're all singing so happy and gay. We open wide our lips with a soft fa-fa, And merrily we skip o'er the tra la la la." Other verses mention weaving, sewing, sawing, dodging....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: nonballad music playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 95, "We're All A-Singing" (1 text)
Roud #7887
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dodger" (lyrics, form)
File: Br3095

We're All Away to Sea

See Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go) (File: Doe062)

We're All Bound to Go

See Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go) (File: Doe062)

We're All Cutting

DESCRIPTION: "We're all cutting our passage through the world." "Nature cut out man to cut his way through life." When a boy falls out with one girl, "he cuts her for another." The beau tries "to cut a figure." Ladies try "to cut each other out."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Hutchinson)
KEYWORDS: vanity nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 664, "We're A' Cuttin'" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: A.B. Hutchinson, The Granite Songster Comprising the Songs of the Hutchinson Family (Boston, 1847 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 35-36, "We're All Cutting"
Roud #6091
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We're A' Noddin'" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
cf. "The Dodger" (structure, chorus (some words and tune))
NOTES [31 words]: Hutchinson has more cutting remarks: the coquette cuts "hearts to the core," widows are "for cutting one husband more," some "Cut out pieces, for the sake of ready cash," and so on. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD3664

We're All Dodging

See The Dodger (File: R462)

We're All Here (Do Thyself No Harm)

DESCRIPTION: "When Paul and Silas were in jail, Do thyself no harm, When Paul and Silas were in jail, Do thyself.... We're all here, we're all here, Do thyself no harm...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 251-252, "We're All Here"
Roud #6703
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All Night Long (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [48 words]: This has so many floating lines that I'm not even going to try to untangle them. Roud, probably on the bases of the first line, links this with "All Night Long (I)." But the choruses are different enough that I split them.
Paul and Silas's stay in prison is related in Acts 16:19-40. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: KiWa251W

We're All Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough

See All Jolly Fellows That Handles the Plough (File: K241)

We're All Jolly Fellows Who Follow the Plough

See All Jolly Fellows That Handles the Plough (File: K241)

We're All Nodding

DESCRIPTION: "We all are nodding, nid-nid-nodding, And falling off to sleep." "can't keep awake, we did our best, Heavy-like and weary, We have to get our rest." "It sure is late, we can't delay, We'll get our hats and bonnets and we'll all go away."
AUTHOR: Words: Jean Neal?
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 15, ("We're a' noddin'") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan7 1464, "We're A' Noddin'" (3 texts plus a single verse on p. 530, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 56, "We're all nodding, nid nid nodding" (1 text)
Randolph 883, "We're All Nodding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 392-393, "We're All Nodding" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 883)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 60, "All Noddin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, pp. 327-328, "We're A' Noddin"
Roud #3122
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Whigs Are A'Rinnin'" (tune)
cf. "Nid Noddin" (tune, per Chambers)
SAME TUNE:
We're A' Cuttin' (File: GrD3664)
Gen. Scott A-Sleep ("O! they're all dreaming, dream, dream, dreaming") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 189)
Quartz on the Brain ("We're all cranky, mad, mad, cranky, Most of us are suffering from quartz upon the brain") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, pp. 182-184)
NOTES [33 words]: Cohen thinks this is the source for "The Dodger," and certainly the form is very similar; this song instantly reminded me of that. But that does not really mean that they are source and offspring. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: R883

We're All Surrounded

DESCRIPTION: "Martha wept and Mary cried. We're all surrounded. That good old man he up and died. We're all surrounded." Abbout a "good old man we'll see no more." "Carry the news, Carry the news to Mary, we're all surrounded..."
AUTHOR: Words: Charley Howard / Music: Walter Bray (source:
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong death | Adam Eve
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, p. 6, "We're All Surrounded" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #30, p. 20, "Carry the News to Mary" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #275, p. 19, "Carry the News to Mary" (1 reference)
Roud #9164 and V22505
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marthy Wept (Mary Wept and Marthy Moaned)" (lyrics)
NOTES [188 words]: Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips gives this as an example of a Negro cotton stowing song that was adapted as a shanty. - SL
The reference to "Martha wept and Mary cried" is presumably a reference to the sisters of Lazarus who mourned over their brother in John 11. I don't have a good explanation for the "We're all surrounded" chorus (unless it's a mistake); it occurs to me that it might, just possibly, be a reference to Hebrews 12:1, where we are told that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (who might well include Martha and Mary). The problem, is, the King James version uses the verb "compassed about" rather than "surrounded" (the Greek means something like "having an encirclement"). There is, in fact, no instance of the English verb "to surround," in any form, in the King James Bible.
The only part of this that seems to have gone into tradition is the single stanza cited by Harlow, which is actually only the first half-stanza of the full song. But it's the one that shows up in tradition, so it's the title used here. The original song is described as "As sung by SImms and Slocum's Minstrels." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Harl006

We're All Together Again

See All Together Again (File: ACSF378A)

We're All Together Again, We're Here

See All Together Again (File: ACSF378A)

We're All Waiting for a Shell

DESCRIPTION: "We're all waiting for a shell, Send us a whizz-bang, We're all waiting for a shell, Send us a five-nine" -- or anything that would result in a mild wound and a return to Blighty "Where the nurses change our nighties When the right shell comes along"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier home injury | nurse
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 64, "We're All Waiting for a Shell" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10577
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We're All Waiting for a Girl" (tune, according to Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
File: AWTBW064

We're Bound for Rio

See Rio Grande (File: Doe064)

We're Bound for San Diego

DESCRIPTION: "In that town called San Diego when the workers try to talk, The cops will smash them with a sap and tell 'em 'Take a walk.'" Now labor forces are heading for San Diego, which they will "whip... if it takes us twenty years."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Spokane, WA "Industrial Worker," according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement police fight injury
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 548-549, "We're Bound for San Diego" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Green" (tune, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
File: LDC548

We're Bound to St Peter's

See Homeward Bound (I) (File: Doe087)

We're Coming, Arkansas (We're Coming, Idaho)

DESCRIPTION: The singer mentions reports of a fine fountain in Arkansas/Idaho. The family heads out toward this wonderful place of health and wealth: "We're coming, Arkansas/Idaho, We're coming, ---, Our four horse team will soon be seen, Way out in ---"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (published as by Frank French)
KEYWORDS: emigration
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Randolph 343, "Eureka!" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 279-280, "Eureka!" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 343A)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 362, "Eureka!" (1 text); Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 579-601, "We're Coming, Idaho" (1 text plus a sheet music cover)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 26, "We're Coming Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 236-238, "Hurrah for Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 129-130, "Hurrah for Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 195, "Away, Idaho (We're Coming, Idaho)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 86-90, "Way Out in Idyho" (1 short text with some unusual lyrics, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 113, "Way Out in Idaho" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 120-121, "Idaho" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 156, "We're Coming, Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 47, "Way Out in Idaho" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #16, p. 43, "Idaho" (1 text)
ST R343 (Partial)
Roud #4760
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wait For the Wagon" (tune)
NOTES [111 words]: The "Idaho" version was published in 1864 with Frank French listed as its author. Warner speculates that French rewrote an old Arkansas song to deal with the Idaho gold rush (for which see also "A Trip to Salmon"), though Cohen thinks French's version original.
The only useful thing I can add is that Arkansas versions seem to prevail in Texas and Arkansas and vicinity, while Idaho is mentioned in the versions collected elsewhere. and the latter versions seem to be at least as common, though they come from areas where collection efforts have been spotty. The implication is that the Idaho variant was probably more widely known. Though that doesn't prove much. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R343

We're Coming, Sister Mary

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls a cold night in winter when he was with (his young wife) Mary when a voice came through the window, "We are coming, sister Mary." (The performance is repeated for two nights), and the singer finds Mary dead
AUTHOR: original music: Henry Clay Work (Words by Work and/or Edwin Pearce Christy)
EARLIEST DATE: 1853 (sheet music published by Firth, Pond & Co. of New York)
KEYWORDS: death dream supernatural
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 84, "We're Coming, Sister Mary" (1 text plus the lyrics found in the sheet music, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 15, "Sister Mary" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 50, pp. 68-69, "We Are Coming, Sister Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2511, pp. 169-170, "We Are Coming Sister Mary" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #7/72, p. 68 and #7/64, p. 7, "We are coming, Sister Mary" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 483, "We Are Coming, Sister Mary" (source notes only)
ST FSC084 (Partial)
Roud #4861
File: FSC084

We're from Nairobi

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, we're from Nairobi, And we're on the best team, We do the Watusi, We're seven feet tall, Cannibals might eat us, Cause we're from Nairobi, And we're on the ball. Sing along, sing along, sing along, sing along. Ung gowah, ung gowah, ung gowah...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: travel campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 175, 315, 496, "We're From Nairobi" (notes only)
File: ACFS175N

We're Going to Build a House... Boo!

See Let's Have a Party (File: Hopk019B)

We're Gonna Move When the Spirit Says Move

DESCRIPTION: "We're gonna move when the Spirit says move (x2), Cause when the Spirit says move, Then you move with the Spirit; We're gonna move." Similarly, "We're gonna singe when the Spirit says sing." "We're gonna talk" "We're gonna march"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: political religious nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 305, "We're Gonna Move When The Spirit Says Move" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 383, 391, "I'm gonna sing when the spirit says sing" (notes only)
Roud #12302
NOTES [68 words]: Listed in Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook as a Civil Rights song, though I've met it as a sort of religious playparty.
Despite the Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook title, the first verse I've usually heard is "I'm gonna sing when the spirit says sing." Which has a more solid Biblical basis anyway; 1 Corinthians 14:15 refers to singing praise with the Spirit, but I don't recall moving with the Spirit. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB305

We're Here Because

DESCRIPTION: "We're here because We're here because We're here because we're here."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: nonballad soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 37, "We're Here Because" (1 text)
Roud #10528
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Auld Lang Syne" (tune) and references there
File: BrPa037B

We're Here for Fun

DESCRIPTION: "We're here for fun right from the start so drop your dignity, Just laugh and sing with all your heart and show your loyalty. May all your troubles be forgot, Let this night be the best. Join in the songs we sing tonight, Be happy with the rest."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 166, "We're Here for Fun" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 114, We're Here for Fun" (1 text, tune referenced)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 6, "We're Here for Fun" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Auld Lang Syne" (tune) and references there
File: ACSF166W

We're Homeward Bound

See Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down! (File: Wa071)

We're Looking for the Kaiser

DESCRIPTION: "We're looking for the Kaiser, He does not come our way. We've searched the mighty ocean Right down to Chesapeake Bay, And when we get to Berlin, The Kaiser he will say... What a bloody fine lot Is the navy of today"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy royalty derivative
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 82, "We're Looking for the Kaiser" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Church's One Foundation" (tune)
NOTES [50 words]: Although the references to the Kaiser in this song are probably to Wilhelm II, it is conceivable that it instead refers to the German dreadnought battleship the Kaiser. Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy does not mention this possibility, but the existence of the ship would have been well known. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn063

We're Marchin' 'Round the Levee

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

We're Marching Down to Old Quebec

See Marching Down to Old Quebec (File: R519)

We're Marching On to War

DESCRIPTION: "We're marching on to war, we are, we are, we are, We do not care what people say, nor what they think we are, We're going to work for Jesus who did salvation bring, We're hallelujah children and we're going to see our king!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 632, "We're Marching On to War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7560
File: R632

We're Marching Round and Round

DESCRIPTION: Singing game. "We're marching 'round and 'round and it's two at a time (x2), We're clinging to each other like grapes to the vine. Our company's increasing and the crown we'll win (x2), So rise up my old love to bring another in"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #70,"We're Marching Round and Round" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #14010
File: Gent070

We're Marching Round the Level

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

We're No Awa Tae Bide Awa

DESCRIPTION: "As I walked doon the Overgate, I met wi' Johnnie Scobie. I says, 'Man, wil ye hae a hauf?'" "For we're no' awa tae bide awa (x3), We'll aye come back an' see ye." THey share a half, and another, and another, get drunk, and go home together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: home drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 80, "We're No Awa Tae Bide Awa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22217
File: Gath080

We're Off to the Wars (Arkansas War Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Come along, boys, we'll off to the wars... Yo ho, yo ho, in Dixie!" The singer promises to fight for "the 'Federate states," intends to talk about the girls, and lists his leaders who will "bring Montgomery and Lane to taw."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Allsopp)
KEYWORDS: soldier Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 224-225
ST FORA224 (Partial)
NOTES [312 words]: The references in this piece are, at best, confusing. The Confederate officers are clear: McCulloch is Ben McCulloch (1811-1862), who assembled the Arkansas troops which fought at the battle of Wilson's Creek (August 10, 1861); he would later be killed at Pea Ridge. One of the Confederate batteries at that battle was commanded by an officer named Woodruff.
But who are "Montgomery and Lane"? There were two Union generals named Montgomery; neither could have fought McCulloch. Neither was there a suitable Union officer named Lane, though James Henry Lane (1814-1866) was a fiery Kansas politician.
My guess is that there are two errors here. One is an error of hearing: "Lane" is actually "Lyon," i.e. Nathaniel Lyon, the Union captain hastily promoted Brigadier General who ran the Union forces in Missouri. He cleared northern Missouri of Confederate forces, then turned south. Finding himself trapped by superior forces, he tried a spoiling attack at Wilson's Creek and was killed.
"Montgomery" is even trickier. My shot in the dark is that this is a confusion of the two Blair brothers. Montgomery Blair, the older brother, became Lincoln's Postmaster General. Francis P. Blair, based in Missouri, was sort of Lyon's co-conspirator in saving Missouri for the Union: He raised the money and troops which Lyon used. Since Montgomery was the better-known Blair (among other things, he had argued Dred Scott's side in the famous slavery case), the southern poet might have thought it was Montgomery Blair, not Frank, who was operating in Missouri.
In any case, this song sounds very much like something one of McCulloch's volunteers might have sung before Wilson's Creek. Were it of later date, we would presumably hear more of Earl Van Down, McCulloch's superior, and of Union commander Samuel R. Curtis, who won the Battle of Pea Ridge at which McCulloch was killed. - RBW
File: FORA224

We're on the Upward Trail

See The Upward Trail (File: ACSF175U)

We're Sailing Round the Ocean

See Go In and Out the Window (File: R538)

We're So Glad To Be Here

DESCRIPTION: "We're so glad to be here, We're so glad to be here, We could be dead, in our grave, We're so glad to be here"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (USMississippi01)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Fannie Bell Chapman, "We're So Glad To Be Here" (on USMississippi01)
NOTES [67 words]: The description is the text of the Fannie Bell Chapman song. On the recording it is sung before and after a spoken introduction to an audience leading to an evening of spirituals. The repetition of "so glad to be here" and the line "... could be dead ... in the grave" is also on Lee Williams and the Spiritual QC's, "Glad To Be Here" (2005, on "Tell the Angels: Live in Memphis," Malaco MCS 7034). - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcWSGTBH

We're Some of the Praying People

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "We're some of the praying people (3x), For my Lord told me so." Verse: "And must I be to judgement brought, to answer in that day?"(2x)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 16, "We're Some of the Praying People" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Am I Born to Die? (Idumea)" (lyrics)
File: Bart016A

We're Stole and Sold from Africa

DESCRIPTION: "We are stole and sold from Africa, Transported to America, Like hogs and sheep we're marched in drove." ""See how they take us from our wives, Small children from their mothers' side." "O Lord, have mercy and look down Upon the plight of the African"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (recording, Addie Graham, according to Sing Out!)
KEYWORDS: slave hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 38, #4 (1994), p, 30, "We're Stole & Sold from Africa (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [87 words]: According to Sing Out!, Addie Graham, who recorded what seems to be the only recording of this, sang it in an "Anglo-American" (i.e. White) style. And the song seems a little too carefully crafted to be a legitimate lament about slavery (someone who was actually imported from Africa would be neither a Christian nor such a good speaker of English!). The notes in Sing Out! suggest it is an abolitionist song. This strikes me as almost certainly true; the main question to me is how it managed to show up in tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: SO38n4A

We're Tenting To-Night

See Tenting Tonight (File: RJ19206)

We're Tenting ToNight

See Tenting Tonight (File: RJ19206)

We're Traveling Home

DESCRIPTION: We're traveling home. "Millions have reached that healthful shore... But there's room for millions more... The way to heaven is free for all."
AUTHOR: words: Richard Jinkes (18c); music: B. F. White (c.1844) (source: White and King,_Original Sacred Harp_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 73, "We're Traveling Home" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: George Pullen Jackson, _Another Sheaf of White Spirituals_ (Gainesville, 1952), #359 p. 299, "Will You Go" ("We're traveling home to heaven above") (1 text, 1 tune)
Benjamin Franklin White, E.J.King, et al, _Original Sacred Harp_ (Atlanta, 1911 ("Digitized by Google") (correction and enlargement of 1869 edition copyright J.S. James)), p. 97, "Will You Go?" ("We're traveling home to heaven above") (1 text, 1 tune)
File: TPS073

We're Up at Los Cerros

See We're Up At... (File: ACSF520W)

We're Up At...

DESCRIPTION: "We're up at (Los Cerros/Camp Kami/other), The camp of our dreams, Where (Wolf Lake), it sparkles, It glistens and gleams. So come on and join us, 'Cause we're never blue; Be a member Of our happy loving (crew?)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: campsong nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 520, "We're Up at Los Cerros" (notes only)
NOTES [41 words]: Averill calls this "We're Up at Los Cerros," apparently referring to a particular camp, but given that she claims to have 19 citations, I have to think it's a generic song referring to multiple camps. This is my best guess at the song she means. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF520W

We've Aye Been Provided For

See And Sae Will We Yet (File: FVS256)

We've Aye Been Provided For and Sae Will We Yet

See And Sae Will We Yet (File: FVS256)

We've Come to Judgment

DESCRIPTION: "We've come to judgment, O yes my Lord, In that great giving up morning; We've come to judgment...." "O where you going, sinner, with your head bowed down?" The sinner is warned of Hell and told to get with it or face judgment
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad sin
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 88, "We've Come to Judgment" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16935
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In that Great Gettin' Up Morning" (lyrics)
File: ChFRA088

We've come to see Jenny Jones, Jenny Jones

See Jenny Jones (Jennie Jo) (File: Lins026)

We've Done Our Hitch in Hell

DESCRIPTION: "I'm sitting here a-thinking Of the things I left behind." The singer complains of digging trenches, cooking, fighting rattlesnakes, and the rest of army life, and claims a front seat in heaven for the Third Wyoming
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: army soldier hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 552-554, "We've Done Our Hitch in Hell" (1 text)
Roud #15545
NOTES [85 words]: The irony of this song is that it appears the Third Wyoming never went into combat! Observe: There is reference to the digging of trenches. But only two American wars involved digging trenches: The Civil War and World War I. At the time of the Civil War, Wyoming wasn't a state (it joined the Union in 1890), and in World War I there were no rattlesnakes.
In addition, there is no reference to combat. One hates to think what the soldier would have had to say if someone had actually bothered to shoot at him. - RBW
File: LxA552

We've Drunk from the Same Canteen

DESCRIPTION: "There are bonds of all sorts in this world of ours, Fetters of friendship and ties of flowers... But there's never a bond, old friend, like this: We have drunk from the same canteen!" The singer recalls when his friend came to him when wounded
AUTHOR: "Private Miles O'Reilly" (source: sheet music; see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: soldier drink friend
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #17, pp. 5-6, "We've Drunk from the same Canteen" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 65-66, "We've Drunk from the Same Canteen" (1 text) (pp. 53-54 in the 1919 edition)
Roud #14075
NOTES [592 words]: The listed name of the author, "Private Miles O'Reilly" is widely said to be a pseudonym for Major Charles G. Halpine of the 47th New York Volunteers. This is somewhat mis-stated: acording to NYReport, volume 2, p. 401, the 47th New York regiment went through an astounding *eight* different majors -- and none of them was named Halpine. There was also a 47th National Guard unit; it had only one major: David E. Austin (volume 1, p. 227).
Charles G. Halpine (1829-1868) was real (he has a Wikipedia entry), and he did serve in the Civil War. He even reached the rank of brevet brigadier general as of March 13, 1865 (Phisterer, p. 292) -- after he had resigned from the army. But not in the 47th New York!
Halpine in fact had very little field experience. He was an Irishman who emigrated to American in 1851 and then worked in writing and publishing-- a trade he had pursued in Ireland and England as well (DAB, p. 160). When the war started, he joined the 69th New York state militia as a private -- but that unit mustered out on August 3, 1861. A month later, he rejoined the army as a major -- but as a staff officer, in which capacity he served until resigning in 1864. (Boatner, p.367; DAB, p. 161, says this was because of failing eyesight).
Bottom line: It was the fictional O'Reilly who was a member of the 47th New York, not Halpine.
It is not instantly obvious why Halpine chose that particular regiment. It was not very famous, serving primarily in the Union army's X corps, which shuttled around the East Coast a lot; it had seven officers and 70 enlisted men die in battle, and 160 die of disease (Fox, p.478), which is not a particularly high total, and it did not fight in any of the well-known battles. It was given honors for Fort Wagner, Olustee, Coal Harbor (yes, Coal Harbor, not Cold Harbor), Bermuda Hundred, Deep Bottom, Chapin's Farm, Charles' City Cross Roads, Fort Fisher, and Raleigh (NYReport, volume 2, p. 401). Its one really bloody battle was Olustee (for which see "I Can Whip the Scoundrel"); Fox, p. 44, says it suffered 30 killed,197 wounded, and 86 missing, the highest total for any regiment in the campaign.
On the other hand, Hapine's most famous piece, and his only other one in the Index as of this writing, is "Sambo's Right to Be Kilt," about allowing Black soldiers to serve in the Union armies. This is a fairly logical poem for Halpine to write, since he was one of the officers responsible for organizing the first Black regiments in 1862 while on the staff of General David Hunter (Boatner, p. 367). Those troops served in South Carolina. And note that the 47th earned one of its honors at "Fort Wagner." Which was one of the forts guarding Charleston. So maybe Halpine was around the 47th then.
Or perhaps Halpine picked the number at random -- maybe he wanted a non-famous unit!
Halpine eventually published much of his work in The Life and Adventures, Songs, Services, and Speeches of Private Miles O'Reilly (47th Regiment, New York Volunteers), now available on Google Books; searching the Google version did not locate this song. Halpine also published The Poetical Works of Charles G. Halpine (Miles O'Reilly), also on Google Books; it doesn't seem to be in that, either. His early poems were published anonymously in Lyrics by the Letter H; anthologized from various periodicals, their (lack of) quality induced at least one reviewer to say that they should have stayed there (DAB, p. 161).
He died in 1868 of an overdose of chloroform taken to deal with sleep problems (DAB, p. 161). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Shoe065

We've Got a Navy, the British Navy

DESCRIPTION: "We've got a navy, the British navy To keep our foes at bay. Our old song 'Britannia rules the waves' We still may sing today. We've got a navy, a fighting navy, Our neighbors know it too... [about] Those lively little lads in navy blue"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: navy sailor patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 164-165, "We've Got a Navy, the British Navy" (1 text)
NOTES [37 words]: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood's notes say this is from "The Lads in Navy Blue," but Roud says that this is "probably not" that song, and I incline to agree. But Roud has not assigned it an independent number. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC164C

We've Got a Sergeant-Major

See Behind the Lines (File: BrPa040C)

We've Got Franklin Delano Roosevelt Back Again

See Franklin D. Roosevelt's Back Again (File: CSW230)

We've Had No Beer

DESCRIPTION: "we've had no beer, We've had no beer today, We've had no beer! We've had no beer, No beer at all today, We've had no beer."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 34, "We've Had No Beer" (1 text)
Roud #10565
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lead, Kindly Light" (tune)
File: BrPa034A

We've Now Arrived, Thanks Be to God

See Epigram on Rough Roads (File: KSUC173A)

We've Ploughed, We've Sowed

See Harvest Home Song (I) (File: RcHaHS1)

Wealthy Farmer, The

See Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)

Wealthy Farmer's Son, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you pretty fair maids and listen to my song." A "blooming damsel" is walking the fields. She goes to gather flowers, and says she is true to her missing love. The singer draws out their broken ring; they marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols)
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion farming brokentoken ring
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 26-27, "The Wealthy Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1061
File: LEBC026

Wealthy London Apprentice, The

See The Valiant London Apprentice [Laws Q38] (File: LQ38)

Wealthy Merchant (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a wealthy merchant, in Charleston he did dwell, He had a pretty woman, and a tailor loved her well, Singin' roddy hida togger, singin' roddy hi go tay." The rest is said to be bawdy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2)
KEYWORDS: bawdy
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, p. 76, "The Wealthy Merchant" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7033
NOTES [69 words]: Bush maintains that this is a fragment of an otherwise-forgotten bawdy song. But if the informant forgot all the words, we obviously cannot be sure that he remembered what the song was about! It might be any of a number of songs that start with the lines, "There was a wealthy (merchant), in X he did dwell"; the lines are perhaps most typical of "Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany)" [Laws N7]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BWV2076

Wealthy Merchant (II), The

See The Boatsman and the Chest [Laws Q8] (File: LQ08)

Wealthy Squire, The

See The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20] (File: LN20)

Wear a Starry Crown

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Away over Jordan With my blessed Jesus, Away over Jordan To wear a starry crown." Verse: "We are going (you must be saved, my mother's going, my father's going, the sinner ain't going) to wear a crown" (3x), To wear a starry crown"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious family Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 16, "Wear a Starry Crown" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: George Pullen Jackson, Spiritual Folk-Songs of Early America (New York: J.J. Augustin, 1937 (republished by New York: Dover Publications, 1964)), #178 p. 189, "Resurrected" or "My Father's Gone" or "Away Over Yonder" or "To Wear a Starry Crown" (1 text, 1 tune)
William Booth, Salvation Army Songs (London: The Salvation Army Book Department, 1911 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #653 p. 464, "Away Over Jordan" (1 text)
Roud #13973
NOTES [44 words]: The description is based on the Barton-OldPlantationHymns text.
Jackson: "Seaborn M. Denson ... musical editor of the 1911 edition of The Original Sacred Harp ... told me he had heard this song sung in camp meetings around Civil War times in northern Alabama." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart016B

Wearie's Well

DESCRIPTION: "In a saft simmer gloamin' In yon dowie dell, It was there we twa first met, By Wearie's cauld well." The singer recalls the lovers' meeting. Now "faith fades in your heart." She will marry another. "May thy joys be to come -- Mine live in the past"
AUTHOR: Motherwell (source: Whistle-Binkie)
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Whistle-Binkie)
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #20, p. 2, "Wearie's Well" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Whistle-Binkie [, First Series] (Glasgow, 1842 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), pp. 98-100, "Wearie's Well" (1 text)
Roud #5757
File: Grg020

Wearie's Wells

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Wearies Wells

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Wearing o' the Green

See The Wearing of the Green (I) (File: PGa084)

Wearing of the Blue, The

See Canada-I-O (The Wearing of the Blue; Caledonia) (File: HHH162)

Wearing of the Britches, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer marries a girl for money, not love; they struggle over who will "wear the britches." She spends all he makes, even though he beats her black and blue. Eventually she dies; "now at last her tongue lies still/And she must wear the wooden britches."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(157))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer marries a girl for money, not love, and they struggle over who will "wear the britches." Although she's small, and he can beat her in a fight, she swears she'll wear them; he's a tailor but she spends all he makes, even though he beats her black and blue. When he goes drinking she comes after him, "cursing like a dragon"; she's thrown the teapot at him, putting him on crutches. Eventually she dies; "now at last her tongue lies still/And she must wear the wooden britches." He warns young men to marry for love and work for riches
KEYWORDS: marriage warning fight abuse death burial husband wife shrewishness
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 215, "The Wearing of the Britches" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 98, "The Tailor By His Trade" (1 text)
Roud #1588
RECORDINGS:
Patrick Keown, "The Wearing of the Britches" (on FSBFTX19)
Joe Tunney, "The Tailor by Trade" (on FSB3)
Paddy Tunney, "The Wearing of the Breeches" (on IRPTunney01); "The Wearing of the Britches" (on Voice15)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(157), "The Breeches" ("Come all ye young men wherever you be"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 25(275), "The Breeches"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Struggle for the Breeches" (subject)
cf. "Devilish Mary" [Laws Q4] (subject)
cf. "There's Bound to be a Row" (theme)
NOTES [66 words]: This is so close to "Devilish Mary" I was tempted to lump them. But this song's events are different; in this one she dies, in "Devilish Mary" he leaves her. So I split them, but they're close cousins. - PJS
The temptation to lump is indeed strong. Curiously, Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland never mentions "Devilish Mary," and Laws never mentions this. I guess that makes them separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: K215

Wearing of the Green (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of the dreadful fate of Ireland, the "most distressful country," where "they are hanging men and women for the wearing of the green." The singer bids defiance, and notes that the grass on the martyrs' graves grows green.
AUTHOR: some versions by Dion Boucicault (1820-1870) (per O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1800 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion but see the notes re: Zimmermann and Sparling to accomodate the Boucicault claim); 1865 (copyrights)
KEYWORDS: Ireland freedom death execution hardtimes
FOUND IN: Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 69, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text)
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 84-85, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 21B, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 33, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text, 1 tune); 35, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 17, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 fragment)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 97-98, "Wearing of the Green" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2525, p. 171, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 reference); probably also #2526, p. 171, "The Wearing of the Green" (2 references)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 323, "Wearing Of The Green" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 628-630, "The Wearin' o' the Green"
Behan-IrelandSings, #96, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #27, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 104, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #310, p. 74, "Wearin o' the Green" (1 text)
DT, WEARGREN*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Sullivan, ed., Ireland in Poetry, p. 111, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text)
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 300-301, "The Wearin' of the Green" (1 text plus a portion of the Boucicault version)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 515-516, "The Wearing of the Green"
Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 257-258, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text)
Roud #3278
RECORDINGS:
John McCormack, "Wearin' o' the "Green" (HMV [UK] DA-322, n.d.)
J. W. Myers, "Wearing of the Green" (Columbia 194, 1901) (Victor 4274, 1905)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(476), "The Wearing of the Green" ("O Paddy dear, and did you hear the news that's going round?"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also 2806 c.16(209), 2806 b.10(215), 2806 c.15(254), "Wearing of the Green" ("O Kitty dear ...")
LOCSinging, as115040, "The Wearing of the Green" ("Oh, Paddy dear, then did you hear"), unknown, 19C; also as114610, "The Wearing of the Green"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rising of the Moon" (tune)
cf. "Benny Havens" (tune)
cf. "Flunky Jim (Gopher Tails)" (tune)
cf. "John McBride's Brigade" (tune)
cf. "Green Upon the Cape"
cf. "The Army of the Free" (tune)
cf. "The Sealers' Song (III)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Rising of the Moon (File: PGa035)
Benny Havens (File: R232)
The Drought (File: MCB158)
Magilligan (File: HHH052a)
A Knot of Blue and Gray (File: RcAKOBAG)
John McBride's Brigade (File: Zimm092)
The Army of the Free (File: CSWF032)
The Sealers' Song (III) (File: BeDo129)
Conundrum Song (File: Paro082)
The Man Behind (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 86)
Nearly Sae Will We Yet (per broadside Bodleian 2806 c.15(254))
Lost Creek ("Have you ever been to Lost Creek where the women have their rights?") (by Martin J. Mulhall, known as "Poet Mulhall") (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 53-54)
Sandy's Fight (Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), p. 36)
W. R. Rhinehart, "Klansman Round-Up" (100% K-40, rec. c. 1924)
A Hearty Welcome To Our Dandy Newfundland Runners Who Won the Shield in the Halifax Marathon, Sept. 28, 1929 (by Johnny Burke) (Johnny Burke, _Burke's Popular Songs_, self-published, 1929 (a PDF is available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. [10])
Kelly Gang song ("Oh, Paddy dear, and did you hear the news that's going round, On the head of bold Ned Kelly they've placed two thousand pounds") (attributed to Joe Byrne of the Kelly Gang but not published until 1881) (Lyn Innes, _Ned Kelly: Icon of Modern Culture_, Helm Information Ltd., 2008, p. 85)
Ye Gentle Boy-Cat ("Says Frist to Pat, d'ye heal all that Loud talk that's going 'roun'?") (by "Pat of Molingar") (Foner, p. 236)
Song Suggested by the consideration of the Militia Bill now before the Illinois Legislature ("Come, all you noble workingmen, and listen to my yarn; Of joinin' the militia each one of you I warn") (by John M'Intosh) (Foner, p. 299)
The Train Pulled in the Station ("Oh, the train pulled in the station, The bell was ringing wet") (Harbin-Parodology, #74, p. 24)
We'll Sing His Fame ("O, here's to ???, You surely know his fame") (Harbin-Parodology, @310, p. 54)
NOTES [1197 words]: Probably originally associated with the 1798 rebellion, although topical versions have emerged on occasion in Irish history. An 1802 printing of "The Green Upon My Cape" is clearly related but not really the same song.
The "Napper Tandy" of some versions is an Irish patriot, James Napper Tandy (c. 1737-1803), one of the few Dublin members of the United Irishmen to escape capture. Tandy is one of those irritatingly complex figures so common in Irish history (as well as a patriot, he has been called a drunk, and after campaigning for reforms in 1784, he fled to the United States in 1793, then to France in 1797, which is how he ended up involved with the whole invasion fiasco).
Tandy apparently wasn't easy to get along with; he and Wolfe Tone had major disagreements while in France, which doubtless hurt their chances to accomplish anything. Still, he eventually managed to convince the French to give him a single ship, the Anacreon, and a force of about 275 soldiers; he was given arms and ammunition for many more -- he had, after all, declared that, if the French would just take him to Ireland, his presence would cause 30,000 men to rally to him.
On September 16, 1798, he landed with a company of Frenchmen in Donegal. He apparently expected to coordinate with General Humbert, but that invasion had ended a week earlier (see "The Men of the West"), and the expected rising in Mayo had fizzled.
Upon confirming the news, Tandy got drunk with some local friends in Rutland, and was carried back to the Anacreon unconscious. The ship went home, and the last French invasion of Ireland was over.
Tandy was arrested (one might well say "hijacked") in neutral Hamburg late in 1798, sentenced to death, but turned over to France in 1802, where he died soon after.
Boylan, p. 379, says that "His memory is kept alive in the ballad 'The Wearing of the Green," hinting that he never did anything else worth remembering. He quotes Sir Jonah Barrington: "[Tandy] acquired celebrity without being able to account for it, and possessed an influence without rank or capacity."
A final French expedition, with Wolfe Tone aboard, was also a failure, never even making it to shore; see the notes on "The Shan Van Vogt."
The charge that the English were "hanging men and women for the wearing of the green" is the sort of half-truth that often is heard during wars. Wearing green was not a crime and wouldn't result in execution by itself -- but green was a recognized revolutionary token; wearing it would certainly get the government's attention. Which could lead to trouble.
And, of course, ordinary soldiers, especially militia, were likely to be that much harder on possible enemies. It seems likely enough that a few people died for wearing green -- but not due to official policy. And anyone who wore green in those times was definitely asking for trouble. - RBW
The note to the Bodleian broadside cited is "Sung by T.H. Glenny, at Niblo's Theatre in the Great Sensation Play of 'Arrah-na-Pogue'"
Dion Boucicault (1820-1890) was an Irish playwright. He wrote and acted in the 1865 hit Arrah-na-Pogue. "This, and his admirable creation of Con in his play The Shaugraun (first produced at Drury Lane in 1875), won him the reputation of being the best stage Irishman of his time". Source: "Dion Boucicalt" quoted from Encyclopedia Britannica Eleventh Edition Volume IV on the Theatre History site. [For background on Dion Boucicault, see also the notes to "Cruiskeen Lawn." - RBW]
Sparling: [The Wearing of the Green (I)] "was a hash-up by Boucicault of an old variant [Zimmermann 21B], using most of the old words ... [in which] the land of refuge it is written from is France, and not America."
Zimmermann: "Boucicault is said to have written this version at the suggestion of his mother, who remembered some lines of the older version" (Townshend Walsh The Career of Dion Boucicault, p. 144). [This is also reported by William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 109. On p. 110, Williams says that the new verses "were considered inflammatory, offending Queen Victoria, and were supposedly banned from the British stage. eedless to say, the song was a great hit in America. - RBW]
Hoagland: Boucicault's main change was to add a verse about the possibility of emigration to "a country that lies beyond the sea, Where rich and poor stand equal in the light of freedom's day." [In fact Boucicault added two verses to his version. - RBW]
There are other songs with the same title, including O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland p. 40 ("Farewell, for I must leave thee, my own, my native shore...") and O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland p. 130 by H.G. Curran ("One blessing on my native isle! One curse upon her foes..."). [The latter being indexed as "The Wearing of the Green (II)." - RBW]
The "old variant" includes specifically anti-Union sentiment dropped by Boucicault: "I care not for the Thistle [Scotland], and I care not for the Rose [England]."
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 33 is the Zimmermann 21B "old variant"; Moylan 35 is Boucicault's "hash-up."
More from Moylan about Napper Tandy: "Napper Tandy was the secretary of the first Dublin Society of United Irishmen. He made his way to Hamburg after the failure of the rising but was arrested there at the instigation of the British representative, Imprisoned for two years, he was released in 1801 on condition that he left Ireland. He went into exile in France where he died, at Bordeaux, in 1803."
Broadside LOCSinging as114610: "The following is the celebrated song which created such intense excitement throughout Great Britain, and for the incorporation of which in his piece, Mr. Bourcicault' play of 'Arrah na Pogue,' had to be withdrawn."
Tunney-StoneFiddle fragment has the singer start with the Napper Tandy/hanging men and women verse, followed by
So shoulder high your hurleys boys and grasp your rifles tight
The mangy bulldog let him bark; he's got no teeth to bite
When English law can paint the moon and put the Hun to flight
Then we'll shed our rebel coats and put the hurleys out of sight
"'I learned that verse in America', he told me." - BS
Which sounds very much as if it comes from the First World War period, probably before the Easter Rebellion.
According to Samuel Eliot Morison, The Oxford History of the American People, Oxford, 1965, p. 780, "Of the 132 plays written my Dion Boucicault, only Rip Van Winkle (1865) in which Joseph Jefferson starred for over thirty years, and The Colleen Bawn, a romantic comedy of Ireland, are remembered." On the other hand, his daughter Nina Boucicault, when in her late thirties, would create the role of "Peter Pan" in the first theatrical production (see Robert Douglas-Fairhurt, The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland, Belknap/Harvard, 2015, p. 306), so the Boucicault family arguably still managed to leave a mark on the theater.
- RBW
Broadside Harding B 18(476): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: PGa084

Wearing of the Green (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "One blessing on my native isle! One curse upon her foes!" In exile the singer thinks of Mary left behind and his parents buried in Ireland. The foe "might have let the poor man live." "But watch the hour that yet will come, For the Wearing of the Green"
AUTHOR: Henry Grattan Curran (1800-1876)
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Sparling)
KEYWORDS: exile separation Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 130, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: _Irish Minstrelsy_ by H. Halliday Sparling (London, 1888), pp. 13-14, 497, "The Wearing of the Green"
Roud #41789
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.10(108), "The Wearing of the Green" ("One blessing on my native isle!"), unknown, n.d.
NOTES [20 words]: For information about the author see The Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco) site entry for Henry Grattan Curran. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: OCon130

Wearing of the Green (III -- Canadian Navy)

DESCRIPTION: ""I met with Uncle Percy, and he shook me by the hand, I said, 'How is our navy, sir, and is it still on land?' 'Tis the most distressful navy, faith, that ever yet was seen'"; headquarters is full of landsmen and deadbeats but has no real sailors
AUTHOR: J. P. Lunzer (source: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: navy derivative Canada
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 86-87, "The Wearin' of the Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #29429
NOTES [666 words]: As Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear states, the "Uncle Percy" of the first verse is "Commodore Percy Walker Nelles, RCN, who became chief of the Naval Staff on 1 July 1934. Nelles was born in Brantford, Ontario, in 1892 and was among the first group of Canadian cadets to join CGS Canada in 1908. After a brief exposure to battleships in 1912-1914, Nelles spent most of the [First World] war on British cruisers operating in the western Atlantic. During the early 1920s he held a series of staff jobs and completed both the intelligence and staff war courses in England. He then spend the lat 1920s as senior naval officer, Esquimalt, while trying to get back to sea. Finally, in 1929 he was sent overseas again for the RN's Staff officer Technical Course" (Milner, p. 70).
In 1930, he became executive officer of HMS Dragon and had the good luck to take charge of the ship when her captain died. He was the first skipper of HMS Saguenay (for which see "The Saguenay Song") when that first Canadian destroyer was commissioned. Promoted to captain in 1932, he became assistant chief of the Naval Staff in 1933. He ran the navy until 1943, and died shortly after the war.
Lamb, who served in the RCN when Nelles was in charge and once saw Nelles lead an inspection, described him as "a nice little man who looked a bit like radio comedian Ed Wynn and who had spent the greater part of his wartime career in Ottawa" (Lamb, p. 10). "A short, plump little man with very thick glasses, he was not exactly a warrior leader calculated to fire our blood" (Lamb, p. 11).
Bercuscon, p. 144, charges, "If there was one man who, compared with his Allied peers, was least in tune with the ever more complex and technical nature of the anti-submarine war, it was Vice-Admiral Percy W. Nelles, Chief of the Naval Staff in Ottawa since 1934. Nelles was not at fault for the many shortages of vessels and trained men that had plagued the RCN since the outbreak of war, though he had been over-eager to take on more than his fledgling navy could handle.... A navy that was not prepared to give its men the very latest in equipment and training could not hope to pull its weight in the Atlantic battles. Nelles had constantly failed to ensure that the RCN kept up with its Allies in that regard." The numbers bear out this assessment: the RCN proved almost completely unable to catch and sink U-boats.
To be fair, the Mackenzie King government had consistently pursued a policy of ensuring that Canadian forces were separate and individual and not subsumed in a greater British war machine, which caused all branches of the Canadian military to be in over their heads -- e.g. the Canadian group in the British bomber force was for long the worst unit in the air army. It does seem, though, as if Nelles was the worst offender in that regard. Eventually Minister of National Defence for Naval Services MacDonald (who himself bore a big share of blame for the problem) decided the situation could not continue. "Nelles was moved out of the chief's post in January 1944 and replaced by Vice-Admiral G. C. Jones" (Bercuson, p. 144). This, unfortunately, created its own problems; "Given the bitter personal rivalry between Jones and [L. W.] Murray, who held the navy's most important operational command [in effect, Murray commanded the Atlantic forces], the RCN for the remainder of the war was something of a house divided" (Milner, p. 136). But at least the government was trying.
By then, ironically, the U-boat war had definitively shifted toward the Allies; Nelles was in charge during the entire period when the outcome was in doubt, and when a better officer might have made a huge difference.
The song's description of the Navy is mostly right; the Canadian navy had never been large, and had only a half dozen destroyers and no larger ships as 1939 rolled around. It didn't really have the bloated staff described in the song -- but with so few actual seamen, any staff at all probably seemed excessive. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hopk086

Wearing of the Green (III), The

See Green Upon the Cape (File: PGa091)

Wearing of the Green (IV), The

DESCRIPTION: "Farewell, for I must leave thee, my own, my native shore." The singer's father is buried in Ireland. His mother weeps but would weep more if he were a traitor, like some others. Exiles love to sing 'The wearing of the green" and think about return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I)
KEYWORDS: exile farewell Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 34, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 40, "The Wearing of the Green" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, p. 277, "The Wearing of the Green"
File: Moyl034

Wearing of the Horns, The

See So Selfish Runs the Hare (Horn, Boys, Horn) (File: So38n2b)

Wearing of the Suit of Green

See Suit of Green, The (File: OLoc024)

Weary Coble o' Cargill, The

See The Coble o Cargill [Child 242] (File: C242)

Weary Fairmers, The

See The Weary Farmers (File: FVS202)

Weary Farmers, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's some that sing o' (Comar) Fair... But the best sang that e'er was sung... It was about the term... When we will a' win free." With their contracts expired, the farm hands set out to enjoy themselves and hope to improve conditions next year
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: farming work drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 202-204, "The Weary Farmers" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 391, "The Weary Fairmers" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 211-212, "The Weary Farmers" (1 text)
Roud #2181
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Term Time
File: FVS202

Weary of Lying Alone

DESCRIPTION: Singer hears a maid moan: I'm weary of lying alone. She is either 11 + 1 + 7 years old or, when she was 11 she had 7 sweet hearts but now has not 1. She would be a wife. She/he says there's a flower in the garden that should be plucked before it fades.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1778 (Carey)
KEYWORDS: marriage sex virginity bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 144, "Taim Cortha O Bheith Im' Aonar Im' Lui" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: George G. Carey, A Sailor's Songbag (Amherst University of Massachusetts Press, 1976), #43 pp. 118-119 "A New Song" ("Come come pretty Sally and set you down by me") (1 text)
Roud #9384
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Taim Cortha O Bheith Im' Aonar Im' Lui" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [252 words]: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin is macaronic, alternating Irish and English verses. Some of the English verses match Carey's. The description combines OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin and Carey.
Also see Broadside EngBdsdBA 20113, Pepys 1.246-247, "The Mayden's Complaint for a Bedfellow or I Can Nor Will No Longer Lye Alone" ("Can any man tell what I ayle: because I look so weake so pale"), John White (London?), 1615?, accessed 08 Dec 2013, which ends "And Young-men all that see my case, / Take some pitty on my Maiden face: / Rid me of my cares and greefes each one: / And let me now no longer ly alone." The man's side also has a Pepys text: Broadside EngBdsdBA 20105, Pepys 1.232-233, "A Batchelers Resolution or Haue Among You Now, Widowes or Maydes" ("A Batchelour I haue beene long, and had no minde to marry"), unknown, 1629?, accessed 08 Dec 2013.
A verse in Carey is "The seas are deep I cannot wade them / Neither have I wings to fly / I wish that I had some little small boat / For to ferry my love and I, for to ferry my love and I...."
A close verse noted in Peacock's 1952 text that I assigned to "Carrickfergus" is "The ocean is wide and I can't wade over, / Neither have I wings to fly, / But if I had some old skipper boat-man, / I would ferry me over my love and I." The Sandburg text assigned to "Carrickfergus" has "The world's so wide I cannot cross it, / The sea's so deep I cannot wade, / I'll just go hire me a little boatman / To row me across the stormy tide." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC144

Weary on the Gill Stoup

See Gill Stoup, The (File: GrD3597)

Weary Pound o' Tow, The

See The Weary Pund o' Tow (File: BdWePuTo)

Weary Pun, The Weary Pun, The

See The Weary Pund o' Tow (File: BdWePuTo)

Weary Pun' o' Tow, The

See The Pound of Tow (File: GrD71301)

Weary Pund o' Tow, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer bought his wife good linen for her to spin but she stalls: "I thought my wife wad end her life Before she span her tow" When he criticized her she broke a stick over his head. At last she left him, and he was happy to see her go
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1822 (Thomson's _Select Melodies of Scotland_, according to Chambers)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage violence abandonment husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1867, "The Weary Pun, The Weary Pun" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 580, "The Weary Pund o' Tow" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #360, pp. 494-495, "The weary Pund o' Tow" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1792)
Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, p. 499, "The Weary Pund o' Tow"
Roud #435
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She's Aye Tease, Teasin'" (theme: the wife who won't spin) and references there
cf. "The Cogie" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
NOTES [45 words]: Whitelaw: "The chorus of this song and the tune are old: the rest was furnished by Burns for the museum."
Roud lumps this with "The Pound of Tow" in Greig/Duncan7 but I see no connection except the general theme that women will do anything but spin their pound of tow. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: BdWePuTo

Weary Soul

DESCRIPTION: "Weary soul, why you da come back? ... You went to de river An' you couldn' get across, So you went to de river An' you come back"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville)
KEYWORDS: death river ritual religious ghost
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, pp. 41-42,53, "Weary Soul" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 44, "Weary Soul" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [142 words]: The current description is based on the Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville texts. Elder-Charloteville has two very different explanations for this song (both are reflected in the keywords):
"[It is a] famous Tobago song of a ghost that returned because of unsettled quarrels.... It is a matter for shame if a villager's relative dies and is seen 'walkin' about the village.' The view is that in life he was so sinful that 'he has no restin' place'" (pp. 41-43).
"The sect known in the Caribbean as Spiritual Baptist sing this beautiful song to welcome the initiate (newly baptized) when he comes off the 'mourning ground' -- when he has mourned and made his spiritual journey -- 'went to the river' and returned" (p. 53).
The line "went to the river and I couldn't get across" appears in other contexts. See, for example, "Went to the River"(I). - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElCh4153

Weary Whaling Grounds

See The Wings of a Goney (File: HunW0401)

Weary, Weary

DESCRIPTION: "Weary, weary, waiting on you" or "Willie, Willie, I am waiting." The singer will wait no longer. Three times she has whistled, or the whistle has blown. She asks, "Are you coming?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 92, "Weary, Weary" (2 texts, 1 tune)
File: OpGa092

Weasel and the Rat, The

See Fox and Hare (They've All Got a Mate But Me) (File: FlBr121)

Weather the Weather

See Whether the Weather (File: ACSF130W)

Weave Room Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Working in a weave-room, fighting for my life, Trying to make a living for my kiddies and my wife, Some are needing clothing... some are needing shoes, But I'm getting nothing but the weave room blues." Singer describes horrid conditions in textile mills
AUTHOR: Dorsey Dixon
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (recording, Dixon Brothers)
KEYWORDS: factory technology weaving work worker poverty hardtimes drink
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, pp. 103-104, "Weave Room Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 88-89, "Weave Room Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 128-129, "Weave Room Blues" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 125, "Weave Room Blues" (1 text)
DT, WEAVBLUE*
Roud #15150
RECORDINGS:
Dixon Brothers, "Weave Room Blues" (Bluebird B-6441/Montgomery Ward M-7024, 1936)
Fisher Hendley, "Weave Room Blues" (Vocalion 04780, 1939; rec. 1938)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Weave Room Blues" (on NLCR03)
Pete Seeger, "Weave Room Blues" (on PeteSeeger13); "Working in the Weave Room" (on PeteSeeger23)
NOTES [156 words]: [According to Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook], many of the mill workers in North Carolina were mountain people who had come out of the hills seeking work in the 1920s. - PJS
To those not from the mills, this song doubtless sounds descriptive and perhaps bitter. But according to Doug deNatale and Glenn Hinson, in their article, "The Southern Textile Song Tradition Reconsidered," published in Archie Green, editor, Songs about Work: Essays in Occupational Culture for Richard A. Reuss, Folklore Institute, Indiana University, 1993, pp. 83-84, it is actually mocking and humorous, something which was more evident when Dixon performed it for his fellow mill workers.
Years later, a social history project tried to test the extent to which mill workers actually knew these mill songs. They found that only two were really part of the tradition: "Cotton Mill Colic" and "Weave Room Blues" (deNatale and Hinson, p. 95). - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: CSW088

Weaver (IV), The

See The Weaver and Serving Maid (File: HGam210)

Weaver (I), The

DESCRIPTION: A weaver roves out and meets a pretty maid carrying a loom under her apron. Upon learning the man's trade, she asks him to weave upon her loom. The remaining verses feature sexual exploits euphemized as various weaving techniques and patterns.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario)
KEYWORDS: weaving seduction bawdy
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 61, "The Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 13, "The Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, THE WEAVR*
Roud #2311
RECORDINGS:
O.J. Abbott, "The Weaver" (on ONEFowke01)
NOTES [61 words]: According to Fowke, the song would date from the pre-industrial era when handloom weavers traveled from town to town weaving yarn that housewives had spun.
Fowke says the ballad was collected by O.J. Abbott from learned from a Dan Leahy in Marchurst, Ontario in 1890. A ten-stanza version appears in the 19th century Jones-Conklin manuscript of an American sailor. - SL
Last updated in version 2.6
File: FowM061

Weaver (II), The

See The Foggy Dew (The Bugaboo) [Laws O3] (File: LO03)

Weaver (III), The

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

Weaver and His Shuttle, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer comes over a hill [or sets his loom on the banks o' brume] and meets Sarah Kelly [or McKellie].
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: bawdy weaving
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1330, "Sarah Kelly" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 196, "Sarah McKellie" (1 text)
Roud #7218
NOTES [55 words]: Greig/Duncan7 quoting Duncan: "No more words known, but understood to be objectionable."
Roud finds this in Buchan, Secret Songs of Silence, with the name "The Weaver and His Shuttle." Since that is, I'm told, a book of bawdy songs probably more complete than the Greig/Duncan7 or Crawfurd, I assigned Roud's title as the name. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD71330

Weaver and Serving Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a weaver (sailor, etc). to my trade, I fell in love with a servant maid, And if I could but her favor win, Then I would weave and she would spin." His father says he should seek someone better. But he goes to her chamber, and eventually marries her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Journal of the Nellie)
KEYWORDS: love courting weaving beauty father marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 210-211, "The Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17771
File: HGam210

Weaver and the Factory Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a hand-weaver, loves a woman who works in a factory. He visits her in her bedroom despite his family's scorn. All the girls have gone to weave with steam; "If you would see them you must rise at dawn/And trudge to the mill in the early morn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond01)
KEYWORDS: love sex factory weaving family worker technology nightvisit
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, WVFACTGL WEAVFACT (both transcribed from the recording by Steeleye Span; the former is the better transcription)
Roud #17771
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Weaver and the Factory Maid" (on IRRCinnamond01) (fragment; only the first verse)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Weaver and the Factory Maid" (on Lloyd3, IronMuse1)
File: DTwvfact

Weaver and the Tailor, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears a couple talking; "it was concerning love." The young man, a weaver, is trying to talk the girl out of her affection for a tailor. He describes all the tailor's faults. She gives in and consents to marry him. (They live happily.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Logan-APedlarsPack)
KEYWORDS: love courting dialog marriage apprentice
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 407-409, "The Weaver and the Tailor" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H199, p. 39, "The Tailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Log407 (Full)
Roud #13355
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rocks of Bawn" (tune)
cf. "The River Roe" (tune)
cf. "Paddle the Road with Me" (tune)
NOTES [35 words]: Sam Henry discovered this piece with three different tunes in three different districts. It is not clear if it ever enjoyed popularity outside Ireland; Logan-APedlarsPack's text, while English, is a broadside. - RBW
File: Log407

Weaver is Handsome, The

See Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser) [Laws N6] (File: LN06)

Weaver John (The Weaver's Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Down by the river lives Weaver John, And a jolly old John is he; Maud is the name of his dear old dame...." They work at weaving as the mill goes "Whickety, whackety, click and clack." He bought her her wheel when they wed. The pets frolic as they work
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: weaving husband wife work animal
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 150-151, "Weaver John" (1 text)
Roud #4895
File: SaKo150

Weaver Loons o' Huntly, The

DESCRIPTION: "Neetle reets an' docken reets [nettle and dock roots?] Ti hale the swallin o' their queets [ankles] They are a set o' laithful breets [loathful brutes] The weyver loons o' Huntly"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: weaving
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1888, "The Weaver Loons o' Huntly" (1 fragment)
Roud #13565
NOTES [33 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment.
Greig/Duncan8 quoting Duncan's informant: "There is an old love song about the Weaver Loons o' Huntly of which I have heard a verse." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81888

Weaver of Welbrook, The

DESCRIPTION: "Yo' gentlemen a' with yor heawnds an' yor parks, Yo' may gamble an' sport till yo' dee," but the singer would rather have home and wife and a book. He describes his ordinary work. "'What a life!' says the wayver o' Welbook"
AUTHOR: Benjamin Brierley (source: Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire)
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Brierley, Chronicles of Waverlow)
KEYWORDS: home hunting husband wife work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, pp. 96-97, "The Wayver of Wellbrook" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Benjamin Brierley, "Chronicles of Waverlow" Simpkin, Marshall, 1863 (available on Google Books), p. 77, "The Weaver of Welbrook" (1 text)
Roud #V35149
File: HFSL096

Weaver's Daughter (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer is smitten by a weaver's daughter. He proposes. She demurs; her late mother taught her to wed for love not gold, and that her aged, blind father's heart would break. She vows that she and her father will not be separated until he lies in the grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.17(455))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer meets, and is smitten by, a poor weaver's daughter. He proposes, saying he will make her a rich lady. She demurs, saying her late mother taught her to wed for love, not for gold, and that her aged, blind father's heart would be broken. She vows that she and her father will not be separated until he lies in the grave
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection weaving family father mother money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 191-192, "The Weaver's Daughter" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 76)
Roud #1277
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "The Weaver's Daughter" (on Maynard1, Voice05)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(455), "The Weaver's Daughter" ("Across the fields one sweet May morn"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(2017), "The Weaver's Daughter"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Squire and the Gipsy" (theme)
NOTES [71 words]: This sounds like the first half of the story. - PJS
I agree (and might even suggest "Doctor Stafford and the Weaver's Daughter" as the sequel), though there are several possible further courses for the narrative (she changes her mind, the father dies, the father dies but the suitor has changed his mind, the suitor murders the father, etc.). But there are songs where the story ends here, such as "The Squire and the Gipsy." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: RcWeaDau

Weaver's Daughter (II), The

See Doctor Stafford and the Weaver's Daughter (File: MaWi097)

Weaver's Docther, The

See Doctor Stafford and the Weaver's Daughter (File: MaWi097)

Weaver's Life

DESCRIPTION: Description of hard life in a weaving mill. Follows the pattern of "Life's Railway to Heaven": "Weaver's life is like an engine/Coming 'round a mountain steep." Singer describes showing newcomers "breakouts" to discourage them from working in the mill.
AUTHOR: Probably Dorsey Dixon
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Dixon Brothers)
KEYWORDS: factory weaving work technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 90-91, "Weaver's Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 15-16, "(Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad)" (1 text, plus fragments of assorted parodies, of which this is the second)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 125, "Weaver's Life" (1 text)
DT, WEAVLIFE*
RECORDINGS:
Almanac Singers, "The Weaver's Song" (recorded 1941, unissued at the time; on AlmanacCD1)
Dixon Brothers, "Weaver's Life" (Montgomery Ward M-7170, 1937/Bluebird B-7802, 1938; rec. 1937)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Life's Railway to Heaven (Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad)" (tune) and references there
File: CSW090

Weaver's Song (I), The

See Weaver's Life (File: CSW090)

Weaver's Song (II), The

See Weaver John (The Weaver's Song) (File: SaKo150)

Weavers, The

See The Work of the Weavers (File: FSWB127)

Weavers' Garland, The

DESCRIPTION: Hard times. A weaver talks to his wife. He thanks her for her care. She tells him to be patient and think of Job. Their six children will all work. "God gives and takes away, Bless'd be his name"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1792 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 4(112))
KEYWORDS: poverty weaving work hardtimes dialog
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Poem #7, pp. 28-36, "The Weavers' Garland" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Maidment, Scotish Ballads and Songs (Edinburgh, 1859 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 193-201, "The Paisley Wife" (1 text)
Roud #V6289
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 4(112), "The Weaver's Garland, or, A Christian's patience" ("Sweet, dear, and virtuous wife"), J. Butler (Worcester), c.1792; also Harding B 4(113), "The Weaver's Garland, or, A Christian's Patience"; Harding B 4(111), Harding B 4(115), Harding B 4(115), "The Weaver's Garland: or a New School of Christian Patience"; Harding B 4(114), "The Contented Wife"
NOTES [98 words]: Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland: "From an inquiry into the origin of these verses, the editor is inclined to fix the date about the year 1700-1, a few years after the passing of the 'Lustring act,' when, in consequence of a change of fashion, there was a panic in the silk trade, and the weavers of Spitalfields were reduced to a state of greatest distress. During other panics in the same trade, it has been customary with the London ballad-printers to reprint the Garland, and for the weavers, accompanied by their wives and families to recite it in the streets." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: DixP007

Webfoot Land

DESCRIPTION: "I've reached the land of mud and rain, I've struggled long this land to gain." Having reached the "webfoot land," "I sometimes wish that I had not." The rain is constant. He will head back east if he can find the money; he wants to see the sun
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1999 (Nash & Scofield, The Well-Traveled Casket, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: home hardtimes humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 636-637, "Webfoot Land" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Tom Nash and Twilo Scofield, _The Well-Travelled Casket: Oregon Folklore_, Meadowlark Press, 1999, p. 40, "Webfoot Land" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #4899
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beulah Land" (tune, form) and references there
cf. "Saskatchewan" (tune, theme)
cf. "Dakota Land" (tune, theme)
File: CAFS2636

Webster of Brechin's Mare, The

DESCRIPTION: When the webster's (weaver's) old mare declares she can work no more; when the man threatens her, she faints. He skins the horse. Awakening in the night, it comes to the door; a lad kills it fears he has done murder, then discovers it is a horse
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1815 (chapbook used by Logan-APedlarsPack)
KEYWORDS: horse clothes death humorous homicide
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 402-405, "The Webster of Brechin's Mare" (1 text)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 154-156, "The Webster of Brechin's Mare" (1 text)
ST FVS154 (Partial)
Roud #13121
File: FVS154

Wedded Waters, The

DESCRIPTION: Aberdeenshire rivers Gadie and Ury "trysted aye to meet Amang the woods o' Logie. Like bride and bridegroom happy they." The singer wishes the same for himself: "I looket syne, but cou'dna see My sworn love at Logie"
AUTHOR: William Thom (1789-1848)
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Thom (first ed?), according to Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad river
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1189, "The Wedded Waters" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: William Thom, Rhymes and Recollections of a Hand-Loom Weaver (London, 1845 (2nd edition, "Digitized by Google")), pp. 142-143, "The Wedded Waters"
Roud #6810
NOTES [44 words]: Those wishing to learn more about william Thom may consult the essay "William Thom, The Weaver Poet" in Alfred M. Williams, Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, pp. 166-188. His other song in the Index is "The Mitherless Bairn." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: GrD61189

Wedding (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "Hurrah for the wedding." Give an "Hurray" each for the bride and groom and notable attendees as well. Drinking, dancing, eating and fun. Bride and groom "stole off At the dawning of day ... nobody missed them Till P.M. at one." A grand time was had.
AUTHOR: Brian Doherty (cousin of the bride)
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: wedding dancing drink food music party humorous moniker
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 10-11, "The Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12485
File: Dib010

Wedding (II), The

See Patie's Wedding (II) (File: GrD3607)

Wedding at Bally Poreen, The

See Wedding at Ballyporeen (File: HHH093)

Wedding at Ballyporeen

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks the muses' help to describe the wedding. The guests are listed. After the ceremony, the great feast is devoured. The bride is nervous; her mother tells her to be happy; she'd marry again if she could. A happy if exaggerated occasion
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(329b))
KEYWORDS: wedding humorous party mother food
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast 47, pp. 1-2, "The Wedding o' Ballaporeen" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 619, "The Wedding of Ballaporeen" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H93, pp. 72-73, "The Wedding at Ballyporeen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 140, "The Wedding of Ballyporeen" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 63-64, "The Wedding of Ballyporeen" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2528, p. 171, "The Wedding of Ballyporeen" (2 references)
Roud #3277
RECORDINGS:
Jack Swain, "The Wedding at Bally Poreen" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(329b), "Wedding of Ballyporeen," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 28(183), Harding B 11(3505), Harding B 11(3506), 2806 b.11(38), Harding B 16(302b), Harding B 11(3964), Harding B 28(183), Harding B 25(2020), "Wedding of Ballyporeen"; Harding B 11(4075), "The Wedding of Ballpoyreen [sic]"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blythesome Bridal" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Ballinamona Ora [pr Ballymona Orah] (per broadside Bodleian 2806 b.11(38) and Greig)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Ballaporeen
File: HHH093

Wedding at Kouchibouguac, The

DESCRIPTION: The bride is "the primrose of Kishimaguac." The beef was from an ox that had died of old age and the rest of the food, was no better but, like everything else, was what "is common for supper in Kishimaguac" The usual wine, the usual songs, i.e., ho hum.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: wedding music party wine food humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 46, "The Wedding at Kouchibouguac" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi046 (Partial)
Roud #9182
NOTES [54 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi: "This is ... said to have been made up by two disgruntled souls ... who had not been invited to the wedding." - BS
Given their behavior, I can see why.
If you're wondering about the two different town names, "Kouchibouguac" is the name in the atlas, "Kishimaguac" the local pronunciation. - RBW
File: MaWi046

Wedding in Renews, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's going to be a happy time, I want you all to know, There's me and Joe and Uncle Snow Invited for to go" to the Wedding in Renews. The girls have goose grease in their hair, the men have "whiskers to their shoes." They will have a happy dance
AUTHOR: Johnny Burke (1851-1930)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Burke's Popular Songs)
KEYWORDS: wedding humorous dancing
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Johnny Burke, _Burke's Popular Songs_, self-published, 1929 (a PDF is available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p.[7], "The Wedding in Renews" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (John White, Editor), _Burke's Ballads_, no printer listed, n.d. (PDF available on Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 19, "The Wedding in Renews" (1 text)
Johnny Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1926_, self-published, 1926 (PDF copy avallable on the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), [no page number], "The Wedding In Renews" (1 text)
Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #18, pp. 32-33, "The Renews Wedding" (1 text)
Roud #12519
NOTES [230 words]: Another of Johnny Burke's crazy-party songs, along the lines of "The Kelligrew's Soiree." For a brief biography of Burke, see the notes to "The Kelligrew's Soiree."
Philip Hiscock's notes to this song in Eric West, Sing Around This One: Songs of Newfoundland & Labrador Vol. 2, Vinland Music, 1997, p. 56, suggests that this began as a skit in one of Burke's "entertainments."
Nonetheless it is true that Newfoundland weddings were notable for their extravagance (insofar as its poor economy allowed); according to Kevin Major, As Near to Heaven by Sea: A History of Newfoundland & Labrador, 2001 (I use the 2002 Penguin Canada edition), "A wedding turned into revelry for the whole community, a grad reason to take the mind from whatever hardship lay ahead. Any outport wedding had at its center, not the blushing couple, but as great a store of food and drink as the parents could afford or the luck of the hunt would provide. The tables at one wedding feast in northern Newfoundland, recounted by an astonished visitor in the late 1800s, held 'twenty-seven enormous puddings, seven beavers, several hares and ptarmigan, a corresponding supply of vegetables, some rum... and cake ad infinitum.' And every man, woman, and child in the place showed up, invited or not."
Major adds that, because most of the houses were small, "The guests were usually served in shifts." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: JBPS007

Wedding o' Ballaporeen, The

See Wedding at Ballyporeen (File: HHH093)

Wedding of Ballaporeen, The

See Wedding at Ballyporeen (File: HHH093)

Wedding of Bean Rock Hollow

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on a night so windy, When it was wet and cold, There was a celebration...." "Old H.G. acted as Justice of the Peace." Captain Martin chokes and needs the help of Doctor Hinds. (Someone) finds "the greenhorn a-laying by her side"
AUTHOR: Bill Gross, according to Arnold's informant Janie Barnard Couch
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: wedding humorous injury doctor
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 24-25, "Wedding of Bean Rock Hollow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5111
File: Arno024

Wedding of Lauchie McGrath, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on listen as he tells of Lauchie's wedding, which "To tell you the truth it was liker a battle," as they eat bad food ("the look of the beef nearly gave us the fever") and various guests make disastrous attempts at song
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2010 (Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman)
KEYWORDS: wedding humorous food music
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 79, "The Wedding of Lauchie McGrath" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22785
File: GrHo079

Wedding of Lochan McGraw, The

See references under Bluey Brink (File: FaE148)

Wedding of Robin Hood and Little John, The

See Rose the Red and White Lily [Child 103] (File: C103)

Wedding of the Frog and Mouse, The

See Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)

Wedding Song (I -- Get a Little Wife)

DESCRIPTION: "Now some people think it's jolly for to lead a single live, But I believe in marriage and the comforts of a wife." "It's worth your while a-felling out to make it up again." They'll have a nice home. So get a table and chair, prepare a home, and marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Hamer-GreenGroves)
KEYWORDS: courting home wife nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 78-79, "Wedding Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1155
File: HaGr078

Wedding Song (II), The

See Come Write Me Down (The Wedding Song) (File: K126)

Wedgebury Cocking, The

See The Wednesbury Cocking (File: PBB085)

Wedhen War An Vre, An (The Tree on the Hill)

See The Rattling Bog (File: ShH98)

Wedlock (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Dear lady, since the single state You've left and chose your mate," the singer will take the opportunity to lecture her. She should make her husband bless the day they married. She should never struggle for power but be humble and clean house
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1790 (Journal of the Dolphin)
KEYWORDS: marriage nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 325-328, "Wedlock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27551
File: HGam325

Wedlock (II)

See When Adam Was Created (Wedlock) (File: SKE55)

Wednesbury Cocking, The

DESCRIPTION: Stories of cockfighting at Wednesbury. The competition is fierce, and many are the addicts of the sport and of gambling on it. The song relates many incidents, concluding when "Jack Baker he whacked his own father, and thus ended Wednesbury Cocking"
AUTHOR: John Probin (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Graves, English and Scottish Ballads)
KEYWORDS: fight bird gambling sports chickens moniker
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 85, "The Wednesbury Cocking" (1 text)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 191, "The Wednesbury Cocking" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, p. 660, "The Wednesbury Cocking" (1 excerpt, filed under "The Hathersage Cocking," which does not appear to be traditional)
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 110-113, "The Wedgebury Cocking" (1 text, 1 tune, which may be separate but is similar enough in concept to file here)
Roy Palmer, "'Birmingham Broadsides and Oral Tradition" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, p. 47, "The Wednesbury Cocking" (1 tune with partial tex)
ST PBB085 (Partial)
Roud #23391
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.19(37) view 1, "Wednesbury Cooking" (sic.), unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.17(458), "Wednesbury Cocking"; 2806 c.17(459); Douce 3(109)=Harding B 39(43)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cock-Fight" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Bloxwich Wake Bull Baiting (Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp 204-205)
NOTES [162 words]: The curious comment, "I'll pay thee as Paul paid the Ephesians," is hard to understand in context. Ephesus was one of Paul's favorite cities. The reference may be to Acts 19:23-41, where Paul's preaching in Ephesus caused certain locals to turn away from the cult of Artemis (a major source of income in the city). The result was a riot.
The Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads version of this is metrically strange; it does not appear possible to sing all the verses to the same tune. Cleaned up, perhaps?
According to Roy Palmer, "'Birmingham Broadsides and Oral Tradition" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition, Ashgate, 2014, p. 45, this was written by "John Probin, a Birmingham gun-maker, who witnessed cockfights during a trip to the Black Country to purchase gun-locks. Probin was in business from 1770 until at least 1808." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: PBB085

Wee Article, The

DESCRIPTION: "I 'm a jolly servant lass, my name is Mary Ann, I'm going to sing about a thing that calls itself a man; He wanted me his wife to be, he's only four foot four...." She reviles the short suitor, and details why she wants no part of such a man
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H833, p. 257, "The Wee Article" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2739
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Wee Daft Article
File: HHH833

Wee Baby Moon

DESCRIPTION: "There's a wee baby moon lying on her back With her little silvery toes in the air And she's all by herself in the deep blue sky But the wee baby moon doesn't care." There are other baby animals the singer hopes will play and sing along
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 343, 416, 520, "Wee Baby Moon" (notes only)
File: ACSF343W

Wee Be Three Poore Mariners

See We Be Three Poor Mariners (File: ShaSS120)

Wee Bittle East There Leeved a Man, A

DESCRIPTION: "A wee bittie east, there leeve a man, O siller an' sense no had riffie." He decides he must have a wife. West of there lived a wealthy man with three rich daughters. The wee man goes and declares his love for one. The ending is missing.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Harris Manuscript)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 39-40, "A wee bittie East there leeved a man" (1 text)
Roud #18023
NOTES [70 words]: Although not listed as incomplete, the Harris text appears a fragment: The suitor shows up at Miss Jean's door in all his finery, is "admired" by the people of the rich man's household, and allowed to come to the girl's chamber, where he declares her beauty -- and there it ends. I would assume that the man is made to do more and more embarrassing things until the servants finally reveal that they are putting him on. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HLMM150

Wee Bridalee, The

See The Wee Bridelie (File: KinBB28)

Wee Bridelie, The

DESCRIPTION: "There was a little wee bridelie, In Pitcarles toun... There was few folk bidden to it, And as few fowk did come." The smallness of the feast is described: No meat but a sheep without a tongue, etc. When the bride goes to bed, the groom refuses to follow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: wedding humorous betrayal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook XXVIII, pp. 84-85, (no title) (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 149, "The Wee Weddin" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter Buchan, Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1828 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol I, pp. 262-263, "The Wee Bridalee" (1 text)
Roud #8157
NOTES [115 words]: This strikes me as a sort of answer to songs such as "The Blythesome Bridal" and "The Ball of Kerrimuir." It's not clear whether that makes it traditional. - RBW
The three texts -- Kinloch, Buchan, and Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 -- reported about the same time, are different in form and words though they are recognizably the same song. Buchan's text is a four line verse; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 repeats the fourth line; Kinloch repeats the second and fourth. The wedding is in Auchendown, Pitcarles town or yonder town. The groom won't come to bed because the sheet is too small, or because "I wish this nicht hadna cum," or the bride "kent this day wad come." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: KinBB28

Wee Broun Tappit Hen, The

See My Bonnie Wee Hen (File: HHH094)

Wee Cooper of Fife, The

See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Wee Crap, The

DESCRIPTION: This year's crop was so bad the barley and flax was not worth harvesting ("malt will be dear the year to the brewsters o our ale," "lint it was na gude"). The singer cannot afford help and will do the thrashing and cleaning horses's straw himself.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: farming hardtimes nonballad food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 63, "The Wee Crap" (1 text)
Roud #7177
NOTES [23 words]: Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 p. xliii: "Crawfurd relates the situation it describes to an account of the dry summer of 1826...." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr163

Wee Croodin Doo, The

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Wee Croppy Tailor, The

See The Trooper and the Tailor (File: FSC139)

Wee Cup of Tay, The

DESCRIPTION: "As Jack from the market came the other day, His wife she sat drinking her wee cup of tay." Jack complains "I must work hard, not a shirt to my back" while she has finery and her tea. She attacks "what money you spend in whisky and beer." They argue.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness drink humorous husband wife accusation
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 167-169, 256, "The Wee Cup of Tay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13985
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(026), "John and his Wife on using Tea," James Lindsay (Glasgow), c. 1855; also L.C.Fol.178.A.2(054) (same publication data as the preceding, though the title is reset)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Tay" (theme)
File: IvDC167

Wee Cutty Pipe, The (The Derry Pipe)

DESCRIPTION: Sam asks Bill if he has tobacco, then gives a long justification based on the use of tobacco by Adam, Pharaoh, Jonah, Noah, Belshazzar, and Jason and the Argonauts. Bill concedes the point, and will continue to bring in tobacco in truckloads
AUTHOR: James O'Kane
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: drugs Bible
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H465, pp. 49-50, "The Wee Cutty Pipe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13363
NOTES [30 words]: The alleged Biblical references in this song are, of course, pure nonsense. Tobacco was not known in the Old World until introduced from the New; it is not mentioned in the Bible. - RBW
File: HHH465

Wee Drap o' Whisky, A

DESCRIPTION: "Come fill up a bumper and hand it round here." When weary the singer's pleasure is a kiss and "a drap more" with his lassie. He resolves disputes with "a drap mair" and never complains. After a half pint more he'll go home "till farther occasion"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 557, "A Wee Drap o' Whisky" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT, WEEDRAP*
Roud #6033
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Glass o' Guid Whisky
NOTES [59 words]: Bumper: [noun] "a cup or glass filled to the brim or till the liquor runs over esp. in drinking a toast"; [verb] "to fill to the brim (as a wineglass) and empty by drinking,""to toast with a bumper,""to drink bumpers of wine or other alcoholic beverages" (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976). - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3557

Wee Drappie O't, A

DESCRIPTION: "O, life is a journey we a' hae to gang, And care is the burden we carry alang, But though grief be our portion... We are happy a' thegither owre a wee drappie o't." The singer notes tragedies of life -- and how they are relieved by fellowship and drink
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: drink friend nonballad hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 181-183, "A Wee Drappie O't" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #144, p. 12, "A Wee Drappie o't" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 560, "A Wee Drappie o't" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 370-371, "A Wee Drappie O't" (1 text)
Roud #5610
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "And Sae Will We Yet" (tune, per Greig)
NOTES [65 words]: Several versions of this song have a line something like, "Job in his lamentation says man was made to mourn." This may be a reference to Job 14:22, the only time the King James Bible quotes Job as using the verb "to mourn" in anything like this sense. The overall feeling, however, is more like 14:1 or even the speech of Eliphaz in 5:7. I suspect this is allusion rather than citation. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: FVS181

Wee Duck, The (The Duck from Drummuck)

DESCRIPTION: "I once had a duck when I lived in Drummuck, I was quite in luck when I lived in that land." The duck, said to be related to (Nell) Flaherty's drake, is said to be very productive -- but now has been stolen. The singer will keep better guard hereafter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: animal bird curse thief theft
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H228a, pp. 19-20, "The Duck from Drummuck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5075
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (plot, subject?)
NOTES [78 words]: If "Nell Flaherty's Drake" is about Robert Emmet, then this song presumably is about some later freedom fighter. The song mentions "the year forty-nine," so presumably 1849 (i.e. the aftermath of the 1848 revolt) -- but the leaders of that revolt, such as John Mitchel (for whom see "John Mitchel"), William Smith O'Brien (for whom see "The Shan Van Voght (1848") and Thomas Meagher (for whom see "The Escape of Meagher") , were transported rather than imprisoned. - RBW
File: HHH228a

Wee Falorie Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am the wee falorie man A rattling roving Irishman. I can do all that ever you can." Sister Mary Ann "washes her face in the frying pan And she goes to hunt for a man." "I am a good old working man Each day I carry a wee tin can" with a bun and ham.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (_Rann Magazine_ Summer 1952, according Roud); 1870s (recorded by Anne Gilchrist, according Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: work food nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North)) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 13, "The Wee Falorie Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 127-128, "The Wee Polony Man" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 70, "I'm a wee Filory Man" (1 short text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 65, "(I'm the wee Filoree Man)" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 116, "Wee Melodie Man" (4 texts, 1 tune)
DT, WEEFALRY*
Roud #5106 and 13175
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sam, Sam, Dirty Old Man" (form)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John Healyman
NOTES [104 words]: Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "The Wee Falorie Man" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959))
Sean O Boyle, notes to David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland": "The word 'falorie' is not of Gaelic origin, but probably derives from the English word 'forlorn,' which in rural Ulster is pronounced 'fa-loorn' and is associated not only with lonliness, but with mystery. The song is used in a singing game by the children of Belfast."
Roud has the first Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame text as #13175. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hamm013

Wee Herd's Whistle, The

DESCRIPTION: ""Oh, he cut a happy sucker from the muckle rodden tree, He trimmed it and he wet it and he thumped it on his knee," and the herdsman plays the whistle. He forgets the "kylie"; he fails in school; at last the teacher burns the lad's whistle
AUTHOR: Charles Murray (source: Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Chambers' Journal, according to Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads); collected from Bob Beers 1963
KEYWORDS: music cattle
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 43-44, "The Wee Herd's Whistle" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a copy of the original text in the notes on pp. 49-50)
Roud #11488
File: ByGo043

Wee House in the Wood

DESCRIPTION: "There it stood, the Wee-House-in-the-Wood," which inspires visions of folklore: English music, King Arthur, much that is gone, all revealed by a "phantom minstrel."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: home music nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 266-267, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 265-266)
NOTES [47 words]: There are many pieces in Thomas that I don't really trust -- but there is none I more suspect of being Thomas's own work than this (and "The Singin' Gatherin'," which bears the same traits). It's anonymous, it's about Thomas's own home base, and it rather sounds like her style. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa266

Wee Johnnie, the Hynd o' Rigghead

DESCRIPTION: Johnnie dresses up to court Jean, for he needs a wife to manage his life, and her dowrie. "I'm sure that she canna refuse me." She rejects his offer, which she thinks a joke, and he is chased away by her father and spaniels.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: courting dowry rejection farming humorous father dog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 767, "Wee Johnnie, the Hynd o' Rigghead" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 400-401, "Wee Johnnie" (1 text)
Roud #6126
File: GrD4767

Wee Little Pig

See One Day I Met a Wee Little Pig (Honk-Hiss-Tweet-GGGGGGGGGG) (File: DPio396)

Wee Little Piute

DESCRIPTION: "Wee little piute, hi yi ya, Jolting cayuse. mountain trail, Strapped to the back of your ma ma ma, Gazing away o'er the pony's tail." Images of what the child sees as it travels the trail
AUTHOR: Words: Albert R. Lyman / Music: Casse Lyman Monson
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: baby family Indians(Am.) travel nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 87, "Wee Little Piute" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11203
File: FCW087

Wee Melodie Man, The

See The Wee Falorie Man (File: Hamm013)

Wee Mess Grove

See Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard [Child 81] (File: C081)

Wee Midgie Meer, The

DESCRIPTION: There is a horse race at Easterkirk "between twa [English] lords and weel mounted" and [Scotsman] Willie on his mare. Willie wins in the mud which "'filed [dirtied] the gentles' face." "Lord Lovat he gaed mad at that Swore he wad ride nae more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: racing England Scotland humorous horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #170, p. 1, "The Wee Midgie Meer" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 325, "The Wee Midgie Meer" (1 text)
Roud #5870
File: GrD2325

Wee One, The

See Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own) (File: R393)

Wee Pickle Tow, The

DESCRIPTION: John Grumely brings tow for his wife to spin. A spark from her pipe lights it. She refuses to spin (Eve wore leaves rather than spin), or churn butter. And he can sleep with his back to her. Then, he says, they'll sleep in separate beds.
AUTHOR: Alexander Ross (1699-1784) (source: Maurice Lindsay, _The Burns Encyclopedia_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage dialog husband wife clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 476, "The Wife and Her Wee Pickle Tow" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 80-81, "The Wee Pickle Tow" (1 text)
Roud #5506
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She's Aye Tease, Teasin'" (theme: the wife who won't spin, but sets the flax on fire)
SAME TUNE:
Mathew Macree ("Sin I furst work'd a sampleth at Biddy Forsyth's") (The Ulverston New Poetical Miscellany, p. 212)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Spinnin O'ot
The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow
NOTES [114 words]: And, he pointed out, that he earns the money [Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry text].
From the liner notes to Margaret MacArthur, "An Almanac of New England Farm Songs," Green Linnet SIF 1039 LP (1982)} "Norman Kennedy, weaver and singer, tells me that the fine long linen fibers are separated from the flax by hackling, leaving the short coarse fibers of tow, guaranteed to give the spinner pricked fingers and short temper." - BS
I can't help but note that John Grunm[e]ly is the husband in some versions of "Father Grumble" [Laws Q1]. This almost sounds like the "prequel" to that. - RBW
Greig/Duncan3: "From his mother sixty years ago. Noted 29th April, 1907." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: HayU080

Wee Polony Man, The

See The Wee Falorie Man (File: Hamm013)

Wee Tailor from Tyrone, The

DESCRIPTION: Mollie agrees to marry a tailor. She becomes a lady's waiting maid. The tailor accepts the lady's[?] offer of marriage, money, and gentleman's life. The marriage, in the dark, is a sham. When the light is on he sees "the lady" is Mollie. She rejects him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A tailor courts Mollie and she agrees to marry him. She becomes a lady's waiting maid. The tailor receives a letter, supposedly from the lady, offering her own hand and ten thousand pounds. He'd rather be a gentleman than an apprentice so he agrees. She insists the marriage be held in the dark. The marriage is a sham. When the light is on he sees "the lady" is Mollie. She rejects him: "Ah but you thought you were a gentleman, and now you see you're none"
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity wedding rejection trick humorous money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 34, pp. 87-89,120,169, "The Wee Tailor from Tyrone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2488
NOTES [71 words]: An interesting twist on the Eros and Psyche legend, isn't it?
The same trick also occurs in the Bible, in Genesis 29, where Jacob thinks he is marrying Rachel, but her father instead slips in Rachel's older sister Leah. The difference being that the customs of the time allowed polygamy, so Jacob eventually had both of them. For full notes on the idea of the wrong woman in a bed, see the notes to "The Butcher's Daughter." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: MoMa034

Wee Toon Clerk, The

See The Keach i the Creel [Child 281] (File: C281)

Wee Totum, The

See Toddlin' But and Toddlin' Ben (The Wee Little Totum) (File: Ord137)

Wee Toun Clerk, The

See The Keach i the Creel [Child 281] (File: C281)

Wee Wa, Petty Saw

DESCRIPTION: "Wee wa, petty saw, Jak Moore Jenkins, Can you shoe a horse of mine? Yes Sir, that I can, that I can, Good as any other man. Bring him in the stall, One nail drives all, Wee wa, petty saw, Jack Moore Jenkins"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: horse work
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 108, "Wee Wa, Petty Saw" (1 text)
NOTES [11 words]: Perhaps derived from one of the "See-Saw, Marjorie Daw" rhymes? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ZiZa108C

Wee Weaver, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a wee weaver confined to my loom." Willy loves Mary. They roam by Lough Erne and Willy proposes. "So this couple got married and they'll roam no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (IRTunneyFamily01)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage weaving Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 81, "The Wee Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3378
RECORDINGS:
Brigid Tunney, "The Wee Weaver" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
Paddy Tunney, "The Wee Weaver" (on Voice20)
NOTES [9 words]: Lough Erne is in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. - BS.
File: RcWeeWea

Wee Weddin', The

See The Wee Bridelie (File: KinBB28)

Wee Wee German Lairdie, The

DESCRIPTION: "Wha the de'il hae we gotten for a King but a wee, wee German lairdie?" Geordie had to be fetched from his "yairdie," and now fills the government with foreigners. He is warned against visiting the Highlands, and his disreputable traits cataloged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1819 (Hogg, according to Whitelaw)
KEYWORDS: Jacobite royalty humorous gardening
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1714-1727 - Reign of George I (a cousin of Charles II and James II, and far down in the line of succession -- but the closest relative of the Stuarts to be safely Protestant)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 520, "The Wee German Lairdie" (1 text)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 42-43, "The wee, wee German Lairdie" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WEEGERM
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth Norman MacDonald, "The Gesto Collection of Highland Music," 1895 (reprinted 1997 by Llanerch Publishers), p. 34, "The Wee Wee German Lairdie" (1 tune)
Roud #2573
File: DTweeger

Wee Wee Man, The [Child 38]

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a "wee wee man," who, despite his size, proves amazingly strong. He takes the singer on a tour to his home, and shows him the finest ladies he has ever seen -- but then disappears.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: magic home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Child 38, "The Wee Wee Man" (7 texts)
Bronson 38, "The Wee Wee Man" (1 version)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 260-261, "The Wee Wee Man" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 72, "The Wee Wee Man" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 101, "A Fairie Sang" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 188-189, "The Wee Wee Man" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 11, "The Wee, Wee Man" (1 text)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II, pp. 587-588, "The Wee Wee Man" (2 texts, one of them the Brown version)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 135-136, "The Wee Wee Man" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 11, "The Wee Wee Man" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 11, "The Wee Wee Man" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 293-294+362, "The Wee Wee Man" (1 text)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 198, "(The Wee, Wee Man)" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, p. 462, "The Wee Wee Man" (1 text)
DT 38, WEEWEEMN
ADDITIONAL: Emily Lyle, _Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition_, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, pp. 40-41, "A New Scotch Song" (1 text plus a print of part of the broadside containing it; also assorted excerpts)
Karin Boklund-Lagopolou, _I have a yong suster: Popular song and Middle English lyric_, Four Courts Press, 2002, pp. 150-151, "(The Wee Wee Man)" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #315, "The Wee Wee Man" (1 text)
RELATED: Thomas of Ercildoune's Prophest/As I yode on a Monday between Wyltinden and Walle (Child's Appendix)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 35-44, "A Ballad on the Scottish Wars" (1 text)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #379
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #679
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Cotton Julius A.V, folio 180
COMPARE: Thomas of Ercildoun'e Prophecy (IMEV #365, DIMEV #620), not cited by Child
Roud #2865
NOTES [258 words]: Carterhaugh, also mentioned as the site of magic in "Tam Lin," "is a plain at the confluence of the Ettrick and Yarrow in Selkirkshire" (Scott).
Child prints as an appendix to this ballad the poem "Als Y Yod on ay Mounday," found in a single copy in British Museum MS. Cotton Julius A.v, dated firmly to the fourteenth century (another part of the document has a reference to the year 1307). The same text is found in Boklund-Lagopolou, pp. 148-150. The relationship between the two is curious in a number of ways. There is no doubt that the two items go back to the same folkloric roots -- but "Wee Wee Man" seems to be purely Scottish, and "Als Y Yod" is in a very difficult Northumbrian dialect.
Fowler, p. 279 n. 15, describes the Cotton manuscript, which is a curious mix of history (Robert of Brunne's chronicle) and magic (two sets of prophecies of Merlin plus "Als Y Yod," which is followed by additional prophecies), then a French tale, "Longespée taken by the Saracens."
E. B. Lyle, in "The Wee Wee Man and Als Y Yod on y Mounday" (reprinted in LyleBallad), examines the nature of the parallels between the two, but does not reach any clear conclusions. Her suggestion is that both derive from some lost proto-romance does not strike me as compelling, though it is certainly possible.
Lyle revisited the topic in a section in LyleFairies, pp. 36-43. This attempts to classify the known versions of "The Wee Wee Man" and group them in families. It also includes, on p. 38, a useful table of parallels between the ballad and "Als Y Yod." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: C038

Wee Wifeikie, The

See The Wee Wifikie (File: HHH714)

Wee Wifie (I), The

See Smiggy Maglooral (File: OCon143)

Wee Wifie (II), The

See Cowe, Cowe (File: GrD81656)

Wee Wifikie, The

DESCRIPTION: The Wee Wifikie takes too much drink, and lies down to rest. A peddler steals her purse and cuts her hair. She awakens and finds herself changed. She thinks she is not herself. She tells her husband, who asks the minister, who reassures him all is well
AUTHOR: Alexander Watson ? Rev. Alexader Geddes ? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: husband wife humorous hair drink dog theft thief disguise
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H714, pp. 513-514, "The Wee Wifukie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 49-51, "The Wee Wifiekee" (1 text)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 23-26, "The Wee Wifukie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan2 287, "The Wee Wifikie" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 76-77, "The Wee Wifukie" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 535, "There was a little woman" (2 texts, the first of which is "The Old Woman Who Went to Market (The Old Woman and the Pedlar)" but the second of which is this)
ST HHH714 (Full)
Roud #5857
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whiskey Is My Name (Donald Blue)"
cf. "The Old Woman Who Went to Market (The Old Woman and the Pedlar)" (theme, lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Wee Wifeikie
There Was a Wee Bit Wiffikie
NOTES [178 words]: Grieg/Duncan mentions a pamphlet (1921) by William Walker, presenting evidence that this song was written by Alexander Watson (c. 1744-1831) in the years around 1775. Ford, however, credits it to one Dr. Alexander Geddes (1737-1802), and is followed in this by the Opies.
J. M. Bulloch, on p. 144 of W. A. Craigie, John Buchan, Peter Giles, and J. M. Bulloch, The Scottish Tongue: A Series of Lectures on the Vernacular Language of Lowland Scotland, 1922 (?) (I use the 1970 McGrath reprint), notes that the Watson manuscript in the British Museum uses "frae" for "from," even though this was not Watson's (or Geddes's) dialect. Make of that what you will.
The song, if composed, seems to have come somewhat unraveled in tradition; the audience is too often left asking "Why?" (Why, e.g., did the peddler clip the Wifikie's hair? Steal her purse, yes, but why risk being caught cutting her hair?)
The Opies compare this and "The Old Woman Who Went to Market (The Old Woman and the Pedlar)" to the Grimm tale of "Kluge Else" and to a tale in Asbjornsen and Moe. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HHH714

Wee Wifukie, The

See The Wee Wifikie (File: HHH714)

Wee Willie Winkie Runs Through the Town

DESCRIPTION: "Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town, Upstairs and downstairs in his night gown, Rapping at the window, crying through the lock, Are the children all in bed, for now it's eight o'clock?"
AUTHOR: William Miller (source: _Songs for the Nursery_); "Air by Rev. W. B." (source: _Whistle-Binkie_)
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (_Whistle-Binkie_, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 530, "Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #813, p. 303, "(Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 132, "(Wee Wilie Winkie)" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 228, "Wee Willie Winkie" (2 texts)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 92, "Wee Willie Winkie" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 42, "Wee Willie Winkie" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: _Songs for the Nursery_ (Glasgow, 1846), p. 1, "Willie Winkie"
_Whistle-Binkie_, (Glasgow, 1878), Vol I, pp. 320-321, "Willie Winkie"; also _Whistle-Binkie_, (Glasgow, 1878), Vol II, pp. 301-302, "Willie Winkie"
Roud #13711
NOTES [225 words]: Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes: "'Willie Winkie, as may be seen in Jacobite songs, was a nickname for William III (d.1702), and according to Robert L. Ripley the rhyme refers to that king." - BS
The Baring-Goulds also note that "Wee Willie Winkie was the nickname given to William Prince of Orange" (who became William III in 1689). It looks as if they got this from the inimitable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 293. But the Baring-Goulds doubt the poem's political significance. And, if they are correct in attributing the poem to William Miller, they are almost surely right in questioning it. Who would be writing concealed verse about William III in the reign of Victoria?
It is noteworthy that Katherine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblines, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, 1976 (I use the 1977 Pantheon paperback), p. p. 429-430, doesn't even mention this hypothesis. And yet, she notes that the original was in Braid Scots ("Wee Willie Winkie runs through the toun, Up stairs and down stairs in his nicht-goun, Tirling at the window, crying at the lock, Are the weans in their bed, for it's now ten o'clock?"). The Scots might have held resentment against William III, who overthrew the Stewarts, longer than the English did. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: OO2530

Wee Woman in Our Town, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Wee Wyfie, The

See There Was an Old Woman Tossed up in a Basket (File: OO2544)

Weedy, Weedy, Weedy, Wop

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Weedy, weedy, weedy, wop, Sour sop ripe and drop. Drop on (X's) head, (X) say, 'What day?' Weedy, weedy, weedy, wop."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Abrahams collection)
KEYWORDS: jumprope nonsense
FOUND IN: West Indies(Nevis)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes,#592, "Weedy, weedy, weedy, wop" (1 text)
File: AJRR592

Week After the Fair (I), The (Jock and Meg)

DESCRIPTION: Meg has no pity: John is hung over from drinking for a week at the fair with "dandy Katie" while she was left at home. John says Meg drinks also and carried on at home that week; he got her out of jail. He proposes they don't drink until New Year.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1843 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(295))
KEYWORDS: infidelity drink dialog husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #7, p. 2, "Jock and Meg" (1 text fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 585, "Jock and Meg" (10 texts, 4 tunes)
Roud #5162
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(295), "Week After the Fair" ("O John! what's this ye've done John?"), W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle), 1832-1842; also 2806 c.14(34), Johnson Ballads 1678, 2806 c.14(183), Harding B 17(330a), "[The] Week After the Fair"
Murray, Mu23-y1:022, "The Week After The Fair," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(142b), "The Week After the Fair," unknown, c.1845; also L.C.Fol.178.A.2(111), "The Week After the Fair"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John and Meg
NOTES [152 words]: Commentary to broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(142b): "This ballad is structured as an exchange of recriminations between a husband and wife while both are suffering from hangovers earned at their local agricultural fair. The local fair is a significant symbol of community in Scottish literature, and fairs are often portrayed as bawdy, drunken, knockabout occasions where prevailing notions of morality and respectability are forgotten."
Commentary to broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(111): "This is the story of a couple who spent all their money and pawned most of their goods so that they could enjoy the Paisley fair to its full extent. Now the event is over, they are left quarrel about their decisions and behaviour but promise to start economising, but only until New Year! Both partners seem to have had romantic affairs during this period also, but they remain unconcerned about this as a couple." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3585

Week After the Fair (II), The

DESCRIPTION: The Fair has brought John and Meg to beggary's door. He reviews her escapades of drink and running around with other men. She says he ran around and pawned everything they owned. They agree to "tak' a drap and speak nae mair o' our faults at the Fair"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (broadside, Murray Mu23-y1:047)
KEYWORDS: poverty infidelity drink dialog husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
Roud #5162
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:047, "The Week After The Fair" or "The Discontented Pair," James Lindsay Junr (Glasgow), 19C
NOTES [39 words]: Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(221), "The Week After the Fair" or "The Discontented Pair" ("I'm grieved to think my wife Meg, this day we are so poor"), unknown, no date is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
File: BdWAtF2

Week Before Easter, The

See The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass) (File: K152)

Week's Matrimony, A (A Week's Work)

DESCRIPTION: Monday the singer marries; Tuesday his wife sees a girl frying his "sausage"; Wednesday he finds a man in bed with her; Thursday they fight; Friday they part and she hangs herself in sorrow; Saturday he buries her and finds another
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 289)
KEYWORDS: adultery marriage fight suicide drink bawdy wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 322-323, "A Week's Work" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 120, "Days of the Week" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 665, "One Sunday Morn" (1 text)
Roud #1692
RECORDINGS:
Leonard Hulan, "A Week's Work" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Stan McGrath, "The Days Of The Week" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 289, "A Week's Matrimony"("On Sunday I went out on a spree"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.20(135), Harding B 20(185), Harding B 11(4082), Harding B 11(4083), Harding B 11(4084), 2806 c.16(23)[some words illegible], Firth c.20(136)[some words illegible], Harding B 11(4081), 2806 b.9(271), Firth c.20(134), "[A] Week's Matrimony[!]"
Murray, Mu23-y1:088, "The Week's Matrimony," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Holly Twig" [Laws Q6] (theme)
cf. "In Duckworth Street There Lived a Dame" (imagery)
cf. "Charming Sally Ann" (imagery)
SAME TUNE:
The Devil in Search of a Wife (per broadsides Bodleian Johnson Ballads 289, Bodleian Harding B 11(4084), Bodleian Harding B 11(4081))
NOTES [29 words]: Peacock makes A Week's Work the same ballad as The Holly Twig although the only similarity is that they both account for the days of the week and both start with a marriage. - BS
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Pea322

Week's Work Well Done, A

See The Holly Twig [Laws Q6]; also The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: LQ06)

Week's Work, A

See A Week's Matrimony (A Week's Work) (File: Pea322)

Weel Aul' Man, The

DESCRIPTION: "On yonder hill and yonder howe" lives a wealthy farmer who wants "a bit wiffie o' his ain." He courts Jean. Her mother speaks out in his favor. Jean says courting her mother will not win her heart. Then he kisses Jean which does win Jean's heart.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting farming mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 814, "The Weel Aul' Man" (1 text)
Roud #6211
File: GrD4814

Weel Like I a Drap o' Drink

DESCRIPTION: The singer likes "a drap o' drink" and "a cup o' tea" but likes "the laddies double weel And they hae proved the ruin o' me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1411, "Weel Like I a Drap o' Drink" (1 fragment)
Roud #7262
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan7 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71411

Weel-Faured Maid, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets "a weel-faur'd maid ... comin' thro' the broom." She refuses to tell her name and claims she is too young to have a man. He gets ready to leave but she calls him back. They kiss, marry, and settle happily in Glasgow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting wedding beauty youth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 958, "The Weel-Faured Maid" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #6765
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Squire's Wooing
Comin' Thro' the Broom
NOTES [34 words]: This is like "Braes of Strathblane," "The Rejected Lover" and "The Slighted Suitor" (boy meets girl, girl rejects boy, boy prepares to leave, girl changes her mind, boy does what?) with a happy ending. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5958

Weenie Man

DESCRIPTION: "I know a weenie man, He runs a weenie stand, He sells most anything from hot dogs on down, Some day I'll share his life, I'll be his weenie wife, Hot dog! I love that weenie man." Other cooks, such as "hot cross Katy," may also have suitors
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2003 (mudcat.org thread "Lyr Req: song about hot dogs")
KEYWORDS: cook courting love campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 128, 236, 280, "I know a wienie man"/"Wienie Man" (notes only)
File: ACSF128W

Weep-Willow Tree, The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Weeping and Wailing

DESCRIPTION: On judgment day there will be weeping and wailing among the damned: the rich man with his money, drunkard with his drink, and the whisky seller will end in Hell, praying too late to be saved.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (MJHurt04)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Weeping and Waiting" [sic] (on MJHurt04)
NOTES [25 words]: Although the imagery here has many New Testament parallels, it probably owes the most to the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, Matthew 25:31-46. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RcWeeAWa

Weeping and Waiting

See Weeping and Wailing (File: RcWeeAWa)

Weeping Mary

DESCRIPTION: "Are there anybody here like Mary a-weeping? Call to my Jesus and he'll draw nigh. Glory (x5) be to my God on high." "Are there anybody here like Peter a-sinking?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Social Harp)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 128, "Weeping Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6680
RECORDINGS:
Roswell Sacred Harp Quartet, "Weeping Mary" (Bluebird B-8582, 1940)
NOTES [109 words]: The reference to "Peter sinking" goes back to Matt. 14:28f. Jesus had been walking on the water, and Peter (in this account; not in the source in Mark) said, "Lord, if it's you, call me to come to you on the water." Jesus did, and Peter walked on the water for a few moments, but then started to doubt -- and sink. Jesus, of course, rescued him.
Lomax claims this is in the Sacred Harp. There *is* a song with the title "Weeping Mary" in the Sacred Harp, but it isn't the same thing. According to Jackson, the song is found in the Social Harp, though.
The title "Weeping Mary" has a complex origin; see the notes to "I Want to Die Like Weeping Mary." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: LoF128

Weeping Pilgrim

DESCRIPTION: "You may tell them, (father/mother/brothers/etc.), when you see them, I'm a poor mourning pilgrim, I'm bound for Canaan's land. I weep and I mourn, and I move slowly on. I'm a poor mourning pilgrim, I'm bound for Canaan's land."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1994 (Abernethy)
KEYWORDS: religious travel nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 115, "Weeping Pilgrim" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of a shape note version)
File: Aber115

Weeping Sad and Lonely

See When This Cruel War is Over (Weeping Sad and Lonely) (File: SCW42)

Weeping Willer, The

DESCRIPTION: The miller's daughter weeps because William joined the army. She writes a suicide note, plans to hang herself from the willow hanging over the water, and changes her mind. Rather than risk falling in such cold water she'll wait till the weather is hotter
AUTHOR: Harry Clifton (source: Greig/Duncan6)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1884 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(184))
KEYWORDS: grief love separation suicide humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1247, "The Miller's Daughter" (1 text)
Roud #6785
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(184), "The Weeping Willer" ("Down by the country side, lives old Gray the miller"), H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Harding B 11(4086), "The Weeping Willer"
NOTES [80 words]: Greig/Duncan6 is incomplete; broadside Bodleian Firth b.25(184) is the basis for the description.
The suicide note illustrates the tone of the song: "Take this to William Phipps, straight to him be tellin' His Susan died through suicide. P.S. - Please excuse bad spellin'." In the end she decides that, if she can't find a more faithful lover, "I'm half inclin'd to marry a man for money." - BS
For background on author Harry Clifton, see the notes to "The Good Ship Kangaroo." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: GrD61247

Weeping Willow (I), The

See Jealous Lover, The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C] (File: LF01)

Weeping Willow (II), The

See Bury Me Beneath the Willow (File: R747)

Weeping Willow Tree

See Bury Me Beneath the Willow (File: R747)

Weeping Willow Tree, The

See The Golden Vanity [Child 286] (File: C286)

Weevily Wheat

DESCRIPTION: "Charlie, he's a nice young man, Charlie he's a dandy." Stories about Charlie's attempts at courting and his visits to town. The mention of "Weevily wheat" and lines such as "Over the river to feed my sheep" are common
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad playparty floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (42 citations):
Randolph 520, "Weevily Wheat" (7 texts, some fragmentary or excerpted, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 397-399, "Weevily Wheat" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 520A)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 67, "Weevily Wheat" (1 text plus a possibly-rewritten fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 67, "Weevily Wheat" (2 tunes plus text excerpts); also p. 521, "Weevily Wheat" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 164, "Over the River to Charlie" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 140, "Weevily Wheat" (1 short text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, p. 28, "Weevily Wheat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 41, "Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 151-152, "Weevily Wheat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 103-106, "Weevily Wheat" (1 text, 1 tune, plus some loose verses)
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 200-201, 202-203, "Weeily Wheat" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 262-263, "Over the Water to Charlie" (1 short text, 1 tune, primarily a version of this although it incorporates a single verse of "Over the Water to Charlie")
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 128, "Charlie" (1 fragment)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 200-200, "Weevily Wheat" (2 texts)
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 102-106=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 288-290, "Weevily Wheat" (1 text plus many additional stanzas, 1 tune)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 152-157, "Weevily Wheat"; pp. 158-164, "Over the River to Charlie's" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 58, "(Shanty-Boy Dance Jingles: We won't have any weev'ly wheat)" (1 short text)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 58-60, "Weevily Wheat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 217-218, "Weevily Wheat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 267, "Charlie's Sweet" (2 texts plus 2 fragments, 4 tunes)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 86, "Weevily Wheat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 161, "Weevily Wheat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 286, (no title) (3 fragments)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 290-293, "Weevily Wheat" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 163, "Twistification" (1 text, 1 tune, with a counting chorus and modified verses)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 44, "Who'll be King but Charlie?" (1 text, 1 tune, with "Weevily Wheat" verses but obviously also some kinship to "Wha'll Be King but Charlie")
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 125, "Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 60-61, "[Charlie]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 72, "Over the River Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 428-429, "Weevily Wheat" (1 text)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, p. 69, "Prince Charley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas/Leeder-SinginGatherin, p. 56, "Prince Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 96, "Over the water and over the lea" (3 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #144, p. 115, "(Over the Water and over the lea)"
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 161, "Charley, He's a Good Ol' Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 813-814, "Weevily Wheat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 36, "Weevily Wheat" (1 text)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 71, "Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #68, "Charlie Likes Whiskey" (1 text, probably derived from this)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Charles Bond, "Unpublished Folklore in the Brown Collection," Vol. XX, No. 1 (Feb 1972), pp. 15-16, "Miss Lucy, or Twistification" (1 text, with chorus "Roll on the floor (x3), Till life's roll is o'er" and verses "I went down to see Miss Lucy, Oh, I'd never been there before" and "As I was a-goin' down the road, I met a rabbit and I met a toad"; although the game "Twistification" is sometimes linked with "Weevily Wheat," the verses look more like "The Catfish (Banjo Sam)" and perhaps "Roll on the Ground (Big Ball's in Town)" or "Karo Song")
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 520, "Weevily Wheat" (notes only)
DT, WEEVWHT*
Roud #729
RECORDINGS:
Granville Bowlin, "Charlie's Neat" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Kelly Harrell, "Charley, He's a Good Old Man" (Victor 21069, 1927; on KHarrell02, CrowTold02)
Eunice Yeatts MacAlexander, "Over the River to Charlie" (on FarMtns1)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Charley, He's a Good Old Man" (on NLCR10)
Jean Ritchie, "Over the River Charlie" (on RitchieWatsonCD1)
Ritchie Family, "Charlie" (on Ritchie03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll the Tater (Rolly Rolly)" (floating lyrics, meter)
cf. "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Rosey Apple Lemon and Pear" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [349 words]: Certain authorities (e.g. Andrew Lang, according to the Opies) have conjectured that the "Charlie" of this song is Bonnie Prince Charlie. (Alan Lomax goes so far as to derive it from the Scots "Charlie Over the Water.") It would be hard to prove either way.
The unique Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 304, is so certain that it's about Bonnie Prince Charlie that she combines words from the two songs. But it is quite evident that they scan differently.
Those seeking to find every version of this song should also check "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss," which I think might be another version of this song. But others disagree.... - RBW
Well, I'd say they're at least siblings; at least one version of "Weevily Wheat" has the same tune as "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss." - PJS
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs matches the Weevily Wheat pattern but includes the lines "cross the water to Charlie" and -- in the chorus -- "There's none like royal Charlie." In this sense at least it's close to Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 44. - BS
Consider the song attributed to Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne (1766-1845) at Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #335, pp. 564-565, "Wha'll Be King But Charlie?" (Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne). The Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 44 chorus shares lines in its chorus ("Come round the heather, ... You're welcome late and early, Around him fling [Nairne: "cling"] your royal king, For who'll be king but Charlie?" - BS
The latter is usually called "Wha'll Be King But Charlie" (the title used in the Index) or "The News frae Moidart," and it is certainly about Bonnie Prince Charlie. And it does mix with some "Weevily Wheat" versions. (Almost everything does!) But it is definitely an independent song, and the tune I've heard (admittedly from Silly Wizard, hardly an authoritative source) is distinct. Roud lumps a whole raft of "Charlie" songs, but that's more desperation than anything else. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R520

Weggis Song

DESCRIPTION: "From Lucerne to Weggis on Hol di ri dia Hol di ria Shoes and stockings we have none, Hol di ri dia Hol dia Hol-di-re-dia Hol-di-re-dia, Hol-di-ria Hol-di-re-dia, Hol-di-re-dia Hol-dia. "Weggis starts the highest hill... Boys & girls climb with a will..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Carl E. Zander and Wes H. Klusman, Camp Songs)
KEYWORDS: travel clothes campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 147, "Weggis Song" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 48, "Weggis Song" (1 text, tune referenced)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 25, "Weggis Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, pp. 18-19, "Hol-di-ri-dia" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Jasmine Stack, "Vo luzern auf wäggis zue" (Piotr-Archive #495, recorded 02/23/2023; Piotr-Archive #502, recorded 02/27/2023; both recordings in Swiss German, with the second correcting some words of the first)
NOTES [22 words]: The tune of this is listed in Zander & Klusman as "Swiss Yodeling Song." Which doesn't strike me as narrowing things down much! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ACSF147W

Weil Payt't Dochter, The

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17]; also The Banks of Sweet Primroses (File: LO17)

Weilawei þat ich ne span

See (notes under) So Long I Have Lady (File: MSSLIHL)

Welcome (to Lyda Messer Caudill)

DESCRIPTION: "The banners of our county bright Are waving in the breeze; Now we are living in the light...." "In accents sweet proclaim the news... We have a worthy leader, Our superintendant dear." The singer hopes the school superintendent will lead well
AUTHOR: Edgar Hamm
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 254-255, "Welcome" (1 text) (OakEd, p. 254)
NOTES [41 words]: I can't say with certainty that this is the most trivial thing I've ever seen memorialized in song -- but, other than Edgar Hamm's other school song, "Inspiration (The Rowan County Teachers)," I haven't a better candidate off the top of my head. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa254

Welcome as the Flowers in May

See As Welcome as the Flowers in May (File: R856)

Welcome Home (I)

DESCRIPTION: Call-and-response gospel song. "Welcome home, welcome home (x2), I wanna hear Jesus saying, welcome home. You been workin... Come on home, oh, child, sit down and rest a little while." "I been travelin' over hills." "Don't cry no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 156, "Welcome Home" (1 text)
Roud #16271
File: Rose156

Welcome Home (II)

See Liverpool Dock (File: R095)

Welcome My Bonnie Lad

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "Welcome, my bonny lad, come when ye will" Her mother wants her to marry the rich laird and says "love will fly quickly when want's at the door." "What are his riches and broad lands to me?" If she marries any, she'll marry Donald.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting love money nonballad mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 997, "Welcome My Bonnie Lad" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6733
File: GrD5997

Welcome Sailor, The

See A Seaman and His Love (The Welcome Sailor) [Laws N29] (File: LN29)

Welcome Table (Streets of Glory, God's Going to Set This World on Fire)

DESCRIPTION: "God's going to set this world on fire... One o' these days." "I'm going to walk and talk with Jesus... "I'm going to climb up Jacob's ladder." "All you sinners gonna turn up missing." "God don't want no coward soldiers... Some of these days."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (recording, Florida Normal Quartet)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses rejection death resurrection gods Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 517, "Some of These Days" (2 texts); 536, "Jacob's Ladder" (3 texts, of which the third is apparently this)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 517, "Some of These Days" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 26, "River Jordan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 172, "One of These Days" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 280, "Welcome Table" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 173, "The Welcome Table" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 140-141, "Welcome Table" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 478-479, "God's Goin' to Set This World on Fire" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 298-299, "Welcome Table" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 78-79, "God, H's Gwine to Set Dis Word on Fire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 354, "Streets of Glory" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 64, "Some o' These Days" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, STGLORY
Roud #11812
RECORDINGS:
Emmett Brand, "I'm Going to Cross the Rivers of Jordan, Some of These Days" (on MuSouth06)
Carter Family, "River of Jordan" (Victor 21434, 1928; Montgomery Ward M-4430, 1934; on Babylon)
Jaybird Coleman, "I'm Gonna Cross the River of Jordan - Some o' These Days" (Silvertone 5172, 1927; on Babylon)
Florida Normal Quartet, "The Welcome Table" (OKeh 40079, 1924; rec. 1922)
Florida-Alabama Progressive Seven-Shape-Note Singing Convention, "God's Gonna Set the World on Fire" (on USFlorida01)
West Virginia Night Owls, "I'm Goin' to Walk on the Streets of Glory" (Victor 21533, 1928)
Charles Owens w. Isabel Owens, "The Welcome Table" (on NovaScotia1)
West Virginia Snake Hunters [John & Emery McClung], "Walk the Streets of Glory" (Brunswick 119, 1928, rec. 1927)
Alice Wine, "I'm Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table" (on BeenStorm1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I'm Gone (I)" (floating verses)
cf. "My Little Soul's Going to Shine" (floating verses)
cf. "I'm Going to Ride in Pharaoh's Chariot" (form)
SAME TUNE:
I'm Gonna Sit at the Freedom Table (civil rights movement song)
I'm Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table (RECORDING: Hollis Watkins, on SingFreeCD)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I'm Gonna Tell God How You Treat Me
NOTES [107 words]: This song carries several titles; I chose the one by which it's most commonly known among revival singers. While the song seems to have originated in African-American tradition, it has spread to Anglo singers as well. - PJS
Reported by Sandburg to be the favorite verse of the IWW, but evidently not of their composition.
I had originally split this song up under several titles, because the versions don't really relate much (Sandburg's and that in the Digital Tradition, for instance, appear to have no words in common whatsoever). But Paul Stamler thinks they're the same, and certainly there is continuous variation, so here they lump. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: San478

Welcome Yule

DESCRIPTION: "Welcome be thou, heaven king, Welcome born in one morning, Welcome for whom we sing, Welcome Yule, thou merry man, In worship of this holy day." Stephen and John's days, New Year, Candlemass, and guests are welcomed
AUTHOR: John Audelay the blind? (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1426 (Bodleian MS. Douce 302); printed by Ritson 1790
KEYWORDS: Christmas MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #7, pp. 6-7, "(no title)" (2 texts)
Sidgwick/Chambers-EarlyEnglishLyrics CXXXIV, p. 232, "(no title)" (1 text)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 120-121, "Wolcum Yol" (1 text)
Rickert-AncientEnglishChristmasCarols, pp. 121-122, "Welcome Yule" (1 text)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 174, "Welcome Yule" (1 text, 1 modern tune)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #3877
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #6189
ADDITIONAL: John the Blind Audelay, _Poems and Carols (Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Douce 302)_, edited by Susanna Fein, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2009, pp. 180-181, "(Carol 6. Day of the Nativity)" (1 regularized text)
Richard Greene, editor, A Selection of English Carols , Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series, Oxford/Clarendon Press, 1962, #2, pp. 55-56, "(Welcum, Yule, in glod aray)" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 32
MANUSCRIPT: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 302 (Bodleian 21876), folio 28
NOTES [1815 words]: This poses a real conundrum. On the one hand, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 302 is a manuscript of the poems of the poet John Aud(e)lay (Audlay, Audley, Awdelay; not to be confused with the printer of the latter name who worked in the late sixteenth century) the blind, who churned out a great many pieces of this particular sort. On the other, it is also found (in rather different form) in British Library MS. Sloane 2593, an altogether better collection of carols with some folk links and no connection to Audeley. So did Audelay somehow slip something into Sloane, or did Audelay take a traditional piece and touch it up? There is really no way to tell. On the chance that the piece is traditional, I've included it.
Other than a few items found in a second copy, our entire knowledge of Audelay's work comes from the items in the Douce manuscript; even the few pieces which exist in other copies are listed as anonymous in those copies.
According to Audelay/Fein, pp. 4-5, the Douce manuscript was written by two scribes -- but in phases rather than the two scribes working on different parts of the book. One scribe, referred to as "A," wrote the basic text, leaving space for such things as titles and decorations. It would appear that he worked, to a significant extent, from already-written documents, not dictation, since there appear to be places where he left blank space for a better copy. The fact that blanks were left indicates that the overall arrangement of the work had been planned in advance by Audelay (and the arrangement, rather than the verse, seems to be what interests Middle English scholars the most, since there are few parallels to it; Robert J. Meyer-Lee, on p. 54 of FeinEtAl, calls it "the first fully conscious effort in English to triangulate authorship and authority).
Once scribe A had finished, scribe B took over the project, making corrections to the text, adding titles, incipits, and explicits in red, and initials and other illuminations in red and blue. He also perfected and proofread the book and added several final items. On the evidence, both scribes worked with Audelay, not just from his papers. Based on their roles, one suspects that, although both were monks at Haughmond Abbey, where Audelay worked, scribe B was more experienced and more senior.
Not only is the Douce manuscript the only source for Audelay's poetry, it is also almost the only source of information about him (Audelay/Fein, p. 6) -- and much even of that is probably missing because of the loss of the beginning of the manuscript.
Of Audelay personally, we find that he refers regularly to himself, and usually says he was blind -- e.g. one of his carols says that it was made by "Your broder, Jon, the blynd Awdlay" (Chambers, p. 88). Another says "Thus prophesis the blynd Awdlay" (Chambers, p. 94). One of the Latin colophons in the Douce manuscript describes Audelay; Fein offers this translation: "This book was composed by John Audelay, chaplain, who was blind and deaf in his affliction, to the honor of our Lord Jesus Christ and to serve as a model for others in the monastery of Haughmond. In the year 1426 A.D. May God be propitious to his soul" (Audelay/Fein, p. 1). The assumption, then, is that he died in 1426 (and so must have been born in the mid to late fourteenth century), although it is possible that it was simply the date of the manuscript. At the time he wrote, he was based at Haughmond Abbey, Shropshire.
Our only other information about him is a mention in another source that John Audelay was chaplain to Lord Richard Lestrange in 1417 when Lestrange made a visit to London -- during which Lestrange assaulted another peer and ended up in the Tower of London and was forced to pay a heavy fine (Fein/Audelay, p. 6; more detail is in Michael J. Bennett's article on Audelay's life on pp. 30-53 of FeinEtAl, especially pp. 33-37).
Audelay clearly stayed with Lestrange after that; when Lestrange founded a chantry for himself in 1424, Audelay became the chantry priest (Meyer-Lee, on p. 64 of FeinEtAl). It is reasonable to guess that this was to allow the priest, who presumably knew by then that he was losing his sight and perhaps his hearing, to live a less stressful life. One would also guess that it was then that Audelay began to assemble his book, although it is likely that some of the poems are older. The first part, from the colophon, was finished by 1426. Perhaps the whole book was; we cannot tell. And the colophon might have been written because Audelay had died, but again, we can't be sure -- after all, he talked about himself a lot while he was still alive!
Chambers concludes (p. 94) that "On the whole I feel that Awdelay is rather remote from the main tradition of carol development." (I'd have to agree; what ordinary poet would write a carol about circumcision, even if it is the Feast Day of the Lord's Circumcision. Oddly enough, this appears to be Audelay's most popular carol with modern composers, Audelay/Fein, p. 17, mentions several settings and recordings.) FeinEtAl, p. 3, discussing his character, sees him "veering from prophet of doom to preaching egotist."
Robert J. Meyer-Lee calls his writings "profoundly ordinary" (FeinEtAl, p. 54) and calls his verse "rigorously uninteresting" (FeinEtAl, p. 55). "Trite" strikes me as a good word. Woolf, p 296, at least credits him with a "characteristic sweetness of imagination and feeling," and Fein (FeinEtAl, p. 4), calls him an "innovator in verse forms." Thorlac Turville-Petrie says he "overlaads his stanza with more compliating features than any poet could control with entire success.... [His poem 'Three Dead Kings'] can claim to be the most ornate in the language" (FeinEtAl, p. 252). One of his favorites was a thirteen-line stanza (FeinEtAl, p. 9) that would have been very hard to set to music.
In his carols, he was fond of an almost-as-difficult seven-line form, although his most usual form was a six-line stanza, aaabBB (FeinEtAl, p. 16), which obviously isn't especially common in surviving carols.
The Douce manuscript looks as if it was Audelay's original amanuensis manuscript; it contains many corrections and revisions that sound as if they came from the author (Chambers, p. 92). It is somewhat damaged; the beginning is lost, and it is estimated that a quarter to a third of it is missing (Audelay/Fein, p. 5). The manuscript as it now exists contains some 62 poems that claim to be his work, although five have been found elsewhere (Chambers, p. 93). In general his work is pretty pedestrian -- orthodox, metrically correct, uninspired and uninspiring.
On the other hand, Audelay had a most un-medieval tendency to slip his name into his writings (Audelay/Fein, p. 1 counts 16 uses of his name in 35 pages of manuscript), making it easy to identify those pieces as his. Robert J. Meyer-Lee writes that his "rate of explicit versified self-naming far exceeds that of any other medieval English poet, including those inveterate self-namers, Audelay's contemporaries [Thomas] Hoccleve and John Lydgate" (FeinEtAl, p. 55).
His name is not in this carol. But it looks to me as if Audelay used his name more often in the non-carols. (One possible reason for Audelay using his name so much, that I have not seen elsewhere: Wagner, p. 269, mentions a James Touchet, Lord Audley, who was justiciar of South Wales from 1423, later held other offices, and had lands in Staffordshire, Shropshire, and Cheshire. Lord Audley was clearly a Big Deal in the area where Audelay was writing his book. Spelling was a chancy thing in the 1400s; maybe Audelay wanted to make people think he was related to Lord Audley.)
Audelay's self-interest is so surprising (to me at least) to see one of his pieces clearly associated with the Sloane Lyrics (for this song) and other carol sources. Greene, p. 254, on this basis, says that "Audelay's original authorship of the carol is doubtful," suggesting that and the Sloane version are probably both modified versions of a (lost) original. Chambers, p. 93, thinks Greene is being "hypercritical." Julia Boffey thinks it likely that many of the carols were written by others and adapted by Audelay (FeinEtAl, p. 222). She also suggests that several that occur in both the Audelay manuscript and in Richard Hill's manuscript of a century later probably circulated as a group, since they occur close together in the Hill manuscript as well as the Douce manuscript.
It seems certain that Audelay wrote at least some of his carols, though, because who else would write a carol about Henry VI, or even about obscure saints such as Saint Winifred? (FeinEtAl, p. 223).
Audelay's book includes 25 carols, in a separate section -- considered to be the oldest collections of English carols (Audelay/Fein, p. 15). Certainly it has one of the earliest references to CHRISTMAS carols. The beginning of the section (which may be an addition by Scribe B) reads:
I pray yow, syres, boothe moore and la [I pray you, sirs, both more and less],
Syng these caroles in Christemas [FeinEtAl, p. 11].
For a collection of Audelay's work, see Audelay/Fein. Much of the material in this book is also available online.
As regards whether Audelay wrote (as opposed to redacting) this piece, Oliver Pickering says that "Audelay's poetic abilities declined as his urge to save souls increased" (FeinEtAl, p. 131). The carols aren't so devoted to soul-saving, so maybe he could have managed them.
Greene, p. 254, says that the two distinct manuscript versions of this carol, Sloane and Douce, indicate two different ways of looking at the Christmas season: the Audelay version runs only through New Year, and hence the Twelve Days of Christmas through Epiphany; the Sloane version runs through the forty days until Candlemas.
This is not, in terms of manuscripts, the most popular carol associated with Audelay. One of his pieces (the circumcision carol, verse beginning "A babe is borne of hye natewre"; burden begining "What tythingis bryngst vs, messenger"; Greene, #117, pp. 74-75; Fein/Audelay #11, pp. 10-11), occurs in three manuscripts, Douce 302 (of course) plus {MSArchSeldenB26}, Oxford, Bodleian Library Arch. Selden B.26, folio 15 and {MSCamTrinityO.3.58}, Cambridge, Trinity College MS. O.3.58. But the latter two share many pieces and are clearly related; they share the same four-verse subset of the Douce text, although with a minor change of order. And none of the three has the connection with tradition that the Seldon manuscript of this poem does.
Even more noteworthy is "A Babe Is Born All of a May," which is in two very important manuscripts, the Sloane Manuscript which also contains this piece and the Richard Hill manuscript, If anything from Audelay had a traditional vogue, I think it is either this or that piece.
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: OBC174

Welcome, Royal Charlie (I)

DESCRIPTION: "The man that should our king hae been, He wore the royal red and green." He defeats the Hanoverians at Falkirk and Prestonpans. Since he has left a German rules and we "daurna brew a peck o' maut." Whelps sit on his throne. Charlie! drive them away.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2)
KEYWORDS: nonballad political Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 71, "Welcome, Royal Charlie" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Greig/Duncan1 136, "Welcome Royal Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5817
NOTES [227 words]: The last verse includes the lines "Though every dog maun hae its day, The right belongs to Charlie." Is this the source for the "every dog will have its day" restatement of Hamlet V.i.273-274?
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2: "There are many editions of this song, which is popular all over the country, both south and north."
For references to Falkirk and Prestonpans see "Tranent Muir" and "The Muir of Culloden." - BS
Many versions of this say something like, "Oh, you've been lang a-coming." This was a great complaint of the Jacobites: James the Old Pretender had briefly made an appearance in 1715 after the Fifteen had pretty well fizzled out, but no member of the Stuart family had appeared in Britain again until Bonnie Prince Charlie showed up in 1745. By then it was almost too late; the Jacobite cause was fading. Not that the Stuarts had much choice; James was more a liability than a help to his cause due to his extreme pessimism, and Charles could hardly lead the rebellion as an infant. Besides, the French and Jacobites needed the War of the Austrian Succession to distract the British government. All in all, it was a tricky situation for the Jacobites. But it did cost them -- George II, while no prize, was certainly more attractive than his father George I, and by 1745, most of those who had opposed the accession of George I were dead. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1136

Welcome, Royal Charlie (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Arouse, arouse, ilk kilted clan! Let Highland hearts lead on the van, Forward wi' her dirk in han', To fight for royal Charlie" Auld Scotia's sons would rally around him. "Welcome to our isle again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1817 (Scots Magazine, according to Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2)
KEYWORDS: nonballad political Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 72, "Welcome, Royal Charlie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #30982
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 45(15) View 3 of 3, "Welcome Charlie O'er the Main" ("Arouse, arouse, each kilted clan!"), J. Smyth (Belfast), 1813-1850; also 2806 d.31(4), "Royal Charlie"
NLScotland, RB.m.168(248), "The Landing of Royal Charlie," T. Birt (London), c.1840
NOTES [22 words]: Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2: "Copied from the Scots Magazine for February 1817, and has the signature 'F.C. Banks of Clyde.'" - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Hogg2072

Welcum, Yule, in glod aray

See Welcome Yule (File: OBC174)

Weldon

DESCRIPTION: "Let's go down to Weldon, I think I heard them say (x2), Rally, rally, rally, I think I heard them say (x2)." "My girl lives in Weldon." "One and a half in Weldon." "Let's all get drunk in Weldon. "Fare thee well in Weldon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Owens, Swing and Turn, according to Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty)
KEYWORDS: playparty travel drink
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, p. 204, "Weldon" (1 text, 1 1une)
Roud #7928
File: SPurg204

Well Done Liar

See Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

Well I Couldn't Care Less

DESCRIPTION: "Well I couldn't care less for the killick of the mess Or the Buffer of the working party. I'm pulling off ashore at a quarter past four, I'm Jack-me-bleedin'-hearty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship escape derivative
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 48, "Well I Couldn't Care Less" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (tune)
NOTES [101 words]: According to Grant Uden and Richard Cooper, A Dictionary of British Ships and Seamen, 1980 (I use the 1981 St. Martin's Press edition), p. 247, a "killick" was "a small all-purpose anchor," but the terms "is also used colloquially for a leading hand of any branch of the Royal Navy, because his badge is an anchor or killick; to 'ship the killick' is to be promoted to this rank. To 'up killick' is to run away or desert ship; in other words, to up anchor." Observe that this song plays with two of those meanings: the singer doesn't care about the killick of the mess, but will up killick at 4:15. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn032

Well Met, Pretty Maid (The Sweet Nightingale)

DESCRIPTION: Singer invites girl to hear the nightingale; he offers to carry her pail. She demurs; "I've hands of my own." They agree to marry; now she's not afraid to go out walking or to "hear the fond tale of the sweet nightingale/As she sings in the valley below"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Journal from the _Ann_)
KEYWORDS: courting love sex marriage bird rejection seduction
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West))
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 467-470, "The Sweet Nightingale" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 45, "To Milk in the Valley Below" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 494)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 106, "Well Met, Pretty Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, pp. 20-21, "Sweet Nightingale" (1 text plus a Cornish translation, 1 tune in two arrangements)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #15, "Sweet Nightingale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 187-188, "A New Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 562, "Sweet Nightingale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 89, "An Eos Whek [The Sweet Nightingale]" (1 text + Cornish translation, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Pretty Maid, Come Along" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 42)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 5, "The Sweet Nightingale" (1 text, 1 tune)
33MuchLovedSongs, p. 13, "The Sweet Nightingale" (1 text,1 tune)
DT, NITINGAL
Roud #371
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Now the Winter Is Over (The Ploughboy)" (form, theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Nightingale
NOTES [231 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland's Cornish words are a revivalist translation from the English. The song has been collected from tradition several times, but positively shouts out a composed origin. Kennedy lumps it with "The Valley Below," but as the plots are notably different, I don't. They certainly share a common ancestor, though, possibly in Thomas Arne's opera "Thomas and Sally" (1761). - PJS
I doubt even that much, and the fact that Kennedy lumps them (on no basis at all that I can see) makes me doubt all his other references. The one thing I'll allow is his claim that the song has a very fine melody. I've used a title from JFSS because that's the way I learned the song.
It's very difficult to know what to do with songs of this type. Huntington thinks his text is a survival of the Corydon/Colin-and-Phyllis/Phoebe type. Purslow claims it was based on an aria from Thomas Arne's opera "Thomas and Sally," with Isaac Bickerstaff's words little changed although Arne's tune has drifted. As Paul observes, it sounds more like a minstrel than a folk piece. But Theodore Bikel and Cynthia Gooding recorded something quite similar (under the "Well Met" title), and there are enough broadsides with similar form that I decided I needed to include the song.
The trick now is to decide which of these many pieces actually belong here, and which are orphan broadsides.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: K089

Well Met, Well Met, My Old True Love

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

Well of Spring Water, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer met a lass on her way to a well "who at once won my admiration" (more than his mother!). He declares his love. They fall into the well. They can't remember the rest that was said but married soon after. Their daughter Maureen is like her mother.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage children derivative
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 6, "The Well of Spring Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5215
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "The Well of Spring Water" (on IRTLenihan01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Can of Spring Water" (form)
NOTES [33 words]: There can be no doubt that this song derives from "The Can of Spring Water" but that is a seduction ballad with different details, lines and tone from this. Roud assigns the same number to both. - BS
File: RcWeSpWa

Well Rung, Tom!

DESCRIPTION: "Well rung, Tom boy! Well rung Tom! Ding dong! Cuckoo! Well rung, Tom. The owl and the cuckoo, the fool and the song Well sung, cuckoo; Well rung, Tom."
AUTHOR: Henry Purcell (c.1659-1695) (see notes)
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: music bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 305, "Well Rung, Tom!" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 737)
Roud #1342
NOTES [48 words]: The current description is all of the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames text.
At least two sites claim Henry Purcell as the author (Laymusic and Swarthmore College Computer Society), and you can find the tune at the former site. That may not be authoritative but it's a starting point. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT305C

Well Sold the Cow

See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

Well the Day I Left My Po' Mama's Door

See Late Last Night When Willie Came Home (Way Downtown) (File: CSW166)

Well, Don't You Want to Take a Ride?

See Ezekiel Saw the Wheel (File: CNFM052)

Well, my mother's goin' to heaven

See When My Blood Runs Chilly and Cold (File: LxU104)

Wellington and Waterloo

See The Plains of Waterloo (V) (File: LJ03)

Wells and Fargo Line, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of "...the men who served their time For robbing mountain stages on the Wells and Fargo Line." Among the criminals who haunted the route were Major Thompson, Jimmy Miner, Old Jim Hughes, and Black Bart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: travel robbery prison
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 18, "The Wells and Fargo Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11083
File: FCW18

Wells o' Wearie, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer leaves Edinborough to spend the afternoon with Mary Grieve at the wells of Wearie. Her mother has given him permission to discuss marriage. Whatever the future holds, "True glory and wealth are mine wi' Mary Grieve" "Gang wi' me"
AUTHOR: Alexander A. Ritchie (1816-1850) (source: Whistle-Binkie)
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Whistle-Binkie)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage nonballad mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 15, ("We're a' noddin'") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan4 904 "The Wells o' Wearie," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "The Wells o' Wearie" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Rodger, editor, Whistle-Binkie, Fourth Series (Glasgow, 1842), pp. 6-7, "The Wells o' Wearie"
Roud #5756
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonny House o' Airlie" (tune, per Whistle-Binkie)
NOTES [33 words]: "The 'Wells o' Wearie' used to be at the southern end of Holyrood Park in Edinburgh." (source: "Traditional Scottish Songs - Bonnie Wells o' Wearie" [not the same song] at Rampant Scotland site). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD4904

Welsh Relation, The

DESCRIPTION: "I was born not far from Cornwall In a place called the Welsh Mountain." The singer and Mary ride a donkey; "You never did see such a big time before." The go to the railroad station and party with John and Shawn; the sound of the train frightens Mary
AUTHOR: attributed to Tom Jones of Dodgeville, Wisconsin
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: animal travel train party
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 49, "The Welsh Relation" (1 text)
Roud #9084
File: Pet049

Wenn Die Scwalben Heimwartz Ziehen

See When the Swallows Homeward Fly (File: HeSo085)

Went Down Town

See Deep Elem Blues (File: DTdeepel)

Went to see my Sally

See Karo Song (File: ScaNF170)

Went to the Burial (Sinner Rock So)

DESCRIPTION: The singer says we buried Jesus last night. Joseph wrapped the body. Mary wept and Martha moaned. "They crucified my Jesus." Response to each line: "sinner weep, sinner weep so"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1992 (Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree)
KEYWORDS: burial mourning religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree, pp. 146-149, "Went to the Burial (Sinner Rock So)" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Brenton Jordan and The McIntosh County Shouters, "Went to the Burial / Sinner Weep So" (on McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts)
NOTES [28 words]: The description is from the Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree text.
The Rosenbaum-ShoutBecauseFree text and McIntoshShouters-SpiritualsShouts track are "ring shout" songs. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RSBF146

Went to the River (I)

DESCRIPTION: "I went to the river an' I couldn't get across, I jumped on a (log/alligator/nigger/possum/etc.) an' thought it was a horse."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory)
KEYWORDS: river floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) West Indies(Jamaica) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 258, "Ease that Trouble in the Mind" (1 fragment)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 193, "Went to the River and I Couldn't Get Across" (1 fragment)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 184-185, (no title) (3 fragments plus an item entitled "Sister Cyarline" which has a chorus and might perhaps be something else)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 47, "(I went to a river)" (1 text)
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 130, ("Oh we went to the river an' we couldn' get across!") (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #374, "My mother cried me up to go wi my father's dinner-o" (1 text, which opens with "My Mother Said that I Must Go" and ends with "Went to the River (I)" or one of its variants)
ADDITIONAL: Paul G Brewster, Archer Taylor, Bartlett Jere Whiting, George P Wilson, Stith Thompson, Eds, _The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, Volume One: Games and Rhymes, Beliefs and Customs, Riddles, Proverbs, Speech, Tales and Legends_, (Durham: Duke University Press, 1952), p. 190-192, "Went to the River" (3 texts)
Roud #469
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny Booker (Mister Booger)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Limber Jim" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Mary Mack (I)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [211 words]: Another of those ubiquitous floating verses, filed separately because it so often *appears* separately.
Randolph's version of this has a chorus: "I went to the river an' I couldn't get across, Ease that trouble in the mind, I jumped on a log an' thought it was a horse, Ease that trouble in the mind." But he has only a single four-line stanza, so it's not clear if the verse floated into something else or if there is a complete song. - RBW
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 362, "My mother said that I never should" includes an "I came to a river and I couldn't get across" verse: "'I came to a river' has had a long life as a make-weight verse in American play-party and minstrel songs. It is first noted in 'Clare de Kitchen, or Old Virginia Never Tire' (c.1838)." (cf. "Charleston Gals (Clear the Kitchen)")
TakingOpie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes's lead, the Public Domain Music site has an entry from "Minstrel Songs, Old and New" (1883) pp 152-153 for "'Clare de Kitchen; or, De Kentucky Screamer' (1832) Words and Music by Thomas Dartmouth (Daddy) Rice, 1808-1860" with verse 2 "I went to de creek, I couldn't git across, I'd nobody wid me but an old blind horse; But old Jim Crow came riding by, Says he, 'old feller, your horse will die.'" - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: R258

Went to the River (II)

See The Swapping Boy (File: E093)

Went to the River and I Couldn't Get Across

See Went to the River (I) (File: R258)

Were Ye at the Fair?

DESCRIPTION: Were you at the fair/church, Did you see many people -- or did you come by the steeple -- did you see our goodman, Riding on a beetle/ladle?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: nonballad bug
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 205, "Were Ye at the Fair?" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 19, ("Cam ye by the kirk, Cam ye by the steeple?") (1 text)
NOTES [106 words]: "Riding the beetle -- Those who are on foot, or shanks naigie, with a party on horseback, are said to be riding the beetle. 'War ye at the fair, saw ye mony people, Saw ye our gude man riding on the beetle?' Auld sang." (source: John MacTaggart, The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia (second edition) (London,1876 ("Digitized by Google"))), p. 409)
On the other hand, Chambers says, "There was a great deal of equestrian exercise in the old nursery, the knee being the ever-ready substitute for a steed"; Chambers's text ends "Riding on a ladle." - BS
Could this somehow be related to the Jacobite song "Came Ye O'er Frae France"? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2205

Were You Dere?

See Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? (File: FSWB367A)

Were You Ever in Boston Town

See Hieland Laddie (File: Doe050)

Were You Ever in Dumbarton?

DESCRIPTION: "Were you ever in Dumbarton, Where they wear the tartan (x2), little above the knee.... My love she is so neat and small, She won't have me at all (x2), But try to get her full and then she'll marry me... Oh, if I had her, happy I would be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971
KEYWORDS: courting clothes travel love
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 307-308, "Were You Ever in Dumbarton?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9421
File: Doe307

Were You Ever in Rio Grand

See Rio Grande (File: Doe064)

Were You There When They Crucified Jesus?

See Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? (File: FSWB367A)

Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?

DESCRIPTION: "Were you there when they crucified my Lord (x2), Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble; Were you there when...." "Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?" "...pierced him in the side?" "...the sun refused to shine...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (New England Magazine; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 768, "Was You There When They Crucified Jesus?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 104, "Did You Hear How Dey Crucified My Lord?"; Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute pp. 106-106, App.VI, "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? (Were You There?)" (3 texts, 3 tunes; p. 141 in the 1901 version; p. 141 in the 1909 version)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 51, "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" (1 text); p 100, "Were You There?" (1 text, 1 tun3)
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 40, "Were You There" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 99-100, "Were You There?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 367, "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" (1 text)
SongsOfManyNations, "Were You There?" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 55)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 147, "Were You There?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11409
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff, "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord" (Columbia 20550, 1949)
Fisk Jubilee Singers, "Were You There?" (on Fisk01)
Minnie Gracie Gadson, "Were You Dere?" (on USSeaIsland03)
Roland Hayes, "Were You There" (Columbia 69812-D, 1939)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Was You There When They Took My Lord Away" (OKeh 45522, 1931; rec. 1930)
Wade Mainer, "Were You There" (Bluebird B-8273, 1939)
NOTES [208 words]: Jim Dixon points out to me that "Lyrics and music to WERE YOU THERE? appeared in an article "Recent Negro Melodies" by William E. Barton, D.D., in The New England Magazine,, Vol. XIX, No. 6, February, 1899, page 714. It was the third in a series of articles; the two earlier ones were called 'Old Plantation Hymns' and 'Hymns of the Slave and the Freedman.' Barton doesn't name a specific source for WERE YOU THERE? but he mentions the Jubilee Singers in the earlier two articles.
"All three articles were collected and published that same year as a book called Old Plantation Hymns but the book seems to be nothing more than offprints from the magazine, with the page numbers changed. The book doesn't credit the magazine nor vice versa.
'The annual reports of the American Missionary Association show that the Jubilee Singers sang WERE YOU THERE WHEN THEY CRUCIFIED MY LORD? at five consecutive annual meetings, 1898 to 1902. So it seems likely that the Jubilee Singers were Barton's source."
All three sources above can be found on Google Books. The information is also found in Marilyn Kay Stulken, Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship, Fortress Press, 1981, p. 192. - RBW
Barton is a reprint of the articles cited by Jim Dixon. - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: FSWB367A

Wesley Grace

See Be Present at Our Table, Lord (File: ACSF261B)

Wesley Shackers, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was in the town of Wesley As you shall understand" that the "shacker band" was accused of bad behavior. The four are arrested and taken to Machias. One of them, Wilbur Day, complains of what he has suffered and says it is enough
AUTHOR: supposedly Wilbur Day
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine); allegedly writte 1885
KEYWORDS: crime punishment prison
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 128-120, "The Wesley Shackers" (1 text)
File: EcSm128

West Atlantic Squadron, The

See The North Atlantic Squadron (File: Hopk052)

West Branch Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come fellowmen and lend an ear A melancholy tale to hear." "About one poor mortal." "He hired out with William Brown To help him drive his lumber down." "He started out to break a jam." He falls into the water far from a boat. McMann pulls out his body
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: logger death drowning lumbering
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 22-23, "The West Branch Song" (1 text)
File: Gray022

West Fork Girls

DESCRIPTION: "Lay around in the summer time, Stored up all my gold, Lay around in the winter time, Jesus, ain't it cold." Many floating verse: "Apples in the summer time," "Higher up the cherry tree." "You can talk to your sweetheart But you leave mine alone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5)
KEYWORDS: love courting floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 52-53, "West Fork Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7056
NOTES [39 words]: This feels to me like a derivative of something else, perhaps "Cripple Creek" or "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss." And half of it is floating verses. But there is just enough independent content that I can't file it with anything else.
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BWV5052

West Palm Beach Storm

DESCRIPTION: "On the sixteenth day of September, In 1928, God started riding early, He rode till very late. In the storm, oh in the storm, Lord, somebody got drowned in the storm." The singer alludes to several tragedies and warns people to "get the Holy Ghost."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: storm death warning religious
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 17, 1928 - the "Okeechobee hurricane," having already done great damage in the Carribean, makes landfall in Florida near West Palm Beach. According to Wikipedia, the storm killed at least 2500 people in Florida and more than 4000 people overall.
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #48, "West Palm Beach Storm" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 323-324, "West Palm Beach Storm" (1 text)
Roud #4145
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Miami Hairikin" (subject)
NOTES [7 words]: This is item dG47 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: CAFS1323

West Plains Explosion, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the little town of West Plains, In old Missouri state," the spring flowers are blooming and young people gather for a dance when the building explodes. Forty people are killed in the blast. We can't explain why, but "we'll meet them over there"
AUTHOR: Carson J. Robison (source: Henigan)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1935 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: death disaster dancing
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1928 - the West Plains Dance Hall explosion
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Julie Henigan, "Ozark Ballads as Song and Story," article in _Missouri Folklore Society Journal_, Volume 27-28 (cover date 2005-2006, but published 2015), pp. 159-185; pp. 168-169, "The West Plains Explosion" (1 text, as sung by Iva Haslett)
Roud #15818
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The West Plains Explosion" (Edison 11002)
File: Heni168

West River Railroad

DESCRIPTION: "We've got a little railroad And it isn't very wide. We put in twenty thousand And quite a lot beside." Few travelers take the train: "A sheriff and a parson, Three ladies... and a little red calf." After humorous incidents, all arrive
AUTHOR: Mr. and Mrs. Julian Johnson ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: railroading train humorous money
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 198-199, "West River Railroad" (1 text)
ST FlBr198 (Partial)
Roud #5454
NOTES [56 words]: Reportedly written for a home talent play, which somehow survived thirty years to be included in Flanders and Brown. (To be fair, it's much funnier than most such songs).
Apparently the song is about a locally-financed railroad which was, at best, only mildly successful.
No tune is shown, but I suspect "I Hard a Little Nut Tree." - RBW
File: FlBr198

West Virginia Boys

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

West Virginia Farmer, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the West Virginia hills, with their many rocks and rills," force the singer into a hard career of trying to scratch out a living. He must plow and harvest in the heat. His pigs die of cholera. When winter comes, he must find wood or freeze
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills)
KEYWORDS: work home hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 109-111, "The West Virginia Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 168, "The West Virginia Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 35-36, "The West Virginia Farmer" (1 text)
Roud #5422
File: CAFS1221

West Virginia Feud Song, A

DESCRIPTION: A story of the "Lincoln County crew." Ale Brumfield is shot, perhaps by Milt Haley, but Brumfield (who survives) blames "McCoy." Later, at George Fries's house, a fight begins and many are killed. The singer blames the fight on drink
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: feud death drink
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 40, "A West-Virginia Feud Song" (1 text)
Roud #465
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rowan County Crew (Trouble, or Tragedy)" [Laws E20]
NOTES [54 words]: Cox views this as a reworking of "The Rowan County Crew," and Laws (in the notes to that song) evidently agrees. (Roud lumps them.) The resulting song is rare, and the Cox text is confused; it's not even clear who feuded with whom! The informants believed that the fight took place in 1890, near Hamlin, West Virginia. - RBW
File: LE20A

West Virginia Gals

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

West Virginia Lad

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a West Virginia lad, raised on ramps and mush and bread, WIth some meat of the rarest, purest kind. I know I am no fool, though I never went to school...." The singer adds additional detail about West Virginia life and girls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (collected from Roy A. West)
KEYWORDS: home food nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 224-225, "West Virginia Lad" (1 text)
Roud #18827
File: CAFS1224

West-Country Damosel's Complaint, The [Child 292]

DESCRIPTION: The girl begs William to marry her; if he will not, she bids him kill her. He callously tells her to live in the greenwood. She tries, but at last begs her sister for alms. The sister drives her away. Willie finds her dead and mourns his cruelty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1695
KEYWORDS: courting abandonment poverty death sister love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 292, "The West-Country Damosel's Complaint" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2899, "When will you Marry me William"
Roud #3959
NOTES [40 words]: Child is of the opinion that this is a composite piece, with the first eleven stanzas being popular and the remaining thirteen being literary. As both the tone and the rhyme scheme change in the final stanzas, he is quite possibly correct. - RBW
File: C292

West's Asleep, The

DESCRIPTION: "While every side a vigil keep, The West's asleep, the West's asleep." The singer laments the "slumbering slaves" in a land that demands Freedom and Nationhood. But a voice announces "'the West's awake!' 'Sing, oh hurra! let England quake!'"
AUTHOR: Thomas Davis (1814-1845) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815; Hoagland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hoagland)
KEYWORDS: Ireland England nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 163, "But, oh, let men learn libertee" (1 fragment)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 115, "The West's Asleep" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WSTASLEP
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 472-473, "The West's Asleep" (1 text)
Roud #25474
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Brink of the White Rocks" (tune, according to Hoagland)
cf. "The Men of the West" (subject: The landing of General Humbert) and references there
NOTES [133 words]: The 1798 rebellion was a very patchy thing, due in no small part to the arrests of nearly all the United Irish leaders well before it was supposed to come off. The biggest rising, in Wexford, was largely unplanned, but at least it was a rising. There was a lot of stirring in Ulster, though it accomplished very little. Connaught and Leinster, however, saw nothing of any significance at all. Until the French came. This song apparently refers to General Humber's activity (for which see especially "The Men of the West").
The O'Connors, mentioned in the song, were the hereditary kings of Connaught before the Norman invasion.
For the disastrous Battle of Aughrim, see the notes to "After Aughrim's Great Disaster."
Although very often cited, this has only the most tenuous hold in tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Moyl115

West's Awake, The

See The West's Asleep (File: Moyl115)

Wester Snow

See Easter Snow (File: HHH066)

Western Boat (Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's)

DESCRIPTION: "Take me back to my Western boat, Let me fish off Cape St Mary's." Singer recounts good times and wants to be buried in "that snug green cove where the seas roll up their thunder"
AUTHOR: Otto P. Kelland (1904-2004)
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 3rd edition)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea lyric nonballad work death
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 39 in the 3rd edition, p. 48 in the 4th, p. 31 in the 5th
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 88-89, "Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mills-FavoriteSongsOfNewfoundland, pp. 36-37, "Let me Fish Off Cape St.Mary's" (1 text, 1 tune)
England-HistoricNewfoundlandAndLabrador, p. 54, "Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CAPSTMAR*
ADDITIONAL: Otto P. Kelland, _Anchor Watch: Newfoundland Stories in Verse_ (privately printed, 1960), pp. 7-8, "Let Me Fish Off Cape St. Mary's" (1 text)
Roud #7301
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's" (on NFOBlondahl01)
NOTES [565 words]: Cape St Mary's is now a sea-bird sanctuary at the southwest corner of the Avalon Peninsula [off Placentia Bay - RBW], about 100 miles from St John's - BS
Although the printed editions seem to call this "Let Me Fish Off Cape St Mary's," I've assigned the basic title "Western Boat" on the assumption that most people know it from the recording by Gordon Bok. That was probably a mistake on my part; this song is extremely well-known in Newfoundland. That is probably due mostly to its promotion by Gerald S. Doyle, who encouraged Kelland -- he sponsored the recording of this song, played it on his "Gerald S. Doyle News Bulletin" on the radio, and of course put it in the third edition of his songbook (Webb, p. 85).
Author Otto Kelland was born in Lamaline, 1904, according to DictNewfLabrador, p. 185. He spent some time at sea as a steward and seaman before joining the Newfoundland Constabulary in 1924. He became warden of the St. John's penitentiary in 1939, and continued in that job until he retired. This song was reportedly written in 1947. It appears most of Kelland's books were published after he retired. His son, Otto Paul James "Jim" Kelland, became Newfoundland's Minister of Environment and Lands in 1989.
Other pieces by Kelland in the Index are "Captain Bob Bartlett," "The Dying Seal-Hunter," "Captain Abram Kean," and "We Will Always Have Our Sealers." The latter four are all in the Index based on their inclusion in Ryan and Small's collection of sealing poems, and probably are not traditional. This song, however, most certainly is traditional despite its recent composition.
The "western boat" of the title is not a boat on a western shore. It's a Newfoundland term for "a schooner-rigged fishing vessel of 15 to 30 tons" (Young, p. 185). StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 605, says that their bows were shaped so as to make them good at dealing with ice, and cites the first use as from 1836; their citations show that the western boats were intended for relatively short voyages near land. That this is the intended meaning is confirmed by the mention of Cape St. Mary's, which is in southeastern Newfoundland.
According to Young, pp. 31-32, a "hagdown," also known as a "bawk," is a name for the greater shearwater or the sooty shearwater, members of the genus Puffinus. However, Strowbridge, p. 216, defines a hagdown as a "Placentia Bay person." Note that these two meanings do not entirely contradict, and either or both could be meant. StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 235, cite both meanings -- but the material on the former is about five times as long.
A dory is a small, flat-bottomed boat, usually rowed although some can take a sail (Young, p. 66).
A "Cape Ann" or "Cape Ann hat" is a rubber head-covering with a brim all around, with the brim being longer at the back to cover the neck (Young, p. 45). Strowbridge, p. 203, suggests that it should be green -- probably Lincoln Green, since it was sometimes called a "Lincoln.".
Capelin/caplin are a type of edible fish that came ashore to mate and often were netted there (Young, p. 45). Strowbridge says it is about seven inches long, has a narrow face, and has green ad brown-tinted sides and is silver below that. They were often used as bait for cod, so when the singer "fish(es) off Cape St. Mary's," he may well be gathering the bait for a longer voyage seeking Newfoundland's chief export and source of food. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doyl3039

Western Courtship

DESCRIPTION: Robin and Nell agree to marry; he builds a home. They plan to marry and move in. The preacher is delayed. They sleep in one bed with a chair between them. In the morning, Nell asks why he didn't take advantage; she won't marry a man who can't move a chair
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong)
KEYWORDS: love home marriage rejection humorous recitation
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 193-196, "Western Courtship" (1 text)
Roud #5245
File: NeDe193

Western Home

See Home on the Range (File: R193)

Western Life

DESCRIPTION: "I buckled on a brace of guns and sallied to Wyoming And thought I'd kill some Indians..." but the first Indian she meets is a college classmate of hers! She sees cowboys reading books. Everything has changed. "For Western life ain't wild and woolly now."
AUTHOR: "Bronco Sue" (source: Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 160-161, "Western Life" (1 text)
Roud #11299
File: ThLo160

Western Ocean

See Here's to the Grog (All Gone for Grog) (File: K274)

Western Ranger

See The Texas Rangers [Laws A8] (File: LA08)

Western Rangers, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer's sweetheart asks him to stay and marry. He leaves her in Labrador to join a troop fighting in Flanders. "Many a brave man" and "German crowds" are killed in the bayonet fighting. "With medals now I will return to the girl I love so well"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage battle army fight violence war death derivative lover soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
RECORDINGS:
Frank Knox, "The Western Rangers" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Texas Rangers" (derivative, see Notes)
NOTES [140 words]: MUNFLA/Leach text is a derivative of "Texas Rangers" [Laws A8]. Leach collected another "Western Rangers" in Labrador (see Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 105) that Leach considered -- I believe correctly -- to be a localization of Laws A8. That text begins like this one -- "Come all ye western rangers bound to a foreign land" -- but the ranger fights Indians after "we marched from Manitoba down to the Rio Grande." The localization that Leach points out is the substitution of Manitoba for San Antonio. The MUNFLA/Leach text is more than a localization. For example, in this case the singer "sailed from bonny Scotland ... for Flanders." While "you could see those Indians" -- misspoken in this context, since the singer fought "where German crowds were killed" -- soldiers were wounded by a "glimmering glance of bayonet." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: MunLWeRa

Westlin Winds

DESCRIPTION: "Now westlin winds and slaught'ring guns Bring autumn's pleasant weather." The singer describes the new season, and the farmer's harvest, and thinks of his beloved Peggy, "My fair, my lovely charmer."
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: before 1785 (source: Kingsley); 1792 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: courting farming animal bird nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #2, p. 2, "Song, Composed in August" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WSTLNWND*
Roud #6936
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Had a Horse, I Had Nae Mair" (tune)
NOTES [128 words]: This is the second song listed in Kingsley's edition, which would seem to date it to August 1774, but I am not sure if that date is firm, so I didn't list it in the EARLIEST DATE." I have no evidence that the song went into tradition, either. But it has been printed a lot, and recorded at least a few times. Garnet Rogers, in particular, that he didn't have any clue as to what a "cushat" is (in the second verse, where many birds and their habitats are listed, we read that "through lofty groves the cushat roves").
The answer is found in Arnold Kellett, The Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition, and Folklore, revised edition, Smith Settle, 2002, p. 43: In the north riding of Yorkshire, and presumably points north, "cushat" is a name for the ring dove. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: RBuWeWi

Weston and His Clerk

DESCRIPTION: "It's of an old buffer I'm going to tell, A magistrate here whom you know very well" named Weston. His clerk, French, tells him there are hundreds of illegal grog cases. One cases results in the choice of a fine or prison sentence; others are warned
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: drink police trial humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 93-96, "Weston and His Clerk" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [29 words]: For brief background on Charles Thatcher's career, see the notes to "Where's Your License?" For an extensive collection of his songs, see Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: AnSt093

Westward Ho! (Traveling Yodler)

DESCRIPTION: "I love not Colorado Where the faro table grows.... Nor seek I fair Montana.... Sweet poker haunted Kansas.... The Nevada rough has charms enough, Yet its blandishments I fly." "I'll build a cot on a corner lot And get rich as soon as I can."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: travel home money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 161-162, "Westward Ho!" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 20, "Westward Ho" (1 text)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 24-25, "Traveling Yodler" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8008
NOTES [56 words]: Arkansas Woodchopper credits this to Nick Manoloff, but it appears to predate Manoloff. Curiously, although the Arkansas Woodchopper included this in his book, it does not appear that he ever recorded it! Nor did anyone else that I can find. I wonder where the Woodchopper found his tune; none of the other versions seem to have one. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ArWo024

Wet Oregon (Oregon Girls)

DESCRIPTION: "I've reached the land of rain and mud Where flowers and trees so early bud. It rains and rains both night and day, For in Oregon it rains always." The singer wishes it would stop. Oregon girls with "soggy curls" reejct those who don't wipe their feet
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Suzi Jones, _Oregon Folklore_)
KEYWORDS: humorous home hardtimes rejection hair
FOUND IN: US(NW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Suzi Jones, _Oregon Folklore_, University of Oregon/Oregon Arts Commission, 1977, pp. 24-25, "Wet Oregon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tom Nash and Twilo Scofield, _The Well-Travelled Casket: Oregon Folklore_, Meadowlark Press, 1999, p. 39, "Oregon Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4899
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beulah Land" (tune, form) and references there
cf. "Dakota Land" (tune, theme, lyrics)
NOTES [68 words]: Roud lumps this with "Dakota Land," and I see his point; it's another satire on local conditions to the "Beulah Land" tune. But this is clearly a complete rewrite, so I've split them.
I would add that Oregon became a state before the Dakotas, and for the most part was settled earlier, so it is by no means obvious that "Dakota Land" precedes this song, even though the Dakota version is much better known. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: OregF024

Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea, A

See Britannia on Our Lee (File: SWMS049)

Wexford City (I)

See The Female Highwayman [Laws N21] (File: LN21)

Wexford City (II)

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Wexford Girl (II)

See Oxford City [Laws P30] (File: LP30)

Wexford Girl (II), The

See My Name is Edward Gallovan (File: CrSNB092)

Wexford Girl, The (The Oxford, Lexington, or Knoxville Girl; The Cruel Miller; etc.) [Laws P35]

DESCRIPTION: The singer invites the girl for a walk. They discuss their wedding. Then he takes up a club (knife) and attacks her. She begs him to spare her life. He beats (stabs) her to death and throws her in the river. (He has visions of hell.) He is hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.17(216); c.1700 (broadside, Bodleian Antiq. c. E.9(125))
KEYWORDS: wedding river homicide trial execution
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(Lond,South)) Ireland
REFERENCES (59 citations):
Laws P35, "The Wexford Girl (The Oxford, Lexington, or Knoxville Girl; The Cruel Miller; etc.)" (Laws gives three broadside texts on pp. 104-112 of ABFBB)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #137, pp. 1-2, "The Butcher Boy"; #179, p. 2, ("Mary, my dear Mary") (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan2 200, "The Butcher's Boy" (6 texts, 3 tunes)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #68, p. 236-238, "The Butcher Boy" (1 text, 1 tune, incorrectly labelled as Laws P24 based on the title)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 44, "Ferry Hinskey Town" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #57, "Hanged I Shall Be" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GarnersGay, pp. 40-41, "The Wexford Murder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #129, "The Oxford Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 133-136, "The Oxford Girl" (2 texts)
Randolph 150, "The Noel Girl" (7 texts plus 3 excerpts and 2 fragments, 5 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 108-111, "The Noel Girl" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 150A)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 40-41, "The Wax-Ward Girl" (1 text)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 20-21, "Expert Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 65-67, "The Oxford Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 104, "The Murdered Girl" (8 texts, 2 tunes, but Laws assigns the B text to "The Banks of the Ohio" and omits the others. It would appear that Eddy's A and C texts belong here)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 19, "The Knoxville Girl" (2 texts)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, p. 150, "The Waxford Girl" (1 short text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 65, "The Lexington Murder" (3 texts plus 6 excerpts, 1 fragment, and mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 65, "The Lexington Murder" (3 texts plus 4 excerpts, 7 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 63, "Nell Cropsey, III" (1 text, which despite its title does not mention Cropsey and appears to be simply a version of this song with perhaps some mixture with "Banks of the Ohio")
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #180, "The Wexford Girl" 2 texts, 1 tune; the "A" text and tune being "The Banks of the Ohio" [Laws F5] and the "B" text "The Wexford Girl (The Oxford, Lexington, or Knoxville Girl; The Cruel Miller; etc.)" [Laws P35])
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 30, pp. 141-143, "The Wexford Girl" (1 text)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 81-83, "The Oxford Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 64-65, "The Oxford Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 54-55, "The Waco Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, "The Lexington Murder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 159-164, "The Wexford Girl; Hanged I Shall Be; The Prentice Boy" (3 texts, which despite the collective title are all called "Knoxville Girl"; 1 tune on p. 402)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 68-69, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune, probably this but with some curious variants which hint at recomposition)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 73-74, "The Knoxville Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 16-17, "Knoxville Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 36, "The Wexford Girl (The Cruel Miller)" (1 text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee, 31, pp. 55-58, "The Knoxville Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 16, "Wexford Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 39, "Coal Black Hair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 88-90, "Hang-ed I Shall Be" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 71, "The Miller's Apprentice, or The Oxford Tragedy" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 56, "Wexford City" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 634-636, "The Wexford Girl" (2 texts, 2 tunes); pp. 638-640, "The Worcester Tragedy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 115, "Waterford Town" (1 text)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 98, "The Wexford Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 785-787, "The Lexington Murder" (2 texts)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 288-290, "The Wexford Girl" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 225, "The Wexford Girl" (1 text+5 fragments of another text)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 7, "The Waxford Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 150-151, "Knoxville Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 737, "The Knoxville Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 327, "The Oxford Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 115-116, "Knoxville Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 90, "The Wesford Girl" (2 texts)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 91--93, "The Wexford Girl"; pp. 94-96, "The Knoxville Girl" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #15, "The Knoxville Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 75, "The Wexford Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 265, "The Story of the Knoxville Girl" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 224, "Knoxville Girl" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1624, "Let all pretending Lovers"; ZN3196, "Young men and maidens all, give ear unto what I relate"
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Brenda Joyce Quillin, "Nell Cropsey Died -- But How?", Vol. 22, No. 2 (May 1974), pp. 51-52, "(My dear old parents brought me here)" (1 text)
DT 353, CRUELMIL* OXFRDTRG* PRETPOL2; (628), WXFRDGRL
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 95-96, "Town of Waxford" (1 text)
Julie Henigan, "Ozark Ballads as Song and Story," article in _Missouri Folklore Society Journal_, Volume 27-28 (cover date 2005-2006, but published 2015), pp. 159-185; pp. 162-163, "The Waxwell Girl" (1 text, as sung by Roxie Phillips)
Roud #263
RECORDINGS:
Blue Sky Boys, "Story of the Knoxville Girl" (Montgomery Ward 7327, c. 1937)
Ted Chestnut, "Knoxville Girl" (Silvertone 8156 [as Jim Burke]/Supertone 9260, 1928 [possibly as Ted Chesnut])
Cope Brothers, "Knoxville Girl" (King 589, 1947)
Charlotte Decker, "The Worcester Tragedy" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Mary Delaney, "Town of Linsborough" (on IRTravellers01)
Foster & James "The Knoxville Girl" (Supertone 9260, 1928) [also issued as by Jim Burke, possibly a pseudonym for Doc Roberts]
Marie Hare, "The Wexford Lass" (on MRMHare01)
Carmen McCord Hicks, "Knoxville Girl" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #476, recorded 01/29/2023)
John James, "Wexford Girl" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Louisiana Lou, "The Export Girl" (Bluebird B-5424, 1934)
Asa Martin & James [Doc] Roberts "Knoxville Girl" (Conqueror 7837, 1931)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "The Knoxville Girl" (Brunswick 110/Vocalion 5121, 1927)
Arthur Nicolle, "The Wexford Girl" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Aulton Ray, "Maxwell Girl" (Gennett 6205/Champion 15332/Challenge 335 [as Charlie Prescott]/Silvertone 5084, 1927; Supertone 9250, 1928; on KMM [as Taylor's Kentucky Boys])
Arthur Tanner, "The Knoxville Girl" (Silvertone 3515, 1926) (Columbia 15145-D, 1927)
Frances Turbyfill (Campbell), "The Knoxville Girl" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #16, recorded 09/15/2020)
Mildred Tuttle, "Expert Town (The Oxford Girl)" (AFS; on LC12)
Rick Ward, "The Knoxville Girl" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #143, recorded 04/18/2022)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Antiq. c. E.9(125), "The Berkshire Trgedy [sic]" or "The Wittam Miller" ("Young men and maidens all give ear"), unknown, c.1700; also Firth c.17(216), "The Berkshire Tragedy" or "The Wittam Miller," unknown, 1796; Harding B 6(100), Douce Ballads 3(1b), Harding B 6(101), Harding B 6(102), Firth b.28(40a), "The Berkshire Tragedy" or "The Wittam Miller"; Harding B 6(96), "The Berkshire Trgedy [sic]" or "The Wittam Miller"; Harding B 6(98), "The Wittham-Miller" or "The Berkshire Tragedy"; 2806 c.17(40), Harding B 28(224), "Bloody Miller" ("My parents educated, and good learning gave to me"); Firth c.17(110), Harding B 11(752), Harding B 11(753), Harding B 11(754), Harding B 11(755), "[The] Cruel Miller"; Harding B 15(74a), "Cruel Miller" or "Love and Murder"; Firth c.17(109), "Cruel Miller" or "Love and Murder!"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of the Ohio" [Laws F5] (plot)
cf. "Camden Town" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Oxford Tragedy
The Expert Girl
Johnny McDowell
The Prentice Boy
The Cruel Miller
The Miller Boy
Never Let the Devil Get the Upper Hand of You (Carter Family version)
NOTES [368 words]: Ozark folklore links this to the murder of one Lula Noel, whose body was discovered by the Cowskin River in Missouri in 1892. The song, however, is obviously older. Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman traces it to a broadside about a murder committed at Reading, England in 1774. - RBW
Botkin, following Cox (who follows Belden), traces it to a British broadside, "Berkshire Tragedy" or "The Wittam Miller", circa 1700. - NR
Laws also lists this broadside in his catalog (it is, indeed, one of the texts he prints), but adopts his title based on common traditional usage.
Laws, in fact, draws a stemma, starting from the "Berkshire Tragedy," and listing a total of seven "recensions" (p. 119), though he considers the broadside to be merely of eighteenth century date. I have a problem with the whole reconstruction, though: It's too literary. Even if one assumes the original ballad was a broadside (and I think Laws assumes this more often than is justified), it does not follow that its entire history is found in the broadsides. The song is so common that one must suspect the larger share of the broadsides to be derived from tradition, rather than being the source of tradition. - RBW
In Peacock pp. 638-640 version A the girl is pregnant, as in Laws' text of "The Cruel Miller" ( American Ballads from British Broadsides chapter IV, p. 111).
Broadside Bodleian Firth b.28(40a), printed in London between 1800 and 1811, has 22 8-line verses; shelfmark Antiq. c. E.9(125), with the same text as Firth b.28(40a) has an estimated print date of c.1700. These are all clearly recognizable as the same ballad, down to the "bleeding at the nose" line. - BS
The "Love and Murder" broadsides listed here should not be confused with the other numerous broadsides of that title, many of which are versions of The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (The Gosport Tragedy; Pretty Polly) [Laws P36A/B]. ["Love and Murder" is a very common title for broadsides, which I suppose proves that cheap journalism is not a modern invention. - RBW] - BS, (RBW)
Porter and Gower refer to [Jeannie Robertson's "Butcher Boy"] as "Laws P24" - but that "Butcher Boy" is a completely different song. RPG #68 is full-on "Wexford Girl." - DGE
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LP35

Wexford Insurgent, The

DESCRIPTION: "The heroes of Wexford have burst through their chains." The Shelmaliers lead the attack and trail the retreat. The Sassenach dragoons "have been trampled to death ... O! long in fair England each maiden may mourn."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion death England Ireland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 71, "The Wexford Insurgent" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [96 words]: This anonymous, probably mid-19th-century piece, displays the marks of the drawing-room rather than the tap-room or cottage in its language."
Webster's Third New International Dictionary: sassenach: "a typical Englishman or something considered typical of England -- often used disparagingly by Scots and Irish." [Derived from the same root as "Saxon" -- an ironic description, given that the first invaders of Ireland were almost all Anglo-Norman barons and their French-speaking retainers. - RBW]
The Irish baronies of Shelmalier, East and West, are in County Wexford. - BS
File: Moyl071

Wexford Lass, The

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Wexford Lovers, The

DESCRIPTION: Susan loves William Reilly, a Catholic farmer's son. Her father won't allow that and her mother arranges an ambush to shoot Reilly. Reilly is wounded but Susan throws him a pistol. They escape, eluding the law, and leave Wexford on a ship to America.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach); c. 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Bod21861 2806 c.15(138))
KEYWORDS: courting love violence emigration travel farming manhunt escape money discrimination America Ireland father lover mother youth
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30123
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Ghaney, "Willie Riley" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod21861 2806 c.15(138), "A New Song Called The Wexford Lovers" ("You tender maidens I pray draw near"), W. Birmingham(Dublin), c.1867; also Bod17267 Harding B 19(99a), Bod3997 Harding B 26(569), Bod3784 2806 b.9(226), "A New Song Called The Wexford Lovers"; Bod20769 2806 b.11(124), "The Wexford Lovers"
File: ML3WilRi

Wexford Massacre, The

DESCRIPTION: "They knelt around the cross divine, the matron and the maid... Three hundred fair and helpless ones... Had battled for their own." The three hundred have fallen at the hands of Cromwell's English. They pray Heaven will avenge the wrong
AUTHOR: M. J. Barry
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I)
KEYWORDS: Ireland battle death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 23, 1641 - Outbreak of the revolt which eventually becomes "The War of the Three Kingdoms." Catholics in Ulster rebel to earn religious liberty, but commit too many brutalities against Protestants to allow peace. To make matters worse, one of their leaders, Sir Phelim O'Neill, claims authority from Charles I (see P. Berresford Ellis, _A History of the Irish Working Class_, p. 42; C.V. Wedgwood, _The King's War 1641-1647_, p. 26). Charles declares that O'Neill's commission is a forgery, but the forces arrayed against Charles in England refuse to believe this.
Nov. 29, 1641 - Battle of Julianstown. A small force of loyalist troops is scattered by rebels. The "Old English" (English immigrants who arrived before the reign of Elizabeth), afraid of the rebels, feel compelled to join their revolt. The English are forced to raise large forces to suppress the movement. They raise the money for this by selling the rights to land expected to be confiscated from rebels. The English government is now committed to punishing Ireland -- and to blaming Charles for the troubles
Aug 1642 - The English Civil War turns "hot," causing England to concentrate mostly on its internal affairs and leave Ireland to tend its own house
Oct 1642 - "Confederation of Kilkenny." The rebels try (and fail) to form a united governmental and religious front
1643 - Inconclusive fighting. The English Civil War draws off more and more English soldiers. All sides in Ireland alternate between fighting, negotiating, and calling on King Charles. In the coming years, Charles will make various deals (usually of toleration in return for troops), but none amount to anything. The Irish factions are unable to unite in any way. Assorted battles are fought, but none are decisive. The Irish have placed themselves in the worst possible position: Clearly opposed to the English, but without the organization to oppose them. As soon as there is a united English government, the Irish can expect to face its wrath.
1649 - The English execute King Charles and declare a commonwealth. England is at last united and ready to deal with Ireland.
August 1649 - Oliver Cromwell (the future Lord Protector of England) arrives in Ireland to regain control of the island. In theory, he is fighting Irish rebels; in practice, his chief opponents are royalists (as at Drogheda)
Sep 11, 1649 - Cromwell captures Drogheda. He backs this up with a massacre -- at the very least, the garrison and the Catholic clergy are killed. His enemies report that he slaughtered indiscriminately
October 1649 - Cromwell attacks and captures Wexford
May 26, 1650 - Cromwell leaves Ireland. In his absence, the struggle continues until May 1652, but the Irish/Royalist position is already doomed; they can neither agree on a plan nor find an acceptable leader. The closest thing they have to a commander, the Duke of Ormonde (1610-1688, a staunch supporter of the Stuarts who would be Lord Lieutenant under Charles II), flees to the continent in December 1650
1652 - The English parliament passes its Act of Settlement. Cromwell will significantly alter the Act in 1653, but not in a way as to benefit the Irish. The Act is such as to deprive nearly everyone alive in Ireland of at least some property. The English send in settlers to take their places. The poverty which is to afflict Ireland for centuries dates largely from this incident
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 96-97, "The Wexford Massacre" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 205-206, "The Wexford Massacre"
NOTES [890 words]: There may never have been an English monarch who made more trouble for himself than Charles I (reigned 1625-1649). He ended up being the only English monarch ever to be executed (as opposed to being killed in battle) without being deposed first.
In the 1630s, as Charles I found himself in more and more trouble in England, he tried to strengthen his Irish position by offering the rights to Catholics known as the "Graces" (Cronin, pp. 70-71). They didn't really make the Irish happy, but at least his lieutenant Wentworth was a good administrator. But he didn't last; due to the troubles in England, he was recalled in 1639, and executed 1641.
The rebellion started in Ulster as the Catholics tried to throw off the Protestants who ran the plantation and made life nearly impossible for Catholics. The rebellion probably could have been quashed easily -- except that Charles I and parliament couldn't agree on what to do, letting things get out of hand. Charles negotiated with all parties, but -- being Charles -- he never took his promises seriously.
The 1641 revolt had resulted in the death of some Protestants (and of course the tales grew with the telling). Once Charles I was out of the way, Oliver Cromwell -- who had no mercy even on the English -- was appointed in 1649 to stamp out royalists and rebels in Ireland.
Cromwell took Drogheda on September 11, 1649, and put the garrison, and the general population, to death. (Ironically, most of the population of Drogheda was English; Fry/Fry, pp. 154-155.) Garrisons which surrendered quickly were allowed to live, but soon after Wexford was subjected to the same treatment as Drogheda; Cromwell killed 2000 people there, including 250 women (Golway, p. 17; cf. Fry/Fry, p. 155).
Cromwell left Ireland in 1650, but later saw to it that any who had not fervently supported him was punished, usually by loss of lands (The Frys compare the residue of Irish land to "an impoverished wilderness, rather like a South African homeland").
Exactly how much damage Cromwell did is hard to tell. The Frys state that "A third of the country's Catholics had been killed" (p. 156; compare Kee, p. 16). Cronin states that the surviving population "numbered no more than half a million"; the Frys also quote a figure of half a million.
Ellis, p, 43, quotes Leyburn's comparison with the Mongol hordes and cites on pp. 43-44 Petty's statistics that, of an Irish population of 1,448,000, "some 616,000 perished by sword, famine, and plague. Of this number 504,000 were native Irish while 112,000 were colonists. A further 40,000 decided to leave Ireland to enlist in European armies... 100,000 Irish... were sold as slaves to the West Indies and other colonies." This of course is more than half the population of Ireland, which is impossible; I've never seen anyone else quote such numbers. But it still surely qualifies as the worst genocide of the era.
And Cromwell then imposed the 1652 Act of Settlement, which pushed the entire native population into Connaught (sending them "to Hell or Connaught" -- Golway, p. 28; Cronin, p. 74); Golway reports that, before the Act of Settlement, Catholics still owned 60% of the land; afterward, only 20%. And from the time the act was passed to the time it finally went into effect was less than three years -- and the initial law had allowed less time than that! (Fry/Fry, p. 157).
Cromwell's mass deportation -- again, something not seen for thousands of years; the last to practice such a thing seems to have been the Romans with Carthage, and before that the Assyrian and Babylonian tyrants -- had the interesting effect of bringing together two long-separate groups: The native Irish and the "Old English" settlers who had arrived in Norman times suddenly found themselves on the same side -- and both opposed to the Protestants (Kee, pp. 15-16).
In his goal of making it impossible for Ireland to support the claim of Charles I's son and heir Charles II, Cromwell was entirely successful. "Even if Prince Rupert's naval skills had enabled Charles to land in Ireland at one of the remaining unoccupied ports, such as Waterford, the King would have found little for his comfort on arrival. Cromwell had reduced the royal forces to a series of pitiful, isolated and beleagured fortresses" (Fraser, p. 80).
Cromwell's other goal was to make the Protestants the dominant population in Ireland. But, of course, it didn't work; there weren't enough Protestants in Britain to occupy the land, so the same old situation prevailed; The Protestants owned the land, but their tenants were Catholic. The only effect was to reduce the tenants' rights to nothing: They could be displaced at whim. This of course assured that the tenants would spend everything they had to try to stay on their land.
Cromwell cannot be considered the sole source of the Irish problems, but he probably contributed more to them than any other man. Indeed, more than any other five or six, including even William of Orange. Little wonder that the Irish claimed that Cromwell carried about pictures of Satan, and that the story was told that he sold his soul to the Devil before the battle of Worcester in 1651 (since it turned out that he died exactly seven years after that victory). One account even tells of the portrait of the devil bowing to Cromwell (O hOgain, p. 133). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: PGa096

Wexford Murder, The

See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Wexford Schooner, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams of Kelly shot on Tara Hill. Then he dreams of "a schooner down from Wexford town cast on Wicklow's coast." Captain Laurence Murphy and the crew, who "have met a watery grave," are named.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, p. 61, "The Wexford Schooner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #20518
NOTES [84 words]: Wicklow county is north of Wexford. - BS
I have this funny feeling that this refers to the 1798, with Kelly being "Kelly, the Boy from Killane," wounded at the Three Bullet Gate at New Ross. The wrecked ship may be the one by which Bagenal Harvey, the commander at New Ross, tried to flee; according to Thomas Pakenham, The Year of Liberty, p. 268, Harvey was captured in a cave, though Pakenham doesn't mention a shipwreck. But this is only speculation based on very little information from the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran061

Weylawey þat iche ne span

See (notes under) So Long I Have Lady (File: MSSLIHL)

Wha Saw the Forty-Second

DESCRIPTION: "(Wha saw/Saw ye) the forty-second? Wha saw then gaun away? Wha saw the forty-second Marching to the (Broomielaw)?" The singer describes the equipment (often poor) and the rations assigned to the soldiers of the regiment
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1922 (Greig-Duncan collection)
KEYWORDS: soldier travel nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1628, "Fa Saw the Forty-Second?" (2 texts)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 98, "(Who saw the Forty-Second)" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 315, 441, 491, "Warsaw the Forty-Second" (sic.) (notes only)
DT, MARCH42*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #102, p.63, "The Forty-Second"
Roud #13073
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gallant Forty-Twa" (subject: 42nd Highlanders or Black Watch) and references there
cf. "Ellen McGiggin" (one verse)
NOTES [450 words]: The Forty-Second is the famous Black Watch, which fought in the '45 Jacobite Rebellion and the Crimea and beyond.
Six companies were raised in the Highlands in 1729 and designated the Black Watch (Brander, p. 203). In 1739 (Hallows, p. 202) or 1740 (Brander, p. 203), it was raised to regimental strength and numbered the 43rd Infantry. In 1751, this number was changed to the 42nd (Hallows, p. 202). In 1758 it was designated the Royal Highlanders (Brander, p. 203).
A second battalion was added in 1780 (Brander, p. 205). This was split off in 1784 and became the 73rd Regiment, though it later rejoined the Black Watch; since 1881, they have been the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) (Hallows).
This recombination and reorganization, part of the Cardwell Reforms of 1881 (a set of changes which standardized the size of units, gave them a regular geographic base, and improved command arrangements; Chandler/Beckett, pp. 188-189), changed the character of the regiment, which until then had been a Highland force. The Black Watch's recruiting area was now designated as Fife, Forfar, and Perth, with Perth as the headquarters. These shires are almost entirely Lowland. So, while the regiment is still designated a Highland regiment, it isn't really (Brander, p. 199).
The companies which comprised the Black Watch had been raised starting around 1725 (Brander, p. 19); the name itself apparently came from the dark tartan they wore when they were amalgamated and given a common uniform.
Their record was quite impressive. Hallows lists their battle honors, which include (but are not limited to) fighting in the Carribean in the Seven Years War; much service in India; ten battles in the Peninsular Wars against Napoleon; Waterloo; battles in South Africa; awards for Alma and Sebastopol in the Crimean War; Egypt; the Sudan; in the First World War, the Marne, all three battles at Ypres, the Somme, and some troops were in Palestine; there are honors for Tobruk, El Alamein, Sicily, and Burma in the second World War, and beyond.
This may explain why the regiment is listed in the song as marching to various places. It certainly got around a lot! And few regiments were more famous.
I can't help but add that this greatest of British regiments, which held together despite service in the Crimea and the Sudan and so many other failures, has in the early twenty-first century been amalgamated into a "Super Scottish Regiment." The reason? People won't join the army because they refuse to go to Iraq
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 491, says this was sung to the tune of "Scotland the Brave," but given that the latter tune cannot be dated before about 1910, the dependence may be the other way. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: MSNR098

Wha'll Be King but Charlie

DESCRIPTION: "The news frae Moidart came yestreen... For ships of war have just come in And landed royal Charlie." Listeners are called to rally, for "Wha'll be King but Charlie?" Both men and women are roused to come "to arms for royal Charlie"
AUTHOR: Carolina Oliphaunt, Lady Nairne ?
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845
KEYWORDS: Jacobites royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 3, 1745 (new style dating) - Bonnie Prince Charlie arrives in Eriskay
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 44, "Who'll be King but Charlie?" (1 text, 1 tune, linked to this by title but with "Weevily Wheat" verses)
DT, WHAKING*
Roud #42006
SAME TUNE:
The Man We Love So Dearly (concerning Andrew Jackson) (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 242)
When British Bands (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p.79)
NOTES [266 words]: I've seen this credited to Carolina, Lady Nairne, but it's not found in "Lays from Strathearn," the original collection of her works, so the evidence for this is, at best, weak.
The "News frae Moidart" of the first line is a reference to the arrival of Bonnie Prince Charlie in Scotland in 1745. Properly he landed on Eriskay, but that island had too few people to use as a base, so he quickly transferred to Moidart. And there the Forty-Five Rebellion was born. For this see, e.g., Frank McLynn, Bonnie Prince Charlie: Charles Edward Stuart, 1988 (I use the 1991 Oxford paperback edition), pp. 128-129.
The statement that "ships of war have just come in and landed royal Charlie" is a bit exaggerated. Charles's original expedition consisted of two ships, the Elizabeth and the Du Teillay or Doutelle. The Elizabeth was a warship (though not a very large one), but the Du Teillay carried primarily cargo. And the Elizabeth was forced to fight the British ship Lion on the way to the Hebrides, and dropped out of the expedition. Thus, though one might argue that Charles had set out with "ships of war," he arrived in Eriskay with one ship which was not intended to fight. (See McLynn, pp. 127-128).
Nor did all the clans "declare to stand or fall for Royal Charlie." He managed to rouse many of the clans, including notablly the Camerons and MacDonalds -- but Clan Campbell stood against him, and a rising without Clan Cambell had little hope. As events proved. As for the Lowlands supporting Charlie -- hah. A few came out; more supported the Hannoverians; most simply sat. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: DTwhakin

Whack 'em to the Rye

See The Miller's Will (The Miller's Three Sons) [Laws Q21] (File: LQ21)

Whack Fol the Diddle (God Bless England)

DESCRIPTION: "We'll sing you a song of Peace and Love." "'God Bless England.'" When we were savages she raised us up "and sent us to heaven in her own good time." "Irishmen, forget the past." Soon we shall be civilized. "Won't Mother England be surprised."
AUTHOR: Peadar Kearney (1883-1942)
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: England Ireland humorous nonballad political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads, pp. 250-251, "Whack Fol the Diddle" (1 text)
DT WHACKFOL*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 686-688, "Whack Fol the Diddle" (1 text)
Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 52-53, "Whack Fol the Diddle" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Whack Fol the Diddle" (on IRClancyMakem03)
NOTES [419 words]: Most of the charges in this song are, of course, true -- and, in fact, the final stanza has in some ways come true also; in the early twenty-first century, the Irish economy is growing much faster than the English.
I can't help but point out one irony, though: The Anglo-Irish conflicts were caused, more than anything else, by the problems between Catholic and Protestant -- and it was the English who made the Irish firmly Catholic! Celtic Christianity had been largely monastic rather than Episcopal, and had celebrated Easter according to a different calendar. It was England, at the Synod of Whitby, that forced the English Celtic church to follow the Catholic calendar, and the English invasion of Ireland was authorized by Pope Adrian IV to bring the Irish back into proper episcopal practice. The Irish have followed those English practices for over 800 years; it is the English who have abandoned them.
According to Hoagland, p. 784, Peadar Kearney (O'Cearnaigh; 1883-1942) was a member of the IRA and participated in a minor role in the 1916 Easter Rebellion. He also wrote the words to "The Soldier's Song" ("Soldiers are we Whose lives are pledged to Ireland; Some have come From a land beyond the waves"; in Gaelic, "Amhran na bhFiann"; composed 1907), one of the best-known rebel songs and a future national anthem, but a song which does not seem to have entered into tradition. Happily, since such a violent item would be reasonable as a military song but which is, frankly, completely unsuitable to be used as national anthem of a civilized country.
Other Keaney songs in this index include "Down By the Glenside (The Bold Fenian Men)," "Michael Dwyer (II)," "Fish and Chips (Down by the Liffey Side)," and perhaps "Erin Go Braugh! (I)." According to Henry Boylan, A Dictionary of Irish Biography, second edition, St. Martin's Press, 1988, pp. 179-180, he was an uncle of Brendan Behan, who left school young to work on bicycle repairs during the day to support his evening work in theatres. He became a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1903, and wrote "A Soldier's Song" in 1907. He fought in the 1916 rising, was arrested in 1920 and held for a year, and after his release worked as a house painter. Little as I like his violent politics, it seems like a waste of a genuine talent.
According to Hoagland, the British banned the singing of three Kearney songs, "The Soldier's Song," this item, and "The Tri-Colored Ribbon." The effect, of course, was to make them more popular. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: OLcM0250

Whalan of Waitin' Awhile

DESCRIPTION: "Long life to old Whalan of Waitin' Awhile, Good luck to his children and wife." They never complain; "'It's no use of mooning, it might have been worse,' said Whalan...." Life is hard and nothing ever works, but the family will wait for success
AUTHOR: J. W. Gordon ("Jim Grahame"), according to Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback)
KEYWORDS: home hardtimes
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, pp. 79-80, "Whalan of Waitin' Awhile" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: TrMe079

Whale Fishers

See The Greenland Whale Fishery [Laws K21] (File: LK21)

Whale in Golden Bay, The

DESCRIPTION: In May 1912 a crew spent 3 weeks "hunting" (?) in Golden Bay and "picked up" a (dead?) whale. They telegraphed for a whaler to come and buy it but, by the time it arrived, the whale was too rotten to be sold. The crew are the butt of jokes on land.
AUTHOR: Henry Nash Sr and Bernard Nash (source: notes to ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
KEYWORDS: commerce sea ship humorous moniker whale sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #26451
RECORDINGS:
Anthony Power, "The Whale in Golden Bay" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
NOTES [166 words]: The crew is from Branch at the southern tip of the Avalon peninsula. The whale is stowed in Wester Cove, which is near Branch. I don't know where Golden Bay is, but it is apparently in the same area (see "The Northeast Gale"). Why would a local crew have to "serve our master for four long months In the place called Golden Bay"? And, if this is in the south, what would they be "hunting" from May to August? The singer says they were "fishing" and just happened to find the whale. - BS
Golden Bay isn't on any map of Newfoundland that I can check (including even the MUN Atlas of Newfoundland and Labrador, which would be about as official as you can get), but it's mentioned in Otto Kelland's "Let Me Fish Off Cape St. Mary's"/"Western Boat"; I would guess it's an inlet off either Placentia Bay or St. Mary's Bay. There is no "Redland Point," either, but there is a "Red Island," of which "Redland Point" might be a mis-hearing, in Placentia Bay. For "Westering Cove" I have no suggestions. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: ITMAWiGB

Whale Island Anthem, The

See Cruising Round Yarmouth (File: RcCRYar)

Whale Song, The

See Crazy Song to the Air of "Dixie" (File: San342)

Whale-Catchers, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer and his shipmates sail to Greenland after whales. He describes hardships of their lives, and looks forward to arrival back home, when they will make the alehouses of London roar. When they've spent all their money, they'll go back to Greenland.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900
KEYWORDS: ship shore work whale whaler
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 100, "The Whale Catchers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3291
RECORDINGS:
A.L. Lloyd, "The Twenty-third of March" (on Lloyd9)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy"
NOTES [44 words]: This song is distinct from "The Greenland Whale Fishery." It shares much of its final verse with a song called "Adieu, My Lovely Nancy" [indexed as "Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy"] collected from an Irish immigrant in Missouri and sung by the Copper family in Sussex. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: VWL100

Whale, The

See The Greenland Whale Fishery [Laws K21] (File: LK21)

Whalefish Song, The

See The Greenland Whale Fishery [Laws K21] (File: LK21)

Whaleman's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on the briny ocean On a whaleship I did go; Oft times I thought of distant friends...." The singer relates the voyage around Cape Horn and describes how Captain and officers abuse the crew. He vows to go sailing no more.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Journal from the Catalpa)
KEYWORDS: whaler hardtimes abuse
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 15-17, "The Whaleman's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tod-WhalingInSouthernWaters, p. 124, "The Whaleman's Lament" (1 text)
Roud #2000
RECORDINGS:
A.L. Lloyd, "The Whaleman's Lament" (on Lloyd9)
NOTES [42 words]: Huntington does not indicate what tune he used for this song; perhaps he made it up. (He can hardly have used a tune from other versions of this song, since he doesn't list any.) The metrical form, however, strongly suggests "Jim Jones at Botany Bay." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SWMS015

Whalemen's Wives, The

DESCRIPTION: Cautionary song, warns whalemen of what their wives will do while they're "on the raging deep." Wives spend their husbands' half pay, pawn their belongings & run around with fancy men, only wanting their husbands back when their pockets are well lined.
AUTHOR: Captain R. W. Nye
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips)
KEYWORDS: whaler warning wife sailor
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 232-234, "The Whalemen's Wives" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9156
File: Harl232

Whalen's Fate

See James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC07)

Whaler's Lamentation, The

DESCRIPTION: Each of five whaling companies has a verse headed by their ship names. The verses lament destruction of their pier by storm. The chorus says "Davis Straits adieu this season, Greenland for a year goodbye" but the final verse claims the ships will sail.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1815 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: sea commerce disaster storm nonballad whaler
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 12, 1815 - The Aberdeen North Pier used by whalers is damaged by storm (source: GregDuncan1)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #86, p. 2, "The Whalers' Lamentation" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 12, "The Whaler's Lamentation" (1 text)
Roud #5803
NOTES [181 words]: Greig: "From Mr Walker, Aberdeen, I have got a copy of a whaling song which is dated 'Spring, 1815.' It looks like a libretto intended for dramatic rendering [but see the next note re 'The Storm']. The allusions in it had been understood at the time but to us they are just enigmas. It is interesting to note, however, that the four whalers referred to in 'The Diamond Ship,' given a week ago [Greig #85], are all mentioned here." The whaling season was not lost and the ships all sailed in February and March.
This song shares its opening line with broadside Bodleian Harding B 25(1842), "The Storm" ("Cease rude Boreus [sic] blustering railer list ye landsmen all to me"), D. Wrighton (Birmingham) , 1812-1830, by George Alexander Stevens; this probably is a parody. In 1808, at Sans Pareil Theatre, London, "Woolf sang the famous "Description of a Storm" by George Alexander Stevens, which became such a familiar favorite at the Adelphi in subsequent years" (source: "The London Stage 1800-1900," Joseph Donohue and James Ellis, General Editors, at Eastern Michigan University site).- BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1012

Whaler's Rhyme, The

See The Limejuice Tub (File: MA140)

Whaler's Song

See Whalers' Song (I) (File: SWMS017)

Whaler's Song (II)

See Greenland (The Whaler's Song, Once More for Greenland We Are Bound) (File: Ord317)

Whalers of the Deep, Deep Sea, The

DESCRIPTION: "The landsman loves his downy bed, Ne'er tossed upon the heaving billow" while "The whalers of the deep, deep, Danger and toil and death we brave." The live hard lives, they hunt the whale; they would not trade it for a less thrilling life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982 (Tod-WhalingInSouthernWaters)
KEYWORDS: whale sailor hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tod-WhalingInSouthernWaters, p. 125, "The Whalers of the Deep, Deep Sea" (1 text)
NOTES [50 words]: The songs in Tod-WhalingInSouthernWaters; often it is possible to identify his source, but I do not know where he found this one. I doubt it is traditional; it looks like one of those things he could have found in a whaling journal. There is nothing that I can see to connect it to New Zealand. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Tod125A

Whalers' Rhymes

DESCRIPTION: "Along the coast the Magnet came, With Captain Bruce, a man of fame, But in his face there is no shame On the beautiful coast of New Zealand." Short tales of various people set "On the beautiful coast of New Zealand."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (Dunedin Evening Star [October 25 edition], according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ; Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook claims a date of 1840 but without documentation)
KEYWORDS: ship New Zealand nonballad travel food
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 17, "Whalers' Rhymes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 43, "Whalers' Rhymes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 50, "(Whaler's Rhymes)" (1 text)
Tod-WhalingInSouthernWaters, p. 125, "The Beautiful Coast of New Zealand" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The King of the Cannibal Islands" (tune) and references there
NOTES [1190 words]: This was apparently recorded as "The Beautiful Coast of New Zealand," which is certainly a better name.
The history behind the was the subject of an article by Frank Fyfe, first published in Maorilander, parts 1-4 (1970-1971); I have not seen it. In addition to the Dunedin Evening Star citation, it was apparently quoted in Herries Beattie's 1939 book The First White Boy in Otago, according to Frank Tod, Whaling in Southern Waters, New Zealand Tablet Co. Ltd., 1982, p. 63.
All the characters and places in this song seem to be historical -- at least Tod was able to identify all of them.
"Captain (James) Bruce": In 1836-1837, he sailed Johnny Jones's vessel the Sydney Packet from Preservation Inlet, carrying seal skins, whale oil, and whalebone (Tod, pp. 33-34, 55). By 1838 he had moved to the Magnet, because in that year he left Sydney in that vessel "to take down [Jones's] various whaling gear and casks for the 1838 season" (p. 56); he went on to visit various Jones stations (p. 60). "Captain Bruce was master of the Magnet when she brought the 1840 settlers [to Waikouaiti, seemingly from Australia], and he was later identified with Akaroa" (p. 63). The Magnet was certainly busy in 1838; Tod, p. 97, lists five trips she made to Sydney in that year, carrying a total of 294 tuns of oil. There is a picture of him on p. 60. He established a "Bruce Hotel" at Akaroa in 1841; Tod has a picture of the hotel on p. 83.
"Mr Wiltshire" is George Willshire, who "settled at Port Molyneux about 1840" (Tod, p. 63). There is a Willsher Bay in New Zealand, near the south end of the South Island, where he lived (Tod, p. 71), so I assume it's named for him.
"Bloody Jack" is the Maori Tuhawaiki, "the leading Maori chief of Otago" (Tod, p. 63). He was apparently also known as "Tooawook" (Tod, p. 83), and "John Towack." He was a member of the Ngai Tahu tribe, and "is counted among the great South Island chiefs, noted for his intelligence, commercial acumen, leadership, and charm" (Jackson/McRobie, p. 237). NewZealandEncyclopedia, p. 555, says he was "an able and resolute paramount chief of the South Island, who inflicted three decisive defeats on the Ngati Toa, Te Rauparaha's tribe. He was known as 'Bloody Jack' by the earliest European settlers in the South Island, because of the use of the word bloody in his speech. He was later converted to Christianity, and earned widespread respect among the Europeans with whom he came in contact."
The whaling boss Johnny Jones bought a lot of land from him on very typically unfair terms (Tod, p. 73). The Weller Brotherss also bought land from him (Tod, p. 78). In 1839 he sold land to George Hempleman (Tod, pp. 83, 85) -- only to bring a large band to the Peraki whaling station and killed one boy and threatened another until placated with a fine whaleboat (Tod, p. 85). It appears he was literate enough to sign his name to the contract -- at least, Tod prints the agreement on p. 85, and while most of the Maori signers apparently signed with an X, there is no X by the name of "John Tuhawaike." He signed the Treaty of Waitangi that, in effect, made New Zealand a British colony in 1840 (Tod, pp. 87-88, although Morton, p. 115, says that he had trouble understanding the northern Maori dialect into which the British had translated it).
Interestingly, it appears that he sometimes tried to outsmart the Europeans as well as vice versa: the visiting Bishop Selwyn reported that he kept a large barrel of rum, from which he gave away or sold drinks (Rickard, p. 102, who makes no mention of Tuhawaiki drinking from it himself).
He apparently was an impressive figure. Joseph Hay, who met him, said he was "tall and powerfully built, with handsome features and a stately carriage... brave and resourceful, and, alike for tactics and personal prowess... easily the finest warrior in the South Island.... This truly great chief... enjoyed the respect and affection of the Whites as well" (Morton, p. 172). He is said to have been "highly successful in adopting European ways and using European techniques" -- which the bigoted whalemen claimed was an example of their civilizing influence (Morton, p. 217). He had built a "European-style house" by 1844 (Morton, p. 253), the year he lost his life when his boat was caught in a storm (Reed, p. 153; Wikipedia says he was born c. 1805). Nonetheless Johnny Jones contracted to buy the whole South Island from him (Morton, p. 305), which was hardly in position to sell and for which Jones would not pay a reasonable price anyway -- the Maori went to Sydney and signed the paperwork in return for a small payment and annuities. (According to Reed, p. 152, Tuhawaiki had originally asked for a million pounds, which was at least semi-reasonable, but got talked down to £2400, or "three - halfpence an acre"! The copy of the agreement on p. 100 of Tod says Tuhawaiki's share was £900. Jackson/McRobie, p. 237, say he had also been to Sydney in 1838, for commercial reasons.)
There is a book about him, F. G. Hall-Jones, King of the Bluff. The life and times of Tuhawaiki ("Bloody Jack"), Southland Historical Committee, 1943. I have not seen it; it seems to be very rate.
"Peter Shavatt" is a reference to someone Tod, p. 34, calls "Peter Chevatt" while admitting that no one seems to have actually known how to spell his name. He is said to have been a "Moeraki whaler." Tom Kennard described him as "a Frenchman, and... a baker by trade" who set up an oven at Matammic Flat once the need for whalers declined (Tod, p. 64), although Kennard knew nothing of his hat. He is the "Peter Chavat" who was a cooper working for the Wellers and was lured away from them by John Hughes when the latter struck out on his own (Morton, p. 229).
"John Hughes," according to Kennard, had "Maori shoes," but the recorded text said "shocking bad shoes," probably by confusion with Chevatt's hat mentioned in the preceding line.
Hughes is described as a "bit of a celebrity" (Tod, p. 64). He "won the respect of everyone who met him" and supposedly "could do anything... just the sort of man for early colonial life" (Morton, p. 307). He commanded a whaleboat in 1835 (Tod, p. 28). He had spent at least three years in that role for the Weller Brothers when he struck out on his own in 1836 (Tod, p. 43; Morton, p. 229); Tod has a whole chapter "John Hughes at Moeraki (pp. 43-51). Rickard, p. 59, says that Hughes's station was the longest-lived and most productive of those in New Zealand while recording on p. 91 that he also grew crops there. (He also kept a slave -- a man he had redeemed from the Maori by buying him. Hughes may not have called him a slave, but the Maori did; Morton, p. 221.) On at least one occasion Hughes himself was threatened with death by the Maori but was saved by a Maori woman (Morton, p. 257); he eventually married a Maori wife and based his land claim on her property rights (Morton, p. 307).
Addding it all up, this song almost has to be from the late 1830s. I suspect this is why Cleveland dated in 1840: not because there is a copy from that year but because the internal evidence suggests it. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: BaRo017

Whalers' Song (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "There she lies there she lies Like an isle on the ocean's breast...." The crew spots a whale and pursues; they take the animal. They think about returning home to New England, and remind those who use the oil of the dangers whalers face
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (Cheever, The Whale and His Captors, according to Huntington)
KEYWORDS: whaler home return travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 17-20, "The Whaler's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 30, "Whaler's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tod-WhalingInSouthernWaters, p. 125, "A Whaler's Song" (1 text)
Roud #2001
File: SWMS017

Whaling Scene, A

DESCRIPTION: "A whaling scene I'll now relate On the ocean's bosom wife, sir." The boats chase the whale. The headsman harpoons it. The whale speeds off. The boat turns over. The pursuit continues. They take the whale. Whalers are told to strike hard and be careful
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Journal from the Maria)
KEYWORDS: whaler drowning ship wreck
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 21-22, "A Whaling Scene" (1 text)
Tod-WhalingInSouthernWaters, p. 126, "A Whaling Scene" (1 text)
Roud #2002
File: TWSS126A

Whaling Song, A

DESCRIPTION: "When spring returns with western gales And gentle breeze sweep... We spread our sails" to hunt whales. The singer lists the lands they pass on their way north. They find and pursue a whale, which fights a long fight. "With joyful hearts we see her die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (Ricketson, A History of New Bedford, according to Huntington)
KEYWORDS: travel sailor whaler death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 15-17, "A Whaling Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27559
File: HGam015

Whaling Voyage, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you that have leisure And list a while to me, And I'll relate the dangers That wait you on the sea." The Adeline Gibbs leaves Fairhaven to round Cape Horn. and pass Chile, Hawaii, and Japan. They have little luck on the way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang)
KEYWORDS: whaler travel hardtimes storm
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 58-62, "The Whaling Voyage" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #27537
File: HGam058

Whan that my swete Son was thirti wynter old

See My Heart Is Woe (When That My Sweet Son Was Thirty Winter Old) (File: MSOMHIWo)

Whar Sall Bonnie Annie Lye

See Where Shall Our Goodman Lie? (File: LyCr2130)

Wharfdale Sword Dancer's Song

DESCRIPTION: "The first that enters on the floor, His name is Captain Brown; I think he is as smart a youth As any in the town." Then come tailor Obadiah Trim, the Quaker; then the foppish knight, a vintner, a beautiful dame; they will dance "Jumping Joan"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #16, pp. 194-196,246, "Sword-Dancers' Song" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 392-394, "The Sword-Dancers' Song" (1 text plus portions of the sword-dance play including many additional lyrics)
ST BeCo393 (Partial)
Roud #610
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Earsdon Sword-Dancer's Song" (theme) and references there
NOTES [34 words]: There are a number of songs of this type, which Roud generally lumps under his #610. But they are at the very least different recensions of the same source. See the cross-references for other exaples. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: BeCo393

Wharncliffe Highwood

See Rural Sport (File: OSY255)

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

DESCRIPTION: "What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry Ev'rything to God in prayer." The singer describes all the ways in which God can help with life's troubles and burdens
AUTHOR: Words: Joseph Medlicott Scriven (1819-1886) / Music: Charles Crozat Converse (1832-1919)
EARLIEST DATE: Words written 1855, tune 1870 (Johnson)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 264-265, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 364, "What A Friend We Have In Jesus" (1 text)
DT, FRNDJSUS*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 182-183, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ira D. Sankey, _Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos_ [1200 Hymns] (London} Collins, 1921?), #319 (1880 #117), "What a Friend We Have in Jesus"
Roud #16213
RECORDINGS:
Caravans, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" (States S-128, n.d.)
Artricia Gordon with Katrina Esocoff, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" (Piotr-Archive #90, recorded 12/29/2021)
Mississippi John Hurt, "What a Friend We Have In Jesus" (on MJHurt04)
Moving Star Hall Singers, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" (on USSeaIsland02)
E. R. Nance Singers, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" (ARC, unissued, 1930)
Old Southern Sacred Singers, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" (Brunswick 172, 1927; Supertone S-2117, 1930)
Frank Welling & John McGhee, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" (Broadway 8136, c. 1931)
Henry Williams, Henry Thomas, Margaret Wright and Edna Wright, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
SAME TUNE:
When This Bloody War is Over (File: DalC182)
Chinese Maiden's Lament (File: Tawn046)
Hymn to Cheeses (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 12)
What a Friend We Have in Congress (on PeteSeeger39, PeteSeeger44)
Dump the Bosses Off Your Back (by John Brill; DT, DUMPBOSS)
NOTES [757 words]: The Herskovits Trinidadian Spiritual Baptist account of "Jesus Lover of My Soul" fits the USSeaIsland02 track as well. This is a Sankey hymn, and the writers of the WITrinidadVillage02 liner notes would characterize this track as "Sankey into Shout." - BS
According to Johnson, author Joseph Medlicott Scriven had two fiancees die shortly before marriage. He ended up writing this, in 1855, for his mother. According to Stulken, p. 469, it was first published in Social Hymns, Original and Selected in 1865.
Stulken, p. 470, says that Scriven was subject to depression, and at one time tried to devote his entire life to Christian service (not a rare thing for the depressed). His death in 1886 was the result of drowning; it is possible that he committed suicide, but this cannot be proved or disproved. It is perhaps noteworthy that one of the women he hoped to marry also perished by drowning (Rudin, p. 50).
The 1819 date of his birth is the one I have most often encountered (e.g. McKim, p. 281), although Ira D. Sankey gave it as 1820, according to Julian, p. 1700, and Rudin, p. 49, accepts this date. Sankey also said that the song was "discovered" by a neighbor who was sitting up with Scriven while the latter was sick. Scriven had not intended to publish (another sign of depression, perhaps), but it would seem the neighbour's delight in the song may have changed his mind.
Reynolds, p. 422, says that Scriven was born in County Down, Ireland, and in 1835 went to Trinity College, Dublin, but two years later joined the military, only to give it up due to poor health and return to Trinity, where he earned a degree in 1842. He moved to Ontario, Canada in 1844, and worked as a teacher and tutor, as well as devoting time to the handicapped and destitute. It was in Ontario that he drowned himself forty years later.
According to Reynolds, p. 238, the tune "CONVERSE, sometimes called ERIE, was composed by Charles C. Converse in 1868, and first appeared in Silver Wings, compiled by Karl Reden (Boston, Oliver Ditson, 1870, No. 98), where the tune is credited to Reden, a pseudonym of Converse." (It looks to me as if "Karl Reden" is German for "Charles Converse," as "Wurzel" is German for [George F.] Root; Karl of course is German for Charles, and the root "Rede" (which still survives in English as an archaic word for "counsel") can mean "CONVERSation.")
Rudin, p. 50, claims an ironic coincidence: When Sankey was editing the hymnbook containing this song, his final decision was between two songs. One was this text, and the other was a song by Charles Converse, who wrote the tune for this one! Obviously Sankey chose "What a Friend...."
Converse, according to Reynolds, p. 287, was born in Warren, Massachusetts, in 1832 and educated in Elmira, New York. He visited Germany in the late 1850s, where he studied music. He gained a law degree in 1861 (McKim, p. 281, says he graduated law school in 1861 but that he received his Doctor of Law degree in 1895; he had refused a Doctor of Music degree). In addition to hymn tunes, he wrote two symphonies and sundry oratorios and lesser classical works. He died in Highwood, New Jersey, in 1918. If he ever did anything worth remembering other than write this tune, I haven't found it.
McKim, p. 404, says that the hymn is extremely popular in Korea (i.e. presumably South Korean Christian churches) -- so much so that the Korean text has been included in American Presbyterian hymnals. - RBW
I believe the note to USSeaIsland02 mislabels two tracks. It assumes "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" morphs into a song called "I Love Jesus," which continues as "I Love Jesus" on the next track. The singing does not stop and the tune does not change. I believe that, as far as the singers are concerned, both tracks are the same song. As Dargan notes, the USSeaIsland02 tune is "Restoration" and not the tune usually associated with this song. The USSeaIsland02 version begins with the usual first verse -- "What a friend we have in Jesus ... All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer" -- and continues with "I love Jesus" (3x) / "Yes I do." "Coming for to rescue me" (3x) / "Yes I do," and "We need Jesus"(3x) / "One more road" [see: William T. Dargan, Lining Out the Word (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), pp. 41, 47; Benjamin Franklin White, E. J. King, et al, Original Sacred Harp (Atlanta, 1911 ("Digitized by Google") (correction and enlargement of 1869 edition copyright J.S. James)), p. 312, "Restoration," especially the chorus]. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB364A

What a Leman Will Ye Gie Me

DESCRIPTION: What sweetheart will you give me if I give you a bride? I'll give you so-and-so with "gowd about his middle Wi' the siller shakin' frae his heels."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage gold nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1587, "What a Leman Will Ye Gie Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13076
File: GrD81587

What a Meeting That Will Be

See Our Fathers They'll Be There (File: Br3627)

What a Mighty God We Serve

DESCRIPTION: "What a mighty (holy) God we serve (x2).""He woke me up this morning, Started me on my way, What a mighty God we serve"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (USSeaIsland03)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Vennie Deas-Moore, "'Come Along, Let's Ride This Train': Santee River Testimonies, Praises, and Songs," Vol. XLVIII, No. 1-2 (2001), p. 56, "What a Mighty God We Serve" (1 short text)

RECORDINGS:
Rosa and Joseph Murray, "What a Mighty God We Serve" (on USSeaIsland03)
File: RcWAMGWS

What a Nose (Melindy's Nose)

DESCRIPTION: "Well, I fell in love with a nice young girl"; "O, Melindy was handsome, as fair as any lamb," but "She had a nose, a very big nose, But it wasn't half so funny as you might suppose." The boys say "Jumpin' jiminy geez-whacks, look at her nose."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 6-7, "Melindy's Nose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7016
File: BCWVI006

What a Trying Time

DESCRIPTION: "O Adam, where are you (x3), O what a trying time." "Lord, I am in the garden." "Adam, you ate that apple." "Lord, Eve, she gave it to me." "Adam, it was forbidden." "Lord said, walk out the garden."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious food
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 74, "What a Trying Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12034
NOTES [202 words]: The notes in Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates call this "a most compendious account of the fall." This does indeed sum up Genesis 3:9-24, with the sole exception that the Forbidden Fruit is nowhere called an apple. The evidence against identifying it with the apple is strong -- apples are rare in that part of the world, and they do not produce good fruit. (Even where the word "apple" is found in the English translations of the Old Testament, there is speculation that it applies to the apricot or the quince.) Most of the speculation I have seen suggests that the Tree of Knowledge was thought to be a quince or a pomegranite -- or, possibly, the Tree of Knowledge was a quince and the Tree of Life a pomegranite, since there are actual renderings of pomegranites of life in ancient art.
In the Middle Ages, the fig tree was the leading candidate (see Kenneth A. Bleeth in Larry D. Benson, editor, The Learned and the Lewed: Studies in Chaucer and Medieval Literature, Harvard University Press, 1974, p. 53), based mostly on the fact that Adam and Eve sewed their garments out of fig leaves -- although I suspect that Jesus's injunction "from the fig tree learn its lesson" also played a part. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: AWG074A

What Ails the Lasses at Me?

DESCRIPTION: The singer, is a "winsome" well-off farmer, with goods and credit, "and few I see gang oot more handsome." Lasses quickly take to wretches and sick men but deny him. He would take any girl, honest and free, if she would just write a note to him.
AUTHOR: Alexander Ross (source: Chambers)
EARLIEST DATE: 1829 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad bachelor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1393, "I Am a Young Bachelor" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, pp. 604-605, "What Ails the Lasses at Me?"
Roud #7250
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bachelor's Lament
NOTES [36 words]: Greig/Duncan7 from Greig quoting James M Taylor: "The date of this fine old song which I have heard sung on several occasions is probably 1778 as it does not appear in Ross's first edition of his poems in 1768." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71393

What Aloha Means

See Aloha Means We Welcome You (File: ACSF341A)

What Are Little Babies Made Of?

See What's Little Babies Made Of? (File: SKE79)

What are Little Boys Made Of?

See What's Little Babies Made Of? (File: SKE79)

What Are Little Girls Made Of?

See What's Little Babies Made Of? (File: SKE79)

What Are You Going To Do When the Lamp Burns Down

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Oh poor sinner (x2), What are you going to do when the lamp burns down?" Verses: "God made man and He made him out of clay, Put him on earth but not to stay." "Satan's mad and I am glad, He miss one soul he thought he had."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious floatingverses Devil Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 140-141, "What Yo' Gwine t' Do When de Lamp Burn Down?" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 136-137 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #12350
NOTES [106 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "What are you going to do when the lamp burns down?" - BS
Presumably a reference to the parable of the "Wise and Foolish Virgins" (Matthew 25:1-13): Ten virgins go to meet a wedding party. All bring their lamps but the foolish ones do not bring extra oil. The bridegroom is delayed, arriving unannounced at midnight. Only the wise virgins have enough oil for their lamps so they can go and greet him. By the time the foolish virgins buy oil for their lamps they are so late that the bridegroom refuses to recognize them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett140

What Avails It?

DESCRIPTION: "Tell me jealous-hearted swain What avails thy idle arts, To divide united hearts." Love blows where it wills, just like the wind. The two lovers conceal their sighs so that not even Argus can see them. "Mysterious love, to kindred souls conveys."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 302, "What Avails It?" (1 text)
Roud #11707
NOTES [56 words]: I haven't located whatever bogus source Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania lifted this out of and claimed it was traditional, but given that Shoemaker (or his "informants") did so repeatedly, I don't think there can be any doubt. It's just too intricate in form -- and too meaningless when you try to read the whole thing. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe302

What Blood on the Point of Your Knife

See Edward [Child 13] (File: C013)

What Brought the Blood?

See Edward [Child 13] (File: C013)

What Can A Young Lassie Do Wi' An Auld Man

DESCRIPTION: Jenny curses the money that caused her mother to sell her to an old man. She cannot please him. She will try to follow her aunt Kittie's plan: "I'll cross him, I'll crack him until I have brak him." "Oh, weary's my life with a crazy old man"
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1792 (see NOTE)
KEYWORDS: age marriage nonballad husband mother wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 429-430, "What Can a Young Lassie" (1 text)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 231, "What Can a Young Lassie?" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 137)
DT, WHATCANA
Roud #1295
RECORDINGS:
Jane Turiff, "What Can a Young Lassie Dae Wi' An Auld Man?" (on Voice15)
NOTES [222 words]: Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Reviews - Volume 15" by Fred McCormick - 27.2.99: "I suspect however that he [Burns] re-created it from a traditional original, and my supposition is supported by the fact that he set it to a pre-existing air, which already bore the title of the present piece" [but Jane Turiff's version on Voice15 uses one of "The False Bride" tunes (for example, "I Loved a Lass" on SCMacCollSeeger01)]. - BS
The dating of this piece is slightly problematic. Ben Schwartz sent in a 1791 EARLIEST DATE based on the Burns Country web site. The Wordsworth Works of Robert Burns (p. 633) also dates it to that year.
The best reference I have, however, is James Kinsley's Burns: Complete Poems & Songs, which dates it 1792. That is, I think, based on its publication in volume IV of the Scots Musical Museum.
My best guess is that the song was written 1791, published 1792 -- but I'm listing the 1792 date just in case. - RBW
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong: "There is an old song, the burden of which is the same as the opening of the present --
'What can a young lassie do wi' an auld man?'
From this Burns took the hint, and furnished the following expressive ditty for Johnson's Museum in 1790. The tune is very old."
I would go with RBW's dating in spite of Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: RcWCAYLD

What Can Go Up the Chimney Down?

DESCRIPTION: "What can go up the chimney down, Go down the chimney down, But can't go up the chimney up?" Answer: an umbrella
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: riddle nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Peggy Cole and Sally Poole, informants), "Riddles," Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 28, "(What can go up the chimney down)" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Joseph D. Clark, "More North Carolina Riddles," Vol. IX, No. 1 (Jul 1961), p. 18 (#120A, B), "(What will do up the chimney down") ("What can go up the chimney down") (2 texts, both of which appear simplified)
File: NCF1028G

What Care I for the Laird o' Drum

DESCRIPTION: "What care I for the Laird o' Drum, And what care I for Gammie O? We'll stap wir wa's [Greig/Duncan8: take our way] ti the Mains o' Drum And hae anither drammie O"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #61, p. 2, ("What care I for the Laird o' Drum") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1928, "What Care I for the Laird o' Drum" (1 fragment)
Roud #13560
NOTES [60 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
"The Laird o Drum" [Child 236] tells of that lord seeking a low-born wife who was willing to work. In some versions, he had a previous wife who was costly and worthless. Could this be her answer? Or the comment of one of the girls the Laird turned down before finding one who satisfied him? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81928

What Child Is This?

DESCRIPTION: In response to the question, "What child is this" whom Mary cradles and angels hymn, we are told, "This, this is Christ the king." The child's humble estate is described, and listeners urged to praise him
AUTHOR: Words: William Chatterton Dix (1837-1898)
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (Bramley & Stainer); reportedly written c. 1865 (see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: Christmas religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #222, "What Child Is This?" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 238, "What Child Is This?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 379, "What Child Is This?" (1 text)
DT, WHATCHLD
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #95, "What Child Is This Who Laid to Rest" (1 text)
Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 102-103, "What Child Is This?" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "What Child Is This?" (on PeteSeeger37, PeteSeeger42)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Greensleeves" (tune)
NOTES [353 words]: According to Morgan, the commonly-sung words of this song are only a subset of William Chatterton Dix's original poem. He published several volumes of Christian poetry, and according to Davidson, p. 169, was a major contributor to the famous 1861 collection Hymns Ancient and Modern, but the only two of his pieces still commonly heard are this and "As With Gladness Men of Old."
Julian, p. 302, gives this bio/bibliography:
Dix, William Chatterton, s[on] of John Dix, surgeon, of Bristol, author of the Life of Chatterton; Local Legends, &c., b[orn] at Bristol, June 14, 1837, and educated at the Grammar School of that city. Mr. Chatterton Dix's contributions to modern hymnody are numerous and of value. His fine Epiphany hymn, "As with gladness men of old," and his plaintive, "Come unto Me, ye weary," are examples of his compositions.... In his Hymns of Love and Joy, 1861; Altar Songs, Verses on the Holy Eucharist, 1867; Vision of all Saints,, &c, 1871; and Seekers of a City, 1878, some of his compositions were first published.
"The greater part, however, were first contributed to H[ymns] A[ncient] & M[odern],; St. Raphael's H[ymn] B[ook], 1861; Lyra Eucharistica, 1863; Lyra Messianica, 1864; Lyra Mystica, 1865; The People's H[ymns], 1867, The Hymnary, 1872, Church Hymns, 1871, and others. Many of his contributions are renderings in metrical form of Dr. Littledale's tr[anslations] from the Greek in his Offices... of the Holy Eastern Church, 1863; and of the Rev. J. M. Rodwell's tr[anslations] of hymns of the Abyssinian Churh.... In addition to detached pieces in prose and verse for variious magazines, he has published two devotional works, Light; and The Risen Life, 1883; and a book for children entitled The Pattern Life, 1885...."
Julian lists 18 other allegedly-significant Dix compositions. "What Child Is This?" is not among them. So much for contemporary ability to determine merit....
McKim, p. 54, says that Dix wrote this as a poem, "The Manger Throne." The publication in Stainer's Christmas Carols Old and New established it as a Christmas song. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.0
File: FSWB379A

What Color is God's Skin?

DESCRIPTION: "Goodnight I said to my little son, So tired out when the day was done, Then he said as I tucked him in, Tell me, Daddy, What color's God's skin?" The father answers that it is all colors; people of all races are equal to God
AUTHOR: Thomas Wilkes and David Stevenson (source: mudcat.org thread "Looking for songs against racism")
EARLIEST DATE: 1968? (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious discrimination nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 546, "What Color Is God's Skin?" (notes only)
File: ACSF546W

What Could I Do If It Wasn't for the Lord?

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: ("What could I do"(5x) "without the comfort of his word? What could I see, ... say, How would I feel, ... pray, What could I do if it wasn't for the Lord?") Verses end "What could I do if it wasn't for the Lord" (see notes)
AUTHOR: Thomas A. Dorsey (1899-1993)
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (recording, Sister Marie Knight)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: _Great Gospel Songs of Thomas A. Dorsey_ (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Corp, 1968), pp. 48-50 "What Could I Do If It Wasn't for the Lord" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Liddle Hines, "What Could I Do?" (on USMississippi01)
Sister Marie Knight, "What Could I Do" (Haven 517, 1947)
The Swan Silvertones, "What Could I Do" (2005, on "The Swan Silvertones--1946-1951," Acrobat ADDCD 3004)
NOTES [168 words]: Verses describe Jesus as "my bread, my water, my life ..." and "my mother, my father ..." and say Jesus "makes me strong" and when "friend moves out, my Jesus moves in." - BS
All of those quotes are interesting. In John 6:35, Jesus says he is the "bread of life," and the whole communion ritual refers to eating the bread that is Jesus's body. Baptism is done in water; Jesus offers living water in the early part of John 4; Jesus's followers are born of "water and spirit/breath/wind" (υδατος και πνευματος, hydatos kai pneumatos) in John 3:5; in John 7:38, believers' hearts flow with "living water"; when the soldier pierces Jesus's side in John 19:34, what flows from it is "blood and water." As for "life," references to Jesus as life are so frequent that we can probably content ourselves with John 11:25, "I am the resurrection and the life" (interestingly, three significant early copies of this verse omit "and the life," but Thomas Dorsey wouldn't have known that and likely wouldn't have cared). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcWCIDWL

What Did Delaware?

See The States Song (What Did Delaware?) (File: CAFS1162)

What Did Tennessee?

See The States Song (What Did Delaware?) (File: CAFS1162)

What Did You Join the Army For?

DESCRIPTION: "What did you join the Army for? Why did you join the army? What did you join the army for? You must have been bloody barmy." Or "What did we join the army for... Skilly and duff, skilly and duff, Surely to God we've had more than enough."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: army soldier food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 45, "What Did You Join the Army For?" (1 text)
Roud #10566
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Let the Toast Pass (Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen)" (tune)
NOTES [84 words]: Albert Smith and Ian Smith, Mosquito Pathfinder, 2003 (republished 2001 by Stackpole Books as part of Lewis Brandon, Albert Smith, and Ian Smith, Night Flyer/Mosquito Pathfinder: Night Operations in World War II) has an item,
Why did we join, why did we join,
Why did we join the bloomin' Air Force,
Ten bob a week, bugger all to eat,
Bloody great boots makin' blisters on yer feet...." (p. 223 in the Stackpole edition)
I don't think it's the same song, but there might be a common inspiration. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: BrPa045A

What Did You Want to Have a Crash Like That For?

DESCRIPTION: "What did you want to have a crash like that for? It's the sixth you've had today. It makes you sad, it makes me mad, It's lucky it was an Avro, not a brand new Spad... And if you have another crash like that one, It's the LAST you'll have today"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: technology warning crash disaster | airplane
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 113, "What Did You Want to Have a Crash Like That For?" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?" (tune)
NOTES [260 words]: Arthur's brief notes on this song say that the musical source, "What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For," came from a 1916 revue "A Better 'Ole." The notes also mention that the Avro was a bomber and the Spad a fighter, but do not explain why the pilot was lucky to crash the former rather than the latter; a two-seater bomber would cost more than a fighter -- and although it wouldn't be as fast, it would be heavier, so I'd expect either to be about equally likely to be fatal upon crashing.
Looking up both aircraft in Stephen Pope and Elizabeth-Anne Wheal, Dictionary of the First World War, 1995 (I use the 2003 Pen & Sword paperback), gives a hint. Pages 448-449 describes a series of Spad fighters, which steadily improved. Thus there were always improved models coming out, and the Spad was presumably a desirable plane. And the British didn't have good fighters around 1916-1917, so there were British squadrons outfitted with Spads.
Pope/Wheal, pp. 52-53, describes the Avro 504, which was a two-seat light bomber which "was stable and easy to fly but displayed no more than average performance." It survived as a trainer, but as a bomber, it was obsolete by 1915, and the last combat squadrons gave up their Avros in 1916. Thus in 1916 the British were flying both Avros and Spads, but in that year they would know that the Avro was on its way out and would not mourn if one were knocked out of service. Though there is the problem that no squadron would have flown both Avros and Spads, since one was a bomber and the other a fighter. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW113

What Did Your Sailor Leave?

DESCRIPTION: What did your sailor leave? A baby. What did he wear? Blue jacket and white trousers. What if he comes ashore? We'll marry. Why are you weeping? He is far away. "Would that the wars were over, Sailors back on shore... Dear maid, how well she loved him"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: love navy war separation dialog nonballad baby lover sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 138, "What Did Your Sailor Leave?" (1 text)
Roud #2546
File: ReCi138

What Do the Colonels and the Generals Do

DESCRIPTION: "Colonel says that Kaiser William surely was a best, Dirty little job for Jesus." The colonels and generals spend their time figuring out dirty jobs for privates. "Fifty thousand privates died for democracy, Twenty major generals got the D.S.C."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 221-223, "What Do the Colonels and the Generals Do" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27898
File: NiMo221

What Do You Think o' Me Noo, Kind Sirs?

DESCRIPTION: "I am a young man, I live wi' my mither, A braw decent kimmer, I trow, Bu when I speak o' takin' a wife, She aye gets up in a lowe." He notes that someone is needed to care for the property. He courts Betty; she answers, "Who cares for you or your kye?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: mother home age youth courting rejection humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 115-116, "What Do You Think of Me Noo, Kind Sirs?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan4 898, "The Mither's Loon" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6141
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonny Wee Wifie and I" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
NOTES [21 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quoting Gillespie: "Heard from girlhood, and first from Thomas Murdoch (carpenter) about 1857. Noted 1905." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: FVS115

What Do You Think of Me Noo, Kind Sirs?

See What Do You Think o' Me Noo, Kind Sirs? (File: FVS115)

What Do You Think of My Darling?

DESCRIPTION: The singer lives on a small pension. His wife makes him do the nasty jobs around the house and "if I don't do it right it's a slap ... a kick or a clout" She drinks, gossips, is ugly and dirty. He prays "the devil like lightening might sweep her away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage drink ordeal wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, p. 102, "What Do You Think of My Darling?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 127, "The Shrew Wife" (1 text)
Roud #9602
File: Dib102

What Does the Deep Sea Say?

DESCRIPTION: The big boat is coming around the bend, doing nothing but killing good men. Vicksburg was a hilly town, until the Yankee gunboats blew it down. Cho: "What does the deep sea say?...It moans and it groans, it slashes and it foams/And rolls on its weary way"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: battle Civilwar fight violence war river sea ship
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 1862 - Union general Ulysses S. Grant begins his Vicksburg campaign. His first four attempts to reach the city fail
Apr 16, 1863 - Porter's gunboats run past Vicksburg, opening the way for Grant's final successful campaign
May 12-17, 1863 - Grant fights a series of minor battles which bring him to the defenses of Vicksburg
May 22, 1863 - Grant's attempt to take Vicksburg by storm is a bloody failure. The Union army settles down to a siege
July 4, 1863 - Lt. General Pemberton surrenders Vicksburg
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, DEEPSEA
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "What Does the Deep Sea Say" (Velvet Tone 1960-V, 1929)
Bob Ferguson (pseud. for Bob Miller) "What Does the Deep Sea Say" (Columbia 15727-D, 1932; prob. rec. 1931)
Woody Guthrie & Cisco Houston, "What Did the Deep Sea Say?" (on WoodyFolk)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "What Does the Deep Sea Say" (Brunswick 483, 1930)
Bill Palmer's Trio, "What Does the Deep Sea Say?" (Bluebird B-5034, 1933)
Uncle Bud & his Plow Boys, "What Does the Deep Sea Say?" (Clarion 5418-C, 1931)
NOTES [31 words]: Digital Tradition assigns authorship to Woody Guthrie. Given the date of Dalhart's recording, this is pretty near impossible. The McFarland-Gardner record credits this to "Miller." - PJS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: DTdeepse

What Folk Are Made Of

See What's Little Babies Made Of? (File: SKE79)

What Folks Are Made Of

See What's Little Babies Made Of? (File: SKE79)

What Gives the Wheat Fields Blades of Steel?

DESCRIPTION: "What gives the wheatfields blades of steel? What points the rebel cannon?... What breaks the oath Of the men of the south?... Hark to the answer: Slavery." The evils of slavery, and the poison and treason it causes, are described in detail
AUTHOR: Words: John Greenleaf Whittier / Music: Martin Luther
EARLIEST DATE: 1862
KEYWORDS: slave slavery freedom political nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 285-286, "We Wait Beneath the Furnace Blast" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 236-237, "What Gives the Wheat Fields Blades of Steel?" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, (Ein Feste Burg)" (tune)
File: SBoA236

What Harm Has Jesus Done?

DESCRIPTION: "Tell me what harm has Jesus done you Sinners all hate him so." Jews nailed him to the tree and gave him a cup of vinegar which he drank. Gabriel in the morning will separate the "sheep on the right and the goats on the left"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus Jew violence execution dying Bible
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 174, "What Harm Has Jesus Done?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2285
RECORDINGS:
Chas Owens and family, "What Harm Has Jesus Done?" (on MRHCreighton)
NOTES [188 words]: At the time of recording, Charles Owens was 99, living in a small colony of Negroes in the Maritimes; they are descendants of slaves, and Creighton theorizes that they brought this jubilee song with them from the U.S. - PJS
We should probably recall that the Romans, not the Jews, crucified Jesus.
The reference to Jesus drinking vinegar is a mistranslation, though "vinegar" is the word used by the King James Bible in all four references (Matthew 27:48, Mark 15:36, Luke 23:36, and John 19:29 all use the same word). The four Gospels also use the same word for the beverage (while disagreeing on the delivery method), but its normal usage is "sour wine" (which was less expensive than sweet), not "vinegar," though of course vinegar could be made from it. Still, the best translation would probably be something like "cheap wine." It was a painkiller -- and, in context, it might well hasten death, since alcohol is a diuretic, and dehydration is one of the main causes of death during crucifixion.
The parable of the Sheep and the Goats is in Matthew 25:31-46. In it, Jesus, not Gabriel, separates the souls into groups. - RBW
File: CrMa174

What Have the Robbers Done to You

See Hark the Robbers (File: SuSm032)

What Have You Got There?

DESCRIPTION: "What have you got there? Bread and cheese. Where's my share? Cat's got it. Where's the cat? In the woods. Where's the woods? Fire burned it. Where's the fire? Water quenched it. Where's the water?" And so the conversation continues, until a child laughs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty food animal fire
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #75, "Club Fist" (1 text plus excerpts)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, pp. 37-38, "Show Your Teeth" (1 text)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 97-98, "Club Fist" (1 text)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, pp. 19-20, "Club Fists" (1 text)
Roud #22887
File: Newe075

What He Done For Me

DESCRIPTION: Singer does not refer to Jesus by name. Each verse tells "What he done for me." Verse line examples: "You don't know like I know," "He picked me up and he turned me around," and "He took my feet out of the miry clay"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (recording, Southern Harps)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Mary & Amanda Gordon, "You Don't Know Like I Know" (on USMississippi01)
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, "What He Done For Me" (Decca 8639, 1942)
NOTES [119 words]: The USMississippi01 has this format: A line is lined-out, followed by response "what he done for me." That line and response is repeated twice by the chorus. The fourth line of the verse, sung by the chorus, is "You don't know like I know, what he done for me." An example of the lined-out line is "He sanctified my soul one day." Between verses there is spoken prose.
The Sister Rosetta Tharpe recording is solo. The verse form is the same as for USMississippi01: (line, "What he done for me"(3x) "I never shall forget what he done for me" or "I never shall forget for he set me free"). Instead of spoken prose between verses there are verses in which the three verse lines are different; that is, not repeated. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcWHDFMe

What I Don't Like To See

See Things I Don't Like to See (File: Ow2E126)

What Irish Boys Can Do

DESCRIPTION: "They insult an Irishman ... it happens every day." But the Irish are noble and hospitable. Think of Irish warriors, like Wellington and the 69th at Bull Run, and poets Lover and Moore. Think of Irish songs and plays. "Then, why slur upon the Irish?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 31(102))
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 23, "What Irish Boys Can Do" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2558, p. 173, "What Irish Boys Can Do. Answer to: No Irish Need Apply" (4 references)
Roud #V965
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 31(102), "What Irish Boys Can Do", H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
LOCSinging, sb40474a, "What Irish Boys Can Do", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
NOTES [166 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 31(102): The subtitle is "Answer to No Irish Need Apply." Printer H. De Marsan is at 54 Chatham Street
The reference to the Civil War dates and places this song:
"And then, too, in the present war between the North and South,
Let no dirty slur on Irish ever escape your mouth;
Sure, did you ne'er hear tell of the 69th, who bravely fought at Bull-Run!
And Meagher, of the seven days fight, that was in front, of Richmond,
With General Shields, who fought so brave for the Flag Red. White, and Blue?
And anything like a bayonet-charge the Irish boys can do."
For more on the Irish in the American Civil War see the Index notes to "By the Hush." [Also "The Irish Sixty-Ninth." - RBW]
For the general issue see "No Irish Need Apply."
Broadsides LOCSinging sb40474a and Bodleian Harding B 31(102): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: OCon023A

What is a Home Without Love?

See What is Home Without Love? (File: RcWIAHWL)

What is Home Without Babies?

See What is Home Without Love? (File: RcWIAHWL)

What is Home Without Love?

DESCRIPTION: A lonely rich man, passing a cottage window, sees a happy husband, wife, and baby. He weeps, "What is a home without baby To kiss, to tease and adore...." Alone in a mansion, with the wife who married him for his money, he repeats his lament
AUTHOR: Charles K. Harris
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: loneliness marriage baby children family husband wife
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 82, "What Is Home Without Babies?" (1 text)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 8-10, "What Is a Home Without Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Charles K. Harris, _Charles K. Harris's Complete Songster_. F. J. Drake, 1903 (available on Google Books), p. 156, "What is Home Without Love?" (1 text)
Roud #15947 and 12395
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "What is a Home Without Love" (Conqueror 7881, 1931)
Boone County Entertainers, "What Is Home Without Babies" (Supertone 9492, 1929)
Loman D. Cansler, "What Is a Home Without Love?" (on Cansler1)
Roy Harvey, "What Is Home Without Love" (Columbia, unissued, 1927)
Roy Harvey & The North Carolina Ramblers, "What Is Home Without Babies" (Brunswick 268, 1928) (Paramount 3267, 1931)
Monroe Brothers, "What Is Home Without Love" (Montgomery Ward M-4746, 1935; Bluebird B-6363, 1936)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "What Is Home Without Babies" (Columbia 15307-D, 1928)
Red Fox Chasers, "What Is Home Without Babies" (Supertone 9492, 1929)
SAME TUNE:
Reoording: Howard Dixon & Frank Gerald (The Rambling Duet) "Woman's Answer to 'What Is Home Without Love'" (Bluebird B-7450, 1938)
NOTES [123 words]: Again, Cansler implies that this is in Randolph or Belden, but we don't seem to have indexed it, or I haven't found it. - PJS
It's not in Randolph, at least, and if it's in Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, it's under an odd title and uses an unusual first stanza. When I indexed Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, I initially omitted the song because I couldn't believe such a piece of slop was traditional.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 253, estimates that this was the ninth-most-popular song in America in May 1900 (#1 for the year being James Thornton's "When You Were Sweet Sixteen"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcWIAHWL

What Kin' o Pants Does the Gambler Wear?

See Sweet Thing (I) (File: R443A)

What Kind of Car Will You Have?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme for telling fortunes: "What kind of car will you have? Ford, Chevy, Pontiac...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: questions technology jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 48, "(What Kind of Car Will You Have?)" (1 text, under "Telling Fortunes")
Roud #29381
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "What Kind of Evening Gown Will You Marry In?" and references there
NOTES [38 words]: This is one of a sequence of fortune-telling jump rope rhymes that begin with "What Kind of Evening Gown..."; see that entry for the full sequence. All of them are filed as separate entries because they can also circulate separately.
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ZiZa08BC

What Kind of Crowns Do the Angels Wear

DESCRIPTION: "What kind of crowns do the angels wear? The angels wear the golden crown, the golden crown, I'm bound to rest, I'm bound to rest... bound to rest with God." "What kind of robe do the angels wear?" "What kind of slippers do the angels wear?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 655, "What Kind of Crowns Do the Angels Wear" (1 text)
Roud #11835
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Can't Cross Jordan" (floating verses)
cf. "Going Up (Golden Slippers II)" (floating verses)
NOTES [17 words]: The key line of these verses obviously float, but the form makes it an independent song. Barely. - RBW
File: Br3655

What Kind of Evening Gown Will You Marry In?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme for telling fortunes: "What kind of evening gown will you marry in? Red, yellow, blue, pink, white...." Or, "What will I be married in? Silk, satin, cotton, rags...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: clothes marriage questions jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 47, "(What kind of evening gown will you marry in?)" (1 text, under "Telling Fortunes")
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 139, "What will I be married in?" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "How Old Will You Be When You Marry?" (fortune telling rhyme involved in the same sequence)
cf. "How Many Children Will You Have?" (fortune telling rhyme involved in the same sequence)
cf. "What Kind of House Will You Live In?" (fortune telling rhyme involved in the same sequence)
cf. "What Kind of Car Will You Have?" (fortune telling rhyme involved in the same sequence)
cf. "What Kind of Ring Will You Have?" (fortune telling rhyme involved in the same sequence)
cf. "You Will Marry" (theme of forecasting future life via a game)
NOTES [24 words]: The rhymes in the cross-references are perhaps all one sequence, but since they can circulate separately, I've treated them as separate items. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ZiZa047A

What Kind of House Will We Live In?

See What Kind of House Will You Live In? (File: ZiZa048B)

What Kind of House Will You Live In?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme for telling fortunes: "What kind of house will you live in? Brick, wood, log, glass, stone...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: home questions jumprope
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 48, "(What Kind of House Will You Live In?)" (1 text, under "Telling Fortunes"); p. 49, "Which House?" (1 short text, which seems to be the answer to the question only)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 139, "What kind of house will we live in?" (1 text)
Roud #29381
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "What Kind of Evening Gown Will You Marry In?" and references there
NOTES [38 words]: This is one of a sequence of fortune-telling jump rope rhymes that begin with "What Kind of Evening Gown..."; see that entry for the full sequence. All of them are filed as separate entries because they can also circulate separately.
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ZiZa048B

What Kind of Ring Will You Have?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme for telling fortunes: "What kind of ring will you have? Diamong, wedding ring, birthstone...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: questions ring jumprope
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 48, "(What Kind of RIng Will You Have?)" (1 text, under "Telling Fortunes")
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 139, "What will the stone in my ring be?" (1 text)
Roud #29381
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "What Kind of Evening Gown Will You Marry In?" and references there
NOTES [38 words]: This is one of a sequence of fortune-telling jump rope rhymes that begin with "What Kind of Evening Gown..."; see that entry for the full sequence. All of them are filed as separate entries because they can also circulate separately.
Last updated in version 6.4
File: ZiZa04BD

What makes the wild cat wild?

DESCRIPTION: "What make the wild cat wild, boys, what makes the wild cat wild? (x2), I'll ask you again as a personal friend, what makes the wild cat wild?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 679, "What Makes the Wild Cat Wild?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The States Song (What Did Delaware?)" (the "personal friend" lyric)
File: BrS5679

What Month Was Jesus Born In?

DESCRIPTION: "What month was Jesus born in? Last month in the year." The song details Jesus' birth in December and the humble cercumstances of his birth.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (recording, Heavenly Gospel Singers)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 58-59, "(What Month Was Jesus Born In?") (1 text); pp. 245-246, "What Month Was Jesus Born In?" (1 tune, partial text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 384, "Tell Me What Month Was My Jesus Born In?" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, various authors, "A Singing Stream: A Black Family Chronicle" [an entire issue about a documentary of the Landis Family], Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 (Winter 1989), p. 53, "When Was Jesus Born?" (1 text, contained in the script of the documentary)
Roud #13975
RECORDINGS:
Vera Ward Hall, "No Room At the Inn/The Last Month of the Year" (on NFMAla5) (on LomaxCD1706); "What Month Was Jesus Born In" (on ReedWard01)
Heavenly Gospel Singers, "When Was Jesus Born?" (Bluebird B-8907, 1941; on Babylon)
Pete Seeger, "What Month Was Jesus Born" (on PeteSeeger12)
NOTES [110 words]: It should be noted that there is no Biblical evidence that Jesus was born in December; indeed, those scholars who have an opinion generally think he was born in spring.
In any case, December was not always the "last month of the year"; in the classical Roman calendar, it was the tenth month, and even after this changed, it was remembered for quite some time. In addition, for much of the Middle Ages, the new year began on March 25 (approximating the equinox).
Even if we ignore all that, Jesus was Jewish, and would have used the Jewish calendar, which had no month of December. Nor was its (approximate) equivalent of December the last month of the year. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: CNFM245

What More Could Mister Hoover Do

DESCRIPTION: Mr. Hoover "give you a sack of flour. No lard, neither baking powder. What more could he do for you?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes food nonballad political
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 8, "What More Could Mister Hoover Do" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
NOTES [108 words]: The current description is based on the Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight fragment. - BS
The assumption implicit in the keyword "political" for this song is obviously that "Mister Hoover" is President Herbert Hoover, who served from 1929 to 1933 and oversaw the beginning of the Great Depression and refused, due to his political convictions, to take major action to deal with the situation. He made some attempts at relief, but they were not sufficient. Hence, perhaps, his willingness to give a sack of flour, but not enough other materials to actually bake with the flour. I'm not sure that this is required by the fragment, but it makes sense. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: CaCa008

What My Mamma Told Me

DESCRIPTION: ""What my mamma told me is bound to come to pass, A-drinkin' and a-gamblin' will be my ruin at las', las', Will be my ruin at last. "Went up on the mountain, To give my horn a blow...." "Went down... To get me a bottle o' gin... Ma, he's drunk agin."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: drink mother warning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 37, "What My Mamma Told Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16316
File: Arno037

What O She Jumps

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "What O she jumps, She skips and jumps, If she didn't jump, I'll make her bump."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #597, "What O she jumps" (1 text)
File: AJRR597

What Put the Blood?

See Edward [Child 13] (File: C013)

What Shall I Give to Thee?

DESCRIPTION: "What shall I give to thee? Darling, we must part, Something to hide away, Close to the heart. Give me an ivy leaf, fresh from the vine, Give me an ivy leaf, green as the pine." "What shall I give to thee? Life is so strange. All... surely must change."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, although the source is Gainer)
KEYWORDS: parting gift nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 107, "What Shall I Give to Thee?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 170, "What Shall I Give to Thee?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #5420
File: Gain107

What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor?

See The Drunken Sailor (Early in the Morning) (File: Doe048)

What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor?

See The Drunken Sailor (Early in the Morning) (File: Doe048)

What the Number of Souls

DESCRIPTION: Response: "Oh the number of souls." Leader's lines: "This is the number, Number of souls," "Jesus died for me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Emile Paul, Carl Monsegui, Allan Lovelace, "What the Number of Souls" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [73 words]: The WITrinidadVillage02 recording features hand-clapping and bell-ringing, an early and current feature of Spiritual Baptist worship (see Eudora Thomas, A History of the Shouter Baptists in Trinidad and Tobago (Tacarigua: Calaloux Publications, 1987), pp. 17, 23). - BS
I don't know what the "Number of Souls" is supposed to be, but given the context and the source, I am reminded of the 144,000 redeemed souls of Rev. 7:4 and 14:1. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcWhNuoS

What the Old Cock Robin Said

DESCRIPTION: "I took a walk one sunny day" and heard the birds singing. The oldest of a flock of robins declares honesty best and describes the Saint John (New Brunswick) jail and the difficult conditions there. Then all the birds fly away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, although they appear to say it was found in manuscript in 1901-1902)
KEYWORDS: bird prison
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 90-94, "What the Old Cock Robin Said" (1 text, slightly reconstructed)
NOTES [96 words]: Despite being printed in Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, there is no hint (as they admit) that it was traditional. It is interesting to see a modern try to construct a bird fable -- but it's also an oddity. One has to suspect a European inspiration, since it talks about the cock robin -- it's barely possible to tell male from female American robins (they have slightly different head feathers), but people don't normally go noticing the difference. So someone who knew nothing about birds took a European bird character and told a Canadian story about it. Strange indeed. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm090

What the Old Hen Said

DESCRIPTION: Singer hears an old hen, looking over her brood of chicks, exclaim that she loves them just as a cat loves its kittens, or a ewe its lamb. She calls them to her; they nestle in their "feather bed"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: pride love lullaby animal chickens
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 185-186, "What the Old Hen Said" (1 text)
ST RcWTOHS (Partial)
Roud #5451
RECORDINGS:
Margaret MacArthur, "What the Old Hen Said" (on MMacArthur01)
NOTES [9 words]: A very small narrative, but a narrative nonetheless. - PJS
File: RcWTOHS

What tho' I am a Country Lass

See The Country Lass (File: JACB037)

What Time Is It?

DESCRIPTION: "What time is it? The same time that it was yesterday at this time."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 82, "What Time Is It?" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "What's the Time?"
File: ZiZa082F

What Time, Old Witch

See Chickee Chickee Ma Craney Crow (Hawks and Chickens) (File: R570)

What Was Your Name in the States?

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, what was your name in the States? Was it Thompson, or Johnson, or Bates? Did you murder your wife and fly for your life? Say, what was your name in the States?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: migrant travel crime
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 106, "What Was Your Name in the States?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, p. 861, "What Was Your name in the States?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 313, "What Was Your Name in the States?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
DT, NAMESTAT
Roud #4754
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "What Was Your Name in the States?" (on LEnglish02)
File: San106

What Will I Be Married In?

See What Kind of Evening Gown Will You Marry In? (File: ZiZa047A)

What Will I Do with the Baby-O?

See What'll I Do with the Baby-O (File: R565)

What Will I Do with the Baby-Oh?

See What'll I Do with the Baby-O (File: R565)

What Will My Husband Be?

See Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief (File: Newe042)

What Will the Stone in My Ring Be?

See What Kind of Ring Will You Have? (File: ZiZa04BD)

What Will We Do When We'll Have No Money?

DESCRIPTION: Questions and answers. What will we do when we: have no money? hawk through town; marry a tinker? sell a tin can and walk with me man; marry a soldier? handle his gun; have a daughter? take it in hand and walk with me man.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous nonballad money
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, WHATWILL
Roud #16879
RECORDINGS:
Mary Delaney, "What Will We Do When We'll Have No Money?" (on IRTravellers01)
NOTES [64 words]: The format of each verse of Mary Delaney's version on IRTravellers01 is "What will we do when [question]? All true lovers, what will we do then? [Answer], And we'll yodel it over again." - BS
Despite which, there is no yodel in this version. Delaney was the source for the song as sung by the Silly Sisters (Maddy Prior and June Tabor), which will be familiar to many folk fans. - RBW
File: RcWWWDNM

What Will Ye Bring Tae Me?

See When Will Ye Gang Awa'? (Huntingtower) [Laws O23] (File: LO23)

What Will You Do, Love

DESCRIPTION: He: What will you do when I sail away? She: I'll be true and pray for you. He: If I were untrue?" She: "I'd still be true but ... could not bear it!" He: If, near home, my ship were lost. She: If you were spared "I'd bless the morrow ... welcome thee"
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868)
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Samuel Lover's novel "Handy Andy")
KEYWORDS: love questions separation sea ship dialog
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 139, "What Will You Do, Love" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 124-125, "What Will You Do, Love?" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2565, p. 173, "Wjat Will You Do, Love?" (2 references)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 407-408, "What Will You Do, Love?" (1 text)
Roud #23097
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4223), "What Will You Do, Love?", A. Ryle and Co. (London) , 1845-1859 ; also Harding B 11(3584), "What Will You Do, Love"; Firth b.25(432), "What Will You Do, Love!"; Harding B 11(4222), "What Will You Do, Love?"
LOCSheet, sm1885 23659, "What Will You Do, Love", Grand Conservatory Pub. Co. (New York), 1885 (tune)
LOCSinging, sb40552a, "What Will You Do, Love?", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also as103050, "What Will You Do, Love"
NOTES [56 words]: Just what we needed. A Riley ballad before the guy has even been gone for seven years to let the girl realize what a jerk he is. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb40552a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon139

What Will You Give Me If I Get Up?

See Lazy Mary (She Won't Get Up) (File: R396)

What Would You Do If You Married a Soldier

DESCRIPTION: What would you do if you married a soldier?" "What would I do but carry his gun" "...if he died on the ocean?" "... marry again." "... kettle boiled over?" "... fill it again." "...cows ate the clover?" "... set it again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: marriage death dialog nonballad animal soldier
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 191, "What Would You Do If You Married a Soldier" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #3051
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "What Would You Do If You Married a Soldier" (on IRECronin01)
NOTES [12 words]: OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin: The chorus is mouth music. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC191

What y'u gwine t' do fo' June month? Jerusalem Jerusalem

See June Month Is a Hard Month (File: Parp245)

What Yo' Gwine t' Do When de Lamp Burn Down?

See What Are You Going To Do When the Lamp Burns Down (File: Dett138)

What You Doin' In Here?

DESCRIPTION: "What you doin' in here, ain't got no garments on (x3), Don't you know God's got his eyes on you?" "Some people moaning in the church, ain't got no garments on" "Some people prayin' in the church...." "Some people shoutin' in the church...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 241-242, "What You Doin' In Here?" (1 text)
Roud #18149
NOTES [160 words]: The theology represented in this song is curious. It is certainly true that the Hebrew Bible is insistent in its condemnation of nakedness; few cultures had such a strong nudity taboo. And the Apocalypse (Book of Revelation) refers at several points to God giving people garments, e.g. 3:5, 25:6). On the other hand, James 2:2 vigorously attacks those who condemn a person for having dirty clothes, and Luke 9:3 and parallels tell the disciples to go out with just one, quite ordinary, garment. There is also a very confusing reference to nakedness in 2 Corinthians 5:3, but the King James Bible glossed over that, so the singers of this song would not have known what it said. Still, the bottom line is, clothes do not commend one to God. God will clearly give new and better garments -- but it is God who makes that judgment, not some narcissist in the pews of the church.
Yes, songs like this *do* make me cranky, and I *am* too academic for my own good. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: KiWa241W

What You Goin' to Do When the Rent Comes 'Round?

See Rufus Rasts Johnson Brown (What You Goin' to Do When the Rent Comes 'Round?) (File: RcRuRaJB)

What You Going To Do With a Drunken Sailor

See The Drunken Sailor (Early in the Morning) (File: Doe048)

What You Gon'er Do That Day?

DESCRIPTION: "Venus, Venus, beautiful star, Beautiful star, beautiful star, Venus, Venus, beautiful star, Oh, what you gon'er do on that day?" Similarly, "Rocks in the mountains, fall on me...." "Some to the right, some to de left...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 649, "What You Gon'er Do That Day?" (1 text)
Roud #11941
File: Br3649

What You Gonna Do

DESCRIPTION: "What you gonna do when Janie leave you... [She doesn't want him any more and he cries] what you gonna do..." "What you gonna do ... [she puts him down and leaves town] what you gonna do...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight)
KEYWORDS: courting love parting separation travel nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 109, "What You Gonna Do" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [62 words]: The tune is close to "Motherless Children" or "(Then We'll Need That) True Religion," Roud #15181 [recorded by Rev Edward W Clayborn]. Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight: "Joe, he like all different kind of song -- spiritual and blues." It's also close to "Back to Jericho" in line stucture and "what you gonna do," and the tune would also be close if it weren't minor. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: CarCa109

What You Gonna Do with the Baby-Oh?

See What'll I Do with the Baby-O (File: R565)

What You Gonna Name That Pretty Baby?

DESCRIPTION: "What you gonna name that pretty baby? Gonna call it Jesus of Nazaree. Borned in a stall, laid him in a manger, Cattle all lowing...." "Go shout it on each high mountain... That Jesus is born." "Joseph and Mary went on a long journey."
AUTHOR: Leatha Eller
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 16-17, "What You Gonna Name That Pretty Baby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4956
NOTES [48 words]: Despite some lyric similarities, this should not be confused with "Virgin Mary Had a Little Baby." This song is by Leatha Eller, and shows no signs of being traditional, though clearly based on traditional themes (some of them, such as the beasts at the nativity, being non-biblical). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Rose016

What You Gwina Do When the World's on Fire?

DESCRIPTION: "What you gwina do when the world's on fire? I'm gonna jump in a hole o' water. What you gwina do when the water gets to boilin'? I'm a gonna kick and squeal and hollo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: fire
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 470, "What You Gwina Do When the World's on Fire?" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 470, "What You Gwina Do When the World's on Fire?" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11789
File: Br3470

What-oh, She Bumps

DESCRIPTION: Skipping rhyme, "What-oh, she bumps, See how high she jumps, She jumps so high She nearly recahes the sky."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty floatingverses
FOUND IN: Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 113, "(What-oh, she bumps)" (1 short text, most of which is found in other rhymes)
File: SuSm113

What'll I Do with the Baby-O

DESCRIPTION: Song describes various things to do with baby: wrap him up in calico, put him in his cradle, wrap him in the table cloth, throw him in the hayloft, hang him in the tree top, etc. Also, "How in the world do the old folks know I like sugar in my coffee-O?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: drink food humorous lullaby playparty baby floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE) Ireland
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 228, "What'll we do with the Baby?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 26-27, "What'll I Do with the Baby-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 18-19, "What You Gonna Do With the Baby-o?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 173, "What Will I Do with the Baby-O?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 162, "What'll I Do with the Baby-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 234, "Charlie, Won't You Rock the Cradle" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 407, "Prettiest Little Baby In The County-O"; 408, "What'll We Do With The Baby-O?" (2 texts)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 162-164, "Sew, Sew, Sew"/"(K is for Kathleen)" (1 text, which seems to be related to this, as part of a larger game)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 31, "Mammy, Mammy told me O, You're the sweetest little baby in the county O" (1 fragment, which appears to be of this although Roud files it as a separate item, #25363)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Foster West, "Folklore of a Mountain Childhood," Vol. XVI, No. 3 (Nov 1968), p. 166, "(Whatcha gonna do with the baby?" (1 text); article reprinted (with text reset) in Vol. LII, No. 3 (Nov 1968), p. 8
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Time Was: Its Lore and Language," Vol. XIX, No. 2 (Mar 1971), p. 43, "(Whatcha gonna do with the baby?)" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Daun Daemon, "Family Legends and Lullabies: My Gift to John Foster West," Vol. LII, No. 1 (Spring-Summer 2005), p. 6, "(Whatcha gonna do with the baby?" (1 text)
DT, DOBABYO
ADDITIONAL: James P. Leary, Compiler and Annotator, _Wisconsin Folklore_ University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, article "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin" by Asher E. Treat, pp. 249-250, "What Will I Do with the Baby-Oh?" (1 text, 1 tune, sung by Pearl Jacobs Borusky)
Roud #826
RECORDINGS:
Coon Creek Girls, "What Do I Do With the Baby-O" (Songs from Renfro Valley - Bell, mx. 2002, n.d., postwar)
Crockett's Kentucky Mountaineers, "Sugar in my Coffee" (Crown 3075, c. 1930)
[G. B.] Grayson & [Henry] Whitter, "What You Gonna Do with the Baby?" (Victor V-40268, 1930; rec. 1929)
Happy-Go-Lucky Boys, "Whatcha Gonna Do With the Baby?" (Bluebird B-8391, 1940)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "What You Gonna Do With the Baby-O?" (King 538, 1946)
Frank Proffitt, "Baby-O" (Proffitt03)
Jean Ritchie & Roger Sprung, "What'll I Do With the Baby-O?" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchieWatsonCD1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rock-A-Bye Baby" (words)
cf. "Sugar In My Coffee" (floating lyrics)
File: R565

What's Become of the Punchers?

DESCRIPTION: "What's become of the punchers We rode with long ago?" There were hundreds of cowboy. Some died, some left, some got rich: "My old pardner made millions in Tampa, While I've got my saddle in soak!" The speaker will give up cowboy life also
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work abandonment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 162-164, "What's Become of the Punchers?" (1 text)
File: ThLo162

What's Little Babies Made Of?

DESCRIPTION: "What's old women made of?... Reels and jeels and old spinning wheels, And that's what old women are made of." "What's little boys made of?... Piggins and pails and puppy dogs' tails." "What's little babies made of?... Sugar and..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad children
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,SE) New Zealand
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1709, "What Folk Are Made Of" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #150, pp. 1-2, "Fat Folk's Made o'" (3 texts)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 227, "What are Little Boys made of?" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 79, "What's Little Babies Made Of?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 143, "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 303-304, "What Folks Are Made Of" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 134, "(Little boys are made of slugs and snails)" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 76, "What are little boys made of?" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #320, pp. 175-176, "(What are little boys made of?)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 230, "What Are Little Boys Made Of?" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 151, "What Are Little Boys Made Of?" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Daniel W. Patterson, "Archive Notes," Vol. XVI, No. 1 (May 1968), pp. 36-37, "What Are Little Babies Made Of?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #821
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Song of All Nations" (concept)
cf. "I'll Kiss Ye Yet" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
NOTES [45 words]: The notes to The Annotated Mother Goose say that this has been attributed to Robert Southey, but also say that no supporting evidence has been offered. It does note that the first published version, Halliwell's, describes only what little boys and girls are made of. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: SKE79

What's Poor Mary Weepin' For (Poor Jenny Sits A-Weeping)

DESCRIPTION: "Poor (Mary/Jenny/Nellie/Sally) sits a-weeping, sits a-weeping, sits a-weeping, Poor Mary sits a-weeping All on a summer's day." "What's poor Mary weeping for...." "Because she wants to see her lad." "Rise up and choose another love."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting separation love
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1606, "O Mary Stands a-Weeping" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 80, "Poor Jenny" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 70, "(Oh, what is Jeannie weeping for)" (1 text)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #7, pp. 120-121, "What's Poor Mary Weepin' For?" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JEANWEEP
Roud #2118
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Sally Walker" (lyrics)
cf. "Poor Mary Sits A-Weeping (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [50 words]: There are versions of this which look a little like "Little Sally Walker," but the overall thrust is different enough that I had no hesitation in splitting them.
The version I know best is that recorded by Jeannie Robertson and picked up by the Fisher Family; I've used her title on that basis. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: MSNR070

What's Poor Mary Weeping For?

See Little Sally Walker (File: CNFM157)

What's That Blood On Your Sword?

See Edward [Child 13] (File: C013)

What's the Lady's Motion? (Skip O'er the Mountain)

DESCRIPTION: "Skip o'er the mountain, tra-la-la-la-la (x3), Oh, she loves sugar and cheese." "What's the lady's motion, tra-la-la-la-la (x3), Oh, she loves sugar and cheese." "It's a very lovely motion...." "Yonder goes a redbird...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: food playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 87, "What's the Lady's Motion" (1 text)
Roud #7885
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Monkey Motions" (form)
File: Br3087

What's the Life of a Man Any More Than a Leaf?

See What's the Life of a Man? (File: K264)

What's the Life of a Man?

DESCRIPTION: Singer, walking, observes the leaves that have fallen, noting that a few days ago they were green and growing. He calls attention to the churchyard, and to those who have withered and passed like a leaf." (But man, unlike leaves, will rise to be judged.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Sharp mss.; Vaughn Williams collection)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, walking, observes the leaves that have fallen, noting that a few days ago they were green and growing, but a frost has withered them and a storm knocked them down. He calls attention to the churchyard, and to those who have withered and passed "like a leaf from a tree." (But man, unlike leaves, will rise again, according to scripture, and be judged.) Chorus: "What's the life of a man any more than the leaf?/A man has his seasons so why should he grieve?/For although in this world we appear bright and gay/Like a leaf we must wither and soon fade away"
KEYWORDS: age disability death nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 238, "What's the Life of a Man Any More Than a Leaf?" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 513)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 264, "What's The Life of a Man?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #129, "What's the Life of a Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 25-26, "What's the Life of a Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #149, "The Life of a Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LIFEMAN*
Roud #848
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. William Towns, "What Is the Life of a Man Any More than the Leaves?" (on Ontario1)
NOTES [28 words]: Some folks really know how to brighten up a day. - PJS
According to Palmer, this originated as a broadside, "The Fall of the Leaf," but was much improved by tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: K264

What's the Matter Now?

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls how, when she was 17, Damon wooed her with "ardent flame" and a "wounded heart." When she consented to marry, he at first gave in to her every whim. But now, his response to all requests is, "What's the matter now?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1820 (New Musical and Vocal Cabinet)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage request rejection
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 255, "What's the Matter Now?" (1 text)
Roud #7757
NOTES [41 words]: Even if the flowery tone were not a giveaway, the name Damon would surely prove the English broadside origin of this piece. How it wound up in tradition in Missouri neither I nor Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety could guess. - RBW
File: Beld255

What's the Rhyme to Porringer?

DESCRIPTION: "O what's the rhyme to porringer? Ken ye the rhyme to porringer? King James the seventh had ae dochter, And he gave her to an Oranger." "The lad has into England come And taken the crown." "James shall have his own again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1819 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1)
KEYWORDS: royalty marriage Jacobites
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1688/1689 - Glorious Revolution deposes King James (II and VII) and replaces him with his nephew William III and his daugher Mary II
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1, pp. 218-219, ("O what's the rhyme to porringer?") (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 422, "What is the rhyme for porringer?" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #217, p. 146, "(What is the rhyme for porringer?)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 100, "(O what's the rhyme to porringer?)" (1 text)
DT, RHYMPORR
NOTES [797 words]: Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1: "[This] is another ranting song [like Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 33, "I Hae Nae Kith, I Hae Nae Kin"] which I have often heard sung about the same lady, or rather about the ingratitude of her husband, in whose hands she was no more than the clay is in the hands of the potter." - BS
I'm indexing this item with some qualms. The Montgomeries do not cite a source, and the handful of other references I've found, with the possible exception of Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1, aren't "folk." And I've no evidence of a tune.
But the context is clear: James (II of England and VII of Scotland; 1633-1701) was Catholic, but his heirs when he succeeded to the throne were his Protestant daughters Mary (1662-1694) and Anne (1665-1714). Mary was married to William of Orange (1650-1702), Stadtholder of Holland.
William, after a chaotic period in Dutch politics, seemed early in life to be almost disinherited, but gradually gained power in the 1670s. Charles II of England, meanwhile, was getting himself in a foreign policy mess, taking French money to avoid answering to Parliament for his anti-Dutch policy. William was able to take advantage in 1677 to marry the young princess Mary -- his first cousin; William was the son of Charles's and James's sister.
Which sister just happened to be third in line for the throne. Charles II had no legitimate children, and his brother James had no sons (and neither of his daughters, as it turned out, would leave an heir).
James II succeeded Charles II in 1685. The British were already worried -- James had been openly Catholic for 15 years. Early in his reign, he gave indications of favoring Catholics. And his daughters were Protestant, so the people thought they could hang on until James died and his daughter gave Britain a Protestant monarch again.
And then James's second, Catholic, wife had a son. The "Old Pretender," potentially James III. James III was not a pretender; he was the proper heir in male descent. But he was Catholic.
Meanwhile, the French, who had been attacking the Dutch, instead sent an army into Germany. William of Orange saw the opening, and invaded England in 1688. In England, the Stuart regime collapsed like a house of cards; James "abdicated" by force in 1689. William and Mary were crowned jointly, the English succession was made officially Protestant, and a series of liberal reforms were agreed to that gave the coup the name "The Glorious Revolution."
Scotland didn't entirely agree. There was only one real battle against the invaders in 1689 (Killiekrankie), and it resulted in the death of Dundee, the leader of the anti-Orange faction. That largely calmed the revolt until 1714, when Anne, the last Stuart, died and was succeeded by the Hannoverian George I. But there were always rumbles below the surface, which would eventually result in the 1715, 1719, and 1745 Jacobite rebellions.
For more about all this, see the notes to "The Vicar of Bray."
Obviously this item is about that the 1688/1689 revolution. The question is, is the poem traditional? If the Montgomeries really found a copy in Scotland in the twentieth century, then it just about has to be, and deserves to be indexed. But mightn't they have just lifted it from Hogg? I suspect so, but there is enough doubt that I index the item.
Incidentally, this had a very small part in inspiring one of the greatest literary works of the twentieth century. According to Christopher Tolkien's notes in his father's The War of the Ring: The History of the Lord of the Rings, Part 3, Houghton Mifflin, 1990, p. xi, J. R. R. Tolkien admitted that this fragment inspired his poem "Errantry." Which in turn seems to have been "upgraded" to produce Bilbo's poem in Rivendell.
The link to "porringer" is not obvious in the published poem "Errantry," but another of Christopher Tolkien's works, The Treason of Isengard: The History of the Lord of the Rings, Part 2, Houghton Mifflin, 1990, p. 85, shows that in fact there is a link. Tolkien's first text of the poem began
There was a merry passenger,
a messenger, an errander;
he took a tiny porringer
and oranges for provender.
This leads to two further footnotes. First, Tolkien said that "Errantry" actually ended up in oral tradition (The Treason of Isengard, p. 90), although there is no evidence of it actually being passed from person to person. Second, "Errantry" made a reference to "Dumbledores," in their proper early English use of a bee-like insect. It is almost certainly in "Errantry" that J. K. Rowling first met the word that gave her her name for the headmaster of Hogwarts. So, by many indirect steps, this poem helped give rise to the two most popular fantasy works of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MSNR100

What's the Time?

DESCRIPTION: "What's the time?" "Half past nine. Hang your britches on the line." "What's the time." "Ten to ten. Time to bring them in again." "What's the time?" "Daytime." Etc. Also perhaps, "What's the clock say?" "Tick-tock."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty clothes
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 137, "(What's the time?)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. 'What Time Is It?"
File: SuSm137A

What's the Use?

DESCRIPTION: "Some call this the best old world that nature could contrive. One thing's sure, that none of us get out of it alive.... Makes you sometimes wonder if anything's worthwhile." Questions include "What's the point of drinking if you always have a thirst"
AUTHOR: Edward Montagu (sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: nonballad drink questions
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 198, "What's the Use?" (1 text)
Roud #9548
ALTERNATE TITLES:
So What's the Use
NOTES [139 words]: The sheet music of this is headlined, "Henry W. Savage Presents Raymond Hitchcock in 'The Yankee Tourist.'" The Internet Broadway Database says that "The Yankee Tourist" was a musical farce that had 111 shows on Broadway from August to November 1907. It was based on Richard Harding Davis's play "The Galloper"; Davis also wrote the book for the musical, with the songs mostly by Alfred G. Robyn and Wallace Irwin. There is o mention of Edward Montague, so one suspects that this was a song grafted in from another source. Additinal supporting evidence for this comes from the fact that this is not included in the song list. Singer Raymond Hitchcock played one Copeland Schuyler.
Montagu's original title was "So What's the Use" (without a question mark), but it appears that all traditional collections call it "What's the Use." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: SBar198

What's Your Name (III)

DESCRIPTION: "What's your name? (Mary Jane). Where do you live? (Down the lane.)" "What's your name? (Curds and crame[=cream]." "What do they call you? (Pudgy dawly[=dolly]."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: wordplay
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 77, "What's your name?" (1 text)
Roud #19409
File: KSUC077A

What's your name little boy? My name is Lemme

See What's Your Name (II) (File: NCF211WN)

What's Your Name? (I)

DESCRIPTION: "What's your name? Puddin' shane. Ask me again and I'll tell you the same." "What's your name? Puddin' pie. Ask me again and I'll make you cry." "What's...? Tom Brown. Ask me again and I'll knock you down.""What's...? Butter and tame."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: wordplay nonballad food
FOUND IN: US(MW,So) Britain Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 120, "(What's Your Name)" ("Smart-Aleck" Rhymes) (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 79, "John Brown"; p. 82, "Buster Brown,""Puddin-n-tane," "Santa Claus"; p. 53, "Hickory Ben Double" (5 texts)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #596, "What's your name?" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 7, "What's your name?" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #66, "(What's your name)" (1 text); cf. #106, "(What's Your Name)"
Ewan MacColl, _Journeyman: An Autobiography_, re-edited and with an introduction by Peggy Seeger, 1990; revised edition, Manchester University Press, 2009, p. 87, "(no title, but the character is named Baldy Bane)" (1 fragment)
Roud #19070
NOTES [87 words]: The two "What's Your Name" items use similar ideas -- so much so that I'd have lumped them if Roud didn't split them -- but the format is slightly different. "What's Your Name (I)," Roud #19070, has the form
What's your name? (Something something); ask me again and I'll (something or other).
What's Your Name (II), Roud #21237, always seems to have "little girl" or "little boy" in the first line, and involves a pun:
What's your name, little girl? My name is Ida. Ida what, little girl? Ida want to [=I don't want to]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: SaKo120B

What's Your Name? (II)

DESCRIPTION: "What's your name, little girl? My name is Alaska. Alaska what, little girl? Alaska [=I'll ask-a] my mommy." "What's your name, little boy? ...Lemmy... Lemmy kiss you." "What's your name? ...Ida... Ida [=I don't] want to." And so with other name and jokes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: wordplay nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Gloria Dickens, "Childhood Songs from North Carolina" Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), p. 4, "(What's your name, little girl)" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 124, "What's your name little boy? My name is Lemme" (notes only)
Roud #21237
NOTES [105 words]: The two "What's Your Name" items use similar ideas -- so much so that I'd have lumped them if Roud didn't split them -- but the format is slightly different "What's Your Name (I)," Roud #19070, has the form
What's your name? (Something something); ask me again and I'll (something or other).
What's Your Name (II), Roud #21237, always seems to have "little girl" or "little boy" in the first line, and involves a pun:
What's your name, little girl? My name is Ida. Ida what, little girl? Ida want to [=I don't want to].
Roud lumps this with the "Drunkard's Catechism," which is similar in form but perhaps different in intent. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: NCF211WN

Whatcha Gonna Do with the Baby?

See What'll I Do with the Baby-O (File: R565)

Whate'er Befall I'll Still Recall

See Love Will Find the Way (File: KSUC072C)

Whatever You Do, Do With Your Might

DESCRIPTION: "Whatever you do, do with your might, For things done by halves are never done right."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 114, "Whatever you do, do with your might" (1 short text)
Roud #25525
File: KSUC114A

Wheal Rodney

DESCRIPTION: "Now I and Capp'n Franky Got up to go to Bal; We started for Wheal Rodney, Where there was work for all. Oh! a-mining we will go, high-o!" They ask about pay. The "knockers" (mine spirits) lead them to a good lode
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Old Cornwall #2)
KEYWORDS: mining money work
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 55, "Wheal Rodney" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: Tony Deane and Tony Shaw _The Folklore of Cornwall_, B. T. Batsford, 1975, p. 68, "(Now we had luck at last, boys, the knockers showed us where" (1 excerpt)
Roud #3316
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Trelawny" (tune)
NOTES [33 words]: Knockers, according to Deane/Shaw, were small semi-human creatures said to inhabit the Cornish mines; there were several stories of their origin, but in many ways they sound similar to Brownies. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: DeSh070

Wheat

See Old Port Rockwell (File: Burt114)

Wheel and Turn Me

DESCRIPTION: A soldier courts the singer, gives her money with which she buys "silk and satin" that John Crow steals and throws away. She begs not to have the cloth torn. She dances with the soldier and asks that he be careful of her belly.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica; Lord Fly and Higgs recordings)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A soldier courts the singer; She says she has no man; he gives her small change; she buys silk and satin, washes and sets it out to dry, but "John Crow" flings it away; "Jeremiah ...no tear up me silk an' satin." This is followed by the wheel and turn me verse in which the fear is that the singer will fall, "lick me belly pon tambourina" [and - unstated - have a miscarriage].
KEYWORDS: courting sex request clothes dancing bird soldier
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 58-59, "One Solja Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time: Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007), pp-118-119, "Wheel an' Tun Mi" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "One Solja Man" (on WIEConnor01)
Blind Blake Higgs, "Wheel and Turn Me" (on WIHIGGS01)
Lord Fly and Dan Williams Orchestra, "Medley of Jamaican Mento-Calypsos(Fan Me Solja Man Fan Me; One Solja Man; Yuh No Yeary Weh De Ole Man Say; Slide Mongoose)" (1951, on Motta MRS 01A, n.d., "Lords of Mento," Marleybone Records MP3)
Lord Flea and the Jamaican Calypsonians, "Wheel and Turn Me" (on "Mento, Not Calypso," Fantastic Voyage CD FVDD163, 2013, reissue of Time Record 78 rpm UD1002, c.1954?; as "Wheel and Tun Me" on "Take Me to Jamaica," Pressure Sounds CD PSCD 51, 2006)
Louise Bennett and the Caribbean Serenaders, "Bongo Man (Jamaican Christmas Song)," (1951, on Melodisc MEL 29, 1951 [recorded 1950])
The Slickers, "Mother Matty" (1969, on Amalgamated Records AMG 852B, 1988, "Joe Gibbs and Friends - The Reggae Train 1968-1971").
ALTERNATE TITLES:
One Bungo Man
NOTES [934 words]: The description follows the Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica and Dexter and Taylor texts. At least on the surface, John Crow is "a scavenger bird" [Dexter and Taylor glossary, p. 131]. Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica writes, "John Crow [:] Jamaican scavenger bird, but here used in a derogatory sense, alluding to 'Jeremiah'." "John Crow" ("As soon as it descries something dead, it swoops down majestically with a spread of its disproportionately huge wings. Its featherless red head, greedily curled talons and awkward gait ...." [Helen H Roberts, "A Study of Folk Song Variants Based on Field Work in Jamaica" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 148 (Apr-Jun 1925 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 178]) is a turkey vulture. Jekyll has an Afro-Jamaican cante fable that ends "from that day every John Crow born with a peel head" (Walter Jekyll, Jamaican Song and Story (New York: Dover Publications, 1966 (Reprint of publication by David Nutt, 1907)), #43 pp. 132-134, "John Crow").
The Bennett version, "Bongo Man," almost exactly follows Murray, and Dexter and Taylor. One significant difference is that in the book version the woman answers the courting by "mi sey mi no ha' nobody" but Bennett sings "me say me don't want nobody." Some comments by Azizi Powell at the pancocojams site, specifically at http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/07/caribbean-song-one-solja-man.html, accessed February 25, 2015, who describes herself as "an African American mother, grandmother, and retired human services administrator. For more than forty years I have shared adapted West African stories with audiences in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area." She says, "Also sung as 'One Bungo Man,' Bungo meaning an African" [dated July 22, 2012] and, acknowledging that John Crow is a scavenger bird, "I believe that 'John Crow' in this song is a derogatory referent for a dark skinned Black man." [dated July 16, 2014] The same note also points to the Wailers' use of the wheel and turn me verse in "Rude Boy" [The Wailers' song available as "Walk the Proud Land", is a 1965 political protest song that includes the lines "Me want you come wheel an' turn me Fi go lick a mi head 'pon you tambourine" but does not use the usual "Wheel and Turn Me" tune. See Bob Marley and the Wailers, "Walk the Proud Land" on the 1991 Tuff Gong album "Talkin Blues (Live)"; also see Timothy White, Catch Fire - The Life of Bob Marley (New York: Henry Holt, 1996), pp. 202-203]. The label of the record says it is a "Jamaican Christmas Song." Considering the subject, that seems enigmatic, but there is likely no religious Christmas association intended by Bennett. Cowley says, about this record, that by the "Christmas" reference the performance is "asscociated with the Jonkunnu [or 'John Canoe'] masquerade held in Jamaica at this season" [John Cowley, "London is the Place: Caribbean Music in the Context of Empire 1900-60" in Paul Oliver, ed. Black Music in Britain: Essays on the Afro Asian Contribution to Popular Music, (Milton Keynes, Open University Press, 1990, pp. 57-767, endnotes pp. 181-183 (with factual corrections and refinements), 2011, renumbered as pp. 1-19, downloaded from http://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/2945/1/LITP3.pdf February 24, 2015, p. 6].
The Lord Fly song, "One Solja Man," is the second song in a medley of four. It follows a song in which a soldier gets a girl pregnant [see "Fan Mi Solja Man"]. Then this song which, in spite of its title, does not mention a soldier, is only this chorus, repeated three times: I want you to wheel and turn me/ Oh mind how you wheel and turn me/ [Do] you want me to go ba dung [fall down]/ Bust me belly with the tambourina?" As in the case of "Hold' 'im Joe" and "Jump in the Line" only the tune and chorus travel from singer to singer, and the verses among singers seem unrelated. [Incidentally, the third and fourth songs of the medley do not seem to continue the story.]
Dexter and Taylor have versions of both Lord Fly songs (pp. 29-30, "Fan Mi Solja Man," and "Wheel an' Tun Mi" listed above), and they appear not to be related to each other; Lord Fly has taken the coded[?] story of "Wheel and Turn Me" and made it explicit by tacking the chorus [conclusion] of "Wheel and Turn Me" as a conclusion to "Fan Mi Solja Man".
Lord Flea repeats the "wheel and turn me" chorus six times and has two creole verses I don't understand.
The Higgs version changes the sex of the singer and "cleans up" the story: Singer asks an old lady cooking for some dinner. She has him jump through the window and beat the tambourine with his belly. "The way is wheel and turn" [until he falls?] and hit the tambourine with his belly.
Pearl Lewin has another song, "Dis Long Time Gal," with "wheel an' tun till we tumble dung" - without the tambourine or belly - as "a mento tune used for dance and play" (Olive Lewin, "Forty Folk Songs of Jamaica" (Washington: General Secretariat of the American States, 1973), pp. 59-60).
The Slickers' reggae simplifies the tune and words of Lord Flea's version - already simplified - but makes one more change. Unless there is something in Flea's "creole" verses that reveals the sex of the singer, that is indeterminate. The Slickers' version has the usual lines - "What makes you want to wheel and turn me/ You want me to go fall down/ Bust my belly on a tambourina" - but also "Hold me Mother Matty (if you want me)."
There is an instrumental ska version: Frank Anderson and Tommy McCook, "Wheel and Turn" (on "Ska Bonanza," HeartBeat CD HB 86/87, 1991).
See Hol' Yuh Han" for another example of wheel, turn and tumble down. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: JaMu058

Wheel in a Wheel, A

DESCRIPTION: "A wheel in a wheel, Oh my Lord (x2), Going to take a ride on the chariot wheel." "It runs by love ...." "It runs by faith ...." "Chariot's a-coming ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 184, "A Wheel in a Wheel" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 110 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #15241
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel" (theme)
NOTES [141 words]: Ezekiel's vision of the four creatures with a wheel at one side is not easy to picture, perhaps especially in King James, where the appearance of each wheel is "a wheel in the middle of a wheel" (Ezekiel 1:16). The wheel could be seen as acting like a chariot wheel that was never separated from its creature, even when the creature was "lifted up from earth" (Ezekiel 1:19). So, in this hymn, the singer is "going to take a ride" on that chariot wheel. In "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel," "the big wheel runs by faith, The little wheel runs by the grace of God"; here the wheels run by "love" and "faith." I don't know where to find those attributes cited. - BS
There is no connection between those attributes and Ezekiel's wheel, but "faith, hope, and love" are the three key virtues in 1 Corinthians 13; I would assume that is the basis for the link. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett184

Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)

DESCRIPTION: The young man comes to the young woman and asks her to wed. He offers her gold, silver, and land. She tells him she is not interested in these; "all I want is a (good young/handsome) man." That being offered, the two agree to marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Jackson/Burne)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage money virtue playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So,SW) Canada(Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (42 citations):
Greig/Duncan4 746, "The Spanish Lady" (9 texts, 8 tunes)
Greig/Duncan8 1588, "There's a Lady Over Yonder" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Stewart/Belle-Stewart-QueenAmangTheHeather, p. 28, "Owre yon Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 196-197, "March Away" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 458)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 225, "Yonder Sits a Pretty Little Creature" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 73, "Portsmouth City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 24, "Madam, Madam" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the first could be any of the courting songs but looks most like this; the second is clearly this)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 506-507, "Madam, I Have Gold and Silver" (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 98, "Spanish Lady" (1 text); 131, "The Quaker's Wooing" (1 text, 1 tune); possibly 132, "The Sober Quaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 173, "The Wooing" (2 texts, the "A" text being "The Courting Case" and "B" being probably this piece)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, p. 106, "(On yonder hill there stands a lady)" (1 short text, consisting of just the opening lines of either "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)" or "No, John, No," used as a game song)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 154-155, "Yonder Hill There Is a Widow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 69, "Ripest Apples" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 205, "Come My Little Roving Sailor" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 3 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 55, "Come, My Little Roving Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 71, "The Quaker's Wooing" (1 text, 1 tune); also p. 144, "Kind Miss" (1 text, 1 tune, primarily this piece but with one verse of "The Drowsy Sleeper")
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 804-805, "There She Stands, a Lovely Creature" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H532, p. 367, "Tarry Trousers" (1 text, 1 tune -- a curious version in which, after all the business about riches and a good young man, the girl finally sends the lad off by saying she has a sailor love)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 147, "Ladies I have goldensilver" (1 fragment)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 79A, "The Tarry Trousers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 12, "Madam, I Have Gold and Silver" (1 text, starting with this song but ending with a "Ripest of Apples" verse and ending with a Riley stanza)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 12, "Madam, I have Gold and Silver" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 37, pp. 151-152, "Annie Girl" (1 text, which conflates 2 verses of "The Drowsy Sleeper" [Laws M4], 2 or 3 of "Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady)" or "No, John, No: or similar, and 3 verses probably of "Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token)" [Laws N42])
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 158, "The Spanish Lady" (1 text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 45, pp. 79-80, "The Spanish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune, with perhaps half the song being floating material; much of it looks more like "The Barnyard of Delgaty" or something similar than like "Wheel of Fortune")
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H641, p. 383, "Ripest of Apples" (1 text, 1 tune, a tiny fragment of two verses, one of which often occurs with this song while the other is associated primarily with "Carrickfergus." The tune is not "Carrickfergus")
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 199-200, "Quaker's Courtship" (1 fragment, 1 tune, which might be either this or "The Quaker's Courtship")
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 194-195, "Song on Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 149, "Wheel Of Fortune" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 87, "Spanish Lady"; cf. 36, "Lady on the Mountain" (7 texts, 3 tunes)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #290, pp. 168-169, "(Madam, I have come to court you)" (a short text, which might well be "The Quaker's Wooing" with beginning and end lost, but as it stands, it has no Quakers and must be filed here)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #6, "There She Stands, a Lovely Creature" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #24, "As I walked through the city"; #446, "On the mountain top (hillside) stands a lady" (2 texts)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, F.W. Waugh, "Canadian Folk-Lore from Ontario," Vol. XXXI, No. 119 (Jan 1918), #630 pp. 48-49 ("Here stands a lovely creature"),("Here sits a Spanish lady") (2 texts)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Marie Campbell, "Survivals of Old Folk Drama in the Kentucky Mountains," Vol. LI, No. 199 (Jan-Mar 1938), pp. 18-22, "A Plough Monday Play"), especially pp. 21-22, "For Gold and Silver" ("'Kind miss, kind miss, go ask your mother")
DT, WHEELFOR* DUBLNCTY* DUBLNCT2 SPALDTIN (VANDY2) (DUBLNCI2)
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 48-49, "The Spanish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ray B. Browne, "Southern California Jump-Rope Rhymes: A Study in Variants" in Western Folklore, Vol. XIV, No. 1 (Jan 1955 (available online by JSTOR)), #22 p. 14 ("On a hillside stands a lady") (1 text)
Georgina Frederica Jackson, Charlotte Sophia Burne, editor, _Shropshire Folk-lore: A Sheaf of Gleanings_ (London, Trubner & Co, 1883, digitized by Google), pp. 509-510, ("Here stands a lady on a mountain"); pp. 551-552, "The Disdainful Lady" ("Yonder stands a comely creature") (2 texts)
Katharine (Tynan) Hinkson, "The Girls' Room" in Christabel R. Coleridge and Arthur Innes, editors, The Monthly Packet (London, 1897 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XCIII, p. 345, ("There stands a lady on the mountain")
G.F. Northall, English Folk-Rhymes (London, 1892 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 376, ("Here stands a lady on a mountain") (1 text)
J Woodfall Ebsworth, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. VIII Part 2, pp. 851-852,"The Handsom' Woman" ("Yonder stan's a hansum woman, who she is I dunnot knaw")
Roud #542
RECORDINGS:
Seamus Ennis, "Dublin City" (on FSB02, FSB2CD)
Hector MacIsaac and Emma MacIsaac, "Galway City" (on NFHMacIsaac02)
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:104, "The Wheel of Fortune," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C [an incredible mixture, with the "Wheel of Fortune" verse, though the rest seems an amalgam of thyme songs -- here spelled "time"]; also Mu23-y1:105, "The Wheel of Fortune," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C [even more mixture, with the "Wheel of Fortune" verse, a thyme stanza, a bit of "Fair and Tender Ladies," a "Queen of Heart" verse, and more]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lady on the Mountain (I)" (lyrics)
cf. "The Keys of Canterbury"
cf. "No, John, No"
cf. "Madam, Madam, You Came Courting" (theme)
cf. "The Quaker's Courtship" (theme)
cf. "Killy's Den" (tune, per Greig/Duncan4)
cf. "The Twelfth of May" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Ripest Apple" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Now All You Lads" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Chester City
All I Want is a Handsome Man
As I Walked Up Through London City
Edinburgh City
Tinkle, Tinkle, Tra-La-La!
NOTES [915 words]: The "Wheel of Fortune" was a leading image of the medieval era -- how fate could turn take one who was successful and cast him into dust, and raise anothe rin his place. For more about this image, see the notes to "The Downfall of Heresy."
Although several versions listed here mention Quakers in their titles (e.g. Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio's text, also that printed by Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag), their texts make no mention of the Quaker, and so I list them here.
This obviously began life as a ballad, but was collected in New York as a playparty, and Belden also found it as a singing game. Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes has it as a jump rope rhyme; it is possible that this rhyme should be regarded as Roud #3086. - RBW
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 36 has three texts of the "Yonder stands ... who she is I do not know" version.
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 87: "This song about an exile in disgrace was probably at the height of its popularity in Edwardian days." The "plot" in this case is that the singer, walking down the street, meets a Spanish or German lady with a baby in her arms. - BS
The text in the Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook version is extremely fragmentary, and contains almost nothing of the plot described above. All that happens is that the man and woman meet; she washes her feet and dries them, then he laments young girls' deceiving ways and sings about numbers. - PJS
What Paul describes is fairly typical. The description above is of the fullest texts, but this ballad seems to be unusually good at losing pieces of itself. Often it descends into a purely lyrical piece -- and sometimes it seems to "re-ascend" by taking on a new ending of abandonment.
The existence of the numbers chorus ("Twenty, eighteen, sixteen, fourteen...") seems to be characteristic of a particular, very widespread, sub-version.
It appears likely that we can positively date this song to at least 1822, when John Randolph of Virginia asked a niece if she had heard a ballad with the verse
What care I for your golden treasures?
What care I for your house and land?
What care I for your costly pleasures?
So as I get but a handsome man.
For some reason, scholars have claimed this verse is from "Lord Randal." But it certainly appears to belong here. - RBW
The Ebsworth text is the oldest I have seen -- certainly older than Jackson/Burne -- but Ebsworth does not date it, possibly because it was just a side note to another ballad. The end of the Ebsworth text, following an editorial comment that "woman has the last word as usual," is
He took a pail, and I took a pail, and a-milking he went wi' me;
I said nout, and he said nout; but, ma faith! I think he'll ha' me."
"This is the finale," Ebsworth continues, "Robert Roberts, of Boston, is a safe authority to follow on old books and Lincolnshire customs: he writes, 'To take her pail and go with a girl to milking, is considered almost equal to a proposal of marriage.' This throws light on the popular song '"Where are you going to, my pretty maid?" "I'm going a milking, sir," she said. "May I go with you, my pretty maid?"' and her comprehensive reply, '"Yes, if you please, kind sir," she said.' When he adds, 'Then I cannot marry you!' she knows it breaks the implied contract."'"
The Jackson/Burne text ends
'But fare you well, my dearest creature,
Since I have no more to say.'
'O turn again, young man! I'll have you!'
But his answer was, 'Nay, nay!'
The Campbell text is very close to Sandburg's "Kind Miss," which is also from Kentucky. These texts have an unusual twist to their "Drowsy Sleeper" verse: in printed texts of Laws M4, and one of its sources, "I Will Put My Ship In Order," the lines following "... ask your mother If you my bride shall ever be" are "If she says 'No,' come back and tell me, And I'll no longer trouble thee"; in these two texts the lines are "If she says 'yes,' come back and tell me, If she says 'no,' we'll run away." [These lines are also in Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 37 -- another "Drowsy Sleeper"-"Wheel of Fortune" hybrid -- and two closely related recordings of Laws M4: Harry and Jeannie West, More Southern Mountain Folk Songs, Stinson SLP 74, “Katy Dear"; Blue Sky Boys, "Katie Dear" (Bluebird B-7661, 1938) and Homer and Walter Callahan, "Katie Dear (Silver Dagger)" (Banner 33103/Melotone M-13071/Oriole 8353/Perfect 13017/Romeo 5353, c. 1934; Conqueror 9145, 1938; on GoingDown), identical texts.]
The Campbell text provides a rationale for this break: "Kind Miss" is a wooing song in a mummers' play. The form of the wooing song usually has a reasonable bid by the male to start an engagement, followed by rejection by the woman and, occasionally, a final acceptance. The "I'll no longer trouble thee" line would end the song prematurely, while the "we'll run away" line leads to the normal wooing song form. Of course, the "Drowsy Sleeper" verse insertion is not necessary for "Wheel of Fortune" to be used as a wooing song, but once the verse was inserted, its form was likely changed to suit its new function. For more on "wooing songs" in mummers' plays, see "Sweet Moll."
The Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames chorus -- "March away, march away, Trumpets sound and cymbals play. March away, march away, To the merry little fife and drum." -- is from the chorus of "The Merry Little Soldier" (see The Universal Songster or Museum of Mirth (London, 1834 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol I, p. 109, "The Merry Little Soldier" ("I'm a merry little soldier") (1 text)). - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: E098

Wheels of the World, The

DESCRIPTION: Spinners turn the wheels of the world. Some spinners are named with their product: Pitt, Castlereagh, Napoleon, Wellington, John Mitchell, John Bull, factory owners and the rich. "Let liberty be your bright motto and glory will turn your big wheel"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 20(190))
KEYWORDS: death suicide exile nonballad political worker Napoleon Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 200, "The Wheels of the World" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16901
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4120), "Wheels of the World" ("Come all you true sons of old Erin"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844[?]; also Harding B 20(190) [J. Harkness(Preston), 1840-1866], Firth c.14(127), "Wheels of the World," Firth b.27(49) [mostly illegible and probably trimmed]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Game of Cards (II)" (subject: the elimination of Grattan's parliament)
NOTES [1907 words]: According to "Wheels of the World," Pitt [ "banish'd in Charon's old boat": d.1806] and Castlereagh spun the union of Ireland to England [1800] but were unhappy at the end, and Castlereagh committed suicide [1822]; Napoleon spun freedom and Wellington spun Waterloo [1815] "but if Grouchy had never been bribed sure the French would have split him in two"; John Mitchell spun to free Ireland but John Bull spun him to exile [1848]; factory owners and the rich spin to grind the poor. Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(4120) mentions other spinners: Luther, Henry VIII, John Calvin, Nelson and the French that killed him at Trafalgar [1805], Prince Albert [1840] and Victoria: "For 300 years they've been spinning, Destruction all over the land."
There is a dating problem for broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(4120): it mentions John Mitchel's exile to Bermuda [subsequently Cape Colony and finally to Van Dieman's Land] which occurred after 1844. [I think the problem is an error in the attribution to the printer Pitts; the defaced imprint does not contain his name as it stands, merely the words "toy warehouse." Pitts also owned a toy warehouse, but the appearance of the broadside is unlike any of the other Pitts broadsides I checked. Given that this piece, if circulated in Ireland, would be considered perilously close to treason, I wonder if a printer might not try to fake the attribution. There is probably a good thesis in there somewhere, on broadside printers and their fonts and clip art collections. - RBW]
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentennial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Wheels of the World" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998)) - BS
It is interesting to note that, of the three legible Bodelian broadsides of this song, only one carries an actual printer's imprint, and that defaced. The Bodleian editors did manage to determine two of the printers, but one of those attributions is questionable -- and it's also interesting that this song of interest primarily to the Irish was printed on British soil.
There is much interesting history in this song, which can be dated fairly precisely by the events it mentions. The three legible Bodleian broadsides (Harding B 11(4120), Harding B 20(190), Firth c.14(127)) all have nearly the same text, and must have been printed at about the same time. The references which give us our dates are as follows:
"I'll sing you a song about spinning, it was a good trade in its time" -- This might (or might not) refer to the direct control Britain exerted over Irish textile manufacturing; for more on this, see e.g. "The Volunteers' March."
"Luther... King Henry the eighth... John Calvin" -- the founders of the three basic branches of non-Catholic Christianity: Protestant (a name falsely applied to all three types), Anglican, and Reformed/Presbyterian. In Protestant England the three were mostly approved of; not so in Catholic Ireland! Thomas ("Tom") Cranmer (1489-1556) was Henry VIII's Archbishop of Canterbury; though hardly a noteworthy theologian, he was largely responsible for implementing Henry's new church. It is odd to note that the song does not mention his hard end (Mary Tudor had him burned at the stake)
"John Mitchell the brave son of Erin" -- John Mitchel (1815-1875), for whom see the song of the same name, started as a writer, and founded the publication The United Irishman. He ended up calling stridently for change in Ireland, and in 1848 was sentenced to transportation. Sent briefly to Bermuda, he then was moved to Australia, and escaped to the United States, there to advocate slavery and flogging of prisoners. Since his exile to Bermuda is mentioned, the song must date after 1848. (One suspects this verse, the third in all the broadside texts, has been displaced; were it moved after the seventh verse, the song would be in chronological order. On the other hand, Mitchel is the only Irishman referred to; maybe he was shoved forward as a result.)
The Lord C--n--n of all the broadsides is Lord Clarendon, i.e. George Villiers, fourth earl of Clarendon (1800-1870), the Lord Lieutenant from 1847-1852 before becoming foreign secretary. Although nominally responsible for the case against Mitchel, and the suppression of the sort-of-revolt of 1848, he had so little influence on the course of Irish history that I found only one mention of him in the histories I checked. In the broader world, his work seems to have been successful and relatively enlightened.
"Lord Nelson he was a good spinner" -- For Horatio Nelson, see e.g. "Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar (Brave Nelson)" [Laws J17]
"Billy Pitt, too, was a good spinner, and so was Lord Castlereigh... they spun the Union from Ireland" -- William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806) was an MP as early as 1781 (from a "rotten" borough) and Prime Minister while still in his early twenties (1783). He would be Prime Minister for most of the rest of his life. He tried to pass several measures to help Ireland (free trade, Catholic emancipation -- Brumwell/Speck, pp. 296-297), but all were stymied. Therefore he is remembered mostly for the much-hated Act of Union, which eliminated the Irish parliament while introducing Irish members into the British Lords and Commons.
The reference here reminds me very strongly of similar references in "The Game of Cards (II)" and "The Shan Van Voght (1848)," though the direction of the dependence is not clear to me.
Robert Stewart Viscount Castlereagh (1769-1822) was actually Irish (from Ulster), and early in his career in fact supported Catholic emancipation (Brumwell/Speck, p. 77). He entered the English parliament in 1794, and became a member of Pitt's government. His was a brilliant career; he served at various times as both war and foreign secretaries, was largely responsible for the Peninsular campaign, and helped direct the last battles against Napoleon. He was by rational standards an outstanding success -- but in Ireland he was remembered as being the actual director of the campaign for Union. In his later years, when it was clear that the Congress system for governing Europe was failing, he became despondent. The responsibilities of his offices overwhelmed him, and he had a nervous breakdown and committed suicide. (Having to serve in the cabinet under the whiny, petty George IV probably didn't help.)
Excerpts from Boylan's capsule biography (p. 370): "STEWART, ROBERT, VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH, second MARQUIS OF LONDONDERRY (1769-1822). Virb ub Dyk=vkubm 18 June 1769. Educated at the Royal School, Armagh, and St John's College, Cambridge. Elected to the Irish parliament in 1790. Became chief secretary in 1798. The rising that year convinced him that union with Britain was essential to preserve the empire, and he did not flinch from the huge outlay for 'compensation for disturbance' that secured the passage of the Act of Union in 1800. Description of his tactics as wholesale bribery and corruption take little account of the facts of political life in the eighteenth century, when patronage was an accepted instrument of government policy. The Catholics had been led to believe their emancipation would follow the Union, and when King George III refused his consent, Castlereagh resigned with Pitt. He as soon back in office as secretary for war in 1805, and from then until his suicide in 1822 played a dominant role in British policy."
He became Foreign Secretary in 1812, and Boylan credits him with putting together the terms that produced forty years of peace after 1815. "After 1815 his popularity ebbed rapidly in England (he had none to lose in Ireland), as he was identified with the repressive policies of the post-Napoleon years.... His duties had imposed severe and continuous strain on him for years, his mind gave way, and he cut his throat on 12 August 1822.... He left a widow but no children."
Smith, pp. 211-212 described how Castlereigh -- who by then had become Second Marquess of Londonderry, which cannot have endeared him to Irish patriots -- met King George IV as George was preparing for a progress through Scotland: "Londonderry had been under severe strain both through overwork, and, apparently, as a result of being hounded by a blackmailer with allegations of homosexual behavior. His attitude at his farewell audience so disturbed George that he urged him to see his doctor at once, and on the way north he also wrote to Liverpool [the prime minister] to warn him of Londonderry's mental state. He told him he must not be left alone for a moment lest he take his own life. It was to no avail. Liverpool dismissed the King's note as unnecessary panic: but early on the morning of 12 August Londonderry cut his own throat as his doctor, hurriedly summoned by Lady Londonderry, rushed into his dressing room."
"Napoleon he was a great spinner" -- The Irish held out great hopes for Napoleon, though he never did much for them; for what encouragement and help he did give, see the notes to "The Shan Van Voght."
"Old Wellington" -- obviously the Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), winner of the Peninsular campaign and victor at Waterloo (1815), much disliked by the masses because he finally defeated Napoleon. If Mitchell's 1848 exile offers the earliest date for this song, the "Iron Duke's" death may supply the latest; two of the three broadsides have the line "Old Wellington he went a-spinning," but Firth c.14(127) patches this to "Old Wellington he now is dead"; this presumably was a topical change made 1852 or 1853, with the other versions coming from (though perhaps not printed) before 1852.
"If Grouchy had never been bribed" -- Emmanuel Grouchy (1766-1847) commanded one of the wings of Napoleon's army in the Waterloo campaign, and his failure to arrive at Waterloo may have cost Napoleon the battle (Pope, p. 247). The charge that he betrayed Napoleon occurs also in "Napoleon Bonaparte (III)" (see that song for a discussion) and in "The Removal of Napoleon's Ashes," but there is no reason whatsoever to believe that it is true. Being incompetent, and given a vital command which he did not have the expertise to manage properly, is not the same as being corrupt.
"Prince Albert" -- Albert of Saxe-Coburg (1819-1861), the husband of Queen Victoria, upon whom she doted almost irrationally. He was not particularly well-liked in England, being suspected (as in this song) of being "on the make," since he was of far less hereditary importance than Victoria (see Cowan, pp. 161-162, for a couple of joke songs about Albert). But though she seems to have fallen in love first, there is no evidence that he tried to tempt her into anything. Indeed, as long as he lived, he proved a capable consort and diplomat, even if the people did not take to him.
"For the Queen has another young son That was spun in the City of Cork" -- Victoria had four sons: Edward (the future Edward VII, 1841-1910), Alfred (1844-1900), Arthur (1850-1942), and Leopold (1853-1884). Arthur, who was Victoria's favorite son (Longford, p. 367) later became Duke of Connaught, and is surely the child intended. The more so since Victoria visited Cork (which was renamed Queenstown at that time) in 1849, so it is possible (though hardly proved) that he was conceived in Cork.
Thus the strong internal evidence is that this piece was written between 1850 and 1852. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Moyl200

Wheelwright, The (John Hunter)

DESCRIPTION: John Hunter is apprenticed to a wheelwright. He and the master's daughter fall in love. When his apprenticeship is finished, he prepares to leave her as he seeks work. She offers to marry him and come with him. He accepts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: apprentice love father marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H125a+b, pp. 475-476, "John Hunter (a)/John Hunter (b)/The Wheelwright" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #9058
NOTES [19 words]: The notes in Henry/Huntington/Herrmann imply that there is an Irish Gaelic version of this -- possibly even two. - RBW
File: HHH125

When a Chap Comes Hame

See A Good Roarin' Fire (File: HayU032)

When a Fellow Falls in Love

See Kissing Song (I) (File: R374)

When a Man's in Love [Laws O20]

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks his sweetheart to allow him into her room; she convinces him to stay by the fire. He tells her he has courted her long enough despite her parents' opposition; he will go to America. She agrees to be married (or spend the night together)
AUTHOR: Hugh McWilliams (source: Moulden-McWilliams)
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (according to Moulden-McWilliams)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage emigration request
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws O20, "When a Man's in Love"
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 110-111, "The Boy of Love" (1 text, lacking the ending)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 214-215,"When A Man's In Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 59, "A Man in Love" (1 text, 3 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H211, p. 479, "When a Man's in Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 80, "When a Man's In Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 150, "The Boy In Love That Feels No Cold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 96-97, "When a Man's In Love He Feels No Cold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 143, "When a Man's in Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 76, "When a Man's in Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 747, MANLOVE
ADDITIONAL: John Moulden, Songs of Hugh McWilliams, Schoolmaster, 1831 (Portrush,1993), p. 2, "A Man in Love"
Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), p. 87, "The Boy in Love" (1 text, short enough that it might possibly be something else with a few lines of this mixed in)
Roud #990
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "When a Man's In Love" (on IRRCinnamond02)
Michael Gallagher, "When A Man's In Love" (on FSBFTX13)
A. L. Lloyd, "When a Man's In Love" (on Lloyd01)
Paddy Tunney, "When a Man's In Love" (on FSB01); "When A Man's in Love He Feels No Cold" (on Voice01); "When a Man's In Love" (on IRPTunney03); "When a Man's in Love" (on IRPTunney01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Star of the County Down" (tune) and references there
NOTES [9 words]: In McWilliams's version she agrees to be married. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: LO20

When a Man's In Love He Feels No Cold

See When a Man's in Love [Laws O20] (File: LO20)

When a Sailor Comes On Shore

See Jack Tar (I) [Laws K39] (File: LK39)

When a Woman Blue

DESCRIPTION: "When a woman blue (x2) she hang her head and cry... When a man get blue He grab a railroad train and ride." "I'm gonna lay my head Down on that railroad line. Let the train roll by And that'll pacify my mind. Honey when I die, don't you wear no black..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "When a woman blue, when a woman blue, she hang her head and cry... When a man get blue He grab a railroad train and ride." "I'm gonna lay my head, I'm gonna lay my head Down on that railroad line... Let the train roll by And that'll pacify my mind." "Honey when I die, don't you wear no black, For if you do, my ghost come slippin' back"
KEYWORDS: train suicide
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 236-237, "When a Woman Blue" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 506, "Oh! When a Man Get the Blues" (1 fragment)
Roud #11808
File: San236

When A' the Lave Gaed to Their Beds

DESCRIPTION: Late at night the singer taps at Nell's window. She lets him in "but a' that passed 'atween us twa An' we'll keep that to our-sell." He leaves at four. Hard work, wind and rain won't deter him "while I am welcome back again To the arms of my dear"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting nightvisit
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 784, "When A' the Lave Gaed to Their Beds" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6197
NOTES [43 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quoting Robert Reid in an 1897 issue of the Aberdeen Evening Gazette, the source for the text: "I heard them sung between thirty and forty years ago."
The singer leaves at four to be home in time to start work. No mention of cocks crowing. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4784

When Adam in the garden woned

See Adam in the Garden (File: GrD3471)

When Adam Was Created (Wedlock)

DESCRIPTION: "When Adam was created, he dwelt in Eden's shade, As Moses has related, before his bride was made." Then Eve was made from Adam's rib. The rest of the song describes the duties of wedlock, based on this account of the creation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (journal of the ANdrew Hicks; Dumas's tune dated 1869
KEYWORDS: religious Bible marriage
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 53, "When Adam Was Created" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 53, "When Adam Was Created" (2 tunes plus a text excerpt)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 193, "When Adam was Created" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 55, "When Adam Was Created" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 29-31, "The Fall of Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 323-325, "A Song for a Weddling" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 567-569, "Wedlock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #100, "Both Sexes Give Ear" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WEDLOK*
Roud #728
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Adam and Eve" (theme)
NOTES [131 words]: I can't help but note that all the details here come from the "J" account of the creation (Gen. 2:4f.). In the "P" account, which occupies Genesis 1:1-2:4, men and women were created together. Make of it what you may.
Brown quotes Jackson to the effect that this derives from Chaucer's "Parson's Tale" or its folk/churchly sources. I really doubt it; The Parson's Tale is probably the dullest of all the Canterbury Tales.
In the Sacred Harp, this appears with the tune "Edmonds," credited to E. Dumas and dated to 1869.
Bush's version does not get into the duties of wedlock, instead halting at the expulsion from Eden and then proceeding with an account of the resurrection of Jesus and his commission of the disciples. This looks like it derives from Matthew 28 or possibly Mark 16. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: SKE55

When Adam Was First Created

See Old Adam and Eve (File: GrD71269)

When Ah Was Ah Poor Gal

DESCRIPTION: "When ah was a poor gal Nobody look at me." "Now I am a rich gal The Captain send for me." "Go and tell the Captain My time is not for he."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting rejection money nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 35, "When Ah Was Ah Poor Gal" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ElTo035

When All Our Work Is Done, And All Our Sheep Are Shorn

See Black Ram Night Song (When All Our Work Is Done) (File: Sim122)

When Arthur Ruled This Land

See In Good Old Colony Times (File: R112)

When Barney Flew Over the Hills

See Barney and Katie (File: LO21)

When Belgium Put the Kibosh on the Kaiser

DESCRIPTION: "A silly German sausage dreamt Napoleon he'd be" and so broke his promise to Britain. He tried to reach Paris, but hasn't gotten there yet, because "Belgium put the kibosh on the Kaiser, Europe took a stick and made him sore."
AUTHOR: Alf Ellerton (source: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: war royalty promise
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 13-15, "When Belgium Put the Kibosh on the Kaiser" (1 text)
DT, KIBOSHK
Roud #V15590
NOTES [749 words]: This song gives, to put it mildly, a distorted view of the opening phase of World War I. What follows is derived from the books in the Bibliography; I'm going to tell it so briefly that I won't even try to cite pages, but it's roughly pp. 45-80 of Keegan, the entries "Belgium," "Invasion of Belgium," and "Schlieffen Plan" in Pope/Wheal, and pp. 30-45 of Stokesbury.
Germany had known for a decade before World War I that, if war came in Europe, it might have to fight both France and Russia, one to the east and one to the west, with no other power on Germany's side except Austria, which was hardly a power at all. The German General Staff did not think they could successfully fight both simultaneously (they may have been wrong about this, but it's what they believed), so they concluded that they had to try to knock one of them out of the war and then concentrate on the other. And, since France was more efficient than Russia, the Germans decided to attack France first.
Had they known France's absurd plan (which was to take two of their five armies and try to recapture Alsace, lost to the Germans in the 1870 war), the Germans might have just stood back and let the French commit suicide. But they didn't know. So they concentrated seven armies against France (leaving just one to delay the Russians) and planned to us them in a great steamroller against the French, holding their lines around Alsace in the east and leaving the bulk of their force to attack the French left (western) flank. This was the Schlieffen Plan, which at its simplest involved overwhelming the left side of the French defensive line and from there driving on toward Paris.
There have been debates for the last century over whether the Schlieffen Plan could have worked had it been implemented properly. This isn't really relevant; what matters is that three German armies had to attack the French left. And, to get in position to do so, they needed to pass through Belgium, and to use its roads and railroads to bring up supplies.
Belgium was, by treaty and inclination, neutral. They supported neither Germany nor France, and they had fortified their frontiers. They refused French help -- but also refused to grant the Germans passage rights. This was presumably what is meant by "putting the kibosh on the Kaiser"; the Belgians would fight rather than give in.
Fighting was what they got; their fortifications gave the Germans some trouble, but they broke through and headed into France.
Britain was one of the countries that had guaranteed Belgian neutrality. When the Germans invaded and would not pull back, Britain declared war. The immediate British contribution was small, but eventually they would control nearly half the Western Front. The attack on Belgium -- which eventually involved several atrocities -- did not cause the Schlieffen Plan to succeed (the French were able to hold the Germans at the Battle of the Marne; the invaders never reached Paris), but it did cause the Germans to gain another enemy, whose contribution was probably decisive; without Britain, France and Russia might not have been able to hold back Germany.
Miscellaneous references in the song:
* Serbia: The initial conflict was between Austria-Hungary and Serbia; the Austrians accused the Serbs or orchestrating the assassination of Crown Prinz Franz Ferdinand
* Liege: Liège was one of the three great Belgian fortresses the Germans captured to clear their path through Belgium
* "First stop Paris": Paris was the ultimate objective of the Schlieffen Plan. The Germans failed to capture it.
* Turkey: It was still the Ottoman Empire at that time, not "Turkey," but of course it was ruled by Turks. At the time this song was written, the Turks were still neutral, but they had taken in the German battlecruiser Goeben; for background, see the notes to the "Dardanelles Patrol Song"
* "His warships... disappeared from sight": The German navy was outnumbered by about 3:2 by the British navy; so the Germans avoided battle with the British fleet; the only major naval battle of the war, the Battle of Jutland, occurred because the Germans were hoping to trap a part of the British fleet and instead ended up facing the whole thing
* Jellicoe: Admiral Sir John Jellicoe commanded the British fleet from 1914 until after Jutland
* "I'll settle John": I.e. the Germans will defeat John Bull. They didn't, quite, but the British lost most of a generation of their young men; no one really won the First World War! - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW013

When Bob Got Throwed

DESCRIPTION: "hat time when Bob got throwed, I thought sure I would bust, I liked to die a-laffin', To see him chewing dust." The singer had been thrown a few days earlier, and Bob had laugher. Bob Beats him up for laughing, but it's worth it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse injury
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 164-165, "When Bob Got Throwed" (1 text)
NOTES [2 words]: Not funny. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: ThLo164

When Boys Go A-Courting (II)

See Bachelor's Hall (II) (File: AF120)

When Britain first at Heaven's command

See Rule, Britannia (File: ChWII191)

When Bucks a Hunting Go

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet is the horn that sounds in the morn When bucks a hunting go," but the singer thinks about Nancy. The hounds chase the fox but his mind is on Nancy, his wife [usually]. "How happy is my wife and I When that we homeward go" Let's drink to it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(2034))
KEYWORDS: wife drink hunting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 168-169, "The Cheerful Arn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan4 727, "Hame to My Nancy" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 48-49, "How Sweet is the Horn!" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 399)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 143-145, "Young Bucks A-Hunting Go" (2 texts, 1 tune)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 41, "The Cheshire Hunt" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: The Universal Songster or Museum of Mirth (London, 1834 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol III, pp. 281-282, "The Huntsman's Wife" or "The Sweets of Tally-Ho!"
Hedley Peek, editor, The Poetry of Sport (London, 1896 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 161, "When Bucks a Hunting Go"
Roud #217
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(2034), "When Bucks a Hunting Go" ("How sweet is the horn that sounds in the morn"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 11(1824), Firth b.25(229), Johnson Ballads fol. 27, Harding B 11(4160), Firth c.19(111), "When Bucks a Hunting Go[!]"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My Fancy Dwells With Nancy Belle
NOTES [244 words]: There are literary references showing that the song was familiar, at least in England. Alfred Crowquill's story, "Forgiveness -- The Return," quotes the usual first verse, "'Tis sweet in the morn ..." sung by one character (Bentley's Miscellany (London, 1849 ("Digitized by Google)), Vol XXV, p. 384); George Du Maurier's Trilby has it that "Taffy, in a voice like a high wind (and with a very good imitation of the Yorkshire brogue), sang a Somersetshire hunting-ditty, ending: 'Of this 'ere song should I be axed the reason for to show, I don't exactly know, I don't exactly know! But all my fancy dwells upon Nancy, And I sing Tally-ho!'" [not a verse from the broadsides] (New York, 1899 ("Digitized by Google)), p. 172); Ben Brierley, in "Out of Work," has a conversation between two characters watching a girl: "Doesn't know where she is. Bonnie girl! What a bonnet! Bolted at last. 'Still my fancy dwells on Nancy - heigh my diddle dy oh!'" (Ben Brierley, Lancashire Life (Manchester, 1885 ("Digitized by Google)), p. 38)
Greig/Duncan4 quoting Duncan: "The song seems to contrast two lovers, of whom Nancy Belle is one." Duncan seems to have it wrong. Howeever, judging by the Brierly quote, the line "my fancy dwells with Nancy" seems to have had a life independent of the hunt.
Kidson has a version, "circa 1800," which replaces the "how happy is my wife" verse with "was she my wife, how sweet the life ...."
Roud has Greig/Duncan4 as Roud #6161. - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: GrD4727

When Buster Brown Was One

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope or formula song. "When Buster Brown was one, he used to suck his thumb. Thumb me over, thumb me over, A, B, C..." "When Buster Brown was two... buckle his shoe." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Withers)
KEYWORDS: jumprope | thumb counting Buster Brown
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #598, "When Buster Brown was one" (1 text)
Roud #18335
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Buster Brown Shoes" (subject of Buster Brown)
NOTES [49 words]: "Buster Brown" was originally a comic strip; Wikipedia reports that it originated in 1902 and was created by Richard Felton Outcault. The Buster Brown Shoe followed in 1904. The shoes outlasted the comic strip, and ads featuring Buster were still running on televition as late as the 1990s. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR598

When Carbine Won the Cup

DESCRIPTION: "The race was run, the Cup was won, The great event was o'er. The grandest horse e'er trod a course Had led them home once more." A description of how Carbine and his rider Ramage (?) won the Melbourne Cup
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: horse racing
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 212-213, "When Carbine Won the Cup" (1 text)
Fahey-Joe-Watson-AustralianTraditionalFolkSinger, [p. 7, page headed "Horse racing played..."], "(no title)" (1 fragment)
NOTES [139 words]: According to Learmonth, p. 347, the Melbourne Cup was first run in 1861; it is run on the first Tuesday in November. Carbine, who won it in 1890, is noteworthy for having carried the most weight ("10 st. 5 lb.") of any winner.
NewZealandEncyclopedia, p. 95, says that "CARBINE was N[ew] Z[ealand's] first internationally successful racehorse. His performances on the track in Australia, and at stud in both Australia and England, gave the NZ thoroughbred industry its first claim to fame."
The article continues to state that Carbine was bred in 1885 near Auckland. He won five races as a two-year-old, had a mixed season the year after that, failed in the Melbourne Cup as a four-year-old, but won it at age five. "He had a career record of 33 wins, six seconds, three thirds, and was unplaced only once," dying at the age of 27. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: MA212

When Clon Came Home

DESCRIPTION: "At Croke Park last Sunday I hear that the Cork men faced Cavan whose fame was so dear ... but we held them and led them and beat them" The team members are named. "The Sam Maguire Cup has come home to the Lee"
AUTHOR: Paddy Meeghan (source: OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: pride sports moniker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 23, 1945 - Cork beat Cavan in the All-Ireland Football Championship (source: OCanainn-SongsOfCork).
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 116-117, "When Clon Came Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [35 words]: "Clon" - short for Clonakilty[?] - is not in the text. OCanainn-SongsOfCork: "Between team and reserves there were nine Clonakilty men with Cork, which explains the elation felt in Clonakilty at the result." - BS
File: OCan116

When Cockle Shells Make Silver Bells

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)

When Cockle Shells Turn Silver Bells

See Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) (File: K149)

When de Good Lord Sets You Free

See Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady) (File: San011)

When de Moon Went Down

See King Jesus Will Be Mine (File: Edwa011)

When de Whale Get Strike

See The Greenland Whale Fishery [Laws K21] (File: LK21)

When E'er You Make a Promise

DESCRIPTION: "When e’er you make a promise Consider well its importance And when made
Engrave it upon your heart."
AUTHOR: W. W. Shield (source: GirlScouts-SingTogether)
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (GirlScouts-SingTogether); reportedly written 1828
KEYWORDS: promise nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 437, "When E'er You Make a Promise" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 30, "When E'er You Make a Promise" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 6, "Whene'er You Make a Promise" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ACSF427E

When Fanning First to Orange Came

DESCRIPTION: "When Fanning first to Orange came He looked both pale and wan, An old patched coat upon his back An old mare he rode on. Both man and mare wa'nt worth five pounds... but by his civil robberies He's laced his coat with gold."
AUTHOR: Rednap Howell? (source: Haywood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (Raleigh Register and North-Carolina Gazette); the version in Cohen supposedly comes from 1765
KEYWORDS: robbery gold political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1738?-1818 - Life of Edmund Fanning
May 16, 1771 - Battle of Alamances
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 277, "When Fanning First to Orange Came" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 231, "When Fanning First to Orange Came (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: Marshall DeLancey Haywood, _Governor William Tryon and his Administration in the Province of North Carolina, 1765-1771_, 1903 (I use the 1958 Edwards & Broughton reprint with a dust jacket that reads "Governor Tryon of North Carolina" although the interior uses the original title), p. 102, "(no title)" (1 excerpt)
Annie Sutton Cameron, _Hillsborough and the Regulators_, Orange County Historical Museum, 1964, p. 6, "(no title)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "From Hillsborough Town the First of May" (subject)
cf. "Said Frohock to Fanning" (subject)
cf. "Who Would Have Tho't Harmon" (subject)
NOTES [5203 words]: One of four "regulator" songs in Brown. The Regulators were a group of protesters against high taxes and fees, found mostly in North Carolina though some also were active in South Carolina. Orange County, North Carolina, was the heart of Regulator country, and Edmund Fanning one of their chief targets; hence the title of this song.
Dunaway, p. 11, finds the earliest Fannings in Ireland, although he cannot prove a link between the Irish and American Fannings. The earliest of the American Fannings, another Edmund, came to Connecticut in 1653. He was our Edmund's great-grandfather; his son Thomas (1665-1704) was the father of James, who moved his family to New York (Dunaway, p. 13).
James Fanning worked as a carpenter (Dunaway, p. 15), and it seems that most of his children also worked in the trades. Edmund was the exception. The youngest son -- he was born twenty years after his oldest brother -- he had a twin sister Hannah. Dunaway gives his birth date as April 24, 1739, though the other sources I've seen (which I generally consider more reliable) often suggest 1738. (I wonder if this isn't based on his memorial carving at Kensington, England, shown on p. 73 of Dunway; it says that he died February 24, 1818 at age 79.)
Dunaway, pp. 15-16, finds it curious that the Fannings were a family of craft workers (though one source called them a family of wealth and standing -- I wonder if we shouldn't call James Fanning a "builder" rather than a "carpenter"), but Edmund went to Yale and earned a degree. Several of the sources he consulted say that Edmund earned his bachelor's degree as early as 1757, earning multiple Masters and Law degrees later. The collection of degrees is amazing and improbable, but clearly he had the best education in his family.
Fanning married wife Phoebe Maria Burns quite late (1785), and I suspect she was much younger than he was, since she lived until 1853; they had four children (Dunaway, pp. 19-20) -- though their only son died young and none of the three girls ever had children, so his line is extinct (Dunaway, p. 42).
It is not exactly certain when Fanning moved to the Hillsborough area, but he requested the right to practice law there in early 1761. It is possible that he followed other family members to North Carolina (Dunaway, p. 27). He evidently quickly came to the attention of Governor William Tryon, though we don't know how; Tryon made him a judge when he was just 27. Fanning certainly rewarded Tryon; when Fanning soon after became a member of the General Assembly, he made the motion to authorize Tryon to build his colossal Governor's mansion at Newburn (Dunaway, p. 29). When Tryon mounted his "Cherokee Boundary Expedition," he made Fanning Adjutant General (Dunaway, p. 30). After Fanning's house was burned, Tryon even appointed Fanning his private secretary (Dunaway, p. 35). It may be that Tryon even lent Fanning money; at least, in his will, Tryon forgave anything Fanning owed him (Dunaway, p. 42). It seems clear that the two were quite cozy -- and had similar views of their opponents, the Regulators.
In late 1774 Fanning was appointed Surveyor General of New York -- clearly a prestige job, since it was supposed to pay 1500 pounds per year, although Fanning apparently was never paid because of the American Revolution (Dunaway, p. 36). At the end of 1776, as a colonel in royal service, he was authorized to raise a regiment of loyalists. He would be twice wounded in the way (Dunaway, p. 39). After the war, Fanning became lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia and, in 1798, Governor of St. John's Island. He was made a full general in 1808 (with at least some of the promotions coming by purchase, I would presume, since I can't see have any particular military accomplishments on his record to justify such a rank) and retired to London in 1813 (Dunaway, p. 42). He would be one of the loyalists compensated by the British parliament for the losses of their American lands (Dunaway, p. 51).
Dunway constantly refers to his acquisitions of land. He also seems to have been quite haughty, and not overly honest. Little wonder the Regulators didn't like him and produced complaints such as this one!
Jameson, p. 549, described the Regulators this way:
"Regulators, the name given to a body of insurgents in North Carolina just before the Revolution. Heavy taxes and fees aroused the resistance of the back-country people against Governor Tryon in 1766. The rebellion spread, but Tryon [Governor William Tryon, 1725-1788; governor of North Carolina 1765-1771] signally defeated the armed bands at Almances, on the Haw, in 1771. His successor, Martin, compromised with the 'Regulators.'"
Powell-History, p. 50, has this description of the Regulator movement:
"Resentful of eastern control over their affairs, suspicious of the honesty of most local officeholders, and confident that they could manage their own government, many people in the [North Carolina] back country responded with enthusiasm to calls to attend local gatherings at which their problems might be discussed. After several clashes with local officials, the dissatisfied element coalesced into a body which called itself the Regulators, since its members wanted to regulate their own affairs. The objectives were stated quite clearly in a series of Regulator Advertisements that they issued, and their determination was demonstrated in several attacks on county courts and on individual officers. When the assembly meeting in New Bern was threatened, Governor Tryon called out the provincial militia and marched to the center of the Regulator country to quell the rebellion. In a battle fought near Alamance Creek on May 16, 1771, the Regulators were soundly defeated and scattered by the militia. The reform in local government which they so desperately sought was denied them. The west was not to be victorious in its struggle against eastern control until 1835."
Haywood, p. 77, says that the disgruntled citizens "called themselves Regulators, lest others should call them a mob. In fact, 'the mob' was really the only name by which they were at first known, even among themselves." He adds on p. 78 that "the Regulation was not an attempt at a revolution. It was rather a peasants' uprising, a popular upheaval."
According to Haywood, p. 88, there had been an earlier group of Regulators in South Carolina, but the South Carolina group doesn't seem to have been very important.
EncycNorthCarolina, p. 957, says that many now see religion as playing a role: few of the Regulators were Episcopalians, belonging mostly to sects which stressed individualism (though Haywood, pp. 188-190 denied this idea). They were openly anti-authoritarian. Their first protests (against appointed government officials) began in 1764, when the relatively open-minded Arthur Dobbs was still governor (EncycNorthCarolina, p. 958). But Dobbs was an old man, so London had appointed William Tryon as his lieutenant in 1764 (Haywood, pp. 10-11); Tryon took charge when Dobbs died in 1765 (Powell-War, p. 9. Tryon showed his true colors very early; he wanted Dobbs to get out of the way the moment he arrived, so he could start getting full pay and power, according to Haywood, p. 13).
To give the Regulators their due, the entire government of the state was strongly influenced by the governor, and much local administration was in the hands of sheriffs and court clerks, and the latter generally gained their office by purchase and then tried to make up for it in fines and fees. Thus local administration could indeed be very rapacious, and their record-keeping was poor. Dunaway, p. 7, seems to say that every officer he could check on was corrupt. What's more, a scarcity of money in western North Carolina made it hard for the locals to pay in cash (Powell-War, pp. 5-7). Even governor Tryon admitted that the sheriffs were embezzlers (Powell-War, p. 7), although it sounds as if he thought they were cheating the government, not the people.
"It was in Anson, Orange, and Granville counties in 1764 that these people first began to make themselves heard. They were called 'the mob' and created a number of local disturbances until Governor Arthur Dobbs issued a proclamation forbidding the taking of illegal fees, a practice which in large measure had led to the uprising. Within four years the group was joined by others with similar grievances and they came to be known as Regulators" (Powell-War, p. 5).
Powell-War, p. 8, describes one Herman Husband as the closest thing the movement had to an intellectual leader; a convert to Quakerism, he wrote pamphlets on behalf of the people's rights. But he backed away from the group as it turned violent; the army that fought at Alamance didn't really have a commander (Powell-War, p. 9; for more on Husband, see the notes to "From Hillsborough Town the First of May").
In 1766, perhaps inspired by resistance to the Stamp Act (Cameron, p. 6), people in Orange County called a gathering to petition for redress. This may well have been the inspiration for this song, because Edmund Fanning refused to allow any public official to attend. Things in Orange got worse in 1768, when the sheriff demanded that fees be paid at specific places and times, on penalty of a quite substantial fine of two shillings and eight pence. Since Governor Tryon was building an extremely expensive governor's mansion at the time, there was naturally grumbling (Powell-War, p. 11; Cameron, pp. 6-7). The regulators wanted a look at the government's books; this was denied (Powell-War, p. 12).
Things escalated from there. Officials seized a regulator's horse (allegedly for non-payment of taxes); the regulators stole it back and fired shots into Fanning's house (Cameron, p. 17; Dunaway, p. 32; this is probably the subject of "From Hillsborough Town the First of May"). Fanning, who was away, hurried home; he wanted to fight them but couldn't find enough militiamen who were on his side (Powell-War, p. 12; Haywood, pp. 88-89). Eventually, though, he arrested two men -- and there were so many protests that those who were holding them released them (Powell-War, pp. 12-14). From that time on, it was mostly Tryon who was in charge. The government went so far as to bring charges against several officials, including Fanning (Powell-War, p. 14), who by this time was a militia colonel (Powell-War, p. 15).
Three Regulators were convicted at this time -- and Fanning was convicted of five counts of extortion. But he was fined only one penny for each count (and it was later claimed that he had simply misunderstood the law; Powell-War, p. 15; Cameron, p. 20, adds that Francis Nash, who is probably one of the subjects of "Who Would Have Tho't Harmon," was also convicted). The conflict escalated, with Tryon twice calling new elections to get a legislature that would support his plans (Powell-War, pp. 15-16).
It certainly sounds as if this song concerns Fanning's self-enrichment in this period..
"Officials grew concerned for their own safety in 1770 after a mob seized a county officer against whom it held grievances -- the much-despised Edmund Fanning, a corrupt multi-office holder in Orange County -- grabbed his heels, and pulled him down the stairs, banging his head on each step. The home of another official was entered and his personal possessions were thrown out the window" (EncycNorthCarolina, p. 958, which has a portrait of Fanning -- "superior court judge and colonel of the militia" -- on the same page. Powell-War, p. 10, also has an image of Fanning, above his signature; on p. 16, Powell-War describes how Regulators in 1770 went after Judge Richard Henderson. According to Cameron, p. 20, about 150 of them crowded Henderson's court to interfere with the court's business). This is the apparent subject of "Who Would Have Tho't Harmon."
On September 24, 1770, "Windows were broken in private homes, stores of rum and brandy were seized in the taverns, and many citizens were whipped and beaten as the Regulators rioted through the streets of Hillsborough. They mob concentrated on Fanning's fine house, of course. His furniture was destroyed and his papers burned... Finally, his house was cut from its sills" (Cameron, p. 21; according to Dunaway, p. 35, Governor Tryon estimated Fanning's loss as 1200 pounds.). The Regulators then ran their own "court" on September 25.
In 1771, judges were afraid to attend court in the Regulator areas (Haywood, pp. 108-109, prints their protest to the governor), The assembly approved restrictions on the population; Edmund Fanning was part of the assembly's committee that reported on the rebellion and made suggestions (Haywood, p. 111; this Johnston Act, North Carolina's version of the Riot Act, which was authorized to last for one year (Cameron, p. 21), was so strenuous that even the harsh government of George III disallowed parts of it; Haywood, p. 113).
The Regulators in turn declared that they would pay no more taxes, branded Fanning an outlaw to be killed on sight, and declared the courts closed (Cameron, p. 22).
On March 11, 1771, a Grand Jury indicted dozens of Regulators, including Herman Husband, the group's intellectual leader, and Rednap Howell, the man credited with several of the Regulator songs (Haywoood, pp. 114-115). This resulted in Governor Tryon's calling up the militia on March 19, 1771.
When not enough militia turned out, Tryon offered a forty shilling bounty (Cameron, p. 23). He also ordered artillery and other military supplies, and set off after the Regulators (Powell-War, p.19). This eventually resulted in battle on Almances Creek.
The battle did not tale place on the creek, but it was the nearest water landmark. It took place about seven miles southwest of the town of Burlington, North Carolina (Haywood, p. 139 gives the distance as nine miles; some of this is probably because the battlefield was large).
The Regulators, in a sense, scored the first success, capturing and destroying the supplies of one of Tryon's support columns (Haywood, p. 122), but this didn't affect the main army
Neither side was entirely blameless in the lead-up to the battle; some of the Regulators captured a couple of militia officers (a legitimate act of taking prisoners, more or less) -- but beat them severely, which was not proper behavior for soldiers, and caused much dispute in the Regulator ranks (Powell-War, p. 22; Haywood, p. 124). Tryon then gave a one hour ultimatum demanding that the Regulators both submit to the government and disperse (Powell-War, p. 20-22. How Tryon expected them to do both is not clear; apparently he would have accepted it if they dispersed. Haywood, p. 123, mentions the ultimatum to submit and says that he ordered them to disperse once the ultimatum was rejected). They of course refused. Tryon had had enough negotiating; he ordered his men to start firing (Haywood, p. 125).
The men apparently hesitated, so an outraged Tryon allegedly shouted, "Fire! Fire on them or on me!" And so the battle was on.
Purcell, p. 4, describes the Battle of Almances this way:
"Tryon's fourteen hundred militia men met the force of twenty-five hundred regulators, which had gathered on Almance Creek, on May 16. Before attacking, Tryon paused half a mile from the Regulators' camp and demanded that they surrender up their 'outlawed ringleaders.' When no answer came, the two forces formed into lines only about three hundred yards apart. Through outnumbered, Tryon's force was armed with artillery [six swivel guns and two brass cannon, according to Cameron, p. 26], and sometime after 10 a.m. Tryon opened fire on the makeshift Regulator army. After firing grapeshot at the Regulators, many of whom did not even have weapons, Tryon ordered his men to push forward. In less than two hours, the militia drove the Regulators from the field."
Tryon's army had officers coming out his ears. In the attack on Hillsborough in 1768 (for which see "From Hillsborough Town the First of May"), he had a force on the order of a thousand men. Such a force would later be considered a colonel's command, or at most a brigadier general''s, but Tryon had six Lieutenant-generals, two Major-generals (who, in the British army, would command brigades), at least eight colonels including Edmund Fanning, at least five Lieutenant-colonels including John Frohock, and many junior officers (Haywood, pp. 95-96). That which fought at Alamances was not quite as extreme, but still had at least eight colonels (listed by Haywood, p. 118; they again included Fanning, who commanded the local Orange County militia) when two would surely have sufficed. Fanning himself commanded about a hundred men -- in other words, a colonel commanding the equivalent of a company, which should have been commanded by a captain (meaning Fanning was commanding a force that should have been led by an officer ranked *three* grades lower.) It's amazing the army functioned at all, but at least it had a command structure, which the Regulators did not.
Purcell gives Tryon's loss as ten men killed, sixty wounded, and says nine Regulators were killed, with many wounded and several dozen taken prisoner. (EncycNorthCarolina, p. 958, says however that Regulator losses are unknown, since they tended to carry their dead from the field; presumably the nine Regulator dead were the handful left on the field of battle. Cameron, p. 28, Powell-War, p. 22, and Haywood, p. 128, say Tryon lost nine killed, 61 wounded -- the same number of casualties as Purcell, even though Purcell lists one more as dead.)
Tryon's report, as transcribed by Haywood, pp. 125-126, stated, "[I]t has pleased God to bless His Majesty's arms in this province with a signal victory over the Regulators. The action began before twelve o'clock on Thursday, the 16th instant, five miles to the westward of the Great Alamance river, on the road leading from Hillsborough to Salisbury. The loss of our army in killed, wounded, and missing amounts to about sixty men. We had but one officer killed and one dangerously wounded. The action lasted two hours; but, after about half an hour, the enemy took to tree-fighting and much annoyed the men who stood at their guns, which obliged me to cease the artillery for a short time and advance the first lines to force the rebels from the covering. This succeeded, and we pursued them half a mile beyond their camp, and took many of their horses and the little provision and ammunition they left behind them."
"James Few, one of the Regulators' leaders, was executed for treason on the battlefield on May 17. Twelve others who had taken part in the Regulator uprising were convicted of treason and six were hanged in June" (Purcell; EncycNorthCarolina, p. 958, which says that Few was hanged without trial, and Powell-War, p. 22, says that one man was hanged on the spot. According to Haywood, p. 133, Few was such a religious fanatic that he was arguably insane, Tryon justified the execution without trial on the grounds that his soldiers were demanding that someone be punished on the spot. Haywood, p. 135, tells of a folktale that Few lost his mind because none other than Edmund Fanning had seduced his bride-to-be, but Haywood declares it false; Few was already married. But it proves how strong the feeling against Fanning was!).
Executing Fee did not end Tryon's drive for revenge; he took prisoners back with him in chains, and he burned buildings of suspected Regulators (Haywood, pp. 141-143). And, as noted, twelve others were later condemned by juries (no doubt carefully chosen); Tryon requested that six be reprieved, and the government granted it (Haywood, pp. 144-145), but there is no mention of them getting their forfeited property back. The most respected of the six men executed, Benjamin Merrill, was actually captured by Fanning.
The hanging was very, very public, with a large force there to make it a big show. Tryon's methods also wiped out the memories of the executed: we don't even know the names of two of them, or the precise site of their common grave (Cameron, pp. 30-31).
Eventually Tryon offered a pardon to any Regulators who would take a loyalty oath, and 6409 are recorded as having taken it (EncycNorthCarolina, p. 958; Haywood, p. 144, adds that many hundred turned in their weapons). This didn't cover everyone, though; in late 1771, the Assembly petitioned Tryon's replacement, Governor Martin, to pardon everyone except Hermon Husband (the alleged brains of the group), Rednap Howell (the author of the Regulator poetry), and William Butler (Haywood, p. 172). In the end, only Husband was entirely un-forgiven (Haywood, p. 175; based on Haywood, p. 176, it sounds as if everyone was trying to get credit for giving pardons because they wanted popular support).
In the aftermath, North Carolina largely turned against the Regulators; in the election of 1771, Orange County's assembly delegates were anti-Regulators (Powell-War, p. 23). But at least 1500 Regulator families packed up and headed further west to get away from the government they despised (Powell-War, p. 25). Yet when the colonies turned against Britain, "when an opportunity to fight for liberty presented itself year later, they [the former regulators] nearly all become Tories" (Haywood, p. 77). "The very word Regulator became a synonym for Tory" (Haywood, p. 177).
McLynn, p. 389, lists the rise of the Regulators as one of several "direct or indirect responses to the definitive appearance of Britain as the first global superpower." I assume he is referring to the colonials' anger over the taxes needed to support superpowerdom.
Some source I've lost states that Fanning, a Yale graduate of 1757, was a favorite of Tryon's; after moving to North Carolina, he went from being a local attorney to a Superior Court clerk and legislator. He also built a reputation for extreme avarice, making him a particular target for the regulators (and vice versa). A loyalist during the Revolution (commanded the King's American Regiment of Foot), he died in London.
Jameson, p. 229, gives this biography of Fanning: "Fanning, Edmund (1737-1818), at first a clerk of the North Carolina Supreme Court and a legislator. In 1777 he commanded a corps of loyalists, and fled to Nova Scotia at the close of the war, having been notorious for his barbarity as a leader of partisan warfare."
Cameron, p. 5: "The person these Orange County Regulators considered their chief enemy and the man whom they really hated, even more than Governor Tryon, was Colonel Edmund Fanning, the Register of Deeds of the County of Orange. Fanning was a native of New York, a Yale graduate, a lawyer and a scholar who held the rank of 'gentleman' but who in reality was harsh and overbearing and not too honest in his dealings, having a sharp eye out for his own wealth and quick advancement."
Haywood, pp. 78-79, says "The man whose name, above all others, has been associated with the official abuses complained of, was Colonel Edmund Fanning. This person graduated from Yale in the class of 1757. Though certainly not so black as painted, history charges him with being guilty of many extortionate and irregular practices; and we are told that he conducted himself with an insufferable hauteur in his dealing with people.... During the Revolution (at which time he had returned to New York) he remained loyal to Great Britain and was Colonel of the 'King's American Regiment.'" On p. 79 Haywood reports that he was found guilty of extortion in 1768, for "charging six shillings for registering a deed, while the law was supposed to allow only two shillings and eight pence." On page 81, Haywood recounts a report that Fanning working with John Frohock (for whom perhaps see "Said Frohock to Fanning") to charge fifteen dollars for a marriage license, and charging five dollars for a deed when the law allowed a fee of just one dollar -- though Haywood thinks this is an error.
Cameron, p. 8: "Edmund Fanning had come to Childsburg [renamed Hillsborough in 1766; it was the center of Regulator activity]... in 1762. Some people have always maintained that he came with the sole idea of getting rich quick. In March, 1763, Fanning had become Register (sic.) of Deeds for the County of Orange and had bought several lots on King Street. On one of these lots (No. 23) he had buit what was then considered a very fine house.
Some have accused Fanning of cowardice at Alamance, in addition to his graft; Haywood, pp. 82-83, points out that Fanning was given a unanimous vote of confidence by the North Carolina Assembly in 1771, and was praised by Tryon for his courage. But Tryon liked Fanning -- and could have influenced the Assembly.
After the Revolution, the loyalist Fanning went to the Maritime Provinces of what is now Canada; he was for a time governor of Prince Edward Island (although he seemingly didn't do much; my one history of the Island never mentions him) before eventually retiring to Britain (Haywood, p. 83).
The one thing about him that seems genuinely positive is that he was apparently highly regarded in literary circles, being awarded quite a few literature degrees by multiple schools (Haywood, pp. 83-84). If he published anything, though, I can't find a copy.
Haywood, p. 87, concludes that although Fanning was far from an ethical pillar, he was not completely vile. I suspect Haywood is right -- but given how much was written about his crimes (according to Haywood, p. 150, a writer named Caruthers claimed that "nearly everything which happened to the Regulators was 'at the instigation of Fanning'"), I also have to suspect that, where there is smoke, there is fire.
Stewart Dunaway's Life and Times of Edmund Fanning (1739-1818), here cited as Dunaway, seems to be the only book primarily about Fanning, but it isn't really a biography (and is so ill-written as to hardly qualify as English); it's mostly a collection of old records, many of them minimally legible reproductions.
Jameson' biography of Tryon (p. 664) reads as follows: "Tryon, William (1725-1788), born in Ireland, was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of North Carolina in 1764. He was Governor from 1765 to 1771. He suppressed the revolt of the 'Regulators' with great cruelty. He became Governor of New York in 1771, and continued in office until 1778. He was detested by the patriots for his inhumanity and the destruction of Danbury, Fairfield and Norwalk, Conn."
Makes it rather easier to understand why the Regulators were as upset as they were....
Powell-War, p. 9, says that Tryon "seems... to have had decided executive ability, great tact, and broad ideas." (For example, he gave real thought to improving the colony's mail; Haywood, p. 14. And he tried to found a college that would be open to all Protestants, not just Anglicans, until George III shot him down; Haywood, pp. 26-28.) But he clearly was authoritarian in the extreme.
Haywood, p. 67, admits that "with all his strong points, he was vain to a marked degree." I think an open letter written to Tryon and the people of New York, by "Atticus" (a pseudonym for a judge named Maurice Moore who had been in the assembly that ordered the war measures; Haywood, p. 155) after Tryon left North Carolina, sums it up; it says to Tryon, "I am too well acquainted with your character to suppose you can bear to be told of your faults with temper. You re too much of the soldier, and too little of the philosopher, for reprehension. With this opinion of Your Excellency, I have reason to believe that this letter will be more serviceable to the province of New York, than useful or entertaining to its governor." It goes on to accuse Tryon of enforcing brutal policies while uttering contradictory words (Haywood, p. 156), and rehearses the complaints about high fees in a state with no money (Haywood, p. 157). It charges Tryon with using military force when the courts could have done what was needed, and accuses him of lawlessness afterward; there appears to be an oblique reference to Tryon's support of Fanning (Haywood, pp. 157-160). "Atticus" does not sound like he was a Regulator, but he shows that many North Carolinians felt Tryon was an oppressor.
North Carolina briefly had a "Tryon County," but it was broken up in 1779 into Lincoln and Rutherford counties (Haywood, p. 72). I read somewhere that North Carolina politicians were fond of splitting counties for their own ends, but in this case, it was a pretty revolutionary rejection of a British governor. On the other hand, the small town of Tryon still exists.
I find it ironic that Tryon's tombstone, as quoted on p. 200 of Haywood, mentions his rank of lieutenant general, and his time as Governor of New York (a title he held, at least nominally, until 1780; Haywood, p. 198) -- but does not mention his time in North Carolina, which was surely the most significant service he did for the British crown.
Views about the Regulators have varied over the years. Haywood clearly despised them. Others saw them as forerunners of the American Revolution, which is ironic since they mostly were loyalists. (Indeed, Dunaway, p. 6, says that "Almost every founding father of the State of N.C. [that is, those who governed the state after it joined the independence movement]... served with Gov. Tryon at [Almances].") But Cameron, pp. 32-33, says that most moderns now take a middle view: "that the Regulators were right in principle, as the American Revolution later demonstrated, although wrong in strategy and tactics, and that they contributed much of permanent worth to the American political scene." With this I mostly agree, though I think they were a little too right-wing to really be good at self-government. I think most would agree that their views of Fanning were mostly right: he wasn't as bad as they painted him, but he certainly should not have been permitted to be as abusive as he was. This poem is unfair, but it is accurate in a caricature-ish sort of way.
Cohen's notes say that this song was first recorded in 1765. But note Fanning's dates. He was probably not worth writing about in 1765. I think there is an error somewhere.
There are several books about the Regulators and related topics:
- John S. Bassett, The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771) (be careful not to get one of the cheap print-on-demand reprints!).
- Annie Sutton Cameron, Hillsborough and the Regulators, Orange County Historical Museum, 1964 (cited here as Cameron). This is a 36 page pamphlet, with more details about Hillsborough than most of the other sources
- Marshall DeLancey Haywood, Governor William Tryon, and his Administration in the Province of North Carolina, 1765-1771. (cited here as Haywood).
- Marjoleine Kars, Breaking Loose Together: The Regulator Rebellion in Pre-Revolutionary North Carolina.
- William S. Powell, The War of the Regulation and the Battle of Alamance, May 16, 1771 (cited here as Powell-War). This too is a pamphlet; it's only 32 pages, issued by North Carolina's Department of Archives and History.
- Carole Watterson Troxler, Farming Dissenters: The Regulator Movement in Piedmont North Carolina.
- James Otis, [A Boy Spy] With the Regulators: A Story of North Carolina in 1768, appears to be fiction. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: BrII277

When Father Was a Little Boy

DESCRIPTION: "When father was a little boy, The world was not so gar. I love to hear him tell of how He passed the time of way." He walked four miles to school in the cold. A new boy shows up. Dad finds a string coming from his clothes and unravels his underwear
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: father humorous clothes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 168, "When Father Was a Little Boy" (1 text)
Roud #11360
File: Brne168

When First I Seen This Lovely Queen

DESCRIPTION: "When first I seen this lovely queen, On her I fixed my eyes, And thought in time, while in my prime,To gain her I would try. "But all in vain; could not obtain This virgin's love at all... My portion was too small." If she remains coy, he'll seek another
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love rejection beauty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 294, "When First I Seen This Lovely Queen" (1 text)
Roud #12199
File: Br3294

When First Into this Country

DESCRIPTION: The stranger arrives and finds no one cares about him. He is accused of crimes, but the only crime he admits is involvement with three girls. Forced into a harsh apprenticeship, he at last earns his freedom and marries his love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: love courting work abuse freedom marriage apprentice
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland(Aber),Wales) US
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 195-197, "When First Into this Country" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 4, "American Stranger" (2 texts)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 259, "I'm a Stranger In This Country" (1 text)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 1, "The American Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 37, "American Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #59, p. 1, "The American Stranger" (1 text); #61, p. 2, ("I hae travelled this country") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1469, "The American Stranger" (12 texts, 9 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 127-128, "The American Stranger" (1 text, a somewhat confused version in which the singer seems to shift from having one girl to three back to one)
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 170-171, "The American Stranger" (1 text, 1 tune, similar to but shorter than Ord's text)
DT, WHNFRST2*
Roud #1081
RECORDINGS:
Chris Willett, "The American Stranger" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.17(4) View 2 of 2, "American Strander [sic]" ("I am a stranger in this country"), G. Thompson (Liverpool), 1789-1820; also 2806 c.17(3) View 2 of 2,, "America [sic] Stranger"; Harding B 11(48), Firth b.25(273), Harding B 15(3a), Harding B 25(46), Harding B 20(237), Harding B 11(3053A), Harding B 11(3056), 2806 b.11(29), Harding B 11(49), Harding B 16(6a), Harding B 28(159), "American Stranger[!]"; Harding B 25(1845) [illegible lines], "The Stranger"; 2806 b.11(215), "Sporting Youth" ("I'm a stranger in this country from Ireland I came")
Murray, Mu23-y2:013, "The Sporting Youth," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1856
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(019), "The American Stranger," McIntosh (Glasgow), 1849
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When First To This Country (I)" ("When First Unto This Country" lyrics) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Irish Stranger
The Plains of America
NOTES [318 words]: This shares a first line or two with "When First To This Country," but the similarity ends by the end of the second stanza. The first few verses probably did transfer (I suspect from this song to that, since "When First To This Country" barely survived in tradition), but the two songs are clearly separate.
To add to the confusion, the song seems to exist in two forms. Huntington's gives full details of the youth's troubles. Ord-BothySongsAndBallads's and Stokoe's, both known by the title "The American Stranger," gloss over it, and end with the singer emigrating but saying something like the lovers are "In a plentiful country, (they are/and) God bless the King." - RBW
Chris Willett's version on Voice11 takes lines found on broadside Harding B 11(48), among others, ("But to prove myself loyal, You shall come along with me, And I'll take you to America, My darling for to be.") and turns them into a chorus ("Just to prove myself royal, if you're go along with me, I will take you to America my own darling to see"); it also has a verse from Johnson Ballads 458, among others, ("The moon shall be in darkness, And the stars shall give no light If ever I prove false to my hearts delight," "In the middle of the ocean There shall grow a myrtle [or plum, or willow] tree") that float in other songs.
Greig re #61 [Greig/Duncan7 1469L] as compared to "The American Stranger": "It would seem that the two songs have some connection. One verse is the same in both, and there are other minor points of resemblance."
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 4A shares lines in its last verse with "The Indian Lass": "Now our ship it is ready 'Tis ready to sail ... And when we gets over to our own Countree We'll drink the good health to the Indian Lass." Polly and Betty were in the song earlier but this is the first appearance of an "Indian Lass." This was recorded in Stafford Common, Swansea, Wales in 1907. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: SWMS195

When First To This Country (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer courts Nancy, who turns him down; he steals a horse and is imprisoned. He complains of his ill-treatment, then adds "With my hands in my pockets and my cap put on so bold/With my coat of many colors, like Jacob of old"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (field recording, Gant Family)
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection prison theft thief
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 315-316, "When First To This Country a Stranger I Came" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 29, "When First To This Country" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 71, "When First Unto This Country" (1 text)
DT, WHENFRST*
Roud #15600
RECORDINGS:
Maggie & Foy Gant, "When First Unto This Country" (LC 65 A2)
New Lost City Ramblers, "When First Unto This Country" (on NLCR02, NLCRCD1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In Eighteen-Forty-Nine" (floating lyrics)
cf. "When First To This Country (II)" ("When First Unto This Country" lyrics)
cf. "The Banks of the Bann (I)" [Laws O2] ("When First Unto This Country" lyrics)
cf. "The Frowns That She Gave Me" ("When First Unto This Country" lyrics) and references there
cf. "When First Into this Country" ("When First Unto This Country" lyrics) and references there
cf. "When First To This Country (II)" ("When First Unto This Country" lyrics) and references there
cf. "In Eighteen-Forty-Nine" ("When First Unto This Country" lyrics) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
When First unto this Country
NOTES [116 words]: This should not be confused with the kids' song "When I First Came to This Land," written -- well, translated -- by Oscar Brand in the 1940s. -PJS
[Or with the whalers' song "When First Into this Country." - RBW]
Paul Stamler mentions the prisoner's "coat of many colors," which he believes unconnected with the rest of the song. He may be right -- considering that the person who wore the "coat of many colors" (properly a "long robe with sleeves") was Jacob's son Joseph.
However, it is worth noting that Joseph's possession of the robe (which the author presumably thought resembled prison apparel) caused his brothers to resent him; the end result was that Joseph became a prisoner in Egypt. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: CSW029

When First To This Country (II)

DESCRIPTION: "[My] poor heart beat sore" on leaving Molly. She pleads to come with him: "Short trouser, and jacket, my love I'll put on." He could not stand to see her beaten "So you can't come down with me, oh no my love, no." She will wait for his return.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs; MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: love farewell separation cross-dressing sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar, Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 70-71, "When First To This Country" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2732
RECORDINGS:
Michael Devereaux, "Lovely Jimmy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II)" [Laws N9] (theme) and references there
cf. "The Maid in Sorrow (Short Jacket)" [Laws N12] (theme)
cf. "When First To This Country (I)" ("When First Unto This Country" lyrics) and references there
File: CrMa070

When First To This Country a Stranger I Came

See When First To This Country (I) (File: CSW029)

When First Unto This Country

See When First To This Country (I) (File: CSW029)

When Fortune Turns Her Wheel

DESCRIPTION: "Come, fill a glass, let's drink about... To meet ye a' ance mair, my friends, A sacred joy I feel, Though far awa I noo maun stray Till fortune turns her wheel." The singer has been betrayed by love and comrades, and bids farewell to Scotland and home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Poet's Box broadside, according to Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: parting drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast 88, p. 2, "When Fortune Turns Her Wheel" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 667, "When Fortune Turns the Wheel" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 180-181, "When Fortune Turns Her Wheel" (1 text)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 43-44, 149, "When Fortune Turns Her Wheel" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FORTRNWH*
Roud #3798
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'll Take This Glass into My Hands" (theme)
NOTES [40 words]: The "Wheel of Fortune" was a leading image of the medieval era -- how fate could turn take one who was successful and cast him into dust, and raise anothe rin his place. For more about this image, see the notes to "The Downfall of Heresy." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Ord180

When Good King Arthur Ruled This Land

See Johnny Lad (File: Log443)

When Grandmama Met Grandpapa

DESCRIPTION: "When grandmama met grandpapa, they danced the minuet." That was too slow "so they danced the rock and roll." Instructions for the game: "That's the way to do it"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 131, "When Grandmama Met Grandpapa" (2 texts, 1 tune)
File: OpGa131

When Griping Griefs the Heart Doth Wound

DESCRIPTION: "When griping griefs the heart doth wound, And doleful dumps the mind oppress, Then music with her silver sound, With speedy help doth lend redress." Music praises the gods and brings joy. It is a gift to humanity
AUTHOR: Possible Richard Edwards (source: Seng)
EARLIEST DATE: 1576 (Edwards's The Paradise of Dainty Devices, according to Seng)
KEYWORDS: nonballad love music
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry I, pp. 187-189, "A Song to the Lute in Music" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques VI, p. 49, "A Song to the Lute in Musicke" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Peter J. Seng, _Tudor Songs and Ballads from MS Cotton Vespasian A-25_, Harvard University Press, 1978, #17, pp. 32-33, "Where gripinge greues the hart wold wound" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Cotton Vespasian A.xxv (67), folio 137
ST PJSwgghw (Partial)
NOTES [167 words]: This has never, to my knowledge, been collected in oral tradition -- but it spread somehow, because Shakespeare quotes the first four lines in Romeo and Juliet (Act IV, scene v; it's lines 126-128, 142-143 in the SIgnet and RIverside Shakespeare; 123-125, 138-139 in the Orgel/Braunmuller Pelican). And it's in the manuscript song collection in the British Library, Cotton Vespasian A.25 (in an orthography much older than Shakespeare's) and in British Library MS. Harley 7392, plus it's in The Paradise of Dainty Devices (according to Seng, p. 34). Seng, p. 35, reports several copies of the music as well. And Percy printed it. That's enough evidence that I would allow at least the possibility that it's a folk song, and so include it. What's more, the versions aren't all the same; Shakespeare's version begins with the word "When," but the Cotton Vespasian version has "Where."
For more information about the manuscript British Library Cotton Vespasian A.xxv, see the notes to "The Hawthorn Green."
Last updated in version 6.5
File: PJSwgghw

When Harvest Days Were Ended

DESCRIPTION: "When harvest days were ended, Back from the wooly west To Georgetown came 'The Sergeant.'" He takes a job logging. He calls his mother and says the work has proven painful. At last he escapes the camp and can now be found at the grocery store
AUTHOR: John Dunham? (source: Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: lumbering hardtimes injury mother
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 171-172, "When Harvest Days Were Ended" (1 text)
Roud #23384
File: EcSk171

When He Comes, He'll Come in Green

DESCRIPTION: "Don't cry, little baby, don't you cry. Your sweetheart will come by and by. When he comes, if he's dressed in green, Then you may know you'll be his queen." Similarly with other colors: "Dressed in blue, Then you may know his love is true," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: colors courting playparty lullaby
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #35, "Hallowe'en Rhyme" (2 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 70, "Oh, Pretty Polly" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 70, "Oh, Pretty Polly" (1 text); 71, "Don't Cry" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 163, (no title) (1 fragment)
Roud #7870
NOTES [92 words]: The editors of Brown concede their two texts to be the same song, but split them anyway. They admit they don't know if the piece is a singing game of some kind, a lullaby, or something else. (Allsopp calls it a lullaby but has only one verse.) I've used both keywords because both look like they fit. It looks like a very good song for both purposes; I'm surprised it isn't more widely known.
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren obviously thought this a dress-up rhyme for Halloween. I really don't think that follows; the love element is strong. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3070

When He Who Adores Thee

DESCRIPTION: The singer states "though guilty to them [my foes], I have been but too faithful to thee [Ireland]!" "Oh! blessed are the lovers and friends who shall live The days of thy glory to see"; next best "is the pride of thus dying for thee"
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Moore-IrishMelodies-1846); reportedly performed 1839 (see NOTE)
KEYWORDS: execution Ireland nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 20, 1803 - Robert Emmet (1778-1803) is hanged
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, p. 23, "When he, who adores thee" (1 text)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 158, "When He Who Adores Thee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 116, "When He Who Adores Thee" (1 text)
Roud #V31869
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.27(14), "When He Who Adores Thee," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh! Breathe Not His Name" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
cf. "She is Far From the Land" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
cf. "The Man from God-Knows-Where" (subject: concealed allusions to Robert Emmet)
NOTES [216 words]: Performed by P.F. White in concert in Boston in 1839 (source: Robert R Grimes, How Shall We Sing in a Foreign Land? (1996, Notre Dame), p. 56.)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "In this song Moore paraphrases parts of Emmet's speech from the dock and has him address these sentiments to Ireland."
You can find copies of Emmet's speech on the Web. See, for example, "Robert Emmet's Speech from the Dock (Document)" quoted on wiki.politics.ie site from "Politics.ie, the Irish politics website." None of Moore's text follows Emmet's, though Emmet is speaking over the court's head: "if there is a true Irishman present let my last words cheer him in the hour of his affliction." - BS
We should probably note that there is no official transcript of Emmet's speech (see Robert Kee, The Most Distressful Country, being volume I of The Green Flag, p. 168). We don't know his precise words. It hardly matters, any more than it matters that his rebellion was ill-organized and completely inept; he could hardly have said anything more effective than what was reported, and it was that which kept his myth alive.
Moore, we should add, knew Emmet; according to Kee, Moore was "Emmet's old friend and fellow student at Trinity." Kee regards Moore as having "set the tone" for Emmet's legend. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Moyl158

When I Am LOB

DESCRIPTION: "When through the mud you drag your weary feet, Under your tunic your heart may cease to beat, No matter what becomes of thee, I'll always smile, and think with glee, That I am LOB." The singer describes all the dangers those LOB don't face
AUTHOR: Words: Maj. James Stone, Lt. "Duke" Kitching, Lr. W. Remple, Lt. Owen R. Brown (source: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes escape
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 114, "When I Am LOB" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #29426
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lili Marlene" (tune, plus cross-references to songs of the Italian campaign)
cf. "O'er the Hills of Sicily" (subject: the Italian campaign)
NOTES [401 words]: LOB, as Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear explains, is "Left Out of Battle," the portion of a battalion not engaged in order to preserve it in case the unit is slaughtered. This was probably especially important in the Italian Campaign, which of all the fronts of the European War, most resembled World War I -- trench warfare all the time, mostly stalemated; the Italian hills made tank-based war much harder, and hence caused the fight to be much more static than on other European fronts.
This fact may make it surprising to find a mention of the Tiger tank. But the Tiger was perhaps particularly suited to Italy. Heavier than any Anglo-Allied tank, it fired the famous German 88 mm anti-tank gun, which was probably the best anti-tank and field anti-aircraft gun of the war; it had frontal armor of 110 mm (Wheal/Pope, pp. 463-464; Dougherty, p. 132, says 100 mm), which at the time it appeared no Anglo-Allied tank gun could penetrate. I seem to recall reading that the rule of thumb was that the exchange rate was six Shermans (the standard Allied tank) for one Tiger -- the Shermans had little hope against the German tank except to destroy its treads.
Dougherty, p. 132, lists the strengths of the Tiger as "Very powerful gun, Extremely thick armour, Reputation of invincibility" -- but lists among its disadvantages, "Poor strategic mobility, Needed large amounts of fuel." The engine wasn't big enough to carry all that weight of tun and armor, leaving it with a top speed of just 23 miles per hour and a range of just 120 miles. It broke down a lot because of that heavy load, and it was hard to keep supplied and hard to build and repair. As a result, it was not much good as an offensive tank. But in a place like Italy, where it was used mostly to hold a position, it could be a real problem to deal with.
Although Hopkins doesn't mention it, the desire to preserve a cadre was not the only reason why portions of units were "LOB." A constant problem in the war was "battle exhaustion," also known as "shell shock" -- one of the various conditions we now recognize as trauma-related (i.e. the same psychological category as post-traumatic stress disorder). Units were designated LOB in order to let them relax and reduce the effects of battle fatigue (Bercuson, p. 183). For the reasons outlined above, this was probably more important on the Italian Front than any other European theater. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hopk114

When I Am On the Sea Sailing

DESCRIPTION: The singer is leaving to fight in Flanders for six months. He would not have his girl dress as a man and follow him. He will pray "to the High Powers above To guard you." He returns "free from harm"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: love war soldier parting reunion cross-dressing dialog floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1541, "When I Am On the Sea Sailing" (6 texts, 7 tunes)
Roud #422
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Fish May Fly
NOTES [169 words]: The distinguishing line in the Greig/Duncan8 texts is the verse, "When I am on the sea sailing, An' far from any shore, My prayers will be to the High Powers above, To guard for evermore." Floating verses include "The fish may fly, and the seas gang dry, An' the rocks melt wi' the sun, But if ever I do prove false to you My heart's blood it shall run" and "You mind me on yon milkwhite dove Sits mourning on yon tree, Lamenting over her marrow so sweet, And so will I for you." I assume that Roud lumps this with "Careless Love" and "Fare You Well, My Own True Love."
The verse and story line from Greig/Duncan8 is missing in W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh)), Vol II, pp. 164-165, "You'll Never Mind Me More, Dear Love." That song begins "When you are on the sea sailing, And far from any shore, I fear you'll never mind on me, You'll never mind me more" -- as does Greig/Duncan8 -- and then becomes a collection of floating verses. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81541

When I bin in de worl' bin a sin

See In That Eternal Day (File: Parp190A)

When I Can Change My Clothes

DESCRIPTION: "Never will forget that day when they had me in Parchman Jail.... I wonder how long 'fore I can change my clothes." No one will go his bail. He is forced to work in rain and snow and cold, with bare feet. The singer wants to wear "citizen" clothes
AUTHOR: Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recording, Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White)
KEYWORDS: prison clothes hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, p. 179, "(When I Can Change My Clothes)" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Bukka White, "When Can I Change My Clothes" (Vocalion 05489, 1940)
File: BTN179

When I Can Read My Titles Clear (Long Time Traveling)

DESCRIPTION: "When I can read my titles clear to mansions in the sky, I will bid farewell to every tear and wipe my weeping eye." Chorus: "I'm a long time traveling here below, I'm a long time traveling away from my home...." Other verses vary
AUTHOR: unknown (portions by Isaac Watts)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, J. T. Allison's Sacred Harp Singers)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, LONGTIME
Roud #5732
RECORDINGS:
J. T. Allison's Sacred Harp Singers, "I'm A Long Time Travelling Away From Home" (Gennett 6255, 1927; on StuffDreams2)
Daniels-Deason Sacred Harp Singers, "Primrose Hill" (Columbia 15323-D, 1928; on Babylon)
Denson Sacred Harp Singers, "The Ninety-Fifth" (Brunswick 287, rec. 1928)
Elder Golden P. Harris, "I'll Lead a Christian Life" (Melotone 12178, 1931; on Babylon, StuffDreams2)
Frank Proffitt, "I'm a Long Time Travelling Here Below" (on FProffitt01)
Santiago Quintana, "Long Time Traveler" (Piotr-Archive #643, recorded 08/11/2023)
NOTES [212 words]: This song, or one of the same title, is said to have been one of Abraham Lincoln's favorites. The verses are so generic that it is really hard to call it one song; it's a family held together by the refrain "Been a long time traveling here below" and (often but not always) the mansions in the sky.
The first stanza is from a poem by Isaac Watts, "The Hopes of Heaven Our Support Under Trials on Earth," and reportedly published 1807 (see John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 1269). This shows up in several forms in the shape note books (e.g. with the tunes "Ninety-Fifth," "Primrose Hill," "Akers," and "Saints' Delight") -- but all these seem to be the Watts poem, which is not (to my ears at least) nearly as strong. It is noteworthy that, according to Julian, several editors saw fit to refashion the piece. - RBW
As far as I can tell from reading the Sacred Harp book [a demonstrably unreliable source - RBW], Watts seems to have composed all of the lyrics.
I've placed the Daniels-Deason and Elder Harris recordings here for want of a better place; they share lyrics but use different tunes. - PJS
For more on Isaac Watts, see the notes to "O God, Our Help in Ages Past." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DTlongti

When I Crossed That River

DESCRIPTION: "Many hills and many valleys these old tired feet have trod, And so often I have wondered, would they reach Heaven's sod.... When I crossed that river it was worth it all to me." The singer is now clothed in a white robe and is there with Jesus and family
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2000 (various Internet sites, but clearly at least some decades older)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad river
FOUND IN: US(NC)
RECORDINGS:
Debbie Harris Terrell, Duane Terrell, "When I Cross That River" (Piotr-Archive #123, recorded 04/17/2022)
NOTES [29 words]: I found several texts of this on the internet, but none listed a source or author, and hymnary.org does not have the song. I suspect pop gospel origin, but I can't prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio123

When I Die (I)

DESCRIPTION: Because the singer has found salvation, "When I die, I'll live again." He's made confession and will transgress no more. Ch: "When I die I'll live again/Hallelujah, I'll live again/Because I'm forgiven, my soul will find heaven/When I die I'll live again"
AUTHOR: James Rowe & Ernest Rippetoe
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Stamps-Baxter book, "Harbor Bells #4")
KEYWORDS: resurrection death nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE)
RECORDINGS:
Rev. Gary Davis, "When I Die I'll Live Again" (on GaryDavis02)
Watson Family, "When I Die" (on Watson01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
When I Die I'll Live Again
NOTES [74 words]: D. K. Wilgus, in his comments on Watson01, notes (speaking of this song and "The Lost Soul"): "The Watson family apparently sang these songs directly from a song book, but I have been unable to locate them in any source available to me, despite the conviction that I have met them before." Almost certainly he was remembering Davis's skeletal version, released the year before the Watson recordings were made, or the Stamps-Baxter hymnal. - PJS
File: RcWIDILA

When I Die (II)

See Pickle My Bones in Alcohol (File: Br3038)

When I Die Don't Wear No Black

DESCRIPTION: "When I die don't wear no black, For if you do My ghost come a-creeping back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death mourning clothes ghost
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 489, "When I Die Don't Wear No Black" (1 text)
Roud #11871
File: Br3489

When I Dream of Old Erin

DESCRIPTION: "When the nightingale's singing its sweet melodies, And the scent of the flowers perfumes the night breeze," the singer dreams of Ireland and his love. He describes his old home, repeating, "When I dream of old Erin, I'm dreaming of you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: love separation home Ireland
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 97, "When I Dream of Old Erin" (1 text)
Roud #9593
File: Dean097

When I First Came To This Land

DESCRIPTION: Immigrant comes to the USA, gets a shack, cow, duck, wife and son, and sings about them in a cumulative fashion: "Called my wife 'Run for your life'; called my duck, 'Out of luck'", etc.
AUTHOR: English words translated by Oscar Brand from Pennsylvania Dutch song
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Oscar Brand, "Our Singing Holidays")
KEYWORDS: animal cumulative emigration farming marriage nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 109-113, "When I First Came to This Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 68-71, "Wann ich vun dem Land rei kumm (When I Came to this Country)" (1 German text plus non-poetic translation, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 13, "When I First Came to this Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 120 "When I First Came To This Land" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 392, "When I First Came to This Land" (notes only)
DT, FIRSTCAM
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 157-159, "When I Came to This Country (Wann ich vun dem Land rei kumm)" (1 non-poetic English translation)
Roud #16813
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "When I First Came to This Land" (on PeteSeeger24)
NOTES [14 words]: This should not be confused with the traditional "When First To This Country." - PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: PSAFB013

When I Get Big

DESCRIPTION: "When I get big and you get little, I'm going to beat the fire out of you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: warning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 80, "When I Get Big" (1 short text)
File: ZiZa080D

When I Get Home

See Climbing High Mountains, Trying To Get Home (File: RcCHMTGH)

When I Get On My Bran' New Suit

DESCRIPTION: "When I git on my brand-new suit, Boots to my knees, Go to see my lovely gal And kiss her when I please."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 158, "Going to See My Girl (fifth of 12 single-stanza jigs) (1 text)
ST Fus158A (Full)
Roud #16414
File: Fus158A

When I Get on Yonder Hill

See Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier); also "I Want You All to Be There" (File: R107)

When I Get to Heaven

DESCRIPTION: "When I get to Heaven going to sit right down, Ask my Lord for a starry crown, Sitting down beside the Holy Lamb." "When I get to heaven going to sit and tell, Three archangels going to ring the bell, Sitting down beside the Holy Lamb."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 128-129, "Oh, When I Git t' Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 140-141 in the 1901 edition)
ADDITIONAL: Howard W. Odum, Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes, (reprint from American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, July 1909, Vol.3 pp. 265-365 "Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 29, ("When I get to heaven gwine to ease, ease") (1 fragment)
Roud #15250
NOTES [73 words]: The "Holy Lamb" reference to Jesus is from John 1:29: "The next day John (the Baptist) seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (King James).
Odum's fragment and Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's third verse is "When I git to heaven gwine to ease, ease, Me an' my God goin' do as we please, Settin' down side o' de holy Lamb." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett128

When I go home I will tell me mumma

See I'll Tell My Ma (I) (File: MCB146)

When I Go to Bed at Night I Lay My Head on Linen White

DESCRIPTION: "When I go to bed at night I lay my head on linen white. Of linen too the snowy sheet, Furzy scented, cool and sweet."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | linen sheets
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 87, "When I go to bed at night" (1 text)
Roud #25380
File: KSUC087B

When I Go Up to Shinum Place

DESCRIPTION: "When I go up to shinum place" there will be red, white and black men. "There is no need of wigwam there, He send his angels to take care, And Jesus good and kind"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 171, "When I Go Up to Shinum Place" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, p. 82, "When I Go Up to Shinum Place" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2728
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Indian Maid" (theme)
cf. "Indian Hymn" (theme)
NOTES [21 words]: See "Indian Hymn" for similar phrases. - BS
Presumably the title of this piece is a patronizing corruption of "shining." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CrMa171

When I Landed in Glasgow

See The Young Maid's Love (File: HHH058)

When I Lays Down

DESCRIPTION: "When I lays down and dies on my tired old hunkers, The family back home will get ten thousand plunkers, Oh, this man's war is a mean man's war for sure." The singer expects to die. Women will miss him. He is learning war; he won't let a sniper get him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe)
KEYWORDS: soldier war
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Niles/Moore-SongsMyMotherNeverTaughtMe, pp. 218-219, "When I Lays Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27897
File: NiMo218

When I Leave These Earthly Shores

DESCRIPTION: Recitation: "When I leave this earthly shore And mosey 'round this world no more, Don't weep, don't sob; I may have found a better job." After this introduction, the speaker spends two stanzas asking for small gifts now rather than big ones after death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957
KEYWORDS: death recitation poverty
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 104, "When I Leave These Earthly Shores" (1 text)
ST FSC104 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Give Me the Roses While I Live" (theme of giving roses)
File: FSC104

When I Left the Blue Ridge Mountains

See East Virginia (Dark Hollow) (File: JRSF134)

When I Left the State of Georgia

DESCRIPTION: "When I left the state of Georgia, To Alabamer I did go. There I spied a pretty fair girl, Although her age I did not know." "Your mama says that she's not willing For you to go with me. But, sweetheart, if you are willing, I will run away with you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: courting travel mother
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 22, "When I Left the State of Georgia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11337
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "East Virginia (Dark Hollow)" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES [28 words]: This is so close to "East Virginia" that I almost lumped them. With just two verses in the Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric version, it's hard to know one way or the other. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne022

When I Lie Doon

DESCRIPTION: The singer cannot sleep, oppressed "wi' dreams and delusions" for "my lovie's far from me When I lie doon"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: love nonballad separation dream
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1106, "When I Lie Doon" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #6836
ALTERNATE TITLES:
At Night When I Gang to My Bed
Oh, My Lovie's Far frae Me
File: GrD61106

When I Reach My Home Eternal

See Will My Mother Know Me There? (File: Sulz017A)

When I Reach That City on the Hill

See Top of Mount Zion (File: RcToMZi)

When I Rise Cryin' Holy

See When I Rise Crying Holy (File: Parr032)

When I Rise Crying Holy

DESCRIPTION: "Oh my Lord this is a needed time (x3) In that morning when I rise crying Holy." "I'm so glad I got my ticket in hand." "Oh sister your robe don't fit you like mine." "Oh Gabriel blow your trumpet loud." "Oh Jesus don't come that angry way."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 32, pp. 148-150, "When I Rise Cryin' Holy" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [33 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. In Parrish's text each verse is one line, three times, followed by "In that morning when I rise crying Holy." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr032

When I Saw Sweet Nellie Home

See Seeing Nellie Home (File: RJ19229)

When I Set Out for Glory

DESCRIPTION: "When I set out for glory, I left this world behind, Determined for a city that's hard to find, And to begging I will go. And to begging I will go, I'll go...." Despite warnings, the singer is set on this path, and would rather be Christian than rich
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1856 (Thompson-APioneerSongster)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad travel begging poverty
FOUND IN: US(MA,Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 70, "The Convert" (1 text)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 212, "The Begging Song" (1 text)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 196-197, "When I Set Out for Glory" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Fus212 (Partial)
Roud #5426
File: Fus212

When I Wake in the Morning

DESCRIPTION: The singer is "surrounded by sorrow ... lovely Jimmie if you knew what I knew." "When the boys come to court ... I do them disdain ... I never will marry till [my love] comes back again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: grief love separation nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 91, "When I Wake in the Morning" (1 text fragment, 1 tune)
ST CrMa091 (Full)
Roud #2707
RECORDINGS:
Angelo Dornan, "When I Wake in the Morning" (on MRHCreighton)
NOTES [49 words]: Angelo Dornan is a major source for Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs and Creighton-SouthNB. Many of his songs, like this one, are fragments that are too brief for me to identify. - BS
Paul Stamler and I also puzzled over this independently. We've given up and are filing it as a loose fragment. - RBW
File: CrMa091

When I Wake Up in the Morning

DESCRIPTION: When the singer wakes in the morning she says, "Benjie, try and find yourself a job." Don't tell me about the hard times. Walk. Don't take the streetcar. One of these days I'll be gone and you'll be sorry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (USSeaIsland01)
KEYWORDS: poverty warning work hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Moving Star Hall Singers, "Blues" (on USSeaIsland01)
NOTES [43 words]: The current description is based on the USSeaIsland01 text.
This is a blues apparently "made up on the spot" -- according to the liner notes -- by one of the Moving Star Hall Singers. Perhaps the Benjie referred to is one of the Singers, Benjamin Bligen. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: RcWIWUIM

When I Was a Bonny Young Lassie

DESCRIPTION: The singer, being maid to a minister, was ignorant about sex. When a young man courts her, they go out to sing and she comes home late and pregnant. When asked about her illness she recalls singing. The boy is confronted and they willingly marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting sex marriage clergy servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1500, "When I Was a Bonny Young Lassie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #7175
NOTES [41 words]: A recurring line is "But aye I courted my laddie and pleased the minister too."
When confronted the young man says, "As we came ower the way ... I was learnin' her to sing, And it's been the high notes o' Bangor that's pitten her oot o' tune." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71500

When I Was a Boy (I)

See Old MacDonald Had a Farm (File: R457)

When I Was a Boy (II)

See The Farmyard Song (File: Gard013)

When I Was a Cowboy

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a cowboy, out on the western plains (x2), I made a half a million pulling on the bridle reins." The cowboy boasts of fighting Jesse James and Buffalo Bill. He advises, in the event of fire, abandoning the house and saving the "jelly"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: cowboy bragging outlaw fight nonsense
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 197, "When I Was a Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 379-380, "When I Was a Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 29, "When I Was a Cowboy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 567-568, "When I Was a Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 47, "Cow Cow Yicky Yicky Yea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3438
NOTES [51 words]: The Lomax version of this song comes from Lead Belly, and the Fife versions derive from Lomax. So it's not clear how much of this is truly traditional and how much Lead Belly. The "B" text in Fife looks a bit like a Lomax rework; it has stanzas reminiscent of "The Foggy, Foggy Dew" and "Rosemary Lane." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LoF197

When I Was a Fair Maid

See The Soldier Maid (File: DTsoldma)

When I Was a Lady

See All For the Men (File: LoF260)

When I was a Lady, a Lady, a Lady

See All For the Men (File: LoF260)

When I Was a Little Boy (I)

See Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)

When I Was A Little Boy (II)

See Now I Am a Big Boy (File: R358)

When I Was a Little Boy (III)

See The Swapping Boy (File: E093)

When I Was a Little Boy (IV)

See I Wish They'd Do It Now (File: Gil111)

When I Was a Little Boy (V)

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a little boy about so high, Ma would take a little stick and make me cry, Now I'm a bog boy and Ma can't do it, Pa takes a big stick and goes right to it."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (Solomon-ZickaryZan)
KEYWORDS: mother father punishment abuse
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 104, "When I Was a Little Boy" (1 text)
File: ZiZa104C

When I Was a Little Boy Strikin' at the Studdy

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a little boy, strikin' at the studdy [smithy], I had a pair o' blue breeks, and oh but they were duddie [tattered]! As I strook, they shook, like a lammie's tailie; But noo I'm grown a gentleman, my wife she wears a railie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
KEYWORDS: clothes nonballad money work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1688, "When I Was a Young Man I Chappit at the Studdy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 128, "Quhan I Was a Wee Callan" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1826 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 297, ("When I was a little boy, strikin' at the studdy")
Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 155, ("When I was a little boy, striking at the studdy") (1 text)
Robert Chambers (Edited by Norah and William Montgomerie), Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes (1990 selected from Popular Rhymes) #152, p. 87, ("When I was a wee boy, Strikin at the studdy")
Roud #13033
NOTES [223 words]: The description is Chambers's text. I don't know what a "railie" is, but seems likely to refer to an early 19th century fashion [see, for example, Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976: "rail ... n ... 1 archaic: a loose garment worn in varying style esp by women since the early medieval period 2 obs: a neckercheif for women" See "night rail ... a woman's loose robe or gown formerly worn as a nightgown or dressing gown" from the same source]. Greig/Duncan8 ends with the singer "grown a grandpa, my wife she wears a veillie." - BS
Alexander Warrack, The Scots Dialext Dictionary, Waverly Books, 2000, defines "railie/railly" as a woman's jacket, although it does not describe the style. - RBW
Chambers: "... familiar to the boys in every province of Scotland.... It is supposed to bear reference to the founder of the family of Callender of Craigforth, near Stirling, who originally was a blacksmith. John Callender performed work on Edinburgh and Stirling Castles before the Revolution." In 1689 he was ordered paid a large amount in Scots money but "[a]ccording to the popular story, the ingenious blacksmith got payment of this sum from the English exchequer, but in the English denomination, a piece of good fortune which enabled him to become proprietor of Craigforth ...." - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: GrD81688

When I Was a Little Boy, I Lived At Market Square

See Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail) [Laws E17] (File: LE17)

When I Was a Little Boy, Striking at the Studdy

See When I Was a Little Boy Strikin' at the Studdy (File: GrD81688)

When I Was a Maid

See When I Was Young (II) (File: VWL102)

When I Was a Maiden

See All For the Men (File: LoF260)

When I was a maiden of sweet seventeen

See Maidens of Sixty-Three (The Old Maid) (File: HHH679)

When I Was a Miner, A Hard-Rock Miner

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a miner, a hard-rock miner, Down in a deep dark mine... My contract drift was paying fine. But soon I grew weary, My eyes got getting bleary... So to dodge the undertaker, I turned a moonshine maker, And gave up the deep, dark mine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Western Folklore, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes injury disease drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 145, "When I Was a Miner, A Hard-Rock Miner" (1 short text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When You Wore a Tulip" (tune) and references there
File: LDC145

When I Was a Rich Man

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a rich man, I wore my silk and satin; But now I am a poor man, I wear my cotton bagging. When I was a rich lady, I had a rich lady's baby! But now I am a Negro, damn a Negro baby."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Morris, Southern Folklore Quarterly)
KEYWORDS: money clothes baby Black(s)
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #143, "When I Was a Rich Man" (1 short text)
Roud #5060
File: Morr143

When I Was a Servant in Old Aberdeen

See Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: LK43)

When I Was a Shoemaker

See All For the Men (File: LoF260)

When I Was a Small Boy

See Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail) [Laws E17] (File: LE17)

When I Was a Washerwoman

See All For the Men (File: LoF260)

When I Was a Wee Thing

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a (little girl/wee thing), About (seven) years old, I hadna worth a petticoat To keep me frae the cold." The singer travels to (Edinburgh), buys clothes, goes to the woods, and builds a kirk with the help of the birds of the wood
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Montgomerie)
KEYWORDS: bird animal clergy clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose 232, p. 151, "(When I was a little girl)"
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 139, "(When I was a wee thing)" (1 text)
File: BGMG222

When I Was a Young Girl (I)

See All For the Men (File: LoF260)

When I Was a Young Girl (II)

See Bad Girl's Lament, The (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime) [Laws Q26] (File: LQ26)

When I Was A Young Man

DESCRIPTION: As a young man the singer "was drinking and a-smoking, boys, from morning unto night." When he had spent all his money he worked for more. He was enraged when he "walked into the public house and I called for a pint of the best" but got "the slop"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (recording, Wiggy Smith)
KEYWORDS: drink lie
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
Roud #1165
RECORDINGS:
Wiggy Smith, "When I Was A Young Man" (on Voice13)
File: RcWIWAYM

When I Was a Young Man (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer proposes to his long-time sweetheart but she rejects him as an idler. "In the spring had you cropped my wing" he would have won her. He says he'll "sail the ocean o'er, For the loss of one is a gain of two And a choice of twenty more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection farewell
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 50, "When I Was a Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS050 (Partial)
Roud #1797
NOTES [30 words]: This is one of those songs that sounds like you've heard it before; the plot is common and the images commonplace. But neither Creighton nor Roud nor I can recall another version. - RBW
File: CrNS050

When I Was a Young Man (II)

See I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male) (File: R365)

When I Was a Young Man I Chappit at the Studdy

See When I Was a Little Boy Strikin' at the Studdy (File: GrD81688)

When I Was a Young Thing

DESCRIPTION: "When I was a young thing I lived with my granny, my mama was dead and my pa gone to sea." The singer always wanted to be a sailor "and follow my dada," but he finds that a sailor's life is filled with hard work.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: work sailor ship father mother orphan
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 893-894, "When I Was a Young Thing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9939
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "When I Was a Young Thing" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea893

When I Was In My Prime

See In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme (File: R090)

When I Was Little Jeanikie

DESCRIPTION: "When I wis little Jeanikie" the singer loved Johnny, "servant to my daddy" When everyone was asleep she "did dry his gray breeks." Now they live together with their "bairnies weel an happy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: love clothes baby servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1280, "When I Was Little Jeanikie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7192
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Johnnie's Grey Breaks
File: GrD71280

When I Was Lost in the Wilderness

DESCRIPTION: "King Jesus handed the candle down, An' I hope dat trumpet goin' to blow me home Yer de new Jerusalem." "When Moses smote de water wid his shepherd's rod, De waters rared back...." "When Joshua ordered dat de sun stand still...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus Bible nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 652, "When I Was Lost in the Wilderness" (1 text)
Roud #11943
NOTES [36 words]: Don't ask me where Brown's title came from; there is no mention of wilderness in the song.
Moses's parting of the Red Sea is described in Exodus 14; Joshua's request that the sun stand still is in Joshua 10:12-13. - RBW
File: Br3652

When I Was Noo But Sweet Sixteen (The Bothy Lads, The Plooboy Lads)

DESCRIPTION: Singer complains that the ploughboys are "false and deceiving-o They say all and the gang awa'." At sixteen she was "just in blooming." At nineteen she's home with her baby with no idea where the father may be.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (recording, Jeannie Robertson)
KEYWORDS: seduction sex nonballad baby abandonment loneliness courting infidelity love accusation warning beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #66, p. 233-234, "When I Was Nou But Sweet Sixteen" (1 text, 1 tune
DT, PLOOLAD*
Roud #5138
RECORDINGS:
Jeannie Robertson, "When I Was Noo But Sweet Sixteen" (on Voice10)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Peggy on the Banks o' Spey" (tune, some text)
NOTES [33 words]: The tradition seems strongest amongst Scottish Travellers, especially the Robertsons and Stewarts of Aberdeen. There is some occasional "contamination" with "Peggy on the Banks o' Spey" (GrD61131). - DGE
Last updated in version 5.3
File: RcWIWNBS

When I Was One-and-Twenty

See The Backwoodsman (The Green Mountain Boys) [Laws C19] (File: LC19)

When I Was Single (I)

See I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male) (File: R365)

When I Was Single (II)

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the gay nights he lived when single. Now married, his wife leaves him to watch the cradle and run errands. He laments that "the poor man's labor is never done."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio)
KEYWORDS: marriage nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 71, "When I Was Single" (1 text)
ST E071 (Full)
Roud #5357
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male)"
cf. "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)" (plot)
cf. "Married and Single Life" (subject)
NOTES [25 words]: This may be a version of "Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own)"; Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio's fragment is too short for me to be sure. - RBW
File: E071

When I Was Single (III)

See I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again (File: Wa126)

When I Was Single (IV)

See Do You Love an Apple? (File: K203)

When I Was Single I Used a Powder Puff

See I Wish I Were Single Again (II - Female) (File: E070)

When I Was Single, Oh Then

See I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male) (File: R365)

When I Was Young (Don't Never Trust a Sailor)

DESCRIPTION: A girl laments the loss of her virginity to a sailor, (who gives her half a dollar for "the damage I have done," and advises if she has a son to send him off to sea). She is found to be pregnant. Her parents throw her out. She warns girls against sailors
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: bawdy sailor seduction sex warning
FOUND IN: US(MW,So,SW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 75-78, "When I Was Young" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph 806, "Don't Never Trust a Sailor" (1 text)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 74-80, "When I Was Young and Foolish" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 58, "The Lass that Loved a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 500-501, "Home, Home, Home" (1 text, 1 tune, with a chorus probably derived from "Ambletown" or some other member of the "Rosemary Lane" family) [AbEd, pp. 368-369]
Johnson-BawdyBalladsAndLustyLyrics, p. 65, "The Lass That Loved a Sailor" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 219, "When I Was Young and Foolish" (1 short text, 1 tune, which appears to go with this piece although the ending is missing)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 106, "The Lass That Loved a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 25, "Young Sailor Bold" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 41-43, "Once There Was a Servant Girl Whose Name Was Mary Jane" (1 text, which appears to have been made even more bawdy than the original song, so it might perhaps be a very crude rewrite of "Rosemary Lane" rather than this piece)
ST EM075 (Full)
Roud #954
RECORDINGS:
Dillard Chandler, "The Sailor Being Tired" (on OldLove, DarkHoll)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rosemary Lane" [Laws K43]
cf. "The Gatesville Cannonball"
cf. "Oh, No, Not I" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Rambleaway" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Night Hawk
The Sailor-Girl's Lament
NOTES [85 words]: Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms has extensive historical notes, separating this "inch-above-the-knee" song from "Bell Bottom Trousers/Rosemary Lane." - EC
For discussion of this song and its ancestry, see the entry on "Rosemary Lane" [Laws K43]. The pieces here may not be a unity; one might describe this as bawdy remnants of that ballad.
Roud lists some of the versions listed here as his #269, i.e. "Rosemary Lane." It can be hard to tell with a short version such as that in Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: EM075

When I Was Young (II)

DESCRIPTION: Singer laments married life, saying when she was young she lived well and happily, but now she lives in poverty and misery. The chorus warns, "Ye'd better be a maiden as a poor man's wife."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1850
KEYWORDS: poverty marriage warning
FOUND IN: Britain(North,West,South) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 102, "When I Was Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 156-157, "When I Was a Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BTTRSNGL*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 27, #1 (1978), p, 15, "It's Better to be Single Than a Poor Man's Wife" (1 text, 1 tune, the Margaret Barry version)
Roud #894
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry & Michael Gorman, "It's Better to be Single Than a Poor Man's Wife" (on Barry-Gorman1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Single Girl, Married Girl"
cf. "Sorry the Day I Was Married"
cf. "I Wish I Were a Single Girl Again" (theme)
cf. "I Wish I Were Single Again (II - Female)" (theme)
cf. "Do You Love an Apple?" (theme, floating lyrics)
cf. "For Seven Long Years I've Been Married" (theme)
NOTES [46 words]: Obviously, this is extremely close to the songs listed as cross-references, and they have either cross-fertilized or share a common ancestor, but it has a distinctly different chorus, emphasizing being a poor man's wife, and as such I think it deserves a separate listing. -PJS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: VWL102

When I Was Young (X)

See While I Was Still of Tender Years (File: High043A)

When I Was Young and Able

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "When I was young and able, I sat upon the table. The table broke, And gave me a poke, When I was young and able."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: jumprope injury | table
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes #601, "When I was young and able" (1 text)
NOTES [18 words]: With a change of just one syllable, this would become a limerick. I suspect that is how it originated. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR601

When I Was Young and Foolish

See When I Was Young (File: EM075)

When I Was Young and in My Prime (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer boasts that when he was young, he could "fetch" a kid every time, but now that he is old, he can't get a "bit to save my soul."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy age sex
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 159-161, "When I Was Young and in My Prime" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Am Growing Old and Gray" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Ain't So Young
When I Was in My Prime
File: RL159

When I Was Young and In My Prime (II)

See If I Were As Young As I Used to Be (Uncle Joe) (File: R434)

When I Was Young I Had No Sense

See Dancing Dolly Had No Sense (File: SuSm108D)

When I Was Young I Was Beloved

DESCRIPTION: The singer complains that she was once "beloved in all the young men's companie." Old now, "nae bonnie laddie will fancy me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: age courting nonballad oldmaid
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #20, p. 2, ("When I was young I was beloved") (1 fragment)
File: Grg020b

When I Was Young I Was Well Beloved

See The False Lover (File: HHH790)

When I Went for to Take My Leave

DESCRIPTION: Singer, leaving to fight for the Union in the Civil War, weeps to leave his child and wife, and vows that "if the Davis boys don't bind me" he will return as quickly as possible when it's over
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (recording, Loman D. Cansler)
KEYWORDS: grief Civilwar war farewell parting return separation baby family wife husband
FOUND IN: US(So)
RECORDINGS:
Loman D. Cansler, "When I Went for to Take My Leave" (on Cansler1)
File: RcWIWFTT

When I Went Off to Prospect

DESCRIPTION: ""I heard of gold at Sutter's mill... But I never thought it was rich until I started off to prospect." He sets out to mine, but cannot find a place to stay. He gets lice. He is hurt in a fight. All he has has been pawned -- but he'll to "make it right"
AUTHOR: Words: John A. Stone ("Old Put")
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Put's Original California Songster, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: gold mining hardtimes fight
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 109-110, "When I Went Off to Prospect" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The King of the Cannibal Islands" (tune)
File: LDC109

When I Wore My Apron Low

See Tavern in the Town (File: ShH94)

When I'm Dead and Buried

See Don't You Weep After Me (File: R262)

When I'm Gone (I)

DESCRIPTION: "It'll be Lawd, Lawd, Lawd, when I'm gone." "I'm gonna fly from mansion to mansion, when I'm gone." "I'll be done with troubles and trials." "I'm gonna walk and talk with Jesus." "I'm gonna set at the welcome table."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 243, "When I'm Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Welcome Table (Streets of Glory, God's Going to Set This World on Fire)" (floating verses)
NOTES [24 words]: Alan Lomax claims -- on the basis of a few words in the chorus -- that this is the same as "Don't You Grieve After Me (I)." I don't buy it. - RBW
File: LoF243

When I'm Gone (II)

DESCRIPTION: "When I'm gone, gone gone, When I'm gone to come no more, Church, I know you goin' to miss me when I'm gone." "You goin' to miss me for my walk (x2). Church, you goin' to miss me...." "You goin' to miss me for my talk."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore)
KEYWORDS: separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 252, "When I'm Gone" (1 text)
Roud #18171
File: KiWa252W

When I'se a Little Boy

See Little Brown Dog (File: VWL101)

When in Death I Calmly Recline

See Legacy (File: San155A)

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

DESCRIPTION: Known mostly by the chorus: "When Irish eyes are smiling, Sure, 'tis like the morn in Spring; In the lilt of Irish laughter, You can hear the angels sing...." The lyric concerns the singer's love's smile, and urges smiling at every opportunity
AUTHOR: Words: Chauncey Olcott and George Graff Jr. / Music: Ernest R. Ball
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 ("The Isle o' Dreams," according to Hischak); sheet music undated but probably 1912, according to Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic
KEYWORDS: nonballad beauty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 333, "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" (notes only)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 638-639, "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling"
DT, IRSHEYES*
Roud #25290
RECORDINGS:
Bradley Kincaid, "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" (Decca 12053)
Riley Puckett, "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" (Bluebird 8144)
SAME TUNE:
When the Very Lights Are Shining (File: AWTBW086)
Hiking Girl (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 33)
NOTES [496 words]: Hischak, p. 379: "[This] is the perennial favorite that was beloved by Irish immigrants (and everyone else) in the years before World War One, and it remains a standard today.... [Co-writer Chauncey] Olcott sang the number in the minstrel melodrama The Isle o' Dreams (1913), recorded the song and performed it throughout his career."
Williams, p, 213, says that "Neither [Olcott's] stage name nor his real name, John Chancellor, suggests the genuine Irish background of the man who would become the leading Irish-American performer of his day." His mother had come to America from County Kilkenny as an infant. Olcott himself was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1860. He got his big break when another famous Irish performer, WIlliam J. Scanlon, developed alcoholism and syphilitic memory loss so severe that an immediate replacement was needed, and Olcott, a lyric Irish tenor, got his part. "Olcott's vehicles, built upon earlier Irish melodrama, gave Irish Americans a kind of 'usable,' if not very accurate, sense of the past" (Williams, p. 214).
"Olcott wrote or at least collaborated on a number of the songs used in his musicals. According to his wife, while Olcott did write some songs, he also came up with bits of melody and verse that were put in shape by the regular lyricists an composers whom [manager Augustus] Pitou had under contract. He collaborated with some of the best Tin Pan Alley professionals of the day. The lyricists included George Graaff Jr. and Rida Johnson Young, who also wrote the books for several of his musicals. Among the composers was Ernest Ball, one of the Alley's most successful tunesmiths. It was Ball who wrote the music for 'When Irish Eyes Are Smiling' (1912), 'A Little Bit of Heaven (Sure, They Call It Ireland)' (1914), and with Olcott, "Mother Machree' (1910). When we add Olcott's 'My Wild Irish Rose" (1897) and J. R. Shannon's 'Too-re-loo-ra-loo-ra (That's an Irish Lullaby)' from Shameen Dhu (1912), we have much of the sentimental core of twentieth-century Irish-American song" (Williams, pp. 214-215).
Olcott apparently became the prototypical Irish tenor, but he was anything but authentic. He apparently eventually travelled to Ireland, and tried to listen to the locals singing -- and found it so unpleasant to listen to that he had to distract the person he was listening to by asking about the name of a flower. It was "a wild Irish rose." Hence Olcott's song of that name (Williams, pp. 215-216).
Olccott managed the symbolic feat of dying just hours after the end of Saint Patrick's Day, 1932 (Williams, p. 233), but the stage Irish craze had died down a decade or so earlier.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 303, estimates that this was the eighteenth-most popular song in America in 1913, peaking at #15 in July 1913 (#1 for the year being Joe McCarthy and James V. Monaco's "You Made Me Love You"). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: RBD25290

When It Rains the Mississippi River Gets Higher

See High Waters (File: ZiZa049C)

When It's Springtime in the Rockies

DESCRIPTION: "When it's springtime in the Rockies I'm coming back to you, Little sweetheart of the mountains With your bonnie eyes of blue." The birds sing there; the flowers are beautiful; the singer will come to be with the one he loves
AUTHOR: Ords: Mary Hale Woolsey and Milton Taggart / Music: Robert Sauer (source: Gardner; other sources omit Taggart's name)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (sheet music, according to Gardner)
KEYWORDS: love separation home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
Roud #18519
RECORDINGS:
Gene Autry, "When It's Springtime in the Rockies" (ARC 8-03-51/Columbia 20865/Conqueror 8982/Vocalion 03448, 1937)
Bud & Joe Billings, "When It's Springtime in the Rockies" (Victor V-40088/Montgomery Ward M1412, 1929)
Leake County Revellers, "When It's Springtime in the Rockies" (Columbia 15648-D, 1930)
Frank Luther/Carson Robison Trio, "When It's Springtime in the Rockies" (Oriole 1749/APex 41064, 1929)
Mac & Bob (Lester McFarland & Robert A. Gardner), "When It's Springtime in the Rockies" (Brunswick 439/Supertone S2034, 1930)
Chris Miles, "When It's Springtime in the Rockies" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #542, recorded 03/14/2023)
The Ranch Boys, "When It's Springtime in the Rockies" (Decca 5016, 1934)
Red River Dave (Dave McEnery), "When It's Springtime in the Rockies" (Decca 5853/Coral 64013, 1940)
NOTES [79 words]: There was a 1942 musical "Springtime in the Rockies," but according to its Wikipedia entry, it did not include this song.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 251, estimates that this was the most popular song in America in 1930 (reaching #1 in June of that year).
These days, the song seems to be remembered for having been recorded by Gene Autry, but that was later. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio542

When Jesus Christ Was Here Below

DESCRIPTION: "When Jesus Christ was here below, He taught his people what to do, And if we would his precepts keep We must descend to washing feet." The song details the footwashing at the Last Supper
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Jesus Bible religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 93-94, "When Jesus Christ Was Here Below" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 198-199, "When Jesus Christ Was Here Below" (1 text, 1 tune) (OakEd, pp. 201-202)
Roud #7132
NOTES [27 words]: This song closely follows the account of the footwashing in John 13:1-11; the incident is not mentioned in the other three gospels or elsewhere in the Bible. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa198

When Jesus Christ Was Here On Earth

DESCRIPTION: Jesus, on earth, is called a spy. He walks past a sinful crowd, hears a woman say, "I'd go prophesy." He tells Peter, James, and John, "It's written I must die/Shed my blood on Calvary/And never more to die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (recording, I. D. Beck & congregation)
KEYWORDS: death prophecy religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
Roud #7386
RECORDINGS:
I. D. Beck & congregation: "When Jesus Christ Was Here On Earth" (on LomaxCD1704)
NOTES [12 words]: This is fragmentary, but still clearly a narrative, so I include it. - PJS
File: RcWJCWHE

When Jesus Wept

DESCRIPTION: "When Jesus wept, a falling tear In mercy flowed beyond all bound. When Jesus groaned, a trembling fear Seized all the guilty world around,"
AUTHOR: William Billings
EARLIEST DATE: 1770 (New England Psalm SInger, according to LindaJo H. McKim, _Presbyterian Hymnal Companion_, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, p. 222)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, JESUSWPT*
NOTES [121 words]: Not traditional as far as I know, but well enough known in folk circles to perhaps deserve an entry. It was written as a canon, and is often done as a round, and serves well in that role. It is not exactly Biblical, but it is based on Biblical themes. The famous verse "Jesus wept" (sometimes "Jesus shed tears") is John 11:35, but the tears themselves are not treated as being significant in that gospel. There are various accounts of Jesus sighing or groaning, but for the most part the groans have no obvious effect.
It is interesting to observe that the presence or absence of a comma after "guilty" significantly affects the meaning of the piece.
For more about composer William Billings, see the notes to "Chester." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: DTWHNWEP

When Jim Gets to Klondike

DESCRIPTION: "Good morning, and how do you do, Mrs. Murray?" Times are hard, and Jim is going to Klondike. The strikers and the soldiers drove him away. He will send money when he gets there; with his riches, they will join him
AUTHOR: Con Carbon? (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining separation gold
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 236-237, "When Jim Gets to Klondike" (1 text)
NOTES [69 words]: Korson's sources attributed this to Con Carbon, the most noteworthy songwriter of the anthracite region, but Korson apparently didn't get it directly from Carbon. I'm not sure it's traditional, and it certainly isn't very generous to foreigners, but I'm including it just in case.
Con Carbon, the purported author of this piece, is also known for "Me Johnny Mitchell Man"; see that song for other songs of his. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP236

When Joan's Ale Was New

See When Jones's Ale Was New (File: Doe168)

When John and I Were Married

DESCRIPTION: When the singer married John her cranky old mother gave them nothing. They saved their money and slept in a bed of straw. Now they are happy: "love will live in cottage low as weel's in lofty ha'" so marry whom you love.
AUTHOR: Robert Tannahill (1774-1810) (source: Ramsay)
EARLIEST DATE: 1838 (Ramsay)
KEYWORDS: love marriage nonballad mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1278, "Clean Pease Strae" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 450, "When John and Me" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Phillip A Ramsay, The Poetical Works of Robert Tannahill (London, preface 1838), p. 37, "When John and I Were Married"
Roud #7140
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(42), "Clean Pea Strae" ("When John an' me were married"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also 2806 c.15(310)[some words illegible], "When John and Me Were Married"
NOTES [71 words]: Both Greig/Duncan7 versions add a first verse along the line of 'Let's go to the mill [barn] and thrash [take another round] at the straw. Greig/Duncan7 1278B is only that verse; if 1278A, which adds Tannahill's verses to that first, [didn't exist,] I would have considered this a separate song. Perhaps this verse is what's left of the older "Clean Pease-Strae" which Ramsay has as the tune of "When John and I Were Married." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD71278

When John's Ale Was New

See When Jones's Ale Was New (File: Doe168)

When Johnnie Comes Down to Hilo

See Johnny Walk Along to Hilo (File: Doe072a)

When Johnny Comes Marching Home

DESCRIPTION: The singer promises that Johnny will receive a hearty welcome when he returns home from the war. Everyone will turn out; all will be gay; the old church bell will ring; there will be shouting and flowers; they will wreathe his brow with laurel
AUTHOR: Words: "Louis Lambert" (Patrick S. Gilmore)
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (sheet music published by Henry Tolman & Co, Boston)
KEYWORDS: home war return reunion nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (21 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 233-236, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 327-329, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 211-213, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, p. 94, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 397, "When Johnny Come Marching Home" (1 text, a copy of a Johnson broadside)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 51, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2574, p. 174, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (14 references)
Dime-Song-Book #15, pp. 18-19, "When Johnny comes Marching Home" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, p. 484, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 130, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 204, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 119-120, WHen Johnny Comes Marching Home" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 282, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (1 text)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 54, (no title) (1 text, mostly "Johnny Fill Up the Bowl (In Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-One)" but with this chorus) (OakEd, p. 65)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 196, "When Johnny Comes Matching Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 142-143, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 639-641, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"
Harbin-Parodology #323, p. 80, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 167, 399, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (notes only)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 34, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JHNMARCH*
ST RJ19233 (Full)
Roud #6673
RECORDINGS:
Harry Evans, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (Emerson 7373, 1918)
Pete Seeger & Bill McAdoo, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (on PeteSeeger28)
Frank C. Stanley, "When Johnnie Comes Marching Home" (CYL: Edison 5003, c. 1898)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, R.B.m169(220), "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" (tune)
cf. "Johnny Fill Up the Bowl (In Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-One)" (tune)
cf. "Snapoo" (tune)
cf. "Mademoiselle from Armentieres" (approximate tune)
SAME TUNE:
Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye (File: PBB094)
Johnny Fill Up the Bowl (In Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-One) (File: R227)
Snapoo (File: EM379)
The Donkey's Song (File: Wels061)
The Ants Go Marching (File: NCF211AG)
The Widow-Maker Soon Must Cave [Anti-Lincoln campaign song of 1864] (James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 790)
Their Trophies ("The veteran troops at old Yorktown") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 156)
When Abe Comes Marchig Home ("When 'Abe' comes marching home again") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 174)
When the Boys Come Marching Home ("The veteran troops are coming home," by A. Anderson) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 175)
White Stars! ("Of the Second Division my rhymes do sing"; the reference is to the 2nd Division, XII Corps, and the 109th Pennsylvania, commanded by Capt. F. Louis Gimber at Gettysburg and after it transferred to the west) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 177; Bodleian, Harding B 31(100))
Out of the Freshman Year ("Examination's passed once more, Hurrah! hurrah!") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 119)
When Labor Has Come to Its Own ("When labor has come to its own again, Hrrah! Hurrah!, We'll live in a real Republic then, Hurrah! Hurrah!") (by Philipps Thompson) (Foner, p. 272)
Garfield and Arthur, The People's Choicce ("Garfield is the peopel's choice, Hurrah! hurrah! They all proclaim it with one voice") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 4)
With Garfield Leading, We Are Marching On ("Through all the land a cry is heard, Hurrah! Hurrah! The nation's heart once more is stirred") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 15)
Hurrah! Hurrah! ("We are the good old ??? bunch, Hurrah, hurrah! We have the brains, the pep, the punch") (Harbin-Parodology, #231, p. 59)
NOTES [309 words]: Scholars continue to argue whether "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" or the doleful "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" is the original. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" can be firmly dated to the beginning of the Civil War, while "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" does not appear until slightly later (1869) -- but as a traditional song. The earliest known printing is, in fact, that of "Johnny Fill Up the Bowl" (early 1863).
If I were to make a guess, I think I would put "Johnny Fill Up the Bowl" first; it's a logical tune for Gillmore to steal (and some anonymous Irishman to turn into an anti-war song). But what do I know?
Jonathan Lighter seems to concur. His study of the song supports the 1868/1869 date for "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye," which he credits to Geoghegan. And he notes a songster, New and Popular Songs: A Collection of the Most Popular Songs of the Day.... (Philadelphia: Simpson & Co., 1864), which has an expanded version of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," which includes the following stanza among others: "Johnny, he got shot in the leg, Hurrah! Hurrah! Now he goes on a wooden peg, Hurrah! Hurrah! He lost his eyes, he lost his nose, He [sic] bit off his ears, and lost all his toes." He observes that this could easily inspire "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye."
What is certain that the song became very popular quickly. Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 174, lists 14 Civil War-era broadsides, and several other songs adopt the tune, implying that it was widely known. (Although one parody, "When the Boys Come Marching Home," lists the tune as "Johnny Fill Up the Bowl").
This is, without question, Patrick Gilmore's "hit," although in 1854 he published a mildly popular piece, "Sad News from Home for Me" (Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 100). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RJ19233

When Johnny Went Plowing for Kearon

DESCRIPTION: Kearon, too old to plow, hires Johnny. But Kearon had an "enjyne" with the team which Johnny did not understand. Kearon tries it himself but cannot do it. Kearon gives him some instruction. "Johnny took heed to what Kearon had said" and finishes the job
AUTHOR: Lawrence Doyle
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: age farming technology humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 19-20, "When Johnny Went Plowing for Kearon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 191-193,256, "When Johnny Went Plowing for Kearon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12480
NOTES [29 words]: Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland: "A story of a greenhorn's plowing mishap and how his boss decided to show him how it's done, only to wind up worse off than his pupil."
File: Dib019

When Johnson's Ale Was New

See When Jones's Ale Was New (File: Doe168)

When Jones's Ale Was New

DESCRIPTION: Stories from Jones's Bar. Various drinkers come in, each with his tale or his unruly behavior or his demand. Most are hard workers whose burdens are relieved by the ale.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: apparently 1594 (stationer's register)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad landlord ritual
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA) Britain(England(All),Scotland) Australia
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 168-169, "When Johnson's Ale Was New" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 273-277, "When John's Ale Was New" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan3 561, "When Jones' Ale Was New" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 276-278, "When Joan's Ale Was New" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 507)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 243, "When Joan's Ale Was New" (1 text)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 284-285, "Four Jolly Fellows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 14-15, "When Jones' Ale Was New" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 286-287, "When Jones's Ale Was New" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 287, "When Jones's Ale Was New" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 50, "Joan's Ale Was New" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #117, "When Jone's Ale Was New" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #22, pp. 206-208,249, "Joan's Ale was New" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 417-419, "Joan's Ale Was New" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 187-189, "The Jovial Tinker, or Joan's Ale Is New" (1 text, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 166, pp. 132-133, "The Jovial Tinker (Joan's Ale is Good)" (1 text -- a heavily modified version with a floating first verse and a final verse that may imply a Civil War setting)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 245-248, "When Jones's Ale Was New" (1 text plus an excerpt from a British broadside)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 231, "Johnson's Ale" (1 text)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN2502, "There was a jovial Tinker"
DT, JONESALE JONESAL2 JONESAL3
Roud #139
RECORDINGS:
Bob & Ron Copper, "The Jovial Tradesman" (on LomaxCD1700); "The Jovial Tradesman" (on FSB3)
Fred Jordan, "When Jones's Ale Was New" (on Voice13)
John M. (Sailor Dad) Hunt, "When Jones's Ale Was New" (AFS, 1941; on LC27)
A. L. Lloyd, "When Johnson's Ale Was New" (on Lloyd12)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 1(105b), "Joan's Ale is New"["Jones" in the text], T. Vere (London), 1644-1680; also Douce Ballads 1(99b), "Joan's Ale is New"["Jones" in the text]; Harding B 28(139), "Joan's Ale"["Joan's" in the text]; Harding B 11(652), "When John's Ale Was New"; Harding B 16(336b), "Joan's Ale Was New"["Joan's" in the text]; 2806 c.18(169), "Joan's Ale is New"["Joan's" in the text]
Murray, Mu23-y2:014, "When John's Ale was New," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Young Man Who Travelled Up and Down"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jone's ale is newe
When John's Sail Was New
NOTES [146 words]: Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 111, #1288 is "Jones ale is newe," entered by Jno. Danter on October 16, 1594. On November 15, 1594, Edward White entered "the vnthriftes adiew to Jones ale is newe. (Rollins #2793, p. 241). Individually, the title wouldn't be enough to prove the existence of this song, but the fact that two printers used the title at the same time strongly hints that it is this song.
On March 25, 1656, Thomas Vere printed "Joane's ale is New" (Rollinds, #1289, p. 111). I can't prove that it's the same, either, but once again it seems likely. - RBW
The song was sung by the "jolly boys" (pace-eggers) in Overton, Lancs, as part of their Easter house-to-house ritual. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Doe168

When Lady Jane Became a Tart

DESCRIPTION: "It fairly broke the family's heart When Lady Jane became a tart," but family is family, so they support her vocation and arrange a fine location for her; she attracts many clients. When other family members follow in her path, the family has more trouble
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: whore work family nobility
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 176-177, "When Lady Jane Became a Tart" (1 text)
Roud #10152
File: RuSoWhLJ

When Mary Came Wandering Home

See Mary of the Wild Moor [Laws P21] (File: LP21)

When Mary Had Come, the Lord Jesus to Seek

DESCRIPTION: "When Mary she came, the Lord Jesus to seek" after the crucifixion, the earth quakes. An angel tells her Jesus has risen. He meets the disciples and tells them what they should do, then goes up into heaven. A "man in white raiment" say he will return
AUTHOR: Edward W. Billups? (The Sweet Songster)
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (The Sweet Songster)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus death | resurrection
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #108, "Our Lord Has Risen" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edward W. Billups, _The Sweet Songster: A Collection of the Most Popular and Approved Songs, Hymns, and Ballads_, Arrowood Brothers, 1854, p. 300, Hymn 260, "(no title)" (1 text)
NOTES [675 words]: Hymns in The Sweet Songster are mostly unattributed, but a few have a name in brackets by the hymn number, e.g. #262 is marked "Hymn 262. C.M. [WATTS" -- implying that it is by Isaac Watts. Since this song is attributed to "[Billups," I assume he is claiming authorship.
Hymnary.org does not include this piece; as of November 9, 2023, it lists only one song by Billups, "Bleeding Hearts Defiled by Sin." John Julian's magisterial A Dictionary of Hymnology doesn't have an entry on him. I couldn't find any biographical information on the Internet, either (though I confess to not trying very hard). I'm amazed that anyone managed to remember the piece; it certainly wasn't widely published!
The version in The Sweet Songster is twelve verses; the Roberts/Agey text has nine, corresponding to #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #8, #9, #11, #12.
This looks to me as if it was composed by a man who had heard a lot of sermons but didn't actually read the Bible to write the hymn. Examples:
-- "When Mary had come, the Lord Jesus to seed, At the dawn of the day, on the first of the week" -- Matthew 28:1 says "After the sabbath, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb." Mark 16:1 says that it was "after the sabbath" that Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices. Luke 24:1 says that "they" (unnamed) brought spices. John 20:1 says that Mary Magdalene (only) went to the tomb "while it was still dark."
-- "With spices and ointments of richest perfume." As we say, Mark and Luke mention spices (no ointment). This makes me think more of John 19:39, though, where, after Joseph of Arimathea has begged the body of Jesus, Nicodemus brings "a mixture of myrrh and aloes."
-- "And as she approached, the earth then did quake": This seems to be from Matthew; Matthew 27:51 says that the earth shook when Jesus died, and Matthew 18:2 describes a "great" earthquake as the women approach the tomb; this is not paralleled in the other gospels
-- "An angel descended and rolled back the stone, From the door of the tomb, and he sat thereupon": Matthew 16:2 says an angel rolled back the stone and sat non it. Mark 16:4 says it was rolled back already when they got there, and a young man (not an angel) sitting there. Luke 24:2 also says the stone was already rolled away, and they meet TWO men in dazzling clothing. John 20:1 says that the stone had been "taken" away before Mary got there.
-- "His face was like lightning, his raiment like snow": More like Matthew 28:3 than Mark 16:5 or Luke 24:4
-- "He said to the woman, Fear not": Matthew 28:5 says "Do not be afraid"; in Mark it is "Do not be amazed," and Luke and John are not paralleled
-- "He has risen, as he prophesied" -- Matthew 28:6, Mark 16:6, both say "He has risen"; so do most texts of Luke 24:6, though two important manuscripts omit (D and most of the early Latin translations. Some recent English translations have omitted the words in Luke, but they're in the King James version, and most recent translations include them). Only Luke 24:6-7 explicitly says that Jesus foretold this, and it doesn't use the word "prophesied."
-- "Why seek ye the living, in tombs of the dead?" -- Luke 24:5, "Why do you seek the living among the dead."
-- "See, here's the place where he laid": Matthew 28:6, Mark 16:6
-- "Go tell his disciples": Matthew 28:7 (Mark 16:7 says "his disciples and Peter")
-- "He goeth before you into Galilee": Matthew 28:7, Mark 16:7 say Jesus will meet them in Galilee; Luke says he stayed in Jerusalem
-- "Go teach all nations," etc.: This is based on Matthew 28:19; the other gospels don't use the same words
-- "I am with you always to the end": Again, from Matthew only: Matthe 28:20, the end of that gospel
-- "He rose from the earth... two men, in white raiment, 'Why do you gaze?'": Luke 24:51 mentions Jesus's ascension, but most of this, including the men in white raiment, are from Acts 1:1-11. The bit about the Judgment Day is not from Acts; presumably it's the Gospel According to Billups. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RAInP108

When McGuinness Gets a Job

See Last Winter Was a Hard One (File: FSC098)

When Me Baby Born, O

DESCRIPTION: The singer has been sent by her parents to "Hasty Hill" until her baby is born. She wonders who the father will turn out to be: that will determine whether the baby's clothes will be expensive or cheap.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage01)
KEYWORDS: sex home separation childbirth pregnancy baby father lover mother nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Martha Saunders, Lovey Gilman and Venice Talbott, "When Me Baby Born, O" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
File: RcWMBBO

When Moggy By the Fire Sat

DESCRIPTION: Moggy sits by the fire "a-spinning of her linsey yarn" and Jocky "came along to love." He apparently asks her to leave with him but Moggy says "my mammy she would scorn"; she must stay home to spin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection work love mother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 302, "When Moggy By the Fire Sat" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 223)
Roud #1330
NOTES [14 words]: The current description is based on the Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT302

When Morning Stands on Tiptoe

See The Echoing Horn (File: K246)

When Mursheen Went to Bunnan

DESCRIPTION: The singer's "spirits has completely left" since Mursheen went to Bunnan. She left because he drinks. He drank with her father, who turned against her when she left. He had been "bound for the west" but now he "gave up all my palaver with Yankees"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (recording, Micho Russell)
KEYWORDS: love separation drink father
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #8146
RECORDINGS:
Micho Russell, "When Mursheen Went to Bunnan" (on Voice13)
File: RcWMuWtB

When My Blood Runs Chilly and Cold

DESCRIPTION: "When my blood runs chilly and cold, I've got to go... Way beyond the moon. Do lord, do, Lord, do remember me.... If you can't bear no crosses, you can't wear no crown.... I've got a mother in Beulah land, she's calling me...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 123, "I've Got a Mother in de Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 137 in the 1901 edition)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 104, "When My Blood Runs Chilly an' Col'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 610-611, "When My Blood Runs Chilly an' Col'" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Howard W. Odum and Guy B. Johnson, The Negro and his Songs (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1925 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 110, ("Well, my mother's goin' to heaven") (1 text)
Roud #15548
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "Beulah Land" (on MJHurt05)
NOTES [51 words]: The pattern in Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses is: verse-line, "Outshines the sun" (3x), repeat verse-line, "Outshines the sun, Way beyond the moon." Odum and Johnson's pattern is: verse line, "Going to outshine the sun" (3x) "Way beyond the moon." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: LxU104

When My Old Hat Was New

See When This Old Hat Was New (II) (File: GrD3540)

When nettles in wynter bere rosis red

See (notes under) Things Impossible (File: MSBRDMM)

When nettlis in winter bere rosis red

See (notes under) Things Impossible (File: MSBRDMM)

When O'Connor Drew His Pay

DESCRIPTION: O'Connor (a logger), after drawing his pay, goes on a spree, starts a fire, and is arrested. Taken to "limbo" (jail), he pays his fine and they ship him (as freight) back to the woods. He swears he's "never spent his savings quite so pleasurably before"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering drink prison fire money humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 35, "When O'Connor Drew His Pay" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, "When O'Connor Drew His Pay" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 36, "When O'Connor Drew His Pay" (1 text)
Roud #4065
NOTES [29 words]: The text is incomplete, but gives the flavor of the song. I used "prison" as a keyword only because we don't have "jail." - PJS
This song is item dC44 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be035

When Old Mauch Chunk Was Young

DESCRIPTION: "When old Mauch Chunk was young, J--- used to say, A man that labored hard should have Six Billy cups a day," so the town was full of drunks. They worked long hours. There were many fights. Captain Abels tried to stop it. They ate good cakes
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1850 (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: food mining
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 35-36, "When Old Mauch Chunk Was Young" (1 text, 1 tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John Anderson, My Jo, John" (tune) and references there
NOTES [39 words]: Not found in oral tradition, but since Korson apparently did not get it from its author, I am indexing it. Mauch Chunk was one of the larger towns of the Pennsylvania anthracite region; it would come to by Molly Maguire territory. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP035

When Other Lips and Other Hearts

See Then You'll Remember Me (File: HMHS125A)

When Our Boys Gave Up Squiddin'

DESCRIPTION: "Our boys give up squiddin', they all joined the Navy To fight for old England, her King and her Crown." The boys get their parents consent, go "up to the court-house to join up that day," leave their women and family and go to "Keep Hitler Down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: moniker war navy patriotic family derivative England separation parting nonballad father husband lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "When Our Boys Gave Up Squiddin'" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 83 in the 3rd edition
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 295-296, "Our Boys Gave Up Squiddin' " (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SQUIDJI2*
Roud #7317
RECORDINGS:
Ned Rice, "Our Boys Gave Up Squiddin'" (on NFAGuigné01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Squid-Jiggin' Ground" (tune)
File: Doyl3083

When Paddy McGinty Plays the Harp

DESCRIPTION: "When Paddy McGinty plays the harp you've got to get up and dance ... It's wonderful Irish music that is neither flat nor sharp When Paddy McGinty plays the harp"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (NFOBlondahl04, NFOBlondahl05)
KEYWORDS: dancing harp music nonballad
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "When Paddy McGinty Plays the Harp" (on NFOBlondahl04)
NOTES [142 words]: Is this even a music hall song? There is a 1940 recording on OKEH 5849 by the McFarland Twins and their Orchestra [sources: Steven Abrams site as The Online Discographical Project; Northwest Internet Technologies copyright owner of World of Grampophones site]; "the McFarland twins, Arthur and George, were handsome blonds who played reeds and had own corny band late '30s, suddenly became more modern c'42 but never hit the big time" [Source: MusicWeb site Encyclopedia of Popular Music re Fred Waring].
Blondahl04 and NFOBlondahl05 have no liner notes confirming that this song was collected in Newfoundland. Barring another report for Newfoundland I do not assume it has been found there. There is no entry for "When Paddy McGinty Plays the Harp" in Newfoundland Songs and Ballads in Print 1842-1974 A Title and First-Line Index by Paul Mercer. - BS
File: RcWPMPTH

When Paddy Stole the Rope

See How Paddy Stole the Rope (File: OCon068)

When Pat Came Over the Hill

See The Whistling Thief (File: HHH710)

When Pat Malone Forgot that He Was Dead

See The Irish Wake [Laws Q18] (File: LQ18)

When Rocks and Hills Divide Us

DESCRIPTION: "When rocks and hills divide us, And you no more I see, Remember it was (Dennis), That wrote these lines for thee." "When the hills and plains depart (?) us, And my face you cannot see... Will you not stop to think of me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 134, "(When rocks and hills divide us)" (1 short text, probably related to the following item, "When hills and plains depart us")
Roud #4392?
NOTES [103 words]: This appeared in the autograph book of Laura Day in 1891. This might hint that it is not traditional. But the Day version appears to have been corrupted by oral tradition; it gives the last line as "That wrote these words for you" rather than "...for thee." That's obviously more typical of modern English, but it ruins the rhyme.
The "Will you not stop to think of me" lyric may have inspired quite a few other items, e.g. "Darling, I Have Come to Tell You (Farewell Nellie, Little Bunch of Roses, Many Miles Apart, Don't This Road Look Rough and Rocky)" and the Hank Williams "Won't You Sometimes Think of Me." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: SaKo134A

When Rocks and Plains Depart Us

See When Rocks and Hills Divide Us (File: SaKo134A)

When Saint Peter's Day Was A-Dawning

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes "the deeds of the sons of Saint Patrick" at a secret society meeting. "The Harp of old Ireland played Orange Lie Down" and woke the Brunswickers. "Banish this crew that our land did pollute" and let them go to some other island.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: Ireland political
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 127-128, "When Saint Peter's Day Was A-Dawning" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [78 words]: "Brunswickers" is a synonym here for "Orangemen." There is another apparent reference to Orangemen: "the Black Hare of Luther"; Luther is clear enough but I don't understand "the Black Hare" in this context [there is a reference to "these Luthers black" in Tunney-StoneFiddle: "The Defender's Song"]. "Orange Lie Down" may not be a real song; in any case, that title is a reference to "Croppies Lie Down," one of the Orange songs most resented by the nationalists. - BS
File: TSF127

When Shall We Be Married?

See The Country Courtship (File: K127)

When Shall We Get Married

See The Country Courtship (File: K127)

When Shall We Get Married, John

See The Country Courtship (File: K127)

When Shall We Meet Again?

DESCRIPTION: The singer hears, through his window, a sailor and his wife and child parting in the rain. "Perhaps," he says, "we'll part for years, perhaps for evermore." Later the boy dies saying "When shall we meet again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love parting death children wife sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1250, "When Shall We Meet Again?," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "When Shall We Meet Again?" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6786
File: GrD61250

When She Got There

DESCRIPTION: "My mother shall crave it, My daddy shall have it, If you will go with me To younder green tree, But when she got there, She was highly mounted. She looked him scornfully... saying... 'You're highly mistaken,' And away she went galloping...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: love elopement rejection separation horse
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 145, "When She Got There" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #9069
NOTES [37 words]: This looks like a conflation of at least two songs, at least one of them a rejected-lover type. But with only twelve short lines, some of which probably float, I can't see any way to identify what the original songs are. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet145

When Sherman Marched Down to the Sea

See Sherman's March to the Sea (File: SBoA248)

When Silent Time, Wi' Lightly Foot

See The Nabob (File: Ord361)

When Sorrows Encompass Me 'Round

DESCRIPTION: "When sorrows encompass me 'round, And many distresses I see, Astonished, I cry, 'Can a poor mortal be found Surrounded with troubles like me?'" The weary singer hopes for peace, and expects at last to find it with Jesus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 94, "When Sorrows Encompass Me 'Round" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 217-218, "Death-Bed Song" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 22, #1 (1973), p, 19, "When Sorrows Encompass Me 'Round" (1 text, 1 tune, from the singing of Tommy Jarrell)
ST Wa094 (Partial)
Roud #16402
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Am I Born to Die? (Idumea)" (tune)
File: Wa094

When Spring Comes In

DESCRIPTION: "When spring comes in the birds will sing, The lambs will play and bells will ring." "Young men and maidens" court on mountains and in meadows; "the dairymaid ... can milk and she can sing ... her master's trust and care And all a ploughman's joy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: courting farming nonballad bird sheep
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 222, "When Spring Comes In" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 475)
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 238-239, "When Spring Comes In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #439
File: WT222

When Susie Was a Baby

DESCRIPTION: As a baby Susie went "goo" or "ooh ahh." As an infant she went "A, B, C." As a teenager she went "kiss, kiss" or "take off my bra." She becomes pregnant, married, mother, granny, dying, skeleton, angel or devil, and finally, nothing.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: marriage sex death pregnancy playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 140, "When Susie Was a Baby" (4 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: N.G.N. Kelsey, "When They Were Young Girls" in Folklore, Vol. XCII, No. 1 (1981 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 106-107 ("When Susie was a baby") (2 texts)
NOTES [14 words]: Kelsey: "My earliest version of 1964 went as follows: When Mary was a baby ...." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: OpGa140

When Th'owd Fowks Weren't In

See When the Old Folks Were Not In (File: MHFL098)

When That General Roll Is Called

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I'll be there in the morning" (3x), "When that general roll is called I'll be there" (2x). Verse: "Going to see my father (mother, sister...), I'll be there"(2x)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns); 1893 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute) (see notes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious family
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 29, "When That General Roll Is Called" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 121, "I'll Be There in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 104 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
Roud #10985
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'll Be Rested When the Roll Is Called" (theme)
cf. "No Rain Gonna Wet Me" (roll call theme in hymns)
NOTES [212 words]: Barton-OldPlantationHymns has one feature of army life impressing the hymn singers and makers: "the calling of the roll and the lining up of the men to answer to their names. It has its echoes in several hymns, some of which have been published; but the most striking one which I have ever heard" is the hymn he prints as "When That General Roll Is Called." Barton is collecting in the 1870s and doesn't say here whether he believes this army reference came from service during, or after, the Civil War.
For a much later (1890s) hymn with a "roll call" see J.M. Black's "When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder" (for example, Ira D. Sankey, Sacred Songs and Solos Twelve Hundred Hymns (London: Collins, n.d.), #983, "(When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more")).
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute adds verses "Going to sing (pray, wear) around the throne" and "Going to wear a starry crown (live for evermore)."
The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "I'll Be There in the Morning" on page 104 (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 104. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Bart029A

When That Great Ship Went Down

See The Titanic (I) ("It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down") [Laws D24] (Titanic #1) (File: LD24)

When the Balloon Flew Over

See A Balloon Flew Ov'er 'Ampton Town (File: JRUI217)

When the Battle it was Won (Young Jimmy and the Officer) [Laws J23]

DESCRIPTION: Jimmy deserts (in the face of the enemy!) when he hears his mother is dying. An officer arrives, hauls him from his mother's bedside, and orders him to face a firing squad. The officer may have wanted Jimmy's sweetheart (but she shoots him)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: war family death trial execution
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws J23, "When the Battle it was Won (Young Jimmy and the Officer)"
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 178, "Young Jimmy and the Officer" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 994-995, "The Deserter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 117, "When the Battle It Was Won" (1 text)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 59-61, "When the Battle It Was Won" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 553, BATLEWON
Roud #1890
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Michael Deveraux, "The Deserter" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Mrs. Thomas Walters, "The Deserter" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: LJ23

When the Black Diamond Breaker Was Burned to the Ground

DESCRIPTION: "Sure the East End's in mourning, the times are so poor, The wolf he is knocking at everyone's door." Everyone has his turn to suffer; the singer's came "When the Black Diamond breaker was burned to the ground." He is in debt and "will starve by degrees"
AUTHOR: Words: Con Carbon? (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 31-32, "When the Black Diamond Breaker Was Burned to the Ground" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rakes of Kildare" (tune)
NOTES [22 words]: Con Carbon, the purported author of this piece, is also known for "Me Johnny Mitchell Man"; see that song for other songs of his. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KMMP031

When the Boys Go A-Courting (Over the Mountain, Poll and Sal)

DESCRIPTION: The young man goes out courting; the girl thinks him too poor. He borrows his master's horse to impress her. Later, he and his (cousin) go courting together. The girls' mother kicks them out. His mistress punishes him. He keeps chasing girls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1817 (Journal from the Herald)
KEYWORDS: love courting disguise trick sex mother apprentice
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 312-314, "Poll and Sal" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, POLLSAL*
Roud #385
NOTES [58 words]: The final verses of this seem to be from "The Keyhole in the Door" or something similar, but the whole song is rather disjointed. What's clear is the motivation: The singer devotes his whole attention to courting and watching girls -- and pays for it, until at last he gets married.
Roud lumps this with "Bachelor's Hall (II)." I don't see it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: SWMS312

When the Breaker Starts Up on Full Time

DESCRIPTION: "Me troubles are o'er, Mrs. Murphy, For the Dutchman next door told me straight, That the breaker starts full time on Monday." Once the mines are at work again, the singer vows he will pay the shop bill, then start buying good things for the family
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: mining money nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 29-31, "When the Breaker Starts Up Full-Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 383-385, "When the Breaker Starts Up on Full Time" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7722
NOTES [28 words]: This seems to be the basis of a song sung by the pop group The Irish Rovers, "When the Shipyards Go Back On Full Time." I do not know how they encountered the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: KPL383

When the Cabin Portholes are Dark and Green

DESCRIPTION: "When the cabin portholes are dark and green, Because of the seas outside, And the ship goes wop with a wiggle in between" and everyone is thrown around, "Then you may know if you haven't guessed That you're fifty north and forty west"
AUTHOR: Words: Rudyard Kipling
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (The Jungle Book)
KEYWORDS: ship storm hardtimes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 133, "When the cabin portholes are dark and green" (1 text)
Roud #25387
NOTES [41 words]: Fifty North and Forty West is of course in the North Atlantic, more or less on the course from the British Isles to Newfoundland or Halifax, at the point on that arc which is south of Greenland. It is indeed a very rough, stormy part of the sea. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC133

When the Caplin Come In

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, now is the time when the men are all ready ... And live on the beach while the caplin is in." The crowd nets caplin from the beach; row boats and motor boats and horses "full breeds and ponies" haul the netted fish away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, 3rd edition)
KEYWORDS: moniker fishing commerce
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "When the Caplin Come In" (1 text, 1 tune): pp. 85-86 in the 3rd edition
Roud #7318
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "When the Caplin Come In" (on NFOBlondahl02)
NOTES [118 words]: Caplin are small deep water fish that come to shore in June and July to spawn. They are netted for bait, food or manure [per GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site]. - BS
Newfoundland's main commodity, for both local and domestic consumption, is cod -- but catching cod requires bait, and caplin was the single most common bait. G. M. Story, W. J. Kirwin, and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, Dictionary of Newfoundland English, second edition with supplement, Breakwater Press, 1990, pp. 82-84, have two pages of common phrases pertaining to caplin (e.g. "caplin baiing," "caplin bunting," "caplin cart," "caplin trip"). People didn't eat caplin as much as cod, but they used it in many, many ways. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doyl3085

When the Chariot Comes

DESCRIPTION: "Who will drive the chariot when she comes?"(2x) "Who will drive the chariot?"(2x) "Who will drive the chariot when she comes?" Jesus will be the driver. She'll be loaded with angels. She won't rock or totter. She'll run level and steady....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 44, "When the Chariot Comes" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [25 words]: The pattern and tune of "I'm Going To Walk With Jesus By Myself" and "When the Chariot Comes" are close to "She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart044B

When the Circus Comes to Town

DESCRIPTION: "Cy Perkins was the village scamp of Jayville-on-the-PIke," always telling jokes. In the summer, Perkins devotes his talents to promoting the circus, listing all the things he wants to see and do wirh his gal Samantha Brown
AUTHOR: Words: James O'Dea / Music: Robert Adams
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 276-277, "When the Circus Comes to Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [41 words]: Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin includes three songs from the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin. He does not offer a reason for including them in a book of folk songs; all are composed and give no evidence of having existed in tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Pet276

When the Coal Comes from the Rhonda (Rhondda)

DESCRIPTION: "When the coal comes from the Rhondda (x3), When the coal comes from the Rhondda I'll be there. With my little pick and shovel I'll be standing on the quay, When the coal comes from the Rhondda I'll be there"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: derivative mining
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 92, "When the coal comes from the Rhonda" (1 text)
Roud #10985
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder" (tune)
NOTES [55 words]: Roud lumps this with "When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder," but it's clearly not the same but rather a very clever parody. The Rhondda Valley of Wales was well known for its coal mines, although, like many British coal mines, most closed down in the mid-twentieth century, forcing the workers to leave the area or go into poverty. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC092

When the Corn Is Waving

DESCRIPTION: "When the corn is waving, Annie dear, Oh meet me by the stile, To hear thy gentle voice again, And greet thy winning smile." He begs his "Queen of Night" to come meet him by the stream; they will tell tales of love to each other
AUTHOR: C. Blamphin (source: Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd)
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Dime-Song-Book #25)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #149, "When the Corn Is Waving" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #25, p. 49, "Annie's Winning Smile" (1 text)
Roud #19534
File: JoMS149

When the Curtains of Night Are Pinned Back

DESCRIPTION: "When the curtains of night are pinned back by the stars And the beautiful moon sweeps the sky, I'll remember you, love, in my prayers." "When the curtains of night are pinned back by the stars And the dew drops of heav'n kiss the rose, I'll remember...."
AUTHOR: Will S. Hays
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (sheet music published by J. L. Peters of New York)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 259, "When the Curtains of Night Are Pinned Back" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 90, "Curtains of Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 196, "I'll Remember You, Love, In My Prayers" (1 text)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 58-59, "I'll Remember You Love In My Prayers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 101, "I'll Remember You, Love, In My Prayers" (1 text plus an excerpt and mention of 6 more, 2 tunes)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 37-38, "When the Curtains Of Night Are Pinned Back" (1 text, 1 tune, with an added yodel!)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 64-65, "I'll Remember You, Love, in My Prayers" (1 text)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 46, "The Curtains of the Night" (1 text)
OneTuneMore, p. 34, "Curtains of Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4367
RECORDINGS:
Loren H. Abram, "I'll Remember You Love In My Prayers" (Champion S-16394/Supertone 2792, c. 1932; rec. 1931)
Emry Arthur, "I'll Remember You Love In My Prayers" (Vocalion 5206, 1928)
Blue Ridge Mountain Singers, "I'll Remember You in My Prayers" (Columbia 15550-D, 1930)
Cleve Chaffin & the McClung Bros., "Curtains of Night" (Paramount 3179, 1929)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "I'll Remember You Love" (King 550, 1946)
Mrs. L. O'Driscoll, "I'll Remember You Love In My Prayers" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Betsy Lane Shepherd, "I'll Remember You, Love, In My Prayers" (Edison 80484, n.d.)
Floyd Skillern, "I'll Remember You Love in My Prayers" (Melotone 7-07-60, 1937)
Walter Smith, "I'll Remember You Love In My Prayers" (Champion 15730, 1929)
Tenneva Ramblers, "The Curtains of Night" (Victor 21289, 1928)
NOTES [67 words]: Hazel Felleman's 1936 book The Best Loved Poems of the American People, p. 32, has a long version of this with the title "I'll Remember You, Love, in My Prayers." That version looks very composed, but she lists no author. It appears, however, that the original was by the well-known composer Will S. Hays. The first sheet music printing was apparently titled "I'll Remember You [Love] in my prayers. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: San259

When the Day Is on the Turn

See When the Day's on the Turn (File: Ord279)

When the Day's on the Turn

DESCRIPTION: "Though the house be couth and warm, And aye a blazing fire, The lang nichts o' winter Maks everybody tire." They look forward to the time when "the day be on the turn." Then "the fair maid in the evening gaes lichtly..," "the cotter sits contented," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #99, p. 2, ("Tho' the hoose be couth and warm") (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 545, "When the Day is on the Turn" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 279, "When the Day's on the Turn" (1 text)
Roud #5598 and 6021
File: Ord279

When the Doctor, Spectacles on His Nose (How'd You Like to Be a Baby Girl)

DESCRIPTION: "When the doctor, spectacles on his nose... says, 'Well, I suppose A dose of castor oil is the very best thing, How'd you like to be a baby girl?" "When Father Christmas brings you lots of toys, Dolls to cudde... How'd you like to be a baby girl?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: doctor baby gift | toy castor oil Father Christmas
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 67, "(When the doctor...)" (1 text)
File: PKKB067A

When the End of the Month Rolls Around

DESCRIPTION: A coarse description of women's monthly troubles
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: bawdy nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 346-348, "When the End of the Month Rolls Around" (2 texts, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "As the Caissons Go Rolling Along (Field Artillery Song)" (tune)
File: EM346

When the Flagship Victoria Went Down

DESCRIPTION: "He was a loving companion, He was a faithful friend"; Jack could always be counted on. But "I lost the best friend I ever had When the flagship Victoria went down." They had been shipmates from the first. His old mother had no other son
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: navy death sailor mother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 22, 1893 - HMS Victoria sunk by HMS Camperdown
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 143-144, "When the Flagship 'Victoria' Went Down" (1 text)
NOTES [1950 words]: The fullest account of this remains that of Hough, cited in the Bibliography, although it is now very dated. There is also the Life of Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon, K.C.B., by Penrose FItzgerald, available in a lot of cheap reprints, but these are usually so badly printed as to be illegible. There is an unusually good Wikipedia article, but most of it consists mostly of citations of Hough and Fitzgerald. It's worth it for the photos, though.
This tragedy in a sense arises out of the ossification that set in in the Royal Navy. Officers who never had to make decisions became more and more rule-bound and insistent upon spit and polish and fancy formations at the expense of real naval skill. In the years since Trafalgar, nd especially since the Crimean War, the Royal Navy had become so conscious of its naval dominance that independent thinking was all but stomped out; you obeyed orders or else. "'Follow senior officer's motions' had become a fetish instruction, which juniors violated at the peril of ruining their careers" (Keegan, p. 122). Similarly Steel/Hard, pp. 19-20, "It was the low point of the Victorian navy and demonstrated the inherent inflexibility of mind of many, if not most, of its senior officers. They had been brought up and drilled to believe that their admiral was second only to God, with near papal infallibility. The consequences of such mental atrophy would bedevil the fleet for many long years."
Many officers of course knew better. George Tryon was prbably the most important of them. Unfortunately, while he knew things had to change, to a large extent he changed things by exerting extremely detailed control over his subordinates, making the whole machinery of command dependent upon him -- a real problem if he ever made a mistake or were unavailable!
Making it especially hard to dispute Tryon's orders was the fact that he "was a colourful figure, large and bluff and dynamic, with a dashing, rugged personality that perfectly fitted the public's conception of a bold and aristocratic old salt. Not for eighty years had the British been so eager to love an admiral" (Hough, pp. 11-12).
"[E]ven his service contemporaries said of George Tryon that he never took a false step until the one that destroyed him" (Hough, p. 29). He may not have been at his best at the time of this mistake; he was slowly recovering from an ulcerated leg (Hough, pp. 52-53).
And his second-in-command, rear admiral Albert Hastings Markham, certainly wasn't the brightest bulb in the light fixture, and was not Tryon's choice, nor had he had much time to learn Tryon's ways (Hough, pp. 48-50). In Tryon's view, Markham "seemed to lack the ability to concentrate, to make quick decisions, and to anticipate situations in the rapidly changing circumstances of fleet evolutions. Tryon found him an exasperating pupil" (Hough, p. 51). It clearly was not a good working relationship.
Tryon's ship was also new and shiny, being just three years old; she was the fastest and best-armored ship in the British fleet. But she was so over-gunned that it was not clear that her weapons could even be safely used, and they had to sit very low on the hull (Hough, pp. 43-44). She had grounded in Greece when only a few months old (Hough, p. 56). Her known flaws were bad enough that I can't help but wonder if unknown flaws might not have contributed to her rapid demise. The Victoria was a pre-dreadnought battleship of about 11,000 tons displacement, built in 1890, and from the time of her commissioning, she served in the Mediterranean Fleet (Paine, pp. 548-549).
From the moment the final trip started, Tryon was putting his fleet though its paces, demanding a complex and dangerous weaving-together of lines as the ships left port (Hough, p. 53). He did it again as they approached Tripoli; Tryon's own division, and Markham's, were steaming in parallel, six cables (i.e. six tenths of a nautical mile) apart. The goal was to have the two lines pass the harbor entrance, then both turn in 180 degree circles *toward each other*, merge the lines, then take a turn to port and enter the harbor in five or so parallel lines.
It appears that several officers knew that Tryon's order was a mistake, but no one dared day anything. It being peacetime, her watertight doors were open, and no attempt was made to close them until it was too late. (The investigation following her sinking made this the official cause of her loss; Hough, p. 98.) And so the Camperdown drove straight into the Victoria's side. Camperdown's speed at the time was estimated at six knots; Victoria, which had started to slow down but only slightly, is thought to have been moving at five and a half (Hough, p. 66).
After the collision, the Camperdown reversed engines and pulled itself free (Hough, p. 68), which can only have done more damage to Victoria, And the flagship surely was not yet in full watertight condition. The Victoria capsized and sank within minutes (when the wreck was found in 2004, the ship was found to be almost exactly vertical, with the prow stuck in the mud of the bottom like a spear); the Camperdown took so much damage to her bow that it was feared for a time that she might also sink (Hough, pp. 85-86).
Of the 600 or so men on the Victoria, slightly more than 250 survived, including her captain Maurice Bourke (who of course faced a court-martial for the loss of his ship). Many of course died inside the ship, including most of those involved with the engines and boilers, but many who were on the upper decks died as well -- probably because they could not swim well and were overwhelmed or sucked under by the wash of the propellers or the suction from the ship (Hough, pp. 109-110). One who did not survive was Admiral Tryon.
The court which investigated was officially directed at Captain Bourke. but during its ten days, it called several of Admiral Tryon's staff -- and Admiral Markham and several of his officers. I would summarize the court's conclusions (as given on pp. 128-129 of Hough) as folows: (1) that Victoria was lost by collision, and that the collision was Tryon's fault and no one else's, (2) that the attempts to save the ship afterward were appropriate, (3) that Bourke was innocent, and his men did well, (4) that it was "to be regretted" that Markham didn't try harder to avoid the collision (but Markham wasn't on trial), and (5) the court was not in a position to rule on why the Victoria sank so quickly.
Other sources have this to say about what happened:
"On June 22, 1893, en route from Beirut to Tripoli, the fleet was steaming north-northeast in parallel columns six cables (1,200 yards) apart. For reasons never adequately explained, [fleet commander] Vice Admiral Sir George Tryon ordered the two divisions to turn 16 points toward each other.... Camperdown's ram struck Victoria just abaft the anchors 12 feet below the waterline, making a breach nearly 28 feet long.... [T]he inrush of water was so great that she quickly went down by the bows, taking with her 22 officers and 336 men" (Paine, p. 549).
Compare Herman, p. 475n: "The sense that the navy was running out of control was reinforced on June 22, 1893, when the battleship Camperdown collided with Admiral Sir George Tryon's flagship Victoria because of Tryon's faulty signal, which no one had the courage to countermand -- although the collision cost Tryon his life and those of 358 officers and men."
Bruce/Cogar, p. 60, sum up as follows: "A collision between the British warships Camperdown and Victoria in the Mediterranean resulted in the Royal Navy's most costly peacetime disaster. The Camperdown, a twin-screw battleship of 10,600 tons, which was launched in 1885, rammed and sank the fleet flagship Victoria, a battleship of 10,470 tons, during the Mediterranean fleet's maneuvers off Tripoli in 1893.
"These ships headed the two divisions of the fleet that had been moving ahead in parallel until they were ordered to turn inward in a practice maneuver.... [T]he order to turn, which had been issued by Vice Admiral Sir George Tryon, commander in chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, was clearly incorrect. It was impossible for the leading ships to compete the maneuver without colliding, but corrective action was not taken.
"The Victoria sank after the Camperdown hit her and 360 officers and men, including the unfortunate commander in chief, were lost. An inquiry was held into the disaster, but no satisfactory explanation has been found for Admiral Tryon's bizarre conduct in issuing an order that he must have known would result in a collision."
Massie, p. 393: "Vice Admiral Sir George Tyron (sic. -- Massie uses this spelling throughout), Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, was regarded as a man who one day would be First Sea Lord. A brilliant officer and an outstanding seaman, Tyron also possessed a mathematical mind which he applied in devising ever more intricate and daring maneuvers for his ships to perform. He delighted in changing formations from column in line to column abreast and back again, setting his ships on seemingly irretrievable courses, then saving them from collision with a signal from his flagship at the last possible minute. If these novel and spectacular maneuvers, intricate as a quadrille, astonished and frightened his captains, so much the better. It was Tyron's worry that Royal Navy captains would lose their edge in peacetime; his complicated naval ballets were designed to keep them on their mettle. Nor did Tyron's officers dare to question his orders. The Admiral was an overbearing man and an iron disciplinarian; besides, he had always been right."
Massie adds that Tryon's fleet consisted of eight battleships and five cruisers, and that his second-in-command was Rear Admiral Markham, who flew his flag in Camperdown. "At two-twenty P.M. Tyron hoisted a signal for the next maneuver: the vessels were to change formation, passing through each other's columns by turning inward toward each other." Page 394: "At three thirty-seven P.M., Tyron sigalled that his command was to be executed: 'Second divistion alter course in succession 16 points to starboard' and 'First fivision alter course in succession 16 points to port." The when the executive officer of the Victoria suggested the captain speak to Tryon, "[Captain Maurice] Bourke angrily told him to be silent. To question Tyron, one needed a braver man than Bourke." At one time or another, Markham and some junior captains questioned the maneuver, or asked for the order to be repeated. Tryon's signal to Markham was "'What are you waiting for?' This was a public rebuke, witnessed by the entire fleet, which Markham could not ignore." So the Camperdown made its turn, and the Victoria made its.
"Twenty-two of the ship''s fifty-one officers were drowned along with the admiral. The other twenty-nine were court-martialed, along with Rear Admiral Markham. All were acquitted, although Markham's career ceased to prosper. The grounds of his acquittal were that 'it would be fatal to the best interests of the service to say that he was to blame for carrying out the orders of the commander-in-chief present in person'" (Massie, p. 395).
The British do seem to have drawn at least one proper conclusion. Normally a front-line battleship would be expected to last at least a quarter century. But as best I can tell, not one of Tryon's ships was still in service, even in a secondary role, once World War I began. They were all gone. As they should have been. The Victoria's sister Sans Pareill, for instance, was sold for scrap in 1907 when only about seventeen years old (Hough, pp. 97-98). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: Tawn108

When the Flippers Strike the Town

DESCRIPTION: "You may talk about the pancakes That your mother used to fry... But this I got to tell you... The pancakes won't be 'in it' When the flippers 'strike the town.'" The song describes the enjoyable times when the flippers come back to home and family
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Newfoundland Ballads and Stories)
KEYWORDS: sea hunting reunion food
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 70, "When the Flippers Strike the Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V44719
NOTES [87 words]: The reference is to eating seals, and to the sealers coming back from the ice with their carcasses. According to Bob Bartlett (who should know; see his biography under "Captain Bob Bartlett"), "The flesh [of the seal] is by no means disagreeable, though it has a general flavor of fish, which constitutes the seal's chief food" (see p. 54 of Bartlett's The Last Voyage of the Karluk, as told to Ralph T. Hale; published 1916; now available with a new introduction by Edward E. Leslie as The Karluk's Last Voyage). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: RySm070

When the Frost Is on the Pumpkin

DESCRIPTION: "When all your apples been all garnered, And your mangol harvest's due... It sets my heart a-ticking, like the ticking of a clock, When the frost is on the pumpkin, And the fodder's in the shock. The singer recalls the happy sights of harvest time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Hamer-GreenGroves)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 49-50, "When the Frost is on the Pumpkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1149
File: HaGr049

When the General Roll Is Called (General Roll Call)

See I'll Be There (File: Bart019)

When the Golden Sun Is Setting

DESCRIPTION: "When the golden sun is setting And your face I cannot see, Will you step before the looking-glass And kiss yourself for me?" Or, "When the golden sun is setting, And your mind from care is free... Won't you sometimes think of me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (J. S. Ogilvie, "One Thousand Popular Quotations... Suitable for Writing in Autograph Albums")
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 231, (third of several "Fragments from Tennessee") (1 fragment)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 134, "(When the golden sun is setting And your mind from care is free)"; ("When the golden sun is setting and your mind from care is free)"; "(When the golden sun is setting and your mind from care is free)"; p. 135, "When the golden sun is setting And your heart from all care is free)" (4 short texts)
ADDITIONAL: J. S. Ogilvie, _One Thousand Popular Quotations Comprising the Choicest Thoughts and Sayings of Eminent Writers of All Ages, Together With Nearly Three Hundred Original and Choice Selections, Suitable for Writing in Autograph Albums_, J. S. Ogivie, Publisher (New York & Chicago), 1884 (available on Google Books), p. 14 of part II, "When the golden sun is setting" (1 text); p. 104 of Part II, "(when the golden sun is setting)
NOTES [93 words]: Henry's version calls this a "fragment," but all the Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore versions are from autograph books (one being that of Laura Day from 1891, a second from her husband's of about the same period, and a third from Maggie Mohler in the 1880s). There are two forms in Ogilvie's authograph collection, and I found another autograph book version online. I think it highly likely that this piece was created for that particular 1880s-era rage (mentioned, e.g., in the chapter "Name Cards" in Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little Town on the Prairie"). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: MHAp231C

When the Ice Worms Nest Again

DESCRIPTION: "There's a dusky husky maiden in the Arctic, And she waits for me but it is not in vain, For some day I'll put my mukluks on and ask her If she'll wed me when the ice-worms nest again." There follows a description of a wedding feast in an igloo
AUTHOR: unknown (various copyright claims)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938
KEYWORDS: Eskimo marriage humorous
FOUND IN: US(Alaska) Canada(NW,West)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 186-188, "When the Ice Worms Nest Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 189-191, "When the Ice Worms Nest Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 169, "When the Iceworms Nest Again" (1 text)
DT, ICEWRM
Roud #4537
RECORDINGS:
Wilf Carter, "When the Ice Worms Nest Again" (Bluebird [Canada] 58-0129, c. 1950)
Loewen Orchestra, "When the Iceworms Nest Again" (on SaskMan1)
NOTES [240 words]: Often associated with Robert W. Service (who did publish the song), Fowke thinks this piece "may date back to the Klondike gold rush of 1898." It was apparently first published in 1938, by the "Yellowknife Prospector" (which credited it to four men working along the Yukon River around 1919) and by Service in "Bath-Tub Ballads." Service reported that he wrote it in Dawson in 1911 -- but Fowke reports his version shows significant differences from the "common" text and tune.
"Ice worms" seemingly first appeared in "ice worm cocktails" (a term which may go back to Service, whose "Ballad of the Ice-Worm Cocktail" ends "For that ice-worm (so they told him) of such formidable size / Was -- a stick of stained spaghetti with two red ink spots for eyes"). They were simply strands of pasta with eyes drawn on -- but the legend goes that they were used to intimidate inexperienced travellers who visited the Yukon, and who thought they were actual living things.
To be sure, there are actual creatures called "ice worms" (creatures that live on glaciers, coming out mostly at night, and somehow are able to increase their metabolism as temperatures go down. It is feared that global warming will render them extinct). But, based on a National Public Radio report at the end of 2005, even now, no one knows how these creatures reproduce, or how long they live; the author of this poem probably didn't know the real creatures even existed. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: FJ186

When the King Comes O'er the Water (Lady Keith's Lament)

DESCRIPTION: "I may sit in my wee croo hoose, Wi' my rock and my reel tae toil, fu' dreary," but the singer is certain things will be better "The day our king comes o'er the water." Though old, she will rant and dance when he comes -- and she again becomes Lady Keith
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1819 (Hogg)
KEYWORDS: Jacobites return exile hardtimes work nobility age
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 27, "When the King Comes O'er the Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LDYKEITH
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 42, #1 (1997), p, 118-119, "Lady Keith's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [494 words]: There seem to be no traditional collections of this (unless Hogg's is one) -- but it has become fairly popular in pop folk circles (presumably because of the magnificent if hard-to-sing tune). I have indexed it on that basis.
The notes in Sing Out! state that this is a Bonnie Prince Charlie song. I frankly don't think so, although it is obviously Jacobite. There are no explicit references to the name of the exiled Stuart king (as the song says, "there is one I will not name"), but there is no mention of a young prince, or a young prince's father. And remember that the singer was, at some time, Lady Keith, but now has lost the title. The strong implication is that she had the title in 1688 ("when Royal Stuart held the sway And none heard tell of Whig or Tory" -- the terms "Whig" and "Tory" were first widely used in the Exclusion Crisis of the period around 1680, according to HistTodayCompanion, pp. 297, 747, 804). If the song were being sung in 1745, the singer would be probably in her seventies at least. Far more likely that she is referring to the Old Pretender, perhaps around 1715. It could even be earlier -- she refers to a "foreign King," which sounds like George I and the Hannoverians, but William III was known as "Dutch William," so he was foreign too.
It seems likely that the Lady Keith of the song was the wife of the ninth Earl Marischal. The Keith family, which had been granted the Marischal earldom by James II in the 1450s, had a long history of Jacobite activity; at the time of the execution of Charles I, William Keith, the seventh Earl Marischal (died 1670?), was keeper of the Scottish crown jewels, and his son John Keith saved them for Charles II (Magnusson, p. 469). After the death of William, George Keith became the eighth Earl Marischal, dying in 1694.
William Keith, the ninth Earl Marischal was also a confirmed Jacobite; he died in 1712, and his sons George Keith the tenth earl (c. 1693-1778) and James Keith (1696-1758) fought at Sheriffmuir in 1715, joined the 1719 rising, and then fled to Germany (OxfordCompanion, pp. 542, 618-619; Magnusson, p. 572, blames some of the problems of the 1719 on George Keith's stubbornness). In 1743, the French had contemplated having George Keith invade England as part of a pro-Jacobite move, but that came to nothing, and Keith did not play a role in the 1745 rising.
The wife of the ninth earl was Mary Drummond, daughter of the fourth Earl of Perth; her mother was the daughter of the Earl of Douglas. Thus the description of Lady Keith as having a good lord's son and an earl's daughter as parents would fit Mary Drummond.
The Keiths were a family of long and distinguished lineage -- Sir Robert Keith had led the Scottish cavalry at Bannockburn (McNamee, p. 62) -- but by the time of the Jacobite conflicts, they seem to have become rather ineffective. William the ninth earl, based on the information on Wikipedia, seems to have been a very inconsistent character. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: Hogg1027

When the King Enjoys His Own Again

DESCRIPTION: The singer scorns the prognostications of prophets and the like; "all will be well When the King enjoys his own again." He points out the age and quality of the Stuart monarchy. He says he will "never rejoyes" until the king (Charles I) returns to power
AUTHOR: Words: Probably Martin Parker
EARLIEST DATE: 1671 ("The Loyal Garland")
KEYWORDS: royalty political rebellion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1603 - James I (James VI of Scotland), the first of the Stuart monarchs, succeeds Elizabeth I as monarch of England
1625 - Charles I succeeds James I
1628 - Charles I comes in conflict with Parliament. He is forced to grant Civil Rights (the "Petition of Rights") in return for money.
1629 - Charles I dissolves Parliament and attempts to rule England directly
1640 - Charles I is forced to summon a Parliament (the "Short Parliament") to raise money. When it refuses to grant subsidies, he dissolves it and summons what would become the "Long Parliament"
1642 - Charles attempts to arrest five members of parliament. Eventually Parliament goes to war against Charles
1645 - Battle of Naseby. Charles decisively defeated.
1646 - Charles surrenders to the Scots. They eventually give him to the English, but Charles twists and turns and escapes before the English finally get him firmly in custody.
1649 - Trial and execution of Charles I. England formally a commonwealth.
1660 - Commonwealth dissolved. Accession of Charles II
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 24-25, "The kinge enjoyes his righ[ts again]" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 434-439, "When the King Enjoys His Own Again" (1 text plus a lot of excerpts, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic I, pp. 210-214, "When the King Enjoys His Own Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 367-369, "When the King Enjoys His Own Again" (1 text)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 120-121, "When the King Enjoys His Own Again" (1 text)
DT, KINGNJOY*
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 134-136, "The King enjoyes his own again" (1 text)
Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, pp. 79-80, "(no title)" (1 text, interspersed with commentary)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 192
Roud #V19168
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. The King Shall Enjoy His Own Again (tune) and notes there
SAME TUNE:
Come brave England, be of good cheare/England's Joyful Holiday, Or, St. Georges Day (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN559)
The Whigs are small, and of no good race/ .. The Unfortunate Whigs (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2905)
Cheer up your hearts, and be not afraid/The Cavaliers Comfort (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN481)
All you that do desire to know/The last Newes from France (BBU ZN126)
Good people all sing and rejoyce/The Christian Conquest [over Turks at Vienna, 1683] (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN1040)
What Booker can Prognosticate/Englands Great Prognosticator (Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex ZN2787)
NOTES [332 words]: An obviously political piece, evidently written in the early 1640s. (This is proved both by the politics of the piece and by the "forty years" the house of Stuart is said to have reigned.) The oldest broadside copies do not indicate a printer; no doubt they were printed secretly. After the Restoration (1660), of course, the song was openly circulated.
It's hard to say which side in the Civil War was worse. Charles I tried to be an absolute monarch, claiming powers no English king had exercised since Edward I (died 1307) -- indeed, he demanded some powers no king had ever had.
Even after the Roundheads had defeated Charles's Cavaliers, he could have salvaged most of his power by simply working with Parliament. But he continued to oppose them at every step of the way. Even when on trial for his life, he refused to recognize the validity of the court.
On the other hand, the members of the Long Parliament were no great bunch either. More or less forced into rebellion, they eventually turned into an unrepresentative group of bigots (by the end of the Parliament, over half those originally elected were retired, dead, imprisoned) who sought to enforce their Puritan opinions almost as aggressively as Charles had pursued his royalist agenda.
The Martin Parker who wrote this was also responsible for "A True Tale of Robin Hood" [Child 154]. That piece, apart from being a compilation of the worst of the Robin Hood legends, is almost breathtakingly bad. Apparently Parker learned something about poetry in the eight or so years between the compositions. This is merely simplistic, not openly dreadful.
The original broadside apparently has not survived, or was published anonymously; at least, it is not listed among Parker's publications in A. W. Pollard, G. R. Redgrave, et al, A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland & Ireland And of English Books Printed Abroad 1475-1640, The Bibliographical Society [of London], 1963; it should have been on p. 441. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: ChWI214

When the Kye Cames Hame

See When the Kye Come Hame (File: RcWTKCHa)

When the Kye Come Hame

DESCRIPTION: The singer says "the greatest bliss" for shepherds when "his ewes are in the fold and his lambs are lying still" "'tis to woo a bonnie lassie when the kye comes hame ... beneath the spreading birch in the dell"
AUTHOR: James Hogg (1770-1835) (Bodleian notes to broadside Firth b.26(194) and others; NLScotland commentary to L.C.Fol.70(5a))
EARLIEST DATE: 1822 (Hogg's novel _The Three Perils of Man_ and revised with music in 1823 in _Blackwood's Magazine_, according to NLScotland commentary to L.C.Fol.70(5a))
KEYWORDS: sex nonballad animal sheep shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #448, pp. 765-767, "When the Kye Comes Hame" (by James Hogg)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 37-38, 149, "When the Kye Cames Hame" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12919
RECORDINGS:
Willie Scott, "When the Kye Comes Hame" (on Voice20)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(194), "When the Kye Come Hame" ("Come all ye jolly shepherds"), John Ross (Newcastle), 1847-1852; also 2806 d.31(51), Harding B 11(4129), Harding B 11(4131), Harding B 11(3410), 2806 c.14(123), Harding B 11(4132), Harding B 26(670), Harding B 26(672), "When the Kye Come Hame"
LOCSheet, sm1846 410220, "When the Kye Come Hame," G. P. Reed (Boston), 1846; also sm1876 11358, "When the Kye Come Hame" (tune)
Murray, Mu23-y4:028, "When The Kye Come Hame," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(5a), "When the Kye Come Hame," unknown, c.1875
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blathrie O't" (tune, per broadside Bodleian 2806 c.14(123))
NOTES [19 words]: The cover to broadside LOCSheet sm1846 410220 states "Written by Hogg, the Etrick Shepherd Music by Wm Rogers." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: RcWTKCHa

When the Logs Come Down in the Spring

DESCRIPTION: Singer is lonesome for her lover, a logger who is off in the woods. She prays for his safety, and vows that she will rush to embrace him "when the logs come down in the spring."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: loneliness lumbering lover logger separation work love
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 47, "When the Logs Come Down in the Spring" (1 text)
Roud #8875
File: Be047

When the Love Come Trick-a-lin' Down

See Love Come Twinkling Down (Seek And You Shall Find) (File: Rose046)

When the New York Boat Comes Down

See The Glendy Burk (File: MA109)

When the Old Dun Cow Caught Fire

DESCRIPTION: Friends are in a pub "playing dominoes" when it is declared that the pub is on fire. Several serious imbibers, rather than flee, head for the cellar to drink the unprotected spirits. Eventually the firemen break into the cellar -- and join the fun
AUTHOR: Harry Wincott
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous fire
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, OLDUNCOW*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 31, #2 (1985), pp, 40-42, "When the Old Dun Cow Caught Fire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5323
NOTES [181 words]: Mostly a popular song, of course -- but the Copper Family sang it, and what more could anyone want? Also, the idea was quite popular; there is a New Zealand song, "The Day the Pub Burned Down" (DT DAYPBBRN) on the same idea -- only more extreme, because in it, the fire brigade uses the booze to fight the fire, and are attacked by the townsfolk for doing so. "Pub Burned Down" is clearly a composed song (inspired, I suspect, by the "Dun Cow"), but it has perhaps taken on a life of its own, since the DT version has substantial variants from the version I've heard.
I do not know if it is significant that the pub is named the "Dun Cow," but it is interesting to note that one of the monsters fought by Guy of Warwick was said to be a dun cow of enormous size (see Roy Palmer, The Folklore of Warwickshire, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 133). Palmer also notes a Dun Cow Inn in Dunchurch, first referred to in 1655 and still in business at the time he wrote. There is also a famous Irish miscellany, "The Book of the Dun Cow," but I doubt that that would be known in England. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: DTolddun

When the Old Folks Were Not In

DESCRIPTION: "When Aw were a lad like a goblin, Aw went courtin' a lass 'at come fra Chowbent." He comes on a wet night and tells her he is courting. Their parents catch them. Now they have been married 37 years and are successful; he wishes he could court her again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Barlow, Lancaster Bred) (source: Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire; Roud)
KEYWORDS: love courting home clothes marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 98, "When th'owd fowks weren't in" (1 text, 1 tune, the source of the tune not being listed)
Roud #24777
File: MHFL098

When the Outport Member's Family Comes to Town

DESCRIPTION: A family from a remote outport had a successful season fishing, so they have moved to the town that is busily waiting for them and their money. They exchange outport ways for city habits.
AUTHOR: M. A. Devine (1857-1915)
EARLIEST DATE: 1940
KEYWORDS: recitation money vanity
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "When the Outport Member's Family Comes to Town" (1 text): p. 76 in the 2nd edition, p. 67 in the 4th, p. 64 in the 5th
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, compiler, _Songs & Ballads of Terra Nova_, Evening Telegram publishing, 1903 (available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 17, "When the Outport Member's Family Comes to Town" (1 text)
Roud #7319
NOTES [97 words]: The social satire in this song seems to be directed more at the vanities of urban life than outport life. Outports are small fishing villages outside of the cities and there have always been marked social distinctions between the inhabitants of the two. - SH
See, for instance, the discussion of "Baymen" and "Townies" under "Mussels in the Corner." But note that the person coming to town is a Member, i.e. a Member of the Legislative Assembly. He's here to represent the people at home -- but, now that he's in town and a Power in the Land, he takes on the ways of the town. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy76

When the Parley Dew is Faded

DESCRIPTION: "When the parley dew is faded And the skies in beauty smile, Came a whisper like an echo From a pale and dying child." The child asks if (s)he will be an angel, and asks forgiveness for being in the way. The child says not to be angry with baby sister
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: death mother children
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 59, "When the Parley Dew is Faded" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5115
NOTES [17 words]: This sure sounds like a nineteenth century tear-jerker (and not a good one). But I can't find it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Arno059

When the Queen Wants a Man to Fight Wi' Her Foes

See Tatties and Herrin' (File: KSUC041A)

When the Rebels Come A-Marchin' (The Turncoat Piece)

DESCRIPTION: "When the rebels come a-marchin' I'm a Southern man, And I feed their horses my best. When the Yankees come a-marchin' I'm a Northern man, And I feed their horses what the rebels left." The singer describes how he cooperates with both sides
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar humorous horse betrayal
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 68, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, p. 78)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Vicar of Bray" (theme)
NOTES [24 words]: Collected in Kentucky, where sentiments of course were split at the time of the Civil War and where both sides occasionally were in control. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa068

When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "When the roll is called up yonder (4x), I'll be there." Verses: On judgment day, "the trumpet of the Lord shall sound" and the singer will be with the saved. Meanwhile, "let us labor for the Master from the dawn till setting sun"
AUTHOR: James M. Black 1856-1938)
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Date)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 360, "When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ROLLYOND
ADDITIONAL: Henry Date, Pentecostal Hymns Nos. 1 and 2 Combined (Chicago: Hope Publishing Company, 1898 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #59 p. 56, "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder"
Roud #10985
RECORDINGS:
Mississippi John Hurt, "When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder" (on MJHurt04; MJHurt05)
SAME TUNE:
When the Stew Is on the Table (File: BrPa057B)
When the Coal Comes from the Rhonda (File: KSUC092)
NOTES [252 words]: William Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal, Broadman Press, 1976, p. 242, says that James M. Black was a member of the 1905 edition of the Methodist Hymnal, and supposedly was the sort to organize youth organizations where everyone called out scripture verses. One day, when he included a poor girl whose father was a drunkard, she failed to respond when he called her name from the roll. Black responded by writing this song (I'd have thought giving the girl a meal would have been more help!). Other comments by Reynolds make Black seem rather stuck up. He does not seem to have written anything else of any note. - RBW
Richard M. Raichelson, Black Religious Folksong: A Study in Genericand Social Change (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1975), p. 276 fn. 121, "This is not the same song as the spiritual titled, When that General Roll Is Called (Barton, 'Hymns of the slave', p. 621) or I'll be There (Work, American Negro, p. 57)." - BS
In a rather silly footnote, Barry Mazor, Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Roots Music, Chicago Review Press, 2015, p. 21, notes the Peer, the man who was responsible for the "Bristol Sessions" that gave us both the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, was so precise and punctual in high school that his school's publication wrote (on the basis of the fact that he hadn't missed a day in five years), "Judging by his past record we can afely say that he will be on hand promptly when the roll is called up yonder." This was in 1909/1910. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: DTrollyo

When the Roses Bloom Again Beside the River

See I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again (File: RcIBWYWt)

When the Roses Bloom Again for the Bootlegger

DESCRIPTION: "I was going up the river to my little cottage home, And the revenue men were waiting there for me. As I was coming up the hill, There they caught me with the still." When they are gone, "Then my heart will fill with cheer, for I know I'll get the beer"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Shirkey & Harper)
KEYWORDS: drink prison love reunion humorous
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #45, "When the Roses Bloom Again for the Bootlegger" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #5009
RECORDINGS:
Asa Martin, "When the Roses Bloom Again for the Bootlegger" (Supertone 9539)
Earl Shirkey & Roy Harper (pseud. for Roy Harvey), "When the Roses Bloom Again for the Bootlegger" (Columbia 15326-D)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again" (lyrics, tune)
File: Morr045

When the Roses Were in Bloom

DESCRIPTION: "When the roses were in bloom And the leaves were green, I would join you if I could, As my queen, as my queen." He begs her to meet him by the river, and she does. Then when the roses faded and the leaves blew away, "Love had fled"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Journal of the Andrew Hicks)
KEYWORDS: love river courting flowers death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 298-299, "When the Roses Were in Bloom" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27549
File: HGam298

When the Saints Come Marching In

See When the Saints Go Marching In (File: LoF236)

When the Saints Go Marching In

DESCRIPTION: "O when the saints go marching in (x2), Lord I want to be in that number, When the saints...." Similarly "When the sun refuse to shine"; "When the moon goes down in blood"; "We are traveling in the footsteps of those who've gone before"; etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1896 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Wes)t Indies(Bahamas,Trinidad) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 236, "When the Saints Go Marching In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 6-7, "When the Saints Come Marching In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 154, "When the Saints Go Marching In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 369, "When The Saints Go Marching In" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 641-642, "When the Saints Go Marching In"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 313, "When the Saints Go Marching In" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 104-105, "When the Saints Go Marching In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13983
RECORDINGS:
Fiddlin' John Carson, "When The Saints Go Marching In" (Bluebird B-5560, 1934)
Chosen Gospel Singers, "When the Saints Go Marching In" (Nashboro 567, n.d.)
Chuck Wagon Gang, "When The Saints Go Marching In" (Columbia 20630, 1949)
Blind Willie Davis, "When the Saints Go Marching In" (Paramount 12658, 1928; Herwin 93005 [as Blind Willie Jackson], 1929; on Babylon)
Slim Ducket & Pig Norwood, "When the Saints Go Marching In" (OKeh 8899, 1931; rec. 1930)
Eureka Jubilee Singers, "When the Saints Go Marching In" (Sharon X-507, n.d.)
The Georgia Peach [Clara Belle Gholston] "When the Saints Go Marching In" (Banner 32654/Oriole 8191/Romeo 5191/Perfect 0221 [possibly as Clara Belle Gholston]/Melotone 12571, 1933; rec. 1932; on Babylon)
Elder Ella Hall, Effie Fitts, Jennie Jackson & congregation "When the Saints Go Marching" (on MuSouth10)
Eureka Band, "When the Saints Go Marching In" [instrumental version] (on MuSouth10)
Frank & James McCravy, "When the Saints Go Marching Home" (Brunswick 196, 1928; rec. 1927) (OKeh 45435, 1930)
Monroe Brothers, "When the Saints Go Marching In" (Montgomery Ward M-7142, 1937)
Mozelle Moore, "When the Saints Go Marching" [instrumental version] (on MuSouth10)
John D. Mounce et al, "When the Saints Go Marching In" (on MusOzarks01)
Pace Jubilee Singers w. Hattie Parker, "When The Saints Go Marching In" (Victor 21582, 1928)
Paramount Jubilee Singers, "When All The Saints Come Marching In" (Paramount 12073, 1923)
Snowball & Sunshine, "When the Saints Go Marching In" (Columbia 15722-D, 1932; rec. 1931)
Horace Sprott & group "When the Saints Go Marching Home" (on MuSouth02)
Wheat Street Female Quartet, "When the Saints Go Marching In" (Columbia 14067-D, 1925)
Ella Mae Wilson, Lillie B. Williams, and Richard Williams, "When the Saints Go Marching In (When the Moon Go Down in Blood)" (on USFlorida01)
Edna Wright, Margaret Wright, "When the Saints" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [117 words]: This song was published twice in 1896, once (according to the copyright records; no copies of the music survive) as by J. M. Black and once with words credited to Katherine E. Purvis and music by Black. (We should note, however, that Eldar Hasund, who has seen the copy which survives, does not consider it the same in either text or tune).
The song is very likely older in any case, as it was collected in Nassau by the McCutcheons in 1917 (again in a form unlike modern pop versions, though recognizably the same song and with much the same tune), and may have originated in the Bahamas.
BoyScoutSongbook1997 lists a copyright holder -- but no author. So I assume this is an arrangement credit. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LoF236

When the Shantyboy Comes Down

See The Lumberman in Town (File: LxU051)

When the Snow Was Deep (Feeding the Birds)

DESCRIPTION: "When the snow was deep, I sprinkled crumbs for the birds to eat. They would chirp for food -- The bluebirds and sparrows were in pleasant mood. They would go and come back, but not all would go, Some would stay... and eat the crumbs...."
AUTHOR: George Mefford Bell?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: bird food nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 255, "When the Snow Was Deep (Feeding the Birds)" (1 text) (OakEd, p. 255)
NOTES [24 words]: Reportedly written when Bell was only seven years old. It's not very good -- I doubt it was even a song, really -- but I admire the attempt. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa255

When the Stars Above Are Shining

DESCRIPTION: ""The stars above are shining, And the moon is sinking low, I will call to see my darling, Who will welcome me, I know." "We'll be merry, we'll be happy, Floating down the stream of time." "We'll be merry, we'll be happy, Floating onward with the tide."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 21, "When the Stars Above Are Shining" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11338
File: Brne021

When the Stars Begin to Fall

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "My Lord, what a morning (x3) When the stars begin to fall." Verses: "You'll hear the sinner moan...." "You'll hear the gambler groan...." "You'll hear the sinner pray...." "You'll hear the Christians sing...." "You'll see my Jesus come...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, pp. 25-26, "Stars Begin to Fall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 157, App.VIII, "My Lord, What a Morning!" (2 texts, 2 tunes; p. 176 in the 1874 edition)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 237, "When the Stars Begin to Fall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 91, "Stars Begin to Fall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 66-67, "My Lord, What a Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 314, "My Lord, What a Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 360, "My Lord, What A Mourning" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 42, "My Lord, What a Mornin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "My Lord, What a Morning" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 62)
DT, STARFALL
Roud #3408
RECORDINGS:
Blue Sky Boys, "When The Stars Begin to Fall" (Bluebird B-7472/Montgomery Ward M-7471, 1938)
Campbell College Quartet, "My Lord What a Morning" (OKeh 8900, 1931; rec. 1930)
Pace Jubilee Singers, "My Lord What a Morning" (Victor 20225, 1926)
Frank Proffitt, "Oh, Lord, What a Morning" (on FProffitt01)
Rambling Kid and the Professor, "When the Stars Begin to Fall" (Melotone 7-08-71, 1937)
Preston & Hobart Smith, "When the Stars Begin to Fall" (on LomaxCD1704)
Sunset Jubilee Quartet, "Oh Lord What a Morning" (Paramount 12285, 1925; as Down Home Jubilee Quartette, Herwin 92008, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sinners Will Call for the Rocks and the Mountains" (words)
NOTES [178 words]: This is loosely based on the "little apocalypse" Jesus offered before his arrest and trial. Matthew 24:29-30 in the King James Bible state, "[29] Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: {30] And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." The ultimate source for Matthew's text is Mark 13:24fff.
The theme was very popular in the Middle Ages; a work called "The Fifteen Signs Before Judgment" (in which the falling of the stars is often the first sign) exists in at least six different Latin and English forms -- with the Middle English versions existing in at least nine manuscripts; see John Edwin Wells, A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1400, 1916 (references are to the 1930 fifth printing with three supplements), pp. 328-329. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LoF237

When the Stew Is on the Table

DESCRIPTION: "When the stew is on the table (x3), When the stew is on the table, I'll be there." "When the beer is in the tankard (x3), When the beer is in the tankard, I'll be there." Verse might be, "Oh, we're marching along, And we're singing as we go...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: food drink soldier | Salvation Army
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 57, "When the Stew is on the Table" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 65, "(Oh, we're marching along)" (1 text)
Roud #10520
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder" (tune)
NOTES [51 words]: The Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling is unusual in having a verse as well as a chorus, while most other versions treat the Peirce chorus as a verse and have variations. Which form is original I don't know; the Peirce verse looks like a parody on a Salvation Army song. Peirce's verse might be Roud #30912. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BrPa057B

When the Stormy Winds do Blow

See Ye Gentlemen of England (I) [Laws K2] (File: LK02)

When the Sun Goes Down Again

DESCRIPTION: "I hear a whippoorwill a-crying, The sun is sinkin' to rest, And I sit all alone a-sighin'," longing for home in the west. The singer intends to catch a train west. He'll be back home when the sun goes down. He extols all the things he'll find at home
AUTHOR: Carson J. Robison (source: Dalhart recording)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: home travel train
FOUND IN:
Roud #21673
RECORDINGS:
Lee Boswell, "When the Sun Goes Down Again" (Decca, unissued, 1934)
Bill Boyd and his Cowboy Ramblers, "When the Sun Goes Down Again" (Bluebird B-6085, 1935)
Vernon Dalhart, "When the Sun Goes Down Again" (Apex 8688=Oriole 1112=Conqueror 7037, 1927) (Victor 21169-B=Zomophone 5126, 1927) (Pathé 32323=Perfect 12402, 1927 [as by Vernon Dalhart Trio]) (Brunswick 126. 3742=Vocalion 5214, 1927) (OKeh 45164, 1927 [as by Vernon Dalhart Trio]) (Cameo 8418, 1928; rec. 1927) (Harmony 612-H, 1928) (CYL: Edison 5438)
Hank & Slim/The Newman Brothers (Henry J. and Marion Alonzo Newman), "When the Sun Goes Down Again" (Vocalion 02807, 1934)
Frank Vance, "When the Sun Goes down Again" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #18, recorded 10/08/2020) (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #120, recorded 04/11/2022)
NOTES [48 words]: It looks as if this Carson J. Robison song had a bit of a boom in the 1930s as part of the Cowboy Music craze -- but it just isn't that good, and it faded away relatively quickly. I don't believe I've captured all the Vernon Dalhart releases, but this is enough to get started with! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcWTSGDA

When the Swallows Homeward Fly

DESCRIPTION: "When the swallows homeward fly, When the roses scattered lie... When I thus your image lose, Can I, ah, can I e'er know repose?" "Hush, my heart! Why thus complain? I shall see thy form again, Though today we part in pain."
AUTHOR: Franz Abt (source: Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1860 (Bodleian, Harding B 18(562)); 1909 (Heart-Songs)
KEYWORDS: bird love separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Heart-Songs, p. 85, "When the Swallows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #110, "When the Swallows Homeward Fly" (1 text); #186, "Wenn Die Scwalben Heimwartz Ziehen" (1 German text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 128-129, "When the Swallows Homeward Fly" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 11 and #5/64, p. 11, "When the Swallows Homeward Fly" (1 text)
Roud #15358
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(562), "When the Swallows Homeward Fly," C. Magnus (New York), c. 1860
NOTES [54 words]: This is known mostly from broadsides (a good demonstration of just how awful broadsides could be), but apparently there are a few hints of it in tradition, so I've indexed it. I just hope I don't have to read it again.... Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd implies that the German version is older, but I have no proof of that. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: HeSo085

When the Taters Are All Dug

DESCRIPTION: "Way up in Aroostook County, Where in winter falls the nows... There's a smile all o'er the Couny Till then 'taters are all dug." The residents discuss the size of the potatoes. Pickets come from all around. Couples court and men drink during the season
AUTHOR: Words: E. J. Sullivan
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, from a broadside)
KEYWORDS: food courting drink money nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 172-175, "When the Taters Are All Dug" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mother's Appel to Her Boy" (tune)
File: Gray172

When the Train Comes Along

DESCRIPTION: "I may be blind and cannot see, But I'll meet you at the station when the train comes along. "When the train comes along (x2), I'll meet you at the station when the train comes along." The singer looks forward to meeting Jesus and a happy life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Odette Jacson and Ethel Grainger)
KEYWORDS: religious train nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 633-635, "When the Train Comes Along" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ST LSRai633 (Full)
Roud #11525
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "When the Train Comes Along" (Champion 16805/Champion 45105/Decca 5373/Decca 34317, 1934)
NOTES [47 words]: Cohen notes that Dave Macon significantly modified this song from the usual version recorded several times in the 1920s and 1930s. In this case, though, Macon actually made the song more full and coherent. Which perhaps tells you how short most of the other known versions are. - RBW
File: LSRai633

When the Very Lights Are Shining

DESCRIPTION: "When the Very lights are shining, Sure they're like the morning light," then the guns and the maxims and the mortars start to fire, so "it's time for a rum issue." If you advance when the lights are shining, "'Tis rum or lead for you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier technology drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 86, "When the Very Lights Are Shining" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" (tune)
File: AWTBW086

When the Wagon Was New

DESCRIPTION: "There's an old rusty wagon that's left to rot away." The family all rode it together in "the good old days" when everyone was friendly and the family was happy. Now, with planes and cars everywhere, "good neighbors are so few" and people need more money
AUTHOR: Sam McGee?
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers); probably in circulation before 1940
KEYWORDS: travel family money
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, pp. 139-140, "When the Wagon Was New" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [68 words]: Sam McGee seems to have been the first to record this song, and apparently claimed at one time to have learned it from an unnamed informant in Illinois. But McGee later claimed to have written it himself (a Mudcat thread claims he copyrighted it in 1971). Given the reference to airplanes, the song almost certainly dates from the 1920s or later, which somewhat bolsters but does not prove McGee's claim. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: BTN139

When the War Is Over, We Shall Have Some Jam

DESCRIPTION: "When the War is over, We shall have some jam (x3), When the war is over, We shall have some jam (x2). For you, for me, A pot of Tickler's Jam, A pot of Tickler's Jam"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: war food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 190, "When the War is over, we shall have some jam" (1 text)
Roud #25457
NOTES [149 words]: An interesting reflection on how war rationing affected the children at home: there were few sweets to spare, so the end of the war finally meant more enjoyable food. For some reason, I find this song particularly affecting: The kids don't want big expensive presents; they just want something nice to eat.
Tickler's Jam was perhaps unusually hard to find, because (according to Max Arthur, When This Bloody War Is Over, p. xviii), the Tickler Company was responsible for supplying jam to the entire British Army. Apparently the standard flavor was plum-and-apple.
For another example of the side effects of economic mass production and control in World War I, see "Lloyd George's Beer."
Tickler's Jam is mentioned surprisingly often in other songs. See, among others,
- Plum and Apple (doesn't actually mention Tickler's Jam, but it's a reference to their leading flavor)
- Tittler's Jam - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: KSUC190A

When the Wild Roses Bloom Again Beside the River

See I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again (File: RcIBWYWt)

When the Work is Done This Fall

See When the Work's All Done This Fall (File: LB03)

When the Work's All Done This Fall [Laws B3]

DESCRIPTION: A cowboy tells of his plans to at last go home and see his mother "when the work's all done this fall." Soon after, the cattle stampede. The cowboy controls the herd but is fatally injured in the process. He will not see his mother; he sends tokens home
AUTHOR: unknown (see note)
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (published by D. J. O'Malley in the Miles CIty _Stock Grower's Journal_)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work death mother
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So,Ro) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Laws B3, "When the Work's All Done This Fall"
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 260-262, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 264, "When the Work is Done This Fall" (1 text)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 78-79, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p. 56, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 143, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 147-148, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 81, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 96-101, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 432-433, "Whn Work Is Done This Fall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 20-21, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 282-283, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 97, "The Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 95-97, "The Cow Puncher's Lament (When the Work's All Done This Fall)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ArkansasWoodchopper, pp. 40-42, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 184-186, "After the Roundup" (1 text plus some alternate lyrics)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 263, "When The Work's All Done This Fall" (1 text)
DT 371, WORKDONE*
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 189-195, "Carl T. Sprague, Singing Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune, the Sprague version)
Roud #450
RECORDINGS:
Jules Allen, "When The Work's All Done This Fall" (Victor V-40263, 1930; rec. 1929)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "The Dixie Cowboy" (OKeh 7004, 1924)
The Cartwright Brothers, "When The Work's All Done This Fall" (Columbia 15346-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Bill Childers, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (OKeh 45203, 1928)
Al Cramer [possible pseud. Vernon Dalhart], "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (Broadway 8060, n.d.)
Vernon Dalhart, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (Banner 6086/Domino 0192, 1927; Challenge 683/Challenge 688, 1928; Conqueror 7737, 1931)
J. D. Farley, "I'm a Lone Star Cowboy" (Victor V-40269, 1930; Montgomery Ward M-4300, 1933; rec. 1929; on WhenIWas2)
Four Pickled Peppers, "Jolly Group of Cowboys" (Bluebird B-8016/Montgomery Ward M-7654, 1939; rec. 1938)
Gentry Bros., "When the Work's Done This Fall" (Paramount 3042 [as Collins Bros.], 1928; Broadway 8060 [as Al Cramer], n.d.; rec. 1927)
Harry Jackson, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (on HJackson1)
Herb Key, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #213, recorded 08/15/2022, with a truly sappy additional verse that ruins the point of the song added by the informant)
Bradley Kincaid, "When The Work's All Done This Fall" (Gennett 6989, 1929) (Brunswick 403/Supertone S-2017, 1930)
Frank Luther, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (Grey Gull 4264 [as Jeff Calhoun]/Van Dyke 74264 [as Jeff Calhoun]/Radiex 4264 [as Carlton Boxill], 1929; Madison 5013 [as Tom Cook], c. 1930) (Melotone M-12143 [as Phil & Frank Luther]/Vocalion 5483 [as Luther Bros.], 1931)
Claude Moye, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (Champion 15688 [as Asparagus Joe]/Supertone 9351 [as Pie Plant Pete], 1929; Champion 45064 [as Asparagus Joe], c. 1935)
Joshua Osborne, "The Cow Puncher's Lament" (on NFAGuigné01)
Aulton Ray, "The Dixie Cowboy" (Challenge 335 [as Charlie Prescott]/Champion 15277/Silvertone 5084, 1927; Supertone 9250, 1928) (Herwin 75552, c. 1927)
George Reneau, "When The Work's All Done This Fall" (Vocalion 15150/Vocalion 5079, 1925)
Rodeo Twins, "When the Work's All Done this Fall" (Victor V-40186, 1930; rec. 1929)
Carl T. Sprague, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" Victor 19747, 1925; Montgomery Ward M-8060, 1939; on AuthCowboys, BackSaddle)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "When The Work's All Done This Fall" (Edison 51788, 1926) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5188, 1926)
Taylor's Kentucky Boys "The Dixie Cowboy" (on WhenIWas1, KMM) [Note: As Aulton Ray sang the lead on this recording, it's possible, maybe even likely, that it is identical with the recording on Challenge/Champion/Supertone. But until I've verified that, I'm keeping them separate]
Vagabonds, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (Bluebird B-5300/Montgomery Ward M-4442, 1934)
Frankie Wallace, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (Romeo 913, 1929)
Frank Wheeler & Monroe Lamb, "A Jolly Group of Cowboys" (Victor V-40169, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-4470, 1934)
Marc Williams, "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (Brunswick 244, 1928; Supertone S-2054, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Virginia Strike of '23" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Virginia Strike of '23 (File: LSRA591)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
After the Roundup (published by D. J. O'Malley under that title)
NOTES [137 words]: The most likely author of this is D. J. O'Malley, who seems to have been responsible for the earliest printed version. But Laws does not mention the attribution to O'Malley, and notes that J. Frank Dobie attributes it to Marshall Johnson of Texas. I know of no verifiable field collection before the Carl T. Sprague recording from 1925.
For a discussion of O'Malley, see John I. White, Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 73-100, "D. J. 'Kid' O'Malley, Cowboy Poet." On p. 85, White unequivocally attributes the song to O'Malley.
White adds that the poem was originally titled "After the Roundup" and intended to fit the tune "After the Ball" -- but this tune has apparently never been found in tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LB03

When the World Is on Fire

DESCRIPTION: "The world is on fire. What are you going to do? What are you going to do When the world is on fire?" "I am going to fly... I am going home... I am going to shout." "Sinners want to pray... I am going to fly." A "very fluid" song.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 653, "When the World is On Fire" (1 text)
Roud #11789
File: Br3653

When the World's on Fire

See My Lovin' Father (When the World's On Fire) (File: R637)

When Things Go Wrong with You

DESCRIPTION: "I love you, baby, I ain't gonna lie, Without you, honey, I just can't be satisfied. Cause when things go wrong, so wrong with you, Well, it hurts me too." The singer hopes to be the girl's man, and wants to make her happy. He promises to treat her well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (recording, Tampa Red)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 78, "When Things Go Wrong With You" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Bob Dylan, "It Hurts Me Too" (on Self-Portrait, 1970)
Tampa Red, "It Hurts Me Too" (Bluebird B-8635, 1941; rec. 1940) "When Things Go Wrong With You" (RCA Victor 22-0035, 1949)
NOTES [26 words]: This comes from the singing of Big Bill Broonzy, and he probably had at least some hand in the text, but it is generally not listed as his composition. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FSWB078

When This Blasted War Is Over

See When This Bloody War Is Over (File: DalC182)

When This Bloody War Is Over

DESCRIPTION: "When this (bloody/blasted/ruddy) war is over, No more soldiering for me. When I get my civvy clothes on, Oh how happy I will be." There will be no more Sunday parades, no need to request leave; the singer will be able to eat, drink, sleep when he wants
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England) Canada Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 182-183, "When This Bloody War Is Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 57, "When this Blasted War is Over" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 97-98, "When This Bloody War is Over" (1 text with variants, tune referenced)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 103, "When This Bloody War is Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 182, "When this ruddy war is over" (1 short text)
Roud #10529
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "What A Friend We Have In Jesus" (tune)
File: DalC182

When This Cruel War is Over (Weeping Sad and Lonely)

DESCRIPTION: The girl asks her soldier, "Dearest love, do you remember, when we last did meet, How you told me that you loved me...." She fears for him, but urges him to fight. She is "weeping sad and lonely... When this cruel war is over, pray that we meet again."
AUTHOR: Words: Charles C. Sawyer / Music: Henry Tucker
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (sheet music published by Sawyer & Thompson, Brooklyn)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier separation injury battle
FOUND IN: US(So) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 103, "Weeping Sad and Lonely" (1 text)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 4, "When This Cruel War is Over" (1 text)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 271-274, "The Cruel War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 381, "When This Cruel War is Over" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 390, "When This Cruel War is Over" (1 text plus 1 excerpt, 1 fragment, and mention of 2 more; the one full text is the Southern adaption of the song)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 390, "When This Cruel War Is Over" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, pp. 402-403, "When This Cruel War is Over" (1 text, partial tune, from early sheet music and broadside copies; also a text of Septimus Winner's answer "Yes, I Would the War Were Over")
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2586, pp. 175-176, "When This Cruel War Is Over" (17 references)
Dime-Song-Book #10, pp. 8-9, "When this Cruel War is Over" (1 text)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 124-126, "Weeping Sad and Lonely (When This Cruel War Is Over" (1 text, 1 tune); also p. 127, "Down in Charleston Jail" (1 text, a parody of the preceding)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 42-43, "Weeping Sad and Lonely" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-PoemsAndSongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 232-233, "When This Cruel War Is Over" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 284-285, "When This Cruel War Is Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 88-89, "When This Cruel War is Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 276, "Weeping Sad And Lonely (When This Cruel War Is Over)" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2586, pp. 175-176, "When This Cruel War is Over"
DT, WHENOVER*
ST SCW42 (Full)
Roud #3446
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(735), "When This Cruel War is Over" ("Dearest love, do you remember," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also Harding B 26(673), "A new song call'd When This Cruel War Is Over"[, P. Brereton (Dublin)]; 2806 c.8(225), "A much-admired American song called Cruel War Is Over"[, Haly (Cork)]
LOCSinging, sb40571b, "When This Cruel War Is Over," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also cw106550, cw106560, cw106570, cw106580, hc00032c, "When This Cruel War Is Over"
SAME TUNE:
Down in Charleston Jail (Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 127)
If This Cruel Ware Were Over ("Dearest Ella, I Remember") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 68)
Parody on When This Cruel War is Over ("Och, Biddy dear, do you remember") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 124)
When this Cruel Draft Is Over ("Dearest William, they will draft you") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 175)
When This Cruel War Is Over, No. 3 ("Dearest Sal, do you remember?") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 176)
NOTES [399 words]: This is widely believed to be the most popular of the war songs (at least among Union troops). Note the fact that Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, pp. 175-176, lists an amazing 17 broadside editions. After the war, however, its rather maudlin sentiments caused it to lose its place to songs such as "Tenting Tonight." (For details, as well as a sample stanza, see Bruce Catton, Mr. Lincoln's Army, p. 171).
According to E. Lawrence Abel, Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861-1865, Stackpole, 2000, p. 98, Charles Carroll Sawyer, who was from Connecticut, "was popular on both sides of the Potomac because of the universal themes of his lyrics.... [He] took deliberate pains not to inject any partisanship into his songs. They contained no insults, no rancor, no celebration of military battle." But none of his songs save this seems to have left any real folk memory. His other song in the Index (as of this writing) is "Who Will Care for Mother Now?" - RBW
Note the Irish broadsides.
There is a cover sheet, at Historic American Sheet Music, "Weeping, Sad and Lonely; When This Cruel War Is Over," Music A-4826, Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, published by Sawyer & Thompson (Brooklyn), 1863.
See the parody broadsides: Bodleian, Harding B 31(96), "When This Cruel Draft Is Over!" ("Dearest William, they will draft you"), H. De Marsan (New York) , 1861-1864; Bodleian, Harding B 31(116), "Parody on When This Cruel War Is Over ("Och, Biddy dear, do you remember"), H. De Marsan (New York) , 1861-1864; also Harding B 31(130), Harding B 18(394)["As written and sung by Joseph Murphy, in San Francisco"], "Parody on 'When This Cruel War is Over'"
See the parody broadside LOCSinging, cw104560, "Parody on When This Cruel War Is Over," Johnson (Philadelphia), no date
"See also broadside, Bodleian, Harding B 18(564), "Yes, I Would the War Were Over. Answer to 'When this cruel war is over'"" ("Yes, I would the war were over"), C. Magnus (New York), 1863, attributed to Alice Hawthorne.
Broadsides LOCSinging sb40571b, Bodleian Harding B 18(735), Harding B 31(96) and Harding B 31(116): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadsides LOCSinging sb40571b and Bodleian Harding B 18(735) are duplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SCW42

When this old cap was new

See When This Old Hat Was New (II) (File: GrD3540)

When This Old Hat Was New

DESCRIPTION: A litany of complaints about the days "When this old hat was new." Subject can seemingly vary as long as it talks about long ago. At least one version talks about the evolution of American politics (used during the 1840 campaign)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety), but seemingly in existence much earlier
KEYWORDS: political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 2, 1840 - William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren
Mar 4, 1841 - Harrison (the first Whig to be elected President) is inaugurated. He gives a rambling inaugural address in a rainstorm and catches cold
April 4, 1841 - Harrison dies of pneumonia, making him the first president to fail to complete his term. After some hesitation, Vice President John Tyler is allowed to succeed as President
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 336, "When This Old Hat Was New" (1 text)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 50, pp. 86-87, "When This Old Hat Was New" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, pp. 272-273, "When This Old Hat Was New" (4 texts, most of them parodies; 1 tune, from early sheet music)
ADDITIONAL: A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p. 85, "When This Old Had Was New" (1 text. N.B. the Google Books copy, at least, has disordered pages in this part of the book.)
Roud #7841
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mullnabeeny (Mill of Boyndie)" (the concept of "When this old hat was new")
SAME TUNE:
(Political parodies of) When This Old Hat Was New (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 272)
NOTES [334 words]: Although the only version of this I can pin down is Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's the catch phrase is much more common, being used in a a campaign piece from the 1840 Harrison/Van Buren election (see Roud #1693). It seems as if the idea was too good to let alone.
The "locos" are the "loco-foco" faction of the Democratic party, a radical group which emerged 1835. (They were so-called for the matches, or "loco-focos," they used to light candles after the Tammany Hall group tried to suppress them by turning out the gas lights at a convention.) They didn't have a clear platform so much as a desire to clean up government, monopolies, and banking.
The statement that "Van Buren was a Fed" is a reference to the Federalist party -- hardly a fair criticism, since the Democratic party did not exist in his youth.
Wolfe, in his notes to the Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee version, considers it to be from the 1840 election, it in fact appears to be a composite. There are no references to the candidates of 1840 (Harrison and Van Buren). The first verse refers to Sam Cushman (possibly referring to Representative Samuel Cushman of New Hampshire, 1783-1851, although this is by no means clear).
The second verse, referring to Bob Ingersoll, is much clearer. Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899) was known mostly as a professional agnostic. Since the general attitude has always been that non-Christians, especially vocal non-Christians, were damnable, he is an obvious target for this particular piece of religious intolerance. The joke seems to be that even Ingersoll, too dense to understand the (alleged) truth of Christianity, would still have been able to see the truth of "Tory-ism." But Ingersoll wasn't known in 1840, so the verse must have been written later.
Bob Ingersoll's non-Christianity was so infamous that he apparently is mentioned in three different songs: "Bob Ingersoll and the Devil," "The Donkey Song," and some versions of "When This Old Hat Was New." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Beld336

When This Old Hat Was New (II)

DESCRIPTION: "When my auld hat was new" at harvest the master provided drink and set a feast; his wife "gie every one their due." Now the master's wife wears fine silk. Instead of a feast harvest workers are treated like beggars and "near their hoose ye dauna gang."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1725 (Phillips)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad poverty vanity commerce clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #101, pp. 1-2, "When My Auld Hat Was New"; p. 1, ("When this old cap was new") (1 text plus a fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 540, "The Auld Hat" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 52, "When My Old Hat Was New" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: [Ambrose Phillips?,] A Collection of Old Ballads, (London, 1725 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol III, pp. 189-192, "Time's Alteration" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 5-7, "TIme's Alteration, or, The Old Man's Rehearsal, what brave days he knew, A grand whilte agone, when his old Cap was new" (1 text)
Roud #1693
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'll Never Be Drunk Again" (tune, per Phillips)
NOTES [42 words]: Re A Collection of Old Ballads Vol II/III: Ambrose Philips, whose name does not appear in the Google Books copy is, according to Google Books, the editor. The New York Public Library catalog says "Compilation usually attributed to Ambrose Philips" - BS
Last updated in version 3.1
File: GrD3540

When This Old Hat Was New (III)

DESCRIPTION: "When this old hat was new": "provisions now are twice as dear"; "men could take each other's word." "Now the people are so poor ... plenty, aye, did then abound" "The commons they are taken in, and cottages pull'd down, And Moggy has no wool to spin"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(56))
KEYWORDS: poverty commerce hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 541, "I Am Now a Poor Auld Man in Years" (1 fragment)
Roud #1693
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(56), "When My Old Hat Was New ("I am a poor old man in years, come listen to my song"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 25(1408)[some words illegible], Harding B 22(228), "[The] Old Hat"
NOTES [17 words]: Greig/Duncan3 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Harding B 28(56) is the basis for the description. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3541

When This Old Hat Was New (IV)

DESCRIPTION: "This old hat was new once" "The rich then gave out food and coals to keep the poor ... the poor did never want." "Our tars were never press'd For they did boldly volunteer." "Husbandmen ... did work both soon and late But now ... are forced to emigrate."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2006 (Bodleian broadside indexed)
KEYWORDS: poverty emigration commerce hardtimes nonballad pressgang
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
Roud #1693
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4138), "When This Old Hat Was New" ("This old hat was new once, but I cannot tell you when"), unknown, no date
NOTES [109 words]: I have to think this particular "Old Hat" the work of a propagandistic poet. There was *never* a time when tars "were never pressed"; conditions in the Royal Navy were consistently worse than those in the merchant service. It is true that sailors were unusually likely to desert in the period between the American Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars (which seems the most likely date for the song). This is because inflation was eating away at the always-inadequate pay of the sailors, and dishonest contractors were feeding them garbage. These conditions improved, at least somewhat, after the Spithead and Nore mutinies, for which see "Poor Parker." - RBW
File: GrD354A

When This Ruddy War Is Over

See When This Bloody War Is Over (File: DalC182)

When Uncle Sam's Doughboy Roped a Wild Irish Rose

DESCRIPTION: An "Uncle Sam's Doughboy" goes to Ireland and pursues a "wild Irish rose" who "ran through the trees like a wild mountain deer." But now she "gets tamer each day" and is becoming willing to return to the West with him
AUTHOR: Rusty Holman (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: courting cowboy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 79, "When Uncle Sam's Doughboy Roped a Wild Irish Rose" (1 text)
File: Ohr079

When Venus the Goddess of Beauty and Love

See (notes under) Lilliburlero (File: FR286)

When Was Jesus Born?

See What Month Was Jesus Born In? (File: CNFM245)

When We Are Homeward Bound

See Outward and Homeward Bound (File: Hugi541)

When We Do Meet Again

DESCRIPTION: "When we do meet again (x3), 'Twill be no more to part." "Brother Billy, fare you well (c2), We'll sing hallelujah, When we do meet again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious separation reunion nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 41, "When We Do Meet Again (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11995
File: AWG041B

When We Get Our Tuppence Back

DESCRIPTION: The bosses at Lithgow lower the pay rate for coal by a tuppence. The miners go on strike: "We will never work for you Till you give that tuppence back, Charlie dear." The strike is bitter, with many scabs brought in. But the miners hold firm
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: mining scab strike work Australia
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1911 - Strike at the Hoskin Mine near Lithgow, New South Wales. The miners asked for a raise of tuppence per load; mine boss Charles Hoskin responded by lowering pay rates the same amount. Hoskin brought in scabs and resorted to intimidation, but eventually the miners won.
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 208-209, "When We Get Our Tuppence Back" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: FaE208

When We Go Marching Home

DESCRIPTION: "We've been upon the border for a couple of months or so; We're getting might tired, and we think it's time to go." The soldiers want to leave Mexico, so "Three cheers for New York town! When we'll go marching home." The miserable border life is described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Lewis, Along the Rio Grande, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: soldier hardtimes Mexico
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 294-295, "When We Go Marching Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Marching Through Georgia" (tune) and references there
File: LDC294

When We Were Sweet Sixteen (Now I'm Sixty-Four)

DESCRIPTION: The singer wanders through hills and by streams as he had years before and finds them unchanged. He hopes to meet (his sweetheart?) "upon that far-off shore" where they "both shall reign; we'll talk about those happy days"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports; MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: age reunion nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 365-366, "When We Were Sweet Sixteen (Now I'm Sixty-Four)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18247
RECORDINGS:
Jim Rice, "When We Were Sweet Sixteen" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
NOTES [21 words]: The chorus is "And I long for those bright days to come again once more, But come again they never will for I am sixty-four." - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Guig365

When We Were Two Little Boys

DESCRIPTION: Two boys are playing; one's hobby-horse breaks; his brother says "I couldn't bear to see you crying/When there's room on my horse for two." They become soldiers; one is wounded, the other rescues him, saying "I couldn't bear to see you dying...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (recording, Billy Murray)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Two boys are playing; one's hobby-horse breaks; his brother comforts him, saying "I couldn't bear to see you crying/When there's room on my horse for two." They grow up and become soldiers; one is wounded, the other rescues him, saying "I couldn't bear to see you dying/When there's room on my horse for two." They remember when they were two little boys
KEYWORDS: love army battle fight war reunion rescue injury brother family soldier
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Dixon Brothers, "Two Little Boys" (Montgomery Ward M-7336, c. 1937)
Billy Murray, "When We Were Two Little Boys" (Monarch [Victor] 2468, 1903)
NOTES [28 words]: Although the text doesn't say so, this song is almost certainly set in the Civil War. - PJS
And it has the sickeningly saccharine sound of songs of that era, too. - RBW
File: RcWWW2LB

When We Wind Up the Watch on the Rhine

DESCRIPTION: "When we wind up the Watch on the Rhine, How we'll sing Auld Lang Syne! You and I, 'Hurrah,' we'll cry. Everything will be Potsdam fine." The Germans will go to jail. "The half-a-crown prince must resign." The Allies will have their way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (recording by Harry Tate and Violet Loraine, according to Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 95-96, "The Watch on the Rhine" (1 text)
Roud #V55854
NOTES [153 words]: The reference to the "crown prince" is interesting, because there were multiple "princes" in the German armed forces. According to Stephen Pope and Elizabeth-Anne Wheal, Dictionary of the First World War, 1995 (I use the 2003 Pen & Sword paperback), p. 507, the Kaiser's oldest son, another Wilhelm (1882-1951) was crown prince of Germany as well as commander of the Fifth Army at the start of the war, later going on to still higher commands. But there was also Rupprecht, the Crown Prince of Bavaria (1869-1955), he commanded the Sixth Army at the start of the war, and, according to Pope/Wheal, p. 404 (and everything else I've ever read) he was the best soldier among the various royals in the German army.
Both Crown Princes were out of a job after the war; Wilhelm went into exile with his father the Kaiser, and the Bavarian monarchy was also closed down, so Rupprecht became an ordinary German citizen. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW095

When wild War's deadly Blast was blawn

See The Deadly Wars (File: SOv23n3)

When Wild War's Deadly Blast Was Blawn (The Sodger's Return)

DESCRIPTION: "When wild war's deadly blast was blawn, And gentle peace returning," the soldier returns home. He reaches the "bonnie glen" "Where Nancy aft I courted." He meets her and asks for lodging. She says she loved a soldier -- then recognizes him.
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1793 (source: Kinsley)
KEYWORDS: soldier love separation reunion hardtimes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats, pp. 114-116, "The sodger's return" (1 text, 1 tune)
James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #406, pp. 543-545, "[When wild War's deadly Blast was blawn]" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1793)
DT, DEIDL2*
File: Wins114

When Will Ye Gang Awa'? (Huntingtower) [Laws O23]

DESCRIPTION: Janie asks what Jamie will bring her when he crosses the sea. He promises a new gown, then a "gallant gay." She wants only him. He submits that he has a wife and children. She is distressed; he promises to marry her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan5); related text from 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: courting clothes trick marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar) US(MA,MW,NE)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Child 232, "Richie Story" (9 texts; the text in the Appendix is this song)
Bronson 232, "Richie Story" (9 versions, but #9 is "When Will Ye Gang Awa'? (Huntingtower)" [Laws O23], and #7 and #8 may be as well)
Laws O23, "When Will Ye Gang Awa'? (Huntingtower)"
Greig/Duncan5 1052, "Huntingtower" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, p. 556, "The Duke of Athol" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 217-218,"When Will Ye Gan Awa'?" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 42-43, "When Ye Gang Away, Jamie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 273-277, "Huntingtower" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, p. 156, "What Will Ye Bring Tae Me?" (1 fragment which may be this)
DT 482, DATHOL
ADDITIONAL: George R Kinloch, Ancient Scottish Ballads (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Bro0wn, & Green, 1827 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 170-173, "The Duke of Athol" (1 text)
Roud #345
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(127), "Hunting Tower, Or when ye Gang Awa' Jamie," Poet's Box (Dundee), unknown
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Richie Story" [Child 232]
SAME TUNE:
The Laird of Dalziel's Leman (File: AdLaDaLe)
NOTES [56 words]: For the relationship of this song to "Richie Story" [Child 232], see the notes on that song. - RBW
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads has 8 stanzas as compared to Child's and Kinloch's 15; both Whitelaw and Child claim Kinloch as source. Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads skips the promised gifts and goes directly to the question of marriage. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LO23

When Work Is Done This Fall

See When the Work's All Done This Fall (File: LB03)

When Ye Gang Awa Johnnie

DESCRIPTION: Jennie wants Johnnie to give up drinking. He is unconvinced until she cries because the children will learn to drink from him. He resolves "that never mair I'll touch the barley bree." She is happy.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: drink dialog husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 589, "Fin Ye Gang Awa Johnnie" (2 texts)
Roud #6042
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell to Whisky (Johnny My Man)" (theme)
File: GrD3589

When Ye Gang Awa', Jamie

See When Will Ye Gang Awa'? (Huntingtower) [Laws O23] (File: LO23)

When You and I Must Part

See My Dearest Dear (File: SKE40)

When You and I Were Young, Maggie

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the days when he and Maggie were young -- the creek and the mill they wandered by, the meadows they wandered, the birds they heard. Now the mill is still, and the flowers are gone, but she is still just as beautiful in his eyes
AUTHOR: Words: George W. Johnson / Music: J. A. Butterfield
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (sheet music published by J. A. Butterfield of Chicago)
KEYWORDS: love courting age nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE) Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 237-240, "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 159, "When You And I Were Young" (1 text)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 93-94, "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 137, "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 133-134, "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 189-190, "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 478-479, "When You and I Were Young" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 248, "When You And I Were Young, Maggie" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 22, "When You and I Were Young Maggie" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 643, "When You and I Were Young, Maggie"
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 5, "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harbin-Parodology, #314, p. 76, "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 28, "When You And I Were Young Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, YOUNGMAG*
ST RJ19237 (Full)
Roud #3782
RECORDINGS:
Archie Anderson, "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (Columbia A-1447, 1913)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "When You And I Were Young, Maggie" (Okeh 40020, 1924; rec. 1923)
The Collier Trio, "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (Brunswick 307, 1928)
Frank & James McCravy, "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (Brunswick 197, 1928; rec. 1927)
McMichen's Melody Men, "When You and I Were Young" (Columbia 15247-D, 1928; rec. 1927)
[?] Morgan & [Frank] Stanley, "When You and I Were Young Maggie" (Victor 4428, 1905)
Roy Newman's Boys, "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (Vocalion 03598, 1937)
Will Oakland, "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (CYL: Edison 9980, 1908) (CYL: Edison [BA] 1873 [as Will Oakland & chorus], n.d.)
Riley Puckett, "When You And I Were Young, Maggie" (Columbia 15005-D, c. 1924)
George Reneau, "When You And I Were Young, Maggie" (Vocalion 14814, 1924)
Howard Shelley, "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (Bell 1117, c. 1923)
Walter Van Brunt, "When You and I Were Young, Maggie" (CYL: Edison [BA] 3130, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Genevieve" (theme)
cf. "Silver Threads among the Gold" (theme)
cf. "The Old Rustic Bridge by the Mill" (theme)
cf. "When You And I Were Young, Maggie (Mining Parody)"
SAME TUNE:
When You and I Were Young, Maggie (MIning Parody) (File: LDC150)
Don't You Remember the Dump, Maggie, That Dump on the Old South Side Hill (by Johnny Burke) (Johnny Burke (William J. Kirwin, editor), _John White's Collection of Johnny Burke Songs_, Harry Cuff Publications, St. John's, 1981, #43, pp. 68-69)
NOTES [22 words]: Dime-Song-Book #30, p. 53, has a piece, "When You Were Seventeen, Maggie." It's not this, but it looks as if it was inspired by it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RJ19237

When You and I Were Young, Maggie (MIning Parody)

DESCRIPTION: "I wandered today up The Hill, Maggie, I applied for a rustling card... But the job it was too damned hard." The singer works in a mine full of gas; he is hit by rock, his hair is turning green; he suspects "you'll soon want your maiden name back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Western Folklore 9)
KEYWORDS: mining hardtimes marriage derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 150-151, "I Wandered Today Up the Hill, Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 564, "When You and I Were Young, Maggie (Parody)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When You And I Were Young, Maggie" (tune)
File: CASF564A

When You Are Old and Cannot See

DESCRIPTION: "When you are old and cannot see, Put on your specs and think of me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (autograph album of George Washington Franklin, according to Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: age disability humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 123, "(When you are old)"; p. 135, "(When you are old and cannot see)" (2 texts)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 128, "(When you are old and can not see)" (1 text)
NOTES [127 words]: The first of these is one of many items Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore extracted from the autograph album of George Washington Franklin, which he maintained 1882 to 1895 or after; the second is from Anna Duncan's autograph album, from 1897-1899. The Solomon-ZickaryZan text is from an autograph album from the family of Kate, Ella, Lucy, Maggie, and Bessie Burton, compiled 1895-1905.
Web searches for this quote turned up at least three other versions, one in the autograph book of Ida Deming (Bowles) of South Dakota, in 1898 and one from 1901 in the "Keville-Flanagan Autograph Book," apparently from Chicago. (The third quote I found was unsourced.) Since this is clearly a parody, it must have been in oral tradition, though I cannot prove that it is a song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: SaKo123W

When You Call To An Irishman's Door

DESCRIPTION: The singer comes to Ireland from Scotland and knocks on Pat's door seeking shelter. Pat is poor and about to be evicted but offers what he has. "You can always depend on meeting a friend when you call to an Irishman's door."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: poverty travel food hardtimes Ireland Scotland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 192, "When You Call To An Irishman's Door" (1 text)
Roud #16241
File: OCC192

When You Climb Out of Bed with a Frowsly Head

See Camel's Hump Is an Ugly Lump (File: KSUC170D)

When You Feel Like Moaning

DESCRIPTION: "When you feel like moanin', it ain't nothin' but love... It must be the Holy Ghost comin' down from above.... When you hear me prayin', that ain't nothin' but love.... When you love everybody... Do you love your preacher...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Rich Amerson)
KEYWORDS: religious clergy nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 238-240, "When You Feel Like Moaning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10963
RECORDINGS:
Rich Amerson, "When You Feel Like Moaning" (on NFMAla4)
File: CNFM238

When You Get Married and Live on a Hill

See Living on a Hill (File: MHAp231D)

When You Get Up in the Morning

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, when you get up in the morning, Don't forget to call. Kick the panels of the door And dislocate the wall. I must be there at seven o'clock The mortar for to mix, So don't forget to call me up at half past six."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands)
KEYWORDS: work | sleep waking morning
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 91, "When You Get Up in the Morning" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #1133
File: PSOM091

When You Go A-Courtin'

See Come All You Virginia Girls (Arkansas Boys; Texian Boys; Cousin Emmy's Blues; etc.) (File: R342)

When You Go to Get Your Shears

DESCRIPTION: "When you go to get your shears You're not allowed to pick. The first pair that you collar, Then it's to that pair you stick. It is the boss's orders; If you do not like the trick, You can go somewhere else to look for shearing."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: sheep work Australia boss
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 281-282, "When You Go to Get Your Shears" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA281

When You Go, Tell Julia (I Am Bound Away)

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "I am bound away." The shantyman sings "When you go, tell Julia... I'm bound away to see the light... I'm bound away to see my docky... I'm bound for North Carolina."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: parting separation travel sea ship shanty lover sailor
FOUND IN: West Indies(Nevis)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 59-60, "When You Go, Tell Julia (I Am Bound Away)" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [36 words]: See "I'm Bound Away" for what may be the source for this shanty; the tunes are different but the structure and chorus text is the same. If there were more to the texts I might have considered them the same song. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS059

When You Smoke a Bad Cigar There's Nothing to Do But Cough

DESCRIPTION: "When you smoke a bad cigar there's nothing to do but cough, When you're trying to ride your bike there's nowhere to fall but off...." "Nothing! Nothing! Nothing!... It makes me wild when I go out: There's nowhere to go but back." Life gives no choices
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: death hardtimes bird clothes technology drugs | nothing to do cigar bike
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 172, "When you smoke a bad cigar there's nothing to do but cough" (1 text)
Roud #25412
File: KSUC172

When You Wear That Button

DESCRIPTION: "I met him in Dakota when the harvesting was o'er, A 'Wob' he was, I saw by the button that he wore." The Wobbly exhorts workers to organize. If they will join the I. W. W., they will "strike that blow all slaves must strike if they would be free"
AUTHOR: Words: Richard Brazier (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest_
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (I. W. W. Songbook, 14th edition, according to Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement nonballad | IWW
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 546, "When You Wear That Button" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When You Wore That Button" (tune) and references there
File: LDC546

When You Wore a Tulip

DESCRIPTION: "I met you in a garden in an old Kentucky town... I kissed you, as I placed a yellow tulip in your hair." "When you wore a tulip... And I wore a big red rose,... 'twas then Heaven blessed me, What a blessing, no one knows." Years later, he still loves her
AUTHOR: Words: Jack Majoney / Music: Percy Wenrich (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (sheet music published by Leo, Feist, Inc.,)
KEYWORDS: love courting flowers | tulip rose
FOUND IN:
Roud #22493
SAME TUNE:
I Wore a Tunic (File: BrPa047B)
You Drove a Buick (File: Brne151)
When I Was a Miner, A Hard-Rock Miner (File: LDC145)
When You Wear That Button (File: LDV546)
NOTES [28 words]: I have never encountered an actual traditional version of this, but the tune has been borrowed enough times that I thought it needed an entry for "Same Tune" purposes. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: xxWYWAT

When You're In Love

DESCRIPTION: "Kissing's a nice celebration," "squeezing's a funny sensation," "it's better to have loved once and lost," "So haste and get married and no longer tarry, When you're in love"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love marriage nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 930, "When You're In Love" (1 text)
Roud #6746
File: GrD930

When Young Men Go Courting

See Bachelor's Hall (II) (File: AF120)

When Your Boy Comes Back to You

DESCRIPTION: "Keep the lamp of hope still brightly burning Till your boy comes back to you... Ev'ry day your far apart you grow dearer to his heart Till your boy comes back to you." The girl is advised to "Wear a bright and sunny smile" until the soldiers return
AUTHOR: Gordon V. Thompson (source: Sheet music reproduced by Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (source: Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier separation love war
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p.120, "When You Boy Comes Back to You" (1 text)
NOTES [31 words]: It should be noted as regards World War I that the problem was not boys or girls who turned unfaithful before the soldiers returned home, it was all the boys who never returned at all. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW120

Whene'er I Take My Walks Abroad

DESCRIPTION: "Whene'er I take my walks abroad How many poor I see; What shall I render to my God For all his gifts to me?" "No more than others I deserve, Yet God has given me more, For I have food while others starve Or beg from door to door."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious poverty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 652, "Whene'er I Take My Walks Abroad" (1 short text plus an excerpt from a parody)
Roud #7573
NOTES [17 words]: Although Randolph collected this piece in 1936, it is obviously older, as a parody was reported in 1904.
File: R652

Whene'er You Make a Promise

See When E'er You Make a Promise (File: ACSF427E)

Where am I to go, M' Johnnies?

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Where am I to go me Johnnies, where am I to go? To me way hey, hey, high, roll an' go. For I'm a young sailor boy, and where am I to go?" subsequent verses answer "way up the t'gallant yard," "around Cape Horn," "through the ice and snow," etc...
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor travel
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 169-170, "Where am I to go, M' Johnnies?" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 137]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 53, "Where Am I to Go, Me Johnnies?" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [47 words]: Gordon Bok's book Time and the Flying Snow seems to imply that he learned this song from Hugill -- but his tune is slightly different, and his text also differs. Hugill's seems to be the only field collection; I don't know if Bok modified the song or if others did it before him. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Hugi169

Where Am I to Go, Me Johnnies?

See Where am I to go, M' Johnnies? (File: Hugi169)

Where Am I to Go?

See Where am I to go, M' Johnnies? (File: Hugi169)

Where Are Our Uniforms?

DESCRIPTION: "Where are our uniforms? Far, far away. When will our rifles come? Perhaps, someday. All we need is just a gun, For to chase the bloody Hun. Think of us when we are gone, Far, far away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: soldier clothes hardtimes derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p. 50, "Where Are Our Uniforms?" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #10790
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There Is a Happy Land" (tune) and references there
cf. "My Tunic Is Out at the Elbows" (subject: World War I supply problems)
NOTES [159 words]: Early in World War I, when new recruits were being brought in at a great pace, there simply weren't enough military supplies -- uniforms, tents, weapons. Hence this song. Some of the shortages -- notably of artillery shells -- would last until well into 1915 or even 1916.
The issue of logistics in World War I has gotten a fair bit of ink since. I can list the following books, although I haven't seen any of them:
Phillip Harding, The British Shell Shortage of the First World War, Fonthill Media, 2015
Leo P. Hirrell, Supporting the Doughboys: US Army Logistics and personnel During World War I, (unknown publisher), 2017
Janet MacDonald, Supplying the British Army in the First World War, Pen & Sword, 2019
Catherine Price-Rowe, First World War Uniforms: Lives, Logistics, and Legacy in British Army Uniform Production 1914-1918 Pen & Sword, 2018
Matthew Richardson, The Hunger War: Food, Rations & Rationing 1914-1918, Pen & Sword, 2015 - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW050

Where Are the Boys of the Village Tonight?

See Where Are the Lads of the Village Tonight? (File: KSUC184A)

Where Are the Lads of the Village Tonight?

DESCRIPTION: "The West End's not the same tonight The lights aren't shining quite so bright...." "Where are the lads of the village tonight? Where are the nuts we knew? In Piccadilly? In Leicester square? No, not there"; they have gone to war. They are missed
AUTHOR: R. P. Weston & Herman Datewski (source: various music hall web sites)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: soldier separation hunting
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 184, "Where are the boys of the village tonight?" (1 fragment)
Roud #25462
NOTES [28 words]: Said to have been performed by George Lashwood (1863-1942). For other songs by R. P. Weston, see the notes to "Anne Boleyn (With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC184A

Where Are You Been

See Where Are You Then (Where Are You Been) (File: RcWhAYB)

Where Are You Going Bob

DESCRIPTION: "Where are you going Bob? Down the lane Bob. For what Bob? For rhu-bob. Let's go Bob. No Bob. Why Bob? Because you don't like rhu-bob."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: food travel wordplay
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 52, "Where are you going Bob" (1 text)
Roud #31461
File: BAAI052

Where Are You Going To My Pretty Maid

See Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid) (File: R079)

Where Are You Going To, My Pretty Maid?

See Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid) (File: R079)

Where Are You Going, Abe Lincoln

See Abe Lincoln Stood at the White House Gate (File: DarNS046)

Where Are You Going, Bill?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme or joke. "Where are you going, Bill. Downtown, Bill. What for, Bill? To pay my gas bill. How much, Bill? Ten dollar bill."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Botkin, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope travel commerce wordplay
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #602, "Where are you going, Bill?" (1 text)
File: AJRR602

Where Are You Going, My Good Old Man?

See My Good Old Man (File: R426)

Where Are You Going, My Pretty Fair Maid? (I)

See Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)

Where Are You Going, My Pretty Fair Maid? (II)

See Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid) (File: R079)

Where Are You Going, My Pretty Maid?

See Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid) (File: R079)

Where Are You Then (Where Are You Been)

DESCRIPTION: When the first trumpet sounds loud enough to wake the dead "where are you been?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious | trumpet
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Melville J. Herskovits and Frances S. Herskovits, _Trinidad Village_ (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947), pp. 212-213, ("Where are you been") (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Henry Williams, Henry Thomas, Margaret Wright, Edna Wright, "Where Are You Then (Where Are You Been)" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [85 words]: WITrinidadVillage02 was sung as described in the notes to "Jesus Lover of My Soul." The pattern was common to many of the tracks on WITrinidadVillage02; in this case the hymn was not a "Sankey." - BS
The first trumpet (of seven) in the Apocalypse is blown in Rev. 8:7; it brings "hail and fire, mixed with blood." The first mention of the seven trumpets is in Rev. 8:2; and the convoluted story of their blowing, which is repeatedly interrupted as if God had ADHD and can't stay on-topic, takes up chapters 8-11.
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcWhAYB

Where de Sun Don't Neber Go Down

See Where the Sun Don't Never Go Down (File: Wa088)

Where Derry Meets Tyrone

DESCRIPTION: "Have you ever been to Ireland where Derry meets Tyrone?" The singer describes the beauty of the country, the "queen of nature," the kindly welcome a visitor may expect.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H601, pp. 174-175, "Where Derry Meets Tyrone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13535
File: HHH601

Where Did You Get That Hat?

DESCRIPTION: The singer, to inherit his grandfather's property, is required to wear grandfather's hat. Now, wherever he goes, people cry out to him, "Where did you get that hat?... Isn't it a nobby one, and just the proper style...."
AUTHOR: Joseph J. Sullivan
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (sheet music published by F. Harding)
KEYWORDS: clothes humorous marriage
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 105, pp. 133-134, "Where Did You Get That Hat?" (1 text plus a fragment)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 42-44, "Where Did You Get That Hat?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 137-138, "Where Did You Get That Hat?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 151, "Where Did You Get That Hat?" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 351-354, "Where Did You Get That Hat?" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1888 sheet music)
Margaret Bradford Boni, editor, _Songs of the Gilded Age_, with piano arrangements by Norman Lloyd and illustrations by Lucille Corcos, Golden Press, 1960, pp. 120-121, "Where Did You Get that Hat?" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST SRW137 (Full)
Roud #4877
RECORDINGS:
Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers, "Where Did You Get That Hat" (Columbia 15097-D, 1926)
Edith Perrin, "Where Did You Get That Hat?" [excerpt?] (on USWarnerColl01)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(97b), "Where Did You Get That Hat," Poet's Box (Glasgow), c. 1880-1900
NOTES [142 words]: According to Gilbert-LostChords, Sullivan, a blackface minstrel, found a very tall hat one day while rummaging through his parents' attic. He being short, he thought the tall hat would make a humorous addition to his act. To test this, he went out one day wearing the hat. A gang of urchins harassed him, asking "Where did you get that hat?" Hence this song.
We should note, however, that there are variations on this legend: All agree that Sullivan found a hat and tried it in his act -- but according to James J. Geller, the humor lay in the fact that the hat was small and Sullivan quite hefty; the hat didn't fit him.
The fact that there is a story associated with this song causes me to accept the attribution to Sullivan, but I should note that Peter Davidson, Songs of The British Music Hall, Oak, 1971, p, 211, credits it to J. C. Heffron. )- RBW
Last updated in version 3.4
File: SRW137

Where Did You Sleep Last Night?

See In the Pines (File: LoF290)

Where Do Flies Go in the Wintertime?

DESCRIPTION: "Where do flies go in the wintertime? Do they go to Gay Paree? When they've finished buzzing round our beef and ham, When they've finished jazzing our raspberry jam, Do they clear like swallows every year... Tell me, tell me, where do...."
AUTHOR: Sam Mayo and Frank Leo (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: bug travel questions | winter
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 157, "Where do flies go in the wintertime?" (1 text)
Roud #37286
NOTES [44 words]: The sheet music reports this was "Sung by G. S. Melvin." It appears the sheet music would spell the title "Where do Flies go in the Winter Time?"
Incidentally, the primary answer to the question is, they lay eggs which survive the winter then hatch in spring. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC157A

Where Does Father Christmas Go To?

DESCRIPTION: We know about Mary and her lamb, servant girl Maria blown through the roof, Burglar Bill of Pentonville on the scaffold, the rich man on the Continent and the poor man on the dole. But [chorus] "where does Father Christmas go to in the summertime?"
AUTHOR: Fred Schuff (source: Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 16" - 13.9.02)
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (recording, Sam Bond)
KEYWORDS: Christmas humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
Roud #12927
RECORDINGS:
Sam Bond, "Where Does Father Christmas Go To?" (on Voice16)
NOTES [9 words]: Musical Traditions note has this song written in 1926. - BS
File: RcWDFCG

Where Does the Rhinoceros

DESCRIPTION: "Where does the Rhinoceros Get his R-H-I-N-O? Why does the Hippopotamus Not lay an egg like the ostrich does? And why does the little Ellypant Wear one tail behind and another one in front?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: animal questions wordplay | rhinoceros elephant hippopotamus
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 145, "Where does the Rhinoceros" (1 text)
Roud #25394
File: KSUC145B

Where Does the Wind Come From?

DESCRIPTION: "Where does the wind come from, does anybody know? Where does the wind come from before (s)he starts to blow? On Saturday night where does (s)he hang his(her) hat?
Does anybody know where the wind is at? Where does the wind come from, does anybody know?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 335, "Where Does the Wind Come From?" (notes only)
File: ACSF335W

Where E're You Be

DESCRIPTION: "Where e're you be, Let your wind go free."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: scatological
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 53, "(Where e're you be)" (1 text)
Roud #22974
File: PKKB053E

Where Go the Boats? (Dark Brown is the River)

DESCRIPTION: "Dark brown is the river. Golden is the sand. It flows along for ever With trees on either hand." "Green leaves a-floating... Boats of mine a-boating -- Where will all come home?" "Away down the river... Other little children Shall bring my boats ashore"
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (source: www.poetrybyheart.org.uk)
KEYWORDS: river ship travel campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 194, 195, 339, 463, 472, "Dark Brown is the River" (notes only)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, "Where Go the Boats" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Stenka Razin" (tune, according to internet sites)
NOTES [30 words]: I suspect this is sung to multiple tunes; some Internet sites and recent scouting books list "Stenka Razin," but GirlScout-PocketSongbook lists the tune as by Jessie W. White. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF194D

Where Ha'e Ye Been A' the Day?

DESCRIPTION: "... Saw ye him [Charlie] that's far away ... he gave his royal word ... wi' his friend would live or dee. Weary fa' the Lawland loon ... Wha took frae him the British crown ... But blessings on the kilted clans ... That fought for him at Prestonpans."
AUTHOR: George Thomson?
EARLIEST DATE: 1790s (Thomson, according to Fowke)
KEYWORDS: nonballad political Jacobites derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 21, 1745 - Battle of Prestonpans. Bonnie Prince Charlie's Highland army routs the first real Hannoverian force it encounters
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 25, "Bonny Laddie, Hielan' Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: George Farquhar Graham, The Popular Songs of Scotland With Their Appropriate Melodies (Edinburgh, 1887 (J Muir Wood revision ("Digitized by Google"))), pp. 166-167, "Where Ha'e Ye Been A' the Day?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2330
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Geordie Sits In Charlie's Chair" (source, per Graham)
NOTES [107 words]: The second, fourth, sixth and eighth line of each eight-line verse is "Bonnie laddie, Highland laddie."
For more information on the Battle of Prestonpans see "Tranent Muir" and references there.
Graham: "[Hogg's "Geordie Sits in Charlie's Chair"] is horribly ludicrous, but we cannot give it entire, on account of the extreme coarseness of some of the stanzas. A modification of it is published in Mr. George Thomson's Collection, with two introductory stanzas not in Hogg's edition. The stanza beginning, "Weary fa' the Lawland loon," is the second in Hogg's copy." Except for changes in spelling, the Fowke and Graham/Thomson texts agree. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: FowOn025

Where Have All the Flowers Gone

DESCRIPTION: "Where have all the flowers gone? Long time passing. W ere have all the flowers gone? Long time ago. Where have all the flowers gone? The girls have picked them ev'ry one." The girls have gone for young men. The young men are gone for soldiers...
AUTHOR: Pete Seeger, adapted by Joe Hickerson, based on lyrics in Mikhail Sholokhov's "And Quiet Flows the Don"
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (copyright), but see NOTES
KEYWORDS: love courting flowers death campsong | circular
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 333, 391, 538, 548, 551, 554, "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" (notes only)
DT, WHERFLWR*
ADDITIONAL: Pete Seeger, _The Bells of Rhymney_, Oak Publications, 1964, p. 82, "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" (1 text, 1 tune, Seeger's original)
Pete Seeger, _Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Musical Autobiography_, edited by Peter Blood, Sing Out Publications, 1993, 1997, pp. 166-169. "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" (2 texts, Seeger's original and the adapted version, 2 tunes, plus Marlene Dietrich's German text and the transliterated text and tune of "Koloda Duda")
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" (on PeteSeeger30)
SAME TUNE:
Where Have All the Gypsies Gone (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 333)
NOTES [696 words]: I honestly have no idea how to properly index this, the song is so widespread. I haven't even tried to index all the Seeger recordings, let alone the other versions and printings! You can surely find a copy.
In case you don't know, I will summarize the history, but you can get better versions of the story in Pete Seeger's various books; there is also a Wikipedia article.
Seeger's own first written description seems to be that on p. 82 of Seeger-Bells:
In [Mikhail] Sholokhov's novel, And Quiet Flows the Don, I came across three lines of an old Ukrainian folk song. After a year, I gave up the search for the original (it's been located since). Recorded it, then forgot about it, and thought it would never be heard from again. But a song is like a child. Once it gets out in the world on its own, it often surprises its parent."
Seeger published that statement in 1964. The text Seeger printed then was his own original three-verse version.
The Ukrainian song is "Koloda Duda" (Seeger-Flowers, p. 13; on p. 168 it says that A. L. Lloyd found it, which perhaps makes it a little dubious). Seeger had read three verses and scribbled down the essence: "Where are the flowers? The girls have picked them. Where are the girls? They've taken husbands. Where are the men? They're all in the army" (Seeger-Flowers, p. 166). As Seeger said, he wanted to find the song, but couldn't.
This was a hard time for Seeger, because of the blacklist. He was on his way to a gig at Oberlin College when he pulled out those notes. He brought in another phrase that had been floating around his head, "Long time passing." He set a tune that turned out to be based on a variant, major key, lumberjack version of "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" (Dunaway, p. 186) -- not quite the tune you usually hear, but fairly close. It took him twenty minutes to put together the original three-verse version. He recorded it for Folkways (in a medley, because it was so short, according to Dunaway, p. 187) -- and it went nowhere. He stopped singing it himself after a year (Seeger-Flowers, p. 166).
There is minor disagreement about what happened next. Somehow, the song came to Joe Hickerson. Dunaway, p. 187, says that Seeger met Hickerson at Camp Woodland and taught it to him. I seem to recall Hickerson saying that he learned it from Seeger's recording. Another account says that Hickerson had heard it at Oberlin. In any case, he learned it, folk processed it a little, added the two verses to make it circular, and taught it to the kids at the camp where he was a counselor. They folk processed it a little more. (This was probably in 1960. It is thus one of the truest camp songs there is: The kids made it themselves!). Peter, Paul and Mary learned it from Hickerson, and sang it from the beginning of their careers. The Kingston Trio got it from them. (Seeger-Flowers, p. 167).
Initially the Kingston Trio claimed it themselves, because Seeger hadn't done his work to copyright it. But Dave Guard, once he heard from Seeger, did the morally right thing and gave it back to Seeger (Seeger-Flowers, p. 167).
Obviously the Kingston Trio had recorded it. Then Joan Baez. And Peter, Paul and Mary. And Harry Belafonte. And the Brothers Four. Even Vera Lyinn! And a whole bunch of pop performers whom I've never heard of. Marlene Dietrich's German version was a sensation. (Ironically, Dietrich allegedly hated the song didn't want to sing it, according to her daughter: "All that toodle, toodle, toodle about where flowers have gone -- it never ends! It's only good when the girls pick them!" -- Riva, p. 638. Maria Riva, the daughter, claims to have talked her into singing it. But the daughter, although she worked with her mother most of her life, definitely had a love/hate relationship with Dietrich and may have exaggerated a bit.)
Wikipedia lists versions in thirty languages. It's in the Grammy Hall of Fame. And, despite all that, I'd even say it's a pretty good song!
I read in one or another of Seeger's books that Seeger gave 40% of the royalties to Joe Hickerson.
I find myself wondering, given Vladimir Putin's 2022 war on Ukraine, if the Ukrainians have dusted off the original yet. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: DTwherfl

Where Have You Been Today, Billy, My Son

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Where Have You Been, My Good Old Man?

See My Good Old Man (File: R426)

Where Helen Lies

See Helen of Kirconnell (File: OBB152)

Where Is My Boy Tonight?

See Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight? (File: FSWB270)

Where Is My Darling Tonight?

DESCRIPTION: "Sitting alone by the door, Looking far out on the sea, Thinking of one that I love, Dearer than life is to me. All alone, all alone, Tell me why don't he write? ... Where is my darling tonight?" He is far at sea; she asks the waves to bring him home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love separation sailor
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 111, "Where Is My Darling Tonight?" (2 texts plus mention of 2 more, 1 tune0
Roud #11402
File: Brne111

Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight?

DESCRIPTION: Singer (presumably the mother, although it's not stated) weeps for her wandering boy, saying he was once "my joy and light". She begs the listener to find her boy and "tell him I love him still"
AUTHOR: Robert Lowry (1826-1899)
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 ("Fountain of Song," according to John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology)
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness rambling separation mother children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 270, "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight?" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Michael R. Turner, _Victorian Parlour Poetry: An Annotated Anthology_, 1967, 1969 (page references are to the 1992 Dover edition), pp. 269-270, "Where Is My Boy Tonight?" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Henry Burr, "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight?" (Little Wonder 226, 1915) (Resona 75016, 1919) (Standard 199, n.d.)
Vernon Dalhart, "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight" (Columbia 15072-D, 1926; Harmony 767-H, 1928)
Edison Mixed Quartet, "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight?" (CYL: Edison Blue Amberol 2125, n.d.)
Giddens Sisters, "Where Is My Wandering Boy?" (OKeh 45143, 1927)
Hall & Ryan, "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight" (Globe 4066, c. 1924)
Sid Harkreader, "Where Is My Boy Tonight" (Vocalion 15075, 1925)
Harry Macdonough, "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight" (CYL: Edison 1559, c. 1898)
J. W. Myers, "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight?" (CYL: Columbia 31357, c. 1900) (Berliner 0918, rec. 1896)
Peerless Quartet, "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight" (Paramount 33010, 1919)
Riley Puckett, "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight" (Columbia 15004-D, rec. 1924)
Unidentified baritone "Where Is My Wandering Boy To-Night" (Busy Bee 1120, c. 1906)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues" (quotes this song)
SAME TUNE:
Where Is My Wandering Boy (IWW) (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 176)
NOTES [82 words]: This should not be confused with "The Wandering Boy," a different song from the looks of it. - PJS
They are indeed different, though the concept is similar.
For background on composer Robert Lowry, see the notes to "How Can I Keep from Singing." According to W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 237, Lowry's title for the piece was "The Absent Child." Which I think proves that one can be a good songwriter without being a good title-writer. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FSWB270

Where Is Old Elijah? (The Hebrew Children, The Promised Land)

DESCRIPTION: "Where oh where is old Elijah? (x3) 'Way over in the Promised Land. He went up in a fiery chariot (x3) 'Way over in the promised land. By and by we will go and see him...." Unrelated verses on Biblical themes, e.g. "Where are the Hebrew children"
AUTHOR: Peter Cartwright?
EARLIEST DATE: 1832 (Sacred Harp)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 73, "Wonder Where is Good Ole Daniel" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 107 in the 1901 edition)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 646, "Way Over in the Promised Land" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 457-459, "The Promised Land" (2 texts, 1 tune, the second text purporting to be a translation into an Indian language though neither Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety nor I can say which one)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 163, "The Hebrew Children" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 205-206, "Safe at Home in the Promised Land" (1 text)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 67, "Safe in the Promised Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 164, "Wonder Whar Is Good Old Daniel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 49, "Saved in the Promised Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 92-93, "Where O Where Is Old Elijah?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 84-85, "'Way Over in the Promised Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 23, "Where Is Old Elijah" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 160, "(Where, Oh, where is Elijah?" (1 short text)
ST San092 (Partial)
Roud #4213
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Paw-Paw Patch" (tune & meter)
SAME TUNE:
Where O Where ("Where, o where, are the verdant freshmen (x3), Safe in the sophomore class") (_Songs that Never Grow Old_, 1913, p. 78) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 59)
NOTES [175 words]: Elijah's transportation to heaven in a fiery chariot is described in 2 Kings 2:11.
Absalom's rebellion against his father David occupies 2 Samuel 15-18 (Absalom's death occurs in 18:9-18); the extended story of David's sin and its consequences, including the rebellion, occupies 2 Samuel 11-19.
According to the Sacred Harp, the tune is by Peter Cartwright (1785-1872), and is known as "Hebrew Children." No author is listed for the words, however, and the versions show strong variations. Fred W. Allsopp, in Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II, p. 160, says that it has been sung by "professional minstels." - RBW
Elder-Charlotteville: "One version of this song occurs in Sacred Songs and Solos (Sankey and Moody)." I don't find it there so, if someone could add a reference here, that would contribute to what we know about how "Sankeys" change when sung by Spiritual Baptists (see, for example, Ira D. Sankey, Sacred Songs and Solos: Twelve Hundred Hymns (London: Marshall Morgan & Scott Ltd, 1921? ("Digitized by Internet Archive"))). - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: San092

Where Moyola Waters Flow

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the "little cot I've never seen" (!) at home by the Moyola. Living in America, he misses Ireland, "Where a dear old mother's mourning As she keeps the home fires burning For the emigrants returning."
AUTHOR: James O'Kane
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation homesickness
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H787, p. 215, "Where Moyola Waters Flow" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH787

Where My Lord Went to Pray

DESCRIPTION: "Way over yonder beyond the mountain, Where my Lord went to pray, They dressed my Lord in a long white robe...." "He hewed him out a cross..." "Come and help me bear this old cross along...." The singer tells of Jesus's death and salvation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 654, "Where My Lord Went to Pray" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 654, "Where My Lord Went to Pray" (1 incomplete tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #11944
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Never Said a Mumbling Word" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [44 words]: According to Mark 15:21, etc., Jesus needed help to carry his cross, though John (19:17) says he carried his own cross. The size of the cross is not specified, and when the soldiers dressed Jesus in fine clothes, they put him in a *purple* cloak (Mark 15:20). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3654

Where No Cabins Fall

DESCRIPTION: "As my heart wanders back to that quiet little shack Where in childhood I used to play," the singer was happy with Mother, Dad, and prayer. Now he's "drifted away," but he wishes he could go back. But he can't go back "till he [God] shall call"
AUTHOR: Nolan Jeffress (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 ("Rainbow Gleams," according to Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
KEYWORDS: home death nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 52, "Where No Cabins Fall" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Southern Home" (theme)
NOTES [49 words]: This is so close to "Southern Home" in theme and vocabulary that I seriously thought about lumping them. But although the plot is the same, and they use many of the same words, they don't assemble the words in the same order. I wonder a little if the two didn't inspire each other, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ABLT052

Where Now is the Prophet Brigham

DESCRIPTION: "Now where's the Prophet Brigham? (x2) Down in Kanab, down in Kanab. By and by we'll go and fetch him, Down in Kanab, Down in Kanab.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | Brigham Young
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1801-1877 - Life of Brigham Young
1832 - Young becomes a Mormon
1844 - Young becomes leader of the Mormons
1847 - Mormon migration to Utah
1850 - Young made Governor of Utah territory. From 1857, however, the U.S. Government enforced various restrictions on the Mormons and their governor, mostly in response to polygamy.
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #219, "The Prophet Brigham" (1 short text)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, p. 263, "(Where now's the Prophet Brigham)" (1 short text)
Roud #10899
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brigham Young (I)" (character of Brigham Young) and references there
NOTES [41 words]: Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest connects this with an event of 1872, when a warrant was issued for Brigham Young's arrest and he briefly could not be found. This seems reasonable but beyond proof, given that we seem to have just the one verse. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Hubb219

Where O Where Is Old Elijah?

See Where Is Old Elijah? (The Hebrew Children, The Promised Land) (File: San092)

Where Shall I Be When de Firs' Trumpet Soun'?

See O Where Will Ye Be? (File: ChFRA083)

Where Shall I Be When the First Trumpet Sounds?

See O Where Will Ye Be? (File: ChFRA083)

Where Shall I Be?

See O Where Will Ye Be? (File: ChFRA083)

Where Shall I Go?

DESCRIPTION: "As I walked out one moon shiny night, As I met a big dog, he offered to bite... Now, don't you bite me. Ah, or, where shall I go?...Oh, I want to go home." The singer slips in a well and thinks he'll die. On his deathbed, they shake a brandy keg over him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: humorous injury death drink dog
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 170, "Where Shall I Go?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11362
File: Brne170

Where Shall Our Goodman Lie?

DESCRIPTION: Where shall our goodman [or Bonnie Annie] lie until summer [or the cold winter night] is over? Up in the hen loft among the rotten timber.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1817 (Cromek)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 130, "Whar Sall Bonnie Annie Lye" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: R.H. Cromek, Reliques of Robert Burns (London, 1817 fourth edition ("Digitized by Google")), p. 295, "Whare'll our Gudeman lie" (1 text (fragment?))
Roud #15104
NOTES [249 words]: Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 is the Bonnie Annie version.
Cromek: "'Where wad bonie Annie lie.' The old name of this tune is -- 'Whare'll our Gudeman lie.' A silly old stanza of it runs thus -- ...." Cromek, p. 188, explains that of the following pages - including the "bonie Annie" note -- "The chief part of the following Remarks on Scottish Songs and Ballads exist in the hand-writing of Robert Burns, in an interleaved Copy, in 4 Volumes, Octavo, of 'Johnson's Scots Musical Museum.'"
There is at least one other song connecting "bonnie Annie" and "our goodman." "The Cordial" begins "Where wad bonnie Annie ly?" and is sung to "Where shall our goodman ly?" It's a dialog. The man asks, "Where wad bonny Annie ly? Alane nae mair ye maun lie; Wad ye a goodman try? Is that the thing your lacking?" She's afraid he would keep her awake. He assures her he'll let her sleep. And if waking the marching oboes frighten her will he protect her? He assures her again and a "healthy cordial standing by shall presently revive thee." She asks for a priest to join them: "let me try How I'll wi' a goodman lie, Wha can a cordial give me" (sources: Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Choice Songs, Scots and English (London, 1876 (reprint of the 1850 fourteenth edition) ("Digitized by Google")), p. 83, "The Cordial" ("Where wad bonny Annie lie?") (1 text); Broadside Bodleian, Harding B 11(2279), "The Cordial" ("Where wad bonny Annie ly?"), Barlow, no date). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LyCr2130

Where the Bravest Cowboys Lie

DESCRIPTION: The singer, a mountain resident, courts a girl; she agrees to marry him if he becomes a cowboy. Despite his parents' advice, he takes to the trail -- and suffers cold, snow, and Indian attacks. The singer wishes to "fly to where the bravest cowboys lie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: love courting travel cowboy fight death Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 55, "Where the Bravest Cowboys Lie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11086
NOTES [59 words]: I have to suspect that the Fife version of this piece is a fusion of two pieces, one in which an Indian attack was foiled and another in which it succeeded. (The introduction, about loving the girl, might even be a third piece). As the song stands, it doesn't really make sense. But since I can't identify the earlier pieces, I have to list it as one. - RBW
File: FCW055

Where the Gadie Rins (I)

DESCRIPTION: The singer wishes she were "Where the Gadie rins." She recalls her (ane/twa) richt love(s). "The ane he was killed at the Lowrin fair, and t'ither wis drowned in Dee." She has twice been a bride but never a wife. She recalls her mourning
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: love marriage death wife mourning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #10, pp. 1-2, "Where Gadie Rins" (3 texts plus 2 fragments)
Greig/Duncan6 1223, "Gin I Were Where the Gadie Rins" (6 texts, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 347-348, "Oh! Gin I Were Where Gaudie Rins" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth Norman MacDonald, "The Gesto Collection of Highland Music," 1895 (reprinted 1997 by Llanerch Publishers), p. 125, "The Back of Bennichie" (1 tune, presumably this since it is footnoted as "Where Gaudie runs")
ST Ord347 (Full)
Roud #5404
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Where the Gadie Rins" (II), etc. (tune, chorus)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Where the Gaudie Rins
NOTES [507 words]: The melody "Where (the) Gadie Rins" is said to be a common pipe tune in Scotland. (MacColl and Seeger date it to 1815; Ord suspects the eighteenth century.) Like some other pipe tunes (e.g. "The Flowers of the Forest), it seems to have picked up various texts.
One may suspect that, like some fiddle tunes, it had a mnemonic verse or two. All the texts seem to have a lyric similar to:
Oh, gin I were whaur the Gadie rins,
The Gadie rins, the Gadie rins,
Oh, gin I were whaur the Gadie rins
At the back o Bennachie
or
But there's meal and there's ale whaur the Gadie rins,
The Gadie rins, the Gadie rins,
But there's meal and there's ale whaur the Gadie rins
At the back o Bennachie.
Ord calls the air "one of the best-known songs in the North of Scotland," but says that most people know only fragments of verses. This text gets pride of place as the only one I've heard recorded.
The "Lowrin fair" or "Lowren'-fair" is described by Kinloch as "a market held at Lawrence-kirk, in Mearnshire."
This has one of the saddest themes I can think of for a woman prior to the twentieth century, when it was hard to accomplish anything when unmarried:
Noo it's twice I hae been a bride,
Hae been a bride, hae been a bride,
Noo it's twice I hae been a bride,
But a wife I'll never be.
I cannot help but note the similarity of this to a couplet composed by Margaret of Austria to lament her fate:
Ci gist Margot la gentille demoiselle
Mariee deux fois,et si mourut pucelle.
("Here lies Margot, the willing bride, Twice married, but a virgin when she died." See Garrett Mattingly, Catherine of Aragon, 1941 [I use the 1990 Book-of-the-Month club edition], p. 17). - RBW
Of the five Greig #10 texts he considers only a fragment and one long text known to the traditional singer, "perhaps assigned to about the middle of the eighteenth century ... may be earlier." The others are literary texts. An attribution of one to Dr Arthur Johnston in the earlier part of the seventeenth century "must surely be a mistake." Another "was written by Dr John Park about 1826...." "John Imlah, a song-writer of considerable repute who was born in Aberdeen in 1799 and died in 1846 ... wrote two versions, " the second of which Greig reprints. As for the origin of the fragment -- the usual first verse -- "our theory is this. Some native of the Garioch serving in some of the continental wars -- say under Marlborough, had heard the regimental march, and ever thinking of his far-off home, had shaped its phrases into -- Oh gin I were where Gadie rins... At the back of Benachie."
Imlah, writing in 1827, in a note to his own "O! Gin I Were Whare Gadie Rowes!," has the usual chorus and says it is the chorus of "a jacobite ditty, but of which I am in no further possession than the chorus" (source: John Imlah, May Flowers (London, 1827 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 230).
Greig/Duncan6 1223C shares a key verse with "My Mither Built a Wee, Wee House": "I canna keep my maidenhead Amo' sae mony men." That's in line with Ord's "twice I've been a bride..." verse.- BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Ord347

Where the Gadie Rins (II)

DESCRIPTION: Singer finds that his girl's "kilt (is) short and I could see." She tells his he's being unfair; she's going home to her mother. He muses that when her mother finds out what he's done, he'll have to fly. He laments that he can't go and see her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (collected from Maggie McPhee)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer takes his girl on his knee; "her kilt was short and I could see." She tells his he's being unfair; they've slept together, but he doesn't care, so she's going home to her mother. If her baby's a boy, she'll call him Jock. He tells her to go home, and muses that when her mother finds out what he's done, he'll have to fly. He laments that he can't go and see her, and says he'll live with his mother until he dies "at the back o' Bennachie." Chorus: "There's meal and there's ale whaur the Gadie rins/At the back o' Bennachie."
KEYWORDS: sex rejection parting pregnancy baby lover mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 46, "Where Gadie Rins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5404
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Back o' Bennachie
I Wish I Were Where Gadie Rins
NOTES [163 words]: The melody "Where (the) Gadie Rins" is said to be a common pipe tune in Scotland. (MacColl and Seeger date it to 1815; Ord suspects the eighteenth century.) Like some other pipe tunes (e.g. "The Flowers of the Forest), it seems to have picked up various texts.
One may suspect that, like some fiddle tunes, it had a mnemonic verse or two. All the texts seem to have a lyric similar to:
Oh, gin I were whaur the Gadie rins,
The Gadie rins, the Gadie rins,
Oh, gin I were whaur the Gadie rins
At the back o Bennachie
or
But there's meal and there's ale whaur the Gadie rins,
The Gadie rins, the Gadie rins,
But there's meal and there's ale whaur the Gadie rins
At the back o Bennachie. - RBW
I was tempted to use "The Back o' Bennachie" as the title for the main entry; however, there seem to be several songs under that name (including versions of "Locks and Bolts") whose plots are quite different from this one, and from each other. So I stuck with Maggie McPhee's title. - PJS
File: McCST046

Where the Grass Grows Green

DESCRIPTION: "I'm Denny Blake, from County Clare" to sing in praise of Erin. The Irishman is painted poor but "his heart and hospitality Has much to do with that." He's foolish but not vicious and has a weakness for drink. Wish for "better days to Erin"
AUTHOR: Harry Clifton (1824-1872)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(4145))
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic poverty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 144, "Where the Grass Grows Green" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 106, "Where the Grass Grows Green" (1 text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, p. 10, "(no title)" (1 excerpt)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 207-208, "Where the Grass Grows Green" (1 text)
Roud #8213
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4145), "Where the Grass Grows Green", Hopwood and Crew (London), 1840-1866; also Firth b.25(186), Harding B 26(674), "Where the Grass Grows Green"; 2806 c.8(246), 2806 c.8(308), "The Grass Grows Green"
LOCSinging, as105770, "I Can't Forget Old Erin Where the Grass Grows Green", unknown, 19C
NOTES [68 words]: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(4145) notes "written and sung by Harry Clifton, Words and Music published by Hopwood & Crew 42, New Broad Street, London"
For information about Harry Clifton, early music hall singer and song writer, see Mudcat Cafe and Frederick Denny's World of the Music Hall sites entries for Harry Clifton - BS
See also the notes to "The Good Ship Kangaroo" for information on Clifton. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: OCon144

Where the Moorcocks Grow (The Mountain Stream; With My Dog and Gun)

DESCRIPTION: The singer sets out "with my dog and gun o'er the blooming heather." He meets a girl, and begs her to marry him, offering to give up roving if she does. She decides to wait "another season," both to test his love and to gain her parent's consent
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: rambling courting love marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 136, "The Mountain Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H32, pp. 269-270, "Where the Moorcocks Grow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 20-21, "The Mountain Streams Where the Moorcocks Crow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, p. 181, "The Mountain Streams" (1 text)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 18, "The Mountain Streams" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DOGNGUN
Roud #2124
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "The Mountain Streams Where the Moorcock Crows" (on IREButcher01)
Dennis Cassley, "The Mountain Streams" (on FSBFTX13)
Marge Steiner, "The Mountain Streams Where The Moorcocks Crow" (on Steiner01)
Sheila Stewart, "Mountain Streams Where the Moorcocks Crow" (on Voice17); "MyDog and Gun" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
Brigid Tunney, "The Mountain Streams" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
Paddy Tunney, "The Mountain Streams" (on FSB01; as "The Mountain Streams Where the Moorcocks Crow" on Voice06); "The Mountain Streams Where the Moorcocks Crow" (on IRPTunney02)
NOTES [58 words]: Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland, based mostly on the affinity of this piece with "The Corncrake," argues that the song comes from Ayreshire in Scotland; Henry claimed that "the song was composed about 70 years ago [i.e. c. 1855] by a roving sportsman in honour of a young lady of Letterloan." I know of no solid evidence for either claim. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: K136

Where the Morning Glories Grow

DESCRIPTION: "I remember, I remember the place where I was born, Where the morning glories twine around the door at early morn... I'd like to wander back again down the lane to yesterday." The singer recalls the wildwood, the schoolhouse, and childhood
AUTHOR: Words: Ray Egan and Gus Kahn / Music: Richard Whiting (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: nonballad home flowers children campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 190, 335, "I Want to Wake Up in the Morning"/"I Want to Wake Up in the Morning Where the Morning Glories Grow" (notes only)
RECORDINGS:
Cofer Brothers, "Where the Morning Glories Grow" (OKeh 45137)
SAME TUNE:
I'd Like to Wake Up ("I'd like to wake up every morning At XXX Camp") (Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 85; Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 26)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Where the Orange Blossoms Gtow
NOTES [82 words]: Apparently this was released with an alternate, Florida, version, in which orange blossoms replaced morning glories, so the song always had two different titles. And Averill would seem to have made it three to avoid choosing between the two.
Thanks to Jim Dixon for pointing out the 1917 sheet music. The camp versions may well derive from Bing Crosby, who recorded the song.
Roud #18918 shares this song's first line, but does not appear, based on the items indexed, to be the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF190W

Where the Old Allegheny and Monongahela Flow

DESCRIPTION: "I want to go back once more To those hills I roamed before... Where those mighty rivers flow." "I live in that city that is built among the hills, Where smoke is always pouring from the big rolling mills... Where the old Allegheny and Monongahela flow."
AUTHOR: unknown (one verse perhaps by J. J. Manners)
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends); supposedly in circulation by 1910
KEYWORDS: river return technology
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 434-435, "Where the Old Allegheny and Monongahela Flow" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7750
File: KPL434

Where the Orange Blossoms Grow

See Where the Morning Glories Grow (File: ACSF190W)

Where the River Shannon Flows

DESCRIPTION: "There's a pretty spot in Ireland, I always claim for my land, Where the fairies and the blarney Will never, never die." The singer recalls the land and the girl by the Shannon. He will not send a letter; he will sail home himself with news of his return
AUTHOR: James I. Russell
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (from Russell's production "The Irish Serving Girls"; sheet music by M. Witmark & Sons published 1905)
KEYWORDS: love home reunion Ireland
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 123, "Where the River Shannon Flows" (1 text) (p. 104 in the 1919 edition)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 112-113, "Where the River Shannon Flows" (1 text)
DT, RSHANNON
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 355-358, "Where the River Shannon Flows" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1905 sheet music)
Roud #9579
SAME TUNE:
Where the Fraser River Flows (by Joe Hill) (Barrie Stavis and Frank Harmon, editors, _The Songs of Joe Hill_, 1960, now reprinted in the Oak Archives series, pp. 12-13); (William M. Adler, _The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon_, pp. 200-201) (Gibbs M. Smith, _Joe Hill_, 1969 (I use the 1984 Peregrine Smith Books edition), pp, 242-243) (Franklin Rosemont, _Joe Hill: The IWW & the Making of a Revolutionary Workingclass Counterculture_, Charles H. Kerr, 2002, p. 91)
A Pretty Spot in Ireland (parody about stolen clothes) (Harbin-Parodology, #130, p. 40; Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 179)
Camp Warren Beckons (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 458)
NOTES [78 words]: Another of Dean-FlyingCloud's pop songs; the Digital Tradition says that it was recorded by none other than Bing Crosby!
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 290, estimates that this was the twelfth most popular song in America in 1910, peaking at #11 in November 1910 (#1 for the year being Beth Slate Whitson and Leo Friedman's "Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Dean112

Where the Soul Never Dies (Canaan's Land)

DESCRIPTION: "Kind friends there'll be no sad farewell There'll be no tear-dimmed eyes Where all is peace and joy and love And the soul of man never dies." Singer is bound to Canaan's land. A love-light guides his way; a rose blooms there, etc.
AUTHOR: William M. Golden
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (songbook, publ. by R. E. Winsett, Dayton, TN)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer says s/he is on the way to Canaan's land, where the soul never dies. A love-light guides his way; a rose blooms there for him/her, and there s/he will spend eternity. His/her life will end in deathless sleep, and s/he'll reap eternal joys. Ch.: "Kind friends there'll be no sad farewell/There'll be no tear-dimmed eyes/Where all is peace and joy and love/And the soul of man never dies"
KEYWORDS: farewell death dying nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, CNAANLND
ADDITIONAL: Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 270-271, "To Canaan's Land I'm on My Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5722
RECORDINGS:
Anglin Bros., "Where the Soul of Man Never Dies" (Vocalion 04692/Conqueror 9243, 1939, rec. 1938)
Blue Ridge Sacred Singers, "Where the Soul Never Dies" (Gennett 6916/Champion 15793/Supertone 9501, 1929)
Blue Sky Boys, "Where The Soul Never Dies" (Bluebird B-6457/Montgomery Ward M-5029, 1936)
Burchfield Brothers, "Where the Soul Never Dies" (Capitol 40011, 1947)
Jim & Sarah Garland, "Canaan Land Where The Soul of Man Never Dies" (AFS 2022 B, 1938)
Jack & Leslie "Where The Soul of Man Never Dies" (Decca 5589, 1938)
Oak Ridge Sacred Singers, "Where The Soul Never Dies" (Supertone 9501, 1929)
Renfro Family, "Where the Soul Never Dies" (Kentucky 600, n.d.)
Rev. M. L. Thrasher & his Gospel Singers, "Where The Soul Never Dies" (Columbia 15271-D, 1928)
NOTES [93 words]: The song is typically sung in parts, with one part singing a simplified chorus under the main words: "No sad....farewells/No tear.....dimmed eyes/Where all.....is love/And the soul.....never dies." In that form it's become popular in bluegrass, folk-revival and C & W circles (following Hank Williams' recording). - PJS
According to Morgan, author Golden called this "To Canaan's Land I'm on My Way," but it was Hank Williams who recorded it as "Where the Soul of Man Never Dies," and the recording was popular enough that that became the common title. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: DTcnaanl

Where the Soul of Man Never Dies

See Where the Soul Never Dies (Canaan's Land) (File: DTcnaanl)

Where the Sun Don't Never Go Down

DESCRIPTION: "I want to see my mother sometime (x2), where the flowers will bloom forever, and the sun don't never go down... Don't you feel like shouting sometimes, sometimes?" Repeat with father, brother, sister, Savior
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Dock Reed)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad family
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 88, "Where the Sun Don't Never Go Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 72, "(The Sun Will Never Go Down)" (1 text); p. 238, "The Sun Will Never Go Down" (1 tune, partial text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 96-97, "Where the Sun Will Never Go Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, pp. 242-243, "Where De Sun Don't Neber Go Down" (1 text, with no mention of family members; it's about how hard the singer works, prays, mourns so hard)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 337, "(The Sun Will Never Go Down)" (1 text)
ST Wa088 (Partial)
Roud #5717
RECORDINGS:
George Herod, "O, The Sun Don't Never Go Down (Don't you feel like cryin' some time)" (on MuSouth07)
Dock Reed, "Where The Sun Will Never Go Down" (on NFMAla5) (on ReedWard01)
File: Wa088

Where the Sun Will Never Go Down

See Where the Sun Don't Never Go Down (File: Wa088)

Where the Wattles Are Blooming (Holiday Song)

DESCRIPTION: "Sunshine is over the meadow, Sunshine is over the hill..." "Come with me, merry and free, Gay as a bird on the spray, Grief and care, come if you dare, We will be happy today." "Come where the wattles are blooming, Down in the flowery glade"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: lyric nonballad
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 182-183, "Where the Wattles are Blooming"; "Holiday Song" (2 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES [86 words]: Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2 compares this to the William Blake poem "The Echoing Green."
Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 266, say of the Wattle "Folk name of the native [Australian] plant species Acacia. Wattle is a popular Australian icon, and is also favoured in folksong and popular verse for romantic and sentimental death scenes. Possibly due to this association, some people believe it is unluck to have wattle in the house. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: MCB182

Where There's a Will There's a Way

DESCRIPTION: "This life is a difficult riddle." "So what's the use of repining, For where there's a will there's a way, Tomorrow the sun will be shining Although it is cloudy today." A spider tries nine times to climb a wall and finally succeeds. Work brings success
AUTHOR: probably Harry Clifton (credited to him in his performances)
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (performed by Harry Clifton)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad bug
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife/Fife-SaintsOfSageAndSaddle, pp. 82-83, "(What's the Use of Repining)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13835
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.13(43), "Where There's a Will There's a Way," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also 2806 c.13(102), ibid; also Harding B 11(4146), ibid; also 2806 b.9(131)=2806 b.9(146), P. Brereton (Dublin), c. 1867; also Harding B 26(675), ibid.; also Firth b.26(164)=Harding B 11(4147), L. Povey (Berkeley), 18??; also Harding B 15(371a), W. S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; also Harding B 15(371b), H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Harding B 16(304d), unknown, n.d.
NOTES [67 words]: For background on Harry Clifton, see the notes to "The Good Ship Kangaroo."
Laura Ingalls Wilder quotes a a very substantial portion of this in The Long Winter, chapter 33, "Christmas in May," on the last two pages of the book. Her version has experienced significant folk processing, but of course that might be because the book was written almost sixty years after the Hard Winter of 1880/1881. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FSSS082

Where They Were

See The Old Barbed Wire (I Know Where They Are) (File: San442)

Where Was Peter

DESCRIPTION: "Where was Peter when the church fell down In some lonesome valley with his head hung down." "Jesus locked the lion's jaw"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 8, pp. 64-66, "Where Was Peter" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Daniel In the Lion's Den (II)" ("Jesus locked the lion's jaw")
NOTES [59 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text.
Daniel 6:22 has Daniel say, "My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me" (King James). I have seen the "angel" identified with Jesus so that may be the connection here.
Parrish includes this among her "ring shout" songs. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Parr008

Where Was You Last Night?

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, where was you last night (x3), Under them bilers sleeping." "I wend in the valley, Lord, I didn't go to stay, Under them bilers sleepin, My soul got happy... Under them boilers..." "The head mate hollered and the captain squalled..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 77-79, "Where Wuz You Las' Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10026
NOTES [40 words]: Almost all the lyrics of this song have parallels elsewhere (e.g. from "Down in the Valley to Pray," "The Bayou Sarah," and others), but the "Under them bilers [boilers] sleeping" chorus seems unique, so I have listed the song separately. - RBW
File: MW077

Where'd You Get Yo' Whisky?

See Jinny Go Round and Around (File: R272)

Where's Your Licence?

See Where's Your License? (File: MA102)

Where's Your License?

DESCRIPTION: "The inspector of traps said, 'Now, my fine chaps, We'll go license-hunting today.'" The inspectors set out to find illegal traps and diggers. But they find few traps, and the illegal diggers all make their escape
AUTHOR: Charles R. Thatcher (1831-1878)
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (The Old Victorian Songster, according to Ingleton)
KEYWORDS: hunting escape technology law
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 102-103, "Where's Your License?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 75-77, "Where's Your License" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-GoldrushSongster, pp. 36-37, "Where's Your Licence?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, pp. 14-15, ""Where's Your Licence?" (1 text, tune referenced)
Anderson-FarewellToOldEngland, pp. 196-197, "Where's Your Licence?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hoskins-GoldfieldBalladeer-LifeAndTimes-Charles-R-Thatcher, pp. 142-143, "Where's Your License?" (1 text)
Hoskins/Thatcher-LifeOnTheGoldfields, pp. 49-50, "(no title)" (1 text); p. 151, "License Hunting" (1 tune, partial text)
Anderson/Thatcher-GoldDiggersSongbook, pp. 23-24, "Where's Your License?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 63-64, "Licence-hunting" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Geoffrey C. Ingleton, _True Patriots All: or News from Early Australia as told in A Collection of Broadsides_ ("Garnered and Decorated" by Ingleton), Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1988, p. 249, "Where's Your License?" (1 text)
Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 168-169, "Where's Your Licence?" (1 text)
Roud #27775
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gay Cavalier" (tune)
NOTES [3010 words]: According to Wannan, this is a sort of Australian Music Hall song: "From ''"Where's Your Licence?" a celebrated parody on "The Gay Cavalier." and sung by Mr. Thatcher, on the Gold Fields, with great applause.'"
Davey/Seal, p.247, give this micro-biography of Charles Thatcher: "Popularly known as 'The Goldfields Minstrel' and 'The Colonial Minstrel,' Charles Thatcher (1831-1878) migrated from England in 1853. He was well known on both the Australian and New Zealand goldfields, specializing in humorous parodies of popular songs, his new lyrics reflecting the lifestyles and attitudes of the gold diggers."
Clark, p. 151, says, "During the years 1858 to 1861 a colonial minstrel, Charles Thatcher, wandered from town to town in the colony of Victoria singing to audiences who clapped, catcalled, whistled, and cheered him to the echo as he boasted of the power of the people to:
"Upset squatterdom's domination,
Give every poor man a home."
Clark argues that Thatcher's lyrics were emblematic of the changes in the land laws in the period 1861-1883 that gave an economic opening to "the Bourgeoisie."
Ell, p. 122, gives an entry (under the letter "I"!) titled "The Inimitable Thatcher or the Goldfields Balladeer": "Charles Thatcher was a famous entertainer on the goldfields both of New Zealand and Australia. His forte was popular songs, many of which reflected on the lives of miners and their attitudes.... Some said he was vulgar, but the audiences loved him. Thatcher wrote his own ballas, often on events of the day, and frequently targeting politicians and officials. He is thus credited with originating the expression 'old identity' in a song [in the index as "The Old Identity"] about Otago provincial elections."
Hoskins says that his father, also Charles Robert, had an import/export business in Brighton; Charles Jr. was one of nine children. At the age of sixteen, Charles left home, "equipped only with his flute and an idea to seek work amongst London theatre orchestras" (Hoskins, p. 2). He must have had some talent, because he managed to get jobs in the theatres (Hoskins, pp. 3-4), although it sounds as if the financial arrangements were irregular at best. But it gained him exposure to some of the popular performers of the time and their sort of music.
In 1853, he decided that that wasn't a good enough life (Anderson-GoldrushSongster, p. 7); as he recorded, "Left Plymouth one day in July, And soon was on the ocean," heading for the gold-fields of Australia (Bendigo had had a gold rush starting in 1851; Anderson-GoldrushSongster, p. 28). "But deuce a nugget I could find... A deluded green new chum" (Hoskins, pp. 7-8).
Apparently Thatcher had gone to the goldfields with a group of honest men, and they actually made enough to cover their expenses, but he didn't like all the dirt and the tasks of maintaining the claim (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 9). And he chanced to meet one of his old musical acquaintances from London, who was now running an entertainment tent (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, pp. 9-10). So he went back to being a musician in the theatres of Bendigo, initially mostly as an instrumentalist, but also singing a few of his own songs. The latter were so successful that he soon started touring.
To make it easier for others to sing his songs, he usually set them to popular melodies, making it possible to sell them as broadsides. A lawyer by the name of McDonogh had some of them printed (Anderson-GoldrushSongster, p. 8). By 1855, his songs had become widely known, and he was engaged as the chief attraction at the new "Shamrock Concert Hall" (Hoskins, p. 9). The theatre owners hired other performers as well, and one of them, a widow named Annie Vitelli, a soprano, became Thatcher's wife (Hoskins, pp.. 10-11).
Vitelli (maiden name: Day) was the wife of a former choir master from Windsor in England, who expected to find gold in the streets of Australia but instead was reduced to teaching singing (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 108). He and his wife apparently were separated; she came to Bendigo to make a living, and it sounds as if she and Thatcher became friendly very quickly; Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 107, says that Thatcher introduced her to the stage on her first arrival in Bendigo. Apparently they were performing together within days). Hoskins, p. 28, says that she sang sentimental ballads during their tours to balance off his topical songs. When her husband lay dying, he went with her to the deathbed (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 109) -- which of course opened the door for them to marry. The ceremony took place on February 8, 1861 in Newtown, Geelong (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 115). Their first child would be born in New Zealand in 1862 (Hoskins, p. 133).
The fact that Thatcher had become a popular performer doesn't mean that he was entirely out of the gold-hunting business; he and a friend found a nugget on a vacation trip, and this apparently led to a small rush to Bryant's Ranges (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, pp. 38-39), now Maldon, which resulted in at least two Thatcher songs, "Bryant's Ranges O" (in the Index) and "Bryant's Ranges" (not indexed, but see under "Bow Wow Wow"). And he wasn't just a lowbrow; in addition to borrowing popular tunes, he would sometimes riff on mid- and highbrow works such as Gray's famous "Elegy," Byron, Dickens, Thomas Moore, and Shakespeare (Hoskins/Thatcher-LifeOnTheGoldfields, pp. 10-12).
Apparently Thatcher's shows had something of a dramatic air about them; he would sometimes appear in costume, as when he sang a piece "The Fire Brigade Dinner" (about the local brigade's foibles) in a fireman's costume (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, pp. 94-95). His ordinary costume seems to have been a fancy suit (Hoskins/Thatcher-LifeOnTheGoldfields, p. 8, says he dressed in black, and p. 3 has a very poor sketch which appears to show him singing in a multi-piece suit with tails).
At least once, one of Thatcher's songs was so topical that the theatre owner physically attacked him -- but Thatcher, who was quick with his fists, beat him off (Hoskins, p. 12; he also ended up facing occasional court proceedings, but the libel charges generally didn't stick). On another occasion, he was attacked by an actor with a whip (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 70), and also got into a conflict with a policeman, Captain Robertson, resulting in his imprisonment (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 71, 74). And Thatcher seems to have been restless. When the Australian gold fever died down and there was a strike in Otago, New Zealand in 1861, Thatcher was ready to move again; in 1862, he headed for Otago (Hoskins, p. 13). He went on to several more stops in New Zealand, including Wellington and finally Auckland; the appearances were generally successful except that he sometimes had trouble finding a pianist (Hoskins, p. 38).
He and his wife briefly settled down in Queenstown, opening a public house but still performing in other places (Hoskins, p. 66). But a dreadfully cold, wet winter in 1863 caused him to sell out and leave (Hoskins, pp. 75-76), setting out on an even bigger, longer tour that lasted until 1865 (Hoskins, p. 78). Toward the end, he suffered a shipwreck (Hoskins, p. 89). It's perhaps little wonder he was getting a bit tired of New Zealand.... At least he was able to settle down long enough for his wife to bear their second daughter in New Zealand in 1864 (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 134). He returned to Australia in 1867 and went on a tour there, then made another trip to New Zealand in 1869 (Hoskins, p. 103). After finishing in Dunedin, he returned to Melbourne and never visiting New Zealand again (Hoskins, p. 129). He eventually went back to England and went into business (Hoskins, pp. 132-133).
I have yet to see a photo of Thatcher (it sounds as if there are none), but Hoskins, p. 73, says that he was "a big man, good looking, always smiling, and quick in wit, temper, and ideas"; he reproduces a woodcut of Thatcher facing p. 36. Anderson-ColonialMinstrel has the same drawing as a frontispiece, and says it comes from the cover of a songbook. Anderson-GoldrushSongster has a different but clearly related woodcut on p. 6 and on p. 7 says Thatcher "has been described as a physically big man, good-looking in a slightly effeminate way. The one drawing of the songster that we know of shows him with long hair and a rather drooping mustache. Although born in Bristol (1831), Thatcher always referred to Brighton as his home. It was to Brighton that his parents moved to begin a 'Foreign Warehouse' in King's Road.... [A]s far as we know, [he] did not return to Brighton until some time after 1870.
Once he arrived back, he built an import/export business, and began visiting other countries to buy merchandise. He seems to have been restless -- he even visited China and Japan, and in a letter to his fans printed in the Wellington Independent, reported that he had even learned Chinese and Japanese (Hoskins, p. 135). His last trip was to China; he arrived during a cholera outbreak, and died there (although it's not clear that he died of cholera) in November 1878 (Hoskins, p. 137). Fortunately, he had built up enough of a fortune to allow his widow and children a decent living.
In addition to flute, he was able to play the harmonium; strongly attracted to evangelical preaching, he at times played harmonium for services and revival meetings (Hoskins, p. 98). At least once, he played his flute with a sort of chamber ensemble -- piano, violin, cornet, and flute (Hoskins, p. 104). And he was handy with firearms, winning at least one sport shooting trophy (Hoskins, p. 101).
Hoskins/Thatcher-LifeOnTheGoldfields, p. 1, declares that "Thatcher was a reformer, but always impatient with the realities of politics. His topical song champion working people with cutting attacks on official incompetence."
Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, pp. 151-153, lists no fewer than twelve Thatcher songsters, some of them published in multiple editions but most of them now extremely rare; Anderson was unable to locate any copies at all of the Wakatipu Songster, and the only copy of the Auckland Vocalist he located is damaged. It appears, based on the bibliography in Hoskins, that Anderson may have missed some New Zealand editions, but there is no question but that Thatcher's output was high and its survival low. The one modern publication, which I have indexed as "Thatcher," contains reprints of only a third of the total, having only the "Colonial Minstrel" (1859), the "Colonial Songster [#1]" (1857?), the "Colonial Songster [#2]" (1865?), and the "Victoria Songster" (not listed by Anderson). He also published a number of broadsides. Clearly there is more work to be done on his bibliography.
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 58-59, says that this particular song refers to a riot which took place on December 3, 1854, when soldiers assisted policemen in violently controlling a protest by gold diggers. "Thatcher's License-Hunting describes the provocative police practices which did a good deal to cause the revolt. Captain Bumble's Letter [also by Thatcher] jeers satirically at the victorious, but unpopular, soldiers." It's not hard to understand why the miners were upset; as early as November 1851, two months after the discovery of gold at Bendigo, the government had declared that it owned the gold, and made prospectors pay for a license -- at first, thirty shillings a month, raised to three pounds in 1852. And the government hired informants to search for un-licensed prospectors -- and paid them out of the fines levied against those they caught. Even when licenses were lowered to one pound a month, that was more than many prospectors could spare, given the cost of living and the relatively small amount of gold available (Anderson-GoldrushSongster, p. 18). Those who were caught without a license and were unable to pay a fine were imprisoned for ten days (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 13). So licenses were a very hot topic.
Moore's photo insert, which follows page 80, reproduces one of the licenses -- a printed form, although some of the text has been crossed out (e.g. the original form charged a fee of one pound and ten shillings, but this has been crossed out and raised to two pounds. There are four conditions: The license must be carried at all times; the digger must not dig in or interfere with a road, store, or any other structure designated by the authorities; the diggers must take Sundays off; and they are restricted to digging an area of twelve feet by twelve feet! (A party of two, three, or four was allowed a larger area, but the total was not to exceed 144 square feet per miner.) It was a lot of restriction for something that didn't promise much reward.
According to Moore, p. 87, "In May 1851 Governor FitzRoy introduced the license fee of thirty shillings per month in New South Wales, and this was emulated by Governor La Trobe in Victoria in September of the same year. The purpose of the license fee was not to raise revenue. Rather, it was to discourage people from leaving their normal occupations and taking up gold hunting, since there was great fear of social dislocation." On this count the idea seems to have failed, largely for reasons described in this song. Moore quotes this song in connection with his definition of "license-hunting."
The song refers to "The little word 'Joe.'" According to Anderson-GoldrushSongster, p. 20, "Joe" was a code word meaning that someone had showed up to check licenses. Similarly Morris, p. 222: "Joe, Joe-Joe, Joey, interjection, then a verb, now obsolete." His first citation is from 1855, W. Howitt, "Two Years in Victoria," vol. i. p. 400: "The well-known cry of 'Joe! Joe!' -- a cry which means one of the myrmidons of Charley Joe, as they familiarly style Mr. [Charles Joseph] La Trobe [the Lt.-Governor of Victoria 1851-1854; Learmonth, p. 304], -- a cry which on all the diggings resounds on all sides on the appearance of any of the hated officials."
Moore, p. 79, has his earliest citation from 1858, shortly before Thatcher used the word, and gives this definition: "*a* A mocking nickname for a policeman or trooper, especially one charged with implementing the licensing regulations of the Victorian goldfields; a cry of warning of such a person. [Australian. Probably from the name of Charles Joseph La Trobe (familiarly called 'Charley Joe'), Lieutenant Governor of Victoria in the period 1851-54.]" Moore goes on to cite two Thatcher songs although not this one) with reference to the call of "Joe" and the verb "to Joe," i.e. to taunt, jeer, or refer to as "Joe" or a Joe.
Carbonii, p. 16 (in Chapter IX, "Abyssus, Abyssum Invocat") writes, "'Joe, Joe!' No one in the world can properly understand and describe this shouting of 'Joe,' unless he were on the El Dorado of Ballarat at the time."
Thatcher himself described the license enforcement process in his "Life on the Goldfields" presentation (Hoskins/Thatcher-LifeOnTheGoldfields, p. 47): "In the early days no one was permitted to dig except on payment of a license fee.... [T]he Commissioner... was usually a swell with fierce mustachios who for the moderate stipend of £800 or £1000 a year idled away his time on the gold fields. He was also entitled to sit on the bench and settle all mining disputes. He usually carried an eye glass[,] was fond of the bottle and not insensible to the charms of the female sex. The high living and monotony of Camp life produced ennui.... and to stimulate the system the sport of license hunting was instituted. So the diggers were hunted instead and the foot police acted as hounds....
"[It] was a hard matter to run the game down. The diggers knowing the penalty of £5 or imprisonment would be inflicted if they were captured were slightly interested in eluding the live traps.... A rigid watch in every flat and gully was kept and on the appearance of the police a warning cry of Joe resounded far and wide and work was suspended instantly -- Then like rabbits when pursued thy popped into some friendly hole to lie there until the storm below over." [The police rarely went down in the dirty holes, because often they would get dirty and find that the person in the hole had a licence.] Another reason against going down a hole was a fear of a trial of strength between their heads and a pick and although many of the police were possessed of good substantial skulls they declined."
Thatcher would then sing this song.
According to Hoskins, p. 13, this is one of two Thatcher songs that have unquestionably survived in oral tradition, "Look Out Below" being the other, although Harding, p. 5, says the only one is "The Wakamarina." The (I hope) full list of Thatcher songs in the Index, with tunes where I know them, is as follows:
The Bazaar
Bryant's Ranges O
Buying Land
Castlemaine
The Chinaman (II) [tune: The Englishman]
Colonial Courtship [tune: Drops of Brandy]
Coming Down the Flat [tune: Coming Through the Rye]
The Escaped Prisoners [tune: Darling Nelly Gray]
The Fine Fat Saucy Chinaman [tune: Old English Gentleman]
The Flash Colonial Barman
Gold's a Wonderful Thing (Thatcher's title: Olden Days of Lake Wakitipu)
The Green New Chum
The Jolly Puddlers [tune: Jolly Waggoner]
The Lady and the Bullock Driver [tune: Drops of Brandy]
Laying Information [tune: Standard Bearer]
Look Out Below [tune: Smuggler King]
New Chums at the Diggings (probably only partially by Thatcher)
The Old Identity [tune: Duck Leg Dick]
Poll the Grogseller [tune: Philip the Falconer]
Presented at Court
The Rowdy Mob [tune: Green Grow the Rushes]
The Rush to Coromandel
Shepherding [tune: Days We Went Gipsying]
The Shipping Agents [tune: Oh! Susanna]
The Song of the Trap [multiple tunes: I'm Afloat, Rosin the Beau, Norah Creina]
The Southland Gold Escort
The Surrender of the Natives [tune: Courting in the Kitchen]
The Unsuccessful Swell
The Voyage to Australia
The Wakamarina [tune: The Twig of Shannon]
Weston and His Clerk
Where's Your License? [tune: The Gay Cavalier] - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: MA102

Whether the Weather

DESCRIPTION: "Whether the weather be cold or whether the weather be hot, Whether the weather be nice or whether the weather be not, Whatever the weather, we'll weather the weather, Whether we like it or not." The traditional version is just the chorus of the original
AUTHOR: original words: Fred G. Bowles / Music: Brenda Gayne
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: wordplay campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 130, "Whether the Weather" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 52, "Weather the Weather" (1 text, 1 tune, which despite the listed title uses the text "Whether the weather")
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 8, "Weather the Weather" (1 text, which despite the listed title uses the text "Whether the weather")
NOTES [21 words]: Thanks to Jim Dixon for finding the original sheet music. No one seems to remember any part of the song except the chorus. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF130W

Which House?

See What Kind of House Will You Live In? (File: ZiZa048B)

Which Loved Best?

DESCRIPTION: "I love you, mother, said little John," but runs off to play, leaving mother to carry wood and water. "I love you, mother, said little Nell," but proceeds to pout. Little Fan also professes her love -- and helps out. So which one loved mother best?
AUTHOR: Joyce Allison (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: mother children work
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 117-118, "'I love you, Mother,' said little John" (1 text)
Roud #25477
NOTES [38 words]: This sort of comparison of children, only one of whom does what the parent really wants, goes back at least to the "Parable of the Two Sons," Matthew 21:28-32. In this particular instance, I think the Bible does it better. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC117B

Which Side Are You On?

DESCRIPTION: The Union comes to town to protect the miners from boss J.H. Blair. The workers are told "In Harlan County, there are no neutrals there," and asked, "Which side are you on (x4)." They are reminded "Us poor folks haven't got a chance unless we organize."
AUTHOR: Words: Florence Reece (1900-1986) / Music: Traditional
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (recording, Almanac Singers) (reportedly composed 1931)
KEYWORDS: mining labor-movement nonballad boss
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 342-343, "Which Side Are You On?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 94, "Which Side Are You On?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 170-171, "Which Side Are You On?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 263-264, "Which Side Are You On?" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 134, "Which Side Are You On?" (1 text)
DT, WHCHSIDE*
Roud #15159
RECORDINGS:
Almanac Singers , "Which Side Are You On?" (on Almanac04, PeteSeeger1, PeteSeeger48) (on Selma)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Am a Union Woman" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
I Am a Union Woman (by Aunt Molly Jackson) (File: Arn174)
Which Side Are You On [II] (Recordings, Charles Neblett, Rutha Harris & Cordell Reagon, on SingFreeCD; SNCC Freedom Singers, on VoicesCiv)
NOTES [382 words]: The radical National Miners' Union (N.M.U.) attempted to organize miners in the 1930s, but were defeated by the mine owners after bitter and bloody conflicts. The United Mine Workers of America (U.M.W.), part of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (C.I.O.) succeeded a few years later, again after terrible struggle. - PJS
Weir/Hanlan, pp. 421-422, offers a brief biography of author Florence Reece. She was born in Sharps Chapel, Tennessee, on April 12, 1900. Her father was a coal miner (who loaded a ton and a half of coal for thirty cents), and she grew up in a coal camp at Fort Ridge, Tennessee. Her father was killed in a slate fall when she was fourteen. At fifteen, she married Sam Reece, who had been mining since he was eleven. They moved to Kentucky because her mother opposed the marriage. They had ten children, many of whom also became miners.
They lived in Harlan, Kentucky at the time of the U.M.W. unionization attempt. Apparently the owners really did have agents looking for people who wanted to join the Union. Sam Reece was one of the U.M.W. organizers.
J. H. Blair was the Harlan County sheriff, and his troops beat and murdered Union leaders at the so-called "Battle of Evarts." One night, Blair and deputies broke into the Reece home looking for Sam; fortunately, he wasn't there, and though they waited for him, Florence was able to get word out that he should not come home.
A few days later, she wrote the words for this on "an old wall calendar"; she gave the tune as "Lay the Lily Low," which was described as an old Baptist hymn. It was made famous by the Almanac Singers.
Florence and Sam Reece remained activists all their lives, and lived together for 64 years. He died in 1978 of black lung disease; she died of a heart attack in Knoxville on August 3, 1986. Some of her works are collected in a book, Against the Current.
According to Sullivan, p. 37, the song's statement that, in Harlan County, "you either be a union man or a thug for J. H. Blair" is depressingly true. Blair was the Sheriff of Harlan, and at the time of the 1931 strike, "Of the 169 men Sheriff Blair deputized to help guard the owners' interests, sixty-four had been charged with felonies, and more than half of those had been convicted." Little wonder it was a bloody strike. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: SBoA342

Which Way Did My Baby Go?

DESCRIPTION: "Which way did my baby go? Did she stop by here Or did she keep on down the road?" "I'm going to find her... somewhere... some old lonesome day." "Why ... treat me this way?"
AUTHOR: Moses Williams
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (USFlorida01)
KEYWORDS: grief love separation travel floatingverses nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Moses Williams, "Which Way Did My Baby Go?" (on USFlorida01)
NOTES [55 words]: Floating lines include "That's all right mama, that's all right for you... Just any way you do" (see Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, "That's All Right" (Victor 20-2205, 1947)) and "The sun will shine in my back door some day" (see indexed "Sun Gonna Shine in My Door Some Day"; also Ma Rainey, "Runaway Blues" (Paramount 12902, 1928)). - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: RcWWDMBG

Whigs Are A'Rinnin', The

DESCRIPTION: "Saw ye Holyrood? Saw ye him there? Saw ye him there? Saw ye him sittin' In his muckle chair? For the Whigs are a' rinnin' Rin, rin, rinnin', For the Whigs are a' rinnin' Fast awa' hame"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan1)
KEYWORDS: nonballad political Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan1 137, "The Whigs Are A'Rinnin'" (1 fragment)
Roud #5818
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We're a' Noddin'" [i. e. presumably "We're All Nodding"] (tune according to Greig/Duncan1)
NOTES [102 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan1 fragment.
Greig/Duncan1: "Holyrood is the royal palace in Edinburgh." - BS
According to McLynn: Frank McLynn, Bonnie Prince Charlie: Charles Edward Stuart, 1988 (I use the 1991 Oxford paperback edition), p. xix, the one real Jacobite occupation of Edinburgh came during the 1745 rebellion, The Jacobites took Edinburgh of September 17, 1745. Clennell Wilkinson Bonnie Prince Charlie, (Lippincott, no copyright listed but after 1932), p. 93, says that Charles went to Holyrood almost at once. So the likeliest date for this song, by far, is September 1745. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1137

While Gamekeepers Were Sleeping

DESCRIPTION: Singer has a dog. "She'd run a hare of a moonlit night, While gamekeepers were sleeping." A policeman catches him poaching but he gets off with a trick. The policeman retires. Poacher gives him broth for his sick wife and a pup. Now he is also a poacher.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (recording, Bob Roberts)
KEYWORDS: poaching hunting healing trick dog animal police wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, GAMESLEP
Roud #363
RECORDINGS:
Bob Roberts, "While Gamekeepers Were Sleeping" (on Voice18)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping" (lyrics)
NOTES [65 words]: The first verse is "Dogs and Ferrets" [indexed as "Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping" - RBW] but the plot is entirely different. - BS
Many versions share more than the first verse; many scholars lump them, and I did so also until Ben pointed out the differences. But that song is entirely about poaching and success in that venture. The characteristic of this is the subversion of the gamekeeper. - RBW
File: TcWGaLSl

While Hanging Around Town

DESCRIPTION: The singer (a G.I.) gives a woman ten dollars for sex, then nine days later suffers the wages of sin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947
KEYWORDS: bawdy disease soldier whore
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 194-195, "While Hanging Around Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, HANGARND*
Roud #27848
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fire Ship" (plot) and references there
cf. "The Strawberry Roan" (tune & meter)
File: EM194

While I Rock Our Babies to Sleep

See Rocking the Cradle (and the Child Not His Own) (File: R393)

While I Rock the Dear Snookums to Sleep

See Show Me The Lady That Never Would Roam (File: OCC137)

While I Was Still of Tender Years

DESCRIPTION: "When I was still of tender years, Satan did entice me, He said that I might live till I got old And serve God at my leisure. At length the spirit came one day, It strove with mighty power, It caused me to weep and moan And tremble every hour."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Western Harmony)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Devil
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 43, "When I Was Young" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wicked Polly" [Laws H6] (theme) and references there
NOTES [48 words]: The only traditional collection of this song I know is High's. It is clearly a composed hymn, since I managed to find a copy in the 1867 "Western Harmony," but that book lists no composer -- not even a title. It is #104 in the collection. hymnary.org lists no other versions of the song. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: High043A

While I'm at the Wheel

DESCRIPTION: Poem, apparently based on Harlow's experiences aboard the Akbar when she encountered 30 days of heavy weather while carrying coal from Australia. Written as if addressing the ship, each verse begins "Ship of the seas..." and ends with "I'm at the wheel."
AUTHOR: Frederick Pease Harlow
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (_American Neptune_, v.1)
KEYWORDS: nonballad sailor ship storm
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 235-238, "While I'm at the Wheel" (1 text)
File: Hugi235

While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks

DESCRIPTION: "While shepherds watched their flocks by night, All seated on the ground, The angel of the Lord came down" to announce the birth of Jesus. They are directed to find the child in the manger in Bethlehem
AUTHOR: Words: Nahum Tate (1652-1715)
EARLIEST DATE: 1702 (Tate and Brady)
KEYWORDS: Bible Jesus religious
FOUND IN: Britain(England) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 33, "While Shepherds Watched" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 611, "Mary Bowed" (1 short text, with a verse "I wonder where Sister Mary's gone... She's gone to some new buryin' ground For to lay her feeble body down" and a second verse from "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks")
Cox-FolkMusicInANewfoundlandOutport, pp. 101-102, "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 195-196 (1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #210, "While Shepherds Watched" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, pp. 102-103, "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 322, "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night" (1 text)
Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, _The Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1958, 1979), pp. 1-2, "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night" (1 text)
Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #99, "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night" (1 text)
Roud #936
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 7(4), "While Shepherds Watch'd", J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 7(38), Harding B 7(17), Harding B 7(35), "While Shepherds Watched"; Harding B 45(3) View 3 of 3, "While Shepherds Watch'd Their Flocks by Night"; Harding B 7(37), "Watched Their Flocks"; Douce adds. 137(51), "Christmas Hymn" ("While shepherds watch'd their flocks by night"); Douce adds. 137(45), "While Shepherds"; Firth b.26(538), [None] ("While shepherds watch'd their flocks by night"); Harding B 7(79), "While Shepherds Watch"
LOCSheet, sm1843 390300, "While Shepherds Watch'd Their Flocks by Night", A. Fiot (Philadelphia), 1843; also sm1880 18274, "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night!"; sm1879 16295, sm1883 22668, "While Shepherds Watched" (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On Ilkla Moor Bah T'at" (tune "Cranbrook")
SAME TUNE:
While Shepherds Washed Their Socks (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 38, 158)
NOTES [945 words]: An unusual nativity hymn, in that every word of it comes from Luke, without reference to the conflicting account in Matthew. The song is essentially a paraphrase of Luke 2:8-14. It successfully nuances its way around a major variant in the text in 2:14 (the original text, as found in the five earliest copies of Luke, reads "and on earth peace among those whom [God] favors; almost all later copies read "and on earth peace, goodwill among men/people" -- a difference of just one letter in the Greek, ευδοκιας versus the late reading ευδοκια); the avoidance of the issue is probably luck, as the inaccuracy of the Received Text and the King James Bible in this passage would not have been recognized in the seventeenth century.
Reynolds, p. 246, says, "In the early eighteenth century, besides the canticles and psalms, only six hymns, of which this was one, were permitted to be used in the Church of England."
According to Julian, p. 919, Tate and Brady's "New Version" of the psalter (which included some material not from the psalms) was published in 1696 (with a partial sample having been offered in 1695) and dedicated to King William III. A revised edition came out in 1698. A supplement came out in 1703. All of these had royal approval. This didn't force churches to use it, but it certainly gave the rendering a boost. For the most part it is not known what is by Tate and what is by Brady. Julian characterizes the work as marked by "1. Psalms of an ornate character, with occasional vigour of rhythm, written mostly in L.M. and P.M. The best is 139th, 'Thou, Lord, by strictest search has known.' 2. A large quantity of very spiritless C.M., as poor in language as the literal versions. 3. A few examples of sweet and simple verse, such as the 34th, 'Through all the changing senes of life'; 42nd, 'As pants the hart'; 51st, 'Have mercy, Lord, on me'; and 84th, 'Oh, God of hosts, the mighty Lord....' The artificial style of that period is applied to the psalms.... And yet one condemned to tread the waste of metrical Psalters will consider it an advance on its predecessors." Julian also regards Tate and Brady as having established the principle (for all that they fell short of meeting it) that metrical psalters should be good poetry, even if this requires some change in meaning.
According to Julian, p. 1275, this first appeared in the Supplement to the so-called New Version of the Psalms by Tate and Brady, "in 1702, in 6 st[anzas] of 4 l[ines], and in all later versions the same." Julian goes on to note a 1745 Scottish revision beginning "While humble Shepherds watched their flocks, In Bethleh'ms plains by night, An angel sent from Heav'n appear'd And filled the plains with light"; there were no other changes. There was also a revision "On Judah's plains as shepherds kept"; this is rare.
It is amusing to note no fewer than four translations of this piece into Latin, even though there are Latin versifications of the original Latin Vulgate text.
I must admit to finding Hoagland's claim that this song is Irish rather funny. Yes, Nahum Tate was born in Dublin (NewCentury, p. 1055) -- but he spent his entire working career in England, and became Poet Laureate in 1692 (Benet, p. 1102). Apart from this song, he was most noteworthy for abusing Shakespeare, primarily by grafting happy endings onto the Tragedies.
Kunitz/Haycraft, pp. 508-509, offer a capsule biography, noting that he was "dramatist, poet, poet laureate." Born in Dublin, the son of one Faithful Teate (the spelling Tait himself used until he went to England), he studied in Dublin and earned his B.A. in 1672.
Almost all of his plays were revisions; Kunitz/Haycraft credit him with only one or two original dramas. They declare that "his best poem is 'Panacea, a Poem on Tea' (1700), and that is none too good." Dryden did solicit his help on "Absalom and Achitophel," but the final form is Dryden's. Kunitz/Haycraft declare that the general level of Tate's and Nicolas Brady's New Version of the Psalms "very low, and it is unbearably dull, but the less intolerable portions in it are believed to be Tate's."
They also add that Tate was "not an engaging personality; he was taciturn, grumpy, and given to heavy drinking." Similarly, Julian, p. 920, records that "He was said to be a man of intemperate and improvident life." He was also an "active adherent" of William III, which no doubt helped his career.
So little do Kunitz/Haycraft think of him that "There has been some question whether he was the worst or only nearly the worst of the poets laureate."
Brady and Tate's "New Version" of the Psalter did eventually become popular in the United States (Fisher, p, 8), but a large part of the reason is that its main competition was the rather stiff version found in the Bay Psalm Book.
The bottom line is, this is his only piece to have survived with any popularity at all. It is perhaps unfair to blame him for being a poor poet (although he could have avoided afflicting the poetry on the world). But what does one say about a man who cuts the Fool out of King Lear and gives that play a happy ending? I'd have to say his place in Pope's Dunciad was deserved.
Various tunes have been used for this particular piece; one, "Cranbrook," is best known as the melody for "On Ilkla Moor Bah T'at." According to McKim, pp. 58-59, the two tunes used by Presbyterians are "Winchester Old, from Thomas Este's 1592 Whole Book of Psalms, and "Christmas," which is from Handel's 1728 opera "Siroe Re de Persia."
In the Sacred Harp, this is set to the tune "Sherburne," credited to Daniel Read; the Missouri Harmony also uses this tune, though without credit. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: OBC033

While Shepherds Were Watching Their Flocks By the Night

DESCRIPTION: "While shepherds were watching" angels shouted "Cheer up, faithful shepherds, and be not afraid ... The saviour is born." "I went to behold him. I asked them his name. His name it was Jesus; from Bethlehem came"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (recording, George Dunn)
KEYWORDS: carol Christmas religious shepherd Jesus
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
Roud #16898
RECORDINGS:
George Dunn, "While Shepherds Were Watching Their Flocks By the Night" (on Voice16)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks" (subject)
NOTES [47 words]: Like "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks," this is clearly based on Luke 2:8-14. I can't help but suspect there is some sort of relationship between the two. A rewrite for a different sect? A retranslation of a version translated into Welsh or some such? To this I have no clue. - RBW
File: RcWSWWTF

While The Band Is Playing Dixie

DESCRIPTION: "It was on the day when soldiers wrote a line to those they love" that a "fair-haired boy" writes to his girl, "While the band is playing 'Dixie,' I'm humming 'Home Sweet Home'" as he thinks of her in Georgia. He is killed; the note is found in his pocket
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Russell and Louis Burton, according to Wolfe)
KEYWORDS: death soldier separation love
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 77, pp. 124-125, "While the Band is Playing Dixie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11038
File: BoWo077

While the Boys in Blue Were Fighting

See Break the News to Mother (File: GrMa179)

While the Organ Pealed Potatoes

See I Know a Boarding-House (File: R479)

While the Organ Peeled Potatoes

See I Know a Boarding-House (File: R479)

While the Raging Seas Did Roar

See The Mermaid [Child 289] (File: C289)

Whilst the Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping

See Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping (File: K249)

Whinny Knowes, The

See The Echo Mocks the Corncrake (File: HHH018b)

Whip and the Spurs, The

DESCRIPTION: "'One hundred pounds,' the master said, 'To you, my boy, I'll pay If you win this race for me in which you ride today.'" Horse and rider are eager for the task. In the race, the horse does fairly well; at last the rider spurs her, and she wins
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: horse racing
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 93-94, "The Whip and the Spurs" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA093A

Whip Jamboree (Whup Jamboree)

DESCRIPTION: Stanzas on the life of a sailor, characterized by the line "(whip/whup) jamboree." The lash is likely to be prominently mentioned, as is the sailors' happiness upon seeing the girls (whores?) of home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship hardtimes punishment home whore
FOUND IN: US(SE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 230, "Whip Jamboree" (1 short text, linked to this song only by the chorus line)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 230, "Whip Jamboree" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 13, "Arriving Back at Liverpool" (1 fragment)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 106-108, "Johnny Get Your Oatcake Done (Jamboree)," "Early in the Morning" (2 texts, 1 tune - second text "Early in the Morning" has different words though a similar theme, Harlow says it was sung to the same tune but when bound for London)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 382-384, "Jamboree" (4 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 290-292]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, IX, pp. 10-11, "Whip Jamboree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 111, "Whip Jamboree" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WHIPJAMB* WHIPJAM2*
Roud #488
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jinny, Keep Yer Ringtail Warm
Jinny Git Yer Oatcake Done
Bristol Channel Jamboree
NOTES [44 words]: "Jinny" is alternately spelled "Jenny" in the choruses. The versions that Hugill give have a bit more coherent storyline (just a bit) involving coming home (or at least to port), meeting up with Jinny and briefly deciding to stay, then taking off to sea again. - SL
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Br3230

Whip-poor-will

DESCRIPTION: "Whip-poor-will (x4), I know what I say but I can't be still. Whip-poor-will and you came to the woods one day and stole my nestlings away. Don't I know, can't I see, can't I feel...." "Look, look, there's a fly, I swallowed him down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle)
KEYWORDS: bird bug food
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 115, "Whip-poor-will" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7445
NOTES [25 words]: Roud lumps this with Randolph's "Whippoorwill," which is also based on the Whip-poor-will's call, but the plot seems different, so I split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Boet115

Whip-poor-will (II)

See Whippoorwill (I) (File: R833)

Whippoorwill (I)

DESCRIPTION: "In the starry night so soft, Listen to the whippoorwill, Forest shades repeat his song... Sadness fills and thrills his lay, Singing all the summer away... Whippoorwill, sad whippoorwill." A description of the sad times evoked by the bird's sad call
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 833, "Whip-poor-will" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 532-534, "Whippoorwill" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 833)
Roud #7445
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Where the Whippoorwill Is Whispering Good-night" (theme)
cf. "The Whip-poor-will's Song" (theme)
NOTES [70 words]: I had difficulty deciding whether this should or should not be identified with "The Whip-poor-will's Song" as recorded by Uncle Eck Dunford. The theme is the same, and both work around the call of the bird. But they haven't a word in common other than "Whip-poor-will," so I split them. Similarly I split it from Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle's "Whip-poor-will." The girl scout song "Whippoorwill" is entirely different. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R833

Whippoorwill (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Gone to bed is the setting sun, Night is coming and day is done, Whippoorwill, whippoorwill, has just begun."
AUTHOR: Anne Hopson Chapin (1891-1979) (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (date of composition, according to ChansonsDeNotreChalet)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 438, 445, "Whippoorwill" (notes only)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 68, "Whippoorwill" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 11, "Whip-Poor-Will" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, ""Whippoorwill (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 17) (12th edition, p. 31)
NOTES [26 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs says that this is in Janet E. Tobitt's The Ditty Bag, an important source of scouting songs. But it is not in my 1960 edition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF438W

Whirly Whorl, The

DESCRIPTION: Bridesmaid describes a bride's problems with an elderly groom. The bride modestly turns her back, then her front, but he gives no comfort. She berates her mother for marrying her to an old fool, and vows to find a young man "to play at the whirly whorl"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: age disability marriage sex wedding bawdy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
Roud #12573
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs, "The Whirly Whorl" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2, Briggs3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man" (theme) and references there
File: RcTWW

Whiskey For My Johnnie

See Whiskey Johnny (File: Doe015)

Whiskey For My Johnny

See Whiskey Johnny (File: Doe015)

Whiskey Is My Name (Donald Blue)

DESCRIPTION: A smith has a drinking wife, often found drunk in the street. One day, as his wife is asleep, he is called out to rescue her. He finds a drunken woman who looks so like his wife he cannot tell them apart. His wife quits drinking as a result
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: drink husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 47-49, "Donald Blue" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #77, p. 2, "Donal' Blue" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 581, "Donald Blue" (10 texts, 10 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H835a, p. 512, "Whiskey Is My Name"; H835b, pp. 512-513, "Whiskey Is My Name/The Blacksmith" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 52-53, "My Name is Donald Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST HHH835 (Full)
Roud #3799
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(117), "Donald Blue" ("My names Donald Blue, you ken me fu' we'll"), unknown, no date
Murray, Mu23-y3:014, "Donald Blue," unknown, 19C
NLScotland, RB.m.168(145), "Donald Blue," unknown, c. 1870
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wee Wifikie"
cf. "Peggy in the Mornin'" (tune, per Greig/Duncan3)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Smith's Drunken Wife
NOTES [179 words]: What does "Donald Blue" have to do with this song? The singer is Donald Blue, who makes it clear that he is whiskey but that drunken mothers vex him. He says, "I'll tell you a trick I played" on the smith's wife who "liked me so well she put so muckle in her mouth, She was often carried home in the morning." He then goes on to spin the tale summarized above. - BS
Greig: "Like other lays with an 'in the mornin'" owreword, it sings to a variant of 'Johnnie Cope.'" - BS
Ford too lists this as being sung to "Johnnie Cope," but his text will not fit that tune without drastic violence, and Ord-BothySongsAndBallads uses another tune.
John Baynes with John Laffin, Soldiers of Scotland, Brassey's, 1988 (I use the 1997 Barnes & Noble edition), p.105, lists "Donald Blue" as a lights-out tune for several Scottish regiments, including the famous Black Watch; it's not clear which melody is meant.
For another song about Donald Blue, see "Did You Never Hear of Donald Blue?" - RBW
Broadsides Murray , NLScotland RB.m.168(145) and Bodleian 2806 c.14(117) are triplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: HHH835

Whiskey Is the Life of Man

See Whiskey Johnny (File: Doe015)

Whiskey Johnnie

See Whiskey Johnny (File: Doe015)

Whiskey Johnny

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "Whiskey, Johnny, / Whiskey for me Johnny." The song details the sailor's love affair with whiskey: "Whiskey is the life of man / It always was since the world began...." "Whiskey killed my dear old dad..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, pp. 7-8); mentioned in 1867
KEYWORDS: shanty drink nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,SE,SW) Canada(Mar,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 15-16, "Whiskey Johnny" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 64-65, "Whiskey, Johnny" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 304, "Whiskey Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bone-CapstanBars, p. 82-83, "Whis-key John-nie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 49-50, "Whiskey Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 21, 63-66 "Whiskey" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 274-280, "Whisky Johnny" (4 texts & several fragments, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 202-206]
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 178, "Whiskey Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XLVIII, p. 53, "Whiskey For My Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 104, Whisky Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 151-152, "Whisky Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, p. 198, "Whiskey Johnny" (1 short text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 238-239, "Whiskey Johnny" (1 text)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 55, "Whiskey for My Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 403, "Whiskey Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, p. 30, "Whiskey For My Johnnie" (1 text)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 106, "Whisky Johnny" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, p. 83, "Whiskey Johnnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #25, "Whisky Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 128, "Whiskey is the life of man" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 311-312, "Whiskey Johnny" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 486-487, "Whisky Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 785, "Whiskey Johnny" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 70, "Whickey for My Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 231, "Whiskey Johnny" (1 text)
DT, WHSKJHN* WHISKJON*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Whisky for My Johnny" is in Part 3, 7/28/1917.
Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, p. 113, "Whiskey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #651
RECORDINGS:
Bob Roberts, "Whisky Johnny" (on LastDays)
Minster Singers, "Whiskey Johnny" (Victor 61147, n.d., prob. c. 1903)
Capt. Leighton Robinson w. Alex Barr, Arthur Brodeur & Leighton McKenzie, "Whiskey Johnny" (AFS 4232 B1, 1939; on LC27 as "Whisky Johnny"; in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rise Me Up from Down Below" (chorus, theme)
cf. "Supen Ut, En Dram Pa Man" (similar theme)
NOTES [83 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas specifies four versions of this, each with a distinct story line though all using the same refrain: a) The advantages & disadvantages of drinking; b) the Shanghaiing version; c) The limejuice skipper; and d) the Crab, Crayfish or Lobster version (i.e. "The Sea Crab"). Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips cites yet another version, of a barber and a lady who are trying to impress one another and who eventually do get together despite the barber's drunkenness. - SL
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Doe015

Whiskey Seller, The

DESCRIPTION: "Of all the crimes that ever has been, Sellin' whiskey is the greatest sin...." The troubles caused by liquor-sellers are described: "You rob the strong man of his strength" "You rob the statesman of his brains" "You rob the children of their bread"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: drink hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 312, "The Whiskey Seller" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 263-265, "The Whiskey Seller" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 312)
DT, WHSKSELL
Roud #7789
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "Whiskey Seller" (on NLCR08)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Brown Jug" (tune)
File: R312

Whiskey You're the Devil

See Whisky You're the Devil (File: RcWYTD)

Whisky in the Jar (The Irish Robber A) [Laws L13A]/The Irish Robber B (McCollister) [Laws L13B]

DESCRIPTION: The robber finds a victim on the road, whom he relieves of his valuables. He returns to his sweetheart's home and goes to sleep. He is awakened by the law. He reaches for his pistol, but the girl has rendered it useless. He is taken (and hanged/escapes)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (broadside, Murray Mu23-y1:137)
KEYWORDS: robbery prison love trial punishment execution death gallows-confession outlaw
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(Ap,MW,NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Laws L13, "Whisky in the Jar (The Irish Robber A) [Laws L13A]/The Irish Robber B (McCollister) [Laws L13B]"
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 51, "Whiskey in the Jar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 51, "Gilgarrah Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 26-27, "Gilgarry Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 139-140, "McCollister" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 245-247, "Lovel, the Robber" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 117, "There's Whiskey in the Jar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 88, "Whiskey in the Jar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 6, "Whisky in the Jar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H792, p. 122, "Whiskey in the Jar" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 12, "There's Whiskey in the Jar" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 194, "Whisky in the Jar" (2 texts)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 368-369, "There's Whiskey in the Jar" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 90, "Whiskey in the Jar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2320, p. 156, "There's Whiskey in the Jar" (2 references)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 107-108, "Captain Devin" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 201, "Whiskey In The Jar" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Frank L. Warner [nephew of Frank M. Warner], "Songs My Uncle Taught Me" Vol. XI, No. 1 (Jul 1963), pp. 25-26, "Gilgarry Mountain" (1 text)
DT 326, GILGARRY KILGARMT*
Roud #533 and 534
RECORDINGS:
Seamus Ennis, "Whiskey in the Jar" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
Lena Bourne Fish, "Gilgarrah Mountain" [excerpt] (on USWarnerColl01)
Warde Ford, "McAllister" (AFS 4196 B2, 4196 B3; in AMMEM/Cowell)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 612A , "Whiskey in the Jar," E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; Harding B 11(980), "Sporting Hero" or "Whiskey in the Bar," J. Cadman (Manchester), 1850-1855; also Firth c.17(314)[some words illegible], "The Sporting Hero", Harding B 15(372a), Harding B 11(4152), 2806 b.10(109), "Whiskey in the Jar"
LOCSinging, as113620, "There's Whiskey in the Jar," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also sb40503b, "There's Whiskey in the Jar"
Murray, Mu23-y1:137, "Whiskey in the Jar," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1855
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(123b), "There's Whisky in the Jar," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1871
SAME TUNE:
We'll Fight for Uncle Sam ("I am a modern hairo: my name is Paddy Kearney") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 172)
NOTES [350 words]: In the Australian version, Colonel Pepper or his equivalent becomes Sir Frederick Pottinger, a local policeman laughed at for his inability to capture Ben Hall. For background on Pottinger, see the notes to "Ben Hall." - RBW
Paul Stamler comments on the "McCollister" texts of this song, "I think this deserves splitting, as although it's related to 'Whisky in the Jar,' it is missing the betrayal theme -- at least in this version."
Paul goes on to provide this description of the Warde Ford version: "McCollister [McAllister] sees two merchants and robs them. As he's walking up to the gallows, he says, "I have robbed many but I never killed any/And I think it is a shame to be hanged for stealing money."
However, the versions cited by Laws *do* include the betrayal; it appears that the characteristic of the "B" texts is rather the hanging, plus perhaps the robber's name. But it is almost impossible to distinguish short versions of the songs, so we continue to lump them. - PJS, RBW
In addition, Murray, Mu23-y1:131, "The Sporting Hero," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1852, states "Along with this song, and in the same style, the Poet['s Box] has that splendid song, called 'Whiskey in the Jar.' Generally those who buy the one, buys the other, you see." "The Sporting Hero" is another version of "Whiskey in the Jar" with a new ending: [The singer meets] Molly and shoot[s] her dead, forgive[s] her because "though Molly has deceived me, yet I thought it not her intention, Though she has proved faithless to me, a sporting hero, I have left her far sleeping far behind, and I have nothing more to fear, O." He ends by recommending himself to girls who "want a fancy man."
In broadside Bodleian, Firth c.17(314), "The Sporting Hero" ("I am a sporting hero, that never yet was daunted"), J. Bentley (Bradford), n.d. Molly is not murdered and the self-advertisement at the end goes on for more verses.
Broadside LOCSinging as113620: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LL13

Whisky You're the Devil

DESCRIPTION: Whiskey leads the singer astray. "We're on the march and off to Portugal and Spain" "The French are fighting boldly, men dying hot and coldly ... love fare thee well" A mother threatens to haunt the singer if he takes her daughter from her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Edward Harrigan, _The Mulligans_)
KEYWORDS: courting war separation drink Spain nonballad mother soldier ghost
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 180, "Whiskey You're the Devil" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 454, "Whisky, You're My Darling" (1 fragment, 1 tune - taken from the Journal of the Folk Song Society, 1924. He only gives one verse, which deals with emigration to America, and which is filed here only tentatively)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 14-15, "Whiskey You're the Devil" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Harrigan, _The Mulligans_, G. W. Dillingham, 1901, pp. 303, 310, "(no title)" (2 excerpts)
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Whisky You're the Devil" (on IRClancyMakem01)
NOTES [252 words]: The references "now, brave boys, we're on the march and off to Portugal and Spain" and "the French are fighting boldly, men dying hot and coldly" seem to be a reference to the Peninsular campaign of the Napoleonic wars. On the other hand, it's a stretch to imagine a consistent story line: the chorus has whiskey leading the singer "O'er the hills and mountains and to Amerikay" - BS
The above is actually barely possible; soldiers in the Peninsula might have been sent to fight the United States in the War of 1812. But it's much easier to believe that it would happen in a songwriter's head than to an actual soldier. - RBW
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 attributes this to 1809 on the basis of something found in Winstock Songs and Music of the Redcoats (indexed as Winstock-SongsAndMusicOfTheRedcoats). I have searched that book at length and cannot identify the basis for this attribution, so I have not changed the Earliest Date.
The lines about whiskey sending the singer to America do, however, appear in Edward Harrigan's book The Mulligan Guard, and the song does not seem to be by Harrigan and Braham, so I've used 1901 as the earliest date, with a high likelihood that Harrigan knew it well before that. - RBW, (BS)
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Whiskey in the Jar" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: RcWYTD

Whisky, You're My Darling

See Whisky You're the Devil (File: RcWYTD)

Whisper Your Mother's Name

DESCRIPTION: The singer is "seated one day in a beautiful cafe" when he sees his sister in the street. His mother's words, "If you should see your sister, do not reproach her, Dwayne," cause him to invite her back to her still-faithful love and her mother's grave
AUTHOR: Lottie Gilson?
EARLIEST DATE: 1896
KEYWORDS: reunion sister brother mother family separation
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 69-60, "Seated One Day in a Beautiful Cafe" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 98-100, "Seated One Day in a Beautiful Cafe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4774
NOTES [50 words]: Popularized by Lottie Gilson (1869-1912), a tragicomic singer of the 1890s. This piece entered her repertoire in 1896. McNeil speculates that this may be the only traditional song to have a person named "Dwayne" as a hero; given the piece's overblown sentimentality, one is inclined to hope so. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: MN1098

Whisper, My Love, Do

See One Night As I Lay On My Bed (File: VWL079)

Whispering Hope

DESCRIPTION: "Soft as the voice of an angel... Hope with a gentle persuasion, Whispers her comforting word." "Hope for the sunshine tomorrow After the shower is gone." "Whispering hope, how welcome thy voice, Making my heart in its sorrow rejoice."
AUTHOR: "Alice Hawthorne" (Septimus Winner)
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (sheet music published by Sep. Winner of Philadelphia)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 241-245, "Whispering Hope" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 112-113, "Whispering Hope" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
The Blue Sky Boys, "Whispering Hope" (Bluebird 8401, 1940)
NOTES [194 words]: Alice Hawthorne was a leading pseudonym of Septimus Winner; he also listed her as the author of "Listen to the Mockingbird." (The name was a tribute to his mother.) For some reason, Winner published such trivia as "Oh Where Oh Where Is My Little Dog Gone" under his own name. - RBW
Is there any indication that this entered tradition, as we use the term? Or, to put it bluntly, are you sure this belongs in the Index? - PJS
If the question is, can it be proved that this song was popular in oral tradition, the answer is no. However, the material in Jackson claims to be bestsellers in popular music, and so presumably widely played in parlors. That strikes me as sufficient reason for inclusion. A lot of kids must have suffered through this song in their lives.
For more on Septimus Winner, see the notes to "Listen to the Mockingbird."
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 502, estimates that this was the tenth most popular song in America in October 1949, based on a recording by Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae; it was also recorded by the Andrews Sisters. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RJ19241

Whist! The Bogie Man

DESCRIPTION: "Oh gather round me, little ones, So full of fun and glee, Your father's going to be a fool To plase the family." "Oh, whist, whist, whist, Here comes the bogie man! Now go to bed, you baby." Mother and father both use the bogie man to hurry the children
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (sheet music published by Wm. A. Pond & Co)
KEYWORDS: ghost lullaby
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #37, pp. 137-139, "Whist! The Bogie Man" (1 text. 1 tune)

ST HaBrWtBM (Partial)
Roud #V18643
RECORDINGS:
Ada Jones, "Whist! The Bogie Man" (Zon-o-phone [US] 5789. n.d., but rec. before 1911)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, M 3500 M2.3.U6A44,, "Whist! the bogey man," Firth, Pond & Co. (New York), 1880
NOTES [449 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
This is from "The Mulligan Guards Surprise," the fifth of eight Mulligan Guard musicals by Harrigan and Braham., which opened February 16, 1880 (Franceschina, p. 126). Dan Mulligan, having been convinced by his wife to move to a fancier home, only to find himself trying to understand French and high society, rebels and returns to his old home, where there is a surprise party (hence the title). There was also a wedding with a poisoned liverworst and a problem with the wedding documents, plus the usual arguing and fighting (Franceschina, pp. 115-116; Moody, p. 100).
"This ghost-evoking piece is filled with traditional 'scary music' devices: string tremolos, minor and diminished chords, a melody filled with short rests that imply breathlessness, and virtuosic runs evocated of the 'storm music' composed by serious composers. Ten years later, the number was interpolated into the British burlesque of Bizet's Carmen, Carmen Up-To-Data (sic.) and quickly became even more in London than it had been in New York. Not only did 'Whist! The Bogie Man' guarantee the success of the British show, the song itself turned into an international hit as well" (Franceschina, p. 127).
(Those breathless rests are interesting: they aren't at the end of measures but typically in the middle: the time signature is 6/8, and typically the first, third, fourth, and sixth beats of the measure are sung, the second and fifth are rests.)
"The 'Bogie Man' lullaby, sung as an accompaniment to a game of blindman's buff, later achieved extraordinary popularity with English nannies and now would be declared too terrifying for bedtime: 'Oh, whist, whist, whist, / Here comes the bogie man! / Oh, which, whist, / He'll catch ye, if he can'" (Moody, p. 101).
Franceschina, p. 232, lists this as one of the three Braham songs most heard around the world, the others being "Maggie Murphy's Home" and "The Mulligan Guard." It was popular enough to be parodied in Punch in 1892 (Volume 102, March 19, 1892, p. 138, available on Google Books: "Oh, huddle near us, cherished ones, Hushed is our civic glee. The Voters, they have played the fool About the L. C. C. Oh, Turtle, dear -- at table -- Oh, Griffin, spic and span, I hear the Civic Fathers say Here comes the Bogie Man!").
Despite its reported popularity as a lullaby, documented traditional collections seem to have been few, but Helen Creighton found a version for Mrs. W. J. Johns of Nova Scotia, which she called "Bogey Man." Sue Allan of WIgton reports having learned the chorus from family tradition. Good enough reason to include the song in the Index for me! - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: HaBrWtBM

Whistle Owre the Lave O't

DESCRIPTION: Verses begin "my mother sent me" and end "so whistle for the rest of it": sent to the well the singer fell in; to the stack with a basket her bones crack; to the sea a sailor fell in; to the moss to gather clods "a thing sprang up atween my legs"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1414, "Whistle Owre the Lave O't" (5 texts plus a single verse on p. 522, 2 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 152, "Peggy Picken" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 184, "Maggy She Has Daughters Twa" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, p. 208, "Whistle O'er the Lave O't"
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 137-138, "Collier Lass - Love Song" (1 short text)

Roud #506
NOTES [218 words]: The Herd text is brief enough not to include verses unfit to print. The Greig/Duncan7 texts begin with Herd's and some mildly suggestive verses beside.
See also Robert Burns, The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (New Lanark,2005), p. 260, "Whistle O'er the Lave O't" and Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, p. 456, "Whistle Owre the Lave O't." Chambers: "Burns wrote this song for a very old and very popular Scottish air, which was formerly unprovided with verses that were fit for print." The description for Burns's song would be "The singer recalls being beguiled by Maggie when they met and they still love -- 'I carena by how few may see' -- now that they are married." [Also a version in James Johnson, Editor, The Scots Musical Museum [1853 edition], volume III, #249, p. 258, "Whistle o'er the lave o't" (1 text, 1 tune) - RBW]
Roud separates "Peggy Picken" -- as Roud #2960 -- from the other "Whistle Owre the Lave O't" but the second verse -- "My mother sent me to the well ...." -- is a typical verse of "Whistle ...."
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 184 replaces Herd's last line of the two verses -- "Whistle o'er the lave o't" -- with "They/he kis'd and did the lave o't"; Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 glossary glosses "lave" as "rest." - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: GrD71414

Whistle While You Work (World War II Version)

DESCRIPTION: "Just whistle while you work, Oh Hitler is a jerk, and Mussolini bit his wienie and now it will not work." Or, "...Hitler is a squirt, Göring's barmy, So's his army, Rub them all in dirt."
AUTHOR: unknown (original "Whistle While You Work" tune by Frank Churchill with lyrics by Larry Morey, 1937, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs")
EARLIEST DATE: 2021 (LibraryThingCampSongsThread)
KEYWORDS: derivative political injury bawdy | Hitler
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 123, "Whistle While You Work" (2 short texts)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 58, "(Whistle while you work)" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 17, "(Whistle While You Work)" (1 short text, from user TempleCat, posted August 28, 2021)
Roud #19993
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whistle While You Work, Jenny Made a Shirt" (tune)
NOTES [69 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 439, estimates that the original "Whistle While You Work," from the movie "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," was the eleventh most popular song in America in 1938, peaking at #2 in March 1938 (#1 for the year being Larry Clinton's "My Reverie," based on a theme by Debussy). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LTCSWWYW

Whistle While You Work, Jenny Made a Shirt

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Whistle while you work, Jenny made a shirt, Jessie wore it, Benny tore it, Mary made it worse!"
AUTHOR: unknown (original "Whistle While You Work" tune by Frank Churchill with lyrics by Larry Morey, 1937, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs")
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: work clothes jumprope
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #605, "Whistle while you work" (1 text)
Roud #19993
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whistle While You Work (World War II version)" (tune)
NOTES [110 words]: This very likely is not derived directly from the pop song but from the World War II version, one version of which opens "Whistle while you work, Mussolini made a shirt...." Roud lumps them. But this has become something different, I think.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 439, estimates that the original "Whistle While You Work," from the movie "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," was the eleventh most popular song in America in 1938, peaking at #2 in March 1938 (#1 for the year being Larry Clinton's "My Reverie," based on a theme by Debussy). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR605

Whistle, Daughter, Whistle

DESCRIPTION: The mother offers her daughter a (cow) if she will whistle. The daughter says she cannot. The request is repeated with (sheep, etc.); each time the daughter refuses. Finally the mother offers a man; the daughter engages to whistle with all her might
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (Notes & Queries); a manuscript copy said to be from 1740 was cited in _Folklore_ in 1901
KEYWORDS: dialog mother bargaining children
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,SE,So) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Randolph 109, "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 59, "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 131, "Whisle, Daughter, Whistle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan7 1334, "Oh, Whistle, Whistle, Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 186, "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 186, "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 99-100, "Whistle, Daugther, Whistle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #221, "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 98, "Whistle Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 107, "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 134, "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 111, "Whistle Daughter Whistle" (1 text)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 138-139, "Lolly Too Dum" (2 texts, 1 tune, with the first actually being this song)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 85-87, "Schpinn, schpinn (Spin, Spin)" (1 German text plus non-poetic English translation, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 128, "Whistle, daughter, whistle" (3 texts)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #34, "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #255, p. 158, "(Whistle, daughter, whistle)"
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 219-220, "Spin, Meine Liebe Tochter" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 343, "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 135, "Spin, Spin" (1 text, 1 tune, a translation of the German rather than a native English text)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 24, "Spin, Spin" (1 text, 1 tune, a translation of the German rather than a native English text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 44, "Whistle, Mary, Whistle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1781, "Mother let me Marry, I long to be a Bride"
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 25, ("Whistle, whistle, auld wife")
ST R109 (Partial)
Roud #1570
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lazy Mary (She Won't Get Up)" (theme)
cf. "La Jeune Fille Sans Amant (The Young Girl Without a Lover)" (theme)
cf. "Sixteen Years, Mama" (subject)
cf. "The Maid's Complaint to her Mother" (theme)
NOTES [95 words]: This song has a close German parallel known, e.g., as "Spinn Spinn"; note that this was actually collected in Pennsyvania and printed in Henry. Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren also claims Flemish and French parallels. - RBW
In Chambers's text the conversation is not between a mother and daughter, though the outcome is the same. - BS
[Sharp reports of his version,] "The words given me by the singer were a little too free and unconventional to be published without emendation, but the necessary alterations have, nevertheless, been very few and unimportant." - PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R109

Whistle, Mary, Whistle

See Whistle, Daughter, Whistle (File: R109)

Whistling at the Ploo

DESCRIPTION: "It's to the girls of Peterhead that these few lines I write": Ploughing the ocean is what brave sailors do; "lazy lubber landsmen go whistling at the ploo"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 922, "Whistling at the Ploo" (1 text)
Roud #6240
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hearts of Gold" (theme)
cf. "I Love My Sailor Boy" (theme)
File: GrD4922

Whistling Girls and Crowing Hens

See Boys Can Whistle, Girls Can Sing (File: PHCFS073)

Whistling Maid, A

DESCRIPTION: "A whistling maid Or a crowing hen Were neither made For God nor men."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: chickens | whistling
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 48, "(A whistling maid)" (1 text)
Roud #19538
File: PKKB048A

Whistling Rufus

DESCRIPTION: Whistling Rufus goes to parties whatever the weather. After devouring the chicken and wine, he settles down to whistling, producing a sound that makes the spectators think "the angels' harps were a-playing."
AUTHOR: Words: W. Murdock Lind/Music: Kerry Mills
EARLIEST DATE: (tune composed 1899; words are later)
KEYWORDS: Black(s) music
FOUND IN: US(SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 285, "Whistling Rufus" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 241-243, "Whistling Rufus" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 285)
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, pp. 137-138, "Whistling Rufus or Rufus Blossom" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WHSTRFUS*
Roud #5065
RECORDINGS:
McGee Brothers (Sam & Kirk McGee), "Rufus Blossom" (Vocalion 5170, rec. 1927)
SAME TUNE:
My Mother Told Me that She Would Buy Me a Rubber Dolly If I'd Be Good (cf. Spaeth, _A History of Popular Music in America, p. 299)
NOTES [14 words]: For more on composer Kerry Mills, see the notes on "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.8
File: R285

Whistling Thief, The

DESCRIPTION: Pat visits Mary and whistles to announce his arrival. Mary's mother hears, and rejects Mary's explanations (the dog is howling at the moon, pigs can see the wind, etc.). The mother forces Mary off to bed, pointing out that she hasn't lost her ears
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (source: Sparling)
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Songs and Ballads)
KEYWORDS: love courting mother
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H710, pp. 264-265, "The Whistling Thief" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 154, "The Whistling Thief" (1 text)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 179, "The Whistling Thief" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 104-105, "I hear someone whistling around the house, I'm sure" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2603, p. 176, "The Whistling Thief"
New-Comic-Songster, p. 48, "The Whistling Thief" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p.69, "The Whistling Thief" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #22, pp. 48-49, "The Whistling Thief" (1 text)
DT, PATHILL*
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, _Irish Minstrelsy_ (London: Walter Scott, 1888), pp. 359-360, 502-503, "The Whistlin' Thief" (1 text)
Roud #2738
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(210), "The Whistling Thief," The Poet's box (Glasgow), 1864; also Harding B 11(1366), Firth b.25(430), Harding B 11(4156), Harding B 11(4157), Firth c.20(106), Firth c.26(241), "The Whistling Thief"
LOCSinging, sb40586a, "The Whistling Thief," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
ALTERNATE TITLES:
When Pat Came Over the Hill
NOTES [33 words]: Broadside LOCSinging sb40586a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: HHH710

White Cafe, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer takes "a stroll down to the White Cafe," where he meets and buys drinks for a pretty girl. He is convinced to take her with him. They register as a married couple at the Farmer's Hotel. She steals his luggage and money and disappears
AUTHOR: probably Joe Scott
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (collected from Thomas MacLeod)
KEYWORDS: love beauty theft money
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker, pp. 341-342, "The Maid with Golden Hair" (1 text)
Roud #25132
File: ISco341

White Cal, Yaller Gal, Black Gal

See She Gets There Just the Same (Jim Crow Car) (File: DarNS355)

White Captive, The

See Olban (Alban) or The White Captive [Laws H15] (File: LH15)

White Cockade (II), The

See The Summer Morning (The White/Blue/Green Cockade) (File: StoR068)

White Cockade, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes her handsome young love. He has taken the white cockade and joined Prince Charlie's armies. She promises to sell her possessions to equip him well. Some versions describe how Prince Charles was displaced
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (_Scots Musical Museum_ #272)
KEYWORDS: love Jacobites separation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1745-1746 - Jacobite rebellion of 1745
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,So) Australia Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 41, "The White Cockade" (1 text)
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 18, "The White Cockade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 124, "The White Cockade" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph 120, "Prince Charles He Is King James's Son" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 144, p. 149, "Ranting Roving Lad" (1 text -- from West Virginia, but still with clear traces of Scots dialect)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 115-118, "Virginia Reel" [medley of "The Irish Washerwoman," "The White Cockade," and "Yankee Doodle"] (1 tune for each of the three melodies, plus dance instructions); p. 120, "The White Cockade" (1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 88, "The White Cockade" (1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, p. 26, "The White Cockade" (1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, "The White Cockade" (1 text, a "Prince Charles He Is King James's Son" tyoe)
Dime-Song-Book #13, p. 55, "The White Cockade" (1 text)
DT, WHTECOCK*
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #306,, p. 423, "The White Cockade" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1790)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #272, p. 281, "The White Cockade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 181-182, "The White Cockade" (1 text, translated from the Gaelic with some lines surely inspired by "King William was King James's Son"; the rest is not the usual "White Cockade" though it has similarities; I rather suspect two-way translation)
Kenneth Norman MacDonald, "The Gesto Collection of Highland Music," 1895 (reprinted 1997 by Llanerch Publishers), p. 126, "The White Cockade" (1 tune, presumably this)
ST R120 (Full)
Roud #709
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 26, "The White Cockade" ("My love was born in Aberdeen"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(3341), Harding B 11(4160), "The White Cockade"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "King William is King James's Son" (lyrics)
cf. "The Old Settoo" (tune)
cf. "Fat'll Mak a Bonny Lassie Blythe an' Glad?" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5) and references there
SAME TUNE:
The Green Cockade (Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 40-41)
The Wind Blew the Bonnie Lass's Plaidie Awa' (File: RcWBTBLP)
The Old Settoo (File: OLcM026A)
Cairo (File: SCWF248)
The Fate of John Burgoyne (File: SBoA075)
NOTES [118 words]: The white cockade was, of course, a Jacobite emblem. Bonnie Prince Charlie (Charles Edward Stuart, 1720-1788) was the son of James (III), himself the son of James II, the English king deposed in 1689/90.
This piece is often found as a fiddle tune. It may be that it lost its words because people dared not sing a Jacobite song, but liked the melody. But this is probably beyond proof.
A few sources have a "White Cockade song beginning something like "Prince Charles he is King James's son, And from a royal line is sprung." This looks s if it derives from "King William was King James's Son." I'm far from convinced that they are the same song, but I'm listing them here because Roud seems to lump them.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R120

White Coffin, The

DESCRIPTION: "The hearse was driven to our door, It brought a coffin, white as snow, Such coffins we had seen before"; it is for the singer's own child. They mourn their child and find their faith in heaven strengthened because they know their child is there
AUTHOR: Words: A. E. Baten (1855-1924) / Music: H. N. Lincoln (source: Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley; hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley)
KEYWORDS: death children mourning corpse
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 49, "The White Coffin" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [15 words]: Without wanting to interfere with anyone's grief, the logic of this song is tenuous.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: ABLT049

White Coral Bells

DESCRIPTION: "White coral bells upon a slender stalk, Lilies of the valley (line/grace/deck) my garden (walk/wall). Oh don't you wish that you could hear them ring? That will only happen when the (angels/fairies) sing." May be sung as a round
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (as "May Bells," in the "Fourth Year" volume of the "Hollis Dann Music Course")
KEYWORDS: nonballad flowers campsong | round
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 268, "White Coral Bells" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 256, 438-439, 447, "White Coral Bells" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 32, "White Coral Bells" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p.29, "White Coral Bells" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "White Coral Bells" (Piotr-Archive #399, recorded 12/21/2022)
Anni Crofut, "White Coral Bells" (Piotr-Archive #618, recorded 07/31/2023); The Crofut Family, "White Coral Bells" (Piotr-Archive #672, recorded 09/17/2023)
NOTES [94 words]: One of the tiny handful of songs in my mother's singing tradition. It seems to be a genuine folk song, even if no one knows what it's supposed to be about.
Jack Manischewitz, who did the research leading to the 1916 date for the May Bells variant, has found a number of people who also know the song from early life. He notes that the 1916 publication listed no author, although authors were listed for most of the other pieces in that book. This would imply, at minimum, that the copyright had expired by 1916, which would hint at a nineteenth century origin. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: PHCFS268

White Dove (In the Deep Rolling Hills)

DESCRIPTION: "In the deep rolling hills of old Kentucky/Virginia, There's a place that I love so well...." "White dove will mourn in sorrow, The willows will hang their heads. I live my life in sorrow Since mother and daddy are dead." The singer recalls their home
AUTHOR: probably Carter Stanley (source: various LPs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (recording, Stanley Brothers)
KEYWORDS: home mother father death
FOUND IN: US(So)
RECORDINGS:
The Stanley Brothers, "The White Dove" (Columbia 20577, 1949)
Charlie Glenn, "White Dove" (Piotr-Archive #7, recorded 07/14/2020)
NOTES [58 words]: This has been exceptionally popular with bluegrass groups -- it has all the basic ingredients of a bluegrass song: home, mountains, mother, death, insipidity.... There isn't much evidence that it's traditional, though -- a 1971 fragment in the Max Hunter collection, plus the recording in the Piotr archive; I suspect both derive from recordings. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcWhiDov

White Fisher, The [Child 264]

DESCRIPTION: Willie learns that a "popish priest" fathered his wife's baby. She tells Willie to cast the babe in the sea; he instead gives the child to his mother. Willie's wife weeps for the babe and reviles him; Willie tells her the babe is alive; both are happy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1878
KEYWORDS: pregnancy bastard death drowning return adultery abandonment disguise clergy infidelity
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 264, "The White Fisher" (1 text)
Bronson 264, comments only
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 60, "The White Fisher" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 197, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "The White Fisher" (3 texts, 1 tune)
DT 264, WHITFISH
Roud #3888
NOTES [85 words]: Bronson notes that Child's view of this ballad is distorted by his single text, and believes that it should be modified in view of the collections by Grieg. - RBW
In the Greig-Duncan2 197 texts the seducing "popish priest" is replaced by a rapist: either a foot-page who had worked without pay for her father for seven years "and he made me pay the fee," or her "father's butler boy." The foot-page partially repeats the Jacob-Rachel-Laban (Genesis 29.16-20) theme; see the discussion for "The Flanders Shore." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: C264

White Folks Go to College

See Hard to Be a Nigger (File: LxA233)

White Folks in the Parlor

DESCRIPTION: "White folks in the parlor, Talking 'bout jelly and jam... Didn't say a word about ham." "Ham, ham, ham is good and sweet... Nothing better'n old ham meat." "Possum in the corn fields... Rabbit say, 'You dirty dog,' Possum blew the horn."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal food
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 476, "White Folks in the Parlor" (1 short text)
Roud #11864
File: Br3476

White Hare, The

DESCRIPTION: Near Oldham town lived an old white hare that has escaped beagles and greyhounds. Jim Smith or Jemmy the huntsman and Tom the whipper-in take out horsemen and beagles to hunt this hare. "There was twenty good beagles that caused this hare to die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes)
KEYWORDS: death hunting animal dog horse
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 139-140, "The White Hare" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 57, "The White Hare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1110
RECORDINGS:
Joseph Taylor, "The White Hare" (on Voice18)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(306a), "White Hare," unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 11(3425), Firth c.19(105), Harding B 11(1725), "White Hare"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Creggan White Hare" (subject)
cf. "The Innocent Hare" (theme: fatal hare hunt)
cf. "The Hare of Kilgrain" (theme: fatal hare hunt)
cf. "The Granemore Hare" (theme: fatal hare hunt)
cf. "The White Hare" (theme: fatal hare hunt)
NOTES [23 words]: The town in the Bodleian broadsides is Maxfield or Maxwell. Oldham is in Lancashire, England. I don't know about Maxwell or Maxfield. - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: RcTWhiHa

White House Blues (I)

See Mister McKinley (White House Blues) (File: LoF143)

White House Blues (II)

DESCRIPTION: Singer says Hoover let the country go to ruin; now Roosevelt's "doing his best," but times are still hard -- long hours for poor wages (if they're working at all), bad clothes, poor food. The refrain says of Hoover, "Now he's gone, I'm glad he's gone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1929-1933: Presidency of Herbert Hoover
1933-1945: Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 228, "White House Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 382-383, "White House Blues" (1 text)
DT, WHITHOU2*
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "White House Blues" (on NLCR09) (on NLCR12)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mister McKinley (White House Blues)" (tune, structure, words)
NOTES [178 words]: The Great Depression is generally considered to have extended from the stock market crash of 1929 to the beginning of World War II in 1939. However, it is worth noting that conditions for farmers had already been depressed for several years before this. - PJS (This was due in part to the revival of European agriculture after World War I. In Minnesota, the political side effects are still felt to some extent today, in the relative strength of third party politics. Minnesota voted for Roosevelt in all four of his elections -- the first time the state had ever voted for a Democrat. Quite a sea change. - RBW)
This song is obviously a topical adaptation of "Mister McKinley (White House Blues)." -PJS
In one sense this song is unfair; Herbert Hoover was not the cause of the Depression (which began very shortly after he came into office; if any President is to be blamed, it is his predecessor, Calvin Coolidge). On the other hand, Hoover (a conservative Republican) took only the most hesitant steps to help the poor, so he arguably does deserve their scorn. - RBW
File: CSW228

White Lad A-Grieving, A

DESCRIPTION: "I was all alone in my my cabin, The Indians surrounded me." They tie him to his horse. The Indians take him to camp and prepare to burn him, but the chief's daughter declares she will burn with him. He lives with them for five years and becomes a lawyer
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (High-OldOldFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) death love fire rescue
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 21-22, "A White Lad A Griveing" (sic.) (1 text)
NOTES [55 words]: High-OldOldFolkSongs's text has what sounds like a traditional chorus, but it isn't really laid out as poetry and the rhyme scheme is defective at best. I'm not even sure if it's a straight story or a humorous parody on some sort of Pocahontas legend. Unfortunately, I can't find any other texts to see if they clarify things. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: High021

White Man, Let Me Go

DESCRIPTION: The Indian begs to be allowed to return to his land: "Let me go to my home in the far distant west... Let me go to my father... Let me go to the hills... Let me go to... my dark-eyed maid... And there let my body in ashes lie low"
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Journal from the Marcus)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) lament homesickness
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Australia
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 76, "The Indian Hunter" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 270, "The Indian Hunter" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 180-181, "The Indian Hunter" ( text)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 32-34, "White Man, Let Me Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 164-165, "White Man, Let Me Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 228-229, "White Man, Let Me Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1043, p. 71, "The Indian Hunter" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 30 and #3/62, pp. 29-30, "The Indian Hunter" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 99-100, "The Indian Hunter" (1 text)
ST FJ032 (Partial)
Roud #2055
RECORDINGS:
Vince Ledwell, "White Man Let Me Go" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Richard Pennell, "To My Home In the Forest Let Me Go" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lone Indian" (theme)
NOTES [280 words]: The notes in Brown cite Kittredge to the effect that this was printed in 1835. The source involved, however, is not listed. I wonder if this might not in fact be a reference to the 1835 song "The American Indian Girl" by J. M. Smith and Charles Edward Horn, a small portion of which is printed on pp. 242-243 of Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994. The themes of the two are similar, but based on the partial text in Finson, I would not call them the same song.
It IS, however, clearly the same song as one cited on p. 243 of Finson, "The Indian's Prayer," which is said to be by Isaac B. Woodbury and to have been published in 1846.
Since the song was copied aboard the Marcus in 1844, this was not the original. It appears that, in fact, Woodbury set a tune to an existing poem. Based on the Wikipedia entry for "The Indian's Prayer," the original version "The Indian's Entreaty" was published in 1833 by John Perry of Pennsylvania. But while Perry's version is identical thematically, it is not the same metrically. There must have been a rewrite somewhere, to convert the 11-syllable lines of the Perry version to the 12-syllable lines of the song. I have not found any reference to who did the rewriting, but since both the Marcus version and Woodbury's use the 12-syllable version, it must have been very early. Indeed, I wonder if just possibly the 12-syllable version is the original and Perry's the adaption. I also wonder if, perhaps, there might not have been a folk version of this song, with tune, independent of the Woodbury version. But I have not researched the point. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FJ032

White Marble Stone, The

DESCRIPTION: "Sister Dolly light the lamp, and the lamp light the road, And I wish I been there for to yedde Jordan roll." "O the city light the lamp, the white man he will sold, And I wish...." "O the white marble stone, and the white marble stone...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 42, "The White Marble Stone" (1 text, 1 tune with a variation)
Roud #11996
NOTES [300 words]: My guess (only a guess) is that this refers to the "white stone" given to the believers in Pergamum who "conquer" in Revelation 2:17. The King James Version does not use the word "marble" to describe this stone, but interestingly the word "stone" used in this verse is unusual (ψηφος, psephos, used elsewhere only in Acts 26:10 of casting a vote. It also refers to small round stones that might be used on an abacus -- as opposed to some random rock you find in the ground, which is λιθος, lithos, stone, or πετρος, petros, rock).
The use of the word in this context is significant: when voting for or against conviction, a Greek juryman would drop a white stone to acquit, a black one to convict. Thus to give someone a white stone (psephos) was to declare not guilty.
J. Massyngberde Ford, Revelation (being volume 38 of the Anchor Bible), Doubleday, 1975, p. 399, says of the white stone, "The stone mentioned here is probably the tessera of ancient times, which was used variously as a voting ballot or a ticket to public functions. It was also used when drawing lots in a criminal case; the white stone was a favorable verdict, i.e. life.... Another interpretation may be that this stone is an entrance ticket into the promised land or paradise."
There is no reason to think that the stones mentioned in the Apocalypse were marble. It may just be a sort of logic: "If God is giving out a stone, it must be a high-quality one."
Don't ask me if slaves would know about the use of the word psephos, and if so, how they would have found out. In addition to Ford, I needed three Biblical concordances (Young's, for the KJV, Kohlenberger's, for the NRSV, and Moulton & Geden for Greek) and two dictonaries (Bauer and Liddell & Scott), plus some knowledge for Greek history, to write this note. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: AWG042A

White Oak Mountain

See The Rocky Mountain Top (File: ShAp112)

White Paternoster

See Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (I) (File: FO033)

White Pilgrim, The

DESCRIPTION: "I came to the tomb where the white pilgrim lay And pensively stood by his tomb, And in a low whisper I heard someone say How peaceful he sleeps there alone." The pilgrim's farewell to his family after his call, and his courage in death, are recalled
AUTHOR: Rev. Jonathan Ellis (1838) (Source: Thompson-APioneerSongster citing Wilgus)
EARLIEST DATE: 1850 (Sacred Harp)
KEYWORDS: religious death clergy disease request travel children family wife
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 74, "The White Pilgrim" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 187-189, "The White Pilgrim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 542, "The Lone Pilgrim" (1 text plus a fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 542, "The Lone Pilgrim" (2 tunes plus a text excerpts)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 81, p. 209, "The White Pilgrim" (1 text)
Randolph 619, "The White Pilgrim" (2 short texts plus 2 excerpts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 433-434, "The White Pilgrim" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 619)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 92-93, "The Lone Pilgrim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 68-69, "The White Pilgrim" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 43-44, "The White Pilgrim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 104, pp. 158-159, "The White Pilgrim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 97, "The White Pilgrim" (1 text in two parts, the second tells the sorrows of the widow)
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 205, "(The White Pilgrim)" (1 fragment)
Roud #2841
RECORDINGS:
Aunt Molly Jackson, "The Lone Pilgrim" (AAFS 2580 B, 1939)
Buell Kazee, "The White Pilgrim" [fragment] (on Kazee01)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "The Lone Pilgrim" (AAFS 1826 A3, 1935)
Doc Watson & Gaither Carlton, "The Lone Pilgrim" (on Watson01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Braes of Balquidder" (most common tune)
cf. "Lily Dale" (alternate tune)
NOTES [246 words]: It's not absolutely clear whether this was originally called "The White Pilgrim" or "The Lone Pilgrim"; Randolph's notes imply the latter, but the notes in Brown and Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi seem to imply the reverse. The best argument is perhaps the text in Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana, which is exremely full (seemingly a basic text and a sequel), which was learned probably around 1870 by O. F. Kirk; in that, it's called the "White Pilgrim."
At least two authors are listed: The Reverend Ellis (elsewhere called Elder John Ellis), mentioned above, fl. 1789; he is said to have set it to the tune Lily Dale; he's also listed as writing it in 1838. But the Sacred Harp (in which it's listed as "The Lone Pilgrim") credits it to B. F. White in 1850.
A reasonable supposition is that Ellis wrote the words and White set a new tune, but that's not proof of anything.
Randolph also mentions a clergyman called "The White Pilgrim" (after his clothing, not his skin color) who lived before the Civil War. Paul Stamler found a reference to a "White Pilgrim" named Joseph Thomas who lived around 1835. He is also mentioned in Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee.
For complete arguments, see D. K. Wilgus's article "The White Pilgrim: Song, Fact, and Legend" -- an item I, unfortunately, have not seen. - RBW
It's clear that "The White Pilgrim" and "The Lone Pilgrim" are essentially the same song, although one is told in third person while the other is in first. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: R619

White Rose, The

See The Little White Rose (File: BrII276)

White Sails

See White Wings (File: R779)

White Sand and Gray Sand

DESCRIPTION: Round. "White sand and gray sand. Who’ll buy my white sand? Who’ll buy my gray sand?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (Boston School Song Book, according to White sand and gray sand Who’ll buy my white sand Who’ll buy my gray sand
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 434, "White Sand, Gray Sand" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 113, "White Sand and Gray Sand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 99, "White Sand and Gray Sand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 49, "White Sand and Gray Sand" (1 text)
Roud #19594
File: ACSF434W

White Sand, Gray Sand

See White Sand and Gray Sand (File: ACSF434W)

White Seal's Lullaby, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh hush thee my baby, the night is behind us, And dark are the waters that sparkled so green." The billows shall be a pillow; no storm or shark shall threaten
AUTHOR: Words: Rudyard Kipling
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (The Jungle Book)
KEYWORDS: ship sea nonballad baby | sleep
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 132, "(The White Seal's Lullaby)"
Roud #25480
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, Is Ended" (tune)
NOTES [31 words]: Alice Kane reports singing this to "The Day Though Gavest, Lord, Is Ended," i.e. probably "St. Clement" by Clement C. Scholefield. I was instantly reminded of "The Cumberland Crew." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC132

White Slave, The

DESCRIPTION: A pretty girl, who works in a laundry and sleeps in the street because she is so poor, is recruited to be a prostitute with promises of wealth. Five years later, she has lost her looks and is diseased. Who is to blame? "The boss who pays starvation wages"
AUTHOR: Words: Joe Hill (Music by Leo Friedman?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (_The Industrial Worker_, April 10, 1913, according to William M. Adler, _The Main Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon_, p. 206)
KEYWORDS: IWW whore money disease
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
DT, WHITSLAV
ADDITIONAL: (Barrie Stavis and Frank Harmon, editors), _The Songs of Joe Hill_, 1960, now reprinted in the Oak Archives series, pp. 30-31, "The White Slave" (1 text, 1 tune -- not the tune Hill used, which was copyrighted)
Gibbs M. Smith, _Joe Hill_, 1969 (I use the 1984 Peregrine Smith Books edition), p. 250, "The White Slave" (1 text)
Roud #7990
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland" (tune)
NOTES [497 words]: For the life of Joe Hill, see "Joe Hill."
According to Gibbs M. Smith, Joe Hill, 1969 (I use the 1984 Peregrine Smith Books edition), pp. 32-33, this was one of two songs (the other being "The Girl Question") which Hill wrote to encourage women's participation in the I.W.W. At a time when the union was still largely masculine, it appears Hill felt that it needed to reach out and include all people.
Although not the best-known of Hill's songs, I'd have to say that I regard it as the best of those I know. It is also quite true-to-life.
I thought of this piece while reading Steve Oney's And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank (2003; use the 2004 Vintage Books edition), especially pp. 56-60, describing conditions in Atlanta in the years leading up to 1913 (when Mary Phagan was murdered and this song was written). Child labor was the standard in the town -- the factory in which 13-year-old Mary worked employed primarily teenage girls, paying them no more than ten to fifteen cents an hour and working them 56 hours a week -- and there was a vast prostitution industry. Had Mary not been murdered, this might have been her story: She was very pretty, and the only choices life held for her (unless she managed to find a rich man to marry her) were life in the factory or prostitution.
At the time she died, the Atlanta papers were carrying advertisements calling for the ending of the White Slave trade (Oney, p. 57). I gather that, for a while after Mary was murdered, there was speculation that she had been attacked because she refused to join the prostitution industry. I don't know what Joe Hill knew about this -- but I wonder if it didn't somehow inspire his song.
Hill's description also fits what we know about how women fell into prostitution in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. David Cordingly, Women Sailors and Sailors' Women, Random House, 2001 (I use the undated, but later, paperback edition), pp. 19-20, cites the work of Dr. William Sanger, whose work was published in 1858, Sanger took case histories of some 2000 prostitutes. And "of the 2,000 women... 933 had been servants before becoming prostitutes, 499 had lived with parents or friends, and most of the rest were dressmakers, tailoresses, or seamstresses," The single most common reason for becoming a whore was, of course, poverty.
Cordingly on pp. 20-22 cites a London chaplain, G. P. Merrick, who interviewed many imprisoned women and compiled similar statistics about British prostitutes. Again, the picture is one of women driven to ruin by poverty.
It appears that the five year working life cited in this song is if anything high, since "the great majority of adult prostitutes were between the ages of eighteen and 23" (Cordingly, p. 20, quoting Sanger). Sanger found that the typical prostitute lasted only four years; Merrick computed the average time in the profession as just barely more than three years (Cordingly, p. 21). - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: DTwhitsl

White Squall, The

DESCRIPTION: "The sea was bright and the bark rose well, And the breeze bore the tone of the vesper bell"; the ship is a good one, and is approaching land. All are thinking of home when a white squall blows up and overwhelms the ship
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Journal of the Pacific; Dime-Song-Book #25)
KEYWORDS: ship storm
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 194, "The White Squall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 120, "The White Squall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #25, p. 61, "The White Squall" (1 text)
Roud #13623
NOTES [30 words]: Not to be confused with the Stan Rogers song of the same name. This seems to have been widely published in broadside form, but very rarely encountered in actual oral tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: HGam120

White Steed of the Prairies, The

DESCRIPTION: "Mount, mount for the chase! Let your lassoes be strong... For the quarry you seek has oft baffled, I wee, Steeds swift as your own." Many men have tried the White Steed, but still it runs free
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Finger-FrontierBallads)
KEYWORDS: horse freedom
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 99-100, "The White Steed of the Prairies" (1 text)
Roud #8827
File: Fig099

White Steed, The

See The Wonderful Grey Horse (File: Zimm044A)

White Wings

DESCRIPTION: "White wings, they never grow weary, They carry me cheerily over the sea, Night comes, I long for my dearie, I'll spread out my white wings and fly home to thee." The singer longs for his Maggie Darrow, and hopes the winds will carry him to her.
AUTHOR: Banks Winter ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (sheet music published by Willis Woodward & Co. of New York)
KEYWORDS: love bird reunion
FOUND IN: US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 123, "White wings, they never grow weary" (1 fragment)
Randolph 779, "White Wings" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 48-52, "White Wings" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 144-145, "White Wings" (1 text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, p. 7, "White Wings" (1 excerpt)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 101, 195, 251, 416, "White Wings" (notes only)
OneTuneMore, p. 26, "White Wings" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ST R779 (Full)
Roud #1753
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Black Socks/White Sails" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #382, recorded 12/14/2022; "White Sails" is a variant on "White Wings")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Black Socks" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Black Socks (File: PHCF035)
NOTES [109 words]: Randolph quoted Jay House to the effect that this song was written by Banks Winter in 1884. Gilbert-LostChords offers the story that Winter bought it from another singer for $20. James J. Geller lists this other singer as Joseph Gullick, and dates the composition to 1882. Little supporting evidence is offered for either story.
The title is reported to derive from the novel White Wings by William Black. (The final wife of the great Shawnee leader Tecumseh was also named, in translation, "White Wing," but I doubt many people in the late nineteenth century knew that.) - RBW
So *this* is what "Black socks, they never grow dirty" is a parody of! - PJS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: R779

White-Headed Boy, The

See Cupid Benighted (File: FO180)

Whitehills Harbour

DESCRIPTION: Tonight we gather to help "the good folks" for "their harbour is nane o' the best." When the singer looked "it nearly upset me To ken whare a place ca'd a harbour could be." At night the sweethearts "are toddlin'" along with the rabbits and hares.
AUTHOR: William Park (source: Greig/Duncan8)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: fishing disaster nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1891, "Whitehills Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13235
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lass o' Glenshee" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
NOTES [354 words]: "Whitehills [Banff on Moray Firth], a village on the west side of Knock head ... has a small harbour ... defended by short piers facing northward, but it is rendered unsafe by the rage that is thrown in during northwesterly gales. It has 83 herring-boats, employing 170 men and boys. Population, 920 in 1881" (source: North Sea Pilot Part II. North and East Coasts of Scotland (London, 1885 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 144).
"Wrecks between the Firths of Forth and Moray are more frequent than on any other part of the coast of Scotland. This may possibly be accounted for by the great number of vessels passing and repassing along that coast. In the month of December 1799, a strong gale from the south-east occasioned serious disasters on these shores, when upwards of seventy sail were wrecked on the eastern coast of Scotland, and many of their crews perished" (source: David Stevenson, Life of Robert Stevenson Civil Engineer, (London, 1878 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 260).
Greig #153, p. 2: "There are not many traditional songs dealing with fisher folk; and as for fisher folk themselves they do not seem to have any old minstrelsy dealing with their special calling and interests." (See only "The Thurso Fishing Boat Disaster" and "The Bonnie Fisher Lass.")
Greig/Duncan8: "Made up for Mr Quirrie by William Park blacksmith and sung by John Quirrie at concert in aid of Whitehills Harbour."
The last line of Greig/Duncan8 is "But toddlin' aboot was the rabbits and bawds [hares]." The Dictionary of the Scots Language site quotes, as an illustration of the word "bauds," "And toddlin' about were the rabbits and bauds." The citation is "A. Cumming, Tales of the North (1896) 96." That site's bibliography dates the book publication as 1847.
Steve Roud sends the following information, if anyone can follow up on Tales of the North: "I have at last tracked down Cumming -- it's published by the Banffshire Journal (1896) so it's probably one of those newspapers articles-published-as-books numbers. The only copy I can find is in Aberdeen Univ Lib, see this link [http://tinyurl.com/tbdx-CummingNorth]." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81891

Whitney's Camp

DESCRIPTION: "It's of a brave young shantyboy, brave-hearted, true, He left his home near Ottawa and to Whitney's camp did go." He will return home when winter ends. "He worked until that fatal day When a hanging limb fell down on him and squashed him to the clay."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger death lumbering work derivative
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #35, "Whitney's Camp" (1 fragment, tune referenced)
Roud #4468
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Harry Dunn (The Hanging Limb)" [Laws C14] (plot; also tune) and references there
NOTES [42 words]: Fowke notes the obvious similarity of this song to "Harry Dunn." The similarity extends to the tune; it is clear that the one is modeled on the other. And, since this song is known only from Nelson Lewis's one fragment, this is probably the parody. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: FowL35

Whitsun Dance, The

See Dancing at Whitsun (File: DalC240)

Whittingham Fair

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Who Am Dat a-Walkin' in de Corn?

DESCRIPTION: "Who am dat a-walkin' in de co'n?.... How long O Lawd, nobody knows, I pray I'll rise on judgment day...." The singer mentions several who might be among the corn: "Joshua de son ob Nun Er King David come to fight Goliar," Petuh, Gabriel, God
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 325, p. 192, "Who Am Dat a-Walkin' in de Corn?" (1 text)
Roud #4304
File: CW192

Who Are the Greatest?

DESCRIPTION: "Who are the greatest? We are the greatest. Are you sure?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (JohnsIsland1)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Mabel Hillery, Janie Hunter and her grandchildren, "Who Are the Greatest?" (on JohnsIsland1)
File: RcWhoAtG

Who Built De Ark

See Who Built the Ark? (File: RcWBTA)

Who Built the Ark?

DESCRIPTION: Amalgamation of floating verses about Noah, the ark, the animals, etc.. Noah builds the ark from hickory (hemlock, gopherwood), leads the animals two-by-two. Chorus: "Who built the ark? Noah, Noah," sometimes "The old ark's a movin', a-movin', a movin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: travel sea ship flood Bible religious floatingverses humorous gods
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 222-223, "Norah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 158, "No-e in the Ark" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 6, "Who Built De Ark?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 240-243, "Norah" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 309, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #5355
RECORDINGS:
The Four Wanderers, "Animals Coming In" (Victor 23370, 1932; rec. 1929; on CrowTold01)
A. A. Gray & Seven Foot Dilly, "The Old Ark's a-Moving"(Vocalion 5458, 1930; on CrowTold02, Babylon)
Norfolk Jubilee Four [or Quartet] "Who Built the Ark?" (OKeh 4400, 1921; Parlophone [Australia] A2062, n.d.)
Governor Alf Taylor & his Old Limber Quartet, "Brother Noah Built an Ark" (Victor 19451, 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Uncle Noah" (subject)
cf. "One More River to Cross" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Old Ark's A-Moverin'" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [72 words]: This shares verses and choruses with so many other Noah songs that it's hard to parse it out, but the distinguishing mark of the "Who built the ark?" chorus is a useful delineator. The Gray-Dilly version, despite the title, is not "The Old Ark's A-Moverin'"; the verses are quite different, and so is the overall tone. As a final note, it's only appropriate that a song about Noah should be composed entirely of floating verses. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: RcWBTA

Who Can Sail

See Vem Kan Segla Förutan Vind? (Who Can Sail without a Wind?) (File: ACSF340V)

Who Dat?

DESCRIPTION: "Who dat tappin' at de window? Who dat knockin' at de do' Mammy tappin' at de window, Pappy knockin' at de do'."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: lullaby nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 154, "Who Dat?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11597
File: ScNF154A

Who Did Swallow Jonah?

DESCRIPTION: "Who did (x4), Who did swallow Jo-Jo-Jonah?... Who did swallow Jonah down?" "Whale did... swallow Jonah whole." "Noah in the arky... bailed." "Daniel... in the lion's den." "David... killed Goliath."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns); 1893 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute) (see notes)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 40, "Peter on the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 68-69, "Peter on the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 88-89 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 196, "Jonah and the Whale" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 346, "Jonah and the Whale" (6 texts and/or fragments, but only the "D" and "E" texts and the "F" fragment are this piece; "A" and "B" are "Jonah and the Whale (Living Humble)" and "C" is "Hide Away")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 346 "Jonah and the Whale" (3 tunes plus text excerpts, of which "f" is this piece)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 386, "Who Did Swallow Jonah" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Fisk University Jubilee Quartette, "Peter on the Sea" (Edison Amberol 978, 1912)
Mustard and Gravy, "The Whale Did, I Know He Did" (Bluebird B-7905, 1938)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Daniel in the Den of Lions" (on NLCR16)
North Carolina Cooper Boys, "Daniel in the Den of Lions" (OKeh 45174, 1927; on CrowTold02)
Utica Institute Jubilee Singers, "Peter on the Sea" (Victor 21925, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hide Away (Jonah and the Whale)" (subject) and references there
cf. "Fisherman Peter" ("Peter on the sea" theme)
cf. "We Are Almost Down to the Shore" ("Peter on the sea" theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Daniel in the Den of Lions
The Whale Did, I Know He Did
NOTES [235 words]: This may actually be two songs; I have a recording by the Brandy Snifters claiming to derive their piece from two 78s, "Daniel in the Den of Lions" by the North Carolina Cooper Boys and "The Whale Did, I Know He Did" by Mustard and Gravy. The verses of this collated version, however, are almost all found in the Folksinger's Wordbook text, though with differences in order. Pending more examples, I'm treating the piece as a unity.
The story of the fish (*not* a whale!) which swallowed Jonah is related in Jonah 2 (for more about this, see the notes to "God's Radiophone"). The Hebrews in the fiery furnace ("Shadrack, Meshak, Abindigo" -- all misspelled, be it noted) are a reference to Daniel 3. The story of Noah and the Ark (actually two stories collated) is in Genesis 6-8. David and Goliath (again, two stories collated) occupy 1 Samuel 17. - RBW
Listening to "Daniel in the Den of Lions," it's clearly the same song as, "Who Did Swallow Jonah?" - PJS
But that still leaves the mystery of "The Whale Did, I Know He Did." - RBW
I'd guess that "The Whale Did" is essentially the same song, with the title changed. - PJS
The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "Peter on the Sea" on page 88 (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 88. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: FSWB386B

Who Goes Round My Stone Wall

DESCRIPTION: "'Who's going round my stone wall?' 'It's only (Bobby Bingo/Jackie Lingo/Old Tom).' 'Don't you steal my (fat sheep/chickens).' 'None but (one/two/etc.)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty chickens animal theft
FOUND IN: Britain New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 52, "(Who's going round my house tonight?)" (1 text)
Roud #12771
File: SuSm052

Who Goes Round? (Granny Hatchett)

DESCRIPTION: "Who's that going round my house this dark and stormy night?" "Raw head and boody bones." "What do you want?" "Fire...." "AIn't got no fire." "I see smoke." "That's just the young ones...." "Give me one...." "Take the least and leave the best"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains)
KEYWORDS: playparty food dialog cannibalism
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, pp. 31-32, "Granny Hatchett" (1 text)
Roud #19198?
File: SKea031

Who Gon' Bring You Chickens

See Six Months in Jail Ain't So Long (File: ScNF231A)

Who Has Managed

DESCRIPTION: "I've traveled through the state, dear Tom, we long have loved so well. And what's the matter with things here.... The working class are very poor...." The singer recalls the good days when Nebraska was settled, and wonders who has mismanaged it since
AUTHOR: Words: Luna E. (Mrs. J. T.) Kellie (1857-1940)
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Farmer's Alliance, September 6, 1890 edition, according to Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore)
KEYWORDS: home travel Indians(Am.) hardtimes money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, pp. 61-62, "Who Has Managed" (1 text, tune referenced)
ADDITIONAL: Nebraska Folklore, Pamphlet Eighteen, "Farmers' Alliance Songs of the 1890's," Federal Writers' Project, 1938, p. 8, "Who Has Managed" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Twenty Years Ago (Forty Years Ago)" (tune)
NOTES [12 words]: For background on Luna Kellie, see the notes to "Marching for Freedom." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: Wels063

Who Have You Got In Heaven

DESCRIPTION: "(Who've you got in Heaven?) (x2) Lord I can't stand still, (Stand still Jordan) (x3) Lord I can't stand still." Later verses start "I've got a (mother/sister/brother/...) in Heaven"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 326-327, "Who Yuh Got Een Heben" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR326W

Who Is At My Window Weeping

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Who Is Knocking at My Door?

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Who is knocking at my door? 'It is I," said the fly. 'One, two, three, four."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (Southern Folklore Quarterly, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope bug
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #608, "Who is knocking at my door?" (1 text)
NOTES [53 words]: I wonder if the last line of this originally read "One, two, three, four, FIVE," to at least roughly rhyme with "fly." Either that, or another line has been lost. Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes thinks this might come from either "Who Killed Cock Robin" or "Bollochy Bill the Sailor," which often has the same first line. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR608

Who Is My Neighbor?

DESCRIPTION: "'Who is my neighbor?' Hear the poor Jew cry. 'Who will a-yescort me? Help me ere I die.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious Jew
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 60, "Who is my Neighbor?" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 60, "Who Is My Neighbor?" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #7845
NOTES [32 words]: The editors of Brown do not seem to have noted the connection with the parable of the Good Samaritan, but it seems to me nearly certain that this is an excerpt from a song about that story. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3060

Who Is on the Lord's Side (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Let me tell you what is nat'rally the fact. Who is on the Lord's side, None o' God's children nebber look back, Who is on the Lord's side." "Way in the valley, who is... Way in the valley...." "Weeping Mary...." "Mourning Martha." "Risen Jesus."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 56, "Who Is on the Lord's Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12015
NOTES [80 words]: The phrase "Who is on the Lord's side" comes from Exodus 32:26, though I'm not sure it's a context I'd like to quote -- Moses is encouraging the Levites to consecrate themselves by killing their relatives!
There is another hymn entitled "Who Is on the Lord's Side," with words by Frances Ridley Havergal and music by C. Luise Reichardt. begins, "Who is on the Lord's side? Who will serve the King? Who will be his helpers?"; it is indexed as "Who Is on the Lord's Side (II)." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AWG056

Who Is on the Lord's Side (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Who is on the Lord’s side? Who will serve the King? Who will be His helpers, other lives to bring? Who will leave the world’s side? Who will face the foe? ... We are on the Lord’s side—Savior, we are Thine!"
AUTHOR: Words: Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879) l /Music: C. Luise Reichardt (source: Julian)
EARLIEST DATE: 1877 (Home Missions, according to Julian)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 109, "Who is on the Lord's side?" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Robert J. Morgan, _Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories_, Nelson, 2004, pp. 172-173, "Who Is on the Lord's Side?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25521
NOTES [124 words]: The phrase "Who is on the Lord's side" comes from Exodus 32:26, though I'm not sure it's a context I'd like to quote -- Moses is encouraging the Levites to consecrate themselves by killing their relatives!
There is another song with this title, from Black tradition, beginning "Let me tell you what is nat'rally the fact." It is indexed as "Who Is on the Lord's Side (I)."
According to John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 498 (which lists more than fifty hymns by Havergal, most of which I've never heard of, although she did write the relatively well-known text "Take My Life and Let It Be"), this was originally published in Home Missions 1877. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC190D

Who Is Tapping at My Bedroom Window?

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Who Is That Under My Bedroom Window?

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Who is the Lady?

DESCRIPTION: Dan'l Mooney's father died and left him money if, the will said, he would marry. He sees a lady and thinks "if she would only wed me I'd be happy." He'd give her diamonds, they'd go to Ireland, they'd have a baby boy who'd become "just like his old Papa"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: marriage lastwill money Ireland
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 7, "Who is the Lady?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5227
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "Who is the Lady?" (on IRTLenihan01)
NOTES [14 words]: Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan: "American music-hall whimsey." - BS
File: RcWITLad

Who Killed Cock Robin?

DESCRIPTION: "Who killed Cock Robin? I, said the sparrow, with my little bow and arrow." "Who saw him die? I, said the fly, with my little streaky eye." Various creatures, mostly birds, describe their parts in the death and burial of Cock Robin
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1744 (Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book volume II)
KEYWORDS: bird death burial
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,SE) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1679, "Cock Robin" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 213, "Cocky Robin" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 74, "Tommy Robin (Cock Robin)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #66, "Cock Robin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 315, "Cock Robin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #226, "Who Killed Cock Robin?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, pp. 116-117, "Cock Robin" (1 text)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 56-57, "Who Killed the Robin?" (1 text)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 66, "The Death of Cock Robin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 88, pp. 140-141, "Cock Robin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #92, "Cock Robin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 87, "Cock Robin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 177-178, "Cock Robin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 69-70, "Who Killed Cock Robin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 271-275, "Who Killed Cock Robin?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 110, "Who killed Cock Robin?" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #22, pp. 36-37, "(Who did kill Cock Robbin?)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 233, "Who Killed Cock Robin?" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 114, "Who Killed Cock Robin?" (1 text)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 60, "Who Killed Cock Robin?" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 59, "Cock Robin" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COCKROBN*
Roud #494
RECORDINGS:
Edith Harmon, "Who Killed Poor Robin?" (LC AAFS 2907 A2, 1939)
Buell Kazee, "Cock Robin" (on Kazee01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Who Killed Poor Robin?" (on NLCR17, NLCRCD2)
SAME TUNE:
Who Killed Kaiser Bill? (File: AWTB105B)
Poor Jude, or the Death of the Judiciary (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 173)
NOTES [447 words]: Wild theories swirl about this piece -- e.g. that it is linked with political ministry of Robert Walpole (which ended in 1742), or describes the English King WIlliam II Rufus (reigned 1087-1100, which I would consider sufficient reason to reject that idea), or that it is a retelling of the Norse Balder legend (!). A legend of St. Kentigern says that, after others at his monastery decapitated a robin, he restored it to life. However, there are European analogues to the piece, and earlier illustrations which may belong with the story, so any theory must be considered speculative at best. Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs reports that it is a Shoshone night chant.
The Baring-Goulds argue that the piece must go back to Middle English times, because it rhymes "owl" and "shovel." This, however, appears to be in error on two counts: First, the ancient spelling "shouel" was not pronounced "showel" (in Old English, it's "scofl"). And there are English dialects which confuse "v" and "w." The Opies note that there are still people who pronounce the word "showel."
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes #109, "Cock Robin got up early, at the break of day," describes the courtship of Cock Robin and Jenny Wren (who are traditionally linked as husband and wife although this is of course physiologically impossible). The Opies mention a speculation that this was published as a prequel to "Who Killed Cock Robin?" It is certain that the folk tale of their marriage is ancient; see "The Marriage of Robin Redbreast and Jenny Wren" on pp. 542-543 of volume A.2 of Katherine Briggs, A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2).
Williams/Maden/Green/Crutch: Sidney Herbert Williams and Falconer Madan, revised and augmented by Roger Lancelyn Green, further revised by Denis Crutch, The Lewis Carroll Handbook (earlier editions titled A Handbook of the Literature of the Rev. C. L. Dodgson, 1932, 1961, 1970); Dawson Books, 1979 , pp. 112-113, lists "A MS political parody in eleven 4-line stanzas, beginning 'Who caused the Boer Rebellion'" and referring to Gladstone as "the people's Willy" as being sent by Charles Dodgson to Edith (Hutchinson) Shute in 1887. A shorter text was found in the papers of H. Rider Haggard. It is likely that one or the other wrote it, and certain that both knew it, so this odd piece certainly made its way around.
J. R. R. Tolkien reportedly translated this into Old English as "Ruddoc Hana" (see Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond, The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Reader's Guide, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, p. 968).
Last updated in version 6.7
File: SKE74

Who Killed Cock Robin? (II)

DESCRIPTION: Questions and answers. "What came of 82?": The name. "Whence came the shout of freedom?": o'er the Atlantic. "Who drove the people mad?": Pitt. "Who picketed the Croppies?": Captain Swayne. "When shall [Union] be repealed?": When the people are united.
AUTHOR: "Ierne" (R.R. Madden) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Madden's _Literary Remains of the United Irishmen of 1798_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: rebellion violence Ireland nonballad patriotic questions
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 168, "Who Killed Cock Robin?" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [200 words]: There are thirty-eight verses. The form follows "Who Killed Cock Robin?" Each verse has a question and an answer about eighteenth and nineteenth century Irish history. More villains than heroes of that period are among the answers.
Here is an example of the form (Dublin Town Major Sirr [for whom see "The Major"] is the villain again):
Who shot Lord Edward?
The Major said demurely,
I took my aim securely,
I shot Lord Edward!
[The references to "82" is to] April 16, 1782 [when] Henry Grattan moved a declaration of the independence of the Irish parliament. Grattan: "Ireland is now a nation!" (source: "Henry Grattan" at the Ireland Information Guide site). [See also the notes to "Ireland's Glory." - RBW]
Pitt and Union are discussed, among other places in this index, in the notes to "The Game of Cards" (II).
Captain Swayne appears briefly in "The Song of Prosperous," in which he dies in the fire. He is one of the people accused of "pitch capping": filling a cap with boiling pitch and putting it on a peasant's head. (source: "The Search for Weapons" in 1798 Rebellion at Rathregan National School site). - BS
Madden's pen-name of "Ierne" is one of the sundry ancient names for Ireland. - RBW
File: Moyl168

Who Killed Kaiser Bill?

DESCRIPTION: "Who killed Kaiser Bill? We, said the Allies, Upon the road to Calais, We killed Bill Kaiser." "Then all the Germans got a great surprise When they heard of the death of old Bill Kaiser." Other questions about the death of the Kaiser
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2001 (Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
KEYWORDS: royalty death derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 105-106, "Who Killed Kaiser Bill?" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Killed Cock Robin?" (tune)
NOTES [18 words]: This is of course pure fiction -- Wilhelm II, although he abdicated, survived just fine, living until 1941. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTB015B

Who Killed Poor Robin?

See Who Killed Cock Robin? (File: SKE74)

Who Killed the Robin?

See Who Killed Cock Robin? (File: SKE74)

Who Mou'n fo' Me?

See Miss Mary Jane (Riding in the Buggy, Who Moan for Me) (File: LoF259)

Who Mourn for Me?

See Miss Mary Jane (Riding in the Buggy, Who Moan for Me) (File: LoF259)

Who No Been Out, Don't Come a Bay

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus, "Bear away Yankee bear away." The shantyman sings: "Who no been off no come a bay... If you want, deliver your harpoon... De gun on the blank so len' us a hand... Yankee doodle dandy boy... bear away to Baltimore."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: work sea shanty whale whaler
FOUND IN: West Indies(St Vincent)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 105-107, "Who No Been Out, Don't Come a Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [45 words]: Abrahams quotes a blackfish whaler who says that when one of the crew doesn't show up for a day's whaling, "an' when we take fish and come back home, usually sing this shanty 'Who no been out, don't come a bay.' Who hasn't been out don't come now and look for meat." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS105

Who Said I Was a Bum?

DESCRIPTION: Singer, called a bum, takes exception to the name. He tells of life as a hobo, says "I never work, I never have, and I never will by gum/I know I'm a hobo, but who said I was a bum?" My shoes are worn, my pants are torn, there's holes in both my knees."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1927 (recording, Carson Robison)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer is called a bum, but takes exception to the name. He tells of life as a hobo, says "I never work, I never have, and I never will by gum/I know I'm a hobo, but who said I was a bum?" "Whenever I see a stack of wood, I go the other way" He also notes that "My shoes are worn, my pants are torn, there's holes in both my knees" and that the wind blows through his BVDs
KEYWORDS: poverty pride work nonballad hobo
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Frank Luther, "Who Said I Was A Bum?" (Victor 21686 [as Bud Billings], 1928) (Broadway 1226, 1929)
Carson Robison, "Who Said I Was a Bum?" (Herschel Gold Seal 2021, c. 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "You Wonder Why I'm a Hobo" (subject, attitude)
File: RcWSIWAB

Who Stole My Chickens?

DESCRIPTION: Clapping song with gestures: "Who stole my chickens and my (hens/eggs)?" "Not me." "Who stole...?" "You!" "Who stole...?" "Not me." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 495, "Who Stole My Chickens?" (notes only)
Roud #18334
File: ACSF495C

Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar

DESCRIPTION: "Who stole the cookie(s) from the cookie jar? (Not I stole the cookies from the cookie jar...) [Number X] stole the cookies from the cookie jar. Not me! Yes, you! Couldn't Be! Then who stole the cookies...." Repeat with a new (leader and) accused
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1991 (British Library Patten collection)
KEYWORDS: food theft nonballad campsong
FOUND IN: US(MA) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 395-396, "Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?" (notes, with a text on p. 396)
Roud #32774
NOTES [28 words]: According to Averill, Halliwell traced this back to a version about the Abbot of Saint Gall who lost his hat. Maybe, but I think it safe to call this a distinct song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF395W

Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar

See Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar (File: ACSF395W)

Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder?

DESCRIPTION: "Mistress Murphy gave a party just about a week ago, Everything was plentiful, the Murphys, they're not slow." Mrs. Murphy is shocked to find a pair of worn-out overalls in the chowder. Arguments and fights break out about how they got there
AUTHOR: George L. Geifer (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (source: Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: humorous food clothes | overalls
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, MRPHCHOW*
Roud #17032
RECORDINGS:
Jim Eldritch, Madeleine Corleo, "Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder?" (Piotr-Archive #664, recorded 09/13/2023)
C. Gardee, "Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder?" (Fragment (more an allusion than an actual song): Piotr-Archive #657, recorded 08/31/2023)

NOTES [79 words]: Not to be confused with the song indexed as "Mrs. Murphy's Chowder." Steve Roud either omits the other one or lumps the two. Meade, Spottswood, and Meade definitely lump them.
This one was popular enough to be recorded by Bing Crosby. It was apparently used in a Betty Grable movie, "Coney Island."
The version Derek Piotr collected from Jim Eldritch and Madeleine Corleo seems to use the tune "The Noble Duke of York" for the verses, but I don't know if this is original. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio657

Who Was in the Belly?

DESCRIPTION: Questions song, with the leader (or one group) calling out the questions and the other shouting the answer, e.g. "Who was in the belly (of the fish/whale)? Jonah!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 309, 494, "Who Was in the Belly?" (notes only)
NOTES [48 words]: On p. 309, Averill lists this as being found five times in her collection; on p. 494, she says she found it 15 times. I don't know which is right; I do know that it was very hard to find a text of this song. Whatever Averill's number should have been, I don't think it was very popular. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF494W

Who Were You With Last Night?

DESCRIPTION: As Obadiah wanders in to his workplace, his colleagues ask, "Who were you with last night, Out in the pale moonlight? It wasn't your sister, And it wasn't your ma... Are you going to tell your missus?" He claims it was Uncle Fred, but it was another girl
AUTHOR: Fred Godfrey and Mark Sheridan (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (recorded by Mark Sheridan)
KEYWORDS: love infidelity humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 214, "(no title)" (1 text, which includes only a portion of the chorus)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 20-21, "Who Were You With Last Night?" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Mark Sheridan, "Who Were You With Last Night?" (Regal G-6506, 1912; Columbia-Rena 2066, 1913)
File: BrPa214B

Who Will Care for Mother Now?

DESCRIPTION: "Why am I so weak and weary? See how faint my heated breath.... Tell me, comrades, is this death?" The dying soldier asks "Who will care for mother now?" He hopes someone will care for her, and hopes to die as a soldier should
AUTHOR: Charles Carroll Sawyer
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (sheet music published by Sawyer & Thompson, NY)
KEYWORDS: soldier death mother Civilwar
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 157-159, "Who Will Care for Mother Now?" (1 text, 1 tune); also p. 160, "Who Will Care for Micky Now" (1 text, a parody of the preceding)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 76-77, "Who Will Care for Mother Now?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2616, pp. 177-178, "Who Will Care for Mother Now?" (13 references)
Dime-Song-Book #10, pp. 5-6, "Who will Care for Mother now" (1 text)
DT, WHOCARE*
Roud #18948
SAME TUNE:
Who Will Care for Micky Now ("Arrah! Molly darlin', I am drafted," by Eugene T. Johnston) (Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, p. 160; Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 177)
Who Will Care for Conscript Now! ("Oh, I am afraid and weary," by the "Dock St. Bard") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 177)
Who Will Care for Niggers Now? A Parody on: Who Will Care for Mother Now ("List to me, plantation niggers") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 178)
Who Will Care for Old Abe Now? A Parody ("Why's old Abe so sad and weary") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 178)
The Young Conscript and His Lady ("I have come, my dearest Rosa") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 184)
Mother, Will Our Charley Come? ("Mother, I am very weary, Weary of the day now come") (Dime-Song-Book #13, p. 53)
NOTES [117 words]: The fact that this song achieved some success probably tells us more about the nineteenth century than about the quality of the song. Charles Carroll Sawyer is best known for writing the lyrics to "When This Cruel War Is Over."
Although seemingly unknown in tradition, it was popular enough to inspire a widely-printed response. According to Edwin Wolf 2nd, American Song Sheets, Slip Ballads, and Political Broadsides 1850-1870, Library Company of Philadelphia, 1963, p. 5, there were at least eleven broadside prints of "Answer to Who Will Care for Mother Now," beginning "Quell, oh! quell your fears my darling." It had three stanzas and a chorus, and the words were said to be by C. G. Streval. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SCW76

Who Will Hold My Stovepipe Hat

DESCRIPTION: "Who will hold my (stovepipe hat (3x)), Oh who will hold my stovepipe hat When I am dead and gone?" Who will ("smoke my corncob pipe," "hold my sweetheart's hand")... Nonsense refrain ending "I'm a son-of-a-gun American man"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad nonsense
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 234-235, "Who Will Hold My Stovepipe Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 127, "Who Will Hold My Stovepipe Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11567
NOTES [32 words]: Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed: "This is a parody of the 'Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot' stanzas in 'The Lass of Loch Royal.'" It seems like a parody of something, but I don't know of what. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: Ow1E234

Who Will Play the Silver Whistle?

See The Silver Whistle (File: K009)

Who Will Shoe Your Feet?

See Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot (plus related references, e.g. The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76]) (File: C076A)

Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses found in sundry other songs: "Oh who will shoe your pretty little foot, And who will glove your hand...." "(Papa) will shoe my pretty little foot, (Mama) will glove my hand...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: (undatable as the key lyrics probably predate the song as an independent entity)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (32 citations):
Bronson 76, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (23 versions, of which #6, #7, #9, #10, #14, and #15 must be placed here)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 149-150, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 fragments)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2, pp. 174-177, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 fragments, one of which is probably "The Lass of Roch Royal" but the second being "Pretty Little Foot"; 1 tune)
Randolph 18, "Oh Who Will Shoe My Foot?" (8 texts, 5 tunes; the "B" and "H" versions are of this sort) {H=Bronson's #7}
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 14-15, "Winter's Night" (1 text, 1 tune, very heavily composite, starting with "As I rode out last winter's night," then two "Pretty little foot" verses, then "Lonesome dove" verses and ending with "I wish to the Lord I'd never been born") {Bronson's #22}
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 259, "I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree" (2 fragments, named for that key line from "Tavern in the Town" which occurs in both fragments, but the "A" text is mostly "Pretty Little Foot"); also 301, "High-Topped Shoes" (2 texts, both mixed; "A" is mostly "Pretty Little Foot" with verses from "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" while "B" is a hash of "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down," ""More Pretty Girls Than One," "In the Pines," and others); also 306, "By By, My Honey" (1 text, mostly this though with several floating verses, e.g. from "Lonesome Road")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 22, "The Lass of Roch Royal (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 301, "High-Topped Shoes" (2 tunes plus text excerpts, of which "A" has verses of this song)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 13, pp. 91-93, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 fragments, of which "A" is the "Pretty Little Foot" with a chorus from "Careless Love" and "B" is two "Pretty Little Foot" stanzas artificially and wrongly extracted from "Wild Bill Jones")
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 2, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune, the "Pretty Little Foot"/"Careless Love" combination from Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 13)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, p. 26, "(no title)" (1 generic text)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 21, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (21 texts, every one of which is this piece rather than the longer ballad; additional texts appear in the Appendices, though some of these file with other songs; 4 tunes, of which the first 3, "Lass of Roch Royal," "Love Gregory," "and "Lass of Roch Royal," are among the pieces which belong here; 22 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {#21A=Bronson's #9, #21U=Bronson's #10}
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, p. 124, (no title) (1 fragment, filed under Child #76 along with a text of "New River Train/Honey Babe" and a version of "I Truly Undertand That You Love Some Other Man")
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #18, "Who Will Shoe Your Foot?" (1 text, with the "Pretty Little Foot" stanzas but primarily "The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out))")
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 21B, "Who Will Shoe Your Feet?" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 58-59, "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #15}
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 20-21, "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, pp. 28-29, "Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text, 1 tune, listed as Child #76 but appearing to be a fragment of "Young Hunting" [Child #68] with the "Pretty Little Foot" verses attached)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 13, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text plus 8 fragments; the "A" text is "Fare You Well, My Own True Love"; "B"-"I" are "pretty little foot" fragments of one to three stanzas)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 131, "The Gambling Man" (1 text, built around "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man)" [Laws H4] but also with these verses)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 108, "He's Going Away for to Stay a Little While" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 78, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (3 texts, 1 tune, with the "B" text belonging here)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 31, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 texts, 2 tunes, the second clearly "The Lass of Roch Royal" but the first goes here)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, 98-99, "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (3 texts, 1 tune; the "A" text goes here) {Bronson's #14}
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 109, "Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (1 text, 1 tune, with some additional stanzas which might be from "Fare You Well, My Own True Love" but which one has to suspect of being Lomax additions)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 13, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 texts, with the "B" text being a short fragment of this song)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 269-270, "Who Will Shoe" (assorted sample stanzas)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 65, "Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 92, "When I'm Far Away" (1 text, with an altered form: "Who will shoe your little foot (x3) When I am far away?")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 191, "Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot?" (1 text)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, p. 32, "The Conscript's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune, with some of the words added by Dallas)
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; note to #50, (no title) (1 text)
Roud #49
RECORDINGS:
Frank Bode, "Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot?" (on FBode1)
Carolina Tar Heels, "Who's Gonna Kiss Your Lips, Dear Darling" (Victor 40100, 1929)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "When I'm Far Away" (No known Columbia release; recorded 1930)
Pete Seeger, "Poor Boy" (on PeteSeeger18)
Arthur Smith, "Green Valley Waltz" (on McGeeSmith1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lass of Roch Royal" [Child 76]
cf. "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)"
cf. "Mary Anne"
cf. "My Dearest Dear" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Lover's Lament" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Who's Gonna Love You, Honey?" (theme)
cf. "Six Months in Jail Ain't So Long" (theme)
cf. "Must I Go to Mississippi?" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The New-Slain Knight" [Child 263] (floating lyrics)
NOTES [224 words]: It is common to classify any song containing the "pretty little foot" stanzas as part of "The Lass of Roch Royal" [Child 76]. However, they have been widely associated with at least two other songs (designated in the Ballad Index as "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" and "Mary Anne"). In addition, the stanzas can simply float.
For that matter, the verses are not an required part of "Roch Royal"; many versions (e.g. of the "Lord Gregory" group) omit them, and they are not an integral part of the plot of that ballad.
For this reason we have decided to classify these verses separately. If these verses stand in isolation, they will be listed here; if they are part of a longer ballad, they will be listed with that ballad. Note, however, that any particular fragment containing these verses could be part of one of the longer ballads.
Note also that some of the ballads listed under the other titles could have been misclassified by the authors and belong here. - RBW
I classify [the Seeger recording "Poor Boy"] here for want of a better place. - PJS
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest has only the first verse which seems likely to be "The False Young Man" (Roud #419) but the singer's title makes me assume it goes here. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C076A

Who Would Have Tho't Harmon

DESCRIPTION: "Who would have tho't Harmon, that hum drum old fox, Who looks so bemeaning with his tousled locks, Would have had resolution to stand to the tack?" The speakers (Ned [Fanning] and Frank [Nash] ?) lament the troubles the regulators cause
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 280, "Who Would Have Tho't Harmon" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "From Hillsborough Town the First of May" (subject)
cf. "When Fanning First to Orange Came" (subject)
cf. "Said Frohock to Fanning" (subject)
NOTES [541 words]: One of four "regulator" songs in Brown. The regulators were a group of protesters against high taxes and fees, found mostly in North Carolina though some also were active in South Carolina. For more on the Regulators, see the notes to "When Fanning First to Orange Came."
The "Ned" of this song is probably Edmund Fanning; again, see the notes to "When Fanning First to Orange Came" for background. He is a logical one to complain about the Regulators, since "in 1770... a mob seized a county officer against whom it held grievances -- the much-despised Edmund Fanning, a corrupt multi-office holder in Orange County -- grabbed his heels, and pulled him down the stairs, banging his head on each step. The home of another official was entered and his personal possessions were thrown out the window" (EncycNorthCarolina, p. 958).
The editors of Brown think "Frank" is probably Francis Nash, the county clerk; I have no reason to think otherwise. He certainly knew Fanning; he was a militia officer in Fanning's unit (Haywood, p. 82) and was at one time called out against the Regulators (Haywood, p. 89). He was killed in the American Revolution, at Germantown; Nash County, North Carolina, is named for him (EncycNorthCarolina, p. 776).
Haywood, p. 105, has even more details on this raid, which took place on September 24, 1770: "Edmund Fanning, whom the Regulators considered the chief author of their troubles, was dragged by his heels out of the court-room, over rough cobblestones, suffered a severe inury to one of his eyes, and would probably have been murdered had he not broken loose from the mob and taken refuge in a near-by house. The Regulators next turned their attention fo Fanning's residence which was torn to pieces by them, after which they whipped Alexander Martin (at a later time Governor), Captain Michael Holt, Captain Thomas Hart, and other prominent citizens -- while Francis Nash, ... Tyree Harris, High Sheriff of Orange, and many others had to take to the woods to escape like treatment. Later the rioters swarmed through the streets of Hillsborough and amused themselves by breaking the windows of residences."
Cameron, p. 21, says of the rioting, ""Windows were broken in private homes, stores of rum and brandy were seized in the taverns, and many citizens were whipped and beaten as the Regulators rioted through the streets of Hillsborough. They mob concentrated on Fanning's fine house, of course. His furniture was destroyed and his papers burned... Finally, his house was cut from its sills."
Harmon, if he existed at all, seems to have been a far lesser character, significant mostly for the company he kept; my books on the Regulators don't seem to mention him. According to Haywood, p. 104, the raiders included Hermon Husband, Robinson York, William Butler, Rednap Howell (the author os most of these Regulator poems), Jeremiah Field, James Hunter, Samuel Devinney, and others. "Harmon" is not mentioned. I suspect "Harmon" is an error for "Hermon (or Harmon) Husband," the leading thinker of the Regulators, for whom see also "From Hillsborough Town the First of May." Alternately, "Harmon" might be Harmon Cox, who after the Battle of Alamance was condemned to death but pardoned (Cameron, p. 30). - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: BrII280

Who Would True Valour See (He Who Would Valiant Be)

DESCRIPTION: "Who would true valour see, Let him come hither; One here will constant be, Come wind, come weather, There's no discouragement Shall make him once relent His first avowed intent To be a pilgrim." Nothing will stop the Pilgram from his journey
AUTHOR: Words: John Bunyan
EARLIEST DATE: 1684 (Pilgrim's Progress, according to Reynolds)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, "Hobgoblin nor foul fiend" (1 fragment)
SongsOfManyNations, "He Who Would Valiant Be" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 76) (12th edition, p. 79, has the text only)
ADDITIONAL: John Bunyan, _The Pilgrim's Progress_ 1684, "(no title)" (1 text) {it's about 95% of the way through the book; in the 1987 Penguin edition with introduction and Notes by Roger Sharrock, it's on p. 263)
[Percy Dearmer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Martin Shaw, editors], _Songs of Praise_, first edition 1926; revised edition, Geoffrey Cumberlege, 1932, #515, p. 619, "(He Who Would Valiant Be)"
William Reynolds, _Companion to Baptist Hymnal_, Broadman Press, 1976, pp. 86-87, "He who would valiant be" (1 text, the Bunyan original, not the Baptist version)
Roud #25470
NOTES [147 words]: This is unquestionably not a folk song. But it has a long and complicated history as a poem, and was once recorded by Maddy Prior (on the album "Sing Lustily and With Good Courage"), which means that folkies may have questions about it. Although considered Bunyan's most popular lyric, Reynolds, p. 87, says it was not "used as a hymn" until Percy Dearmer produced a modified version in 1906. The Baptist version uses the tune St. Dunstan's, written by C. Winifred Douglas in 1917; this is also the tune credited in SongsOfManyNations. Prior, however, sings it to the tune "Monk's Gate," which is the tune used by Dearmer et al. It is not clear whether Vaughn Williams or Shaw fitted the tune, or if perhaps Dearmer suggested it. This is also the tune used in the 1958 Lutheran Service Book and Hymnal, which is the only one of the dozen or so hymnals in my library to contain it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: AddHWWVB

Who You Goin' to Married To

DESCRIPTION: "Bubbo come and tell me, Who you goin' to marry to" "Marry to the girl that I love." Bubbo doesn't love Mary or Carrie: "nobody but me bent-foot Stacy." "Go give her one gold ring ... velvet clothes"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: love marriage ring clothes dialog nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 24, "Who You Goin' To Married To" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ElTo024

Who Yuh Got Een Heben

See Who Have You Got In Heaven (File: HPR326W)

Who'll Be King but Charlie

See Wha'll Be King but Charlie (File: DTwhakin)

Who'll Jine de Union?

See Who'll Join the Union? (File: Dett142)

Who'll Join the Union?

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Oh Hallelujah (x3), who'll join the Union? (x2)." Verses: The singer wants to see "God's work go on." "Pray to the Lord to turn you around." "Christ has bought my liberty." "If you belong to the Union band ... I love you all both bond and free"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 142-143, "Who'll Jine de Union?" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 220-221 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #15245
NOTES [23 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "Who'll join the Union?" - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett142

Who's Been Fooling You

DESCRIPTION: See notes for the chorus. Dunbar's verses include: mama and papa tell him, "Don't let nobody make a fool out of you"; "I'm going away this morning, Coming here no more" and he won't change hs mind; he tells "baby," "I'm tired of fooling around with you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (USDunbarS01)
KEYWORDS: sex parting travel nonballad lover
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Scott Dunbar, "Who Been Foolin' You" (on USDunbarS01)
NOTES [124 words]: The idea for Dunbar's song seems to come from L. J. Waiters with Cliff Driver's Band "Baby Who's Been Foolin' You" (Unity 2709, 1969).
Omitting Waiters's spoken interjections, he begins his song, "Baby, who been foolin' you, Baby, who been foolin' you, It's three times seven and you should know what you want to do." Waiters does not sing the "three times seven" line again in his recording.
Dunbar begins his song, "Tell me who been foolin' you, Well you three times seven and you do know what you want to do." Dunbar adds those lines to his chorus of "Tell me who baby, Tell me who been foolin' you." I assume "baby" is over twenty-one and old enough, the singer thinks, to know what she wants to do.
Dunbar's verses are not like Waiters's. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcWhoBFY

Who's Goin' to Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot

See Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot (plus related references, e.g. The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76]) (File: C076)

Who's Going Round my House Tonight?

See Who Goes Round My Stone Wall (File: SuSm052)

Who's Gonna Love You, Honey?

DESCRIPTION: "Who's gonna love you, honey, when I'm away? Who's gonna stay and say sweet things every day? Who's gonna look into your eyes divine? Who's gonna kiss those lips that I call mine?... Who's gonna love you when I'm gone?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love separation questions
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 302, "Who's Gonna Love You, Honey?" (1 short text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 302, "Who's Gonna Love You, Honey?" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #16862
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (theme)
File: Br3302

Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot?

See Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot (plus related references, e.g. The Lass of Roch Royal [Child 76]) (File: C076A)

Who's Got Feet Like Arthur's Seat

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Who's got feet Like Arthur's seat? Who's got a bunions Like a pickled onion? Who's got legs Like ham and eggs...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope food injury
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #606, "Who's got feet" (1 text)
NOTES [21 words]: Abrahams compares this to "My Girl's a Corker," i. e. "I've Got a Daughter," but I don't see any significant similarity. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJRR606

Who's in the Well?

See Ding, Dong, Bell (File: OO2134)

Who's Knocking at the Door (Colors)

DESCRIPTION: "Who's knocking at the door? The Angel with the Golden Star. What do you want? [Blue/Green/any color]." Used to pick teams for a game.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty colors
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #153, "Colors" (1 text)
File: Newe153

Who's That at My Bedroom Window?

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Who's That Knocking At My Door?

See Bollochy Bill the Sailor (File: EM081)

Who's That Knocking at my Window?

See The Silver Dagger (I) [Laws G21] (File: LG21)

Who's That Knocking?

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Who's That Tapping at the Garden Gate?

See Tapping at the Garden Gate (File: GrD4807)

Who's That Yonder

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Who's that yonder? (3x) Looks like my Lord coming in the sky." Sample verse: "Little did I think He was so nigh, He spoke and He made me laugh and cry, Looks like my Lord...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious floatingverses Devil Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 45, "Who's Dat Yandah" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Gladys Jameson, Sweet Rivers of Song (Berea: Berea College, 1967), pp. 26-27, "Been Down Into the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7110
NOTES [55 words]: The description is based on the Barton-OldPlantationHymns text. Jameson's source is Barton-OldPlantationHymns.
Barton-OldPlantationHymns includes floating verses like "Sinner, sinner you'd better pray Or your soul be lost at the judgement day" and "The devil is a liar and a conjurer too And if you don't mind he'll conjure you." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart045

Who's the Fool Now?

See Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

Who's the Pretty Girl Milkin' the Cow?

See The Pretty Girl Milkin' Her Cow (File: San040)

Whoa Back, Buck

DESCRIPTION: The experiences of a poor farmer. He describes his fieldwork methods ("Sometimes I plow my old grey horse..."), the crops, his gal's big feet, the dances they went to together, etc. Possible chorus: "Whoa back, buck! And gee! by the lamb!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: work horse farming poverty floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Randolph 281, "Couldn't Raise No Sugar Corn" (1 text, 1 tune, which might be separate since it lacks the chorus)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 187, "Last Year Was a Fine Crap Year" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 67, "Whoa Buck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax- FSNA 282, "Whoa Back, Buck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, p. 18, "Whoa Back, Buck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 168-169, "Whoa, Back, Buck!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p 72-73, "Oh, My God, Them 'Taters" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 46, "Whoa Buck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10060
RECORDINGS:
Anne, Judy, & Zeke Canova, "Whoa Back Buck" (Banner 32126/Oriole 8043/Perfect 12684/Romeo 5043. 1931; rec. 1930) (Columbia 15630-D [as Three Georgia Cracker, "Whoa Buck Whoa"], 1931; rec. 1930)
Lulu Belle & Scotty, "Whoa Back Buck" (Conqueror 9587, 1940)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Song of the Pinewoods" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I'm a Rowdy Soul" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Tighten on the Backband
NOTES [77 words]: The Lomaxes credit this to Lead Belly, with some new material of their own. (What else is new?) However, the fragment in Randolph strongly implies that Lead Belly did no more than reshape traditional materials -- and then the Lomaxes reshaped THAT.
It is on this basis that I include Greenway's song "Oh, My God, Them 'Taters" here. Greenway's song is just a fragment; it is possible that it is part of a longer song -- or that the Lomaxes borrowed its lyrics. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: LxU067

Whoa Buck

See Whoa Back, Buck (File: LxU067)

Whoa Mule (The Kickin' Mule)

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes courting and the dangers of a kicking mule which "kicked the feathers off a goose," etc. The stubborn mule Simon Slick is often mentioned. The chorus will generally contain the instruction "Whoa, mule."
AUTHOR: Copyrighted in 1918 by Henry Creamer & Turner Layton, but they may have adapted a traditional African-American piece
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (copyrighted by Creamer & Layton)
KEYWORDS: animal courting talltale humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 513, "The Kicking Mule" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 513, "The Kicking Mule" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #106, "Whoa, Mule" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 180, "Simon Slick" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 186, "Whoa, Mule!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 84, "Simon Slick" (2 texts, longer than most, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #183, "The Kicking Mule" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard,p. 20, "Go 'Long Mule" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 231, "The Kickin' Mule" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 62-63, "Whoa, Mule, Whoa" (1 text, tune referenced)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 76-77, "The Kicking Mule" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernMountainFolksong, pp. 172-173, "Ol' Coon Dog" (1 text, 1 tune, with many floating verses and the chorus of "Whoa Mule (The Kickin' Mule)" but the largest share of the lyrics from "Way Down in Rackensack (Old Coon Dog)"); pp. 180-185, "The Kicking Mule" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 25-26, "Johnson's Old Grey Mule" (1 apparently composite text, 1 tune, with material from "Whoa Mule (The Kickin' Mule)" and "The Old Gray Mule (Johnson's Mule)" -- which easily mix anyway -- apparently deliberately mixed)
Harbin-Parodology, #38, "Whoa, Mule, Whoa" (1 text, probably combined with other things, and with the tune listed as "Ain't Gonna Rain)
DT, SIMONSLK*
Roud #3774
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff, "Whoa Mule" (Capitol 2738, 1954)
Clarence Ashley & Tex Isley, "Whoa Mule" (on Ashley01)
Buckeye Boys, "Thompson's Old Gray Mule" (Champion 16168, 1931; Champion 45200, c. 1935; Minerva M-14046, 1936; rec. 1930)
Loman D. Cansler, "Kickin' Maud [or Kickin' Maude]" (on Cansler1)
Bill Chitwood & Bud Landress, "Whoa Mule" (Brunswick 2811/Silvertone 3050, c. 1925; rec. 1924)
Al Clauser & his Oklahoma Outlaws, "Whoa, Mule, Whoa" (ARC 7-08-63/Conqueror 8840/MacGregor 993, 1937)
Elisha Cox, "Whoa Mule" (AAFS 547 A2)
Vernon Dalhart, "Go Long Mule" (Banner 1416 [as Bob White], 1924; Banner 32130 [as Sid Turner], 1931) (Pathe 32068/Perfect 12147 [both as Sid Turner], 1924)
J. D. Dillingham & O. J. Light, "Whoa, Maude, Whoa" (AAFS 899 B2)
Samuel Clay Dixon, "Whoa, Mule, Whoa" (AAFS 1749 B3/1750 A1)
John B. Evans, "The Kicking Mule" (Brunswick 237, 1928)
Carl Fenton & his Orch. "Go Long Mule" (Brunswick 2683, 1924)
Leonard C. Fulwinder, "Whoa Mule, Whoa" (Victor V-40270, 1930; Aurora [Canadian] 238, c. 1932)
Georgia Yellow Hammers, "Jonnson's Old Grey Mule" (Victor 20550, 1927); "The Sale of Simon Slick - Pts. 1 & 2" (Victor V-40069, 1929)
Happiness Boys (Billy Jones & Ernest Hare, "Go Long Mule" (Columbia 194-D, 1924)
The Hillbillies, "Whoa! Mule" (OKeh 40376, 1925)
Hinson, Pitts & Coley, "Whoa Mule Whoa" (Bluebird B-7438, 1938)
Paul Holland, "Whoa, Mule, Whoa" (AAFS 3217 A1)
Al Hopkins & his Buckle Busters [or John Hopkins], "Whoa, Mule" (Brunswick 179, 1927)
International Novelty Orch. "Go Long Mule" (Victor 19442, 1924)
Matilda Keene, "Whoa, Larry, Whoa" (AAFS 979 B1)
Louisiana Lou, "Go Long Mule" (Victor 23858, c. 1934; Bluebird 5749, 1935; rec. 1933)
Uncle Dave Macon & his Fruit Jar Drinkers "Go Along Mule" (Vocalion 5165, 1927; on GoodForWhatAilsYou)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Johnson's Old Grey Mule" (Bluebird B-6584/Montgomery Ward M-7006, 1936)
Bert Martin, "Whoa, Mule" (AAFS 1479 B2)
Trevor McKenzie, "Whoa Mule" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #173, recorded 05/11/2022)
Chubby Parker, "Whoa Mule, Whoa" Gennett 6120/Silvertone 5011, 1927; Supertone 9189, 1928) (Conqueror 7892, 1927)
Pickard Family, "Thompson's Old Gray Mule" (Oriole 1502/Challenge 990/Jewel 5562, 1929; Conqueror 7736, 1931; Broadway 8179 [as Pleasant Family])
Riley Puckett, "Johnson's Old Gray Mule" (Columbia 150-D, 1924); "Whoa Mule" (Columbia 15040-D, 1925; Silvertone 3258, 1926)
Prairie Ramblers, "Jim's Windy Mule" (Conqueror 8648, 1936; Vocalion 03587, 1937 [as Sweet Violet Boys])
Hobart Ricker, "Whoa, Mule, Whoa" (AAFS 3904 B4)
Pete Seeger, "Old Grey Mule" (on PeteSeeger08, PeteSeegerCD02)
Shelton Brothers, "Johnson's Old Gray Mule" (Decca 5161, 1935) (King 646, 1947); "Go Long Mule" (Decca 5422, 1937)
Roba Stanley [or Stanley Trio] "Whoa! Mule" (OKeh 40271, 1925)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Johnson's Old Gray Mule" (Columbia 15221-D, 1928; rec. 1927); "Whoa, Mule, Whoa" (Bluebird B-5591, 1934)
Sid Turner, "Go 'Long Mule" (Perfect 12147, 1924)
Tom Watson [pseud. for Gid Tanner & Riley Puckett], "Johnson's Mule" (Harmony 5095-H, n.d.)
Ukulele Bob Williams, "Go Long Mule" (Paramount 12247, 1925; rec. 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Going Down to Cairo" (words)
cf. "Whoa Mule Whoa" (subject: mule behavior)
SAME TUNE:
Recording: Bill Cox, "Go Long Mule (Parody)," (Supertone 9540, 1929)
NOTES [98 words]: Every version of this I've heard sung uses the Lomax chorus, "Whoa, mule, I tell you, Miss Liza, you keep cool; I ain't got time to kiss you now; I'm busy with my mule." It doesn't seem to show up much in tradition, though (it is found in the Brown text in a slightly different form). - RBW
Trying to sort out "Whoa, Mule," "Johnson's Old Grey Mule," and related songs is Excedrin Headache #1927. We've lumped them for want of a better solution.
This shouldn't be confused with a fiddle piece, "The Kickin' Mule," made popular by Fiddlin' John Carson; that one has a different tune. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LoF231

Whoa Mule Whoa

DESCRIPTION: "Mister Gradlock owned a pretty mule, the prettiest mule in town." It is blind and can't stand still. The mule throws the owner's girl and spoils her frock; she hits it and it flattens her; her only words are "Whoa mule whoa."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous courting clothes injury
FOUND IN: US(Ap,Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #184, "Whoa Mule Whoa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 143, "Whoa, Mulie, Whoa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7509
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whoa Mule (The Kickin' Mule)" (subject: mule behavior)
File: Hubb184

Whoa, Haw, Buck and Jerry Boy

See Whoa! Ha! Buck and Jerry Boy (File: LoF172)

Whoa, Larry, Whoa

DESCRIPTION: "Larry went out to plow in his corn, Wishing to his soul he'd never been born." The woods are too thick to pass. His breakfast is spoiled. Bugs are everywhere. "All the... Irishmen ought to have been hung." "Ha, ha, Paddy, this will never do."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: farming hardtimes bug home
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #242, "Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Larry, Whoa" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4919
File: Morr419

Whoa, Mule, Whoa

See Whoa Mule (The Kickin' Mule) (File: LoF231)

Whoa, Mulie, Whoa

See Whoa Mule Whoa (File: Hubb184)

Whoa! Ha! Buck and Jerry Boy

DESCRIPTION: "With a merry little jog and a gay little song, (Spoken: Whoa! Ha! Buck and Jerry Boy!), We trudge our way the whole day long... We'll reach Salt Lake some day or bust." The singer thinks of the girl up ahead and the dances along his journey
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recording, L. M. Hilton)
KEYWORDS: travel courting dancing nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 172, "Whoa! Ha! Buck and Jerry Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 21, "Whoa! Ha! Buck and Jerry Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 11-12, "Whoa, Haw, Buck and Jerry Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WHOAHAW
Roud #6692
RECORDINGS:
L. M. Hilton, "Whoa! Ha! Buck and Jerry Boy" (on Hilton01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Turkey in the Straw" (portions of tune)
File: LoF172

Whole Hog or None, The

DESCRIPTION: Vignettes of people who go "the whole hog or none," e.g. boxer Heenan, who never gave Sayers any peace, and Brigham Young, who had sixty wives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Randolph); there are nineteenth century broadsides and parodies
KEYWORDS: fight marriage humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 17, 1860 - Boxing match between John C. Heenan and Tom Sayers, stopped by spectators after 42 rounds. The bout was the last official bare-knuckle fight
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 513, "The Whole Hog or None" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2619 (2620?), p. 178, "Whole Hog or None" (1 reference)
Roud #7596
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Heenan and Sayers" [Laws H20] (subject)
cf. "Rory of the Hill" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Rory of the Hill (File: Zimm075) per broadsides Bodleian 2806 b.10(137), 2806 c.8(278)
The Hale Rick-Ma-Tick (broadside NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(93a), Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1879; apparently first published 1872)
Whole Hog or None No. 2 (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 178)
File: R513

Whoop 'Em Up, Cindy

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses, often praising Cindy: "Went up on the mountain top, give my horn a blow...; "Higher up the mountain top, greener grow the cherries..." Chorus: "Whoop 'em up, Cindy, Lord/I love Cindy, Lord/Whoop 'em up, Cindy, Lord, Lord/Gone forevermore"
AUTHOR: Uncle Dave Macon
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: courting love nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 159, "I Give My Horn a Blow" (eleventh of 12 single-stanza jigs) (1 text, perhaps from this though it's just a floating verse)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 196, "Whoop 'Em Up, Cindy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 255-256, "Whoop 'Em Up Cindy" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Warren Caplinger's Cumberland Mountain Entertainers, "Saro" (Brunswick 241, c. 1928)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Whoop 'Em Up, Cindy" (Vocalion 15323, 1926); Uncle Dave Macon & the Fruit Jar Drinkers, "Whoop 'Em Up Cindy" (Vocalion 5009, 1926)
Kirk & Sam McGee, "Whoop 'Em Up Cindy" (on McGeeSmith1)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Whoop 'em Up, Cindy" (on NLCR02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cindy (I)"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Saro (not to be confused with "Pretty Saro")
NOTES [32 words]: This song has less in common with "Cindy (I)" than one might imagine; few if any verses show up in both. But with floating-verses songs like this, you always need to look at the whole family. - PJS
File: CSW196

Whoopee Blues

DESCRIPTION: Singer's lover has "been gone all day ... make whoopee all night." His razor will "cut" her "late hours." He gave the undertaker her height and size: "Next time you go out carry your black suit along" (so you're ready to be buried)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (StuffDreams1)
KEYWORDS: infidelity warning death nonballad lover
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
King Solomon Hill, "Whoopee Blues (alternate take)" (on StuffDreams1)
NOTES [18 words]: Three line blues: the first line is repeated -- more or less -- and the last line completes the thought. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcWhooBl

Whoopee High Ogie

See Get Along, Little Dogies (File: R178)

Whoopee Ti Yi Yo, Git Along Little Dogies

See Get Along, Little Dogies (File: R178)

Whoopee Ti-Yi-Yo

See Get Along, Little Dogies (File: R178)

Whoopee Ti-Yi-Yo, Git Along Little Dogies

See Get Along, Little Dogies (File: R178)

Whoopee, Ti Ti Yo, Git Along, Little Dogies

See Get Along, Little Dogies (File: R178)

Whoopee, Ti Yi Yo, Get Along Little Doggies

See Get Along, Little Dogies (File: R178)

Whore's Lament, The

See Bad Girl's Lament, The (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime) [Laws Q26] (File: LQ26)

Whoredean School

See We Go to College (File: EM295)

Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing, The

DESCRIPTION: A customer and a prostitute engage in oral sex, "each trying to get their guns off first into the other's heads," until he offers to give it "the boar-hog grind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1976 (recorded by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: bawdy whore sex
FOUND IN: US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms II, pp. 601-603, "The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing" (3 texts)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 23, pp. 145-148, "The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WHBELLS*
Roud #10093
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fatal Wedding" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Carolina Twins, "The Boarding House Bells Are Ringing" (Victor 21575, 1928)
NOTES [120 words]: Either the Carolina Twins' recording is a cleaned-up version of "The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing" or, more likely, the original of which this is a parody. There is also song called "The Convent Bells Are Ringing," of unknown relationship. - PJS
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging thinks "Whorehouse" is a direct parody of "The Fatal Wedding," with which it shares a tune, but I incline to think there was an intermediate version. "The Boarding House Bells Are Ringing" strikes me as a reasonable candidate.
Logsdon's informant Riley Neal confesses that this song is "just plumb nasty." I incline to agree; most bawdy songs theoretically have a humorous element, but this one strikes me as existing only to disgust. - RBW
File: RL601

Whose Old Cow

DESCRIPTION: "Twas the end of roundup the last day of June, Or maybe July I just don't remember...." The signer describes the the gathering for the roundup. When the herds gathered, "Nig" Add separates the herds. An unknown brand puzzles him; he claims the cow
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Thorp)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XXI, pp. 247-250 (42-44), "Who's Old Cow" (2 texts, though they look at best marginally related); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 166-168, "Whose Old Cow" (1 tex)
Roud #8045
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Brands
NOTES [48 words]: This is another Thorp poem that does not seem to have made any mark in oral tradition. Its racist tone ("White folks [are] smarter'n Add," "Add" being a black man), as well as its somewhat forced diction and the obscure use of branding terms, probably guarantee continued obscurity. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: TF21

Whummil Bore, The [Child 27]

DESCRIPTION: A servant has waited on the king for seven years without ever seeing the princess. One day, peering through a hole in the wall (the whummil bore), he sees her being dressed. He greatly enjoys the sight, but can't stay long.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1825
KEYWORDS: clothes servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 27, "The Whummil Bore" (1 text)
Bronson 27, "The Whummil Bore" (1 version)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 437-438, "The Whummil Bore" (notes plus the "With my glimpy" chorus)
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 14, pp. 89-91, "The Whummil Bore" (1 text)
DT 27, WHMLBORE
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #354, "The Whummil Bore" (1 text)
Roud #3722
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Keyhole in the Door" (plot)
NOTES [167 words]: Bertrand Bronson discusses origin of this piece in "The Interdependence of Ballad Tunes and Texts" (first printed in the California Folklore Quarterly, II, 1944; see now MacEdward Leach and Tristram P. Coffin, eds, The Critics and the Ballad or Bertrand Harris The Ballad as Song (essays on ballads), University of California Press, 1969. The relevant discussion is on pages 89-91 of Leach/Coffin and pp. 50-51 of the Bronson book.
Bronson states that "'The Whummil Bore' appears to me a by-blow of a serious romantic ballad." He then notes a melodic similarity to "Hind Horn" (Child 17), as well as a similar subplot, and proposes that "Hind Horn" is the source for "The Whummil Bore."
The existence of the Virginia text found in Davis seems very suspicious, and I considered the possibility that it is actually some other song (either "Hind Horn" or "The Keyhole in the Door"). But it's much too clean for the latter, and -- though fragmentary -- too full for the former. Call it a curiosity. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: C027

Why and the Wherefore, The

DESCRIPTION: "Where, where, where, and where, And where are you bound, young man? I'm off to the war with the good men and true, And hadn't you better come along too?" The questioner asks why, which, who, when, what about the war; the soldier answers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (F. J. Child, War Songs for Freemen, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: questions soldier Civilwar nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 41-42, "The Why and the Wherefore" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: SCWF041

Why Art Thou Not Here?

DESCRIPTION: ""The summer stars look brightly down Upon the tranquil sea And evening's breath is hushed and gone From mountain stream and tree." Three springs have gone since the sailor has seen his love. He laments and wonders, "Why art thou not here?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (Journal of the Three Brothers)
KEYWORDS: love sailor separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 284, "Why Art Thou Not Here?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27547
File: HGam284

Why Can't I Catch a Beau?

DESCRIPTION: "I think it is awful cruel, For a girl to be just fourteen, And never has had a fellow, A beau, of course, I men. Why can't I catch a beau (x2), I know it is long to wait so long." Her parents mistrust her; her mother follows her; at last she finds a beau
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: courting mother father loneliness
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #72, "Why Can't I Catch a Beau?" (1 text)
Roud #5006
File: Morr072

Why Can't Paddy Be a Gentleman?

DESCRIPTION: "Being told Pat couldn't be a gentleman" I'll ask why not? "Hasn't Ireland got her colleges" and won't he "greet you with a smile?" "You cannot give the reason why, I see it in your face ...actions make a gentleman, no matter what the birth"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 9, "Why Can't Paddy Be a Gentleman?" (1 text)
Roud #V727
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(213), "Why Can't Paddy Be a Gentleman?", unknown, n.d.
NOTES [46 words]: There is, of course, a one word answer to the question in the title: "Catholicism." A fair number of people of Irish ancestry did in fact achieve at least landlord status, and some even entered the nobility. But nearly all, after the time of Tyrconnell, were Protestant. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: OCon009

Why Can't We Wed?

DESCRIPTION: "You know I've loved you many long years. Vain thoughts have struck me, caused me tears. Then did my heart ache, oh, how it bled. Why can't we wed?" The singer doesn't care about wealth or fame. He wonders why he has to plead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection questions
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 24, "Why Can't We Wed?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11335
File: Brne024

Why Did I Leave My Auld Hame?

See Mary of the Wild Moor [Laws P21] (File: LP21)

Why Did She Leave Him? Because He Was Poor

DESCRIPTION: "Why did she leave him? They grew up together, Near to the old church on the bright village green." He was mild, young, gay; now his smiles are gone. She too is unhappy without him. But "Why did she leave him? -- because he was poor."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: love separation abandonment poverty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 89, "Why did she leave him? -- Because he was poor" (1 text)
Roud #13831
File: HenV089

Why Did They Dig Ma's Grave So Deep?

DESCRIPTION: "Poor little Nellie is weeping tonight, Thinking of days that were filled with delight." She misses her dead mother, for "sleeps that fond mother away from life's woe."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Stout-FolkloreFromIowa)
KEYWORDS: mother children death separation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 71, p. 94, "Why Did They Dig Ma's Grave So Deep?" (1 fragment)
Roud #4867
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Poor Little Nellie
File: Stou071

Why Did You Go? or Blue Days

DESCRIPTION: "You make me sad, you make me glad, You make me feel so blue.; You make the blue sky gray. You drove the sunshine away. "You are the only one today Can drive the blue days away." "You have broken all of your vows, BUt still I love you somehow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois)
KEYWORDS: love rejection
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, p. 236, "Yhy Did You Go? or Blue Days" (1 text)
Roud #4331
File: Neel236

Why Do You Bob Your Hair, Girls?

DESCRIPTION: "Why do you bob you hair, girls, It is an awful shame To rob the head God gave you To bear the flapper's name." The singer proclaims that "short hair belongs to me," and maintains that women with long hair will be commended by God
AUTHOR: Blind Alfred Reed (1880-1956)
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: hair
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
[Randolph 644, "Why Do You Bob Your Hair, Girls" -- deleted in the second printing]
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 442-443, "Why Do You Bob Your Hair, Girls?" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 644)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 56, "Why Do You Bob Your Hair, Girls" (1 text)
DT, WHYBOBHR*
Roud #7842
RECORDINGS:
J. E. Mainer's Mountaneers, "Why Do You Bob Your Hair Girls?" (Bluebird B-6792/Montgomery Ward 7131, 1937)
Blind Alfred Reed, "Why Do You Bob Your Hair Girls?" (Victor 21360, 1928); compare "Why Don't You Bob Your Hair Girls-No. 2" (Victor V-40196, 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve" (theme) and references there
cf. "The Bobbed Hair" (theme)
NOTES [322 words]: Needless to say, there is no scriptural rule mandating long hair -- Paul (1 Cor. 11:15) calls long hair a woman's pride, but nowhere requires it; indeed, in 11:6, he offers shaving the head as an alternative to wearing a veil!
It's hard to imagine how such a heavy-handed piece came to be traditional -- but I suppose anyone stupid enough to believe the arguments it contains could also think them persuasive.
According to the Digital Tradition, this is by Blind Alfred Reed. Norm Cohen reaffirms this, and credits Reed also with the sequel. W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, also credits it to Reed.
It took me a long time to accept this -- why would a blind man produce such a piece? There is good reason to think that we have evolved to think long hair attractive in a woman, but Reed wouldn't see that, let alone believe in the evolutionary biology of it! But the claim is so strongly attested that I have now credited Reed with the song.
According to McNeil, p. 311, Reed was born in Floyd, Virginia, and was blind from birth. His family soon moved to Princeton, West Virginia. He played fiddle, guitar, banjo, and mandolin. He made his living mostly as a street singer, singing his own songs and traditional material. Somewhere in there, he married, since he had a son Arville Reed who recorded with him and with others.
After hearing about a train wreck, Reed wrote what we call "The Wreck of the Virginian Number Three" (his title being just "The Wreck of the Virginian") and contacted Victor about recording it. He recorded it and three religious songs at Bristol, Tennessee, on July 28, 1927, about two months after the event. This song was recorded at his second session, on December 19, 1927, and became one of his best-known songs. Because of the Depression, he did not record after 1929; his music was not really resurrected until the 1970s, long after his death in 1956. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Br3056

Why Don't Father's Ship Come In

See The Gentle Boy (Why Don't Father's Ship Come In) (File: GrMa113)

Why Don't My Father's Ship Come In?

See The Gentle Boy (Why Don't Father's Ship Come In) (File: GrMa113)

Why Don't the Boys Propose?

DESCRIPTION: "Why don't the boys propose, Mother, Why don't the boys propose? Here I am nearly twenty-one, Why don't...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1995 (Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong), but see NOTES
KEYWORDS: courting rejection mother | proposal
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 209, "Why Don't the Boys Propose" (1 fragment)
Roud #5250
NOTES [144 words]: Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong connects this song with Dime-Song-Book #6, p. 20, "Why don't the Men Propose?" (1 text). The chorus of that runs
They won't, they won't, they won't, they won't propose,
Mamma, mamma, they won't, they won't propose.
The first verse begins
Why don't the men propose, mamma,
Why don't the men propose?
Each seems just coming to the point,
And then away he goes.
The rest of the song describes how the girl has tried to get them to make their move.
Roud files that as #V13796; there are quite a few versions known from print but few if any from tradition. It seems not unlikely that that piece (which goes back at least to 1860) is the ancestor of this song, but we note that the lyrics are significantly different, and the Devlin fragment has no plot. I think they are likely the same, but I am not quite certain enough to lump them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: NeDe209

Why Don't They Do So Now?

See I Wish They'd Do It Now (File: Gil111)

Why Don't You Love the Old Love?

DESCRIPTION: The singer is a stranger to this country. When an old love's back is turned she can love whom she pleases. "To me she gives nothing, Who loved her so dear" "I'll dress you my darling And take you away. Into New York we'll be sailing"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection floatingverses emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 33, "Why Don't You Love the Old Love?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5216
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "Why Don't You Love the Old Love?" (on IRTLenihan01)
NOTES [111 words]: There are floating lines rather than floating verses. Lines like "You can love whom you please", "When first to this country A stranger I came", and "Green grow the rushes And the tops of them small" are combined with lines that don't float. Some verses don't seem to float at all.
On the other hand, Lenihan's second verse has, with a few changes, floated from "Stone and Lime" (especially Greig/Duncan6 1216A,J,K): "When first to this countary A stranger I came ... my love was confined Between lime and stone wall." It is usually his heart that's confined, so Lenihan's verse shows the influence of such daughter-confined ballads as "The Iron Door" [Laws M15].- BS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: RcWDYLTO

Why Don't You Try?

DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever see a maiden in a little rolling chair? Room for two, me and you." They only met yesterday, but she whispers "Don't be quite so distant," and asks "Do you think you'd like me better if you thought that I like you." "Why don't you try?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love courting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 4, "Why Don't You Try?" (1 text)
Roud #11378
File: Brne004

Why Should We Quarrel for Riches

DESCRIPTION: "How pleasant a sailor's life passes, Who roams o'er the watery main!" Although he never becomes right, he has "a light hearth, and a thin pair of breeches." The world is beautiful, "So why should we quarrel for riches?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1750 (Ramsey, _The Tea-Table Miscellany_)
KEYWORDS: sailor money nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 458-459, "Why Should We Quarrel for Riches" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Choice Songs, Scots and English (in four vols) (London, 1750 eleventh edition) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. IV, pp. 168-169, "The Sailor's Rant" (1 text)
ST BeCo458 (Partial)
File: BeCo458

Why Shouldn't My Goose?

DESCRIPTION: Round. "Why shouldn’t my goose Sell as well as thy goose When I paid for my goose Twice as much as thou?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Tobitt)
KEYWORDS: bird commerce nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 437, 518, "Why Shouldn't My Goose?" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 91, "Why Shouldn't My Goose?" (1 text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 13, "Goose Round" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My Goose
File: ACSF437W

Why There's a Tear in My Eye

See I Once Loved a Beautiful Lady (File: MunLIOLB)

Why Was He Born So Beautiful?

DESCRIPTION: "Why was he born so beautiful, why was he born at all? He's no bloody use to anyone, he's no bloody use at all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: beauty children
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 171, "Why Was He Born So Beautiful?" (1 short text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 78, "(Why Was He Born So Beautiful?)" (1 short text, from user John5918, posted September 19, 2021)
Roud #10153
File: RuSoWBSB

Why, He's the Lord of Lords (He's the Lord of Lords)

See He Is King of Kings (File: Dett146)

Why, Soldiers, Why?

See How Stands the Glass Around (General Wolfe's Song) (File: DalC146)

Wi a Hundred Pipers

DESCRIPTION: "Wi' a hundred pipers an a', an' a' (x2), We'll up an' gie them a blaw, a blaw,,, O it's owre the border awa', awa'." The soldiers look fine. Bonnie Prince Charlie leads. The song recalls an incident while crossing the Esk. The English are "Dumfoundered"
AUTHOR: probably Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Williams)
KEYWORDS: Jacobites soldier music
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 61-63, "Wi' a Hundred Pipers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 655-656, "Wi' a Hundred Pipers"
DT, HUNDPIPE*
ADDITIONAL: Alfred M. Williams, _Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry_, Houghton Mifflin, 1894, pp. 123-125, "The Hundred Pipers" (1 text)
SAME TUNE:
Andra Carnegie (File: Gath075)
NOTES [28 words]: I know of no field collections of this song, but my father apparently learned it by oral tradition some time in the mid-twentieth century. So I am including it here. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: WFDP123

Wi' him I engaged a servant to be

See The Scranky Black Farmer (File: Ord213)

Wi' His Apron On

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye young lovers, I pray give attention... I'll sing ye a sang concerning twa lovers, A bonnie mason laddie comin' fra Lochee." The girl often meets her mason "wi' his apron on." They marry and live happily.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord-BothySongsAndBallads)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage ritual clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #40, p. 2, "Wi' His Apron On" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 866, "The Mason Lad o' Lochee" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 105, "Wi' His Apron On" (1 text)
Roud #5969
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Adam in the Garden" ("And he kissed his lass wi' his apron on") and references there
NOTES [236 words]: The pattern of ending most verses "wi' his/your/her apron on" reminds me of "Jacky Tar With His Trousers On" where every verse ends "wi' his/my trousers on" (for example, "... the sailor kissed his bride wi' his trousers on") and "The Courting Coat" where every verse ends "with my kettle smock/navvy shoes on." - BS
Both "Wi' His Apron On" and "Adam in the Garden" have the "Wi' his apron on" line, and for a time I lumped them on this basis. But Ben Schwartz pointed out the large constellation of "Adam in the Garden" type lyrics which differ substantially in plot from "Wi' His Apron On," so they are now split, although the possibility of cross-influence must be allowed.
The mention of an apron in this context is interesting. The story of the Fall of Man is in Genesis 3, and in it, after they eat of the Tree of Knowledge, they use fig leaves to sew themselves some sort of clothing. The clothing is mentioned in Genesis 3:7. "Aprons" is the rendering of the King James Bible, but elsewhere it tends to use "girdle" to translate this root (four of the five other uses; the fifth uses "armor"). The Geneva Bible rendered it "breeches," a reaching also given by Wycliff ("brechis"). The New Revised Standard and Revised English Bibles read "loincloths." Thus it seems quite likely that this is a deliberate reference to Genesis. (Not that you would likely have doubted it if I hadn't written this long note.) - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord105

Wi' His Apron On (II)

See Adam in the Garden (File: GrD3471)

Wi' the Apron On

See Wi' His Apron On (File: Ord105)

Wi' the Apron On (II)

See Adam in the Garden (File: GrD3471)

Wicked Captain, The

DESCRIPTION: The Nancy had a gallant crew but none loved the wicked captain who never prayed. He fell ill when "God laid his hands on the sinful man." Even when "fever burned on his aching brow And gnawed his heart within" he never prayed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: disease ship religious
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 678, "The Wicked Captain" (1 text)
Roud #6101
File: GrD3678

Wicked Daughter, The

See Wicked Polly [Laws H6] (File: LH06)

Wicked Girl, The

See Wicked Polly [Laws H6] (File: LH06)

Wicked Polly [Laws H6]

DESCRIPTION: Polly lives a frolicsome life, saying, "I'll turn to God when I grow old." Suddenly taken ill, she realizes "'Alas, alas! my days are spent; It is too late for to repent.'" She dies in agony and is presumably sent to hell; young people are advised to heed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Beckwith)
KEYWORDS: disease death Hell warning
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Laws H6, "Wicked Polly"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 460-464, "The Wicked Girl" (3 texts plus a fragment possibly of this ballad)
Randolph 596, "Wicked Polly" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 416-417, "Wicked Polly" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 596A)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 140, "Wicked Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 21-23, "Wicked Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 136, "Wicked Polly" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 62, "The Wicked Girl" (3 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 62, "The Wicked Girl" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 112, "Wicked Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 110-111, "The Wicked Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 167, "The Wicked Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 115, "Sold In Hell" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #91, "Wicked Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, p. 95, "Wicked Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 66, "Wicked Polly" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 569-570, "Wicked Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 35, "Wicked Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 86, "I'll Tell You What I Saw Last Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 47, pp. 111-112, "Wicked Polly"; pp. 113-114, "Wicked Polly" (2 texts)
DT 646, WICKDPOL* WICKDPL2*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 160 (1 fragment, no title)
Martha W Beckwith, "The English Ballad in Jamaica: a Note Upon the Origin of the Ballad Form" in _Publications of the Modern Language Association_ [PMLA], Vol. XXXIXI, No. 2 (Jun 1924 (available online by JSTOR)), #7 pp. 477-478, "The Wurlean Woman" (1 text)
Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 407-408, "Young People Who Delight in Sin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #505
RECORDINGS:
New Lost City Ramblers, "I'll Tell You What I Saw Last Night" (on NLCR05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Boy" (plot)
cf. "A Poor Sinner" (plot)
cf. "Death is a Melancholy Call" [Laws H5] (theme)
cf. "The Lost Soul" (theme)
cf. "While I Was Still of Tender Years" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Unfortunate Girl
Awful, Oh, How Awful
Young People Hark
A Sad Parting
NOTES [97 words]: The girl's name in this version [Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook] is not Polly but Mary. -PJS
In Songs the Whalemen Sang, pp. 306-308, Huntington prints a piece called "Terrible Polly." Neither he nor I can decide if it's an adaption of this song or not, so I decided to list it here in these notes.
Barry wrote a study of this piece and "Death is a Melancholy Call," treating them as variants (male and female, presumably) of the same piece. The moral is of course the same, and they use the same metrical form -- but I can't see any actual dependence in the lyrics. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: LH06

Wicked Stepmother, The

See The Juniper Tree (The Wicked Stepmother, The Rose Tree) (File: Cha047)

Wicked Wife o' Fife, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer's wife refused to feed him, even after he bought her a new gown. He beat her with a hazel stick. She ran home to her mother who convinced the singer to take her back. He would beat her again if she were not good. He has no more trouble.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: abuse husband mother wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #13, p. 2, "The Hazel Rung" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1283, "The Wicked Wife o' Fife" (8 texts, 5 tunes)
Roud #6284
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" [Child 277] (theme) and references there
NOTES [25 words]: This looks to me like a modified version of "The Wee Cooper of Fife." But Ben splits them, presumably because of the family negotiations involved. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD71283

Wicked Wife, The

DESCRIPTION: "There is a wicked wife" who cried to "make her quit o' an auld man." She spoke "sourly and dourly," he "sweetly and meekly." Finally "she gat 'im deid" and quickly married a young man who beat her. She cried "Ochone for my silly aul' man"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage death dialog husband wife age
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1293, "The Wicked Wife" (1 text)
Roud #7194
File: GrD71293

Wicklow Rangers, The

DESCRIPTION: A 14 year old boy from Carlow meets a colonel, who enlists him in the Wicklow Rangers. He leaves his girl. Her friends tell her not to worry. He and a comrade are shunned by two milk-maids. If he survives his enlistment he will return to his girl.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1840? (Bunting); before 1884 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(336a))
KEYWORDS: love soldier separation youth
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 18, "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #689
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(336a), "The Wicklow Rangers" or "The Girl I Left Behind Me" ("Come all you handsome comely maids"), H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Harding B 11(795), "The Wicklow Rangers" or "The Girl I Left Behind Me"; 2806 c.7(25), "The Girl I Left Behind Me"; Harding B 26(217), "The New Girl I Left Behind Me"
LOCSinging, as104470, "The Girl I Left Behind Me," unknown, 19C
NOTES [191 words]: Broadside Bodleian 2806 c.7(25) is somewhat dated by having the singer enlisted by Colonel Whitty "to serve the queen unto some distant land."
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads cites an 1840 source: "Bunting, 1840, No. 57." I guess this is The Ancient Music of Ireland, editor Edward Bunting, (Dublin, Hodges and Smith, 1840). However, that may only be a reference for the tune since Bunting appears only to deal with Gaelic music, and that, possibly without words. Confirmation will have to wait until someone sees the book (there is a 2000 Dover unabridged edition). - BS
OLochlainn's tune is the one usually associated with "The Girl I Left Behind Me (II - lyric)."
Carlow town is in County Carlow, Ireland. County Wicklow is adjacent.
The text in every copy I have seen is sung in part from the boy's point of view ["... Colonel Reilly listed me ..."] and, in part, from the girl's point of view ["So now my love is gone from me I own I do not blame him ..."].
Broadside LOCSinging as104470 appears to be the same as Bodleian 2806 c.7(25) printed by P. Brereton (Dublin).
The description is based on broadside Bodleian Harding B 17(336a). - BS
File: OLoc018

Wictory Shall Be Mine

See Victory Shall Be Mine (File: Wa176)

Widdecombe Fair

See Tom Pearce (Widdicombe Fair) (File: K308)

Widdicombe Fair (I)

See Tom Pearce (Widdicombe Fair) (File: K308)

Widdicombe Fair (II)

DESCRIPTION: Singer goes to a fair at Widdicombe (or Coldingham, Ratcliffe or Monaghan). There he meets with a jolly beggar and his wife. The singer then lists all the pairs of beggars he's met at the fair
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (Tait's Magazine)
KEYWORDS: commerce begging moniker wife husband nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West)) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 289, "A-Going to the Fair" (1 text plus assorted fragments in appendices, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 28-29, "Craigbilly Fair" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 50, "Widdecombe Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, COUDFAIR DONNYBRK*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 40, "The Beggars of Coldingham Fair"
Roud #666
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tom Pearce (Widdicombe Fair I)" (lyrics)
cf. "Under the Greenwood Tree" (form) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Beggars of Coldingham Fair
The Beggars of Ratcliffe Fair
Beggars of Coudingham Fair
Monaghan Fair
Widdliecombe Fair
NOTES [121 words]: Variants of this song are used as the chorus for "Tom Pearce (Widdicombe Fair I)." It lacks, however, the plot about the horse, so I've separated them. - PJS
Looking at this, I can't help but think there is a cumulative version somewhere in its ancestry. But I haven't found it. Some of the versions, such as that of the McPeake family, also feel a bit like "Dame Durden."
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 265-267, prints a piece, "The Humours of Donneybrook Fair" (listed as by Charles O'Flaherty), which looks as if it might be a recomposed version of this -- but it's much too wordy to be traditional. - RBW
Chambers's source is "Tait's Magazine, [vol] x. [p] 121." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: K289

Wide Mizzoura, The

See Shenandoah (File: Doe077)

Widgeegowera Joe

See The Backblock Shearer (File: MA038)

Widgegoara Joe

See The Backblock Shearer (File: MA038)

Widow (I), The

See Up Wi' the Widow (File: GrD4818)

Widow (II), The

See The Widow in the Cottage by the Sea (File: R702)

Widow by the Sea, The

See The Widow in the Cottage by the Sea (File: R702)

Widow from Babylon

See Lady of the Land (Here's a Poor Widow) (File: BGMG641)

WIdow in a Cottage by the Sea

See The Widow in the Cottage by the Sea (File: R702)

Widow in the Cottage by the Sea, The

DESCRIPTION: "In my cottage by the seashore I can see my mansion home... Where with pleasure I have roamed." The singer recalls her family, and thinks how they would mourn if they saw her now. Now her love is dead, and she is "a widow in the cottage by the sea."
AUTHOR: C. A. White
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (sheet music published by Oliver Ditson & Co. of Boston)
KEYWORDS: death family home poverty
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So) Canada(Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1259, "A Lone Widow" (1 text)
Randolph 702, "The Widow in the Cottage by the Sea" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 95, "WIdow in The Cottage by the Sea" (2 texts plus 2 excerpts and mention of 1 more, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 114, "In a Cottage by the Sea" (1 text plus mention of 4 more)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 225-226, "The Widow by the Sea" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 123, "Widow by the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 167, "My Cottage by the Sea" (1 fragment, probably this)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2633, p. 178, "Widow in a Cottage by the Sea" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #21, p. 51, "The Widow" (1 text)
Roud #1743 and 4327
RECORDINGS:
[Walter "Kid" Smith & the] Carolina Buddies, "In a Cottage By the Sea" (Columbia 15537-D, 1930)
Fred Stanley, "The Cottage by the Sea" (Columbia 15559-D, 1930)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(33d), "All Alone. Cottage by the Sea," J. West (Brighton), n.d.; also Harding B 11(3565), "The Cottage by the Sea" ("Just one year ago to day love")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [172 words]: In a curious twist, the key final lines of this song ("All this time I"m left a widow At the cottage near the sea") wind up in a British lost-love song, "Blue-Eyed Lover" (MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 59), which in desperation I filed with the "Dear Companion" family. Which probably says more about lost-ove songs than about this piece.
Note also that Roud has two pieces frequently known by this name, and while they appear distinct, I don't always agree with the way he files the pieces. - RBW
In the Bodleian broadside we have a few more details. In the first verse the widow explains that the marriage was "just one year ago to day love ... I changed a mansion for a cottage" and another verse "He lost his life upon the ocean."
Of Roud's broadside entries for #4327 the ones starting "Childhood days now pass before me" are for a different song, which can also be found at Bodleian and American Memory; those starting "Just one year ago to day love" are probably the Bodleian version of this song. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R702

Widow Machree (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Widow Machree, pray then open your door ... And show me the easiest plank in your floor." "Didn't old Adam loan From his rib" to "manufacture ... the first female" "As you owe man a rib, I lay claim to that same." A marriage proposal.
AUTHOR: Charles Lever (1806-1872)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1860 (broadside, LOCSinging as114990)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 53, "Widow Machree" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #2/72, p. 32 and #2/64, p. 32, "Widow Machree" (1 text)
Roud #29023
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as114990, "Widow Machree" ("Widow Machree, pray then open your door"), J Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
NOTES [79 words]: The Samuel Lover and Charles Lever "Widow Machree" ["Widow Machree (II)"] are not the same song: they share rhyme scheme, verse structure, and theme, but no verses. Which is derived from the other? - BS
Or are they both, perhaps, derived from a common literary source? - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as114990: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OCon053A

Widow Machree (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Widow Machree, it's no wonder you frown," your black gown is unbecoming. Summer is coming and birds and rabbits all go in pairs.In winter it would be a sin to be cold and alone. "Take my advice ... take me"
AUTHOR: probably Samuel Lover (1797-1868)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1842 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(4195)); 1842 (Samuel Lover's novel "Handy Andy")
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2634, p. 178, "WIdow Machree" (1 reference)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 108-109, "Widow Machree" (1 text)
Roud #29023
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4195), "Widow Machre" ("Widow Mackree it's no wonder you frown ..."), Birt (London), 1833-1841; also 2806 b.11(125), Harding B 11(4194), Harding B 11(4196), "Widow Machree"
LOCSinging, cw106740, "Widow Machree" ("Widow Machree, it's no wonder you frown"), George S. Harris (Philadelphia), 19C; also as115000, "Widow Machree"
NOTES [192 words]: This "Widow Machree" is attributed to Samuel Lover at the Bartleby.com site. The Samuel Lover and Charles Lever "Widow Machree" ["Widow Machree (I)"] are not the same song: they share rhyme scheme, verse structure and theme, but no verses. Which is derived from the other?
Handy Andy is a novel Samuel Lover published in 1842. Lover's novel has ballads and poems scattered throughout. The context for "Widow Machree" in the novel is that it is a supposedly well known song called for by a company of listeners. Lover does not claim authorship for a character in the novel as he does for some other Handy Andy poems. Is Lover including a ballad already in circulation? He seems to be doing just that with his fragment of "Ma Colleen Dhas Crutheen na Mbho" ("The Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow") in the 1836 novel Rory O'More. - BS
We note the existence of at least one broadside which appears to be older than Handy Andy; is it possible that Lever and Lover both worked from some earlier piece? Alternately, did Lover publish the song before writing Handy Andy, and then incorporate it into his own work to promote/celebrate its popularity? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Bdsdwdmc

Widow Malone

DESCRIPTION: "Did ye hear of the widow Malone, Ohone? Who lived in the town of Athlone alone?" All the rich men courted her but she was modest and none could see her alone. Lucius O'Brien from Clare boldly kisses her and she agrees to marry.
AUTHOR: Charles Lever (1806-1872)
EARLIEST DATE: 1841 (Lever, _Charles O'Malley, the Irish Dragoon_)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 62, "Widow Malone" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2635, p. 178, "Widow Malone" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 17, "Widow Malone" (1 text)
New-Comic-Songster, p. 6, "Widow Malone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 107-108, "Widow Malone" (1 text)
Roud #15892
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(114), "Widow Malone", The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1855; also 2806 c.8(175), Harding B 18(744), "Widow Malone"
LOCSinging, sb40549b, "Widow Malone", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
NOTES [72 words]: Broadside LOCSinging sb40549b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Published by Lever in Charles O'Malley, the Irish Dragoon, which Edgar Wallace tells me was published in 1841, and published in the twentieth century in Stevenson's Home Book of Verse and Woods's Treasury of the Familiar. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OCon062

Widow Nolan's Goat, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I'm a lone widdy, myself and my daughter; We live in a house where there's welcome galore" with "My buck Billy Goat," which has been a very good goat but is now missing. "Oh, oh, oh, oh, ohone, Come back to my bosom, my own darling billy."
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 ("Squatter Sovereignty")
KEYWORDS: humorous wife home animal
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #74, pp. 271-273, "The Widow Nolan's Goat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 116-118, "'The Widow Nolan's Goat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Stanley Appelbaum, editor, _Show Songs: from The Black Crook to The Red Mill_, Dover Publications, 1974, pp. 24-27, "The Widow Nolan's Goat" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of the original sheet music)
Roud #27601
NOTES [437 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
The play "Squatter Sovereignty" was one of Edward Harrigan's biggest hits, running 168 performances (Moody, p. 125) -- a very high number at the time. Moody, p. 126, calls it a "documentary" of the Shantytown of New York, where in the 1880s "squatters" had transformed old boxes, barrels, and the like into shanties by Central Park. In a typical Harrigan twist, one of the major characters was a goat, Billy, the subject of "The Widow Nolan's Goat." The widow's daughter Nellie (played by Gertie Granville, Tony Hart's soon-to-be wife) is supposed to marry Terrence McIntyre, son of the "royal astronomer to the Duchess of Connaught" (Harrigan) who can show you "Uranus, Venus, Mars, and Jew Peter" for ten cents (Moody, p. 126). As is typical of Harrigan, the show involves misplaced love (Nellie loves Fred Kline, the son of a glue maker, not McIntyre), conflict between ethnic groups -- and live animals.
Franeschina, p. 144, says, "A contract is drawn up between the Widow [Nolan] and Felix [McIntyre, the astronomer, father of Terrens] in which she bestows her daughter with a dowry of bedding and a billy goat, while he gives his son a pig and a goose, with the understanding that if either child shold refuse the marriage, the parent would forfeit the dowry.... When the widow learns of her daughter's marriage to Fred Kline, she refuses to give up her goat to McIntyre, igniting a feud.... Before the curtain falls... both families find themselves in another characteristic Comique melee in which the widow's shanty is torn down and all the animals are let loose from their cages."
David Braham gave up his usual pattern of marches and schottisches (Franceschina, p. 144): "There were no songs and dances, walk-around, or military parades. Instead, Braham borrowed from European operetta and Irish jig patterns to create, arguably, his most original score to date.
"The runaway song hit from Squatter Sovereignty was "Paddy Duffy's Cart," an ensemble number used at the beginning of the third act to announce the arrival of Paddy Duffy (Eugene Rourke), a character of tangential importance to the plot. Particularly notable is the antiphonal choral writing in the second chorus, the melody and lyric of Harrigan and Hart's earliest theatrical success: 'Little Fraud,/ Little Fraud,/ She's the daintiest darling of all. As the widow Nolan, Hart [who often played transvestite roles] was provided with 'The Widow Nolan's Goat, an attractive Irish jig with a chorus in the minor mode and a rather conservative melodic compass." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.2
File: HaBrWiNG

Widow of McCarty, The

DESCRIPTION: Reilly marries McCarty's widow. She always talks about McCarty and says she wishes Reilly were sober and more like McCarty. He beats her to show her "now she's got a man" who won't put up with her broomstick beatings and other demands.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage violence abuse drink nonballad husband wife
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 104-105, "The Widow of McCarty" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Ow2E104

Widow of Sandilands, The

See Lady of the Land (Here's a Poor Widow) (File: BGMG641)

Widow of Westmoreland's Daughter, The

DESCRIPTION: The widow's daughter reports losing her maidenhead to a grenadier guard. The mother wants it back; the guard invites the girl to his wedding. The bride asks about her; she proves to have slept with another man. The guard marries the daughter instead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Widow prays her daughter might keep her maidenhead, but the daughter comes back having lost it to a Grenadier guard. The mother scolds; the daughter returns to the Grenadier, demanding her maidenhead back. The Grenadier obliges her by "put[ting] her head where her feet was before," then invites her to his wedding; the girl runs back to her mother and tells the story, saying she's a maiden again. The mother, not pleased, goes to the wedding with the daughter; the bride asks who it might be. The Grenadier replies that it must be the widow's daughter who ran home and told; the bride says she'd never do that; she lay with a man for 11 nights and never told anyone. The Grenadier at this point dumps the bride in favor of the widow's daughter "who ran home and told her mummy"
KEYWORDS: sex wedding humorous bawdy mother trick virginity wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kinloch-TheBalladBook I, pp. 1-3, "The Widow o' Westmoreland" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1439, "A Lady Lived on the Muirland Hills" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 76, "The Widow's Dochter" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 105, "The Widow's Dochter" (1 text)
DT, WIDWSTMO
Roud #228
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Widow of Westmoreland's Daughter" (on Lloyd01); "Widow of Westmorland's Daughter (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2) (Lloyd3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Country Girl (The Fair Maid of the West" (theme of regaining maidenhead)
cf. "The Tailor" (theme of regaining maidenhead)
NOTES [31 words]: Lloyd notes that the song, never printed as of the time of recording [not quite true; Kinloch printed it in 1827 - RBW], had been offered to F. J. Child but was rejected for indecency. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: DTwidwst

Widow with Daughters to Marry, The

See Lady of the Land (Here's a Poor Widow) (File: BGMG641)

Widow's Cruisie, The

DESCRIPTION: His hearers knew he was a fool but he "tried the Psalms." "He tell't the story aff wi glee ... Aye the wifie wi her vessle." Then he'd wish them all into glory, assuring them of plenty and "meal an' eelie [oil] to be yer dainty"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad religious clergy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 683, "The Widow's Cruisie" (1 text)
Roud #6108
NOTES [209 words]: Greig/Duncan3 quoting William Walker: "'About a minister who preached always when in a strange pulpit the same sermon on the text - "the widow's cruisie."' See 1 Kings 17.8-16." In that passage Elijah, hiding from Ahab during a drought, is told by God to go to a widow He has commanded "to sustain thee." When Elijah asks her for "a morsel of bread" she says she has only a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruse which is insufficient for her and her son; she plans to use the oil to bake the meal into a cake for their last meal before they die. Elijah asks her to make the cake for him and then make it for herself and her son; if she would do that the barrel and cruise would be filled until the drought breaks. She does and the three survive the drought. - BS
[With the slight complication that the boy "died" -- or at least slipped into a coma -- in the aftermath of the famine, and was revived by Elijah via what sounds like artificial respiration. There is also the curiosity that the widow lived in Zarephath in Sidonian Phoenicia rather than Israel -- a curious place for an Israeli prophet to go.]
[The nitpicker in me also has to note that, on that diet, Elijah, the widow, and her son would all have ended up with scurvy. - RBW]
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3683

Widow's Daughter, The

See Nancy (II) (The Rambling Beauty) [Laws P12] (File: LP12)

Widow's Dochter, The

See The Widow of Westmoreland's Daughter (File: DTwidwst)

Widow's Lament, The

DESCRIPTION: "My sister, hear and I will relate The troubles I have seen, What sorrows I have seen of late Which are the fruit of sin." "My father" has beaten her brutally; her baby daughter and husband died of disease. She looks forward to meeting and praising God
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: disease death family religious
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 138-139, "The Widow's Lament" (1 text)
ST Fus138 (Partial)
Roud #4287
NOTES [127 words]: Sort of a modern paraphrase of the first two chapters of the Book of Job. No sign of what happened to the next forty.
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands's orthography (which may come from the manuscript) is rather deceptive. The second stanza is given as
My father laid his chastening rod,
The stroke has not been light;
But sure he has been a faithful God,
A judge that will do right.
However, it is clear that it is her oh-so-faithful God who has been abusing her; meaning that the first line should probably be understood as "My Father laid his chastening rod." Not that the Bible observes such distinctions (neither Biblical Greek nor Biblical Hebrew had upper- and lower-case letters), but it's the way the people who write pieces like this usually write. - RBW
File: Fus138

Widow's Old Broom, The

See Courting the Widow's Daughter (Hard Times) [Laws H25] (File: LH25)

Widow's Plea, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer enters a court where a youth is on trial. There is no question of his guilt, but his mother rises to beg for mercy. The prosecutor asks the judge to silence her, but he refuses. The judge grants the boy clemency based on the mother's plea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Detroit News)
KEYWORDS: mother children trial punishment mercy
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 146, "The Widow's Plea" (1 text)
ST GC146 (Partial)
Roud #3672
File: GC146

Widows A-Courtin', The

See Courting the Widow's Daughter (Hard Times) [Laws H25] (File: LH25)

Wie kumm ich an des Grossvadder's Haus? (How Do I Get to Grandfather's House)

DESCRIPTION: German. "Wie kumm ich an des Grossvadder's Haus? Mein geliebdes Maedlein?" "How do I get to grandfather's house, My beloved maiden?" She tells him to follow the road. He asks other directions; she answers. The ending is only hinted at
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends); reportedly dates to sixteenth century
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage travel
FOUND IN: US(MA) Germany
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 94-96, "Wie kumm ich an des Grossvadder's Haus? (How Do I Get to Grandfather's House)" (1 German text plus non-poetic English translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL094

Wife and a Biggin o' Yer Ain, A

DESCRIPTION: "It's gran' to hae a wifie and a biggin [building] o' yer ain." The singer enjoys "to see my wifie wi' the bairnie on her knee" and his hearth at evening. He has been in wealthy lodgings but "it wisna half sae cosy as this biggin' o' my ain"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: home farming nonballad baby wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 546, "A Wife and a Biggin o' Yer Ain" (1 text)
Roud #6022
File: GrD3546

Wife and Her Wee Pickle Tow, The

See The Wee Pickle Tow (File: HayU080)

Wife Bereaved of her Husband, A

DESCRIPTION: "My head and stay is loof (sic.) away And I am left alone. My husband dear, who was so near, Is took away and gone." The wife confesses her grief, admits she cannot rest, and says she will turn to Jesus
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety), from a diary of the Civil War era
KEYWORDS: husband wife death loneliness
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 467, "A Wife Bereaved of her Husband" (1 text)
Roud #7956
File: Beld467A

Wife in Wether's Skin, The

See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Wife Is the Main Thing, A

DESCRIPTION: Jack complains that there's no one to look after his house, make him a good meal, or mend his clothes. An old man says to stop complaining: "a wife's the main thing." Jack marries a farmer's daughter "and never did he rue the day"
AUTHOR: N. Stone (source: Greig/Duncan5)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 1068, "A Wife Is the Main Thing" (1 text)
Roud #6761
File: GrD1068

Wife o' Denside, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye'll hae heard o' the Wife o' Denside... Wha pushioned [poisoned] her maid to keep up her pride, And the devil is sure o' the Wife o' Denside." She poisons a mother and her illegitimate child. She buys her way out of trouble. The gallows has been robbed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (A. H. Miller, Haunted Dundee, according to Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: bastard children mother death homicide poison
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 8, 1826 - Margaret Walden, servant to the Smith family, dies of poison. Mrs. Smith is accused of murder, but at trial, the verdict "not proven" is found. The people of Dundee still think her a murderer (source: Gatherere)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 9, "The Wife o' Denside" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #22215
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Laird o Cockpen" (tune)
File: Gath009

Wife o' Dundee, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Wife o' Gateside, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye've a' heard tell o' the wife o' Gateside (or Denside) ... poisoned her maid (or guid-dother [daughter-in-law]) to keep up her pride, And the Deil he is sure o' the wife o' ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: homicide poison mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #129, p. 3, ("Ye've a' heard tell o' the wife o' Gateside") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan2 207, "The Wife o' Gateside" (2 fragments)
Roud #5837
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Laird o' Cockpen" (tune, according to Greig)
NOTES [153 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan2 fragments.
Greig/Duncan2 cites A.H. Miller, Haunted Dundee (Dundee, 1923) for an account of the trial. Margaret Warden, died September 8, 1826. Mrs. Smith, whose son George may have been the father of Warden's unborn baby, was tried for murder and a "Not Proven" verdict returned. - BS
Emily Lyle, Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, p. 106, comments briefly on two "arsenic ballads" in the Greig/Duncan collection, "John Lovie" and "The Wife o' Gateside." She points out that Scots juries were allowed three verdicts, Guilty, Not Guilty, and Not Proven -- the latter of these allowing the accused to go free but saying that there was a significant probability of guilt. In both cases, apparently, the use of arsenic was demonstrated but it could not be shown who poisoned the dead person. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD2207

Wife o' Kelso, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Wife o' My Ain, A

DESCRIPTION: The singer is going home after rambling to marry Ailie. Her mother favors wealthy Geordie Steele. "But if that my Ailee prove faithless, and marry before I return ... Awa' straight to some other beauty, without loss o' time I will hie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting return separation humorous mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 709, "A Wife o' My Ain" (1 text)
Roud #6149
File: GrD4709

Wife of Auchtermuchty, The

See Father Grumble [Laws Q1] (File: LQ01)

Wife of Kelso, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Wife of the Free, The

See The Wife of Usher's Well [Child 79] (File: C079)

Wife of Usher's Well, The [Child 79]

DESCRIPTION: A mother sends her sons away to school, where they die. She swears not to believe in God until they return to her. Later, they do return, but as ghosts. At last they convince her (perhaps by means of the roasted cock crowing) to let them rest
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: ghost death mourning magic
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Britain(England(West,South),Scotland)
REFERENCES (58 citations):
Child 79, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (3 texts)
Bronson 79, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (58 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 79, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (8 versions: #1, #3, #5, #20, #30, #43, #48, #54)
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, pp. 198-199, "There Was a Lady in Merry Scotland" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 22 "The Wife of Usher's Well" (8 texts plus 9 fragments, 18 tunes) {Bronson's #23, #18, #49, #20, #47, #4, #9, #50, #31, #5, #32, #43, #39, #40, #13, #14, #51, #7}
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 17, "The Three Little Babes (The Wife of Usher's Well)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #18}
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 112, "Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #10, "Wife of Usher's Well" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #47}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 155-156, "The Lady Gay" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #40}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 449-451, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (2 texts derived from Cox)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 55-57, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (2 texts)
Randolph 19, "The Three Little Babes" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #10, #8}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 39, "The Three Little Babes" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 19B) {Bronson's #8}
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, p.n9, "Three Little Babes" (1 text, 1 tune) {
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 48-49, "The Ladie Who Lived in the West" (1 text)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 114-116, "Lady Gay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, #56, "Three Babes" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 14, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #24}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2, pp. 187-194, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the first version has textual but not melodic variants; the tunes are effectively the same, but the "B" text, while it starts with "Usher's Well" lyrics, is clearlly a rewrite; the boys go off to sea, return, and one marries a servant girl) {A=Bronson's #58}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 64-66, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #58}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 22, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (11 texts plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes entitled "The Three Little Babes," "Lady Gay"; 1 more version mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #48, #33}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 23, pp. 161-169, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (5 texts, 4 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 25, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (4 text plus 3 excerpts and mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 25, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (7 excerpts, 7 tunes; Schinhan notes that most of the tunes are very like "Barbara Allen")
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #160, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #17}
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 14, pp. 93-95, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (2 texts)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 17, "The Three Little Babes" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #15}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 22A, "The Three Little Babes"; 22B, "A Knight and a Lady Bride" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 2 tunes)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 33-34, "The Three Little Babes" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #16}
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 21-23, "The Three Little Babes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 13, "Three Little Babes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boswell/Wilfe 4, pp. 9-11, "Lady Gay (The Wife of Usher's Well)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 167-169, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text, locally titled "There Was a Lady, and a Lady Was She"; tune on p. 402) {Bronson's #57}
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 69, "The Miracle of Usher's Well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 14, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 263-265, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (2 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 52-53, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 134-135, "Mary Hebrew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 32, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 34, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (3 texts)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 24, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 33, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 195-196+346-347, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 59-60, "The Cruel Mother (Or Three Children)" (1 text)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 91, "Lady Gay" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #30, though in 4/4 where Bronson marks 3/2!}
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 116-118, "Lady Gay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 58, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 14, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (5 texts plus mention of 2 more)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 92-93, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 51-52, "The Three Little Babes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #19, "Lady Gay or The Three Little Babes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 7, pp. 18-19, "Children's Song"; pp. 20-21, "Three Little Babes" (2 texts)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 177-178, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 32-33, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (2 texts)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 80-81, "The Wife of Usher's Well" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Ben Gray Lumpkin, "Two Child Ballads from Stanly County," Vol. XVII, No. 2 (Nov 1969), pp. 56-58, "Mary Hebrew" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 79, LADYGAY* USHERWEL USHRWEL2*
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #429, "The Wif of Usher's Well" (1 text)
Roud #196
RECORDINGS:
Texas Gladden, "Three Little Babes" (on LomaxCD1702); "The Three Babes" (AFS 5231 B1, 1941; on LC58, USTGladden01)
Seena Helms, "Lady Bride and Three Babes" (on HandMeDown1)
Buell Kazee, "Lady Gay" (Brunswick 212, 1928) {Bronson's #30}
Eunice Yeatts McAlexander, "The Three Little Babes" (on Oldrad1, FarMtns1)
Jean Ritchie, "The Wife of Usher's Wells" (on JRitchie02)
Pete Seeger, "Lady Gay" (on PeteSeeger25)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Saint Stephen and Herod" [Child 22] (plot)
cf. "The Carnal and the Crane" [Child 55] (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Dead Little Boys
The Wife of the Free
The Fine Lady Gay
The Cartin Wife
A Moravian Song
The Lady and the Children Three
The Three Pore Little Children
The Lone Widow
NOTES [204 words]: Bronson makes the interesting observation that there is one Scottish tune for this song, unrelated to any other; two English tunes, related only to each other, and dozens of American collections, most of which (43 of them) have tunes related to each other but not to the Scottish or English forms.
It's hard to know what to do with Lena Bourne Fish's version (the "B" version in Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2). The first lines are clearly part of this song; the ending is not. It belongs to the romances about a noble marrying a commoner. The tune is shared with Phyllis Burditt's version of "The Wife of Usher's Well," but Bronson finds that tune to be unique.
I'm lumping the two because there is still kinship, and I don't recognize the second half of Fish's song -- but I wouldn't be surprised if she has combined two songs.
The notion that excessive mourning (usually meaning mourning for more than a year and a day) results in the ghost being unable to rest is at least hinted at in several other songs, the most noteworthy being "The Unquiet Grave" [Child 78].
For the vexed question of the origin of the legend of the roasted cock, see the notes to "The Carnal and the Crane" [Child 55].
- RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C079

Wife Who Was Dumb, The

See The Dumb Wife (Dumb, Dumb, Dumb) [Laws Q5] (File: LQ05)

Wife Who Wouldn't Spin Tow, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the days before his wife was married, when she worked so hard on her father's farm. But now she is married, she does nothing except dress up and leave home. He would happily be rid of her if he could.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: marriage courting work
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 398, "The Wife Who Wouldn't Spin Tow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7615
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" [Child 277] (theme)
File: R398

Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin, The [Child 277]

DESCRIPTION: A craftsman has married a wife above his station. She, being of good birth, refuses to do housework. Since she is gentle, he cannot beat her -- but he covers her in a sheepskin, thrashes THAT, and causes her to start working
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803
KEYWORDS: humorous wife abuse husband nobility
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,NW,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (65 citations):
Child 277, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (5 texts)
Bronson 277, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (63 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 277, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (7 versions: #1, #2, #5, #15, #29, #37, #49)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 116-119, "Robin/Robin He's Gane to the Wude" (2 texts)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 322-325, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #33}
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 92-94, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #21}
Randolph 35, "Dan-Doo" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #51}
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 110-111, "The Old Man in the West" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #48}
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 222-225, "Cooper of Fife," "The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #17, #9}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 221-222, "Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #45}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland4, pp. 76-98, "The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin" (9 texts plus 5 fragments, 9 tunes) {D=Bronson's #17, J=#45, M=#9}
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 79, "Jenny Go Gentle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 45, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (12 texts, several quite fragmentary, 2 tunes entitled "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin," "The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin or Dandoo") {Bronson's #38, #50}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 39, pp. 305-315, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 44, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (2 texts plus 2 excerpts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 44, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (4 excerpts, 4 tunes)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #172, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (1 text, 1 tune, which breaks off before the actual beating but which appears to be this rather than "Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now") {Bronson's #40}
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 23, p. 123, "The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin" (1 text)
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 12, "The Old Man Who Lives in the West" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #37}
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 52, "Dandoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 23, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (3 texts, though two are short)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 170-171, "Dan Doo" (1 text,1 tune)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 83, "Dandoo (The WIfe Wrapt in Wether's Skin)" (1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p. 56, "Lazy Woman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 94-95, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #24}
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 26, pp. 150-151, "Wee Cooper o' Fife" (1 fragment)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 658-660, "The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin" (3 texts)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 58-63, "The Wife in Wether's Skin -- Dandoo!"; "Geely Don Mac Kling Go" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 192-194, "The Wee Cooper o' Fife" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #122, pp. 1-2, "The Wife in the Wether's Skin" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1282, "The Wife in the Wether's Skin" (5 texts plus a single verse on p. 501, 4 tunes) {A=Bronson's #5, C=#13, D=#16, E=#3}
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 55, "The Wee Cooper of Fife" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 449, "The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin" (2 texts)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 44, "The Old Wether's Skin" {Bronson's #29}; 103, "Dan Doo" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {cf. Bronson's 42a/b, from the same informant (Frank Proffitt) but not quite the same in text or tune}
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 136, "Tinna Clinnama Clinchama Clingo" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Korson-PennLegend, pp. 41-42, "The Wee Cooper of Fife" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #10}
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 39, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (5 texts, 5 tunes) {Bronson's #38, #43, #25, #31, #44}
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 70, "Ruggleton's Daughter of Iero" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #36}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 16, "Ruggleton's Daughter of Iero" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #36}
Wells-TheBalladTree, p. 121, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's#25}
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 70, "Gentle Fair Jenny" (1 text, 1 tune, with a chorus perhaps from "Riddles Wisely Expounded," and a text which may well mix this with "The Holly Twig" [Laws Q6]; I thought seriously about filing it there) {Bronson's #32}
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 80-81, "Dandoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 85, "Gentle Fair Jenny" (1 text, 1 tune, claiming to be from Jean Ritchie, but Lomax does not cite a recording and the song bears very little resemblance in text or tune to Ritche's recorded version)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #16, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 59, "The Unwilling Bride" (1 text, 1 tune, possibly of this ballad but, in my opinion, more likely a form of "The Holly Twig" [Laws Q6])
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 23, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #43}
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 122-123, "Nickety Nackety" (1 text, 1 tune)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 63, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 29, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (5 texts)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #13A-C, pp. 57-60, "The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin," "Dandoo" (3 texts, 1 tune, but the "B" text omits the beating and has the husband run away; it may well be a version of "Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now" although it might alternately have mixed with "Devilish Mary" [Laws Q4] or something like it) {Bronson's #26}
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 90-91, "Dandoo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #31, "Risselty Rasselty"; "Nickety Nackety" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "B" text is "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin"; the "A" text and tune is "Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now")
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 19-20, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 167-169, "The Wife in Wether's Skin -- Dandoo!" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #46}
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 6, pp. 16-17, "The Wife Wrapped in a Wether's Skin"; pp. 17-18, "Dandoo" (2 texts)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 333-334, "The Cooper of Fife' (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 80-81, "The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 174, "The Wee Cooper Of Fife" (2 texts)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Frank L. Warner [nephew of Frank M. Warner], "Songs My Uncle Taught Me" Vol. XI, No. 1 (Jul 1963), pp. 26-27, "Dan Doo" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Frank Proffitt: A Legend A-Borning," Vol. XIV, No. 2 (Nov. 1966), p. 16, "Dandoo" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 24, "The Wee Cooper of Fife" (notes only)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 22, "Gentle Fair Jennie" (1 text, 1 tune, clearly the Ritchie Family version listed above)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 271-274, "The Wee Cooper of Fife" (1 text)
DT 277, COOPFIFE DANDOO*
ADDITIONAL: Suzi Jones, _Oregon Folklore_, University of Oregon/Oregon Arts Commission, 1977, pp. 32-33, "Billy's Wife"; "The Wee Cooper of Fife" (2 texts, 2 tunes, the first native to Oregon, the second imported from Scotland)
Roud #117
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "Wee Cooper o' Fife" (on NFJDowney01)
Warde Ford, "As the Dew Flies Over the Green Valley" (AFS 4197 B1, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell) {Bronson's #19a; cf. 18, 19b}
Frank Proffitt, "Dan Doo" (on Proffitt03) {Bronson's #42a/b}
Jean Ritchie, "Gentle Fair Jenny" (on JRitchie02) {Bronson's #32}
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now" (theme, plot, lyrics)
cf. "The Holly Twig" [Laws Q6] (plot)
cf. "The Wicked Wife o' Fife" (theme)
cf. "The Daughter of Peggy-O" (plot)
cf. "The Wife Who Wouldn't Spin Tow" (theme)
cf. "Upside Down" (theme)
cf. "Come All You Young Ladies and Gentlemen" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Cooper of Fife
The Wee Cooper of Fife
Bandoo
Gentle Virginia
Kitty Lorn
Kitty Alone
Dan-you
The Old Man Who Lived in the West
NOTES [669 words]: Child mentioned the likelihood that this was inspired by a chapbook piece, "A Merry Ieste of a Shrewde and curst Wyfe lapped in Morrelles skin" ("Morell" being the name of the horse in whose salted skin she was wrapped). This seems likely, but it's not much help for the song's history. A scan of the booklet is now available on the British Library web site (search for "merry jest shrewd curst wife" at explore.bl.uk or its replacement), but it's hard to date. It says only that it was printed in Fleet Street by "H. Jackson." The printer's name doesn't help us; I've seen estimates for the date as early as c. 1550 and as late as c. 1580. The typeface is no help; it is very similar to faces in use as early as 1500. There is a mention in the text of the "Masse," so it may have been written pre-Reformation, but we can't treat that as certain. So the link between the song and the printed item, while very probable, must remain a matter of specuulation.
It has been speculated (see, e.g., Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl) that this ballad inspired Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew." Evidence is, of course, completely lacking, though some Shakespeare authorities also mention the connection. Others would link the Shakespeare play to the "Morrelles Skin" piece. The piece probably does go back to Elizabethan times; according to J. C. Holt, Robin Hood, revised edition, Thames & Hudson, 1989, p. 140, one Robert Langham heard an entertainment in July 1575 at the Earl of Leicester's palace of Kenilworth which featured the "Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin."
Barry et al have an even stranger theory, that this song, which occasionally has the sort of "plant refrain" we know best from "Riddles Wisely Expounded" and "The Elfin Knight," is actually a description of an exorcism, in which the herbs and the beating both play a part!
American forms of this ballad are often much simplified, omitting, e.g., the mention of the wife's noble origin and/or the sheepskin. Ritchie's version is typical of this; such texts are hard to distinguish from degenerate forms of "The Holly Twig" [Laws Q6]. (Pound's "I Bought Me a Wife" seems almost to be mixed with "The Swapping Song.")
Typical of these degenerate forms is "Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now," which we originally lumped with this song, but which we have now split off. For full details on how to separate them, see the notes to "Risselty, Rosselty." The basic distinction is that, in "The Wife Wrapt," he beats her; in "Risselty, Rosselty," he merely complains. But there are other indications which can be used for fragments. - RBW, (PJS)
To add to the confusion, there is a nursery song, apparently from Halliwell, beginning "I married a wife by the light of the moon, A tidy housewife, a tidy one." This is not either "The Wife Wrapt" or "Risselty-Rosselty," but it details the wife's strange and "slovenly" habits. And several lines of it, including the first, are found in various versions of Child 277, including e.g. the "B" version in Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland. - RBW
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong pp. 333-334 is Child's source for text 277C.
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong: "There can be few field-working folklorists who have not run out of tape or suddenly found that the batteries failed, putting an abrupt end to a recording session.... It is included in this collection partly because it is the only Classic Ballad recorded from Jerome's repertoire.... Without the complete recording of Jerome's singing it is not now possible to know which verses he sang.... It is not so much for the text as for the tune that it is included here, however, as Jerome sings a catchy and unusual variant, a little gem, which I had not come across elsewhere." Downey's fragment on the CD is "... not bake and she would not brew/ Nickety, nackety, now, now, now, / For spoiling of her comely hue/ Hey Willie Wallacky, ho John Dugall/ Alane quo' Rushety, row, row, row [rhymes with 'now']" - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C277

Wild Amerikay [Laws O19]

See Rich Amerikay [Laws O19] (File: LO19)

Wild and Reckless Hobo, A

See Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum) [Laws H2] (File: LH02)

Wild and Wicked Youth, The [Laws L12]

DESCRIPTION: The singer recounts his (boyhood and) life, telling of his many daring robberies. Now, alas, he is condemned to die, and must leave his family. He concludes with directions for his funeral
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(2054))
KEYWORDS: outlaw farewell execution robbery trial funeral youth
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,Ro,SE,So,SW) Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland) Ireland Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (39 citations):
Laws L12, "The Rambling Boy (Wild and Wicked Youth)"
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 46, "The Sheffield Highwayman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan2 260, "The Roving Blade" (3 texts)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 136-137, "The Rambling Boy" (1 text)
Randolph 148, "The Rambling Boy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 12, "Roving Rambling Boy"; "The Roving Blade" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 314-315, "The Reek and the Rambling Blade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 101, "The Rambling Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 83, "The Robber" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 78, "The Rambling Boy" (2 texts)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 65, "The Highwayman" (2 texts)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 352, "Down in Covent Garden" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, pp. 107-108, "The Wild and Wicked Youth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 69, "Adieu, Adieu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 30, "The Highwayman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #146, "The Wild and Wicked Youth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #79, "Wild and Wicked Youth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 63-64, "The Rich Rambler" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 43-44, "The Wretched Rambling Boy" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 56-57, "Rich and Rambling Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 91-92, "The Reckless and Rambling Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #13, "Rich and Rambling Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 90, pp. 184-185, "The Rich and Rambling Boy" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #140, "In Steven's Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 121, "The Rambing Boy" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 120, "The Rambling Boy" (4 excerpts, 4 tunes)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 19, "Rich and Rambling Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 96, "The Ramblin' Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 23-24, "Scarlet Town" (1 text, 1 tune, with a first line perhaps from a "Barbara Allen" version)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 16, "A Bold and Undaunted Youth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 2, "The Bold and Undaunted Youth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 326, "Newlyn Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 35, "The Newry Highwayman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 96, "The Bold and Undaunted Youth" (1 fragment)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 225-226, "The Highwayman" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 130-131, "The Rambling Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XIII, pp. 148-190 (29-30), "Cow Boy's Lament" (22 texts, 7 tunes, the "L" text being in fact a version of this piece)
DT 423, (RAKERAMB*)
ADDITIONAL: Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, chapter 2, "From Newry Town to Columbus City: A Robber's Journey," pp. 25-58 (3 full texts: "Wild and WIcked Youth, pp. 28-29; "Newlyn Town, pp. 29-30; "The Rambling Boy," pp. 31-32, plus extensive discussion)
Roud #490
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Bold and Undaunted Youth (The Rambling Boy)" (on Abbott1)
Clarence Ashley & Tex Isley, "Rude and Rambling Man" (on Ashley01)
Justus Begley, "The Roving Boy" (AFS, 1937; on KMM)
Jumbo Brightwell, "Newry Town" (on Voice03)
Carolina Tar Heels, "Rude and Rambling Man" (Victor V-40077, 1929; on Ashley04)
Carter Family, "The Rambling Boy" (Bluebird B-8990, 1941/Bluebird 33-0512, 1944)
Wade Mainer, "Ramblin' Boy" (Bluebird 33-0512, 1944)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Rambling Boy" (on NLCR05)
Riley Puckett, "Ramblin' Boy" (Columbia 15605-D, 1930)
Bob Scarce, "Newlyn Town" (on FSB7)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(2054), "The Wild and Wicked Youth," T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Firth c.17(208), Harding B 11(576), Harding B 15(376a), Harding B 11(939), Firth c.17(6), Harding B 16(307a), Harding B 11(4205), Harding B 11(4211), Harding B 11(4212), Firth b.34(314), Harding B 11(3519A), Firth c.17(7), 2806 c.16(325), Harding B 17(338a), Harding B 20(117), Harding B 17(337b), "The Wild and Wicked Youth"; Harding B 28(235), "The Highway Man's Fate"; Harding B 26(67), "The Bold and Undaunted Youth" ("In Stephen's-green I was bred and born"), J. Moore (Belfast), 1852-1868
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Salisbury Plain" (theme)
cf. "It's Down in Old Ireland" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Rake and Rambling Boy
Adieu Adieu
The Flash Lad
NOTES [816 words]: The Bodleian "The Wild and Wicked Youth" broadsides, and OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 35, include a version of the lines
"I robbed Lord Mansfield I do declare, ...
Lord Fielding's gang they did me pursue And taken I was, by that cursed crew."
The Bodleian notes to 2806 c.16(325) include references to the cast of characters: "Fielding, John, Sir, d. 1780; Mansfield, W.R., Baron Sandhurst, 1819-1876"
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(67) is another example of the "I robbed Lord Mansfield I do declare" group. Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion's fragment seems to be from this version. In this case he falls in with "Fieldskin gang." - BS
Given the date of the song, I would think the Mansfield involved more likely to be William Murray, first Earl of Mansfield (1706-1793), who was Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench from 1756. This has at least sometimes been corrupted to Lord Melbourne, presumably William Lamb, second Viscount Melbourne (1779-1848), the Prime Minister (on and off) from 1834 to 1841. But Mansfield is closer to the Era of the Highwaymen -- and, as Chief Justice, someone they would doubtless enjoy taking.
Fielding in fact might refer to John Fielding or his brother Henry, the well-known author (died 1755). Henry Fielding was driven by poverty to take a post as Commissioner of the Peace for Middlesex in 1748. John Fielding, despite being blind, succeeded him in 1754 -- and dramatically improved law enforcement, though he didn't have the funding to carry out all his reforms. Still, he did enough that life became much harder for the highwaymen.
"Fielding's Gang" is presumably the Bow Street Patrol, founded by the Fieldings as the first almost-national police force in England.
Renwick, pp. 27-28, notes that he has seen 24 broadsides from twelve different printers, from throughout the British Isles and even New England, and all nineteenth century, but suggests that they must be much like the eighteenth century versions of the song because they are all so alike. The obvious problem with this hypothesis is that it ignores the possibility of the printers all borrowing from each other.
Renwick, p. 31, suggests further that someone, probably in the late nineteenth century under the influence of "blues ballads," reworked the song to become the type known as "The Rambling Boy," although the result is still close enough to the original to be considered one song. Renwick, p. 54, also suggests a gender difference in how singers felt about the two recensions; 24 of 28 "Wild and Wicked Youth" versions came from men, compared to "just" 10 of 19 "Rambing Boy" versions. In both cases, however, the majority of versions came from men; in the absence of data about the general population of sources used by collectors, I doubt this is a statistically significant difference.
Renwick, p. 56, also notes the curious fact that in the versions found in America, the so-called land of liberty, the word "liberty" is rarely used; that is characteristic of the original British version. - RBW
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople ends "Get six pretty maidens to bear up my pall Give them white gloves and white ribbons all That they may say when they speak the truth There's gone a wild and wicked youth," which Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople compares to "The Streets of Laredo" and a Sharp ms version of "Tarpaulin Jacket": "...Let six jolly fellows all carry me And let them be terrible drunk." The Bodleian broadside Harding B 25(2054) funeral instructions include "Six highwaymen to carry me, Give them broad swords and liberty. Six blooming girls to bear my pall ...." As for "Wrap Me Up in My Tarpaulin Jacket," the Bodleian broadside Harding B 25(1594) has "Let six bold sailors to carry me And let them be all very drunk ...." The parallel with the "Streets of Laredo" -- "Let sixteen gamblers come handle my coffin Let sixteen cowboys come sing me a song" -- and others in that family ("x Cut Down in His/Her Prime"), sets the outline for floating funeral instructions. Are they found in other songs?
In answer to a Ballad-L query Norm Cohen pointed me to an article that discusses the "x Cut Down ..." family and its funeral instructions in particular. The article cites a number of songs already in the index, including Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs "The Robber" in REFERENCES here, and a number of songs not yet in the index: "My Jewel, My Joy" from P.W. Joyce's Old Irish Folk Music and Songs, "I Once Was a Carman in the Big Mountain Con" from a Wayland D Hand Western Folklore article, and "The Wild Lumberjack" from George Korson's Pennsylvania Songs and Legends (source: Kenneth Lodewick, "'The Unfortunate Rake' and His Descendants" in Western Folklore, Vol. XIV, No. 2 (Apr 1955 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 98-109). - BS
The "Ramblin' Boy" versions of this song shouldn't be confused with the Tom Paxton song, "My Ramblin' Boy." - PJS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LL12

Wild Ashe Deer, The

See The Bear Chase (File: LoF081)

Wild Bill Jones [Laws E10]

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets his sweetheart, (Lula), walking with Wild Bill Jones. Since Bill will not leave Lula alone (or vice versa), the singer shoots him. Lula will not bail him out of prison, so the singer spends his last days wildly
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: courting revenge homicide prison death jealousy
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws E10, "Wild Bill Jones"
Randolph 151, Wild Bill Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 139, "Wild Bill Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 114, "Wild Bill Jones" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 102, pp. 239-240, "Wild Bill Jones" (1 text); cf. #13, pp. 91-93, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 fragments, of which "A" is the "Pretty Little Foot" with a chorus from "Careless Love" and "B" is two "Pretty Little Foot" stanzas artificially and wrongly extracted from the text of "Wild Bill Jones" cited above)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 19, "Wild Bill Jones" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 99, "Wild Bill Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 49-50, "Wild Bill Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #18, "Wild Bill Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 140, "Wild Bill Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, pp. 6-7, "Wild Bill Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 146, "Wild Bill Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, pp. 36-37, "Wild Bill Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 34-35, "Wild Bill Jones" (1 text, 1 tune); pp. 100-101, "Wild Bill Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 134-135, "Wild Bill Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 622, WILDBILL*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 23, #6 (1975), p, 5, "Wild Bill Jones" (1 text, 1 tune, apparently the Ralph Stanley version)
Roud #2246
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley & Tex Isley, "Wild Bill Jones" (on Ashley01)
Frank Bode, "Wild Bill Jones" (on FBode1)
Dock Boggs, "Wild Bill Jones" (on Boggs1, BoggsCD1)
Granville Bowlin, "Wild Bill Jones" (on MMOKCD)
Eva Davis, "Wild Bill Jones" (Columbia 129-D, 1924; on RoughWays2)
Logan English, "Wild Bill Jones" (on LEnglish01)
Kelly Harrell, "Wild Bill Jones" (OKeh 40486, 1925; on KHarrell01)
Wade Mainer & his Little Smilin' Rangers, "Wild Bill Jones" (Bluebird B-7249, 1937)
George Reneau, "Wild Bill Jones" (Vocalion 14998, 1925)
Ernest V. Stoneman "Wild Bill Jones" (Edison 51869, 1926) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5196, 1926)
Tobacco Tags, "Wild Bill Jones" (Bluebird B-8365, 1940)
Welby Toomey, "Wild Bill Jones" (Gennett 3228, 1926; Challenge 158 [as Bob Ferguson]/Challenge 324 [as John Ferguson], 1927; rec. 1925)
File: LE10

Wild Boy, The

See Wild Rover No More (File: MA069)

Wild Boy, The [Laws B20]

DESCRIPTION: The singer, guilty of murder and robbery, is arrested and jailed. His family deserts him, but a rich uncle bails him out. He vows to give up his wild ways.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Craddock)
KEYWORDS: family reprieve
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Laws B20, "The Wild Boy"
DT 842, WILDBOY
Roud #3241
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Limbo" (theme)
NOTES [94 words]: The first stanza begins "My parents raised me ten-der-lee, They had no child but me, But I was bent on rambling-- With them I couldn't agree" and the story continues with bad company and jail. The composer seems familiar with "Limbo" and its rescue and conversion by a rich uncle of a rake to an honest man who has learned to shun the girls that "gurgle" over his money; here the "Wild Boy" is rescued and converted by a rich uncle to an honest man and we are led to believe "Agnes and ... Mabel, ... Mary likewise" will not get the better of him in the future. - BS
File: LB20

Wild Buckaroo, The

DESCRIPTION: "I've been ridin' cattle for most of my life, I ain't got no family and I ain't got no wife." The cowboy boasts of his exploits, tells of the places he has worked, describes what he likes, and concludes "I'm a high-loping cowboy and a wild buckaroo."
AUTHOR: Curley Fletcher ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: cowboy bragging work bawdy
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 35, "Cowboy Boasters" (5 texts, 2 tunes; this is the "C" text)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 15, pp. 102-107, "Wild Buckaroo" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #10091
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Strawberry Roan" (tune)
NOTES [107 words]: Glenn Ohrlin credits this to Curley Fletcher.
These days this song is probably known best in its parody version, which Ohrlin also credits to Fletcher; in the parody, a succession of increasingly bawdy verses follows the clean ones. - PJS
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging also credits a verion to Fletcher. The interesting question is whether all the songs listed e.g. by the Fifes as "Cowboy Boasters" can be lumped, and if not, how to split them -- the format of this, in two-line independent couplets, makes almost infinite rearrangement possible. It is noteworthy, for instance, how different are Logsdon's clean and dirty versions. - RBW
File: FCS35C

Wild Cat Back on the Pipe Line, The

DESCRIPTION: A wildcat shows up on the pipe line. Norman Matchett said "'twas a monkey." Freeman Hare swears "'twas a monsterous bear." Leclair, from Australia, said "'twas a big kangaroo." The singer, a hunter, says the others must have had too much wine at Willie's
AUTHOR: probably Jared MacLean
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: humorous animal wine nonsense
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 47, "The Wild Cat Back on the Pipe Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi047 (Partial)
Roud #9181
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Three Jolly Huntsmen" (theme)
File: MaWi047

Wild Colloina Boy, The

See The Wild Colonial Boy [Laws L20] (File: LL20)

Wild Colonial Boy, The [Laws L20]

DESCRIPTION: Transported from Ireland to Australia, (Jack Doolan) turns bushranger but robs only the rich. At last intercepted by troopers Kelly, Davis, and Fitzroy, he chooses to fight rather than surrender. He kills Kelly but is in turn shot by the other two
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Old Bush Songs); Shepard's broadside claims to be the "original version first printed 1880"; Paterson's version is very close to that which Jack Bradshaw (according to Manifold) must have learned by 1800 although it wasn't published until later
KEYWORDS: transportation outlaw death
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,Ro) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Australia Ireland Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (37 citations):
Laws L20, "The Wild Colonial Boy"
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 68-69, 151, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 72, 124, 148-149, 255, "The Wild Colonial Boy"; p. 152, "Jack Dowling"; pp. 185-186, "John Doolan" (5 texts, 6 tunes)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong,pp. 122-125, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 72-74, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text)
Ward-PenguinBookOfAustralianBallads, pp. 74-75, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text, one of the versions in which Jack Donohue is the hero)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 12-13, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 374, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 113, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 133, "The Wild Colloina Boy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 130-131, "Jack Dolden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 98-99, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 54, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 128, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 77-78,257, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 99, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 229, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 90, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 241-243, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 94, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 320-321, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H750, pp. 120-121, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 52-54, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 134-135, 299-300, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 97, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 80-81, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 44-45, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 29, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 562-563, "The Wild Montana Boy" (1 text, minimally adapted to a Montana setting)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 110-111, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 201, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text)
DT 427, COLONBOY* COLONBY2*
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 179, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (reproduction of one of John Manifold's prints, with text and tune); p. 180, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (reproduction of a modern broadside claiming to be "The Original Version)
Willie Scott, "The Wild Colonial Boy," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1962.027,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 14 September 2013 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/57720/1
Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), p. 14, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text)
A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, pp. 117-118, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text, clearly mixing "The Wild Colonial Boy" [Laws L20] and "Jack Donahue" [Laws L22])
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 265-266, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (1 text)
Roud #677
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry and Michael Gorman, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (on Voice08)
John Greenway, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (on JGreenway01)
A. L. Lloyd, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd10)
Ernest Poole, "Wild Colonial Boy" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Robert Walker, "The Wild Colonial Boy" (on USWolfRiver)

CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack Donahue" [Laws L22]
NOTES [986 words]: Philips Barry connects this song to the career of a Jack Dowling who was a bushranger in the 1870s. John Greenway, however, believes that Jack Doolan/Dolan/Duggan was an improved version of the historical Jack Donahue. He based this on the fact that two share initials, they were credited with many of the same feats in popular imagination, they shared similar fates, and the two ballads sometimes exchange tunes and choruses. Compare, however, Cazden et al. - RBW
Another candidate from Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 8" - 1.3.03: "It has been suggested that the story is based on the life of one John Donaghue, a Dublin man who was transported for life in 1825, and who was killed by troopers in 1830." - BS
Nunn, p. 76, in fact reports that the song "Bold John Donoghue sung in the early 1830s glamorised his fictional deeds an heroic death. It was banned only to re-emerge, with minor variations, as ['The Wild Colonial Boy]."
On the other hand, Wannan, p. 13, declares firmly that "Jack Doolan, or Dowling, is not... one and the same person as Bold Jack Donahoe," offering as evidence the fact that "Donahue was a convict who excaped... and became a bushranger in the eighteen-twenties. Doolan was native-born and his bushranging activities belong to the period of the sixties, ten years or so after the main gold rushes had taken place. It would certainly not have been possible for the Wild Colonial Boy to have stuck up the Beechwood mail coach at the time... [of] Donahoe.... There was no such coach in existence then."
To which one can only say, "Folk process!" Even Wannan admits that "history has left us no facts about [Doolan]."
Given that this song is so widespread, though, I almost suspect that this song PRECEDES "Jack Donahue," and that the Australian song of that name is a conflation of this with the native Australian ballad referred to herein as "Bold Jack Donahoe." This is similar to the opinion of John Manifold; he notes John Meredith's classification of five different Jack Donahue ballad-types, of which #2 (represented by four texts and a fragment, making it the best-known) has Donahue be the wild colonial boy. Manifold, p. 35, says, "Meredith beleives that all these are interconnected; that they are in fact all about the one man. I don't."
In addition, though Laws does not list a broadside publication, one suspects that this piece began life in print, as the names of the troopers who killed Doolan almost never show variants.
In my personal library, as of this writing, I find twelve substantial texts of this song from verified sources. Seven of these do not give an internal date for the song; of the five that do, three list (18)61, one 1862, and one (18)65. I suspect that this is, however, an error for the convict's age of "sixteen years" (based on "sixty" for "sixteen" -- an easy error of hearing).
Manifold, p. 36, makes a similar observation; he counts ten different points of fact about Donahue which might be found in ballad -- and which most of the Donahue ballads get right. But in three of his four "Colonial Donahue" ballads, the text gets none of them right.
There is one thing in the ballad which is somewhat historical when it refers to "Judge McEvoy" or similar: "Mr Justice Macoboy, while making the Bendigo Circuit, was bailed up near Beechworth by a bushranger who took no booty from the coach but read the judge a sever lecture against oppressiveness and harsh judgment. At the end of this the bushranger made off, and disappeared from history but not from legend" (Manifold, p. 45). This, however, was in 1861, so the bushranger cannot have been Donohue.
Manifold, pp. 36-40, attempts to reconstruct the archetype of the "other" Donohue ballads; the result is interesting but perhaps not entirely convincing. His suggestion that "The Wild Colonial Boy" started as a local ballad about the robbing of Judge Macoboy, to the tune of one of the Jack Donohue songs (p. 46), which would explain why the two got mixed up -- but I'm not sure it explains how this song became so internationally popular; it seems to me that any explanation about "The Wild Colonial Boy" must explain both its relationship to "Jack Donohue" and how the song managed to spread to the entire English-speaking world -- a feat no other native Australian song except "Waltzing Matilda" has managed.
Manifold thinks that the versions of the song in which the Boy is born in Ireland are a corruption, because someone born in Ireland would not be called a "Colonial" (Manifold, p. 47) -- but while an Australian might be alert to that point, I doubt anyone else would. So I don't consider that strong evidence about the source of the ballad.
One small point regarding the date: The troopers are said to have been mounted, and Australia didn't get a mounted police force until 1825. Even then, it was only 13 troopers; it didn't grow to as many as 150 men until 1839 -- by which time transportation to New South Wales was effectively ended. Thus Wannan's point has some truth: the song as usually found seems based on Australia in the period around 1850-1870.
Robert Hughes, who prints a version he took down in 1958 (p. 242) says that "there used to be as may ways of singing 'The Wild Colonial Boy' as there were pianos in Australian parlors" -- which, in context, strikes me as an underestimate.
There is a clear allusion to this song in Steele Rudd's (Arthur Hoey Davis's) book Our New Selection (1903), Chapter VII, "A Surprise Party," in which the brother, Dave, when drunk, sings "Poorsh honish parensh, born in Cashl-ic-maine... No stransher he-hic-didsh fear."
It's interesting that both Jack Doolan and the troopers who shot him have Irish names. OxfordCompanion, p. 31, notes that the Irish represented about a quarter of the migrants to Australia -- and that they were over-represented among both the convicts and the police. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: LL20

Wild Cowboy, The

See The Streets of Laredo [Laws B1] (File: LB01)

Wild Gazelle, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, come with me and we will go To the land where the mango apples grow, Oh, do not tarry another day, for storms may come and love deday (sic.). We'll chase the antelope over the plain..." and hunt, and have a gazelle for a playmate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle)
KEYWORDS: courting travel animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 70, "The Wild Gazelle" (1 short text, 1 tune)
OneTuneMore, p. 44, "The Wild Gazelle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7525
File: Boet070

Wild Goose Grasses, The

See Died for Love (I); also The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: McST055)

Wild Goose Nest, The

DESCRIPTION: Congregational song, in which the leader will ask a member to tell a story, the member will do so, and the congregation sings, "Wild goose nest (x3)." There is no plot, but there may be other verses, such as "And all the eggs were white but one...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads)
KEYWORDS: nonballad bird religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, pp. 21-23, "The Wild Goose Nest" (1 text)
File: RSmi021

Wild Goose Shanty, The

See Huckleberry Hunting (File: Doe032)

Wild Goose, The

See Huckleberry Hunting (File: Doe032)

Wild Hog

See Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Wild Hog in the Woods

See Sir Lionel [Child 18] (File: C018)

Wild Horse

See Shortenin' Bread (File: R255)

Wild Horse Charlie

DESCRIPTION: Wild Horse Charlie tells the poet that he prefers his work to women. He explains that he had once been engaged to one. Later it turns out she had become engaged to a number of cowboys, taking money from each and then skipping town.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: courting marriage trick cowboy recitation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 78, "Wild Horse Charlie" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Glenn Ohrlin, "Wild Horse Charlie" (on Ohrlin01)
File: Ohr078

Wild Irish Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer reports on his arrival in the new world. Despite his poor clothes, history of gambling, and criminal record, the girls like him for his looks. But now he is punished for his crime with poverty, prison, and loneliness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (Barney & Rickey's Songster)
KEYWORDS: transportation gambling exile separation loneliness prison punishment emigration homesickness clothes father mother
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 112, "The Wild Irish Boy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 26, "The Wild Irish Boy" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2643, p. 179, "The Wild Irish Boy" (1 reference)
ST FSC112 (Partial)
Roud #38409
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "The Wild Irish boy" [fragment] (AFS A 4210 B1, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(490), "Wild Irish Boy", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
NOTES [77 words]: The handful of traditional collections of this song have, at first glance, little resemblance to most of the broadsides. But Cazden et al managed to assemble enough versions that they are convinced of the identity of the pieces, and I think they're right.
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 18(490): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FSC112

Wild Irishman

See The Monkey Turned Barber [Laws Q14] (File: LQ14)

Wild Irishman in London, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a wild Irishman just come to town, To view the fine city of fame and renown." The English attack him, He fights off butcher and police and crowd with his shillelegh, and has a drink to rejoice. He wishes "Long life and success to Erin go Bragh."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Shephard); the other song on the sheet is probably from the period of the American Civil War
KEYWORDS: drink fight
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 159, "The Wild Irishman in London" (reproduction of a broadside page)
Roud #5085
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Duncan Campbell (Erin-Go-Bragh)" [Laws Q20] (theme of Irishman being abused and fighting back) and references there
File: BdTWIrL

Wild Lumberjack, The

DESCRIPTION: "One day I was out walking on the mountain... I happened to spy... A handsome young lumberjack... All dressed in white linen." The man recalls life in the woods. But he is "shot in the breast." He bids farewell to family and love, asks for water, and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: lumbering death lament burial dying funeral disease violence
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 424, "The Cowboy's Lament (The Streets of Laredo)" (2 texts, the second one being this)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 352-353, "The Wild Lumberjack" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 201-202, "The Wild Lumberjack" (1 text)
Roud #7736
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] (subject, meter) and references there
NOTES [27 words]: Clearly a version of "The Streets of Laredo" adapted to a logging situation. It is still so close to the original that earlier versions of the Index lumped them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: KPL352

Wild Man of Borneo, The

DESCRIPTION: Cumulative song: "The wild man of (Borneo/Poplar) has just come to town (4x)" building to "The left whisker of the flea in the hair in the tail of the dog of the daughter of the wife of the wild man of Borneo has just come to town"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (collected from Charles Neville)
KEYWORDS: cumulative nonballad animal bug
FOUND IN: Britain(Wales,England(South)) Canada(Mar) Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 311, "The Wild Man of Borneo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 258, "The Wild Man of Borneo" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, KINGCARA*
Roud #2145
RECORDINGS:
Carl Jones, "Wild Man of Borneo" (OKeh 45516, 1931; rec. 1930)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Court of King Caractacus
The Wild Man from Poplar
Dyn Bach o Fangor
NOTES [167 words]: [A variant version:] The fascinating witches who put the scintillating stitches in the britches of the boys who put the powder on the noses of the faces of the ladies of the harem of the court of King Caractacus were just passing by." - (PJS)
The Digital Tradition credits the above tentatively to Rolf Harris. I can't prove that, but I suspect it is composed.
Caractacus was a proto-British king (son of Cunobelinus, who through the muddle of Holinshed became Shakespeare's Cymbeline). His exact date of accession is uncertain, but it was probably around 40 C. E.
At first he split power with his brother Togodumnus, but the latter died shortly after Claudius's Romans invaded Britain in 43. Caratactus continued to resist for years, mostly from Wales, but was eventually captured around 51 and spent the rest of his life in Rome.
It will presumably be evident that Caractacus didn't have much of a harem (or much time for one). I've no idea why he was picked on, rather than, say, a Persian monarch. - RBW
File: K311

Wild Miz-zou-rye, The

See Shenandoah (File: Doe077)

Wild Montana Boy, The

See The Wild Colonial Boy [Laws L20] (File: LL20)

Wild Moor, The

See Mary of the Wild Moor [Laws P21] (File: LP21)

Wild Mustard River, The (Johnny Stile) [Laws C5]

DESCRIPTION: Johnny catches his foot among the logs while breaking up a jam; he is swept away as the jam breaks up. His badly torn body is recovered and buried by his fellow workers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Detroit News, reprinted in Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan)
KEYWORDS: logger death drowning
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws C5, "The Wild Mustard River (Johnny Stile)"
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 177-179, "Johnny Doyle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bethke-AdirondackVoices, pp. 84-86, "The Wild Mustard River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 56, "Wild Mustard River" (4 texts, one called "The Old Tamarack Dam"; 1 tune)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 145-148, "Down by the Wild Mustard River" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 71, "Wild Mustard River" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 111, "The Wild Mustard River" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 228-230, "Johnny Stiles, or The Wild Mustard River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #30, "Johnny Stiles" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 100, "The Wild Mustard River" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 415, "Down by the Wild Mustard River" (1 text)
DT 714, WILDMUST*
Roud #637
RECORDINGS:
Tom Brandon, "Johnny Stiles" (on Lumber01)
Joe Kelly, "Johnny Doyle" (on Lumber01)
Carl Lathrop, "The Wild Mustard River" (AFS, 1938; on LC56)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Old Tamarack Dam
NOTES [78 words]: Fowke believes, on the basis of the distribution of variants, that this song originated in Ontario, but cannot cite an incident on which it is based.
Patrick Doyle of Halifax may have the solution. His great uncle Johnny Doyle died July 6, 1906 on a log drive in Ontario. He tells me that the river was the Moose River.
Based on his family's history (http://tinyurl.com/tbdx-JohnnyDoyle), it appears that Doyle would have been between 29 and 31 years old at the time. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: LC05

Wild Oats (Turn, Young Man; Joggle Along)

DESCRIPTION: "Turn, young men, from your evil ways; (Go/Don't) sow your wild oats in the early days -- that you may be happy when you grow old."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty warning
FOUND IN: US(NE,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 65, "Wild Oats" (2 fragments)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 76, "Joggle Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #38, "The Baptist Game" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: G.F. Northall, English Folk-Rhymes (London, 1892 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 361, "Joggle Along" (1 text)
Roud #7869
File: Br3065

Wild Ox Moan

See Black Woman (File: CNFM140)

Wild Privateer, The

See The Bold Privateer [Laws O32] (File: LO32)

Wild Rippling Water, The

See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

Wild Rover (I), The

See Wild Rover No More (File: MA069)

Wild Rover (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "I will rover from the land where my forefathers lie, From the land of my birth with my own love I'll fly." "Al I'll give up... To be with my first love the wild Rover's bride." The singer will sail with her love wherever he goes and in all weather
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1840 (Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: love sailor home exile
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 45, "The Wild Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Fran045

Wild Rover No More

DESCRIPTION: The singer "has been a wild rover for many a year; I've spent all my money on whisky and beer." After years of carousing, he has gone broke and/or struck it rich; he vows that "never no more, It's never, never, never I'll play The wild rover no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1829 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(2055))
KEYWORDS: rambling poverty money travel hardtimes drink landlord floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland) Australia Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf) US(Ro,So)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 69-70, "Wild Rover" (a fragment); pp. 87-88, 127-128, "Wild Rover No More"; pp. 176-177, "I've Been a Wild Boy" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 296-297, "Wild Rover No More" (1 text)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, p. 45, "Wild Rover No More" (1 text)
Randolph 166, "The Horse-Thief" (1 text, 1 tune, which appears to be associated with this song although the text is so short that it might be part of a different piece)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 35-36, "Ile B A Good Boy & Do So Nomore" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #147, "The Wild Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 196-197, "The Wild Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 190-191, "Wild Rover" (1 text)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 113, "The Wild Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 288, "Wild Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 476, "Wild Rover" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 109, "The Wild Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #88, "The Wild Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan7 1480, Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "The Wild Rover" (7 texts, 5 tunes)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 146-147, "Wild Rover No More" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 65, "Wild Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, p. 54, "The Wild Rover" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 57, "Wild Rover" (1 text)
DT, WLDROVER*
Roud #1173
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Wild Rover No More" (on JGreenway01)
Sam Larner, "The Wild Rover" (on SLarner02)
Mrs. K. McCarthy, "Wild Rover" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(2055), "Wild Rover" ("I have been a wild rover these dozen years"), T. Batchelar (London), 1817-1828; Harding B 16(307d), Johnson Ballads 613, Firth c.18(239), Firth c.18(244), Harding B 25(2055), "[The] Wild Rover"; Harding B 11(4217), "Wild Rover!"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds)" [Laws K36] (plot)
cf. "Tambaroora Gold" (theme)
cf. "Moonshiner" (floating lyrics)
cf. "All My Trials" (lyrics)
cf. "Take Me Back to Tulsa" (lyrics)
cf. "The Strawberry Roan" [Laws B18] (tune)
cf. "Limbo" (theme)
cf. "I'll Be a Good Boy" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Tuapeka Gold" (plot)
SAME TUNE:
Wild Driver (by Duke Tritton: "I've been a wild driver this many a year, And always made sure I had plenty of beer") (Meredith/Tritton-DukeOfTheOutback, p. 72)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
No, No, Never
NOTES [305 words]: Meredith and Anderson claim that their fourth version, "I've Been a Wild Boy," has "no connection with the well-known 'Wild Rover No More.'" The same could be argued for Fahey's "The Wild Boy," since it lacks the "Wild Rover No More" chorus. Both songs also share an initial verse not found in the standard version:
My father died and left me his estate,
I married a lady whose fortune was great
And through keeping bad company I've spent all my store;
I've been a wild boy, but I'll be so no more.
There is something similar in High-OldOldFolkSongs
When I was a young boy my fortune was not great,
I married me a rich widow with a very large estate,
With drinking and gambling I soon spent all her store,
But now I'll be a good bo and so no no more.
It will, however, be observed that the basic plot of all these songs is that of the "Wild Rover." The also share extensive floating lyrics. It may well be that this mixed "Wild Rover" is a fusion of earlier pieces. At this time, however, I am unable to distinguish the two.
Interestingly, although the song predates "The Strawberry Roan" by a century or so, Greenway's version is sung to a variant of that tune. - RBW
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland and MacColl/Seeger both lump this song with "Moonshiner." I don't think so -- although they share a few lines -- but they do deserve a cross-reference.
No, I'm not making up the "All My Trials" and "Take Me Back to Tulsa" cross-references; Sam Larner included the "If living was a thing was money could buy/The rich would live and the poor would die" and "Little bee sucks the blossom, big bee gets the honey" floaters in his version. - PJS
John Greenway's "Wild Rover," which seems to be pretty well mixed, refers to the prisoner being sent to "Nugget." This is surely an error for "Newgate," the famous English prison. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: MA069

Wild Rovers, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you wild rovers and listen for a while... For love has been the ruin of many a man." The singer warns against love: "When you are married you are not your own man." He describes some of his miseries, and wishes luck to single and married alike
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love marriage wife warning drink
FOUND IN: US(Ro,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 673, "Wild Rovers" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #90, "The WIld Rovers" (1 text, 1 tune, with an ending from a Bachelor's Hall song)
Roud #4652
File: R673

Wild Shore, The

See The Isle of Man Shore (The Quay of Dundocken; The Desolate Widow) [Laws K7] (File: LK07)

Wild Sliav Gallen Brae

See Wild Slieve Gallon Brae (File: HHH540)

Wild Slieve Gallion Braes

See Farewell to Slieve Gallen (File: HHH795)

Wild Slieve Gallon Brae

DESCRIPTION: The singer is in love with a false-hearted girl. He sets out to view her home, but somehow goes astray and ends on Slieve Gallon Brae. There he meets a girl whose love has also been untrue. They marry and live happily on Slieve Gallon Brae
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry Collection)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal abandonment rambling marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H540, pp. 468-469, "Wild Slieve Gallon Brae" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 9A, "Wild Sliav Gallen Brae" (1 text)
Roud #3577
NOTES [11 words]: Not to be confused with several other songs with similar titles. - RBW
File: HHH540

Wild Stormy Deep

DESCRIPTION: "On the wild stormy deep With Jesus I'll sleep And hold to his loving hand. In a home above I'll be there with God, and rejoice in a happy land." The singer prays, and God frees the singer from burden and sin
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 95, "Wild Stormy Deep" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa095 (Partial)
File: Wa095

Wild Waves Roar, The

DESCRIPTION: "The wild waves roar, And my ship's a wreck On a foreign shore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: sea ship shore wreck
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1757, "The Wild Waves Roar" (1 fragment)
Roud #13518
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81757

Wild West Show, The

DESCRIPTION: "We're off to see the Wild West Show, Elephants and the kangaroos, Never mind the weather, As long as we're together, We're off to see the Wild West Show." Verses may be recited, and are often obscene, regarding the various unlikely animals in the show
AUTHOR: unknown (but with connections to Ben Jonson; see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (Morgan, More Rugby Songs -- but see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: animal humorous scatological recitation
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US Australia Netherlands
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Ed Cray, Richard Reuss, and John Patrick, _The Wild West Show: A Tangle of Tales and TItles_, Occasional Papers in Folklore No. 4, Loomis House Press, 2014 (4 tunes, plus numerous texts; see the NOTES)
Roud #4831
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Van Amburgh's Menagerie
The Hamburg Show
The Hamburg Zoo
The Royal Wild Beast Show
NOTES [93 words]: Ed Cray's The Wild West Show, surely one of the most extensive examinations ever compiled of the history of a particular song, finds a continuous thematic chain between this song and an item in Ben Jonson's 1614 play "The Humours of Bartholomew Fair." I would not consider them the same song (which makes dating "The Wild West Show" rather problematic), but the idea very likely does go back to Jonson.
This idea was first suggested by Gershon Legman.
The song is considered a rugby standard.
For full details, obviously, one must refer to Cray's book. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.4
File: ECray04

Wilderness Lady, The

DESCRIPTION: At dinner in a London lord's house an English lady toasts King William "and to all his strong forces." The next day the "Wilderness lady" challenges her to a duel. Wounded, the English lady cries for mercy. An English lord interrupts the duel.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: fight rescue royalty nobility
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 34, "The Wilderness Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2295
ALTERNATE TITLES:
A Health to the King
NOTES [86 words]: The "King William" of this song is presumably William III (reigned 1688-1694 with Mary II; sole reign 1694-1702). William I the Conqueror/Bastard (reigned 1066-1087) and William II Rufus (1087-1100) are certainly too early. William IV (1830-1837) is chronologically possible, but his claim to the throne was unchallenged.
If the song were set in Ireland, I would consider that interpretation certain. But William III was also controversial in England, as he overthrew James II in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. - RBW
File: KaNew034

Wildwood Flower

DESCRIPTION: The singer prepares to deck herself out with flowers in her hair, in response to her former lover who now has abandoned her. She promises to behave joyfully and forget she knew him, and make him regret that he "neglected his pale wildwood flower"
AUTHOR: Words: Maud Irving / Music: Joseph Philbrick Webster (?) (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Carter Family); probably composed 1860
KEYWORDS: love abandonment beauty flowers
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 263, "The Pale Wildwood Flower" (3 texts plus a fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 263, "The Pale Wildwood Flower" (3 tunes plus text excerpts)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 248-249, "[Pale Wildwood Flower]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 50-51, "Wildwood Flower" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 798, "The Wildwood Flower" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 500-501, "The Wildwood Flower" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 798A)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 48-49, "Wildwood Flower" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 102-103, "Wildwood Flower" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, p. 27, "Wildwood Flower" (1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 166, "Wildwood Flower" (1 text)
DT, WILDWFLR*
Roud #757
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "Wildwood Flower"(Victor V-40000, 1929; Bluebird B-5356/Montgomery Ward M-4432/Sunrise S-3437, 1934; rec. 1928) (ARC 5-11-65/Conqueror 8542, 1935); [as The A. P. Carter Family] "Wildwood Flower" (Acme 996, early 1950s)
Carter Sisters & Mother Maybelle, "Wildwood Flower" (Columbia 21138, 1953)
John D. Mounce et al, "Wildwood Flower" (on MusOzarks01)
James Roberts, "Frail Wildwood Flower" (Gennett 6566 [as Wikel Miller]/Conqueror 7254 [as Joe Reeves], 1929; rec. 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Reuben James" (tune)
NOTES [242 words]: The list of flowers in this song is curious. The original sheet music refers to a "pale aronatus," which is no flower at all, in the fourth line. Many others have been suggested. The closest fit verbally is probably "amanita," which is interesting because, although not a flower (it's a fungus), it is indeed pale -- and a deadly poison (Stevens & Klarner, p. 82). Another flower mentioned, the oleander, is also deadly (Stevens & Klarner, p. 48). It's almost as if people who heard the song and could not understand it were plugging in poisonous blossoms.
There seems to be agreement that Maud Irving wrote the words to this (so blame her for the aronatus), but no agreement on the author of the music. The first sources I saw said Joseph Philbrick Webster, a fairly well-known composer who wrote "Sweet By and By" and "Lorena," so he is a fair bet for such a popular tune. But Zwonitzer/Hirschberg, p. 43, apparently citing Charles K. Wolfe, credits J. P. Welch, who has not written anything else of significance. My guess is that there was an edition somewhere with the words credited to J. P. W., and this was variously interpreted. The date of the original would probably settle things, since Webster died in 1875.
All that said, I'm fairly sure the attribution to Webster is correct, since his catalog of songs includes a text by Irving titled "I'll Twine 'Mid the Ringlets." That, presumably, is this song; the site pdmusic.org dates it 1860. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: JRSF248

Wilfrid White and John Murphy

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you loyal shanty boys" to hear of the death of two lumbermen. Oct. 6, 1901, Wilfrid and John set out for Carl Wright's camp. They disappear before they can cross the ferry. Their drowned bodies are eventually found; why they swam is unknown
AUTHOR: Joe Scott?
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker)
KEYWORDS: death drowning river lumbering
FOUND IN: Canada (Ont) US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker, pp. 307-318, "Wilfrid Wright and John Murphy" (1 conflate text plus mention of 3 versions)
Roud #25167
NOTES [46 words]: Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker admits that there is no direct evidence that Joe Scott wrote this poem (song? There is no surviving tune); he even says that he wishes Scott hadn't written it (p. 309), but all informants attribute it to Scott and it fits his type of song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: IScot307

Wilkes Lovell [Laws E9]

DESCRIPTION: Two convicts escape from prison. Sheriff Wilkes Lovell, informed of this by his wife, pursues and recaptures them. The singer, who is one of the escapees, warns his listeners not to imitate him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
KEYWORDS: prison escape police wife
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws E9, "Wilkes Lovell"
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 217-219, "Wilkes Lovell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 36, "Wilkes Lovell" (1 text)
DT 759, WILKLOVL
Roud #2247
File: LE09

Wilkins and Dinah

See Vilikens and His Dinah [LawsM31A/B] (File: LM31)

Wilkins and His Dinah

See Vilikens and His Dinah [LawsM31A/B] (File: LM31)

Will Fox

DESCRIPTION: Engineer Will Fox has his fireman shovel on a little more coal to set "this Moore girl" and bring him a little more gin. He says they will stop in a bar at the end of the line
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (USWMcTell01)
KEYWORDS: railroading drink parody
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #17670
RECORDINGS:
Blind Willie McTell, "Will Fox" (on USWMcTell01)
NOTES [72 words]: A non-disaster song parodying all the railroad wreck songs in which the fatal move is made when the engineer tells his fireman to "shovel a little more coal."
Allan Balfour's liner notes to USWMcTell01: "Moore" girl probably referred to "the locomotive which ran on the Moore Central Railroad in North Carolina. Fellow Georgians Andrew and Jim Baxter recorded 'The Moore Girl' for Victor in 1927 referring to the same train." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: RcWilFox

Will I Die?

See The Johnsons Had a Baby (File: OpGa147)

Will My Mother Know Me There?

DESCRIPTION: "When I reach my home eternal, Reach that city bright and fair, When I stand among the angels, Will my mother know me there?" The singer is old and worn and fears not being recognized. Finally he concludes that she will know him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad mother
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, p. 17, "Will My Mother Know Me There?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11702
ALTERNATE TITLES:
When I Reach My Home Eternal
File: Sulz017A

Will O'Riley

See Riley's Farewell (Riley to America; John Riley) [Laws M8] (File: LM08)

Will Ray

DESCRIPTION: "Oh Papa, dear Papa, please tell to me Just what you think of Will Ray." The father tells the girl to marry banker John Burns instead of poor Will. The daughter points out that Burns has just gone bankrupt and Ray become rich; the father relents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi, Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage money father lover children
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 135, pp. 281-282, "Will Ray" (1 text)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 176-178, "Will Ray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4317
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Billy Grimes the Rover" (plot)
cf. "Peggy in the Morning" (plot)
NOTES [29 words]: This looks to me very much like an elaboration of "Billy Grimes the Rover." But the plot about John Burns is not normal to that piece, so I have tentatively separated them. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Hud135

Will Stewart and John [Child 107]

DESCRIPTION: Will loves the Earl of Mar's daughter. His brother John successfully woos her for him. She sets requirements which he meets, but her father is against the match despite learning they are of high degree. They elope, gaining acceptance after a child is born
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy Folio)
KEYWORDS: love courting nobility father elopement childbirth
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 107, "Will Stewart and John" (2 texts)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume III, pp. 215-229, "Will Stewart & John" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 428
Roud #3973
File: C107

Will the Angels Play Their Harps for Me?

DESCRIPTION: "I was passing by the churchyard in the city and I saw a beggar old and grey." "A million miles I've traveled, And a million sights I've seen, And I'm waiting for the glory soon to be, But I wonder... Will the angels play their harps for me?"
AUTHOR: Walter Hirsch and Monte White (source: classic-country-song-lyrics.com and other low-quality web sites -- but they seem to agree)
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: music begging | angels
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 68, "(A million miles I've travelled)" (1 text)
Roud #23018
RECORDINGS:
Bradley Kincaid, "Will the Angels Play Their Harps for Me?" (Supertone 9452)
File: PKKB068C

Will the Circle Be Unbroken

DESCRIPTION: The singer witnesses his/her mother being carried off for burial. Her example is praised. The singer wonders if they will meet again: "Will the circle be unbroken, By and by, Lord, by and by? There's a better home a-waiting In the sky, Lord, in the sky."
AUTHOR: Ada R. Habershon and Charles Gabriel (source: McNeil, editor, _Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music_,)
EARLIEST DATE: Original text and tune copyright 1908; later tune: 1927 (recording, Metropolitan Quartet)
KEYWORDS: religious death funeral burial mother
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 635, "Can the Circle Be Unbroken?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 440-442, "Can the Circle Be Unbroken?" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 635)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #47, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 371, "Can the Circle Be Unbroken?" (1 text)
DT, CRCUNBRK*
Roud #3409
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" (Okeh 05587/Vocalion 05587, 1940; Conqueror 9671, 1941; Perfect 16-101, n.d.; rec. 1940)
Alphabetical Four, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken?" (Decca 7601, 1939; rec. 1938)
Clarence Ashley, Clint Howard et al, Jean Ritchie, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" (on WatsonAshley01)
Bud & James Billings [pseuds. for Frank Luther and, perhaps, Carson Robison], "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" (Bluebird B-6406, 1936; rec. 1928)
Brown's Ferry Four, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" (King 530, 1946)
Johnny Brown, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" (on USFlorida01)
Rev. J. C. Burnett, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" (Columbia 14385-D, 1928)
The Carter Family, "Can the Circle Be Unbroken" (Conqueror 8529, 1935) (Columbia 20268, prob. c. 1946)
Jimmy Collier & the Movement Singers, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" (on VoicesCiv)
Hallelujah Trio, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken?" (London 16020, 1950)
Doc Hopkins, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" (Radio 1411, n.d.)
Mississippi John Hurt, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" (on MJHurt05)
Frank & James McCravy, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" (Brunswick 194, 1928; Jewel 5907/Oriole 1907/Perfect 12601/Challenge 876, 1930; Conqueror 7794, 1931; rec. 1927) (OKeh 45433, 1930)
William McEwan, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" (Columbia A1364, 1913; rec. c. 1912)
Metropolitan Quartet, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken?" (Edison 52111, 1927)
Monroe Brothers, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" (Montgomery Ward M-7142, 1937)
Morris Brothers, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken Bye And Bye?" (Bluebird B-8103, 1939)
Silver Leaf Quartette of Norfolk, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" (OKeh 8777/ARC 6-12-63/Vocalion 04395, 1930)
Frank Stamps & his All-Star Quartet, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" (Montgomery Ward M-8194, 1939)
Frank Welling & John McGhee, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" (Champion 16035, 1930; Champion 45123 [as Welling Family Trio], c. 1935)
Westbrook Conservatory Entertainers, "Will That Circle Be Unbroken" (Broadway 8194, late 1920s)
J. B. Whitmire's Blue Sky Trio, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken There" (Bluebird B-8512, 1940)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Since I Laid My Burden Down" (tune)
NOTES [360 words]: According to Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, the original version of this had words by Ada R. Habershon and music by Charles Gabriel and was published in 1907/8. That version, however, had a completely different tune from the familiar Carter Family version; the song has probably been subjected to recensional handling -- possibly by A. P. Carter.
W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 68, says that "In 1936 the [Carter Family] signed a new contract with the American Recording Company, and in the first session for them did their final great gospel standard, 'Can the Circle Be Unbroken.' It represents the greatest accomplishment of A. P. [Carter]'s rewriting of older songs. The original was titled 'Will the Circle Be Unbroken' and was a popular 1907 piece by Ada R. Habershorn and Charles Gabriel; little is known about lyricist Habershon, but Gabriel, a Chicago resident associated with Homer Rodeheaver, was in the habit of buying song poems for as little as one dollar apiece, and this might well have been one. The original song appeared in numerous songbooks and was recorded by artists such as Frank Luther, the McCravy Brothers, and others. A. P. stripped away the Victorian verses, retaining the melody and chorus, and added new verses that were more modern and dramatic. It became one of the Carters' best-known songs and one that emerged as a country standard throughout the rest of the century."
Those wishing to see the original words may find them, e.g., in Robert J. Morgan, Then Sings My Soul, Book 2: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories, Nelson, 2004, pp. 258-259, The chorus lyrics differ only very slightly from the Carter version, but the verse lyrics are entirely different. The McCarvey Brothers version, which was also very popular, is much closer to the original (McNeil, p. 251).
Barry Mazor, Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Roots Music, Chicago Review Press, 2015, p. 179, notes an interesting irony: The first (unreleased) Carter Family recording of this song was recorded at the very first Carter Family session after Sara Carter moved out on A. P. Carter. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: R635

Will the Lord Remember Me

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Will the Lord remember me When I am called to go? ... From bonds he set me free When I reach the pearly gates He will remember me?" Verses: Thief on the cross asks Jesus to remember him. His blood set captives free and "I am included"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (recording, Golden Gate Quartet)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Mary & Amanda Gordon, "Cross of Calvary" (on USMississippi01)
The Staple Singers, "Will the Lord Remember Me" (1964, on "This Little Light," Riverside RS-93527))
NOTES [29 words]: Several gospels mention Jesus being crucified with others, but the penitent thief is specific to Luke: "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom" (Luke 23:42). - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: RcWhLReM

Will the Weaver [Laws Q9]

DESCRIPTION: The newly married man regrets his hasty marriage. He is told that his wife is seeing Will the Weaver. He surprises them at his home. Will hides up the chimney. The husband smokes him out, beats him, and sends him away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1793 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: marriage infidelity humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (29 citations):
Laws Q9, "Will the Weaver"
Greig "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 20, "Will the Weaver" (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan7 1461, "Will the Weaver" (11 texts, 7 tunes)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 106-108, "Will the Weaver" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 27)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 64-65, "Willy Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 47, "Bill the Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 199, "Father, Father, I Am Married" (1 fragment, so short that it could be a form of "Devilish Mary" but seeming by its form to belong here )
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 199, "Father, Father, I Am Married" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 53, "Will the Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 237-238, "Will the Weaver" ("Will de Weaver") (1 text; tune on p. 418)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 98, "Will the Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 140, "Will, the Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 135-137, "Will the Weaver" (1 text) (pp. 115-116 in the 1919 edition)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 152-153, "Will the Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 146-147, "Will the Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 154, "Will the Weaver" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 69-70, "Bill Weever" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, p. 22, "Johnny and Old Mr. Henly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #124, "Will the Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 133, "Bill the Weaver" (1 text)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 152-154, "Everyday Dirt" (1 text, 1 tune, rewritten by Dave McCarn)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 184-185, "Will the Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H682, p. 505, "Will the Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Dan Patterson, "23-244-5, "Willy Weaver" (1 text, 1 tune))
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 146-147, "Will the Weaver" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 170, "Everyday Dirt" (1 text)
DT 345, WILLWVR1* WILLWVR2* WILLWVR3 WILLWVR4
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 130, "Will the Weaver" (reproduction of a broadsheet designed to be folded into a booklet with four songs; this is the only song with its title and initial stanzas on the visible side)
Archie Green, "'Will the Weaver's Hillbilly Kinfolk,'" article published 1959 in _Caravan_; republished on pp. 111-120 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009
Roud #432
RECORDINGS:
Bill Carlisle, "Jumpin' and Jerkin' Blues" (Vocalion 02984, 1935; Conqueror 8789, 1937; Romeo 70264, prob. 1937, and issues on Banner, Melotone, Oriole and Perfect)
Dave McCarn, "Everyday Dirt" (Victor V-40274, 1930)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Everyday Dirt" (on NLCR02)
Charlie Parker & Mack Woolbright, "Will the Weaver" (Columbia 15694-D, 1931; rec. 1927; on ConstSor1)
Mike Seeger, "Will the Weaver" (on MSeeger01)
Doc Watson, "Every Day Dirt" (on Watson01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(2078), "Will the Weaver" [almost entirely illegible], J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Harding B 28(151), "Will, the Weaver," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; Harding B 11(4247), "Will, the Weaver"; Firth c.18(255), Firth c.18(254), "Will the Weaver"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boatsman and the Chest" [Laws Q8] (plot) and references there
NOTES [43 words]: This and similar songs are sometimes traced back to a story in Boccaccio (seventh day, second story: Gianella, Peronella, and her husband). But the story is really one of the basic themes of folktale, and doubtless predates Boccaccio as well as these songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LQ09

Will Watch, The Bold Smuggler

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas one morn when the wind from the nothward blew keenly... a famed smuggler, Will Watch, kis'd his Sue then serenely." He promises he will give up smuggling if this trip succeeds. But he is killed as he approaches home
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Cory / Music: John Davy (source: Frank)
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1806 (according to Frank)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation death return burial
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 18, "Will Watch, the Bold Smuggler" (1 text, 1 tune; #18 in the first edition)
Roud #1617
File: Fran018

Will Ye Gang, Love

See The Rashy Muir (File: GrD61215)

Will Ye Go to Sheriffmuir?

DESCRIPTION: "Will ye go to Sheriffmuir, Bauld John o' Innisture, There to see the noble Mar, And his Highland laddies." The singer catalogs the contingents of the Highland army and predicts victory
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1819 (Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1)
KEYWORDS: battle political Jacobites
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 13, 1715 - Battle of Sheriffmuir
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 89, "Will Ye Go to Sheriffmuir" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V44081
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Sheriffmuir" (subject of Sheriffmuir)
cf. "Up and Waur Them A', Willie (II)" (subject of Sheriffmuir)
NOTES [891 words]: The "Glorious Revolution" of 1689 left Britain with a real problem: Finding a successor to the last of the Stuarts. William III and Mary II left no children (Mary died young, and William seems to have been primarily homosexual). Mary's younger sister Anne was constantly pregnant, but only one child survived infancy, and even he died before reaching adulthood. If a Catholic could be accepted, there was Anne's younger half brother James ("VIII and III") -- but he had been branded illegitimate. And the next Protestant heir was the family of Sophia of Hanover, whose lineage went all the way back to Mary's and Anne's great-grandfather James I, and had two links in female line (Elizabeth "the Winter Queen," daughter of James I, and Sopia herself).
It caused much discontent. But "in England the descendants of the old Cavaliers had become, for the most part, law-abiding and home-staying Tories, who occasionally drank the health of 'the King over the water' with a sigh and a shrug" (Trevelyan, p.42). In other words, they might think about supporting a Stuart, but they would never actually *do* it!
That might have happened in Scotland, too -- except for the 1707 Act of Union which turned the Union of the Crowns into a single nation, with one parliament as well as one monarch. (This came about in part because the Scots were threatening to choose a monarch other than the Hanoverian leader the English Whigs were supporting; Fry/Fry, p. 186)
This, like so much else about English/Scottish relations, had been pursued with a mixture of force and corruption; the Scots were threatened with seizure of land and property in England, and their parliamentary leaders bribed (Fry/Fry, pp. 187-189). The Union passed -- and Scots sang "Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation" to signify their feelings about the matter.
What's more, the Union proved a failure from the Scottish standpoint, in that the economic benefits, highly touted at the time, were nearly non-existent. Scotland remained poor.
So when Anne died, there was a real movement to bring back the Stuarts. One of the (eventual) backers of this movement was the Earl of Mar.
That John Erskine, Earl of Mar (1675-1732) could mess up even something this elementary is easy to imagine for the man who was known as "Bobbing John" because of his inability to stick with one side (Keay/Keay, p. 865). He had signed the Act of Union joining England and Scotland, then tried to have it repealed (Fry/Fry, p. 191). The accession of George I caused him to send what Magnusson, p. 562, calls a "grovelling letter of loyalty," but George snubbed him (Mitchison, p. 322) and Mar decided to rebel and join the Jacobites. He had to leave London in disguise aboard a collier, He raised the Jacobite standard -- but he hadn't told his alleged King James VIII and III! (Magnusson, p. 563). Naturally it took the Old Pretender some time to arrive.
And Mar was "vacillating and incompetent. The rebellion moved slowly, and Perth did not fall to Mar's troops until September 14" (Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 50).
Mar meanwhile managed to raise a mixed force of Highlanders and Lowlanders, against "The government forces, based at Stirling and... commanded by the Duke of Argyll, the chief of the hated Campbells. He was not optimistic. He wrote to Townsend, the Secretary of State for Scotland: 'I must end with insisting on considerable reinforcements, for without it, or a miracle, not only this country will be utterly destroyed byt the rest of his Majesty's dominions put in the extremest danger" (Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 51).
But Argyll stuck to his task. Although most of Scotland fell into Jacobite hands, the government still held the Campbell country, the Sunderland estates in the north, and the region around Glasgow and south of Edinburgh). Mar, despite his growing army, seemed unable to move, even as his men were becoming rebellious for lack of pay (Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 51).
Finally, on a cold day in the fall, Mar put his army into action, but at Sheriffmuir (near Dunblane in Perthshire), on November 13, 1715, he could not beat an army he outnumbered at least two to one (Magnusson, pp. 564-565; Keay/Keay, p. 865, for instance, credit him with 10,000 men to Argyll's 4,000, but others would give Mar 8,000 men to Argyll's 3500 or so). The battle took a form that went back to the days of Alexander the Great: both sides attacked with their right and routed their opponents' left. Despite the fact that neither side was defeated, neither wanted to continue the fight (Keay/Keay, p. 865). Both sides drew back, although Argyll eventually came back to strip the field of battle (Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 53).
Mar could perhaps argue that he had won, or at least not lost, but he could not hold together his army after that (Magnusson, p. 566). The only other significant Jacobite field force had surrendered at Preston at almost the same time (Fry/Fry, p. 192. This was the force led by Lord Derwentwater, hero of the ballad of the same name). Combine the incompetent Mar with the unenthusiastic Old Pretender, who still hadn't arrived in Scotland, and you had a disaster. The Jacobites were not entirely defeated -- but they had lost.
Hogg in his notes admits to having no idea who Bauld John o' Innisture is. I suspect it's just a name made up to fit the need to rhyme with "Sheriffmuir." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.1
File: Hogg1089

Will Ye Go To the Indies, My Mary?

DESCRIPTION: The singer must leave Scotland for India/the Indies. He asks Mary to go with him. She won't or can't go. "We hae plighted our troth ... In mutual affection to join"
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1792 (Kinsley)
KEYWORDS: love separation India nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #76, p. 1, ("Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #387, pp. 524-525, "Song ('Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1792)
Roud #V16277
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Will Ye Go to the Ewe-bughts, Marion?" (tune, per Burns)
NOTES [315 words]: At least some authorities seem to believe that the singer in this song is going to India, not the Indies. I'm fairly confident that it refers to the (West) Indies, though. It might even be autobiographical. Robert Burns was, of course, forever getting in trouble with women. According to Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, p. 65, the Mary of this song is likely Burns's beloved "Highland" Mary Campbell: "Burns may have asked Mary to go with him to Jamaica; that she consented, but died at Greenock before the plan could be put into action. We also learn, however, that on May Sunday Burns and Mary Campbell exchanged Bibles, and possibly some sort of matrimonial vows."
As for why Burns was going to Jamaica... well, even as he was wooing (and possibly knocking up) Mary Campbell, he had also impregnated, and seemingly promised marriage to, Jean Armour (Lindsay, pp. 50-51. This wasn't even the first time he had gotten a girl pregnant out of wedlock; the first one was Elizabeth Paton, and the child, Elizabeth Burns, or "Dear-Bought Bess," was born in 1784; Lindsay, p. 47). He conceived the idea of fleeing to Jamaica, perhaps with Mary Campbell, to get out of the mess. So this song sounds like an actual description of Burns's attempt to get out of the mess he had made of his life.
But then Mary died, and Burns ended up marrying Jean Armour. Also, according to Burns's brother Gilbert, even as he was making preparations to go to Jamaica, as this was going on, the Kilmarnock Edition of Burns's poems brought him enough income that he didn't have to flee his debts (Lindsay, p. 406). If only he had been willing to stick to one woman after that, he might have actually had an orderly life.
For a limited amount of additional background, see the notes to "Burns and His Highland Mary" [Laws O34]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Grg076b

Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go

DESCRIPTION: As the summer comes in, the singer goes courting (seducing): "Will ye go, lassie, go, And we'll all go together To pull wild mountain thyme All among the blooming heather." He offers her a bower , etc., but will find another girl if she refuses
AUTHOR: Jimmy McPeake?
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (sung by Frank McPeake, according to Hammond-SongsOfBelfast)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction sex
FOUND IN: Britain Ireland US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 57, "Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 141, "Will You Go, Lassie, Go" (1 text)
DT, WILDMTHY*
Roud #541
RECORDINGS:
The Crofut Family, "Wild Mountain Thyme" (Piotr-Archive #673, recorded 09/17/2023)
Ruby White, "Wild Mountain Thyme" (Piotr-Archive #365, recorded 11/25/2022)
NOTES [212 words]: Sometimes credited to Jimmy McPeake, and this is not improbable (particularly since the text seems fairly fixed), though I have no firm evidence either way. It's the sort of thing that wouldn't show up in the more staid collections....
Even if it isn't traditional, its popularity with revival singers probably means it should be included here.
There is a movie entitled "Wild Mountain Thyme." I have to think the title was inspired by this song, but I know nothing about it except what it says in a commercial blurb, which doesn't seem particularly relevant.
Roud lumps this with "The Braes o' Balquither." - RBW
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast: "Frank McPeake said at the time of recording [for the BBC series 'As I Roved Out']: 'There is a song that I heard an old uncle of mine singing years and years ago. It's 'Will ye go, lassie, go?'" - BS
Also sung by David Hammond, "Will Yo Go Lassie, Go?" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)) Sean O Boyle, notes to David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland": "This is one of the numerous Scots songs that have become localized in Ulster as a result of migratory labor between the North of Ireland and Scotland." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB141A

Will Ye No Come Back Again?

DESCRIPTION: "Bonnie Charlie's noo awa, Safely o'er the friendly main, Mony a hairt will brak' in twa, Should he no come back again. Will ye no come back again (x2), Better lo'ed ye cannae be...." The singer recalls Prince Charlie's escape and hopes he'll return
AUTHOR: Words: probably Carolina Oliphaunt, Lady Nairne (1766-1845)
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: Jacobite exile return
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1720-1788 - Life of Charles Edward Stuart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie"
1722-1790 - Life of Flora MacDonald
1745-1746 - '45 Jacobite rebellion led by Bonnie Prince Charlie
Apr 16, 1746 - Battle of Culloden. The Jacobite rebellion is crushed, most of the Highlanders slain, and Charlie forced to flee for his life.
Jun 28-29, 1746 - Aided by Flora MacDonald, and dressed as her maidservant, Charles flees from North Uist to Skye in the Hebrides.
Sep 20, 1746 - Charles finally escapes to France
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 144, "Will Ye No Come Back Again!" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 34, "Will Ye No Come Back Again" (1 short text, 1 tune)
DT. WILLYENO*
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth Norman MacDonald, "The Gesto Collection of Highland Music," 1895 (reprinted 1997 by Llanerch Publishers), p. 27, "Will Ye No Come Back Again" (1 tune)
Roud #24347
NOTES [44 words]: Although this is now one of Scotland's most beloved songs of farewell, its hold on tradition seems surprisingly weak. I can locate only two traditional collections, neither from Scotland and neither firm enough to put in either the "Earliest Date" or "Found In" field.
Last updated in version 6.3
File: DTwillye

Will Ye Pad the Road wi' Me?

See Paddle the Road with Me (File: Wa032)

Will You Accept of the Keys of My Chest

See The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)

Will You Be Found Among the Wheat?

DESCRIPTION: "If death should take you unawares, Would you be found among the tares, Or would your happy joyous feet Be standing there among the wheat?" "The tares will all be burned with fire." "Hasten, sinner, delay no more."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad warning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 362-363, "Will You Be Found Among the Wheat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27558
NOTES [123 words]: A reference to the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, Matthew 13:24-30: A farmer sows good seed, but "an enemy" throws in seeds of weeds (Greek ζιζανιον, zizanion, a word found in the New Testament only in this chapter of Matthew. It is sometimes understood a "darnel," but translated "tares" in the King James Version) as well. The farmer's servants ask whether to pull out the weeds, but the farmer says to wait (I read somewhere that tares were a particular sort of weed that closely resembled young wheat, so it would be hard to pull just the tares, but I suspect this was just another of those interpretations by a preacher trying to make a point). At harvest-time, the wheat goes into the farmer's barn but the weeds are burned. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: HGam362

Will You Be True, My Darling

DESCRIPTION: "I am going to fight for fortune in a land beyond the sea." His sweetheart vows to be true until he returns. Five years later, waiting on the shore, she sees his body washed up on the shore. "With a sob she fell on his lifeless form"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: grief courting love parting separation corpse death lover youth
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30146
RECORDINGS:
Cyril O'Brien, "Will You Be True, My Darling" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: ML3WYBTD

Will you buy my sweet lavender?

See Sweet Blooming Lavender (File: K356)

Will You Come to Abyssinia?

DESCRIPTION: "Will you come to Abyssinia, will you come? Bring your own ammunition and a gun; Mussolini will be there, firing bullets in the air, Will you come to Abyssinia, will you come?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: war soldier | gun Mussolini Abyssinia
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 2, 1935 - Beginning of the Italian invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 57, "(Will you come to Abyssinia, will you come?)" (1 text)
Roud #5321
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll Along, Covered Wagon, Roll Along" (tune) and references there
NOTES [115 words]: Peirce lumps this with "Will You Come to Our Wee Party?," with which it shares a tune, but it seems clear to me that there is a rewrite in there somewhere, so I have split them.
By 1936, Italy controlled Eritrea and Italian Somaliland in East Africa, and Mussolini decided to invade Abyssinia (Ethiopia) to control a larger area. They conquered the area and forced out the the emperor Haile Selassie, who fled to Britain. Once Italy and Britain went to war, the British were able to blockade Italy's East African territories, and then invade; the Italians were forced out (mostly captured) by 1941. So this item must date from between 1936 and 1941, with 1940 being the most likely date. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: PKKB057B

Will You Come to Our Wee Party?

DESCRIPTION: "Will you come to our wee party, will you come? Bring your own bread and butter and a bun; You can bring sugar and tea, You can come along with me, Will you come to our wee party, will you come?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: food party
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 57, "(Will you come to our wee party, will you come?)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll Along, Covered Wagon, Roll Along" (tune) and references there
NOTES [29 words]: Peirce lumps this with "Will You Come to Abyssinia," with which it shares a tune, but it seems clear to me that there is a rewrite in there somewhere, so I have split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: PKKB057A

Will You Give Us Bread and Wine

See Have You Any Bread and Wine (English Soldiers, Roman Soldiers) (File: Lins040)

Will You Go Out West?

DESCRIPTION: The singer is looking for a girl to "go out west with me." He promises happy home -- a log cabin with a dirt floor and a blanket for the door. The girl will help with the farming while the husband goes hunting
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania)
KEYWORDS: courting exploration home
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 88, "Will You Go Out West?" (1 text+2 fragments, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 59, "Go Up West" (1 text)
ST FSC088 (Partial)
Roud #4604
File: FSC088

Will You Love Me In December As You Do In May?

DESCRIPTION: "Now, in the summer of life, sweetheart You say you love but me," but the singer had a dream of when they are old and gray. So he asks, "Will You Love Me In December As You Do In May?" When they are old, will they still be in love
AUTHOR: Words: James J. Walker / Music: Ernest Ball
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (written, according to Spaeth)
KEYWORDS: love age questions nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Geller-FamousSongsAndTheirStories, pp. 222-224, "Will You Love Me In December As You Do In May?" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Burke, _Burke's Christmas Songster 1918_, Herald Print, 1918 (PDF available on the Memorial University of Newfoundland site), p. 23, "Will You Love Me In December As You Do In May??" (1 text)
Roud #24853
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Will You Love Me When I'm Old?" (theme)
NOTES [98 words]: According to Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, p. 350, James J. Walker, who wrote the words to this song, was a future mayor of New York City. Spaeth adds that E. B. Marks had produced a similar song in 1893, "December and May."
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 271, estimates that this was the eighth most popular song in America in 1906, peaking at #1 in April 1906 (#1 for the year being Dave REed and Ernest Ball's "Love Me and the World Is Mine"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: JBC18023

Will You Love Me When I Am Bald?

DESCRIPTION: "Will you love me when I am bald? When my hair is smooth and bare? For I must tell you now, sweet love, That I am surely getting there." The singer talks about how lack of hair will affect his behavior, but concludes that his love will still care for him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Henry, collected from Ray Bohanan)
KEYWORDS: hair questions
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 30-31, "Will You Love Me When I Am Bald?" (1 text)
File: MHAp030

Will You Love Me When I Am Old?

See Will You Love Me When I'm Old? (File: R824)

Will You Love Me When I'm Old?

DESCRIPTION: The singer repeatedly asks his true love if she will love him when he is old, tired, gray, etc.: "Life's morn will soon be waning And its evening bells be told, And my heart will know no sadness If you'll love me when I'm old."
AUTHOR: Words: P. Gilsey Cook / Music: Ralph Roland (but see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (sheet music, LOCSheet, sm1877 03501)
KEYWORDS: age love
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 241-242, "Will You Love Me When I Am Old?" (1 text)
Randolph 824, "Will You Love Me When I'm Old?" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 273, "Will You Love Me When I'm Old?" (1 text plus mention of 5 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 273, "Will You Love Me When I'm Old?" (4 tunes plus text excerpts)
DT, ARUTRDME
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 38, #4 (1994), p, 49, "Are You Tired of Me, My Darling?" (1 text, 1 tune, the Carter Family version)
Roud #4334
RECORDINGS:
Charles Brook & Charlie Turner, "Will You Love Me When I'm Old" (Columbia 15756-D, 1932; rec. 1931)
Carter Family, "Are You Tired of Me Darling?" (Bluebird B-5956/Montgomery Ward M-4546, 1935)
Bill Cox, "Are You Tired of Me Darling?" (Champion S-16317 [as Luke Baldwin]/Superior 2751 [as Clyde Ashley], 1931; Melotone [Canada] 45092/Champion 45092, 1935; Decca 5497, 1938)
Jimmie Davis, "Are You Tired of Me Darling?" (Decca 5155, 1935)
Earl McCoy & Jessie Brock, "Are You Tired of Me Darling?" (Columbia 15499-D, 1930; rec. 1929)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Are You Tired of Me Darling" (Brunswick 432, 1930; rec. 1927)
Blind Jack Mathis, "Are You Tired of Me Darling?" (Bluebird B-4956, c. 1933)
Aulton Ray, "Will You Love Me When I'm Old" (Gennett 6129, 1927)
L. K. Reeder, "Will You Love Me When I'm Old" (OKeh 45026, c. 1926; rec. 1925)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1877 03501, "Are you tired of me, darling?" Louis Meyer (Philadelphia), 1877 (tune); also sm1878 05722, "Are you tired of me, darling?" White, Smith & Co (Boston), 1878
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Will You Love Me In December As You Do In May?" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Are You Tired of Me, My Darling?
NOTES [102 words]: The White Smith & Co sheet music lists the tune as by Fred Kenyon Jones; the Meyer music offers Ralph Roland. The tunes are different, and neither is the one I know (from Ed Trickett, I think), though the Roland tune looks closer.
Jon W. Finson, The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 51, lists a song "Will You Love Me When I'm Old" as by J. Ford and says it was published in 1872. A song entitled "Will You Love Me, Sweetheart, When I'm Old?" was published by A. J. Lamb and H. W. Petrie in 1895; I do not know if they are the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: R824

Will You Wear Red?

See Jenny Jenkins (File: R453)

Will You Wear the Red?

See Jenny Jenkins (File: R453)

Will You Wed with a Tarry Sailor? [Laws K37]

DESCRIPTION: The singer comes back from sea to meet his love Nancy. He asks her if she will marry him. She refuses him. He brings out his money; she changes her mind. With the shoe on the other foot, he refuses her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.13(198))
KEYWORDS: love courting money
FOUND IN: US(SE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws K37, "Will You Wed with a Tarry Sailor?"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 109, "Poor Jack" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 109, "Poor Jack" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 65, "Jolly Jack" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 56, "Jack the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #49, "The Tarry Sailor" (1 text)
DT 723, POORJACK
Roud #530
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.13(198), "Tarry Sailor," J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 11(3735), Harding B 25(1884), Harding B 17(307a), Harding B 11(778), "Tarry Sailor"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Saucy Sailor (Jack and Jolly Tar II)" [Laws K38] (plot)
File: LK37

William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial) [Laws M10]

DESCRIPTION: Riley and his sweetheart flee from her father, but are overtaken. Riley is jailed; the father asks that he be executed or transported. Colleen pleads for and wins his freedom instead. (Riley leaves the country, wearing the girl's ring for remembrance)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1810 (broadside cited by The Colonial Music Institute)
KEYWORDS: courting prison reprieve emigration elopement
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) Ireland West Indies(Jamaica) Australia
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Laws M10, "William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial)"
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #143, p. 1, "Willie Reilly" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1097, "Willie Reilly" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 289-290, "William Riley" (1 text)
Randolph 115, "Willie Riley" (1 short text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 128, "William Riley" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 128, "William RIley" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 50, "William Reilly" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 166-168, "Willy Reilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 91, "Willy Reilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 137, "Willie Riley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 74, "Courtship of Willie Riley" (1 very long text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 741-743, "Willie Riley" (2 texts)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 53, "Fair Julian Bond" (1 text, 1 tune. The opening of this ballad clearly resembles Laws M9, but the conclusion is closer to M10. The fragmentary state of the text may indicate a conflate version)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, pp. 105-109, "William Riley" (1 text, very long, which appears to combine "William Riley's Courtship" [Laws M9] and William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial)" [Laws M10])
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 8, "Willie Reilly and his Cailin Ban" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 40-42, "Willie Reilly and His Dear Colleen Ban" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 99-102, "The Trial of Willy Reilly" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 86, "Willy Reilly" (1 text)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 31-32, "Willie Riley" (1 text, tune referenced)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H234, pp. 436-437, "Willy Reilly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 101, "William Reilly" (1 text)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 224-225, "Reily's Jailed" (1 text, 1 tune, s very short version placed here on the basis of its first stanza)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1989, p. 134, "Reily's Releasement and Marriage with Cooleen Bawn" (2 references, presumably to this song although perhaps rewritten); #1990, P. 134, "Reily's Trial" (1 reference)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 181-190, "William Reily's Courtship"+"Reily's Trial"+"Reily's Answer, Releasement and Marriage with Coolen Bawn" (sic). (1 continuous text, divided into sections for the three song)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 123-124, "Willy Reilly" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, pp. 482-483, "William Reily's Courtship," "Reily's Trial," "Reily's Answer, Releasement, and Marriage with Coolen Bawn" (sic.) (source notes only)
DT 577, RILTRIAL
ADDITIONAL: Mary O Eddy, "William Reily's Courtship: A Nineteenth Century Broadside" in Midwest Folklore, Vol. II, No. 2 (Summer 1952 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 113-118, "William Reily's Courtship, Trial, Answer, Releasement, and Marriage With His Fair Coolen Bawn" (1 text)
Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 244-247, "Willy Reilly"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 302-304, "Willy Reilly" (1 text)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 382-384, 516, "Willy Reilly"
Martha W Beckwith, "The English Ballad in Jamaica: a Note Upon the Origin of the Ballad Form" in _Publications of the Modern Language Association_ [PMLA], Vol. XXXIXI, No. 2 (Jun 1924 (available online by JSTOR)), #6 pp. 476-477, "Sweet Riley" (1 text)
ST LM10 (Full)
Roud #538
RECORDINGS:
Pat Critch, "Galway Town" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Tom Lenihan, "Willie Reilly and his Cailin Ban" (on IRTLenihan01)
Raymond Noseworthy, "Willie Riley" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Will Sutton, "Willie Riley" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(51), "Riley and Colinband," T. Batchelar (London), 1817-1828; also Firth b.27(138), Harding B 16(228b), Harding B 25(1626)[many words illegible], "Riley and Colinband"; 2806 b.11(52), Johnson Ballads 2976, "William Riley and Colinband"; Harding B 11(1852), "Riley and Colinban"; Harding B 28(190)[some words illegible or lost], "Riley and Collinband"
LOCSinging, sb40465a, "Reily's Courtship", H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864) [This is part 1];, sb40464b, "Reily's Releasement and Marriage with Cooleen Bawn", H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864 [This is part 2]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lady Elspat" [Child 247] (plot)
cf. "William Riley's Courtship" [Laws M9]
cf. "Mary Acklin (The Squire's Young Daughter)" [Laws M16] (plot)
cf. "Mary Neal" [Laws M17] (tune)
cf. "Nancy's Complaint in Bedlam" (theme of a maid in Bedlam)
cf. "Locks and Bolts" [Laws M13] (theme: girl locked away by father) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jamie Reilley
The Colleen Bawn
NOTES [467 words]: Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia states that this song is based on an incident which took place in Donegal around 1745. Reilly, a Catholic, eloped with the protestant daughter of Squire Folliard -- an illegal match at the time. See Laws, who quotes the relevant details from Joyce.
Laws, following Cox, considers the three William Riley ballads (William Riley's Courtship [Laws M9], this one, and "Reilly's Answer, Releasement, and Marriage with Coleen Bawn" -- the last not found in tradition, but found in a broadside by 1810; it's Roud #V41939) to be a set of songs about the same character. The songs overlap, however, and may be the result of separate composition, with either M9 or M10 inspiring the other two. - RBW
All of the Bodleian broadsides corrupt what O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, at least, has as "Colleen Bawn." O'Conor does not explain his sources.
Charles Gavan Duffy, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland, 1845, pp. 244-247, has this as "Willy Reilly" and translates "Coolen Bawn" as "fair young girl." - BS
Laws considers Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 74 to be both M9 and M10. This 78 verse version is divided by Creighton into "Riley's Courtship" (26 verses: meets Laws' description of M9), "Trial" (20 verses: meets Laws' description of M10), "Marriage" (32 verses: meets Laws' description "which has not, so far as I know," says Laws, "been recorded from tradition, Riley is sentenced to be transported and is freed through his own petition to the Lord Lieutenant in time to rescue the girl from Bedlam and marry her." What am I missing? As I've noted, Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 74, is one of Laws' sources for M9 and M10: why didn't he consider it for the "not ... recorded" Mx?).
Sparling, 1888: "The story on which this ballad is founded happened some eighty years ago; and as the lover was a Catholic farmer, and the lady's family of high Orange principles, it got a part character, which, no doubt, contributed to its great popularity." "Carleton has made it the foundation of a novel of the same name."
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan: "William Carlton's novel on Willie Reilly and his Cailin Ban first appeared in 1855 and was a best seller for years." [Though the Barnhart/Halsey New Century Handbook of English Literature (revised edition, Appleton.Century/Crofts, 1967) does not list it among the major works of Carleton (1794-1869). Neither is it mentioned in Patrick C. Power's A Literary History of Ireland, which (p. 149) instead regards his most important work as the 1830-1833 collection Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry. - RBW]
H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LM10

William a Trimbletoe

DESCRIPTION: "William a Trimbletoe, He's a good waterman, Catches his (hens) and puts them in pens. Some lay eggs, and some lay none.... (Some/one) fly east, some fly west, Some fly over the cuckoo's nest. Trip and be gone... O-U-T spells OUT."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty bird chickens travel food | counting-out eggs
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, p. 203, "William a Trombletoe" (1 text, #30 in the section on singing games)
Skean-CircleLeft-FolkPlayOfKentuckyMountains, p. 18, "William-E-Tremitoe" (1 text)
Killion/Waller-ATreasuryOfGeorgiaFolklore, p. 218, "William-a" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 237, (no title) (1 short text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 72, "William Tremble Toe"; p. 73, "A Good Man"; p. 74, "Some Lay Eggs," "Jack's House," "Some Go East, Some Go West" (5 texts)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, (no number; it's at the very end of the article), "(William A Tremle Toe)" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 39, "(Peter Matrimity was a fine water-man)" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Rachel Cranford, collector), "Games and Game Rhymes", Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 14, "(William Trimatoe)" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Roy M. Brown, "William A-Trim'letoe", Vol. 3, No. 1 (Jul 1955), pp. 19-20, "(William A-Trim'letoe)" (1 text plus game instructions)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, John Foster West, "Folklore of a Mountain Childhood," Vol. XVI, No. 3 (Nov 1968), p. 168, "(William a Trimmietoe" (1 text); article reprinted (with text reset) in Vol. LII, No. 3 (Nov 1968), p. 10
Roud #16350 and 25315
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One Two Three Four, Mary at the Cottage Door" ("O-U-T spells out" lyric) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
William Tremble-Toe
File: Skea018

William a Trimmietoe

See William a Trimbletoe (File: Skea018)

William A-Tremle Toe

See William a Trimbletoe (File: Skea018)

William A-Trim'letoe

See William a Trimbletoe (File: Skea018)

William and Dinah

See Vilikens and His Dinah [LawsM31A/B] (File: LM31)

William and Eliza (Lough Erin's Shore)

DESCRIPTION: Willie is a servant to an English lady on Lough Erin's shore. She falls in love with him. He says her peers will scorn her if they marry, and prepares to leave her service. She begs him to stay; they marry. She comforts him when they leave Lough Erin
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection); 19C (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.9(227))
KEYWORDS: love courting servant nobility money marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H597, pp. 476-477, "Lough Erne's Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9057
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(227), "William and Eliza" or "Lough Erne Shore" ("You tender young lovers, draw near"), W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867 ; also 2806 c.15(162), Harding B 19(3), "William and Eliza" or "Lough Erne Shore"
NOTES [31 words]: In reading this, I couldn't help but wonder what happened to the angry father who exiled the boy.
Chances are, if you know a song entitled "Lough Erin's Shore," then this isn't it. - RBW
File: HHH597

William and Ellen

See Earl Brand [Child 7] (File: C007)

William and Harriet [Laws M7]

DESCRIPTION: Lovers William and Harriet find their marriage plans thwarted by her father. They escape to sea, only to have their ship sink en route. They land upon a desert island, where they die of starvation and/or exposure
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(77))
KEYWORDS: courting ship wreck disaster death father
FOUND IN: US(Ap,Ro,So) Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws M7, "William and Harriet"
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 477, "William and Harriet" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 104, "The Rich Merchant" ( text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #27, "The Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 18, "Gentleman Near London" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 741, RCHMRCHT
Roud #536
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(77), "William and Harriet," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.12(285), Harding B 15(380a), Harding B 15(379b), Harding B 15(380b), Harding B 16(308c), Johnson Ballads 1557, 2806 c.16(47), 2806 c.14(26), Firth b.26(248) [some lines truncated on the right], Firth c.26(65) [some words illegible], Harding B 16(308b), Harding B 11(3767), "William and Harriet"; 2806 c.14(136), Harding B 11(4221), Harding B 11(3764), "William and Harriet"
Murray, Mu23-y3:010, "William and Herriet" (sic.), unknown, 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(90), "William and Herriet" (sic.), unknown, c. 1860-1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "William and Phillis" (theme, tune)
cf. "The Island Unknown" (plot elements)
cf. "Riley's Farewell (Riley to America; John Riley)" [Laws M8]
SAME TUNE:
William and Phillis (File: CrSNB033)
File: LM07

William and Jonathan

DESCRIPTION: "William and Jonathon came to town together; William brought learning, and Jonathon some leather." William wrote poetry, plays, etc. After twenty years "Will was very poor, but Jonathon had plenty ... prov'd that learning was'nt half so good as leather"
AUTHOR: John Till Allingham (source: _The Cabinet_ [see notes] and broadside, Bodleian Harding B 10(71))
EARLIEST DATE: 1808 (_The Cabinet_ [see notes]; broadside, Bodleian Harding B 10(71))
KEYWORDS: poverty commerce money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 299, "Jonathan and William" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 331)
ADDITIONAL: The Cabinet, or Monthly Report of Polite Literature (London, 1808 ("Digitized by Google")), (March 1808) Vol. III, pp. 213-214, ("William and Jonathan came to town together") (1 text)
The Universal Songster or Museum of Mirth (London, 1834 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, p. 62, "William and Jonathan" ("William and Jonathan came to town together") (1 text)
Roud #1337
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 10(71), "The Cobler and Poet" ("William and Jonathan come to town together")", Laurie and Whittle (London), 1808
NOTES [63 words]: The Cabinet (March 1808), discussing Covent-Garden openings: "[Jan] 25. Who Wins. A farce by Mr Allingham, with some charming music by Condell. We have just room for the plot, and a specimen of the songs [specifically, the complete text of "William and Jonathan"] According to broadside Bodleian Harding B 10(71), the title of the play is "Who Wins, or the Widow's Choice." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: WT299

William and Margaret (I)

DESCRIPTION: Margaret's ghost visits William at midnight. "How could you promise love to me And not that promise keep?" She leaves at daybreak: "Come see, false man, how low she lies, Who died for love of you" He falls on her grave "and word spoke never more"
AUTHOR: unknown (see notes for discussion of David Mallet's claim)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1715 (probably 1711, according to Chappell; but see Simpson's comment below); 1724 (Hill's modification); 1724 (Ramsay's publication of Mallet's early text)
KEYWORDS: love seduction virginity accusation questions beauty death ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 337, "William and Margaret" (1 text, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #65, B=#66}
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 78-79, "William and Margaret" (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Charles Neely, "Four British Ballads in Southern Illinois," Vol. LII, No. 203 (Jan-Mar 1939), #4 pp. 80-81, "William and Margaret" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: W. Chappell, The Roxburghe Ballads, (Hertford, 1880 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III Part 3 [Part 9], pp. 667-676, "William and Margaret. An old Ballad" (1 text: "1711 broadside" text, pp. 671-673, 1 tune)
David Mallet, Frederick Dinsdale, editor, Ballads and Songs (London, 1857 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 79-83, "William and Margaret" (1 text: Mallet's final text, pp. 79-83).
Thomas Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (London, 1765 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III, Ancient Songs and Ballads, Series 3 Book 3 # 15, pp. 310-313, "Margaret's Ghost" (1 text)
Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scots Sangs (in three vols) (London, 1733 (ninth edition) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol I pp. 218-220, "William and Margaret, an Old Ballad" (1 text: Mallet's early text; apparently the same as in 1725 first edition)
The Hive: A Collection of the Most Celebrated Songs (London, 1725 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III pp. 148-150, "William and Margaret" (1 text)
Roud #253
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 5(58), "A lamentable ballad, or the tragical end of William and Margaret" ("When all was wrap'd in dark midnight"), D. Wrighton (Birmingham), 1812-1830; also Harding B 5(57), "William and Margaret"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74]" (one verse and theme: jilted lover's ghost visits ex-lover)
cf. "Once They Said My Lips Were Red" (one verse)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lady Marrit
NOTES [1717 words]: Percy calls "William and Margaret" or "Margaret's Ghost", "one of the most beautiful ballads in our own or any language" and "the elegant production of David Mallet" (Percy, pp. 121, 310). Wheatley quotes Ritson: "It may be questioned whether any English writer has produced so fine a ballad as 'William and Margaret.'" (Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry, p. 309). So, at least in the 18th Century, "William and Margaret" was taken seriously.
There are at least six issues to be discussed in connection with "William and Margaret":
1) How well can we establish authorship for the 18th Century versions?
Dinsdale makes the case for authorship by David Mallet; Chappell makes the case that Mallet made minor changes to an existing ballad.
Mallet's editor: "David Mallet was born about the beginning of the present century, but neither the place of his nativity, nor the situation of his parents can be precisely ascertained" (Mallet, p. vi). If Chappell's dating of a broadside version to 1711 is correct -- though that is in question -- then Mallet's priority as author would immediately be in question. Simpson notes that a British Museum copy of Mallet's version "states that Mallet wrote his ballad 'while he was Janitor of the High School of Edinb.'" (Simpson, p. 786, fn 4). In a letter to his first publisher, Aaron Hill, at the time ignorant of the author's identity, Mallet claimed that "['William and Margaret'] was founded on the real History of an unhappy Woman...," and he tells the tale which ends, "And, in a few Days after, I saw her and her Child laid in one Grave together"; then, inspired some time after this, by Merry-Thought's 'When it was grown to dark midnight ...' in "The Knight of the Burning Pestle", he wrote the poem (KBP II.1, p. 191; Mallet/Dinsdale, pp. 85-86 [II.viii,1 in Wine, p. 333 - RBW]).
By 1723 Allan Ramsay had seen and commented on Mallet's poem, and he published it as Mallet wrote it in the 1724 edition of The Tea-Table Miscellany (Brewster, p. 173; Chappell, p. 668; from evidence in Chappell, the version printed by Ramsay in 1724 seems the same as Ramsay, pp. 218-220). Before it was printed by Ramsay a copy had been found by Aaron Hill who did not know the author, assumed the work to be an old ballad, and, as Brewster says, "he took the liberty of altering 'an obsolete low phrase here and there,'" and printed it in his The Plain Dealer of July 24, 1724 (Brewster, pp. 174-176; Mallet/Dinsdale, pp 72-73). You can see Hill's modified version in Hive, pp. 148-150. None of Hill's major changes appear in subsequent texts; Hill, for example, ends the poem as William "dy'd and lov'd, too late." Mallet continued to make minor changes and either the Percy version or Mallet/Dinsdale version -- which have minor differences -- is probably the final version (Percy, pp. 310-313; Mallet/Dinsdale, pp. 79-83; the differences I see are in lines 27 [Percy "Now yawning graves" vs Mallet/Dinsdale "When yawning graves"], 35 ["mine eyes" vs "my eyes"], 46 ["these lips" vs "those lips"], 54 ["last adieu" vs "late adieu"] and 59 ["William shook" vs "William quak'd"]).
Chappell's Appendix to Vol. III of The Roxburghe Ballads is a brief announcement that the remaining volumes will be undertaken by Ebsworth and a long analysis of "William and Margaret": "not only is it one of the best of our old ballads, but also there is literary interest attached to it, the authorship having been claimed by David Mallet in 1723, and this edition refuting that claim" (Chappell, p. 667). Chappell begins with a broadside that he dates to about 1711 and certainly no later than 1714: the broadside has a stamp required by an Act of Parliament passed in 1711 requiring stamps; however, "the Act was not intended to apply to ballads, and they were speedily exempted from its operation." He has a 1714 example of a stamp-free ballad (Chappell, p. 668). Considering Mallet's story and age, it would be unlikely that a 1711-1714 broadside could have been copied from Mallet's text. Simpson throws a problem at Chappell's analysis: "It is true that stamps are seldom found on ballads, but in the very portfolio containing the 'William and Margaret' under discussion ... is a broadside dated 1735 on which is an identical tax stamp" (Simpson, p. 786, fn 3). Nevertheless, Simpson says, "Scholars are now generally agreed in giving precedence to the black-letter text and crediting Mallet only with the merest touching up" (Simpson, p. 786).
2) Should "William and Margaret" be lumped with Child 74?
Roud assigns #253 to both. Child, in his head notes to Child 74, "Fair Margaret and Sweet William," says "'William and Margaret' is simply 'Fair Margaret and Sweet William' rewritten in what used to be called an elegant style." Nevertheless, of the 68 lines in each of the 18th and 19th Century texts of "William and Margaret," the only lines shared with any of the Child 74 texts are four of the six "Knight of the Burning Pestle" lines. In Child 74 Margaret's ghost either wishes "William and his bride joy," or asks William whether he prefers herself to his bride. After the "William and Margaret" ghost is described in 16 lines, she spends 36 lines blaming William for her death. In Child 74 William sees the dead Margaret in her bower and dies; in "William and Margaret" he visits and falls on her grave, "and words spoke never more." I would not consider these the same ballad.
3) Is the "Knight of the Burning Pestle" fragment a reference to "William and Margaret" or Child 74?
Child, Percy (p. 121) and Chappell (p. 675) point out that there are six lines of "The Knight of the Burning Pestle" close to lines in Child 74. Specifically, "When it was grown to dark midnight, And all were fast asleep, In came Margaret's grimly Ghost, And stood at William's feet" (KBP Act II Sc. 1 p. 191; cf., Child 74A ll. 17-21, Child 74B ll. 25-29, Child 74C ll. 9-12 [II.vii.3-4 in Wine, p. 333 - RBW]) and "You are no love for me Marget, I am no love for you" (KBP Act III Sc. 1 p. 208; cf. Child 74A ll. 5-6, Child 74B ll. 11-14 [III.v.96-97 in Wine, p. 354 - RBW]). Chappell would have Child 74A/Percy p. 122 follow KBP, and considers its "I see no harm by you, Margaret, Nor you see none by me" lines a "foolish alteration [of the KBP lines that] deprives the ballad of the very subject of its story" (Chappell, p. 675)[compare, for example, Child 74B ll. 11-16]. In any case, there is nothing like the Act III Sc. 1 lines in any "William and Margaret" text.
4) What is the likely source for each of the two 19th Century Bodleian broadside versions recovered so far?
All of the Mallet texts, as well as the Chappell text, are seventeen verses of four lines each. Excluding Hill's changes, the differences, line by line, are minor. However, verses nine and ten of Chappell are verses ten and nine of all the Mallet texts. Both Bodleian broadsides are seventeen verses of four lines each, but the sequence of verses follows Chappell. The broadsides are not identical but their differences are like the differences listed between Percy and Mallet/Dinsdale.
5) What is the likely source for each the two 20th Century versions recovered so far from oral sources (Greig/Duncan2 and Neely)?
Greig/Duncan2 has no comment about the relationship of the text to versions of "William and Margaret." The Greig/Duncan2 text has twelve verses and one of the missing verses is one of the sequence test verses. In other words, based on sequence alone, Greig/Duncan2 could follow either Chappell or Mallet. Most lines are very close to both Chappell and Mallet and a few do not match either. However, Greig/Duncan2's
-- l. 1, "When a' was wrapt in dark midnight," follows Chappell and the broadsides, rather than Mallet "Twas at the fearful midnight hour" or "'Twas at the silent solemn hour"
-- l. 2, "And a' was fast asleep," follows Chappell and the broadsides (Chappell versions) and Ramsay (a Mallet version) but not Percy and Mallet/Dinsdale, "When night and morning meet."
-- l. 43, "And stretchexd him on the green grass turf" is close to line 63 of Chappell and the broadsides and Ramsay but not Percy and Mallet/Dinsdale "And strech'd him on the grass-green turf."
-- l. 47, "Then laid his cheek to the cold earth," agrees with l. 67 of Chappell and the broadsides, but not with Ramsay, Percy or Mallet/Dinsdale, "Then laid his cheek to her cold grave."
Greig/Duncan2 seems not to be a Mallet version.
Neely says his text, "must have been learned originally from Percy's Reliques or from some volume which reprinted Mallet's ballad. Although less than half of 'Margaret's Ghost' [an alternate title for 'William and Margaret'] remains, one is forced to the conclusion that the ballad was transmitted by people with remarkable memories, or that it has not long been a part of oral tradition" (Neely, pp. 80-81). Of Neely's eight verses, four and five are the sequence test verses and follow the Mallet structure. Of Neely's 32 lines, few are clearly Ramsay, Percy, or Mallet/Dinsdale lines. Specifically,
-- l. 2, "When all were fast asleep" is Ramsay's line, not Percy's and Mallet/Dinsdale's "When night and morning meet."
-- l. 23, "Pale William quaked in every limb," agrees with l. 59 of Ramsay and Mallet/Dinsdale, but not Percy "Pale William shook in ev'ry limb."
This seems to me to be too close to call, but the Ramsay text is closest to Neely's text.
6) What is the connection with the Morris "Once They Said My Lips Were Red"?
--A Morris dance begins, "Once they said my lips were red, Now they're scarlet pale, When I, like a silly girl, Believed his flattering tale." Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames p. 302 notes the similarity to Mallet's "William and Margaret"; of the texts listed above the closest is Bodleian Harding B 5(58) ll. 41-44, "How could you say my lips were red And make their scarlet dale [sic]? And why did I, young witless maid, Believe thy flattering tale?" If that were all we had of "Once They Said My Lips Were Red" I would have thought it was a "William and Margaret" fragment. However, "Once They Said My Lips Were Red" continues, "But he vow'd he'd never deceive me, And so fondly I believ'd he, While the stars and the moon So sweetly shown Over the willow tree." Williams speculates that the Morris lines may predate Mallet. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.3
File: GrD2337

William and Margaret (II)

See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

William and Marjorie

See Sweet William's Ghost [Child 77] (File: C077)

William and Mary

See Willie and Mary (Mary and Willie; Little Mary; The Sailor's Bride) [Laws N28] (File: LN28)

William and Mary, George and Anne

DESCRIPTION: "William and Mary, George and Anne, Four such children had never a man; They put their father to flight and shame, And called their brother a shocking bad name."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell)
KEYWORDS: royalty brother sister children father
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1688-1689 - The "Glorious Revolution" overthrows the Catholic James II and VII and replaces him with his son-in-law William III and daughter Mary II
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 529, "William and Mary, George and Anne" (1 text )
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #218, p. 147, "(William and Mary, George and Anne)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 61, "William and Mary, George and Anne" (1 text)
Roud #20091
NOTES [251 words]: For once, there is absolutely no question about the references in this item. Mary is Mary II, the elder daughter of King James II and VII of England and Scotland, who was Protestant. William is her husband, William of Orange, James II's nephew, who became William III; they were joint monarchs from the time they overthrew James II in 1689 until Mary died in 1694. Then William was sole king until he in turn died in 1702. He was succeeded by Queen Anne, James II's second daughter. Her husband was George of Denmark, who was not a member of the British royal family; unlike William, he never became King. The song's "father" is of course James II. The "brother" is James the Old Pretender, who would have been James III had he succeeded. He was the half-brother of Mary and Anne, born after James II turned Catholic, and many in England were afraid of a Catholic king. So James the Old Pretender, although is there is no real doubt about his legitimacy, was formally declared illegitimate and passed over in the succession. Hence the line about a "shocking bad name." The "bad name" was "bastard."
For more on this complex situation, see the notes to "The Vicar of Bray."
The incomparable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 297, since she could not hallucinate an absurd meaning for this piece, instead hallucinated an absurd connection to a verse of "The Battle of Falkirk Muir." But it is self-evident that they do not fit the same tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OO2529

William and Mary's Farewell to Ireland

DESCRIPTION: Willy is leaving Ireland and Mary for America. If he would wait a season, she says, she would go with him. He refuses, saying he'll return with gold and take her to America. She says she'll elope with him now. He agrees, they marry and go to America.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday); c.1850 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.16(129))
KEYWORDS: courting elopement marriage emigration America Ireland dialog
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 19, pp. 44-45,110,164, "My Charming Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 87, "The Emigrant's Farewell" (1 text, which seems to have lost much of the plot)
Roud #2900
RECORDINGS:
John Maguire, "My Charming Mary" (on IRJMaguire01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.16(129), "The Emigrant's Farewell" ("Farewell dear Erin, I now must leave you"), J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), c.1850; also 2806 b.10(88), Harding B 19(59)[some words illegible], 2806 b.9(242), Harding B 19(91), 2806 c.15(70)[almost entirely illegible], "The Emigrant's Farewell"; 2806 c.8(123), Harding B 26(680), "William and Mary's Farewell to Ireland"
Murray, Mu23-y1:109, "The Emigrant's Farewell to Ireland," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Anach Cuain" (tune,according to notes to IRJMaguire01)
File: MoMa019

William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I) [Laws N8]

DESCRIPTION: (William) has been ordered to war. His sweetheart (Nancy) offers to dress in men's clothes and accompany him. William says that Nancy is not strong enough; she assures him she will be. At last he agrees; they are married and go off together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Journal of the John Dawson)
KEYWORDS: separation cross-dressing marriage war
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So) Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Laws N8, "William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 177-180, "Lisbon" (3 texts, but the third is "The Girl Volunteer")
Randolph 42, "Men's Clothing I'll Put On" (Of Randolph's six texts, Laws puts only "B," "D," and "E" -- the last with melody -- with this song. In fact any of these versions -- especially "B" and "E" -- might be part of "The Banks of the Nile." "A" definitely goes with that piece, and "C" and "F" go with "Jack Monroe")
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 67, "Johnnie and Nancy" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 29, "It Was Early One Monday Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 61, "Williams and Nancy" (1 text plus mention of 1 more, though the second text has the title "The Banks of the Nile")
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 32, p. 47, "William and Nancy" (1 fragment, possibly of this since it mentions Lisbon)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 156-158, "William and Nancy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 66, "It Was On One Monday Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 202-205, "Jimmy and Nancy on the Sea" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 72, "Banks of the Nile" (1 text, 1 tune, considered by Fowke to be an abbreviated, localized version of "William and Nancy (I)" [Laws N8], but it could just as easily be a version of "The Banks of the Nile" [Laws N9])
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 35A, "William and Nancy" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 121, "William and Polly" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 34, "William and Polly (Lisbon)" (1 text, 1 tune, "slightly shortened")
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #36, "The Good Ship Came A-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #37, "Sweet William and Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 67-68, "Sweet William" (1 text, a compound of the cross-dressing lover songs but more like this than any of the others)
Greig/Duncan1 63, "The Sailor and Nancy" (1 text)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 58-59, "Lisbon" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 13, "Lisbon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 42-44, "42-43, "Lisbon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H561, p. 458, "Lovely Annie (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 181-182, "Sweet William (William and Nancy)" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN1749, "Margaret my sweetest, Margaret I must go" (listed as Laws N4 though the description sounds more like this piece)
DT 442, BANKNIL4 (BANKNIL2*?) BANKNIL3*
Roud #551
RECORDINGS:
Jim Dalton, "Jimmy and Nancy on the Sea" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Jim Molloy, "Lovely Nancy" (on NFMLeach)
Cyril O'Brien, "Nancy Lovely Nancy" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Lee Monroe Presnell, "I Went to See My Molly" (on USWarnerColl01 -- a short text, probably this although it has an American Civil War setting)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(165), "William and Margaret" ("'Twas on a Monday, all in the month of May"), unknown, n.d.
Murray, Mu23-y1:039, "William and Margaret," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack Monroe" [Laws N7]
cf. "The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II)" [Laws N9]
cf. "High Germany (I)"
cf. "The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging)" [Laws O33]
NOTES [450 words]: The Sacred Harp has a tune "Lisbon" which, like many versions of this song, is in triple time. But based on the versions I've checked, they do not appear to be the same melody. - RBW
In at least some versions Nancy must assure William that she will accept his affairs with other women.
In OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs, "If I should meet with a lady that's proper tall and gay / If I should fancy her, love, what would you have to say? / Would you not be offended thyen? O no my lover true / I'd stand aside sweet William whenever she pleasur'd you."
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia has "But if I was to meet some other in sweeter charms than thee / And she was to please my fancy what would my Nancy say? / What would I say dear Willie and I would love her too / And I would gently step aside while she would be talking to you." Here, but not in OShaunessy-Grainger, Willie says, "Dear Nancy all these words are enough to break my heart / Pray let us then be married before that we depart."
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians A is equivocal: "O if I was to meet some pretty girl / All on the highway / And was to take a like unto her / What would my Polly say / My Polly she'd be angry / Although I love her too / I'd step aside Sweet William / That she might comfort you."
Peacock A has a stronger rejection: "Besides there are pretty girls over there both bonny brisk and gay / If I should go a-courting what would my Nancy say? / Sure I would say dear Jimmy I am in love with you / So stay at home dear Jimmy when they are pressing you."
Other similar versions include Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety A, Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle, Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills, Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, Greig/Duncan1, Peacock B, Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople, and VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs.
Versions with no such complication include Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs, Randolph, Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians B and C, Sharp-Karpeles-80E and the broadsides Bodleian Firth c.12(65) and Murray Mu23-y1:039. - BS
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs are "99% certain that this song dates from the reign of Queen Anne," pointing in particular to Admiral Rook's 1704 expedition which took 12,000 troops from Lisbon to Spain. But I would point out that not every version refers to Lisbon, that there British troops in Portugal in the Napoleonic Wars, and that in any case not every song that sounds historical is actually historical. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LN08

William and Nancy (II) (Courting Too Slow) [Laws P5]

DESCRIPTION: William loves Nancy, but sails away before he has married her. Eventually he learns that she has married another. He sickens with grief. Nancy comes to comfort him. Both eventually die of grief
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Logan-APedlarsPack)
KEYWORDS: courting sailor disease marriage infidelity death
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,So) Britain Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws P5, "William and Nancy II (Courting Too Slow)"
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 6, "Bonny Brown Jane" (1 text plus some extra verses, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 196-197 "Courting Too Slow" (1 text)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, pp. 66-67, "Pretty Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 81, "William and Nancy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 96-97, "Sweet William and Lovely Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 317-318, "William and Nancy" (1 text, with local title "Come All Ye Umarried Men"; tune on p. 441)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 364-365, "Courting Too Slow" (perhaps a comic rewrite of the original version?)
DT 493, WMNANCY
Roud #1918
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonny Brown Jane" (lyrics)
cf. "Courtin' Owre Slow" (theme: lover lost by courting too slowly)
cf. "On Top of Old Smokey" (theme: lover lost by courting too slowly)
File: LP05

William and Phillis

DESCRIPTION: Phyllis tells William that her father will not have her wed a sailor. She dresses as a sailor and they sail for America. They escape a storm in a longboat and land in America, marry, and live happily.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1174))
KEYWORDS: elopement cross-dressing emigration sea ship shore storm America father sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 33, "Phyllis and Young William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 178-179, "The Greenwood Tree" (1 fragment, 1 tune, padded out by the editors)
Roud #1429
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1174), "William and Phillis," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(1173), 2806 c.16(159), Harding B 11(4228), Harding B 16(308d), Harding B 11(4227), Harding B 11(4229), Harding B 11(929), "William and Phillis"; Firth c.12(250), 2806 c.16(159), Harding B 11(4226), "William and Philis"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "William and Harriet" (theme; tune per broadsides Bodleian Harding B 11(1174), Bodleian Harding B 11(1173), Bodleian 2806 c.16(159), Bodleian Harding B 11(4226), Bodleian Firth c.12(250), Bodleian 2806 c.16(159), Bodleian Harding B 11(4228))
cf. "The Great Elopement to America" (plot)
NOTES [67 words]: The Bodleian broadsides are more complete than Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick and are the source for the description; for example, Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick omits the cross-dressing.
"William and Phillis" is "William and Harriet" with a happy ending. Instead of dying together on a desert island, the lovers land in America, are helped back to health and live happily. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: CrSNB033

William and Polly

See William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I) [Laws N8] (File: LN08)

William and Susan

See The Seaman of Plymouth (File: FlBr141)

William and the Young Colonel

See Young Johnstone [Child 88] (File: C088)

William Atrimatoe Catches Hens

See William a Trimbletoe (File: Skea018)

William Baker

DESCRIPTION: "William Baker's now in prison, And shortly hanged be, For the killing of one Prewitt, The world may plainly see." Baker invites Prewitt to join him, then ambushes him. He tells Prewitt's wife that he had abandoned her. But his crimes finally come out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967
KEYWORDS: prison execution crime lie homicide
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 71, pp. 169-170, "William Baker" (1 text)
Roud #4120
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dF48 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: CW169

William Beadle

DESCRIPTION: "A bloody scene I'll now relate Which lately happen'd in a neib'ring state, A murder of the deepest dye, I say...." Beadle "slew Himself, his consort, and his offspring too." The singer laments that such things can happen and hopes for a better day
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Burt-AmericanMurderBallads)
KEYWORDS: homicide family father mother children
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec. 11, 1782 - William Beadle kills his wife, his children, and himself
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 6-7, "(William Beadle)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lawson Murder (Charlie Lawson)" [Laws F35] (plot)
NOTES [53 words]: This appears to be simply a broadside, with no hold on tradition (it's lousy poetry), and it doesn't really include enough specific data to identify it with certainty with the case of William Beadle -- but Burt-AmericanMurderBallads's notes imply that this was clear from the overall presentation of the broadsheet. - RBW
File: Burt006

William Bluet (Blewitt)

DESCRIPTION: "There was a woman lived in Hampshire, She had one only son, and him she loved most dear." The young man spends his estate, then turns to crime. Taken and condemned, he bids a sad farewell to his mother and is executed. A dove hovers by his dying head
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967
KEYWORDS: death crime punishment mother money bird
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 12, 1726 - Execution of William Blewitt, a convicted housebreaker, pickpocket, and accomplice to murder, in Surrey
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 125, pp. 151-152, "William Bluet" (1 text)
Roud #4298
File: CW151

William Cook

DESCRIPTION: "Hark, hark, my young friends, it's a melancholy call, The hour of death flying swiftly along." The dying young man (William Cook) reveals that he will miss his family, and describes how he will be buried. He asks to be remembered despite his misdeeds
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: death burial funeral family
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 608, "William Cook" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3128
File: R608

William Craig and Bold Manone

See Bold Manan the Pirate [Laws D15] (File: LD15)

William Glen

See Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B) [Laws K22] (File: LK22)

William Goebel

DESCRIPTION: "Our grand old state is left in shame Since the death of William Goebel." Goebel's wisdom is praised, but the candidate he was running against, "Taylor saw his plan had failed." Someone, perhaps Taylor, arranges Goebel's death
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: homicide political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 30, 1900 - shooting of William Goebel (1856-1900)
Feb 3, 1900 - Goebel dies
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 188-190, (no title) (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 192-194)
NOTES [500 words]: Thomas says that Setters sang this to the tune of "Barbary Ellen," but since she doesn't say *which* tune of "Barbary Ellen," that doesn't help much.
KentuckyEncyclopedia: John E. Kleber, Editor in Chief, The Kentucky Encyclopedia, The University Press of Kentucky, 1992, has an article on William Goebel and another on the Goebel Assassination; the latter, on p. 377, begins:
"After a very close canvass, Republican William S. Taylor was declared governor of Kentucky over Democrat William Goebel and was inaugurated on December 12, 1899. Even after the inauguration, the election results were contested, and in the midst of those deliberations aspirant Goebel was shot and wounded as he approached the state capitol on January 30, 1900. The Democratic majority in the General Assembly declared enough of the ballads fraudulent to make Goebel the victor in the election. He was sworn in as governor on January 31, an action Republicans refused to recognized (sic.) as legal. On February 3, Goebel died, the only governor in American history to die in office of wounds inflicted by an assassin. Eventual court decisions supported the actions of the Democratic majority, and Governor Taylor fled the commonwealth in May, The state of near-civil war between combatants divided by party finally ended, but questions concerning the assassination persist even to this day."
It sounds like quite a conspiracy: Sixteen people were indicted in the assassination, three of whom turned state's evidence. Five of the others went on trial. Three men, Caleb Powers, Henry Youtsey, and Jim Howard, were convicted the first time around, with Howard being the actual assassin and the other two state officials (Powers was the secretary of state!) who planned the murder.
Powers was re-tried three times, with the first three producing convictions but the fourth trial, in April 1903, clearing him. All three were eventually pardoned. The author of the Kentucky Encyclopedia article is frankly not sure what actually happened.
Goebel himself was "A complex, ambitious person... denounced by some as a ruthless, heartless demagogue and hailed by others as a compassionate, dedicated reformer" (Kleber, p. 377). His program sounds pretty promising: civil rights for women and blacks, more workers' rights, an end on textbook monopolies, gambling control, railroad regulation. But he apparently killed a rival, John Sanford, in a political quarrel in 1895. His gubernatorial nomination in 1899 split the Democratic party, which was why Taylor led the initial vote by 193.744 to 191,331 (with another Democrat, John Y. Brown, getting 12,040 votes from Democratic defectors).
Caleb Powers eventually published his version of events, Caleb Powers, My Own Story (with a subtitle that is most of a paragraph long), 1905; I have not seen it, but there are several print-on-demand versions available. Probably more reliable is James C. Klotter, William Goebel: The Politics of Wrath, University Press of Kentucky, 1977.
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa188

William Guiseman

See Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B) [Laws K22] (File: LK22)

William Hall (The Brisk Young Farmer) [Laws N30]

DESCRIPTION: William's parents send him to sea to get him away from his sweetheart, whom they dislike. After a long journey he returns to find his love does not recognize him. He says William is dead. She grieves; he reveals himself and they are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: ship separation marriage reunion
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Laws N30, "William Hall (The Brisk Young Farmer)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 156-160, "William Hall" (3 texts)
Randolph 46, "The Brisk Young Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 29-30, "Brisk Young Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 100, "William Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 40, pp. 154-155, "William Hall" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 84, "William Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 78-80, "William Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 43-46, "William Hall" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 265-266, "William Hall" (1 text, with local title "A Soldier Boy" and opening with several stanzas from "Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token)" [Laws N42]; tune on pp. 425-426)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 171, "William Hall" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 84-85, "The Brisk Young Farmer, or William Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 330, "William Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #188, "William Hall" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 33, "William Hall" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 96, "William Hall" (2 texts, 1 text)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 54-55, "The Brisk Young Farmer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 29, pp. 71-72, "The Rich Young Farmer" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 54, "The Rich Young Farmer" (1 text)
DT 458, BRSKFARM
Roud #400
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
File: LN30

William Hill

DESCRIPTION: William Hill worked land owned by the singer's uncle, who orders Hill to leave the land. Hill refuses and the uncle liquors the singer up to have him kill Hill. He shoots Hill, is convicted and sentenced to hang. His uncle is not punished.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland)
KEYWORDS: execution homicide drink trial gallows-confession
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 63-64, "William Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12466
NOTES [23 words]: Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland: "[The singer] said William Hill was killed here in Prince Edward Island by his nephew." - BS
File: Dib063

William Hollander

See The Flying Cloud [Laws K28] (File: LK28)

William Johnston of Ballykilbeg

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves Ireland and "Fenians and traitors I'll ever disown," but cannot "set Erin's old harp above the crown." The Protestant boys wave Purple and Orange flags, hold King William's memory in esteem and toast William Johnston of Ballykilbeg.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Smyth/Bush/Long-OrangeLark 37, "William Johnston of Ballykilbeg" (1 text)
NOTES [779 words]: "The redoubtable William Johnston [1829-1902] of Ballykilbeg [near Downpatrick, Co Down] was a legend in his own lifetime ... an Orange and Protestant folk hero second only to that other William of 'glorious, pious and immortal memory'." He led the campaign against the Party Processions Act. "It was his opposition to this legislation which was to make William Johnston of Ballykilbeg a folk-hero" [see "Bangor and No Surrender" and references there]. Johnston was elected M.P. in 1868. The law was repealed in 1872. After some time away from Commons he was reelected in 1885 and remained until his death. He opposed Gladstone's Home Rule bills. (source: Ian McShane, "William Johnston of Ballykilbeg" on OrangeNet site) - BS
Bardon, pp. 354-355, describes Johnston's rise to prominence as follows: "Against the advice of the Irish Grand Lodge of the Orange Order, William Johnston announced that he would lead a great parade from Newtownards to Bangor on 12 July 1867 in open defiance of the Party Processions Act. Johnston, owner of a small Co. Down estate and publisher of loyalist ballads, novels, and tracts, believed that if Catholics could turn funerals and unveilings into political demonstrations, Orangemen should be able to march ummolested by the law." (Which sounds reasonable until one realizes how often such marches ended in violence.) Reportedly the crowd occupied eight acres, which means it probably numbered in the tens of thousands.
Bardon, p. 355: "Johnston defiantly refused an apology to the authorities and in February 1868 he was sentenced to serve a short spell in prison.... Seen now as a martyr, 'fearless' and 'indomitable', on his release he was given a rapturous reception." He went on to call for the formation of an Orange Party.
Kee, pp. 101-102, writes, "The radical streak in the Orange Society's activity was represented by William Johnston of Ballykilbeg House, the Grand Master of County Down, who, in March 1868, was sentenced to a month's imprisonment for marching, in defiance of the Party Proessions Act, from Newtownards to Bangor at the head of a crowd of twenty to thirty thousand with beating drums, orange flags and a band playing the 'Protestant Boys' and other provocative tunes.
"Though educated opinion in Ulster disliked the Act under which Johnston was sentenced, it did not condemn the sentence itself. And the Protestant Defence Association... was to go out of its way to dissociate itself from the Orange Society altogether....
"Nonetheless, it was with the radical Orangemen that the real vitality of the movement lay, and when Johnston was released from prison in April[,] special trains were run to Belfast for the celebrations."
Bardon, pp. 355-356: "A general election was called soon afterward, and when the Conservatives failed to nominate Johnston for Belfast, he put himself forward in any case" (and of course won).
Bardon, p. 358: "To the delight of his adherents, Johnston of Ballykilbeg got the Party Processions Act repealed by a private member's bill in 1870. The act had become completely unenforceable and was in danger of bringing the law into contempt owing to ludicrous [court] decisions... it seemed barely reasonable to impose fines of forty shillings each on John Kerr, for cursing the Pope, and on George Murray, for cursing the Pope and the Pope's granny; but it was plainly silly to levy the same fine on Teresa Brown for the even-handed naming of her two cats, 'Orange Bill' and 'Papist Kate'."
Johnston would later declare in the Commons that if the Home Rule Bill passed that Ulster would resist "at the point of the bayonet" (Bardon, p. 383), and warned that if the Union between Britain and Ireland were dissolved, "there would at once be a civil war in Ulster" (Kee, p. 104).
Interestingly, in all areas except religions tolerance, Johnston seems to have been well ahead of his time. According to Foster, pp. 389-390, he was born at Ballykilbeg, educated at Dublin's Trinity College, joined the Orange Order in 1848, was MP for Belfast1868-1878, then became inspector of fisheries, but was "dismissed for violent speeches against the Land League and Home Rule party"; returned to parliament in 1885, he remained a member until his death in 1902. He was an "advocate of security of tenure, temperance reform and women's sufferage." Foster lists two novels he wrote: Nightshade (1870) and Under Which King (1873); they are said to be strongly political. As literature, all his writings seem to have been complete failures; while a few things are (of course) found on the Internet, my library reveals nothing at all -- though his poem "Bangor and No Surrender" is in this Index. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: OrLa037

William McGibbeny

DESCRIPTION: "Within a cheerless cot, In a lone and desolate spot, Lay a dying man just ere the close of day." He looks out on the birds and sunlight. He recalls his dead daughter, then his unfaithful wife and other daughter. He dies.
AUTHOR: probably Joe Scott
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker)
KEYWORDS: death wife infidelity children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker, pp. 331-334, "William McGibbeny" (1 text)
Roud #25230
File: ISco331

William O' Douglassdale

See Willie o Douglas Dale [Child 101] (File: C101)

William O'Riley

See The Mantle So Green [Laws N38] (File: LN38)

William O'Roley

See The Mantle So Green [Laws N38] (File: LN38)

William of Orange, or The Battle of Boyne

DESCRIPTION: William leads on like a Protestant" while James shrinks away, frightened. If the Catholics rise again "do what was done in July with Orange flags flying and on God relying"
AUTHOR: William Johnstons (source: Shannon)
EARLIEST DATE: William Johnstons (source: Shannon)
KEYWORDS: battle Ireland royalty rebellion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1685-1688 - Reign of James II (James VII of Scotland), the last Catholic king of Britain
1688 - Glorious Revolution overthrows James II in favour of his Protestant daughter Mary II and her husband and first cousin William III of Orange
Mar 12, 1689 - James arrives in Ireland and begins, very hesitantly, to organize its defense.
August, 1689 - Marshal Schomberg brings the first of William's troops to Ireland. James continues to be passive, allowing more troops to reinforce them
March, 1690 - James receives reinforcements from France but still does nothing
June 14, 1690 - William lands in Ireland
July 1, 1690 - Battle of the Boyne. William III crushes the Irish army of James, at once securing his throne and the rule of Ireland. Irish resistance continues for about another year, but Ireland east of the Shannon is his, and the opposition is doomed.
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 64A, "William of Orange, or The Battle of Boyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: William Shannon, _The Dominion Orange Harmonist_, (Toronto: MaClear and Co, 1876), pp. 212-213, "William of Orange" ("Proudly march on, to the edge of the river") (1 text)
Roud #795
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boyne Water (I)" (story and references there)
NOTES [42 words]: Roud's Folk Song Index classify this song as what we have indexed as "The Boyne Water" (I), Roud #795. Though Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest is only one verse it is clear that it is not that song, but an unrelated Orange support song. - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: MooSW064

William of the Ferry

DESCRIPTION: "Near Clyde's gay stream there dwelt a maid Whose mind was chaste and pure," who loved William of the Ferry. Their parents agree that they should marry. A press gang takes him away. But the boat carrying him away sinks, and he swims to shore. They marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1847 (Forget-Me-Not-Songster)
KEYWORDS: love courting pressgang escape marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, p. 239, "William of the Ferry" (1 text)
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, p. 78, William of the Ferry"" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 42 and #5/64, p. 42, "William of the Ferry" (1 text)
Roud #12858
File: HenV078

William of the Waggon Train

DESCRIPTION: "One lovely morning as I was walking," the singer hears a girl an a Sergeant in the waggon train talking. He says he must leave her; he hopes for promotion. She offers to go with him. He agrees and hopes heaven will protect her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Hammond collection); before 1839 (Catnach broadsides)
KEYWORDS: love courting travel soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brocklebank/Kindersley-DorsetBookOfFolkSongs, p. 5, "William of the Waggon Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1354
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3325)=Johnson Ballads 264=Harding B 11(3328), "Young William of the royal waggon train," J. Catnach (7 Dials), 1813-1838; also Harding B 17(351a) (appears to be a cut-up version of the preceding); also Johnson Ballads 299, Catnach; also Harding B 11(4396), "Young William of the royal waggon train," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Johnson Ballads fol. 119 (Pitts); also Firth c.14(172)=Harding B 15(383a)=Harding B 16(309c), "William of the waggon train," Birt (London), 1833-1851; also Firth b.25(95), "Young William of the royal wagon train," J. Cadman (Manchester), 1850-1855; also Firth b.25(252)=Harding B 11(4397), "Young William of the royal waggon train, J. Forth (Pocklingston), n.d.; also Firth c.13(306), Forth; also Firth c.14(173), Forth; alsoHarding B 15(397b), "Young William of the waggon train," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 11(3603), Such; also Harding B 15(381a), "William of the royal waggon train," W. S. Fortey (7 Dials), 1858-1885; also Harding B 15(381b) (Fortey); also Johnson Ballads 3167, Harding B 15(382a), "William of the waggon train," E. M. A. Hodges (7 Dials), 1846-1854; also Harding B 15(382b)=Johnson Ballads 3105, "William of the waggon train," H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Firth c.17(72), "Young William of the royal waggon train," Stone, Burridge, Keys, (Exeter, Truro, Devonport), n.d.; also Harding B 17(351b), "Young William of the royal waggon train," J. Hill (London), n.d.
File: Dors005

William Owen

DESCRIPTION: "Come, all you men who have come here... To see my body put to death and buried in the clay." The singer warns against bad company. Lewis Collins lured the singer astray; he shot General Hyder and will be executed. He regrets leaving his family
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Boswell)
KEYWORDS: warning death gallows-confession
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 47, pp. 81-82, "William Owen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11035
NOTES [437 words]: Although this song is called "William Owen," that name never occurs in the text; the only names it contains are "Lewis Collins" and "General Hyder."
Wolfe was unable to identify either one, and I grant Collins is probably beyond identification unless we can identify Hyder.
Searching for a general under the name "Hyder" produces nothing. Neither does "Haider" or "Heyder." Phisterer's comprehensive list of Union generals shows that there was no Union officer with that name, and Boatner reveals no Confederate officer so named.
There was a War of 1812 general named Adair: John Adair, 1757-1840 (Heidler/Heidler, p. 1). But he was not murdered and obviously lived to a ripe old age.
The higher likelihood, however, is that it is a Civil War general. At least one high-profile general was murdered during the war: William "Bull" Nelson was killed by one of his junior officers, Jefferson C. Davis, who amazingly was not punished for the crime (Boatner, pp. 226, 586). I don't think Nelson can be considered the inspiration of the song.
I can think of two faint possibilities, though, both based on distortions of the victim's first name rather than surname. One is Union General Adelbert Ames (1835-1933), who after the war became reconstruction governor of Mississippi (Boatner, p. 12). He obviously wasn't murdered (in fact, HTIECivilWar, p. 11, says that he was the last surviving full-ranked Civil War general), but as a carpetbagger official, he must have been deeply hated -- indeed, I seem to recall reading somewhere that the Jesse James gang wanted to go after him. He resigned his governorship of Mississippi in 1876 to avoid impeachment (HTIECivilWar, p. 11)
A slightly stronger candidate is General E. R. S. Canby (1817-1873). It will be evident that "General E. R." could easily become "General Hyder." And Canby was murdered -- not by Whites but by Modoc Indians in California in January 1873 while negotiating with them (HTIECivilWar, p. 111). Bunting, p. 121, says that he was unarmed, and that a local Indian agent was murdered with him (and notes that, ironically, this was done during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, who -- almost alone among nineteenth century presidents -- wanted to treat the Indians relatively well; Bunting, p. 117)
What's more, during his Civil War service Canby was injured by guerillas while commanding in Mississippi. He survived, but was severely wounded. Perhaps confused memories of these two incidents might have inspired this song.
Or, of course, "General Hyder" could be a distortion of something completely different. That is probably the most likely explanation. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.6
File: BosWo47

William Reilly

See William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial) [Laws M10] (File: LM10)

William Reilly's Courtship

See William Riley's Courtship [Laws M9] (File: LM09)

William Reily's Courtship

See William Riley's Courtship [Laws M9] (File: LM09)

William Riley's Courtship [Laws M9]

DESCRIPTION: William falls in love with Colleen at sight. Although warned about her harsh father, he seeks employment from the old man to be near Colleen. At last he asks to marry her. He is fired. The two try to elope. They are captured; the father has Riley jailed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1805 (broadside cited by The Colonial Music Institute)
KEYWORDS: love courting father elopement prison servant
FOUND IN: US(MA,So) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws M9, "William Riley's Courtship"
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 96-98, "Willy Reilly's Courtship" (1 text)
Randolph 114, "Coleen Bawn" (1 text, with the name spelled "Coleen" in the title but "Colleen" in the text; 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 53, "Fair Julian Bond" (1 text, 1 tune. The opening of this ballad clearly resembles Laws M9, but the conclusion is closer to M10. The fragmentary state of the text may indicate a conflate version)
Carey-MarylandFolkLegendsAndFolkSongs, pp. 105-109, "William Riley" (1 text, very long, which appears to combine "William Riley's Courtship" [Laws M9] and William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial)" [Laws M10])
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 38, pp.86-89, "William Riley's Courtship" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 74, "Courtship of Willie Riley" (1 very long text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 104, "Loving Reilly" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 181-190, "William Reily's Courtship"+"Reily's Trial"+"Reily's Answer, Releasement and Marriage with Coolen Bawn" (sic). (1 continuous text, divided into sections for the three songs)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 118-119, "William Reilly's Courtship" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1987, p. 137, "Reiley's Courtship" (3 references)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, pp. 482-483, "William Reily's Courtship," "Reily's Trial," "Reily's Answer, Releasement, and Marriage with Coolen Bawn" (source notes only)
Roud #537
RECORDINGS:
cf. "The Footboy" (plot)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial)" [Laws M10]
cf. "Erin's Lovely Home" [Laws M6] (plot)
cf. "Henry Connors" [Laws M5] (plot)
cf. "Jock Scott" (plot)
cf. "The Footboy" (plot)
NOTES [184 words]: Laws, following Cox, considers the three William Riley ballads (this one, William Reilly's Trial [Laws M10], and "Reilly's Answer, Releasement, and Marriage with Coleen Bawn" -- the last supposedly not found in tradition) to be a set of songs about the same character. The songs overlap, however, and may be the result of separate composition, with either M9 or M10 inspiring the other two. - RBW
Laws considers Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 74 to be both M9 and M10. This 78 verse version is divided by Creighton into "Riley's Courtship" (26 verses: meets Laws' description of M9), "Trial" (20 verses: meets Laws' description of M10), "Marriage" (32 verses: meets Laws' description "which has not, so far as I know," says Laws, "been recorded from tradition, Riley is sentenced to be transported and is freed through his own petition to the Lord Lieutenant in time to rescue the girl from Bedlam and marry her." What am I missing? As I've noted, Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 74, is one of Laws' sources for M9 and M10: why didn't he consider it for the "not ... recorded" Mx?). - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LM09

William Ross and Thomas Walsh

See The Murder of Thomas Walsh (File: Burt082)

William S. Shackleford

DESCRIPTION: "Though I am doomed to be hanged, in March, on the twenty-eighth day, I fear not the dreadful pang." Shackleford claims he did no wrong in murdering (Davis); it was self-defense. He laments that his account was not believed
AUTHOR: William S. Shackleford?
EARLIEST DATE: 1890 (Chatham Record)
KEYWORDS: homicide punishment execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov. 15/16, 1889 - Disappearance of John D. Horton
Nov. 23, 1889 - Discovery of Horton's body, bearing clear evidence of murder
Feb. 1890 - Trial of J. P. Davis (true name: William S. Shackleford) for the murder of Horton
March 28, 1890 - Execution of Davis/Shackleford
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 293, "Last Words of William Shackleford, Executed in Pittsboro, Chatham Co, March 28, 1890" (1 text; the reputed original text is found in the general introduction to items 293 and 294)
Roud #6649
File: BrII293

William Shackleford's Farewell Song As Sung by Shackleford

See My Warfare Will Soon Be Ended (File: BrII294)

William Stafford

See The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II) [Laws H1] (File: LH01)

William Sullivan

DESCRIPTION: William Sullivan is determined to leave home to earn his money so he can marry his money. His desperate parents say he shouldn't marry a girl who wants money, but he goes -- and dies after three years when hit by a pine. Final stanzas describe his burial
AUTHOR: Joe Scott
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (partial version collected from Roy Lohnes)
KEYWORDS: mother father children death love work lumbering
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker, pp. 178-190, "William Sullivan" (1 conflate text, 1 tune, with mentions of 2 versions)
Roud #25141
File: JSco178

William Tailer

See William Taylor [Laws N11] (File: LN11)

William Taylor (II)

See Keepers and Poachers (File: K254)

William Taylor [Laws N11]

DESCRIPTION: Willie is (about to be married when he is) impressed. His love dresses like a man and seeks him. She is revealed as a woman. The captain tells her that William is about to marry another. She shoots him. The captain gives her a command or marries her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Journal from the Nellie)
KEYWORDS: homicide betrayal pressgang disguise cross-dressing sailor
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Britain(England,Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (37 citations):
Laws N11, "William Taylor" (Laws gives a broadside texts on pp. 93-94 of ABFBB)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 308, "William Taylor" (1 text)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 2, "Bold William Taylor" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart1 7, "Bold William Taylor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #75, "William Taylor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 1, "William Tailer" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #101, p. 1, "Billy Taylor" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 169, "Billy Taylor" (6 texts, 3 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 19, "Willie Taylor" (1 fragment)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 182-183, "William Taylor" (1 text)
Randolph 67, "Willie Taylor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 106, "William Taylor" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 106, "William Taylor" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 74, "The False Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #25, "Willie Taylor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, p. 80, "William Taylor" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 61, "William Taylor" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 71, "William Taylor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 113, "William Taylor" (2 texts)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 48, "William Taylor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 45, "William Taylor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H213, p. 334, "Willie Taylor (a)"; H757, pp. 334-335, "Willie Taylor (b)" (2 texts, 2 tunes, both composite)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 120, "William Taylor" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 152-154, "William Taylor" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 315-316, "Billy Taylor" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 22, "Willie Taylor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 131, "Willy Taylor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 49, "William Taylor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 32, "Billy Taylor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 46, "Willie Taylor" (2 texts)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 61, "Brisk Young Seaman (Willie Taylor)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 60, "Willie Taylor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 94-95, "William Taylor" (1 text, with the ending lost, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 153-158, "William Taylor"; "Bold WIlliam Taylor" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 53, "William Taylor" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 443, BLLYTYLR*
ADDITIONAL: C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907, p. 326, "The Female Lieutenant; or, Faithless Lover Rewarded"; p. 327, "Billy Taylor" (2 texts)
Roud #158
RECORDINGS:
Joseph Taylor, "Bold William Taylor" (on Voice06)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(233), "Bold William Taylor ," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Firth c.12(231), Firth c.12(234), Harding B 11(391), Harding B 11(3010)[some words illegible], "Bold William Taylor"; Harding B 25(2069), "William Taylor"; Firth c.12(232)[some words illegible], "The Female Lieutenant" or "Faithless Lover Rewarded"
LOCSinging, as113210, "William Taylor," Leonard Deming (Boston), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Une Belle Recompense (A Beautiful Reward)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bold William Taylor
NOTES [632 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety's version of this song ends with the girl drowning herself in grief. Laws mentions this only in connection with the Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety text, but it appears that Randolph's version also ends this way (it says only that the girl drowned, but Randolph marks a missing verse).I initially though this an Ozark attempt to moralize the song. But it occurs also in Brown. Cox has a similar, slightly less heavy-handed attempt; the girl is arrested but her fate not listed. Perhaps it's a general American urge to punish the "crime." - RBW
She likewise drowns herself in all three of Sharp's texts. - PJS
The "Bold William Taylor" broadsides end in marriage; "William Taylor" and "The Female Lieutenant" end in command.
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople is a composite of four texts: "this is a composite of all elements of Sharp's ms. versions, none of which is complete by itself." - BS
C. H. Firth treats his "Billy Taylor" as "A Burlesque Ballad" of his other text (in which the sailor is called "William Taylor"); he describes it as Sung by Mr. Emery, at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. Still, they are clearly the same song, and both end with the girl as "lieutenant of the Thunder Bomb". The mention of bomb ships (mortar vessels) strongly dates those versions, at least, to the eighteenth or early nineteenth century.
Amazingly, this isn't the only theatrical version of the song. According to Stanley Appelbaum, editor, Show Songs: from The Black Crook to The Red Mill, Dover Publications, 1974, p. xx, a musical play called "Billee Taylor" "was an English comic opera [by Edward Solomon], written in the wake of the phenomenal success of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pinafore and Pirates.... The story is based loosely on a popular English ballad (poem) about a lass who masquerades as a tar to follow her lover Billee, and shoots him when he proves unfaiithful. There is no fatal shooting in the show, but Phoebe does finally give her hand to Captain Flapper instead of to Billee. The hit song was a humorous one, 'All on Account of Eliza,' sung by the sailor Ben Barnacle, who is in love with the recalcitrant widow Eiza Dabsey. The original London Ben Barnacle was J. D. Stoyle. A W. F. McCollin had the role in the 1881 New York production."
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario, p. 195, comments "No other heroine [of songs of women following their lovers to sea] turns her pistol on her sweetheart when he proves unfaithful. However, she has an older sister in the girl who stabbed 'Young Hunting' to death for deserting her."
For notes on legitimate historical examples of women serving in the military in disguise, see the notes to "The Soldier Maid."
It is probably just coincidence, but in 1804, shortly before the earliest attested date of this ballad, a book by Robert Kirby described the exploits of a disguised female sailor. Her real name, supposedly, was Mary Anne Talbot, and she took the name John Taylor -- and she served for several years at sea, aboard both merchant and naval vessels, and was wounded before finally claiming discharge on the grounds of her sex. (see David Cordingly, Women Sailors and Sailors' Women, Random House, 2001 [I use the undated, but later, paperback edition], pp. 76-77). Cordingly says that Talbot's tale is fictional, but that would not have been known at the time. Could Talbot's alternate name have supplied the name of the character in this song? Probably not, but it's an interesting coincidence. - RBW
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin: After shooting William "Polly threw herself away All the crew they ran for to save her And alas it would not do. Willy got shot and Polly got drownded This put an end to thare strife" [sic]. - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: LN11

William the Handsome Cabin Boy

See The Little Cabin Boy (File: FSC056)

William the Sailor

See The Jolly Young Sailor and the Beautiful Queen [Laws O13] (File: LO13)

William Tremble Toe

See William a Trimbletoe (File: Skea018)

William Tremble-Toe

See William a Trimbletoe (File: Skea018)

William Trimatoe

See William a Trimbletoe (File: Skea018)

William-a

See William a Trimbletoe (File: Skea018)

William-E-Tremitoe

See William a Trimbletoe (File: Skea018)

William's Return to the Banks of Sweet Dundee (Answer to Undaunted Mary)

DESCRIPTION: William, impressed to keep him from Mary, is wounded in a sea battle and discharged. He returns. Unrecognized, he tells Mary that William has fallen (died, she assumes). She weeps. He reveals himself. They marry with his pension and her inheritance.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1856 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(91))
KEYWORDS: love marriage war return reunion money injury sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #80, p. 2, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1046, "William's Return to the Banks of Sweet Dundee" (2 texts)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 42-46, "The Banks of Sweet Tralee (An Answer to Undaunted Mary)" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 7, "The Banks of Sweet Dundee (I)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5649
RECORDINGS:
Alphonse O'Driscoll, "Banks of Sweet Trawlee" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(91), "Answer to Undaunted Mary" or "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" ("It's of a pretty ploughboy young William was his name"), W. Jackson and Son (Birmingham), 1842-1855; also Firth c.12(258), Harding B 11(92), Firth c.18(252), "Answer to Undaunted Mary" or "The Banks of Sweet Dundee" ("It's of a pretty ploughboy young William was his name"); 2806 c.16(53), Harding B 11(1429), "Answer to Undaunted Mary" or "The banks of Sweet Dundee" ("Young William was a ploughboy, the truth I will unfold"); Harding B 11(93), Harding B 17(10b), "Answer to Undaunted Mary" ("Young William was a ploughboy the truth I'll unfold")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of Dundee (Undaunted Mary)" [Laws M25] (prequel)
cf. "The Banks of the Inverness" (another Laws M25 sequel)
File: GrD1046

Willie (I)

DESCRIPTION: Johnson tells Willie that if he comes to his father's house, he'll shoot him. He goes; Johnson kills him, then falls on his knees with grief. He turns to drink; when he returns, Officer O'Daniel arrests him. The hearse takes Willie to the cemetery
AUTHOR: Elizabeth Cotten
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (copyright, recording)
KEYWORDS: grief jealousy warning fight violence crime homicide prison death burial police
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cotten, "Willie" (on Cotten03)
NOTES [82 words]: According to Cotten, Willie was a person, a "kind of tease. He found Johnson couldn't take it. And he'd tease him about his girlfriends...just say anything. And Johnson would believe it, and they said he got so mad he jumped on him then, said 'The next time you come to my father's house I'm going to kill you..' ..He just shot that boy, he shot him dead...I'll never forget that." The song, not traditional, is by a traditional performer and created in traditional style, so I index it. - PJS
File: RcECWill

Willie (II)

See The Isle of Man Shore (The Quay of Dundocken; The Desolate Widow) [Laws K7] (File: LK07)

Willie & Molly

See The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (The Gosport Tragedy; Pretty Polly) [Laws P36A/B] (File: LP36)

Willie an' May Margeret

See The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water [Child 216] (File: C216)

Willie and Earl Richard's Daughter [Child 102]

DESCRIPTION: Willie serves Earl Richard, loves and impregnates his daughter. Fearing Richard's wrath, they escape to the woods where the babe is born. Richard seeks his vanished daughter, finds her (alive/dead), accepts the child, and names him Robin Hood.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1806 (Jameson, Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: love pregnancy nobility escape reunion childbirth Robinhood
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(AP)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 102, "Willie and Earl Richard's Daughter" (2 texts)
Bronson 102, "The Birth of Robin Hood (Willie and Earl Richard's Daughter)" (2 versions+1 in addenda)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 259-260, "The Birth of Robin Hood" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 113, "The Birth of Robin Hood" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: R. B. Dobson and J. Taylor, _Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw_, University of Pittsburg Press, 1976, pp. 196-197, "The Birth of Robin Hood (Willie and Earl Richard's Daughter)" (1 text)
Roud #3910
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Willie o Douglas Dale [Child 101]" (plot)
NOTES [266 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Bronson is of the opionion that this is "a mere rifacimento of [Child] No. 101," "Willie o Douglas Dale," and it is difficult to argue the point -- although the link to Robin Hood is a rather startling twist. But this idea can hardly be traditional; it is probably the result of one of those attempts to make Robin a nobleman. This would seem to imply that the Richard involved is Earl of Huntington. Of course, during the period when Robin Hood might have been born, the Earls of Huntington were Scots (eventually the Bruce family held the earldom -- and it's thought that one reason they were slow to defend Scottish independence was that they didn't want to risk the Huntington earldom), and none of them were named Richard.
Bronson also notes that Aunt Molly Jackson, responsible for the American version {Bronson's #2}, had seen Buchan's text.
Dobson/Taylor make the interesting observation on p. 195 that "it remains suspicious that for the missing story of [Robin Hood's] birth we have to wait until the recitation of a remarkable Scottish woman delivered five years after the first (1795) edition" of Ritson's Robin Hood collections. They point out in addition that this piece has no connection to the standard Robin Hood traditions of England.
David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, pp. 303-304, also suggests that this is the composition of Anna Gordon Brown, but still thinks Child should have filed it among the Robin Hood ballads. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: C102

Willie and Johnny

See The Twa Brothers [Child 49] (File: C049)

Willie and Lady Maisry [Child 70]

DESCRIPTION: (The lady invites Willie to her bower.) On his way he kills all her father's guards (including her brother). She welcomes him but worries about the blood. Her father discovers them together and kills Willie. The lady (dies of a broken heart/runs mad).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (Motherwell)
KEYWORDS: courting battle death family brother father homicide madness
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 70, "Willie and Lady Maisry" (2 texts)
Bronson 70, brief comments only
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 34, "Willie and Lady Margerie" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 228-230+352-353, "Willie and Lady Maisry" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, p. 74, "Sweet Willie and Lady Margerie" (1 text)
DT 70, WILMAISY*
Roud #198
File: C070

Willie and Lady Margerie

See Willie and Lady Maisry [Child 70] (File: C070)

Willie and Mary

See The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: LM04)

Willie and Mary (II)

See The Silver Dagger (I) [Laws G21] (File: LG21)

Willie and Mary (Mary and Willie; Little Mary; The Sailor's Bride) [Laws N28]

DESCRIPTION: A beggar comes to Mary's door three years after Willie went to sea. He tells a fortune: Willie is shipwrecked and poor, and will never return to Mary. She says she will take him in any state. The beggar reveals himself as Willie, rich and ready to marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Journal from the Elizabeth)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation marriage disguise prophecy begging
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (19 citations):
Laws N28, "Willie and Mary (Mary and Willie; Little Mary; The Sailor's Bride)"
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 100, "William and Mary" (1 text)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #74, "William and Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan5 1035, "Willie and Mary Stood by the Seaside" (1 text)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 152-153, "Mary and Willie" (1 text plus reference to 1 more)
Randolph 57, "Mary and Willie" (2 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 39, pp. 153-164, "Mary and Willie" (1 text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 95, "Willie and Mary" (1 fragment, likely this though it could be any of several disguised-lover songs)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 141-142, "Willie and Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 150-151, "The Single Sailor" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 15-27, "Mary and Willie" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 248, "Mary & Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton-TennesseeTraditionalSingers, pp. 138-139, "As Willie and Mary Strolled by the Seashore" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 78-79, "Little Willie and Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H118, pp. 315-316, "Mary and Willie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 93, pp. 200-202, "Mary and Willie" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 348-349, "William and Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 116-117, "The Beggarman" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 457, WILLMARY*
Roud #348
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. McCarthy, "The Beggar" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Sam McGee, "As Willie and Mary Strolled by the Seashore" (Vocalion 5310, rec. July 25 1928)
Marc Williams, "William and Mary" (Brunswick 274, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Little Willie
William and Mary
Little Mary, the Sailor's Bride
File: LN28

Willie and Mary Stood by the Seaside

See Willie and Mary (Mary and Willie; Little Mary; The Sailor's Bride) [Laws N28] (File: LN28)

Willie and May Margaret

See The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water [Child 216] (File: C216)

Willie and May Margeret

See The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water [Child 216] (File: C216)

Willie and Me

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees two birds on a tree and "thinks I noo that unco like Willie and me." The birds sing, cuddle, court, and "there [sic] herts were as happy as happy could be,"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 943, "Willie and Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6758
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Howes o' Glenorchy" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
File: GrD5943

Willie Angler

See Willie Archer (The Banks of the Bann) (File: HHH614)

Willie Archer (The Banks of the Bann)

DESCRIPTION: Willie (Archer/Angler/Ingram) wanders by the Bann, meets a young girl, and seduces her. Afterward, he tells her that he cannot marry her because he is an apprentice. She asks his name; he gives it. She (?) warns young girls against men like him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(258a))
KEYWORDS: courting seduction apprentice abandonment sex
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H614, p. 384, "Willie Angler/The Banks of the Bann" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 3, "The Banks of the Bann" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 127-128, "The Banks of the Ban" (1 text)
DT, BNKSBANN
Roud #3473
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Banks of the Bann" (on IRRCinnamond01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(258a), "The River Ban" ("In yonder noisy harbour called the sweet Hilltown"), Angus (Newcastle), 1774-1825; also Harding B 16(13b) , Harding B 11(140), 2806 b.11(263), "The Banks of [the] Band"; 2806 b.11(209), Harding B 25(108), "[The] Banks of the Ban"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tripping Over the Lea" [Laws P19] (plot)
NOTES [246 words]: Traditional singers tend to call this "The Banks of the Bann." But I use the title "Willie Archer" to prevent confusion with all the other songs of that title. - RBW
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition: "The ... reference to Willie's apprenticeship in Raithfriland [Riverhead town in Harding B 17(258a)] would date the song sometime in the nineteenth century when the home-weaving of linen in eastern Ulster was superseded by the introduction of the power loom." - BS
Sam Henry's notes say this was written by "Johnny Spence, 'a kind of gentleman' (Castleroe), c. 1865." The Bodleian broadside would seem to dispose of this hypothesis. But that it was written by someone with literary training seems likely, because the form is not very "folky." The tune I've heard, from Silly Wizard, is a standard long-stanza ballad tune -- four lines, each of seven stresses and fourteen syllables. But the broadsides indicate no tune, and most of the lines in those versions (and indeed many of the lines in the Silly Wizard version) have six stresses and twelve syllables -- a very un-folk-like form. And then there is the fact that every stanza ends with the word "Bann" (or "Band"), with the next-to-last line rhyming with that and the two lines before rhyming with each other (i.e. the rhyme scheme for every stanza is a/a/-an(d)/Ban(d)) -- a quite artificial format. This strongly hints at someone striving for literary effect, with the song making its way into tradition only in Ireland. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: HHH614

Willie Broon

DESCRIPTION: "It was by a fause young man, Willie Broon, That I was led astray He took me frae my parents and my happy, happy home, And has left me in the wild wilds to roam, to roam, to roam, And has left me in the wild woods to roam"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity nonballad rambling
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1150, "Willie Broon" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #6821
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jeemsey Brine
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan6 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61150

Willie Came Over the Ocean

See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Willie Dear

DESCRIPTION: "I wisht I could see my Willie dear (x2), I used to think that I'd be the one To marry my lovin' Willie dear." The singer offers to write to Willie, and wishes she were a wild rose or a bee that she might see him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 817, "Willie Dear" (1 text)
Roud #7432
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Free Little Bird" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [29 words]: This song either derives from "Free Little Bird" or borrows heavily from it. But with no tune, no chorus, and hardly any plot, it's hard to prove the matter either way. - RBW
File: R817

Willie Down by the Pond (Sinful to Flirt) [Laws G19]

DESCRIPTION: A girl has been advised against flirting, but does it anyway. When her love Willie comes to her, she teasingly says she will not marry him. He drowns himself in the millpond. He is found with a rose from her hair at his lips
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting suicide drowning flowers
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws G19, "Willie Down by the Pond (Sinful to Flirt")
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 49-50, "Willie Down by the Pond" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 275, "They Say It is Sinful to Flirt" (1 text plus mention of six more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 275, "Servant Man" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee, 36, pp. 64-66, "Sinful to Flirt" (1 text, 1 tune, given its title by the editor although the informant called it "The Flirt" and the first line is "They say I am simply a flirt")
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 87-88, "Sinful to Flirt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #61, "Sinful to Flirt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, p. 41, "SInful to Flirt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 57, "Sinful to Flirt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 56, "Willie My Darling" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 155-157, "They Say It Is Sinful to Flirt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 94, "They Say It Is Sinful to Flirt" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 772, SINFLIRT
Roud #421
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ridge Mountain Singers, "Sinful to Flirt" (Columbia 15678-D, 1931; rec. 1930)
Delmore Brothers, "They Say It's Sinful to Flirt" (Bluebird B-7192/Montgomery Ward M-7321, 1937)
Sim Harris, "Sinful to Flirt" (Homestead 16500, late 1920s)
Louisiana Lou, "Sinful to Flirt" (Bluebird B-5424, 1934)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Simple to Flirt" (Brunswick 578, 1931; rec. 1930)
Riley Puckett, "It's Simple To Flirt" (Columbia 15036-D, 1925)
Ernest V. Stoneman "Sinful to Flirt" (OKeh 40384, 1925) (Pathe 32271/Perfect 12350/Challenge 666/Conqueror 7064/Cameo 8220/Romeo 600/Lincoln 2825/Banner 2158/Domino 3985/Regal 8346/Homestead 16500/Oriole 947, 1927); "It's Sinful to Flirt" (Edison 52388, 1928) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5547, 1928)
Tom Watson, "It's Simple to Flirt" (Silvertone 3263, 1926)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She Said She Was Only Flirting"
cf. "The Little White Rose" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sinful Flirting
Poor Willie Dead and Gone
File: LG19

Willie Drowned in Yarrow

DESCRIPTION: Willie's sweetheart waits for him to come and marry her. She asks if the singer had seen Willie. She searches for him. In a crack in a rock she finds him drowned in Yarrow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong) but see the note quoting Whitelaw.
KEYWORDS: love drowning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #113, pp. 1-2, "Willie's Drowned in Yarrow" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1230, "Willie Drowned in Yarrow" (3 texts plus a single verse on p. 581, 2 tunes)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 456, "Willie's Drowned in Yarrow" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 64-65, "Willie's Drowned in Yarrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6854
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie [Child 215]" (story) and references there
cf. "Willie's Drowned in Gamerie" (story)
cf. "The Duke of Athole's Nurse" (tune, per Greig/Duncan6)
NOTES [49 words]: Child 215A's four verses are included in Greig #113's 12 verses.
Whitelaw: "This is a fragment [11 verses; essentially the same as Greig minus a verse repetition] of a very old and pathetic song." - BS
Greig cites Whitelaw and Christie; the source for his text is a correspondent from Fyvie. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: GrD61230

Willie Grahame

DESCRIPTION: Willy loves and murders his neighbor's/master's daughter. Following her dying advice he flees to sea. The ship won't sail. The captain says there must be a murderer on board. The lot falls on Willy. He confesses, is imprisoned and sentenced to die.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: love execution homicide prison sea ship ritual
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #166, pp. 2-3, "Willie Graham"; #164, p. 2, "For My Offence" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan2 190, "Willie Grahame" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #953
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B) [Laws K22]" (Jonah theme) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Wullie Gray
NOTES [71 words]: The theme from Jonah 1:4-15: a man on board hiding guilt is the cause of "such a great tempest ... upon the sea that the ship was in danger of breaking up" [Jonah 1:4].
The confusion between this ballad and "Captain Glen"/"The New York Trader" (The Guilt Sea Captain A/B) [Laws K22] is illustrated not only by the Greig/Duncan2 notes but by Greig/Duncan2 191A of "Captain Glen" in which the captain's name is William Graham. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD2190

Willie Gray

DESCRIPTION: "My schoolmates now I leave you I bid you a fond farewell." The boy departs his home "For a sailor boy to be." He bids farewell to his family and asks those around him to remember him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Journal from the Coral)
KEYWORDS: sailor family farewell youth
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 182-183, "Willie Gray" ( text)
Roud #2056
File: SWMS182

Willie Lamb and Jean Beith

DESCRIPTION: A laddie "swore he would make her [Jean] his wife" but thought "to prefer a single life." Thinking she is pregnant they send for a doctor who prescribes a cure for an illness. She recovers. They marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love marriage medicine disease doctor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 986, "Willie Lamb and Jean Beith" (1 text)
Roud #6735
NOTES [17 words]: Greig/Duncan5 speculates that "Moses Hunter and Johnnie Smith ... were involved in its composition." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5986

Willie Lennox

See Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)

Willie Leonard

See Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)

Willie Macintosh [Child 183]

DESCRIPTION: Willie Macintosh (probably in revenge for the slaying of the Earl of Murray; see Child 181) swears he will burn Auchindown, even if Huntly murders him. Macintosh succeeds in his efforts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1808 (Finlay)
KEYWORDS: feud revenge fire
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1592 - Vendetta between the Earl of Huntly and Clan Macintosh
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 183, "Willie Macintosh" (2 texts)
Bronson 183, "Willie Macintosh" (1 version)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, p. 188, "[Willie Macintosh]" (1 fragment)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 8, "The Burning o' Auchendoun" (1 short text, 1 tune) {Bronson's (#1)}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 264-266, "Bonny Willie Macintosh" (1 text, learned in Scotland)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 266, "Willie Macintosh" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 36, "Willie MacIntosh" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 248-249, "Burning of Auchindoun" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 134, "Willie Macintosh"
Roud #4010
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Burning of Auchindown
NOTES [132 words]: The Willie Macintosh of this ballad was an ally of the Earl of Murray; [to avenge] Murray's death, he and his followers harried the Earl of Huntly, whose followers eventually caught up with Macintosh's men and defeated them. Contrary to the ballad, this Willie didn't burn Auchindown castle; that had been burned by another Willie Macintosh forty years before. - PJS
The only [known] tune [for this song] was miraculously preserved by either [Ewan] MacColl's father or else his mother. Yeah, sure! - AS
And Barry et al argue that the piece wasn't really meant to be sung. But even Bronson admits the effectiveness of the tune supplied by MacColl. MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 68, says it is from his father William Miller. - RBW
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads is one Child's sources for text A. - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: C183

Willie Man, He Leads the Van

DESCRIPTION: Willie leads the vanguard, Florence follows, Sawney "goes on wi' speed, Wi' legs as lang's a swallow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: army nonballad racing horse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1772, "Willie Man, He Leads the Van" (1 text)
Roud #13019
NOTES [22 words]: Is this about soldiers (as Ben Schwartz seems to think) or about horseracing? I've used keywords for both to allow for ambiguity. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1772

Willie McGee McGaw

See The Three Ravens [Child 26] (File: C026)

Willie Moore

DESCRIPTION: Handsome young Willie Moore has courted and won the heart of fair Annie. Her parents do not approve of him. When Annie realizes her parents will not relent, she runs away and dies (kills herself?). Willie takes to wandering (and dies of a broken heart?)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Burnett & Rutherford)
KEYWORDS: courting love death separation hardheartedness father mother suicide burial
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 795, "Willie Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 90-92, "Willie Moore" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 795)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 36, "Willie Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 140, "Willie Moore" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WILLMOOR*
ST R796 (Full)
Roud #4816
RECORDINGS:
[Richard] Burnett & [Leonard] Rutherford, "Willie Moore" (Columbia 15314-D, 1927; on AAFM1, BurnRuth01, ConstSor1, KMM)
Doc Watson & Gaither Carlton, "Willie Moore" (on WatsonAshley01)
Doc Watson, "Willie Moore" (on RitchieWatson1, RitchieWatsonCD1)
NOTES [32 words]: Randolph's informant, Paul Wilson, reported meeting a Rev. William Moore in 1936 who claimed this song was about him. This is one of those instances where one would prefer documentation. - RBW
File: R796

Willie My Darling

See Willie Down by the Pond (Sinful to Flirt) [Laws G19] (File: LG19)

Willie O (I)

See Mary o' the Dee (Mary's Dream) [Laws K20] (File: LK20)

Willie O (II)

See Willy O! (File: CrMa113)

Willie o Douglas Dale [Child 101]

DESCRIPTION: Willie goes to serve at the English court. He loves and impregnates the king's daughter, Dame Oliphant. They leave the court; the child is born in the woods, They recruit a shepherdess and sail to Douglas Dale where he is lord and she now lady.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783/1799 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: love royalty nobility pregnancy escape childbirth home
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Child 101, "Willie o Douglas Dale" (4 texts)
Bronson 101, "Willie o Douglas Dale" (2 versions)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 98-105, "Willy o Douglass Dale" (2 parallel texts plus a photo of the badly-transcribed tune; also two reconstructed tunes on p. 265)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 63-67, "Dame Oliphant"; pp. 67-71, "William O' Douglassdale" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan5 1010, "Willie of Douglasdale" (2 texts)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine p. 454, "Willie o Douglas Dale" (notes only)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 310-313, "Willie o Douglas Dale" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 20, "Willie o Douglas Dale" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's #1}
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 175-176, "Earl of Douglas and Dame Oliphant" (1 text)
DT 101, WILDOUG
Roud #65
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Willie and Earl Richard's Daughter" [Child 102] (plot)
NOTES [46 words]: David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 302, considers this a composed ballad, and suggests that it is "in some respects an anti-'Child Waters' [Child 63], a remaking of the old ballad from the feminine point of view." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: C101

Willie o Winsbury [Child 100]

DESCRIPTION: The king has been a prisoner; he returns to find his daughter looking ill. She proves to be pregnant; her lover was (Willie o Winsbury). The king orders Winsbury hanged, but upon seeing him, understands his daughter's action and allows the two to wed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1776 (Percy MS.)
KEYWORDS: pregnancy punishment pardon royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord),England(West,South)) US(Ap,NE) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Child 100, "Willie o Winsbury" (9 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #22}
Bronson 100, "Willie o Winsbury" (22 versions+1 in addenda, of which #2 is a Manx fragment which may not be related)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 100, "Willie o Winsbury" (5 versions: #1, #3, #4, #10, #22)
Greig/Duncan5 999, "Lord Thomas of Winchbury" (10 texts [including one fragment on pp. 610-611; see NOTES], 7 tunes) {E[+F]=Bronson's #4, A=#5, G=#6, B=#7}
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 11, "The King's Dochter Jean" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 224-225, "Willie o Winsbury" (notes only, claiming a verse in one of their versions of "Johnny Scot" is actually a "Willie" fragment)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 233-235, "Johnny Barbour" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #21}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 57-66, "Willie o Winsbury" (3 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #21, B=#20}
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 13, "Young Barbour" (3 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #16, #13, #12}
Peacock, pp. 534-536, "John Barbour" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 14, "Willie o' Winsbury" (2 texts, 4 tunes) {Bronson's #17}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 308-309, "Willie o Winsbury" (1 text)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 57-58, "Willie o Winsbury" (1 text)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 7, "Willie O Winsbury" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 62, "John Barbour" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 45, "Willie o Winsbury" (1 text)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 15, "Lord Thomas of Winesberry" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 8, "Willie o' WInsbury" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11}
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 59, "Lord Thomas of Winesberry" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 139, "Willie O' Winsbury" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 29, pp. 123-124, "Willie o Winsbury" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 71-73, "Willie O Winsbury" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H221, pp. 490-491, "The Rich Ship Owner's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT WILLIWIN* WILLIWI2* WILLIWI3*
Roud #64
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "John Barbour" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Anita Best and Pamela Morgan, "Johnny Barbour" (on NFABestPMorgan01)
Robert Cinnamond, "There Was a Lady Lived in the West" (on Voice17); "John Barlow" (on IRRCinnamond03)
Aindriú Ó Ciardha, "Willie O'Winsbury" (Piotr-Archive #551, recorded 03/23/2023; it uses the Andy Irvine tune, so it is not from tradition)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lady Diamond" [Child 269] (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Seven Sailor Boys
The Rich Shipowner's Daughter
The Prood King of France
What Aileth Thee?
NOTES [794 words]: Only one king of England since the Norman Conquest has been taken captive by a foreign power: Richard I ("the Lion-Hearted"; "Richard Yes-and-No") was imprisoned by the Duke of Austria. All told, Richard spent only six months of his ten year reign (1189-1199) in England. Unfortunately for the truth of this song, Richard (who may have been homosexual) had no children (at least, none that were legitimate; there was an illegitimate son. But he was a boy, so he couldn't have been the girl in this song anyway). Few other English kings have been absent from England long enough for the events here to take place.
If we transfer the story to Scotland, we find that David Bruce (reigned 1329-1370) spent much of his life in English captivity, but again had no children. The earlier William the Lion (reigned 1165-1214) also spent time in English hands, and *did* have children (including two daughters, Margaret and Isabella) -- but also had no feelings, and would never have been guilty of such a crime as forgiving someone. King James I spent eighteen years in English custody, starting in 1406 (meaning that he was in prison for half the reign of Henry IV, all the reign of Henry V, and a little of the reign of Henry VI), but he didn't marry (Joan Beaufort) until about the time he was freed; he had no children at the time. And although one of his daughters was named Joan, which isn't too far from Janet, James was assassinated in 1437, which surely means his children were all too young to get pregnant!
This leaves king John of France (reigned 1350-1364), who was taken prisoner by the Black Prince at Poitiers (1355), as the closest thing we have to an equivalent to the king in this ballad.
In some versions of the song, the hero Willie is himself a king in disguise; there is no evidence of this ever having happened in truth, though it is common in folktale (associated especially with James V of Scotland).
There was once a Winsbury in Somerset; the name, according to Ekwall, p. 524, is a shortening of "Wineces burug" or "Winuc's Burg"; the name is twice attested from the 960s. Google Maps does not allow its existence, but it seems to have been near Bath.
"Winsbury" is also an attested medieval surname; there were two knights named Thomas Wynnesbury, father and son, who were active in the west country starting in the 1320s -- the elder served as deputy justice of North Wales. They were associated with the FitzAlan Earls of Arundel (Fein, pp. 89-90). They weren't particularly noteworthy, but what is interesting is that the height of the younger Wynnesbury's career was about the time King John of France was captured at Poitiers. If Thomas Junior had had a son, the ages would likely have been about right. The flip side is, they can't have been as rich as implied in this song.
The idea of giving someone as much land as he can traverse in a day is by no means unique to this ballad, although all the land one could ride in a day is an incredibly large property. A version one could walk in a day is more reasonable, or even what one could hop. Kellett, p. 79, mentions the case of one Haverah, a "legendary one legged man to whom John of Gaunt... is supposed to have granted as much land as he could hop round on the longest day -- the result of which was Haverah Park, near Harrowgate, in which are the ruins of a hunting lodge called John of Gaunt's Castle."
In both of the Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast texts, as well as the Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland Newfoundland texts, the suitor is "Young Barbour," and he "ploughs the raging sea." This is a fascinating and intriguing change, because the Barbour family produced many famous Newfoundland captains -- people with no high political office but much respect in the community, and often rather well-to-do by Newfoundland standards. Several of them are mentioned in Newfoundland songs; for Alpheus Barbour, see "Sealer's Song (II)"; for Baxter, "The Nimrod's Song"; for George, "The Greenland Disaster (I)"; and for Wilf Barbour, "A Noble Fleet of Sealers."
These days, it seems the version most folkies know of this derives from Andy Irvine, who admitted to combining several texts and to lifting a tune from another song, variously described as "Willie o Douglas Dale" and "Fause Foodrage." It appears to be the former, but whichever it is, it is not a traditional combination. (To be sure, that's the way I learned the song, too, and still sing his version.) - RBW
A fragment, Bodleian, 2806 c.11(90), "Lord Thomas of Winsborough" ("It happen'd on a time when the proud king of France"), unknown, n.d. may be this ballad but I could not download it to verify that.
Greig/Duncan5 text count includes one fragment on pp. 610-611 corrected by 999J. - BS
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C100

Willie of Douglasdale

See Willie o Douglas Dale [Child 101] (File: C101)

Willie of Hazel Green

See John of Hazelgreen [Child 293] (File: C293)

Willie Rambler

DESCRIPTION: Willie Rambler leaves Lough Erne for Scotland and meets Mary "the pride of Glasgow Town." He asks that she "show to me the way." She offers him five hundred pounds to stay with her. "How could I leave Lough Erne's banks where my young Molly dwells?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1980 (IRHardySons)
KEYWORDS: courting request rejection rambling money Ireland Scotland
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #3576
RECORDINGS:
James Halpin, "Willie Rambler" (on IRHardySons)
NOTES [73 words]: Notes to IRHardySons quote the sleevenotes to another album which present a different picture than mine: "Willie Rambler ... is quite a businessman and, when asked his price to stay with her, immediately demands five hundred pounds. After the price is agreed he then proceeds to praise the beauties of Ballyshannon and Lough Erne...." (reference is to Dermot McLaughlin notes to Gabriel McArdle, "Dog Big Dog Little," Claddagh CC51CD). - BS
File: RcWilRa

Willie Reilly

See William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial) [Laws M10] (File: LM10)

Willie Reilly and his Cailin Ban

See William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial) [Laws M10] (File: LM10)

Willie Reilly and His Dear Colleen Ban

See William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial) [Laws M10] (File: LM10)

Willie Riley (II)

See The Wexford Lovers (File: ML3WilRi)

Willie Slain at Waterloo

See The Mantle So Green [Laws N38] (File: LN38)

Willie Taylor

See William Taylor [Laws N11] (File: LN11)

Willie the Waterboy

See The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father [Child 248]; also Sweet William's Ghost [Child 77] (File: C248)

Willie the Weeper

DESCRIPTION: Willie the Weeper, a chimney sweep, is a hop addict. One night he has a particularly wild dream, with the (Queen of somewhere) making him promises. The further course of the ballad varies, but usually describes a crash
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908
KEYWORDS: drugs dream
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Randolph 507, "Willie the Weeper" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 115, "Willy the Weeper" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 204-205, "Willy the Weeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 184-185, "Willie the Weeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 223, "Willie the Weeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 103-106, "Willie the Weeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 123-125, "Willie the Weeper" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks, pp. 114-115, "Willie the Weeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 156-157, "Willie the Weeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 54, "Willy, the Weeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 26, "Willy the Weeper" (1 text)
DT, WILLWEP1 WILLWEP2
Roud #977
RECORDINGS:
Louis Armstrong, "Willie the Weeper" (Vocalion 3381, 1937)
Roy Evans, "Willie the Weeper" (Columbia 15687-D, 1931; rec. 1928)
Ernest Rogers, "Willie the Chimney Sweeper" (Columbia 15012-D, 1925) (Victor 20502, 1927)
Marc Williams, "Willie the Weeper" (Brunswick 240, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cocaine Lil" (tune)
NOTES [100 words]: This is said to be the inspiration for the pop song "Minnie the Moocher." Coleman/Bregman-SongsOfAmericanFolks think the story originated in San Francisco.
David A. Jasen, Tin Pan Alley: The Composers, the Songs, the Performers and their Times: The Golden Age of American Popular Music from 1886 to 1956, Primus, 1988, p. 116, says that this song was first published in 1927, the year when it was recorded by three major jazz bands (King Olvier's, Louis Armstrong's, and Doc Cook's). The song itself seems to be older, as the earliest date shows (although I don't know where that date comes from). - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: R507

Willie Warfield [Laws I20]

DESCRIPTION: Willie Warfield, a heavy gambler who does not know when to quit, plays cards with the singer. The singer grows angry and shoots Warfield. He is imprisoned and his family will not help him, but his girlfriend pawns her jewels to raise his bail
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: gambling cards homicide prison
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Laws I20, "Willie Warfield"
DT 844, WILWARF
Roud #6382
File: LI20

Willie Was As Fine a Sailor

DESCRIPTION: Willie and Mary plan marriage but his ship must "sail for a foreign land." If he proves false he prays her spirit haunt him until he dies. He is false. His captain writes Mary. She drowns herself and haunts him until a wave sweeps him overboard.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity curse suicide death sailor ghost
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Ireland US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 101, "Willie Was As Fine a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 82-84, "Now, Wullie was as Nice a Lad" (1 text)
Bethke-AdirondackVoices,pp. 103-104, "Willie Was As Fina a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi101 (Partial)
Roud #2972
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Captain Glen/The New York Trader (The Guilty Sea Captain A/B) [Laws K22]" (Jonah theme) and references there
cf. "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (The Gosport Tragedy; Pretty Polly)" [Laws P36A/B]
NOTES [41 words]: Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi ends with the Jonah motif: "When an unknown wave swept o'er the deck, And swept him o'er the side ... The night grew calm and clear." cf. Jonah 1:15 "And they heaved Jonah overboard, and the sea stopped raging." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: MaWi101

Willie Went to Westerdale

See Risselty, Rosselty, Now, Now, Now (File: C277RR)

Willie Willie Wagtail

DESCRIPTION: "Willie Willie Wagtail Born in an egg-shell, Christened in a teacup, Died in a dung-cart, That was the end Of poor Willie Wagtail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: childbirth death | Willie Wagtail eggshell teacup
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 74, "(Willie Willie Wagtail)" (1 text)
Roud #38128
File: BAAI074B

Willie-O

See Willy O! (File: CrMa113)

Willie, Oh, Willie

See Johnny, Oh Johnny (File: DarNS277)

Willie, Willie, I Am Waiting

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Willie, Willie, I am waiting, I can't wait no longer for you. Three times the whistle blows, Are you coming, yes or no?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope courting | waiting whistle
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #609, "Willie, Willie, I am waiting" (1 text)
File: AJRR609

Willie's Courtship

DESCRIPTION: Willie's sweetheart would go home "for the clouds do gather." He can't dissuade her until he threatens to kill himself "his love thus proving." She says "I will be your bride But ... to frighten me so It was vastly foolish, vastly foolish."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople)
KEYWORDS: love marriage bargaining suicide dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 114, "Willie's Courtship" (1 text)
Roud #4740
File: ReSh114

Willie's Drowned at Gamerie

See Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie [Child 215] (File: C215)

Willie's Drowned in Gamerie

DESCRIPTION: Annie mourns Willie, drowned in a storm on the way to buy their marriage ring. Her aunt and mother tell her "some ither lad will marry me." Annie says, "My bridal robe's my winding sheet, The auld kirkyard my bed'll be," and dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: grief love ring death drowning storm mother clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #87, p. 1, "Willie's Drowned in Gamerie" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1228, "Willie's Drowned in Gamerie" (1 text)
Roud #6853
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie [Child 215]" (story) and references there
cf. "Willie Drowned in Yarrow" (story)
File: GrD61228

Willie's Drowned in Gamery

See Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie [Child 215] (File: C215)

Willie's Drowned in Yarrow

See Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie [Child 215] (File: C215)

Willie's Fatal Visit [Child 255]

DESCRIPTION: Willie, having spent the night with Margaret, leaves before dawn because the cock crowed too soon. On the road he meets a ghost. Since he is a sinner and has not said a prayer for the road, the ghost tears him to shreds
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: sex separation ghost death bird nightvisit
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 255, "Willie's Fatal Visit" (1 text)
Bronson 255, "Willie's Fatal Visit" (2 versions)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #75, p. 251-252, "Willie's Fate (Willie's Fatal Visit (Child 255)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 623-625, "Willie's Fatal Visit" (1 text)
Roud #244
RECORDINGS:
Jeannie Robertson, "Willie's Fatal Visit (Willie's Fate)" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #2}
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father" [Child 248] (plot)
NOTES [74 words]: This sounds almost like an "alternate ending" for "The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father" [Child 248]. Hugh Shields conjectured that that was an "alba song" (see the entry on Child 248 for explanation). This, however, seems to me almost closer to the form Shields describes. - RBW
Also collected and sung by Ellen Mitchell, "Willy's Fatal Visit" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C255

Willie's Ghost

See Willy O! (File: CrMa113)

Willie's Lady [Child 6]

DESCRIPTION: Willie travels to woo and wed a wife. His mother, not approving of the bride, casts spells to ensure that she will never bear a child. Willie tricks his mother into believing the baby has been born, and the mother blurts out the way to lift the spell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783/1799 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland)
KEYWORDS: magic mother wife pregnancy childbirth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Child 6, "Willie's Lady" (1 text)
Bronson 6, "Willie's Lady" (1 version)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 180-185, "Sweet Willy/Willie's Lady" (2 parallel texts plus a photo of the badly-transcribed tune; also a reconstructed tune on p. 283)
Greig/Duncan2 346, "Simon's Lady" (1 text)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 124-127, "Willie's Lady" (1 text, from print rather than tradition)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 64-66, "Willie's Lady" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 6, "Willy's Lady" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 18, "Willie's Lady" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 252-255+356, "Willie's Lady" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 2, "Willie's Lady" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's [#1]}
DT 6, WILILADY
Roud #220
RECORDINGS:
Patricia Campbell, "Willie's Lady" (Piotr-Archive #231, recorded 09/05/2022; a spoken text only, mostly describing the song rather than speaking the actual words)
Judy Cook, "Willie's Lady" (Piotr-Archive #258, recorded 09/13/2022; sung to Ray Fisher's tune, so probably not from tradition, though the words are substantially different)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gil Brenton" [Child 5] (lyrics)
NOTES [170 words]: At least one of the magic tricks described in this song is widespread in folklore: Pregnant women were supposed to remove all knots from their clothing to ease childbirth. - RBW
The Swedish ballad "Den Förtrollade Barnaföderskan (The Bewitched Mother-to-Be)" is essentially the same story, with variations in detail. - PJS
Bertrand Harris Bronson, The Ballad as Song (essays on ballads), University of California Press, 1969, p. 43, studying the text and tune of this, suggests that the tune collected from Mrs. Brown must have had an internal refrain, the text of which was not taken down. This apparently was a habit of the transcriber; he omitted the internal refrains of "Clerk Colvill" and "Gil Brenton" as well. Since Brown's is the only collected tune for this, particular attention should probably be paid to the idea. Alternately, perhaps, the internal refrain was sometimes but not always replaced by additional lyrics; this would explain the fact that some verses seem to be of two lines, some of three. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: C006

Willie's Lost at Gamery

See Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie [Child 215] (File: C215)

Willie's Lyke-Wake [Child 25]

DESCRIPTION: Willie wants to know if his sweetheart loves him. On the advice of his (mother), he feigns death and has his lover come to his wake. She despairs. Coming to the wake, she kisses the "corpse," which comes to life to accept her love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: love funeral trick
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Child 25, "Willie's Lyke-Wake" (5 texts)
Bronson 25, "Willie's Lyke-Wake" (4 versions)
Greig/Duncan4 843, "Among the Blue Flowers and the Yellow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 16, "The Merry Lykewake"; 55, "The Sun Shines Over the Valley" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 110-111, "Willie's Lyke-Wake" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 61, "Willie's Lyke-Wake" (1 text)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, p. 242, "Willie's Lyke-Wake" (1 fragment, two lines only, the second line of which is found in Child's "C" text of "Willie's Lyke-Wake," but a similar line is found in "The Beggar Wench," and the first line of this fragment, "Kind sir, if you please," may fit better with the latter)
DT 25, WILILYKE*
Roud #30
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Among the Blue Flowers and the Yellow
File: C025

Willie's on the Dark Blue Sea

DESCRIPTION: "My Willie's on the dark blue sea, He's gone far o'er the main." She prays that the winds will soon blow him home. A storm blows up; she prays more earnestly. At that moment Willie shows up and takes her in his arms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Journal from the Euphrasia)
KEYWORDS: sailor separation reunion
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 234-236, "Willie's on the Dark Blue Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 173-174, "My Willie's on the Dark Blue Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 65, "Willie's On the Dark Blue Sea" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2655, p. 180, "Willie's on the Dark Blue Sea" (2 references)
Dime-Song-Book #2/72, p. 7 and #2/64, p. 7, "Willie's on the Dark Blue Sea" (1 text)
Roud #4223
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1849 451530, "Willie's on the Dark Blue Sea," Oliver Ditson (Boston), 1849 (tune)
LOCSinging, as115070, "Willie's on the Dark Blue Sea," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also sb40576b, "Willie's on the Dark Blue Sea"
NOTES [54 words]: Broadside LOCSheet sm1849 451530 claims it is "Written and Composed by H.G. Thompson" but that may just refer to the arrangement.
Broadside LOCSinging as115070: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: SWMS234

Willie's Rare

See Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie [Child 215] (File: C215)

Willikin's Return

See Till Home Sail Wylekyn (Willikin's Return) (File: MSTiHoWy)

Willikins and His Dinah

See Vilikens and His Dinah [LawsM31A/B] (File: LM31)

Willow Garden

See Rose Connoley [Laws F6] (File: LF06)

Willow Green

See The Holly Twig [Laws Q6]; also The Wife Wrapped in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: LQ06)

Willow Tree (I), The

DESCRIPTION: Four farmers discover a man weeping by a grave. He tells that he had married Fanny just before he went to sea. She was told he had died, and married another. When he came home to see her, she died. He sits by her grave, and soon dies himself.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation marriage reunion death burial sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H789, pp. 419-420, "The Willow Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7965
File: HHH789

Willow Tree (II), The

See Under the Willow She's Sleeping (The Willow Tree) (File: R711)

Willow Tree (III), The

See Garners Gay (Rue; The Sprig of Thyme) and related songs (File: FSWB163)

Willow Tree (IV), The

DESCRIPTION: "As I passed by a willow tree, willow tree, That willow leaf blew down on me. I picked it up, it would not break. I passed my love, he would not speak." The singer recalls meetings, wishes she were understood, and says she would be happy if he came back
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Hamer)
KEYWORDS: love courting abandonment floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hamer-GreenGroves, p. 46, "The Willow Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #18831
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (theme, lyrics) and references there
NOTES [65 words]: Roud links this with "My Blue-Eyed Boy," which in turn links with "The Butcher Boy." I see his point; a lot of this is free-floating material. But the "willow leaf" motif is unusual, and the tune, which uses both a sharped and a flatted fifth (transcribed by Hamer as a sharped fourth) looks very unusual. So I've split them, while freely admitting the close similarity and likely kinship. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: HaGr046

Willow Tree (V), The

DESCRIPTION: Singer is a woman. Her love won't speak to her. She wishes his bosom were glass so she could "view those secrets of your heart." Her love is a sailor: "when he gets so far away, He hardly thinks no more of me" She would be happy to have him back.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recording, May Bradley)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad sailor floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
Roud #60
RECORDINGS:
May Bradley, "The Willow Tree" (on Voice12)
NOTES [128 words]: The Willow reference is not exactly the expected one.
As I pass by a willow tree, willow tree,
That willow leaf blew down on me.
I picked it up, it would not break.
I've passed my love; he would not speak.
The break is usually for an oak tree ("I leaned my back against an oak ... First it bent and then it broke") rather than a willow leaf. Maybe the travelled lines have been so corrupted here that it is a new song.
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 10" - 4.9.02 considers this a version of "Tavern in the Town." I don't find enough of "Tavern"'s identifying lines to make that connection. - BS
There is some floating material here, though, e.g. the "heart made of glass" shows up in some versions of "My Dearest Dear." - RBW
File: RcTWilTr

Willow Tree (VI), The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, take me in your arms, my love, for keen the wind doth blow... for bitter is my woe. She hears me not, she cares me not.... While here I lie, alone to die, beneath the willow tree. She is rich; he once was; but his gold is lost and she no longer cares
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (Bodleian broadsides Firth b.25(210), Firth c.18(97), Harding B 25(2076))
KEYWORDS: love money rejection death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, p. 137, "The Willow" (1 text)
Roud #3294
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(210), Firth c.18(97), Harding B 25(2076), "The Willow Tree," J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Harding B 28(155), Harding B 28(269), "Willow Tree," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 36(22), T. Wilknson (Manchester), n.d.; also 2806 c.13(5)=2806 c.13(190), Firth b.25(426)=Harding B 11(4079), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; Harding B 11(1418), "The Willow Tree", E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1840-1854; Harding B 11(1189), Harding B 11(1190), Harding B 15(386b), "The Wilow Tree," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; Harding B 11(794), "The Willow Tree," T. Birt (London), 1833-1841; Harding B 15(386a), Johnson Ballads 1938, Johnson Ballads 1939, "The Willow Tree," J. Wheeler (Manchester), c. 1837; Harding B 25(2074), "The Willow Tree," Angus (Newcastle), 1774-1825; Johnson Ballads 2948, "Willow Tree," unknown, n.d.; 2806 c.18(337), "The Willow Tree," J. K. Pollock (North Shields), 1815-1855
NOTES [20 words]: Very rare in tradition (understandably, because it's not very good), but extremely common in broadsides and songsters. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: FMNS137

Willow Tree (VII), The

See The Seeds of Love (File: K167)

Willow, The

See The WIllow Tree (VI) (File: FMNS137)

Willowbee

DESCRIPTION: "O now we willowbee, O willowbee, O willowbee, O now we willowbee All night long." "O come through the silence." "O dancin' down the alley. "O skipping down the alley, All night long." "O singing down the alley."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth, pp. 14-17, "Willowbee" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
NOTES [58 words]: Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth treats this as two separate songs, with different words and music. But the tunes are almost identical, the idea of the songs is the same, and they're both playparties. I would consider them the same. Sadly, Trent-Johns-PlaySongsOfTheDeepSouth does not indicate a source, and I know no other "Willowbee" songs. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: TrJo014

Willst du weizen? (Do You Want to Know?)

See Shall I Show You How the Farmer (File: Lins050)

Willy Brennan

See Brennan on the Moor [Laws L7] (File: LL07)

Willy Coombe (Crantock Games)

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas in the month of May, when flowers do spring" that the young men gather for the Crantock Games. In a fight between Crantock and Newlyn men, William Coomb is shot. He bids farewell to father, etc. and tells the coroner he was "wilfully" shot
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: death homicide sports farewell
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 16, 1721 - Crantock Games at which William Coomb is shot; he is buried the next day (source: Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #88, "Willy Coombe" (1 text, 1 tune, shortened)
Gundry-CanowKernow-SongsDancesFromCornwall, p. 48, "Crantock Games (William Coomb)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3318
File: Gund048

Willy Foster

See Katie Bairdie (File: MSNR092)

Willy March

DESCRIPTION: Willy is stranded on the ice and can walk no further. He sends his companion, who is the only other survivor of their group, to the Cape St. Francis lighthouse for assistance but Willy dies before help can return.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (England, Vikings of the Ice)
KEYWORDS: recitation death disaster
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "Willy March" (1 text): p. 80 in the 2nd edition
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 67, "Willie March" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 107, "Williy March" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: George Allan England, _Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt_ (also published as _The Greatest Hunt in the World_), Doubleday, 1924, pp. 126-127, "Willy March" (1 text)
ST Doy80 (Partial)
Roud #7320
NOTES [58 words]: Cape St. Francis is north of St. John's at the mouth of Conception Bay. - SH
Despite being in Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, and "collected" by England in his sealing tales, I can't see any evidence that this is a sealing piece -- or, at least, that it comes from the offshore fishery. Possibly it is a tale of landsmen walking out to take seals. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy80

Willy o Douglass Dale

See Willie o Douglas Dale [Child 101] (File: C101)

Willy O!

DESCRIPTION: Willy sails to the Bay of Biscay. Seven years later, he came to the girl's door. He says he is a ghost. The cock crows. He says his ghost will guard her. As he disappears he tells her "Weep no more for your Willy O"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan2); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.15(136))
LONG DESCRIPTION: Seven years ago Willy went "on board the tender" and sailed to the Bay of Biscay. He does not answer Mary's letters. One night he comes to her bed-chamber door. She asks why he is so pale. He says the clay has changed his blushes. They discuss their old courtship. The cock crows. He says his ghost will guard her though his body lies in the West Indies. As he disappears he tells her "Weep no more for your Willy O"
KEYWORDS: ghost separation death nightvisit love bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar) Ireland US(NE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 338, "Willie O" (1 text)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 113-114, "Willie O" (2 texts, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 6, "The Bay of Biscay O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 3, pp. 5,100,155-156, "Willie's Ghost" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 255, "Willie-O" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Roud #22567
RECORDINGS:
Bill Cassidy, "Biscayo" (on IRTravellers01)
Robert Cinnamond, "Ghost of Willie-O" (on IRRCinnamond02)
Nora Cleary, "Willie-O" (on Voice03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.15(136), "Willy O!" ("Come all you young maids that's fair handsome"), W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867; also Harding B 19(86), Firth c.12(293), "Willy O!"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In (The Ghostly Lover)" (theme)
NOTES [257 words]: Broadside Bodleian 2806 c.15(136) is the basis for the description.
Jim Carroll's notes to Bill Cassidy's "Biscayo" on "From Puck to Appleby: Songs of Irish Travellers in England," Musical Traditions Records MTCD325-6 (2003) say that Hugh Shields believes the main source of the "Willy O" broadside is "Sweet William's Ghost" (Child 77). I wonder if Shields meant that; except for the night-visiting ghost and the bird singing in Child 77.F or the moorcock announcing day in Paddy Tunney's "Lady Margaret" ("The Voice of the People, Vol 3: O'er His Grave the Grass Grew Green," Topic TSCD 653 (1998)), I don't find a connection.
The broadside version of "Willy O!" has distinguishing lines that include
As Mary lay sleeping, her true love came creeping....
They spent that night in deep discoursing,
Concerning their courtship sometime ago....
John Reilly's "Adieu Unto All True Lovers" ("Rise Up Quickly and Let Me In") and Cecilia Costello's "The Grey Cock": VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 52-53, "The Grey Cock, or The Lover's Ghost" adds this verse from the broadside.
O Willy dear where is the blushes,
That you had some time ago,
Mary dear the clay has changed them,
For I am the ghost of your Willy O.
Ewan MacColl's version of Cecilia Costello's "The Grey Cock" on Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Grey Cock" (on ENMacCollSeeger02) adds this verse from the broadside:
When she saw him disappearing,
Down her cheeks the tears did flow
Mary dear, sweetheart and darling
Weep no more for your Willy O. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: CrMa113

Willy Reilly

See William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial) [Laws M10] (File: LM10)

Willy Reilly's Courtship

See William Riley's Courtship [Laws M9] (File: LM09)

Willy Vare

DESCRIPTION: Ellen Vare's sailor husband dies at sea. She has one son who becomes a sailor. His ship is wrecked in a storm. Willy survives alone on an island for three years. He is rescued by a ship seeking gold. He returns to his poor mother with gold and jewels
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: parting return reunion rescue sea ship disaster storm wreck mother sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 65, "Willy Vare" (1 text)
File: GrMa065

Willy Weaver

See Will the Weaver [Laws Q9] (File: LQ09)

Willy, My Son

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Willy, Poor Boy

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses, utterly unconnected. "The train was almost started/The conductor come by with his lamp...." "I asked her if she loved me/She said she loved me some...." "Sometimes I live in the country, sometimes I live in town...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Roy Harvey & Jess Johnston)
KEYWORDS: railroading love hardheartedness loneliness poverty courting floatingverses lover train death drowning suicide gambling hobo
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 112, "Willy, Poor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Roy Harvey & Jess Johnston (or Roy Harvey & the North Carolina Ramblers) "No Room for a Tramp" (Champion 16187, 1931; on TimesAint05)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Willy, Poor Boy" (on NLCR03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Goodnight, Irene" (words)
cf. "Sometimes I'm in This Country" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Don't Get Trouble in Your Mind" (floating verses)
cf. "Little Maud" (floating verses, some similarity in the tune)
NOTES [89 words]: This song is almost impossible to describe; it is so disjointed as to be meaningless. - PJS
In fact it seems to consist entirely of lines borrowed from other songs. But it borrows from so MANY other songs that it has to file under its own name.... - RBW
Note that the "Sometimes I live in the country/Sometimes I live in town/Sometimes I take a fool notion/To jump in the river and drown" verse in this song predates the first recording of Lead Belly's "Goodnight Irene," with which the verse is usually associated, by two years. - PJS
File: CSW112

Willy, Willy

DESCRIPTION: "Where is my little one hiding tonight, Willy, Willy, Come from your hiding-place, little eyes bright, Willy, Willy, loving and true." "Ah, but my heart is forgetting its pain, Willy, Willy, Never on earth shall I see thee again, Willy, Willy...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: death separation hiding
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 713, "Willy, Willy" (1 text)
Roud #7378
NOTES [36 words]: Randolph's source claims it came from the Civil War era, and there is certainly a hint of a song for a lost soldier boy. But it seems to me that there's also a bit of lullaby in there. I wish we knew more verses. - RBW
File: R713

Wilson Patent Stove, The

DESCRIPTION: "I remember very well, Jim, That Wilson Patent stove, That father bought and paid for, Jim, In the cloth that the girls wove. The people all wondered, Jim, When we got the thing to go, They swore it'd bust and kill us all Just fifty years ago."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: technology commerce
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 486, "The Wilson Patent Stove" (2 short texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #765
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Buy a Charter Oak" (theme)
NOTES [81 words]: Randolph reports, "Many old settlers in Arkansas tell me that 'Wilson Patent' was the trade name of the first cookstoves sold here -- previously everybody cooked on the fireplace. Agents came through the county in wagons, trading stoves for handwoven counterpanes and carpets."
Roud lumps this with "Twenty Years Ago (Forty Years Ago)." It certainly has that look. But while it may be a loose fragment of that piece, given its current state, I think it better to separate the two. - RBW
File: R486

Wilson, Gilmore, and Johnson

See The Three Butchers [Laws L4] (File: LL04)

Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?

DESCRIPTION: "Hear the footsteps of Jesus, he is now passing by, Bearing balm for the wounded, healing all who apply...." "Wilt thou be made whole (x2)? O come, weary suff'rer, O come, sin-sick soul... Step into the current and thou shalt be whole."
AUTHOR: William J. Kirkpatrick (1838-1921)
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 copyright
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 82, "Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [180 words]: According to W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 220, "Gospel music pioneer William James Kirkpatrick was noted as a composer, teacher, and compiler of Sunday school and gospel hymnbooks. After studying with a number of music instructors, he started teaching music in the Philadelphia area. He also became music director of several Methodist churches, at the same time earning his living as the manager of a furniture business."
Starting in 1878, he and John R. Sweney ran a business called "The Praise Publishing Company," which eventually published about a hundred songbooks. "Kirkpatrick's songbooks were very popular at revivals and camp meetings, and they helped to establish and popularize the gospel style that developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Of Kirkpatrick's prolific output, 'Jesus Saves' and ''Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus' (both 1882) are the best known today." However, as of 2022, no other song of his appears in the Index, and even this one has only the thinnest hold in tradition. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FSC082

Wilton Fair

See Bridgwater Fair (File: ShH76)

Wiltshire Wedding, The

See One Misty, Moisty Morning (File: OO2359)

Wily Auld Carle, The

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Wim-Wam-Waddles

See The Swapping Boy (File: E093)

Winchester Gaol

DESCRIPTION: "There's a new county gaol in Winchester, Hants, Where the young prosecutor is going to provance." The prisoners are cold, their meals of bread and water are too small, and there is no liquor. "If you don't believe me... just you go a-poaching...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: prison punishment lawyer poaching food hardtimes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 292-293, "Winchester Gaol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 114-116, "Winchester Gaol" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1204
File: CoSB292

Wind Across the Wild Moor, The

See Mary of the Wild Moor [Laws P21] (File: LP21)

Wind and Rain, The

See The Twa Sisters [Child 10] (File: C010)

Wind and the Rain and the Wind Blew High, The

See I'll Tell My Ma (I) (File: MCB146)

Wind and the Snow, The

DESCRIPTION: "The wind and snow oer the cold world blow From the wild raging east to the west But noo I'm sitting snug at my warm chimney lug And I carena a fig for the blast"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan3 544, "The Wind and the Snow" (1 fragment)
Roud #6020
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan3 entry. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3544

Wind Blew the Bonnie Lass's Plaidie Awa', The

DESCRIPTION: Young woman goes to the butcher to buy beef, but he takes her in his arms, down they fall, and the wind blows her plaidie away. Three months later, her waist swells. The neighbors are upset; she blames the beef. (He marries her.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Greig/Duncan7)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Young woman goes to the butcher to buy beef, but he takes her in his arms, down they fall, and the wind blows her plaidie away, not to be found. (He promises to pay for it.) Three months later, her waist swells; she says his beef is tough to chew. The neighbors are upset; she blames the beef. (He marries her, saying, "We shall hae the middle cut, it's tenderest of a'.")
KEYWORDS: sex clothes commerce lover food marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 75-76, "The Plaidie Away" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1413, "The Wind Blew the Bonnie Lassie's Plaidie Awa" (3 texts)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 96-97, "The Wind Blew the Bonnie Lass's Plaidie Awa'" (1 text)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #47, pp. 199-200, "The Bonnie Lassie's Pleydie's Awa'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2574
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy McBeath, Duncan Burke [instrumental], Jeannie Robertson [composite] "The Wind Blew the Bonny Lassie's Plaidie Awa'" (on FSB02, FSB2CD)
Jimmy McBeath, "The Wind Blew the Lassie's Plaidie Awa'" (on Voice10)
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y4:029, "The Wind Blew the Plaidie Awa'," John Ross (Newcastle), 19C
NLScotland, RB.m.143(126), "The Bonnie Lassie's Plaidie," Poet's Box (Dundee), n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The White Cockade" (tune)
NOTES [19 words]: It appears that several versions of this have been bowdlerized. The extent of the damage is not entirely clear. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: RcWBTBLP

Wind Blew the Hairs of My Head, The

DESCRIPTION: "The wind blew the hairs of my head, Mother, Two at a time."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: storm hair mother | wind
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 137, "The wind blew the hairs of my head, Mother" (1 short text)
File: KSUC137B

Wind Blew Up, the Wind Blew Down, The

See The Unquiet Grave [Child 78] (File: C078)

Wind Blow East, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the wind blow east, the wind blow west, The wind blow the Sunshine Right down in town." Similarly for other boat, e.g. the China, the Settin' Star.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry)
KEYWORDS: disaster storm
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 80-81, "The Wind Blow East" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11601
File: LxSi080

Wind Blows High, The

See The Wind (Rain, Rain, the Wind Does Blow) (File: RcRRtWDB)

Wind Hath Blown My Plaid Away, The

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Wind in the Willows

DESCRIPTION: Round. "The wind in The willows sighing Like a solitary soul Alone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Kent County (Girl Guides) Song Book, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 438, "Wind in the Willows" (notes only)
GirlScouts-SingTogether, p. 113, "The Wind in the Willows" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 18, "The Wind in the Willows" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "The Wind in the Willows" (1 text, 1 tune) (12th edition, p. 37)
File: ACSF438X

Wind Is in the West, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the wind is in the west, And the guinea's on her nest, And I can't get any rest For my baby! I'll tell pap when he comes home Somebody beat my little baby!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: lullaby abuse baby
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 157 (partly repeated on p. 160), (no title) (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bookerman" (theme)
File: ScNF157A

Wind It Blew Up the Railroad Track, The

See The Little Red Train (File: EM224)

Wind of the Winter Night

DESCRIPTION: "Wind of the winter night, whence comest thou? And whither, oh whither, art wand'ring now? Sad, sad is thy voice on the desolate moor." The wind tells the various places it has been, including the wreck of a sailing ship; the wind laments destroying it
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Mackay / Music: Henry Russell
EARLIEST DATE: 1836 (sheet music published by Firth & Hall, New York)
KEYWORDS: ship disaster death dialog
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 286-287, "Wind of the Winter's Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27548
NOTES [22 words]: For background on Eliza Cook, see the notes to "Grandmother's Chair." For background on Henry Russell, see "Cheer, Boys, Cheer (II)."
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HGam286

Wind of the Winter's Night

See Wind of the Winter Night (File: HGam286)

Wind That Ball

DESCRIPTION: "We're goin' to wind this ball, Oh Gean, oh Gean, We're going to wind this ball oh Gean."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 550, "Wind That Ball" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [17 words]: The current description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 fragment. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5550B

Wind That Shakes the Barley

DESCRIPTION: "I sat within the valley green, I sat me with my true love." The singer tries to decide between love of a girl and love of country. He is saying goodbye when an English bullet kills the girl. Now, filled with sad memories, he goes to fight the English
AUTHOR: Robert Dwyer Joyce (1830-1883) (source: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (Joyce's _Ballads, Romances and Songs_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion soldier death separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 98-99, "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 63, "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WINDBARL WINDCORN
Roud #2994
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" (on IRClancyMakem03)
Sarah Makem, "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" (on Voice08)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rolling Neuse" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Wind That Shakes the Corn
NOTES [67 words]: The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Wind That Shakes the Barley" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998)) - BS
"The Wind That Shakes the Corn" appears to be a modern adaption of this rebel song, though I can't prove this. - RBW
File: PGa098

Wind That Shakes the Corn

See Wind That Shakes the Barley (File: PGa098)

Wind the Bobbin

DESCRIPTION: "Wind the bobbin up..." Pull and tug.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 133, "Wind the Bobbin" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OpGa133

Wind, The (Rain, Rain, the Wind Does Blow)

DESCRIPTION: "The wind, the wind, the wind blows high, The rain comes pouring from the sky." The girl says she will die if she doesn't get the boy she wants. The boys are fighting for her, but there is only one she will accept
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty love
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1578, "The Wind Blows High" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #152, p. 2, "The Wind, The Wind"; #159, p. 2, "The Wind, The Wind" (2 texts)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 22, "The Wind Blows High" (3 texts, 1 tune)
cf. Kinloch-TheBalladBook XIX, pp. 67-68, (no title) (1 text, a mishmash with some lines reminiscent of this)
Montgomerie/Montgomerie-ScottishNurseryRhymes 56, "Skipping" ("The wind and the wind and the wind blows high") (1 text)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 18, "I'll Tell My Ma" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 92-93, "(The rain, the rain)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #12, "Down She Comes as White as Milk" (2 texts, 1 tune plus excerpts; the text with tune is "Wallflowers"; the other text might be "The Wind (Rain, Rain, the Wind Does Blow)")
Cray-AshGrove, p. 16, "Golden City" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST RcRRtWDB (Full)
Roud #2649
RECORDINGS:
Mrs Grant Covey, "Rain Rain the Wind Does Blow" (on NovaScotia1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'll Tell My Ma" (lyrics)
NOTES [254 words]: This item has a complicated story. The Clancy Brothers conflate this song with the "I"ll Tell My Ma" stanza. Roud lumps the two, and initial versions of the Index did as well. This is the more so as the versions are very unstable and localized -- e.g. Ben Schwartz describes the Nova Scotia version as follows: "'Rain rain the wind does blow ... Marie Richardson says she'll die If she don't get a fellow with a rolling eye.' She's from Halifax. 'All the boys are fighting for her ... Gordie Isnor will have her still.'"
Still, I've now seen enough versions which separate the two parts that I've split them. Best to check both, of course. - RBW
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast and the Clancy Brothers version are almost the same song: one "I'll Tell My Ma" verse with the girl from Belfast City, and the rest of "The Wind(Rain, Rain, the Wind Does Blow)."
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "I'll Tell My Ma" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)) Sean O Boyle, notes to David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland": .".. the polka rhythm is the basis of the tune which indicates that the song originated in the mid-nineteenth century."
NovaScotia1 notes: "Singing game ... the players formed up in couples and went around in a ring. A boy chose a girl, then the girl chose a boy and so on until they were all taken" - BS
Similarly the Scottish version in Montgomerie appears to be a skipping game. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcRRtWDB

Wind, The Wind, The

See The Wind (Rain, Rain, the Wind Does Blow) (File: RcRRtWDB)

Wind, Wind, Heather Gipsy

DESCRIPTION: "Wind, wind, heather gipsy, whistling in my tree." The sound of the wind makes the singer "tipsy"; it is like a "wayward lover"
AUTHOR: John Galssworthy (1867-1933) / Music: Marie Gaudette (1894-1966) (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs; poetrynook.com)
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Sanders-SingHighSingLow)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 335, "Wind, Wind, Heather Gypsy" (notes only)
Sanders-SingHighSingLow, p. 47, "Wind, Wind" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [11 words]: Yes, that's the John Galsworthy who wrote "The Forsyte Saga." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF335H

Wind, Wind, Heather Gypsy

See Wind, Wind, Heather Gipsy (File: ACSF335H)

Wind'ard Car'line

DESCRIPTION: "Wind'ard Car'line come down oh." "Come jump on 'pon Nine-Toe Astor." The white doctor asks if the patient has brought any money "No dacta Are jumbie wha' make me poorly"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: help magic music ritual nonballad religious doctor ghost Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 34, "Wind'ard Car'line" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [67 words]: Elder-FolksongsFromTobago: "Here women beseech the ancestor spirit, Caroline [from 'Windard' (East Tobago)], to come down and 'jump on 'pon [the local tambourine player] Nine-Toe Astor' to possess him. Once Astor is possessed, the spirit would tell the people what medicines will cure the patient. The chorus mocks the White doctor; he is useless since 'it is jumbie that makes the victim poorly.'" - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo034

Winding Sheet Coffin, The

DESCRIPTION: "How swiftly the years of our pilgrimage fly, As weeks, months, and seasons roll silently by...." We are reminded that "The good rise to Heaven, but the bad sink to Hell." The singers wash their hands of sinners' blood and happily meet Christians
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Hell
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 658, "The Winding Sheet Coffin" (1 text)
Roud #7581
File: R658

Winding Up the Clock

DESCRIPTION: "Winding up the clock," "tick-tock"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1910 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: playparty technology
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 5, "Winding Up the Clock" (1 text)
File: OpGa005

Winds Are Blowing

DESCRIPTION: "Winds are blowing and rain is falling And joy is filling the air. Trouble and sorrow are gone forever And the song abounds everywhere. We're all together now, making friends that will last." Be happy and have fun among your fellow scouts before you leave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: campsong nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 539, 552, "Winds Are Blowing" (notes only)
File: ACSF539W

Winds That Blew 'Cross the Wild Moor, The

See Mary of the Wild Moor [Laws P21] (File: LP21)

Windsor

DESCRIPTION: Shape note hymn: "My God, how many are my fears, How fast my foes increase! Their number how it multiplies! How fatal to my peace."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1808 (Missouri Harmony)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 153, "Windsor" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: San153

Windstorm and Rain

DESCRIPTION: "In the last day of September, in the year nineteen nine, God almighty rose in the weather And that troubles everybody's mind." The song the storm, concluding, "God, he is in the windstorm and rain And everybody ought to mind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: storm religious
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 76, (no title) (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 341, "(no title)" (1 text)
NOTES [14 words]: Reportedly based on a storm which struck Terrebone Parish in Louisiana in 1909. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: CNFM076A

Windy Bill (I)

DESCRIPTION: "When Joshua camped at pore Jericho's town, He blew his horn till the walls tumbled down... I blow my own horn... That's why they call me Windy Bill." Assorted tall tales, many Biblical, and often offered as explanations for the name "Windy Bill"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: talltale humorous religious Bible
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 430, "Windy Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7611
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Walkin' in the Parlor" (theme)
NOTES [174 words]: Among the Biblical incidents related in this story are:
* Jericho destroyed by Joshua: Josh. 6:15-21 (the preliminaries occupy Josh. 2 and the rest of Josh. 6)
* "David went round with a stone and a sling, And he beaned old Goliath and later was king, He ran with the wild bunch while Saul was alive" (David and Goliath: 1 Samuel 17; David's anointing: 1 Samuel 16; David flees into the Wilderness: 1 Sam. 19:10 to the end of the book, with preliminaries beginning in 18:9)
* "Esau was a farmer of the wild wooly kind, That could not stand work and being confined, He did not think titles to his land was quite clear, So he traded his farm for a sandwich and beer" (Esau the"hairy man": Gen. 27:11f.; Esau sells his birthright for a meal of bread and lentil stew: Gen. 25:29f.)
* "Sampson, that big boy, wore his hair long, Till he met with a jane and she got him in wrong, He slung a wicked jawbone, I do the same, That's how I got Windy Bill for a name" (Samson, his hair, and Delilah: Judges 16:4f.; Samson and the jawbone: Judges 15:14f.) - RBW
File: R430

Windy Bill (II)

DESCRIPTION: Windy Bill is convinced he can handle any steer. He and his mates place a wager on the matter, and they give him the worst bull available. Bill's rope technique is imperfect; he is thrown onto a rock pile. He pays up. Listeners are warned against bragging
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Thorp)
KEYWORDS: cowboy gambling contest
FOUND IN: US(MA,So,SW)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys II, pp. 38-43 (11-12), "Windy Bill" (3 texts, 2 tunes); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 168-170, "Windy Bill" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 75, "Windy Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 68-71, "Windy Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 5, "Windy Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 18, pp. 123-126, "The Old Black Steer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 354-355, "Windy Bill" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WINDYBLL*
ADDITIONAL: Hal Cannon, editor, _Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering_, Giles M. Smith, 1985, pp. 26-27, "Windy Bill" (1 text)
Roud #4044
RECORDINGS:
J. D. Farley, "Bill Was a Texas Lad" (Victor V-40269, 1930; Montgomery Ward M-4300, 1933; rec. 1929; on AuthCowboys, WhenIWas1)
Harry Jackson, "Windy Bill" (on HJackson1)
Powder River Jack Lee, "The Old Black Steer" (probably Bluebird B-5298, 1934; on MakeMe)
NOTES [110 words]: This song is item dB41 in Laws's Appendix II. It has been claimed by Ray Reed, and credited to George B. German. I know of no supporting evidence for the former claim, and the latter appears to refer instead to "Windy Bill's Famous Ride." Thorp claimed in 1921 to have heard the song in 1899, but the claim is not found in his 1908 edition.
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging notes that there are distinct roping styles in Texas and California, and the difference accounts for the Windy Bill's result in the song. Logsdon quotes, seemingly with some approval, Ohrlin's suggestion that the song originated in Arizona where the two roping styles overlapped. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: TF02

Windy Bill's Famous Ride

DESCRIPTION: A stranger comes up to Windy Bill. Bill boasts of his riding skill, and the stranger challenges him to come ride a difficult horse They take a long, wild ride in a car. When Bill asks where the horse is, the stranger tells him they just won a car contest
AUTHOR: George B. German
EARLIEST DATE: 1929
KEYWORDS: cowboy technology trick travel recitation
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 70, "Windy Bill's Famous Ride" (1 text)
File: Ohr070

Windy Hills o' Wellington, The

DESCRIPTION: "The windy hills o' Wellington were black and cold that night," wet enough to put out even electric lights. Author is called to a dying man "who's drawn New Zealand blank." Cured, he grows rich and ignores the writer who also has "drawn New Zealand blank"
AUTHOR: "The Exile" (Henry Lawson?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (Wellington "New Zealand Times," according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ)
KEYWORDS: New Zealand hardtimes money doctor disease rescue abandonment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 125, "The Windy Hills o' Wellington" (1 text)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, pp. 197-198, "(The Windy Hills of Wellington)" (1 text)
File: BaRo125

Windy Old Weather

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "In this windy old weather, Stormy Old weather, When the wind blows We'll all pull together." Various fish jump from the sea and exhort the crew, e.g. "Up jumps the herring, the king of the sea, He laps on the foredeck and says, Helm's-alee"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950s (recording, Bob Roberts)
KEYWORDS: ship fishing nonballad storm shanty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South, West)) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 204-205, "Stormy Ol' Weather" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 232-233,"Stormy Weather Boys" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 112, "Stormy Weather" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 50-51, "Stormy Weather Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 130, "Fish of the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 70, "The Fish's Lamentation" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 13, "WIndy Weather" (1 short text with just the chorus)
DT, WINDYWEA* (with a first verse from "Yea Ho, Little Fish" or the like) WINDYWE2*
Roud #472
RECORDINGS:
Tom Brown, "Windy Old Weather" (on Voice12)
Sam Larner, "Haisboro Light Song" (on SLarner01); "Windy Old Weather" (on SLarner02)
Bob Roberts, "Windy Old Weather" (on LastDays, FieldTrip1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1029), "The King of the Sea," unknown (n.d.); also Harding B 28(102), "The King of the Sea," unknown (n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Stormy Weather Boys" (tune & metre)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Boston Come-All-Ye
NOTES [37 words]: I do not know that the two Larner recordings are in fact different -- these two compilations drew from the same collection of field tapes -- but as the titles are given as different I thought it prudent to separate them. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: CoSB204

Windy Weather

See Windy Old Weather (File: CoSB204)

Wine in the Cup

DESCRIPTION: "Dark is the night and the eyes of the father Sadly peer though the fast-falling gloom," looking out as "his darling Staggers home from the cursed saloon." Drink draws men "to a winebibber's grae." Mother is dying in poverty with her ragged child
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: drink father mother children death
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 129-130, "Wine in the Cup" (1 text)
NOTES [48 words]: This has so many cliches in it that it's hard to believe it hasn't been indexed somewhere else, but I can't find it. I rather suspect it is a composite. It does have one unusual feature: In this piece, the father is "clean" and the mother is the drunk rather than the other way around. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: SaKo129A

Wing Wang Waddle

See The Swapping Boy (File: E093)

Wings in the Morning

DESCRIPTION: At life's end "Nevermore pain in them old aching bones Wings in the morning to carry us home." "...on that gettin' up day... we'll fly away"
AUTHOR: Johnny Burnette
EARLIEST DATE: before 1965 (Johnny Burnette)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
RECORDINGS:
Hector MacIsaac and Jerome Downey, ("Wings in the morning and license to fly") (on NFHMacIsaac01)
NOTES [37 words]: Hector MacIsaac and Jerome Downey only sing the chorus.
The attribution to Johnny Burnette is from the Batlyrics site http://batlyrics.net/wingsinthemorning-lyrics-johnnyburnette.html, accessed February 17, 2015. - BS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: RecWiItM

Wings of a Goney, The

DESCRIPTION: "If I had the wings of a goney I would fly to my native home." "Whaling has charms for the young and green hands," but they soon wish to be elsewhere. After four years whaling in Greenland the agent says the singer has "not earned a single red cent"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang)
KEYWORDS: money ordeal shanty sailor sea ship whale whaler
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 40-41, "The Wings of a Goney" (1 text)
Roud #2011
RECORDINGS:
A.L. Lloyd, "Weary Whaling Grounds" (on Lloyd9)
NOTES [84 words]: Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang: "The goney is a bird of the albatross family. Today American sailors in the Pacific call it the "gooney bird."
Huntington's source is from the log of the Ocean Rover out of New Bedford (p. 325). - BS
Round lumps this with "Calm," found on p. 55 of Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, p. 55. But the only line they have in common is the very first, and even that is not identical. I'm splitting them until and unless a third version shows up that links them. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HunW0401

Wingy Wangy

DESCRIPTION: "Wingy, wangy, Hunky dory, Poky lory, Wingy, wingy, wang"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: nonsense
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 29, "Wingy, wangy" (1 text)
Roud #25347
File: KSUC029C

Winnie MacNeil

DESCRIPTION: George O'Quinn courts Winnie MacNeil. He is at a loss for what to do when she is not around. Finally he goes to see her and he can't stop kissing her. He says let's appoint "our wedding day" in "John Dan's hay"
AUTHOR: Paul E. Hall (according to Szwed and Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong)
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Szwed)
KEYWORDS: courting love sex humorous youth
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bennett/Downey-JeromeJustOneMoreSong 22, pp. 136-139, "Winnie MacNeil" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John F. Szwed, "Paul E. Hall: A Newfoundland Song-Maker And His Community of Song" in Folksongs and Their Makers (Bowling Green: Bowling Green University Popular Press, n.d.[Bennett has the date as 1971; I've seen 1970 through 1972 as a publication date mentioned in reviews of the book]), p. 156, "Winnie McNeil" (1 text)
Roud #24330
RECORDINGS:
Jerome Downey, "Winnie MacNeil" (on NFJDowney01)
NOTES [50 words]: Szwed: "The clandestine meeting in a nearby farmer's barn was dropped in later versions of the song. Although the song was Paulie's, the community remade it to their taste -- not a surprising occurrence from what we know of folksong transmission." In 1980 the verse was still in Downey's version. - BS
Last updated in version 3.6
File: BeDo136

Winnie the Witch

DESCRIPTION: "Winnie/Minnie/Willie/Nanny the Witch/Old Mother Rich, Fell in the ditch, Picked up a rotten apple And thought she was rich." Or, "She thought she was rich, Because she found a ha'penny In a bundle of sticks," or "Never got back till half past six"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Journal of American Folklore, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: money witch jumprope food | apple ditch counting-out
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #405, "Old Mother Rich" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 35, "(Rich, Rich, fell in the ditch)" (1 text; the following verse, "Frank, Frank, turned the crank" may be a sequel)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 65, "Minnie the Witch" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 45, "(Old mother witch)" (1 text)
Roud #19239
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jean, Jean Had a Machine" (lyrics)
File: BAAI065C

Winnin' o' the Goon, The

DESCRIPTION: A man bargains with a woman to spend the night with him to win a new gown. After winning the gown she weeps for losing her other sweethearts as the cost. He gives her a ring, they marry, and she blesses the day she made her bargain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: marriage sex bargaining clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 772, "The Winnin' o' the Goon" (3 texts)
Roud #6188
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The New Goon
File: GrD4722

Winning of Cales, The

DESCRIPTION: "Long the proud Spaniards had vaunted to conquer us, Threatening our country with fire and sword," but now the Earl of Essex has taken the war to them. From Plymouth the English sail to Cales (Cadiz) and do great damage to the Spanish fleet
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy Folio)
KEYWORDS: war navy Spain nobility
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 21, 1596 - Essex's raid on Cadiz ("Cales")
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume III, pp. 453-456, "Winninge of Cales" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 243-246, "The Winning of Cales" (1 text)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques XXX, p. 71, "The Winning of Cales" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 9, "The Winning of Cales" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, page 504
Roud #V22429
NOTES [42 words]: There is anothier piece in the Percy Folio, "Cales Voyage" (Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 144-146; MSPercyFolio, p. 234), but I can't see that they have anything in common except the misuse of the name "Cales" for "Cadiz." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: PaSe09

Winnipeg Whore, The

DESCRIPTION: On the narrator's first trip to Canada, he visits the eponymous lady, and while having sex with her, has his watch and wallet stolen. (When he objects, he is thrown out.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from Norman MacIvor by Walton)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous sex theft whore
FOUND IN: Australia US(Ap,SW) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 202-204, "The Winnipeg Whore" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Legman-RollMeInYourArms I, pp. 278-279, "The Winnipeg Whore" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 114-115, "The Buffalo Whote" (1 text)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 181-182, "Winnipeg Whore" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WINNIPG*
Roud #8348
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gold Watch" [Laws K41] (plot) and references there
cf. "Reuben and Rachel" (tune) and references there
cf. "Four Old Whores" (subject of Winnipeg whores)
NOTES [137 words]: The Walton text "The Buffalo Whore" is probably a deliberate rewrite, and could perhaps be considered a separate song -- but with only one text apparently known, it is probably not worth splitting off.
The change from a "Winnipeg Whore" to a "Buffalo Whore" is interesting, because Buffalo in sailing days had a rather wild reputation. It was the last possible port of call for Great Lakes boats too large to pass through the Welland Canal, so more sailors stopped there than any other port on the Lakes -- with predictable effect on the population of prostitutes and others who catered to sailors away from home.
I do note with interest that the American versions talk about a Winnipeg whore, while the Buffalo Whore version comes from Canada. It's almost as if the most interesting prostitutes lie over the border. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM202

Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Old Man Sargent, sitting at the desk, The damned old fool won't give us no rest. He'd take the nickels off a dead man's eyes...." The singer describes the bad conditions in the mills, and instructs listeners not to bury his body when he dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (collected by William Wolff at the School for Southern Women Workers, according to Doug deNatale and Glenn Hinson, in their article, "The Southern Textile Song Tradition Reconsidered," published in Archie Green, editor, _Songs about Work: Essays in Occupational Culture for Richard A. Reuss_, Folklore Institute, Indiana University, 1993, p. 88)
KEYWORDS: weaving factory technology work hardtimes death burial
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 144, "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 371, "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 126, "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" (1 text)
DT, WNNSBORO*
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" (on PeteSeeger13)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hard Times in the Mill (I)" (floating verses)
File: Grnw144

Wint'ry Evening, A

See The Fatal Snowstorm [Laws P20] (File: LP20)

Winter Comes

See Mirie It Is While Sumer Ylast (Merry It Is While Summer Lasts) (File: DIMMIIWS)

Winter Desires

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of the desires of loggers after the winter camp is broken up. They want good food (and lambast the camp cook), liquor, and new clothes. When they've run out of cash and the parties are over, they'll head back to the woods
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger food drink cook
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 34, "Winter Desires" (1 text)
Roud #8853
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (theme) and references there
NOTES [21 words]: From Beck: "Though all of the songs about the logger's desires are not accepted by the mails, this one...is respectable." - PJS
File: Be034

Winter It Is Past, The

See The Curragh of Kildare (File: DTcurrki)

Winter of '73, The (McCullam Camp)

DESCRIPTION: In 1873, the singer takes a job at Snowball's mill in Miramichi. A few weeks later, the mill closes, and he sets out for Indiantown. He meets some portagers, who bring him to McCullam's camp, where he has many adventures too complex to describe here
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1949
KEYWORDS: logger work unemployment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1873 - Larry Gorman left home for Miramichi
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 214-215, "The Winter of '73 (McCullam Camp)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 36-39, "The Winter of Seventy-Three" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 49, "The Winter of '73 (McCullam Camp)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 54-56, 202, "The Winter of Seventy-Three" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 114-118, "The Winter of Seventy-Three" (1 text)
DT, WINTER73
Roud #1942
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" and references there
File: Doe214

Winter of Seventy-Three, The

See The Winter of '73 (McCullam Camp) (File: Doe214)

Winter on Renous, A

DESCRIPTION: October 9, 1904, "rovin' Joe" leaves Indiantown for lumbering with the sons of Morgan Hayes. "They had no mercy on a man But to work him day and night." He tries other crews but returns to Hayes. "I spent a winter on Renous And now I love their ways"
AUTHOR: Joe Smith, "a Miramichi man who liked to call himself 'the rovin' Joe'" (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi)
KEYWORDS: lumbering ordeal humorous moniker horse
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 48, "A Winter on Renous" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi048 (Partial)
Roud #9180
File: MaWi048

Winter Song, A

See Remember the Poor (File: Wa161)

Winter Soon Be Over, The

See The Winter (File: AWG078)

Winter, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh the winter, oh the winter, oh the winter'll soon be over, children (x3), Yes my Lord." "'Tis Paul and Silas bound in chains." "You bend your knee on holy ground and ask the Lord to turn you around." "I has my trials here below."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 78, "The Winter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 14, "The Winter Soon Be Over" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 82-83, "De Winter'll Soon Be Ober" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 244 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #12039
File: AWG078

Winter'll Soon Be Ober, De

See The Winter (File: AWG078)

Winter's Gone and Past

See The Curragh of Kildare (File: DTcurrki)

Winter's Night

See My Dearest Dear AND Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove) (File: SKE40)

Winterfall

See Mirie It Is While Sumer Ylast (Merry It Is While Summer Lasts) (File: DIMMIIWS)

Wintry Winds, The

See The Fatal Snowstorm [Laws P20] (File: LP20)

Wir Kommen Nicht Hergeritten (Invitation to a Wedding)

DESCRIPTION: German. "Wir kommen nicht hergeritten. Wir kommen nicht geschitten." The singer was invited by bride and bridegroom. There will be much fine food, cooked by (Kathrin Woes). Those who come to the wedding will find a place for them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad wedding food
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, pp. 132-133, "Invitation to a Wedding" (1 text)
File: SaKo132

Wir reisen noch Amerika (We Are Travelling to America)

DESCRIPTION: German. "Jetzt ist die Zeit und Schtunde da, Wir reisen noch Amerika." The time has come for the family to depart for America. They bid farewell to friends. The ship sets out to sea, but God will protect them. They will rejoice when they reach Baltimore
AUTHOR: Samuel Friedrich Sautter
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (source: Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends); reportedly written 1830
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage emigration separation
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 66-68, "Wir reisen noch Amerika (We Are Travelling to America)" (1 German text plus English translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL066

Wire Briar

See see under Intery Mintery Cutery Corn (File: OO2252)

Wire, Briar, Limberlock

See Intery Mintery Cutery Corn (File: OO2252)

Wisconsin

See The Rolling Stone [Laws B25] (File: LB25)

Wisconsin Emigrant, The

See The Rolling Stone [Laws B25] (File: LB25)

Wisconsin Emigrant's Song

See The Rolling Stone [Laws B25] (File: LB25)

Wisconsin Soldier Boy, The

See The Dying Wisconsin Soldier (File: Pet225)

Wisdom

DESCRIPTION: "God gave the wise men their wisdom And to, the poets, their dreams To father and mother their love for each other But he left me out so it seems." The singer thought "life was an empty affair," but "when God gave me you," it was " more than my share."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: love campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 345-346, 552, "Wisdom" (notes only)
NOTES [70 words]: There is at least one other camp song called "Wisdom"; the other one begins, "There is wisdom on this water, Laughter on this land; There's music 'round the campfire -- Oh, love it while you can." "The people here have changed me; They've touched my very soul, And when we are together, I feel much more than whole." But this seems to be the one that Averill means, since it contains the words "when God gave me you." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF345W

Wise County Jail, The

See The Cryderville Jail (File: LxU090)

Wise Farmer, The

See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

Wise Old Owl, A

DESCRIPTION: "A wise old owl sat/lived in an oak, The more he heard, the less he spoke, The less he spoke, the more he heard, Why can't we be like that wise old bird?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad
FOUND IN: US Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 394, "A wise old owl lived in an oak" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 139, "(A wise old owl lived in an oak)" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 21, "(A wise old owl sat on an oak)" (1 text)
Roud #7734
NOTES [28 words]: Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes claims that American president Calvin Coolidge, "Silent Cal," had these words inscribed above the fireplace of his home. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ZiZa139A

Wise William and Redesdale

See Redesdale and Wise William [Child 246] (File: C246)

Wise Willie

See The Cutty Wren (File: DTcutywr)

Wish I Had a Needle and Thread

See Going Across the Sea (File: RcItaly)

Wish I Was a Mormonite

See I Wish I Was a Mormonite (File: FSSS125)

Wish I'd Stayed in the Wagon Yard

DESCRIPTION: Singer comes to town with his cotton. Carousers take him drinking but leave him the bill. He sees them by the missionary hall singing "Jesus Paid it All." He warns against such men -- "don't monkey with them city ducks, you'll find them slick as lard"
AUTHOR: Probably Arthur Hugh Tanner
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Peg Moreland)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, a country man, comes to town with a wagon-load of cotton, falls in with some carousers who take him drinking but leave him with the bill. As he walks down the street, he sees them by the missionary hall singing "Jesus Paid it All." He wishes he'd bought half a pint and stayed in the wagon yard, and warns others to do the same -- "don't monkey with them city ducks, you'll find them slick as lard"
KEYWORDS: warning betrayal drink humorous
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Rosembaum, pp. 108-109, "I WIsh I'd Bought a Half a Pint and Stayed in the Wagon Yard" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 21, #1 (1971), p, 19, "WIsh I Had Stayed in the Wagonyard" (1 text, 1 tune, the Lowe Stokes version, which the editors suspect is the original)
Roud #16279
RECORDINGS:
Lew Childre, "Wagon Yard" (Gennett 7183/Champion 16011, 1930) (Melotone 6-10-52, 1936)
Earl Johnson & his Dixie Entertainers, "Buy a Half Pint and Stay in the Wagon Yard" (OKeh 45528, 1931; rec. 1930)
Grandpa Jones, "Stay in the Wagon Yard" (King 912, 1950)
Peg Moreland, "Stay in the Wagon Yard" (Victor V-40008, 1929)
Lowe Stokes & his North Georgians, "Wish I Had Stayed in the Wagon Yard" (Columbia 15557-D, 1930; rec. 1929)
Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & Uncle John Patterson, "I Wish I'd Bought a Half a Pint and Stayed in the Wagon Yard" (on DownYonder)
NOTES [124 words]: This seems to have been quite popular among early string bands, judging by recordings, but it doesn't seem to have made its way into folklore collections.
The tune for this song was also used by Byrd Moore & his Hot Shots for their version of "Three Jolly Huntsmen."
Agnes "Sis" Cunningham used the tune for a Depression-era topical song, "How Can You Keep On Moving (Unless You Migrate Too)." - PJS
The Sing Out! notes compare the Stokes tune to "The Preacher and the Bear," Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 109, notes that his informant Gordon Tanner thought his uncle Arthur Hugh Tanner wrote the song and was on the Stokes recording. This apparently cannot be verified, but since both Tanners were related to Gid Tanner, it seems likely.- RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: RcWISIWY

Wishing (I Wish I Were a Primrose)

DESCRIPTION: "Ring-Ting! I wish I were a Primrose, A bright yellow Primrose, blowing in the spring! The stooping boughs above me, The wandering bee to love me... And the Elm tree for our king!" The poet then wishes to be an elm, or a robin, and for mother's kiss
AUTHOR: William Allingham (1824-1889) (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: flowers royalty mother bird | elm tree primrose
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 146-147, "Ring tine, I wish I were a primrose" (1 fragment)
Roud #25397
File: KSUC146D

WItchcraft

DESCRIPTION: "If there were witchcraft, I’d make (two) wishes: A rambling road that beckons me to roam, And then I’d wish for A blazing campfire To welcome me when I’m returning home." The singer remembers happy days in camp
AUTHOR: Margarett Snyder (died 1961) (source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (girl scout songbook, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad travel home campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Linda Weaver, "Camp Songs: Reflections of Youth," Vol. XXII, No. 2 (May 1974), pp. 76-77, "Witchcraft" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 134, 176, 200, 228, 346-351, 432, 470, 473, 501, 552, "Witchcraft" (notes, with 2 texts on p. 351; bibliography on pp. 681-683)
Roud #22410
File: ACSF200W

With a C and a Sigh (Constantinople)

DESCRIPTION: Used as a counting-out rhyme. "With a C and a sigh And a Constanti; With a nople and a pople And a Constantinople." Originally a story of a girl who met a Colonel who said that he was from Constantinople -- but he turns out to be a swindler
AUTHOR: probably Arthur Lloyd (1839-1904)
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Dime-Song-Book #17)
KEYWORDS: wordplay thief trick police | counting-out Constantinople
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #17, p. 58, "Constantinople" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 43, "(With a C and a sigh)" (1 text)
Roud #V22848
NOTES [51 words]: Arthur Lloyd included a song called "Constantinople" in his performance "Babes in the Wood" as a sing-along teaching song for children. It appears to include at least a few words of this, so I assume Lloyd is the author, but I have been unable to find a full text of "Babes in the Wood" to prove it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: WEMM043A

With a Little Bit of Sugar

DESCRIPTION: "With a little bit of sugar and a little bit of tea, A little bit of flour that you can hardly see, With hardly any meat between you and me, it's a bugger of a life, by Jesus."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2009 (Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ)
KEYWORDS: food hardtimes
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 272, "(With a little bit of sugar and a little bit of tea)" (2 fragments)
File: Galr272

With All My Heart

See The King Takes the Queen (File: FSWB232)

With Betsey Brown

See Betsey Brown (File: R384)

With Her Dog and Gun

See The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20] (File: LN20)

With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm

See Anne Boleyn (With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm) (File: CrAG32)

With His Old Shoes On and His Leggins

See An Old Man Came Over the Moor (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

With His Owd Grey Beard New Shaven

See Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)

With Jockey to the Fair

See Jockey to the Fair (File: CrSe170)

With Me Pit Boots On

See The Courting Coat (File: RcWMPBO)

With My Dog and Gun

See Where the Moorcocks Grow (The Mountain Stream; With My Dog and Gun) (File: K136)

With My Swag All on My Shoulder

See True-Born Irish Man (With My Swag All on My Shoulder; The True-Born Native Man) (File: MA062)

Within a Fountain Crystal Clear

See In Marble Walls as White as Milk (File: OO2199)

Within a Garden

DESCRIPTION: "Within a garden a maiden lingered, When soft the shades of evening fell"; she waits for her lover to say farewell before he goes over the sea. He has been gone for years; still she visits the "trysting tree"
AUTHOR: Words: H. Fleetwood Sheppard
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd)
KEYWORDS: love separation sailor
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #105, "Within a Garden" (1 text, 1 tune, the text rewritten)
NOTES [48 words]: This is yet another of the bathetic rewrites in Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd; from their notes, it appears the tune probably belonged to "Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token)" [Laws N42], although it might be one of the other broken token ballads. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BGSW105

Witness

DESCRIPTION: Worksong: "Can I get a witness? Come and be a witness. Be a sanctified witness. Be a Holy Ghost witness. Jack o'Diamonds was a witness. Daniel was a witness" etc. The refrain "for my lord" can be added after each line; other Bible stories may be mentioned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Paul Robeson)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious worksong
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 176-184, "I Need Another Witness" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
RECORDINGS:
Paul Robeson, "Witness" (Victor 21109, 1927)
Texas state farm prisoners, "We Need Another Witness" (on NPCWork)
File: RcWtnss1

Witness for My Lord

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Soul is a witness for my Lord, Who'll be a witness for my Lord?" Moses receives the commandments. Samson kills three thousand but is betrayed by his wife. Christ's disciples watch him die. Methusaleh and Daniel are also among the witnesses.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (LomaxCD1708)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
ADDITIONAL: James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, The Books of American Negro Spirituals (New York: Viking Press, 1969 (copyright 1925, 1926)), Book 1, pp. 130-133, "Who'll Be a Witness for My Lord?" (1 text, 1 tune)
John W. Work, American Negro Songs (New York: Crown Publishers, 1940 (republished by Mineola: Dover Publications, 1998)), pp. 177-179, "Witness" (1 text, 1 tune)
Howard W. Odum and Guy B. Johnson, The Negro and his Songs (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1925 ("Digitized by Internet Archive"), pp. 132-133, "Witness for My Lord" (1 text)
Roud #12131
RECORDINGS:
Silver Leaf Quartett, "Witness for My Lord" (on LomaxCD1708)
NOTES [63 words]: Samson's unlikely exploits are detailed in Judges 13-16, but nowhere are we told how many he killed. Given that the Philistines were a very great threat after the period of the Judges, it's unlikely that he did them much actual damage. If he accomplished anything, it might have been to cause the Philistines some overconfidence: "Amazing how stupid those Israelites can be." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: AdWitfML

Wittingham Fair

See The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)

Witty Lass of London, The

See The Alderman's Lady (File: Pea783)

Wizard Laird of Skene

See The Warlock Laird o' Skene (File: GrD2345)

Wizard Oil (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I love to travel far and near throughout my native land, I love to sell as I go 'long, and take the cash in hand...." The singer describes how in each town he visits they come up to him and declare "I'll take another bottle of Wizard Oil"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: commerce lie money
FOUND IN: US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 52-54, "Wizard Oil" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7592
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wizard Oil (II)"
NOTES [63 words]: Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag's notes imply this piece may be by Harry E. Randall, but the matter is not clarified.
It probably was true that, in every town the salesman visited, he received testimonials to his product. Chances are, however, that he hired people to offer them.
Unlike Wizard Oil (II), this does not appear to be entirely a sales pitch. But it's close enough.... - RBW
File: San052

Wizard Oil (II)

DESCRIPTION: "I have written a song, so give me your attention, And I'll tell you what Wizard's Oil will and won't cure." The product proves capable of dealing with almost anything painful, "And a dollar a bottle is all it does cost."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: medicine disease trick commerce
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 506, "Wizard Oil" (1 text)
Roud #7592
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wizard Oil (I)"
NOTES [51 words]: In the Hamlin's Wizard Oil Songbook (1890s?), this is credited to "J. D Laurens, Comic Vocalist, expressly for Hamlin's Wizard Oil Company No. 7."
Based on the list of illnesses "cured," one suspects that Wizard's Oil was probably almost-pure alcohol, and that it worked simply by dulling the pain. - RBW
File: R506

Wo, Stormalong

See Stormalong (File: Doe082)

Woad

DESCRIPTION: "What's the use of wearing braces, Vests and pants and boots with laces... What's the use of shirts of cotton, Studs that always get forgotten? These affairs are simply rotten; Better far is woad." One needs no clothes when one can wear woad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: clothes humorous derivative
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 24-25, "The Woad Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 47, "Woad" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WOADWEAR*
Roud #24978
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Men of Harlech" (tune)
NOTES [919 words]: Woad/Indigo is of course a dark blue color.
Woad, the plant, is Isatis tinctoria, which produces woad, the dye. Chemically, it is the same dye as indigo (Field, p. 121); indigo replaced woad as a dye source because the indigo plant produced more of it and it was easier to extract. Also, woad depleted the soil rapidly and so could not be intensively cultivated; dyers used up their sources very rapidly, whereas indigo was a nitrogen fixer and had benefits for the soil (St. Clair, p. 189). The Romans knew it, but from indigo plants, not woad; Pliny's Natural History refers to "the slime of India's rivers," which is believed to be indigo (Mayer, p. 18); there is also a record of the use of indigo from the Chaldean Empire of Babylon in the sixth century B.C.E. (St. Clair, p. 189), and there is a Viking site with woad seeds at Coppergate in northern England (St. Clair, p. 199).
The story behind this song is that, when Julius Caesar invaded Britain, the British inhabitants fought the Romans naked and coated in woad, expecting that their opponents would be frightened by the sight of blue men. There is no evidence that it worked -- and no one seems to cite the source of the legend, or at least evidence that the blue color was woad (Finaly, p. 321, says that Caesar's word was "vitrum," and there is argument about whether it was woad or some other color. "Vitrum" in Latin usually means "glass," althoughPliny used it for a blue dye-plant, FreundtAl, p. 2000. At least one edition considers the passage spurious anyway).
Whether Caesar's opponents, or Caratacus's and Boadicea's soldiers who fought against Claudius a century later, covered themselves with it or not, we know that woad was used as a dye for a very long time; the famous "Lincoln Green" was a mix of woad and a yellow dye. And Chaucer's short poem "The Former Age" (line 17) mentions woad:
No mader, welde or wood no listere
Ne knew...
(Chaucer/Benson, p. 651; the two manuscripts of the poem spell "lister(e)" differently ("litestere" or "lister"), but there is no doubt which word was meant. In any case, all editions seem to prefer the reading "listere," because the manuscript it is in is considered far the more authoritative; Chaucer/Pace/David, pp. 93-95).
Modernizing the spelling, this says that:
No madder, weld, or woad no lister
ne knew
Which we would amplify as "No red madder, yellow weld, or blue woad no dyer ever knew."
So knowledge of woad clearly predates this song, no matter what the pre-Roman Britons wore.
The Romans first encountered indigo from India, but "Even in classic times, however, a substitute for the imported Indian indigo was known in the native European weed called in Latin glastum or isatis, and in English, woad. The dark blue appearance of the British warriors whom the Romans met on these shores was probably not strictly a pigment effect, but merely a staining produced by the fresh juice of the woad plant. Woad is a shrubby herb with broad green leaves which contain the raw material of a blue dyestuff. To develop the blue colour special treatment is necessary; but simply gathering the leaves is enough to produce a deep and long-lasting blue-black stain upon the hands, and we may suppose that the early Britons simply carried the process farther" (Thompson, p. 135).
"The woad plant, Isatis tinctoria, grows native in many parts of Europe, and may easily be cultivated in any reasonably temperate climate. It was grown commercially in England until [c. 1930].... The Isatis is what gardeners call a 'gross feeder,' and it exhausts the land that it grows on unless the salts [i.e. potash] that it extracts for its growth are constantly replenished" (Thompson, p. 136).
"The medieval farmer did not know very much about fertilizing his lands to restore the heavy losses which such a plant as woad induced, and the result was that woad plantations had to move about, shifting their location every few year to fresh soil as the old soil became exhausted. Woad growing left a trail of agricultural desolation behind it, and the large profits that it yielded for a time in each new site tempted many landowners to their ruin; for these returns were actually not income but capital" (Thompson, p. 137). On p. 138 Thompson reports that laws were eventually passed about woad-growing -- but that they were widely evaded.
"Woad... [was] cultivated since the tenth century in Rurope, notably in Thuringia, Alsace, and Normandy. It is the base of blues. But woad is a cruciferous plant [related to mustard, according to St. Clair, p. 198], whose cultivation dramatically impoverishes the soil; the popularity of blue dyes thus threatened to starve entire populations. The process for making woad dye was fairly elaborate: the leaves and stems were washed, dried, and stored in balls or compacted lumps, then mill-ground. The resulting powder was made into a paste and fermented, which liberated the precursor of the dye. This substance, concentrated woad extract, was black and granular, and was called pastel. But it could only produce a washed-out blue, and was used for work clothes. At the close of the 12th century, however, a technique was found for making brighter blues from woad" (Delamere/Guineau, pp. 44-45); it was only then that woad really became a commercial dye and pigment. But even the new technique "was difficult, expensive, and uncertain" (Thompson, p. 138). The result was often mixed with other materials, such as ground eggshells, to produce lighter blues. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: Hopk024

Woe Be Unto You

DESCRIPTION: "Woe be unto you (x2), You may throw yo' rocks an' hide yo' hands.... " "Well, it's woe be unto you (x2), You may dip yo' snuff an' hide yo' box..." "...You may dig yo' grave an' hide yo' spade, but it's woe be unto you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: nonballad sin
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 604-605, "Woe Be Unto You."
Roud #15558
NOTES [18 words]: The Lomaxes call this a spiritual. I really don't see why. It looks more like a curse against hypocrites. - RBW
File: LxA604

Woe to You, Women

DESCRIPTION: The noble singer complains that a servant he made his wife "hae lien wi your footman an' [so] you'll never lie with me." "You disgraced the name of my high majesty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: infidelity marriage husband lover wife royalty servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1206, "Woe to You, Women" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #5522
NOTES [785 words]: Roud lumps this with ("Good morrow, fair mistress") (David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, pp. 5-6). That song shares parts of lines and theme with Greig/Duncan6, but does not mention the footman and adds different details. - BS
I doubt that this is intended to be history, but if it is, we note that it is a poor fit for most kings of Scotland. If we look at the Stewart/Stuart dynasty, the kings and their wives are as follows:
Robert II (reigned 1371-1390) had two wives, Elizabeth Mure and Euphemia Ross; he had ten children by the former and four by the latter, and married both before becoming king. Both were noble although not royal (Ashley, p. 552).
Robert III (reigned 1390-1406) married Anabella Drummond. Although her father was a mere knight, she was the niece of the former queen Margaret Drummond (Oram, p. 198) -- but at the time of their marriage in 1366, there was no reason to believe that Robert III would ever be king. And in any case they had seven children (Ashley, p. 553.)
James I (reigned 1406-1427) married Joan Beaufort, who was a descendent (in an illegitimate-but-legitimized line) of Edward III or England and a cousin of Henry V, the king when they married. They had eight children (Ashley, p. 555).
James II (regined 1437-1460) married Mary the daughter of the Duke of Gueldres -- the first Stuart to marry a princess from outside the British Isles. They had seven children.
James III (reigned 1460-1488) married Margaret, the daughter of the King of Denmark; they had three children (Ashley, p. 561).
James IV (reigned 1488-1513) married Margaret Tudor, the daughter of Henry VII of England (the lineage from which the Stuarts eventually claimed the English throne), by whom he had six children (Ashley, pp. 564-565). There were apparently rumors that he had secretly married one of his mistresses, Margaret Drummond (Ashley, p. 565), but such a marriage, if it existed, was bigamous; we find a churchman lamenting James's refusal to give up mistresses such as Margaret (Oram, p. 235).
James V (reigned 1513-1542) married Madeleine daughter of Francois I of France and them Mary daughter of the duke of Guise-Lorraine (Ashley, p. 468). His only surviving daughter was Mary Queen of Scots, but his wives were both noble.
Mary (reigned 1542-1567, when she was deposed) did marry as her second husband Henry, Lord Darnley, who probably slept around -- but she was female and obviously didn't have a wife.
James VI, the last King of Scotland who was not also King of England (reigned 1567-1625 in Scotland, 1603-1625 in England) may have been homosexual; in any case, he does not seem to have strayed from his marriage to Anne, daughter of the King of Denmark (Ashely, p. 575).
Thus none of the Stewards fits the conditions of this song; none married servants, and most of the marriages endured.
There is an interesting analogy to the time of King David II (reigned 1329-1371), the son of Robert I Bruce. David first married Joanna of England; she died in 1262, having borne him no children. David then (in 1364) married Margaret Drummond; he was her second husband, and he divorced her in 1370. She wasn't exactly a servant, but she was well below his station.
There were, to be sure, some earlier kings with amazingly complicated love lives, but what are the odds that a song about someone who reigned before 1300 would have survived?
The closest genuine analogy I can think of to this is to Henry VIII and Katherine Howard, his fifth wife. She was fairly high-born, too, since her uncle was Duke of Norfolk (Scarisbrick, p. 378). But she *was* a servant of Anne of Cleves (Scarisbrick, p. 429), who was supposed to be Henry's fourth wife until Henry blew her off. Katherine proved a "high-spirited minx" (Scarisbrick, p. 375), and "she had been unchaste before her marriage; she took to adultery soon after it" (Scarisbrick, p. 431). It's hard to blame her -- she was a teenager, and apparently quite pretty; he was fat and worn-out and imperious (Scarisbrick, p. 431, by this time calls Henry "physically probably repugnant"). The details of the breakdown of the marriage seem rather obscure, but it ended with Henry executing her (Scarisbrick, p. 432).
Interestingly, Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn, had also been a lady-in-waiting to wife #1, and ended up being executed on a charge of adultery (but one for which genuine proof is completely lacking) and wife #3, Jane Seymour, had been a lady-in-waiting to Anne. Thus Henry VIII was a far better candidate for the singer in this song than is any Scottish king. But why, then, is the song found primarily if not exclusively in Scotland? - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61206

Woe Unto Me When the Time Draws Near

See My Dearest Dear (File: SKE40)

Woke Up This Morning With My Mind on Freedom

DESCRIPTION: "Woke up this morning with my mind stayed on freedom (x3), Hallelu (x4), Hallelujah." "Ain't no harm to keep your mind stayed on freedom." "Walkin' and talkin' with my mind stayed on freedom." The singer does all things with a mind to freedom
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1962 (recording, Albany mass meeting)
KEYWORDS: freedom nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 300, "Woke Up This Morning With My Mind on Freedom" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Albany mass meeting, "Woke Up This Morning With My Mind on Freedom" (on SingFreeCD)
SNCC Freedom Singers, "Woke Up This Morning With My Mind on Freedom" (on VoicesCiv
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Woke Up This Morning With My Mind on Jesus" (tune, lyrics, structure)
NOTES [16 words]: This song is clearly derived from the spiritual "Woke Up This Morning With My Mind on Jesus." - PJS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: FSWB300A

Woke Up This Morning With My Mind on Jesus

DESCRIPTION: "I woke up this morning with my mind standing on Jesus (x3)/Hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah" "I'm walkin' and talkin' with my mind..." "I woke up singing..." "I'm sayin' my prayers..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (recording, Roosevelt Graves & brother)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE) Canada(Mar)
RECORDINGS:
Roosevelt Graves & brother [Aaron or Uaroy Graves], "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind on Jesus)" (Perfect 6-11-74, 1936; on Babylon)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Woke Up This Morning With My Mind on Freedom" (tune, lyrics, structure)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Woke Up This Morning With My Mind Stayed on Jesus
Woke Up This Morning With My Mind Set on Jesus
NOTES [17 words]: The freedom song "Woke Up This Morning With My Mind on Freedom" is obviously derived from this song. - PJS
File: RcWUTMWM

Wolcum Yol

See Welcome Yule (File: OBC174)

Wolf River Shanty Boy Song, The

See The Lumber Camp Song (File: Doe210)

Wolle Ye Iheren of Twelte Day

DESCRIPTION: "Wolle ye iheren of twelte day, Wou the present was ibroust In to Betlem ther Iesus lay?" Three kings sought him. A star led them. Herod heard them. They came far. Jesus does wonderful deeds and is to be thanked "for alle deis that tou doest"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1300 (ms. Cambridge Trinity College B 14.39, also sometimes called ms. Trinity Cambridge 323)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus travel gift MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #4170
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #6686
ADDITIONAL: Carleton Fairchild Brown, _English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century_, Clarendon University Press, 1932, pp. 39-41, 185-186, "The Journey of the Three Kings (1 text plus fragments of another)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSCambridgeTrinity323}, Cambridge University, Trinity College MS. 323, folio 35 (second copy apparently scribbled on folio 33 and after)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Judas" [Child 23] (subject: The Earliest English Ballad) and references there
NOTES [670 words]: This text is old enough to use archaic Middle English letters; the first lines actually read
Wolle ye iheren of twelte day,
Wou þe present was ibroust
In to Betlem þer Iesus lay
þer þre kinges him habbet isoustt,
a sterre wiset hem þe way.
suc nas neuer non wroust,
ne werde he nouþer fou ne grey,
þe louerd þat us alle hauet iwroust.
The piece is very old; it is in the same thirteenth/fourteenth century manuscript as "Judas" [Child 23]; see that piece for information about the manuscript source. "Judas" is followed by a sermon, "Bele Aliz" (in a different hand); "Wolle Ye Iheren" follows "Bele Aliz" (Brown, p. 184), and is is the same hand as "Judas" (Brown, p. 186). On the basis of that manuscript dating, Albert B. Friedman, The Ballad Revival, University of Chicago Press, 1961, p. 15, classes this among ballads older than 1500 -- making it only the sixth such piece by his count. On pp. 72-73, he cites W. W. Greg to the effect that it is, "if not a true ballad, then a thirteenth-century literary imitation of one, and all the more important therefore." In which case it becomes yet another candidate for the "Oldest English Ballad."
In this case, there is one ink copy and another copy of the final verses, seemingly a draft, in much faded lead pencil, only partly legible, both in the same manuscript; it appears the one was practice for the other. Furthermore, Brown, p. 186, thinks that the pencil copy was actually *the original draft of the poem*, which the scribe was composing as he went, with the ink copy being his final draft.
Severs/Hartung, p. 397, labels this "Ballad of Twelfth Day" and says that "It occurs in MS Trinity Cambridge 323 just before the Trinity Poem on Biblical History ... with evidence on the pages of the Trinity Poem that the writer or scribe of that poem was working on the composition of the Ballad of Twelfth Day.... The affinity of subject matter in the two poems offers the possibility that the Trinity Poem suggested the Ballad to the writer.... With its more sophisticated metrical pattern, and further removed as it is from the true ballad tradition, the Ballad of Twelfth Day might be looked upon as a thirteenth century imitation of a popular ballad."
So why hasn't it gotten more attention? Part of the reason is probably the obscurity of the manuscript; it should be recalled that Trinity College MS. B 14.39 was lost for some decades, so scholars, including Child, had to rely on inaccurate transcripts.
And it doesn't look like a ballad; Brown prints it in ten eight-line stanzas-line stanzas. The rhyme scheme isn't much help, The first stanza is rhymed abababab, the second abcbabab, the third ab(a)badef, and so forth with additional irregularity. The meter looks imperfect to me, but I think the poet was trying for four foot lines throughout, not 4343. Brown, p. 186, seems to agree, but thinks the scribe was accustomed to 4343, which is the reason for the metrical irregularities: he wasn't used to writing in that meter. To put it another way: The author messed up (rather badly) because he wanted to be writing in ballad meter.
Am I convinced by that argument? Not really. And even if true, does that make it a ballad? No. I think it's just another religious poem. But I'm filing it here because we try to cover every candidate for "The Earliest English Ballad."
The basis for this song is Matthew 2:1-12. The story has been expanded and modified heavily, however. We note the following:
1. There is no reason to believe that there were three visitors. All we know is that they gave three gifts. Their names are completely unknown, and we certainly don't know if they were old or young. They may not even have been from the east (the orient).
2. The visitors were not kings and were not wise men. They were "magi" -- Babylonian mystics and perhaps astrologers. Jews would generally consider magi to be evil sorcerers.
For more on the common misconceptions about the visitors, see the notes to "The Golden Carol (The Three Kings)." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Bro13039

Wolsey's Wild

See The Clown's Courtship (File: BeCo374B)

Woman at the Well, The

DESCRIPTION: "See the woman at the well, Disputing her with her Savior, Soon she found that he could tell Her of all her past behavior." She asks for a drink and runs to the town "proclaiming, Oh you every one that thirst, Come ye to the water."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (High-OldOldFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 9, "The Woman at the Well" (1 text)
ST High009B (Partial)
Roud #17426
NOTES [14 words]: A short summary of the story of Jesus and the Woman of Samaria in John chapter 4. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.3
File: High009B

Woman Belly Full o' Hair

DESCRIPTION: Alternate lines are a chorus:" See me daddy-o." "A woman belly full o' hair I see it when I went in there ... hurrah for de golden." "If you want to see a monkey dance ... broke a pepper in 'e ass ... monkey trick ... Broke a pepper 'pon the prick."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy shanty animal
FOUND IN: West Indies(Nevis)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 51-52, "Woman Belly Full o' Hair" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [62 words]: Abrahams writes about women's reaction to obscenity in men's shanties: "Once, while collecting in Newcastle, the men began singing a song that began 'Castle girls have dirty bloomers,' and the women within hearing wouldn't allow the singing to proceed. However, the next song that came along was the following ['Woman Belly Full o' Hair'], which they enjoyed heartily." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: AWIS051

Woman Blue

See I Know You Rider (File: LxA196)

Woman Charming Woman, O!

DESCRIPTION: The singer cites the good ("what's the chief of man's delight") and bad ("who can clean his pockets out"), mostly good, about marriage. "Whose a match for any man? Charming little woman O: They'll wear the breeches if they can"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.26(104))
KEYWORDS: marriage nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 1069, "Woman, Charming Woman" (1 fragment)
Roud #6760
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.26(104)[a few illegible words], "Woman Charming Woman, O!" ("What's the chief of man's delight"), J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1858-1864; also Harding B 11(4015), "Woman Charming Woman, O!"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Charming Woman
NOTES [17 words]: Greig/Duncan5 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Firth c.26(104) is the basis for the description. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1069

Woman from Dover

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Woman from Yorkshire

See Marrowbones [Laws Q2] (File: LQ02)

Woman of Three Cows, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is poor. He tells the "Woman of Three Cows" that she is too proud and scornful of those less wealthy than herself. He recounts the Irish heroes who have met misfortune or death. She cannot measure up to them.
AUTHOR: English version by James Clarence Mangan (1803-1849)
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Duffy)
KEYWORDS: pride vanity nonballad animal poverty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 64, "The Woman of Three Cows" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 120, "The Woman of Three Cows" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 56-59, "The Woman of Three Cows"
Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol II, pp. 277-278, "The Woman of Three Cows"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 163-164, "The Woman of Three Cows" (1 text)
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 460-462, 504, "The Woman of Three Cows"
Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, _The Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1958, 1979), pp. 51-53, "The Woman of Three Cows" (1 text)
Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 273-275, "The Woman of Three Cows" (1 text)
NOTES [207 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "In this translation [James Clarence] Mangan [1803-1849] has bettered the original anonymous Gaelic verses 'Go reidh, a bhean na dtri mbo.'"
Duffy and Sparling quote Mangan: "This ballad, which is of a homely cast, was intended as a rebuke to the saucy pride of a woman in humble life, who assumed airs of consequence from being the possessor of three cows. Its author's name is unknown, but its age can be determined, from the language, as belonging in the early part of the seventeenth century. That it was formerly very popular in Munster, may be concluded from the fact that the phrase, Easy, oh, woman of the three cows! has become a saying in that province, on any occasion upon which it is desirable to lower the pretensions of a boastful or consequential person." - BS
The Gaelic original is said to be in Middle Irish, so it is fairly old. It will be seen that the translation is quite popular -- one of the most popular translated poems I've seen. Translator James Clarence Mangan, ironically, knew no Irish, according to Henry Boylan, A Dictionary of Irish Biography, second edition, St. Martin's Press, 1988, pp. 240-241; he took others' literal translations of poetry and versified them. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: OLcM064

Woman the Joy and the Pride of the Land

DESCRIPTION: "Come married and single, together pray mingle, And listen awhile to these lines I relate; You that single have tarried, make haste and get married... For woman's the joy and the pride of the land." The theme is repeated in every verse
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5); 19C (broadside, Murray Mu23-y1:011)
KEYWORDS: marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan5 1067, "Woman's the Joy and Pride of the Land" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 185, "Women's the Joy and the Pride of the Land" (1 text)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 367-3695, "Woman's the Joy and Pride of the Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4393
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:011, "Woman the Joy and Pride of the Land," J.Bristow (Glasgow), 19C; also Mu23-y1:045, "Woman the Pride of the Land," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There's Nothing Can Equal A Good Woman Still" (theme, some words)
File: GrMa185

Woman the Pride of the Land

See Woman The Joy and the Pride of the Land (File: GrMa185)

Woman Trouble

DESCRIPTION: "She left me this morning, never said a word." The singer tells of hard work, comes close to despair, describes his venereal disease, is told he can't be cured, talks of those who tried to escape,
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (recorded from J. B. Smith by Jackson)
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes work disease floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 160-162, "Woman Trouble" (1 text)
NOTES [68 words]: Like so may of J. B. Smith's songs, this one is extremely problematic. Some of it appears to float, but some appears to be his own composition. But a stanza refers to a venereal disease, which Jackson believes to be gonorrhea (and the symptoms fit) -- yet the song says there is no cure. In 1965? Is this an old fragment? But what about the context? Nor is the tune any help, since it was not transcribed. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: JDM160

Woman Woman Blues

DESCRIPTION: Singer complains that his "good little woman" breaks his heart. "She's a married woman," "ain't anything but a stavin' chain." He wants her to "love me down there."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (StuffDreams2)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy floatingverses nonballad lover
FOUND IN:
RECORDINGS:
Ishman Bracey, "Woman Woman Blues" (on StuffDreams2)
NOTES [132 words]: Ishman Bracey modifies a couple of floating verses: "I went to the depot ... read up on the board Says your baby ain't here She's a long ways up the road" and "I got to settin' down studyin' 'Bout my old time used to be ... I studied so hard 'Til the blues crept up on me."
This "Stavin' Chain" reference calls to mind Lil Johndson's recording, "Got your horse out my stable, back in my bed, I got another guy, Can get yourself another mare, Now you can't ride, honey, you can't ride my train, I'm the chief engineer, Going to run it like Stavin' Chain." ("Stavin' Chain (That Rockin' Swing") (Vocalion unissued, 1937); on Document DOCD 5309). [See also the song "Stavin Chain." - RBW] Whatever the "Stavin' Chain" reference originally meant, in this context it is someone who is in charge. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcWoWoBl

Woman, Woman, I See Yo' Man

See I Was Born on the River (File: MWHee033)

Woman's Resolution

See Common Bill (File: R119)

Woman's Rights

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of how her husband is agitated about the issue of women's rights, spending hours discussing it. He is afraid that, if women vote, men will never hold office again. He claims voting is not part of her nature. She intends to enjoy the right
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: husband wife political humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 503, "Woman's Rights" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 376-378, "Woman's Rights" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 503A)
DT, WOMENRTS
Roud #7589
File: R503

Woman's Rights (I)

DESCRIPTION: "The rights of woman, what are they? The right to labor and to pray, The right to watch while others sleep...." The singer lists the good works of women, and concludes, "Such are women's rights and God will bless And crown their champions with success."
AUTHOR: Words: Lord Houghton / Music: Marianne Mathews (source: Huntington)
EARLIEST DATE: 1861 (Journal of the Midas)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 320-321, "Woman's Rights I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27552
File: HGam320

Woman's Rights (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, we've heard of women's rights and of woman's wrongs... She's a right to be loved by the whole of mankind.... She's a right to disport in spangles and tights.' "But the marriage rites are her greatest delights"; her right is to be a wife, not free
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Journal of the Andrew Hicks)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 321-322, "Woman's Rights II" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27553
File: HGam321

Woman's the Joy and Pride of the Land

See Woman the Joy and the Pride of the Land (File: GrMa185)

Woman's Tongue Will Never Take a Rest, A

See The Scolding Wife (III) (A Woman's Tongue Will Never Take a Rest) (File: BrII201)

Woman's Tongue, A

See The Scolding Wife (III) (A Woman's Tongue Will Never Take a Rest) (File: BrII201)

Woman's Work is Never Done, A

DESCRIPTION: The singer "heard a married woman say" that her life had been hard "ever since the time she was made a wife" because "a woman's work is never done." She rises early, prepares breakfast, cares for the children, etc. She warns against marriage
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Ashton)
KEYWORDS: warning hardtimes husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 20-23, "A Woman's Work is Never Done" (1 text)
ST AsCB020 (Partial)
Roud #1717
NOTES [34 words]: Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 557-559, has a song, "Woman's Work is Never Done." With only a single verse given, I can't tell if it is this or one of the several other songs on this theme. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: AsCB020

Women Are Worse Than the Men, The

See The Farmer's Curst Wife [Child 278] (File: C278)

Women of Leigh, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you young lover and listen to me, A warning I'm giving as clearly you'll see." The singer's woman has left him for another. He seeks her at her home; she is gone. He warns against the women of Leigh, "Singing Damn, damn, rigmarole damn."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (English Dance & Song; reportedly collected 1962)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment warning
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 117-119, "The Women of Leigh" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3192
File: BrHa117

Women Outlaws

DESCRIPTION: ""There's a touch of human pathos, A glamour of the West" around the female outlaws of the past such as Bronco Sue, Belle Star, Calamity Jane. They left home to turn outlaw; "They fought, and often won." The singer praises their independent spirits
AUTHOR: N. Howard Thorp
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy rebellion outlaw
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 170-171, "Women Outlaws" (1 text)
File: ThLo170

Women, Women, Love of Women

See Some Be Merry and Some Be Sad (Women, Women, Love of Women) (File: MSSBMSBS)

Women's Nae That Easy to Please

DESCRIPTION: The singer "went to the chamber door, where my love lay." She leaves him out in the cold and "bade me go home, keep my mind quite at ease." You can see that women are not so easily pleased.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection nightvisit nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1847, "Women's Nae That Easy to Please" (1 text)
Roud #13596
File: GrD81847

Won't Be Worried Long

See Worried Man Blues (File: BAF890)

Won't You Buy My Pretty Flowers

DESCRIPTION: "Underneath the gaslight glitter Stands a fragile little girl" who cries out to the crowds in winter, "Won't you buy my pretty flowers?" No one listens to her, or buys; all are hurrying to their home. She has no friends; no one pities her
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (sheet music by French & Persley)
KEYWORDS: flowers commerce
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 161, "There are many sad and lonely" (1 fragment)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 244-245, "The Flower Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Reginald Nettel, _Seven Centuries of Popular Song_, Phoenix House, 1956, pp. 170-171, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #12906
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Little Joe (The Dying Newsboy)" (theme of a young person trying to sell something no one bothers to buy)
NOTES [258 words]: This sounds as if it's supposed to end with the girl dying in the cold, or of starvation, or both. But neither element is found in Huntington's text, or Nettel's, or in the sheet music copies I've seen.
I found an Internet source which claimed that this has words by Jennie Calef and music by H. P. Danks, but it also dates it to 1887, which is after the song was found in the Eliza Adams journal! On a mudcat thread, one source claimed that it' has words by Arthur W. French, music by George W. Persley, and was from 1874. Nettel also attributes the music to Persley (without listing a source of the words). I've seen sheet music to the same effect, and the French/Persley piece the sheet music contains is certainly this song, Another Internet source, https://martynjolly.com/2016/03/17/wont-you-buy-my-pretty-flowers/, shows a series of magic lantern slides of the song and says that Calef and Danks stole the song to use it in their play "Little Muffets" and then copyrighted it. On the other hand, Henry P. Danks did write some pretty good tunes ("Silver Threads among the Gold" and "Amber Tresses Tied in Blue"), whereas French and Persley are pretty obscure, so I can't prove that the theft didn't go the other way. And Danks was born in 1834, so he was certainly old enough to have written the song before 1874. I am inclined toward the French and Persley claim, but not enough to state it as certain.
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood cites the French and Persley claim, but from Nettl, so I don't think that tells us anything. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: HGam244

Won't You Go My Way

DESCRIPTION: Hauling shanty. Refrain: "Won't you/ye/yiz go my way?" Verses describe either consorting with a prostitute and now being glad to be married, or describe courting in general.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor whore courting
FOUND IN: West Indies Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 505, "Won't Ye Go My Way" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 373]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, LVI, p. 61 "Won't You Go My Way" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8289
File: Hugi505

Won't You Leave Us a Lock of Your Hair

DESCRIPTION: Dermot speaks to Nora from the window at night. She will not marry him because her parents oppose him. She would be ruined if he's found at her window. A hand clutches his head and a voice says, as he runs, "Won't you leave us a lock of your hair?"
AUTHOR: J.J. Waller (? John Francis Waller 1809-?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (broadside, Murray Mu23-y1:139)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous nightvisit father
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, pp. 103-104, "Won't You Leave Us a Lock of Your Hair" (1 text)
Roud #V13070
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.27(19), "Won't You Leave Us a Lock of Your Hair", unknown, n.d.
Murray, Mu23-y1:139, "Won't You Leave Us a Lock of Your Hair", Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1865
NOTES [23 words]: According to broadside Murray Mu23-y1:139, the tune of this is "The Low Back'd Car." It's not clear which song of that name is meant. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: OCon103A

Wonder Whar Is Good Old Daniel

See Where Is Old Elijah? (The Hebrew Children, The Promised Land) (File: San092)

Wonder Where is Good Ole Daniel

See Where Is Old Elijah? (The Hebrew Children, The Promised Land) (File: San092)

Wonder Where Is My Brother Gone?

DESCRIPTION: "Wonder where is my brother gone? Wonder where is my brother John? He is gone to the wilderness, Ain't comin' no more. Wonder where will I lie down? (x2) In some lonesome place, Lord, down on the ground."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 61, (no title) (partial text); p. 228, "Wonder Where Is My Brother Gone?" (1 tune, partial text)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, p. 150, "I Wonder Where My Father Be" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 349, "Wonder Where Is My Brother Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10969
RECORDINGS:
Annie Grace Horn Dodson, "Wonder Where My Brother Gone" (on NFMAla2)
NOTES [112 words]: Courlander's text (which is the basis for the description above) clearly refers to John the Baptist: "John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance..." (Mark 1:4; compare Matt. 3:1, Luke 3:2).
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands's text is much more secular: "I wonder where my father be, That he hain't been here with me. He's buried in some distant land And he won't be here with me. To sleep, to sleep, that lonesome sweet sleep, He is laid in his grave to sleep," and similarly with mother, brother, sisters, etc.
It may be that these are two separate songs, but neither seems sufficiently attested to make it worth splitting them. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: CNFM061B

Wonder, The (Ships in the Ocean)

DESCRIPTION: "I wonder who first invented The ships in the ocean for to swim, For to cross the ocean to and fro, How happy was him." The singer lists all the troubles seamen face -- storms, etc. -- and all the tasks they perform, such as carrying wine
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Journal of the Nellie)
KEYWORDS: ship hardtimes commerce nonballad technology
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 115-116, "Ships in the Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27520
File: HGam115

Wonderful Crocodile, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer, shipwrecked at (La Perouse), encounters the crocodile. He describes its immensity: Five hundred miles long, etc. Blown into its mouth, he lives well on the other things lost inside. At last the beast dies; the singer spends six months escaping
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(4288))
KEYWORDS: animal talltale monster sailor
FOUND IN: Australia Ireland US(MW,NE) Britain(England(South,Lond),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 134-135, "The Wonderful Crocodile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads, pp. 10-11, "The Wonderful Crocodile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 18-19, "The Crocodile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume-CanadasStoryInSong, pp. 157-159, "The Crocodile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 196, "The Wonderful Crocodile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 17, "The Crocodile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan8 1700, "The Crocodile" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #14, p. 1, "The Crocodile" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H231a, p. 28, "The Crocodile" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 292, "The Crocodile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 184-185, "The Crocodile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 168-170, "The Rummy Crocodile" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 230-232, "Crocodile Song" (1 text, probably this, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 60, "Crocodile Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 142-143, "Crocodile Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 498-500, "The Wonderful Crocodile" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WONDCROC
Roud #886
RECORDINGS:
Mike Molloy, "Crocodile Song" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4288), "The Wonderful Crocodile," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also 2806 c.16*(150), Harding B 11(1317), Harding B 11(1141), Harding B 11(4289), Harding B 11(4290), Firth c.12(412), "[The] Wonderful Crocodile
NLScotland, RB.m.143(134), "The Crocodile," Poet's Box (unknown), c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Derby Ram" (theme)
cf. "The Grey Goose" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
End for End Jack (per broadside NLScotland RB.m.143(134))
A Tough Yarn ("Ladies and gents' if you will listen a little while to me") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 158)
NOTES [101 words]: The similarity to "The Derby Ram" should be obvious. It is also noteworthy that most versions show very little variation; one must suspect a broadside ancestor somewhere.
Folklore sometimes claimed the flesh of the crocodile as an aphrodisiac (don't ask me why). I don't seem much connection between that idea and this song, but perhaps it suggested that the crocodile was "wonderful" and, well, big....
On the other hand, Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads mentions a British naval vessel of the 1830s, H. M. S. Crocodile, and wonder if this might "be a veiled reference to the press-gang." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: MA134

Wonderful Example, A

See Geordie Cunningham (File: LyCr2083)

Wonderful Grey Horse, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer's horse "was rode in the Garden by Adam the day that he fell"; that turned him grey. The horse has been with Noah, ..., Brien the brave, Sarsfield at Limerick, and Daniel O'Connell. He is ready to run for a rider that will shake off Erin's yoke.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: first half 19C (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Ireland patriotic talltale horse
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1014 - Battle of Clontarf and death of Brian Boru
July 12, 1691 - Battle of Aughrim
1775-1847 - Life of Daniel O'Connell
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 44A, "The Grey Horse" (1 text)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 158, "The White Steed" (1 text)
Roud #13451
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.169(243), "The Wonderful Grey Horse," unknown, c.1840
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Gray Mare (I) (The Old Gray Horse; The Little Black Bull)" (theme)
cf. "Bean an Fhir Rua" (tune, according to Tunney-StoneFiddle)
NOTES [97 words]: "Brien the Brave" is of course Brian Boru, winner of the Battle of Clontarf in 1814, for whom see "Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave."
Sarsfield is Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan (died 1693), the last of the great commanders who fought for James II; for his history, see "After Aughrim's Great Disaster."
Daniel O'Connell was the Irish hero who fought for emancipation, Repeal (of the Union between Britain and Ireland), and the place of the Irish in parliament; he is mentioned in dozens of songs; for more on him, see the cross-references under "Daniel O'Connell (I)." - RBW
File: Zimm044A

Wonderful Watford

DESCRIPTION: "Wonderful, wonderful Watford, Where the Little Missouri flows, We're proud of all our Norwegians And all that makes it so. You can ride o'er the plains and the coulees... And still be in wonderful Watford, The most wonderful place that I know."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 11, "Wonderful Watford" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beautiful Texas" (tune)
NOTES [32 words]: I strongly suspect that the author of this piece never set foot outside North Dakota!
The Little Missouri is a tributary of the Missouri River, which is by no means little in North Dakota. - RBW
File: Ohr011

Wonderful Whalers, The

DESCRIPTION: "Fathers of the oratory, Listen to my surprising tale." The Ann Alexander, under Captain Deblois, goes whaling. A whale destroys one of the boats but at last is taken. The ship itself survives, although with difficulty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (London Punch, according to Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang)
KEYWORDS: whaler battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 72-75, "The Wonderful Whalers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27541
NOTES [35 words]: As a poem, this is almost unreadable; as history, it is wrong, because the Ann Alexander was so badly damaged in her fight with a whale that she eventually sank. One wonders why anyone bothered to print it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HGam072

Wondrous Love

DESCRIPTION: "What wondrous love is this... that caused the lord of bliss To bear the dreadful curse for my soul." The singer has been saved from the burden of sin by Christ's sacrifice; therefore he/she praises God and the Lamb
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1811 (Stith Mead, "A General Selection of the Most Admired Hymns and Spiritual Songs" and Starke Dupuy's "Spiritual Songs," according to William Reynolds, _Companion to Baptist Hymnal_, Broadman Press, 1976, p. 239); text and tune first appeared together in Walker's 1843 "Southern Harmony," according to LindaJo H. McKim, _Presbyterian Hymnal Companion_, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, p. 78)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad reprieve
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 98, "Wondrous Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 153-154, "[Wondrous Love]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, p. 198, "What Wondrous Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, p. 80, "Wondrous Love" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 773, "Wondrous Love" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 113-114, "Wondrous Love" (1 text, 1 tune, a copy of a shape note version)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 38-39, "Wondrous Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, pp. 42-43, "Wondrous Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, pp. 160-161, "Wondrous Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 261, "Wondrous Love" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 350, "Wondrous Love" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Horton Barker: Folk Singer Supreme," Vol. XXII, No. 4 (Nov 1974), pp. 150-151, "Wondrous Love" (1 text)
DT, WONDLOVE
Roud #5089
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "Wondrous Love" (on Barker01)
Fisk Jubilee Singers, "When I Was Singin' Down" (on Fisk01)
Ganus Brothers Quartet, "Wondrous Love" (Columbia 15331-D, 1928)
Georgia Sacred Harp Quartette, "Wondrous Love" (OKeh 40195, 1924)
Old Harp Singers of Eastern Tennessee, "Wondrous Love" (on OldHarp01)
Pete Seeger, "Wondrous Love" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Through All the World Below" (tune & meter)
cf. "Dear Companion (The Broken Heart; Go and Leave Me If You Wish To, Fond Affection)" (tune)
NOTES [16 words]: This is that oddest of oddities: A song that files under *its own name* in the Sacred Harp! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LxU098

Wonery, twoery, tickery seven

See One-ery, Two-ery, Tickery, Seven (File: McIn102B)

Woo'd and Married and A' (I)

DESCRIPTION: The bride cries because she is to be married and has "neither blankets nor sheets, Nor scarce a coverlet." Her family members tell her not to complain because she has plenty else. Willy says "though we be scant o' claes We'll creep the closer thegither"
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: dowry wedding nonballad brother father mother sister
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 20, "Woo'd and Married and A'" (1 fragment)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 65-66, "The Bride Cam' Out o' the Byre" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, pp. 358-360, "Woo'd and Married and A'"
David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, pp. 115-117, "Woo'd and Married and A'"
Roud #7159
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Woo'd and Married and A' (II)" (theme: whining bride, tune)
NOTES [106 words]: Whitelaw: "The author of this song to the tune of 'Woo'd and Married and A',' is unknown. It appears in Herd's collection of 1776, but is of much older date." - BS
According to Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, p. 320, Alexander Ross (1699-1784), "the most prominent of [Allan] Ramsey's poetic disciples... the son of an Aberdeenshire farmer" whose work was admired by Burns, wrote a piece entitled "Wooed and Married and A'" -- but it's not clear which one. I'd guess this one, since it seems to be the better known and no one else has claimed it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: BdWoMar1

Wood Hauler, The

See The Backwoodsman (The Green Mountain Boys) [Laws C19] (File: LC19)

Wood Scow Julie Plante, The

See The Wreck of the Julie Plante (File: FJ174)

Woodchopper's Song

DESCRIPTION: "Ole Mister Oak, yo' day done come, Zim-zam-zip-zoo, Gwine chop you down an cahy you home! Bim-bam-biff-boom!" "Buhds in de branches fin' anodder nes'!... Ole Mister Oak Tree, He gwine to his res'!" Woodsman and axe go about their job
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: worksong nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 214-215, "Woodchopper's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ScNF214B

Woodman, Spare That Tree

DESCRIPTION: "Woodman, spare that tree, Touch not a single bough, In youth it sheltered me, And I'll protect it now." The singer relates how his grandfather planted it and how his family delighted in it. "While I've a hand to save, Thy axe shall harm it not."
AUTHOR: Words: George Perkins Morris (1802-1864) / Music: Henry Russell (1812-1900)
EARLIEST DATE: 1837 (sheet music published by Firth & Hall of New York)
KEYWORDS: family home request reprieve
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 669, "Woodman, Spare That Tree" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 246-252, "Woodman, Spare That Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 23-26, "Woodman, Spare That Tree" (1 text, 1 tune, plus the parody "Barber, Spare Those Hairs")
Scott-EnglishSongBook, pp. 88-89, "Woodman, Spare That Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 58-59, "Woodman! Spare That Tree!" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 253, "Woodman, Spare That Tree" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 60 and #3/62, p. 60, "Woodman Spare that Tree" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Michael R. Turner, _Victorian Parlour Poetry: An Annotated Anthology_, 1967, 1969 (page references are to the 1992 Dover edition), p. 257, "Woodman, Spare That Tree!" (1 text)
Roud #13833
RECORDINGS:
Jack Mahoney, "Woodman Spare That Tree" (Columbia 15712-D, 1932; rec. 1931)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(503), "Woodman Spare That Tree," G. Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Harding B 11(1186), Firth b.25(540), Harding B 11(4316), Harding B 11(4315), Harding B 11(4314), Harding B 45(23) View 2 of 3, Harding B 15(392a), Firth b.25(68), Harding B 11(64), Firth b.26(361), Firth b.28(36) View 2 of 2, Johnson Ballads 342, Harding B 11(4313), Harding B 15(391b), "Woodman Spare That Tree"; Firth b.25(600/601) View 1 of 2, "Woodman Spare The Tree"
LOCSheet, sm1840 371290, "Woodman! Spare That Tree!," Firth and Hall (New York), 1840 (tune)
LOCSinging, as115220, "Woodman, Spare That Tree," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as204080, "Woodman, Spare That Tree"
SAME TUNE:
Nigger, Put Down Dat Jug (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 109)
Rebel Spare that Flag (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets pp. 132-133); probably the same as one or the other version of "Traitor, Spare that Flag" (Wolf, pp. 158-159 and p. 159, these two songs having different second lines)
Barber, Spare Those Hairs (by Jno. Love, Jr., [class of 18]68) (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 69)
NOTES [269 words]: The original sheet music of this piece contains a letter from Morris to Russell describing how the words came to be written. Apparently the piece is biographical; Morris was with a friend when said friend saw a tree on his childhood home being threatened. A payment of $10 ensured the tree's continued existence.
In later years Russell claimed that he was the friend and that the tree grew on Morris's home. However, Russell was rather given to exaggeration; if we are to believe anyone, we should probably believe Morris.
Irving Berlin around 1911 wrote a song "Woodman, Woodman, Spare That Tree," which was sung by Bert Williams; the gimmick is that the singer needs to maintain the local forest so he can hide there from his wife. (Thomas S. Hischak, The American Musical Theatre Song Encyclopedia (with a Foreword by Gerald Bordman), Greenwood Press, 1995, p. 393.) Obviously it is not related to this song in terms of content, but presumably the title gave Berlin his inspiration. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as115220: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
The dating for broadside Bodleian Firth b.26(503), before 1835, is at best questionable. Here is a quote from the Lesley Nelson-Burns site Folk Music of England Scotland Ireland, Wales & America collection: "The words to this song are a poem written by George Pope Morris in 1830. The music was written by Henry Russell. The song was published in 1837.... " - BS
For background on Henry Russell, see "Cheer, Boys, Cheer (II)."
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RJ19246

Woodpecker, The (I Knew by the Smoke)

DESCRIPTION: "I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled Above the green elms that a cottage was near," even though the only sound was a woodpecker's tap. He praises the place, and the girl he hopes will be there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (various Bodleian broadsides)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad bird
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, pp. 167-168, "The Woodpecker" (1 text)
Roud #12680
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(212), "The Woodpecker," J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Firth b.34(320)=Firth c.18(68), (Evans); also Johnson Ballads fol. 11, "The Woodpecker," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Johnson Ballads fol. 18 (Catnach); also Harding B 11(4318) (Catnach); also Firth b.25(75), "The Woodpecker," J. Cadman (Manchester), 1850-1855; also Harding B 11(4319), "The Wood Pecker," W. S. Fortey (London), 1858-1885; also Harding B 13(204), "The Woodpecker," E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1855-1861; also Harding B 11(1437), "The Woodpecker," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(2832)=Firth b.26(467/468), "The Woodpecker," J. Wilson (Bodeford), n.d.; also Firth b.26(477) (Wilson); also Firth b.26(467/468) (WIlson, but illegible); also Harding B 11(3555), "The Wood Pecker," H. Disley (London), 1860-1883; also Harding B 11(3669)=Johnson Ballads 1669=Johnson d.1773(p. 127v), "The woodpecker," Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also Harding B 11(4317)=Johnson Ballads 2028, "The Woodpecker," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Firth b.26(299)=Harding B 11(3572), "The Woodpecker," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Firth c.14(373), "The Woodpecker," B. W. Dickinson (York), 1823-1834; also Harding B 25(1864), "The Woodpecker," T. Hoggett (Durham), 1816-1843; also Harding B 25(2105), "The Woodpecker," J. K. Pollock (North Shields), 1815-1855; also Johnson Ballads 2608, "The Woodpecker," unknow, n.d.; also 2806 c.17(477), "Woodpecker," Swindells (Manchester), 1796-1853
File: HMHS167D

Woodpecker's Hole, The

DESCRIPTION: The narrator sticks his finger in the woodpecker's hole in this quatrain ballad that hints of a story otherwise left untold. In other versions, it may be a skunk's or other animal's hole
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919
KEYWORDS: bawdy scatological bird humorous animal campsong
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England) US(MW,NE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 226-228, "The Woodpecker's Hole" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 61, "Take It Out, Take It Out, Remove It" (1 text, tune referenced)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 66, 67, "(The skunk's hole)" (1 text, from user descartes2, posted August 31, 2021, plus a mention by John5918 of a "Woodpecker's Hole" version)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 233, 489, 491, "Little Skunk's Hole" (notes only)
ST EM226 (Full)
Roud #10134
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "The Little Skunk's Hole" (Piotr-Archive #397, recorded 12/21/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Dixie" (tune) and references there
cf. "Little Brown Jug" (tune)
NOTES [40 words]: Averill says some camps sang this to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw," but this seems to be a minority opinion. I've heard it sung to "Dixie"; this is the tune used by Judy Cook, e.g. (although her version has a tag to a different tune). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: EM226

Woodpecker's Song, The

See The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat) (File: K295)

Woods Are Dark, the Grass Is Green, The

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "The woods are dark, the grass is green, All the girls I love to see, Excepting (Rose Taylor), she's so pretty, She belongs to London City"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope courting beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #611, "The Woods are dark, the grass is green" (1 text)
File: AJRR611

Woods o' Tillery, The

DESCRIPTION: A mason lad leaves the singer before daylight but says he'll come again and she will rise and let him in.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: dialog nightvisit
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 774, "The Woods o' Tillery" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6190
NOTES [21 words]: Greig/Duncan4: "Tillery is northeast of Newmachar." "Tillery" is not in Greig/Duncan's text and no note explains the title. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4774

Woods of Drumbo, The

See Drumboe Castle (File: PGa100)

Woods of Michigan, The

See Harry Dunn (The Hanging Limb) [Laws C14] (File: LC14)

Woods of Mountsandel, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, there's no play so sweet, you may search where you can, As the dear little town on the banks of the Bann." The singer recalls the happy times he courted Kathleen around Mountsandel. Summer is gone, and they are old, but they still love each other
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting age
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H6=H567, p. 275, ""The Woods of Mountsandel (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7970
File: HHH006

Woods of Rickarton, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye jolly ploughmen lads... The praises of your bonnie glen I would be fain to sing." The singer praises the woods of Rickarton, the streams, the men -- and especially the girls (while having harsh words for a wealthy but vicious woman)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1889 (Greig/Duncan3 417C)
KEYWORDS: farming work courting money rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #95, p. 2, "The Woods of Rickarton" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan3 417, "The Woods of Rickarton" (2 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 251, "The Woods of Rickarton" (1 text)
Roud #5574
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Riccarton
Whistlin' at the Ploo
NOTES [39 words]: Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Rickarton (417) is at coordinate (h9,v8) on that map [near Stonehaven, roughly 13 miles WSW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Ord252

Woodsmen's Alphabet, The

See The Logger's Alphabet (File: Doe207)

Woodville Mound

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

Wooed and Married an' A' (II)

DESCRIPTION: A pampered "toast o' the parish" marries. She has no skill. When she asks her husband for ribbons he sits her at the wheel to spin. She runs to her mother who sides with the husband and sends her back, admonished to work.
AUTHOR: Mrs Scott of Dumbartonshire (source: Chambers, probably copied from Cromek)
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Cromek's _Select Scottish Songs_, according to Chambers)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The spoiled "toast o' the parish Is wooed and married and a'." She has no skill but to dress herself in finery. When she asks for fine ribbons her husband sets her by the spinning wheel. She runs to mother. Her mother says her husband's idea is good "for now ye should work like a tiger ... and debt keep awa" and sends her "swift away hame" with advice not to spend time at gossip ("or else ye deserve to be knockit"). She decides to go home "and e'en tak a chance o' the landin', However that matters might fa'"
KEYWORDS: marriage husband mother wife clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1370, "Wooed and Married an' A'" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1829), Vol II, pp. 360-361, "Wooed, and Married, and A'"
Roud #7159
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 22(350)[many lines illegible], "Wooed and Married and A' ("Woo'd and marry'd and a'"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Woo'd and Married and A' (I)" (theme: whining bride, tune)
NOTES [115 words]: The two "Woo'd and Married and A'" are lumped by Roud and have the theme of the spoiled and complaining bride, and tune, in common. The details are entirely different as you can tell by their description. - BS
According to Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, p. 320, Alexander Ross (1699-1784), "the most prominent of [Allan] Ramsey's poetic disciples... the son of an Aberdeenshire farmer" whose work was admired by Burns, wrote a piece entitled "Wooed and Married and A'" -- but it's not clear which one. I'd guess the other one, since that seems to be the better known and no one else has claimed it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: GrD71370

Wooer Came to the Widow's Door, The

DESCRIPTION: The widow welcomes a wooer, gives him a seat, feeds him bread and cheese, and puts him to bed, all of which he happily accepts. She frightens him by jumping into bed with him. He runs out the door and falls in a hole.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1)
KEYWORDS: courting sex escape food humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 80, "The Wooer Came to the Widow's Door" (1 text)
Roud #3867
File: LyCr180

Wooing (I), The

See The Courting Case (File: R361)

Wooing (II), The

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) AND The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: E098)

Wooing and Death of John Randal

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Wooing Song of a Yeoman of Kent's Sonne

See I Hae Layen Three Herrings a Sa't (I Cannot Come Every Day to Woo) (File: BeCo373)

Wool Commandeer, The

DESCRIPTION: "The commandeer is underway, and blimey, what a fuss, The blinking din and clatter sure would make a parson cuss." they're desperately trying to set up a site to receive the commandeered wool. Wool comes from everywhere and is overloading the site
AUTHOR: Words: George Meek / Music: Frank Fyfe (source: Graham Wilson, "Billy on the Boil")
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (text written, according to Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ; the tune came later)
KEYWORDS: work sheep humorous New Zealand
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 40, "(The Wool Commandeer)" (1 text)
NOTES [122 words]: During World War II, the New Zealand government apparently commandeered the entire New Zealand wool clip for war purposes. This song mocks the government's lack of preparedness for dealing with the situation when all the wool arrived at the warehouses at the same time.
The irony is that the government should have known this would happen; according to Keith Jackson and Alan McRobie, Historical Dictionary of New Zealand (Oceanian Historical Dictionaries #5), The Scarecrow Press, 1996, p. 82, a similar system had existed from 1915-1919, when the British government purchased all of New Zealand's exports at a fixed (but high) price, ensuring temporary prosperity. So they should have known the times when products came in! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Garl040

Wool, Wether and WIne

DESCRIPTION: "An old shearer stood at the cookshop door, Weary and bleary and stiff" after a long drinking bout. He swears off drink and says he will shear no more after this season, shears brilliantly, takes his pay, heads out -- and gets dead drunk again
AUTHOR: Words: George Meek
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Meek, "Station Days in Maoriland and Other Verses," according to Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook)
KEYWORDS: sheep worker drink humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 77, "Wool, Wether and Wine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 151, "(Wool, Wether and Wine" (1 text)
File: Clev077

Woolloomooloo

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes his shady life since his birth in Woolloomooloo. His father is a drunkard, and his parents fight so often that "Half the time they used to spend in jail." The singer eventually turns to robbery, and ends up in prison himself.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: family children crime prison Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 194-195, "Woolloomooloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 27, "Woolloomooloo" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WOOLOO
Roud #22609
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Woolloomooloo Lair
My Name is McCarty
My Name is McCarthy
NOTES [15 words]: Woolloomooloo is an inner suburb of Sydney; at one time it had a rather bad reputation. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: FaE194

Woolloomooloo Lair

See Woolloomooloo (File: FaE194)

Woolston Ferry, The

DESCRIPTION: "I looked over Woolston and what did I see, Coming for to carry me home? The old Woolston Ferry coming toward me...." The Woolston Ferry "doesn't travel very fast... it was built to last." The floating bridge is being replaced by a regular bridge
AUTHOR: Michae Sadler (source: Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire)
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire)
KEYWORDS: technology travel humorous derivative
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 120-125, "The Woolston Ferry" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a copy of a drawing referenced in the song)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (partial tune)
cf. "The Midnight Specia" (partial tune)
File: BrHa120

Wop She 'Ad It-io (Rumpsy Addity, Ram She Add-a-dee, Once I Courted a Fine Young Lass)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh once I courted a pretty maid, I courted her right well." Her father says he'll "tickle [the singer's] bot-tum" if he vists. He falls off a ladder and hurts his "bot-tum." The doctor turpentines it. He marries Kitty despite the injured "bot-tum"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (Copper-Season)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage injury humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Copper-ASongForEverySeason, pp. 241-242, "Wop She 'Ad It-io" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 20, pp. 26, 50, "Rumpsy-Bumpsy-Ay" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #1212
File: CopSe241

Worcester City

See Oxford City [Laws P30] (File: LP30)

Work for Jesus

DESCRIPTION: "Go work in my field, Christian, now sayeth the Lord, Your labor with blessings he'll quickly reward." "Work, work, work, Christian, work, Go labor for Jesus while yet it is day." Be patient. Warn those dying in sin. Care for children. You'll be rewarded
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Journal of the Andrew Hicks)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad work Jesus children
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 361-362, "Work for Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27557
File: HGam361

Work of the Weavers, The

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "If it wasna for the weavers, what wad ye do?... Ye wadna hae a coat o the black or the blue Gin it wasna for the work o the weavers." The verses describe those who insult weavers, and how -- despite this -- they depend on the weavers
AUTHOR: David Shaw
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: weaving work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 200-202, "The Wark o' the Weavers" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #42, p. 2, "The Weavers" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 391, "The Wark o' the Weavers" (1 text)
MacColl-ShuttleAndCage-IndustrialFolkBallads, pp. 10-11, "The Wark o' the Weavers" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, pp. 50-51, "The wark o' the weavers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 127, "The Work of the Weavers" (1 text)
DT, WORKWEAV
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 137-139, "The Wark o' the Weavers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #374
RECORDINGS:
Liam Clancy, "The Weavers" (on IRLClancy01)
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Work of the Weavers" (on IRClancyMakem02)
NOTES [18 words]: The words of this song were published by David Shaw (died 1856). I don't know where the tune came from. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: FSWB127

Work Song (Cold Frosty Morning)

See On a Cold Frosty Morning (File: R283)

Work Song (Utah work song)

DESCRIPTION: ""There's Ehler and Heber and Joseph Taylor, Will Brunso from Huntsville and another feller, Hurrah! hurrah! we'll shout and we'll sing. 'Taint good to be sad if you don't get a thing." Hearers are urged to work; eventually they will go to the co-op store
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #249, "Work Song" (1 short text)
Roud #10912
File: Hubb249

Work-Song

See A Little Streak o' Lean (File: ScNF207B)

Workers of the World

DESCRIPTION: Anthem of the I.W.W.: "Fellow workers, pay attention To what I'm going to mention, For it is the fixed intention Of the workers of the world. And I hope you will be ready, True-hearted, brave, and steady, To gather 'round the standard..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: labor-movement nonballad
FOUND IN: US Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 104, "Workers of the World" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA104

Workhouse Boy, The

See The Mistletoe Bough (File: R802)

Workin' on the Building

See Working on the Building (File: Arno162)

Workin' Steer, The

See Courtin' in the Stable (The Workin' Steer) (File: Ord227)

Working Chap, The

See I'm a Workin' Chap (File: Ord051)

Working Down the Sewer

DESCRIPTION: "Working down the sewer, Shovelling up manure" is the lot of this particular gang (of soldiers?). The foreman gives the singer the especially dirty jobs, and demands that he work a full shift
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: scatological work
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p.175, "Working Down the Sewer" (1 text)
Roud #10249
File: RuSoWDTS

Working on a Pushboat

See Push Boat (File: BMRF567)

Working on the Building

DESCRIPTION: "Lord, I'm working on that sure foundation, Holding up the blood-stained banner for the Lord. Just as soon as I get there, working on the building. Going up to heaven, get my reward." The singer is singing/shouting/praying/crying on that sure foundation
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 162, "Workin' on the Building" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4276
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "For My Lord" (some lines, "working on a building" theme)
cf. "I'm Working On a Building" ("working on a building" theme)
NOTES [24 words]: Despite the title, and the fact that Roud lumps them,, this pretty definitely is not "I'm Working On a Building"; the form is very different. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Arno162

Working on the Railroad

See Paddy Works on the Railway (File: LxU076)

Working on the Railway

See Paddy Works on the Railway (File: LxU076)

Workman, The

DESCRIPTION: "Comrades, sit down and brush off your frown, Till we talk of our sad situation." Labor is brought low by the "trust combination." Workers must satisfy their demanding wives. Food, doctors are expensive. It's no wonder the lumbermen can't save their wages
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (Ives-LarryGorman)
KEYWORDS: lumbering hardtimes wife money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 114-115, 202, "The Workman" (1 text)
Roud #25255
NOTES [45 words]: I have no reason whatsoever to think this is traditional, but I've included it as one of only two Larry Gorman pieces for which Ives could locate a broadside copy, the other being "The Old Pod Auger Days." It appears there was a broadside of "The Hoboes of Maine" also. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LaGoTWor

World of Misery

See Shenandoah (File: Doe077)

World War I Song (In the Argonne Forest)

DESCRIPTION: "Listenm I'll tell you now Of days of long ago..." "Of a friend I left behind..." "In the Argonne Forest and bloody ground Where the dead and dying lay, Hermana was a friend of mine" who was killed there. The singer asks God to look down on the dead
AUTHOR: Words: "Banjer" Bill Cornett (source: Roberts/Agey-InThePine)
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Roberts/Agey-InThePine)
KEYWORDS: war soldier death derivative | drummer boy World War I Argonne
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #47, "World War I Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #773
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" [Laws A15] (original source)
NOTES [127 words]: Roberts/Agey-InThePine points out the obvious dependence of this song on "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh," and Roud goes so far as to lump them, but this is clearly a rewrite; I consider it a separate song.
The Meuse-Argonne Offensive lasted from the final week of September 1918 until the end of the war. According to the National Archives web site for the battle (https://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww1/meuse-argonne, checked October 30, 1918), over a million American soldiers fought there and 26,000 were killed. One suspects, knowing that the dead man was a Greek called "Hermana" who served in the same unit as Bill Cornett, that the dead man could be identified. But I have not tried to figure it out; the official records seem to be behind a paywall. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RAInP118

World Was Made in Six Days, The

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Worms Crawl In, The

DESCRIPTION: "Did you ever think when the hearse goes by That you might be the next to die?.... The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, The worms play pinochle on your snout...." A detailed description of how corruption attacks a body in a grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1895 (League of American Wheelmen's "The L. A. W. Bulletin and Good Roads, December 20, 1895)
KEYWORDS: death burial humorous nonballad campsong | worms hearse
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 142, "Old Woman All Skin and Bones" (4 texts plus 2 excerpts and mention of 3 more, all basically "Skin and Bones (The Skin and Bones Lady)," but the "B" text seems to have picked up a "Worms Crawl In" chorus)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 444, "The Hearse Song" (2 texts, 1 tune, containing these lyrics but with particularizations regarding a military burial; the result would probably qualify as a separate song if better known)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 556-557, "The Hearse Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 242, "The Hearse Song" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 124, "Did You Ever Think" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 657-658+, "The Worms Crawl In (The Hearse Song)"
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #92, pp. 86-88, "(There was a lady all skin and bone)" (contains this verse)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Gloria Dickens, "Childhood Songs from North Carolina" Vol. XXI, No. 1 (Apr 1973), p. 5, "Have you stopped to think when the hearse goes by" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 52, "(Don't ever laugh as a Hearse goes by)" (1 text, from user 2wonderY, posted August 31, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 103, 110, "The Hearse Song" (notes only)
DT, WORMSCRA
ADDITIONAL: League of American Wheelmen, "The L. A. W. Bulletin and Good Roads," Volume 22, No. 25, December 20, 1895 (available on Google Books with the title "Good Roads: Devoted to Construction and Maintenance of Roads and Streets · Volume 22), p. 11, "Do You Ever Think" (1 text)
ST San444 (Partial)
Roud #15546
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene" (lyrics)
cf. "The Hearse Song (II)" (lyrics, theme)
SAME TUNE:
The Scabs Crawl In (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 13; on PeteSeeger30)
Rootie-Toot-Toot (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 76)
NOTES [497 words]: The Pankakes report that this has been attributed to the Crimean War. They do not cite a source for this information.
The key line, "The worms crawl out, the worms crawl in" appears as part of "Skin and Bones (The Skin and Bones Lady)" in the revised 1810 edition of Gammer Gurton's Garland, but it may have been an editorial insertion.
A similar lyric is found in the ballad of "Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene," but I don't know if that's a case of cross-dependence (let alone which way the dependence goes) or an independent evolution.
Charles Clay Doyle published a study of this, "'As the Hearse Goes By': The Modern Child's Memento Mori,' in Francis Edward Abernathy, ed., What's Going On? (In Modern Texas Folklore) (1976; the Doyle essay begins on p. 175). This documents the widespread nature of the song (without giving really detailed statistics about its distribution). It also compares it with a Middle English tradition of songs about bodily decay -- a comparison I find rather a stretch.
I once saw a claim this was written by Joseph Whiteford, Gregg Manfredi, Wes Planten. I doubt it.
John Patrick kindly found a great many instances of this song in early publications on Google Books. All of what follows is from sources he cited, and all can be found on Google Books. The earliest, from "Good Roads," is clearly this but also clearly not the way we usually hear it today:
Do You Ever Think?
Do you ever think as the hearse drives by
That it won't be long till you and I
Will both ride out in the big, plumed hack
And we'll never, never, never ride back?
Do you ever think as you strive for gold
That a dead man's hand can't a dollar hold?
We may tug and toil and pinch and save
And we'll lose it all when we reach the grave.
Do you ever think as you closely clasp
Your bag of gold with a firmer grasp,
If the hungry hears of the world were fed,
It my bring peace to your dying bed?
This version is anonymous, as are most that follow; it is one of many little verses scattered through the volumes of Good Roads. But once it had appeared, it gradually began to be reprinted. Charities: A Weekly Review of Local and General Philanthropy, Vol. IX. November 15, 1902. No. 20. p. 493, had the first two verses without a stanza break. The Inland Printer. Vol. XLVII. June, 1911. No. 3, p. 414, had the first two verses separated into stansas. The Typographical Journal, Volume XXVII. November, 1905. Number Five. p. 538, in "Correspondence" from Walter O'Day, had those two verses plus two more about supporting labor.
We finally find a reference to worms in "Recollections of the War in Europe, From June, 1917, to February, 1919" by Captain Louis Julian Genella, New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal. Volume LXXI, June, 1919. No. 12, p. 510. But they aren't crawling yet; the first line of this part of the text runs "The maggots and worms shall cover your skins...." But from there it gradually drifted toward the version we usually use today.
Last updated in version 6.6
File: San444

Worn-Out Sailor, The

See The Poor Old Sailor (File: SmHa059)

Worried Man Blues

DESCRIPTION: "It takes a worried man to sing a worried song (x2), I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long." The singer describes how he was imprisoned and shackled. He is sentenced to (21) years. His girl takes a train and leaves him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: work prison train abandonment punishment
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, p. 28, "The Worry Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, p. 890, "Worried Man Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 240, (no title) (1 fragment, mentioning the train that is sixteen coaches long, which might be part of this or the song it inspired)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 74, "Worried Man Blues" (1 text)
DT, WORRDMAN
Roud #4753
RECORDINGS:
[Clarence] Ashley & [Gwen] Foster, "Haunted Road Blues" (Bdy. 4076, rec. 1931; on Ashley04)
Steve Ledford & Daniel Nicholson w. Carolina Ramblers String Band, "Worried Man Blues" (Banner 32371/Oriole 8118/Perfect 12787/Romeo 5118/Melotone [Canada] 91283, 1932)
Carter Family, "Worried Man Blues" (Victor V-40317, 1930; Montgomery Ward M-4742, 1935) (ARC 07-05-55/Conqueror 8846, 1937)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers, "Won't Be Worried Long" (Bluebird B-6738, 1937)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Worried Man Blues" (on NLCR16)
Pete Seeger, "Worried Man Blues" (on PeteSeeger26)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Two Dollar Bill (Long Journey Home)" (tune)
cf. "Dink's Blues" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I'm a Stranger Here" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I'm Worried Now But I Won't Be Worried Long" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [64 words]: While this song was copyrighted by A. P. Carter, he probably didn't write it; he may have picked it up from an African-American prison song. - PJS
Or, perhaps, a blues; Charley Patton's "Down the Dirt Road Blues" isn't really the same song, but it has a lot of similar phrases. Patton recorded his piece (not in the Index, since I don't think it's traditional in his form) in 1929. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BAF890

Worrisome Woman, The

See The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father [Child 248] (File: C248)

Worry Song, The

See Worried Man Blues (File: BAF890)

Worse You Are the More the Ladies Love You, The

DESCRIPTION: "The worse you are the more the ladies love you, The more they want to hang around... It's the bad lads that get the nice girls... don't forget to tell them All the horrible things you do And just like the ivy... All the girls will cling to you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: courting | worse you are
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 158, "The worse you are the more the ladies love you" (1 text)
Roud #25400
File: KSUC158B

Worthies of Dundee (I)

DESCRIPTION: "It's noo, my lads, I'll sing a song, An' sure I am it's new, Although the characters I'll name Hae lang been kent by you. There's first Pie Jock...." The singer lists interesting people, then those he dislikes, Auld Horny being welcome to the latter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Martin, Dundee Worthies, according to Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: nonballad moniker Devil
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 48, "Worthies of Dundee I" (1 text)
File: Gath048

Worthies of Dundee (II)

DESCRIPTION: "At nicht feelin drowsy I had a bit stroll... We went intae the Stag on oor road comin back." There he sees many famous Dundee characters, who play and sing for a dance. But now all those characters are dead and gone
AUTHOR: unknown; adapted by Jim Reid
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Martin, Dundee Worthies, according to Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: music party nonballad moniker
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 54, "Worthies of Dundee II" (1 text, tune referenced)
File: Gath054

Worthington

DESCRIPTION: Shape note hymn: "Thou we adore, eternal name, And humbly own to thee. How feeble is our mortal frame, What dying worms are we."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1808 (Missouri Harmony)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 154, "Worthington" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: San154A

Worthy Boys of Clone, The

DESCRIPTION: Four "worthy boys of Clone" put to sea at night on December 3. They drown: "A monstrous wave capsized the boat as o'er the Back she sailed." The boys' names are given.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck fishing
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 92-93, "The Worthy Boys of Clone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #20533
NOTES [24 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: "The disaster took place about 1850....[The singer] believed the author of the song was a man named Rogers." - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran092

Wot Cheer! (Knocked 'Em in the Old Kent Road)

DESCRIPTION: "Last week down our alley came a toff, Nice old geezer with a nasty cough." He tells "my missus" that her Uncle Tom has left her his donkey shay. Despite the donkey's problems, they regularly ride in Old Kent Road as the neighbors cry "Wot cheer!"
AUTHOR: Words: Albert Chevalier / Music: Charles Ingle (source: Gammond)
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Gammond)
KEYWORDS: death horse travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #160, "Wot Cheer! (Knock'd 'Em in the Old Kent Road" (1 text)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 78, "(My Old Man Said Follow the Van)" (1 excerpt, from user John5918, posted September 19, 2021)
ADDITIONAL: Aline Waites & Robin Hunter, _The Illustrated Victorian Songbook_, Michael Joseph Ltd., 1984, pp. 145-148, "Wot Cheer! Knocked 'Em in the Old Kent Road" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a reproduction of an early sheet music cover)
Peter Gammond, _Best Music Hall and Variety Songs_, Wolfe Publications Ltd., 1972, pp. 203-204, "Wot Cher!" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST JoMS160 (Partial)
Roud #25941
NOTES [12 words]: Gammond lists this as having been made popular by Albert Chevalier. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: JoMS160

Wot Cher!

See Wot Cheer! (Knocked 'Em in the Old Kent Road) (File: JoMS160)

Would You Lend My Mother a Saucepan?

DESCRIPTION: "Would you lend my mother a saucepan? Would you lend my mother a spoon? Because she's going to have Some friends to tea this afternoon." "Would you lend my mother half a crown," to be repaid after her husband gets work. Also, "A-hunting we will go"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty money food
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 41, "(Would you lend my mother a saucepan?)" (1 text, which seems to combine the "Saucepan" verses with "A-Hunting We Will Go")
File: SuSm041

Would You Like to Know How Bread is Made?

DESCRIPTION: "Would you like to know how bread is made... Come here and I'll tell you all about the trade." The part of the farmer, miller, and baker is described.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad miller food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 58, "Would You Like to Know How Bread is Made" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13650
File: OSY258

Would You Like to Play a Game?

DESCRIPTION: "Would you like to play a game? Try and guess this (boy's) name. It started with (G), it ends with (E), Come and skip and play with me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: wordplay playparty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 23, "(Would you like to play a game?)" (1 text)
Roud #23010
File: PKKB023G

Wouldn't Drive So Hard

DESCRIPTION: A song of cotton workers. "Wouldn't drive so hard but I need de arns (x2). Snatchin' an' a-crammin' it in my sack, Gotter have some cotton if it breaks my back, Wouldn't drive so hard but I need de arns (x2)."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: worksong harvest
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 210, (no title) (1 short text)
File: ScaNF210

Wounded Hussar, The

DESCRIPTION: When the battle ends Adelaide, "alone on the banks of the dark rolling Danube," finds Henry, her "wounded Hussar." He thanks her for coming "To cheer the lone heart of thy wounded Hussar." She says "thou shalt live" but he dies in her arms.
AUTHOR: Thomas Campbell
EARLIEST DATE: 1799 (written 1797, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: war death lover soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 159, "The Wounded Hussar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 175, "The Wounded Hussar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2699
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 402, "The Wounded Hussar," J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Harding B 28(93), Firth c.14(235), Harding B 15(393a), Harding B 15(393b), Harding B 22(354), Harding B 36(9) View 2 of 2, Harding B 25(2115), Harding B 25(2113), Harding B 11(3888), Firth b.26(176), Harding B 11(3039), Firth b.25(72), Harding B 17(347b), Harding B 12(131), Harding B 11(370), Firth c.13(50), Harding B 17(347a), Harding B 17(347a)"[The] Wounded Hussar"
SAME TUNE:
Sweet Maiden I Admire Thee (per broadside Bodleian Firth c.14(235))
NOTES [158 words]: South Riding Folk Network site: "The tune Captain O'Kane (spelled in various ways) is generally attributed to the harper Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738), though this seems to rest solely on an unsubstantiated assertion by James Hardiman (Irish Minstrelsy, or, Bardic Remains of Ireland, 1831). During the first quarter of the 19th century, Thomas Campbell's verses, The Wounded Hussar, were set to it, and under this new name it spread throughout Britain."
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "The Wounded Hussar" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001))
Harte quoting J Cuthbert Hadden: "This ballad, now entirely forgotten, attained an extraordinary popularity [in Glasgow and London]." - BS
For background on author Campbell, see the notes to "Lord Ullin's Daughter." - RBW
File: CrMa159

Wounded in Love

DESCRIPTION: The singer is seventeen and in love with "a very pretty man." She would go to her father's house, or her pretty man's mothers house. Lines about a gardner warning about primroses on "yon roddy bush." "Farewell all fading flowers"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love flowers gardening nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1181, "Wounded in Love" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6805
NOTES [38 words]: The description follows Greig/Duncan6 1181a; Greig/Duncan6 1181b changes the sex of the singer and the "very pretty man" becomes bonny Jean, "a very pretty girl." The song seems inspired by a poorly remembered "Seeds of Love." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61181

Wounded Soldier

See The Battle of Mill Springs [Laws A13] (File: LA13)

Wounded Spirit

DESCRIPTION: "It is true when I first read your letter That I blotted your name with a tear, I was young then, but now I know better." The other lover apparently has changed her(?) mind and remembered her promises, but "now I love another, not you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 196, "Wounded Spirit" (1 text)
Roud #7945
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (subject)
NOTES [27 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety has only a fragment of this piece, and I can find no more. The general plot seems pretty clear, though. - RBW
File: Beld196

Wounded Whale, The

DESCRIPTION: As the sun rises "from her ocean bed," the whaling crew spots a whale and sets out in pursuit. They wound the beast; it struggles and dives but at last must come to the surface, where the crew finishes the kill
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1836 (Journal of the ship _Dartmouth_)
KEYWORDS: whale whaler death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 23-26, "The Wounded Whale" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 21-24, "The Sperm Whale Song (The Wounded Whale)" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 189-190, "There She Blows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tod-WhalingInSouthernWaters, p. 126, "The Wounded Whale" (1 text)
Roud #2004
File: SWMS023

Wraggle Taggle Gipsies, O, The

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Wraggle Taggle Gypsies, O, The

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Wraggle Taggle Gypsy, The

See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Wran, de Wran, de King of All Birds, De

See The Wren (The King) (File: FO059)

Wrap Me Up in My Tarpaulin Jacket

DESCRIPTION: A dying sailor [lumberjack, stockman] bids his comrades farewell, asking them to "wrap me up" in his work clothing and make other arrangements for his funeral. (He recalls his early life and hopes to sleep undisturbed)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1826 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1594))
KEYWORDS: dying death funeral burial sailor logger shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain Canada(Newf) US(NE) Australia New Zealand
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 439, "The Dying Stockman" (1 text)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 90-91, 226, "The Dying Stockman"; pp. 118-119, "The Dying Bagman" (3 texts, 3 tunes); also probably pp. 264-265, "Cant-Hook and Wedges" (2 texts)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 170-171, "The Dying Stockman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, p. 39, "The Dying Stockman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 221-223, "The Dying Stockman" (1 text)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 232-233, "The Dying Stockman" (1 text, 1 tune, plus another "Dying Stockman" poem from about the same time)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 38-39, "The Dying Stockman" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 436-437, "Wrap Me Up in My Tarpaulin Jacket and The Handsome Young Airman" (2 short texts, 1 tune, with the "A" text going here and the "B" text being "The Dying Aviator")
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XIII, pp. 148-190 (29-30), "Cow Boy's Lament" (22 texts, 7 tunes, the "K" text being in fact a version of "The Old Stable Jacket")
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 82-83, "The Dying Stockman" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 281-282, "The Dying Stockman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 47, "Tarpaulin Jacket" (2 texts)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 98, "Jolly Best Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 880-881, "A Rambling Young Fellow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 148-149, "Tarpaulin Jacket" (1 text, 2 tunes, not very much like the usual versions)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 57-58, "Tarpaulin Jacket" (1 text plus a broadside excerpt, 1 tune)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 271, "(The Old Stable Jacket/The Dying Stockman)" (1 short New Zealand text, reconstructed, plus an excerpt of an Australian version); pp. 271-272, "(Musterer's Lament"/"A High Country Musterer Lay Dying") (1 text, also adapted to New Zealand)
DT TARPJCKT*
ADDITIONAL: Kenneth Lodewick, "'The Unfortunate Rake" and His Descendants,'" article published 1955 in _Western Folklore_; republished on pp. 87-98 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009
A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, p. 237, "The Dying Stockman" (1 text)
Roud #829
RECORDINGS:
Frank Crumit, "Wrap Me Up in My Tarpaulin Jacket" (HMV [UK] B-8032, c. 1933)
John Greenway, "The Dying Stockman" (on JGreenway01)
Tex Morton, "Wrap Me Up With My Stockwhip and Blanket" (Regal Zonophone [Australia] G22904, n.d.)

BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1594)[some illegible words], "The Rakish Young Fellow," Angus (Newcastle), 1774-1825 ; also Harding B 11(3215), Harding B 16(218b), Harding B 25(1595)[some illegible words], Harding B 16(219a), Harding B 11(1211), Harding B 11(3216), Firth c.22(67)[almost entirely illegible but what is legible is recognizable as this song], Harding B 11(680), "[The] Rakish Young Fellow"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Aviator"
SAME TUNE:
The Dying Tramper (file: Clev082)
The Life of a High-Country Shepherd (File: Clev047)
That Shit Shute (File: AWDBW090)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Old Stable (Sable) Jacket
Derrydown Fair
NOTES [235 words]: Compare the modern song "Fiddler's Green," which may have been inspired by this piece.
The number of parodies of this piece ("The Dying Stockman," "The Dying Lumberman") is astonishing, but most seem to have evolved rather than being deliberate rewrites. The Australian version known as "Cant-Hook and Wedges" claims to be an exception; the informants claim to have written it. Certainly the piece has modern elements (e.g. a reference to the Model T Ford), but one is still inclined to doubt that it was created deliberately.
On the other hand, Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 94, claim that "The Dying Stockman" was "Probaby adapted by Horace Flower in the 1890s from any number of similar songs in English-language tradition," but they identify it as being from the "Unfortunate Rake" family, mentioning "Tarpaulin Jacker" only secondarily. - RBW
The contemplator.com Songs of England site has a version beginning "A tall stalwart lancer lay dying" with a note that "This appears in the Scottish Student's Handbook. The words were written by G. J. Whyte-Melville (1821-1878). The air was written by Charles Coote."
It is too easy to get hung up on the "wrap me up" line as a unique marker. In Peacock the line is just to "dress up in blue jacket and trousers," but that is the only substantial difference between Peacock and the broadsides. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: FR439

Wrap the Green Flag Round Me, Boys

DESCRIPTION: The dying soldier requestes, "Wrap the green flag 'round me, boys To die were far more sweet With Ireland's noble emblem, boys, to be my winding sheet." He wishes he had lived to see Irish victory, but promises his spirit will be near the flag
AUTHOR: J. K. O'Reilly
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Galvin)
KEYWORDS: Ireland death soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Galvin-IrishSongsOfResistance, pp. 75-76, "Wrap the Green Flag Round Me, Boys" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [58 words]: Connected by Galvin with the Irish Civil War of 1922-1923 (for which see "The Irish Free State") -- though in fact the song could apply as well to the 1916 rebellion, or even to earlier revolts. Indeed, in some ways, earlier revolts would make more sense; by the time of the Civil War, Ireland was turning to the tricolor green/white/orange flag. - RBW
File: PGa075

Wrapped in Red Flannels

See The Unfortunate Rake (File: VWL108)

Wreathe of Green Willow, A

See All Around My Hat (File: K145)

Wreck at Kankakee, The

DESCRIPTION: About a (nineteenth century) train wreck on the Kankakee River. The train crew includes engineer Barker and fireman Hosler
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (Cohen); apparently first printed 1891
KEYWORDS: train wreck
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 272, "The Wreck at Kankakee" (notes only)
File: LSRa272E

Wreck at Latona, The

See The Wreck of the 1262 (The Freight Wreck at Altoona) (File: DTwrck12)

Wreck at Maud, The (Al Bowen)

DESCRIPTION: "Christmas had come, and the morning was dark, The moon had hidden her face" when engineer Al Bowan started for work. He bids his mother goodbye. A switching error puts another train on his track; he is killed in the wreck
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks)
KEYWORDS: train wreck mother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 23, 1904 - the Maud wreck (so Cohen; McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks says Dec. 24, 1905)
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 14-16, "The Wreck at Maud" (3 partial texts which together constitute a fairly complete version; 1 tune)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 81-82, "Al Bowen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 452-453, "The Maud Wreck" (1 text)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 272, "Maud Wreck" (notes only)
Roud #3518
File: LSRa272H

Wreck between New Hope and Gethsemane

DESCRIPTION: "Once two trains with mighty power running sixty miles an hour, 'Twas a fearful speed between midnight and day." The train of engineer Stergin is involved in a head-on collision on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.
AUTHOR: Doc Hopkins, Karl Davis, Harty Taylor
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Hopkins/Davis/Taylor, _Mountain Ballads and Home Songs_)
KEYWORDS: train wreck
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 6-8, "The Wreck Between New Hope and Gethsemane" (1 text, 1 tune, a very poor reproduction of a printed edition); pp. 190-191 (1 text, 1 tune, a clearer reproduction)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 274, "Wreck between New Hope and Gethsemane" (notes only)
Roud #14028
File: LSRa274O

Wreck of 36, The

See The Wreck of Thirty-Six (File: ThBa112)

Wreck of C & O No. 5, The

See The Wreck of the C & O Number Five (File: LSRai236)

Wreck of No. 3, The (Daddy Bryson's Last Ride)

DESCRIPTION: "On the thirtieth day of June, in the year nineteen hundred nine, Daddy Bryson climbed in his engine." "Down the hill on Jake's Creek, This wicked train did run." The crew know they must stop, but the sand in the airbrake fails. Daddy Bryson dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1981 (Cohen)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 30, 1909 - TheTownsend wreck. Engineer Gordon A. "Daddy" Bryson and brakeman Charles Marion Jenkins are killed by logs falling from the train. Three other men survived by jumping (source: Lyle)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, p. 195, "The Wreck of No. 3" (1 text, tune referenced)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 274, "The Wreck of No. 3 (notes only)
Roud #14030
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Red Wing (I)" (tune)
File: LSRa274I

Wreck of No. 4, The

See The Wreck on the C & O [Laws G3] (File: LG03)

Wreck of No. 52, The

DESCRIPTION: "On a bright and sunny day, in the merry month of may," No. 52 pulls out with a load of freight. Engineer George Allen bid his wife goodbye, thinking to be home soon, but a boy had put a spike on the rail. Allen is burned and dies
AUTHOR: Cliff Carlisle
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recording, Cliff Carlisle)
KEYWORDS: train death railroading work
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 3, 1933 - Wreck of No. 52 near Ruffin, North Carolina. Engineer George Allen was fatally injured by steam, and fireman L. O. Woodman and others were injured. Most of the other casualties were livestock
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, p. 180, "The Wreck of No. 52" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14016
File: LySc180

Wreck of Number Four and the Death of John Daily, The

See The Wreck of Number Four (File: LSRai254)

Wreck of Number Four, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come railroad men and listen to me, A story you will hear, Of a wreck on the line of the old L and E...." The Number Four leaves the track. Engineer John Dailey is killed in the wreck. Listeners are reminded that death is always near
AUTHOR: Green Bailey
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Green Bailey)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death warning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 31, 1928 - L & N train number four leaves the track near Torrent, Kentucky. 50-year-old engineer John Dailey (correct spelling) dies as he leaps from the cab; he is the only person killed
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 254-256, "The Wreck of Number Four" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 262-263, "The Wreck of Number Four and the Death of John Daily" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Green Bailey, "The Wreck of Number Four" (Challenge 425 [as by Dick Bell], 1930; recorded 1929)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Wreck of Number Four and the Death of John Daily
File: LSRai254

Wreck of Number Nine, The [Laws G26]

DESCRIPTION: A railroad engineer, whose wedding is set for the next day, leaves his sweetheart and sets out on his train. Rounding a curve, he sees another train coming. He is mortally wounded in the crash. He leaves his fiancee the cottage that would have been theirs
AUTHOR: Carson J. Robison
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: train wreck marriage death lastwill crash
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So,SW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws G26, "The Wreck of Number Nine"
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 267-271, "The Wreck of Number Nine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 684, "The Wreck of Old Number Nine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 451-453, "The Wreck of Old Number Nine" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 684)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 340, "The Wreck of Old Number Nine" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 162, "The Wreck of Number Nine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 88-89, "Number Nine" (1 text)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 77-78, "The Wreck of Number Nine" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 74-75, "Engine No. 9" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 76-78, "The Brave Engineer (The Wreck of Number Nine)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, "The Wreck of Number Nine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brumley-LamplitinTimeInTheValley 15, "The Wreck of Old Number Nine" (1 text, 1 tune -- curiously, the "B" part of the tune is omitted and the whole thing sung to the "A" part repeated)
DT 668, COLDWIN
Roud #3229
RECORDINGS:
Jim Bennett, "The Brave Engineer" (on NFAGuigné01)
Bud Billings [pseud. for Frank Luther], "The Wreck of Number Nine" (Montgomery Ward M-8054, 1939)
Vernon Dalhart, "Wreck of The Number 9" (Lincoln 2712, 1927) (Gennett 6051/Silvertone 5005, 1927) (Brunswick 101, 1927) (Okeh 45086, 1927) (Cameo 1247, 1927) (Columbia 15121-D [as Al Craver], 1927); "Wreck of the Number Nine" (Radiex 4172 [as Jeff Calhoun], 1928)
J. E. Mainer's Mountaineer's "On a Cold Winter's Night" (Victor 27496, 1941)
Ernest Stoneman, "The Wreck of the Number Nine" (Broadway 8054, c. 1930); "Wreck of Number Nine" (on Autoharp01)
Stanley G. Triggs, "The Wreck of the Number Nine" (on Triggs1)
NOTES [135 words]: This, like "Zeb Tourney's Girl" [Laws E18], appears to be a Robison song that became traditional as a result of the Vernon Dalhart recording, though this seems to have had a stronger grip on tradition.
Indeed, Cohen states that, of the train wreck ballads he printed, only "Old 97" and "Engine 143" ("The Wreck on the C & O" [Laws G3]) were more popular. Both of the former are anonymous, and both based on real events; this is therefore the most popular fictional train wreck song, and also the most popular train song with a single known author.
It entered tradition very quickly; Henry collected his version from Mary E. King in 1929.
In recent years, a part of this tune has found some additional success (at least in bluegrass circles) as the basis for the chorus in the Goble/Drumm song "Coleen Malone." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LG26

Wreck of Old 85, The

DESCRIPTION: "Old Eight-five Had a brave engineer, To make up twenty minutes He had no fear"; he reaches a speed of 95 as he reaches the tunnel by Bluestone River. The engineer tries his brake; it fails. He bids his fireman goodbye; they will meet in the promised land
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1937 (copy received by James Taylor Adams)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 30, 1937 - N & W Train 85 goes off a bridge at Maybeury, West Virginia. The train burns for two days; four people are killed (source: Lyle)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 182-197, "The Wreck of Old 85" (1 text)
Roud #14025
NOTES [19 words]: Lyle states that the tune of this song is unknown, but it seems quite clear that it was sung to "Casey Jones." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: LySc186

Wreck of Old 97, The [Laws G2]

DESCRIPTION: "Steve" Broady is told that, due to a mix-up in numbering, his train is "way behind time." He is driving as fast as he can to make up the time when, on a long downgrade, his brakes fail. The train goes off the track; Broady dies at the controls
AUTHOR: disputed (tune by Henry Clay Work)
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (recording, Henry Whitter); a 1922 variant form appears in Brown
KEYWORDS: crash wreck train death derivative
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 27, 1903 - "Old 97" goes off the track near Danville, killing engineer Joseph A. "Steve" Broady and at least ten others
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Laws G2, "The Wreck of Old 97"
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 197-226, "The Wreck of the Old 97" (6 texts plus excerpts, 1 tune, plus a sheet music cover and sundry excerpts from related songs including a text of "The Ship That Never Returned")
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 201-203 "The Wreck of the Old 97" (1 text plus a copy of the sheet music cover)
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, p. 57, "The Wreck of Old 97" (1 text)
Randolph 683, "The Wreck of the Southern Old 97" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 449-451, "The Wreck of the Southern Old 97" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 683)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 217, "The Wreck of the Old 97" (6 field texts plus 3 more in the headnotes)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #2A-B, pp. 118-121, "The Wreck of the Southern Ninety-Seven," "The Wreck of the Old 97" (2 texts, 2 tunes; both appear from their texts to have been learned from the Dalhart recording)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 68-69, "The Old 97" (1 text, 1 tune)
Robert, #28, "Wreck of the Old Ninety-Seven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, p. 97, "The Wreck of Old Ninety-Seven" (1 text, another version probably derived from Dalhart)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 79-80, "Old Ninety-Seven" (1 text, with a little bit of "The Train That Never Returned" at the end)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 71-72, "Wreck of Old 97" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 14-33, "The Wreck of the Old 97" (2 texts, 1 tune, plus several other texts more or less related)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 318, "The Wreck of the Old 97" (1 text)
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 449, "The Wreck of the Old 97" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 131, "The Wreck of the Old 97" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 214-215, "The Wreck of the Old 97" (1 text plus "The Rarden Wreck of 1893")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 104 "The Wreck Of The Old 97" (1 text)
DT 634, WRECK97*
ADDITIONAL: Wanda T. Wallace & David C. Rubin, "''The Wreck of the Old 97': A real Event Remembered in Song,'" article published 1988 in _Remembering Reconsidered: Ecological and Traditional Approaches to the Study of Memory_; republished on pp. 281-308 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009
Franklin M. Garrett, _Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events_, volume II (1880s-1930s), 1954 (I use the 1988 printing of the 1969 facsimile reprint), pp. 446-447, "(Wreck of Old 97)" (1 text)
Roud #777
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Wreck of the Southern Old 97" (Edison 51361-R, 1924) (CYL: Edison [BA] 4898, prob. 1924) ; "Wreck of the Old 97" (Victor 19427-A, 1924) (Radiex 4131 [as Jeff Calhoun], 1927); "Wreck of the 97" (Bell 340, 1925) (Regal 8929, 1925/Apex [Can.] 8428, 1926); "Wreck of the Southern Old 97" (Champion 15121, 1926/Supertone 9241, 1928); "The Wreck of the Old 97" (Bluebird B-5335, 1934); "Wreck of the Southern No. 97" (Pathe 032068 [as Sid Turner], 1924) [this is a partial list; Dalhart is thought to have recorded "Wreck" several dozen times]
Arthur Fields & Fred Hall, "Wreck of the Old 97", (Grey Gull-Radiex 4131/Globe 4131/Supreme 4131/Madison 5085, all c. 1929; rec. 1927)
Texas Gladden and Hobart Smith, "The Wreck of the Old '97" (on USTGladden01)
Kelly Harrell, "The Wreck on the Southern Old 97" (OKeh 7010, 1925; on KHarrell01)
Clayton McMichen & his Georgia Wildcats, "Wreck of the 97" (Varsity 5029, 1942)
John D. Mounce et al, "Wreck of Old 97" (on MusOzarks01)
George Reneau, "Wreck of The Southern Old 97" (Vocalion 5029, c. 1926)
Pete Seeger, "The Wreck of the Old 97" (on PeteSeeger17)
Hank Snow, "The Wreck of the Old 97" (RCA Victor 20-4095, 1951)
Ernest V. Stoneman Trio, "The Wreck of the Old 97" (OKeh, unissued, 1927)
Ernest Stoneman & Kahle Brewer, "Wreck of the Old 97" (OKeh unissued mx. 80344-A, rec. 1927; on ConstSor1)
Stoneman Family, "The Wreck of the Old Ninety-Seven" (on Stonemans01, ClassRR [as Pop Stoneman])
Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers, "The Wreck on the Southern Old 97" (Columbia 15142-D, 1927)
Ernest Thompson, "Wreck of the Southern Old 97" (Columbia 130-D, 1924)
Sid Turner, "Wreck of the Southern No. 97" (Perfect 12147, 1924)
Virginia Ramblers, "Wreck of Old 97" (OKeh, unissued, 1929)
Henry Whitter, "Wreck of the Southern Old 97" (Okeh 40015, 1924; rec. 1923)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship That Never Returned" [Laws D27] (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "The Train that Never Returned" (tune & meter)
cf. "The Rarden Wreck of 1893" (tune & metre, theme)
cf. "The Wreck on the Somerset Road" (partial tune, metre, theme)
cf. "The Flying Colonel" (tune)
cf. "The Ballad of Fireman Dodge" (subject: The Wreck of Old 97)
SAME TUNE:
The Speakers Didn't Mind (by Daisy McdDnald) (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 136-137; John A. Salmond, _Gastonia 1929: The Story of the Loray Mill Strike_, University of North Carolina Press, 1995, p. 63; Kristina Horton, _Martyr of Loray Mill: Ella May and the 1929 Textile Workers' Strike in Gastonia, North Carolina_, McFarland & Company, 2015, p. 199. For background, see the notes on "Chief Aderholt")
On a Summer Eve (Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest; Kristina Horton, _Martyr of Loray Mill: Ella May and the 1929 Textile Workers' Strike in Gastonia, North Carolina_, McFarland & Company, 2015, p. 200)
NOTES [552 words]: Authorship claimed by, among others, David Graves George; the legal battles over the song were extended. Brown has extensive notes which summarize the situation well. If anyone deserves credit for the pop version, it is probably Henry Whitter, who took a seemingly-traditional version and worked it into the form of the Dalhart recording.
Cohen has even more extensive documentation on this process (summarizing several full-length monographs on the subject); he is surprisingly sympathetic to George (not claiming that he wrote the song but that he did make original contributions).
The song is, in any case, derivative. The tune is taken from Henry Clay Work's "The Ship that Never Returned," and "The Ship" gave rise to at least two train wreck songs: "The Train that Never Returned" and "The Rarden Wreck of 1893." I've seen both listed as the source for "Old 97" -- though neither looks much like the latter song in the Whitter rendition (which, to be sure, is much worn down from texts Cohen regards as earlier sources).
I would note, though, that several of Brown's texts (including "D" from 1922) fall between "Train" and "Old 97."
Lyle notes that the song contains a number of accurate details of the wreck. The Old 97 mail run had been inaugurated in November 1902, and it ran on a mountain route. It ran from Washington to Danville, The train could sometimes make ninety miles an hour on parts of the route, but on the 167 mile stretch from Monroe, Virginia to Spencer, North Carolina, the typical average speed was 37.5 miles per hour; Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events, volume II (1880s-1930s), 1954 (I use the 1988 printing of the 1969 facsimile reprint), p. 446, says that the top safe speed was considered to be 30 miles per hour.
There were few stops on the route (even the mail was picked up without stopping the train); after leaving Monroe, the next stop was at Lynchburg, then Danville, 64 miles away. On the fateful day, Old 97 was due at Danville at 1:40, and pulled out after 1:00. So she was indeed "way behind time."
And engineer Joseph Broady, who was 33 years old, had only run the route once before. He had little experience with the Stillhouse Trestle, built in 1874 before the fast mail trains ran. And we know that the engine he drove was somewhat erratic. We don't know if that mattered, because there were no survivors from the cab. But it is clear that the train took the trestle too fast. It seems a wheel broke and the train went off the curve. Broady and his fireman were indeed scalded to death. All these details imply that the author of the song had studied accurate accounts of the wreck, or even that he had been in the vicinity when it happened.
(Garrett, p. 446, says that nine people were killed, including the engine crew, Conductor Blair, and Flagman Broady; three of four cars were completely destroyed.)
Despite the wreck, Number 97 continued to run until January 1907, when changes were made to the schedule of mail trains.
That most traditional versions derive from the Dalhart recording is shown by the fact that they have five verses, corresponding to Dalhart's, and especially by the fact that most contain Dalhart's error "lost his average" in the third verse rather than the correct "lost his airbrakes." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LG02

Wreck of Old Ninety-Seven, The

See The Wreck of Old 97 [Laws G2] (File: LG02)

Wreck of Old Number Nine, The

See The Wreck of Number Nine [Laws G26] (File: LG26)

Wreck of the 'Mary Summers', The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, the Mary Summers as you will see, Loaded in St. Andrews for the old countrie." An ocean-going freighter encounters heavy weather and begins leaking. The crew pumps for a week to no avail, but are rescued by the William Bradley.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: wreck rescue sea ship
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 14, "The Wreck of the 'Mary Summers'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4473
NOTES [50 words]: From Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs: "Collected from Charles Cates in Vancouver, 1960. Cates said he had the song from his father, an East Coast seaman, who said the Mary Summers was a Nova Scotia ship, though there is no record of her in Canadian or British shipping registers." - SL
File: FowM014

Wreck of the 1256, The

DESCRIPTION: "On that cold and dark cloudy evenin', Just before the close of day, There came Harry Lyle and Dillard." An accident causes their train to fall into the James River. Lyle, with a head wound, dies in the cabin. Railroad men are warned of their danger
AUTHOR: Carson J. Robison (writing as Carlos B. McAfee)
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death warning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 3, 1925 - On a cold night, the 1256 hits a rockslide and is pitched into the James River. Engineer Harry Lyle is killed; crewman Sydney Dillard is saved by hoboes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 240-242, "The Wreck of the 1256" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 102-109, "The Wreck of the 1256" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11528
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Wreck of the 1256" (Columbia 15034-D [as by Al Craver], 1925)
NOTES [47 words]: It is somewhat ironic to note that, although this song was about a real incident, and the recording of it sold well, it does not seem to have gone into tradition, whereas such fictional Robison songs as "The Wreck of Number Nine" [Laws G26] and "Zeb Tourney's Girl" [Laws E18] did. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: LSRai240

Wreck of the 1262, The (The Freight Wreck at Altoona)

DESCRIPTION: Freight train 1262 is heading down the mountain when the air brakes fail. The brakeman tightens the brakes by hand, but the train still crashes; engineer and fireman are killed. Listeners are urged to be prepared, for "you cannot tell when He'll call"
AUTHOR: Words: Fred Tait-Douglas/Music: Carson J. Robison
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recordings, Vernon Dalhart)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Freight train 1262 is heading down the mountain when the engineer sounds the whistle; the air brakes have failed. The brakeman climbs out on the car tops and tightens the brakes by hand, but the train continues to accelerate. It crashes; the engineer and fireman are killed. Listeners are urged to always be prepared, for "you cannot tell when He'll call"
KEYWORDS: warning train death railroading work crash disaster wreck worker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 29, 1925 - Freight #1262 crashes near Altoona, PA, apparently due to defective air brakes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 243-246, "The Freight Wreck at Altoone/The Wreck of the 1262" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 158-159, "Altoona Freight Wreck" (1 text)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 64-65, "The Wreck at Latona" (1 text)
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 125-131, "The Freight Wreck at Altoona" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, p, 84, "The Freight Wreck at Altoona" (1 text)
DT, WRCK1262
Roud #7128
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Freight Wreck at Altoona" (Victor 19999, 1926) (Columbia 15065-D [as Al Craver], 1926) (Radiex 4172 [as Jeff Calhoun], 1928; Sunrise 33056, 1929) (Herwin 75524, late 1920s) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5122, c. 1926)
Red River Dave, "Altoona Freight Wreck" (Musicraft 288, 1944)
Riley Puckett, "Altoona Freight Wreck" (Decca 5455, 1937)
NOTES [184 words]: This comes pretty close to live journalism: The accident took place in late November 1925, and Dalhart was in the studio recording the result on January 15, 1926.
The REALLY strange part is, Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads's head notes report of it, "Source: Edison Brown, who found it in old papers at his home in East Tennessee. This ballad has been sung for many years in the Cumberland Mountains." Sure, he calls the wreck site "Latona," but it's engine 1262, as in the commercial versions of the song. It looks as if either Cambiaire or Brown was tricked.
Altoona is a very interesting place for trains and train enthusiasts. The "Horseshoe Curve," built in the 1850s, was considered a major engineering feat at the time and is now an historical monument -- and it's steep (2375 feet/724 meters long, with a slope of 91 feet to the mile/17 meters to the kilometer). It's enough of a landmark to show up, e.g., in Webster's Geographical Dictionary. It looks almost like a hairpin, with a lake in the middle of the pin. It must be a really interesting region to drive a train.... - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: DTwrck12

Wreck of the 36, The

See The Wreck of Thirty-Six (File: ThBa112)

Wreck of the 444, The

DESCRIPTION: "On a June morning at 5:35, The crew of two engines were all glad and alive." But the Norfolk and Western train is late, takes a curve too fast and derails, killing two in a cottage by the track. But there should be no more accidents
AUTHOR: Bess McReynolds
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (copyright, according to Lyle)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death love
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 8, 1913 - The wreck of engine 444 after it went off the rails near Cleveland, Virginia. Two women were killed in a house the train hit, and two members of the crew also died
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 198-199, "The Wreck of the 444" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 274, "The Wreck of 444" (notes only)
Roud #14031
File: LSRa274R

Wreck of the Annie Roberts, The

DESCRIPTION: Annie Roberts leaves Sydney, Nova Scotia for Lamaline, Newfoundland in a gale with a cargo of coal. The steamer Risenor crashes into the Annie and can only rescue one man.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship storm wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 1, "The Wreck of the Annie Roberts" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #26052
NOTES [130 words]: [Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou date this wreck to] October 22, 1913. Northern Shipwrecks Database places the collision in Sydney Harbour, makes the collision with SS Wabana, and estimates five lost.
I find no other reference to "a steamer Risenor" anywhere. - BS
Frank Galgay and Michael McCarthy, Shipwrecks of Newfoundland and Labrador, [Volume I], Harry Cuff Publishing, 1987, p. 77, says that the Annie Roberts was a schooner sailing out of Lamaline, and confirms the October 22, 1913 date. It too says that five men were lost, but has no other details. Their later book, Frank Galgay and Michael McCarthy, Shipwrecks of Newfoundland and Labrador, Volume III, Creative Publishers, 1995, p. 166, however, gives the date as October 27. The rest of the data is the same. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LeBe001

Wreck of the Asia, The

DESCRIPTION: The paddlewheel steamer Asia leaves Owen Sound to cross Georgian Bay, but runs into a storm. The deaths of crew and passengers are described, including a newlywed couple; two cling to a lifeboat and survive
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (a portion provided to Walton by Mrs. Robert Reed)
KEYWORDS: travel death drowning ship disaster storm wreck moniker sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 14, 1882 - Paddlewheel steamer Asia sinks in Georgian Bay
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 208-209, "The Foundering of the Asia" (1 composite text)
Roud #3839
RECORDINGS:
C. H. J. Snider, "The Wreck of the 'Asia'" (on GreatLakes1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" [Laws C1] (tune)
NOTES [523 words]: The Asia left Owen Sound topheavy and overloaded with freight, intended for merchants in northern towns preparing for winter. When the storm struck, the captain made a fatal mistake; instead of keeping the ship faced to the wind, he turned and attempted to head for French River, allowing the force of the gale to strike the ship broadside. When the ship sprang a leak, lifeboats were lowered, but, overloaded, they foundered, and all drowned except two, Dunk Tinkles (called "Tinkus" in the Snider recording) and a Miss Morrison, 19. They clung to an overturned lifeboat and drifted to shore, where they were found by an old Indian who took them to Parry Sound. Mr. Snider recalls learning the song in 1891, and later collected several other versions from residents of the Georgian Bay area. - PJS
Earlier editions of this Index said that over 200 were killed when the Asia was wrecked, but this appears to be an exaggeration. Ratigan, p. 103, gives the number of people on the boat as 125 -- while noting that "Every cabin on the Asia was filled with passengers, and there were others sleeping on every corner of the boat where a carpetbag or grain sack could cushion a head." Berman, p. 235, also says that 125 were lost. Looker, p. 13, says that there were 122 aboard (97 of them being passengers) and that all but two were lost.
The ship was reportedly top-heavy; the cargo had been placed on deck rather than going to the effort of securing it in the hold. And the weather was rough, but Captain John Savage hated wasting time in port. He set out on September 13, 1882, even though the "boisterous wind" was causing "mountainous seas."
By the next day, when the boat reached the open lake, it was evident that she would not survive. Savage tried to head for an island to beach her, and ordered the cargo thrown overboard (Ratigan, p. 104).
The ship was within sight of Lonely Island when "about 11:30, she pitched up at the head and went down stern first, the cabins breaking off and the boats floating off as she did so."
The two survivors were Duncan A. Tinkiss (Ratigan's and Walton's spelling; Looker has "Dunkan Tinkiss"), who was 17, and Christina Ann Morrison, listed as "under twenty" (Looker, which has a picture of her, calls her "Christy Anne Morrison" and has a picture of her) Several lifeboats were launched, but they all disappeared -- and the boat with Tinkiss and Morrison aboard repeatedly turned over; it initially held more than 20 people, but only seven, including the captain, managed to stay aboard -- and all but the two teenagers were dead by the end of the day (Ratigan, p. 105-107). Unable to control the boat due to the loss of the oars, they were finally rescued by a sailing craft.
Looker says that the disaster finally forced "the government" (presumably Canada's) to finally make good charts of Georgian bay.
Ratigan, p. 108, says that Tinkiss died in 1910, but Miss Morrison lived another 55 years -- i.e. until around 1938.
Walton's version is based in part on "clippings," raising the possibility that the song was first published in a newspaper, but I do not know of any proof of this. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 4.3
File: RcWreAsi

Wreck of the Atlantic

See The Loss of the Atlantic (II) (File: Pea933)

Wreck of the Avondale, The

DESCRIPTION: The lighter Avondale, bound from Carrick to the Gasworks, hits a bridge and is wrecked with 13 tons of coal. The crew -- Captain Britt, his little son, and dog -- survive.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Nov 1903 (_Clonmel Chronicle,_ according to OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: river ship wreck dog children humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 20A, "The Wreck of the Avondale" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9777
NOTES [10 words]: A river boat wreck on the Suir river in South Tipperary. - BS
File: OLcM020A

Wreck of the Belle Sheridan, The

DESCRIPTION: "In the year of 1880, On a cold November day, With coal bound for Toronto, They left the Charlotte Bay." The mates are named. The captain sees a storm coming. The ship goes aground off Weller's Bay. A few are rescued, but several related crewmen die
AUTHOR: Mike Ryan?
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Toronto Evening Telegram)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck storm death
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 221-223, "The Wreck of the Belle Sheridan" (1 text, from print)
Roud #3842
File: WGM221

Wreck of the C & O Number Five, The

DESCRIPTION: "From Washington to Charlottesveile, then Staunton on the line Came the old Midwestern Limited...." The train hits a broken rail. It does not overturn, but veteran engineer Dolly Womack is killed by steam. He will pull a train in heaven
AUTHOR: Words: Cleburne C. Meeks / Music: Carson J. Robison
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 6, 1920 - The westbound "Sportsman" train, redirected onto the eastbound track because of a derailment, hits a broken rail and crashes into a bank. Engineer Dolly Womack is partly buried in coal and scalded to death by steam
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 236-239, "The Wreck of the C & O Number Five" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 92-101, "The Wreck of C & O No. 5" (1 text, 1 tune, with the music labelled "The Wreck of the C& O No. 5" but the chapter heading being "The Wreck of C & O No. 5")
Roud #14023
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Wreck of the C & O Number Five" (Brunswick 117 [as by Al Craver], 1927); (Columbia 15135-D)
Cyril O'Brien, "The Wreck of the C&O No. 5" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [62 words]: Inspired by his success with "Billy Richardson's Last Ride," which was also set to music by Carson J. Robison and recorded by Vernon Dalhart, Cleburne C. Meeks wrote his second poem about a train wreck which had occurred some years earlier. In this case, I rather suspect he intended it to use the tune of "Wabash Cannonball," but Robison again supplied Dalhart's tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: LSRai236

Wreck of the C & O Sportsman

DESCRIPTION: "Far away on the banks of New River, While the deep shades of twilight hunglow," engineer Haskell and fireman Anderson drive the trail. It goes off the train on a curve. The two are killed. The singer recalls the loved ones at home
AUTHOR: Bernice "Si" Coleman (1898-?) with Kyle Roop
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Si Coleman and his Railroad Ramblers)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 21, 1930 - The Sportsman wreck. Engineer Homer E. Haskell (who had been with the line 35 years) and fireman Henry G. Anderson are killed and three others injured
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 163-170, "The Wreck of the Sportsman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 264-266, "The Wreck of the C & O Sportsman" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Roy Harvey and the North Carolina Ramblers (=Si Coleman and his Railroad Ramblers), "The Wreck of the C & O Sportsman" (Superior 2701, 1931
NOTES [38 words]: Cohen notes that this wreck "was possibly thel last to be memorialized in song" -- but hardly a popular one; fewer than 500 copies of the original disc were sold, and the odds that the song became traditional are very poor. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: LSRai264

Wreck of the C and O, The

See The Wreck on the C & O [Laws G3] (File: LG03)

Wreck of the Christabel, The

DESCRIPTION: Sunday, Christabel is anchored in Bonavista harbour. It is wrecked by a gale with a crew of nine on board. One jumps in a rowboat "to try what he could do" but is lost. Monday the remaining crew are rescued by rowboats.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1985 (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
KEYWORDS: rescue death sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jun 7, 1885 - Christable/Christabel wreck in Bonavista Harbour (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou, Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 22, "The Wreck of the Christabel" (1 text)
Roud #30704
NOTES [64 words]: Northern Shipwrecks Database shows as the cause "Stranded fin anchor" and notes that a monument was erected(?). - BS
Frank Galgay and Michael McCarthy, Shipwrecks of Newfoundland and Labrador, [Volume I], Harry Cuff Publishing, 1987, p. 79, reports that the Christabel was a "Barque, wrecked off Bonavista 7 June 1885. Crew rescued through the bravery of three Bonavista men." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Lebe022

Wreck of the City of Columbus (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas the wreck of the fatal Columbus, On the Devil's Bridge rocks near Gay Head." A hundred people perish on the rocks. Captain Wright tries to comfort the victims. Harden officially gets the blame, but the singer thinks the Glaucus ignored the wreck
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (collected by Huntington from "Harris the cook")
KEYWORDS: wreck ship disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 18, 1884 - The steamer City of Columbus, which is off course, strikes the Devil's Bridge rocks near Gay Head (the westernmost point on Martha's Vineyard). After the ship hit the rocks, Captain Shuler E. Wright gave orders which caused the ship to hit again. Captain Wright tried to tell the people aboard what to do; while he was doing so, many were swept into the sea. Of 45 crew and 87 passengers, only 29 survived (17 crew; 12 passengers. Summary based on Wikipedia and Huntington's notes)
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 96-97, "The Wreck of the City of Columbus I" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27538
NOTES [279 words]: According to Dennis M. Powers, Taking the Sea: Perilous Waters, Sunken Ships, and the True Story of the Legendary Wrecker Captains, American Management Association, 2009, pp. 163-164, "In 1884, the City of Columbus had sailed south from Boston around Cape Cod and through Nantucket Sound. The 2,200-ton ship was a typical early iron steamer with auxiliary sails.... On the early morning of January 19, the 275-foot ship was off the western shore of Martha's Vinyard. The lookout suddenly yelled out that the vessel was close to the Devil's Ridge buoy....
"The ship struck the double ledge of submerged rocks at Devil's Ridge. When the captain's attempts to move the ship off the rocks by steam and sail didn't work, he gathered the eighty-seven passengers and forty-five crew members together. While he tried to explain their precarious situation... a giant wave rose over the gunnels, struck down the boat with a thunderous roar, and swept overboard nearly all of the men, women, and children on deck." The rough seas also smashed two lowered lifeboats.
Locals, including members of the Gay Head Indian tribe, tried to rescue people. a Lieutenant Rhodes was particularly heroic, swimming through the storm and pulling people off the wreck.
Powers, p. 164, reports that 29 people survived an about a hundred died. (By his numbers, if 29 survived, then 103 would have been lost.) The Wikipedia article on the wreck said that the survivors included 17 of the crew and 12 passengers.
Although Huntington lists a tune which he apparently collected, it really feels to me as if this was meant to be sung to "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean." That's just a feeling, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: HGam096

Wreck of the City of Columbus (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "As the City of Columber On that lovely winter's day Bade her last farewell to Boston," the passengers are happy. They settle down for a quiet night. But, as the captain slept, they strike a rock; the passengers suffer and pray in the wreck
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang)
KEYWORDS: wreck ship disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 18, 1884 - The steamer City of Columbus, which is off course, strikes the Devil's Bridge rocks near Gay Head (the westernmost point on Martha's Vineyard). After the ship hit the rocks, Captain Shuler E. Wright gave orders which caused the ship to hit again. Captain Wright tried to tell the people aboard what to do; while he was doing so, many were swept into the sea. Of 45 crew and 87 passengers, only 29 survived (17 crew; 12 passengers. Summary based on Wikipedia and Huntington's notes)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 97-98, "The Wreck of the City of Columbus II (The Ill-Fated Steamer)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27539
NOTES [15 words]: For background on this wreck, see the notes to "The Wreck of the City of Columbus (I).' - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: HGam097

Wreck of the City of Columbus (III), The

DESCRIPTION: "Many were clinging to the rigging, Many perished there and died, Some were saved to tell the story, Not a womn or a child." The singer talks of the sights as the steamer was wrecked, and wonders if the captain should be blamed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang)
KEYWORDS: wreck ship disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 18, 1884 - The steamer City of Columbus, which is off course, strikes the Devil's Bridge rocks near Gay Head (the westernmost point on Martha's Vineyard). After the ship hit the rocks, Captain Shuler E. Wright gave orders which caused the ship to hit again. Captain Wright tried to tell the people aboard what to do; while he was doing so, many were swept into the sea. Of 45 crew and 87 passengers, only 29 survived (17 crew; 12 passengers. Summary based on Wikipedia and Huntington's notes)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 98-100, "The Wreck of the City of Columbus III (The City of Columbus)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27540
NOTES [15 words]: For background on this wreck, see the notes to "The Wreck of the City of Columbus (I).' - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: HGam098

Wreck of the Dandenong, The

DESCRIPTION: The Dandenong sets sail from Melbourne with 83 people on board. In a storm of Jervis Bay, her propeller shaft breaks and she begins to sink. A barque saves as many as possible, but many go down with the ship
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954
KEYWORDS: wreck ship disaster death
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 48-49, "The Wreck of the Dandenong" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, pp. 164-165, "The Wreck of the Dandenong" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA048

Wreck of the Eliza, The

DESCRIPTION: Barquentine Eliza is wrecked "at the fatal sand of Cahore Point" by hurricane winds. Rescue attempts by rocket line and life-boat fail though the life-boat itself returns safely.
AUTHOR: Pat Ennis of Cahore
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 24, 1895 - "The Eliza was lost at Cahore point"; three of the crew were rescued. (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 52)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 56-57, "The Wreck of the Eliza" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #20519
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Jack Donahoe" (tune) and references there
NOTES [21 words]: Cahore Point is south of the town of Gorey in northeast Wexford. According to the ballad it is "some leagues away" from home. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran056

Wreck of the Enterprise (Machrihanish Bay)

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the storm of March 4, [18?]37. The Enterprise sails out from Peru and approaches Britain. The captain's wife calculates the position, but the ship runs aground. The crew drowns, while the folk on shore gather riches
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: death ship wreck
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H558, pp. 106-107, "The Wreck of the Enterprise" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9041
File: HHH558

Wreck of the Ethie, The

See The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie (File: Doy59)

Wreck of the Fanad Boat, The

DESCRIPTION: The boat sets out from Fanad with nineteen aboard "bound for the English harvest." A storm blows up and sinks the boat; fifteen of the nineteen are drowned. The singer lists their names and prays for them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: ship storm wreck disaster
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H602, pp. 107-108, "The Wreck of the Fanad Boat" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10383
File: HHH602

Wreck of the Flyer, Duquesne, The

DESCRIPTION: "The heart of a maiden was beating with pleasure As the day of her wedding drew near"; she is waiting for her love on the "limited flyer, Duquesne." Newsboys bring word that it has crashed. She reaches her love just as he is dying near the wreck
AUTHOR: Ernest B. Lyddick
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (copyright, according to Lyle)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death love reunion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec. 23, 1903 - Wreck of the "Flyer Duquesne," reportedly killing more than sixty people (source: Lyle)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp, 192-193, "The Wreck of the Flyer, Duquesne" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a copy of the sheet music cover)
Roud #14029
File: LySc192

Wreck of the G & SI

DESCRIPTION: On Christmas Day, engineer Van Martin's Train 64 is wrecked on the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1929 (recording by Happy Bud Harrison)
KEYWORDS: train wreck
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 274, "Wreck of G & SI" (notes only)
RECORDINGS:
Happy Bud Harrison, "Wreck of The G.& S.I." (Vocalion 5350)
File: LSRa274P

Wreck of the Glenaloon, The

DESCRIPTION: A ship is in a dead fog. The captain thinks he sees a rock or wreck. It's the wreck of Glenaloon. her mainmast and mizzen gone," six skeletons and a note that food is gone. They row away, or bury the dead crew: "her deck seemed swarmed with shadows"
AUTHOR: Lyrics: Francies Alexander Durivage (1814-1881) (source: Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A ship is in a dead wind and fog three leagues from land. The charts show no rocks but the captain thinks he sees a rock or wreck and sends a crew to investigate. It's the wreck of Glenaloon, rugged yards and splintered spars, her mainmast and mizzen gone," six skeletons and a note that food is gone. They row away, or bury the dead crew: "her deck seemed swarmed with shadows"
KEYWORDS: burial death sea wreck sea ship sailor ghost food starvation
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US(NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 162, "The Wreck of the Glenaloon" (1 text)
Ives-FolksongsOfNewBrunswick, pp. 172-176, "The Wreck of the Glenna Loon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 43, "The Glen Alone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 184-185, "Glenaloon" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Roud #1965
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ghostly Crew" [Laws D16] (theme)
NOTES [15 words]: See "The Ghostly Crew" [Laws D16] for another Newfoundland ballad of haunting at sea. - BS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Mack162

Wreck of the Glenna Loon, The

See The Wreck of the Glenaloon (File: Mack162)

Wreck of the Green Rocks, The

DESCRIPTION: The Green Rocks is struck by the Thomas D. and sinks. The earlier history of Green Rocks and Captain Mills is summarized.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: sea ship crash wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 14, 1953 - The fishing vessel Green Rocks (Northern Shipwrecks Database has Greenock) collides with the American trawler Thomas D. in fog, off Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. (per Guigné, Northern Shipwrecks Database).
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 373-374, "The Wreck of the Green Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25333
File: Guig373

Wreck of the Gwendoline, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is cabin-boy on the Clonmel river boat Gwendoline. A storm comes up and they run aground. They walk ashore and go home by "ass an' car" Twenty horses pull her out of the weeds "but never more, by sea or shore, Will sail the Gwendoline"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: river commerce ship storm humorous wreck sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads, pp. 257-258, "The Wreck of the Gwendoline" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Star of the County Down" (tune) and references there
cf. "The E-ri-e" (theme) and references there
NOTES [8 words]: Clonmel, South Tipperary, is on the river Suir. - BS
File: OLcM257

Wreck of the Hunnicut Curve, The

DESCRIPTION: "They called for a train crew at Paintsville, On a night that was rainy and drear." The train sets out, but goes off the tracks "only eight miles out of Paintsville On the Honnicut Curve so 'tis said." The brakeman lives, but the others die
AUTHOR: Buddy Preston?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 114-115, "The Wreck of the Hunnicut Curve" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 122-123)
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, p. 161, "The Wreck of the Hunnicut Curve" (1 text)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 274, "The Wreck of the Hunnicut Curve" (notes only)
ST ThBa114 (Partial)
Roud #14026
File: ThBa114

Wreck of the Huron, The [Laws D21]

DESCRIPTION: On a stormy night, the Huron receives orders to sail. The crew, despite the bad weather, obeys orders. The Huron runs aground on the North Carolina coast and is destroyed. A hundred crewmen's lives are lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: sea wreck disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 24, 1877 - The U.S.S. Huron is wrecked near Oregon Inlet, North Carolina. The number of dead was estimated as between 98 and 106
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws D21, "The Wreck of the Huron"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 288, "The Wreck of the Huron" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more)
DT 727, WRKHURON
Roud #2239
File: LD21

Wreck of the Jane Hunter

DESCRIPTION: The Jane Hunter is driven against the rocks by a gale. The captain "was not well, for the deck was not inclined." The mate has a boat launched but only one man survives. The "government [is] to blame"; "a lighthouse... would prevent the same"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: death drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 30, 1883 - Schooner Jane Hunter bound to St John's from Brazil stranded at Sheep's Cove in a gale with 6 dead (per Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30132
RECORDINGS:
Mr. Fitzgerald, "Wreck of the Jane Hunter" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Bert Fitzgerald, "Jane Hunter" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
NOTES [366 words]: The two MUNFLA-Leach recordings are by two different singers, last name notwithstanding.
One version has the departure for Newfoundland as from "Corner Brook," which is like saying she sailed for Florida from Miami. "Sheeps Cove", the site of the stranding, may be Ship Cove in Placentia Bay. - BS
Newfoundland, which throughout its history has had a lot of storms, a lot of shoals, and not a lot of money, so there were never enough lighthouses in the nineteenth century. (Indeed, the problem continued well into the twentieth century; the 1918 Florizel wreck, for which see "The Wreck of the Steamship Florizel," was largely due to lack of lighthouses.)
The Jane Hunter was real, but it appears this song distorts some of the details. According to Robert C. Parsons, Cape Race: Stories from the Coast that Sank the Titanic, Flanker Press, 2011, p. 72, the Jane Hunter was owned by Walter Grieve and Company of St. John's, and on her final voyage had carried a load of fish to Pernambuco, Brazil. Her crew consisted of Captain Henry Bowden, an experienced skipper; mate Moses Roberts; William Seymour; Angus McDonald; Angus Wallace; William Tobin; David Taylor; Angus Rowe; and Alexander Downey.
It is believed that the ship was headed for Trepassy, near Cape Race, a good harbour to shelter from the storm. But the weather had been so bad that, for six days, the ship had not been able to take a sighting of either sun or stars. Captain Bowden thought they were twenty or more miles east of Cape Race -- i.e. safely out to sea. When the crew saw the lighthouse at Cape Pine (which was not especially bright), they didn't recognize it, and assumed it was a steamer's light. They kept sailing at a speed of seven knots or so -- and ran hard aground a few dozen yards from shore near Cape Race. Downey, who was in the bow, jumped into the sea, but it took him an estimated quarter of an hour to cross those few dozen yards (Parsons, p. 73). Angus Rowe was also washed ashore. They eventually found shelter at Trepassy/Sheep's Cove (Parsons, p. 74). The other seven men did not survive; apparently only five bodies were ever found. Only in 1902 did the Trepassy area get its own light. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: FM3WotJH

Wreck of the John B., The

See The John B. Sails (File: San022)

Wreck of the Julia Dean, The

DESCRIPTION: "Nigh forty years have passed away... since the wreck of the Julia Dean." A heavy storm in the Straits [of Mackinac] drives her onto an island. The songs of birds and the sound of the waves are heard by the wreck, "meet requiem for the Julia Dean."
AUTHOR: (Words:) Daniel Webster Whittle (1840-1901)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (published by Whittle, according to Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors)
KEYWORDS: wreck
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 219-220, "The Wreck of the Julia Dean" (1 text)
Roud #19868
NOTES [261 words]: The notes in Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors connect this with an 1855 wreck. This is a bit problematic, since Whittle published the poem in 1887, which is hardly "nigh forty years" after 1855. (And I have verified the 1887 publication date from pp. 83-84 of Marion Harland's 1901 book With the Best of Intentions: A Midsummer Episode, available on Google Books.) Adding to the confusion, at least two other boats named Julia Dean were wrecked in the 1850s in the Upper Midwest, though both of these were apparently on the Mississippi, not the Great Lakes. I suspect there has been some confusion of details.
I must confess to some concern about the validity of Walton's "collection," too -- did the informant, Mrs. Bonner, actually have this from tradition? Whittle's poem, as published in Harland, has a line of asterisks just where Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors prints a line of dots, as if to imply an omission.
Daniel Webster Whittle was a Civil War veteran who became a modestly successful publisher of hymns, many of them offered under the name "El Nathan." I must confess that the only one of his compositions I've ever heard of is "Neither Do I Condemn Thee," and even that was much more staid than the Black Evangelical version I've heard. He did edit the memoirs of Philip Paul Bliss, who according to W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 423, had worked as Whittle's musical assistant. The entry in McNeil does not mention Whittle writing secular pieces. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: WGM219

Wreck of the Julie Plante, The

DESCRIPTION: "On wan dark night on de (Lak St. Clair)... de crew of de wood scow Julie Plante got scar' an' run below." The captain ties Rosie the cook to the mast, then jumps overboard. Both are drowned. The moral: "You can't get drown... so long you stay on shore"
AUTHOR: probably William Henry Drummond
EARLIEST DATE: 1897 (Drummond, _The Habitant_)
LONG DESCRIPTION: French-Canadian dialect song. On Lak St. Pierre, the wood-scow "Julie Plante" encounters a fierce storm. They've lost their skiff, and the anchor won't hold; the captain ties the cook (Rosie) to the mast, takes the life-preserver, and jumps overboard, saying he'll drown for her sake. (?) Next morning the boat is wrecked and all are found dead. The singer warns listeners to marry and live on a farm; "You can't get drown on Lak St. Pierre/So long as you stay on shore."
KEYWORDS: ship disaster humorous death warning work storm wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont) US(MW)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 22, "On Lac San Pierre" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 22, "On Lac San Pierre" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 76, "The Wreck of the Julie Plante" (1 text plus 2 fragments of another)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 66, "The Wreck of the 'Julie Plante'" (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 155-158, "The Wood Scow Julie Plante" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lewis-FavoriteMichiganFolkSongs, p. 24, "The Wreck of the Julie Plante" (1 text, 1 tune, "abridged for elementary students")
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 174-175, "The Wreck of the Julie Plante" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 62, "The Julie Plante" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: William Henry Drummond, M.D., _The Habitant and other French Canadian Poems_, Putnam, 1897, pp. 8-10, "The Wreck of the 'Julie Plante'" (1 text)
ST FJ174 (Full)
Roud #4545
RECORDINGS:
Harry Barney, "The Wood Scow Julie Plante" (1938; on WaltonSailors)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yim Yonson" (tune)
NOTES [251 words]: Yes, that's "Lak." Why jumping overboard will save the cook, I don't know. - PJS
The hint here may come from Walton's classification of this as a scow boat song. The scows operated in very shallow water -- sometimes so shallow that you could stand on the bottom and keep your head above water. Of course, if the water is that shallow, you might as well stay aboard till the scow runs aground, because it can't sink very deep....
This was apparently a very well-known Great Lakes song; Walton found seven sailors who recalled complete or nearly-complete texts.
Drummond's original poem (written, like most of his work, in "habitant" or French-Canadian English) was subtitled "A Legend of Lac St. Pierre" (Lake St. Peter). In oral tradition, however, this was often changed to the more familiar Lake St. Clair. According to Walton, Detroiters claimed the song as a true folk song, but there seems no absolute proof of this.
What is certain is that Drummond's book was extremely popular. I recently acquired a 1903 copy which listed the publication history. The book was first published in November 1897. There were two editions printed in that month, two more in December 1897, five in 1898, three in 1899, two in 1900, two in 1901, two in 1902, and mine is from January 1903. So there were 19 printings in the first 63 months of the book's existence!
Two other Drummond pieces are in the Index, "'Poleon Doré" and "De Camp on de Cheval Gris," but I have no reason to think they are actually traditional. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: FJ174

Wreck of the Kinsale, The

DESCRIPTION: Kinsale leaves the Clyde for France November 18. In heavy winds and seas "'The engine's broke,' our captain said" and she drifts into the cliffs. A wealthy lady offers 500 pounds "to be secure" but drowns. From shore two Hook ladies rescue four.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck sailor
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 21, 1872: Kinsale's engine shaft snaps and ship is driven against a cliff; three of crew of nineteen and one passenger are saved (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 75)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast, pp. 36-37, "The Wreck of the Kinsale" (1 text)
Roud #20524
NOTES [39 words]: Ranson-SongsOfTheWexfordCoast: The singer said "the ballad was composed by a man named Carroll, a schoolmaster, in Templetown, at the time of the wreck. The bell of the 'Kinsale' hangs above the entrance to Duncannon school yard." - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Ran036

Wreck of the Lady Shearbrooke, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls sailing on the Lady Shearbrooke, and describes how the ship was wrecked on the rocks, with only 33 surviving. Upon returning to the banks of the Foyle, he sees Mary Doyle lamenting her lost love. He steps up and reveals himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: love separation ship wreck disaster reunion
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 19, 1831 - Lady Sherbrooke stranded at Mouse Island near Port aux Basques Newfoundland en route from Londonderry, Ireland to Quebec. See NOTES. (Source: Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar) US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H570, pp. 310-311, "Mary Doyle/The Wreck of the Lady Shearbrooke" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 79-82, "The Ship Lady Sherbrooke" (1 text)
Roud #1974
RECORDINGS:
Robert Walker, "The Wreck of the Lady Sherbrooke" (on USWolfRiver)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lady of the Lake (The Banks of Clyde II)" [Laws N41] (plot)
cf. "Thomas and Nancy" [Laws K15] (theme)
NOTES [47 words]: Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia has the captain's name as Henry Gambols; Northern Shipwrecks Database has it as Henry Gambles. NSDB has various numbers of lost among the crew and cargo of immigrants: for example, 30/306, 30/360, 36/575 saved/total. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: HHH570

Wreck of the Maggie, The

DESCRIPTION: Maggie leaves Brooklyn in Bonavista Bay and arrives in St John's harbour "when Captain Blunden cried, 'My boys, there's a steamer bearing down.'" Maggie and the steamer Tiber crash. Many from the Maggie are drowned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (Murphy, Songs and Ballads of Newfoundland, Ancient and Modern)
KEYWORDS: death ship crash wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 7, 1896 - The Maggie sinks after collision with the Tiber in St John's Harbour (source: Northern Shipwrecks DataBase)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 80, "The Wreck of the Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 70, "The Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff, p. 41, "The Loss of the Maggie" (1 text); pp. 42-43, "The Wreck of the Maggie" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL : Rosalind Power, _A Narrow Passage: Shipwrecks and Tragedies in the St. John's Narrows_, Jeff Blackwood & Associates, 2000, p. 100, "The Loss of the Maggie" (1 text)
ST LLab080 (Partial)
Roud #4413
NOTES [565 words]: The St. John's Narrows were just that: Narrow, and with a sharp turn at the end. And the Narrows were the only way to enter the busiest harbor in Newfoundland. So there were a lot of ships, not much room, and not much visibility. The Narrows are only about 400 feet wide at their narrowest, and there are a lot of rocks and shallows in the passage (Power, pp. 2-3). Collisions such as this were regrettably common -- although this one took place outside the Narrows themselves.
According to Galgay/McCarthyShipwrecks, p. 86, the Maggie was a schooner which "sank after a collision with the steamer Tiber off the Narrows 7 Nov. 1896. Drowned were thirteen crewmen," loosely confirming the data in Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou and the Northern Shipwrecks Database.
A more detailed account is in Power, pp. 96-102. The Maggie, under Captain William Blundon, was a schooner bound from Bonavista Bay to St. John's with a thousand quintals of fish and fourteen passengers as well as a crew of thirteen (Power, pp. 96-97; Galgay/McCarthyOlde, p. 92, says she had also been to Goose Bay). The Tiber, under Captain J. Delisle, was bound from St. John's to Montreal; she was leaving the harbor, and had dropped off the pilot (Power, p. 96).
If Power's reconstruction is accurate, the Maggie had her lights on (confirmed by Galgay/McCarthyOlde, p. 92), but her crew expected the Tiber to head out toward the Atlantic. Instead, the Tiber stayed to the south of the Narrows, heading south toward Cape Spear, since she was headed for Canada. The steamer sliced right through the starboard side of the Maggie, cutting the schooner in half and causing her to sink in moments (Power, p. 97). Several passengers, including most of the women, were probably trapped inside the wreck; Galgay/McCarthyOlde, pp. 94-95, believe some others made it into the water but were killed by debris as the ship fell apart.
Power, p. 99, has a photo of nine of the ten survivors of the Maggie and a list of all ten (nine men, one woman); so also Galgay/McCarthyOlde, p. 94. Power p. 98, and Galgay/McCarthyOlde, pp. 94-195, list the thirteen dead; they ranged in age from 18 to 73, and included the wife of Captain Blundon and apparently one of his sons, although the Captain himself and three other sons survived. Nine of the dead were men, four were women; two of them were husband and wife James and Rhoda Power. None of their bodies were ever recovered. Several of the survivors were taken aboard by the Tiber; others by a schooner from Brigus (Power, p. 98).
To add insult to injury, some locals managed to collect to boxes from the wreck -- and robbed them. They were eventually caught and forced to return what they had taken (Galgay/McCarthyOlde, p. 95).
The Tiber was allowed to continue on her way after the collision, and supposedly almost collided with another ship soon after (Power, p. 99). Warrants were eventually put out for Captain Delisle plus his mate and the lookout (Power, p. 98). Delisle and Co. were arrested when they arrived in North Sydney, and gave their own, very different, account of the tragedy (Power, p. 101). In the end, no one was held formally responsible. It seems clear that Power, at least, thinks the Tiber was at fault, but she doesn't offer much real evidence.
It's not obvious why Ryan/Small-HaulinRopeAndGaff included this among their sealing songs. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 5.0
File: LLab080

Wreck of the Mary Jane, The

DESCRIPTION: A song to "dryland sailors" about the Mary Jane, bound from Taghmon with a crew of 200 and a cargo of dung. When the cargo shifts in a storm the captain gives up hope. Short of tobacco they plan to put in at a pub. They run ashore at a doctor's door.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: ship storm wreck Africa Ireland humorous sailor
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 20, "The Wreck of the Mary Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3026
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The E-ri-e" (theme) and references there
cf. "The Calabar" (theme and first line)
NOTES [66 words]: Taghmon is in south central County Wexford (not on the coast). When the storm hits they steer for Timbuctoo, Mali, hardly a coastal port of call. The term "dryland sailor" -- to judge by broadside Bodleian, Firth c.12(409), "The Dryland Sailor!" ("I never was on board a ship ") -- refers to a panhandler who pretends to be an old sailor with faked injuries because "that's the thing that pays." - BS
File: Oloc020

Wreck of the Morning Mail, The

DESCRIPTION: George Minnick's Number 23 train is wrecked on the Pennsylvania Railroad in Illinois.
AUTHOR: Words: Jake Taylor
EARLIEST DATE: 1939? (_Jake Taylor an His Rail Splitters Log Book_)
KEYWORDS: train wreck
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 274, "The Wreck of the Morning Mail" (notes only)
File: LSRa274Q

Wreck of the Morrissey, The

DESCRIPTION: Captain Charles Bailey takes the Morrissey from St Mary's Bay to Cape Breton. He picks up a load of fish at Bonne Bay and heads out to the Gulf of St Lawrence in spite of a hurricane.
AUTHOR: Nick Kane
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: sea ship storm wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 981-982, "The Wreck of the Morrissey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9815
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "The Wreck of the Morrissey" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [123 words]: The wreck and captain's name are reported in Northern Shipwrecks Database as occurring at Lat 46N Long 060W but with no date or further details. Those coordinates are on the east coast of Cape Breton Island near Mira Bay. - BS
Which fact fits with the song, since it says that the Morrissey sailed to Cape Breton, although the crew seems to have been mostly Newfoundlanders. But the song as preserved offers very little useful information. The boat involved probably is not the famous Effie M. Morrissey, for which see "The Mary L. Mackay" and "Captain Bob Bartlett," because the Effie M. Morrissey still exists and is preserved as a monument (although she had a bad fire in 1949 which could have been said to have wrecked her). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Pea981

Wreck of the N & W Cannonball

DESCRIPTION: "The Cannonball was westbound on the Norfolk-Richmond run, The brave man at the throttle was Harry Covington." Two trains, one on the Norfolk and Western, the other on the Atlantic Coast line, collide in Virginia; two Covingtons die
AUTHOR: Words: Cleburne C. Meeks / Music: Carson J. Robison
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (communication between Vernon Dalhart & Cleburne C. Meeks; see Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, p. 53)
KEYWORDS: train wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 27, 1903 - The Cannonball wreck
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 50-56, "The N & W Cannonball Wreck" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 272, "Wreck of the N & W Cannonball" (notes only)
Roud #14014
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Wreck of the N & W Cannonball" (Columbia 15378-D)
File: LSRa272G

Wreck of the Nimrod, The

DESCRIPTION: The steamship Nimrod sets out from Moreton Bay for Liverpool. When a storm blows up, not even the skilled crew can keep the ship from running aground. At last a bark picks up the survivors
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: ship storm wreck disaster rescue
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H717, p. 108, "The Wreck of the Nimrod" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13369
NOTES [53 words]: Not related to "The Nimrod's Song," which is about seal hunters. I doubt the song refers to Ernest Shackleton's famous Nimrod (which IS the subject of "The Nimrod's Song"), which Shackleton sold to buy the ill-fated Endurance; that Nimrod was wrecked near Yarmouth in 1919, but the details sound different, - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: HHH717

Wreck of the Northfleet, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye feeling people while this sad story I relate" as the singer tells of the wreck of the Northfleet, destroyed at Dungeness. 500 died when another ship hit the Northfleet at anchor. The captain tries to rescue those he can; he and his wife die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: ship wreck disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 22, 1873 - The _Northfleet_, bound for Australia, is hit at anchor by the steamer _Murillo_, resulting in the deaths of 320 people
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 126, "The Wreck of the Northfleet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1174
NOTES [51 words]: There is at least one other song on this theme, in broadside Bodleian, Firth c.12(113), "Wreck of the Northfleet, or, Father, Put Me in the Boat!" (unknown, n.d.). Although the Bodleian web site uses the same Roud number for that broadside as for the song in Palmer, they are clearly not the same song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: PsSe126

Wreck of the Old 97, The

See The Wreck of Old 97 [Laws G2] (File: LG02)

Wreck of the Old Southern 97, The

See The Wreck of Old 97 [Laws G2] (File: LG02)

Wreck of the Old Spike, The (The Wreck of the Semmity)

See The Wreck of the Semmity (Yosemite) (File: Pea983)

Wreck of the Rambler, The

See The Loss of the Ramillies [Laws K1]
 (File: LK01)

Wreck of the Rebecca, The (The Mary Cochrane)

DESCRIPTION: The singer emigrates to America. He takes ship. Part way through the voyage, the ship springs a leak. Eventually it overwhelms the pumps. Another vessel comes by and takes off the passengers shortly before she sinks
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: ship disaster emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H565, p. 111, "The Wreck of the Rebecca"; H754, pp. 111-112, "The Good Ship Mary Cochrane" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #13370
NOTES [31 words]: The two versions in the Henry collection are clearly derived from the same original lyrics (though the tunes are distinct); I've no idea how the ship ended with such different names. - RBW
File: HHH565

Wreck of the Regulus

See The Loss of the Regulus (File: Pea956)

Wreck of the Riseover, The

See The Loss of the Riseover (File: Pea958)

Wreck of the Royal Charter, The

DESCRIPTION: "Good people all attend I pray; Now I'll relate a sad calamity, Of a dreadful shipwreck near Beaumaris town." The Royal Charter is returning home from Australia when a storm strikes. The ship breaks in two. 455 people are lost
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Moeran, according to Palmer)
KEYWORDS: ship storm wreck disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 1859 - Wreck of the Royal Charter off Anglesey (on her way from Liverpool to Australia); 454 of those aboard were lost and only 39 saved (source: Palmer)
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 117, "The Wreck of the Royal Charter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3327
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Royal Charter" (subject)
NOTES [199 words]: Although I assume the ship described in this song is the same as that in "The Loss of the Royal Charter," the lyrics are so different that I think they are separate songs. Roud also splits them. I'm not confident about it, though, and indeed Roud seems to confuse them, filing Bodleian Firth c 12(95) with the "Wreck" even though it appears to me to be a version of the "Loss."
John Harries wrote a poem in the 1860s, "The Wreck of the Royal Charter," which seems to have been fairly well known. This is not it.
According to Lincoln P. Paine, Ships of the World: An Historical Encylopedia, Houghton Mifflin, 1997, pp. 438-439, the Royal Charter was built in 1855, and was "One of the finest passenger ships of the day... [and was] the first English ship to carry double topsails." On her last trip she left Melbourne with 511 passengers and crew, which was effectively equal to her capacity. She arrived safely at Queenstown, Ireland, 58 days later, and let off 17 passengers. The next night, as the passed Moelfre, Anglesey, she ran into a severe storm. Captain T. Taylor dropped anchor at 10:45 p.m., but the cables broke at 3:30 a.m., and she was driven ashore. 455 people were lost. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PaSe117

Wreck of the Royal Palm

DESCRIPTION: On the Royal Palm and Ponce de Leon trains, heading home for Christmas, all is cheerful despite a storm. The trains collide; many are killed or hurt. The singer warns hearers to keep their orders straight; if they get their orders mixed it'll be too late
AUTHOR: Andrew Jenkins
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: grief warning train death railroading crash disaster storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec. 23, 1926 - Crash of Royal Palm & Ponce de Leon, on the Southern Railway
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 247-249, "The Wreck of the Royal Palm" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 316, "The Wreck of the Royal Palm" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 218, "The Wreck of the Royal Palm" (1 text)
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 132-140, "The Wreck of the Royal Palm" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ROYALPLM*
Roud #4149
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Wreck of the Royal Palm" (Brunswick 101/Romeo 350, 1927; Pathe 32380, 1928) (Gennett 6051/Silvertone 5005, 1927) (OKeh 45086, 1927) (Victor 20528) (Columbia 15121-D [as Al Craver], 1927)
Frank Luther, "Wreck of the Royal Palm" (Grey Gull 4200, 1928)
Clarence H. Wyatt, "The Wreck of the Royal Palm" (AFS 10,892 A5, 1954; on LC61)
NOTES [159 words]: This song seems to have moved into tradition directly from Dalhart's recordings. - PJS
The song is item dG51 in Laws's Appendix II. Brown, who is unaware of the authorship, gives details on the wreck, which was the result of bad weather and a failure to obey orders. 19 people were reported dead and 123 injured.
Cohen and Lyle note the curiosity that the song talks mostly about the Royal Palm though the deaths all occurred on the Ponce de Leon. It also appears that the crew of the latter train was primarily responsible for the accident. Lyle suggests that Andrew Jenkins didn't really know what happened, and tried to imagine the wreck -- something perhaps made even more complicated by the fact that Jenkins was blind.
This is another case of Vernon Dalhart putting out a song as soon as possible after the accident; Dalhart recorded it on January 14, 1927, three weeks after the event. One wonders how Jenkins had time to get the song to him. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: DTroyalp

Wreck of the Semmity (Yosemite), The

DESCRIPTION: The Yankee vessel Yosemite ("Semmity") crosses the Gulf in a storm with "a load of frozen herring" and crashes on a reef. All but one of the crew are rescued.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 21, 1897 - wreck of the Yosemite "on Ram Island ... off the Nova Scotian coast" (Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 983-984, "The Wreck of the Semmity" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 375-377, "The Wreck of the Old Spike (The Wreck of the Semmity)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 85, "The Old Smite" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9818
RECORDINGS:
Everett Bennett, "The Wreck of the Semmity" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea983

Wreck of the Shenandoah

DESCRIPTION: "At four o'clock one evening On a warm September day A great and mighty airship From Lakehurst flew away." The dirigible encounters a storm and is wrecked. Fourteen people die. The mother of one of the crew watches in vain for the vessel
AUTHOR: Maggie Andrews (pseudonym of Carson J. Robison)
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recordings, Vernon Dalhart, Guy Massey)
KEYWORDS: technology disaster death wreck mother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 3, 1925 - Wreck of the naval dirigible Shenandoah, commanded by Lt. Commander Zachary Landsdowne
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 219, "The Wreck of the Shenandoah" (1 text)
ST BrII219 (Full)
Roud #4150
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Wreck of the Shenandoah" (Columbia 15041-D, 1925) (Edison 51620, 1925) (Cameo 809, 1925) (OKeh 40460 [as Tobe Little], 1925) (Vocalion 15125 [as Jep Fuller], 1925)
Guy Massey, "Wreck of the Shenandoah" (Perfect 12218, 1925)
NOTES [285 words]: This is item dG52 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
I would've placed bets on "Maggie Andrews" being a pseudonym for Andrew Jenkins, but a website on the Shenandoah wreck (http://tinyurl.com/tbdx-Shenandoah) states that it was actually a pseudonym for the team of Dalhart and Carson Robison. - PJS
According to Norm Cohen, "Maggie Andrews" was the maiden name of Robison's mother, and he copyrighted a lot of material under it. Of course, Robison also worked with Andrew Jenkins, so there could have been at least a little cross-influence. In fact. the 1925 sheet music for "Floyd Collins," one of Jenkins's songs, was published with the first page of "The Wreck of the Shenandoah" on the back cover to try to sell the song. It's an interesting item -- the earliest instance I can recall of a piano arrangement with chord diagrams (although the chords are for ukulele in GCEA tuning). That same first page is included in the sheet music of Jenkins's "The Dream of the Miner's Child" (even though, in that case, they had to add two pages to the sheet music to include the plug). Evidently the publishers thought the had a potential major hit on their hands. The evidence does not support their belief.
There were at least two sheet music editions of this. The fancier one, printed in black and yellow, shows three photos of the "Shenandoah," one in flight and two after the crash.
It's interesting that the two recordings of this were by Dalhart and by Guy Massey. Massey was a cousin of Dalhart's -- in fact, Dalhart originally gave him partial credit (although not much money) for "The Prisoner's Song." Presumably Massey would have heard it from the Dalhart/Robison circle. Wish we had exact recording dates! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: BrII219

Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver, The

See Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)

Wreck of the Southern Cross, The

See The Southern Cross (I) (File: Doy57)

Wreck of the Southern Ninety-Seven, The

See The Wreck of Old 97 [Laws G2] (File: LG02)

Wreck of the Sportsman

See Wreck of the C & O Sportsman (File: LSRai264)

Wreck of the St. John, The

See The Union from St John's (File: Pea978)

Wreck of the Steamship Ethie, The

DESCRIPTION: On December 10, 1919, the "Ethie"-- despite the skilled work of her crew -- encounters a terrible storm and runs aground around one o'clock in the morning. She "lay wrecked on the shore" but all are saved, "taken in by kind people and treated with care"
AUTHOR: Maude Roberts Simmonds?
EARLIEST DATE: 1920 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: travel sea ship shore storm wreck rescue
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 11, 1919 - Wreck of the Ethie (in the early morning)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 138, "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 59 in the 2nd edition, p. 88 in the 3rd
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 86-87, "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 370-372, "The Wreck of the Ethie" (1 text, 1 tune)
England-HistoricNewfoundlandAndLabrador, p. 59, "Wreck of the Steamship Ethie" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Maura Hanrahan, _The Alphabet Fleet_, Flankers Press Ltd., 2007, pp. 189-190, "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie" (1 text, followed by a 2004 piece on the same event which looks pretty awful)
Bruce Ricketts, _The SS Ethie and the Hero Dog: The Mystery is Solved_, Baico Publishing, 2005, (no page number but in the preface), "Wreck of the Steamship Ethie" (1 text)
Les Harding, _The Newfoundland Railway 1898-1969: A History_, McFarland & Company, 2008, pp. 202-203, "The Wreck of the Steamship Ethie" (1 text)
Roud #24242
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come All ye Jolly Ice-Hunters" (theme)
NOTES [4710 words]: Elisabeth Bristol Greenleaf went to Sally's Cove as a volunteer teacher for Sir Wilfred Genfell's mission in the spring of 1920. Sally's Cove, near Bonne Bay on the west coast, is only two miles south from the wreck which occurred at Martin's Point.
For the account of her experiences with the song, consult R.D. Madison ed, Newfoundland Summers: the Ballad Collecting of Elisabeth Bristol Greenleaf (Westerly, RI: The Utter Co., 1982), pp. 11-14. Some of the words are included with paraphrases inserted. - SH
Greenleaf's account is included in Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland['s entry] for this song.
Northern Shipwrecks Database says "NF. Dog 'Hero' swam ashore w. line to begin rescue." Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports writes, "In the days following this dramatic event, tales circulated that a heroic Newfoundland dog named Wisher assisted with the rescue by towing the line to the vessel. Hanrahan gives an account dispelling this legend." - BS
This event apparently has become a part of Newfoundland folklore, with the site of the wreck being a minor tourist attraction; the locals sometimes stage a play about the wreck.
The Ethie was part of the "Alphabet Fleet" of the Reid-Newfoundland Railway, so-called because the ships were given names in alphabetical order, all associated with Scotland (O'Neill, p. 976. Ethie Castle is on the east coast northeast of Dundee). The initial order was for eight ships, Argyle, Bruce, Clyde, Dundee, Ethie, Fife, Glencoe, and Home (Penney, p. 67). Not all the ships were the same size, but the Argyle, Clyde, Dundee, Ethie, Fife, and Home were all said to be 155 foot sister ships (Bruce, p. 19). Although designed to be utility ferries, they were also intended to be comfortable passenger ships, although (because they mostly traveled relatively short distances) not very fast.
The Alphabet Fleet came out of one of the most elaborate and risky deals any government had ever undertaken -- the Newfoundland Railway. The first attempt at a railroad in Newfoundland had been authorized by the government in 1880 (Hiller/Neary, p. 128) and started in 1881; it was supposed to go from St. John's to Hall's Bay on the north coast, with a side line to Harbour Grace. It flopped, with only a tiny amount of line built in the Avalon Peninsula (Cadigan, pp. 141-142; Hanrahan, p. 9), and even that poorly built in an effort to control costs (Penney, p. 27; O'Flaherty, p. 140, says that the contract explicitly stated that it would "not [be] what is deemed... a first-class Railway"). In the 1890s, the idea of a subsidized railroad was revived, with the government making a complex offer to Robert G. Reid and his company involving both money and land being transferred in both directions over a period of fifty years; the new plan would also extend the railroad to Port aux Basques in the southwest (Cadigan, p. 151, 156-157; Bruce, p. 12). Reid would also receive a whole bunch of government bonds in lieu of cash (Bruce, p. 11; this would prove a real problem, because Newfoundland's debt would collapse).
Reid certainly had the credentials -- and the cash on hand -- for a major engineering project; born in 1842 in Scotland, the son of a linen mill owner, he had become famous for his railroad projects, especially his bridge work (Bruce, pp. 8-9), including the Grand Narrows bridge that is famous enough to have its own Wikipedia article. Bruce, p. 14, suggests he had as much economic power as the Newfoundland government, and Penney, p. 67, agrees that the deal, although it burdened Newfoundland badly, also got the government out of a temporary jam; in the end, Reid had to involve himself deeply in government, finding financing to keep Newfoundland afloat so that the project could continue; Harding, p. 73. (Things might have been even worse if Reid hadn't imposed an incredibly strict moral code on himself; Harding, p. 74.)
I won't even try to explain how this was supposed to work, or make money, since it failed to do so (in the twenty years from 1901-1921, the Reid Newfoundland Company is said to have lost six million dollars on the business; Harding, p. 96), and Prime Minister Whiteway, who proposed it, said, "We do not regard [the railway]... as an enterprise that will pay." Reid and the government would have many disputes over the years about how Reid would get his money back (DictNewLabrador, pp. 286-287; Chadwick, p. 96f., etc.) -- though the fault is perhaps to be shared equally; Reid had proposed an absurd deal (it would have given him control of one-sixth of the land in Newfoundland! -- Kearley, p. 58; as Harding, p. 77, says, the government was "giving one man title to a parcel of land equivalent to half the size of Belgium") and the government, desperate not to look bad, had hastened to accept (Hiller/Neary, p. 138).
A colonial office minute said that "The Railway... will not for years pay for the grease of the wheels"; Britain's Joseph Chamberlain commented that "Practically it seems that the ministry are going to sell the Colony to a contractor" (Chadwick, p. 83) -- which is about right. Because Newfoundland's population was so scattered, there were almost no destinations which would carry enough freight or passengers to make it worth maintaining the rails. Yet the government wanted not only a track from Harbour Grace to St. John's and from there down the Avalon Peninsula (the only run that was even faintly economically viable) but also the line across the island, plus side branches (the desire to hit as many outports as possible nearly doubled the length of the line, from about 300 miles for a direct route to about 600; Harding, p. 12; for some background on the branch lines, see the notes to "The Bonavist Line"). And it wanted to maintain steamboat service to other outports. The deal was so bad that Britain's colonial office, although they could not stop it because Newfoundland was self-governing, took the unusual step of publicly warning against the deal (Harding, p. 80) -- but Newfoundand's history of closed-door government meant that the deal went through.
It was a fantastically visionary idea, but economically ridiculous -- it gave Reid almost as much control over the island and the government had -- and it committed Newfoundland for fifty years! It also gave Reid a bunch of land that hadn't even been properly surveyed and which the government did not have title to, leading to many disputes over ownership (Penney, p. 69).
It perhaps should come as no surprise that the government official who brokered all this, A. B. Morine, was also an employee of Reid's (Hiller/Neary, p. 140; Harding, p. 81. For more on Morine, see also "The Sealer's Strike of 1902 (The Sealers Gained the Strike)"). His misdeeds would cause the government to collapse (Major, p. 288). There were actually two phases to Reid's offer, before and after a government fiscal/electoral crisis. The railroad, and Reid's role in it, became such a major issue that Newfoundland's political parties actually broke up and realigned over it (Noel, p. 27; Hiller/Neary, pp. 132-134). Chadwick's chapter on this is labeled "The (Almost) Great Train Robbery," which pretty well sums it up. Harding, pp. 82-83, says that Reid went all-in to support the government that had made the deal with him -- but if that had any effect at all, it was to turn the population even more against the conservatives; they suffered the worst electoral loss in Newfoundland history (32 of 36 seats went to the opposition). Ordinarily there would have been nothing the new government could have done about the deal, since it had been finalized, but Reid made a mistake -- when he went to seek loans, the bankers demanded that he convert his business into a limited liability corporation. So Reid incorporated -- and although he and his sons were the only shareholders, it meant that the organization building the railroad had changed, and Newfoundland was able to renegotiate. A little. (Harding, p. 83).
It seems to be agreed that, even after renegotiations, Newfoundland had granted out control over its economic destiny (Hanrahan, p. 11; Major, p. 287, says that the deal made Reid "an economic overlord, with all the potential for a government at the mercy of at (sic.) his wishes."). It was a constant source of political controversy and was a leading cause both of friction with Canada and of the eventual bankruptcy of the Newfoundland government during the Great Depression (Noel, pp. 154-155, etc.); their ineptness in deal-making simply astounds me.
When Newfoundland went bankrupt in 1933, it was estimated that 35% of the debt was due to the railroad (Hiller/Neary, p. 35; p. 197 implies that even that figure may be a little low), and indeed, Newfoundland had taken out its first foreign debt in the 1880s to pay for the project (Hiller/Neary, p. 135). The basic problem was that too much of Newfoundland was empty for a train to generate revenue, and the hilly country meant high fuel demands, plus there was a constant need to clear snow from the tracks (made worse by the foolish initial decision to build a narrow gauge rail; Kearley, p. 56; and to route the rail through very high hills; Lingard, p. 2; according to Harding, p. 11, it was the longest narrow gauge rail in the western hemisphere. P. 40 adds that one contractor had told the government that a narrow-gauge line would never be reliable, which was true, but the only result of the warning was that they didn't get the bid).
It is perhaps symbolically appropriate that the first engine ordered for the line sank on its way to Newfoundland (Harding, p. 43). All those problems in construction meant that the overall cost of moving a ton of freight was estimated at seven times that in most of North America (Penney, p. 72).
For more on the Newfoundland Railroad in general, see the notes to "The Bonavist Line," "Downey's Our Member," "The Loss of the Bruce," and "Drill, Ye Heroes, Drill!"
None of which has anything to do with the Ethie, except that it explains how she came to be where she was. Although most of the controversy was about the rail lines and how to manage and pay for them, the Reid company was also given a subsidy for the coastal steamers, with each trip having a specified subsidy (Harding, p. 139). There were eight primary steamship routes: Trepassy to Lamaline (i.e. along the eastern part of the south coast); Trinity Bay; Bonavista Bay; Notre Dame and Green Bays (north coast); Placentia to Port-aux-Basques (the western part of the south coast); Port au Port to Battle Harbour, Labrador (the west coast of Newfoundland, so this was presumably the Ethie's route); St. John's, Harbour Grace, Carbonear, and Labrador (the northeast); and the main connection to Canada, Port-aux-Basques to North Sydney, Nova Scotia (Cook, p. 19).
Having won the contract, dubious for Newfoundland as it was, the Reid company at least did its part of the job fairly well, building the railroad efficiently, making improvements in St. John's (including paving some streets), and setting up group of steamers to connect the outports to each other and to the railroads, replacing an older government steamer service (Hanrahan, p. 8). These were the aforementioned Alphabet Fleet -- a set of vessels which could not pay for themselves that were paid for with the subsidy plus land that Reid would use for the railroad then partially hand back (Hanrahan, p. 10. Are you lost yet? I am....)
The Ethie's captain, Edward English, had served as a merchant officer in World War I, although he was relatively new to the Ethie. Still, he was said to be respected by both his men and the ship's owners (Ricketts, p. 2, which also has a photo of him).
The Ethie had been built in 1900 (Hanrahan, p. 4; Galgay/McCarthy imply she was a few years older; Ricketts, p. 2, says she went into service in 1901); she was a coal-powered steamer of 440 tons (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 71), and was considered a reliable boat. (Reliable enough that the owners apparently didn't even insure her! -- Hanrahan, p. 50.) Nonetheless, there were apparently some who said her propeller was too small (Ricketts, p. 2, who adds that she was not expected to serve much longer). At the time of her wreck, she was on a trip along the western coast of Newfoundland -- earlier in her career, she had sailed in Trinity Bay (Penney/Kennedy, p. 94), but much of her career had been spent running between the island's western outports, which mostly had few or no other connections with the outside world. The last trip of her career was entirely typical: she was sailing south down the coast.
Her exact itinerary on the last trip is a little uncertain. Galgay/McCarthy, p. 71, say she left Parson's Pond around 4:00 p.m. then headed for Cow Head. But she may have skipped one or the other stop. Cow Head's harbor was too small for the Ethie, so her habit was to stop outside while the residents ran out to her in dories (Hanrahan, p. 152), which means that on this particular run, given the storm, she may not have stopped. Ricketts, p. 7, says she definitely did not stop. In any case, she was on her way south from Cow Head by about 7:45.
Fans of the Stan Rogers song "The Mary Ellen Carter" may be interested in knowing that there is a Three Mile Rock between Parson's Pond and Cow Head.
Her next destination was supposed to be Bonne Bay, a few dozen miles to the south. Even if her crew had wanted to stop somewhere else, they didn't have much choice; there was no safe harbor in which to weather a storm between Parson's Pond and Bonne Bay (Ricketts, p. 11). Captain English and First Officer John Gullage were aware, before they left Cow Head, that the weather was worsening -- Gullage reported the barometer falling fast, and said later that it was the worst storm he had ever seen on Newfoundland's west coast (Hanrahan, p. 153, although Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland, who talked to him, quote him on p. 279 as saying the weather was fine when they started down the coast from Port Saunders). But both officers thought they could reach Bonne Bay before the storm became too bad, and with Christmas approaching, everyone wanted to get to their destination with their Christmas merchandise (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 72). In any case, what else could they do? So they set out on the evening of December 10, 1919.
The storm proved worse than anyone anticipated, covering the ship with so much ice that she became badly top-heavy (Ricketts, pp. 12-13; the newspaper account on p. 15 of Connors says "the deck [was] iced almost to the level of the rails"; the ship was "practically submerged the greater portion of the time" and everything on the deck destroyed); the ice even lined the interior of the ship, and the heat was out. At the same time, a northwest wind came up which was stronger than the ship's engines could fight (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 73; Ricketts, p. 3, says that, on this particular trip, she had a load of cheap Newfoundland coal that didn't burn very well. Also, there were just two stokers, according to Ricketts, p. 17; the list on p. 180 of Hanrahan lists three firemen but only two trimmers, who put the coal in position. This was probably the result of attempts at cost-cutting -- the Reid company found Newfoundland a very bad bargain; they let their railroads run down in the World War I era and by 1920 was telling the government that they could no longer afford to run the system; Penney, p. 102. Losses in this period exceeded a million dollars a year -- which was a lot in 1920).
It was clear that the ship was going to be wrecked before it could reach Bonne Bay. When morning broke on December 11, they were only about a mile from the west coast of Newfoundland, and being blown steadily toward it (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 74). The only option the crew had was to decide *where* they would go ashore. Purser Walter Young, who was a local and probably knew the coast better than the officers from elsewhere (Hanrahan, p. 153), suggested that they make for Martin's Point, where there might be enough shelter to get the passengers ashore safely. Captain English agreed, and they managed to keep the ship off the rocks long enough for her to be wrecked near their chosen point. Captain English left Young and Gullage to put the boat on the rocks while he told the passengers what was happening (Galgay/McCarthy, p. 75). The idea was apparently to head for the shore at maximum speed, timing everything so that they would ride a high wave over the reefs and come to rest on the beach (Ricketts, p. 14).
Unfortunately, the Ethie hit a submerged rock before she could reach the shore. It tore her sides open, and ruined most of her bridge; clearly it was the end of the ship (Hanrahan, p. 155). And although she was firmly lodged, the seas hitting the port side were so heavy that there was fear that she would capsize and those aboard her be killed (Ricketts, p. 21). The storm was too strong for the ship's boat, which was smashed when they put it in the water (Galgay/McCarthy, pp. 75-76; the account on p. 15 of Connors implies it was smashed even before they let it down). But the people on shore -- just two families lived in the vicinity, according to Hanrahan, p. 154 -- could see what was happening. (One of them briefly thought the ship was an iceberg, it was so covered with ice! -- Hanrahan, p. 155.) Reuben Decker was out hauling firewood with his dog Wisher as the Ethie headed for shore, but he didn't see much of what happened (Ricketts, p. 15. Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland, p. 278, say that Decker was the only man who lived in the area, but the correct statement seems to be that he was the only man who was actually outside at the time).
Somehow, though, they established a line to shore. There seems to be disagreement about this; Hanrahan, p. 156, say the men on the shore tied a rope to a buoy and threw it out to sea, where the crew eventually snagged it, but Galgay/McCarthy, p. 76, and Ricketts, pp. 22-23, claim Captain English was able to float a rope to shore on a buoy. It didn't work very well, but it came close enough to shore that the locals could reach it and pull it ashore. The dog Wisher is said to have bitten the rope a few times; Wisher did not haul it to land (Ricketts, p. 37). Walter Young, the man who had suggested beaching at Martin's Point, was the first to come ashore, so that he could help handle the tricky bosun's chair (Ricketts, p. 23).
However the rope was sent, using that rope, all 92 people on the Ethie (that's the number in Ricketts, p. 33 etc., and others; Hanrahan says 96; Ricketts, p. 59, says that others claimed 72 or 54) were able to reach shore in a bo'sun's chair. (There was also a dory somewhere along the way, according to witnesses cited in Hanrahan, p. 156; it's not clear what it was doing, but I'm guessing it held up the rope.)
First Officer Gullage and Captain English were the last to leave, around mid-afternoon. It's probably fortunate that there weren't many more people aboard, the rope was starting to fray, and Gullage and English had worried somewhat about whether it would carry their weight (Ricketts, pp. 28-29).
That left the problem of accommodating ninety-odd people in a settlement with just two homes. As Ricketts says on p. 33, "On December 11, 1919, the population of Martin's Point, Newfoundland grew from 8 to 100." The locals had put in food for the winter, but suddenly they had to share that out. And no one outside Martin's Cove even knew where the Ethie was -- the storm had cut the local telegraph (Hanrahan, p. 157), and in Newfoundland, the sea is the way you get around, not roads! Bonne Bay was 18 miles away; it took two days to get word out and three for transportation to arrive (Ricketts, p. 33). Apparently people actually went back to the Ethie to pick up some cargo (Hanrahan, p. 158). When the storm ended, a local named Roberts was able to take the passengers to another town, Woody Point, in groups of fifteen or so. It was a tough few days, but everyone made it through -- and became famous.
The best known bit of folklore about the wreck is that there was a dog that was the key to getting the rope to shore and the passengers to land. Eventually the tale became that it was a Newfoundland named Wisher, but it took a while for all these details to become well-known -- e.g. O'Neill, p. 976, repeats the story, while declaring that the dog was a mongrel, not a Newfoundland. Andrieux, p. 91, is even less critical; it not only accepts that the dog was a Newfoundland but that it "immortalized the breed." But another version of the story says that the hero dog was not Wisher but Captain English's own dog, carried with the captain on the Ethie. This story came from the English family (Ricketts, pp. 62-63), but not until long after English must have been dead. There is a photo of English with a dog, but the fact that English had a dog doesn't make it the hero dog.
The dog Wisher did exist (Ricketts, p. 15, says that Wisher was a Collie-and-who-knows-what mix, not a Newfoundland), and it was at the beach -- and it did nothing but get in the way. There is no mention of it in the December 17, 1919 Evening Herald account reprinted on p. 15 of Connors. Clarke, p. 429, says only that the story is now "discounted." Cassie Brown attributes the story about the dog to one of the Ethie's coalmen (Ricketts, p. 61). The first officer of the Ethie John Gullage, was adamant for his entire life that there was no dog (Ricketts, p. 65). Even the play that the locals sometimes stage about the wreck includes the line "There was no dog!" (Ricketts, p. 36).
So how did the story spread? Hanrahan, pp. 159-160, believes the story started as a practical joke, and the dog's owner took advantage of it to make some money. A medical missionary named Sir Willard Grenfell (the one who sent Greenleaf on her travels, and a famous name in Newfoundland) -- was responsible for propagating the tale, perhaps in order to raise money -- and of course breeders of Newfoundland dogs also were happy to cash in, even though Wisher wasn't a member of that breed! (Hanrahan, pp. 160-161).
Ricketts, pp. 37-39, has a different spin. The first newsman to produce a story was an AP stringer named A. L. Bartlett, who put in all the human interest details he could -- a baby in a mail bag (genuine) and a dog (bogus). As Ricketts comments on p. 38, the reason the story was picked up from the AP wire by various newspapers was "Dogs, babies, shipwrecks and heroes." The Philadelphia Human Society got all excited and, instead of doing something useful like neutering stray dogs, raised money to get a jeweled collar for the useless mutt Wisher. It officially declared the mutt to be a "HERO." The collar still exists, and looks absolutely ridiculous (Ricketts has photos on pp. 40-41).
All this even though no one in Philadelphia knew how big a Newfoundland dog was, and Wisher wasn't a Newfoundland anyway. The associated medal also got the date of the wreck wrong (Ricketts, p. 40). In 1920, some nut case traveled to Martin's Point and bought Wisher from Decker -- who had no idea this silliness was going on -- for the exorbitant price of $30, which Decker happily accepted; "After all, Decker had never understood why his dog was being treated like a hero and if someone wanted to pay him hard cold cash for that dog there would be no argument from him!" (Ricketts, pp. 43-44). Ricketts speculates further that the buyer, William Orum, didn't even know what a Newfoundland was, so he didn't realize the Wisher was not a Newfie dog but a part-collie mutt.
Orum -- who apparently had a hard time convincing people that Wisher was a HERO -- later went back to Decker and bought the HERO collar also. Later, Orum dumped Wisher and got an actual Newfoundland; as Ricketts sarcastically notes, "At least the collar now fit" (Ricketts, p. 44). In 1922, Orum gave up and sold the whole show to another nut willing to try to make a living off a dog that wasn't even the dog that hadn't actually done anything. (You think that's bad? A poet named E. J. Pratt later wrote a poem "Carlo" that retold the tale that hadn't actually happened that wasn't actually about the dog that wasn't even the dog that didn't do it anyway. Oy. If you want to suffer even more than you have in reading this entry, you can find "Carlo" on pp. 141-143 of Harding).
The sale of the dog was effectively the end of the Ethie's part in the story, although Ricketts devotes pp. 49-57 to the further tale of the fake dog, the ridiculous collar, and the life of Dinty Kane, the drunk who tried to take advantage of both.
Bruce, pp. 22-23, sums up "An apocryphal story about a Newfoundland dog who swam out to the wreck to help rescue the Ethie's passengers and crew soon did wonders for the breed's reputation for spontaneous heroism in the service of mankind."
There is one bit of folklore that about the wreck is true, though. It was widely reported that one baby girl had to be transferred to shore in a mail bag (Hanrahan, pp. 156-157). This is true, and, happily, he kid made it; Ricketts, p. 24, says that the baby and her mother were the first passengers sent ashore. And the girl eventually donated the mailbag to a museum (Hanrahan, p. 159) -- indeed, the baby, Hilda Batten, later Hilda Menchions, was still alive in 2005 (Ricketts, p. 60). Clarke, p, 430, says that she eventually gave the bag to Gros Morne National Park, site of some Ethie artifacts.
Although the dog story is declared "all lies" by those who were there (Hanrahan, p. 159), most of the rest of the tale in the song is right.
The captain and first officer, despite their mistake in setting out on that night, were commended for their valor and skill getting all ashore.
Galgay and McCarthy conclude their account by saying that the wreck of the Ethie is the best-known of all the disasters on the west coast of Newfoundland (p. 78). I would guess that this is due in part to the fact that all were saved and in part to the fact that it happened so close to Christmas.
Until recently, Roud lumped this song with "Come All ye Jolly Ice-Hunters" (Roud #6345) -- a song with which it shares some elements, but this song is based on an incident almost a century more recent. Spencer, pp. 130-131, notes a story in one of Elisabeth Bristol Greenleaf's writings in which she recalled taking her turn singing during a collecting session -- and discovered that several survivors of the Ethie were present at the time. The account in Spencer (written by I. Sheldon Posen) also includes a substantial portion of her text.
In addition to Ricketts, there is another book about this event, "The Wreck of the Ethie" by Hilary Hyland, but it's fiction and appears to be aimed at children. The purpose seems to be to glorify the dog rather than describe what actually happened. I haven't read it; it sounds deadly. The cover drawing shows a Newfoundland dog. Oy.
Portions of the Ethie wreck can still be seen in the waters around Martin's Point; Ricketts, p. 2, and Clarke, p. 430, show her as she looked when intact, and on pp. 29-31 shows photos of her as the wreck decayed: she very early lost everything above the main except the funnel (the upper works was apparently lost within a day of her wreck; Ricketts, p. 34), but as late as 1930 funnel and hull were still there and looking mostly intact. By 1956 the hull was smashed and resting on the shore. By 2000, parts of the boiler were still visible in the sea, but she was mostly gone. Galgay/McCarthy, p. 73, O'Neill, p. 941, Andrieux, p. 92, and Hanrahan, p. 98, also have photos of the Ethie in her better days; Connors, p. 16, has one of her in dry dock.
A full list of the Ethie's crew can be found on p. 180 of Hanrahan.
The Ethie wreck wasn't the last to hit the Alphabet Fleet in December 1919. On December 25, the Dundee went aground on Noggin Island. Happily, there were no deaths as a result of that wreck, either (Harding, p. 141). See also "The Loss of the Bruce," for the wreck of the latter ship. For a song about another ship in the fleet, see "The Smokeroom on the Kyle." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.6
File: Doy59

Wreck of the Steamship Florizel, The

DESCRIPTION: A chronicle of the tragic wreck of the S.S. Florizel off Renews Rocks where 40 were saved out of 106.
AUTHOR: Words: Joan Endacott; Music: Harvey Freeman (? - these may have been the informants, not the authors)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: wreck sea ship disaster
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 23/24, 1918 - Wreck of the Florizel
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 140, "The Wreck of the Steamship Florizel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "The Wreck of the Steamship Florizel" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 31 in the 2nd edition, p. 72 in the 3rd, p. 24 in the 4th
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 38, "The Florizel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, pp. 84-85, "The Wreck of the Steamship Florizel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4417
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "The Wreck of the Steamship Florizel" (on NFOBlondahl04)
NOTES [5449 words]: An extensive account of this wreck is found in Cassie Brown's A Winter's Tale. Toronto: Doubleday Canada Ltd., 1992. The boat was taking passengers from St. John's to Halifax then on to New York. The authors of the song are from nowhere near the [site of] the incident and the words were written three years after the wreck while the tune was written eleven years after. - SH
This song is item dD35 in Laws's Appendix II.
All the following notes and page citations are based on Cassie Brown's book except as noted. (This is not Brown's only writing on the Florizel; she also had two essays on it in BrownWinter. But these add nothing to the story; one is a brief overview and one is "Kitty Cantwell's Story" of the wreck.) Pp. 4-5, describes the Florizel as a ship of some 3000 tonnes (Ryan/Drake, p. 37, lists her as 1980.22 net tons, which refers to her carrying capacity as opposed to overall capacity), 305 feet long and having a beam of 42 feet. She was built in 1909 by Charles Connell & Co. of Glasgow; she had the distinction of being the first sealing steamer fitted with wireless equipment (Ryan/Drake, p. 37).
She was named for the character in Shakespeare'sA Winter's Tale; Bowring's, the line which owned her, usually named their ships after Shakespearean characters (e.g. Cordelia, Desdemona, Hamlet, Juliet, Ophelia, Othello, Prospero, Romeo, Stephano; O'Neill, p. 961). Although only about a decade old at the time of her loss, her design had been conservative; she used the old triple expansion engines rather than the newer turbines. Brown says that she was designed as a passenger liner, with room for about 180 passengers in addition to her crew, but in the spring she went off passenger duties to become a sealer -- see the accounting of her sealing work at the end of this entry. Her work as a sealer is briefly mentioned in the song "Captains and Ships"; O'Neill, p. 961, says that she "broke records at the seal fishery under commend of the legendary Captain Abram Kean"; on one trip, the Florizel under Kean took 43,000 seal hides. For Kean, see "Captain Abram Kean." The rest of the year, she usually sailed between New York, Halifax, and St. John's. Her top speed was apparently between eleven and twelve knots (p. 34).
Her final trip, from St. John's, came after a very difficult voyage north in which there had been a smallpox epidemic on board. (Yes, people knew about smallpox vaccination in 1918, but there were apparently anti-vaxxer imbeciles in 1918 just as there are a century later.) This caused a delay in her final voyage; it also caused a number of passengers to cancel (pp. 6-7). Nine crew members (mostly waiters and stewards) were left behind on her final voyage because of the epidemic; one of them was Harvey Freeman (called "Harry Freeman" in the note on page 6 of Brown), who supplied the tune collected by Greenleaf and Mansfield.
It is unlikely that many veteran sailors were afraid, however; John Shannon Munn, the Managing Director of the Red Cross Line that owned the ship (as well as a senior director of Bowring's, the shipping/insurance family business that owned the Red Cross Line; Keir, p. 241), was one of those who sailed on the Florizel (p. 16). And her captain, William Martin, was regarded as a careful man and a good navigator (p. 7).
The ship itself had been given a deck gun to try to protect her from German submarines (the Florizel never encountered a U-boat, but her much larger sister the Stephano had been sunk in 1916; p. 35). The addition of the gun cost her a lifeboat (p. 36), which just possibly might have mattered.
The crew had sufficient warning that a storm was coming. It had been working its way up the Atlantic coast for several days, It hadn't been particularly severe, as winter gales go, but it was already bringing heavy swells to Newfoundland when the Florizel started her voyage (pp. 14-15). She ended up delaying her departure three and a half hours, but that was all (p. 17).
Unfortunately, the east coast of Newfoundland was not easy to navigate. There were three lighthouses between Cape Spear near St. John's and Cape Race in the south, plus the two at the capes themselves, but the three lighthouses on the coast were not very bright or easily spotted (p. 22); at no time did the crew of the Florizel get a clear sighting. And her final voyage was made in icy seas (so-called "sish ice," putting a few inches of ice fragments atop the sea), making it impossible to use the log to measure her speed (p. 35). And, for some reason, the ship didn't seem able to make her full speed on that night -- both the captain and the watch officer thought she was going about eight knots, eventually falling to perhaps six. But they didn't know! (p. 41). When they tried to fix their course by taking bearings on a lighthouse, they couldn't see it (pp. 48-49).
Most skippers, in this situation, would have headed away from the shore lest the ocean currents -- which ran toward shore at a fairly high speed and could drive the ship in the same direction -- affect her course. Instead, Captain Martin chose to steam less than two miles off-shore (p. 40). If I understand the numbers in Brown, if the currents were high, they could take the ship toward shore at about a half a mile per hour faster than if the current was at normal speed. In other words, if Captain Martin's dead reckoning were wrong, he might hit the shore as soon as four hours after he set his course based on "normal" currents.
To his credit, Captain Martin took soundings about once an hour from about 10:00 p.m. to midnight (pp. 50fff.) But the ship was still moving slowly, and he doesn't seem to have tried to find out why (pp. 56, 63, 66). The soundings seemed to indicate that he was on course (p. 56) -- but, because the depth in that area was nearly constant, they didn't really mean much. By midnight, the wind was up to 33 miles per hour at St. John's, and increasing (p. 62); by 2:00, it was a major storm (p. 63). But Captain Martin was so sure she was safely away from shore that he stopped taking soundings after midnight, and apparently made little attempt to watch for land (p. 67).
Well before dawn, the ship started taking on water as portholes started to leak and some glass started to break (pp. 70, 74-75). Books and furnishings were breaking loose and making life very uncomfortable aboard. This by itself did not endanger the ship, but it probably made everyone more irritable and less able to react to conditions. At 4:30, there was a major problem with the cargo in one hold (p. 77, although Brown isn't really clear about whether it shifted or the hold flooded); in any case, this didn't affect Captain Martin's actions.
After hours of rough weather, Captain Martin apparently estimated his position and gave the order that, at 4:00 a.m., the ship should start to steer more to the west (p. 71) -- i.e. toward land. Around 4:40, a sounding which Martin did not order (and which was done in a way that made the reading unofficial) made the sea depth 45 fathoms -- shallower than expected on his course; meanwhile, the ship seemed to be moving faster. Martin thought he knew where he was: by the Ballard Bank, almost due east of Cape Race. That meant it was possible to turn west to head south of Newfoundland -- a move which, if nothing else, would reduce the rolling of the ship. Captain Martin so ordered (pp. 78-79).
Martin's navigation was way off. He was somewhat west and far to the north of where he thought he was -- about twelve miles north of Cape Race rather than level with it. Having finally gotten speed up to nine knots, Captain Martin drove his ship aground on Horn Head Reef. And, not realizing what he had done, he quickly ordered full speed astern (p. 83). It didn't get her off the rocks. But if by some chance he hadn't broken the ship's back already, the attempt to break free did so. The Florizel was wrecked. Probably the only thing that kept her from sinking on the spot was the fact that she was on the rocks; she had a bad list to starboard (p. 95) and the water was coming in fast. With one end fixed, the waves were flexing the other end (p. 102).
The map on p. x of Brown shows the Florizel starting out from St. John's to sail south of Newfoundland. But somewhere around Cape Broyle, she turned in closer to shore to avoid Bantam Bank (an undersea rise that could not sink the ship but could produce unpleasant swells; p. 57) -- and, somewhere south of the Ferryland lighthouse, went turned even more to the west and crashed into Renews Rocks between Renews on the north and Cappahayden on the south.
With the ship flooding, the passengers had no choice but to make for the boat deck. Some were washed away (often the moment they reached the deck); some made it -- but were not dressed for the bitter cold and the icy water (pp. 102-103). Nor could much be done about rigging lifelines or the like; they too had been washed away (pp. 106-107).
Captain Martin ordered everyone into the lifeboats (p. 84) -- but, of course, they were in the middle of a storm. Although not far from land, the boats might well be lost if they tried to leave the ship (p. 94). But the ship wasn't safe either; there was water rising in the engine room (p. 89). She had a radio, and could send an S.O.S. (indeed, the radio operator started sending it almost at once; p. 88) -- but where was she? When the radiomen started calling, Captain Martin claimed they were near Cape Race (p. 116); he still hadn't figured out his error. It probably wouldn't have helped if he'd had it right; with only battery power for an auxiliary radio set, the radio went dead after a few minutes, probably because the aerial failed.
The ship's whistle began to sound soon after her wreck, and the people of Cappahayden apparently became aware of the wreck almost instantly. But they had no boats able to brave the weather (pp. 108-109); people brought their dories to the coast, but when one tried to put out, the weather overturned it at once (p. 201). Meanwhile, the Florizel was filling fast; some of those aboard apparently could not make it to the boat deck.
The Florizel's own boats were quickly washed away or destroyed; as those aboard were trying to get them down, a wave crashed some of the portside boats off their davits and into the starboard boats. Several people were washed overboard in the process (p. 113). Then the power went out, silencing the whistle and extinguishing the lights (p. 114).
There was little those on the Florizel could do but huddle on the upper levels and hope for rescue. There wasn't much space; the stern was going under (p. 128). Even the bow was only about eight feet above the water's surface (Keir, p. 242), leaving everything vulnerable to the waves. The boilers later fell out, too (p. 138), leaving even more holes in the hull and destroying the stokehold that had been one of the last refuges. For a while, some took shelter in or near the wheelhouse (p. 145), but then that was washed away (p. 148), taking with it among others the famous Newfoundland captain Joe Kean (Abram Kean's oldest son, who had captained the Florizel on some of her sealing trips) and the line's director John Munn. The only large place left where anyone could take shelter was the tiny wireless room. It was soon full to capacity (p. 144).
It is ironic to note that this fragile contraption, which was added to the ship after it was built (p. 153), stood up to the tempest; it is thought that the shelter of the smokestack saved it. But even the shack was slowly going to pieces in the storm (p. 175). Some time during the day after the wreck, the door was wrenched off, threatening to wash away those inside, but a few men managed to take the room's carpet and nail it across the door. It didn't keep all the water out, but it broke its force (p. 200).
There were a few other survivors in odd nooks and crannies, but not many. One of them was First Officer William James, who, along with passenger Michael S. Sullivan, periodically came out on deck to wave to those on shore so that they knew there were still living people on the wreck (pp. 200-201) -- a risky task, since if a wave hit while the waving man was on deck, he would almost certainly be washed away. But both survived.
Eventually the stern of the ship broke off (p. 177), but the bow was still on the rocks, so it made little difference to the survivors there. Captain Martin was talking about swimming ashore with a line; it was surely impossible, but he evidently wasn't thinking clearly. He was saved by the fact that no lines could be found (pp. 174-175).
Captain Abram Kean, patriarch of the famous Kean family of Newfoundland sailors, the father of Joe Kean, quickly volunteered to take a ship out (pp. 168-169). Only after plans were already being made did they hear that the Florizel was near Cappahayden, not Cape Race (p. 169), which caused some confusion -- few could believe that, if the SOS had come in after 4:30 a.m., the ship was so far north. But the people of Cappahayden could clearly see the Florizel on the rocks; they just couldn't rescue the survivors because of the storm. They were watching from the beach 200 yards away, helpless (p. 174). There was no question about what they were seeing, though -- bodies were washing ashore as dawn came.
Abram Kean was impatient, and wanted to board a rescue train rather than wait for a ship (p. 189) -- only to receive word that his son was dead, then further word that the body wasn't his son's; the result was that he missed the train (pp. 190-191).
It was hard to organize a rescue; the wreck happened early on a Sunday morning, in wartime, in winter. After a four to five inch snowstorm (p. 177), which made it harder to gather crews. As soon as the radio call was heard, people started trying to plan a response (p. 164f.), although they didn't know where the wreck was because of Captain Martin's navigation mistake. There were few ships available, however, plus it took time to gather sailors -- the Terra Nova and the Home didn't have crews available; the Cape Breton didn't have enough cargo aboard as ballast to sail in the conditions (pp. 184-185). The Hawk could have sailed, and her Captain wanted to head out, but there were problems with her owners (p. 184) -- and when those were cleared up, it was realized that she was too heavily loaded; she had to offload coal (p. 191).
The first ship, the Gordon C, set out from St. John's at 11:30 -- two hours after she had been ready to sail, and almost seven hours after the wreck. The Hawk and the Terra Nova, both of which had managed to find sailors who were not part of their regular crews, prepared to set out soon after (p. 192). Then came another incorrect message, saying that the sea was washing over the Florizel and all lives were lost. The first part was perhaps true, the second obviously false. The Hawk was delayed again, until a question could be sent and an answer received to say that, yes, live survivors could be seen on the Florizel (p. 193). So, once again, the Hawk prepared to go -- only to find a pair of stowaways aboard. Some dimwit decided that it was more important that they be put off than to get going, so it wasn't until 3:44 -- eleven hours after the wreck -- that the Hawk set out (p. 194). And the seas were still rough and icy enough to slow the rescuers down. The Terra Nova in particular was slow in any case (p. 205).
At 4:00, p.m. a telegraph line was run to the shore at Cappahayden (pp 202-203), which at least meant there would be few incorrect messages after that -- but still there were no rescue boats. Even if the survivors on the Florizel were safe from the storm, how long could the wet survivors, most of whom had lost most of their clothing in the wreck, survive the bitter conditions?
Shortly before dusk, those on shore tried to use a rocket gun to fire lines to the ship. The first two attempts failed, and no further attempts were made (p. 204).
Also at dusk, the Gordon C arrived at the wreck site. The ship came within about 150 yards, saw no signs of life, and backed off (p. 206). The Home arrived around 6:00 p.m., well after dark, and dared not get close because of her larger size. The Gordon C told her there was no sign of life, then headed off to harbor at Fermeuse. The Terra Nova also took shelter, at Renews (p. 207), apparently without getting close. The Home, with John Stone, an official of the Newfoundland government, aboard kept looking. Stone and and a few sailors took a boat to explore (pp. 207-209). In the rough seas, even the boat couldn't get too close; they saw nothing except some lights that might have been reflections from the shore. The Hawk arrived at 9:00, also tried to get close, and also saw nothing (p. 211). But she did sound her whistle (p. 214), which apparently none of the others had done, and that alerted the survivors. At 1:00 a.m., the larger Prospero (which had been at sea rather than in port) arrived, and she was big enough to actually start shining lights, plus she too used her whistle (p. 215). Unfortunately, one of the Prospero's boats capsized repeatedly in the waves, so the other boats found themselves having to rescue the rescuers! (pp. 216-217). But one of the Florizel's radio operators, using a passenger's flashlight, was able to signal that there were still people aboard before the battery died (pp. 218-219). The seas were too rough to rescue anyone at the time -- but, at last, the survivors knew there was help coming, and the ships knew there were people to rescue. And the sea began to quiet during the night, making it safer to move around the wreck. The rescue would begin shortly before dawn; in the meantime, some of the crew started to pull survivors out of the crannies where they had taken refuge (pp. 220-222).
All five rescue ships came back at that time -- but the rocks meant they couldn't get too close; rescue had to be done by boat -- and conditions were still bad enough that they had to keep boats in the water to be prepared to rescue the crews of the other boats! (p. 222). The people on shore also started launching their dories around dawn (p. 223). And a lifeline was finally rigged to the Florizel. But the conditions were such that only one boat could take off survivors at a time, making the process quite slow. Passengers were taken to the Hawk, usually two at a time (p. 224). Eventually an ambitious dory managed to come alongside also, and it rescued about half the people who survived. But three rescuers went into the water in the process, and two of them ended up injured (pp. 225-226); other rescuers also had some trouble, although all survived. The rescue finally ended around 8:00 a.m., or a bit more than 27 hours after the wreck (p. 228).
In all, 44 survivors made it off the Florizel -- 17 passengers and 27 crew (p. 228). The latter included Captain Martin, First Officer William James, and Third Officer Philip Jackman. A total of 94 people -- 61 passengers and 33 crew -- were lost. The relatively high survival rate for the crew does not imply that they shirked their duty after the wreck -- the last seven men off were all crew, and they included Martin and James, who were on the very last boat (pp. 227-228). Several, including Jackman, bore permanent injuries (p. 230). The post-mortem found no fault with the crew. It's just that the crew knew how to get around the ship, and most of them were young and healthy. Many passengers got lost or were swept away because they didn't know how to deal with a wreck at sea, or were too young or too old to survive the conditions -- it appears, from the list on pp. 269-270, that every survivor was between the ages of 21 and 45, and only two of the survivors were women.
Joe Kean's father Abram Kean claimed that Joe's funeral was "beyond all doubt the largest ever seen in Newfoundland" (Kean, p. 39); Abram Kean can be shown to have had a very selective memory, so I wouldn't bet on this being true, but no doubt many of those who turned out were honoring all the Florizel's dead, not just Joe Kean. Kean, pp. 44-45, has photos of the mourners marching down the streets of St. John's, and there were indeed many of them -- but the sealing fleet was supposed to sail the next day, so what else were the sealers supposed to do? Protest, and have Abram Kean kick them off his ship?
Naturally there was an inquiry -- and a very high-powered one, with a future Newfoundland Prime Minister, Chief Justice, Speaker of Parliament, and Attorney General involved, as well as several naval officers (p. 237). (The sarcastic part of me, thinking of the way other inquiries into wrecks went, can't help but think that it was typical of the British style in these things: High-powered, thorough, and unwilling or unable to deal with the actual issues.) It began less than two weeks after the wreck, on March 5. Captain Martin was questioned for six days. All of the other crew members were questioned as well, and twelve of the seventeen surviving passengers (pp. 237-238). It was quickly established that the Germans were not at fault; the ship had simply not been where she expected to be (p. 238). Martin was eventually forced to admit that he had felt the ship was slow, but he had not asked the engineers why (p. 239), and he turned out not to know much about how the motors worked (p. 240).
There was some inconsistency in the officers' testimony about exactly what happened (Brown, p. 243, thinks one of them lied, based on things that came out later, but in this case it could just be bad memory). None of the three (Martin, James, and Jackman) could explain why the ship was so slow (though, as we shall see, Jackman had a clue). The surviving engineers testified that the engine had been working well, but they couldn't explain the slow speed either (pp. 243-244). A narrative started to emerge of Chief Engineer John Reader for some reason slowing the engine (pp. 244-247), but no one knew why. Martin was asked why he hadn't asked Reader what was going on. His only real answer was that he trusted Reader (p. 247). That ended that line of questioning, with no real answer.
On the other hand, slow speed alone didn't explain Martin's navigation failure. He hadn't known his ship's speed, but he had suspected the ship was running slow. He couldn't see the lighthouses. Yet he put out no extra lookouts and didn't slow down or take regular soundings after midnight. The court determined what he should have found if he had taken more soundings (pp. 247-248), and concluded that it would have given him at least some warning that he was approaching land.
The court also looked at the rescue. Why did it take so long for rescuers to set out? (p. 248). Given that there was a war on, surely someone should have been on call for rescue! But this was a side issue. The court did say that Newfoundland needed better lighthouses, and lifesaving stations, but the new lights were not installed until 1953 and 1964, and the stations still weren't in place when Brown wrote her book in 1976 (p. 256).
Having heard all the testimony, the court's navigation expert concluded that Captain Martin had no reason to be so confident about his location or his course, and that he had at least some warning (from the way the ship rolled) that he was approaching land. Although the court admitted that the exact details of what went wrong would likely never be known, and that the crew had done their duty in the wreck (p. 256), Captain Martin had failed. Once he made his course change, he should have slowed down and taken more soundings. "For this lack of caution, I submit he may be held to blame," the expert concluded (p. 252). "I am of the opinion that the master [Martin] was in default in not verifying his position by sounding before changing his course from south-southwest at 4:00 a.m.; or if he could not have done so before changing course, in not reducing his speed and verifying his position by constantly sounding after changing. In this case, if no other means of fixing his position were available, he could have waited until daylight, if necessary, to ascertain his position.... The casualty is attributable to the master's default in not taking these precautions" (p. 255).
Brown claims they "threw the book" at Martin, but given that his errors had killed 94 people and permanently injured several others, I'd say he got off remarkably lightly: his Master's certificate was taken away for 21 months -- but he was allowed an interim Chief Mate's certificate (p. 255). In other words, he was demoted one notch, for 21 months. He left Newfoundland for New York, but was allowed to return to sea. He was reticent about his history, on at least one occasion saying he knew what happened but never telling his sons that he had even been wrecked (p. 259).
It is possible that the mystery of the slow engine was eventually resolved; this slightly reduces Captain Martin's guilt in one regard -- but increases it in another. Third Officer Jackman, on that fatal night, had been told by Chief Engineer Reader that Reader had deliberately slowed the engine slightly so that he could visit his family in Halifax (p. 260). Jackman did not tell Captain Martin, and did not tell the court; only much later did his guilt induce him to reveal the story.
But why hadn't he told Captain Martin? Admittedly Jackman was in an uncomfortable situation, because Reader hadn't wanted Martin to know. But Jackman could have told Martin that Reader had slowed the engine without telling him WHY. Jackman did not do so. The reason is that he was was -- to be blunt -- afraid of Martin (p. 261). A captain whose officers are afraid of him is not a good master, so if Martin wasn't to blame for the slow engines, he was to blame for not hearing about it!
The loss of the Florizel, following the loss of her bigger sister Stephano to a German torpedo, all but ruined the Red Cross Line (Keir, p. 243; 330-331). Bowring's, the owners, lost nineteen ships in World War I; they were able to bear the loss and buy new ships, and reconstitute the line, but much of the rest of their fleet had to be reorganized and they dropped some of their services (Keir, p. 343).
Bowring Park in St. John's, although founded in 1911 in honor of the centenary of Bowring Brothers (Keir, p. 398), was promptly modified to include a memorial to Betsy Munn, the daughter of John Munn who died in the disaster (O'Neill, p. 962; there is a picture of her, and of a statue of Peter Pan erected in her honor, facing p. 133 of Brown), although by the looks of the park, it's mostly an amusement part now (it was turned over to the city of St. John's in 1921; Kier, p. 399) and its sad back story (which also memorializes Newfoundlanders lost in the Great War, some of whom went to Britain on the Florizel) largely forgotten (O'Neill, pp. 961-962).
There is a photo of the Florizel working as a sealer on p. 37 of Ryan/Drake. Kean, p. 60, has a photo of her on the rocks with another ship in the background, and Andrieux, p. 86, has a photo from the same set, as well as one of the Florizel in service. Andrieux says the other ship is the Neptune, but the ship in the photo has three masts, and the Neptune had only two at this time, based on the photos I have seen. Based on her rig, I suspect that the other ship is the Terra Nova. Brown, facing p. 132, has a photo of the Florizel transporting troops in 1914, and below it a photo of her on the rocks. On the following pages are two photos apparently of her being stripped, plus many of those who were aboard her (including Captain Martin). BrownWinter, p. 71, has a different picture of Martin; p. 72 shows the Florizel in the ice; p. 76 shows the wreck.
It should be noted that Brown's account is now rather dated and sometimes needs to be updated. For example, she describes the child "Clarence B. Moulton" as a "deaf mute" (p. 15). Based on her description of his behavior, I think it significantly more likely that he was a non-verbal autistic boy.
It appears all versions of this song ultimately go back to the Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland edition. Doyle got it from them, and Lehr found the text in one or another edition of Doyle and set her own tune. The accuracy of the Greenfield/Mansfield text is not perfect, but it's not bad by folk music standards. The song contains the details:
The Florizel was "Harmed up by Renews": The wreck was on Renews Rock
"A blinding snowstorm": The snow was primarily on the land, not the water, but there was snow, and of course the storm was very real indeed
"Saturday night at eight o'clock the steamer left the pier"": It was indeed a Saturday night, and only a little before 8:00 p.m.
"With every indication a storm was drawing near": Forecasts, news from the south, and the barometer all implied a storm
"With Captain Martin on the bridge": Correct
"Woth one hundred and thirty passengers": The Florizel didn't have that many passengers on this trip, but it could carry more than that. She had had a large number of passengers cancel at the last minute; had they sailed with her, the number would not be far wrong. And if you count crew as well as passengers, the total on board was 140 -- not far from 130.
"Some rushed the deck, being scarcely clad... The sea soon washed them off her deck": Both true; most of the passengers rushed to the deck in their pajamas or whatever they were wearing, and a very large number were swept away by waves.
"And only forty lives were saved out of one hundred six"... "And ninety-four their precious lives that evening left on shore": This is the one real error (it should be 44 were saved out of 140), but it's not far off by folk music standards. - RBW
APPENDIX:
This has nothing to do with the wreck of the Florizel, but it does have to do with her history. In 2019, I chanced upon an eBay listing of a 1909 (purple) carbon copy of a Newfoundland sealing voyage cost estimate. It's in pretty bad shape; it was folded over and the ink burned through on top of itself, making much of it hard to read. All the seller realized was that it was for a 1909 sealing voyage. The text of the item never mentions the Florizel. But it is from 1909, the first year of the Florizel's creer. The speed of the ship is correct. It's a big ship -- bigger than any sealer to that time. It is clearly an estimate of costs for a sealing trip by the Florizel. I offer the text for whatever use it may have for future scholars. Note that this expense list does not include expenses for the sealers; they received no wages, so all their costs came out of the profit of the trip.
Text of the note follows (underlining necessarily omitted; the words "12 knots," , "40,000," and "10 Knots" are underlined; there are single underlines below "3.10.0" and "100. 0. 0." and a double underline below "1230.09.06" which I have delineated with underscores):

       St.John's, November 30/1909

           ESTIMATE COST of a Steamer to carry 3000 tons D.W. with

reserve steam power for 12 knots . Hull and Machinery to be

suitable for the Sealing Voyage - say £ 40,000.

and estimated working expenses per month say steaming 10 Knots .

          1 Master's wages per month.      £20. 0. 0.

          1 1st Mate   "       "            12. 0. 0.

          2nd    "     "       "             9. 0. 0.

          1 Boatswain  "       "             6.10. 0.

          6 A.B. @ £ 4.12      "            17.12. 0.

          1 Chief Engineers    "            18. 0. 0.

          1 2nd.       "       "            12. 0. 0.

          1 3rd.       "       "             9. 0. 0.

          1 Donkeyman                        6.10. 0.

          2 Trimmers ea £ 6.5.              12.10. 0.

          6 Firemen ea £  6.5.              37.10. 0.

          1 Steward                        7.   0. 0.

          1 Cook.                            6.10. 0.

          1 Mess Room Boy.               3.10. 0.

           Total wages per month        £  187.12. 0.

          25 Mens Provisions @ 1/3 per day  46.17. 6

Steaming time 20 days per month and

26 tons of Coal pr day @ 16/- pr ton 520 t  416. 0. 0.

10 days loading and discharging Cargo ,and

20 tons of Coal for Donkey Baile @ 16/     16. 0. 0.

Oil Waste and extra                          14. 0. 0.

Lights and port dues   - say                120. 0. 0.

Insurance              - say                330. 0. 0.

Depreciators           - say              100. 0. 0.

                Total expenses per month  £1230.09.06.

Bibliography Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy31

Wreck of the Tennessee Gravy Train

DESCRIPTION: The people of Tennessee want to know who wrecked their "gravy train"; bonds were issued to build highways, now the money's tied up, the people have nothing to show for it, and the banks have gone bust.
AUTHOR: Uncle Dave Macon
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer says the people of Tennessee want to know who wrecked their "gravy train"; in a major scandal, bonds were issued for $5 million to build highways, now the money's tied up, the people have nothing to show for it, and the banks have gone bust. A Dave Macon chorus: "And now we're up against it, and no use to raise a row/Of all the times I've ever seen, we're sure up against it now/The only thing that we can do is to do the best we can/Follow me, good people, I'm bound for the promised land"
KEYWORDS: crime theft political money
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 280, "Wreck of the Tennessee Gravy Train" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "We Are Up Against It Now" (Vocalion 5009, 1926)
Uncle Dave Macon & Sam McGee, "Wreck of the Tennessee Gravy Train" (Okeh 45507, 1931; rec. 1930; on HardTimes2)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Wreck of the Tennessee Gravy Train" (on NLCR09)
NOTES [16 words]: This is the only old-time song I know about embezzlement, making it hard to assign keywords. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: RcWOTTGT

Wreck of the Tolesby, The

DESCRIPTION: "You daring sons of Newfoundland, come listen unto me" as the singer tells how the Tolesby was lost in Trepassey Bay. Sailing from Galveston, she ran into a snowstorm near Cape Race. Her survivors are rescued when a fisherman takes a line down a cliff
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Murphy, Songs Their Fathers Sung)
KEYWORDS: storm ship wreck disaster rescue
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1907 - the Tolesby wreck
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, _Songs Their Fathers Sung: For Fishermen: Old Time Ditties_, James Murphy Publishing, 1923 (PDF available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 13, "The Loss of the Tolesby" (1 text)
Roud #26746
RECORDINGS:
John Bulger, "The Wreck of the Tolesby" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
File: JMSFS013

Wreck of the Toravan, The

See The Wreck of the Torhamvan (The Wreck of the Toravan) (File: ML3Tormh)

Wreck of the Torhamvan, The (The Wreck of the Toravan)

DESCRIPTION: The singer, lying in bed, hears a steamer blowing, gets up, and sees the Torhamvan wrecked. The next morning, the crowd from all around "tried to fight and grab it all, whatever there they found" They'll be able to live for a year off the salvage.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: sea ship shore storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 29, 1926 - Steamship freighter Torhamvan bound to Halifax, Nova Scotia from St. John's stranded in fog at Ferryland, Newfoundland (per Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30147
RECORDINGS:
John Power, "Wreck of the Toravan" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kelligrews Soiree" (tune)
cf. "The Old Mayflower" (theme of wreckers)
NOTES [354 words]: The name Torhamvan is derived from TORonto-HAMilton-VANcouver, according to Northern Shipwrecks Database.
As for routine wreckage salvage by the Newfoundlanders on shore see the notes to "The Old Mayflower." - BS
According to J. P. Andrieux, Marine Disasters of Newfoundland and Labrador, O.T.C. Press, 1986, pp. 99-100,
"On October 29, 1926, the S. S. Torhamvan, en route to Montreal, ran aground in dense fog on a point on the north side of Ferryland.
"For some time the residents of the community could hear her horn blowing, but were unable to see the doomed vessel as she attempted to manoeuvre between Goose Island and the reefs which were menacing her. Then the inhabitants heard the unmistakable sound of wrenching metal. They ran to the beach, but were unable to see anything through the fog. At one point they became very concerned as an empty lifeboat drifted in on the beach.... Later, however, it was found to be an empty lifeboat that had accidentally fallen off....
"Some residents braved the rough seas and made it to the Torhamven where they rescued the crew, who had no idea of their close proximity to a settlement. Area residents took the crew and passengers to their homes until they were able to leave on the train for St. John's....
"...there is no doubt that the residents did benefit from the grounding of the Torhamvan; for although the Wreck Commissioners were soon on the scene and quickly impounded the cargo, it was not before a good supply of paint, soap, jam, lard, and macaroni had found its way ashore to ease the hardship of the forthcoming winter.
"Fortunately there had been no loss of life in this particular incident."
The account in B. D. Fardy, Ferryland: The Colony of Avalonia, Flanker Press, 2005, pp. 211-212, is similar. Supposedly the loot even included a pair of bronze statues that went outside Ferryland's Catholic church. Fardy adds that the Torhamvan usually operated from Montreal to Vancouver, but in this case was going from St. John's to Quebec. The crew stayed in Ferryland for a day or so, then went back to St. John's, presumably to go home from there. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: ML3Tormh

Wreck of the Union, The

See The Union from St John's (File: Pea978)

Wreck of the Vartry, The

DESCRIPTION: The Vartry sailed the Liffee overloaded with a cargo of Double X casks. A storm sinks her "ere they reached the Customs House" "All ye who drink of James's Gate (No matter what your sex), Take warning by the Vartry's fate, Thro' too much Double X!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: river ship drink storm wreck humorous
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1907 - wreck of the Guinness barge Vartry (OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads, p. 231, "The Wreck of the Vartry" (1 fragment)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads, pp. 251-252, "The Wreck of the Vartry" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Limerick Is Beautiful" (tune)
cf. "The E-ri-e" (theme) and references there
cf. "The Calabar" (theme and first line)
NOTES [51 words]: OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads: "In 1920 there were 12 Guinness barges in use.... The Vartry was built in 1902. The Wreck celebrated in the ballad occurred in 1907. These red and black funnelled steam barges plied the Guinness wharf near Kingsbridge, and the Customs House Quay, up to the year 1963." - BS
File: OLoc231A

Wreck of the Virginian No. 3, The

DESCRIPTION: "On one Thursday morning, in the latter part of May, Old Number three left Roanoke station, it was on their fatal day." Engineer "Dad" Aldrich recalls his twenty years on this train. Another train missed an order; the trains collide. Hearers are warned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Roy Harvey & the North Carolina Ramblers)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death warning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 24, 1927- A freight train and Virginia Rail passenger train #3 collide near Ingleside, West Virginia. The fault was apparently that of the crew of the passenger train. Engineer "Dad" Aldrich, fireman Frank O'Neal, and one other are scalded to death; 22 are injured
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 250-253, "The Weck of the Virginian Number Three" (1 text plus texts of two other songs about the same incident)
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 148-149, "The Wreck of the Virginian No. 3, by Roy Harvey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14020
RECORDINGS:
Roy Harvey and the North Carolina Ramblers, "The Wreck of the Virginian No. 3" (Columbia 15174-D, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck of the Virginian Train No. 3" (subject)
cf. "The Wreck of the Virginian Number Three" (subject)
NOTES [74 words]: Cohen observes three recorded songs about this accident (recorded and probably composed by Blind Alfred Reed, Roy Harvey and the North Carolina Ramblers, and John McGhee). There is, at best, limited evidence that any of them went into tradition.
This one can be distinguished from the other two "Virginian" songs by the "On one Thursday morning" first line and the detailed description of the missed order for the other train to take a siding. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: LySc148

Wreck of the Virginian Number Three, The

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you brave, bold railroad men and listen while I tell The fate of E. G. Aldrich...." He was "the oldest on the road," but still loved his work and would not retire. He and his fireman die in a crash. Railroad couples are told to be faithful
AUTHOR: probably Blind Alfred Reed (1880-1956)
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Blind Alfred Reed)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death warning
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 24, 1927- A freight train and Virginia Rail passenger train #3 collide near Ingleside, West Virginia. The fault was apparently that of the crew of the passenger train. Engineer "Dad" Aldrich, fireman Frank O'Neal, and one other are scalded to death; 22 are injured
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 250-253, "The Weck of the Virginian Number Three" (1 text plus texts of two other songs about the same incident, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, p. 226, "The Wreck of the VIrginian" (1 text)
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 147-148, "The Wreck of the Virginian No. 3, by Alfred Reed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14019
RECORDINGS:
Blind Alfred Reed, "The Wreck of the Virginian" (Victor 20836, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck of the Virginian Train No. 3" (subject)
cf. "The Wreck of the Virginian No. 3" (subject)
NOTES [101 words]: Cohen observes three recorded songs about this accident (recorded and probably composed by Blind Alfred Reed, Roy Harvey and the North Carolina Ramblers, and John McGhee). There is, at best, limited evidence that any of them went into tradition.
Cohen notes that the Reed recording was withdrawn from circulation at the request of the Virginia Railway -- ironic, given that the Reed version doesn't blame anyone.
This one can be distinguished from the other two "Virginian" songs by the "Come all ye" first line.
For background on Blind Alfred Reed, see the notes to "Why Do You Bob Your Hair, Girls?" - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LSRai250

Wreck of the Virginian Train No. 3, The

DESCRIPTION: "Just after the dawn of the morning, in the beautiful month of May, a farewell kiss had been planted On the cheeks of one who was brave." "Dad" Aldrich and his fireman are proud of their train, but die, because rail staff must make their runs when called
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, John McGhee)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 24, 1927- A freight train and Virginia Rail passenger train #3 collide near Ingleside, West Virginia. The fault was apparently that of the crew of the passenger train. Engineer "Dad" Aldrich, fireman Frank O'Neal, and one other are scalded to death; 22 are injured
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 250-253, "The Weck of the Virginian Number Three" (1 text plus texts of two other songs about the same incident)
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, p. 146, "The Wreck of the Virginian No. 3, by John McGhee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14021
RECORDINGS:
John McGhee, "The Wreck of the Virginian Train No. 3" (Challenger 389, 1927)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck of the Virginian No. 3" (subject)
cf. "The Wreck of the Virginian Number Three" (subject)
NOTES [69 words]: Cohen observes three recorded songs about this accident (recorded and probably composed by Blind Alfred Reed, Roy Harvey and the North Carolina Ramblers, and John McGhee). There is, at best, limited evidence that any of them went into tradition.
This one can be distinguished from the other two "Virginian" songs by the "Just after the dawn of morning" first line and the description of the beautiful weather. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: LySc146

Wreck of the Yosemite, The

See The Wreck of the Semmity (Yosemite) (File: Pea983)

Wreck of Thirty-Six, The

DESCRIPTION: "It was on one July morning About eight o'clock they say, When Thirty-Six left Ashland And thundered on her way." The train makes good time, but starts to shake and derails, scalding fireman Buddy Cheap to death though engineer McDonney is saved.
AUTHOR: Jim Dobbins?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: train wreck death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 112-113, "The Wreck of Thirty-Six" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 120-123)
Cohen-LongSteelRail, p. 274, "The Wreck of the 36" (notes only)
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, p. 160, "The Wreck of 36" (1 text)
ST ThBa112 (Partial)
Roud #14027
File: ThBa112

Wreck Off Scilly, The

See The Rocks of Scilly [Laws K8] (File: LK08)

Wreck on Covel's, The

DESCRIPTION: "We read of frightful fires, of death 'midst raging flames... but I never yet have heard Of an accident more terrible than on Covel's occurred." The loggers were on a train which hits a log that had fallen on the track. Seven men are killed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: train wreck disaster death logger
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 80, "The Wreck on Covel's" (1 text)
Roud #18184
File: BeLo080

Wreck on the C & O, The [Laws G3]

DESCRIPTION: George Alley, a railroad engineer, is warned by his mother not to drive too fast. But George wants to set a speed record. As his train speeds, it runs into a rock from a landslide and is wrecked. George is killed; his mother gets to say "I told you so"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913 (Railroad Man's Magazine, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: wreck train death mother railroading worker warning crash
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 23, 1890 - Death of engineer George Alley when the FFV train on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad was wrecked by a landslide near Hinton, West Virginia
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Laws G3, "The Wreck on the C & O"
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 183-196, "The Wreck on the C & O/Engine 143" (3 texts plus a reproduction of a broadside, 2 tunes; also an item, "There's Many a Man Been Murdered in Luzon," which appears related and may influence the date of this song)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 200-201, "The Wreck on the C & O" (1 text)
Carey-MarylandFolkloreAndFolklife, pp. 58-59, "The Wreck of the C. and O." (1 text)
Randolph 682, "The Wreck on the C. & O." (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 339, "The F. F. V. The Wreck of No. 4" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #54, "The Wreck of the C and O" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 160, "Georgie Allen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 179, "The Wreck on the C & O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 60-61, "The F. F. V." (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 115-116, (no title) (1 fragmented text) (OakEd, p123-124)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 62 "Engine 143" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-AFSB, pp. 31-34, "The Wreck on the C. & O. (The Death of Jack Hinton)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 47, "The Wreck on the C. & O." (6 texts plus mention of 5 more; 2 tunes)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 70-73, "F. F. and V. V." (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 116-117, "THe Wreck on the C. & O." (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp. 71-72, "A Wreck on the C & O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle-ScaldedToDeathByTheSteam, pp. 34-49, "The Wreck on the C & O" (2 texts, 1 tune, plus semi-related poetry)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 725, "The Wreck on the C. & O." (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 451, "The Wreck on the C&O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 371, "There's Many a Man Killed on the Railroad" (1 text, 1 tune, a fragment with only the "There's man been killed on the railroad" stanza, which could be from this, or "Talmadge Osborne," or others)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 100 "Engine 143" (1 text)
DT 635, ENGIN143*
Roud #255
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Engine 143" (Victor V-40089, 1929; Montgomery Ward M-4743, 1935; Bluebird B-6223, 1937; on AAFM1, RRinFS)
Duke Clark, "The Wreck of the F. F. & V." (Superior 2687, 1931)
Vernon Dalhart, "Wreck of the C & O #5" (OKeh 45102, 1927)
Austin Harmon, "George Allen" (AFS 2916 A, 1939; on LC61)
Bradley Kincaid, "Wreck on the C & O Road" (Gennett 6823/Champion 15710 [as Dan Hughey]/Supertone 9350, 1929; Champion 45098/Melotone [Canada] 45057, 1935)
George Reneau, "The C & O" (Vocalion 14897, 1924) (Vocalion 5050, 1927)
Charles Lewis Stine, "The Wreck of the C & O" (Columbia 15027-D, 1925; Harmony 5145-H, c. 1930)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Wreck of the C & O" (Edison 51823, 1926) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5198, prob. 1926), "The Wreck on the C & O" (OKeh 7011, 1925)
Annie Watson, "The F. F. V." (on ClassRR)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Brave Engineer" (subject)
cf. "The Death of Talmadge Osborn" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Fatal Run" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The FFV
NOTES [299 words]: Of the two songs about wrecks on the C & O (the other is "The C. & O. Wreck"), this one is the better known and probably older. Many versions have a chorus (not found in the Digital Tradition version), "Many's a man's been murdered by the railroad / And laid in his lonesome grave" (e.g. this chorus occurs in five of Cox's six texts). - RBW
Oh dear, this gets confusing. "Many a man's been murdered by the railroad" is an ending bridge from "The Fate of Talmadge Osborne." And it shows up here too.... - PJS
Just to add to the fun, Roy Harvey recorded a song, "The Brave Engineer," probably about the same accident. Roud lumps them, probably because Lyle lists them in the same entry. But I would say that they are clearly different songs.
Cox supplies many further details about this song. According to his report, George Alley was thirty when he died, and already had four children. He lived for five hours after the wreck. Reportedly the fireman did jump from the engine, and survived.
Cohen has an extensive discussion of the song, noting that it has many errors in the text (e.g. he shows a photo of Alley, who had straight dark hair, not golden and not curly). He theorizes that the song was composed some years after the event, when memories were fading. It strikes me as at least as likely that the song is a modification of an older item, with the errors being holdovers from that piece.
In many versions of the song, the engineer is not George Alley but George Allen. I would suspect this is simply an error of hearing, "Allen" being a more common name than "Alley," but Lyle (who, like Cohen, has extensive notes about the song, including a photo of Alley and several of the wreck) thinks it may have floated in from a 1933 wreck in which an engineer named George Allen was killed. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LG03

Wreck on the Grand Trunk Railway

DESCRIPTION: "You bold sons of freedom, Your attention I command." On January 18, between Bethel Station and Locke's Mills, two freights collide, resulting in explosions. The sun rises on a terrible scene. Some of those on the wreck are described.
AUTHOR: Joe Scott
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker)
KEYWORDS: train disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 18, 1901 - The Grand Trunk Wreck. Two train workers and probably two hobos are killed
FOUND IN: Can(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-Joe-Scott-TheWoodsmanSongmaker, pp. 267-281, "Wreck on the Grand Trunk Railway" (2 texts, 1 tune)
File: ISco267

Wreck on the Highway

DESCRIPTION: Singer sees automobile wreck with passengers killed,, "where whiskey and blood run together...I heard the wreck on the highway/But I didn't hear nobody pray"
AUTHOR: Dorsey Dixon
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Dixon Bros., "I Didn't Hear Anybody Pray")
KEYWORDS: grief death crash disaster wreck
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, WRCKHWAY
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff & his Smoky Mountain Boys, "Wreck on the Highway" (Okeh 06685, 1942; Columbia 37028, 1946; Columbia 37596/Columbia 20195, 1947; Columbia 52026, 1956)
Dixon Bros. "I Didn't Hear Anybody Pray" (Bluebird BB-7449?Montgomery Ward M-7489, 1938)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Wreck on the Highway" (on NLCR08)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" (words)
File: DTwreckh

Wreck on the Somerset Road, The

DESCRIPTION: "On a dark stormy morning when the snow was falling" a train sets out for St. Louis. A sleepy brakeman and conductor both think this will be their last trip. But five men had broken the railing; the train is wrecked and the men never arrive
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (collected from Justis Begley)
KEYWORDS: train wreck disaster humorous derivative
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 254-256, "The Wreck on the Somerset Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SOMRSTRD*
Roud #4141
NOTES [66 words]: This is item dG41 in Laws's Appendix II. It is probably derived from "The Wreck of Old 97" [Laws G2] or something like it, although the tune has drifted a bit. Note the parodic elements; the conductor is not noble; rather, he has STOLEN enough from the railroad to be able to live for the rest of his life. If it is based on a real incident, that incident does not seem to have been identified. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: LoSi253

Wrecked Ship, The

See The Mermaid [Child 289] (File: C289)

Wrecker's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "When sinks the sun in the distant sea, And night steals o'er the sky, And heavy gulls all sluggishly To rocky caverns hie. Then I with my staff walk the ocean's side, To look for prey in the rolling tide." The singer will seek prey and "cheat the crew"
AUTHOR: Words: W. H. Baker / Music: William Aspull (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1838 (sheet music, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 51, "The Wrecker's Song" (1 text, 1 tune, #52 in the first edition, but with only a partial text and no tune)
Roud #V28744
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Mayflower" (theme of wreckers) and references there
File: FrSo051

Wren Hunt, The

See Hunt the Wren (File: K078)

Wren-Boys' Song, The

See The Wren (The King) (File: FO059)

Wren, The (The King)

DESCRIPTION: A tale of the hunting of the wren on Saint Stephen's Day. Boys go out, hunt the wren, and bring it home for a reward: "The wren, the wren, the king of all birds / St. Stephen's Day was caught in the forest / Although he be little, his honor is great..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Henderson)
KEYWORDS: carol hunting wren
FOUND IN: US(NE) Britain(England(Lond)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 58-59, "The Wran" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 186, "The Wren-Boy's Song" (1 text)
DT, WRENSONG WRENSNG2*
ADDITIONAL: Ron Young, _Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador_, Downhome Publishing Inc., 2006, p. 246, "(De wran, de wran, de king of all birds)" (1 text, said to be performed by mummers)
Roud #4683
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cutty Wren" (subject)
cf. "Hunt the Wren" (subject)
NOTES [1423 words]: The English legend that the wren is the king of birds has a parallel in German. A tale from the Brothers Grimm ("The Wren"/"Dier Zaunkönig," 1840, from Johann Jakob Nikolas Musaus) explains that, when the birds concluded they needed a king, they decided to hold a contest to find the king. First they said that the bird that could fly highest would be king. The eagle would have flown highest, but the wren rode on its back and so managed to climb higher still. Then the birds decided to try a digging contest. The wren slipped down a convenient mouse hole, and won that round also. So the wren became the king.
There is a similar Danish legend (Jones-Larousse, p. 462; Pickering, p. 320). Indeed, the plot is found as far away as China, although the animals differ: In Chinese legend, the ox wanted to be the first animal in the Zodiac, and arrived before all the others -- but the rat cleverly rode on its back, and jumped off at the appropriate time, and so took first place (Eberhard, p. 246).
We find references to discord between wren and eagle as long ago as the time of Pliny's Natural History: "There are antipathies between... the eagle and the... [golden-crested wren] because the latter received the title of 'the king of the birds'" (Opie/Tatem, p. 451).
In English, we find references to the Wren as King going back at least to the early thirteenth century; in the long poem "The Owl and the Nightingale" (thought to have been written around 1220 and existing in two thirteenth century manuscripts) there is a scene where the wren enters as king of the birds (OwlNightingaleEtc, p. 169).
Curiously, in that poem, the wren is said to have been reared among humans, and to have learned its clever ways from them, rather than being raised in the forest (OwlNightingale, p. 170).
Palmer, p. 60, quotes an interesting couplet:
He that hurts a robin or wren
Will never prosper on sea or land.
Shakespeare seems to refer to the wren's many offspring in "Twelfth Night" (act III, scene ii), although the significance of this is not clear (Phipson, p. 181). Possibly it is based on French legend; Wentersdorf, pp. 193-194, points out that the wren was associated with "springtime mating customs" in France, connecting it with its vigorous nest-building. Wentersdorf does not really explain this, but I assume that this refers to the habit of the male wren, before it has found a mate, of scouting potential nesting sites and filling them with the twigs that will form the nest. The wrens then form a pair and pick one nest to raise their young. Thus the wren does not actually have a particularly high number of children, but it has many nests.
Wentersdorf, pp. 197-198, cites several mentions in Middle English and early modern English of the wren, mostly pertaining to lustiness. This includes another Shakespeare reference, this time to King Lear (IV.vi.111 in whatever edition he is citing, and also in the Riverside edition). He also has a mention in Lydgate, and one from the anonymous The Court of Love. If we're going to talk about birds in Middle English, though, the obvious place to look is Chaucer's The Parlement of Foulys. The wren is not found in the list of birds in lines 332-364 (Chaucer/Brewer, pp. 80-81), and there is no mention of the wren in the word list, either under "ren(ne)" or "wren(ne)." If there was folklore about the wren's lustiness, this makes it unlikely that it was universally known.
Pickering, p. 320, says that the wren was identified as the wife of the robin. This explains the name "Jenny Wren": the wren was always female (Simpson/Roud, p. 397; for a tale, "The Marriage of Robin Redbreast and Jenny Wren," see pp. 542-543 of volume A.2 of Briggs). (Note, however, that the Parlement of Foulys mentions the robin, as a "rodok," in line 349, without mentioning a wife.)
It's possible that the equation of wrens with kings goes back to the Greeks; the Greek word βασιλισκος, "basiliskos," "little king," is listed in Liddell/Scott, p. 230, as meaning, among other things, the golden-crested wren -- but they cite only one instance (Plutatch, citing Aesop); the usual meaning of the word is "royal" or "official" (so, e.g., in the New Testament -- or, rather, in variant readings; "basiliskos" is used only in variant readings in John 4:46, 49, referring to the "official" of Capernaum who had a sick child; the best manuscripts use the closely related βασιλικος, "basilikos," which is not diminutive. In the LXX Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the word occurs in Psalm 90:13 [91:13 English]), where it refers to a venomous snake, and in some manuscripts of Isaiah 59:5, where again it seems to mean "adder" or "viper"; English "basilisk" of course derives from this meaning.)
The identical equation seems to occur in Latin: "regulus" means "petty king" (compare rex, king), but the word is also, in the Vulgate of the Hebrew Bible, used for a poisonous snake and (in secular writings) for a small bird (FreundEtAl, p. 1553). The latter two uses are rare; my two shorter Latin dictionaries do not mention them (although Hazlitt, pp. 665-666, declares that the word refers specifically to all types of wrens. Hazlitt also notes that some Romance languages use kingly names for the wren, presumably from the Latin). A good analogy might be to refer to a king cobra as a "king" rather than a "cobra."
The German name of the wren, interestingly, is zaunkönig, fence-king, as in the Grimm tale above. In Danish, this becomes elle-king, alder-king (Hazlitt, p. 666); compare German erlkönig (which, however, is used for a malevolent tree-spirit which steals souls, not for the wren; Jones-Larousse, p. 164; Pickering, p. 98).
Stewart, p. 20, claims that the wren was the totem of the Celtic god Bran. O hOgain, p. 37, however, reports that it was considered an unlucky bird in Ireland.
Manx fishermen seem to have had a rule always to sail with a *dead* wren, for luck (Opie/Tatem, p. 451).
Elsewhere, killing a wren was said to invite bad luck (Pickering, p. 320) -- except, perhaps, when it came time to Hunt the Wren.
The legend in Ireland (O hOgain, p. 37) is that the wren betrayed Stephen to protomartyr to death, and hence was hunted on St. Stephen's Day. There is, of course, no Biblical warrant for this; the account in Acts 6 makes it sound as if Stephen was arrested in public circumstances, and he certainly was publicly tried and executed.
In many parts of the British Isles, it became the custom to capture a wren (Hazlitt, p. 666) on St. Stephen's Day (December 26), perhaps kill it (Frazier, p. 621), and parade it about (perhaps at the end of a pole or in a trap; Frazier, p. 622), perhaps while asking for alms or food.
The custom also persisted in Newfoundland, where the cold winters meant that there would be no wrens in winter; they made an artificial wren to take part in the ceremony. A wrenning song is attested as early as 1842. It also became customary to home-brew "wren beer" on St. Stephen's Day (StoryKirwinWiddowson, p. 620).
Explanations of this custom vary. Kennedy quotes an account in which a wren's song aroused a sleeping sentry and saved English and Manx soldiers from an attack in Ireland. Garnett/Gosse, volume I, p. 298, claim that the "report of Brian Boru's great victory over the Danes on St. Stephen's Day survives in Ireland in a carol about a wren." (Uh-huh. For this story, see "Remember the Glories of Brian the Brave" -- and note that most sources place the battle of Clontarf on Good Friday 1014; see, e.g., Fry/Fry, p. 57. In any case, this would hardly explain the existence of the custom in Wales, the Isle of Man, and even parts of England; Simpson/Roud, p. 320). There is even a partial analogy in France, where boys beat the bushes for wrens, with the first one to kill one is the king; the parading of the wren follows (Frazier, p. 623). Frazier, p. 623, compares it to "the Gilyak procession with the bear, and the Indian one with the snake." (Interesting indeed, that last, given the Greek and Latin use of one word for wrens and snakes).
Vallancey claims that the wren was used in augury by the Druids, and so Christian missionaries hunted it to prevent this use (Hazlitt, p. 666). Flanders and Olney also date it back to druidism.
Another story says that it will precede a future hero (e.g. King Arthur). Frazer compares the whole business to various coronation quests and hunts for sacred animals. Greenway offers perhaps the greatest stretch of all, considering the wren to represent the "indomitable peasant." - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.3
File: FO059

Wrestle On, Jacob

DESCRIPTION: ""I hold my brother with a trembling hand, The Lord will bless my soul, Wrestle on, Jacob, Jacob, day is a-breaking." "I will not let you go, My Lord. "Fisherman Peter out to sea" "He cast all night...." "He catch no fish, but catch some soul."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious fishing fight
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 4, "Wrestle On, Jacob" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11836
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wrestlin' Jacob" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Wrestling Jacob" (lyrics, subject)
NOTES [119 words]: This bears a great deal of similarity to "Wrestlin' Jacob," in the Brown collection. Both refer to Jacob's wrestling with God, described in Genesis 32:22-32 (thought by many to be a converted folktale, since it sounds as if Jacob is wrestling with a night-demon, and it ends with a "just so" story about why the Israelites don't eat a certain muscle of the body).
The two, however, have somewhat different forms, and Brown lacks a tune to link them. Plus this song has a second incident, Peter's miraculous catch, derived from John 21:3-6 or Luke 5:3-6 or some combination of the two. On this basis, I am very tentatively splitting the song, while admitting that they could easily be lumped. (Roud lumps them). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG004B

Wrestlin' Jacob

DESCRIPTION: "Wrestlin' Jacob seek de Lawd. I will not let thee go. And wrestle all night till the break ob day." "Wrestle Jacob; day is a-breakin'." "(Brethren/Elders/etc., don't get weary (x4) For de work is almost done. Keep your lamps trimmed and burnin'...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment)
KEYWORDS: religious fight Bible nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Trinidad,Tobago)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 19, pp. 209-210, "Wrestling Jacob" (1 text)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 70, "'Raslin' Jacob" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 131 in the 1901 edition)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 656, "Wrestlin' Jacob" (1 text)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 167, "Oh Rastle Jacob" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #11836
RECORDINGS:
Venice Talbot, Lovey Gilman, Martha Saunders, Louisa Neptune, Henry Thomas, "'Rastlin' Jacob" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wrestle On, Jacob" (lyrics, subject)
cf. "Wrestling Jacob" (lyrics, subject)
NOTES [146 words]: The wrestling match between God and Jacob at Peniel/Penuel, which ended as day broke, is told in Genesis 32:22-32.
There is, incidentally, a strong folkloric element to the story; it appears that Jacob may originally have been wrestling with some sort of minor demon, and the story was cleaned up. Imperfectly, since the place is called both Peniel/Penuel (and what was The Ineffable God doing in a wrestling match anyway?). It even has a "just so" moral: The Israelites did not eat a particular part of an animal, because the demon injured Jacob there.
This may well be the same as "Wrestle On, Jacob," since they have many common lyrics. The form is a little different, though, and "Wrestle On" has New Testament references not found here. If Brown had had a tune, that might have decided me in favor of lumping. But Brown doesn't have a tune, and when in doubt, we split. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Br3656

Wrestling Jacob

DESCRIPTION: "(Wrestling Jacob dawn is a breaking) (3x) (I'll wrestle till the break of day Never to let thee go) (2x)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 57, "Wrestling Jacob" (1 short text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wrestle On, Jacob" (lyrics, subject)
cf. "Wrestlin' Jacob" (lyrics, subject)
NOTES [409 words]: The current description is all of the Elder-Charlottville text.
Elder-Charlottville p. 57, during a Tobago Wake: "Just before day-break the singers chant this spiritual - only the near relatives and close friends of the bereaved family stay on till break of day ('wrestling with the Lord'), all others having taken part, leave for home early in the morning."
The reference is to Genesis 32.24-30: King James 32.24, 26 is "And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day .... And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." This clear source presents this problem: are all songs with just this set of elements the same song?
For example, Arnold's "Oh Rastle Jacob" (Byron Arnold, Folksongs of Alabama (Birmingham :University of Alabama Press, 1950),p. 167): "Oh, rastle Jacob, day's a breakin', Rastle Jacob, Day's a breakin', Oh, rastle Jacob, and he would not let me go, I rastled till the break of day, And he would not let me go."
The chorus of Brown's "Wrestlin' Jacob" (Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 656 p. 684): "Wrestle Jacob; day is a breakin'; Wrestle Jacob! Lord, I will not let thee go, An' I will not let thee go, An' I will not let thee go; Till Jesus bless my soul I will not let thee go. Wrestle Jacob; day is a-breakin'; wrestle Jacob! Lord, I will not let thee go" - indexed here as "Wrestlin' Jacob."
Fenner's "Raslin' Jacob" (Thomas P Fenner, Religious Folk Songs of the Negro (Hampton: The [Hampton Normal and Agricultural] Institute Press, 1909 (fourth revision of the 1874 edition) "Digitized by the Internet Archive"), p. 131): Chorus - ((Raslin' Jacob let me go)(3x) I will not let you go) Verses - ((Day is breakin Jacob, let me go)(3x) I will not let you go) (If you'll bless my soul, I'll let you go ....) (When I'm sinking down, pity me ....)
The chorus and first two verses of Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates's "Wrestle On, Jacob" (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, #6 p. 4): (Wrestl' on Jacob, day is a-breakin, Wrestl' on Jacob, Oh he would not let him go), (I hold my brudder wid a tremblin' han, De Lord will bless my soul) (2x), (I will not let you go, my Lord) (2x). - indexed here as "Wrestle On, Jacob."
While the elements of the King James text are common, and stated almost the same way, the structure of the songs is different. I think these are all different songs bound together by a well known source. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElCh057

Wrestling With Rats

See The Waterford Boys (File: GrMa072)

Wretched Rambling Boy, The

See The Wild and Wicked Youth [Laws L12] (File: LL12)

Wright and Ketchen Line

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes working on the Wright and Ketchen narrow-gauge lumber railroad, and the characters with whom he works. At the end of the season, he plans to go to Saginaw and spend his money.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work railroading moniker
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 16, "Wright and Ketchen Line" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 27, "Wright and Ketchum Line" (1 text)
Roud #8865
NOTES [31 words]: This comes close to being a nonballad, since very little happens in it; after being turned out in the woods, everyone works -- after which the song deviates into character descriptions. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Be016

Wright and Ketchum Line

See Wright and Ketchen Line (File: Be016)

Wright Is Left

DESCRIPTION: "An essay now I mean to write, Though blotted it may look, 'Tis all about the foreman Wright And of the shanty cook." The cook and Wright argue about the cook's sister, and then about pay and other things. Finally Wright leaves, and there is peace
AUTHOR: " Phebe" (source: Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps)
KEYWORDS: cook sister work logger separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 60, "Wright Is Left" (1 text, with corrected orthography)
Roud #18185
File: BeLo60

Write a Letter to Mother

See Come Raise Me in Your Arms, Dear Brother (File: R235)

Write a Letter to My Mother

See Come Raise Me in Your Arms, Dear Brother (File: R235)

Write My Mother I'll Be Home

DESCRIPTION: "There is somewhere the sun is shining, There is somewhere a little rain." The singer asks that a letter tell his mother he'll be home someday. The white folks have him on a chain gang. He asks Stella if he can be her fellow; she has another beau
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: prison home mother courting rejection
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 353, "Write My Mother I'll Be Home" (1 text)
Roud #11731
File: Br3353

Wrong Road, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer takes the "wrong road"; he gets drunk with a man, they quarrel; the singer shoots him. He warns hearers; he is "hanging from a scaffold/Between the earth and sky." He is going home, telling us "You might forget the singer/But don't forget the song"
AUTHOR: probably one of the Hall Brothers
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (recording, Hall Brothers)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer takes the "wrong road" in Alabama; he gets drunk with a man, they quarrel, and the singer shoots him. He warns listeners not to drink or keep bad company, for now he is "hanging from a scaffold/Between the earth and sky." He is going home to glory, having repented, but tells us "You might forget the singer/But don't forget the song"
KEYWORDS: warning fight violence crime homicide punishment death drink
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Hall Brothers [Ron & Jay Hugh], "The Wrong Road" (Bluebird 7728, 1938; on RoughWays2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Young Companions" [Laws E15] (plot)
File: RcTWrRo

Wu danze dann de Weiwer? (Where Do Women Dance?)

DESCRIPTION: German. "Wu danze dann di Weiwer? In di alde Scheier." Where do women dance? In old barns." (The older the better.) "Where do men dance? In old vats." "Where do young men dance? In new rooms." "Where do girls/children/peddlers dance?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends)
KEYWORDS: dancing foreignlanguage nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 111-112, "Wu danze dann de Weiwer? (Where Do Women Dance?)" (1 German text plus non-poetic translation, 1 tune)
File: KPL111

Wunst I Had an Old Grey Mare

See The Old Grey Mare (II) (File: Br3175)

Wyandotte Farewell Song, The

See The Wyandotte's Farewell Song (File: E117)

Wyandotte's Farewell Song, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer sadly bids farewell to his ancestral home and prepares to head west. Various familiar scenes -- trees, streams, roads, church -- are fondly recalled
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (newspaper in Sandusky, Ohio)
KEYWORDS: nonballad parting travel Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 117, "The Wyandotte's Farewell Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Salt-BuckeyeHeritage-OhiosHistory, pp. 74-75, "The Wyandotte Farewell Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST E117 (Full)
Roud #4342
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fare Ye Well, Enniskillen (The Inniskillen Dragoon)" (tune)
NOTES [110 words]: This reminds me strongly of "A Prisoner for Life (I - Farewell to Green Fields and Meadows)" -- while there are no common stanzas, the feeling is quite similar and they can be fit to the same tune. But "A Prisoner for Life" is in triple time, while Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio transcribes this song in four. So I suppose they're separate. Particularly as this appears to be the song of an American Indian forced to leave home and go across the Mississippi (presumably to a reservation, perhaps in Indian Territory?).
In the song, the singer expresses gratitude to the "white friends, who first taught me to pray." This strikes me as laying it on a bit thick. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: E117

Wylie Wife of the Hie Toun Hie, The [Child 290]

DESCRIPTION: A gentleman will give a reward to lie with the lass of the hie toun hie. The hostler's wife lures the girl in and locks the door behind her. The gentleman sleeps with her. Eventually he sees her and her baby, and marries her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1821
KEYWORDS: seduction sex marriage trick pregnancy children separation reunion love
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 290, "The Wylie Wife of the Hie Toun Hie" (4 texts)
Greig/Duncan7 1499, "The Sly Wife" (1 text)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 102, "The Bonnie Lass o Hietoun Hie" (1 text)
Roud #125
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dainty Doonby" (plot)
cf. "The Broom of Cowdenknows" [Child 217] (plot)
cf. "The Sleepy Merchant" (plot)
cf. "The Bonnie Parks o' Kilty" (plot)
File: C290

Wyoming Massacre, The

DESCRIPTION: "Kind heaven assist the trembling muse While she attempts to tell Of poor Wyoming's overthrow By savage sons of hell." "One hundred whites in painted hue, Whom Butler there did lead..." offer terms of surrender to the defenders, then slaughter them
AUTHOR: Uriah Terry? (source: Miner)
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Miner), from a manuscript supposedly written 1785
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) war homicide trick lie
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 3-4, 1778 - The Wyoming Massacre
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 168-172, "Ballad of Wyoming Massacre" (1 text) (pp. 145-149 in the 1919 edition)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 129-131, "(A TRAGICAL ACCOUNT of the battle between the People of Wyoming and the Indians of Westmoreland in the year 1778, in which two hundred of the Americans were unhappily sacrificed to the savage barbarity of some treacherous Americans and cruel savages, in a Poem by a Person then resident near the field of battle)" (1 excerpted text)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Miner, _History of Wyoming In a Series of Letters from Charles Miner To His Son William Penn Miner, Esq._, J Crissy (Philadelphia), 1845 (available on Google Books), pp. 64-68, "Wyoming Massacre" (1 text)
Roud #14095
NOTES [856 words]: Jameson, p. 728, describes the Wyoming atrocity this way: "Wyoming Massacre, Pa. In 1776 two Continental companies had been placed in the Wyoming Valley for the protection of the settlers, chiefly Connecticut emigrants. Two years later Major John Butler, commanding a force 800 strong, of Indians, British and Tories, descended upon the valley. July 3, 230 Americans, in six companies, led by Colonel Zebulon Butler, attempted to oppose the British raids. Their unorganized lines fell upon the enemy about four o'clock in the afternoon. The continentals were utterly routed and a brutal massacre followed. Butler could not restrain his indians, who took 227 scalps. Women and children were, however, spared."
Note however that Jameson has the date wrong; it was in 1778, not 1776.
Stephenson, p. 195, has this to say: "The war [with the Indians, who had resolved to earn their own independence in 1776] was brutal, especially during 1778 Cherry Valley and Wyoming Valley campaigns. For example, Colonel John Butler's Loyalist Rangers and his pro-British Indian allies, mainly Seneca and Cayuga, lured the 450-strong garrison of Forty Fort out into the open and either killed or wounded 300 of them -- a number larger than the casualties of many of the 'big' battles of the war." (He goes on to point out that the pro-Independence fighter George Rogers Clark once randomly tomahawked five Indians to death to terrorize his enemies; the brutalities cut both ways.)
The area had been claimed by both Connecticut and Pennsylvania, a dispute not settled until after the Revolution (Stranahan, pp. 46-47); how much this affected the defense of the Wyoming area I don't know, but it can't have helped. The Connecticut settlers built a stronghold on the Susquehanna that they called "Forty Fort" (I'm not kidding -- you can still find "Forty Fort Borough" on Google Maps). They fled there when the British force under John Butler arrived.
John Butler (1728-1796) was born in New London, Connecticut, a Loyalist who lived in New York and worked as an Indian agent when the Revolution forced him to flee to Canada; he had been at the battle of Oriskany. It was after this that he was made major in charge of a battalion of Loyalists, they were known as "Butler's Rangers" and were intended to cooperate with Indian tribes (DAB-JB).
The Wyoming Massacre was perhaps the worst incident of savagery in the Revolutionary War, but was not really atypical. The British, trying to fight a war at the end of a very long supply line, naturally tried to rely on locals as much as possible, and that meant Indians. And the Indians weren't interested in anything in particular except loot, and the easiest way for the British to provide loot was to allow massacres. On the whole, the Indians probably did the British more harm than good -- they were unreliable and often deserted, and frequently proved ineffective in battle, as e.g. in the Saratoga campaign. And they blackened the British reputation among wavering colonials.
The Susquehanna settlers had called upon the government to send them support, but it did not arrive in time (DAB-ZB). John Butler called upon the forces at Forty Fort to surrender. Instead, Zebulon Butler (1731-1795), a soldier who had been a leader in leading the Connecticut settlers to the Susquehanna and was now home on leave, was given the command. DAB-ZB says that he had only about sixty soldiers and 300 militia, but the locals insisted he fight. So, against his better judgment, he brought his troops out -- and was heavily defeated. Butler fled the field; the other survivors fleeing to Forty Fort. On July 4, the fort surrendered.
Once the gates were opened, a massacre followed. Accounts of what happened next vary (as they always do in tales of atrocities), but at least two hundred people, and probably many more, died. Many accounts, including Thomas Campbell's well-known poem "Gertrude of Wyoming," blame the Loyalists, although DAB-JB says John Butler was not responsible.
Ultimately, though, both sides suffered. Stranahan, p. 46, reports that in later years a "group of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who lived north of Harris's Ferry and called themselves the Paxton Boys" took to attacking Indians; they had engaged in a massacre as early as 1763 (Stranahan, p. 47). They eventually wiped out the Indians responsible for the Wyoming Massacre (although I should add that Stranahan seems to give a different date for the Massacre).
It sounds to me as if the author of this poem didn't really know much about what happened. It mentions Forty Fort, but the only personal name given is "Butler" -- but, as we saw, a "Butler" commanded on both sides! (Not that there is any doubt about which one is meant, but it would be easier to remember that way.) Much of the poem is devoted to details of a couple of deaths, which an outsider would be unlikely to know. The only part that strikes me as being based on authentic knowledge is the sufferings of those in the area after the massacre.
I'm surprised the poem survived as well as it did; although the rhyme and meter are regular, it just doesn't flow very smoothly. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.5
File: Burt130

Wyoming Nester, The

See Cowboy's Farewell, The (File: PRJ022)

Wyoming Song

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, dear Wyoming, clear and bright, Thy breezes are a treasure; They give us health, they give us wealth." "Much gold comes from thy mountains." "We love thy sunny weather. Thy people stand for all that's right."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915? (Pound)
KEYWORDS: home patriotic nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp 573-574, "Wyoming Song (1 text)
Roud #4979
File: CAFS2573

X Y Z

DESCRIPTION: "Smash! Jemmy, let us buss, we'll off An' see Newcassel Races." They will watch "X Y Z that bonny steed... He's sure to win the Cup, man." Along the way, they encounter many improbable adventures
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland)
KEYWORDS: horse racing travel
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. 164-166, "X Y Z" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8085
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cameronian Rant" (tune)
File: StoR164

X-Y-Z, Sugar on Your Bread

DESCRIPTION: "X-Y-Z, Sugar on your bread, Go to the doctor Before you're dead." "Porridge in the morning, And cocoa going to bed."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: food doctor wordplay
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 15, "X-Y-Z" (2 short texts)
Roud #38134
File: BAAI015C

Yaller Cat, The

See The Cat Came Back (File: R444)

Yaller Gal, The

DESCRIPTION: In praise of the power of the yaller gal: "It takes a long, tall yaller gal To make a preacher lay his Bible down. It takes a long, tall yaller gal To make a bulldog break his chain." "I got a long, tall yaller gal On do road somewhere."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: seduction clergy nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 450, "The Yaller Gal" (2 fragments plus a brief World War I (?) parody about making Germans surrender)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 450, "The Yaller Gal" (2 tunes plus text excerpts, one for the song and the other for the paroty)
Roud #11784
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Yallow Gal" (theme)
File: Br3450

Yaller Ribbon

See Around Her Neck She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (File: Arn149)

Yallow Ribbons, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer will dye his ribbons blue because "the lassie I love she's constant and true," which is why he won't dye them yellow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: love colors nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 923, "The Yallow Ribbons" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6237
File: GrD4923

Yanke Doodle Dandy

See Yankee Doodle (File: LxA521)

Yankee Backra

See Blow the Man Down (File: Doe017)

Yankee Boy, A

DESCRIPTION: "A Yankee boy is trimmed and tall And never over-fat, sir. At dance ad frolic and hop and ball, As nimble as a rabbit, sir. Yankee Doodle, guard your coast." The Yankee guards his land. A Yankee girl keeps her cow "Without the king or his orderly, sir."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1949 (Nestler)
KEYWORDS: patriotic farming home
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #34, pp. 36-37, "The Yankee Boy" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), p. 110, "A Yankee Boy" (1 text)
NOTES [22 words]: This looks as if it was originally supposed to be sung to "Yankee Doodle," but as recorded by Nestler, it doesn't fit very well. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Nest110B

Yankee Combination, The

See Uncle Sam's Farm (File: Br3399)

Yankee Dewey

DESCRIPTION: "Yankee Dewey sailed away On an armored cruiser, He took along for company Of guns and men a cruiser." He attacks the Philippines so "That not a single ship was left Of all that Spanish fleet, sir."
AUTHOR: see NOTES
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Spanish-American War Songs)
KEYWORDS: derivative battle navy
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1895 - Cubans rebel against Spain
Feb 15, 1898 - Explosion of the battleship "Maine" in Havana harbor
May 1, 1898 - Battle of Manila Bay. Dewey's fleet destroys the entire Spanish fleet in the Philippines
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 57, "The Spanish War" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Sidney A. Witherbee, editor, _Spanish-American War Songs: A Complete Collection of Newspaper Verse During the Recent War with Spain_ Sidney A. Witherbee (Detroit), 1898 (available on Google Books), pp. 555-556, "Dewey's Victory at Manila" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (tune) and references there
cf. "Dewey Song (Dewy Was the Grass)" (mentions of Admiral Dewey)
cf. "Manila Bay" (mentions of Admiral Dewey)
NOTES [217 words]: The authorship of this is an interesting conundrum. The first mention of it that I found (which, unfortunately, I failed to document) listed it as by O. H. Cole. The version in Spanish-American War Songs credits its version to Ina Libby. But the book has several songs that mention "Yankee Dewey" and are clearly to the tune of "Yankee Doodle":
-- "Yankee Dewey," p. 84 ("Yankee Dewey crossed the sea With shot and shell and powder"), credited to M. P. Bishop
-- "Yankee Dewey Dandy," p. 424 ("Oh, say, what did our Dewey do? Go tell it to the King, sir"), credited to B. F. Hayes
-- "Dewey's Victory at Manila," p. 555 ("Yankee Dewey went to sea, Sailing in a cruiser"), credited to Ina Libby
-- "Yankee Dewey," p. 576 ("Father and I went out to sea Along with Admiral Dewey"), credited to E. J. Lalor
-- "Yankee Dewey," p, p. 592 ("Yankee Dewey went to sea, Sailing on a cruiser"), credited to William Miller
(There are a few others in songs that mention "Yankee Dewey" but only in passing, and are not "Yankee Doddle" knockoffs.)
The versions by Libby and Miller don't just share the same first two lines; they are clearly the same song. And it appears a few words from some of the others may have drifted in also. Possibly Libby wrote it; possibly Miller wrote it; possibly they both stole it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LaGo057

Yankee Doodle

DESCRIPTION: Concerning the exploits of a New England backwoodsman who joins Washington's colonial army. He sees many wonders his mind cannot comprehend. He is steadily teased: "Yankee Doodle keep it up, Yankee Doodle dandy...."
AUTHOR: sometimes credited to Dr. Richard Shuckburgh
EARLIEST DATE: 1794
KEYWORDS: war rebellion humorous America
FOUND IN: US(All)
REFERENCES (29 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 521-525, "Yankee Doodle" (4 texts, 1 tune, although 1 text is the Confederate version)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 115-118, "Virginia Reel" [medley of "The Irish Washerwoman," "The White Cockade," and "Yankee Doodle"] (1 tune for each of the three melodies, plus dance instructions)
Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 61, "(The Famer and his Son's return from a visit to the CAMP" (1 broadside text, thought to be the earliest print of the "common" version)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 77-78, "The Yankees return from Camp" (1 text plus a broadside print)
McIntosh-FolkSongsAndSingingGamesofIllinoisOzarks, pp. 92-93, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune, the first verse and chorus being the standard one, the rest being a playparty)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 548, "Yankee Doodle came to town" (6 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #109, p. 92, "(Yankee Doodle)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 270, "Yanke Doodle Dandy" (1 short text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 152, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 104, p. 133, "Nursery Rhyme" (1 text of two verses, the first being "Yankee Doodle" and the second "Lucy Locket/Hunt the Squirrel")
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 18-19, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 3-8, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text plus fragments)
Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, p. 56, "The Yankees Return from Camp" (1 text)
Krythe-SamplerOfAmericanSongs 1, pp. 3-14, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 382-383, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 338-340, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 71, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 292, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text)
Colonial-Dames-AmericanWarSongs, pp. 21-23, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 659-660+, "Yankee Doodle"
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2684, p. 182, "Yankee Doodle" (5 references); #2685, p. 182, "Yankee Doodle" (5 references)
Dime-Song-Book #34, pp. 43-44, "The Original Yankee Doodle" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 142, 175, "Yankee Doodle" (notes only)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 158-162, "Yankee Doodle" (sundry verses but no coherent text)
DT, YANKDOOD*
ADDITIONAL: Harry Dichter and Elliott Shapiro, _Early American Sheet Music: Its Lure and Its Lore, 1768-1889_, R. R. Bowker, 1941, pp. 7-8, prints parts of six early versions of the text; pp. 17-19 describes nine printed copies from before 1810 and on plate #2 shows a test and tune which appear to predate the Revolutionary War version
Gregory Walker, Mary Clapinson, Lesley Forbes, Editors, _The Bodleian Library: A Subject Guide to the Collections_, Bodleian Press, 2004, plate XIX (following p. 128), "Yanke Doodle, or (as now Christened by the Saints of New England) The Lexington March" (a reproduction of what is said to be the earliest print of the music, broadside Harding G 70(3), reportedly one of only three copies of this edition to survive)
William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, p. 26, "(Yankee Doodle)" (1 short text; tune on p. 93)
ADDITIONAL: William L. Stone, _Ballads and Poems Relating to the Burgoyne Campaign_, 1893 (I use the 1970 Kennikat Press reissue), p. 71, "(Two Burgoyne Ditties)" (1 short text, which does not mention John Burgoyne)
Roud #4501
RECORDINGS:
Piper's Gap Ramblers, "Yankee Doodle" (OKeh 45185, 1928; rec. 1927)
Pete Seeger, "Yankee Doodle" (on PeteSeeger17) (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 31(146), "Yankee Doodle ("Father and I went down to camp, along with captain Goodwin"), A.W. Auner (Philadelphia), c.1860; also Harding B 31(128), "Yanke Doodle"[not misspelled in the text]
LOCSinging, sb40592b, "Yankee Doodle," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also hc00037b, "Yanke Doodle"[not misspelled in the text]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Confederate 'Yankee Doodle'"
cf. "Yanke Doodle (Lord Howe Put On His Fine Red Coat)"
cf. "The Presidents (The Presidents in Rhyme)" (tune)
cf. "The Battle of the Kegs" (tune)
cf. "Devilish Mary" [Laws Q4] (tune)
cf. "Fair and Free Elections" (tune)
cf. "Uncle John is Sick Abed" (tune)
cf. "Mrs. Brown Went to Town" (structure and some words)
cf. "Monitor and Merrimac" (tune)
cf. "Multiplication Table Song" (tune)
cf. "The Valiant Conscript" (tune)
cf. "Spinsters Gay" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Confederate "Yankee Doodle" (File: R249)
Yankee Doodle (Tea Tax version) (File: Morr002)
The Presidents (The Presidents in Rhyme) (File: R877)
The Battle of the Kegs (File: SBoA077)
Fair and Free Elections (File: FSWB284)
Uncle John Is Sick Abed (File: LIWUJISA)
Monitor and Merrimac (File: CAFS1195)
Multiplication Table Song (File: Stou103H)
The Valiant Conscript (File: SCWF201)
Spinsters Gay (File: Brne055)
Bump Me into Parliament (File: Clev087)
Plutocracy (File: Clev106)
Mary Was a Three-badge Wren (File: Tawn090)
O Chester (File: Paro402)
Yankee Dewey (File: LaGo057)
Mormon Army Song (File: CAFS2062)
The Good Old Yankee Doodle (For the Fourth of July) (File: ChMS185)
Yankee Doodle, Scooter Version ("Yankee Doodle went to town, Riding on a scooter, Hit a bump....") (Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 113)
Riding on a Turtle ("Yankee Doodle went to town, Riding on a turtle... just in time To see a lady's girdle") (Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 115)
The Lexington March ("Brother Ephraim sold his Cow and bought him a Commision" [sic.]) (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 52)
The Times (Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 144-146)
The Embargo (Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 342-344)
The Preposition Song (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 203)
James K. Polk campaign song: "The Democrats will be triumphant" (see John Siegenthaler, _James K. Polk_, Times Books, 2003, p. 91)
Sir William he, Snug as a flea (broadside lampooning General Sir William Howe's liaison with Mrs. Loring) (see Stanley Weintraub, _Iron Tears: America's Battle for Freedom, Britain's Quagmire: 1775-1783_, Free Press, 2005, p. 123)
The Chain Masters came along (Jon Raven, _The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham_, Broadside, 1977, pp. 246-247)
Yankee Song ("There is a man in our town, I'll tell you his condition") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, pp. 34-35, and cf. p. 33)
The Procession, with the Standard of Faction ("Good neighbours, if you're not afraid, Be not in Trepidation") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 41)
Adam's Fall: The Trip to Cambridge ("When Congress sent great Washington") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 60)
As Jack the King's Commander [referring to John Burgoyne] (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 71)
Yankee Doodle Expedition to Rhode-Island ("From Lewis, Monsieur Gerard came") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 79; Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, pp. 60-61)
The Recess ("And now our Senators are gone To take their leave of London") (Rabson-SongbookOfTheAmericanRevolution, p. 61)
Original Union Song! ("The Southern rooster loudly crows") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 118)
On the Affair Between the Rebel Generals HOWE and GADDESEN ("It was on Mr. Peroy's land") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 80)
The Dance ("Cornwallis led a country dance, The like was never seen, sir") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 93)
Yankee Song ("The 'Vention did in Boston meet, But State-Houses could not hold 'em") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 107)
(Brother Jonathan) ("Brother Jon'than, what are you 'bout, What the nation ails you?") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 132)
Trip to Launching ("Says Bob to Dick, come let us go To Boston Town, to launching") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 137)
New Verses ("Sing Yankee Doodle, that fine tune, Americans delight in") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 141)
Columbians all the present hour as Brothers should Unite us (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, pp. 146-147)
Federalists, Be On Your Guard (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 162)
Republicans, Be On Your Guard (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 162)
A Song Supposed to have been written by The Sage of Monticello ("Of all the damsels on the green... A lass so luscious ne'er was seen As Monticellean Sally") (An attack on Thomas Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings) (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 175)
A Song -- Composed by a Sailor ("Bad news is come from Washington, So sailors land your cargo," referring to the Jeffersonian embargo on British products) (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 185)
Yankee Doodle ("A Yankee boy is trim and tall") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 199)
Corn Cobs Twist Your Hair (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, pp. 258-259)
Harrison Song ("On seventy six, our minds we'll fix," a campaign song for William Henry Harrison) (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 282)
The Times Are Growing Hot (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, p. 6)
The Hero Plowman ("The hero plowman of North Behd") (Harrison campaign song) (A. B. Norton, _Songs of the People in the Log Cabin Days of Old Tippecanoe_, A. B. Norton & Co., 1888 (available on Google Books), p. 54)
Song for the Working Men ("That Matty [Martin Van Buren] loves the Working man, No working man can doubt, sirs") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 286)
We're the Boys For Mexico ("The Mexican's [sic.] are doomed to fall, God has in his wrath forsook 'em") (Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents, p. 316)
The Song for All Parties ("Our fathers fought, our fathers died," by Francis F. Eastlack, 1857) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 146)
The Yankee Boy ("A Yankee Boy is trim and tall," by Isadore Leopold) (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 181)
Yankee Doodle [No. 2] ("Ye gallant sons of liberty") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 182)
Yankee Doodle No. 3 ("Yankee Doodle! long ago") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 182)
General Butler ("Butler and I went out from camp") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 189)
Southern Yankee Doodle ("The Gallant Major Anderson") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, pp. 194-195)
Southern Yankee Doodle ("Yankee Doodle was the boy") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 195)
(James A. Garfield campaign song against Winfield Scott Hancock, 1880) ("My brigadiers, let us forget Which side it was we fought on") (Paul F. Boller, Jr., _Presidential Campaigns_, second revised edition, Oxford University Press, p. 145)
Gratulandum Est ("In Doodle Yankee Cantandum," "Qui alicujus gradus lau") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 22)
Ancient Mariner ("There was an ancient mariner -- In Coleridge is his 'Rime,' sir") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 77)
A Student's Life ("Oh, we're a jolly set of boys, As ever went to college") (Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 121)
Origin of the Grange ("From sixty-one to sixty-five the Union was disrupted") (by A. P. Knapp) (Albert P. Knapp, _Grange Songster_, 1915, p. 22)
Independence Day ("Again we hail the day's return That gave us independence") (Foner, p. 62)
The Shoemaker's Song ("Written for the strikers by Allen Peabody, Wenham, Massachusetts") ("Ye jours and snobs throughout the land, 'Tis time to be astir") (Foner, p. 73)
Labor's Yankee Doodle ("We, toilers, have made up our minds To have a revolution") (Foner, p. 265)
Yankee Doodle (song against Grover Cleveland) ("Once on a time old Grover C. Sent forth a great big bellow") (by C. A. Sheffield) (Foner, p. 280)
[Socialist parody by W. B. Creech] ("Workingmen assembled here, No matter what your nation, Raise your voices now against Old Bismarck's cowardly action") (Foner, p. 297)
The Fire Brigade Dinner, Part I ("Just listen, I'm about to sing About the Fire Brigade dinner, The facts that I shall now advance As true as I'm a sinner") (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 95)
The Garfield Yankee Doodle ("James A. Garfield is the man Our party nominated") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p. 6)
Hancock to His Southern Brigadiers ("My Brigadiers, let us forget, Which side it was we fought on, --") (Garfield and Arthur Campaign Song Book 1880, p.21)
Get Prohibition ("Prohibition's sure to come In our beloved state, sir") (by Anna A. Gordon) (Anna Adams Gordon, _Popular Campaign Songs_, National W.C.T.U. Publishing House, 1915, p. 26)
We're Glad You're Here ("O ???, we're glad you're here We're glad that we can meet you") (Harbin-Parodology, #175, p. 48)
Atlantic Cable Song ("Success, at last, sits like a crown, Upon our work gigantic") ( Mary Morton Cowan, _Cyrus Field's Big Dream: The Daring Effort to Lay the First Transatlantic Telegraph Cable_, Calkins Clark, 2018, p. 119)
NOTES [530 words]: There is a reference to "Yankee Doodle" in a comic opera of 1767 ("The Disappointment, or The Force of Credulity" by Andrew Barton; see Dichter/Shapiro, p. 17 and the sheet music reproduced in plate #2), but given the references in the common version to the continental army and "Captain Washington," the piece as commonly sung can hardly predate the Revolutionary War.
Krythe-SamplerOfAmericanSongs gives an extensive summary of the stories told about the song's origins, including a similar piece of doggerel allegedly dating to the time of Cromwell (died 1658). This is presumably the piece that inspired the incomparable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 259, to claim the song is about Prince Rupert. But surely most of these claims must be regarded as folkloric. Similarly Spaeth, in his A History of Popular Music in America, devotes thousands of words (pp.15-21) to the known history and alleged antecedents of the song. The sum, as Spaeth makes abundantly clear, tells us very little. We must confess that we really don't know the history of the song. The Opies mention the attribution to Shuckburgh -- and say it is "now discredited."
There are certainly antecedents of the song, though; see the SAME TUNE entries from Lawrence-MusicForPatriotsPoliticiansAndPresidents.
Laura Ingalls Wilder had a curious version (Little House in the Big Woods, chapter 2) with a chorus I have not seen elsewhere: "And I'll sing Yankee Doodle-de-do, and I'll sing Yankee Doodle" (x2). This portion of the Little House books is fictional (Laura did not live in Wisconsin at the age described), and so we cannot date the song, but it is presumably traditional.
This "Yankee Doodle" is obviously not to be confused with the 1812 song "The Constitution and the Guerriere," sometimes titled "Yankee Doodle Dandy-O."
According to William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology, The Haworth Press, 1997, p. 26, "Yankee Doodle" (the short "Macaroni" version) became Connecticut's state song in 1978,
Sam Cowell in the nineteenth century sang a song known as "Corn Cobs, or Yankee Notions" (Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 14-16; broadside Bodleian, Harding B 11(695), unknown, no date). There is no tune listed in either source, but it fits "Yankee Doodle," and it has several "Yankee Doodle" verses. I strongly suspect it is sung to this tune. The chorus is "Corn cobs twist your hair, Cart wheels surround you, Fiery dragons carry you off, And mortar pestal pound you." It refers to an invasion of Canada, although there was no such event in Cowell's lifetime. A strange song. - RBW
I have not listed all the [broadside] variants ("Yankee Doodle No.2," "Yankee Doodle No.3," and others including an "Original Yankee Doodle"). You can find them among the Bodleian and LOCSinging collections.
Broadside LOCSinging sb40592b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadsides LOCSinging hc00037b and Bodleian Harding B 31(128) are duplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LxA521

Yankee Doodle (Columbia's Sons are Handy)

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "With Yankee Doodle, doodle, doo, Yankee Doodle dandy, Our tars will show the haughty foe Columbia's sons are handy." We are free of King George and his descendants. We can whip the British tars and "care no more for France than Britain"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Erskine-TwentyYearsBeforeTheMast)
KEYWORDS: war navy patriotic
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Erskine-TwentyYearsBeforeTheMast, pp. 95-96, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (tune) and references there
NOTES [54 words]: In 1839 Erskine was part of an American crew that dropped into the Jolly Sailor's Inn in Sydney, Australia. "It was a large square room. On either side were a number of tables, over which hung various national flags." Crews at the tables sang their own Russian, English, French or U.S. songs. The Americans sang this song. - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Ersk095

Yankee Doodle (Lord Howe Put On His Fine Red Coat)

DESCRIPTION: "Lord Howe put on his fine red coat And called or all his cronies... A-riding on their ponies." "Georgie Porgie, pumpkin pie, Georgie, he's a dandy... He's so spic and spandy." Humorous comments on the British forces in America
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1969 (Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1)
KEYWORDS: political humorous clothes royalty animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, p. 29, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #4501
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (general situation)
NOTES [161 words]: This is a bit of a conundrum. Bush's informant "Mr. Sprinston" declared that the common version of "Yankee Doodle" is British (a semi-truth; the first printing was apparently by Halliwell in a British book) and that this is the colonial version.
Certainly it is an American song referring to the Revolutionary War. Lord Howe is presumably General William Howe, who succeeded Thomas Gage as commander of British forces in America (unless the reference is to his brother, Admiral Richard). "Georgie Porgie" is surely George III.
But Sprinston's text never mentions "Yankee Doodle," is sung to the tune of "Weevily Wheat" (although it fits "Yankee Doodle," and the two melodies have similarities), and doesn't appear to be part of the standard original Yankee Doodle ("Father and I went down to camp Along with Captain Gooding..."). Combining those three facts, i'm not dead sure this is truly part of "Yankee Doodle." So I'm filing it separately, albeit hesitantly. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: BuW1029

Yankee Doodle (Tea Tax version)

DESCRIPTION: "Once on a time old Johnny Bull Flew in a raging fury. "'And now," said he, 'I'll tax the tea Of all your sons and daughters.'" "John sent the tea from o'er the sea." But Americans won't drink it. They win the war, and now everyone sings "Yankee Doodle."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: food political derivative
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #2, "Yankee Doodle" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #5023
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yankee Doodle" (tune) and references there
cf. "Old Granny Wales (Granny O'Whale, Granua Weal)" (subject: The Tea Tax)
NOTES [33 words]: Although this talks of events before the American Revolution, the song must be dated after 1789 -- probably well after -- since it refers to "Hail Columbia," and that was not written until 1789. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: Morr002

Yankee Doodle Dandy

DESCRIPTION: "I have a daughter and you'd think she was a lady.... She has a sweetheart comes to see her nights... And the only tune he whistles right is 'Yankee Doodle Dandy.'" The young man causes so much trouble that the fathers vows to drive him off
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean-FlyingCloud)
KEYWORDS: music courting humorous father
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean-FlyingCloud, p. 76, "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1 text)
Roud #21717
NOTES [101 words]: I haven't been able to locate a source for this song, but it certainly sounds as if it originated on stage.
Reading this song, I couldn't help but think of Ulysses S. Grant, who was tone-deaf. He once commented that he knew only two tunes: One was "Yankee Doodle" and the other wasn't. What's more, according to William A. DeGregorio, The Complete Book of U. S. Presidents 1993 edition, Barricade Books, p. 263, the former Julia Dent's parents disapproved of her marriage to Grant. Not quite the same situation as in this song, but you wonder if it didn't kick around in the author's mind a little. - RBW
File: Dean076A

Yankee Doodle Dandy-O

See The Constitution and the Guerriere [Laws A6] (File: LA06)

Yankee Doodle Went to War On His Little Pony

See Confederate "Yankee Doodle" (File: R249)

Yankee Dutchman, The

See Poor Schnapps (File: R218)

Yankee John, Stormalong (Liza Lee)

DESCRIPTION: Pulling shanty. Singer says that Liza Lee promised to marry him. He shipped out but promised her a ring, etc. Now she's jilted him. Remaining verses on general sailing themes. Chorus: "Yan-kee John, Storm-along." Colcord says this is of Negro origin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor courting separation floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain US West Indies(Nevis)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 60, "Liza Lee" (1 fragment, 1 tune-quoted from Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 80, "Yankee John, Stormalong" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 74]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXXVI, p. 41, "Liza Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 95-96, "Lizer Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 61-62, "Yankee John, Stormalong" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LIZALEE*
Roud #4698
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Hundred Years Ago" (lyrics)
NOTES [25 words]: Recognized mostly by its choruses. The lyrics mostly float, with Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas's version being about half "A Hundred Years Ago." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Hugi080

Yankee Land

DESCRIPTION: A Belfast woman is seduced by "a sailor from a distant port" and said "he'd take me far away to his happy home in Yankee Land." We are left believing he reneges.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: seduction America sailor betrayal
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 96, "Yankee Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #31093
File: GrMa096

Yankee Man-of-War (I), The

See The British Man-of-War (File: FSC013)

Yankee Man-of-War (II), The

See Paul Jones the Privateer [Laws A3] (File: LA03)

Yankee Man-of-War (III), The

DESCRIPTION: Describes a battle between an unnamed ship captained by John Paul Jones and an (also unnamed) English man-of-war. Jones chases down the man-of-war, catches up at 11 a.m., they fight "yardarm to yardarm" for five hours till the English flag comes down
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips)
KEYWORDS: navy ship battle foc's'le
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 180-181, "The Yankee Man-of-War II" (1 text)
Roud #625
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paul Jones, the Privateer" [Laws A3] (subject of John Paul Jones)
cf. "Paul Jones's Victory" [Laws A4] (subject of John Paul Jones)
NOTES [210 words]: Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips listed this along with another "Yankee Man-of-War" (aka "Paul Jones the Privateer" [Laws A3]) though the words and meter is different, and the text clearly describes a different battle. [Roud nonetheless lumps them, probably taking Harlow's word for it. - RBW]
The only battle I could find that might fit what's described here is one that took place on April 24, 1778 when Jones, captaining the Ranger, the captured the HMS Drake off the coast of Ireland. However, that battle actually lasted only an hour or so, not five as this song describes. - SL
Some of this may be due to inaccurate reporting of what Jones said and did. Samuel Eliot Morison's biography John Paul Jones (1959; Time-Life edition printed 1981) repeatedly laments the miserable state of Jones biographies, at one point he accuses a writer of "complete fabrication," adding that this author "found it easier to write Jones's letters himself than use the genuine ones in the Library of Congress." This does not, of course, prove that Morison's biography is accurate (though his reputation is high) -- but it proves that our sources as a whole are unreliable.
For a (largely Morison-derived) biography of Jones, see "Paul Jones's Victory" [Laws A4]. - RBW
File: Harl180

Yankee Manufactures

DESCRIPTION: "I wish I was in Yankee lad, And was a boy again, sirs... I'd never wander from my home... But stay at home, eat pumpkin pie Of Yankee manufacture." The singer boasts of things "of Yankee manufacture:" Pretty girls, George Washington, British defeats
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Songs of Yesterday)
KEYWORDS: bragging patriotic nonballad food
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 17, 1775 - American defeat at the Battle of Bunker Hill. The Americans are pushed from their positions, but inflict heavy casualties on the British, and so feel they have earned some bragging rights.
Jan 8, 1815 - Battle of New Orleans. Although a peace had already been signed, word had not yet reached Louisiana, which Pakenham sought to invade. Andrew Jackson's backwoodsmen easily repulse Pakenham
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin-TreasuryOfNewEnglandFolklore, pp. 535-536, "Yankee Manufactures" (1 text, 1 tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Rising Generation ("Go where you will, you'll get your fill") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets p. 135)
File: BNEF535

Yankee Retreat, The

DESCRIPTION: "The very next morning we marched very slow" and attacked the Yankees through brush and thorn. "General Averil" tries to encourage the troops, but "Jackson" pushes on
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 1-4, 1863 - Battle of Chancellorsville
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 67, "The Yankee Retreat" (1 text)
Roud #5458
NOTES [211 words]: With only two stanzas to work with, and no actual plot surviving, it's hard to tell what this song is about. Its connection with the Battle of Chancellorsville seems certain, however. In the first stanza, the singer reports "Fighting through briers, fighting through thorn, Such fighting I never saw since I was born."
The above description largely restricts the context to the "Wilderness" battles of Chancellorsville and the Wilderness. (The western battle of Chickamauga was also fought in a forest, but it doesn't fit the generals.) "Stonewall"Jackson was killed at the former (where he led the grand outflanking march which gave the Confederates victory), so it must be the battle involved.
"General Averil" is presumably William Woods Averell (1832-1900), who led a Union cavalry division. His troops had been expected to go on a raid before Chancellorsville, but bad weather held him up. As a result, he was placed in charge of scouting the Union right wing. Averell reported to Union commander Joseph Hooker that the Federal right flank was impassable. Jackson proved Averell wrong, and Hooker relieved him (though, in the grand Union tradition, Averell was reinstated and promoted -- only to be relieved by Sheridan in 1864 for lack of aggressiveness). - RBW
File: JHCox067

Yankee Ship and a Yankee Crew, A

See John Kanaka (File: FaE050)

Yankee Ship Came Down East River, A

See Blow, Boys, Blow (I) (File: Doe025)

Yankee Ship Came Down the River, A

See Blow, Boys, Blow (I) (File: Doe025)

Yankee Shore

DESCRIPTION: "As I roved out one morning, being in the lovely month of May," the singer meets a girl. If she'd marry, he would take her to America. Though her father agrees, her parents grieve "when I took her from her parents and land her safe on the Yankee shore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage emigration beauty sea America Ireland father mother sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 233-234, "Yankee Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6462
RECORDINGS:
Freeman Bennett, "Yankee Shore" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
File: Pea233

Yankee Soldiers

See Have You Any Bread and Wine (English Soldiers, Roman Soldiers) (File: Lins040)

Yankee Song

DESCRIPTION: "Well, the Yanks are comin' all around; Drop your work, drop your play, Run away, don't delay, Drop your gun, on the run, there's a task to be done. Where they teach you how to salute, and they teach you how to shoot." "The Blue and Gray are one" in Dixie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Roberts-SangBranchSettlers)
KEYWORDS: soldier travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #50, "Yankee Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3412
NOTES [12 words]: This sounds like a pop song to me, but I can't find any hint of it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Robe050

Yankee Tars (I)

DESCRIPTION: Nature has bestowed the U.S. with every possible blessing, including "true Yankee hearts." A Navy is needed to "protect from each insolent foe." Examples of how "Yankee tars shall their country protect." Verses end with Dreadnaught's "derry down" line.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (S. B. Luce's _Naval Songs_)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Nature has bestowed the U.S. with every possible blessing, including "true Yankee hearts." A Navy is needed to "protect from each insolent foe." Examples of how "Yankee tars shall their country protect." Verses end with Dreadnaught's "derry down" line. Two verses cite the battle between the Constitution and the Guerriere.
KEYWORDS: navy sailor America
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 189-190, "Yankee Tars" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9167
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Constitution and the Guerriere" [Laws A6] (partial story) and references there
cf. "The Dreadnaught" [Laws D13] (tune)
File: Harl189

Yankee Tars (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Whenever the Tyrant of the main assaults Columbian seamen, He'll find them ready to maintain the noble name of Freemen." Americans will only put up with so much. The song lists well-known American naval officers
AUTHOR: "Dr. Darlington" (source; Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
EARLIEST DATE: 1819 (Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors)
KEYWORDS: navy bragging ship battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 19, 1812 - the 44-gun U.S.S. Constitution defeats and captures the 38-gun H.M.S. Guerriere in the north Atlantic
Oct 25, 1812 - the 44-gun U. S. S. United States, commanded by Stephen Decatur, defeats the 38-gun H. M. S. Macedonian in the mid-Atlantic
Dec 29, 1812 - U. S. S. Constitution defeats the 38-gun H. M. S. Java off Bahia, Brazil
Feb 24, 1813 - U. S. S. Hornet defeats H. M. S. Peacock
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 238-239, "Yankee Tars" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charge the Can Cheerily" (theme)
NOTES [67 words]: As best I can tell, "Whenever the Tyrant of the main assaults Columbian seamen," it results in dreadful gluey "poetry" that should have been left in the scrap heap where Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors found it. Patently not traditional, so I won't bother listing all the naval heroes (and occasional incompetents) included here; a great many of them are described in "Charge the Can Cheerily." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LaDa238

Yankee Thunders

See The Constitution and the Guerriere (II) (File: Gray144)

Yankees Are Coming, The

DESCRIPTION: "The Yankees are coming! Away! Which way? Who saw them? Do tell us. And what did they?... Fifteen hundred, they say, and they are at Lamar." The people's fear is mentioned, as well as the unionists' entry into the town and their determination
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier derivative
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 124, pp. 264-265, "The Yankees Are Coming" (1 text)
Roud #4503
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Campbells Are Coming" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Campbells Are Coming (File: FSWB281B)
NOTES [223 words]: The references in this song make the historical situation hard to determine. The only specific names are:
Lamar (place name; there is a Lamar, Mississippi, but also one in Missouri). Both were the sites of small skirmishes: The one in Missouri on August 24 and November 5, 1862, both very small; the one in Mississippi on November 12, 1862 and only slightly larger (it involved the equivalent of a single brigade).
Mitchell (presumably a Confederate soldier, but the Confederacy never had a general of that name; the Union had a General Ormsby M. Mitchel who fought in the west but died 1862)
Grant (Ulysses S. Grant, who commanded at Shiloh and in the Vicksburg campaign)
Jayhawkers (usually refers to soldiers in Kansas or Missouri)
Vicksburg (the key to Confederate control of the Mississippi)
Pemberton (John C. Pemberton, the commander of the Vickburg garrison).
My best guess is that this refers to Benjamin H. Grierson's Mississippi raid of April 17-May 2, 1863, in which some 1700 soldiers raced from Tennessee to New Orleans, cutting railroads and spreading confusion. This helped Grant get his forced in position for the final attack on Vicksburg. But other possibilities cannot be discounted, especially if (as seems possible, since the song seems to shift between Union and Confederate persepectives) two songs have mixed. - RBW
File: Hud124

Yankees Return from Camp, The

See Yankee Doodle (File: LxA521)

Yanks Are Coming Over, The

DESCRIPTION: Verse based on George M. Cohan's "Over There": "The Yanks are coming over, Now it's over over there."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: war soldier derivative
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 188, "The Yanks are coming over" (1 short text)
Roud #25459
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Over There (George M. Cohan Song)" (tune)
NOTES [33 words]: Roud gives this the same number as "straight" versions of "Over There," but I split it since this is obviously a deliberate rewrite, or at least an additional verse someone else added to the text. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: KSUC188A

Yard Away, Yard Away

See Yard-O 'Yaddo (Bella in the Yard) (Bellaring ina Yaddo) (File: RcYOYBiY)

Yard-O 'Yaddo (Bella in the Yard) (Bellaring ina Yaddo)

DESCRIPTION: Trinidadian patois. Chorus: "Wey, Bella in de yard-o, rad-o, rad-o, Bella in de yard-o eee." Nonsense verses: "Monkey play de fiddle And the baboon play de banjo." "Want to see de monkey dance Bust a pepper in he tail"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory)
KEYWORDS: fiddle dancing nonballad worksong animal
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica,Trinidad) Belize
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 57, ("Bell, oh, Bell oh, Bell a ring a yard oh!") (1 text) (1 tune)
Abrahams-DeepTheWaterShallowTheShore, pp. 84-86, "Yard Away, Yard Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Ervin Beck, "Belizean Creole Folk Songs" in Caribbean Quarterly Vol. 29, No. 1 (March 1983 (made available online by JSTOR)), pp. 45-46, "Run Johnny run, boy, vaulkin [?] on your block today" (1 text, 1 tune) (recorded 1956-57))
Olive Lewin, Forty Folk Songs of Jamaica (Washington: General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, 1973), pp. 39-40, "Bell a Ring a Yard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Melville J. Herskovits and Frances S. Herskovits, _Trinidad Village_ (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947), p. 283, ("Yard-o, yard-o") (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Emil Paul, Carl Monsegui and Allan Lovelace, "Yard-O 'Yaddo" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
NOTES [147 words]: The description is based on WITrinidadVillage01. Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory's patois is Jamaican.
Jekyll's text has "Baboon roll de drum oh, Monkey rub de fiddle, oh."
Beck's text: "Run, Johnny, run, boy, caulkin[?] on your block today / Hey, yey! Bur-ah-yin da yagga [?]. Monkey play de fiddle and the baboon dance the tune. Hey, yey! Bur-ah-yin da yagga."
Beck has this as a call-and-response loggers' work song. The liner notes for Herskovits say "versions of this song are known from Jamaica, ..., Carriacou ... [and] Tobago" (Donald R. Hill, Maureeen Warner-Lewis, John Cowley, Lise Winer, liner notes on WITrinidadVillage01).
Herskovits and Herskovits, pp. 282-283: "The fisherman's song [includes] words ... taken from a folk-tale, and to these are added the comment about Bella who is in the yard, with the implication that the work she does may not have social approval." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcYOYBiY

Yarmouth Fishermen's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of a tough voyage, with high winds and seas, and few fish. Another ship comes close and cuts their anchor cable; their ropes catch fire. They limp into harbor, but proudly return to sea the next day. Singer toasts the master and crew
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (recorded from Harry Cox)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea ship drink sailor worker
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
Roud #2434
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "The Yarmouth Fishermen's Song" (on LastDays)
NOTES [45 words]: According to the notes to the Harry Cox recording "What Will Become of England," Cox learned this song, "composed by one of his father's shipmates... from his father. Harry couldn't remember all the verses, however, and complete the song to the best of his ability." - RBW
File: RcTYFS

Yarmouth is a Pretty Town

DESCRIPTION: Pretty Nancy lived in Yarmouth "at the sign of the 'Angel.'" The singer, a soldier, must march away. "Many hearts were rejoicing But my heart was sad." He asked her to go with him but her answer was No! He grieves to think of Yarmouth
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Stone)
KEYWORDS: grief courting rejection war parting separation soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Broadwood-EnglishTraditionalSongsAndCarols, pp. 102-107, "Oh, Yarmouth is a pretty Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #32, p. 2, ("Oh, Yarmouth is a pretty town and shines where it stands") (1 fragment)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads LXXIX, pp. 157-158, "Oh Yarmouth is a pretty Town" (1 text)
Roud #1068
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonny Portmore" ("shines where it stands") and references there
NOTES [21 words]: See "The Manchester Angel" for references to some of the many counter-examples [of a girl rejecting a soldier who is leaving]. - BS
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Grg032

Yarmouth Story, A

See The Undaunted Female (The Box Upon Her Head; The Staffordshire Maid; The Maid and the Robber) [Laws L3] (File: LL03)

Yarn of the Nancy Bell, The

See The Fate of the Nancy Bell (File: Harl194)

Yarrow

See The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214] (File: C214)

Yarrow Streams

DESCRIPTION: The singer grieves; her lover is dead. He had promised to marry her. After their last parting, she saw his ghost. She counsels his mother and sister to stop searching for him because he is dead. She finds him in the stream and drowns herself there.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1781 (Logan, according to Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls first meeting her lover on Yarrow's braes but she'll not see him again by that "stream of sorrow" He had promised a white steed and page (and a wedding ring for tomorrow's wedding). (After they parted last she saw his "water wraith.") His mother and sister sought him in vain east, west and in the forest. ((The singer tells her own sister that she dreamt her lover drowned in Yarrow; her sister interprets the dream and says it is true. [From Child 214 we know that he is murdered, not drowned.])) The singer tells his mother and sister to stop their search (because he is dead). (She will have no other lover.) She finds his body in the stream "and now with him she sleeps in Yarrow" [Note: the parenthesized parts of the long description are from Logan and are not in Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2; the double parenthesized item is only in Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 and Child 214.]
KEYWORDS: grief love wedding death drowning river dream borderballad derivative mother sister ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 118, "Yarrow Streams" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (facsimile of (Edinburgh,1776) with an "Appendix ... containing the pieces substituted in the 1791 reprint for those omitted of the 1776 edition, &c.") ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, Appendix pp. 22-23 [1-116], "The Braes of Yarrow" (1 text)
Roud #5839
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214]" (story and some lines)
NOTES [299 words]: Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 p. xxxvii: "Most of 'Yarrow Streams' is related, sometimes loosely, to 'The Braes of Yarrow' by John Logan first printed in Poems by the Rev Mr Logan, one of the ministers of Leith (London 1781), pp. 4-7, but stanzas 5, 6 and 8 are unrelated to this and correspond to verses in Child 214 'The Braes o Yarrow.'" The ADDITIONAL Herd reference is Logan's poem.
Logan's poem complements Child 214, especially Child 214L, told as the story from the Rose of Yarrow's viewpoint rather than that of her lover, "the flower of Yarrow" [or husband in other versions].
Most of the lines of Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 118 are from Logan -- allowing for dialect -- with a word changed here and there. Stanza 5 is the "I dreamed a dream" verse and stanza 6 the dream interpretation from Child 214D,I,J,K,L,O [A,B,E,F,M,N only have the dream]. Stanza 8 has four lines: the first two -- "She socht him east she socht him west She socht him aw the greenwood through" -- are from Logan, and are shared with Child 214L (the first two lines of stanza 13); the last two lines -- "An in the cleaving o a craig She fand his bodie drownit in Yarrow" -- are from Child 214L (the last two lines of stanza 13) and are not in Logan. Child points out that the last two lines of Child 214L stanza 12 -- "But only saw the clud o night, Or heard the roar o Yarrow" -- and the first two lines of stanza 13 are the last four lines of Logan stanza 4; in fact he says the lines from stanza 12 are "manifestly taken from Logan's Braes of Yarrow." Those are the only lines shared by Logan and Child 214. Summing up: the only lines shared only by Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 118 and Child 214 are "An in the cleaving o a craig She fand his bodie drownit in Yarrow." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: LcCr2118

Yavipai Pete (Old Iron Pants Pete)

DESCRIPTION: Cowboy Yavipai (Iron Pants) Pete is refused a job because he's not tough enough for the job. Pete lassos a bear with barbed wire, rides it back to the ranch (with a rattlesnake for a quirt) and asks whether he can have the job now. The rancher hires him
AUTHOR: Curley Fletcher
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Curley Fletcher, "Songs of the Sage")
LONG DESCRIPTION: Yavipai (Iron Pants) Pete is described, a rough and rowdy but skilled cowboy. Refused a job by a rancher, who says he's not tough enough for the job, he lassos a bear with barbed wire, rides it back to the ranch (with a rattlesnake for a quirt) and asks whether he can have the job now. The rancher hires him, noting that the bear had eaten the range boss the previous night
KEYWORDS: travel clothes death farming work talltale animal boss cowboy
FOUND IN: US(Ro,SW)
RECORDINGS:
Harry Jackson, "Old Iron Pants Pete" (on HJackson1)
NOTES [32 words]: Jackson reports that this was originally an Arizona song, "Yavipi Pete," but that he and his fellow Wyoming ranch-hands renamed it, "Old Iron Pants Pete" and substituted local place names. - PJS
File: RcOIPP

Yaw, Yaw, Yaw!

See Ja, Ja, Ja! (File: Doe086)

Ye Ballade of Ivan Petrofsky Skevar

See Abdul the Bulbul Emir (I) (File: LxA341)

Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon

See The Banks o' Doon (File: CTbnksbr)

Ye Cannae Shove Yer Granny Aff a Bus

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, ye cannae shove yer granny aff a bus (x2), Oh ye cannae shove yer granny, For she's yer mammie's mammie, Oh ye cannae...." Song continues with those you can shove off, e.g. "Ye can shove your Auntie Maggie aff a bus... she's naethin but a twister"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (RItchie, Singing Street)
KEYWORDS: humorous family injury
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, GRANYBUS*
Roud #20188
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain" (tune) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Your Grannie and Your Other Grannie
NOTES [88 words]: This does not seem to appear in many collections -- perhaps collectors didn't want to print it, or informants didn't want to sing it. But it's well enough known that, in 2012, someone put out a game, "You Cannae Push Yer Granny Off The Bus" (so spelled). There is also a book by Allan Morrison, Ye Cannae Shove Yer Granny Aff a Bus: Scots Grandchildren on Their Grannies. It quotes two verses of this song, but it's mostly a collection of quotes from children. I mention it only because it shows how well-known this song is. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: DTgranbu

Ye Elders of Israel

DESCRIPTION: "Ye elders of Israel, come join with me now, And search out the righteous, wherever they be... And bring them from Babylon to Zion so free." "O Babylon, O Babylon, we bid thee farewell." "The harvest is great and the lab'rers are few."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1871 (Latter-Day Saint Hymnal)
KEYWORDS: religious | Mormon
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 55-57, "Ye Elders of Israel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10825
File: ChMS055

Ye Gae But to Your Beef-Stan'

DESCRIPTION: Cut a slice of meat -- but don't cut your hand -- for Besuthian. "Hogmanay!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: request food begging ritual nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast 161, p. 2, ("Ye gae but to your beef stan'") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 643, "Ye Gae But to Your Beef-Stan'" (1 text)
Roud #6076
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Besuthian" (subject) and information there
cf. "Get Up Gudewife" (subject) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Besuthan
NOTES [46 words]: Greig: "Miss Bell Robertson ... says [the rhyme] was sung by a man who came through Rosehearty begging when her grandmother was a girl, circ. 1775.... After singing the rhyme the man cried "Hogmanay!" - BS
For what little is known of the word "Besuthian," see "Besuthian." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3643

Ye Gentlemen of England (I) [Laws K2]

DESCRIPTION: The singer wishes to remind the nobility of the dangers faced by seamen. He cites his own example. A storm off Ram's Head runs nine English ships aground. The largest ship (the Coronation?) loses almost all her crew, and the others are hardly better off
AUTHOR: unknown (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1686
KEYWORDS: ship storm sailor
FOUND IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Laws K2, "Ye Gentlemen of England I"
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 193-195, "You Gentlemen of England Fair" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 66, "Ye Gentlemen of England" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, p. 138, "You Gentlemen of England" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 291-293, "When the Stormy Winds Do Blow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 47-49, "When the Stormy Winds Do Blow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #40 insert, "England's Great Loss by a Storm of Wind" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 28, "England's Great Loss by a Storm of Wind" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN3028, "You Gentleman of England, that lives at home at ease"
DT 555, GENENGLF
Roud #1803
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ye Gentlemen of England (III)" (basis for first verse) and references there
cf. "You Gentlemen of England" (theme, lyrics)
cf. Bay of Biscay, Oh (Ye Gentlemen of England II) (The Stormy Winds Did Blow)" [Laws K3]
cf. "Ye Parliament of England (I)"
cf. "Pretty Nancy of London (Jolly Sailors Bold)"
cf. "The Soldier and the Sailor" (theme)
cf. "We Shepherds Are the Best of Men" (stucture and theme:virtue and courage of an occupational group)
NOTES [83 words]: The antecedant of this appears to go all the way back to 1678. According to Hyder E. Rollins, An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557-1709) In the Register of the Company of Stationers of London, 1924 (I use the 1967 Tradition Press reprint with a new Foreword by Leslie Shepard), p. 162, #1860, a piece "Neptune raging fury, or the gallant sea-mans suffering," which Rollins believes to be this, was registered July 1, 1678. Rollins suggests that Martin Parker created the original. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LK02

Ye Guardian Powers (Nancy Wilson)

DESCRIPTION: "Ye guardian powers that rule above, And know how fondly I do love, God grant to ease my tottering pain...." The girl's love has been banished by his father's command. She grieves and laments his absence at length
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love separation father
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 753, "Ye Guardian Powers" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 511-513, "Ye Guardian Powers" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 753A)
Roud #7397
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Bonnie Laddie, But Far Awa (theme: parents drive lover away)
NOTES [122 words]: Randolph quotes Ozark folklore to the effect that this piece was written by a girl named Nancy Wilson "who committed suicide near Frankfort, Ky., in the early years of the nineteenth century."
One informant gave the story in even more detail: Nancy Wilson, an orphan, was hired by a wealthy family as a servant. The son of the household fell in love with her; the parents disapproved of the match. When he slept with her, they sent him away. She wrote this poem, then hanged herself. He came home for her, and hanged himself when he learned she was dead. Naturally, disasters followed for the family.
One can only suspect that this story is derived from a few dozen other similar ballads, e.g. "The Silver Dagger (I)" [Laws G21] - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: R753

Ye Jacobites by Name

DESCRIPTION: "Ye Jacobites by name, Give an ear, give an ear, Ye Jacobites by name, Give an ear... Your faults I will proclaim, Your doctrines I maun blame." Jacobites are told to stop their schemes, to fight, to support the cause
AUTHOR: probably Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1792 (source: Kinsley)
KEYWORDS: Jacobite warning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol1 34, "Ye Jacobites By Name" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl-PersonalChoice, p. 44, "Ye Jacobites by Name" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JACBITE*
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #371, p. 507, "Ye Jacobites by Name" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5517
NOTES [56 words]: Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, p. 288, comments of this song, "Whatever his sentimental attachment to the Jacobites, Burns was well aware that theirs was a lost cause. In 'Ye Jacobites by name,' he advised, 'Then let your schemes alone,'" etc. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: MPCYJBN

Ye Ken Pretty Well What I Mean, O

DESCRIPTION: In an woman's house "you get your fill" with a "bonny servant lassie for to carry it all." A soldier asks for ale and takes the lass to bed. They name their genitals. His plump stallion falls in her well and comes out like "a half-drowned rat"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1707 (_Pills to Purge Melancholy_, v.iii p. 55, according to Farmer)
KEYWORDS: sex bawdy servant soldier mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan1 50, "Green Leaves So Green" (3 fragments, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: John Stephen Farmer, editor, Merry Songs and Ballads, Prior to the Year 1800 (1897), Vol I, pp. 192-193, "The Trooper Watering His Nagg"
Roud #3807
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Trooper Watering His Nag" (lyrics, style)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Steggie
NOTES [159 words]: Greig/Duncan1 fragments have none of the bawdy verses. John Mehlberg's immortalia.com site has a text as "Ye Ken Pretty Well What I Mean, O" that - Hamish Henderson reports - Arthur Argo got "from an elderly relative." That text is the basis of the description.
In the Farmer text the old woman "had a Daughter her name was Siss ... She kept her at Home, for to welcome her Guests." "And when Night came unto Bed they went ... It was with the Mother's own consent."
Perhaps Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 541, "There Was an Old Woman Lived Under a Hill" is just a fragment of this ballad, censored, like the Greig/Duncan1 fragments. - BS
I'm tempted to lump this with "The Trooper Watering His Nag" -- the lyric and sly tone are obviously quite close. But Roud and Ben Schwartz both leave them separate, so I am very tentatively doing the same. Editors, however, show enough confusion between the two that you had better check both entries. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1050

Ye Lan's and Banks o' Bonny Montrose

DESCRIPTION: This is the singer's departing night and "the morn's the day I'm gaun awa'" from Montrose. There's "a silly auld man" he'll be glad to leave. Nevertheless he grieves "for the sake o' my kin comerade, And the bonnie lass that I am leavin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: love emigration parting Scotland
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1529, "Ye Lan's and Banks o' Bonny Montrose" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Roud #12954
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Evening Sun Goes Down the West" (chorus)
cf. "The Parting Glass" (chorus lines)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Guid-nicht and Joy
Oh Once Good-night
NOTES [24 words]: The chorus is close to the usual first verse of "The Parting Glass" with lines transposed.
Montrose is on the coast between Dundee and Aberdeen. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81529

Ye Landlords of Ireland

DESCRIPTION: The singer goes to America, then returns to Ireland -- to find that his mother had died in poverty. He kills the landlord to avenge her. Once again he flees, but sends a warning to the landlords that revenge is coming
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: poverty rambling homicide death poverty revenge landlord
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 224-225, "Ye Landlords of Ireland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #20408
File: MA224

Ye Loyal Lovers

DESCRIPTION: A rich farmer's daughter loves Pat Molloy. When her father wouldn't agree to the marriage he enlists. He promises to marry her when he returns. She proves true but he returns married from "India's burning shore." Young maid: Never trust "a rovin' blade"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity marriage promise war separation India father return
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 19, "Ye Loyal Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9232
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Brave Irish Lad" (tune) (OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads)
File: OLcM019

Ye Maidens Fair and Gay

DESCRIPTION: "Never let a young man Lead you astray." The singer "believed man's flattering tongue ... He has ruined me ... Nowhere to go ... Now not a straw"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad poverty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1185, "Ye Maidens Fair and Gay" (1 text)
Roud #6808
NOTES [20 words]: Greig/Duncan6: "Mrs Willox, Peterhead, from her mother -- eighty-six who heard it some seventy years ago." [c.1914] - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61185

Ye Maidens of Ontario

See Maids of Simcoe (Ontario) (File: Doe241)

Ye Maidens Pretty

See Sailor Dear (The Lovely Sailor; You Maidens Pretty) (File: HGam216)

Ye Mar'ners All

See Ye Mariners All (File: VWL103)

Ye Mariners All

DESCRIPTION: Singer, a sailor, describes the joys of booze and urges all to share them.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1838
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 103, "Ye Mar'ners All" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MARNERSA*
Roud #1191
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "A Jug of This" (on Lloyd12)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" (tune)
File: VWL103

Ye Needna Ban at Me, Guidman

DESCRIPTION: "Ye needna ban [curse] at me, guidman," she says, come in and rock the cradle and take your meal ("kail and brose" yourself) because, you know, I'm not able. I'll sell pots, pans and wooden ladles if you won't buy a side saddle for me.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness children wife food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #149, p. 2, ("Ye needna ban at me, guidman") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1912, "Ye Needna Ban at Me, Guidman" (1 fragment)
Roud #13558
File: GrD81912

Ye Needna Come an' Flatter's

DESCRIPTION: "For ye needna come and flatter's For ye shan't come again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1984
KEYWORDS: courting rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 809, "Ye Needna Come an' Flatter's" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #5652
NOTES [19 words]: Greig/Duncan4 quoting Duncan: "A fragment, the chorus. It is a woman that is speaking, but the drift forgotten" - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4808

Ye Noble Big Pine Tree

DESCRIPTION: A conversation between a singer and a majestic pine. The singer admits the tree's ancient dignity, but tells it of how the loggers will attack it and take it down, then goes on to the fate of the wood
AUTHOR: William T. Allen (Shan T. Boy)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy)
KEYWORDS: work logger
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 12, "Ye Noble Big Pine Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 12, "Ye Noble Big Pine Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Rick062 (Partial)
Roud #8897
NOTES [97 words]: Rickaby concedes that this piece, by the author of "The Banks of the Little Eau Pleine" [Laws C2] and "The Shanty Boy on the Big Eau Claire" [Laws C11] is probably not traditional, but includes it as a sample of Allen's work.
Most of Allen's work has a quirky side, and this is no exception, with lines such as "Your fall will sound like distant thunder, And fill the birds and squirrels with wonder...." "But seeing you're so sound and healthy, You'll make some lumberman more wealthy." But it seems more serious than most of his work. The tune is listed as "Will the Weaver." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Rick062

Ye Parliament of England (I)

DESCRIPTION: The Americans present their claims against England: First limiting trade, then impressing American sailors, then insulting American captains. The Americans of course have gone to war, and mention their naval victories
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1836 (American Songster, according to Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks)
KEYWORDS: navy patriotic war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1812-1815 - War of 1812
Aug 19, 1812 - the 44-gun U.S.S. _Constitution_ defeats and captures the 38-gun H.M.S. _Guerriere_ in the north Atlantic
Oct 18, 1812 - sloop U.S.S. _Wasp_ engaged with sloop H.M.S. _Frolic_ off North America; _Frolic_ is rescued by the arrival of the British ship of the line _Poictiers,_ which captures the _Wasp_
Oct 25, 1812 - the 44-gun U. S. S. _United States,_ commanded by Stephen Decatur, defeats the 38-gun H. M. S. _Macedonian_ in the mid-Atlantic
Dec 29, 1812 - U. S. S. _Constitution_ defeats the 38-gun H. M. S. _Java_ off Bahia, Brazil
Feb 24, 1813 - U. S. S. _Hornet_ defeats H. M. S. _Peacock_
Sep 5, 1813 - U. S. S. _Enterprise_, defeats H. M. S. _Boxer_
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 151-166, "You Parliament of England" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 195-196, "Ye Parliament of England" (1 text)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 94-95, "The Sons of Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 278-279, "Ye Parliaments of England" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 158-160, "Ye Parliament of England" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 128-130, "Ye Parliament of England" (1 text, 1 tune)
Erskine-TwentyYearsBeforeTheMast, pp. 36-37, "The Parliaments of England" (1 text)
DT, PARLENG*
ADDITIONAL: C. H. Firth, _Publications of the Navy Records Society_ , 1907 (available on Google Books), p. 308, "Ye Parliament of England" (1 text)
Roger F. Duncan, _Coastal Maine: A Maritime History_, 1992; Countryman Press paperback edition 2002, pp. 277-279, "(no title)" (1 text, apparently collected from Nelson Poland of Maine in 1932)
Roud #2078
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ye Gentlemen of England (I)" [Laws K2]
cf. "Charge the Can Cheerily" (theme, ships)
cf. "Wasp Stinging Frolic" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Jeff. Davis in the White House ("Ye northern men in Washington") (Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, p. 190)
NOTES [342 words]: This ballad correctly identifies the American complaints that led to the War of 1812: restrictions on trade and the pressing of American seamen. It also highlights several small victories of the American navy (but ignores assorted American defeats, as well as the fact that many American ships, including the United States, were forced to stay in port for most of the war due to British blockade. The American fleet, composed of nothing larger than a frigate, in fact had no ability to challenge the British fleet of ships of the line).
Based on the events recounted, it would appear that this piece began life as a broadside in late 1812 or early 1813 (this based on the fact that it mentions the Essex positively; the Essex beat the Albert in 1812 but was defeated by Phoebe and Cherub in 1814; see Donald R. Hickey, The War of 1812, pp. 156-157); it is possible that later versions added additional battles.
Many of the battles mentioned have their own songs. See "The Constitution and the Guerriere" [Laws A6] and "The Constitution and the Guerriere (II)" for the battle between those ships. "The Hornet and the Peacock" gives details on that battle. "Enterprise and Boxer" describes the battle of those two vessels. For the Battle of Lake Erie, see "James Bird" [Laws A5]. And for the whole rather pointless naval war, see "Charge the Can Cheerily."
Lest it be thought the Americans had it all their own way, see, e.g. "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (I)" [Laws J20], "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (II)" [Laws J21], "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (III)" [Laws J22]. The honest truth is, the British won the War of 1812 at sea, in much the same way they would win the Battle of Jutland a century later: They took more losses in the naval campaigns of 1812-1815, but by the end of the war, they had the American navy completely bottled up in port, unable to inflict any more damage.
The version printed by Duncan in Coastal Maine is apparently from the same source as the Shay text, and includes a half stanza which Shay omitted. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: FO195

Ye Parliaments of England

See Ye Parliament of England (I) (File: FO195)

Ye Roaring Falls at Kingsey

DESCRIPTION: "Ye roaring falls at Kingsey, Which hurl with mighty force," are known for their force but rarely seen. On September 25, 1815, a raft of logs is overturned by a swell, and two men, John Ames and Hopkins Towne (?), are killed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine), from an earlier broadside
KEYWORDS: logger river death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 44-45, "Ye Roaring Falls at Kingsey" (1 text)
NOTES [69 words]: Although the broadside quoted by Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine was located in Maine, the accident presumably took place in Quebec; the Saint-François River flows through that province, and Kingsey Falls is a town near the river; the closest significant town is Drummondville. It is south of the St. Lawrence; the Saint-François (presumably the "St. Francis" of the broadside) flows north into the St. Lawrence. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm044

Ye Saints Who Dwell on Britain's Shore

See The Handcart Song (I) (File: CAFS2595)

Ye Sons of Australia

DESCRIPTION: "Ye sons of Australia, forget not the brave, And gather wildflowers to place on their graves. They were four daring outlaws...." In praise of the Kelly gang. It mentions the hunt for them, and how Kelly's sister Kate warned them. The ending is implied
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (recording, Phil Shirley)
KEYWORDS: Australia outlaw death burial
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 99-100, "Ye Sons of Australia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads, pp. 24-25, "Ye Sons of Australia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 68-69, "Ye Sons of Australia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 49-50, "The Kellys" (1 text)
Roud #5475
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kelly Gang" (subject)
cf. "Kelly Song (Farewell Dan and Edward Kelly)" (subject)
cf. "Kelly Was Their Captain" (subject)
cf. "My Name is Edward Kelly" (subject)
cf. "Ballad of the Kelly Gang" (subject)
cf. "Stringybark Creek" (subject)
cf. "The Kelly Gang Were Strong" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Kate Kelly's Song
NOTES [13 words]: For background on the Kelly Gang, see the notes to "Kelly Was Their Captain." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: MA099

Ye Sons of Columbia

See Fuller and Warren [Laws F16] (File: LF16)

Ye Sons of Old Ireland

DESCRIPTION: "Ye sons of old Ireland, I'm sorry to hear, There is no money stirring this present new year." The gentry no longer eat "turtle and wine ... Their bellies that swelled with Napoleon's renown Will grow flat like old air-bags since Boney is down"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Joyce's _Old Irish Folk Music and Songs_, according to Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815)
KEYWORDS: war commerce nonballad political Napoleon hardtimes food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 198, "Ye Sons of Old Ireland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2357
NOTES [183 words]: Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815: "Times were good during the Napoleonic era as the war effort generated massive demand for goods and services in Ireland. An economic slump ensued after Napoleon's defeat as the war machine was wound down and armies were demobilized."[An interesting contrast to the situation presented in songs such as "The Troubles." From what I've read, Irish industry didn't benefit all that much, but the army did help soak up some of the vast surplus population -- for a while. - RBW] This is like the lines from "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon": "Napoleon he was a friend to heroes, both young and old, He caus'd the money for to fly wherever he did go." Here also is the main theme of "The Grand Conversation Under the Rose": "Come stir up the wars, and our trade will be flourishing."
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "You Sons of Old Ireland" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Moyl198

Ye Wanton Young Women

DESCRIPTION: Young men "chase about at weman's heels." After twenty weeks the singer "grew pale and wan." After 40 weeks she "brought home a son" to be named after the father; "I'll gang nae mair a rovin among the merry maids." The baby dies. "I'll go again a rovin'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex childbirth death rake
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1478, "Ye Wanton Young Women" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #7180
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A-Rovin'" (theme, chorus lines)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I'll Gang Nae Mair a Rovin
File: GrD71478

Ye Zephyrs Gay

See The Lass of Richmond Hill (File: WT070)

Ye'll Fa' Bonnie Geordie

DESCRIPTION: She says "ye'll fa' [fall] bonnie Geordie." He turned around, kissed her and says "Na bonnie Annie"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1865, "Ye'll Fa' Bonnie Geordie" (1 short text)
Roud #13586
File: GrD81865

Ye'll hae heard o' Tattie Jock

See Tattie Jock (File: GrD3377)

Ye're Noo on Bogieside

DESCRIPTION: "Assist me, all ye muses, For to compose a song, 'Tis of a tyrant farmer Near Gartly did belong." The farmer continually demands more effort for small reward, reminding the staff "Ye're noo on Bogieside." The singer looks forward to the day he is free
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes farming
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #102, p. 2, ("Assist me all ye muses, For to compose a song") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan3 359, "Ye're Now on Bogieside" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 281, "Ye're Noo on Bogieside" (1 text)
Roud #5600
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bogieside
File: Ord281

Ye're Now on Bogieside

See Ye're Noo on Bogieside (File: Ord281)

Ye's Lie Neist the Wa'

DESCRIPTION: "The day o' Duncan's marriage it was a day o' rain, I took 'er on ahin me, and vow but I was fain, I took the leem [loom] rod in my han' a scabbit beast to ca, And we's baith lie in ae bed, and ye's lie neist the wa'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: wedding sex abduction
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan4 913, "Ye's Lie Neist the Wa'" (1 fragment)
Roud #6243
NOTES [23 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan4 fragment. - BS
A first person variant of "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" [Child 46]? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4913

Ye've a' heard tell o' the wife o' Gateside

See The Wife o' Gateside (File: GrD2207)

Yea Ho, Little Fish

DESCRIPTION: From the sailor to the fish: "Yea ho, little fish, don't cry, don't cry; Yea ho, little fish, you'll be a whale by and by." The singer talks of the voyage, of how the fish try to avoid capture, and of the love whose picture is "tattooed all over my chest"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953
KEYWORDS: fishing sea
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 119-120, 133, "The Little Fish" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 5, "The Little Fish" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, p. 38, "Little Fish" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, YEAFISH
Roud #5477
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Farewell, Little Fishes" (on PeteSeeger30)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Song of the Fishes (Blow Ye Winds Westerly)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [26 words]: Meredith and Anderson claim that this song is probably Portugese; their only basis for this, however, is the vague recollection of one of their informants. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: MA119

Year of Jubalo, The

See Kingdom Coming (The Year of Jubilo) (File: R230)

Year of Jubilo, The

See Kingdom Coming (The Year of Jubilo) (File: R230)

Year of Seventy One, The

DESCRIPTION: New Years 1971. Bob Mack and Mickey ride Bob's tractor to Mass but it will not pass "Maggie's" where Bob always stops for a drink. Then, drunk, he drives into a ditch, losing Mickey to the road. Mickey swears he'll not ride in the tractor for a while.
AUTHOR: Jim McGonigle (source: McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
EARLIEST DATE: 1988 (McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 71, "The Year of Seventy One" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: McB1071

Year Song (No Other Year the Same)

DESCRIPTION: "19XX/20XX at (XXXX), No other year the same, Every girl a comrade true, No matter name or town or fame. 19XX/20XX at (XXXX), Sunset and evening glow. But it's the inspiration most That makes us love it so."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1999 (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 341, 416, "Year Song" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bobolink" (tune, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
File: ACSF341Y

Yella Gal

See Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady) (File: San011)

Yellow Banjo

See I Used to Play My Old Banjo (Yellow Banjo, I Used to Live in Lancashire) (File: DPio288)

Yellow Bittern, The

See An Buinnean Bui (File: HHH830)

Yellow Cornmeal

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme? "Yellow cornmeal, Red tomato, Ribbon cane, sweet potato, Round melon, Ripe persimmon, Little goober peas"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: food | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 28, "(Yellow cornmeal)" (1 text)
File: WEMM028B

Yellow Gal (I)

See My Yallow Gal (File: LxA245)

Yellow Gal (II)

See Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady) (File: San011)

Yellow Gals

See Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go) (File: Doe062)

Yellow Gals (Doodle Let Me Go)

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Refrain: "Doodle let me go girls, doodle let me go, Hooraw my yaller girls, doodle let me go." Verses have dancing/drinking themes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys)
KEYWORDS: shanty drink dancing
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 380-381, "Doodle Let Me Go" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 288-289]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, VIII, p. 9, "Do Let Me Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DOODLEGO
Roud #3221
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Do Let Me Go, Gels
NOTES [47 words]: I've heard these lyrics sung, almost verbatim, as part of the "Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go)" family. But as that is an immigration song, and this is about sailing conditions, I am separating them while noting that they do seem to cross-fertilize. - RBW
File: Hugi380

Yellow Handkerchief, The (Flash Company)

DESCRIPTION: Singer once loved a young girl who wore a yellow handkerchief. Unfortunately, he kept "flash company", and he is now ruined and destitute; "Like a flower in the garden all my color has gone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Gardiner coll.)
KEYWORDS: disease love clothes lover floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 360, "The Yellow Handkerchief" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 32, "The Yellow Handkerchief" (1 text, 1 tune); also 58, "The False-Hearted Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #47, "The Myrtle Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #80, "Flash Company" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FLASHCMP* (FALSHART*)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 13, "Flash Company" (1 text, with a tune on p. 534)
Roud #954
RECORDINGS:
Phoebe Smith, "Yellow Handkerchief" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4190), "Flash Company" ("First I loved William, and then I loved John"), Thomas Smith (?), n.d
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, No, Not I" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [100 words]: MacColl and Seeger, for some inexplicable reason, identify their fragment-of-a-fragment with Laws O 37 ("Mary on the Silvery Tide"). Their version is clearly not a unity, but since it has the chorus and form of this song (and the other bits and pieces are too small to identify), here it files.
Including their text "The False-Hearted Lover" is even more of a stretch, but it consists of one verse certainly from this song, one that seems unique, and four floaters; where else do you file it? This point is discussed in some detail in the notes to Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: K360

Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go)

DESCRIPTION: The Irish adventurer comes to Mr. Tapscott, seeking passage to America. Tapscott arranges for (his) voyage, (charging an exorbitant price and) leaving the young Irishman to be plundered on the voyage. The youth vows to stay on the American shore
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870
KEYWORDS: sailor emigration robbery
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE) Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 61-64, "Heave Away" (3 texts, 1 tune, but the last is "Heave Away, Me Johnnies")
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 73-74, "We're All Bound to Go" (1 text)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 298-301, "Lay Me Down," "Across the Western Ocean," "The Irish Emigrant", "Heave Away" (4 texts, 2 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 222-224]
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 182-183, "Tab Scott" (1 text)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 56, "Yellow Meal" (1 text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 407, "Heave Away" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment of a shanty which could go here, or with "Heave Away, Me Johnnies," or perhaps somewhere else)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H827, pp. 100-101, "Yellow Meal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 98, "We're All Away to Sea" (1 text)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #13, "We're All Bound to Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 75-76, "We're All Bound to Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 485-486, "Heave Away" (1 fragmentary text, recognized by the chorus line and perhaps only slightly related, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 325, "Heave Away" (1 text -- a fragment of a shanty which could go here, or with "Heave Away, Me Johnnies," or perhaps somewhere else)
DT, YELLMEAL*
ADDITIONAL: Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, p. 104, "Heave Away Me Johnnies" (1 text)
Roud #15778
RECORDINGS:
Richard Maitland, "Heave Away" (AFS, 1939; on LC26)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Heave Away, Me Johnnies" (tune, meter, chorus)
cf. "Down in the Coal Mine" (part of tune)
cf. "Yellow Gals (Doodle Let Me Go)" (lyrics)
NOTES [232 words]: The brothers William and James Tapscott (the former based in Britain and the latter in New York) ran a business arranging passage from Britain to America. (Often this involved shipping a girl from Ireland to meet her love, who had already gone to America.) As their clients were often completely ignorant, they frequently were able to make a very tidy profit indeed.
The "Yellow Meal" (pronounced "Yellow Male") versions of the text seem to have been adapted from a stage version.
Sam Henry has circumstantial details of the voyage of the Joshua A. Walker, mentioned in his text. Many versions, however, omit references to this ship. In Harlow's text, the ship is the Josie Walker, and he reports on p. 105 of The Making of a Sailor that "Tapscott, in the foregoing chantey, in the early fifties was one of the wealthy shipowners of Liverpool. His vesels were noted for strict discipline, as well as cruelty to the crew. His Josie Walker was an emigrant ship trading between Liverpool and New York and her voyages, to and from the Continent, were marked by unheard-of cruelties, the stories of which spread along the water front and the ship was known to all sailors as 'Tapscott's Josie Walker.' The mention of this 'hell ship' stopped many a good sailor from shipping in her and being unable to secure a good crew was the cause no doubt of the many perversities to a green crew." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Doe062

Yellow Rose of Taegu, The

DESCRIPTION: A reluctant soldier meets the Yellow Rose of Taegu, a good two-dollar whore, who makes him forget the perils of war.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex soldier whore derivative
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 410-412, "The Yellow Rose of Taegu" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, YLLOWTX4*
Roud #10405
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yellow Rose of Texas" (tune)
File: EM410

Yellow Rose of Texas, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer is going to see his "Yellow Rose" -- "The sweetest rose of color this (darkey) ever knew; Her eyes are bright as diamonds; They sparkle like the dew." He promises that "if I ever find her, we never more will part."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858 (sheet music published by Firth, Pond & Co of New York)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation reunion
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Jackson-PopularSongsOfNineteenthCenturyAmerica, pp. 253-257, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 76-68, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 28-29, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 20-21, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (1 text)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 561, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 272, "The Yellow Rose Of Texas" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 128, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 516-517, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (1 text plus a copy of one page of the sheet music)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, pp. 165-166, "Yellow Rose of Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 190-195, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Emerson-StephenFosterAndCo, pp. 37-38, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 97-99, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 661+, "The Yellow Rose of Texas"
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #2702, p. 183, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #3/72, p. 8 and #3/62, p. 8, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (1 text)
DT, YELLOWTX*
ADDITIONAL: Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), p. 4, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (text, music and reference to Decca F-2872 recorded Feb 24, 1932)
William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, p. 66, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (1 text, a somewhat cleaned up version of a nineteenth century text, tune on pp. 189-192)
ST RJ19253 (Full)
Roud #2800
RECORDINGS:
Gene Autry, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (Victor 23792, 1933) (Banner 32771/Melotone M12700/Oriole 8233/Romeo 5233/Perfect 12912/Conqueror 8096, 1933; OKeh 04998/Vocalion 04998, 1938; Vocalion 5498, n.d.)
Lee Boswell, "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (Decca 5057, 1934)
Bill Boyd & his Cowboy Ramblers, "Yellow Rose of Texas" (Bluebird B-7088/Montgomery Ward M-7189, 1937; rec. 1936)
Milton Brown & his Musical Brownies, "Yellow Rose of Texas" (Decca 5273, 1936; Minerva M-14153, c. 1941)
DaCosta Woltz's Southern Broadcasters, "Yellow Rose of Texas" (Gennett 6143, 1927)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Yellow Rose of Texas" [instrumental] (on NLCR07)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(748), "The Yellow Rose of Texas", H. De Marsan (New York, N.Y.), 1864-1878
LOCSinging, sb40591b, "The Yellow Rose of Texas", H. De Marsan (New York, N.Y.), 1864-1878; also cw106920, "The Yellow Rose of Texas"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Yellow Rose of Taegu" (tune)
cf. "The Bouncing Girl in Fogo" (theme, lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
The Yellow Rose of Taegu (File: EM410)
The Hero of the Coast (File: BaRo156)
Song of the Texas Rangers (NOT Laws A8; War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy, pp. 175-176)
NOTES [328 words]: Extremely popular with Southern troops in the Civil War, and frequently parodied, the first known publication of this piece occurred in 1858. That version appears to be a minstrel piece; in it, both lovers are "darkeys." The only attribution is to "J.K.," who was and still remains unknown.
According to William H. A. Williams, 'Twas Only an Irishman's Dream, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 37, the tune is quite similar to a piece called The Irish Mother's Lament"; he hints that this song is based on Irish elements.
It is interesting that, in the Civil War, the troops often sang, "She's the sweetest rose of color this SOLDIER (or, later, FELLOW) ever knew." This would hardly have been acceptable to the Southern gentry; it was miscegenation.
In the period after the Battle of Nashville at the end of 1864, when the southern soldiers of Texas General John Bell Hood's army had been decisively defeated and hoped to be placed under the command of Joseph E. Johnston ("Uncle Joe"), troops supposedly sang "And now I'm going southward, For my heart is full of woe; I'm going back to Georgia, To find my Uncle Joe... the gallant Hood of Texas Played hell in Tennessee." - RBW
James "Sparky" Rucker places this song in the period of the Mexican War [properly, the Texas rebellion - RBW, with thanks to Cirk R. Bejnar], stating that the "Yellow Rose" was Santa Anna's mulatto (American) girlfriend, who stole his battle plans before the battle of San Jacinto and delivered them to the American army. - PJS
Broadsides LOCSinging sb40591b and Bodleian Harding B 18(748): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Broadsides LOCSinging sb40591b and Bodleian Harding B 18(748) are duplicates.
The date and master id (GB-4029-2) for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RJ19253

Yellow-Haired Laddie (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "The maidens are smiling" because the clans will fight "and the yella haired laddie is first in the van." "He heeds not the danger and fear is unknown." "The maidens are crying in rocky Glencoe... for the yellow-haired laddie lies cauld in the clay"
AUTHOR: Thomas C Latto (b.1818) (source: McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, Whitelaw)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong)
KEYWORDS: battle death Scotland youth
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 13, 1692 - The Massacre of Glencoe (although that may not be the subject of the song)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 98-99, 153, "The Yella Haired Laddie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 489, "The Yellow-Haired Laddie" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Willie Scott, "The Yellow-Haired Laddie," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1970.373,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 14 September 2013 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/67735/1
Roud #6930
NOTES [15 words]: For background on the Massacre of Glencoe, see the notes to "The Massacre of Glencoe." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: McSc098

Yellow, Yellow, What's for Yellow

DESCRIPTION: "Yellow, yellow, What's for yellow, Yellow is the color Of a fairy's umbrella."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: colors | fairy umbrella
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 65, "(Yellow, yellow)" (1 text)
Roud #38125
NOTES [126 words]: The mention of umbrellas for fairies is rather odd -- I seem to recall hearing that at least some could walk between raindrops. Briggs: Katherine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, 1976 (I use the 1977 Pantheon paperback) has no entry for umbrellas or parasols.
The color yellow is also odd for a fairy in the sense of a magical being. Briggs, pp. 108-111, covers the "Dress and appearance of the fairies." Yellow is almost never a fairy color, and certainly not in Ireland, where the colors are green and (sometimes) red. It makes me wonder if this is really about fairies in the sense of magical creatures -- or whether this is actually a taunt-song against a different sort of fairy. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI065A

Yellow, Yellow, Who's Your Fellow?

See Apples and Oranges (File: ZiZa052B)

Yellowstone Flat

See The Pecos Punchers (File: FCW112)

Yeo Heave Ho!

DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. "Yeo heave ho! Round th' capstan go. Heave, men, with a will. Tramp an' tramp it still. The Anchor must be weighed (x2). Yeo heave ho! Yeo heave ho!" Similarly, "Yeo heave ho, cheerily we go." "...Raise her from below"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (L.A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: shanty ship
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 318-319, "Yeo Heave Ho!" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 240]
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 134, "Yeo, Heave Ho!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13269
NOTES [43 words]: Given its inclusion in "Music of the Waters" and, according to Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, its form and tune, this may be one of the earliest examples of a capstan shanty, and may also be the sing-out referred to in Dana's Two Years Before the Mast. - SL
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Hugi318

Yeo's Party

DESCRIPTION: "'Twas on the fifth of November That little Jimmy Yeo he gave a party." The singer lists those who attend. All are full. The singer warns, "If ever you make a spree and don't invite me, As sure as the devil, I will make a song!"
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Ives-LarryGorman)
KEYWORDS: party warning
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 18-19, 202, "Yeo's Party" (1 text)
Roud #25140
File: LaGoYePa

Yes Ma'am

DESCRIPTION: "Little girl, little girl, Yes, sir. Did you feed my chickens? Yes sir. What did you fed them? Corn and wheat." "Little girl... did you feed my cat? What did you...? Bread and milk." "Did you feed my horse? Corn and hay." "...my sheep? Oats and Barley."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: dialog food animal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 95, "Little Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15294
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Good Old Egg-Head" (form)
cf. "Shout Josephine Shout" (form)
File: Arno095

Yes, Belinda

See O Belinda (File: OpGa046)

Yes, Good Lord

See Cain and Abel (When the Great Day Comes) (File: Br3557)

Yes, Yes, Yes

DESCRIPTION: Mother buys a rooster, thinks it's a duck, roasts it, sis gets gravy from its "yas, yas, yas." A rooster taken for a hen, does not lay eggs from his.... Sister should stop waving her.... Dance: if you can't shake your shoulders shake your....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Stump Johnson)
KEYWORDS: dancing bawdy scatological chickens animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
Blind Blake Higgs, "Yes, Yes, Yes" (on WIHIGGS01)
(James) Stump Johnson, "Duck's Yas Yas" (Paramount 12842, 1928); on "James 'Stump' Johnson 1929-1964," Document Records DOCD-5250 CD (1994)) as "The Duck's Yas-Yas-Yas"
Tampa Red and Georgia Tom (Thomas A Dorsey), "That Duck's Yas Yas Yas" (Vocalion 1277, 1929); on "Tampa Red, Volume 2" Document Records DOCD-5074 CD (1991)) as "The Duck Yas-Yas-Yas"
Dave Van Ronk, "Yas, Yas, Yas" (1991, on "Dave Van Ronk The Folkways Years 1959-1961," Smithsonian Folkways SF 40041)
NOTES [217 words]: In the liner notes to the Smithsonian-Folkways CD Van Ronk says, "I think I learned this from a record by the Spirits of Rhythm. In any case, various versions of it were kicking around the jazz scene when I was. Some of the raunchier verses were omitted in deference to the tender sensibilities of the folk audience."
Of Stump Johnson's 8 verses only three used "yas yas yas." Other verses were just good rhyming double couplets. A fair question is, "What did Johnson sing when he wasn't bound by recording standards?" For example, here is one of Johnson's (and Tampa Red's) verses: "Down on Morgan there's a good location, Right there next to the gasoline station That's where you get your car's oil and grease All the women crying honey won't you come in please." Here's Dave Van Ronk's (and Blind Blake's): "Mr Dillinger rode up to a gasoline station, He says this looks like a pretty good location. The attendant says do you want some gas? Well it's either your gas or your yas yas yas."
As it turns out, the Tampa Red and Georgia Tom track is a cover of Stump Johnson's track, verse for verse, down to the humming introduction. All of the six Van Ronk verses are included in Blind Bllake's eleven, though the words vary. They cover two of Johnson's verses, not counting the verse cited above. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcYeYeYe

Yes! And We Can Do It!

DESCRIPTION: "Breaking out of barracks (x3), As you have done before." "Parading all unbuttoned (x3), As you have done before." "Take his name and number." "Up before the C.O.!" "Fourteen days' detention." "Pack-drill, bread and water." "Yes, and we can do it!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier clothes punishment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, pp. 35-36, "Yes! And We Can Do It!" (1 text)
Roud #10563
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Go In and Out the Window" (tune) and references there
File: BrPa035

Yesterday at Three O'Clock in the Morning (Nonsense)

DESCRIPTION: "Yesterday at three o'clock in the morning, An empty house full of furniture caught light. The fire brigade came and put it out before it started, Ran over a dead cat and half killed it. Two naked men came running ... With their hand in their pockets..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (J. C. Reid, _A Book of New Zealand_)
KEYWORDS: nonsense wordplay
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 139, "(Yesterday at three o'clock in the morning)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: J. C. Reid, _A Book of New Zealand_ (Collins National Anthologies), Collins, 1964, pp. 333-334, "Children's Games" ("Yesterday at three o'clock in the morning") (1 text)
File: SuSm139

Yesterday Upon the Stair (Antigonish)

DESCRIPTION: Original text: "Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn't there! He wasn't there again today, Oh how I wish he'd go away!" Often slightly changed, e.g. the Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo version ends "how I wish he'd stay away"
AUTHOR: Words: (William) Hughes Mearns
EARLIEST DATE: 1899; first published 1922 (source: Wikipedia)
KEYWORDS: ghost nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 43, "(Yesterday upon the stair)" (1 text)
NOTES [126 words]: Hughes Mearn's title "Antigonish" for this apparently was bestowed because the poem was inspired by the report of a ghost on the stairs of a building in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. In 1939 Harold Adamson adapted the words, to become the song "The Little Man Who Wasn't There," with music by Bernie Hanighen, but this does not appear to be the source of the Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo version, since it doesn't mention the "little man."
This is by far Mearns's best-known poem; he himself wrote several parodies that he called "Later Antigonishes."
Obviously just about everyone has heard this poem, or at least the first verse, but it doesn't really seem to have gone into tradition; at least, no one but Withers seems to have claimed to have collected it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: WEMM043B

Yew-Pine Mountains, The

See Swannanoah Tunnel (File: CW166)

Yim Yonson

DESCRIPTION: "Yim Yonson ship from lumberyard Upon the scow Sam Patch." He knows nothing of boats, but pretends to be a sailor. In a storm, the captain orders him to reef a sail. Yonson answers, "Der ben ten tousand tops'ls, yes, But only one Yim Yonson." He is fired
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (collected from S. C. Jacobson by Walton)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship storm humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, p. 166, "Yim Yonson (The Scow Sam Patch)" (1 text)
Roud #36185
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck of the Julie Plante" (tune).
File: WGM166

Yip Yip Yip Tooraliaddy

DESCRIPTION: "Yip yip yip tooraliaddy, And it's yip yip yip tooraliaddy, For there's no better king in the universe Than King Edward the Seventh today!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: royalty nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1901-1910 - Reign of Edward VII of Britain
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 71, "Yip yip yip tooraliaddy" (1 short text)
Roud #25501
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Just Tread on the Tail of Me Coat" (tune, according to Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
File: KSUC071B

Yip, Yip, a Nanny-Goat

DESCRIPTION: "Yip, yip, a nanny-goat, Yip, yip, ay, When we get our holidays, We'll all run away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: animal | nanny goat running holidays
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 13, "Yip, Yip, a Nanny-Goat" (1 short text)
Roud #38112
File: BAAI013B

Yli Kymmenen Vuotta Korpilnissa Oli Jo Asuttu (10 Years We Have Already Lived Here in Corbin)

DESCRIPTION: Finnish: "Kymmenen vuotta Korpinissa oli jo assuttu." "Then years we've lived in Corbin" without any stores being opened. The residents have to travel to Eveleth to buy anything, because Corbin doesn't have a store. They complain about conditions
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (collected from Kusti Simila by Lomax, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage commerce home
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 460-461, "Yli Kymmenen Vuotta Korpilnissa Oli Jo Asuttu (10 Years We Have Already Lived Here in Corbin)" (1 text plus a rather stiff English translation)
File: CAFS2461

Yo Ho Ho

See Dead Man's Chest (File: LxA512)

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum

DESCRIPTION: "Fifteen men on the Dead Man's Chest, Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum." Captain, mate, bos'n, cook are all killed in a fight between the sailors. The survivors wrap up the body, "heaved 'em over," and left them "ten fathoms deep on the road to hell."
AUTHOR: first lines by Robert Louis Stephenson; rest by Young Ewing Allison (1853-1932) (source: Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Allison's original version, according to Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs)
KEYWORDS: pirate fight death ship burial
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-NewBookOfPirateSongs 84, "Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum" (1 text, 1 tune; #62 in the first edition)
Roud #V31917
File: FrPi084

Yo Ho, Yo Ho

DESCRIPTION: In this formula song, the singer tells of placing his hand successively on a woman's toe, knee, thigh, etc., and the results of his quest.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: The type appears in 1661, in Merry Drollery, as "There Were Three Birds"; then in the 1838 chapbook The Fancy! A Fanciful Collection of Fancy, Flash, and Amatory Songs as "Billy Go Leary"
KEYWORDS: bawdy seduction sex
FOUND IN: Australia Canada Britain(England) US(Ap,So,SW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 318-323, "Yo Ho, Yo Ho" (1 text, 1 tune plus 1 text for "Billy Go Leary")
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 31, (no title) (1 short text, which might or might not be this, but it is suggestive that it breaks off just as the sailor promises to tell a tale) (OakEd, pp. 43-44)
Roud #5586
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There Were Three Birds"
cf. "Drive It On"
cf. "Gently, Johnny, My Jingalo" (Cecil Sharp's rewrite)
cf. "He Kept A-Kissin' On"
cf. "He Gave Her Kisses One"
cf. "How Ashamed I Was"
cf. "A-Rovin'"
cf. "The Girl in Portland Street" (plot, theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Laid My Hand upon Her Knee
NOTES [49 words]: This song, as old as any in the English-language canon, survives in multiple variants sung to a variety of melodies. - EC
It appears Roud lumps this with "Gentry Johnny My Jingalo." That song has been so heavily redacted by Sharp that I can't lump them despite their, um, points of contact. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: EM318

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, The Frisky Plank

DESCRIPTION: "Yo ho, you ho, the frisky plank, You walks along it so, Till it goes down and you go down To Davy Jones below."
AUTHOR: presumably J. M. Barrie
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: pirate death
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 165, "Yoho, yoho, the frisky plank" (1 text)
Roud #25404
NOTES [34 words]: Obviously not a real pirate song; it's from "Peter Pan." The version of the book that I've seen puts it in Chapter 15, "Hook Or Me This Time"; in at least one version of the play, it's in Act V, Scene 1.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: KSUC165B

Yo Soy de la Tierra

DESCRIPTION: Spanish: "Yo so de la tierra, Y de donde por alla, Donde por alla, Que ni el sol se mir' al salir. Jovencita, pidale a Dios, Que no me vaya a morir...." The driver says he is from far away, and is leaving again. He hopes for success on the road
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (collected from Refugio Castillo)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage love separation
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 234-235, "Yo Soy de la Tierra" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: LoSi234

Yodelings of Champion Raftsmen

See The Crying Family (Imaginary Trouble) (File: Wa062)

Yon Ball, Bonnie Lassie's Been the Ruin o' Me

DESCRIPTION: "Kissin a' the bonnie lads, and makin' fun sae free, Yon ball, bonnie lassie's been the ruin o' me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting dancing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan7 1406, "Yon Ball, Bonnie Lassie's Been the Ruin o' Me" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7258
NOTES [23 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan7 fragment.
Greig/Duncan7: "December 1907. As sung by an old man at Kemnay in 1859." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71406

Yon Bonnie Lad

DESCRIPTION: The singer would not have a minister (has many books), lawyer (many crooks), tailor (though he is neat) or miller (dusty clothes), but "I'll hae yon bonnie, yon bonnie, yon bonnie lad"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 996, "Yon Bonnie Lad" (1 text)
Roud #6736
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'll Not Marry at All" (theme)
cf. "Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me)" (theme: professional comparison) and references there
cf. "The Tailor He's Been Seekin' Me" (theme)
File: GrD5996

Yon Green Vallee

See Yon Green Valley (File: K168)

Yon Green Valley

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of a young man who courted her and swore he'd be true; for 11 months he was, but then left. She reminds him of his promise, but he must obey his "father's counsel." She recommends the single life, for "a contented mind bears no slavery."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: loneliness courting love sex marriage promise warning farewell abandonment baby lover oldmaid floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Hebr)) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig/Duncan6 1183, "Yon Green Valley" (1 text)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 168, "Yon Green Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 86-87, "Yon Green Valley" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 51, "Yon Green Vallee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 72, "Green Valley (The First Young Man Came A-Courting Me)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GOBOUND
Roud #2125
RECORDINGS:
Marie Hare, "Green Valley" (on MRMHare01)
Bruce Laurensen, "Yon Green Valley" (on FSBFTX15)
Mrs. Leonard Molloy, "Green Valley" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rambleaway" (plot)
cf. "Must I Go Bound" (lyrics)
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] (lyrics)
File: K168

Yon Town, Bonnie Lassie

DESCRIPTION: The singer says if he had the bonnie lass he likes he'd have no reason to return to that town. If he had her on the bridal seat in church there he'd have no reason to return. Once his "errand" were finished he'd never return.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan5)
KEYWORDS: love wedding nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan5 941, "Yon Town, Bonnie Lassie" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6757
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fat'll Mak a Bonny Lassie Blythe an' Glad?" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5) and references there
File: GrD5941

Yon' Come Roberta

See The Midnight Special (File: R292)

Yonder Come Day

DESCRIPTION: Short phrases punctuated by the phrase "Yonder come day," with chorus "Yonder come day, day done broke, now, in my soul." Examples: "Yonder come day, I heard him say (x3)"; "It's a dying day"; "It's a burying day" ; "I was on my knees"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 321-323, "Yonder Come Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 6, pp. 56-61, "Ha'k 'E Angels" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "O Day" (on LomaxCD1712, recorded 1959)
NOTES [70 words]: Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands's hymn is, to modify the description above, "short phrases punctuated by the phrase "Ha'k 'e angels," with chorus "Oh Lord, Ha'k 'e angels." Parrish writes "in the vicinity of Albany, Georgia, there is a similar version that uses 'Yonder Come Day' instead of 'Ha'k 'e Angels'" (p. 56, fn. 3) -- as in the LomaxCD1712 version.
Parrish includes this among her "ring shout" songs. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: SBoA321

Yonder Comes a Courteous Knight

See The Baffled Knight [Child 112] (File: C112)

Yonder Comes a Georgia Girl

DESCRIPTION: "Yonder comes a (Georgia girl/young man), Don't he look funny? She's got on (a/her father's) roundabout Without a cent of money." "Once I could have married you, Once I could my honey, When you wore your roundabout With a pocket full of money."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida)
KEYWORDS: clothes money courting humorous
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 83, "Yonder Comes a Georgia Girl" (1 text)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #70, "Yonder Comes a Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5007 and 7884
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss" (floating lyrics) and references there
cf. "Yonder Comes My Love" (theme)
File: Br3083

Yonder Comes a Yellow Gal

DESCRIPTION: "Yonder comes a (yellow/yaller) gal, All dressed up in red, Well, I wish my wife was dead, Well, I wish my wife was dead!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: clothes wife death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 754, "Yonder Come a Yaller Gal" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 312-313, "The Roving Gambler" (3 texts, 1 tune. The "A" and "C" texts are "The Roving Gambler (The Gambling Man)" [Laws H4]; the "B" text is mostly floating verses, including this one)
File: BrS5754

Yonder Comes a Young Man

See Yonder Comes a Georgia Girl (File: Br3083)

Yonder Comes My Dearest Billie

DESCRIPTION: "Yonder comes my dearest Billie I know him by his coat of blue," his coal black hair and good behavior. The singer loves father and mother but loves Billie better: "if you turn him out I'll take him in." In a meadow she fills her apron with flowers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2)
KEYWORDS: love flowers floatingverses nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 57, "Yonder Comes My Dearest Billie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7009
NOTES [60 words]: Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart2 may be a collection of floating verses and parts of verses. The apron-filling is also in "Died for Love," Christie's "The Prickly Rose," and Henry's "The Apron of Flowers." Her lover's coal black hair is reminiscent of the blue-jacketed "The Dark-Eyed Sailor." Loving father and mother is in, among others, "Careless Love." - BS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: BrE2057

Yonder Comes My Love

DESCRIPTION: "Yonder comes my purty little love, How do you reckon I know? Know her by her old cotton dress...." "Yonder comes...all dressed in yaller...Her shoes all greased with taller...." "...dressed in red...she wished my wife was dead." "Went up on the mountain"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Roberts-SangBranchSettlers)
KEYWORDS: clothes love beauty wife humorous courting
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #77, "Yonder Comes My Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3431
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Diamond Joe (II)" (lyrics)
cf. "Yonder Comes a Georgia Girl" (theme)
NOTES [33 words]: An ambitious lumper could probably find something to lump this with, e.g. "Diamond Joe (II)" or "Cindy (I)." But it has minor similarities to so many songs that I decided it had to file on its own. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Robe077

Yonder Comes My Pretty Little Girl

See The Roving Gambler [Laws H4] (File: LH04)

Yonder Comes Teacher with a Big Fat Stick

See Here Comes the Teacher (File: McIn102C)

Yonder Comes the Devil

DESCRIPTION: The Devil, with his pitchfork and shovel, tries to dig up potatoes in the turnpike road. "And the road was so hard and he couldn't get 'em up. So yonder run the Devil with his tail cocked up" The Devil may call in his family, who also struggle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1973 (recording, Joe Jones)
KEYWORDS: humorous nonballad nonsense talltale Devil food
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 72 (an untitled 8-line fragment)
RECORDINGS:
Joe Jones, "Yonder Comes the Devil" (on Voice14)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Mister Revel (Did You Ever See the Devil?)" (theme, lyrics)
File: RcYCtDev

Yonder Comes the High Sheriff

DESCRIPTION: "Yonder comes the high sheriff ridin' after me, Ridin' after me, yes, ridin' after me. Yonder comes... O it's captain, I don't want to go." "Been down to Frankfort servin' out my time...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag; recording, Ollis Martin)
KEYWORDS: prison police
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 213, "Yonder Comes the High Sheriff" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #21065
RECORDINGS:
Ollis Martin, "Police and High Sheriff Come Ridin' Down" (Gennett 6306, 1928; rec. 1927; on StuffDreams1)
Poplin Family, "Goin' Back to Sumter" (on Poplin01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gotta Travel On" (tune, words, structure)
NOTES [53 words]: "Gotta Travel On" became enormously popular in the 1950s-1960s folk revival, to the point where it was a parodied cliche; the song was always credited to Paul Clayton. This song, though, is clearly its source. Ollis Martin's recording seems to have been made only a few weeks before Sandburg's book was published. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: San213

Yonder Goes My Nora

DESCRIPTION: "Yon'er goes my Nora, gittin' drunk ergin (x2), Oh, Miss Sudie! She's got good booty, Di'mon' rings and fine clo'es too, But dat Nigger ain't gonna get Nothin' from me. Oh, dat woman can't friss me. Yon'er goes my Nora, gittin' drunk ergin."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: drink love clothes
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 214, (no title, but filed with the "Shine Reel") (1 short text)
File: ScNF214A

Yonder Hill There Is a Widow

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) AND The Drowsy Sleeper [Laws M4] (File: E098)

Yonder Mountain

See Pretty Saro (File: R744)

Yonder School

See The Twa Brothers [Child 49] (File: C049)

Yonder She Comes

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, yonder she comes, and it's howdy, howdy do." "Oh, rise you up, my lady, Present to me your hand, I know you are a pretty girl, But Lord, such a man." "We two will travel on Until we have to part." Now that peace has come, they will travel and marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (McDowell & McDowell, Folk Dances of Tennessee, according to Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty)
KEYWORDS: playparty love courting travel war
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Spurgeon-WaltzTheHall-AmericanPlayParty, pp. 211-212, "Yonder She Comes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11614
File: Spurg211

Yonder Sits a Pretty Little Creature

See Wheel of Fortune (Dublin City, Spanish Lady) (File: E098)

Yonder Stands Young Couple

DESCRIPTION: "Yonder stands young couple, John Hardy was joined in hand, The other was a woman, And the other a man. Said they'd marry If they could agree...." "Now they're married, it's pity on their souls." They depart. The war is over. All raise hands
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians)
KEYWORDS: playparty marriage war
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 255, "Yonder Stands Young Couple" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ShAp255

Yorkshire Bite, The

See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

Yorkshire Boy, The

See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

Yorkshire Farmer, The

See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

Yorkshire Horse-Dealer, The

DESCRIPTION: "Bane ta Claapam town-gate live an oud Yorkshire tike," a horse-dealer named Tommy Towers. He and Abey Muggins set out to cheat each other, trying to get the better deal on a horse-trade by passing off dead animals as alive. They swap dead horses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: trick lie death horse humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #26, pp. 215-216,250, "The Yorkshire Horse-dealer" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 429-430, "The Yorkshire Horse-Dealer" (1 text)
ST BeCo429 (Partial)
Roud #4588
File: BeCo429

Yorkshire in London, A

See The Yorkshireman in London (File: GrD2298)

Yorkshire Rambler, The

See The Yorkshireman in London (File: GrD2298)

Yorkshire Sword Dance Song

DESCRIPTION: "Samson" introduces "the six lords that first ruined me": King William Raw and his brother, another milder man, one that fettered his feet and hands, one that had him blinded and "the sixt' is no better at all than the rest." He pulls down the house.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs)
KEYWORDS: dancing Bible Christmas nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 16-17, "Sword Dance Song" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #610
NOTES [56 words]: The story of Samson occupies chapters 13-16 of Judges; his blinding is in 16:21, and his pulling down of the building where he is being exhibited is in 16:28-30. The "six lords that first ruined me" is curious; there were *five* Lords of the Philistines, and those of Samson's period are not named (and certainly not named William!). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: BrMa016

Yorkshire Volunteers, The (Touch the Thing)

DESCRIPTION: "You Stockton lads and lasses too, Come listen to my story, A dismal tale... I've now to lay before ye...." The singer and his comrades march away to the sound of the drum. They will miss their wives and sweethearts, drink, and "push about the jorum"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chappell); Chappell dates the tune to 1773 or earlier
KEYWORDS: soldier travel drink separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 684-685, "Touch the Thing" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 26-27, "The Yorkshire Volunteers" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: DalC026

Yorkshireman in London, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer arrives in London and offers to see a girl home. When they arrive at a whorehouse he tries to leave. She picks his pocket but he had put fish-hooks there and they strip her finger of her ring. He sells the ring.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3202))
KEYWORDS: ring theft trick humorous whore
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ro)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig/Duncan2 298, "The Yorkshireman in London" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 26, "The Yorkshire Rambler" (1 fragment)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 95, "I'm Yorkshire Though in London" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #55, "A Yorkshire in London" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1640
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3202), "Quite Politely" ("When first in Lunnun I arriv'd"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Harding B 28(69), "When First in Lunnon I Arriv'd"; 2806 c.16(290), Harding B 25(2123), "Yorkshireman in London"; Harding B 28(280), "The Yorkshire man in Lunnon"; Johnson Ballads 963, Douce Ballads 4(57), Harding B 16(216c), Harding B 16(284c), Harding B 36(10) View 2 of 2, Harding B 11(62), Harding B 11(63), Harding B 11(1237), Harding B 11(3033), Harding B 11(3034), Harding B 11(3035), Harding B 11(3274), "Quite Politely"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
When First in London
The Rigs of London
NOTES [147 words]: The major theme here is of the not-so-simple country bumpkin. The listener, like the whore, is fooled. The singer, we think, is taken in, "'midst heavy rain and thunder," by the whore by "a dismal tale, how she was scar'd wi' thunder." When they arrive at her door "twenty lasses, aye, or more, Came out to have a better gloat, at bumpkin, as they call'd me" while other "folks cried poor lad he's undone." There must be other songs with this theme but none come to mind. - BS
There are quite a few on the general theme. "The Zebra Dun" [Laws B16] is about a cowboy who knows more than he appears to. The "Biter Bit" theme is common, found e.g. in "The Baffled Knight" [Child #112]. Australia and New Zealand have several songs about immigrants who refuse to be fooled by the locals. I can't think of anything involving this trick with a ring, or indeed outwitting a prostitute. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: GrD2298

You and I, Lovie

DESCRIPTION: "You and I, lovie, you and I, You and I to sinder, There couldna be a greater cross Than you and I to sinder"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1146, "You and I, Lovie" (1 fragment, 1 tune plus a variant on p. 556)
Roud #6822
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lass o' Benachie" (tune, per Greig/Duncan6)
NOTES [10 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan6 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61146

You Are False But I Forgive You

See Forget You I Never May (File: R737)

You Are False, But I'll Forgive You

See Forget You I Never May (File: R737)

You Are My Sunshine

DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams his "sunshine" is in his arms but wakes to find she is not. He pleads, "don't take my sunshine away." In later verses he says she has broken her promise and left him but she'll "regret it all some day"
AUTHOR: Jimmie Davis [and Charles Miler?] (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Davis)
KEYWORDS: courting love promise rejection warning nonballad lover campsong
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 53, 194, "You Are My Sunshine" (notes only)
DT, YOUMYSUN
Roud #18130
RECORDINGS:
Jimmie Davis, "You Are My Sunshine" (Decca 5813, 1940)
Mississippi John Hurt, "You Are My Sunshine" (on MJHurt05)
Jill MacLaughlin, John MacLaughlin, "Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie/You Are My Sunshine/Down by the Old Mill Stream" (Piotr-Archive #315, recorded 10/22/2022; the first two are chorus only)
Cassie Tarakajian, "You Are My Sunshine" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #411, recorded 01/02/2023)
Frances Turbyfill (Campbell), Derek Piotr, "You Are My Sunshine" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #151, recorded 04/25/2022)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My Only Woodbine (File: Hopk084A)
NOTES [431 words]: W. K. McNeil, editor, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, 2005, p. 96, says that "James Houston 'Jimmie' Davis [1899-2000] enjoyed several extremely successful careers, as a country and gospel singer, songwriter, music publisher, and politician. Born in poverty in rural Louisiana, Davis was the son of sharecroppers San and Sara Davis." He earned a B.A. in history in 1924, and three years later took his masters in education. He then taught history at Davis College., making his first radio appearances about the same time, singing popular music and Jimmie Rodgers covers. Described as a moderate Democrat, he held various offices, including Louisiana governor 1944-1948, 1960-1964. Over the years, he recorded many types of music, from "risqué blues songs" to Western Swing to blues and jazz, but his greatest success was with sentimental country songs; this, his most popular song, is typical. Starting in the 1950s, he devoted most of his energy to gospel music.
This is now "an official song of Louisiana" (McNeil, p. 97), whatever that means.
Some sources list Charles Miller as a co-author of this, but even if he was, no one seems to pay his contribution the slightest attention.
There have been many other attributions over the years. A thread on Mudcat suggests that it was written by Paul Rice and that Davis and Mitchell bought it from him for $35, which Rice took because his wife had medical bills to pay. But no source is cited for this information, although it's certainly a familiar enough story. There are claims that Rice too had it, or at least the idea, from someone else. Another thread claims it was by Oliver Hood. The Wikipedia article on the song has sources for these claims, but all are secondary. There seem to be no primary sources at all beyond the Davis copyright claim. - RBW
Hurt sings only the first verse and the chorus.
Jimmie Davis was not to be outdone as a singing and yodeling governor by W. Lee O'Daniel: "Contrary to expectations, Louisiana singing governor, Jimmie Davis, author of You Are My Sunshine, did not open the Louisiana State Legislature with a song. He was dignified and decorous" (Drew Pearson, "Washington Merry-Go-Round" in Buffalo Courier Express (Buffalo, October 11, 1944), p. 12). - BS
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 458, estimates that this was the tenth most popular song in America in July 1941, and also reached #7 in December 1962. It was recorded by Bing Crosby, Gene Autry, and Tex RItter. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcYAMSS

You Bad and You Bad

DESCRIPTION: The singer accuses Clementina of deserting her sister and Gran when her mother died: "she gone Moruga Road" Chorus: "you bad an you bad / O you bad Clementina"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage01)
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness accusation rambling death mother sister nonballad
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Dixon [Ebenezer] Philip, "You Bad and You Bad" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
File: RcYBAYBa

You Better Love the Methodist

DESCRIPTION: "You better love the Methodist -- You go'n to die; You better love the Methodist -- You go'n to die; You don't know the day nor the hour. You better love the Methodist -- You go'n to die." Repeat with other denominations
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Henry, from "a group of Negro singers at Montreat, North Carolina)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 194, "You Better Love the Methodist" (1 text)
NOTES [57 words]: Henry's notes say "This is an endless song in which any word may be substitutes for Methodist...." However, the only other word he cites is "Baptist." An interesting point, as these were probably the two strongest denominations in the south in the period when this song was sung. I wonder if they would have mentioned, say, Catholics.... - RBW
File: MHAp194

You Better Mind

DESCRIPTION: Leader lines out a line -- for example, "You better mind how you talk"; all come in the second line -- in this case, "You better mind what you're talkin' about" -- and the tag, "you've got to give an account of the Judgment, You better mind"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (LomaxCD1713,LomaxArchive))
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "You Better Mind" (on LomaxCD1713)
Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "You Better Mind How You Talk", St Simon's Island GA, October 1959, Association for Cultural Equity Lomax Digital Archive, ref=T922R05, accessed 19 July 2023 from LomaxArchive at https://archive.culturalequity.org/field-work/southern-us-1959-and-1960/st-simons-island-i-1059/you-better-mind-how-you-talk
NOTES [86 words]: The description follows the LomaxArchive text.
Additional verses are "You're going around here from door to door You're talking about things that you really don't know," "You're going around here from place to place The way you're living is a real disgrace." "Before that preacher baptised you You know what you promised God you would do." "You know you get in the field and you don't want to fight You joined the church but you won't live right."
The LomaxArchive track is the accompaniment for a "ring shout." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcYoBeMi

You Boys O' Callieburn

DESCRIPTION: America has "wiled" the boys of Callieburn to leave adored Machrihanish and their parents behind. Rab MacKinlay has already gone. The boys know their parents will grieve but won't disown them. The boys are named.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976 (recording, Willie Scot)
KEYWORDS: emigration parting America moniker nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 134, 155, "Callieburn" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Willie Scott, "Callieburn," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1968.318,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 14 September 2013 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/37675/1
Roud #6932
RECORDINGS:
Willie Scot, "You Boys O' Callieburn" (on Voice04)
NOTES [14 words]: Callieburn and Machrihanish are on the Kintyre peninsula, Argyllshire, Scotland. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: RcYBoCal

You Broken-Hearted Heroes

See Lovely Sally (You Broken-Hearted Heroes) (File: HHH549)

You Brought Me From a Mighty Long Way

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: ("Thank you Jesus" (4x) "You brought me from a mighty long way"). Verse: "You've been my mother ... father ... sister ... brother, You've brought me from a mighty long way"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (USMississippi01)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Walter Lee Hood and Parchman inmates, "Thank You Jesus" (on USMississippi01)
Bishop Larry B Trotter and Sweet Holy Spirit Choir, "You Brought Me From a Mighty Long Way" (2016, on "Church Unplugged, Vol.2: How Far Back Can You Go?," Audio & Video Labs)
File: RcYBMMLW

You Cain't Lose-A Me, Cholly

DESCRIPTION: Mild nonsense. The singer visits Willie Winston's to court. He reports "rowin' and my gal went through" and they break the bottom of the boat. He cannot afford the girl, "She use up a bale of money ev'y week." Ends with a hog and sheep talking
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936
KEYWORDS: animal courting nonballad nonsense
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 264, "You Cain't Lose-A Me, Cholly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 214, (no title) (1 fragment, ending "You can't lose me, Charlie")
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 50-51, "Charlie You Can't Lose-a Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p 51, "You Can't Losa-A Me, Cholly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11658
NOTES [113 words]: This is one of those pieces that can drive a folklorist crazy. The chorus is distinctive enough (despite the variant of Charlie/Cholly) as to be characteristic, but it's less clear what the song is about. The description is from Lomax, who of course could have fiddled with the piece -- or Lead Belly could have done so. The version in Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains is different, about a man who goes to town and can't rid himself of a "yaller gal," but the Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains text is from John Daniel Vass, who was happy to fiddle with texts. The song probably needs a detailed study to determine its actual origins and original content. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.1
File: LoF264

You Call Me Dog, I Don't Care

DESCRIPTION: "You call me dog, I don' ker, Oh, my Lord! You call me dog, I don' ker, Oh, rockum jubalee!" "You call me cat, I don' ker...." "You call me mule...." "You call me snake...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal accusation
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 190, "You Call Me Dog, I Don' Ker" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: ScNF190A

You Can Be a Defaulter (Bugle Call Lyric)

DESCRIPTION: "You can be a defaulter [soldier confined to barracks] As long as you like As long as you answer your name."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier punishment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 234, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Roud #11241
File: BrPa234A

You Can Dig My Grave

See Dig My Grave with a Silver Spade (File: FSWB351A)

You Can Dig My Grave with a Silver Spade

See Dig My Grave with a Silver Spade (File: FSWB351A)

You Can Fall From a Steeple

See Falling (You Can Fall From a Steeple) (File: AJRR614)

You Can Run a Long Time

DESCRIPTION: The singer warns against disobeying God "You can run a long time... But your sins are going to find you out." He condemns the people around him, warns of various sins, accuses the listener of insufficient zeal, and otherwise makes an ass of himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious warning
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 66, "You Can Run a Long Time" (1 text)
Roud #7868
File: Br3066

You Can Walk on a Shamrock

DESCRIPTION: "You can walk on a shamrock, You can eat a leek, You can pluck a rose, But you can't sit on a thistle."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: flowers food warning | shamrock leek rose thistle
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 42, "(You can walk on a shamrock)" (1 text)
Roud #22980
File: PKKB042A

You Can't Come Again

See The Rejected Lover [Laws P10] (File: LP10)

You Can't Cross Here

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "You must have that true religion (x3), Or you can't cross here." Verses are three lines, from among "I'm so glad my soul's converted (I've got religion, that Jesus loves me)" and "I'm going down to Jordan," followed by "You can't cross here"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 32, "You Can't Cross Here" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16449
File: Bart032

You Can't Get to Heaven

See Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More (File: R300)

You Can't Hide

DESCRIPTION: "Tell the (lawyer/preacher/liar)": "(You can't hide)(3x) When the world's on fire, (You can't hide)(3x) on that day)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 252-253, "You Cyan' Hide" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [18 words]: The description follows Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang but I do not repeat the dialect. - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: HPR252A

You Can't Hurry God

DESCRIPTION: The singer advises prayer, hope, and patience in times of trouble: "You can't hurry God, why don't you wait, my brother? Just obey the word you have heard. Keep on calling him, for in some day or 'nother, He will come and answer prayer."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 172, "You Can't Hurry God" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa172 (Partial)
Roud #7489
File: Wa172

You Can't Keep a Shantyboy Down

DESCRIPTION: "Kind friends, your attention I'll ask for a while, A few facts I endeavor to show...." The singer notes that the workers are what prop up the building of society; the wealthy have money, but aren't really needed, but "You can't keep a shantyboy down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger work drink money
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont) US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #62, "You Can't Keep a Shantyboy Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 84, "Keep the Working Man Down" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4464
NOTES [31 words]: From the description, you might think this political. I don't think it is. It's just a sneer on the rich: They have money, but we don't need them, and where would they be without us? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.6
File: FowL62

You Can't Keep Still

See Once You Get the Habit (You Can't Keep Still) (File: ArWo066)

You Can't Lose-a Me, Cholly

See You Cain't Lose-A Me, Cholly (File: LoF264)

You Can't Ride in My Little Red Wagon

DESCRIPTION: "You can’t ride my little red wagon Front wheel’s broken And the back wheel’s dragging Slug! Slug! Slug, slug, slug!" May have a chant between verses: "Second verse, same as the first, A whole lot louder and a whole lot worse."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: technology nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 415, "You Can't Ride in My Little Red Wagon" (notes only, with the between-verses chant on p. 414)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Red Wagon
Little Red Wagon
NOTES [23 words]: Not the same as the better-known "Won't You Ride in My Little Red Wagon," although I wouldn't be surprised if this is a parody of that. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF415T

You Canna Put It on to Sandy

DESCRIPTION: Sandy knows he's taken to be simple but in every case he is shown to be more clever than "anither fella." "I'm not sae green as you may seem, Did you think I'm soft as candy? ... you canna put it on to Sandy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recorded by Willie Kemp, according to Hall, notes to Voice07)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A chap comments on Sandy's red hair; Sandy offers him some to seed his own bald scalp. Sandy is watching ducks at a farm; a hunter offers him a pound for a shot at one of the ducks; Sandy takes the money; the hunter's shotgun kills 21 ducks and he apologizes; Sandy says he can shoot again because the ducks aren't his. Sandy leaves a play after act one because the programme says act two is a year later. Sandy gets along well with his wife; he takes no offense when he finds a man in bed with his wife; he says he plays the same game with that man's wife.
KEYWORDS: adultery hair farming hunting humorous nonballad bird wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
Roud #5143
RECORDINGS:
Jimmy McBeath, "You Canna Put It on to Sandy" (on Voice07)
NOTES [41 words]: Hall, notes to Voice07: "'You Canna Put It on to Sandy' has the series of episodal verses associated with songs from the variety theatre, but was probably put together by Willie Kemp, the entertainer from Oldmeldrum, who recorded it in 1930." - BS
File: RcYCPIOS

You Caused Me to Lose My Mind

See In the Pines (File: LoF290)

You Cyan' Hide

See You Can't Hide (File: HPR252A)

You Don't Knock

See Don't Knock (File: RcYDoKno)

You Don't Know How the Dear Girl Is Made

DESCRIPTION: "Be careful my boys... When the time comes to pick out a wife." These days, with painted cheeks and other deceits "you don't know how the dear girl is made." I'll say more when we're safely alone: "I have said too much here I'm afraid"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage warning beauty clothes hair humorous nonballad wife
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #18248
RECORDINGS:
Jim Rice, "You Don't Know How the Dear Girl Is Made" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
File: RcYDKHDG

You Drove a Buick

DESCRIPTION: Bill and the singer court Suzy Brown in their various cars: "You drove a Buick, a big yellow Buick, and I drove a little tin Ford," but when Bill and Suzy drive by and guy him, the land in a mudhole, and need the singer to pull them out with his Ford
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: technology courting derivative humorous
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 151, "You Drove a Buick" (1 short text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 157, "You Drove Your Buick" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #11350
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When You Wore a Tulip" (tune, source of parody) and references there
File: Brne151

You Drove Your Buick

See You Drove a Buick (File: Brne151)

You Fair and Pretty Ladies

See Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)

You Feeling-Hearted Christians

DESCRIPTION: Farmer Robert Brown's wife died and left him with two children. Robert remarries and his new wife kills both children with poison. She cuts her own throat with a razor. Her ghost appears to Robert saying "my case it is now wretched" because of her crime.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: crime homicide death suicide poison punishment children stepmother ghost
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 195, "You Feeling-Hearted Christians" (1 text)
Roud #16244
File: OCC195

You Fight On

DESCRIPTION: "If your brother done you wrong, Take him to yourself alone; Tell him brother you done treated me wrong. You fight on, you fight on, with your sword in your hand, You fight on, yes, you fight on, Lawdy you fight on...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: brother religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 248-249, "You Fight On" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #18162
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Christian, Fight On, Your Time Ain't Long" ("fight on" lyric)
NOTES [61 words]: This appears to me to be based -- very loosely -- on Matt. 18:15: "If a brother sins [against you], bring it to his attention when the two of you are alone."
Note: the words "against you" are omitted by the two oldest manuscripts.
Roud lumps this with "Christian, Fight On, Your Time Ain't Long," but other than the words "fight on," I don't see much in common. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: San248

You Gave Me Your True Love (The Old Aged Couple)

See Old Married Couple (File: RcOlMaCo)

You Gentlemen of England

DESCRIPTION: English gentlemen, living at ease, don't think of the dangers faced by seamen in war and trade. If there is no war the merchants will always have work for us where "the stormy winds do blow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames)
KEYWORDS: pride war commerce death storm nonballad patriotic sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 201-202, "You Gentlemen of England" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 192)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #76, "Neptune's Raging Fury; or, the Gallant Seaman's Sufferings" (1 text)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads XIv, pp. 22-25, "Neptune's Raging Fury; or, The Gallant Seaman's Sufferings" (1 text)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 2, "A Sea Song" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: John Ashton, _A Century of Ballads_, Elliot Stock, London, 1887; reprinted 1968 by Singing Tree Press, pp. 213-217, "Neptune's Raging Fury or, The Gallant Seaman's Sufferings" (1 text)
Roud #18526
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ye Gentlemen of England (I)" [Laws K2] (theme of calling on gentlemen to recognizes seamen's troubles)
File: WT201

You Gentlemen That Take Delight

See Bold Reynard ("A Good Many Gentlemen") (File: K243)

You Girls of Equal Station

DESCRIPTION: The singer asks "all you girls of equal station" for comfort for her sorrow "because I loved a lad." Though he promised to be true "to another girl he roved ... he has married for gold" Warning: "do not your mind reveal So that you can bid them farewell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Greig/Duncan6)
KEYWORDS: infidelity love promise money nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #97, pp. 1-2, "Ye Girls of Equal Station" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan6 1184, "Ye Girls of Equal Station" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Roud #5410
File: GrD61184

You Goin' to Reap Jus' What You Sow

See You're Going To Reap Just What You Sow (File: Dett028)

You Got My Letter

DESCRIPTION: The verse structure is three identical lines and the tag "People keep a-comin' and the train done gone." Verses are "Got my letter?" "John was a writer." "Wrote the Revelation."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (LomaxCD1713)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad worksong
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Willis Proctor and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, "You Got My Letter" (on LomaxCD1713)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Mary Had a Baby" (structure, tune, tag line)
NOTES [329 words]: The LomaxCD1713 recording has the same tune, structure and tag line as "Mary Had a Baby." Why not call these the same song? The text even refers to the Bible, but it is an entirely different reference.
The tag floats. See, for example, "All Night Long" (I), Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 583, indexed here as "I Belong to that Band," Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 614A, indexed here as "Down By the Riverside (Study War No More)," and Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 256-257, indexed here as "Reborn Again."
As a side note, there would be no incongruity in a hymn doubling as a work song. "Drinking of the Wine" is an example of a hymn that has found a place as a work song in many environments, though sung differently to match the work. Allen commented -- in 1867 -- on how many of the work songs heard on the Sea Islands were hymns; in fact, he writes, "it is often, indeed, no easy matter to persuade them to sing their old (secular) songs, even as a curiosity, such is the sense of dignity that has come with freedom" (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates p. x). By the twentieth century secular songs, no longer associated with slavery days, became acceptable as work songs. - BS
In light of the statement that "John was a writer," it is interesting to observe that John was the only gospel writer to whom letters are attributed -- though neither the Gospel nor the Letters of John list an author. The Revelation does, but it is not by the same writer as the Gospel and Letters -- a fact that was known even in antiquity, though the Western church in particular ignored this. In any case, it is unlikely that the writer of this song would know that fact; what the author would have observed is that a gospel, three letters, and the Revelation were all attributed to "John," making him the author of five Biblical books including three letters -- more books, and more letters, than anyone except Paul. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcYGMLet

You Got To Cross It For Yourself

See Lonesome Valley (I) (File: Wa162)

You Got To Get Ready

See Just As Well Get Ready (File: RdJAWGRe)

You Got to Move

DESCRIPTION: "You got to move (x2)... When God gets ready, you've got to move." In one form, "That preacher's got to move!" "That drunkard's got... " "I got..." Whether high or low, policeman or prostitute, when the Lord gets ready, "you got to move"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (recording, Two Gospel Keys)
KEYWORDS: warning nonballad religious whore clergy police gods
FOUND IN: US(MA,SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 147, "You Got To Move" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16194
RECORDINGS:
Rev. Gary Davis, "You Got to Move" (on GaryDavis02)
Brother Claude Ely, "You Got to Move" (King 1282, 1953)
Morning Star Hall Singers, "You Got to Move" (on SeaIslFF1; USSeaIsland01)
Two Gospel Keys, "You've Got to Move" (Solo 10-007, 1946; on Babylon)
Ella Mae Wilson, Lillie B. Williams, and Richard Williams, "You Got to Move" (on USFlorida01)
File: RcYGtoMo

You Got To Reap In the Harvest What You Sow

DESCRIPTION: "John say you got to reap in the harvest what you sow (x2), If you sow it in the rain, you got to reap it just the same You got to reap in the harvest what you sow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: farming harvest Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 225, "You Got To Reap In the Harvest What You Sow" (1 text)
NOTES [100 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands writes that this was one of "the songs that were used for planting rice, and getting it ready to eat."
John 4:35-37 is a metaphor on sowing and reaping the harvest: "And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together" (King James). - BS
Compare also Hosea 8:7, about sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind, and in Hosea 10:12, a reference to sowing and harvesting good things. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parrp225

You Gotta Clear de Line

DESCRIPTION: "You gotta clear de line before you call (x2), If you ever 'spects to get an answer, You gotta clear de line before you call." "If you have aught against your sister/brother/preacher, Well go to her and her alone, And car' yo' gift before the altar."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 166, "You Gotta Clear de Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16123
NOTES [39 words]: This appears to be an allusion to Matthew 5:23-24: If one has a quarrel with another, and is making an offering, "leave your gift before the altar and go; first be reconciled with your comrade, and then come and offer your gift." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Arno166

You Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dog Around

See The Hound Dog Song (File: R512)

You Gotta Run, Run, Run

See City of Refuge (File: Br3560)

You Gotta Stand Judgment For Yourself

See Lonesome Valley (I) (File: Wa162)

You Jolly Young Fellows

DESCRIPTION: Buailey takes up distilling whiskey at home in Glenlee. At the opening there was a grand party with food, tobacco, dancing, and lots to drink. Noll Buailey fell drunk while dancing having had 24 glasses.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: dancing drink food music party moniker
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 196, "You Jolly Young Fellows" (1 text)
Roud #16243
File: OCC196

You Kicked and Stomped and Beat Me

DESCRIPTION: "Do you 'member way last summer (x3), Kind captain, on the jelly roll?" "You kicked and stomped and beat me... and you call that fun." "If I catch you in my home town, Goin' to make you run, sir."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from "Bowlegs")
KEYWORDS: hardtimes abuse revenge
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 391-392, "You Kicked and Stomped and Beat Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15584
File: LoSi391

You Know One Joseph Keeba

DESCRIPTION: The singer says her husband has heavy shoes, a bad foot, and wears a "cap with the ears turn down." He caught and cooked a possum. She cooked chicken backside and added it to his meal. She says, "I live with the man so long, the man no know me way"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage01)
KEYWORDS: shrewishness marriage clothes magic food animal chickens husband wife
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Wright, "You Know One Joseph Keeba" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
NOTES [212 words]: Liner notes: "Herskovits's original notes state that this song 'ridicules husband as cuckold'; the woman may be putting obeah 'magic' in the man's food." (Donald R. Hill, Maureeen Warner-Lewis, John Cowley, Lise Winer, liner notes on WITrinidadVillage01). Given that the recording may be a fragment and that I don't understand the subtleties of the language, I see the ridicule and even the likelihood that the woman is rigging her husband's food, likely by magic, but I don't see evidence of cuckholding.
Liverpool on women tampering with a man's food: "... many African women were believed to be using concoctions, some of which were tinged with some of the body's juices, to trap, conquer and dominate men.... [O]ur social history shows that it was a west African tradition brought to the Caribbean during the age of enslavement...." (Hollis Liverpool, "Preface," liner notes on "West Indian Rhythm", p. 10, Bear Family Records 10CD BCD 16623 JM, 2006). So, for example, in a Lord Beginner calypso, the doctor explains Beginner's growing confusion and baldness: "your Dorothy know a thing or two / And she give the cocoa to you" (Lord Beginner, "Cocoa Tea Puzzle to Me," and liner notes on "West Indian Rhythm", #227 p. 247, Bear Family Records 10CD BCD 16623 JM, 2006).- BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcYKOJoK

You Know Very Well What I Mean

See The Trooper Watering His Nag (File: RL044)

You Lovers All

DESCRIPTION: The girl recalls how her father's anger "drove my love away" to North America. She steals 500 pounds from her father to buy passage across the seas. She does not know where to look, but by chance finds her love quickly; they are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation father emigration marriage reunion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H525, p. 483, "You Lovers All" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1910
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Father's Servant Boy" [Laws M11] (plot)
cf. "Mullinabrone" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
North America
The Flowers of Enniskillen
NOTES [128 words]: This song is very similar to "My Father's Servant Boy," the only substantial difference between the two being that, in this song, the girl and boy sail for America separately. Even the first few words are the same. "Lumpers" would undoubtedly list them as the same song (so, e.g., Roud).
The Index, however, follows a "splitting" policy. My personal suspicion, in any case, is that "My Father's Servant Boy" is the older song, and was rewritten as a broadside to produce this. (Note the presence of a broadside version in Wright.) The kinship could, of course, be the other way -- both look like broadsides, without much softening by tradition. But "My Father's Servant Boy" seems to be slightly more widespread, giving it a slightly greater chance of being original. - RBW
File: HHH525

You Lovers All, to You I Call

DESCRIPTION: "You lovers all, to you I call. A story I will tell; How I, a swain, courted in vain A maid none could excel." "I fell in love so hard to move... But to my grief found no relief, for she was pitiless." The singer praises his love's great beauty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love beauty rejection
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 293, "You Lovers All, to You I Call" (1 text)
Roud #12200
File: Br3293

You May Bury Me in the East

DESCRIPTION: "You may bury me in the East, You may bury me in the West, But I'll her the trumpet sound In-a that morning." "In-a that morning, How I long to go, For to hear the trumpet sound..." "In-a that dreadful judgament day, We'll take wings and fly away...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad death burial
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, pp. 60-61, "You May Bury Me in the East" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11958
File: WFAN060

You May Talk About Your King's Guards, Scots Greys an' A'

See South Down Militia (File: OLoc090N)

You Might Easy Know a Doffer

DESCRIPTION: "You might easy know a doffer" by her yellow hair and tools. Besides, "she'll always get a man." "You might easy know a weaver" by her greasy hair and tools. Besides, "she'll never get a man"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Hammond-SongsOfBelfast)
KEYWORDS: sex bragging hair weaving humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 13, "You Might Easy Know a Doffer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, p. 23, "You Might Easy Know a Doffer" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, EASYDOFF*
Roud #20420
NOTES [125 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: "Machines were used in the spinning room to spin linen yarn onto empty bobbins on a frame. When they were full the doffers had to "doff" or remove the bobbins and replace them with empty ones."(p. 62) "The song reflects the animosity which existed between doffers and weavers and expresses the doffers' point of view. The tools of the doffer were pickers, a scraper, hackle pins and whistle; these were tied around here waist on a piece of string."(p. 59, p. 175 for more details) - BS
In this case, the doffers probably had a point; theirs was the newer, faster, cheaper technology; the old methods of wearing were dying out. And a weaver would thus be more likely to lose her job, making her a less desirable prospect. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Leyd013

You mus' pray ha'd -- June a ha'd month

See June Month Is a Hard Month (File: Parp245)

You Must Be Pure and Holy

DESCRIPTION: "When I was wicked and a-prone to sin, My Lord, brethren, ah my Lord, I thought I couldn't be born again." "You must be pure and holy (x3) To see God feed his lambs." "I'll run all 'round the cross and cry... Give me Jesus or I die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 107, "You Must Be Pure and Holy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12063
NOTES [82 words]: The number of theologically questionable statements in the first few verses of this song is rather astounding. As Paul says in Romans 5:8, Christ died "while we were still sinners," and the apostle confesses to having been the chief of sinners. As for the King James mistranslation "born again," which should have been rendered "born from above," see the notes to "Reborn Again."
Apart from those not-so-trivial details, of course, the advice to live as well as one can is certainly good. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG107

You Must Live Holy

DESCRIPTION: "There's fathers and mothers all over the land, They're chewing and dipping as fast as they can... You must live holy and free from sin If you aim to get to glory and enter in...." Listeners are told how to live and told to read the Bible
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 643, "You Must Live Holy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7566
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve" (theme) and references there
NOTES [48 words]: Almost half of Randolph's text is devoted to the way women dress -- "with their hair bobbed off and their dresses to their knees." It seems clear that this version, at least, originated in the 1920s.
One wonders what the author would think of the styles of the late twentieth century. - RBW
File: R643

You Must Pay the Rent

DESCRIPTION: Action song, First voice: "You must pay the rent, you must pay the rent, you must pay the rent today." 2nd voice: "(But) I can't pay the rent." (Repeat these lines.) 3rd voice: "I'll pay the rent." 2nd voice: "My hero." 1st voice: "Curses! Foiled again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: money home humorous campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 514, "You Must Pay the Rent" (notes only)
NOTES [9 words]: Apparently a riff on a "Rocky and Bullwinkle" motif. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF514Y

You Naughty Boy

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "You naughty boy, You stole my toy, You named him Roy. You naughty B-O-Y, You stole my T-O-Y, You named him R-O-Y."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Bluebells My Cockle Shells)
KEYWORDS: jumprope wordplay
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #616, "You naughty boy" (1 text)
Roud #20484
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "You Naughty Flea" (format)
cf. "You Naughty Girl" (format)
cf. "You Naughty Lady" (format)
NOTES [63 words]: It seems clear to me that "You Naughty Boy," "You Naughty Girl," "You Naughty Lady," and probably "You Naughty Flea" (Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes #616-#619) are different parts of the same collective item, and should be examined jointly -- but Roud assigns them separate numbers ("Boy": #20484; "Flea": #22193; "Girl": #20196; "Lady": #20196 again), so I have filed them separately.
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJR616

You Naughty Flea

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "You naughty flea, You bit my knee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Douglas)
KEYWORDS: jumprope bug
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #617, "You naughty flea" (1 text)
Roud #22193
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "You Naughty Boy" (format)
cf. "You Naughty Girl" (format)
cf. "You Naughty Lady" (format)
NOTES [64 words]: It seems clear to me that "You Naughty Boy," "You Naughty Girl," "You Naughty Lady," and probably "You Naughty Flea" (Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes #616-#619) are different parts of the same collective item, and should be examined jointly -- but Roud assigns them separate numbers ("Boy": #20484; "Flea": #22193; "Girl": #20196; "Lady": #20196 again), so I have filed them separately. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJR617

You Naughty Girl

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "You naughty girl, You stole my curl, You named it Twirl -- You naughty GIRL!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: jumprope
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #618, "You naughty girl" (1 text)
Roud #20196
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "You Naughty Boy" (format)
cf. "You Naughty Flea" (format)
cf. "You Naughty Lady" (format)
NOTES [64 words]: It seems clear to me that "You Naughty Boy," "You Naughty Girl," "You Naughty Lady," and probably "You Naughty Flea" (Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes #616-#619) are different parts of the same collective item, and should be examined jointly -- but Roud assigns them separate numbers ("Boy": #20484; "Flea": #22193; "Girl": #20196; "Lady": #20196 again), so I have filed them separately. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJR618

You Naughty Lady

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "You naughty lady, You stole my baby, You named it Sadie, You naughty LADY!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: jumprope baby
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #619, "You naughty lady" (1 text)
Roud #20196
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "You Naughty Boy" (format)
cf. "You Naughty Flea" (format)
cf. "You Naughty Girl" (format)
NOTES [63 words]: It seems clear to me that "You Naughty Boy," "You Naughty Girl," "You Naughty Lady," and probably "You Naughty Flea" (Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes #616-#619) are different parts of the same collective item, and should be examined jointly -- but Roud assigns them separate numbers ("Boy": #20484; "Flea": #22193; "Girl": #20196; "Lady": #20196 again), so I have filed them separately.
Last updated in version 6.5
File: AJR619

You Never Miss the Water till the Well Runs Dry

DESCRIPTION: The singer remembers mother's lessons about economy: "Waste not, want not is the maxim I would teach... Do not let your chances like sunbeams pass you by, For you never miss the water...." Now married, he teaches his children the same lesson
AUTHOR: Harry Linn and Rowland Howard (sources: Spaeth; Heart-Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (broadside, LOCSheet sm1872 12956)
KEYWORDS: youth money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ro)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 753, "You'll Never Miss the Water Till the Well Runs Dry" (1 text)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 162-164, "Waste Not, Want Not" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 125-126, "You Never Miss the Water till the Well Runs Dry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, pp. 258-259, "You Never Miss the Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WASTENOT
ADDITIONAL: H. S. Perkins, H, J. Danforth, and E. V. DeGraff, _The Song Wave_, American Book Company, 1882, pp. 140-141, "You Never Miss the Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5457
RECORDINGS:
Claude Sweet & Roy Davidson, "You'll Never Miss the Water" (Acme 1165, n.d.)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.26(176), "You'll Never Miss the Water 'till the Well Runs Dry!" ("When a child I lived at Lincoln, with my parents at the farm"), unknown), no date; also Firth c.21(161), Firth c.26(309), "You'll Never Miss the Water 'till the Well Runs Dry"
LOCSheet, sm1872 12956, "You Never Miss the Water Till the Well Runs Dry" ("When a child I lived at Lincoln with my parents at the farm"), Balmer & Weber (Saint Louis), 1872; also sm1874 14898, "You'll Never Miss the Water, Till the Well Runs Dry"; sm1874 14312, sm1874 15614, "You Never Miss the Water Till the Well Runs Dry" (tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "A Motto for Every Man" (theme of hard work and frugality)
File: SRW125

You Parliament of England

See Ye Parliament of England (I) (File: FO195)

You Pass Me By

DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams about his old sweetheart who won't "even stop to say hello." "O heart of stone, you pass me by."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (recording Hank Snow; MUNFLA-Leach)
KEYWORDS: love rejection nonballad lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
Roud #30148
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Betty Deveraux, "You Pass Me By" (on MUNFLA-Leach)
Hank Snow (The Singing Ranger) and his Rainbow Ranch Boys, "You Pass Me By" (RCA Victor 21-0431-B , 1951)
NOTES [24 words]: The MUNFLA-Leach text and tune is very close to the Hank Snow recording. That is not surprising since they were both recorded the same year. - BS
Last updated in version 4.4
File: ML3YPaMB

You Pretty Girls of Michigan

DESCRIPTION: "You pretty girls of Michigan, give ear to what I write, Of sailing on the stormy Lakes, in which we take delight." The sailors work while "Irishmen and the landlubbers" stay home. The singer urges girls to attend to sailors, who live such hard lives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected by Walton from Pat Banner and A. E. Baker)
KEYWORDS: sailor courting
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 101-103, "You Pretty Girls of Michigan" (1 text, presumably composite, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, pp. 409-410, "You Pretty Girls of Michigan" (1 text)
Roud #7921
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of Newfoundland (I)" [Laws K25] (form)
NOTES [14 words]: Roud lumps this with "Michigan Girls," but they look completely unrelated to me. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: WGM101

You Rambling Boys of Pleasure (Down by Sally's Garden)

DESCRIPTION: "You rambling boys of pleasure, give ear to those few lines I write. Although I'm a rover, and in roving I take great delight." Singer recounts finding and losing his love, and laments that his roving ways are incompatible with love and home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1784 (OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition)
KEYWORDS: rambling love homesickness
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Tunney-WhereSongsDoThunder, pp. 79-81, "The Rambling Boys of Pleasure" (1 text)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 22, "Rambling Boys of Pleasure" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 62, "The Rambling Boys of Pleasure" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 279, "The Rambling Boys of Pleasure" (a reprint of a G. Jacques broadside)
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 59, "Down by Sally's Garden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 47, "Rambling Rover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 52, "You Rambling Boys of Pleasure" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 146-148, "Gold Is the Root of Evil (You Rambling Boys of Pleasure)" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #1963, p. 132, "Rambling Boys of Pleasure" (1 reference)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, p. 96, "Rambling Boys of Pleasure" (1 text)
Roud #386
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(250b), "Rambling Boys of Pleasure," J. Evans (London), 1780-1812; also Harding B 11(3222), Harding B 25(1596), Firth b.25(189), Harding B 16(219c), Harding B 15(250a), Firth c.18(237), Firth c.18(238), 2806 c.16(193), Firth c.18(235), Harding B 11(34), Harding B 16(220b), Harding B 20(22), Firth c.26(259), Harding B 28(144), "[The] Rambling Boys of Pleasure"; Johnson Ballads 614, Firth b.25(315), "You Rambling Boys of Pleasure"
LOCSinging, sb40467b, "Rambling Boys of Pleasure," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Down by the Sally Gardens" (lyrics)
NOTES [273 words]: There are several examples of this in the Bodleian Library Broadsides Collection, dating from 1802 to 1892. Beginning around 1850 an additional verse began appearing going more or less like." "It was down by the salley gardens...." It is very likely this is the "half-remembered" verse that Yeats used to write "Down by the Sally Gardens." - SL
O'Boyle says that the "down in Sally's Garden" lines are in the first verse of the 1784 American manuscript in the Baker Memorial Library at Hanover, New Hampshire.
Of the Bodleian broadsides, "The Rambling Lover," Harding B 11(3222) c.1850, 2806 c.16(193) c.1850: include the line "Down by yon valley gardens."
Firth c.18(237) n.d., Firth c.18(238) 1850-1899: include the line "Down by yon sally garden."
Harding B 15(250a) 1858-1861, Firth c.18(238) 1850-1899, Harding B 11(34) n.d., Firth c.26(259) n.d.: include the line "It was down by Sally's gardens."
A closely related broadside, Bodleian, Firth c.18(234), "The Rambling Lover" ("Come all you gay and merry friends and stay with me while I do write"), unknown, n.d. includes the line "It was down by a flowery garden."
The one to compare to Yeats' is an unrelated broadside, Bodleian, Harding B 22(262), "Sally's Garden" ("It was down in Sally's garden"), unknown, n.d. It may be the same ballad as the illegible Bodleian, Harding B 25(1724), J.Jennings (London), 1790-1840.
One of Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports's texts is a fragment from Bodleian broadside Harding B 15(250a), cited above, that includes a "Sally's Gardens" verse. Another is a fragment collected in Newfoundland by Kenneth Goldstein and Aiden O'Hara.- BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: FowM059

You Remind Me of a Man (The Voodoo Man)

DESCRIPTION: Circular dialog. "You remind me of a man." "What man?" "The man with the power." "What power?" "The power of Hoodoo/Voodoo." "Who do? "You do." "Do what?" "You remind me of...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes)
KEYWORDS: wordplay magic | circular voodoo hoodoo
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 166, "Hoodoo" (1 text)
Roud #20092
NOTES [40 words]: I am quite certain that I read this many, many years ago, but I can't recall where. Nonetheless the text I read differs in many particulars from Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, so it would appear there was oral tradition involved. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: DCCR166

You Ribbonmen of Ireland

DESCRIPTION: Ribbonmen: "Long may you reign May you roll in joy and splendour Till you raise your flag again." The singer recalls taking the Orange drum at Segimore. The Protestant "hates our religion and our ways" and curses any man that goes to church.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (IRRCinnamond01)
KEYWORDS: Ireland political religious
FOUND IN: Ireland
ST RcYRiMoI (Full)
Roud #3081
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "You Ribbonmen of Ireland" (on IRRCinnamond01)
NOTES [56 words]: Supporting the Orange position is "beating the Orange drum"; taking the Orange drum then has figurative as well as literal meaning.
I was helped through Cinnamond's text by Lew Becker and John Moulden. The description is based on John Moulden's transcription from IRRCinnamond02 included in the Traditional Ballad Index Supplement. - BS
File: RcYRiMoI

You Say Dat You Love Me

DESCRIPTION: "You say that you love me, I say that I love you. Then if yo' love is true, darling, we will be happy... you'll never regret it. What did the jaybird say to the crow? You send snow and I send rain and we will live happy... It ain't gonna rain mo more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: bird courting love floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 120-121, "You Say Dat You Love Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: NCF162YS

You Say You Are of Noble Race

DESCRIPTION: "You say you are of noble race And I of low degree. We are all of Adam's race; Pray, what more can we be?" Reportedly, the girl turns down the boy because her status is higher than his
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 59, "You Say You Are of Noble Race" (1 fragment)
Roud #7844
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, No, Not I" (theme)
File: Br3059

You Say You Love Me

DESCRIPTION: "Ev'ry time... It seems there's only a doubt that you are fooling me, yes sirree. And that feeling come a-stealing, says you're not true." "I'm afraid you'll sing this song to somebody else." When he goes out, "I always find a strange hat in the hall"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: jealousy clothes love
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 88, "You Say You Love Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11320
File: Brne088

You Shall Be Free (I)

See Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady) (File: San011)

You Shall Be Free (II)

See Ain't No Use Workin' So Hard (File: DarNS329)

You Shall Have a Horse to Ride

See All the Pretty Little Horses (File: LxU002)

You Should See My Coattails Flying

See See Me Dance the Polka (File: KSUC071A)

You Stole My Pard

See Old Betty Larkin (Betsy Larkin, You Stole My Pard, Steal Partners, Stole My Partner) (File: R586)

You Take the Hatchet and I'll Take the Saw

DESCRIPTION: "You take the hatchet and I'll take the saw, And we'll chop off the head of my mother-in-law."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: homicide | mother-in-law
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 104, "You take the hatchet and I'll take the saw" (1 short text)
Roud #25383
File: KSUC104D

You Talk About Your Greenbacks

DESCRIPTION: "You talk about your greenbacks being dollar bills, But you ought to see the Natchez when she passes Louisville." (Someone) talks about girls and how they make a living; the singer prepares to jump ship and his girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: river abandonment
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, p. 119, "You Talk About Yo' Greenbacks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10051
File: MWhee119

You Turn for Sugar an' Tea

See Sugar and Tea (File: R531)

You Well Remember

See Farewell Ballymoney (Loving Hannah; Lovely Molly) (File: R749)

You Went and Courted Nancy

DESCRIPTION: "John, you told me a story, You told me so before... you haven't come no more. You went and courted Nancy With the black and roving eye." The girl wishes he had been true, "But if I am forsaken, I know I'm not forsworn"; she will rove her life away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love courting betrayal rambling
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 45, "You Went and Courted Nancy" (1 text)
Roud #11333
File: Brne045

You Will Marry

DESCRIPTION: "You will marry... (one of three boys). You will marry in... silk/satin/rags. You will live in... brick house.log house/block house. You will have [some number of] children. The will have black/blond/red hair."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting marriage clothes children hair
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Joan McCaskill, collector), "Rope-Skipping Games", Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 11, "(You will marry)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "What Kind of Evening Gown Will You Marry In?" (theme of forecasting future life via a game)
File: NCF1YWM

You Won't Go to Heaven When You Die, Mary Ann (Retreat) (Bugle Call Lyric)

DESCRIPTION: "You won't to to Heaven when you die, Mary Ann, No you won't, no you won't, No you won't, Mary Ann."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
KEYWORDS: soldier death floatingverses
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 235, "(no title)" (1 short text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "You've Got to Be a Lover of the Lord" (lyrics)
File: BrPa235B

You Wonder Why I'm a Hobo (Naw, I Don't Want to Be Rich)

DESCRIPTION: A list of reasons why the hobo doesn't want to be a conductor, a banker, a broker, a doctor, adding up to this: "I just don't want to be rich" (or to have to work).
AUTHOR: Carson J. Robison
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recordings, Carson Robison)
KEYWORDS: hobo money work questions
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 461, "You Wonder Why I'm a Hobo" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Carson J. Robison, "You Wonder Why I'm a Hobo" (Columbia 15547-D [issued under the pseudonym, "Travelin' Jim Smith" as well as perhaps under Robison's own name], 1930) (Champion 15986 [as, "Naw! I Don't Wanta Be Rich"]/Supertone 9672, 1930) (Broadway 8274/Crown 3084 [both as Carson Robison Trio], 1931). (Victor V-40226, 1930) (Brunswick 442, 1930) (OKeh 45537 [as, "Naw! I Don't Wanna Be Rich"], 1931; rec. 1930)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Said I Was a Bum?" (subject, attitude)
NOTES [66 words]: I've also seen this credited to Mac McClintock. The attribution to Robison seems more likely, though; I suspect "Haywire Mac" merely recorded the piece and someone assumed he wrote it. - RBW
A reasonable assumption -- except that McClintock doesn't seem to have recorded the song. He did cut "Hobo's Spring Song" twice for Victor, and I haven't heard that, so it could possibly be this song. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: BRaF461

You, You, You (Somewhere Somebody's Waiting)

DESCRIPTION: "Somewhere somebody's waiting for you, Somewhere somebody's heart is true, Sometime you'll love somebody who'll love you true, Somewhere somebody's waiting for you, you, you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 276, "You, You, You" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 276, "You, You, You" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Roud #16176
File: Br3276

You'll Be Happy Little Sweetheart in the Spring

See Little Sweetheart in the Spring (File: Tawn100)

You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone

DESCRIPTION: Singer, now feeble, tells his sweetheart she'll miss him when he's gone. He asks who will care for her. He tells her to fence their garden; the children are married. Ch.: "You'll miss me when I'm gone...There's one kind heart will miss me when I'm gone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Oaks Family)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer, aging and becoming feeble, tells his sweetheart she'll miss him when he's gone. He asks what she will do in wintertime, who will put their arms about her, who will share her sadness and gladness. He tells her to fence their little garden and tend the flowers; the children are all married. Ch.: "You'll miss me when I'm gone...There's one kind heart will miss me when I'm gone"
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness love marriage death family husband wife age
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
Roud #17225
RECORDINGS:
Oaks Family, "You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone" (Bluebird B-5807, 1935; rec. 1930; on KMM)
NOTES [21 words]: In 1878 Hart Pease Danks and Arthur W. French published a song called, "You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone." This is not that song. - PJS
File: RcYMMWIG

You'll Never Know What Time Will Bring

DESCRIPTION: "A poor old man of seventy and his wife of sixty three" are on their way to the workhouse in the snow. They meet their rich son who has no time for them. They warn him that "you never know what time will bring you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (MUNFLA/Leach)
KEYWORDS: age hardheartedness poverty warning ordeal father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Canada(Newf)
Roud #13679
RECORDINGS:
Wiggy Smith, "Hobbling Off to the Workhouse Door" (on "Band of Gold," Musical Traditions Records MTCD307 CD (2007))
Ann(e) Whalen, "You'll Never Know What Time Will Bring" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Over the Hills at the Poorhouse" (theme of old people abandoned in poverty)
File: RcYNKWTW

You'll Never Miss the Water Till the Well Runs Dry

See You Never Miss the Water till the Well Runs Dry (File: SRW125)

You'll Remember Me

See Then You'll Remember Me (File: HMHS125A)

You're a Grand Old Flag

DESCRIPTION: Pure patriotism: "You're a grand old flag, You're a high flying flag, And forever in peace may you wave. You're the emblem of The land I love. The home of the free and the brave.... Should auld acquaintance be forgot, Keep your eye on the grand old flag."
AUTHOR: George M. Cohan (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (source: sheet music)
KEYWORDS: patriotic nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 263, 269, "You're a Grand Old Flag" (notes only)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, 663-664, "You're a Grand Old Flag"
SAME TUNE:
She's a Grand Old Cat (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 108)
NOTES [113 words]: According to Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, this was originally published as "You're a Grand Old Rag." To me, that actually seems like a better reference, because it implies that the flag was actually used for something (e.g. a battle flag) that caused it to become tattered. But this was felt to be disrespectful, so the old rag became an old flag.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 271, estimates that this was the third most popular song in America in 1906, peaking at #1 in June 1906 (#1 for the year being Dave Reed and Ernest Ball's "Love Me and the World Is Mine"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF263Y

You're a Liar

See Four Old Whores (File: EM006)

You're a Little Too Small

DESCRIPTION: Even very small girls won't consider the singer, saying "you're young I know, perhaps you may grow, At present you're a little too small." When he inherits a million and the girls call him he refuses because "at present I'm a little too small"
AUTHOR: Al Haynes (source: Meade, Spottswood and Meade)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (publication date, according to Meade, Spottswood and Meade)
KEYWORDS: courting bequest money humorous
FOUND IN: Ireland US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 48, "A Little Too Small" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4349
RECORDINGS:
Clarence "Tom" Ashley, "You're A Little Too Small" (Gennett 6404 [as by Tom Ashley], Challenge 391 [as by Tom Hutchinson], Champion 15525 [as by Oscar Brown], 1928)
Carolina Tar Heels, "You Are a Little Too Small" (Victor V-40007, 1928; on Ashley04)
NOTES [121 words]: The description follows the McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen text. The Carolina Tar Heels recording has the singer getting closer to marriage, without succeeding, but omits the inheritance.
Meade, Spottswood and Meade: Country Music Sources by Guthrie T Meade Jr with Dick Spottswood and Douglas S. Meade (Chapel Hill, 2002), p. 445. They also cite Haun, Mildred, Cooke County [Tennesee?] Ballads and Songs (M.A. Thesis, Vanderbilt U., Nashville, Tenn., 1937)], p.431. - BS
Henderson-VictorianStreetBallads, pp. 72-73, has a piece, "They say I'm too Little for Anything," which is very similar in concept although the words seem entirely distinct. I don't know if either piece influenced the other. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: McB1048

You're As Welcome as the Flowers in May

See As Welcome as the Flowers in May (File: R856)

You're from the Nation

DESCRIPTION: "You're from the Nation, an I'm from Arkansas, But I got the Battle Axe, an' I know you want a chaw." "It sure is good terbacker, we chaw it all the time, I'm goin' to buy some Battle Axe if I ever get a dime."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: travel drugs nonballad hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 585, "You're from the Nation" (1 text)
Roud #7671
NOTES [11 words]: Randolph explains that Battle Axe is a brand of chewing tobacco. - RBW
File: R585

You're Going to Leave the Old Home, Jim (Old Home Jim, Ragged Jim)

DESCRIPTION: "You're going to leave your old home, Jim, today you're going away." Mother speaks as her boy prepares to go to the city; she says "the old home will be lonely" but he will always be welcome back. When city life fails, he comes back to mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Burton/Manning)
KEYWORDS: mother separation home return
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 20-21, "Old Home Jim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7121
File: BuMa1020

You're Going To Reap Just What You Sow

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "You're going to reap just what you sow (2x), Up on the mountain, Down in the valley, You're going to reap just what you sow." Verse: "Let the sinner sin (mourner mourn, deacon plead, preacher preach, liar lie) right on"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 28-29, "You Goin' to Reap Jus' What You Sow" (1 text) (1 tune)
Roud #15222
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sowing on the Mountain" (theme, some chorus lines)
NOTES [145 words]: Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses the first line is repeated and followed by "Up on the mountain, Down in the valley, You're going to reap just what you sow."
The Biblical reference may be to Eliphaz's unjustified accusation of Job, Job 4:7-9: "Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed" (King James): that is, if you are in trouble, it must be trouble of your own doing. - BS
Although the idea of sowing trouble and reaping it, with interest, is very common, e.g. Hosea 8:7, about sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind, and in Hosea 10:12, a reference to sowing and harvesting good things. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett028

You're in the Army Now

DESCRIPTION: "You're in the army now, You're not behind the plow, You'll never get rich Digging a ditch, You're in the army now."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: army soldier work
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 18, "(You're in the army now)" (1 text)
File: BAAI018D

You're Irish and You're Beautiful

DESCRIPTION: "You're Irish and you're beautiful, And you're beautiful 'cause you're Irish.... I'd wear a shamrock in my lapel" if it would make the love better. "You're Irish and you're lovable. And do I love you? That I do."
AUTHOR: Charlie Tobias and Al Lewis (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (recording, Jack Owens, according to Internet Archive)
KEYWORDS: love beauty | Irish
FOUND IN: US(NE)
RECORDINGS:
Mary Higgins, "You're Irish and You're Beautiful" (Piotr-Archive #683, recorded 09/19/2023)
Jack Owens with orchestra directed by Roy Ross, "You're Irish and You're Beautiful" (Decca 24903)
File: DPio683

You're It, You've Got a Fit

DESCRIPTION: Counting-out rhyme. "You're it, You've got a fit, And don't know how To get out of it."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | counting-out
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 46, "(You're it)" (1 text)
File: WEMM046

You're Mad, You're Barmy

DESCRIPTION: "You're mad, you're barmy, Your mother's in the army. She wears black britches, With pink and white stitches." Or, "She ears brown britches, With a hundred and twenty stitches."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty mother clothes
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 133, "(You're mad, you're barmy)" (1 text)
File: SuSm133A

You're Right My Boy

DESCRIPTION: "You're right my boy, Houl' up your head, And be like a gentleman, Sir, And tell me who King Billy was, Now tell me if you can, Sir."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling)
KEYWORDS: nonballad | teaching King Billy
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1689-1702 - Reign of William III of Orange as King of England
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 57, "(You're right my boy)" (1 text)
NOTES [71 words]: "King Billy" is of course William of Orange, King William III of Great Britain, who fought James II at the Battle of the Boyne, assuring that Ireland stayed part of Britain and remained under Protestant domination. For background on this, see, e.g., "The Vicar of Bray" and " "The Battle of the Boyne (I)." It's interesting that, based on the extant fragment, we can't really tell if the song is pro- or anti-William III. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: PKKB057D

You're the Biggest Drip

DESCRIPTION: "You're the biggest drip, If ever there was a drop."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 131, "(You're the biggest drip)" (1 text)
File: SuSm131F

You're the Camp for Me

DESCRIPTION: "(XXX), you're/that's the camp for me, No other place do I love best, No other place I'll be, (XXX's) life is a merry whirl, We'll sing you a joyous song, For I am a (Camp Fire Girl)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 2014 (Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 426, "You're the Camp for Me" (notes only)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Swimming, Swimming" (may include these words)
File: ACSF426Y

You're the Man That Stole My Wife

DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "You're the man that stole my wife (x3), You shouldn't have 'er for to save your life."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: husband wife nonballad betrayal
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 172, "You're the Man That Stole My Wife" (1 text)
Roud #6582
File: BrII172

You're Welcome as the Flowers in May

DESCRIPTION: The singer accuses Katie of calling him a rogue to her mother. He demonstrates this by stealing a kiss and trying to steal her heart. She calls that no theft; he is "welcome as the flowers in May." She says that they will marry if her mother consents
AUTHOR: J. E. Carpenter (per O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: love courting flowers marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H804, pp. 262-263, "You're Welcome as the Flowers in May" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 152, "You're Welcome as Flowers in May" (1 text)
Roud #6917
NOTES [59 words]: Despite the similarity in titles (perhaps inspired by a common saying), this appears to have no relationship at all with the Randolph song "As Welcome as the Flowers in May."
Dan J. Sullivan in 1902 published a song "You're As Welcome As the Flowers In May"; I don't know which of the two traditional songs of that title, if either, it represents. - RBW
File: HHH804

You're Welcome To Me

See My Generous Lover (File: RcMGL)

You've Been a Friend to Me

DESCRIPTION: "My bark of life was tossing down The troubled stream of time When first I saw your smiling face And youth was in its prime... If ever I have had a friend, you've been a friend to me." The singer complains about hard time but is grateful for friendship
AUTHOR: Original by Will S. Hays, adapted by A. P. Carter (source: Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirschberg, _Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone: The Carter Family & Their Legacy in American Music_, p. 131)
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (recording, The Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes separation travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 687, "Faithful Friend" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #17260
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Familly, "You've Been a Friend To Me" (Decca 5283, 1936; Montgomery Ward 8009, 1939 )
File: BrS5687

You've Got a Friend

DESCRIPTION: "When you're down and troubled And you need some lovin' care,,,= Close your eyes and think of me." "You just call out my name And you know, wherever I am I'll come runnin'." The hearer can always rely on the singer
AUTHOR: Carole King (source: copyright)
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (recordings, Carole King and others)
KEYWORDS: friend nonballad help
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 542, "You've Got a Friend" (notes only)
RECORDINGS:
Marianne Corbino, "You've Got a Friend" (Piotr-Archive #638, recorded 08/10/2023)
NOTES [60 words]: Derek Piotr's informant didn't supply a source for this song, so there is no reason to think it traditional. It's just a pop icon that was (I suspect) learned from the radio, though it's just possible that it came from a camp. But, according to Averill, it is not especially popular in camps. There is a Wikipedia article about it if you want to learn more. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcYGoAF

You've Got to Be a Lover of the Lord

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, you've got to be a lover of the Lord (x3) Or you won't get to heaven when you die." "Come humble sinners... make this last resolve, Oh, you must be a lover of the Lord, Or you can't go to heaven when you die."
AUTHOR: Charles Wesley [and William Cowper]/ music: R. H. Reeves
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Sacred Harp hymnal)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad clothes humorous playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 654, "You've Got to Be a Lover of the Lord" (1 fragment)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 166, "Come Humble Sinners" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7577
RECORDINGS:
Huggins & Phillips Sacred Harp Singers, "Lover of the Lord" (Vocalion 5273, rec. 1928; on Babylon)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "You Won't Go to Heaven When You Die, Mary Ann (Retreat) (Bugle Call Lyric)" (lyrics)
NOTES [103 words]: The Huggins & Phillips Sacred Harp Singers recording adds a verse of Cowper's "Oh, For a Closer Walk with God" to the song, probably to fill out the time on the record. - PJS
For background on Cowper, see the notes to "God Moves in a Mysterious Way."
Most of the field collections of this have wandered far from the source, but none perhaps as much as Sutton-Smith's New Zealand version, which has become a singing game:
Oh, you must be a lover of the Lord, of the Lord,
Or you won't go to heaven when you ie, when you die.
Oh, you must wear a collar and a tie, and a tie,
Or you won't go to heaven when you die. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: R654

You've Got to Put on Airs

See Putting on Airs (File: R460)

You've Got Your Big Gun, and I've Got Mine

DESCRIPTION: "You've got your big gun, and I've got mine. Just rap on the cartridge if you don't mind dying."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1919 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 501, "You've Got Your Big Gun, and I've Got Mine" (1 fragment)
Roud #11805
File: Br3501

Youghall Harbour

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a beautiful girl as he walks toward Youghall. He asks a kiss; she refuses, explaining that her former lover has driven her from Youghall. She will have no more to do with men. He says his intentions are honorable
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland); the "Answers to Youghall Harbour" date to before 1825
KEYWORDS: courting beauty rejection
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H503, p. 273, "Youghall Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 95, "Yougall Harbor" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 198-199, "Youghall Harbour" (1 text, listed as a translation by Samuel Ferguson)
Roud #2734
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Answer to Youghal Harbour"
cf. "Foot and Mouth Disease" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Moreton Bay (I) (File: FaE038)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Youghal Harbour
Yougal Harbour
NOTES [205 words]: The versions of Youghall Harbour are so varied that I think they should be considered at least two ballads. [Though Roud lumps them. - RBW] Examples of "the other Youghall Harbors":
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 8 and Bodleian, Harding B 28(20), "Answer to Youghall Harbour," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(2180), 2806 b.9(227), 2806 b.11(205), Harding B 25(2128), Firth b.27(11/12) View 1 of 2 [partly illegible], 2806 c.15(163), 2806 c.15(17), 2806 b.11(204), Harding B 19(3), "Youghal Harbour" ("As I roved out on a summer's morning") in which Nancy/Mary of Cappoquin has the singer's baby ["A darling baby for you I am rearing"] and is deserted by him twice. [This is in the Index as "Answer to Youghal Harbour."]
Bodleian, Harding B 25(2126), "Answer to Youghall Harbour," Angus (Newcastle), 1774-1825 in which the singer considers leaving "the fair maid of Caperqueen" at the altar;
Bodleian, Harding B 28(20), "Youghall Harbour" ("In Youghall harbour, on a summer's morning"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(4287), "Youghall Harbour" in which the singer is led to the altar and is sometimes exposed as a rake. This may just be an extension of "Answer to Youghall Harbour." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: HHH503

Youghall Harbour (II)

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl like "the Queen of May." He seduces her after going "to a director" when she insists on "performance." But he values "neither Priest nor Deacon nor yet yon fair maid of Capperquin" and gains "the maiden flower of this silly female"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(20))
KEYWORDS: seduction virginity rake
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #2734
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Youghal Harbour" (on IRRCinnamond03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(20), "Youghall Harbour" ("In Youghall harbour, on a summer's morning"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(4287), "Youghall Harbour"
NOTES [77 words]: Listening to a traditional version on IRRCinnamond03, which is very close to broadside Bodleian Harding B 28(20) "Youghall Harbour," finally convinced me that this should be yet another "Youghall Hartbour" ballad (linked, as it is, by Roud to two others). This seems a much more likely prequel than "Youghall Harbour(I)" to "Answer to Youghal Harbour"; note that Armstrong printed both "Youghall Harbour (II)" and "Answer to Youghall Harbour" on the same sheet. - BS
File: RcYoHa02

Young Aiken

See Hind Etin [Child 41] (File: C041)

Young Aikin

See Hind Etin [Child 41] (File: C041)

Young Airly

DESCRIPTION: Lochiel and Airly ride away with Charlie. Argyle then rides to "glent to heav'n I' the dwelling o' young Airly." Lochiel mistakes the glow for sunrise but Ogilvie realizes Airly is burning. He mourns "mither and twa sweet babies" lost and curses Argyle.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Cromek)
KEYWORDS: feud homicide fire
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 75, "Young Airly" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: R. H. Cromek, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, (London, 1810), pp. 195-197, "Young Airly"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie House o Airlie" [Child 199] (subject and tune)
NOTES [388 words]: "Lochiel" may refer to Alan Cameron (c. 1567-c. 1647) or Ewen Cameron (1629-1719), the 15th and 16th clan chiefs respectively (see "Cameron2" at Stirnet Genealogy site).
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 of both "Young Airly" texts: "Trusting to a note in Cromek's Collection [Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song], I never doubted that this was a song of 1745, and reserved it for this volume, and even for this latter division of it. I find, however, in searching for the event to which it relates, that it is the very oldest Scots song in the collection, being one of 1640."
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 has two ballads for this title. Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 76 is Child 199. Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 75 shares the tune and subject with Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 76, but no lines with that text or any of Child's.
"Cromek died [1812] shortly after the issue [1810] of Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, which was mostly written by Cunningham, though palmed upon Cromek as recovered antiques." (source: J. Ross, The Book of Scottish Poems: Ancient and Modern, (Edinburgh, Edinburgh Publishing Co, 1878), "Allan Cunningham 1784-1842," p. 738; other sources agree)
Cromek: "'Young Airlie' was eldest son to Ogilvie, Earl of Airlie, and with his father's vassals joined Prince Charles. He married a daughter of Johnstone of Westerhall in Annandale -- a lady of characteristic courage who followed her lord through all the dangers and troubles of war. In the hasty march through Dumfries a confidential friend wished Lady Ogilvie to return to her father's from the uncertain tumult of rebellion. 'O! Mary (said she) Charlie's the righteous heir! Wha wadna gang wi' Charlie!' Young Lord Airlie escaped to France after the battle of Culloden." This is apparently the note Hogg referred to. Compare Cromek's comments with the references for "The Bonnie House o Airlie [Child 199]." - BS
My instinct, and Cromek's, and evidently Hogg's, was to refer this to the time of Bonnie Prince Charlie, due to the reference to Charles and the fact that Lochiel was Charlie's most important supporter. But we should note that, in 1640, the king was Charles I, who was fighting (and would eventually lose) the English Civil War. And his son was Charles II, who would not be restored until 1660. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Hogg2075

Young Airly (II)

See The Bonnie House o Airlie [Child 199] (File: C199)

Young Alanthia

See Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)

Young Alban and Amandy

See Olban (Alban) or The White Captive [Laws H15] (File: LH15)

Young Allan [Child 245]

DESCRIPTION: In a drunken gathering, Allan boasts of the speed of his ship. Challenged, he takes part in a race and is caught in a storm. Allan calls on a "bonny boy" to steer the ship (with offers of reward), then begs the ship to rescue him. Somehow, all survive
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Skene ms.)
KEYWORDS: ship storm gambling escape
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 245, "Young Allan" (5 texts)
Bronson 245, "Young Allan" (16 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 245, "Young Allan" (2 versions: #1, #2)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #63, p. 1, "Young Allan" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 326, "Young Allan" (17 texts, 16 tunes) {A=Bronson's #13, B=#12, C=#11, D=#5, G=#10, H=#3, I=#8, J=#7, K=#4,L=#6, M=#14, N=#16, O=#15, for R cf. #2}
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 320-322, "Young Allan" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 608-611, "Young Allan" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 58, "Young Allan" (1 text)
DT 245, YNGALAN* YNGALAN2*
Roud #242
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sir Patrick Spens" [Child 58] (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sailors o' Merrily Den
Miraladen
The Sailors and the Merry-go-round
The Sea Captains
NOTES [53 words]: Child sees analogies between this ballad and mythical vessels which sailed at the will of their masters (e.g. the Phæacian ships in Odyssey viii.557 or the Scandinavian Elliða). Given, however, the sorry state of the versions in Child, one may doubt how much of this is tradition and how much simply confusion. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: C245

Young Alvin

DESCRIPTION: Alvin loves Melanie. He takes two horses to her father's house in Earl's Court. The chambermaid tells him that Melanie will be married the next day to Lord Farthington to satisfy her father's debt. They duel. Alvin wins and elopes with Melanie.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (recording, Packie Manus Byrne)
KEYWORDS: courting elopement death fight father nobility
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #2988
RECORDINGS:
Packie Manus Byrne, "Young Alvin" (on Voice17)
NOTES [157 words]: Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 17" - 15.9.02: "According to both R S Thomson and Frank Purslow (personal correspondence) versions of 'Young Alvin' appeared in late 18th-century chapbooks, although I [Mike Yates?] have not, so far, come across one."
Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Reviews - Volume 17" by Rod Stradling - 7.11.98: "Packie Byrne sings 'Young Alvin,' which I've never been entirely certain isn't a fake -- it certainly doesn't sound as if it's passed through many hands in the aural transmission process." - BS
I think I agree. "Alvin and Melanie?" Sounds like a sixties sitcom. And they'd have to elope a *long* way to avoid punishment for killing a lord. Some google searching seems to reveal that there is a literary original back there somewhere, though all the allusions were too oblique to actually cite (so much for finding everything on the Internet). - RBW
File: RcYoAlvi

Young and Growing

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

Young and Single Sailor, The

See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Young Andrew [Child 48]

DESCRIPTION: Andrew woos a lady. He bids her to steal her father's money for their wedding. She brings the money; he takes her clothes and sends her home naked. Her father refuses to let her in without the gold; she dies. (Her brothers hunt Andrew down.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Andrew woos a lady. They have sex. He bids her to steal her father's money for their wedding. She brings the money; he takes her clothes for his own lady and sends her home naked. Her father refuses to let her in without the gold; she dies. (Her brothers hunt Andrew down, break his bones, and leave him to be eaten alive by a wolf.)
KEYWORDS: courting theft family abandonment infidelity greed hardheartedness sex betrayal manhunt revenge death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 48, "Young Andrew" (1 text)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 327-333, "Younge Andrew" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 59, "Young Andrew" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library, MS. Additional 27879, p. 292
Roud #6740
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fair Flower of Northumberland" [Child 9] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Death of Young Andrew
NOTES [43 words]: According to David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 158 n. 25, this is one of eighteen ballads in the Child collection found only in the Percy Folio. - RBW
Child refers to similar ballads in Poland. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C048

Young Astronomer's Gaze, A

DESCRIPTION: "As I gaze in the starry heaven of blue, I see Orion and his neighbors two; And of all the fixed stars... I see only a few, And none are very new, But as old as time is old." Saturn and its rings are mentioned, as well as the animals in the constellations
AUTHOR: George Mefford Bell?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, p. 256, "A Young Astronomer's Gaze" (1 text) (OakEd, pp. 255-256)
NOTES [47 words]: The observations in this song are genuinely suitable to a young astronomer, since Orion is (along with the Big Dipper) perhaps easiest to recognize of all the northern constellations. I'm not sure which constellations are thought to be Orion's neighbors; perhaps Gemini and Auriga? - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ThBa256A

Young Baithman

See Bateman's Tragedy (Young Baithman) (File: GlBa055)

Young Barbour

See Willie o Winsbury [Child 100] (File: C100)

Young Barnable

See Sarah Barnwell (File: GrD2218)

Young Barnswell

See Sarah Barnwell (File: GrD2218)

Young Barnwell

See Sarah Barnwell (File: GrD2218)

Young Bearwell [Child 302]

DESCRIPTION: Young Bearwell and the mayor's daughter are in love. She learns that false rumors are spread about him, and gives him a ship to flee in. He comes to a foreign court. She grows lonely, and sends for him; her messenger learns of his success abroad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: love courting lie exile ship sea separation loneliness
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 302, "Young Bearwell" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 39, "Young Bearwell" (1 text)
DT 302, YNGBEARW
Roud #3935
File: C302

Young Beham

See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Young Beicham

See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Young Beichan [Child 53]

DESCRIPTION: A young lord is taken prisoner by a foreign king. The king's daughter frees him after receiving a promise that he will wed her in seven years. Seven years later she comes to England to see him being married. When he sees her, he marries her instead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783/1799 (Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland); a song "Bateman" was in William Thackeray's broadside catalog by 1690
KEYWORDS: wedding marriage promise courting prison escape
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,North,South),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,MW,NE,NW,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (90 citations):
Child 53, "Young Beichan" (14 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #94}
Bronson 53, "Young Beichan" (113 versions plus 9 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 53, "Young Beichan" (16 versions: #1, #6, #9, #12, #23, #30.2, #34, #37, #45, #74, #92, #94, #100, #101, #105, #112)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 91-98, "Young Bekie" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, p. 174, "Young Becon" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #94}
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 106-113, "Young Bekie" (2 parallel texts plus a photo of the badly-transcribed tune plus a reconstruction on p. 267); pp. 114-118, "Young Bicham" (1 text)
Dixon-ScottishTraditionalVersionsOfAncientBallads I, pp. 1-10, "Young Bondwell" (1 text)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #8, pp. 85-95,243, "Lord Beichan"; Ballad #9, pp. 95-98, "Lord Bateman" (2 texts)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 144-151, "Lord Beichan"; pp. 268-290, "Lord Bateman" (2 texts)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 62-63, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, pp. 147-149, "Lord Bateman" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 362)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 33-36, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 31, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 68-69, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 22, pp. 28-29, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 27-28, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #33, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 136-140, "Young Bonwell" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #78, pp. 1-2, "Young Beichan" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan5 1023, "Lord Brechin" (13 texts, 14 tunes)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 106-122, "Lord Bateman" (5 texts, all very full, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #8, #87}
Randolph 11, "Lord Bateman" (4 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #3, C=#44, E=#7}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 25-28, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 11E) {Bronson's #7}
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 14-15, "Lord Batsman" (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 10, "Young Beichan" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 49, "Lord Bateman's Castle" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #80}
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 204-208, "Lord Bakeman" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #11}
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 54-57, "Lord Bakeman" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2, pp. 9-69, "Young Beichan" (19 texts plus 6 fragments, 8 tunes; a few of the versions combine multiple collections from family members or have other complex histories) {F=Bronson's #1, H=#11}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 12, "Young Beichan" (7 texts plus 2 fragments; the fragments, especially "I," might perhaps be "The Turkish Lady"; 2 tunes entitled "Lord Bateman and the Turkish Lady, or The Turkish Lady," "The Turkish Lady"; 3 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #55, #47}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 16, pp. 102-110, "Young Beichan" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 14, "Young Beichan" (5 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 14, "Young Beichan" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 7, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #35}
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, #III, pp. 104-106, "Young Beichan" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #111}
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, pp. 28-30, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #154, "Young Beichan" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 8, pp. 75-76, "Young Beichan" (1 text)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 15, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 210-213, "Young Beichan" (1 text, with local title "The Jailer's Daughter"; 1 tune on pp. 410-411) {Bronson's # 39}
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 26-34, "Young Beichan" (4 texts plus 1 fragment, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #64, #3, #13}
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, pp. 7-8, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 7, "Lord Ateman" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 210-213, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 7, "Lord Bateman" (2 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #101}
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 5, "Lord Bakeman" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #22}; "Lord Bateman" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lehr/Best-ComeAndIWillSingYou 68, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 169-174, "Young Beichan" (2 texts)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 81-86, "Young Beichan" (1 text)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol1, p. 58, "Lord Batesman, or the Turkish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #98}
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 81-82, "Lord Baker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, pp. 47-48, "Young Beham" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 128, "Young Beichan (Lord Bateman)" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 44, "Young Bekie"; 45, "Young Beichan"; 164, "The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman" (3 texts)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 43, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #2, "Lord Batesman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #12, "Lord Batesman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 13 "Young Beichan" (7 texts plus 5 fragments, of which"D" and "L" in particular may be "The Turkish Lady"; 12 tunes){Bronson's #36, #99, #10, #107, #106, #110, #14, #57, #42, #41, #102, #68}
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 6, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #5, "Lord Bateman (Young Beichan)" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #103}
Wells
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 22, "Young Beichan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 256-259+356-357, "Young Beichan" (1 text)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 10, "Lord Bateman (Young Beichan)" (1 text, 1 tune, slightly edited) {Bronson's #14}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 10, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #92}
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 276-277, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 100-102, "[Turkish Lady]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 22-23, "The Turkish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 41, "Young Beichan (Lord Bateman)" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 7, "Young Bicham"; 8, "Young Bekie" (2 texts, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's #112}
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 8, "Young Beichan" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 2, "Young Beichan" (1 text)
HarvardClassics-EnglishPoetryChaucerToGray, pp. 84-86, "Young Bicham" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 101-103, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H470, p. 491, "Lord Beichan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 14, pp. 33-36, "Lord Bayham" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 8, "Young Beichan" (3 text plus mention of 1 more)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-A, #7A-C, pp. 22-31, "A Turkish Lady," "Turkish Lady," "Lord Wetram" (3 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #54, #53, #93}
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 98-101, "Lord Batesman"; pp. 101-103, "Lord Bokeman" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 86-87, "The Turkish Lady" (1 text, 1 tune, which, despite the title, is this piece; the hero is "Lord Bakeman") {Bronaon's #51}
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 32-33, "Lord Bateman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 23-25, "Lord Beichan"; pp. 25-27, "Young Bekie" (2 texts)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 242-246, "Young Beichan (Lord Bateman)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 171-174, "Lord Bakeman" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 78-81, "Young Beicham" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 67-69, "Lord Bateman" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 212, "Lord Bateman" (1 text)
DT 53, LORDBATE* LRDBEICH* (The DT editors also list TURKLADY* as Child 53, but it belongs with Laws O26)
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 147, "Lord Bateman" (reproduction of a broadside page containing this and "I'll Dream of Thee No More")
Julie Henigan, "Ozark Ballads as Song and Story," article in _Missouri Folklore Society Journal_, Volume 27-28 (cover date 2005-2006, but published 2015), pp. 159-185; pp. 160-161, "Lord Batesman" (1 text, as sung by Ollie Gilbert)
Roud #40
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best, "Lord Bateman" (on NFABest01)
M. Curran, "Lord Bateman" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Ollie Gilbert, "Lord Batesman" (on LomaxCD1707)
Roby Monroe Hick, "Young Beham" [excerpt] (on USWarnerColl01)
Aunt Molly Jackson, "Lord Bateman" (AFS; on LC57)
Eunice Yeatts MacAlexander, "Lord Bateman" (on FarMtns1)
Willie Mathieson, "The King's Daughter" (on FSBBAL1)
Pleaz Mobley, "Lord Bateman" (AFS L 12, 1937; on LC12) {Bronson's #97}
Thomas Moran, "Lord Bateman" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
Howard Morry, "Lord Bateman" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
New Lost City Ramblers, "Lord Bateman" (on NLCR14)
Will Noble, Pippa Noble, Derek Piotr, "Lord Bateman" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #65, recorded 08/02/2021)
Raymond Noseworthy, "Lord Bateman" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
John Reilly, "Lord Baker" (on Voice17)
Balis Ritchie, "Lord Bateman and the Turkish Lady" (on Ritchie03)
Jean Ritchie, "Lord Bateman" (on JRitchie01)
Jeannie Robertson, "Lord Bateman" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
David Slaunwhite, "Lord Bateman" (on MRHCreighton)
Mary Sullivan, "Lloyd Bateman" (AFS; on LC57)
Joseph Taylor, "Lord Bateman" (cylinder, on HiddenE) {Bronson's #34}
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(174), "Lord Bateman," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also 2806 c.16(213), Harding B 11(2196), Firth c.21(10), Johnson Ballads 1687, Firth c.21(28), Firth b.25(164), Harding B 11(2198), Harding B 25(1140), Johnson Ballads 549[some words illegible], Harding B 11(2199), Harding B 11(2200), Firth b.25(93), "Lord Bateman"; Harding B 17(170b), Harding B 26(379), "Lord Beigham"
LOCSinging, as100980 [incomplete], "Lord Bakeman," unknown, 19C
Murray, Mu23-y1:030, "Lord Beigham," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(136a), "Lord Beigham," unknown, c. 1820
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Turkish Lady" [Laws O26]
cf. "The Araby Maid" (subject)
cf. "Mustang Gray (The Maid of Monterey)" (plot)
cf. "Thomas o Yonderdale" [Child 253] (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lord Beham
Susan Price
Lord Batesman
Lord Akeman
NOTES [641 words]: This song is commonly connected with the story of Gilbert Becket, the father of Thomas (the clerical adversary of England's Henry II); for citations on this, see the story "Young Bekie" on pp. 579-580 of volume A.1 of Briggs. But, although the song's widespread currency implies that it is old, it is unlikely that it is that old.
Child believed that it may have been affected by the Becket legend, but was probably independent.
The plot very much resembles "The Turkish Lady" [Laws O26], and some scholars lump them, but the latter emphasizes the conversion of the princess rather than, as in this song, her pursuit and reunion.
It is interesting to note that, according to the Rosenberg/Kreuzer translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, p. LII, the "love interests [in the crusading romances] were frequently unintentionally humorous: the Saracen princesses in literature were almost as aggressive in their behavior as the knights they aided."
Baugh,p. 125, commenting on the romance "Bevis of Hampton": "[The Saracen Emperor] Ermin's daughter Josian, after the manner of Saracen princesses in romance, falls in love with the hero, especially after he has successfully defended her against a king named Brademond who has come to marry her, by force if necessary."
CHEL1, p. 305, sums up "Bevis" as follows: "Beves of Hamtoun... presents almost entirely crusading tendencies, but few traces remain of the earlier form. Beves, who has been despatched as a slave to heathen parts by a treacherous mother, ultimately arrives at the court of the Saracen king Ermyn. Here he is the recipient of handsome favours, and is offered the hand of the princess Josian, on condition that he foresakes the Christian faith. This he refuses to do, but the valour he displays in staggering exploits still keeps him in favour, and Josian, for his love, is prepared to renounce her native gods [sic.]. The king hears of this, and Beves is committed to a neighbouring potentate, by whom he is kept in a horrible dungeon for some seven years. After a marvelous escape from his terrible surroundings, Beves seeks out Josian, and both flee to Cologne, where they are duly wedded. The hero's career continues to be as eventful as ever; but he is finally induced to turn toward home, where he succeeds in regaining his inheritance, and is recognised as a worthy knight by the reigning king Edgar."
Thus, in "Bevis," the girl and the guy are reunited after seven years, just as in this ballad -- although, in the romance, it is she, not he, who is married to another -- involuntarily, in this case, but she maintains her virginity magically while he spends seven years in Brademond's custody. Beves and Josian finally die in each others' arms.
A minor footnote: In the Scottish "Young Beichan" texts, the Turkish girl is typically called "Susan (Susie) Pye," with no obvious derivation that I can see. In the more numerous "Lord Bateman" texts, however, she is usually "Sophia." But "Sophia" (Σοφια, Greek for "wisdom") is not a Turkish name. Perhaps the girl had more reasons than love for wanting to escape. One might even speculate that she had (or that some singer intended her to have) a Christian mother. Or that she would rather marry an infidel than live in a harem. Or even that she was already Christian -- Muslim men were allowed to marry Christian women but Muslim women were not allowed to marry Christian men (EncycIslam, p. 259).
One other minor supporting point: Several versions, when the girl arrives at Bateman's palace and is told that Bateman is new-married, she asks for a slice of cake and a glass of wine. But wine is (mostly) forbidden in Islam (EncycIslam, p. 418). Moreover, the combination of cake (bread) and wine could be an invocation of the eucharist.
And, yes, that's an awfully long chain of inference to hang on one name....- RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C053

Young Bekie

See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Young Benjie [Child 86]

DESCRIPTION: Benjie quarrels with his lover, who vows to seek another. He drowns her. During the night watch over the corpse [lykewake] she reveals to her three brothers who killed her. They ask whether they should behead or hang him. She bids them put out his eyes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: lover corpse funeral brother injury revenge ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Child 86, "Young Benjie" (2 texts)
Bronson 86, "Young Benjie" (1 version)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 86, "Young Benjie" (1 version)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine p. 453, "Young Benjie" (notes only)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 280-283, "Young Benjie" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 91, "Young Benjie" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 169-170, "Bondsey and Maisry"; pp. 199-201, "Young Benjie" (2 texts)
DT 81, YNGBENJI*
Roud #3911
File: C086

Young Betsy

See Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid) [Laws M20] (File: LM20)

Young Bicham

See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Young Billy Crane

DESCRIPTION: The singer, "Nellie Harrison," is betrayed by "Cubit's" arrow and a handsome young man named Billy Crane. She describes how he courted her then went to sea. She declares she will dress in men's clothes and follow her love
AUTHOR: Larry Gorman (1846-1917)
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Doerflinger)
KEYWORDS: courting betrayal separation lament cross-dressing travel
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 259-260, "Young Billy Crane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-LarryGorman, pp. 67-68, 202, "Young Billy Crane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4164
NOTES [34 words]: Said to have been inspired by real people, though the names have been changed. The original Nellie Harrison is said to have remained single her whole life.
This song is item dH46 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Doe259

Young Bonwell

See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Young Bucks A-Hunting Go

See When Bucks a Hunting Go (File: GrD4727)

Young Bung-'er-eye

See Quare Bungo Rye (File: Log416)

Young Butcher Boy

See The Three Butchers [Laws L4] (File: LL04)

Young Carlotta

See Young Charlotte (Fair Charlotte) [Laws G17] (File: LG17)

Young Carolina

See Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold (Young Sailor Bold II) [Laws N17] (File: LN17)

Young Caroline

DESCRIPTION: Highlander MacDonald courts Caroline. Her father is opposed: he "swore Macdonnels blood should stain the earth." Caroline, scorned for their relationship, is unhappy. Her heart breaks to leave her parents, but they elope and marry happily.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin)
KEYWORDS: courting elopement marriage father mother
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 19, "Young Caroline" (1 text)
Roud #4279
NOTES [156 words]: Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin: "I believe this is an Americanized version of 'Caroline of Edinborough Town' ... although the ending is happy in Mr Larkins's [sic] version, and the girl lives on 'Dry Crick.' Nevertheless, her lover wins her 'with flattering tongue,' the father bitterly objects, and they run away." I don't see any links between Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin text and "Caroline of Edinborough Town" other than Caroline's name and that her lover was from the highlands. Then Musick looks to Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 33, "Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold" for a Caroline story with a happy ending, but there are no other links between the Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin text and that song. It does seem to be an American version about some woman and a Highlander named MacDonald, but I find no connection with, say, "MacDonald of the Isles" or "The Pride of Glencoe." - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: MuLa019

Young Chambers

DESCRIPTION: Chambers's boat, smuggling liquor from St Pierre, is attacked and boarded by the crew of the Lady Clover. The crew are taken to Harbour Breton, tried, and thrown in jail. After four months of bad and meager rations they are released to run grog again.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: crime trial prison drink sea ship outlaw punishment
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 897-898, "Young Chambers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9939
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Nicolle, "Young Chambers" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
NOTES [124 words]: Peacock says "smuggling liquor from the French island of St Pierre off Newfoundland's south coast has been a lucrative business for decades, especially during the days of American prohibition." Harbour Breton is on the south coast of Newfoundland. - BS
Peacock defines "switchel tea" as "very weak tea unsweetened" or water mixed with molasses. G. M. Story, W. J. Kirwin, and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, Dictionary of Newfoundland English, second edition with supplement, Breakwater Press, 1990, p. 552, offer "'a drink of molasses and water often seasoned with vinegar and ginger' (1790-)," a term derived from OED "swizzle"; the secondary meaning is simply "Tea, esp. that once drunk by fishermen and sealers at sea"; it cites this song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Pea897

Young Charlotte (Fair Charlotte) [Laws G17]

DESCRIPTION: Pretty Charlotte, going to a dance on a cold night, refuses to dress properly; warm clothes would hide her charms. First she complains of the cold, but then says "I'm growing warmer now." When they arrive at the ball, her escort finds her frozen to death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: courting death beauty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 8, 1840 - The New York Observer publishes a story, "A Corpse Going to a Ball," describing a tragedy like this one which took place on Jan 1, 1840
FOUND IN: US(All) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (60 citations):
Laws G17, "Young Charlotte (Fair Charlotte)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 308-317, "Young Charlotte" (4 texts plus excerpts from 9 more and references to 2 more, 4 tunes)
Randolph 667, "Young Charlotte" (3 texts plus 5 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 528-532, "Young Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 667A)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, pp. 32-33, "A Song... Young-Shelottie" (1 text)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 46-47, "Young Charlottie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #56, "Young Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 209, "Young Charlotte" (1 text plus mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 209, "Young Charlotte" (6 excerpts, 6 tunes)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 60, pp. 182-184, "Young Charlotte" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 52-53, "Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 157, "Fair Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 98-100, "Young Charlottie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 66-68, "Young Charlottie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 23, "Fair Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sulzer-TwentyFiveKentuckyFolkBallads, pp. 10-11, "Young Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 123, "Fair Charlotte" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 41, "Frozen Charlotte" (1 text plus an excerpt and mention of 1 more, 2 tunes)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 56-57, "Young Charlotte" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 219.220, "Young Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 37, pp. 51-53, "Young Charlotte" (1 text plus 2 fragments)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 30, "Fair Charlotte" (2 texts plus a fragment and mention of 2 more, 2 tunes)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 315-324, "Young Charlotte" (2 texts, 2 tunes, plus a broadside pring)
Rickaby-BalladsAndSongsOfTheShantyBoy 37, "Fair Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 37, "Fair Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 35-38, "Young Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 111-115, "Young Charlotte" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 305-309, "Young Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 94-97, "Fair Charlotte" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 75-78, "Young Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune) (pp. 62-64 in the 1919 edition)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, p. 169, "Young Charlotte" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 723-725, "Young Charlotte" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 98-100, "Schaladi" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 58-59, "The Frozen Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #33, "Young Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 48, "Young Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 374-377, "(The Frozen Girl/Fair Charlotte)" (1 text plus a few stray lines)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 825-828, "Young Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 142-143, "Young Charlotte" (1 text)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs 44, pp. 103-107, "Young Charlotte" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 80, "Fair Charlotte" (2 texts plus mention of 5 more; 1 tune)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #4A-B, pp. 126-129, "Fair Charlotte," "Young Charlotte" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 41-45, "Young Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 137-139, "Fair Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 47, "Young Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #60, "Young Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 110-110, "The Frozen Girl"; pp. 112-114,"Charlotte, the Frozen Girl" (2 texts)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 172, "Young Charlotte" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 735-737, "Young Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt/Fowke-SeaSongsBalladFromNineteenthCenturyNovaScotia, pp. 51-55, "The Frozen Girl" (1 text)
Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia 150, "Young Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 64, "Young Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 60, "Young Charlotte" (1 text)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 136-138, "Frozen Charlotte (Young Charlotte)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Finger-FrontierBallads, pp. 119-123, "Young Charlotte, or The Frozen Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 104-106, "Young Carlotta" (1 text)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 66-69, "Young Charlotte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 220-221, "Young Charlotte" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 210, "Young Charlotte" (1 text)
DT 637, YNGCHARL*
Roud #260
RECORDINGS:
Charlotte Decker, "Young Charlotte" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Delmore Brothers, "The Frozen Girl" (Bluebird B-5338/Montgomery Ward M-4458/Sunrise S-3419, 1934; rec. 1933)
Warde Ford, "Fair Charlotte" (AFS 4203 A1, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
I. G. Greer w. Mrs. I. G. Greer, "Young Charlotte" (AFS; on LC14)
Red Ingle and the Natural Seven, "Git Up Off'n the Floor, Hannah" (Capitol 15123, 1947)
Eugene Jemison, "Fair Charlotte" (on Jem01)
Pete Seeger, "Young Charlotte" (on PeteSeeger29)
Vern Smelser, "Young Charlotte" (on FineTimes)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Shepherd on the Hill" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Fair Sharlot
NOTES [242 words]: This ballad is widely considered to be based on an incident which took place on Jan. 1, 1840, when a girl froze on her way to a ball (the story was reported in the Feb. 8 New York Observer). In 1843 (probably) the poem "A Corpse Going to a Ball" was published by Seba Smith in "The Rover"; the ballad is frequently linked to that lyric (Botkin places the poem in 1884, but Smith died before that).
The matter remains controversial, though; others have linked it to the death of Charlotte Dills, frozen to death in Auburn, Indiana in 1862. And Barry credited the song to a William Lorenzo Carter of Virginia and dated it before 1833 -- though he later accepted the attribution to Smith.
For what it is worth, Laws accepts the attribution to Smith.
Smith almost certainly should be credited with a similar piece, "Stratton Mountain Tragedy" [Laws G18], which also involves a young woman dying in a blizzard (only, there, she dies while saving her child from freezing); one wonders how much Smith's ideas cross-fertilized. For more on him, see that song.
A Washington Post story dated December 8, 2019 claims that, when porcelain dolls began to be marketed in the nineteenth century, they were called "Frozen Charlottes" because they were white and stiff. If the article is right that the term goes back to the 1850s, and is connected to this song (and I have no reason to doubt either claim), then the connection to Charlotte Dills seems impossible. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LG17

Young Charlottie

See Young Charlotte (Fair Charlotte) [Laws G17] (File: LG17)

Young Collins (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Young Collins early in the morning Went whistling through the fields of corn, He spied a milkmaid neat and trim...." He asks, "Will you go along with me now go?" She refuses. He says he has a farm, ewes, lambs, poultry. She marries him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Butterworth Collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 49, "Young Collins" (1 text plus some alternate lyrics, 1 tune)
Roud #1720
File: BuDa049

Young Collins (II)

See Lady Alice [Child 85] (File: C085)

Young Collins Green

See Lady Alice [Child 85] (File: C085)

Young Companions [Laws E15]

DESCRIPTION: The singer, born in Philadelphia, abandons his family to go to Chicago where he "sinned both night and day." At last he murders a girl and is condemned to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax, Cowboy Songs)
KEYWORDS: family homicide execution
FOUND IN: US(MW,So,SE,SW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws E15, "Young Companions"
Randolph 161, "Taney County" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 153-155, "Taney County" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 161A)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 334, "The Pennsylvania Boy (1 fragment, 1 tune, possibly this although it is too short to really be certain)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #34, "Bad Companions" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 109, pp. 248-249, "Youth's Companions" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 109-111, "Young Companions" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 33, pp. 186-189, "Bad Company" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 26, "I Was Reared in Pennsylvania" (1 text, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 164-166, "Bad Companions" (1 text)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 34-37, "Bad Companions / Bad Company (Young Companions)" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
DT 625, YNGCMPN*
Roud #786
RECORDINGS:
Mary Dunphy, "Bad Companions" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Kelly Harrell, "I Was Born in Pennsylvania" (OKeh 40544, 1925; on KHarrell01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wrong Road" (plot)
File: LE15

Young Conway

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells how Conway and two others go to Renfrew and embark on a "Poland Spree." They find themselves in a fight, and eventually everyone turns on Conway. He dies of his injuries late the next day. Many grieve for him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: homicide death party
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-LumberingSongsFromTheNorthernWoods #42, "Young Conway" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3678
NOTES [81 words]: Apparently based on an incident of 1886, in Renfrew, in which Conway and his companions crashed a Polish wedding party. Their gift (a baby carriage) was not appreciated, and a fight broke out in which Conway was killed. Conway was stabbed some twenty times, but no one was charged because it was impossible to determine who struck the fatal blow.
According to Fowke's informant, Michael Cuddihey, singing this song in mixed (Irish and Polish) company was guaranteed to cause fights. - RBW
File: FowL42

Young Craigston

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

Young Daniel

See McLellan's Son (File: Pea831)

Young Diana

See Vilikens and His Dinah [LawsM31A/B] (File: LM31)

Young Donald

See Donall Og (Young Donald) (File: K031)

Young Earl of Essex's Victory over the Emperor of Germany, The [Child 288]

DESCRIPTION: The Queen appoints Essex to command the fleet against Germany. The Emperor, learning who opposes him, would avoid battle, but his son begs for the command. Essex is victorious, and the German prince must be exhibited in London before he is sent home
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1764 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 2(5))
KEYWORDS: royalty sea navy battle prisoner patriotic
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 288, "The Young Earl of Essex's Victory over the Emperor of Germany" (2 texts)
Bronson 288, "The Young Earl of Essex's Victory over the Emperor of Germany" (2 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 288, "The Young Earl of Essex's Victory over the Emperor of Germany" (2 tunes: #1, #2)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 131-132, "Young Essex" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 36, "Young Essex" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads LI, pp. 84-87, "Queen Elizabeth's Champion, or Great Britain's Glory" (1 text)
Roud #123
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 2(5), "Queen Elizabeth's Champion" or "A Famous Sea-Fight Between the Emperor of Germany, and the Earl of Essex" ("Come sound up your trumpets, and beat up your drums"), W. and C. Dicey (London), 1736-1763; also Douce Ballads 3(80b), "Queen Elizabeth's Champion" or "Great-Britain's Glory"
NOTES [293 words]: Bodleian note to Harding B 2(5) and Douce Ballads 3(80b): "Subject: Naval battles; Essex, Robert Devereux, Earl of, 1566-1601" - BS
Needless to say, there is no history in this song. By the time Britain developed a respectable Navy, the "emperorship" of Germany (i.e. the Holy Roman Empire) was little more than a token office. As the Habsburg Empire, it would rise again (until destroyed by Napoleon), but by then, an Earldom wasn't enough to give a man a military command.
The broadside copy (Child's A) may be from the publishing house of John White, meaning that it was likely issued in the years before White's death in 1769. It is reasonable to assume that the Hannoverian Succession of 1714 had made the British more aware of Germany, and some anonymous (Jacobite?) balladeer decided to grant the English a victory over them.
Internal evidence, to be sure, points to the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who of course was the first great Queen of England, and who was friendly with an Earl of Essex. Many of the broadside titles name her explicitly. Her reign also saw the voyage of the Spanish Armada, resulting in the first real battle of seagoing gunships. But the Germany of Elizabeth's time was in no sense a country; feuds between Catholics and Protestants were constant, and Protestants at that time generally did not go to war with Protestants.
This song should not be confused with the broadside "The Earl of Essex," printed e.g. by Logan. There is also a manuscript poem, possibly intended to be sung, called "A Prayer of the Earle of Essex Deathe." It is in a number of manuscripts and Tudor-era books; for a recent edition, see Peter J. Seng, Tudor Songs and Ballads from MS Cotton Vespasian A-25, Harvard University Press, 1978, #25, p. 49. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: C288

Young Edmon Bold

See Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low [Laws M34] (File: LM34)

Young Edmond Dell

See Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low [Laws M34] (File: LM34)

Young Edmond of the Lowlands Low

See Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low [Laws M34] (File: LM34)

Young Edmondale

See Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low [Laws M34] (File: LM34)

Young Edward (I)

See The Battle of Mill Springs [Laws A13] (File: LA13)

Young Edward (II)

See The Drummer Boy of Waterloo [Laws J1] (File: LJ01)

Young Edward Bold/The Lowlands Low

See Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low [Laws M34] (File: LM34)

Young Edward the Driver Boy

See Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low [Laws M34] (File: LM34)

Young Edward the Gallant Hussar

See Gallant Hussar, The (A Damsel Possessed of Great Beauty) (File: E147)

Young Edwin in the Lowlands Low

See Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low [Laws M34] (File: LM34)

Young Ellen Loraine

DESCRIPTION: "When I parted from Erin, heart-broken to leave thee, I dreamed not of falsehood, you Ellen Loraine, I thought, though but woman, thou wouldst not deceive me." But she is "faithless." He tells her, Go, false one, and laugh at the heart thou hast broken."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (Bodleian broadide Harding B 11(3108), etc.)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal emigration
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 200, "Young Ellen Loraine" (1 text)
Roud #13854
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(112), "Young Ellen Lorraine," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(3108) (Catnach)
NOTES [13 words]: The dimwit might have had better luck if he'd bothered to learn real English. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: HMHS200A

Young Ellender

DESCRIPTION: A father sees Ellender with a man. Father would send the man "across the salt sea Where the loud cannons they roar" and confine Ellender on "bread and no water Once a day" She would go with him. A gold ring breaks in two and each takes half. He leaves.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO)
KEYWORDS: courting ring brokentoken father
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 206, "Chain of Gold" (1 text)
Roud #1417
RECORDINGS:
Phoebe Smith, "Young Ellender" (on Voice06)
NOTES [189 words]: The notes to Phoebe Smith's version on Voice06 describe "the rather garbled text of 'Young Ellender.'" The elements of the fragmentary story are all familiar as are the images projected by the lines. It reminds me of parts of "Charming Beauty Bright" [Laws M3], "The Iron Door"[Laws M15], "The Jolly Plowboy"[Laws M24], "Pleasant and Delightful" and countless other token ballads. Nevertheless, so far I cannot make this a version of a ballad I know. I would add one or more of the keywords "captivity," "separation," "pressgang," "war" and "cross-dressing," if any of those attributes were more than hinted at or threatened.
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 6" - 25.8.02: "This appears to be a much fragmented version of Roud 539/Laws M15 'The Iron Door'...." The themes are right but I can't make the words fit. Line-by-line comparison with Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople, Peacock, Creighton-SongsAndBalladsFromNovaScotia and Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs shows that those texts are all closely related to each other and have no lines in common with "Young Ellender." - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcYoElle

Young Emily

See Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low [Laws M34] (File: LM34)

Young Emslie

See Edwin (Edmund, Edward) in the Lowlands Low [Laws M34] (File: LM34)

Young Essex

See The Young Earl of Essex's Victory over the Emperor of Germany [Child 288] (File: C288)

Young Ettie

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets Ettie, declares his love, and promises to come back to her when fishing season ends. He returns and she swears she will be his true sweetheart. "A few short weeks after this girl changed her mind." Warning: "don't depend on those fair ones"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports)
KEYWORDS: courting love promise rejection warning parting return reunion separation fishing
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 379-381, "Young Ettie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #25334
File: Guig379

Young Farmer's Offer, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer notes that, at twenty-one, he has come into his father's estate and become a farmer. He has a good bank balance and a cozy home; he asks, "And where's the lass to take my hand And be young Mrs. Armour?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting bequest farming money humorous nonballad home
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #19, p. 1, ("Now friends, my heart is fu' o' glee") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan4 822, "The Jolly Farmer's Son" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H776, p. 261, "The Young Farmer's Offer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6216
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Wha'll Be Mrs Armour
NOTES [85 words]: In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Ireland, the shortage of land was so severe that children had to stay on their parents' properties until the parents died; they could not marry until they had a plot of land on which to live. This often meant that marriages didn't take place until the man, at least, was well into his thirties.
There may be a hint of that in this song: The singer is a landowner at twenty-one, making him a prime catch. - RBW
Roud has the Greig/Duncan4 texts as Roud #6216. - BS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: HHH776

Young Fisherman, The

See The Bold Fisherman [Laws O24] (File: LO24)

Young Flora (I)

See James and Flora (Flora and Jim, The United Lovers) (File: Pea190)

Young Flora (II)

See Sheepcrook and Black Dog (File: HHH030a)

Young Folks, Old Folks

See Walkin' in the Parlor (File: Wa177)

Young Forbest

DESCRIPTION: Elmer Forbest, described as a good Christian man, works five years for John McBean. One day, as the crew is cutting the trees, the wagon holding the logs fails and Forbest is crushed. His comrades bury him and his family mourns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: logger death work
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 224-225, "Young Forbest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4073
NOTES [8 words]: This song is item dC52 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Doe224

Young Freda Bolt

DESCRIPTION: "Amid the Blue Ridge Mountains, there lives a maiden fair," but Freda Bolt becomes pregnant by Buren Harmon. He promises to take her away; instead, he murders her. The singer expects she is in heaven
AUTHOR: D. M. Shank
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Floyd County Ramblers)
KEYWORDS: love pregnancy homicide abandonment
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 209-210, "Freeda Bolt" (1 text)
Roud #12196
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Young Freda Bolt" (Decca 5612/Montgomery Ward MW 8071, 1938)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Frieda Bolt
The Story of Freeda Bolt
File: CAFS1209

Young Gal Go Round the Corner

DESCRIPTION: Leader: "Young gal go round the corner." Group: "My true love gone down the lane." Group: "Wet on the grass where the dew been poured." Group: "Hay, my lady, go down the road, go down the road, go down the road, My true love gone down the lane"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Richard Walser, "His Worship the John Kuner" Vol. XIX, No. 4 (Nov 1971), p. 168, "(Young gall go round de corner)" (1 short text)
NOTES [13 words]: Walser calls this a John Kunnering song. For other such songs, see "Juba!". - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: NCF194YG

Young Gal, Swing Your Tail

DESCRIPTION: Chantey/worksong: "Young gal, go swing your tail/Swing your tail to the South West gale." "Everybody gather round..." "Boys and children get troubled in mind..." "Everybody get converted..." Refrain: "Young gal, go swing your tail"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (recording, John Roberts)
KEYWORDS: nonballad shanty worksong storm
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
RECORDINGS:
John Roberts, "Young Gal, Swing Your Tail" (on MuBahamas2)
NOTES [31 words]: The annotation for LomaxCD1822-2 says that this song is related to the "Swing Your Tail" appearing on that CD, collected in 1935. I don't see it myself, other than the catch-phrase. - PJS
File: RcYGSYT

Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime, The

See The Bad Girl's Lament (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime) [Laws Q26] AND The Unfortunate Rake (File: LQ26)

Young Girls, Can't You Hilo?

See Can't Ye Hilo? (File: Hug265)

Young Heneree

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Young Henery My Son

See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Young Henry

See Henry and Mary Ann (Henry the Sailor Boy) (File: HHH037)

Young Henry Green

See Henry Green (The Murdered Wife) [Laws F14] (File: LF14)

Young Henry the Poacher

See Van Dieman's Land (II - Young Henry's Downfall) (File: FaE16)

Young Herchard

See Richard (Irchard) of Taunton Dean (File: RcIOTD)

Young Hunting [Child 68]

DESCRIPTION: (Young Hunting) goes riding, and meets his love. She bids him come in; he says he cannot, for he must meet another love. She kills him. She is then told (by a bird?) that "he had no love but thee." But all she cares about is hiding the body
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal homicide death burial bird
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Mar) Ireland West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (58 citations):
Child 68, "Young Hunting" (11 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #34}
Bronson 68, "Young Hunting" (43 versions, though a few are fragments which may belong with some other song)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 68, "Young Hunting" (8 versions: #2, #4, #6, #13, #27, #34, #37, #41)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 224-230, "Young Huntin" (1 text)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 38-47, "Young Reedin/Young Riedan" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #34}
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 37, "Earl Richard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 147-151, "Young Huntley" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 122-128, "Young Hunting" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #36}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 152-154, "Young Hunting" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #36}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2, pp. 87-88, "Young Hunting" (1 tune, with no text at all but reported to be this) {Bronson's #7}
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, pp. 28-29, "Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text, 1 tune, listed as Child #76 but appearing to be a fragment of "Young Hunting" [Child #68] with the "Pretty Little Foot" verses attached)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 34-37, "Young Hunting" (1 text)
Randolph 14, "Lord Henry and Lady Margaret" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #18}
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 28-31, "Lord Henry and Lady Margaret" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 14A) {Bronson's #18}
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, pp. 60-61, "Love Henry" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson #19}
Davis-TraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 17, "Young Hunting" (5 texts plus a fragment; all the texts seem somewhat mixed, and "E" clearly has verses from "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight"; 4 tunes entitled "Sir Henry and Lady Margaret," "Young Hunting," "Lord Henry"; 1 more version mentioned in Appendix A) {Bronson's #20, #22, #16, #28}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 17, pp. 111-122, "Young Hunting" (6 texts, 5 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 18, "Young Hunting" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 18, "Young Hunting" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 8, "Young Hunting" (2 texts, one short; 1 tune) {Bronson's #42)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, #IV, pp. 107-108, "Young Hunting" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #38}
Joyner-FolkSongInSouthCarolina, pp. 43-44, "Lowe Bonnie" (1 text, 1 tune) {same source as Bronson's #43, although the two transcriptions differ at several points}
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #156, "Young Hunting" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #29}
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 9, pp. 77-78, "Young Hunting" (1 text plus a fragment, from the same informant)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 17A, "Love Henry"; 17B, "Young Hunting"; 17C, "Henry" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 44-45, "Loving Henry" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 16-17, "Loving Henry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cambiaire-EastTennesseeWestVirginiaMountainBallads, pp. 28-29, "Loving Henry" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 18 "Young Hunting" (12 texts plus 2 fragments, 14 tunes){Bronson's #35, #32, #33, #22, #40, #2, #12, #11, #25, #27, #13, #37, #31, #30}
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #8, "Young Hunting (Loving Henry)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #35}
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, po. 88-89, "Young Hunting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 75-76, "Lord Barney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 37-38, "Young Heneree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #14, "Lovin' Henry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, pp. 134-136, collectively titled "Young Hunting," individually "Loving Henery," "Come In, Loving Henery," "Loving Henry" (2 texts plus a fragment; the "A" text has a moralizing ending in which the girl dies; tune on p. 398) {Bronson's #10}
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 36-39, "Young Hunting" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 229-234, "Young Hunting" (2 texts)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol2, pp. 76-78, "Lord Barnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 30, "Young Hunting" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 190, "Young Hunting" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 65, "The Lord of Scotland" (1 text, 1 tune. Cazden et al are not sure this song should be identified with "Young Hunting," since the "bird scene" is more extended than in other versions of that ballad. However, all the classic elements of "Young Hunting" are present)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 109, "A Song of a Lost Hunter (or, My Love Heneree)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 44, "Young Hunting" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 27, "Young Hunting" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 209-212+350-351, "Young Hunting" (1 text)
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 13, "Love Henry (Young Hunting)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #31}
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 64-65, "Little Scotch-ee" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #38}
Lunsford/Stringfield-30And1FolkSongsFromSouthernMountains, "Young Hunting" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 22 "Henry Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart-FaberBookOfBallads, p. 54, "Young Hunting" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 9, "Young Hunting" (2 texts)
Abrahams/Foss-AngloAmericanFolksongStyle, pp. 97-99, "Love Henry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 142-143, "Earl Richard"; pp. 143-144, "Lord William" (2 texts)
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 31, "Pretty Poll" (1 text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Helen H Roberts, "A Study of Folk Song Variants Based on Field Work in Jamaica," Vol. XXXVIII, No. 148 (Apr-Jun 1925), #2, pp. 154-155 "Fine Waitin' Bwa" (3 fragments, 3 tunes)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Andra Joy Hamilton, "A Garland of Ballads from Caldwell County", Vol. 3, No. 1 (Jul 1955), p. 6, "Little Scottee" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 68, FALSLADY* YNGHUNT * YNGHUNT2* YNGHUNT3* YNGHUNT5
ADDITIONAL: Martha Warren Beckwith and Helen Roberts, _Jamaica Anansi Stories_ (New York: American Folklore Society, 1924 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")) #73 pp. 83-84, "The Singing Bird": #73a pp. 83-84, "Fine Waiting Boy", #73b p. 84, "The Golden Cage" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #47
RECORDINGS:
Jimmie Tarlton (Darby & Tarlton), "Lowe Bonnie" (Columbia 15763-D, 1930; on TimesAint04, ConstSor1) {Bronson's #43}
Logan English, "Love Henry" (on LEnglish1 -- several verses filled in from Cecil Sharp's Kentucky version)
Travis Johnson, "Henry Lee" (Piotr-Archive #516, recorded 03/08/2023)
Dick Justice, "Henry Lee" (Brunswick 367, 1929; on AAFM1)
George Landers, "Scotland Man" (on DarkHoll)
Ella Parker, "Lord BArnett-IHearAmericaSinging" (on FineTimes)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The False Young Man (The False True Lover)" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lady Margot and Love Henry
Earl Richard
Lord Land
Lord Bonnie
Low Bonnie
Young Redin
NOTES [1239 words]: Bronson notes that the musical tradition of this ballad "is perplexed and hard to make out," the tunes having diverse metres and forms. Bronson divides them into six major groups (the largest of which has two subgroups), but notes connections to many other melodies. Given the complexity of establishing tune families, we make no attempt to list them all in the cross-references; you'll have to see Bronson.
It strikes me as possible that this is related to the song's complex textual history. The description given here is pretty typical -- but there is a full Scottish version (from the Herd manuscript) in which the victim's father hunts for him, sends divers into the river, and is guided to the corpse by a bird. The father confronts the girl with the corpse, which bleeds upon seeing her. She blames her maid, but the fire kindled to burn the innocent girl will not harm her, so the murderess is destroyed instead. Many commentators think this ending was lost in most American and many British texts -- but it's so involved that I rather suspect it was grafted on.
Although American versions of this song are often known as "Loving Henry," not every song known by this title is a version of Young Hunting. Norm Cohen points out to me that at least two 78s known by this title [Kyle Wooten, "Loving Henry" (OKeh 45539, 1931; rec. 1930) and Jess Young's Tennessee Band, "Loving Henry" (Columbia 15431-D, 1929)] are not Child 68.
On the basis of all this, Fowler, pp. 286-287, suggests the song is composite, very tentatively arguing that it is based on a real incident about which little was known, so the compiler padded it out with ballad commonplaces. - RBW
Child #68 and Jamaican Anansi Stories
The three Jamaican texts are "Anansi" cante fables following the Ashanti (West African) tradition.
Jekyll's "Pretty Poll": A Duke's girl servant courts a young man. Another man sees the girl and asks the Duke for her, but the Duke says, "No, she is courting already." But the girl tells this new suitor, "if you going to marry me I will lef' my lover an' come." The new suitor asks how that can be: "The Duke not going to allow it." The girl says she will manage it. She takes her old lover for a walk, distracts him, and throws him in a well. A parrot in a nearby tree sees everything and sings that it will take the news of the murder to the Duke. The girl sings, "Come, Pretty Poll, come! There is a house of gold an' silver before you sit 'pon tree." The parrot rejects the bribe: "Tree I barn, Tree I must stay till my time come to die." The parrot "fly from tree to tree... from house to house," reaches the Duke, and tells the tale. "[T]hem hear what Poll said, an' them catch the gal' an' chop off her head. An' Poll get good care." [fn.1]
Broadwood writes about Jekyll's "Pretty Poll," "This is ... the story of 'May Colvin' or 'The Outlandish Knight'. The tune 'Come, pretty Poll' here given is rather reminiscent of one traditional air to the ballad still sung in different parts of England... See 'The Outlandish Knight' in Songs of Northern England (Stokoe and Reay) for the type of tune referred to.... " Elsewhere, Broadwood refers to Child 68 for a similar story. [fn.2]
I hear no resemblance between Jekyll's and the Stokoe-Reay tune for "The Outlandish Knight" [fn.3]
Beckwith-Roberts has a similar song not directly connected to a story, "The Golden Cage": The bird sings "I brought a news to tell you ... Miss Chee Chee take you one dear love an' cast her into a well" Miss Chee Chee says, "Be quiet, I will make a golden cage and put you into it." The bird's reply is from Child 68, but with a different meaning: "No, no, no, no. Same me will do it to dear love too, you will do me the same." [fn.4]
Beckwith/Roberts and Roberts have a different Anansi cante fable and song, "Fine Waiting Boy": A gentleman and his servant, Collin, go for a horse and buggy drive. When they come to a well the master would have Collin get him some water. "Collin pitch him master in de well" and drives home. He tells the master's wife that the master has gone visiting and he will get the master in the buggy the next day. But a little bird sings "Fine waitin' boy. Throw him master into a well.... Collin no ben see da little bird up on tree so long." The master's wife sends for someone who could understand the bird, and says "go search de well, fin' de master body, an' go tak Collin hang him. [fn.5]
See "The Twa Sisters" [Child 10] discussion of Jekyll's "King Daniel," and "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" [Child 81] discussion of "Matty Gru," for Caribbean examples of the parrot introduced as messenger in other Child ballads. Child 81 also has Caribbean texts with parrot as messenger in three versions for Abrahams [fn.6] (though none for three of Beckwith's [fn.7]).
The Jamaican texts I am classifying here as Child 68 raise more questions, for me, about Anansi story as Child ballad than those others.
For one thing, the inclusion of song in Anansi is does not mean that there is an original sung text. For example, Jekyll's #26 "The Three Pigs" is very close to Halliwell's "The Story of the Three Little Pigs" [fn.8]; there is no singing in Halliwell, but in Jekyll the third pig sings a challenge to the wolf. You can also see the notes to "The Derby Ram" which illustrates how casually song is added to or lost from English song as Anansi cante fable.
How do the texts compare to Child 68?
Rationale for murder:- Child 68: infidelity of the victim; Jekyll: infidelity of the murderer; "The Golden Cage": murderer's jealousy of the victim; "Fine Waiting Boy": servant's resentfulness of master.
Sex of murderer and victim, respectively-: Child 68: woman and man; Jekyll: woman and man; "The Golden Cage": woman and woman; "Fine Waiting Boy": man and man.
Bribery:- Child 68: golden cage is rejected because murderer is not to be trusted; Jekyll: golden cage is rejected because a free-born bird won't accept even a luxurious cage [but, at the end of the story, "Poll get good care"]; "The Golden Cage": golden cage is rejected because murderer is not to be trusted. "Fine Waiting Boy": no bribery attempt.
Penalty:- Child 68: A-C,H,J-K burning at the stake; Jekyll: beheading; "The Golden Cage": not stated; "Fine Waiting Boy": hanging
The common elements are murder by throwing in a well, and an unobserved bird observer reporting the murder. - BS
FOOTNOTES
[1] Jekyll, #31 pp. 96-97, "Pretty Poll"
[2] Broadwood, #31, p. 287, "Pretty Poll." In discussing another Jekyll cante fable Broadwood writes "Cf. the old ballads 'May Colvin' and 'Young Hunting.' In the latter the parrot reveals a murder. In both ballads the lady makes the same promises to the bird" (Broadwood, #3, p. 286, "King Daniel).
[3] I don't have Stoke and Reay so I am going by the tune in Bruce and Stokoe, which I take to be the same. See Bruce/Stokoe, pp. 48-50, "The Outlandish Knight"
[4] Beckwith/Roberts, #73ba p. 84, "The Golden Cage"
[5] Beckwith/Roberts, #73a pp. 83-84, "Fine Waiting Boy" and Roberts, #2 pp. 154-155 "Fine Waitin' Bwa"
[6] Abrahams, pp. 120-126, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard"
[7] Beckwith, #1-#3 pp. 470-473, 480, "Little Musgrove"
[8] Halliwell, #55 pp. 37-41, "The Story of the Three Little Pigs"). As an example of the closeness to Halliwell, Jekyll has, "Pig say:- 'No, no, no! by the hair of my chinnychinchin.' Wolf say:- 'I will haff an' cuff an' will blow you house down.'"
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C068

Young Huntley

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Young Indian Lass

See The Indian Lass (File: CrNS051)

Young Jamie Foyers

See Jamie Foyers (File: McCST084)

Young Jean Lies Over the Ocean

DESCRIPTION: "Young Jean lies over the ocean, Young Jean lies over the sea, Young Ann lies just round the corner, Oh what liars these women can be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1972 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty lie derivative
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 134, "(Young Jean lies over the ocean)" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean" (presumed tune) and references there
File: SuSm134D

Young Jemmy

DESCRIPTION: Broadsides about James, Duke of Monmouth. "Young Jemmy is a fine lad, That's royally descended, With every virtue clad." "Or, "Brave Monmouth, England's glory, Hated by none but Papist and Tory."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1681 (broadside Firth b.20(84))
KEYWORDS: royalty bastard political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1649 - Birth of James Scott, the future Duke of Monmouth, the illegitimate son of the future King Charles II
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 523-525, "Young Jemmy" (fragments of 2 or more texts, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge-OldEnglishPopularMusic II, pp. 36-38, "Young Jemmy" (fragments of 2 or more texts, 1 tune)
Roud #V5498
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, ; Firth b.20(84), "Young Jemmy, an Excellent New Ballad," A. Banks (London), 1681; also Douce Ballads 2(259b), "Young Jemmy, or The Princely Sheapheard," P. Brooksby (London), 1672-1696
NOTES [228 words]: This is a collective entry for several broadsides about James Scott, Duke of Monmouth (1649-1685), none of which entered into tradition. For more about Monmouth, see the notes to "The Monmouth Rebel." It is also worth seaching the Bodleian site for the subject "Duke of Monmouth"; there are several pieces there on the topic of Monmouth and his downfall that may or may not have been intended as songs. These include:
-- The down-fall of the Whiggs: or The duke of Monmouths journey into the North (Bodleian Vet. A3 c.29(14); Roud V20549)
-- Monmouth worsted in the west: or, His care and grief for the death of his poor souldiers (Bodleian Wood E 25(116); Roud V20542)
-- Monmouth routed. Together, with his promise and resolution to return again (Bodliean Firth c.23(71); Roud V20542)
-- Monmouth degraded or James Scot, the little King in Lyme. A song (Bodleian Firth c.15(34)=Wood 417(140), Roud V20541)
-- Monmouth routed, and taken prisoner, with his pimp the lord Gray. A song (Bodleian Firth c.15(35), Roud V20546)
-- The glory of the West, or, The virgins of Taunton-Dean (Bodleian Wood 417(144))
-- The western rebel; or, The true Protestant standard set up (Bodleian Ashm. G 16(120)=Firth b.20(127); Roud V1659)
-- A new ballad from Whigg-land (Ashm. G 16(159), Roud V28566)
-- Ignoramus: an excellent new song (Ashm. G 16(162)=Firth b.20(82)=Wood 417(80))
- RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CPMO523B

Young Jimmie Drummond

DESCRIPTION: The singer is Jimmie Drummond, well known, and quickly handcuffed and led off to jail. After a year he quickly changes his colors. But he will no longer betray his fellows. Whenever police snatch someone for stealing, they will have snatched him alone.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (recording, Jeannie Robertson)
KEYWORDS: captivity prison tinker
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #24, pp. 153-154, "Jimmie Drummond" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2506 and 2157
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Choring Song" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jimmie Drummond
Big Jimmie Drummond
NOTES [114 words]: While this song has references to plot, in the main it would seem to be a dance tune. Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice report that the "Rev. John Skinner adapted words to the old strathspey tune, 'The Reel of Tullochgorum.'" Jeannie Robertson's version is not in Cant (Travellers' dialect). Porter and Gower also point out that in spite of several references in common (Jimmie Drummond's "going choring" and being in jail), Jeannie's "Young Jimmie Drummond" is distinct from versions of the "Choring Song" (McCST097) and carries a different melody. Roud lists variants by Jeannie in two places, lumping them with other songs: Roud #2157 and #2506. - DGE
Last updated in version 5.3
File: RPG024

Young Jimmy Foulger

See Jamie Foyers (File: McCST084)

Young Jimmy, The Miller

See The Gray Mare [Laws P8] (File: LP08)

Young John

See The False Lover Won Back [Child 218] (File: C218)

Young John Riley

See John (George) Riley (II) [Laws N37] (File: LN37)

Young Johnnie (I)

See Johnny Doyle [Laws M2] (File: LM02)

Young Johnnie (II)

See Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)

Young Johnny (I)

See Branded Lambs [Laws O9] (File: LO09)

Young Johnny (II)

See Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)

Young Johnny (III)

See Springfield Mountain [Laws G16] (File: LG16)

Young Johnny He Has Landed

See Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)

Young Johnny of Hazelgreen

See John of Hazelgreen [Child 293] (File: C293)

Young Johnny Scott

See Johnie Scot [Child 99] (File: C099)

Young Johnny Was a Ploughboy

See Roger the Ploughboy (File: BdRotPlo)

Young Johnson

DESCRIPTION: Johnson is accused of forging a bill, or his uncle's will. He is tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hanged. The ladies offer five or ten thousand pounds for his life but the jury cannot free him. At his death he bows and bids his companions farewell.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1435))
KEYWORDS: crime execution trial death gallows-confession
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 142, "Young Johnson" (1 text)
Roud #12718
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1435), "Young Johnson the Handsome Man of Maidstone" ("Come all you wild young men a warning take by me"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also 2806 c.18(222), Harding B 25(495), "On the Death of Young Johnston"; Harding B 25(2136), Firth c.17(301), Harding B 11(714), "Young Johnson"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hughie Grame" [Child 191] (theme of ransoming condemned prisoner)
cf. "Geordie" [Child 209] (theme of ransoming condemned prisoner)
File: ReCi142

Young Johnstone [Child 88]

DESCRIPTION: Johnstone kills his love's brother, then seeks shelter with (successively his mother, his sister, and) his love. She hides him from his pursuers, whom she feeds while he rests. They leave and she goes to him. He kills her, probably in confusion. He dies.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: homicide love brother reunion family hiding
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Child 88, "Young Johnstone" (6 texts)
Bronson 88, "Young Johnstone" (4 versions+2 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 88, "Young Johnstone" (3 versions: #2, #4, #6)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 261-264, "Young Johnston" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan8 1929, "Oh Did Ye See a Bloody Knight" (1 fragment)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume1 5, "William and the Young Colonel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland2, pp. 293, "Young Johnstone" (1 text, from "The Charms of Melody" rather than tradition)
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 10, "Johnson and the Colonel" (1 text, 1 tune); "Johnson and Coldwell" (1 text) {Bronson's #4}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 283-284, "Young Johnstone" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 104-105, "Lord John's Murder"; pp. 257-259, "The Young Johnstone" (2 texts)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 60 "Young Johnstone" (1 text)
DT 88, JOHNSTON*
ADDITIONAL: John Finlay, Scottish Historical and Romantic Ballads (Edinburgh: William Creech, and Archibald Constable and Co, 1808 ("Digitized by Google")) Vol. II, pp. 71-79, "The Young Johnstone" (1 text)
Roud #56
NOTES [205 words]: Also collected and sung by Ellen Mitchell, "Johnston and the Young Colonel" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)).
Greig/Duncan8 is a fragment of Child 88A verses 6 and 7.
The source for Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads is Finlay, who writes that "the present edition has been completed from two recited copies" with a couple of changes. - BS
David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, pp. 290-291, noting several inconsistencies in this ballad, suggests that it was an "eighteenth century ballad composite," a gothic drama inspired by the Percy version of "Edward" [Child 13] -- which was itself a Percy rewrite; additional material came from "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" [Child 73] and "Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon" [Child 178]. And Fowler sees a relationship to "George Paton's version of 'Sir Hugh,' and sent to Percy in 1768 or 1769....If we knew the identity of Paton's 'friend,' we might well know the composer of 'Young Johnstone.' Whatever his name, I am reasonably confident that he was a member of that remarkable social club in Edinburgh to which David Herd belonged, the 'Knights Companions of the Cape.'" - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: C088

Young Kate of Kilcummer

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves Kate of Kilcummer. He is sure he'd find none other like her. "As the rose to the bee, As the sunshine to summer, So welcome to me Is young Kate of Kilcummer."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland)
KEYWORDS: love lyric nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland, pp. 195-196, "Young Kate of Kilcummer" (1 text)
NOTES [84 words]: Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: "Young Kate of Kilcummer is copied from a tale entitled 'The Rapparee,' printed in Bolster's 'Quarterly Magazine, No. IX.,' a Cork periodical publication, August 1828, where this ballad is said to be 'a favourite Irish song, which we have endeavoured to translate, preserving as much as possible the simplicity of the original." The Editor [Croker], however, does not recognize anything to induce him to credit this statement. He believes it to be an original composition." - BS
File: CrPS195

Young Kitty Lee (Letty Lee)

DESCRIPTION: A man sees "Young Kate." He is "shivering and shaking" and tells Kitty her kiss will cure him. She is eventually won over by his glib tongue. She says a husband may beat her, destroy all his earnings, or leave her but she agrees to marry anyway.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage dialog disease
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peacock, pp. 605-606, "Young Kitty Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 28, "Letty Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea605 (Partial)
Roud #2282
File: Pea605

Young Ladies

See Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)

Young Ladies (False Lover)

See Fair and Tender Ladies (File: R073)

Young Ladies in Town

DESCRIPTION: "Young ladies in town, and those that live 'round, Wear none but your own country linen." Homemade clothes may not be as grand, but it avoids sending money to Britain. The ladies are advised that the young men will love them all the same
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (in the "Boston Newsletter")
KEYWORDS: clothes patriotic commerce
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1767 - Passage of the Townshend Acts. Britain attempts to raise money from the colonies by imposing taxes on various products (lead, paint, glass, tea). The Americans responded by boycotting British goods (the taxes, except for that on tea, were removed in 1770).
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 57-58, "Young Ladies in Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, YNGLADIE*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Homespun Dress" (theme)
NOTES [279 words]: After the end of the Seven Years' War, the British government had been determined to make the American colonies pay for the troops stationed there. The first attempt had been Grenville's Stamp Act -- which was so hated and so unjust that it had to be repealed almost instantly.
But England still needed the money. George III had tried to form a more reasonable government by bringing in William Pitt the Elder (1708-1778). But Pitt almost immediately was incapacitated, leaving the government in the hands of the inexperienced Duke of Grafton (1735-1811; he became Prime Minister in 1766) and Charles Townshend (1725-1767), Chancellor of the Exchequer and the government's primary representative in the House of Commons.
Assessments of Townshend vary; Don Cook, in The Long Fuse, for instance, calls him a "loose cannon" and accuses him of setting his own interests ahead of the state's (p. 115) and says he "figured out nearly every way he could incite troubles with the Americans." On the flip side, he made major improvements in the administration of Ireland; a balanced assessment would say that he did both harm and good.
But, with respect to colonial relations, the Townshend Acts were a disaster. They were not as onerous as the Stamp Act, but they were definitely burdensome. Had the Stamp Act not come first, the colonists might have grumbled but complained. But the Stamp Act had precipitated opposition, and the Townshend Acts caused more grumbling -- the more so since, as with the Stamp Act, the colonies had not been consulted.
Townshend did not live to see the effects of his unfortunate measure, dying almost at once. The duties would be repealed in 1770. - RBW
File: SBoA057

Young Lady in the Bloom of Youth

DESCRIPTION: "There was a young lady in the bloom of youth, Her age was about sixteen, She's called by death...." Her mother and her friends and her older brother gather to mourn. They take her to her tomb. Hearers are reminded that they too must die.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Roberts-SangBranchSettlers)
KEYWORDS: death family burial
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #34, "Young Lady in the Bloom of Youth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3398
File: Robe034

Young Lady Sat Down to Sleep, A

DESCRIPTION: "Here we go round the strawberry bush This cold and frosty morning." A girl sits down to sleep. She wants a boy to wake her. He writes his name and is called to wake her. She will marry him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1830 (Newell Massachusetts fragment); 1883 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 138, ("Here we go round the strawberry bush") (1 text; Scarborough is reprinting Newell's Texas text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #160, "The Sleeping Beauty" (2 texts)
Roud #7889
NOTES [153 words]: I find it hard to imagine how Scarborough's version about a "strawberry bush" arose; strawberries don't grow on bushes. Nonetheless Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren also has a "strawberry bush" version. Of course, mulberries don't grow on bushes either, but a mulberry tree is a lot more bushy than a strawberry plant! Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, commenting about "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" rather than this piece, suggests that the original may have been a blackberry bush. - RBW
Newell: "It would appear, from the character of the round, that various names are proposed to the sleeping girl, which she rejects until a satisfactory one is presented. At all events, this is the case in a Provençal game which we take to be of the same origin as ours.... We infer, ..., that the game, apparently so natural an invention, originally represented some form of the world-wide story of the 'Sleeping Beauty.'" - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Newe160

Young Laird o' Logie, The

See The Laird o' Logie [Child 182] (File: C182)

Young Laird of Craigstoun, The

See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

Young Les Darcy

DESCRIPTION: The singer notes that everyone wants to roam. One who falls victim to this is boxer Les Darcy, who wants "to fight at the Golden Gate." (He goes to the U.S. and died), leaving his family to mourn.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957
KEYWORDS: fight Australia death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1895 - Birth of Les Darcy
May 24, 1917 - Death of Les Darcy in Memphis, Tennessee
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 75-76, "Young Les Darcy" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Les Darcy" (plot, subject)
NOTES [112 words]: Les Darcy was an Australian boxer of whom great things were expected. He did not live long, and so his major bouts were few, but the Australians made him one of their great heroes. When he died in 1917, the Americans gave the cause of death as pneumonia; Australians claim he was poisoned.
Two songs about Darcy are found in the tradition; this one, more literary, has eight lines per stanza and begins "We all get a craving to roam, Far from home, o'er the foam...." The other, based on "Way Down in Tennessee," begins, "In Maitland cemet'ry (or "Way down in Tennessee") lies poor Les Darcy...." For more on Darcy, see the notes to that song, indexed as "Les Darcy." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.0
File: MA075

Young Lochinvar's Courtship

See Katharine Jaffray [Child 221] (File: C221)

Young Logie

See The Laird o' Logie [Child 182] (File: C182)

Young Lovers, The

See The Silver Dagger (I) [Laws G21] (File: LG21)

Young M'Tyre

DESCRIPTION: Nancy loves M'Tyre, her father's servant. Her father plans to transport M'Tyre. She gives him money and he escapes. She tells her father she will only marry M'Tyre. Father says she can call M'Tyre back. They marry and M'Tyre is made a lord.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage parting reunion father servant
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 71, "Young M'Tyre" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2299
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Matt Hyland" (plot)
NOTES [29 words]: This is so close in plot to "Matt Hyland" (itself a piece of mysterious origin) that I wonder if they mightn't be derived at several removes from the same lost original. - RBW
File: KaNew071

Young MacDonald

DESCRIPTION: "He is young and fair and handsome, he's my fancy late and early..." Chorus in Gaelic. Love song to the young MacDonald who was brought up in Glengarry, fought battles, and is now off to Colorado.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: love battle travel
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs 54, "Young MacDonald" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4536
NOTES [71 words]: [The version in Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs is from] Mrs. A. Fraser of Lancaster, Ontario, who said she learned it from her brother-in-law, Mr. John A. MacDonald. MacDonald is one of the commonest names in Ontario's Glengarry county.
The [version in Fowke/MacMillan-PenguinBookOfCanadianFolkSongs] has a mix of English and Gaelic lyrics, though the Gaelic has become too garbled to be correctly translated. - SL
File: FowM054

Young Maid's Love, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer loves a rich merchant's daughter, but her father arranges for him to be inducted into the navy. His ship wins a great victory at sea, and the prize money makes him rich. He returns home and is allowed to marry the girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation sailor navy reunion money marriage
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H58, p. 446, "Eliza/When I Landed in Glasgow" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 45, "The Young Maid's Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3019
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.18(160), "The Young Maids Love," unknown, n.d.
NOTES [55 words]: Sam Henry theorizes that this song dates to the period of the Spanish Armada, because in his text the ship fights "twenty-two sail of Spaniards." The internal evidence opposes this; in the same text, the singer meets the girl outside Glasgow -- but at the time of the Armada, Scotland and England were still separate countries. - RBW
File: HHH058

Young Man and Maid

See The Silver Dagger (I) [Laws G21] (File: LG21)

Young Man Badly Walked, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer comes to Belfast and meets a girl. They stop for drinks. She takes him "home." He pays the landlady, planning to marry next day. He wakes alone, with no watch, chain, money, coat, or boots. A man throws him out. "Simple country lads," beware.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: love sex violence beauty drink theft whore
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 30, "The Young Man Badly Walked" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gold Watch [Laws K41]" (plot) and references there
cf. "The Reason Why" (plot)
NOTES [17 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: "A song set in High Street and York Street [Belfast] in the late 1870s." - BS
File: Leyd030

Young Man from the Country, The

DESCRIPTION: "When I first went to service, a nursemaid's place I took," and a young man from the country keeps company with her. The first time he comes, her master's coat disappears. Then other things. He ends up in Old Bailey. She is fired. She warns of such men
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1863 (Bodleian broadside Harding B 11(4377)
KEYWORDS: courting theft thief prisoner servant betrayal warning unemployment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 148, "The Young Man from the Country" (1 text, with a tune on p. 558)
Roud #25882
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2932), "The young man from the country," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(4377), "The young man from the country!" H Such (London), 1849-1862; also Firth c.17(142), "The young man from the country!" (unknown, n.d.); also Harding B 11(2452), "The young man from the country" (unknown, n.d.)
NOTES [33 words]: Very common in broadsides and songsters, probably as a warning, but so rare in tradition that I'm not sure it belongs here. Still, it has a Roud number, so I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BrdYMFTC

Young Man Lived in Belfast Town, A

See Crockery Ware (File: Pea257)

Young Man Who Travelled Up and Down, The

DESCRIPTION: "Once there was a young man who travelled up and down... And they told me there that the wars were o'er." Various workers enter, are described, and declare what they will or won't do "till the wars are o'er."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: drink worker war
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 172, "The Young Man Who Travelled Up and Down" (1 text)
Roud #139
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Jones's Ale Was New"
NOTES [43 words]: Cox speculates that this is an "imitation" of "Jones's Ale," in that both involve various people wandering in. As the chorus, form, setting, and characters are all different, however, I've agreed with Cox in listing this as a separate song. Roud lumps them. - RBW
File: JHCox172

Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn, The [Laws H13]

DESCRIPTION: A lazy young farmer will not hoe his corn, with the result that the corn is choked by weeds and destroyed by frost. When he goes courting, his suit is rejected because he wouldn't hoe his corn
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: farming courting rejection work
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES (33 citations):
Laws H13, "The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 440, "The Young Man who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (1 text)
Randolph 441, "The Lazy Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 106, "The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (1 text)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 68, pp. 91-92, "The Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (1 text)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 170-172, "The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 216, "The Man Who Wouldn't Hoe His Corn" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 216, "The Man Who Wouldn't Hoe His Corn" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 44-45, "Lazy Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 191, "The Young Man Who Wouldn't Plow Corn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 219-221, "The Lazy Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 128-129, "The Lazy Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 35, "The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 74, "The Young Man Who Couldn't Hoe Corn" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 409-410, "The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 73, pp. 200-201, "The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (1 text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 68, "The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe His Corn" (1 text)
McNeil-SouthernFolkBalladsVol1, pp. 164-165, "The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 182, "Harm Link" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 173, "The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (1 text)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, pp73-74, "The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 24-25, "Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-TheBalladOfAmerica, pp. 46-47, "The Young Man Who Couldn't Hoe Corn (The Lazy Man)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 66, "The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 286-187, "Georgia Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 38 "A Lazy Farmer Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 874, "Young Man Who Wouldn't How Corn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 46, pp. 110-111, "The Man That Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (1 text)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 229-230, "The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, p. 10, "The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Seeger-AmericanFavoriteBallads, p. 42, "Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 120, "Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (1 text)
DT 636, HOECORN
Roud #438
RECORDINGS:
Buster Carter & Preston Young, "A Lazy Farmer Boy" (Columbia 15702-D, 1931; on AAFM1, BefBlues3)
Edna & Jean Ritchie, "The Young Man That Wouldn't Raise Corn" (on Ritchie03)
Pete Seeger, "Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (on GrowOn3) (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b)
Vern Smelser, "The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" (on FineTimes)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lazy Man
File: LH13

Young Man's Dream, The

DESCRIPTION: Singer dreams of Granu who says "Relate most true what you did view when you fought for liberty." She shows him "the heroes that have bled for the sake of liberty." St Patrick addresses the crowd: "Your Cross maintain ... It will lead you to paradise"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1862 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 13(10)); first half 19C (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: Ireland dream nonballad patriotic religious
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 28, "The Young Man's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V15728
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 13(10), "Young Man's Dream" ("It happened one night as I lay on my bed"), J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1858-1861; also Harding B 11(3610), 2806 c.17(378)[some words illegible], "Young Man's Dream"
NOTES [56 words]: From National Library of Scotland commentary on broadside NLScotland RB.m.143(013), "Shiel's Rights of Man": "Granua (also spelt Grainne). The daughter of the mythical Irish warrior and folk hero, Finn McCool, Granua is also used as a symbol for Ireland - much like the figure of Britannia is employed as a symbol for Great Britain." - BS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Zimm028

Young Man's Lamentation, The

DESCRIPTION: An unconstant lover is worse than a thief." The singer would have married her but "she's not constant to any." "Like a ship on the ocean I am tost too and fro." He hopes wine will make him jolly. "She is mistaken if she think that I'll mourn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1697 (broadside, Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(261b))
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan6 1697, "Now My Love's Forsaken Me" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6823
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(261b)[a few verses are barely legible; see notes for legible copy], "The Young-Mans Lamentation" ("Meeting's a pleasure, but parting's a grief"), P. Brooksby (London), 1683-1696
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Farewell He" (theme) and references there
NOTES [957 words]: Greig/Duncan6 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(261b) is the basis for the description.
The Greig/Duncan6 fragment is "Now my love's forsaken me, for him he thinks I'll mourn. But he is quite mistaken, for I'll do my own turn. I'll go as saucy by him as he's fit to do by me, And I'll get another sweetheart, and that he soon shall see." In the few places I have found that, or similar verses, in the US it always goes with "The cuckoo she's a pretty bird ...." See, for example, Sharp, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, Vol II, p. 177 [confirmed by Steve Gardham], both Hudson and Belden [confirmed by RBW and indexed here with "On Top of Old Smoky"], Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands [indexed here with "The Cuckoo"] and Thomas and Leeder, The Singin' Gatherin' (1939), p. 25. Most US versions of "The Cuckoo" do not have the Greig/Duncan6 verse. I posted a question to the Ballad List asking whether anyone had seen the pair of verses linked outside the US and where else the "Now my love's forsaken me" verse occurred. I have the following answer from Steve Gardham}
"The verse occurs in no British versions of the Cuckoo. British versions are pretty much based on the broadside 'The Forsaken Nymph'.
Oscar Brand's version in Reprints from Sing Out vol4 p42 has the stanza. Cox p425 has a whisper of it. Hudson has a Mississippi full stanza tagged onto the end of the standard 4-stanzas of the Cuckoo. As mentioned Sharp in EFSSA vol2 has the stanza only in the first version of the 13 given.
"Just checked and this stanza dates back to the 17th century. It is the last stanza in 'The Young-Man's Lamentation' , the first stanza being the 'Meeting is a Pleasure' stanza. It obviously is related to the early versions of 'Farewell He/She'. See Bodleian website Douce Ballads 2 (261b) although the image is very poor. (I have a full transcription courtesy of Mike Heaney of the Bodl)
Tho' I am forsaken yet she is forsworn,
Yet she is mistaken if she think that I'll mourn,
I'll set as slightly by her as e'er she did me,
And for ever will deny her, let her go, farewell she.
"Note the change of gender which is common in these lover's laments.
"Several possibilities present themselves as to the evolutions of American variants.
1)Some American variants must be based on variants older than the late 18th century standard broadside version.
2) The stanza has become attached to other songs like 'Farewell He' and become attached to 'The Cuckoo' in America.
"As I'm sure you are all aware, the numerous 'Lover's Laments' borrow stanzas from each other frequently and have done so from the earliest times, probably pre 17thc. Martin Parker occasionally uses them in his ballads of the 17thc."
Steve's Cox reference, Cox 143, "A Forsaken Lover," is a perfect US -- West Virginia, in this case -- example. The final two verses are "The cuckoo is a pretty bird ...." and "Forsaken, forsaken ....," respectively.
For another example see Arthur Palmer Hudson, "Ballads and Songs from Missippi" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXXIX, No. 152 (Apr 1926 (available online by JSTOR)), #37 p. 149, "Jimmy."
For a counter-example see G.L. Kittredge, editor, "Ballads and Songs" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXX, No. 117 (Jul 1917 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 349-351, "An Inconstant Lover" which includes some American texts, including one without the cuckoo. My impression, though, is that in the case where the cuckoo is absent it has just been forgotten.
For a discussion of "The Young-man's Lamentation," including the complete text of broadside Bodleian Douce Ballads 2(261b), see Steve Gardham, "The Young-Man's Lamentation," article 17 in the collection "A Veritable Dungheap" at the Musical Traditions site. The article includes comments on the travels of verses, and parts of verses, to other songs [like "The Cuckoo'].
The first verse is "Meeting's a pleasure But parting's a grief, An Unconstant Lover Is worse than a Thief; A Thief he can Rob me, And take what I have, But an Unconstant Lover Will bring me to the grave." Nevertheless, the remaining ten verses are not associated with "On Top of Old Smoky," unless you include Greig/Duncan6, "Lamentation"'s last verse. I could not see my way clear to lumping the Greig/Duncan6 verse with "The Cuckoo" since it has not been found that way outside the US, nor with "On Top of Old Smoky," since it seems almost always to have been found attached to "The cuckoo she's a pretty bird ...." as an add-on.
"The Fair Damsel" - from Ruth Ann Musick, "The Old Album of William A. Larkin" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. LX, No. 237 (Jul 1947 (available online by JSTOR)), #25 pp. 229-230 - floats "never place your affections on a green willow tree" and "if I am forsaken oh he is foresworn" onto the end of a ballad having nothing to do with either "The Cuckoo" or "Old Smokey": a young man abandons his sweetheart in favor of a rich widow and is turned away by his old sweetheart when he calls on her, saying "all though I am marryed I will visit you still."
Similarly, "Forsaken" - from E.C. Perrow, "Songs and Rhymes from the South" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XXVIII, No. 108 (Apr 1915 (available online by JSTOR)), #25 pp. 169-170 - floats "never place your affections on a green willow tree" and "if I am forsaken oh he is foresworn" after a verse in which the singer's sweetheart is "out on the water, he'll sink or he'll swim" and she says "if he can live without me, I can live without him." That is similar to "Forsaken" from G.L. Kittredge (cited above), pp. 351-352 - but without either "never place your affections on a green willow tree" and "if I am forsaken oh he is foresworn." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD61144

Young Man's Love, A

See Kissing Song (I) (File: R374)

Young Man's Resolution it the Maiden's Request, The

See Things Impossible (File: GC158)

Young Man's Wish, The

DESCRIPTION: "If I could but attain my wish," the singer would be content with simple joys. "I'll from each folly strive to fly Each virtue to attain I'll try, And live as I would die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland)
KEYWORDS: virtue nonballad recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Poem #3, pp. 10-12, "The Young Man's Wish" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 242-244, "The Young Man's Wish" (1 text)
Roud #V40675
File: DixP003

Young Mannon

See Bold Manan the Pirate [Laws D15] (File: LD15)

Young Mary

See Mary of the Wild Moor [Laws P21] (File: LP21)

Young Mary from Kilmore

DESCRIPTION: John's father promises him houses and land, and approves of his proposal to Mary. She refuses him: her parents are opposed, or she would rather ramble. He hears that three men from Rosslea would "banish" him from Rosslea. He says "she has deceived me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection home
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 18, pp. 42,109,164, "Young Mary from Kilmore" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #2918
NOTES [34 words]: Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday: The singer's name may be John O'Brien or John Smith. The three "heroes" that might banish him -- apparently on Mary's behalf -- are Gunn, McIlroy and Maguire.- BS
File: MoMa018

Young Mary of Accland

See Mary Acklin (The Squire's Young Daughter) [Laws M16] (File: LM16)

Young McCance

See David's Flowery Vale (File: HHH212)

Young McFee

See McAfee's Confession [Laws F13] (File: LF13)

Young Melvyn

See Prince Edward Island Murder (File: CrNS140)

Young Men and Maids

See The Silver Dagger (I) [Laws G21] (File: LG21)

Young Men They'll Dress Up, The

DESCRIPTION: Young men court till midnight and "sleep in the barn" when the girls would have them go home. The singer would stay single: "no woman for to bawl and no children to squall, How happy is the young man that's got none at all"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad baby bachelor rake
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 115, "The Young Men They'll Dress Up" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Ow2E115

Young Men, Come Marry Me

See The Old Maid's Song (II) (File: FJ162)

Young Men, The

See To Men (File: GrD3649)

Young Men's Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "And now, young man, I s'pose you're mad, But I'm not sorry, I am glad." The singer tells of how hard men work for poor reward -- and "off to meeting they do go On purpose for to make a show." The purpose is to be seen by the girls
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Barry collection MS, according to Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad clothes
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 178-180, "The Young Men's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4665
File: FlNG178

Young Millman

See The Millman and Tuplin Song (File: IvDC046)

Young Molly Ban

See Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)

Young Monroe

See The Jam on Gerry's Rock [Laws C1] (File: LC01)

Young Monroe at Gerry's Rock

See The Jam on Gerry's Rock [Laws C1] (File: LC01)

Young Munro

DESCRIPTION: A girl sings about Charlie Munro of the Forty-Second Highlanders, whom she loves. She describes his clothes, his appearance ("everything so neat about him," "that handome fellow") If she had an Indian treasure she would give it to the 42nd for his sake.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig/Duncan7)
KEYWORDS: love clothes nonballad soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1339, "Young Munro" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 29, "Young Munro" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2316
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Wha Saw the Forty-Second" (subject: 42nd Highlanders or Black Watch) and references there
NOTES [57 words]: Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario, p. 177: "This unusual song does not seem to have been reported before in anything like this form, although two Nova Scotia songs have the same melody and refrain."
Greig/Duncan7: "Mrs Gillespie, learnt from her father forty-five years ago; learnt by him about the thirties or forties. Noted 1905." - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: GrD71339

Young Munroe

See The Jam on Gerry's Rock [Laws C1] (File: LC01)

Young One I Sought, The

DESCRIPTION: ";Tis a pity I came where my name Was unknown in the town, Where no one could tell how so well I had earned renown." If they had, "the young one I sought" would have liked him better. Since he gets no respect, "to Cashel I'm going"
AUTHOR: Maurice Walsh ? (See NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Walsh, The Key Above the Door)
KEYWORDS: courting travel rejection
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 298-299, "The Young One I Sought" (1 text)
Roud #15025
NOTES [258 words]: Shoemaker calls this a "Song of the Shanty-Men on the Coudersport Pike, Clinton County." But the *precise same two verses,* and *only* those two verses, appear in Maurice Walsh's The Key Above the Door (p. 201 in the 1926 edition on Google Books; it's in Chapter XVIII; according to Benet, p. 1184, it was published [in a magazine serial] in 1923; the Google Books edition is the first book version). They seem to have been printed in several other Walsh books, and I can find no earlier printing.
Walsh calls it "To Cashel I'm Going" and calls it "a fast air with a cry in it" and "a jig tune... and... a lament as well."
The obvious suspicion is that this is another of the song that Shoemaker presents as traditional despite being a recent composition. In this case, it would clearly still have been in copyright -- unless Shoemaker was trying to deprive Walsh of the right to the poem, in which case he would lose unless he had documentation of the earlier existence, which I doubt.
I'm amazed it wasn't caught. Walsh (1879-1964) was a fairly big name -- his short story "The Quiet Man" was the source of the movie of the same name. The Key Above the Door was his first novel, and according to Benet, p. 1184, it sold a hundred thousand copies -- pretty good for a novel by an unknown Irish author!
More recently, Walsh seems to have been largely forgotten; although the first edition of Benet includes him, the later ones do not, and neither do any of my more recent Dictionaries of Literature, nor my two Histories of Irish literature. - RBW
Bibliography

Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe298

Young Oysterman, The (The Tall Young Oysterman)

DESCRIPTION: "It was a tall young oysterman lived by the river-side, His shop was just upon the bank, his boat was on the tide." He sees a girl across the river and swims to join her. Her father chases him off. She faints, he cramps, they die and become mermaids
AUTHOR: Words: Oliver Wendell Holmes
EARLIEST DATE: 1845? (Forget-Me-Not Songster)
KEYWORDS: love beauty courting death mermaid/man
FOUND IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hudson-FolkTunesFromMississippi 23, "The Young Oysterman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 90-91, "The Tall Young Oysterman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 207-208, "Tall Young Oysterman" (1 text)
Roud #5768
File: HuMT023

Young Peggy [Child 298]

DESCRIPTION: Young Peggy and Jamie have been seen together. When her parents call him rogue and loon, she vows to rest in his arms forever. The lovers agree to run off in the middle of the night. Her father awakes in the night and pursues, but they are already married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: courting father mother marriage elopement love
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 298, "Young Peggy" (1 text)
Bronson 298, "Young Peggy" (1 version)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 683-684, "Young Peggy" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, p. 63, "Young Peggy" (1 text)
DT 298, YNGPEGGY
Roud #3875
NOTES [93 words]: There are several curious notes about the history of this ballad. Bronson's sole tune is from Christie, and he thinks it fiddled with. Plus Emily Lyle says on p. 225 of Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition, (Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007) that Child had access to a second text, from the Murison collection, but did not print it. Perhaps this is simply because he was so close to the end of his project that he did not bother, but it makes me wonder if he had additional thoughts on this ballad which he did not record. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: C298

Young People Who Delight in SIn

See Wicked Polly [Laws H6] (File: LH06)

Young People, Take Warning

DESCRIPTION: "Young People all, attention give And hear what I shall say, I wish your soul with Christ to live In everlasting day." The singer warns against the pleasures of the flesh and tells of the dangers of Hell. He reminds them that death is coming
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1920
KEYWORDS: religious warning
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 653, "Young People, Take Warning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7574
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blind Man's Regret" (lyrics)
NOTES [49 words]: Although this shares stanzas with "The Blind Man's Regret," they don't really seem to be the same song. The latter describes how the blind man went blind; this song seems a pure warning. It seems more likely that the verses floated. At the very least, it's uncertain enough that we split. - RBW
File: R653

Young Prince of Spain, The

See The Prince of Morocco (The Sailor Boy II) (File: LN18)

Young Ramble Away

See Rambleaway (File: ShH31)

Young Rambleaway

See Rambleaway (File: ShH31)

Young Reedin

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Young Riedan

See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Young Riley (I)

See O'Reilly from the County Leitrim (File: HHH580)

Young Riley (II)

See Riley's Farewell (Riley to America; John Riley) [Laws M8] (File: LM08)

Young Roger came tapping at Dolly's window

See Roger and Dolly (I) (File: OO2456)

Young Roger Esquire

See The Gray Mare [Laws P8] (File: LP08)

Young Roger of Kildare

DESCRIPTION: "Oh mother, mother dear, May I go to the fair, May I go with young Roger, Young Roger of Kildare." The mother says she may go, "but keep your legs close together." But h "stuffed her up with ice cream and he stuffed her up with cake"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: mother sex warning
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 17, "Young Roger of Kildare" (1 text)
Roud #1606
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nelly the Milkmaid" (plot)
NOTES [56 words]: Steve Roud lumps this with "Nelly the Milkmaid," and I see his point; the plot is the same, and often the seducer is Roger. But this opens with the girl asking the mother's permission, which does not happen in "Nelly," and in this text, the girl has no name. Possibly they should be lumped, but I'm playing it safe and splitting them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: RugS017

Young Roger of the Mill

DESCRIPTION: Roger, a ploughman, courts Nell. She says she prefers to marry a farmer's son. He prepares to leave, saying he has "other fish to fry": Joan loves him. Nell says she has 50 shillings; Joan has none. Roger has 40. They agree to marry and buy a cow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1749 (_The Robin_, according to Kidson-TraditionalTunes); 1750 (Ramsay)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage rejection farming money
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 343-344, "Young Roger of the Mill" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 66-68, "Young Roger of the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Choice Songs, Scots and English (in four vols) (London, 1750 eleventh edition) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. IV, pp. 379-381, "Hodge of the Mill and Buxome Nell" ("Young Roger of the mill") (1 text)
Frank Kidson, Traditional Tunes, (Oxford, 1891), pp. 66-68, "Young Roger of the Valley" (1 text, 1 tune) [Not yet indexed as Kidson-TraditionalTunes pp. 66-68]
Charles Read Beckwith, "Mummers' Wooing Plays in England" in Modern Philology, Vol. XXI, No. 3 (Feb 1924 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 262-268, especially ll. 105-119, "Swinderby 12/31/1842" ("Madam if thoug [sic] will consent to marry") (1 text)
ST Log343 (Partial)
Roud #590
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(194), "Young Roger of the Mill" ("Young Roger of the mill, one morning very soon") , W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824
NOTES [69 words]: Logan-APedlarsPack: "This also bears the imprint of W. Armstrong, Liverpool. The Logan text is almost identical to broadside Bodleian Harding B 28(194).
The Beckwith text is an example of a song of courting and rejection inserted into a mummers' "wooing" or "plough" play. In the Beckwith text the song ends with Roger's rejection and decision to leave. For other examples and some discussion see "Sweet Moll." - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: Log343

Young Roger of the Valley

See Young Roger of the Mill (File: Log343)

Young Rogers, The Miller

See The Gray Mare [Laws P8] (File: LP08)

Young Ronald [Child 304]

DESCRIPTION: Young Ronald loves the king's daughter. She says she can only obey her father's will. The king offers his daughter and great wealth to anyone who can slay a six-headed giant. Ronald slays the giant "wi ae sweep o his hand" and wins the princess
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: royalty monster love courting death marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Child 304, "Young Ronald" (1 text)
Roud #3914
NOTES [41 words]: Child's comments on this ballad amount to little more than an extended snort of disgust. He certainly has his point, but there may be folk elements in the tale; at least, it reminds me (rather loosely) of the Welsh tale of Culhwch and Olwen. - RBW
File: C304

Young Sailor Bold (I), The (The Rich Merchant's Daughter) [Laws M19]

DESCRIPTION: The merchant threatens his daughter's lover with death. She dresses as a sailor to warn him of the danger, and promises to go away with him. Her father meets her and kills her by mistake. He discovers the mistake and kills himself; the lover dies of grief
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: love death exile suicide disguise homicide cross-dressing
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws M19, "The Young Sailor Bold I (The Rich Merchant's Daughter)"
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 59, "The Rich Merchant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 392, "The London Maid and Boy" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 35, "The Rich Merchant's Daugher" (1 text)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 194-195, "Rich Merchant and his Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 218-220, "Willie" (1 text plus 2 fragments, 3 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 72, "The Rich Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 432, RCHMRCH*
Roud #548
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Reuben Wright and Phoebe Brown" (plot)
File: LM19

Young Sailor Bold (III)

See When I Was Young; also Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: EM075)

Young Sailor Cut Down

See The Sailor Cut Down in His Prime (File: LoF201)

Young Sailor Lad, The

See Rue and the Thyme, The (The Rose and the Thyme) (File: Ord187)

Young Sally Monro

See Sally Monroe [Laws K11] (File: LK11)

Young Sally Monroe

See Sally Monroe [Laws K11] (File: LK11)

Young Sally Munroe

See Sally Monroe [Laws K11] (File: LK11)

Young Sam Bass

See Sam Bass [Laws E4] (File: LE04)

Young Sandy

See Mary o' the Dee (Mary's Dream) [Laws K20] (File: LK20)

Young Sea Prentice, The

DESCRIPTION: "I was a young sea-prentice bound, Bound by indenture, And fain I would go seek my love, If I only dared to venture"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: love apprentice sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Greig/Duncan8 1758, "The Young Sea Prentice" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13135
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Greig/Duncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81758

Young Servant Man, The

See The Iron Door [Laws M15] (File: LM15)

Young Serving Man, The

See The Iron Door [Laws M15] (File: LM15)

Young She Leads with Innocence, The

DESCRIPTION: "The young she leads with innocence In pleasure's paths to tread, A crown of glory she bestows On every hoary head." The original begins, "How happy are all they who hear true Wisdom's guiding voice."
AUTHOR: Michael Bruce (1746-1767) (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: as a traditional item, 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood); thought to have been written c. 1764 (source: John Julian, editor, _A Dictionary of Hymnology_)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 47, "The young She leads with innocence" (1 fragment, verse 4 of the original text)
Roud #25367
File: KSUC047A

Young Shepherd (I), The

DESCRIPTION: A shepherd courts "a rich merchant's daughter." Her father shoots the shepherd. She finds him dying. She puts on his hat and plaid and keeps his sheep; "her father shall die For the loss of his daughter and the murder besides"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: love homicide cross-dressing dying sheep father shepherd
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar) Britain(England(North),Scotland)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 108, "The Young Shepherd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 104-105,255, "The Shepherd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 31-32,83, "The Shepherd" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #103, p. 1, "The Squire's Daughter" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 223, "The Unfortunate Shepherdess" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 64-65, "The Wandering Shepherdess" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1151
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:046, "The Unfortunate Shepherdess," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C
ALTERNATE TITLES:
In the County of Exeter
NOTES [42 words]: Greig: "This pastoral ditty seems to hail originally from England, and has likely found its way north per some broadside."
Ives-DriveDullCareAway-PrinceEdwardIsland and Ives-21FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland are the same July 14, 1963 performance. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: CrMa108

Young Shepherd (II), The

See Sheepcrook and Black Dog (File: HHH030a)

Young Ship's Carpenter, The

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

Young Spanish Lass (I), The

See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Young Spanish Lass (II), The

See The Indian Lass (File: CrNS051)

Young Strongbow

DESCRIPTION: "To Dartmouth Scientific Halls In olden times there came" a man known as Strongbow, who wishes to learn the "white man's" wisdom. He learns well, but then comes a conflict between Indians and Whites. The pronouns in the final verses are confusing
AUTHOR: Nathaniel Waugh (source: Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) battle war
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 210-212, "Young Strongbow" (1 reconstructed text plus parts of the traditional version, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 227-230, "The Indian's Revenge" (1 text)
ST FlNG210 (Partial)
Roud #4669
NOTES [83 words]: I strongly suspect this is based on some historical event, but the notes in Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster are no help. The text in the book is so unclear in its pronouns that I'm not ever sure, at the end, which side Strongbow fights on or who takes whom captive. Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania's text is in better shape, but still lacking in specifics. So I'm not going to try to guess what lies behind the song. This even though the author is allegedly known. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: FlNG210

Young Susan (I)

DESCRIPTION: Susan joins the Royal Navy to follow Willie "where he was called And face his mortal enemies on board of a man o' war." She is slightly wounded by cannon fire. He goes to help and she reveals herself. They are married when they reach England.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes)
KEYWORDS: war love marriage cross-dressing sea ship injury sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #23, pp. 1-2, "Young Susan"; #25, p. 2, "Young Susan" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan1 179, "Young Susan" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 102-103, "On Board of a Man-of-War" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1533
NOTES [38 words]: This seems to me to be the same as Kidson, Traditional Tunes, "On Board of a Man-of-War," pp. 102-103, but not at all the same as Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H556, p. 326, "On Board of a Man-of-War." - BS
Last updated in version 3.0
File: GrD1179

Young Susan (II)

See On Board of a Man-of-War (Young Susan) (File: HHH556)

Young Tamlane, The

See Tam Lin [Child 39] (File: C039)

Young Teetotaller, The

DESCRIPTION: "I am a young teetotaller, And though but six year old, Within my heart there beats A heart as true as gold." The child's mother, father, siblings "All to their pledge keep true." Even their pets reject liquor. Rejecting liquor brings happiness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ); Reid claims it is c. 1895
KEYWORDS: drink political nonballad New Zealand
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 97, "The Young Teetotaller" (1 text)
J. C. Reid, _A Book of New Zealand_ (Collins National Anthologies), Collins, 1964, pp. 285-286, "The Young Teetotaller" (1 text)
File: BaRo097

Young Tom He Was a Farmer's Son

DESCRIPTION: "Young Tom he was a farmer's son and he lived way down in Devon"; he "had a light" for many girls but loved "sweet young mistress Nancy." She "proved proud and haughty" so he marries a rich widow. If you can't marry for love, marry for money
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection farming
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 100-101, "Young Tom he was a farmer's son" (1 text)
Roud #25382
File: KSUC100C

Young Trooper Cut Down in His Prime, The

See The Trooper Cut Down in His Prime (File: DarNS006)

Young Turtle Dove, The

See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

Young Virgin, A

DESCRIPTION: "I am a young virgin just come on board...." The prosperous, available girl is courted by various suitors. Merchant, doctor, apothecary, etc. offer their skills to gain her hand; she rejects each. She gives her love to a sailor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1817 (Journal from the Herald)
KEYWORDS: love courting sailor worker humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 100-102, "A Young Virgin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2034
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Thing Is My Own" (theme)
cf. "I'll Not Marry at All" (theme)
NOTES [21 words]: This really, really reminds me of "My Thing Is My Own." I don't think there is kinship, but I suspect a common inspiration. - RBW
File: SWMS100

Young Volunteer, The

DESCRIPTION: "Our flag is unfurled and our arms flash bright, As the sun wades up the sky." The new soldier bids his sweetheart goodbye. He offers "three cheers for that flag and our country too, And the girls we leave behind."
AUTHOR: John Hill Hewitt (source: Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (sheet music published by J. C. Schreiner & Son, according to Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar)
KEYWORDS: soldier Civilwar love separation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-SongsOfTheCivilWar, pp. 84-86, "The Young Volunteer" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: SCWF084

Young Voyageur, The

DESCRIPTION: "From the wilds of the North comes the young voyageur." His canoe is laden with furs, and there's a song on his lips. Ch.: "Gladsome and free, little cares he, For there's joy in the heart of the young voyageur." That's it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs)
KEYWORDS: worker nonballad clothes travel
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 36, "The Young Voyageur" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [54 words]: This barely qualifies as a fragment. There are hints in online discussions that it is either derived from a children's book or the inspiration for one. - PJS
To this compare "Where the Wattles Are Blooming (Holiday Song)." Perhaps there is a common source for both? This is nagging at me, but I can't place the source. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Fire036

Young Waters [Child 94]

DESCRIPTION: Because the queen has admitted that Young Waters has the fairest face of all the lords and lairds and knights she's seen, the king has him beheaded.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: beauty death execution
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Child 94, "Young Waters" (2 texts)
Bronson 94, "Young Waters" (1 version)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 228-231, "Young Waters" (1 text)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 26-30, "Young Waters" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 95-96, "Young Waters" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 82, "Young Waters" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 156-158+334, "Young Waters" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 17-18, "Young Waters" (1 text)
ST C094 (Full)
Roud #2860
NOTES [181 words]: Various suggestions have been offered for the identity of Young Waters. Percy suggested none other than the Bonny Earl of Murray, while Buchan offered one David Graham of Fintray (executed 1592). These and all other suggestions must be labelled simply, "Possible, but not really likely."
Although Bronson reports a tune, he notes, "It cannot be proved that this ballad was ever traditionally sung in Scots or English." The source of the tune is dubious, and Bronson has some cutting remarks about the stanzas of the English-language texts (though there is little doubt that the story exists in traditional forms in other languages -- indeed, the idea is not far from the traditional notion that Eleanor of Aquitaine had Rosamund Clifford poisoned).
Child was also suspicious of the Buchan version, printing it "for much the same reason that thieves are photographed." David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, pp. 242-243, also considers it a modern fix-up, suggesting "The Bonny Earl of Murray" [Child 181] as a possible inspiration. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: C094

Young William

See Kiss Me in the Dark (File: BrdKMitD)

Young William's Denial

See The Banks of the Inverness (File: HHH205)

Young William's Return

See The Banks of the Inverness (File: HHH205)

Young Willie's Return, or The Token

See The Dark-Eyed Sailor (Fair Phoebe and her Dark-Eyed Sailor) [Laws N35] (File: LN35)

Young Yetman

See John Yetman (File: Doyl3034)

Young-Shelottie

See Young Charlotte (Fair Charlotte) [Laws G17] (File: LG17)

Younge Andrew

See Young Andrew [Child 48] (File: C048)

Youpe! Youpe! Sur la Rivière!

DESCRIPTION: French: "Youpe! Youpe! sur la riviere, Vous ne m'entendez guere." The singer and Francois call upon Gauthier; they visit his girlfriend Delima. She rejects him as untrue; "You tell your little Jeremie the same things." The friends leave uproariously
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865
KEYWORDS: courting rejection foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 62-64, "Youpe! Youpe! Sur la Rivière!" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston, _Folk Songs of Quebec (Chansons de Quebec)_, Waterloo Music Company, 1957, pp. 45-47, "Youpe! Youe! Sur la Rivière!" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [56 words]: Fowke writes, "Of all the paddling songs, [this] is the most thoroughly Canadian. Its hero is not a prince... but a habitant lad who goes to call on this girl and is rebuffed for being too fickle. It was especially popular among French-Canadian lumberjacks who adapted to their own use an earlier song called 'Le p'tit bois d'l'ail.'" - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FJ062

Your Dog Love My Dog

DESCRIPTION: Allegory about racial conflict: dogs of different colors get along and love one another. "I'm talkin 'bout a coon dog, and I'm talkin' 'bout a rabbit dog." "All them dogs, all them dogs." "You and me, gonna be so happy, sit under the apple tree."
AUTHOR: James Bevel
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (recording, Nashville Quartet)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Song, in an allegory about racial conflict, points out that dogs of different colors get along and love one another. "I'm talkin 'bout a coon dog, and I'm talkin' 'bout a rabbit dog." "All them dogs, all them dogs." "You and me, gonna be so happy, sit under the apple tree."
KEYWORDS: hate love colors animal dog Black(s) nonballad discrimination
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Nashville Quartet "Your Dog Loves My Dog" (on SingFreeCD)
SNCC Freedom Singers, "Dogs" (on VoicesCiv)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dog Dog
NOTES [56 words]: In order to raise funds for the movement, civil rights groups like SNCC and CORE took a leaf from traditionally black colleges, and formed singing groups which toured the country, giving concerts that raised money for their organizations.
James Bevel was an influential leader in the African-American civil rights movement in the South. -PJS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: RcYrDogM

Your Father and Your Mother, Love

See Blow the Candle Out [Laws P17] (File: LP17)

Your Feet Strike Zion

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Love is the way (x2), Is the way to get to Heaven, By faith and humble prayer." Verse: "Dear sister (brother, father, ...), Your feet strike Zion, The lamps are lighted on you, I bid old hell a long farewell"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories 9, "Dear Sister, Yi Feet Strike Zion" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [12 words]: The description is based on the Edwards-BahamaSongsAndStories text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Edwa009

Your Fingers Are Nimble

DESCRIPTION: Jack says to Jeannie: the ewes are not free so you'd better milk me. Jeannie: I never milked a ram; I won't "for fear of a lamb" until we are married when I'd milk you dry. When they marry he pleases her so well but she can't milk him dry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan7)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Jack says to Jeannie: the ewes are not free so you'd better milk me. Jeannie: I never milked a ram; I won't "for fear of a lamb" until we are married when I'd milk you dry. When they marry he pleases her so well but she can't milk him dry. Afterwards she sends him to the Highlands amongst the "dry cattle."
KEYWORDS: courting marriage sex husband wife shepherd love seduction farming sex
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan7 1417, "Your Fingers Are Nimble" (1 text)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #55, pp. 215-216, "Maggie A-Milkin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7157
NOTES [18 words]: Porter and Gower note that the tune is much older, but even then associated with a bawdy song (p. 216). - DGE
Last updated in version 5.3
File: GrD71417

Your Grannie and Your Other Grannie

See Ye Cannae Shove Yer Granny Aff a Bus (File: DTgranbu)

Your Home

See It's Not the House That Makes a Home (File: RcINHTMH)

Your King and Country Want You (We Don't Want to Lose You)

DESCRIPTION: "We've watched you playing cricket And every kind of game. You men have made your name, But now your country calls you To play your part in war." "Oh! we don't want to lose you but we think you ought to go For your King and your Country both need you so"
AUTHOR: Paul A. Rubens (source: Sheet Music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love separation sports soldier
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 6-8, "We Don't Want to Lose You" (1 text)
NOTES [93 words]: Wikipedia has an article on this song, which (on July 10, 2023) began "Several different recruiting songs with the name 'Your King and Country Want/Need You' were popularised in Britain at the beginning of the First World War." It gives the complete lyrics and notes that royalties were donated to "Queen Mary's Work for Women Fund" (Mary of Teck was the wife of King George V).
The Digital Tradition has a song, "The Rose of York" by Lesley Hale and Ken Thomson, which quotes a couple of lines of the chorus; presumably this is a sign of its popularity. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: AWTBW006

Your Long Journey

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells loved one that they must now part; the singer is torn with grief, but they will eventually "walk hand in hand/As one in heaven in the family of God." Cho: "Oh my darling, my darling/My heart breaks as you take your long journey"
AUTHOR: Doc & Rosa Lee Watson
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (recorded by authors)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer tells loved one that although God has given them years of happiness together, they must now part; as the angels come, the singer is torn with grief, anticipating the coming years without him/her, but they will eventually "walk hand in hand/As one in heaven in the family of God". Chorus: "Oh my darling, my darling/My heart breaks as you take your long journey"
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness farewell parting death dying nonballad religious family husband wife
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Doc & Rosa Lee Watson, "Your Long Journey" (on Watson01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Long Journey
NOTES [34 words]: Although this song is not traditional, and not -- quite -- a ballad, I include it here because of its enduring popularity in the folk revival, which may indicate that it is entering a new oral tradition. - PJS
File: RcDWLoJo

Your Mission

DESCRIPTION: "If you cannot on the ocean Sail among the swiftest fleet... You can stand among the sailors... You can lend a hand to help them, As they launch their boats away." Other examples of how, even if one cannot do great things, one can help those who do
AUTHOR: Words: Ellen H. M. Gates (1835-1920) (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad work
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #18, p. 26, "Your Mission" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 117, "Fields of Labor" (1 text) (p. 98 in the 1919 edition)
Heart-Songs, pp. 274-275, "Your Mission" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14086
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Will Guide Thee" (theme)
NOTES [281 words]: There seems to be some confusion about the authorship of this song. Heart-Songs lists words by Jessie R. Gates, music by S. M. Grannis. But it is attributed to Ellen H. M. Gates by both hymnary.org and by John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), volume II, p. 1869. I've followed the attribution to Ellen H. M. Gates on the grounds that Julian and hymnary.org are more reliable and both have biographies of Ellen Gates. Hymnary.org claims that Gates wrote several other well-known songs (and a lot that aren't well known), but I didn't know any of them! The most widely printed, by far, is "I will sing you a song of that beautiful land."
(Jessie R. Gates did compose one hymn cited by Julian, p. 1639, "There Is a Peace That Cometh After Sorrow," so the confusion is understandable.)
Hymnary.org lists this to many tunes -- about 10% of found cases use "Beecher" (also known as "Zundel," after its composer) while 45% use "Hark, the Voice of Jesus Crying," which is by Grannis (1827-1907), explaining the attribution in Heart-Songs. The other 45% use a variety of tunes.
According to hymnary.org, Gates would later say of this, "The lines were written upon my slate one snowy afternoon in the winter of 1860. I knew, as I know now, that the poem was only a simple little thing, but somehow 1 had a presentiment that it had wings, and would fly into sorrowful hearts, uplifting and strengthening them."
Abraham Lincoln is said to have praised the song highly upon hearing it -- but the account in Julian is dated February 29, 1865, which is not a day that actually existed, so take that with caution! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Shoe117

Your Spooning Days

DESCRIPTION: "Your spooning days are over, Your pilot light is out, What used to be your sex appeal Is now your water spout." Body parts that once were over-enthusiastic now cannot perform
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Morgan/Green-RugbySongs)
KEYWORDS: age
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, p. 160, "Your Spooning Days" (1 text)
Roud #10246
File: RuSoYSpD

Youth and Folly

See Peggy Gordon (File: Gil127)

Youth That Belonged to Milltown, The

DESCRIPTION: Pat meets John Bull in London and mentions Robert Emmet. John Bull reminds Pat of English victories over Russians, Zulus, and Napoleon. Rather than challenging English control of, or leaving, Ireland, says John Bull, Pat should stay home and be contented.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Pat from Milltown, Kerry meets John Bull in London. John Bull asks if Pat is one of "those Fenians we had in the year '64" Pat says "don't speak about Fenians... but remember the last words of [Robert] Emmet" John Bull recites how the British defeated the Russians, Zulus, and Napoleon." Pat asks "who is the right owner Of the land where the shamrock do grow... William O'Brien is our leader" John Bull says Pat has strayed from his country "like wild geese you do go away to America, New York and New Zealand." You should stay home and "be contented"
KEYWORDS: war home rambling travel England Ireland dialog patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 181, "The Youth That Belonged to Milltown" (2 texts)
Roud #16257
NOTES [89 words]: The Zulu War (1879) and William O'Brien (1852-1928, and political agitator beginning 1883, per Wikipedia "William O'Brien") would put an early date for this song in the 1880s.
There are other songs in which Pat meets John Bull and they discuss politics. See, for example, Wehman's [Universal Songster] Collection of 93 Songs No. 13 (New York, 1886, digitized by Internet Archive), p. 26, "John Bull" and Bodleian, Harding B 25(978), "John Bull and Paddy Bull" ("Says John Bull to Paddy what's all this hub-bub"), unknown, no date. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: OCC181

Youth's Companions

See Young Companions [Laws E15] (File: LE15)

Youthful Memories

See Old Newfoundland (File: RcOlNewf)

Yowe Lamb, The (Ca' the Yowes; Lovely Molly)

DESCRIPTION: Molly agrees to marry Willie if her father consents. Willie asks the father for a "yowe lamb" to start a flock. Her father consents and tells Willie to "choose a yowe lamb." Willie chooses Molly. Her father is upset by the trick, but allows the match
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Ford); the Burns version is #264 in the _Scots Musical Museum_
KEYWORDS: love marriage father trick
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 124, "Ca the Yowes to the Knowes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 466, "Ca' the Yowes" (1 text)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 187-188, "Lovely Molly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #50, pp. 1-2, "Lovely Mallie" (2 texts)
Greig/Duncan5 1014, "Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes" (7 texts, 4 tunes)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H175, p. 470, "The Yowe Lamb" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 85, "Lovely Molly" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 46, "Ca' the Ewes Unto the Knowes" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CALEWE3*
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #264, p. 273, "Ca' the ewes to the knowes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #857
RECORDINGS:
Togo Crawford, "Ca the Yowes" (on FSBFTX13)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Waukin' o' the Claes" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lovely Mollie
NOTES [454 words]: This is apparently the original of the Burns song "Ca' the Ewes to the Knowes," but he changed it so substantially that they must be considered separate songs, and the reader must be careful to distinguish. - RBW
And despite the title, Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland's version really is "The Yowe Lamb." - PJS
Greig comments on the degree to which his versions differ. "Variation in fact is inevitable; but when it proceeds very far the operation of ordinary and recognized principles will hardly account for it, and we are driven to surmise that there are in such cases special circumstances connected with the origin and history of the song or ballad which if known would greatly help to account for the situation." The versions share two verses and a few other lines so the versions do not seem so different to me:
Mallie, on the way to meeting her shepherd father, meets Jackie. He comments that they would not be able to talk if her father were present. They go to her father. Jackie asks her father for "a ewe lamb to raise a new stock, o' the best may she be." Father says Jackie is "Freely as welcome as any other man" to choose the best. He takes Mallie's hand. Father, commenting on his foolishness "to sell my only daughter in place of a lamb; But since I have said it, then so let it be."
Johnnie meets Jeannie and offers her ribbons, rings, a silk mantle, and other fine things, if she'd go away with him. She answers that he can keep his presents; she'd go with him but he should ask her father's goodwishes and tell her what her father says. He asks her father to "grant me a ewe lamb for to raise a new stock." Her father agrees. Johnnie goes to Jeannie's chamber "and in spite of a father he's ta'en her away." "'Pox be on you, Johnnie, for ye hae me beguiled, Ye sought but ae ewe-lamb, and ye've taken my child; But since I once said it, e'en so let it be."
Greig: "It may be pointed out in passing how persistently editors of Scottish Song treat 'ca' in this and similar phrases as if it were simply the vernacular form of 'call.' It is, however, a quite different word, and means, as every Scotchman knows, 'drive.'"
Whitlaw-Song also has the Burns version (Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 466-467, "Ca' the Yowes"). - BS
According to Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, pp. 61-62, when Burns tok over this song, he converted the original first stanza into two, then added tso of his own. It was said that the stanza Burns started with was by one Tibbie Pagan, who sold drink and broadsides. "However, a collection of her pieces was published in Glasgow in 1805, and 'Ca' the Yowes' was not of their number." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: K124

Yowie Wi' the Crookit Horn

See Ewie Wi' the Crookit Horn (File: K271)

Yr Hen wr Mwyn

See My Good Old Man (File: R426)

Ythanside

DESCRIPTION: "As I cam in by Ythanside, Where swiftly flows the rolling tide, A fair young maid passed by my side." They go to her home, and talk till very late. Man and girl kiss; he promises to return, at which time she will give him her hand. They marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #16, pp. 1-2, "Ythanside"; "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 67-68, "Ythanside" (2 texts plus 2 fragments, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan5 951, "Ythanside" (11 texts plus 3 fragments on p. 596, two of which are from Greig #16; 12 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 32-34, "Ythanside" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BONYTHAN*
Roud #3783
RECORDINGS:
Daisy Chapman, "Ythanside" (on SCDChapman01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonnie Ythanside
File: Ord032

Yuba Dam

DESCRIPTION: Conductor asks the singer where he wants to go; he replies "Yuba Dam." Conductor beats him up. His wife scolds him, asks, "Where'd you get that load?" "Yuba Dam!" After more such troubles, he opines that "the town of Yuba Dam has no right on the map"
AUTHOR: William D. Hall (according to Spaeth, _A History of Popular Music in America_, p. 611)
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (recording, S. H. Dudley); Spaeth lists it as a major composition of 1898
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer is asked by train conductor where he wants to go, and replies "Yuba Dam." Conductor is upset, and beats him up. When he gets home, his wife scolds him, asks, "Where'd you get that load?" "Yuba Dam!" She slugs him; he flees. He returns the next day, not realizing he has a long blonde hair on his coat; she finds it and he leaves home. She sues for divorce; judge asks him, "What brought this all about?" "Yuba Dam!" he replies, and is jailed for contempt. He opines that "the town of Yuba Dam has no right on the map"
KEYWORDS: jealousy infidelity marriage accusation questions humorous wife judge wordplay
FOUND IN: US(MW)
RECORDINGS:
S. H. Dudley, "Yuba Dam" (Berliner 0466-J, rec. 1899)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. I Want to Go to Morrow (subject, such as it is, and general atmosphere)
NOTES [177 words]: I assign the location thanks to Bob Bovee, whose father [uncle, according to the liner notes to Bob's album "The Roundup"] learned the song in Nebraska in the 1920s. After assiduous searching, I had been unable to locate a Yuba Dam, but a more recent Google search suggests that the congressional representative for the South Yuba River area is proposing that one be built.
From the website of Yuba State Park, Utah: "Yuba State Park got its name from the individuals who built the dam [between 1902 and 1917]. Local farmers and ranchers had to build the dam themselves or risk losing their water rights. The men working on the structure called it the U.B. Dam. As they worked they sang a song that stated they were damned if they worked and damned if they didn't. The phonetic sound of the reservoirs name was eventually spelled Yuba." - PJS
Bob recorded this long enough ago that I have it on LP, but after many years of attending Bovee/Heil concerts, I can't recall ever hearing him sing it. (I won't swear to that.) Maybe Yuba Dam is still causing trouble. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: RcYubaDa

Zaccheus Climbed the Sycamore Tree

DESCRIPTION: "Zaccheus climbed the sycamo' tree, Few days, few days! Zaccheus climbed the sycamo' tree, Few days, get along home. Oh, he's way up yondeh...." "Zaccheus climbed his lord fo' to see."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: Jesus religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, p. 200, "Zaccheus Climbed the Sycamo' Tree" (1 text); cf. p. 286, "(Zaccheus)" (1 short text)
Finger-FrontierBallads, p. 165, "(no title)" (1 short text)
Roud #8871
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Few Days" (lyrics)
NOTES [80 words]: Zaccheus (more properly transliterated Zakchaios; in most modern translations, Zacchaeus) is mentioned in Luke 19:1-10; he was a short tax collector who climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus. Jesus went on to have dinner with him and declare him saved due to his charity -- a particularly noteworthy statement, given how reviled tax collectors were at the time.
This is doubtless inspired at least in part by "Few Days," but it has been adapted enough to list as a separate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ScNF200A

Zack, the Mormon Engineer

DESCRIPTION: Zack, the Mormon engineer, has a wife in every town along the D&RG, and so refuses to change lines.
AUTHOR: S. L. Samson? (source: Briegel, 44 Old Time Mormon and Far West Songs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Briegel, 44 Old Time Mormon and Far West Songs)
KEYWORDS: marriage railroading humorous train
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 179-181, "Zack, the Mormon Engineer" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Botkin/Harlow-TreasuryOfRailroadFolklore, p. 444, "Zack, the Mormon Engineer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-FolkloreOfTheGreatWest, pp. 265-266, "Bishop Zack, the Mormon Engineer" (1 text)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 76-77, "Bishop Zack, the Mormon Engineer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia2, p. 604, "Bishop Zack, the Mormon Engineer" (1 text)
DT, ZACKMORM*
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 88, "Bishop Zack" (1 text)
Roud #4761
RECORDINGS:
L. M. Hilton, "Zack, The Mormon Engineer" (on Hilton01, ClassRR)
Art Thieme, "Zack, The Mormon Engineer" (on Thieme03)
NOTES [80 words]: Said to be based, loosely, on the life of one Zack Black who worked on the Denver and Rio Grande railroad. The tune is loosely based on "Oh, Susanna."
The attribution to S. L. Samson comes from Briegel, 44 Old Time Mormon and Far West Songs, and is followed by Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest. The music is attributed to "Marcia." Thanks to mudcat user cnd for verifying this. Given the lack of authoritative documentation, I have marked it with a question mark. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BRaF444

Zared, The

See The Dreadnought [Laws D13] (File: LD13)

Zeb Tourney's Gal

See Zeb Tourney's Girl [Laws E18] (File: LE18)

Zeb Tourney's Girl [Laws E18]

DESCRIPTION: Dan Kelly thinks often of Zeb Tourney's daughter, even though his family is feuding with hers. Kelly keeps a promise made to his father by killing all the male Tourneys, but then brings home Zeb's daughter, whom he loves
AUTHOR: Carson J. Robison?
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: feud love homicide
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws E18, "Zeb Tourney's Girl"
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 108, pp. 247-248, "Zeb Tunney's Girl" (1 text)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, pp. 197-198, "Shots Echoing 'Round the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 112, "Don Kelly's Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 251-252, "(Zeb Turney's Girl)" (1 text)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 31, "Dan Kelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 735, "Zeb Turney's [Turner's] Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 681, ZEBTURNY
ADDITIONAL: Richard M. Dorson, _Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States_, University of Chicago Press, 1964, pp. 200-202, "Zeb Tourney's Gal" (1 text)
ST LE18 (Full)
Roud #2249
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "Zeb Turney's Gal" (Champion 16053 [as West Virginia Railsplitter]/Supertone 9570, 1929; Gennett 7095, 1930; Superior 2590 [as James Burke], 1931)
James Burke, "Zeb Turney's Gal" (Superior 2590, 1931)
Vernon Dalhart, "Zeb Turney's Gal" Domino 3643, 1925; Banner 1671, 1926; Conqueror 7074, 1928) (Broadway 8050, 1925) (Columbia 15049-D [as Al Craver], c. 1926; rec. 1925) (Edison 51656 [as Vernon Dalhart & Co.], 1925) (OKeh 40506, 1926; rec. 1925) (Victor 19867, 1925) (Vocalion 5087/Vocalion 15280, 1926) (Challenge 157/Challenge 316, 1927; rec. 1926)
Bradley Kincaid, "Zeb Turney's Gal" (Bluebird 8410, 1940)
NOTES [323 words]: Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl notes that a song of this name was copyrighted in 1925 by Marjorie Lamkin and Maggie Andrews, of which the latter at least is a pseudonym of Carson J. Robison (it was his mother's maiden name). And Laws points out that it sounds "suspiciously unlike a mountaineer's conception of a feud." We note also that no one seems able to list the event upon which it is based.
But wait, there's more. Vernon Dalhart recorded this in 1926, and at that time, the name "Dalhart" was worth hundreds of thousands of sales. And at least one of the traditional versions -- Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi's -- is functionally identical to the Dalhart recording, with the only differences minor verbal variants easily explained as errors of hearing or memory. The other versions are also very similar to each other, implying a recent common source.
The almost inevitable conclusion is that this is a song "gone folk": Written by Robison, recorded by Dalhart -- and then picked up by folklorists who didn't bother checking its pedigree.
The one small bit of counter-evidence for this theory is the report of the song in Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin. This was collected from 28-year-old Luther Rice in 1941, who said he had it from his grandmother's manuscript collection. Given that the Dalhart recording was still fairly new in 1941, there isn't much time for the origin of the song to have been forgotten. But the Peters text is almost word-for-word identical with the Dalhart recording, except that "Zeb Tourney" has become "Seth Terney." Despite the story told by Rice, I think it's derived from Dalhart's version.
Certainly the song is not about a real event. I personally think it was based on stories about feuds, not other feud songs, with the Hatfield-McCoy feud being the most famous and hence perhaps the most likely. (For background, see the notes to "The Death of Fan McCoy.") - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: LE18

Zeb Tunney's Girl

See Zeb Tourney's Girl [Laws E18] (File: LE18)

Zeb Turney's Girl

See Zeb Tourney's Girl [Laws E18] (File: LE18)

Zebra Dun, The [Laws B16]

DESCRIPTION: A new man joins the cowboys, and proves expert on many things. The cowboys think he must be a greenhorn, and allow him to take on the wild Zebra Dun. To their surprise, he controls the horse and receives a job. Not all educated people are greenhorns...
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908
KEYWORDS: cowboy
FOUND IN: US(MA,So,SW) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws B16, "The Zebra Dun"
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 98-101, "The Zebra Dunn" (1 text)
Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 49-52, "Zebra Dun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 208, "Zebra Dun" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 427, "Zebra Dun" (1 text)
Thorp/Fife-SongsOfTheCowboys XII, pp.135-147 (27-29), "Educated Feller" (4 texts, 1 tune -- one of which, "Bow-Legged Ike," may be independent or an ancestor); Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 171-174, "The Zebra Dun" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 71, "The Educated Feller (Zebra Dun)" (2 text, 1 tune plus a tune reference)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 22, "Zebra Dun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging 12, pp. 77-85, "Old Zebra Dun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tinsley-HeWasSinginThisSong, pp. 134-138, "The Zebra Dun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, pp. 402-403, "The Zebra Dun" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-HeritageBookOfBallads, pp. 166-168, "Zebra Dun" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 107, "The Zebra Dun" (1 text)
DT 383, ZEBRADUN*
ADDITIONAL: John I. White, _Git Along, Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West_, 1975 (page references are to the 1989 University of Illinois Press edition), pp. 148-152, "'The Zebra Dun'" (1 text, 1 tune, plus various excerpts and a history of the song)
Hal Cannon, editor, _Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering_, Giles M. Smith, 1985, pp. 8-10, "The Zebra Dun" (1 text)
Roud #3237
RECORDINGS:
Jules [Verne] Allen, "Zebra Dun" (Victor V-40022, c. 1928; Montgomery Ward M-4464, 1934; on AuthCowboys)
Tex Fletcher, "The Zebra Dun" (Decca 5302, 1936)
Harry Jackson, "Zebra Dun" (on HJackson1)
Glenn Ohrlin, "Zebra Dun" (on Ohrlin01)
J. M. Waddell, "The Zebra Dun" (AFS, 1940s; on LC28)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I've Busted Broncs" (theme: the un-ridable horse)
cf. "The Strawberry Roan" [Laws B18] (theme: the un-ridable horse)
cf. "Preacher Dunn" (theme: the un-ridable horse)
cf. "Cowboys Victimized" (theme: the un-ridable horse)
cf. "Skyball Paint" (theme: the un-ridable horse)
cf. "Buckskin Joe" (theme of a tenderfoot who knows what he is doing)
NOTES [184 words]: Larkin-SingingCowboy states, without evidence though it's a reasonable conjecture, that the horse in this piece was a dun with the Z bar brand, with the "Z bar dun" wearing down to the "Zebra dun." Her other conjecture, that the singer may have been an Englishman who learned to ride while hunting fox, seems much less likely.
Logsdon-WhorehouseBellsWereRinging (who mentions Larkin's suggestion) notes that her explanation arises because, while "dun" is a recognized description of a horse's hide, "zebra" isn't. But he observes that a "zebra dun" would be a dun with stripes.
White, however, spoke with many cattle hands, and reports that there were genuine "zebra dun" horses. Some reported that the animals were so ornery that they were suspected of having mule blood. (Don't ask me to explain that part....) But they were also reported to be tough and long-lived.
One of Logsdon's texts, interestingly, was sung to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"/"John Brown's Body," though there is no chorus and some of his lines must have taken some quick tongue-work to sing to the Battle Hymn. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LB16

Zebra Dunn, The

See The Zebra Dun [Laws B16] (File: LB16)

Zeentie, teentie, figgerie fell

See Eentie Teentie Figgery Fell (File: PKKB037G)

Zek'l Weep

DESCRIPTION: "Zek'l weep, Zek'l moan, Flesh come a-creepin' off o' Zek'l bones... I know you goin' to miss me when I'm gone." "Star in the east, star in the west, Wish that star was on my breast" "Hush little baby don't you cry, Know that your mother was born to die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 449-450, "Zek'l Weep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 209-210, (no title) (1 text)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, pp. 251-252, "When I'm Gone To Come No Mo'" (1 text)
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 282-283, "W'en I'm Gone, Gone, Gone" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST San449 (Full)
Roud #12174
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All My Trials" (floating lyrics) and references there
NOTES [38 words]: Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag's first verse here may be a backward telling of the Valley of Dry Bones in Ezek. 37:1-14. Or, again, it may not.
Scarborough's text never mentions Ezekiel, but the rest seems to belong here. I think. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: San449

'Zekiel'll Weep and 'Zekiel'll Moan

See Zek'l Weep (File: San449)

Zekiel'll Weep and (E)zekiel'll Moan

See Zek'l Weep (File: San449)

Zickary Zan

See One-ery, Two-ery, Tickery, Seven (File: McIn102B)

Zintie Tintie Tetherie Metherrie

DESCRIPTION: "Zintie tintie tetherie meterie, Bamferie oorie over dover Dicky dell on tan toosh"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1875 (Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 91, "(Zintie tintie tetherie metherie)" (1 fragment)
Roud #20694
NOTES [27 words]: I have tentatively assigned this New Zealand game the same Roud number as "Tootie tinty henery memory," but since they're both fragments, it's only a guess. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: SuSm091B

Zion Road Too Long

DESCRIPTION: "Zion Road too long." (2x) "Too long, too long, Zion Road too long"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 50, "Zion Road Too Long" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is all of the Elder-Charlottville text. - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElCh050B

Zion the Home of an Honest Man

DESCRIPTION: "There's a land far away in the west, A place by God assigned, 'Tis there the weary Saint can rest, Or a stranger safety find." Zion will be the source of law and salvation "And there is a home for an honest man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Millenial Star, according to Cheney-MormonSongs)
KEYWORDS: religious home | Mormon Zion
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cheney-MormonSongs, p. 61, "Zion the Home of an Honest Man" (1 text)
Roud #10866
File: ChMS061

Zion Weep Low

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Zion weep low (x3), Then Hallelujah to the Lamb." Verses: An angel gives the singer victory palms and a golden crown. Zion weeps for sinners hunted by Satan. The singer tells "what a dolesome road" you go to reach heaven.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 196-197, "Zion, Weep a-Low'" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 232-233 in the 1874 edition)
Roud #15233
NOTES [51 words]: The Biblical reference is John 1:29: John the Baptist sees Jesus coming and says, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (King James).
In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses every alternate line is "Then Hallelujah to the Lamb." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett196

Zion's Sons and Daughters

DESCRIPTION: "See the fountain opened wide That from sinning frees us, Flowing from the wounded side Of our Immanuel Jesus." Those who thirst are called; Jesus gives freely to the dying; the woman at the well is given a warming drink; the thief forgiven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 214-215, "Zion's Sons and Daughters" (1 text)
ST Fus214 (Partial)
Roud #16373
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Boundless Mercy (Drooping Souls, No Longer Grieve)"
NOTES [76 words]: I strongly suspect that this is a version of "Boundless Mercy (Drooping Souls, No Longer Grieve)," but the key lines are missing, and Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands doesn't give tunes, so I have to classify it separately.
The story of the woman of Samaria and the well, in which Jesus promises "living water," is in John 4, though there are hints of the theme elsewhere.
The "thief... [who] fled to glory" is, I think, an allusion to Luke 23:39-43. - RBW
File: Fus214

Zip Coon

See Old Zip Coon (I) (File: RJ19258)

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah

DESCRIPTION: "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay, My, oh, my, what a wonderful day, Plenty of sunshine headin' my way, Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!" There is a bluebird on the singer's shoulder.
AUTHOR: Words: Ray Gilbert / Music: Allie Wrubel (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (movie "Song of the South")
KEYWORDS: bird nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 174, "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" (notes only)
SAME TUNE:
Zip Up Your Doo-Dah (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 163)
NOTES [122 words]: The movie "Song of the South" has been widely condemned for its stereotypes, featuring James Baskett as Uncle Remus. This song is reasonably safe, though. It certainly isn't a folk song in any ordinary sense, but Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs list quite a few collections, so here it is.
It has been suggested that this was somewhat influenced by "Old Zip Coon (I)." Possible, but hardly a recommendation.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 491, estimates that this was the fifteenth most popular song in America in 1947, peaking at #5 in January 1947 (#1 for the year being Alfred Bryan and Fred Fisher's "Peg o' My Heart"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: ACSF174Z

Zolgotz

See Mister McKinley (White House Blues) (File: LoF143)

Zoodiac

See Here We Go Zootie-O (Zoodiac) (File: ByGo130)

Zoological Gardens, The

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, thunder and lightning it's no lark When Dublin city is in the dark. If you've any money go up to the Park and view the Zoological gardens." The singer describes the odd behavior of the animals, often with a sexual subtext
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Behan-IrelandSings)
KEYWORDS: wordplay animal travel sex
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Behan-IrelandSings, #100, "The Zoological Gardens" (1 text, 1 tune, modified)
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 66-67, "Zoological Gardens" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [171 words]: According to Soodlum's Irish Ballad Book, the Dublin Zoological Gardens are in Phoenix Park, and the song dates back to the nineteenth century. I rather doubt this; the reference in the first verse to Dublin being in the dark, which occurs in the Behan-IrelandSings, Soodlum's Irish Ballad Book [1982], and Harte texts, sounds like it refers to a World War I blackout.
Robert Gogan, 130 Great Irish Ballads (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 84, has a version almost identical to Soodlum's but with a few minor variations. He explains the word "mot," which is frequent in his version, as being Dublin slang for "girlfriend." He also notes that the zoo dates back to 1830.
Is the song traditional? I know of no field collections -- but the Soodlum's and Harte texts differ significantly, and Harte says there are other variants he didn't record. This might just be Dominic Behan's tendency to fiddle, but it is possible the song does have some traditional life, though perhaps only on college campuses or such. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: Hart066

Zozimus's Great Recitation

See The Imperial Throne When Theodosius Held (File: BAAI008B)

Zula

DESCRIPTION: "Thou lov'st another, Zula, Thou lovest him alone. Thine eyes confess it, Zula...." The singer asks if the other man will love Zula as well as he himself does. He bids her farewell, asks her to remember him, and hints she will regret her choice
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric)
KEYWORDS: love rejection separation travel
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 49, "Zula" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11330
File: Brne049

Zulu Warrior, The

DESCRIPTION: "I-kama zimba zimba zayo I-kama zimba zimba zee (x2). See him there, the Zulu warrior, See him there, the Zulu chief, chief, chief."
AUTHOR: Words adapted by Josef Marais
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (copyright on the Marais version)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 61, 146, 175, 315, "Zulu Warrior" (notes only)
ADDITIONAL: Josef Marais and Miranda, _Folk Song Jamboree_, Ballantine, pp. 62-64, "The Zulu Warrior" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [159 words]: This song is, to say the least, of dubious origin. Josef Marais appears to say that the tune is Afrikaans, but the British used it -- and gave it the awful text "Hold him down, the Swazi warrior." Marais took that out, made the warrior a Zulu because Zulus were more familiar, and changed the nonsense syllables to something that sounds better to English listeners. Marais and Miranda recorded it a couple of times.
Not something that you would think would be a folk song. Yet Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs records almost two dozen camp mentions, and when it came up in the mudcat.org thread "Zulu Warrior," many people recalled textual variations. The overall impression I get is that this has become traditional in a small way, despite its dreadful history -- but because of Marais, not because American versions have any connection to the African song.
Incidentally, it is not in the first Marais book, Songs from the Veld/Songs from South Africa. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACFF061A

Zum Gali Gali

DESCRIPTION: Hebrew. "Zum, gali-gali-gali, Zum gali-gali, Zum, gali-gali-gali, Zum gali-gali. Hechalutz le'man avodah; Avodah le'man hechalutz. Hechalutz le'man avodah; Avodah le'man hechalutz." People can succeed if they work together
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (People's Songbook); there are reports of earlier forms going back to perhaps the 1920s
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 340, "Zum Gali Gali" (1 short text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 314, 443, "Zum Gali Gali" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 90, "Zum Gali Gali" (1 text, 1 tune)
GirlScout-PocketSongbook, p. 44, "Zum Gali Gali" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Zum Gali Gali" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 39)
NOTES [38 words]: It is usually claimed that this song was associated with the formation of the modern state of Israel in 1948. But some people think it is older. Perhaps there is a pre-canonical form? The sources I've seen are very unclear. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF314Z

Zutula Dead

DESCRIPTION: A nice girl gave Zutula bitter casava to eat and he died
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage01)
KEYWORDS: death poison food
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Allan Lovelace, Henry Williams and George Roberts, "Zutula Dead" (on WITrinidadVillage01)
NOTES [41 words]: Liner notes: "Bitter casava, unlike the virtually identical sweet casava tuber ..., must have the poisonous juice removed before being eaten" (Donald R. Hill, Maureeen Warner-Lewis, John Cowley, Lise Winer, liner notes on WITrinidadVillage01). - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: RcALZuDe

Zwei Soldaten, Die

DESCRIPTION: German. "Es war einmal zwei Bauersohn, Die hatten lust in feld zu ziehn." Two brothers go to war, then come home with money. They ask to stay at the inn. The wife suggests they kill one of them. They learn it is their son. The inkeepers commit suicide
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra); reportedly from the seventeenth century
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage soldier food homicide suicide husband wife children
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Rickaby/Dykstra/Leary-PineryBoys-SongsSongcatchingInLumberjackEra 56, "Die Zwei Soldaten" (1 text plus literal English translation, 1 tune)
File: RDL056

Αγιος Βασiλης Eρχεται

See Saint Basil's Song (Αγιος Βασiλης Eρχεται) (File: RcSBasil)